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# Reprocessing of X-rays in AGN. I. Plane parallel geometry – test of pressure equilibrium

## 1 Introduction

The intense production of hard X-ray emission is a basic property of all active galactic nuclei (AGN), although the fraction of this emission in comparison to the total bolometric luminosity is different in various types of AGN. A fraction of this radiation illuminates the relatively cold material present there and provides a reflection component apparent in X-ray spectra (Pounds et al. 1990; for a review see Mushotzky et al. 1993). The component consists of an iron Kα line, usually at 6.4 keV appropriate for only weakly ionized iron, an accompanying edge, and a Compton “hump” peaking at about 30 keV.

Above 1 keV the spectral index is equal to 0.7 on average, and in a majority of objects the continuum below 1 keV displays an excess when compared to the extrapolation of the continuum in the 1-10 keV range (the so-called “soft X-ray excess”). Recent observations performed with Chandra show that the strength of the excess has probably been overestimated in the past. This soft X-ray excess may, or may not, be related to the X-ray reprocessing (e.g. Czerny & Życki 1994, Leighly 1999).

Above 1 keV the spectrum can be decomposed into an underlying power law (with a typical spectral index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1.9`$) and a reflection component. The strength of the reflection component correlates strongly with the slope of the power law, and this effect is universal for all accreting black holes, i.e. AGN and galactic black holes (Ueda et al. 1994, Magdziarz et al. 1998, Done & Życki 1999, Zdziarski et al. 1999, Gilfanov et al. 1999, Revnivtsev et al. 2001). Frequency-resolved spectroscopy puts additional constraints on the formation of the reflection component (Gilfanov et al. 2000, Revnivtsev et al. 1999, Życki 2002) but this powerful technique was not applied so far to AGN observations.

The iron Kα line displays an asymmetrical profile with an extended red wing and a much smaller blue wing (Nandra et al. 1997). The presence of the broad red wing in the Seyfert composite spectrum has been recently questioned (Lubiński & Zdziarski, 2001). However, in the two best studied objects, MCG-6-30-15 and NGC 3516, the line wing extends down to 4 keV (see Tanaka et al. 1995, Iwasawa et al. 1996, Lubiński & Zdziarski 2001 for MCG-6-30-15, and Nandra et al. 1999 for NGC 3516). Recent high resolution Chandra data show a neutral very narrow iron line in most objects (e.g. Yaqoob et al. 2001a; Sambruna et al. 2001; Kaspi et al. 2001). These results most probably mean that the line is multicomponent, as actually shown by Yaqoob et al. (2001b). The equivalent width of the line seems also to correlate with the spectral slope of the power law (Lubiński & Zdziarski, 2001).

The iron line and the reflection hump have been now extensively used for the diagnosis of the geometry of the accretion flow pattern close to the black hole (e.g. Fabian et al. 2000, Yu & Lu 2000, Ruszkowski et al. 2000, Abrassart & Dumont 1998, 2000, Karas et al. 2000, Życki & Różańska 2001, and references therein).

Recent intensive monitoring campaigns brought, however, more confusion than enlightening to the emerging picture. According to predictions based on a simple analysis, a variable X-ray emission should give in response a significant variability in the optical/UV band due to the absorption of a fraction of incident X-rays. Also both the reflected X-ray continuum and the iron line should vary in concert, though with a small delay (e.g. Rokaki et al. 1993, Clavel et al. 1992, Berkley, Kazanas & Ozik 2000, Kazanas & Nayakshin 2001). Recent results of careful monitoring, however, showed that the level of the optical/UV response is surprisingly different in various sources, the correlation between the optical/UV and X-rays is far from perfect or is actually absent, the iron line total flux responds only weakly or not at all to variable X-rays, and the level of reflection in continuum is not positively correlated with the strength of the line.

For instance, NGC 7469 shows variations of the UV and X-ray fluxes with similar large amplitudes and a time delay of the order of 2 days, the UV leading the X-rays in the flux peaks, but the X-ray flux displays in addition short term variations not seen in UV (Nandra et al. 1998). The UV flux correlates with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (Nandra et al, 2000). For NGC 3516 there is no clear correlation between UV and X (Edelson et al. 2000). For NGC 4051 no optical variations were observed when strong X-ray variations were seen (Done et al. 1990). The UV flux variations drive the optical flux variations with a time delay $`0.2`$d for NGC 4151 (Edelson et al. 1996), $`0.15`$d for NGC 3516 (Edelson et al. 2000), and for NGC 7469 a delay of the order a day which increases with the wavelength (Wanders et al. 1997, Collier et al. 1998). Soft X-ray variations are generally larger than hard X-ray ones, but this is not always the case (Nandra et al. 1997). For NGC 3516, there were strongly correlated variations with no measurable lag ($``$ 0.15d, Edelson et al. 2000).

The centroid energy, the intensity, and the equivalent width of the Fe Kα line, are variable on short time scales (down to ksec). The correlations between the continuum and the Fe Kα line have been intensively looked for in a few objects with ASCA and RXTE, and now with Chandra, revealing a complex behaviour of the line versus the underlying continuum. Iwasawa et al. (1996) have observed rapid variations of the Iron line profile and intensity in 1 to 10 ksec in MCG-6-30-15 on the basis of an ASCA study. But this result has been recently questioned by Lee et al. (1999) and Chiang et al. (2000) who have studied with RXTE the spectral variability of MCG-6-30-15 and of NGC 5548, and have shown that the Fe Kα line flux is constant over time scales of 50 to 500 ksec, while the underlying continuum displays large flux and spectral variations, and the profile of the line is variable! The same result seems to be observed in NGC 3615. Reynolds (2000) extended the work of Lee et al. (1999) on MCG-6-30-15, excluding a time delay between the line and the continuum in the range 0.5 to 50 ksec, and suggesting that the line flux remains constant on timescales between 0.5 and 500 ksec. From an analysis of the ASCA archive data of a sample of Seyfert nuclei, Weaver et al. (2001) found that in most cases changes in the line do not appear to track changes in the continuum.

These problems indicate, that either the geometry of the accretion flow envisioned as an X-ray lamp above the flat disk plane is not correct, or the response of the material is not as expected from simple estimates, or both.

In the present paper we concentrate on the second problem, i.e. on an accurate description of the X-ray reprocessing by an optically thick material. Since we do not want to restrict ourselves to a particular model of accretion flow we discuss two basic general cases: we consider a medium at constant pressure (with the density gradient determined by the temperature profile and the radiation plus gas pressure gradient) and we compare this situation to the case of a medium at constant density. We assume a plane parallel geometry. In the next paper we will explore the influence of the geometry, with particular attention given to a quasi-spherical case.

The radiative transfer computations are done with the coupled codes titan and noar described in detail by Dumont et al. (2000; hereafter DAC). We present a sequence of models characterized by a broad range of values of the ionization parameter defined at the surface. We also study the effects of other parameters involved, like the shape of the incident radiation flux.

We show the broad band spectra, characterize their overall properties by several parameters frequently measured observationally, like the $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ index and the amount of reflection as seen in XSPEC analysis, and finally we discuss the results comparing these quantities to typical parameters in various types of AGN.

## 2 Radiation transfer

The code titan was developed for the purpose of radiative transfer computations in an optically thick irradiated medium. Basically similar codes were developed by Ross & Fabian (1993), Nayakshin et al. (2000; hereafter NKK), Madej & Rȯżańska (2000). Other codes either do not cover the optical/UV energy range (Życki et al. 1994), or do not include hard X-ray irradiation (Hubeny et al. 2001), or they include hydrogen and helium only (Sincell & Krolik 1997).

The code titan, the code of Ross & Fabian (1993) and the NKK code based on xstar include the non-LTE effects while Madej & Rȯżańska (2000) still work in the LTE approximation. Both Ross & Fabian (1993) and NKK include the effect of Comptonization on the spectral distribution of photons while titan considers only the effect of Compton heating/cooling in energy balance. In order to obtain the Comptonized spectrum, the transfer code titan has to be supplemented with the Monte Carlo code noar of DAC. The code of Ross & Fabian (1993), adopted by Ballantyne, Ross & Fabian (2001), contains only a small number of basis atomic lines. The major difference of titan with other codes (except that of Hubeny) is that it solves the line transfer instead of using the escape probability approximation.

The detailed description of the code titan and exemplary results for the temperature profile, ionization stage profile and the spectra in case of constant density of the medium are given by DAC and in Dumont & Collin (2001). The code was already used to reproduce the mean quasar spectra within the frame of the cloud model (Czerny & Dumont 1998), to model the iron line (after supplementing code results with noar: Abrassart 2000, Abrassart & Dumont 1998, 2000, Karas et al. 2000) and to model the reflection by an accretion disk (after coupling with the computations of the hydrostatic equilibrium: Różańska et al. 2002).

## 3 Results

Since the dynamics of the formation of the hot and cold medium close to a black hole is not known it is necessary to reduce the problem to the consideration of a few basic possibilities for the description of the irradiated medium.

If the cold medium consists of clumps of cold material formed through a violent disruption of the disk accretion flow, the clouds may not reach an equilibrium and may be represented as a constant density medium. However, if the clouds are illuminated and can survive long enough, the medium will approach pressure equilibrium and an assumption of constant pressure may be a better representation of the medium, with the density gradient maintained due to the temperature and radiation plus gas pressure gradient. Finally, if the disk is not disrupted and it extends down to the marginally stable orbit (and possibly below it) the irradiated upper layers of the disk will be mostly in hydrostatic equilibrium. The last possibility is characterized by the steepest density gradient.

In the present paper we concentrate on the intermediate case, i.e. the medium in pressure equilibrium. We assume a plane-parallel geometry, and the medium is irradiated by an isotropic incident flux. The irradiated layers expand, and in the equilibrium situation a constant pressure is maintained throughout the entire zone. This pressure includes both the gas pressure and the radiation pressure.

### 3.1 Constant pressure models

We show first a set of models parameterized by the value of the ionization parameter $`\xi `$ at the surface of the irradiated medium ($`z=0`$). This parameter is defined as

$$\xi =\frac{L_{\mathrm{bol}}}{n(z=0)R^2},$$
(1)
where $`L_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ is the bolometric luminosity of the source located at a distance $`R`$ and $`n(z=0)`$ is the number density at the surface of the medium. In our computations the density was fixed at the value $`n(0)=10^{11}\mathrm{cm}^3`$.

Radiation pressure is locally calculated from

$$P_{\mathrm{rad}}=\frac{4\pi }{3c}J_\nu 𝑑\nu ,$$
(2)
where $`J_\nu `$ is the mean intensity at a given depth computed at each step by the code.

