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# Distance to the Active Galaxy NGC 6951 via the Type Ia Supernova 2000E11footnote 1Based on observations obtained at German-Spanish Astronomical Centre, Calar Alto, operated by the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, jointly with the Spanish National Commission for Astronomy

## 1 Introduction

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are considered to be the most reliable distance indicators on extragalactic, even cosmological distance scales (e.g. Gibson et al., (2000); Parodi et al., (2000); Perlmutter et al., (1995); Riess et al., (1998); Hamuy et al., 1996b  and references therein). This is mainly based on their exceptional brightness and homogeneity, despite of the existence of “peculiar” SNe Ia, such as SN 1991T or SN 1991bg (e.g. Filippenko, (1997)). Although the frequency of these “standard bombs” (Jha et al., (1999)) is low, regular monitoring of numerous galaxies (e.g. by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search, the Nearby Galaxies Supernova Search, etc.) supplies more than a hundred Type Ia SN events per year. The reliability of SN-based distances is increased by the number of bright, well-observed, nearby SNe Ia in host galaxies whose distances can also be determined by other methods, such as Cepheids (Saha et al., (1997); Gibson et al., (2000); Jha et al., (1999)), Tully-Fisher relation, or surface brightness fluctuation (e.g. Riess et al., (1996)).

In this paper we present an updated distance to the type 2 Seyfert galaxy NGC 6951 via the Type Ia SN 2000E. This galaxy has received considerable attention recently, especially its active nucleus and circumnuclear star-forming ring (Boer & Schulz, (1993); Barth et al., (1995); Elmegreen et al., (1999); Kohno et al., (1999); Perez et al., (2000)). Its distance has been determined via Tully-Fisher relation by several groups. Bottinelli et al., (1984) gives $`\mu _0=31.85`$ mag for the true distance modulus (corresponding to 23.4 Mpc), while Tully, (1988) lists 24.1 Mpc ($`\mu _0=31.91`$ mag).

SN 2000E has occurred just outside the origin of the long, northern spiral arm, in a relatively low surface brightness region (Fig.1). This SN was discovered by G. Valentini and coworkers (Valentini et al., (2000)) on Jan.26, 2000, and immediately announced to be a Type Ia event by Turatto et al. (cf. IAUC 7351). They reported the appearance of Si ii, Si iii, S ii, Ca ii and Fe iii, the usual ions characterizing Type Ia SNe, and also the presence of Na D indicating considerable reddening. The occurrence of SN 2000E was particularly interesting, because it appeared just a few months after the maximum of the Type II SN 1999el, the first SN observed in NGC 6951. SN 1999el was located closer to the bar-dominated central region, but definitely outside the circumnuclear regime where star-forming processes are most active (Perez et al., (2000)).

The expected maximum brightness of SNe Ia at the distance of NGC 6951 (about 13.5 mag) indicates that SN 2000E offers a good chance to increase the sample of bright, well-observed SNe Ia. The comparison of distances determined via SNe Ia and other methods may result in the refinement of the distance measuring techniques and the cosmic distance scale itself. This is especially important in the case of SNe, because they are used to measuring cosmological distances, where other methods often do not work, and its technique relies on a relatively small number of local calibrator SNe.

In the followings the new photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2000E are described then the results are presented and discussed.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 Photometry

The CCD-photometric observations were obtained with four telescopes: the 28 cm Schmidt-Cassegrain at the campus site of University of Szeged (#1), the 60/90 cm Schmidt at Piszkéstető Station of Konkoly Observatory (#2), the 1 m Ritchey-Chrétien-Cassegrain at Piszkéstető (#3) and the 1.2 m Cassegrain at Calar Alto Observatory, Spain (#4). The small-aperture instrument was used only around the maximum of the SN. The CCD-frames were exposed through standard Johnson-Cousins filters, most often $`V`$ and $`R_\mathrm{C}`$. $`I_\mathrm{C}`$ was used at early epochs, and a few $`B`$ frames were also obtained at later phases. It would have been better to use the same telescope and setup to obtain a homogeneous dataset. However, this was strongly limited by the weather conditions and the availability of the instruments.

Transformation to the standard system has been performed by applying the following equations:

$`V`$ $`=v+C_\mathrm{V}(VR)+D_\mathrm{V}`$ (1)
$`R`$ $`=r+C_\mathrm{R}(VR)+D_\mathrm{R}`$ (2)
$`I`$ $`=i+C_\mathrm{I}(VI)+D_\mathrm{I}`$ (3)
The occasional $`B`$ data have been transformed in a similar way, except that $`(BV)`$ was used in the colour term. The instrumental coefficients (the $`C_i`$ slopes and $`D_i`$ zero points) have been determined by observing Landolt standard fields (Landolt, (1992)) or the M67 standard sequence (Montgomery et al., (1993)) at each site. Actually, the use of the zero points have been eliminated by observing local comparison stars in the field of SN 2000E and computing differential magnitudes. Differential extinction correction between the SN and the local comparison stars was neglected, due to the small field of view. For each telescope the transformation slopes are collected in Table 1. The magnitudes of the standard stars could be recovered within $`\pm `$ 0.03 magnitude.

Fig.2 shows the field of NGC 6951 and SN 2000E with the local comparison stars labelled. The standard magnitudes of these stars were determined via Landolt standards observed with the Calar Alto telescope, where the photometric conditions were the best during our campaign. The results are listed in Table 2. Note that B1, B2 and B3 were used only for the frames taken with telescope #3.

The magnitudes of SN 2000E were inferred with aperture photometry, and transformed to the standard system via the local comparison stars. A small aperture radius of 4 pixels has been used in order to minimize the effect of the host galaxy background. The background light was estimated within a 4 pixel-wide annulus having 5 pixels inner radius. This background was determined on each frame and subtracted from the SN flux. PSF-photometry was not applied, because the frames with telescopes #1 and #2 had undersampled and/or strongly varying PSF. The transformation equations (Eq.1-3) were applied for all observed SN data including those that were obtained more than 1 month past maximum. The colour terms in Eq.1-3 resulted in magnitude corrections in the order of 0.05 mag in the nebular phase. It may caused some additional uncertainty, because at late epochs the spectral distribution of the SN light resembles more a nebula than a star. K-correction has been neglected, because at the redshift of NGC 6951 ($`z=0.005`$) it does not exceed 0.01-0.02 mag in $`V`$ (Hamuy et al., (1993)), i.e. it is well below the photometric uncertainty.

The effect of the host galaxy background on the SN flux was investigated on frames taken in October, 1999 showing SN 1999el only (see Fig.1, left panel). An aperture with the same size was placed on the position of SN 2000E and the surrounding background was subtracted, as above. The remaining flux was negligible even in the $`R`$ filter. Thus, the background subtraction with the small aperture-annulus combination gave acceptable magnitudes for SN 2000E, minimizing the effect of the host galaxy light.

The list of standard magnitudes of SN 2000E is given in Table 3. The errors were estimated from the rms deviations of the SN magnitudes from the comparison stars on each frame, and do not contain the possible systematic errors arise from the standard transformation. We believe that this latter error source is smaller than the uncertainites of the instrumental magnitudes measured with smaller telescopes.

The magnitudes in Table 3 were also compared with filtered CCD-magnitudes of Hornoch & Hanzl, (2000) that were made between JD 51655 and 51666. Their $`R`$-magnitudes differ by about 0.4 mag from our values. This is a 4$`\sigma `$ difference considering the given uncertainty of their data ($`\pm `$0.1 mag). Because the details of the standard transformation of the data of Hornoch & Hanzl were not published, the cause of this discrepancy cannot be studied in more detail here, except to underline that this may indicate a systematic error in either datasets at late epochs of SN 2000E. More published standardized measurements are needed to resolve this issue.

The light curves in $`V`$, $`R`$ and $`I`$ filters are plotted in Fig.3. The continuous line is the optimal result of the Multi-Colour Light Curve Shape (MLCS) method (see next section). It can be revealed that the maximum brightness in $`V`$ occurred around JD 51580, and the peak $`V`$-magnitude was about 13.7 mag, being in good agreement with the predicted peak brightness of SNe Ia at the distance of NGC 6951 (see Sect.1).

In order to test the reliability of our measurements and standard transformation, the light curves of SN 2000E were compared with those of SN 1998bu. For this bright SN, which appeared in the Leo I group galaxy M96, published light curves of very good quality are available, and it received considerable attention recently (Jha et al., (1999); Suntzeff et al., (1999)). Fig.4 shows that the $`V`$, $`R`$, $`I`$ magnitudes of SN 2000E (filled symbols) at the early part of the light curve agree satisfactorily with the data of SN 1998bu. This agreement was reached by adding 1.88 mag to the light curves of SN 1998bu in all filters. This suggests that the reddening of the two SNe were similar, about $`E(BV)0.3`$ mag (Jha et al., (1999); see also Sect.3). At present, the accuracy of inhomogeneous SNe light curves is usually not better than $`\pm `$0.1 (see e.g. Fig.8 of Jha et al., (1999)), so the small deviations in Fig.4 (especially in the $`I`$ band) are probably not significant. The light curves will be analysed further in Sect.3.

### 2.2 Objective-prism spectroscopy

Spectroscopic observations were gathered with an objective prism attached to the 60/90 cm Schmidt telescope at Piszkéstető Station of Konkoly Observatory, between 26th and 28th February, 2000 (JD 2451601 - 03), when SN 2000E was about 1 month past maximum. The images were exposed onto an electronically cooled Thomson $`1536\times 1024`$ CCD-chip (readout noise about 16 $`e^{}`$). The dispersion axis was aligned in the north-south direction, along the shorter side of the CCD-chip.

An objective prism spectrograph is certainly not an ideal tool for SN spectroscopy. However, this was the only spectroscopic instrument available to us at that time.

A considerable number of image processing steps were necessary to extract the SN from the smeared spectrum of the host galaxy. The location of the SN spectrum was determined from an intensity plot along the line perpendicular to the dispersion axis. At first, this was possible only in the blue region where the host galaxy showed negligible contribution. The red side, however, was heavily contaminated by the smeared background spectrum of the host galaxy. Removal of this background was essential to obtain reliable SN spectra.

