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# Spin polarization and g-factor of a dilute GaAs two-dimensional electron system

## Abstract

The effective g-factor ($`g^{}`$) of a dilute interacting two-dimensional electron system is expected to increase with respect to its bare value as the density is lowered, and to eventually diverge as the system makes a transition to a ferromagnetic state. We report here measurements of $`g^{}`$ in dilute (density 0.8 to 6.5 $`\times 10^{10}`$cm-2), high-mobility GaAs two-dimensional electrons from their spin polarization in a parallel magnetic field. The data reveal a surprising trend. While $`g^{}`$ is indeed significantly enhanced with respect to the band g-factor of GaAs, the enhancement factor decreases from about 6 to 3 as the density is reduced.

The ground state of a dilute, interacting electron system has been of interest for decades. It has long been expected that, because of interaction, such a system makes a transition to a ferromagnetic state as the density is reduced below a certain threshold bloch ; stoner . For even lower densities, the system should eventually become an electron solid (Wigner crystal) wigner . A relevant parameter associated with this evolution is the effective g-factor ($`g^{}`$) of the system. In the limit of high density, when the parameter $`r_s`$, the average interparticle separation measured in units of effective Bohr radius, approaches zero, $`g^{}`$ should have the ”bare” value determined by the energy band structure of the host material. With decreasing density, $`g^{}`$ is expected to increase monotonically and diverge at the density below which the electron system enters its ferromagnetic state. For an ideal two-dimensional electron system (2DES), quantum Monte Carlo calculations tanatar ; varsano  indeed confirm the above trend.

An excellent candidate for testing these predictions is the GaAs 2DES, as it possesses very low disorder combined with a simple band structure. Here we report measurements of the spin polarization of a very high quality, dilute 2DES in a modulation doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure as a function of an in-plane magnetic field. Via transport measurements, we find the magnetic field above which the 2DES becomes fully spin polarized, and from this field we determine $`g^{}`$. The results reveal a remarkable trend: as the density is lowered from 6.5 to 0.8 $`\times 10^{10}`$cm-2, corresponding to an increase in $`r_s`$ from 2.1 to 6.3, the measured $`g^{}`$ decreases from 2.7 to 1.3. This implies a substantial overall enhancement of $`g^{}`$ with respect to the band g-factor of GaAs ($`|g_b|=0.44`$ in GaAs weisbuch ). The decrease of $`g^{}`$ with $`r_s`$, however, is unexpected.

We studied a Si-modulation doped GaAs heterostructure grown on a (100) GaAs substrate. We used a square sample in a Van der Pauw geometry, with a backgate to control the density. We made measurements in a dilution refrigerator at a temperature ($`T`$) of $`25`$mK and magnetic fields ($`B`$) up to 18T, and in pumped $`{}_{}{}^{3}He`$ at $`0.3`$K and fields up to 33T. The sample was mounted on a single-axis tilting stage that can be rotated, using a computer controlled stepper motor, in order to change the angle ($`\theta `$) between the sample plane and the magnetic field. The measurements were done using low-frequency lock-in techniques. At zero gate bias, the sample has a density $`n=1.4\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2 and a mobility of 55 m2/Vs.

An external magnetic field applied parallel to the 2DES causes a Zeeman splitting of the energy bands. This splitting induces a difference in population of the spin-up and spin-down subbands, which leads to a net spin polarization of the system. If the splitting exceeds the Fermi energy of the system, all spins are aligned and the 2DES is fully spin polarized. Assuming a simple model, in which $`g^{}`$ is independent of the applied magnetic field, we can write the splitting between the spin-up and spin-down subbands as $`E_Z=|g^{}|\mu _BB`$, where $`\mu _B`$ is the Bohr magneton. In this model the 2DES becomes fully spin polarized at a field $`B_P`$, given by

$$B_P=(h^2/2\pi \mu _B)(n/m^{}g^{})$$
(1)
where $`m^{}`$ is the effective mass, $`n`$ is the total density of the 2DES and $`h`$ is Planck’s constant. We emphasize that we measure the effective g-factor defined, as in Eq. (1), by the field at which full polarization is achieved.

In our experiments we measure, via the analysis of Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations, the Fermi contours of the two spin subbands. We apply a constant magnetic field parallel to the 2D plane and slowly rotate the sample around $`\theta =0^{}`$ to induce a small perpendicular field component, $`B_{}`$. We record the sample resistance during the rotation, and Fourier analyze its SdH oscillations with $`B_{}`$ to obtain the populations of the two spin subbands tutuc . Our experiments allow a determination of the field, $`B_P`$, above which the minority spin-subband depopulates and the 2DES becomes fully spin polarized. In the range where the Fourier transforms are done the parallel component of the field, $`B_{}`$, is equal to the total field $`B`$ to better than 2%.

In Fig. 1 we show plots of the sample resistance $`R`$ vs. $`B_{}`$, taken at a density $`n=2.05\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, as determined from the positions of quantum Hall states. The top trace was taken in a purely perpendicular field. The Fourier transform (FT), shown on the right, exhibits two peaks, one at 0.85T and another at approximately half this value, 0.42T. The 0.85T frequency, when multiplied by $`(e/h)`$, gives $`2.05\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, i.e., the total density of the 2DES. The 0.42T peak stems from the spin unresolved SdH oscillations. The rest of the traces shown in Fig. 1 were taken by rotating the sample at the indicated $`B`$ applied almost parallel to the 2DES. With increasing $`B_{}`$, we observe a splitting of the lower FT peak (0.42T) into two peaks. The positions of these two peaks, multiplied by $`(e/h)`$, give the two spin subband populations. Note that the two populations add up to the total density of the sample. As $`B_{}`$ is increased, the majority spin subband peak merges with the total density peak (0.85T) and the minority spin subband peak moves to very low frequencies and is no longer resolved R2 .

In Fig. 2 we summarize the positions of the FT peaks corresponding to the majority and minority spin subbands as a function of $`B`$ for the case examined in Fig. 1. Above a certain field $`B_P`$ the majority spin subband population saturates at a value which corresponds to the total density of the 2DES. Therefore, $`B_P`$ marks the onset of full spin polarization. Within the experimental error, the evolution of the FT peak positions as a function of field is linear. This implies that $`g^{}`$ is roughly independent of the applied parallel field.

We also measured the in-plane magnetoresistance (MR), by fixing $`\theta `$ at $`0^{}`$ and recording the resistance as a function of the applied magnetic field. The MR trace, taken for $`n=2.05\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, is also shown in Fig. 2. This trace exhibits a clear break in the functional form of the MR as it changes from an $`e^{B^2}`$ dependence at low field to a simple exponential, $`e^B`$ dependence at higher fields. The data in Fig. 2 demonstrate that the onset of the simple exponential behavior of the in-plane MR coincides with the field $`B_P`$ above which the spins are fully polarized. Remarkably, the same functional behavior of the in-plane MR is seen in GaAs 2D hole systems yoon , and it has been shown tutuc  that the onset of the simple exponential regime corresponds to the full spin polarization of the 2D system. Several studies on 2D electrons in Si-MOSFETs have also pointed out a correlation between the in-plane MR and the full spin polarization mertes ; okamoto ; vitkalov ; dolgopolov .

The strong correlation between the full spin polarization and the onset of exponential MR provides another method of finding the field $`B_P`$. While this method does not allow a direct measurement of the spin subband populations, it can be useful at lower densities where the SdH method is no longer practical because of a decrease in the number of resistance oscillations. We summarize in Fig. 3 our MR data taken at different densities. At all densities, the MR exhibits an $`e^B`$ dependence at high fields and the onset of this dependence clearly depends on the density. We emphasize that in several cases where we have made both MR and SdH oscillations measurements in constant field, the values of $`B_P`$ obtained from the two methods coincide.

Using the measured values of $`B_P`$ and the relation (1) we determine $`g^{}`$. For $`B_P`$ we use the saturation field of the majority spin subband FT peak and the onset of the exponential regime of the in-plane MR. Another parameter needed is the effective mass, $`m^{}`$, which also can be different from the band effective mass due to electron-electron interaction kwon . We independently measured $`m^{}`$ from the $`T`$ dependence of SdH oscillations in a purely perpendicular magnetic field at several densities in the range 1.4 to 3$`\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. The analysis uses the Dingle formula, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R/R_0\xi /\mathrm{sinh}\xi `$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }R/R_0`$ is the normalized amplitude of the SdH oscillations, $`\xi 2\pi ^2k_BT/\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ and $`\omega _c=eB/m^{}`$. Fits of the Dingle formula to the data are shown in Fig. 4, together with the values of $`m^{}`$ that provide the best least-squares fit. Within the experimental error (7%), $`m^{}`$ is the same as the band effective mass of electrons in GaAs, $`m_b=0.067m_e`$, where $`m_e`$ is the free electron mass. For simplicity, in determining $`g^{}`$ we have used the band effective mass.

In Fig. 5 we plot the values of $`g^{}`$, normalized to the GaAs band g-factor, as a function of density and $`r_s`$ jiang . The open and closed symbols denote the two methods used to determine $`B_P`$; their overlap confirms that the onset of exponential regime of the MR marks the full spin polarization. For the lowest density traces, we have data available only at 0.3K. However, $`T`$ dependence of the in-plane MR, measured at $`n=1.4\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2, showed only a small variation of $`B_P`$ with $`T`$ in the range 25mK to 0.5K. The larger error bars for the lowest density points in Fig. 5 take into account such variation with $`T`$.

Figure 5 data highlight the main finding of our work: while the measured values of $`g^{}`$ are three to six times larger than the GaAs band g-factor, this enhancement decreases with increasing $`r_s`$. This trend is unexpected and at variance with theoretical calculations which predict that, for an ideal 2DES, $`g^{}`$ should increase as $`r_s`$ increases and the interaction becomes more important tanatar ; varsano . While we do not have an explanation for this discrepancy, we point out that at least three factors distinguish our samples from ideal 2D systems: finite layer thickness, disorder, and the spin-orbit interaction.

