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# Slepton Flavor Physics at Linear Colliders

## I Introduction

If supersymmetry is discovered at the Tevatron or LHC, much of the focus of particle physics research will turn to measuring and understanding the $`105`$ (or more) soft breaking parameters. While this problem may seem, at first, more daunting than understanding the pattern of quark and lepton masses and mixings, we know, a priori, that these parameters must show striking regularities. Otherwise, supersymmetry would lead to large, unobserved flavor violation among ordinary quarks and leptons.

From the perspective of string theory, for example, the prospect of discovering supersymmetry and measuring the soft breaking parameters is extremely exciting. Indeed, in most pictures of supersymmetry breaking, squark and slepton masses arise from non-renormalizable operators associated with some new scale of physics. This could well be, for example, the scale of string or M-theory. Thus, collider measurements of the soft breaking parameters are potentially indirect probes of extremely high energy physics, physics we might hope to eventually unravel!

To date, there are only a few theoretical proposals for the origin of the requisite regularities of the soft parameters which lead to acceptably small low energy flavor violation among the quarks and leptons. Each has important implications for the physics discoveries of future colliders. In this note, we will survey these proposals, and discuss some of their implications for collider phenomenology. One particularly exciting possibility, is the existence of dramatic flavor violating phenomena in slepton production. This can occur even given the strong bounds from the non-observation to date of flavor violation in low energy lepton decays.

We also call attention to previous work on slepton flavor violating collider phenomenology Kras ; halloscillations  and extend it to include the effects of finite width and mass differences. Our motivation is the realization that, in a first phase, a linear collider is likely to have a center of mass energy of $`500`$ GeV. As a result, one can well imagine that supersymmetry will have been discovered at the LHC, but that we will have only limited information about the spectrum, and a first generation linear collider will have access to only a few of the lightest superpartner states. In many theories these include sleptons. Even with this limited set of states, the observation – or not – of slepton flavor violation will provide important clues to the underlying supersymmetry breaking structure.

The reason that observable sflavor violation at a linear collider is possible is easy to understand. In many proposals to solve the supersymmetric flavor problem, a high degree of degeneracy among sleptons (and squarks) is predicted. As a result, there is the potential for substantial mixing of flavor eigenstates. This can lead to substantial and observable sflavor violation. To be readily observable, it is necessary that mass splittings between the states not be too much smaller than the decay widths, and that the mixing angles not be terribly small. In some of these proposals, and in particular gauge mediation, the predicted degree of degeneracy is extremely high, and the mixing probably unobservable. However, in most other proposals, the splittings can be comparable or even larger than the widths, and the mixing angles may be of order the Cabbibo angle or larger. In this case, dramatic collider signatures are possible.

## II Mediation Mechanisms

It is instructive to review the various proposed mechanisms for understanding the suppression of flavor changing processes in supersymmetric theories. We should start by noting that most analyses of collider experiments work in the framework of what has become to known as Gravity Mediation. In such models, one simply assumes exact degeneracy of squarks and sleptons at some very high energy scale. This assumption is not natural since it is violated by quantum corrections (and is in fact scale dependent), and so surely breaks down at some level. Without some theory, or more detailed assumptions, one cannot assess the degree to which this assumption is viable. In other words, degeneracy in this case is a puzzle to be explained rather than a mechanism in itself.

There are a number of more serious proposals of which we are aware for understanding the suppression of supersymmetric contributions to quark and lepton flavor violating processes. These fall into three broad classes. The first are mechanisms which seek to ensure a high degree of degeneracy as the result of dynamics without specific assumptions about flavor. The second are flavor symmetries which enforce either a high degree of degeneracy or alignment of the squark and slepton mass matrices with those of the quarks and leptons. The third invokes heavy superpartner masses to kinematically suppress low energy processes.

* Gauge Mediation: In its simplest form, any flavor violation in gauge mediation occurs at a high order in the loop expansion, or due to non-renormalizable operators. In the former case, the suppressions are typically by powers of small Yukawa couplings and extra loop factors. These effects are automatically aligned with flavor violation in the Yukawa sector and are therefore not dangerous and do not give rise to interesting processes. In the latter case, the suppression is by powers of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/M^2`$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ represents some typical scale associated with the supersymmetry-breaking interactions, and $`M`$ some large scale associated with new physics such as a flavor scale at which flavor is spontaneously broken or the Planck or string scale. For $`\mathrm{\Lambda }M`$ the distinctive feature is the absence of sflavor violating processes.
* Dilaton Domination: At weak coupling in the heterotic string there is a regime in which a gravity-mediated spectrum with a high degree of degeneracy is obtained. If the weak coupling picture is valid, one might hope that generic flavor violating corrections to squark and slepton mass matrices are of order $`\alpha _{\mathrm{GUT}}/\pi `$. Numerically this is just enough to understand the suppression of flavor changing neutral currents louisnir . It suggests that mass splittings among the lightest sleptons will be at least of order a few parts in $`10^3`$. We will see that this is within the range (albeit at the low end) of what one might hope to measure directly at a linear collider. Without further assumptions about flavor, one expects mixings of squarks and sleptons to be of order one. Such a mass splitting is comparable to the expected decay widths of these states, so this sflavor violating mixing might well be observable. In the strongly coupled limit, it seems likely that the violations of degeneracy are larger adgt .
* Anomaly Mediation: The anomaly-mediated hypothesis superficially has some features in common with gauge mediation. However, the mediation scale is now comparable to the Planck scale, and one has to ask about the magnitude of flavor violating corrections to squark and slepton mass matrices. It has been argued that brane world realizations of supersymmetry breaking might naturally provide a context for anomaly mediation with small corrections to degeneracy rs . However, anomaly mediation turns out not a robust feature of brane world supersymmetry breaking, and violations of degeneracy are generally large adgt . Still, the degeneracy might be small enough to suppress low energy flavor violating processes in very special circumstances.
* Gaugino Domination (and the closely related idea of gaugino mediation): With no-scale boundary conditions one assumes that scalar masses vanish or are very small compared to gaugino masses at the high messenger scale. Without a detailed underlying model, it is hard to know how large the violations of degeneracy might be at this scale, but it seems reasonable to suppose that at the high scale, the magnitude of the squark and slepton mass matrices are suppressed relative to gaugino masses by an amount of order $`\alpha _{\mathrm{GUT}}/\pi `$. At lower scales, renormalization group evolution gives a flavor independent gaugino mass contribution to slepton masses which leads to a high degree of degeneracy. As in the case of dilaton domination, without further assumptions about flavor, the violations of degeneracy are expected to be maximally flavor violating, and to lead to large mixings in the high scale squark and slepton masses which in turn leads to large mixings at the electroweak scale.
* Conformal Sequestering: Another possibility for obtaining a high degree of degeneracy is to postulate that the first two generation squarks and sleptons are coupled to an approximately conformal sector over a few orders of magnitude in renormalization group evolution nelsonstrassler . This has the effect of exponentially suppressing squark and slepton masses as well as fermion Yukawa couplings. Below this approximately conformal range of scales further renormalization group evolution gives a flavor independent gaugino mass contribution to slepton masses which leads to a high degree of degeneracy much as with no-scale boundary conditions. Violations of conformal invariance by standard model gauge interactions limit the degree of slepton degeneracy to roughly $`\alpha _\mathrm{W}/\pi 10^2`$. Without further assumptions about flavor in the high scale theory above the approximately conformal scale, slepton mixings are related to ratios of lepton masses by roughly $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{ij}>\sqrt{m_\mathrm{}_i/m_\mathrm{}_j}`$.
* Non-Abelian Flavor Symmetries: If the explanation of squark and slepton degeneracy lies in non-abelian flavor symmetries, it is reasonable to expect that violations of degeneracy are correlated with the values of quark and lepton masses and the KM angles. In this case, one might hope to obtain tighter predictions in a given model for the pattern of flavor violation in the slepton sector. The level of degeneracy is model dependent, but again a few parts times $`10^3`$ is a reasonable expectation for the violations of degeneracy, with values for the mixings of order Cabbibo angles $`\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{ij}\sqrt{m_\mathrm{}_i/m_\mathrm{}_j}`$ nonabelianflavor .
* Abelian Flavor Symmetries: As an alternative to degeneracy among squarks and sleptons, it has been suggested that the squark and slepton mass matrices might be approximately aligned with the quark and lepton matrices nirseiberg . This can come about in theories with Abelian (discrete) flavor symmetries. In this case, one does not expect any approximate degeneracy among sleptons. In order to suppress flavor changing lepton decays the mixings need to be somewhat small. Still, the mixing can be large enough, in particular for mixing involving taus, such that sflavor violation can be observable at colliders.
* First Two Generations Heavy: Another possibility to suppress dangerous levels of supersymmetric contributions to low energy quark and lepton flavor violation is to postulate that the superpartners are very heavy. The first two generation squarks and sleptons can have masses up to of order 20 TeV without introducing significant tuning of electroweak symmetry breaking ckn . In this case only the (mostly) stau slepton(s) would be kinematically accessible at future colliders. Without additional assumptions about flavor, naturalness of the full slepton mass matrix implies that mixing of this light state(s) among the flavor eigenstates would be of order $`m/M`$ where $`m`$ and $`M`$ are the light and heavy slepton masses.

