text:
# A Luminous Infrared Companion in the Young Triple System WL 20

## 1 Introduction

The optically undetectable source, WL 20 (also known as BKLT J162715$``$243843 and GY 240, see Barsony *et al.*, 1997, for other aliases), was discovered in a near-infrared (near-IR) bolometer survey of a $`10\mathrm{}\times 10\mathrm{}`$ region of self-absorbed 13CO emission in the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi star-forming cloud (Wilking & Lada, 1983). Soon thereafter, WL 20 was detected at 10 µm from ground-based observations (Lada & Wilking, 1984), and at longer wavelengths in the pointed observations mode of the IRAS satellite, where it is referred to as YLW 11 (Young *et al.*, 1986).

In the currently accepted classification scheme of young stellar objects (YSOs) devised by Lada (1987), WL 20 was one of the first sources to be identified as a Class I source (Wilking, Lada, & Young, 1989). Empirically, Class I sources have broader than blackbody spectral energy distributions (SEDs), with rising 2–10 µm spectral slopes, $`a>0.3`$ (where $`a=\frac{d\mathrm{log}\lambda F_\lambda }{d\mathrm{log}\lambda }`$). Theoretically, the SEDs of Class I sources are interpreted to correspond to a remnant infalling dust and gas envelope surrounding a central protostar$`+`$disk system (Adams, Lada, & Shu, 1987). The more evolved Class II sources, with $`0.3>a>1.6`$, are pre-main-sequence (PMS) star$`+`$disk systems that have dispersed their remnant infall envelopes.

With the advent of near-IR array detectors, WL 20 was soon resolved into a binary system at 2.2 µm using a pixel scale of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$85 (Rieke, Ashok, & Boyle, 1989) and first reported to have an east-west separation of $``$ 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7 from observations with a pixel scale of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$78 (Barsony *et al.*, 1989). This separation corresponds to $``$ 340 AU for an adopted distance to the cloud of 125 pc.

We note that some confusion still exists as to the distance to the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi clouds, primarily due to many authors citing the distance to the adjacent Sco-Cen OB association instead. The distance to the Sco-Cen OB association has been determined to be 160$`\pm `$10 pc photometrically (Whittet, 1974) or 145 pc astrometrically (de Zeeuw *et al.*, 1999). By contrast, the distance to the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud itself has been determined to be 125$`\pm `$25 pc from detailed kinematic studies of the cloud gas (de Geus, de Zeeuw, & Lub, 1989; de Geus, 1992), and, more recently, by a study of Hipparcos parallaxes and Tycho $`BV`$ colors of stars of Classes III & V, which show an abrupt rise in reddening at $`d=120`$ pc, as expected for a molecular cloud (Knude & Hog, 1998). We therefore adopt a distance of 125 pc to the cloud in this paper.

The first indication that WL 20 is a triple system came from a deep ProtoCAM survey to identify near-IR counterparts of centimeter continuum sources in the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud core (Strom *et al.*, 1995). The VLA source identified with WL 20 is known as LFAM 30, and was imaged at 6 cm with an 11″$`\times `$5″ beam (Leous *et al.*, 1991). With the sensitive ProtoCAM images acquired at a pixel scale of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$20, a third and weakest 2.2 µm component of the system was easily identified, and designated as “30S” (for the Southern component of LFAM 30), whereas the components of the previously known near-IR binary are referred to as “30E” and “30W” by these authors (Strom *et al.*, 1995). With 30E as the positional reference, 30W is quoted at a separation of 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 at P.A. 269°, and 30S at a separation of 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$9 at P.A. 232°.

Near-IR spectra of the two brighter $`K`$ components of the WL 20 triple system, WL 20:E ($`K=10.13`$) and WL 20:W ($`K=10.40`$) were presented as part of a spectroscopic survey of YSOs with $`K<10.5`$ in $`\rho `$ Oph (Greene & Lada, 1996). The near-IR spectra of both WL 20:E & W were found to be consistent with those of other Class II sources, with a K–M spectral type established for WL 20:E, and a more precise K7–M0 spectral type determination for WL 20:W, due to the less severe continuum veiling in its spectrum (Greene & Meyer, 1995). At their assumed distance of 160 pc, WL 20:E was determined to have a bolometric luminosity, $`L_{bol}=0.4L_{\mathrm{}}`$, through $`A_V=15.4`$, whereas WL 20:W was determined to have $`L_{bol}=1.7L_{\mathrm{}}`$ through $`A_V=18.1`$. Continuum veiling in the spectrum of WL 20:E precluded its placement on the H-R diagram, whereas the lesser veiling in the spectrum of WL 20:W allowed a mass estimate of 0.3 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ from its location along a $`3\times 10^5`$ yr pre-main-sequence isochrone (Greene & Meyer, 1995).

A more recent spectroscopic survey of near-IR sources in the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi core including many sources as faint as $`K12`$, was obtained at higher spectral resolution ($`R=1200`$) than the previously published surveys (with $`R1000`$), allowing for significantly improved classifications for G through M spectral types (Luhman & Rieke, 1999). These authors assigned a K6 spectral type to WL 20:E (GY 240B), with a bolometric luminosity of 0.55 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, and an M0 spectral type to WL 20:W (GY 240A) with $`L_{bol}=1.4L_{\mathrm{}}`$ (they also assumed a distance of 160 pc). Both sources were found to have a foreground extinction of $`A_V=16.3`$. WL 20:S, with $`K12.6`$, was excluded from this survey as well, due to its relative dimness at near-IR wavelengths.

Interestingly, the discrepancy between the Class I SED classification of WL 20 on the one hand, and its near-IR Class II spectroscopic classifications on the other, has not been remarked upon previously. This inconsistency can only be addressed by producing spatially resolved SEDs of the individual components of this triple system. Until now, the highest spatial resolution photometry of WL 20 longward of 4.8 µm has been through a 6–8″ aperture—confusing all three components (Lada & Wilking, 1984). In order to better constrain the properties of WL 20:S, and of the triple system of which it is a member, we have obtained new, unprecedentedly high (sub-arcsecond) spatial resolution, ground-based mid-IR images of the WL 20 system, at six separate wavelengths spanning the 8–25 µm atmospheric window. Additionally, we present spatially resolved near-IR imaging of this triple system. Finally, we have performed careful astrometry, allowing us identify the source of the centimeter continuum emission.

## 2 Observations

All mid-infrared images were obtained with MIRLIN, JPL’s 128$`\times `$128 pixel Si:As camera. Diffraction-limited images were obtained on the nights of 1996 April 24 at the Palomar 5-m telescope, 1998 March 13–14 on the Keck II 10-m telescope, and 2000 June 16 at NASA’s 3-m Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). Pixel scales of MIRLIN were 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$15 at Palomar, 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$138 at Keck II, and 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$475 at the IRTF. Observations at Palomar and the IRTF were made with the broadband N filter ($`\lambda =10.8`$ µm, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =5.7`$ µm). For reference, the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of a diffraction limited image at N-band is 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$47 at Palomar and 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$78 at the IRTF. Observations at the Keck II telescope were made with narrower filters, with central wavelengths (bandwidths) of 7.9 µm (0.76 µm), 10.3 µm (1.01 µm), 12.5 µm (1.16 µm), 17.9 µm (2.00 µm), 20.8 µm (1.65 µm), and 24.5 µm (0.76 µm); corresponding FWHMs range from 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$17 at 7.9 µm to 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$53 at 24.5 µm.

The flux of WL 20 at each wavelength was determined by comparison with $`\alpha `$ Sco at Palomar, and at Keck II with a combination of $`\alpha `$ Boo, $`\alpha `$ CMa, $`\alpha `$ CrB, $`\alpha `$ Hya, $`\beta `$ Leo, and $`\sigma `$ Sco, the last of which proved to be an easily resolved 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$45 binary. The weather at the IRTF was sufficiently poor that no flux standards were observed. Data were obtained with traditional mid-IR chopping and nodding techniques. The raw images were background-subtracted, shifted, and coadded with our in-house IDL routine “MAC” (Match-and-Combine). Photometry for the standard stars was performed in 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 and 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 diameter apertures for the Palomar and Keck II data, respectively, when the separation between components was adequate (as determined by the intensity contours falling to zero between the sources) and by a combination of aperture summation and PSF-fitting when the separation between WL 20:W and WL 20:S was not clean. Typically, the flux ratio of a given component with respect to WL 20:E was measured via PSF-fitting, then WL 20:E was calibrated with respect to the standards. The photometric consistency between all the standards at Keck II was found to be 5–10% at all wavelengths. Though $`\alpha `$ Sco was the only standard observed at Palomar, multiple observations of it over the course of the night are consistent to 5% and observations of most other WL sources (Wilking & Lada, 1983) observed on that night agree with published values to that level.

Although the IRTF data were taken under extremely non-photometric conditions, special care was used during the course of the observations to acquire accurate astrometry, in order to establish which of the three components of the WL 20 system is responsible for the observed radio continuum emission (Leous *et al.*, 1991, hereafter, LFAM). We imaged three additional nearby Class I radio emitters—LFAM 23 (WL 22), LFAM 27 (WL 15), and LFAM 33 (YLW 15) in turn with LFAM 30 (WL 20), with as little delay between images as possible, so that registration of the mid-IR source location with respect to the radio coordinates could be made as accurately as possible. If each VLA source were exactly positionally coincident with its respective mid-IR counterpart, then each mid-IR source should fall on exactly the same pixel in each MIRLIN image. In order to reduce our astrometric errors, seven images were obtained of WL 15, five of WL 20, three of WL 22, and two of YLW 15. The resulting scatter in the source positions for WL 22 and YLW 15 was only 0.5 arcsec, allowing relative astrometric determinations to this accuracy.

Near-infrared images of WL 20 were acquired with ProtoCAM, a 58$`\times `$62 InSb array on the NASA IRTF atop Mauna Kea, on the night of 1990 August 03, at 1.29, 1.67, 2.23, 3.55, and 3.82 µm. The pixel scale of these observations was 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$35. The data were not photometric: thin cirrus clouds were present throughout the observations. Software aperture photometry (4$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 apertures) was performed on the standards (HD147889 and BD 65$`+`$1637) and the fluxes were found to be consistent only at the 30–50% level over a fairly wide range of airmasses. Nevertheless, even under such conditions, the intensity ratios between the components of WL 20 (i.e., the flux ratio of WL 20:W/WL 20:E and of WL 20:S/WL 20:E) should be unaffected by weather because the sources all fall within the instantaneous field-of-view.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Imaging, Photometry, and SEDs

We present diffraction-limited ($``$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$25 resolution at 10 µm) mid-infrared images of the WL 20 triple system acquired with MIRLIN at the Keck II telescope, along with representative shorter wavelength images acquired with ProtoCAM at the IRTF in Figure 1. We list the source separations and position angles derived from mean positions obtained from the 7.9, 10.3, and 12.5 µm images in Table 1. The individual components of the WL 20 triple system are labeled in Figure 1*e* (the 10.3 µm image). It is evident from inspection of Figure 1 that whereas WL 20:S is the weakest source of the system at the shortest wavelengths, it gradually brightens towards the longer wavelengths, just as its companions to the north are dimming. Eventually, WL 20:S dominates the system luminosity at the longest wavelengths (17.9, 20.8, and 24.5 µm).

