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# The relativistic Iron K𝛼 line from an accretion disc onto a static non-baryonic compact object

## 1 Introduction

It has long been believed that accretion onto massive black holes is the energy source of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Nearby galaxies, as the remnants of AGNs, should then harbor massive black holes in their centers . Recent observations have indeed revealed the existence of massive dark objects, believed to be those massive black holes, in most, if not all, nearby galactic nuclei . However, those observations only reach a physical radius 10000 times larger than that of the event horizon of the putative black hole. As pointed out in Ref. , from a dynamical point of view, a single massive boson star is also compatible with all measurements of star kinematics around the massive dark object in the most studied center, that of Milky Way, without requiring the massive dark object to be a black hole. A proof of the existence of massive black holes requires unambiguous evidence of the event horizon. It is then important to address the issue of the emissivity properties of matter rotating around different central objects. Ref.  made a first step in this sense; to that paper we refer the reader for further discussions and a more complete list of references on boson star physics and related problems. The emissivity properties are much more important than the kinematic studies, since they can provide a more direct way to actually distinguish between different central objects .

X-ray studies have revealed the most prominent spectral feature coming from the central regions of some active galaxies, an enormous Doppler and gravitational-shifted broad Fe K$`\alpha `$ line, which, for the first time, showed the existence of a strong gravity regime . This has been taken as the strongest evidence for the existence of super-massive black holes, or even as a sensitive diagnosis of the black hole spin. But, how would the profile of the emission lines be for those produced in discs rotating around putative boson stars? Would them present sufficiently different shapes as to make them distinguishable in forthcoming observations? These are the questions we address in this paper.

## 2 Photon propagation in the metric of a boson star

### 2.1 Space-time

The space-time generated by a stationary and spherically symmetric object can be described by the metric:

$$ds^2=B(r)dt^2A(r)dr^2r^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2),$$
(1)
where $`A(r)`$ can be written as $`1/(12GM(r)/rc^2)`$, $`c`$ is the speed of light, $`G`$ is the gravitation constant and $`M(r)`$ is the mass enclosed within a radius $`r`$. The simplest solution for Eq. (1) is that representing a Schwarzschild black hole, for which $`B(r)=12GM/rc^2`$, and $`M(r)`$ is a constant equal to the mass of the black hole.

Other stellar-like systems described by Eq. (1) are those known as boson stars. Details of boson star solutions can be found in the reviews quoted in Ref. . For a boson star, $`A(r)`$ and $`B(r)`$ can be calculated only numerically (see  for explanations, the program herein used is an adaptation of that mentioned in Refs. ).

The total mass, the radius and all other physical parameters of the boson star are scaled by the mass of the constituent boson, $`m`$. For numerical purposes, then, we can work with dimensionless units. The radius in a dimensionless form will be $`x=mr`$, and the mass, as well, will be transformed into a dimensionless quantity, $`M=M(x)M_{\mathrm{Planck}}^2/m`$, where $`M_{\mathrm{Planck}}=\sqrt{\mathrm{}c/G}`$, $`\mathrm{}`$ is the Planck constant. This scheme was already proposed in the first papers on boson stars . For example, if the massive dark object with mass $`2.6\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ in the Galactic Center is a boson star, then the constituent boson mass is $`m=2.81\times 10^{26}`$ GeV. The distance from the center in unit of parsec is $`r[\mathrm{pc}]=x/m[\mathrm{GeV}]6.38\times 10^{33}`$, the mass in millions of solar mass is $`M[10^6]=M(x)/m[\mathrm{GeV}]1.33\times 10^{25}`$, and the gravitational radius $`r_\mathrm{g}=GM/c^2`$ is written as $`x_\mathrm{g}=0.53256`$ in dimensionless units. The boson star structure is numerically computed to obtain $`M(x)`$ and $`B(x)`$ . Two notes are, however, in order. Firstly, these numbers rely in that we are using a non self-interacting boson star, for simplicity and because the behavior is generic, but should be consistently changed if this is not the case . By going towards a self-interacting model, the mass of the constituent boson needed to produce the same overall mass increases. Secondly, the use of the mass of the galactic center region is done just to provide a numerical example, we are not claiming the possible existence of a boson star in the center of the Galaxy, since apparently the emissivity properties would conflict with observations (see Ref. ), or at least we know that that is the case for the simplest accretion disc models.

To conveniently compare the metric generated by a non-rotating boson star with the Schwarzschild black hole metric, we re-scale the total mass of the boson star to be $`M=1`$. We do so by just dividing $`x/0.53256`$ and replacing $`M(x)`$ by $`M(x)/0.53256`$. Figure 1 shows $`B(r)`$ as a function of $`r`$ for both boson star and Schwarzschild black hole. $`B(r)`$ for both cases are almost exactly the same when $`r>15r_g`$, while it slowly decreases to a constant at the center of a boson star rather than rapidly decrease to zero at the horizon ($`r=2r_\mathrm{g}`$) of a Schwarzschild black hole. To a distant observer, thus, a photon emitted from the inner region of a disc extending within a boson star ($`r<15r_g`$) suffers much less gravitational redshift than the one emitted from the disc surrounding a Schwarzschild black hole.

To simplify the following calculations, we adopt a simple Logistic function to fit both $`M(x)`$ and $`B(x)`$ for $`x<50`$,

$$M(x)[\mathrm{or}B(x)]=\frac{A_1A_2}{1+(\frac{x}{x_0})^p}+A_2.$$
(2)
For the mass $`M(x)`$, the coefficients are $`A_1=0.01039`$, $`A_2=0.53533`$, $`x_0=5.49809`$ and $`p=3.6201`$; while for B(x) the coefficients are $`A_1=0.78236`$, $`A_2=0.99793`$, $`x_0=8.17558`$ and $`p=2.09499`$. Both fits are excellent ($`\chi ^2<10^5`$) and valid throughout all space-time (see Fig 2); they much improve those presented in Ref. . For $`x>50`$, $`M(x)`$ and $`B(x)`$ are almost exactly the same as those obtained in the Schwarzschild black hole case, i.e. $`M(x)=0.53256`$ and $`B(x)=12M(x)/x`$.

