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# Many-body 𝑞-exponential distribution prescribed by factorization of joint probability

## I Introduction

In thermostatistics, the factorization of the compound probability into product of single body probabilities

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\rho _n,`$ (1)
where $`\rho `$ is density operator and $`N`$ is the number of bodies in the system, is crucial for applications of statistical mechanics to many-body systems and for the statistical interpretation of thermodynamics. Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics ($`BGS`$), in considering only short range interactions, makes this factorization a natural result of its exponential distribution with additive energy. In nonextensive statistical mechanics ($`NSM`$), intended originally to describe complex systems with long range interactions or fractal structure of space-time, this factorization is not as evident as in $`BGS`$. From the beginning of this nonextensive theory, in order to show the nonextensive character of $`NSM`$, one has supposed Eq.(1) for a system containing statistically independent subsystems and obtained for the total entropy $`S_q`$ :

$`\mathrm{ln}[1+(1q)S_q]={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\mathrm{ln}[1+(1q)S_q(n)]`$ (2)
where $`q`$ is the parameter of Tsallis entropy $`S_q=\text{Tr}\frac{\rho \rho ^q}{1q}`$ (Boltzmann constant $`k_B=1`$) \[for $`N=2`$, $`S_q=S_q(1)+S_q(2)+(1q)S_q(1)S_q(2)`$ as one often finds in the literature\]. As indicated by Tsallis, Eq.(2) expresses in fact the additivity of Rényi entropy $`S^R=\frac{\text{Tr}\rho ^q}{1q}`$ if Eq.(1) applies. Due to this supposed “independence” of subsystems for $`NSM`$, it has been believed by many that exact calculations  should use the additive hamiltonian $`H_0`$ given by

$$H_0=\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}H_n,$$
(3)
where $`H_n`$ is the hamiltonian of $`n^{th}`$ subsystem. However, this additive hamiltonian is compatible with neither Eq.(1) nor Eq.(2) since these relations applied to $`q`$-exponential distribution ($`qed`$) $`\rho [1(1q)\beta H]^{\frac{1}{1q}}`$, as given by maximization of Tsallis entropy under some constraints, imply:

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}H_n+{\displaystyle \underset{k=2}{\overset{N}{}}}[(q1)\beta ]^{k1}{\displaystyle \underset{n_1<n_2<\mathrm{}<n_k}{\overset{N}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{k}{}}}H_{n_j}`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`H_0+H_c,`$ (5)
where $`\beta `$ is the inverse temperature. So in order to keep simultaneously Eq.(3) and Eq.(1) and to apply $`NSM`$ to many-body systems using one-body $`qed`$, a so called factorization approximation is proposed with the assumption that the second term on the right hand side of Eq.(4) may be neglected. This approximation has been, explicitly or not, employed in the applications of $`NSM`$ to the cases like, among others, quantum particle systems, turbulent flows, the polytropic model of galaxies, solar neutrinos, peculiar velocity of galaxy clusters, electron plasma (for updated comments on some of these works, we refer to reference  and the references there-in). In these calculations, it is admitted that one-body $`qed`$ applies. Although these applications clearly shows the usefulness and necessity of one-body $`qed`$, the approximation neglecting the correlation energy with sometimes weak interacting dilute particles is, on the contrary, not a reassuring basis. Recently, it has been argued that the correlation energy ($`H_c`$) given by the second term of Eq.(4) is in general not negligible. A numerical result for $`N`$-oscillator system shows that the partition function given by using Eq.(3) is completely different from that given by using Eq.(4) when $`N`$ is large. We are facing with a difficult question : which one of Eq.(1) and Eq.(3) should be related to independence of subsystems? In a recent work, Beck proposed a nontrivial idea to define an “independence” according to Eq.(4) so we can write Eq.(1) and one-particle $`qed`$ without any approximation. This means that we address correlated “independent systems” satisfying Eq.(4). This idea surely needs to be justified.

In this letter, the probability factorization problem of $`NSM`$ is discussed from a different consideration inspired by the general pseudoadditivity of entropy and energy required by the existence of thermodynamic equilibrium. It will be argued that Eq.(1) needs not independence of noninteracting systems and is to be considered as a basic assumption of $`NSM`$. Eq.(3) is only a kind of extensive approximation and should be employed carefully. On this basis, some basic applications of $`NSM`$ to classic and quantum gases are revisited.

## II Thermal equilibrium and factorization of compound probability

Apart from one-particle $`qed`$, another issue tightly related to probability factorization is the establishment of zeroth law and the definition of temperature for $`NSM`$. This is obviously of central importance for the theory. Eq.(3) and noninteracting model due to Eq.(1) are so deeply accepted that it was even believed that the zeroth law of thermodynamics was absent within $`NSM`$, since Eq.(2) does not hold with additive hamiltonian, and without Eq.(2), we can not talk about the zero law and temperature! Recently, a series of works have been published on this issue claiming the establishment of zeroth law and the definition of a generalized temperature on the basis of additive hamiltonian Eq.(3) and, I stress it, Eq.(2). If this zeroth law is established by neglecting the correlation energy $`H_c`$, it is merely approximate. If it is exact for noninteracting systems, then the paradox between Eq.(3) and Eq.(1) \[thus Eq.(2)\] persists due to $`qed`$. In addition, other questions arise : if the zeroth law holds only for, e.g. noninteracting particle systems, why do we have to discard $`BGS`$? And what is the origin of the nonextensivity?

This confused situation and the above questions are, in our opinion, simply due to the fact that Eq.(1) is not clearly founded for $`NSM`$. It certainly implies independence of noninteracting systems for $`BGS`$. But does it mean the same thing for $`NSM`$?

Very recently, Abe proposed a general pseudoadditivity for entropy required by the existence of thermal equilibrium in composite nonextensive systems : $`f(S)=f(S_1)+f(S_2)+\lambda f(S_1)f(S_2)`$ where $`f`$ is certain differentiable function satisfying $`f(0)=0`$ and $`\lambda `$ a constant depending on the nature of the system of interest. So for a system containing $`N`$ subsystems, the thermal equilibrium requires following pseudoadditivity :

$`\mathrm{ln}[1+\lambda f(S)]={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\mathrm{ln}[1+\lambda f(S_n)].`$ (6)
On the other hand, Eq.(6) applied to Tsallis entropy means $`f(S)=S`$ and $`\lambda =1q`$, which directly leads to $`\mathrm{ln}\text{Tr}\rho ^q=_{i=1}^N\mathrm{ln}\text{Tr}\rho _i^q`$ or Eq.(1) (i.e. $`(p_ip_j)^q=p_{ij}^q`$ means $`p_ip_j=p_{ij}`$ where $`p_i`$ is the probability of state $`i`$). So this probability factorization must be regarded as a condition or a consequence of thermodynamic equilibrium, instead of statistical independence. It should be raised to the rank of basic assumption for equilibrium thermodynamics with Tsallis entropy and must be rigorously respected by all exact calculations. In this way, the zeroth law becomes evident and a temperature can be straightforwardly defined with maximum entropy and minimum energy. According to above discussions, all calculations based on Eq.(1) or using one-body $`qed`$ are, as a matter of fact, exact applications of $`NSM`$. And all calculations based on additive energy Eq.(3) should now be considered as a kind of “extensive approximation” and should be employed with great care.