We have used a combination of software aperture summation and point-spread function fitting to obtain photometric information for each component of the WL 20 system individually. Fluxes derived from the new data presented here, as well as all known previously published values, are listed in Table 2.

The resulting spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are presented in Figures 2 and 3. The SEDs for E and W (Figure 2*a*) are consistent with their being reddened Class II sources with modest excesses at long wavelengths, in agreement with the near-IR spectroscopic results. The spectral slopes, $`a=0.79`$ for WL 20:E, and $`a=0.91`$ for WL 20:W, are as expected for Class II sources. In fact, the shape of the SED of WL 20:W is quite close to a reddened blackbody in the near-IR (*i.e.* a small near-IR excess, though the excess at mid-IR wavelengths is substantially larger). Thus it is possible that the circumstellar material around WL 20:W may be optically thin enough for silicate emission to be present. Comparison of the 10.3 µm fluxes (near the center of the silicate feature) with the “continuum” fluxes at 7.9 and 12.5 µm suggests a factor of $`2`$ excess at 10.3 µm in WL 20:W with respect to that anticipated from the shape of WL 20:E’s SED. Our single data point is not sufficiently compelling (though it is robust) to warrant a large discussion of silicate emission here, but future spatially-resolved mid-IR spectroscopy should address in fine detail the nature of the dust emission and absorption in these Class II sources.

The SED of WL 20:S (Figure 2*b*), however, is that of a Class I source, with $`a=+1.44`$. Given that there is a generally continuous slope between our ground-based mid-IR data for WL 20:S and the far-infrared and millimeter fluxes for the entire WL 20 system, we have attributed all the longer wavelength flux observed in this system to WL 20:S (Figure 3). For the case of the millimeter emission, this assumption may be tested by future interferometric observations.

We color-correct the *IRAS* fluxes for this source in order to make the best luminosity estimate possible. We use our narrowband observations with MIRLIN at 12.5 and 24.5 µm along with others’ 850 µm and 1.3 mm observations to constrain the shape of the far-IR SED so the color-correction terms may be estimated. The spectral slope implied by all the narrowband mid-IR data follows a $`F_\nu \nu ^3`$ power law over this range, so we deredden the 12 and 25 µm fluxes according to that rule from the *IRAS Explanatory Supplement* (Beichman *et al.*, 1988), dividing them by factors of 0.91 and 0.89, respectively. The SED clearly peaks in the vicinity of 60 µm (or at least does not rise significantly throughout the entire 45–80 µm passband). We therefore fit the 60, 850, and 1300 µm data with a $``$ 80 K greybody. In fact, the 60 µm color correction at this temperature is quite small (divide by 0.97) and is not very sensitive to modest excursions in temperature (60–120 K), so that even using the uncorrected flux would be adequate. The resulting data show the usual factor of 2–3 excess of the *IRAS* measured flux vs. the ground-based data (*e.g.*, Lada & Wilking, 1984).

### 3.2 Luminosities of the Individual Components of WL 20

We compute the luminosities of each Class II component of the WL 20 system (E and W) by integrating under the curves displayed in Figure 4. The data points from $`1.2\lambda 18`$ µm have been dereddened using a Draine & Lee (1984) extinction curve assuming $`A_V=16.3`$ (Luhman & Rieke, 1999). Though we assume $`A_V=16.3`$, we can rule out $`A_V>18`$ from our data since the near-IR data then have a slope steeper than a blackbody, and $`A_V<15`$ can be ruled out as the near-IR data would then be too red to be consistent with the flux from a $``$ 4000 K photosphere. We use a power law extrapolation from 18 through 1300 microns consistent with the spectral slope from 3–18 µm ($`F_\nu \nu ^{0.45}`$) to estimate the source fluxes at far-infrared through millimeter wavelengths. Other extrapolations for the fluxes from 18 µm to longer wavelengths may be used (*e.g.* no flux at all past 18 µm, or even a constant flux between 18 and 1300 µm), but none change the estimated luminosity more than 2%, since the majority of the energy is emitted at shorter wavelengths.

A strict lower limit to the source luminosities, the “infrared” luminosities, are arrived at by integrating under the dereddened 1–18 µm data points and the long wavelength extrapolation described above using simple trapezoidal integration. We find an infrared luminosity of 0.26 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E, and 0.17 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W. We have used our near-IR photometry to compute the luminosity rather than that of Strom *et al.* (1995) since this provides better continuity with the mid-IR data. However, use of the Strom *et al.* (1995) near-IR data reduces our luminosity estimates by only 0.03 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for each component.

To obtain a more accurate value of the total luminosity of each component, however, we scale a blackbody spectrum from 0.1–1.2 µm at the effective temperatures found by Luhman & Rieke (1999) to match the observed infrared data values. Luhman & Rieke (1999) found temperatures of 4205 K for WL 20:E and 3850 K for WL 20:W. We then integrate under this blackbody curve in addition to the infrared data points (the solid curves in Figure 4). This technique yields total luminosities of 0.61 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E and 0.39 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W. Integration of only the blackbody (over all wavelengths), which should approximate the emission of the photosphere without luminosity from the disk, yields 0.53 and 0.35 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, respectively. These values are appropriate for comparison with the pre-main sequence evolutionary models discussed in Section 4.2.

For WL 20:S, computing the luminosity is complicated by two issues: if and how to deredden the data, and how to partition the flux at far-IR and millimeter wavelengths where the sources are not resolved. With regard to dereddening, since no photospheric measurements are available, we can assume either that all the extinction is local and most of the near-IR photons are absorbed and reradiated in the far-IR where the extinction is much smaller, or that the same $`A_V=16.3`$ foreground screen is present as for the other two components (and there is a correspondingly lower local extinction). Dereddening the data in the first case would “double count” the near-IR photons, while dereddening in the second is the correct procedure. However, since most of the energy is radiated in the mid-IR through millimeter regime where the extinction is small, the final luminosity estimate changes only 10% after dereddening.

As for the far-IR and millimeter fluxes, we can establish an upper bound on the luminosity by assuming that all the 60 µm *IRAS* flux from Young *et al.* (1986), the 850 µm flux from SCUBA (Ward-Thompson & Kirk, 2000), and the 1.3 mm measurement from André & Montmerle (1994) originates from WL 20:S. As a lower bound, we assume that 50% of the flux originates from WL 20:S; this is consistent with the ground-based 12 and 25 µm points being roughly half the *IRAS* points. In either case, this necessarily implies that most of the dust in the WL 20 system surrounds WL 20:S. Also, the *IRAS* data presumably contain some contaminating flux from the nearby source WL 19; however, we know that WL 19 is quite faint with respect to WL 20 at 10.8 µm (factor of 5.6 fainter, Barsony, Ressler, & Casement, 2000); therefore its effect on our luminosity estimate will be very small.

With all the above factors in mind, a simple trapezoidal integration of the WL 20:S fluxes yield a bolometric luminosity of 1.28 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ if all the extinction is local, and 1.40 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, if the data points are first dereddened for an $`A_V=16.3`$ foreground screen. In both these instances, all the observed far-IR and millimeter fluxes were assigned to WL 20:S. If, instead, we assign only half the observed far-IR and millimeter flux to WL 20:S, the corresponding values for the luminosity become 0.84 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ and 0.95 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, respectively. Use of the Strom *et al.* (1995) near-IR data, instead of our near-IR data, increases these values by only 0.04 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$.

To improve the above luminosity estimates for WL 20:S, given the coarseness of the trapezoidal integration algorithm and the sparseness of the data between 25 and 850 µm, where the SED peaks, we have constructed a smooth model curve which passes through all of the data points under which to integrate. This curve is constructed by assuming a $`T_{eff}=4000`$ K photosphere, two blackbodies at $`T=300`$ K and $`T=150`$ K to represent the disk emission, and a modified $`T=65`$ K blackbody dust envelope with a $`\lambda ^1`$ emissivity law. This model was created only to obtain a smooth curve which represents the SED of WL 20:S adequately for integration; it is not intended to be a physical description of the object. The corresponding derived luminosities for WL 20:S then become 1.71 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for the curve passing through the data points, 1.82 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for the curve dereddened by $`A_V=16.3`$, assuming all of the far-IR and millimeter flux to originate from WL 20:S, and 1.04 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ and 1.14 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, respectively, for the case when only half the observed far-IR and millimeter fluxes are attributed to WL 20:S. Therefore, the true luminosity of WL 20:S lies somewhere between 1.0–1.8 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, making this source the most luminous member of the system by a factor of $``$ 2.

### 3.3 Variability of the Class I Source, WL 20:S

The slight discrepancy of the measured flux in the broadband-N (10.8 µm) filter for WL 20:S in the April 1996 Palomar data from the flux measured for this source with the the 10.3 µm silicate filter in the March 1998 Keck II data led us to examine the relative photometry of the components of the WL 20 system as a function of time (see Table 2). For this purpose, we replot the spatially resolved fluxes as intensity ratios with respect to the fluxes of component WL 20:E in Figure 5. The square symbols in this figure represent the previously published photometry from Strom *et al.* (1995) for data acquired in 1993 May. The circular symbols represent the relative photometry from our 1990 August ProtoCAM observations. (Because these are now relative ratios, the variations in the sky should divide out, and we believe the relative photometric errors are less than 5%.) The different epochs of MIRLIN observations are represented by stars and triangles. From this plot, it can be seen that whereas WL 20:W does not vary significantly over this wavelength range and timescale, WL 20:S varies greatly (factor of $`3`$) in the near-IR and perhaps even changes the shape of its SED over the timescale of a few years.

Even at 10 µm, the variations appear to be significant. Though our MIRLIN results show only a 25% increase between 1996 and 1998, Lada & Wilking (1984) report a flux of 180 mJy for the *entire system* (all three components should have been contained in their 6 arcsec beam), whereas our total system flux from 1998 is 470 mJy. If we assume WL 20:E & W to be constant over this entire timespan, WL 20:S would have had a flux of only 60 mJy in 1981–3, resulting in a nearly 6-fold increase in 15 years.