### 2.2 Orbits

The Lagrangian of the geodesics in the space-time with a line element shown by Eq. (1) can be written as (cf. , pages 342-347 — , pages 897-902):

$$2=B(r)\dot{t}^2A(r)\dot{r}^2r^2(\dot{\theta }^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta \dot{\varphi }^2),$$
(3)
where the dot denotes differentiation with respect to an affine parameter $`\lambda `$ along the geodesics. Together with the assumption of stationary and axisymmetric space-time, the Euler-Lagrange equations give the simplified photon momentum equations as (see analogous derivations of the momentum equations for black hole metric in Ref. , pages as above):

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dt}{d\lambda }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{B(r)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{R}}},`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr}{d\lambda }}`$ $`=`$ $`\pm {\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{R}}{r^2}},`$ (5)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{d\lambda }}`$ $`=`$ $`\pm {\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Theta }}}{r^2}},`$ (6)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{d\lambda }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi }{r^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }},`$ (7)
where the functions $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ and $`R`$ are respectively given by

$`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ $`=`$ $`\eta \xi ^2\mathrm{cot}^2\theta ,`$ (8)
$`R`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r^4}{A(r)B(r)}}{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{A(r)}}(\eta +\xi ^2),`$ (9)
and where $`\eta =𝒦/E^2`$ and $`\xi =L/E`$ are constants of motion related to the angular momentum $`L`$, the energy at infinity $`E`$, and the Carter’s constant $`𝒦=p_\theta ^2+L^2\mathrm{cot}^2\theta `$. $`p_\theta `$ is the $`\theta `$-component of photon momentum (cf. the photon momentum equations in the space-time of a Kerr black hole , pages as above).

The path of a particular photon is completely described by the motion constants $`\eta `$ and $`\xi `$, which are in fact related to the polar and azimuthal angles $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ on the sky as seen by a distant, locally non-rotating, observer who receives the photon. The motion constants $`\eta `$ and $`\xi `$ are then given by 222See the derivation in Ref.  for the metric of Kerr black hole. The motion constants could be obtained by replacing the Kerr metric in Karas et al.  with the much simple boson star metric. See Fig. 1a in Ref.  for a geometric interpretation of the angles involved.

$`\xi `$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{r\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\alpha \mathrm{sin}\beta }{\sqrt{B(r)}}}\right)_{\theta =\theta _\mathrm{o}},`$ (10)
$`\eta `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{B(r)}}\mathrm{sin}^2\alpha \left(1\mathrm{sin}^2\theta \mathrm{sin}^2\beta \right)_{\theta =\theta _\mathrm{o}}.`$ (11)
The equation governing the projection of a photon orbit in ($`r`$, $`\theta `$) plane is

$$_{r_i}^r\frac{dr}{\sqrt{R}}=\pm _{\theta _i}^\theta \frac{d\theta }{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Theta }}},$$
(12)
where $`r_i`$ and $`\theta _i`$ are the initial values of $`r`$ and $`\theta `$. The $`\theta `$-integration, i.e. the right hand of Eq. (12), gives

$$\frac{d\theta }{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Theta }}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\eta +\xi ^2}}\mathrm{cos}^1\left(\sqrt{\frac{\eta +\xi ^2}{\eta }}\mathrm{cos}\theta \right).$$
(13)
The integral for $`t`$ and $`\varphi `$ can be written as

$`t`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r^2dr}{B(r)\sqrt{R}}},`$ (14)
$`\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi }{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }\frac{d\theta }{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Theta }}}}=\mathrm{tan}^1\left[\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1+K}{1K}}}\mathrm{tan}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\theta ^{^{}}}{2}}\right)\right]+\mathrm{tan}^1\left[\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1K}{1+K}}}\mathrm{tan}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\theta ^{^{}}}{2}}\right)\right],`$ (15)
where $`K=\sqrt{\frac{\eta }{\eta +\xi ^2}}`$, and $`\theta ^{^{}}=\mathrm{cos}^1(\mathrm{cos}\theta /K)`$.

To enable the integration of a given photon away from the observer to the disc surface, it is necessary to determine the initial sign of $`dr/d\lambda `$ and $`d\theta /d\lambda `$ which are in fact given by (see Fig. 1a in Ref. ):

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr}{d\lambda }}`$ $`>`$ $`0\mathrm{for}0\alpha <\pi /2,`$ (16)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dr}{d\lambda }}`$ $`<`$ $`0\mathrm{for}\pi /2\alpha <\pi ,`$ (17)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{d\lambda }}`$ $`>`$ $`0\mathrm{for}|\beta |<\pi /2,`$ (18)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\theta }{d\lambda }}`$ $`<`$ $`0\mathrm{for}|\beta |>\pi /2.`$ (19)
The sign of $`dr/d\lambda `$ (or $`d\theta /d\lambda `$) changes at the turning point where $`R=0`$ (or $`\mathrm{\Theta }=0`$).

Armed with Eqs. (4) to (19), we can trace the trajectories of photons that propagate from the observer at ($`r_\mathrm{o}`$, $`\theta _\mathrm{o}`$, $`\varphi _\mathrm{o}`$) back to the initial emitting position ($`r_\mathrm{e}`$, $`\pi /2`$, $`\varphi _\mathrm{e}`$) in the local rest frame of matter moving in the plane of the disc.

### 2.3 Disc

In analogy to the standard geometrically thin and optically thick disc around a black hole, such simplified accretion disc now surrounding a massive boson star was first discussed in Ref. . It is assumed that the disc material is in perfect Keplerian motion which gives the following components for the 4-velocity (analogous to the derivation for equatorial disk around Kerr black holes in Ref. ):

$`u^t`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{2B(r)rB^{^{}}(r)}}},`$ (20)
$`u^\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`r^{\frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{B^{^{}}(r)}{2B(r)rB^{^{}}(r)}}},`$ (21)
$`u^r`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (22)
$`u^\theta `$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (23)
where $`B^{^{}}(r)=dB(r)/dr`$. The rotating velocity of the disc material measured by a static observer is given by

$$v^{(\varphi )}=r^{\frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{\frac{B^{^{}}(r)}{2B(r)rB^{^{}}(r)}}.$$
(24)
The coordinate-velocity in Eq. (21) is related to angular velocity by $`u^\varphi =u^t\mathrm{\Omega }`$.333Note that there is a typing error in the first of the Eqs. (3) of Ref. : $`x`$ should be in the denominator. Note that in the potential of a non-rotating boson star, there are circular orbits for every possible value of the radial coordinate, including those which are inside the boson star . This is clearly different from the black hole case, where the innermost stable circular orbit only extends down to $`r=6r_\mathrm{g}`$, in the case of a Schwarzschild black hole. As seen from Figure 3, at large radii ($`r>25r_g`$), the rotating velocity of the disc surrounding a boson star is the same of that disc surrounding a Schwarzschild black hole. At the innermost part of the disc ($`r<25r_g`$), however, differences are not negligible. In the case of a boson star, with decreasing radius, the rotating velocity of the disc increases to a maximum value and then decreases to zero at the star center. In the case of a Schwarzschild black hole, the rotating velocity of the disc increases monotonically until the radius approaches the last stable orbit ($`r=6r_g`$). To the view of distant observers, then, this difference results in less Doppler-shifted photons observed in the putative case of a boson star-accretion disc (BS-AD), as compared to the Schwarzschild black hole accretion disc (SchBH-AD).

