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# Ground-state phase diagram of a half-filled one-dimensional extended Hubbard model

## Abstract

The density-matrix renormalization group is used to study the phase diagram of the one-dimensional half-filled Hubbard model with on-site ($`U`$) and nearest-neighbor ($`V`$) repulsion, and hopping $`t`$. A critical line $`V_c(U)U/2`$ separates a Mott insulating phase from a charge-density-wave phase. The formation of bound charge excitations for $`V>2t`$ changes the phase transition from continuous to first order at a tricritical point $`U_t3.7t,V_t=2t`$. A frustrating effective antiferromagnetic spin coupling induces a bond-order-wave phase on the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ for $`U_t<U7t`$.

The properties of quasi-one-dimensional materials have been extensively studied in recent years kiess ; bourbonnais ; kishida . These materials exhibit rich phase diagrams and display unusual optical properties due to the combination of reduced dimensionality and strong electronic correlations. Consequently, much effort has been devoted to understanding the ground-state and optical properties of theoretical one-dimensional correlated electron systems such as the half-filled Hubbard model with on-site ($`U`$) and nearest-neighbor ($`V`$) repulsion and hopping term $`t`$. Nevertheless, the ground state phase diagram of this model is still controversial hirsch ; cannon ; peter ; kampf ; nakamura ; tsuchiizu ; sengupta . It is known hirsch  that the system is a Mott insulator for $`U2V`$ and a charge density wave (CDW) insulator for $`U2V`$. The quantum phase transition is continuous at weak coupling ($`U,Vt`$) and first order at strong coupling ($`U,Vt`$). Numerically hirsch ; cannon ; sengupta , one finds that the order of the transition changes at a tricritical point ($`U_t,V_t`$) with $`V_t/t1.52.5`$, but this feature is not well understood. Recently, it has been proposed nakamura ; tsuchiizu ; sengupta  that a bond-order-wave (BOW) phase exists between the Mott and CDW phases up to the tricritical point. Concurrently, the optical properties of this model have been determined in the Mott insulating phase florian ; shuai ; controzzi ; fabian ; eric . In particular, it has been found that the lowest optical excitations consist of a pair of independent charge excitations for $`V2t`$, while they are bound states for $`V>2t`$. Surprisingly, the remarkable proximity of the tricritical point to the boundary between bound and free charge excitations has not been noticed until now.

Here I investigate the ground-state phase diagram of the half-filled one-dimensional extended Hubbard model in the repulsive regime using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG) steve . I show that the nature of the low-lying charge excitations determines the order of the transition and the position of the tricritical point. A BOW phase is found only at intermediate coupling on the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ between Mott and CDW phases.

The model is defined by the Hamiltonian

$`\widehat{H}`$ $`=`$ $`t{\displaystyle \underset{l;\sigma }{}}\left(\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }^+\widehat{c}_{l+1,\sigma }+\widehat{c}_{l+1,\sigma }^+\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }\right)`$ (1)
$`+U{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}\left(\widehat{n}_{l,}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)\left(\widehat{n}_{l,}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right)`$
$`+V{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}(\widehat{n}_l1)(\widehat{n}_{l+1}1).`$
Here $`\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }^+`$, $`\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }`$ are creation and annihilation operators for electrons with spin $`\sigma =,`$ at site $`l=1,\mathrm{},N,\widehat{n}_{l,\sigma }=\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }^+\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }`$, and $`\widehat{n}_l=\widehat{n}_{l,}+\widehat{n}_{l,}`$. I exclusively consider systems with an even number $`N`$ of sites. At half filling the number of electrons equals $`N`$. The interaction is repulsive $`UV0`$. The Hamiltonian (1) has a particle-hole symmetry and a spatial reflection symmetry. Thus, each eigenstate has a well-defined parity under charge conjugation ($`P_c=\pm 1`$) and belongs to one of the two irreducible representations, $`A_g`$ or $`B_u`$, of the reflection symmetry group. The ground state belongs to the symmetry subspace $`A_g^+(A_g,P_c)`$ and optically excited states belong to the symmetry subspace $`B_u^{}(B_u,P_c)`$ because the current operator is antisymmetric under charge conjugation and spatial reflection fabian .

DMRG steve  is known to be a very accurate numerical method for one-dimensional quantum systems with short-range interactions such as the Hamiltonian (1). Here I use the finite-system DMRG algorithm to calculate eigenenergies and static properties at low-energy. Spin gaps $`E_s=E_0(N,1)E_0(N,0)`$ and single-particle charge gaps $`E_c=2[E_0(N+1,1/2)E_0(N,0)]`$ are derived from the ground state energies $`E_0(N_e,S_z)`$ for a given number of electron $`N_e`$ and a given spin $`S_z`$. I also use a symmetrized DMRG ramasesha ; eric  method to calculate the energy and static properties of the lowest eigenstates in the $`B_u^{}`$ symmetry subspace.

All DMRG methods have a truncation error which is reduced by increasing the number $`m`$ of density-matrix eigenstates kept in the renormalization procedure steve . To achieve a greater accuracy and to obtain error estimates I extrapolate DMRG results to the limit of vanishing discarded weight $`P_m`$. For eigenenergies DMRG errors vanish linearly with $`P_m`$, while for other quantities DMRG errors usually scale as $`(P_m)^\alpha `$ with $`0<\alpha 1`$. The largest number of density-matrix eigenstates used in this work is $`m=1200`$ and truncation errors are negligible for all results presented here. DMRG calculations have always been carried out for several sizes $`N`$ in order to check finite-size effects and, if necessary, results have been extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit $`N\mathrm{}`$. The largest system size used in this work is $`N=1024`$.

For $`VU/2`$ the model (1) describes a Mott insulator. \[This phase is often called a spin-density-wave (SDW) phase because antiferromagnetic spin correlations decay algebraically in the ground state.\] There is no broken symmetry and the ground state is nondegenerate. The charge gap $`E_c`$ is finite but the spin gap $`E_s`$ vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. In this Mott insulating phase the lowest eigenstate in the $`B_u^{}`$ symmetry sector always contributes to the optical spectrum. Therefore, the difference between the $`B_u^{}`$ and $`A_g^+`$ ground-state energies corresponds to the optical gap $`E_{\text{opt}}`$. For $`VU/2`$ the system is in a long-range ordered CDW phase with a doubly degenerate ground state in the thermodynamic limit. In this phase both charge and spin gaps are finite. The CDW order parameter $`0<|m_e|1`$ gives the amplitude of the ground-state density modulation $`\widehat{n}_l=1+(1)^lm_e`$. Such a CDW breaks the charge-conjugation symmetry and the spatial reflection symmetry. Thus one of the two degenerate ground states belongs to the $`A_g^+`$ symmetry subspace and the other one to the $`B_u^{}`$ subspace. Obviously, this consideration shows that the low-energy $`B_u^{}`$ excitations in the Mott phase play an important role in the Mott-CDW transition.

The transition from the CDW phase to the Mott phase can be investigated with DMRG as done previously for the CDW-metal transition in the Holstein model eric3 . More precisely, I have investigated the lowest eigenstates to determine the ground-state degeneracy and symmetry, and I have calculated the electronic staggered susceptibility to check if the ground state has long-range CDW order. Some results for the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ determined with this approach are given in Table 1. These results agree quantitatively with recent quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations sengupta  and the Gaussian transition line in Ref. nakamura, , although the interpretation of this phase boundary is completely different (see below). These values are also in good agreement with strong-coupling perturbation theory peter  down to $`U=6t`$ and the results of early numerical simulations cannon ; hirsch . This confirms the accuracy of the present approach and I will not elaborate further on the location of this boundary.

To determine the order of the transition on the critical line $`V_c(U)`$, one can examine the derivatives of the ground-state energy per site with respect to the interaction parameters $`U`$ and $`V`$. Using the Hellmann-Feynman theorem one shows that the derivatives are given (up to known constants) by ground-state expectation values of the double occupancy and nearest-neighbor density-density operators, respectively. These expectation values can be calculated accurately with DMRG. Figure 1 shows the average ground-state double occupancy

$$d=\frac{1}{N}\underset{l}{}\widehat{n}_l\widehat{n}_l$$
(2)
versus $`V`$ close to the critical coupling $`V_c(U)`$. For $`U=40t`$, $`d`$ jumps from almost zero to slightly less than $`0.5`$ at $`V_c`$ and thus the transition is clearly first order, while it is continuous for $`U=2t`$. For $`U=6t`$ the derivative of $`d`$ with respect to $`V`$ evolves into a $`\delta `$-function at $`V=V_c`$ as the system size $`N`$ increases. Therefore, $`d`$ is discontinuous at $`V_c(U)`$ and the transition is also first order for $`U=6t`$. With this method I have found that the transition at $`V_c(U)`$ is first order from the strong-coupling limit ($`U,Vt`$) down to at least $`U=4t(V_c2.15t)`$ and is continuous from the weak-coupling limit ($`U,Vt`$) up to at least $`U=3.5t(V_c1.9t)`$.

An investigation of the low-lying charge excitations in the Mott insulating phase allows us to understand the existence of a tricritical point and to determine its position. Figure 2 shows the evolution of the charge gap $`E_c`$ and the optical gap $`E_{\text{opt}}`$ for three different couplings $`U`$. I have always found that the charge gap $`E_c`$ varies continuously and goes through a minimum at $`V_c(U)`$ as $`V`$ is increased for fixed $`U`$. For weak coupling ($`U3t`$) the gap vanishes smoothly on the critical line. For stronger coupling ($`U4`$) the slope of $`E_c`$ with respect to $`V`$ becomes very large and is discontinuous at $`V_c`$. In this regime the charge gap remains finite at the transition (see Table 1).

In a Mott insulator, elementary charge excitations can be understood as spinless bosons in Hubbard bands. Excited states in the $`B_u^{}`$ subspace always consist of an even number of such elementary excitations with zero total charge florian ; controzzi ; fabian . DMRG calculations combined with analytical methods fabian ; eric  reveal their properties. For $`V2t`$ the low-energy $`B_u^{}`$ excited states consist of two independent elementary charge excitations and the optical gap equals the charge gap in the thermodynamic limit. For $`V>2t`$, however, the lowest $`B_u^{}`$ excitations are bound states starting at an energy $`E_{\text{opt}}<E_c`$ (see Fig. 2). Just above $`2t`$ they are excitons made of two elementary charge excitations. Close to the critical line $`V_c(U)U/2`$ they become finite-size “droplets” of the CDW phase, (i.e., a bound state of several elementary charge excitations). The excitation energy $`E_{\text{opt}}`$ of the lowest CDW droplet remains finite at the transition $`V_c(U)`$ at least for $`U5`$ (see also Fig. 2). CDW droplet sizes increase sharply as $`V`$ approaches the critical coupling $`V_c(U)`$ for fixed $`U`$ and reach a finite value $`\xi _c`$ at the critical line. This critical droplet size $`\xi _c`$ diverges for $`U\mathrm{}`$ but tends to 2 (corresponding to an exciton) if $`V_c`$ approaches $`2t`$.

