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# Remarks on the extraction of freeze-out parameters

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Collisions of elementary particles, hadrons, and nuclei at ultrarelativistic energies produce a multitude of particles (“multiparticle production”). Final-state interactions between the produced particles determine the dynamical evolution of the system. In $`e^+e^{}`$ and hadron-hadron collisions only few particles are produced, and it is unlikely that many final-state interactions occur. The particles decouple (“freeze out”) from the system soon after production.

On the other hand, in $`AA`$ collisions the density of produced particles is sufficiently large over an extended region in space-time, such that the mean free path of produced particles becomes small and many final-state interactions occur. These interactions drive the system towards local thermodynamic, i.e., thermal, mechanical, and chemical equilibrium. In local thermodynamic equilibrium, the evolution of the system is governed by the equations of ideal fluid dynamics . If the system is only thermally and mechanically, i.e., kinetically, but not chemically equilibrated, these equations have to be supplemented by rate equations which determine the chemical composition of the system . In both cases, pressure gradients between dense, equilibrated matter and the vacuum drive collective expansion, which cools and dilutes the system. Freeze-out of particles occurs when microscopic interaction rates become smaller than the macroscopic expansion rate of the system.

By definition, after freeze-out the momenta of the produced particles do not change. The experimentally measured spectra of hadronic particles thus reflect the state of the system at freeze-out. The question is whether the spectra can also tell us about the state of the system prior to freeze-out? For instance, can they tell us whether the system was in thermodynamic, or at least kinetic equilibrium? Do they provide information as to whether a quark-gluon plasma (QGP), i.e., an equilibrated state of quarks and gluons, was created at some stage during the evolution of the system?

These questions are addressed in the following. In section 2, I discuss whether the exponential nature of single-inclusive, invariant particle spectra is sufficient to conclude that the system was in thermal equilibrium. In section 3, it is argued that in $`AA`$ collisions collective expansion is likely to occur prior to kinetic freeze-out. In section 4, I discuss how final-state particle ratios yield information about the thermodynamic conditions at chemical freeze-out. Conclusions are given in section 5.

## 2 EXPONENTIAL PARTICLE SPECTRA

In multiparticle production processes, single-inclusive, invariant particle spectra are typically exponential in the transverse momentum, $`p_T`$. The reason for the exponential behavior is the phase space of the final multiparticle state . Consider for instance a process where two particles (or nuclei) collide and produce $`N`$ particles in the final state. Label the 4-momenta of the two incoming particles as $`p_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }`$ and $`p_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }`$, and the 4-momenta of the $`N`$ outgoing particles as $`p_1^\mu ,p_2^\mu ,\mathrm{},p_N^\mu `$. All 4-momenta are on-shell, $`p_i^\mu (E_i,𝐩_i)`$, $`E_i\sqrt{𝐩_i^2+m_i^2}`$. The total 4-momentum is conserved, $`P^\mu p_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }+p_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }_{i=1}^Np_i^\mu `$. Up to constants depending on $`p_{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }`$ and $`p_{2}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }`$, the total cross section for this process is

$$\sigma \underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_i}{E_i}\delta ^{(4)}\left(P^\mu \underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}p_i^\mu \right)|(P,p_1,\mathrm{},p_N)|^2,$$
(1)
where the integration is over the $`3N`$ dimensional momentum space of particles in the final state, the delta function represents energy conservation, and $`||^2`$ is the modulus squared of the matrix element for the $`2N`$ process. The single-inclusive, invariant cross section for the production of a certain particle species – without loss of generality assumed to have 4-momentum $`p_1^\mu `$ – is then (again, up to constants)

$$E_1\frac{\mathrm{d}\sigma }{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_1}\underset{i=2}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_i}{E_i}\delta ^{(4)}\left(P^\mu p_1^\mu \underset{i=2}{\overset{N}{}}p_i^\mu \right)|(P,p_1,\mathrm{},p_N)|^2.$$
(2)
Let us introduce the “average” matrix element,

$`|(P,p_1,\mathrm{},p_N)|^2_{p_2,\mathrm{},p_N}`$ (3)
$``$ $`\left[\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)\right]^1{\displaystyle \underset{i=2}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_i}{E_i}\delta ^{(4)}\left(P^\mu p_1^\mu \underset{i=2}{\overset{N}{}}p_i^\mu \right)|(P,p_1,\mathrm{},p_N)|^2},`$
where the average is over the $`3(N1)`$ dimensional momentum space of the unobserved $`N1`$ particles in the single-inclusive production of the particle with momentum $`p_1`$, and

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)\underset{i=2}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_i}{E_i}\delta ^{(4)}\left(P^\mu p_1^\mu \underset{i=2}{\overset{N}{}}p_i^\mu \right)$$
(4)
is the corresponding Lorentz-invariant momentum-space volume. The momentum-space volume has dimension MeV2(N-3). Then, the single-inclusive cross section can be written as

$$E_1\frac{\mathrm{d}\sigma }{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_1}\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)|(P,p_1,\mathrm{},p_N)|^2_{p_2,\mathrm{},p_N}.$$
(5)
Dynamical information about the $`2N`$ process is contained in the second term only. The first factor, the momentum-space volume, is in some sense trivial.

To compute the momentum-space volume, for the sake of simplicity (and because it allows us to obtain a purely analytic result) let us assume that all $`N`$ particles in the final state are massless. In this case, no other scale with the dimension of energy enters $`\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)`$, and for dimensional reasons,

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)\left[(Pp_1)^2\right]^{N3}.$$
(6)
Because $`\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)`$ is Lorentz-invariant, one may evaluate the right-hand side in the C.M. frame of the incoming particles, where $`P^\mu (E,\mathrm{𝟎})`$, with the result

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)E^{2(N3)}\left(1\frac{E_1}{E/2N}\frac{N3}{N}\frac{1}{N3}\right)^{N3}.$$
(7)
In the limit $`N1`$, the term in parentheses is a representation for the exponential function, $`lim_n\mathrm{}(1+x/n)^ne^x`$, such that

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(Pp_1)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{E_1}{E/2N}\right),N1.$$
(8)
Now insert this into Eq. (5), and divide by the total cross section to obtain the invariant momentum spectrum. Then, for a given rapidity $`y_1`$, for instance $`y_1=0`$, one obtains

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}y_1\mathrm{d}^2𝐩_{T,1}}|_{y_1=0}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{p_{T,1}}{E/2N}\right).$$
(9)
Provided that the average matrix element squared $`||^2`$ does not contain a strong (exponential) dependence on $`p_{T,1}`$, the invariant momentum spectrum decreases exponentially with $`p_{T,1}`$, with an inverse slope parameter $`T_{\mathrm{slope}}=E/2N`$, which proves our original assertion. The exponential behavior of the transverse momentum spectra is due to phase space . No assumption about thermal equilibration is necessary to obtain this result.

Nevertheless, single-inclusive particle spectra are also exponential in thermal equilibrium, i.e., for a system at temperature $`T`$. In this case, the invariant transverse momentum spectrum is given by the Cooper-Frye formula

$$E_1\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_1}=_\mathrm{\Sigma }d\mathrm{\Sigma }p_1f(\frac{p_1u}{T},\lambda _1),$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is the 3-dimensional space-time hypersurface on which the transverse momentum spectrum is computed, $`\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Sigma }^\mu `$ is the normal vector on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, and $`f(x,\lambda )`$ is the thermal distribution function. For Boltzmann particles, $`f(x,\lambda )\lambda \mathrm{exp}(x)`$; $`\lambda \mathrm{exp}(\mu /T)`$ is the fugacity of the particle, and $`\mu `$ the chemical potential. The 4-vector $`u^\mu `$ in Eq. (10) is the 4-velocity of the system, i.e., the average 4-velocity of particle flow. In the rest frame of the system, $`u^\mu (1,\mathrm{𝟎})`$.

For the sake of simplicity, compute the spectrum at constant time, where $`\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Sigma }^\mu =(\mathrm{d}^3𝐱,\mathrm{𝟎})`$, such that

$$E_1\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_1}V\lambda _1E_1\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{E_1}{T}\right).$$
(11)
For ultrarelativistic particles, the energy per particle is related to the temperature via $`E/N=3T`$, such that at midrapidity

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}y_1\mathrm{d}^2𝐩_{T,1}}|_{y_1=0}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{p_{T,1}}{E/3N}\right).$$
(12)
This is rather similar to Eq. (9), except that the (inverse) slope of the $`p_T`$-spectrum is equal to the true thermodynamic temperature $`T=E/3N`$, while previously, $`T_{\mathrm{slope}}=E/2N`$ is a factor 3/2 larger.

The origin of this discrepancy is that invariant momentum space is not identical to thermodynamic momentum space. For a single particle, the former is $`\mathrm{d}^3𝐩/E`$, while the latter is $`\mathrm{d}^3𝐩`$. The missing factor of $`1/E`$ is responsible for the difference in the exponential slope.

From an experimental point of view, without a fully exclusive measurement one cannot precisely tell the number of particles in the final state, such that the energy per particle $`E/N`$ is unknown. The important point is that then there is no possibility to distinguish between the two cases Eqs. (9) and (12): usually, the strategy is to perform an exponential fit to transverse momentum spectra with a slope parameter $`T_{\mathrm{slope}}`$, but in this way one cannot test whether the relationship between $`E/N`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{slope}}`$ is the same as in thermal equilibrium. Although the spectra are exponential, like for a thermal system, the system need not be in thermal equilibrium. Although the slope parameter is a quantity with the same dimension as temperature, temperature is not defined, if the system is not in thermal equilibrium. One may even go one step further: although single-inclusive spectra for different particle species may have the same slope parameter, this does not mean that the system is in thermal equilibrium. It is simply due to the fact that the slope is proportional to the energy per particle $`E/N`$, which is a constant for all $`N`$ particles in the final state of a $`2N`$ process at a given C.M. energy $`E`$.

## 3 KINETIC FREEZE-OUT

Slope parameters for the most abundant particle species show different behavior as a function of particle mass in $`AA`$ as compared to $`pp`$ collisions . In $`AA`$ collisions, they increase linearly with the particle mass,

$$T_{\mathrm{slope},AA}a+bm,$$
(13)
while in $`pp`$ collisions, they are independent of the particle mass,

$$T_{\mathrm{slope},pp}a.$$
(14)
For CERN-SPS energies, $`a140`$ MeV for both $`AA`$ and $`pp`$ collisions, while $`b`$ depends on the system size; it increases with the mass number $`A`$ of the nuclei.