The value of the total pressure (i.e. radiation + gas pressure) is calculated when the temperature of the plasma has been determined by the thermal balance equation, and this value is kept fixed within the medium thus determining the density profile. The model is iterated until convergence of the flux (and therefore of the radiation pressure) as in DAC.

Our basic sequence of models is specified as follows.

The shape of the incident radiation was assumed to be a power law, with the energy index $`\alpha =1.0`$, extending from 0.1 eV to 100 keV.

The total hydrogen column in these computations is fixed at $`3\times 10^{25}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ ($`\tau _{\mathrm{Th}}24`$).

The set of models with $`\xi =300,10^3,10^4,10^5`$ and $`10^6`$ illustrates the effect of increasing the incident flux from $`2.7\times 10^{12}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 to $`8\times 10^{15}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 correspondingly.

In all cases the irradiation results in the formation of a hot surface zone with an almost constant temperature. Initially the temperature decreases inwards rather slowly, with a rapid drop by 2 or 3 orders of magnitude below a certain depth.

This rapid transition reflects the ionization instability which develops in an irradiated medium (Krolik et al. 1981), and it leads to a temperature discontinuity if the medium is supposed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium (Begelman et al. 1983, Różańska & Czerny 1996, Ko & Kallman 1994, NKK). Unique, continuous solutions are obtained only if energy transfer by conduction is included, in addition to radiative heating and cooling (Begelman & McKee 1990, Różańska 1999). However, at present no computations include both the full radiative transfer and the conduction term; either radiative transfer is replaced by a parametric description of heating and cooling (Różańska 1999) or the radiative transfer is computed carefully but the conduction is neglected (NKK, Ballantyne et al. 2001, Różańska et al. 2002 and other papers presenting spectra). In the second approach the instability is dealt with, either by adopting a discontinuity at an arbitrary position somewhere inside the multiple solution zone, or the smooth solution is found at the expense of a small pressure inversion in the multiple solution zone (see detailed discussion of this issue by Różańska et al. 2002). The conditions for the existence of multiple solutions under various approaches to line heating and cooling will be discussed by Coupé et al. (in preparation). In the present paper we adopt the continuous solution approach, as in Różańska et al. (2002).

We see in Fig. 1 (panel a) that both the surface temperature and the optical thickness of the hot layer depend strongly on the incident flux. Only the outermost layers of $`\tau _{\mathrm{es}}0.3`$, and only at high irradiation flux, reach the Inverse Compton temperature, $`T_{\mathrm{IC}}`$, corresponding to the incident spectrum ($`1.8\times 10^7`$ K), mostly because of the contribution coming from the thermalized back side radiation. For $`\xi 10^3`$ the surface temperature is much lower than $`T_{\mathrm{IC}}`$ since the ionization of the upper layers is not high enough to make the Compton heating/cooling to dominate. The optical depth of the hot zone ranges from $`\tau _\mathrm{h}0.6`$ in the low flux case to $`\tau _\mathrm{h}2`$. Still lower ionization flux would lead to still lower optical depth of the hot skin and even lower surface temperature value. We do not show an example since the temperature of the back side of the slab approaches low values ($`T10^4`$ K) for which the code is not adapted.

As we assume a constant pressure the density profile results from the computations (see Fig. 1, panel b). The density contrast between the illuminated and back sides of the slab is very high since it reflects the temperature gradient as well as the considerable contribution from the radiation pressure which, in the case of high $`\xi `$, dominates the gas pressure by several orders of magnitudes in the hot layers (see Fig. 1, panel c).

This density gradient means that, while the cold region dominates the medium in terms of optical depth, the opposite is true if the spatial extension of the medium is considered. For example, for $`\xi =10^3`$ the hot region is $`5\times 10^{13}`$ cm deep and the cold region is $`10^{13}`$ cm, while for $`\xi =10^6`$ the hot region is $`8\times 10^{11}`$ cm and the cold region only $`4\times 10^9`$ cm! Of course the cold medium can be geometrically and optically thicker but we do not consider larger values of the column density since that would not change the reflected spectra. Therefore, apart from the temperature plots as function of the optical depth we also plot the temperature against the true distance from the irradiated surface (see Fig. 1, panel d).

The large relative geometrical size of the heated layer has an important consequence in the case of the special geometry of a quasi-spherical distribution of clouds irradiated by the central source, as discussed by Collin-Souffrin et al. (1996). If the clouds have time to reach pressure equilibrium their irradiated parts would expand enormously and the medium will actually look more like clouds embedded in a warm bath, particularly for high irradiation flux. This will be particularly important when we will discuss the spherical geometry (Dumont et al., in preparation).

As we mentioned earlier, the ionization of iron is complete only close to the surface, and only in the case of the highest irradiation flux. Even for $`\xi =10^6`$ a large part of the hot layer is only partially ionized and populated with hydrogen and helium-like iron (see Fig. 2). The solution for $`\xi =10^3`$ is still mostly populated by FeXXV. Only in the case of the lowest value of the ionization parameter the contribution from highly ionized iron becomes negligible and the line is dominated by the 6.4 keV component. In all other cases the iron line consists always of a number of components at various energies which reflect the thermal stratification of the medium.

The reflection spectra are given in Fig. 3. The thermalized fraction of the incident radiation decreases with increasing $`\xi `$ because the reflected fraction increases, due to the increased value of the temperature and of the optical depth of the hot layer, and the temperature of the UV bump increases because the temperature of deep layers increases. The Big Blue Bump due to the thermalized radiation is rather narrow and it never extends to the observed soft X-ray band. The same effect occurs in the case of a medium in hydrostatic equilibrium (NKK, Różańska et al. 2002). In the far UV band the Lyman edge can be seen in emission (for low values of $`\xi `$) or weakly in absorption (for $`\xi 10^5`$). This is simply due to the fact that the underlying continuum becomes more intense in this band as $`\xi `$ increases. Soft X-ray lines superimposed on a reflected continuum are clearly visible in all cases. The continuum itself clearly shows the signatures of the ionized reflection since it is relatively flat on $`\nu F_\nu `$ plot and slightly rising below 2 keV, although not as strongly as in the constant density solutions (cf. Sect. 3.2).

The iron Kα line in all models consists of several components. The neutral component dominates only for $`\xi =300`$. In all other cases the line comes mostly from ionized iron ions. The helium-like iron contribution dominates for $`\xi =10^3`$, and the role of the hydrogen-like iron increases with further increase of $`\xi `$. This is not surprising if we consider the stratification of iron ion populations (see Fig. 2). The details of the spectra in this energy band determined from noar are shown in Fig. 4. Equivalent widths of the line components determined with respect to the total (i.e. reflected plus incident) radiation flux are given in Table 1.

The line is broadened by Comptonization and a red tail of the line develops for large values of the ionization parameter. A narrow core, or rather several narrow components remain, and the effect of Comptonization can be seen as an additional broad underlying component.

### 3.2 Comparison with a constant density case

The reflection from the constant density medium was already broadly discussed in the literature (Ross & Fabian 1993, Życki et al. 1994, Dumont & Collin 2001), including the Fe Kα line properties (Matt et al. 1993, Życki & Czerny 1994). However, the comparison is much easier if the computations are made with the same code and for the same sets of corresponding parameters.

Therefore we show two examples, computed for an incident power law spectrum, the density equal to $`10^{11}`$ cm-3 everywhere in the medium and the total column density to $`3\times 10^{25}`$ cm-2 as before.

The temperature profile (compare Fig. 1 and 5) is much more shallow that in the constant pressure case, the heated zone is effectively much broader. The overall spectrum (see Fig. 6) varies much more strongly with the incident flux than in the constant pressure case, and displays a much broader “Big Blue Bump”, due to the presence of layers with intermediate temperature. This strong, almost a power law, tail extends up to 2 keV thus forming a strong soft X-ray excess.

Despite the more shallow temperature profile the iron line in the constant density case is usually dominated by a single component. This is due to the fact that the zone where the temperature traces the ionization state is Thomson thick and the line is effectively dominated by the ionization state of the outer layers thus giving a cold line for low $`\xi `$, and 6.7 - 6.9 keV lines for higher irradiation flux. Any particular ionization stage of the iron can be modeled by adjusting the incident flux, which is not the case either in constant pressure computations or in solutions in hydrostatic equilibrium, as noticed by NKK.

In the case of high ionization parameter ($`\xi =10^5`$) the line again is broadened by Compton downscattering (see Fig. 7) and the effect is stronger in the constant density medium than in the constant pressure case (see also Abrassart & Dumont 2000 and Abrassart 2000). In the case of low $`\xi `$ the line is dominated by the narrow cold component but we also see a strong absorption edge. Such a feature is only barely seen from the constant pressure medium.

### 3.3 Comparison with hydrostatic equilibrium

Two examples of reprocessing by an irradiated accretion disks were presented by Różańska et al. (2002). The parameterization of such models is through the accretion rate, and the pressure increases towards the disk equatorial plane. However, we can compare two models with similar total pressure at the surface.

In the model computed for a black hole mass $`M=10^8M_{}`$, an accretion rate $`\dot{m}=0.03\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ and a distance $`10R_{\mathrm{Schw}}`$, the gas pressure is of the order of $`2\times 10^3`$ g cm-1 s-2 in the surface layers, so it approximately corresponds to our case $`\xi =10^4`$ of constant pressure models.

The surface temperature is slightly lower in the constant pressure model since the slope of the incident radiation is different in the two models ($`\alpha =0.9`$ was adopted in the hydrostatic equilibrium model, while $`\alpha =1.0`$ in the present computations). The overall shape of the reflected spectrum in X-ray band is similar, apart from the effect caused by the difference in the adopted incident flux in the two computations. The iron Kα line in both cases shows all three components (6.4 keV, 6.7 keV and 6.9 keV), but the neutral component is relatively stronger in the case of hydrostatic equilibrium. The Big Blue Bump peak is also relatively stronger in the case of hydrostatic equilibrium. This is partially due to an additional energy generation in the accretion disk itself and partially due to a much thicker hot skin in the case of constant pressure medium ($`0.7`$ instead of $`0.1`$) which increases the reflected fraction at the expense of the reprocessed one. Increased Thomson thickness of the radiatively heated zone accounts also for the difference in the value of the equivalent width of the iron Kα line – the line from the constant pressure model is by 50% weaker than in the hydrostatic equilibrium case (66 eV vs. 92 eV).

