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# GAMMA RAY ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS WITH GLAST

## 1 GLAST

The techniques for the detection of gamma-rays in the pair production regime energy range are very different from the X-ray detection ones. For X-rays detection focusing is possible and this permits large effective area, excellent energy resolution, very low background. For gamma-rays no focusing is possible and this means limited effective area, moderate energy resolution, high background but a wide field of view (see figure 1). This possibility to have a wide field of view is enhanced now, in respect to EGRET, with the use of silicon detectors, that allow a further increase of the ratio between height and width (see fig.2), essentially for two reasons: a) an increase of the position resolution that allow a decrease of the distance between the planes of the tracker without affect the angular resolution, b) the possibility to use the silicon detectors themselves for the trigger of an events, with the elimination of the Time of Flight system, that require some height.

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), has been selected by NASA as a mission involving an international collaboration of particle physics and astrophysics communities from the United States, Italy, Japan, France and Germany for a launch in the first half of 2006. The main scientific objects are the study of all gamma ray sources such as blazars, gamma-ray bursts, supernova remnants, pulsars, diffuse radiation, and unidentified high-energy sources. Many years of refinement has led to the configuration of the apparatus shown in figure 3, where one can see the 4x4 array of identical towers each formed by: $``$ Si-strip Tracker Detectors and converters arranged in 18 XY tracking planes for the measurement of the photon direction. $``$ Segmented array of CsI(Tl) crystals for the measurement the photon energy. $``$ Segmented Anticoincidence Detector (ACD). The main characteristics are an energy range between 20 MeV and 300 GeV, a field of view of $``$ 3 sr, an energy resolution of $``$ 5% at 1 GeV, a point source sensitivity of 2x10-9 (ph cm-2 s-1) at 0.1 GeV, an event deadtime of 20 $`\mu s`$ and a peak effective area of 10000 cm2, for a required power of 600 W and a payload weight of 3000 Kg.

The list of the people and the Institution involved in the collaboration together with the on-line status of the project is available at http://www-glast.stanford.edu. A description of the apparatus can be found in.

### 1.1  Active Galactic Nuclei

Before EGRET, 3C 273 was the only active galactic nucleus (AGN) known to emit high-energy gamma rays. Now we known that there is an entire class of active galaxies that probably represent the largest class of high energy gamma-ray emitters: the blazars. Blazars are flat radio spectrum, active galactic nuclei, or AGN, whose members include BL Lac objects and highly polarized and optically violently variable quasars that often emits more in gamma-ray than in any other frequencies (see figure 4). For a review on AGNs see reference. GLAST will dramatically extend the number of observed AGNs, as well as the energy range over which they can be observed. Indeed, GLAST might be called the ”Hubble Telescope” of gamma-ray astronomy as it will be able to observe AGN sources to z $``$ 4 and beyond, if such objects actually existed at such early times in the universe. Figure 6 shows the so called Log N versus Log S distribution, where N is the number of sources and S is source flux for $`E_\gamma >100`$ MeV, for AGN. The curve is extrapolated from EGRET data and an AGN model of the diffuse gamma-ray background based on the assumption that AGN sources follow a luminosity function similar to flat spectrum radio quasars. Extrapolation from EGRET AGN detections projects that about 5,000 AGN sources will be detected in a 2 year cumulative scanning mode observation by GLAST, as compared to the 85 that have been observed by EGRET in a similar time interval. This large number of AGN’s covering a redshift range from z $``$ 0.03 up to z $``$ 4 will allow to disentangle an intrinsic cutoff effect, i.e., intrinsic to the source, from a cut-off derived from the interaction with the extra galactic background light, or EBL. Only by observing many examples of AGN, and over a wide range of redshifts, one can hope to untangle these two possible sources of cutoff. In figure 6 is shown the number of photons detected by EGRET from 3C279 and the number expected with GLAST in the case of extragalactic background light attenuation and without attenuation. Determination of the EBL can provide unique information on the formation of galaxies at early epochs, and will test models for structure formation in the Universe.

### 1.2 Gamma-ray burst

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are intermittently the most intense and most distant known sources of high-energy gamma rays; at GeV energies, the brightest GRBs are 1000-10,000 times brighter than the brightest AGN. The unparalleled luminosities and cosmic distances of GRBs, combined with their extremely fast temporal variability, make GRBs an extremely powerful tool for probing fundamental physical processes and cosmic history.

GLAST, in concert with the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, will measure the energy spectra of GRBs from a few keV to hundreds of GeV during the short time after onset when the vast majority of the energy is released. GLAST will also promptly alert other observers, thus allowing the observations of GLAST to be placed in the context of multiwavelength afterglow observations, which are the focus of HETE-2 and the upcoming Swift missions. The additional information available from GLAST’s spectral variability observations will be key to understanding the central engine.

Figure 8 illustrates a very intense, short GRB. The true EGRET time profile is very uncertain because the $``$ two hundred milliseconds EGRET dead time per photon is comparable to GRB pulse widths; hence, many more photons may have been incident on EGRET during the extremely intense initial pulse. The GLAST dead time will be $``$ 10,000 times smaller, thus allowing a precise measurement of the gamma-ray flux during the peak.

This characteristic together with its larger field of view and larger effective area, should permit to detect virtually all GRBs in its field of view reaching the ”the edge” of the GRB distribution, as does BATSE. Figure 8 shows another intense burst with very different temporal character which occurred in EGRET’s field of view on 1994 Feb 17. At BATSE energies (25 - 1000 keV), this event persisted for $``$160 s; however, at EGRET energies, it apparently continued at a relatively high flux level past an Earth occultation, for at least 5000 s, to deliver a delayed $`18`$ GeV photon. GLAST, with negligible self veto, will have good efficiency above 10 GeV and it will be able to localize GRBs with sufficiently high accuracy to enable rapid searches at all longer wavelengths. About half of the 200 bursts per year detected by GLAST will be localized to better than 10 arc minute radius, an easily imaged field for large-aperture optical telescopes.

### 1.3 Pulsars

GLAST will discover many gamma-ray pulsars, potentially 50 or more, and will provide definitive spectral measurements that will distinguish between the two primary models proposed to explain particle acceleration and gamma-ray generation: the outer gap and polar cap models ( see figure 9). From observations made with gamma ray experiments through the EGRET era, seven gamma-ray pulsars are known. GLAST will detect more than 100 pulsars and will be able to directly search for periodicities in all EGRET unidentified sources. Because the gamma-ray beams of pulsars are apparently broader than their radio beams, many radio-quiet, Geminga-like pulsars likely remain to be discovered.

### 1.4 Search for supersymmetric dark matter

GLAST is particularly interesting for the supersymmetric particle search because, if neutralinos make up the dark matter of our galaxy, they would have non-relativistic velocities, hence the neutralino annihilation into the gamma gamma and gamma Z final states can give rise to gamma rays with unique energies $`E_\gamma =M_\chi `$ and $`E_\gamma ^{}=M_\chi (1m_z^2/4M_\chi ^2)`$.

In figure 11 is shown how strong can be the signal in the case of a cuspy dark matter halo profiles distribution.

Figure 11 shows the GLAST capability to probe the supersymmetric dark matter hypothesis. The various zone sample the MSSM with different values of the parameters space for three classes of neutralinos. The previous galaxy dark matter halo profile that gives the maximal flux has been assumed. The solid line shows the number of events needed to obtain a 5 $`\sigma `$ detection over the galactic diffuse $`\gamma `$-ray background as estimated from EGRET data. As the figures show, a significant portion of the MSSM phase space is explored, particularly for the higgsino-like neutralino case.

This effort will be complementary to a similar search for neutralinos looking with cosmic-ray experiments like the next space experiment PAMELA at the distortion of the secondary positron fraction and secondary antiproton flux induced by a signal from a heavy neutralino.

In figure 12 (on the left) there are the experimental data for the positron fraction together with the distortion of the secondary positron fraction (solid line) due to one possible contribution from neutralino annihilation (dotted line, from). The expected data from the experiment PAMELA in the annihilation scenario for one year of operation are shown by black squares.

In the same figure (on the right) there are the experimental data for the antiproton flux together with the distortion on the antiproton flux (dashed line) due to one possible contribution from neutralino annihilation (dotted line, from). The antiproton data that PAMELA would obtain in a single year of observation for one of the Higgsino annihilation models are shown by black squares.

## 2  Conclusion

The gamma-ray space experiment GLAST is under construction. Its time of operation and energy range is shown together with the other space X-ray satellite and gamma-ray experiments in figure 13. Note that it will cover an interval not covered by any other experiments. Note also the number of other experiments in other frequencies that will allow extensive multifrequency studies.

In the last decade, ground-based instruments have made great progress, both in technical and scientific terms. High-energy gamma rays can be observed from the ground by experiments that detect the air showers produced in the upper atmosphere. Air shower arrays directly detect the particles (electrons, muons, and photons) in air showers, and atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes detect the Cherenkov radiation created in the atmosphere and beamed to the ground. Detectors based on the atmospheric Cerenkov technique consist of one or more mirrors that concentrate the Cerenkov photons onto fast optical detectors. Photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) placed in the focal plane are generally used to detect the Cherenkov photons. Two problems in using atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (ACT) are the night-sky background and the large isotropic background from cosmic-ray showers.