Although there might be other explanations for this behavior, the most natural interpretation is in terms of collective motion. The parameter $`a`$ is the slope parameter determined by multiparticle momentum space. Since the energy per particle $`E/N`$ is an intensive quantity, in both cases $`aE/N`$ is independent of the system size. Once the particles are created, however, the environment matters, i.e., whether there are many final-state interactions, like in $`AA`$ collisions, or whether the particles more or less freely stream towards the detector, like in $`e^+e^{}`$ and $`pp`$ collisions. As explained in the introduction, in the first case local kinetic equilibration of the system leads to pressure gradients, which in turn generate collective motion. The constant $`b`$ parametrizes this collective motion; it is proportional to the (average) collective flow velocity of the expanding system . The larger the system, the more final-state interactions occur, and the larger is the collective flow velocity. Consequently, $`b`$ increases with the system size.

A word of caution is in order. The fact that there is collective motion in $`AA`$ collisions does not necessarily mean that local kinetic equilibrium is established and, consequently, ideal fluid dynamics applies to determine the evolution of the system. Pressure gradients which drive collective motion occur also in systems away from equilibrium. Nevertheless, the fact that there is collective motion indicates that there are final-state interactions, which will eventually drive the system towards kinetic equilibrium, unless the macroscopic expansion rate considerably exceeds the microscopic scattering rate. Therefore, the ideal-fluid approximation for the dynamical evolution of the system might not be too bad, especially for collisions of large nuclei at ultrarelativistic energies.

Freeze-out of particles occurs when microscopic interaction rates become small as compared to the macroscopic collective expansion rate. In fluid dynamical models, one commonly assumes kinetic freeze-out to happen instantaneously along space-time hypersurfaces of constant density or temperature. This is certainly an idealization: microscopically, a particle has a certain probability to decouple anywhere and anytime during the evolution of the system .

The invariant momentum spectra of frozen-out particles are computed according to Eq. (10), with the freeze-out hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$. There are a number of conceptual problems with this formula, a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this talk, see Refs.  for more details. In practice, however, the Cooper-Frye formula (10) is sufficient to compute the particle spectra to reasonable accuracy.

Let us assume that kinetic freeze-out happens across a surface of constant temperature $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$. Applying the mean-value theorem to Eq. (10), the spectrum of frozen-out particles at midrapidity $`y=0`$ is

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}N}{\mathrm{d}y\mathrm{d}^2𝐩_T}|_{y=0}\mathrm{exp}\left(\gamma \frac{m_T𝐩_T𝐯_T}{T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}}\right),$$
(15)
where $`𝐯_T`$ and $`\gamma `$ are suitably defined average values for the transverse fluid 3-velocity and the Lorentz gamma factor along the freeze-out hypersurface. At $`y=0`$, it is reasonable to neglect longitudinal collective motion, such that $`\gamma (1𝐯_{𝐓}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})^{1/2}`$ is determined by $`𝐯_T`$. Assuming azimuthal symmetry, the spectrum (15) then depends only on two parameters, the kinetic freeze-out temperature $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$ and the modulus of the average transverse collective flow velocity $`v_T`$.

Table 1 shows values for $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$ and $`v_T`$ extracted by several authors from experimental spectra for $`PbPb`$ collisions at CERN-SPS energies, $`E_{\mathrm{Lab}}=158A`$GeV. From Eq. (15) it is obvious that $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$ and $`v_T`$ are correlated: fits of similar quality can be obtained by trading off a lower value for $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$ against a higher value for $`v_T`$ and vice versa. This can also be seen in the values quoted in Table 1. This ambiguity can be removed by two-particle correlations, where $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$ and $`v_T`$ are correlated in the opposite way .

## 4 CHEMICAL FREEZE-OUT

In principle, there is another, independent way to determine thermodynamic quantities at freeze-out. First note that, in order to compute the transverse momentum spectrum (15) of particle species $`i`$, one not only needs to know the temperature and the transverse flow velocity along the freeze-out hypersurface, which determine the shape of the spectrum as a function of $`p_T`$, but also the fugacity $`\lambda _{i,\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}\mathrm{exp}(\mu _{i,\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}/T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.})`$, which determines the absolute normalization of the spectrum, cf. Eq. (10). In general, $`\mu _{i,\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$ varies along the freeze-out hypersurface, but in order to proceed, let us make the assumption (the first of three) that it is constant, like the temperature $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$. In the following, we shall drop the subscript “f.o.”, but remember that all thermodynamic quantities, as well as the flow 4-velocity $`u^\mu `$, are taken on the freeze-out hypersurface.

The second assumption we shall make is that all particle species freeze out across the same freeze-out hypersurface. This is certainly an idealization, as the mean free paths of different particle species are different . Under these two assumptions, the ratio of the total particle numbers of particle species $`i`$ and $`j`$ is

$$\frac{N_i}{N_j}\frac{(\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_i/E_i)_\mathrm{\Sigma }d\mathrm{\Sigma }p_if(p_iu/T,\lambda _i)}{(\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_j/E_j)_\mathrm{\Sigma }d\mathrm{\Sigma }p_jf(p_ju/T,\lambda _j)}\frac{_\mathrm{\Sigma }d\mathrm{\Sigma }𝒩_i}{_\mathrm{\Sigma }d\mathrm{\Sigma }𝒩_j},$$
(16)
where

$$𝒩_i^\mu \frac{\mathrm{d}^3𝐩_i}{E_i}p_i^\mu f(\frac{p_iu}{T},\lambda _i)$$
(17)
is the 4-current of particle species $`i`$. In kinetic equilibrium the 4-current assumes the simple form $`𝒩_i^\mu n_iu^\mu `$, where $`n_i=n_i(T,\mu _i)`$ is the density of particles of species $`i`$ in the local rest frame. The flow 4-velocity $`u^\mu `$ is common to all particle species because the system is assumed to be kinetically equilibrated immediately prior to freeze-out. Equation (16) becomes

$$\frac{N_i}{N_j}\frac{n_i(T,\mu _i)}{n_j(T,\mu _j)},$$
(18)
because the factor $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }d\mathrm{\Sigma }u`$ cancels between numerator and denominator. The result (18) is remarkable in the sense that, under the present assumptions, the ratio of total particle yields is independent of the detailed dynamical evolution of the system prior to freeze-out. Moreover, this ratio is the same as for a system in global kinetic equilibrium at temperature $`T`$ with chemical potentials $`\mu _1,\mu _2,\mathrm{}`$.

Let us now make the third assumption, namely that the system is not only in kinetic, i.e., thermal and mechanical equilibrium, but also in chemical equilibrium. This assumption is fulfilled if inelastic (and not only elastic) collision rates are sufficiently large. In this case, the chemical potential of particle species $`i`$ is given by

$$\mu _i=b_i\mu _B+s_i\mu _S+e_i\mu _e+\mathrm{},$$
(19)
where $`\mu _B,\mu _S,`$ and $`\mu _e`$ are baryon, strangeness, and electric charge chemical potentials, respectively, and $`b_i,s_i,e_i`$ are baryon, strangeness, and electric charges of particle species $`i`$. The ellipsis in Eq. (19) stands for possible other conserved charges with associated chemical potentials.

Global baryon, strangeness, and charge conservation impose additional conditions which allow to eliminate all charge chemical potentials except for one, e.g. $`\mu _B`$. Then, all particle ratios are a function of two parameters only, $`T`$ and $`\mu _B`$. Taking into account the known (vacuum) values for the hadronic masses $`m_i`$ and the (vacuum) partial decay widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ijk\mathrm{}}`$, one can then extract $`T`$ and $`\mu _B`$ from ($`4\pi `$ extrapolated) data via a $`\chi ^2`$ analysis.

Different authors use slightly different strategies to perform such $`\chi ^2`$ fits. Some introduce a hard-core repulsion between hadrons , some relax the assumption of chemical equilibration of strangeness , some conserve strangeness exactly in the canonical ensemble . In essence, all methods introduce at least one additional parameter, which of course improves the quality of the fit, but does not fundamentally change the underlying assumptions. All fits are roughly of the same quality, which makes it hard to draw definite conclusions regarding the necessity of the individual approach.

Results of $`\chi ^2`$ analyses for $`e^+e^{}`$, $`pp`$, as well as $`AA`$ collisions with equal-mass nuclei at various collision energies are compiled in Fig. 1 (see also  for a similar compilation). Two features are remarkable: first, as noted by Cleymans and Redlich , all $`(T,\mu _B)`$ combinations fall on a line of constant energy per particle, $`E/N1`$ GeV. The value 1 GeV can be intuitively understood as setting the energy scale below which inelastic collisions cease and therefore chemical equilibration becomes impossible.

The second feature is that, at CERN-SPS energies and above, the freeze-out temperature is $`T160`$ MeV, which is somewhat higher than the kinetic freeze-out temperature discussed in the last section. This can be understood rather naturally noting that the extraction of a freeze-out temperature from particle ratios assumed chemical equilibrium, while the extraction from single-inclusive spectra only assumed kinetic equilibrium. Thus, particle ratios determine the temperature at chemical freeze-out, and not at kinetic freeze-out. Since chemical equilibrium requires frequent inelastic collisions, while kinetic equilibrium only requires frequent elastic collisions, chemical freeze-out occurs earlier, i.e., at larger temperatures, than kinetic freeze-out. In order to distinguish quantities at chemical from those at kinetic freeze-out, in the following the former will be denoted with a subscript “ch.”, and the latter with the subscript “f.o.”, as above.

Given a set of hadronic masses $`m_i`$ and decay widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ijk\mathrm{}}`$, the extracted values of $`(T,\mu _B)_{\mathrm{ch}.}`$ displayed in Fig. 1 are relatively insensitive to errors in the experimental determination of total particle numbers. This can be seen in the non-relativistic approximation,

$$n_i(T,\mu _i)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mu _im_i}{T}\right),$$
(20)
such that Eq. (18) becomes

$$\frac{N_i}{N_j}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mu _{i,\mathrm{ch}.}\mu _{j,\mathrm{ch}.}}{T_{\mathrm{ch}.}}\frac{m_im_j}{T_{\mathrm{ch}.}}\right).$$
(21)
Errors in the determination of $`N_i`$ and $`N_j`$ influence the fitted values for $`T_{\mathrm{ch}.}`$ and $`\mu _{B,\mathrm{ch}.}`$ only logarithmically.