Similar differences are seen between the irradiated disk model $`\dot{m}=0.3`$ (hydrostatic equilibrium) and the (constant pressure) model with $`\xi =10^5`$, both having a total surface pressure of order of $`2\times 10^4`$. Also in this case the skin is thicker in the constant pressure case ($`\tau _{\mathrm{Th}}=1`$ vs. $`\tau _{\mathrm{Th}}=0.3`$), and consequently the equivalent width of the Fe Kα line is lower (80 eV in hydrostatic equilibrium case and 53 eV in constant pressure case), and the dominance of the 6.7 keV component in the line profile is much stronger in the constant pressure solution.

### 3.4 The effect of the spectral shape of incident radiation

#### 3.4.1 Power law slope

The slope of the incident radiation is important not only because of its contribution to the observed spectrum. It also modifies the spectral shape of the reflected component by affecting the value of the Compton temperature and the thickness of the hot layer.

In constant density computations the incident slope determines the reflected slope in the soft part of the spectrum (see Fig. 6 of Czerny & Dumont 1998) – a steeper incident flux results in a proportionally steeper reflected component. The properties of the iron line do not change dramatically.

A medium in hydrostatic equilibrium reacts differently to such changes (NKK): a harder spectrum results in a completely ionized outer skin and a relatively faint but neutral iron line produced in the deeper un-ionized zone, while a softer spectrum gives only a partially ionized skin and a strong iron line coming from ionized iron ions in that region.

The reaction of a medium at constant pressure is intermediate between these two cases (see Fig. 8). When the radiation spectrum is very hard ($`\alpha =0.7`$) the dominant contribution to the line comes indeed from the deep layers and the 6.4 keV component dominates. Intermediate slopes enhance the contribution from helium-like iron and both line components (6.4 and 6.7 keV) are clearly seen. However, when the spectrum is very soft ($`\alpha =1.3`$), a cold iron line dominates again since the gas is not heated to a high enough temperature (even at the surface) for highly ionized iron to contribute.

#### 3.4.2 The spectrum of Laor et al. (1997)

A hot (thermal) plasma is a source of a power law radiation which is formed due to Compton upscattering of the soft photons by energetic electrons. A cold layer thermalizes a fraction of the radiation but nevertheless, in the plane-parallel geometry, the X-ray primary emission dominates the total spectrum. This is not a good representation of high accretion rate objects like quasars or NLS1 galaxies (where the soft thermal component dominates), which means that either the geometry is different, or most of the energy is dissipated within the cold phase at larger distances from the black hole. In this latter case the considered innermost cold layer will see not only the hard X-ray source but it will be also affected by the mean radiation field.

To illustrate this situation we consider the case of a layer irradiated by a source with a spectral distribution given by the mean spectral shape of quasars, as determined by Laor et al. (1997) from a large quasar sample. This radiation field is much softer than our assumed power law, since it is strongly dominated by the Big Blue Bump, and the corresponding Inverse Compton temperature is lower than for a power law spectrum with $`\alpha =1.0`$ ($`2.4\times 10^6`$ K and $`1.9\times 10^7`$ K, correspondingly).

The reflected spectrum in the case of a constant pressure medium is shown in Fig. 9. It traces to some extent the incident spectrum, giving a strong soft X-ray excess, unlike in the case of an incident power law spectrum. The overall shape is much more similar to the case of constant density computations, with a power law spectrum. A strong soft X-ray excess is clearly seen below 2 keV.

In the Kα line profile a strong contribution from 6.4 keV component is always seen, although for $`\xi 10^5`$, the 6.7 keV component is slightly stronger (see Fig. 10). A model with a power law incident radiation and a comparable hard X-ray flux does not show such a strong neutral component.

### 3.5 Total column density

Our computations were deliberately made for a Thomson thick medium. However, an interesting question is, how strong the effect of the column density is for a moderately thick medium, and what optical thickness of the medium is needed to thermalize the incident radiation.

In the case of a constant density medium the photons penetrate quite deeply into the medium if the irradiation is strong. We saw in Fig. 5 that for $`\xi =10^5`$ the temperature of the back side was still quite high even for the very large column density adopted in this computation ($`10^{26}`$ cm-2).

However, in constant pressure medium the thermalization is much more efficient for the same Thomson optical depth due to the fact that the density is much higher in the cold region, and therefore collisional cooling is much more efficient. We give two examples of the reflection spectra calculated for a moderate value of the ionization parameter ($`\xi =10^3`$) and two values of the column density (corresponding to $`\tau _{\mathrm{Th}}=20`$ and $`\tau _{\mathrm{Th}}=2`$; Fig. 11). Even if the total optical thickness of the zone is equal to 2 the temperature at the back side of the layer is low. The resulting spectra are almost indistinguishable.

### 3.6 Density

Parameterization of the incident flux with the ionization parameter $`\xi `$ has the advantage of reducing significantly the dependence on the medium density. In constant density computations this approach was particularly succesfull and the reflection spectra do not depend significantly on the density in a broad range of parameters (from $`n=10^{10}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ up to $`n=10^{14}\mathrm{cm}^3`$). Some differences are seen in the low energy band (IR and optical) due to the influence of free-free emissivity and the reflection hump above $`3`$ keV is more prominent in the low density case (Fig. 12).

Radiation transfer computations performed in constant pressure medium are much more sensitive to the density itself due to the density gradient. When the surface density is changed the radiation to gas pressure ratio changes at the surface and the new density profile as a function of the optical depth changes, and it is not just a rescaled version of the old profile by a constant value. This induces some differences in the broad band spectrum as well as in details of the spectral features (see Fig. 13).

### 3.7 Summary of models

In order to facilitate the comparison between the various models presented here and the observed properties of the AGN spectra we determine for those models several broadly used quantities. The results are presented in Table 1 and they include more models than just those presented in the previous subsections.

Since the computations are made in plane-parallel geometry the final spectrum consists of the reflected spectrum plus the incident spectrum, without any additional weight.

We introduce the $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ parameter as the mean slope calculated between 2500 Å and 2 keV. We give the widths of the components of the Fe Kα line, measured with respect to the observed continuum (i.e. reflected plus incident) which result directly from our computations.

Since the observed spectra are usually analyzed using the XSPEC software (and the standard spectral components provided with it) we follow other authors presenting their theoretical results (Done & Nayakshin 2001, Ballantyne et al. 2001) and we analyze our spectra as we would analyze an observed spectrum.

We create artificial data using the fake command in XSPEC for ASCA satellite and assuming the count rate at the typical level expected from bright AGN sources with a long exposure.

We fit such data using pexrav model (Magdziarz & Zdziarski 1995) to represent the incident power law and the reflected continuum, and we add gaussian to account for the iron line. These fits provide us again with the normalization of the reflected component, $`R_{\mathrm{XSPEC}}`$, and the photon index of the incident radiation, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. In principle $`R_{\mathrm{XSPEC}}`$ should be equal to 1, while $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ should be equal to the photon index adopted in our model computations. However, the shape of the reflected component assumed in pexrav is rather different from the one from our computations of radiative transfer and so both $`R_{\mathrm{XSPEC}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are affected. The results for various models are summarized in Table 1. We see that low $`\xi `$ models show a reflection component larger than 1, while reflection from highly ionized material give values significantly lower than 1. This effect is much stronger in the constant density models which are characterized by a reflection coefficient of the order of unity for a rather narrow range of values of the ionization parameter. Fits to models with the Laor et al. (1997) incident spectrum gave formally very large values of the reflection coefficient which was caused by the presence of the strong soft X-ray excess in those spectra models. We did not add any additional component during the fitting to account for this excess which leads to an artificially steep ’incident radiation’ and a large reflection.

We also considered the XSPEC pexriv model (Magdziarz & Zdziarski 1995) of ionized reflection. However, since the shape of the reflection component is different in our computations and in pexriv, this model did not provide a better description of our model and the returned value of the ionization parameter was usually rather low independently from the true value characterizing the model. Similar problems were found by Ballantyne et al. (2001).

## 4 Discussion

X-ray reprocessing in plane-parallel geometry under the assumption of the constant density has been studied in a number of papers (Ross & Fabian 1993, Życki et al. 1994, DAC; see Dumont & Collin 2001). Similar computations were also performed for a stratified medium in hydrostatic equilibrium (Raymond 1993, NKK, Ballantyne et al. 2001, Różańska et al. 2002).

In the present paper we consider an intermediate case: the medium under constant pressure. It may represent a strongly flattened distribution of clumpy accretion flow.

Our model, as most of the constant density or hydrostatic models, is clearly oversimplified since we assume that the entire flow is characterized by a single value of the ionization parameter, which may not be the case in a real accretion flow. We also did not include here the dissipation which may take place in the cold phase of an accretion flow and consequently enhance the contribution of the Big Blue Bump to the overall spectrum. This last effect is only simulated to some extent by considering the shape of the incident radiation flux in the form of the mean quasar spectrum as determined by Laor et al. (1997).

Nevertheless, the results illustrate certain important trends which should help to analyse the conditions in the emitting plasma.

Below we compare the results obtained from the constant pressure medium with the observed trends in the broad band spectra of AGN.

### 4.1 Observed $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ properties in quasar and Seyfert galaxies samples

The observed broad band spectral index $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ measured between 2500 Å and 2 keV was shown for a sample of Seyfert galaxies by Walter & Fink (1993) and for quasars by Green (1996). Both samples showed a large dispersion of this quantity, which could be partly explained by reddening (e.g. Wilkes et al. 1999, Laor & Brandt 2002). The average values are about 1.3 for Seyferts and 1.5 for quasars, with most Seyferts having values between 1 and 1.6, and most quasars having values between 1.2 and 1.8.

Our constant pressure models with an incident power law radiation slope equal to 1 have on average somewhat lower values of the $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$, around 1.2, with typical values between 1 and 1.3. Since the observed power law index in Seyfert galaxies is on average not steeper than the value adopted in our computations it shows that either there is some dissipation within the cold medium which slightly contributes to the Big Blue Bump, or the plane-parallel geometry adopted in the computations is not correct (for spherical accretion models see Collin-Souffrin et al. 1996, Czerny & Dumont 1998, and Malzac 2001). The effect is even stronger in the case of quasars. Not surprisingly, the models with an incident flux based on averaged quasar spectra reproduce the observed values of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ for those models.

Hydrostatic equilibrium models give for $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ results comparable to the constant pressure models (see Różańska et al. 2002), with values slightly lower than seen in Seyfert galaxies, and lower than in quasars. Constant density models give still lower values ($`1`$) and a bigger discrepancy between the simple prediction and the data.

### 4.2 Amplitude of the reflection component

The observed range of the reflection amplitudes for Seyfert galaxies ($`0.31.5`$; Zdziarski et al. 1999) is rougly consistent with the values obtained from constant pressure models (0.6 – 1.8). Models with constant density easily produce values of the amplitude of reflection either much larger or much lower than observed.

