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# The shape of the Red Giant Branch Bump as a diagnostic of partial mixing processes in low-mass stars

## 1 Introduction

One of the most intriguing features of GGCs is the occurrence of a local maximum in the distribution of RGB stars. It appears as a Bump in the differential LF, and as a change of slope in the cumulative LF. After the pioneering investigations by Thomas (1967) and Iben (1968), it is well known that this feature is due to the fact that during the RGB evolution the H-burning shell crosses the sharp chemical discontinuity left over by the convective envelope at the base of the RGB during its maximum sinking (first dredge-up). The abrupt change in the hydrogen abundance affects the efficiency of the H-burning shell, since the stellar structure adjusts to the increase in the available fuel, and the stellar luminosity undergoes a temporary drop. Dating back to the first detection in the GGC 47 Tucanae (King, Da Costa & Demarque 1985), the RGB Bump has been the crossroad of several theoretical and observational investigations (Fusi-Pecci et al. 1990; Alongi et al. 1991; Bono & Castellani 1992; Alves & Sarajedini 1999; Ferraro et al. 1999; Zoccali et al. 1999; Bergbusch & Vandenberg 2001, and reference therein). The main reason for this effort is that the RGB Bump is a key observable to investigate the chemical profile inside RGB structures, and a robust diagnostic of the maximum depth reached by the outer convection during the first dredge-up.

Till a few years ago a quantitative comparison between theory and observations was mainly hampered by the size of the available stellar samples along the RGB. This problem is particularly severe for the most metal-poor GGCs, since the RGB evolutionary timescales are shorter than in metal-rich ones. Moreover, the RGB Bump in metal-poor clusters is located at brighter magnitudes, and therefore in a RGB region poorly populated when compared with metal-rich clusters. However, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) with its superior imaging quality and spatial resolution allowed us to firmly detect this feature in a sample of GGCs that cover a wide metallicity range (Zoccali et al. 1999).

This paper is the fifth in a series devoted to the RGB Bump in GGCs. Cassisi & Salaris (1997) investigated the dependence of the Bump luminosity on the physical inputs adopted to construct stellar models. They showed that the difference in magnitude between the RGB Bump and the horizontal branch (HB) at the RR Lyrae instability strip ($`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{Bump}^{HB}`$) predicted by their updated evolutionary models agrees quite well with empirical estimates of GGCs for which are available accurate spectroscopic measurements of cluster heavy element abundances. This evidence was further strengthened by the finding that $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{Bump}^{HB}`$ is only marginally affected by atomic diffusion (Cassisi, Degl’Innocenti & Salaris 1997). A thorough comparison between predicted and observed $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{Bump}^{HB}`$ values brought forth that theory and observations do agree at the level of $`0.1`$ mag (Zoccali et al. 1999). To assess on a more quantitative basis the accuracy of current evolutionary models, Bono et al. (2001) compared the evolutionary lifetimes during the crossing of the H-discontinuity with the star counts across the RGB Bump. It turned out that theory is in very good agreement with observations over a wide metallicity range. Only a few clusters were at odds with theoretical predictions and 47 Tuc is one of them.

These investigations support the following evidence: i) the maximum depth reached by the convective envelope at the base of the RGB, whose diagnostic is the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{Bump}^{HB}`$ parameter, is correctly predicted by stellar models. However, the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{Bump}^{HB}`$ relies on the distances provided by HB models. As a consequence, the agreement between theory and observations heavily relies on the adopted HB distance scale as well as on the GGC metallicity scales (Rutledge, Hesser & Stetson 1997; Zoccali & Piotto 2000; Bergbusch & Vandenberg 2001); ii) the extent of the H-discontinuity left over by the convective envelope, whose diagnostic is the star counts across the RGB Bump, does depend neither on the distance scale, nor on the metallicity scale and it is correctly predicted by theory (Bono et al. 2001).

The main aim of this investigation is to study in detail how the sharpness of the H-discontinuity affects the RGB Bump. In particular, we are interested in estimating how this jump in the chemical composition affects the shape of the Bump in the differential LF. The reason for such an investigation is twofold: i) current theoretical models do not firmly predict the efficiency and extent of all possible mixing processes occurring in stellar interiors as well as the occurrence of any partial mixing below the formal boundary of the convective region. It is worth mentioning that these physical mechanisms are no more pure speculative problems. In fact, Gratton et al. (2001) collected with VLT/UVES high dispersion spectra for a sizable sample of stars in two GGCs and found that atomic diffusion presents a very low efficiency when moving from MS to SGB stars (see also Thévenin et al. 2001). This empirical evidence, once confirmed by new data, can supply useful hints on the occurrence of extra-mixing processes in the region located below the convective envelope. ii) The sharpness of the H-discontinuity does affect the evolutionary timescales (Bono & Castellani 1992) of the H-burning shell during the crossing of the H-discontinuity, and in turn the shape of the Bump. Therefore a change in the extent of the smoothing region causes a change in the shape that can be constrained on the basis of the comparison with empirical data in metal-rich GGCs.

In §2 we briefly discuss the stellar models adopted in our investigation, while in §3 we investigate how different assumptions on the smoothing lengths affect the shape of the Bump and the star counts across the Bump. This analysis is performed by using a Monte-Carlo technique. In this section we also discuss what are the observational requirements and the target that can allow us to detect a change in the shape of the Bump. Conclusions and future developments are outlined in §4.

## 2 Stellar models

The evolutionary code and input physics adopted in this investigation are the same as in Cassisi & Salaris (1997). Theoretical models were transformed into the observational plane by adopting the bolometric corrections and color-temperature relations provided by Castelli, Gratton & Kurucz (1997a,b). We have focused our attention on a chemical composition typical of metal-rich GGCs, namely Y=0.23 and Z=0.006. Note that, if we account for an $`\alpha `$-enhancement of \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\]=0.4, this metallicity implies \[Fe/H\]=$``$0.8, i.e. the metallicity at which the number of RGB stars is expected to be the largest among the sample of GGCs. The numerical experiments were also performed at fixed stellar mass $`M/M_{}=1`$, since along the RGB the value of the evolving mass is almost constant. However, our conclusions do not depend on the selected mass value.

We computed several series of evolutionary models, from the Zero Age Main Sequence up to the RGB phases brighter than the Bump region. These models were constructed by neglecting or by accounting for atomic diffusion, and for various overshooting efficiencies namely $`0.10.2H_p`$, where $`H_p`$ is the pressure scale height at the base of the convective envelope. According to Alongi et al. (1991) stellar models which include convective overshooting were constructed by assuming instantaneous mixing in the overshooting region. These numerical experiments were performed to estimate whether these two physical mechanisms affect the sharpness of the H-profile. Interestingly enough, we found that in all these models the H-discontinuity is sharp, and the shape of the Bump in the differential LF is the same as in standard models. This finding suggests that any detection of a peculiar shape in a cluster RGB Bump is almost certainly caused by a smoothing of the H-discontinuity.

As a consequence, we performed the experiments on our standard models, i.e. the evolutionary models that neglect both atomic diffusion and convective overshooting, and at the base of the RGB we artificially modified, according to Bono & Castellani (1992), the abundance profiles below the point of maximum extent of the convective envelope. Then we evolved the new fictitious models well above the Bump region. We have taken into account smoothing lengths of 0.1$`H_p`$, 0.2$`H_p`$, 0.5$`H_p`$, and 0.75$`H_p`$, where $`H_p`$ is the local pressure scale height at the H-discontinuity. For the sake of simplicity the chemical profiles in the smoothing region have been assumed to be linear, and the envelope abundances have been modified in such a way that the sum of element abundances by mass within the structure is perfectly conserved. Current smoothing lengths have been selected to fulfill two requirements: i) to avoid a large shift in the luminosity of the Bump along the LF. In fact, predicted and observed $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{Bump}^{HB}`$ are, within current observational and theoretical uncertainties, in satisfactory agreement. ii) To introduce a slight change in the sharpness of the H-discontinuity. In fact, the hydrogen distributed in the smoothed region has to be taken from the chemical homogeneous region located above the H-discontinuity. However, substantial changes in the chemical composition (mainly the hydrogen abundance) of this region causes a sizable variation in the star counts across the Bump. Once again current theoretical predictions seem to agree quite well with empirical estimates (Bono et al. 2001).

Figure 1 shows the hydrogen profile (H abundance per unit mass) around the lower edge of the convective region at its maximum extent. The dashed line shows the canonical profile and presents a sharp H-discontinuity, while the solid line shows the H-profile after a linear smoothing of 0.5$`H_p`$ has been applied. The H abundance in the envelope attains quite similar values in the two cases, and indeed the difference is smaller than 0.001. This means that the jump in the H abundance between the envelope and the interior is very similar, but in the nonstandard models the H-discontinuity has been smoothed over a thicker region when compared with the standard one.

## 3 The effect of the H-discontinuity on the shape of the Bump

To study in more detail the effect of the sharpness in the H-discontinuity on the shape of the RGB Bump, we computed the RGB luminosity functions of current stellar models. Figure 2 shows the LF of the RGB region located across the Bump for our standard models i.e. $`M/M_{}=1`$, Z=0.006, Y=0.23 constructed by neglecting both atomic diffusion and convective overshooting.

The LF has been computed using a Monte Carlo technique, the number of objects at a given luminosity being proportional to the local evolutionary timescale. We have used an extremely large number of objects to avoid spurious statistical fluctuations in a given luminosity bin. The bin size of the LF plotted in Fig. 2 is 0.02 mag. It is worth mentioning that the intrinsic shape of the Bump is asymmetric and presents a well-defined peak at its brightest end. Note that both the atomic diffusion and the convective overshooting below the formal boundary of the convective envelope do not change the shape of the Bump, since in these models the H-discontinuity is as sharp as in standard models.

According to Bono et al. (2001) we define the parameter $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{Bump}}`$, as the number of stars located within $`\pm `$0.4 mag above and below the luminosity peak of the Bump, normalized to the number of RGB stars in the region between +0.5 and +1.5 mag below the peak of the Bump. The standard models supply $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{Bump}}=`$0.527, while the models constructed by accounting for atomic diffusion, convective overshooting, or the smoothed hydrogen profile have values within 0.05 of the standard one. This difference is quite negligible, since it is smaller than the typical observational error bar111The $`R_{Bump}`$ value of the smoothed models is similar to the standard one, since the current smoothing length was chosen to avoid a substantial change in the jump of the H-profile. (see Bono et al. 2001). On the other hand, the luminosity peak of the Bump shifts by $``$0.07 mag in the models that account for atomic diffusion, (see also Cassisi, Degl’Innocenti & Salaris 1997), while for the models that include convective overshooting the brightness changes according to the following derivative $``$0.8 mag/$`H_p`$. At the same time, we found that an increase of 0.1$`H_p`$ in the smoothing length causes in the nonstandard models a shift of $``$0.025 magnitudes in the position of the Bump. Figure 3 shows the effect of the smoothing on the shape of the Bump. The dashed line refers to the standard LF, while the solid lines display the LFs of smoothed models. They have been plotted by shifting the brightest boundary of the nonstandard Bumps over the standard one. The different LFs are normalized to the same number of stars above the Bump (where the hydrogen profile is the same in all models).

