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# Observation of Exclusive 𝐵̄ → 𝐷^(∗)𝐾^{∗-} Decays

## Abstract

We report the first observation of the exclusive decays $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$, using 9.66 $`\times `$ 106 $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs collected at the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ with the CLEO detector. We measure the following branching fractions: $`(B^{}D^0K^{})=(6.1\pm 1.6\pm 1.7)\times 10^4,`$ $`(\overline{B^0}D^+K^{})=(3.7\pm 1.5\pm 1.0)\times 10^4,`$ $`(\overline{B^0}D^+K^{})=(3.8\pm 1.3\pm 0.8)\times 10^4`$ and $`(B^{}D^0K^{})=(7.7\pm 2.2\pm 2.6)\times 10^4.`$ The $`\overline{B}`$ $``$ $`D^{}K^{}`$ branching ratios are the averages of those corresponding to the 00 and 11 helicity states. The errors shown are statistical and systematic, respectively.

preprint:   CLNS 01-1772 CLEO 01-25

R. Mahapatra,1 H. N. Nelson,1 R. A. Briere,2 G. P. Chen,2 T. Ferguson,2 G. Tatishvili,2 H. Vogel,2 N. E. Adam,3 J. P. Alexander,3 C. Bebek,3 K. Berkelman,3 F. Blanc,3 V. Boisvert,3 D. G. Cassel,3 P. S. Drell,3 J. E. Duboscq,3 K. M. Ecklund,3 R. Ehrlich,3 L. Gibbons,3 B. Gittelman,3 S. W. Gray,3 D. L. Hartill,3 B. K. Heltsley,3 L. Hsu,3 C. D. Jones,3 J. Kandaswamy,3 D. L. Kreinick,3 A. Magerkurth,3 H. Mahlke-Krüger,3 T. O. Meyer,3 N. B. Mistry,3 E. Nordberg,3 M. Palmer,3 J. R. Patterson,3 D. Peterson,3 J. Pivarski,3 D. Riley,3 A. J. Sadoff,3 H. Schwarthoff,3 M. R .Shepherd,3 J. G. Thayer,3 D. Urner,3 B. Valant-Spaight,3 G. Viehhauser,3 A. Warburton,3 M. Weinberger,3 S. B. Athar,4 P. Avery,4 H. Stoeck,4 J. Yelton,4 G. Brandenburg,5 A. Ershov,5 D. Y.-J. Kim,5 R. Wilson,5 K. Benslama,6 B. I. Eisenstein,6 J. Ernst,6 G. D. Gollin,6 R. M. Hans,6 I. Karliner,6 N. Lowrey,6 M. A. Marsh,6 C. Plager,6 C. Sedlack,6 M. Selen,6 J. J. Thaler,6 J. Williams,6 K. W. Edwards,7 R. Ammar,8 D. Besson,8 X. Zhao,8 S. Anderson,9 V. V. Frolov,9 Y. Kubota,9 S. J. Lee,9 S. Z. Li,9 R. Poling,9 A. Smith,9 C. J. Stepaniak,9 J. Urheim,9 S. Ahmed,10 M. S. Alam,10 L. Jian,10 M. Saleem,10 F. Wappler,10 E. Eckhart,11 K. K. Gan,11 C. Gwon,11 T. Hart,11 K. Honscheid,11 D. Hufnagel,11 H. Kagan,11 R. Kass,11 T. K. Pedlar,11 J. B. Thayer,11 E. von Toerne,11 T. Wilksen,11 M. M. Zoeller,11 H. Muramatsu,12 S. J. Richichi,12 H. Severini,12 P. Skubic,12 S.A. Dytman,13 S. Nam,13 V. Savinov,13 S. Chen,14 J. W. Hinson,14 J. Lee,14 D. H. Miller,14 V. Pavlunin,14 E. I. Shibata,14 I. P. J. Shipsey,14 D. Cronin-Hennessy,15 A.L. Lyon,15 C. S. Park,15 W. Park,15 E. H. Thorndike,15 T. E. Coan,16 Y. S. Gao,16 F. Liu,16 Y. Maravin,16 I. Narsky,16 R. Stroynowski,16 J. Ye,16 M. Artuso,17 C. Boulahouache,17 K. Bukin,17 E. Dambasuren,17 G. C. Moneti,17 R. Mountain,17 T. Skwarnicki,17 S. Stone,17 J.C. Wang,17 A. H. Mahmood,18 S. E. Csorna,19 I. Danko,19 Z. Xu,19 G. Bonvicini,20 D. Cinabro,20 M. Dubrovin,20 S. McGee,20 A. Bornheim,21 E. Lipeles,21 S. P. Pappas,21 A. Shapiro,21 W. M. Sun,21 A. J. Weinstein,21 G. Masek,22 and H. P. Paar22

1University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106

2Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

3Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

4University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611

5Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

6University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801

7Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6

and the Institute of Particle Physics, Canada M5S 1A7

8University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045

9University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

10State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York 12222

11Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210

12University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019

13University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260

14Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907

15University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627

16Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275

17Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244

18University of Texas - Pan American, Edinburg, Texas 78539

19Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235

20Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202

21California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125

22University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093

The study of $`CP`$ violation in $`B`$ mesons provides a decisive test of the $`CP`$ violation mechanism in the Standard Model (SM). In the SM, $`CP`$ violation is the consequence of the complex phase in the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark-mixing matrix . Comprehensive tests of the SM predictions on $`CP`$ violation require precision measurements of the three sides and three angles of the CKM unitary triangle . The angle $`\gamma `$ can be measured using $`\overline{B}`$ $``$ $`D^{()}K^{()}`$ decays . The decay $`B^{}`$ $``$ $`D^0K^{}`$ was first observed at CLEO  and confirmed by BELLE . In this Letter, we report the first observation of the exclusive hadronic $`B`$ decays $`\overline{B}`$ $``$ $`D^{()}K^{}`$. Charge-conjugate modes are implied throughout this Letter.

The data were collected with two configurations (CLEO II  and CLEO II.V ) of the CLEO detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). The data consist of 9.13 fb-1 taken at the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$(4S), which corresponds to $`9.66\times 10^6`$ $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs, and 4.35 fb-1 taken below $`B\overline{B}`$ threshold, which is used for continuum background studies. We assume that the produced $`B^+B^{}`$ rate is the same as $`B^0\overline{B}^0`$  at the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$.

Signal $`B`$ meson candidates are fully reconstructed by combining detected photons and charged pions and kaons. The detector elements most important for the results presented here are the tracking system, which consists of several concentric detectors operating inside a 1.5 T superconducting solenoid, and the electromagnetic calorimeter, consisting of 7800 CsI(Tl) crystals. For CLEO II, the tracking system consisted of a 6-layer straw tube chamber, a 10-layer precision drift chamber, and a 51-layer main drift chamber. The main drift chamber also provided a measurement of the specific ionization loss, $`dE/dx`$, used for particle identification. For CLEO II.V, the straw tube chamber was replaced by a 3-layer, double-sided silicon vertex detector, and the gas in the main drift chamber was changed from an argon-ethane to a helium-propane mixture.

The particles in the final state are identified via the decay modes $`K^{}K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ with $`K_S^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$; $`D^0`$ $``$ $`K^{}\pi ^+`$, $`K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^0`$ and $`K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$; $`D^+`$ $``$ $`K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+`$; $`D^+`$ $``$ $`D^0\pi _s^+`$; $`D^0`$ $``$ $`D^0\pi ^0`$ and $`D^0\gamma `$. Reconstructed tracks are required to pass quality cuts based on the track fit residuals, the impact parameter in both the $`r`$$`\varphi `$ and $`r`$$`z`$ planes and the number of drift chamber measurements. The $`dE/dx`$ measured by the main drift chamber is used to distinguish kaons from pions. Electrons are selected based on $`dE/dx`$ information and the ratio of the associated shower energy in the calorimeter to the measured track momentum. Muons are selected by requiring that charged tracks penetrate more than five interaction lengths of material. Any hadron candidate is required not to be identified as an electron or a muon. Pairs of charged tracks used to reconstruct the $`K_S^0`$’s (via $`K_S^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$) are required to have a common vertex displaced from the primary interaction point. The invariant mass of the two charged pions is required to be within 3 standard deviations ($`\sigma 3`$ MeV) of the nominal $`K_S^0`$ mass . Furthermore, the $`K_S^0`$ momentum vector, obtained from a kinematic fit of the charged pions’ momenta, is required to point back to the beam spot. To form $`\pi ^0`$ candidates, pairs of photon candidates with an invariant mass within $`[3.0,2.5]\sigma `$ ($`\sigma 6`$ MeV) of the nominal $`\pi ^0`$ mass are kinematically fitted with the mass constrained to the nominal $`\pi ^0`$ mass . The soft photon from $`D^0D^0\gamma `$ decay is required to have an energy of 100 MeV or greater, and a $`\pi ^0`$ veto within $`[4.5,3.5]\sigma `$ of the $`\pi ^0`$ mass is applied.

$`B`$ meson candidates are identified through their measured mass and energy. There are two key variables for full reconstruction of $`B`$ mesons at CLEO, which take advantage of the fact that the $`B`$ meson energy is the same as the beam energy. One is the beam-constrained mass of the candidate which is defined as $`M_B\sqrt{E_{\mathrm{beam}}^2|𝐩|^2}`$, where $`𝐩`$ is the measured momentum of the candidate and $`E_{\mathrm{beam}}`$ is the beam energy. The second observable, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, is defined to be the sum of the energies of the decay products of the $`B`$ candidate minus the beam energy, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Delta }EE_B`$ $``$ $`E_{\mathrm{beam}}`$. $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|`$ will be large if a decay product of the $`B`$ candidate has been lost or assigned the wrong particle species. For fully-reconstructed $`B`$ meson decays, the $`M_B`$ distribution peaks at 5.28 GeV with resolution around 3 MeV, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ peaks at 0 GeV, with a resolution of about 15 MeV.

The $`K^{}`$ is required to have a mass within 75 MeV of its nominal mass  and $`D^0`$ $``$ $`K^{}\pi ^+`$, $`K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^0`$, $`K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ candidates are required to have masses within 16 MeV, 25 MeV and 14 MeV ($`2\sigma `$) of their nominal masses respectively . For $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^0`$, we further impose a Dalitz weight cut  which reduces the background by about 70% with only about a 20% efficiency loss. The mass differences between $`D^+(D^0)`$ and $`D^0`$ are required to be within 2.0$`\sigma `$ of their nominal values  ($`\sigma 0.8`$ MeV for $`D^+D^0\pi _s^+`$, 1.0 MeV for $`D^0D^0\pi ^0`$ and 4.0 MeV for $`D^0D^0\gamma `$). Because the $`K^{}`$ from $`\overline{B}DK^{}`$ decays is polarized, we further require $`|\mathrm{cos}\alpha |`$ $`>`$ 0.4, where $`\alpha `$ is the helicity angle between one of the $`K^{}`$ decay products in the $`K^{}`$ rest frame and the direction of the $`K^{}`$ momentum in the $`B`$ rest frame.

