text:
# External Compton emission from relativistic jets in Galactic black hole candidates and ultraluminous X-ray sources

## 1 Introduction

Several Galactic black hole candidates in X-ray binary systems show evidence of relativistic outflows, and are collectively referred to as microquasars Mirabel & Rodríguez (1999). These objects emit in two different X-ray states Grove et al. (1998). In the high-soft state the spectral energy distribution peaks at a few keV, above which there is a soft power law component. In the low-hard state a hard power law extends to at least $`100`$ keV (Grove et al., 1998). Both states have been modelled in detail using the comptonisation of accretion disk photons from a hot corona containing a hybrid plasma of thermal and nonthermal electrons — for a review see Poutanen (1998). However, despite good agreement with the observed X-ray spectra, the disk-corona models are unable to account for the tight temporal correlation between the low-hard X-ray state and the radio emission Corbel et al. (2000).

Radio jets have been detected in several microquasars (Mirabel & Rodríguez, 1999), including Cygnus X-1, in which a one-sided relativistic jet has recently been resolved in observations made during the low-hard X-ray state (Stirling et al., 2001). There is increasingly strong evidence that outflows — possibly relativistic ones — may be a generic feature of the low-hard state of microquasars Fender & Kuulkers 2001a . It has been suggested some time ago (Hjellming & Johnston, 1988) that the radio emission is synchrotron radiation from conical jets. Recently it has been proposed that the synchrotron emission might extend up to X-ray energies, either in the extended jet structure Atoyan & Aharonian (1999) or close to the base of the jet Markoff et al. (2001). Also, inverse Compton scattering by relativistic electrons in the jets has previously been proposed as a mechanism for the production of X-rays and gamma-rays Band & Grindlay (1986); Levinson & Blandford (1996); Atoyan & Aharonian (1999).

In this letter we show that the low-hard state X-ray emission of microquasars can be understood as Compton scattering of photons from the companion star and/or the accretion disk (external Compton scattering or ECS) by relativistic electrons in the persistent jet. We apply this idea to two sources typical of systems with low and high mass companion stars, and show that the ultraluminous compact X-ray sources observed in nearby galaxies Makishima et al. (2000) display the properties of beamed microquasars with high mass companion stars.

## 2 ECS in the low-hard state

In the low-hard X-ray state the relativistic electrons in the jet are exposed to the photon fields of the companion star and the accretion disk formed around the black hole, and therefore emit inverse Compton radiation predominantly by up-scattering these photons. The relative importance of the two seed photon sources depends primarily on their energy densities at the base of the jet, where energetic particles are injected. Whereas the luminosities of the star and disk are in principle observable, only upper limits to the size of the emitting region and its distance from the black hole can be set. Consequently, only lower limits on the energy densities can be estimated.

Consider now relativistic plasma injected at a jet inlet of radius $`R`$. The plasma flows with a bulk Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and velocity $`\beta c`$, where $`c`$ is the speed of light. For simplicity, assume that, in the comoving frame, electrons are injected isotropically with a power-law distribution of index $`p`$ confined between Lorentz factors $`\gamma _1`$ and $`\gamma _2`$. The environment is permeated by an isotropic monoenergetic photon field of photon energy $`ϵ_0`$ in units of $`m_\mathrm{e}c^2`$ and energy density $`U`$. The plasma suffers inverse Compton losses until it has reached a distance $`l`$ from the inlet at which the radiation field drops off significantly. The average time spent by electrons in this part of the jet — the escape time $`t_{\mathrm{esc}}`$ — is parameterised in units of the light crossing time $`t_{\mathrm{esc}}=kl/c`$, where $`k1`$. The photon energy density $`U`$ is taken to be constant within the emission region. The comoving photon density in the blob frame can be written as $`U^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2U\mathrm{\Gamma }^2L_\mathrm{s}/4\pi cd^2`$, where $`L_\mathrm{s}`$ is the luminosity of the dominant photon source and $`d`$ is the distance of the emitting plasma from this source. Assuming that Compton losses dominate, the Lorentz factor $`\gamma _\mathrm{b}`$ at which the cooling and escape times are equal is

$$\gamma _\mathrm{b}\frac{3m_\mathrm{e}c}{4\sigma _\mathrm{T}U^{}t_{\mathrm{esc}}}=\frac{3\pi m_\mathrm{e}c^3d^2}{\sigma _\mathrm{T}klL_\mathrm{s}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}.$$
(1)
The spatially averaged electron energy distribution in the comoving frame can be approximately written as

$$n^{}(\gamma ^{})=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{Qk}{4\pi }\gamma ^p\hfill & \text{ if }\gamma _1\gamma ^{}\gamma _\mathrm{b}\text{ }\\ \frac{Qk\gamma _\mathrm{b}}{4\pi }\gamma ^{(p+1)}\hfill & \text{ if }\gamma _\mathrm{b}\gamma ^{}\gamma _2\text{ }\end{array},$$
(2)
where $`Q`$ is a normalisation constant related to the relativistic electron power $`P_{\mathrm{inj}}`$ injected in the jet by

$$P_{\mathrm{inj}}=\frac{4\pi }{3}R^2Q\mathrm{\Gamma }^2\beta m_\mathrm{e}c^3\frac{\gamma _2^{2p}\gamma _1^{2p}}{2p}.$$
(3)
The spectral index of the external Compton spectrum increases from $`(p1)/2`$ to $`p/2`$ at the break energy $`ϵ_\mathrm{b}=4ϵ_0\gamma _\mathrm{b}^2𝒟^2`$, where $`𝒟=1/[\mathrm{\Gamma }(1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta )]`$ is the Doppler factor and $`\theta `$ is the angle between the jet axis and the observer’s line of sight. For a continuous source, the spectrum of ECS for energies $`ϵ_\mathrm{b}ϵϵ_{\mathrm{max}}`$, where $`ϵ_\mathrm{b}=4ϵ_0\gamma _\mathrm{b}^2𝒟^2`$, $`ϵ_{\mathrm{max}}=4ϵ_0\gamma _2^2𝒟^2`$, is (Georganopoulos et al., 2001)

$$\frac{dL}{dϵd\mathrm{\Omega }}𝒟^{3+p}\frac{Qk\gamma _\mathrm{b}V\sigma _\mathrm{T}cU2^p}{\pi ϵ_0(2+p)(4+p)}\left(\frac{ϵ}{ϵ_0}\right)^{p/2},$$
(4)
where $`V=\pi R^2l`$ is the volume of the source. For $`p<2`$ the luminosity per logarithmic energy interval at the peak energy $`ϵ_{\mathrm{peak}}ϵ_0𝒟^2\gamma _2^2`$ of the spectral energy distribution given by $`ϵdL/dϵd\mathrm{\Omega }`$ scales as $`𝒟^5`$:

$$L_{\mathrm{peak}}=4\pi \left(\frac{ϵdL}{dϵd\mathrm{\Omega }}\right)_{ϵ=ϵ_{\mathrm{peak}}}\frac{3\pi mec^32^pQR^2\gamma _2^{2p}𝒟^5}{(2+p)(4+p)\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}.$$
(5)
### 2.1 Microquasars with a low mass companion

We focus now on the low-hard X-ray state of microquasars with a low mass companion. These are typically systems with a star of K–M spectral type. The microquasar XTE J1118+480 is such a system, consisting of a black hole of mass $`M6.5M_{}`$ and a K7V-M0V star of luminosity $`L_\mathrm{s}26\times 10^{32}`$ erg s-1 separated by $`R_\mathrm{s}1.7\times 10^{11}`$cm (McClintock et al. 2001a, ). The luminosity of the accretion disk during the active phase is $`L_\mathrm{d}8.6\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1, with a peak photon energy $`24`$ eV (McClintock et al. 2001b, ). The accretion disk is much brighter than the companion star. Assuming that the emission site is located on the axis of the accretion disk, perpendicular to the orbital plane of the binary system, the photon energy density at the emission site is dominated by accretion disk photons.

The X-ray emission has a spectral index $`\alpha 0.8`$ and a peak luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{peak}}4.3\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1 at an energy $`100`$ keV. If this arises from ECS of accretion disk photons, the maximum energy electron is $`\gamma _2(ϵ_{\mathrm{peak}}/ϵ_0)^{1/2}65`$ for a system in which beaming is insignificant. Assuming that the observed spectral index $`\alpha 0.8`$ is due to the cooled part of the electron distribution, the corresponding electron injection index is $`p=2\alpha =1.6`$.

In this source there is evidence for a compact jet (Fender at al. 2001b, ) and, although its velocity in not determined, we assume, as discussed in the introduction, that it is mildly relativistic, adopting for illustration a bulk motion Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$ and a Doppler factor $`\delta =1`$, which corresponds to an angle between the jet axis and the line of sight $`\theta 55^{}`$. To reproduce the observations we set $`d=10^8`$cm, approximately the inner radius of the truncated accretion disk Esin et al. (2001). The jet inlet is taken to be $`R=d`$, and we further set $`l=2d`$. Figure 1 shows the spectral energy distribution, with injected electron power $`P_{\mathrm{inj}}=0.05L_\mathrm{E}`$, where $`L_\mathrm{E}`$ is the Eddington luminosity of the black hole. The shaded area represents observations (McClintock et al. 2001b, ). The solid line, corresponding to our ECS model, peaks at $`100`$ keV, with a spectral index $`\alpha =0.8`$.

### 2.2 Microquasars with a high mass companion

The prototype of this class is the source Cygnus X-1. This microquasar has a supergiant companion of spectral type O9.7 Iab, luminosity $`L_\mathrm{s}9.6\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1 and a photon energy $`2.7`$ eV (Herrero et al., 1995). The separation between the companion star and the massive black hole (M $`10M_{}`$) is $`R_\mathrm{s}2.8\times 10^{12}`$cm. Cygnus X-1 displays a soft X-ray excess in its low-hard state that is attributed to a truncated accretion disk. Assuming a distance of $`2`$kpc implies a luminosity $`L_\mathrm{d}7.3\times 10^{36}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ peaking at an energy $`130`$eV (Bałucińska-Church et al., 1995). The X-ray spectrum peaks at $`100`$keV and has a luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{peak}}1.5\times 10^{37}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$; the spectral index $`\alpha 0.8`$, corresponds to an electron injection index $`p=1.6`$, McConnell et al. 2000b ; Di Salvo et al. (2001).

The luminosity of the source at $`3`$ MeV is higher than the extrapolation of the spectrum from lower energies (Poutanen, 1998; McConnell et al. 2000a, ), possibly suggesting a new spectral component, which nevertheless needs to be confirmed by future spectral measurements. Assuming that arises as ECS from the accretion disk photons, we obtain the distance $`d_\mathrm{a}`$ from the base of the jet to the accretion disk $`d_\mathrm{a}=3.4\times 10^{11}`$cm. The distance of the jet base from the star is therefore approximately equal to the orbital separation, $`d=R_\mathrm{s}`$. For modelling purposes we set $`R=d_\mathrm{a}`$ and $`l=5R_\mathrm{s}`$. Under these conditions the companion star photon field dominates. Assuming that the observed spectrum is not strongly beamed we obtain $`\gamma _2(ϵ_{\mathrm{peak}}/ϵ_0)^{1/2}=165`$. In fig. 2 we plot the model spectral energy distribution for the above parameters. The two solid lines correspond to the ECS emission due to the companion star (1) and accretion disk (2) seed photons for $`\theta =50^{}`$ ($`\delta =1.12`$). Since our model has an abrupt cutoff of the electron energy distribution at $`\gamma _2`$ it gives a poor fit to the very soft emission between $`100`$ KeV and $`1`$MeV. Note, however, that the $`3`$MeV emission arises naturally as the ECS of accretion seed disk photons.

