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# Spin Foam Diagrammatics and Topological Invariance

## Introduction

Since the 1980’s, topology of low dimensional manifolds is at the meeting point of many different areas of mathematics and physics. This development was initiated by Donaldson who was studying 4-manifolds by the means of Yang-Mills equations. Then Jones found his famous polynomial of links in the 3-sphere, using algebraic structures: Von Neumann algebras. This opened up a new way for algebra to come into low dimensional topology. Quantum groups play an important role through the Reshetikhin-Turaev functor . This latter gives a diagrammatic approach to categories, and enables one to construct new topological invariants of 3-manifolds. A state sum invariant of this type was first given by Turaev and Viro  using an arbitrary triangulation of the manifold. This state sum is expressed in terms of $`6j`$-symbols of $`U_q(𝔰𝔩_2)`$, which are associated with tetrahedra of the triangulation. Invariance of the state sum under change of triangulation implies topological invariance. The proof of invariance in  relied heavily on properties of the $`U_q(𝔰𝔩_2)`$ $`6j`$-symbols (Biedenharn-Elliot property) and so was mainly algebraic. Later, the invariant was generalized to arbitrary spherical categories , again using algebraic properties of (now generalized) $`6j`$-symbols.

State sum invariants arise in the quantization of BF-theory due to the absence of local degrees of freedom. A typical example is the case of 3d Euclidean gravity with cosmological constant represented by the Turaev-Viro model (see  and references therein). Models of quantum gravity in four dimensions have been defined by means of appropriately constraining the state sum models for 4d BF-theory . Constraining the state sum restores the local degrees of freedom of gravity while topological invariance is lost. Physical amplitudes are expected to be recovered by means of summing over discretizations or by an appropriate limiting procedure in which the discretization is refined. We expect that the techniques introduced here would shed light on the issues involved in studying the scaling properties of amplitudes in non-topological models as well.

A new diagrammatic approach to spin foam models has been introduced in  where generalized lattice gauge theory is considered. The aim of this article is to show that this allows for a very simple proof of topological invariance of 3d BF-theory (which is a special case of lattice gauge theory). This applies to the group case (Ponzano-Regge ), the supersymmetric case, and the quantum group case (Turaev-Viro , Barrett-Westbury ). In the group case the invariance of the partition function can be rather easily demonstrated through manipulations with delta functions. These algebraic operations have simple diagrammatic analogues (which are even more intuitive than the handling of delta functions). If one considers the 3d BF-amplitude with (any) quantum groups, the traditional proof of invariance (through algebraic manipulations) is much less trivial, and relies heavily on properties of generalized $`6j`$-symbols . We show here that the diagrammatics defined for ordinary groups extends naturally to the quantum groups case and therefore renders the proof of topological invariance just as easy. Instead of complicated algebraic relations and dealing with $`6j`$-symbols, the proof requires only a few pictures.

What is more, the new diagrammatic approach allows the definition of the partition function on arbitrary cellular decompositions (as opposed to just triangulations) without any additional complications. Indeed, contrary to what one might expect, this renders the proof of invariance even simpler. While first performing the proof in the simplicial case employing Pachner moves  we then refine it to the general cellular case. To this end we introduce a set of moves relating cellular decompositions. As it turns out, these correspond to diagrammatic identities of the partition function which are in a sense elementary, rendering the invariance proof particularly simple.

In Section 1, we introduce discretized 3d BF-theory and introduce the diagrammatic language for expressing the partition function. In Section 2, we discuss the generalization to the quantum group case. In Section 3, we give the proof of topological invariance first for the simplicial case and extend it then to the general cellular case. To this end we introduce moves relating a cellular decomposition to a simplicial one. We end with concluding remarks. Among other things we discuss there how the presented moves are extended to relate arbitrary cellular decompositions.

## 1 Diagrammatics for BF-theory

In this section we introduce BF-theory, its quantization on a discretized manifold, and a diagrammatic formalism to represent its partition function similar to the spin foam/network formalism.

### 1.1 The partition function

Let $`M`$ be an oriented compact piecewise-linear manifold, $`G`$ a compact Lie group and $`P`$ a principal $`G`$-bundle over $`M`$.444Note that we do note require the bundle to be trivial. Indeed any principal G-bundle will lead to the same discretized partition function as any transition function are “integrated out”. Let $`A`$ be a connection on $`P`$, and $`B`$ an ad($`P`$)-valued 1-form on $`M`$. Here, ad($`P`$) is the associated vector bundle to $`P`$ via the adjoint action of $`G`$ on its Lie algebra. Let $`F`$ be the curvature 2-form of $`A`$. The action is then defined as

$$𝒮=_M\mathrm{Tr}(BF),$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{Tr}`$ is the trace in the adjoint representation. The partition function of the quantum field theory is formally defined to be

$$𝒵()=𝒟B𝒟Ae^{i{\scriptscriptstyle \mathrm{Tr}\left[BF\right]}}.$$
(2)
Integrating out the $`B`$-field one formally obtains

$$𝒵=𝒟A\delta (F).$$
(3)
This last expression can be given a precise meaning if one replaces $`M`$ by a cellular decomposition $`𝒦`$. We recall the definition of cellular decomposition (a decomposition as a finite CW-complex, see ). The basic element is a “cell”. An n-cell is an open ball of dimension $`n`$. A cellular decomposition $`𝒦`$ of $`M`$ is a presentation of $`M`$ as a disjoint union of cells.

Consider now the complex $`𝒦^{}`$ dual to $`𝒦`$. That is, the complex where every $`n`$-cell is replaced by a corresponding $`(dimMn)`$-cell. If in $`𝒦`$ an $`n`$-cell is in the boundary of an $`m`$-cell then in $`𝒦^{}`$ this relationship is reversed for the corresponding cells. As in lattice gauge theory, one assigns a group element, $`g_e`$, to each 1-cell (denoted edge and labeled by $`e`$) in $`𝒦^{}`$, representing the holonomies of the connection. Then one defines the measure over the discretized connections to be $`_edg_e`$, where $`dg`$ is the *Haar measure* on $`G`$. The curvature $`F`$ is represented by the holonomy along edges bounding 2-cells (which are denoted *faces* and labelled by $`f`$), i.e., the product $`g_{e_1}\mathrm{}g_{e_n}`$, where $`e_1\mathrm{}e_n`$ denote the edges bounding the corresponding face. We assume that each face is given an arbitrary but fixed orientation. In this way the partition function is defined as

$$𝒵=\underset{e}{}dg_e\underset{\mathrm{f}}{}\delta (g_{e_1}\mathrm{}g_{e_n}).$$
(4)
Let $`𝒞_{alg}(G)`$ be the algebra of complex valued representative functions on $`G`$, that is, the functions arising as matrix elements of finite-dimensional complex representations of $`G`$. The Peter-Weyl decomposition asserts then that

$$𝒞_{alg}(G)=\underset{\rho }{}(V_\rho ^{}V_\rho ),$$

where $`\rho `$ are the finite-dimensional irreducible representations of $`G`$ and $`V_\rho `$ the representation spaces. Concretely, any function $`f`$ over the group $`G`$ can be written as

$$f(g)=\underset{\rho ,n,n^{}}{}C_\rho ^{nn^{}}\rho _{nn^{}}(g)gG$$

with coefficients $`C_\rho ^{nn^{}}`$. In particular, the delta function is

$$\delta (g)=\underset{\rho }{}\mathrm{dim}\rho \mathrm{Tr}(\rho (g)),$$

where the sum runs over irreducible representations as above. Thus, we can rewrite the partition function as

$$𝒵=\underset{𝒞:\{\mathrm{f}\}\{\rho _\mathrm{f}\}}{}(\underset{\mathrm{f}}{}\mathrm{dim}\rho _\mathrm{f})𝒵_𝒞$$
(5)
$$\text{with}𝒵_𝒞=(\underset{\mathrm{e}}{}dg_\mathrm{e})\underset{\mathrm{f}}{}\mathrm{Tr}\left[\rho _\mathrm{f}(g_{e_1}\mathrm{}g_{e_n})\right],$$
(6)
where $`e_1,\mathrm{},e_n`$ are the edges bounding the face $`f`$. $`𝒞`$ is the set of functions associating to each face $`f`$ an irreducible representation $`\rho _\mathrm{f}`$ of $`G`$. In order to proceed to the integration, one can now expand the trace into matrix elements

$$\mathrm{Tr}(\rho _\mathrm{f}(g_{e_1}\mathrm{}g_{e_n}))=\underset{p_1,\mathrm{},p_n}{}\rho _{\mathrm{f}p_1p_2}(g_{e_1})\mathrm{}\rho _{\mathrm{f}p_np_1}(g_{e_n})$$

and collect for each edge the functions taking as value the corresponding group element. However, instead of proceeding formally we are going to obtain a diagrammatic representation of the partition function, or more precisely of $`𝒵_𝒞`$.

Note that by construction, we are using in (5) the Haar measure on $`G`$. On the algebraic functions this is the map $`:𝒞_{alg}(G)`$ given by the projection

$$\underset{\rho }{}V_\rho ^{}V_\rho V_\mathrm{𝟏}^{}V_\mathrm{𝟏},$$

where $`\mathrm{𝟏}`$ denotes the trivial representation. Now, define a family of maps $`\{T_\rho \}`$ for any representation $`\rho `$ as

$$T_\rho :V_\rho V_\rho \text{with}v𝑑g\rho (g)v.$$

This is simply the projection onto the trivial subrepresentation.

###### Proposition 1.1 ().

$`T_\rho `$ (with $`\rho (g):V_\rho V_\rho `$) defines a family of intertwiners with the following properties:

* $`T_\mathrm{𝟏}=\mathrm{id}_\mathrm{𝟏}`$.
* $`T_\rho =0`$ for $`\rho `$ irreducible and non-trivial.
* $`T`$ is a projector, i.e. $`T_\rho ^2=T_\rho `$.
* $`T`$ commutes with any intertwiner, i.e. for $`\mathrm{\Phi }:V_\rho V_\rho ^{}`$ an intertwiner we have $`T_\rho ^{}\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }T_\rho `$.
* $`T`$ is self-dual, i.e. $`(T_\rho )^{}=T_\rho ^{}`$.
* $`T_\rho T_\rho ^{}=T_{\rho \rho ^{}}(T_\rho \mathrm{id}_\rho ^{})`$.

We depict representations by lines and $`T_\rho `$ by an unlabelled box. E.g. in the case of $`T`$ applied to a tensor product of three representations $`\rho =\rho _1\rho _2\rho _3`$ the diagram is

$$\begin{array}{c}\text{}\end{array}\begin{array}{c}v_1v_2v_3𝑑g(\rho _1(g)v_1\rho _2(g)v_2\rho _3(g)v_3).\end{array}$$
(7)
Furthermore, every line carries an arrow and reversal of the arrow corresponds to exchanging the representation associated with that line with its dual.