However, such a simple model does not explain the observed correlation between the slope of the incident radiation and the amount of reflection. The observational data show a strong increase of the amount of reflection with the steepening of the incident radiation. Our set of models shows an opposite trend: a model with a steep (soft) incident radiation flux ($`\alpha =1.3`$) shows a fitted amount of reflection much lower than a model with a flat (hard) incident radiation ($`\alpha =0.7`$). However, our computations were done for a single value of the ionization parameter $`\xi =10^3`$ which might affect the results. We could not repeat the same computations for a practically neutral medium since for the moment our codes do not allow to solve the coupled equations of radiative transfer and energy balance if the temperature is too low.

Hydrostatic equilibrium models give lower values of the reflection component ($`0.5`$ for the incident spectrum slope$`\alpha 1`$) than constant pressure medium, and they show a clear correlation between the slope of the incident radiation and the amount of reflection, although the range of values is somewhat smaller than observed (Done & Nayakshin 2001).

Constant density models exhibit the biggest range in the amount of reflection (from 0 to 2), rather too large in comparison with the data.

### 4.3 The Fe Kα line diagnostics

The structure and the broadening of the iron line seen in the data is still under discussion and the situation is not clear. The broad line profile seen in the ASCA data of the source MCG-6-15-30 was confirmed in subsequent observations. However, the shape of the iron line in a typical Seyfert galaxy may be narrower than inferred initially (compare the results of Nandra et al. 1997 and Lubiński & Zdziarski 2001 based on ASCA data). Recent Chandra data point towards a very narrow neutral component (e.g. Yaqoob et al. 2001a, Sambruna et al. 2001, Kaspi et al. 2001) but it may be superimposed on a broader component originating closer to the central object (Yaqoob et al. 2001b). The line is therefore most probably multicomponent but the components have different shapes and originate in different places.

Our analysis show that the iron line originating from a single region is expected to be multicomponent if the medium is at constant pressure when the slope of the incident radiation spectrum is $`\alpha 1`$, and the medium is not neutral (i.e. the ionization parameter larger than $`200`$). The multicomponent structure originates in the same medium, so if kinematical broadening is essential, it should broaden all components similarly.

A similar multicomponent line is present in the spectra of the hydrostatic models of Różańska et al. (2002). Computations of NKK rather show a single neutral component for $`\alpha 1`$.

A single component, either neutral or ionized, is instead characteristic for a constant density medium.

There is some level of intrinsic broadening of the line profile due to Comptonization within the reprocessing medium, as suggested by Czerny et al. (1991) but the effect is not very strong in the case of a constant pressure medium or a medium in hydrostatic equilibrium. A constant density medium broaden the line more effectively, due to the larger optical depth of the hot skin.

At present, the observations are not accurate enough to differentiate between the constant pressure and the constant density medium, if the narrow neutral component comes from the outer parts of the accretion flow (BLR and/or dusty torus) and the broad component is barely seen and not well constrained. The study of variability could help to locate the emission regions of the different components, and subsequently help to find an answer to the question of hydrostatic equilibrium.

###### Acknowledgements.

Part of this work was supported by grant 2P03D01816 of the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research and by Jumelage/CNRS No. 16 “Astronomie France/Pologne”.


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# Strain effect on electronic transport and ferromagnetic transition temperature in La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 thin films

## I Introduction

The discovery of colossal magnetoresistance effect in epitaxial manganite thin films has renewed interest in the doped manganite perovskite materials Ln1-xBxMnO3 (Ln=trivalent rare-earth ions; B=divalent alkaline-earth ions) for potential sensor and magnetic recording applications as well as the need to understand the mechanisms underlying their behavior.helm ; sjin ; hlju  It has been found that properties such as ferromagnetic transition temperature $`T_c`$, resistivity $`\rho `$, and magnetoresistance are sensitive to the epitaxial strain due to lattice mismatch of the film with substrate. sjin2 ; prel ; koo ; kwon ; raza ; arao ; shre  When the film is grown on the substrate whose lattice parameter is smaller or larger than that of the bulk material, the epitaxial strain is expected to be compressive or tensile, respectively. Compressive strain usually reduces the resistivity and shifts $`T_c`$ towards the higher temperature. These effects have been confirmed in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 filmskoo  and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 filmskwon  grown on various substrates.

The observed strain effect is usually interpreted qualitatively within double exchange model, genn  since the hopping matrix element $`t`$ could be altered by epitaxial strain through changing the Mn-O bond length $`d`$ and the Mn-O-Mn bond angle $`\theta `$. It has been also proposed that the Jahn-Teller electron-phonon coupling plays an important role in strain effect on $`T_c`$.mill  However, recent detailed studies show that compressive strain does not always lead to enhancement of $`T_c`$,arao  while the cationic vacancies due to the oxygen annealing significantly enhance the $`T_c`$ values much higher than any bulk values in the series compounds.prel ; shre  In most cases, tensile strain suppresses ferromagnetism and reduces $`T_c`$ in manganite films. But some anomalous results have also been reported, showing $`T_c`$ enhanced by tensile strain. gong ; prel2 ; zhan  Most interestingly, there are reports of multiple phase segregation in fully strained epitaxial films.bibe  The ferromagnetic coupling within the metallic regions accounts for the changes of $`T_c`$ and conductivity. Thus, the strain effect in manganite films is far from being fully understood and challenging.

Lightly doped La1-xSrxMnO3 shows a great variety of intriguing phenomena originating from a pronounced interplay between spin, lattice, charge, and orbital degrees of freedom. As a result many phenomena like charge order,yama ; uhle  orbital order, endo  and phase separationzhou  have been recently observed in this regime of the phase diagram. La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 is in the phase boundary of a spin-canted antiferromagnetic insulator and a ferromagnetic insulator.woll ; urus ; kawa ; dabr  This material has the lowest $`T_c`$ among the series compounds,urus ; morit  which makes it possible to perform systematic investigations of the resistivity in the paramagnetic regime over a broad temperature range without using specialized equipment to extend the temperature range. Meanwhile, the pressure derivative of $`T_c`$, $`dT_c/dP`$, in this material is highest among the manganese perovskites.morit ; senis ; tiss  It has been generally believed that pressure changes $`T_c`$ and $`\rho `$ in a similar manner as epitaxial strain. Thus, transport properties, transition temperatures, and phase transitions are expected to be significantly affected by epitaxial strain in the La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 films. Moreover, these investigations are most important for the understanding of the fruitful phenomena and the use of these films as magnetic devices as well as air electrodes in high-temperature solid oxide fuel cells.roos ; wolf0

In this work we investigate the transport properties by measuring resistivity and magnetization of the epitaxial La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 films on SrTiO3. The data clearly show that the high-temperature resistivity of the films can be well ascribed by a model for small-polaron hopping in the adiabatic limit. We experimentally find that the small polaronic formation energy $`E_P`$ decreases with the reduction of the film thickness, which can account for the strain effect on $`T_c`$. We suggest that the electron-phonon coupling is responsible for the strain effect on the high-temperature electronic transport and the ferromagnetic transition temperature.

## II Experimental details

Thin films of La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 were grown using the pulsed laser deposition technique. The target used had a nominal composition of La0.9Sr0.1MnO3. The substrates were (100) single crystal of SrTiO3. The laser energy density on the target was 2 mJ/cm2 and the ablation rate was 5 Hz. The substrates were kept at a constant temperature of 8500C during the deposition which was carried out at a pressure of 0.40 mbar of oxygen. The films were $`in`$ $`situ`$ annealed at 9400C in oxygen at 1.0 bar for 30 minutes. This procedure always results in films of high crystalline quality and in very sharp film-substrate interfaces. The thickness of the films was varied from 200 to 2000 $`\AA `$ as measured by Dektak. The chemical composition of the films was determined by microprobe analysis, which showed a (La,Sr)/Mn ratio of 1:1 and a Sr content of $`x=0.10\pm 0.01`$.

The structural study was carried out by x-ray diffraction (XRD) at room temperature by a Rigaku x-ray diffractometer with a rotating anode and Cu $`K\alpha `$ radiation, $`\lambda =1.5406`$ $`\AA `$. The resistivity $`\rho `$ was measured from unpatterned samples with sputtered chromium gold contacts using a standard four-probe technique. Magnetization $`M`$ was recorded in a magnetic field parallel to the film plane using a Quantum Design MPMS superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer as a function of temperature.

## III Results and discussion

Figure 1 shows the evolution of the room temperature XRD data for La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 thin films with thicknesses from 200 to 2000 $`\AA `$. Each sample is single crystal and ($`l00`$) oriented without other impurity phases. Above $`T=105`$ K, SrTiO3 has a perfect cubic perovskite structure with a lattice parameter $`a=3.905`$ $`\AA `$. La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 has a distorted perovskite structure due to the tilting of the MnO6 octahedra and the Jahn-Teller distortion, which results in a slightly orthorhombic structure. The bulk lattice parameters for this compound at room temperature are:cox  $`a=5.5469`$ $`\AA `$, $`b=5.56033`$ $`\AA `$, and $`c=7.7362`$ $`\AA `$. The in-plane lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate is given by $`ϵ=[d_{bulk}d_{strained}]/d_{bulk}`$ with $`d`$ a lattice parameter. Epitaxially grown La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 film on (100) SrTiO3 substrates are under compressive strain since $`d_{bulk}>d_{strained}`$ with the bulk value $`d_{bulk}=3.927\AA `$. With decreasing the film thickness, the in-plane lattice parameter of the film decreases and the compressive strain is then enhanced.

Figure 2 shows the temperature dependence of the magnetization measured in 0.5 T of the films with various thicknesses, after correction for the magnetization of the substrate. The curves have been measured by warming up in the magnetic field after zero field cooling. The features of the $`MT`$ curves are ferromagnetic with $`M230360`$ emu/cm3 at 10 K. The magnetization was taken at 0.5 T to avoid the variation due to magnetic domain rotation at lower fields. Both $`T_c`$ and $`M`$ increase with decreasing the film thickness. The value of $`T_c`$ for 200 $`\AA `$ thin film is 50 K higher than the bulk value.senis  We had not observed a magnetization jump occurring at a characteristic temperature $`T_{CA}`$ as appeared in the La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 single crystals,senis ; koro  which indicates a canted antiferromagnetic state as confirmed by neutron scattering experiments.yama  This is not surprising since the strained films usually show properties much different from the bulk compounds in manganites.prel

Although the reduction of film thickness should enhance $`T_c`$ under compressive strain as we observed in Fig. 2, there are few measurements in other manganites films to support this phenomenon. The experiments on La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 films grown on LaAlO3 do not always show a correlation between the compressive strain and $`T_c`$.arao  Interestingly, anomalously high $`T_c`$ and metal-insulator transition temperature $`T_{MI}`$ (100 K higher than bulk values) have been observed in this strained film with 1000 $`\AA `$ thickness after annealing under oxygen.shre  For this La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 film, $`T_{MI}`$ is 30 K higher than the highest $`T_{MI}=260`$ K found for $`x=0.33`$ bulk compound. Thus, the large enhancement of $`T_c`$ and $`T_{MI}`$ in this film should be dominated by compressive strain. The lack of this enhancement observed previously in La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 thin film may be due to oxygen deficiency.

