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# PSR J 1740-5340: accretion inhibited by radio–ejection in a binary millisecond pulsar in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397

## 1 Introduction

The widely accepted scenario for the formation of a millisecond pulsar is the recycling of an old neutron star (hereafter NS) by a spin-up process driven by accretion of matter and angular momentum from a Keplerian disc, fueled via Roche lobe overflow of a binary late type companion (see Bhattacharya & van den Heuvel 1991 for a review). If the NS has a magnetic dipole moment (typical values are $`\mu 10^{26}10^{27}`$ G cm3) the disc is truncated at the magnetosphere, where the disc pressure is balanced by the magnetic pressure exerted by the NS magnetic field ($`P_{\mathrm{MAG}}\mu ^2r^6`$), where $`r`$ is the generic radial distance from the NS center. Once the accretion and spin-up process ends, the NS is visible as a millisecond radio pulsar (hereafter MSP). Indeed, a common requirement of all the models of the emission mechanism from a rotating magnetic dipole is that the space surrounding the NS is free of matter up to the light cylinder radius $`R_{\mathrm{LC}}`$ (at which the speed of a body rigidly rotating with the NS equals the speed of light) .

An interesting evolutionary phase can occur during the accretion onto the NS if the mass transfer rate drops below the level required to allow the expansion of the magnetosphere beyond $`R_{\mathrm{LC}}`$ switching–on the emission from the rotating magnetic dipole (e.g. Illarionov and Sunyaev, 1975; Ruderman, Shaham & Tavani 1989; Stella et al., 1994). In a standard Shakura Sunyaev accretion disk, it is common to identify four zones based on the different roles of opacities (free–free or electron scattering) and pressures (radiation or gas pressure). The radius of separation between the zone (B), in which the electron scattering opacity and gas pressure dominate, and the most external zone (C), where the free-free opacity and gas pressure dominate, is $`R_{\mathrm{BC}}=4.18\times 10^7L_{37}^{2/3}R_6^{2/3}m^{1/3}\mathrm{cm}`$ (see, e.g. Burderi, King & Szuszkiewicz 1998), where $`L_{37}`$ is the luminosity in units of $`10^{37}`$ erg s-1, $`R_6`$ is the NS radius in units of $`10^6`$ cm, and $`m`$ is the NS mass in solar masses. The typical distance of the inner Lagrangian point from the NS is larger than $`10^{11}`$ cm for orbital periods longer than $`30`$ hr. Close to the Roche-lobe the disc is then in zone C, where opacity is dominated by free-free processes and pressure is dominated by the gas contribution. In this case, $`P_{\mathrm{DISC}}\dot{M}^{17/20}r^{21/8}`$, where $`\dot{M}`$ is the accretion rate. The radial dependence of the pulsar radiation pressure is $`P_{\mathrm{RAD}}\mu ^2P_{\mathrm{spin}}^4r^2`$ (where $`P_{\mathrm{spin}}`$ is the NS spin period), and then it is flatter than the radial dependence of the disc pressure close to the inner Lagrangian point. Therefore, $`P_{\mathrm{RAD}}`$ dominates over $`P_{\mathrm{DISC}}`$ for any $`r>R_{\mathrm{LC}}`$ and the whole accretion disc is swept away up to the inner Lagrangian point $`L_1`$ by the radiation pressure of the pulsar. During this “radio ejection” phase, the mechanism that drives mass overflow from $`L_1`$ can well be active, but the pulsar radiation pressure at $`L_1`$ prevents mass accretion onto the NS.

The occurrence of a radio–ejection phase in the pre–MSP evolution has been recently proposed by Burderi et al. (2001a,b), to deal with the problem of the apparent lack of sub–millisecond pulsars, namely radio pulsars with spin periods below 1 ms, (Burderi & D’Amico, 1997) and with the problem that MSP do never seem to harbor very massive NSs (see e.g. Taam, King & Ritter, 2000, Tauris & Savonije 1999), as it would be the case if conservative or quasi–conservative evolution has taken place.

A typical progenitor system of binary MSPs is made by a NS (hereafter the primary) accreting from a giant, or from a star on its way to become a giant (hereafter the secondary). This is testified by the many MSPs with low mass ($`M0.20.4`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$) white dwarf (WD) binary companions (e.g. Rappaport et al. 1995, van Kerkwijk et al. 1996, Burderi et al. 1998), the remnants predicted by this type of semidetached evolution. The NS spin–up occurs via the accretion of angular momentum of the mass overflowing the Roche lobe. This mass transfer is dictated by the nuclear evolution of the secondary, and the losses of systemic angular momentum also contribute to determine the mass transfer rate. It is well possible that mass transfer during the spin–up phase suffers instabilities (see below) and the system temporarily detaches, allowing the pulsar to switch–on. However the companion evolution, which leads to radius expansion, will lead again to overflow. Mass exchange to the NS and spin–up will go on, until the pulsar has been so much spun up that its radiation pressure at the inner Lagrangian point is high enough to prevent mass accretion. Modeling of the binary evolution at the time of action of this radio ejection mechanism is non trivial, and an adequate study of the physics involved and numerical simulations are needed to adequately investigate this problem, as it has been done for the case of “evaporation” of low mass companions of MSPs (Tavani & Brookshaw 1991, Banit & Shaham 1992). The destiny of the system is crucially dependent on global mass radius exponent of the mass losing component, on the mass ratio and on the specific angular momentum of the ejected matter $`l`$ (see Ritter, 1995, for general discussion of the stability of mass transfer). We can foresee cases in which $`l`$ is very large with respect to the specific angular momentum of the system, and a dynamical phase of mass transfer can occur (Burderi et al., 2002, in preparation). Here, we will follow only the case in which $`l`$ is the specific angular momentum at the inner lagrangian point, and the evolution is stationary: the orbit widens and the companion placidly expands on its nuclear timescale, keeping its contact with the Roche lobe.

The main consequence of the occurrence of the radio–ejection phase, will be that the matter lost from the secondary will not be transferred to the NS. This phenomenon may look like the so called “ablation” of the companion irradiated by the wind (composed of electromagnetic radiation and relativistic particles) of a MSP (Tavani 1991). The key difference is that, in the ablation mechanism, the process takes place once the companion is detached (and is evolved into a low–mass white dwarf), while radio–ejection takes place during the active phase of Roche lobe overflow by the secondary, and the energy requirements are much easier to be met. Moreover, the energy available to ablate the companion is different, being the orbital binding energy in the case of radio–ejection and the pulsar rotational energy in the case of ablation. Observationally, in both cases we expect to be in the presence of a radio MSP which from time to time is obscured by the matter floating around the system.

In this paper we propose that this postulated radio ejection phase has now been detected in the system containing the eclipsing millisecond pulsar PSR J1740-5340 , discovered by D’Amico et al. (2001a) in the globular cluster NGC6397, and identified (Ferraro et al. 2001) with a slightly evolved turnoff star in the sample studied by Taylor et al. (2001).

We will provide convincing evidence that PSR J1740-5340 is an example of a system in the radio–ejection phase, by modeling the evolution of the possible binary system progenitor. We also discuss why we should expect that this type of system may indeed suffer the detachments required in order to initiate the radio–ejection phase: in fact, the X-ray illumination of the secondary star during the accretion phases, which leads to the NS spin up, is such that the mass transfer rate is probably very unsteady. When:
i) as a result of the accretion of matter and angular momentum, the NS spin period is so short that, potentially, the radiation pressure of a pulsar phase would be high enough to overcome the pressure of the matter overflowing the Roche lobe, and
ii) the oscillations in $`\dot{M}`$ are large enough to allow the millisecond pulsar to switch–on,
the radio–ejection phase begins, leading to the appearance of the system as it looks now.

We also show that the most luminous ‘hot’ objects in NGC 6397 identified by Taylor et al. (2001) as low mass helium WDs, indeed follow the evolution of binaries which may account for the evolutionary status of PSR J1740-5340 , while the less luminous stars in this sample might have radii too large to be helium WDs.

## 2 PSR J1740-5340

The millisecond radio pulsar PSR J1740-5340 was discovered in the globular cluster NGC 6397 (D’Amico et al. 2001a). It has the longest orbital period ($`P_{\mathrm{orb}}32.5`$ hrs) and the most massive minimum companion mass (0.18 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$) among the 10 eclipsing pulsars detected up to now. The spin period ($`P_{\mathrm{spin}}3.65\times 10^3`$ s) and its derivative ($`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{spin}}=1.59\times 10^{19}`$), recently derived by D’Amico et al. (2001b), allow the determination of the NS magnetic moment $`\mu _{26}7.7`$. Because of its position with respect to the cluster center, the contamination of $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{spin}}`$ because of the NS acceleration in the gravitational field of the cluster is negligible (D’Amico et al. 2001b), implying that the estimate of the NS magnetic moment is reliable.

Ferraro et al. (2001) have extracted, from archive HST data, a star whose position is consistent with the position of PSR J1740-5340 (derived from one year of pulse timing by D’Amico et al. 2001b). This optical counterpart shows light modulation at the same orbital period as the radio data. D’Amico et al. (2001b) have studied the radio eclipses of PSR J1740-5340 , which last for about 40% of the orbital phase at 1.4 GHz. Out of eclipse the pulsar signal at 1.4 GHz shows significant excess propagation delays (up to $`8`$ ms) and strong intensity variations. Similar variations have been observed, at 400 MHz, in the eclipsing pulsar PSR B1957+20 close to the eclipse ingress and egress (Fruchter et al. 1990) and in PSR J2051-0827, at 1.4 GHz, when the pulsed signal is occasionally detected during the eclipse (Stappers et al. 1996). These similarities suggest that in PSR J1740-5340 the signal is propagating through a dense material surrounding the system. In order to investigate this possibility, D’Amico et al. (2001b) have fitted the excess delays measured in two adjacent bands of 128 MHz each at 1.4 GHz. They found that the excess delays $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ can be well fitted with the equation $`\mathrm{\Delta }t\nu ^{2.02\pm 0.30}`$ that strongly supports the hypothesis that the responsible mechanism is dispersion in a ionized medium. In this case the corresponding electron column density variations are $`\mathrm{\Delta }n_\mathrm{e}8\times 10^{17}\mathrm{\Delta }t_3`$ cm-2, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_3`$ is the delay at 1.4 GHz in ms. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_38`$ the estimated electron column density is $`6.4\times 10^{18}`$ cm-2.