On the other hand, as can be also seen from Eq. (21), the values for the hadronic masses $`m_i`$ entering the fit influence $`T_{\mathrm{ch}.}`$ and $`\mu _{B,\mathrm{ch}.}`$ linearly. Most fits assume that the hadronic masses and decay widths at chemical freeze-out are the same as in vacuum. At such large temperatures and chemical potentials, however, a change of mass and decay width due to in-medium interactions cannot be excluded , $`m_im_i^{},\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ijk}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ijk}^{}`$. These interactions are elastic collisions which still occur at chemical freeze-out, since the system remains kinetically equilibrated. In , such an analysis was performed for $`PbPb`$ collisions at CERN-SPS energies in the framework of a chiral model. In this model, masses in general decrease at large density and temperature, such that the value for the chemical freeze-out temperature is smaller than for a fit with vacuum masses, $`T_{\mathrm{ch}.}144`$ MeV. Interestingly, in the calculation of  it turns out to be approximately the same as the kinetic freeze-out temperature, although at kinetic freeze-out, particles have to attain their vacuum masses, due to the absence of any kind of interaction. Clearly, more work has to be done to understand and possibly refine the freeze-out picture, for instance, also to include in-medium modifications of the decay widths.

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

In this talk, I first discussed single-inclusive, invariant particle spectra in a $`2N`$ process. I explicitly demonstrated that the momentum space volume of the final-state particles gives rise to the exponential nature of these spectra. For the special case of massless particles, I showed that the slope of the spectra differs from the one for a thermally equilibrated system of particles, i.e., that exponential particle spectra alone are not indicative for the existence of thermal equilibrium.

I then argued that the slope characteristics for different particle species suggest collective motion in $`AA`$ collisions. Single-inclusive, invariant particle spectra then yield information about the average temperature $`T_{\mathrm{f}.\mathrm{o}.}`$ and average collective flow velocity $`v_T`$ at kinetic freeze-out.

Finally, I discussed the extraction of the chemical freeze-out parameters $`T_{\mathrm{ch}.}`$ and $`\mu _{B,\mathrm{ch}.}`$ from particle ratios. This analysis is based upon rather restrictive assumptions, and depends sensitively on the hadronic masses and decay widths.

Nevertheless, it is astonishing that a fit with essentially two parameters can reproduce a multitude of data with reasonably good quality. There could be several explanations. First, the state preceding chemical freeze-out is indeed in thermodynamic equilibrium. The degrees of freedom could be hadrons, but since $`T_{\mathrm{ch}.}`$ is close to the temperature of the confinement-deconfinement transition, it is, however, also conceivable that at some earlier stage in the evolution of the system a thermodynamically equilibrated QGP has existed . From thermodynamic arguments alone, however, one can never distinguish between these two possibilities: by definition, a state in thermodynamic equilibrium has no knowledge about its past.

The discussion of section 2 allows for a second explanation. Multiparticle production saturates the available phase space, such that final-state hadrons have exponential spectra with a slope that can be interpreted as a temperature, and an absolute normalization that can be interpreted as a fugacity. Although the discussion of section 2 has shown that the final state need not be thermodynamically equilibrated to have these properties, it then at least looks like hadrons are “born into thermodynamic equilibrium” . In principle, the chemical composition could then immediately freeze out. In this case, no additional assumptions about an equilibrated state preceding chemical freeze-out are necessary. As seen in section 3, there certainly are elastic interactions which cause collective motion, but this could in principle happen after chemical freeze-out.

To distinguish between the first and second scenario, a more thorough understanding of multiparticle production in $`AA`$ collisions is necessary. The only way to achieve this is to compare $`AA`$ with $`pp`$ and $`pA`$ collisions. It is therefore mandatory to gather more experimental data on the latter at comparable collision energies.

### Acknowledgements

I am indebted to J. Cleymans, B. Cole, K. Kajantie, R. Kuhn, K. Redlich, and E. Shuryak for discussions. Thanks go Columbia University’s Nuclear Theory Group for providing the computing facilities necessary to complete this work.


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# The Acceleration of the Universe, a Challenge for String Theory

## 1 Introduction

Recent observations of supernovae indicate that the universe is accelerating  . This suggests that, at present, the energy density of the universe is dominated by a fluid with equation of state $`p<\frac{1}{3}\rho `$. If this inequality persists for all future times, the universe will eternally accelerate and hence exhibit an event horizon. The holographic principle then implies that a finite dimensional Hilbert space is sufficient to describe the universe    . This peculiar property has recently been discussed in the literature, in the context of asymptotic de Sitter cosmologies, by Banks  and elaborated on by others . The same line of argument presented by these authors can be repeated in the more general context of an eternally accelerating universe.

A universe with an event horizon poses serious challenges for string (M-) theory (we will use the name ‘string theory’ in the rest of the paper for the Underlying Theory). It is quite a difficult task to find a string theory that manages somehow to have a finite number of states. Achieving this goal would still leave the formidable task of formulating meaningful questions, i.e. finding observables, within string theory in a universe with an event horizon. Constructing a conventional S-matrix is not possible because the local observer inside his horizon is not able to isolate particles to be scattered. One is left with the problem of finding alternatives to a conventional S-matrix; for recent proposals, see  .

Let us return to the claim that, at present, the universe is accelerating. For the sake of argument we will assume that this result will be confirmed. This alone does not imply that the universe will accelerate indefinitely. In the case of an asymptotic de Sitter universe indefinite acceleration does indeed take place, leading to the problems mentioned above. Quintessence   offers a possible explanation for the observed acceleration of the universe without invoking a cosmological constant. From a string theory point of view, quintessence at first sight seems more palatable than having a true cosmological constant, as scenarios in string theory can be entertained where moduli play the role of quintessence.

The claim we make in this short paper is that, quite generically, quintessence also leads to cosmologies with event horizons and hence carries with it the same challenges for string theory as does a cosmological constant. We discuss some possible loopholes to this conclusion.

The paper is organized as follows: in section 2, we discuss the general properties of an accelerating universe. In section 3, we consider several realizations of quintessence. We conclude in the last section by comparing the implications of quintessence for string theory with those of a cosmological constant.

## 2 Brief history of an accelerating universe

The universe at large scales and in the recent cosmological past can be described by a flat Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe

$$ds^2=dt^2+a^2(t)(dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2),$$

with a perfect fluid as matter content. Einstein’s field equations for this setup yield

$`3{\displaystyle \frac{(\dot{a})^2}{a^2}}`$ $`=`$ $`8\pi \rho (a)`$ (1)
$`3{\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{a}}{a}}`$ $`=`$ $`4\pi (\rho +3p).`$ (2)
Here, $`\rho `$ and $`p`$ are the energy density and the pressure of the perfect fluid that fills the universe (the second equation, incidently, follows from the first and the thermodynamic relation $`dE=pdV`$, valid for isentropic expansion).

From equation (2), we can read off the condition for the expansion of the universe to be accelerating:

$$p<\frac{1}{3}\rho .$$
(3)
An eternally accelerating universe exhibits an event horizon: there exist regions of spacetime that remain inaccessible to the geodesic observer at arbitrary late times. In FRW spaces, this occurs whenever light rays, emitted at time $`t_0`$ , only travel a finite coordinate distance throughout the remaining history of the universe, i.e. whenever the integral

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=_{t_0}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{dt}{a(t)}$$

converges: events whose coordinates at time $`t_0`$ lie beyond $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ can then never communicate with the observer at $`r=0`$.

Let us assume an ideal fluid with the equation of state $`p=\kappa \rho `$, $`\kappa `$ fixed. It is not hard to solve Einstein’s equations in this case to obtain

$$\rho a^{3(1+\kappa )}$$
(4)
and thus

$$a(t)t^{\frac{2}{3(1+\kappa )}}.$$
(5)
We see that the condition for the existence of an event horizon is $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$, thus coinciding with the condition for an accelerating universe, equation (3).

The same argument can be made with the help of Penrose diagrams. FRW spaces are conformally flat, i.e. their metric can be written as $`ds^2=a(\tau )^2(d\tau ^2+dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2)`$. Their Penrose diagram can therefore be embedded in that of Minkowski space. Conformal time $`\tau `$ is determined by the differential equation

$$\frac{d\tau }{dt}=\frac{1}{a(t)}.$$
(6)
Cosmological time $`t`$ ranges from $`0`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$. Fixing $`\tau (t_0)=\tau _0`$ at an arbitrary time $`t_0`$, $`\tau (0)`$ and $`\tau (\mathrm{})`$ are determined by the integrals:

$`\tau (0)=\tau _0{\displaystyle _0^{t_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a(t)}}`$ (7)
$`\tau (\mathrm{})=\tau _0+{\displaystyle _{t_0}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{a(t)}}.`$ (8)
With the scale factor given by equation (5), $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$ implies the divergence of the first and the convergence of the second integral (and vice versa for $`\kappa >\frac{1}{3}`$). Therefore, with an appropriate choice of $`\tau _0`$, $`\tau `$ can be made to range, for the case of this eternally accelerating universe, from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`0`$. The Penrose diagram for this FRW space hence covers the lower triangle of the Penrose diagram for Minkowski space, as indicated in figure 1. The existence of an event horizon can now be read off from the fact that $`^+`$ is spacelike.

The model we have been considering so far does not coincide with the cosmological Standard Model, in which the universe was dominated by radiation and then by matter in the far past, certainly not by a $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$ fluid. For the purposes of this paper, we are interested in the resulting modifications to our analysis only to the extent in which the conformal structure of spacetime is altered. It therefore suffices to add a second component to our fluid, say with $`\kappa =\frac{1}{3}`$ for radiation (in fact any $`\kappa >\frac{1}{3}`$ component would have the same effect):

$`p={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\rho _r+\kappa \rho _q.`$ (9)
Solving the equations (1) and (2) for this case, we see that the overall energy density is

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \frac{c_r}{a^4}}+{\displaystyle \frac{c_q}{a^{3(1+\kappa )}}}.`$ (10)
With the initial condition $`a(0)=0`$, the radiation component will dominate at early times, but then redshift away more quickly than the $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$ component. The behavior of the scale factor will thus be dictated by $`\rho _r`$ at early times and by $`\rho _q`$ at late times:

$`a_{\mathrm{early}}(t)`$ $``$ $`t^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ (11)
$`a_{\mathrm{late}}(t)`$ $``$ $`t^{\frac{2}{3(1+\kappa )}}.`$ (12)
Repeating our previous analysis, we find that the total duration of the universe in conformal time in this spacetime is finite. The corresponding Penrose diagram, embedded in that of Minkowski space, is depicted in figure 2. Now, both $`^{}`$ and $`^+`$ are spacelike. The presence of an event horizon is, of course, not altered by this modification.

