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# The Maldacena conjecture and Rehren duality

## 1 Introduction

In 1997 Maldacena  made a bold conjecture that string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ is actually equivalent under a certain duality relation to a quantum field theory on the four dimensional Minkowski spacetime which is a time-like boundary for $`AdS_5`$. This was quickly reinforced by arguments coming from a number of directions , among them the fact that it seemed to offer striking confirmation of the holographic principle. It was seen also to be closely related to older ideas of Polyakov on the role of additional dimensions in conformally invariant theories as well as old results from studies of supergravity on $`AdS_5`$ .

This led to a very large number of papers, many of which do confirm the existence of a correspondence between the predictions of $`𝒩`$=4 Super-Yang-Mills theory and linearised supergravity on a background which is $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. Some of the checks are quite striking in their precision. There are also very interesting results that show that Yang-Mills theory with fewer supersymmetries are related by the same kind of correspondence to other supergravity theories, or to linearised supergravity on different backgrounds.

Among the papers inspired by the Maldacena conjecture are a series by Rehren  proving a theorem which states that any algebraic quantum field theory on an $`AdS`$ space of any dimension is dual to an explicitly constructible, conformal, algebraic field theory on the boundary. This appears to be highly relevant to Maldacena’s conjecture. In the limit in which gravity is weak, Rehren’s duality seems to confirm the predictions of the Maldacena conjecture, and may even be said to provide a simple explanation for some of the results which support the Maldacena conjecture.

It would seem remarkable if there were two independent dualities between field theories on $`AdS`$ and its boundary. However, the exact relationship between the theorem and the conjecture is not completely clear. The issue, which it is the purpose of this note to explore, is that the duality proved by Rehren connects the $`𝒩`$=4 supersymmetric Yang Mills theory to an ordinary local quantum field theory on the fixed $`AdS_5`$ background for all values of coupling and for all $`SU(N)`$. This is puzzling as the Maldacena conjecture appears to require that the bulk theory should be a string theory when $`g_sg_{YM}^2`$ is large and $`N`$ is small. But if we use both dualities we are able to predict that this string theory is dual to an ordinary quantum field theory on the fixed $`AdS_5`$ background, as both are dual to the supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. If true, this is surprising, as it seems to imply that a string theory is dual to an ordinary quantum field theory in a space of the same dimension, not one lower. It also seems to imply that the causal structure does not become dynamical once gravity and quantum gravitational effects become important.

In this note we offer what seems to us to be the most logical reading of the possible implications of the existence of both Rehren’s theorem and the conjecture of Maldacena. We find that present knowledge does not allow us to distinguish between several alternatives, each of which has non-trivial consequences.

## 2 The Maldacena conjectures

The Maldacena conjecture  identifies type IIB string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ with $`𝒩`$= 4 superconformal-Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $`SU(N)`$ (from now on SCYM). We will distinguish between weak and strong versions of the conjecture. First we list the relevant constants of the theory and their proposed relations:

| $`g_s`$ | string coupling constant | $`g_{YM}`$ | Yang-Mills coupling constant |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`l_s`$ | string scale | $`N`$ | dimension of gauge group SU(N) |
| $`G_N`$ | Newton’s constant | $`R`$ | radius of curvature of $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ |

This leads to the following relations:

$`g_{YM}^2`$ $``$ $`g_s`$
$`\lambda _{\mathrm{t}H}=g_{YM}^2Ng_sN`$ $``$ $`R^4/l_s^4,`$
where $`\lambda _{\mathrm{t}H}`$ denotes the ’t Hooft coupling.

It helps to divide the Maldacena conjecture into several forms, from weaker to stronger. The weak form of the Maldacena conjecture can be stated as:

In the limit $`N\mathrm{}`$, $`g_s`$ small, $`\lambda _{\mathrm{t}H}`$ large, SCYM on the 4-d Minkowski-space boundary $`M_4`$ of $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ becomes equivalent to type IIB supergravity on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$, defined by a power series expansion with fixed metric on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$.

Note that this is necessarily a duality with supergravity, defined in terms of a power series expansion around the fixed $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ metric. To any finite order this can be considered a field theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ since the limit of very small $`g_s`$ implies that string theory may be neglected. We may note that this weak form of the Maldacena conjecture is confirmed by many calculations, there is also no conflict with Rehren’s results, as we will describe below. We must also emphasize that the relationship is not necessarily a duality, at this level there is no conjecture that all of type IIB supergravity is contained in SCYM.

The next strongest form of the Maldacena conjecture concerns the case where we consider the full nonlinearities in classical gravitational effects, while still suppressing quantum gravity and string effects. We do this by considering arbitrary $`\lambda _{\mathrm{t}H}`$ while still keeping $`g_s`$ very small. We then have what we may call the “medium” Maldacena conjecture:

SCYM with arbitrary $`N`$ but $`g_{YM}`$ very small must be equivalent to classical supergravity on spacetimes which are *asymptotically* $`AdS_5\times S^5`$.

The strong form comes from considering arbitrary values of the parameters $`N`$ and $`g_{YM}`$:

For all values of $`N`$ and $`g_{YM}`$, SCYM on $`M_4`$ is dual to type IIB string theory on spacetimes which are *asymptotically* $`AdS_5\times S^5`$.

In the medium and strong forms of the conjecture we can only require the spacetime on which the string theory lives to be asymptotically $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ since we are no longer studying weak gravitational and matter degrees of freedom propagating on a fixed causal structure given by the metric on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. This is necessary if the theory is to describe structures like black holes where the deviations from a fixed $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ are arbitrarily strong.

Indeed, the idea behind the strong Maldacena conjecture is that the Yang-Mills theory “effectively sums over all spacetimes” which are asymptotic to $`AdS_5\times S^5`$, thus providing a non-perturbative definition of string theory. Furthermore, different pure and statistical states of SCYM are believed to correspond, in the classical limit, to different asymptotically $`AdS_5\times S^5`$spacetimes. For example time dependent metrics, such as those with gravitational waves are believed to correspond to non-equilibrium or time dependent states of the SCYM theory.

Hence, any theory which has general relativity or supergravity as a classical limit ($`\mathrm{}0,G_N`$ fixed) — which is a minimal requirement for a quantum theory of gravity — cannot have a fixed causal structure, otherwise we come into conflict with basic predictions of general relativity (now well confirmed), such as light bending, gravitational lensing etc.

In summary, we require:

A quantum theory of gravity must be background independent so that its classical limit is general relativity or a generalisation thereof, whose metric and hence causal structure are dynamical. Such a theory may be constrained by boundary conditions that depend on a metric asymptotically, in the same sense that general relativity can be formulated in terms of asymptotically flat boundary conditions. But the causal structure in the bulk cannot be fixed, and must be different with different solutions or quantum histories of the spacetime.

Thus, we should make explicit the following, which is usually assumed in the statement of the Maldacena conjecture:

Type IIB string theory on spacetimes which are *asymptotically* $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ for all values of $`l_s`$ and $`g_s`$ is a quantum theory of gravity, in the sense that it has the full solution space of supergravity with *asymptotically* $`AdS_5\times S^5`$as a classical limit and hence it satisfies the property BI.

## 3 Algebraic field theory and AdS/CFT

Rehren’s papers  assume that SCYM is an algebraic quantum field theory (AQFT). This is the most general structure for a quantum field theory that incorporates relativistic covariance and local causality (c.f.  for a review and references). The basic objects in AQFT are the localised algebras of observables. More specifically an AQFT is completely specified by a assignment of an algebra $`A(O)`$ to every open region $`O`$ of spacetime. Furthermore these algebras have to comply with covariance, locality and isotony as is captured in the following axioms:

1. The algebras localised at spacetime regions related by a space-time symmetry transformation $`g`$ (in our case this will be $`SO(2,4)`$) are unitarily equivalent i.e.: $`A(gO)=U(g)A(O)U(g^1)`$, where $`U(g)`$ is a representation of the symmetry group.
2. Two observables localised at space-like distances commute.
3. An observable localised in a region $`O`$ is localised in a larger region $`O^{}O`$, i.e.: $`O^{}OA(O^{})A(O)`$.

It has been shown that this local algebra structure suffice to recover standard quantum field theory. In particular states arise as the carriers of a chosen representation of the net of algebras. Point fields operators $`\varphi (x)`$ can be recovered, roughly, by taking the intersections of the algebras localised around $`x`$:

$$\{\varphi (x)\}=_{xO}A(O),$$

where the above has to be understood in an appropriate technical sense to be meaningful. The $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence relies on the fact that the isometry group of $`AdS_{1,d}`$ in d+1 dimensions and the conformal group of Minkowski space-time are both $`SO(2,d)`$. Furthermore the boundary of $`AdS_{1,d}`$ is d-dimensional conformal Minkowski space $`M_d`$ and the restriction of the $`AdS`$ group to the boundary acts like the d-dimensional Minkowski conformal group.

Remarkably, Rehren  has been able to show that this symmetry property is in fact sufficient to establish a duality between any conformal AQFT on $`M_d`$ and an AQFT on $`AdS_{1,d}`$, and also, conversely, a duality between any AQFT on $`AdS_{1,d}`$ and a conformal AQFT on the boundary. Note that this duality is not a conjecture but a rigorous theorem of algebraic quantum field theory. The duality is unique and provides an explicit map between observables of the two theories. Furthermore, the duality does not refer to string theory or quantum gravity and hence is not related to standard versions of the holographic principle.

The idea is to map observable algebras on $`M_d`$ to algebras on $`AdS_{1,d}`$ in such a way that causality, covariance and isotony are preserved. This gives us a unique net of algebras on $`AdS_{1,d}`$, which in turn defines a quantum field theory with the causal structure of $`AdS`$. Since the observable algebras for the theory on $`M_d`$ and the theory on $`AdS_{1,d}`$ are the same it follows that they will have the same representations and thus that the state spaces of the two theories will coincide - hence the theories are dual. But crucially the space-time localisation of the algebras is very different in the two theories. This leads to different interpretations of the observables. In particular, the Hamiltonian on $`AdS_{1,d}`$, given by the generator of time translations, is identified with the linear combination of translations and conformal transformations in the 0-direction of $`M_d`$: $`\frac{1}{2}(P^0+K^0)`$. This allows for the mathching of the degrees of freedom in the bulk and the boundary theory.