Energy has been proved to satisfy the same kind of pseudoadditivity at equilibrium as Eq.(6). If we choose $`f(H)=H`$ and $`\lambda =(q1)\beta `$, we get

$`\mathrm{ln}[1+(q1)\beta H]={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\mathrm{ln}[1+(q1)\beta H_n]`$ (7)
which is just Eq.(4) satisfying Eq.(1).

Here I would like to mention that, Eq.(7) or Eq.(4) contains inverse temperature $`\beta `$. This surely has something to do with the fact that this relation is subject to thermal equilibrium. The dependence of the correlation energy $`H_c`$ on temperature is something of nontrivial and needs explanation. A possible argument is that $`H`$ is only an effective Hamiltonian so the effects of interactions or correlations represented by $`q`$ perhaps depends on the state of the system and thus on temperature. If this is true, we may expect $`T`$-dependent $`q`$ values.

In the following section, I will discuss some interesting consequences of Eq.(7).

## III Additive $`q`$-deformed energy

Let us begin by introducing an additive “energy” for $`NSM`$ for the sake of convenience. We refer to

$`h={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}(1+(q1)\beta H)}{(q1)\beta }}`$ (8)
as $`q`$-deformed hamiltonian and recast Eq.(7) into

$`h={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}h_n.`$ (9)
This means following transformations :

$`H={\displaystyle \frac{e^{(q1)\beta h}1}{(q1)\beta }},H_n={\displaystyle \frac{e^{(q1)\beta h_n}1}{(q1)\beta }}`$ (10)
and

$`\rho [1+(q1)\beta H]^{1/(1q)}=e^{\beta h}={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}e^{\beta h_n}.`$ (11)
It is interesting to see that the $`qed`$ can be transformed into Boltzmann-Gibbs exponential distribution with a deformed energy. The reader may wonder why we refer to the additive hamiltonian $`h`$ or $`h_n`$, instead of the nonadditive one $`H`$ or $`H_n`$, as deformed hamiltonian. It should be noticed that, when addressing a system of $`N`$ particles, we have to write $`H_n=\frac{p_n^2}{2m}+V_n`$ for single particle so that $`h_n=\frac{\mathrm{ln}[1+(q1)\beta (\frac{p_n^2}{2m}+V_n)]}{(q1)\beta }`$. It is clear that $`H_n`$, instead of $`h_n`$, is the physical energy. According to this consideration, the total hamiltonian of a system of ”ideal gas” (free particles in the sense that we do not write the correlation energy between the particles in Hamiltonian and let it be represented by $`q1`$ in the deformed energy) should be written as

$`H={\displaystyle \frac{e^{(q1)\beta h}1}{(q1)\beta }}={\displaystyle \frac{e^{(q1)\beta _{n=1}^Nh_n}1}{(q1)\beta }}={\displaystyle \frac{e^{_{n=1}^N\mathrm{ln}[1+(q1)\beta \frac{p_n^2}{2m}]}1}{(q1)\beta }}={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{p_n^2}{2m}}+H_c`$ (12)
When $`q=1`$ ($`H_c=0`$), we recover $`H=_{n=1}^N\frac{p_n^2}{2m}`$.

I would like to emphasize here that, as shown in Eq.(11), the deformed hamiltonian $`h`$ may be employed, if we want, to recover the mathematical structure of $`BGS`$ in introducing a $`q`$-deformed information measure $`I_q=\mathrm{ln}\rho `$ and an entropy $`𝒮=\text{Tr}\rho \mathrm{ln}\rho `$ where $`\rho =\frac{e^{\beta h}}{Z}`$ ($`Z=\text{Tr}e^{\beta h}`$). We straightforwardly obtain $`\frac{𝒮}{u}=\beta =1/T`$ and a deformed first law $`du=dw+Td𝒮`$, where $`u=\text{Tr}\rho h`$ is the deformed internal energy and $`dw`$ the work on the system.

## IV Review of some results about ideal gases

Now I will show some consequences of Eq.(12) on ideal gases.

### A Classical ideal gas

For classical ideal gas, the total hamiltonian should be given by Eq.(12). So the total partition function $`Z`$ is given by \[in the formalism of complete distribution ($`\text{Tr}\rho =1`$) with unnormalized average energy $`U=\text{Tr}H\rho ^q`$\] :

$`Z`$ $`=`$ $`\text{Tr}[1(1q)\beta H]^{\frac{1}{1q}}`$ (13)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}\text{Tr}[1(1q)\beta H_n]^{\frac{1}{1q}}`$ (14)
$`=`$ $`\{\text{Tr}[1(1q)\beta H_n]^{\frac{1}{1q}}\}^N=z^N`$ (15)
where $`z=\text{Tr}[1(1q)H_n]^{\frac{1}{1q}}`$ is the single particle partition function. The calculation of $`Z`$ in reference  can be adopted for single particle. For $`q>1`$, we obtain :

$`z`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\frac{(2\pi m)^{d/2}V}{h^d}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{q1}\frac{d}{2})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{q1})(q1)^{d/2}}}\beta ^{d/2}=\mathrm{\Delta }\beta ^{d/2}`$ (16)
where $`d`$ is the dimension of volume $`V`$. The total internal energy is

$`U`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{\beta }}{\displaystyle \frac{Z_q^{1q}1}{1q}}`$ (17)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{\beta }}{\displaystyle \frac{z_q^{N(1q)}1}{1q}}`$ (18)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{}{\beta }}{\displaystyle \frac{z_q^{N(1q)}1}{1q}}`$ (19)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{dN}{2\mathrm{\Delta }^{N(q1)}}}(kT)^{dN(1q)/2+1}.`$ (20)
The specific heat is so given by

$`C_v={\displaystyle \frac{U}{T}}={\displaystyle \frac{kdN}{2\mathrm{\Delta }^{N(q1)}}}(kT)^{dN(1q)/2}.`$ (21)
We notice that the $`T`$-dependence of $`C_v`$ is the same as given by the extensive approximation but the $`q`$ and $`N`$-dependences are changed. This point is also noticed in the case of $`N`$-harmonic-oscillator system. Another interesting point is that, in the present case, the variation interval of $`q`$ is enlarged to $`1<q<1+\frac{2}{d}`$ from $`1<q<1+\frac{2}{dN}`$ given by the extensive approximation.

For $`q<1`$, similar discussions can be made with the extension of Hilhorst formula given by Prato.

### B Quantum gas

For nonextensive quantum gas, from the $`qed`$ for grand canonical ensemble with complete distribution and normalized average ($`U=\text{Tr}H\rho `$), we can write :

$`[1+(1q)\beta (H\mu N)]^{\frac{1}{q1}}={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}[1+(1q)\beta (H_n\mu )]^{\frac{1}{q1}}.`$ (22)
Let this equation be replaced by

$`e^{\beta h^{}}={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}}e^{\beta h_n^{}}`$ (23)
where $`h^{}=\frac{\mathrm{ln}[1+(1q)\beta (H\mu N)]}{\beta (1q)}`$ and $`h_n^{}=\frac{\mathrm{ln}[1+(1q)\beta (H_n\mu )]}{\beta (1q)}`$. The total partition function $`Z`$ is then given by

$`Z`$ $`=`$ $`\text{Tr}[1(q1)\beta (H\mu N)]^{\frac{1}{q1}}`$ (24)
$`=`$ $`\text{Tr}e^{\beta h^{}}`$ (25)
$`=`$ $`\text{Tr}e^{\beta _nh_n^{}}`$ (26)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{n_k}{}}e^{n_k\beta e_k^{}}`$ (27)
where $`e_k^{}`$ is the eigenvalue of $`h_n^{}`$ and $`n_k`$ the occupation number of the state $`k`$ of single particle. For boson and fermion, we obtain, respectively,

