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# Metal-insulator transition and charge ordering in the extended Hubbard model at one-quarter filling

Present address: \] Laboratoire de Minéralogie-cristallographie, Université Pierre et Marie curie, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France

(today)

## Abstract

We study with exact diagonalization the zero temperature properties of the quarter-filled extended Hubbard model on a square lattice. We find that increasing the ratio of the intersite Coulomb repulsion, $`V`$, to the band width drives the system from a metal to a charge ordered insulator. The evolution of the optical conductivity spectrum with increasing $`V`$ is compared to the observed optical conductivity of several layered molecular crystals with the $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ crystal structures.

Charge ordering in strongly correlated electron systems is currently under intense investigation. Charge ordering is relevant to a broad range of materials including the cupratescuprate , manganatescmr , magnetitemag , vanadium oxidesvan , and the Bechgaard salts brown . The $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ types of layered molecular crystals based on molecules such as BEDT-TTF \[= bisethylenedithio-tetrathiafulvalene\] Ishiguro , display charge ordering, metallic, and superconducting phases close to each other mi . Charge ordering driven by a strong inter-site Coulomb repulsionhubbard ; Seo  is possible in crystals with the $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ arrangements of BEDT-TTF molecules because their bands are quarter-filled with holes, in contrast to the well studied $`\kappa `$-type, for which strong dimerization of the molecules lead to a half-filled band kino . The $`\theta `$-type crystals undergo a transition from a metal to a charge ordered insulator as the temperature, pressure, uniaxial stress, or anion is variedmi ; hubbard . Furthermore, the metallic phase exhibits features characteristic of a strongly correlated system. In particular, the optical conductivity spectra display a broad mid-infrared band and a near absence of a Drude-like peakDong . This is in contrast to conventional metals, for which the total spectral weight is dominated by a Drude peak.

In this Letter, we use the results of an exact diagonalization study of the relevant extended Hubbard model to argue that the inter-site Coulomb repulsion is responsible for the observed metal-insulator transition in the $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ crystals. We show how the Drude weight decreases as the inter-site Coulomb repulsion, $`V`$, is increased, until, at a finite value of $`V`$, a transition to an insulating phase occurs. Simultaneously, long range charge ordering gradually sets in. We further find that a redistribution of the optical conductivity spectra occurs close to the metal-insulator transition. This finding is in qualitative agreement with experimental data on $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ organic salts Tajima ; Wang ; Dong ; Ouyang .

The quarter-filled extended Hubbard model on a square lattice is the simplest strongly correlated model that can potentially describe the competition between metallic, superconducting, and insulating phases in the $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ materials McKenzie ; merino . The Hamiltonian is

$`H=`$ $`t`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{<ij>,\sigma }{}}(c_{i\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+c_{j\sigma }^{}c_{i\sigma })+U{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}n_in_i`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`V{\displaystyle \underset{<ij>}{}}n_in_j`$
where $`c_{i\sigma }^{}`$ creates an electron of spin $`\sigma `$ at site $`i`$. For $`V=0`$, previous calculations suggest that the system is metallic with no charge order DagottoRMP . In the limit of $`U,Vt`$ the double occupation of sites is suppressed and the ground state is insulating with checkerboard charge ordering and long range antiferromagnetic correlations along the diagonals McKenzie .

In the present work we consider large (but finite) $`U/t`$ and vary $`V/t`$ parameters . Previously, an SU(N) generalisation of the model with $`U\mathrm{}`$, was studied in the large N limit using slave bosonsMcKenzie ; merino . It was found that as $`V/t`$ increased there was a transition from a metallic phase to a superconducting phase (with $`d_{xy}`$ symmetry) to a charge ordered phase. Given this potentially rich phase diagram it is important to determine whether or not these previous results are an artefact of the approximations used or whether they reflect the actual physics (N=2 and finite $`U/t`$). Exact diagonalization of small systems provides such a test. Previously, similar models with more parameters, aimed at a more realistic description of the details of the materials, have been studied by Hartree-FockSeo , and quantum Monte Carloclay1 , and exact diagonalizationClay . We performed a Lanczos calculation on $`L=8,16,20`$ site clustersDagottoRMP  avoiding uncompensated spin moments in the cluster ($`N_{}=N_{}`$ ) at quarter-filling: $`<n>=1/2`$. A powerful method to determine from small systems whether the bulk system is metallic or insulating is to evaluate the Drude weight $`D`$ Kohn ; DagottotU ; Scalapino . It is given by

$$\frac{D}{2\pi e^2}=\frac{0|T|0}{4L}\frac{1}{L}\underset{n0}{}\frac{|n|j_x|0|^2}{E_nE_0}$$
(2)
where $`E_0`$ and $`E_n`$, denote the ground state and excited state energies of the system, respectively. $`T`$ is the kinetic energy operator and $`j_x`$ is the current operator in the $`x`$ direction at zero wavevector ($`𝐪=0`$). The occurrence of an insulating phase is marked by the exponential vanishing of $`D`$ with the linear size of the system $`L_x=\sqrt{L}`$ Kohn ; Scalapino ; chargeg .

In Fig. 1 we plot the Drude weight as a function of $`V/t`$, for $`L=16`$ and different values of $`U/t`$. For $`U=10t`$ we also plot the Drude weight for the cluster with $`L=20`$. As the Coulomb nearest-neighbors repulsion is gradually increased, the Drude weight decreases until it eventually vanishes. For $`L=16`$ we estimate the critical value for the metal-insulator transition to be $`V_c^{MI}2.2t`$; for this value, the Drude weight becomes of the order of $`10^3`$ and stays of this order up to $`V=5t`$. For $`L=20`$ we do not find any significant change in the dependence of the Drude weight with $`V`$, meaning that the finite size effects in the Drude weight are weak. This is confirmed in the inset of Fig. 1 which shows the finite-size scaling of the Drude weight. Indeed, we find that for $`V>V_c^{MI}2.2t`$, the Drude weight displays an exponential dependence with $`1/L_x`$, as expected for an insulatorKohn ; Scalapino . It extrapolates to values of the order of $`10^5`$ in the thermodynamic limit. In contrast, for $`V<V_c^{MI}`$, the Drude weight is weakly dependent on $`1/L_x`$ extrapolating to a finite value in the thermodynamic limit, consistent with a metallic state.

The occurrence of charge ordering can be investigated by computing the charge correlation function

$$C(𝐪)=\frac{1}{L}\underset{ij}{}e^{i𝐪(𝐑_𝐢𝐑_𝐣)}<n_in_j>$$
(3)
where $`𝐪`$ are the allowed momenta on the cluster. We find that at $`V=0`$, $`C(𝐪)`$ is featureless. As $`V`$ is increased, $`C(𝐪)`$ peaks at $`𝐪=𝐐(\pi ,\pi )`$, signalling checkerboard charge ordering. In our calculations we do not find any evidence for other charge ordering patterns, such as those found in References Seo ; Clay . The system has long range charge ordering if $`C(𝐐)`$ remains finite in the thermodynamic limit. In Fig. 2 we plot $`C(𝐐)`$ as a function of $`1/L`$. A linear dependence with $`1/L`$ is expected for the finite size scaling of an order parameter with a discrete symmetry in two dimensionsBrezin . For $`V=0`$, we observe that the linear extrapolation of $`C(𝐐)`$ (using $`L=16,20`$) to the infinite volume limit tends to zero, i.e., the charge is homogeneously distributed in the lattice. We find that the extrapolation of a linear fit of $`L=8,16,20`$ to the thermodynamic limit becomes finite at about $`V_c^{CO}1.6t`$ extrapol . If we decrease $`U`$ the critical value $`V_c^{CO}`$ increases. This is because doubly-occupied sites proliferate so that inducing the checkerboard charge ordered state becomes energetically less favorable. Further insight into the transition can be obtained by computing the charge ordering parameterVojta , $`\eta =\sqrt{C(𝐐)/<n^2>}`$. A non-zero $`\eta `$ means long range charge ordering. In particular, for $`\eta =1`$ the checkerboard charge ordered state is fully formed, while for $`\eta =0`$ the charge is homogeneously distributed in the lattice. At $`V=2.2t`$ we find that the checkerboard is close to being completed, $`\eta 0.75`$. We note that the results we find here are different from the ones obtained in two-leg ladders Vojta  where a transition from an homogeneous insulating phase to a charge ordered insulating phase takes place. This difference is due to the one-dimensional nature of the two-leg ladder.

At this stage we can provide a physical interpretation of our findings. Only when $`V`$ is sufficiently large so that the checkerboard charge ordered state is nearly completed, a transition to an insulating state is possible. This is because moving an electron within the checkerboard ordered state would cost an energy of $`3V`$, which is comparable to the bandwidth, $`W=8t`$. As a consequence electrons can become localized. As an aside we note that Fig. 1 shows that increasing $`U`$ from $`10t`$ to $`20t`$, leads to only a slight decrease in the critical value, $`V_c^{MI}`$. This contradicts the results obtained by Ohta et al. Ohta  who claim that $`V_cU/4`$. We note that the critical value $`V_c^{MI}`$ for large $`U`$ follows the tendency encountered in one-dimensional rings Mila  and two-leg ladders Vojta  for which $`V_c^{MI}`$ decreases to $`2t`$ as $`U\mathrm{}`$.

Since we find that $`V_c^{MI}>V_c^{CO}`$, it might be possible that a charge ordered metallic state is realized in the range: $`V_c^{CO}<V<V_c^{MI}`$. However, caution is in order because the former value is quite sensitive to finite-size effects. A possible candidate for this phase is the quarter-filled organic crystal: $`\beta `$”-(BEDT-TTF)2SF5CH2CF2SO3, which displays metallic behavior of the resistivity and at the same time charge disproportion in alternate moleculesSchlueter .