In more detail, the correspondence is given as follows. Elementary regions in $`M_d`$ are double cones $`K`$, i.e. the intersections of a future and past-directed light cone. These are causally complete convex regions. Each double cone uniquely determines a wedge region $`W`$ in $`AdS_{1,d}`$ which is the causal completion of $`K`$ in $`AdS`$, i.e. all points from which one can receive signals from a point in $`K`$ and send signals to a different point in $`K`$. Given a net of algebras on $`M_d`$ this allows us to construct a net on $`AdS_{1,d}`$ via: $`A(W)=A(K)`$ if $`K`$ corresponds to $`W`$. The key to Rehren’s result is to show that this correspondence preserves causality, covariance and isotony. Given the algebras defined on the wedges $`W`$ we can now associate an algebra to any region $`O`$ in $`AdS_{1,d}`$ via:

$$A(O)=_{OW}A(W).$$

This defines a unique AQFT on $`AdS_{1,d}`$ which is dual to the original AQFT on $`M_d`$.

It is important to note that the above duality is between local algebras. Point-like field operators, in general, are not mapped to other field operators. Indeed, an important property of the above map is that genuine field operators on $`M_d`$ are dual to observables in $`AdS_{1,d}`$ that are attached to the boundary. Bulk localised observables in $`AdS_{1,d}`$ on the other hand are mapped to ‘extended’ observables on the boundary. Such observables cannot be described in terms of fields and could, for example, correspond to Wilson loops in a boundary Yang-Mills theory.

Schroer  has used this property of the correspondence to suggest that the locality structure of a field theory on $`AdS`$ dual to a SCYM theory on the boundary is not compatible with that of string theory or (linearised) supergravity. We will not investigate this further, instead we focus on the fact that any SCYM theory on $`M_4`$ is dual, via Rehren’s map, to a theory with the fixed causal structure of $`AdS_5`$.

## 4 Consequences

SCYM is a conformal quantum field theory on $`3+1`$ dimensional Minkowski space. In this section we assume that the observables of SCYM obey the casual structure of $`M_4`$ and hence satisfy the axioms of algebraic field theory. Let us make this explicit,

$`𝒩=4`$ supersymmetric Yang Mills theory satisfies the axioms of algebraic quantum field theory for all $`SU(N)`$ and all values of the gauge coupling.

In this section we draw out the implications of the above in conjunction with the various versions of the Maldacena conjecture.

Rehren duality allows us to construct uniquely an algebraic quantum field theory (the *Rehren dual* in the following) on $`4+1`$ dimensional AdS space which is dual to SCYM on its $`3+1`$ dimensional Minkowski space boundary. This duality is valid for any values of the parameters $`N`$ and $`g_{YM}`$. Furthermore, by definition, the AQFT on $`AdS`$ is defined with respect to a fixed causal structure which is reflected in the commutation relations between any two observables. Hence the theory will not satisfy property BI. This leads to the following conclusion:

Any theory that is dual to SU(N) superconformal Yang-Mills theory on $`M_4`$ is also dual to an ordinary field theory defined on the fixed $`AdS_5`$ background.

The Maldacena conjectures relates the SCYM on $`M_4`$ to a theory on a manifold $`X_5`$ which is asymptotically $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. The above implies that this theory is dual — via a duality $`\pi `$ = (Rehren duality)$``$(Maldacena duality) — to a field theory with the fixed *global* causal structure of $`AdS_5`$. This is illustrated in figure 1.

We now examine the implications for each version of the Maldacena conjecture.

* If we assume conjecture M1 then there is no contradiction since linearised supergravity in the $`g_s0`$ limit is a field theory with a fixed background. In this case the Maldacena duality and the Rehren duality could coincide. Essentially the representation theory of the supersymmetric extension of SO(4,2) includes both the states of SCYM and the linearised modes of supergravity on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$.
* Conjecture M1.5 can be refuted since it implies that the space of asymptotically $`AdS`$ solutions to classical general relativity can be described equivalently by an ordinary field theory on $`AdS`$ with a fixed metric and causal structure. But this is contradicted by the fact that in general relativity the causal structure varies dynamically, which has been observed in many light bending experiments.
* If we assume conjecture M2 then type IIB string theory cannot satisfy property BI. Therefore M3 fails and string theory cannot be a theory of quantum gravity.

It is worth mentioning that these conclusions need not be in contradiction with the so called “uniqueness” theorems that show, subject to various assumptions, that any theory whose linearisation is general relativity has the interactions given by general relativity or some extension of it. First, we should note that this theorem has been proven only under restricted assumptions  and explicit counterexamples are known in $`3`$ and $`5`$ dimensions . So it is possible that these theorems do not apply in the special case under consideration.

However, even if this is not the case, it must be emphasised that the existing uniqueness theorems only establish the forms of the interactions and gauge symmetry order by order in a power series expansion of the classical theory on a fixed background. Whether such a power series expansion is equivalent to the full non-linear gravitational theory is an additional issue, not addressed by the existing theorems. It should further be stressed that the expansions in question are generally asymptotic rather than converging power series. Thus, it is possible that M1 may hold to some finite order of an expansion in small disturbances around the fixed $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ background, but that still M1.5 and M2 fail. In this case the Rehren and Maldacena dualities could agree to any finite order, but SCYM would only give a construction of a classical gravitational theory good to a finite order in an expansion in small amplitude excitations propagating on the fixed $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ background. This would agree with many of the checks which have been performed, but there is then no necessity that M2 holds or that the Maldacena duality gives a non-perturbative or background independent definition of string theory in terms of the SCYM theory.

There is also the possibility that M2 could fail because string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ fails to exist as a quantum theory for all values of $`l_s`$ and $`g_s`$. Despite the large literature on the Maldacena conjecture it has proved so far surprisingly difficult to construct the quantum string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$, even in the case of the free string. The present situation  is that classical actions for string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ have been constructed and it has been shown that their $`l_s0`$ limits are described by the superparticle on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. Hence, one can deduce that the quantisation of the $`l_s0`$ limit reproduces the spectrum of linearised supergravity on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. However for finite $`l_s`$ the worldsheet action is non-linear and there has been as yet no successful quantisation of the theory, even at the level of the free string. Hence the spectrum of the free string is not known and it is not known for certain that there actually is a consistent string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$.

To summarise the logic, we reach the conclusion either that AQFT fails or at least one of the conclusions reached in this section must hold. In particular, if AQFT holds then M1.5 and M2 or M3 must fail.

## 5 Conformal Induction

Given that a large number of results have been offered in support of one or another version of the Maldacena conjecture, the reader may be tempted to conclude from the foregoing that AQFT fails. However before reaching that conclusion we should check whether the evidence adduced in favour of a version of the Maldacena conjecture can be explained by a weaker hypothesis. This is what we discuss in this section. We may note that the arguments that follow provide one *possible* resolution of the conflict between Rehren duality and the Maldacena conjecture. The arguments of the previous section hold regardless of whether we chose to adopt this explanation.

Witten  and Gubser, Klebanov and Polyakov  have offered a correspondence between a quantum theory on a $`d+1`$ dimensional spacetime $`X_{d+1}`$, which is asymptotically anti-DeSitter and a conformal field theory on the spacetime $`M_d`$ which is the conformal boundary of $`X_{d+1}`$. This version of the $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence is considerably weaker and more general than the conjecture of Maldacena.

Let us review the prescription, which allows us to construct the correlation functions of a conformal field theory on $`M_d`$ by evaluating the correlation functions of fields of the $`d+1`$ dimensional theory in the limit in which the fields are taken to the boundary.

More precisely, let $`\varphi `$ be a field of the $`d+1`$ dimensional theory and $`𝒪`$ an operator of the $`d`$ dimensional conformal field theory, which is chosen to correspond to it. Then the $`CFT`$ is defined by the following formula

$$e^{_{S^d}\varphi _0𝒪}_{CFT}=Z(\varphi )$$
(1)
where $`Z(\varphi )`$ is the partition function on $`X_{d+1}`$ with $`\varphi `$ constrained to approach fixed values $`\varphi _0`$ on the boundary $`M_d`$.

We say the boundary theory is induced by the bulk theory through its definition in terms of correlation functions. We call the boundary theory the conformal image of the bulk theory.

As already mentioned conformal induction is a general procedure that requires only that the bulk theory be a well defined (Euclidean or Lorentzian) quantum theory on a fixed manifold. There is no necessary relationship with gravity, supersymmetry<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1 Supersymmetry may be necessary in some cases to guarantee that the bulk partition function exists, but it need not be necessary in all cases. There are indeed low dimensional examples of conformal induction in which supersymmetry plays no role such as in the case of $`2+1`$ gravity. or string theory. If the partition function $`Z(\varphi )`$ exists and the fields $`\varphi `$ have well defined boundary values then the symmetries of the asymptotically $`AdS`$ manifold are sufficient to show that the field theory defined by (1) will satisfy the symmetries of a conformal<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2The induced theory is conformal because the asymptotically $`AdS`$ metric defines the boundary metric only up to a conformal factor. quantum field theory.

We note however, that in the case that the bulk field theory is defined on a *Lorentzian* manifold and $`M_d`$ is a Minkowski spacetime, there may be an obstruction to conformal induction. Additional consistency conditions must be satisfied if the induced theory is to satisfy unitarity and locality. This follows from the possibility that events on the boundary which are spacelike with respect to the metric on the boundary may be causally connected through causal geodesics in the bulk. This can occur, for example if there are closed time like curves in the bulk. Some examples of this phenomena relevant for supersymmetric theories are described in . Hence we need the causal consistency condition (CCC), which states that two events are causally related in the boundary Minkowski spacetime if and only if they are causally related in the metric of the bulk theory.