The main background comes from continuum $`e^+e^{}`$ $``$ $`q\overline{q}`$ events, where $`q`$ $`=`$ $`u`$, $`d`$, $`s`$, $`c`$. To suppress this background, we require that the ratio $`R_2`$ of the second to the zeroth Fox-Wolfram moments, determined using charged tracks and unmatched neutral showers, be less than 0.5. To further reduce continuum background, we require that the absolute value of the cosine of the angle between the sphericity axis  of the candidate tracks and the sphericity axis of the rest of the event be less than 0.9. The distribution of the cosine of this angle should be flat for $`B`$ mesons and strongly peaked near $`\pm `$1.0 for the continuum background.

Each $`K^{}`$ candidate is combined with any $`D^{()}`$ candidate in the event to form a $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ candidate. All the $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ candidates are required to have $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ within 2.5$`\sigma `$ of zero, with the resolution varying from 12 to 20 MeV depending on the decay mode. In case of an event with multiple candidates, we select the one with the smallest $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|`$. Studies show that no significant bias is introduced by this procedure.

We combine all the sub-modes for each $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ decay and fit the beam-constrained mass distributions using a binned maximum likelihood method with the mass resolution fixed at the value determined from Monte Carlo simulation. Studies of similar $`\overline{B}D^{()}\pi ^{}`$ modes show that the mass resolutions in the Monte Carlo samples and in the data are in good agreement. The beam-constrained mass distribution is modeled by a Gaussian plus the phenomenological background function . The results for the $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ modes are shown in Fig. 1 and summarized in Table I. Significant excesses of events are observed in the signal regions, compatible with our typical $`M_B`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ resolutions. These excesses are consistent with coming from $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ decays.

We use wrong-sign ($`D^{()}K^+`$) combinations from the on-resonance sample and right-sign combinations from the continuum sample as cross-checks. For the wrong sign analysis, instead of searching for $`D^{()}K^{}`$ combinations where $`K^{}K_S^0\pi ^{}`$, we search for $`D^{()}K^+`$ combinations where $`K^+K_S^0\pi ^+`$. The same selection cuts are applied for the wrong-sign candidates as for the right-sign ones. No enhancement is observed in the signal region for these wrong-sign combinations. We also apply the same selection criteria to the right-sign combinations in the continuum sample, and no enhancement is observed in the signal region.

To estimate the detection efficiencies, we generated $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ Monte Carlo events and simulated the CLEO detector response with GEANT . Simulated events for the CLEO II and II.V configurations were processed in the same manner as the data. The resulting detection efficiencies, which are listed in Table I, do not include the $`D^{()}`$ or $`K^{}`$ decay branching fractions . For the $`\overline{B}D^{}K^{}`$ decays, as we do not know the polarization of the two vector mesons, we generated both 00 and 11 helicity states for our Monte Carlo signal events to calculate the efficiencies as shown in Tables I.

Systematic errors from event selection include uncertainties in $`dE/dx`$, the Dalitz weight cut for $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+\pi ^0`$ and Monte Carlo statistics. To estimate the effects of the $`\pi ^0`$ veto and the $`E_\gamma `$ $`>`$ 100 MeV requirement for the photon candidates in $`D^0D^0\gamma `$ decays, we change the $`\pi ^0`$ veto interval by 1$`\sigma `$ and the energy cut value by $`\pm `$ 10 MeV respectively, and take the difference in the efficiency-corrected yields as the systematic error. The cross-feed rates between $`\overline{B}D^0K^{}`$, where $`D^0D^0\pi ^0`$ and $`D^0D^0\gamma `$, are less than 1.5%. We also use tighter and looser requirements of: $`1\sigma /3\sigma `$ for the $`D^{()}`$ mass cut, 50 MeV/100 MeV for the $`K^{}`$ mass requirement, and 0.8/0.9 for the cosine of the sphericity angle to obtain new signal yields, efficiencies and branching ratios. Since the data were collected with two different detector configurations, we have also calculated the branching ratios separately for the two sets of data. If the difference in the branching ratios between the two data sets is larger than the one from varying the selection cuts, this is taken as the systematic error. The variation of cuts contributes the major part of the total systematic error. Systematic errors also include uncertainties from track, shower, $`K_S^0`$ and $`\pi ^0`$ reconstruction efficiencies and uncertainties from the number of $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs, the ratio of $`B^0\overline{B}^0`$ to $`B\overline{B}`$ in $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ decays  and the $`D^{()}`$ and $`K^{}`$ decay branching fractions .

To study the systematic errors from the $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ fitting procedure, we fit the mass distributions using a background shape obtained from the continuum data for each decay mode. The differences with Table I, which are less than 3%, are taken as the systematic errors of the signal yields. The systematic errors due to uncertainties of the beam-constrained mass resolutions determined from Monte Carlo simulation are less than 3% from studies of similar $`\overline{B}D^{()}\pi ^{}`$ decays.

The efficiency for observing $`\overline{B}D^{}K^{}`$ decays depends on the unknown polarization of the final state. Assuming both final state mesons are in a helicity 0 state, we find $`(\overline{B^0}D^+K^{})=(4.1\pm 1.4\pm 0.8)\times 10^4`$ and $`(B^{}D^0K^{})=(8.3\pm 2.4\pm 2.6)\times 10^4`$. Should the dynamics of the decay process force the final state mesons into $`\pm 1`$ helicity states, we find $`(\overline{B^0}D^+K^{})=(3.5\pm 1.2\pm 0.7)\times 10^4`$ and $`(B^{}D^0K^{})=(7.2\pm 2.1\pm 2.4)\times 10^4`$. The errors are statistical and systematic. Assuming an unpolarizaed final state, we take the equally-weighted average of the two branching ratios, corresponding to the 00 and 11 helicity states from Table I, as the central value, and the differences as a systematic error. These differences are small compared to the statistical errors.

We have observed significant signals in the exclusive $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ decay decays. The measured branching ratios are:

$$(B^{}D^0K^{})=(6.1\pm 1.6\pm 1.7)\times 10^4,$$

$$(\overline{B^0}D^+K^{})=(3.7\pm 1.5\pm 1.0)\times 10^4,$$

$$(\overline{B^0}D^+K^{})=(3.8\pm 1.3\pm 0.8)\times 10^4,$$

$$(B^{}D^0K^{})=(7.7\pm 2.2\pm 2.6)\times 10^4.$$

The errors shown are statistical and systematic, respectively.

With the assumption of the validity of factorization, $`SU(3)`$ flavor symmetry relates the Cabibbo-suppressed decays $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ to the Cabibbo-favored ones $`\overline{B}D^{()}\rho ^{}`$ by $`\frac{(\overline{B}D^{()}K^{})}{(\overline{B}D^{()}\rho ^{})}\left|\frac{V_{us}}{V_{ud}}\right|^2\left(\frac{f_K^{}}{f_\rho ^{}}\right)^25\%`$ in the tree level approximation. Here, $`V_{us}`$ and $`V_{ud}`$ are CKM elements, and $`f_K^{}`$ and $`f_\rho ^{}`$ are the meson decay constants which can be derived from $`\tau ^{}K^{}\nu _\tau `$ and $`\tau ^{}\rho ^{}\nu _\tau `$ decays. For the above decay modes, the measured ratios $`\frac{(\overline{B}D^{()}K^{})}{(\overline{B}D^{()}\rho ^{})}`$ are (4.6 $`\pm `$ 1.8)%, (4.7 $`\pm `$ 2.4)%, (5.6 $`\pm `$ 3.6)% and (5.0 $`\pm `$ 2.4)% respectively, which are consistent with naive theoretical predictions within the errors . The branching ratios for $`\overline{B}D^{()}\rho ^{}`$ decays are taken from PDG 2000 . Our results $`(\overline{B^0}D^{()+}K^{})`$ are in good agreement with the theoretic predictions within the errors . The rates for $`\overline{B}D^{()}K^{}`$ suggest that these decays could provide a measurement of the angle $`\gamma `$ in the unitary triangle using the color-allowed decays in the near future .

###### Acknowledgements.

We gratefully acknowledge the effort of the CESR staff in providing us with excellent luminosity and running conditions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Research Corporation, and the Texas Advanced Research Program.


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# The BeppoSAX View on the 2001 Reactivation of SGR 1900+14

## 1. The 2001 reactivation of SGR 1900+14

On April 18, 2001 at 07:55:11.509 UT the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GRBM, 40-700 keV) onboard BeppoSAX was triggered by a large flare. The event was also observed by the unit 1 of the BeppoSAX Wide Field Cameras (WFCs, 2-28 keV), that was automatically shut-down few seconds after the start of the event by an onboard safeguard algorithm. The WFC localized this giant flare as originating from the soft gamma-ray repeater SGR 1900+14.

The BeppoSAX GRBM unit 1, co-aligned to WFC unit 1, detected a peak flux of 16,400 counts/s (40-700 keV, after deadtime correction), corresponding to (1.1$`\pm `$0.1)$`\times 10^5`$ erg cm-2 s-1. The event lasted approximately 40 s, and the total fluence was about 240,000 counts. A 5-s periodic modulation of the light curve is consistent with the 5.17-s period of the persistent X-ray source. In the light curve of the flare we can identify the repetition of 5 or 6 cycles, and a last pulse that is out of phase with respect to the previous ones. Assuming a thermal bremsstrahlung spectral shape, from our 2-channel, 1-s resolved spectrum, we can derive a plasma temperature kT of $``$30 keV. There is no evidence for a hard spike at the start of the event, and the spectral evolution during the event is relatively smooth, with a general hardening trend.

The Konus-Wind instrument detected this event in the non-trigger mode because of very high background level after strong solar flare (30 times more than normal). Our estimation for energy more than 15 keV is: fluence - 2$`\times `$10-4 erg cm-2 and peak flux - 2.5$`\times `$10-5 erg cm-2 s-1. In spite of rough time resolution in the background mode the Konus-Wind data has evidences of the 5-s pulsations.