### 2.4 Numerical implementation

We shall assume that 1) the disc material is not interacting with the bosons, 2) the distant observer views the disc at some inclination angle $`\theta _\mathrm{o}`$ (with $`\theta _\mathrm{o}=0^0`$ corresponding to a face-on disc). Operationally, we define the distant observer to be located at $`r_\mathrm{o}=10^4r_\mathrm{g}`$ and $`\varphi _\mathrm{o}=0^0`$. We then integrate the four photon momentum equations from the observer to the accretion disc using motion constants $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$. The redshift factor of a photon propagating from the disc to the observer is given by

$$g=\frac{\nu _\mathrm{o}}{\nu _\mathrm{e}}=\frac{𝐩_\mathrm{o}𝐮_\mathrm{o}}{𝐩_\mathrm{e}𝐮_\mathrm{e}},$$
(25)
where $`\nu _\mathrm{o}`$ and $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ are the frequencies of the photon received by the distant observer and the photon emitted in the rest frame of disc material, respectively; $`𝐩_\mathrm{o}`$ is the photon momentum received by the distant observer and $`𝐩_\mathrm{e}`$ is the photon momentum in the rest frame of the emitting material. The disc region between $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ is divided into $`1000\times 1000`$ elements ($`r_ir_i+dr`$, $`\varphi _i\varphi _i+d\varphi `$). The solid angle subtended at the observer’s sky by each element is also calculated by counting the photons impinging onto the element (we refer the reader to Refs.  for further details).

Similar to the case of an accretion disc surrounding a black hole, the disc rotating around a boson star may also be illuminated by some nearby hard X-ray source due to similar mechanism, for example, inverse Compton scattering of soft thermal photons by high energy electrons in the corona above the disc. The fluorescent Fe K$`\alpha `$ line photons driven by this illumination may directly propagate to distant observers without absorption. We assume, as it is usual, that the X-ray illumination is axisymmetric and the emissivity of Fe K$`\alpha `$ line only varies with radius as a power law $`ϵ(r)r^\alpha `$ in the rest frame of emitting material, where $`\alpha `$ is the emissivity index. We already know that the viscosity dissipated power per unit area approaches a maximum value at the radius of $`5r_\mathrm{g}`$ and then rapidly decreases as the accreted material goes into the star center . This is quite different from the case of black hole accretion disc, where the radiation from the region within the marginally stable orbit (in projection) is insignificant.

In order to see the difference between the profiles of the emission lines coming from a BS-AD and from a SchBH-AD, respectively, we consider two cases. In the first one, for a BS-AD, the line is assumed to be emitted from an annulus between $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=6r_\mathrm{g}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=30r_\mathrm{g}`$. In the second case, the line will be assumed to come from an annulus between $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=2r_\mathrm{g}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=30r_\mathrm{g}`$. At all times, for a SchBH-AD, the line is assumed to be emitted from annulus between $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=6r_\mathrm{g}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=30r_\mathrm{g}`$. Physical considerations can be put forward to justify these values of inner and outer limits of the disc. In the case of BS-AD, $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ is not chosen to be closer to the center (or 0) because we are adopting a power-law emissivity law which diverges at the star center. We note, however, that the line emission within $`r2r_\mathrm{g}`$ would be negligible if the emissivity law is similar to the viscosity dissipated power as a function of radius. We set $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=6r_g`$ in the case of SchBH-AD since the disc only extends to the marginal stable orbit. The line emission from the disc material within the marginal stable orbit is generally assumed negligible, and if this line flux is even observable, as Reynolds and Begelman  have pointed out, it would generally emerge in the extremely red wing of the line profile, what would make the difference between the profiles of Fe K$`\alpha `$ generated from the BS-AD and from the SchBH-AD that we present in the next Section larger.

The observed line flux distribution is $`dF(E_{\mathrm{obs}})=I(E_{\mathrm{obs}})d\mathrm{\Omega }`$, where $`d\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the solid angle subtended by the disc in the observer’s sky and $`I(E_{\mathrm{obs}})`$ is the specific intensity received by the observer. The specific intensity $`I(E_{\mathrm{em}})`$ of the line emitting in the rest frame of disk material is assumed to be isotropic and monochromatic $`I(E_{\mathrm{em}})=ϵ(r)\delta (E_{\mathrm{em}}E_0)`$, where $`E_0`$ ($`=6.4`$ keV for iron K$`\alpha `$ line) is the energy of the line photons in the rest frame of the emitting material and $`gE_{\mathrm{em}}=E_{\mathrm{obs}}`$. From the relativistic invariance $`I_\nu /\nu ^3`$ (see explanations in Ref. , pages 897-902), we have $`I(E_{\mathrm{obs}})=(\nu _\mathrm{o}/\nu _\mathrm{e})^3I(E_{\mathrm{em}})=g^3I(E_{\mathrm{em}})=g^4ϵ(r)\delta (E_{\mathrm{obs}}gE_0)`$, and thus the total observed flux distribution of the line is given by

$$F(E_{\mathrm{obs}})_{r_{\mathrm{in}}}^{r_{\mathrm{out}}}ϵ(r)g^4\delta (E_{\mathrm{obs}}gE_0)𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{obs}},(r_{\mathrm{in}}rr_{\mathrm{out}}).$$
(26)
This is what is plotted in the graphs of next Section.

