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# Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances to NGC 4214 (catalog ), UGC 685 (catalog ), and UGC 5456 (catalog )Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract No. NAS5-26555.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

In the last decade, the measurement of the tip of the red giant branch (or TRGB) has become a reliable method for measuring distances to galaxies with resolved stellar populations (Lee et al., 1993). This has been posible thanks to the very weak dependence of the absolute magnitude of the TRGB on metallicity (Da Costa & Armandroff, 1990; Bellazini et al., 2001). Another advantage of this method (as opposed to the use of variable stars such as Cepheids or RR Lyrae) is that only a single epoch is needed to estimate the distance, considerably reducing the amount of observing time required and avoiding scheduling problems. Its robustness has been recently tested by obtaining consistent distances to the SMC, LMC, and IC 1613 using four different methods: Cepheids, RR Lyrae, red clump, and TRGB (Dolphin et al., 2001b). The use of HST/WFPC2 data allows the measurement of distances up to $`5`$ Mpc with a single orbit using the TRGB (Karachentsev et al., 2001; Tosi et al., 2001; Dolphin et al., 2001a) and the introduction of ACS will extend that range in distance by a factor of two.

The method for using the TRGB as a standard candle has been described by Sakai et al. (1996). One constructs a smoothed version of the luminosity function in the Cousins $`I`$ passband as:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(I)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }\sigma _i}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{(I_iI)^2}{2\sigma _i^2}\right],$$
(1)
where $`I_i`$ and $`\sigma _i`$ are the magnitude and photometric uncertainty of the $`i`$th star, respectively, and $`N`$ is the total number of stars in the sample. We then define an adaptive edge-detection filter as:

$$E(I)=\mathrm{\Phi }(I+\overline{\sigma }_m)\mathrm{\Phi }(I\overline{\sigma }_m),$$
(2)
where $`\overline{\sigma }_m`$ is the mean photometric uncertainty for all stars with magnitudes between $`I0.05`$ and $`I+0.05`$. $`E`$ can then be used as a localized slope estimator to find the cutoff in the $`I`$ band luminosity function created by the TRGB.

The three objects in this paper (NGC 4214, UGC 685, and UGC 5456) were selected from a study of a complete sample of galaxies from the Center for Astrophysics redshift survey (CfaRS; Huchra et al. 1983) presented by Burg (1987) 111The CfaRS consisted of 2 400 galaxies taken from the original Zwicky Catalog to a limiting magnitude of $`M_B^0=14.5`$. on the basis of their high excitation and proximity. A summary of the properties of the three galaxies is given in Table 1.

NGC 4214 is a well-studied nearby magellanic irregular galaxy. It has several intense star-forming regions concentrated along the bar of the galaxy (MacKenty et al., 2000; Maíz-Apellániz, 2001) which can be easily studied thanks to the low foreground extinction and the thin character of its galactic disk (Maíz-Apellániz et al., 1999). Furthermore, the different massive young clusters are at different evolutionary stages (Maíz-Apellániz et al., 1998). These characteristics make NGC 4214 the best available template for dwarf starbursts. Leitherer et al. (1996) estimate its distance as 4.1 Mpc but they admit that the value could be lower if the distance to the Virgo Cluster is different than the one they use for their calculations. They also cite other sources’ estimates ranging as high as 5.1 Mpc. On the other hand, Hopp et al. (1999) measure a distance of $``$ 2 Mpc using NICMOS data to find the TRGB.

UGC 685 and UGC 5456 are two smaller and less studied galaxies. They are both classified as Blue Compact Dwarfs (or BCDs) and show regions of current star formation activity, though not as intense as those in NGC 4214. Hopp (1999) and Makarova & Karachentsev (1998) find values of 5.5 Mpc and 5.9 Mpc, respectively, for the distance to UGC 685 based on the brightest blue supergiant stars. Makarova & Karachentsev (1998) also find a distance to UGC 5456 of 2.7 Mpc using the same method but specify that this value is in apparent disagreement with its radial velocity.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION

We obtained deep, high resolution, multiwavelength imaging of NGC 4214, UGC 685, and UGC 5456 with the WFPC2 instrument aboard HST (prop. ID 6569) on 1997 July 22, 1998 Nov 17, and 1999 Feb 18, respectively. Four continuum filters (F336W, WFPC2 $`U`$; F555W, WFPC2 $`V`$; F702W, WFPC2 wide $`R`$; and F814W, WFPC2 $`I`$) and two nebular filters (F656N, H$`\alpha `$ and F502N, \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007) were used for each galaxy, as shown in Table 2. The NGC 4214 nebular data and the structure of its stellar clusters were analyzed in two previous papers (MacKenty et al., 2000; Maíz-Apellániz, 2001); the detailed study of the young population will be presented in a follow-up paper (Maíz-Apellániz et al., 2002). In this paper we analyze the F555W, F702W, and F814W data of the three galaxies in order to measure their distances by finding the tip of the red giant branch.

The reduction of the NGC 4214 data was described in MacKenty et al. (2000) and the reader is referred to that paper for details. The UGC 685 and UGC 5456 data were reduced in an analogous way. In particular, we point out that the F502N and F656N images were used to eliminate the nebular contribution to the F555W and F702W data, thus producing “near-pure” $`V`$ and $`R`$ continuum images. With one exception (the F702W filter for NGC 4214), two long and one short exposures were obtained for each filter and galaxy in order to eliminate cosmic rays and to avoid saturation at the center of compact bright sources.

We obtained the 4-band stellar photometry of each galaxy using the HSTphot package (Dolphin, 2000a). HSTphot is tailored to handle the undersampled nature of the PSF in WFPC2 images and uses a self-consistent treatment of the CTE and zero-point photometric calibrations (Dolphin, 2000b). The central regions of the three galaxies are dominated by a high surface density young stellar population. In those areas, blending between stars is a serious problem due to crowding and isolating the old population is not possible even at WFPC2 resolution. Therefore, we masked out those regions as well as the prominent NGC 4214 clusters identified by Maíz-Apellániz (2001). For the remaining areas, we eliminated those objects with reduced $`\chi ^2>4.0`$ (poor fit: likely multiple or extended objects) and sharpness222HSTphot defines sharpness in such a way that “perfect” stars have a value of 0, more centrally-concentrated objects (e.g. cosmic-rays) have a negative value and less-concentrated ones (e.g. galaxies) have a positive value. $`<0.3`$ or $`>0.3`$ and the resulting data was grouped in three sets for each galaxy:  stars detected in all four filters (1 595, 325, and 197 stars for NGC 4214, UGC 685, and UGC 5456, respectively),  stars detected in at least F555W and F814W (13 408, 3 594, and 1 105 stars, respectively), and  stars detected in at least F702W and F814W (17 936, 5 207, and 1 803 stars, respectively). For each galaxy, the data in the first set were used to measure extinction (as described later) while the data in the second and third sets were used to detect the tip of the red giant branch in each galaxy.

The F555W$``$F814W vs. F814W and F702W$``$F814W vs. F814W color-magnitude contour plots are shown in Figs. 45, and 6. Contours are logaritmically spaced (in stars / color magnitude / brightness magnitude) in order to show the structures at both low and high densities. For each of the six possible combinations (three galaxies and two color-magnitude pairs) we performed artificial star experiments using the hstfake utility available in HSTphot. In each case experiments were performed in six 0.25 color-magnitudes-wide ranges and the results were interpolated for intermediate colors. In Figs. 45, and 6 we show the location of the 50% completeness limit as a function of color.