The easier way to correct for the galaxy background would have been the usage of an objective prism picture of the host galaxy without the SN. Since it was not possible for us, we had to choose another, more approximative approach. First, the central peak of the background galaxy spectrum was identified visually. Then, the galaxy image was cut into two pieces at this central ridge, and the western part (including the SN) was dropped. The eastern side was reflected and added back into the position of the western side, thus, generating a symmetric picture of the galaxy. This picture was then subtracted from the original one, resulting in a much cleaner SN spectrum. While the removal of the galaxy “spectrum” was far from complete, its contribution at the position of the SN spectrum was considerably suppressed in this way.

The extraction of the cleaned SN spectrum was performed with the standard subroutines in IRAF/SPECRED111IRAF is distributed by NOAO which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.. The intensities within a 3-4 pixel-wide aperture were summed and this aperture was slid along the dispersion axis, taking into account the tilt of the spectrum. The remaining background light was subtracted after a low-order polynomial fit. The wavelength calibration was performed using the lines in the spectrum of Vega taken with the same instrument and setup. The Vega spectrum was also used for the flux calibration. First, the telescope response function was determined by matching the measured continuum fluxes of the Vega spectrum with the tabulated ones (given in e.g. Gray, (1992)). Then, the SN spectrum was multiplied by the response function producing a flux-calibrated spectrum. The resulting spectra of SN 2000E are plotted together in Fig.5, where an arbitrary vertical shift was applied for better visibility. Information for line identification was collected from Filippenko, (1997).

It is apparent from Fig.5 that SN 2000E shows the standard spectral features of a Type Ia SN at one month after maximum light. A closer inspection of the features around 6000 Å with those of SN 1998aq taken at the same phase (Vinkó et al., (1999)) showed good agreement, despite of the much lower resolution of the present spectra. This confirms the classification of Type Ia, although a slightly confusing description of the presence of the $`H\alpha `$ line was also reported in IAUC 7353 by Polcaro et al., (2000). This was then revised in IAUC 7359.

There is continuously growing amount of evidence that SNe Ia show considerable diversity in peak brightness, decline rate, spectral features, etc. (see e.g. Filippenko, (1997); Phillips et al., (1999); Nugent et al., (1995); Hatano et al., (2000) and references therein). The similarity between the spectra of SN 2000E and SN 1998aq may mean that SN 2000E is close to the “normal” SNe Ia being neither SN 1991T-like, nor SN 1991bg-like event. It should be noted, however, that the spectroscopic diversity between these subclasses of SNe Ia is usually studied at earlier epochs, between $`\pm 10`$ days around maximum. Therefore, the spectra presented here are too late for such a distinction. This issue will be studied in more detail using the shape of the light curve in the next section.

## 3 Results and discussion

In this section, first, we estimate the reddening of SN 2000E, then its distance is determined from the analysis of the light curve. Finally, the discussion of the errors of distance measurement is presented.

### 3.1 Reddening

The presence of Na D was reported in the very first spectrum of SN 2000E (see Sect.1) indicating significant reddening. This feature might also be visible in the spectra in Fig.5, although it is quite difficult to identify the heavily blended lines at the end of the photospheric phase. Nevertheless, the determination of reddening is essential if SN 2000E is to be used for distance measurement.

The reddening map of Burnstein & Heiles, (1982) indicates $`E(BV)=0.20`$ at the position of SN 2000E, while the more recent map of Schlegel et al., (1998) gives 0.36 mag. This is referred as the galactic component of the reddening, originating mostly from the interstellar medium (ISM) within the Milky Way. The map of Schlegel et al. is thought to be a better representative of the true amount of reddening, but it has been pointed out that this map systematically overestimates the reddening at directions where $`E(BV)0.15`$ mag (Arce & Goodman, (1999)). Since several galactic cirrus clouds are visible on the long-exposure frames of NGC 6951, substantial reddening due to the Milky Way ISM is expected. Taking into account the possible overestimate in the map of Schlegel et al., the galactic component of $`E(BV)`$ may be somewhere between the two values given above (0.2 - 0.36 mag).

The total reddening of SN 2000E was estimated by comparing the observed $`(BV)`$ index with its expected value at the given epoch. This may give reasonable results, because SNe Ia are thought to show some kind of homogeneity in their $`(BV)`$ colours at epochs later than 60 days post-maximum (Phillips et al., (1999)). Using JD 51578 as the epoch of the $`B`$-maximum (see next section), the phase of the $`B`$-data in Table 3 is between $`\tau `$ = 80 and 86 days. The empirical formula of Phillips et al., (1999) results in $`(BV)_0=0.49\pm 0.05`$ at $`\tau `$ = 80 days, while the tabulated $`(BV)_0`$ of Riess et al., (1996) gives 0.73 $`\pm `$ 0.02 at this epoch. It is apparent, that, although both values are based on empirical data of “standard” SNe Ia, their difference is large and significant. Certainly, this method of reddening determination has ambiguity, and the result may strongly depend on the adopted fiducial $`(BV)_0`$. The referee of this paper, Kevin Krisciunas, mentioned that his own analysis of recent SNe (Krisciunas, (2000)) gave a $`(BV)_0\tau `$ relation with a zero point 0.070 mag redder than in Phillips et al., (1999).

Nevertheless, as a first approximation, we decided to adopt an averaged $`E(BV)`$ using the values above. Thus, the reddening was calculated by subtracting the expected $`(BV)_0`$s from the observed ones at the epochs when the $`BV`$ observations were taken, and then averaging the results. The Phillips et al.-relation resulted in $`E(BV)=0.49\pm 0.02`$ mag, while the Riess et al.-method produced $`E(BV)=0.24\pm 0.01`$ mag. Their average, $`E(BV)=0.36\pm 0.15`$ was accepted as the best result at present. This is in very good agreement with the value of Schlegel et al., (1998). It suggests that most of the observed reddening of SN 2000E is due to dust in the Milky Way. The rather large uncertainty ($`\pm `$ 0.15 mag) reflects the ambiguity of choosing the intrinsic $`(BV)_0`$ of SNe Ia at late epochs. Using the standard $`R_\mathrm{V}=3.1`$ coefficient of the galactic reddening law, the resulting uncertainty of the total absorption is $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_\mathrm{V}=\pm 0.46`$ mag.

### 3.2 MLCS method

The light curves of Type Ia SNe correlate with their peak brightness such that intrinsically brighter SNe Ia are bluer at maximum and decline more slowly than intrinsically dimmer SNe. The Multi-colour Light Curve Shape (MLCS) method parametrizes the light curve family by introducing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ that measures approximately the $`V`$ magnitude difference of a particular SN from a fiducial light curve at the time of $`B`$-maximum. The first version of the MLCS-method (MLCS-1, Riess et al., (1996)) assumed a linear dependence of the light curve shape on $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, which was calibrated via a few nearby SNe. The second version (MLCS-2) uses a quadratic dependence on $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and it is based on a more extended set of SNe light curves (Riess et al., (1998)).

The light curves of SN 2000E (Table 3) were analysed with the second-order MLCS-2 method. The observed magnitude of the SN in filter $`k`$ ($`=B,V,R,I`$) at a particular epoch $`\tau `$ was described as

$$m_k(\tau )=M_k^{max}+M_k(\tau )+R_k(\tau )\mathrm{\Delta }+Q_k(\tau )\mathrm{\Delta }^2+\mu _0+A_k$$

where $`M_k^{max}`$ is the magnitude zero point at the time of $`B`$-maximum ($`\tau =0`$), $`\mu _0`$ is the true distance modulus, $`A_k`$ is the total extinction in the given filter, and $`M_k(\tau )`$, $`R_k(\tau )`$, $`Q_k(\tau )`$ are the template vectors of MLCS-2. The template vectors were kindly supplied to us by the referee with the permission of Adam Riess. The $`M^{max}`$ fiducial zero points were chosen as $``$19.46, $``$19.46, $``$19.41 and $``$19.81 mag for $`B,V,R,I`$ filters, respectively. The interstellar extinction was calculated by assuming the galactic reddening law with coefficients given by Schlegel et al., (1998): $`A_\mathrm{V}=3.1E(BV)`$, $`A_\mathrm{B}=4.1E(BV)`$, $`A_\mathrm{R}=2.46E(BV)`$, $`A_\mathrm{I}=1.72E(BV)`$. Thus, the observed light curve is modelled via four free parameters: the time of $`B`$-maximum $`T_{\mathrm{max}}(B)`$, the true distance modulus $`\mu _0`$, the reddening $`E(BV)`$ and the luminosity parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

The template vectors were fitted to the light curves of SN 2000E simultaneously, i.e. the difference between the observed and calculated light curves were combined into a single chi-squared function. The weighting factors were chosen as $`1/\sigma _i^2`$ where $`\sigma _i`$ is the photometric uncertainty of the given data point (listed in Table 3). In order to avoid giving too strong weight to any specific data point, the minimal photometric uncertainty was increased to 0.05 mag. Because the template vectors are better determined at early epochs than at the nebular phase, more weight was assigned to the data around maximum (Riess, personal communication). For this purpose, the error bars at late epochs ($`\tau >`$70 days) were multiplied by $`\sqrt{2}`$ thus producing a factor of 2 less weight for these data.

Three kinds of solutions have been determined with the MLCS-2 vectors. First, $`E(BV)=0.36`$, estimated in Sect.3.1, was treated fixed and only $`\mu _0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ were optimized. The solution converged to $`\mu _0=32.62\pm 0.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5\pm 0.1`$. Second, relaxing this constraint and optimizing all three parameters we have got $`E(BV)=0.34\pm 0.05`$, $`\mu _0=32.70\pm 0.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5\pm 0.05`$. These two solutions agree quite well and suggest that this SN belongs to the overluminous subclass of SNe Ia. Finally, forcing the solution only to the data around maximum (dropping the points at late epochs) resulted in $`E(BV)=0.32\pm 0.08`$, $`\mu _0=32.12\pm 0.2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=+0.14\pm 0.1`$. Thus, the data around maximum favour slightly positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and a shorter distance, while late-time photometry, which gives tighter constraint on $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, indicates strongly negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and a higher distance. The two solutions are significantly different from each other, the distance moduli of solution #2 and #3 differs by $`3\sigma `$. Of course, $`\mu _0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are strongly correlated parameters, a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (brighter SN) results in a larger distance modulus for the same $`E(BV)`$. Note that the application of MLCS-1 (the previous, linear version of the method), to the whole light curve resulted in $`E(BV)=0.30\pm 0.1`$, $`\mu _0=32.16\pm 0.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=+0.15\pm 0.1`$, which is closer to the MLCS-2 solution #3. This is due to the fact that the MLCS-1 fiducials produce brighter light curves at late phases than the MLCS-2 vectors, so a smaller $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is needed to fit the late data of SN 2000E. The parameters of these solutions are collected in Table 4.