The diagrammatic representation of the partition function is now obtained starting from the dual cellular complex $`𝒦^{}`$ as follows. Put a loop (called a *wire*) into each face close to its boundary. Give each wire an arrow according to an arbitrarily chosen but fixed orientation the face and the representation label of the face (given by $`𝒞`$ in Eq. (5)). Each group integration, $`dg_e`$, over the group element associated with the corresponding edge $`e`$ gives rise to an intertwiner $`T_{\rho _1\mathrm{}\rho _N}`$ defined above. $`\rho _1\mathrm{}\rho _N`$ is the tensor product of the irreducible representations labeling the faces adjacent to the edge $`e`$, i.e., the corresponding wires adjacent to $`e`$. According to Eq. (7) we represent $`T_{\rho _1\mathrm{}\rho _N}`$ by a box or cylinder, denoted *cable*, which we put around the edge. The terminology comes from the fact that the diagram obtained in this way resembles an arrangement of cables and wires.

In Fig. 1 we give an illustration of such a diagram. The tetrahedron on the left hand side of Fig. 1 is part of a bigger cellular complex $`𝒦^{}`$. On the right hand side there are six internal cables (cylinders) corresponding to the six edges forming the tetrahedron plus four external cables corresponding to external edges that connect the tetrahedron with the rest of $`𝒦^{}`$. There are four internal faces, the four triangles bounding the tetrahedron, represented by closed wires going from one cable to the other.

We call the whole (embedded) diagram the *circuit diagram*. To extract the value of the partition function (or more precisely $`𝒵_𝒞`$) one projects the circuit diagram (arbitrarily) onto the plane. The evaluation proceeds by using (the symmetric category version of) the Reshetikin-Turaev functor, see  for details. Technically, every element of the (projected) circuit diagram represents a morphism (intertwiner) in the category of representations of $`G`$. In particular, the circuit diagram as a whole labelled by the collection $`𝒞`$ represents an intertwiner $``$ and thus a complex number which is precisely $`𝒵_𝒞`$. This is crucial for the generalization to the quantum group case (see Section 2).

Note that this construction generalizes from BF-theory to lattice gauge theory .

The main advantage of the diagrammatic formulation is that it allows to perform otherwise cumbersome and complicated algebraic manipulations through simple diagrammatic identities. This is crucial for our treatment in Section 3. Furthermore, this formulation is manifestly covariant as it does not require any choice of bases for the representations.

### 1.2 Diagrammatic identities

In this section, we introduce the diagrammatic identities that are instrumental for our new proof of topological invariance.

#### 1.2.1 Gauge fixing

In lattice gauge theory, some group integrals in the partition function can be removed by using the gauge symmetry. The considered group variables are set (“gauge fixed”) to an arbitrary element, usually the unit element. This applies equally to discretized BF-theory which can be considered a weak coupling limit of lattice gauge theory. Diagrammatically, gauge fixing of a group variable corresponds precisely to removing the cable from the corresponding edge. Thus, the integration over the group element at this edge given by $`T`$ is replaced by the identity operation corresponding to the action of the identity element of the group in the relevant representations.

As is well known from lattice gauge theory, edges can be gauge fixed (i.e., cables removed) precisely as long as the gauge fixed edges do not form any closed loop. In fact, this can be seen to follow purely diagrammatically from the identity depicted in Figure 2. This identity follows from Proposition 1.1 (see  for details). Note that gauge fixing is not just an identity of the partition function $`𝒵`$ as a whole, but of each summand $`𝒵_𝒞`$ individually.

#### 1.2.2 Summation identity

In contrast to the gauge fixing the summation identity allows the removal not only of a cable but of a wire as well. It takes the form

$`{\displaystyle \underset{\rho _0}{}}dim\rho _0\begin{array}{c}\text{}\end{array}=\begin{array}{c}\text{}\end{array}.`$ (10)
The sum ranges over all finite-dimensional irreducible representations.

In order to prove (10) one uses the fact that every representation can be decomposed as a direct sum of irreducible ones (the category of representations of the group is semisimple). For irreducible representations one can then deduce (10) from the identity

$`\begin{array}{c}\text{}\end{array}=\delta _{\rho _1\rho _2}\left(dim\rho _1\right)^1\begin{array}{c}\text{}\end{array}.`$ (13)
See  for details.

## 2 Quantum group generalization in 3d

Unfortunately, BF-theory as presented in the previous section is divergent, even in its discretized form. A way to render the theory finite is to replace groups by $`q`$-deformed groups at roots of unity. This can be done in the 3-dimensional case (to which we confine ourselves in the following) and gives rise to interesting topological invariants. This was first carried out by Turaev and Viro using $`U_q(𝔰𝔩_2)`$ . It was generalized to the case of spherical quantum groups (or categories) by Barrett and Westbury . We consider here the (sufficiently general) case of ribbon quantum groups (or categories).

Crucially, the formalism introduced in the previous section also permits this generalization. We only give a rough sketch here while referring the reader to  for an extensive treatment with full proofs.

The quantum group case is most conveniently described in a categorial language. In the group case the relevant category is the category of finite-dimensional representations of the group. Instead of starting with a group and then considering its representations we need to think now of abstractly given objects with certain operations and properties. More precisely, we use the notion of *semisimple ribbon category* (in the sense of Turaev ). As each $`q`$-deformed enveloping algebra $`U_q(𝔤)`$ gives rise to such a category (after “purification” in the root of unity case, see ) this is sufficient for our purposes. Note however, that this notion is more general than that of modular category.

The diagrammatics is modified as follows: Previously, crossings of lines were simply given by the intertwiner $`VWWV:vwwv`$. Now, over- and under-crossings are distinct morphisms (=“intertwiners”) $`\psi _{V,W},\psi _{V,W}^1:VWWV`$, called the *braiding*. Furthermore, lines are framed, i.e., replaced by ribbons. The twist of a ribbon is a new diagrammatic element corresponding algebraically to a family of morphisms $`\nu _V:VV`$. However, in all of the following we can omit the framings in the diagrams and implicitly use *blackboard framing*. That means that each line represents a ribbon which lies face-up and has no twist.

The family of morphisms $`T`$ is now defined as follows. Consider the identity morphism $`\mathrm{id}_V`$ of an object $`V`$ to itself. It has a decomposition as a finite sum

$$\mathrm{id}_V=\underset{i}{}f_ig_i$$
(14)
where $`g_i:VV_i`$ and $`f_i:V_iV`$ and $`V_i`$ are simple objects in the category (axiom of domination ). Now $`T_V:VV`$ is defined as the restricted sum $`_i^{}f_ig_i`$ where we only sum over the indices $`i`$ such that $`V_i`$ is isomorphic to the trivial object $`\mathrm{𝟏}`$. The morphisms $`T`$ have now precisely the properties listed in Proposition 1.1. Furthermore, they have the trivial braiding and trivial twisting property

###### Proposition 2.1 ().

* $`\psi _{V,W}(T_V1_W)=\psi _{W,V}^1(T_V1_W)`$.
* $`\nu _VT_V=T_V=T_V\nu _V`$.

Let us now briefly discuss how the partition function is generalized to this categorial setting. The idea is to use its diagrammatic representation in terms of the circuit diagram in order to define its value. However, this is less straightforward now than in the group case. Very roughly, it is achieved by cutting the circuit diagram into pieces by cutting through each cable, then projecting each piece onto the plane and reconnecting the pieces with $`T`$-diagrams. The emerging diagram resembles the circuit diagram in a particular 2-dimensional projection. (See  for details.) Indeed, as we can think of the identities used in the following sections as identities between the corresponding projections, the results derived there apply to the general quantum group case.

The sum over labellings with irreducible representations in (5) becomes a sum over labellings with equivalence classes of simple objects in the category. At the same time the dimensions of the representations are replaced by the quantum dimensions of the simple objects, given diagrammatically by a loop labelled by the object. If the category has only finitely many inequivalent simple objects the partition function is manifestly finite. In particular, this is true in the relevant case of $`q`$-deformed enveloping algebras $`U_q(𝔤)`$ at roots of unity giving rise to modular categories.

Importantly, the gauge fixing identity (Section 1.2.1) as well as the summation identity (Section 1.2.2) generalize to the quantum group case. For the gauge fixing this is a consequence of Propositions 1.1 and 2.1. In the summation identity, the dimension is replaced by the quantum dimension (the loop diagram) and it is proven using the domination property (14) instead of conventional semisimplicity.

Although for simplicity we use solely the language of the group context, the results of the following section apply to the quantum group context of semisimple ribbon categories in the above described way. (In fact, they even apply to semisimple spherical categories, but we do not consider this here).

## 3 Generalized proof of topological invariance in 3d

In this section we show, in the 3-dimensional case, that the partition function of BF-theory is independent of the chosen cellular decomposition of the manifold $`M`$. To be more precise, the invariant quantity corresponds to a rescaling of the partition function (5), namely

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\tau ^{n^{(0)}}𝒵,$$
(15)
where $`n^{(0)}`$ is the number of 0-cells in $`𝒦`$ (corresponding to the number of 3-cells in $`𝒦^{}`$) and $`\tau :=_\rho (dim\rho )^2`$ which is divergent in the Lie group case. The rescaling factor is associated to the non-compact gauge symmetry $`BB+d_A\eta `$ of BF-theory . Gauge equivalent configurations are summed over in (5). Gauge volume factors should be divided out of the partition function according to the standard Faddeev-Popov procedure.

In Section 1 we introduced a formulation of quantum BF-theory for an arbitrary cellular decomposition of $`M`$. Traditionally, one restricts to simplicial decompositions $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of $`M`$. This usually simplifies the proof of topological invariance of (5) due to the particular combinatorial properties of $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$: in this case all cables have only three wires and vertices (0-cells) are four-valent. Equivalent simplicial complexes are related by a finite set of moves (Pachner moves). In , $`6j`$-symbols for $`U_q(𝔰𝔩_2)`$ as well as their main property (Biedenharn-Elliot), were generalized to any modular (or spherical) category; then the invariance of the amplitude was shown by translating the Pachner moves in terms of transformations of $`6j`$-symbols. Generalizing this proof to arbitrary cellular decompositions $`𝒦`$ of $`M`$, would amount to knowing an infinite number of identities of this kind relating arbitrary ‘$`nj`$-symbols’. In contrast, our diagrammatic formulation allows for this generalization by utilizing the simple gauge fixing and summation identities of the Section 1.2. In turn, it should provide a way of inferring such ‘higher’ order identities for the appearing ‘$`nj`$-symbols’.

In this section we construct the generalized invariance proof by first concentrating on the special case of simplicial decompositions and then extending our construction to arbitrary cellular decompositions.

### 3.1 The simplicial case

Topologically equivalent triangulations are related by Pachner moves . For showing that (15) is a topological invariant for simplicial decompositions $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ it is thus sufficient to show invariance under Pachner moves. In order to do this we first need to translate Pachner moves into the dual complex $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$.

In three dimensions there are four Pachner moves: the (1,4) Pachner move, the (2,3) Pachner move, and their inverses. The (1,4) move creates four tetrahedra out of one in the following way: put a point $`p`$ in the interior of the tetrahedron whose vertices are labeled $`p_i,i=1,\mathrm{}4`$, add the four $`1`$-simplices $`(p,p_i)`$, the six triangles $`(p,p_i,p_j)`$ (where $`ij`$), and the four tetrahedra $`(p,p_i,p_j,p_k)`$ (where $`ijki`$). In the dual complex $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$, the original tetrahedron corresponds to a single vertex at which four edges and six faces meet. After the move is implemented, one has four vertices in $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ (corresponding to the four tetrahedra in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$) connected by edges and surfaces to form a tetrahedron in $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$. In terms of circuit diagrams the move is illustrated in Fig. 3.