In order to further our understanding of the metal-insulator transition and make contact with experiments on $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ materials, we have also computed the real part, $`\sigma (\omega )`$, of the optical conductivityfavand  at frequency $`\omega `$,

$$\sigma (\omega )=D\delta (\omega )+\frac{\pi e^2}{L}\underset{n0}{}\frac{|n|j_x|0|^2}{E_nE_0}\delta (\omega E_n+E_0).$$
(4)
It obeys the following sum ruleMaldague

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}\sigma (\omega )𝑑\omega =\frac{\pi e^2}{2L}<0|T|0>.$$
(5)
In Fig. 3 we plot the evolution of the optical conductivity for different values of $`V/t`$ and $`L=20`$. We also found that the plots were qualitatively similar for $`L=16`$ (not shown). For the regular Hubbard model, i.e. $`V=0`$ (Fig. 3 (a)), there are two features at non-zero frequency. The highest energy feature is related to transitions associated with the Hubbard bands and the other is the “mid-infrared” band, previously found by Dagotto et al.DagottotU . At $`V=1.8t`$ (Fig. 3 (b)), the Drude peak is reduced (see Fig. 1), signalling the incipient localization of the charge carriers. Spectral weight is transferred from both the Hubbard feature and the Drude peak to the mid-infrared band found at $`V=0`$. This effect is more clearly observed for $`V=2t`$ in Fig. 3 (c): the Drude peak is further suppressed and most of the spectral weight appears at low frequencies, in the range $`V<\omega <3V`$. Increasing $`V`$ further to just below $`V_{MI}`$ gives a similar shape of the optical conductivity (not shown) with a very small Drude weight. Finally, Fig. 3 (d) shows the optical conductivity on the insulating side of the transition: $`V=3t`$. An optical gap opens and most of the spectral weight concentrates at larger frequencies building up a single broad resonance. If $`V`$ is further increased, $`V>>U/4`$, then the band associated with charge excitations due to $`V`$ appears above the Hubbard band situated near $`\omega U`$, as discussed by Ohta et al. Ohta . In summary, Fig. 3 shows that close to the metal-insulator transition the optical conductivity is dominated by the ”mid-infrared” feature, for both metallic and insulating phases. We now discuss how this is what is observed in the $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$ materials.

The optical conductivity we find close to the metal-insulator transition, $`VV_c^{MI}`$, is qualitatively similar to the optical conductivity of $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$-(BEDT-TTF)2SF5CH2CF2SO3, measured by Dong et al. Dong  (at a temperature, $`T=14`$ K). Indeed, the small spectral weight at zero frequency found here is consistent with their failure to observe a Drude peak, even though the system is metallic. Also their observation of large spectral weight at low frequencies is consistent with the mid-infrared band we find in our calculations. At $`VV_c^{MI}`$, the system is still on the metallic side of the metal-insulator transition which is consistent with the observed metallic behavior of the resistivity. From the above discussion we conclude that $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$\- (BEDT-TTF)2SF5CH2CF2SO3 is a metal close to a metal-insulator transition. This assertion is corroborated by the fact that an external perturbation, such as a magnetic fieldwosnitza1  or pressureWosnitza , or replacing the anion CH2CF2 by CH2 Ward , drives the system into an insulating phase.

Optical conductivity measurements on the $`\theta `$-type crystals all show a broad feature from around 1000 to 5000 cm-1 Tamura ; Tajima ; Wang ; Ouyang . We assign this to the ”mid-infrared” band. We now compare this interpretation to previous work. $`\theta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2CsZn(SCN)4, is a metal above 20 K and an insulator below 20 K. The frequency-dependent conductivity from 650 to 5000 cm-1 at temperatures above 20 K shows a feature from 650 to about 1200 cm-1 Tajima , which Tajima et al. assigned to a Drude peak, with a phenomenological damping rate of 0.1 eV $``$ 800 cm-1. $`\theta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 is a metal which undergoes a transition to a superconductor at 3.6 K. Tamura et al. Tamura  measured the optical conductivity from about 700 to 4000 cm-1 in the metallic phase. They assign the spectrum below about 1000 cm-1 to the tail of a Drude peak with a phenomenological damping rate of 400 to 800 cm-1, depending on the temperature. We disagree with the assignment of these low energy features to a Drude peak because it requires large scattering rates, comparable to $`t`$, implying a “bad” metal. In the $`\kappa `$ materials the observed widths of the Drude peak (and thus the scattering rate) at low temperatures are orders of magnitude smaller than this, typically of the order of tens of cm-1 eldridge . We would assign all of the spectrum observed for $`\theta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 Tamura  to the ”mid-infrared” band. The experiment of Tamura et al.Tamura  did not go to low enough frequencies to observe the actual Drude peak. The feature in $`\theta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2CsZn(SCN)4 that Tajima et al. Tajima  assigned to a Drude peak we would assign to a phonon (and possibly its interference with the tail of the ”mid-infrared” band) for the following reason. The optical conductivity spectrum of $`\theta `$-(BEDT-TTF)2RbCo(SCN)4 was studied in detail by Tajima et al.Tajima . This material becomes a charge ordered insulator below 190 K. In slowly cooled samples the only significant spectral weight below 2000 cm-1 is a phonon around 1200 cm-1 (compare Fig. 5(a) in Ref. Tajima, ). If the sample is quenched (i.e., rapidly cooled) there is a broad feature around this frequency. In the organics such quenching is usually associated with significant amounts of disorder stalcup .

Tajima et al. Tajima  assigned the second broad feature extending from above about 1200 cm-1 to domains associated with the onset of charge ordering. This was based on the calculated optical conductivity for a mean-field solution of the extended Hubbard model. Although we have essentially the same assignment as theirs for the ”mid-infrared” band we note that their mean-field calculation cannot actually produce this feature in the metallic phase. This underscores the many-body physics underlying this feature and the need for our exact diagonalization calculation.

We suggest two possible reasons for the absence of the Hubbard resonance in the experimental spectra. First, Fig. 3 (c) and (d) suggest that most of the spectral weight from it is transfered to the ”mid-infrared” band Second, it could be at a frequency above the range of the experiments. The most reliable estimates put $`UV0.5`$ eV $`4000`$ cm-1 parameters . If $`V2t0.1`$ eV McKenzie , Fig. 3 (c) would put the mid-infrared band extending from about 1000 cm-1 to 4000 cm-1 and the Hubbard band feature roughly around 6000 cm-1. The latter is near the edge of many of the experimental plots.

In summary, we have shown that increasing the nearest-neighbors Coulomb repulsion, $`V`$, for the quarter-filled extended Hubbard model on the square lattice, leads to an insulating phase for $`V>2.2t`$. The calculated optical conductivity spectra close to the metal-insulator transition is consistent with experimental data on several $`\theta `$ and $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$\- type molecular crystals. At $`VV_c^{MI}`$, the Drude peak is strongly supressed and the spectral weight is dominated by a broad ”mid-infrared” band associated with short-range charge ordering.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank O. Gunnarsson for making available his exact diagonalization code, E. Koch, M. Capone, F. Becca, M. Dressel, and M. Brunner for very helpful discussions, and the Max-Planck-Forschungspreis for financial support. J.M. was supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Community programme ”Improving Human Potential” under contract No. HPMF-CT-2000-00870 and R.H.M. by the Australian Research council.


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# A class of generalized gamma functions

## 1. Introduction

Analogues of the gamma function $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)`$ have been proposed and studied by L.Bendersky , E.L.Post, S.Ramanujan  and other authors such as F.H.Jackson which introduces a $`q`$-gamma function defined as an infinite product.

Euler’s original definition of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)`$ is

(1.1)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)=\frac{1}{s}\underset{n^{}}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{n})^s}{(1+\frac{s}{n})}$$

and many representations of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)`$ as integrals involving classical functions can be found in classical manuals (see  for example).

Our paper differs from previous approachs and study a modified gamma function discribed by formula $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)=_{n0}(1+\frac{1}{a+nr})^s(1+\frac{s}{a+nr})^1`$ closed to Euler’s definition. However, no simple integral formula (involving classical functions distinct from Euler gamma function) has been obtained as an alternative description of the function $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)`$.

The paper is organized as follows: main properties of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)`$ are summed in proposition 3.2 and proofs of results of this section are concentrated in section 4. Section 2 states few properties of infinite products defined by formula 2.1.

## 2. Preliminaries

For a real sequence $`𝔸=(a_n)_{n0}`$ such that $`1+\frac{1}{a_n}>0`$ for all $`n`$, we formally put

(2.1)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(s)=\underset{n0}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{a_n})^s}{(1+\frac{s}{a_n})}$$

Clearly $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(0)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(1)=1`$.

###### Definition 2.1.

Let $`𝔸=(a_i)_{i𝕀}`$ be a subset of $``$. For $`\alpha ^{}`$ and $`n`$, we define

$`\frac{𝔸}{\alpha }=(\frac{a_i}{\alpha })_{i𝕀}`$ ; $`𝔸+\alpha =(a_i+\alpha )_{i𝕀}`$ ; $`𝔸^n=(a_i^n)_{i𝕀}`$

###### Proposition 2.2.

We assume that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n=1}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{1}{a_n^2}<+\mathrm{}`$. One has the following properties:

1. The function $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(s)`$ is defined and meromorphic on $``$ with poles only at $`s=a_n`$ for $`n`$ and never vanishes on $`(𝔸)`$.
2. For $`\alpha ^{}`$ and $`s(\frac{𝔸}{\alpha })`$, one has:

(2.2)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(\alpha s)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(\alpha )^s\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\frac{𝔸}{\alpha }}(s)$$
3. Assuming $`a_n\pm 1`$ for all $`n`$, one has, for $`s(\pm 𝔸)`$

(2.3)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(s)=\mu _𝔸^{ss^2}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{𝔸^2}(s^2)}$$

with $`\mu _𝔸=_{n0}(1\frac{1}{a_n^2})`$.

In this context, the strictly positive real number $`e^{\gamma _A}=_{n0}(1+\frac{1}{a_n})e^{\frac{1}{a_n}}`$ is well defined and one has, for $`s(𝔸)`$:

(2.4)
$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_A^{}(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_A(s)}=\gamma _A+\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{s}{a_n(a_n+s)}$$

Choosing $`𝔸=^{}`$, we get $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)=\frac{1}{s}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(s)`$ with $`\gamma _A`$ equal to the Euler constant $`\gamma `$.