### 2.3 Ultraluminous X-ray sources

Variable and, therefore, compact X-ray sources of luminosity up to $`10^{41}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ have been observed in nearby galaxies Makishima et al. (2000). These sources are displaced from the galactic centre and, if they radiate isotropically, indicate a black hole mass $`M50100M_{}`$. However, it is difficult to understand how such systems could be formed in the required number, which has led King et al. (2001) to the conclusion that the emission may, in fact, be beamed. This immediately suggests a connection with the model presented above for Cygnus X-1, of nonthermal ECS from a relativistic jet. In the context of a synchrotron model, a similar idea has been taken up independently by Koerding et al. (2001).

In the ECS model, the peak luminosity appears amplified due to Doppler boosting by a factor of $`𝒟^5`$ for a continuous jet. Even using the mildly relativistic jet parameters appropriate for Cygnus X-1 ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$, $`𝒟_{\mathrm{max}}=4`$) leads to a substantial maximum amplification factor of approximately $`1000`$. Such a source could reach an apparent luminosity $`2\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1. To illustrate this point, we plot in Fig. 2 the spectral energy distribution predicted for an observer at an angle $`\theta =10^{}`$ to the jet. Note that the beaming of the component due to accretion disk photons is weaker by a factor of $`(1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta )^{p/2}`$ Dermer et al. (1992).

The idea that ultraluminous X-ray sources are related to microquasars such as Cygnus X-1, is compatible with recent observations. Ultraluminous sources have exhibited transitions from a high-soft to a low-hard state and vice-versa, similar to the spectral transitions of Galactic microquasars (Kubota et al., 2001; La Parola et al., 2001). Also, optical observations suggest that the ultraluminous source NGC 5201 X-1 may have an O star companion (Roberts et al., 2001) Finally, a possible X-ray periodicity has been observed in an ultraluminous source in the spiral galaxy IC 342 (Sugiho et al., 2001), which, if interpreted as orbital modulation, is compatible with emission from a microquasar with a high mass companion star.

## 3 Discussion and conclusions

We show that the X-ray emission in the low-hard state of microquasars can be understood as ECS radiation from electrons in a relativistic jet. These electrons are also responsible for the radio emission occuring further downstream in the jet. Depending on the type of binary system, the ECS seed photons originate either from the companion star and/or from the accretion disk. In our model we assume that ECS losses dominate at the base of the jet. This requires that the magnetic field energy density in the jet is lower than the external photon field energy density as seen in the frame comoving with the flow. In the case of XTE J118+480 this corresponds to $`B10^5`$ G whereas for Cygnus X-1 $`B100`$ G. These upper limits are compatible with standard accretion disk magnetic fields, assuming magnetic flux conservation between the accretion disk and the jet (Sams et al., 1996). In our model the jet is optically thick to synchrotron radiation up to $``$ far IR energies; it becomes optically thin at $``$ IR energies and the synchrotron emission cuts off at $``$ UV. Thus, the external optical and UV photons are able to penetrate the jet and act as seed photons in the ECS mechanism. Depending on the Thomson thickness of the outflow, a weak comptonisation tail due to multiple scatterings may be formed up to energies $`\gamma _2mc^2`$.

We have also demonstrated that the low-hard state of a Galactic microquasar can appear as an ultraluminous X-ray source, if viewed under a suitable angle. Our discussion of these sources focused on the low-hard state only. However, by implication the soft X-ray state must also be beamed, so that the relativistic jet must still exists in the high-soft state. In our model, ECS dominates the energy losses, so that it is natural to assume that the increased accretion disk luminosity in the high-soft state quenches the nonthermal electrons, thereby simultaneously producing the X-ray emission and suppressing the radio jet.

To summarise, we present a model in which the X-ray emission of microquasars in the hard state is due to external Compton scattering by the energetic electrons in a relativistic jet, the same electrons being also responsible for the radio emission. The seed photons are stem from the companion star and/or the accretion disk. We show that this model can explain the ultraluminous X-ray sources observed in nearby galaxies as beamed microquasars similar to Cygnus X-1.

###### Acknowledgements.

Part of this work was supported by the European Union TMR programme under contract FMRX-CT98-0168.


format: text

text:
# Optical/near-IR observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era

## 1 Afterglow observations

### 1.1 Photometric observations

#### Power-law declines.

BSAX made possible to detect the first X-ray afterglow following GRB 970228 whose precise localization (1) led to the discovery of the first optical transient (or optical afterglow, OA) associated to a GRB . The OA was afterwards found on earlier images  and the light curve exhibited a power-law (PL) decay F $``$ t with $`\alpha `$ = 1.1 , thus confirming the prediction of the relativistic blast-wave model . PL declines have been measured for 26 OAs in 1997-2000 yielding values in the range 0.8 $`<`$ $`\alpha `$ $`<`$ 2.3 with $`<\alpha >`$ = 1.35.

#### Breaks and steepening in light curves.

A break deviating from a PL decay was first observed in the GRB 990123 light curve at T0 \+ 1.5 $`d`$ ($``$ 1.5 days after the high energy event) and it was interpreted as the presence of a beamed outflow with a half opening angle $`\theta _0`$ $``$ 0.1 \[7-9\], i.e. reducing the inferred energy by a factor of $``$ $`\theta _0`$2/4. Further breaks have been reported in another 5 GRBs: GRB 990510 \[10-11\], GRB 991208 , GRB 991216 , GRB 000301C  and GRB 000926 .

There are six possible explanations for the observed breaks: i) sideways expansion of the jet caused by the swept-up matter  although the effect might be negligible for $`\theta _0`$ $`>`$ 0.1 ; ii) when the jet material propagates in an uniform density medium and the observer sees the edge of the jet, with $`\alpha `$ increasing by $``$ 0.7 ; iii) when the jet material propagates in a medium with a PL density profile and the observer sees the edge of the jet, $`\alpha `$ increases by a factor of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^2`$  with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ the bulk Lorentz factor; iv) when the jet material propagates within a pre-ejected stellar wind ($`\rho `$ $``$ r-2) and the observer sees the edge of the jet, $`\alpha `$ increases by $``$ 0.4 ; v) when in both the relativistic and non-relativistic cases (if $`\rho `$ is high) the inverse Compton scattering is important, the light curves can be flattened or steepened ; and vi) when the transition from the relativistic phase to the non-relativistic phase of an isotropic blastwave takes place in a dense medium ($`\rho `$ $``$ 106 cm-3) .

Rapid fading ($`\alpha `$ $`>`$ 2.0) has been observed in 3 GRBs: GRB 980326 , GRB 980519  and GRB 991208 . Two possible causes can explain such behaviour: the synchrotron emission during the mildly relativistic and non-relativistic phases  and the interaction of a spherical burst with a pre-burst Wolf-Rayet star wind .

#### ”Plateau” states.

For GRB 970508, a ”plateau” ($`\alpha `$ = 0) was observed between T0 \+ 3 $`hr`$ and T0 \+ 1 $`d`$ . The optical light curve reached a peak in two days  and was followed by a PL decay F $``$ t-1.2 . The ”plateau” has been explained by several plasmoids with different fluxes occurring at different times . Another ”plateau” was detected in the near-IR light curve of GRB 971214 between T0 \+ 3 $`hr`$ and T0 \+ 7 $`hr`$ .

#### Short-term variability.

Flux fluctuations are expected due to inhomogeneities in the surrounding medium as a consequence of interstellar turbulence or by variability and anisotropy in a precursor wind from the GRB progenitor . However, short-term variability was found neither in GRB 970508  nor in GRB 990510 . In GRB 000301C, the high variability observed at optical wavelengths  can be due to several reasons: i) refreshed shock effects; ii) energy injection by a strongly magnetic millisecond pulsar born during the GRB ; iii) an ultra-relativistic shock in a dense medium rapidly evolving to a non-relativistic phase ; and iv) a gravitational microlens .

#### The SN-GRB association.

A peculiar type Ib/c supernova (SN 1998bw) was found in the error box for the soft GRB 980425  coincident with a galaxy at z = 0.0085, but this SN/GRB relationship is still under debate.

In any case, ”SN-like” bumps have been detected in other GRBs: GRB 970228 , GRB 970508 , GRB 980326 , GRB 980703 , GRB 991208  and GRB 000418 . There are some alternative explanations for the existence of such a bump in the OA light curves: i) scattering of a prompt optical burst by 0.1 M dust beyond its sublimation radius 0.1-1 pc from the burst, producing an echo after 20-30 $`d`$ ; ii) delayed energy injection by shell collision ; and iii) an axially symmetric jet surrounded by a less energetic outflow . But this is certainly not the case for all GRBs: GRB 990712 provided the first firm evidence that an underlying SN was not present .

### 1.2 Spectroscopy.

GRB 970508 was the clue to the distance: optical spectroscopy obtained during the OA maximum brightness allowed a direct determination of a lower limit for the redshift ($`z`$ $``$ 0.835), implying D $``$ 4 Gpc (for H0 = 65 km s-1 Mpc-1) and E $``$ 7 $`\times `$ 1051 erg. It was the first proof that GRB sources lie at cosmological distances . The flattening of the decay at T0 \+ 100 $`d`$  revealed the contribution of a constant brightness source -the host galaxy- seen in late-time imaging at T0 \+ 1 $`yr`$. The 15 GRB redshifts measured so far are in the range 0.430 $``$ z $``$ 4.50  with $`<z>`$ = 1.5 and they were derived either from absorption lines in the OA spectrum, from the Ly-$`\alpha `$ break, or from emission lines arising in the host galaxy.

### 1.3 Polarimetry.

As synchrotron radiation under favourable conditions can be up to 70 % polarized, the first polarimetric observations were attempted for GRB 990123, but only an upper limit was established ($`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ $`<`$ 2.3%) . Polarized optical emission was first detected in GRB 990510 ($`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ = 1.7 $`\pm `$ 0.2%) by means of observations performed at T0 \+ 18.5 $`hr`$ , T0 \+ 21 $`hr`$ and T0 \+ 43 $`hr`$ . This confirmed the synchrotron origin of the blast wave itself and represented another case for a jet-like outflow . Further polarization measurements were carried out in GRB 990712 during a 1 $`d`$ time interval (at T0 \+ 10 $`hr`$, T0 \+ 17 $`hr`$ and T0 \+ 35 $`hr`$). In that case, the polarization angle did not vary significantly but the degree of polarization was not constant  which can be explained by a laterally expanding jet . See also .