The (2,3) Pachner move consists of the splitting of two tetrahedra into three tetrahedra. One replaces two tetrahedra $`(u,p_1,p_2,p_3)`$, and $`(d,p_1,p_2,p_3)`$, sharing the triangle $`(p_1,p_2,p_3)`$ with the three tetrahedra $`(u,d,p_i,p_j)`$ where $`ij=1,\mathrm{}3`$. In terms of circuit diagrams in $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ the move corresponds to the one illustrated in Fig. 4.

The proof of topological invariance consists of showing that the Figs. 3 and 4 give rise to identical values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in Eq. (15), as they are essentially diagrammatic identities.

Let us first consider the (1,4) move. We start with the circuit diagram on the right hand side of Fig. 3 and we eliminate three redundant cables using the gauge fixing. In this way we obtain the first diagram on the left hand side of Fig. 5. We then use the summation identity (10) to erase all the remaining internal cables as follows. The factor $`\mathrm{dim}\rho `$ in (10) and the corresponding sum over representations is provided by the partition function (5). In the second diagram in Fig. 5 one such internal cable and corresponding closed wire are emphasized. After the three internal cables are eliminated in this way, we obtain the circuit diagram on the right hand side of Fig. 5. This diagram corresponds precisely to the one tetrahedron diagram on the left of Fig. 3 multiplied by a closed loop evaluation. Such a closed loop corresponds to the trace of the identity in the corresponding representation, i.e., $`\mathrm{dim}\rho `$, which together with the factor $`\mathrm{dim}\rho `$ in (5) gives an overall factor $`\tau =_\rho (dim\rho )^2`$. In the process the number $`n^{(0)}`$ of 3-cells in $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ (0-cells in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$) has decreased by one; therefore, this extra $`\tau `$ precisely compensates for this change and (15) remains invariant.

Using the same techniques we prove invariance of (15) under the (2,3) Pachner move. We start with the diagram on the right hand side of Fig. 4 and eliminate two of the internal cables by means of gauge fixing. In this way we obtain the left hand side diagram on Fig. 6, where we have emphasized the remaining internal cable and its corresponding closed wire. The latter can be eliminated using (10), see the diagram in the center of Fig. 6. In the diagram on the right hand side of Fig. 6 we have deformed the previous diagram and we have added a redundant cable (by inverse gauge fixing) to obtain the circuit diagram corresponding to the diagram on the left hand side of Fig. 4. The number of 3-cells does not change under this move.

We have proven the following result:

###### Proposition 3.1.

Consider two simplicial decompositions $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ of a 3-dimensional manifold $`M`$. Then the following equality holds:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Delta })=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Delta }^{}),$$

where the value of the partition function is computed according to (15) on the corresponding complex.

### 3.2 General cellular decompositions

We now generalize the above results from simplicial to general cellular decompositions of a 3-dimensional manifold. We make use of the following result (see ).

###### Proposition 3.2.

A cellular complex $`𝒦`$ can be subdivided into a simplicial complex $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒦`$ without introducing any new vertices (0-cells).

We start by proving the following lemma.

###### Lemma 3.1.

Let $`𝒦`$ be a cellular decomposition of a 3-dimensional manifold $`M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒦`$ an associated simplicial decomposition (Prop. 3.2). Then, the following equality holds

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(𝒦)=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒦).$$

Note that even $`𝒵(𝒦)=𝒵(\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒦)`$ as $`n^{(0)}`$ is the same for $`𝒦`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒦`$.

This lemma is proven using a finite set of moves relating a cellular decomposition with an associated simplicial decomposition. For definiteness we consider these moves as leading from the simplicial subdecomposition to the cellular decomposition.

For illustration let us consider first the 2-dimensional case. There is just one move, namely forming the union of two 2-cells by removing a common boundary (the inverse consisting of the subdivision of a 2-cell). That this move leaves the partition function invariant is a straightforward consequence of the gauge fixing identity. See Fig. 7 for illustration.

The 3-dimensional case of interest to us here is more involved. The relevant moves are described by the following proposition.

###### Proposition 3.3.

Let $`𝒦`$ be a cellular decomposition of a 3-manifold and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒦`$ an associated simplicial decomposition. Then, $`𝒦`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝒦`$ are related by a sequence of moves and their inverses from the following list:

Let $`\tau `$ be a 2-cell which bounds two distinct 3-cells $`\sigma `$, $`\sigma ^{}`$. Remove $`\tau `$, $`\sigma `$ and $`\sigma ^{}`$ and insert the new 3-cell $`\sigma ^{\prime \prime }:=\sigma \tau \sigma ^{}`$.

Let $`\mu `$ be a 1-cell that bounds only the 2-cell $`\tau `$ which in turn bounds only the 3-cell $`\sigma `$. Remove $`\mu `$, $`\tau `$, $`\sigma `$ and insert the new 3-cell $`\sigma ^{}:=\sigma \tau \mu `$.

###### Proof.

We show that starting with the simplicial subdecomposition we can recover the original cellular decomposition by applying the stated moves. We proceed in two main steps: First we show that we can remove all the subdivisions in all 3-cells of the original decomposition. Second, we show that we can remove the subdivisions on the boundaries of the 3-cells.

Thus, consider a 3-cell $`\sigma `$ together with its subdivision $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\sigma `$. Assume that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\sigma `$ has internal 2-cells. (Otherwise it would consist only of one 3-cell and we are done.) We claim that we can always remove one such 2-cell by either applying the 3-cell fusion move or the 2-cell retraction move. It is thus sufficient to show that if we cannot apply the 3-cell fusion move, we can apply the 2-cell retraction move. The only situation that prevents us from applying the 3-cell fusion move is when every internal 2-cell is bounded on both sides by the same 3-cell. Assume this. Consider the union of all internal 2-cells and their bounding 1-cells. This forms a branched surface. Consider its boundary. If it was contained in the boundary of $`\sigma `$ it would divide $`\sigma `$ into at least two disjoint 3-cells contrary to the assumption. Thus, the boundary of the branched surface must contain 1-cells internal to $`\sigma `$. Pick such a 1-cell. By construction this bounds only one (internal) 2-cell. Thus, we can apply the 2-cell retraction move to it. This completes step one of the proof.

For the second step we introduce an auxiliary move as follows. Let $`\mu `$ be a 1-cell that bounds only the distinct 2-cells $`\tau `$ and $`\tau ^{}`$. Remove $`\mu `$, $`\tau `$, $`\tau ^{}`$ and insert the new 2-cell $`\tau ^{\prime \prime }:=\tau \mu \tau ^{}`$. We call this the *2-cell fusion* move. It can be obtained as a sequence of 3-cell fusion and 2-cell retraction moves as follows. Consider the (not necessarily distinct) 3-cells $`\sigma ,\sigma ^{}`$ that are bounded by $`\tau `$. Indeed they are also bounded by $`\tau ^{}`$ as $`\mu `$ does not bound other 2-cells than $`\tau `$ and $`\tau ^{}`$. Consider the boundary of $`\tau \mu \tau ^{}`$ and introduce a 2-cell $`\tau ^{\prime \prime }`$ with this boundary subdividing $`\sigma `$ into two 3-cells $`\sigma ^{\prime \prime }`$ (bounded by the 2-cells $`\tau ,\tau ^{},\tau ^{\prime \prime }`$) and (using the previous name) $`\sigma `$ by the inverse 3-cell fusion move. By construction, $`\sigma ^{}`$ and $`\sigma ^{\prime \prime }`$ are distinct. Thus, we can remove $`\tau `$ via a 3-cell fusion move, denoting the resulting 3-cell again by $`\sigma ^{}`$. As $`\mu `$ now only bounds $`\tau ^{}`$ which in turn only bounds $`\sigma ^{}`$ we can apply the 2-cell retraction move to eliminate $`\mu `$ and $`\tau ^{}`$ to arrive at the desired configuration.

Now consider a 2-cell $`\tau `$ in the boundary of a 3-cell of the original cellular complex. As the subdivision of $`\tau `$ does not contain any internal vertices every internal 1-cell bounds two distinct 2-cells. We can thus apply the 2-cell fusion move to remove all internal 1-cells one by one. This completes the proof. ∎

###### Proof of Lemma 3.1.

It is now sufficient to show that the moves of Proposition 3.3 leave the partition function invariant. Consider the Figures 8 and 9. These show the two moves together with relevant pieces of the circuit diagram.

The 3-cell fusion move is depicted in Figure 8. The 2-cell that separates the initial 3-cells carries one cable. The removal of the cable corresponds precisely to the move. It is possible due to the gauge fixing identity (Figure 2) and leaves not only $`𝒵`$ but even $`𝒵_𝒞`$ invariant. The dotted line in Figure 2 corresponds to the boundary of one of the initial 3-cells in Figure 8.

The 2-cell retraction move is depicted in Figure 9. Diagrammatically it corresponds to removing the cable that is carried by the 2-cell to be deleted, together with the wire that goes around the 1-cell to be deleted. This is an invariance of $`𝒵`$ due to the summation identity (10). The summation over the representations in (10) with weight the (quantum) dimension is precisely contained in the partition function (5). ∎

Combining Proposition 3.1 with Lemma 3.1 we have the following theorem:

###### Theorem 3.1.

Given two cellular decompositions $`𝒦`$ and $`𝒦^{}`$ of a 3-dimensional manifold $`M`$, the following equality holds:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(𝒦)=\mathrm{\Gamma }(𝒦^{}),$$
(16)
where the value of the partition function is computed according to (15).

## Concluding Remarks

In this final section we offer some concluding remarks and consider possible developments.

Invariance of the partition function under Pachner moves was proven originally in terms of the Biedenharn-Elliot identities for $`6j`$-symbols. Conversely, one could deduce these identities from the invariance of the state sum. Our diagrammatic generalization to arbitrary cellular decompositions allow us to infer, in this way, an infinite number of relations among ‘$`nj`$-symbol’. The precise structure of these ‘generalized’ Biedenharn-Elliot identities remains to be studied.

In the proof of topological invariance we have started with simplicial decompositions (related by Pachner moves) as this is the more familiar setting. Instead we could have carried out the proof directly with cellular decompositions alone. To this end we would need a complete set of moves relating cellular decompositions in 3d. One could wonder whether the moves given in Proposition 3.3 are already sufficient for this. Indeed, the (2,3) Pachner move can be obtained as a sequence of these moves. However, the (1,4) Pachner move cannot. But it can, if we add just one more move: The 1-cell retraction move. This move removes a 0-cell and a 1-cell inside a 3-cell and is defined analogous to the 2-cell retraction move. See Figure 10. In the diagrammatic picture for the (1,4) Pachner move this is reflected in the presence of the loop that is extracted from the last tetrahedron (see Figure 5). In summary, we have thus shown that any two cellular decompositions of a compact 3-manifold are related by a sequence of the following moves: 3-cell fusion, 2-cell retraction, 1-cell retraction. The generalization of these moves to higher dimensions should be investigated.