## 3 ANALYSIS

We selected those stars with F555W$``$F814W between 1.0 and 3.0 in the second set and those with F702W$``$F814W between 0.25 and 1.5 in the third set and we built the corresponding smoothed luminosity functions in the F814W passband according to Equation 1. The values were chosen in order to maximize the number of red giants included while minimizing the number of stars of other types using Da Costa & Armandroff (1990) as a reference for $`VI`$ colors and the Lejeune et al. (1997) models to transform them to $`RI`$. We then calculated the corresponding edge-detection filters according to Equation 2. The results are shown in Figs. 7 and 8 and the location of the TRGB in each case is shown in Table 3. The values of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`E`$ shown in Figs. 7 and 8 have been corrected for incompleteness. However, it should be noted that the incompleteness correction can become very uncertain for faint magnitudes due to small-number statistics. For that reason, we have marked in each case the location of the weighted 50% incompleteness limit. Only the data to the left of that point should be trusted when finding the TRGB.

In order to test the effects of crowding we separated the NGC 4214 data in two subsets for each of the two band sets depending on the chip where the stars were detected (PC or WF2+3+4). Since the PC has a pixel size smaller than the WF chips by a factor of 2.2, it provides a considerably better sampling of the PSF, so it should alleviate any possible crowding problems. However, we do not find any significant difference between the PC and the WF results. In all four cases a clear peak appears at essentially the same value of $`m_{\mathrm{F814W}}`$ and only for the F702W$``$F814W PC subset we do find a 0.3 magnitudes fainter secondary peak. Such a secondary peak would lead to an undecisive conclusion regarding the position of the TRGB if that were our only data. However, the availability of the results from the other three subsets allows us to establish the magnitude of the TRGB with precision.

For UGC 685 and UGC 5456 there are not enough stars in the PC chip to perform a similar experiment. Nevertheless, the UGC 685 data allow us to see the differences between using both sets. There are approximately twice as many stars detected in F702W and F814W than in F555W and F814W due to two reasons: red stars are more easily detected in F702W than in F555W and the lower separation in color introduces more “blue” stars in the luminosity function. The first reason is an argument in favor of using F702W instead of F555W (more real red giants are detected) while the second one is an argument against it (more spureous objects are included in the sample), so the simultaneous use of the two sets (F555W$``$F814W and F702W$``$F814W) is a good check of the validity of the results. For UGC 685, the edge-detection filters for the two sets yield a consistent value for the TRGB which is well to the left of the 50% completeness limit, so a distance measurement can be decisively established.

Unfortunately, the same is not true for UGC 5456. A strong peak is visible in the F702W$``$F814W edge detection filter at $`m_{\mathrm{F814W}}=25.07`$ but it is located to the right of the 50% incompleteness limit and, therefore, cannot be trusted to be real (the peak is much weaker if the incompleteness correction is not applied to $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$). A secondary peak is visible at $`m_{\mathrm{F814W}}=24.24`$ in the same data set and also at $`m_{\mathrm{F814W}}=24.20`$ in the F555W$``$F814W data set which could be caused by the TRGB but we cannot be certain about it333The F555W$``$F814W UGC 5456 data set is a good example of one of the problems in the TRGB method: One needs to detect a large number of bright red giants in order to minimize Poisson fluctuations in $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ near the location of the TRGB. This is especially problematic when a sizable population of red super giants is present.. Therefore, we conclude that UGC 5456 either is farther away than the range that can be measured with the present data or has very few red giants outside its central regions.

In order to arrive at a distance from our data there are three required steps. First, we have to correct for extinction. A minimum value for $`E(BV)`$ is provided by the foreground (Galactic) value measured for the position of each galaxy by Schlegel et al. (1998) from COBE and IRAS data (see Table 4). However, the Schlegel et al. (1998) values do not take into account internal extinction within the galaxy itself. In order to measure that, we used the set with 4-band photometry and generated the three colors F336W$``$F555W, F555W$``$F702W, and F555W$``$F814W, We then applied an extension to $`>2`$ colors of the standard color-color procedure (described in Maíz-Apellániz et al. 2002) to calculate the median $`E(BV)`$ which affects the blue stellar population in each of the three galaxies outside the masked regions (i.e. the blue population which is approximately co-spatial with the red giants). The results are also shown in Table 4 and they are slightly higher than the values provided by Schlegel et al. (1998), as expected in the case of moderate internal extinction. Nevertheless, it is possible that some of the extinction associated with the blue population is localized around the individual stars themselves, so we will consider this second value to be an upper bound to the extinction affecting the red giant population. Therefore, we will use as our value for the extinction in each case the mean of the two results (foreground and blue population) and we will estimate the uncertainty as half the difference between them. The last column in Table 4 shows the adopted correction in the $`I`$ band using a value of $`R_V`$ of 3.1. Under the “other” column in Table 4 we also list the values of $`E(BV)`$ measured from Balmer ratios in H ii regions in the central regions of NGC 4214 and UGC 685. As expected, those values are higher than the ones we use due to the considerable internal extinction present in those regions. They are shown here to serve as caution against using values obtained in such a way in similar studies of other galaxies.

The second necessary step to arrive to a distance is the conversion from WFPC2 F814W magnitudes to Cousins $`I`$ ones. As described by Holtzman et al. (1995), such conversions are non-trivial for the cases of high extinction and/or certain WFPC2 filters. Fortunately, that is not the case for the galaxies analyzed here and the F814W filter. In this paper we follow Holtzman et al. (1995) and use a correction of $`0.03\pm 0.01`$ magnitudes.

Finally, we have to choose a value for $`M_{I,\mathrm{TGRB}}`$. As shown by Bellazini et al. (2001), if the \[Fe/H\] of the studied population is known in detail, it is possible to calculate $`M_{I,\mathrm{TGRB}}`$ within a few hundredths of a magnitude. We do not have such a knowledge for the red giants in our galaxies but we do not really need that level of precision either, since the uncertainties from our procedure for calculating $`m_{I,\mathrm{TGRB}}`$ are already of the order of 0.1 magnitudes. Thus, we can settle for a value $`M_{I,\mathrm{TGRB}}=4.00\pm 0.10`$, which is valid for the range of \[Fe/H\] between $`2.8`$ and $`0.6`$ (Bellazini et al., 2001) and almost certainly includes the metallicities of the red giant population in our three galaxies.

The values for the distances are shown in Table 3. For NGC 4214, three of the four values of $`mM`$ are identical so we used one of those for our adopted distance as well as the smallest of the three uncertainties (the values are not completely independent from the statistical point of view so there is no easy way to reduce the estimated uncertainty by combining them). For UGC 685 we used the values obtained with the F702W$``$F814W data simply because of the larger number of stars in the sample but, alternatively, the F555W$``$F814W result of $`4.61\pm 0.30`$ Mpc could also be used (the distance between them is of only 0.6$`\sigma `$). Finally, as previously mentioned, no decisive result could be obtained for UGC 5456 so two possible values are listed.