We come now to the crucial point, which is that there is no reason that the above procedure, which is very general, should provide us with a duality between theories. In particular, conformal induction is a one way process. There is no known general procedure for reconstructing the bulk theory from the induced boundary theory, nor should the relationship between the bulk and the boundary theories be unique. Conformal induction involves only the boundary data of the bulk quantum theory. There is no requirement that all observable quantities of the bulk are computable in the conformal image. This applies especially to observables which are completely localised in the bulk<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3It is clear from the Penrose diagram of $`AdS`$ that data on the time like boundary is not sufficient to determine a classical soloution to the field equations, data must be given as well at past infinity..

In the case of a Lorentzian bulk manifold $`AdS_{d+1}`$ we can ask about the relation between conformal induction and Rehren duality. These need not necessarily be related, however this would result in there being two different boundary conformal field theories corresponding to a given theory on $`AdS_{d+1}`$. More interesting is the possibility that the conformal image and the Rehren dual coincide. In this case the conformal induction would provide a true duality with an inverse. But as described at the end of section 3 the Rehren dual maps bulk localised observables to extended objects in the boundary. It is unclear how this can be achieved via the conformal induction procedure. More likely is the possibility  that the conformal image is precisely the sub-theory of the Rehren dual that contains the true field observables, which according to Rehren duality are related to bulk observables attached to the boundary.

### 5.1 Conformal Induction and the Maldacena conjecture

We now turn to the implications of the above for the Maldacena conjecture. This is examined most easily by formulating the conformal induction conjecture:

The correlation functions of observables in SCYM theory on the Minkowski space boundary $`M_4`$ can be evaluated via equation (1) using the partition function of the type IIB string theory on the bulk manifold, which is asymptotically $`AdS_5\times S^5`$.

As with the Maldacena conjecture this can also be formulated in weaker versions in terms of linearised supergravity theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$, in which it holds only in the limits of $`N\mathrm{}`$, $`g_s`$ small, $`\lambda _{\mathrm{t}H}`$ large.

The essential point is that, as explained above, CI is weaker than any of the versions of the Maldacena conjecture, in particular it does not posit a duality. For example, M2 is equivalent to the conjecture CI together with the claim that there is a unique inverse to the conformal induction procedure<sup>4</sup><sup>4</sup>4 We may note that in the Lorentzian case the CCC must be imposed as a restriction on the sum over manifolds, otherwise the induced theory will violate causality on the boundary Minkowski spacetime., so that all observable quantities in IIB string theory can be computed from the SCYM theory.

This implies, however, that any tests of the relation between SCYM and IIB string theory that can be explained by the hypothesis CI are not sufficient to provide support of the much stronger Maldacena conjecture. Let us examine some of the evidence that has been adduced:

* The matching of $`N`$ point functions between classical scattering in linearised supergravity on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ and correlation functions of SCYM. This is clearly explained by CI to any finite order in a power series expansion in $`g_s`$ around $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. Note that in this case we also have the possibility that the conformal image is the Rehren dual or a subset of it.
* Various results regarding the scaling behaviour of field theories in four dimensions in terms of the behaviour of classical supergravity in asymptotically $`AdS`$ spacetimes. These are very useful but again are explained by conformal induction and so offer no independent support for an equivalence of the kind postulated in the Maldacena conjecture.
* Various results in $`2+1`$ dimensions where there are no local degrees of freedom. Given the special nature of gravitational physics in $`2+1`$ dimensions these illuminate but cannot be taken as strong evidence for conjectures about higher dimensional theories.
* The matching  (up to an overall constant) of the entropy of large black holes in asymptotically $`AdS_5`$ spacetimes with thermal states of SCYM. Again this only provides evidence for CI. In this case the boundary manifold is $`S^1\times S^3`$ so that the induced boundary theory is a thermal quantum field theory defined at the temperature given by the inverse period of the $`S^1`$.
* However, in addition the entropies of two different phases of SCYM have been argued to match the entropies of field theories on different asymptotically $`S^1\times S^3`$ manifolds . This suggests that, in the Euclidean case, fluctuations around different bulk manifolds are necessary to match supergravity to all the physics of SCYM. This appears at present to be the strongest evidence for M1.5 and M2, or at least for a form of CI in which the partition function of a full quantum theory of gravity is required to induce the full physics of SCYM. To the extent that the only known candidate for such a theory whose semiclassical limit reproduces supergravity is string theory, this provides evidence for a correspondence between string theory and SCYM at the level of CI.

This is an incomplete list, but it shows that care must be taken in evaluating the significance of various results offered as evidence for the Maldacena conjecture.

## 6 Summary

We have seen that the Maldacena conjecture in conjunction with Rehren’s theorem leads to a duality $`\pi `$ between string theory and a quantum field theory on a fixed $`AdS_5`$ background. This is consistent in the linearised supergravity limit and hence with conjecture M1 but there appears to be a problem once $`g_s`$ and/or $`\lambda _{\mathrm{t}H}^1`$ are allowed to take on arbitrary values. The arguments sketched above have led to the conclusion that one of the following must be true:

1. AQFT fails for finite $`N`$ and $`g_{YM}`$. In this case Rehren’s theorem is not relevant and there is no contradiction with the strong Maldacena conjecture. However, the axioms of AQFT are very general. Unless SCYM fails altogether to be a good quantum theory, it seems the only way it could fail to be an AQFT is if it violates causality on the four dimensional Minkowski space.
2. M2 fails, possibly because there is no interacting quantum string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ for finite $`l_s`$.
3. M3 fails. In this case quantum string theory exists on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ for finite $`g_s`$ but it is not a quantum theory of gravity, because property BI fails. This comes about because the combination of M2 and the Rehren theorem implies it can be expressed in terms of a dual description based on an AQFT on the fixed metric and causal structure of $`AdS_5\times S^5`$.

Further, we noted that many of the tests carried out on the $`AdS/CFT`$ correspondence can be explained by the hypothesis CI. Since CI is logically weaker and more general than any form of the Maldecena conjecture, these tests do not provide independent evidence for any part of the Maldecena conjectures that goes beyond CI. In particular, this leaves the possibility that SCYM captures some information about certain observables in supergravity, without there being a duality or equivalence of the theories.

This leaves us with the question of the status of M1, as it is the one form of the Maldecena conjecture that does not run into conflict with the conjunction of AQFT and Rehren’s theorem. But as M1 involves only a theory on the fixed background $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ it is then possible to ask whether it may be in fact a consequence of Rehren’s theorem, i.e. whether the conformal image of linearised supergravity is given by the Rehren dual or a subset of it. This seems plausible since it would be highly remarkable if there were two independent dualities between SCYM and a field theory on $`AdS`$. If this were the case the connection to a gravitational theory might be in some sense accidental.

Indeed, while Rehren’s theorem demonstrates explicitly that two theories living on spaces of different dimensions can be dual, it also implies that this duality need not involve gravity or holography. In the present case the duality would be a consequence only of the fact that the supersymmetric extension of $`SO(4,2)`$ has representations that include both the states of SCYM and the linearised supergravity modes expanded around $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. The correspondence would be no less useful as a tool to understand SCYM theory, even if it could not then be used to give a definition of a quantum theory of gravity away from the limits of large $`N`$ and $`\lambda _{\mathrm{t}H}`$ and small $`g_{YM}^2`$.

To conclude, so far as we know, present knowledge does not suffice to determine which of the three alternatives mentioned above is correct. More work will be required to decide the issue.

## Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to many discussions with Mike Reisenberger during the beginning of this work. Conversations with Lisa Randall and Arkady Tseytlin have also been very helpful. Comments by Gary Horowitz, Juan Maldacena, K-H Rehren and Arkady Tseytlin on an early draft of this paper have greatly helped to improve its presentation. L.S. was supported by the NSF through grant PHY95-14240 and gifts from the Jesse Phillips Foundation. M.A. acknowledges support from the EU network on “Discrete Random Geometries”, grant HPRN-CT-1999-00161.


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# The solid-liquid interfacial free energy of close-packed metals: hard spheres and the Turnbull coefficient

## Abstract

Largely due to its role in nucleation and crystal-growth, the free energy of the crystal-melt interfacial free energy is an object of considerable interest across a number of scientific disciplines, especially in the materials-, colloid- and atmospheric sciences. Over fifty years ago, Turnbull observed that the interfacial free energies (scaled by the mean interfacial area per particle) of a variety of metallic elements exhibit a linear correlation with the enthalpy of fusion. This correlation provides an important empirical ”rule-of-thumb” for estimating interfacial free energies, but lacks a compelling physical explanation. In this work we show that the interfacial free energies for close-packed metals are linearly correlated with the melting temperature, and are therefore primarily entropic in origin. We also show that the slope of this linear relationship can be determined with quantitative accuracy using a hard-sphere model, and that the correlation with the enthalpy of fusion reported by Turnbull follows as a consequence of the fact that the entropy of fusion for close-packed metals is relatively constant.

The crystal-melt interfacial free energy, $`\gamma `$, defined as the reversible work required to form a unit area of interface between a crystal and its coexisting fluid, plays a central role in determining the kinetics of crystal nucleation and growth. Unfortunately, direct experimental determinations of this quantity are difficult and exist for only a handful of materials. For most materials, knowledge of the interfacial free energy is obtained indirectly from measurements of crystal nucleation rates from undercooled fluids, from which $`\gamma `$ is determined within the approximations of classical nucleation theory.

In a seminal 1950 paper, Turnbull reported values of the crystal-melt interfacial free energy, $`\gamma `$, for a variety of materials, mostly metallic elements, which were obtained indirectly from nucleation rate experiments. For systems in which directly determined values exist with which to compare, the values so obtained typically are accurate within about 10-20%. (For example, the interfacial free energy for bismuth was determined using grain boundary angles to be 61.3 $`\times 10^3`$ J m-2, as compared to the value of 54.4 $`\times 10^3`$ J m-2 obtained from nucleation rate data). In order to compare the results for various systems, Turnbull defined a ”gram-atomic” (or molar) interfacial free energy as the free energy of an interface (one atom thick) containing Avagadro’s number, $`N_A`$, of atoms (or molecules):

$$\widehat{\gamma }=\gamma \rho ^{2/3}N_A.$$
(1)
The data for $`\widehat{\gamma }`$ was found to exhibit a strong correlation with the latent heat of fusion. Empirically, Turnbull found

$$\widehat{\gamma }=C_T\mathrm{\Delta }_{fus}H,$$
(2)
where the Turnbull coefficient, $`C_T`$, was found to be approximately 0.45 for metals (especially close-packed metals) and 0.32 for many nonmetals.