In sum, of the various proposals to understand the absence of flavor violation at low energies, several predict dramatic violations of flavor at colliders. Among those which don’t, there tend to be distinctive predictions for the spectrum. Models of gauge mediation, for example, tend to be highly predictive. While there is no one compelling model of this type, many models exist, and one can imagine detailed measurements distinguishing between them. In the case of alignment mechanisms, while there should flavor mixing it will not be so dramatic, one should observe correlations between the squark and slepton and the ordinary quark and lepton masses.

In the case of non-Abelian flavor symmetries, not only does one expect significant mixing, but one can hope to obtain, given some assumptions about the form of flavor symmetry breaking, precise predictions for some of the violations of flavor symmetry. Moreover, these are likely to be correlated with quark, lepton and neutrino mass matrices. In such a case, precision measurements might ultimately permit distinguishing between different models. Clearly, all of these are directions for further theoretical work, but the discovery of supersymmetry and unraveling the pattern of symmetry breaking would provide important insights into the nature of physics at very high energy scales. The observation of flavor violation – or its absence – at linear colliders will provide important clues to the nature of the underlying mechanisms of supersymmetry breaking and mediation.

## III Sflavor Oscillations of Unstable Sleptons

Slepton flavor oscillations arise if the sleptons mass eigenstates are not flavor eigenstates. Consider for simplicity the case in which leptons are produced initially in flavor eigenstates. If the mass eigenstates have distinct mass, then the flavor eigenstate oscillates in time and space with a frequency given by the mass splittings. If the slepton decay rate is much smaller than the mass splitting, oscillations average out and the probability of decay from a given flavor eigenstate is given simply by mixing angles, as implicitly assumed previously Kras . If the slepton decay is rapid compared with the oscillation frequency then the probability of decay to another flavor eigenstate is suppressed halloscillations . There are additional effects which can affect the flavor violating decay probability. First, different flavor eigenstates need not have the same decay width. This is particularly true for the $`\stackrel{~}{\tau }`$ slepton which can have a non-trivial decay amplitude to the Higgsino component of a neutralino at moderate to large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. In addition, the probability amplitude or cross section for production of different mass eigenstates need not be equal. This is potentially important in $`S`$-wave processes such as $`e^{}e^{}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^{}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ near threshold due to finite mass differences. Both of these effects might in principle enhance flavor violating effects in decays, and are considered below.

For simplicity throughout we consider the two flavor CP conserving case with flavor and mass eigenstates related by

$$|\stackrel{~}{e}=c|1+s|2,|\stackrel{~}{\mu }=s|1+c|2$$
(III.1)
where $`c`$ and $`s`$ are complex numbers that satisfy $`|c|^2+|s|^2=1`$. (Only in the limit where the width difference is neglected $`s`$ and $`c`$ can be chosen to be real, thus getting they regular interpretations as a sine and a cosine of an angle.) The other relevant physical dimensionless parameters characterize the ratio of mass splitting or oscillation frequency to decay width, the relative width difference of the mass eigenstates, and the relative rate or cross section for production of the mass eigenstates

$$x\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }m}{\mathrm{\Gamma }},y\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }}{2\mathrm{\Gamma }},z\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma }{2\sigma }$$
(III.2)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }m`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are the mass and width differences of the two mass eigenstates, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is their average width. $`\sigma _i`$ is the cross section to produce the $`i`$th mass eigenstate, and

$$\sigma =\frac{\sigma _1+\sigma _2}{2},\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma =\sigma _2\sigma _1.$$
(III.3)
The case $`x=y=z=0`$ was considered in Kras  while $`y=z=0`$ with $`x`$ arbitrary was considered in halloscillations . In the first subsection below, the flavor decay probability is derived for small but non-vanishing $`x`$, $`y`$, and $`z`$. In the next subsection the decay probability for small $`x`$ and $`y`$ is shown to depend directly on the off-diagonal slepton mass squared mixing, as required in this limit. In the final subsection, estimates of the widths are given.

### III.1 Decay Probability

The probability for an initial selectron state to decay as a smuon state, $`P(\stackrel{~}{e}\stackrel{~}{\mu })`$, may be calculated from the time evolution of the state. A selectron flavor state produced at time $`t=0`$ is a linear combination of mass eigenstates

$$\psi (t=0)=N\left[\sigma _1c|1+\sigma _2s|2\right]=N\left[\sigma |\stackrel{~}{e}\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma |\stackrel{~}{\mu }\right],$$
(III.4)
where the normalization factor is

$$N=\left(c^2\sigma _1^2+s^2\sigma _2^2\right)^{1/2}$$
(III.5)
and $`\sigma _i\sigma _i/\sigma `$ are the dimensionless cross sections. The factors of $`\sigma _i`$ in the relative amplitudes account for the possibility that the cross section for each mass eigenstate is distinct; for example, from mass difference effects near threshold. Using the standard oscillation formalism the time evolution formula for a selectron initial state is

$$\psi (t)=N\left[c\sigma _1e^{i\mu _1t}|1+s\sigma _2e^{i\mu _2t}|2\right],$$
(III.6)
where

$$\mu _i=m_ii\mathrm{\Gamma }_i/2$$
(III.7)
and $`m_i`$ ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$) is the mass (width) of the $`i`$th mass eigenstate. The time dependent oscillation probability is given by

$$P(\stackrel{~}{e}\stackrel{~}{\mu })[t]=\frac{\left|\stackrel{~}{\mu }|\psi (t)\right|^2}{\left|\psi (t)|\psi (t)\right|^2}$$
(III.8)
so that the projection onto the smuon flavor eigenstate is

$$\left|\stackrel{~}{\mu }|\psi (t)\right|^2=N^2c^2s^2\left[\sigma _2^2e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2t}+\sigma _1^2e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_1t}2\sigma _1\sigma _2e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }t}\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Delta }mt)\right].$$
(III.9)
After integration over time from zero to infinity

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑t\left|\stackrel{~}{\mu }|\psi (t)\right|^2=N^2c^2s^2\left[\frac{\sigma _2^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2}+\frac{\sigma _1^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_1}\frac{2\sigma _1\sigma _2\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\mathrm{\Delta }M^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}\right],$$
(III.10)
and

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑t\left|\psi (t)|\psi (t)\right|^2=N^4\left[\frac{s^4\sigma _2^4}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2}+\frac{c^4\sigma _1^4}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_1}+\frac{2c^2s^2\sigma _1^2\sigma _2^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}\right].$$
(III.11)
Then the time integrated oscillation probability is

$$P(\stackrel{~}{e}\stackrel{~}{\mu })=\frac{|cs|^2}{N^2}\left(\frac{\sigma _2^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2}+\frac{\sigma _1^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_1}\frac{2\sigma _1\sigma _2\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\mathrm{\Delta }M^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}\right)\times \left(\frac{|s|^4\sigma _2^4}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2}+\frac{|c|^4\sigma _1^4}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_1}+\frac{2|cs|^2\sigma _1^2\sigma _2^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}\right)^1.$$
(III.12)
It is useful to expand $`P`$ in the (presumably) small parameters, $`x`$, $`y`$ and $`z`$. To lowest order

$$P(\stackrel{~}{e}\stackrel{~}{\mu })=2c^2s^2\left[x^2+y^2+2z^22zy\right]$$
(III.13)
The oscillation probability in this limit is quadratic in all three small parameters. The $`x^2`$ term describing the effect of finite mass difference is the lowest order form of the effect discussed in halloscillations . The $`y^2`$ term describing the effect of a width difference between the two mass eigenstates parametrically plays a similar role as $`x^2`$, as is well known from the $`D`$-meson system. The $`z`$ parameter describes the effect of the difference of production probability for the two mass eigenstates. This effect has never been mentioned in the context of meson mixing, since there it is always completely negligible. As discussed below, also in the present case of slepton production, its effect is somewhat smaller than the effects of $`x`$ and $`y`$.