The advantage of cellular decompositions over simplicial ones might appear a purely technical one in the topological context. However, the story becomes very different in the non-topological situation, such as for realistic models of quantum gravity in 4 space-time dimensions. In particular, the diagrammatic methods considered here are still applicable for many of the recently proposed models which are modifications of 4d BF-theory . At first sight one might expect that cellular decompositions (being more general) just make things more complicated. But exactly the opposite is suggested by our present work. We think here in particular of the elusive question of renormalization or “coarse-graining”, see . In that context, renormalization identities would presumably be connected to elementary moves between complexes. One could imagine these renormalization identities as “deformations” of the diagrammatic identities in the topological case. We have shown that these identities are much simpler for the cellular moves than for the Pachner moves, suggesting renormalization (rather surprisingly) to be more manageable in the general cellular case.

When one applies the state sum model of BF-theory to manifolds with boundaries this naturally defines a TQFT. In the simplicial case, boundary data are encoded in three-valent spin networks based on the graphs that are dual to the triangulation of the boundaries. As our generalization allows for general cellular decomposition of the boundaries, boundary data can be encoded in spin network states of arbitrary valence . A simple application of this generalization is the proof of equivalence between different spin network representations of the same physical state (due to representation theory skein relations ). Since skein relations are equations between spin networks generally involving arbitrary graphs, their proof in the state-sum context can only be realized in terms of our generalization . The relation between the state sum (spin foam) approach, the canonical approach and the issue of the continuum limit  might become more transparent in terms of arbitrary cellular decompositions.

Generalizations of the techniques introduced here to the case of non-compact groups are of great relevance. Models for Lorentzian quantum general relativity have been introduced in  as constrained state sums of BF-theory on $`SL(2,)`$. The models have been proven to be well defined for a given discretization using the undeformed group . Although the generalization of our identities to infinite dimensional representations is not obvious, a modification involving “volume factors” should be valid at least for ordinary groups such as $`SL(2,)`$. The investigation of scaling properties of these models via our technique might then be possible.

Further issues to be investigated are the application of the diagrammatics in the context of spin foams generated by field theories  and for defining supersymmetric spin foam models. See  for more remarks on these points.

### Acknowledgements

R. O. acknowledges financial support through a NATO fellowship grant. A. P. acknowledges financial support of the Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship. This work was supported in part by NSF Grants No. PHY-9900791 and PHY0090091, and the Eberly research funds of Penn State.


text:
# New clues to the evolution of dwarf early–type galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Dwarf elliptical (dE) and dwarf lenticular (dS0) galaxies are the most common galaxies in the local universe, as discovered by the earliest studies of nearby clusters, such as Virgo (Binggeli, Sandage & Tammann 1985; Sandage, Binggeli & Tammann 1985) and Fornax (Ferguson & Sandage 1988; Ferguson 1989). Nonetheless, their origin (e.g. White & Frenk 1991; Ostriker 1993; Babul & Rees 1992; Koo et al. 1995, 1997; Mao & Mo 1998; Moore, Lake & Katz 1998; Moore et al. 1999; Lin & Faber 1983) is still matter of uncertainty (e.g. Conselice, Gallagher & Wyse 2001; Drinkwater et al. 2001). An exponential light distribution seems to be characteristic of early-type dwarfs, though not ubiquitous, both in the optical (Faber & Lin 1983) and in the near-IR (James 1991, 1994). However, it is still matter of debate whether this stellar disk-component is rotationally flattened or not (e.g. Rix, Carollo & Freeman 1999; Geha, Guhathakurta & van der Marel 2001).

As a latest result of their extensive observational campaign centered on H-band ($`1.65\mu \mathrm{m}`$) imaging of about 1200 nearby giant and dwarf early- and late-type galaxies, Gavazzi and collaborators (Gavazzi et al. 2000, 2001) have found that the decomposition of the H-band surface brightness profile of a galaxy is a strong function of its total H-band luminosity, whatever the Hubble classification of the galaxy is. In fact, the fraction of exponential-disk law (Freeman 1970) decompositions decreases with increasing luminosity of the galaxy, while the fraction of bulge$`+`$disk decompositions increases with luminosity. In particular, pure de Vaucouleurs-law (de Vaucouleurs 1948) profiles are absent at near-IR luminosities lower than $`10^{10}\mathrm{L}_{}`$. In this regime, Gavazzi et al. (2001) find that dwarf-elliptical peculiar (pec) galaxies have structural parameters indistinguishable from those of late-type dwarfs and, therefore, propose that dE pec galaxies represent the missing link between dEs and dwarf irregulars (dIs).

Though the presence of an exponential-disk component in dE, dS0 and dI galaxies, in general, may point to similarities between the formation and evolution processes of these three types of dwarf galaxies, only the late-type galaxies are definitely held to be HI-rich (e.g. Boselli et al. 2001). In fact, there is recent evidence that some dE galaxies are associated with atomic gas, but HI gas and stars may not always be parts of the same dynamical system (e.g. Young & Lo 1997). Atomic gas plays a fundamental role in the formation and evolution of exponential-disks (e.g. Dalcanton, Spergel & Summers 1997; Boissier & Prantzos 2000; Ferguson & Clarke 2001). As reviewed by the latter authors, the origin of stellar exponential-disks finds a natural explanation in viscosity-driven radial flows, under the assumption that the star formation and viscous timescales are comparable. Assuming this simultaneity, the exponential-disk scale-length is found either to increase with time, if the cosmologically-motivated gaseous infall is concurrent with the previous two processes, or to stay constant if the bulk of the disk is assembled before star formation and viscosity act in a significant manner (Ferguson & Clarke 2001). In the former case, successive stellar populations trace the settling of the newly infalling gas at different disk ages. As a straightforward consequence, a radial color gradient is produced and the exponential-disk scale-lengths are expected to be larger in the optical pass-bands than in the near-IR ones.

However, not only disk-galaxies but also disk-less galaxies may show a wavelength-dependence of their characteristic scale-length (e.g. the effective radius, i.e. the radius which contains 50% of the total luminosity), simply as a result of the well-known effects of age and metallicity on broad-band colors of stellar populations (e.g. Bruzual & Charlot 1993; Worthey 1994). In fact, color gradients along the radial coordinate of a galaxy may be due either to a gradient in age (with fixed metallicity) or to a gradient in metallicity (with fixed age) of its stellar populations (e.g. Peletier, Valentijn & Jameson 1990; Tamura et al. 2000; Saglia et al. 2000; de Jong 1996), whatever the causes of these gradients are. Furthermore, dust attenuation toward the galaxy center is able to reproduce differences in the observed radial surface brightness distribution at two wavelengths (e.g. in the optical and near-IR), due to the difference in optical depth at these two wavelengths for a given dust column density, even under the hypothesis that a simple stellar population is present, and without introducing a significant change in the observed total color (Witt, Thronson & Capuano 1992).

In order to investigate the presence of color gradients and their origin (if any) in early-type dwarfs, here we study the relationships (if any) between different photometric parameters (effective radius $`r_e`$, bulge-to-total luminosity ratio $`B/T`$, total optical–near-IR color index B$``$H and B$``$H color profile) of 18 Virgo cluster dE and dS0 galaxies, imaged by Gavazzi et al. (2001) in the B-band ($`0.44\mu \mathrm{m}`$) and H-band. This sample comprises objects one to a few magnitudes brighter than dwarf elliptical and spheroidal galaxies seen in the Local Group (e.g. Mateo 1998), which form a different population of early-type dwarfs (e.g. Conselice, Gallagher & Wyse 2001 and references therein), as witnessed also by their different photometric parameters.

## 2 The sample

B- ($`0.44\mu \mathrm{m}`$), V- ($`0.55\mu \mathrm{m}`$) and H-band ($`1.65\mu \mathrm{m}`$) surface photometry of 17 dwarf elliptical and lenticular galaxies plus 1 low-mass E pec/S0 galaxy was obtained by Gavazzi et al. (2001 – hereafter referred to as G01). These objects, with photographic magnitude $`\mathrm{m}_\mathrm{p}16.0`$, were selected from the Virgo Cluster Catalogue (VCC) of Binggeli, Sandage & Tammann (1985). With the exception of VCC 1078, they are all certain members of the cluster, where membership was assigned by Binggeli, Sandage & Tammann and Binggeli, Popescu & Tammann (1993). Hereafter we refer to these 18 dwarf/low-mass early-type galaxies as the VCC early-type dwarf sample.

Fig. 1 gives a pictorial view of the projected spatial distribution of these galaxies on to the sky-region occupied by the Virgo cluster. It shows that the dwarfs under study lay either within a projected radial distance of 2 degrees from M 87 (associated with cluster A), with the exception of VCC 608 (laying in the corona between the previous region and a circle of 4 degrees radius centred on the maximum projected galaxy density of cluster A), or within a projected radial distance of 1.5 degrees from the centre of cluster B (see Binggeli, Tammann & Sandage 1987 for the definitions of clusters A and B).

The 3D structure of the Virgo cluster is complex (e.g. de Vaucouleurs 1961). According to Gavazzi et al. (1999), the distance modulus $`\mu _0`$ of cluster A is $`30.84\pm 0.06`$, while, for cluster B, dominated by M 49, $`\mu _0=31.84\pm 0.10`$. As a consequence, the galaxies associated with cluster B are 60% farther from us than those associated with cluster A. For the purposes of the present analysis, we assume that all the 18 VCC galaxies under study lay at a distance of 17.0 Mpc to us, in agreement with G01.

The VCC early-type dwarf sample contains 13 dE,N galaxies, 1 dE,N/dS0,N galaxy and 1 dE/dS0,N galaxy, where N stands for “nucleated”. Such a high fraction of nucleated dwarf ellipticals reflects the fact that dE,N galaxies are more luminous than non-nucleated dwarf ellipticals and, therefore, their fraction increases in a magnitude-limited sample such as the G01 one. It is also straigthforward to understand that dE,Ns are the easiest to detect at both optical and near-IR pass-bands among dEs. Though there are different possibilities of producing nucleation, Conselice, Gallagher & Wyse (2001) conclude that dEs and dE,Ns within 6 degrees from the centre of Virgo cluster A and with heliocentric radial velocity $`\mathrm{v}<2400\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ have similar origins, since the velocity characteristics of these two populations are not significantly different. In particular, these authors list heliocentric radial velocities for 15 out of the 18 galaxies of the VCC early-type dwarf sample. Relying on their result, we assume that all the 18 galaxies under study have the same origin.

In Tab. 1, we list the VCC catalogue properties and the heliocentric radial velocities (Conselice, Gallagher & Wyse 2001) of the individual galaxies relevant to this study, as follows:
Col. 1: the galaxy denomination;
Col. 2: alternate (NGC/IC) galaxy denomination;
Col. 3,4: celestial coordinates (RA and Dec, respectively) at the Equinox B1950;
Col. 5: the morphological classification;
Col. 6: decimal logarithm of the major-axis diameter D measured on the du Pont plates at the faintest detectable isophote (in units of $`0.1^{}`$);
Col. 7: estimated major-to-minor axis ratio R, measured analogously to D;
Col. 8: the heliocentric radial velocity.