For a 2DES with finite layer thickness, even in a single-electron picture, an in-plane magnetic field can affect the energy bands and therefore both the effective mass wieck  and the g-factor. Indeed, band calculations winkler  performed for the 2DES studied in our work reveal some enhancement of the effective mass and, to a lesser degree, a reduction of the g-factor with in-plane field. However, these modifications of the band parameters appear to be too small to explain the data of Fig. 5.

The effect of disorder is more subtle. As the density is reduced, the disorder potential can play a more dominant role than the electron-electron interaction, and may lead to an inhomogeneous spatial distribution of the electrons in the sample. If the electrons become localized in the potential minima, it is possible that the behavior of the 2DES reverts to that of a single-particle system and $`g^{}`$ decreases. Such a scenario is consistent with the data of Fig. 5: for $`n=0`$, $`g^{}/g_b`$ extrapolates to a value close to unity. On the other hand, we have made $`g^{}`$ measurements on a sample with a mobility three times lower than the present specimen, and obtained similar results as those shown in Fig. 5. Moreover, our sample exhibits no signs of strong electron localization: it exhibits SdH oscillations, and its resistivity is less than $`h/e^2`$.

An examination of the results of several studies okamoto ; pudalov ; vitkalov  which have reported measurements of $`g^{}`$ in Si-MOSFET 2D electrons provides further argument against disorder being responsible for the anomalous behavior we observe in Fig. 5. These studies have generally reported an enhancement of $`g^{}`$ with increasing $`r_s`$ in much the same range of $`r_s`$ that we have examined. The mobility of our 2DES, however, is about a factor of 10 larger than in Si-MOSFETs even though our densities are about 10 times smaller, implying lower disorder in our samples. If disorder were the main culprit, one would expect that Si-MOSFET data should also show a decreasing $`g^{}`$ with increasing $`r_s`$ R3 .

Another important observation is worth describing. As we mentioned before, the in-plane MR of GaAs 2D holes was recently reported yoon ; papadakis ; tutuc , and a relation between the MR behavior and full spin polarization, similar to that shown in Fig. 2, was established tutuc . If we convert the magnetic fields above which the 2D holes are fully spin polarized to an effective $`g^{}`$, we find a trend very similar to the one seen in Fig. 5: $`g^{}`$ is enhanced with respect to its band value but it decreases with increasing $`r_s`$. We emphasize that the GaAs 2D holes too have very high mobilities and should contain low disorder. We conclude that, while we cannot rule out the role of disorder, the unexpected behavior we observe in Fig. 5 appears to be intrinsic to low disorder GaAs 2D electrons and holes.

The spin-orbit interaction, present in both GaAs 2D electron and hole systems, but nearly absent in Si-MOSFETs, may also play a role here. Since $`g_b`$ is significantly influenced by the spin-orbit interaction, one may expect that this interaction should modify $`g^{}`$ in a many-body picture also. It is not clear, however, how the spin-orbit interaction would explain the trend in Fig. 5.

Finally, in Fig. 5 we provide a measure of the interaction energy for the spin polarization of our 2DES. We introduce the enhancement energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, defined as the difference between the band Fermi and Zeeman energies, both evaluated at the in-plane field where the 2DES becomes fully spin polarized, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=(2\pi \mathrm{}^2/m_b)ng_b\mu _BB_P`$. The energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, measured in units of the Fermi energy is then simply equal to $`(1g_b/g^{})`$. This quantity, which is indicated on the right scale of Fig. 5, reiterates the main result of our study. The measured $`\mathrm{\Delta }E/E_F`$ decreases with increasing $`r_s`$, while theoretical calculations tanatar ; varsano  predict the opposite: $`\mathrm{\Delta }E/E_F`$ should be zero at $`r_s=0`$, increase monotonically with $`r_s`$, and reach unity for $`r_s`$ larger than a critical value of $`30`$.

We thank E.P. De Poortere, D.M. Ceperley, A.H. MacDonald, B.L. Altshuler and R. Winkler for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the DOE, NSF and the von Humboldt foundation. Part of the work was done at NHMFL which is supported by NSF; we also thank T. Murphy and E. Palm.


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# Arithmetic properties of the adjacency matrix of quadriculated disks

## 1 Introduction

1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 05B45, Secondary 05A15, 05C50, 05E05. Keywords and phrases Quadriculated disk, tilings by dominoes, dimers.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of CNPq, Faperj and Finep.

In this paper, a square is a topological disk with four privileged boundary points, the vertices. A quadriculated disk is a closed topological disk formed by the juxtaposition along sides of finitely many squares such that interior vertices belong to precisely four squares. A simple example of a quadriculated disk is the $`n\times m`$ rectangle divided into unit squares, another example is given in figure 1. A quadriculated disk may be considered as a closed subset of the plane $`^2`$.

Quadriculated disks are bicolored, i.e., the squares are black and white in a way that squares with a common side have opposite colors. Label the black (resp. white) squares of a quadriculated disk $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by $`1,2,\mathrm{},b`$ (resp. $`1,2,\mathrm{},w`$). The $`b\times w`$ black-to-white matrix $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ has $`(i,j)`$ entry $`b_{ij}=1`$ if the $`i`$-th black and $`j`$-th white squares share an side and $`b_{ij}=0`$ otherwise. If the disk has a single square of either color the matrix $`B`$ collapses. See figure 1 for an example of black-to-white matrix; black squares are numbered. Throughout the paper, blank matrix entries equal $`0`$. For a given labeling of squares of a quadriculated disk $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in which black squares come first, the adjacency matrix is

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& B\\ B^T& 0\end{array}\right).$$

A rectangular matrix $`\stackrel{~}{D}`$ is a defective identity if it can be obtained from the identity matrix by adding rows and columns of zeroes or, equivalently, by removing rows and columns from a larger identity matrix. More precisely, $`\stackrel{~}{D}`$ is a defective identity if every entry equals $`0`$ or $`1`$ and if $`\stackrel{~}{d}_{ij}=\stackrel{~}{d}_{i^{}j^{}}=1`$ implies either $`i=i^{}`$, $`j=j^{}`$, or $`i<i^{}`$, $`j<j^{}`$, or $`i>i^{}`$, $`j>j^{}`$. For a $`n\times m`$ matrix $`A`$, an $`L\stackrel{~}{D}U`$ decomposition of $`A`$ is a factorization $`A=L\stackrel{~}{D}U`$ where $`L`$ (resp. $`U`$) is $`n\times n`$ (resp. $`m\times m`$) lower (resp. upper) invertible and $`\stackrel{~}{D}`$ is a defective identity. The main result of this paper is the following.

###### Theorem 1

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be a quadriculated disk with at least two squares. For an appropriate labeling of its squares, the black-to-white matrix $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ admits an $`L\stackrel{~}{D}U`$ decomposition whose factors have all entries equal to $`0`$, $`1`$ or $`1`$.

Thus, for example, the matrix $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in figure 1 admits the decomposition

$$\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}1& & & & & \\ & 1& & & & \\ & & 1& & & \\ 1& & & 1& & \\ & & & & 1& \\ & 1& & & 1& 1\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccccccc}1& & & & & & \\ & 1& & & & & \\ & & 1& & & & \\ & & & 1& & & \\ & & & & 1& 0& \\ & & & & & & 1\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccccccc}1& 1& & 1& & & \\ & 1& 1& & 1& 1& \\ & & 1& & & 1& \\ & & & 1& & & 1\\ & & & & 1& 1& \\ & & & & & 1& \\ & & & & & & 1\end{array}\right).$$

The determinant $`det(B_\mathrm{\Delta })`$ is, up to sign, the $`q`$-counting for $`q=1`$ of the domino tilings of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, in the sense of . A domino tiling of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is a decomposition of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ as a disjoint union of $`2\times 1`$ rectangles: $`b=w`$ is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the existence of a domino tiling. The result below was originally proved in  using a very different argument.

###### Corollary 1.1

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be a quadriculated disk with $`b=w`$ and black-to-white matrix $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Then $`det(B_\mathrm{\Delta })`$ equals $`0`$, $`1`$ or $`1`$.

Theorem 1 is stronger, however, especially when $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is not invertible.

###### Corollary 1.2

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be a quadriculated disk with black-to-white matrix $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$. If $`v`$ has integer entries and the system $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }x=v`$ admits a rational solution then the system admits an integer solution.

This corollary may be interpreted as saying that the cokernel $`^b/B_\mathrm{\Delta }(^w)`$ of $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }:^w^b`$ is a free abelian group. From Theorem 1, the rank $`r`$ of $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the same in $``$ as in $`_p`$ for any prime number $`p`$. The proof of Corollary 1.1 in  is based on this fact for $`p=2`$.

The proof of Theorem 1 is constructive in the sense that it yields a fast algorithm to obtain the appropriate labeling of vertices, the matrices in the factorization, $`det(B_\mathrm{\Delta })`$ and $`\mathrm{rank}(B_\mathrm{\Delta })`$.

In section 2 we introduce cut and paste, a geometric procedure that converts a quadriculated disk $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ into a union of smaller quadriculated disks $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{},\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$. In section 3 we present its algebraic counterpart, relating the black-to-white matrices $`B_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{}},\mathrm{},B_\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ to the original $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$; this will be the inductive step in the proof of Theorem 1. In section 4 we study boards, quadriculated disks which are subsets of the quadriculated plane $`^2^2`$, and show that cut and paste can be performed within this smaller class (Theorem 2).

We would like to thank Tania V. de Vasconcelos for helpful conversations and the referee for a careful report which led to a clearer and more correct paper.