Combining all results, one discerns two distinct regimes in the Mott phase as the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ is approached. If $`V_c2t`$, the transition is continuous, the $`B_u^{}`$ excitations are made of free charge excitations and become gapless at $`V_c`$. If $`V_c>2t`$, the transition is first order, the low-lying $`B_u^{}`$ excitations are bound states and remain gapped at $`V_c`$. Therefore, I believe that the tricritical point is precisely located at the intersection of the $`V=2t`$ boundary with the quantum critical line $`V_c(U)U/2`$, i.e., at $`U_t3.7t,V_t=2t`$.

Adapting Hirsch’s analysis hirsch , one can now qualitatively explain why the transition from the Mott to the CDW phase changes from first order to continuous. If $`V_c(U)>2t`$, CDW droplets with sizes $`\xi \xi _c`$ are energetically favored when $`V`$ becomes larger than $`V_c(U)`$, and the system tunnels to the CDW phase by nucleation. On the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ the creation energy $`E_{\text{opt}}`$ and critical size $`\xi _c`$ of the lowest CDW droplet diminishes with $`U`$. At $`V_c=2t`$, CDW droplets (with sizes $`\xi 2`$) become instable and split into independent gapless elementary charge excitations. For $`V_c(U)2t`$, it is then advantageous to create many such excitations as $`V`$ is increased above $`V_c(U)`$ and the transition becomes continuous.

In the field theory approach to the lattice model (1) the limit between free and bound charge excitations corresponds to a parameter $`K_\rho =1/2`$ for a half-filled system controzzi ; fabian . Field-theoretical predictions for the low-energy optical spectrum agree perfectly with dynamical DMRG calculations fabian ; eric . Thus the tricritical point probably corresponds to $`K_\rho =1/2`$. In Ref. sengupta, , it has also been found that $`K_\rho `$ is close to $`1/2`$ in this region.

Recently, Nakamura nakamura  has proposed that a narrow region with long-range BOW order exists between the CDW phase and the Mott phase at weak to intermediate coupling. The BOW region vanishes at the tricritical point, beyond which there is a direct first-order transition from the Mott phase to the CDW phase. In this scenario the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ calculated above would correspond to the BOW-CDW phase boundary for $`U<U_t`$. The existence of long-range BOW order in the critical region has been confirmed by QMC simulations sengupta .

In a BOW phase the ground state is two-fold degenerate and both charge and spin gaps are finite. A long-range ordered BOW corresponds to a finite staggered bond order

$$\frac{1}{2}\underset{\sigma }{}\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }^+\widehat{c}_{l+1,\sigma }+\widehat{c}_{l+1,\sigma }^+\widehat{c}_{l,\sigma }=p_0+(1)^l\delta $$
(3)
with $`\delta 0`$ in the thermodynamic limit. To distinguish the BOW phase from the Mott phase I have calculated the spin gap $`E_s`$ and the bond order parameter $`\delta `$ using DMRG. After extrapolation to vanishing truncation errors $`P_m`$ and to the thermodynamic limit $`N\mathrm{}`$, this approach gives spin gaps with an accuracy of $`10^3t`$ or better and allows one to detect a bond order alternation as small as $`|\delta |=0.01`$. (It appears numerically that $`\delta `$ either vanishes as $`1/\sqrt{N}`$ or tends to a finite value with finite-size corrections scaling as $`1/N`$.) I have found a BOW ground state only in a very narrow region adjacent to the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ for intermediate coupling $`4tU6t`$. For $`U=4t`$ and $`V=2.14t`$, I have obtained $`\delta =0.08`$ in quantitative agreement with QMC simulations sengupta . However, the BOW phase extends to significantly stronger coupling than reported in Ref sengupta, . For instance, there is a BOW ground state with $`\delta 0.12`$ for $`U=6t`$ and $`V=3.145t`$. I have not observed any BOW ground state at weak coupling ($`U3t`$), at strong coupling ($`U8t`$), and for $`VU/2`$. Actually, as BOW ground states are found only within $`0.02t`$ of the critical line $`V_c(U)`$, I believe that the BOW phase exists only on this critical line for intermediate coupling $`U`$ starting from the tricritical point $`U_t3.7t`$ up to a upper limit which is smaller than $`8t`$. Field theory kampf  also suggests that a BOW phase can occur only on the boundary between CDW and Mott phases in the model (1). Even in the Hartree-Fock approximation, one finds a BOW phase only on the critical line $`U=2V`$ between a SDW phase and a CDW phase dionys .

The occurrence of the BOW phase on the critical line for $`U8t`$ can be understood as the result of increasing frustration in the spin degrees of freedom. On this critical line, low-energy charge excitations are dispersionless and thus ineffective in a degenerate CDW-Mott ground state. A strong-coupling expansion up to 4th order in $`t/U`$ shows that the spin properties are determined by an effective Heisenberg Hamiltonian with nearest- ($`J_1`$) and next-nearest-neighbor ($`J_2`$) antiferromagnetic exchange couplings peter . This strong-coupling perturbation analysis gives accurate results for the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ (and thus is expected to be valid) down to $`U=6t`$. The ratio $`J_2/J_1`$ is strongly enhanced by the nearest-neighbor repulsion $`V`$. It is known robert ; steve2  that the frustration due to the $`J_2`$ coupling causes a quantum phase transition from a “spin-liquid” ground state for $`4J_2J_1`$ to a dimerized spin ground state for $`4J_2J_1`$ in the Heisenberg model. On the critical line $`V_c(U)`$ of the extended Hubbard model, this corresponds to the appearance of a BOW phase (driven by the spin dimerization) for $`U7t`$, in agreement with my DMRG results, if one uses the values of $`J_1`$ and $`J_2`$ given by the 4th-order perturbation expansion peter . Away from the critical line \[$`V<V_c(U)`$\], one observes only algebraically decreasing BOW correlations because charge fluctuations, which are no longer dispersionless, destroy the local spin moments and thus prevent any long-range spin order.

Figure 3 shows the phase diagram found with DMRG. This phase diagram disproves recent speculations about an extended BOW phase from weak coupling up to the tricritical point nakamura ; sengupta ; tsuchiizu  but is compatible with the results of most previous investigations of this problem (see Refs. hirsch,  to kampf,  and references therein).

In summary, I have studied the ground-state phase diagram of the one-dimensional half-filled extended Hubbard model for $`U,V>0`$ using DMRG. I have shown that the phase diagram is determined by 3 mechanisms: First, the competition between the on-site ($`U`$) and nearest-neighbor ($`V`$) repulsion is responsible for a quantum critical transition from a Mott to a CDW ground state at $`VU/2`$. Second, the competition between the hopping term $`t`$ and the nearest-neighbor repulsion $`V`$ is responsible for the transformation of free charge excitations into bound states (CDW droplets) at $`V=2t`$ in the Mott phase and thus changes the Mott-CDW transition from continuous to first order. Third, a frustrating effective antiferromagnetic spin coupling leads to a dimerized spin ground state (and thus to a BOW phase) on the Mott-CDW critical line at intermediate coupling.


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# References

Over the last decade or so, important insight into the behaviour of neutrinos has been gained from a number of important experiments. We now have strong evidence for three neutrino anomalies:

* $`\nu _\mu `$ disappearance: Super-Kamiokande has established that the number of up-going contained $`\nu _\mu `$ events is approximately half that of the down-going events, while there is no discernible up-down asymmetry in the $`\nu _e`$-induced signal. These data can be explained by maximal oscillation of $`\nu _\mu `$ into another species that cannot be $`\nu _e`$. Results from Soudan II support this conclusion.
* SNO has now measured both the charged-current (CC) and neutral current (NC) solar neutrino rates, finding the flux ratio $`\varphi ^{NC}/\varphi ^{CC}=2.9\pm 0.4`$. These measurements are consistent with other solar neutrino experiments, and suggest large mixing angle333Although the small-angle MSW solution is disfavoured by the apparently undistorted nature of the 8B neutrino spectrum, the overall $`\chi _{min}^2`$ of $`99.9`$ for $`78`$ degrees of freedom, implies a C.L. of $`4.8\%`$ , which is acceptable, so a small-angle solution is still possible. oscillations of $`\nu _e`$ into $`\nu _\mu `$ or $`\nu _\tau `$, with $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta \stackrel{>}{}0.7`$ and a range of possible $`\delta m^2`$. (If all solar neutrino results are taken at face value, then $`\delta m^210^4eV`$ is favoured. The SNO data on their own allow a wider range.)
* The LSND collaboration has obtained strong evidence for $`\overline{\nu }_\mu \overline{\nu }_e`$ oscillations via an appearance experiment. They find $`\delta m^21eV^2`$ and $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta 10^2`$.

If we assume that no light neutrinos exist beyond the known $`\nu _e,\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ active flavours, then one is led to the embarrassing conclusion that at least one piece of evidence must be discarded since all three neutrino anomalies cannot be reconciled. It is usually assumed that the LSND anomaly is due to an unidentified error rather than oscillations, with the solar and atmospheric neutrino anomalies then used as evidence for a close-to bi-maximal mixing pattern amongst the three active neutrinos. Unfortunately, no compelling theoretical explanation for a bi-maximal-like pattern has emerged. On the other hand, there are simple schemes, including mirror symmetry and pseudo-Dirac structure, that can explain the existence of two-flavour maximal mixing. Furthermore, the mirror symmetry idea actually predicts the existence of light effectively sterile neutrinos, so it is worth taking the possible existence of such additional species seriously.

It is quite possible that the three neutrino anomalies are all explained by oscillations. If this is the case, then it is interesting that we are led to an essentially unique picture: LSND implies small angle $`\nu _e\nu _\mu `$ with $`\delta m^21eV^2`$, SNO and the other solar neutrino experiments then suggest that $`\nu _e`$ oscillates into $`\nu _\tau `$ with $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta \stackrel{>}{}0.7`$, for a range of $`\delta m^2`$. This leaves atmospheric $`\nu _\mu `$ disappearance to be explained by approximately (or indeed exactly) maximal $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$ oscillations. We formalise these observations by proposing the following hypothesis: The fundamental theory of neutrino mixing, whatever it is, features (i) large (or even maximal) $`\nu _\mu `$-$`\nu _s`$ mixing, (ii) small-angle active-active mixing except for the $`\nu _e`$-$`\nu _\tau `$ channel which is large.

Interestingly, this scheme has not been considered previously in the literature, perhaps because the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric data prefer the $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ channel in comparison with the $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$ possibility. However, what really needs to be done to examine our hypothesis is not to compare the $`\chi _{min}^2`$ of the $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$ solution with the $`\chi _{min}^2`$ of the $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ solution, but rather, to compute the allowed C.L. of the $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$ hypothesis and check whether the goodness-of-fit is reasonable. When this is done, the $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$ solution is found to be reasonable, being only mildly disfavoured, at the $`1.53\sigma `$ level, depending on how the data are analysed. For example, a recent Super-Kamiokande global fit for $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$ oscillations has found a $`\chi _{min}^2`$ of $`222.7`$ for $`190`$ degrees of freedom. This corresponds to an allowed C.L. of 5.5%, that is, it is only mildly disfavoured at about the $`2\sigma `$ level.