Does the existence of an event horizon imply the presence of Hawking radiation? The entire accelerated universe is conformally equivalent to the steady-state universe (i.e. spatially flat de Sitter space). In the case of a purely $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$ fluid (figure 1), the region of the Penrose diagram accessible to a local observer at $`r=0`$ is conformally equivalent to static de Sitter space. The discussion in  hence suggests that the analysis for de Sitter space should equally well go through for our accelerated FRW spaces. The more realistic model (figure 2) is conformally equivalent to an asymptotically de Sitter Big Bang model. Therefore, by the same token, the existence of a thermal heat bath in asymptotic de Sitter space would imply the existence of a thermal heat bath in this case as well. The existence of a temperature would be another impediment to constructing an S-matrix. A local observer does not see free particles near the horizon, rather they appear immersed in a bath of photons which are highly energetic as a result of blue-shifting.

## 3 Quintessence

Quintessence endeavors to replace an inert cosmological constant with a dynamic negative pressure component. For the purpose of this paper, quintessence will refer to a minimally coupled (pseudo)scalar field with a potential that decreases as the field increases. The field couples to gravity through a Lagrangian of the form:

$``$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{g}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\varphi )^2+V(\varphi )\right).`$ (13)
The stress-energy tensor can be cast in the perfect fluid form. If we assume that the field is spatially homogenous then the energy density and pressure are given by:

$`\rho `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+V(\varphi )`$ (14)
$`p`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}V(\varphi ).`$ (15)
The equation of state then takes the form:

$`\kappa `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\varphi }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}2V(\varphi )}{\dot{\varphi }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+2V(\varphi )}}.`$ (16)
The equation of state thus ranges over $`1<\kappa <1`$, depending on the dynamics of the field. When the kinetic energy dominates the potential, the equation of state is such that $`\kappa 1`$. In this case, the arguments in the last section tell us that the energy density is red-shifted away at the maximum rate consistent with causality, $`\rho _\varphi a^6`$. When $`\dot{\varphi }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}<2V(\varphi )`$, the factor $`\kappa `$ falls below $`0`$ and the field acts as a negative pressure component. If $`\dot{\varphi }^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}<V(\varphi )`$ then $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$ and the field contributes to the acceleration of the universe. Quintessence models, to be consistent with current observation, must evolve into this last regime where the dominance of the potential energy leads to acceleration. Our point is that the most commonly studied models tend to remain in this regime eternally, thus yielding indefinitely accelerating spacetimes with all the complications discussed above. To demonstrate this last point, we present analytical and numerical analyses of three common quintessence models that lead to a perpetually accelerating universe.

To study the evolution of quintessence scenarios, we solve, either analytically or numerically, the coupled Einstein equations for the field $`\varphi `$ and the scale factor $`a`$. For a Robertson-Walker spacetime the Lagrangian (13) gives the equation of motion:

$`\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }+V^{}(\varphi )`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (17)
This equation, combined with the Hubble equation (1), determines the evolution of the universe.

We begin by reviewing a discussion presented by Ratra and Peebles , in which the potential for the scalar field consistent with the equation of state $`p=\kappa \rho `$ for fixed $`\kappa `$ is derived. This condition allows us to express $`\dot{\varphi }^2`$ and $`V(\varphi )`$ in terms of $`\rho `$:

$`\dot{\varphi }^2`$ $`=`$ $`(1+\kappa )\rho `$ (18)
$`V(\varphi )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1\kappa )\rho .`$ (19)
Substituting expression (18), solved for $`\rho `$, into Einstein’s equation (1) gives a differential equation for $`\varphi (a)`$

$$\frac{d\varphi }{da}=\frac{\sqrt{6(\kappa +1)}}{a},$$
(20)
which can be trivially solved. Incorporating equation (4), which relates the density to the scale factor, we find the potential

$`V(\varphi )`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left(\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}(\kappa +1)}\varphi \right).`$ (21)
Given this solution, Ratra et Peebles demonstrate that a special solution for the scalar field and the scale factor indeed exists such that the equation of state $`p=\kappa \rho `$ is satisfied. Using linear analysis, they demonstrate that for $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$, nearby solutions asymptote to this special solution for large $`t`$. If we choose $`\kappa <\frac{1}{3}`$ to guarantee acceleration at our present era, this class of potentials thus generically leads to eternal acceleration.

A second scenario which leads to a perpetually accelerating universe involves inverse power law potentials of the form:

$`V(\varphi )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M^{4+n}}{\varphi ^n}}.`$ (22)
These models were originally studied in . Later, they were extensively studied in , where the authors demonstrated the existence of ‘tracker solutions’ which approach a common cosmic evolutionary path from a wide range of initial conditions. Using the analytical techniques of  or solving equations (17) and (1) numerically demonstrates that these potentials result in solutions which asymptotically approach an equation of state $`p=\rho `$, guaranteeing an eternally accelerating universe. Figure 3 shows the distant future behavior of the equation of state for various inverse power law potentials.

Many of the arguments that apply to inverse power law potentials can be extended to potentials which are functions of inverse powers of $`\varphi `$. An example is the exponential potential studied in :

$`V(\varphi )`$ $`=`$ $`M^4\left(\mathrm{exp}({\displaystyle \frac{M_P}{\varphi }})1\right).`$ (23)
A direct numerical analysis of the equations for $`\varphi `$ and $`a`$ shows that solutions of these models also asymptote towards $`p=\rho `$, again resulting in an accelerating universe. One example is plotted in Figure 4.

The last two potentials belong to a wider class of potentials referred to as ‘runaway scalar fields’ . For a runaway scalar field, $`V`$, $`V^{}`$, $`V^{\prime \prime }`$ all approach $`0`$ as $`\varphi \mathrm{}`$. Also, the ratios $`V^{}/V0`$ and $`V^{\prime \prime }/V0`$ as well. In addition to the analytic and numerical methods mentioned above, there is an argument by Steinhardt  that states that a runaway scalar field insures the eventual acceleration of the universe. Steinhardt argues that there exists a value of $`\varphi `$, the ‘sticking point’, beyond which the Hubble expansion overdamps the kinetic energy of the field, leading to a negative pressure component which eventually dominates matter and radiation and leads to an accelerating universe.

There are various loopholes that provide an alternative to a perpetually accelerating universe. One possibility is that the potential does not decrease forever, but reaches a minimum at some finite $`\varphi _0`$ where $`V(\varphi _0)=0`$ and $`V^{\prime \prime }(\varphi _0)>0`$. The field’s current slow roll towards this minimum emulates a cosmological constant. However, once the field reaches $`\varphi _0`$ it undergoes damped oscillations. This behavior corresponds to the equation of state for non-relativistic matter, $`p=0`$, leading to a decelerating universe.

Another possibility is that the potential $`V(\varphi )`$ decreases to a minimum $`V(\varphi _0)=0`$ and then becomes flat for $`\varphi >\varphi _0`$. This is equivalent to domination by kinetic energy, resulting in a decelerating universe with equation of state $`p=\rho `$.

Yet another possibility is that the scalar field eventually decays into two photons. A coupling of the form $`\varphi F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }`$ would induce a time dependence of the fine structure constant. Current limits set by studies of the ‘Oklo Natural Reactor’ suggest a bound ( and references therein) as tight as:

$`|\dot{\alpha }/\alpha |`$ $`<`$ $`10^{15}\mathrm{yr}^1,`$ (24)
implying that the $`\varphi F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }`$ coupling would be unnaturally suppressed. We might try an axion-like coupling instead, $`\varphi F_{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}^{\mu \nu }`$. This interaction is constrained by astrophysical considerations, albeit not as stringently as the previous one. However, if we choose to conserve parity, the axial-coupling implies that $`\varphi `$ is a pseudo scalar, so we must now also worry about long-range spin-spin forces. In a nutshell, such a decay, while possibly not ruled out, does not present itself naturally. For further discussion see   and references therein. None of these loopholes seem particularly convincing as they all require rather special properties from the vantage point of string theory.

## 4 Conclusions

The various examples discussed in the previous chapter show that rather generically, quintessence models result in spacetimes with event horizons, much like asymptotic de Sitter spaces. A universe endowed with an event horizon raises challenging questions for string theory. These questions have been recently elaborated on in the context of asymptotic de Sitter space    . One can repeat this exercise for a universe that undergoes eternal acceleration. The main puzzle is what replaces the S-matrix in a universe with an event horizon, as one does not have the leisure in such a case to isolate probes from one another or from the thermal bath in which they are immersed. A related question is what the observables are in a string theory that is described by a finite dimensional Hilbert space. We refer the reader to the previous references for discussions on this frustrating question.

The observation that the expansion of the universe is accelerating implies that the dominant form of energy density today satisfies $`p<\frac{1}{3}\rho `$. Our main message is that generic quintessence models that satisfy this inequality at present tend to satisfy it eternally. The resulting spacetimes thus exhibit event horizons. Quintessence, very much like a cosmological constant, presents a serious challenge for string theory.

Note Added: As we were completing this paper, S. Hellerman, N. Kaloper and L. Susskind informed us of their work , in which they reach similar conclusions.

###### Acknowledgments.

This research was supported in part by NSF Grants PHY-0071512 and PHY-9511632.


text:
# Lithium abundances for 185 main-sequence stars Based on observations carried out at Beijing Astronomical Observatory (Xinglong, P R China) and European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile

## 1 Introduction

Following the discovery by Spite & Spite (Spite82 (1982)) of a uniform abundance of lithium in unevolved halo stars with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>5700`$ K, this trace element has attracted much attention, and many papers have addressed problems of Galactic evolution and stellar depletion of Li. The diagram of Li abundance versus metallicity for F and G stars illustrates these problems. Below $`\text{[Fe/H]}1.4`$ one sees a lithium plateau with a very small dispersion of the Li abundance (e.g. Spite et al. Spite96 (1996)) and perhaps a slight slope of Li vs. \[Fe/H\] (Ryan et al. Ryan99 (1999)). Above $`\text{[Fe/H]}1.4`$ the upper envelope of the distribution of stars in the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$\[Fe/H\] diagram increases from the plateau value $`\mathrm{log}ϵ`$ (Li) $`2.2`$ to about 3.0 at $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.0`$ (Lambert et al. Lambert91 (1991)). In the same metallicity range the Li abundances show, however, an enormous variation at a given metallicity, i.e. more than 3 dex.