We first consider the possible effect of the $`z`$ parameter. Ignoring the decay width, the cross section for $`e^{}e^{}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^{}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}^{}`$ is $`S`$-wave and proportional to the final state velocity $`\beta `$ near threshold. Far above threshold, where the cross section is large, $`\beta 1`$ and $`z`$ vanishes. Only near threshold, where the cross section is small, $`z`$ can be sizeable. The Monte Carlo program Pandora may be used to estimate $`z`$. As an example, we considered small mixing angles and took $`m_\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}=150`$ GeV, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m=1`$ GeV, $`m_{\chi ^0}=100`$ and a center of mass energy of 305 GeV, and found $`z=0.13`$. Note that in this case $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=240`$ MeV, so $`x4`$, and it is the dominant effect. Also at smaller $`x`$ the inequality $`z<x`$ still holds. We conclude that the effect of $`z`$ is smaller than that of $`x`$ and $`y`$. This is because $`z`$ is generated only for finite $`x`$ or $`y`$, and in such a way that it is smaller then $`x`$ and $`y`$. Even so, it does increase the flavor violating decay probability somewhat.

### III.2 Calculating $`x`$ and $`y`$

It is instructive to derive the $`x`$ and $`y`$ parameters from the general form of the slepton mass matrix including the effects of flavor mixing and decay

$$M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{11}i\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}/2& m_{12}i\mathrm{\Gamma }_{12}/2\\ m_{21}i\mathrm{\Gamma }_{21}/2& m_{22}i\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}/2\end{array}\right)$$
(III.14)
where $`m_{21}=m_{12}^{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{21}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{12}^{}`$ and $`m_{ii}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ii}`$ are real. Solving the eigenvalue equation $`det(M\mu _i)=0`$ gives the mass eigenstates, the mass and width differences, and the mixing angles. The general calculation is not very illuminating, so several simplifying assumptions are employed.

First, we note that in the MSSM there are no flavor violating decays. Thus, we set $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{21}=0`$. (This may not be the case in models beyond the MSSM, for example, in supersymmetric models with 4 Higgs doublets, where the Higgs bosons can mediate flavor changing decays.) Second we assume CP conservation and then $`m_{12}`$ may be taken real. Next, for simplicity, we assume that $`m_{11}m_{22}m_{12}`$ and may be approximated by zero. This is because in the opposite limit $`m_{11}m_{22}m_{12}`$ the mixing angle is small and we are not interested in that case.

With these assumptions we solve the eigenvalue equation. We define the real parameters $`am_{11}=m_{22}`$, $`b=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}/2`$, $`d=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}/2`$ and $`f=m_{12}`$ and find that for $`(bd)>2f`$

$$x=0,y=\frac{\sqrt{(bd)^24f^2}}{b+d},$$
(III.15)
while for $`(bd)<2f`$

$$x=\frac{2\sqrt{4f^2(bd)^2}}{b+d},y=0.$$
(III.16)
For simplicity for the mixing angles we present results only in some limits. For $`(bd)2f`$ we find

$$c\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(1+i),s\frac{f}{\sqrt{2}(bd)}(1i),$$
(III.17)
and for $`(bd)2f`$ we find

$$cs\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}.$$
(III.18)
We see that in the $`(bd)2f`$ limit, where the width difference is large, the mixing angles are suppressed. Actually, the oscillation probability is the same in both limits considered above

$$P2|cs|^2(x^2+y^2)\frac{2m_{12}^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}.$$
(III.19)
In particular, it does not depend on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}`$.

We conclude that no matter if we have large width difference or not, the oscillation probability is determined by the ratio between the off-diagonal mass term and the average width. While we made several assumptions in order to derive the above results, the conclusion is general. Off-diagonal mixing terms in the mass squared matrix must not be too much smaller than the decay widths in order to obtain large violations of flavor in slepton decays.

### III.3 Decay Width

As we saw the relevant parameters that determined the flavor violation oscillation probability are $`M_{12}/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and to some extent also $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22})/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. While $`M_{12}`$, the off diagonal mass difference, is a parameter of the model, the widths are derived from the model parameters. Therefore, below we estimates their sizes.

We start with estimating $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. For example we consider decays of right handed sleptons. The decay width for a right handed slepton to decay to a Bino through the emission of a lepton is

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R\mathrm{}_R\stackrel{~}{B})=\frac{\alpha m_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R}}{2\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _W}\left(1\frac{m_{\stackrel{~}{B}}^2}{m_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R}^2}\right)^2$$
(III.20)
where $`\alpha `$ is the fine structure constant evaluated at the slepton mass scale, $`\theta _W`$ is the weak mixing angle, and the lepton mass has been ignored. Numerically, the dimensionless width is

$$\frac{1}{m_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R\mathrm{}_R\stackrel{~}{B})5\times 10^3\left(\frac{1m_{\stackrel{~}{B}}^2}{m_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R}^2}\right)^2$$
(III.21)
For a typical value of $`m_{\stackrel{~}{B}}/m_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R}=0.75`$ the dimensionless width is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R\mathrm{}_R\stackrel{~}{B})/m_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}_R}10^3`$.

In light of our remarks about the expected degrees of degeneracy in various proposals for supersymmetry breaking, this is a striking number. In some sense, within the range of ideas which have been proposed, a large fraction predict that the splittings should be as large or larger than the width, and thus observable.

Next we consider the possible magnitude of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}`$ for slepton production and decay by $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}\chi \mathrm{}`$. If $`m_\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}m_\chi ^0m_\tau `$, the final state neutralino is pure gaugino, and the sleptons are pure left- or right-handed eigenstates, then the decay is universal and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}`$. Universality violation due to phase space can be significant only when the mass splitting between the sleptons and the neutralino is at least comparable to or smaller than the lepton mass. Another effect can be dues to significant Higgsino component in $`\chi `$. The full calculation for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{}}\chi \mathrm{}`$ for general gaugino–Higgsino mixing can be found in nijiri . A very crude estimate in the the $`\stackrel{~}{\tau }\stackrel{~}{\mu }`$ case with large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ is

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}\frac{Y_\tau ^2}{Y_\tau ^2+2g_1^2Z_{1B}^2/Z_{1h}^2}$$
(III.22)
where $`Z_{1h}`$ and $`Z_{1B}`$ are the Higgsino and Bino amplitudes of $`\chi `$, $`Y_\tau `$ is the $`\tau `$ Yukawa coupling, and $`g_1`$ is the hypercharge coupling. For large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and significant Higgsino component in the neutralino $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{11}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}`$ can be large.

## IV Conclusions

If superpartners are discovered, there is good reason to expect that sleptons will have a high degree of degeneracy which enhances sensitivity to sflavor violating effects. It is quite possible then that significant sflavor violation could be observed at a linear collider. The observation – or non-observation – of such sflavor breaking would provide important indirect clues about flavor and supersymmetry physics at potentially extremely high energy scales.

### Acknowledgements

Y.G. Thanks the SLAC theory group for their warm hospitality while most of this work were done. The work of M.D. was supported in part by a grant from the US Department of Energy. The work of Y.G. was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation under Grant No. 237/01-1, and in part by the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation through Grant No. 2000133. The work of S.T. was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation under grant PHY98-70115, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Stanford University through the Fredrick E. Terman Fellowship.


