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# Zero-bias anomaly in disordered wires

## Abstract

We calculate the low-energy tunneling density of states $`\nu (ϵ,T)`$ of an $`N`$-channel disordered wire, taking into account the electron-electron interaction non-perturbatively. The finite scattering rate $`1/\tau `$ results in a crossover from the Luttinger liquid behavior at higher energies, $`\nu ϵ^\alpha `$, to the exponential dependence $`\nu (ϵ,T=0)\mathrm{exp}(ϵ^{}/ϵ)`$ at low energies, where $`ϵ^{}1/(N\tau )`$. At finite temperature $`T`$, the tunneling density of states depends on the energy through the dimensionless variable $`ϵ/\sqrt{ϵ^{}T}`$. At the Fermi level $`\nu (ϵ=0,T)\mathrm{exp}(\sqrt{ϵ^{}/T})`$.

The influence of electron-electron interactions on transport in disordered systems has been extensively investigated for the past two decades . It is well known that the interaction has the strongest effect in low-dimensional systems. Electron tunneling into a one-dimesional conductor is suppressed by interactions even in the absense of disorder. This suppression, which yields vanishing tunneling density of states (TDOS) at the Fermi level, can be described in the framework of the Luttinger liquid theory. The recently discovered carbon nanotubes provide a unique opportunity for studying interaction effects in quantum wires. Although the properties of single-wall nanotubes are well described by the Luttinger liquid theory, the transport in multi-wall nanotubes (MWNT) is still not very well understood. The number of channels, disorder strength, and carrier concentrations in these systems can vary over a wide range and are difficult to control experimentally. Whereas some measurements indicate ballistic electron transport , most experiments exhibit diffusive electron motion . Furthermore, experiments demonstrate a strong suppression of TDOS $`\nu (ϵ)`$ near the Fermi level ($`ϵ=0`$). On the other hand, the existing microscopic theory treats the screened Coulomb interaction in the first order of perturbation theory; it provides the result for the correction to the density of states, $`\delta \nu (ϵ)1/\sqrt{ϵ}`$, which is valid as long as $`\delta \nu (ϵ)`$ is small. Clearly, this result of the lowest-order perturbation theory is insufficient for finding the behavior of TDOS $`\nu (ϵ)`$ in the limit of $`ϵ0`$.

In this paper we present a theory of the zero-bias anomaly in the tunneling density of states in quantum wires. We treat the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction non-perturbatively and allow for an arbitrary value of $`ϵ\tau `$, where $`\tau `$ is the elastic momentum relaxation time of electrons, and energy $`ϵ`$ is measured from the Fermi level. This enables us to describe the crossover from the known Luttinger liquid results valid at higher energies, $`ϵ\tau 1/\sqrt{N}`$, to the new low-energy ($`ϵ\tau 1/\sqrt{N}`$) behavior of the TDOS:

$$\nu (ϵ,T)\mathrm{exp}\left\{\sqrt{\frac{ϵ^{}}{T}}F\left(\frac{ϵ}{\sqrt{ϵ^{}T}}\right)\right\}$$
(1)
(hereinafter we use units with $`\mathrm{}=k_B=1`$). The characteristic energy $`ϵ^{}`$ here depends on the interaction strength $`g`$,

$$ϵ^{}=\frac{g}{\pi N\tau },g=\frac{\pi e^2}{4\overline{v}}\mathrm{ln}\frac{d}{R},$$
(2)
on the number of channels $`N`$ in the quantum wire, and on $`\tau `$. Here $`\overline{v}`$ is the Fermi velocity averaged over all channels, and $`dR`$ is the distance at which the electric field is shielded say, by conducting electrodes surrounding the wire. The scaling function $`F(x)`$ and its asymptotics at $`x1`$ (regime considered first in Ref. ) and $`x1`$, are presented in Fig. 1. The result (1) applies at sufficiently low temperatures and energies, when the value of the exponent in this equation is large. Note that according to Eq. (1), at finite $`T`$ the characteristic scale for the energy-dependence of TDOS is given not by $`T`$, but by a much larger value $`\sqrt{ϵ^{}T}`$.

In the absence of shielding Eq. (1) is somewhat modified, as the interaction parameter $`g`$ becomes a weak function of temperature and energy. We briefly discuss this case in the end of the paper, see Eqs. (24)–(26).

Having in mind experimental applications, we focus our discussion on carbon nanotubes. A typical MWNT consists of several (up to ten) graphite monolayer sheets rolled concentrically into cylinders. At zero doping they can be either metallic or semiconducting, depending on the helical arrangement of the carbon hexagons. The electron band structure of a single carbon nanotube  has two points in the Brillouin zone with the Dirac-like spectrum $`ϵ_k=v(k^2+k_{}^2)^{1/2}`$; the velocity here is $`v810^7`$ cm/s, and the transverse momentum $`k_{}=n/R`$ is quantized due to the periodic boundary conditions around the circumference, $`k_FRnk_FR`$. The number of conducting sub-bands around each Dirac point $`N=2k_FR`$ is determined by the radius of the nanotube and by the doping level, $`\mu =vk_F`$ ($`0.5`$ eV). A typical radius of the outermost shell is of the order of $`10`$ nm. Each sub-band has its own Fermi velocity $`v_n=v\sqrt{1n^2/k_F^2R^2}`$ and momentum $`k_Fv_n/v`$ along the cylinder axis. The electrons are scattered between different sub-bands within the same tube by impurities, lattice imperfections and by the incommensurate lattice potential of the neighbouring tubes. We consider the experimentally relevant case of the ballistic electron motion around the circumference, $`l=v\tau >R`$, and concentrate on low-energy, $`ϵ<v/R`$, limit. Electron tunneling at higher energies, $`ϵ>vl/R^2`$, in the opposite case of a short mean free path, $`l<R`$, was recently discussed in Ref. .

In the measurements of the TDOS the tunneling current propagates through the outermost shell while the inter-shell tunneling is largely suppressed. The role of the electrons in inner shells is then believed to be reduced merely to the dynamical screening of the Coulomb interaction between the electrons in the outer shell. Little is known about the contribution of inner-shell electrons to screening since the doping level in the inner shells is difficult to characterize experimentally. Two distinct scenarios can be imagined: i) the dopants are outside the nanotube, and the doping electrons reside in the outer shell only. ii) the dopants are distributed uniformly inside the MWNT, which leads to a uniform density of carriers across the shells. Below we concentrate on the first scenario, when the inner shells of the tube may be ignored. The second scenario will be considered elsewhere.

We start with calculating the TDOS in the first order in the screened interaction potential. This calculation follows the well-known route first developed for the case of a diffusive electron motion, and extended later  to the case of an arbitrary value of $`ϵ\tau `$. The zero-temperature result can be cast in the familiar form,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta \nu (ϵ)}{\nu _0}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _ϵ^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega 𝒱(\omega ),`$ (4)
$`𝒱(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \underset{q_{}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dq}{2\pi ^2}}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\omega ,𝐪)𝒢^2(\omega ,𝐪)U(\omega ,𝐪).`$ (5)
Here $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the impurity-renormalized vertex. Its inverse is given by the usual impurity ladder,

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }^1(\omega ,𝐪)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega \mathrm{𝐪𝐯}}{\omega \mathrm{𝐪𝐯}+i/\tau }}`$ (6)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi \nu _0}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}v_n^1{\displaystyle \frac{\omega (\omega +i/\tau )(qv_n+q_{}v_n)^2}{(\omega +i/\tau )^2(qv_n+q_{}v_n)^2}}.`$ (7)
The product of Green functions averaged over the Fermi surface \[abbreviated as $`𝒢^2`$ in Eq. (4)\] equals

$`𝒢^2(\omega ,𝐪)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(\omega \mathrm{𝐪𝐯}+i/\tau )^2}}`$ (8)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi \nu _0}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}v_n^1{\displaystyle \frac{(\omega +i/\tau )^2+(qv_n+q_{}v_n)^2}{[(\omega +i/\tau )^2(qv_n+q_{}v_n)^2]^2}},`$ (9)
where $`\mathrm{𝐪𝐯}=qv_n+q_{}v_n`$ and $`v_n=vn/(k_FR)`$ is the transverse velocity in the $`n`$-th band, $`\nu _0=_n(\pi v_n)^1`$ is the total density of states in the outermost shell (the summation accounts also for both spin directions and the presence of two Dirac points in the Brillouin zone).

The function $`U(\omega ,𝐪)`$ in Eq. (5) represents the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction of electrons and is given by

$$U(\omega ,𝐪)=\frac{V(𝐪)}{1V(𝐪)\mathrm{\Pi }(\omega ,𝐪)}.$$
(10)
Within the assumptions of our model, the polarization operator here,

$$\mathrm{\Pi }(\omega ,q,q_m)=\nu _0\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega ,𝐪)\frac{\mathrm{𝐪𝐯}}{\omega \mathrm{𝐪𝐯}+i/\tau },$$
(11)
is provided by the outer-shell electrons. The bare Coulomb potential in Eq. (10) is

$$V(q,q_m)=\frac{2e^2}{\pi }_0^\pi 𝑑\varphi K_0\left(2qR\mathrm{sin}\frac{\varphi }{2}\right)\mathrm{cos}m\varphi ,$$
(12)
where $`K_0(x)`$ is the modified Bessel function, and we used the fact that the momenta along the circumference of the tube are quantized and given by $`q_m=m/R`$.