Wilking *et al.* (2000) have also reported that WL 20 brightened from 160 to 290 mJy at 6.7 µm from 1996 through 1998. Piecing the observations together as well as possible, it seems that WL 20:S was in a low luminosity state in the early 1980s, brightened until $`1990`$, faded during the early 1990s, then has been increasing since the mid-1990s. Given the changing shape of the SED, it may be that as the accretion rate increases, both the luminosity and the local extinction rise, leading to large increases in the mid- and far-infrared and perhaps a decline in the near-infrared. Though much more temporal data is required to put these speculations on a firm footing, they seem plausible with the data in hand. We conclude that much of the total luminosity of WL 20:S is derived from accretion, and that the stellar luminosity cannot be directly determined from our data.

### 3.4 Astrometry and the Identification of LFAM 30 with WL 20:S

In their VLA survey of the the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud, Leous *et al.* (1991) found that a number of cluster members were radio emitters. One of their radio sources, LFAM 30, was associated with WL 20. However, until now, it had not been possible to identify which of the three components of the WL 20 system is responsible for the radio emission. In order to solve this problem, we obtained the astrometric data at the IRTF as described in Section 2. Assuming the mean position of LFAM 23 (WL 22) to be the zero point, we plot the offsets from the Leous *et al.* (1991) radio positions of these sources superimposed upon the N filter image of WL 20 in Figure 6. We therefore find that to within $`\pm `$0.5 arcsec, LFAM 30 is coincident with WL 20:S.

WL 15 appears to be offset 1 arcsec east from the radio position. This is almost certainly due to the fact that the VLA coordinates were published only to the nearest 0.1 seconds of time, which is 1.4 arcsec on the sky at the declination of WL 20, so an offset of 1 arcsec is not unexpected. However, even if the total error were due to purely random pointing errors (which is unlikely given the small scatter for the other objects), the consistency of the radio offsets is sufficiently good that a correspondence between LFAM 30 and either E or W is ruled out.

### 3.5 Extended Mid-Infrared Structure of WL 20:S

During the course of obtaining PSF-fit fluxes for each component of the WL 20 system, we discovered that WL 20:S is extended at all mid-infrared wavelengths. In order to demonstrate this, we present images of the source after the subtraction of a scaled (to the peak intensity value) PSF, as well as intensity cross cuts along an E–W axis at 12.5, 17.9, 20.8, and 24.5 µm in Figures 7 and 8. Also shown for comparison are similarly obtained intensity cross-cuts of the flux standards used for the observations at each wavelength. Whereas the flux standards are unresolved point sources, as are the two Class II sources, WL 20:E & W, WL 20:S is seen to have a definite extent above that expected for a point source at each of the four plotted wavelengths. Somewhat surprisingly, the physical size of the emitting region is fairly constant at all four wavelengths (Table 3). The root-mean-square diameter (observed FWHM – PSF FWHM) is about $`0.36\pm 0.03`$ arcsec or $`45\pm 3`$ AU at the distance of WL 20. The source size does not increase significantly with increasing wavelength as is common in many Class I YSOs.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 WL 20: An “Infrared Companion” System

Infrared companion systems are young binary or multiple systems in which one of the members is significantly “redder” than the other members of the system. “Red” in this context means that the companion is often very faint or invisible at optical and perhaps even the shorter near-IR wavelengths, but very often dominates the luminosity of the system in the near- and mid-IR. A prototypical example of such a system is T Tau, with a projected separation of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$73, corresponding to $`100`$ AU at the source. The northern component, T Tau N, exhibits a typical Class II spectrum. Although the SED of its companion, T Tau S, is much redder than that of a typical T Tauri star, suggesting localized, high extinction towards this source, the SED nevertheless peaks in the near-infrared (*i.e.*, at $`5`$ µm), unlike a Class I SED, which peaks towards the far-infrared. T Tau S is detected only at wavelengths $`2.2`$ µm, although its bolometric luminosity exceeds that of T Tau N by a factor of 2. Furthermore, T Tau S has been shown to be variable (at the level of 2 mag flux increases in the IR) over a 5 yr. time interval (Ghez *et al.*, 1991; Gorham *et al.*, 1992). Large near-IR variability is a characteristic trait of infrared companion systems (Mathieu, 1994).

From our spatially resolved SEDs of the individual components of the WL 20 triple system, we can confidently assert WL 20 to be a newly identified member of the class of infrared companion systems. Table 4 lists the properties of each individual source derived from this work, with the spectral types and effective temperatures for WL 20:E & WL 20:W from Luhman & Rieke (1999).

The possibilities usually cited to explain such “infrared companion” systems include the following:

1. *A chance superposition of sources* It may be that WL 20:S is not physically associated with WL 20:E & W—it is a chance superposition and therefore WL 20:S can be in any evolutionary state relative to WL 20:E & W. We must stress than we cannot rule out this possibility based on currently available data. It is nevertheless well established that all three sources of the WL 20 system are YSOs, and therefore, all are associated with the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud. The space density of embedded objects in this cloud ($`<`$ 200/sq. degree, Kenyon *et al.*, 1998) is low enough that finding three YSOs apparently separated by such small distances is very unlikely unless they are physically associated. Milli-arcsecond astrometry in the near-IR over a sufficiently long time interval could prove association definitively, either by showing the sources to have a common space motion or a definite orbital motion.
2. *A non-coplanar system where the IR companion is viewed “edge-on”* It has recently been shown that a Class II source whose flared disk, with its surface heated by the stellar radiation field, could mimic the SED of a Class I source if the disk is in a nearly edge-on orientation to our line-of-sight (Chiang & Goldreich, 1999). Indeed, we argue below that WL 20:S probably does have a flared disk, though the inclination is $``$ 20 from edge-on. However, WL 20:S exhibits two phenomena common to IR companion systems that orientation effects cannot explain if it is simply another Class II object: at 1.0–1.8 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ it is the dominant luminosity source in the system by a factor of two, and it is highly variable at both near- and mid-IR wavelengths. Neither of these would be expected if it were simply an extinguished sibling of the other two sources. We therefore consider this scenario unlikely.
3. *A younger age for the IR companion* It may be that WL 20:S formed significantly later than its companions, WL 20:E & WL 20:W. The projected separations between the components of the WL 20 system range from 280–460 AU (see Table 1). These separations correspond to sound crossing times of order $``$ 1–$`2\times 10^4`$ yr. Given that typical free-fall times of pre-collapse cores are of order $`10^5`$ yr, the WL 20 system must have collapsed from a single cloud core. Based on this simple dynamical argument, it is highly unlikely that the individual components of the WL 20 system formed at different times.
4. *The objects are coeval; they are in a physical configuration and a certain phase of evolution in which most of the dust accretion is occurring on one of the objects, rather than all three.* This is the most plausible possibility for explaining the properties of the infrared companion, WL 20:S, in the WL 20 system. Indications are that the observed 1.3 mm flux from the WL 20 system is centered on the cm source (André & Montmerle, 1994), which we have shown is associated with WL 20:S (see Figure 6). The observed 1.3 mm flux of 95 mJy (André & Montmerle, 1994) translates to a circumstellar mass of 0.03 (0.06) $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$, assuming optically thin emission from dust at temperatures $`T_d=30`$ (50) K and $`\kappa _{1.3\mathrm{mm}}=0.01`$ cm2 gm-1. Infrared variability, such as observed in WL 20:S (see Figure 5), signals the presence of active accretion (*e.g.*, Beck *et al.*, 2000). The combined picture of this system is reminiscent of recent binary formation models (*e.g.*, Bate & Bonnell, 1997) in which one component can be bright and actively accreting relative to a less luminous secondary component, depending on the initial distribution of specific angular momentum in the collapsing protostellar envelope relative to the orbital angular momentum of the system. We consider such a scenario to be the most likely one to explain the properties of the WL 20 triple system.

### 4.2 Testing Pre-Main-Sequence Tracks with the WL 20 System

To date, only a handful of pre-main-sequence binary or multiple systems have both spatially resolved spectroscopy and spatially resolved photometry over a wavelength range as broad as presented here (1–25 µm). With these data, we have been able to independently infer the luminosities of WL 20:E & W to significantly higher accuracy ($``$ a few percent apart from systematic effects discussed below) than has been possible previously (see Table 4). This coeval system, with well-determined photospheric luminosities (Section 3.2) and effective temperatures, provides a stringent test to distinguish between currently available PMS evolutionary models. Figures 9*a–d* show isochrones (solid lines) and isomass (dashed lines) evolutionary tracks at the same scale for four different sets of PMS models, Baraffe *et al.* (1998), d’Antona & Mazzitelli (1998), Palla & Stahler (1999), and Siess *et al.* (2000), respectively. In each figure, the solid square denotes WL 20:E and the solid diamond denotes WL 20:W. Figure 9*e* shows the range of parameter space over which PMS tracks are customarily plotted (*e.g.*, Palla & Stahler, 1999). The solid square outline in this figure indicates the restricted range of parameter space plotted in Figures 9*a–d*, in order to emphasize the improved precision with which the different sets of tracks can be compared using the WL 20 data.

The two sources of systematic error in our luminosity determinations are the adopted distance, for which we are using the Hipparcos-determined value, and the adopted $`A_V=16.3`$. An error in the distance will move both sources up by the same amount in each panel of Figure 9: a distance of 140 pc will raise the points by $`0.06`$ units in the log, or about one small tick mark along the luminosity axis. Similarly, a slightly greater value of extinction than the value of $`A_V=16.3`$ adopted here will also move the position of each source up vertically in Figure 9. With an extreme value of $`A_V=18`$, the luminosities are increased by $`33`$%; 0.12 in the log, or 2.5 small tick mark(s).

From spatially resolved near-IR spectroscopy, Luhman & Rieke (1999) determine the spectrum of WL 20:W to be consistent with a photosphere of spectral type M2–K6, corresponding to a temperature range 3513 K $`T_{eff}`$ 4205 K, with an adopted spectral type of M0 (corresponding to $`T_{eff}=3850`$ K). The same authors assign a K6 ($`T_{eff}=4205`$ K) spectral type to WL 20:E, with possible spectral types in the range K5–K7, corresponding to 4060 K $`T_{eff}`$ 4350 K. In Figure 9, we indicate the possible effective temperature range for each source by the horizontal error bars.

Inspection of Figure 9 shows that none of the models rule out WL 20:E & W being a coeval pair, within the allowable errors in spectral type for each source. However, the derived ages and masses differ amongst the models. The d’Antona & Mazzitelli (1998) tracks yield a system age of $``$ 2.0–$`2.5\times 10^6`$ yr, with a mass of 0.62–0.68 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E and a mass of 0.51–0.55 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W. All the other models yield a system age twice as old: 4–$`5\times 10^6`$ yr. For an age of $`4\times 10^6`$ yr, the Baraffe *et al.* (1998) models yield masses of 0.86 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E and 0.68 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W, respectively. The Palla & Stahler (1999) tracks yield a coeval system age of $`5\times 10^6`$ yr, with masses of 0.83 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E and 0.70 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W. Similarly, the Siess *et al.* (2000) tracks yield a coeval system age of $`5\times 10^6`$ yr, with masses of 0.85 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E and $`0.65M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W.