The change in the shape of the Bump as a function of the smoothing length is quite evident. In particular, the Bump becomes more centrally peaked and more symmetric for an increase in the thickness of the smoothing region. For smoothing lengths equal or larger than 0.5$`H_p`$ the shape of the Bump is substantially different than for the standard models. According to the numerical experiments we already performed, such an effect cannot be produced by atomic diffusion nor by convective overshooting. The reason for the difference in the shape of the Bump is outlined in Fig. 4. This figure shows the evolution in the Color-Magnitude-Diagram of our standard models and of the models with the H-discontinuity smoothed over a region of 0.5$`H_p`$. A glance at the data plotted in this figure clearly shows that the Bump region narrows in the latter case, and this change causes a narrowing of the Bump in the differential LF as well.

The physical explanation of this behavior has to be related to the abrupt change of the mean molecular weight $`\mu `$ in the region across the chemical discontinuity left over by the outer convection during the first dredge up, and to the strong dependence of the H-burning efficiency on $`\mu `$. Standard models show a sharp change in the mean molecular weight at the chemical discontinuity; this feature strongly affects the H-burning efficiency, and in turn the stellar surface luminosity. In stellar models whose H-discontinuity has been smoothed, the sharpness of the $`\mu `$ variation is anticorrelated with the thickness of the smoothing region; as a consequence, the change of the H-burning efficiency is significantly lower in smoothed models than in canonical ones. The top panel of Fig. 5 shows the H-burning luminosity produced via CNO cycle as a function of time. Data plotted in this figure disclose that the luminosity drop taking place during the crossing of the H-discontinuity is clearly correlated with the smoothing length.

The smoothing of the H-discontinuity affects not only $`\mu `$, but also the opacity profile within the structure. To test the hypothesis that the change of opacity may play a role in causing the luminosity drop at the bump location, we performed the following test. We constructed a fictitious model in which the opacity in the region just below the H-discontinuity has been computed by adopting the same chemical composition of the region located above the H-discontinuity. Data plotted in the bottom panel of Fig. 5 clearly show that the change in the opacity profile caused by the variation in the chemical stratification has a negligible effect on the RGB Bump. Therefore, it is the change of $`\mu `$ which determines the shape of bump region.

At the same time, we have to account for the difference in the evolutionary timescales, since the number of stars in a given magnitude bin is proportional to this quantity. From top to bottom the panels in Fig. 6 show, for the two models plotted in Fig.4, the logarithm of the stellar counts along the three branches of the Bump region as a function of the V magnitude. The data for the nonstandard models were shifted in brightness as in Fig. 3. The arrows mark the direction during these evolutionary phases, i.e. the change in the surface luminosity. Panel a) shows the star counts before the temporary decrease in luminosity, while panel b) during the subsequent decrease in luminosity. The evolutionary timescale of the standard models at the bin where the luminosity does not increase is roughly a factor of 2 longer than in the smoothed models, while it is systematically shorter during the phases approaching this point and the phases in which the luminosity decreases. During this latter phase the standard models reach the secondary minimum in luminosity quite rapidly when compared with the smoothed one. In fact, the evolutionary timescale of the smoothed models in the fainter luminosity bin is a factor of 3 longer than in the standard models. Panel c) shows the predicted stellar counts during the phases in which the surface luminosity increases once again. The evolutionary timescale of the standard models is essentially constant, while the smoothed models evolve more rapidly until they approach the bright edge of the Bump region.

In this section we have discussed the difference in the LF between standard and smoothed models, now we wish to address the following question: can this difference be detected in actual RGB Bumps? To answer this question we performed new Monte-Carlo simulations, by accounting for different sample sizes and observational errors. Fig. 7 shows the same LFs plotted in Fig. 2, but they were computed by adopting a bin size of 0.05 mag and a 1$`\sigma `$ random photometric error (the accuracy of the photometric zero point is not relevant in this discussion) by 0.025 mag. Data plotted in this figure suggest that smoothing lengths equal or larger than 0.5$`H_p`$ still affect the shape of the Bump in such a way that the difference between standard and smoothed models can be detected. According to our simulations, to detect smoothing lengths equal or larger than 0.5$`H_p`$ in metal-rich clusters with metal abundances larger than \[Fe/H\]=$``$1 and not affected by differential reddening, are necessary stellar samples larger than $``$120 stars within $`\pm `$0.2 mag the peak of the Bump, a bin size not larger than 0.06 mag and a 1$`\sigma `$ random photometric errors not larger than 0.03 mag.

For metallicities equal or lower than \[Fe/H\]=$``$1 the change in the shape of the Bump can be barely detected. Fig. 8 shows the standard RGB LF for Z=0.006 (dotted line) together with the RGB LF obtained from a 1$`M_{}`$ standard models (no diffusion, no overshooting) with Z=0.002 (solid line). By assuming an $`\alpha `$-enhancement \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\]=0.4 the latter metallicity becomes \[Fe/H\]=$``$1. The dashed line refers to the RGB LF of evolutionary models constructed by adopting the same mass value and metallicity (1$`M_{}`$, Z=0.002) but with the H-discontinuity smoothed over 0.5$`H_p`$. The LFs of the less metal-rich models have been shifted by 0.5 mag to match the bright edge of the Bump region of the LF for Z=0.006.

Even though the main effect of the smoothing is qualitatively similar to the case of more metal-rich models, the extent of the Bump for Z=0.002 is smaller both in the standard and in smoothed models. This means that smaller photometric errors, smaller bin sizes, and larger samples of RGB stars are mandatory to detect a change in the shape of the Bump. This result seems in contrast with the finding brought out by Bono et al. (2001) that the value of the $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{Bump}}`$ parameter is almost constant with metallicity. However, the contradiction is only apparent, and indeed toward lower metallicities the Bump becomes brighter, and therefore the number of stars in the normalization region decreases as well. This effect makes the $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{Bump}}`$ value only marginally dependent on the cluster metallicity.

## 4 Conclusions and final remarks

We investigated in detail the dependence of both shape and location of the Bump along the RGB LF on the smoothing of the H-discontinuity at the base of the convective envelope in Population II structures. The reason to account for this smoothing is related to the possible occurrence of partial mixing processes below the lower boundary of the convective region. Current spectroscopic measurements of RGB stars are somehow at odds with theoretical predictions. To account for the low carbon isotopic ratios and for the Li abundance in population II stars it has been suggested that rotation-induced mixing occurs above the RGB Bump (Sweigart & Mengel 1979; Charbonnel 1995). However, even by accounting for this extra-mixing process the agreement between empirical data and theory is far from being satisfactory (Thévenin et al. 2001). The occurrence of mixing below the bottom of the convective region has been generally neglected, since theoretical predictions (Mestel 1957) and spectroscopic data (Charbonnel, Brown, & Wallerstein 1998, and references therein) suggest that the occurrence of gradients in the molecular weight, such as the H-discontinuity in the envelope of RGB stars, stabilizes the mixing processes induced by rotation. However, current spectroscopic measurements support the evidence that RGB stars located across the Bump present large Li abundances (Charbonnel & Balachandran 2000). This suggests that these stars underwent Li production soon before or at the Bump phase. The comparison between predicted and observed shape of RGB Bumps can supply tight constraints on the sharpness of the H-discontinuity, and in turn on the inhibiting effect of molecular weight barriers on extra-mixing related either to rotation or to exotic phenomena.

We constructed several stellar models by assuming different smoothing lengths, and we found that for smoothings up to 0.75$`H_p`$ current theoretical predictions concerning the difference in luminosity between the peak of RGB Bump and the HB, $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{Bump}^{HB}`$, and the star counts across the Bump region, $`R_{Bump}`$, are still in satisfactory agreement with observations. However, as expected, a change in the H-abundance profile significantly affects the evolutionary timescales of the H-burning shell, and in turn the shape of the RGB Bump along the LF. Interestingly enough, we found that it is possible to constrain the sharpness of the H-discontinuity at the base of the envelope of RGB stars by comparing predicted and empirical Bump shapes of differential LFs in metal-rich GGCs.

In this context it is worth mentioning that this finding is far from being a speculative issue. In fact, the new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS, Clampin et al. 2000) on board of HST will supply, thanks to its wide field of view ($`202\times 202`$ arcsec2) and homogeneous spatial resolution (0.05 arcsec/pixel), a complete census of RGB stars over a substantial fraction of GGCs innermost regions. In particular, for clusters characterized by relatively high central densities, the ACS can measure at the star-by-star level the bulk of cluster RGB stars. As a consequence, the detection of the shape of RGB bump among massive metal-rich clusters will become feasible in the near future. To constrain on a quantitative basis the empirical requirements necessary to supply an accurate detection of the shape of the Bump. we performed several Monte-Carlo experiments according to current theoretical predictions. We found that a robust detection requires a minimum sample of more than $``$120 RGB stars within $`\pm 0.2`$ mag the peak of the Bump, the use of a bin size up to 0.06 mag in the LF, as well as random photometric errors smaller than 0.03 mag. Fortunately enough, several metal-rich GGCs and the new scientific capabilities of HST can allow us to cope with this challenging and intriguing project.

We are grateful to an anonymous referee for useful suggestions that improved the content of an early draft of the paper. M.S. wishes to acknowledge the Osservatorio Astronomico di Collurania and the Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik for their kind hospitality during the completion of this work. We warmly thank M. Zoccali for several interesting discussions on HST photometry and for useful comments on early draft of this paper. This work was supported by MURST/Cofin2000 under the project: ”Stellar Observables of cosmological relevance” (S. C. & G. B.).


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# ULTRACAM – an ultra-fast, triple-beam CCD camera

## 1. Science

The fastest timescale variations likely to be observed in an astrophysical environment are milliseconds, corresponding to the innermost orbits around neutron stars and black holes. Variations of faint sources on timescales longer than a few seconds have already been explored by conventional CCD instruments. ULTRACAM will explore the region of observational parameter space which lies between these two extremes, namely photometry of faint objects on timescales of seconds to milliseconds. The resulting scientific applications will include the study of pulsars, occultations, XRBs (e.g. searching for the optical analogue of the kilohertz QPOs), speckle imaging, precise timing studies (e.g. measuring eclipses), echo mapping, eclipse mapping of CVs, asteroseismology, and flickering and oscillations in CV accretion discs.

The five essential requirements for such work are: 1. The capability of taking short exposures (from milliseconds to seconds) with essentially no dead-time between exposures; 2. Multi-channels (3 or more) covering a wide wavelength range ($`u^{}`$ to $`z^{}`$) in order to distinguish a blackbody spectrum from a stellar spectrum; 3. Simultaneous measurement of the different wavelength bands to avoid problems due to stochastic variations; 4. Imaging capability in order to simultaneously measure target, sky and comparison stars and to avoid the need for fixed apertures; 5. High efficiency and the capability of being mounted on various large aperture telescopes. These five requirements result in the instrument design presented here.