We refer the reader to G01 for details concerning observations, data reduction, photometric calibration and image reduction procedures of the 18 VCC galaxies under study. For the present analysis it is important to say that these authors derived azimuthally averaged surface brightness profiles, that were fitted using either a de Vaucouleurs $`r^{1/4}`$ law, an exponential-law, a bulge$`+`$disk model or an exponential/de Vaucouleurs truncated model. In particular, the total magnitude of each galaxy was obtained by adding to the flux measured within the outermost significant isophote the flux extrapolated to infinity along the model that fitted the outer parts of the galaxy. The effective radius $`r_e`$ and the effective surface brightness $`\mu _e`$ (i.e. the mean surface brightness within $`r_e`$) of each galaxy were computed in two ways (Gavazzi et al. 2000). The “fitted” values of the individual components were derived from the individual fitted profiles, extrapolated to zero and to infinity. By contrast, the “empirical” values of the effective radius and surface brightness of the system were obtained locating the half-light point along the observed light profile, where the total amount of light is given by the total magnitude described above, and corrected for seeing according to Saglia, Bender & Dressler (1993). The “empirical” values of $`r_e`$ determined by G01 are used here. Finally, the G01 determined the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio of individual galaxies as a result of the fitting procedure.

Tab. 2 contains the H- and B-band photometric properties of individual galaxies listed in G01 and relevant to this study, as follows:
Col. 1: the galaxy denomination in the VCC;
Col. 2: the H-band bulge effective radius $`r_{ebfH}`$;
Col. 3: the H-band disk effective radius $`r_{edfH}`$;
Col. 4: the H-band effective radius $`r_{eH}`$ and its error;
Col. 5: the classification according to the H-band profile decomposition ($`1=`$ de Vaucouleurs-law, $`2=`$ bulge$`+`$disk system, $`3=`$ exponential-law, $`4=`$ exponential/de Vaucouleurs truncated model);
Col. 6: the H-band bulge-to-total luminosity ratio $`B/T_H`$ (0.00 and 1.00 identify bulge-less and disk-less systems, respectively);
Col. 7: the B-band bulge effective radius $`r_{ebfB}`$;
Col. 8: the B-band disk effective radius $`r_{edfB}`$;
Col. 9: the B-band effective radius $`r_{eB}`$ and its error;
Col. 10: the classification according to the B-band profile decomposition (see Col. 5);
Col. 11: the B-band bulge-to-total luminosity ratio $`B/T_B`$ (see Col. 6);
Col. 12: the observed total H-band magnitude H and its error;
Col. 13: the observed total B-band magnitude B and its error.

We note that 5 objects (i.e.: VCC 745, 1122, 1308, 1386 and 1499) change classification from a de Vaucouleurs- to a bulge$`+`$disk system, and 1 object (VCC 786) changes its classification from an exponential-disk to a bulge$`+`$disk system, from the near-IR to the optical case. The B-band surface brightness profile of VCC 786 is decomposed into relatively extended and equally faint bulge- and disk-components (cf. G01), so that its profile fitting may be questionable but not its values of B and $`r_{eB}`$. In the case of VCC 1499, the H-band surface brightness profile extends up to 70% of the radial extension of its B-band photometry, so that the photometric parameters of this object are reliable. By contrast, for VCC 745, 1122, 1308 and 1386, the H-band surface brightness profiles extend only up to 30–50% of the radial extension of the B-band ones. For these 4 galaxies, it may be questioned that a faint, extended exponential-disk might not have been detected against the near-IR background (typically of 20.5 H-mag $`\mathrm{arcsec}^2`$ in the images of these galaxies). If an exponential-disk component was indeed missed/misidentified by the near-IR observations, a best-fit de Vaucouleurs-law would underestimate the surface intensity in the outer regions of these systems. The visual inspection of the radial photometric profiles of VCC 745, 1122, 1308 and 1386 displayed in G01 suggests that the previous systematic effect, if any, is not strong. We estimate that the H-band total magnitudes of these 4 galaxies, listed in Col. 11 of Tab. 2, may be under-luminous by $`0.2\mathrm{mag}`$, while their values of $`r_{eH}`$ may be underestimated by $``$10%. We anticipate that these potential systematic uncertainties do not bias our results (cf. Sect. 3).

In addition to these 18 VCC early-type dwarfs, we consider, as a comparison, a sample of 29 giant elliptical and lenticular galaxies of the Coma cluster, optically selected from the Catalogue of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies (CGCG) of Zwicky et al. (1961–1968) and observed in the H-band by Scodeggio et al. (1998 – hereafter referred to as S98). We adopt a distance from the Coma cluster to us of 96.0 Mpc from S98. The H-band data reduction and analysis of S98 is the same of G01, except that all the radial surface brightness profiles of the S98 galaxies were fitted with a de Vaucouleurs-law. These 29 CGCG early-type giants were observed in the B-band by different authors, listed in S98, adopting either photoelectric aperture photometry or CCD surface photometry, but their B-band photometric parameters were derived by Saglia, Bender & Dressler (1993) by fitting a de Vaucouleurs-law to the radial photometric profile derived from 2D data. Therefore, for these giants, only fitted effective radii are available. Both observed total H- and B-band magnitudes of these 29 galaxies come from G. Gavazzi (2001, private communication). These H-band total magnitudes were derived by S98 by adopting the same procedure of G01. By contrast, these B-band total magnitudes were either taken from the literature, if derived from surface photometry, or derived by Gavazzi & Boselli (1996) by applying the “growth curves” technique to the available photoelectric aperture measurements. Both H- and B-band total observed magnitudes have a typical uncertainty of 0.1 magnitude.

In Tab. 3, we list the properties of the 29 giant E and S0 galaxies under study relevant to this analysis, as follows:
Col. 1: the galaxy denomination;
Col. 2: alternate (NGC/IC) galaxy denomination;
Col. 3: the morphological classification;
Col. 4: the H-band effective radius $`r_{eH}`$ and its error;
Col. 5: the classification according to the H-band profile decomposition (see Col. 5 of Tab. 2);
Col. 6: the H-band bulge-to-total luminosity ratio $`B/T_H`$ (see Col. 6 of Tab. 2);
Col. 7: the B-band effective radius $`r_{eB}`$ and its error;
Col. 8: the classification according to the B-band profile decomposition (see Col. 5 of Tab. 2);
Col. 9: the B-band bulge-to-total luminosity ratio $`B/T_B`$ (see Col. 6 of Tab. 2);
Col. 10: the observed total H-band magnitude H and its error;
Col. 11: the observed total B-band magnitude B and its error.

Hereafter no correction for Galactic extinction in direction either of the Virgo cluster or of the Coma cluster will be applied to the B- and H-band magnitudes, since this correction is negligible for our purposes. No correction for internal extinction to the photometric parameters of individual galaxies will be applied either.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Wavelength-dependence of the effective radius in early-type dwarfs

Fig. 2 shows the distribution of the 18 VCC early-type dwarfs listed in Tab. 1 in the plane defined by the decimal logarithm of the ratio of $`r_{eB}`$ and $`r_{eH}`$ ($`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$) and by the total color index B$``$H. Individual galaxies are represented by empty circles, asterisks or filled circles if their surface brightness profile follows either a de Vaucouleurs-law, a bulge$`+`$disk decomposition, or an exponential-law (type 1, 2 or 3, respectively – cf. Sect. 2). In panels ‘a’ and ‘b’ objects are classified according to profile decomposition either in the H-band or in the B-band (cf. Tab. 2), respectively. Fig. 2 shows that:

* $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ spans the broad range 0.7–2.2;
* 7 early-type dwarfs with a relatively red color (i.e. with $`3.2<`$ B$``$H $`<4`$), i.e. VCC 608, 965, 1036, 1173, 1254, 1348 and 1491, have an average value of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ equal to 1 (with an rms dispersion of 0.21);
* 10 early-type dwarfs and 1 E pec/S0 galaxy with a blue color (i.e. with $`2.5<`$ B$``$H $`<3.1`$) have B-band effective radii about 50% longer than the H-band ones, on average (with an rms dispersion of 0.44);
* when removing the three objects with a blue central excess (G01), i.e. VCC 951, 1499 and 1684, and the dE pec? galaxy VCC 1078, the remaining subsample of 7 blue early-type dwarfs clusters around an average value of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}=1.75`$ (with an rms dispersion of 0.35).

Blue and red objects seem to be separated by a kind of “gap” in Fig. 2. We are not able to trace the origin of this apparent gap back to the selection effects of the G01 sample; instead we discuss the hypothesis that this gap is an effect of data analysis.

First, we note that the classification according to surface brightness profile decomposition does not change from the H-band to the B-band, for the 7 red early-type dwarfs. By contrast, 6 out of the 11 blue early-type dwarfs change their classification from the near-IR to the optical case. Among these 6 objects, VCC 745, 1122, 1308 and 1386 may rise the suspect of a missed/misidentified exponential-disk component (cf. Sect. 2). The values of $`r_{eH}`$ of these 4 galaxies should be underestimated by 40–90% in order to erase the difference between $`r_{eH}`$ and $`r_{eB}`$, while the correction of $`r_{eH}`$ supported by inspection of the H-band photometric profiles (G01, their Fig. 4) is 10%. The magnitudes of these corrections (if due) may shift the distribution of the previous 4 galaxies toward smaller values of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ and redder B$``$H colors, filling the apparent gap in Fig. 2, but do not weaken the trend seen there. Hereafter we do not consider this gap as a significant feature.

In order to investigate if the average increase of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with B$``$H consistently reflects the average behaviour of the B$``$H color gradient with the total B$``$H color, we reproduce the same plot of Fig. 2 in Fig. 3a, but by adopting a classification based on the slope of the B$``$H color profile. B$``$H and B$``$V color profiles of the dwarfs under study are determined and displayed by G01 (their Fig. 4). From the full extension of these profiles, we derive average gradients in B$``$H and in B$``$V, in order to verify if the signs of these two color gradients are consistent. In general they are, and, as expected, the strength of the B$``$V color gradient is much lower. Nonetheless, in Fig. 3b, we plot B$``$H vs. $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ for our dwarfs, but we adopt a classification based on the slope of the B$``$V color profile, if available.

Fig. 3a shows that, for 6 out of the 7 blue early-type dwarfs with average $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}=1.75`$, B$``$H decreases at larger galactocentric distances. We estimate strengths of the B$``$H color gradient $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(B$``$H)/$`\mathrm{\Delta }logr`$ equal to -0.92, -0.63, -0.60, -0.57, -0.37 and -0.33 $`\mathrm{mag}\mathrm{dex}^1`$ for VCC 745, 1453, 1073, 1308, 786 and 1386, respectively.

By contrast, out of the 7 red early-type dwarfs, only 2 object (VCC 1036 and 1491) have a negative slope of the B$``$H color profile, while 4 objects have no gradient in B$``$H and 1 object (VCC 1254) becomes redder toward its outer regions. For VCC 1036 and 1491, we estimate values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(B$``$H)/$`\mathrm{\Delta }logr`$ equal to -0.33 and -0.20 $`\mathrm{mag}\mathrm{dex}^1`$, respectively, significantly smaller, in absolute value, than the average strength of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(B$``$H)/$`\mathrm{\Delta }logr`$ of the previous 6 blue early-type dwarfs. None of the 3 blue early-type dwarfs with a blue central excess (G01), has a negative B$``$H color gradient, so that the strong blue central excess seems a sufficient explanation to their low values of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ within the subsample of blue early-type dwarfs. We conclude that stronger negative color gradients are necessarily associated with larger values of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$. However, since there is no reason a priori why strong negative color gradients should be associated with blue colors, we conclude that the displacement of the average locus of the 7 blue early-type dwarfs without a blue central excess from that of the 7 red dEs and dS0s in Fig. 2 is a robust and interesting behaviour, though is only a $`2\sigma `$ effect.