Is it possible that SN 2000E had $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5`$? Such overluminous SNe Ia often belong to the “SN 1991T” subgroup, which show peculiar premaximum spectra: almost featureless continuum with no sign of Si or S, but a few ionized Fe lines (Filippenko, 1997). According to the description given in Sect.1, Si II, S II and Ca II could be identified in the premaximum spectra of SN 2000E, which argues against an SN 1991T-like object. The postmaximum spectra of such SNe are more-or-less normal, so the spectra of SN 2000E presented in Sect.2.2 cannot be used for identifying this subclass. On the other hand, there is an example of a strongly overluminous SN ($`\mathrm{\Delta }0.5`$), SN 1992bc, that otherwise had normal premaximum spectrum (Hamuy et al., (1992); Riess et al., (1998)). If the $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5`$ solution of MLCS-2 is true then SN 2000E might be similar to SN 1992bc.

How can we get closer to the “true” value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$? $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is constrained by both the shape of the light curve and the colour at maximum. SNe with $`\mathrm{\Delta }<0.1`$ show the bump in their $`I`$ light curve at later epochs than SNe with $`\mathrm{\Delta }0`$ do. Unfortunately, the observed $`I`$ curve of SN 2000E does not extend into the bump phase, so this constraint could not be applied. Alternative methods, such as the $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{15}(B)`$ decline rate of the early $`B`$ light curve (Phillips, (1993); Hamuy et al., 1996a ), or infrared $`JHK`$ photometric templates (Krisciunas et al., (2000)) could not be used for the same reason, i.e. the lack of the necessary data. The colour around maximum, in principle, may be indicative of a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, because overluminous SNe are bluer at maximum. However, this is distorted by reddening which must be determined separately to use this constraint. Uncertainty in the reddening would directly influence the inferred $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, especially in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }<0`$ domain, because a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ corresponds to less colour change than a positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in MLCS-2.

The fact that the early light curve of SN 2000E was very similar to that of a normal SN Ia makes the determination of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ very difficult from the present dataset. The result of $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5`$ greatly relies on our late-epoch photometry. Because at late epochs the light of the SN is more affected by the background of its host galaxy, an incorrect background subtraction could easily lead to brighter SN magnitudes, thus, suggesting a slower decline and a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. We have checked the efficiency of the background subtraction (Sect.2.1), still, such systematic error cannot be ruled out completely. Also, the standard transformation is more uncertain in the nebular phase, as mentioned in Sect.2. It is not possible to reach an unambiguous result at present. Thus, we conclude that the available data suggest that SN 2000E was overluminous at maximum, but otherwise showed normal spectral features, similarly to SN 1992bc.

### 3.3 The distance of NGC 6951

The MLCS analysis described above resulted in essentially two sets of distances to the host galaxy of SN 2000E. The “long” distance, corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5`$, is $`d`$ = 34 $`\pm `$ 2 Mpc (this uncertainity reflects simply the difference between the two solutions in Table 4), while the “short” distance is about $`d`$ = 26 $`\pm `$ 3 Mpc. The $`d`$ = 34 Mpc distance is more likely, but the “short” distance (meaning that SN 2000E was close to the fiducial SN Ia) cannot be ruled out.

The MLCS distances are tied to a Cepheid distance scale (Riess et al., (1996); Jha et al., (1999), and references therein). This can be checked by comparing the light curves and distance moduli of SN 2000E and SN 1998bu. As presented in Sect.2.1, the light curves of these two SNe differs by 1.88 mag uniformly in all $`VRI`$ bands. Rearranging the basic equation of the MLCS method, around maximum in $`V`$ filter one can get

$$\mu _0(E)=\mu _0(bu)+(m(E)m(bu))$$

$$(A_\mathrm{V}(E)A_\mathrm{V}(bu))R_\mathrm{v}(\mathrm{\Delta }(E)\mathrm{\Delta }(bu))$$
$`(5)`$
where $`E`$ denotes SN 2000E and $`bu`$ is for SN 1998bu and all symbols have their usual meaning (the $`Q\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ term is negligible around maximum). The terms on the right-hand side are $`\mu _0(bu)=30.37`$ mag (Jha et al., (1999)), $`m(E)m(bu)=1.88`$ mag (Sect.2.1), $`A_\mathrm{V}(E)A_\mathrm{V}(bu)=0.15`$ mag (adopting $`E(BV)=0.31`$ for SN 1998bu, Jha et al., (1999)), $`R_\mathrm{v}1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(E)\mathrm{\Delta }(bu)=0.52`$. These values give $`\mu _0(E)=32.62`$ mag, in good agreement with the MLCS result (Table 4). Similarly, the solutions #3 and #4 in Table 4 would give $`\mu _0(E)=32.08`$ mag which agrees with the MLCS distance modulus within the error. The small difference is attributed to the ambiguity of the Cepheid distance scale. For example, Gibson et al., (2000) derived $`\mu _0=30.20\pm 0.1`$ mag for the Cepheid distance modulus of M96, which differs by 0.17 mag from the value used by Jha et al., (1999). Using this for $`\mu _0(bu)`$ one could get systematically less distance modulus for SN 2000E. Accordingly, the SN-distances are uncertain by about 0.2 mag due to the uncertainties of the adopted distance scale. The discussion of the distance scale calibrations is beyond the scope of this paper.

The distance to NGC 6951 was finally calculated by adopting the average of the “long” distance moduli (32.70 by MLCS, 32.62 by the Jha et al.-distance to M96 and 32.45 by the Gibson et al.-distance to M96). The result is $`\mu _0=32.59\pm 0.1`$ mag, or $`33\pm 2`$ Mpc. Note that the similar average of the “short” distances results in 32.28 $`\pm `$ 0.2 mag, or 29 $`\pm `$ 3 Mpc.

The new distance of NGC 6951 is significantly larger (by about 0.7 mag, or 9 Mpc) than the previous Tully-Fisher distance estimates (see Sect.1). This is close to the “usual” systematic difference between the two distance scales (e.g. Riess et al., (1996)). Recently Shanks, (1997) proposed a modification of Tully-Fisher distances by adding 0.46 mag to T-F distance moduli to bring them into agreement with SNe Ia distances. This correction is less than the difference above, but it is known that the T-F distance moduli of individual galaxies can be uncertain by at least 0.3 - 0.4 mag. Naturally, the “short” distance given above would agree better with the T-F distances than the “long” distance. Note that a recent revision of the Cepheid distance scale by Gibson et al., (2000), suggests a better agreement with the Cepheid and T-F distance scales. Indeed, the distance of SN 2000E would agree with the previous T-F distance of NGC 6951 by Tully, (1988), if the SN were normal (i.e. not overluminous) and the distance scale of Gibson et al., (2000) was used.

The referee suggested a check of the inferred distance of NGC 6951 based on the measured redshift and the expected Hubble-flow at that distance. The SIMBAD catalogue gives $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}`$(NGC 6951) = 1424 kms-1. The galactic coordinates of this galaxy are $`l=100^{}.89`$ and $`b=14^{}.85`$, thus, the radial velocity in the galactic system is represented by a vector of (+365; +1352; $``$260) kms-1. The additive correction for the Milky Way motion within the Local Group can be computed as ($``$30; +297; $``$27) (Riess et al., (1996)). The drift of the Local Group with respect to the CMB can be approximated by adding (+10; $``$542; +300) (Smoot et al., (1992)) or (+57; $``$540; 313) (Kogut et al., (1993)). Both corrections results in $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}`$(NGC 6951) = 1307 kms-1 in the CMB rest frame. The expected Hubble-flow velocity at the inferred distance of NGC 6951 ($`d=33`$ Mpc) is 2145 kms-1 using $`H_0=65`$ kms-1Mpc-1. This is significantly larger than the corrected radial velocity of NGC 6951. However, it is not an unexpected result, because at this distance the observed radial velocities usually deviate from the smooth Hubble-flow. Note that using a recent estimate of the short-distance scale Hubble-constant $`H_0=76`$ (Jensen et al., (2000)) one would get $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}=2508`$ kms-1, increasing further the discrepancy. The shorter SN-distance (29 Mpc) with $`H_0=65`$ would lead to $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}=1885`$ kms-1, which is still higher than the observed rest-frame radial velocity. So, the conclusion is that NGC 6951 is probably too close to predict a reliable radial velocity from the smooth Hubble-flow.

### 3.4 Error budget

The overall error of the distance moduli determined above contains contribution from measurement errors (random and systematic) and the systematic uncertainties of several assumptions.

The standard deviation of the MLCS distance can be expressed as

$$\sigma _{\mu _0}^2=\sigma _m^2+\sigma _M^2+\sigma _{A_\mathrm{V}}^2+\sigma _R^2$$

where $`\sigma _m`$ and $`\sigma _M`$ are the uncertainties of the measured and the template $`V`$ light curve, $`\sigma _{A_\mathrm{V}}^2=3.1^2\sigma _{E(BV)}^2`$ and $`\sigma _R`$ is the uncertainty of the $`R_\mathrm{v}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ product (see Riess et al., (1996)). Assigning $`\sigma _m=0.05`$ mag (random), $`\sigma _M=0.15`$ mag (systematic zero-point error and random scattering of the template light curves), $`\sigma _{E(BV)}=0.15`$ mag (random measurement error and systematic uncertainty of the fiducial $`(BV)_0`$) and $`\sigma _R=0.1`$ (systematic) the result is $`\sigma _{\mu _0}=0.50\mathrm{mag}.`$ Note that this uncertainty does not contain the possible systematic error of the standard transformation of the SN-photometry.