$`Z={\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{n_k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}e^{n_k\beta e_k^{}}={\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1e^{\beta e_k^{}}}}andZ={\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{n_k=0}{\overset{1}{}}}e^{n_k\beta e_k^{}}={\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}(1+e^{\beta e_k^{}}).`$ (28)
Then, it is straightforward to get :

$`\overline{n}_l=\text{Tr}\rho n_l={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta }}{\displaystyle \frac{(\mathrm{ln}Z)}{e_l^{}}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta e_l^{}}\pm 1}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{[1+(1q)\beta (e_l\mu )]^{\frac{1}{1q}}\pm 1}}`$ (29)
where $`e_l`$ is the eigenvalue of the one particle hamiltonian $`H_n`$. “+” and “-” correspond to fermions and bosons, respectively. These are just the standard quantum distributions given by Büyükkiliç et al with the so called factorization approximation and unnormalized average.

On the other hand, in the present formalism of $`NSM`$, unnormalized average does not give simple quantum distribution similar to Eq.(29) for standard bosons and fermions. This is due to the fact that $`Z=_k_{n_k}e^{n_k\beta e_k^{}}_k[_{n_k}e^{qn_k\beta e_k^{}}]^{1/q}`$. Here I only show that, in this case, Eq.(29) becomes

$`\overline{n}_l=\text{Tr}\rho ^qn_l={\displaystyle \frac{Q}{[1+(q1)\beta (e_l\mu )]^{\frac{q}{q1}}\pm 1}}`$ (30)
where $`Q=\text{Tr}\rho ^q`$ can be regarded as a parameter depending on $`q`$. $`Q>1`$ $`Q=1`$ and $`Q<1`$ for $`q<1`$, $`q=1`$ and $`q>1`$, respectively. These distributions seems interesting because they allow intermediate occupation number between that of bosons and fermions. In particular, at absolute zero, for “fermionlike” particle with “+”, $`\overline{n}_l=Q`$ when $`e_l<\mu `$ and $`\overline{n}_l=0`$ when $`e_l>\mu `$. This means that it is possible for several “fermions” to occupy an one-particle quantum state if $`Q>1`$ or $`q<1`$. Consequently, the Fermi surface $`ϵ_F`$ at $`T=0`$ or $`\beta =\mathrm{}`$ changes as a function of $`Q`$ or of the interaction between the particles : $`ϵ_F=\frac{\epsilon _F}{Q^{2/3}}`$ where $`\epsilon _F`$ is the conventional Fermi energy at $`q=1`$ or $`Q=1`$. This result can be compared to that of the fractional exclusion statistics ($`FES`$) for intermediate particles different from bosons and fermions. It is not surprising to see that nonextensive statistics has similar effect to that of $`FES`$ describing low dimension quasi-particles or elementary excitations, because $`qed`$ is just a result of interactions which are perhaps the origin of the quasi-particles. However, the fact that only the $`NSM`$ formalism with unnormalized average can give the intermediate quantum distributions seems to deserve further investigation. Quite interesting efforts have been made by some authors to relate nonextensive statistics and the quantum distributions given by Eq.(29) to $`FES`$.

## V Conclusion

Summing up, it is argued that the nonextensive thermostatistics should be based on the factorization of compound probability suggested, not by “independence” of noninteracting systems, but by Abe’s pseudoadditivity for $`equilibrium`$ interacting systems having Tsallis entropy. So Eq.(1) should be viewed as a fundamental hypothesis of $`NSM`$ and has to be rigorously satisfied by all exact calculations relative to equilibrium systems. All calculations based on additive hamiltonian Eq.(3) are to be considered as extensive energy approximation which should be employed with great care. In this formalism, the applications of $`NSM`$ to ideal gases are revisited. The results are different from those given by extensive approximation. The standard quantum distributions can be given by using normalized average calculus. The unnormalized average leads to a kind of fractional exclusion distributions.


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# Modelling correlations in heavy ion collisions

## 1 Recent results in modelling correlations

Modelling correlations in heavy ion reactions is a broad and rapidly expanding field that is reviewed here very briefly, due to space limitations. For a more detailed and illustrated version of this talk, see ref.. For more detailed recent reviews see also refs..

Although some claims were made in the literature that the shape of the two-particle Bose-Einstein correlation functions has to be a (multi-variate) Gaussian, by now it is clear that these claims were mistaken and even approximately Gaussian correlation functions may contain subleading non-Gaussian corrections, for example oscillatory prefactors that are particularly important in case of effective binary sources. It is also clear that refined analysis of the two-particle correlation functions indicates significant deviations from Gaussian shapes in elementary particle induced reactions. Sensitive searches for non-Gaussian components have not yet been performed in correlation measurements in heavy ion collisions at CERN SPS and at RHIC, to our best knowledge. A model independent parameterization of the two-particle correlation function is given in terms of the Edgeworth or Laguerre expansions. These expansions were shown to be sensitive to even small deviations from Gaussian or exponential shapes.

The deviation from an exactly Gaussian form of the two-particle correlation function can be caused by the decay products of long-lived resonances. A core-halo picture has been introduced to describe such a situation. Within the core-halo picture, the intercept parameter $`\lambda _{}`$ of the two-particle correlation function is interpreted as the squared, momentum dependent fraction of particles emitted from the core of the interaction, and the shape of the correlation function is interpreted as a measure of the core part of the interaction region. The core-halo structure of the particle emitting source has recently been observed with the help of a new imaging method, developed by D. A. Brown and P. Danielewitz, that reconstructs the relative source distribution directly from the measured data points with the help of the known final state interactions of the emitted pair.

Good progress has been made recently in the study of multi-particle Coulomb corrections. A wave-function integration method has been developed for 3 - 5 particles, utilizing a cluster decomposition of the multiparticle final state. Such Coulomb corrections have to be applied within the context of a core-halo picture. A modification of the Coulomb interactions (permutations in the charge allocation) has recently been proposed to develop Monte-Carlo event generators with Bose-Einstein correlations.

An interesting new direction of modelling correlations in heavy ion collisions is the study of back-to-back correlations (BBC) for bosonic as well as fermionic cases (bBBC and fBBC). When the thermalized vacuum state decays, it always produces particle - anti-particle pairs with opposite spin and momenta. Hence the strength of BBC is increasing inversely with the single particle spectra and in principle, it can be unlimitedly large. It would be certainly of great interest to observe BBC experimentally. The bosonic BBC in heavy ion physics has a famous analogy in astropysics, namely the Bekenstein-Hawking radiation of black holes. Both effects are related to squeezing and decay of a modified vacuum to pairs of bosons of asymptotic fields with back-to-back momentum and opposite quantum numbers.