## 2 Near-simultaneous GRB observations

Significant early optical emission may arise from the reverse shock , i.e. strong optical/near-IR flashes accompanying gamma-ray emission should be a generic characteristic (at least for typical GRBs, with E $``$ 1053 erg and $`\rho `$ $``$ 1 cm-3 ). Such observations will allow: i) to derive $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ by the relative timing of optical and $`\gamma `$-ray emission, ii) to pinpoint the process by which the shells responsible for the external shock arise, and iii) to constraint the environment.

ROTSE  achieved the detection simultaneously to the GRB of the bright optical emission from GRB 990123 : the most luminous object ever recorded (Fig. 1), with MV = $``$36 (peaking at mV = 8.9), implying that at least some subsets of GRBs do exhibit variable optical emission as violent as the gamma-ray variations. However, upper limits (in the range R = 4-15) were derived for prompt optical emission of a dozen of bursts by means of ROTSE and other experiments, like LOTIS , TAROT , BOOTES , EON  and CONCAM . Thus, bright optical counterparts are uncommon. Why most optical flashes are not detected? Due to several reasons: i) lack of deeper coverage, given the wide GRB luminosity function ; ii) fireballs in low-density environments ($`\rho `$ $``$ 1 cm-3) would not be expected to produce strong prompt emission; iii) the reverse shock energy is radiated at a non-optical frequency, with the synchrotron peak frequency $`\nu _m`$ $``$ $`\nu _{opt}`$ or $`\nu _m`$ $``$ $`\nu _{opt}`$ ; and iv) highly absorbed GRB by dust in their host galaxies.

## 3 ”Dark” GRBs

The first “dark” event (GRB 970828) was detected as a fading X-ray source , although no optical counterpart down to mR = 24 at T0 \+ 4 $`hr`$ was detected . At least in another three cases (GRB 981226, GRB 990506 and GRB 001109), radiotransients were detected without accompanying optical/IR transients. For GRB 000210, the X–ray position (1′′ accuracy) coincides with a faint galaxy .

About 40% of the GRBs with X-ray counterparts do not show OAs, and this could be due to: i) intrinsic faintness because of a low ambient medium; ii) Lyman limit absorption in high redshift galaxies ($`z`$ $`>`$ 7); and iii) high absorption in a dusty enviroment: if GRBs are tightly related to star-formation, a substantial fraction of them should occur in highly obscured regions.

## 4 Summary

The first optical/near-IR counterparts have been found for $``$ 30 precisely localized GRBs in 1997-2000 although they should have been discovered prior to the BSAX launch (Fig. 2). In any case, only the population of GRBs with durations of few seconds has been explored (see  for a more extensive review). Short bursts lasting less than 1 s, that follow the $``$3/2 slope in the log N-log S diagram (in contrast to the longer bursts) remain to be detected at longer wavelengths. Future missions should be able to address some of the issues still to be solved, i.e. prompt optical and near-IR observations should be persued !


text:
# Crossing number of links formed by edges of a triangulation

## 1. Introduction

The aim of this paper is to study properties of knots and links that are formed by edges of a triangulation of the $`3`$–dimensional sphere $`S^3`$. For any $`n`$, let $`𝕋_n`$ denote the set of triangulations of $`S^3`$ with $`n`$ tetrahedra. The number of simplicial complexes with $`n`$ tetrahedra is finite, and the number of simple edge paths in a simplicial complex is finite as well. Therefore, there are only finitely many equivalence classes of links in $`S^3`$ occuring in the $`1`$–skeleton $`𝒯^1`$ of some $`𝒯𝕋_n`$. Thus, if $`f()`$ is any numerical link invariant (e.g., bridge number, crossing number, $`k`$–th coefficient of the Jones polynomial) then

$$F(n)=\underset{𝒯𝕋_n,L𝒯^1}{sup}f(L)$$

is a finite number for all $`n`$.

In  and , we obtained exponential upper and lower bounds for $`F(n)`$ when $`f(L)`$ is the bridge number of $`L`$. However, there are infinitely many non-equivalent links whose bridge number is smaller than $`F(n)`$, for instance, two-bridge knots. The aim of this paper is to prove an upper bound for $`F(n)`$ when $`f(L)`$ is the crossing number of $`L`$. Such an estimate is substantially stronger than an estimate for the bridge number, in the sense that there are only finitely many equivalence classes of links with a crossing number smaller than $`F(n)`$.

We recall the notions of crossing number and bridge number of a link $`LS^3`$. The crossing number $`Cr(L)`$ of $`L`$ is the minimal number of crossings in a link diagram representing $`L`$. This is a natural measure of complexity of links, and was already used in the knot tables of Tait and Little in 1900. The bridge number has been introduced by H. Schubert  in 1954. It can be defined as follows. Let $`I=[0,1]`$ denote the unit interval. Let $`H:S^2\times IS^3`$ be a smooth embedding with $`LH(S^2\times I)`$. Let $`\pi _I:S^2\times II`$ denote the projection to the second factor. On gets a map $`h:LS^2`$ by $`h(p)=\pi _IH^1(p)`$, for $`pL`$. We call $`pL`$ a critical point of $`H`$ with respect to $`L`$ if $`H(S^2\times \{h(p)\})`$ is not transversal to $`L`$ in $`p`$. Thus, generically a critical point is an isolated local maximum or minimum of $`h`$. We denote the number of critical points by $`c(H,L)`$. Now, the bridge number of $`L`$ is

$$b(L)=\frac{1}{2}\underset{H}{\mathrm{min}}c(H,L),$$

where the minimum is taken over all embeddings $`H:S^2\times IS^3`$ with $`LH(S^2\times I)`$. The factor $`\frac{1}{2}`$ is needed to make this definition consistent with Schubert’s original definition .

Link invariants also arise in the study of polytopal and shellable triangulations of $`S^3`$, as explained in the next paragraphs. Recall that a triangulation of the $`d`$–dimensional sphere $`S^d`$ is polytopal, if it is isomorphic to the boundary complex of a convex $`(d+1)`$–polytope. A triangulation of $`S^d`$ is shellable, if there is an order $`\sigma _1,\mathrm{},\sigma _n`$ of its $`d`$–simplices so that $`_{i=1}^k\overline{\sigma _i}`$ is a $`d`$-dimensional closed ball, for $`k=1,\mathrm{},n1`$. For a more general definition of shellable cellular complexes, see . Any polytopal triangulation is shellable . There are shellable triangulations of $`S^3`$ that are not polytopal, and there are triangulations of $`S^3`$ that are not shellable .

Let $`𝒯𝕋_n`$ be a triangulation of $`S^3`$ with $`n`$ tetrahedra, and let $`K𝒯^1`$ be a knot formed by $`k`$ edges of $`𝒯`$. It follows from the work of Lickorish  that $`b(K)k`$ under the assumption that $`𝒯`$ is shellable. Armentrout  obtained $`b(K)\frac{1}{2}k`$ under the assumption that the *dual* of $`𝒯`$ is shellable. Recently Ehrenborg and Hachimori  obtained the sharp bounds $`b(K)\frac{1}{2}k`$ if $`T`$ is shellable and $`b(K)\frac{1}{3}k`$ if $`𝒯`$ is vertex decomposable (we will not define this notion here). In the same way, one can show that if $`L𝒯^1`$ is a link (but not necessarily a knot) then $`b(L)`$ is bounded from above by a linear function of $`n`$, provided $`𝒯`$ satisfies one of the mentioned assumptions. These assumptions are in fact very strong, since in general there is no subexponential upper bound for $`b(L)`$ in terms of $`n`$, see . Without any geometric assumption on $`𝒯`$, we found $`b(L)<2^{190n^2}`$ by a complexity analysis of the Rubinstein–Thompson algorithm for the recognition of $`S^3`$, see .

By the following main theorem of this paper, the crossing number of a link in $`𝒯^1`$ is also sensitive for geometric properties of $`𝒯`$.

###### Theorem 1.

Let $`𝒯`$ be a triangulation of $`S^3`$ with $`n`$ tetrahedra, and let $`L𝒯^1`$ be a link.

1. If $`𝒯`$ is polytopal then $`Cr(L)<4n^2`$.
2. If $`𝒯`$ or its dual cellular decomposition is shellable then $`Cr(L)<10^9n^4`$.
3. In general, $`Cr(L)<2^{810n^2}`$.

So far as known to the author, these are the first upper bounds for $`Cr(L)`$ in terms of $`𝒯`$. Certainly these bounds are not optimal, we did not try to prove sharp bounds. However, since $`Cr(L)b(L)`$, our results in  imply that the general bound in the third part of Theorem 1 can not be replaced by a subexponential bound. Thus, the assumptions in the first two parts of Theorem 1 can not be removed.

We outline the proof of Theorem 1. Let $`𝒯𝕋_n`$ and let $`L𝒯^1`$. If $`𝒯`$ is polytopal, then one can isotope its $`2`$–skeleton in $`^3S^3`$ so that all edges become straight line segments. Thus, an orthogonal projection yields a link diagram for $`L`$ with at most one crossing for each pair of edges. This yields the first part of Theorem 1.

The idea for the proof of the second and third part of Theorem 1 is to transform the triangulation $`𝒯`$ into a polytopal triangulation $`\stackrel{~}{𝒯}`$ by a finite number of local changes (e.g., stellar subdivisions), so that $`\stackrel{~}{𝒯}^1`$ contains a copy $`\stackrel{~}{L}`$ of $`L`$, where the number of edges forming $`\stackrel{~}{L}`$ is controlled in terms of the number of local changes. This reduces the problem to the first part of Theorem 1. For this purpose, we use the notion of *polytopality* that we have introduced in . The polytopality $`p(𝒯)`$ is a numerical invariant of a triangulation $`𝒯`$ of $`S^3`$. Its definition is inspired by the bridge number of links, see Section 2. In , we have shown how $`\stackrel{~}{𝒯}`$ can be constructed from $`𝒯`$, so that the number of local changes is bounded from above by a quadratic function of $`p(𝒯)`$. Since $`\stackrel{~}{𝒯}`$ is polytopal, we obtain a biquadratic upper bound for $`Cr(\stackrel{~}{L})=Cr(L)`$ in terms of $`p(𝒯)`$. We have shown  that $`p(𝒯)7n`$ if $`𝒯`$ or its dual is shellable, and $`p(𝒯)<2^{200n^2}`$ in general. This yields the estimates claimed in the second and third part of Theorem 1.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we define the polytopality $`p(𝒯)`$ of a triangulation $`𝒯`$ of $`S^3`$ and recall from  how to construct from $`𝒯`$ a polytopal triangulation by a series of local changes whose length is bounded in terms of $`p(𝒯)`$. In Section 3, we start with a proof of the first part of Theorem 1. Then, we formulate and prove a bound for the crossing number of a link $`L𝒯^1`$ in terms of $`p(𝒯)`$. This bound together with estimates for $`p(𝒯)`$ from  immediately yields the second and third part of Theorem 1.

## 2. Polytopality of triangulations

Let $`𝒯`$ be a triangulation of $`S^3`$. The aim of this section is to expose a numerical invariant $`p(𝒯)`$, called polytopality. Although its definition is purely topological, $`p(𝒯)`$ turns out to be a measure for the geometric complexity of $`𝒯`$.