The eclipsing radius is $`R_\mathrm{E}a\mathrm{sin}(0.4\pi )`$, as the eclipse lasts for $``$40% of the orbit (D’Amico et al., 2001b). It is $`4.4\times 10^{11}`$ cm, if we take $`m_1=1.8`$$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for the NS mass and $`m_2=0.45`$$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for the secondary mass (see below) and $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}32.5`$ hr ($`a`$ is the orbital separation). This radius is larger than the Roche lobe radius of the secondary ($`1.3\times 10^{11}`$ cm). This means that the eclipsing matter is beyond the gravitational influence of the companion star and must be continuously replenished. We can estimate a rough order of magnitude of the necessary mass loss rate from the secondary, $`\dot{M}`$, by assuming spherical symmetry (which is not consistent with the randomly variable signal intensity shown by the radio data). We further take the minimum electron column density which, for a system seen edge–on, occurs when the NS is in front of the secondary, so that:

$$n_e\gamma _{a+R_{\mathrm{RL1}}}^{\mathrm{}}\rho [(X+0.5Y)/m_\mathrm{p}]𝑑r$$
(1)
where $`\gamma `$ is the fraction of ionized gas, $`R_{\mathrm{RL1}}`$ is the radius of the primary Roche lobe, $`X0.7`$ and $`Y0.3`$ are the hydrogen and helium mass fractions respectively, and $`m_\mathrm{p}`$ is the proton mass. Using for the density $`\rho `$ the continuity equation:

$$4\pi r^2\rho v=\dot{M}$$
(2)
where $`v_{\mathrm{wind}}`$ is the speed of the outflowing matter, a simple integration gives

$`\dot{M}_{10}1.17\times n_{20}\gamma ^1(X+0.5Y)^1v_8(m_1+m_2)^{1/3}P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{h}}^{2/3}`$
$`\left[20.462({\displaystyle \frac{m_2}{m_1+m_2}})^{1/3}\right]`$ (3)
where $`\dot{M}_{10}`$ is the mass loss rate of the secondary in units of $`10^{10}`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$yr-1, $`n_{20}`$ is the electron column density in units of $`10^{20}`$ cm-2, $`v_8`$ is the speed in units of $`10^8`$ cm s-1, and $`P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{h}}`$ is the orbital period in hours. We adopt the parameters given above, the derived $`n_H=6.4\times 10^{18}`$cm -2 and $`\gamma =1`$. We finally choose $`v_8=1`$, typical of winds driven by the radiation of a pulsar (Tavani & Brookshaw 1991) and $``$3 times the escape velocity from the companion. We get $`\dot{M}_{10}1.5`$. Even considering the uncertainty on this estimate, winds induced by the pulsar radiation are more typically 2–3 orders of magnitude weaker (Tavani & Brookshaw, 1991). On the other hand, if such a wind were independent from the association with the pulsar in a binary, it would be a common feature in the evolution of the single stars in NGC 6397. But the survival of lithium at the stellar surface is consistent only with rates smaller than $`10^{12}`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$yr-1 (Vauclair and Charbonnel 1995) as a stronger wind, acting over the 10 Gyr of the cluster lifetime, would expose the stellar layers in which lithium has been destroyed by nuclear burning. The turnoff stars in NGC 6397 do show lithium at a level about normal for population II stars (Pasquini and Molaro 1996), putting strong upper limits to the mass loss rates of main sequence winds.

Therefore, the mass loss rates which we derive are much more consistent with Roche lobe overflow driven by nuclear evolution of the secondary and orbital angular momentum mass loss, than with a possible wind from the secondary, suggested by D’Amico et al. (2001) and Ferraro et al. (2001). As our model requires that the mass lost is swept out by the pulsar radiation, the value of $`v_8`$ given above is consistent with our hypothesis.

## 3 Binary evolution in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397

### 3.1 The HR diagram

In order to choose coherently the input parameters for the possible evolution leading to PSR J1740-5340 , it is important to take into account what we know of the general properties of the host cluster, which has been carefully studied down to the low end of the main sequence. Figure 1 shows the composite HR diagram of NGC 6397 in the plane $`M_v`$ versus $`VI`$. We have plotted the sample by King et al. (1998) including the low mass main sequence (MS) and the white dwarfs (WDs), together with the sample by Cool (1997) for the turnoff and giant stars. The open circles identify the objects examined by Taylor et al. (2001) in the core of this cluster, to select objects which have been probably subject to binary evolution. In fact they recognize a helium WD sequence on the left of the MS, and many BY Dra stars on its right. The offset from the MS suggests indeed that these latter stars have suffered binary evolution. One of the Taylor et al. (2001) BY Dra candidates, plotted as a full dot in our figure 1, is indeed the optical counterpart of PSR J1740-5340 , as discovered by Ferraro et al. (2001). On the observational HR diagram we show an isochrone of 12 Gyr for metallicity in mass fraction Z=0.006 and helium mass fraction Y=0.23 from Silvestri et al. (1998), complemented by the models by Baraffe et al. (1997) for masses $`0.5`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, while the track on the cluster white dwarfs is the 0.5 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$Carbon Oxygen WD evolution by Wood (1995) as used in Richer et al. (1997). The isochrone of 12 Gyr which fits the cluster HR diagram implies that a mass of $`0.81`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$is evolving at the cluster turnoff (TO), and that its TO luminosity is $`2.24`$ $`\mathrm{L}_{}`$. Different interpretations of the HR diagram morphology, assuming that the distance of the cluster is smaller, may lead to values of the TO luminosity down $`1.8`$ $`\mathrm{L}_{}`$.

### 3.2 Choice of the initial parameters

In order to choose the initial system parameters which leads to the present stage of PSR J1740-5340 , we make the following considerations:
1) the location of the optical counterpart is at a luminosity similar to the TO luminosity (1.8-2.3 $`\mathrm{L}_{}`$, based on the previous discussion), but cooler than the TO, that is, at a radius larger than the TO radii. The pulsar luminosity is in fact estimated to be $`L_{\mathrm{PSR}}=1.29\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1 (see below), of which, in the hypothesis of isotropic emission, a fraction $`R_2^2/(2a)^2`$ impacts at the mass losing star surface ($`R_2`$ and $`a`$ being the radius of the secondary and the orbital separation respectively). Even in the most favorable case of a secondary filling its Roche lobe the fraction of the pulsar luminosity impacting the secondary is $`f=R_{\mathrm{RL2}}^2/(2a)^2=5.34\times 10^2[m_2/(m_1+m_2)]^{2/3}`$, where $`R_{\mathrm{RL2}}`$ is the Roche lobe radius of the secondary. We considered secondary masses ranging from 0.25 up to 0.81 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$and corresponding NS masses from 2.0 down to 1.4 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$(conservative mass transfer). We obtained values of $`f\times L_{\mathrm{PSR}}`$ ranging from $`0.4`$ to $`0.9`$ $`\mathrm{L}_{}`$respectively. Therefore the fraction of the pulsar luminosity reprocessed by the secondary is not very important for determining the HR diagram location of the star. The orbital period is moderately large, so any stage of mass transfer must have begun while the mass losing component was still not much evolved.
2) We exclude the possibility that the star is a normal MS star losing a stellar wind at rates $`10^{10}`$$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$/yr, for the reasons given at the end of Sect. 2.
3) The pulsar spin up to 3.65 ms must be due to mass exchange in a previous evolutionary phase. Indeed the possibility that the NS was born with such a period seems unlikely as the spin-down age of PSR J1740-5340 is $`\tau =P_{\mathrm{spin}}/2\dot{P}_{\mathrm{spin}}350`$ Myr (D’ Amico et al. 2001), which is much shorter than the age of the globular cluster NGC 6397 in which PSR J1740-5340 is located. The easiest way is to attribute it to the previous evolution of the system. Therefore we model the initial parameter of the system as starting with a 0.85 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$component and a NS component of 1.4$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$. NGC 6397 is a post core collapse globular cluster (Diorgovski & King 1986), in which a significant number of interacting neutron star plus main sequence binaries may have formed by tidal capture or exchange collisions (e.g. Davies, Benz and Hill 1992, Di Stefano and Rappaport 1993). Implicitly, we are making the assumption that the 0.85$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ component has been captured by the NS at such a separation to be able to begin mass transfer when it is not yet evolved as a giant. This is in line with what has been recently suggested by Podsiadlowski, Rappaport, and Pfahl (2002 CHECK!) that suggest, supported by the numerous ultracompact binaries found in globular clusters, that tidal capture seem to be a more likely way to produce this kind of system.

### 3.3 The binary evolution

We follow the binary evolution with the ATON1.2 code (D’Antona, Mazzitelli, & Ritter 1989). The mass loss rate is computed following the formulation by Ritter (1988), as an exponential function of the distance of the stellar radius to the Roche lobe, in units of the pressure scale height. This method also allows to compute the first phases of mass transfer, during which the rate reaches values which can be much larger than the stationary values, due to the thermal response of the star to mass loss. The evolution of the system also includes orbital angular momentum losses through magnetic braking, in the Verbunt and Zwaan (1981) formulation, in which the braking parameter is set to $`f=1`$. We also tested a case in which $`f=2`$.