## 2 Cut and paste

The proof of Theorem 1 makes use of good diagonals: examples are given in figure 2. Cut and paste along a good diagonal obtains from a quadriculated disk $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ a disjoint union of smaller disks $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{},\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$, often with $`\mathrm{}=1`$ (Lemma 2.3). Our argument consists of two steps: a proof that there always exists a good diagonal (Proposition 2.2) and a procedure to convert $`L\stackrel{~}{D}U`$ decompositions of $`B_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{}},\mathrm{},B_\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ into a decomposition of $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (Lemma 3.2).

Topological subdisks of $`^2`$ consisting of unit squares with vertices in $`^2`$ are boards: the quadriculated disk in figure 1 is not a board. Arbitrary quadriculated disks can still be “ironed” so that its squares become unit squares with vertices in $`^2`$: this is what developing maps make precise (see  for a more general discussion of developing maps).

###### Lemma 2.1

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be a quadriculated disk: there exists a continuous map $`\varphi :\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ which is locally injective in the interior of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and takes squares in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ to unit squares in $`^2`$ with vertices in $`^2`$.

Proof:  Orient $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and endow it with a metric structure such that each square becomes isometric to the unit square in the plane: $`\varphi `$ is to be an orientation preserving local isometry in the interior of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Pick an arbitrary edge $`v_0v_1`$ and set $`\varphi (v_0)=(0,0)`$, $`\varphi (v_1)=(1,0)`$ and extend $`\varphi `$ isometrically along the edge. Notice that an orientation preserving local isometry extends uniquely from an edge to the squares adjacent to the edge. By extending the domain of $`\varphi `$ repeatedly starting from $`v_0v_1`$, uniqueness is clear. Since $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is simply connected, $`\varphi `$ is well-defined.  $`\mathrm{}`$

For the quadriculated disk in figure 1, the developing map $`\varphi `$ is neither injective in the interior of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ nor locally injective on its boundary.

There exist genuinely different quadriculated disks $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ for which the image of the restriction of the developing map $`\varphi `$ to their boundaries is the same: this a corollary of Milnor’s paisley curve example (). It is not hard to produce such examples with $`det(B_\mathrm{\Delta })=0det(B_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}})`$.

A corner of a quadriculated disk is a boundary point which is a vertex of a single square. A diagonal of a quadriculated disk is a sequence of vertices $`v_0v_1\mathrm{}v_k`$, $`k>0`$, such that (i) $`v_0`$ is a corner, $`v_1,v_2,\mathrm{},v_{k1}`$ are interior vertices and $`v_k`$ is a boundary vertex; (ii) consecutive vertices $`v_i`$ and $`v_{i+1}`$, $`i=0,\mathrm{},k1`$, are opposite vertices of a square $`s_{i+1}`$; (iii) consecutive squares $`s_i`$ and $`s_{i+1}`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},k1`$, have a single vertex in common (which is $`v_i`$).

Notice that both coordinates of $`\varphi (v_i)`$ depend monotonically on $`i`$. In particular, vertices and squares of a diagonal of a quadriculated disk are all distinct. A diagonal $`v_0\mathrm{}v_k`$ is a good diagonal if at least one side of the square $`s_k`$ containing $`v_k`$ is contained in the boundary of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. A good diagonal $`v_0\mathrm{}v_k`$ is balanced (see figure 2) if exactly one side of $`s_k`$ containing $`v_k`$ is contained in the boundary of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, and unbalanced otherwise.

###### Proposition 2.2

Any quadriculated disk $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ admits at least four good diagonals.

Notice that diagonals, being sequences of vertices, are naturally oriented. In particular, a square has four diagonals, all good.

Proof: Let $`V`$, $`E`$ and $`F`$ be the number of vertices, edges and faces, i.e., squares, of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Write $`E=E_I+E_B`$, where $`E_I`$ (resp. $`E_B`$) counts interior (resp. boundary) edges: clearly, $`4F=2E_I+E_B=2EE_B`$ and therefore $`4E=8F+2E_B`$. Also, $`V=V_I+V_1+V_2+\mathrm{}+V_r`$ where $`V_r`$ is the number of boundary vertices belonging to $`r`$ squares. Again, $`4F=4V_I+V_1+2V_2+\mathrm{}+rV_r=4V(3V_1+2V_2+\mathrm{}+(4r)V_r)`$ and $`4V=4F+(3V_1+2V_2+\mathrm{}+(4r)V_r)`$.

By Euler, $`4V4E+4F=4`$. Substituting the above formulae and using $`E_B=V_1+V_2+\mathrm{}+V_r`$ we have $`V_14=V_3+2V_4+\mathrm{}+(r2)V_r`$.

Each vertex counted in $`V_1`$ is a starting corner for a diagonal: we have to prove that at least four of these $`V_1`$ diagonals are good. Each vertex counted in $`V_3`$, for example, is the endpoint of at most three diagonals of which only one is declared bad. More generally, we have at most $`V_14=V_3+2V_4+\mathrm{}+(r2)V_r`$ bad ends and we are done.  $`\mathrm{}`$

We are ready to cut and paste along a good diagonal. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate cut and paste along balanced and unbalanced diagonals. Let $`\zeta ^l`$, $`\zeta ^{l+}`$ and $`\zeta ^r`$ be the zig-zags indicated in the figures. In figure 3, cut and paste removes the shaded squares and identifies $`\zeta ^l`$ and $`\zeta ^r`$ to obtain a new quadriculated disk. In figure 4, $`\zeta ^r`$ is identified with the first four segments of $`\zeta ^{l+}`$ (near the top).

More precisely, cut and paste obtains from a quadriculated square $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ a disjoint union of quadriculated squares $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$. In the two previous examples, $`\mathrm{}=1`$; also, as we shall see, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\mathrm{}`$ if and only if $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ consists of one or two squares. Consider a good diagonal with squares $`s_1,\mathrm{},s_k`$. If the diagonal is balanced, choose one side of the diagonal so as to contain $`k`$ squares; otherwise choose any side. For convenience, we always assume the chosen side to be the left, the other case being analogous. Squares to the left of the diagonal will be called $`s_1^l,\mathrm{}`$; the last square in this sequence is $`s_k^{}^l`$: $`k^{}=k`$ if the diagonal is balanced and $`k^{}=k1`$ otherwise. Squares to the right of the diagonal will be called $`s_1^r,\mathrm{},s_{k1}^r`$; notice that there is no $`s_k^r`$. For $`k>1`$, label the vertices of $`s_i`$ counterclockwise $`v_{i1}`$, $`v_{i1/2}^r`$, $`v_i`$, $`v_{i1/2}^l`$ and the vertices of $`s_i^l`$ counterclockwise $`v_{i1/2}^l`$, $`v_i`$, $`v_{i+1/2}^l`$, $`v_i^{ll}`$ (see figure 5). The zig-zag $`\zeta ^l`$ is $`v_{1/2}^l,v_1^{ll},v_{3/2}^l,\mathrm{},v_{k1}^{ll},v_{k1/2}^l`$ and $`\zeta ^r`$ is $`v_{1/2}^r,v_1,v_{3/2}^r,\mathrm{},v_{k1},v_{k1/2}^r`$. If the diagonal is unbalanced then $`\zeta ^{l+}=\zeta ^l`$; otherwise $`\zeta ^{l+}`$ is two segments longer and ends with $`v_k^{ll},v_{k+1/2}^l`$. Both $`\zeta ^{l+}`$ and $`\zeta ^r`$ begin and end at boundary points. The region between $`\zeta ^{l+}`$ and $`\zeta ^r`$ consists precisely of the squares $`s_1,\mathrm{},s_k`$ and $`s_1^l,\mathrm{},s_k^{}^l`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$ (resp. $`\mathrm{\Delta }^l`$) be the closed regions to the right (resp. left) of $`\zeta ^r`$ (resp. $`\zeta ^l`$). Attach $`\mathrm{\Delta }^l`$ to $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$ by identifying $`\zeta ^l`$ and $`\zeta ^r`$: in order to obtain a quadriculated region $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$.

###### Lemma 2.3

For $`k>1`$, the region $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$ constructed above is non-empty, path connected and simply connected; $`\mathrm{\Delta }^l`$ is a (possibly empty) disjoint union of path connected and simply connected regions. The region $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ is connected and simply connected and therefore a union of quadriculated disks $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{},\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_i^{}\mathrm{\Delta }_j^{}`$, $`ij`$, consisting of at most a single vertex. If $`k=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ is obtained from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by excising the two squares $`s_1`$ and $`s_1^l`$.

Proof: Notice that some isolated points in $`\zeta ^r`$ of the form $`v_i^r`$ may be boundary points but otherwise $`\zeta ^r`$ is in the interior of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$; the zig-zag $`\zeta ^{l+}`$, on the other hand, may contain boundary segments (see figure 6). To prove path connectivity of $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$, take the shortest path in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ connecting an arbitrary point in $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$ to a point in $`\zeta ^r`$. If a simple closed curve is contained in $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$ (or $`\mathrm{\Delta }^l`$) then so is the disk surrounded by the curve: this prove simple connectivity of the connected components. Since $`\mathrm{\Delta }^l`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$ and their intersection $`\zeta ^l=\zeta ^r`$ in $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ are all path connected and simply connected, so is $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$. Interior vertices of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ are surrounded by four squares and therefore $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ is quadriculated.  $`\mathrm{}`$

With the notation of the lemma, set $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ to be the disjoint union of the quadriculated disks $`\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{},\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$. In this sense, cut and paste obtains from a disk a (possibly empty) disjoint union of quadriculated disks. Under the obvious extension of the concept of black-to-white matrix,

$$B_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}}=B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}B_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{}}& \mathrm{}& 0\\ \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ 0& \mathrm{}& B_\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}\end{array}\right)$$

for the same labeling of squares and thus $`L\stackrel{~}{D}U`$ decompositions of $`B_{\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{}},\mathrm{},B_\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ yields a similar decomposition of $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$. Figure 6 shows an example of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ where $`\mathrm{}=2`$.