The Cepheid-based distance via SN 1998bu has lower uncertainty, because in this case the errors of the parameter differences are considered. From Eq.4 the error can be expressed as

$$\sigma _{\mu _0}^2(E)=\sigma _{\mu _0}^2(bu)+\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }m}^2+\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }A}^2+R_{v}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}(\sigma _\mathrm{\Delta }^2(E)+\sigma _\mathrm{\Delta }^2(bu))$$

where $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }m}`$ is the error of the magnitude shift between the two sets of light curves, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }A}`$ is the uncertainty of the $`A_\mathrm{V}(E)A_\mathrm{V}(bu)`$ difference. These uncertainties are estimated as $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }m}=0.03`$, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }A}=0.1`$, $`\sigma _\mathrm{\Delta }(bu)=0.02`$ (Sect.3.3), $`\sigma _\mathrm{\Delta }(E)=0.1`$ (as above), and $`R_\mathrm{v}1`$ around maximum. The error of the distance modulus of SN 1998bu was considered to be $`\sigma _{\mu _0}(bu)=0.2`$ mag taking into account both random and systematic uncertainties (see Sect.3.3). Substituting these into the above expression, the result is $`\sigma _{\mu _0}=0.25\mathrm{mag}.`$

The uncertainties above do not contain the possible large systematic error of the luminosity parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (i.e. the problem of the “long” vs. “short” distances of SN 2000E). Clearly, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ has a crucial role in the distance determination, therefore, any systematic error in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ directly distorts the photometric distance. If we adopt a rather pessimistic viewpoint, and assign 0.5 mag to the systematic error of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (which would mean that the slower decline of SN 2000E is due to systematic errors in our photometry) the error of the MLCS distance modulus grows up to $`\sigma _{\mu _0}=0.71`$ mag, while the distance modulus via SN 1998bu has uncertainty of $`\sigma _{\mu _0}=0.56`$ mag.

The other factor that contributes significantly to the total uncertainty is the reddening $`E(BV)`$. It is multiplied by 3.1 to take into account the total absorption, which, unfortunately, greatly amplifies the overall uncertainty. Generally, SNe Ia are better distance indicators than the case presented here, because most of them have much lower reddening. However, it cannot be expected that $`all`$ SNe Ia have negligible reddening, thus, the uncertainties in $`E(BV)`$ can seriously disturb even the distances of relatively nearby SNe. Because the better understanding of SNe Ia greatly relies on the nearby, well-observed events, it is essential to work out reliable methods for the reddening determination. The increasing number of such objects would certainly help to solve this problem.

## 4 Summary

1. $`V(RI)_\mathrm{C}`$ photometry of SN 2000E in NGC 6951 was obtained starting from 1 week before maximum light and extending up to 150 days past maximum. The shape of the light curves and the objective-prism spectra collected at 1 month past maximum confirm the Type Ia nature of SN 2000E.
2. The reddening of the supernova is estimated from the comparison of the measured and expected $`(BV)`$ colour at late epochs (around 80 days past maximum). Two different template $`(BV)`$ curves were used resulting in $`E(BV)=0.36\pm 0.15`$ as an averaged final result. It is consistent with the prediction of the galactic reddening map of Schlegel et al., (1998). The error reflects the systematic uncertainties of the template colour curves at late epochs.
3. The distance of SN 2000E has been inferred from the second-order MLCS-method. The fitting to $`BV(RI)_\mathrm{C}`$ light curves resulted in $`\mu _0=32.70\pm 0.50`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5\pm 0.1`$ mag as true distance modulus and light curve parameter, respectively. The negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ suggests that SN 2000E was overluminous relative to the fiducial Type Ia supernova, but this is based on inhomogeneous, low signal-to-noise photometric data, thus, it may be systematically in error.
4. The similarity of the light curve of SN 2000E with that of SN 1998bu in M96 allowed us to tie the distance of SN 2000E to the $`HST`$ Cepheid distance scale. $`\mu _0=32.62`$ \- $`32.45\pm 0.26`$ mag was obtained depending on the adopted Cepheid-distance modulus of M96, which agrees with the MLCS-distance given above. Averaging the distance moduli of SN 2000E supplied by various methods, the estimated distance modulus becomes

$$\mu _0=32.59\pm 0.5\mathrm{mag}$$

corresponding to $`33\pm 8`$ Mpc geometric distance. The largest error sources in the distance estimates are the systematic errors in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`E(BV)`$. If the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ parameter of SN 2000E were determined incorrectly, the distance would be systematically lower and its uncertainty would grow up to $`\pm `$ 10 Mpc.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by Hungarian OTKA Grants No. T032258, T034615, the Magyary Postdoctoral Fellowship to JV from Foundation for Hungarian Education and Science (AMFK), the “Bolyai János” Research Scholarship to LLK from Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae Foundation (travel grants to BCs, KS and GySz). We are grateful to the referee, Dr. Kevin Krisciunas, who made several contributions that helped us to improve the paper. We acknowledge the permission by Prof. Adam Riess to use the updated MLCS template vectors for light curve fitting. Thanks are due to Konkoly Observatory and Calar Alto Observatory for generously allocating the necessary telescope time. The NASA Astrophysics Data System, the SIMBAD database and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre were used to access data and references. The availability of these services are gratefully acknowledged.


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# Thermoelectric power and transport properties of pure and Al-doped MgB2

## Abstract

We have measured the thermoelectric power, S, and resistivity, $`\rho `$, of pure and Al-doped MgB2. S is positive and increases linearly with temperature above the superconducting transition temperature, Tc. Deviations from the linear dependence appear at higher temperature, $`T>T_0160K`$. Tc and T0 both decrease with Al doping whereas the slope of S(T) in the linear range increases with the Al content. The data are discussed in terms of doping induced changes of the Fermi surface and the density of states at the Fermi level.

The recent discovery of superconductivity in $`MgB_2`$ at temperatures as high as 40 K has initiated a tremendous amount of experimental and theoretical activity with the goal to understand the basic mechanism of superconductivity in this exciting compound. Two competing models were proposed to account for the superconducting properties in $`MgB_2`$ and the high $`T_c`$ of 40 K. While both models attribute the superconductivity to the boron-sublattice conduction bands, the pairing mechanisms proposed differ significantly. Kortus et al. suggested a BCS-type mechanism with strong electron-phonon coupling and high phonon energy of the light boron atoms. This mechanism is supported by the observation of an isotope effect on $`T_c`$, a BCS-like superconducting gap structure, and a strong negative pressure coefficient of $`T_c`$. Alternatively, Hirsch proposed a ”universal” mechanism where superconductivity in $`MgB_2`$ is driven by the pairing of dressed holes. In fact, indications for hole type conduction in the normal phase were found in the positive thermoelectric power. The hole character of carriers was confirmed recently by Hall measurements and the similarities to high-$`T_c`$ superconductors have been discussed.

Magnetic susceptibility measurements on $`Mg_{1x}Al_xB_2`$ have shown that electron doping suppresses $`T_c`$ by a few degree for up to 10 % aluminum and superconductivity completely disappears due to a structural instability for $`x>0.1`$. This negative doping effect on $`T_c`$ could be explained by both pairing mechanisms discussed above. Within the BCS model the electron doping gives rise to an increase of the Fermi energy, $`E_F`$, and, according to the band structure calculations of $`MgB_2`$, to a decrease of the density of states, $`N(E_F)`$. This will result in a lower $`T_c`$. In the ”universal” mechanism, in analogy to high-$`T_c`$ cuprates, the electron doping will reduce the number of hole carriers. In the underdoped regime $`T_c`$ is also expected to decrease. However, for underdoped high-$`T_c`$ compounds it is well known that the pressure coefficient of $`T_c`$ is positive, contrary to the data for $`MgB_2`$. Thermoelectric power, $`S`$, and resistivity, $`\rho `$, may give some insight into the normal state conduction process and the electronic structure. We have, therefore, studied the temperature dependences of $`S`$ and $`\rho `$ of $`MgB_2`$ and the electron-doped solid solution, $`Mg_{1x}Al_xB_2`$ ($`x<0.1`$). The data reveal a linear temperature dependence of $`S`$ from $`T_c`$ up to $`T_0160K`$ typical for the diffusion thermopower of metals. The positive sign and the low absolute value of several $`\mu V/K`$ are characteristic for a hole type metallic conductor. However, the saturation of $`S`$ close to room temperature shows that a more detailed consideration of the structure of the Fermi surface is needed to understand the transport properties. The slope of the linear part of $`S(T)`$ changes with $`Al`$ doping and $`T_0`$ is reduced indicating changes in the Fermi surface due to the electron doping.

Polycrystalline $`Mg_{1x}Al_xB_2`$ samples were prepared by solid state reaction method as described earlier. X-ray powder diffraction spectra of the samples show a minor amount of MgO as an impurity phase. The samples were dense enough to be connected with indium pads to thin platinum wires and thermocouples for resistivity and thermopower measurements, respectively. The resistivity was measured by the standard four lead method using an ac resistance bridge, LR 700. For thermoelectric power measurements we used a home made apparatus and a sensitive ac technique with an accuracy of 0.1 to 0.2 $`\mu V/K`$. The room temperature resistivity, $`\rho `$, increases from about 70 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }cm`$ to 120 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }cm`$ upon doping to 10 % $`Al`$ (Fig. 1). This increase is compatible with the reduction of hole carriers. However, the absolute value of $`\rho `$ may strongly depend on porosity and grain boundary scattering since the samples exhibit some porosity. The inset in Fig. 1 shows the resistivity close to $`T_c`$. All three samples (x=0, 0.05, 0.1) show a sharp resistance drop with a transition width $`<0.5K`$. The decrease of $`T_c`$ by about 2 K for $`x=0.1`$ is in good agreement with the recent magnetization measurements.