There are two possibilities for the mass hierarchy: either $`\nu _e,\nu _\tau `$ are $`\sqrt{\delta m_{LSND}^2}1eV`$ heavier than $`\nu _\mu ,\nu _s`$ or vice-versa. If the $`\nu _e,\nu _\tau `$ pair is heavier, then it might put the $`\nu _e`$ mass, assuming it is Majorana, in the range accessible to neutrinoless double beta decay experiments.444However, if the large-angle between $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ is due to an approximate pseudo-Dirac character, then neutrinoless double beta decay may occur too slowly to be seen.

In the nearer future, the two most important tests will come from the MiniBooNE experiment and the long baseline experiments MINOS and CNGS. MiniBooNE has been designed to check the oscillation explanation of the LSND result, and with it the indirect evidence for a light sterile flavour. Through NC or $`\tau `$-appearance measurements, the up-coming long baseline experiments hope to discriminate between the $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ and $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$ channels used to resolve the atmospheric anomaly. This will provide a terrestrial check of the Super-Kamiokande result that the $`\nu _\tau `$ possibility is favoured.

On the theoretical front, note that this four-neutrino phenomenological scheme can be embedded into interesting six-neutrino theories, such as provided by the mirror matter model. Recall that this theory predicts that each ordinary neutrino, $`\nu _\alpha `$ where $`\alpha =e,\mu ,\tau `$, is maximally mixed with an effectively sterile mirror partner $`\nu _\alpha ^{}`$. The interfamily mixing pattern, the absolute mass scales, and the $`\nu _\alpha \nu _\alpha ^{}`$ mass splittings are all free parameters. The ordinary-mirror neutrino sector will reduce to the above four-neutrino scenario if the oscillation lengths of the $`\nu _e\nu _e^{}`$ and $`\nu _\tau \nu _\tau ^{}`$ modes are greater than the Earth-Sun distance at solar neutrino energies. (It might be possible to relax this assumption, but further work needs to be done.) The importance of this possible theoretical basis for the scheme is twofold. First, the presence of a light effectively sterile neutrino (the $`\nu _\mu ^{}`$) is explained, because mirror neutrinos are light for exactly the same reason that ordinary neutrinos are light (whatever that reason might be). Second, the atmospheric mixing is predicted to be exactly pairwise maximal, unlike the $`\nu _e\nu _\tau `$ mixing angle which could be just accidentally large. These features can also be more stringently tested in the future. For example, the Japan Hadron Facility to Super-Kamiokande superbeam proposal cites an experimental precision of about 0.01 on the atmospheric $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta `$ as achievable . KAMLAND may soon provide more information on the solar mixing angle.

In summary, the most important features of the three neutrinos anomalies – solar, atmospheric and LSND – can be explained through large angle $`\nu _e\nu _\tau `$, exactly or approximately maximal $`\nu _\mu \nu _s`$, and small angle $`\nu _e\nu _\mu `$ oscillations, respectively. The new information from SNO, when combined with the LSND result, suggests that the solar channel is predominantly $`\nu _\tau `$. Important aspects of this scenario will be tested soon by MiniBooNE and the long baseline experiments. When embedded within the mirror matter model, an important difference between the large solar and the large atmospheric mixing angles emerges: the former is large for possibly accidental reasons, while the latter is rigorously maximal for theoretical reasons. Future precision measurements of $`\nu _\mu `$ disappearance in superbeam experiments will test that possibility further.


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# The X-ray jet and halo of PKS 0521-365

## 1 Introduction

It has been suggested (e.g., Antonucci & Ulvestad 1985; Ulrich 1989; Urry & Padovani 1995) that BL Lac objects are “unified” with FR I radio galaxies (FRIRGs), so that the only difference between BL Lac objects and FRIRGs is their orientation relative to the observer’s line of sight. Thus BL Lac objects are supposed to be viewed from a direction close to the nuclear jet, whose Doppler-boosted emission dominates the appearance of the object at radio to $`\gamma `$-ray energies. FRIRGs are supposed to be viewed from a direction outside the nuclear jet, so that the nucleus is faint relative to the outer radio structure, the optical galaxy, and the unbeamed X-ray emission.

This idea has been tested through comparisons of BL Lac and FRIRG number densities, extended (and hence isotropic) radio luminosities and morphologies, and the optical luminosities and morphologies of the underlying galaxies (Morris et al. 1991; Perlman & Stocke 1993; Pesce, Falomo & Treves 1996). Tests based on X-ray properties, which are intrinsically among the most interesting since strong X-ray emission is a defining feature of BL Lac objects, have fitted the distribution of X-ray luminosity to a theoretical function based on some beaming factor and beam opening angle, using either the total X-ray luminosity (e.g., Padovani & Urry 1990) or the core X-ray luminosity, after any extended X-ray emission has been removed (Canosa 2000; Hardcastle et al. 2001).

Another possible X-ray test of the identification of BL Lac objects as beamed FRIRGs can be made based on the association of FRIRGs with strong X-ray emission from galaxy-to-group scale gas distributions (Worrall & Birkinshaw 1994, 2000). Since this emission is thermal and extended, it must radiate isotropically, and therefore should appear with similar properties around BL Lac objects and FRIRGs. A clear difference between the extended X-ray emissions near BL Lacs and FRIRGs would constitute evidence against a strong unification hypothesis.

This test is difficult because the extended X-ray emission has low contrast relative to the BL Lac’s unresolved active galactic nucleus (AGN). Wings on the point response function (PRF) of the X-ray optics and detector used to observe a BL Lac are therefore likely to exceed the brightness of the extended emission. Nevertheless, Hardcastle, Worrall & Birkinshaw (1999), using the ROSAT HRI, reported a halo of resolved emission around the AGN in the low-redshift ($`z=0.05534`$; Keel 1985) BL Lac PKS 0521$``$365. Although PKS 0521$``$365 had a low X-ray flux during this observation, the halo was only detectable above the wings on the HRI’s PRF over a small range of angles. The inferred halo luminosity, of $`L_\mathrm{X}(0.21.9\mathrm{keV})8\times 10^{35}\mathrm{W}`$, was far higher than the values $`10^{35}\mathrm{W}`$ typical of the FRIRGs in the B2 sample of Worrall & Birkinshaw (1994). Since the core radius of the PKS 0521$``$365 X-ray halo was found to be only 8 arcsec (12 kpc for $`H_0=50\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{kpc}^1`$, $`q_0=0`$, as assumed throughout this paper), the hot gas appeared to be confined near the host galaxy, rather than being associated with the group of galaxies in which PKS 0521$``$365 lies, as is more usual for FRIRGs..

At this luminosity the cooling time of gas in the X-ray halo is less than $`3\times 10^8`$ yr, so that a halo of this size and luminosity would be expected to be participating in a rapid cooling flow, with an estimated infall rate $`>20\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{year}^1`$. The ROSAT HRI data could not measure the temperature of the gas, or say whether the extended halo had the structure of a cooling flow near the AGN.

For these reasons, we obtained an imaging observation of PKS 0521$``$365 with the Chandra ACIS-S. We anticipated that this would provide detailed structural and spectral information on the various components of the source, including the ROSAT-detected halo.

Chandra has shown that X-ray jets are relatively common in low-power radio galaxies (Worrall, Birkinshaw & Hardcastle 2001). Such jets are best interpreted as synchrotron emission from a high-energy continuation of the same electron spectrum responsible for the radio output. Thus if BL Lac objects are simply FRIRGs seen in projection, we might expect to see the same X-radiation from the jets as is seen in radio galaxies, with a similar X-ray to radio power ratio. However, this requires that the observation has enough angular resolution to measure a foreshortened jet feature close to the Doppler-enhanced X-ray core. PKS 0521$``$365 is known to exhibit a radio/optical jet on arcsecond scales (Keel 1986; Macchetto et al. 1991) which connects to an inner VLBI jet on milliarcsec scales (Tingay et al. 1996), and so the arcsec jet might be resolvable from the bright core by Chandra.

Our observation of PKS 0521$``$365, made early in the Chandra mission, successfully detected and studied the halo, and found X-radiation associated with both the $`1.5`$ arcsec-scale inner jet of the BL Lac and the hotspot of its radio structure. In this paper we describe these Chandra results, and their interpretation in terms of emission mechanisms and unified schemes for BL Lac objects.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 X-ray observations

The Chandra observation of PKS 0521$``$365 was made on 31 December 1999. The telescope was pointed so that the source was located near the aim-point of the back-illuminated CCD chip S3 of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS). Unfortunately, at this early stage of the mission the standard offsets placed PKS 0521$``$365 close to the boundary between two readout nodes of the S3 chip, so that the source moved between regions of the chip with somewhat different responses, and the dead region between them, as the pointing direction of the observatory was dithered by about 20 arcsec.

Since PKS 0521$``$365 was expected to produce a high X-ray count rate, in excess of 1 count $`\mathrm{s}^1`$, the observation was made with the minimum permitted ACIS frame time (0.4 sec). To achieve this it was necessary to observe with a small window on the CCD. This window was 128 pixels (each of $`0.492`$ arcsec on a side) wide, and 1024 pixels long, and at the roll of the satellite during these observations ($`340^{}\text{.}4`$), the long axis of the viewing window lies in position angle $`70^{}`$

Even with the reduced frame time, there is a significant chance that several photons will be received from the core of PKS 0521$``$365 in a single CCD pixel within a single integration. This “pileup” effect leads to a distortion of the spectrum of the core and a reduction in the count rate relative to the true incoming rate. Another consequence of pileup is that the image of the core differs from the images of fainter, unresolved, sources, in the sense of appearing somewhat extended and flat-topped. Finally, because the count rate is high, there is a significant probability that the CCD will record photons from the source while the data are being clocked to the readout registers. This causes faint “readout streaks”, which appear in position angles $`20^{}`$ and $`200^{}`$ from the core of the source for the $`70^{}`$ roll of these data.

The data were provided to us in a variety of processing states: the analysis reported here was performed on data processed using pipeline software version R4CU5UPD11.1, and used software from the CIAO v2.0.2. After screening out periods of high background, the original exposure of 9122 sec (live time, from an on-source time of 9870 sec) was reduced to 7776 sec of live time.

An image was made from the events file by restricting the apparent photon energies to the relatively well-calibrated range $`0.37.0`$ keV, and corrections were made for the effective area of the instrument and the exposure. At the same time, the data were reprocessed to remove the anti-aliasing pixel randomization included in the standard pipeline, to produce an image with the best possible angular resolution, and were resampled onto a pixel scale one fifth that of the ACIS-S pixels ($`0.0984`$ arcsec). The resulting image is shown in Fig. 1. Clearly visible in this image is the bright concentration of counts at the core of the AGN, an asymmetric excess of counts associated with the brightest feature in the radio jet to the north-west (at J2000 coordinates RA $`05^\mathrm{h}22^\mathrm{m}57^\mathrm{s}\text{.}86`$, Dec $`36^{}27^{}30^{\prime \prime }\text{.}1`$), and a radial gradient in the count density from the AGN. An excess of counts is also be associated with the bright hotspot of the radio structure, to the south-west of the source.

Spectral analyses were performed using the CIAO SHERPA package, after calculating the response matrices in the standard fashion. Although the matrices used for fitting were appropriate for only one of the readout nodes of the ACIS-S3 chip (the node on which most of the counts lie), tests using matrices calculated for the other readout node showed no significant differences from the results presented here. Fits were performed only in the relatively well-calibrated energy range $`0.37.0\mathrm{keV}`$, and only after the counts had been binned such that there were 20 or more counts in each energy bin.