The energy threshold of an atmospheric Cherenkov telescope is determined by the number of Cherenkov photons needed to observe a signal above the level of the night-sky background. For individual point sources, ground-based instruments have unparalleled sensitivity at very high energies (above 50-250 GeV). For many objects, full multi-wave-length coverage over as wide an energy range as possible will be needed to understand the acceleration and gamma-ray production mechanisms. On the technical side, atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes have demonstrated that a high degree of gamma/hadron discrimination and a source pointing accuracy of 10-30 arc minutes (depending on the source strength) can be achieved based on the detected Cherenkov image. Also the energy threshold is lowering remarkably (for a review, see). In figure 14 the GLAST sensitivity compared with the others present and future detectors in the gamma-ray astrophysics range is shown. The predicted sensitivity of a number of operational and proposed Ground based Cherenkov telescopes, CELESTE, STACEE, VERITAS, Whipple is for a 50 hour exposure on a single source. EGRET, GLAST, MILAGRO, ARGO and AGILE sensitivity is shown for one year of all sky survey. The diffuse background assumed is $`210^5photonscm^2s^1sr^1(100MeV/E)^{1.1}`$, typical of the background seen by EGRET at high galactic latitudes. The source differential photon number spectrum is assumed to have a power law index of -2, typical of many of the sources observed by EGRET and the sensitivity is based on the requirement that the number of source photons detected is at least 5 sigma above the background. Note that on ground only MILAGRO and ARGO will observe more than one source simultaneously. The Home Pages of the various instruments are at http://www-hfm.mpi-hd.mpg.de/CosmicRay/CosmicRaySites.html.

As is shown in , a wide variety of experiments provide interesting probes for the search of supersymmetric dark matter. In the next five years, an array of experiments will be sensitive to the various potential neutralino annihilation products. These include under-ice and underwater neutrino telescopes, atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes and the already described space detectors GLAST and PAMELA together with AMS. In many cases, these experiments will improve current sensitivities by several orders of magnitude and probably, as it is shown in , ” all models with charginos or sleptons lighter than 300 GeV will produce observable signals in at least one experiment in the cosmologically preferred regions of parameter space with $`0.1<\mathrm{\Omega }_\chi h^2<0.3`$ ” before LHC.

An example is shown in figure 15 in the framework of minimal supergravity, which is fully specified by the five parameters (four continuous, one binary) $`m_0,M_{1/2},A_0,\mathrm{tan}\beta ,\mathrm{sgn}(\mu )`$. Here, $`m_0`$, $`M_{1/2}`$, and $`A_0`$ are the universal scalar mass, gaugino mass, and trilinear scalar coupling. The figure shows the limits that can be obtained in the $`m_0,M_{1/2}`$ plane for $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =10,A_0=0,\mu >0`$. Higher values ($``$ 50 ) of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ requires significant fine-tuning of the electroweak scale. The limit from gamma-ray assumes a moderate halo profile.

The aμ curve refers to the expected region that will be probed before 2006 by the measurements of the muon magnetic dipole moment. The curve $`BX_s\gamma `$ refers to the improvement expected for the same date from BaBar, BELLE and B factories in respect to the CLEO and ALEPH results. The curve $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mu ^{}`$ refers to the indirect DM search with underwater $`\nu `$ experiments like AMANDA, NESTOR and ANTARES and the curve $`\sigma _p`$ refers to the direct DM search with underground experiments like DAMA, CDMS, CRESST and GENIUS

We conclude with one last remark, the angular resolution and energy resolution achievable in gamma ray astrophysics is still lower to what is desirable and achievable in other band; so a long term plan like the one sketch in figure 16 is needed and can bring spectacular results.

## 3 Acknowledgments

I wish to thanks all the participants to the school. Everybody (both professors and students) contributes so much to discussions and debates to make the time spent in L’Aquila really very interesting.


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# Photometric redshifts from evolutionary synthesis with PÉGASE: the code Z-PEG and the 𝑧=0 age constraint

## 1 Introduction

The determination of galaxy distances is so crucial for clues on galaxy evolution and cosmic structures that a large variety of methods is currently being explored. Spectroscopic determinations are the most precise but they consume excessive observing time for deeper and deeper large galaxy samples. For instance, the redshift surveys such as CFRS(Le Fèvre (1995)), 2dF Folkes et al. (1999)), Hawaii(Cowie et al. (1994)) and more recently the SLOAN, with millions of targets with various spectral types, are complete to $`z1.5`$. At higher redshifts $`z>1.5`$, the galaxy populations observed at faint magnitudes in deep surveys cover a large range of redshifts which will be easily accessible from photometry. However many problems of degeneracy, number and width of filters and extinction first have to be clarified. Typical SED features like the 4000Å discontinuity or the Lyman break are known to be fruitful signatures for evaluation of redshifts when compared with template SEDs. Steidel et al. (1999) proposed an empirical method based on these discontinuities to detect $`z4`$ galaxies. Successful in discovering distant sources, the method is however imprecise and prone to degeneracies. The comparison of observed SEDs with calibrated templates on an extended wavelength range is the best way to rapidly determine redshifts of a large number of faint galaxies, on a continuous range $`0z4`$ . Such comparisons were proposed with templates from no-evolution models by Baum (1962), Koo (1985), Loh & Spillar (1986) and more recently Fernández-Soto et al. (1999) (hereafter FSLY); others proposed evolutionary SED methods such as Bolzonella et al. (2000) and Massarotti et al. (2001a) using templates derived from a variety of evolutionary codes. However the evolutionary codes and their applications may differ. If results are roughly similar at low redshifts (see Leitherer et al. (1996)), they may actually strongly differ from each other at high redshifts, depending on adopted star formation laws and the corresponding age constraints, initial mass function, dust and metal effects as well as interpolation algorithms.

An essential property of most codes is the large wavelength coverage from the far-UV to the near-infrared needed to compute SEDs that are highly redshifted. Moreover our code PÉGASE.2, Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1997), in its current version (see next footnote) is able to take into account metallicity effects in its stellar library and isochrones. Evolution scenarios of nine spectral types, defined by star formation parameters, have been selected to reproduce the observed statistical SEDs of $`z=0`$ galaxy templates, Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1999b). Then two correction factors (cosmological k-correction and evolutionary e-correction) are computed with the model to predict redshifted SEDs, in order to be used as comparison templates to observations. Other PEGASE.2 scenarios based on different prescriptions of dust properties or star formation parameters might be computed and used as templates only if they respect fits of $`z0`$ galaxy properties. This is beyond the objectives of this paper. Another method of photometric redshift determination supposes that the evolution effect is dominated by shot noise, Connolly et al. (1995).

We present in section 2 a new tool, Z-PEG, to estimate photometric redshifts on a continuous redshift range $`0z6`$ or more. Observed colors or spectra are statistically compared to the PÉGASE.2 atlas for 9 spectral types (starburst: SB, irregular: Im, spiral: Sd, Sc, Sbc, Sb, Sa, SO and elliptical: Ell galaxies). Section 3 presents the results for the well-known Hubble Deep Field North and the comparison with spectroscopic redshifts allows us to derive average values of evolution factors. Section 4 shows the sensitivity to various parameters such as the NIR colors and IGM absorption. Interesting consequences for the redshifts of formation of the sample are derived in section 5. Discussion and conclusions are proposed in sections 6 and 7 respectively.

## 2 The code Z-PEG (web available)

### 2.1 The evolution scenarios of galaxies

The atlas of synthetic galaxies used as templates is computed with PÉGASE.2 on the basis of evolution scenarios of star formation. The synthesis method assumes that distant galaxies are similar to nearby galaxies, but look younger at high $`z`$ since they are seen at more remote epochs. Respecting this constraint will make our redshift determinations more robust. In an earlier paper (Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1997)), we investigated the selection of star formation rates able to reproduce the multi spectral stellar energy distributions of nearby galaxies. Another article by Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1999b) computed the statistical SEDs of about 800 nearby galaxies observed from the optical and the near-infrared for eight spectral types of galaxies and used to fit scenarios at $`z`$=0. Star formation rates (SFRs) are proportional to the gas density (with one exception, see table 1), the astration rate $`\nu `$ increasing from irregular Im to elliptical E galaxies. The star formation rate of starburst SB scenario is instantaneous. Infall and galactic winds are typical gaseous exchanges with the interstellar medium. They aim to simulate the mass growth and to subtract the gas fraction (preventing any further star formation) respectively. Unlike other studies (Fernández-Soto et al. (2001a), Massarotti et al. (2001b)), our scenarios do not need to add any starburst component to be consistent with $`z0`$ observations.