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# Highly Ionized Absorption in the X-ray Spectrum of Cyg X-1

## 1 Introduction

Cyg X-1 has been observed several times with the High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The first observation  shows details of the structures of the ionization edges from neutral species in the interstellar medium. In particular, the O K and Fe L edges showed significant structure that had been unobservable at low spectral resolution. The Ne K edge was unresolved but the nearby continuum showed subtle features that could be attributed to Fe XX. There were other weak, unresolved features in the spectrum that supported in the interpretation that we are observing Cyg X-1 through a low density ionized gas that is associated with Cyg X-1.

A second observation with the HETGS that was taken at a different orbital phase and in a different instrument mode. We find many redshifted absorption features from highly ionized species of S, Si, Mg, Ne, and Fe. We present a preliminary analysis of this observation.

## 2 Chandra HETGS Spectra

Cyg X-1 was observed on 12 January 2000 (MJD = JD - 2400000.5 = 51555.34 - 5.51). The orbital phase for this observation was 0.84, based on a recent orbital ephemeris . For the first observation , the orbital phase was 0.93, while in a third observation, the orbital phase was 0.76, nearly perpendicular to the line between the compact and companion stars . The total exposure time was 12677.5 s. The Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS-S) detector was used for readout and was operated in the so-called “continuous clocking” (CC) mode. This mode is described in detail in the Chandra Proposer’s Observatory Guide (p. 101). Briefly, in this mode, the charge is shifted row by row to the frame storage buffer at 2.84996 ms intervals. Imaging information along the readout direction is lost in favor of improved event timing.

The Chandra HETGS spectrum of Cyg X-1 is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. A fit to a simple power law in the 2-10 keV band gives a photon index of 1.73. The residuals (Fig. 1) show that there is a soft excess that is usually attributed to a disk blackbody. In the first HETGS observation, $`kT`$ of the disk was about 200 eV . In addition to absorption edges from neutral gas in the interstellar medium, there are many narrow absorption lines. The depths of the Ne K and Fe L absorption edges are consistent with the edge strengths obtained from the first observation where $`N_H`$ was estimated to be 6.2 $`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 .

In order to show the absorption lines more clearly, the HETGS medium energy grating (MEG) and the high energy grating (HEG) spectra were combined at a binning of 0.01 Å(Fig. 2). There are more than a dozen narrow absorption lines of highly ionized species, ranging from Fe XVII to S XVI. The lines are redshifted by 300 to 800 km/s but are generally consistent with the weighted mean: 460 $`\pm `$ 10 km/s (see Fig. 3). The lines are resolved in HEG spectra (and often in the lower resolution MEG spectra as well), giving Doppler line widths of order 300 km s-1 (FWHM). In some cases, blends cause the lines to be broader than expected.

Practically no Ly $`\beta `$ lines are detected while Ly $`\alpha `$ lines are strong, so we infer that the lines are not saturated and that the absorbing gas probably covers more than $`50`$% of the source. Assuming complete coverage, we estimated column densities from fits of Gaussian models jointly to the original MEG and HEG data. The results are shown in Fig. 3. The column densities are between $`10^{16}`$ cm-2 and $`10^{17}`$ cm-2, which, using solar abundances, correspond to equivalent hydrogen column densities of the order of $`10^{2021}`$ cm-2. There is trend that the column densities of He-like ions are systematically lower than the corresponding H-like ions, which could indicate that the photoionized plasma has a high temperature or the emission from these ions originate from different emission zones. We note that the result for all the Fe XVII transitions are consistent with each other.

## 3 Discussion

We consider a simple working hypothesis in which the narrow lines result from absorption by ionized gas as it is transferred from the companion star to the black hole. The companion is a supergiant O star with a with a radiatively driven wind with a maximum velocity of $`1500`$ km s-1 . Cyg X-1 gravitationally focusses and accretes this wind from the companion  although the companion may be very close to filling its Roche lobe . The wind from the companion is expected to be too cool ($`T10^5`$ K, as in Vela X-1 ) to ionize S and Si to the H- and He-like states, so the ionization mechanism is most likely photoionization by the hard X-ray continuum. This continuum is thought to result from Comptonization of the accretion disk’s thermal radiation in an extremely hot corona, so the absorbing gas must have a much larger physical scale.

In general, the wide range of observed ionization states (Fe XVII to S XVI) would not be found in gas of a single ionization parameter, $`\xi L_x/(nr^2)`$, so $`nr^2`$ probably varies significantly along the line of sight. Lines of these strengths were not observed in the first observation, so the conditions under which they are detected may depend on the luminosity state of the illuminating X-ray source or the orbital phase. The source was $`\times `$ 2 brighter during the first observation so it may be that the higher X-ray luminosity completely ionized the accreting material. On the other hand, the orbital phase was 0.93, so the wind may have been mostly obscured by the companion star.

Remarkably, we do not observe a wide spread of line velocities (Fig. 3), but a quite narrow ($`\pm 150`$ km s-1) distribution around 450 km s-1. At the closest approach to the surface of the companion, about one stellar radius, the line of sight to Cyg X-1 will encounter a wind velocity of order 650 km s-1. In the focussed wind model, the velocity vector is not directed strictly radially, so we observe gas that appears to be on an accretion trajectory. Using solar abundances, the column density of the absorbing material is of order $`10^{2021}`$ cm-2, which is well below the value of $`10^{23}`$ cm-2 inferred from RXTE ASM observations . This could indicate that we observe either a physically narrow plasma flow (a “streamer” or “ribbon”) or only a smaller, more distant region in the plasma flow that is either shadowed from the ionizing source or that is only partially ionized.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work has been supported in part under NASA contracts NAS8-38249 and SAO SV1-61010.


text:
# Electronically Induced Anomaly in LO Phonon Dispersion of High - 𝑇_𝑐 Superconductors

## Abstract

The strong, electronically induced anomaly in the spectrum of the longitudinal optical (LO) phonons propagating along the main axes of the CuO2 plane is tentatively attributed to the oxygen-oxygen charge transfer between the two oxygens in the plane. It is argued that this charge transfer can be large and that it is strongly coupled to the zone boundary LO phonons. The corresponding negative contribution to the free energy is quartic in the LO phonon amplitude, making the LO phonon unstable through the first order phase transition, with a concomitant domain structure.

superconductivity, high-$`T_c`$ cuprates, La2-xSrxCuO4, YBa2Cu3O6+x, LO phonons, oxygen-oxygen charge susceptibility, first order phase transitions

The discovery of the electron-induced anomaly in the dispersion of the oxygen LO phonons, which propagate along the main axes of the CuO2 plane in La2-xSrxCuO4 Queeney ; Pinch1  and YBa2Cu3O6+x Petrov , has renewed interest in the origin of this anomaly and its possible interplay with high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity. Similar anomalies seem to occur in La2CaCuO4+x Pinch2 , Pb2Sr2(Ca,Y)Cu3O8 and Li1-xT2-xO4 Gompf . The oxygen LO phonon is anomalous even in the superconducting perovskite Ba1-xKxBiO3 Braden1 ; Braden2 . On the other hand, structural instabilities of a somewhat different nature have been observed in La2-xBaxCuO4 Axe  and Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8 Toby , where the oxygen displacements occur perpendicularly to the CuO2 planes.

The common feature observed in oxygen LO phonons of La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) and YBa2Cu3O6+x (YBCO) is the occurrence of a break in the dispersion at $`2\pi /a`$(0.25,0), half-way between the origin (0,0) and the edge (0.5,0) of the CuO2 planar Brillouin zone (BZ). This break was tentatively attributed Queeney  to the (quasi)static longitudinal dimerisation of the oxygens with wave vector \[0.5,0\] shown in Fig. 1a. The latter should produce the new BZ edge at \[0.25,0\] and, correspondingly, a gap in the LO dispersion. However, the (quasi)static dimerisation has never been observed. This led to the speculationQueeney  that the dimerisation is highly disordered, with various, usually very low estimates of the corresponding correlation length. The length in question should not however be shorter than a few times $`4a`$, if an LO phonon gap with wavelength $`4a`$ is to be attributed to the $`2a`$ dimerisation.