To consider the low-energy behavior of $`\delta \nu (ϵ)`$, we will need only the long-range limit, $`qR1`$, of Eqs. (10)–(12); we find for the bare interaction

$`V(q,q_m)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{e^2}{|m|},\hfill & m0\text{,}\hfill \\ e^2\mathrm{ln}[\mathrm{min}(\frac{d^2}{R^2},\frac{1}{q^2R^2})],\hfill & m=0\text{.}\hfill \end{array}`$ (13)
The integrals in Eqs. (4) and (5) are dominated by the region of high frequencies $`\omega qv`$, where the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction (10) has plasmon poles, and can be rewritten as

$`𝒱(\omega )=\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dq}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{(\omega +i/\tau )V(q,q_m)}{\omega \left[\omega (\omega +i/\tau )\omega _m^2(q)\right]}}.`$ (14)
Here $`\omega _m(q)`$ denotes the frequency of the plasmon excitations which in the long wave length limit, $`qd1`$, is given by the following equation:

$$\omega _m^2(q)=\{\begin{array}{cc}e^2\nu _0q^2v_{}^2\mathrm{ln}[\mathrm{min}(\frac{d^2}{R^2},\frac{1}{q^2R^2})],\hfill & m=0\text{,}\hfill \\ \frac{e^2\nu _0}{|m|}\left(q^2v_{}^2+\frac{v_{}^2m^2}{R^2}\right),\hfill & m0\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$
(15)
In Eq. (15) we introduced the average squares of the longitudinal, $`v_{}^2`$, and transverse, $`v_{}^2`$, electron velocities

$$v_{}^2=\frac{_nv_n}{_nv_n^1},v_{}^2=\frac{v^2_nv_n^1n^2}{(k_FR)^2_nv_n^1}.$$

For $`ϵ>v_{}/R`$ in Eq. (4), we can approximate the sum over $`m`$ in Eq. (14) by an integral recovering the ballistic counterpart  of the two-dimensional diffusive correction discussed by Egger and Gogolin  for short-range interaction. However, in contrast to their conclusions, for lower energies $`ϵ<v_{}/R`$ the contribution of $`m0`$ terms becomes energy independent for both short-range and Coulomb interaction, in the latter case because of the gaps in plasmon spectra. The $`m=0`$ plasmon, on the other hand, is gapless. Its contribution to Eq. (14) depends on $`ϵ`$, and has a singularity at $`ϵ0`$. Therefore, to study the energy dependence of DOS at low energies we neglect the non-singular contribution of the $`m0`$ modes and retain only the $`m=0`$ term in Eq. (14). The expression (15) for $`m=0`$ ceases to be correct at frequencies larger that $`\sqrt{N}\overline{v}/R`$ which correspond to plasmons with wavelength of order of the tube radius $`R`$, representing the obvious ultraviolet cut-off for one-dimensional effects. Performing the integral over the momenta in Eq. (14), we obtain

$$𝒱(\omega )=\left(\frac{e^2\mathrm{ln}[\mathrm{min}(\frac{d}{R},\frac{\sqrt{N}v}{R\omega })]}{2\pi N\overline{v}}\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{}\frac{\sqrt{\omega +\frac{i}{\tau }}}{\omega ^{3/2}},$$
(16)
where $`\overline{v}=_nv_n/N`$ is the average Fermi velocity. The two distinct regions of the frequency dependence here, $`\omega 1/\tau `$ and $`\omega 1/\tau `$, define two domains for the energy-dependent correction to the TDOS. Substituting $`𝒱(\omega )`$ into Eq. (4), and assuming that $`\overline{v}\tau >d/\sqrt{N}`$, we obtain

$$\frac{\delta \nu (ϵ)}{\nu _0}=\frac{1}{\pi }\sqrt{\frac{2g}{N}}\{\begin{array}{cc}\sqrt{\frac{2}{ϵ\tau }}+\mathrm{ln}\lambda \tau ,\hfill & ϵ<1/\tau ,\hfill \\ \mathrm{ln}(\lambda /ϵ),\hfill & ϵ>1/\tau ,\hfill \end{array}$$
(17)
where $`g`$ is defined in Eq. (2), and $`\lambda =\overline{v}\sqrt{N}/(R^2d)^{1/3}`$. The first term of the low-energy asymptotic here is familiar from the zero-bias anomaly theory of Altshuler and Aronov, while the second term represents the omitted in high-frequency ($`\omega 1/\tau `$) contribution to the integral Eq. (4). The behavior of $`\delta \nu `$ at $`ϵ1/\tau `$ corresponds to the ballistic electron motion.

The perturbative expressions diverge at the Fermi level ($`ϵ0`$). To calculate the tunneling DOS to all orders in the interaction constant at small $`ϵ`$, we make use of the phase approximation for the fluctuating potential induced by the electron-electron interaction . The non-perturbative expression for the density of states can be cast in the form equivalent to the one derived in Ref. ,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\nu (ϵ,T)}{\nu _0}}=T\mathrm{cosh}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{2T}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑t{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}ϵt}{\mathrm{cosh}\pi Tt}}`$ (18)
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega 𝒱(\omega ){\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cosh}\frac{\omega }{2T}\mathrm{cos}\omega t}{\mathrm{sinh}\frac{\omega }{2T}}}\right\}.`$ (19)
In the region of validity of Eq. (18), the time integral can be evaluated within the saddle-point approximation. As the saddle point lies on the imaginary axis in the interval $`0it<1/2T`$, the denominator in Eq. (18) is always a slowly varying function and does not contribute to the saddle point exponent.

We consider first the ballistic regime, $`ϵ>\sqrt{ϵ^{}/\tau }`$. It allows us to reproduce the conventional Luttinger liquid results, so for brevity we mention here only the limit $`T0`$. Evaluating the integrand of Eq. (18), we find

$$\nu (ϵ)\nu _0\left(\frac{ϵ}{\lambda \sqrt{ϵ^{}\tau }}\right)^\alpha ;\alpha =\frac{1}{\pi }\sqrt{\frac{2g}{N}}.$$
(20)
In the diffusive regime, $`ϵ<\sqrt{ϵ^{}/\tau }`$, the main contribution to the TDOS comes from the small frequencies, where one can reduce Eq. (16) to $`𝒱(\omega )=\sqrt{ϵ^{}/\pi \omega ^3}`$. Furthermore, if $`ϵ1/N\tau `$ and $`Tg/\pi N\tau `$, the saddle point approximation is again applicable for the evaluation of the time integral in Eq. (18). One can easily check that at the saddle point the $`\mathrm{cosh}\pi Tt`$ function in Eq. (18) can be replaced by $`1`$, and therefore the density of states satisfies the scaling form,

$$\nu (ϵ,T)\frac{\nu _0}{(\lambda \tau )^\alpha }\mathrm{exp}\left\{\sqrt{\frac{ϵ^{}}{T}}F\left(\frac{ϵ}{\sqrt{ϵ^{}T}}\right)\right\}.$$
(21)
Here the function

$$F(x)=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑y\frac{\mathrm{cosh}\frac{y}{2}\mathrm{cosh}yz_s(x)}{\sqrt{\pi }y^{3/2}\mathrm{sinh}\frac{y}{2}}x\left[\frac{1}{2}z_s(x)\right]$$
(22)
is determined by the value of the integrand in Eq. (18) at the saddle point $`t_siz_s/T`$. The dependence of $`z_s`$ on the ratio $`ϵ/\sqrt{ϵ^{}T}x`$ is given by equation:

$$x=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{dy\mathrm{sinh}z_sy}{\sqrt{y}\mathrm{sinh}y/2}.$$
(23)
Numerical solution of this parameter-free equation and the subsequent evaluation of the integral in Eq. (22) yields the graph of scaling function $`F(x)`$ plotted in Fig. 1 and its asymptotics given in the figure caption. Note that the pre-exponential factor in Eq. (21), which we omitted in Eq. (1) for the sake of brevity, provides the proper matching of the results (20) and (21) obtained in the energy domains $`ϵ\sqrt{ϵ^{}/\tau }`$ and $`ϵ\sqrt{ϵ^{}/\tau }`$, respectively.

We derived our main results, Eqs. (21)–(23), assuming that the Coulomb interaction is shielded at distances $`d`$. In the absence of shielding, the long-range nature of the interaction potential leads to a stronger than predicted by Eq. (20) suppression of the TDOS in the ballistic regime, $`\mathrm{ln}[\nu (ϵ)/\nu _0][\mathrm{ln}(ϵ/ϵ^{})]^{3/2}`$. At lower energies (corresponding to the diffusive regime), the effect of the long-range potential can be accounted for by replacing the parameter $`ϵ^{}`$ of Eq. (2) with the logarithmic function of energy and temperature,

$$ϵ^{}ϵ^{}(ϵ,T)=ϵ_0\mathrm{ln}\frac{\overline{v}/R}{\text{max}(ϵ,\sqrt{Tϵ_0})},ϵ_0\frac{e^2}{4\overline{v}N\tau }.$$
(24)
After the definition of $`ϵ^{}`$ is adjusted to reflect this replacement, we can use Eqs. (21)–(23) again. In the limit of low temperatures, $`Tϵ^2/ϵ_0`$, we find:

$$\nu (ϵ)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{ϵ_0}{ϵ}\mathrm{ln}\frac{\overline{v}}{ϵR}\right).$$
(25)
The suppression of the TDOS near the Fermi surface ($`ϵ\sqrt{Tϵ_0}`$) at finite temperatures is given by

$$\nu (T)\mathrm{exp}\left[1.07\sqrt{\frac{ϵ_0}{T}}\mathrm{ln}^{1/2}\left(\frac{\overline{v}}{R\sqrt{Tϵ_0}}\right)\right].$$
(26)
The origin of the strong suppression of the TDOS, see Eqs. (20), (21), (25), and (26), lies in the re-distribution of charge of the tunneling electron along the wire. This process is impeded by the finite propagation time of plasmons which enable the charge spreading. The requirement that the wavelength of the relevant plasmons $`\overline{v}\sqrt{N}/ϵ`$ be shorter that the length of the wire $`L`$ imposes the lower energy limit for the applicability of the present theory. For smaller energies, $`ϵ<\overline{v}\sqrt{N}/L`$, the tunneling DOS of the wire depends on the impedance of the leads attached to the segment. To observe a sizable suppression of TDOS, the nanotube must be sufficiently long, and therefore have high intrinsic resistance. We find that in order to reach the strong diffusive renormalization of TDOS anomaly ($`ϵ,Tϵ^{}`$) the total resistance of the segment should be made larger than $`(h/e^2)\sqrt{N/g}`$. This condition on the overall segment length does not invalidate the employed method which assumes the diffusive motion of electrons. Indeed, the characteristic frequencies of the plasmons involved are high enough for the weak localization’s corrections to be ignored in the calculation of TDOS. In order to avoid localization effects in the DC transport measurement, the two junctions needed for the TDOS measurement should be attached to the MWNT within a distance shorter than the localization length from each other.