## 2. Design

Optics. Light from the telescope is first collimated and then split into 3 bandpasses ($`u^{}`$, $`g^{}`$ and one of $`r^{},i^{}orz^{}`$) using dichroic beamsplitters and SDSS filters. The light from each filter is then re-imaged onto one of 3 CCDs at a plate scale of 0.3 arcseconds/pixel, giving a field of view of 5 arcminutes. This design ensures that: 1. There is an 80% probability of finding an R=12 magnitude comparison star in the field; 2. There is no ghosting due to the dichroics; 3. Only the collimator needs to be changed to mount ULTRACAM on a different telescope.

Mechanics. The opto-mechanical chassis is a double-octopod constructed of aluminium plates and carbon fibre struts, giving a stiff, compact (75cm long), lightweight (75 kg) structure which is relatively insensitive to temperature variations. These characteristics make ULTRACAM highly portable and mountable on both small and large aperture telescopes.

Detectors. ULTRACAM will use 3 Marconi (formerly EEV) 47-20 AIMO, back-thinned, AR-coated CCDs. These will be Grade 0 devices (i.e. of the highest cosmetic quality) and contain 1024x1024 image pixels, each of 13 microns, with 1024x1024 masked pixels (i.e. they are frame-transfer devices). The chips exhibit exceptionally high QE (up to 97%) and low noise (3 e-/pixel readout noise and $`<0.1`$ e-/pixel/s dark current, achieved by cooling to 233 K using a 3-stage Peltier stack and water cooling).

Data acquisition and reduction. Data from the 3 CCDs is first read by an SDSU controller and then passed to a dual-processor PC running RTLinux. Each exposure is time-stamped by a GPS receiver to an accuracy of 0.01 milliseconds and then written to a RAID array and archived to tape. Pipeline data reduction software then fully reduces each data frame. Such a data acquisition and reduction system will enable us to observe for a whole night at the highest data rates (3.6 Mbytes/s) without stopping, building up light curves in real time.

## 3. Performance

Frame transfer chips allow a completed exposure to be rapidly shifted from the imaging area to the masked area and then read out whilst the next exposure is in progress. This, in conjunction with the high-speed data acquisition system described above, results in a full-frame readout time of 5 milliseconds (as long as the exposure time is $`>2`$ s). By using small windows and stacking the windows in the masked area (a procedure known as ‘drift mode’), it is possible to obtain dead-times of 0.05 milliseconds (as long as the exposure time is $`>2`$ milliseconds), thereby meeting our requirement of millisecond exposure times with negligible dead time.

The optics and coatings in ULTRACAM have been designed with throughput as the highest priority. This, in conjunction with the exceptional QE performance of the CCDs, means that we expect to detect objects as faint as $`17`$th magnitude at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 in a 1 millisecond exposure on an 8-m class telescope.

For more information on ULTRACAM, please consult the instrument’s web-site at http://www.shef.ac.uk/$``$phys/people/vdhillon/ultracam.


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# GR16: Quantum General Relativity

## 1 Highlights

Current research in quantum gravity is very lively. The research is actively developing both towards the construction of the fundamental theory and towards applications.

A large part of the efforts to develop the general theory of the quantum gravitational field is presently concentrated in loop quantum gravity, in its various forms. The general theory of loop quantum gravity was reviewed at this conference in a plenary talk by Abhay Ashtekar. In the session, several specific aspects of the theory were discussed. The current efforts to understand the low energy behavior of loop quantum gravity were reviewed by Abhay Ashtekar and Jerzy Lewandowski. The covariant spacetime version of the theory, denoted spinfoam theory, and some notable finiteness results due also to Alejandro Perez and Louis Crane were illustrated by myself. Various aspects of the discreteness of the geometry predicted by loop quantum gravity were discussed by Seth Major. Unfortunately, Martin Bojowald had to cancel his participation to the conference at the last minute, and his scheduled communication on his exciting recent results on the application of loop quantum gravity to the initial singularity had to be cancelled. The simplicial approach, whose recent developments were reviewed by Ruth Williams, has also recently converged with loop quantum gravity. In fact, on the one hand the spinfoam formalism include the Barrett Crane simplicial model, on the other hand it can be viewed as the covariant version of (canonical) loop quantum gravity. Altogether, loop quantum gravity appears to be in a very exciting phase of intense development and novel results.

Other approaches to quantum gravity were considered in the session as well. In particular: non commutative geometry (Kamesh Wali), the string motivated AdS/CFT theory (Robert Mann), lattice and functional formalisms (Renate Loll).

The most studied applications of quantum gravity are in black hole physics, gravitational collapse, and cosmological models. The application of quantum gravity to gravitational collapse is a long studied problem. A new and rather surprising results presented by Peter Hájíček, obtained via a careful hamiltonian analysis of the problem came therefore as a surprise: a shell bounces and re-expands, and the singularity disappears. The collapse problem was discussed also by Mike Ryan, Cenalo Vaz and Valentin Gladush.

The most characteristic physical system for quantum gravity is certainly the quantum black hole. There are now two well-known derivations of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy from a complete quantum gravity theory, obtained respectively within string theory and within loop quantum gravity. But a complete physical understanding of the quantum black hole thermal behavior is not yet available, and the problem keeps raising interest. The problem was discussed in the session by Steven Carlip, Gabor Kunstatter and Louis Witten. Finally, a cosmological model with a perfect fluid was discussed by Julio Fabris.

I’ll now illustrate all the contributions to the session in more detail.

## 2 General theory: loop quantum gravity

Ashtekar discussed the use of a detailed mathematical theory of quantum geometry, in order to analyze the fundamental discreteness of spacetime predicted by loop quantum gravity. This discreteness makes it difficult to relate the underlying ‘polymer excitations’ of quantum geometry to the Fock states normally used in low energy physics. To bridge this gap, using some recent results of Varadarajan, Ashtekar and Lewandowski have located, analyzed and used Minkowskian Fock states in the background independent framework. The fundamental discreteness is lost in the standard semi-classical description because Fock states constitute only a small subset of all non-perturbative states. While the quantum geometry operators have purely discrete eigenvalues in the full theory, none of these eigenvectors belong to the Fock space. This framework is well-suited to address two key questions: Can the background-independent, non-perturbative theory reproduce the familiar low-energy physics on, say, suitable coarse graining? and, Can one pin-point where and why perturbation theory fails? Ashtekar described work in progress on both these fronts.

A spin foam model can be seen as the covariant, or Feynman integral, version of a loop quantum gravity theory. A spin foam represents a four-geometry and the model is formulated as a sum over these four-geometries. Remarkably, there is a duality between these models and certain particular field theories defined on group manifolds (Group Field Theory, or GFT). The sum over spin foam can be generated as the Feynman perturbative expansion of the GFT. Each spacetime appears therefore as the Feynman graph of the auxiliary GFT theory. This phenomenon is a 4d analog of a phenomenon first noticed in 2d quantum gravity, or “‘zero dimensional string theory”, where the spacetime could be obtained as Feynman graphs of an auxiliary matrix model. The main result presented is that (up to certain degenerate terms) the theory is finite order by order in the perturbation expansion. This allows finite three-geometry to three-geometry transition amplitudes to be perturbatively computed explicitly in the physical, lorentzian, 4d theory.

Major presented recent results on the spectra of the angle, area, and volume operators, including limits placed on the level of discreteness by semiclassical behavior and classic tests of fundamental physics.

Approaches to discrete quantum gravity include sums over histories using the simplicial analogue of the Einstein action formulated by Regge, and state sum models, such as the Ponzano-Regge and Turaev-Viro models in three dimensions and the Barrett-Crane model in four dimensions. There has been a remarkable convergence with the loop quantum gravity approach, in recent years. Williams described progress with simplicial and state sum models, including a discrete version of the calculation of the ground state wave function for linearized gravity, and an investigation of perturbations of three-dimensional state sum models.

## 3 General theory: others

Wali proposes a model of left- and right- chiral fields living on the two-sheeted space-time along with two distinct gauge fields, within the framework of non-commutative geometry. The mathematics presented generalizes the fundamental concepts of Riemannian geometry, such as differential forms, connection and curvature. The model has a rich and complex structure with new interaction terms to be explored. One of them is a parity violating interaction arising from the gravitational sector of their generalized theory.

The talk reported on work concerning the problem of defining conserved charges in gravitational theory. This is a long-standing problem in general relativity – the equivalence principle implies that locally gravity cannot be distinguished from acceleration, and the problem of defining a local measure of gravitational energy and angular momentum has remained elusive. A reasonable measure of success has been attained in recent years using the Brown/York quasilocal formalism, which proposes a definition of conserved quantities enclosed by a $`(d2)`$ surface in $`d`$ dimensions. A generic problem with the quasilocal formalism is that the conserved quantities typically diverge as the mean radial size of the enclosed surface becomes infinite. A recent proposal inspired by the AdS/CFT correspondence offers a potential resolution to this difficulty. This conjectured correspondence states that a quantum theory of gravity whose boundary conditions are the same as those of asymptotically anti de Sitter (AdS) spacetime is in 1-1 correspondence with a quantum conformal field theory (CFT) defined on the boundary of this spacetime. Quantum field theories generically have counterterms, and the correspondence suggests that these counterterms should be geometric invariants of the induced metric on the boundary at infinity. Employing this proposal, Mann computed the energy, angular momentum and entropy of spacetimes containing rotating black holes with NUT charge (ie in the general Kerr-NUT-anti de Sitter class). He found in all cases that the conserved quantities were finite. No reference spacetime was required at any stage of the calculation. He then showed how to extend this prescription to asymptotically flat spacetimes, and obtained corresponding results that are finite. The interpretation of these quantities in spacetimes with NUT charge is still obscure.

Under certain assumption on the behavior of the partition function under renormalization, one finds the interesting result that the well known divergence due to the conformal modes is cancelled by a Faddeev-Popov determinant. This result confirms that absence of the conformal sickness noticed by Loll in the lorentzian lattice models.

## 4 Gravitational collapse

Hájíček studies the quantum dynamics of a self-gravitating null shell for the spherically symmetric case, using only gauge invariant quantities (Dirac observables). The definition of evolution is based on an asymptotically non-trivial symmetry of the model (time translation element of the BMS group). Hájíček proves in particular, that a version of quantum theory exists, in which the shell bounces and re-expands, and in which the singularity disappears. The quantum metric outside the shell contains a time-dependent mixture of black and white holes. These remarkable and surprising results raised much interest and a lively discussion, in the session.