Although the LO phonon anomaly depends strongly on doping, the electronic mechanism that produces it has not been understood until now. The conventional Peierls-like explanation is unlikely, because it requires the appearance of the strong \[0.5,0\] charge density fluctuations, coupled to the lattice by a linear electron-phonon coupling. Although some phonon induced features seem to exist Lanzara in the electron spectra, recent ARPES measurements Shabel1 ; Shabel2 ; Ino1 ; Ino2  have however yielded Fermi surfaces of LSCO and YBCO which do not possess the nesting properties favoring \[0.5,0\] charge fluctuations. On the other hand, there is no apparent reason why the bare linear electron-phonon coupling would itself be particularly strong Kabanov  for the LO dimerisation.

The aim of this note is to examine a mechanism which can explain the LO anomaly in LSCO and YBCO. When the linear electron-phonon coupling is ruled out, the natural next step is to consider a quadratic electron-phonon coupling and the charge fluctuations which couple through it to the lattice. Such a quadratic electron-phonon coupling was already used to explain the LTO/LTT transition in La2-xBaxCuO4 SB , in which the oxygens move perpendicularly to the plane. When the LO dimerisation mode is involved quadratically in the electron-phonon coupling, it can only couple to the homogeneous charge redistribution within the unit cell. This charge redistribution can be either symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the symmetry operation $`xy`$. We will show here that the antisymmetric charge redistribution is large, that it is exactly the same as the one which leads to the LTO/LTT instability in La2-xBaxCuO4, and that it explains satisfactorily the LO instability in LSCO and YBCO.

The preceding symmetry analysis can be specified within the tight-binding model, which distributes the holes over the Cu $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$ orbital and the Ox,y $`2p_{x,y}`$ orbitals. This model is widely used in the theory of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors either in the small $`U`$ or in the large $`U`$ limit, where $`U`$ is the Coulomb repulsion on the Cu site. Only four single particle parameters are usually used in addition to $`U`$, namely, the Cu and Ox,y site energies $`\epsilon _d`$ and $`\epsilon _p^{x,y}`$, the Cu-O overlap $`t`$ and the Ox-Oy overlap $`t^{}`$. IM

The variation of the crystal-field potential of the ionic lattice, introduced by the dimerisation modes with the amplitudes $`u_{\pi ,0}`$ and $`u_{0,\pi }`$, leads in the first place to the variation of the site energies, i.e. to a variation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pd}=\epsilon _d+(\epsilon _p^x+\epsilon _p^y)/2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}=\epsilon _p^x\epsilon _p^y`$. The variation of the oxygen site energies can be calculated in the point-charge approximation, and written in the form Batistic ; Kupcic

$$\epsilon _p^i\frac{2e^2}{a}[\alpha _p^iu_Q+\beta _p^iu_Q^2+\mathrm{}],$$
(1)
where $`Q=`$ $`(\pi ,0)`$ or $`(0,\pi )`$. Previous calculations Kupcic  estimated $`\alpha _p^i`$ and $`\beta _p^i`$ from the crystal field potential at the oxygen sites. The values of $`\alpha _p^i`$ and $`\beta _p^i`$ obtained in this way for LSCO and YBCO are given in Table 1.

Singling out the homogeneous component of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}`$, it is found that

$`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$ $``$ $`(\beta _p^x\beta _p^y)(u_{\pi ,0}^2u_{0,\pi }^2),`$
$`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pd}^H`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\beta _p^x+\beta _p^y)(u_{\pi ,0}^2+u_{0,\pi }^2).`$ (2)
$`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$ couples to the homogeneous charge redistribution between Ox and Oy, $`n_{pp}^H=(n_p^xn_p^y)^H`$ shown in Fig. 1b, adding a bilinear term to the Hamiltonian $`H_0`$,

$$H=H_0+n_{pp}^H\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H.$$
(3)
In most of the high-$`T_c`$ superconductors(YBCO is an exception) $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H=0`$ in the undeformed lattice and $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$ lifts the $`\epsilon _p^x=\epsilon _p^y`$ degeneracy of the CuO2 unit cell, in a way similar to the Jahn-Teller (JT) effect. Even in the presence of the hybridisation $`t`$ and $`t^{}`$, the $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$ JT effect leads to large energetic gains. In the conventional JT effect the charge transfer between the two levels, whose degeneracy is lifted, is a step function of the splitting $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$. In general, the effect of hybridisations $`t`$ and $`t^{}`$ is however to make this charge transfer analytic

$$\overline{n}_{pp}^H\chi _{pp}\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H,$$
(4)
where $`\chi _{pp}`$ is the exact charge susceptibility for the Hamiltonian (3), i.e. $`\chi _{pp}`$ is related to the exact correlation function $`n_{pp}^Hn_{pp}^H`$ for the Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ of (3). The JT effect is now associated with the expectation that $`\chi _{pp}`$ is large. Actually, a singular $`\chi _{pp}`$ in (4) indicates a nonanalytic nature of the charge transfer $`\overline{n}_{pp}^H`$, i.e. recovery of the conventional JT effect, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }F`$ linear in $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$.

The free energy variation, corresponding to (4), is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }F=\frac{1}{2}\chi _{pp}\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^{H}{}_{}{}^{2}+\mathrm{}.$$
(5)
It should be noted that, according to Refs.(2) and (4), $`\mathrm{\Delta }F`$ of the equation (5) is quartic in the dimerisation $`u_{\pi ,0}`$. However, when $`\chi _{pp}`$ is singular, $`\mathrm{\Delta }F`$ is to be taken linear in $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}`$, i.e. quadratic in dimerisation.

Large $`\chi _{pp}`$ is found every time when the Fermi level falls close to the two groups of the quasi degenerate electronic states respectively associated with the $`a`$ and $`b`$ axes of the CuO2 plane, which get split by the finite $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$. This is in particular the case when the Fermi level falls close to the van Hove singularities at (0.5,0) and (0,0.5) points of the two-dimensional Brillouin zone, associated with the single electron propagation in the CuO2 planes. The single particle picture can be used with some confidence in two limits for the Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ in (3), namely for free fermions $`(U=0)`$ and for infinite $`U`$ ($`U`$ larger than $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pd},\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp},t`$ and $`t^{}`$). In this case, for $`T0`$ K, the real part of the generalized susceptibility, given in terms of the vertex functions $`g(𝐤)`$ and $`h(𝐤)`$, reads as

$`\mathrm{Re}\{\chi _{g,h}(\epsilon _F)\}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{V}}{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤\sigma }{}}g(𝐤)h(𝐤){\displaystyle \frac{f[\epsilon _L(𝐤)]}{\epsilon _L(𝐤)}}.`$ (6)
Here $`f[\epsilon _L(𝐤)]`$ is the Fermi function and $`\epsilon _L(𝐤)`$ is the energy of the lowest occupied band IM . The case $`g(𝐤)=h(𝐤)=1`$ describes the density of states at the Fermi level, $`n_F`$, averaged appropriately over $`k_BT`$, and $`g(𝐤)=h(𝐤)=\epsilon _L(𝐤)/\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}`$ the real part of the intraband $`pp`$ susceptibility, $`\chi _{pp}`$. Although it has been shown IM  that interband effects might also be important in high-$`T_c`$ materials, for the sake of simplicity we shall retain here only the intraband contribution to $`\chi _{pp}`$. Assuming that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H=0`$ at the outset and for $`\epsilon _F\epsilon _{vH}`$, it follows than straightforwardly that

$$\chi _{pp}cn_Fc\mathrm{log}\frac{\epsilon _0}{\mathrm{max}[k_BT,|\epsilon _F\epsilon _{vH}|]},$$
(7)
with the constant $`c`$ typically of order $`1/5`$, as illustrated in Fig. 2. $`\epsilon _0`$ is the energy scale which characterizes the van Hove singularity at $`\epsilon _{vH}`$, assumed two-dimensional, logarithmic, rather than extended one-dimensional, i.e. more singular than the logarithm. $`\chi _{pp}`$ of Eq. (7) is singular at low temperatures for $`\epsilon _F\epsilon _{vH}`$, when the expansion (5) breaks down and $`\mathrm{\Delta }F`$ becomes linear in $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$, i.e. quadratic in the dimerisation displacement $`u`$. This reasoning can be applied to YBCO by the replacement $`\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H+\delta \mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$ in Refs.(4) and (5), assuming that the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{pp}^H`$ in the undeformed lattice is sufficiently small.