## 2 Hydro models fit spectra at RHIC

Modelling high energy heavy ion collisions is not only difficult because of the large number of degrees of freedom involved in the process but also because various theoretical concepts and approaches are relevant for different stages of the collision. A comprehensive review of this process has recently been given by S.A. Bass. During a partonic cascading process (local) thermalization is achieved, that can be maintained for a while due to the intensive collision rate and the time evolution corresponds to nuclear fluid dynamics. As the system rarifies, the collision rate within the “macroscopically infinitesimal” fluid cells decreases and one expects that the hydrodynamical approximation may break down and non-equilibrium hadronic transport models start to play a role. A version of this well established concept has been utilized to describe the single particle spectra and two-particle correlations in 130 AGeV Au + Au collisions at RHIC. Numerical solution of relativistic hydrodynamics was terminated by particle freeze-out and a subsequent resonance decay and hadronic cascading by a code developed by Soff, Bass and Dumitru. The model fitted the single particle spectra measured by the PHENIX and STAR experiments at RHIC, but it overestimated, in a statistically unacceptable manner, the experimentally observed longitudinal and out radius components of the Bose-Einstein correlation functions. Both the longitudinal and the out radius components are sensitive to the distribution of particle production in time. One of the problems with the calculation could be its utilization of the Gaussian variances of the source distribution, that are known to overestimate the HBT radii for core-halo type of systems.

An interesting study of the identified particle elliptic flow at RHIC has been reported by the STAR collaboration. From the mass dependence of the second flow coefficient as a function of transverse momentum, a suggestive evidence has been obtained that early local equilibration followed by a hydrodynamic expansion is responsible for the particle spectra in central and mid-peripheral collisions up to $`p_t1.5`$ GeV. A similar conclusion has been reached by Kolb, Huovinen, Heinz and Heiselberg, who observed in addition that the very rapid thermalization in Au + Au collisions at RHIC provides a serious challenge for kinetic approaches based on classical scattering of on-shell particles. On the other hand, the high $`p_t`$ behaviour of the elliptic flow pattern was shown to be a sensitive measure of the initial parton density distribution of an initial quark-gluon plasma phase. Detailed numerical solution of relativistic hydrodynamics has been reported to describe well the single particle spectra, the first and the second flow coefficients for various domains of centrality and transverse momentum, however, this calculation also over-predicted by a factor of 2 the measured, effective HBT radii of the two-particle Bose-Einstein correlation function, possibly indicating a problem with the freeze-out time distribution in this kind of calculations. A good description of various aspects of the measured single particle spectra, and the $`m_t`$ dependence of the longitudinal HBT radius parameters has been reported by Hirano, Morita, Muroya and Nonaka based on an exact solution of relativistic hydrodynamics. The order of magnitute of the calculated side and out radii were also found to be in agreement with the experimental data, however, the side radius component was slightly underestimated and the out radius component over-estimated by this model, and the observed decrease of the out component with increasing transverse mass has not been reproduced.

## 3 Buda-Lund hydro fits spectra and HBT radii at RHIC

It has been observed that simple parameterizations of the freeze-out phase space distribution of a locally thermalized, three dimensionally expanding, cylindrically symmetric finite systems describe the preliminary single particle spectra at RHIC reasonably well in the whole available kinematic domain.

The Buda-Lund hydrodynamical parameterization (BL-H) has been developed in refs. to describe particle correlations and spectra in heavy ion collisions at CERN SPS energies. The model was formulated on the principle of cylindrical symmetry in central collisions and a relativistic, 3 dimensional flow profile that corresponds to a Hubble type of transverse flow sitting on top of a longitudinal Bjorken flow. Under certain conditions, the BL-H parameterization predicted an $`R_lR_sR_o1/\sqrt{m_t}`$ scaling of the HBT radius parameters, as a direct reflection of the cylindrical symmetry of the source.

Both the single particle spectra and the two-particle Bose-Einstein correlation functions are analytically calculated  as a function of 8 model parameters plus constants of normalization for the absolutely normalized single particle spectra. The BL-H model fits simultaneously the double differential single particle spectra and the $`m_t`$ dependence of the radius parameters in hadron-proton reactions at CERN SPS. The BL-H also describes the NA49, NA44 and the preliminary WA98 data for spectra and correlations at CERN SPS, with a statistically acceptable $`\chi ^2/NDF`$ fit, as summarized in the last column of Table 1 for a comparision with BL-H fits to the preliminary PHENIX and STAR data for Au + Au at $`\sqrt{s}=130`$ AGeV at RHIC. We observe that the BL-H fits of these RHIC data are satisfactory. The central value of the freeze-out temperature, $`T_0`$ is about the same at RHIC as at CERN SPS, and within three standard deviations, most of the fit parameter values are similar. However, the mean value of the freeze-out time $`\tau _0`$, and the strength of the transverse flow at the geometrical radius, $`u_t`$, is significantly larger at RHIC than at CERN SPS. The system at RHIC freezes out later, with a larger transverse flow parameter $`u_t`$ than at CERN SPS. The preliminary results indicate that within the presently big errors the transverse geometrical size $`R_G`$ is about as big at RHIC as at CERN SPS. This research was supported by grants OTKA T026435 T034296 N25487 (with NWO), NSF-MTA-OTKA 0089462 and US DOE DE - FG02 - 93ER40764.


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# Progresses in the validation of the FLUKA atmospheric 𝜈 flux calculation

## 1 Introduction

The two essential features of the atmospheric neutrino fluxes, namely the up-down symmetry and the $`\mu /e`$ ratio, are now considered to be largely independent from the calculation scheme. Theoretical uncertainties should still have an impact, together with experimental systematics, in the determination of the relevant physical parameters of neutrino oscillations. However, the Super-Kamiokande allowed region in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2sin^2(2\mathrm{\Theta })`$ space remains more or less invariant when the Monte Carlo predictions change from the original HKKM results to the FLUKA ones, despite the fact that the two set of predictions have important differences. The most significant one is the normalization of the flux, which, for the same neutrino cross–sections, gives a 15$`÷`$20% lower event rate in the case of FLUKA. The same ratio approximately exists between FLUKA and the original Bartol flux for the same primary flux. This difference is due to the features of the hadronic particle production model. Our claim is that FLUKA has already given a more accurate prediction than the previous calculations. Also in the recent work of the Bartol group, in which some feature of their hadronic interaction model have been corrected, a neutrino flux very close to our predictions is now obtained for high cut–off sites, like Super–Kamiokande. It is likely that in the case of Super–Kamiokande analysis the differences between fluxes are in practice obscured by the assumed systematic uncertainties. However, in view of possible future improvements, it is important to clarify the differences among the existing predictions. The effects due to the 3-D treatment of the shower, first presented in ref., have been reproduced by other groups and are by now accepted as the correct prediction. The uncertainties in the neutrino rates are instead less clear, but they can be attributed to three independent sources: i) the primary cosmic ray spectrum, ii) the hadronic interaction model and iii) the neutrino–Nucleus cross sections. The first goal of this paper (section 2) is to provide further evidence that the particle yields predicted by the FLUKA model are in the right range. As a second step, we consider the dependence of the predicted $`\nu `$ flux on the choice of primary spectrum (section 3). The fundamental topic of neutrino cross-sections is instead postponed to a future work. In the conclusions we summarize the arguments, advancing some criticism about other new attempts of $`\nu `$ flux calculations.