Three weak and short bursts are detected at times 2537, 755 and 444 seconds before the giant flare in the WFC unit 1. Their durations are 100, 125 and 55 ms, and their peak fluxes exceed 20 Crab units in 2-28 keV (Feroci et al. 2001b). No gamma-ray counterpart was found for these events in the GRBM, nor in Ulysses or Konus/Wind. This is the first reported bursting activity from SGR 1900+14 since approximately two years.

At the time of the giant flare, as detected by the GRBM, the WFC1 detected a large increase in the count rate for approximately 3 seconds after the GRBM trigger. At this time the count rate was so high (larger than 30,000 counts/s) that it triggered the automatic turn off of the experiment.

## 2. BeppoSAX NFI observations

The April 18 2001 activity of SGR 1900+14 allowed us to activate our Target of Opportunity observation program with the BeppoSAX Narrow Field Instruments (NFI, 0.1-300 keV). Thanks to the remarkable effort by the Mission Scientist Team, the Mission Planners Team and our team, the first follow-up observation was started on April 18 at 15:10 UT, less than 8 hours after the event. This first observation (Feroci et al. 2001c) was 28 hours long, for a net exposure time in the MECS instrument of 60 ks. A second pointing was carried out on April 29 at 20:20 UT, for a similar exposure time. The persistent X-ray counterpart of SGR 1900+14 was detected in both observations. The source emitted a large number of short X-ray bursts during the first observation, whereas in the second pointing only one burst was detected.

The average spectrum during the first pointing, after removal of the bursts, can be fit with a power law with photon index 2.6$`\pm `$0.1 and NH=(4.3$`\pm `$0.3)$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2. The persistent 2-10 keV flux showed a rapid decaying behaviour during our first pointing, going approximately from 3.5 to 2$`\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (unabsorbed). Using the X-ray flux in the same band provided by the Chandra observation carried out on April 22 (Kouveliotou et al. 2001), we obtain that the time behaviour of the X-ray flux can be described by a power law, with index $``$-0.6. Interestingly, studying the hardness ratio between the 1.6-4 keV and the 4-10 keV energy ranges, we find a clear correlation flux vs. hardness, indicating that the spectrum softens when the persistent flux decreases.

During our second observation the source appeared to have gone back to its quiescent status. Removing the single burst that we observed, the 0.1-10 keV energy spectrum is best fit by the sum of an absorbed power law plus a blackbody with temperature $``$0.5 keV. The 2-10 keV flux is consistent with the ‘standard’ quiescent status, at $``$1.1$`\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (unabsorbed). In Figure 1 we show the plot of the X-ray flux vs. time, including also the Chandra point, that suggests that the source returned to its quiescent status in less than 3 days after the burst.

We performed a period search in both NFI observations and found the expected 5.17-s periodicity in the 2-10 keV flux from the persistent source. In the first observation the best period was 5.17277 s, with a smooth sinusoidal profile. In the second pointing the period increased to 5.17298 s, without significant differences in the pulse profile. Therefore, the period derivative between the two BeppoSAX observation is about 2.3$`\times 10^{10}`$ s s-1.

## 3. Discussion

The BeppoSAX instrumentation observed the most interesting phases of the 2001 activation of SGR 1900+14 with a very complete set of observations. The GRBM and WFC caught the second giant flare in the (observed) history of this source and its precursor X-ray activity. The NFI observed the afterglow of the persistent source after the flare, the bursting activity and its quenching, and the period history soon after the giant flare.

The giant flare is rather unusual with respect to its two predecessors, the March 5 1979 event from SGR 0526-66 and the August 27 1998 flare from SGR 1900+14 (e.g., Mazets et al. 1979, Hurley et al. 1999, Feroci et al. 2001a). The most important differences in the April 18 are in the following aspects:

* the peak flux and fluence are more than one order of magnitude smaller
* the duration is almost one order of magnitude shorter
* there is no evidence for the first short and very hard pulse at the beginning of the event, implying that, contrary to the other two events, most likely there was no relativistic particle emission during this event.

The NFI observation is the fastest pointing after a giant flare and provides a direct observation of a long-duration afterglow emission from an SGR after a giant flare. Our result of an afterglow showing a power law decay, with index -0.6, is similar to that obtained by Woods et al. (2001), who measured a decay index of -0.713$`\pm `$0.025 after the August 27 event, based on the assumed constancy of the pulsed fraction. Interestingly, Ibrahim et al. (2001) found a similar decay law in the pulsating soft tail of the August 29 short burst.

The spectral variability of the X-ray afterglow is also interesting. During our first observation, at high flux level, the source spectrum showed a softening, and an overall power law shape. In our second observation, at a flux typical of the quiescent state, we clearly detect the emergence of a kT=0.5 keV blackbody component, and an NH smaller by about a factor of 2. Based on our observations, together with our analysis of the previous BeppoSAX observations (see also Woods et al. 1999, 2001) of this source in quiescence (May 1997 and March/April 2000) and after the August 27 giant flare (September 1998), we can state that the blackbody component for this source is peculiar of its quiescent state.

### Acknowledgments.

We warmly thank L. Piro, G. Gandolfi, L. Salotti, M. Capalbi, L. Amati, the BeppoSAX Mission Planners, the BeppoSAX SOC, OCC and SDC for their personal efforts that allowed a fast repointing of the source after the flare, as well as a prompt analysis of the GRBM, WFC and NFI data.

## References

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Feroci, M., Mereghetti, S., Gandolfi, G., Piro, L., & Costa, E. 2001b, GCN circular 1055

Feroci, M., in ’t Zand, J.J.M., Soffitta, P., Hurley, K., Frontera, F., & Mazets, E. 2001c, GCN circular 1060

Guidorzi, C., et al. 2001, IAU Circular 7611

Hurley, K., et al. 1999, Nature, 397, 41

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# Quark coalescence in the mid rapidity region at RHIC

## 1 Introduction

By comparing the assumptions and predictions of different models for describing relativistic heavy ion collisions, each among others and with experiments, it is time to make this comparison throughout a wide energy range, from AGS via SPS to RHIC and LHC energies. This is crucial both for pinning down the question of transition between qualitatively different behaviors, dominated by hadron – hadron or parton – parton reactions, respectively. Investigating the energy dependence is as well important to find differences in the agreement of different models with the trends revealed by a vast amount of new experimental data.

One of the longest standing debate of the last years is that between followers of the equilibrium concept and pursuer of micro-dynamical approaches. Considering quark coalescence our ALCOR model  belongs to the second party. Even if one would allow for less detailed models by making predictions, the global chemical equilibrium hypothesis  in our oppinion is ruled out. It is in particular worth to mention here, that the solely fact, that certain particle ratios are rapidity dependent, contradicts to global chemical equilibrium. In fact a RHIC experiment has found different anti-proton to proton ratios at mid rpidity and moderate rapidity: $`\overline{p}/p=0.64`$ at $`y=0`$ and $`\overline{p}/p=0.41`$ at $`y=2`$ .

Taking this experimental fact into account we utilize now the formerly global quark matter hadronization model ALCOR to the mid-rapidity window only. The underlying assumption is that there is no significant exchange of flavor between far lying rapidity intervals (this is a reminder to the Bjorken flow picture and to different versions of string and color rope models). The unit width mid-rapidity window is selected for comparison of the predictions of the modified ALCOR model with experimental data at AGS, SPS and RHIC energies. The AGS data are presented rather for estimating the tendency of an assumption of constituent quark matter formation underlying the ALCOR model down to low energies, we actually expect this model to fail at AGS.

In this talk we shall concentrate on the energy dependence of the ALCOR model parameters extracted from fits to a certain few experimental observations (and checking against several others). In order to appreciate these dependencies we briefly discuss the physical picture behind ALCOR and the way how the model parameters are fixed. Finally we sketch some speculations about possible causes for the obtained energy dependence.

## 2 Out of equilibirum

The name of the ALCOR model stems from the abbreviation of an $`A`$lgebraic $`Co`$alescence $`R`$ehadronization model. Hadron formation by coalescence assumes a constituent quark matter before hadronization and a fast process relative to typical interaction times after the hadron formation. In fact ALCOR neglects secondary collisions after hadronization but includes hadronic resonance decays. In the presented version the quark clusters belong to the ground state and to the first excited state hadrons with equal probability (naturally counting spin degeneracies) and all decay to the ground state mesons and barions before detection.

Due to its basic assumption ALCOR is a statistical model: it considers average events and manipulates with average total numbers in a given section of the phase space (mid-rapidity unit window presently). It is a coalescence model: it describes mesonic prehadrons as $`q\overline{q}`$ quark – antiquark clusters with varying flavor composition and baryonic ones composed from three quarks ($`qqq`$), antibaryonic clusters correspondingly from three antiquarks. ALCOR concentrates to the chemical evolution: no chemical potentials are used and no chemical equilibrium is assumed at any instance of the calculation. Finally ALCOR utilizes a picture of thermal but largely massive quark matter without gluons at the beginning of the fast hadronization.

Perhaps it is as interesting to list what ALCOR is not. It is not an equilibrium model, because it relies on branching ratios calculated from in-medium cross-sections. It is not a linear coalescence model, because it uses extra factors, the $`b_i`$-s, by quark counting in order to take into account concurrence between different hadronization channels. It is also not a transport model, because it assumes a thermalized state to begin with at a given temperature, $`T`$, the spectra of the finally observed hadrons reflect this thermalized massive constituent quark matter (after an additional free streaming) by assumption. This is one of the major simplifications of the model, this assumption can be tested by comparing to transport models. Finally ALCOR does not assume quark-gluon plasma as a state before hadronization, it actually leaves open the question from what the constituent quark matter is formed from and how has it been thermalized.

## 3 Quark matter or hadron matter

We would like to stress here again that the concept of “quark matter” we are using in ALCOR is not that of the original free plasma of non-interacting, massless quarks and gluons. In line with the experience gained by studying the interacting QCD plasma with different methods by a great number of people, in particular considering the phenomena of static screening, of massive dispersion relations and the observation hadron-like correlated few-quark-clusters in lattice QCD simulations, we utilize the following picture of “prehadron matter”: it contains very few gluons, quarks and antiquarks occur and interact with large effective masses near to the constituent mass value, and a strong, string-like interaction – also shown in the magnetic area-law in some lattice calculations – bounds these quarks into color neutral clusters with hadronic quantum numbers.

According to this picture the main assumptions of the ALCOR model can be summerized as follows:

* new quark – antiquark pairs are produced before the hadronization process,
* all gluons and gluonic fields fragment into quark - antiquark pairs,
* and therefore the final hadronization is practically a redistribution of quarks and antiquarks among the possible clusters,
* the final hadrons have the same flavor composition as the prehadronic quark clusters.