The results of the temperature dependence of the resistivity are shown in Fig. 3. The resistivity of our films displays semiconducting behavior at high temperatures, and metallic behavior for $`T_{CA}TT_{MI}`$. It has an upturn at $`T_{CA}`$, and then becomes of semiconducting character. The neutron scattering study demonstrates that the point of resistivity upturn is consistent with the onset temperature of the polaron order. yama  The magnitude of resistivity of our films is smaller than those of the single crystals.urus ; dabr ; liu  For example, the resistivity of the 2000 $`\AA `$ film at $`T=100`$ K is 83.7 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ cm. Note that the compressive strain decreases the resistivity in our thin films. This behavior is typical for manganites films under compressive strain.koo ; kwon  The observed $`T_{MI}`$ (defined as the temperature where $`d\rho /dT`$ changes sign) of $`100150`$ K in our films are comparable to those of La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 single crystals.urus ; dabr ; liu  For films with thicknesses $`d=750`$ and 2000 $`\AA `$, $`T_{MI}`$ almost coincides with $`T_c`$. However, $`T_{MI}`$ is significant smaller than $`T_c`$ for the ultrathin films. The scenario to correlate with this observation could be the existence of microscopic phase segregation due to the formation of small ferromagnetic clusters, which are large enough to give a magnetic contribution in ultrathin films but not to allow metallic conductivity appearing in zones of ferromagnetic insulating behavior. The smaller $`T_{MI}`$ value compared to $`T_c`$ has reported previously in La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 thin films. gonz  Recent nuclear magnetic resonance measurements in La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 films on SrTiO3 give strong evidence in favor of the existence of microscopic phase separation.bibe

Additional increase of resistivity on cooling can be seen at low temperatures proceeded by a minimum at $`T_{CA}`$. The structural data of single crystals show that a phase transformation from a pseudocubic $`O^{\prime \prime }`$ type to an orthorhombic $`O^{}`$ type structure occurs near $`T_{CA}`$.kawa ; gavi The low-temperature phase is known to be a spin-canted antiferromagnetic phase for $`0x0.1`$,woll  which results from competing antiferromagnetic superexchange interaction between half-filled $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals along the $`c`$ axis Mn-O-Mn bonds and ferromagnetic double-exchange interaction via $`e_g`$ conduction electrons. With the reduction of the film thickness, $`T_{CA}`$ shifts towards low temperatures and $`\rho `$ decreases in the insulating low-temperature phase. It has been reported that $`T_{CA}`$ increases and $`\rho `$ decreases under pressure in La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 single crystals.senis  Although $`\rho `$ behaves in a similar manner under compressive strain and external pressure, the observed variation of $`T_{CA}`$ is in sharp contrast with the pressure measurements. It has been establishedzhou  that pressure influences $`T_{CA}`$ in the same way as an increase in $`x`$ with a maximum within the range $`0.12<x<0.15`$ for the slightly doped La1-xSrxMnO3. At low-pressures, the thermoelectric power through $`T_{CA}`$ is sensitive to the charge carrier density. It is indicated that pressure induces the change of carrier concentration, which should account for the dependence of $`T_{CA}`$ on pressure. The growth conditions such as film deposition and oxygen annealing are same for all films studied here. The carrier concentration in these films should not be different. Therefore, the dependence of $`T_{CA}`$ on strain is possibly different from the pressure effect on $`T_{CA}`$.

An interesting feature is the absence of the jump in resistivity in films near $`T330`$ K. The structural analyses on La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 crystalsdabr ; cox ; gavi  reveal that the system undergoes another structural transition around characteristic temperature $`T_s=330`$ K from an orthorhombic $`O`$ phase having a dynamic Jahn-Teller distortion to a orthorhombic $`O^{}`$ phase at lower temperatures where Jahn-Teller distortion becomes static and cooperative. The jump in resistivity at $`T_s`$ in single crystals has been reported by Urushibara $`et`$ $`al.`$urus  The absence of the jump indicates that the compressive strain in films either suppresses the structural phase transition or shifts $`T_s`$ towards higher temperatures above 350 K. There is competition between the charge mobility and the structural phase transition in the slightly doped La1-xSrxMnO3.uhle  The change tendency of $`T_s`$ and $`T_{CA}`$ is usually different under pressure or magnetic field.uhle ; zhou  In our films, $`T_{CA}`$ decreases with decreasing film thickness due to the compressive strain. Thus, the increase of $`T_s`$ is possible under compressive strain.

The preconditions for polaron formation, namely, large electron-lattice coupling and low electronic hopping rates, appear to be satisfied for manganites.millis  In Fig. 4 we have represented $`\mathrm{ln}(\rho /T)`$ versus inverse temperature. A linear behavior is obtained between 165 and 350 K. This is strong support of the mechanism of adiabatic small polaron conduction. The resistivity as a result of hopping of adiabatic small polarons is, within the Emin and Holstein theory,emin  given by

$$\rho =AT\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{E_A}{k_BT}\right).$$
(1)
Here the prefactor $`A`$ depends on the polaronic concentration, the hopping distance, and the frequency of the longitudinal optical phonon. The activation energy $`E_A`$ has the form jaime  $`E_A=E_P/2+ϵ_0J`$, where $`ϵ_0`$ is the energy required to generate intrinsic carriers and $`J`$ is the transfer integral.

From the fit to Eq. (1), the values of $`A`$ and $`E_A`$ are obtained. These data are summarized in Table 1. The fitting for $`\rho `$ is valid for temperatures larger than half the Debye temperature $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$. This is fulfilled for the present films since specific heat measurements show $`\mathrm{\Theta }_D`$ in the $`255360`$ K range.wood ; okud  We noted that the fitting adiabatic prefactor $`A`$ is in the range from 1.19$`\times 10^6`$ to 2.39$`\times 10^6`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ cm/K, which is typical for small polaronic conduction as observed in La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 filmsworl  as well as (La1-xGdx)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 films.jaime2

There have been studies of high-temperature resistive behavior in La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 bulk materials.raff ; para ; mand  The reported conduction mechanism are controversial. Early measurements on the ceramic La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 show that the high-temperature resistivity obeys the small polaron transport behavior in the nonadiabatic limit with an activation energy $`E_A=0.2`$ eV.raff  In single crystals, some groups found that their data can be well fitted by variable-range-hopping model $`\rho =\rho _0(T/T_0)^{1/2}exp[(T_0/T)^{1/4}]`$ with $`T_0=1.72\times 10^8`$ K in the paramagnetic regime,para  while othersmand  reported the resistivity follows a small polaron model in adiabatic limit above $`T_{MI}`$ with activation energy $`E_P=0.3`$ eV. The high-temperature resistivity of our films with various thicknesses is consistent with adiabatic small polaron hopping conductivity. It has been generally accepted that the conductivity can be well ascribed by adiabatic small polaron model in La1-xCaxMnO3 films.jaime ; worl ; jaime2 ; ziese ; worl2 ; tere  Our present data provide clear support for the existence of this conductivity mechanism in La1-xSrxMnO3 films.

At high temperatures and in the adiabatic limit the contribution from $`ϵ_0`$ and $`J`$ may be neglected, the variation of $`E_P`$ is approximately affected by the change of $`E_A`$. Taking $`E_P=2E_A`$, we have plotted the thickness dependence of $`E_P`$ in Fig. 5. The thickness dependence of $`T_c`$ is also plotted for comparison. It is interesting to notice that the variation of $`T_c`$ with thickness can be well reflected by the thickness dependence of $`E_P`$. For the thick films, the strain is relaxed. Both $`T_c`$ and $`E_P`$ scarcely change with the thickness. Below 750 $`\AA `$, with the reduction of film thickness, $`E_P`$ decreases, whereas $`T_c`$ increases. It is therefore indicated that the electron-phonon coupling possibly dominates the strain effect on $`T_c`$.

The polaronic formation energy $`E_P`$ is usually related to the effective bandwidth $`W_{eff}`$ in polaronic models. Zhao $`et`$ $`al.`$zhao  proposed an effective bandwidth of the form $`W_{eff}=W\mathrm{exp}(\gamma E_P/\mathrm{}\nu )`$, where $`W`$ is the electronic “bare” bandwidth, $`\nu `$ is the characteristic vibration frequency of the optical phonon mode, and $`\gamma `$ depends on the ratio $`E_P/W`$. According to the model proposed by Varma, varma  $`T_c`$ can be written as

$$T_c=\frac{0.1}{2}W\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\gamma E_P}{\mathrm{}\nu }\right)n\left(1n\right),$$
(2)
where $`n`$ denotes the carrier concentration. Considering that $`\nu `$ is related to the isotope mass $`M`$ through $`\nu M^{1/2}`$, the oxygen isotope exponent $`\alpha `$ ($`d\mathrm{ln}T_c/d\mathrm{ln}M`$) is then given by $`\alpha =0.5\gamma E_P/\mathrm{}\nu `$. The strain coefficient of $`T_c`$, $`d\mathrm{ln}T_c/dϵ`$, is readily obtained from Eq. (2)

$$\frac{d\mathrm{ln}T_c}{dϵ}=\frac{d\mathrm{ln}W}{dϵ}2\frac{d\alpha }{dϵ}.$$
(3)
For La0.9Sr0.1MnO3, the pressure coefficient of $`T_c`$ has been found by Senis $`et`$ $`al.`$senis  to be $`d\mathrm{ln}T_c/dP=0.16`$ GPa-1. Using the lattice compressibility $`\kappa _a=2.32\times 10^3`$ GPa-1,rada  we obtain $`d\mathrm{ln}T_c/dϵ=69`$. The electronic bandwidth $`W`$ of the manganites can be estimated by the average Mn–O bond distance $`d`$ and the Mn-O-Mn angle $`\theta `$ by using the relation:meda  $`W\mathrm{cos}\varphi /d^{3.5}`$, where $`\varphi =(\pi <\theta >)/2`$. The pressure dependence of $`\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ has been determined by neutron diffraction measurementsrada  to be $`(\mathrm{cos}\varphi )^1d\mathrm{cos}\varphi /dP=2.1\times 10^4`$ GPa-1. Taking the value of $`\kappa _a`$ as the bond compressibility $`\kappa _d`$, the calculated $`d\mathrm{ln}W/dϵ`$ is 3.6. Thus, $`d\alpha /dϵ=32.7`$ is obtained from Eq. (3). In La0.9Sr0.1MnO3, the oxygen isotope exponent $`\alpha =0.2`$ reported previously by Zhao $`et`$ $`al.`$zhao  Based on the above determined parameters, one estimated the pressure derivate of $`\alpha `$, $`d\alpha /dP=0.076`$ GPa-1. This value is very close to the reported value of –0.05 GPa-1 in La0.65Ca0.35MnO3.wang