Proof:
Putting $`J_n=[0,n]`$ for $`n`$, one has, for $`s`$:

(2.5)
$$\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{a_k})^s}{(1+\frac{s}{a_k})}=\frac{_{kJ_n}\left((1+\frac{1}{a_k})e^{\frac{1}{a_k}}\right)^s}{_{kJ_n}(1+\frac{s}{a_k})e^{\frac{s}{a_k}}}$$

The sequence of entire functions $`s_{kJ_n}(1+\frac{s}{a_k})e^{\frac{s}{a_k}}`$ is uniformly convergent (as $`n+\mathrm{}`$) on compact sets of $``$ to the entire function $`s_n^{}(1+\frac{s}{a_k})e^{\frac{s}{a_k}}`$ which vanishes only at points $`s`$ satisfying $`(1+\frac{s}{a_k})e^{\frac{s}{a_k}}=0`$, ie for $`s𝔸`$. Clearly

$$\underset{kJ_n}{}\left((1+\frac{1}{a_k})e^{\frac{1}{a_k}}\right)^se^{\gamma _𝔸s}$$

as $`n`$ tends to $`+\mathrm{}`$, uniformly for $`s`$ in a compact set of $``$. Thus, formula 2.1 defines a meromorphic function on $``$ with poles only at $`s=a_k`$ for $`n0`$, as a quotient of two entire functions.
For formula 2.2, omitting terms of the form $`e^{\pm \frac{1}{a_k}}`$, it suffice to prove the equality for $`s^+`$ and formula holds for a general $`s(\frac{𝔸}{\alpha })`$ by analytic continuation. One has, for $`\alpha ^+`$

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(\alpha s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(\alpha )^s}=\text{lim}_n\mathrm{}\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{a_k})^{\alpha s}}{(1+\frac{\alpha s}{a_k})}\left[\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{(1+\frac{\alpha }{a_k})}{(1+\frac{1}{a_k})^\alpha }\right]^s$$

$$=\text{lim}_n\mathrm{}\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{(1+\frac{\alpha }{a_k})^s}{(1+\frac{\alpha s}{a_k})}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\frac{𝔸}{\alpha }}(s)$$

For formula 2.3, one has:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(s)=\underset{n0}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{a_n})^s}{(1+\frac{s}{a_n})}=\underset{n0}{}\frac{(1\frac{1}{a_n^2})^s}{(1\frac{1}{a_n})^s}\frac{(1\frac{s}{a_n})}{(1\frac{s^2}{a_n^2})}$$

$$=\underset{n0}{}\frac{(1\frac{1}{a_n^2})^{s^2}}{(1\frac{1}{a_n})^s}\frac{(1\frac{s}{a_n})}{(1\frac{s^2}{a_n^2})}\frac{(1\frac{1}{a_n^2})^s}{(1\frac{1}{a_n^2})^{s^2}}=\mu _𝔸^{ss^2}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_𝔸(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{𝔸^2}(s^2)}$$

We note the

###### Proposition 2.3.

The functional equation satisfied by the Riemann zeta function is:

(2.6)
$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2^{}(s)\zeta (s)}{2^ss}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2^{}(1s)\zeta (1s)}{2^{1s}(1s)}$$

This equality is the starting point of this work.

Proof:
Since $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{2})=\sqrt{\pi }`$, the functional equation takes the form

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s}{2})\zeta (s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{2})^s}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1s}{2})\zeta (1s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{2})^{1s}}$$

hence, from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)=\frac{1}{s}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(s)`$

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(\frac{s}{2})\zeta (s)}{2^ss\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(\frac{1}{2})^s}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(\frac{1s}{2})\zeta (1s)}{2^{1s}(1s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(\frac{1}{2})^{1s}}$$

Taking $`𝔸=^{}`$ and $`\alpha =\frac{1}{2}`$ in formula 2.2 gives

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(\frac{s}{2})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{^{}}(\frac{1}{2})^s}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_2^{}(s)$$

A direct substitution imply formula 2.6.

## 3. Properties of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}`$ functions

Let $`𝔸=(a+nr)_{n0}=a+r`$ be an arithmetical sequence with reason $`r>0`$ and first element $`a>0`$ (or with reason $`r<0`$ and first element $`a<1`$). We define

(3.1)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)=\underset{n0}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{a+nr})^s}{(1+\frac{s}{a+nr})}$$

This formula is closed to Euler’s definition 1.1 of gamma function expressed as an infinite product. The $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}`$ function is expressed by 3.6 in a non-natural way in terms of the well-known $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ function in order to obtain shorter proofs of some properties of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}`$ functions. Some properties of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}`$ are more natural from explicit formula 3.1. We note that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)=\frac{1}{s}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{1,1}(s)`$ and formula 2.6 becomes

(3.2)
$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{2,2}(s)\zeta (s)}{2^ss}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{2,2}(1s)\zeta (1s)}{2^{1s}(1s)}$$

Following section 2, we put

(3.3)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)=\underset{n0}{}(1\frac{s^2}{(a+nr)^2})=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)}$$

$$e^{\gamma _{a,r}}=\underset{n0}{}(1+\frac{1}{a+nr})e^{\frac{1}{a+nr}}$$

###### Lemma 3.1.

Let $`\mathrm{\Psi }(s)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^{}(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)}`$. One has, for $`s𝔸`$:

(3.4)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r})}$$

(3.5)
$$e^{\gamma _{a,r}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})}e^{\frac{1}{r}\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})}$$

(3.6)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a}{r})\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^s}$$

###### Proposition 3.2.

The function $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)`$ has the following properties

1. For $`s𝔸`$

(3.7)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+r)=\alpha ^r\frac{s+a}{r}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)$$

with $`\alpha =\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})}`$.
2. Complement’s formula

(3.8)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(rs)=(1\frac{s}{a})\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(r)}{\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)}$$
3. Duplication formula

(3.9)
$$(2^{2s})^{\frac{1}{r}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+\frac{r}{2})=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{r}{2})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(a)}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(2s+a)$$

with

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{r}{2})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(a)}=\frac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2^{\frac{2a}{r}1}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{a\frac{r}{2}}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{1+a\frac{r}{2}}}$$
4. Multiplication formula

$$n^{\frac{ns}{r}}\underset{k=0}{\overset{k=n1}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+k\frac{r}{n})=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{r}{n})\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{kr}{n})\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{(n1)r}{n})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}((n1)a)}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(ns+(n1)a)$$

with

(3.10)
$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{r}{n})\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{kr}{n})\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{(n1)r}{n})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}((n1)a)}=\frac{(2\pi )^{\frac{n1}{2}}}{n^{\frac{na}{r}\frac{1}{2}}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{(n1)(a\frac{r}{2})}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{(n1)(a+1\frac{r}{2})}}$$

Thus, the triple formula may be written as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(3s+2a)=\text{Cte}\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}3}^{\frac{3s}{r}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+\frac{r}{3})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+\frac{2r}{3})$$

with

$$\text{Cte}=\frac{3^{\frac{3a}{r}\frac{1}{2}}}{\sqrt{2\pi }}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{2+2ar}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{2ar}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(2a)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{r}{3})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(\frac{2r}{3})}$$

We put $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{a,r}(s)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}^{}(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)}`$. One has, for $`s(a+r)`$:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_{a,r}(s)=\frac{1}{r}\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{s+a}{r})+\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})$$

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_{a,r}(s+r)\mathrm{\Psi }_{a,r}(s)=\frac{1}{s+a}$$

Various properties are

###### Proposition 3.3.

Let $`\beta (,)`$ be the usual beta function. We assume $`a>0`$ and $`r>0`$. With obvious notations, one has:

1. For $`n^{}`$

(3.11)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,nr}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a+r,nr}(s)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a+kr,nr}(s)\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a+(n1)r,nr}(s)$$

and

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,nr}(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a+kr,nr}(s)}=\frac{\beta (\frac{s+a}{nr};\frac{k}{n})}{\beta (\frac{a}{nr};\frac{k}{n})}\frac{\beta (\frac{a}{nr};\frac{k}{n})^s}{\beta (\frac{a+1}{nr};\frac{k}{n})^s}=\frac{\beta (\frac{s}{nr};\frac{a+kr}{nr})}{\beta (\frac{s}{nr};\frac{a}{nr})}\frac{\beta (\frac{a}{nr};\frac{1}{nr})^s}{\beta (\frac{a+kr}{nr};\frac{1}{nr})^s}$$
2. For suitable $`s`$ and $`h`$, one has

(3.12)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ah,r}(s+h)=Cq^s\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)$$

with

$$C=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{ah}{r})^{h1}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{ah}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^h}\text{and}q=\frac{\beta (\frac{ah}{r};\frac{1}{r})}{\beta (\frac{a}{r};\frac{1}{r})}=\frac{\beta (\frac{a+1}{r};\frac{h}{r})}{\beta (\frac{a}{r};\frac{h}{r})}$$
3. One has

(3.13)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(r)^{\frac{s}{r}}}{(\frac{a}{r})^{\frac{s}{r}}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s}{r}+\frac{a}{r})$$

When $`a=r`$, the function $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(s)`$ becomes

(3.14)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(s)=\underset{n^{}}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{an})^s}{(1+\frac{s}{an})}$$

with properties

(3.15)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,a}(s)=a\frac{\mathrm{sin}(\pi \frac{s}{a})}{\pi s}$$

(3.16)
$$e^{\gamma _{a,a}}=_{def}\underset{n^{}}{}(1+\frac{1}{an})e^{\frac{1}{an}}=\frac{e^{\frac{\gamma }{a}}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\frac{1}{a})}\gamma \text{Euler constant}$$

(3.17)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(s)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\frac{s}{a})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\frac{1}{a})^s}$$

(3.18)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(s+a)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\frac{1}{a})^a}\frac{s+a}{a}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(s)$$

(3.19)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(as)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\frac{1}{a})^a}(1\frac{s}{a})\frac{\pi \frac{s}{a}}{\mathrm{sin}(\pi \frac{s}{a})}$$

(3.20)
$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(\frac{a}{b}s)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,a}(\frac{a}{b})^s\mathrm{\Gamma }_{b,b}(s)$$

(3.21)
$$\mathrm{\Psi }_{a,a}(s)=\frac{1}{a}\mathrm{\Psi }(1+\frac{s}{a})\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\frac{1}{a})$$