## 3 The decomposition

Before discussing the relationship between $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ we present a lemma in linear algebra. The proof is a straightforward computation left to the reader. Let $`I_n`$ be the $`n\times n`$ identity matrix and $`I_{n,m}`$ be the $`n\times m`$ defective identity matrix with $`(i,j)`$ entry equal to 1 if $`i=j`$ and 0 otherwise.

###### Lemma 3.1

Let $`M`$ be a $`(n+m)\times (n^{}+m^{})`$ matrix which can be decomposed in blocks as

$$M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}M_{11}& M_{12}\\ M_{21}& M_{22}\end{array}\right),$$

where $`M_{11}`$ is $`n\times n^{}`$. If $`n^{}n`$ and $`N`$ is a $`n^{}\times m^{}`$ matrix with $`M_{11}N=M_{12}`$ then

$$M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}M_{11}I_{n^{},n}& 0\\ M_{21}I_{n^{},n}& I_m\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{n,n^{}}& 0\\ 0& M_{22}M_{21}N\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_n^{}& N\\ 0& I_m^{}\end{array}\right).$$

Similarly, if $`n^{}n`$ and $`N`$ is a $`m\times n`$ matrix with $`NM_{11}=M_{21}`$ then

$$M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_n& 0\\ N& I_m\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{n,n^{}}& 0\\ 0& M_{22}NM_{12}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{n^{},n}M_{11}& I_{n^{},n}M_{12}\\ 0& I_m^{}\end{array}\right).$$

The next lemma is the inductive step in the proof of Theorem 1.

###### Lemma 3.2

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be a quadriculated disk with $`b`$ black and $`w`$ white squares, $`b+w>1`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ (with $`b^{}=b_1^{}+\mathrm{}+b_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ black and $`w^{}=w_1^{}+\mathrm{}+w_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ white squares) be obtained from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by cut and paste along a good diagonal. Label black and white squares in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ so that excised squares come first and in the order prescribed by the good diagonal; label squares in $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ next. Then the black-to-white matrices $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ satisfy

$$B_\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}L& 0\\ X& S_b^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{bb^{},ww^{}}& 0\\ 0& B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}U& Y\\ 0& S_w^{}\end{array}\right)$$

where $`L`$ (resp $`U`$) is an invertible lower (resp. upper) square matrix of order $`bb^{}`$ (resp. $`ww^{}`$) and $`S_b^{}`$ and $`S_w^{}`$ are square diagonal matrices. Furthermore, all entries of $`S_b^{}`$, $`S_w^{}`$, $`L`$, $`U`$, $`X`$ and $`Y`$ equal 0, 1 or $`1`$.

The statement above requires clarification in some degenerate cases. If $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ is empty, $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ collapses and $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }=LI_{b,w}U`$. If instead $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ is a disjoint union of unit squares, all of the same color, then either $`w^{}=0`$ or $`b^{}=0`$ and

$$B_\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}L& 0\\ X& S_b^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}I_{bb^{},w}\\ 0\end{array}\right)U\text{or}B_\mathrm{\Delta }=L\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{b,ww^{}}& 0\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}U& Y\\ 0& S_w^{}\end{array}\right).$$

Proof: Assume that the squares on the good diagonal are black; thus $`k=bb^{}`$; if the squares were white all computations would be transposed. Let $`j_1,\mathrm{},j_{k1}`$ be the indices of the white squares $`s_1^r,\mathrm{},s_{k1}^r`$; notice that $`j_i>ww^{}`$. Decompose the matrix $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in four blocks,

$$B_\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}B_{11}& B_{12}\\ B_{21}& B_{22}\end{array}\right),$$

where $`B_{22}`$ is a $`b^{}\times w^{}`$ matrix. By construction, $`B_{11}`$ has one of the two forms below, the first case corresponding to balanced good diagonals (i.e., to $`bb^{}=ww^{}`$).

$$B_{11}=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}1& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 0& 0\\ 1& 1& 0& \mathrm{}& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 1& \mathrm{}& 0& 0\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ 0& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 1& 1\end{array}\right),\text{or}B_{11}=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}1& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ 1& 1& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ 0& 1& 1& \mathrm{}& 0\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ 0& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 1\\ 0& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 1\end{array}\right).$$

Let $`S_b`$ (resp. $`S_w`$) be a $`b\times b`$ (resp. $`w\times w`$) diagonal matrix with diagonal entries equal to $`1`$ or $`1`$; the $`i`$-th entry of $`S_b`$ (resp. $`S_w`$) is $`1`$ if the $`i`$-th black (resp. white) square is strictly to the right of the diagonal. Write

$$S_b=\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{bb^{}}& 0\\ 0& S_b^{}\end{array}\right),S_w=\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{ww^{}}& 0\\ 0& S_w^{}\end{array}\right).$$

We have

$$S_bB_\mathrm{\Delta }S_w=\left(\begin{array}{cc}B_{11}& B_{12}\\ B_{21}& B_{22}\end{array}\right).$$

The matrix $`B_{12}`$ has $`k1`$ nonzero columns in positions $`j_1,\mathrm{},j_{k1}`$. More precisely, the nonzero entries are $`(i,j_i)`$ and $`(i+1,j_i)`$ for $`i=1,\mathrm{},k1`$. The nonzero columns of $`B_{12}`$ are equal to the first $`k1`$ columns of $`B_{11}`$. Let $`N`$ be the $`(ww^{})\times w^{}`$ matrix with entries 0 or $`1`$, with nonzero entries at $`(1,j_1),(2,j_2),\mathrm{},(k1,j_{k1})`$. Clearly $`B_{11}N=B_{12}`$ and we may apply Lemma 3.1 to write $`S_bB_\mathrm{\Delta }S_w`$ as

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}B_{11}I_{ww^{},bb^{}}& 0\\ B_{21}I_{ww^{},bb^{}}& I_b^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{bb^{},ww^{}}& 0\\ 0& B_{22}B_{21}N\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{ww^{}}& N\\ 0& I_w^{}\end{array}\right).$$

We claim that $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=B_{22}B_{21}N`$. The nonzero columns of the matrix $`B_{21}N`$ are the columns of $`B_{21}`$, except that the first column is moved to position $`j_1`$, the second column is moved to $`j_2`$ and so on. The $`k`$-th column of $`B_{21}`$, if it exists, is discarded. These nonzero entries correspond precisely to the identifications which must be performed in order to obtain $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$, i.e., to the ones which must be added to $`B_{22}`$ in order to obtain $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$. We now have

$$B_\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}B_{11}I_{ww^{},bb^{}}& 0\\ S_b^{}B_{21}I_{ww^{},bb^{}}& S_b^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{bb^{},ww^{}}& 0\\ 0& B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{ww^{}}& NS_w^{}\\ 0& S_w^{}\end{array}\right).$$

If the good diagonal is balanced, this finishes the proof. In the unbalanced case, $`\stackrel{~}{L}=B_{11}I_{ww^{},bb^{}}`$ is not invertible since its last column is zero. Replace the $`(k,k)`$ entry of $`\stackrel{~}{L}`$ by 1 to obtain a new matrix $`L`$: $`L`$ is clearly invertible and $`\stackrel{~}{L}I_{bb^{},ww^{}}=LI_{bb^{},ww^{}}`$. The proof is now complete.  $`\mathrm{}`$

Proof of Theorem 1: The basis of the induction on the number of squares of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ consists of checking that the theorem holds for disks with at most two squares. Notice that if the disk consists of a single square then $`b=0`$ or $`w=0`$ and the matrices are degenerate.

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be a quadriculated disk and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=\mathrm{\Delta }_1^{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ be obtained from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by cut and paste. By induction on the number of squares the theorem may be assumed to hold for eack $`\mathrm{\Delta }_k^{}`$ and we therefore write $`B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=L_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\stackrel{~}{D}_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}U_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$. From the induction step, Lemma 3.2, write

$`B_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=\left(\begin{array}{cc}L_{\mathrm{step}}& 0\\ X_{\mathrm{step}}& S_b^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{bb^{},ww^{}}& 0\\ 0& B_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}U_{\mathrm{step}}& Y_{\mathrm{step}}\\ 0& S_w^{}\end{array}\right)`$
$`=L_\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{~}{D}_\mathrm{\Delta }U_\mathrm{\Delta }.`$
where

$$L_\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}L_{\mathrm{step}}& 0\\ X_{\mathrm{step}}& S_b^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{bb^{}}& 0\\ 0& L_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\end{array}\right),U_\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}I_{ww^{}}& 0\\ 0& U_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}U_{\mathrm{step}}& Y_{\mathrm{step}}\\ 0& S_w^{}\end{array}\right).$$

The theorem now follows from observing that each nonzero entry of $`L_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (resp. $`U_\mathrm{\Delta }`$) is, up to sign, copied from either $`L_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$, $`L_{\mathrm{step}}`$ or $`X_{\mathrm{step}}`$ (resp. $`U_\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$, $`U_{\mathrm{step}}`$ or $`Y_{\mathrm{step}}`$) and is therefore equal to $`1`$ or $`1`$.  $`\mathrm{}`$

The example in Figure 7 is instructive: the $`B_G`$ matrix of this planar graph $`G`$ has determinant 1 but admits no $`L\stackrel{~}{D}U`$ decomposition where the matrices have integer coefficients since the removal of any two vertices of opposite colors from $`G`$ yields a graph whose determinant has absolute value greater than 1.