We recall the definition of $`p(𝒯)`$ from . Let $`𝒞`$ be the dual cellular decomposition of $`𝒯`$, with $`1`$–skeleton $`𝒞^1`$. Let $`H:S^2\times IS^3`$ be a smooth embedding with $`𝒞^1H(S^2\times I)`$. Let $`\pi _I:S^2\times II`$ denote the projection to the second factor. This gives rise to a map $`h:𝒞^1S^2`$ by $`h(p)=\pi _IH^1(p)`$, for $`p𝒞^1`$. We call $`p𝒞^1`$ a critical point of $`H`$ with respect to $`𝒞^1`$ if $`H(S^2\times \{h(p)\})`$ is not transversal to $`𝒞^1`$ in $`p`$. Thus, generically a critical point is a vertex of $`𝒞^1`$ or an isolated local maximum or minimum of $`h`$ in the interior of an edge of $`𝒞`$. We denote the number of critical points of $`H`$ with respect to $`𝒞^1`$ by $`c(H,𝒞^1)`$ and define

$$p(𝒯)=\underset{H}{\mathrm{min}}c(H,𝒞^1),$$

the polytopality of $`𝒯`$, where the minimum is taken over all embeddings $`H:S^2\times IS^3`$ with $`𝒞^1H(S^2\times I)`$.

The definition of polytopality is very similar to the definition of bridge number in Section 1. One can think of $`p(𝒯)`$ as a bridge number of the spatial graph $`𝒞^1S^3`$. We remark that already the *abstract* graph $`𝒞^1`$ contains much information about $`𝒯`$. For instance, if $`𝒯`$ is polytopal than it is already determined by the abstract graph $`𝒞^1`$, see . In , we obtained the following estimates.

###### Theorem 2 (see ).

Let $`𝒯𝕋_n`$.

1. If $`𝒯`$ is polytopal then $`p(𝒯)=n`$.
2. If $`𝒯`$ or its dual cellular decomposition is shellable then $`p(𝒯)7n`$.
3. In general, $`np(𝒯)<2^{200n^2}`$. The upper bound can not be replaced by a subexponential bound.∎

It is not known to the author whether there is a non-polytopal triangulation $`𝒯𝕋_n`$ with $`p(𝒯)=n`$. Theorem 2 shows that $`p(𝒯)`$ is sensitive for geometric properties of $`𝒯`$. However, the connection to geometry is even stronger, since $`p(𝒯)`$ measures to what extend $`𝒯`$ fails to be polytopal, as explained in the rest of this section.

###### Definition 1.

Let $`𝒯_1`$ and $`𝒯_2`$ be triangulations of $`S^3`$, and let $`e`$ be an edge of $`𝒯_2`$ with $`e=\{a,b\}`$. Suppose that $`𝒯_1`$ is obtained from $`𝒯_2`$ by removing the open star of $`e`$ and identifying the join $`a\sigma `$ with $`b\sigma `$ for any simplex $`\sigma `$ in the link of $`e`$. Then $`𝒯_2`$ is the result of an expansion of $`𝒯_1`$ along $`e`$.

Since an expansion increases the number of vertices by one and the number of simplicial complexes with a given number of vertices is finite, it is easy to see that the number of possible expansions of $`𝒯_1`$ is finite up to isotopy. Any stellar subdivision of a simplex of $`𝒯`$ is an expansion.

It is a consequence of the “Hauptvermutung” for $`3`$–dimensional manifolds  that any triangulation $`𝒯`$ of $`S^3`$ can be turned into a polytopal triangulation by a series of expansions. We define $`d(𝒯)`$ as the length of a shortest series of expansions that transforms $`𝒯`$ into a polytopal triangulation. Our next theorem shows that $`d(𝒯)`$, defined in terms of discrete geometry, is closely related to $`p(𝒯)`$, defined in terms of topology.

###### Theorem 3 (see ).

For any $`𝒯𝕋_n`$ holds

$$\frac{p(𝒯)}{3n}\frac{5}{3}n<d(𝒯)512(p(𝒯))^2+869p(𝒯)+376\text{.∎}$$

## 3. Proof of Theorem 1

###### Proof of the first part of Theorem 1.

Let $`𝒯𝕋_n`$ be a polytopal triangulation of $`S^3`$ with $`n`$ tetrahedra and let $`L𝒯^1`$ be a link formed by $`k`$ edges. Since $`𝒯`$ has at most $`2n`$ edges, it suffices to prove $`Cr(L)<k^2`$. Since $`𝒯`$ is polytopal, it has a so-called *Schlegel diagram* , i.e., the simplicial complex obtained from $`𝒯`$ by removing a single tetrahedron can be embedded into $`^3`$ so that any simplex is euclidian. In particular, the link $`L𝒯^1`$ is a union of $`k`$ straight line segments. It is possible to obtain a link diagram for $`L`$ by an orthogonal projection onto some plane. Since an orthogonal projection yields at most one crossing for any pair of edges, we obtain $`Cr(L)<k^2`$. ∎

In order to prove the second and third part of Theorem 1, we formulate and prove the following estimate for $`Cr(L)`$ in terms of $`p(𝒯)`$.

###### Theorem 4.

Let $`𝒯`$ be a triangulation of $`S^3`$, and let $`L𝒯^1`$ be a link formed by $`k`$ edges of $`𝒯`$. Then

$$Cr(L)<\left(k+512(p(𝒯))^2+869p(𝒯)+376\right)^2.$$

###### Proof.

By Theorem 3, there is a polytopal triangulation $`\stackrel{~}{𝒯}`$ of $`S^3`$, obtained from $`𝒯`$ be a series of at most $`512(p(𝒯))^2+869p(𝒯)+376`$ expansions. If a triangulation of $`S^3`$ is obtained from $`𝒯`$ by a single expansion, then its 1–skeleton contains a copy of $`L`$ formed by at most $`k+1`$ edges. Thus, by induction on the number of expansions, there is a link $`\stackrel{~}{L}\stackrel{~}{𝒯}^1`$ equivalent to $`L`$, formed by at most $`k+512(p(𝒯))^2+869p(𝒯)+376`$ edges. Since $`\stackrel{~}{𝒯}`$ is polytopal, we obtain $`Cr(L)=Cr(\stackrel{~}{L})<\left(k+512(p(𝒯))^2+869p(𝒯)+376\right)^2`$ as in the proof of the first part of Theorem 1. ∎

###### Proof of the second and third part of Theorem 1.

Let $`𝒯𝕋_n`$, and let $`L𝒯^1`$ be a link. Since $`L`$ is formed by at most $`2n`$ edges, Theorems 2 and 4 immediately yield

$`Cr(L)`$ $`<`$ $`\left(25088n^2+6085n+376\right)^2`$
$`<`$ $`10^9n^4`$
provided $`𝒯`$ is shellable, and in general

$`Cr(L)`$ $`<`$ $`\left(5122^{400n^2}+8692^{200n^2}+2n+376\right)^2`$
$`<`$ $`2^{810n^2}.`$


text:
# Constraints on the equation of state of ultra-dense matter from observations of neutron stars

## 1. The equation of state for ultra-dense matter

To understand the core collapse of massive stars, the supernova phenomenon, and the existence and properties of neutron stars, requires knowledge of the equation of state (EOS) for matter at supra-nuclear density. The EOS is determined by the behaviour of elementary particles at close proximity to each other and hence is of fundamental physical interest. It is modeled using quantum-chromodynamics calculations, but these are not developed well enough to determine the densities at which, e.g., meson condensation and the transition between the hadron and quark-gluon phases occur. At densities slightly higher than nuclear and at high temperatures, the model predictions can be compared with the results of heavy-nuclei collision experiments. For higher densities and low temperatures, however, this is not possible; the models can be compared only with neutron-star parameters. Recent reviews of our knowledge of the EOS, and the use of neutron stars for constraining it, are given by Heiselberg & Pandharipande (), Lattimer & Prakash (, ), and Balberg & Shapiro ().

The different models for the EOS predict highly different mass-radius relations, and a direct constraint on the EOS would be set by a simultaneous measurement of the radius and mass of a neutron star. This has not yet been possible, and observational tests have been limited to predictions for extrema, such as the maximum possible mass and the minimum possible spin or orbital period. For instance, for EOS with a phase transition at high densities, such as Kaon condensation (Brown and Bethe ), only neutron stars with mass $`<1.5M_{}`$ could exist (for larger masses, a black hole would be formed).

So far, susceptibility to systematic errors and modeling uncertainties have befuddled most attempts to constrain the EOS observationally (e.g., radius determinations from X-ray bursts, Lewin et al. ; innermost stable orbit from kHz QPOs, Van der Klis ). The only accurate measurements are the fastest spin period and some precise masses. The former, 1.5 ms, excludes the stiffest EOS (PSR B1937+214; Backer et al. ); the latter I discuss below.

## 2. Neutron star masses

Most mass determinations have come from radio timing studies of pulsars; see Thorsett & Chakrabarty  for an excellent review. The most accurate ones are for pulsars that are in eccentric, short-period orbits with other neutron stars, such as the Hulse-Taylor pulsar PSR B1913+16, in which several non-Keplerian effects on the orbit can be observed: the advance of periastron, the combined effect of variations in the second-order Doppler shift and gravitational redshift, the shape and amplitude of the Shapiro delay curve shown by the pulse arrival times as the pulsar passes behind its companion, and the decay of the orbit due to the emission of gravitational waves. Thorsett & Chakrabarty found that for all radio-pulsar binaries, the masses were consistent with being in a surprisingly narrow range, which can be approximated with a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of only $`0.04M_{}`$. The mean of the distribution is $`1.35M_{}`$, close to the “canonical” value of $`1.4M_{}`$.

Neutron-star masses can also be determined for some binaries containing an accreting X-ray pulsar, from the amplitudes of the X-ray pulse delay and optical radial-velocity curves in combination with constraints on the inclination (the latter usually from the duration of the X-ray eclipse, if present). This method has been applied to about half a dozen systems (Joss & Rappaport ; Nagase ; Van Kerkwijk, Van Paradijs, & Zuiderwijk \[1995b\]). The masses are generally not very precise, but are consistent with $`1.4M_{}`$ in all but one case.

The one exception is the X-ray pulsar Vela X-1, which is in a 9-day orbit with the B0.5 Ib supergiant HD 77581. For this system, a rather higher mass of around $`1.8M_{}`$ has consistently been found ever since the first detailed study in the late seventies (Van Paradijs et al. ; Van Kerkwijk et al. \[1995a\]). A problem with this system, however, is that the measured radial-velocity orbit, on which the mass determination relies, shows strong deviations from a pure Keplerian radial-velocity curve. These deviations are correlated within one night, but not from one night to another. A possible cause could be that the varying tidal force exerted by the neutron star in its eccentric orbit excites high-order pulsation modes in the optical star which interfere constructively for short time intervals.