A hamiltonian formulation of the problem of the collapse of a dust shell given by Hájíček and Kijowski and Kuchař allows one to study the the minisuperspace problem of the quantum collapse of a spherically symmetric dust shell, albeit with a very complicated Hamiltonian operator. Ryan presented both analytic approximate solutions and exact numerical solutions to the problem. Since the solutions involve only geometrical variables defined on the shell, it is necessary to reconstruct the quantum spacetime geometry around the shell (possible in this special spherically symmetric case) in order to discuss the interpretation of the solutions in terms of spacetime geometry, especially the position of the shell with respect to horizons. This allowed Ryan to consider the quantum evolution of the shell in spacetime.

Vaz applied the Kuchar transformation to LeMaitre-Tolman-Bondi models of inhomogeneous dust collapse. Dirac’s constraint quantization leads to a simple Wheeler-DeWitt equation with a general mass function. A solution was presented over the entire class of models considered. These solutions cover collapse into both black holes and naked singularities (up to the Cauchy Horizon) and can be employed in the study of quantum gravitational effects in the final stages of collapse with different initial conditions as well as, it is hoped, in the study of inhomogeneous cosmologies.

Gladush has considered a quasi-classical model of self-gravitating spherical dust shell, and studied the energy spectrum using quasi-classical quantization rules, and the stability of the system.

## 5 Black holes

Recent work by a number of authors has suggested that black hole entropy may have a microscopic description in terms of a boundary conformal field theory, living either near the horizon or at spatial infinity. Carlip described a new approach to boundary conditions near such a boundary, in which the fall-off requirements are introduced as a set of second class constraints that modify the algebra of diffeomorphisms. For Liouville theory in a dynamical background, this approach leads to the standard central charge; for dilaton gravity, the result is a Virasoro algebra with a classical central charge of the form required to explain the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.

Basic properties of black hole thermodynamics were used to quantize generic charged black holes in the Euclidean sector. The analysis led to a discrete spectrum for the horizon area that is qualitatively consistent with the results of Bekenstein, Mukhanov and others, but different from the spectrum predicted by loop quantum gravity. In particular, the area spectrum was shown generically to be equally spaced. Quantization of the charge sector gave the condition $`Q=me`$, for integer $`m`$, as expected, but a consistency condition constrained the fine structure constant $`e^2/\mathrm{}`$ to be a rational number. Near extremal black holes were shown to be highly quantum objects. Moreover, with a standard choice of factor ordering, extremal black holes did not appear in the physical spectrum at all.

Witten started from the observation that the Schwarzschild black hole can be viewed as a special case of the marginally bound LeMaitre-Tolman-Bondi models of dust collapse corresponding to a constant mass function. Using a midi-superspace quantization of the collapse for an arbitrary mass function illustrated in this same session by C Vaz, Witten showed that the solution leads both to Bekensteins s area spectrum for black holes as well as to the black hole entropy. In this context, the entropy is naturally interpreted as the loss of information of the original matter distribution within the collapsing cloud.

## 6 Finite dimensional models

Fabris quantized the gravity-perfect fluid system, employing the Schutz’s formalism. The matter degrees of freedom allow to recover the notion of time. Wave-functions are obtained in closed form, in the mini-superspace, and the expectation value for the scale factor is computed, yielding a singularity-free, bouncing Universe. He showed that these results are recovered by a classical system where, besides the ordinary matter employed in the quantization procedure, a universal repulsive fluid with a stiff matter equation of state is added.


text:
# Some simple physical facts about the collapse of the Twin Towers

To understand the collapse of these towers, it is useful to consider the following simple mechanical problem: take a pile of $`n`$ equal blocks of height $`s`$, put on top of each other separated by empty gaps of height $`h`$ containing only the supporting beams. Now, if the beams inmediately below the uppermost block are suddenly blown off, it would start falling with acceleration $`g`$ and zero initial velocity. After falling a height $`h`$, it collides with the next block at a speed $`\sqrt{2gh}`$. If the corresponding kinetic energy of the block is large compared with with the energy required for bending or breaking the beams, conservation of linear momentum imply (completely inelastic collision) both blocks moving together with speed $`\sqrt{2gh}/2`$ and acceleration $`g`$. After falling a height $`h`$, both blocks collide with the next one at certain velocity, thereby moving the three blocks together at $`2/3`$ of this speed, and so on. The lower surface of the falling pile we may call collapse front and its motion is a free fall in between collisions and discontinuous (considering the collisions instantaneous) changes of velocity and position (sadden jump by an amount $`s`$) at collisions. However, for $`n`$ large, it is interesting to consider the average motion of the collapsing front. In the limit $`sh`$ (the correction for finite $`s/h`$ being trivial) it may easily be shown that this average motion is uniformly accelerated with acceleration $`g/3`$. More generally, taking into account the height of the blocks and the energy absorbed by the beams, one finds:

$$u(t)=\frac{1}{6}g\left(1\frac{s}{h+s}\right)^1(1f)t^2,$$
(1)
where $`u(t)`$ is the position of the front from its initial position (the lower surface of the upper block), $`f`$ is the ratio between the total energy absorbed by the beams and the potential energy of the pile and $`t`$ is the time elapsed from the start of the collapse.

Having mass in between the blocks (i.e. in the form of walls) does not change the nature of the collapse. If these masses move along with the blocks or are blown away at collision carrying no momentum, the acceleration is still $`g/3`$ (for $`s0`$). If the fraction of momentum carried away by the falling wall is $`F`$, the collapse is an accelerated motion with acceleration $`g(1F)/3`$.

If the beams blown away were those at the bottom, the pile would collapse (for $`f0`$) with acceleration $`g`$. In this case, the collapsing front is static at the ground (for $`s0`$, moving slightly upward for finite $`s`$).

Now consider the case when the beams blown away are those above the m-th block. In this case, assuming $`s=f=F=0`$ (corrections being trivial) it may be shown that, before the uppermost block hit it, the front falls with acceleration $`3g/5`$. The $`nm`$ blocks above the front fall together with acceleration $`g`$ until the uppermost block hit the front. At this time, the acceleration (average) changes suddenly to $`7g/25`$ and grows asimptotically to $`g/3`$.

However, for this mode of collapse to apply, the blocks must be completely incompressible, so that the acceleration of the upper and lower surfaces of the collapsed pile experience not only the same mean acceleration, but also the same very strong upwardly directed acceleration at collisions. In this case and assuming that the ratio between the actual statical charge supported and the maximum possible charge, $`c`$, is constant all through the pile, the beams just over the upper surface of the collapsed pile are equally likely to break as those below. On the other hand, when the blocks have a finite compressibility, the ratio between the statical charge and the dinamical charge at collisions is smaller above the upper surface. In this case, after the collapsed pile have grown to some thickness, it provides a sufficient cushion for the upper part to fall bodily resting on the collapsed pile. Then, the acceleration of the collapse front is again $`g/3`$. The upper block falls with the same acceleration at a constant distance from the front. The tremor of the collapse may cause the collapse from time to time of the block just above the collapsing pile, but this results in constant average speed for the motion of the upper block with respect to the front.

If the blocks break into irregular fragments, they would roll down from the top of the collapsed pile. This mode of mass loss is different from the one considered previously and do not result in uniform acceleration. Asimptotically the collapsed pile approachs a maximum thickness, the acceleration decreases and at some stage the beams will be strong enough to halt the collapse.

For the north tower, we have $`s0.3`$ m, $`h3.3`$ m, the initial position of the collapsing front is about 370 m above the ground. Assuming $`c=5`$ constant all through the pile, it may be shown that $`f0.02`$ 111Using for steel:
\- maximum pressure - 108 N/m2
\- maximum stress - 16$`\times `$108 N/m2
\- maximum strain - 0.004. With $`F=0`$, the time for the collapse front to hit the ground given by Eq. (1) is 14.56 s. Since the actual time seems to be around 17 s, this imply that the fraction of mass blown away from the pile as the walls are squashed is somewhat above $`1/4`$ (assuming no matter fall from the back of the collapsed pile).


text:
# Quantum correlations versus Multisimultaneity: an experimental test

## Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the financial support of the ”Fondation Odier de psycho-physique” and the Swiss National Science Foundation. We thank Valerio Scarani and Wolfgang Tittel for very stimulating discussions and François Cochet from Alcatel Cable Suisse SA for the chromatic dispersion measurement apparatus.


text:
# Constancy of the Constants of Nature 11footnote 1based on a talk presented at Frontier of Cosmology and Gravitation, YITP, Kyoto, April 25-27, 2001.

## 1 Introduction

### 1.1 History

To our knowledge, Dirac appears to have been the first who argued for the possibility of time variation of the constants of nature. As is well-known, dimensionless numbers involving $`G`$ are huge (or minuscule). For example, the ratio of the electrostatic force to the gravitational force between an electron and a proton is 333We use the units of $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$.

$$N_1=\frac{e^2}{Gm_pm_e}2\times 10^{39},$$
(1)
where $`e`$ is the electric charge, $`m_p`$ is the proton mass and $`m_e`$ is the electron mass. Similarly, the ratio of the Hubble horizon radius of the Universe, $`H_0^1`$ to the classical radius of an electron is

$$N_2=\frac{H_0^1}{e^2m_e^1}3\times 10^{40}h^1,$$
(2)
where $`h`$ is the Hubble parameter in units of $`\mathrm{kms}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$. Curiously, the two nearly coincides, which motivated Dirac to postulate the so-called the large number hypothesis . In his article entitled “A new basis for cosmology”, he describes

> Any two of the very large dimensionless numbers occurring in Nature are connected by a simple mathematical relation, in which the coefficients are of the order of magnitude unity.

Thus if the (almost) equality $`N_1=𝒪(1)\times N_2`$ holds always, then $`G`$ must decrease with time $`Gt^1`$, or the fine structure constant, $`\alpha e^2`$, must increase with time $`\alpha t^{1/2}`$  since $`Ht^1`$.

Nowadays we know that such a huge dimensionless number like $`N_1`$ is related to the gauge hierarchy problem. In fact, the gauge couplings are running (however, only logarithmically) as the energy grows, and all the gauge couplings are believed to unify at the fundamental energy scale (probably string scale). The fact that $`N_1`$ nearly coincides with $`N_2`$ may be just accidental, and pursuing the relation between them is numerological speculation (or requires anthropic arguments). However, Pandora’s box was opened.

### 1.2 Modern Motivation

String theory is the most promising approach to unify all the fundamental forces in nature. It is believed that in string theory all the coupling constants and parameters (except the string tension) in nature are derived quantities and are determined by the vacuum expectation values of the dilaton and moduli.

On the other hand, we know that the Universe is expanding. Then it is no wonder to imagine the possibility of time variation of the constants of nature during the evolution of the Universe.

In fact, it is argued that the effective potentials of dilaton or moduli induced by nonperturbative effects may exhibit runaway structure; they asymptote zero for the weak coupling limit where dilaton becomes minus infinity or internal radius becomes infinity and symmetries are restored in the limit . Thus it is expected that as these fields vary, the natural “constants” may change in time and moreover the violation of the weak equivalence principle may be induced  (see also  for earlier discussion).