There have been attempts to explain this empirical result through the analysis of simple models for the structure of the interface, but the results are quite sensitive to the nature of the assumed model. Inherent in these early models are two basic assumptions: 1) the solid-liquid free energy is primarily entropic in origin, and 2) the surface free energy is due to the increase in entropy associated with the enhanced structure of the liquid at the interface (i.e., the crystal is unchanged up to the interface). The first assumption is reasonable given the dominant role that packing considerations play in determining the structure and thermodynamics of simple liquids and implies that a hard-sphere model should be adequate to describe the interfacial system. However, the assumption 2) is at variance with molecular-dynamics simulations of crystal-melt interfaces of simple systems that show significant structural relaxation (evidenced by an increase in the mean-squared displacement from the lattice sites) occurs in the crystal as the interface is approached. Therefore, any theory of the crystal-melt interfacial free energy must include a realistic description of both the solid and fluid in the interfacial region.

Recently, we have determined via molecular-dynamics computer simulation, the structure and solid-liquid interfacial free energy for a system of hard-spheres. For this system, which freezes into a face-centered-cubic (fcc) crystal structure, $`\gamma `$ was determined to be slightly anisotropic with an orientationally averaged value of

$$\gamma _{hs}=0.61kT_m/\sigma ^2,$$
(3)
where $`k`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`T_m`$, is the melting temperature and $`\sigma `$ is the hard-sphere diameter. (The scaling with $`kT_m`$ is a consequence of the fact that the phase behavior in any hard-core systems is purely entropic.) This value is consistent with a value of 0.55$`\pm 0.02kT_m/\sigma ^2`$ obtained from an analysis (using nucleation theory) of the experimental crystallization kinetics of silica spheres, a system well described by a hard-sphere model. Note that, $`\gamma _{hs}`$ is considerably lower that that obtained for a fluid at a structureless hard wall, which was recently calculated at the melting density to be 1.99$`\pm 0.18kT_m/\sigma ^2`$, indicating that the entropy increase due to the relaxation of the crystal structure near the interface plays an important role in determining the interfacial thermodynamics.

For the hard-sphere system, the density of the solid at freezing is approximately $`\rho \sigma ^3`$ = 1.04, independent of temperature, therefore Turnbull’s gram-atomic interfacial free energy can be written

$$\widehat{\gamma }_{hs}/R=0.59(0.54)T_m,$$
(4)
where $`R`$ is the gas constant and the value in parenthesis is that obtained using the value of $`\gamma _{hs}`$ determined from nucleation experiments. Eq. 4 suggests that if the interfacial free energy of fcc-forming materials is well described by a hard-sphere model, then one should see a linear correlation between $`\widehat{\gamma }/R`$ and the melting temperature with a slope in the range 0.5 to 0.6.

To test this hypothesis, we plot in Fig. 1, $`\widehat{\gamma }/R`$ as a function of melting temperature for a variety of elemental materials using Turnbull’s original data. Although all of the data exhibits a correlation with $`T_m`$, the correlation for the fcc-crystal forming metals is linear with a slope of 0.50, whereas that for non-fcc forming materials exhibits significant scatter. This value of the slope is about 20% below that predicted by the direct hard-sphere results, but less than 10% below that based on the nucleation rate result, which is probably a more relevant comparison, since Turnbull’s data was also so obtained. That the attractive forces contribute only about 10% to the interfacial free energy is consistent with results from simulation and density-functional theory for the Lennard-Jones system, a prototypical fcc-forming model potential. It should be noted that Turnbull also reported a correlation of $`\widehat{\gamma }`$ with $`T_m`$, but, due to the scatter in the overall data, it was rejected as the basis for an empirical rule in favor of the correlation with the enthalpy of fusion. However, he did observe that the correlation with $`T_m`$ was sensitive to the ”complexity” of the crystal structure. This is evident in the data shown in Fig. 1, which shows a strong linear correlation with $`T_m`$, for fcc-forming metals, whereas that for the non-close-packed materials is much weaker. The hard-sphere interaction does not have the long-range forces necessary to mechanically stabilize a non-close packed crystal structure. As a consequence, the interfacial thermodynamics of systems that freeze into open crystal lattices will not be well described by a purely entropic model and a simple linear scaling with the melting temperature is not expected.

For fcc- (and probably hcp-) forming materials, it is relatively straightforward now to understand the empirical correlation of the interfacial free energy with the heat of fusion. For the close-packed systems studied by Turnbull, the entropy of fusion, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{fus}S`$, is very nearly constant with an average value very close to that for the hard-sphere system, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{fus}S`$ = 9.7 J/(mole K). At the melting point, equilibrium requires that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{fus}H=T_m\mathrm{\Delta }_{fus}S`$, so the enthalpy of fusion should scale nearly linearly with the melting temperature for these systems. So if $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{fus}H`$ scales approximately linear with $`T_m`$ and $`\widehat{\gamma }_{hs}`$ is proportional to $`T_m`$ , it then follows that $`\widehat{\gamma }_{hs}`$ will exhibit strong linear correlation with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{fus}H`$, and thus Turnbull’s rule obtains.

Acknowledgements: The author gratefully acknowledges Dr. Ruslan Davidchack for helpful conversations and the National Science Foundation for generous under grant CHE-9970903.


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# Theorem 1

Erratum: Compact hyperkähler manifolds: basic results

Daniel Huybrechts

It was pointed out by D. Kaledin that the proof of Prop. 3.8 is wrong. Actually, the proposition itself cannot be true as we shall explain below. It was used to prove Cor. 3.10 and Thm. 3.11. The latter is the so called projectivity criterion for hyperkähler manifolds. Here we will give a correct proof of these two results. The main input is a recent theorem of J.-P. Demailly and M. Paun . All the other results of the paper remain unaffected.

The projectivity criterion for hyperkähler manifolds

as a consequence of the Demailly-Paun theorem

1. Let $`X`$ be a compact hyperkähler manifold of complex dimension $`2n`$ and let $`𝒳\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ be the universal deformation of $`X`$. For any cohomology class $`\beta H^{4p}(X,)`$ let $`S_\beta \mathrm{Def}(X)`$ be the set of those $`t\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ for which $`\beta `$ is a cohomology class of type $`(2p,2p)`$ on $`𝒳_t`$. Then $`S_\beta `$ is a closed analytic subset of $`\mathrm{Def}(X)`$. Let $`\mathrm{A}H^{}(X,)`$ be the set of all integral classes $`\beta H^{4p}(X,)`$, $`p=1,\mathrm{},n`$ such that $`S_\beta `$ is a proper subset of $`\mathrm{Def}(X)`$. A point $`t\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ is called very general if $`t`$ is in the complement of $`_{\beta \mathrm{A}}S_\beta `$ and if $`𝒳_t`$ does not admit any analytic subsets of odd dimension.

The set of very general points in $`\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ is dense. If $`t\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ is a very general point and $`\beta H^{2p,2p}(𝒳_t,)`$ is an integral class of type $`(2p,2p)`$ on $`𝒳_t`$, then $`\beta `$ is of type $`(2p,2p)`$ on any small deformation of $`𝒳_t`$.

Here we use Fujiki’s result \[4, Prop. 5.11\] and the fact that $`_{\beta \mathrm{A}}S_\beta `$ is a countable union of proper closed analytic subsets. The latter says that for any hyperkähler metric on $`X`$ the general complex structure compatible with it does not admit any odd-dimensional analytic subset.

For classes $`\beta `$ which are of pure type $`(2p,2p)`$ on any small deformation of $`X`$ the form of degree $`2n2p`$ on $`H^2(X,)`$ defined by $`\alpha _X\beta \alpha ^{2(np)}`$ can be expressed in terms of the Beauville-Bogomolov quadratic form $`q_X`$ on $`H^2(X,)`$. More precisely we have:

If $`\beta H^{4p}(X,)`$ is of type $`(2p,2p)`$ on all small deformations of $`X`$, then there exists a constant $`c_\beta `$ depending on $`\beta `$ such that for all $`\alpha H^2(X,)`$ one has $`_X\beta \alpha ^{2(np)}=c_\beta q_X(\alpha )^{np}`$.

This is Thm. 5.12 in , which is a generalization of a result of Fujiki and whose proof uses arguments of Bogomolov (cf. \[5, 1.11\]).

2. We call the compact hyperkähler manifold $`X`$ itself very general if the point $`0\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ corresponding to it is a very general point. As a consequence of the above one obtains:

If $`X`$ is a very general compact hyperkähler manifold and $`YX`$ is an irreducible analytic subset then its codimension is even, say $`2p`$, and the cohomology class $`[Y]H^{2p,2p}(X,)`$ is of type $`(2p,2p)`$ on all small deformations of $`X`$. In particular, there exists a constant $`c_{[Y]}`$ such that $`_Y\alpha ^{2(np)}=c_{[Y]}q_X(\alpha )^{np}`$ for all $`\alpha H^2(X,)`$.

We next quote the result of Demailly and Paun:

###### Theorem 1

— Let $`X`$ be a compact Kähler manifold. Then the Kähler cone $`𝒦_X`$ of $`X`$ is a connected component of the set $`𝒫_X`$ of all classes $`\alpha H^{1,1}(X,)`$ such that $`_Y\alpha ^d>0`$ for any irreducible analytic subset $`YX`$ of dimension $`d`$.

Combining this with the above one obtains a description of the Kähler cone of a very general hyperkähler manifold. Recall that the positive cone $`𝒞_XH^{1,1}(X,)`$ is the connected component of the open subset $`\{\alpha H^{1,1}(X,)|q_X(\alpha )>0\}`$ that contains the Kähler cone $`𝒦_X`$.