Of the two possible ages for this system, 4–$`5\times 10^6`$ yr or 2.0–$`2.5\times 10^6`$ yr, the younger age is the more plausible one, especially when we consider that WL 20:S, which appears to be a Class I object, is also part of this system. Based on statistical arguments, Class I objects are generally thought to be just a $`\mathrm{few}\times 10^5`$ yr old (Wilking, Lada, & Young, 1989), maybe $`8\times 10^5`$ yr at most (Kenyon *et al.*, 1990). Previous statistical studies have ignored the systematic effects introduced by unresolved binary/multiple systems, however, which have the effect of making a source appear brighter (and therefore, judged to be younger), than is, in fact, the case. Such an effect can result in derived ages of a factor of two too young (White, 1999), so that the oldest Class I sources may be of order $`1.6\times 10^6`$ yr old, just about consistent with the $`1.8\times 10^6`$ yr old system age derived from the d’Antona & Mazzitelli (1998) and Tout *et al.* (1999) tracks.

Very recently, pre-main-sequence tracks which include the effects of accretion on the models have been calculated (Tout *et al.*, 1999). These authors provide the magnitude of the errors possible when one derives ages and masses of PMS objects from evolutionary tracks that ignore accretion, such as the ones discussed above. In particular, placement of WL 20:E & W on their Figure 14, shows that the derived age from the other tracks, including those of d’Antona & Mazzitelli (1998), can be up to a factor of two too old, relative to accreting PMS models, making the true ages of WL 20:E and WL 20:W as young as 1–$`1.3\times 10^6`$ yr, consistent with the oldest plausible Class I source age of $`1.6\times 10^6`$ yr for WL 20:S. The errors in the masses of PMS objects derived from non-accreting vs. accreting tracks are much smaller, being negligible in the case of WL 20:E and at the 10% level for WL 20:W (found by placing these sources on Figure 13 of Tout *et al.*, 1999).

### 4.3 The Nature of WL 20:S

In this work, we have found that: 1) WL 20:S is the reddest and most luminous member of the WL 20 system; 2) it is highly variable on timescales of a few years; 3) it contains most of the dust in the system in a mid-IR emitting region some 40 AU in diameter; and 4) that it is the source of the observed centimeter emission.

The most likely explanation for the mid-IR appearance of WL 20:S is that it is experiencing a phase of enhanced (and varying) accretion activity, perhaps due to interactions with its neighbors. This is especially likely in view of the fact that the SED of WL 20:S is consistent with the presence of a flared disk of $`250`$ AU in radius (Chiang & Goldreich, 1999, Eqn. 1), very similar to the projected separation of 280 AU between WL 20:S and WL 20:W. We observe a structure whose 40 AU diameter size appears to be wavelength-independent in the mid-IR: this structure may be the flared disk surface. The IRAS fluxes for the WL 20 system, as a whole, are systematically larger than the sum of the fluxes of the individual components derived from ground-based observations (see Table 2). This discrepancy in the measured fluxes in different-sized beams implies the presence of material on scales larger than those to which the ground-based observations are sensitive, but that still fall within an IRAS beam. Thus, $``$ 40% of the observed IRAS fluxes are emitted from regions 10′′–120′′ in size, corresponding to the size scales of infalling envelopes. It may very well be that WL 20:S is actively accreting matter from the envelope, through its flaring disk, while its companions have already ceased significant accretion.

If this is true, it addresses one of the primary objections to WL 20 being a true triple system, as opposed to a chance superposition of a binary (WL 20:E & W) with a single source (WL 20:S). If WL 20 is a triple with an age of $`2\times 10^6`$ yr, that is still uncomfortably old to have the presence of a Class I source, which would normally be presumed to be $`<1\times 10^6`$ yr old. This would appear to argue that WL 20:S is more likely a chance superposition. However, if accretion has been continued to a late phase due to tidal interactions with the other members, then the shape of the SED of an individual source within a binary/multiple system is an indicator only of the accretion activity of that source, and has little to do with its age.

Preliminary studies of accretion in triple systems have so far focussed on hierarchical triples, in which the separation between two sources is much smaller than their distance to the third component, a circumstance clearly not applicable to the WL 20 system. In fact, if formation proceeds through fragmentation, then the resultant triples are typically not in a very hierarchical configuration. The stability of accreting triples has been examined by Smith *et al.* (1997). In general, if the maximum separation of the closer pair (280 AU projected separation for WL 20:S & WL 20:W) is comparable to the minimum separation of this pair to the third component (400 AU projected separation from WL 20:W to WL 20:E), then the stability of the system is questionable. From the above analysis of existing PMS models, the current best mass determinations for this system are 0.62–0.68 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E and 0.51–0.55 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W, respectively, and $``$ 1.0 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:S from the constraints given by its 1.0–1.8 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ luminosity. According to the criterion for stability of triple systems given by Harrington (1977), as quoted in Smith *et al.* (1997), the WL 20 system should be dynamically unstable. The behavior of dynamically unstable accreting triple systems has not yet been examined. It may be that some fraction of single stars are formed from the disintegration of unstable triple systems.

## 5 Conclusions

We have presented sub-arcsecond, mid-infrared imaging photometry of the WL 20 triple system at 7.9, 10.3, 12.5, 17.9, 20.8, and 24.5 $`\mu `$m. When supplemented by spatially-resolved, near-infrared imaging photometry from ProtoCAM at the IRTF, these combined data allow solid determinations of the spectral energy distribution of each source individually, as well as accurate luminosity determinations. We find the source luminosities for WL 20:E, WL 20:W, and WL 20:S to be 0.61 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, 0.39 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, and 1.0–1.8 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$, respectively. For WL 20:E and WL 20:W, 0.53 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ and 0.35 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ can be attributed to photospheric emission alone.

WL 20 can now be classified as an “infrared companion system,” with WL 20:S exhibiting an embedded protostellar (Class I) SED, while its two neighbors, WL 20:E and WL 20:W, each exhibit T Tauri star (Class II) SEDs. The infrared companion, WL 20:S, is the dominant luminosity source in the system. WL 20:S differs from its T Tauri companions in three important respects: 1) its near- and mid-IR fluxes vary significantly over timescales of years; 2) it is well-resolved at mid-IR wavelengths, with a constant, wavelength-independent source diameter of 40 AU; and 3) it is found to be the source of the radio cm emission in the system.

Since the effective temperatures of WL 20:E & W are known from spatially-resolved near-IR spectroscopy, we can place these sources on a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We are thus able to test currently available pre-main-sequence evolutionary tracks at unprecedentedly high temporal resolution and find that of the non-accreting models, the d’Antona & Mazzitelli (1998) tracks yield the most plausible system age, at 2.0–$`2.5\times 10^6`$ yr. The inferred source masses from these tracks at these ages are 0.62–0.68 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:E and 0.51–0.55 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for WL 20:W, respectively.

We cannot, at present, independently determine a mass or age for the infrared companion, WL 20:S. However, the intriguing possibility now exists of determining the spectral type, and, therefore, the effective temperature of this embedded source with the new generation of high-resolution spectrographs on 8–10 m ground-based telescopes. Once an effective temperature determination has been made spectroscopically, and assuming system coevality, one could locate WL 20:S on an isomass track, independently of its known luminosity. Thus, the possibility exists, for the first time, to directly derive the accretion luminosity of a Class I protostar.

Millimeter interferometry of this unique triple system would advance our understanding of the gas dynamics involved, processes which cannot be explored in any other way. Higher temporal resolution spatially-resolved imaging and monitoring of WL 20 at infrared wavelengths, combined with detailed modeling of its appearance will also lead to a more detailed understanding of the actual accretion processes taking place in WL 20:S.

We wish to thank Dr. Michael Werner for a critical reading of this manuscript, and Drs. Bruce Wilking and Tom Greene for useful discussions and for providing the impetus to publish these results. The anonymous referee provided a number of comments, particularly in regard to the luminosity calculations, for which we are grateful. We also thank Dr. Wilking, Dr. Derek Ward-Thompson and Mr. Jason Kirk for providing us with data in advance of publication and Dr. Russel White for providing computer-readable versions of certain sets of pre-main-sequence tracks. MR thanks Dr. Fred Chaffee and the entire Keck Observatory staff for their enthusiasm, patience, and assistance in making it possible to use MIRLIN on the Keck II telescope. The staffs of the Palomar Observatory and the NASA IRTF have also continued to provide outstanding support for MIRLIN as a visitor instrument on their respective telescopes. Portions of this work were carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Development of MIRLIN was supported by the JPL Director’s Discretionary Fund and its continued operation is funded by an SR+T award from NASA’s Office of Space Science. MB gratefully acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation through grants AST-9731797 and AST-0096087 to Harvey Mudd College, which have made her contributions to this work possible.


format: text

text:
# References

Space–time discretization: the way to the fundamental element without a determined form.
S.B. Afanas’ev

St.–Petersburg, Russia

## Abstract

The concept of the random discretization of the space–time is suggested. It is the way to consistent compatible synthesis of quantum and relativistic principles and principle of geometrization. The basic idea of this concept is physical reality of the finite sizes fundamental element of the quantized space–time. The flat space–time with random discretization is described as the probability measure space with the set of all possible discretizations of the flat continual space–time as the set of points. The probability measure can depend on the geometric parameters of discretizations (a number of regions of a discretization, their volumes, areas etc.). In this concept the fundamental length can be defined as the average value of the linear size of a fundamental element. In this concept the ”particle” quantum and the space-time quantum are identical.

The synthesis of relativistic, quantum and geometrization principles is one of the central problem of modern physics. Below this set of principles (quantum, relativistic and principle of geometrization) is conventionally named QRG principles. The approaches to their consistent compatible realizing are found both on the way of the solution of the quantum gravity problem and quantization of the space–time  and in the creation of the united theory of fundamental interactions and the geometrized particle theory. In the last theories (in particular, in the superstring theory ) the particles are represented as the excited states of some extended objects. In this work an approach, in which the particles can be described as the excited states of $`n`$–dimensional fundamental elements of the space–time, is suggested. This approach is based on the representation of discrete structure of the quantized space–time (QST) as the set of finite size fundamental elements. We suppose that these fundamental elements have the property of physical reality. In other words, the physical space–time is the one with the discrete structure, but not continual space–time that consist of points, i.e. fundamental elements without sizes and structure. The continual space–time is the limiting case of the discrete space–time with the zeroth value of the fundamental length and has the sense of mathematical abstract.