###### Proposition 3.4.

For $`\lambda 0`$

(3.22)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)=\mathrm{sin}_{\lambda a,\lambda r}(\lambda s)=\mathrm{sin}_{\frac{a}{r},1}(\frac{s}{r})$$

(3.23)
$$\frac{\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s+r)}{(\frac{s}{r}\frac{a}{r}+1)}=\frac{\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)}{(\frac{s}{r}+\frac{a}{r})}$$

(3.24)
$$\frac{\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s+\frac{r}{2})}{(\frac{s}{r}\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{2})}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{2})}\mathrm{sin}_{a+\frac{r}{2},r}(s)$$

(3.25)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a\frac{r}{2},r}(s)=(1\frac{s^2}{(a\frac{r}{2})^2})\mathrm{sin}_{a+\frac{r}{2},r}(s)$$

For $`n^{}`$

(3.26)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(ns)=\mathrm{sin}_{\frac{a}{n},r}(s)\mathrm{sin}_{\frac{a}{n}+\frac{r}{n},r}(s)\mathrm{}\mathrm{sin}_{\frac{a}{n}+\frac{kr}{n},r}(s)\mathrm{}\mathrm{sin}_{\frac{a}{n}+\frac{(n1)r}{n},r}(s)$$

Taking $`n=2`$ in formula 3.26, we find

(3.27)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(2s)=\mathrm{sin}_{\frac{a}{2},r}(s)\mathrm{sin}_{\frac{a}{2}+\frac{r}{2},r}(s)$$

Classical descriptions of $`\mathrm{sin}(s)`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}(s)`$ as infinite product are equivalent to

$$\frac{sin(\pi s)}{\pi s}=sin_{1,1}(s)\text{et}cos(\pi s)=sin_{\frac{1}{2},1}(s)$$

with the following properties

$$sin_{\frac{1}{2},1}(s)=\pi (s+\frac{1}{2})sin_{1,1}(s+\frac{1}{2})$$

$$sin_{\frac{1}{2},1}(s+1)=sin_{\frac{1}{2},1}(s)$$

due to $`cos(\pi s)=\mathrm{sin}(\pi s+\frac{\pi }{2})`$ and periodicity of $`\mathrm{cos}(s)`$. And $`sin(2\pi s)=2sin(\pi s)cos(\pi s)`$ expresses as

$$sin_{1,1}(2s)=sin_{1,1}(s)sin_{\frac{1}{2},1}(s)=\pi (s+\frac{1}{2})sin_{1,1}(s)sin_{1,1}(s+\frac{1}{2})$$

which agree with formulas 3.27 and 3.24 choosing $`a=1`$ and $`r=1`$.

## 4. Proofs

Proof of lemma 3.1:
One has from  formula 8.364

$$\underset{n0}{}(1+\frac{w}{a+nr})e^{\frac{w}{a+nr}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{w}{r})}e^{\frac{w}{r}\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})}$$

hence $`w=1`$ gives formula 3.5. Choosing $`w=\pm s`$ gives formula 3.4. For $`s`$

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)=\underset{n0}{}\frac{\left[(1+\frac{1}{a+nr})e^{\frac{1}{a+nr}}\right]^s}{(1+\frac{s}{a+nr})e^{\frac{s}{a+nr}}}=\frac{\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^s}e^{\frac{s}{r}\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})}}{\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r})}e^{\frac{s}{r}\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})}}$$

thus, by analytic continuation and proposition 2.2

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)=\frac{\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^s}}{\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r})}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^s}$$

Proof of proposition 3.2:
Let $`\alpha =\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})}`$. One has:

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+r)}=\frac{1}{\alpha ^r}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+r+a}{r})}=\frac{1}{\alpha ^r}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a}{r})}{\frac{s+a}{r}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a}{r})}=\frac{1}{\alpha ^r}\frac{r}{s+a}$$

For complement formula 3.8, with $`J_n=[0,n]`$ for $`n`$, one has, for $`s`$:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(rs)=\text{lim}_n\mathrm{}\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{1}{1+\frac{s}{a+kr}}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{a+kr})^r}{(1+\frac{rs}{a+kr})}$$

At fixed $`n`$, the denominator is

$$\left((1+\frac{s}{a})\frac{(a+r+s)}{(a+r)}\frac{(a+2r+s)}{(a+2r)}\mathrm{}\frac{(a+nr+s)}{(a+nr)}\right)\left(\frac{(a+rs)}{a}\frac{(a+2rs)}{(a+r)}\mathrm{}\frac{(a+(n+1)rs)}{(a+nr)}\right)$$

$$=(1+\frac{s}{a})\left[\left(\frac{(a+r)^2s^2}{(a+r)^2}\right)\left(\frac{(a+2r)^2s^2}{(a+2r)^2}\right)\mathrm{}\left(\frac{(a+nr)^2s^2}{(a+nr)^2}\right)\right]\frac{(a+(n+1)rs)}{a}$$

$$=\frac{1}{(1\frac{s}{a})}\left[(1\frac{s^2}{a^2})(1\frac{s^2}{(a+r)^2})(1\frac{s^2}{(a+2r)^2})\mathrm{}(1\frac{s^2}{(a+nr)^2})\right]\frac{(a+(n+1)rs)}{a}$$

Thus

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(rs)=\text{lim}_n\mathrm{}(1\frac{s}{a})\frac{a}{(a+(n+1)rs)}\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{(1+\frac{1}{a+kr})^r}{(1\frac{s^2}{(a+kr)^2})}$$

One has

$$\underset{kJ_n}{}(1+\frac{1}{a+kr})^r=\underset{kJ_n}{}\left((1+\frac{1}{a+kr})e^{\frac{1}{a+kr}}\right)^re^{_{kJ_n}\frac{r}{a+kr}}$$

$$\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{r}{a+kr}=\mathrm{\Psi }(1+n+\frac{a}{r})\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})$$

Clearly, as $`n+\mathrm{}`$

$$\underset{kJ_n}{}(1\frac{s^2}{(a+kr)^2})\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)$$

$$\underset{kJ_n}{}\left((1+\frac{1}{a+kr})e^{\frac{1}{a+kr}}\right)^re^{r\gamma _{a,r}}$$

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(1+n+\frac{a}{r})=\mathrm{ln}(1+n+\frac{a}{r})\frac{1}{2(1+n+\frac{a}{r})}+O\left(\frac{1}{n^2}\right)$$

hence

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(rs)=(1\frac{s}{a})\frac{e^{r\gamma _{a,r}}}{\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)}e^{\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})}\text{lim}_n\mathrm{}\underset{kJ_n}{}\frac{1}{(1+\frac{(n+1)rs}{a})e^{\mathrm{\Psi }(1+n+\frac{a}{r})}}$$

But

$$\underset{kJ_n}{}(1+\frac{(n+1)rs}{a})e^{\mathrm{\Psi }(1+n+\frac{a}{r})}=(1+\frac{(n+1)rs}{a})e^{\mathrm{ln}(1+n+\frac{a}{r})+\frac{1}{2n}+O\left(\frac{1}{n^2}\right)}\frac{r}{a}$$

thus

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(rs)=\frac{r}{a}(1\frac{s}{a})\frac{e^{r\gamma _{a,r}}}{\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)}e^{\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})}$$

and $`s=0`$ gives

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(r)=\frac{r}{a}e^{r\gamma _{a,r}}e^{\mathrm{\Psi }(\frac{a}{r})}$$

showing 3.8 for $`s`$, hence for $`s(a+r)`$ by analytic continuation.
We prove multiplication formula. Putting $`x=\frac{s+a}{r}`$ and using formula 3.6, one has

$$\underset{k=0}{\overset{k=n1}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+k\frac{r}{n})=\underset{k=0}{\overset{k=n1}{}}\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a}{r}+\frac{k}{n})\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{s+\frac{kr}{n}}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{s+\frac{kr}{n}}}$$

$$=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^n}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(x)\mathrm{\Gamma }(x+\frac{1}{n})\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }(x+\frac{k}{n})\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }(x+\frac{n1}{n})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{ns+\frac{(n1)r}{2}}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{ns+\frac{(n1)r}{2}}}$$

From Gauss formula

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(nx)=(2\pi )^{\frac{1n}{2}}n^{nx\frac{1}{2}}\underset{k=0}{\overset{k=n1}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(x+\frac{k}{n})$$

and

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(ns+(n1)a)\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{(a+s)na}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{(a+s)na1}}=\mathrm{\Gamma }(nx)$$

we get that

$$\underset{k=0}{\overset{k=n1}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+k\frac{r}{n})=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{ann+a+1+\frac{(n1)r}{2}}}{(2\pi )^{\frac{1n}{2}}n^{nx\frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{ana+\frac{(n1)r}{2}}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(ns+(n1)a)$$

thus

$$(2\pi )^{\frac{1n}{2}}n^{\frac{ns}{r}}n^{\frac{na}{r}\frac{1}{2}}\underset{k=0}{\overset{k=n1}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s+k\frac{r}{n})=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^{ana+\frac{(n1)r}{2}}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^{ann+a+1+\frac{(n1)r}{2}}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(ns+(n1)a)$$

which agree with 3.10. Taking $`n=2`$, we get formula 3.9.