## 3 Line Profiles

Theoretical emission line profiles produced in the inner region of accretion discs around black holes have been calculated by several authors, see for instance Refs. . The analysis of Section 2 and Section 2.3 has shown that there are two main factors producing differences between the line profiles emitted from the disc extending down within a boson star or the usually considered one accreting around a Schwarzschild black hole:

1. The gravitational potential of a boson star is less deeper than that of a Schwarzschild black hole in the innermost region ($`r<15r_\mathrm{g}`$).
2. The rotation velocity of the disc around a boson star is smaller than that of the disc around a Schwarzschild black at the inner region with $`r<25r_\mathrm{g}`$

Figures 4-7 illustrate the line profiles in these two different situations using a completely relativistic calculation with a large range of parameters. Details of the code used can be found in references . These profiles correspond to the inner disc annulus with $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=6r_g`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=30r_g`$ (Fig. 4 for $`\alpha =2`$ and Fig. 5 for $`\alpha =3`$) or with $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=2r_g`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=30r_g`$ (Fig. 6 for $`\alpha =2`$ and Fig. 7 for $`\alpha =3`$) in the case of a BS-AD (solid lines); or with $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=6r_g`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=30r_g`$ in the case of a SchBH-AD (dotted lines). All the lines are normalized by their line flux.

These are the main features of our results:

* The lines emitted from the inner region of a BS-AD are somewhat narrower than those emitted from the inner region of a SchBH-AD. The red wing of the lines emitted from the inner region of a BS-AD does not extend to extremely low energy as that from a SchBH-AD because 1) the gravitational shifting of line photons (a factor of $`\sqrt{B(r)}`$) emitted from the inner region of BS-AD is much less than that from the inner region of SchBH-AD (see Fig. 1 and 2) the Doppler redshifts of line photons in the case of BS-AD is also less than that in the case of SchBH-AD, since the rotating velocity of the inner disc is much smaller in the former case (see also Fig. 3). The high energy blueward extent of the lines emitted from the inner region of BS-AD is determined by the inclination angle of the disc, which is similar to the case of SchBH-AD. However, for the same inclination angle, in the case of BS-AD, the blue horn extends to a larger energy than that in the case of SchBH-AD, since the former case suffers less gravitational redshifts.
* Generally, the line profiles emitted from BS-AD appears to have more peaks than that emitted from SchBH-AD (see Figs. 4-7). For very small inclination angles (e.g. $`1^0`$, see upper left panel in Figs. 4-7), the line emitted from the inner region of BS-AD is double peaked, and the low energy (more intense) peak is due to the emission from the inner edge where the gravitational shifting is the dominant factor (the transverse Doppler shifting is not large at the inner edge). The line from the inner region of SchBH-AD, on the contrary, tends to a single broad peak (and less intense) with skewed red wings due to much deeper gravitational potential and larger rotating velocity of the disc material near the marginal stable orbit.
* In discs with large inclination angles (e.g. $`>15^0`$), the line profiles emitted from the inner region of BS-AD may have more peaks. A typical case with inclination angle $`\theta _\mathrm{o}=30^0`$ is illustrated in the left bottom panel in Fig. 4: the profile for the inner region of a BS-AD has totally four local maxima compared to the only two local maxima for the case of SchBH-AD. From right to left, the first and the third maximum are due to the line emission in the outer part of the annulus \[with $`r(vv_{\mathrm{max}})`$\]. There are small displacements between these two maxima and the corresponding two maxima in the case of SchBH-AD. The second and the fourth maximum are due to the line emission from the inner part of the annulus \[with $`r(v\stackrel{<}{}v_{\mathrm{max}})`$\]. There are no such two corresponding peaks in the case of SchBH-AD because combined effects of the much deeper gravitational potential of the black hole and the larger disc rotation velocity shifts the line photons to lower or higher energy and smooth the line profile to the skewed one.

## 4 Concluding remarks

Observations of the central regions of active galaxies already exist. For some of them, the Iron K$`\alpha `$ profile could be measured and interesting conclusions can be already drawn. For instance, given the observations of MCG-6-30-15, in which the red wing of the Fe K$`\alpha `$ extends down to energy of 2-3 keV , the computations of this paper have clearly shown that the central object in this galaxy cannot be a non-rotating massive boson star. It would be of interest, though, to study more complicated cases of accretion discs, particularly those around rotating boson stars. The observational data will be very much improved with forthcoming technologies. The NASA Constellation-X  mission, to be launched in 2008, is optimized to study the iron K$`\alpha `$ line features and will determine the black hole mass and spin for a large number of systems. A detection of several peaks at lower energies, or of intense double peaks in faced on galaxies could be an impressive indication of a boson star nucleus. More importantly, this paper gives a new way to examine an interesting theoretical construct with real astrophysical data, helping to elevate the boson star concept to a falsifiable level.

## Acknowledgments

YL thanks the hospitality of the Astrophysical Sciences Department of Princeton University. DFT acknowledges support from Fundación Antorchas, CONICET, and the Physics Department of Princeton University.


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# Solitons in Triangular and Honeycomb Dynamical Lattices with the Cubic Nonlinearity

## I Introduction

In the past decade, energy self-localization in nonlinear dynamical lattices, leading to the formation of soliton-like intrinsic localized modes (ILMs), has become a topic of intense theoretical and experimental research. Much of this work has already been summarized in several reviews . It was proposed that this mechanism would be relevant to a number of effects such as nonexponential energy relaxation in solids , local denaturation of the DNA double strand , behavior of amorphous materials , propagation of light beams in coupled optical waveguides  or the self-trapping of vibrational energy in proteins , among others. ILMs also have potential significance in some crystals, like acetanilide and related organics . The theoretical efforts were complemented by a number of important experimental works suggesting the presence and importance of the ILMs in magnetic  and complex electronic materials , DNA denaturation , as well as in coupled optical waveguide arrays  and Josephson ladders .