The consideration of the space–time fundamental element as the physical reality element and the principles of quantum description of microobjects necessarily lead to abandonment of determined form and sizes of a fundamental element (since they are variables describing quantum object and cannot have exactly determined values) and representation of QST as the probability measure space with the set of all possible discretizations of the continual space–time as the set of points. Therefore this concept is properly named the concept of the random discretization of the space–time. At first glance this concept is more compatible consistent realizing of QRG principles than both the known approaches to the space–time discrete structure description and the existed geometrized theories of particles. Thus in the superstring theory the ”particle” quantum (i.e. all particles are excited states of this quantum) is not identical to the quantum of the space–time, and the string as quantum geometrical object can be defined as the space quantum only. In the suggested concept the ”particle” quantum is the fundamental element of the quantized space–time, or the quantum of the space–time. On the other hand, this concept contain many other discrete space–time models  (the lattice space–time, the Regge simplicial space–time etc.) as special cases of investigated object with the special choices of the probability measure.

In this work the basic ideas and representations of the concept of the random discretization are discussed. They are concerned with the semiclassical method of description of discrete structure of the space–time. The questions about nature of particles as the excitations of QST is briefly discussed in the conclusion. In this work the case of the space–time with the average values equal over all discretized manifold is analyzed.

Consider the semiclassical description of the discrete structure of QST in the framework of the concept of the random discretization. Below the geometric base of semiclassical description of the flat space–time (or the space) is discussed. Obviously, difference between the space–time and the space is not important as long as the metric relations are not considered.

The manifold of the flat space with random discretization (briefly - random discretized flat manifold) is the probability measure space with the set of all possible discretizations of $`M`$$`^n`$ as the set of points. The probability measure defined on this set can depend on the scalars of discretizations, i.e. a number of regions of a discretization, their volumes, areas of surface etc. Below we suppose that the measure on the set of discretizations can be defined. Correct definition of the probability measure on the set of all $`^n`$ – discretizations has some difficulties, and the flat space with random discretization can be defined as the set of all random discretized flat manifolds (or representative set of manifolds, for example, all spaces with the set of discretizations of open sphere). Denote the set of discretizations $`D(M)`$ and the discrete space with random discretization $`RanD(M,d\mu )`$ , where $`M`$ is the discretized manifold of $`^n`$ , $`d\mu `$ is the probability measure. The probability measure $`d\mu `$ is represented in the form

$$d\mu =\frac{1}{I}\mu _pd\sigma ,$$
(1)
where $`d\sigma `$ is the measure on the set of discretizations, $`\mu _p`$ — the factor characterized non-equality of the probabilities of discretizations, $`I=\underset{D(M)}{}\mu _p𝑑\sigma `$ The sense of notation $`\mu _p`$ is following: different values of probability density of discretizations are caused by the physical properties of excitations of the space–time, and it can be says that $`\mu _p`$ is the physical factor of the probability measure.

Below only the measures dependent on the number of regions $`N`$, their volumes $`\{V_i\}_{i=1}^N`$ and their surface areas $`\{S_i\}_{i=1}^N`$ are considered. In the general case $`\mu _p`$ is represented as the sum of series

$$\mu _p=A_{\alpha \{\beta \}\{\gamma \}}N_\alpha V_1^{\beta _1}\mathrm{}V_N^{\beta _N}S_1^{\gamma _1}\mathrm{}S_N^{\gamma _N}$$
(2)
The average values of $`N`$, $`V`$ and $`S`$ are defined in the following manner:

$$<N>=\underset{D(M)}{}N𝑑\mu $$
(3)
$$<V>=\underset{D(M)}{}\overline{V}^{\{l\}}𝑑\mu ^{\{l\}}$$
(4)
where $`\overline{V}^{\{l\}}=\frac{1}{N}_{i=1}^NV_i^{\{l\}}`$, $`\{l\}`$ is identified the discretizations

$$<S>=\underset{D(M)}{}\overline{S}^{\{l\}}𝑑\mu ^{\{l\}}$$
(5)
where $`\overline{S}^{\{l\}}=\frac{1}{N}_{i=1}^NS_i^{\{l\}}`$ Thus the average values of $`V`$ and $`S`$ are calculated by double–averaging: over the regions of a discretization and over discretizations.

Consider also the subset of the probability measures from the set (2) that are represented in the form:

$$\mu _p=f(\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}A_{\alpha \beta \gamma }N^\alpha V_i^\beta S_i^\gamma )$$
(6)
Obviously, basic interest is caused by the measures for which the average values $`<N>`$, $`<N>`$ and $`<S>`$ are finite.

It can be supposed that these measures must satisfy following conditions

$$\underset{N1}{lim}\mu _p=\mu _1$$
(7)
$$\underset{N\mathrm{}}{lim}\mu _p=0$$
(8)
These conditions are necessary because both the finiteness of values of $`\mu _p`$ for discretizations with the small number of regions $`N`$ and the zeroth limit of $`\mu _p`$ with $`N\mathrm{}`$ are required for the finiteness of integrals by type

$$<N>=N𝑑\mu $$
(9)
The problem, are the conditions (7, 8) sufficient for the finiteness of values $`<N>`$, $`<V>`$ and $`<S>`$, is open. It is not excluding that the finiteness of values $`<S>`$ requires the satisfaction of special conditions for values of the probability measure for discretizations that contain the regions with the large values S. It can be suggested several dependencies of $`\mu _p(V,S,N)`$ that are satisfied the conditions (7) and (8)

$$\mu _p=Cexp(A\underset{i}{}S_i)$$
(10)
$$\mu _p=Cexp(A\underset{i}{}\frac{S_i}{V_i})$$
(11)
$$\mu _p=Cexp(A\underset{i}{}\frac{S_i}{V_i}B\underset{i}{}\frac{V_i}{S_i})$$
(12)
Besides the problem of dependence of average values $`<V>`$, $`<S>`$ and $`<N>`$ on the size of a discretized manifold has the deep sense. Obviously, this dependence must satisfy some requirements for the measures interesting for the description of the physical space–time. It seems likely that this problem is connected with the conformal invariance in the investigated discrete space. At first glance the condition of independence (or weak dependence) of average values of $`V`$ and $`S`$ on the continual manifold size is most reasonable condition.

Thus the considered probability measure space is realizing of discrete space (space–time) structure with the finite value of the fundamental length (with the supposition of existence of the set of probability measures that give the finite values of $`N`$, $`V`$ and $`S`$). It is noted that earlier investigated concepts of space–time discretization are the special cases of considered object. Thus the lattice space–time is the special case of $`RanD(M,d\mu )`$ with the following choice of the probability measure: $`\mu =\mu _0`$ for discretizations with the lattice as the set of boundaries of regions, and $`\mu =0`$ for other discretizations. The Regge simplicial space–time is the special case of considered space with the probability measure different from zero for discretizations by simplexies.

In this concept the fundamental length has the meaning some average linear size of regions of discretizations. It can be suggested three geometric parameters by this type:

$$l_I=<2n\frac{V}{S}>$$
(13)
$$l_{II}=<V^{1/n}>$$
(14)
$$l_{III}=<V>^{1/n}$$
(15)
where $`n`$ is the dimensionality of the space–time, and the average values are defined by the method of double–averaging (see (4), (5)).

Average values of the geometrical variables can be calculated with using of the construction that is analogous to the continual (functional) integral. This construction can be considered as the generalization of the Feynman integral over trajectories and the string world surfaces integral.

In conclusion, it is some words about development of considered concept. Considered method of discretization of the flat space–time is the first step to realizing of synthesis of relativistic, quantum and geometrization principles. This method of discretization of the space–time gives the way to the introducing of mathematical operations on the set of regions of discretizations (different from the continual space–time operations). This way can be more consistent realizing of three basic principles than the string and brane theories and other concepts of the space–time discretizations by the following causes:

1) This space–time is compatible quantized (in this context, disretized) automatically (connection with the algebraic problem of space-time quantization see below), and the continual space–time don’t play the role of method of space–time description as it is in the superstring theory;

2) This space–time description method allow to introduce the operations on the set of fundamental elements (regions of discretizations), and principally property of relativistic invariance can be formulated in terms of quantized (discrete) space–time;

3) Particles can be considered as excited states of fundamental elements of the discrete space–time, and different particles are described by the different dependence of the probability measure on the parameters of discretizations. Last conclusion is in the agreement with the form of general construction of the functional integral, in which $`\mu _p`$ is coincided with factor $`exp(S)`$, where $`S`$ is an action;

4) In this concept the ”particle” quantum is identical to the space-time quantum. Thus this concept meet the principle of minimal number of basic object on the most fundamental level.

It is noted the following problems for the development of this concept:

1) Formulation of $`RanD(M,d\mu )`$ – coordinate– dependent probability space (space– time) in the framework of semiclassical description considered in this article;

2) Introduction of the mathematical operations on $`RanD(M,d\mu )`$ . This approach allow to describe space–time in internal terms of invariance and transformations;

3) Research of the random discretization of the curved space–time. In this concept all tensors are the random ones, and equations and equalities of curved discrete space–time have the probability sense;

4) Connection between the discrete structure of the space–time and the algebraic description of the quantized space–time (commutation relations, introducing of operators of creation and destruction etc.). The solution of this problem is required introduction of the fundamental elements of quantized space–time as the elementary units of not $`^n`$ , but the all investigated probability measure space, i.e. introduction of elementary units of the set of all discretizations. In this approach operators of QST are described the fundamental elements of the one;

5) Relation between calculations over the set of discretizations and the ones over the topology (set of all possible subsets of $`^n`$ ). This problem is connected with the problem of correspondence of the probability measures defined on the set of discretizations and on the topology ;

6) Formulation of the compatible quantum description of the discrete structure of the space-time, i.e. definition of the wave function on the set of discretizations and finding of basic equations and fundamental properties of this wave function.


text:
# Hysteresis effect in 𝜈=1 quantum Hall system under periodic electrostatic modulation

## Abstract

The effect of a one-dimensional periodic electrostatic modulation on quantum Hall systems with filling factor $`\nu =1`$ is studied. We propose that, either when the amplitude of the modulation potential or the tilt angle of the magnetic field is varied, the system can undergo a first-order phase transition from a fully spin-polarized homogeneous state to a partially spin-polarized charge-density-wave state, and show hysteresis behavior of the spin polarization. This is confirmed by our self-consistent numerical calculations within the Hartree-Fock approximation. Finally we suggest that the $`\nu =1/3`$ fractional quantum Hall state may also show similar hysteresis behavior in the presence of a periodic potential modulation.