## 4 ALCOR predictions and energy dependence

The input parameters of the ALCOR model can be divided to two categories: in the first belong those which are restricted by rational estimates and knowledge about elementary processes. The constituent quark masses we use are designed to describe static hadron properties (we use $`m_u=m_d=300`$ MeV, $`m_s=500`$ MeV). The branching ratios we calculate on the basis of assumed quark matter properties, we use a strong coupling $`\alpha _S=0.85`$, a wave packet size of $`\rho =0.3`$ fm and a medium temperature of $`T=170`$ MeV.

In the second category belong those parameters which are obtained from fitting the results of ALCOR to experimental heavy-ion data. We have three such parameters: the stopping, here defined by the baryon per cent in the mid-rapidity window stemming from the colliding nuclei, is fitted to the experimental $`K^+/K^{}`$ ratio, and two characteristic parameters of meson production, namely the number of produced light and strange quark pairs, $`N_{u\overline{u}}`$ and $`f_s=N_{s\overline{s}}/(N_{u\overline{u}}+N_{d\overline{d}})`$, are fitted to the $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`K^{}`$ yield, respectively. These experimental data are displayed in Fig.1 as a function of the bombarding energy.

The results incorporate total and mid-rapidity numbers of elements of the lowest lying meson, baryon and antibaryon multiplets in the SU(3) flavor space, spectra with an assumed flow pattern (in the MICOR version ), and predictions to LHC energy using the fitted energy dependence of the parameters.

Let us start with the energy dependenc of the stopping (cf. Fig.2). Here a decrasing tendency of the stopping power effective to the mid-rapidity window is insepcted alone from the SPS and RHIC data. Assuming full stopping at low energy, which is a hypothetical point, the best fit reaches zero stopping already at a finite energy, before the LHC regime. The number of stopped baryons in the observed range roughly scale with the energy as the elastic cross section vanishes. The AGS point is somewhat below the fitted curve, but we do not expect ALCOR to be realistic at such a low energy.

Inspectnig Fig.3 it is easy to realize that the energy dependence of the newly produced quark – antiquark pairs seems to saturate around RHIC energy. (This is, however, only one possible fit to the present data, in this respect the LHC result will be crucial.) This behavior agrees with Regge double-pole estimates for the $`pp`$ cross section at very high energies: $`N_{u\overline{u}}\sigma ^{tot}A\mathrm{ln}s+B`$ . Since at high energy the relative rapidity is $`y\mathrm{ln}s,`$ the number of new pairs in the mid-rapidity window, $`dN/dyN_{u\overline{u}}/yA+B/(\mathrm{ln}s)`$ saturates.

The strangeness ratio, shown in Fig.4 also falls with increasing bombarding energy. The saturation value at high energy agrees with estimates based on elementary $`pp`$ physics, the rise towards lower energies requires explanation. In our oppinion it has to do with the fact that the strange constituent mass is bigger than the up and down masses, and therefore strange hadrons show a reduced rapidity dispersion at low bombarding energies. This may occur as an increasing ratio at mid-rapidity.

Finally, as an example, the energy dependence of the $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio is shown in Fig.5. The encircled points are ALCOR results at each respective energy, the line shows a fitted, linear function to these points. Reflecting the decrease of the strangeness ratio in the prehadron matter, this hadronic ratio is also decreasing with increasing bombarding energy.

In conclusion the measured data are in good agreement with ALCOR predictions. We also transformed some of the measured particle numbers into physical quantities with the help of ALCOR, in order to gain a better insight into the energy dependence of the stopping, quark pair creation and strangeness ratio. At RHIC we realize that we are near to the complete transparency which will be reached before LHC energy according to ALCOR. At RHIC we are also near to the maximal prehadronization energy density (see number of new midrapidity $`q,\overline{q}`$ pairs in Table 1.).

This work was supported by the Hungarian Science Fund (OTKA) grants T 34269.

## References


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# The Structure and Evolution of Circumbinary Disks in Cataclysmic Variable Systems

## 1. INTRODUCTION

Over the last decade evidence has been accumulating suggesting the presence of gaseous matter beyond the orbit of the components in cataclysmic variable binary systems (CVs). Its existence has been inferred from P-Cygni profiles in nova-like variables, super soft sources, and dwarf novae in outburst (see, for example, Deufel et al. 1999). In addition, the observation of narrow widths of single-peaked emission lines in SW Sex stars (see Thorstensen et al. 1991; Hellier 2000) and low velocity spectral features in AM CVn which do not follow the orbital motion of the binary system (see Solheim & Sion 1994) provide further support for this interpretation. Such a gaseous component may take the form of an extended shell or a flattened distribution of matter surrounding the binary system. Assuming that some fraction of this matter remains bound to the system and condenses into the orbital plane, in analogy to the compression of a radiation-driven wind into the equatorial plane in Be-stars (Bjorkman & Cassinelli 1993, Bjorkman & Wood 1995), a circumbinary disk may form. The presence of such a CB disk, as proposed by Spruit & Taam (2001), can provide an attractive explanation for some of the discrepancies between observations and the current theory of evolution of CVs.

The importance of a CB disk for the evolution of a CV lies in the angular momentum it can extract from the binary, leading to mass transfer rates exceeding those due to magnetic braking and/or gravitational radiation. The binary exerts gravitational torques on the external disk, thereby transferring some of its orbital angular momentum. If some fraction of the mass lost from the main sequence-like secondary of the system forms a CB disk, a feedback process can operate to accelerate the binary evolution. As shown in the detailed computations by Taam & Spruit (2001) the evolution of the system can be significantly accelerated and the mass transfer rate from the secondary towards the white dwarf, $`\dot{M}_2`$, elevated to rates as high as $`10^7\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$.

In previous studies, we have focused on the response of the mass losing component and on the evolution of the binary system resulting from the influence of the CB disk, using a one zone approximation for its vertical structure. Here, we report on the results of detailed numerical calculations for the vertical structure and radial evolution of such disks surrounding a model CV. In order to determine the observability of such disks, their spectral energy distributions are also presented. The assumptions of the model computations are described in the next section. In §3 we describe the evolution of a CB disk neglecting angular momentum losses from the binary system. Results with the binary evolution taken into account are shown in §4 and several spectral energy distributions for some illustrative systems are presented in §5. We summarize and conclude in the last section.

## 2. MODEL

We assume that the CB disk is axisymmetric and geometrically thin such that matter rotates at the Keplerian speed. The formulation of the equations for mass, angular momentum, and energy transport is as described in Hameury et al. (1998). Models for the radiative/convective vertical structure have been calculated and tabulated in a grid for a range of radii, mid-plane temperatures, and column densities. The global structure and evolution of the disk follows from the coupling of this grid to the time dependent transport of mass, energy, and angular momentum in the radial direction. The viscous stress tensor, $`\tau _{r\varphi }`$, is assumed to be equal to $`\alpha P`$ where $`\alpha `$ is the viscosity parameter introduced by Shakura & Sunyaev (1973) and $`P`$ is the local pressure in the disk. The calculations of the disk differ from those of Taam & Spruit (2001) where the vertical structure of the disk was calculated in a one zone approximation. Furthermore, we take into account departures from local thermal equilibrium and include convective energy transport. The latter is treated in the mixing length approximation with the ratio of mixing length to pressure scale height taken to be equal to 1.5, where the functional form for the pressure scale height is chosen to ensure that it does not exceed the vertical scale height.

Optically thin regions above the disk photosphere are included in the computation and are treated in the grey approximation. The input physics includes an equation of state of matter in which the ionization/dissociation balance of hydrogen is taken into account. The opacities are taken from Bell et al. (1997) and include contributions from iron poor opacities at temperatures ($`T\mathrm{}<1500`$ K) where dust particles exist (Henning & Stognienko 1996). It is assumed that the composition of the material corresponds to a solar mix ( $`X=0.7`$, $`Y=0.28`$, and $`Z=0.02`$).

The boundary conditions are formulated such that both the inner radius and outer radius of the disk can vary in time. At the inner radius, it is assumed that the mass input rate into the CB disk is a constant fraction of the mass transfer rate from the secondary $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}=\delta \dot{M}_2`$. Although the mass input into the disk may extend over a range of radii, we have adopted the simplest approach and assumed that the mass is deposited at its innermost edge. The condition that this input mass flux is carried outward by viscous diffusion serves as an inner boundary condition, which is formulated as a relation between $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and its gradient. The specific angular momentum of the mass fed into the disk is taken to be equal to that of a Kepler orbit at the inner edge. The mass deposited is thus neutral in an angular momentum sense. In addition, it is assumed that the radial temperature gradient vanishes. Our treatment differs from that adopted in Pringle (1991) in that we have a mass input into the disk which is absent in the formulation developed by Pringle (1991). In the latter equivalent approach, the radial velocity at the inner edge is assumed to vanish. The column density and the mass outflow rate at the outer boundary are set to $`10^2`$ g cm-2 and zero respectively. With these treatments of the boundaries, the disk structure and evolutionary equations are solved in a fully implicit fashion on an adaptive grid (typically with 400 zones). For a full description of the numerical method, see Hameury et al. (1998).

Since the primary focus of this investigation is on the structure of the CB disk, the evolution of the binary system is treated in a simplified approximation wherein the response of the mass losing star is modeled assuming homology (Spruit & Ritter 1983; see also Spruit & Taam 2001). The mass transfer process is assumed to be conservative. That is, a very small fraction, $`\delta <0.01`$, of the mass lost from the donor star, which itself is assumed to be small compared to the mass transferred to its companion, is assumed to be deposited into the CB disk.

Angular momentum loss associated with magnetic braking is assumed to take place on a fixed timescale $`t_\mathrm{w}`$. The contribution of the CB disk to the angular momentum loss from the binary is given by the viscous torque at the inner edge of the disk,

$$\dot{J}_\mathrm{d}=3\pi (R_\mathrm{i}/a)^{1/2}\mathrm{\Omega }_0a^2\nu _\mathrm{i}\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i},$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ is the orbital frequency of the binary system, $`a`$ is the orbital separation of the binary components, and $`R_i`$, $`\nu _i`$, and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$ are the radius, viscosity, and column density at the inner edge of the CB disk respectively. The evolution of the system follows from the total angular momentum loss, (see Spruit & Taam 2001):

$$\dot{J}/J=t_\mathrm{w}^1+3\pi (R_\mathrm{i}/a)^{1/2}(1+q)/M_2\nu _i\mathrm{\Sigma }_i$$
(2)
It is assumed that the gravitational torque is concentrated near the inner edge of the disk and that the radius of the inner edge is approximately equal to 1.7 times the orbital separation. This latter assumption is based on the work of Artymowicz & Lubow (1994) who show that the ratio of the inner radius of the CB disk to the orbital separation is relatively insensitive to the mass ratio of the binary system, q, due to the steep decrease of the tidal torques with distance.