Whatever the classification in terms of profile decomposition is (e.g. in the H-band), $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ does not seem to depend on the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio, either in the H-band or in the B-band, as shown in Fig. 4a,b, respectively. Interestingly, among the 5 blue objects which show an exponential-disk component only in the B-band surface brightness profile, the highest value of $`B/T_B`$ and the smaller value of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ belong to the E pec/S0 galaxy VCC 1499. According to G01, the very blue continuum and strong Balmer absorption lines of this object are typical of E$`+`$A galaxies which have experienced an intense burst of star formation ended about 1–2 Gyrs ago (Poggianti & Barbaro 1996).

As well as $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$, B$``$H does not seem to depend on the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio, as shown in Fig. 5, where we plot $`B/T_H`$ vs. B$``$H (panel ‘a’) and $`B/T_B`$ vs. B$``$H (panel ‘b’), the VCC galaxies being classified according to their H-band surface brightness profile decomposition (cf. Fig. 2a).

Both $`B/T_H`$ and $`B/T_B`$ are less than 0.5 for those galaxies with a confirmed exponential-disk component in both pass-bands, so that, in these galaxies, the stellar populations associated with the disk largely contribute to, if not dominate, the emission in the near-IR and optical. Finally, we note that $`B/T_H`$ and $`B/T_B`$ are to first order identical both for the 7 red early-type dwarfs and for the previous 6 blue early-type dwarfs.

### 3.2 Early-type galaxies: dwarfs vs. giants

In this section we investigate if the increase of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with B$``$H previously found in the early-type dwarfs has an analogy in giant E and S0 galaxies. The findings may cast some light to the origin of the trend illustrated in Fig.2. As a comparison, we adopt the sample of 29 early-type giants of the Coma cluster listed in Tab. 3. Unfortunately, B$``$H or B$``$V color profiles of these giant galaxies are not available to us, so that we can not study the behaviour of total color, color gradient and $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ in these systems.

Given that the range of $``$ 600 in H-band luminosity (i.e. mass) spanned by early-type giants and dwarfs implies differences in structural, kinematical and photometric properties, first we display the distribution of early-type dwarfs and giants in the planes $`\mathrm{M}_\mathrm{H}`$–B$``$H (Fig. 6) and $`\mathrm{M}_\mathrm{H}`$$`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ (Fig. 7). Each sample of galaxies spans a range of $``$ 10 in H-band luminosity (Fig. 6), but the early-type giants, plotted as small empty squares, span a narrow range in color ($`3.3<`$ B$``$H $`<4.2`$), which overlaps the range in B$``$H spanned by the red subsample of the early-type dwarfs, hereafter plotted as large filled squares. B$``$H colors bluer than 3.1 are found only in early-type dwarfs. Conversely, the early-type giants span a broad range in $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$, their $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ ranging from $`0.2`$ to $`2.2`$, with a mean value equal to 1.13 and an rms dispersion of 0.48 (cf. Fig. 7). Such a broad range, due in part to the non-homogeneous source of the photometric parameters of the giants (cf. Sect. 2), embraces the distribution of the early-type dwarfs at the $`2\sigma `$ level. No trend of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with H-band magnitude is found, either overall or within each sample.

Finally, we reproduce the distribution of the early-type giants and dwarfs in the $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$–B$``$H plane in Fig. 8, where the solid line and the two short-dashed lines represent the mean (1.13) and the $`\pm 1\sigma `$ limits of the distribution of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ of the giants, respectively. Fig. 8 shows that the trend of increasing $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with bluer B$``$H, found for dwarf systems, is not reproduced in the case of giant systems. This result, if not due to the larger uncertainties affecting the photometric quantities of the early-type giants under study, points to the conclusion that the wavelength-dependence of the effective radius of these stellar systems either has various origins or is due to a cause which does not modify the total color in a consistent, detectable manner.

The solid line representing the mean value of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ of the giants (1.13) bisects the distribution of the dwarfs: 6 out of the 7 red dwarfs have $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ lower than 1.13 and, vice-versa, 8 out of the 11 blue dwarfs have $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ larger than 1.13. Moreover, giant E and S0 galaxies and blue early-type dwarfs show maximum values of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}2.2`$, despite the difference in their colors. Is therefore the trend claimed for the dwarfs a spurious result? A definitive answer to this question may come only from an analogous study based on larger statistics. Here we note that a relation between total colors and sign and strength of color gradients, as suggested for the early-type dwarfs under study (cf. Sect. 3.1), is an intriguing result and its existence is consistent with some scenarios of dwarf galaxy formation and evolution, as discussed next.

## 4 Three different interpretations

The increase of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ in blue early-type dwarfs (Fig. 2) reflects the existence of a (strong) negative gradient in B$``$H and in B$``$V along the radial coordinate (Fig. 3). The data show that this is a necessary but not sufficient condition however. This trend is not found in giant E and S0 galaxies, which span a broad range in $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$, though their B$``$H color is almost as red as in red early-type dwarfs. Radial color gradients observed in individual giant elliptical and lenticular galaxies are commonly interpreted as a product either of age/metallicity gradients of the stellar populations along the radial coordinate or of dust attenuation (cf. Sect. 1). These interpretations do not imply a correlation between $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ and B$``$H.

In the following sections, these three theoretical interpretations will be extended to our results for early-type dwarfs and discussed individually, in relation with some scenarios of early-type dwarf galaxy formation and evolution which may justify the trend seen in Fig. 2. The lack of data does not allow us to achieve a direct proof of the validity of any of these three interpretations. Moreover, the absence of a one-to-one correlation between $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ and the strength of the gradient in B$``$H, if not due to errors in data analysis, may indicate that the interpretation of Fig. 2 is complex.

### 4.1 Age gradients

The integrated broad-band colors of E and S0 galaxies become progressively bluer toward fainter magnitudes (Faber 1973; see however Scodeggio 2001). This correlation, known as the color–magnitude relation, is universal and very tight in the optical for ellipticals and lenticulars in clusters at z=0 (Bower, Lucey & Ellis 1992a,b). Relying on the commonly accepted interpretation of the color–magnitude relation (Kodama & Arimoto 1997), we conclude that, in blue early-type dwarfs, either the average metallicity is lower than in red early-type dwarfs of the same H-band luminosity or star formation is still going on. Here we make the hypothesis that the blue colors of the VCC sample dwarfs are due to the presence of a young stellar population. This hypothesis is supported by spectroscopy (G01) for some individual sample galaxies and is consistent with the results of Terlevich et al. (1999).

Fig. 5b shows that most of the B-band emission of the dwarfs is contributed by the stellar populations distributed within an exponential-disk component. This disk-component, if present, is also responsible for more than 50% of the total H-band luminosity (Fig. 5a). If we make the assumption that early-type dwarfs are rotationally flattened (cf. Sect. 1), the wavelength-dependence of their effective radius, and the relation between total color and sign and strength of the color gradients may be understood as effects of disk evolution. In this scenario, an increase of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ happens in objects with on-going star formation activity, when the star formation, viscous and gaseous infall timescales are comparable (cf. Sect. 1). By contrast, the effective radius is not expected to change with wavelength in objects where either the bulk of the disk (and of the system) is assembled before star formation and viscosity act in a significant manner or star formation has ceased. Therefore, the objects with $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}1`$ are expected to have red colors, as we find.

If red and blue early-type dwarfs belong to the same population (cf. Sect. 1), the former should be quiescent since more than 1–2 Gyrs, in order to justify the difference in colors between e.g. VCC 1491 and 1499 (G01). This quiescence may be due either to a relatively shorter star formation timescale or to an early interruption of the gaseous infall, due to phenomena like galactic winds, tidal stripping or ram-pressure by the intergalactic medium (IGM). There are no detections of HI gas for the VCC early-type dwarfs under study, but only upper limits to the observed HI flux for VCC 1254 and 1499 (Huchtmeier and Richter 1986), VCC 951 and 1491 (van Driel et al. 2000). Interestingly, increasing upper limits are associated with bluer objects. No trend between color and kinematic distribution is found for the 15 objects with measured heliocentric velocities. Beside this, Fig. 1 shows that all the early-type dwarfs of our sample but VCC 608 lay in dense regions of the Virgo cluster. These findings disfavour a key-role of IGM ram-pressure. On the other hand, we note that the fraction of dE and dS0 galaxies with at least one giant galaxy within a projected distance of 15 arcmin (equivalent to $`75\mathrm{kpc}`$ at the assumed distance of Virgo) drops from 57% to 18%, when the red and blue subsamples are considered separately, respectively. This seems to favour tidal stripping as a mechanism of gas removal in the red VCC early-type dwarfs. Conversely, gas infall may sometimes trigger bursts of star formation in the nuclear regions of a galaxy (e.g. VCC 1499). The associated increase in blue luminosity in this central region may eventually erase differences between optical and near-IR effective radii.

### 4.2 Metallicity gradients

The distribution in Fig. 2 may be explained by different strengths of a metallicity gradient along the radial coordinate in individual stellar systems with an assumed single-age stellar population (e.g. Bruzual & Charlot 1993; Worthey 1994). Such an interpretation has been invoked by Peletier, Valentijn & Jameson (1990) and more recently by Tamura et al. (2000) and Saglia et al. (2000) for (giant) elliptical galaxies. For the sake of correctness, we say that metallicity gradients are the currently most widely accepted interpretation of the existence of color gradients in such systems. On the other hand, we note that no correlation between color gradients and e.g. $`\mathrm{Mg}_2`$ gradients has been found so far, though only a small number of elliptical galaxies has been studied both for color gradient and $`\mathrm{Mg}_2`$ gradient (Peletier 1989). Reasons are discussed by Kobayashi & Arimoto (1999).

Unfortunately, there is no information about the content and radial distribution of metallicity of the early-type dwarfs under study, but we may gain some understanding from the giants. In fact, 14 out of the 29 giant E and S0 galaxies have radial profiles of line indices like $`\mathrm{Mg}_2`$ thanks to the spatially resolved spectroscopy of Mehlert et al. (2000). Twelve of these galaxies have negative $`\mathrm{Mg}_2`$ line-strength gradients: their colors and values of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ are consistent with those of the rest of the giants. If taken as a face value, the mean $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}=1.13`$ obtained for the early-type giants indicates that metallicity gradients may increase $`r_{eB}`$ by 10–15% with respect to $`r_{eH}`$. May the larger (up to 75% on average) effect on $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ seen for 7 blue early-type dwarfs be due to stronger metallicity gradients in these galaxies? A basic assumption to producing color and line-strength gradients in elliptical galaxies is that galactic winds blow later in the inner part of a galaxy because of a deeper potential well, defined mainly by dark matter (Martinelli, Matteucci & Colafrancesco 1998). However, efforts of fully reproducing observed color and line-strength gradients failed so far (Tantalo et al. 1998), so that some important physics seems to be missing. This conclusion is supported by the fact that our blue and red early-type dwarfs have comparable total masses (Fig. 6) and, reasonably, central potential wells.