## 4 Boards

A board is a quadriculated disk $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for which the developing map $`\varphi :\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ is injective. In other words, a board is a topological subdisk of $`^2`$ whose boundary is a polygonal curve consisting of segments of length 1 joining points in $`^2`$. In this section we always assume $`\varphi `$ to be the inclusion. The class of boards is not closed under cut and paste: in figure 8, the two enhanced segments on the boundary would be superimposed by cut and paste with the good diagonal on the left. Cut and paste along the good diagonal indicated on the right, however, yields a smaller board.

###### Theorem 2

It is always possible to cut and paste a given board $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ to obtain a disjoint union of boards $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$.

Proof: A diagonal is excellent if the $`x`$ and $`y`$ coordinates are both monotonic along one of the two boundary arcs between $`v_0`$ and $`v_k`$; without loss, let this arc lie to the right of the diagonal. Excellent diagonals are good: the vertex $`v^r+k1/2`$ is on the boundary. We interpret cut and paste along an excellent diagonal as leaving $`\mathrm{\Delta }^l`$ fixed and moving $`\mathrm{\Delta }^r`$. In this way, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ becomes a subset of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and is therefore a disjoint union of boards. We are left with proving that any board admits excellent diagonals.

Each diagonal defines two boundary arcs: order these arcs by inclusion. We claim that a diagonal defining a minimal arc is excellent. Indeed, let $`\delta ^m=(v_0^mv_1^m\mathrm{}v_k^m)`$ be a diagonal inducing a minimal arc $`\alpha `$: assume without loss of generality that $`v_i^m=(a+i,b+i)`$ for given $`a`$ and $`b`$. Assume by contradiction that $`\delta ^m`$ is not excellent. Consider the value of $`x+y`$ on $`\alpha `$: this function is not strictly increasing and therefore admits a local minimum somewhere in the interior of $`\alpha `$. The local minimum closest to $`v_0^m`$ is the starting point for a diagonal defining a boundary arc $`\beta `$ strictly contained in $`\alpha `$, a contradiction.  $`\mathrm{}`$

Nicolau C. Saldanha and Carlos Tomei
Departamento de Matemática, PUC-Rio
R. Marquês de S. Vicente 225, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22453-900, Brazil
nicolau@mat.puc-rio.br; http://www.mat.puc-rio.br/$``$nicolau/
tomei@mat.puc-rio.br


text:
# Westbrook’s Molecular Gun: Discovery of Near-IR Micro-Structures in AFGL 6181footnote 11footnote 1Based partially on data obtained at the Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

## 1 Introduction

AFGL 618 (CRL 618, IRAS 04395+3601) is a carbon-rich, extremely evolved proto-planetary nebula (PPN) transforming itself into a planetary nebula (PN). Since its identification (Westbrook et al. , 1975), AFGL 618 has been extensively studied as one of the prime examples of a bipolar PPN (e.g., Carsenty & Solf  1982; Latter et al.  1992). From early observations, the emission from the bipolar lobes has been known to have two components: scattered star light through the biconical openings of an optically thick dust torus around the central star and shock-excited line emission arising from the lobes themselves (Schmidt & Cohen , 1981; Kelly, Latter, & Rieke , 1992).

Recent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations in shock-excited line emission have revealed collimated outflow structure in the bipolar lobes (Trammell , 2000). This evident connection between the bipolar morphology and the collimated outflows suggests the presence of very effective collimation mechanism(s) at work in the innermost region of AFGL 618, possibly deep within the dust torus. Here we present results from high-resolution, high-sensitivity near-IR imaging of AFGL 618 using the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope and discuss their implications.

## 2 Observations

We observed AFGL 618 using the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS; Kobayashi et al.  2000) at the Subaru Telescope on 2001 February 5 (Program ID: S00-072). The IRCS has two Raytheon ALADDIN II InSb arrays, which give $`60\mathrm{}\times 60\mathrm{}`$ field of view at $`0\mathrm{}.058`$ pix-1 without adaptive optics. The observations were made under marginally clear but very gusty conditions. Seeing varied between $`0\mathrm{}.6`$ and $`0\mathrm{}.9`$ throughout the night. We employed an on-chip, 5-point dithered pattern to image and used long exposure times to detect faint nebulosities. Table 1 summarizes the observations.

Standard IR data reduction and calibration procedures were followed, except that the images were extinction-corrected using the averaged correction factors for Mauna Kea (Krisciunas et al. , 1987) because the correction factors were not reliably derived from the data. In addition, continuum emission in the H2 and Br $`\gamma `$ images was subtracted by estimating continuum emission at these bands from the K-continuum image. Absolute flux calibration errors are estimated to be approximately $`\pm 10\%`$, which reflects the less-than-average sky conditions. While our K’ magnitude is comparable to the K magnitude of Westbrook et al.  (1975) despite the recent reports on the increase of the integrated flux at K (Latter et al. , 1992, 1995), our J and H magnitudes are brighter than previously measured. The change in the brightness could be intrinsic to the rapidly evolving nature of the object, however, the quality of our data prevents us from elaborating further.

Selected near-IR images of AFGL 618 are presented in Fig. 1. In these images, any small variations of the surface brightness were obscured by very strong emission from the central peak. Thus, we applied unsharp masks to the original images to enhance small variations in surface brightness. Such structure-enhanced images, presented alongside the original images, have successfully revealed the clumpy structure of the nebula.

## 3 Results and Discussions

### 3.1 Deep Near-IR Images

The near-IR emission structure of AFGL 618 consists of a highly centralized peak and a faint nebulosity that is elongated in the E-W direction. The J band image clearly shows the bipolarity of the source as seen in the optical (e.g., Westbrook et al.  1975). A similar E-W elongation is seen at H (not shown). The K’ band image is relatively wider in the N-S direction compared with the images at J and H. A similar morphological trend has been seen previously and model calculations have suggested that dust scattering would be the primary source of the morphological change in the near-IR (Latter et al. , 1992). The overall emission structure of the nebula is such that the eastern lobe is significantly brighter than the western lobe due to the central peak located in the eastern lobe. This corroborates our current understanding of the structure of AFGL 618, in which a bipolar nebula with a wide opening angle is inclined at $`45^{}`$ with respect to the line of sight with its eastern lobe pointing towards us (e.g., Carsenty & Solf  1982).

In addition to the previously known bipolar lobes, we have detected three “bullets” that are isolated from the western lobe by about 2″ and two “horns” that are connected to the eastern lobe. Our images present the first clear detection of these micro-structures owing to better resolution and sensitivities. Previous near-IR images (Latter et al. , 1992) seem to show some evidence for the eastern horns in the noisy lowest contours, but did not cover the region of the sky in which the western bullets are present. The most recent images by Latter et al.  (1995), while failing to show the eastern horns due to the coarse pixel scale (0″.6 pix-1), appear to indicate that there is a region of extended emission spatially coincident with the brightest western bullet. Although the extension seems to be isolated from the western lobe, it was not recognized as a micro-structure. In the present image at J, the brightness of the two brighter bullets are at least comparable to the peak of the western lobe. In the most recent J image (Latter et al. , 1995), however, the tip of the western extension appeared to be dimmer than the western lobe and the middle bullet was not even seen. Thus, these bullets may be varying their brightnesses and/or positions (see §3.3) in the past years. Therefore, continued monitoring of these micro-structures will be worthwhile.

The continuum-subtracted narrowband images also show a similar elongation in a somewhat different manner. In H2, the central peak is less prominent and, while the eastern horns can be slightly visible, there is no apparent western bullets. Although the H2 emission is known to have both thermally excited and UV fluorescent components (Latter et al. , 1992), our image alone can not isolate these components. There appear to be faint protrusions emanating from the central peak at the 3 $`\sigma _{\mathrm{sky}}`$ level, along the equatorial plane defined by the “dust waist.” These equatorial structures may be similar to those seen in another well-known PPN, AFGL 2688 (the Egg Nebula, Sahai et al.  1998). On the other hand, the Br $`\gamma `$ image, which originates from the compact H II region around the central star (Kwok & Bignell , 1984), is very compact.

Meanwhile, there is a growing interest on a particular type of morphology, so-called “concentric arcs,” which are typically found around evolved stars (e.g., Hrivnak, Kwok, & Su  2001). These arcs appear to be limb-brightened segments of spherical shells created by the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) wind. The apparent coexistence of concentric arcs within a bipolar nebula as seen, for example, in AFGL 2688 (Sahai et al. , 1998) presents a challenge in formulating a mass loss scenario in evolved stars. Despite the new discoveries of the bullets and horns, we do not find any apparent evidence for the presence of the concentric arcs in our images above one $`\sigma _{\mathrm{sky}}`$ level.

### 3.2 Near-IR “Bullets” and “Horns”

The surface brightness of the bullets and horns is comparable: the brightest western bullet in J is actually the second brightest point in the entire nebulosity. This emission structure is unusual because the surface brightness due to scattered stellar emission is expected to decrease monotonically as the distance from the central star increases. In such a case, the western (far) side of the nebula should appear darker than the eastern (near) side.

In fact, the bullets and horns are spatially coincident with the tips of the collimated outflows imaged in shock-excited forbidden lines (\[O I\] 6300Å and \[S II\] 6717, 6731Å) by HST (Trammell , 2000). The emission clumps seen throughout the nebula in the structure-enhanced images agree quite well with the optical outflow morphology in the HST images. Moreover, Kelly, Latter, & Rieke  (1992) detected \[Fe II\] lines at 1.321 & 1.328 $`\mu m`$ at 4 to 6″ east and 4″ west of the mid-point between the optical bipolar lobes. These locations respectively coincide with the positions of the horns and bullets. Hora, Latter, & Deutsch  (1999) have, in addition, detected relatively strong \[Fe II\] lines at 1.26 and 1.64 $`\mu m`$ from this object. Since \[Fe II\] IR lines are known to be good probes of jets and shocks in dense material (e.g., Graham, Wright, & Longmore  1987; Reipurth et al.  2000), we would conclude that the newly detected near-IR bullets and horns are mainly caused by in situ shock-excited \[Fe II\] line emission.