We have obtained about 150 new spectra, taken in as many nights, of the optical counterpart, a B supergiant, in order to improve the mass determination (Barziv et al. ). These cover more than 20 orbits, and make it possible to average out the velocity excursions. Unfortunately, however, we found that the average velocity curve shows systematic effects with orbital phase (see Fig. 1), which dominate our final uncertainty. While our best estimate still gives a high mass, of $`1.86M_{}`$, the $`2\sigma `$ uncertainty of $`0.33M_{}`$ does not allow us to exclude soft equations of state conclusively.

While we cannot draw a firm conclusion, it is worth wondering how Vela X-1 could be the only neutron star with a mass so different from all others. Barziv et al. () discuss this in some detail and warned against taking the narrow mass range around $`1.4M_{}`$ as evidence for an upper mass limit set by the EOS. After all, for all EOS, neutron stars substantially less massive than $`1.4M_{}`$ can exist, yet none are known. Could it be that the narrow range in mass simply reflects the formation mechanism, i.e., the physics of supernova explosions and the evolution of stars massive enough to reach core collapse? There certainly is precedent: white dwarfs are formed with masses mostly within a very narrow range around $`0.6M_{}`$, well below their maximum (Chandrasekhar) mass.

Interestingly, from evolutionary calculations, Timmes et al. () expect that single stars produce neutron stars with a bimodal mass distribution, with peaks at 1.27 and $`1.76M_{}`$. For stars in binaries, they found only a single peak at $`1.3M_{}`$, but at present it is not clear whether this result will hold (Woosley 2000, private communication). If not, could it be that the progenitor of Vela X-1 was a star that managed to produce a massive neutron star? If so, one may still wonder why no massive radio pulsars or pulsar companions have been found. Barziv et al. () noted that this may be a selection effect: all neutron stars with accurate masses are in binary neutron stars systems in close orbits, whose formation requires a common-envelope stage. During this stage, a merger can only be avoided if the initial orbit was very wide. Stars massive enough to form a massive neutron star, however, likely do not evolve through a red-giant phase, and a common-envelope phase would occur only for rather close orbits, for which the binary would merge.

Finally, in considering the present mass measurements, one should realise that for all neutron stars with good masses, it is expected that they accreted only little mass after their formation. Only neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries and radio pulsars with low-mass white dwarf companions are expected to have accreted substantial amounts of material. For low-mass X-ray binaries, higher masses, of $`2M_{}`$, have indeed been suggested; see, e.g., Orosz & Kuulkers () for an analysis of Cyg X-2, and Zhang et al. () for inferences based on quasi-periodic oscillations. These estimates, however, rely to greater or lesser extent on unproven assumptions. Furthermore, for the putative descendants, radio pulsars with white dwarf companions, there is no evidence for such high masses (Thorsett & Chakrabarty  and references therein; Van Straten et al. ).

## 3. Neutron star atmospheres

Spectroscopic measurements of absorption lines arising in the photosphere of a neutron star offer, in principle, one of the best possible ways to constrain the EOS, since one could measure both the gravitational redshift and pressure broadening, which go as $`M/R`$ and $`M/R^2`$, respectively (Paerels ). With the X-ray spectrographs on board Chandra and XMM, these measurements have become possible.

For spectroscopy to produce quantitative results, the following is required: (i) a source needs to have a thermal spectrum; (ii) the spectrum should show absorption lines; (iii) pressure broadening and pressure-induced wavelength shifts must be understood; (iv) it has to be possible to recognise and model sources of possible additional broadening and wavelength shifts (e.g., magnetic field). I discuss these points in turn.

### 3.1. Thermal, photospheric emission

For most neutron stars known, the X-ray emission is contaminated, if not dominated, by accretion or magnetospheric processes, which are poorly understood. Therefore, these are unsuitable targets.

The isolated, radio-silent neutron stars, however, appear to offer a good chance for measuring thermal, absorption spectra. Since the serendipitous discovery of the first of these in  by Walter, Wolk, & Neuhäuser, five more have been uncovered in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (see the review by Treves et al. ). For two sources, optical counterparts have been identified (Walter & Matthews ; Motch & Haberl ; Kulkarni & Van Kerkwijk ). The high X-ray to optical flux ratios leave no model but an isolated neutron star; stringent optical limits indicate the same for the other four sources.

At present, it is not clear why these neutron stars are hot enough to emit X rays, with slow accretion from the interstellar medium, residual heat, and decay of strong magnetic fields all being considered (e.g., Kulkarni & Van Kerkwijk ). Most important for the present purposes, however, is that all six sources appear to have spectra that, as far as one can tell from current observations, are entirely thermal. These sources, therefore, offer the best hope of spectra clean enough to have a chance of modeling them reliably.

Perhaps the best-suited target for detailed study is RX J1856.5$``$3754, the brightest steady, thermally emitting neutron star on the sky (Walter et al. ; Walter & Matthews ). Measurements over the optical to X-ray range indicate a spectral energy distribution very close to that of a black body, with $`kT_{\mathrm{}}50`$eV (Pons et al. ). There are some deviations, however, as indicated by, e.g., the slightly higher best-fit black-body temperature of 63 eV at X-ray energies (Burwitz et al. ). No non-thermal emission whatsoever seems to be present, given the lack of hard X-ray emission (Pons et al. ) and the remarkable extent to which the optical emission is described by a Rayleigh-Jeans tail (Van Kerkwijk & Kulkarni \[2001a\]).

A possible puzzle is posed by the parallax of $`16.5\pm 2.3`$mas measured by Walter (), which, combined with the inferred temperature of $`50`$eV and the observed flux, implies a radius of only $`7(d/60\mathrm{pc})`$km (Pons et al. ). This radius is impossible for any EOS. Pons et al. suggest the neutron star has a non-uniform temperature distribution. For the analysis of spectral lines, this may not a problem; more important is the absence of non-thermal emission.

### 3.2. Presence of absorption lines

Given clean, thermal emission, the next worry is whether the spectrum will not be too clean, i.e., whether it will show any lines. In the X-ray spectral range, this requires the presence of elements other than Hydrogen and Helium in the photosphere (unless very strong magnetic fields are present).

In general, one would expect that, if any Hydrogen is present, gravitational settling would make it float on top. This process is fast and thus a pure Hydrogen atmosphere might form, resulting in a line-less X-ray spectrum. Observationally, the situation looks promising: the spectral energy distributions of the two sources with optical counterparts are similar to those of black bodies. This is inconsistent with pure (unmagnetised) hydrogen or helium atmospheres, whose virtual transparency at X-ray wavelengths would lead – just as in, e.g., Sirius B – to strongly non-black-body spectral shapes (Pavlov et al. ). Since models with solar abundance, pure iron, or ‘Si-ash’ abundances all predict strong absorption features (Romani ; Rajagopal & Romani ; Zavlin, Pavlov, & Shibanov ; Pons et al. ; Gänsicke, Braje, & Romani ), the prospects looked good.

Reality, however, was disappointing the first spectrum at good resolution, taken with XMM of RX J0720.4$``$3125 showed no features (Paerels et al. ). Furthermore, the spectra of the Vela pulsar and of PSR B0656+14, both of which have relatively strong thermal components, appeared to be completely featureless as well (Pavlov et al. ; H. Marshall, priv. comm.). And finally, also for RX J1856.5$``$3754, X-ray spectra taken with Chandra (Burwitz et al. ), ultra-violet spectra taken with HST (Pons et al. ), as well as optical spectra taken with VLT (Van Kerkwijk & Kulkarni \[2001a\]) failed to show strong features.

The situation may not be completely hopeless, however, as our own analysis of the LETG data did turn up possible features, at $`39`$ and 20 Å (Fig. 2). At present, it is not clear what these could be due to. As mentioned, pure Hydrogen and Helium atmospheres are excluded by the overall spectral shape, and pure heavy-element atmospheres by the lack of much stronger features. We have considered whether low-level accretion might lead to metals in the photosphere. This can be estimated using the density of the interstellar medium inferred from the cometary H$`\alpha `$ nebula around the source that we discovered with the VLT (Van Kerkwijk & Kulkarni \[2001b\]), under the assumption that this nebula is due to ionisation (see below for an alternative interpretation). We infer an accretion rate of about $`10^9\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This is far less than required to power the X-ray luminosity of the source, and the photospheric metal abundances will be very low, due to rapid settling. Even at fractional abundances by number of $`10^7\mathrm{}10^6`$, however, it appears lines might still form, although it is unclear whether the continuum shape could be made to fit the observations.

In considering the above, one should realise that the current integrations have not been very long, and the signal-to-noise ratios rather low (see Fig. 2). Indeed, at the current signal-to-noise and resolution, it would be hard to classify an optical spectrum of a star like the Sun. In AO3, therefore, there were a number of proposals to obtain a longer Chandra observation on RX J1856.5$``$3754. None of these made it, but the director, H. Tananbaum, has just announced that he will use his discretionary time to observe the source for 450 ks. Hence, we should soon know more!

### 3.3. Model atmospheres

From absorption lines such as those seen in Fig. 2, it is straightforward to measure centroids accurate enough to determine a good gravitational redshift ($`z_{\mathrm{GR}}0.3`$). Furthermore, the lines are well resolved, and thus it should be possible to measure the pressure broadening and therewith the surface gravity.

First of all, however, one has to identify the lines. With the two putative lines in the spectrum of RX J1856.5$``$3754, this is not yet possible. Even with identifications, the interpretation may pose a problem, as our physical understanding may not suffice to make reliable predictions of pressure broadening and pressure-induced wavelength shifts. For instance, current treatment of overlapping Stark-broadened excitation levels (e.g., in the Opacity Project; Seaton et al. ) is known to fail even under the relatively low pressures encountered in white dwarfs (Bergeron ), leading to bad fits to Hydrogen Balmer and especially Lyman profiles (Finley et al. ), both for white-dwarf spectra and for spectra taken of high-pressure plasmas on Earth. Clearly, the fact that, as yet, we lack sufficient understanding of even Hydrogen, should lead to some moderation in ones claims. The problems do not appear to be of fundamental nature, however, and with observed features in neutron-star atmospheres, there should be ample incentive for further study.

### 3.4. Other physical effects

Strong magnetic fields ($`h\nu _{\mathrm{cyc}}>(kT,h\nu _\gamma )B>10^9`$G at X-ray wavelengths), as are found in radio pulsars, could cause additional broadening and wavelength shifts. For RX J0720.4$``$3125 and RX J0420.0$``$5022, 8-s and 23-s periodicities (Haberl et al. , ) provide indirect evidence for a magnetic field. Indeed, it may well be that these sources are middle-aged ‘magnetars,’ with $`B10^{14}\mathrm{}10^{15}`$G, which are kept hot by magnetic field decay (Kulkarni & Van Kerkwijk ; Heyl & Kulkarni ).