The initial mass function (IMF) (Rana & Basu (1992)), is used in our evolution scenarios. However Giallongo et al. (1998) showed that the choice of the IMF does not influence much the photometric redshift estimates of high-$`z`$ candidates ($`z>2.5`$).
PÉGASE.2 is the most recent version of PÉGASE, available by ftp and on a web site222at anonymous ftp: ftp.iap.fr/pub/from\_users/pegase and http://www.iap.fr/pegase. Non-solar metallicities are implemented in stellar tracks and spectra but also a far-UV spectral library for hot stars (Clegg & Middlemass (1987)) complements the Lejeune et al. (1997, 1998) library. The metal enrichment is followed through the successive generations of stars and is taken into account for spectra of the stellar library as well as for isochrones. In PÉGASE.2, a consistent treatment of the internal extinction is proposed by fitting the dust amount on metal abundances. The extinction factor depends on the respective spatial distribution of dust and stars as well as on its composition. Two patterns are modeled with either the geometry of bulges for elliptical galaxies or disks for spiral galaxies. In elliptical galaxies, the dust distribution follows a King’s profile. The density of dust is described as a power of the density of stars (see Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1997) for details). Through such a geometry, light scattering by dust is computed using a transfer model, outputs of which are tabulated in one input-data file of the model PÉGASE. For spirals and irregulars, dust is distributed along a uniform plane-parallel slab and mixed with gas. As a direct consequence, the synthetic templates used to determine photometric redshifts at any $`z`$, as well as to fit the observational standards at $`z=0`$, are systematically reddened. We also add the IGM absorption following Madau (1995) on the hypothesis of Lyα, Lyβ, Lyγ and Lyδ line blanketing induced by H i clouds, Poisson-distributed along the line of sight. This line blanketing can be expressed for each order of the Lyman series by an effective optical depth $`\tau _{\text{eff}}=A_i\times (\lambda _{\text{obs}}/\lambda _i)^{1+\gamma }`$, with $`\gamma =2.46`$ and $`\lambda _i=1216,1026,973,950`$ Å for Lyα, Lyβ, Lyγ and Lyδ respectively. The values of $`A_i`$ are taken from Madau et al. (1996), in agreement with the Press et al. (1993) analysis on a sample of 29 quasars at $`z>3`$. We shall see below that the IGM absorption alters the visible and IR colors more than about $`0.1`$ mag as soon as $`z>2`$, leading to a more accurate determination of photometric redshifts at these distances.
For each spectral type, a typical age of the stellar population is derived. Time scales, characteristics and ages of the scenarios are listed in table 1.

### 2.2 The $`\chi ^2`$ minimization procedure

A 3D-subspace of parameters (age, redshift, type) is defined by the template sets. It is used to automatically fit observational data. This subspace in the age–redshift plane is limited by the cosmology in order to avoid inconsistencies: a 10 Gyr old galaxy at $`z=2`$ cannot exist in the standard cosmology333we assume H0=65 km.s-1.Mpc-1$`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$ ; $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ because at this redshift, the age of the universe is about 5 Gyr. Moreover the subspace is also limited by the age (redshift corrected) imposed by the adopted scenario of spectral type evolution. As an example, if elliptical and spiral galaxies must be at least 13 Gyr old at $`z=0`$, it means at least 5 Gyr at $`z=1`$ and so on.
Each point is granted a synthetic spectrum; its flux through the filter $`i`$ is called $`F_i^{synth}`$. For each point of this 3D-subspace, the fourth parameter $`\alpha `$ is computed with a $`\chi ^2`$ minimization to fit as well as possible the observed fluxes in filters:

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\left[\frac{F_i^{obs}\alpha \times F_i^{synth}}{\sigma _i}\right]^2$$
(1)
$`N`$ is the number of filters, $`F_i^{obs}`$ and $`\sigma _i`$ are the observed flux and its error bar through the filter $`i`$ respectively. In the case of an observed spectrum without redshift signatures, the sum can also be computed from wavelength bins. Then, each point of the 3D-subspace of parameters has a $`\chi ^2`$ value. A projection of this 3D-$`\chi ^2`$ array on the redshift dimension gives the photometric redshift value $`z_{\text{phot}}`$.

The values of $`\sigma _i^2`$ can be evaluated by the quadratic sum of the systematic errors and of the statistical errors. The extremely low values of observational errors, adopted as statistical, may result in anomalously high reduced $`\chi ^2`$ minima. In this study we consider as negligible systematic errors, keeping in mind that it maximizes the $`\chi ^2`$ minimum value (possibly up to 100). In such a case, statistical rules claim that the result (the photometric redshift) is not reliable and has to be excluded. Yet, with such prescriptions, most of the results would be excluded, because the photometric errors of the observations are very low. This is why all the primary solutions are often kept, including cases of very high reduced $`\chi ^2`$ minima. In the following, we will also adopt this philosophy. However, our error bars might appear larger than in the previous studies, that limit their results to one unique but less robust solution. Indeed, the estimation of the error bar of a photometric redshift is often estimated by the redshifts for which $`\chi ^2\chi _{\text{ }\text{min}}^2+1`$. This method is only valid when the minimum reduced $`\chi _{r,\text{min}}^21`$ (otherwise the error bar is very underestimated).
We choose to estimate the error bar by the redshift values for which $`\chi _n^2\chi _{n,\text{min}}^2+1`$, where $`\chi _n^2`$ is the $`\chi ^2`$ “normalized” with $`\chi _{r,\text{min}}^2=1`$ . The error bar is then much larger and may lead to secondary solutions. Fernández-Soto et al. (2001b) use another accurate estimation of the error bars which also gives secondary solutions, for the $`3\sigma `$ level for instance. This is the case when the Lyman and Balmer breaks are hardly distinguished, as an example.

### 2.3 The Z-PEG interface

Z-PEG is an interface available on the PÉGASE web site (see footnote on page 2). Inputs are fluxes or colors of the observed galaxies and their error bars. Sets of classical filters defined in a variety of photometric systems are proposed. It is possible to use a user-defined filter, with its passband and calibration. In the general case, for which no information on the galaxy spectral type is a priori known, the minimization procedure is tested on all the template types. It is also possible to restrain the template galaxies to a given type. Types are then chosen among the 9 pre-computed synthetic spectra. The default redshift sampling is $`0.25`$ and may be reduced on a narrower redshift range. The age and redshift axes are respectively defined by step - up and - down limits. The user will choose the cosmological parameters ($`H_0`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$), on which the time-redshift relation depends. The default values of cosmological parameters are those adopted in this article.

Outputs are the estimated photometric redshift $`z_{\text{phot}}`$ and its error bar, the age and the spectral type of the best fitted synthetic galaxy. A $`\chi ^2`$ projection map in the age–redshift plane and its projection on the redshift and age axes (see Fig. 1) are also presented.

### 2.4 The coherency test

The relevance of the fit procedure is checked on a synthetic galaxy of the atlas with a known $`z`$. As an example, input data are the colors computed from the SED of the Sbc galaxy at age 5 Gyr and redshift $`z=0.989`$. The output value is, as expected, $`z=0.99`$, identical to the input galaxy redshift ($`z=0.989`$) with a precision of $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.01`$ (no photometric error). Figure 1 shows the resulting projected $`\chi ^2`$ map on the age $`vs`$ redshift plane for this test.

## 3 Photometric redshifts with evolution

### 3.1 The HDF-N galaxy sample

The Hubble Deep Field North (HDF-N) catalog (Williams et al. (1996)) was chosen to test the evolution factor. Spectroscopic redshifts were measured carefully by Cohen et al. (2000), with some additions and corrections in Cohen (2001). FSLY  give photometric data for the HDF-N objects and Fernández-Soto et al. (2001a) give a correspondence between their objects and the objects in Cohen et al. (2000). We exclude from the sample galaxies with negative fluxes. The remaining selected sub-sample contains 136 galaxies with redshifts distributed from $`0`$ to $`5.6`$.
The HDF-N sample presents a series of advantages to explore the accuracy of our method and to compare it to others. With a large redshift range ($`0z5.6`$), the sample data acquired with the WFPC2/HST camera is one of the deepest (down to B=29) with an extent over the wavelength range from about 3000Å to 8000Å with the filters F300W, F450W, F606W, and F814W (hereafter called U,B,V,I). Moreover the near-infrared standard Johnson-Cousins J, H and Ks (hereafter K) colors listed in FSLY  from Dickinson (1998) were observed at the KPNO/4m telescope. The calibration used is AB magnitudes.

$$m_{\mathrm{AB}}=2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}\frac{{\displaystyle F_\nu T_\nu d\nu }}{{\displaystyle T_\nu d\nu }}48.60$$

with $`F_\nu `$ in erg.s-1.cm-2.Hz-1. $`T_\nu `$ is the transmission of the filter.

A further advantage is the benefit of spectroscopic redshifts of the selected sub-sample, as given by Cohen (2001). This allows a statistical comparison with our photometric redshifts and an estimation of the dispersion. Another advantage of this sample is the possibility of measuring the type-dependent evolution factor by comparing our results with the FSLY ’s results, since the latter authors propose photometric redshift determinations based on a maximum likelihood analysis and 4 spectral types without any evolution effect.

### 3.2 The spectroscopic-$`z`$ – photometric-$`z`$ plane

Figure 2 presents the plane $`z_{\text{spe}}`$$`z_{\text{phot}}`$ resulting from our fit of the HDF-N sample with PÉGASE templates.