The prevalent interpretation of the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$\[Fe/H\] diagram is that the plateau represents the primordial Big Bang $`{}_{}{}^{7}\mathrm{Li}_{}^{}`$ abundance and that the upper envelope of the distribution reflects the Galactic evolution of lithium. Before adopting this explanation we should, however, be able to explain why stars with $`\text{[Fe/H]}1.4`$ has such a large dispersion of their Li abundances. Furthermore, it is not clear if stars along the upper envelope have retained their original Li abundances or suffered a mild degree of Li depletion. One may also ask if there has been a homogeneous evolution of Li in the Galaxy as a function of \[Fe/H\] or if there is a dispersion of the Li abundance in the interstellar medium at a given metallicity related to time or position in the Galaxy.

In an interesting paper on Li abundances in 81 dwarf stars, Lambert et al. (Lambert91 (1991)) discovered that dwarf stars with $`5900<T_{\mathrm{eff}}<6600`$ K tend to have a bimodal distribution in the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram (see their Fig. 4). Stars belonging to a ‘high-Li’ group show an increasing abundance of Li with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and \[Fe/H\]. Most of the stars in the ‘low-Li’ group seem to have evolved from $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$(ZAMS) $`6600`$ K, i.e. the temperature of the ‘Li-dip’ stars discovered in the Hyades by Boesgaard & Tripicco (Boesgaard86 (1986)), but a few low-Li stars have no connection to the Li-dip. Still, they have an order of magnitude less lithium than stars in the high-Li group with corresponding parameters $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, $`M_V`$, and \[Fe/H\].

In a comprehensive work on Li abundances of slightly evolved F-type disk stars, Balachandran (Balachandran90 (1990)) also identified a number of Hyades dip-like field stars, which all appear to have evolved from a $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$(ZAMS) range of 6500 to 6800 K despite of their metallicity differences. As pointed out by Balachandran this means that the characteristic mass of the Li-dip stars decreases with metallicity.

Recently, Romano et al. (Romano99 (1999)) have studied the Galactic evolution of Li by comparing the distribution of stars in the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})\text{[Fe/H]}`$ diagram with predictions from chemical evolution models that include several sources of $`{}_{}{}^{7}\mathrm{Li}_{}^{}`$ production. From a compilation of literature data they suggest that the Li plateau extends up to $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.5`$ with a steep rise of the Li abundance for higher metallicities. In order to reproduce this trend, novae have to be included as a dominant contributor to the Li production in the Galaxy in addition to the contribution from AGB stars, Type II SNe and cosmic ray processes.

In order to verify and extend the interesting findings of Balachandran (Balachandran90 (1990)), Lambert et al. (Lambert91 (1991)) and Romano et al. (Romano99 (1999)), we have measured the equivalent width of the $`Li\text{i}\lambda 6708`$ line in 133 main seqeuence field stars with $`5600T_{\mathrm{eff}}6600`$ K and $`1.4\text{[Fe/H]}+0.2`$. Li abundances have been derived from a model atmosphere analysis of the data, and stellar masses and ages have been derived from a comparison of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, $`M_V`$ values with stellar evolutionary tracks in the HR diagram using Hipparcos parallaxes to determine the absolute magnitudes of the stars. Furthermore, the Lambert et al. (Lambert91 (1991)) data have been analyzed in the same way. The resulting large homogeneous set of Li abundances is used to rediscuss the distribution of stars in the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})\text{[Fe/H]}`$ diagrams aiming at a better understanding of the Galactic evolution of lithium and the depletion in stars.

## 2 Observations and data reductions

The primary set of $`Li\text{i}\lambda 6708`$ equivalent widths was obtained from CCD spectra of 90 main-sequence stars with $`5700<T_{\mathrm{eff}}<6600`$ K and $`1.0<\text{[Fe/H]}<+0.1`$ observed with the Coudé Echelle Spectrograph at the 2.16m telescope of Beijing Astronomical Observatory; see Chen et al. (C2000 (2000)), who have used these spectra in connection with a large survey of abundances of heavier elements in F and G disk dwarfs. The spectra cover the region 5500 - 9000 Å at a resolution of 40 000 and have $`S/N`$ above 150; see Fig. 1.

The second set of equivalent widths was measured in spectra of 28 dwarfs with $`5500<T_{\mathrm{eff}}<6500`$ K and $`1.4<\text{[Fe/H]}<0.5`$ observed with the ESO NTT EMMI echelle spectrograph at a resolution of 60 000 and $`S/N150`$. These spectra have previously been used by Nissen & Schuster (Nissen97 (1997)) in a study of the chemical composition of halo and disk stars with overlapping metallicities.

The third sample consists of 15 turnoff stars with $`0.8<\text{[Fe/H]}<+0.2`$. They were observed in the Li i line region with the ESO 1.4m CAT telescope and the CES spectrograph at a resolution of 105 000 and a very high $`S/N`$ of 300 to 1000. These spectra were primarily obtained for a study of the lithium isotope ratio and some of them have been analyzed by Nissen et al. (Nissen99 (1999)), who detected $`{}_{}{}^{6}\mathrm{Li}_{}^{}`$ in two stars (HD 68284 and HD 130551) at a level corresponding to $`{}_{}{}^{6}\mathrm{Li}_{}^{}/{}_{}{}^{7}\mathrm{Li}_{}^{}0.05`$. Here we use the equivalent width of the Li i line to derive the total Li abundance of the stars.

Due to the complications by measuring reliable equivalent widths and making a proper model atmosphere analysis of double-lined spectroscopic binaries such stars were excluded from the three samples. Proven or suspected single-lined spectroscopic binaries were, however, retained. According to Chen et al. (C2000 (2000)) such stars do not appear to have any abundance anomalies of the heavier elements. As discussed later there are, however, indications that the Li abundance may be peculiar for such SB1 stars.

The spectra were reduced using standard MIDAS (Xinglong data) and IRAF (ESO data) routines for order definition, background correction, flatfielding, extraction of echelle orders, wavelength calibration and continuum fitting. At the resolution of the Xinglong and ESO NTT spectra, the profile of the Li i doublet is well approximated by a Gaussian function despite of its inherent asymmetry. Hence, the equivalent width of the Li i line was measured by Gaussian fitting, which has the advantage that the weak $`Fe\text{i}\lambda `$6707.44 line in the blue wing of the Li line gives no significant contribution. For the high resolution, high $`S/N`$ spectra from the ESO CES the equivalent width was measured both by Gaussian fitting and by direct integration excluding the blending Fe i line. The two sets of data agree within $`\pm 1`$ mÅ.

Lambert et al. (Lambert91 (1991)) measured their equivalent widths from spectra obtained at McDonald Observatory with the Coudé Spectrographs of the 2.1 and 2.7m telescopes. The resolution of these spectra is around 35 000 and $`S/N150`$. Twenty stars are in common with the Xinglong sample and 5 stars with the ESO sample. A comparison of the equivalent widths is shown in Fig. 2. Obviously, Lambert et al.’s EWs are systematically lower than the Xinglong and ESO data. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear. A linear least square fit gives

$`EW_{\mathrm{XL}}=1.09\left(\pm 0.03\right)EW_{\mathrm{LHE}}+1.12\left(\pm 1.26\right)(m\text{Å})`$ (1)
where the deviating star HD 79028 has been been excluded from the regression. We suspect that this star was misidentified by Lambert et al. because there is a very good agreement between Xinglong EWs measured by Chen et al. (C2000 (2000)) and those of Edvardsson et al. (Edvardsson93 (1993)) for 26 metal lines in common.

The relation between the Lambert et al. equivalent widths and those based on the Xinglong and ESO spectra appears to be well defined; the rms scatter around the line shown in Fig. 2 is less than 3 mÅ (excluding HD 79028). Hence, we have rescaled the Lambert et al. data according to Eq. 1 to get a homogeneous set of equivalent widths of $`Li\text{i}\lambda 6708`$.

## 3 Analysis

Effective temperatures were determined from the Strömgren $`(by)`$ color index using the calibration of Alonso et al. (Alonso96 (1996)). For the large majority of stars the gravities were determined via Hipparcos parallaxes (ESA ESA97 (1997)) as described by Chen et al. (C2000 (2000)). For the more distant stars we adopt a spectroscopic gravity obtained by requiring that Fe i and Fe ii lines provide the same iron abundance. Metallicities were taken from Chen et al. (C2000 (2000)), Nissen & Schuster (Nissen97 (1997)), and Edvardsson et al. (Edvardsson93 (1993)). For a few stars not included in these sources, \[Fe/H\] was derived from the equivalent widths of the $`\lambda 6703`$ and $`\lambda 6705`$ Fe i lines given by Lambert et al. using “solar” oscillator strengths. Microturbulences were taken from Chen et al. (C2000 (2000)) or calculated from the empirical relation found by Edvardsson et al. (Edvardsson93 (1993)). The uncertainties of the parameters are: $`\sigma (T_{\mathrm{eff}})=70`$ K, $`\sigma (\text{log}g)=0.1`$ dex, $`\sigma (\text{[Fe/H]})=0.1`$ and $`\sigma (\xi )=0.3\text{ km\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}s}\text{-1}`$.

The model atmospheres were interpolated from a grid of plane-parallel, LTE models computed with the MARCS code by Bengt Edvardsson (Uppsala). The corresponding analysis program, SPECTRUM, was used to calculate equivalent widths of the Li i line as a function of the Li abundance with wavelengths and oscillator strengths of the Li doublet components taken from Sansonetti et al. (Sansonetti95 (1995)) and Yan & Drake (Yan95 (1995)), respectively (see Smith et al. Smith98 (1998), Table 3). The contribution of the $`{}_{}{}^{6}\mathrm{Li}`$ isotope was assumed to be negligible. Li abundances were then obtained by requiring that the theoretical equivalent widths should match the observed ones.

The uncertainty in the Li abundance, resulting from errors of the equivalent widths, is around 0.05 dex for stars with EW $``$ 10-120 mÅ increasing rapidly for stars with weaker lines. Changes of the Li abundance due to errors in the model atmosphere parameters are 0.058 dex for $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=+70`$ K, $``$0.001 dex for both $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}g=+0.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\text{[Fe/H]}=+0.1`$, $`0.002`$ for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\xi _t=+0.3\text{ km\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}s}\text{-1}`$. These numbers were derived for HD 142373 with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=5920`$ K, $`\text{log}g=4.27`$, $`\text{[Fe/H]}=0.39`$ and a Li i equivalent width of 49 mÅ, but are representative for the whole sample. For the Lambert et al. sample our derived Li abundances agree with their original values and those derived by Romano et al. (Romano99 (1999)) within 0.1 dex. The differences are mainly due to different ways of determining $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and our rescaling of the EWs published by Lambert et al.