## 3. CB DISKS IN NON-EVOLVING SYSTEMS

As a first step we computed several CB disk models in which we neglected all the angular momentum losses from the binary system. The binary evolution is thereby frozen with the inner radius $`R_i`$ and mass input rate $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$ (instead of $`\delta `$) set as constant parameters. Our calculations start with a very low density ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }=0.01`$ g cm-2) ring of matter at the inner edge, and we follow the expansion of the disk as matter gradually piles up and diffuses outwards.

Fig. 1 is an example of the evolution of the column density at the inner radius, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$, and of the outer radius, $`R_\mathrm{d}`$, for a CB disk with $`\alpha =0.001`$, $`R_\mathrm{i}=10^{11}`$ cm, $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}=10^{14}`$ g s-1 (the negative value indicating mass is flowing away from the binary) and a binary mass $`M`$ of 1 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$. The outer disk radius as shown in Fig. 1 is defined as the radius at which the disk becomes optically thin ($`\tau =1`$). After a transitory period lasting at most a few hundred years (viscous timescale of the inner edge), both $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{d}`$ increase gradually in a roughly self-similar, power law-like fashion. This behaviour is independent of the initial setup and, to a large extent, independent of the outer boundary conditions on $`\dot{M}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Increasing the mass input rate speeds up the evolution with higher values of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ reached sooner. Changing $`\alpha `$ has a weaker influence with lower viscosities leading to slightly higher values of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$. Both of these effects can be seen in Figs. 3-6 which take the binary evolution into account and are discussed in the next section.

The evolution of the column density, mid-plane temperature, effective temperature, ratio of scale height to radius, and mass flow rate are illustrated as a function of radius and time in Fig. 2. It is evident that the column densities continually increase at a given radius and reach densities as high as $`10^4`$ g cm-2 at the inner disk edge. The point at which the optical depth equals unity (denoted as a solid dot), corresponding to $`R_\mathrm{d}`$ in Fig. 1, also increases with time and the optically thick disk reaches a size of about 10 AU at the end of the calculation. The mid-plane temperatures (solid line) and the effective temperatures (dashed line) both increase with time, reflecting the increasing surface density and energy dissipation in the disk associated with the increasing mass flow rate. The mid-plane (effective) temperatures decrease monotonically with distance, from 10000 (3000) K in the innermost regions to 20 (10) K where the disk becomes optically thin. However, we note that such densities and temperatures are reached only after a Hubble time, at which point the neglect of angular momentum losses from the binary is not realistic. The disk remains geometrically thin throughout the evolution, with the ratio of pressure scale height to radius in the optically thick region, $`H/R`$, $`<0.05`$. We find that $`H/R`$ does not increase uniformly with radius, so that the outer disk region is in the shadow of the inner region, reminiscent of the protostellar circumstellar disks studied by Bell et al. (1997).

The simple self-similar CB disk model of Spruit & Taam (2001), which assumes that the viscosity is a linear function of $`R`$ only, $`\nu =\nu _\mathrm{i}(R/R_\mathrm{i})`$, gives for the inner regions of the disk:

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }(R,t)\left(\frac{t}{t_{\mathrm{vi}}}\right)^{1/2}\frac{(\dot{M}_\mathrm{i})}{3\pi \nu _\mathrm{i}}\left(\frac{R}{R_\mathrm{i}}\right)^{3/2}$$
(3)
where $`t_{\mathrm{vi}}=R_\mathrm{i}^2/\nu _\mathrm{i}`$ is the viscous timescale at the inner edge of the disk. This implies a scaling for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}/\sqrt{\alpha }`$, which we find to be roughly reproduced by the numerical results (see e.g. the early evolution of the disks in Figs. 5-6).

## 4. CB DISKS IN EVOLVING SYSTEMS

Evolutionary sequences were calculated for model CV systems consisting of a secondary component of 0.55 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and a primary white dwarf component of 0.95 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$. The disk calculations were performed for several fractional mass input rates into the CB disk $`\delta \mathrm{}<0.01`$, viscosity parameters $`\alpha \mathrm{}<0.01`$, and time scales for angular momentum loss by magnetic braking $`t_\mathrm{w}\mathrm{}<10^{10}`$ yrs.

### 4.1. Acceleration of the binary evolution

The results of an evolutionary sequence with parameter values $`\delta =0.005`$, $`t_\mathrm{w}=2\times 10^8`$ years, and $`\alpha =0.001`$ are illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. The CB disk initially evolves in the same fashion as described in the previous section. Angular momentum losses by magnetic braking then start changing the system parameters and the system evolves in a standard way, with $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$ decreasing together with the mass of the secondary. The CB torque begins to dominate the evolution at $`t20`$ Myr, when the mass input rate into the CB disk is approximately at its minimum, $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}3\times 10^{11}\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ ($`\dot{M}_26\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$). The mass input rate is now proportional to the surface density since $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}/M_2\dot{J}_\mathrm{i}/J(\nu \mathrm{\Sigma })_\mathrm{i}/M_2`$, leading to a runaway on a timescale comparable to that on which the CB torque becomes dominant (Spruit & Taam 2001). The acceleration is manifest in Fig. 3 as an abrupt increase of $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$ to $`\mathrm{}>10^9\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, leading to an increase in the orbital period as a result of the tendency for the secondary to expand as it departs significantly from thermal equilibrium.

By the end of the calculation at $`t65`$ Myr the orbital period is $``$ 20 hr and the secondary has $`M_20.03\mathrm{M}_{}`$. The response of the star to mass loss certainly deviates from homology during the runaway but there is little doubt that it will end with the dissolution of the secondary. Qualitatively similar results were obtained by Taam & Spruit (2001) .

### 4.2. Influence of the different parameters

The influence of changing $`\alpha `$ is also shown in Fig. 3. The CB torque becomes dominant when $`\dot{J}_\mathrm{d}\mathrm{}>\dot{J}_\mathrm{w}`$. Combining Eq. 1-3, we find this happens when (Spruit & Taam 2001)

$$\dot{J}_\mathrm{d}/J(t/t_{\mathrm{vi}})^{1/2}\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}/M_2t_\mathrm{w}^1$$
(4)
For a given magnetic braking torque and $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$, the disk torque dominates at $`tt_{\mathrm{vi}}1/\alpha `$. This scaling is consistent with the numerical results of Fig. 3. Note that for very low values of $`\alpha `$ ($`\mathrm{}<0.0001`$ for $`\delta =0.005`$ and $`t_\mathrm{w}=0.2`$ Gyr) the CB torque would be entirely negligible during the course of the evolution. It should be pointed out that we have implicitly assumed that $`\alpha `$ is constant throughout the disk. It is possible that $`\alpha `$ may decrease significantly at large radii (see Gammie & Menou 1998) where the magnetic Reynolds number is decreased below values necessary for a magnetic dynamo to operate. In this case, the size and the properties of the outer disk would be modified from that calculated here. However, the extent of the magnetically decoupled region is model dependent as it is very sensitive to the ionization fraction in the disk (see Fromang, Terquem, & Balbus 2002).

Changing the magnetic braking timescale $`t_\mathrm{w}`$ changes $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$ since the initial rate is set by $`\dot{M}_2/M_2\dot{J}/Jt_\mathrm{w}^1`$ (Eq. 2). Using this in Eq. 4, we find the CB torque should thus start dominating the evolution at roughly the same time regardless of $`t_\mathrm{w}`$. This is confirmed by the calculations shown in Fig. 5 in which the disk torque dominates after $`t20`$ Myrs for $`t_\mathrm{w}=`$ 0.2, 1 and 5 Gyrs. Note that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ at $`t20`$ Myrs decreases with increasing $`t_\mathrm{w}`$ since $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}t_\mathrm{w}^1`$ during the early magnetic braking-dominated evolution. The conditions for the runaway should be independent of $`t_\mathrm{w}`$ and we indeed find the disks in Fig. 5 to have similar properties when it occurs ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}40000`$ g cm-2, $`R_\mathrm{d}10`$ AU).

Fig. 6 illustrates the influence of changing the fraction of the mass transfered to the CB disk. For $`\delta \mathrm{}>0.01`$ the system dissolves in $`\mathrm{}<1`$ Myr suggesting that systems with high values of $`\delta `$ are unlikely to be observed. The timescale on which the disk torque dominates dramatically increases as $`\delta `$ becomes smaller. The effect is much stronger than decreasing $`\alpha `$ as already noted by Taam & Spruit (2001). For values of $`\delta \mathrm{}<0.0001`$ the disk torque becomes important on timescales longer or comparable to the magnetic braking timescale $`t_\mathrm{w}`$. The secondary has then already lost most of its mass so that the CB disk has no impact on the binary evolution. Being smaller and less massive, the CB disk is also fainter and more difficult to detect (see §5).

Taam & Spruit (2001), using a detailed evolutionary code for the secondary but a simpler disk model, found that the CB torque was negligible when $`\delta \mathrm{}<0.01`$. The present calculations indicate that disks formed with $`\delta \mathrm{}>0.0001`$ can still influence the binary. The discrepancy can be traced to the assumptions made in the different models. In Taam & Spruit (2001), the column densities at the inner edge of the disk are very close to the lower turning point of the S curve ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}4000`$ g cm-2 at $`R=10^{11}`$ cm with $`M=1\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and $`\alpha =0.001`$, see Fig. 1 of Taam & Spruit). The specific interpolation scheme between the two stable branches which they used forces the column density to stagnate around $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$ once this value is reached. The detailed vertical structure computations, which include convection, show that the actual value of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is an order of magnitude higher than in the one zone radiative model ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}40000`$ g cm-2 with the same parameters as above using Eq. 32 of Hameury et al. 1998 ; see Fig. 2 of Lasota 2001 for a discussion of the importance of convection on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$). Much higher densities can be reached on the cold branch and hence higher torques can be achieved during the evolution for the same $`\delta `$ and $`\alpha `$. On the other hand, the approximate treatment for the response of the donor to mass loss for the binary evolution in the present calculation may artificially decrease the minimum $`\delta `$ needed to have a dominant CB torque.

### 4.3. Can CB disks become thermally unstable ?

Depending upon the evolution of the CB disk, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ may become higher than the critical column density, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$, above which a cold, optically thick and geometrically thin disk becomes thermally and viscously unstable. The instability is due to the large change in opacity which accompanies hydrogen ionization (see Lasota 2001 for a review). Such a CB disk would present limit cycle oscillations analogous to those which occur in the accretion disks of dwarf novae.