A radial profile centred on the core of PKS 0521$``$365 was extracted from the subsampled, $`0.37.0`$ keV image, and analysed in the manner described in Worrall et al. (2001), using an averaged point response function based on the CIAO PRF library and the spectra of several similar sources. This radial profile (shown in Fig. 3) is expected to be a poor representation of the true source structure near the core because of pileup: fits to the profile therefore ignored the central 1.2 arcsec diameter circle. In addition, the profile was constructed after omitting the jet region and the readout streaks. The final profile contains only about a third of the detected counts within a radius of 23.5 arcsec.

### 2.2 Radio observations

To complement these X-ray data, we mapped PKS 0521$``$365 using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in its 6D configuration on 4 and 5 April 2000, giving baselines from 77 to 5878 m. Data were obtained at 1.384, 2.496, 4.800, and 8.640 GHz with 128 MHz bandwidth subdivided into 32 channels (of which 16 are independent and only 13 are useful). 10-second integrations were used at all bands. Observations of PKS 0521$``$365 were calibrated for amplitude against the standard southern calibrator PKS 1934$``$638, and PKS 0537-441 was used as the local phase calibrator.

All six antennas of the ATCA were available for most of the observation, although difficulties with the correlator caused some $`uv`$ coverage to be lost, and some of the data were taken in bad weather, so that the phase stability was sometimes poor. Phase calibrations were made every 15 minutes to compensate for the unstable conditions, but after basic calibration and data-editing using MIRIAD, a lengthy process of self-calibration (in AIPS) was needed to correct the phases and improve the images. Only a small fraction of the data were lost because of bad amplitudes, interference, or phase jumps. Residual phase errors limit the dynamic range of the final image to about $`10^4`$.

Fig. 1 shows contours of the 8.6-GHz, 1-arcsec resolution radio map of PKS 0521$``$365 superimposed on an image of the 0.3-7.0 keV X-ray counts derived from our Chandra ACIS-S data. The radio map shows an unresolved component at the core of PKS 0521$``$365, a clear jet to the north-west dominated by a knot about 1.5 arcsec from the core, and a compact hotspot to the south-east. A Gaussian fit to the hotspot measures a FWHM of 0.4 arcsec. This result will be important in Sec. 3.4.

Much low-surface-brightness emission does not appear on Fig. 1 at these contour levels, but is revealed on a lower-resolution map of PKS 0521$``$365, made with our ATCA 2.5-GHz data, and shown in Fig. 2. The diffuse, extended, radio emission associated with the source is seen to surround the radio core and the hotspot to the south-east. Only a slight extension of the radio core to the north-west betrays the presence of the radio jet.

The distorted radio morphology of PKS 0521$``$365 evident in these maps is characteristic of radio-selected BL Lac objects, but PKS 0521$``$365 is somewhat unusual in showing the bright jet typical of FR I radio galaxies to the north-west combined with a hotspot, typical of FR II radio galaxies, to the south-east. FR II-like and FR I-like extended radio morphologies are about equally common in radio-selected BL Lac objects (Rector & Stocke 2001). It is not implausible, therefore, that a BL Lac should show a mixed-morphology radio structure, which may be related to the structures of radio galaxies with luminosities near the FR I/FR II break (Gopal Krishna & Wiita 2000).

## 3 Analysis

### 3.1 The core

The X-ray image of PKS 0521$``$365 in Fig. 1 is dominated by a strong core component, responsible for $`1.01\pm 0.02\mathrm{count}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in a 2-arcsec diameter circle. At this count rate the core is strongly piled up, and individual counts frequently correspond to the combined energies of two or three photons that arrived during a single frame. Nevertheless a spectrum was extracted and a spectral fit was attempted, using counts from a region 2.2 arcsec in diameter about the centre of the core and the standard choice of event grades (ASCA grades 0, 2, 3, 4, and 6). The effects of pileup in the resulting spectrum (Fig. 4) are clear from the shallowness of the Ir edge (at about 2 keV) introduced by the mirror coatings. This edge feature is suppressed by the pileup of the high-count 1 keV photons, which correspondingly are depleted in the observed spectrum.

No CIAO task exists to correct for pileup at present, and therefore fits to the core spectrum will be subject to a systematic error in the sense of underestimating the core flux density at low energies and underestimating the spectral index of the core, $`\alpha `$ (defined in the sense that the flux density $`S_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$). In addition, this early observation was pointed so that the core lies on the junction of two readout nodes of the ACIS-S3 chip. In such a location, it is difficult accurately to estimate the response matrix appropriate for the analysis of the spectrum, and a further systematic error is possible.

Nevertheless, some indication of the properties of the core X-radiation can be deduced from the X-ray spectrum. A fair fit to the data is obtained by fitting to an absorbed power-law spectrum (Fig. 4). The best-fitting spectrum has a spectral index $`\alpha =0.34\pm 0.03`$ (corresponding to a photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\alpha +1=1.34`$), consistent with the spectral index found by Garilli & Maccagni (1990) using EXOSAT, but flatter than the value $`\alpha =0.93\pm 0.03`$ reported by Hardcastle et al. (1999) based on the ROSAT PSPC data. The effects of pileup and inadequate calibration of the response matrix may cause a systematic error of about $`0.1`$ on the measured power-law index. The corresponding best-fit 1 keV photon flux density, $`(1.03\pm 0.02)\times 10^3\mathrm{photons}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{keV}^1\mathrm{s}^1`$ ($`0.68\pm 0.01\mathrm{mJy}`$), is likely to be a serious underestimate (and, indeed, is a factor $`3`$ below the flux density measured by the ROSAT PSPC). If account is taken of the Galactic column towards PKS 0521$``$365 ($`N_\mathrm{H}=3.37\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$; Elvis, Wilkes & Lockman 1989), no absorbing column associated with the AGN is required in this fit (Fig. 5): the $`2\sigma `$ upper limit is $`N_\mathrm{H}<8\times 10^{19}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Pileup and calibration uncertainties affect the shape of the core spectrum below the peak, but an intrinsic absorbing column significantly larger than this limit would strongly affect the cut-off energy in Fig. 4, so that we believe that the limit on $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ quoted above is reliable, and indicates that we are observing the core emission free from an absorbing column as large as found towards the cores of FRIRGs.

No correction for background was needed in making these spectral fits: a nearby background region with the same area as the source extraction region contained only 4 counts (about 3 of which arise from the wings of the response from the core), compared with the 7900 counts in the spectrum shown in Fig. 4.

### 3.2 The jet

A close examination of the structure of the X-ray emission from the jet knot (knot A in the notation of Scarpa et al. 1999) appears to show an elongated structure with its long axis lying in position angle $`(7\pm 2)^{}`$. This is roughly perpendicular to the local ridge-line of the radio jet (see Fig. 6), and differs significantly from the position angles of the chip pixelization. The elongation may therefore be real despite appearing exceptionally narrow, and potentially being subject to dither effects and aliasing in the ACIS pixel assignments. Similar narrow, jet-crossing, features have been seen in other radio jets (e.g., 3C 66B; Hardcastle, Birkinshaw & Worrall 2001b), and tend to lie just core-wards of bright jet radio knots.

The emission from this X-ray knot is clearly contaminated by counts from the wings of the response to the AGN. 334 counts at energy $`<10\mathrm{keV}`$ are found from knot A, where the counts were extracted from a circular region with diameter 2.2 arcsec centred on the knot. A similar extraction region on the opposite side of the core was used for background, since it was expected to be equally contaminated by counts from the wings of the core. This background region contains 92 counts. Neither the jet knot nor the background region show count rates high enough that pileup is a problem. Thus about a quarter of the counts from the region centred on the jet knot can be attributed to contamination from the core, or emission from the thermal halo. After correcting for this background, we find that the knot is detected by Chandra at $`0.031\pm 0.003\mathrm{count}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in $`0.37.0`$ keV.

The spectrum extracted from the jet region including background from the core and thermal halo is shown in Fig. 7. Sufficient counts exist for meaningful fits only in the energy range $`0.34.4`$ keV. The fits were performed using SHERPA’s ability to fit source and background simultaneously. The jet emission was modelled as a power-law, absorbed by the Galactic column and a possible excess at the redshift of PKS 0521$``$365. The background was modelled as a simple power-law (found to have a similar photon index to that of the jet knot; Fig. 7), which was expected to be a good representation of the superposition of the peripheral counts from the core of the the AGN and the thermal halo.

The best fit (shown in Fig. 7) involves an intrinsic absorbing column of $`1.7\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, but this is not significant (Fig. 8). If the additional column is set to zero, as suggested by the fit to the core spectrum, the jet energy spectral index changes from $`1.41\pm 0.57`$ to $`1.25\pm 0.30`$ ($`1\sigma `$ errors with one interesting parameter). The significant change in the error on the spectral index arises from the strong correlation between the fitted power-law index and the poorly-constrained absorbing column (Fig. 8). The value of $`\chi ^2`$ at the best fit ($`13.9`$, with 23 degrees of freedom) is only slightly less than the value with no absorbing column ($`\chi ^2=14.0`$, with 24 degrees of freedom). None of the other fitted parameters vary by more than 10 per cent of their errors if it is assumed that there is no intrinsic absorbing column at PKS 0521$``$365.

The 1-keV flux density of the jet knot, from the best fit without intrinsic absorption, is $`14\pm 3\mathrm{nJy}`$, which corresponds to an $`0.22.4`$ keV luminosity of $`1.0\times 10^{35}\mathrm{W}`$ if the emission is isotropic. The spectral energy distribution of this knot is shown in Fig. 9, where flux densities (given in Table 1) are for a nominal 2.2-arcsec diameter aperture centred on the X-ray knot. The solid line drawn on Fig. 9 is calculated as the synchrotron emission from a population of electrons with a broken power-law energy distribution.

On Fig. 9 the radio spectrum appears steeper by about $`0.2`$ than the model, which has a radio spectral index of $`0.58`$ (corresponding to an electron energy index $`p=2.16`$), probably because of a contribution to the lower-frequency flux densities from steeper-spectrum emission from the halo. The X-ray spectrum is significantly steeper, with $`\alpha 1.25`$. This extrapolates back to a good match to the R-band optical flux measured by Scarpa et al. (1999), and implies that the spectrum must break by $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 0.7`$ in the infra-red. For the equipartition magnetic field strength of $`16\mathrm{nT}`$ (estimated assuming that the knot is moving non-relativistically, has an angular diameter of $`0.5\mathrm{arcsec}`$, is completely filled by magnetic fields and relativistic electrons of energies $`>150\mathrm{MeV}`$, and that there is a negligible contribution to the total energy from protons), this break lies at an electron energy of about $`200\mathrm{GeV}`$.

The amplitude $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 0.7`$ of the break in the spectrum corresponds to a change in electron energy power-law index $`\mathrm{\Delta }p1.4`$. Such a large break is unexpected from simple synchrotron ageing arguments, and suggests that there is a change in efficiency of the electron acceleration process at about $`200\mathrm{GeV}`$. In the shape of the inferred electron energy distribution and the value of the equipartition magnetic field, this knot is very similar to that in 3C 66B.