A ubiquitous model system for the study of ILMs is the discrete nonlinear Schrödinger (DNLS) equation (see e.g., the review  and references therein). Within the framework of this model and, more generally, for Klein-Gordon lattices, it has recently been recognized that physically realistic setups require consideration of the ILM dynamics in higher spatial dimensions . In the most straightforward two-dimensional (2D) case, almost all of these studies, with the exception of Refs.  were performed for square lattices. However, it was stressed in Ref.  that non-square geometries may be relevant to a variety of applications, ranging from the explanation of dark lines in natural crystals of muscovite mica, to sputtering (ejection of atoms from a crystal surface bombarded by high-energy particles), and, potentially, even to high-temperature superconductivity in layered cuprates. Besides that, it has been well recognized that triangular (TA) and hexagonal (or honeycomb, HC) lattices are relevant substrate structures in a number of chemical systems  and, especially, in photonic band-gap (PBG) crystals . Notice that, in the context of the PBG crystals, the relevance of nonlinear effects has been recently highlighted for a square diatomic lattice .

The above discussion suggests the relevance of a systematic study of ILMs in the paradigm DNLS model for TA and HC lattices. The aim of the present work is to address this issue (including the stability of the ILM solutions), for the 2D lattices with both short-range and long-range interactions. In section II we discuss the effects of the non-square lattice geometry on the fundamental ILM state (the one centered on a lattice site), and then explore effects of long-range interactions on this state. In section III, we expand our considerations to other classes of solutions, which are either more general ones, such as twisted modes, which are also known in square lattices, or represent states that are specific to the TA and HC structures, viz., discrete vortices. We identify stable fundamental vortices in the TA and HC lattices with vorticity (spin) $`S=3`$ and $`S=5`$, and with the hexagonal and honeycomb shape, respectively. Additionally, a triangular vortex is found in the HC lattice, but it is always unstable.

## II Fundamental intrinsic localized modes

### A The model

In this work we consider the two-dimensional DNLS equation with the on-site cubic nonlinearity,

$$i\dot{\psi }_{nm}=C\underset{n^{},m^{}}{}\psi _{n^{}m^{}}+kC\psi _{nm}|\psi _{nm}|^2\psi _{nm}\underset{n^{},m^{}}{}𝐊\left(h\sqrt{(nn^{})^2+(mm^{})^2}\right)\psi _{n^{}m^{}},$$
(1)
The subscripts ($`n,m`$) attached to the complex (envelope) field $`\psi `$ are two discrete spatial coordinates, $`C`$ is the constant of the linear coupling between nearest-neighbor sites, the summation over which is denoted by $`\mathrm{}`$, and $`k`$ is the coordination number (i.e., the number of the nearest neighbors), which takes the values $`k=6`$ for the TA lattice (see the left panel of Fig. 1), $`k=4`$ for the square lattice, and $`k=3`$ for the HC one (see the right panel of Fig. 1). The function $`𝐊`$ represents a kernel of the long-range linear coupling, and $`h1/\sqrt{C}`$ is the lattice spacing.

It is worth noting here that the TA network is a simple Bravais lattice with the coordinates of the grid nodes $`x_{nm}=h(n+m/2)`$ and $`y_{nm}=\sqrt{3}hm/2`$ (see also Ref. ). The same is true for the most commonly used square lattice, which has $`x_{nm}=nh`$, $`y_{nm}=mh`$, but not for the HC structure, a simple representation of which (for $`h=1`$) is $`x_{nm}=\sqrt{3}m`$ , $`y_{nm}=(1/4)\left[6n5+(1)^{n+m}\right]`$. More information on the latter structure (which also represents, for instance, the arrangement of carbon atoms in a layer of graphite) and its symmetries can be found in Ref. .

First, we will look for ILM solutions of the nearest-neighbor version of the model, setting $`𝐊0`$. Stationary solutions with a frequency $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ are sought for in the ordinary form (see e.g., Ref. ),

$$\psi _{nm}=\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Lambda }t)u_{nm}.$$
(2)
The substitution of Eq. (2) into Eq. (1) leads to a time-independent equation for the amplitudes $`u_{mn}`$. The stationary solution being known, one can perform the linear-stability analysis around it in the same way as it has been done for the square lattice , assuming a perturbed solution in the form

$$\psi _{nm}=\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Lambda }t)(u_{nm}+ϵw_{nm}),$$
(3)
where $`w_{nm}`$ is a perturbation with an infinitesimal amplitude $`ϵ`$. Deriving the leading-order equation for $`w_{nm}`$, and looking for a relevant solution to it in the form $`w_{nm}=a_{nm}\mathrm{exp}(i\omega t)+b_{nm}\mathrm{exp}(i\omega _{nm}^{}t)`$ (where the eigenfrequency $`\omega `$ is, generally speaking, complex), one arrives at an eigenvalue problem for $`\{\omega ,(a_{nm},b_{nm}^{})\}`$:

$`\omega a_{nm}`$ $`=`$ $`C{\displaystyle \underset{<n^{},m^{}>}{}}a_{n^{},m^{}}+kCa_{nm}2|u_{nm}|^2a_{nm}+\mathrm{\Lambda }a_{nm}u_{nm}^2b_{nm}^{},`$ (4)
$`\omega ^{}b_{nm}`$ $`=`$ $`C{\displaystyle \underset{<n^{},m^{}>}{}}b_{n^{},m^{}}+kCb_{nm}2|u_{nm}|^2b_{nm}+\mathrm{\Lambda }b_{nm}u_{n,m}^2a_{nm}^{}.`$ (5)
The inclusion of long-range effects into the linear-stability equations is straightforward. As the long-range coupling is accounted for by a linear operator acting on the complex field, terms $`𝐊\left(h\sqrt{(nn^{})^2+(mm^{})^2}\right)a_{n^{}m^{}}`$ and $`𝐊\left(h\sqrt{(nn^{})^2+(mm^{})^2}\right)b_{n^{}m^{}}`$ are to be added to Eqs. (4) and (5), respectively.

### B ILMs in the models with the nearest-neighbor interactions

Fundamental (single-site-centered) ILM solutions to the stationary equations were constructed by means of a Newton-type method, adjusted to the non-square geometry of the TA and HC lattice. For the results presented herein, we fix the frequency to be $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$ and vary the coupling constant $`C`$, as one of the two parameters ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`C`$) can always be scaled out from the stationary equations. We started from obvious single-site solutions (with $`|u|=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}1`$) at the anti-continuum limit corresponding to $`C=0`$ , and then continued the solution to finite $`C`$. Subsequently, the stability analysis was performed using Eqs. (4)-(5) for the corresponding lattice.