We presented above the derivation of TDOS only for the case of a relatively long mean free path $`l`$, exceeding the radius $`R`$ of a MWNT, but our main result (1) is valid for any relation between $`l`$ and $`R`$. The only additional feature appearing in the case $`lR`$, is the studied in Ref.  intermediate range of energies, where the TDOS behaves as in a two-dimensional disordered conductor.

In summary, we have obtained the tunneling density of states in a disordered quasi-one-dimensional conductor. Our results are non-perturative in the electron-electron interaction, and cover both the diffusive and ballistic regimes of the electron motion. In contrast to the two-dimensional case , the non-perturbative results (18) and (25) are not given by a simple exponentiation of the first-order interaction correction (17).

We thank B. Altshuler, I. Beloborodov, A. Kamenev, P. McEuen and M. Paalanen for discussions. This research was sponsored by the NSF Grants DMR-9731756, DMR-9984002 and BSF-9800338 and by the A.P. Sloan and the Packard Foundations. E. M. acknowledges the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Grant 01-02-16211.


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# Charged-particle pseudorapidity density distributions from Au+Au collisions at √𝑠_{𝑁𝑁}=130 GeV

## Abstract

The charged-particle pseudorapidity density $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ has been measured for Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$=130 GeV at RHIC, using the PHOBOS apparatus. The total number of charged particles produced for the 3% most central Au+Au collisions for $`|\eta |`$5.4 is found to be 4200$`\pm `$470. The evolution of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ with centrality is discussed, and compared to model calculations and to data from proton-induced collisions. The data show an enhancement in charged-particle production at mid-rapidity, while in the fragmentation regions, the results are consistent with expectations from $`pp`$ and $`pA`$ scattering.

Nucleus-nucleus collisions at highly relativistic energies from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) present a new opportunity for the study of strongly interacting matter under conditions of very high temperature and energy density. Already, data from central Au+Au collisions at energies of $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$=56 and 130 GeV  have shown an increase in mid-rapidity particle production over that observed in Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS . In addition, the charged-particle yields, when scaled by the number of participating nucleons ($`N_{part}`$), exceed the values observed in proton-proton collisions at similar $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$. These results have been used to infer an energy density at the highest value of $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$ that is considerably larger than was achieved at CERN, and which is well within the region where new physics is to be expected.

The distribution of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ over the entire range of pseudorapidity $`\eta `$, where $`\eta =ln(\mathrm{tan}(\theta /2))`$ and $`\theta `$ is the angle with respect to the beam, represents a time-integral of particle production throughout the collision, and reflects all effects that contribute to the production of charged particles. In addition to the influence of both hard and soft production processes, $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ is sensitive to nuclear effects in the initial parton distributions, as well as to effects from hadronic re-interactions in the final state.

The data for $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ at mid-rapidity ($`|\eta |<1`$) for the most central Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$=56 and 130 GeV are in reasonable agreement with the predictions of a number of models including HIJING, a saturation model(EKRT), and purely hadronic models (e.g. LUCIFER). The centrality dependence of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ at mid-rapidity has also been measured. These results suggest some deviation from both the HIJING and EKRT model predictions, although they are in broad agreement with the results of calculations by Kharzeev and Nardi.

An extension of the measurements of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ data beyond mid-rapidity, for a range of impact parameters, is necessary to further constrain models. It is also of interest to determine whether the observed scaling of the charged-particle yield with $`N_{part}`$ at mid-rapidity is modified at large values of $`\eta `$ where, in proton-nucleus ($`pA`$) collisions, re-scattering, stopping, and target fragmentation influence the shape of the $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ distributions. In order to address these questions, we have used the PHOBOS apparatus to measure the charged-particle pseudorapidity density $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ from Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$=130 GeV over the range $`|\eta |<5.4`$.

The PHOBOS experiment at RHIC largely consists of several arrays of silicon pad detectors. The details of the experimental arrangement are described in Ref. . The procedures used for event selection, the determination of the collision-vertex position, event centrality, and the estimation of $`N_{part}`$, have been described in Refs. . The specific elements of the experiment used in the current measurement and the analysis procedures leading to $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ are described below.

The data samples included in the current analysis were taken at a collision energy of $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$=130 GeV. The collision vertices were confined to a region within $`\pm `$10 cm of the nominal beam crossing and center of the apparatus ($`z=0`$). At mid-rapidity, charged particles were detected, and their energy deposition measured, with an octagonal array of pad detectors approximately 1 m long (the “Octagon”) that surrounds the thin-walled Be beam pipe. The Octagon subtends the full azimuthal range, except for regions where sensors that would intercept the acceptance for the tracking spectrometers and vertex finding detectors are removed. For collision vertices within $`|z|<`$10 cm, the pseudorapidity coverage of the Octagon is complete for $`|\eta |`$3.2. Six rings of silicon pad detectors placed at distances of $`|z|`$1, 2 and 5 m, detected particles in pseudorapidity ranges of $`3|\eta |4`$, $`4|\eta |4.7`$, and $`4.7|\eta |5.4`$, respectively. Thus, for collisions within the 20 cm long region in the center of the experiment, there are no significant gaps in the $`\eta `$ coverage from one sub-detector to the next. The total numbers of pads in the Octagon and Rings are 11,040 and 3,072, respectively.

Two complementary methods were used to analyze the pseudorapidity distribution data. The first method (“Hit Counting”) uses the segmentation of the multiplicity detector. After merging of signals in neighboring pads, in cases where a particle travels through more than a single pad, the deposited energy was corrected for the angle of incidence, so that all tracks originating from the collision vertex possess a common average value of the deposited energy ($`\mathrm{\Delta }E80`$ keV). Pads containing more than 75% of this value were counted as occupied. This requirement largely suppresses hits from background and from secondary-particles not originating from the primary collision vertex. Then, for a given value of $`\eta `$ and bin $`i`$ in collision centrality, the number of hit pads $`N(\eta ,i)`$ was corrected for the effects of multiple occupancy, where more than one particle travels through a given pad, as well as for contributions from the remaining secondary particles, absorption in the beam pipe, and weak decays of primary particles. The number of particles per pad was determined as a function of $`\eta `$ and centrality bin in two ways. In the first method, the probability $`P(N)`$ of $`N`$ particles passing through a given pad was assumed to be Poisson distributed. The mean occupancy $`\mu (\eta ,i)`$ could then be determined from the ratio of occupied to unoccupied pads in a range of $`\eta `$ for each centrality bin. Second, as a check, the occupancy was also determined from the energy-deposition spectra. A fitting procedure was used to determine the relative contribution to the total energy deposition of one or more particles, thus providing an independent measure of the mean occupancy $`\mu (\eta ,i)`$. Maximum values of approximately 1.6 particles per hit pad were obtained for the most central collisions at mid-rapidity.

To account for effects or biases not treated in the above analysis procedures, a final correction was deduced from GEANT simulations of the detector response using events from the HIJING, RQMD and VENUS event generators. The ratio between the simulated, occupancy-corrected $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ distributions and the known “Truth” distributions formed this last set of corrections, which ranged up to 15% in the Octagon and up to 50% in the Rings. These background correction factors, dependent upon both $`\eta `$ and centrality bin, were applied to the occupancy-corrected data, yielding $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$. The final results obtained using both hit counting methods were in good agreement.

In the second (“Analog”) method, the pseudorapidity distribution was extracted directly from the energy deposition $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(\eta )`$ in the multiplicity detectors. The measured energy deposition was transformed into $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ using quantities derived from the results of Monte-Carlo simulations. The average energy per track ($`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{tr}`$) was determined as a function of $`\eta `$ using particles from HIJING events, passed through the GEANT simulation of the detector. The fraction of primary particles $`f_{prim}(\eta )`$ was determined from the same simulations. Then, $`dN_{ch}/d\eta =\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }E(\eta )\times f_{prim}(\eta )}{\mathrm{\Delta }E_{tr}(\eta )\mathrm{\Delta }\eta }`$. Although the two methods differ qualitatively in the way in which the energy-deposition information from the multiplicity detectors is used, and rely differently upon the results of Monte-Carlo simulations, they yield results that differ generally by $``$5% throughout the range in $`\eta `$, well within the systematic uncertainties (see below), which are approximately 10%.

The systematic uncertainty in the occupancy correction for the hit-counting analysis was obtained by comparing the results from the full analysis chain using Poisson-derived occupancy corrections with those derived from the measured $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ spectra. The average deviations are less than 3%, yielding a partial systematic error of $``$ 3% at mid-rapidity. The systematic uncertainties from the Monte-Carlo simulations have been estimated by using different assumptions in the GEANT simulation, as well as different event generators, including RQMD and VENUS. The variations observed in the derived background corrections are between 4 and 8%, suggesting a total systematic uncertainty of approximately 10%. The systematic errors in the Analog analysis arise from uncertainties in the Monte Carlo simulations, as well as those in the absolute energy calibrations of the Silicon-pad detectors. The latter are approximately 5%, yielding a total systematic error for the Analog method of approximately 10%, similar to that for the hit-counting method.

Our final results are presented in Fig. 1(a)-(f), which show the error-weighted average values of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ from the two procedures for six different centrality bins. The error bars represent a convolution of the estimated systematic errors in the different analyses. The different centrality bins are denoted by the corresponding fraction of the observed total cross section, as well as by the deduced average number of participant nucleons $`<N_{part}>`$. While the occupancy and background corrections applied to the data from different parts of the apparatus are quite different in magnitude, the data from the Octagon and Ring detectors merge smoothly in most cases. The present analyses give values of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ that are in good agreement from the independent “Tracklet” analysis presented in . For example, for the 6% most central collisions, we find $`dN_{ch}/d\eta |_{|\eta |1}=547\pm 55`$, compared to 580$`\pm `$25 from Ref..