###### Corollary 1

— Let $`X`$ be a very general compact hyperkähler manifold. Then $`𝒦_X=𝒞_X`$. Moreover, the interior of the cone of pseudo-effective classes coincides with $`𝒦_X=𝒞_X`$.

Proof. One first shows that $`𝒞_X𝒫_X`$. Since $`𝒦_X𝒫_X`$ and $`𝒞_X`$ is connected, it suffices to show that for any $`\alpha 𝒞_X`$ and any irreducible analytic subset $`YX`$ of codimension $`2p`$ one has $`_Y\alpha ^{2(np)}0`$. Since $`_Y\alpha ^{2(np)}=c_{[Y]}q_X(\alpha )^{np}`$ and $`q_X(\alpha )>0`$, this follows from $`c_{[Y]}0`$. The latter can be obtained from the same equation applied to a Kähler class. Thus, $`𝒞_X𝒫_X`$. Since $`𝒞_X`$ is connected and contains $`𝒦_X`$, the Demailly-Paun theorem shows that $`𝒞_X=𝒦_X`$.

Clearly, every class in $`𝒦_X=𝒞_X`$ is in the interior of the cone of pseudo-effective classes, which consists of the cone of classes that can be represented by closed positive $`(1,1)`$-currents bounded from below by a Kähler form. Conversely, if $`\alpha `$ can be represented by a closed strictly positive $`(1,1)`$-current then $`q_X(\alpha ,\omega )=c(\sigma \overline{\sigma })^{n1}\alpha \omega >0`$ for any Kähler class $`\omega 𝒦_X=𝒞_X`$. Here, $`c`$ is a certain positive scalar and $`\sigma `$ is a non-degenerate holomorphic two-form. Hence, $`\alpha 𝒞_X`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

3. Since the set of very general $`t\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ is dense, any class $`\alpha 𝒞_XH^2(X,)`$ can be approximated by a sequence $`\alpha _{t_i}H^2(X,)`$ such that $`t_i`$ is a sequence of very general points converging to $`0\mathrm{Def}(X)`$ and $`\alpha _{t_i}`$ is a Kähler class on $`𝒳_{t_i}`$. This is enough to conclude:

###### Proposition 1

— Let $`X`$ be a compact hyperkähler manifold and let $`\alpha 𝒞_X`$ Then $`\alpha `$ is in the interior of the cone of pseudo-effective classes, i.e. $`\alpha `$ can be represented by a closed positive $`(1,1)`$-current which can be bounded from below by a (small) Kähler form.

Proof. Here one can copy the argument of Demailly \[3, Prop. 6.1\] that shows that the cone of pseudo-effective classes is closed. Fix Kähler classes $`\omega _t`$ on $`𝒳_t`$ depending continously on $`t\mathrm{Def}(X)`$. Then the mass of $`\alpha _{t_i}`$, which is $`_X\omega _{t_i}^{2n1}\alpha _{t_i}`$, converges to $`_X\omega _0^{2n1}\alpha `$. Hence the sequence of forms $`(\alpha _{t_i})`$ is weakly bounded and thus weakly compact. In particular, it contains a weakly convergent subsequence. As the $`\alpha _{t_i}`$ are closed positive $`(1,1)`$-forms on $`𝒳_{t_i}`$, the limit current is closed and positive of bidegree $`(1,1)`$ on $`X`$. As $`𝒞_X`$ is open, the class $`\alpha `$ must be in the interior of the cone of all pseudo-effective classes.$`\mathrm{}`$

As a consequence we obtain the projectivity criterion for compact hyperkähler manifolds which was stated as Thm. 3.11 in , but the proof of which was seriously flawed as it used the wrong Prop. 3.8.

###### Theorem 2

— Let $`X`$ be a compact hyperkähler manifold. Then $`X`$ is projective if and only if there exists a line bundle $`L`$ on $`X`$ with $`q_X(c_1(L))>0`$.

Proof. If $`X`$ is projective, then there exists an ample line bundle $`L`$. As $`c_1(L)`$ is then a Kähler class and $`𝒦_X𝒞_X`$, this yields $`q_X(c_1(L))>0`$. Conversely, let us assume that there exists a line bundle $`L`$ with $`q_X(c_1(L))>0`$. This is equivalent to the existence of a line bundle $`L`$ with $`c_1(L)𝒞_X`$. By the previous proposition $`c_1(L)`$ is in the interior of the cone of pseudo-effective classes. Thus $`c_1(L)`$ can be represented by a closed positive $`(1,1)`$-current which is bounded from below by a Kähler form. Applying results of Bonavero  and Ji-Shiffman  one obtains that $`X`$ is Moishezon and hence projective.$`\mathrm{}`$

4. Let me indicate why Prop. 3.8 has to be false. One way to see this is to use the fact that from dimension four on, the birational Kähler cone can really be different from the Kähler cone itself (something that does not happen for K3 surfaces). In this case one just picks a class that is positive on the Kähler cone, but not on the entire birational Kähler cone. If the original Prop. 3.8 were true, this class would be representable by a closed positive current. But considered on any other birational compact hyperkähler manifold it would also be representable by a closed positive current, which is in contradiction with the fact that there is at least on birational compact hyperkähler manifold where the class is not positive on the Kähler cone. In this argument we use that the quadratic form $`q_X`$ is compatible with birational correspondences.

5. Some of the results of the paper have been strengthened in the meantime. In  we prove Thm. 4.6. without assuming the projectivity of the varieties. A better description of the closure of the Kähler cone than the one given in Thm. 7.1 has also been found: A class is in the closure of the Kähler cone if and only if it is non-negative on all rational curves (Prop. 3.1 in ).

Acknowledgement: First of all I wish to thank D. Kaledin for pointing out the blunder in the proof of Prop. 3.8 and for believing in the projectivity criterion and its consequences all the time. He was always very patient to check various arguments over the last two years. I am certainly most grateful to J.-P. Demailly and M. Paun for their beautiful theorem. Thanks to J.-P. Demailly for comments on the new proof.

Mathematisches Institut
Universität zu Köln
Weyertal 86-90
50931 Köln, Germany
huybrech@mi.uni-koeln.de


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# Superstructures at low spin - high spin transitions

## I appendix

To gain further insight and to corroborate the picture obtained by Monte Carlo calculations and by explicitly comparing the energies of different states, we took advantage of the in principal one-dimensional structure of the relevant configurations (i.e. diagonal stripes, see Fig.1) and mapped the original Hamiltonian (4) onto a one-dimensional Ising model in a magnetic field with the Hamiltonian:

$`H_{\text{1dim}}={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\{2J_1s_is_{i+1}+(2J_2+J_d)s_is_{i+2}hs_i+J_d\}.`$ (5)
Here $`s_i=\pm 1`$ represents the normalized sums of the spins on the diagonals and the one-dimensional interaction is orthogonal to the stripes. Note that this Hamiltonian contains all possible diagonal stripe configurations. Using this one-dimensional model we checked systematically for possible diagonal stripe configurations up to unit cell of 18.

From Eq.5 one sees that — once diagonal stripes are confirmed as ground states — the role of $`J_d`$ is a mere modification of the next nearest neighbour coupling (plus an irrelevant constant) and hence a shift of the phase boundaries by $`J_d/2`$.

Eq.5 is also useful to display the similarities to the two-dimensional ANNNI-model

$`H_{\text{ANNNI}}={\displaystyle \underset{x,y}{}}(\stackrel{~}{J}_1S_{x,y}S_{x+1,y}+\stackrel{~}{J}_2S_{x,y}S_{x+2,y}+\stackrel{~}{J}_0S_{x,y}S_{x,y+1}+HS_{x,y})`$ (6)
with $`\stackrel{~}{J}_1,\stackrel{~}{J}_2<0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{J}_0>0`$ as discussed in Ref.uimin . Due to the ferromagnetic interaction $`\stackrel{~}{J}_0`$ in $`y`$-direction, the stripes are vertically oriented in the case of Eq.6 and the corresponding one-dimensional Hamiltonian is

$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{\text{1dim}}={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\{\stackrel{~}{J}_1s_is_{i+1}+\stackrel{~}{J}_2s_is_{i+2}+Hs_i+\stackrel{~}{J}_0\}.`$ (7)
$`\stackrel{~}{H}_{\text{1dim}}`$ Eq.(7) differs from $`H_{\text{1dim}}`$ Eq. (5) for $`J_d=0`$ by a factor 2 in the couplings and by a constant. The phase diagrams of the models can thus be mapped onto one another by a simple rescaling of the axis.

### I.1 Acknowledgments

We are grateful to J. P. Doumerc, D. Förster and R. Hayn for useful discussions. This work was supported by the Sonderforschungsbereich 608 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, by the Netherlands Foundation for Fundamental Study of Matter (FOM) and by the Netherlands Science Organisation (NWO).


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# Lyman Continuum Extinction by Dust in H ii Regions of Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Dust grains exist everywhere — from circumstellar environment to interstellar space. Hence, radiation from celestial objects is always absorbed and scattered by dust grains. Without correction for the dust extinction, we inevitably underestimate the intrinsic intensity of the radiation, and our understanding of physics of these objects may be misled. Thus, dust extinction for nonionizing photons ($`\lambda >912`$ Å) in the interstellar medium (ISM) has been well studied to date (e.g., interstellar extinction curve: Savage & Mathis 1979; Seaton 1979; Calzetti, Kinney, & Storchi-Bergmann 1994; Gordon et al. 2000).

In H ii regions, Lyman continuum (LC) photons also suffer extinction by dust grains (e.g., Ishida & Kawajiri 1968; Harper & Low 1971). We refer to this another type of extinction as the Lyman continuum extinction (LCE). Indeed, the fraction of LC photons absorbed by dust in H ii regions can be large (e.g., Petrosian, Silk, & Field 1972; Panagia 1974; Mezger, Smith, & Churchwell 1974; Natta & Panagia 1976; Sarazin 1977; Smith, Biermann, & Mezger 1978; Aannestad 1989; Shields & Kennicutt 1995; Bottorff et al. 1998). Petrosian et al. (1972), for example, have estimated the fraction of LC photons contributing to hydrogen ionization to be 0.26 in the Orion nebula.