The LO anomaly is observed at a finite temperatures when $`n_F`$ of (3) is finite, i.e. the negative contribution to the free energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }F`$ can be taken as quartic in $`u`$. As discussed previously SB , the activation of the negative contribution to $`\mathrm{\Delta }F`$ quartic in $`u`$ occurs through first order phase transition. The compelling feature of such explanation is that the two phases with $`u=0`$ and a finite $`u`$ mix, i.e. the (disordered) domains of the dimerised phase are expected to condense in the $`u=0`$ phase. This might explain the difficulty in the experimental observation of the dimerised domains, provided that the latter turns out to be small. The theoretical discussion of the domain size requires the insight into the gradient terms quadratic and/or perhaps quartic in $`u`$, which is however beyond the scope of the present paper.

Here, we only wanted to stress that the homogeneous charge transfer couples appreciably to the LO dimerisation because the electron-phonon coupling constants of Table I are large and because the corresponding susceptibility (7) is large. The disadvantage that the electron-phonon coupling is quadratic rather than linear in $`u`$ is set off by satisfactory consequence that the resulting phase transition is of first order, providing a possible explanation of the LO anomaly observed in LSCO and YBCO. Further experimental and theoretical investigations are however required to explain unambiguosly the origin of the LO anomaly in the high-$`T_c`$ superconductors.

###### Acknowledgements.

Useful discussions with Lev Gor’kov, Jacques Friedel and Robert Comes are gratefully acknowledged.


text:
# Spectroscopic and Variability Surveys for AGN in the Groth Survey Strip

## 1. Introduction

To better understand the nature of any class of extragalactic object, an accurate knowledge of the luminosity function (LF) over a wide range of absolute magnitudes and covering a range of redshifts is necessary. The AGN LF is populated by quasars at the brighter, primarily high redshift end and Seyfert galaxy nuclei, considered to be their intrinsically fainter counterparts, at the low luminosity, low redshift end (Cheng et al. 1985; Huchra & Burg 1992; Maiolino & Rieke 1995). See Wizotski (2001, this volume) for a discussion of the current state of the AGN LF. While bright QSOs are easily observable at all redshifts, fainter Seyfert nuclei become increasingly difficult to detect at redshifts much beyond the local universe. Understanding how the faint end of the AGN LF evolves is of particular importance for determining the frequency and total space density of AGNs at earlier epochs.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the increased light gathering capabilities of large (i.e. 10-meter) telescopes and the high spatial resolution achieved with space-based telescopes allows for the detection of these lower luminosity AGN at higher redshifts. In Sections 2 and 3, we describe preliminary results of a spectroscopic survey for AGN using the Keck telescope. Section 4 outlines plans for a variability survey for AGN in this same region of the sky using Hubble Space Telescope images separated by 7 years. A summary of this research is presented in the final section.

## 2. The DEEP Project

The Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe (DEEP; Koo et al. 1996; Simard et al. 2001) is a project designed to study the formation and evolution of distant field galaxies by combining images from HST with spectroscopic data from the Keck telescope. The Groth Survey Strip (Groth et al. 1994) is one of the fields targeted by DEEP for spectroscopic follow-up. The GSS is comprised of 28 contiguous WFPC2 fields located at 14h17m+52 imaged in the F606W and F814W filters. Optical spectra have been obtained through multi-slit masks with the Keck/Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph for 775 objects in the GSS between 1995 and 1999. Of the 683 spectra with high enough S/N to identify spectral features and determine redshifts, 634 are galaxies and 49 are galactic stars. The galaxies extend to IAB$``$24 with a mean redshift of z$``$0.8. The typical exposure time is one hour with some of the fainter targets being exposed for up to a few hours. Since the majority of galaxies at these redshifts have sizes comparable to the seeing resolution ($``$1′′), spatial spectral information is not available in most cases and a one-dimensional spectrum has been produced for each object by summing several pixels along the spatial axis.

## 3. Spectroscopic Identification of AGN

Active Galactic Nuclei can be detected in galaxy spectra through the presence of broad, permitted lines covering a wide range of ionization. Optical spectra for the galaxies studied in this survey display broad H balmer series lines or singly ionized MgII emission (at rest $`\lambda `$2800$`\AA `$ for higher z objects) when a Seyfert 1 nucleus or QSO is present in the galaxy. Narrow-line Seyfert 2 or LINER galaxies are defined by the property that their forbidden lines and permitted lines have similar, narrow widths with line ratios indicating a more energetic ionizing source than hot stars alone can provide (although in the case of LINERs, this is still under discussion (see Ho 2001, this volume)).

At the present date, a subsample of 235 spectra from the GSS spectroscopic survey (those obtained between 1995 and 1997 with high enough S/N to discern spectral features) have been analyzed to search for AGN. Of these objects, 7 are galactic stars and 7 additional galaxies are high-z galaxies (z$`>`$2.8) not considered in this analysis for the sake of sample uniformity.

Inspection of the remaining 221 galaxy spectra has revealed only two objects with broad lines representing $``$1% of the galaxies. These galaxies have redshifts of 1.15 and 1.22, each displaying broad MgII emission. Initial inspection of the most recently obtained spectra has revealed at least 4 more broad-line galaxies with redshifts ranging between 0.6 and 1. The inclusion of the additional spectra are consistent with the finding that $``$1% of the GSS galaxies appear to be Seyfert 1/QSOs. The integrated luminosities for these galaxies range from –19.5$`>`$MB$`>`$–22.8, just below the nominal dividing line between QSOs and Seyferts. Since these are integrated magnitudes, the actual nuclear magnitudes are likely to be even fainter.

The majority of the galaxies display narrow emission lines. AGN can be differentiated from star-forming galaxies based on the emission-line ratios of the most prominent optical lines such as \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727$`\AA `$, \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$4959,5007$`\AA `$,\[NII\]$`\lambda `$6548$`\AA `$, \[SII\]$`\lambda `$6717,6730$`\AA `$, H$`\alpha `$ and H$`\beta `$ (e.g. Veilleux & Osterbrock 1987). For a large fraction of galaxies in the GSS, however, many of these lines are redshifted out of the optical range. In addition, our spectra, like many large, multi-slit spectroscopic surveys, are not flux calibrated. For these reasons, traditional line ratio diagnostics are not applicable to our survey.

A new emission line diagnostic (Rola, Terlevich & Terlevich 1996) is being employed to differentiate AGN and star-forming galaxies in our survey spectra. This technique is based only on the equivalent widths of \[OII\] and H$`\beta `$, allowing for classification of galaxies to z$``$0.8 with optical spectra and avoiding the necessity of flux calibration. Two distinct zones define the AGN region of the diagram, at EW(H$`\beta `$)$`<`$10 and EW(OII)/EW(H$`\beta `$)$`>`$3.5. Using a sample of local emission line galaxies, Rola et al. (1996) find that 87% of the AGN reside in these regions with 88% of the HII galaxies falling in the remaining region. Although this technique does not perfectly separate the two object classes, it does a fairly good job of identifying the majority of AGNs in a sample of emission line galaxies.

Of the 221 galaxy spectra in our subsample, 90 have both the \[OII\] and H$`\beta `$ lines in the optical spectrum range. Out of those 90 galaxies, only 44 show both lines in emission. We plot these on the Rola diagram in Figure 1 with appropriate error bars. We note the importance of correcting the H$`\beta `$ EW measurements for the underlying stellar continuum absorption. Without the detection of the H$`\alpha `$ emission line for these galaxies, we can only estimate the amount of H$`\beta `$ absorption in the continuum. We have chosen a moderate value of 3 $`\AA `$ for the underlying stellar absorption (Kennicutt et al. 1992, Tresse et al. 1996). This correction has the effect of pushing objects into the HII region of the diagram. The filled circles represent those galaxies clearly in the HII galaxy region. The open circles are those in the AGN region but with error bars extending into the HII region. The asterisks are those galaxies clearly in the AGN region of the diagram. If the probability that these galaxies are AGN is 88%, our lower-limit estimate on the total number of narrow-line AGN in the GSS out to z$``$0.8 is 10%. If we include the additional 11 objects which lie in the AGN region but have error bars allowing them to be placed in either the AGN or HII regions, our fraction increases to 20%.