## 2 New benchmarks for the FLUKA predictions

FLUKA is constructed upon a set of theoretically inspired models of hadronic interactions, adjusting parameters only on the basis of results coming from accelerators. Cosmic ray data can however be used to check their quality. Recently two remarkable results have been achieved in this field. The first one is the reproduction of the features of the primary proton flux as a function of geomagnetic latitude as measured by AMS, thus showing that both the production of secondary nucleons and the geomagnetic effects and the overall geometrical description of the 3–D setup are well under control. The same work also shows that the fluxes of secondary $`e^+`$ and $`e^{}`$ measured at high altitude are reproduced, and this is instead more directly linked to the yield of mesons produced in primary interactions. The second achievement is the good reproduction of the muon data in atmosphere as measured by the CAPRICE experiment, both at ground level and at different floating altitudes, when starting from the same primary flux (Bartol fit) used to generate atmospheric neutrinos. The fluxes of atmospheric muons are strictly related to the neutrino ones, because almost all $`\nu `$’s are produced either in association, with, or in the decay of $`\mu ^\pm `$. The level of agreement reported in ref., without any adjustment of the model, allows to conclude that, the normalization of the $`\nu `$ fluxes predicted by FLUKA is in the right range. This is true for a choice of primary spectrum constrained by the more recent data, in particular from AMS and BESS. The quoted primary flux of ref. is already in good, although not yet optimal, agreement with these data. Furthermore, the agreement exhibited by the FLUKA simulation separately for muons of both charges gives confidence on the simulated yields of $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^{}`$ production in air. This is one of the main sources of uncertainty in the prediction of the $`\mu /e`$ ratio. The decay chain of $`\pi ^+`$ eventually results in $`\nu _e`$, while the decay of $`\pi ^{}`$ generates $`\overline{\nu }_e`$. Due to the different interaction cross section this affects the experimental event rates.

## 3 Neutrino Fluxes and Primary Spectrum

For a given shower model, the level of agreement in a comparison to measured particle fluxes in atmosphere depends on the parameterization of the primary spectrum. The primary choice originally used in ref. would force in FLUKA a too high normalization of the flux, since it is includes the data points taken from the compilation of Webber et al., now excluded by recent experiments. On the contrary, a constraint based on the primary data from CAPRICE would not allow in FLUKA a satisfactory level of agreement with muon fluxes. As already mentioned, the Bartol fit used so far is not completely satisfactory. The scientific community is trying to establish a common reference for the primary flux to be used in all computations. An attempt in this direction has been proposed in ref., where the statistical errors of measurements and the systematic differences between experiments are used to establish a band of uncertainty around the average result of this new fit. Contributions heavier than primary protons are also considered. A similar attempt has been proposed in ref. We have used the new Bartol fit of primaries to recalculate the FLUKA $`\nu `$ fluxes. As an example, in Fig. 1 we plot the ratio of the computed $`\nu _\mu `$ flux for the site of Super–Kamiokande as resulting from the new Bartol fit with respect to the old one, as a function of $`\nu `$ energy.

The new parameterization brings to an increase of neutrino fluxes in the Sub–GeV range, while a depletion occurs in the Multi–GeV range. This behavior is still maintained when event rates are considered. Integrating in energy, the average prediction for the atmospheric neutrino event rates increases, approximately for all flavors, by $``$5% with respect to the original evaluation, with an uncertainty (only due to the primary spectrum) of $`\pm `$4%.

## 4 Conclusions

The absolute normalization of atmospheric neutrino fluxes is still a subject of investigation. The results summarized in this paper support the conclusion that the normalization of the FLUKA results should be close to reality and that the difference with respect to the original Bartol and HKKM results cannot be attributed to an insufficient particle production yield in the shower development in the FLUKA model. The knowledge of the primary spectrum is still an important issue, but the convergence towards a common reference, constrained by the AMS and BESS data allows to reduce the related uncertainty ($`\pm `$ $``$5%). After this study we can also conclude that the agreement of FLUKA predictions to Super–Kamiokande data will certainly improve if the updated parameterization of the proton and He fluxes are used. This should be more evident for the Sub–GeV events. This does not mean that the questions about the absolute values of neutrino cross-sections and the hadronic interaction descriptions are answered. In particular we remind that hadron–Nucleus and Nucleus–Nucleus interactions in the energy range 1$`÷`$30 GeV are still insufficiently known to allow the construction of a fully reliable model. In any case it seems difficult that the overall uncertainties are larger than 15%$`÷`$20%. Therefore, in our opinion, the results on neutrino flux of ref., starting from a primary spectrum very similar to the one here considered, seem too low in the Sub–GeV region, not being compatible with the corresponding muon fluxes in atmosphere, unless significant systematic error in the data at high altitude are assumed. Furthermore, after our tests on direct Nucleus–Nucleus interaction, by means of an interface to the DPMJET code, we cannot share their conclusion about the existence of a significant bias introduced by the use of the superposition model. As far as the $`\nu `$ fluxes proposed in ref., we believe that they are probably affected by some severe error (see also ref.). Beyond other considerations, those results would imply, without any supporting evidence, that either the experimental data on atmospheric neutrinos are strongly biased or that the present knowledge of neutrino cross sections are wrong by an unexplained large factor.


text:
# A model for the size distribution of customer groups and businesses

## I Introduction

Power law behavior of various kinds have been observed in a wide range of systems. Within the context of economics and finance, it has been found, for example, that the wealth of individuals, price-returns in stock markets, and company sizes in different countries all give non-trivial and interesting distributions. By analyzing U.S. establishment and firm sizes, Nagel et al. found that the size distributions $`n_s`$ are power laws of the form $`n_ss^\tau `$ with $`\tau =2`$ for firms with annual sales larger than some typical size. Income distribution of companies and size distribution of debts among bankrupt companies in Japan also indicate a power law behavior with an exponent of about $`2`$. However, studies on the size distribution of companies in different countries indicated that the distributions as well as the exponents are different from country to country and hence are not universal.

Nagel et al. introduced several models of price formation using a two-dimensional spatial structure for information transmission in which consumers can only learn from their neighbors. The formation of groups of consumers with shared opinion has direct impacts on the price-returns in stock markets and on the size of businesses as consumers of similar opinion may act collectively in making a transaction or a deal. Such herd formation and information transmission in a population have been a topic of active research in recent years. Recently, Eguíluz and Zimmermann proposed and studied a simple model (henceforth referred to as the EZ model) of stochastic opinion cluster formation and information dispersal. It is a dynamical model in which there is a continual grouping and re-grouping of agents to form clusters of similar opinion. A group of agents act together in a transaction and the group dissolves after the transaction has occurred. When a group decides not to trade, it may combine with another group to form a larger group. Detailed numerical studies and mean field analysis revealed that the model could lead to a fat-tail distribution of price returns qualitatively similar to those observed in real markets. The size distribution $`n_s`$ of groups is shown to take on the form $`n_ss^{5/2}`$ for a range of group size $`s`$, followed by an exponential cutoff. The model represents a dynamic generalization of the percolation-type model previously introduced by Cont and Bouchard in which the behavior $`n_ss^{5/2}`$ is also observed. Interesting, it was recently found that the exponent characterizing this scaling behavior can actually be changed and made tunable by introducing a size-dependent dissociation and coagulation rates of groups in the EZ model. The possibility of tuning the exponent makes the EZ model and its generalizations a good starting point for modelling herd formation and opinion sharing in different contexts.

In this paper, we propose and study an extension of the EZ model in which a characteristic size $`s_0`$ of group of agents (customers) is introduced. The rates of dissociation and coagulation of groups are assumed to take on different forms for $`ss_0`$ and for $`s>s_0`$. The distribution in the size of groups of agents is found to exhibit two scaling regimes. Within the context of customers, the different behavior for $`ss_0`$ and $`s>s_0`$ represent the situations in which a small group of customers may find themselves better served by businesses and customers tend to be happy when they find themselves to be part of a big group of customers. The distribution of groups of customers is unevitably related to the distribution of sizes of businesses that the customers support. In Sec.II, we introduce the model and present results of numerical simulations. Results of a mean field analysis are given in Sec.III and compared with numerical results. We summarize our results in Sec.IV.