Finally, non-LTE corrections were applied to the derived Li abundances based on the work by Carlsson et al. (Carlsson94 (1994)), who studied non-LTE formation of the $`Li\text{i}\lambda 6708`$ line as a function of effective temperature, gravity, metallicity and Li abundance. For the present sample of stars, the largest correction (LTE – non-LTE) is $`0.12`$ dex for the hottest and most Li-rich stars; the correction decreases with temperature and becomes slightly negative for the cool Li-poor stars.

Atmospheric parameters and Li abundances are presented in Table 1, which also includes the absolute magnitude derived from the Hipparcos parallax (ESA ESA97 (1997)). In a few cases where the Hipparcos parallax is not available or has a low relative accuracy the Strömgren $`c_1`$ index has been used to determine $`M_V`$ (see Edvardsson et al. Edvardsson93 (1993)). Stellar masses and ages derived from evolutionary tracks of VandenBerg et al. (VandenBerg99 (2000)) (see Sect. 4.2) are also given in Table 1.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Li vs. effective temperature

Fig. 3 shows the Li abundance vs. $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ for all stars in the present survey. As seen, the stars tend to separate into two groups, one with high and one with low Li abundances. Although there is a significant spread of the Li abundance within each group, a gap of at least 1.0 dex is seen for $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>5900`$ K suggesting that a special and very rapid Li-depletion mechanism is operating in the interior of the low-Li stars.

In the low-Li group almost all abundances derived are upper limits, and the apparent linear correlation between the Li abundance and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ simply reflects the observational detection limit, EW$`3`$ mÅ, which corresponds to a Li abundance of 1.0 dex at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=5800`$ K, 1.3 dex at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=6200`$ K and 1.6 dex at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=6600`$ K. As discussed in the next section, most of the low-Li stars with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>5900`$ K have evolved from an effective temperature range corresponding to that of the Hyades Li-dip stars.

In the high-Li region, there is a spread of 1.0 dex in Li abundance at a given $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. Metallicity seems to be responsible for the main part of the scatter based on the fact that the upper envelope consists of stars with $`\text{[Fe/H]}>0.4`$, while nearly all stars with $`\text{[Fe/H]}<0.4`$ have a Li abundance lower than 2.5 dex. This result, coupled with the fact that there is no large Li abundance differences among stars with $`1.4<\text{[Fe/H]}<0.6`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>5900`$ K, suggests a significant increase of the Galactic production of lithium around $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.4`$.

In the $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>5900`$ K range, the mean Li abundance of stars in the high-Li region shows a decrease with temperature for $`\text{[Fe/H]}>0.4`$ while it is nearly $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ independent for $`\text{[Fe/H]}<0.4`$. In both metallicity groups a steep decline of the Li abundance begins at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}5900`$ K. Furthermore, a large scatter in Li abundance is apparent in the range $`5600T_{\mathrm{eff}}5900`$ with a tendency of a bimodal distribution. The Sun with a Li abundance of $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})=1.16`$ (Steenbock & Holweger Steenbock84 (1984)) belongs to the low-Li group.

### 4.2 Stellar masses and ages

In order to study the behaviour of Li as a function of stellar mass and age, the positions of the stars in the $`M_V`$$`\mathrm{log}T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram were compared to the evolutionary tracks of VandenBerg et al. (VandenBerg99 (2000)). Masses and ages were derived as described by Chen et al. (C2000 (2000)). The typical error of the mass is 0.03-0.06 $`M_{}`$. For most of the stars the age could be determined with an error of 15-20 %, but a number of stars situated close to the ZAMS or in the hook region of the evolutionary tracks have much larger age errors. For these stars no age is given in Table 1.

Fig. 4 shows the position of the stars in the $`M_V`$$`\mathrm{log}T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram for four metallicity ranges. In panel a), that contains the most metal rich stars, 46 Hyades stars are added. They were selected from the papers of Boesgaard & Tripicco (Boesgaard86 (1986)), Boesgaard & Budge (Boesgaard88 (1988)) and Thorburn et al. (Thorburn93 (1993)) with the condition that they should lie in the same $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ range as our program stars, and excluding known binaries. Strömgren photometry of the Hyades stars was taken from Crawford & Perry (Crawford66 (1966)) and Hipparcos parallaxes from Perryman et al. (Perryman98 (1998)). The effective temperatures were determined in the same way as for the program stars, and the derived (non-LTE) Li abundance is based on the Li-Fe blended EWs given in the three papers taking into account the contribution of the Fe i $`\lambda 6707.44`$ blending line using log $`gf=2.29`$ as derived from an analysis of the solar flux spectrum.

As seen from Fig. 4, stars in the low-Li region (filled circles) are concentrated either in the high mass or the low mass region at a given metallicity. The high-mass, low-Li stars probably suffer from the same depletion mechanism that acts on the Hyades. Like the Hyades Li-dip stars they are grouped in a quite narrow mass range. This is particular clear from panels b) and c). Furthermore, the mass of the Li-dip stars seems to be metallicity dependent with lower mass for the more metal-poor stars. According to Fig. 4, the critical mass is about $`1.4M_{\mathrm{}}`$ at $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.1`$, $`1.3M_{\mathrm{}}`$ at $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.20`$, $`1.2M_{\mathrm{}}`$ at $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.5`$, and $`1.1M_{\mathrm{}}`$ at $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.9`$. We also note that Li-dip stars can be found over a range of effective temperatures as clearly shown by panels b) and c), where stars with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}6600`$ K and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}5700`$ K both show the Li-dip depletion. Therefore, Li-dip stars in the field can not be distinguished by the temperature range alone. Instead, stellar mass is the key parameter that decides if a star suffers from the Li-dip depletion.

In the low-mass region there is a tendency that the lowest Li abundances occur among stars with the smallest masses, but there is no clear separation between high and low-Li stars. Apparently, the Li abundance is very sensitive to stellar mass and/or metallicity in this part of the HR diagram.

Two low-Li stars have intermediate masses, namely HD 80218 in panel b), and HD 106516A in panel d). HD 80218 was recently shown to be an astrometric binary by Gontcharov et al. (Gontcharov00 (2000)). HD 106516A (HR 4657) is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with an unusual large rotational velocity ($`V`$sini = 6.8  km s<sup>-1</sup>, Fuhrmann & Bernkopf Fuhrmann99 (1999)) for its effective temperature ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$= 6135 K) and metallicity ($`\text{[Fe/H]}=0.71`$). Fuhrmann & Bernkopf suggest that HD 106516A is a blue straggler and link the absence of Li to this special class of objects.

Lambert et al. (Lambert91 (1991)) also classified HD 106516A as a Li-poor star unrelated to both the Li-dip stars and the low-mass stars. They suggested six other stars as belonging to this ‘intermediate-mass’ group of Li-poor stars. None of these cases are, however, confirmed by our work. Based on the more accurate Hipparcos distances HD 95241 (HR 4285), HD 159332 (HR 6541) and HD 219476 clearly belong to the Li-dip stars. HD 30649 and HD 143761 (HR 5968) belong to the low-mass, Li-poor group. Finally, HD 79028 (HR 3648) is the star probably misidentified by Lambert et al. As discussed in Sect. 2, we measure a much larger equivalent width of the Li line, and hence the star belongs to the high-Li group. Altogether, we conclude that ‘intermediate-mass’ Li-poor stars are rare and may be binaries.

### 4.3 Li vs. metal abundance

In agreement with previous studies, a plot of $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$ as a function of \[Fe/H\] (see Fig. 5) indicates a large spread in Li abundance at a given metallicity, and the abundance range tends to increase with higher metallicity. The upper envelope of the distribution of $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$ for $`\text{[Fe/H]}<0.2`$ is compatible with the the relation given by Lambert et al. (Lambert91 (1991)) as derived from the Rebolo et al. (Rebolo88 (1988)) data. Above $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.2`$ our sample is, however, not reaching such high Li abundances as the Rebolo et al. sample. This is partly due to the neglect of non-LTE correction by Rebolo et al., which leads to an overestimate of the Li abundance by about 0.1 dex for stars with the highest Li abundances. Furthermore, we note that stars with the highest Li abundances in this metallicity range in Rebolo et al. (Rebolo88 (1988)) all have $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>6500`$ K. These rather young, metal-rich stars are not represented in our sample of stars.

In order to show the upper envelope more clearly, Fig. 5 includes only stars belonging to the high-Li group defined as stars having $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})>2.0`$ for $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>5900`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})>1.75`$ for $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}5900`$ K. As seen from Fig. 3 this definition excludes all Li-dip stars and the group of low-Li stars for $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}5900`$ K.

The distribution of stars in Fig. 5 is compared to recent models for the Galactic evolution of Li by Romano et al. (Romano99 (1999)). Their model A includes contributions to the Li production from low-mass AGB stars (C-stars), high-mass AGB stars and SNeII. As seen this model gives a very poor fit to the upper envelope. In model B, Li production by novae is included, which improves the fit at higher metallicities, but the models fails in predicting a too high Li abundance at metallicities around $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.7`$. Model C has no contribution from low-mass AGB stars and the yields of high-mass AGB stars and SNeII are reduced by a factor of two, whereas the contribution from novae is retained. This model provides a better fit of the upper envelope at low metallicities by predicting only a weak increase of the Li abundance from $`\text{[Fe/H]}=1.5`$ to $`0.5`$ and then a steep increase, but the model fails to account for the high Li abundance ($`3.0`$ dex) for stars with $`0.3<\text{[Fe/H]}<0.1`$. Finally, model C+GCR also includes the contribution to Li production from cosmic ray processes. This model gives the best overall fit especially when one takes into account that all stars with $`\text{[Fe/H]}>0.1`$ probably have suffered some Li depletion, as suggested by the high (3.3 dex) Li abundance in meteorites and in young stellar clusters like the Pleiades.