This interpretation would not conflict with the unusual emission structure within the nebula because the strength of the line emission depends on the shock conditions and geometry. The difference in the micro-structures (bullets vs. horns) can be attributed to the different degree of collimation of the outflows in the lobes. The HST images show a narrower outflow structure in the western lobe than in the eastern lobe. This may imply that the shock surfaces are distributed over a larger area in the eastern lobe than in the western lobe, resulting in equally bright horns and bullets despite the presumed inclination of the bipolar nebula. While the brightest southernmost bullet is barely visible, the middle bullet is the brightest in \[S II\] and \[O I\] (Trammell , 2000). This can also be attributed to different excitation conditions among these bullets. Future high-resolution spectroscopy would be needed to determine shock conditions in these micro-structures.

While the bullets seem to be a unique feature among PPNs, the horns resemble the ones seen in AFGL 2668 Latter et al.  (1995); Sahai et al.  (1998). However, the origins of the horns do not seem to be the same. In the case of AFGL 618, the horns seem to be a result of outflows towards the polar region of the nebula, whereas the horns in AFGL 2668 is a result of scattering (Latter et al. , 1995; Sahai et al. , 1998). This indicates that different mechanisms could form similar morphologies and thus the nebula shaping mechanism may not be uniquely identified from the morphology alone.

### 3.3 Near-IR Bullets vs. Molecular Bullets

Trammell  (2000) argued, based on the excitation gradient in the outflows, that the collimated morphology is a result of material flows impinging on the surrounding medium. In fact, AFGL 618 is known to host one of the fastest molecular outflows ever found in the Galaxy (e.g., Burton & Geballe  1986). Especially of interest are the single dish observations of CO (Cernicharo et al. , 1989; Gammie et al. , 1989), in which the authors have detected outflows at $`>200`$ km s-1. The follow-up interferometric observations (Neri et al. , 1992; Hajian, Phillips, & Terzian , 1996), however, have detected only medium velocity ($`70`$ km s-1) outflows in the central region. While Kastner et al.  (2001) have demonstrated that the high velocity ($`120`$ km s-1) H2 tends to be found closest to the central star, their position-velocity map also shows the presence of fast moving clumps near the edge of the bipolar nebulosity. In any case, CO outflows at $`>200`$ km s-1 have not yet been spatially identified.

As we have seen, our near-IR images have revealed locations from which shock-excited \[Fe II\] line emission seems to arise, and therefore, these bullets and horns may well represent the shocked surfaces of high-velocity “CO bullets” which are penetrating into an ambient AGB shell. To obtain more kinematical insights, we have re-analyzed millimeter interferometry data of the 12CO $`J=10`$ line emission originally presented elsewhere (Meixner et al. , 1998). In this analysis, we have used only the high-resolution data (UV range of $`791\mathrm{k}\lambda `$) to spatially filter out the extended emission. Robust weighting of the visibility data yielded a $`2\mathrm{}.0\times 1\mathrm{}.7`$ CLEAN beam with a position angle of $`54.7^{}`$. This resolution is appropriate for direct comparisons with the near-IR images. Fig. 2 shows the false-color J band image overlaid with CO contours integrated between $`140`$ km s-1 and 100 km s-1. Also displayed are CO spectra obtained from a $`2\mathrm{}\times 2\mathrm{}`$ patch of the sky at eight locations in the nebula. In these spectra, typical rms noise per 8 km s-1 channel is 0.07 Jy beam-1.

The emission peak spectrum (panel D) shows both blue- and red-shifted wings on both sides of the broad peak at $`21.5`$ km s-1 representing the central velocity of the object (Neri et al. , 1992; Hajian, Phillips, & Terzian , 1996). A deep dip in the blue-shifted wing is due to self-absorption (Neri et al. , 1992; Hajian, Phillips, & Terzian , 1996; Meixner et al. , 1998). The spectra of the lobes (C and E) respectively exhibit large blue- and red-shifted wings as expected from the presumed bipolar outflow. On the other hand, the spectra of the horns (A and B) seem to indicate the presence of faint broad wings on both sides of the peak at the central velocity. This large velocity dispersion is consistent structure-wise with the less-collimated eastern horns as suggested by the near-IR emission strengths and the optical outflow morphologies. The spectra of the bullets (F, G, and H) do not show any apparent red-shifted wings, but high-velocity “clumps” appear to be present. At the positions of the two brightest bullets (G and H), we detect emission from clumps moving at about $`220`$ km s-1. Although weak in absolute intensity, emission from these clumps registers about 4 $`\sigma `$ in the position-velocity diagrams. In addition, velocity channel maps show consistent structures over several velocity frames around $`220`$ km s-1. Therefore, we conclude that the detections of these high-velocity CO clumps are real.

There also appear to be CO clumps moving at different velocities. For example, there are clumps moving at about $`140`$ and $`45`$ km s-1 respectively at F and H. The existence of an ensemble of fast moving clumps have already been observed in H2 (Burton & Geballe , 1986). This coincidence of the fast moving CO clumps and shock-excited IR and optical emission regions strongly suggests that shock excitation is induced as these molecular bullets impinge on the ambient medium.

This is the first spatial identification of the fastest moving components of CO emission in AFGL 618. Fast molecular outflows have been well studied in the context of Herbig-Haro (HH) objects. Herbst et al.  (1996) observed jets in T Tau at \[Fe II\] 1.644 $`\mu m`$ and H2 2.122 $`\mu m`$ and attributed the spatial displacement between the peaks in these bands to the orientation of the jet head with respect to observers. In their scenario, \[Fe II\] line emission comes from the head of the outflow where dissociative, fast shock is induced and H2 emission comes from the oblique bow-shocked zone that forms the “wakes” behind the advancing molecular bullets. Comparing our J and H2 images (especially the structure-enhanced ones), we immediately see that H2 emission structure outlines the periphery of the wakes behind the CO bullets (bullets and horns in J) as seen in the Orion nebula (Allen & Burton , 1993). To secure the detection of high-velocity molecular clumps, we need to investigate kinematics of molecular species at not only the central part but also the edges of the bipolar structure.

## 4 Summary

We have discovered near-IR micro-structures (bullets and horns) extending farther out from the previously known bipolar structure of an evolved PPN, AFGL 618. Based on the emission structure of the micro-structures and the results from the previous spectroscopy, we have concluded that the near-IR micro-structures are likely due to line contamination by shock-excited IR lines, especially by the \[Fe II\] lines. We have also found the fastest moving ($`220`$ km s-1) CO molecular clumps coincident with the positions of the near-IR micro-structures. These findings strongly suggest that shock-excitation is being induced by fast-moving CO clumps impacting on the surrounding medium at the positions of the micro-structures located at the edges of the bipolar nebula. The presence of HH type molecular flows is very likely, as suggested from the morphological relationship between shock-excited line emission (represented by near-IR bullets and horns) and H2 emission. It will be worthwhile to continue observing AFGL 618 for its full spatial extent at the highest resolutions in the optical and near-IR to see if there really exist brightness and/or spatial variations and in molecular lines to better characterize the velocity structures and the shock geometry in evolved stars. Proper understanding of these molecular outflows and the resulting shocks is of critical importance for constructing the theory of structure formation at the earliest PN phase.

Ueta would like to thank the IRCS support scientist, Dr. Hiroshi Terada, and the staff at the Subaru Telescope for their support. An anonymous referee is thanked for valuable comments. We also acknowledge support from the NSF CAREER award AST 97-33697, the Laboratory for Astronomical Imaging at the University of Illinois, and NSF grant AST 99-81363.


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# Pionic Modes Studied by Quasielastic (𝑝⃗,𝑛⃗) Reactions

## I Introduction

I think that everybody agrees that the pions, predicted by Yukawa in 1935, still play a crucial role in nuclear physics. They couple with the nucleon in the form of $`𝝉𝝈𝒒`$ where $`𝒒`$ is the pion momentum. Therefore once the real or virtual pions are absorbed by the nucleus, they create the isovector spin longitudinal modes, i.e. the pionic modes.

It has long been expected that the modes show some collective phenomena. The most famous one is the pion condensation, which may appear in high density nuclear matter such as the neutron star. Its appearance must have very important effects on the equation of state and the cooling processes of the neutron star.

The condensation is considered not to realize in the normal nuclei because the critical density $`\rho _\mathrm{c}`$ of the phase transition has been evaluated to be much higher than the normal density $`\rho _0`$. However, we may expect to see some precursor phenomena even in the normal nuclei. Among them, here, we are interested in the enhancement of the isovector spin longitudinal response function

$`R_\mathrm{L}(q,\omega )={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}|n|{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\tau _i^a(𝝈_i\widehat{𝒒})e^{i𝒒𝒓_i}|0|^2\delta (\omega (E_nE_0))`$ (1)
around the quasielasitc region, where $`𝒒`$ is the momentum transfer, $`\widehat{𝒒}`$ is its unit vector, $`\omega `$ is the energy transfer and $`E_n`$ is the intrinsic energy of the $`n`$-th nuclear state (0 denoting the ground state). The superscript $`a`$ denotes the isospin component, $`a=+,0,`$, where $`a=`$ corresponds to those obtained by the $`(p,n)`$ reaction. To make the notation simple, we suppress the superscript $`a`$ in the r.h.s. and below.