Also plotted on Fig. 9 are the expected levels of inverse-Compton emission from the electrons scattering the microwave background radiation and the jet’s own synchrotron emission, assuming that the population of electrons in the jet is given by equipartition arguments. The turndown in the predicted inverse-Compton emission from scattering the microwave background radiation occurs because of the assumed lower energy limit of $`150\mathrm{MeV}`$ for the electron population. Neither scattering process can be responsible for as much as $`10^3`$ of the X-ray emission seen under the assumption that the jet is non-relativistic.

If the jet speed is highly relativistic, then the level of inverse-Compton emission from scattering the microwave background is higher than modelled in Fig. 9, with a Lorentz factor $`30`$ being sufficient to produce the observed X-ray brightness. However, even in this case the predicted spectrum would be too flat to match the steep X-ray spectrum measured by Chandra unless there is a substantial population of low-energy electrons (which must emit radio synchrotron radiation only at frequencies below $`5\mathrm{GHz}`$). An additional photon source, for example beamed emission from the nucleus, can also add extra inverse-Compton X-ray emission, but again the predicted spectrum would be a poor match to the data unless a low-energy electron population is present.

Thus, since the X-ray spectrum produced by inverse-Compton X-ray emission would have $`\alpha 0.6`$ (the same spectral index as the source photons, which are upscattered principally from the radio and mm-wave bands), while the observed spectrum has $`\alpha =1.25\pm 0.30`$, we conclude that the jet X-ray emission in PKS 0521$``$365 arises from synchrotron radiation, as it does in FRIRGs (Hardcastle et al. 2001b; Worrall et al. 2001). The appearance of the spectral energy distribution from PKS 0521$``$365 (Fig. 9) also strongly resembles that seen in FRIRGs.

### 3.3 The halo

Hardcastle et al.’s (1999) analysis of the ROSAT HRI data implied a bright X-ray halo about PKS 0521$``$365. At the best-fit halo brightness, and assuming that the temperature of gas responsible for the halo is $`1\mathrm{keV}`$ we would have expected Chandra to detect about 10 times as many counts from the halo in Fig. 1 as were found in the ROSAT image. However, the radial profile (Fig. 3) shows a much fainter level of emission. At 10 arcsec from the core, where the excess above the PRF wings is strongest, the halo contributes about $`5\times 10^5\mathrm{count}\mathrm{arcsec}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. The earlier fits to the ROSAT HRI data showed a best-fit brightness at 10 arcsec of about $`2\times 10^5\mathrm{HRI}\mathrm{count}\mathrm{arcsec}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$, which would suggest an ACIS brightness of $`2\times 10^4\mathrm{count}\mathrm{arcsec}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$, four times brighter than the halo that appears in Fig. 3.

However, the error on the brightness of the halo derived from the HRI image analysis was considerable, since excess counts above those expected for a bright point source were seen only in the angular range $`1030`$ arcsec, with the wings dominating further out and the core response dominating close in. If a slightly altered HRI point response function (based on more recent calibrations than were available at the time of the Hardcastle et al. analysis) is used, the best fit changes dramatically, from $`\beta =0.90`$ to $`0.66`$, core radius $`8`$ to $`3.6`$ arcsec, and halo brightness at 10 arcsec of $`2\times 10^5`$ to $`5\times 10^5\mathrm{HRI}\mathrm{count}\mathrm{arcsec}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. While these results are even less consistent with the Chandra data, the strong change in the fit based on a small variation in the HRI calibration indicates that large systematic errors are possible in the HRI-derived halo parameters. Furthermore, when account is taken of the range of models allowed by the HRI data, the error on the 10-arcsec count rate is about 50 per cent.

If the radial profile in Fig. 3 is fitted using a standard point response for the core, and the central region is excluded because of the misfit anticipated because of pileup, it is found that the best-fitting $`\beta `$ model halo has structural parameters $`\beta =0.90`$ and core radius $`9.3`$ arcsec, strikingly similar to the values found by Hardcastle et al. (1999). Adopting the new Chandra normalization of the halo, however, has the effect of reducing the halo brightness by about an order of magnitude from the value reported based on the ROSAT data: the implied total X-ray emission from the halo of about $`0.065\mathrm{count}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in $`0.37.0\mathrm{keV}`$, corresponds to a bolometric X-ray luminosity $`L_\mathrm{X}3\times 10^{35}\mathrm{W}`$ (using a temperature of $`1.5\mathrm{keV}`$ for the halo gas), or $`2\times 10^{35}\mathrm{W}`$ in the $`0.21.9\mathrm{keV}`$ band, about a factor $`4`$ fainter than was measured by ROSAT (Hardcastle et al. 1999).

A spectral analysis of the halo was attempted by extracting the counts from a region between 5 and 20 arcsec from the core, excluding the readout streaks, and background from 20 to 27 arcsec from the core. The halo extraction region contains 554 counts, while the background region contains 212 counts of which about 27 (based on the best-fitting structural model) arise from the outer halo. Roughly 40 counts in the halo region arise from the wings of the response to the AGN. This complicated situation was dealt with by making a simultaneous fit to the halo and background spectra, with the background represented by two power-law spectra: a flat component that models the particle background, and a steep component that models the soft X-ray background. This representation of the background is consistent with the spectra seen in other regions of the S3 chip. A good fit (Fig. 10) is found with the halo emission arising from a (Raymond-Smith) thermal plasma with temperature $`k_\mathrm{B}T=1.6_{0.4}^{+1.5}\mathrm{keV}`$, abundance $`0.05_{0.05}^{+0.25}`$ solar ($`1\sigma `$ errors with 2 interesting parameters, see Fig. 11), and 1-keV flux density $`130\pm 20\mathrm{nJy}`$. No additional absorbing column is needed. A thermal spectrum for the halo, with $`\chi ^2=13.3`$ and 35 degrees of freedom, is superior to a power-law fit ($`\chi ^2=16.5`$ with 36 degrees of freedom). Adding a power-law component to the halo model, to correct for counts from the wings of the AGN’s PRF, has no significant effect on the goodness of fit or the best-fit parameters.

The halo temperature and luminosity are similar to the values seen from the atmospheres of FRIRGs and lie close to the correlation between these quantities described by Worrall & Birkinshaw (2000). Thus the properties of the halo of PKS 0521$``$365 are consistent with the unification hypothesis, that BL Lac sources and FRIRGs are from the same population seen at different orientations.

### 3.4 The hotspot

An excess of counts is seen within the 20 mJy contour of the radio map of Fig. 1. This is better represented in the convolved image of Fig. 12, where a clear X-ray peak is associated with the radio hotspot. We find 5 counts within 1 arcsec of the centre of the hotspot, while the local background implies that only 1 count would be expected by chance. This corresponds to a $`3\sigma `$ significant detection of the hotspot, although its flux, of about $`5\times 10^4\mathrm{count}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in $`0.37.0\mathrm{keV}`$, is poorly determined.

The corresponding 1 keV flux density of the hotspot is about 0.4 nJy. If we model it as an 0.4-arcsec diameter sphere (consistent with its extension on the 8.6-GHz ATCA map, Fig. 1), and assume it to be completely filled with a uniform magnetic field and a relativistic electron-proton plasma whose energetics are dominated by the electrons, then assuming equipartition and electron energy limits $`600\mathrm{MeV}400\mathrm{GeV}`$, the predicted synchrotron self-Compton X-ray flux density from the hotspot is about 0.2 nJy.

While the significance of the detection is low, the reasonable agreement between the observed and predicted X-ray count rates from the hotspot is consistent with the hotspot being close to equipartition between its population of relativistic electrons and magnetic energy. Inhomogeneities in the structure of the hotspot, the presence of electrons with different energy distributions, or small departures from equipartition are sufficient to match the observed X-ray flux density more closely. Similar results have now been seen in a number of other radio hotspots (e.g., 3C 123; Hardcastle, Birkinshaw & Worrall 2001a).

## 4 Conclusions

Our observation of PKS 0521$``$365 has confirmed the existence of an X-ray emitting halo around the AGN, but at a lower luminosity than suggested by the ROSAT HRI data. The brightness of the halo, as seen with Chandra is consistent with the halo brightnesses seen around FRIRGs, supporting the idea that this BL Lac is an FRIRG seen in a favourable orientation, and that BL Lac objects do not have unusual X-ray atmospheres.

The detection of an X-ray bright region near the radio knot in the jet, though initially surprising, is again consistent with recent Chandra results on FRIRGs. Indeed, the spectral energy distribution of emission from the knot strongly resembles that from the inner jet region of 3C 66B (Hardcastle et al. 2001b) or M 87 (Böhringer et al. 2001), and can be fitted well as synchrotron emission with a broken power-law spectrum. However, the break $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =0.7`$ that we infer in the spectrum is larger than the value $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =0.5`$ that would occur in a continuous-injection model for the relativistic electrons, and is also inconsistent with a single-injection aged spectrum, which would have an exponential cut-off above some maximum energy. The flattened appearance of the knot X-rays, their slight offset from the radio peak, and the analogy with FRIRGs, suggests that we are seeing evidence of energy-dependent electron acceleration.

There is evidence that X-rays are being detected from the hotspot of PKS 0521$``$365 at a level consistent with equipartition of relativistic electron and magnetic field energy densities in this structure. This is consistent with recent results for the hotspots in many FR II radio galaxies.

Further study of the intriguing emission structure in the radio jet demands better optical, near-IR, and sub-mm data to constrain the shape of the spectral energy distribution and confirm our inference about the location of the break, but could also benefit from a longer X-ray exposure to acquire better statistics on the shape of the emission region in the X-ray. A longer X-ray exposure would also check our tentative detection of the hotspot.

Clearly it would be of great interest to discover whether the results seen for PKS 0521$``$365, which suggest that it is a beamed radio galaxy as required by unification schemes, are common to a sample of BL Lac objects rather than a peculiarity of this single source. PKS 0521$``$365 is in some ways an unusual BL Lac. Its radio structure displays characteristics of both FR I and FR II sources oriented close to the line of sight. Although radio-selected (and hence a Radio BL Lac), it has been described as a flat-spectrum radio quasar on the basis that it has a spectral energy distribution peaking at high energies (like the X-ray selected BL Lac objects: more strictly, the high-energy peaked class rather than the low-energy peaked class) and a rather steep X-ray spectrum (Donato et al. 2001). Furthermore, its spectrum has both broad and narrow emission lines above a strong blue continuum, plus emission from the stellar component of the underlying elliptical galaxy (Danziger et al. 1979), and so has some resemblance to a low-power, flat radio-spectrum, quasar, although these emission lines are relatively weak and the overall appearance of the spectrum is very similar to that of the well-known BL Lac 3C 371 (Angel & Stockman 1980), in which Chandra has also mapped jet X-ray emission (Pesce et al. 2001). It is therefore important that more low-redshift BL Lac objects selected to cover a range of properties, be well-imaged by Chandra to see whether similar X-ray jets and halos can be found.