According to the expression for $`\alpha `$, $`d\alpha /dϵ`$ is then expressed as

$$\frac{d\alpha }{dϵ}=\alpha \left(\frac{d\mathrm{ln}E_P}{dϵ}\frac{d\mathrm{ln}\nu }{dϵ}\right).$$
(4)
The Raman spectra of La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 have been collected previously by Podobedov $`et`$ $`al.`$podo  The sharp peaks at the top of the wide band are located at 243, 493, and 609 cm-1. The high frequency $`B_{1g}`$ mode at 609 cm-1 is suggested as a stretching Mn-O vibration. Recent high pressure studiescong  show that this stretching mode is the most sensitive to pressure with an initial pressure coefficient, $`d\mathrm{ln}\nu /dP=0.01`$ GPa-1. Thus $`d\mathrm{ln}\nu /dϵ=4.4`$. Equation (4) gives $`d\mathrm{ln}E_P/dϵ=159`$. This follows that $`E_P`$ decreases with increasing compressive strain. This is in good agreement with our experimental fitting parameters as shown in Fig. 5. Combining Eqs. (3) and (4), we can conclude that the strain dependence of $`T_c`$ mainly results from the strain dependence of the polaronic formation energy though there are also contributions from the electronic bandwidth $`W`$ and the characteristic phonon frequency $`\nu `$.

## IV Conclusions

We have epitaxially grown La0.9Sr0.1MnO3 thin films on SrTiO3 substrates. The high-temperature resistivity of the films with various thicknesses obeys the small-polaron hopping conductivity in the adiabatic limit. We experimentally find that the small polaronic formation energy $`E_P`$ decreases with the reduction of the film thickness, which mainly accounts for the the strain effect on $`T_c`$. By theoretical analysis, we found the contribution from electronic bandwidth is much smaller than that from electron-phonon interaction. We therefore concluded that the electron-phonon coupling is responsible for the strain effect on the high-temperature electronic transport and the ferromagnetic transition temperature in our films.


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# Untitled Document

Rational Homology 5-Spheres

with Positive Ricci Curvature

Charles P. Boyer Krzysztof Galicki

During the preparation of this work the authors were partially supported by NSF grant DMS-9970904.
Abstract: We prove that for every integer $`k>1`$ there is a simply connected rational homology 5-sphere $`M_k^5`$ with spin such that $`H_2(M_k^5,\mathrm{})`$ has order $`k^2,`$ and $`M_k^5`$ admits a Riemannian metric of positive Ricci curvature. Moreover, if the prime number decomposition of $`k`$ has the form $`k=p_1\mathrm{}p_r`$ for distinct primes $`p_i`$ then $`M_k^5`$ is uniquely determined.

Introduction

Recently, Stephan Stolz brought to our attention the fact that preciously little is known about the existence of metrics of positive Ricci curvature on simply connected 5-manifolds in the presence of torsion in $`H_2.`$ Indeed up until now there appears to be only one known non-trivial example of a rational homology 5-sphere admitting metrics of positive Ricci curvature. This is somewhat surprising in light of the fact that it is precisely in dimension 5 that there is a diffeomorphism classification of compact simply connected 5-manifolds. In 1965 Barden proved the following remarkable theorem:

Theorem  \[Bar\]: The class of simply connected, closed, oriented, smooth, 5-manifolds is classifiable under diffeomorphism. Furthermore, any such $`M`$ is diffeomorphic to one of the spaces $`M_{j;k_1,\mathrm{},k_s}=X_j\mathrm{\#}M_{k_1}\mathrm{\#}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\#}M_{k_s}`$, where $`1j\mathrm{},`$ $`s0`$, $`1<k_1`$ and $`k_i`$ divides $`k_{i+1}`$ or $`k_{i+1}=\mathrm{}`$. A complete set of invariants is provided by $`H_2(M,\mathrm{})`$ and $`i(M)`$.

It is understood that $`s=0`$ means that no $`M_{k_i}`$ occurs. The diffeomorphism invariant $`i(M)`$ depends only on the second Stiefel-Whitney class $`w^2(M)`$. When $`M`$ is spin $`i(M)=0`$ as is $`w^2(M)=0`$. Otherwise $`i(M)0`$. Barden’s result is the extension of the similar theorem of Smale for spin manifolds. In fact, in Barden’s notation $`M_{j;k_1,\mathrm{},k_s}`$ is spin if and only if $`j=0`$ in which case $`X_0=S^5`$ and $`M_{0;k_1,\mathrm{},k_s}=M_{k_1}\mathrm{\#}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\#}M_{k_s}`$ which is precisely Smale’s list \[Sm\]. Recall that here, $`X_1=SU(3)/SO(3)`$ is the well-known symmetric space, $`X_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the non-trivial $`S^3`$ bundle over $`S^2`$. For all other values of $`j`$, $`X_j`$ is a rational homology sphere determined by its 2-torsion which is $`H_2(X_j,\mathrm{})=\mathrm{}_{2^j}\mathrm{}_{2^j}`$ and the value of $`i(X_j)=j`$. All $`X_j`$ other than $`X_0`$ are non-spin, as their second Stiefel-Whitney class $`w^2(X_j)0`$. Now, $`M_k`$, $`1<k<\mathrm{}`$ is a rational homology sphere with $`H_2(M_k,\mathrm{})=\mathrm{}_k\mathrm{}_k`$ and vanishing $`i(M_k)=0`$. Finally, $`M_{\mathrm{}}=S^2\times S^3`$ is the trivial $`S^3`$ bundle over $`S^2`$. All of the pieces in the above theorem are indecomposable with the exception of $`X_1=X_1\mathrm{\#}X_1`$. Note that for $`1<j<\mathrm{},`$ $`M_{2^j}`$ and $`X_j`$ have the same $`H_2(M,\mathrm{})`$ but $`i(M_{2^j})=0`$ while $`i(X_j)=j`$.

Regarding the question of positive Ricci curvature metrics on simply connected 5-manifolds, there is the well-known result of Sha and Yang \[SY\] which, in dimension 5, implies that any $`k`$-fold connected sum of $`S^2\times S^3`$ admits a metric of positive Ricci curvature (an alternative proof using methods similar to this note was given in \[BGN2\]). Using Barden’s notation, there exists positive Ricci curvature metrics on $`M=M_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\#}\stackrel{k}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\#}M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for any $`k1`$. Now, $`X_0S^5`$ and the symmetric metric has constant curvature. Furthermore, $`X_{\mathrm{}}`$ admits a metric of positive Ricci curvature because of its bundle structure \[Na\]. Remarkably, when the torsion in $`H_2(M^5,\mathrm{})`$ is non-trivial we know of just one example, namely $`X_1`$ where $`H_2(X_1,\mathrm{})=\mathrm{}_2`$. However, our knowledge of this rational homology sphere is due to the special circumstance that it is the symmetric space $`SU(3)/SO(3)`$ which is known to admit a metric of positive Ricci curvature. Indeed, the standard metric on this compact symmetric space happens to be a positive Einstein metric \[Bes\]. On the other hand there are no known obstructions to the existence of positive Ricci curvature metrics on any of the manifolds in Barden’s classification. This poses a natural

Question: Which smooth simply connected closed 5-manifolds admit metrics of positive Ricci curvature?

We do not propose to answer this question here in its full generality. Our purpose is to prove the existence of metrics with positive Ricci curvature on an infinite number of the indecomposable building blocks in Barden’s classification theorem by giving infinite families of simply connected rational homology 5-spheres $`M_{k_i}^5`$ admitting metrics with positive Ricci curvature. Our techniques use contact Riemannian geometry, more specifically Sasakian geometry. Thus, our examples are complementary to the homogeneous manifold $`X_1=SU(3)/SO(3)`$ whose second and third Stiefel-Whitney classes are both non-vanishing, and so it does not even admit an almost contact structure. In fact our method will not apply to any $`M`$ with $`i(M)0`$. Our examples are necessarily spin and, in this note, they are rational homology spheres. By Smale’s theorem \[Sm\] any rational homology 5-sphere $`M^5`$ with vanishing second Stiefel-Whitney class $`w_2`$ can be written uniquely as (for our purposes it is more convenient to rephrase Smale’s result in terms of elementary divisors instead of invariant factors as he does):

$$M^5=M_{p_1^{s_1}}^5\mathrm{\#}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\#}M_{p_r^{s_r}}^5$$
$`(1)`$
for some positive integers $`r,s_1,\mathrm{},s_r`$ where the $`p_i`$’s are (not necessarily distinct) primes, and $`H_2(M_{p_i^{s_i}}^5,\mathrm{})=\mathrm{}_{p_i^{s_i}}\mathrm{}_{p_i^{s_i}}.`$ A result of Geiges \[Gei\] says that any simply connected rational homology 5-sphere that admits a contact structure must be spin and thus a Smale manifold of the type given by equation (1). In \[Gei\] it was shown that a simply connected 5-manifold admits a contact structure if and only if its integral third Stiefel-Whitney class vanishes. Hence, from Barden’s theorem, the $`M_{j;k_1,\mathrm{},k_s}`$ admits a contact structure if and only if $`j=0`$ or $`1.`$

Our main result is the following existence theorem:

Theorem A: For every integer $`k>1`$, there exists a simply connected rational homology 5-sphere $`M_k^5`$ such that $`H_2(M_k^5,\mathrm{})`$ has order $`k^2`$, $`i(M_k^5)=0,`$ and $`M_k^5`$ admits a Sasakian metric with positive Ricci curvature.