In this article, we review the current experimental (laboratory, astrophysical and geophysical) constraints on time variation of the constants of nature. In particular, we consider $`\alpha `$, $`G`$, and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. We assume $`H_0=100h\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{Mpc}`$ with $`h=0.65`$ for the Hubble parameter and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ for the cosmological parameters. For earlier expositions, see  for example.

## 2 $`\alpha `$

In this section, we review the experimental constraints on time variation of the fine structure constant. The results are summarized in Table 1.

### 2.1 Oklo Natural Reactor and $`\dot{\alpha }`$

In 1972, the French CEO (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) discovered ancient natural nuclear reactors in the ore body of the Oklo uranium mine in Gabon, West Africa. It is called the Oklo phenomenon. The reactor operated about 1.8 billion years ago corresponding to $`z0.13`$ for the assumed cosmology ($`h=0.65,\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$).

Shlyakhter noticed the extremely low resonance energy ($`E_r=97.3\mathrm{meV}`$) of the reaction

$${}_{}{}^{149}S_{m}^{}+n{}_{}{}^{150}S_{m}^{}+\gamma ,$$
(3)
and hence the abundance of $`{}_{}{}^{149}S_{m}^{}`$ (one of the nuclear fission products of $`{}_{}{}^{235}U`$) observed at the Oklo can be a good probe of the variability of the coupling constants . The isotope ratio of $`{}_{}{}^{149}S_{m}^{}/{}_{}{}^{147}S_{m}^{}`$ is $`0.02`$ rather than $`0.9`$ as in natural samarium due to the neutron flux onto $`{}_{}{}^{149}S_{m}^{}`$ during the uranium fission. From an analysis of nuclear and geochemical data, the operating conditions of the reactor was inferred and the thermally averaged neutron-absorption cross section could be estimated. The nuclear Coulomb energy is of order $`V_01\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$, and its change $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_0`$ is related to the change of $`\alpha `$ as

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }V_0}{V_0}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }E_r}{V_0}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha }.$$
(4)
By estimating the uncertainty in the resonance energy, Shlyakhter obtained $`\dot{\alpha }/\alpha =10^{17}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. Damour and Dyson reanalysed the data and obtained $`(6.75.0)\times 10^{17}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ . Using new samples that were carefully collected to minimize natural contamination and also on a careful temperature estimate of the reactors, Fujii et al. reached a tighter bound444They noted that data is also consistent with a non-null result: $`(4.9\pm 0.4)\times 10^{17}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, indicating an apparent evidence for the time variability. However, from the analysis of the isotope compositions of $`G_d`$, the consistency of the $`S_m`$ and $`G_d`$ results supports the null results. $`(0.2\pm 0.8)\times 10^{17}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ .

### 2.2 (Hyper)Fine splitting and $`\dot{\alpha }`$

Since fine structure levels depend multiplicitely on $`\alpha `$, wavelength spectra of cosmologically distant quasars provide a natural laboratory for investigating the time variability of $`\alpha `$. Narrow lines in quasar spectra are produced by absorption of radiation in intervening clouds of gas, many of which are enriched with heavy elements. For example, the separation between the wavelength corresponding to the transition $`{}_{}{}^{2}S_{1/2}^{}^2P_{3/2}`$ and the wavelength corresponding to the transition $`{}_{}{}^{2}S_{1/2}^{}^2P_{1/2}`$ in an alkaline ion is proportional to $`\alpha ^2`$. Because quasar spectra contain doublet absorption lines at a number of redshifts, it is possible to check for time variation in $`\alpha `$ simply by looking for changes in the doublet separation of alkaline-type ions with one outer electron as a function of redshift . By looking at Si IV doublet, Cowie and Songaila obtained the limit up to $`z3`$: $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha |<3.5\times 10^4`$ . Also by comparing the hyperfine 21 cm HI transition with optical atomic transitions in the same cloud at $`z1.8`$, they obtained a bound on the fractional change in $`\alpha `$ up to redshift $`z1.8`$: $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =(3.5\pm 5.5)\times 10^6`$, corresponding to $`\dot{\alpha }/\alpha =(3.3\pm 5.2)\times 10^{16}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ . Recently, by comparing the absorption by the HI 21 cm hyperfine transition (at $`z=0.25,0.68`$) with the absorption by molecular rotational transitions, Carilli et al. obtained a bound: $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha |<1.7\times 10^5`$ .

Webb et al.  introduced a new technique (called many-multiplet method) that compares the absorption wavelengths of magnesium and iron atoms in the same absorbing cloud, which is far more sensitive than the alkaline-doublet method. They observed a number of intergalactic clouds at redshifts from 0.5 to 1.6. For the entire sample they find $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =(1.1\pm 0.4)\times 10^5`$, consistent with a null result within 3 $`\sigma `$. They noted that the deviation is dominated by measurements at $`z>1`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =(1.9\pm 0.5)\times 10^5`$.

Recently, Webb et al.  pesented further evidence for time variation of $`\alpha `$ by reanalysing the previous data and including new data of Keck/HIRES absorption systems. The results indicate a smaller $`\alpha `$ in the past and the optical sample shows a 4 $`\sigma `$ deviation for $`0.5<z<3.5`$: $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =(0.72\pm 0.18)\times 10^5`$. They noted that the potentially significant systemtic effects only make the deviation siginificant. If the result is correct, it would have profound implications for our understanding of fundamental physics. So the claim needs to be verified independently by other observations.

### 2.3 Laboratory Tests: Clock Comparison

Laboratory constraints are based on clock comparisons with ultrastable oscillatiors of different physical makeup such as the superconducting cavity oscillator vs the cesium hyperfine clock transition  or the Mg fine structure transition vs the cesium hyperfine clock transition . Since a hyperfine splitting is a function of $`Z\alpha `$, such a clock comparison can be a probe of time variation of $`\alpha `$. The clock comparisons place a limit on present day variation of $`\alpha `$ and are repeatable and hence are complementary to the geophysical or cosmological constraints. Comparisons of rates between clocks based on hyperfine transitions in alkali atoms with different atomic number $`Z`$ (H-maser and $`\mathrm{Hg}^+`$ clocks) over 140 days yield a bound: $`|\dot{\alpha }/\alpha |3.7\times 10^{14}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ .

### 2.4 Cosmology and $`\dot{\alpha }`$: Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis and Cosmic Microwave Background

#### Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis.

The $`{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{e}}^{}`$ abundance is primarily determined by the neutron-to-proton ratio prior to nucleosynthesis which before the freeze-out of the weak interaction rates at a temperature $`T_f1`$MeV, is given approximately by the equilibrium condition:

$$(n/p)\mathrm{exp}(Q/T_f),$$
(5)
where $`Q=1.29`$MeV is the mass difference between neutron and proton. Assuming that all neutrons are incorporated into $`{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{e}}^{}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{e}}^{}`$ abundance $`Y_p`$ is given by $`Y_p2(n/p)/[1+(n/p)]`$. The freeze-out temperature is determined by the competition between the weak interaction rates and the expansion rate of the Universe. The dependence of $`T_f`$ on the weak and gravitational couplings is given by

$$T_fG_F^{2/3}G^{1/6},$$
(6)
where $`G_F`$ is the Fermi constant.

Changes in $`Y_p`$ are induced by changes in $`T_f`$ and $`Q`$. However, it is found that $`Y_p`$ is most sensitive to changes in $`Q`$ . The $`\alpha `$ dependence of $`Q`$ can be written as

$$Q1.290.76\times \mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha \mathrm{MeV}.$$
(7)
Comparing with the observed $`Y_p`$, a bound on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ is obtained: $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha |2.6\times 10^2`$ . Recently, it is argued that the presently unclear observational situation concerning the primordial abundances precludes a better bound than $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha |2\times 10^2`$ .

#### Cosmic Microwave Background.

Changing $`\alpha `$ alters the ionization history of the universe and hence affects the spectrum of cosmic microwave background fluctuations: it changes the Thomson scattering cross section, $`\sigma _T=8\pi \alpha ^2/3m_e^2`$, and hence the differential optical depth $`\dot{\tau }`$ of photons due to Thomson scattering through $`\dot{\tau }=x_en_p\sigma _T`$ where $`x_e`$ is the ionization fraction and $`n_p`$ is the number density of electrons; it also changes the recombination of hydrogen.

The last scattering surface is defined by the peak of the visibility function, $`g(z)=e^{\tau (z)}dt/dz`$, which measures the differential probability that a photon last scattered at redshift $`z`$. As explained in , increasing $`\alpha `$ affects the visibility function $`g(z)`$: it increases the redshift of the last scattering surface and decreases the thickness of the last scattering surface. This is because the increase in $`\alpha `$ shifts $`g(z)`$ to higher redshift since the equilibrium ionization fraction, $`x_e^{EQ}`$, is shifted to higer redshift and because $`x_e`$ more closely tracks $`x_e^{EQ}`$ for larger $`\alpha `$.

An increase in $`\alpha `$ changes the spectrum of CMB fluctuations: the peak positions in the spectrum shift to higher values of $`\mathrm{}`$ (that is, a smaller angle) and the values of $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ increase . The former effect is due to the increase of the redshift of the last scattering surface, while the latter is due to a larger early integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect because of an earlier recombination. It is concluded that the future of cosmic microwave background experiment (MAP, Planck) could be sensitive to $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha |10^210^3`$ .555After this talk, new analyses of BOOMERanG  and MAXIMA  and the first year results from DASI  appeared. In those data the second (and even the third) peak is now clearly seen, which discourages the motivation for non-standard recombination scenarios that were attracted attention regarding the interpretation of the apparent absence of the second peak in the previous data.

## 3 $`G`$

In this section, we review the experimental constraints on time variation of the Newton constant. For more detailed review see . The results are summarized in Table 2.

### 3.1 Viking Radar-Ranging to Mars, Lunar-Laser-Ranging and $`\dot{G}`$

If we write the effective gravitational constant $`G`$ as $`G=G_0+\dot{G}_0(tt_0)`$, the effect of changing $`G`$ is readily seen through the change in the equation of motion:

$$\frac{d^2𝐱}{dt^2}=\frac{GM𝐱}{r^3}=\frac{G_0M𝐱}{r^3}\frac{\dot{G}_0}{G_0}\frac{G_0M}{r}\frac{𝐱(tt_0)}{r^2}.$$
(8)
Thus time variation of $`G`$ induces an acceleration term in addition to the usual Newtonian and relativistic ones, which would affect the motion of bodies, such as planets and binary pulsar.

A relative distance between the Earth and Mars was accurately measured by taking thousands of range measurements between tracking stations of the Deep Space Network and Viking landers on Mars. From a least-squares fit of the parameters of the solar system model to the data taken from various range measurements including those by Viking landers to Mars (from July 1976 to July 1982), a bound on $`\dot{G}`$ is obtained: $`\dot{G}/G=(2\pm 4)\times 10^{12}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ .

Similarly, Lunar-Laser-Ranging measurements have been used to accurately determine parameters of the solar system, in particular the Earth-Moon separation. From the analysis of the data from 1969 to 1990, a bound is obtained: $`\dot{G}/G=(0.1\pm 10.4)\times 10^{12}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ ; while from the data from 1970 to 1994, $`\dot{G}/G=(1\pm 8)\times 10^{12}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ .

### 3.2 Binary Pulsar and $`\dot{G}`$

The timing of the orbital dynamics of binary pulsars provides a new test of time variation of $`G`$. To the Newtonian order, the orbital period of a two-body system is given by

$$P_b=2\pi \left(\frac{a^3}{Gm}\right)^{1/2}=\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}^3}{G^2m^2(1e^2)^{3/2}},$$
(9)
where $`a`$ is the semi-major axis, $`\mathrm{}=r^2\dot{\varphi }`$ is the angular momentum per unit mass, $`m`$ is a Newtonian-order mass parameter, and $`e`$ is the orbital eccentricity. This yields the orbital-period evolution rate

$$\frac{\dot{P}_b}{P_b}=2\frac{\dot{G}}{G}+3\frac{\dot{\mathrm{}}}{\mathrm{}}2\frac{\dot{m}}{m}.$$
(10)
Damour, Gibbons and Taylor showed that the appropriate phenomenological limit on $`\dot{G}`$ is obtained by

$$\frac{\dot{G}}{G}=\frac{\delta \dot{P}_b}{2P_b},$$
(11)
where $`\delta \dot{P}_b`$ represents whatever part of the observed orbital period derivative that is not otherwise explained . From the timing of the binary pulsar PSR 1913+16, a bound is obtained: $`\dot{G}/G=(1.0\pm 2.3)\times 10^{11}\mathrm{yr}^1`$  (see also  and ). However, only for the orbits of bodies which have negligible gravitational self-energies, the simplifications can be made that $`\dot{P}_b/P_b`$ is dominated by $`2\dot{G}/G`$ term. When the effect of the variation in the gravitational binding energy induced by a change in $`G`$ is taken into account, the above bound is somewhat weakened depending on the equation of state .

### 3.3 Stars and $`\dot{G}`$

Since gravity plays an important role in the structure and evolution of a star, a star can be a good probe of time variation of $`G`$. It can be shown from a simple dimensional analysis that the luminosity of a star is proportional to $`G^7`$ . Increasing $`G`$ is effectively the same, via the Poisson equation, as increasing the mass or average density of a star, which increases its average mean molecular weight and thus increases the luminosity of a star. Since a more luminous star burns more hydrogen, the depth of convection zone is affected which is determined directly from observations of solar $`p`$-mode (acoustic wave) spectra . Helioseismology enables us probe the structure of the solar interior. Comparing the $`p`$-mode oscillation spectra of varying-$`G`$ solar models with the solar $`p`$-mode frequency observations, a tighter bound on $`\dot{G}`$ is obtained: $`|\dot{G}/G|1.6\times 10^{12}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ .

The balance between the Fermi degeneracy pressure of a cold electron gas and the gravitational force determines the famous Chandrasekhar mass

$$M_{Ch}G^{3/2}m_p^2,$$
(12)
where $`m_p`$ is the proton mass. Since $`M_{Ch}`$ sets the mass scale for the late evolutionary stage of massive stars, including the formation of neutron stars in core collapse of supernovae, it is expected that the average neutron mass is given by the Chandrasekhar mass. Measurements of neutron star masses and ages over $`z<34`$ yield a bound, $`\dot{G}/G=(0.6\pm 2.0)\times 10^{12}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ .

### 3.4 Cosmology and $`\dot{G}`$: Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis

The effect of changing $`G`$ on the primordial light abundances (especially $`{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{e}}^{}`$) is already seen in Eq.(5) and Eq.(6): an increase in $`G`$ increases the expansion rate of the universe, which shifts the freeze-out to an earlier epoch and results in a higher abundance of $`{}_{}{}^{4}\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{e}}^{}`$. In terms of the “speed-up factor”, $`\xi H/H_{SBBN}`$, $`Y_p`$ is well fitted by

$$Y_p0.244+0.074(\xi ^21).$$
(13)
If $`Y_p`$ was between $`0.22`$ and $`0.25`$, then $`0.32<\mathrm{\Delta }G/G<0.08`$, which corresponds to $`\dot{G}/G=(0.552.2)\times 10^{11}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. A similar (more conservative) bound was obtained in : $`0.3<\mathrm{\Delta }G/G<0.4`$.

### 3.5 Recent Developments on $`G_0`$

No laboratory measurements of $`\dot{G}/G`$ has been performed recently (see  for older laboratory experiments). This is mainly because the measurements of the present gravitational constant $`G_0`$ itself suffer from systematic uncertainties and have not been performed with good precision.

Recently, Gundlach and Merkowitz measured $`G_0`$ with a torsion-balance experiment in which string-twisting bias was carefully eliminated . The result was a value of $`G_0=(6.674215\pm 0.000092)\times 10^{11}\mathrm{m}^3\mathrm{kg}^1\mathrm{s}^2`$. 666Only recently, the measurement of $`G`$ with a torsion-strip balance resulted in $`G_0=(6.67559\pm 0.00027)\times 10^{11}\mathrm{m}^3\mathrm{kg}^1\mathrm{s}^2`$, which is 2 parts in $`10^4`$ higher than the result of Gundlach and Merkowitz . Probably the difference is still due to systematic errors hidden in one or both of the measurements. As the accuracy of the measurements improves, it may be possible to place a bound on a present-day variation of $`G`$. It is important to pursue laboratory measurements of $`\dot{G}/G`$ since they are repeatable and hence are complementary to astrophysical and geophysical constraints.

## 4 $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or Dark Energy

Finally, we briefly comment on the potential variability of the cosmological constant (or dark energy) because in the runaway scenario of dilaton or moduli $`\varphi `$, $`\dot{\alpha }/\alpha `$ and $`\dot{G}/G`$ would close to $`\dot{\varphi }/\varphi `$ .

### 4.1 Evidence for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$

There are two arguments for the presence of dark energy. The first indirect evidence comes from the sum rule in cosmology:

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_i=1,$$
(14)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_i8\pi G\rho _i/3H_0^2`$ is the density parameter of the i-th energy component, $`\rho _i`$. The density parameter of the curvature, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$, is defined by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Kk/a^2H_0^2`$. Since the current obervational data indicate that matter density is much less than the critical density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M<1`$ and that the Universe is flat, we are led to conclude that the Universe is dominated by dark energy, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{DE}=1\mathrm{\Omega }_M\mathrm{\Omega }_K>0`$.

The second evidence for dark energy is from the observational evidence for the accelerating universe :

$$\frac{\ddot{a}}{aH_0^2}=\frac{1}{2}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }_M(1+z)^3+(1+3w)\mathrm{\Omega }_{DE}(1+z)^{3(1+w)}\right)>0,$$
(15)
where $`w`$ is the equation of state of dark energy, $`wp_{DE}/\rho _{DE}`$. Since distance measurements to SNIa strongly indicate the Universe is currently accelerating, the Universe should be dominated by dark energy with negative pressure ($`w<0`$). We note that another argument for negative pressure comes from the necessity of the epoch of the matter domination.

### 4.2 Supernova and $`\dot{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$

A current bound on the equation of state of dark energy from supernova data is $`w0.6`$ . Future observations of high redshift supernovae/galaxies/clusters would pin down the bound on $`w`$ to $`w0.9`$. The extent of time variation of dark energy density is readily seen from the equation of motion:

$$\frac{\dot{\rho }_{DE}}{\rho _{DE}}=3(1+w)H.$$
(16)
## 5 Conclusion

A short account of the experimental constraints on the time variability of the constants of nature ($`\alpha `$ and $`G`$)) was given. Since there are some theoretical motivations for the time variability of the constants of nature and the implications of it are profound, refining these bounds remains important, and continuing searches for the possible time variability of the constants of nature should be made.

Acknowledgement This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No.13740154) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.


text:
# Comparison of finite-size-scaling functions for 3𝑑 𝑂(𝑁) spin models to QCD Talk by T. Schulze, we thank for supporting grants DFG, No. FOR 339/1-2 and FAPESP, Brazil, No. 00/05047-5.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Our motivation for studying $`3d`$ $`O(N)`$ spin models is their relation to quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The QCD chiral phase transition for two light-quark flavors is supposed to be of second order in the continuum limit and to be in the same universality class as the $`3d`$ $`O(4)`$ model . In the staggered formulation of QCD on the lattice a part of chiral symmetry is remaining and that is $`O(2)`$. The comparison of QCD lattice data to $`O(4)`$ scaling functions for $`V\mathrm{}`$ and exponents yields good agreement for Wilson fermions , but not for staggered fermions . This may be caused by using too small lattices in QCD, so we will compare in this paper staggered QCD data to the finite-size-scaling functions of the 3d $`O(2)`$ and $`O(4)`$ spin models.
The $`O(N)`$-invariant nonlinear $`\sigma `$-model on a $`d`$ dimensional hypercubic lattice is defined by

$$\beta =J\underset{<i,j>}{}𝐒_i𝐒_j𝐇\underset{i}{}𝐒_i.$$
(1)
$`𝐒_i`$ is an N-component unit vector at site $`i`$ with a longitudinal (parallel to the magnetic field $`𝐇`$) and a transverse component

$$𝐒_i=S_i^{}\widehat{𝐇}+𝐒_i^{}.$$
(2)
The order parameter of the system, the magnetization $`M`$, is given by

$$M=\frac{1}{V}\underset{i}{}S_i^{}=S^{},$$
(3)
and the longitudinal susceptibility by

$$\chi _L=\frac{M}{H}=V(S_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}M^2).$$
(4)
## 2 FINITE-SIZE-SCALING FUNCTIONS

The general form of the finite-size-scaling function for the magnetization is given by

$$M=L^{\beta /\nu }\mathrm{\Phi }(tL^{1/\nu },hL^{1/\nu _c},L^\omega ),$$
(5)
where $`t`$ and $`h`$ are the normalized reduced temperature $`t=(TT_c)/T_0`$ and magnetic field $`h=H/H_0`$. On lines of fixed $`z=th^{1/\beta \delta }`$ and after expanding $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in $`L^\omega `$ we have

$$M=L^{\beta /\nu }Q_z(hL^{1/\nu _c})+\mathrm{},$$
(6)
where $`Q_z`$ is a universal function. Examples of lines of fixed $`z`$ are the critical line ($`z=0`$) and the pseudocritical line ($`z=z_p`$), the line of maximum positions of the susceptibility $`\chi _L`$ in the $`(t,h)`$-plane for $`V\mathrm{}`$.