## Acknowledgments

MB and DMW are grateful to the staff of the ATCA for their assistance during the observing run. The Australia Telescope is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility, managed by CSIRO.


text:
# Effective Field Theoretical Approach to Black Hole Production

## Abstract

A field theoretical description of mini black hole production at TeV energies is given taking into account the quantization of black holes in discrete resonances. The unknown quantum gravitational effects are absorbed in effective couplings, black hole masses and the Hawking temperature. The evaporation is described in terms of thermal field theory.

Recently the possibility to produce mini black holes at TeV energies in the extra dimension scenario Giddings:2001bu  has been proposed. Up to now it remains controversial whether the semi-classical production cross section is exponentially suppressed Voloshin:2001vs  or not Dimopoulos:2001qe , but even if there is an exponential suppression the production of mini black holes at LHC should be still sizably large Rizzo:2002kb . A couple of semi-classical calculations have been performed to check the sensitivity of hadron colliders and neutrino telescopes to mini-black hole production Bleicher:2001kh . In this paper we would like to address the black hole production from an effective field theoretical ansatz, constructing an effective interaction Lagrangian and absorbing the unknown quantum physical effects in effective coupling, black hole mass and the Hawking temperature, hereby reproducing the semi-classical results in their proper limit. To make things more definite we would like to study the process: $`e^{}(l)+e^{}(l^{})\mathrm{bh}e^{}(k)+e^{}(k^{}).`$

The crucial point is that while the production of the black hole happens in the vacuum, its decay is a thermal evaporation. Production and decay are governed by the same coupling constant, but in the decay one electron is evaporated thermally and the other is left as a remnant. The $`e^{}e^{}`$ mode is a possible scenario for future next linear colliders like NLC at DESY or CLIC at CERN. We have chosen this process because the calculations are quite simple due to the reduced background (no strong interactions), but in principle the method is applicable to other processes e. g. involving hadron colliders as well.

This technique allows to handle the mini black hole as a particle, taking into account quantum physical effects like interference processes. The absorption of the unknown quantum gravity into couplings, masses etc. could be seen in parallel to what is done in e.g. effective meson field theory where the unknown collective effects of strong interaction are absorbed in form factors, effective couplings and masses as well.

The starting point of our consideration is the classical black hole thermodynamics because it yields an explicit expression for the Hawking temperature we are using at the end. In analogy to standard thermodynamics one can formulate three basic laws, see e. g. Traschen:1999zr :

* (zeroth law) The surface gravity $`\gamma `$ of a black hole is constant on the horizon.
* (first law) Given $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ the mass, $`A`$ the area, $`L`$ the angular momentum, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ the horizon angular velocity, $`Q`$ the charge and $`\nu `$ the electrostatic potential (being zero at infinity) of a black hole one has the energy relation Bardeen:gs :

$$\delta M_{\mathrm{bh}}=\frac{\gamma }{8\pi }\delta A+\mathrm{\Omega }\delta L\nu \delta Q=T_H\delta S+\mathrm{\Omega }\delta L\nu \delta Q.$$
(1)
* (second law) the area of a black hole is nondecreasing $`\delta A>0`$ Hawking:1971tu .

These laws suggest an identification between the horizon area of a black hole and its entropy Bekenstein:ur , which is given by $`S_{\mathrm{bh}}=A/4`$ Strominger:1996sh . Taking into account the fact that a black hole can evaporate due to the Hawking radiation Hawking:sw  one has to complete the area law by the entropy added by the particle ejected out of the black hole:

$$\delta S_{\mathrm{tot}}=\delta S_{\mathrm{outside}}+\frac{1}{4}\delta A0.$$
(2)
The different quantities of a black hole can be expressed solely by the angular momentum $`L`$, its charge $`Q`$ and its mass $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$. Introducing the rationalized area $`\alpha =A/(4\pi )`$ and the orbital angular momentum parameter $`\stackrel{}{a}=\stackrel{}{L}/M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ one obtains Bekenstein:ur :

$`\alpha `$ $`=`$ $`r_+^2+a^2=2M_{\mathrm{bh}}r_+Q^2,\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Omega }}={\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{}{a}}{\alpha }},`$
$`r_\pm `$ $`=`$ $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}\pm \sqrt{M_{\mathrm{bh}}^2Q^2a^2},\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{Qr_+}{\alpha }},`$
$`T_\mathrm{H}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{2\pi }}={\displaystyle \frac{(r_+r_{})}{4\pi \alpha }}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{A}}\sqrt{M_{\mathrm{bh}}^2Q^2a^2}.`$ (3)
The black hole is then interpreted as a black body radiator with Hawking temperature $`T_H`$.

In this paper we wish to treat the black hole as a particle. As such it should be quantized in mass. The mass quantization in the conventional four dimensions has been given in Ref. Beckenstein:1974ab :

$`M_{\mathrm{bh}n_bqj_z}^2`$ $`=`$ $`gM_P^2\left[n_b\left(1+\alpha _{\mathrm{em}}{\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{2n_b}}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{j_z^2}{n_b}}\right],`$ (4)
$`j_z^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\alpha _{\mathrm{em}}q^2n_b^2,`$
where $`M_P`$ is the Planck mass, q the charge quantum number $`j_z`$ the angular momentum quantum number. The quantum number $`n_b`$ takes the quantization of the black hole horizon surface into account and should not be confused with the number of $`n`$ extra dimensions used in later formulas. The pre-factor $`g`$ is controversial. In Ref. Beckenstein:1974ab  it was chosen to be $`g=1/2`$ as the smallest possible quantum unity. The area quantization has been treated in the framework of loop quantum gravity (LQG) for the spheric symmetrical problem, see e.g. DePietri:1996pj . For a special choice of the quantum numbers for the edges of the surface geometry one obtains $`g=\mathrm{ln}2/(2\pi )`$ Khriplovich:2001je  consistent with the result derived in Ashtekar:1997yu  in the framework of a Chern Simons field theory. Recently, requiring that the entropy of the black hole should be maximal a value of $`g=0.614/\pi `$ has been derived making use of the LQG result Khriplovich:2001je .

In the extra dimension scenario the fundamental Planck scale $`M_P`$ should be at TeV range Arkani-Hamed:1998rs , which correspondingly should result in a discrete spectrum for the black holes spaced in the order of TeV distances. In $`e^{}e^{}bhe^{}e^{}`$, where we should have a doubly charged black hole ($`q=2`$) we would arrive at the following term scheme, see Fig. 1.

The black hole quantization predicts that there is an isolated scalar black hole resonance at $`M_P\sqrt{g}`$. In the following we concentrate on this first scalar excitation and develop an effective field theory for it. In the calculation for the term scheme above we have set $`\alpha _{\mathrm{em}}=1/137`$. The running of the electro magnetic coupling in the conventional standard model as included e.g. in PYTHIA Sjostrand:2000wi  up to 10 TeV only makes a difference up to 12% which we have neglected here for simplicity, as the effect is not visible here. It would be a completely different story if also the GUT scale would be at considerable lower values, but as to a lack of a proper determination of such a scale we will not pursue this idea further here. It is our aim to develop a workable formalism which allows practical analysis for high-energy collider reactions. Interferences between the black hole production and decay and background processes described by conventional field theory are important. Yet the precise quantum gravitational production and evaporation process is not known. We therefore want to set aside these problems by factorizing the unknown quantum gravity physics in an effective coupling and regarding only the asymptotic initial and final states.

As an example we consider the production of doubly charged scalar black holes with angular momentum j=0 by two fermions e.g. electrons. For the interaction part of the Lagrangian one can set:

$`_{\mathrm{int}}=i\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}M_{\mathrm{bh}}\varphi \overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_f\widehat{C}\mathrm{\Psi }_f+h.c.,`$
$`V_{\mathrm{eff}}(k_1,k_2)=i\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}M_{\mathrm{bh}}\widehat{C},`$ (5)
where $`\widehat{C}=i\gamma _2𝒦`$ is the usual charge conjugation operator with $`𝒦`$ being the complex conjugation. One should note that $`\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ may be different for different $`n_b`$, so that one has different couplings to different black hole micro states. The mass scale involved has been chosen to be the black hole mass $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ and not the fermion mass $`m_f`$ so that the coupling does not vanish in the limit of vanishing fermion rest mass $`m_f`$. Such a type of coupling can be compared to the coupling of two fermions to a doubly charged Higgs Barenboim:1996pt .

As a next step we take an example of determining the effective coupling in a crude approximation from the production cross section of a black hole by two colliding electrons. Here and in the following we will neglect the electron mass $`m_e`$ throughout, because it is more than 6 orders of magnitude smaller than the TeV scale which sets the black hole mass involved. Taking the amplitude for black hole production by electrons:

$`M(p,p^{})=i\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}M_{\mathrm{bh}}\overline{u}(p)\widehat{C}u(p^{}),k=(M_{\mathrm{bh}},0,0,0),`$
$`p=({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{s},0,0,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{s}),p^{}=({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{s},0,0,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{s}),`$ (6)
one can make a connection with the geometrical production cross section via:

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{bh}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4pp^{}}}|M|^2{\displaystyle \frac{d^4k}{(2\pi )^3}(2\pi )^4\delta (p+p^{}k)\delta \left(k^2M_{\mathrm{bh}}^2\right)}`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{4}}\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}^2M_{\mathrm{bh}}\delta \left(\sqrt{s}M_{\mathrm{bh}}\right)\pi {\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}^2}{4}}\theta \left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{\mathrm{bh}}}{2}}|\sqrt{s}M_{\mathrm{bh}}|\right)=\pi R_S^2\theta \left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{\mathrm{bh}}}{2}}|\sqrt{s}M_{\mathrm{bh}}|\right)\sigma _{\mathrm{geom}}.`$
In the arrow we transform according to local duality the $`\delta `$ function into a finite size step function of width $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ in order to make contact with the geometrical cross section. $`R_\mathrm{S}`$ is the Schwarzschild radius which in $`n+3`$ dimensions is Myers:un :

$$R_\mathrm{S}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }M_\mathrm{P}}\left[\frac{M_{\mathrm{bh}}}{M_\mathrm{P}}\left(\frac{8\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{n+3}{2}\right)}{n+2}\right)\right]^{1/(n+1)}.$$
(8)
Here we have suggested $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ as the scale for the effective width of the black hole production in vacuum to compare the field theoretical cross section to the geometrical one. This comparison then suggests to set $`\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}/2=R_\mathrm{S}`$. Of course such a contact between geometrical and field theoretical cross section is a crude approximation to reality. Practically, $`\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ will be an effective coupling constant absorbing the unknown quantum gravitational physics. It is then simply a constant that has to be determined by experiment.