The integral of the distributions $`N_{ch}^{tot}`$, plotted in Fig. 2(a) as a function of centrality, is a direct measure of the total entropy produced in the collisions. Predictions of its magnitude have varied by as much as factor of two . With increasing $`N_{part}`$, the observed values of $`N_{ch}^{tot}`$ change smoothly from $`910\pm 100`$ for the 40-45% centrality bin to $`4200\pm 470`$ for the 3% most central collisions. Per participant pair, these numbers correspond respectively to 21.8$`\pm 2.6`$ and 23.7$`\pm `$2.7, compared with the $`pp`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$ non-diffractive total charged particle multiplicity of 18.5$`\pm 0.7`$. The predictions of the HIJING model reproduce the general trend of the $`N_{ch}^{tot}`$ centrality dependence, but systematically under-predict the observed values by approximately 10%.

The shapes of the pseudorapidity distributions evolve gradually with increasing centrality, as shown in Fig. 1(a-f). For all centrality bins, there is a plateau region between $`2<\eta <2`$, followed by a rapid drop-off towards larger pseudorapidities. A more detailed study of the centrality dependence of the shape is given in Figs. 2(b-f) and Fig 3(a). In Figs. 2(b-f), the $`N_{part}`$ dependence of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ normalized per participant pair $`<N_{part}/2>`$, is plotted for five pseudorapidity bins ranging from $`|\eta |<1`$ to $`5<|\eta |<5.4`$. Also plotted are data from $`pp`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions, scaled as described below, as open circles, and predictions from the HIJING model as solid lines. The statistical uncertainties are small and the systematic uncertainties are comparable to those described above. Figure 3(a) shows the pseudorapidity distribution for peripheral (35-45%) and central (0-6%) Au+Au collisions, scaled by the respective number of participants.

For all pseudorapidity bins in Fig. 2(b-f), the data evolve smoothly from the most peripheral to the most central collisions. As seen in Fig. 2(b,c) and Fig. 3(a), central collisions yield a 10-15% higher $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ per participant in the plateau region, compared to peripheral events. This difference decreases at larger pseudorapidities and reaches a turnover point between $`|\eta |=3`$ and 4, as seen in Fig. 3(a). Beyond that, a higher yield per participant is found in peripheral collisions. In Fig. 2(d) and (e) this turnover can be seen as a change in slope of the $`N_{part}`$ dependence of $`dN/d\eta `$ in the respective $`\eta `$ bins. In the highest 1.5 units of pseudorapidity, as is observed in $`p+A`$ collisions at lower energies , the scaled charged-particle density actually falls with $`N_{part}`$, being reduced by nearly a factor of two for $`|\eta |>5`$. Qualitatively, the changes in the distributions from peripheral, to central collisions in the fragmentation regions are similar to those observed in $`pA`$ collisions .

Finally, a comparison of the shapes from $`pp/p\overline{p}`$ collisions and central Au+Au collisions is given in Fig. 3(b). It shows the scaled pseudorapidity distribution for central collisions (0-6%), compared to scaled data from $`pp`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions, shown as a grey band. The $`pp/p\overline{p}`$ distribution was obtained by scaling the measured $`dN/d\eta `$ distributions from $`pp`$ collisions at $`\sqrt{s}=53`$ GeV and $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions at $`\sqrt{s}=200`$ and 546 GeV  horizontally by $`y_{max}(130GeV)/y_{max}(\sqrt{s})`$, where $`y_{max}(\sqrt{s})=\mathrm{ln}(\sqrt{s}/m_p)`$, and vertically using the parameterization of $`dN/d\eta _{|\eta |<1}`$ from ***This empirical scaling is chosen such that the extrapolation of three sets of $`pp`$ or $`p\overline{p}`$ data are confined within the band shown on Fig. 3(b).. The grey band gives an estimate of the uncertainty of this extrapolation procedure.

The scaled $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ is found to be higher in central Au+Au collisions than in $`pp/p\overline{p}`$ over the full pseudorapidity range out to $`|\eta |>4`$, with the largest excess observed in the central plateau region. This is in contrast with the HIJING prediction, which shows an excess in Au+Au collisions only for $`|\eta |23`$. A possible origin of this qualitative difference is suggested by the AMPT model of Zhang et al.. In this model, the initial state parton distribution is obtained the same way as in HIJING, but is followed by a parton cascade , string fragmentation and hadronic re-scattering using a relativistic transport model . This model reproduces the excess in particle production at higher pseudorapidities seen in Au+Au collisions relative to $`pp/p\overline{p}`$. Furthermore, predictions of $`dN_{ch}/d\eta `$ in a completely hadronic framework (e.g. LUCIFER) are very similar to those of the AMPT calculations, and are also in good agreement with the data for the most central collisions. These observations suggest that effects in the hadronic phase should be taken into account to provide a full description of the data. A comparison of the predicted centrality dependence of the full distributions from these models with the data would also be of interest. Further insight will be gained from future RHIC data, which should include more precise reference data from $`pp`$ collisions, as well as nucleus-nucleus data at different collision energies. These results will provide a basis for separating the effects of new phenomena from conventional hadronic physics.

This work was supported in part by US DoE grants DE-AC02-98CH10886, DE-FG02-93ER-404802, DE-FC02-94ER40818, DE-FG02-94ER40865, DE-FG02-99ER41099, W-31-109-ENG-38, and NSF grants 9603486, 9722606, and 0072204. The Polish groups were partially supported by KBN grant 2P03B 04916. The NCU group was partially supported by the NSC of Taiwan under contract NSC 89-2112-M-008-024.


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# Chandra X-Ray Point Sources, including Supernova 1979C, in the Spiral Galaxy M100

## 1 Introduction

M100 (NGC 4321) is a ‘grand-design’ late-type spiral, which has hosted 4 supernovae since 1900, has a prominent, star-forming circumnuclear region, and is located in the Virgo cluster . Previous x-ray observations of M100 led to the detection of the most recent supernova in the galaxy (SN 1979C) and of a number of other point sources (Immler et al., 1998; Palumbo et al., 1981).

Here, we report on x-ray point sources found in high-angular resolution x-ray observations of M100 made with Chandra. Results on the nuclear emission from the same data were previously reported in Ho et al. (2001). We selected this galaxy for study because it is seen nearly face-on which reduces ambiguity in determining the environments of x-ray sources, because it contains SN 1979C which was previously detected in x-rays (Immler et al., 1998), and because of the question of the association of an x-ray source with the nucleus remains open (Ho et al., 2001). We describe the Chandra observations and our analysis in §2 and discuss the results in §3.

## 2 Observations and Analysis

M100 was observed with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO; Weisskopf 1988) on 6 Nov 1999 and 15 Jan 2000 using the ACIS spectroscopic array (ACIS-S; Bautz et al. 1998) in imaging mode and the High-Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA; van Speybroeck et al. 1997). The galaxy fits almost completely on the S3 chip with a small portion of the $`D_{25}`$ ellipse on the S2 chip. We found no point sources within the portion of the $`D_{25}`$ ellipse on the S2 chip and the analysis below includes only data from S3. Level 2 data products from the standard processing (version R4CU5UPD11.2) were used. The processing includes standard cuts on CCD event grades, elimination of events from hot pixels, hot columns, and near node boundaries, and removal of cosmic ray induced events.

The observation on 6 Nov 1999 lasted 1165 s and had a high background rate in S3, $`1070\mathrm{cts}\mathrm{s}^1`$. On 15 Jan 2000, 1366 s of data were obtained with a low background rate, $`1\mathrm{cts}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Both observations are recorded in Chandra ObsID 400. We created images in the 0.4–7 keV band at the full ACIS resolution of $`0.49\mathrm{}`$ for each observation and for the combined data. We searched the images for point sources using wavdetect (CIAO V2.0) and visually inspected each image. For the two sources near the nucleus of M100, wavdetect reported source ellipses well in excess of the HRMA/ACIS point spread function. These large source ellipses are likely due to diffuse emission in this region and we chose to use source regions consistent with the point spread function rather than those reported by wavdetect.

The merged list of sources with detection significance above $`4\sigma `$ and within the $`D_{25}`$ ellipse of M100 is given in Table 1. The positional accuracy is limited by the Chandra absolute aspect which is accurate to $`0.6\mathrm{}`$ ($`1\sigma `$ rms; Aldcroft et al. 2000; see also the Chandra Aspect web pages http://asc.harvard.edu/mta/ASPECT/). The relative positions should be somewhat better. For each source, counts from the full data set in the energy bands 0.4–1–7 keV were extracted from source regions with a radius of 2 pixels for sources near the aimpoint and larger elliptical regions for sources further out. The counts were background subtracted using a circular background regions with radii equal to 3 times the major axis of the source ellipse and with ellipses twice the size of the source regions excluded (for both the source of interest and any sources overlapping the background region). For each source, we calculated the x-ray count rate in the 0.4–7 keV band and an x-ray color (hardness ratio) defined as counts in the 1-7 keV band minus counts in the 0.4–1 keV divided by the total counts in the 0.4–7 keV band. The x-ray colors were corrected to the values which would have been measured at the aimpoint using exposure maps for 0.7 and 2.4 keV, which correspond to the average photon energies for the point sources in the two bands.

Count rates were converted to luminosities in the 0.4–7 keV band assuming a thermal bremsstrahlung model with $`kT=2\mathrm{keV}`$ and corrected for absorption along the line of sight with a column density of $`2.39\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and assuming a distance of 16.1 Mpc (Ferrarese et al., 1996). The count rates were corrected for the fraction of events contained in the extraction region and for exposure using an exposure map for 1.5 keV. The $`kT=2\mathrm{keV}`$ thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum is consistent with the x-ray colors for most of the sources (see below). The previously used $`kT=5\mathrm{keV}`$ thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum (Immler et al., 1998) is not consistent with the x-ray colors. However, use of $`kT=5\mathrm{keV}`$ would increase the luminosities only by a factor of 1.3. Use of a power-law with photon index 2 would increase them by 1.1. For comparison with Rosat measurements (Immler et al., 1998), the luminosities in Table 1 should be multiplied by 1.0 to find the equivalent luminosity in the 0.1–2.4 band assuming a thermal bremsstrahlung model with $`kT=5\mathrm{keV}`$ for a distance of 17.1 Mpc.