Our distance for NGC 4214 ($`2.94\pm 0.18`$ Mpc) is in the middle of the range previously obtained by other authors (2.0 to 5.1 Mpc) but no compatibility analysis can be provided since the sources do not provide uncertainty estimates. Our distance for UGC 685 ($`4.79\pm 0.30`$ Mpc) is also quite close to the previous values available from the literature (5.5 Mpc, Hopp 1999, and 5.9 Mpc, Makarova & Karachentsev 1998). Our result is well within the uncertainty specified by the first of those articles, which is 30% (the second paper does not provide an uncertainty estimate). On the other hand, the previously value available for UGC 5456 (2.7 Mpc, Makarova & Karachentsev 1998) can certainly be excluded with our data; that galaxy is farther away, though we are not sure by how much. It is interesting to note that the previous values for the distances to UGC 685 and UGC 5456 were obtained using the same method, the magnitude of the brightest blue supergiant stars. Why would the method be valid for the first galaxy but not for the second? The explanation we prefer is that the brightest young clusters in UGC 685 are Scaled OB Associations while those in UGC 5456 are Super Star Clusters (or at least compact clusters), as described by Maíz-Apellániz (2001). Therefore, the brightest point-like sources detected from the ground in $`B`$ in UGC 685 are likely to be individual blue supergiants or small aggregrates of them. On the other hand, the brightest point-like sources in UGC 5456 are clusters made out of many young stars, and confusing them with blue supergiants leads to a large underestimation of the distance.

Lucas Cieza acknowledges support from the Space Telescope Science Institute Summer Student Program. Support for this work was provided by NASA through grants GO-06569.01-A and GO-09096.01-A from the Space Telescope Science Institute, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


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# Large equivalent width Lyman-𝛼 line emission at z=4.5: young galaxies in a young universe?

## 1 Introduction

Nascent galaxies undergoing their first major burst of star formation are expected to contain many hot, young, massive stars, which ionize interstellar gas. Under standard conditions (case B), about two Lyman-$`\alpha `$ photons are produced for every three ionizing photons from the stars. Thus Lyman-$`\alpha `$ photons can be a prominent signpost of primordial galaxies in formation (Partridge & Peebles 1967, hereafter PP67).

Based on these predictions a number of surveys have been carried out for about three decades (see Pritchet 1994 for a review), with little success until recently. We have recently undertaken a Large Area Lyman Alpha survey (Rhoads et al 2000) to identify a large sample of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitting galaxies at high redshift ($`z=4.5\pm 0.1`$) through narrowband imaging, and so characterize empirically star and galaxy formation in the early universe. Both our survey (Rhoads et al. 2000) and other recent searches over smaller volumes (Cowie & Hu 1998, Hu et al 1998, Kudritzki et al 2000, Fynbo & Moller 2001…others…Pentericci et al. 2001, Stiavelli et al. 2001) are indeed finding high redshift Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources, albeit factors of $`100`$ fainter than the early predictions (Partridge & Peebles 1967). This faintness is consistent with the 30 years of nondetections (1967-1997) by many groups that preceded the current generation of searches.

Low luminosity of this line could be due to smaller masses of the sources, lower star-formation rates, or selective obscuration of the resonantly scattered Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line (Charlot & Fall 1993). The latter scenario would lead to smaller equivalent width (EW) of the line. The EW of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line can also, in principle, be used as a diagnostic to determine the population of young, massive stars. However, this is complicated by several factors: Ionizing flux depends on stellar metallicity; active galactic nuclei may contribute to the ionizing flux; and resonant scattering of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line can make it more sensitive to dust than the adjoining continuum, but (depending on clumping and winds in the interstellar medium) need not do so (Neufeld 1991; Kunth et al 1998).

In this paper we report on the distribution of equivalent widths of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line for sources detected in the LALA survey. In section 2.1, we will discuss briefly the LALA survey and selection critera for sources. Section 2.2 describes how we calculate the equivalent width of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line and presents the observed distribution. Section 3 contains details of stellar population modelling, and section 4 contains discussions and conclusions.

## 2 Observations and equivalent widths

### 2.1 Survey and data reduction

An efficient search for Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters (and other emission line galaxies) was started in 1998 using the CCD Mosaic Camera at the Kitt Peak National Observatory’s 4m Mayall telescope. The Mosaic camera has eight $`2048\times 4096`$ chips in a $`4\times 2`$ array comprising a $`36^{}\times 36^{}`$ field of view. The final area covered by the LALA survey is $`0.72`$ square-degrees in two MOSAIC fields centered at 14:25:57 +35:32 (2000.0) and 02:05:20 -04:55 (2000.0). Five overlapping narrow band filters of width FWHM$`80`$Å are used. The central wavelengths are $`6559`$, $`6611`$, $`6650`$, $`6692`$, and $`6730`$Å, giving a total redshift coverage $`4.37<z<4.57`$. This translates into surveyed comoving volume of $`7.4\times 10^5`$ comoving $`\text{Mpc}^3`$ per field for $`H_0=70\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$.

In this paper we report on the data from the spring field centered at 14:25:57 +35:32 (2000.0), since all the imaging on this field at $`z4.5`$ is complete. In about 6 hours per filter per field we achieve line detections of about $`2\times 10^{17}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. The survey sensitivity varies with seeing. Broadband images of these fields in a custom $`B_w`$ filter ($`\lambda _0=4135`$Å, $`\text{FWHM}=1278`$Å) and the Johnson-Cousins $`R`$, $`I`$, and $`K`$ bands were taken as part of the NOAO Deep Widefield Survey (Jannuzi & Dey 1999).

The images were reduced using the MSCRED package (Valdes & Tody 1998; Valdes 1998) in the IRAF environment (Tody 1986, 1993), together with assorted custom IRAF scripts. Details of the data reduction can be found in the paper by Rhoads et al (2000). Catalogs were generated using the SExtractor package. Fluxes were measured in $`2.32^{\prime \prime }`$ (9 pixel) diameter apertures, and colors were obtained using matched $`2.32^{\prime \prime }`$ apertures in registered images that had been convolved to yield matched point spread functions. In order to gracefully handle sources that are not detected in all filters, we have chosen to use “asinh magnitudes” (Lupton, Gunn, & Szalay 1999), which are a logarithmic function of flux for well detected sources but approach a linear function of flux for weak or undetected sources. The color scatter achieved for bright sources ($`R<22`$) is $`0.10`$ magnitudes (semi-interquartile range). This includes the true scatter in object colors, and is therefore a firm upper limit on the scatter introduced by any residual systematic error sources, which we expect to be a few percent at worst.

### 2.2 Selection Criterion

The candidates are selected in the narrow-bands with a detection threshold of $`5\sigma `$, where $`\sigma `$ is the root-mean-square (rms) noise determined locally. To reduce the number of foreground \[OII\] and \[OIII\] interlopers, we set the minimum observed equivalent width, $`\text{EW}>80`$Å. Also, the narrowband flux density should exceed the broad band flux density at the $`4\sigma `$ confidence level for a source to be selected as an emission line source. All these criteria are designed to keep the numbers of false candidates down to an acceptable level (Rhoads 2000). An additional condition that the sources not be detected in B-band image selects against low-redshift sources, and is roughly equivalent to a photometric redshift. These criteria yield 157 z=4.5 Lyman-$`\alpha `$ candidates in the three non-overlapping filters H$`\alpha 0`$, H$`\alpha 8`$, H$`\alpha 16`$.

### 2.3 Equivalent width calculation:

The equivalent width is calculated using narrow and broad band photometry. The observed equivalent width is given by $`EW_o=F_{Ly\alpha }/f_\lambda =(W_R\times NW_N\times R)/(RN)`$, where $`F_{Ly\alpha }`$ is the flux of the Lyman$`\alpha `$ line, $`f_\lambda `$ is the flux density of the continuum, $`W_N`$ and $`W_R`$ are widths of the R band (1568 Å) and the narrow-bands (80 Å) respectively, and $`R`$ and $`N`$ are the respective fluxes in the R-band and the narrow-band in which the source is detected.