As already discussed the evaporation of the black hole is thermal. Therefore it should be possible to describe it in the framework of thermal field theory which has been developed in Kapusta . In this connection we obtain for the partial width bh $`e^{}e^{}`$ using again $`k=(M_{\mathrm{bh}},0,0,0)`$:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{bh}e^{}e^{}}={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}^2M_{\mathrm{bh}}^2}{2M_{\mathrm{bh}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^4p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{d^4p^{}}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{1}{e^{\beta _\mathrm{H}|p_0|}+1}}`$
$`\times \delta \left(p^2\right)\delta \left(p_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\right)(2\pi )^4\delta \left(p+p^{}k\right)\mathrm{Tr}\left[p_\mu \gamma ^\mu \widehat{C}p_{}^{}{}_{\nu }{}^{}\gamma ^\nu \widehat{C}^{}\right]`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}^2M_{\mathrm{bh}}^3}{8\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta _\mathrm{H}M_{\mathrm{bh}}/2}+1}}.`$ (9)
Here $`T_\mathrm{H}=1/\beta _\mathrm{H}`$ is the Hawking temperature which is in $`n+3`$ dimensions given by Myers:un :

$$T_\mathrm{H}=M_\mathrm{P}\left(\frac{M_\mathrm{P}}{M_{\mathrm{bh}}}\frac{n+2}{8\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(\frac{n+3}{2}\right)}\right)^{1/(n+1)}\frac{n+1}{4\sqrt{\pi }}.$$
(10)
One should note that the factor $`1/(\mathrm{exp}(\beta _\mathrm{H}M_{\mathrm{bh}}/2)+1)`$ does not belong to the coupling but to the outgoing electrons. The principle should be that each evaporated particle goes with the corresponding thermal occupation number due to the proper statistic it belongs to. For the final evaporation it is actually only one particle that evaporates while the other one is just the remaining remnant where the energy is fixed by energy momentum conservation. As one can not distinguish in our case which of the electrons has evaporated and which is the remnant we end up with a single factor $`1/(\mathrm{exp}(\beta _\mathrm{H}M_{\mathrm{bh}}/2)+1)`$. If we had a different black hole evaporating in an electron and a photon we had to multiply with a factor $`\left(1/(e^{\beta _\mathrm{H}M_{\mathrm{bh}}/2}1)+1/(e^{\beta _\mathrm{H}M_{\mathrm{bh}}/2}+1)\right)`$ to allow one time for a photon and one time for an electron evaporation whereas the other particle is just the remnant.

As a last application of the method we calculate the $`e^{}e^{}e^{}e^{}`$ cross section, for the first scalar black hole excitation using the method of effective thermal field theory discussed above. For the amplitude we find c.f. Fig. 3:

$`=M(p,p^{}){\displaystyle \frac{1}{s\left(M_{\mathrm{bh}}+\frac{i}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{total}}\right)^2}}M(k,k^{}).`$ (11)
Then the corresponding cross section has the form:

$`\sigma (s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^4k}{(2\pi )^3}\delta \left(k^2\right)\frac{d^4k^{}}{(2\pi )^3}\delta \left(k^2\right)\frac{||^2}{4pp^{}}\frac{1}{e^{\beta _\mathrm{H}k_0}+1}(2\pi )^4\delta \left(p+p^{}kk^{}\right)}`$ (12)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}^4M_{\mathrm{bh}}^4s}{16\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(s\left(M_{\mathrm{bh}}^2\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{total}}^2}{4}\right)\right)^2+M_{\mathrm{bh}}^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{total}}^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{e^{\beta _\mathrm{H}\sqrt{s}/2}+1}}.`$
In Fig. 4 we show the total cross section $`ee\mathrm{bh}ee`$ in the Khriplovich scenario Ref. Khriplovich:2001je , i.e. for a first scalar black hole mass of $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}448.5\mathrm{GeV}`$ assuming $`M_\mathrm{P}=1\mathrm{TeV}`$ for different values of n (extra dimensions). One should keep in mind that at such comparatively small energies, i.e. smaller than a few times the Planck mass, it may be controversial whether such a resonance should be interpreted as a genuine black hole or rather as a string excitation. We have set to leading order $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{total}}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{bh}e^{}e^{}}`$ assuming strict lepton number conservation, as current bounds from muon decay into three electrons otherwise require a Planck scale in the 100 TeV range. It is seen that the width of the resonance in first order is about 2-3 GeV and that the total cross section is in the range of pbarn.

In this paper we intend to give a description for the black hole in terms of a particle. Here the mini black holes should arise as discrete resonances in accordance with the idea of Beckenstein that the black hole area should be quantized. The in vacuum production of black holes can be described by means of standard field theory where the unknown quantum gravity is absorbed in an effective coupling constant $`\kappa _{\mathrm{eff}}`$. The thermal evaporation is correspondingly described in terms of the thermal field theory. Such a description allows to take into consideration quantum interference effects which are not accessible in a semi-classical description and will be helpful for the experimental analysis of events that may come from mini-black holes produced at high energy scattering experiments. The formalism shown here can be easily generalized to a variety of processes, for example also to mini black hole production at LHC. Within this framework and restricting to the well isolated first scalar black hole resonance, the analysis of the quantum gravitational effects boils down to the measurement of only three independent quantities: The effective coupling $`\kappa _{eff}`$, $`M_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ (the first scalar black hole mass) and the Hawking temperature $`T_\mathrm{H}=1/\beta _\mathrm{H}`$. In this way studying definite subprocesses in possible black hole production in terms of an effective quantum field theory may allow to pin down the quantum gravitational content to actually three parameters. These parameters as soon as obtained experimentally can then be compared to various quantum gravitational scenarios to improve our understanding of the fundamental laws of gravitational physics.

Acknowledgment: We wish to acknowledge fruitful and stimulating discussion with J. Bijnens, S. Giddings, G. Gustafson and T. Sjöstrand. This work was supported in part by the Swedish Research Council.


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# Thermal Evolution and Light Curves of Young Bare Strange Stars

## Abstract

We study numerically the cooling of a young bare strange star and show that its thermal luminosity, mostly due to e+e- pair production from the quark surface, may be much higher than the Eddington limit. The mean energy of photons far from the strange star is $`10^2`$ keV or even more. This differs both qualitatively and quantitatively from the thermal emission from neutron stars and provides a definite observational signature for bare strange stars. It is shown that the energy gap of superconducting quark matter may be estimated from the light curves if it is in the range from $`0.5`$ MeV to a few MeV.

Strange stars that are entirely made of deconfined quarks have been long ago proposed as an alternative to neutron stars (e.g., W84 ). The bulk properties (size, moment of inertia, etc.) of strange and neutron stars in the observed mass range $`(1<M/M_{}<2)`$ are rather similar, and it is very difficult to discriminate between strange and neutron stars HZS86 . Strange quark matter (SQM) with a density of $`5\times 10^{14}`$ g cm-3 might exist up to the surface of a strange star AFO86 . This differs qualitatively from the neutron star surface and opens observational possibilities to distinguish strange stars from neutron stars.

Normal matter (ions and electrons) with a mass $`\mathrm{\Delta }M10^5M_{}`$ may be present at the SQM surface of a strange star AFO86 . Such a massive envelope of normal matter could completely obscure the quark surface. However, a strange star at the moment of its formation is very hot. The temperature in the stellar interior may be as high as a few times $`10^{11}`$ K CD01 ; HPA91 . The rate of neutrino-induced mass ejection from such a hot compact star is very high WB92 . Therefore, in a few seconds after the star formation the normal-matter envelope is blown away, and the SQM surface is nearly (or completely) bare U01 . A strange star remains nearly bare as long as the surface temperature is higher than $`3\times 10^7`$ K U97 .

Due to the high plasma frequency of SQM, $`\omega _p20`$ MeV, a bare strange star will be a very inefficient emitter of thermal X-rays as soon as its temperature drops below $`10^{11}`$ K, i.e., a few seconds after it is born AFO86 . This fact suggested that bare strange stars would be very difficult to detect. However, the enormous surface electric field, which binds the electrons to the quark matter, will induce intense emission of e+e- pairs U98  and subsequent hard X-ray emission, at luminosities above the Eddington limit, $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}1.3\times 10^{38}(M/M_{})`$ erg s-1, as long as the surface temperature is above $`5\times 10^8`$ K U01 . This process significantly increases the possibility to detect young bare strange stars, but its importance depends on how long a high luminosity can be sustained.

We want to address this issue in this letter by modeling in detail the thermal evolution of a young bare strange star in order to calculate its light curve, considering various scenarios about the state of SQM. It should be emphasized that the resulting evolution described here will differ both qualitatively and quantitatively from the evolution of a strange star with a crust, i.e., covered by a small layer of normal matter, SS-crust-cool , and from the evolution of a more standard compact object PPLS00 .

Recently, it has been argued that SQM is a color superconductor with a very high critical temperature $`T_c10^{12}`$ K (for reviews, see ABR01 ). At extremely high density the color superconductor is in the “Color-Flavor-Locked” (CFL) phase in which quarks of all three flavors and three colors are paired in a single condensate. In this CFL phase SQM is electrically neutral and no electrons are present. If the strange quark mass, $`m_s`$, is not too large the CFL phase may extend down to the lowest density corresponding to the surface of a strange star, in which case the considerations of this paper are irrelevant since no electrons would be present at the surface and hence there would be no supercritical electric field and no e+e- pair emission. However, for sufficiently large $`m_s`$ the low density regime is rather expected to be in the “2 color-flavor SuperConductor” (2SC) phase in which only $`u`$ and $`d`$ quarks of two color (say $`u_1`$, $`u_2`$, $`d_1`$ and $`d_2`$) are paired in a single condensate while the ones of the third color, say $`u_3`$ and $`d_3`$, and the $`s`$ quarks of all three colors are unpaired. In the 2SC phase electrons are present. We will consider strange stars made entirely of normal, i.e., unpaired, SQM, which may be unrealistic but is a benchmark and the case of SQM in the 2SC phase only and with a mixture of 2SC phase with CFL phase at high density and, finally, SQM in the 2SC phase with secondary pairing of the $`u_3`$-$`d_3`$ and $`s`$ quarks with a much smaller gap. In all cases the critical temperature is related to the energy gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }(0)`$ at $`T=0`$ through $`T_c0.57\mathrm{\Delta }(0)`$ as in BCS theory (in natural units $`\mathrm{}=c=k_B=1`$).

We consider, as a typical case, a 1.4 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$strange star which we construct by solving the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation of hydrostatic equilibrium using an equation of state for SQM as described in HZS86 ; AFO86  \[with a bag constant $`B=(140\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^4`$, QCD coupling constant $`\alpha _sg^2/4\pi =0.3`$, and $`m_s=150`$ MeV\]. The thermal evolution is determined by the energy conservation and heat transport equations:

$$C_v\frac{T}{t}=\frac{1}{4\pi r^2}\frac{(4\pi r^2F_r)}{r}Q_\nu \mathrm{and}F_r=\kappa \frac{T}{r}$$
(1)
where $`C_v`$ is the specific heat of the matter, $`\kappa `$ its thermal conductivity and $`Q_\nu `$ its neutrino emissivity, and $`F_r`$ is the heat flux at radius $`r`$. We are actually solving the general relativistic version of these equations with a Henyey-type cooling code P89 . At the stellar surface, the heat flux directed outward the strange star is equal to the energy flux emitted from the stellar surface, $`F_r(r=R)=F_\gamma +F_\pm `$, where $`F_\gamma `$ and $`F_\pm `$ are the energy flux emitted from the unit surface of SQM in thermal photons and $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs, respectively. This and equation (1) give the boundary condition on $`T/r`$ at the stellar surface. The boundary condition at the stellar center is $`T/r=0`$. In our numerical simulations, we adopt the values of $`F_\gamma `$ and $`F_\pm `$ from U01 . We assume that at the initial moment, $`t=0`$, the temperature in the strange star is uniform, $`T=10^{11}`$ K $`10`$ MeV.