Proof of proposition 3.3:
We prove 1) of proposition 3.3. Formula 3.11 follows from formula 3.1. From formula 3.6, one has

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,nr}(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a+kr,nr}(s)}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+kr}{nr})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{nr})}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a}{nr})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a+kr}{nr})}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{nr})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+kr}{nr})^s}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+kr+1}{nr})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+1}{nr})^s}$$

Multiplying by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{k}{n})`$ or by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s}{nr})`$, one has:

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+kr}{nr})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{nr})}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a}{nr})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{s+a+kr}{nr})}=\frac{\beta (\frac{s+a}{nr};\frac{k}{n})}{\beta (\frac{a}{nr};\frac{k}{n})}=\frac{\beta (\frac{s}{nr};\frac{a+kr}{nr})}{\beta (\frac{s}{nr};\frac{a}{nr})}$$

In the same way

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{nr})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+kr}{nr})^s}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+kr+1}{nr})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a+1}{nr})^s}=\frac{\beta (\frac{a}{nr};\frac{k}{n})^s}{\beta (\frac{a+1}{nr};\frac{k}{n})^s}=\frac{\beta (\frac{a}{nr};\frac{1}{nr})^s}{\beta (\frac{a+kr}{nr};\frac{1}{nr})^s}$$

For 2), one has

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ah,r}(s+h)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(s)}=C\left[\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{ah}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{ah}{r}+\frac{1}{r})}\right]^s$$

with

$$C=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{ah}{r})^{h1}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{ah}{r}+\frac{1}{r})^h}$$

With a similar method, we get formula 3.12.
For 2), let $`𝔸`$ be the sequence $`\{a+nr\}_{n0}`$. From 2.2 with $`\alpha =r`$, we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(rs)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(r)^s\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\frac{a}{r},1}(s)$$

From formula 3.6

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\frac{a}{r},1}(s)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}\mathrm{\Gamma }(s+\frac{a}{r})\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+1)^s}=\frac{1}{(\frac{a}{r})^s\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})}\mathrm{\Gamma }(s+\frac{a}{r})$$

thus

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(rs)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{a,r}(r)^s}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r})(\frac{a}{r})^s}\mathrm{\Gamma }(s+\frac{a}{r})$$

which is formula 3.13.

Proof of proposition 3.4:

One clearly has, for $`\lambda ^{}`$, from formula 3.4

(4.1)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r})}=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{\lambda a}{\lambda r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{\lambda a}{\lambda r}+\frac{\lambda s}{\lambda r})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{\lambda a}{\lambda r}\frac{\lambda s}{\lambda r})}=\mathrm{sin}_{\lambda a,\lambda r}(\lambda s)$$

Taking $`\lambda =\frac{1}{r}`$, we get formula 3.22.
For formula 3.23, one has

$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s+r)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r}+1)\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r}1)}=\frac{(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r}1)}{(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r})}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r})}$$

hence

$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s+r)=\frac{(\frac{s}{r}\frac{a}{r}+1)}{(\frac{s}{r}+\frac{a}{r})}\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)$$

From formula 3.4, we obtain

$$\mathrm{sin}_{a+\frac{r}{2},r}(s)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{1}{2})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r}+\frac{1}{2})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r}+\frac{1}{2})}$$

thus

$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s+\frac{r}{2})=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r}+\frac{1}{2})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r}\frac{1}{2})}=\frac{(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r}\frac{1}{2})\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(\frac{a}{r})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}+\frac{s}{r}+\frac{1}{2})\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{a}{r}\frac{s}{r}+\frac{1}{2})}$$

proving so formula 3.24.
Formula 3.25 follows directly from definition 3.3.
Using formula 3.11, we obtain

(4.2)
$$\mathrm{sin}_{a,r}(s)=\mathrm{sin}_{a,nr}(s)\mathrm{sin}_{a+r,nr}(s)\mathrm{}\mathrm{sin}_{a+kr,nr}(s)\mathrm{}\mathrm{sin}_{a+(n1)r,nr}(s)$$

Replacing $`s`$ by $`ns`$ and applying formula 3.22 with $`\lambda =\frac{1}{n}`$, we obtain formula 3.26.


text:
# On the relationship between the 𝛿 Scuti and 𝛾 Doradus pulsators

## 1 Introduction

The relationship between the $`\gamma `$ Doradus and $`\delta `$ Scuti stars is not yet clear. Although the two classes of pulsator share a similar parameter space in the HR diagram and even partly overlap (Handler 1999), the $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars are high radial-order gravity (g)-mode pulsators (Kaye et al. 1999a), whereas the $`\delta `$ Scuti stars are believed to be mostly low radial-order pressure (p) mode pulsators (e.g. Breger 2000).

The driving mechanism of the two classes should be different because of the different types of modes excited. Hence, there should be different thermal time scales in the driving regions. Indeed, $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations are known to be driven by the $`\kappa `$-mechanism (Chevalier 1971), whereas the only presently feasible driving mechanism for the $`\gamma `$ Dor stars is similar to convective blocking (Guzik et al. 2000, 2002). The latter mechanism is also expected to weaken or even exclude the driving of $`\delta `$ Scuti-type pulsations.

Several open questions still remain. Is the presence of $`\delta `$ Scuti and $`\gamma `$ Doradus-type pulsations mutually exclusive? Is there an overlap or a separation between these pulsators? Are there stars which show both types of oscillation? What determines the type of mode that a particular star pulsates in? To tackle those questions, we decided to observe a large number of $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidates located within the $`\delta `$ Scuti instability strip to search for short-period pulsations.

In addition, this allows us to check whether these $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidates are indeed pulsators. This is important as most of these candidates were identified from Hipparcos photometry (ESA 1997), whose quality is poor compared to ground-based work and which contains no time-series colour information. Furthermore, there is usually strong aliasing in amplitude spectra of Hipparcos photometry caused by a pseudo-sampling frequency near 12 c/d (see Eyer & Grenon 1998), which often leads to difficulties in period determinations. For instance it is often not possible to distinguish a $`\delta `$ Scuti star with a 2-hour period from a $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate from Hipparcos photometry only. We conclude that these technical facts make a good assessment of the presence of $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsations from Hipparcos data alone difficult: $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars can easily be confused with spotted stars, ellipsoidal variables and $`\delta `$ Scuti stars (see Kaye et al. 1999a and Handler 1999 for more extensive discussions).

Our ground-based observations introduced above are probably the most effective way to assess the relationship between the $`\gamma `$ Doradus and $`\delta `$ Scuti stars: about one third of all non-Am and non-Ap stars in the lower instability strip are indeed $`\delta `$ Scuti stars (Breger 2000 and references therein) and Am and Ap stars are rare (or even absent) amongst the $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars (Handler 1999). Consequently, a statistical assessment of the incidence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations in $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars becomes possible. We note that Breger & Beichbuchner (1996) already looked for possible $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsators among $`\delta `$ Scuti stars in the literature, but their results were largely inconclusive because of observational selection effects, the small number of $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars then known and because the incidence of observable $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsations among stars with basic parameters in the $`\gamma `$ Doradus star domain is as yet unknown.

The results to be expected from our search are manifold.

* The number of known bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars is still small ($`<20`$). Discovering more of these stars will aid the understanding of the class as a whole.
* If both types of pulsation could be identified in the same star, this would be exciting news for asteroseismology: the $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations in such hypothesized stars could be used to determine (at least) accurate basic parameters, which can then aid in identifying the $`\gamma `$ Doradus modes and in probing the deep stellar interior. It would also mean that in stellar models in which $`\gamma `$ Doradus-type modes are driven, $`\delta `$ Scuti oscillations must not be damped.
* If no such “hybrid” stars are found, the reason for their absence can be examined, and some observational discriminants may be found. Of course, the driving mechanism for the $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars will also need to explain such a result.
* An improved assessment of the hotter candidate $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars may also enable us to locate the currently poorly defined blue edge of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus region in the HR diagram (Handler 1999) better; pulsational models must explain it. The location of the red edge of the $`\delta `$ Scuti instability strip can also be better examined.

Hence, whatever the implications of the present survey, the driving mechanism for the $`\gamma `$ Dor pulsations will be observationally much better constrained.

## 2 Observations

As mentioned in the Introduction, we selected known candidate $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars located within the overlap region of the lower instability strip (adopted from Breger 1979) and the domain of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars in the HR diagram (Handler 1999). All stars observable from intermediate Southern geographical latitudes were included in our survey, and we chose two comparison stars for each. In addition, we included further $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidates (regardless of their position in the HR diagram) which were located within 8 degrees of the main targets into the observing sequence whenever practical to examine the physical nature of these stars as well. Finally, we also decided to monitor a few more candidates which seemed to be of special astrophysical interest.

Our measurements were acquired as differential photoelectric photometry at the 0.5-m and 0.75-m telescopes at the Sutherland station of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and at the 0.6-m telescope (see Shobbrook 2000 for a description) at Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) from October 1999 to October 2001. We used the Johnson B and V filters with a total integration time of about one minute in each filter as a compromise between good time resolution and optimum colour information, but we sometimes added the Cousins Ic if deemed necessary (possible reasons will be listed below). A few runs obtained on the SAAO 0.5-m telescope were taken as high-speed photometric observations through the BVIc filters, with comparison star observations every 30 - 45 minutes, which also results in some long-term photometric stability (Breger & Handler 1993). For all runs, apertures of 30 – 45 arcseconds on the sky were chosen. Sky measurements were taken depending on the brightness and proximity of the Moon.

Observing sequences were chosen for both good coverage of possible short-period $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations and for best long-term stability. We adopted the sequences C1-C2-V-C1-C2-V… (the Cs denote the comparison stars and the Vs the variables) for SAAO observations and C1-V-C2-V-C1… for SSO measurements (where it was more difficult to move the telescope from one star to the next) in case one programme star was in the group. This resulted in one programme star measurement about every 7 minutes. If we had two variables in a group, the sequence C1-V1-C2-V2-C1-V1… was chosen, yielding a variable star measurement about every 15 minutes. These duty cycles apply to BV observations.

We attempted to observe each target star for at least two half nights to check them for $`\delta `$ Scuti-type variability and in order not to be susceptible to beating phenomena (negative interference of multiple pulsation modes). With this strategy, long-term variability is often detected in one night, and the second run will fulfil the same aim whilst making it possible to check for light variations from night to night as well. The data were reduced as soon as possible after they had been obtained in order to judge their quality and to be able to make decisions about future observing strategies and the scientific content of our data. This would for instance result in a change of the observing sequence or in the inclusion of the Ic filter or in a decision of whether to follow the star up or not.

Data reduction was performed in a standard way: correction for coincidence losses, sky background and extinction was followed by calculating differential magnitudes between the comparison stars, and if these were judged to be constant, construction of the differential target star light curve. Finally, the time base of our observations was converted to Heliocentric Julian Date (HJD). We summarize our observations in Table 1; the data are available in electronic form at www.saao.ac.za/$``$gerald/delgamscudor.

## 3 Analysis

### 3.1 Results on the individual stars

Before proceeding to the astrophysical implications of our survey as a whole, the individual stars also need to be discussed, as a wide variety of behaviour was detected. We also need to make clear which criteria we use to distinguish between the different types of variable to be found in the region of the HR diagram under consideration.