## II The model

Our model is an extension of the EZ model, which, in turn, is a dynamical version of the static percolation model of Cont and Bouchaud. Consider a system with a total of $`N`$ agents (customers). These agents are organized into groups. They share the same information and hence they act collectively, i.e., customers belonging to a group decide whether to make a deal and what to do after a deal collectively. Initially, all the customers are isolated, i.e., each group has only one customer. At each time step, a customer $`i`$ is selected at random. With probability $`a`$, all the customers belonging to the group of customer $`i`$ decide to make a deal, say, with a certain business or to buy a certain product from a manufacturer. After the deal, the group of customers will find themselves disappointed with probability $`f(s_i)`$. The group is then broken up into isolated customers and the corresponding business loses her customers. With probability $`(1f(s_i))`$, the group of customers are pleased with the deal (service) and they remain in the group. With probability $`1a`$, the chosen customer $`i`$ and its group decide not to make a deal. In this case, another customer $`j`$ is selected at random among the whole population of customers. With probability $`c(s_i,s_j)`$, the two groups of customers $`i`$ and $`j`$ coagulate to form a bigger group of customers, and with probability $`(1c(s_i,s_j))`$ they remain separate. We study the size distribution of the groups of customers which is unevitably related to the size distribution of the businesses that the customers support.

In the present work, we take the fragmentation rate of group of customers to be

$$f(s_i)=\{\begin{array}{cc}p(s_i),\hfill & s_is_0,\hfill \\ q(s_i),\hfill & s_i>s_0,\hfill \end{array}$$
(1)
and the coagulation rate of groups of customers as

$$c(s_i,s_j)=\{\begin{array}{cc}p(s_i)p(s_j),\hfill & s_is_0,s_js_0,\hfill \\ p(s_i)q(s_j),\hfill & s_is_0,s_j>s_0,\hfill \\ q(s_i)p(s_j),\hfill & s_i>s_0,s_js_0,\hfill \\ q(s_i)q(s_j),\hfill & s_i>s_0,s_j>s_0.\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
The functions $`p(s)`$ and $`q(s)`$ are taken to be increasing and decreasing power law functions:

$$p(s)=(\frac{s}{s_0})^\delta ,q(s)=(\frac{s_0}{s})^\delta ,$$
(3)
where a characteristic group size of customers $`s_0`$ is introduced. From the standpoint of customers, a small group of customers may find themselves easier to be pleased by the service and the deal. Customers are also happier when they find themselves to belong to a big group of customers supporting the same business – a result of herd behavior. Groups of intermediate sizes near the characteristic size $`s_0`$ will be the hardest to please. When a group decides not to make a deal, members of the group tend to seek alternative opinion by combining with another group and there is a higher probability that groups with size around the characteristic size are combined. From the business point of view, businesses may find it easier to satisfy a small group of customers. Big businesses with a big group of customers enjoy the frame and customers are self-satisfied. Business with a characteristic size $`s_0`$ finds it difficult to satisfy its group of customers due to the diversity in demand. In the merging of businesses, it is more likely that businesses of size of the characteristic size merge so as to become a bigger business with possibly a better image to the customers.

The present model readily recovers previous extensions of the EZ model. In the EZ model, the fragmentation rate and the coagulation rate are simply taken to be $`f(s_i)=c(s_i,s_j)1`$. The model leads to the size distribution $`n_ss^\tau `$ in the steady state with $`\tau `$ taking on a robust value of $`5/2`$, together with an exponential cutoff setting in for large $`s`$ . Recently, it has been shown that if the fragmentation rate and the coagulation rate are taken to have a power law dependence on the size of the group(s) involved, i.e., $`f(s_i)=s_i^\delta `$ and $`c(s_i,s_j)=s_i^\delta s_j^\delta `$, respectively, the exponent $`\tau `$ characterizing the distribution of group sizes becomes model-dependent and takes on the value $`\tau =5/2\delta `$.

Figure 1 shows the simulation results for the group size distribution $`n_s/n_1`$ as a function of $`s`$ for a system with a total of $`N=10^4`$ agents. The results are obtained within the time window between $`t=10^510^6`$ steps, after the system approaches its steady state. Each data point represents an average taken over 32 independent runs. As scaling behavior is more conveniently observed for small value of $`a`$, we have taken $`a=0.01`$. Figure 1(a) shows the results for different characteristic sizes of $`s_0=1,5,20,10^4`$ with the parameter $`\delta =0.2`$. For $`s_0=1`$, $`n_s`$ has a power-law decay with an exponent of $`\tau =5/2\delta =2.3`$ throughout the whole range of $`s`$ since only the $`s>s_0`$ regime exists. For $`s_0=N=10^4`$ corresponding to the largest possible characteristic size in the system, scaling is also found throughout the whole regime of $`s`$, but with a different value of the exponent of $`\tau =5/2+\delta =2.7`$. For intermediate values of $`s_0`$, e.g., $`s_0=5`$ and $`s_0=20`$, two scaling regimes corresponding to the exponents $`2.7`$ and $`2.3`$ are found for $`s<s_0`$ and $`s>s_0`$, respectively. Figure 1(b) shows similar results for a larger value of $`\delta =0.5`$ with $`s_0=1,5,20,10^4`$. Crossover between the two scaling regimes are observed again at $`s=s_0`$ for the intermediate cases of $`s_0=5`$ and $`s_0=20`$. For $`s_0=N`$, however, large groups of customers disappear and the scaling behavior no longer exist in the present case. This feature can be understood qualitatively as the coagulation rate is too small to allow large groups of customers to be formed.

## III Mean field analysis

The present model can be analyzed via a mean field theory. Let $`n_s(t)`$ be the number of groups of agents with size $`s`$ at time $`t`$. The master equations that govern $`n_s(t)`$($`s>1`$) and $`n_1(t)`$ are

$$N\frac{n_s}{t}=af(s)sn_s+\frac{(1a)}{N}\underset{r=1}{\overset{s1}{}}c(r,sr)rn_r(sr)n_{sr}\frac{2(1a)sn_s}{N}\underset{r=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c(s,r)rn_r,$$
(4)
and

$$N\frac{n_1}{t}=a\underset{r=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}f(r)r^2n_r\frac{2(1a)n_1}{N}\underset{r=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c(1,r)rn_r,$$
(5)
respectively. Here $`f(i)`$ and $`c(i,j)`$ are the fragmentation and coagulation rates defined in Eqs.(1) and Eq.(2). The first term on the right hand side of Eq.(4) describes the fragmentation of a group of customers of size $`s`$. The second term describes the coagulation of two groups to form a group of size $`s`$. The last term is the coagulation of a group of size $`s`$ with another group. In Eq.(5), the first term on the right hand side describes the fragmentation of bigger groups into isolated customers and the second term represents the coagulation of a group of size unity with another group. In the steady state, $`\frac{n_s}{t}=0`$. We have

$$n_s=\frac{1a}{Nasf(s)+2(1a)s_{r=1}^{\mathrm{}}c(s,r)rn_r}\underset{r=1}{\overset{s1}{}}c(r,sr)r(sr)n_rn_{sr}$$
(6)
for $`s>1`$, and

$$n_1=\frac{Na}{2(1a)_{r=1}^{\mathrm{}}c(1,r)rn_r}\underset{r=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}f(r)r^2n_r.$$
(7)
The steady state equations (6) and (7) can be solved by using the generating function technique. Following standard procedures, $`n_s`$ can be solved to give the scaling behavior in the limit of $`a0`$ to get

$$n_sNs^{(\frac{5}{2}+\delta )}$$
(8)
for $`ss_0`$, and

$$n_sNs^{(\frac{5}{2}\delta )}$$
(9)
for $`s>s_0`$. For finite value of $`a`$, the scaling behavior is masked by an exponential cutoff. Equations (8) and (9) indicate that there are two scaling behavior for the size distribution of groups of customers. The exponents characterizing the power law decay of the size distribution of groups of customers are $`\tau =5/2+\delta `$ for $`ss_0`$ and $`\tau =5/2\delta `$ for $`s>s_0`$, respectively. These results are in agreement with the numerical results given in Fig.1.