The measured equivalent widths are also affected by Lyman-$`\alpha `$ forest absorption, which can lower both the R-band flux and the line flux. The correction factor for intergalactic absorption is estimated using the prescription of Madau 1995. For the broad band, this is $`𝒜=0.58`$$`0.68`$ for $`z=4.57`$$`4.37`$. For a Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line that is symmetric about zero velocity, we find $`𝒜=0.64`$. Thus, the two corrections approximately cancel. The rest-frame equivalent width is then given by $`EW=EW_O/(1+z)`$. The division by (1+z) corrects for Hubble expansion.

Figure 1 shows the cumulative distribution of rest-frame equivalent widths after correcting for absorption by the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ forest. The equivalent widths are derived using equation 1. The continuum is not detected in approximately half the sources. For such sources we use the actual measured R flux at the location of the narrowband source, which makes the equivalent width formally negative in many cases. All such sources are placed in the last bin of the histogram. The median of the distribution is then 400 Å. Figure 1 also shows the cumulative distribution of EWs if we add 1 and 2 $`\sigma `$ to the R-band flux. Some estimate of the uncertainties in the measurement of the EW can be had from comparing the the three distributions.

## 3 Modelling the distribution of equivalent widths

The equivalent width of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line from stellar systems depends on many factors: the fraction of ionizing photons absorbed by the gas, the dust content of the interstellar medium (ISM), and the relative numbers of ionizing and non-ionizing photons in the UV. The last depends on the slope of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), metallicity of the stellar population, and age of the system. So we know the presence of dust decreases the equivalent width of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line, while metal poor and more massive, young stars increase it. Charlot & Fall (1993) and Kudritzki et al. (2000) have calculated the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ equivalent width for stellar populations with different properties.

Our approach here is to combine the luminosity function of galaxies at high redshift with stellar population models and simulate the observational biases reasonably to model the observed Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitter population. Since we have a reasonably large sample of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters, we can use the distribution of equivalent widths as well as the total numbers of such objects as constraints on the nature of these objects.

Three main elements go into modelling the observed number and distribution of equivalent widths:

(1) The luminosity function of galaxies at z=4.5: Since LAEs are selected on the basis of a strong line this sample can, and does, explore the faint end of the luminosity function (Fynbo et al. 2001). I.e. we can pick up objects with sub-detection level broad-band fluxes and bright emission lines. And as long as the luminosity function is such that there are more faint sources than bright, selection on the basis of line luminosity will result in bias towards high equivalent width sources.

To model the effects of such biases and to explore the relation between line- and continuum-selected high redshift sources, we use the luminosity function of Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) at z=4.0, which is consistent with the faint end luminosity function from the Hubble Deep Field (Pozetti et al. 1998, Steidel et al. 1999). Translating the luminosity function to a cosmology with $`H_0=70,\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ at redshift $`z=4.5`$, we get a Schecter function with $`\varphi _{}=1\times 10^3Mpc^3/\text{mag}`$ , $`\alpha =1.6`$ and $`M_{}=25.17`$.

(2) Stellar population modelling: We estimate the equivalent width of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line using the stellar population modelling program “Starburst99” (Leitherer et al. 1999).

The models were run for continuous star-formation. The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) is assumed to be a power law with the exponent ranging between $`\alpha =0.52.35`$, the latter being the Salpeter law. The metallicity range was from solar to 1/20th solar. Upper mass cutoff was varied between $`M_{upper}=40120M_{}`$. For simplicity we consider three models: Model (A) consists of continuous star-formation with Salpeter IMF, $`Z=1/20`$th solar and $`M_{upper}=120M_{}`$. In Model (B) we take the most extreme IMF we dare and set $`\alpha =0.5`$. Model (C) consists of a zero metallicity stellar population with IMF slope $`\alpha =2.35`$ whose spectra at the age of $`10^6`$ years is derived by Tumilinson & Shull (2000). The shape of the age-EW distribution is assumed to be the same as for model (A) since $`\alpha =2.35`$ is the same.

The continuum level at 1225 Å is given directly by the models. The line strength is derived by assuming that all the ionizing flux is absorbed by neutral hydrogen and produces 2 Lyman-$`\alpha `$ photons per 3 ionizing photons (case B). We assume that dust absorption and resonance scattering have no effect. All this maximizes the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ output from galaxies. The equivalent width of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ is highest when the galaxies are young and asymptotically approaches a steady state value by age $`10^7`$ years as seen in Figure 2 (see also Charlot and Fall 1993). For Model C we know the value of EW of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ at $`10^6`$ year but not the evolution of the stellar populations, so we scale the age vs EW curve for model (A) to produce an Lyman-$`\alpha `$ EW of 1122 Å at $`10^6`$ years, since the shape of the age vs EW curve should depend mostly on the IMF slope $`\alpha `$.

The Lyman-$`\alpha `$ equivalent width distribution of the galaxy population is dependent on the age distribution. In this paper we assume as our null hypothesis that the formation of galaxies is at these epochs is continuous and uniform in time, which is to say there is no special synchronization of galaxy formation better than $`10^8`$ years. The consequence of this assumption is that there should be 100 times as many galaxies of age 108 as 106 111 We use age distribution $`0.5\times 10^610^8`$ years. The upper limit is partly motivated by the age estimates of Lyman Break Galaxies whose luminosity function we use and partly by the age of the universe which is $`10^9`$ years at z=4.5. Therefore the typical equivalent width of the sample should be the equivalent width of galaxies that are $`10^8`$ years old, with a tail extending to the highest equivalent width for very young galaxies.

(3) Observational selection effects: Since objects are selected on the basis of having $`5\sigma `$ flux in the narrow-band and no restriction in the broad, the error in equivalent widths is dominated by the measurement errors in broad-band flux. In about half the sample the continuum is undetected in the broad band R filter at $`2\sigma `$. Underestimate of the R-band flux can easily push up the EW estimates. So we model the effects of R-band measurement errors on the equivalent width distribution.

Sky noise is the dominant source and is estimated by placing random apertures on the sky. We take the distribution of fluxes measured in $`10^4`$ random apertures that satisfy one of the conditions of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ candidate selection, namely that there be no detectable Bw-band flux. The distribution of fluxes in such apertures is then taken as the empirical distribution of errors in the R-band flux and shows a higher tail than a gaussian distribution.

(4) The Inter Galactic Medium: The R-band flux is reduced due to IGM absorption blueward of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line. We use the prescription by Madau (1995) to calculate the reduction in R-band flux due to the absorption of continuum. The Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line flux is also reduced due to absorption by galactic and inter-galactic gas, leading to the asymmetric line profile observed in these sources (Rhoads et al. 2000, Rhoads et al. 2001, Malhotra et al. 2001). Reducing the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line flux by a factor of 2 is a reasonable approximation (the IGM alone absorbs 36% of the line (Madau 1995)).

Equivalent width (EW$`=f_{Ly\alpha }/f_\lambda `$) is not the best formalism to model in a situation where R-band continuum is not detected in half of the sources and flux density $`f_\lambda `$ is unknown. Instead of modelling equivalent widths, we work with the ratio of broad-band to narrow-band fluxes $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=F_\lambda (R)/F_\lambda (N)`$. With the more uncertain (and small) quantity in the numerator instead of the denominator, the errors are much better behaved. Figure 3 shows the histogram of observed $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in some of the models.