### 4.3 Dust attenuation

Giant elliptical and lenticular galaxies have been known to contain dust since a long time, thanks to catalogues of far-IR emission (Jura 1986; Bally & Thronson 1989; Knapp et al. 1989; Roberts et al. 1991), extensive visual surveys for dust obscuration (e.g. Hawarden et al. 1981; Ebneter & Balick 1985; Sparks et al. 1985; Kim 1989) and the discovery of atomic and molecular line emission (e.g. Sage & Wrobel 1989; Thronson, Bally & Hacking 1989; Wiklind & Henkel 1989; Gordon 1990; Roberts et al. 1991; Lees et al. 1991). Michard (1998) noted that dust patterns are more common and important in disky ellipticals than in boxy ones. Recently atomic line emission has been detected in early-type dwarfs (e.g. Young & Lo 1997), as well as dust signatures (Elmegreen et al. 2000). The latter discovery is particularly relevant to this study since it involves a dE,N galaxy of the Virgo cluster (VCC 882). It supports the hypothesis that color gradients and distribution in $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ of our early-type dwarfs are due to differences in optical depth (i.e. dust column density) and/or dust geometry among individual objects (Witt, Thronson & Capuano 1992). As Witt, Thronson & Capuano point out, the geometry of the dust distribution with respect to stars has an important role, due to the importance exercited on scattering and on the determination of the relative fraction of stars which are lightly obscured. For one plausible geometry, these authors find that the maximum reddening occurs at intermediate optical depths, while both very small and very large amounts of dust produce almost neutral broad-band colors. Transfer of radiation through a dusty medium with an optical depth $`\tau _V`$ of the order of 1 is able to reproduce some color and surface brightness variations in giant elliptical galaxies that are usually attributed to age/metallicity gradients of the stellar populations.

According to the results of Witt, Thronson & Capuano, no relationship of the dust-induced increase of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with B$``$H must be expected a priori, so that the trend in Fig. 2 might be due simply to chance. On the other hand, since dust production is a result of star formation, relatively larger amounts of dust may be associated with galaxies of intrinsic blue colors. In addition, a necessary condition for retainsion of metals in dwarf stellar systems (Legrand et al. 2001), despite their higher sensitivity to galactic winds than giant ones (Arimoto & Yoshii 1987), seems to be the presence of a diffuse gaseous halo (D’Ercole & Brighenti 1999; Silich & Tenorio-Tagle 2001). The hint that the maximum HI content allowed by observations increases in bluer objects (cf. Sect. 4.1) may suggest that a greater part of the metals (and of the dust) was retained by the relatively HI-richer and bluer early-type dwarfs of our sample. This may explain the trend of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with B$``$H in Fig. 2.

With the caveat of large observational uncertainties, Fig. 8 suggests a stronger effect of dust attenuation in the blue early-type dwarfs than in most of the giant E and S0 galaxies. This may sound at odd with the metal-richness of early-type giants with respect to dE and dS0 galaxies (cf. Yoshii & Arimoto 1987), commonly interpreted with the galactic-wind model of Arimoto & Yoshii (1987). The interpretation of Fig. 8 in terms of dust content and distribution is complex enough to deserve a quantitative investigation of the effect of dust attenuation on the photometric properties on both giant and dwarf E and S0 galaxies in a future paper.

## 5 Conclusions

Thanks to the surface photometry of 18 Virgo cluster dwarf elliptical (dE) and dwarf lenticular (dS0) galaxies, made by Gavazzi et al. (2001) in the H-band ($`1.65\mu \mathrm{m}`$) and in the B-band ($`0.44\mu \mathrm{m}`$), we are able to study the wavelength-dependence of their effective radii.

We find that the ratio of the effective radii of these stellar systems in these two spectral pass-bands, $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$, ranges between 0.7 and 2.2. $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ does not depend on the bulge-to-total light ratio or total mass but on the total color index B$``$H. In fact, dwarf ellipticals and lenticulars with a red total color index B$``$H (i.e. with $`3.2<`$ B$``$H $`<4`$) have equal effective radii in the B and H pass-bands. By contrast, blue (i.e. with $`2.5<`$ B$``$H $`<3.1`$) dEs and dS0s have B-band effective radii about 50% longer than the H-band ones, on average. Consistently, strong negative color gradients are present only in the B$``$H color profiles of the blue dwarfs of our sample.

The trend of increasing $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with bluer B$``$H is not confirmed by a reference sample of 29 well-studied Coma cluster giant E and S0 galaxies, which span a narrow range in color ($`3.3<`$ B$``$H $`<4.2`$). For these early-type giants, $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ spans a broad range (0.2–2.2) and has a mean value of $`1.1`$. The origin of the wavelength-dependence of the effective radii in these stellar systems (e.g.: age/metallicity gradient along the radial coordinate and dust attenuation) does not imply a consistent trend of $`r_{eB}/r_{eH}`$ with B$``$H.

Assuming each of these three distinct interpretations of the orgin of color gradients, we discuss the origin of the association of strong negative color gradients with blue colors found in the early-type dwarfs under study, in relation with current scenarios of formation and evolution of dE and dS0 galaxies.

## Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to G. Gavazzi for providing him with part of the data used in this study.
He is also indebted to the anonymous referee for his very stimulating comments.


text:
# High Energy Radiation Generated at Boundary Shear Layers of Relativistic Jets

## 1 Introduction

Particle acceleration in a velocity shear layer was proposed in the early eighties by Berezhko with collaborators and then gradually developed (cf. a review by Berezhko 1990). Action of such a mechanism at relativistic shear layers occurring at side boundaries of relativistic jets was discussed by Ostrowski (1990, 1998, 2000). The mechanism was considered to provide ultra high energy cosmic rays and to be an important factor influencing the dynamics of relativistic jets in extragalactic radio sources thereby forming cosmic rays cocoons. Ostrowski & Sikora (2001) proposed that such acceleration mechanism can provide a cosmic ray proton population being a substantial pressure factor in FR II radio source lobes.

The existence of the boundary layer with a velocity shear was first suggested by the observations of radio and optical jets in FR I sources. Owen et al. (1989) concluded that the jet morphology in M87 is dominated by the boundary layer more than by the shock structure. Constancy of radio-to-optical spectral index along the jet and similarity of radio and optical maps with emissivity peaking near the jet’s surface strongly suggested acceleration of radiating electrons in situ at the boundary layer. Later radio and optical polarimetry of M87 (Perlman et al. 1999) confirmed the complex structure of its jet containing a shear layer with a highly ordered magnetic field parallel to the jets axis. A map of the radio spectral index of another well known BL Lac, Mkn 501, revealed a boundary region of its jet with an unexpectedly flat spectrum (Edwards et al. 2000), suggesting action of some reacceleration mechanism at the jet surface.

Some FR II radio sources also reveal spine - shear layer jet morphology. For instance radio observations of 3C353 (Swain et al. 1998) was interpreted in terms of a Doppler-hidden relativistic spine surrounded by the slower moving boundary region. VLBI observations of another FR II object 1055+018 (Attridge et al. 1999) revealed a fragmentary but distinct boundary layer with the mean longitudinal magnetic field present where interactions with surrounding matter were strongest (i.e., where the jet bended). Optical and radio observations of the quasar 3C 273 (Jester et al. 2001) showed smooth changes of the radio-to-optical spectral index along the jet. This strongly suggested reacceleration of the radiating electrons taking place not in the specific shock-like regions, but within the whole jet.

One should note that our knowledge of physical conditions at the relativistic jet boundary is still insufficient. Cosmic ray viscosity and radiation viscosity in a boundary layer with a velocity shear influencing hydrodynamics of the jet and particle distribution along its surface was studied by Earl et al. (1988), Jokipii et al. (1989) and Arav & Begelman (1992), respectively. On the other hand, 3D simulations revealed the presence of a jet shear layer with a high specific internal energy and highly turbulent, subsonic and thin cocoon surrounding the relativistic flow (Aloy et al. 1999). Simulations of radio emission from such jets (Aloy et al. 2000) show radial structures in both intensity and polarization.

## 2 Acceleration of Cosmic Ray Electrons

Let us assume that a thickness of the transition layer between the jet and the surrounding medium, $`D`$, is comparable to the jet radius $`R_j1\mathrm{kpc}`$ (cf. Owen et al. 1989, Swain et al. 1998), and that the magnetic field $`𝐁`$ frozen into tenuous plasma at and outside the boundary is on average parallel to the flow velocity $`𝐔`$. Acceleration of energetic particles injected into the boundary layer results from its scattering on irregularities of the magnetic field in a turbulent medium with a perpendicular to $`𝐔`$ mean velocity gradient. In the considered case of the mean magnetic field aligned along the jet in a highly turbulent boundary layer plasma, a particle gyroradius $`r_g`$ can be considered instead of a particle mean free path $`\lambda `$, and cross-field radial diffusion provides a particle escape mechanism from the acceleration region. For particles with energies satisfying $`r_gD`$, the acceleration within a finite thickness turbulent shear layer results from, both, the second order Fermi process in the turbulent medium and the cosmic ray viscosity. We consider the jet velocity to be comparable to the light velocity even on kiloparsec scales, $`Uc`$, and a characteristic velocity of magnetic turbulence, $`V`$, to be comparable to the Alfvén velocity for a subsonic turbulence and at least a few orders of magnitude smaller than $`U`$. The Fermi process dominates over the viscous acceleration when the particle energy is small enough to satisfy $`r_g<D(V/U)`$. Because of rapid energy radiation losses at high energies, the electrons are always expected to satisfy the required condition. Then, the acceleration time scale in a highly turbulent shear layer can be estimated (Ostrowski 2000) as

$$T_{acc}\frac{r_g}{c}\frac{c^2}{V^2}.$$
(1)
With anticipated parameters of the boundary layer – $`B10^5\mathrm{G}`$ and $`V210^8\mathrm{cm}/\mathrm{s}`$ – the characteristic acceleration time scale (1) is $`T_{acc}10^2\gamma [\mathrm{s}]`$, where $`\gamma `$ is the electron Lorenz factor. One should note, that equation (1) illustrates the most optimistic scenario for the acceleration process, with presence of non-linear MHD turbulence at the scale of $`r_g`$. The time scale for particle escape from the acceleration region due to cross-field diffusion can be estimated as

$$T_{esc}\frac{D^2}{\kappa _{}},$$
(2)
where $`\kappa _{}`$ is the cross-field diffusion coefficient, $`\kappa _{}=\eta r_gc/3`$, and $`\eta `$ is a scaling numerical factor. The particle escape becomes important when the electron energy satisfies condition $`T_{acc}T_{esc}`$ , i.e. when $`r_g(3/\eta )^{1/2}D(V/c)`$. For the considered boundary layer parameters and a strong turbulence condition $`\eta 1`$, equation (2) reads as $`T_{esc}610^{24}\gamma ^1[\mathrm{s}]`$, and hence radiative (synchrotron) cooling with a time scale $`T_{cool}810^{18}\gamma ^1[\mathrm{s}]`$ becomes important for the much lower electrons energies. Therefore, by comparing the acceleration time scale (1) with the time scale for radiative losses, one obtains the maximum electron energy, $`\gamma _{eq}10^8`$. Rapid radiative cooling of electrons with such high maximum energy is compensated by the continuous acceleration taking place within the whole boundary layer along the jet. For lower turbulence amplitude the acceleration process can proceed slower to yield a lower value for $`\gamma _{eq}`$.