The temperature dependence of the thermoelectric power for $`x=0`$, $`0.05`$, and $`0.1`$ is shown in Fig. 2. The three curves are separated by an offset of 2 $`\mu V/K`$ in order to better distinguish the data sets. The inset of Fig. 2 enlarges the superconducting transition region. The transitions are sharp ($`<`$0.5 K width). The $`T_c`$ decrease with increasing aluminum content, $`x`$, is consistent with the resistivity data and susceptibility experiments. Within the BCS theory the decrease of $`T_c`$ with increasing electron number may be explained as a density of states (DOS) effect. The Fermi energy, $`E_F`$, is close to an edge of rapidly decreasing DOS and any increase of $`E_F`$ due to $`Al`$-doping will result in a remarkable decrease of $`N(E_F)`$. In the BCS-description $`T_c`$ is given by the McMillan formula

$$T_c\omega \mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1.02\left(1+\lambda \right)}{\lambda \left(1\mu ^{}\right)\mu ^{}}\right]$$
(1)
where $`\omega `$ is the characteristic phonon frequency, $`\mu ^{}`$ the Coulomb repulsion, and $`\lambda =N\left(E_F\right)I^2/M\omega ^2`$ is the electron phonon coupling constant. $`I^2`$ is the averaged square of the electronic matrix element, $`M`$ the atomic mass, and $`\omega ^2`$ the averaged square of the phonon frequency. $`\lambda `$ decreases proportional to $`N\left(E_F\right)`$ resulting in a decrease of $`T_c`$. It should be noted that equation (1) was also used successfully to explain the observed decrease of $`T_c`$ with external pressure.

The most interesting features of the thermoelectric power are the positive sign, the overall small value and the linear dependence in the low temperature range (indicated by dashed lines in Fig. 2). The positive but small value is typical for hole type metals. This observation is supported by the results of band structure calculations. Although the Fermi surface of $`MgB_2`$ shows a complex structure with sheets of hole type as well as electron type states, it appears that the hole states dominate in the low temperature ($`T<T_0`$) electronic transport. Recent Hall measurements also provide evidence for predominantly hole type conduction in $`MgB_2`$ and extended band structure calculations have shown that the positive Hall coefficient is the result of a superposition of positive and negative components in the polycrystalline sample. Considering the linear $`ST`$ dependence below 160 K, one is tempted to interpret the low temperature part as the diffusion thermopower, $`S_d`$, of hole type metals. In fact, according to the Mott formula the diffusion thermopower is linear in $`T`$ if higher order corrections are neglected:

$$S_d=\frac{\pi ^2k^2T}{3e}\left[\frac{\mathrm{ln}\sigma \left(\epsilon \right)}{\epsilon }\right]_{E_F}$$
(2)
$`k`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`e`$ is the charge of the carriers, and $`\sigma \left(\epsilon \right)`$ is a conductivity like function for electrons of energy $`\epsilon `$. At low temperatures, in the residual resistance region, the carrier relaxation time is limited by impurity scattering and the logarithmic derivative in equ. 2 is simply $`E_F^1`$ leading to the expression for $`S_d`$

$$S_d=\frac{\pi ^2k^2T}{3eE_F}$$
(3)
Here $`E_F`$ is the Fermi energy calculated from the edge of the conduction band. However, it is not expected that this simple formula is valid in the whole temperature range. First of all, in deriving equation 3 a spherical Fermi surface was assumed and a $`T`$-independent relaxation time was adapted. This approximation limits the application of (3) to low temperatures, i.e. the residual resistance region. Band structure calculations show that the Fermi surface of $`MgB_2`$ is far from being spherical and, in particular, also reflects the anisotropy of the layered structure. Secondly, the deviation from linearity at $`T_0`$ and the saturation of $`S`$ close to room temperature cannot be explained by (3). This phenomenon seems to be related to the complexity of the Fermi surface and the existence of electron type sheets. These minor carriers may add a negative contribution to the Seebeck coefficient that increases at higher temperature. For the $`Al`$ doped samples the crossover temperature, $`T_0`$, clearly decreases to about 130 K ($`x=0.05`$) and 118 K ($`x=0.1`$). However, for temperatures $`T<T_0`$ the experimental data perfectly follow the linear relation (3) and the temperature dependence of resistivity is small (indicating that impurity scattering is dominating). Assuming that electronic transport in this range is due to hole carriers in the $`\sigma `$ bands we can use equation 3 to estimate the Fermi energy for these $`\sigma `$ holes (for hole carriers this energy has to be referenced to the top of the $`\sigma `$ bands). For $`MgB_2`$ the slope of $`S(T)`$ below 160 K is $`0.042\mu V/K^2`$ and, according to (3), $`E_{F\sigma }=0.57eV`$. This value is in fair agreement with the difference between the Fermi energy and the top of the $`\sigma `$ bands of about $`0.9eV`$ calculated by Suzuki et al. for $`MgB_2`$. With increasing doping the slope of $`S(T)`$ also increases to $`0.047\mu V/K^2`$ (x=0.05) and $`0.050\mu V/K^2`$ (x=0.1) indicating a decrease of $`E_{F\sigma }`$ by about $`16\%`$ ($`x=0.1`$). This decrease is in very good quantitative agreement with the calculated $`17\%`$ for $`Mg_{0.9}Al_{0.1}B_2`$. The results of this paragraph show that despite the complex structure of the Fermi surface, the transport properties of pure and $`Al`$ doped $`MgB_2`$ in the low temperature range are more similar to a conventional hole type metal.

It is interesting to note that there is obviously no phonon drag contribution to the thermoelectric power of $`Mg_{1x}Al_xB_2`$ (Fig. 2). The phonon drag effect is most common for pure metals and results in an enhancement of $`S`$ in the low temperature region. The absence of this contribution in $`MgB_2`$ has yet to be explained. The predominantly linear temperature dependence of $`S(T)`$ is similar to the thermopower of disordered metals where the phonon heat current is suppressed. Disorder could be introduced by high porosity, defects, impurities, or the dopants ($`Al`$) itself. In spite of the fact that the linearity $`ST`$ is most pronounced in the pure $`MgB_2`$ where there is no $`Al`$ on $`Mg`$ sites it is unlikely that the disorder induced by dopants may explain the absence of a phonon drag contribution to $`S`$.

We have not considered yet the possible anisotropy of the Seebeck coefficient. The thermoelectric tensor of hexagonal materials has two independent coefficients corresponding to measurements made parallel ($`S_{}`$) and perpendicular ($`S_{}`$) to the hexagonal axis. Both coefficients can be quite different, as shown for some hexagonal metals.  Data from polycrystalline samples can only be considered as an average over all possible grain orientations. For example, $`S_{}`$ and $`S_{}`$ of $`Zn`$ are both nonlinear and of very different values over a large temperature range, 0$`<`$T$`<`$300 K. Discussions of the Hall coefficients indicate a strong anisotropy in different crystallographic directions. From the shape of the $`MgB_2`$ Fermi surface it could be expected that the Seebeck coefficient is anisotropic. Note that the hole type areas form cylinders (bonding $`p_{x,y}`$ bands) running along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }A\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and a perpendicular tubular network (bonding $`p_z`$ bands) whereas the electron type sheets form only a tubular network in the plane perpendicular to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }A\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (antibonding $`p_z`$ bands). This anisotropy should be more obvious at higher temperature where the scattering is determined by phonons. In the low temperature impurity scattering range and in the absence of the phonon drag contribution the Seebeck coefficient is expected to show less anisotropy. In the lack of $`MgB_2`$ single crystals it appears difficult to measure the anisotropy of the thermopower. However, c-axis oriented thin films of $`MgB_2`$ may be used to extract the in-plane Seebeck coefficient, $`S_{}`$.

In conclusion, the resistivity and thermoelectric power of pure and $`Al`$-doped polycrystalline $`MgB_2`$ have been measured. The decrease of $`T_c`$ with $`Al`$ doping previously deducted from susceptibility measurements was confirmed. The Seebeck coefficient of undoped $`MgB_2`$ was found to increase linearly with temperature from $`T_c`$ to about 160 K. This increase, the positive sign, and the overall small value of $`S`$ are compatible with the assumption that $`Mg_{1x}Al_xB_2`$ is a hole type normal metal. This result is further supported by the increase of the slope of $`S(T)`$ with electron doping. Deviations from linearity at higher temperatures are discussed in terms of a contribution from electron like sheets of the Fermi surface. The origin of the missing phonon drag contribution is still an open question. The Seebeck coefficient of $`MgB_2`$ may be anisotropic and measurements of single crystals or oriented thin films are required. The current data yield indirect support of the BCS mechanism for the superconducting transition.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported in part by NSF Grant No. DMR-9804325, MRSEC/NSF Grant No. DMR-9632667, the T. L. L. Temple Foundation, the John and Rebecca Moores Endowment, and the State of Texas through the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston; and at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Basic Sciences, Division of Material Sciences of the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC0376SF00098.


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# Memory and chaos in an Ising spin glass

## I Introduction

In the droplet model of spin glasses (SG), the equilibrium dynamics is governed by low energy excitations from the ground state (droplets). If a weak magnetic field - weak enough not to affect the system - is applied, the equilibrium system is magnetized via polarization of droplets of ever increasing size. However, the droplet model SG phase is chaotic in the sense that the equilibrium configuration is unstable to any temperature change $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ (or change in the distribution of the interaction) and thus has to rearrange after such a perturbation. For example, after a quench from the paramagnetic phase into the spin glass phase the system is trapped in a random non-equilibrium spin configuration which slowly equilibrates (ages). The aging occurs via droplet excitations which equilibrate the spin configuration on larger and larger length scales, causing the spin glass correlation length to grow. Also, the equilibrium configurations at two different temperatures $`T`$ and $`T+\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ are only different on large length scales, outside an overlap region.
It is observed experimentally that if an equilibrium SG configuration is imprinted up to a certain length scales (age) by keeping the spin glass a certain time at constant temperature, this length scale is conserved even though new configurations on shorter length scales are imprinted at other (lower) temperatures. Manifestations of memory and chaos in spin glasses have been observed in the relaxation and temperature dependence of the low frequency ac-susceptibility in thermal protocols containing halts at constant temperature, as well as in temperature cycling experiments. In addition, signatures of memory and chaos have been demonstrated in simple dc-magnetization vs. temperature measurements on a standard RKKY spin glass, Ag(Mn). In the present report the model 3d Ising spin-glass, Fe0.55Mn0.45TiO3, is investigated using dc-magnetization experiments. The temperature dependence, as well as the relaxation of the zero field cooled (ZFC) magnetization is recorded after specific cooling protocols. The results evidence memory and chaos phenomena in agreement with the predictions from the droplet model for the chaotic SG phase.