The discovery of the integer and fractional quantum Hall (QH) effects offered invaluable tools to study quantum phase transitions in low dimensions. For example, the translational-invariant QH phases can exhibit novel forms of two-dimensional ferromagnetism, and show interesting magnetic transitions. Recently, the hysteresis phenomena reminiscent of conventional ferromagnetic materials are discovered in many QH systems. For instance, in close proximity to the critical pressure necessary for the transition from the spin-polarized state to the spin-unpolarized state, a hysteretic evolution of the magnetoresistance is observed in the vicinity of even-numerator fractional quantum Hall states. Furthermore, by applying a gate bias, hysteresis behavior of the longitudinal resistivity is observed in a wide quantum well at even-integer QH states. The physical origin of these observed hysteresis may be associated with the crossing of Landau levels for electrons (or for composite fermions in the case of the fractional QH states) with different spin polarizations.

Besides the hydrostatic pressure and the gate bias, modern techniques allow us to introduce other external perturbations to QH systems, such as a lateral periodic electrostatic potential and/or a periodic magnetic field. QH systems under periodic modulations, either one-dimensional or two-dimensional, have been studied to a great extent. Recently, Manolescu and Gudmundsson have theoretically studied a QH system at non-integer filling factor $`\nu `$ (say, $`\nu 2.42`$ in Ref. ) under periodic modulations. By varying either the amplitude of the modulation or the tilt angle of the magnetic field with its normal component $`B_0`$ being fixed, they found a hysteretic evolution of the ground state due to the combined effects of the external potential and the exchange interaction. It is interesting to study if similar hysteresis effects can be found in other situations.

In this paper, we consider the $`\nu =1`$ QH system in a single layer under a one-dimensional periodic modulation. For the system without external periodic modulation, it is well-known that, even when the Zeeman splitting is negligible, because of the strong exchange interaction among electrons, the ground state is a homogeneous, fully spin-polarized incompressible liquid. However, Bychkov et al. found that, when the mixing between the Landau levels is neglected, the presence of a one-dimensional periodic modulation could diminish the excitation energy of spin excitons with finite momentum to zero. Due to these gapless spin excitons, one may expect that the system can transit from a fully spin-polarized homogeneous state to a partially spin-polarized charge-density-wave (CDW) state. While Bychkov et al. suggested this possibility, they did not pursue this issue further, because their approach is applicable only prior to the occurrence of this instability.

We notice that the proposed instability is very likely a first-order phase transition accompanying hysteresis phenomena. This can be understood as follows. First, this instability is related to the crossing of the single-particle Landau bands with different spin polarizations. Similar picture has been used to explain the observed hysteresis due to the application of the hydrostatic pressure or the gate bias. It indicates that the proposed transition could be first-order and show a hysteresis effect. Second, it is expected that, by varying the modulation amplitude, the evolution of the ground state could be history-dependent. If the system is originally in the uniform fully spin-polarized state, as the modulation amplitude increases, in order to minimize the external potential energy, electrons tend to accumulate at the local minima of the external modulation potential. However, this process must accompany with spin flipping and therefore will cost exchange energy among the spin-up electrons. When the cost in exchange energy is larger than the reduction in the external potential energy, the uniform fully spin-polarized state is maintained even under a modest modulation. The rigidity of the uniform phase breaks down only when the modulation strength exceeds a critical value, and a sudden transition to a partially spin-polarized state ensues. In contrast, once the system is in a partially spin-polarized state (now electrons with both spin orientations are present), when the modulation strength is reduced (the local minima become shallower), minority-spin (spin-down) electrons will be squeezed out of the potential minima one by one. Note that, in this case, when a minority-spin electron is pushed back to the nearby unoccupied majority-spin (spin-up) state due to the reduction of the modulation amplitude, the gain in exchange energy among the spin-up electrons is roughly the same order as the cost among the spin-down electrons. That is, the effect of the exchange interaction is minor in the present case. Therefore, both the evolution of the ground state and the change of the population are mainly determined by the external modulation potential, and they change gradually as the modulation is varied slightly. Hence the fully spin-polarized state will not immediately be restored even though the modulation strength is decreased below the previous critical value. Only when the modulation strength is sufficiently small, such that the difference of the populations between the spin-up and spin-down states exceeds a critical amount, will the spin gap be abruptly amplified, and the fully polarized state be recovered. This explains why a hysteresis effect appears in the present system. The above argument is confirmed by our calculations within the Hartree-Fock approximation (HFA). We find that, either by changing the amplitude of the modulation potential or the tilt angle of the magnetic field, hysteresis behavior of the spin polarization will occur in the modulated $`\nu =1`$ QH system.

By using the Landau gauge and neglecting the Landau level mixing, which is valid when the cyclotron energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ is much larger than the typical Coulomb energy, the Hamiltonian of a modulated QH system under a strong perpendicular magnetic field $`B_0`$ can be expressed in the form

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{X,\alpha }{}}({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{2}}\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}\mu )c_{X,\alpha }^{}c_{X,\alpha }+H_M+H_C,`$ (1)
$`H_M`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{X,\alpha }{}}V_0e^{(G_0l)^2/4}\mathrm{cos}\left(G_0X\right)c_{X,\alpha }^{}c_{X,\alpha },`$ (2)
where $`c_{X,\alpha }^{}`$ is the creation operator of an electron in the lowest Landau level (LLL) with a guiding center coordinate $`X`$ and spin $`\alpha `$ ($`\alpha =\pm 1`$). $`\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}`$, $`\mu `$, and $`l\sqrt{\mathrm{}/eB_0}`$ are the Zeeman energy, the chemical potential, and the magnetic length, respectively. Here we take $`\mathrm{}\omega _c/2`$ as the zero of energy. In the present investigation, we consider the simplest model of a one-dimensional electrostatic modulation $`V(x)=V_0\mathrm{cos}(G_0x)`$ with a period $`a=2\pi /G_0`$. Finally, the Coulomb interaction gives a contribution $`H_C`$,

$`H_C`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\{X_i\},\alpha ,\beta }{}}X_1,X_2|v|X_3,X_4c_{X_1,\alpha }^{}c_{X_2,\beta }^{}c_{X_3,\beta }c_{X_4,\alpha },`$ (3)
$`X_1,X_2|v|X_3,X_4`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{A}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐪}{}}v(𝐪)e^{(ql)^2/2}e^{iq_x(X_1+X_4)/2}e^{iq_x(X_2+X_3)/2}\delta _{X_1,X_4+q_yl^2}\delta _{X_2,X_3q_yl^2},`$ (4)
where $`A`$ is the area of the system and $`v(𝐪)=2\pi e^2/\kappa |𝐪|`$ is the Fourier transform of the Coulomb potential with $`\kappa `$ being the dielectric constant.

In the spirit of the HFA, the model Hamiltonian becomes

$$H_{\mathrm{HF}}=\underset{X,\alpha }{}(\epsilon _{X,\alpha }\mu )c_{X,\alpha }^{}c_{X,\alpha },$$
(5)
where the single-particle energies under the HFA are

$`\epsilon _{X,\alpha }=`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{2}}\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}+V_0e^{(G_0l)^2/4}\mathrm{cos}(G_0X)`$ (6)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{G_j}{}}W_0^\alpha (G_j)e^{iG_jX}`$ (7)
with $`\{G_j=jG_0,j=0,\pm 1,\pm 2\mathrm{}\}`$ being the reciprocal lattice vectors of the one-dimensional periodic structure. The Hartree-Fock effective interaction potential $`W_0^\alpha (G)`$ can be split into a direct \[$`H_0(G)`$\] and an exchange \[$`X_0(G)`$\] component

$$W_0^\alpha (G)=\frac{e^2}{\kappa l}\underset{\beta }{}\left[H_0(G)\delta _{\alpha ,\beta }X_0(G)\right]\rho _0^\beta (G)$$
(8)
with

$`H_0(G)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{|G|}}e^{(Gl)^2/2}\left(1\delta _{G,0}\right),`$ (9)
$`X_0(G)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}}e^{(Gl)^2/4}I_0\left[{\displaystyle \frac{(Gl)^2}{4}}\right],`$ (10)
$`\rho _0^\beta (G)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N_\phi }}{\displaystyle \underset{X}{}}e^{iGX}c_{X,\beta }^{}c_{X,\beta },`$ (11)
where $`I_0(x)`$ is the modified Bessel function and $`N_\phi `$ is the Landau level degeneracy. The factor $`\left(1\delta _{G,0}\right)`$ in the expression of $`H_0(G)`$ is due to the neutralizing positive background. From Eq. (6), we find that the modulation lifts the degeneracy of the Landau levels and the resulting single-particle energies have a periodic structure, $`\epsilon _{X,\alpha }=\epsilon _{X+a,\alpha }`$. Within the HFA, the thermal expectation value $`c_{X,\alpha }^{}c_{X,\alpha }=f(\epsilon _{X,\alpha }\mu )`$, where $`f(x)`$ is the Fermi-Dirac distribution function. The condition of $`\nu =1`$ is given by $`\left(1/N_\phi \right)_{X,\alpha }c_{X,\alpha }^{}c_{X,\alpha }=1.`$ Eqs. (6)-(11), together with this condition, form the basis of our self-consistent scheme.

Before starting the numerical calculations, we notice that, for $`\nu =1`$, the Hamiltonian within the LLL approximation \[Eqs. (1)-(3)\] is invariant under the following particle-hole transformation,

$$c_{X,\alpha }^{}\stackrel{~}{c}_{X+a/2,\alpha }\text{and}c_{X,\alpha }\stackrel{~}{c}_{X+a/2,\alpha }^{}.$$
(12)
By using this particle-hole symmetry, one leads to an exact expression of $`\mu `$ at all temperatures, $`\mu =ϵ_c/2`$, where $`ϵ_c\sqrt{\pi /2}(e^2/\kappa l)`$ is the exchange energy per electron of the uniform fully polarized state. For simplicity, in the following, the units of length and energy are taken to be the magnetic length $`l`$ and $`ϵ_c`$, respectively.

We consider two modulation periods, $`a=10`$ and $`a=15.7`$ (i. e. $`G_0=0.4`$), with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}=0.03`$. The period $`a=15.7`$ is chosen in order to compare our result with that in Ref. . We begin with the potential amplitude $`V_0=0`$, and find the self-consistent solution by iteration, starting from the fully polarized state. Then the value of $`V_0`$ is increased slightly and a new self-consistent solution is obtained by using the previous solution as the initial try. The modulation amplitude is then changed again and this self-consistent scheme is repeated. As shown in Fig. 1, by increasing and then decreasing $`V_0`$, we obtain hysteresis behavior of the spin polarization, $`\left(1/N_\phi \right)_{X,\alpha }\alpha c_{X,\alpha }^{}c_{X,\alpha }`$. This indicates that the system undergoes a first-order phase transition from a fully polarized homogeneous state to a partially polarized CDW state (see the discussions below), which corresponds to the sudden drop of the spin polarization in Fig. 1. Within the HFA, the critical value of $`V_0`$ at which the instability occurs can be estimated as follows. For the uniform fully polarized state to be the self-consistent solution at $`T=0`$, the maximal value of $`\epsilon _{X,+1}`$ for this state must be lower than the chemical potential $`\mu =ϵ_c/2`$. From Eq. (6), this gives

$$V_0\frac{1}{2}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}+ϵ_c\right)e^{(G_0l)^2/4}.$$
(13)
Thus the critical value of $`V_0`$ is given by the right-hand side of the above inequality. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}=0.03`$, the critical value is 0.568 (0.538) for $`a=10`$ ($`a=15.7`$), which agrees with the result in Fig. 1. Moreover, from Fig. 1 we find that the larger the period $`a`$ is, the smaller the hysteresis loop becomes. Thus our result implies that the hysteresis loop will no longer exist for a long enough period.