In the present model, after switching on the injection of seed electrons with a small initial Lorentz factor $`\gamma _0`$, a time dependent spectral evolution of particles accelerated in the turbulent layer begins as a power-law distribution with a growing energy cut-off. Then it evolves into a characteristic shape consisting of two different components: a stationary flat power-law part at low energies, $`n_e(\gamma )\gamma ^2`$, finished with a nearly monoenergetic growing peak, or bump, at $`\gamma =\gamma _{eq}`$, due to an accelerated particles pile-up caused by losses (cf. Ostrowski 2000). Such electron spectrum can be approximately given by a formula using the Haeviside function, $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$, and the Dirac delta function, $`\delta `$. At energies above the injection energy, $`\gamma _0`$, the electron distribution

$$n_e(\gamma ,t)=a\gamma ^2\mathrm{\Theta }(\gamma _{max}(t)\gamma )+b(t)\delta (\gamma \gamma _{eq})\mathrm{\Theta }(\gamma _t\gamma _{eq}),$$
(3)
where $`a`$ and $`b(t)`$ are normalization parameters (and $`b(t)`$ is a growing function of time), $`\gamma _t`$ is the highest energy the electrons can reach since the injection with radiation losses neglected, and $`\gamma _{max}(t)=\mathrm{min}(\gamma _t,\gamma _{eq})`$.

## 3 Radiation of electrons accelerated in a shear layer

We consider two radiation processes taking place at the relativistic jet boundary: the synchrotron (SYN) emission of ultrarelativistic electrons with the energy spectrum (3), and their inverse Compton (IC) cooling. Synchrotron self-absorption can be neglected with the assumed optical depth for this process to be much less than unity for $`\nu 10^{10}\mathrm{Hz}`$. Additionally, the present preliminary IC scattering calculations are limited to the Thomson regime assuming a step scattering cross section. A high energy spectral cut-off resulting from absorption of gamma rays due to photon-photon pair creation on a cosmic infrared background is expected to occur for distant sources (e.g. Renault et al. 2001). Therefore, the obtained below photon spectra above TeV energies cannot be directly compared to observations. In the case of IC emission of a tens-of-kpc scale jets, we study the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) radiation and Compton scattering of external CMB photons (EC). With the assumed parameters, the magnetic field energy density at the jet boundary is $`u_B410^{12}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$. The energy density of the CMB field in a source frame moving with a bulk Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at a redshift $`z`$ is $`u_{cmb}=u_{cmb}^{}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(1+z)^4`$, where an asterisk denotes quantities in our local rest frame, and $`u_{cmb}^{}410^{13}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$. In the jet rest frame $`u_{cmb}`$ can be comparable to $`u_B`$, and both above processes can be significant even for small $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`z`$.

For the optically thin emission, radiation intensities of the power-law (‘1’) and the high energy bump (‘2’) electron components (c.f. Eq. 3) are approximatly

$`I_{syn}^{(1)}(\nu ,t)\nu ^{1/2}\mathrm{\Theta }(\nu _{syn}(t)\nu )`$ , $`I_{syn}^{(2)}(\nu ,t)\nu ^{1/3}\mathrm{\Theta }(\nu _{syn}(t)\nu )\mathrm{\Theta }(\gamma _t\gamma _{eq}),`$ (4)
$`I_{ssc}^{(1+2)}(\nu ,t)\nu ^{1/2}\mathrm{\Theta }(\nu _{ssc}(t)\nu )`$ , $`I_{ssc}^{(2)}(\nu ,t)\nu ^{1/3}\mathrm{\Theta }(\nu _{ssc}(t)\nu )\mathrm{\Theta }(\gamma _t\gamma _{eq}),`$ (5)
$`I_{ec}^{(1)}(\nu ,t)\nu ^{1/2}\mathrm{\Theta }(\nu _{ec}(t)\nu )`$ , $`I_{ec}^{(2)}(\nu ,t)\nu ^2\mathrm{\Theta }(\nu _{ec}(t)\nu )\mathrm{\Theta }(\gamma _t\gamma _{eq}),`$ (6)
where, for the assumed large scale jet parameters and neglecting the cosmological redshift correction, the maximum synchrotron, self-Compton and external Compton frequencies are $`\nu _{syn}(t)10\gamma _{max}^2(t)\mathrm{Hz}`$, $`\nu _{ssc}(t)\mathrm{min}[\nu _{syn}(t),mc^2/h\gamma _{max}(t)]\gamma _{max}^2(t)`$ and $`\nu _{ec}(t)10^{11}\mathrm{\Gamma }\gamma _{max}^2(t)\mathrm{Hz}`$, respectively. In deriving equations (4) - (6) we used the standard theory of the synchrotron and the inverse-Compton radiation with simple approximations allowing evaluation of analytic expressions (e.g. Crusius & Schlickeiser 1986 and Dermer 1995, respectively; for details see forthcoming paper Stawarz & Ostrowski 2001). The intensities (4) - (6) allow to describe the photon spectrum variations resulting from the particle distribution evolution given in equation (3). In the model, from the beginning of injection the accelerated electrons form the power-law spectrum with the energy cut-off growing with time. Then $`\gamma _{max}(t)=\gamma _t`$ and the resulting emission is a power-law $`\nu ^{1/2}`$, with a growing cut-offs $`\nu _{syn}(t)`$, $`\nu _{ssc}(t)`$ and $`\nu _{ec}(t)`$. When the maximum electron energy approaches $`\gamma _{eq}`$, the high energy particle density peak forms and starts to grow. Then, an additional radiation components $`\nu ^{1/3}`$ (for the synchrotron radiation), $`\nu ^{1/2}`$ and $`\nu ^{1/3}`$ (for the SSC emission), and $`\nu ^2`$ (for the EC emission) appear and eventually dominate the spectrum at highest X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray frequencies. The spectral index $`\alpha =1/3`$ results from the asymptotic expansion of the synchrotron emissivity function of the ‘peak’ electrons with the energy $`\gamma _{eq}`$ (c.f. Crusius & Schlickeiser 1986), and the index $`\alpha =2`$ corresponds to the Rayleigh-like approximation of the anizotropic (in the relativistic fluid rest frame) CMB radiation comptonized by the monoenergetic electrons.

Let us also briefly discuss the main implications of kinematic effects in the radiative jet output. For illustration, let us consider a long cylindrical jet of the radius $`R_j`$, moving with a constant flow Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_j10`$, surrounded by a boundary layer with a constant thickness $`DR_j1\mathrm{kpc}`$, (cf. Aloy et al. 2000), and the radial flow profile $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(r)`$. In the local source rest frame, the synchrotron, SSC and EC intensities are given by expressions (4), (5), and (6), respectively, but the observed intensities are $`I_{ec}^{}(\nu ^{},\theta ^{})=\delta ^{4+2\alpha }(r,\theta ^{})I_{ec}(\nu ^{})`$, and $`I_{syn/ssc}^{}(\nu ^{},\theta ^{})=\delta ^{3+\alpha }(r,\theta ^{})I_{syn/ssc}(\nu ^{})`$, where $`\alpha `$ is a spectral index given in the respective expression (4) - (6), and $`\delta (r,\theta ^{})`$ is a Doppler factor for a sub-layer at a distance $`r`$ from the jet axis and the jet inclination to the line of sight equal $`\theta ^{}`$. Because of a velocity shear, the boundary layer emission beaming pattern is different compared to the uniform beaming pattern of a spine radiation. For a given viewing angle $`\theta ^{}`$, boundary layer emission comes mostly from the region with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(r)=1/\mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}`$, where the Doppler factor is maximized. As a result, the observed jet-counterjet brightness asymmetry is decreased in comparison to the uniform jet with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_j`$, allowing the spine to be more relativistic in the large scale jets than traditional estimates suggest (c.f. Komissarov 1990).

The observed boundary layer emission, $`\nu ^{}I^{}(\nu ^{},\theta ^{})`$, are plotted on Fig. 1 for four different viewing angles. Lines indicated by $`t_1`$, $`t_2`$ and $`t_3`$ correspond to different forms of the particle spectrum obtained in the considered acceleration model in successive times from the beginning of the acceleration process. For instance the line $`t_1`$ illustrates resultant sum of synchrotron, self-Compton and external Compton emission of the power-law electron component (index ‘1’ in Eq. 4 - 6) with an energy cut-off $`\gamma _{max}(t)=10^6<\gamma _{eq}`$, while the line $`t_3`$ includes also the additional contribution from the high energy electron bump at $`\gamma _{eq}=10^8`$ (index ‘2’ in Eq. 4 - 6). The presented spectra are integrated over the line of sight with the assumed linear dependence $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }(r)`$ within the shear layer.

## 4 Conclusions

In the present paper, we study radiation of ultrarelativistic electrons accelerated at the boundary shear layer of the large scale relativistic jet. The considered acceleration process generate a characteristic particle distribution consisting of two components: the power-law section extended up to a more or less narrow pile-up bump, modeled here as the monoenergetic peak. A possible characteristic of such a cosmic ray population is its time variability, constrained by the not considered here, non-linear particle backreaction at the acceleration process.

The acceleration within the jet boundary layer with inefficient particle escape due to radial diffusion could increas the energetic particle energy density $`u_e`$ to extremely high values. However, when $`u_e`$ becomes comparable to the ambient medium energy density, the accelerated particles can influence physical conditions within the boundary region. The involved electron pressure tends to expand the acceleration region rarefying the medium and, possibly, decreasing the efficiency of the acceleration process (c.f. Arav & Begelman 1992, Ostrowski 2000). Changes of the boundary layer density can result in changing several characteristic of the acceleration process, in particular shifting of the local value of $`\gamma _{eq}`$ and changing of the flow profile at the boundary. Such particle pressure backreaction, leading to local temporal variations of the high energy electron component, will generate fluctuations of the high energy radiation over the stationary power-law component emission at low photon energies. For the assumed physical conditions with $`\gamma _{eq}=10^8`$, the process involves variations at X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray bands with energies of $``$ keV and $``$ TeV, respectively. In our study of the tens-of-kpc scale jets, the involved time scales are $`10^{10}\mathrm{s}`$, and, thus, can result in spatial kpc-scale brightness variations along the jet boundary. Much shorter scales are possibly involved in (sub) mili-arc-second jets, with much smaller (a factor of $`10^3`$) spatial scales, much larger (a factor of $`10^5`$) magnetic fields, and stronger external radiation fields (study in progress now).

As the described above radiative spectral components appear in a natural way in the discussed process, the stationary or time averaged spectra possibly formed due to the mentioned non-linear effects are also expected to posses such components. Then, one should observe X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray excesses in electromagnetic spectrum of the jet, as illustrated on Fig. 1. With the jet parameters considered above, such an X-ray flux above the extrapolated radio-to-optical continuum can explain the keV emission detected in several jets by Chandra.

One should note, that our simple model, far from being complete, is supposed to describe main radiative properties of the boundary region under simple assumptions, and to provide restrictions on physical conditions within such layer.

## Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Marek Sikora for his help and discussions. The present work was supported by Komitet Badań Naukowych through the grant BP 258/P03/99/17.

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