We classify a star as a $`\delta `$ Scuti variable if it shows a variability time scale which leads to pulsation constants $`Q`$ of 0.04 days or less. The pulsation constant $`Q`$ is calculated as

$$\mathrm{log}Q_\mathrm{i}=C+0.5\mathrm{log}g+0.1M_{\mathrm{bol}}+\mathrm{log}T_{\mathrm{eff}}+\mathrm{log}P_\mathrm{i},$$
(1)
adopting $`T_{\mathrm{eff},}`$ = 5780 K, log $`g_{}`$ = 4.44, $`M_{\mathrm{bol},}`$ = 4.75 (Allen 1976) and thus $`C=6.456`$. The units of the quantities in the right-hand side of this equation are dex, magnitudes, Kelvin and days, respectively. Our limit on $`Q`$ follows from the fundamental radial mode of a $`\delta `$ Scuti star having $`Q=0.033`$ d, and we allow for some 18% error in its determination from the uncertainties of the physical parameters derived for the star (see Breger 1989 for a discussion). These parameters can be determined from calibrations of Strömgren photometry (Crawford 1975, 1979) and model atmosphere predictions (Kurucz 1991). Bolometric corrections were taken from Drilling & Landolt (2000).

There are also possibilities to separate $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars, ellipsoidal variables and rotationally modulated chemically peculiar objects. The latter two types of variable will only have one or two dominant periods in a frequency analysis based on Fourier spectra and sine-wave fitting (which are our main tools for the analysis), and if there are two periods, they will be harmonically related. In that respect, residualgram analysis (Martinez & Koen 1994) can become powerful. This method performs a least-squares fit of a sine wave with $`M`$ harmonics to the measured time series and evaluates the residuals at each trial frequency, where $`M`$ can be chosen. For rotationally modulated light curves or those of ellipsoidal variables, $`M=2`$ is usually the best choice, and is used throughout this paper.

Returning to the discrimination between the different types of slow variables, we note that multiperiodic $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars can be easily identified if the different periods of variability are not harmonically related. However, if only a single period can be determined from the measurements, unravelling the cause of the variability of the star under consideration becomes more difficult.

A further diagnostic can be obtained from relative amplitudes and phases of the measured signals in different photometric filters. Ellipsoidal variables or eclipsing binaries of the W UMa-type show little colour modulation (B/V amplitude ratios less than 1.05) as their light variations are dominated by geometrical effects. The latter two types of variable can be distinguished by their light-curve shape; those of the W UMa-type have typical flat maxima and sharp minima. The light curves of rotationally modulated Ap stars, on the other hand, often show quite large colour variations and in case of double-wave light modulations, phase shifts between the different filters can become quite large (e.g. see Kurtz et al. 1996). Colour amplitude ratios for $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsations will be quite similar to those of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars. For instance, typical B/V amplitude ratios for $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars pulsating with photometrically detectable modes (spherical degree $`\mathrm{}=1`$ or 2) would, according to model calculations (e.g. Garrido 2000), be between 1.2 and 1.35. The latter range is also expected for radial $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsation. Phase shifts between different filters are not a good indicator of pulsations in the present case, as our data sets are generally too small to obtain significant phase shifts.

We caution, however, that amplitude ratios could be misleading, in particular in case of insufficient phase coverage of the orbital period of an ellipsoidal variable or of the rotation period of an Ap star. Both types of variable can then show colour amplitude ratios similar to those of pulsating stars. Consequently, this diagnostic alone is not sufficient for a clear distinction; all the information available on the stars need to be combined carefully to arrive at a safe classification.

#### 3.1.1 HD 10167

The variability of this star was discovered by Eyer & Aerts (2000) in Geneva photometry. These authors could however not pinpoint the physical nature of the star. Our measurements show very little variation during the individual nights and night-to-night variations of a few hundreths of a magnitude. The $`B/V`$ colour amplitude ratio (1.24 $`\pm `$ 0.12) suggests pulsation as the cause for these variations. No $`\delta `$ Scuti-type variability is detected within a limit of 0.9 mmag in the V-filter amplitude spectrum. We classify HD 10167 as a $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate.

#### 3.1.2 HD 12901

Handler (1999) suggested that this star could be a $`\gamma `$ Doradus variable, but aliasing in the Hipparcos photometry also left the possibility that it could be a $`\delta `$ Scuti star. Eyer & Aerts (2000) clarified the situation by means of Geneva photometry and suggested that HD 12901 is a $`\gamma `$ Doradus star. Our observations confirm their conclusion; no $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations are detected (within 1.2 mmag) and the $`B/V`$ and $`V/I_\mathrm{c}`$ colour amplitude ratios (1.29 $`\pm `$ 0.02 and 1.9 $`\pm `$ 0.1, respectively) for the dominant period of the slow variations (0.8227 d, Eyer & Aerts 2000) in our data confirm that they are caused by pulsation of the star. Supported by the results of Eyer & Aerts (2000), we classify HD 12901 as a bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star.

#### 3.1.3 HD 14147

This star was classified as a $`\delta `$ Scuti star with a period of 6.48 h by the Hipparcos group (ESA 1997). However, a re-analysis of these data reveals that HD 14147 is in fact an ellipsoidal variable with an orbital period of 12.95 h (Fig. 1). One can suspect low-amplitude $`\delta `$ Scuti variations with a period of about 1.5 h ($`Q=0.04`$ d) being superposed on our single night of observation and the Hipparcos light curve.

#### 3.1.4 HD 27093

From the time-resolved Hipparcos photometry alone it was not clear whether this star is a $`\delta `$ Scuti or a $`\gamma `$ Doradus star (Handler 1999). However, the more rapid time sampling of our ground-based observations clearly shows that HD 27093 is a $`\delta `$ Scuti star; a combined analysis of both data sets results in a dominant frequency of 14.51837 $`\pm `$ 0.00006 cycles/day, corresponding to $`Q=0.018`$.̣ Semi-amplitudes of 18 $`\pm `$ 2 mmag in the Hipparcos $`H_\mathrm{p}`$ band, 15 $`\pm `$ 1 mmag in the B filter and with 11.8 $`\pm `$ 0.6 mmag in V could be determined (error estimates were derived from the formulae of Montgomery & O’Donoghue 1999). Some evidence for more $`\delta `$ Scuti periods is seen, but no long-term variations are detected within a limit of 2 mmag.

#### 3.1.5 HD 40745 and HD 41448

These two stars could be observed in one group due to their proximity in the sky. Both are slow variables, with B/V colour amplitude ratios (1.25 $`\pm `$ 0.21 for HD 40745 and 1.31 $`\pm `$ 0.12 for HD 41448) indicative of pulsation. These amplitude ratios were derived by fitting their dominant Hipparcos frequency to our data, which are consistent with these frequencies. In accordance with published frequency analyses of the Hipparcos data of the stars, we also find evidence for multiperiodicity for the slow variations of both. On the other hand, no $`\delta `$ Scuti-type variability is detected within a limit of 3.0 mmag (HD 40745) and 2.7 mmag (HD 41448), respectively. Because of the rather large errors on the colour amplitude ratios, we can only confirm both stars as prime $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidates.

#### 3.1.6 HD 65526

For this prime $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate (Handler 1999), we obtained two nights of observation which were of excellent quality. The B/V colour amplitude ratio in our data (1.19 $`\pm `$ 0.04) implies pulsation as the cause of the slow multiperiodic light variations of HD 65526. No $`\delta `$ Scuti variations are detected at a limit of 0.5 mmag in the amplitude spectrum. Thus HD 65526 is reclassified as a bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star.

#### 3.1.7 HD 81421

This is one of the most difficult cases we encountered in our survey; we must comment on this star in more detail. The star is classified as a periodic Hipparcos variable (ESA 1997), and its period is 11.75 h (see also Fig. 2 (a)). This means that for consecutive nights of ground-based measurements practically the same phase of its light curve is always observed. For this reason, we coordinated the observations of this star from both sites to overlap and we attempted to cover a time base line longer than usual.

Regrettably, these attempts were somewhat unlucky as our combined observations always covered the same branch of the light curve with the exception of one night where we could observe it from both sites, albeit with a 1.6-h gap in between. As we had no overlap between SSO and SAAO, we transformed the instrumental magnitude differences to the standard system to homogenize the data as much as possible. This procedure pointed us to a zeropoint problem just in the single SSO night taken in between two nights of SAAO data, which has to be kept in mind as well.

The frequency analysis of our data corroborated the Hipparcos period (cf. Fig. 2 (b)), and the amplitudes in our B (19.0 $`\pm `$ 0.4) and V (14.9 $`\pm `$ 0.3) filter data suggest that this variability is due to pulsation. However, after prewhitening this variation from the data, some residual amplitude near 1.0 c/d, half the dominant frequency, remains. Such a variation can of course also be caused by problem with the nightly zeropoints or by imperfect extinction corrections etc. However, an examination of the SAAO data only (which show excellent long-term stability as judged from the measurement of the constant comparison stars) suggests that this 1.0 c/d variation could be intrinsic to HD 81421. It could therefore be a subharmonic of the 11.75-h period, indicative of ellipsoidal variation, but our data are insufficient to confirm or reject this idea.

A search for $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations of this star proved to be difficult as well. Although a short-period variation with a time scale of about one hour seemed to be superposed on the slow variability of the star, and although the rms scatter of the nightly light curves of HD 81421 after removing the long-term trends is higher than that of the difference of the comparison stars, we cannot prove its presence. An amplitude spectrum of all our data after prewhitening the Hipparcos frequency and its suspected subharmonic (Fig. 2 (d)) shows evidence for low-amplitude $`\delta `$ Scuti variability, but the signal-to-noise ratio is too small for a definite detection.

On the basis of our data and those by the Hipparcos satellite we can therefore still not pinpoint the physical nature of HD 81421. It could be a $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsator or an ellipsoidal variable, and it could additionally be a $`\delta `$ Scuti star. More observations of the star are needed. Photometric measurements with a suitable time distribution and/or time series spectroscopy are required to understand this object.