Typical examples of stable and unstable fundamental ILMs found in both the TA and HC lattices are displayed, by means of contour plots, in Fig. 2. The top panel of the figure shows, respectively, stable and unstable solutions, together with the associated spectral-plane diagrams (showing the imaginary vs. real parts of the eigenfrequencies), for the TA lattice with $`C=0.1`$ (top subplots) and $`C=0.7`$ (bottom subplots). Stable and unstable solutions in the HC lattice are shown in the bottom panel of Fig. 2 for $`C=0.1`$ (top subplots) and at $`C=1.6`$ (bottom subplots).

A natural way to understand the stability of the ILMs is to trace the evolution and bifurcations of the eigenfrequencies and associated eigenmodes with the increase of the nearest-neighbor coupling $`C`$. For the square lattice, we find, in line with results of Refs. , that a bifurcation generating an internal mode from the edge of the continuous spectrum (the edge is at $`\omega =\mathrm{\Lambda }1`$) in the corresponding ILM occurs at a critical value $`C=0.4486`$. As the coupling is further increased, the pair of the corresponding eigenfrequencies moves towards the origin of the spectral plane, where they collide and bifurcate into an unstable pair of imaginary eigenfrequencies at $`C=\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (i.e., at $`C1`$ in the present notation), so that the ILM in the square lattice is unstable for $`C>1`$.

In the TA and HC lattices, the scenario is found to be quite similar. For the former lattice, the bifurcation of the two eigenfrequencies from the continuous band edge (which is depicted by the dash-dotted line) and their trajectory, as they change from real, i.e., stable (the solid line) into imaginary, i.e., unstable (the dashed line), are shown in the top panel of Fig. 3. The bottom panel shows the same trajectory for the HC lattice. The pair of eigenvalues bifurcates at $`C=0.2974`$ in the TA lattice, and they reach the origin, giving rise to the instability, at a point close to $`C=0.63`$. In the HC lattice, the bifurcation giving rise to the originally stable eigenvalues occurs at $`C=0.6247`$; they collide at the origin and become unstable at $`C=1.505`$.

One can clearly identify the effect of geometry in these results. In particular, since the instability occurs beyond the critical values of the coupling, it is the linear interaction between the neighbors that drives it. Consequently, since the coordination numbers for the different lattices are ordered as $`k_{\mathrm{triang}}>k_{\mathrm{square}}>k_{\mathrm{honey}}`$, the instability thresholds (critical values of the coupling constant) for these lattices should be ordered conversely, $`C_{\mathrm{triang}}^{(\mathrm{cr})}<C_{\mathrm{square}}^{(\mathrm{cr})}<C_{\mathrm{honey}}^{(\mathrm{cr})}`$. A similar understanding of the effect of the coordination number on the norm of the solution, $`N_{m,n}\left|u_{mn}\right|^2`$, justifies the results displayed in Fig. 4: the larger number of neighbors endows the TA branch (solid line) with a larger norm than the square one (dash-dotted), which, in turn, has a larger norm than the HC lattice (dashed).

### C ILMs in the lattices with the long-range interaction

Recently, a lattice model with a long-range coupling, which is relevant to magnon-phonon, magnon-libron and exciton-photon interactions, was introduced in Ref. . In the framework of this model, it has been concluded that the relevant coupling kernel \[see Eq.(1)\] is

$$𝐊\left(h\sqrt{(nn^{})^2+(mm^{})^2}\right)=F_0K_0\left(\alpha h\sqrt{(nn^{})^2+(mm^{})^2}\right),$$
(6)
where $`F_0`$ is an amplitude of the kernel, $`\alpha ^1`$ measures the range of the interaction, and $`K_0`$ is the modified Bessel function. We will use this kernel below.

Inserting the kernel (6) into Eq. (1), one can see how the behavior of the branch is modified as a function of $`F_0`$ for a given fixed value of the nearest-neighbor coupling $`C`$. Notice that similar results (but on a logarithmic scale) will be obtained if $`\alpha `$ is varied, while $`F_0`$ is kept fixed, as it was detailed in Ref. . Thus, we fix $`\alpha =0.1`$ hereafter.

In Fig. 5, we show the evolution of the numerically found internal-mode eigenvalues of ILM as a function of $`F_0`$, for fixed $`C=0.1`$ . It can be observed that the increase of $`F_0`$ leads to an instability for $`F_0>0.01425`$. The bottom panel shows the configuration and its internal-eigenmode frequency for $`F_0=0.015`$, when the configuration is already unstable. Carefully zooming into the ILM’s in the case of long-range interactions (data not shown here), one can notice a “tail” of the ILM, much longer than the size of the ILM in the case of the nearest-neighbor interaction, which is a natural consequence of the nonlocal character of the interaction in the present case. For $`F_0>0`$, we thus conclude that the long-range interaction “cooperates” with the short-range one, lowering the instability threshold. On the contrary, numerical results for $`F_0<0`$ show that the onset of the instability is delayed when the long- and short-range interactions compete with each other (see also Ref. ).

One can extend the above considerations to the case where both $`F_0`$ and $`C`$ are varied and construct two-parameter diagrams, separating stability and instability regions. An example is shown for the TA lattice in Fig. 6. For a fixed $`C`$, the critical value $`\left(F_0\right)_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ was identified, beyond which the ILM is unstable. Thus, in Fig. 6 ILM’s are stable below the curve and unstable above it.

## III Multiple-Site ILM’s

We now turn our attention to solutions comprising many sites of the lattice. In this case too, the solutions are initially constructed in the anti-continuum limit $`C=0`$, and then extended through continuation to finite values of $`C`$.

### A Twisted localized modes

Firstly, we examine the so-called twisted localized modes (TLMs), which were originally introduced, in the context of 1D lattices, in Refs. . Later, they were studied in more detail in Ref. , and their stability was analyzed in Ref. . They were subsequently used to construct topologically charged 2D solitons (vortices) in the square-lattice DNLS equation in .

In the case of the square lattice, and subject to the same normalization as adopted above, i.e., with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$, TLMs are found to be stable for $`C<0.125`$. If the coupling exceeds this critical value, an oscillatory instability, which is manifested through a quartet of complex eigenvalues , arises due to the collision of the TLM’s internal mode with the continuous spectrum (the two have opposite Krein signatures ), as it has been detailed in Ref. . The same scenario is found to occur in the TA lattice. However, in the latter case the oscillatory instability sets in at $`C0.1`$, and the destabilization is a result of the collision of the eigenvalues with those that have (slightly) bifurcated from the continuous spectrum (rather than with the edge of the continuous spectrum at $`\omega =1`$, as in the square lattice).