## 3 Results and Discussion

Table 1 gives the properties of the x-ray point sources detected with Chandra. Fig. 1 shows the locations of the Chandra sources superimposed on a Digitized Sky Survey Blue image of M100. The Chandra sources lie either on spiral arms, in HII regions near spirals arms, or near the nucleus, i.e. at regions of active star formation. This supports the idea that luminous x-ray sources ($`L_X>2\times 10^{38}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$) are preferentially associated with recent star formation (Fabbiano, 1989; Fabbiano et al., 2001).

Comparing the sources detected with Chandra with those detected with Rosat and Einstein (Immler et al., 1998), we find several variable sources. Allowing for the uncertainty in the luminosity due to the lack of spectral information, we require a factor of $`2`$ change as evidence of variability. The Chandra source C6 was undetected with Rosat and appears to have increased in flux by a factor of at least 3. The Chandra upper bound on the luminosity of the Rosat source H17 (Immler et al., 1998) is at least a factor of 4 below the Rosat measurement. The Rosat source H24 appears to have decreased in flux by a factor of at least 2 in the Chandra observation. The source C2 = H21 may also be variable, but caution is warranted before reaching this conclusion as the Rosat flux may include some diffuse emission due to the larger point spread function of Rosat. This source was also detected with Einstein at a comparable flux. The Rosat sources H18 and H19 were detected at lower fluxes (the Rosat observation was 43 ks compared to only 2.5 ks for Chandra) and their variability cannot be constrained from the short Chandra observation. A longer Chandra observation would be useful. H19 was detected with Einstein at a much higher flux than with Rosat and is clearly variable. The sources H22 = C4 and H25 = C5 appear constant.

The nucleus of M100 (Rosat source H 23) resolves with Chandra into two sources: C1 and C3. There is also diffuse emission present in the low background image near the two point sources. C1 lies $`2.7\mathrm{}`$ away from the nuclear position derived from Digitized Sky Survey images which has an uncertainty of $`1.7\mathrm{}`$ (Cotton et al., 1999). To further investigate association of the C1 with the nucleus, we examined the FIRST radio survey data at 1.4 GHz for M100 (Becker et al, 1995). The FIRST catalog (White et al, 1997) contains two sources inside a region of extended emission near the nucleus, see Fig. 2. C1 is not coincident with either FIRST source and lies outside the peak of the diffuse emission. C1 lies $`3.5\mathrm{}`$ away from the closer FIRST source (which lies within the optical nuclear error box). The offset between C1 and the FIRST source is significantly larger than the astrometric uncertainty of Chandra of $`1.0\mathrm{}`$ at 90% confidence and the uncertainty of the FIRST position which is less than $`0.5\mathrm{}`$ at 90% confidence. The FIRST and Chandra positions for SN 1979C, see below, agree within $`0.84\mathrm{}`$ indicating there are no gross errors in the x-ray positions. Hence, we exclude an identification of C1 with the bright radio sources near the nucleus of M100. We note that M100 does not show evidence for AGN activity at other wavelengths (Sakamoto et al., 1995).

C1 is the only source which shows significant variability between the two Chandra observations. The variability indicates the source is likely a compact object. The circumnuclear region of M100 is undergoing vigorous star formation with some star clusters as young as a few 10 Myr (Ryder and Knapen, 1999). Hence, the presence of bright x-ray point sources near the nucleus is not unexpected and is likely related to the young stellar population.

The majority of the x-ray sources in M100 are variable and are likely x-ray binaries. The sources are not more luminous than known x-ray binaries within the Milky Way, e.g. 4U 1543–47 (Orosz et al., 1998). Hence, they may be normal stellar black hole candidates x-ray binaries with black masses near $`10M_{}`$ and, perhaps, mildly beamed. The luminosities are not high enough to warrant the application of exotic models as may be required for very high luminosity sources, e.g. the $`L_X10^{41}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$ source in M82 (Kaaret et al., 2001; Matsumoto et al., 2001). In Fig. 3, we show the x-ray color versus x-ray luminosity (both defined in Table 1) of the Chandra sources. Excluding the softest source, which is a supernova discussed below, the colors lie in the range from -0.2, corresponding to a thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum with $`kT1.0\mathrm{keV}`$ or a power-law spectrum with photon index $`\alpha =2.3`$, to +0.6, corresponding to $`kT2.3\mathrm{keV}`$ or $`\alpha =0.6`$, assuming a column density of $`2.39\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Such spectra are reasonable for accreting x-ray binaries at these luminosities.

Using the x-ray point source luminosity function derived from a Rosat survey of nearby spiral galaxies (Roberts and Warwick, 2000), we estimate that roughly 1.4 x-ray sources with $`L_X5\times 10^{38}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$ would be expected in M100 given its blue luminosity. We find 6 sources. The number of x-ray point sources versus blue luminosity in M100 is similar to that found for M101 (Wang, Immler, and Pietsch, 1999) and is likely related to active star formation, as has been suggested for M101 (Trinchieri, Fabbiano, and Romaine, 1990). Star formation in M100 is concentrated along the spiral arms (Knapen et al., 1996) as are the Chandra sources.

### 3.1 SN 1979C

The Rosat source H25 was identified with the supernova SN 1979C (Immler et al., 1998). Our Chandra position places the source C5 only $`0.84\mathrm{}`$ away from the supernovae – within the 90% confidence error circle – and greatly strengthens this association. None of the other known supernovae are detected with Chandra. SN 1901B and SN 1959E are type I supernova (Barbon, Cappellaro, and Turatto, 1989), so no x-ray emission would be expected (Schlegel, 1995). The type of SN 1914A is not known.

Unfortunately, there are too few photons ($`10`$) detected with Chandra from SN 1979C to make definitive statements about the spectrum (e.g. whether it is thermal line emission versus continuum emission). The source is the softest of those found in M100. The x-ray color, defined above, of $`0.5\pm 0.3`$ is consistent with a thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum with $`kT=0.31.1\mathrm{keV}`$, or a power-law spectrum with photon index of 2.3 to 4.3. This assumes a column density of $`2.39\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$; higher absorption would imply a softer intrinsic spectrum. The spectrum is significantly softer than the assumed spectrum used in calculating luminosities in Table 1 or in Immler et al. (1998). Recalculating the luminosity using a more appropriate spectrum, thermal bremsstrahlung with $`kT=0.6\mathrm{keV}`$, we find a luminosity of $`9\times 10^{38}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the 0.1–2.4 keV band and a luminosity from the Rosat data of $`1.3\times 10^{39}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the same band.

The Chandra and Rosat fluxes for the source H25 = C5 are not strongly inconsistent given the uncertainties due to spectral shape and inter instrument calibration. The source appears to have had a roughly constant, or perhaps slightly declining, luminosity over the 4.3 years separating the two observations. The constancy of the x-ray luminosity of SN 1979C over 4 years beginning 16 years after outburst is similar to the x-ray light curve of SN 1978K in NGC 1313 which showed a constant luminosity of $`5\times 10^{39}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ over the period 12–16 years after outburst (Schlegel et al., 1996).

SN 1979C was discovered on 19 April 1979 near maximum optical light (Johnson, 1979) and has been extensively observed. The optical light curve had a linear decline, leading to classification as a type II, subclass ‘L’ or ‘linear’ (Panagia et al., 1980). The total radiative energy in the event was $`7\times 10^{49}\mathrm{erg}`$ (Panagia et al., 1980). The progenitor is thought to be a red supergiant with a mass near $`17M_{}`$ and may have been in a binary (Weiler et al., 1992; Schwarz and Pringle, 1996). Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations led to tentative identification of an optical counterpart to SN 1979C (Van Dyk et al., 1999). The H$`\alpha `$ flux from the counterpart would imply an H$`\alpha `$ to X-ray flux ratio of $`0.013`$ during 1995–1996.

The interaction of supernova ejecta with surrounding matter previously lost by the progenitor provides an adequate explanation of optical, UV, and radio data on SN 1979C (Chevalier and Fransson, 1994). Radio emission was detected one year after outburst with the maximum emission at 6 cm shortly after the first detection and the maximum at 20 cm three years after outburst (Weiler et al., 1981, 1986). This delayed turn-on with increasing delay at longer wavelengths appears due to decreasing free-free absorption in ionized gas around the supernova and is well explained by the circumstellar interaction model (Weiler et al., 1991). The same model also explains the observed UV lines (Fransson, 1984).

Circumstellar interactions could produce the observed roughly constant luminosity if the supernova ejecta and the circumstellar matter have the appropriate radial dependence (Schlegel et al., 1996). Such a process could produce adequate luminosity and the H$`\alpha `$ to X-ray flux ratio is in reasonable agreement with model predictions (Chevalier and Fransson, 1994). A soft x-ray spectrum would be expected, which is consistent with the Chandra constraints. The circumstellar interaction model appears consistent with all the available x-ray constraints.

Alternative explanations of the x-ray emission are possible if a compact object was formed in SN 1979C. The X-ray emission might arise from a rotation-powered pulsar or from accretion on to a compact object fueled either by a binary companion or by matter from the progenitor which has fallen back onto the compact object (Chatterjee et al., 2000). Sufficient flux could be produced by either method of accretion (a black hole would be required to avoid violating the Eddington limit if the emission is unbeamed), but a variable or declining flux and, perhaps, a somewhat harder spectrum than is observed might be expected. The presence of a pulsar in SN 1979C has been suggested to explain the radio light curves (Weiler et al., 1981; Pacini and Salvati, 1981). The behavior of very young pulsars is unknown with a key question being the efficiency for conversion of spin-down power to observable x-ray emission. X-rays would likely come mainly from a surrounding synchrotron nebula and produce a relatively hard power-law x-ray spectrum, mildly inconsistent with the Chandra constraints. With additional x-ray observations, it would be possible to search for variability and perhaps also to determine whether the x-ray emission is thermal line emission or due to a continuum process and to accurately measure the spectral parameters.

I gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the Chandra team and partial support from NASA grant NAG5-7405. I thank the referee (and editor) Greg Bothun for useful comments. The Digitized Sky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166.


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# Revealing the Energetics and Structure of AGN Jets

## 1. Introduction

Collimated jets occur in many settings, including galactic nuclei, binary star systems, and star formation. AGN jets are relativistic flows composed of high-energy particles and magnetic fields, which emit synchrotron radiation in the optical and radio. Jets were the first AGN outflows observed, discovered by Curtis (1918), who noticed a ‘curious, straight ray’ emanating from M87.

Prior to the launch of HST, optical emissions had been observed from two AGN jets: M87 and 3C273 (Schmidt 1963). ROSAT and Einstein observed X-ray emissions from the jets and/or lobes of these (Schreier et al. 1982, Stern & Harris 1986) plus four others: Cen A (Burns et al. 1983), Cygnus A (Harris et al. 1994), 3C390.3 (Harris et al. 1998) and 3C120 (Harris et al. 1999). HST observations, particularly the 3CR Snapshot Survey (Martel et al. 1999), have drastically increased the number of known X-ray or optical jets to about 20, representing a fair cross-section of radio-loud AGN properties.

Because of the featureless nature of synchrotron spectra, the jump from morphology to physics is large for jets. Some progress has been made through numerical modeling and multi-frequency radio mapping, but this elucidates only a small part of the energy spectrum, and details can be obscured by the long particle lifetimes ($`10^{56}`$ yr). Due to their short radiative lifetimes, optical and X-ray synchrotron emitters ($`1100`$ yr), represent much more dynamic characteristics. Thus to obtain the tightest constraints, multiband data are required.

## 2. An issue of stratification

One of the surprises provided by HST observations was that the optical and radio morphologies of jets can be quite different. For example, in 3C273 the optical jet appears much narrower than seen in the radio, with a twisted, even ‘braided’ morphology (Röser et al. 1997). And in M87, there is a large-scale correspondence of features, but detailed comparison reveals a narrower, knottier jet in the optical (Sparks et al. 1996). Therefore it should not have been a surprise when the first Chandra data revealed yet more differences. For example, in Cen A, the X-ray and radio maxima of several knots appear offset by up to an arcsecond (Kraft et al. 2000). What do these represent: different physical conditions, different emission mechanisms, or both?

Perlman et al. (1999) proposed that the radio-optical differences in the M87 jet could be explained by stratification. What led to this conclusion was HST and VLA polarimetric images, which revealed large differences in knots, where the magnetic field vectors seen in the optical (but not radio) become perpendicular to the jet upstream of flux maxima, followed by sharp decreases in optical polarization at flux maxima (their Figures 3-6). Under the Perlman et al. model, high energy electrons are concentrated along the axis and in knots, where the magnetic field is compressed by shocks, while the sheath is dominated by lower-energy particles, with a more static, parallel magnetic field.

Naively, the idea of a stratified jet is not novel: in a fire hose, the fastest part of the flow is in the center. In fact, a decade ago some authors proposed ’two-fluid’ jet models (cf. Sol, these proceedings). Stratification has far-reaching implications. For example, instabilities need not involve all components of the jet flow. Moreover, a compressed, perpendicular magnetic field in knot regions is a recipe for particle acceleration. It instructive to look at the X-ray and optical flux and spectral morphology, where several of these features should show up.

## 3. Spectral and X-ray Morphology of the M87 and 3C273 Jets

M87 (d=16 Mpc) and 3C273 (z=0.158) are the prototype jets, having both the largest angular extents and high surface brightness. They are very different objects, differing by a factor 100 in luminosity and jet power, and by a factor 30 in physical jet length. One might therefore expect a detailed comparison to show interesting differences.

Looking first at Figure 1, we can see that in the M87 jet, there is an excellent overall correlation between optical flux and optical spectral index $`\alpha _o`$ ($`F_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$): in high surface brightness regions, one sees flatter spectra. Near knot maxima one sees exactly the kind of hardening, followed by softening, that one would expect if particle acceleration is occurring in the knots. Interestingly, the optical and radio-optical $`(\alpha _{ro})`$ spectral indices do not vary together. In each knot region in the inner jet, we observe $`\alpha _o`$ either leading or lagging $`\alpha _{ro}`$. One can understand this in the context of particle acceleration (Kirk et al. 1999): if the acceleration timescale is much less than the cooling timescale for optical synchrotron emitters, one expects $`\alpha _o`$ to lead $`\alpha _{ro}`$; however if the acceleration and cooling timescales are of similar order, one would expect $`\alpha _{ro}`$ to lead. A different situation is seen in the outer jet, where there is an anticorrelation between $`\alpha _o`$ and $`\alpha _{ro}`$. This might indicate that the jet core has a steeper injection index than the sheath.

X-ray emission is seen from all regions of the M87 jet, and several optical and X-ray knot maxima are located at the same $`\theta _{nuc}`$, e.g., HST-1 (nuclear distance $`\theta _{nuc}=1^{\prime \prime }`$), A ($`\theta _{nuc}=12^{\prime \prime }`$) and C ($`\theta _{nuc}=18^{\prime \prime }`$). Knot A’s X-ray and optical maxima are at the same $`\theta _{nuc}`$, not displaced by $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$, as had been claimed by Neumann et al. (1997) and Böhringer et al. (2000) The most likely explanation is the unexpected brightness of HST-1, which Chandra only partially resolves from the core, and is hopelessly blended with it in ROSAT and XMM images. There are, however, significant morphological differences. In knot E ($`\theta _{nuc}=56^{\prime \prime }`$), the X-ray bright region begins $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ upstream of the optical peak, in an optically faint region. Also, in knot F ($`\theta _{nuc}=8^{\prime \prime }`$), the X-ray bright region begins $`0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ upstream of the optically bright region, and the maxima are displaced. The difference in knot D ($`\theta _{nuc}=2.5^{\prime \prime }4^{\prime \prime }`$) is more subtle: the decline in X-ray flux following maximum is much steeper than in the optical.

The X-ray spectral indices and broadband SEDs indicate that the X-ray emissions of the M87 jet are due to synchrotron radiation (Böhringer et al. 2001, Marshall et al. 2001a). Since the lifetimes of X-ray synchrotron emitting electrons are only a few years, particle acceleration is required. Spectral fits and variability timescales constrain these regions to be a small fraction of the volume of each knot (Harris et al. 1997, Perlman et al. 2001, Marshall et al. 2001).

Turning to Figure 2, we see that in the 3C273 jet there is no correlation between the optical flux and spectral index. Instead, there is a gradual steepening in $`\alpha _o`$ with $`\theta _{nuc}`$, overlaid with small variations, e.g., flattenings in the A-B1, B1-B2 and C1-C2 transitions. Thus physical conditions in the 3C273 jet change remarkably smoothly over scales of many kiloparsecs. A detailed spectral index map also reveals evidence of superposed emission regions in some knots (Jester et al. 2001a). This is very different from the M87 jet, illustrated above.

Jester et al. (2001a) note that the consistency of the ground and HST-observed runs of $`\alpha _o`$, the gradualness of the spectral changes and the lack of correlation between optical flux and $`\alpha _o`$, are consistent with no radiative cooling over scales of many kiloparsecs. But optical synchrotron emitting particles have lifetimes $``$ hundreds of years. Jester et al. (2001a) conclude that the only way to escape this paradox is to have continuous reacceleration, throughout the jet’s length. This is not inconsistent with stratification, but it is very different from what we see in M87. Optical polarimetry would be invaluable to examine these issues further. Unfortunately the current HST polarimetry (Thomson et al. 1993) is too low signal to noise; reobservation is required.

Comparing optical and X-ray images of 3C273 (Marshall et al. 2001b, Sambruna et al. 2001), one sees further differences. Knot A is by far the most powerful in the X-rays, whereas the optical fluxes of all knots are within a factor of two, and the radio maximum occurs in knot H. In addition, the X-ray and optical peaks in knot B appear offset, and no X-ray emission is seen in knot H2. There is debate over the X-ray emission mechanism for knot A: Marshall et al. (2001b) and Röser et al. (2000) favor synchrotron radiation, while Sambruna et al. (2001) claim that Comptonization is required. But these authors agree that the X-ray emissions of the other knots is due to Comptonization of CMB photons. Deeper observations are needed to distinguish between mechanisms.

Figure 2. Optical (Jester et al. 2001b, top) and X-ray emissions (bottom) of the 3C273 jet. The top panel shows runs of $`\alpha _o`$ (points and dashed curve at top) and optical flux (solid curve). The Chandra image is adaptively smoothed. By contrast to M87, in the 3C273 jet optical flux and $`\alpha _o`$ are uncorrelated. Also, the X-ray and optical maxima of knot B are offset by $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$ and X-ray emission is not seen at $`\theta _{nuc}\stackrel{>}{}21^{\prime \prime }`$. This implies different physics than seen in the M87 jet.

## 4. Discussion

There are significant differences between the observed morphologies of the M87 and 3C273 jet, which probably translate to differences in structure and physics. Unfortunately, not all of the observations are in place even for these objects. For 3C273, better HST polarimetry is required, and several more bands of deep optical imaging would be very helpful to pin down the $`\alpha _o`$ map better (compare the error bars in the runs of $`\alpha _o`$ in Figures 1 and 2). For M87, the magnetic and energetic structures are better constrained, but there are other issues, for example the observed superluminal motion in several knots (Biretta et al. 1999a,b) and the evolution of physical conditions in those components.