We study four cases of evolution (see Table 1). In all cases, we assume that the secondary initial mass is $`M_2=0.85`$$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, the primary neutron star has $`M_1=1.4`$$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, and the orbital initial period is 14.27hr. The nuclear age of the 0.85$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$is $`10`$Gyr when it begins the Roche lobe overflow, so that it is only slightly evolved, and hydrogen is almost exhausted in its (radiative) core. In case 1, we assume a ‘standard’ conservative evolution. This produces mass transfer rates of $`24\times 10^{10}`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$yr-1. The system would thus appear as a low mass X–ray binary (LMXB). The X–ray emission expected from the NS is $`2\times 10^{36}`$ erg/s. The evolution is typical for such systems (e.g. Bhattacharya & van den Heuvel, 1991). The end product will be a very low mass helium white dwarf ($`M_2=0.246`$$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$) in a much wider orbit ($`P_{\mathrm{orb}}=119`$ hr) with a 2$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ neutron star. Being the hydrogen not yet completely exhausted in the stellar core when mass transfer begins, the initial binary period we have chosen is indeed very close to the “bifurcation” period below which the orbital evolution proceeds towards shorter binary periods. Note that in our case the bifurcation period is shorter than that quoted by Podsiadlowski, Rappaport, and Pfahl (2002) for a binary composed by a 1.4 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ NS plus a 1.0 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ secondary, namely $`P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{bif}}18`$ hr. This is due to the fact that the main sequence radius of our 0.85 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ population II secondary is $`20\%`$ smaller than the radius of a population I, 1.0 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ companion for comparable consumption of the hydrogen in the core. Since for a Roche-lobe filling secondary we have that $`\mathrm{\Delta }P_{\mathrm{orb}}/P_{\mathrm{orb}}=2.2\mathrm{\Delta }R_2/R_2`$, the bifurcation period for the population I, 1.0 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ companion will be $`44\%`$ longer than in our case and therefore consistent with the result of Podsiadlowski, Rappaport, and Pfahl (2002).

Having in mind the oberved system PSR J1740-5340 , we followed another case of evolution (case 2) in which we assumed conservative evolution up to an orbital period of $`26`$ hr, and then we assumed that the matter lost from the secondary is all lost from the system at the inner lagrangian point L1 with its specific angular momentum. This alters slightly the conservative evolution, leading to marginally different mass loss rates and final parameters for the system when all the seconday hydrogen envelope is lost and the star becomes a white dwarf (see Table 1).

When mass accretion on the NS is assumed, and the binary evolution suffers a LMXB phase, it is also important to consider how the X–ray phase would affect the binary evolution we are considering, as a fraction $`R_2^2/(2a)^22.7\times 10^2`$ of the X–ray luminosity (see point 1 above) impacts at the secondary surface. There have been many attempts to model the effect of this irradiation on the binary evolution, when it has been realized that spherically symmetric illumination in LMXBs can have a dramatic effect on the structure of low mass secondaries having convective envelopes. In fact, X–rays block the intrinsic stellar flux produced by the nuclear reactions, leading to a stellar expansion, which affects the mass transfer rates (Podsiadlowski, 1991; Harpaz & Rappaport, 1991). In reality, illumination will be non-spherical, because only one hemisphere is affected – in fact the donor star is tidally locked as it is filling its Roche–lobe during this evolutionary phase –, and its effect will depend on the depth at which the energy is deposited below the photosphere and how fast it can be transported to the cool side of the star. If the circulation time is shorter than the cooling time of the heated matter, we go back to the spherical illumination case. Otherwhise, the global secular evolution is not much affected, but the mass transfer occurs in “outbursts” whose duration and peak mass transfer rates depend on the efficiency of circulation (e.g. Hameury et al. 1993, Harpaz and Rappaport 1994, Vilhu et al. 1994, D’Antona 1994). All the existing computations refer to the evolution of LMXBs with main sequence companions. We are now dealing with a case of evolution in which the mass losing component is more evolved, and in addition has no important convective envelope at the time the mass transfer begins, so that it is important to have an idea of the possible effects of X–ray illumination in our specific case.

On the other hand, self–consistent modelling is really very difficult, as the feedbacks are not easy to describe both physically and numerically. However we follow the evolution of an ideal limiting case, considering a system in which the secondary is affected by a fixed value of heating luminosity $`L_h=5\times 10^{34}`$ erg s-1 (case 3). We include the effect of illumination as described in D’Antona and Ergma (1993), following Tout et al. (1989). In this simplified schematization, the star is immersed in the X–ray radiation bath, and the total luminosity $`L_{tot}`$ which it must radiate is the sum of the stellar luminosity $`L_{}`$ plus the heating luminosity $`L_h`$, from which an ‘irradiation temperature’ $`T_{irr}=(L_h/4\pi \sigma R_2^2)^{1/2}`$ is defined. The stellar luminosity and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ then are related by:

$$L=L_{tot}L_h=4\pi \sigma R_2^2(T_{\mathrm{eff}}^4T_{irr}^4)$$
(4)
Consequently, the stellar $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ becomes hotter due to the irradiation, and the star rapidly evolves in the HR diagram at a location determined by the amount of irradiation allowed. The phases of mass transfer are slightly altered by the new system conditions, but are globally very similar to case 1. However, as the star loses mass, its radius becomes larger than the radius of the standard sequence. This difference amounts to $`20`$% at the orbital period of PSR J1740-5340 . Of course the X–ray irradiation is not self consistently described by this model. In fact, any fluctuation in the mass transfer rate will be amplified. If the mass transfer decreases further, irradiation decreases too, the radius also will decrease, trying to reach its non irradiated equilibrium value and the mass transfer rate decreases more. We can foresee that the LMXB phase in fact can alternate phases of mass transfer and detached phases, as it was predicted for the LMXB having MS secondaries (Hameury et al. 1993, D’Antona 1994, Harpaz and Rappaport 1995).

To test the sensitivity of the mass loss rate to the assumptions made concerning magnetic braking, we follow another evolution (case 4) in which $`f=2`$ and the mass transfer is non conservative for $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}>17.36`$ hr.

### 3.4 The final phases of evolution

Figure 1 shows the evolutionary paths of case 2 and 3 in the HR diagram. The theoretical values of luminosity and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ are converted into the observed magnitudes V and I by means described in Bessell, Castelli and Plez (1998). The irradiated track (case 3) represents the evolution of the accreting progenitor of PSR J1740-5340 and therefore does not reproduce the location of PSR J1740-5340 for which the accretion is inhibited by the pulsar radiation. The track passing through the optical counterpart of PSR J1740-5340 is the case 2 evolution. The track corresponding to case 1 (purely conservative evoluton) is very similar, and is not shown.

All the sequences are evolved until the mass loss phase finally ends with the stellar remnant evolving into the white dwarf region as low mass helium white dwarfs. We see that the most luminous three objects among those identified by Taylor et al. (2001) as helium WDs actually may be the end–products of such an evolution. Notice however that further study is necessary to assess whether the lower luminosity objects are helium white dwarfs. In fact, unless their colors are peculiar, they seem too cool to have the radius expected, even for the lowest possible helium WD masses remnant of mass exchange evolution, which are actually $`0.2`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$(D’Antona et al. 2002, in preparation). The open triangles show the location at which sequence 3 achieves a total age of 17, 20 and 26 Gyr ($`10.5`$ Gyr of which have been spent in the phases previous to mass exchange). The point at 20 Gyr, which corresponds more closely to the luminosity of the lowest Taylor et al. objects, is at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$= 8900 K. The full squares along sequence 2 correspond to ages from 13 to 20Gyr in steps of 1Gyr, and a last square indicates the location at 25Gyr. We also notice that the cooling of such objects (also in the present models) is dominated by proton-proton burning of the remnant hydrogen layer (Driebe et al. 1998, Sarna et al. 1998, Schönberner et al. 2000), and that the low initial metallicity of the system prevents hydrogen shell flashes.

## 4 The evolution of the progenitor system of PSR J1740-5340

The computation of case 3 has shown that the binary evolution which we are describing is not dramatically altered by the irradiation due to the LMXB phase: in particular, the final evolution is very similar, although the white dwarf remnant mass is slightly smaller. However, it helps to predict that the LMXB phases can be alternated with phases in which the system remains detached, as already had been suggested for systems having MS companions. Let us now consider the evolution of the system, taking also into account the pulsar’s behavior. Any time the system detaches, the radio pulsar will switch on, but it will be quenched again when the mass transfer resumes. In the HR diagram the position of the secondary component will shift from its ‘irradiated’ position during the LMXB mass transfer phase (track 3 on the left of the MS) to its ‘standard’ position along track 1. However, as discussed in Burderi et al. (2001a,b), when the pulsar is spinning sufficiently fast and the orbital period is sufficiently long (i.e. the orbital separation is large), the radiation pressure exerted by the pulsar at the inner inner Lagrangian point is larger than the pressure exerted by the matter overflowing the Roche lobe even if the mass transfer rate recovers its secular value dictated by the nuclear evolution of the companion.