### 3.3 Evolution factors

#### 3.3.1 Average evolution factor on $`z_{\text{phot}}`$

We compare our best results $`z_{\text{ZPEG}}`$, from the evolutionary model Z-PEG.1 (selected from the variety of models in table 2) to photometric redshifts $`z_{\text{FS}}`$ estimated by FSLY . These authors only took into account k-corrections of the galaxy spectral distributions from Coleman et al. (1980) while we simultaneously compute the k- and e- correction factors at any $`z`$. Figure 3 shows the difference for each galaxy of the sample. Lines trace the median values of the difference of $`z_{\text{FS}}`$ with Z-PEG.1, and $`z_{\text{spe}}`$ values respectively. The zero value (difference to $`z_{\text{FS}}`$) is plotted for comparison. A systematic effect is observed for $`z`$1.5. The evolution effect is measured around $`<z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{FS}}>=0.2`$, independent of type. The median444 note that the median operator is not transitive:
$`<z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{spe}}><z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{FS}}><z_{\text{spe}}z_{\text{FS}}>`$. value $`<z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{spe}}>=0.03`$ is measured and remains inside the error bars. Evolution effects are more important for distant galaxies and an appropriate evolutionary code is required for such estimates.

#### 3.3.2 Determination of galaxy spectral types

Our best fit gives a minimal $`\chi ^2`$ for a triplet (age, redshift, type), so that we can deduce the spectral type of the observed galaxies by comparing to the SEDs of 9 different types. The comparison of types derived by Z-PEG.1 and by FSLY  is shown in Fig. 4. In most cases, ’earlier type’ galaxies are found with Z-PEG.1, particularly at high redshifts. This effect is expected from evolution scenarios because, when considering only the k-correction, FSLY  would find an evolved spiral galaxy when Z-PEG.1 finds a young elliptical galaxy. A better definition of the morphological properties of galaxies in the near future will help us to arrive at a conclusion.

## 4 Sensitivity to parameters

Table 2 summarizes the comparison $`z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{spe}}`$ and the corresponding dispersion, given by a series of various Z-PEG models computed by changing only one parameter. The considered parameters are age, absorption by the IGM and the addition of NIR colors (JHK). We evaluate the offset and the dispersion of the $`z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{spe}}`$ distribution with

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }z}=\frac{1}{N}\underset{1}{\overset{N}{}}(z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{spe}})$$
(2)
$$\sigma _z^2=\frac{1}{N1}\underset{1}{\overset{N}{}}\left[(z_{\text{ZPEG}}z_{\text{spe}})\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }z}\right]^2$$
(3)
where N is the number of solutions. Most teams only limit their results and corresponding error bars to primary solutions for $`z_{\text{phot}}`$. In such cases, N is the number of galaxies in the sample. Yet, as the uncertainties on $`z_{\text{phot}}`$ are often underestimated (see Sect. 2.2), we choose to use $`N=`$number of primary solutions + number of secondary solutions. Thus, the estimation of the dispersion is made with more points than the number of galaxies. As a consequence, the value of the dispersion differs from the dispersion computed using only primary solutions: the latter value might, by chance, be sometimes smaller. This is the case when the number of galaxies for which the primary solution is in agreement with the real redshift, dominates.

### 4.1 Effect of the $`z=0`$ age constraint

The basic procedure of the spectral synthesis of distant galaxies requires one to respect the observed SEDs of standard nearby galaxies. The correction factors (k-correction for expansion and e-correction for evolution) are computed from the $`z=0`$ templates, fitting at best observational data. As a consequence, a $`z=0`$ age of the stellar population is imposed by the synthetic SED template. When the so-called $`z=0`$ age constraint is taken into account, the dispersion $`\sigma _z`$ is reduced by 15% for $`z<1.5`$ ($`\sigma _z=0.098`$ with model Z-PEG.1, Fig. 2, compared to $`\sigma _z=0.116`$ with model Z-PEG.2, Fig. 5). For $`0<z<5`$, the improvement factor is 8%. As discussed above, computations with evolution require the age constraint in order to make synthetic redshifted templates compatible with $`z=0`$ observed templates. As discussed below, a similar constraint is used in the interpretation models of faint galaxy counts (see Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1999a)). The remark is all the more important as most photometric redshift models, even with evolution corrections, compute redshifts without the age constraint, finding fits with synthetic templates sometimes unable to reproduce $`z=0`$ galaxies. Yet, we demonstrate here that our strong age constraint and the use of appropriate scenarios of evolution give better results than the often-used ’no age constraint’ method.

Moreover, not constraining the $`z=0`$ ages of galaxies (models Z-PEG.2 and beyond) increases the age–redshift–type degeneracy (see Fig. 6, left hand side): at a given redshift, a young ( $`<`$ 1Gyr) elliptical galaxy would be an acceptable solution, with almost the same optical colors as an old irregular one. But using the model Z-PEG.1 that takes care of ages, we restrain the acceptable range in the age–redshift–type space and raise partially a degeneracy. Figure 6 clearly shows this effect on galaxy number 319 of the FSLY  sample.

### 4.2 Effect of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$ wavelength coverage

Since the strong discontinuities (4000Å, Lyman break) are the most constraining features for redshift determinations, several consequences are implied (see also discussions in Bolzonella et al. (2000) and Massarotti et al. (2001a)). The observations of colors in the near infrared is the only way to follow the discontinuities at the highest redshifts ($`4.5`$ for the 4000Å discontinuity and $`23`$ for the Lyman break in the K band). Moreover SED continua also contribute to the best fits, so that in most cases, minimizing the $`\chi ^2`$ on the largest wavelength coverage will decrease the degeneracy. Figure 7 and table 2 show that without J, H and K bands, the photometric redshift determination is poor ($`\sigma _z=0.32>\sigma _z=0.12`$ for $`z_{\text{spe}}<1.5`$). Moreover, we do not use any filter between $`8500`$ and $`12000`$ Å to fit the data, because on the one hand we do not have the corresponding observations and on the other hand only very few galaxies in our sample are at $`1<z<2`$. To analyze galaxies in the redshift range $`1<z<2`$ , a $`Z`$ filter (or equivalent) would be necessary for observations as well as modeling.

### 4.3 IGM absorption

When comparing results with and without IGM absorption (Fig. 5), an important deviation to the spectroscopic redshifts is observed at high redshifts if we do not take the IGM into account: a linear regression on fits without the IGM shows a systematic deviation towards high photometric redshifts. This was already noted by Massarotti et al.(2001a,2001b), and can be understood quite easily: not including IGM absorption in models, one can mistake the Lyman forest absorption by intergalactic H i (below $`\lambda =1216`$Å) for the real Lyman break ($`\lambda =912`$Å in the rest frame). In such a case, we overestimate the redshift.

## 5 Investigations on redshifts of formation

Given the photometric redshift and age found with Z-PEG for any observed galaxy, a corresponding formation redshift $`z_{for}`$ , defined as the epoch of the first star’s appearance, may be derived. The result, constrained by the age of the universe (age$`_\text{U}`$), depends on cosmology; as previously mentioned, standard cosmological parameters are hereafter adopted. Figure 8 shows iso-$`z_{for}`$ curves. The galaxy sample is also plotted and compared to curves.
For $`z_{\text{for}}<5`$, our formation redshift determination is reliable, if we keep in mind that we constrained the ages of galaxies and thus the formation redshift. Unfortunately, the precision of redshift determination from photometry is quite poor (about $`0.1`$ for $`z<1.5`$ with our sample). Above $`z_{\text{for}}=5`$, the iso-$`z_{\text{for}}`$ lines are so close to each other that we cannot rely on this formation redshift determination.
The histogram of the formation redshifts is shown in Fig. 9. Note that this histogram is in agreement with Lanzetta et al. (2001) figures of the star formation rate as a function of redshift, deduced from FSLY ’s photometry, and taking into account the effects of cosmological surface brightness.

## 6 Discussion

The determination of photometric redshifts significantly depends on the adopted evolution scenarios. The basic principle is that distant galaxies evolve according to the same basic principles as our nearby galaxies, only observed at earlier epochs. As a direct consequence, evolution scenarios must reproduce the SEDs of galaxy templates observed at $`z=0`$. This constraint requires meaningful statistical templates. The literature appears poor in this domain. From a large series of catalogs, we built statistical samples corrected for various effects: aperture, inclination, reddening, etc (see Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1999b)) in order to focus specifically on visible to near-infrared colors of eight spectral types of galaxies. All our redshifted templates are compatible with these statistical colors at $`z=0`$.