#### 3.1.8 HD 85693

Although the Hipparcos photometry suggests variability with a light range in excess of 0.1 mag, this star showed only very small-amplitude slow variability during our observations. Therefore, the error in the B/V colour amplitude ratio is too large to allow us to pinpoint the cause of the light variations. We retain the star as a $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate and place an upper limit of 0.8 mmag on the presence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations in our light curves.

#### 3.1.9 HD 86371

We are unable to recover the Hipparcos period suggested by Handler (1999) in our photometry, but the complicated light curves and our measured B/V colour amplitude ratio (1.20 $`\pm `$ 0.03) suggest pulsation as the reason for this star’s variability. Our upper limit for $`\delta `$ Scuti variability of this star is 0.8 mmag. The multiperiodicity from the Hipparcos photometry, which is confirmed with a residualgram analysis, and the colour amplitude ratio derived above lead us to classify HD 86371 as a bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star.

#### 3.1.10 HD 110606 and HD 113357

The light curves of both stars appear quite complicated. Neither the Hipparcos data nor our observations allowed the detection of a dominant period, which suggests the presence of multiperiodic $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsations. The B/V colour amplitude ratios in our data are 1.26 $`\pm `$ 0.06 for HD 110606 and 1.34 $`\pm `$ 0.07 for HD 113357, further supporting this idea. No $`\delta `$ Scuti variability is present within a limit of 1.0 mmag in either of the stars. We cautiously classify HD 110606 and HD 113357 as prime $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidates, but we think that further observations can easily prove they are bona fide members of the group.

#### 3.1.11 HD 139095

We suggest that this is a bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star. The Hipparcos and the ground-based light curves are multiperiodic, and the B/V colour amplitude ratio is 1.23 $`\pm `$ 0.02, typical for pulsational variability of a late A/early F star. There is no evidence for $`\delta `$ Scuti-type variability within a limit of 1.1 mmag in the amplitude spectrum.

#### 3.1.12 HD 167858

The Hipparcos data of the star imply it is a multiperiodic $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsator of quite high amplitude. This is confirmed with our ground-based data, and the B/V colour amplitude ratio (1.29 $`\pm `$ 0.06) implies pulsation as the cause for these light variations. The search for $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations of HD 167858 in two nights yielded a null result, with no variation detected within 1.0 mmag in the second night of our measurements, which was of much better quality than the first one. We classify HD 167858 as a bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star.

#### 3.1.13 BD+8 3658

In his search for multiperiodic variability among Hipparcos variables, Koen (2001) found one frequency typical for $`\gamma `$ Doradus variations (1.00064 cycles/day) and a second one suggesting $`\delta `$ Scuti variability of BD+8 3658. This star was therefore of considerable interest for us. Weak $`\delta `$ Scuti modulations with a peak-to-peak amplitude of about 0.01 mag at a time scale of 2.5 h ($`Q=0.035`$ d) and evidence for multiperiodicity are indeed present in our data. However, we cannot identify the cause of the slow variability with certainty. Our ground-based measurements show almost no slow variability, a combined result of the Hipparcos period being very close to 1 d and of insufficient phase sampling. Therefore we cannot calculate meaningful colour amplitude ratios. However, the phase diagram of the Hipparcos photometry relative to the long period (Fig. 3) is not typical for pulsational variability. More observations of this star are needed, including standard Strömgren photometry and spectroscopy.

#### 3.1.14 HD 173794

Handler (1999) could not decide whether this star shows variations close to 1.5 days or of one or two hours because of the aliasing problem in the Hipparcos data mentioned in the Introduction. In fact, both types of variation are present, as already seen from our first ground-based light curve (Fig. 4 (a)). There are clear multiperiodic $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations superposed on slow variations which have very similar amplitude in the B and V bands (cf. Fig. 4 (b, c)). This raises the suspicion that HD 173794 is an ellipsoidal variable with a $`\delta `$ Scuti component. We therefore re-analysed the Hipparcos photometry of that star with the residualgram method; the result is shown in Fig. 4 (d). The dominant peak in this plot is at 0.3078 c/d, exactly 1/2 the frequency found by Fourier analysis (Handler 1999). The phase diagram of the Hipparcos photometry relative to this frequency is typical for an ellipsoidal variable, and the corresponding frequency solution explains all the slow variability in these data.

These two frequencies also explain the slow variability in our data. We have therefore fitted them to our measurements, adopting the Hipparcos frequencies as definite and performed a frequency analysis of the residuals to examine the $`\delta `$ Scuti variability in more detail. The short-period pulsations turned out to be quite complicated, at least 5 frequencies in the range of 19 - 26 cycles/day appear to be excited. We refrain from quoting exact values because of the aliasing problem. In any case, the short-period pulsations are quite interesting. All evidence, the Hipparcos parallax of the star, its spectral classification (A3 iii-iv, Houk 1978) and the long period of the ellipsoidal variation, suggests it is rather evolved and thus pulsates in quite high radial overtones ($`Q0.006,k10`$).

#### 3.1.15 HD 181998

We suggest that this star is a bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star. Our two longer nights of observations show slow variability which is not singly-periodic, consistent with the complicated amplitude spectrum of its Hipparcos photometry. These results combined with the colour amplitude ratios ($`B/V=1.22\pm `$ 0.03, $`V/I_\mathrm{c}=1.68\pm `$ 0.03) in our data show that the slow variations of HD 181998 are due to pulsation. An upper limit of 1.1 mmag on the presence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations is placed.

#### 3.1.16 HD 188032

The analysis of the Hipparcos data of this star (Handler 1999) left some doubt about it being a good $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate or a more rapid variable. In our ground-based observations, only slow variations with an amplitude below 0.02 mag are detected. From these we infer a B/V colour amplitude ratio (1.25 $`\pm `$ 0.1), suggestive of pulsation. Short-period variability in the $`\delta `$ Scuti domain remains undetected within 0.9 mmag. We classify this star as a $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate.

#### 3.1.17 HD 189631

This star was found to be slowly variable within individual nights, but we are unable to determine the time scale of the light variations. The colour amplitude ratios ($`B/V=1.36\pm `$ 0.04, $`V/I_\mathrm{c}=1.82\pm `$ 0.12) imply pulsation as the cause of this variability which reached a peak-to-peak amplitude in excess of 0.05 mag from night to night. We conservatively classify HD 189631 as a $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate and note the absence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsation within an upper limit of 0.9 mmag.

#### 3.1.18 HD 198528

We found slow variations with amplitudes of several hundredths of a magnitude in our four longest observing runs. However, only very small colour variability ($`B/V`$ amplitude ratio $`<`$ 1.04) was noted as well, raising the suspicion that the star is an ellipsoidal variable. A combined analysis of the Hipparcos photometry (with the decisive clue coming from residualgram analysis, see Fig. 5) and our new observations confirmed this interpretation. We found that a double-wave light curve (inconsistent with W UMa-type variability) corresponding to an orbital period of 0.807 d satisfactorily explains all the data. The period given by Handler (1999) based on Hipparcos photometry only is therefore incorrect, probably due to the small number of observations (49 measurements distributed over 3 years). No $`\delta `$ Scuti variation is detected within a limit of 1.5 mmag in the amplitude spectrum, although we note that a very weak 45-minute variation seemed to be present in both filters in our best data.

#### 3.1.19 HD 201985

This star remains unsolved. Although the Hipparcos photometry implies a range of variability of a few hundredths of a magnitude, little variation was seen during our observations (a few millimagnitudes at best), with one exception: during the first run from SAAO, the star was 0.15 mag fainter as in the other nights. An instrumental problem or misidentification on the sky is ruled out, as the star’s mean $`(BV)`$ colour on that night was the same as in the other four within fractions of a millimagnitude, and as the relative zeropoints of the other three stars in the ensemble were consistent with the other nights. We note that little colour variability seems to accompany the magnitude changes, and we can place an upper limit of 2.0 mmag to the presence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations. HD 201985 could be an eclipsing binary.

#### 3.1.20 HD 207223

This is a singly-periodic bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star (Aerts & Kaye 2001) located close to HD 207651 in the sky. We tested HD 207223 for $`\delta `$ Scuti variability in a single night. None was detected within a limit of 1.5 mmag in the amplitude spectrum (cf. Kaye et al. 1999b).

#### 3.1.21 HD 207651

The Hipparcos photometry seemed to indicate two frequencies of 1.4 and 6 c/d (Handler 1999), whereas our runs show a dominant $`\delta `$ Scuti variation with a time scale of 1.5 - 2 hr with superposed long-term modulations. The associated colour amplitudes corroborate the $`\delta `$ Scuti interpretation, but are inconclusive with respect to the slower variability. Estimating the absolute magnitude of the star from its Hipparcos parallax results in $`M_\mathrm{v}=0.4\pm 0.5`$, but Strömgren photometric calibrations (Crawford 1979) yield $`M_\mathrm{v}=+0.8\pm 0.3`$. This may be an indication of binarity. In any case, we are unable to pinpoint the nature of the star on the basis of our data alone; more observations are needed. The $`Q`$ values of the $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations are 0.007 and 0.015 d for the two absolute magnitude values, respectively.

#### 3.1.22 HD 209295

This is our only detection of both $`\delta `$ Scuti and $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsations in the same star. It was already clear from the analysis of the Hipparcos photometry (Handler 1999) that multiperiodic $`\gamma `$ Doradus variability is present in the star’s light curves, and multiperiodic $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations were clearly detected in our first nights of observation as well (Fig. 6). HD 209295 was studied in great detail by Handler et al. (2002), and we refer to this paper for more information. For the present purposes, we only note that these authors present evidence that the $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsations of HD 209295 are tidally excited. The star should therefore not be considered a normal $`\gamma `$ Doradus star.

#### 3.1.23 HD 211699

This prime $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate (Handler 1999) showed very little variability during our individual nights of observation which may be due to the dominant period of light variation being close to 1 day. However, we were able to detect changes in the mean magnitude from night to night, whose B/V colour amplitude ratio (1.29 $`\pm `$ 0.09) suggests that pulsations are causing them. We therefore retain this star as a $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate and we also note the absence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations within an upper limit of 0.8 mmag.