## IV Summary

In summary, we have presented an extension of the EZ model for opinion sharing and herd formation in a population of agents in which there is a characteristic size $`s_0`$. The model can be treated analytically via a mean field approach. Both results from numerical simulation and mean field theory indicate that the size distribution of groups of agents $`n_s`$ exhibits two distinct scaling behavior depending on $`ss_0`$ or $`s>s_0`$. For $`ss_0`$, $`n_ss^{(5/2+\delta )}`$, while for $`s>s_0`$, $`n_ss^{(5/2\delta )}`$. Here $`\delta `$ is a model parameter and hence the exponents characterizing the scaling behavior are tunable. Suitably interpreted, our model can be used to represent the formation of groups of customers for certain products produced by manufacturers. This, in turn, leads to the size distribution of businesses. Within this context, the characteristic size $`s_0`$ represents the size of a business for which the customer group becomes too “large” to be pleased but too “small” for the business to become a brand name. With its tunable exponent, the model can be used to fit to empirical data as it has been shown that markets in different countries are characterized by non-universal exponents. Recently, it has also been shown empirically that the distributions of U.S. establishment sizes and firm sizes in the retail sector are characterized by power laws with an exponent of $`2`$. Within our model, such a behavior can be obtained for $`\delta =0.5`$ and $`s_0=1`$. The introduction of the two parameters $`\delta `$ and $`s_0`$ thus makes the present model highly flexible and hence can be used to model a wide variety of phenomena in which herd formation and information transmission are important.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

DFZ, GJR and PMH acknowledge financial support from The China Scholarship Council, The Leverhulme Trust and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR Government under grant CUHK4241/01P, respectively.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Fig. 1. The size distribution of groups of customers $`n_s/n_1`$ as a function of size $`s`$ on a log-log scale for (a)$`\delta =0.2`$ and (b)$`\delta =0.5`$. The values of the characteristic size $`s_0`$ chosen in the calculations are: $`s_0=1,5,20,10^4`$. The solid lines are a guide to the eye.


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# Fe K𝛼 emission from photoionized slabs: the impact of the iron abundance

## 1 Introduction

There are a number of different astrophysical environments where optically thick material may be irradiated by X-rays. If the incident spectrum has significant flux above 7.1 keV, then, as a result of its relatively high cosmic abundance and large fluorescent yield, the iron K$`\alpha `$ line is predicted to be a significant feature in the resulting emission from the illuminated surface (e.g., George & Fabian, 1991; Matt, Perola & Piro, 1991). The presence of this line has been discussed for a number of different reprocessors including the solar surface (Bai, 1979), the surface of the companion star in X-ray binaries (Basko, Sunyaev & Titarchuk, 1974; Basko, 1978; Pravdo, 1979), and the surface of accreting magnetic white dwarfs (e.g., Swank, Fabian & Ross, 1984; Done, Osborne & Beardmore, 1995; van Teeseling, Kaastra & Heise, 1996). Most famously, Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission has been observed in the X-ray spectra of many Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and black hole candidates (Nandra & Pounds, 1994; Ebisawa et al., 1996). Here, the irradiated surface is likely the accretion disc feeding the black hole, and some of the observed Fe K$`\alpha `$ lines have been observed to be broadened in a manner consistent with material orbiting in a relativistic gravitational potential (Tanaka et al., 1995; Nandra et al., 1997; Fabian et al., 2000). Finally, tentative detections of line emission, most likely from Fe K$`\alpha `$, have been found in recent observations of the X-ray afterglows of some $`\gamma `$-ray bursts (e.g., Piro et al., 1999, 2000; Antonelli et al., 2000). If this is confirmed then it implies that optically thick material may be in the vicinity — a possible constraint on the environment and progenitor of the burst (Rees & Mészáros, 2000; Vietri et al., 2001; Ballantyne & Ramirez-Ruiz, 2001).

As one of the few physical diagnostics in the X-ray spectra of these systems, it is important to understand how the Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission line depends on the properties of the irradiated gas. Previous studies have examined the influence of changes in metal abundance (Matt, Fabian & Reynolds, 1997), the inclination angle of the reflector (Ghisellini, Haardt & Matt, 1994), ionization state (Matt, Fabian & Ross, 1993, 1996), and the density distribution of the gas (Ross, Fabian & Young, 1999; Nayakshin, 2000; Ballantyne & Ross, 2001) on the line emission. This paper generalizes the results of Matt and colleagues by presenting how the strength of the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line (presented as an equivalent width \[EW\]) depends on both the Fe abundance and the ionization state of the gas. These two variables have the greatest impact on the EW, and are likely to vary widely over different astrophysical environments. We anticipate that these results will be helpful in interpreting Fe K$`\alpha `$ detections whenever it arises from an optically thick surface.

The following section details the calculations that were performed, and then Section 3 presents the results as contour plots of EW. A brief discussion concludes the paper in Section 4.

## 2 Computations

The calculations were performed using the code of Ross & Fabian (1993). A slab with a constant hydrogen number density $`n_\mathrm{H}=`$1015 cm-3 was illuminated with a power-law continuum with photon-index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (i.e., so that photon flux $`E^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$). Provided that they have comparable flux above 7 keV, other incident spectral forms (e.g., blackbody, Wien tail) will not significantly alter the results. As a crude approximation to isotropic illumination, the penetrating radiation was assumed to strike the slab at an angle of 54.7 degrees from the normal. Hydrogen and helium were assumed to be fully ionized, but C v–vii, O v–ix, Mg ix–xiii, Si xi–xv, and Fe xvi–xxvii were treated with abundances given by Morrison & McCammon (1983). The depth of the slab was increased as the illuminating flux was increased, and had a minimum value of 6 Thomson depths and a maximum of 30 Thomson depths.