The evolution principles are linked to the time-dependent star formation rates. Corresponding to so-called ”monolithic” scenarios, each type evolves with a star formation rate proportional to the gas content and typical astration rates. The time-scale of star formation increases from ellipticals (half Gyr) to Irregulars (more than 10 Gyr). A test of the reliability of the adopted scenarios is given with the interpretation of the deepest multi-spectral faint galaxy counts on the largest multi-spectral coverage. Figure 5 of Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1999a) shows the best simultaneous fits of the deepest surveys, including the HDF-N sample, from the far-UV to the K band. The most constraining data are the reddest and deepest counts, only fitted by scenarios of old elliptical galaxy models. The evolution scenarios are from PÉGASE and similar to those used in the code Z-PEG. These considerations make the $`z_{\text{ZPEG}}`$ results more robust and the evolution scenarios of elliptical galaxies compatible with a rapid evolution at the earliest epochs. The high values of $`z_{for}`$ found from the present analysis favor this result. The star formation rate continuously follows the gas density, so that the current SFR depends on the past star formation history. An interesting interpretation, though tentative given the small incomplete samples, would arise if the apparent continuous law is considered as the envelop of small bursts. The intensity of these bursts decreases over time, as the gas is depleted by star formation.

If the photometric redshifts $`z_{\text{ZPEG}}`$ are faintly dependent on the adopted cosmology, the results of $`z_{for}`$ are more sensitive to the choice of the cosmological parameters through the age-redshift relation.

Finally the discussion of the dispersion and the degeneracy of solutions has been detailed at each step of the $`z_{\text{phot}}`$ determination. In this analysis, like the age constraint, the extension of the wavelength coverage, increasing with the number of filters, limits the degeneracy. Conversely, if galaxies are observed through only a few filters, the degeneracy may be high and results have to be used with caution.

## 7 Conclusions

A new code Z-PEG is proposed for public use, available on the web, to predict photometric redshifts from a data set of classical broad-band colors or spectra. The code is derived from the model PÉGASE, also available on the same web site, frequently downloaded for evolution spectrophotometric analyses and quoted in many articles. The particularity of the analysis presented here is to underline the hypotheses implicitly (or explicitly) accepted when computing photometric redshifts with evolution. The comparison with a spectrophotometric redshift sample makes the predictions robust. In its recent version PÉGASE.2, the model constrains typical evolution scenarios to fit nearby galaxies. Type-dependent extinction, IMF and metal effects are taken into account, although we assumed their modeling is not essential in our conclusions. The most constraining parameter is the $`z=0`$ galaxy age, typical of the nearby stellar population of each spectral type. This constraint makes it possible to eliminate implausible secondary solutions, the degeneracy being the largest cause of uncertainties on photometric redshifts. The dispersion for $`z<1.5`$ reaches its minimum value $`0.0980`$ with the age constraint, compared to other dispersion values whatever the other parameter values (IGM absorption or NIR colors). The improvement in photometric redshift accuracy brought by near-infrared colors is also measured by comparing models Z-PEG.4 and Z-PEG.2. The dispersion decreases from $`0.32`$ to $`0.12`$ for $`z<1.5`$ and is more important for high redshifts when the 4000Å discontinuity enters in the NIR domain and the Lyman break does not yet reach the ultraviolet bands. Finally Z-PEG is proposed to the community with PÉGASE.2. The site will be updated and improved, so that Z-PEG will also follow improvements in the spectrophotometric evolution modeling, in particular with the series of flux-calibrated samples allowing better fits of highly redshifted templates. A possible extension of Z-PEG will involve the adaptation of any photometric system, including narrow bands around emission lines, with the help of the coupled code PÉGASE+CLOUDY (Ferland (1996)), predicting stellar and photoionised gas emissions (Moy et al. (2001)).

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank Emmanuel Moy, Michel Fioc and Jeremy Blaizot for the fruitful discussions we had with them. We are also grateful to the referee for his/her useful comments.


text:
# Interfacial tension and nucleation in mixtures of colloids and long ideal polymer coils

## I Introduction

In earlier work  immiscibility in mixtures of colloidal hard spheres and long ideal polymer molecules was studied. Long means that the root-mean-square end-to-end separation of the polymer molecules, $`R_E`$, is larger than the diameter $`\sigma `$ of the hard spheres. A mixture of spheres and long polymers was found to demix at comparable number densities of polymer molecules and spheres, both densities scale with $`R_E`$ as $`1/R_E^2\sigma `$, for $`R_E>\sigma `$. This scaling comes directly from the leading order term in the second virial coefficient for the sphere-polymer interaction. The interaction and hence the virial coefficient must be extensive in the number of monomers for large $`R_E`$ and hence must scale as $`R_E^2`$ for our ideal polymers. The requirement that it has the dimensions of a volume then imposes the scaling $`R_E^2\sigma `$ as $`\sigma `$ is the only other relevant length in the problem: the monomer size is assumed to be much less than $`\sigma `$ and so is irrelevant. Once the mixture has demixed we have two coexisting phases: one with a high density of colloidal particles and a low density of polymer molecules, and one with a high density of polymer molecules and a low density of colloidal particles. There is an interface between these two coexisting phases. Here we determine the scaling of the interfacial tension $`\gamma `$ of this interface, and use it to show that when a mixed sample of polymer and colloid is prepared and quenched into the two-phase region, the dynamics of the separation into two phases starts off with spinodal decomposition not nucleation. The fact that the phase separation starts off with spinodal decomposition makes mixtures of the long polymers like polymer blends but unlike simple mixtures, e.g., mixtures of oil and water. Thus, we can apply much of what we have learned of spinodal decomposition in systems like polymer blends, to mixtures of colloidal spheres and much larger polymer molecules.

The colloid-polymer interactions in and bulk thermodynamics of, mixtures of colloids and large ideal polymers have both been studied, see Refs. , but this is the first study of the interfacial tension and nucleation of these systems. The opposite limit to that of interest here, i.e., where the polymer molecules are smaller than the colloidal spheres, has been considered extensively, see Refs.  for work on the bulk phase behaviour and Refs.  for work on interfaces. The following two sections deal with the interfacial tension, and with nucleation. Throughout, the objective will be to determine the scaling of the behaviour with the ratio of the size of the polymer to that of the sphere. Also note that here the polymers are always ideal, mixtures of polymers with strong excluded volume interactions and spheres, are very different .

## II Interfacial tension between the demixed phases

The interfacial tension between the demixed phases, one colloid-rich, the other polymer rich, can be estimated using just dimensional analysis. The tension $`\gamma `$ is an energy per unit area. It is obtained by multiplying the free energy per unit volume, which is $`kT/(R_E^2\sigma )`$ , by the width of the interface. This width will be of the order of the polymer size $`R_E`$. Thus, $`\gamma kT/R_E\sigma `$. Note that the energy scale has to be the thermal energy $`kT`$ as there are no other relevant energy scales in the problem. The mixture is athermal, there are no attractive interactions or soft repulsions to provide another energy scale. The free-energy density is then of order $`kT`$ times the number density, which is of order $`1/R_E^2\sigma `$ for both the polymer molecules and the colloidal spheres when they demix. This is just a simple scaling argument so we confirm it by determining the scaling of $`\gamma `$ within a standard square-gradient or Cahn-Hilliard theory for the interface .

We apply this theory to the system in the semigrand ensemble of Ref.  where the characteristic thermodynamic potential is the semigrand potential $`\omega `$, which is a function of the number density of colloidal particles, $`\rho _C`$, and the activity $`z`$ of the polymer molecules. As we are specifying the activity not the density of the polymer our system is equivalent to a single component system whose thermodynamic state depends on the density and on the activity of the polymer $`z`$; $`\mathrm{ln}z`$ acts as an inverse temperature in the sense that the larger it is the stronger is the effect of the attractions. Thus we can apply the standard square-gradient expression for the interfacial tension of a single component system, which is

$$\gamma =dx\left[\mathrm{\Psi }+\kappa \left(\frac{\mathrm{d}\rho _C}{\mathrm{d}x}\right)^2\right],$$
(1)
where

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=\omega (\rho _C(x))\omega ^{(b)}\mu _C(\rho _C(x)\rho _C^{(b)}),$$
(2)
is the excess grand potential at a point. $`\omega ^{(\alpha )}`$ and $`\rho _C^{(\alpha )}`$ are the semigrand potential and density in either one of the coexisting phases. The superscript $`\alpha =C,P`$ for the colloid-rich and polymer-rich phases respectively. $`\mu _C`$ is the chemical potential of the colloid. The interface is normal to the $`x`$-axis. The coefficient $`\kappa `$ of the gradient term is assumed to be density independent. The equilibrium profile is obtained by minimising Eq. (1). Then standard manipulations enable a simpler expression for the equilibrium interfacial tension to be derived

$$\gamma =2_{\rho _C^{(P)}}^{\rho _C^{(C)}}d\rho _C\left[\kappa \mathrm{\Psi }\right]^{1/2}.$$
(3)
If we require that the functional Eq. (1) be consistent with linear response theory  we obtain an expression for the coefficient $`\kappa `$ of the gradient term

$$\kappa =\frac{kT}{12}d𝐫r^2c_2(r;\rho _C,z),$$
(4)
where $`c_2(r;\rho _C,z)`$ is the direct correlation function of the fluid of colloidal hard spheres in the presence of polymer. For our systems the most basic assumption is to use the low density approximation to the direct correlation function. This replaces $`c`$ with the Mayer f function for the effective sphere-sphere interaction in the presence of the polymer . For two spheres with centres separated by less than $`\sigma `$, the interaction energy is infinite and the Mayer f function equals $`1`$. For separations larger than $`\sigma `$ the only interaction is that due to the polymer. This interaction is known , and is long-range and weak thus we linearise the Mayer f function. Adding this altogether we obtain

$$c(r;\rho _C,z)\{\begin{array}{cc}1& r<\sigma \\ zR_E^2\sigma \left(\sigma /r\right)& \sigma <rR_E\\ 0& rR_E\end{array},$$
(5)
the ideal polymer induces an attraction which decays as $`1/r`$ for separations less than the radius of the polymer and roughly exponentially beyond this. Putting our approximate $`c`$ into Eq. (4) we obtain an estimate of this coefficient