Our construction gives all possible orders of $`H_2,`$ but it does not pin down the group precisely in all cases. However, the form of $`H_2`$ given by Smale’s theorem says that the elementary divisors of $`H_2`$ must occur in pairs. Thus, when all of the primes $`p_i`$ in equation (1) are distinct and all of the $`s_i`$’s equal $`1`$, the order of $`H_2`$ uniquely determines the manifold. For example, if $`|H_2(M^5,\mathrm{})|=36,`$ the elementary divisors must be $`\{2,2,3,3\}.`$ This determines $`M^5`$ to be $`M_2^5\mathrm{\#}M_3^5.`$ However, if for example, $`|H_2(M^5,\mathrm{})|=64`$ the elementary divisors can be $`\{2^3,2^3\},\{2,2,2^2,2^2\},`$ or $`\{2,2,2,2,2,2\},`$ giving the possibilities for $`M^5`$ as $`M_{2^3}^5,M_2^5\mathrm{\#}M_{2^2}^5,`$ or $`M_2^5\mathrm{\#}M_2^5\mathrm{\#}M_2^5.`$ In this case we are unable to determine which manifolds occur. Thus, we stop short of proving that all simply connected rational homology 5-spheres with $`i(M)=0`$ admit metrics with positive Ricci curvature, although we certainly believe this to be the case.

However, in cases when the order determines the group we have the following corollary

Corollary B: For every positive integer $`r`$ and every list of distinct primes $`p_1,\mathrm{},p_r,`$ the manifolds

$$M^5=M_{p_1}^5\mathrm{\#}\mathrm{}\mathrm{\#}M_{p_r}^5$$

admits Sasakian metrics with positive Ricci curvature.

In the absence of known obstructions the question asked above is an intriguing one. Since we are using methods of contact Riemannian geometry to prove Theorem A we do not have any new ideas how to obtain such metrics on manifolds with non-vanishing $`i(M)`$ such as for, for examples, the rational homology 5-spheres $`X_j`$, $`1j<\mathrm{}`$. Now, $`X_{\mathrm{}}`$ is actually a contact, even a Sasakian manifold, but it is not a positive Sasakian manifold as positivity implies spin \[BGN2\] and $`X_{\mathrm{}}`$ is not spin. As already mentioned, it follows from a theorem of Nash \[Na\] that $`X_{\mathrm{}}`$ does have a metric of positive Ricci curvature, but it cannot be Sasakian.

On the other hand, we believe that in the spin case one should be able to extend Theorem A to many other cases. First it is reasonable that actually all spin rational homology 5-spheres can be realized as links with positive Sasakian structure. The main problem in proving this is that we do not know how to compute the torsion group in all cases when it is not determined by its order. One could also try to obtain examples of links $`M`$ when $`H_2(M,\mathrm{})`$ has both free part and torsion. Regarding this there is a conjectured algorithm due to Orlik \[Or3\] which has been verified in certain special cases, and we plan to address this question in the future. Another approach would be to use surgery, assuming that one has the existence of positive Ricci curvature metrics on the indecomposable pieces $`M_k`$. However, apparently the only known method, e.g. \[SY\], entails finding 2-spheres in $`M_k`$ such that the metric in a neighborhood of the $`S^2`$ is in standard form \[St\], and this appears to be obstructed by the 2-torsion.

1. Positive Sasakian Geometry

Let $`(M,J)`$ is a compact complex manifold and $`g`$ a Kähler metric on $`M`$, with Kähler form M. Suppose that $`\rho ^{}`$ is a real, closed $`(1,1)`$-form on $`M`$ with $`[\rho ^{}]=2\pi c_1(M)`$. Then there exists a unique Kähler metric $`g^{}`$ on $`M`$ with Kähler form $`\omega ^{}`$, such that $`[\omega ]=[\omega ^{}]H^2(M,\mathrm{})`$, and the Ricci form of $`g^{}`$ is $`\rho ^{}`$. The above statement is the celebrated Calabi Conjecture which was posed by Eugene Calabi in 1954. The conjecture in its full generality was eventually proved by Yau in 1976. In the Fano case when $`c_1(M)>0`$, i.e., when the first Chern class can be represented by a positive-definite real, closed $`(1,1)`$-form $`\rho ^{}`$ on $`M`$, the conjecture implies that the Kähler form of $`M`$ can be represented by a metric of positive Ricci curvature. The key idea behind the proof of Theorem A is based on a more general Calabi Problem when $`M`$ is not necessarily a smooth manifold but rather a $`V`$-manifold or an orbifold \[DK, Joy\]. In the contex of foliations one actually can prove a “transverse Yau theorem” and this was done by El Kacimi-Alaoui in 1990 \[ElK\]. In \[BGN2\] we adapted this to a very special case of Sasakian foliations.

Recall \[Bl, YK\] that a Sasakian structure on a manifold $`M`$ of dimension $`2n+1`$ is a metric contact structure $`(\xi ,\eta ,\mathrm{\Phi },g)`$ such that the Reeb vector field $`\xi `$ is a Killing field and whose underlying almost CR structure is integrable. Briefly, let $`(M,𝒟)`$ be a contact manifold, and choose a 1-form $`\eta `$ so that $`\eta (d\eta )^n0`$ and $`𝒟=\mathrm{ker}\eta .`$ The pair $`(𝒟,\omega )`$, where $`\omega `$ is the restriction of $`d\eta `$ to $`𝒟`$ gives $`𝒟`$ the structure of a symplectic vector bundle. Choose an almost complex structure $`J`$ on $`𝒟`$ that is compatible with $`\omega ,`$ that is $`J`$ is a smooth section of the endomorphism bundle $`\text{End}𝒟`$ that satisfies

$$J^2=\mathrm{𝕀},d\eta (JX,JY)=d\eta (X,Y),d\eta (X,JX)>0$$
$`1.1`$
for any smooth sections $`X,Y`$ of $`𝒟.`$ Notice that $`J`$ defines a Riemannian metric $`g_𝒟`$ on $`𝒟`$ by setting $`g_𝒟(X,Y)=d\eta (X,JY).`$ One easily checks that $`g_𝒟`$ satisfies the compatibility condition $`g_𝒟(JX,JY)=g_𝒟(X,Y).`$ Now we can extend $`J`$ to an endomorphism $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ on all of $`TM`$ by putting $`\mathrm{\Phi }=J`$ on $`𝒟`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }\xi =0.`$ Likewise we can extend the metric $`g_𝒟`$ on $`𝒟`$ to a Riemannian metric $`g`$ on $`M`$ by setting

$$g=g_𝒟+\eta \eta .$$
$`1.2`$
The quadruple $`(\xi ,\eta ,\mathrm{\Phi },g)`$ is called a metric contact structure on $`M.`$ If in addition $`\xi `$ is a Killing vector field and the almost complex structure $`J`$ on $`𝒟`$ is integrable the underlying almost contact structure is said to be normal and $`(\xi ,\eta ,\mathrm{\Phi },g)`$ is called a Sasakian structure. The fiduciary examples of compact Sasakian manifolds are the odd dimensional spheres $`S^{2n+1}`$ with the standard contact structure and standard round metric $`g.`$

Every Sasakian structure $`𝒮=(\xi ,\eta ,\mathrm{\Phi },g)`$ has a 1-dimensional foliation $`_\xi `$ associated to it, defined by the flow of the Reeb vector field $`\xi `$ and called the characteristic foliation. Associated with this foliation are important invariants, namely, the basic cohomology groups $`H_B^p(_\xi ),`$ (cf. \[Ton\]) and in particular one can consider the basic first Chern class $`c_1(_\xi )`$ \[ElK, BGN2\] as an element in $`H_B^2(_\xi ).`$ These are not only invariants of the Sasakian structure, but of the entire deformation class of Sasakian structures. Notice that on a compact Sasakian manifold $`H_B^2(_\xi )0`$ since $`[d\eta ]_B`$ is a non-vanishing class.

Definition 1.3: A Sasakian manifold $`M`$ is said to be positive if its basic first Chern class $`c_1(_\xi )`$ can be represented by a basic positive definite $`(1,1)`$-form.

As in \[BGN2, BGN4\] we consider deformation classes $`\text{F}(_\xi )`$ of Sasakian structures that have the same characteristic foliation. Recall that two Sasakian structures $`𝒮=(\xi ,\eta ,\mathrm{\Phi },g)`$ and $`𝒮^{}=(\xi ^{},\eta ^{},\mathrm{\Phi }^{},g^{})`$ in $`\text{F}(_\xi )`$ on a smooth manifold $`M`$ are said to be $`a`$-homologous if there is an $`a\mathrm{}^+`$ such that $`\xi ^{}=a^1\xi `$ and $`[d\eta ^{}]_B=a[d\eta ]_B.`$ On a rational homology sphere every $`𝒮\text{F}(_\xi )`$ belongs to precisely one of two $`a`$-homology classes corresponding to a given Sasakian structure or its conjugate. In \[BGN2\] we proved, using El-Kacimi-Alaoui’s \[ElK\] “transverse Yau Theorem”,

Theorem 1.4 \[BGN2\]: Let $`𝒮=(\xi ,\eta ,\mathrm{\Phi },g)`$ be a positive Sasakian structure on a compact manifold $`M`$ of dimension $`2n+1.`$ Then $`M`$ admits a Sasakian structure $`𝒮^{}=(\xi ^{},\eta ^{},\mathrm{\Phi }^{},g^{})`$ with positive Ricci curvature $`a`$-homologous to $`𝒮`$ for some $`a>0.`$

Theorem 1.4 says that to prove the existence of a Sasakian metric with positive Ricci curvature it suffices to prove the existence of positive Sasakian structures. In the next section we shall discuss how to construct positive Sasakian structures on homotopy 5-spheres, and prove Theorem A of the Introduction.

2. The Construction

Our 5-manifolds are constructed as $`k`$-fold branched covers of $`S^5`$ branched over certain Seifert manifolds that are in turn $`S^1`$ orbifold V-bundles over a compact Riemann surface of genus $`g.`$ Our construction is similar to that in \[Sav\]. Let $`f_3(z_1,z_2,z_3)`$ be a weighted homogeneous polynomial of an isolated hypersurface singularity in $`\mathrm{}^3`$ with weights $`𝐰=(w_1,w_2,w_3)`$ and degree $`d.`$ The link $`L_𝐰`$ defined by $`L_𝐰=\{f_3=0\}S^5`$ is a Seifert fibration over an algebraic curve $`C_𝐰`$ in the weighted projective space $`\mathrm{}(𝐰).`$ Let $`g=g(𝐰)`$ denote the genus of the curve $`C_𝐰.`$ Then,

Proposition 2.1: Let $`L_f`$ denote the link of the weighted homogeneous polynomial

$$f=z_0^k+f_3(z_1,z_2,z_3)$$

with weights $`(d,k𝐰)`$ where $`k`$ is an integer $`>1`$ where $`f_3`$ is a weighted homogeneous polynomial of degree $`d`$ with weights $`𝐰=(w_1,w_2,w_3)`$ as above. Suppose further that $`\mathrm{gcd}(d,k)=1.`$ Then the link $`L_f`$ is a smooth simply connected rational homology 5-sphere such that the order of $`H_2(L_f,\mathrm{})`$ is $`k^{2g}.`$ Furthermore, $`L_f`$ admits Sasakian metrics with positive Ricci curvature.