I would like to make the following two comments. The first is that the real or virtual photon couples with the nucleon in the form of $`𝝉𝝈\times 𝒒`$ for the spin-isospin channel, and thus creates only the isovector spin transverse modes but not the spin longitudinal modes. Therefore the reliable probe $`(e,e^{})`$ is not suitable to investigate the pionic modes, but it fits to see the isovector spin transverse response function

$`R_\mathrm{T}(q,\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu }{}}|n|{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\tau _i^a(𝝈_i\times \widehat{𝒒})_\mu e^{i𝒒𝒓_i}|0|^2\delta (\omega (E_nE_0))`$ (2)
In this report I will not touch the spin transverse part because of lack of time.

Another point is that the momentum $`𝒒`$ is not a good quantum number in the actual nuclei, because they are of finite size. Therefore the spin longitudinal and the spin transverse modes are mixed in a certain discrete state. Each mode is selected by the probe used. Here we are concerned only with the gross structure of the energy spectra around the quasielastic peak.

## II Origin of the collectivity –Effective interactions

The collectivity of the pionic modes is considered to come from (1) the attraction of OPEP and (2) the coupling with the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-hole states

To evaluate the collectivity we need the effective interactions for the ph-ph, ph-$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$h and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$h$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$h couplings. The ph-ph part of the spin-isospin channel is written as

$$V(q,\omega )=(𝝉_1𝝉_2)[V_\mathrm{L}(q,\omega )(𝝈_1\widehat{𝒒})(𝝈_2\widehat{𝒒})+V_\mathrm{T}(q,\omega )(𝝈_1\times \widehat{𝒒})(𝝈_2\times \widehat{𝒒})]$$
(3)
where the $`V_\mathrm{L}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{T}`$ parts are the spin longitudinal and the spin transverse interactions, respectively. The expression is equivalent to the familiar form, the sum of the central and the tensor parts. Extension to the ph-$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$h and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$h$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$h interactions are straightforward.

They are often represented by the $`\pi +\rho +g^{}`$ model, which expresses the interaction as the one pion exchange plus the one $`\rho `$-meson exchange plus the contact interaction specified by the three Landau-Migdal parameters, $`g_{NN}^{}`$, $`g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ and $`g_{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$. In this model $`V_\mathrm{L}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{T}`$ are expressed as

$`V_\mathrm{L}(q,\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_{\pi NN}^2}{m_\pi ^2}}\left(g^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{\omega ^2q^2m_\pi ^2}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pi ^2(q,\omega )\right),`$ (4)
$`V_\mathrm{T}(q,\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_{\pi NN}^2}{m_\pi ^2}}\left(g^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{\omega ^2q^2m_\rho ^2}}C_\rho \mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho ^2(q,\omega )\right).`$ (5)
where $`C_\rho `$ is the coupling ratio between the $`\pi `$ and $`\rho `$ exchange and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi (\rho )}`$ are the coupling form factor of the $`\pi (\rho )NN`$ vertex. Their $`q`$ dependence are shown in Fig. 1 for $`\omega =`$ 80MeV and $`g^{}=0.6`$. The genuine one pion exchange part $`V_\pi `$ ($`g^{}=0`$) is also shown (dashed line). We see that $`g^{}`$ represents the strength at $`q=0`$ and determines above what $`q`$ the interaction $`V_\mathrm{L}`$ becomes negative and how attractive it is at large $`q`$, which are crucial for the pionic collectivity. Therefore it is one of the main aims of this report to estimate the $`g^{}`$’s.

Recently Suzuki and Sakai phenomenologically estimated them from the energy of the giant Gamov-Teller (GT) resonance and the quenching factor $`Q`$ for the GT sum rule value observed by Wakasa et al., where $`Q`$ is defined as

$$Q=\frac{S_\beta ^{}^{\mathrm{exp}}S_{\beta ^+}^{\mathrm{exp}}}{3(NZ)}\mathrm{with}S_\beta ^{}=\underset{n}{}|n|\tau ^\pm 𝝈|0|^2.$$
(6)
Using the Fermi gas model and the sum rule technique, they obtained

$$0.58<g_{NN}^{}<0.59,0.18<g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}<0.23\mathrm{if}g_{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}1.0,$$
(7)
Arima et al. reported that the finiteness increases $`g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ by about 0.1.

This is the estimation at $`q0`$. Then what happens at large $`q`$ ?

## III Experimental method to study the pionic modes

Since the reliable probe $`(e,e^{})`$ does not work for study of the spin longitudinal responses, we have inevitably to utilize the hadronic probes though their reaction mechanism is more complex. The best one could be the $`(\stackrel{}{p},\stackrel{}{n})`$ reactions, for which we need the polarized proton beam with high intensity and the neutron polarimeter with high efficiency.

Due to these difficulties, complete measurement of the polarization transfer coefficients $`D_{ij}(D_{SS^{}},D_{NN^{}},D_{LL^{}},D_{SL^{}},D_{LS^{}})`$ of the $`(\stackrel{}{p},\stackrel{}{n})`$ reactions became possible just in 1990’s. The coefficient $`D_{ij}`$ represents the transition probability from the proton with the spin polarization in the direction $`i`$ to the neutron with the spin polarization in the direction $`j`$. The directions are specified in Fig. 2.

To extract the spin response functions, Bleszynski et al. introduced the spin longitudinal cross section $`ID_q`$ and the spin transverse cross section $`ID_p`$, etc., which are defined by the linear combinations of $`D_{ij}`$ times the unpolarized cross section $`I`$. The naming comes from the fact that $`ID_{q(p)}`$ is proportional to $`R_{\mathrm{L}(\mathrm{T})}`$ as

$`ID_q(q,\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`K(N_{\mathrm{eff}}/N)I^{NN}D_q^{NN}R_\mathrm{L}(q,\omega )`$ (8)
$`ID_p(q,\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`K(N_{\mathrm{eff}}/N)I^{NN}D_p^{NN}R_\mathrm{T}(q,\omega )`$ (9)
if the plane wave impulse approximation (PWIA) with the $`N_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ prescription works. Here $`K`$ is the kinematical factor, $`N_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the number of neutrons which participate the reaction and $`I^{NN}D_i^{NN}`$ is the corresponding quantity of the $`NN`$ scattering.

In this report we concentrate on only the pionic modes, consequently only the spin longitudinal cross sections $`ID_q`$.

## IV Theoretical approach to the spin longitudinal response

We must fully take into account the finite size feature of the nucleus, since it mixes up the spin longitudinal and the spin transverse modes. On top of that we are interested in the gross collective nature in the continuum. Therefore we employed the continuum random phase approximation (RPA) method in the angular momentum representation.

In preparation of the single particle states and the single particle Green’s functions, we use a radial dependent effective mass $`m^{}(r)`$, and treat the spreading widths of the holes and the particles by the complex binding energy and the complex potential, respectively.

The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-hole configurations are included in the continuum RPA formalism and the $`\pi +\rho +g^{}`$ model interaction is utilized. Most of previous analyses were carried out in the approximation $`g_{NN}^{}=g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}=g_{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ , which is called the universality ansatz. We remove this ansatz and treat these $`g^{}`$’s independently.

In hadronic reactions the distortion and absorption must be taken into account. Therefore we developed a formalism of the distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) for the continuum final states incorporating with the continuum RPA.

## V Numerical analysis of 12C, 40Ca $`(\stackrel{}{p},\stackrel{}{n})`$ reactions

Using the above DWIA + continuum RPA method, we analyzed the 12C, 40Ca$`(\stackrel{}{p},\stackrel{}{n})`$ reactions at $`T_\mathrm{p}=`$ 346MeV and $`\theta =22^{}`$ by Wakasa et al. and at $`T_\mathrm{p}=`$494MeV and $`\theta =18^{}`$ by Taddeucci et al. In the both cases the transferred momentum $`q`$ is about 1.7fm-1 for $`\omega <120`$MeV.

We treated the Landau-Migdal parameters $`g_{NN}^{},g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ and the effective mass at the nuclear center $`m^{}(r=0)`$ as adjustable parameters. The calculated spin longitudinal cross sections $`ID_q`$’s with and without the RPA correlations are compared to the experimental results in Fig. 3 for the $`T_\mathrm{p}`$ = 346MeV cases and Fig. 4 for the $`T_\mathrm{p}=`$494MeV cases. As for the exprimental results of the $`T_\mathrm{p}`$ = 346MeV cases, we quoted the latest results instead of the published ones.

We could reproduce $`ID_q`$ reasonably well if we include the RPA correlation with the parameters $`g_{NN}^{}=0.60.7`$, $`g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}=0.30.4`$ and $`m^{}(0)=0.7m`$. We fixed $`g_{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}=0.5`$ but its dependence is very weak. Comparing to the results without the correlation (denoted by ”free” in the figures), we clearly see the enhancement of the spin longitudinal cross sections. Thus we first found the precursor phenomena of the pion condensation.

## VI Conclusion

We analyzed the quasielastic $`(\stackrel{}{p},\stackrel{}{n})`$ reactions by the DWIA + continuum RPA method. Adjusting $`g_{NN}^{},g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}`$ and $`m^{}(0)`$, we could reproduce the observed spin longitudinal cross section $`ID_q`$.

The analysis shows in the first time an experimental evidence of the precursor phenomena of the pion condensation, i.e. the enhancement of the spin longitudinal response function $`R_\mathrm{L}`$.

Our estimation of $`g^{}`$’s at $`q=1.7`$fm-1 from $`ID_q`$ gives $`g_{NN}^{}=0.60.7,g_{N\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}=0.30.4`$, which are close to those at $`q0`$ estimated from the GT strength distribution. This means that the $`\pi +\rho +g^{}`$ model with constant $`g^{}`$’s works well for wide range of $`q`$.

Our findings imply that the various old calculations of the critical density $`\rho _\mathrm{c}`$ of the pion condensation based on the universality ansatz should be redone. It may give a great modification on the equation of state and the scenario of the cooling of the neutron star.