$`\kappa `$ $``$ $`kTzR_E^2\sigma ^2{\displaystyle _0^{R_E}}drr^3`$ (6)
$``$ $`kTz\sigma ^2R_E^6.`$ (7)
We now return to Eq. (3) for the interfacial tension and determine its scaling with $`R_E`$. We note that the density difference $`\rho _C^{(C)}\rho _C^{(P)}1/R_E^2\sigma `$, $`\kappa `$ scales as given by Eq. (7), $`\mathrm{\Psi }kT/R_E^2\sigma `$ and the polymer activity is of order the polymer number density $`z1/R_E^2\sigma `$. Putting this all together we see that we recover the scaling $`\gamma kT/R_E\sigma `$ obtained earlier by dimensional analysis. Also, from Eq. (1) we see that the characteristic length-scale for the interface must be $`(\kappa /\mathrm{\Psi })^{1/2}\rho _C^{(\alpha )}R_E`$, as we assumed earlier. Earlier work by Vrij , and by Brader and Evans  on the interfacial tension between demixed colloid-rich and polymer-rich phases when the colloid and polymer were of comparable sizes, $`R_E\sigma `$, found that, as expected. $`\gamma kT/\sigma ^2kT/R_E^2`$. This is consistent with experimental findings .

The interfacial tension $`\gamma `$ will be of order $`kT/R_E\sigma `$ only if we are not too close to the critical point of the polymer-colloid demixing. In general we have $`\gamma =(kT/R_E\sigma )s(z/z_c1)`$, where $`s`$ is a scaling function and $`z_c`$ is the polymer activity at the critical point. We have been assuming that we are not very close to the critical point, i.e., that $`z/z_c1=O(1)`$, and for these values of its argument $`s=O(1)`$ and we return to $`\gamma `$ being of order $`kT/R_E\sigma `$. However, as the critical point is approached, $`z/z_c11`$, we have that the scaling function $`s(x)=s_0x^\mu `$ for $`x1`$, where $`s_0`$ is a dimensionless constant and $`\mu `$ is the (positive) critical exponent of the interfacial tension . The interfacial tension tends to 0 as the critical point of demixing is approached, and near the critical point it varies as a power law. See the review of Widom  for an excellent introduction to interfaces near critical points. Sufficiently close to the critical point the scaling of the interfacial tension will be dominated by fluctuations and then the exponent $`\mu `$ will take the value for the Ising model in three dimensions, $`\mu =1.26`$ . However, for very long polymers $`R_E\sigma `$ the effective interaction is long-ranged and long-range interactions suppress fluctuations and make the system mean-field–like. The mean-field value of the exponent $`\mu `$ is $`3/2`$ . Which value of the exponent, Ising or mean-field, is observed is determined by whether or not the Ginzburg criterion is obeyed or not; see Ref.  or any introduction to critical phenomena for a definition of the Ginzburg criterion. Note that Eq. (3), belonging as it does to a mean-field theory, will yield an interfacial tension which tends to 0 with an exponent $`\mu =3/2`$, its mean-field value.

## III Nucleation and other fluctuations

Now consider a single phase mixture of spheres and polymer quenched into the two-phase coexistence region. For definiteness assume that the single phase is the polymer-rich one. Then in order for the second, colloid-rich, phase to form and coexist with the polymer-rich one, this second phase must form. The dynamics of the formation of a new phase fall into two broad categories: nucleation then growth, and spinodal decomposition. See Refs.  for an introduction to the dynamics of first-order phase transitions. For example a mixture of simple liquids such as water and an alcohol phase separate via nucleation of the new water-rich or alcohol-rich phase followed by growth of the nuclei, whereas polymer blends phase separate via spinodal decomposition. Here we show that for large ideal polymers and spheres, nucleation becomes very difficult, so mixtures of large ideal polymers and much smaller spheres will start to phase separate via spinodal decomposition.

The rate of nucleation $`N_n`$ can be estimated using classical nucleation theory, see the book of Debenedetti  for a comprehensive discussion, see also Refs. . $`N_n`$ is the number of nuclei crossing the barrier per unit time per unit volume. The classical nucleation theory expression for the rate $`N_n`$ is

$$N_n=\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }F^{}/kT),$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is an attempt frequency per unit volume, generally slowly varying, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }F^{}`$ is the free energy barrier that must be crossed in order for a new phase to nucleate. The variation in the rate is generally dominated by that in $`\mathrm{\Delta }F^{}`$ so we focus on this. The free energy barrier comes from the free energy needed to form a microscopic droplet of the new phase, here a colloid-rich phase. This droplet is the nucleus of the new phase. Within classical nucleation theory the free energy of formation of a microscopic droplet is the sum of two terms, a bulk term and a surface term,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }F=\frac{4}{3}\pi R^3\mathrm{\Psi }_n+4\pi R^2\gamma ,$$
(9)
where $`R`$ is the radius of the droplet and

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_n=\omega (\rho _C^{(n)})\omega (\rho _C)\mu _C(\rho _C^{(n)}\rho _C)$$
(10)
is the difference between the grand potential inside the nucleus and the grand potential of the phase in which the nucleus forms, $`\rho _C`$ is the density of colloid in the phase in which the nucleus forms, and $`\rho _C^{(n)}`$ is the density of colloid inside the nucleus. So long as we do not approach the spinodal too closely, we can express $`\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$ as a Taylor expansion in chemical potential, around the chemical potential of the colloid at coexistence $`\mu _{co}`$. Truncating the Taylor series after the linear term, we get

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_n\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\left(\mu _C\mu _{co}\right),$$
(11)
as $`\mathrm{\Psi }_n=0`$ at coexistence, with

$$\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_n}{\mu _C}\right)_{\mu _C=\mu _{co}},$$
(12)
the derivative of $`\mathrm{\Psi }_n`$ at coexistence.

The barrier is given by the free energy of the droplet whose free energy is highest, which occurs when the two terms in Eq. (9) are comparable, $`R^3\mathrm{\Psi }_nR^2\gamma `$. Thus, $`R\gamma /(\mathrm{\Psi }^{}(\mu _C\mu _{co}))`$, and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }F^{}\frac{\gamma ^3}{\left(\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\left(\mu _C\mu _{co}\right)\right)^2}.$$
(13)
From Eq. (12), $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}`$ scales as $`1/R_E^2\sigma `$. Using this scaling together with that of $`\gamma `$, we find that at the top of the barrier the size of the nucleus is of order $`R_E`$, for $`\mu _C\mu _{co}`$ not too much less than $`kT`$. Using these same scalings in Eq. (13), we obtain the principle result of this section, the scaling of the nucleation barrier $`\mathrm{\Delta }F^{}`$,

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }F^{}}{kT}\left(\frac{\mu _{co}}{\mu _C\mu _{co}}\right)^2\frac{R_E}{\sigma },$$
(14)
the barrier scales as $`R_E/\sigma `$ and so increases as the size of the polymer molecules relative to that of the colloidal spheres increases. The factor in parentheses is a dimensionless measure of the supersaturation: how far we are into the two-phase region.

For sufficiently large $`R_E`$ of the polymers the nucleation barrier will become so large that nucleation cannot occur. The mixture will be metastable up to very close to the spinodal . Thus, the mixture will only start to demix when quenched beyond the spinodal, where the phase separation will start with spinodal decomposition. This is precisely analogous to polymer blends and systems of particles in which the particle-particle attractions are long ranged. In these systems the nucleation barrier scales as $`N^{1/2}`$ and as $`r^3`$, where $`N`$ is the length of the polymer and $`r`$ is the range of the attraction . The phase transition dynamics of systems of polymers and of particles with long-range attractions, were studied extensively in the early 1980s by Binder and Klein and their coworkers . Many of the conclusions of that work also apply to the demixing of mixtures of hard spheres and much larger ideal polymers.