This condition is verified for orbital periods longer than 111 Equation 5 has been derived in Burderi et al. (2001a,b) equating the pressure of a Shakura–Sunyaev accretion disc with the radiation pressure exerted by the pulsar. Once the disc has been swept away the pressure of the flow overflowing the inner Lagrangian point should be used instead of the pressure of the disc. However it is possible to demonstrate that these pressures are comparable, which supports the validity of equation 5. Let us suppose that the flow of matter overflowing the inner Lagrangian point has a cross sectional area $`A_{\mathrm{flow}}=\pi (\delta R_{\mathrm{RL1}})^2`$ with $`\delta 0.1`$. Moreover the inward speed of the flow is $`v_{\mathrm{flow}}=\beta v_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ where $`v_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ is the free fall speed and $`\beta 1`$ since the Coriolis force deviates the flow motion from the radial direction. The ram pressure of the flow is $`P_{\mathrm{flow}}=\rho _{\mathrm{flow}}v_{\mathrm{flow}}^2`$, where $`\rho _{\mathrm{flow}}`$ is the density of the flow that is related by the continuity equation to the mass loss rate. The pressure of a Shakura–Sunyaev accretion disc is $`P_{\mathrm{SS}}=\rho _{\mathrm{SS}}kT/(nm_\mathrm{p})`$, where $`\rho _{\mathrm{SS}}`$ is the density of the disc that is, also in this case, related by the continuity equation to the mass loss rate, $`k`$ is the Boltzmann constant, and $`T`$ is the temperature of the disc at its midplane (see e.g. Frank, King, and Raine 1992). After some algebraic manipulation, using the standard relations for a Sakura–Sunyaev accretion disc, we get $`P_{\mathrm{flow}}=P_{\mathrm{SS}}\times 100(h/r)(4/\sqrt{2})\alpha (\beta /\delta _{0.1}^2)`$, where $`h`$ is the half thickness of the disc and $`\delta _{0.1}=\delta /0.1`$. As a good approximation we can take $`h/r1.7\times 10^2`$ as the dependencies on the disc parameters are rather weak (see again Frank, King, and Raine 1992). Therefore we have $`P_{\mathrm{flow}}5\alpha (\beta /\delta _{0.1}^2)P_{\mathrm{SS}}`$.

$`P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{crit}}=0.75\alpha ^{54/25}n_{0.615}^{12/5}m_1^{107/50}(m_1+m_2)^{1/2}`$
$`g(m_1,m_2)^{3/2}\mu _{26}^{24/5}P_{\mathrm{spin}3}^{48/5}\dot{M}_{10}^{51/25}\mathrm{h}`$ (5)
where $`\alpha `$ is the Shakura–Sunyaev viscosity parameter, $`n_{0.615}=n/0.6151`$ for a gas with solar abundances ($`n`$ is the mean particle mass in units of the proton mass $`m_\mathrm{p}`$), $`g(m_1,m_2)=10.462\left(\frac{m_2}{m_1+m_2}\right)^{1/3}`$, $`\mu _{26}`$ is the magnetic moment of the NS in units of $`10^{26}`$ G cm3 ($`\mu =B_\mathrm{s}R^3`$ with $`R`$ and $`B_\mathrm{s}`$ NS radius and surface magnetic field along the magnetic axis, respectively), and $`P_{\mathrm{spin}3}`$ is the NS spin period in milliseconds. If $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{crit}}`$ the system will remain in the radio–ejection phase during all the subsequent binary evolution. In this case, the matter overflowing the Roche lobe will be accelerated by its interaction with the pulsar radiation and ejected by the system. If we can assume (but at least ballistic simulations should be done) that this matter leaves the system with the specific angular momentum at the inner Lagrangian point, $`l=(aR_{\mathrm{RL2}}r_1)^2\times (2\pi /P_{\mathrm{orb}})`$ ($`r_1`$ is the distance between the NS and the center of mass of the system) which in our case is quite close to the specific angular momentum of the system, the orbital evolution is indeed very similar to the more conventional evolution with conservative mass transfer to the primary (as confirmed by our numerical computations of the conservative case 1 and the non conservative case 2).

The optical component of PSR J1740-5340 indeed seems compatible with the evolution we have suggested. It lies along case 2 evolution, that not including irradiation, as, in fact, the pulsar luminosity is not important as irradiation source for the binary.

## 5 Summary and conclusions

We have considered the evolution of possible progenitors of the binary MSP PSR J1740-5340 in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397. We can reproduce the HR diagram location of the optical companion, starting mass transfer to the NS from a hypothetical secondary of mass 0.85 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, slightly evolved off the MS when mass transfer begins. From equation 5, adopting $`\alpha =1`$, $`n_{0.615}=1`$, $`m_1=1.8`$, $`m_2=0.45`$, $`\mu _{26}=7.7`$, $`P_{\mathrm{spin}3}=3.65`$, and $`\dot{M}_{10}=1`$, the critical period $`P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{crit}}`$ to reach the ‘radio–ejection’ phase is $`39`$ hr, not very different from $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$, given the large uncertainties in the $`\dot{M}_{10}`$ estimate. Thus, PSR J1740-5340 is possibly in the radio–ejection phase. Given that $`P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{crit}}P_{\mathrm{spin}}^{9.6}\mu ^{4.8}\dot{M}^{2.04}`$ the fact that $`P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{crit}}P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ is compelling.

In conclusion we suggest that:

* orbital evolution calculations shows that a slightly evolved 0.85 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$secondary orbiting a NS can transfer mass to the NS, and reaches a stage in which its mass is reduced to $`0.45`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, and its optical location in the HR diagram is then compatible with the recently detected optical counterpart of PSR J1740-5340 ;
* PSR J1740-5340 might represent a system whose evolution has been envisioned by Burderi et al. (2001): the spin and the magnetic moment of the pulsar may keep the system in a radio–ejection phase in which accretion is inhibited by the radiation pressure exerted by the pulsar on the overflowing matter while the mechanism that drives the Roche lobe overflow from the companion is still active, thus causing an intense wind which would be very difficult to explain otherwise. This evolution seems to be the only viable possibility to explain the long lasting eclipses and the strong intensity variation randomly occurring in the radio emission.

As a final remark we note that $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}P_{\mathrm{orb}\mathrm{crit}}`$ suggest the interesting possibility that this system could swiftly switch from the present radio pulsar phase to an accretion phase in which it should be visible as a $`L_\mathrm{X}10^{36}`$ ergs s-1 LMXB.

One of the authors (LB) would like to thank T. Di Salvo for several profound and enlightening discussions during the preparation of this work. This work was partially supported by a grant from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (Cofin-99-02-02). We warmly thank the referee Saul Rappaport for very useful and stimulating criticism.


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# Untitled Document

PARAMETRIC EPICYCLIC RESONANCE IN BLACK HOLE DISKS: QPOs IN MICRO-QUASARS

W. Kluźniak 1 and M. A. Abramowicz2

1Institute of Astronomy, Zielona Góra University, Lubuska 2, 65-365 Zielona Góra, Poland

2Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chalmers University, 412-96 Göteborg, Sweden

Abstract

Non-linear acoustic coupling of modes in accretion disks allows a parametric resonance between epicyclic motions. In black hole disks, such a resonance first occurs, and is strongest, when the radial and vertical epicyclic frequencies are approximately in a 2:3 ratio, in agreement with the 300 and 450 Hz frequencies reported in GRO J1655-40 and the 184 and 276 Hz frequencies reported in XTE J1550-564. The first overtone in the same resonance is in a 5:3 ratio with the fundamental, in agreement with the 69.2 and 41.5 Hz frequencies reported in GRS 1915+105. The narrow width and the frequency stability of the corresponding QPOs follow from general properties of parametric resonance.

Introduction

We give an explanation for the presence in black hole X-ray sources of the observed stable frequencies, manifest as narrow-width QPOs (quasi-periodic oscillations in the light curve). These oscillations arise as a result of parametric resonance in the accretion disk, and the actually observed rational ratios of frequencies correspond to that resonance which is strongest a priori.

Different modes in the disk are coupled through terms involving derivatives of enthalpy. Oscillations of pressure in one mode lead to harmonic variations of the eigenfrequency in another mode. In the limit of small pressure corrections, particular ratios of the epicyclic frequencies correspond to the condition for parametric resonance, leading to exponential growth of one of the modes. This is a specifc mechanism through which the previously suggested (Kluźniak and Abramowicz 2001a,b; Abramowicz and Kluźniak 2001) resonant origin of high frequency QPOs in neutron stars and black holes can come about. For a discussion of the relation of this phenomenon to “quantization of orbits” see Abramowicz et al 2002. Further, we point out that coherent localized structures may form in the accretion disk.

Strohmayer (2001a) reports 300 and 450 Hz QPOs in GRO J1655-40, and we have already pointed out that these are in a 2:3 ratio (Abramowicz and Kluźniak 2001, Kluźniak and Abramowicz 2001a,b). Strohmayer 2001b reports $`41.5\pm 0.4`$Hz and $`69.2\pm 0.15`$Hz in GRS 1915+105, giving 0.599 as the frequency ratio, rather close to 3:5=0.6 (if taken at face value). These ratios seemed to us to be indicative of a resonant phenomenon, and the recent discovery of another pair of commensurate frequencies (in a 2:3 ratio), 184 and 276 Hz in XTE J1550-564 (Remillard et al. 2002; see also Miller et al. 2001), greatly strengthens the case for resonance.

Localized structures in the disk

We find, that “geostrophic” flow is a solution of the equations of disk hydrodynamics and this would correspond to a localized elliptic flow pattern, counter-rotating with the radial epicyclic frequency in the co-moving fluid frame. We point out that close to the inner edge of a thin accretion disk around black holes (and neutron stars), the vorticity becomes very small, and goes to zero where the radial epicyclic frequency vanishes, at the marginally stable orbit. It is, therefore, not difficult to excite a vorticity perturbation of large relative amplitude in that region. This is in contrast with the Newtonian case of a $`1/r`$ potential, for which Spiegel and coworkers find that an initial amplitude above a finite threshold is necessary for a vorticity perturbation to persist in the disk (Bracco et al., 1998).