If a large amount of LC photons is absorbed by dust in H ii regions, the effect of the LCE on estimating the star formation rate (SFR) will be very large. This is because we can only estimate the number of ionizing photons, LC photons used for hydrogen ionization, from the observation of hydrogen recombination lines or thermal radio continuum. When we define the fraction of ionizing photons estimated from observations as $`f`$, we obtain

$$N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}=fN_{\mathrm{LC}},$$
(1)
where $`N_{\mathrm{LC}}`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}`$ are the intrinsic and apparent production rates of LC photons, respectively. Unless we correct the observed data for the LCE, we cannot obtain the actual LC photon production rate, and then, the true SFR. Therefore, we should estimate the fraction, $`f`$, in H ii regions. However, the LCE has not been discussed in the context of estimating the SFR of galaxies before Inoue, Hirashita, & Kamaya (2001a, hereafter Paper I).

Paper I has proposed two independent methods for estimating $`f`$, and applied the methods to the Galactic H ii regions. Then, they have shown that there are a number of H ii regions with $`f0.5`$ in the Galaxy. Moreover, they have found that $`f`$ can be approximated to be only a function of dust-to-gas ratio. If the approximation can be applied to the nearby spiral galaxies and their observed dust-to-gas ratios are adopted, $`f`$ averaged over galactic scale is about 0.3. Therefore, the SFR corrected by the LCE effect is 3 times larger than the uncorrected SFR.

The aim of this paper is that we confirm these results of Paper I not only for H ii regions in our Galaxy but for extragalactic H ii regions. We also discuss if the effect of the LCE on estimating the SFR of galaxies is really important. We describe the method for estimating $`f`$ in section 2. Then, $`f`$ is determined for the H ii regions in the local group galaxies in section 3. We discuss the dependence of $`f`$ on the dust-to-gas ratio in section 4, and our conclusions are summarized in the final section.

## 2 Method for Estimating the Effect of LCE

To estimate $`f`$ in equation (1) for each H ii region, the apparent production rate of LC photons in each region, $`N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}`$, is compared to its IR luminosity, $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}`$. In this paper, we use a method for estimating $`f`$ presented in section 3 of Paper I.

According to equation (12) in Paper I, we obtain

$$f=\frac{0.44+0.56ϵ}{0.28+5.6(L_{\mathrm{IR},7}/N_{\mathrm{LC},50}^{})},$$
(2)
where $`ϵ`$ denotes the average efficiency of dust absorption for nonionizing ($`\lambda >912`$ Å) photons, and $`L_{\mathrm{IR},7}`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{LC},50}^{}`$ are the IR luminosity and LC photon production rate normalized by $`10^7`$ $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`10^{50}`$ s-1, respectively. The equation is based on the theory of the IR emission from H ii regions by Petrosian et al. (1972) and the following discussion by Inoue, Hirashita, & Kamaya (2000)111See also Inoue, Hirashita, & Kamaya (2001b). It is also worthwhile to note that $`L_{\mathrm{IR},7}/N_{\mathrm{LC},50}^{}`$ is proportional to the flux ratio of the IR emission to the thermal radio emission, H$`\alpha `$ line, etc. If we express in the form of the flux ratio, the determination of $`f`$ is free from the uncertainty of the distance to the object.

Here, we describe some assumptions adopted in the derivation of equation (2). Since $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}`$ is the total energy emitted by dust, the wavelength range is set to 8–1000 µm, which covers almost all wavelength range of dust emission. Also, it is supposed that the IR radiation from H ii regions is dominated by large ($`0.1\mathrm{\mu m}`$) grains in thermal equilibrium with ambient radiation field. In other words, we neglect the contribution to the total IR luminosity of very small grains ($`0.01\mathrm{\mu m}`$) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which emit mainly in the mid-infrared (MIR, 8–40 µm) (e.g., Dwek et al. 1997). In principle, the assumption would make us underestimate the total IR luminosity of dust in H ii regions because such MIR emission is observed from these regions (e.g., Pişmiş & Mampaso 1991; DeGioia-Eastwood 1992; Leisawitz et al. 1998). Fortunately, it seems that the contribution of the MIR luminosity to that of the total IR is enough small to be neglected (Figure 1 in Leisawitz et al. 1998). Thus, the IR spectral energy distribution (SED) of H ii regions is assumed to be a modified black-body function with one temperature through the paper.

Moreover, we do not take account of the existence of helium. This is because almost all (96% according to Mathis 1971) photons produced by helium recombination can ionize neutral hydrogen. We do not consider the escape of LC photons from H ii regions, either. Indeed, less than 3 % of LC photons can escape from the star-forming regions in nearby galaxies (Leitherer et al., 1995). In short, we deal with an ideal H ii region that consists of only hydrogen and dust, and where no LC photons leak.

Let us determine $`ϵ`$, which denotes the average efficiency of dust absorption for nonionizing photons. The total (absorption and scattering) optical depth of dust, $`\tau _\lambda `$, is expressed by

$$\tau _\lambda =\frac{\tau _\lambda ^{\mathrm{abs}}}{1\omega _\lambda }=\frac{A_\lambda }{2.5\mathrm{log}e},$$
(3)
where $`\tau _\lambda ^{\mathrm{abs}}`$, $`\omega _\lambda `$, and $`A_\lambda `$ are the absorption optical depth of dust, the dust albedo, and the amount of extinction at wavelength, $`\lambda `$, respectively. We can determine $`A_\lambda `$ from an extinction curve, $`X_\lambda `$, and its normalization, $`E_{BV}`$, i.e. $`X_\lambda =A_\lambda /E_{BV}`$. The efficiency of dust absorption at wavelength, $`\lambda `$, $`ϵ_\lambda `$ is defined as

$$ϵ_\lambda 1e^{\tau _\lambda ^{\mathrm{abs}}}=110^{0.4X_\lambda E_{BV}(1\omega _\lambda )}.$$
(4)
Then, averaging $`ϵ_\lambda `$ over $`\lambda `$ with weight of the intrinsic stellar flux density yields the average efficiency, $`ϵ`$.

We show $`ϵ`$ as a function of $`E_{BV}`$ in Figure 1. In this calculation, we set the stellar spectrum to be simply the black-body of 30000 K. The change of the temperature dose not alter the result significantly. For example, if we choose 50000 K as the effective temperature of stars, the value of $`ϵ`$ increases with a factor of about 1 %. The calculation of the average is performed from 1100 to 3500 Å. We adopt two types of the interstellar extinction curve, $`X_\lambda `$: one is that in our Galaxy (Seaton, 1979), the other is that in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) (Howarth, 1983). Each case is shown in Figure 1 by the solid and dashed lines, respectively. Moreover, we set the dust albedo to be a constant of 0.5 for simplicity, although it varies with wavelength (Witt & Lillie, 1973; Lillie & Witt, 1976). The results in this case are shown by the thick lines. Also, the results without scattering (i.e. $`\omega _\lambda =0`$) are shown by the thin lines for comparison.

Once we determine $`ϵ`$ for H ii regions from Figure 1, we can estimate $`f`$ from the ratio of the IR luminosity to the observed LC photon production rate via equation (2). In the next section, we will examine $`f`$ for H ii regions in some Local Group galaxies.

## 3 Fraction $`f`$ of H ii Regions in the Local Group Galaxies

In order to determine $`f`$, the data of the IR luminosity and the production rate of LC photons for the individual H ii region are required. But, when we compare two photometric data, we must match their apertures and resolutions with each other, because, in general, different observations have different aperture and resolution. It prevents us from constructing uniform data of a large number of H ii regions. These effects produce one of the largest uncertainties in the current analysis.

We have gathered the data that allow us to estimate $`f`$ with proper accuracy, though the sample size is rather small. In this section, we estimate $`f`$ of H ii regions in our Galaxy, M31, M33, and LMC.

### 3.1 Our Galaxy

Suitable data for our analysis have been compiled by Wynn-Williams & Becklin (1974). The data are read out from their figure 9 directly, and are tabulated in Table 1. The column 1 is the name of H ii regions. Since two separate components of W3, W51, and NGC 6537 are plotted in figure 9 of Wynn-Williams & Becklin (1974), we list both components of these regions in Table 1. The columns 2 and 3 are the logarithmic production rate of LC photons estimated from radio observations222The estimated production rate of LC photons of M8, Orion, and M17 in this paper differ from those in Table 1 of Paper I because their references are different from those used in this study. and FIR (40–350 µm) luminosity, respectively. The FIR (40–350 µm) luminosity is almost equal to the total IR (8–1000 µm) luminosity if the dust SED is assumed to be the modified black-body function with the temperature of 30 K and the emissivity index of 1.

Since $`E_{BV}1`$ for the Galactic H ii regions (e.g., Caplan et al. 2000), Figure 1 tells us that $`ϵ1`$, even in the case with the scattering for nonionizing photons. Thus, we can safely assume $`ϵ=1`$ for the Galactic H ii regions, so that we can determine $`f`$ of these regions via equation (2) (column 5). The mean value of $`f`$ is 0.45. Thus, we find that about half of LC photons is absorbed by dust in H ii regions. This is one of the results in Paper I.

### 3.2 M31

Xu & Helou (1996) have studied the properties of discrete FIR sources in M31 by using the IRAS HiRes image (Aumann, Fowler, & Melnyk 1990; Rice 1993). Thirty nine sources are extracted from the 60 µm map. They have also examined the correlation between these FIR sources and H$`\alpha `$ sources presented by Walterbos & Braun (1992). Since Walterbos & Braun (1992) have surveyed only the northeast half of M31, 12 out of 39 FIR sources have H$`\alpha `$ counterparts. These twelve FIR sources make the sample for the current analysis. In Table 2, some properties of the sample H ii regions in M31 are listed.