One low metallicity star (HD 106038 at $`\text{[Fe/H]}=1.33`$ and $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})=2.52`$) lies well above the Li evolutionary curves, and also above the ‘Spite plateau’ for metal-poor halo stars. As shown by Nissen & Schuster (Nissen97 (1997)) this star has very peculiar abundances; \[Si/Fe\] $`0.6`$, \[Ni/Fe\] $`0.2`$, \[Y/Fe\] $`0.4`$, and \[Ba/Fe\] $`0.5`$. Most likely, the atmospheric composition of the star has been changed by mass transfer from an evolved component in its AGB phase causing the enrichment in Li and the $`s`$-process elements. The enrichment in Si and Ni is, however, difficult to explain.

### 4.4 Li vs. stellar mass and age

It is evident from the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$\[Fe/H\] diagram (Fig. 5) that only a few stars lie along the Li evolutionary curves predicted from the models of Romano et al. (Romano99 (1999)). The canonical interpretation is that Li has been destroyed in the majority of the stars due to reactions with protons at the bottom of the outer convection zone of the star, i.e. at $`T>\mathrm{2.5\hspace{0.17em}10}^6`$ K. As the depth of the convection zone depends primarily on stellar mass a correlation between Li abundance and mass is then expected for a given metallicity. To investigate this, we have divided the high-Li stars (i.e. those included in Fig. 5) into four metallicity intervals and plotted the Li abundance as a function of mass (see Fig. 6). In panel a), Hyades stars outside the Li-dip region have been added.

As seen from Fig. 6 there may indeed be a correlation between Li abundance and mass. Excluding the Hyades and the peculiar star (HD 106038 straight lines have been fitted to the data taking into account errors in both coordinates. The slope of the fitted lines is about the same in panels a), b) and c), $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})/\mathrm{\Delta }`$Mass $`2`$. For the most metal-poor group, panel d), the slope is $`1`$ but the correlation is marginal. It is also seen that the slope defined by the Hyades stars agrees well with that of the field stars and that the Hyades lie only slightly above the mean relation for the field stars despite of their younger age.

The dispersion around the fitted lines in Fig. 6 is, however, much larger than expected from the estimated errors of $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$ and the stellar mass. From $`\sigma \mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})0.10`$ and $`\sigma `$(Mass) $`0.05M_{\mathrm{}}`$ we would expect a dispersion in the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$ direction of 0.16 dex in panels a), b) and c) and 0.11 dex in panel d). The actual dispersion around the fitted lines is 0.32 dex in panels a) and b), 0.22 dex in c) and 0.14 dex in d). Furthermore, there is no significant correlation between the residuals of the fits and the stellar age (see Fig. 7) or the metallicity variation within each group. The most likely explanation is that the depletion of Li depends on other parameters than stellar mass, age and metallicity such as the initial rotational velocity of the star and/or the rate of angular momentum loss during its evolution. The same conclusion has been reached from studies of Li abundances of open cluster stars, e.g. the Hyades (Thorburn et al. Thorburn93 (1993)) and M67 (Jones et al. Jones99 (1999)) as well as from studies of Li abundances in upper main sequence stars (Balachandran Balachandran90 (1990)), solar-like stars (Pasquini et al. Pasquini94 (1994)) and subgiants (Randich et al. Randich99 (1999)).

The fact that there is no significant correlation between the residuals of the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})`$-mass relations and stellar age is interesting. As the age for the present sample of stars ranges from 1.5 Gyr to about 15 Gyr, the lack of correlation suggests that the main part of Li depletion occurs rather early in the stellar life, i.e. at ages $`1.5`$ Gyr. In a review of Li abundances in open cluster stars, Pasquini (Pasquini00 (2000)) reached a similar conclusion: most of the Li depletion occurs for stellar ages between $`100`$ and $`600`$ Myr.

There may, however, also be a contribution to the Li dispersion arising from a cosmic scatter of Li in the Galaxy at a given metallicity. To investigate this we have searched for correlations between Li abundances and stellar kinematics, but the outcome was negative. In the lowest metallicity group ($`1.4<\text{[Fe/H]}<0.7`$) eight stars have halo kinematics, i.e. elongated Galactic orbits and low values of the velocity component in the direction of Galactic rotation, $`V_{\mathrm{LSR}}200`$  km s<sup>-1</sup>. Furthermore, Nissen & Schuster (Nissen97 (1997)) have shown that these ‘metal-rich’ halo stars have lower ratios between the $`\alpha `$-elements and Fe than disk stars in the same metallicity range. As seen from Fig. 6 panel d) there is, however, no systematic differences between the Li abundance of stars with halo and disk kinematics, respectively. Still, we cannot exclude variations in Li/Fe on Galactic scales that are not reflected in the kinematics of the stars. The fact that Be abundances of disk main sequence stars with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ between 5700 and 6400 K show a large spread (Boesgaard & King Boesgaard93 (1993)) suggests inefficient mixing of light elements produced by cosmic rays considering that beryllium is more robust against stellar destruction than lithium and is unlikely to be depleted in the temperature range mentioned.

The low-Li stars (not included in Fig. 6) can be divided into two classes: lower mass stars with $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})1.5`$ to which the Sun belongs, and higher mass stars originating from a Hyades-like Li dip. For the lower mass, Li-poor stars we note that adding them to Fig. 6 greatly increases the dispersion in Li at the lower mass end of the plots. For the Li-dip stars a tight correlation between metallicity and mass is found (see Fig. 8). A least squares fit to the data gives the following relation

$`M=(1.40+0.28\text{[Fe/H]})M_{\mathrm{}}`$ (2)
with a dispersion that can be fully explained by the estimated errors in \[Fe/H\] and mass. Clearly, the special depletion of Li associated with the Hyades-like Li-dip occurs within a narrow mass range at a given metallicity.

It is noted that an extrapolation of Eq. 2 leads to a Li-dip mass of about $`1M_{\mathrm{}}`$ at $`\text{[Fe/H]}1.5`$. This is well above the maximum turnoff mass of halo stars ($`0.8M_{\mathrm{}}`$) suggesting that Li-dip stars are unlikely to occur among halo stars at their typical metallicity of $`\text{[Fe/H]}1.5`$.

## 5 Conclusions

On the basis of high precision determinations of Li abundance and stellar parameters for a sample of 185 main-sequence field stars with $`5600T_{\mathrm{eff}}6600`$ K and $`1.4\text{[Fe/H]}+0.2`$, two kinds of Li depletion emerge: the as yet unknown process responsible for the Li-dip stars, and the mass dependent depletion of Li, which occurs near the bottom of the convective zone due to destruction of Li by reactions with protons. The group of Li-dip stars is clearly separated from the high-Li stars in the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram with a gap of at least 1 dex in the Li abundance.

As shown in Fig. 8 there is a well defined relation between the mass of the Li-dip stars and their metallicity confirming previous findings by Balachandran (Balachandran90 (1990)) and Randich et al. (Randich99 (1999)). The derived mass-\[Fe/H\] relation, Eq. (2), may be used as a constraint on the various stellar mixing theories suggested as an explanation of the Li-dip stars: microscopic diffusion, mass loss, meridional circulation, turbulence or rotational braking; see e.g. the discussion by Balachandran (Balachandran95 (1995)), the study of Talon & Charbonnel (Talon98 (1998)), and the recent review by Deliyannis et al. (Deliyannis00 (2000)).

Excluding the Li-dip stars, a correlation between Li abundance and stellar mass is found (see Fig. 6), which is probably due to an increasing degree of Li depletion as the outer convection zone deepens with decreasing stellar mass. The dispersion around the Li-mass relation is, however, much larger than expected from observational errors and the residuals are not correlated with stellar age, which for the present sample of stars ranges from $`1.5`$ Gyr to about 15 Gyr. This suggests that the main part of Li depletion occurs when the star is young and that other parameters in addition to stellar mass and metallicity affect the degree of depletion, e.g. initial rotation velocity, rate of angular momentum loss or magnetic field strength. Binarity may also play a role for the degree of Li depletion, as exemplified by the two ‘intermediate-mass’ Li-poor stars HD 80218 and HD 106516A, and although we have excluded double-lined spectroscopic binaries from our sample, a significant fraction of the stars may be binaries with a low mass component. Furthermore, it cannot be excluded that a cosmic scatter of the Li abundance in the Galaxy at a given metallicity contributes to the dispersion in Li abundance, although we have not found any correlation between stellar kinematics and Li abundance.

If the upper envelope of the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})\text{[Fe/H]}`$ distribution is assumed to represent the Galactic evolution of Li, then the Galactic evolutionary models of Romano et al. (Romano99 (1999)) suggest that novae, massive AGB stars, SNeII and Galactic cosmic rays all contribute to the production of Li. In particular, novae seem to provide a major contribution to the Li enrichment and to be responsible for the steep increase of the Li abundance at $`\text{[Fe/H]}0.4`$. It is, however, doubtful if stellar Li abundances along the upper envelope of the $`\mathrm{log}\epsilon (\mathrm{Li})\text{[Fe/H]}`$ distribution, based on samples of long-lived F & G stars in this and other works, really represent the Galactic evolution of Li given that there may be a dispersion of Li in the interstellar medium at a given metallicity and that no stars reach the meteoritic Li abundance at solar metallicity. To progress on this problem one will probably need a sample of stars that is an order of magnitude larger than the present sample. Furthermore, it would be interesting to observe the spectra of these stars with higher resolution, say $`R\mathrm{100\hspace{0.17em}000}`$, and very high S/N in order to be able to estimate stellar rotation velocities and magnetic field strengths from the profiles of Zeeman-insensitive and Zeeman-sensitive spectral lines. This would enable a study of possible correlations between the degree of Li depletion and stellar rotation as well as magnetic field strength.

## Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Danish Research Academy, the Danish Daloon Foundation, the Chinese NSF, and NKBRSF G1999075406.


text:
# Tiling of the five-fold surface of Al70Pd21Mn9

## Abstract

The nature of the five-fold surface of Al70Pd21Mn9 has been investigated using scanning tunnelling microscopy. From high resolution images of the terraces, a tiling of the surface has been constructed using pentagonal prototiles. This tiling matches the bulk model of Boudard et al. (J. Phys: Cond. Matter 4, 10149 (1992)), which allows us to elucidate the atomic nature of the surface. Furthermore, it is consistent with a Penrose tiling $`𝒯^{((P1)r)}`$ obtained from the geometric model based on the three-dimensional tiling $`𝒯^{(2F)}`$. The results provide direct confirmation that the five-fold surface of $`i`$-Al-Pd-Mn is a termination of the bulk structure.