Such localized structures may execute “up and down” motions away from the disk plane, and it follows from the equations of hydrodynamics (acceleration is equal to the gradient of the gravitational potential plus the gradient of enthalpy), that such motion is harmonic with frequency

$$\omega _2^2=\mathrm{\Omega }_z^2+ϵ,$$

while the corresponding harmonic motion in the radial direction occurs at frequency

$$\omega _1^2=\mathrm{\Omega }_r^2+\gamma ^2ϵ,$$

where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_r`$ is the radial epicyclic frequency, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_z`$ the vertical epicyclic frequency, $`ϵ`$, assumed to be $`<<1`$, is the pressure correction and $`\gamma ^2`$ is the ratio of vertical to radial extent of the disturbance. The equation for $`\omega _1`$ can be thought of as the high, or low, frequency limit of the general dispersion relation of diskoseismology (Wagoner 1999, Kato 2000), $`ϵ=c_s^2k^2`$ corresponds to the (“acoustic”) $`p`$-mode, while a negative value of $`ϵ`$ corresponds to the (“internal gravity”) $`g`$-mode. We share the view stressed by diskoseismologists (e.g., Wagoner, Silbergleit, and Ortega 2001) that the very stability of the observed frequencies, while the system changes its luminosity (and presumably its accretion rate), implies that pressure forces are a minor perturbation.

Parametric resonance

We are trying to explain how QPOs may arise from minor fluctuations in radial motion. There is a mechanism which leads to large amplitudes of oscillatory motion, given small perturbations. It is parametric resonance. In the case under discussion, radial motions at frequency $`\omega _1`$ will disturb the pressure at the same frequency, i.e., will induce harmonic variations in the value of $`ϵ`$. Then, the eigenfrequency of vertical oscillations, $`\omega _2`$, will itself undergo small harmonic variations in its value, occurring at frequency $`\omega _1\omega _r`$. This is precisely a description of parametric resonance in an oscillator with the equation of motion $`d^2z/dt^2+\omega _2^2[1+h\mathrm{cos}(\omega _1t)]z=0`$. Resonance occurs when $`\omega _1=2\omega _2/n`$, with $`n`$ integer (Landau and Lifschitz 1973). For $`\omega _1`$ in a small, and decreasing with $`n`$, range about $`2\omega _2/n`$, exponential growth of the amplitude of oscillations occurs until non-linear saturation. If a dissipation term is present, growth occurs only if a certain threshold value is exceeded by the amplitude, $`h`$, of variations in the value of the oscillator parameter.

The relatively large amplitude vertical oscillation can then in turn amplify radial oscillations through the usual resonance mechanism in driven oscillators.

Frequency ratios

Under the assumption (justified above) that $`\omega _1\mathrm{\Omega }_r`$, and $`\omega _2\mathrm{\Omega }_z`$, we note that parametric resonance in black hole accretion disks occurs only for $`n3`$. This is simply because in the Kerr metric, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_r<\mathrm{\Omega }_z`$, always, and the condition for parametric resonance is $`\omega _1=2\omega _2/n`$. The fastest growing resonant mode in black hole disks occurs when $`\mathrm{\Omega }_r=2\mathrm{\Omega }_z/3`$, i.e., for the lowest possible value of $`n`$, when the two epicyclic frequencies are in a 2:3 ratio, because in general the lower the value of $`n`$, the faster the growth of amplitude. It is remarkable that in at least two black hole sources this is the ratio of the observed frequencies. We interpret these observed frequencies as the fundamental frequency of vertical oscillations excited through parametric resonance by oscillations at the radial epicyclic frequency, at 2/3 the value of the fundamental.

In non-linear resonances, combination frequencies appear in addition to the fundamental. In the case of a parametric 2:3 resonance, the first “combination” overtone appears at 5/3 the value of the fundamental. The 69.2 Hz frequency reported in GRS 1915+105 is indeed 5/3 the value of the also reported 41.5 Hz. This is highly suggestive. We note that under this interpretation, if the mass of the source is indeed as given by Greiner et al. (2001) , i.e., it is no more than 18 or $`20M_{}`$, this source would have to be a Schwarzschild black hole, or the spin parameter would have to have small negative values, i.e., the disk would be counter-rotating. In any case the magnitude of $`j`$ would be much less than for the other two sources, GRO J1655-40 and XTE J1550-564.

A subharmonic at the frequency 1/3 of the fundamental would also be expected, and this has also been reported, for XTE J1550-564 (Remillard 2002).

Conclusions

Parametric resonance between epicyclic frequencies in a thin-disk accretion flow in the Kerr metric can lead to the excitation of finite amplitude oscillations and this can account for the appearance of commensurate “stable”frequencies in the observed sources. In addition to the strongest oscillations in the 2:3 ratio, subharmonics and overtones are predicted, yielding a sequence of primes 1:2:3:5, all of which have been observed (albeit in various sources).

References

Abramowicz, M.A., et al. 2002, Class. Quant. Grav. in press, gr-qc/0202020

Abramowicz, M.A., Kluźniak, W. 2001, Astron. Astrophys. 374, L19, astro-ph/0105077

Bracco, A., Provenzale, A., Spiegel, E.A., Yecko, P. 1998, in Theory of Black Hole Accretion

Disks, M.A. Abramowicz, G.B. Björnsson, J.E. Pringle, eds., Cambridge university Press, p. 254

Greiner, J., Cuby, J.G., McCaughrean, M.J. 2001, Nature 414, 522

Kato, S. 2000, Pub. Astron. Soc. Japan, 52, 1133

Kato, S. 2001, Pub. Astron. Soc. Japan, 53, L37

Kluźniak, W., Abramowicz, M.A. 2001a, astro-ph/0105057,

Kluźniak, W., Abramowicz, M.A. 2001b, Acta Phys. Polon. B 32, 3605

Landau, L.D., Lifschitz, E.M. 1973, Classical Mechanics, (Pergamon)

Miller, J. et al. 2001, ApJ 563, 928

Remillard, R. et al. 2002, astro-ph/0202305

Strohmayer, T.E. 2001a, Astrophys. J. 552, L49

Strohmayer, T.E. 2001b, Astrophys. J. 554, L37

Silbergleit, A. S., Wagoner, R. V., Ortega-Rodr guez, M. 2001, ApJ, 548, 335

Wagoner, R.V. 1999, Phys. Rep. 311, 259


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# Photon rockets and the Robinson-Trautman geometries

## 1 Introduction

Examples of spacetimes representing the so called photon rockets, have been recently studied in the literature. An important problem under consideration in those examples was the existence of gravitational radiation associated with the accelerated motion of the ‘rocket’, and its relation with the outgoing energy momentum, in the form of a ‘null (or photon) fluid’, that accompanies the accelerated rocket motion. In the example of reference , which is based on the Kinnersley metric, the well-known result of the absence of gravitational radiation is analyzed as an application of the quadrupole formula. A problem in this type of analysis is the presence of singularities in the metric, precisely along the ‘world-line’ of the ‘accelerated’ object. To analyze this problem, and be able to assign a meaning to concepts such as ‘rocket trajectory’ and ‘distributional energy momentum tensor’, in reference  it is considered the associated linearized problem, and its relation to the exact solution of Einstein equation; obtaining conditions for the presence of a non-vanishing flux of gravitational radiation.

In this note we present a different approach. We start by pointing out the relation between the photon rocket spacetimes and the Robinson-Trautman geometries. All these metrics are asymptotically flat. This allows us to present a more geometrical discussion of the issues related with the distinction between the gravitational and matter-energy radiation that appear in these metrics, taking full advantage of their asymptotic properties at future null infinity to separate the Weyl and Ricci radiations, and to clearly establish their gravitational energy content in the general case. We show in the last section that the exact solutions to the generalized photon rockets are the Robinson-Trautman geometries.

## 2 The Robinson-Trautman geometries

The vacuum solutions containing a congruence of diverging null geodesics, with vanishing shear and twist, were first studied by Robinson and Trautman. These metrics can be expressed in terms of the following line element

$$ds^2=\left(2Hr+K2\frac{m(u)}{r}\right)du^2+2dudr\frac{r^2}{P^2}d\zeta d\overline{\zeta }$$
(1)
where $`P=P(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$, $`H=\frac{\dot{P}}{P}`$, $`K=\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{ln}P`$, a doted quantity denotes its time derivative and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the two-dimensional Laplacian for the two-surfaces $`u=constant`$, $`r=constant`$ with line element

$$dS^2=\frac{1}{P^2}d\zeta d\overline{\zeta }.$$

It is usually convenient to describe this line element in terms of the line element of the unit sphere; this is done by expressing $`P`$ in terms of $`P=V(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })P_0(\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ , where $`P_0`$ is the value of $`P`$ for the unit sphere. If $`l`$ denotes the vector field that generates the null congruence, then $`l=du`$, $`l(r)=1`$, $`l(\zeta )=0`$ and $`l(\overline{\zeta })=0`$ . In other words this is the coordinate system adapted to the geometry.