To investigate the electron population in the ground state, energy spectra $`\epsilon _{X,\alpha }`$ for two different $`V_0`$’s with $`a=10`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}=0.03`$ are shown in Fig. 2. For $`V_0`$ smaller than the critical value \[Fig. 2(a)\], the spin splitting is amplified by the exchange energy $`ϵ_c`$, and there is no overlap between the spin-split bands. Therefore, we have a spatially uniform ground state with fully-polarized spins even though the system is modulated. The energy spectrum keeps this structure until $`V_0`$ reaches the critical value, where the two Landau bands begin to touch each other at the energy of $`\mu =ϵ_c/2`$. When $`V_0`$ is larger than the critical value so that the bands overlap, the population of the spin-down band becomes nonzero, and the spin splitting is no longer a constant for different $`X`$’s \[Fig. 2(b)\]. Thus a partially polarized CDW state is formed, where both the charge and the spin densities are periodically distributed. If $`V_0`$ is now decreased, the energy spectrum will keep similar structure as that in Fig. 2(b). Only when $`V_0`$ is sufficiently small, such that the difference of the populations between the spin-up and spin-down states exceeds a critical amount, will the spin gap be abruptly amplified. Hence the energy spectrum again becomes similar to Fig. 2(a) and the fully polarized state is recovered. This history-dependent evolution of energy spectra is in fact implied in Fig. 1.

Instead of changing the modulation amplitude, the hysteresis loop can also appear by tilting the magnetic field. For a given large modulation amplitude (say, $`V_0=0.6`$), when the external magnetic field is tilted by an angle $`\varphi `$ but with a fixed normal component $`B_0`$, the total field $`B=B_0/\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ and therefore the Zeeman splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }_z=\mathrm{\Delta }_z^{(0)}/\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ are varied. By using the same numerical iterative procedure, we show in Fig. 3 the spin polarization for two temperatures ($`k_BT=0`$ and $`k_BT=0.01`$) with $`a=10`$ and $`V_0=0.6`$ to illustrate the effect of thermal fluctuation. We find that, just as conventional ferromagnets, the hysteresis loop shrinks as the temperature rises.

In conclusion, within the HFA and the LLL approximation, we investigate hysteresis properties for the $`\nu =1`$ QH systems by tuning the periodic modulation amplitude and the tilted magnetic field. These results indicate that the intra-Landau-level exchange interaction plays a crucial role in forming the hysteresis. This hysteresis can be tested experimentally for modulated QH systems. For typical GaAs-based samples with a carrier density about $`3\times 10^{11}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup>, the period and the amplitude of the modulation required to exhibit the proposed hysteresis are about 0.1 $`\mu `$m and 10 meV, which can be reached by using current technology. Although we focus our attention on the $`\nu =1`$ case only, it is expected that similar hysteresis phenomena may occur in some other fully spin-polarized incompressible QH states under a periodic modulation, as long as the intra-Landau-level exchange interaction plays an important role in forming the spin splitting. For example, according to the composite-fermion theory, the physics of the $`\nu =1/3`$ fractional QH state should be similar to that of the composite fermion filling factor $`\nu _{\mathrm{CF}}=1`$ QH state. Therefore, by translating the present discussion into the language of composite fermions, our results indicate that the $`\nu =1/3`$ fractional QH state can be another candidate for this modulation-induced hysteresis.

###### Acknowledgements.

M.C.C. was supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan under Contract No. NSC 89-2112-M-003-028. M.F.Y. acknowledges financial support by the National Science Council of Taiwan under Contract No. NSC 89-2112-M-029-006.


text: # 1 Source Parameters


text:
# Bose-Einstein condensation in complex networks

## Abstract

The evolution of many complex systems, including the world wide web, business and citation networks is encoded in the dynamic web describing the interactions between the system’s constituents. Despite their irreversible and non-equilibrium nature these networks follow Bose statistics and can undergo Bose-Einstein condensation. Addressing the dynamical properties of these non-equilibrium systems within the framework of equilibrium quantum gases predicts that the ’first-mover-advantage’, ’fit-get-rich’ and ’winner-takes-all’ phenomena observed in competitive systems are thermodynamically distinct phases of the underlying evolving networks.

Competition for links is a common feature of complex systems: on the world wide web sites compete for URLs to enhance their visibility , in business world companies compete for links to consumers  and in the scientific community scientists and publications compete for citations, a measure of their impact on the field . A common feature of these systems is that the nodes self-organize into a complex network, whose topology and evolution closely reflects the dynamics and outcome of this competition . The reversibility of the microscopic processes that govern the evolution of these systems, such as growth through the addition of new nodes, or the impossibility (citation network) and the high cost (business networks) to modify an established links give a distinctly far-from equilibrium character to the evolution of theses complex systems. Here we show that despite their non-equilibrium and irreversible nature, evolving networks can be mapped into an equilibrium Bose gas , nodes corresponding to energy levels and links representing particles. This mapping predicts that the common epithets used to characterize competitive systems, such as ’winner-takes-all’, ’fit-get-rich’, or ’first-mover-advantage’ emerge naturally as thermodynamically and topologically distinct phases of the underlying complex evolving network. In particular, we predict that such networks can undergo Bose-Einstein condensation, in which a single node captures a macroscopic fraction of links.

Fitness model– Consider a network that grows through the addition of new nodes such as the creation of new webpages, the emergence of new companies or the publication of new papers. At each time step we add a new node, connecting it with $`m`$ links to the nodes already present in the system. The rate at which nodes acquire links can vary widely as supported by measurements on the www , and by empirical evidence in citation  and economic networks. To incorporate the different ability of the nodes to compete for links we assign a fitness parameter to each node, $`\eta `$, chosen from a distribution $`\rho (\eta )`$, accounting for the differences in content of webpages, the quality of products and marketing of companies, or the importance of the findings reported in a publication. The probability $`\mathrm{\Pi }_i`$ that a new node connects one of its $`m`$ links to a node $`i`$ already present in the network depends on the number of links, $`k_i`$, and on the fitness $`\eta _i`$ of node $`i`$, such that

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_i=\frac{\eta _ik_i}{_{\mathrm{}}\eta _{\mathrm{}}k_{\mathrm{}}}.$$
(1)
Equation $`(\text{1})`$ incorporates in the simplest possible way the fact that new nodes link preferentially to nodes with higher $`k`$  (i.e. connecting to more visible websites; favoring more established companies; or citing more cited papers), and with larger fitness (i.e. websites with better content; companies with better products and sales practice; or papers with novel results). Thus fitness ($`\eta _i`$) and the number of links ($`k_i`$) jointly determine the attractiveness and evolution of a node.

Mapping to a Bose gas– Using a simple parameterization, we assign an energy $`ϵ_i`$ to each node, determined by its fitness $`\eta _i`$ through the relation

$$ϵ_i=\frac{1}{\beta }\mathrm{log}\eta _i,$$
(2)
where $`\beta `$ is a parameter playing the role of inverse temperature, $`\beta =1/T`$, whose relevance to real networks will be discussed later. A link between two nodes $`i`$ and $`j`$ with energy $`ϵ_i`$ and $`ϵ_j`$ (e.g. fitnesses $`\eta _i`$ and $`\eta _j`$) corresponds to two non-interacting particles on the energy levels $`ϵ_i`$ and $`ϵ_j`$ (Fig. 1). Adding a new node to the network corresponds to adding a new energy level $`ϵ_i`$ and $`2m`$ particles to the system. Of these $`2m`$ particles $`m`$ are deposited on the level $`ϵ_i`$ (corresponding to the $`m`$ outgoing link node $`i`$ has), while the other $`m`$ particles are distributed between the other energy levels (representing the links pointing to $`m`$ nodes present in the system), the probability that a particle lands on level $`i`$ being given by $`(\text{1})`$. Deposited particles are inert, i.e. they are not allowed to jump to other energy levels.

Each node (energy level) added to the system at time $`t_i`$ with energy $`ϵ_i`$ is characterized by the occupation number $`k_i(t,ϵ_i,t_i)`$, denoting the number of links (particles) the node (energy level) has at time $`t`$. The rate at which level $`ϵ_i`$ acquires new particles is

$$\frac{k_i(ϵ_i,t,t_i)}{t}=m\frac{e^{\beta ϵ}k_i(ϵ_i,t,t_i)}{Z_t},$$
(3)
where $`Z_t`$ is the partition function, defined as

$$Z_t=\underset{j=1}{\overset{t}{}}e^{\beta ϵ_j}k_j(ϵ_j,t,t_j).$$
(4)
We assume that each node increases its connectivity following a power-law (we demonstrate the self-consistency of this assumption later)

$$k_i(ϵ_i,t,t_i)=m\left(\frac{t}{t_i}\right)^{f(ϵ_i)},$$
(5)
where $`f(ϵ)`$ is the energy dependent dynamic exponent. Since $`\eta `$ is chosen randomly from the distribution $`\rho (\eta )`$, the energy levels are chosen from the distribution $`g(ϵ)=\beta \rho (e^{\beta ϵ})e^{\beta ϵ}`$. We can now determine $`Z_t`$ by averaging over $`g(ϵ)`$, i.e.