## II Experimental

The ZFC magnetization of a single crystal of Fe0.55Mn0.45TiO3 was recorded versus temperature and time in a non-commercial low-field SQUID magnetometer. This spin glass is considered as a canonical short-range Ising spin-glass, with a SG transition temperature $`T_g`$ $``$ 22 K. In the experiments, the cooling of the sample was interrupted by stop(s) at constant temperature. In the case of single stop experiments (SSE), the sample was first rapidly cooled in zero magnetic field from a reference temperature $`T_{ref}`$ $`>`$ $`T_g`$ down to the stop temperature $`T_s`$ $`<`$ $`T_g`$, where it was kept for $`t_s`$=3000s (and other durations). The cooling was then resumed down to the lowest temperature where the magnetic field $`h`$=1 Oe was applied, and the magnetization recorded on re-heating. In the double stops experiments (DSE) case, an equally long second temperature stop was made at $`T_s^{}`$ $`<`$ $`T_s`$. A reference curve was recorded after direct cooling of the sample to the lowest temperature.
The same cooling protocols were employed in the relaxation measurements. After re-heating to the measurement temperature $`T_m`$, and a wait time of $`t_w`$=10s, a magnetic field $`\mathrm{\Delta }h`$=2 Oe was applied, and the magnetization recorded vs. time elapsed after the field application. In the SSE protocol, a 3000s stop was made a $`T_s`$=$`T_m`$ \- the experiment is thus comparable to a short negative temperature cycling - while in the DSE, two 3000s stops were made at $`T_s`$ and $`T_s^{}`$ $`<`$ $`T_s`$, and the relaxation measured at both $`T_m`$=$`T_s`$ and $`T_m`$=$`T_s^{}`$. Reference measurements (RE) were performed at $`T_m`$ by cooling the sample directly to the lowest temperature, and recording $`M`$ vs. time in $`\mathrm{\Delta }h`$=2 Oe after re-heating the sample to $`T_m`$ and employing the wait time of $`t_w`$=10s. “Conventional” ZFC relaxation measurements, in which the sample was only rapidly cooled to $`T_m`$, with $`t_w`$=3000s, were performed for comparison and to ensure that the magnitude of the field was low enough to give a linear response from the system.
The dc magnetic field was applied along the $`c`$-axis of the single-crystal. It is generated by a small superconductive solenoid coil working in persistent mode during measurements. The time constant of the superconducting magnet is of order 1 ms, but the whole procedure to change the field from $`h`$ to $`h+\mathrm{\Delta }h`$ and re-establish persistent mode in the magnet takes $``$ 0.2 s which also determines the shortest observation time in the relaxation experiments. Apart from the stops at constant temperature, the cooling rate was $``$ 4K/min, and the heating rate of the order of 1K/min.

## III Results and discussion

Figure 1 illustrates the effects on the ZFC magnetization of a stop at constant temperature during the cooling. As seen in Fig. 1(a), the curve corresponding to the SSE experiments lies significantly below the reference one. This shows that when the system is left unperturbed at constant temperature $`T_s`$ it rearranges its spin configuration toward the equilibrium one for this temperature. The equilibrated state becomes frozen in on further cooling, and is retrieved on re-heating. In other terms, the system remembers its age or shows a memory phenomenon. It should be mentioned that the weak magnetic field only acts as a weak perturbation and has basically no influence on the intrinsic equilibration (aging) of the spin configuration at $`T_s`$. Similar effects would be obtained for example with an ac-field (as in conventional memory experiments) or when keeping a non-zero magnetic field when performing the stop. This will also be evidenced in the relaxation measurements described below. Fig. 1(b) presents the difference curves obtained by subtracting from the reference the SSE curves obtained for different stop times $`t_s`$. The stop times are chosen logarithmically spaced, and one immediately observes that the minimum of the different curves are closely equidistant from each other in magnitude, indicating logarithmic relaxation. The advantage of the dc-method to expose fundamental SG features in this simple way has also been demonstrated for other glassy systems.
The effects of two stops during cooling are now studied. Fig. 2 shows the results of DSE at $`T_{s1}`$=21K and $`T_{s2}`$=17K. The main frame shows the difference plots for the DSE, as well as the corresponding SSE. The inset depicts the original ZFC magnetization curves before subtraction from the reference. Comparing the DSE curve with the corresponding SSE ones in the main frame, it is clear that the relaxation at $`T_{s1}`$=21K is not affected by the second stop at lower temperature and reciprocally, the aging at $`T_{s2}`$ is not influenced by the first equilibration at the higher temperature. This illustrates again the memory and temperature chaos features. During the first stop, the system reaches a characteristic age - or length scale. This age is conserved on further cooling, even if the system is again aged at lower temperature toward its equilibrium state at this temperature. The state equilibrated at the higher temperature thus survives the spin re-configuration occurring at lower temperature on shorter length scales, and the system remembers its initial high temperature state on re-heating. Of course, if the stop at lower temperature is performed for a much longer time, allowing the correlations to develop on longer length scales, a partial re-initialization of the spin configuration would occur, unmasking the two different length scales characteristic of the two aging processes. It is of interest to note that recent theoretical work based on the droplet picture in a chaotic landscape can reproduce the experimentally observed rejuvenation and memory phenomena.
For comparison, The relaxation of the ZFC magnetization is investigated using the same cooling protocols as in the $`M`$ vs. $`T`$ measurements. Fig. 3 shows the relaxation curves obtained at $`T_m`$=19K (to compare with the single stop depicted in Fig. 1(a)). The different curves are measured in an applied field of 2 Oe according to the following protocols: 1, no stop was made during cooling to the lowest temperature and the magnetic field was applied 10 s after $`T_m`$ was reached on re-heating; 2, additionally to procedure 1 a stop was made for 3000 s at $`T_m`$ during cooling and 3, a conventional relaxation experiment at $`T_m`$ employing a wait time of 3000 s before applying the field. One notices that at observation times of $``$10-30s (corresponding to the effective observation time of the magnetization measurement on heating) and longer, curve 2 lies significantly below curve 1 as is also the case for the SSE magnetization compared to the no stop magnetization in Fig. 1(a)). It also shows that the SSE curve is almost indistinguishable from the curve recorded on a 3000s old system in a “conventional” ZFC relaxation measurement (curve 3). To illustrate the relative non-importance of the measurement field, the relaxation measurements illustrated in Fig. 3(a) are repeated, but cooling the system in the field $`h_i`$=1 Oe, and recording the magnetization with $`h_i`$+2 Oe=3 Oe. The additional field cooled (FC) relaxation is small, and as seen in Fig. 3(b), the results are virtually unaffected by the presence of an initial field during the cooling and equilibration time.
The DSE shown in Fig. 2 can also be mimicked by relaxation measurements, as illustrated in Fig. 4. Curve 1 and 2 (resp 1b and 2b) correspond to SSE at (a)$`T_s`$=$`T_m`$=21K and (b)$`T_s`$=$`T_m`$=17K. Curve 3 and 3b correspond instead to the DSE case, with stops at $`T_{s1}`$=21K and $`T_{s2}`$=17K, measuring the relaxation at (a)$`T_m`$=21K or (b)$`T_m`$=17K. As indicated in the $`M`$ vs. $`T`$ measurements, the relaxation after the SSE and DSE protocols are virtually identical, illustrating again chaos and memory characteristics of the spin glass phase.
Note on the relaxation measurements. Looking again at Fig. 2, one notices that the relaxation ’dips’ created in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }M`$ vs. $`T`$ curves are rather broad, which makes it difficult to repeat DSE with closer stop temperatures. In that case, the relaxation experiments which are here used mainly to confirm the temperature dependent magnetization measurements, would yield more information on the interference and overlap effects.

## IV Conclusion

Using simple dc-magnetization measurements, performed after specific cooling protocols, memory and temperature chaos features are revealed in an Ising spin glass. The results are confirmed by relaxation measurements. It would be of interest to overcome the large overlap observed in Monte Carlo simulations and reproduce these results by studying the correlation function at some temperature, after equilibration at a higher one.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was financially supported by The Swedish Natural Science Research Council (NFR).


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# Influence of quantum fluctuations on zero-temperature phase transitions between collinear and noncollinear states in frustrated spin systems

## Abstract

We study a square-lattice spin-half Heisenberg model where frustration is introduced by competing nearest-neighbor bonds of different signs. We discuss the influence of quantum fluctuations on the nature of the zero-temperature phase transitions from phases with collinear magnetic order at small frustration to phases with noncollinear spiral order at large frustration. We use the coupled cluster method (CCM) for high orders of approximation (up to LSUB6) and the exact diagonalization of finite systems (up to 32 sites) to calculate ground-state properties. The role of quantum fluctuations is examined by comparing the ferromagnetic-spiral and the antiferromagnetic-spiral transition within the same model. We find clear evidence that quantum fluctuations prefer collinear order and that they may favour a first order transition instead of a second order transition in case of no quantum fluctuations.

Introduction. While quantum fluctuations do not influence the critical properties of phase transitions at $`T>0`$ they play an important role at $`T=0`$ and can yield to quantum phase transitions, which have attracted a lot of attention in recent times (see, e.g., Ref. qpt, ). Quantum fluctuations arise due to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and play a similar role as thermal fluctuations (for $`T>0`$) in classical transitions. The spin-half Heisenberg model is a basic model which shows strong quantum fluctuations in the antiferromagnetic case. While the ground-state of the pure Heisenberg antiferromagnet (HAFM) on the square lattice shows Néel long-range ordermanou91  (LRO), a competition of bonds can increase quantum fluctuations and may result in rotationally invariant paramagnetic states, suppressing the (collinear) Néel order. This is demonstrated by recent experiments on (quasi-)two-dimensional Heisenberg systems, like CaV4O9 (see, e.g., Refs. tanigu95, ; troyer96, ) or SrCu2(BO3)2 (see, e.g., Refs. kageyama99, ; koga00a, ).