For RX J1856.5$``$3754, very strong fields seem to be excluded by the absence of pulsations (Pons et al. ; Burwitz et al. ). A weaker field might nevertheless be present. Indeed, an alternative interpretation for the H$`\alpha `$ nebula around RX J1856.5$``$3754 is that it is a bow-shock nebula, such as seen around a number of pulsars (PSR B1957+20: Kulkarni & Hester ; PSR B2224+65: Cordes, Romani, & Lundgren ; PSR J0437$``$4715: Bell et al. ). If so, a relativistic wind must be present, which presumably arises in a magnetosphere. In order to avoid pulsations as well as any sign of non-thermal emission at optical and X-ray wavelengths, one might appeal to a rather weak, few $`10^{11}`$G field (Van Kerkwijk & Kulkarni \[2001b\]). The question remains, however, whether the presence of such field, or a magnetic field in general, could lead to spectra as close to those of black bodies as observed.

A magnetic field might also induce absorption features. For instance, the ratio of roughly a factor two in wavelength between the two possible features we observe, led G. Pavlov (2000, priv. comm.) to speculate that they might represent proton and $`A/Z=2`$ cyclotron lines in a strong, $`10^{14}`$G field. If confirmed, the spectra will likely not be very useful to constrain the EOS, but it would constitute the first direct proof of an ultra-strong magnetic field in a neutron star.

## 4. Prospects

In the near future, it should be possible to increase the number of accurate neutron-star mass determinations substantially. For X-ray pulsars other than Vela X-1, it is straightforward to obtain better radial-velocity amplitudes. By choosing binaries with circular orbits, the problems that beset the mass determination for Vela X-1 can largely be avoided. For radio pulsars, of most interest seem to be those which should have accreted a substantial amount of matter, i.e., the millisecond pulsars. With only little improvement, optical studies of their companions such as those done by Van Kerkwijk, Bergeron, & Kulkarni () and Callanan, Garnavich, & Koester (), and precise radio timing studies such as the marvellous work by Van Straten et al. () can lead to accurate masses.

X-ray spectroscopy of neutron stars has just started, and has led to both disappointments and hope. The longer observations with XMM and Chandra currently planned, in particular the 450 ks LETG observation in director’s discretionary time of RX J1856.5$``$3754, will certainly help to learn about neutron-star atmospheres. What exactly we will learn one cannot say, since at present we seem to lack even basic understanding, being unable to answer as (apparently) simple a question as why the spectra are so close to black bodies. Given that, it is also unclear whether this avenue can lead to useful constraints the EOS, but at least in principle the prospects are very good. Certainly, exciting times are ahead.


text:
# Sub-structure of the outer Galactic Halo from the 2 Micron All Sky SurveyThis publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

## 1 Introduction

According to our current understanding of the formation of galaxies, galaxy halos build up over time by the continued accretion of smaller galactic or sub-galactic structures (Cole et al., 1994). Of the theories that quantify this formation process, the Cold Dark Matter theory gives at present the best explanation of available data, but there are several inconsistencies in this picture that remain to be explained. Possibly the most troublesome of these is the inconsistency between the predicted and observed density profiles of galaxy halos. CDM predicts strongly centrally-peaked ($`\rho r^1`$ to $`\rho r^{1.5}`$) mass distributions (Navarro, Frenk & White, 1997; Moore et al., 1999a), contrary to what is inferred from the slowly-rising rotation curves of highly dark matter dominated dwarf disk galaxies (Côté et al., 2000; de Blok et al., 2001; Marchesini et al., 2001). Another problem is the apparent disagreement between the expected number of sub-structures in CDM halos compared to the visible substructures in the halos of real galaxies (Klypin et al., 1999; Moore et al., 1999b, 2001). It appears that a proper treatment of the ionizing effect of the intergalactic UV background, which disperses the baryonic component of low mass proto-galaxies into the intergalactic medium, can explain the absence of copious low-mass substructures in galaxy halos (Bullock et al., 2000; Somerville, 2001; Tully et al., 2001). There is also some concern that current cosmological simulations are of insufficient resolution: for instance, one needs excellent numerical resolution to properly resolve the wakes in the dark matter distribution which give rise to dynamical friction. If the resolution is not high enough, dynamical friction will be artificially low, and structures will take longer to merge than they would in reality (van Kampen, 2000).

Further observations are required to help resolve these issues with CDM or to guide galaxy formation theory. Data that constrain the structure of the luminous and dark matter in the inner regions of galaxies are relatively easy to obtain, but in those regions the dynamical times are short and much of the detailed information about the formation of the galaxy has been phased-mixed and is now largely lost. In the outer regions of galaxies, typical dynamical mixing timescales are long, and so valuable information on the formation of the galaxy can be recovered, if only we can find tracer material or dynamical probes. This is, of course, the challenge of studying the halos of galaxies: their very low surface brightness renders them unobservable, in general, to present instrumentation.

One solution to this problem is to study the halo of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies, where the halo stars are resolved. Radial velocities can be obtained in this situation to complement the starcounts data, allowing detailed dynamical modeling of the stellar population. In this way one can study the structure and substructure of the underlying dark matter even if it is not traced by stars. The nearby universe therefore gives us a unique and more complete view of the dark matter, which we cannot gain from statistical studies of more distant systems. The richness of the information in this region will be even more striking after the completion of the astrometric satellite missions GAIA and SIM: we will then also have precise measurements of the transverse motion of a huge sample of Galactic and Local Group stars.

In a companion paper (Ibata, Lewis & Irwin 2002; Paper 1), we discuss the possibility of using narrow tidal streams from defunct globular clusters to ascertain the lumpiness of galactic halos. We show that the heating due to repeated close encounters with the dense dark matter clumps predicted by CDM and other structure formation theories spread an otherwise narrow tidal stream into a coarse band. Individual streams from the expected population of tidally destroyed globular clusters should be readily detectable with the GAIA all-sky survey and the effect of the broadening of the globular-cluster tidal stream should be a strong effect if CDM predictions are correct. The GAIA dataset will be by far the most efficient way to reveal these ancient tidal streams, since there will be proper motion measurements, radial velocities as well as a good spectral energy distribution from multi-band photometry. The kinematic data will allow selection of stars in a 5-dimensional phase-space (perhaps even in 6-dimensions for nearer streams for which parallax measurements are possible).

However, most of the giant-branch stars of the streams that will be detected by GAIA have already been cataloged in current all-sky surveys. Ancient accretions of low-mass galaxies and globular clusters in the outer halo of the Milky Way should give rise to long stellar streams (Johnston, Hernquist & Bolte, 1996). These streams may be detected by searching for long band-like overdensities on the sky if the Halo potential is not very flattened.

In this contribution we undertake a preliminary analysis of the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) to investigate if any streams can be identified from sky position together with simple colour-magnitude cuts that reject foreground contamination. Our two-dimensional search is therefore only likely to recover the structures of greatest contrast over the background.

Some tidal streams from disrupting stellar systems have already been identified. Leon, Meylan & Combes (2000) have found low-level tidal streams around several globular clusters, and another very nice example has been revealed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Odenkirchen et al., 2001). These globular cluster streams, however, are a most a few degrees long and it has not been possible to trace them over a large extent on the sky, which is needed if we are to be able to probe the lumpiness of the halo dark matter. Large-scale tidal streams of more massive systems such as disrupted dwarf galaxies have also been found. In another companion paper (Ibata et al., 2001a), we analysed the distribution of Carbon stars (C-stars) in the halo of the Milky Way, and found that more than half of these are distributed along a great circle on the sky. These C-stars trace the tidal stream of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, which has been disrupted over the course of its many close encounters with the Milky Way. In extragalactic systems, huge tidal streams have been found around NGC 5907 (Shang et al., 1998) and M31 (Ibata et al., 2001b).

## 2 Sample 1: selection of late M-giant Halo stars

The dataset we use is the Second Incremental Data Release (2IDR) of the 2MASS project. 111see http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass This release covers 47% of the sky in a rather patchy fashion, as can be seen from Figure 1, which shows the density of point-source detections with $`K<14.3`$ (the 10 sigma limit of the 2MASS photometry). The vast majority of the stars in Figure 1 belong to the Galactic disk and bulge; these outnumber spheroid stars by several orders of magnitude. They are the background “noise” that has to be removed, or accurately modelled out, from the sample.

Since the structures we are interested in revealing are at large distances in the Halo, it is convenient to remove first the disk stars from the 2MASS sample. To do this we took advantage of the structure of the $`JH`$, $`HK`$ colour-colour diagram. As shown by Bessel & Brett (1988), dwarf and giant stars beyond M1 separate cleanly, the M-giants being 0.1 to 0.3 magnitudes redder in $`JH`$ than M-dwarfs at a given $`HK`$ colour. Selecting stars with $`(JH)_0>0.75+2\delta (JH)`$, $`(HK)_0<1.52\delta (HK)`$, and $`(JH)_0>(HK)_0+0.4+2\delta (HK)`$ removes 99.9% of all of the 2IDR 2MASS point-source detections, the majority of which are nearby disk dwarfs. (The colours were corrected for interstellar reddening by interpolating in the IRAS-DIRBE reddening map of Schlegel et al. (1998), using $`A_J=0.902E(BV)`$, $`A_H=0.576E(BV)`$, $`A_K=0.367E(BV)`$). Though the relative fraction of dwarf and giant stars in the disk and spheroid may be similar, by selecting only giant stars, we are able to clean much of the disk contribution to the high-latitude sky, but even with this cleaning we find that the contamination at 20–30 degrees from the Plane is still sufficiently high that we are restricted to using a sample with $`|b|>30^{}`$.

Given a characteristic absolute magnitude of RGB M-giants of $`M_K5.5`$ (Nikolaev & Weinberg, 2000), the bright limit of $`K=8.0`$ of the 2MASS data corresponds to a lower distance limit of $`5\mathrm{kpc}`$ for the giant stars. This distance is more than three thick disk scale-heights ($`z_h800\mathrm{pc}`$ Reylé & Robin 2001) for $`b>29^{}`$. (The 2MASS faint limit of $`K=14.3`$ corresponds to an upper distance limit of $`100\mathrm{kpc}`$.)

We decided to ignore the data at Galactic latitudes lower than $`|b|=30^{}`$, as contamination from the Galactic thick disk begins to be significant below that latitude. Strong reddening can move dwarfs in the region of the colour-colour diagram inhabited by giants, so we also excised from our final dataset all regions of the sky where the reddening deduced from the IRAS-DIRBE map of Schlegel et al. (1998) exceeded $`E(BV)=0.1`$. Because of this reddening cut, and to maintain a homogeneously deep map, we further restricted the K-band limit to $`K=14.30.367E(BV)_{max}=14.26`$. At Galactic latitudes $`|b|>30^{}`$, the area of sky which is removed by this extinction cut is very small ($`0.6\%`$) and is confined to regions around nearby molecular clouds. Finally, two more regions are cut out of the dataset: a circular region of radius $`10^{}`$ around the LMC and SMC. The resulting map is shown in Figure 2, which shows the 1106 point-sources on the sky that remain after these various cuts; the area of sky available for analysis (see Figure 3) is $`26.4`$%.