While the linear stability problem is the same for the accretion disk and the CB disk, one should expect some differences to show up in the nonlinear development. In the accreting case, the increased mass flux in the hot state propagates inward into a decreasing volume, amplifying its effects. The instability in a CB disk starts at the inner edge and propagates outward into an increasing volume. One might thus expect its effects to be milder, and the transition front to stall at some moderate distance from the inner edge. To check on these expectations we have followed the instability in a few cases. But first, we investigate for which parameters the evolving binary with a CB disk can reach instability.

We combine the expression for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(R_\mathrm{i},t)`$ (Eq. 3) with that for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$ (Eq. 32 of Hameury et al. 1998) to estimate the time needed to reach this critical density, assuming the binary evolution is frozen (constant $`R_\mathrm{i}`$ and $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$). The central temperature at the critical density is $`T_\mathrm{c}20000`$ K (Hameury et al. 1998). We use this temperature to get an estimate of $`\nu _\mathrm{i}\alpha c_\mathrm{s}^2/\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}`$, where $`c_\mathrm{s}^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}`$ are respectively the sound speed and Keplerian frequency at the inner edge. We find

$$t6\times 10^{10}\alpha _{0.001}^{0.7}M_1^{1.2}\dot{M}_{\mathrm{i},14}^2R_{\mathrm{i},11}^{5.7}\mathrm{years}$$
(5)
where $`\alpha `$ is in units of 0.001, $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$ is in units of $`10^{14}`$ g s-1, $`M`$ is in solar masses and $`R_\mathrm{i}`$ is in units of $`10^{11}`$ cm. The results from a few numerical tests show a shallower dependence on $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{i}`$ (-1 instead of -2) but this is still a fair order-of-magnitude approximation. The steep dependence on $`R_\mathrm{i}`$ implies that instability can be reached within a Hubble time only if the binary is sufficiently tight during most of its evolution.

In the calculations of Figs. 3-6, the CB disk never reaches the critical densities required to become unstable. For reasonable assumptions on $`M_1`$ (0.6-1.0 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$) and $`M_2`$ (0.1-0.6 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$) the CB disk has an initial $`R_\mathrm{i}`$ of $`0.01`$ AU for which the critical density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is of the order of $`10^5`$ g cm-2 for $`\alpha =0.001`$. The density in the disk does not build up fast enough to trigger the instability before the binary starts evolving away from the initial conditions. Unrealistically high values of $`\delta \mathrm{}>0.1`$ would be required to quicken the density buildup. At these rates, the binary would also dissolve in a very short time.

If magnetic braking dominates during the evolution, the CB disk is necessarily not very massive and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ stays far from its critical value. If the disk torque dominates, the mass transfer rate and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ increase quickly, particularly during the runaway. However, under the present assumptions, the secondary expands as it rapidly sheds mass onto the white dwarf (Eq. 14 of Spruit & Ritter 1983). The runaway is thus accompanied by an increase of the orbital period, and hence of $`R_\mathrm{i}`$ (see Fig. 3), which prevents $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ from becoming greater than $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$ ($`R_\mathrm{i}`$).

The adiabatic mass-radius exponent is -1/3 for a sequence of homologous stars; in this respect they behave like convective stars (Spruit & Ritter 1983). This limits the freedom of the model. We have relaxed this in a test calculation in which the mass-radius coefficient of -1/3 as it appears in the model was increased to +1/2. The other parameters are $`\alpha =0.005`$ and $`\delta =0.005`$ (Fig. 7). The global evolution is very similar to the one shown in Fig. 4 except that the secondary contracts in response to the runaway mass transfer at $`t30`$ Myr. The orbital period decreases to $`2`$ hours, bringing the inner edge of the CB disk to 0.007 AU ($`M_20.085\mathrm{M}_{}`$, $`R_20.16\mathrm{R}_{}`$). The inner column density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mathrm{i}`$ is then greater than the critical density and the CB disk, which is now $`0.003\mathrm{M}_{}`$, becomes unstable.

We assume that, when the CB disk is hot, the viscosity coefficient $`\alpha _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ increases to 0.01 by analogy with the models of dwarf novae outbursts. The inner region of the CB disk cycles between a hot and a cold state in a complex fashion on a timescale of $`15`$ years, with the hot state lasting about a year (see Fig. 7). Changes in the CB disk on such a short time scale do not translate into the mass transfer rate, which changes only on time scales of the order the ratio of the scale height of the stellar atmosphere to its radius times $`t_\mathrm{w}`$. The mass transfer rate is therefore kept fixed at its current value when the instability starts ($`\dot{M}_22.4\times 10^7\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$).

The instability would therefore only show up, if at all, as a brightening of the system in the near-infrared. The CB disk can indeed become very bright with a bolometric luminosity increasing by almost an order of magnitude to about $`2\times 10^{34}`$ erg s-1. The bolometric luminosity is calculated assuming the optically thick regions of the disk radiate as a blackbody and that the disk is seen face-on. Fig. 8 shows the evolution of the CB disk during the rise to the high luminosity state. A front develops at the inner unstable radius and propagates outward, transporting matter to larger radii and gradually heating the inner regions to mid-plane temperatures reaching $`10^5`$ K. This is analoguous to an outside-in outburst in a dwarf novae accretion disk, where the outer (tidally truncated) radius becomes unstable first and a front propagates in the direction of the flow. However, in the CB case, the front stalls quickly due to the combination of the higher critical density needed to heat the disk and lower available density to do this (dilution into a larger volume of the transported mass). In contrast, a dwarf novae outside-in front heats the entire accretion disk because of the decreasing $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and volume at smaller radii. At the luminosity maximum, only the inner 0.02 AU are hot compared to the total (optically thick) CB disk size of 2.5 AU.

Our choice of boundary condition precludes the possibility of mass flow to the secondary. This may not be exact during outburst when the inner region becomes sufficiently thick ($`H/R\mathrm{}>0.05`$) that some matter may flow from the CB disk back to the companion star (Artymowicz & Lubow 1996). Such flows are non axisymmetric and their inclusion is beyond the scope of our simplified one dimensional radial description of the vertically integrated structure. Note that these flows are unlikely to change our conclusions on the possibility of having outbursts in CB disks.

## 5. Spectral Energy Distributions

Since the temperatures, densities, and size of the CB disk vary with time, the spectral appearance will depend upon the evolutionary stage of the binary system. The energy distributions for a CB disk viewed normal to its surface for three model sequences are illustrated in Figs. 9-11 assuming a distance of 100 pc. The distributions are shown for the CB disk early in the evolution, prior to, and during the accelerated mass transfer phase. In these calculations the disk surface is assumed to emit black body radiation at its effective temperature. This should be a reasonable approximation since the frequency dependence of the opacities (see Bell et al. 1997) show the CB disk to be optically thick to radiation at wavelengths $`\mathrm{}<350\mu `$m. The figures show the integrated flux over the optically thick parts of the disk.

It is seen that the continuum peaks in the near-infrared at $`\lambda 3\mu `$m for the models sequences during the entire binary evolution. There is a tendency for the flux to increase for the more advanced evolutionary phases, when CB disks are larger and more massive. However, the flux does not increase at all wavelengths. The flux at $`\lambda \mathrm{}<3\mu `$m can decrease even though the mass input rate into the CB disk increases (see Fig. 9). This is due to the increase of the binary orbital separation in the accelerated evolution phase, causing the radiating surface area to increase and the temperatures in the inner regions to decrease. These results taken together indicate that the spectral energy distributions are not sensitive to $`\alpha `$ and $`\delta `$ in the range of 0.001 - 0.005.

To determine the observability of such disks, the flux contributions from the donor star and a steady accretion disk surrounding the white dwarf star must be taken into account. As an illustration we take an evolution with $`\alpha =0.005`$, $`\delta =0.005`$, and $`t_w=2\times 10^8`$ yr at $`t=5\times 10^6`$ yr. At that evolutionary phase, a secondary of mass equal to $`0.36\mathrm{M}_{}`$ transfers matter to the white dwarf of mass equal to $`1.14\mathrm{M}_{}`$ at the rate of $`1.3\times 10^{18}`$ g s-1. We assume that the outer radius of the accretion disk is 0.67 times the Roche lobe radius of the white dwarf. The luminosity and effective temperature of the secondary are $`1.1\times 10^3\mathrm{L}_{}`$ and 3500 K respectively, the values for a main sequence star of the same mass. Assuming a main sequence secondary is likely to overestimate the contribution from the donor star, which is not in thermal equilibrium because of the mass transfer. In Fig. 12 the spectral energy distribution from a steady state accretion disk and the low mass secondary component are included with the contribution from the CB disk. It is evident that the contribution of the CB disk increases with wavelength, and exceeds that due to the accretion disk and donor by a factor of about 20 and 400 at 10 $`\mu `$m and $`350\mu `$m respectively. For wavelengths where the CB disk dominates the wavelength dependence is, $`F_\lambda \lambda ^{2.6}`$. The radius enclosing 90% of the total flux emitted by the CB disk is $`5\times 10^{11}1.6\times 10^{12}`$ cm at $`10\mu `$m and $`10^{12}10^{13}`$ cm at $`100\mu `$m. Hence, the cool outer regions of the CB disk at $`R\mathrm{}>5\times 10^{11}`$ cm provide the infrared and submm waveband signatures of its presence. We point out that the neglect of irradiation effects by the secondary is not expected to significantly modify this result since its importance in the outer parts of the disk (as inferred from the variation of $`H/R`$ with respect to radius) is diminished by the shadowing effect by the innermost regions. We note, however, that the actual height of the disk differs from that estimated by the pressure scale height and irradiation effects of the outermost regions could be important (see Chiang & Goldreich 1997). In this case the infrared and sub mm fluxes would be increased and, hence, the fluxes estimated from the CB disk in the absence of irradiation effects should be considered a lower bound.

## 6. CONCLUSIONS

The evolution of a CB disk has been investigated for cases where it significantly accelerates the binary evolution, such that the mass transfer rate onto the white dwarf can reach $`\dot{M}\mathrm{}>10^8\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, representative of nova-like variables and super soft sources. The column densities and temperatures in these disks are found to be similar to those in circumstellar (CS) disks surrounding young stellar objects. The column densities decrease with radius and reach maxima in the innermost regions of the disk with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{max}`$ ranging up to $`4\times 10^4`$ g cm-2. The midplane temperatures range from $`3500`$ K at the inner edge to less than about 30 K in the optically thin outer regions. In contrast to the CS disks, where accretion can take place steadily, the outflowing mass in CB disks is distinctly nonsteady. The outer boundary of the CB disk, $`R_d`$, increases with time (roughly as $`R_dt^{1/2}`$). We find that CB disks around CVs should extend to several AU, about 100 times smaller than CS disks.