The AGN candidates in our survey have integrated absolute magnitudes extending to MB$``$–17.5, with nuclei that may be up to a magnitude fainter. This demonstrates the strength of the Keck telescope in probing activity in galaxies at much fainter luminosities and higher redshifts than previously possible. Our completed survey for AGN in the GSS will extend the AGN LF several magnitudes fainter at z$``$0.8.

A few other diagnostics are available to identify narrow-line AGN in our survey such as the strength of \[NeIII\]$`\lambda `$3869 and the presence of \[NeV\]$`\lambda `$3426. A few additional candidates have been detected through the presence of these emission lines. A full analysis of the complete sample of GSS galaxy spectra to detect AGN is presented in a future paper (Sarajedini et al. 2002).

## 4. Detecting AGN through Variability Surveys

Obtaining spectra for as many galaxies as possible in a particular region of the sky is a robust way to find and classify the population of active galaxies. However, this technique requires many nights of observing on large telescopes. A less “expensive” way to detect AGN, and complement the spectroscopic survey, is through the use of multi-epoch images to identify variable sources.

Variability has long been known as an effective way to identify QSOs (e.g. Hawkins 1986) with Koo, Kron & Cudworth (1986) finding $``$80% of their spectroscopic and color selected quasars in Selected Area 57 to be variable over an 11 year time period. In addition to quasars, Bershady et al. (1998) detected 14 extended variable objects in this region with Seyfert-like spectral characteristics. The variability amplitude for objects in SA57 was generally higher for active nuclei of lower luminosity, making this technique well suited for the selection of intrinsically faint QSOs and Seyfert-like nuclei.

We are conducting a survey to detect nuclear variabilty for galaxies in the GSS. In addition to the original HST images taken in 1994, a second epoch has been obtained for the entire region in the spring/summer of 2001 (J. Mould, PI). The unique high resolution capabilities of HST are necessary to isolate and measure faint, variable nuclei within brighter host galaxies. We can easily detect and measure structural parameters for galaxies to V606$``$25 with redshifts extending to z$``$1 in the GSS (Simard et al. 1999). Many galaxies in this regime have shown evidence of central point source components in addition to a disk and/or bulge component (Sarajedini et al. 1999). Assuming a typical disk host galaxy with a scale length of 0.25′′, we estimate that nuclei comprising as little as 15% of the host galaxy light can be detected in galaxies down to V606$``$23.5. The advantage of HST is the ability to do accurate photometry within smaller apertures, thus allowing us to probe much lower AGN/host galaxy luminosity ratios than can be done from the ground.

The success of this technique has been demonstrated with the Hubble Deep Field North. Based on observations of the HDF-N separated by two years, we have detected nuclear variability at or above the 3$`\sigma `$ level in 8 of 633 galaxies at I814$``$27.5 (Sarajedini et al. 2000). Only 2 detections would be expected by chance in a normal distribution. At least one of these 8 has been spectroscopically confirmed as a Seyfert 1 galaxy. Based on the AGN structure function for variability (Trevese & Kron 1990), the estimated luminosities for the varying nuclear components extend to MB$``$–16 providing an interesting comparison with the population of local Seyfert galaxies at similar luminosities.

These results demonstrate the strength of this technique in probing faint AGN at z$``$1. Extending this search to the GSS should produce a much larger sample of faint AGN. Based on several different estimates for the number of AGN in the local universe (e.g. Huchra & Burg 1992; Maiolino & Rieke 1995; Ho et al. 1997) we expect to find at least $``$45 Seyfert-like nuclei in the entire GSS (assuming no evolution to z=1) or $``$120 if mild number density evolution has occurred. With this much larger sample, we will have the ability to not only determine number density evolution with statistical significance, but also study any changes with redshift in the shape of the LF for low-luminosity AGN.

## 5. Summary and Conclusions

With the aim of studying the evolution of AGN in the low-luminosity regime, we are conducting two different yet complementary surveys of galaxies in the GSS. We present the preliminary results of our spectroscopic search to identify broad and narrow-line AGN based on their spectral characteristics. Six broad-line AGN have currently been detected, representing about 1% of the galaxies for which spectra have been obtained as part of the DEEP project. A larger number (10 to $``$20) of narrow-line AGN candidates have been detected using a new emission line diagnostic to identify Seyfert 2s and LINERs based on the equivalent widths of \[OII\] and H$`\beta `$. This represents between 10 and 20% of the galaxies to z$``$0.8 in which these lines could be detected. The absolute magnitudes of these galaxies extend to MB$``$–17.5 with a mean redshift of $``$0.8.

We have also outlined a program to search for variable nuclei in GSS galaxies using HST images separated by 7 years. The high resolution capabilities of HST will allow us to detect and measure faint nuclei using small aperture photometry, probing lower nuclear/host galaxy ratios than possible from the ground. Using this technique on HDF-N images separated by 2 years, we have shown that varying nuclei as faint as MB$``$–16 may be detected for galaxies out to z$``$0.8.

The results of these surveys will be used in conjunction with GSS observations in other wavelengths such as X-ray (XMM; Griffiths et al. 2000), infrared (SIRTF), radio (VLA FIRST) and sub-millimeter (SCUBA) to better understand the nature of the AGN and their host galaxies.

### Acknowledgments.

VS acknowledges the many members of the DEEP Team (UC Santa Cruz) for work in obtaining and reducing spectral data presented here. Financial support for part of this work comes from the NSF through grant AST-9529098 and from NASA grants through the Space Telescope Science Institute, operated by AURA, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

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text:
# 1 Quantum numbers of the particles contained in the 27 representation of 𝐸₆ within the standard embedding. All fields are taken to be left-handed.

## Acknowledgments

D.L. thanks E. Nardi and T. Rizzo for helpful communications. This work was financially supported by NSERC of Canada and les Fonds FCAR du Québec.


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# The AMS-01 Time of Flight System

## 1 Introduction

The *Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer* (AMS)  is a particle detector that will be installed on the International Space Station in 2004 to measure cosmic ray fluxes for at least three years.

During the precursor flight aboard of the shuttle Discovery (NASA STS-91 mission, 2–12 June 1998), AMS collected data for about 180 hours.  Figure 1 shows the detector (called AMS-1 in the following), consisting of a permanent Nd-Fe-B magnet, six silicon tracker planes, an anticoincidence scintillator counter system, the time of flight (TOF) system consisting in four layers of scintillator counters and a threshold aerogel Čerenkov detector.

The TOF system  was completely designed and built at the INFN Laboratories in Bologna. Its main goals are to provide the fast trigger to AMS readout electronics, and to measure the particle velocity ($`\beta `$), direction, position and charge. In addition, it had to operate in space with severe limits for weight and power consuption.

Each TOF plane consists of 14 scintillator counters 1 cm thick covering a roughly circular area of 1.6$`\mathrm{m}^2`$. The scintillation light is guided to 3 Hamamatsu R5900 photomultipliers per side, whose signals are summed to have a good redundancy and light collection efficiency. The total power consumption of the system (112 channels, 336 phototubes) was 150$`\mathrm{W}`$, while its weight (support structure included) was 250$`\mathrm{kg}`$.

## 2 The AMS-1 trigger

The AMS-1 trigger logic consists of three levels. The *fast trigger* (FT) processes the analog scintillators data and provides, in about 50 ns, the zero time for the time-of-flight measurement. The *first level trigger* rejects events with hits on the anticoincidence counter system and enhances the fraction of particles crossing the tracker planes through the analysis of the pattern of hit counters in the first and fourth TOF plane. Finally, at the last level the trigger logics suppress spurious fast triggers and finds preliminary tracks on the silicon tracker by using the digitized data.