In reference  it was found that the vacuum Einstein equation can be reduced to a parabolic equation for a scalar depending on three variables, the so called Robinson-Trautman equation; which using the GHP notation has the form

$$3m\dot{V}=V^4ð^2\overline{ð}^2VV^3ð^2V\overline{ð}^2V;$$
(2)
where we fixed the freedom of redefining $`u`$ in such a way that $`m(u)`$ is actually a constant, and $`ð`$ is the GHP edth operator of the unit sphere. We will refer to a line element with $`V`$ satisfying this equation as a Robinson-Trautman solution. On the other hand, if the Robinson-Trautman equation is not required, then the solution is no longer vacuum and there is only one component of the Ricci tensor different from zero, given by

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^{(RT)}=\frac{3m\frac{\dot{V}}{V}V^3ð^2\overline{ð}^2V+ð^2V\overline{ð}^2V}{r^2};$$
(3)
where the (RT) is to emphasize the fact that in this case we are using the null tetrad adapted to the null congruence. We refer to this as a Robinson-Trautman geometry.

Let us consider next some examples of theses geometries.

## 3 First example: flat spacetime

As an example, let us consider the case in which one requires a Robinson-Trautman geometry to be flat; which demands, among other things, $`m`$ to be zero. In this case the above equation describes the Minkowski line element in terms of a set of null polar coordinates associated with a timelike curve. The scalar $`V(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ , in this case, contains only $`Y_{00}(\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ and $`Y_{1m}(\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ spherical harmonics and we will denote it by $`V_I(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ . The line element becomes

$$ds_0^2=\left(2\frac{\dot{V}_I}{V_I}r+1\right)du^2+2dudr\frac{r^2}{V_I^2P_0^2}d\zeta d\overline{\zeta }.$$
(4)
It is a well-known result (see for example ref. ) that under these conditions the vector $`l`$ is singular on a timelike world-line $`\gamma (\tau )`$, which can be determined by the coordinate condition $`r=0`$.

## 4 Second example: massive ‘particle’ with arbitrary motion

Let us now take the previous line element, associated to the timelike curve $`\gamma (\tau )`$, and add a term of the form $`\frac{2m}{r}l_al_b`$ ; that is

$$ds^2=ds_0^2\frac{2m}{r}du^2;$$
(5)
which can also be thought of as a Robinson-Trautman geometry where V is restricted to the condition $`ð^2V=0`$. We use Latin indices to denote abstract indices. Under this condition we distinguish between two cases:

*Geodesic motion:* When the curve $`\gamma (\tau )`$ is a geodesic, the resulting line element is the Schwarzschild metric, written in a different coordinate system.

*Non-geodesic motion:* If the curve $`\gamma (\tau )`$ is not a geodesic, the Ricci tensor is different from zero. From the above equation one can deduce that

$$R_{ab}=\frac{6m\dot{V}}{Vr^2}l_al_b.$$
(6)
We recognize this as the case of the ‘photon rocket’.

## 5 Radiation in the general case

The general Robinson-Trautman geometry is asymptotically flat. This can be seen from the fact that the coordinate r is proportional to the luminosity distance, and therefore the conformal factor

$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ , used in the discussion of the asymptotic behavior, can be taken just as $`r^1`$ ; then it is deduced from references  and  that the Weyl tensor behaves as $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, in the vicinity of future null infinity, and from equation (3) that the Ricci tensor behaves respectively as $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$ ; which implies that the Riemann tensor goes to zero as $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as one approaches future null infinity, assuring the asymptotic flatness behavior of the geometry. This picture could be generalized to consider the case of singular behavior for the scalar V on future null infinity; to admit the case, for example, of a photon rocket reaching this region; this would force us to consider the notion of asymptotic flatness with future null infinities which are not complete. This generalization, however, does not introduce any relevant issue for the following discussion.

It has been proved that the most general class of asymptotically flat spacetimes have the BMS structure at future null infinity. The BMS symmetry group has an infinite dimensional Lie algebra with a four-dimensional normal subgroup, the so called translation subgroup. This fact permits one to construct unambiguously the Bondi momentum in regular111By a regular asymptotically flat spacetime we mean an at least twice differentiable conformal structure at future null infinity. spacetimes. It has also been proved that any asymptotically flat spacetime shows the radiation behavior found in regular spacetimes; that is the radiation content of an asymptotically flat spacetime is also an unambiguous concept.

One can further prove that in a regular asymptotically flat spacetime, the radiation content is associated with the time variation of the Bondi momentum. More concretely, the Bondi momentum can be given in terms of the GHP formalism by

$$P^\alpha =\frac{1}{4\pi }\left(\mathrm{\Psi }_2^0+\sigma ^0\frac{\overline{\sigma }^0}{u_B}\right)\widehat{l}^\alpha 𝑑S^2=\frac{1}{4\pi }\frac{m}{V^3}\widehat{l}^\alpha 𝑑S^2$$
(7)
where we are using a Bondi frame adapted to the Bondi coordinates $`(u_B,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$, $`\alpha =0,1,2,3`$ and

$$\left(\widehat{l}^\alpha \right)=(\sqrt{4\pi }Y_{00},\sqrt{\frac{2\pi }{3}}\left(Y_{11}Y_{11}\right),i\sqrt{\frac{2\pi }{3}}\left(Y_{11}+Y_{11}\right),\sqrt{\frac{4\pi }{3}}Y_{10}).$$

The Weyl radiation behavior is encoded in the asymptotic components $`\mathrm{\Psi }_4^0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_3^0`$ , which in turn can be expressed in terms in a the Bondi frame by its shear, i.e.: $`\mathrm{\Psi }_4^0=^2\overline{\sigma }^0/u_B^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_3^0=ð(\overline{\sigma }^0/u_B)`$ . The Ricci radiation behavior is in turn encoded in the asymptotic component $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^0`$.

The time variation of the Bondi momentum in terms of the Bondi time is given by

$$\frac{dP^\alpha }{du_B}=\frac{1}{4\pi }\left(\frac{\sigma ^0}{u_B}\frac{\overline{\sigma }^0}{u_B}\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^0\right)\widehat{l}^\alpha 𝑑S^2;$$
(8)
while the variation of the Bondi momentum in terms of the Robinson-Trautman time is

$$\frac{dP^\alpha }{du}=\frac{1}{4\pi }\left(\frac{ð^2V\overline{ð}^2V}{V}\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^{\left(RT\right)0}}{V^3}\right)\widehat{l}^\alpha 𝑑S^2$$
(9)
In the present case of the Robinson-Trautman geometry the Bondi shear is given by

$$\frac{\sigma ^0}{u_B}=\frac{ð^2V}{V}$$

and the Ricci $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^0`$ component is given by

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^0=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^{RT}}{V^4}.$$

Note that there is no contradiction among the last two equations and (8) and (9), since $`u_B/u=V`$.

## 6 The photon rockets

A family of axisymmetric metrics corresponding to a particle emitting null fluid anisotropically, and therefore accelerating, the so called photon rockets, first described by Kinnersley, has been recently reanalyzed in reference . These metrics actually coincide with the line element appearing in equation (5). Using this Kerr-Schild decomposition, the corresponding energy momentum tensor was studied in reference  to estimate the matter flux(there called radiation), over a local two-sphere. It can be seen from the above presentation that the unambiguous radiation is related to the change of momentum by equation (8) which under this circumstances adopts the form

$$\frac{dP^\alpha }{du_B}=\frac{1}{4\pi }\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^0\widehat{l}^\alpha 𝑑S^2=\frac{1}{4\pi }\frac{3m\dot{V}}{V^5}\widehat{l}^\alpha 𝑑S$$

since in this case $`\sigma ^0/u_B=0`$ due to the fact that $`ð^2V=0`$. In other words, this spacetime does not show gravitational radiation, i.e. Weyl radiation, and there is only matter radiation.

In reference  the photon rocket spacetimes where studied from the perspective of linearized gravity. The problem could be stated in the following terms; find the linearized solution to Einstein equation with the source

$$T_{ab}=\frac{w(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })}{4\pi r^2}l_al_b$$
(10)
where222They use the Greek letter epsilon instead of w in that reference. $`l_a`$ is the generator of a congruence of null geodesics emanating from $`r=0`$. More generally, the energy momentum tensor of equation (10) can naturally be considered the source for the generalized photon rockets. Equation (3.12) of reference  establishes that the source must satisfy the following equation of motion:

$$\frac{d\left(M(u)u^a\right)}{du}\frac{d\left(P^a\right)}{du}=\frac{1}{4\pi }wl^a𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }$$

which can be seen to agree with our equation (9) above by recognizing that the vector $`k^a`$ of reference  is identified with our vector $`l^a`$; and that $`w=\mathrm{\Phi }_{22}^{(RT)}`$ ; $`l^a=\widehat{l}^a/V`$ and $`d\mathrm{\Omega }=dS^2/V^2`$ ; since $`ð^2V=0`$ for the photon rockets. Note that a relation between $`M(u)`$ and $`m`$ is easily obtained by noting that $`M(u)^2=P^\alpha P_\alpha `$ with $`P^\alpha `$ given by eq. (7) above. It is worth while to note that although we have chosen $`m`$ to be a constant, by reparametrizing the coordinate $`u`$, we could have taken any other choice, as for example the total (Bondi) mass at the retarded time $`u`$, as used in reference . Our choice simplifies the reading of eq. (2), which would otherwise include another term involving the time derivative of $`m`$.

It is important to emphasize that while the last equation was deduced from the local properties of the source, eq. (9) was obtained from the asymptotic structure. It happens that in this particular case there is a clear map from inner data to asymptotic data.

The information contained in eq. (3.12) of reference  coincides with that obtained from eqs. (30) and (31) of reference .