## 3 Pole-count analysis of sample 1

One way to identify long band-like structures is through a pole-count analysis. The pole-count analysis is very simple: the number of sources situated within a band centered on a great circle on the sky is counted up, and assigned to the corresponding pole. This is repeated for all possible poles. In this way, a band-like structure on the sky becomes two peaks in the pole-counts diagram (two peaks due to the symmetry of the mapping), whereas a localised peak in counts on the sky becomes two bands in the pole counts diagram. Due to the complicated irregular nature of the window function, it is more convenient to perform the pole-counts on binned data: to this end we binned up the sky into a rectangular $`3600\times 1800`$ grid. To correct for the sky regions for which we have no data, we add in the average number density of sources into each pixel in the image (see Figure 3).

The pole-counts analysis is particularly powerful if the underlying potential in the region of the Galaxy inhabited by the stream is spherical, in that case the stellar stream does not precess and it remains on a great circle on the sky forever. In a halo with a flattened potential, differential precession will eventually phase-mix the stream, thereby filling the box-orbit. In this situation, only strong recent accretions would be detected by the pole-counts technique.

Fortunately for the pole-counts method, the outer regions of the Milky Way appear to have an almost spherical potential. The evidence for this comes partly from the great-circle distribution of C-stars from the tidal stream of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Ibata et al., 2001a), and also from the distribution of metal-poor spheroid stars towards $`R20\mathrm{kpc}`$ of the inner Halo region surveyed by Chiba & Beers (2001).

The free parameter that we need to choose is the width of the equatorial bands. Clearly, narrow bands are better suited to identify narrow structures. We chose not to probe band widths below $`1^{}`$; this was motivated by the simulations of Paper 1, where model globular clusters gave rise to stream widths of $`\stackrel{>}{}2\mathrm{kpc}`$ (equivalent to $`1^{}`$ at $`100\mathrm{kpc}`$). The analysis was repeated with band widths $`1^{},1.5^{},2^{},\mathrm{},20^{}`$, and peaks $`>3\sigma `$ above the background were identified in each polecounts image. The result of the pole-count for a band width of $`12.0^{}`$ (which gives the highest S/N peak) is shown in Figure 4. Of our Halo sample of 1106 sources, $`15`$% are located within this $`12^{}`$ band, compared to $`10`$% that would be expected from a Poisson distribution. How significant is this peak given the strange window function of the 2IDR data? To answer this question, we have performed 1000 Monte-Carlo simulations, drawing in each case 1106 random points over the sky within the data regions displayed in Figure 3. The analysis was repeated in exactly the same way as for the real data, searching for peaks in the pole-counts diagram. In the 1000 simulated datasets, the highest deviation was a $`12.9`$% peak, found at an $`(\mathrm{},b)`$ location far from the Sgr pole. Interpreting this maximum random deviation as a $`3.2\sigma `$ peak, implies that the peak in the pole-counts distribution detected in Figure 4 has a significance of $`5.5\sigma `$ and is therefore clearly real.

## 4 Sample 2: almost no restrictions

In selecting only late M-giant stars from the 2MASS dataset, we previously retained only a small fraction of the full sample of Halo stars observed by that survey. To try to overcome this handicap, we undertook a second analysis, this time with a much broader colour selection, aimed at including K-stars and early M-stars as well as late M-stars selected for the previous sample. The selection criteria are simple colour limits: $`0.1<(HK)_0<0.5`$, $`0.1<(JH)_0<1.0`$; a faint magnitude limit: $`K_0<14.26`$; and a selection of only low extinction sky $`E(BV)<0.1`$. Selecting from the high latitude sky ($`|b|>30^{}`$) in the 2IDR with these criteria gives a much larger sample of $`5.9\times 10^6`$ point sources. The challenge now is to be able to extract a stream population with at most a few thousand sources from such a numerous foreground population.

To successfully identify streams with the polecounts method, we need to model out these contaminants. However, the distribution of Galactic sources is not uniform, and it is only approximately symmetric about the Galactic major and minor axes. We found that it was necessary to create a model of the smooth Galactic foreground which was able to follow the variations on a scale of $`10^{}`$; smoother models give rise to unacceptably large residuals which dominate the subsequent polecounts. The complex 2IDR window function also makes it difficult to fit an accurate model: e.g., polynomial fits of high enough order to follow the $`10^{}`$ Galactic variations tend to blow up in the unconstrained regions, leaving systematic residuals around the holes.

By trial and error, we managed to construct an acceptable model of the Galaxy by smoothing the data. However, to avoid edge effects around the holes in the 2IDR dataset, the holes needed to be filled before this smoothing operation. The empty regions were filled preferentially with data from the symmetric pixel reflected about $`l=0`$, otherwise by data from the pixel reflected about $`b=0`$ or the pixel reflected about $`l=0`$ and $`b=0`$. After this operation, 8.6% of the sky still lacked data; these remaining holes were filled with a Poisson random deviate drawn from a third order polynomial fit to each longitude line separately. The resulting all-sky image was smoothed with a $`5.1^{}`$ bi-linear kernel (taking the average of counts within $`\pm 4\sigma `$ of the median).

An image of the difference between the original dataset and the smoothed model was created and the window function was reinserted into the image. This difference image is now flat to $`2`$%. The difference image was smoothed again with a $`5.1^{}`$ bi-linear kernel, but this time, those regions with data on either side of a hole were (for the purposes of the smoothing) made contiguous. After removing this smoothed model, the final dataset is flat to $`0.5`$%.

This image of the residuals of the 2IDR from a smoothed model is appropriate for searching for narrow great-circle streams of width up to $`2^{}`$. Polecounts diagrams were computed for bands of $`2.0^{}`$, $`1.0^{}`$ and $`0.5^{}`$. Within a $`2^{}`$ wide band (1.7% of the sky) $`10^5`$ stars are expected, on average, with $`1\sigma `$ variations of $`320`$ counts. The corresponding polecounts diagram had an R.M.S. dispersion $`450`$ counts, close to this Poisson limit. Since $`2^{}`$ wide bands will give rise to $`2^{}`$ wide peaks in the polecounts image, there are $`5000`$ “meta-pixels” in that image, so $`>4\sigma `$ peaks are required to reject most false detections due to random noise. There is a single peak with more than 1800 counts, which appears as an arc in the polecounts diagram near $`(\mathrm{}=0^{},b=0^{})`$. The feature is clearly not real, however, as the corresponding equatorial band passes through a long narrow gap in the window function that skims the outer bulge of the Milky Way (near $`b=30^{}`$). The polecounts peak disappears if we remove this small region of sky from the analysis, so the peak is clearly an artifact of insufficient accuracy in the smooth Galaxy model in that region.

With very narrow $`0.5^{}`$ bands, the R.M.S. dispersion of the polecounts image was $`215`$ counts, so streams with a few as 860 stars could, in principle, have been detected. No such peaks were detected, however.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Wide streams from disrupted dwarf galaxies

The 2MASS 2IDR data reveal a strong overdensity along the great circle track of the Sgr dwarf galaxy. Indeed, the pole-counts diagram of Figure 4 is very similar to that found by Ibata et al. (2001a) from Halo C-stars. M-giants are potentially older stars than C-stars, and as such they can be useful in the context of analysing the Sgr stream, allowing us to probe the stars which were stripped from the dwarf galaxy at earlier stages in the disruption. To constrain this possibility, the radial velocities of the M-giants needed to be measured.

For bands of width $`<2^{}`$, the Sgr polecounts peak breaks up into several lower $`S/N3`$ peaks, presumably because the orbit is not precisely on a great circle. This could potentially be due to a flattening of the Galactic potential (the Galactic disk clearly provides non-radial forces); an analysis of this effect could be attempted with the full 2MASS dataset.

It is surprising not to have found stream-like structures in the Halo from other dwarf satellites, such as the Magellanic Clouds. Our previous polecount analysis of Halo C-stars provided a hint that the Magellanic Stream had been detected. Despite the better statistics, we have not been able to confirm that tentative detection. It is possible that this reflects a difference in stellar populations between the Sagittarius and Magellanic streams, the latter possibly being richer in C-stars due to younger age. Another explanation is that the current sky coverage excludes most of the region in and around the Magellanic Clouds, this makes the detection of the Magellanic Stream unlikely with the current dataset if the stars are distributed in a similar fashion to the gas in the Magellanic Stream.

Our models of the disruption of the Sgr dwarf suggest that the streams are very long lived, remaining coherent for a large fraction of a Hubble time. However, differential precession can cause a stream to smear out over the sky, until the box orbit is filled up entirely. Two possibilities present themselves. Either the Halo is fairly flattened, contrary to the results of Ibata et al. (2001a) and Chiba & Beers (2001). In this case streams precess quickly, and pole-counts give us a snapshot of accretions that have taken place only very recently, on a timescale of $`1\mathrm{Gyr}`$ or less (depending on the orbit). If the Halo is close to being spherical, polecounts give us access to much more ancient accretion events. Without a conclusive measurement of the flattening of the Halo, we cannot place strong constraints on the merging rate onto the Milky Way.

However, assuming that the M-giant stellar population in the Sagittarius stream is representative of other accretions, it appears that there has been no other more massive accretion than the Sgr dwarf ($`M_{Sgr}5\times 10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$) since that galaxy was accreted. The timescale for the accretion of the Sagittarius dwarf must be long, of order several Gyrs, as it takes of order $`3`$$`5\mathrm{Gyr}`$ in the simulations (Ibata & Lewis, 1998; Ibata et al., 2001a) for tidal tails to wrap around the Milky Way and appear as a band on the sky.

### 5.2 Narrow streams from disrupted globular clusters

As we show in Paper 1, the structures of particular interest are stellar streams from low mass systems such as globular clusters. These give fine structures in phase-space which easily become dispersed if there is significant substructure in the Halo. No large scale stream other than that of the Sgr dwarf was identified in the sample of late M-giant stars from the 2MASS 2IDR dataset above the $`3\sigma `$ level.

With our late M-giant sample, the $`3\sigma `$ detection level corresponds to only 9 stars at the finest band resolution adopted ($`1^{}`$). The lack of detections reflect the fact that our M-giant selection criteria, which aimed to get rid of disk dwarfs, are very restrictive. A vast number of Halo K (and early M) giants were removed in this process leaving only a small number of Halo stars in the final sample. Applying our selection criteria to the 2MASS data of the massive ($`10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$) globular cluster Omega Centauri (distance $`5.1\mathrm{kpc}`$) yields a total of $`3`$ stars outside two core radii, or 5.8 stars correcting for the lack of data in the saturated central regions of the cluster. Only 1 in 2000 stars above the magnitude limit of $`K=14.3`$ are kept after the colour-cut (though the stars that are retained are very luminous, and could be detected out to beyond $`100\mathrm{kpc}`$). So it is not surprising that we have not found globular cluster streams in the first sample, as the tidal stream of a completely disrupted globular cluster of the size of Omega Centauri would have insufficient late M-giant stars to bring the contrast of a polecounts peak above the $`3\sigma `$ detection level.

The inclusion of Halo K-giants and early M-giants is needed to obtain high enough $`S/N`$ to make a useful statement about dark matter clumpiness. Our second analysis, with a sample selected with practically no colour restrictions, aimed to improve the statistics for narrow streams. However, no streams were detected above the $`4\sigma `$ level, even though we had the capability of identifying narrow streams with as few as $`860`$ stars with the narrowest band we probed ($`0.5^{}`$). For comparison, Omega Centauri would provide a stream of $`3450`$ stars in 2MASS, if it were located at a distance of $`17\mathrm{kpc}`$, though the $`25`$% sky coverage of the $`|b|>30^{}`$ region of the 2IDR dataset reduces this number to $`860`$ stars.