Another advantage of this formalism is that in spite of the many elements that go into reproducing the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ distribution, these elements are roughly separable in their effects on the distribution. With that in mind we draw the following robust conclusions
(1) The total number of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources is dependent mostly on the luminosity function. We predict the total number of faint galaxies by extrapolating the LBG luminosity function to lower magnitudes. Only 7.5-15% of these galaxies need to show Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emission to match the number of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters found at z=4.5.
(2) The median of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is unaffected by the noise in R-band flux, which merely broadens the distribution of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. The median $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.0814`$, which corresponds to an EW of 430 in the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line.
(3) The width of the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ distribution gives a measure of the scatter in intrinsic value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as well as the flux errors in the R-band. We find that the latter is the dominant contributer to the width of the distribution.

Figure 3 shows how the three models compare with the observed distribution of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. We see that none of the models fits perfectly. Model A clearly produces a higher $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (lower EW) than observed, and is most clearly disfavored. Models (B) and (C) reproduce the median $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ but do not fully account for the width of the distribution. The observed numbers of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources requires that a fraction of faint galaxies show Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emission. This fraction is 15%, 8.5% and 7.5% for Models (A), (B) & (C)

## 4  Discussion and conclusions

With Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources we are exploring the faint end of the luminosity function, because selection on the basis of line luminosity pulls in sources not easily detected in continuum (Fynbo et al. 2001). Are we also exploring the youngest set of galaxies by selecting them on the basis of their Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emission? In this paper we have tried to answer that question by studying the equivalent width distribution of these sources. The median equivalent width of the population is too large to be explicable by ordinary stellar populations. The distribution of equivalent widths can be reasonably (though not perfectly) explained by postulating an IMF that favors more massive stars, or a zero metallicity population. Neither of these scenarios completely explains the low EW tails of the distribution. These tails could be due to more evolved galaxies where dust effects begin to be observable. Since the errors in R-band fluxes are responsible for much of the observed spread in EW, we need deeper R-band images to see the real spread in EW better.

The number of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources is 7.5-15 % of the numbers expected by extrapolating the luminosity function of Lyman Break Galaxies. Perhaps this is a clue that we are only seeing the youngest galaxies and therefore skewed to-wards high EW of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line. Why then, do we not see older galaxies with intermediate EWs in our sample? We are sensitive to EW$`>80/(1+z)`$. Perhaps dust formation after $`10^7`$ years quenches the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line completely, due to resonance scattering. In another possible scenario, perhaps the early star-formation in galaxies is episodic, so we only see the galaxies when the star-formation episode is less that $`<10^7`$ years old. That is also when the galaxies are brighter. This scenario is also consistent with the blotchy appearances of high redshift galaxies if the different episodes happen in different parts of a galaxy (e.g. Colley et al. 1996).

The high equivalent widths can also be a signature of quasar activity. If so, most of them have to be narrow-line quasars, otherwise we should see the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line emission span more than one 80 Å filter. Some of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources could be type II quasars like the ones found by Norman et al. 2001 & Stern et al. 2001. Chandra deep field observations (Rosati et al. 2001) show that there are $`2`$$`3\times 10^3`$ x-ray sources per square degree at x-ray fluxes corresponding to the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ flux limit of our sample. (The x-ray to Lyman-$`\alpha `$ ratio is fixed using the Norman et al. object). Thus, if all the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources were type II quasars we would violate the X-ray background constraints by a factor of 4-5 unless there were no contribution from the X-ray background from redshifts $`z<4`$ or $`z>5`$. This is unphysical and contradicts the observed distribution of X-ray source redshifts: The Chandra Deep Field redshift distribution peaks at $`z=0.70.8`$ and contains no $`z>4`$ sources (Gilli et al. in preparation).

To conclude, this paper reports on the EW distribution of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitting galaxies at z=4.5 and 5.7. The high median equivalent width of the distribution requires that the galaxies be very young, have zero metallicity or stellar IMF of slope $`\alpha =0.5`$. AGNs can also produce high EWs. If so, we should be able to detect them with the current generation of X-ray observatories. High EWs observed in a large sample obtained by the LALA survey are harder to explain than individual objects (e.g. Ellis et al. 2001), and therefore pose questions that will help us understand galaxy and star-formation in a young universe.

This work made use of images provided by the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS; Jannuzi and Dey 1999), which is supported by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). NOAO is operated by AURA, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. We thank Buell Jannuzi, Arjun Dey, and the rest of the NDWFS team for making their images public; and Richard Green and Jim De Veny for their support of the LALA survey. We thank Colin Norman and Tim Heckman for discussing a number of scenarios to explain these observations. JER’s research is supported by an Institute Fellowship at The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). SM’s research funding is provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant # HF-01111.01-98A from STScI. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.


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# Electron shot noise beyond the second moment

## Abstract

The form of electron counting statistics of the tunneling current noise in a generic many-body interacting electron system is obtained. The third correlator of current fluctuations (the skewness of the charge counting distribution) has a universal relation with the current $`I`$ and the quasiparticle charge $`e^{}`$. This relation $`C_3=(e^{})^2I`$ holds in a wide bias voltage range, both at large and small $`eV/k_\mathrm{B}T`$, thereby representing an advantage compared to the Schottky formula. We consider the possibility of using the counting statistics for detecting quasiparticle charge at high temperature.

Recent developments in the problem of quantum electron transport were marked by interest in the phenomenon of electric noise. The many-body theory of electron shot noise, developed by Lesovik  (and independently by Khlus ) for a point contact, was extended to multiterminal systems by Büttiker  and to mesoscopic systems by Beenakker and Büttiker . Kane and Fisher proposed using shot noise for detecting fractional quasiparticles in a Quantum Hall Luttinger liquid .

Experimental studies of the shot noise, after first measurements in a point contact by Reznikov et al.  and Kumar et al. , focused on the quantum Hall regime. The fractional charges $`e/3`$ and $`e/5`$ were observed  at incompressible Landau level filling (see also recent work on noise at intermediate filling ). The shot noise in a mesoscopic conductor was observed by Steinbach et al.  and Schoelkopf et al. , who also studied noise in an ac driven phase-coherent mesoscopic conductor .

In this article we discuss a generalization of the shot noise, namely the counting statistics of fluctuating electric current. It can be defined through the probability distribution $`P(q)`$ of charge transmitted in a fixed time interval . We consider ways of obtaining the distribution $`P(q)`$ using a fast charge integrator scheme. From the distribution $`P(q)`$ all moments of charge fluctuations can be calculated and, conversely, the knowledge of all moments is in principle sufficient for reconstruction of the full distribution. However, due to the central limit theorem, high moments are difficult to access experimentally. Therefore we shall focus primarily on the third moment.

The counting statistics have been analyzed theoretically for a Fermi gas, in the single- and multi-channel geometry , in the mesoscopic regime , and in the ac driven phase-coherent regime . Charge doubling due to Andreev scattering in NS junctions was considered by Muzykantskii and Khmelnitskii , and in mesoscopic NS systems by Belzig and Nazarov . However, since the most interesting applications of the shot noise lie in the domain of interacting electron systems, an appropriate extension of the theory is necessary.