I did not touch the spin transverse response functions due to shortage of the time, but I must mention at the end that the observed $`R_\mathrm{T}`$’s by $`(p,n)`$ are much larger than those obtained by $`(e,e^{})`$ and this contradiction must be solved before reaching the definite conclusion.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. T. Wakasa for providing us with new experimental results before publication. This work was supported in part by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Nos. 02640215, 05640328 and 12640294 of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.


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# An Overview of the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey

## 1. Introduction

Each of the many methods with which to find the most massive, gravitationally-relaxed objects in the universe has its own relative advantages and disadvantages. As discussed by Yee (this volume), the surveys by Abell and Zwicky pioneered this field decades ago. Current surveys exploit differing wavelengths (from submm to X-ray) and techniques (from identifying an excess of galaxies to identifying an excess of mass). Because galaxy clusters are not idealized, isolated, fully-relaxed systems, complementary techniques are necessary to ensure that all potential systematic difficulties introduced by the particular survey method are identified and explored. We have introduced a method that enables us to identify high redshift galaxy cluster candidates using modest exposures on small telescopes (Dalcanton 1996; Zaritsky et al. 1997; Gonzalez et al. 2001).

## 2. The Survey

The basic premise of our detection technique is that we utilize the light from unresolved cluster galaxies. Rather than obtaining deep images of the sky in order to detect a statistically significant number of cluster galaxies, we only need to obtain an image that contains a statistically significant number of cluster photons.

Our current survey is based on drift scan observations obtained with the Las Campanas 1m Swope telescope and the Great Circle Camera (Zaritsky, Shectman, & Bredthauer 1996) over a $``$ 130 sq. deg. area of sky. We obtained two scans through each region of the survey area, each with an effective exposure time of $``$ 90 s. The power of the technique is manifested by the detection of clusters out to $`z1.1`$ with such shallow data (see below). Briefly, the reduction and analysis involves several flat-fielding passes (to remove CCD response variations and sky fluctuations), masking of bright stars, removal of resolved galaxies and faint stars, and smoothing with a kernel that corresponds roughly to the size of cluster cores at $`z0.6`$. Statistically significant low surface brightness (LSB) fluctuations of the correct character are cluster candidates. We refer the interested reader to Gonzalez et al. (2001) for a full description of the data reduction techniques and the candidate cluster catalog.

## 3. Follow-Up Observations

The telescope-intensive part of the project has been the follow-up observations necessary to test our cluster candidates and calibrate the methods we are using to estimate the cluster redshift and mass (see below). Such expensive follow-up methods are common to all surveys regardless of whether they originate from optical, X-ray, or SZ data. We now describe some of the observations that lead us to conclude that the overall contamination of the cluster catalog is $``$ 30% (with greater contamination toward higher redshifts). While X-ray and SZ surveys should have lower contamination rates, optical follow-up will still be necessary at least for redshift determination.

### 3.1. Photometry

A basic method to confirm cluster candidates is to obtain deeper images that enable one to identify a concentration of galaxies at the position of the LSB fluctuation and a red galaxy sequence in color-magnitude diagrams characteristic of early-type galaxies in clusters. We show examples of these two approaches using data presented by Nelson et al (2001). First, in Figure 1 we plot the radial density of galaxies in cluster candidates that we have deemed to be bona-fide. There is a clear central concentration of galaxies indicative of a cluster. Second, in Figure 2 we plot the color of the red sequence vs. spectroscopic redshift (see below) for clusters from our survey vs. clusters from the literature (some of our cluster candidates come from an exploratory survey done using Palomar 5m drift scans; Dalcanton et al. 1997). The excellent agreement between the two samples is indicative that the objects that we call clusters (not all candidates, but rather those $``$ 70% that we deem to be bona-fide clusters) are indeed similar to cluster in the literature. Finally, we plot the results from recent VLT observations for an ongoing program that aims to investigate the detailed properties of 10 clusters at $`z0.5`$ and another 10 at $`z0.8`$. These data come from the initial snapshots intended to confirm clusters candidates before more observing time is spent. Here we include all of the $`z0.5`$ candidates (regardless of whether in the final analysis we deem them to be bona-fide). Red sequences are prominent in the majority, again confirming that the contamination rate is not significantly larger than 30%.

### 3.2. Spectroscopy

Complementary confirming evidence comes from spectroscopy. In Figure 4 we present all of our spectroscopic follow-up data from the Keck telescopes. The spectrograph slit was placed at the position of the LSB feature identified in the original survey data and the guider was used to rotate the slit in such a way as to include as many galaxies as possible. The groupings in redshift space of three or more galaxies that resulted from these observations in the majority of the cluster candidate fields again confirms our contamination rate. Monte-Carlo simulations using Keck field redshift surveys to similar magnitudes suggest that our spectroscopic sample could include one random three galaxy grouping and no random four galaxy groupings. Some of the failed cluster candidates may actually be clusters because 1) we may have been unfortunate in our placement of the spectrograph slit and simply missed including enough cluster galaxies, and 2) some of the failed candidate fields received substandard exposures (due to time constrains or weather).

## 4. Calibrating Redshift and Mass Diagnostics

In surveys that produce thousands (or even hundreds) of galaxy cluster identifications, it is impractical to obtain redshift and mass measures via spectroscopy for a significant fraction of the candidates. Ideally, these quantities should be estimated from the survey data themselves. As such, we clearly sacrifice precision on a cluster-by-cluster basis, but if the uncertainties are well understood, the sheer number of clusters allows high precision measures of the statistical properties of the sample. There really is no choice in this matter (in this survey or future SZ surveys). For example, to obtain a sufficient number of spectroscopic redshifts of cluster galaxies for a reliable velocity dispersion measure ($``$ 50) in a sample of ONLY 20 clusters we require $``$ 35 VLT nights!

We use the magnitude of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) as a redshift indicator and the central surface brightness of the smoothed cluster detection ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) as a mass indicator. BCGs are excellent standard candles locally (Humason, Mayall, & Sandage 1956; Graham et al. 1996) and at high redshift (Aragon-Salamanca et al. 1993.). In Figure 5 we show our empirical calibration of the BCG magnitudes in our photometric system vs. spectroscopic redshift (as obtained for the cluster from the Keck data). The dispersion is $`0.08`$ in $`z`$ once a correction is applied to the BCG magnitude for cluster mass (again empirically calibrated from the data). However, the redshift error distribution is non-Gaussian and we construct the full distribution by randomly inserting cluster candidates into the original survey images and reanalyzing them (see Gonzalez et al. (2001) for a full description).

The calibration of the mass indicator is much more speculative primarily because of the dearth of independent mass estimates for high redshift clusters. Only one previously known X-ray cluster at $`z>0.35`$ lies within our survey area, so we obtained small drift scans around 17 other clusters with published X-ray luminosity and/or temperature measurements. Nevertheless, the relationships between $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and other mass indicators ($`L_x,T_x,`$ or velocity dispersion) are poorly defined. Two aspects are particularly vexing: 1) we need to determine not only the relation between these quantities but we also need to quantify the scatter, and 2) most of the data are for lower redshift clusters, complicating the removal of redshift-dependent effects like evolution. Extracting the full potential of this, or any other survey, is predicated on developing a reliable mass estimator and understanding its uncertainties.

## 5. The Correlation Function of Clusters

As an example of statistical results that can be obtained from our cluster catalog we briefly discuss our first result regarding large-scale structure. The cluster-cluster correlation function has a complicated history that cannot be outlined here. However, it is generally parametrized by examining the behavior of the correlation scale-length, $`r_0`$, vs. the mean cluster separation of a sample, $`d_c`$. The latter is a measure of the mass of the clusters because more massive clusters are rarer and so have larger mean cluster separations.

We select a subsample in the redshift range where we believe our contamination is lowest and best understood ($`0.35<z<0.6`$), and for which our redshift and mass estimates are more robust. We invert the Limber equation to convert the angular correlation function into a spatial function. The comparison of our results with those from local ($`z<0.2`$) surveys and simulations is presented in Figure 7. We find that the correlation of clusters at $`z0.5`$ is quite similar to that seen at lower redshifts. The low redshift results agree with the predictions from the VIRGO consortium simulation (Colberg et al. 2000) and with the very moderate amount of evolution expected theoretically. This measure of large-scale structure is not a particularly powerful discriminator amongst the currently allowed cosmological models, but the results demonstrate that our measured clusters at intermediate redshifts are consistent with our current theoretical understanding.

## 6. Conclusions

The Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey provides another view on cluster selection and so complements not only other optical surveys, but surveys at other wavelengths. Every method has potential systematic problems, and rather than promoting one method over the others, we encourage cross-comparison of the various methods to identify and resolve those problems. To that aim, 1) we have published our catalog (Gonzalez et al. 2001), 2) we have targeted 18 X-ray clusters and recovered all but one, which is at low Galactic latitude, thereby demonstrating that our false negative rate with respect to bona-fide X-ray clusters is low, 3) begun a weak-lensing analysis of 20 of our candidates (the only one analyzed to date by D. Clowe shows a significant mass signature, as does a less massive candidate cluster in the same field) and 4) are in the process of obtaining Chandra data for four candidates. SZ observations of some of these clusters would add significantly to our understanding of the selection function.

The study of clusters has entered a new era where large samples of candidate clusters are becoming common. It becomes increasingly important to acknowledge that the detailed studies of clusters as done when only a few clusters where available does not fully exploit the power of these large samples. We have begun to develop redshift and mass estimators from our survey data and apply them to produce statistical results obtained from the entire catalog. Future work must focus on refining these calibrations. We are no longer limited by cluster statistics, but we remain limited by systematic uncertainties.

#### Acknowledgments.

DZ acknowledges financial support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the NSF CAREER program (AST 97-33111), and the conference organizers. Data fron the ESO distant cluster survey obtained from the ESO NTT and VLT telescopes.

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