The detection of a dynamically cold thin stellar stream in the 2IDR would have called into question the existence of dark matter substructure. Our null detection is much less clear to interpret, however. We can rule out the existence of only very massive globular cluster streams (as massive as Omega Centauri), that are relatively nearby ($`<17\mathrm{kpc}`$), and that are confined to very narrow great circle bands ($`<0.5^{}`$). This may mean that massive globular clusters are rare, or that the Galactic potential is significantly flattened at these radii, or that the potential has evolved substantially since the disruption of these stellar systems.

Future experiments will help solve this question. By reanalysing the full 2MASS dataset, a $`3`$ times larger area of sky can be surveyed for streams (not $`4`$ times larger, since low latitude disk fields will likely be too complex to model). With that data in hand it may be possible to improve the stream detection limits by an order of magnitude, especially if the foreground Galactic component can be more accurately modelled in the absence of the complex 2IDR window function (which we believe was the primary obstacle in not reaching the Poisson noise limit in the polecount analysis). Other purely photometric experiments, such as the VISTA 222see http://www.vista.ac.uk survey or the PRIME 333see http://prime.pha.jhu.edu/primemission.htm mission, will also greatly improve stream detection limits due to improved statistics resulting from a much greater photometric depth than 2MASS. Larger gains will come from the addition of astrometric information. A first step will be to use proper motions derived from photographic plates (provided, for example by the GSC II 444see http://www-gsss.stsci.edu/gsc/gsc2/GSC2home.htm), with which it will become possible to obtain a cleaner Halo sample by requiring that distant Halo stars have proper motions consistent with zero. The analysis of the datasets mentioned until now can provide information on Halo streams only for the restricted case that the Galactic potential is nearly spherical, when streams are spatially-confined bands on the sky. The advent of GAIA (Perryman et al., 2001), with its ability to accurately measure proper motions even for distant Halo stars, will permit the identification of streams even if the Galactic potential is substantially flattened, as the streams will be seen as phase-space clumps.

## 6 Conclusions

A pole-count analysis of Halo M-giants stars in the Second Incremental Data Release of the 2MASS dataset reveals a strong stream of stars along the orbit of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. The pole of the Sagittarius stream is located at exactly the position predicted by our previous analysis of Halo C-stars (Ibata et al., 2001a), confirming the existence of this large-scale stellar stream. This stream appears fairly narrow, $`12^{}`$ in M-giants. The alignment of the narrow stream along a great circle rules out the possibility that the Halo mass distribution is highly flattenned, as shown in Ibata et al. (2001a). Future radial velocity measurements of these M-stars will easily allow us to discriminate stream from Halo or foreground stars. Our conclusion regarding the shape of the dark matter Halo will be strengthed if the stream stars are found to be distributed all around the great circle track.

Our main motive in undertaking this study was to identify kinematically cold streams from low mass systems such as globular clusters, which could be used to trace the substructure of the dark matter Halo. However, no globular cluster streams were identified in the sample of Halo late-type M-giants, though we argue that this is due to insufficient statistics in the sample. Neither were any streams detected in the second sample that contained K and M-giants (as well as numerous foreground stars). In this second sample, nearby ($`<17\mathrm{kpc}`$) globular cluster streams, of mass similar to that Omega Centauri, and that are closely confined to a great circle ($`<0.5^{}`$) could have been detected. These stringent conditions greatly reduce the chances of detection of any Halo streams. In reality, even if the Halo is spherical, the flattened potential of the Galactic disk will cause some precession, especially to nearby streams. Also, the Sun’s displacement away from the center of the Galactic potential means that only very distant streams can be located precisely on great circles.

Better statistics are needed to allow the detection of globular cluster streams on wider great-circle bands, and deeper datasets are needed to probe more distant orbits. It will certainly be possible to improve this analysis in the near future with the full sky 2MASS catalog, and better dwarf star rejection can be provided by proper motion selection (derived from the GSC-II catalog, for instance). In the longer term, the next generation of IR surveys (e.g., VISTA, PRIME), and the next generation of astrometric surveys (e.g., DIVA, GAIA) will greatly improve the number of faint Halo sources and allow us to identify individual streams from their photometric and kinematic signatures.


text:
# LU-ITP 2001/22 RNCP-Th01025 KANAZAWA-01-11 10 October, 2001 Monopoles, confinement and deconfinement in lattice compact QED in (2+1)D with external fields

## 1 INTRODUCTION AND MODEL

In $`3D`$ compact QED confinement is proven and understood. The confinement is due to presence of Abelian monopoles – topological defects which appear due to the compactness of the gauge group. The confining property is lost at sufficiently high temperature. In  we have demonstrated that the monopoles are sensitive to the confinement-deconfinement transition. In the confinement phase the monopoles are in the plasma state while in the deconfinement phase the monopoles appear in the form of a dilute gas of magnetic dipoles. Here we present results on the influence of an external electromagnetic field on the confining and monopole properties of the compact Abelian gauge model in (2+1)D .

The action with an external field is given by

$$S[\theta ,\theta ^{\mathrm{ext}}]=\beta _p\mathrm{cos}\left(\theta _p\theta _p^{\mathrm{ext}}\right)$$
(1)
with $`\beta =1/(ag_3^2)`$, $`T/g_3^2=\beta /L_t`$. The non-zero quantized external electric ($`E`$) or magnetic field ($`B`$) is directly coupled to plaquettes in the $`31`$ or $`12`$ plane, respectively ($`n_{E/M}ZZ`$):

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`\theta _{31}^{\mathrm{ext}}=2\pi n_E/(L_3L_1)`$
$`B`$ $`=`$ $`\theta _{12}^{\mathrm{ext}}=2\pi n_M/(L_2L_1).`$ (2)
Due to the form of action the maximal number of external flux quanta is restricted. We used a Monte Carlo algorithm, which combines a local Monte Carlo step (Metropolis and microcanonical sweep) with a global update step changing the internal field by a number of flux units, in order to improve ergodicity.

## 2 POLYAKOV LOOP AND STRING TENSION

Usually, the Polyakov loop $`L(𝐱)`$ is used to probe confinement. Due to its Abelian nature the correlator of two Polyakov loops in the presence of a external field $`\stackrel{}{F}^{\mathrm{ext}}`$ (we use $`\stackrel{}{F}^{\mathrm{ext}}=(0,E,0)`$ or $`(0,0,B)`$) can be written as:

$$L(\mathrm{𝟎})L^{}(𝐑)_{\stackrel{}{F}^{\mathrm{ext}}}\mathrm{e}^{i\mathrm{\Phi }_𝒞(\stackrel{}{F}^{\mathrm{int}})L_tV(𝐑;\stackrel{}{F}^{\mathrm{ext}})},$$
(3)
where $`V`$ is the potential and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_𝒞`$ is the non-vanishing flux of the internal field $`F`$ which penetrates the surface spanned on the contour $`𝒞`$ given by the test particle trajectories.

Also the internal fluxes through the corresponding planes are quantized. Only the internal electric field contributes to the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_𝒞(\stackrel{}{F}^{\mathrm{int}})`$.

An external magnetic field is directed along the Polyakov loop, therefore, the induced internal field does not contribute to $`\mathrm{\Phi }_𝒞`$. Consider the correlator in an external electric field

$$L(0,0)L^{}(x,y)_E\mathrm{e}^{2\pi ixn_{\mathrm{int}}/L_sL_tV(x,y;E)}$$
(4)
with $`\mathrm{\Phi }_𝒞=2\pi n_{\mathrm{int}}x/L_s`$. Our numerical results suggest that the internal fluxes can adequately be described by taking into account only the most probable flux state $`n_{\mathrm{int}}=n_{\mathrm{int}}(n_{\mathrm{ext}},\beta ,L_i)`$. The oscillating part of the correlator is defined by the electric component of the internal field. The correlator (Fig. 1)

simultaneously characterizes both the screening of the external field (phase factor) and the potential of the test electric charges (by its modulus).

To evaluate the string tension $`\sigma `$, we use two Polyakov “plane” operators which are defined as a sum of Polyakov loops along and perpendicular to the external field. It can be shown that in the presence of an electric field

$`L_{}(0)L_{}^{}(x)_{n_E}=`$ (5)
$`\mathrm{const}\mathrm{e}^{2\pi in_{\mathrm{int}}x/L_s}\mathrm{cosh}\left[\sigma L_t\left(x{\displaystyle \frac{L_s}{2}}\right)\right],`$
therefore, the plane–plane Polyakov loop correlator parallel to the electric field oscillates with a decreasing amplitude.

The plane–plane correlator perpendicular to the field decreases exponentially (without oscillations) as function of the distance between the planes:

$`L_{}(0)L_{}^{}(y)_{n_E}=`$ (6)
$`\mathrm{const}\mathrm{cosh}\left[\sigma _{\mathrm{eff}}(\sigma ,n_{\mathrm{int}})L_t\left(y{\displaystyle \frac{L_s}{2}}\right)\right],`$
$$\sigma _{\mathrm{eff}}=\frac{1}{L_t}\mathrm{arccosh}\left[\mathrm{cosh}(\sigma L_t)\mathrm{cos}\frac{2\pi n_{\mathrm{int}}}{L_s}+1\right].$$
(7)
The essential lesson is that the effective string tension $`\sigma _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ does not tell anything about confinement properties described by $`\sigma `$. The fitted string tension (Fig. 2),

the confinement property and the phase structure are not changed due to the presence of the external fields.

On the other side, in the case of a non-vanishing $`E`$, the Polyakov loop expectation value may vanish due to its tree level contribution regardless of the value of the actual string tension (see Fig. 3).

## 3 MONOPOLE PROPERTIES AND THE PHOTON PROPAGATOR

Now we present a few results based on a cluster analysis of the monopole configurations . We observe that the plasma component of the single monopole ensemble does not feel the external field. This is in agreement with the observation made before that the confinement property does not depend on the external field.

On the contrary, the dipole density changes drastically as the external field increases (Fig. 4):

the field creates additional monopoles popping up as dipoles from the vacuum. The larger the temperature (or $`\beta `$), the larger the increase of the dipole density. With a non–zero electric field, the system is anisotropic in all directions. As the external field increases, the dipoles become elongated, increasingly with the external field, along the direction of the applied field while in an external magnetic field dipoles become more polarized along the (temporal) $`z`$–direction similar to increasing temperature.

At zero temperature the model is confining. It is interesting how this is reflected in the photon propagator and how monopoles are showing up there. In Fig. 5 we show in lattice momentum space how singular (monopole-like) and regular (photon-like) lattice gauge field modes contribute to the photon propagator at zero temperature. The propagator has been measured in Landau gauge taking into account Gribov copies and removing zero momentum modes. Details will be presented elsewhere . Similar investigation of the influence of center vortices on the gluon propagator was done in Ref. .