Finally, we note that our finding that nucleation is suppressed is equivalent to saying that our mixture satisfies the Ginzburg criterion for the irrelevance of fluctuations . Essentially, nucleation is a fluctuation so when fluctuations are weak nucleation is suppressed and vice versa, again this was found for polymer blends/particles with long-range attractions . For our mixtures, the Ginzburg criterion is essentially that the root-mean-square (rms) fluctuations in the number of colloidal spheres or of polymer molecules, in a volume $`R_E^3`$, are much less than the mean number in that volume. The volume $`R_E^3`$ is the volume over which a pair of spheres or polymer interact (the sphere-sphere interaction is mediated by the polymer molecules, and the polymer-polymer interaction is mediated by the spheres). The rms fluctuations scale as the square root of the number of spheres in a volume $`R_E^3`$, which is $`(R_E/\sigma )^{1/2}`$, whereas the mean number scales as $`R_E/\sigma `$. Thus for large values of the ratio of the sizes, $`R_E/\sigma `$, the rms fluctuations in the number of spheres (or polymer molecules) inside the interaction volume is a small fraction of the mean number. Fluctuations about the mean are small and so mean-field theory applies and nucleation, which is a fluctuation, has a very high free-energy cost.


text:
# References

Supersymmetric variational energies for the confined Coulomb system 111PACS No. 31.15.Q, 11.30.P - Key words: Supersymmetric quantum mechanics, confinement

Elso Drigo Filho 222elso@df.ibilce.unesp.br 333Work partially supported by CNPq

Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas, IBILCE-UNESP

Rua Cristovão Colombo, 2265 - 15054-000 São José do Rio Preto - SP

Regina Maria Ricotta  444regina@fatecsp.br

Faculdade de Tecnologia de São Paulo, FATEC/SP-CEETPS-UNESP

Praça Fernando Prestes, 30 - 01124-060 São Paulo-SP

Brazil

Abstract

The methodology based on the association of the Variational Method with Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics is used to evaluate the energy states of the confined hydrogen atom.

Introduction

Confined systems have motivated many studies in different areas of physics. Nowadays it culminates with low dimensional systems of technological applications like quantum dots in semiconductors, . Several authors have worked in a variety of methods aiming the energy eigenvalues of such systems, -. Particularly, the conventional variational method has also been used, - and references therein.

In this context the association of the variational method applied within the formalism of Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics, SQM, seems to be another appropriate alternative to tackle such problem.

SQM has provided good results concerning different nonrelativistic quantum mechanical systems, such as the exactly solvable, -, the partially solvable, -, the isospectral,  and the periodic potentials, . In particular, it gave good results for the energy states of systems well fit by the Hulthén, the Morse and the screened Coulomb potentials, -, which are all non-exactly solvable potentials in 3-dimensions. The latter were studied using a methodology based on the association of the variational method with SQM. Its starting point is the association of an Ansatz for the superpotential. Through the superalgebra the wave function is evaluated, the so-called trial wave function containing the variational parameters, which will be varied until the energy expectation value reaches its minimum.

In this letter this approach is applied to the 3-dimensional confined hydrogen atom in order to get its the energy states. This system is analogous to the hydrogenic donor located at the centre of a spherical $`GaAs(Ga,Al)As`$ quantum dot. The results obtained here for the $`1s`$, $`2p`$ and $`3d`$ states are very good when compared to recent results obtained from other approximative methods as well as numerical exact results, .

The variational method associated to SQM

Consider a system described by a given potential $`V_1`$. The associated Hamiltonian $`H_1`$ can be factorized in terms of bosonic operators, in $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$ units, \- .

$$H_1=\frac{d^2}{dr^2}+V_1(r)=A_1^+A_1^{}+E_0^{(1)}$$
(1)
where $`E_0^{(1)}`$ is the lowest eigenvalue. Notice that the function $`V_1(r)`$ includes the barrier potential term. The bosonic operators are defined in terms of the so called superpotential $`W_1(r)`$,

$$A_1^\pm =\left(\frac{d}{dr}+W_1(r)\right).$$
(2)
As a consequence of the factorization of the Hamiltonian $`H_1`$, the Riccati equation must be satisfied,

$$W_1^2W_1^{}=V_1(r)E_0^{(1)}.$$
(3)
Through the superalgebra, the eigenfunction for the lowest state is related to the superpotential $`W_1`$ by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_0^{(1)}(r)=Nexp(_0^rW_1(\overline{r})𝑑\overline{r}).$$
(4)
It should be stressed that if the potential is non-exactly solvable, the Hamiltonian is not exactly factorizable which means that there is no superpotential that satisfies the Riccati equation. However, the Hamiltonian can be factorized in terms of a superpotential giving rise to an effective potential that best mimics the true potential. Thus, using the superalgebra we evaluate the wave function which will depend on free parameters, the variational parameters.

The variational method is an approximative technique to evaluate the energy spectra of a Hamiltonian $`H`$ and, in particular, its ground state. Its central point is the search for an optimum wave-function $`\mathrm{\Psi }(r)`$ depending on a set of parameters, $`\{\mu \}`$. This is called the trial wave-function. The approach consists in varying these parameters in the expression for the expectation value of the energy

$$E=\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_\mu ^{}H\mathrm{\Psi }_\mu 𝑑r}{\mathrm{\Psi }_\mu ^2𝑑r}$$
(5)
until this expectation value reaches its minimum value. This value is an upper limit of the energy level. Even though this method is usually applied to get the ground state energy only, it can also be applied to get the energy of the excited states.

Thus, the aim of the variational method is the acquisition of this optimum wavefunction. Conventionally one proposes a variational wavefunction depending on a set of parameters. At this crucial point, however, our strategy is to use SQM to obtain this function. Based on physical arguments, an Ansatz for the superpotential is proposed and, through the superalgebra, the trial wave function is evaluated, (equation (4)). By minimizing the energy expectation value with respect to the free parameters introduced by the Ansatz the minimum energy is found.

We stress that, in fact, by making an Ansatz in the superpotential corresponds to be dealing with an effective potential $`V_{eff}`$ that satisfies the Riccati equation, i.e.,

$$V_{eff}(r)=\overline{W}_1^2\overline{W}_1^{}+E(\overline{\mu })$$
(6)
where $`\overline{W}_1=W_1(\overline{\mu })`$ is the superpotential that satisfies (3) for $`\mu =\overline{\mu }`$, the parameter that minimises the energy of eq.(5).

The Confined Coulomb Potential

The radial Hamiltonian equation for the Coulomb Potential, written in atomic units, is given by

$$H=\frac{d^2}{dr^2}+\frac{l(l+1)}{r^2}\frac{2}{r}.$$
(7)
We use the variational method associated to SQM in order to get the energy states of the confined Coulomb Potential. As the Coulomb potential is symmetric, the confinement is introduced by an infinite potential barrier at radius $`r=R`$. Thus we make the following Ansatz for the superpotential

$$W(r)=\frac{\mu _1}{r}+\frac{\mu _2}{Rr}+\mu _3$$
(8)
which depends on $`R`$, the radius of confinement, and three variational parameters, $`\mu _1`$, $`\mu _2`$ and $`\mu _3`$. The first and the last terms are already known from the non-confined case, . The second term deals with the confinement, as shown below in the effective potential.

Substituting this superpotential in the associated Riccati equation we arrive at a confining effective potential $`V_{eff}`$, i.e., a potential which is infinite at $`r=R`$. It is given by

$`V_{eff}(r)`$ $`=`$ $`\overline{W}^2\overline{W}^{}+E(\overline{\mu })`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mu _1(\mu _11)}{r^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\mu _2(\mu _21)}{(Rr)^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2\mu _1\mu _3}{r}}{\displaystyle \frac{2\mu _1\mu _2}{r(Rr)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2\mu _2\mu _3}{Rr}}+\mu _{3}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}+E(\overline{\mu })`$
which is clearly infinite at $`r=R`$, as expected for a confining system. Notice that the effective potential is evaluated for the values of the set of parameters $`\{\overline{\mu }\}`$ that minimise the energy.

As mentioned before, our trial wavefunction for the variational method is obtained from the superalgebra through equation (4), using the superpotential given by the Ansatz made in equation (8). It is given by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\mu _1,\mu _2,\mu _3,r)r^{\mu _1}(Rr)^{\mu _2}e^{\mu _3r}.$$
(10)
It depends of three free parameters, $`\mu _1`$, $`\mu _2`$ and $`\mu _3`$ and vanishes at $`r=R`$.

The energy is obtained by minimisation of the energy expectation value with respect to the three parameters. The equation to be minimised is given by

$$E(\mu _1,\mu _2,\mu _3)=\frac{_0^R\mathrm{\Psi }(\mu _1,\mu _2,\mu _3,r)[\frac{d^2}{dr^2}\frac{2}{r}+\frac{l(l+1)}{r^2}]\mathrm{\Psi }(\mu _1,\mu _2,\mu _3,r)𝑑r}{_0^R\mathrm{\Psi }(\mu _1,\mu _2,\mu _3,r)𝑑r}.$$
(11)
After the minimization of (11) with respect to the parameters $`\mu _1`$, $`\mu _2`$ and $`\mu _3`$ we get $`E(\overline{\mu })`$ which, from now on, will be referred as $`E_{VSQM}`$.