For large lattices $`Q_z`$ will converge to the asymptotic form $`Q_{z,\mathrm{}}`$

$$Q_zQ_{z,\mathrm{}}=f_G(z)(hL^{1/\nu _c})^{1/\delta }.$$
(7)
$`Q_{z,\mathrm{}}`$ can be calculated from the scaling function $`f_G`$ for $`V\mathrm{}`$, which we have calculated in Ref.  for O(4) and in Ref.  for O(2).

## 3 NUMERICAL RESULTS

Our simulations were done on three-dimensional lattices with periodic boundary conditions and linear extensions $`L=8120`$ using the cluster algorithm. In order to eliminate corrections to scaling we used increasingly larger values of $`L`$. For the critical coupling and the exponents we took the same values as in Refs.  and .

First we had to determine the value $`z_p`$ of the pseudocritical line. The scaling function of $`\chi _L`$ for $`V\mathrm{}`$ can be determined from the scaling function of the magnetization $`f_G`$

$$\chi _L=\frac{M}{H}=\frac{h^{1/\delta 1}}{H_0\delta }\left(f_G(z)\frac{z}{\beta }f_G^{}(z)\right).$$
(8)
Evidently, the maximum of $`\chi _L`$ at fixed $`h`$ and varying $`t`$ is at the maximum point $`z_p`$ of the function in the brackets of Eq. (8). We obtain $`z_p=1.56(10)`$ for $`O(2)`$ and $`z_p=1.33(5)`$ for $`O(4)`$.

As a check we have also determined the peak positions on lattices with $`L=2496`$ which extrapolate for $`L\mathrm{}`$ to $`z_p=1.65(10)`$ for $`O(2)`$ and $`z_p=1.35(10)`$ for $`O(4)`$. In Fig. 1 we compare both methods for the $`O(4)`$ model. We see that both methods agree very well for small $`h`$, but for larger $`h`$ the extrapolated peak positions yield slightly higher pseudocritical temperatures.

In Fig. 2a we show the finite-size-scaling plot for $`O(4)`$ on the pseudocritical line (at $`z_p=1.33`$). There are strong corrections to scaling and the universal function $`Q_{z_p}`$ is approached from above. If one looks at the logarithmic plot (Fig. 2b), one finds that $`Q_{z_p}`$ converges to $`Q_{z_p,\mathrm{}}`$ from below and coincides with the asymptotic form at about $`HL^{1/\nu _c}20`$.

We have also investigated the finite-size-scaling functions of $`O(2)`$ on the pseudocritical line and of both models on the critical line. They have a very similar behaviour to the one shown above, but on the critical line the corrections to scaling are negative, and in the case of $`O(4)`$ they are much smaller than on the pseudocritical line. The asymptotic form is always approached at small values of $`HL^{1/\nu _c}`$ from below.

## 4 COMPARISON TO $`N_f=2`$ QCD

In Fig. 3 we show a finite-size-scaling plot of staggered QCD data on the pseudocritical line from the JLQCD collaboration  and the Bielefeld group . The exponents are from the $`O(4)`$-model. Here the quark mass $`m_q`$ plays the role of the symmetry-breaking field $`h`$, and the chiral condensate $`\overline{\psi }\psi `$ is the order parameter for $`m_q0`$. $`\overline{\psi }\psi `$ has been taken at the peak positions of the chiral suceptibility $`\chi _m`$ at fixed $`m_q`$ for each lattice size. The error from the peak position determination is not included in the plot. As in Fig. 2a the universal finite-size-scaling function is approached from above. At small $`m_q`$ the data are however higher than expected.

In the logarithmic plot, Fig. 4, we compare the QCD data to a line $`\overline{c}+(1/\delta )\mathrm{ln}(m_qaL^{1/\nu _c})`$, which represents the asymptotic finite-size-scaling function. Because of the unknown normalization of QCD $`\overline{c}`$ was chosen freely. There is good agreement of the QCD data with the expected behaviour, especially when one takes into account that the lattice sizes are still small and corrections are probably present.

The corresponding result for $`O(2)`$ is very similar to that of $`O(4)`$ and, because of the spread of the QCD data, one cannot really distinguish the two cases.

An extended version of this paper can be found in Ref. .


text:
# Excitation of Orbital Eccentricities of Extrasolar Planets by Repeated Resonance Crossings

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Orbital eccentricities $`e`$, periods $`P`$, and semi-major axes $`a`$ of extrasolar planetary systems are plotted in Figure 1. The rightmost four points at large $`P`$ represent the gas and ice giants in our Solar System (Lodders & Fegler 1998). The leftmost cluster of points at small $`P`$ reflect tidal interactions between planets and stars that erased whatever primordial eccentricities these systems possessed (Lin et al. 2000). In the intermediate range of periods, orbital eccentricities can be strikingly large, typically exceeding those of giant planets in the Solar System by factors of $``$2–20.

Several theories have been proposed to explain these large eccentricities. Many encounter difficulties when applied to the majority of systems, and one remains incompletely developed. A stellar binary companion can secularly drive a planet’s eccentricity (Holman, Touma, & Tremaine 1997), but nearly all known extrasolar planets orbit solitary stars. Alternatively, dynamical instabilities afflicting two planets formed at close separation on circular orbits can eject one planet while inducing a large orbital eccentricity in the remaining body (Rasio & Ford 1996; Weidenschilling & Marzari 1996). However, close encounters engineered in this fashion result also in planetary collisions, leaving a large proportion of planets on circular orbits that are not observed (Ford, Havlickova, & Rasio 2001). In a third scenario, orbital migration of two planets during which the orbital period of one planet approaches that of the other (“convergent migration”) can lead to resonant capture and eccentricity pumping. While convergent migration and resonance capture likely underpin the orbital eccentricities of GJ 876b and GJ 876c, two planets observed to occupy a 2:1 resonance (Marcy et al. 2001b; Lee & Peale 2001), all other extrasolar planetary systems presently evince no mean-motion resonant behavior. A fourth explanation invokes gravitational interactions between planets and the disks from which they formed (e.g., Artymowicz 1998). The present theory of satellite-disk interactions has only been derived to lowest order in $`e`$ (Goldreich & Tremaine 1980); it is inadequate when applied to extrasolar systems for which $`e`$’s can be as large as 0.25–0.95. In the present theory, whether the disk damps or excites $`e`$ depends sensitively on the distribution of disk material near the planet (Goldreich & Tremaine 1980; Papaloizou, Nelson, & Masset 2001). While this distribution is currently uncertain, Lee & Peale (2001) find that the disk must strongly damp eccentricities to reproduce the orbital parameters of GJ 876 and to avoid the fine-tuning problem of having the epoch of resonant capture coincide with the dissipation of the disk.

This Letter proposes a fifth mechanism for exciting orbital eccentricities: repeated resonance crossings of two planets migrating on divergent trajectories. In §2 we argue that divergent orbital migration of two planets is more likely than convergent migration. In §3 we demonstrate how divergent migration may lead to substantial eccentricity excitation. In §4 we highlight the requirements and qualitative predictions of our theory and areas for future work.

## 2 Disk-Driven Divergent Drift

Migration of planets can be driven by tidal interactions with their natal gaseous disks. Known extrasolar planets have sufficiently large masses ($`MM_J`$, where $`M_J`$ is the mass of Jupiter) that they clear annular gaps in disk material about their orbits (Ward 1997). A planet that opens a gap is thereafter slaved to the viscous evolution of its host disk, and undergoes so-called “Type II” drift (Ward 1997). The disk and its embedded planet at stellocentric distance $`r`$ slide towards the star on the viscous diffusion timescale,

$$t_D=r/|\dot{r}|r^2/\nu r^2/\alpha c_sh2\times 10^4\left(\frac{r}{1\mathrm{AU}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{1000\mathrm{K}}{T}\right)\left(\frac{10^3}{\alpha }\right)\mathrm{yr}.$$
(1)
Here $`\nu =\alpha c_sh`$ is the viscosity of the disk, $`c_s`$, $`h`$, and $`T`$ are the sound speed, vertical scale height, and temperature of disk gas, respectively, and $`0\alpha 1`$ measures the strength of angular momentum transport intrinsic to the disk. Equation (1) assumes a central stellar mass $`M_{}=M_{}`$.

The diffusion time $`t_D\sqrt{r}/T\alpha `$ almost certainly increases with increasing $`r`$. Disk temperatures fall radially outwards as the stellar flux and the disk’s absolute gravitational potential energy per unit mass diminish. Sources of angular momentum transport include (1) dissipation of density waves excited by numerous, densely nested planets that are insufficiently massive ($`MM_{\mathrm{}}`$, where $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the mass of the Earth) to open gaps (Goodman & Rafikov 2001), and (2) the magnetorotational instability (MRI) that afflicts sufficiently ionized disks (e.g., Stone et al. 2000). Mechanism 1 is capable of generating $`\alpha 10^3`$, where the exact value depends on the spatial density of small, as yet undetectable planets. Mechanism 2 has been demonstrated to generate $`\alpha 10^5`$$`10^1`$, the exact value correlating positively with the electrical conductivity of disk gas (Fleming, Stone, & Hawley 2000). The conductivity decreases with decreasing temperature, so that under mechanism 2, $`d\alpha /dr<0`$.

The standard MRI operates only in disk regions $`rr_d`$ that are sufficiently hot, $`T1000\mathrm{K}`$, that thermal ionization of trace metals and sublimation of dust grains permit the magnetic Reynolds number to exceed the threshold required for instability. Accretion disk models place $`r_d`$ between $``$0.1 AU and $``$1 AU (Gammie 1996; Bell et al. 1997; D’Alessio et al. 1998)—distances at which many extrasolar planets are presently located (see Figure 1). In the absence of mechanism 1, it is possible that $`\alpha `$ is effectively zero at $`r1\mathrm{AU}`$. While Gammie (1996) has proposed that the standard MRI can still operate wherever gas densities are sufficiently low that Galactic cosmic rays can provide the requisite ionization levels, the likelihood of this prospect remains unclear for two reasons: (1) dust grains can severely reduce the electron density, and (2) even neglecting dust, and even if the magnetic Reynolds number exceeds the critical value required for instability, the time required for a neutral molecule to collide with an ion is typically longer than a dynamical time, so that the bulk of the mostly neutral gas fails to accrete with the ions (Blaes & Balbus 1994). We return to the possibility of a static outer disk at the end of this Letter.

What is important for what follows are the two recognitions that gap-opening planets at $`r`$ a few AU drift inwards at rates that are (1) extremely slow compared to local orbital frequencies, and (2) different. Since $`dt_D/dr>0`$, two gap-opening planets at $`r`$ a few AU drift inwards such that the ratio of the period of the outer planet, $`P_2`$, to that of the inner planet, $`P_1`$, grows. The divergence of $`P_2/P_1`$ implies that a series of mean-motion resonances will be crossed. During each resonance crossing, the orbital periods of the two bodies are momentarily commensurable; that is, the ratio of their orbital periods approaches and then exceeds a ratio of small, positive integers.