The column 2 of Table 2 is the measured flux density at 60 µm. Unfortunately, only the 60 µm flux densities of almost all sample regions are available. Hence, we estimate total IR luminosity of dust emission in each region from the 60 µm flux density by the following way: Assuming the IR SED of these FIR sources to be the modified black-body function with temperature of 30 K and emissivity index of 1, we obtain $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}/L_{\mathrm{}}=3.50\times (D/\mathrm{kpc})^2(F_{60\mathrm{\mu m}}/\mathrm{Jy})`$, where the wavelength range of the IR luminosity, $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}`$, is 8–1000 µm, and $`D=760`$ kpc is the adopted distance to M31. The derived IR luminosities are shown in the column 3 of Table 2. The adopted dust temperature of 30 K is reasonable because dust temperature of 10 isolated H ii regions whose flux densities at both 60 and 100 µm are listed in Table 3 of Xu & Helou (1996) is estimated to be 29 K on average.

Since the angular resolution of H$`\alpha `$ image is much higher than that of 60 µm image, numerous H$`\alpha `$ sources are included in the area over which the flux density of one FIR source at 60 µm is integrated. The sum of the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes in the area of each FIR source is shown in the column 4 of Table 2. These values are corrected for the \[Nii\] contamination by assuming a constant ratio of \[Nii\]/H$`\alpha `$ = 0.3 (Walterbos & Braun, 1992).

When we estimate the production rate of LC photons from H$`\alpha `$ flux, we must correct it for the interstellar extinction. Walterbos & Braun (1992) have commented that the mode of the interstellar extinction at H$`\alpha `$ is 0.8 mag. Since this value of extinction is estimated from the column density of Hi gas, it is a typical extinction averaged over the ISM of M31. If we assume the Case B and the gas temperature of 10000 K (Osterbrock, 1989), we obtain $`N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}/\mathrm{s}^1=8.77\times 10^{55}(D/\mathrm{kpc})^2(F_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }/\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2)\times 10^{0.4A_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }}`$, where $`F_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$ is H$`\alpha `$ flux (column 4) and $`A_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }=0.8`$ mag is the assumed amount of extinction at H$`\alpha `$ line. The derived $`N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}`$ is in the column 5. The ratio of the IR luminosity to the LC photon production rate is shown in the column 6.

Now, we need to estimate $`ϵ`$. Adopting $`A_V/E_{BV}=3.1`$ and the Galactic extinction curve, $`E_{BV}`$ is $`0.3`$ mag when $`A_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }0.8`$ mag. Then, we can assume $`ϵ=0.7`$ for the H ii regions in M31 from the line for the dust albedo of 0.5 in Figure 1. Finally, we determine $`f`$ via equation (2) (column 7). The mean $`f`$ is 0.38, which is almost equal to that of the Galactic H ii regions.

Also, Devereux et al. (1994) have compared the H$`\alpha `$ emission map of M31 with the IR emission map produced by the maximum correlation method (IRAS HiRes image). They divided the H$`\alpha `$ emission into three components; the star-forming ring, the bright nucleus, and diffuse (unidentified) component. The star-forming ring, whose diameter is 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$65, has the observed H$`\alpha `$+\[Nii\] luminosity of $`4.77\times 10^6L_{\mathrm{}}`$. They estimated its IR (8–1000 µm) luminosity to be $`1.08\times 10^9L_{\mathrm{}}`$ by assuming the modified black-body function with 26 K and the index of 1. If we regard the star-forming ring as an aggregation of a lot of H ii regions, and assume $`A_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }=0.8`$ mag and \[Nii\]/H$`\alpha `$ = 0.3, we obtain $`L_{\mathrm{IR},7}/N_{\mathrm{LC},50}^{}0.5`$ for the ring. This corresponds to $`f0.3`$ when $`ϵ=0.7`$. The value of $`f`$ shows a good agreement with the mean $`f`$ of the sample in Table 2.

### 3.3 M33

We find suitable data of H ii regions in M33 in Devereux, Duric, & Scowen (1997), who examine correlation between H$`\alpha `$, FIR, and thermal radio emission of M33. They have reported some properties of 8 isolated H ii regions. We determine $`f`$ of these regions. The sample properties are tabulated in Table 3.

In the column 2, FIR (40–1000 µm) luminosities of the H ii regions, which are determined from the flux densities at 60 and 100 µm measured from IRAS HiRes images, are presented. In the column 3, the 5 GHz flux densities (see also Duric et al. 1993) are shown, and the estimated LC photon production rates are in the column 4 via $`N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}/\mathrm{s}^1=8.88\times 10^{46}(D/\mathrm{kpc})^2(F_{5\mathrm{G}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}}/\mathrm{Jy})`$ (Condon, 1992). For the distance to M33, 840 kpc is adopted. If dust SED can be fitted by modified black-body function (emissivity index of 1, 30K), we have $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ (40–1000 µm) $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}`$ (8–1000 µm). We determine the ratio of the IR luminosity to the photon production rate under this assumption (column 5).

Devereux et al. (1997) have also commented on the properties of the interstellar extinction for the H ii regions in M33. They have compared H$`\alpha `$ emission with thermal radio emission, and argued in their figure 7 that the average extinction is $`A_V1`$ mag (i.e. $`A_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }0.8`$ mag), although there is a large dispersion corresponding to $`\pm 1`$ mag. Thus, we can assume $`ϵ=0.7`$ for all the sample regions in M33 as well as those in M31. The determined values of $`f`$ are listed in the column 6 of Table 3. The mean is 0.41, although the large dispersion of the interstellar extinction may cause a large dispersion of $`f`$.

Thus, we saw that $`f0.4`$ or less for the H ii regions in M31 and M33. Hence, we conclude that the typical values of $`f`$ in these galaxies are nearly equal to that in our Galaxy. Therefore, we suggest that the fraction of LC photons consumed by dust in the H ii regions of other spiral galaxies may be a $`50\%`$ as well as that in the Galaxy, M31, and M33.

### 3.4 LMC

DeGioia-Eastwood (1992) have provided the data of 6 H ii regions in the LMC. The IR flux densities of the sample regions have been measured from the co-added survey data by IRAS. Relatively isolated regions have been chosen as the sample regions in order to perform a reasonable subtraction of the background flux. DeGioia-Eastwood (1992) have reported the IR, H$`\alpha `$, and radio fluxes of the sample regions whose apertures have been matched carefully among images of different wavelengths. The properties of the data are shown in Table 4.

The columns 2 and 3 are IRAS 60 and 100 µm flux densities, respectively. The IR (8–1000 µm) luminosity is calculated from these flux densities via $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}/L_{\mathrm{}}=0.61\times (D/\mathrm{kpc})^2[2.58(F_{60}/\mathrm{Jy})+(F_{100}/\mathrm{Jy})]`$. Here, we assume the dust SED to be modified black-body function with 30 K and index of 1, that is, $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}`$ (8–1000 µm) $``$ 1.66 $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ (40–120 µm). Then, the estimated total IR luminosities are shown in the column 4. The adopted distance to the LMC is 51.8 kpc. From the flux densities at 5 GHz in the column 5, the production rates of LC photons are calculated via Condon’s formula in section 3.3 (column 6).

The color excess of each region, $`E_{BV}`$, estimated from the observed Balmer decrement and corrected for a foreground reddening is listed in the column 8. Using the line of the LMC extinction law and the dust albedo of 0.5 in Figure 1, we obtained the value of $`ϵ`$ from each $`E_{BV}`$ (column 9). Finally, $`f`$ is determined for each sample region (column 10). The mean $`f`$ is 0.74. This is obviously larger than those of the Galaxy, M31, and M33.

DeGioia-Eastwood (1992) have also determined $`f`$ for these regions. Her mean $`f`$ is $`0.65\pm 0.13`$, which is consistent with that in the current paper. Here, we should note that $`f`$ of DeGioia-Eastwood (1992) is determined from the dust optical depth for UV (1000–3000 Å) photons. By the definition of $`f`$, however, it should be determined from the dust optical depth for LC photons ($`\lambda <912`$ Å) such as we stated in Paper I or this paper.

On the other hand, Xu et al. (1992) have compared the IR, H$`\alpha `$, and radio emission from the LMC, and have examined more global correlations among these emissions. They have displayed appealing contour maps of these wavelengths, which strongly make us believe that these three kinds of emission have the same origin, i.e. the star-forming regions. Indeed, there are excellent coincidences among IR, thermal radio, and H$`\alpha `$ sources (see also Maihara, Oda, & Okuda 1979; Fürst, Reich, and Sofue 1987 for the Galactic sources). According to Xu et al. (1992), the FIR (40–120 µm) flux associating with the star formation in the LMC is $`28.9\times 10^{10}`$ W m-2, and the thermal radio flux density at 6.3 cm in the same area is 131 Jy.333Their integrated area is not whole of the LMC. See their description for detail. Since the corresponding $`L_{\mathrm{IR},7}/N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}`$ is 0.13, $`f0.7`$ when we assume $`ϵ=0.4`$ (the average value for the sample in Table 4). This is in good agreement with the mean $`f`$ of the sample in Table 4.

Therefore, we conclude that $`f`$ of the H ii regions in the LMC is about 0.7 and larger than those in the spiral galaxies like the Galaxy, M31, and M33. The larger $`f`$ may be caused by the lower metallicity of the LMC. A lower metallicity is likely to lead to a smaller dust-to-gas ratio, so that the fraction of ionizing photons, $`f`$, increases. The issue will be discussed more closely in the next section.

## 4 Discussions

We have estimated $`f`$ for each H ii region in some Local Group galaxies by comparing its observed IR luminosity with production rate of LC photons. Here, we discuss what the determined $`f`$ values suggest.

### 4.1 Value of $`f`$ as a function of metallicity/dust-to-gas ratio

First, we discuss the relationship between the mean $`f`$ of each galaxy and its metallicity (or dust-to-gas ratio). We naturally expect that the effect of the LCE becomes larger as the dust content increases. Then, we also expect the mean $`f`$ of sample H ii regions to be a function of dust-to-gas ratio or metallicity of their host galaxy. In order to examine the issue, we summarize some parameters of each galaxy in Table 5.