The specific heat is $`C_v=C_v(e)+_qC_v(q)`$ ($`q`$ running through the nine quark components, $`u_1`$, …, $`s_3`$) with $`C_v(i)=\frac{1}{3}\mu _i^2T`$, $`\mu _i`$ being the chemical potential of the $`i`$th component. When a component $`i`$ becomes paired its $`C_v(i)`$ first increases by a factor 2.426 at $`T_c`$ and then decreases exponentially at $`TT_c`$ LY94a .

The neutrino emission is due to the three quark direct Urca processes $`u_c+e^{}d_c+\nu _e`$ and $`d_cu_c+e^{}+\overline{\nu }_e`$, $`c`$ = 1, 2, 3 denoting the quark color which is not altered by weak interactions, with emissivities I82

$$Q_\nu ^c3\times 10^{25}\alpha _s[\frac{\mu _u\mu _d}{(400\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^2}\frac{\mu _e}{10\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}}]T_9^6\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^3\mathrm{s}^1$$
(2)
and the corresponding, but weaker, processes with $`d_cs_c`$. These processes are also strongly suppressed when one of the participating component is paired LY94b .

The thermal conductivity is an essential ingredient of our calculations since it determines how fast heat is carried to the surface from the underlying layers. When no quark pairing is present $`\kappa `$ has been calculated in HP93 :

$$\kappa ^\mathrm{N}1.7\times 10^{21}\frac{(\mu _q/400\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^2}{\alpha _s}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^1\mathrm{K}^1.$$
(3)
In the case of the 2SC phase the thermal conductivity will be provided dominantly by the unpaired quarks $`u_3`$ and $`d_3`$ which only suffer scattering through the exchange of the fully screened (both Debye and Meissner) gluon of adjoint color index 8 R00 . Following the method of HP93  we obtain

$$\kappa ^{2\mathrm{S}\mathrm{C}}3.5\times 10^{22}\frac{(\mu _q/400\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})^3}{\alpha _s^{1/2}T_9}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^1\mathrm{K}^1.$$
(4)
In the CFL phase the thermal conductivity is extremely large SE02  because this phase is transparent to photons, $`\kappa ^{\mathrm{CFL}}10^{30}\times T_9^3\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^1\mathrm{K}^1`$.

Figure 1 shows the temperature and luminosities (in both neutrinos and surface thermal emission) as a function of time $`t`$, for a strange star in the normal phase and in the 2SC phase with a gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{2\mathrm{S}\mathrm{C}}100`$ MeV. The neutrino luminosity, $`L_\nu `$, is always much higher than the surface thermal luminosity, $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$, i.e., neutrinos drive the cooling and the surface emission just follows the evolution of the bulk of the star. The occurrence of the 2SC phase has little effect on the star’s evolution: the reason is that the neutrino emission is cut by a factor three since $`u`$ and $`d`$ quarks of color 1 and 2 do not contribute anymore, and the specific heat is cut by a factor 9/5. The neutrino cooling time scale is $`\tau _{\mathrm{cool}}C_vT/Q_\nu `$ (see Eq. (1)), and it therefore does not change significantly.

We see that the thermal luminosity may be many orders of magnitude higher than the Eddington limit for a period of several days after the strange star formation. Such a high luminosity is allowed for a bare strange star because at its surface SQM is bound via strong interaction rather than gravity and, therefore, a bare strange star is not subject to the Eddington limit in contrast to a neutron star AFO86 ; U98 . Super-Eddington luminosities are a fingerprint of hot bare strange stars. At $`t>10^5`$ s, the thermal emission decreases fast, and after about one month when $`T_s<3\times 10^8`$ K, the thermal radiation becomes practically undetectable (see Fig. 1). This strong decrease of the surface emission is due to the suppression of the e+e- pairs emission by increasing degeneracy of electrons in the thin ”electron atmosphere” U01 .

Assumption that a part of the interior of the strange star is paired in the CFL phase, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{CFL}}>`$ 10 MeV, has no effect at all on the surface thermal luminosity. The reason is simply that it cuts down both $`Q_\nu `$ and $`C_v`$ in the same fraction and does not affect $`\tau _{\mathrm{cool}}`$ at all. We have checked it numerically with a mass of up to 1.39 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$of the star, for a total mass of 1.4 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, in the CFL phase and found variations in $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ smaller than the thickness of the line in the plot of Fig. 1. The star’s temperature profile is of course affected since the CFL core cools mostly by heat diffusion into the outer 2SC phase layer, but neutrino emission in this outer layer is so strong that $`T_s`$ and $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ are practically not affected. This result is similar to the case of quark matter in neutron star interiors which is undetectable if it is in the CFL phase PPLS00 .

Two effects can dramatically alter the results of Fig. 1. They are a secondary pairing of the $`u_3`$ and $`d_3`$ quarks, and also possibly of the $`s`$ quarks, in the 2SC phase, and convection in the upper layers U98a .

Pairing of the $`u_3`$ and $`d_3`$ quarks, in addition to the 2SC pairing, will quench the 3rd color channel of neutrino emission by the direct Urca process of Eq. 2 and reduce the specific heat while pairing of the $`s`$ quarks will have little effect on the neutrino emission but will reduce $`C_v`$. The suppression of $`Q_\nu `$ and $`C_v`$ is very strong only if the resulting gap is nodeless, while a gap with nodes on the Fermi surface will only produces a reduction of the order of $`(T/T_c)^2`$ if nodes are at isolated points and of order of $`T/T_c`$ if nodes are 1D lines. The cooling time scale, $`\tau _{\mathrm{cool}}`$, can be increased or reduced depending on whether $`Q_\nu `$ or $`C_v`$ is the most strongly suppressed. Since very little is known on these possible secondary gaps (see however ARW98 ) we consider three cases for the $`u_3`$-$`d_3`$ gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3`$ and the $`s`$ gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s`$: \[A\] $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3=0.3`$ Mev and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s=3`$ MeV, \[B\] $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3=\mathrm{\Delta }_s=3`$ MeV, and \[C\] $`\mathrm{\Delta }_3=3.0`$ Mev and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_s=0.3`$ MeV. These three cases span a large range of suppression of $`Q_\nu `$ and/or $`C_v`$.

Figure 2 shows the resulting range of $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ possibly attained through this secondary pairing. We assumed nodeless gaps to maximize the effects, but have verified explicitly that gaps with nodes give results which are intermediates between the three cases presented here. Case \[A\] has very little $`Q_\nu `$ suppression and only partial reduction of $`C_v`$, and it naturally differs little from the case of no pairing. Cases \[B\] and \[C\] have strong $`Q_\nu `$ suppression and their cooling is eventually driven by the surface thermal emission. Since case \[B\] also has a strong $`C_v`$ reduction it cools faster than case \[C\] whose $`C_v`$ is more moderately suppressed. The knees on the curves \[B\] and \[C\] at times $`t10^7`$ sec and $`t3\times 10^{10}`$ sec, respectively, correspond to the moment when the star becomes almost isothermal.

In all the models presented above, at early times, the temperature gradient just below the surface (see Fig. 1, lower panel) is many orders of magnitude higher than the adiabatic temperature gradient GY94

$$\frac{dT}{dr}|_{\mathrm{ad}}\frac{T}{3n_q}\frac{dn_q}{dr}=\frac{T}{\mu _q}\frac{d\mu _q}{dr}300\times T_9\mathrm{K}\mathrm{cm}^1$$
(5)
where $`n_q`$ is the quark number density. If convection can develop, given the shallowness of the superadiabatic layer we can, as a first approximation, consider the star as having a uniform temperature. Moreover, in the case of pairing of the $`u_3`$-$`d_3`$ quarks, and/or $`s`$ quarks, we may expect convective counterflow of the $`u_3`$-$`d_3`$, and/or $`s`$, superfluid which may be even more efficient that convection to erase any temperature gradient.

Figure 3 shows the resulting range of $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ for isothermal stars for the same three cases of secondary pairing as in Fig. 2. In cases \[B\] and \[C\], a few seconds after the star formation the $`u_3`$-$`d_3`$ pairing occurs and subsequently $`L_\nu <L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ while in case \[A\] neutrino losses drive the cooling during all times. The sharp drop of $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ in case \[B\] at $`t20`$ s is due to the strong suppression of $`C_v`$ from pairing and does not occur in cases \[A\] and \[C\] in which the $`u_3`$-$`d_3`$ or $`s`$ gaps are smaller. At early times the isothermal models have a much higher thermal luminosity that the diffusive ones of Fig. 2 since their surface temperature is much higher. However, the isothermal models whose cooling becomes driven by thermal emission, \[B\] and \[C\], cool faster and eventually have a lower $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ than the diffusive ones. Naturally, isothermal and diffusive models follows the same evolution once the latter become isothermal, i.e., after the knees of cases \[B\] and \[C\] in Fig. 2.

How much the density dependence of the chemical composition of SQM, and of the pairing gaps, may reduce convection, and superfluid counterflow, is an open question and precludes us to firmly decide which cooling trajectories, Fig. 2 or 3, are the correct ones. However, the gradients of both $`\mu _i`$’s and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$’s are small in SQM and one may expect only small reductions, i.e., the isothermal models of Fig. 3 are probably more appropriate that the diffusive ones of Fig. 2.

In our simulations we assumed that neutrinos escape freely from the stellar interior. This is valid only in a few seconds after the strange star formation when the internal temperature is less than $`10^{10}`$ K HPA91 . In this case, $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs created at the surface of SQM prevail over photons in the surface thermal emission U01  but pairs outflowing from the stellar surface mostly annihilate into photons in the vicinity of the strange star U01 ; AMU .

In the process of the star cooling the photon spectrum varies significantly. At very high luminosities, $`L_{\mathrm{th}}>10^{43}`$ ergs s-1, we expect that the photon spectrum is nearly blackbody with a temperature $`T_{\mathrm{BB}}T_0(L_{\mathrm{th}}/10^{43}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1)^{1/4}`$, where $`T_02\times 10^8`$ K P90 . For intermediate luminosities, $`10^{41}<L_{\mathrm{th}}<10^{43}`$ erg s-1, the effective temperature of photons is more or less constant, $`T_{\mathrm{BB}}T_0`$ AMU . At $`L_{\mathrm{th}}<10^{41}`$ erg s-1, the photon spectrum essentially differs from the blackbody spectrum, and its hardness increases when $`L_{\mathrm{th}}`$ decreases. This is because photons that form in annihilation of $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs do not have enough time for thermalization before they escape from the strange star vicinity. When the photon luminosity decreases from $`10^{41}`$ erg s-1 to $`10^{36}`$ erg s-1, the mean energy of photons increases from $`30`$ keV to $`500`$ keV while the spectrum of photons eventually changes into a very wide $`(\mathrm{\Delta }E/E0.3)`$ annihilation line of energy $`E500`$ keV AMU . Such a variability of the photon spectrum together with the light curves calculated in this paper could be a good observational signature of a young bare strange star.

###### Acknowledgements.

VVU wants to thank the Institute of Astronomy, UNAM, Mexico, where this work was carried out, for its wonderful hospitality. This work was supported by a grant from the Mexican Conacyt (# 27987-E).