## 3 Resonance Crossings on Divergent Orbits

By contrast with the case where the period ratio $`P_2/P_1`$ converges towards unity, the probability of resonant capture is zero for diverging orbits (Sinclair 1972; Henrard & Lemaitre 1983; Peale 1986; Yu & Tremaine 2001; and references therein). Nonetheless, as in the convergent case, each divergent passage can substantially alter the orbital eccentricities (Henrard & Lemaitre 1983; Peale 1986; Malhotra 1988; Dermott, Malhotra, & Murray 1988) and semi-major axes of the migrating bodies.

We illustrate the underlying mechanics by considering the problem of a massive, inwardly migrating planet about a star, and its effect on a massless test particle on a more distant, co-planar orbit. We take the mass of the planet $`M_1`$ to equal $`1.5\times 10^3M_{}`$, where $`M_{}=M_{}`$ is the mass of the central star. Referenced to a coordinate system fixed on the star, the initial orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity of the planet are $`a_1=1\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`e_1=0`$, respectively. In addition to feeling the Newtonian force of gravity exerted by the star, the planet feels an additional drag force $`\stackrel{}{F}_{drag}=M_1\stackrel{}{v}/t_{drag}`$, where $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ is the instantaneous velocity of the planet and $`t_{drag}=1.6\times 10^3\mathrm{yr}`$ is the timescale over which $`a_1`$ decays to 0. This prescribed drag force is introduced to simulate the effects of disk-induced migration and does not directly affect the planet’s eccentricity (Papaloizou & Larwood 2000). Our value for $`t_{drag}`$ is chosen to illuminate the evolution on timescales that are not too long compared to $`P_2`$; larger values of $`t_{drag}`$ are probably more realistic and will be considered later. The test particle is initially placed on an orbit having semi-major axis $`a_2=1.35`$ AU and eccentricity $`e_2=0`$, and is initially positioned at an angle $`\mathrm{\Delta }=180^{}`$ away from the angular position of the planet. The test particle feels only the gravitational attraction from the planet and from the star. The subsequent positions and velocities of the planet and of the test particle are calculated using a variable-order, variable-step Adams numerical integration scheme (Hall & Watt 1976). Figure 2 displays the evolution. As the inner massive planet migrates towards the star, the mean eccentricity of the test particle undergoes 4 distinct changes. These changes occur when the period ratio $`P_2/P_1`$ equals $`5/3`$, $`2/1`$, $`4/1`$, and $`5/1`$. Concomitant changes in $`a_2`$ occur at these epochs of resonance passage. At times $`t>600\mathrm{yr}`$, interactions between the particle and the now-distant planet are negligibly small, and the particle is left on a more eccentric ($`e_2=0.21`$) and slightly expanded ($`a_2=1.47`$ AU) orbit compared to its initial one.

These changes in $`e_2`$ and $`a_2`$ occur because during passage through a resonance, impulses of velocity are imparted to the test particle from the planet at specific phases in the test particle’s orbit for extended periods of time. Accelerations felt by the test particle from the inner massive planet are strongest near times of conjunction, when positions of the star, planet, and test particle fall on a straight line and in that order. A $`p:q`$ resonance for which the planet executes integer $`p`$ circular orbits for every integer $`q`$ elliptical orbits traced by the test particle is characterized by $`|pq|`$ conjunctions which occur at $`|pq|`$ values of the particle’s true anomaly $`f_2`$.111True anomaly measures the angular position of an object with respect to its periastron, and increases in the direction of the object’s motion. True anomalies $`f_2`$ near every conjunction are plotted in Figure 2b. For example, during passage through the 2:1 resonance, conjunctions are repeatedly occurring at values of $`f_2`$ concentrated in the interval between $`270^{}`$ and $`360^{}`$. Conjunctions in this quadrant amplify $`e_2`$ and $`a_2`$ (Murray & Dermott 1999). Analytic expressions for the magnitudes of eccentricity jumps through first-order and second-order resonances are provided by Dermott, Malhotra, & Murray (1988).

Accounting for the finite mass of the outer body does not change our conclusions qualitatively. In Figure 3 we showcase 2 scenarios involving an inner body of mass $`M_1/M_{}=2\times 10^3`$ and an outer body of mass $`M_2/M_{}=1\times 10^3`$. To demonstrate that the substantial eccentricities that are excited in our simulation are caused by passages through resonances and not by the mere close proximity of these massive bodies, we do not impose any differential migration for the first $`4\times 10^3\mathrm{yr}`$ of the integration. The osculating eccentricities of both bodies do not exceed 0.075 during this phase when $`\delta r`$, the instantaneous distance between the two planets, can be as small as 0.400 AU. Only when the drag force is applied to the inner planet at $`t>4\times 10^3\mathrm{yr}`$, using $`t_{drag}=1\times 10^4\mathrm{yr}`$, do the orbits diverge. The eccentricities of outer and inner bodies then undergo resonant excitation to values of $``$0.5 and $``$0.2, respectively, in the step-wise fashion characteristic of resonance crossings. The degree of amplification in $`e_2`$ exhibited in Figure 3 is greater than that in Figure 2 primarily because the former is based on a longer $`t_{drag}`$. We have experimented with 20 different sets of initial orbital elements and find that eccentricities $`e>0.2`$ are excited in all our test cases provided the initial $`P_2/P_1<2`$ so that the 2:1 resonance is crossed.

The eccentricity and semi-major axis jumps are due largely to resonant interaction and not to close encounters. The separation $`\delta r`$ attains minimum values of 0.325–0.400 AU (Figures 3ab) and 0.306–0.400 AU (Figures 3cd) at $`t=4000`$$`5000\mathrm{yr}`$, whereas much of the amplification in $`e_2`$ and $`a_2`$ occurs over $`t5000`$$`6000\mathrm{yr}`$ when $`\delta r>0.400\mathrm{AU}`$. We have verified by a separate integration that freezing the divergent migration at $`t=4356\mathrm{yr}`$ in the case of Figures 3cd—thereby freezing $`\delta r`$ at its minimum value of 0.306 AU—does not generate further eccentricity or semi-major axis jumps at subsequent times, thus ruling out the significance of close encounters.

## 4 Discussion

We have established that divergent orbital migration of two planets can lead to significant eccentricity excitation without resonance capture. The effectiveness of this mechanism hinges on the detailed, and here umodelled, interaction between disk gas and the embedded planets. It is possible that the disk gas exerts torques on the planets on short enough timescales that the smooth navigation of the resonant separatrix is disrupted; conjunctions between the two planets may not occur at the same orbital phases for extended periods of time due to gravitational “noise” generated by disk gas. This is a concern that we defer to future hydrodynamic simulations of planet-disk interactions.

While we have staged our scenario within a gaseous circumstellar disk, it seems possible that divergent migration may also be effected by planetesimal scatterings (e.g., Murray et al. 1998; Hahn & Malhotra 1999). In their simulations of the formation of the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt, Hahn & Malhotra (1999) find that Uranus and Neptune divergently migrate and cross a 2:1 resonance (see their Figure 6), thereby undergoing eccentricity excitation. The excitation is limited, however, because the planetesimal masses which they employ are large enough that the divergence of the planetary orbits is not adiabatic.

Our proposed mechanism operates most effectively when the initial orbits of the two bodies are sufficiently close that powerful resonances for which $`|pq|=1`$ (e.g., the 2:1 resonance) are crossed during subsequent migration. Formation of planets at such proximity is not unreasonable; a single giant planet embedded within a circumstellar disk may induce the collapse of a second planet in the vicinity of the 2:1 resonance (Armitage & Hansen 1999; Bryden et al. 2000).

Disk-driven divergent migration of two gap-opening planets is most effective if a ring of viscous disk material remains present between the two bodies. Kley (2000) and Bryden et al. (2000) have performed pioneering numerical simulations of two planets embedded in a disk resembling the minimum-mass solar nebula. While these calculations have tentatively shown that a ring can fail to be shepherded between two planets, so that planetary orbits converge rather than diverge, the outcome is model-dependent. The results of Bryden et al. (2000) suggest that if the mass of the ring is larger than the masses of the planets, or if the ring’s intrinsic $`\alpha `$ is large so that planet-driven waves are efficiently dissipated near ring edges, then the ring can be confined; see, in particular, their model G.

The resonance crossings mechanism for generating eccentricities demands that each planet have at least one other planetary companion, either in the past or today. If $`M_1<M_2`$, then $`e_1>e_2`$, and vice versa. While the extrasolar planetary system $`\upsilon `$ And violates this requirement (Butler et al. 1999; Chiang, Tabachnik, & Tremaine 2001), the system HD 168433 (Marcy et al. 2001a) satisfies it. The absence of a second companion today in a given planetary system may indicate that the companion was accreted onto the star, either because its eccentricity grew too large by resonance crossings, or because “Type II” interactions drove the planet to its fiery destruction. A signature of planetary accretion would be an enhanced host star metallicity, but enhancements due to accretion of Jupiter-like giants during the first $``$$`10^7\mathrm{yr}`$ of the life of the star are too small to detect reliably (Murray et al. 2001).

The condition that the planets initially share the same orbit plane may be relaxed. We would expect a non-zero initial mutual inclination, $`i`$, to be amplified in analogous manner to the way eccentricities are excited. Lifting the planet out of the plane of the disk may represent a means of survival against continued migration. However, the degree of amplification in $`i`$ is expected to be less than that in $`e`$ because inclination resonances are at least second-order ($`|pq|2`$) in strength (Murray & Dermott 1999). Calculating the relative orbital inclinations offers a means of testing our theory; future astrometric missions such as the Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME) and the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), in conjunction with stellar spectroscopic measurements, can place bounds on the degree of misalignment between orbital axes of eccentric planets and the spin axes of their parent stars.

If the MRI is the sole source of viscosity late in the life of a protoplanetary disk, we would expect gap-opening, Jupiter-mass planets at distances outside a few AU to have suffered little to no migration within the primordial gas disk. While it is unconventional to think of T Tauri disks as having $`\alpha =0`$ at $`rr_d1\mathrm{AU}`$, such a model does not appear to violate observation or theory. It would require the disk to contain $``$0.01 $`M_{}`$ inside $`r1\mathrm{AU}`$, a condition for which the disk remains gravitationally stable. Timescales for accretion of this much material could be as long as those observed, $``$$`10^6\mathrm{yr}`$, if $`\alpha 10^5`$ at $`r1\mathrm{AU}`$. Given a static outer disk, the theory of eccentricity excitation proposed here would predict that orbits of giant planets at $`r`$ a few AU be nearly circular. Giant planet orbits in our Solar System conform to this expectation. We await the results of ongoing Doppler velocity searches and future space-based interferometric surveys for extrasolar planets to confirm whether the orbital architecture of the outer Solar System is indeed commonplace.

We thank C. McKee for thoughtful comments on the manuscript and emboldening discussions, and P. Goldreich, R. Malhotra, G. Marcy, F. Marzari, N. Murray, E. Quataert, and S. Tremaine for encouraging and informative exchanges.