We are only scratching the surface of the range of properties in jets. Many new observations are needed. Through cycle 9, four of the twelve known jets brighter than $`20`$ mag/arcsec2 have only snapshot HST observations, and four more have only shallow exposures and poor spectral coverage. Moreover, through Cycle 9, polarimetry had been done only for M87 and 3C273 (3C264 and 3C78 are scheduled for Cycle 10). Chandra is doing somewhat better; deep observations have been obtained or scheduled for 7 of the 12 brightest optical jets.

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text:
# On the double-mode RR Lyrae variables of the Sculptor dwarf galaxy

## 1 Introduction

The variable star content of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy has been investigated recently as a ‘target of opportunity’ by the ogle project, devoted primarily to searches for microlensing events (Kaluzny et al. 1995). They found 326 stars suspected of variability, from which 134 variables were classified as fundamental mode (RRab) and 89 stars as first overtone (RRc) RR Lyrae variables. They also noted the discovery of one double-mode (RRd) star. The purpose of the present paper is to conduct a more thorough search for RRd stars in the ogle data base and study their physical properties.

In a recent series of papers we have shown that double-mode variables are very useful objects in giving fairly accurate estimates on the distance moduli of benchmark systems, such as the Magellanic Clouds (Kovács & Walker 1999; Kovács 2000a, b; hereafter KW99, K00a and K00b, respectively). A complete parameter estimation of an RRd star requires not only the knowledge of the periods but also that of two additional parameters, such as the color index and metal abundance. Unfortunately, in the case of the present data set we have light curves available only in the $`V`$ band. Therefore, it is necessary also to use some other information, in order to estimate the allowed parameter regimes for the Sculptor variables.

This additional information comes from our earlier studies on the RRd populations in various Galactic globular clusters. In those works, multicolor photometry was available, therefore, we could obtain mass and luminosity estimates. Here we examine these estimates more closely. We will see that they exhibit marginal (if any) metallicity dependence. By adopting these masses and luminosities in the present study, and applying the pulsation equations, we give estimates on the metallicities of the Sculptor RRd variables.

## 2 Frequency analysis

The method of analysis is very similar to the one used by Alcock et al. (2000, hereafter A00). The main difference is in the calculation of the frequency spectra. Here we use a single component least squares (LS) criterion (e.g., Barning 1963) rather than the standard Fourier transform method (e.g., Deeming 1975). We opted for the LS approach because in the case of the present data set with high noise and strong aliasing, this method yields a better estimate for the peak frequency position. The difference between the two methods becomes unimportant, e.g., in the case of RRd variable searches performed on the type of data sets analyzed by A00.

Secondary frequency components are searched by prewhitening the signal with the highest amplitude component. The full data set, containing 326 variables, is analyzed. Each time series spans some 425 days with $`80`$ data points in Johnson $`V`$ color. The data are concentrated in two observing seasons, separated by one year. The first season covers only three weeks and contains about 15% of the total number of observations. The second season covers a longer time interval, spanning of about 2.5 months. There is also a strong 1-day periodicity in the sampling, which affects the frequency spectra rather severely. However, in the present analysis, this problem is less disturbing, because nonphysical frequencies can be excluded relatively easily, due to the narrow period ratio range of the RRd stars ($`0.741<P_1/P_0<0.748`$, if we consider all presently known RRd variables — see Popielski et al. 2000).

By visually checking all frequency spectra, 18 variables are selected as RRd candidates, based on the patterns of the prewhitened spectra. For illustration, we display some of the most secure identifications in Fig. 1. It is seen that the daily aliasing is indeed strong. Even so, the LS method is capable of identifying the correct components. (By using a standard discrete Fourier transform method, we find that three out of five stars are misidentified.) In some other cases the frequency search leads to less reliable results. Fig. 2 displays some examples of this.

The lower two panels exhibit the ambiguities from the daily aliasing. In these cases physical arguments are applied to choose among the various possibilities. For example, in the case of variable #03832, the ratio of the formally obtained frequencies is 0.908, which excludes the possibility of both components identified as radial modes. However, the frequency difference is 0.286$`d^1`$, which is too large for this star to be one of the newly discovered variables of RRc stars with closely spaced frequencies (A00; Olech 1999). On the other hand, we get a very simple explanation for the observed pattern if we assume that the true secondary component is at $`(3.0906221.0)d^1`$. This assumption leads to a period ratio of 0.7443, which is in the right range for an RRd variable.

The other three stars in Fig. 2 have rather low-amplitude secondary components. This makes it somewhat difficult to identify them as RRd variables. The primary reason why they have been selected as probable RRd stars is that they have ‘correct’ period ratios and their fundamental periods are sufficiently far from $`0\stackrel{d}{.}5`$. Other RRd candidates (i.e., #00038, #03834 and #05015) with similarly low fundamental amplitudes have been rejected because they did not satisfy this criterion. When considering these questionable cases, we have to keep in mind that the analysis of all these variables is not yet final, because the presently available data are rather limited. Nevertheless, we do not think that considerable changes will take place in the status of most of the Sculptor RRd stars, even when more extended data become available.

The basic observed properties of the RRd variables identified in this search are listed in Table 1 (periods are in \[d\], the $`A_1`$ amplitudes of the first overtone components and the average magnitudes in \[mag\]). We note that the periods and amplitudes displayed in this table have been computed through separate LS fits, which contained the given component and its first harmonics. We see that there are only two stars with periods of $`0\stackrel{d}{.}54`$; the other variables occupy a narrow range of $`0\stackrel{d}{.}47<P_0<0\stackrel{d}{.}49`$. We recall that variable #01168 was already discovered by Kaluzny et al. (1995).

From the periods alone, we may suspect that the physical properties of the Sculptor RRd variables cover similar ranges to those of the globular cluster IC4499. Indeed, estimated from the RRab stars, the two systems have almost the same average metallicity of $`1.5`$ (see Kovács & Walker 2001111Please note that the reddened relative distance modulus $`\stackrel{~}{d}_V`$ of M4 in Table 9 of this paper is misprinted. The correct value is $`4.43`$.. Furthermore, a display of the Sculptor RRd variables on the $`P_0P_1/P_0`$ diagram (often referred to as the ‘Petersen diagram’ — see Petersen 1973), shows that they occupy a region which corresponds to this metallicity (see Fig. 3). The main factor of degeneracy in this diagram comes from the similar effects of the metallicity and mass on the period ratio. Therefore, as we will see in the next section, if no other information is available, the periods can be fitted with any metallicity between $`1.3`$ and $`2.1`$, if we allow masses between $`0.65`$ and $`0.85M_{\mathrm{}}`$. It is clear that for a more reliable assessment of the physical parameters of the Sculptor RRd variables, we would need direct metallicity measurements and additional color information in order to fix the temperature and chemical composition, and thereby to provide an (almost) complete parameter input for the solution of the pulsation equations (cf., K00b). Since none of these data are available at this moment, in the next section we follow another idea, which adopts the almost metallicity- independent luminosity and mass values obtained from our former studies on RRd stars.

## 3 Computation of the metallicity

In K00b we derived the distance modulus of the LMC by directly using its RRd population. The compatibility between this distance modulus and the ones obtained from the RRd stars of Galactic globular clusters and Small Magellanic Cloud Cepheids (see K00a) was also shown. Because of the consistency of all these results, we think that the physical parameters to be derived are also reliable and can be extended to the Sculptor RRd variables.

Metallicities for the Galactic globular clusters were adopted from KW99, where it was demonstrated that the condition of fixed relative distance moduli (obtained from the RRab stars with the method of Kovács & Jurcsik 1997) yields metallicities very close to the generally accepted overall cluster values. In the case of low metallicity clusters this method does not result in a strong constraint, because of the insensitivity of the period ratios to metallicity at such low abundances. Therefore, for M15 we took \[Fe/H\]=$`2.3`$, which may be regarded as a value close to those often quoted in the literature. We will see that a somewhat higher value would be perhaps more appropriate for this cluster. For LMC we used the very recent spectroscopic data of Clementini et al. (2000) to set its average metallicity at \[Fe/H\]=$`1.5`$.

Table 2 lists the average luminosity and mass values obtained in the way given in KW99 and K00b. We mention that opal opacities of Iglesias & Rogers (1996) are applied with hydrogen abundance $`X=0.76`$ and a solar-type heavy element distribution (i.e., without oxygen enhancement) in the overall heavy element content. The zero point of the color–temperature transformation is tied to the temperature scale defined by the current results of the infrared flux method (Blackwell & Lynas-Gray 1994). For completeness, the metallicities and effective temperatures are also listed in the table. We note that this latter quantity is basically independent of the pulsation models and is determined only by the adopted color–temperature transformation.

The first systematic behavior observed from this table is the difference in the average temperature between the low- and high-metallicity variables. This temperature difference of about 150K is responsible mainly for the period difference of $`0\stackrel{d}{.}05`$ between the low- and high-metallicity RRd stars.

By checking the mass and luminosity values, we may suspect some trends but they are rather small compared to that of the temperature. This can be seen from the very general pulsation relation (e.g., van Albada & Baker 1973)

$`\mathrm{log}P_0`$ $`=`$ $`11.50+0.84\mathrm{log}L/L_{\mathrm{}}0.68\mathrm{log}M/M_{\mathrm{}}`$
$``$ $`3.48\mathrm{log}T_{\mathrm{eff}}.`$
Although luminosity and mass differences may contribute to the period difference, and, in a more complicated way — not seen from the above simplified equation — to the period ratios, in the present context we assume, as a first approximation, that the masses and luminosities of the RRd stars are basically independent of metallicity.

Additional support for the assumption of the nearly constant luminosity level of the RRd stars can be lent by the narrow range of the observed average magnitudes. If we omit the the single outlier 01168, we get 0.13 mag for the average magnitude range of the remaining 17 RRd stars (see Table 1). On the other hand, the same quantity is about 0.4 mag for the RRab stars (Kaluzny et al. 1995).

As far as the mass is concerned, we see that it is only M15 that exhibits a somewhat discrepant value. By increasing the metallicity of the RRd variables of this cluster to $`2.1`$ we get $`M/M_{\mathrm{}}=0.756`$ for this cluster, virtually the same value as for the other clusters. Although for this metallicity the luminosity increases to $`1.747`$, which is larger than the values of the other clusters, it is still within the range of our assumed $`\pm 0.02`$ ambiguity of the luminosity level in the computation of the metallicity (see later).