The problem of back influence of a charge detector on current fluctuations was considered by Lesovik and Loosen , and recently by Nazarov and Kindermann . Beenakker proposed an alternative way of obtaining charge statistics using photon counting . Application to pumping in quantum dots was also discussed .

Our central finding is a relation between counting statistics and the Kubo theorem, valid in the tunneling regime for a generic interacting many-body system. From that we obtain a formula for the moments of the counting statistics that holds in the entire bias voltage range, at arbitrary $`eV/k_\mathrm{B}T`$. We demonstrate that in the tunneling regime the current fluctuations are described by an uncorrelated mixture of two Poisson processes. This is revealed by a generating function $`\chi (\lambda )=_qP(q)e^{i\lambda q/e^{}}`$, with $`e^{}`$ the quasiparticle charge. We find

$$\chi (\lambda )=\mathrm{exp}\left[(e^{i\lambda }1)N_{12}(\tau )+(e^{i\lambda }1)N_{21}(\tau )\right]$$
(1)
where $`N_{ab}(\tau )=m_{ab}\tau `$ is the mean charge number transmitted from the contact $`a`$ to the contact $`b`$ in a time $`\tau `$.

The result (1) yields a number of relations between different statistics of the probability distribution $`P(q)`$. The cummulants $`\delta q^k`$ (irreducible correlators) of the distribution $`P(q)`$ are expressed in terms of $`\chi (\lambda )`$ as

$$\mathrm{ln}\chi (\lambda )=\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{(i\lambda )^k}{k!}\frac{\delta q^k}{(e^{})^k}$$
(2)
Using Eq. (1) one obtains

$$\delta q^k=(e^{})^k\{\begin{array}{cc}(m_{12}m_{21})\tau ,\hfill & k\text{ odd}\hfill \\ (m_{12}+m_{21})\tau ,\hfill & k\text{ even}\hfill \end{array}$$
(3)
Setting $`k=1,2`$ we express $`m_{12}\pm m_{21}`$ through the time-averaged current and the low frequency noise power:

$$m_{12}m_{21}=I/e^{},m_{12}+m_{21}=𝒫/2(e^{})^2.$$
(4)
Of special interest for us will be the cummulant $`\delta q^3`$ which is equal to the third correlator

$$\delta q^3\overline{\delta q^3}=\overline{\left(q\overline{q}\right)^3}$$
(5)
(see Fig. 1). For this correlator Eq. (3) gives $`\delta q^3=C_3\tau `$ with the coefficient $`C_3`$ (“spectral power”) related to the current $`I`$ as

$$C_3\delta q^3/\tau =(e^{})^2I$$
(6)
We note that the relation (6) holds for the distribution (1) at any ratio of the mean number of transmitted charges $`m_{12}m_{21}`$ to the variance $`m_{12}+m_{21}`$.

The meaning of Eq. (6) is similar to that of the Schottky formula for the second correlator $`𝒫=2\delta q^2=2e^{}I`$ which is usually used to determine the effective charge $`e^{}`$ from the tunneling current noise. The Schottky formula is valid when charge flow is unidirectional, which means $`m_{12}m_{21}`$ (see Eq. (3)). The latter can be true only at sufficiently low temperatures $`k_\mathrm{B}TeV`$. This requirement of a cold sample at a relatively high bias voltage is the origin of a well known difficulty in the noise measurement. In contrast, the relation (6) is not constrained by any requirement on sample temperature.

On a general basis we expect the relation (6 to hold approximately even outside the tunneling regime. Indeed, for the Nyquist noise at equilibrium all odd moments vanish. Combined with the temperature independence of $`P(q)`$ out of equilibrium, this implies a relatively weaker dependence on $`eV/k_\mathrm{B}T`$ than in the noise power at the Nyquist-Schottky crossover. This is manifest, for instance, in the temperature independent first moment of $`P(q)`$ for free fermions (the Landauer formula).

This property of the third moment, if confirmed experimentally, may prove to be quite useful for determining the quasiparticle charge. In particular, this applies to the situations when the $`IV`$ characteristic is strongly nonlinear, when it is usually difficult to unambiguously interpret the variation of the second moment with current as a shot noise effect or as a result of thermal noise modified by non-linear conductance. We stress that this is a completely general problem pertinent to any interacting system. Namely, in systems such as Luttinger liquids, the $`IV`$ nonlinearities arise at $`eVk_\mathrm{B}T`$. However, it is exactly this voltage that has to be applied for measuring the shot noise in the Schottky regime.

Now we turn to the derivation of the main result (1). The starting point of our analysis will be the tunneling Hamiltonian $`\widehat{}=\widehat{}_1+\widehat{}_2+\widehat{V}`$, where $`\widehat{}_{1,2}`$ describe the leads and $`\widehat{V}=\widehat{J}_{12}+\widehat{J}_{21}`$ is the tunneling operator. The specific form of the operators $`\widehat{J}_{12}`$, $`\widehat{J}_{21}`$ that describe tunneling of a quasiparticle between the leads will be unimportant for the most of our discussion.

The counting statistics generating function $`\chi (\lambda )`$ can be written  as a Keldysh partition function

$$\chi (\lambda )=\mathrm{T}_\mathrm{K}\mathrm{exp}\left(i_{C_{0,\tau }}\widehat{}_\lambda (t)𝑑t\right),$$
(7)
where a counting field $`\lambda (t)`$ is added to the phase of the tunneling operators $`\widehat{J}_{12}`$, $`\widehat{J}_{21}`$ as

$$\widehat{V}_\lambda =e^{\frac{i}{2}\lambda (t)}\widehat{J}_{12}(t)+e^{\frac{i}{2}\lambda (t)}\widehat{J}_{21}(t)$$
(8)
Here $`\lambda (t)=\pm \lambda `$ is antisymmetric on the forward and backward parts of the Keldysh contour $`C_{0,\tau }\left[0\tau 0\right]`$. Eqs. (7), (8) originate from the analysis of a coupling Hamiltonian for an ideal “passive charge detector” without internal dynamics .

In what follows we compute $`\chi (\lambda )`$ and establish a relation with the Kubo theorem for tunneling current . For that, we perform the usual gauge transformation turning the bias voltage into the tunneling operator phase factor as $`\widehat{J}_{12}\widehat{J}_{12}e^{ieVt}`$, $`\widehat{J}_{21}\widehat{J}_{21}e^{ieVt}`$. Passing to the Keldysh interaction representation, we write

$$\chi (\lambda )=\mathrm{T}_\mathrm{K}\mathrm{exp}\left(i_{C_{0,\tau }}\widehat{V}_{\lambda (t)}(t)𝑑t\right)$$
(9)
Diagrammatically, the partition function (9) is a sum of linked cluster diagrams with appropriate combinatorial factors. To the lowest order in the tunneling operators $`\widehat{J}_{12}`$, $`\widehat{J}_{21}`$ we only need to consider linked clusters of the second order. This gives $`\chi (\lambda )=e^{W(\lambda )}`$, where

$$W(\lambda )=\frac{1}{2}_{C_{0,\tau }}\mathrm{T}_\mathrm{K}\widehat{V}_{\lambda (t)}(t)\widehat{V}_{\lambda (t^{})}(t^{})𝑑t𝑑t^{}$$
(10)
There are several different contributions to this integral, from $`t`$ and $`t^{}`$ on the forward or backward parts of the contour $`C_{0,\tau }`$. Evaluating them separately, we obtain