Since their discovery , quasicrystals have extended the boundaries of our knowledge, most strikingly in the redefinition of the crystal undertaken by the International Union of Crystallography in 1991 . The reason for this lies in their unusual aperiodic structure, which in the case of $`i`$-Al-Pd-Mn and $`i`$-Al-Cu-Fe has been described mathematically with reference to a six-dimensional lattice $`D_6`$ . The fact that a three-dimensional atomic model  can be based on a three-dimensional tiling projected from the $`D_6`$ lattice  leads us to expect the five-fold planes of the model to be related to a two-dimensional Penrose-like tiling .

The unusual tribological behavior observed for quasicrystals raises questions concerning the nature of their surfaces . Systematic studies by Gellman and coworkers indicate that the static friction coefficient for $`i`$-Al-Pd-Mn (on itself) is lower than that of most pure metals, and the slip-stick behavior commonly observed on crystalline surfaces is not present . A complete understanding of these observations requires a knowledge of the quasicrystal surface structure . It can not be assumed a priori that a quasicrystal surface is aperiodic itself or that it reflects a perfect truncation of the bulk structure. If this is the case, however, we would expect the structure of that surface to reflect the symmetry of a two-dimensional Penrose tiling . Until now, however, this direct link between theory and experiment has not been made.

This is partly because the aperiodic nature of quasicrystals makes it difficult to determine their surface structure. Surface diffraction techniques can not be exploited to achieve a full structural determination as they rely on a formalism developed largely for periodic structures . Scanning probe microscopies offer an alternative, but even with these methods atomic resolution has so far proved elusive. It has been variously suggested that this is an inherent limitation of the electronic structure of these surfaces  or a consequence of defect-like protrusions observed in all studies to date . In previous work, we introduced an approach based on tiling of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) images using regions of high contrast as vertices . Though this approach produced partial tilings, the presence of large protrusion defects on the surface introduced breaks in the tiling and comparison with models of the surface was not possible.

In this study we carry this tiling approach to fruition, using a combination of experimental and theoretical methods. A refined surface preparation technique has led to terraces which are free from the protrusions found in previous STM studies . This in turn has led to better resolution STM images which together with the structural perfection, allows us to derive an experimental tiling over a lateral range of $``$100 Å. By comparison with the experimentally derived bulk model of Boudard et al. , we identify possible structural entities on the surface. We also demonstrate that the experimental tiling matches the two-dimensional tiling $`𝒯^{((P1)r)}`$, derived from a well established geometric model of the bulk .

The quasicrystal sample was grown using the Bridgman method and polished using 6$`\mu `$m, 1$`\mu `$m and 0.25$`\mu `$m diamond paste on Texmet cloth for one hour. The ultra-high vacuum (UHV) preparation consisted of five sputter/anneal cycles. The sputtering angle was at grazing incidence (20-30); Ar gas was used at 500 eV and each sputter lasted 90 minutes. Each annealing was to 970 K for 120-150 minutes. After this procedure, the LEED pattern had five-fold rotational axes and exhibited a low background, with sharp peaks. We note that this temperature is at the upper end of the range known to produce quasicrystalline surfaces .

This preparation procedure leads to very large flat terraces (up to 1500 Å wide). Images from the terraces were then obtained which display a higher resolution than those in any previously published STM work . Fig. 1(a) shows a 100 $`\times `$ 100 Å2 image of a flat terrace with features of atomic size (2-3 Å). The corrugation across the terraces (see Fig. 1(a)) is $`<`$ 1 Å. Large areas of the terraces are found without any protrusions, which allows the tip to scan the surface more closely leading to improved resolution. Pentagonal areas of dark contrast (‘holes’) are observed as in previous work  but now with much improved definition - see the circled area in Fig.1(a). A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) (inset on Fig. 1(b)) shows apparent ten-fold symmetry, consistent with a five-fold quasicrystalline surface. Autocorrelation patterns from such images (not shown) reveal ten-fold symmetry and a high degree of order.

A notable feature of the surface is that areas of bright contrast may be joined by lines to form regular pentagons, with edges of length 8.0$`\pm 0.3`$ Å. One such pentagon is outlined in Fig. 1(a). Using these pentagons as basic building blocks we then construct a tiling of the surface. This procedure is illustrated in Fig. 1(b) on a 50 $`\times `$ 50 Å2 image of the surface. Starting with the pentagon labelled (1), we look for pentagons sharing edges which also have areas of bright contrast at their vertices. In this way, a tiling of the surface can be constructed as shown in Fig. 2. Within this patch, the acute rhombus, crown and pentagonal star tiles then appear naturally in addition to the pentagonal tiles. This tiling has the appearance of the Penrose tiling (P1) . We estimate that 93% of the 119 vertices of the tiling patch coincide with areas of higher contrast; of the remaining 7% which coincide with darker areas the majority are on the perimeter of the tiling where any built-in strain due to slight mismatch will be maximum. Another possibility is the presence of vacancy defects (common on metal surfaces), although a slight distortion of the image toward the top edge due to piezo drift cannot be excluded.

This tiling is not necessarily unique, and the tiles themselves contain internal structure; but this is precisely what is to be expected for this surface, as can be shown by comparison with the experimentally derived model of Boudard et al., based on x-ray and neutron scattering measurements . Fig. 3(a) shows one plane from this model, which contains only aluminum atoms. The experimentally derived tiling of Fig. 2 is shown superimposed on this plane without scaling. Fig. 3(b) shows that within the pentagons described above, other atoms are also expected to be present, which in turn will give rise to high contrast areas within the pentagons on the STM images. This is demonstrated in Fig. 3(c) .

The close correspondence of the experimentally derived tiling with the surface termination of the Boudard model allows us to speculate on the structure of the atomic units on the surface. The plane from the Boudard model consists entirely of Al atoms, suggesting that the surface measured is Al-rich. This is in agreement with the results of LEED . Recent LEIS measurements of the surface  have identified a characteristic distance of 7.5$`\pm `$0.1 Å; our results suggest that this corresponds to the Al-Al distance along the edges of the pentagons.

We now show that this tiling is also contained within the Katz-Gratias-Elser geometric model . The geometric model consists of the three-dimensional quasicrystalline tiling $`𝒯^{(2F)}`$ derived from a six-dimensional lattice, face-centered hypercubic lattice $`D_6`$. This tiling is decorated by Bergman (and automatically Mackay) polytopes to give the atomic positions . All of the vertices of the $`𝒯^{(2F)}`$ tiling can be embedded in a sequence of planes orthogonal to a five-fold symmetry axis of an icosahedron .

In some of these planes a quasiperiodic tiling $`𝒯^{(A_4)}`$ appears (  and refs. therein). The prototiles in $`𝒯^{(A_4)}`$ are golden triangles. The edges of the triangles in the tiling are parallel to the two-fold symmetry axes of an icosahedron (“two-fold directions”) and are of two lengths related by the golden ratio $`\tau `$. As an intermediate step, we locally derive the tiling $`𝒯^{}`$ with pentagon, acute rhombus and hexagon as prototiles from the quasilattice of the tiling $`𝒯^{(A_4)}`$, as shown in Fig. 4(left side). The tiling has an inflation factor $`\tau `$.

Keeping all acute rhombuses from the tiling $`𝒯^{}`$, we replace each hexagon by two overlapping pentagons. Now we randomly choose one of the pentagons from each overlapping pair, and unify the rest of the hexagon(s) with the neighboring acute rhombus. This process is indicated by an arrow in the centre section of Fig. 4. In this way we obtain either a crown or a pentagonal star to replace the rhombus, and the result is a tiling $`𝒯^{((P1)r)}`$, see the right-hand side of Fig. 4. The tiling $`𝒯^{((P1)r)}`$ is a partly random variant of the Penrose (P1) tiling, $`𝒯^{(P1)}`$ .

The tiling $`𝒯^{((P1)r)}`$ clearly matches the geometry of the experimentally derived tiling shown in Fig. 2. We now compare the edge-length of the tiles to the experimental value of 8.0$`\pm `$0.3Å. The scaling for the tilings derived above from the model is implicit from previous work : the edges of the tilings $`𝒯^{(A_4)}`$, $`𝒯^{}`$, and $`𝒯^{((P1)r)}`$ are of length 12.553 Å. However by an investigation of the window in perpendicular space IE of the atomic positions for the plane in the model which we estimate most closely corresponds to the experimental one we may show that the minimal edge length for a P1($`r`$) tiling is $`\tau ^1`$12.553 Å=7.758 Å. Therefore within the geometric model, in a plane that corresponds to that of Fig. 2, a tiling such as in Fig. 4 exists with an edge length 7.758 Å, in excellent agreement with the experimental observations.

Our data and analysis provide dramatic confirmation of the bulk termination of this surface which has been suggested by other workers. The LEED analysis of Gierer and co-workers indicated that the surface is consistent with the bulk quasicrystallinity and is an Al termination . X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD) studies are also consistent with a quasicrystalline surface nature . Previous scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) studies have all presented similar images of the quasicrystalline surface  having a lower resolution than those presented here (the degree of resolution can be put on a quantitative basis using radial distribution functions (RDF) from autocorrelation patterns (not shown)). Shen et al., using an autocorrelation analysis showed that the surface structure is consistent with a bulk structure based on truncated pseudo-Mackay icosahedra or Bergman clusters . Schaub etal.  interpreted their STM images in terms of an Ammann pentagrid model with Fibonacci relationships between structural elements within the terraces and across steps on the surface. Later, these measurements were shown to be in correspondence with the Katz-Gratias-Elser geometric model  for the atomic positions . However the lower resolution of these measurements precluded their analysis using the tiling approach described in this paper.

The ability to prepare surfaces having the structural perfection observed here will facilitate the precise characterization of ordered molecular adsorption, friction and adhesion on quasicrystal surfaces. In previous work on the adsorption of C60 molecules of the $`i`$-Al-Pd-Mn surface, although local areas were found in which the molecules had Fibonacci scaling relationships, on a larger scale the correlation was broken by the presence of defects . Surfaces of the quality described above should enable the formation of better ordered overlayers.

To summarize, very high resolution STM images of flat terraces of the five-fold Al70Pd21Mn9 surface have been presented. A tiling of the surface based on pentagons of edge 8.0 $`\pm `$ 0.3Å has been experimentally derived. This tiling is shown to be consistent with the geometric model based on the $`𝒯^{(2F)}`$ tiling, and with the experimentally derived model of Boudard et al. . These results point clearly to a bulk termination of this surface and lend support to the bulk models of this complex material.

The EPSRC (Grant numbers GR/N18680 and GR/N25718), NFS (Grant number DMR-9819977) and DFG (Grant number KA 1001/4-2) are acknowledged for funding.