$`<Z_t>`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑ϵg(ϵ)_1^t𝑑t_0e^{\beta ϵ}k(ϵ,t,t_0)}`$ (6)
$`=`$ $`mz^1t(1+O(t^\alpha )),`$ (7)
where

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{z}}={\displaystyle 𝑑ϵg(ϵ)\frac{e^{\beta ϵ}}{1f(ϵ)}}`$ (8)
is the inverse fugacity. Since $`z`$ is positive for any $`\beta 0`$ we introduce the chemical potential, $`\mu `$, as $`z=e^{\beta \mu }`$, which allow us to write (7) and (8) as

$$e^{\beta \mu }=\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{<Z_t>}{t}.$$
(9)
Using (9) we can solve the continuum equation (3) finding in a self-consistent way solutions of form $`(\text{5})`$, where the dynamic exponent is

$$f(ϵ)=e^{\beta (ϵ\mu )}.$$
(10)
Combining (8) and (10), we find that the chemical potential is the solution of the equation

$$I(\beta ,\mu )=𝑑ϵg(ϵ)\frac{1}{e^{\beta (ϵ\mu )}1}=1.$$
(11)
The system defined above has a number of properties that make it an unlikely candidate for an equilibrium Bose gas . First, the inertness of the particles is a non-equilibrium feature, in contrast with the ability of particles in a quantum gas to jump between energy levels, leading to a temperature driven equilibration. Second, both the number of eligible energy levels (nodes) and particles populating them (links) increase linearly in time, in contrast with the fixed system size employed in quantum systems. Despite these apparent conflicts, Eq. $`(\text{11})`$ indicates that in the thermodynamic limit ($`t\mathrm{}`$) the fitness model maps into a Bose gas. Indeed, since in an ideal gas of volume $`v=1`$ we have

$$𝑑ϵg(ϵ)n(ϵ)=1,$$
(12)
where $`n(ϵ)`$ is the occupation number of a level with energy $`ϵ`$ Equation $`(\text{11})`$ indicates that for the inert gas inspired by the fitness model the occupation number follows the familiar Bose statistics

$$n(ϵ)=\frac{1}{e^{\beta (ϵ\mu )}1},$$
(13)
i.e. the evolving network maps into a Bose gas. Thus the irreversebility and the inertness of the network are resolved by the stationarity of the asymptotic distribution, allowing the occupation number to follow Bose statistics in the thermodynamic limit $`t\mathrm{}`$.

Bose-Einstein condensation– The solutions $`(\text{5})`$, $`(\text{7})`$ and $`(\text{10})`$ exist only when there is a $`\mu `$ that satisfies Eq. $`(\text{11})`$. However, $`I(\beta ,\mu )`$ defined in $`(\text{11})`$ takes its maximum at $`\mu =0`$, thus when $`I(\beta ,0)<1`$ for a given $`\beta `$ and $`g(ϵ)`$, Eq. $`(\text{11})`$ has no solution. The absence of a solution is a well-known signature of Bose-Einstein condensation , indicating that a finite $`n_0(\beta )`$ fraction of particles condensate on the lowest energy level. Indeed, due to mass conservation at time $`t`$ we have $`t`$ energy levels populated by $`2mt`$ particles, i.e.

$$2mt=\underset{t_0=1}{\overset{t}{}}k(ϵ_{t_0},t,t_0)=mt+mtI(\beta ,\mu ).$$
(14)
When $`I(\beta ,0)<1`$, Eq. $`(\text{14})`$ has to be replaced with

$$2mt=mt+mtI(\beta ,\mu )+n_0(\beta ),$$
(15)
where $`n_0(\beta )`$ is given by

$$\frac{n_0(\beta )}{mt}=1I(\beta ,0).$$
(16)
The occupancy of the lowest energy level corresponds to the number of links the node with the largest fitness has. Thus the emergence of a nonzero $`n_0(\beta )`$, a signature of Bose-Einstein condensation in quantum gases, represents a ’winner-takes-all’ phenomena for networks, the fittest node acquiring a finite fraction of the links, independent of the size of the network.

The mapping to a Bose gas and the possibility of Bose-Einstein condensation in random networks predicts the existence of three distinct phases characterizing the dynamical properties of evolving networks: (a) a scale-free phase, (b) a fit-get-rich phase and (c) a Bose-Einstein condensate. Next we discuss each of these possible phase separately.

(a) Scale-free phase– When all nodes have the same fitness, i.e. $`\rho (\eta )=\delta (\eta 1)`$, ($`g(ϵ)=\delta (ϵ)`$), the model reduces to the scale-free model , introduced to account for the power-law connectivity distribution observed in diverse systems, such as the www , actor network , Internet  or citation networks . The model describes a ’first-mover-wins’ behavior, in which the oldest nodes acquire most links. Indeed, $`(\text{10})`$ predicts that $`f(ϵ)=1/2`$, i.e. according to $`(\text{5})`$ all nodes increase their connectivity as $`t^{1/2}`$, the older nodes with smaller $`t_i`$ having larger $`k_i`$. However, the oldest and ’richest’ node is not an absolute winner, since its share of links, $`k_{max}(t)/(mt)`$, decays to zero as $`t^{1/2}`$ in the thermodynamic limit. Thus a continuous hierarchy of large nodes coexist, such that the connectivity distribution $`P(k)`$, giving the probability to have a node with $`k`$ links, follows a power law $`P(k)k^3`$ . Rewiring, aging, and other local processes can modify the scaling exponents or introduce exponential cutoffs in $`P(k)`$  while leaving the thermodynamic character of the phase unchanged.

(b) Fit-get-rich (FGR) phase– This phase emerges in systems for which nodes have different fitnesses and Eq. $`(\text{11})`$ has a solution (i.e. $`I(\beta ,\mu )=1`$). Equation $`(\text{5})`$ indicates that each node increases its connectivity in time, but the dynamic exponent depends on the fitness, being larger for nodes with higher fitness. This allows fitter nodes to join the system at a later time and surpass the less fit but older nodes by acquiring links at higher rate . Consequently, this phase predicts a ’fit-get-rich’ phenomena, in which, with time, the fitter prevails. But, while there is a clear winner, similar to the scale-free phase the fittest node’s share of all links decreases to zero in the thermodynamic limit. Indeed, since $`f(ϵ)<1`$, the relative connectivity of the fittest node decrease as $`k(ϵ_{min},t)/(mt)t^{f(ϵ_{min})1}`$. This competition again leads to the emergence of a hierarchy of a few large ’hubs’ accompanied by many less connected nodes, $`P(k)`$ following a power-law $`P(k)k^\gamma `$, where $`\gamma `$ can be calculated analytically if $`\rho (\eta )`$ is known.

(c) Bose-Einstein (BE) condensate – Bose-Einstein condensation appears when $`(\text{11})`$ has no solution, at which point $`(\text{5})`$, $`(\text{10})`$, $`(\text{11})`$ break down. In the competition for links the node with the largest fitness emerges as a clear winner, a finite fraction of particles $`(n_0(\beta ))`$ landing on this energy level. Thus BE condensation predicts a real ’winner-takes-all’ phenomena, in which the fittest node is not only the largest, but despite the continuous emergence of new nodes that compete for links, it always acquires a finite fraction of links (Eq. $`(\text{16})`$).

To demonstrate the existence of a phase transition from the FGR phase to a BE condensate in a network, we consider a formally simple case, assuming that the energy (fitness) distribution follows

$$g(ϵ)=Cϵ^\theta ,$$
(17)
where $`\theta `$ is a free parameter and the energies are chosen from $`ϵ(0,ϵ_{max})`$, normalization giving $`C=(\theta +1)/ϵ_{max}^{\theta +1}`$. For this class of distributions the condition for a Bose condensation is

$$\frac{\theta +1}{(\beta ϵ_{max})^{\theta +1}}_{\beta ϵ_{min}(t)}^{\beta ϵ_{max}}𝑑x\frac{x^\theta }{e^x1}<1,$$
(18)
where $`ϵ_{min}(t)`$ corresponds to the lowest energy (fittest) node present in the system at time $`t`$. Extending the limits of integration to zero and to infinity, we find the lower bound for the critical temperature $`T_{BE}=1/\beta _{BE}`$

$$T_{BE}>ϵ_{max}\left(\zeta (\theta +1)\mathrm{\Gamma }(\theta +2)\right)^{1/(\theta +1)}.$$
(19)
To demonstrate the emergence of Bose-Einstein condensation near the predicted $`T_{BE}`$, we simulated numerically the discrete network model described above, using the energy distribution $`(\text{17})`$. The chemical potential, $`\mu `$, measured numerically indicates a sharp transition from a positive to a negative value (Fig. 2a), corresponding to the predicted phase transition between the BE and the FGR phases. The difference between the network dynamics in the two phases is illustrated in Fig.2b, where we plot the relative occupation number of the most connected node for different temperatures. We find that the ratio $`k_{max}(t)/mt`$ is independent on time in the BE phase, indicating that the largest node maintains a finite fraction of the total number of links even as the network continues to expand, a signature of BE condensation. In contrast, for $`T>T_{BE}`$, the most connected node gradually looses its share of links, $`k_{max}(t)/mt`$ decreasing continuously with time. The numerically determined phase diagram (Fig. 2b) confirms that the analytical prediction $`(\text{19})`$ offers a lower bound for $`T_{BE}`$. To predict the precise value of $`T_{BE}`$ one needs to incorporate the interplay between the convergence of $`ϵ_{min}(t)`$ to zero and the thermodynamics of BE condensation.

Since real networks have a fixed ($`T`$ independent) $`\rho (\eta )`$ fitness distribution, whether they are in the BE or FGR phase is independent of $`T`$. Indeed, for $`\rho (\eta )(1\eta )^\lambda `$ the network undergoes a BE condensation for $`\lambda >\lambda _{BE}=1`$, thus $`T`$, introduced during the calculations, plays the role of a dummy variable that at the end vanishes from all topologically relevant quantities. The existence of $`T_{BE}`$ in the numerically studied model (Fig. 2) is rooted in our technically simpler choice of defining $`g(ϵ)`$ to be independent of $`T`$, providing a richer phase space to demonstrate the existence of a phase transition in a discrete network model. However, as the inset in Fig. 2b shows, by changing $`\theta `$ the phase transition emerges for fixed $`T`$ as well.

Do the www, business or citation networks represent a Bose-Einstein condensate, or are described by the FGR phase without a dominating winner? It is well known that in certain markets some companies did gain and maintain an unusually high market share. A much publicized case is the continued dominance of Microsoft in the rapidly expanding operating systems market, indicating that business networks do develop ’winner-takes-all’ phenomena, similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate. The situation of the www is more complex: while indeed some webpages did capture an unusually high number of links, it is less clear weather they maintain a finite fraction of all links as the www grows (as expected if the www is a BE condensate), or will loose market share, leading to the coexistence of a continuous hierarchy of large websites, a signature of the FGR phase. While the power-law connectivity distribution holding over six order of magnitude support the FGR scale-free phase , the most recent study involving more that 200 million nodes did identify a run-away node of approximately $`10^7`$ links , an apparently clear and dominating winner. Since $`\rho (\eta )`$ could be explicitly determined from network data, the phase to which various networks belong to could be decided in the future. Uncovering the prevailing behavior in these and other complex evolving networks (e.g. social networks , ecological and transportation webs , etc.) is a formidable task that will require careful quantitative studies on real networks. The identification of the possible phases offered in this paper might provide the appropriate analytical framework for such studies.