Similarly, in the HC lattice, the instability of TLMs sets in at $`C=0.1375`$. Notice that the instability thresholds follow the same ordering as the ones discussed in the previous section. This can be justified by a similar line of arguments as given before. The TLM in the TA lattice (and its stability) is displayed in the top panel of Fig. 7 for $`C=0.2`$, which exceeds the instability threshold. The bottom panel of the figure shows the variation (as a function of the coupling $`C`$) of the critical eigenfrequency. The real stable eigenfrequency, and the imaginary part of the unstable ones, after the threshold has been crossed, are shown, respectively, by solid and dashed lines. Figure 8 displays analogous results for the HC lattice. The solution is shown at $`C=0.2`$ in the top panel.

It should be remarked that, in the 2D lattice, the TLMs are solutions carrying vorticity (topological charge) $`S=1`$  (although they are different from vortices proper, see below). The simplest way to see this is by recognizing that TLM configurations emulate the continuum-limit expression $`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$, where $`\theta `$ is the angular coordinate in the 2D plane, i.e., the real part of $`\mathrm{exp}(i\theta )`$, the latter expression carrying vorticity $`1`$. It should also be added that, after the onset of the oscillatory instability, TLM solutions have been found to transform themselves into the fundamental (single-site-centered) ILM configurations, which is possible as the topological charge is not a dynamical invariant in lattices .

### B Hexagonal and triangular vortex solitons

Going beyond TLMs, it is appropriate to consider possible lattice solitons which conform to the symmetry of the TA or HC lattice. In fact, these are the most specific dynamical modes supported by the lattices. An example of this sort in the TA lattice are “hexagonal” ILMs shown in Fig. 10 . The top panel of the figure shows the profile of these modes in the anti-continuum limit, and the bottom panel displays two actual examples of these modes. The top subplot shows the hexagonal ILM for $`C=0.038`$, when it is stable, while the bottom subplot shows the mode at $`C=0.218`$, after the onset of three distinct oscillatory instabilities. The first and second instabilities set in at $`C0.064`$ and $`C0.084`$ respectively, while the final eigenvalue quartet appears at $`C0.184`$.

Measuring the topological charge of this solution around the contour in the top panel of Fig. 9, we find (since each jump from $`+1`$ to $`1`$ can be identified as a $`\pi `$ phase change) that the whole solution has a total phase change of $`6\pi `$, hence its topological charge (vorticity, or “spin”) is $`S=3`$. Then, the presence of three oscillatory instabilities agrees with a recent conjecture , which states that the number of negative-Krein-sign eigenvalues (and hence the number of potential oscillatory instabilities) coincides with the topological charge of the 2D lattice soliton. However, if one examines more carefully the stability picture, one finds that, due to the symmetry of the solution, two of these eigenvalues have multiplicity $`2`$. Hence, the conjecture needs to be refined, to take into regard the potential presence of symmetries. The thus revised conjecture states that the topological charge of the solution should be equal to the geometric (but not necessarily algebraic) multiplicity of the eigenvalues with negative Krein signature.

It is natural to ask then to what configuration this hexagonal ILM will relax once it becomes unstable. To address the issue, we performed direct numerical simulations for $`C=0.218`$. Results are shown in our subplots of Fig. 10. In particular, the top left panel shows the solution at $`t=200`$ (the configuration at $`t=0`$ was the unstable hexagonal ILM). It can clearly be observed that the instability that sets in around $`t50`$ (according to the other three subplots) transforms the hexagonal vortex into a fundamental (zero-vorticity) ILM; recall that such an outcome of the instability development is possible because the vorticity is not conserved in lattice systems .

For the HC lattice, a vortex soliton of a triangular form was found, see an example in Fig. 11 for $`C=0.09`$. We have found that this solution is unstable for all values of $`C`$.

Another vortex soliton, with a honeycomb shape, was also found in the HC lattice, see Fig. 12. This one is stable at a sufficiently weak coupling. If a contour is drawn around this solution (shown in the top panel of the figure for the anti-continuum limit), the net phase change is found to be $`10\pi `$, hence the corresponding topological charge is $`S=5`$. In accordance with the conjecture mentioned above, when the solution is stable, we find five internal modes with negative Krein signature. These modes eventually lead, as the coupling is increased, to five oscillatory instabilities. In the bottom panel of Fig. 12, the top subplot shows the case with $`C=0.0475`$, when the honeycomb-shaped vortex soliton in the HC lattice is linearly stable. The bottom subplot features the presence of five eigenvalue quartets in the case $`C=0.43`$, when all five oscillatory instabilities have been activated. The first instability occurs at $`C=0.085`$, the second at $`0.1`$, the third at $`0.1375`$, the fourth at $`0.2025`$, and the fifth sets in at $`C=0.4025`$.

To illustrate the result of the development of the instability of the latter vortex in the case in which it is unstable, we have again resorted to direct numerical integration of Eq. (1). An example is shown in Fig. 13 for $`C=0.43`$. At $`t500`$, only one main pulse is sustained. Hence, in this case too, the multiply charged topological soliton is transformed, through the instability, into the stable (for this value of $`C`$) fundamental zero-vorticity ILM.

## IV Conclusion

In this work, we have studied a paradigm nonlinear lattice dynamical model, namely the DNLS equation, in two spatial dimensions for non-square lattices. The triangular and honeycomb networks were considered, as the most important examples of Bravais and non-Bravais 2D lattices, which are relevant to chemical and optical applications.

In the case of nearest-neighbor interactions, it was found that the instability thresholds for the fundamental solution centered at a single lattice site depend on the coordination number. The instability appears in the triangle lattice at a smaller value of the coupling constant than in the square lattice, while the opposite is true for the honeycomb lattice. The effect of the long-range interactions was also examined in this context. It was found that these interactions accelerate or delay the onset of the instability if they have the same sign as the nearest-neighbor coupling, or the opposite sign. Diagrams in the two-parameter plane were constructed, identifying regions of stability and instability in the presence of both the short- and long-range coupling.