Proof: Let us briefly recall the construction of the Alexander (characteristic) polynomial $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3(t)`$ in \[MO\] associated to a 3-dimensional link $`L_{f_3}.`$ It is the characteristic polynomial of the monodromy map $`\mathrm{𝕀}h_{}:H_2(F,\mathrm{})H_2(F,\mathrm{})`$ induced by the $`S_𝐰^1`$ action on the Milnor fibre $`F.`$ Thus, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3(t)=det(t\mathrm{𝕀}h_{}).`$ Now both $`F`$ and its closure $`\overline{F}`$ are homotopy equivalent to a bouquet of $`3`$-spheres, and the boundary of $`\overline{F}`$ is the link $`L_{f_3}.`$ Now $`L_{f_3}`$ is connected and its Betti numbers $`b_1(L_{f_3})=b_2(L_{f_3})`$ equal the number of factors of $`(t1)`$ in $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3(t).`$ Now since the curve $`C_𝐰`$ is algebraic, $`b_1(L_{f_3})=2g`$ where $`g`$ is the genus of $`C_𝐰.`$ Following Milnor and Orlik we let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_j`$ denote the divisor of $`t^j1`$ in the group ring $`\mathrm{}[\mathrm{}^{}].`$ Then the divisor of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3(t)`$ is given by

$$\text{div}\mathrm{\Delta }_3=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}(\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{u_i}}{v_i}1)$$
$`(2.2)`$
where we write $`\frac{d}{w_i}=\frac{u_i}{v_i}`$ in irreducible form. Using the relations $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_a\mathrm{\Lambda }_b=\mathrm{gcd}(a,b)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{lcm(a,b)},`$ equation equation 1 takes the form $`a_j\mathrm{\Lambda }_j1,`$ where $`a_j\mathrm{}`$ and the sum is taken over the set of all least common multiples of all combinations of the $`u_1,\mathrm{},u_n.`$ The Alexander polynomial is then given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_3(t)=(t1)^1\underset{j}{}(t^j1)^{a_j},$$
$`(2.3)`$
and

$$b_1(L_{f_3})=2g=\underset{j}{}a_j1.$$
$`(2.4)`$
Now we compute the divisor $`\text{div}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the Alexander polynomial $`\mathrm{\Delta }_4(t)`$ for $`f.`$ We have

$$\text{div}\mathrm{\Delta }=(\mathrm{\Lambda }_k1)\text{div}\mathrm{\Delta }_f=(\mathrm{\Lambda }_k1)\left(a_j\mathrm{\Lambda }_j1\right)$$

$$=\underset{j}{}\mathrm{gcd}(k,j)a_j\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\text{lcm}(k,j)}\underset{j}{}a_j\mathrm{\Lambda }_j\mathrm{\Lambda }_k+1.$$

Since the $`j`$’s run through all the least common multiples of the set $`\{u_1,\mathrm{},u_n\}`$ and $`\mathrm{gcd}(k,u_i)=1`$ for all $`i,`$ we see that for all $`j,`$ $`\mathrm{gcd}(k,j)=1.`$ This implies

$$b_2(L_f)=\underset{j}{}a_j\underset{j}{}a_j1+1=0.$$

Thus, $`L_f`$ is a rational homology sphere. Next we compute the Alexander polynomial for $`L_f.`$

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_4(t)=\frac{(t1)}{(t^k1)}\underset{j}{}\frac{(t^{kj}1)^{a_j}}{(t^j1)^{a_j}}$$

$$=(t^{k1}+\mathrm{}+t+1)^1\underset{j}{}\left(\frac{t^{kj1}+\mathrm{}+t+1}{t^{j1}+\mathrm{}+t+1}\right)^{a_j}.$$
$`(2.5)`$
This gives

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_4(1)=k^1\underset{j}{}\left(\frac{kj}{j}\right)^{a_j}=k^{\mathrm{\Sigma }_ja_j1}=k^{2g}.$$

So by \[MO\] the order of $`H_2(L_f,\mathrm{})`$ is $`\mathrm{\Delta }_4(1)=k^{2g}.`$

To finish the proof it suffices by Theorem 1.4 to show that the induced Sasakian structure on $`L_f`$ is positive, i.e. that the basic first Chern class $`c_1(_\xi )H_B^2(_\xi )`$ is positive. Now from our previous work \[BG1-2,BGN1-4\] $`L_f`$ is the total space of a V-bundle over a Kähler orbifold $`𝒵_f.`$ Moreover, $`c_1(_\xi )`$ is just $`c_1(𝒵_f)`$ pulled back to $`L_f.`$ Thus, it is enough to prove that $`𝒵_f`$ is Fano. This follows from Lemma 2.6 below which is a special case of Lemma 3.12 of \[BGN4\].

Lemma 2.6: As algebraic varieties $`𝒵_f`$ is isomorphic to the weighted projective space $`\mathrm{}(𝐰).`$ Hence, its Fano index is $`|𝐰|=_iw_i>0.`$

This concludes the proof of Proposition 2.1.

Next we want to show that every order of $`H_2`$ can be realized. First we show that $`f_3`$ realizes curves of any genus. In fact there is a formula due to Orlik and Wagreich \[OW\] for the genus of the curve $`C_𝐰`$ which generalizes the well known genus formula for curves in $`\mathrm{}^2`$ (See also the books \[Dim, Or1\]). It is

$$g(C_𝐰)=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{d^2}{w_1w_2w_3}d\underset{i<j}{}\frac{\mathrm{gcd}(w_i,w_j)}{w_iw_j}+\underset{i}{}\frac{\mathrm{gcd}(d,w_i)}{w_i}1\right).$$
$`2.7`$
We are interested in the case $`g>0`$ which implies $`w_1+w_2+w_3d`$ \[Or2\]. It is easy to see that there are quasi-smooth weighted homogeneous polynomials $`f_3`$ with arbitrary genus, but we claim that genus one will suffice to realize all rational homology spheres of the form given in our main theorem.

Proposition 2.8: For every integer $`k>1`$, there exists a rational homology 5-sphere $`M_k^5`$ whose second homology group $`H_2(M_k^5,\mathrm{})`$ has order $`k^2`$ and that can be realized as the link $`L_f`$ of a weighted homogeneous polynomial $`f`$ given in Proposition 2.1 where $`f_3`$ cuts out a projective curve of genus one. Furthermore if $`k`$ has the form $`k=p_1\mathrm{}p_r`$ for distinct primes $`p_i,`$ the manifold $`M_k^5`$ is uniquely determined up to diffeomorphism.

Proof: By Smale’s classification theorem \[Sm\] and Proposition 2.1 it suffices to exhibit for each integer $`k>1`$ an infinite family of weighted homogeneous polynomials $`f_3`$ of prime degree $`p`$ with $`g(C_𝐰)=1.`$ For then for a given $`k`$ we can choose $`p`$ such that $`\mathrm{gcd}(k,p)=1.`$ The infinite family of polynomials is given by

$$f_p(z_1,z_2,z_3)=z_1^p+z_2^2z_3+z_3^2z_1$$

with weights $`𝐰=(1,\frac{p+1}{4},\frac{p1}{2})`$ and degree $`p`$ where $`p`$ is a prime of the form $`p=4l1.`$ It is well known that there are an infinite number of such primes. The genus formula then gives

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill g=& \frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{8p^2}{p^21}p(\frac{4}{p+1}+\frac{2}{p1}+\frac{8}{p^21})+1+\frac{4}{p+1}+\frac{2}{p1}1\right)\hfill \\ \hfill =& \frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{p^21}(2p^26p+6p2)=1,\hfill \end{array}$$

where we have used the fact that $`\mathrm{gcd}(\frac{p+1}{4},\frac{p1}{2})=\mathrm{gcd}(l,2l1)=1,`$ and this proves the first statement. The second statement follows from the classification of finite Abelian groups and Smale’s classification theorem \[Sm\].

Remarks 2.7:

(1) In the case that $`k=p_1\mathrm{}p_r`$ for distinct primes $`p_i,`$ the links cannot be realized using curves of higher genus $`(g>1).`$

(2) It is still an open question as to whether all simply connected rational homology 5-spheres can be realized by our methods, and if so how does one distinguish the different elementary divisors. The curves of higher genus should play a role here.

(3) For each $`k>1`$ there are an infinite number of $`p`$’s that satisfy $`\mathrm{gcd}(k,p)=1.`$ This gives rise to an infinite number of Sasakian deformation classes $`\text{F}(_\xi )`$ each with Sasakian metrics of positive Ricci curvature. It is also quite plausable that the different deformation classes belong to distinct underlying contact structures, but we have not proven this last statement.

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank Stephan Stolz and Wolfgang Ziller for fruitful discussions. The second author would also like to than Max-Planck-Institut in Bonn for hospitality and support.

Bibliography

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Department of Mathematics and Statistics February 2002  University of New Mexico   Albuquerque, NM 87131   email: cboyer@math.unm.edu, galicki@math.unm.edu   web pages: http://www.math.unm.edu/$`\stackrel{~}{}`$cboyer, http://www.math.unm.edu/$`\stackrel{~}{}`$galicki


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# Comment on ”Phonon Spectrum and Dynamical Stability of a Dilute Quantum Degenerate Bose-Fermi Mixture

In a Letter, Pu et al  studied the phonon spectrum of a dilute Bose-Fermi Mixture. They claimed that there is a dynamical instability of the system for certain parameter regimes. They based their conclusion on an analysis of the dispersion relation of the phonons, their eq (14), and conclude that an instability arises if process shown in their Fig. 1 can occur. Their claim is incorrect. The process in their Fig. 1 represents in fact Landau damping  of the collective mode but not an instablity of the system. The process depicted over there absorbs energy from the sound wave. (c.f., ref )

Their eq (14) has actually been derived and studied before . The effect of Landau damping on the mode propagation has been analyzed over there.

S. K. Yip

Institute of Physics,
Academia Sinica,
Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan

PACS numbers: 03.75.Fi, 05.30.Fk, 67.40.Db

Email address: yip@phys.sinica.edu.tw