$`W(\lambda )={\displaystyle _0^\tau }{\displaystyle _0^\tau }\widehat{V}_\lambda (t)\widehat{V}_\lambda (t^{})𝑑t^{}𝑑t`$ (11)
$`{\displaystyle _0^\tau }{\displaystyle _0^t}\widehat{V}_\lambda (t)\widehat{V}_\lambda (t^{})𝑑t^{}𝑑t{\displaystyle _0^\tau }{\displaystyle _t^\tau }\widehat{V}_\lambda (t)\widehat{V}_\lambda (t^{})𝑑t^{}𝑑t`$ (12)
We substitute the form (8) into Eq.(11) and average by pairing $`\widehat{J}_{12}`$ with $`\widehat{J}_{21}`$. This gives

$`W(\lambda )=(e^{i\lambda }1)N_{12}(\tau )+(e^{i\lambda }1)N_{21}(\tau )`$ (13)
$`\mathrm{with}N_{ab}={\displaystyle _0^\tau }{\displaystyle _0^\tau }\widehat{J}_{ba}(t)\widehat{J}_{ab}(t^{})𝑑t𝑑t^{}`$ (14)
Exponentiating (13) gives the result (1)

It is instructive to relate the quantities (14) with the Kubo theorem. We consider the tunneling current operator $`\widehat{}(t)=ie^{}\left(\widehat{J}_{12}(t)\widehat{J}_{21}(t)\right)`$. From the Kubo theorem for the tunneling current , the mean integrated current $`_0^\tau \widehat{}(t)𝑑t`$ scaled by $`e^{}`$ is nothing but

$$_0^\tau _0^\tau [\widehat{J}_{21}(t),\widehat{J}_{12}(t^{})]𝑑t𝑑t^{}=N_{12}N_{21}$$
(15)
By writing $`N_{ab}=m_{ab}\tau `$, we obtain the first relation (4). To obtain the second relation (4) we consider the variance of the charge transmitted in time $`\tau `$. It is given by a time integral of an averaged symmetrized product of two current operators

$$\delta q^2=(e^{})^2_0^\tau _0^\tau \{\widehat{}(t),\widehat{}(t^{})\}_+𝑑t𝑑t^{}$$
(16)
The integral in (16) can be rewritten as

$$_0^\tau _0^\tau \{\widehat{J}_{12}(t),\widehat{J}_{21}(t^{})\}_+𝑑t𝑑t^{}=N_{12}+N_{21}$$
(17)
which immediately leads to (4).

The result (1), and thereby the formula (6) for the 3-rd correlator, are valid only at low transmission. In that the situation is similar to the Kubo formula for the tunneling current, which is valid only in the tunneling Hamiltonian approximation. To illustrate this we recall the expression for counting statistics for a single channel noninteracting Fermi system (point contact) in the presence of a dc voltage $`V`$ and temperature $`T`$ ,

$`\chi (\lambda )=\mathrm{exp}\left(N_T𝒰_+𝒰_{}\right),N_T={\displaystyle \frac{\tau k_\mathrm{B}T}{2\pi \mathrm{}}}`$ (18)
$`𝒰_\pm =𝒰/2\pm \mathrm{cosh}^1\left(t\mathrm{cosh}(𝒰/2+i\lambda )+r\mathrm{cosh}\left(𝒰/2\right)\right)`$ (19)
where $`\tau `$ is a measurement time, and $`𝒰=eV/k_\mathrm{B}T`$. This result holds for any values of the transmission and reflection constants $`t`$ and $`r`$ (constrained by $`t+r=1`$). The formula (18) was obtained in Ref.  by explicitly evaluating the Keldysh partition function in the scattering basis representation.

The 3-rd correlator $`\delta q^3`$ can be obtained from (18) by expanding $`\mathrm{ln}\chi (\lambda )`$ in Taylor series up to $`O(\lambda ^3)`$:

$$\delta q^3=e^3t(1t)N_T\left(6t\frac{\mathrm{sinh}𝒰𝒰}{\mathrm{cosh}𝒰1}+(12t)𝒰\right)$$
(20)
This expression is a function of the bias-to-temperature ratio $`𝒰`$, and so in this case the relation (20) for the 3-rd correlator does not hold (see Fig. 2). Asymptotically

$$\delta q^3=\{\begin{array}{cc}e^2(1t)I\tau ,\hfill & eVk_\mathrm{B}T\hfill \\ e^2(12t)(1t)I\tau ,\hfill & eVk_\mathrm{B}T\hfill \end{array}$$
(21)
where $`I=\frac{e^2}{2\pi \mathrm{}}tV`$. One can also average over the universal Dorokhov’s distribution of transmission in a multichannel mesoscopic metal  (see Fig. 2).

Eqs. (20), (21) indicate nonuniversality of the relation (6) outside the tunneling regime. They also lead to an interesting qualitative prediction: At $`t>0.5`$ the ratio $`\delta q^3/I`$ can become negative. Such a signature could be observed even if it proves difficult to measure $`\delta q^3`$ quantitatively with sufficient precision. This is important in view of the difficulties in measuring the counting statistics (see below).

In the single channel problem (18) the tunneling regime is realized at low transmission $`t`$. To connect with the results (1), (6) we analyze the expression (18) at $`t1`$. To the lowest order in small $`t`$ we have

$$𝒰_+=𝒰,𝒰_{}=t\frac{e^𝒰\left(e^{i\lambda }1\right)+\left(e^{i\lambda }1\right)}{e^𝒰1}$$
(22)
Substituting this in Eq.(18) we recover (1) with

$$N_{21}(\tau )=\frac{eV\tau }{2\pi \mathrm{}}\frac{t}{e^𝒰1},N_{12}(\tau )=e^𝒰N_{21}(\tau )$$
(23)
the rates of two Poisson processes.

The measurement of the distribution $`P(q)`$ is a nontrivial task. Current fluctuations must be amplified with a very low noise preamplifier (e.g. the one used in Refs. ). Amplified signal can then be digitized and analyzed with computer. This setup in principle allows to reconstruct the full statistics of transmitted charge. In practice, however, the correlators of high order become increasingly difficult to extract.

The main source of error in the measurement of the $`k`$-th cummulant $`C_k`$ of the distribution $`P(q)`$ is statistical. The nongaussian character of the amplifier noise does not present a problem, since the mean time-averaged value of the $`k`$-th cummulant $`C_k^{(a)}`$ for the amplifier can be subtracted if known with sufficient accuracy. The measured value $`C_k`$ should be compared to (i) the variance $`\mathrm{var}C_k`$ of the $`k`$-th cummulant statistics and (ii) the variance $`\mathrm{var}C_k^{(a)}`$ of the $`k`$-th cummulant of the amplifier noise. The variance is in both cases expressed through the correlators of order $`2k`$. The correlators of even order for a generic distribution can be estimated, by virtue of the central limit theorem, using Gaussian statistics:

$$\mathrm{var}C_k=\left(\delta q^{2k}\right)^{1/2}\left((2k1)!!\delta q^2^k\right)^{1/2}$$
(24)
Fluctuations introduced by amplifier can also be estimated using Gaussian statistics. For the amplifier noise of spectral density $`A`$ (measured in $`\mathrm{A}^2/\mathrm{Hz}`$), charge fluctuations are $`\delta Q^2=\frac{1}{2}A\tau `$, where $`\tau `$ is sampling time. An estimate of the variance $`\mathrm{var}C_k^{(a)}`$, similar to Eq.(24), gives

$$\mathrm{var}C_k^{(a)}=\left((2k1)!!\left(\frac{1}{2}A\tau \right)^k\right)^{1/2}$$
(25)
For odd $`k`$ the commulant $`C_k=\delta q^k`$ mean value is proportional to the current $`I`$, as discussed above. The fluctuations due to the amplifier are independent of $`I`$. In the Nyquist regime (at small $`I`$) the variance $`\mathrm{var}C_k`$ is independent on $`I`$ and is determined by thermal noise. In the Schottky noise regime (at large $`I`$) the fluctuations are determined by $`I`$, and $`\mathrm{var}C_kI^{k/2}`$. Therefore at $`k>2`$ one can increase the signal-to-noise ratio by increasing the current until $`\mathrm{var}C_k\mathrm{var}C_k^{(a)}`$