Besides local singlet formation magnetic frustration is an important mechanism to drive zero-temperature transitions. In the classical Heisenberg model strong frustration often leads to noncollinear (e.g., spiral) spin states which may or may not have counterparts in the quantum case. It is generally argued that quantum fluctuations prefer a collinear ordering. A typical example is the frustrated spin-half $`J_1J_2`$ model on the square lattice (see, e.g., Refs. ri93, ; oitmaa96, ; Bishop6, ; sushkov, ; sorella00, ). Here the classical version of the $`J_1J_2`$ model has a continuously degenerate ground state for $`J_2>J_1/2`$, but quantum fluctuations can remove this degeneracy yielding to a collinear state (“order from disorder” phenomenon, see, e.g., Refs. prakash90, ; kubo90, ). Moreover quantum fluctuations can shift the critical point of a collinear-noncollinear transition so that the collinear state can survive into a region where classically it is already unstable.ivanov98 ; richter00 ; krueger00

In this paper we extend our previous work,krueger00  where we have studied the transition from a collinear Néel order to noncollinear spiral order in a frustrated spin-half HAFM and consider now the transition form a collinear ferromagnetic order to a noncollinear spiral order within the same model. While in the classical version of the model both situations can be mapped onto each other the quantum model behaves basically different in both cases. That is because of the different nature of the collinear state: While the quantum Néel state on two-dimensional lattices exhibits strong quantum fluctuations (the sublattice magnetization of the HAFM on the square lattice is only about 60% of its classical value) the ferromagnetic state is the same for the quantum and the classical model and there are no quantum fluctuations in this state.

We use the coupled cluster methodcoester58 ; bishop91  (CCM) and exact diagonalization of finite systems to calculate the ground state. The CCM is a very powerful method and, particularly high-order implementations of this method can be used to obtain a consistent description of various aspects of quantum spin systems (for an overview see, for example, Refs. bishop91a, ; Bishop2, ; Farnell2, ; zeng98, ; bishop99, ; bishop00, ). We note that another important method for spin systems, the quantum Monte Carlo method, cannot be used for frustrated spin systems since it suffers from the minus sign problem.

The model. We consider a spin-half Heisenberg model on a square lattice with two kinds of nearest neighbour bonds $`J`$ and $`J^{}`$, as shown in Fig. 1,

$$H=J\underset{ij_1}{}𝐒_i𝐒_j+J^{}\underset{ij_2}{}𝐒_i𝐒_j.$$
(1)
The sums over $`<ij>_1`$, and $`<ij>_2`$ represent sums over the nearest-neighbour bonds shown in Fig. 1 by dashed and solid lines, respectively. Each square-lattice plaquette consists of three $`J`$ bonds and one $`J^{}`$ bond. A model with such a zigzag pattern has been treated with various methods.krueger00 ; singh88 ; ivanov96

In this paper we consider only the cases in which $`J`$ and $`J^{}`$ have different signs (i.e., one bond is ferromagnetic while the other is antiferromagnetic) so that the plaquettes are frustrated. The case with antiferromagnetic $`J`$ bonds (i.e., $`J>0`$ and hence $`J^{}<0`$) has been studied previously using linear spin wave theory,ivanov96  exact diagonalization and coupled cluster method.krueger00  We therefore focus in this paper our attention mainly on the ferromagnetic case (i.e., $`J<0`$ and $`J^{}>0`$) but compare the obtained results with those of the antiferromagnetic case.

Classical ground state. We consider the ground state of the classical version of model (1), i.e., the spins $`𝐒_i`$ are assumed to be classical vectors. For $`|J^{}|<|J|/3`$ (and $`J`$ and $`J^{}`$ having different signs) the ground state of (1) is collinear (i.e., ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic depending on the sign of $`J`$). At the critical point $`J_c^{}=J/3`$, a second-order transition takes place from the collinear state to a noncollinear state of spiral nature (see Fig. 1), with a characteristic pitch angle $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\pm |\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{cl}}|`$ given by

$$|\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{cl}}|=\{\begin{array}{cc}0\hfill & |J^{}|<\frac{|J|}{3}\hfill \\ \mathrm{arccos}\left(\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{1+\frac{1}{|J^{}|}}\right)\hfill & |J^{}|\frac{|J|}{3}\hfill \end{array}.$$
(2)
Note that for $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0`$ this is the collinear state.

The spins $`\text{S}_A`$ and $`\text{S}_B`$, belonging to the $`A`$ and $`B`$ sublattices respectively, can be expressed in terms of the spiral $`𝐤`$ vectorkrueger00  with $`𝐤=(2\mathrm{\Phi },0)`$ (and see Fig. 1). We note that this spiral state is incommensurate in the $`x`$-direction. We also note that for the classical model the antiferromagnetic case can be transformed into the ferromagnetic case by the simultaneous substitution $`JJ`$, $`J^{}J^{}`$, $`𝐒_{iB}𝐒_{iB}`$. Hence the physics for both cases is classically the same.

Calculation of the quantum ground state. To calculate the quantum ground state of the Hamiltonian (1) we use the CCM. Details concerning the treatment of the model (1) with the CCM are given in Ref. krueger00, . We use the CCM for high orders of approximation up to LSUB6 (using 1638 fundamental configurations).

We further exactly diagonalize finite lattices of rectangular shape ($`L_x\times L_y=4\times 4,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}6}\times 4,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}8}\times 4`$) using periodic boundary conditions. The longer side $`L_x`$ of the rectangle corresponds to the direction of the $`J^{}`$ bonds and so we can diminish the influence of the boundary conditions by an increase of $`L_x`$.

The collinear-noncollinear transition. While classically we have always a second-order phase transition from collinear order to noncollinear order at $`J_c^{}=J/3`$, we obtain for the quantum case a different behaviour for the ferromagnetic and the antiferromagnetic case.

Using the CCM we find for the antiferromagnetic case ($`J=+1`$) indications for a shift of this critical point to a value $`J_c^{}1.35`$ (see Fig. 4). On the other hand for the ferromagnetic case ($`J=1`$) we do not find such a shift (see Fig. 4). The exact diagonalization (ED) data of the structure factor $`S(𝐤)`$ (see Figs. 2 and 3) agree to these findings. For $`J=+1`$ (see Fig. 2) the collinear Néel order \[$`𝐤=(0,0)`$\] becomes unstable against the noncollinear spiral order \[$`𝐤=(\pi /4,0)`$\] in the classical model for $`J^{}0.36`$ but in the quantum case only for $`J^{}0.95`$. The situation for the ferromagnetic case ($`J=1`$) is again different. Here the results of the structure factor (see Fig. 3) show that the transition from $`𝐤=(0,0)`$ (collinear ferromagnetic order) to $`𝐤=(\pi /4,0)`$ (spiral order) takes place at nearly the same value of $`J^{}0.36`$ for both, the classical case and the quantum case.

Taking the deviation of the on-site magnetic moment $`S_i`$ from its classical value $`S_i_{\mathrm{cl}}=1/2`$ as an indication for the degree of quantum fluctuations we can compare the strength of quantum fluctuation near the collinear-noncollinear transitions for both, the antiferromagnetic and the ferromagnetic case. As reported in Ref. krueger00,  for $`J=+1`$ the quantum fluctuations are particularly strong near the antiferromagnetic-spiral transition leading to an on-site magnetic moment less then 20% of its classical value. On the other hand, it can be seen from Fig. 5 that the on-site magnetic moment takes its classical value $`1/2`$ up to $`J^{}0.36`$ for $`J=1`$ and therefore virtually no quantum fluctuations occur at the ferromagnetic-spiral transition. Hence the shift of the critical $`J_c^{}`$ in the antiferromagnetic case can clearly be attributed to the strong quantum fluctuations. In general our findings are consistent with the statement that quantum fluctuations (which we have in the antiferromagnetic case only) prefer a collinear ordering, so that in this case the quantum collinear state can survive into a frustrated region where classically the collinear state is already unstable.

We further note an agreement between the CCM results and the ED results beyond the critical $`J_c^{}`$. By examining the structure factors (see Figs. 2 and 3) we find that for the antiferromagnetic (respectively ferromagnetic) case the transitions to a spiral state with a greater $`𝐤`$ vector (i.e., with a greater pitch angle $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$) occur in the quantum model always at a greater (respectively smaller) absolute value of $`J^{}`$ then the corresponding classical transitions. This agrees with the CCM results of the pitch angle (see Fig. 4), where we have $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{qm}}<\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{cl}}`$ (respectively $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{qm}}>\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{cl}}`$).

The discussion given above corresponds to our finding concerning the order of the transition. Clearly in the ferromagnetic case ($`J^{}=1`$) both the classical and the quantum model show a second-order phase transition (see Figs. 4 and 5). On the other hand it was discussed in Ref. krueger00,  that the collinear-noncollinear transition in the antiferromagnetic case ($`J=+1`$) is probably a first-order phase transition for the quantum model (c.f., Fig. 4) in difference to the second-order transition in the classical case.

Formation of local singlets. For sufficient strong antiferromagnetic $`J^{}`$ bonds the system (1) is characterized by a tendency to singlet pairing of the two spins coupled by a $`J^{}`$ bond and hence the long-range magnetic (collinear or noncollinear) order is destroyed. We obtain clear indications of a second-order phase transition to a quantum paramagnetic dimerized phase at a certain critical value of $`J^{}=J_s^{}`$. For $`J^{}>J_s^{}`$ the on-site magnetic moment $`S_i`$ becomes zero. For the ferromagnetic case ($`J=1`$) we find $`J_s^{}1`$ using the extrapolated CCM-LSUB$`n`$ results (see Fig. 5). We may also consider the inflection points of $`S_i`$ versus $`J^{}`$ for the LSUB$`n`$ approximations, assuming that the true curve will have a negative curvature up to the critical point. We find the corresponding inflection points at $`J^{}1.2`$ ($`n=2`$), $`J^{}0.76`$ ($`n=4`$) and $`J^{}0.74`$ (n=6), indicating a critical $`J_s^{}`$ even slightly smaller then $`J_s^{}1`$.

The ED data give a similar approximation of $`J_s^{}`$: For $`J^{}1`$ finite-size effects in spin-spin correlations disappear almost completely (see for illustration Fig. 6). This indicates that spin-spin correlations are short ranged with a length scale smaller than the size $`L_x`$.