At this point we need to refer to the results presented by KW99. In that work we did not fix the average cluster metallicities, but they were chosen in such a way as to minimize the dispersion between the calculated and empirical relative distances (Kovács & Jurcsik 1997). This procedure has led to increasing cluster metallicities as the metallicity of M15 was increased. Finally, all these resulted in systematic differences between the masses of the RRd stars of the various clusters. In the interesting metallicity range for M15, we obtained $`M_{RRd}^{M68}M_{RRd}^{IC4499}+0.02`$ and $`M_{RRd}^{M15}M_{RRd}^{IC4499}0.03`$, with some sensitivity to changing chemical composition and the assumed metallicity of M15. We think that although the optimization method of KW99 should be further studied, once even more accurate photometric and direct spectroscopic data will be available for these and other clusters, a slight difference in the photometric zero points could lead to errors in the derived relative cluster distances (see Kovács & Walker 2001), and therefore, to an incorrect conclusion about certain intricate details, such as the mass differences between the RRd stars.

The average parameters given in Table 2 for the LMC should be treated with caution, because the large period ratio range of its RRd variables clearly indicates a substantial spread in \[Fe/H\]. This is probably the main reason why we get a contradictory trend in the luminosity when compared with IC4499. Although both systems have the same average metallicity, apparently they show a considerable difference in the luminosities of their RRd stars. To clarify the situation for the LMC, we need a more thorough consideration, which might be difficult with the presently available data quality.

When considering the average masses and luminosities, two additional effects might cause some concern. As we have already mentioned in our previous papers, the zero point of the temperature scale is the main source of the systematic error in the determination of the distance modulus with the aid of double-mode variables. We note that the estimated ambiguity of $`\pm 0.1`$ mag in the distance modulus results in $`\pm 0.036`$ and $`\pm 0.018`$ systematic errors in $`\mathrm{log}L`$ and $`M`$, respectively. However, these shifts are basically independent of the metallicity, and therefore, as we will see next, do not affect our conclusion on the metallicity of the Sculptor RRd stars. The other effect on the double-mode masses and luminosities comes from a possible change in the hydrogen content. By leaving all parameters the same, but changing $`X`$ from $`0.76`$ to $`0.70`$, we get systematic changes of $`+0.01`$ in $`\mathrm{log}L`$ and $`+0.024`$ in $`M`$. This effect has a stronger metallicity dependence, which yields larger differences in the average RRd masses of the various clusters (most of all, because of the relatively low adopted metallicity of M15). Nevertheless, alike the temperature shift, this composition effect is not essential in the present rough approximation.

In conclusion, in the following we employ the constant luminosity and mass constraint to the Sculptor RRd variables to derive their individual metallicities. For $`X=0.76`$, we fix the average $`\mathrm{log}L`$ and $`M`$ values at $`1.726`$ and $`0.755`$, respectively (see Table 2). When testing the hydrogen dependence, at $`X=0.70`$ the above quantities are increased as mentioned above. In order to take into account possible metallicity or other hidden dependence of these averages, we allow $`\pm 0.02`$ maximum errors both in $`\mathrm{log}L`$ and in $`M`$.

When the above constraints are applied to the possible parameters obtained from the observed periods, we get patterns similar to the one shown in Fig. 4. It is seen that none of the constraints, when applied alone, is able to give very useful limits on the metallicity, although the condition of constant mass yields a much stronger constraint. The very different \[Fe/H\] dependence of the two constraints leads to considerable improvement in the accuracy of the metallicity determination when both constraints are applied simultaneously. Because of the assumed mass and luminosity ranges, the derived metallicities have an ambiguity of $`\pm 0.07`$. (For the low-metallicity stars this error increases by a factor of two.) By changing the zero point of the temperature scale or using compositions with $`X=0.70`$, the overlapping regions given by the mass and luminosity constraints are shifted vertically by almost the same values. This yields the same \[Fe/H\] values, within $`0.02`$.

It is interesting to compare the metallicity distributions of the RRd and RRab stars. By using the Fourier decompositions of the light curves of the RRab stars (see Jurcsik & Kovács 1996), Fig. 5 shows the two distribution functions. Although some part of the large scatter of the RRab metallicities might be accounted for by the large observational errors of the light curves, we think that most of the scatter is real, and reflects the chemical inhomogeneity of Sculptor. It is noticed that the \[Fe/H\] range of the RRab stars is larger than that estimated from the width of the giant branch (e.g., Majewski et al. 1999, hereafter M99) and from earlier limited spectroscopic studies (Norris & Bessel 1978). A part of this disagreement could be accounted for by the difference of the metallicity scales used in those and in our studies. We use the scale defined by high dispersion spectroscopic measurements, which is different from the more customary Zinn & West scale (Zinn & West 1984). If we transform the metallicity range of $`[2.2,1.4]`$ of M99, obtained from the width of the giant branch, we get ranges of $`[2.1,1.2]`$ or $`[2.3,1.1]`$, depending if we use the transformation formula of Carretta & Gratton (1997, hereafter CG) or Jurcsik (1995, hereafter J95). Similarly, by considering the result of M99 derived from evolutionary results for the Horizontal Branch stars, for the range of $`[2.3,1.5]`$ given by M99, we get ranges of $`[2.3,1.3]`$ (CG) or $`[2.4,1.3]`$ (J95). We see that although our estimate for RRab stars still yields larger \[Fe/H\] values by some $`0.2`$$`0.3`$ dex, the ranges indeed become similar when the same metallicity scale is used.

Most of the derived RRd metallicities are close to the average cluster value, predicted independently from the RRab stars. There are two RRd variables (01168 and 05354) with considerably lower metallicities than the average. We note that these variables are among the securely identified RRd stars, and their low metallicities cannot be attributed to observational errors. The presence of low metallicity RRd stars supports the wide spread of \[Fe/H\] predicted from the RRab stars.

Finally we mention two additional results. First, because of the two constraints applied, the above computation also yields effective temperatures for each variable. Without the two low-metallicity stars, for the average effective temperature of the RRd stars we get $`6800`$K (for the low-metallicity variables we get values lower by $`200`$K). This can be used as a check of the assumptions made in the present derivation, when accurate multicolor photometry will be available for this system.

The second result refers to the possibility that the luminosity and mass have a slight dependence on the metallicity. By considering only the two representative clusters IC4499 and M68, we may suspect that the variables of M68, which have lower metallicities than those of IC4499, have larger luminosities (see Table 2). For the mass we may keep the assumption of metallicity-independence. If we use these constraints, we get some 50K decrease in the temperature, and a very small increase of $`0.05`$ in the metallicity for the Sculptor RRd stars. When using chemical compositions with $`X=0.70`$, the conclusion is very similar as far as the changes in the derived metallicity and temperature are concerned. It is noted that for this composition we get a metallicity effect in the mass, which yields higher masses for higher metallicities (the difference is $`0.02M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for the above two clusters).

## 4 Conclusions

The large-scale photometric surveys connected with the search for microlensing events in various dense stellar systems, supply valuable variable star data both in amount and quality never seen before (Paczyńsky 2000). In this paper we utilized one of the ‘side products’ of these projects. We analyzed the ogle database on the Sculptor dwarf galaxy (Kaluzny et al. 1995) in order to search for double-mode RR Lyrae (RRd) stars. These variables play an important role both in the study of the simplest type of multimode pulsations, and also in the estimation of the distances of various stellar systems (Kovács 2000b).

Frequency analysis of the more than 300 variables in the ogle database has led to the discovery of 18 RRd stars, from which we consider at least 15 as secure identifications. As in the case of most of the RRd stars in various systems, all Sculptor variables have larger first overtone than fundamental mode amplitudes. Considering the periods, these stars are very similar to the ones found in the Galactic globular cluster IC4499 (Walker & Nemec 1996). Together with the two long-period stars, they also fit in the overall $`P_0`$$`P_1/P_0`$ pattern defined by the RRd stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud (Alcock et al. 2000).

We derived individual metallicities for the Sculptor RRd variables by using the results of our former analyses on RRd stars in various stellar systems. From these works we obtained luminosity and mass values, which, in this first approximation, have been considered to be independent of the metallicity. This assumption has led to the estimation of the individual metallicities, which span the \[Fe/H\]$`[2.0,1.5]`$ interval, with only two variables at the low-metallicity tail with \[Fe/H\]$`1.9`$. In a comparison with the independent estimation of the metallicities of the fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars (Jurcsik & Kovács 1996), it was shown that they both lead to the same average metallicity of $`1.5`$. It is stressed that this conclusion does not depend on the assumed hydrogen content, effective temperature zero point and a possible slight dependence of the luminosity and mass values on the metallicity. It is also noted that our metallicities predicted from fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars are higher by $`0.2`$$`0.3`$ dex than the estimates given by Majewski et al. (1999). On the other hand, when transformed to the same metallicity scale, they both yield very similar ranges of $`1.0`$ dex.

We recall that the analysis presented in this paper is based on the data acquired in the first phase of the ogle project which used a 1 m telescope for this galaxy with the faintest RRd population known. It is clear that multicolor observation of the system with a larger aperture telescope would yield a unique opportunity to study the large variable star population of this galaxy. With the help of its RRd stars and other variables we could estimate its distance, study the metallicity distribution on the horizontal branch and investigate the metallicity dependence of the luminosity and mass of the RRd stars. It is also important to stress the need for direct spectroscopic observations, which, except for the first effort in this direction in the Large Magellanic Cloud by Clementini et al. (2000), are completely absent.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are indebted to Janusz Kaluzny and his co-workers for making the Sculptor database available to us. Fruitful discussions with Béla Szeidl, Endre Zsoldos and Gáspár Bakos are appreciated. We thank the referee for his/her constructive comments. The following grants are acknowledged: otka t–024022, t–026031 and t–030954.