In the shot noise regime, when $`\delta q^2=eI\tau A\tau `$, we can estimate the signal-to-noise ratio as

$$S/N\frac{q^k}{2\mathrm{v}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}C_k}\frac{1}{2((2k1)!!)^{1/2}}\left(\frac{2e^2}{A\tau }\right)^{k/21}$$
(26)
It is clear from Eq.(26) that it is beneficial to decrease the sampling time $`\tau `$ to gain sensitivity. Estimates for typical values of $`A=10^{28}\mathrm{A}^2/\mathrm{Hz}`$ and $`\tau =10^7\mathrm{s}^1`$ give for the $`k=3`$ commulant $`S/N10^2`$. This value is acceptable, since repeating the measurement many times over a long time $`𝒯`$ and averaging will further reduce statistical fluctuations by a factor of $`\sqrt{𝒯/\tau }`$. For the cummulants of higher order $`k>3`$ the situation is more problematic.

In summary, the counting statistics (1) of tunneling current is found to be universal and independent of the character of interactions. For the third correlator we obtain a generalized Schottky formula (6). This formula is valid at both large and small $`eV/k_\mathrm{B}T`$ and can be used to measure quasiparticle charge at temperatures $`k_\mathrm{B}TeV`$. A method for measuring the third correlator is proposed.

This research is supported by the Binational Science Foundation and by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMR 98-08941.


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# Optimization of the Parameters in the RHIC Single Crystal Heavy Ion Collimation

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The project of a collimation system using bent channeling crystal for cleaning of the RHIC heavy ion beam halo has been described in some detail in Ref. where we refer for the basic ideas and results, and more technical information. In order to optimize the crystal collimation scheme for RHIC, we have studied the influence of the silicon (110) single crystal parameters (length, bending angle, curvature gradient) on the efficiency of bending of the beam of fully ionized Au ions. The beam distribution at the entrance of the crystal was presented by the sample of 19258 fully stripped gold ions generated as described in our previous article .

We have also postulated that at the entrance to the crystal all the particles have the same momenta, corresponding to the Lorentz factor of 108.40, in order to evaluate then the momentum distribution in the beam downstream of the crystal.

In our first study  the crystal length of 10 mm and the bending angle of 1 mrad were used, as it was a practical choice corresponding to the state of art on that date. It was concluded that the bending angle can be reduced substantially. In the mean time, the IHEP Protvino experimental practice has shown that shorter crystals of high quality can be produced and they behave in perfect agreement with theory .

## 2 TRACKING IN CRYSTAL

With the above said arrangements, we have performed tracking of the 19258 particles through various crystals by means of CATCH code . Typical distribution of the particles downstream of the crystal consists of a sharp peak of the particles channeled through the full crystal length and bent the full angle, some particles unbent but scattered of the crystal, few particles bent partial angle between the bent and unbent peaks, and few particles nuclear interacted in the crystal. Fig. 1 represents gold ion distribution in the horizontal phase space at the downstream edge of the crystal.

Having studied such distributions for the crystals with different length but the same bending angle of 0.5 mrad, we plot in Fig. 2 how many particles were bent at least 0.1 mrad (this includes the particles channeled part of the crystal length as they are steered through the angles that might be sufficient for interception by the downstream collimator). One can see that, from standpoint of physics alone, one can reduce the crystal length to nearly 2 mm without seriously affecting the efficiency of bending of the above-defined sample of particles.

Further we studied how the efficiency of the 5-mm long crystal would depend on the bending angle in the range of about 0.2-1.0 mrad. There was hardly any dependence up to at least 1 mrad, so this gives us the freedom to adjust the bending angle to what seems appropriate for collimation purpose in RHIC.

One objective on the agenda was to find if we could benefit in the efficiency from a variable curvature of the crystal (in the above simulations the curvature was constant). The motive is that, whereas in the extraction mode one has to deliver the bent beam to a single direction, in the collimation mode it is sufficient to deliver the bent beam to a range of directions, say from 0.3 to 1.0 mrad in our case, as the particles are absorbed anyway (it might be even useful to spread the irradiation load over the collimator). In the simulation we have tried variable curvature of the 5-mm crystal, with the curvature peak being factor of 2, 4, 8, and 16 of the average. However, the fraction of the particles bent at the angles greater than 0.1 mrad has not changed significantly as compared to the above studies, so we don’t mention this option further on.

Table 1 summarizes comparative characteristics of the beam interaction with two crystals, 5 mm long and 10 mm long. The total number of the gold ions incident on the crystals was $`N`$ particles. The number of particles which interacted with the crystal nuclei was $`N_{Lostparticles}`$.The $`N_{channeled}`$ represents the number of particles channeled through the full length of the crystal and hence bent the full angle, and Eff is their fraction to the total.

The momentum distribution has substantially improved with shorter crystals as compared to the earlier study . The $`N_{inbucket}`$ and $`N_{outoffbucket}`$ in Table 1 show the corresponding number of the particles from the momentum distribution downstream of the crystal. Figure. 3 shows phase space of the gold ions at the end of the 5-mm long crystal, where on the x coordinate is shown as dp/p dependent. Taking into account also the practical considerations and experience obtained with crystals at IHEP Protvino, we can conclude that 5-mm long crystal seems well suited for the job of Au beam bending at the angle of the order of 0.5 mrad in a single passage. Several crystals of this size have been already produced and tested at Protvino .

One option for the future simulation studies may sound interesting. Fig. 2 shows that from physics considerations we can reduce the crystal length to order of 1-2 mm, if it appears convenient technically. Such crystal would make a rather little disturbance to the circulating beam, thus allowing potentially many passages of the circulating particles through the bent crystal and enhancing the overall efficiency of bending. To benefit from this mode, such a crystal should have also a sufficient transversal size (possibly greater than the longitudinal size). Studies on feasibility of such crystal deflectors are in progress.

## 3 COLLIMATION SIMULATION IN RHIC

The gold ions tracked through the crystal have been transported through the RHIC ring using the tracking program TEAPOT , with accelerator setting as described in Ref. . Fig. 4 shows the losses around the RHIC rings from the particles scattered of the primary and secondary collimators and the losses from the particles deflected by the crystal. Two extreme cases are presented when the primary collimator downstream of the crystal is wide open and when it is set at 5 $`\sigma _x`$ , the same horizontal distance as a front edge of the crystal.

## 4 CONCLUSIONS

An improvement in the momentum distribution of the ions passed through the crystal and a reduction of lost particles around the ring have been achieved by optimizing the crystal length. Another result is the freedom we have in choosing the angle of bending, which can be left about 0.5 mrad, or be chosen from consideration of collimation physics, or be just varied in the course of experimentation at RHIC.