The tables $`1`$, $`2`$ and $`3`$ below show the results for different values of $`R`$ and $`l`$ and the comparison with the exact numerical, $`E_{EXACT}`$, and conventional variational results, $`E_V`$, contained in . The comparison is made through the percentage errors,

$$\delta _{VSQM}=\frac{|E_{EXACT}E_{VSQM}|}{E_{EXACT}}\%$$
(12)
and

$$\delta _V=\frac{|E_{EXACT}E_V|}{E_{EXACT}}\%.$$
(13)
Table 1. Energy eigenvalues (in Rydbergs) and percentage errors for different values of $`R`$ for the $`1s`$ state, ($`l=0`$). Comparison is made with results from .
R $`E_{EXACT}`$ $`E_V`$ $`\delta _V`$ $`E_{VSQM}`$ $`\delta _{VSQM}`$   Ref.  Ref.      0.1 937.986 937.999 0.00 940.688 0.29  0.2 222.140 222.143 0.00 222.757 0.28  0.3 93.185 93.187 0.00 93.434 0.27  0.4 49.268 49.269 0.00 49.397 0.26  0.5 29.496 29.497 0.00 29.571 0.25  0.6 19.055 19.056 0.00 19.100 0.23  0.7 12.940 12.941 0.00 12.968 0.22  0.8 9.0868 9.0874 0.01 9.1055 0.21  0.9 6.5244 6.5249 0.01 6.5370 0.19  1.0 4.7480 4.7484 0.01 4.7565 0.18  1.2 2.5386 2.5388 0.01 2.5425 0.15  1.4 1.2942 1.2943 0.01 1.2958 0.13  1.6 0.54262 0.54263 0.00 0.54318 0.10  1.8 0.06511 0.06512 0.02 0.06522 0.17  2.0 -0.25000 -0.24990 0.04 -0.25000 0.00  2.2 -0.46407 -0.46376 0.07 -0.46391 0.03  2.4 -0.61280 -0.61216 0.10 -0.61227 0.09  2.6 -0.7196 -0.71682 0.16 -0.71697 0.14  2.8 -0.79333 -0.79152 0.23 -0.79186 0.19  3.0 -0.84793 -0.84523 0.32 -0.84706 0.10  3.2 -0.88781 -0.88396 0.43 -0.88545 0.27  3.4 -0.91710 -0.91184 0.57 -0.91440 0.30  3.6 -0.93870 -0.93174 0.74 -0.93575 0.32  3.8 -0.95469 -0.94571 0.94 -0.95156 0.32  4.0 -0.96653 -0.95518 1.17 -0.96509 0.15

Table 2. Energy eigenvalues (in Rydbergs) and percentage errors for different values of $`R`$ for the $`2p`$ state, ($`l=1`$). Comparison is made with results from .
R $`E_{EXACT}`$ $`E_V`$ $`\delta _V`$ $`E_{VSQM}`$ $`\delta _{VSQM}`$   Ref.  Ref.      0.4 116.896 116.925 0.02 117.038 0.12  0.5 73.318 73.336 0.02 73.406 0.12  0.6 49.874 49.887 0.03 49.934 0.12  0.8 26.879 26.886 003 26.911 0.12  1.0 16.446 16.451 0.03 16.466 0.12  1.2 10.893 10.897 0.03 10.906 0.12  1.4 7.6138 7.6160 0.03 7.6225 0.12  1.6 5.5295 5.5311 0.03 5.5358 0.11  1.8 4.1308 4.1321 0.03 4.1355 0.11  2 3.1520 3.1530 0.03 3.1555 0.11  2.2 2.4438 2.4445 0.03 2.4465 0.11  2.4 1.9173 1.9178 0.03 1.9193 0.11  2.6 1.5170 1.5173 0.03 1.5185 0.10  2.8 1.2068 1.2070 0.02 1.2080 0.10  3.0 0.96250 0.96269 0.03 0.96346 0.10  3.5 0.54239 0.54245 0.01 0.54239 0.10  4.0 0.28705 0.28706 0.00 0.28732 0.09  4.5 0.12373 0.12375 0.01 0.12385 0.10  5.0 0.01519 0.01528 0.59 0.01523 0.29  5.5 -0.05910 -0.05887 0.38 -0.05909 0.02  6.0 -0.11111 -0.11069 0.38 -0.11111 0.00  6.5 -0.14818 -0.14748 0.47 -0.14816 0.01  7.0 -0.17496 -0.17392 0.59 -0.17490 0.03  7.5 -0.19451 -0.19304 0.75 -0.19440 0.05  8.0 -0.20890 -0.20691 0.95 -0.20882 0.04

Table 3. Energy eigenvalues (in Rydbergs) and percentage errors for different values of $`R`$ for the $`3d`$ state, ($`l=2`$). Comparison is made with results from .
R $`E_{EXACT}`$ $`E_V`$ $`\delta _V`$ $`E_{VSQM}`$ $`\delta _{VSQM}`$   Ref.  Ref.      0.4 116.896 116.925 0.02 117.038 0.12  0.5 126.320 126.396 0.06 126.417 0.08  1.0 29.935 29.950 0.05 29.958 0.08  1.5 12.570 12.576 0.05 12.579 0.07  2.0 6.6550 6.6583 0.05 6.6601 0.08  2.5 3.9920 3.9938 0.05 3.9950 0.08  3.0 2.5856 2.5867 0.04 2.5876 0.08  3.5 1.7618 1.7624 0.04 1.7631 0.07  4.0 1.2427 1.2431 0.03 1.2437 0.08  4.5 0.89752 0.89776 0.03 0.89820 0.08  5.0 0.65823 0.65836 0.02 0.65873 0.08  5.5 0.48681 0.48686 0.01 0.48717 0.07  6.0 0.36068 0.36074 0.02 0.36095 0.08  6.5 0.26583 0.26583 0.00 0.26603 0.08  7.0 0.19318 0.19318 0.00 0.19333 0.08  7.5 0.13666 0.13668 0.02 0.13677 0.08  8.0 0.09212 0.09216 0.05 0.09220 0.08  9.0 0.02801 0.02815 0.50 0.02805 0.14  10.0 -0.01419 -0.01390 1.98 -0.01417 0.13  11.0 -0.04275 -0.04229 1.09 -0.04275 0.01  12.0 -0.06250 -0.06181 1.11 -0.06250 0.00  13.0 -0.07637 -0.07540 1.27 -0.07637 0.00  14.0 -0.08623 -0.08479 1.66 -0.08622 0.01  15.0 -0.09328 -0.09160 1.81 -0.09327 0.01
At this point we stress that for $`R\mathrm{}`$ the SQM results also agree with the exact non-confined problem, which corresponds to the removal of the infinite barrier. In this case the energy is exact and corresponds to

$$E=\frac{1}{N^2},N=n+l+1$$
(14)
The table $`4`$ below shows the energy eigenvalues, $`E_{VSQM}`$, for the $`1s`$, $`2p`$ and $`3d`$ states, ($`n=0`$ and $`l=0,1,2`$) for increasing values of $`R`$. Notice the convergency towards the energy of the exact non-confined case, given by equation (14).

Table 4. Energy eigenvalues, $`E_{VSQM}`$, (in Rydbergs) for different values of $`R`$ for the $`1s`$, $`2p`$ and $`3d`$ states, ($`n=0`$ and $`l=0,1,2`$). It is also shown the exact result from (14).
R l = 0 l = 1 l = 2   $`E_{R\mathrm{}=1.00000}`$ $`E_{R\mathrm{}=0.25000}`$ $`E_{R\mathrm{}=0.11111}`$    10 -0.99985 -0.23754 -0.01417  15 -0.99998 -0.24941 -0.09327  20 -1.00000 0.24990 -0.10788  30 -1.00000 -0.24999 -0.11103  50 -1.00000 -0.25000 -0.11111

Comments and conclusions

When dealing with the variational method associated with SQM to get the energy states of a quantum dot we have used a confining effective potential depending on three variational parameters ($`\mu _1`$, $`\mu _2`$ and $`\mu _3`$). This was achieved through an Ansatz for the superpotential. Using the superalgebra the trial wave function was evaluated which depends on these three parameters.

Varying the trial wave function with respect to these parameters we found good results for increasing values of the radius $`R`$, for which the energy is negative, when compared to results obtained from other approximative variational method and exact numerical results, . From the point of view of the number of variational parameters involved in the evaluation this improvement was indeed expected, since in ref.  there are two of such parameters present in the calculation. Nonetheless we stress that the great advantage of our method is the achievement of the trial wave function through the Ansatz for the superpotential, equation (8). This allowed us a previous comparative analysis between the original potential, contained in equation (7), and the effective potential, equation (S0.Ex1), which approaches the infinite at the neighbourhood of the barrier. Following this line of reasoning, the wave function, evaluated through the superalgebra, equation (4), vanishes at the border because it finds a potential barrier that increases until becoming impenetrable at $`r=R`$. These border effects become more perceptive for smaller values of $`R`$. For increasing values of $`R`$, smaller will be the border effects so that the variational results get better. In other words, for large values of $`R`$ the variational SQM Ansatz provides fast converging results as displayed in Table 4. In this way we recover the results for the non-confined system, when $`R\mathrm{}`$.

In conclusion, we remark that the results presented here suggest that the association of the superalgebra of SQM with the variational method provides an appropriate approach to analyse confined systems.