The linearized solutions for the case of a general source $`w(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ involve instead very complicated expressions, as for example equation (4.35) of reference . We would like to point out here that the problem of the generalized photon rockets (i.e. with the source (10)) has exact solutions which are the Robinson-Trautman geometries. This can be seen by comparing the Ricci tensor expressed by the component shown in eq. (3) with the energy tensor of eq. (10), from which it is deduced that an exact solution is recognized if one identifies $`w`$ with

$$w(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })=3m\frac{\dot{V}}{V}+V^3ð^2\overline{ð}^2VV^2ð^2V\overline{ð}^2V.$$
(11)
In particular, the photon rocket geometries are those for which $`w`$ is constructed with $`V`$ satisfying $`ð^2V=0`$ . Note that equation (11) can be read in two ways: one in which $`V(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ is given and one computes $`w(u,\zeta ,\overline{\zeta })`$ , thus providing an exact solution for the source (10); and the other in which the scalar $`w`$ is given and one has to look for the corresponding $`V`$. The latter is a problem whose solution is outside the scope of the present article.

The Robinson-Trautman geometries were also studied in reference  from the point of view of their Petrov classification.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the referees for pointing out several improvements. This research was supported in part by grants from CONICET, CONICOR and SeCyT-UNC.


text:
# MITO Measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect in the Coma Cluster of Galaxies

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation by electrons in the hot gas in clusters of galaxies – the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect – has long been recognized as a uniquely important feature, rich in cosmological and astrophysical information (Zeldovich & Sunyaev 1969; Sunyaev & Zeldovich 1970; Boynton & Melchiorri 1978; Gunn 1978; Silk & White 1978; Cavaliere et al. 1979).

Interest in the effect heightened when high quality
—————————————————————————
1Department of Physics, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
marco.depetris@roma1.infn.it
2School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, and Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego - yoelr@mamacass.ucsd.edu
3Osservatorio Astronomico di Monte Porzio, Rome, Italy
cola@coma.mporzio.astro.it
4Max Planck Institute fur Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany
p464erk@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
5LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, Paris, France
monique.signore@mesiob.obspm.fr

images of the effect were obtained with interferometric arrays (Carlstrom et al. 2001; for general reviews, see Rephaeli 1995a, Birkinshaw 1999).

Accurate determinations of the Hubble constant ($`H_0`$), cluster mass profiles, and cluster peculiar velocities from SZ and X-ray measurements require precise description of the intracluster (IC) gas temperature and density profiles, and improved control of systematic errors. These can be more optimally achieved by multi-frequency SZ measurements, and high-quality spectral and spatial X-ray measurements of nearby clusters.

Therefore, it is essential to develop sensitive SZ experiments operating at telescopes with effective beam sizes of a few arcminutes, equipped with bolometer arrays operating at frequencies on both sides of the Planckian peak. One such ground-based system is MITO (Millimetre and Infrared Testagrigia Observatory; De Petris et al. 1996).

Coma is the richest nearby cluster whose IC gas properties have been determined from extensive X-ray observations. Attempts to measure the S-Z effect in Coma at low frequencies were reported by Pariskii (1973), Rudnick (1978), Lake & Partridge (1980), Birkinshaw et al. (1981), and Herbig et al. (1995, revised in Mason et al. (2001)) while at high frequencies by Silverberg et al. (1997).

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

### 2.1 MITO

MITO is a 2.6-m alt-azimuthal telescope located at an altitude of 3480 m in the Italian Alps. The telescope design, optical configuration, and electro-mechanical modulation system are described in De Petris et al. 1989, Gervasi et al. 1998, Mainella et al. 1996. The 4-channel photometer (Orlando et al. 2002) consists of 4 NTD Ge composite bolometers cooled down to 290 mK. The thermodynamic NET is around 1 mK s1/2. At the telescope focal plane the photometer has a 17 FWHM field of view (FOV).

Observations were made during February and March of 2000 & 2001, when data from some 120 drift scans of Coma were collected. Each scan consists of 10 minutes of measurements collected every second. A 41 beamthrow was selected for a 3-field square-wave like spatial modulation. The position of Coma in the sky covered altitude values from 50 up to 73 degrees above the horizon. The drift scan systematics are better controlled than in source tracking mode, mainly stemming from weaker microphonics and lower changes in sidelobe spillover effects. At a data sampling rate of 1 Hz, pointing information, signals, modulation system and photometer performance were recorded. A pointing accuracy of $`1^{}`$ was attained by frequent measurements of bright stars close to the source by a CCD camera. We measured beam shape, responsivity and atmospheric transmission for each channel by means of planetary calibrators – Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon – before each Coma observation session. In order to correct for atmospheric absorption we measured the channels zenith transmission during each night.

### 2.2 Results from X-ray Observations

Coma has been extensively observed, mostly in the 1-10 keV range. The most recent high spectral and spatial resolution measurements with the XMM/EPIC experiment are best fit by $`kT`$=8.2$`\pm `$0.1 $`keV`$ (at 90% confidence level) in the central 10 region (Arnaud et al. 2001). Analysis of the emission from a larger region of the cluster yields $`kT`$=8.2$`\pm `$0.4 $`keV`$, which we adopt here. This value of the temperature is in very good agreement with the value deduced from Ginga observations. Since quantitative results for the gas density profile from neither XMM nor Chandra are currently available, we use the ROSAT (Briel, Henry, & Bohringer 1992) deduced values $`n_{e0}(2.89\pm 0.04)\times 10^3`$ cm-3, $`r_c10.5^{}\pm 0.6^{}`$, and $`\beta 0.75`$, for the central electron density, core radius, and index in the expression for the commonly used $`\beta `$ density profile, $`n_e(r)=n_{e0}(1+r^2/r_c^2)^{3\beta /2}`$.

## 3 Data Analysis

Clearly, there is no unique approach to the analysis of a noisy dataset which includes a dominant, fluctuating atmospheric emission, and other confusing signals. When the spatial distribution of the confusing source is unknown, such as that of CMB anisotropy, a sufficient number of channels is selected so as to allow removal of anticipated foregrounds but the corresponding system of equations can often be numerically unstable.

Our task is made feasible largely by the known position of the source, and its approximate angular extent. Therefore, to first approximation, we can fit the data with a signal of a known shape but unknown peak amplitude. The errors in measuring this amplitude approach the intrinsic detector noise if we can successfully remove the contributions of atmospheric fluctuations and CMB anisotropy whose spectral shape is known. In addition to the SZ effect, these signals were modeled separately from all others which were collectively treated as unidentified noise. While three channels are in principle sufficient to achieve this goal, we added a fourth channel centered on the crossover frequency (where the thermal SZ effect vanishes), in order to check the separation between CMB and atmospheric emission, and to possibly obtain a rough estimate on the value of the kinematic SZ effect.

We have computed the expected spectral ratios of the SZ signals in channels 2, 3, and 4 with respect to the first channel. The calculation is relativistically exact and is based on the treatment of Rephaeli (1995b; see also Rephaeli & Yankovitch 1997), taking the above quoted range of the gas temperature. At each frequency we calculated the intensity change due to the thermal SZ effect, $`\mathrm{\Delta }I_{sz}`$, and convolved it with the spectral response of the photometer, $`ϵ_i`$, and the atmospheric transmittance $`ϵ_{atm}`$, which was determined from a model (Liebe 1985). The expected ratio of the $`i`$-th to the first channel is thus,

$$b_i=\frac{A\mathrm{\Omega }_iR_i}{A\mathrm{\Omega }_1R_1}\frac{_0^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Delta }I_{sz}(\nu )ϵ_i(\nu )ϵ_{atm}(\nu )𝑑\nu }{_0^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Delta }I_{sz}(\nu )ϵ_1(\nu )ϵ_{atm}(\nu )𝑑\nu },$$
(1)
where $`R_i`$ is the responsivity in the $`i`$-th channel as measured with sky calibrators and $`A\mathrm{\Omega }_i`$ is the throughput, which slightly changed from channel to channel due to the different optical paths through the telescope and photometer. Uncertainties in the evaluation of the $`b_i`$ are due to the relatively small error in the value of $`kT`$ and the fluctuating values of atmospheric transmittance (0.5-2.0 mm of precipitable water vapour). Similarly, we have calculated the ratios, $`c_i`$, of the intensity change due to the primary CMB anisotropy in the four bands. In Table 1 all the cited ratios are listed with $`R_i`$ and $`A\mathrm{\Omega }_i`$.

The recorded data in the four channels (i=1,..,4) for each scan (j=1,..,120) can be written as follows:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }S_i^j`$ $`=`$ $`a_i^j\mathrm{\Delta }V_{atm}^j(t)+b_i\mathrm{\Delta }V_{sz}^j(\alpha ,\delta )`$ (2)
$`+`$ $`c_i\mathrm{\Delta }V_{cmb}^j(\alpha ,\delta )+\mathrm{\Delta }V_{offset,i}^j(\alpha ,\delta ;t)`$
$`+`$ $`\delta V_{spike,i}^j(t)+\mathrm{\Delta }V_{noise,i}^j(t).`$
In this equation, $`b_i\mathrm{\Delta }V_{sz}^j`$ is the SZ signal which is fit with $`w_i^j\mathrm{\Delta }V_{szsim}^j`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{szsim}^j`$ is the simulated SZ signal, normalized to 1 at the peak; $`w_i^j`$ are the estimated peak values of SZ signals (in the absence of noise $`w_1=b_i^1w_i,i=2,3,4`$) and $`a_i^j`$ are the atmospheric ratios with respect to channel 1, to be determined for each scan. The $`a_i^j`$ values could change from scan to scan due to the atmospheric long time variations while they are assumed to be constant within a single scan. Since atmospheric fluctuations dominate on each scan,a rough estimate of the $`a_i^j`$ can be done as the ratios of the channels standard deviations. For this purpose we used only the data outside the expected position of Coma. In Table 1 we have also quoted the mean values of $`a_i`$ averaged over all the drift scans in each observational campaign. Detector and other sources of noise are collectively included in the term $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{noise,i}^j`$. Estimated errors in the evaluation of $`w_i^j`$ due to uncertainties in $`b_i`$ constitute a small fraction of the overall error.