The FT signal is generated when at least one counter side in each TOF plane produces a signal above a threshold corresponding to 40% of a minimum ionizing particle. The efficiency of this selection criterion could be measured with the same data taken during the STS-91 mission, exploiting the characteristics of the TOF electronics, sensitive to all particles impinging on the detector in an interval of about 16 $`\mu `$s around the trigger signal. Up to eight hits can be registered by each channel with a time resolution of 1 ns and a full charge measurement.

The analysis of these unbiased data provided the instantaneous rate of particles, the dead time and accidental rate, in addition to the total FT efficiency. Figure 2 shows that this efficiency, for the whole duration of the STS-91 flight (data taken in the South Atlantic Anomaly are excluded), was always above 99.9%.

The background can be estimated by checking the consistency of the TOF data and the trigger mask, and comes out to be about 0.5% of the fast triggers (due to electronics noise). This background is completely eliminated in the last level trigger by requiring the coincidence of both sides of the same counter.

## 3 Time of flight resolution

The single channel time resolution is:

$$\sigma (x)=\sqrt{\frac{\sigma _1^2}{N}+\frac{\sigma _2^2x^2}{N}+\sigma _3^2},$$
(1)
where $`x`$ is the distance of the particle crossing point from the photomultiplier (PM), $`N`$ is the number of photons which convert on the PM window, $`\sigma _1`$ depends upon the PM signal shape and the trigger electronics, $`\sigma _2`$ takes into account the dispersion in the photons path lengths and the constant term $`\sigma _3`$ depends on the electronic noise at the low threshold discriminator input and on the reference time dispersion on each channel.

The overall time resolution of a plane can be determined by measuring the time of flight of ultrarelativistic particles between two given planes, after correcting for the track length.

The time dispersion is expected to decrease with the nuclear charge $`Z`$, due to the large number of photo-electrons produced by nuclei with high atomic number, until it reaches the minimum value $`\sigma _3`$. Figure 3 (left panel) shows the single plane time resolution as function of the particle charge: the horizontal lines show that the limiting level $`\sigma _3`$ is 88$`\mathrm{ps}`$.

## 4 Photomultipliers stability

The TOF system provides a measurement of the absolute charge of the crossing particle in addition to the tracker, even if, due to the strong constraints about power consuption, the TOF front-end electronics was not optimized for energy deposition measurements.

The charge measurement was realized through a “time-over-threshold” method, whose response is proportional to the logarithm of the deposited charge. This method results in a good separating power ($`5\times 10^3`$) between singly and doubly charged particles but has a poor charge resolution for $`|Z|>2`$.

The stability of the charge measurement was very good for all the 112 TOF channels, but five channels, as shown in figure 3, right panel.

## 5 Particle separation

At the trigger level, one goal of the TOF system was to provide a special flag for ions. Accordingly, it was designed to distinguish in a fast and efficient way cosmic ray protons from other nuclei.

One of the main purpose of the TOF system is the measurement of the time of flight of the particles traversing the detector with a resolution sufficient to distinguish upward from downward going particles: an “upward-going” Helium nucleus wrongly labelled “downward-going” would be interpreted as an “downward-going” anti-Helium nucleus.

The average time of flight of the particles which traverse AMS is of the order of 5 ns, while the time measurement has a resolution $`\sigma _t120`$ ps, independent from the rigidity. Thus the probability to mistake the particle direction is well below $`10^{11}`$, the level needed for successful operation aboard the ISS, where AMS is expected to collect at least $`10^{10}`$ events.

In addition, the velocity resolution of the TOF system, $`\sigma (\beta )/\beta 3\%`$, allows to discriminate $`\mathrm{p}`$/$`\mathrm{e}^+`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$/$`\mathrm{e}^{}`$ up to a rigidity of 1.5 GV.


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# Saturation in DIS processes

## 1 Introduction

The problem we address, is whether the experimental results eminating from HERA  contain clear evidence for the presence of saturation effects, or whether they are consistent with orthodox pQCD evolution.

To quantify saturation it is instructive to introduce the concept of a packing factor (PF) which is related to the density of the partons in a parton cascade.

$$PF\kappa =\frac{3\pi ^2\alpha _S}{2Q_s^2(x)}\times \frac{xG(x,Q_s^2(x))}{\pi R^2}$$
(1)
The saturation scale $`Q_s^2`$ is defined by $`\kappa =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$, for which $`Q^2=Q_s^2`$. (see fig.1)

In the dilute region ($`\kappa <\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$) the partons are distant from one another (and have no interaction in the parton cascade), so pQCD (i.e. DGLAP and BFKL) evolution holds, and the dominant process is the emission of gluons. In the high density phase ($`\kappa >\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$) the partons in the parton cascade interact, these interactions give rise to screening corrections (SC), which slow down the growth of the parton density distributions. The correct description of parton evolution in the high density phase is given by a non-linear evolution equation of the type first suggested by Gribov, Levin and Ryskin , which incorporates parton recombonation as well as emission.

There have been numerous attempts to find both approximate analytical and numerical solutions to the non-linear equation (for a recent review see ). These solutions suggest that the saturation scale $`Q_S(x)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}2GeV^2`$, in the HERA kinematic region. The very successful phenomenological model of Golec-Biernat and Wuestoff , which provides an excellent description of HERA data based on the premise that the saturation region has been reached at HERA, is additional evidence supporting the saturation hypothesis.

## 2  The GLMN model

In a series of papers, the latest of which are listed in , we have applied screening (unitarity) corrections to a number of inclusive and exclusive channels. We follow the Glauber-Mueller (eikonal) approach  in calculating screening (unitarity) corrections to pQCD evolution. The technique used for evaluating the SC in the quark and gluon sectors are given in reference .

As the SC are much larger for the gluon sector than for the quark sector, we quote results here for two channels that in LLA of pQCD are directly proportional to $`xG(x,Q^2)`$, the gluon distribution in the proton.

1) The logarithmic slope of $`F_2`$:

$$\frac{F_2(x,Q^2)}{\mathrm{ln}Q^2}=\frac{2\alpha _S}{9\pi }xG^{DGLAP}(x,Q^2),$$
(2)
2) The cross section for the exclusive production of the vector meson $`J/\mathrm{\Psi }`$. For which the contribution of pQCD to the imaginary part of the $`t=0`$ differential cross section is given by

$$(\frac{d\sigma (\gamma ^{}pVp)}{dt})_{t=0}^{pQCD}=\frac{\pi ^3\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ee}M_V^3}{48\alpha }\frac{\alpha _S^2(\overline{Q}^2)}{\overline{Q}^8}(xG^{DGLAP}(x,\overline{Q}^2))^2(1+\frac{Q^2}{M_V^2}),$$

here $`xG^{DGLAP}`$ denotes the gluon distribution function as obtained from the DGLAP analysis.

Our results. see Fig.2 and Fig.3, suggest that already at HERA energies the SC are considerable for tse two channels.

## 3 Alternate Models

Although, the results presented above are consistent with the hypothesis that signs of saturation have been seen at HERA, they are not conclusive. Since models based on the sum of the contributions of a ”hard” and a soft ”Pomeron” e.g.  and , provide a fair description of the HERA data. These models to not incorporate pQCD evolution, but have a common feature in that they both require the ”soft” Pomeron component to be appreciable at fairly small scales $``$ 0.3 - 0.5 fm.

In Fig.4 we compare the DL predictions for $`\frac{F_2(x,Q^2)}{\mathrm{ln}Q^2}`$ with those of our model (GLMN) i.e. screened GRV’98, and show that there is little to choose between them for $`Q^2\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1.9}GeV^2`$. For values of $`Q^2\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}GeV^2`$ there is no justification for using pQCD (our model).

## 4 Conclusions

Although, HERA data is consistent with the hypothesis that we are dealing with parton densities that are sufficiently dense ($`\kappa \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$), that SC are necessary. The findings are not conclusive as an alternative explanation is also valid i.e. that of a matching between a ”soft” and a ”hard” process (e.g. the DL model) where the ”soft” component dominates at relatively short distances of 0.3 - 0.5 fm.