The numerical results show that the fractional mass input rate into the CB disk required to accelerate the evolution is lower than found in Taam & Spruit (2001). This is due to the effect of convection on the disk structure (ignored in Taam & Spruit), which causes the lower stable branch of the $`\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }`$ relation to extend to much higher column densities.

We find that the CB disks can become thermally unstable, but only under rather special conditions, namely at high mass transfer rates combined with short orbital periods. Such conditions could be met in the short period double degenerate AM CVn systems or, in a different context, in disks around Be stars (Lee et al. 1991). For normal CVs, we find that the CB disk is unlikely to become unstable because of the long timescale needed to reach the critical column density. However, depending upon the response of the secondary to mass loss, the CB disk could become unstable during the accelerated evolution. If the CB disk is unstable, a heat front develops and propagates outward from the inner radius. In contrast to the accretion disks in dwarf novae, the heating front is quenched quickly because of the difficulty in raising the lower column densities encountered at larger radii to the increasing critical column densities needed to sustain propagation. The inner region cycles between the hot and cold states on a timescale of tens of years, inducing changes in the bolometric luminosity of a factor $``$ 10.

We find that the spectral energy distributions expected of CB disks in CVs can dominate the emission from the donor star and the accretion disk of the white dwarf at wavelengths $`\lambda \mathrm{}>3\mu `$m. At longer wavelengths the relative contribution from the CB disk to the total emission from the system increases.

Typical flux levels for a nova-like variable for an assumed distance of 100 pc would be about 0.3 Jy at 10 $`\mu `$m and a factor of 10 lower at $`450\mu `$m. Although the distances to CV’s are not well known, the model calculations suggest that even in nova-like variables with distances order of 1 kpc, detection of CBs in the 10 - 20 $`\mu `$m region should be possible using the infrared detectors on the Gemini Observatory (Telesco et al. 2001) and the Keck Observatory (Jones et al. 1998). Although the emission from these CB disks becomes optically thin at 350 $`\mu `$m, it is possible that the longer wavelength radiation at $`450\mu `$m may be detectable using the SCUBA instrument.

In our interpretation the nova-like variables would be CVs with mass transfer accelerated by a CB disk, which makes them natural targets for searches for CB disks. However, the predicted emission from the CB disk before the accelerated phase is similar, for a substantial period of time, to that during the accelerated phase. The possibility for their detection is therefore not limited to the systems with high mass transfer rates. We speculate that the ‘extra infrared components’ discovered by Harrison et al. (2000) in several well studied dwarf novae may in fact be due to CB disks. These observations show that searches of CB disks surrounding bright cataclysmic variable systems are technically possible with current instrumentation.

We thank T. Currie for his assistance in this study and J.-P. Lasota for useful discussions. In addition, we thank the referee, Dr. Kristen Menou, for his report which has improved the clarity of the manuscript. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-9727875 and by NASA under the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. GD acknowledges support from NASA grants NAG 5-7007 and NAG 5-7034. HS acknowledges support from the European Commission under TMR grant ERBFMRX-CT98-0195 (‘Accretion onto Black Holes, Compact Objects and Protostars’).


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# Angle-resolved photoemission study of 𝑀𝑋-chain compound [Ni(chxn)2Br]Br2: absence of spin-charge separation signals

## Abstract

We report on the results of angle-resolved photoemission experiments on a quasi-one-dimensional $`MX`$-chain compound \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 (chxn = 1$`R`$,2$`R`$-cyclohexanediamine), a one-dimensional Heisenberg system with $`S=1/2`$ and $`J3600`$ K, which shows a gigantic non-linear optical effect. A ”band” having about 500 meV energy dispersion is found in the first half of the Brillouin zone $`(0kb/\pi <1/2)`$, but disappears at $`kb/\pi 1/2`$. Two dispersive features, expected from the spin-charge separation, as have been observed in other quasi-one-dimensional systems like Sr2CuO3, are not detected. These characteristic features are well reproduced by the $`d`$-$`p`$ chain model calculations with a small charge-transfer energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ compared with that of one-dimensional Cu-O based compounds. We propose that this smaller $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the origin of the absence of clear spin- and charge-separation in the photoemission spectra and strong non-linear optical effect in \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2.

preprint: HEP/123-qed

Recently, one-dimensional (1D) strongly-correlated (SC) electron systems have attracted much attention. One of the most striking findings in these systems is the so-called spin-charge separation. The spin and charge degrees of freedom are decoupled, and the low energy properties of the material are governed by a spinless excitation called a holon and a chargeless excitation called a spinon. These elemental excitations were theoretically first predicted by Lieb and Wu, and were experimentally observed by recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments on SrCuO2, Sr2CuO3, and NaV2O5. In addition to these purely academic interests, it is recently recognized that these 1D-SC electron systems show strong non-linear optical effects. Kishida et al  have observed a significantly enhanced third-order non-linear dielectric susceptibility $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ in Sr2CuO3 and the halogen($`X`$)-bridged transition-metal($`M`$) compounds, designated as the $`MX`$-chain compounds. The large $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ is indispensable for opto-electronic switching, modulating and computing devices, and its magnitude dominates their performances. These 1D-SC electron systems may therefore become key materials for future optical technology.

Among those 1D-SC electron systems, the $`MX`$-chain compounds with $`M`$=Ni, $`X`$=Br, \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2, (chxn = 1$`R`$, 2$`R`$-cyclohexanediamine) have the largest value of $`\mathrm{max}|\mathrm{Im}\chi ^{(3)}|`$, and are good target materials to study the underlying physics of these properties. In spite of these interesting properties of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2, there have been few studies on its electronic structure. A previous X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) study has revealed that this material is a charge-transfer (CT) type insulator. However, the core-level experiment alone was insufficient to obtain information about its 1D electronic structure since the charge-transfer satellites in the core-level spectra are originated from not only $`p`$-$`d`$ hybridization along the chain, but also that perpendicular to the chain. In this paper, we have performed ARPES experiments on this compound to reveal its electronic structure. The result is compared with that of Cu-O based systems, such as Sr2CuO3, and analyzed with calculations based on the $`d`$-$`p`$ chain model.

The basic crystal structure of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 consists of Ni(chxn)2-Br chains and counter Br ions. The chains are well separated by the counter Br atoms and (chxn) molecules, and interaction between them is considered to be negligibly weak. The N atoms of ligand (chxn) molecules are very close to Ni atoms, leading to a strong crystal field on the Ni 3$`d`$ states. The resulting electronic configuration of the Ni3+ ion is the filled $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals plus a singly occupied $`e_g`$ (3$`d_{3z^2r^2}`$) orbital, $`(t_{2g})^6(e_g)^1`$. The strong overlap between the Ni 3$`d_{3z^2r^2}`$ orbital and the halogen $`p_\mathrm{z}`$ orbital lead to a strong magnetic coupling along the chain and the magnetic susceptibility $`\chi `$ is described by the Bonner-Fisher formula with $`S=1/2`$ and $`J3600`$ K (=0.31 eV). Thus this material can be viewed as a 1D Heisenberg chain system.

Single crystals of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 were prepared by an electrochemical method. ARPES experiments were performed using a spectrometer equipped with a GAMMADATA-SCIENTA SES2002 electron analyzer and a monochromatized GAMMADATA-SCIENTA vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) lamp. Clean sample surfaces were obtained by in-situ cleaving the sample parallel to the $`bc`$ plane. In order to avoid charging effects, the sample was kept at room temperature. The overall energy resolution was set at about 50 meV. Binding energies are referred to the Fermi edge of an evaporated gold film.

During the course of the measurement, gradual changes in the line shape of the photoemission spectra were observed. These were not due to charging effects of the sample surface since the line shape changes were not associated with rigid shifts of the spectra. Further observations revealed that these changes accumulated with time and were correlated with the strength of the VUV irradiation on the sample surface. Therefore, we concluded that the changes were due to the degradation of the sample surface caused by the irradiation, which had also been observed in the previous XPS measurements. We then dscided to use He II$`\alpha `$ ($`h\nu =40.8`$ eV) radiation for the present measurements, whose intensities are about twenty times weaker than that of the often-used He I$`\alpha `$ ($`h\nu =21.2`$ eV) radiation. In addition, we took all the spectra within twenty minutes. We have carefully checked the time dependence of the spectral line shape, and confirmed that no remarkable changes were observed within this period. Another advantage of using He II radiation for the ARPES measurements is that it is possible to observe the most of the first Brillouin zone of this material without rotating the sample because with the present analyzer and the He II$`\alpha `$ radiation, one can detect the photoelectrons emitted about $`\pm 6`$ degrees at the same time. This made it possible to measure all the spectra before the sample surface was damaged by the VUV radiation.

Figure 1 shows the ARPES spectra of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2. The momentum scan was performed along the $`b`$-axis (chain axis). All spectra have been normalized to the integrated intensities between $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ and 1.0 eV. There is a weak but distinctive peak structure around 0.3-0.8 eV. The peak is located at about 0.8 eV at $`kb/\pi =0`$, and moves toward lower binding energy as $`kb/\pi `$ increases. It reaches to about 0.3 eV at $`kb/\pi =1/2`$, and suddenly disappears with additional increase in $`kb`$. To see these features more clearly, we have derived the ”image” of the band dispersion from these spectra by taking second derivatives of smoothed ARPES spectra. This method is very sensitive to peak structures. Figure 2 shows their gray plot as a function of binding energy and momentum, where the dark part corresponds to peak position. We have tested different smoothing procedures in making images carefully, and confirmed that the essential spectral feature does not depend on the procedures. The above-mentioned spectral feature is more clearly understood from this image. The sine-curve like dispersion is observed in the first half ($`0kb/\pi <1/2`$) of the Brillouin zone, but it suddenly disappears at $`kb/\pi 0.5`$, and then is not seen in the second half ($`1/2kb/\pi <1`$) of the Brillouin zone. The dotted white line is a guide to the eye. The size of the energy dispersion is estimated to be about 500 meV. In this scan, the spectra were measured only up to $`kb/\pi 0.92`$, but spectra in the remaining part of the Brillouin zone were also been measured in a different scan, and it is confirmed that there is no prominent feature at $`kb>0.92`$. This result is qualitatively different from those of Cu-O based 1D-SC compounds like SrCuO2 or Sr2CuO3. In the first half of the Brillouin zone, two bands originating from the spinon and holon excitations are observed in the Cu-O based 1D-SC compounds, while only one band is observed in \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2. Moreover, in the second half of the Brillouin zone, one band, originating from a holon, is observed in the Cu-O based 1D-SC compounds, while no band is observed in \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2.