When the irradiated material reached thermal and ionization equilibrium, the angle-averaged reprocessed emission from the gas was calculated. As with all photoionized gas, the reflection spectrum can be characterized by an ionization parameter:

$$\xi =\frac{4\pi F_\mathrm{X}}{n_\mathrm{H}},$$
(1)
where $`F_\mathrm{X}`$ is the incident flux between 0.01 and 100 keV, the energy range of the illuminating continuum. $`\xi `$ was varied by changing only the value of $`F_\mathrm{X}`$. The evolution of the reflection spectrum with $`\xi `$ has been discussed by Ross et al. (1999). Here we calculate reflection spectra for $`\mathrm{log}\xi =1.0`$–6.0 while also varying the Fe abundance from 0.1–10.1 times solar. When the illuminated gas is predominantly neutral, the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line may be affected by variations in other metals, particularly oxygen (Matt et al., 1997). Of course, when $`\mathrm{log}\xi 2.8`$ all the metals other than Fe are fully ionized and will have little effect on the Fe emission lines. Therefore, we do not consider abundance effects due to other metals, and instead refer readers to Matt et al. (1997) where such results are presented for neutral reflectors. The iron emission features will also depend slightly on the slope of the incident continuum (due to the different number of ionizing photons), so we have performed these computations for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.7`$, 2.0 and 2.3 to illustrate this effect.

The EWs were calculated by the following integral:

$$\mathrm{EW}=_{5.50\mathrm{keV}}^{7.11\mathrm{keV}}\frac{EF_s(E)EF_c(E)}{EF_c(E)}𝑑E,$$
(2)
where $`EF_s(E)`$ is the spectral flux of the reflected spectrum, and $`EF_c(E)`$ is the estimated spectral flux of the continuum at energy $`E`$. The continuum was estimated by fitting a straight line to the reflection spectrum between 5.50 and 7.11 keV. The lower limit of the integration was chosen to take into account any Compton broadening of the line profile, and the upper limit was set to the energy of the photoelectric absorption edge of neutral Fe. Dividing the line-flux by the monochromatic continuum at 6.4 or 6.7 keV makes a negligible difference to the contour plots. Figure 1 shows several examples of this calculation at different $`\xi `$.

## 3 Results

Figure 2 shows contours of constant Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW in the $`\mathrm{log}\xi `$-Fe abundance plane for the case where the incident power-law has not been added to the reflected spectra, as if the reflected spectrum were viewed in isolation. Therefore, these EWs are the maximum that can be observed as they are not diluted by the incident power-law. Such reflection-dominated spectra may be observed in Seyfert 2 galaxies (e.g., NGC 6552; Reynolds et al. 1994).

The plots show that the Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW reaches two separate maxima in the vertical direction: one when the ionization parameter is low and the line is at 6.4 keV, and the other at $`\mathrm{log}\xi 3`$ when the line is at 6.7 keV. Between these two maxima the line is suppressed due to Auger destruction (Ross, Fabian & Brandt, 1996), and at higher $`\xi `$ the line weakens and disappears as all the iron becomes ionized.

Increasing the iron abundance does increase the Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW, but, as is discussed in Sect. 4, its effect is greatest when the abundance is still relatively low. Nevertheless, Fig. 2 shows that the line can get very strong ($`>6`$ keV in some cases) at high Fe abundance with the largest values occurring when the line is neutral. As is shown below, this is reversed when the incident power-law is added to the reflection spectrum.

As $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is increased the number of Fe ionizing photons decreases. This causes the contours to spread out vertically in the plot, because at a higher $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ a larger flux is needed to ionize Fe. When $`\mathrm{log}\xi 2.5`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>1.7`$ the dependence on the Fe abundance weakens and the EW grows more slowly. Again, this is due to the decrease in the number of ionizing photons.

In many X-ray observations unprocessed radiation with the spectrum of the incident power-law is simultaneously detected along with the reflection spectrum. Therefore, we have repeated all the EW calculations for the total power-law+reflection spectra (AGN workers think of this as a reflection fraction of unity). These results are shown in Figure 3.

As before, two maxima are found in the contours: one when iron is neutral and the other when the He-like Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission line at 6.7 keV is prominent. Likewise, the contours spread out vertically as the photon-index is increased. However, there are a number of differences between this set of plots and the previous one. The first one is trivial but important: the Fe K$`\alpha `$ EWs are now much smaller. The largest values are now just over 800 eV and occur when $`\mathrm{log}\xi 3`$. At low values of $`\xi `$ the 6.4 keV line dominates, and the EW cannot exceed 400 eV. This turn-around between the (apparent) strength of the neutral and ionized lines when the incident spectrum is added in is caused by the effects of absorption by other elements in the gas. When the slab is weakly illuminated much of the flux around 6 keV is absorbed by other metals in the gas, particularly oxygen, and is re-emitted as softer X-rays. This results in a large difference in flux between the incidence spectrum and the reflected spectrum at 6 keV. In contrast, when $`\mathrm{log}\xi 3`$ all the metals except for iron are almost completely ionized, so there is very little absorption around the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line. Thus, when the reflection and incident spectra are added together, the He-like 6.7 keV line is more prominent than the neutral line.

To summarize, when iron abundances up to 10.1$`\times `$ solar were considered, the maximum Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW is about 8.5 keV and is found when the gas is neutral and illuminated by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.7`$ power-law. In the case when the power-law is just simply added to the reflection spectrum (i.e., a reflection fraction of 1), the EWs are much smaller ($`<1`$ keV) with the largest values being found when the gas is ionized and the 6.7 keV line of He-like Fe is dominant. In this case, it seems to be very difficult to obtain Fe K$`\alpha `$ lines with EWs greater than 700 eV.

## 4 Discussion

The results presented in the previous section showed that increasing the iron abundance would increase the Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW, but its influence seemed to weaken as it grew. It is interesting to investigate this point since we have only considered abundances up to 10.1$`\times `$ solar. Is it possible to obtain an arbitrarily large EW solely by increasing the Fe abundance?

The answer to this question is found in Figure 4.

This plot shows contours of Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW normalized by the Fe abundance for the case of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.0`$ and a reflection fraction of one. In this case the contours show a maximum at low Fe abundance implying that the most “power” out of an Fe atom or ion occurs when its abundance is around solar. Increasing the amount of iron in the gas does permit the number of Fe K$`\alpha `$ photons emitted to increase, but it also strengthens the line destruction mechanisms of photoabsorption and scattering. Therefore, for a given flux of ionizing photons, competing atomic processes in the gas eventually decreases the efficiency of iron fluorescence. This is seen particularly when the gas is neutral: the normalized Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW falls slowly over a wide range in Fe abundance because K$`\alpha `$ photons are destroyed by L shell absorption.

At higher values of the ionization parameter, there is a more rapid drop in the normalized Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW. As is illustrated explicitly in Figure 5,

an increase in the iron abundance from 1.1 to 5.1$`\times `$ solar causes a fairly big jump in the line strength, but then only a very small change from 5.1 to 10.1$`\times `$ solar. In this case, only K shell absorption is important, but due to the finite number of ionizing photons, the K edge will saturate when the Fe abundance is about solar (from Fig. 4). Increasing the Fe abundance beyond this point will not greatly increase the line emission because there are few photons available to ionize the newly introduced Fe atoms. Of course, increasing $`\xi `$ allows more K shell ionizations to occur, and the normalized EW becomes more uniform with Fe abundance. Interestingly, the H-like Fe K$`\alpha `$ line at 6.97 keV which is suppressed due to resonance scattering significantly strengthens as the abundance is increased.

These results illustrate that above an Fe abundance of $``$ 5$`\times `$ solar there is only a very slow increase in the Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW. Therefore, it seems unlikely that the EW of the line can be significantly increased by considering iron abundances larger than 10$`\times `$ solar.

## Acknowledgments

DRB acknowledges financial support from the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. ACF and RRR acknowledge support from the Royal Society and the College of the Holy Cross, respectively. ACF and RRR thank A. Young for his work on this project.