#### 3.1.24 HD 221866

Classified as a prime $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate by Handler (1999), this star showed clear evidence of slow variability. The Hipparcos period fits our data and results in a B/V colour amplitude ratio of 1.18 $`\pm `$ 0.02, consistent with pulsation. $`\delta `$ Scuti-type variability remains undetected within a limit of 0.9 mmag in the amplitude spectrum. We conservatively retain this star as a $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate because of the rather low colour amplitude ratio.

#### 3.1.25 Variable comparison stars

Out of the 40 comparison stars used in this study, two turned out to be variable as well. The first, HD 86301, was a comparison star in the HD 85693/HD 86371 group. It is located near the hot luminous border of the $`\delta `$ Scuti instability strip and was found to be a very low-amplitude variable. The light curve appears multiperiodic with a time scale of 3.8 – 6 h and a total amplitude of about 0.01 mag. Our period estimate yields a range of 0.035 d $`<Q<`$ 0.054 d. We tentatively classify HD 86301 as a new $`\delta `$ Scuti star.

The second variable comparison star was HD 183452, chosen for the HD 181998 group. During our first short run on this group, it already showed conspicuous magnitude changes. After realising the star was classified as variable from measurements with the Tycho satellite (ESA 1997), we added another comparison star into the sequence, but continued to monitor HD 183452 as well. The total amplitude of its light variations is in excess of 0.1 mag, but there is very little colour variation. We thus suspect that HD 183452 is an ellipsoidal variable. A double-wave light curve assuming a preliminary orbital period of 0.692 d fits our data very well.

### 3.2 Summary of survey results

We performed photometric monitoring of a total of 26 stars which seemed to be related to the $`\gamma `$ Doradus phenomenon. One of them, HD 209295, turned out to be both a $`\gamma `$ Doradus and a $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsator, but this object is peculiar, as its g-mode pulsations appear strongly coupled to its binary orbit (Handler et al. 2002).

We believe that six of our targets are new $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsators, and nine more stars are probable $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars. We discovered three ellipsoidal variables and one $`\delta `$ Scuti star. The classifications of our target stars are summarized in Table 2.

The detection limits we achieved for $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations compare well with those of other ground-based variability surveys (starting with Breger 1969), to which our results are to be compared. Of course, the presence of very low-amplitude $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations in some of our targets cannot be ruled out. Such variability has been detected down to limits of 0.4 mmag with the help of extensive multisite campaigns (Handler et al. 2000), and space missions are expected to decrease these limits considerably.

## 4 The hot border of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus phenomenon

As already mentioned in the Introduction, it is not quite clear up to what effective temperatures $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsations can be excited. With our new results added to those available in the literature, we can take a closer look at this problem. We show all the presently known $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars and suspects (taken from the on-line catalogue by Handler & Kaye 2001) in a colour-magnitude diagram in Fig. 7.

Even a brief glance at Fig. 7 suggests that the blue edge of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus instability region as outlined by Handler (1999) requires revision. (We again exclude HD 209295, the hottest bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus star from the discussion because of its close-binary nature.) The three hottest stars referred to by Handler (1999) were HD 152569 (Kaye 1998), 57 Tau (Paparó et al. 2000) and M34 UVa 144 (Krisciunas & Patten 1999). HD 152569 was reclassified as a $`\delta `$ Scuti star (Kaye, Henry & Rodriguez 2000); thus it is not plotted in Fig. 7.

57 Tau is also a $`\delta `$ Scuti star, but it exhibits slow, apparent multiperiodic, variability with an amplitude of a few mmag (Paparó et al. 2000) in addition; the period of the highest-amplitude slow variation is 1.246 days. However, Kaye (1999) showed that 57 Tau is a spectroscopic binary with an orbital period of 2.486 days, almost exactly twice the value from the photometry. As there seems to be very little colour variation in the slow variations noted by Paparó et al. (2000), we think that 57 Tau is in fact an ellipsoidal variable. Therefore we do not any longer consider the star a good $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidate.

The star UVa 144 in the open cluster M34 is a multiperiodic slow variable. However, the two periods found by Krisciunas & Patten (1999), 1.52 and 1.28 cycles/day, could be harmonics of each other allowing for some aliasing ambiguities. In any case, the ($`by`$) colour of this star adopted by Handler (1999) is erroneous, as he was unaware of the measurements by Canterna, Perry & Crawford (1979) showing the star to be redder than previously thought.

Consequently, a revision of the blue boundary of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus region in the colour-magnitude diagram is in order. The new blue edge is already included in Fig. 7. Compared to the original one by Handler (1999), it is about 150 K cooler on the ZAMS and about 75 K cooler one magnitude above it. There are now four stars which define it, the bona fide variable HD 218396 (Zerbi et al. 1999), as well as HD 41448 (Eyer 1998, Handler 1999 and this work), HD 211699 and HD 221866 (Handler 1999 and this work). As the evidence for the $`\gamma `$ Doradus nature of all these stars is quite good, we think that another shift of this blue edge towards redder colours is no longer possible.

## 5 The incidence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations amongst $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars

With the exception of the unusual variable HD 209295, we have observed five bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars located inside the $`\delta `$ Scuti instability strip (HD 12901, HD 65526, HD 86371, HD 167858 and HD 181998) adopting the red edge for $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations by Rodriguez & Breger (2001)111This revised red edge only became available near the end of this work and could therefore not be adopted for target selection (Sect. 2).. Another star, HD 139095, falls on this red edge.

We did not find $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations in any of these stars. Does this mean that, except under special circumstances such as the close binarity of HD 209295, $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars cannot be $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsators at the same time?

As mentioned in the Introduction, the average incidence of photometrically detectable $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations of chemically normal stars located inside the lower instability strip is 1/3. However, the $`\gamma `$ Doradus star domain only overlaps with a region close to the cool edge of the $`\delta `$ Scuti instability strip. Hence it is quite possible that the incidence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations in that overlap region is generally smaller than, for instance, in the middle of the $`\delta `$ Scuti strip.

To examine this idea, we assume that all stars tested for $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations so far are uniformly distributed over $`(by)`$. We selected all 249 $`\delta `$ Scuti stars from the recent catalogue of Rodriguez, López-González & López de Coca (2000), for which uvby$`\beta `$ photometry is available and determined their distance from the red edge of the $`\delta `$ Scuti instability strip, as defined by Rodriguez & Breger (2001). We then determined the number of stars in strips 0.01 mag wide in $`(by)`$, which are parallel to the red edge, and we show the number of bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars we observed in those bins (Fig. 8).

As suspected, the number of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars decreases towards the red edge; stars near this red edge have an incidence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsation which is lower than average. We need to take this into account if we want to examine the significance of the absence of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsation in the bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars we observed.

Thus, the probability that we do not find $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations in any of our observed bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars inside the $`\delta `$ Scuti strip, results in 18%. This suggests that $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars are less likely to be $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsators than non-$`\gamma `$ Doradus stars in the same domain of the colour-magnitude diagram. Obviously, more stars need to be observed to strengthen this conclusion.

## 6 Pulsation periods and pulsation constants

The longest pulsation periods of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars listed in the catalogue of Rodriguez et al. (2000) are around 6.5 h; the possible $`\delta `$ Scuti stars AC And (Fernie 1994) and V823 Cas (Antipin 1997) even have periods of 17 and 16 h, respectively. The shortest pulsation periods of $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars found so far were around 7.5 h (Handler 1999, Henry et al. 2001). This may lead to the suspicion that there might be an overlap in the pulsational behaviour of those two classes of pulsator, making a distinction hard for certain stars.

However, as the $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars are so far only found on the main sequence, and as the long-period $`\delta `$ Scuti stars all seem to be evolved, this overlap is not a physical one. To support this suggestion, we compared the distribution of the pulsation periods of 636 $`\delta `$ Scuti stars in the catalogue of Rodriguez et al. (2000) to that of the bona fide stars (except HD 209295) listed by Handler & Kaye (2001). We show it in the upper panel of Fig. 9. As implied by the previous discussion, there is almost an overlap between the two groups.

On the other hand, if one uses the pulsation constant $`Q`$ (calculated with Eq. 1 and the method described in Sect. 3.1) to discriminate between $`\delta `$ Scuti and $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars, the ambiguity is removed (lower panel of Fig. 9, 262 $`\delta `$ Scuti stars from Rodriguez et al. (2000) for which pulsation constants could be calculated). There is a clear gap between the two groups. Thus we confirm that $`\delta `$ Scuti and $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars can be separated via their pulsation constants; all bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars known to date have $`Q>0.23`$ d.

## 7 Conclusions

We performed a photometric search for $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations among candidate $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars to examine the interrelations between these two groups of pulsator. We observed altogether 26 stars, of which 65% turned out to be bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars or excellent candidates. However, none of these objects exhibited $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsations with the exception of the close binary HD 209295 (Handler et al. 2002), which is therefore anomalous.

Our results indicate that $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars are less likely to be $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsators than non-$`\gamma `$ Doradus stars in the same temperature range. This conclusion is not yet definite because of the small number of bona fide $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars inside the $`\delta `$ Scuti domain investigated so far. This situation can be improved by performing a similar project in the Northern Hemisphere and by more extensive observations of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus candidates we already examined, in order to prove their $`\gamma `$ Doradus nature.

We were also able to locate the blue edge of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus domain in the colour-magnitude diagram more accurately. Finally, we showed that the $`\delta `$ Scuti stars and the $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsators are clearly separated by the values of their pulsation constants $`Q`$; the known $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars all have $`Q>0.23`$ d.

Although we are still at the beginning of understanding the whole extent of the $`\gamma `$ Doradus phenomenon, we think we now have the basic data for quantitative comparisons between observations and model calculations. Acceptable models for $`\gamma `$ Doradus pulsators must be able to reproduce the observed constraints on pulsational instability in temperature, luminosity, metallicity, and period.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

GH thanks Eloy Rodriguez for making an ASCII version of his $`\delta `$ Scuti star catalogue available and Chris Koen for his support of this project and for carefully proofreading a draft version of this paper. Michel Breger, Laurent Eyer and Tony Kaye also commented on a draft version of this work. We appreciate the constructive comments of the referee, Joyce Guzik.