The data include three main sources of contamination:

a. Cosmic ray spikes ($`\delta V_{spike,i}^j(t)`$): we observed roughly one spike in every 10 scans. A special de-glitching algorithm has been applied to correct these data. However, their total removal from the analysis did not change our results apart from a slight increase of the noise. After removal of the spikes the data were averaged over 15 seconds so that each drift scan consists of 37 bins roughly separated in sky by 3.75 arcminutes, about $`1/4`$ of the FOV.

b. An instrumental offset ($`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{offset,i}^j(\alpha ,\delta ;t)`$) ranging from 0.4 $`\mu `$V (channel 1) up to 5$`\mu `$V (channel 4) was measured. This is partly due to the residual side lobes of the telescope, and partly to the thermal imbalance of the primary mirror. The telescope is stopped during each drift scan. In this way the offset is obviously independent of position, so it is possible to remove it from each scan through a linear fit of the data; a quadratic fit did not change the rms value of the residual fluctuations. Note that the removal of the offset through a linear fit may introduce an additional effect, due to the presence of large atmospheric fluctuations. The average of these along a finite drift scan will introduce an additional offset, $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{offatm,i}^j`$ = $`\frac{1}{37}_{k=1}^{37}a_i^j\mathrm{\Delta }V_{atm,k}^j(t)`$. This unknown offset will in turn introduce an error in the estimated value of the SZ signal; we discuss below how this offset was removed.

c. Large atmospheric fluctuations; we based our approach to minimize their effect on the measured data in channel 4, based on the fact that $`a_4`$ is $`13`$. The efficiency of this procedure depends on the amplitude of the atmospheric fluctuations in each drift scan, as well as on the degree of correlation among the various channels with channel 4. A detailed discussion of the atmospheric noise will be given elsewhere; here we briefly discuss only the essential points. In channel 2 the residuals of the signal after subtracting $`a_2^j/a_4^j\mathrm{\Delta }S_4^j`$ and minimizing the difference consist of uncorrected atmospheric fluctuations, signal due to CMB anisotropy, and only a very small SZ signal. If we fit the residuals with a simulated SZ signal of amplitude $`w_2^j`$, we get $`w_20.25\pm 0.32`$ nV. This result indicates that the SZ signal in channel 2 is consistent with zero, as expected, and the large dispersion – with respect to the final error due to the intrinsic detector noise of about 0.05 nV – around the mean suggests that there is a residual atmospheric contamination $`\mathrm{\Delta }w_2=a_2\mathrm{\Delta }w_1`$. A significant decrease in the dispersion is obtained if we remove the values of $`w_2`$ far from the mean. These values are possibly due to the presence of a large atmospheric disturbance along the line of sight (los) to Coma. For instance, if we remove values which are more than 4$`\sigma `$ (standard deviation) from the mean, we obtain $`w_2^{}0.04\pm 0.09`$ nV. A similar analysis has been done for channels 1 and 3, for which we expect SZ signals at the predicted ratio $`b_3`$. Residual atmospheric fluctuations – as well as the spurious offset discussed previously – introduce an additional error. The corresponding small corrections $`\mathrm{\Delta }w_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }w_3=a_3\mathrm{\Delta }w_1`$, which have to be added to the measured values of the SZ effect in order to get the correct value, must satisfy the relation: $`w_1+\mathrm{\Delta }w_1=(w_3+a_3\mathrm{\Delta }w_1)/b_3`$. The dispersion of ($`w_1+\mathrm{\Delta }w_1`$) is minimized by changing $`b_3^{}`$ within $`\pm 1.5`$ $`b_3^{}`$. The dispersion decreases by a factor of four when $`b_3^{}`$ coincides with $`b_3`$ within the errors.

After correcting for binning and atmospheric transmittance we obtain $`w_1^{}0.171\pm 0.036`$, $`w_2^{}0.037\pm 0.090`$, and $`w_3^{}0.174\pm 0.036`$ nV. In Figure 1, we show plots of $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{sz}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{cmb}`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{atm}`$ as derived by solving eq.(2). The data have been filtered with an adaptive filter which removes spatial patterns that are not present in the expected SZ profile. The filter does not alter the SZ signal, but strongly reduces CMB and atmospheric fluctuations.

FIG. 1. SZ, CMB, and atmospheric signals extracted from equation (2), corresponding to the 143 GHz band, averaged over the drift scans and binned in 9 independent sky positions. Atmospheric fluctuations have an amplitude comparable to that of the SZ effect, even after 20 hours of integration. CMB anisotropies are averaged over various parallactic angles corresponding to the different drift scans.

The $`w`$ value has been converted to thermodynamic temperature for the $`i`$-th channel by calibration based on measurements of Jupiter Encrenaz & Moreno (2002). Integrating its spectral temperature distribution over the four channels we determined the optical responsivities. The overall calibration error is about 10$`\%`$, dominated by the uncertainty in the brightness temperature of Jupiter ($`5\%`$), and statistical errors in the estimate of the beamsize. The final values of the deduced temperature changes are $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ -73.5$`\pm `$15.5,-13.7$`\pm `$33.3,69.6$`\pm `$14.4 $`\mu `$K, in the first three channels, respectively. Based on our calculated value for the geometrical form factor due to beam dilution and modulation strategy, $`\eta `$ = 0.41$`\pm `$0.02, we compute the corresponding values $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_0`$ -179.3$`\pm `$ 37.8,-33.4$`\pm `$81.2,169.8$`\pm `$35.1 $`\mu `$K for $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ in the cluster center.

## 4 DISCUSSION

MITO measurements of the Coma are the first successful detection of the SZ effect in this cluster at high frequencies. Our results imply a mean Thomson optical depth $`\tau _0=(4.1\pm 0.9)\times 10^3`$ for a los through the center of Coma. Herbig et al. (1995) have already detected the effect at the much lower frequency of 32 GHz. Their reported central value, $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_0`$=$``$505$`\pm `$92 $`\mu `$K, and corresponding optical depth, $`\tau _0=(5.6\pm 1.1)\times 10^3`$, were recently updated (Mason et al., 2001) with new calibration data, yielding an observed decrement $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$=$``$302$`\pm `$54 $`\mu `$K. This value, corrected for the dilution over their $`7.3^{}`$ FOV and the switching amplitude of $`22.2^{}`$, corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_0`$=$``$520$`\pm `$93 $`\mu `$K and $`\tau _0=(4.0\pm 0.6)\times 10^3`$, and is clearly in good agreement with X–ray deduced gas parameters. Clearly, these two results for $`\tau _0`$ are quite consistent, given the appreciable ($`1\sigma `$) errors. Even though our somewhat lower value is not significantly different from that of Herbig et al., it is interesting to note that the CMB anisotropy signal that we seem to have identified along a los to Coma (heavily exploiting our multi-frequency capability) could have possibly contributed to the SZ signal at the low (single) frequency OVRO measurement (where the two signals cannot be spectrally separated). Irrespective of whether this is indeed the case, the great advantage of multi-frequency work has been clearly demonstrated in the analysis of our measurements.

In Figure 2 we show the first SZ spectrum of Coma by combining OVRO with our measurements; a fit to the predicted spectrum yields $`\tau _0(4.9\pm 0.7)\times 10^3`$.

In addition to measurement errors, other errors include the use of a simple one dimensional, isothermal gas density with a $`\beta `$ profile. Based on the X-ray morphology of Coma, the relatively small degree of ellipticity of X-ray morphologies of other rich clusters, and the recent verification of the gas isothermality in Coma from XMM measurements (Arnaud et al. 2001), we estimate that the additional error introduced by taking the gas to be spherically symmetric and isothermal is $`30\%`$ of the overall quoted error. Note also that the additional Comptonization by non-thermal electrons, (whose existence in Coma is deduced from measurements of extended radio emission) is negligible (Shimon & Rephaeli 2002, Colafrancesco, Marchegiani & Palladino 2001) if the energy density in these electrons is at the level deduced from measurements of high energy ($`>20`$ keV) X-ray emission with the RXTE (Rephaeli, Gruber & Blanco 1999) and BeppoSAX (Fusco-Femiano et al. 1999) satellites. This result is valid also for other viable energetic electron models (Shimon & Rephaeli 2002).

FIG. 2. SZ spectrum of the Coma cluster. The solid line shows the best fit spectrum (taking isothermal gas with $`kT=8.2`$ keV) to the combined MITO and OVRO (Mason et al. 2001) measurements, corresponding to $`\tau (4.9\pm 0.7)\times 10^3`$.

The work reported here is only the first stage of an extensive project to upgrade MITO to a bolometer array consisting of 36 elements operating at four frequency bands and with beamsizes down to 4. Work on the upgraded system is underway, with first observations scheduled for early 2003. We plan to measure the effect in a large sample of nearby clusters, with the goal of determining $`H_0`$ and cluster masses. Based on the results from our long campaign to measure the effect in Coma, we are reasonably confident that this project is quite feasible.

Contributions to the success of the MITO program were made by many scientists; in particular, we are grateful to: S. Masi, who designed and built the cryogenic He-3 system; P. Lubin, who kindly supplied a low noise cryogenic FET; T. Encrenaz, for her FIR spectra of planets, and to P. de Bernardis for various useful suggestions. This work has been supported by CNR (Testa Grigia Laboratory is a facility of Sezione IFSI in Turin) COFIN-MIUR 1998, & 2000, by ASI contract BAR, and by a NATO Grant.