In order to better understand the ARPES spectra of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2, we have calculated the spectral function of these materials within the framework of the $`d`$-$`p`$ chain model. We have employed this model, because this model incorporates large enough degrees of freedom to properly treat the CT-type system. The more frequently used $`t`$-$`J`$ model can be derived from this model in the limit of $`U\mathrm{}`$. Moreover, the $`d`$-$`p`$ model can include photoemission cross section effects, which cannot be taken into account in the $`t`$-$`J`$ model. In this model, the $`d`$ and $`p`$ orbitals are arranged alternatively in a chain, and hybridization between the nearest neighbor $`d`$ and $`p`$ sites is considered. The model is expressed by the Hamiltonian

$$H_{dp}=\mathrm{\Delta }\underset{i\sigma }{}n_{i\sigma }^p+U\underset{i}{}n_i^dn_i^dt\underset{<ij>}{}(d_{i\sigma }^{}p_{j\sigma }+d_{i\sigma }p_{j\sigma }^{}),$$
(1)
where $`n_{i\sigma }^d`$ and $`n_{i\sigma }^p`$ are the number operators of the $`d`$ and $`p`$ holes with spin $`\sigma `$ at site $`i`$, and $`d_{i\sigma }`$ and $`p_{i\sigma }`$ are the annihilation operators of the $`d`$ and $`p`$ holes with spin $`\sigma `$ at a site $`i`$, respectively. The sum $`<ij>`$ takes all combinations of the nearest-neighbor $`d`$ and $`p`$ sites. $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the charge-transfer energy between $`d`$\- and $`p`$-sites, $`U`$ is the Coulomb interaction between $`d`$ electrons on the site, and $`t`$ is the transfer integral between the nearest $`d`$ and $`p`$ states. We have performed numerical diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix for a finite size cluster, and calculated the single particle spectral function $`A(k,\omega )`$ expressed as

$$A(k,\omega )=\underset{\nu \sigma }{}|\nu |a_{k\sigma }^{}|0|^2\delta (\omega E_\nu +E_0),$$
(2)
where $`a_{k\sigma }^{}=L^{1/2}_id_{i\sigma }^{}e^{ikR_i}`$ or $`L^{1/2}_ip_{i\sigma }^{}e^{ikR_i}`$ is a creation operator for a $`d`$ or $`p`$ hole, respectively. $`|\nu `$ is the $`\nu `$-th eigenvector for the photoemission final state with eigenvalue $`E_\nu `$. $`|0`$ denotes the ground state eigenvector with eigenvalue $`E_0`$. This method is exact, but requires the diagonalization of a huge Hamiltonian matrix. Here, we took an 8-molecule $`d`$-$`p`$ chain model with four holes per spin. This cluster size is small, but five independent $`k`$-points in the Brillouin zone can be obtained, and therefore it is possible to simulate the dispersive features of the experimental spectra. In these calculations, the $`p`$ hole levels are empty and the $`d`$ hole levels are half-filled in the initial state. To check the validity of these parameters, the exchange interaction $`J`$ between the $`d`$ sites, which can be compared with the experimental value, was also evaluated in the following ways. We considered a $`2\frac{1}{2}`$-molecule $`d`$-$`p`$ cluster ($`p`$-$`d`$-$`p`$-$`d`$-$`p`$), and calculated the total energy for the total spin $`S_z=0`$ and $`S_z=1`$ with these parameters. The exchange energy is then evaluated by $`J=E(S_z=1)E(S_z=0)`$.

First we present the calculations for a Cu-O chain to reproduce the previous theoretical and experimental results. Figure 3(a) and (b) show the results of the calculations for $`t=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2.4`$, and $`U=7`$ eV. These parameters are similar to those used in the calculation of Ref, but $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`U`$ have been slightly changed from $`\mathrm{\Delta }=3`$ eV and $`U=8`$ eV in order to reproduce the observed value of $`J`$. $`J`$ is estimated to be 0.15 eV for these parameters, and is very close to the observed $`J0.16`$ eV. The obtained spectra are broadened with a Gaussian function to compare with the experimental spectra. These are indeed indistinguishable from those in Ref. Contributions from each of the $`d`$ and $`p`$ states are shown separately in Fig 3. To compare them with the experimental spectra of Sr2CuO3 of Ref, the photoemission cross section effects are considered as shown in Fig. 3(b) as the total spectra, where the contributions form the $`d`$-states are 0.2 times smaller since the He I or Ne I ($`h\nu =16.8`$ eV) radiation was used for the measurements. There are two branches for $`0kb/\pi <1/2`$, and only one branch for $`1/2kb/\pi <1`$, agreeing well with the results of Sr2CuO3 of Ref. Comparison of the spectra calculated by the $`d`$-$`p`$ chain model with those calculated by the $`t`$-$`J`$ model suggests that two branches in $`0kb/\pi <1/2`$ are interpreted as a holon and a spinon band, and one branch in $`1/2kb/\pi <1`$ is interpreted as a holon band. The strong peaks, located above 1.0 eV for $`k/\pi =0`$ and 1/4, correspond to the $`p`$-$`d`$ bonding band. These peaks could not be clearly observed in the experimental spectra, since these features overlap with the strong ligand $`p`$-derived band, which exists in this region of the experimental spectra.

Next, we simulate the ARPES spectra of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2. We assume that the difference between \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 and Sr2CuO3 is only that in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, for simplicity. Qualitatively, $`t`$ and $`U`$ should be changed for different cation and anion atoms, but their changes are considered to be not so significant compared with that of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. To simulate the ARPES spectra of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2, we have estimated $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of this compound in the following steps. First, we consider the difference in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ due to different cation atoms. In transition-metal oxides, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is increased by about 2.0 eV on going from CuO to NiO. The difference in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ between CuS and NiS is also estimated to be about 2 eV, and therefore we consider that the difference in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ from the difference in the cation atoms is +2 eV. Next, the valencies of the cations are different between Sr2CuO3 (Cu2+) and \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 (Ni3+). In general, it is considered that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of 3$`d`$ transition-metal oxides is lowered about 2.5 eV with increasing cation valency , and here we consider that the difference is -2.5 eV. Finally, the difference in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ due to the difference in the ligand atoms are considered. For the compounds with the same cation, a decrease in ligand electronegativity will raise the ligand $`p`$ bands with respect to the metal $`d`$ orbitals, resulting in a decrease in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. From the core-level line shape analysis of CuCl2, CuO and La2CuO4, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is decreased by about 0.8-0.9 eV in going from CuO and La2CuO4 to CuCl2. There is no core-level line shape analysis for CuBr2, but its core-level spectrum is very similar to that of CuCl2. Hence we assume that the difference in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ due to the different ligand atoms (O and Br) is -1 eV. Totally, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ should be lowered by about 1.5 eV, and therefore we have taken $`\mathrm{\Delta }=1`$ for \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2. The large exchange of $`J=0.3`$ eV is obtained for the smaller $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ with same $`t`$ and $`U`$, which agrees well with the larger experimental $`J=0.31`$ eV of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2. Figure 3(c) shows the calculated spectral function for $`t`$=1, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=1`$, and $`U=7`$. Figure 3(d) shows the total spectra where the contributions from the $`p`$ states are 0.2 times smaller since He II ($`h\nu =40.8`$ eV) radiation was used for the measurements. In contrast to Fig. 3(b), only one branch is observed in $`0kb/\pi 1/2`$, and it disappears in $`1/2<kb/\pi 1`$. Consequently, the characteristic features of the experimental spectra are well explained by these parameters, which are consistent with exchange energy $`J`$. In these calculations, the hybridization between Ni 3$`d`$ and N 2$`p`$ is not considered. The N atoms of (chxn) molecules are very close to Ni atoms, and, in addition to the strong crystal field which splits the Ni 3$`d`$ level, the hybridization between the Ni 3$`d`$ and N 2$`p`$ might influence the electronic structure. Especially, the spectrum at $`kb=0`$ might be influenced by this hybridization. In the calculated spectral functions, there is a strong peak at $`1.2`$ eV in the spectrum of $`kb/\pi =0`$. This peak is considered to be a $`d`$-$`p`$ bonding band, and may be influenced by this hybridization.

Accordingly, we have successfully described the ARPES spectra of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 and Sr2CuO3 by the same $`d`$-$`p`$ chain model Hamiltonian with different charge-transfer energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Here, we relate the present results and the strong NLO effects in these compounds. The NLO effects in 1D SC system have been studied by some theoretical works, and $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ spectra have been calculated. However, such theoretical approaches require the large cluster size, and it is difficult to calculate the spectra within the framework of the present model. Therefore, we qualitatively consider the relationship between the present results and the NLO effects. The optical nonlinearity of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 is much stronger than that of Sr2CuO3, and this difference is ascribed to the difference in the dipole moment ($`0|x|1`$) between the ground state ($`|0`$) and the one-photon-allowed excited state ($`|1`$) and the dipole moment ($`1|x|2`$) between the one-photon-allowed excited state ($`|1`$) and the one-photon forbidden excited state ($`|2`$). The $`\chi ^{(3)}`$ is proportional to the square of $`0|x|1`$ and $`1|x|2`$, and therefore the material with larger $`0|x|1`$ or $`1|x|2`$ give larger NLO effect. In our analysis, the smaller charge-transfer energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for the Ni-Br system should make the $`d`$\- and $`p`$-levels hybridized well. It leads to larger spatial extensions of electron-hole wave functions in the two CT-excited states $`|1`$ and $`|2`$, and then a larger dipole moment $`1|x|2`$. Consequently, the smaller $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ gives stronger NLO effects, and we predict that \[Ni(chxn)2I\]I2, which has a lower $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, should have stronger NLO effect compared with that of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2.

In conclusion, we have studied the electronic structure of \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2 by ARPES. The essential features of the spectra are well explained by the $`d`$-$`p`$ chain model calculations with a small charge-transfer energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ compared with that of the Cu-O based 1D-SC compounds. This result is consistent with the stronger NLO effect in \[Ni(chxn)2Br\]Br2, compared with Sr2CuO3. We propose that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is an essential parameter for tuning the NLO effects of CT-type 1D-SC electron system.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors thank Prof. T. Toyama of Tohoku University and Prof. K. Nasu and Dr. N. Tomita of University of Advanced Study for imformative discussions.