We note that for the antiferromagnetic case ($`J=+1`$) the strength of antiferromagnetic $`J^{}`$ needed for breaking Néel order by formation of local singlets is much larger ($`J_s^{}3`$, see Ref. krueger00, ). The lower critical $`J_s^{}1`$ in the ferromagnetic case is due to frustration which assists local singlet formation (c.f., Ref. gros95, ; wei97, ).

Summary. Using the CCM and the ED technique we have studied the influence of quantum fluctuations on zero-temperature transitions between collinear ordered and noncollinear ordered states in a frustrated spin-half square-lattice Heisenberg model with two kinds of nearest-neighbour exchange bonds. The frustration drives a second-order transition between collinear (antiferro- or ferromagnetic) and noncollinear (spiral) states in the classical model. For the quantum model the CCM provides a consistent description of collinear, noncollinear, and disordered phases, while some other standard techniques (e.g., QMC) are not applicable. We find a strong influence of quantum fluctuations on the nature of the collinear-noncollinear transition, and quantum fluctuations (which favour collinear ordering) may change the second-order classical transition to a first-order quantum transition. If quantum fluctuations are suppressed in the collinear phase of the quantum model, the transition to the spiral phase is similar for the quantum and for the classical model.

Acknowledgments. We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Ri 615/9-1) for its support. We are indebted to J. Schulenburg for numerical assistance.


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# 𝐽/𝜓 suppression at SPS and RHIC in the comovers approach

## Abstract

The NA50 collaboration data on the $`J/\psi `$ suppression are compared with the results obtained in a comovers approach based on the Dual Parton Model (DPM). Predictions for the $`J/\psi `$ suppression versus the charged multiplicity – measured in the rapidity region of the dimuon trigger – are given for SPS and RHIC energies.

(presented by A. Capella)

The NA50 collaboration has observed an anomalous $`J/\psi `$ suppression in $`Pb`$ $`Pb`$ collisions i.e. a suppression that exceeds the one expected from the extrapolation of the $`pA`$ and $`SA`$ data, and exhibits an interesting centrality pattern. These data  have been interpreted either as the result of one (or two) deconfining phase transition(s) or as due to the interaction with comovers. Our aim is to examine to what extent the observed pattern can be reproduced in the latter approach. Here, the $`J/\psi `$ survival probability is the product of two factors $`S_{abs}(b,s)S_{co}(b,s)`$. The first factor represents the suppression due to nuclear absorption of the $`c\overline{c}`$ pair. Its expression, given by the probabilistic Glauber model, is well known. It contains a parameter, the absorptive cross-section $`\sigma _{abs}`$. The second factor $`S_{co}(b,s)`$ represents the suppression resulting from the interaction with comovers. Its expression  is

$$S_{co}(b,s)=\mathrm{exp}\left\{\sigma _{co}N_{y_{DT}}(b,s)\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{N_{y_{DT}}^{co}(b,s)}{N_f}\right]\right\}.$$
(1)
Here $`N_y^{co}`$ represents the density of comovers (positive negative and neutrals) in the rapidity region of the dimuon trigger ($`0<y^{}<1`$). We determine it in the Dual Parton Model (see Eq. (3) below). $`N_f=1.15`$ fm-2 is the corresponding density in $`pp`$, and $`\sigma _{co}`$ is an averaged interaction cross-section. In the calculations below we take $`\sigma _{co}=1`$ mb and $`\sigma _{abs}=4.5`$ mb.

In this way we can compute the $`J/\psi `$ suppression at each impact parameter. However, experimentally, the ratio of $`J/\psi `$ over DY is plotted as a function of either $`E_T`$ or the energy of the zero degree calorimeter $`E_{ZDC}`$. $`E_T`$ is the transverse energy of neutrals deposited in the NA50 calorimeter, located in the backward hemisphere ($`1.1<y_{lab}<2.3`$). Using the proportionality between $`E_T`$ and multiplicity, we have

$$E_T(b)=\frac{1}{3}qN_{y_{cal}}^{co}(b).$$
(2)
Here the multiplicity of comovers is determined in the rapidity region of the NA50 calorimeter. The factor 1/3 is introduced because only the energy of neutrals is recorded. In this way $`q`$ is close to the transverse energy per particle, but it contains also the calibration of the calorimeter. From a fit to the $`E_T`$ distribution we obtain $`q=0.6`$ GeV. An alternative determination of $`q`$ is obtained from the measured correlation between $`E_T`$ and $`E_{ZDC}`$ (see below). The latter is defined as $`E_{ZDC}(b)=[An_A(b)]E_{in}`$. Here $`n_A`$ is the number of participants of nucleus, $`An_A`$ the number of spectators, and $`E_{in}`$ = 158 GeV is the beam energy. We see from Eqs. (1) and (2) that, in order to describe the centrality dependence of the $`J/\psi `$ suppression, it is paramount to have a good description of the $`b`$ dependence of $`N_y^{co}`$ – both in the rapidity region of the dimuon trigger and in the one of the $`E_T`$ calorimeter. The $`b`$-dependence of charged multiplicity at mid-rapidities has been measured at SPS and RHIC. It has been shown in  that these data are well described in DPM, where the multiplicity is given by a linear combination of the number of participants and the number of binary collisions

$$N_y^{co}(b)=A_y(b)n_A(b)+B_y(b)n(b)$$
(3)
with coefficients that depend on $`b`$ and $`y`$ and can be calculated in the model. Their values at mid-rapidities are given in . Using Eq. (3), with coefficients calculated in the rapidity region of the calorimeter, we obtain  a good description of the measured $`E_TE_{ZDC}`$ correlation with $`q=0.6`$ GeV (Fig. 1)111In  an approximation was made in which the dependence on $`b`$ of the coefficients $`A`$ and $`B`$ was dropped. Moreover, a two-string approximation was used for each $`NN`$-collision. It turns out that these approximations have a very small effect on the ratio $`J/\psi `$ over DY at each $`b`$. However, they do change the correlation between $`b`$ and $`E_T`$ – or between $`E_T`$ and $`E_{ZDC}`$. As a consequence, an extra term in the r.h.s. of Eq. (2) was needed in  in order to reproduce this correlation.. The correlation $`E_Tb`$ is given by $`P(E_T,b)\mathrm{exp}\{(E_TE_T(b))^2/2qaE_T(b)\}`$ with $`q=0.6`$ GeV and $`a=0.88`$.

The model allows to compute the ratio $`J/\psi `$ over DY versus either $`E_T`$ or $`E_{ZDC}`$ from peripheral collisions up to the knee of the $`E_T`$ distribution. To go beyond it, we have to introduce  the fluctuations responsible for the tail of the $`E_T`$ distribution (Eq. (2) gives only the average value of $`E_T`$ at each $`b`$). They have been introduced  in the model by multiplying $`N_{y_{DT}}^{co}(b)`$ in Eq. (2) by $`F(b)=E_T/E_T(b)`$, where $`E_T`$ is the measured value of the transverse energy.

The results are presented in Fig. 2a and compared with the NA50 data. We see that from peripheral collisions up to the knee of the $`E_T`$ distribution, the data are well described. However, beyond the inflexion point at the knee, the decrease in the data is sharper than in the model. Note, however, that the data beyond the knee are obtained with the so-called minimum bias (MB) analysis. Only the ratio $`J/\psi `$ over MB is measured and it is multiplied by a theoretical ratio DY/MB. In the model, this ratio (as well as the ratio $`J/\psi `$/MB) is essentially flat beyond the knee – due to the fact that the tail of the $`E_T`$ distribution of hard ($`J/\psi `$, DY) and soft (MB) processes is assumed to be the same. In sharp contrast with this behaviour, the measured ratio $`J/\psi `$ over MB has a very pronounced turn-over at the knee. It is most important to determine whether such a turn-over is due to an increase in the $`J/\psi `$ suppression, or, on the contrary, to a small difference in the widths of the tails of the $`E_T`$ distributions of soft and hard processes. In the latter case a similar turn-over would also be present in the ratio DY/MB – resulting in a flatter behaviour of the ratio $`J/\psi `$ over DY beyond the knee. On the theoretical side the calculation beyond the knee is also subject to uncertainties. In particular, the rapidity regions of the dimuon trigger and the $`E_T`$ calorimeter are far apart and the fluctuations in the two regions could be different. In view of that, it would be very interesting to measure the $`J/\psi `$ suppression versus charged multiplicity – with the dimuon and multiplicity triggers sitting in the same rapidity region. The results of the model  for SPS and RHIC are shown in Fig. 3.

The NA50 collaboration has presented new data on the $`J/\psi `$ suppression versus $`E_{ZDC}`$. In so far as a theoretical model describes well the $`E_TE_{ZDC}`$ correlation, a set of data can be plot versus either variable without further constraints on the model. However, the new data are important since they include many peripheral points. The results of the model are presented in Fig. 2b. The centrality dependence of the $`J/\psi `$ suppression is reasonably well reproduced. However, the absolute normalization used in Fig. 2a is here 10 % too large. (Note that the normalization of the data in Fig. 2b is not measured. It has been fixed  from the one in Fig. 2a using only points in the range $`60<E_T<100`$ GeV). This point has important consequences for the interpretation of the data. Indeed, it is obvious from a comparison of figures 2a and 2b that, if the relative normalization of the two sets of data were correct, the onset of the anomalous suppression in $`E_{ZDC}`$ would take place at a value of $`b`$ significantly larger than in $`E_T`$. This problem is solved with the change of normalization discussed above. However, in this case there would be several experimental points sitting above the NA50 nuclear absorption curve. More important, independently of their absolute normalization, the data of Fig. 2b for $`E_{ZDC}<28`$ TeV exhibit a $`J/\psi `$ suppression significantly steeper than the NA50 absorption model – indicating that the anomalous suppression is already present in very peripheral collisions, where the density is significantly lower than the maximal one in S-U.

In conclusion, the NA50 data on the $`J/\psi `$ suppression from peripheral collisions up to the knee of the $`E_T`$ distribution can be described in a comovers approach. (In contrast, both the NA50 absorption model and the model  fail to reproduce the peripheral data). Beyond the knee the obtained suppression is too small. However, in this region the theoretical uncertainties are large and the data contain a theoretical input that has to be checked experimentally.

This work was supported by NATO grant PSTCLG 977275.