The mean $`f`$ with its sample standard deviation is shown in the column 2 of Table 5. Also, we find metallicities and dust-to-gas mass ratios of sample galaxies in the columns 3 and 4, respectively. Here, the metallicities are taken from van den Bergh (2000). The dust-to-gas mass ratios except for that of M31 are taken from Issa, MacLaren, & Wolfendale (1990), who have estimated the dust-to-gas ratio from the ratio of the amount of visual extinction to the surface density of H i gas. For M31, we determined the dust-to-gas ratio from the observed dust mass and gas mass directly. According to the observation of Haas et al. (1998) by ISO, M31 have $`3\pm 1\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ as the dust mass. Also, M31 contains H i gas of $`3.8\times 10^9M_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Cram, Roberts, & Whitehurst, 1980) and H2 gas of $`2.7\times 10^8M_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Dame et al., 1993). Thus, the dust-to-gas mass ratio of M31 is $`7.4\times 10^3`$. Moreover, the dust-to-gas ratios of sample galaxies are normalized by a typical one of the ISM in our Galaxy, $`6\times 10^3`$ (Spitzer, 1978).

In Figure 2, mean $`f`$ values of H ii regions in each galaxy are plotted as a function of metallicity. We may find a trend that the mean $`f`$ decreases as the metallicity increases. We also show that mean $`f`$ as a function of dust-to-gas mass ratio in Figure 3. In this figure, the mean $`f`$ seems to become small as the dust-to-gas ratio becomes large. However, since the number of sample galaxies is still small, more investigation is needed. For example, the dependence of $`f`$ on metallicity will become clearer if we examine H ii regions in the Small Magellanic Cloud or other metal poor galaxies, or examine the relation of this issue to the abundance gradient of galaxies.

Let us see how to produce two solid lines in Figure 3. In Parer I, we have formulated the dust optical depth for LC photons, $`\tau _\mathrm{d}`$, as a function of its dust-to-gas ratio (see also Hirashita et al. 2001);

$$\tau _\mathrm{d}=x\left(\frac{𝒟}{𝒟_{\mathrm{MW}}}\right),$$
(5)
where $`\tau _\mathrm{d}`$ is evaluated over the actual ionized radius of a spherical H ii region containing dust grains uniformly. Here, we estimate $`\tau _\mathrm{d}`$ at the Lyman limit approximately. In the right hand side, $`𝒟`$ is the dust-to-gas mass ratio which is normalized by a typical Galactic ISM value, $`𝒟_{\mathrm{MW}}=6\times 10^3`$ (Spitzer, 1978). The coefficient, $`x`$, is a factor depending on the production rate of LC photons and the gas density of the H ii region. For a galaxy having the Galactic dust-to-gas ratio, the coefficient, $`x`$, means the dust optical depth for LC photons itself. We find, in Paper I, $`x2`$ for the observed LC photon production rates and electron number densities in the sample of Galactic H ii regions.444This sample of Galactic H ii regions differs from the sample in Table 1 of this paper, and the method estimating $`f`$ is also different from that in the paper. See Paper I for detail. Petrosian et al. (1972) have derived the relation between the monochromatic dust optical depth, $`\tau _\mathrm{d}`$, and $`f`$ as the following;

$$f=\frac{\tau _\mathrm{d}^3}{3\{e^{\tau _\mathrm{d}}(\tau _\mathrm{d}^22\tau _\mathrm{d}+2)2\}}.$$
(6)
The relation is shown in figure 1 of Paper I. When $`𝒟`$ is given, therefore, we determine $`f`$ via equations (5) and (6). The data points in Figure 3 are well reproduced by setting $`x1`$–2 in equation (5).

Here, we assume that the dust-to-gas ratio in H ii regions to be almost equal to a typical value of that in the ISM of the host galaxy, although the ratio in local may vary significantly across the galaxy (Stanimirovic et al., 2000). On the other hand, the mean value of the dust-to-gas ratio of the H ii gas in our Galaxy is almost equal to those of the H i and H2 gas (Sodroski et al., 1997). Thus, the assumption may be valid globally.

In this paper, the determined $`f`$ values are somewhat larger than those in Paper I systematically. That is, the suitable $`x`$ parameter in equation (5) for the data points is 1 rather than 2 which is the best fit value in Paper I. This may be because we neglect the MIR component emitted by very small grains and PAHs in the dust IR luminosity (see section 2). Thus, $`f`$ determined here may be an upper limit. Also, $`f`$ in Paper I is considered to be a lower limit because the scattering of LC photons by dust is not taken into account in Paper I.

Anyway, the model presented by equations (5) and (6) can reproduce the trend of the observational data, when the coefficient, $`x`$, is set to between 1 and 2. In short, the $`𝒟`$$`f`$ relation falls in the area between two curves in Figure 3. Therefore, we conclude that $`f`$ is expected a function of dust-to-gas ratio (or metallicity): as the dust content increases, $`f`$ becomes smaller.

### 4.2 Effect of LCE on estimating SFR

Finally, we discuss the effect of the LCE on estimating the SFR. By the definition of $`f`$ in equation (1), we obtain the correction factor for the SFR by the LCE as $`1/f`$. If $`f`$ is a function of dust-to-gas ratio, the correction factor is also a function of dust-to-gas ratio. This is shown in Figure 4.

Clearly, we find that the correction factor increases as dust-to-gas ratio increases. For nearby spiral galaxies, their dust-to-gas ratios distribute around the Galactic value (Alton et al. 1998; Stickel et al. 2000, see also Paper I). Indeed, even the starburst galaxies (e.g., M82) and the ultra-luminous IR (ULIR) galaxies (e.g., Arp 220) are likely to have about the Galactic dust-to-gas ratio (Krügel, Steppe, & Chini, 1990; Lisenfeld, Isaak, & Hills, 2000). For such dust-to-gas ratio, we expect that the correction factor is 2–5. Thus, the effect of the LCE is more important than the uncertainty of the IMF, which is about a factor of 2 (e.g., Inoue et al. 2000). Therefore, we should take account of the LCE effect when we estimate the SFR of nearby spiral galaxies.

## 5 Conclusions

To examine the Lyman continuum extinction (LCE) in H ii regions, we compared the observed infrared emission with production rate of Lyman continuum photons for 49 H ii regions in our Galaxy, M31, M33, and LMC. Then, we estimate the fraction of Lyman continuum photons contributing to hydrogen ionization, $`f`$, in these regions. We reached the following conclusions:

 In many H ii regions, $`f`$ is smaller than 0.5. The mean $`f`$ of the sample regions in spiral galaxies (our Galaxy, M31, and M33) is about 0.4. On the other hand, the mean $`f`$ in the H ii regions in the LMC is about 0.7.

 The mean $`f`$ of sample H ii regions in each galaxy may be a function of metallicity or dust-to-gas ratio of their host galaxy. Namely, $`f`$ decreases as the metallicity or dust-to-gas ratio increases.

 The observational trend is reproduced very well by the model that the dust optical depth for Lyman continuum photons over the ionized region is proportional to the dust-to-gas ratio. The dust optical depth is in between 1 and 2 for the Galactic dust-to-gas ratio.

 It is expected that the correction factor for the star formation rate by the LCE increases as dust-to-gas ratio (metallicity) increases. The expected correction factor for the galaxies with the Galactic dust-to-gas ratio is 2–5. Therefore, the LCE effect should be taken into account when we estimate the SFR of the nearby spiral galaxies, since the dust-to-gas ratios of these galaxies are almost same as that in the Galaxy.

The author appreciates anonymous referee’s great efforts towards understanding this paper and his many useful suggestions to improve quality of this work significantly. The author is most grateful to T. T. Takeuchi for careful reading of this paper and a lot of useful comments. The author also thanks very much H. Kamaya and H. Hirashita for their suggestions and discussions to improve this work. The author has made extensive use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service (ADS).

## Appendix A Infrared excess (IRE)

The IR excess (IRE) is often examined for H ii regions. We examine the relation between the LCE and IRE. Especially, we relate $`f`$ to IRE directly here. A concerned discussion is found in Hirashita et al. (2001).

Mezger et al. (1974) have defined the IRE as

$$IRE\frac{L_{\mathrm{IR}}}{N_{\mathrm{LC}}^{}h\nu _{\mathrm{Ly}\alpha }},$$
(A1)
where $`h`$ is the Plank constant and $`\nu _{\mathrm{Ly}\alpha }`$ denotes the frequency at the Lyman $`\alpha `$ line. From equation (A1), we obtain $`L_{\mathrm{IR},7}/N_{\mathrm{LC},50}^{}=4.23\times 10^2IRE`$. Therefore, equation (2) is reduced to

$$f=\frac{0.44+0.56ϵ}{0.28+0.24IRE}.$$
(A2)
In Figure 5, we show the relation between $`f`$ and $`IRE`$ derived from equation (A2) for various $`ϵ`$.

The solid, dotted, and dashed lines correspond to $`ϵ=1.0`$ (in the Galaxy), 0.7 (in M31 and M33), and 0.4 (in LMC), respectively. In addition, we also present the dash-dotted line of $`ϵ=0`$ for comparison, which corresponds to the case that no nonionizing photons are absorbed by dust. According to Spitzer (1978), the probability of producing Lyman $`\alpha `$ photons is two-thirds per every ionization–recombination process of hydrogen. Thus, when the observed IR luminosity of an H ii region is explained by only the luminosity of Lyman $`\alpha `$ photons produced in the region ($`f=1`$ and $`ϵ=0`$), $`IRE`$ will be 0.67.

Antonopoulou & Pottasch (1987) have reported $`4<IRE<40`$ for the Galactic compact H ii regions. The mean IRE of their sample is about 12. For such high IRE regions, we expect that $`f`$ is about 0.3 or less. When we estimate the SFR of such regions, therefore, we should not use the H$`\alpha `$ or thermal radio luminosities but use the IR luminosity as an indicator of the SFR.


text:
# Directed Percolation and the Golden Ratio

## References