More complicated lattice solitons, which essentially extend to several lattice sites, were also examined. A prototypical example of the extended solitons are twisted modes, for which the phenomenology was found to be similar to that in the square lattice, but with, once again, appropriately shifted thresholds. We have also examined solutions with a higher topological charge, which play the role of fundamental vortices in the triangular and honeycomb lattices, their vorticity being, respectively, $`S=3`$ and $`S=5`$. Stability of these vortices was studied in detail. When instabilities occurred, their outcome was examined by means of direct time integration, showing the transformation into a simple fundamental soliton with zero vorticity.

Further steps in the study of localized modes in these nonlinear lattices may address traveling discrete solitons, as well as generalization to the three-dimensional case. In terms of applications, a relevant object are nonlinear photonic band-gap crystals based on non-square lattices.

The authors are grateful to J.C. Eilbeck for a number of stimulating discussions.


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# Energy relaxation during hot–exciton transport in quantum wells: Direct observation by spatially resolved phonon–sideband spectroscopy

## Abstract

We investigate the energy relaxation of excitons during the real–space transport in ZnSe quantum wells by using microphotoluminescence with spatial resolution enhanced by a solid immersion lens. The spatial evolution of the LO–phonon sideband, originating from the LO–phonon assisted recombination of hot excitons, is measured directly. By calculating the LO–phonon assisted recombination probability, we obtain the nonthermal energy distribution of excitons and observe directly the energy relaxation of hot excitons during their transport. We find the excitons remain hot during their transport on a length scale of several micrometers. Thus, the excitonic transport on this scale cannot be described by classical diffusion.

Excitons and their dynamics determine most of the linear optical properties of a semiconductor quantum well (QW). For nonresonant excitation, excitons are generated in a QW with a nonzero center–of–mass kinetic energy. Such a hot–exciton injection is followed by the evolution of the hot–exciton distribution in energy space and real space towards equilibrium, i.e., by relaxation and transport. The excitonic transport can be divided into three essentially different regimes according to the relevant status of the relaxation, namely the transport before, during, and after the relaxation. The first regime extends up to the first step of the relaxation, i.e., the first phonon–emission event. Till then the exciton energy is conserved and one talks about ballistic transport (when no scattering occurs at all) or quasiballistic transport (only elastic scattering occurs).bookmitin  The duration of this process is as short as several picoseconds, determined by the phonon scattering time. The last transport regime starts when the excitons have reached quasi–equilibrium with the lattice. Since the typical relaxation time of hot excitons is several 100 ps,b571390 ; jcg184795  this transport regime can be observed only if the lifetime of the excitons is long enough. Because the energy distribution remains constant, one can apply a classical description using the diffusion equation.b4715601 . Up to now, this classical diffusion has been assumed to be the dominant process in excitonic transport in QWs.apl531937 ; b3910901 ; b423220 ; b451240 ; jap81536 ; apl74741 ; jap843611 ; apl74850  In this letter, we will show that generally the second regime, i.e., the transport during relaxation, dominates the excitonic transport. Such a process is composed of the simultaneous evolution of the exciton distributions in energy space and real space.

Hot excitons are difficult to be studied by conventional optical techniques. Since the photon momentum is very small, the direct coupling of the hot exciton with a much larger momentum to the photon is forbidden by momentum conservation. Only cold excitons that have finished the relaxation can couple to photons, resulting in the zero–phonon line (ZPL) in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. This invisibility of the hot excitons in the spectrum is the main obstacle of hot–exciton studies in conventional PL experiments, which exploit the ZPL.

In this letter, we show that an LO–phonon sideband (PSB) can be used as an ideal tool for direct investigation of the hot excitons. By performing spatially resolved PSB spectroscopy, we observe directly the energy relaxation of hot excitons during their real–space transport in ZnSe QWs. We find that the excitons remain hot on a length scale of several micrometers and that their energy distribution remains nonthermal during their lifetime–limited transport. Our result shows clearly that for nonresonant excitation, the excitonic transport cannot be described by classical diffusion.

The sample is a ZnSe (7.3 nm)/ZnSSe (10.7 nm) multiple QW grown by Metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. Figure 1 shows schematically the exciton formation and relaxation processes of the QW.b571390  After an optical excitation in the continuum, the generated electron–hole pairs rapidly form excitons assisted by LO–phonon emission within few picoseconds.l67128 ; b439354  The hot excitons then relax to the band minimum by acoustic–phonon emission. After relaxation, the cold excitons recombine radiatively, resulting in the ZPL. From ZPL spectroscopy, we have obtained indirect hints for the hot–exciton behavior.apl801391  As we discussed earlier, the hot excitons cannot directly couple to the photon due to the momentum difference. However, the LO phonon

can assist the hot exciton in coupling to the photon by taking away its momentum. The simultaneous well–defined energy loss to the LO phonon leads to the appearance of the PSB, as shown in Fig. 1. Since the spectral shape of the PSB reflects the kinetic–energy distribution of excitons,b571390 ; jcg184795 ; bookexciton  this LO–phonon assisted recombination process provides an ideal tool for direct investigation of hot excitons. Figure 2 shows several spectra of the PSB excited by a cw laser at various photon energies $`E_{\mathrm{exc}}`$. The PSB always appears in the photon–energy range between $`1E_{\mathrm{LO}}`$ (LO–phonon energy, 31.8 meV in this sample) below the ZPL and $`2E_{\mathrm{LO}}`$ below the $`E_{\mathrm{exc}}`$.

The shape of the PSB is related to the energy distribution of excitons, $`f(\epsilon )`$, by the LO–phonon assisted recombination probability, $`W(\epsilon )`$, i.e., $`f(\epsilon )=\mathrm{PSB}(\epsilon )/W(\epsilon )`$. In order to get the energy distribution from the PSB, we calculate $`W(\epsilon )`$. In the case of first order LO–phonon assisted luminescence, the recombination probability isbookexciton

$$W(\epsilon )|\underset{i}{}\frac{\psi _i(0)H}{\epsilon E_{\mathrm{LO}}}|^2,$$
(1)
where $`|\psi _i(0)|^2`$ is the oscillator strength of the optical transition from the state $`i`$ in dipole approximation. The summation is over all possible intermediate states. For $`1s`$ excitons, the main intermediate state is $`1s(K0)`$. $`H`$ is the Fröhlich scattering matrix element. Since we are only interested in the energy dependence of the recombination probability, we omit the energy–independent parameters, and get

$$W(\epsilon )|\frac{[1+(a_0q_c/2)^2]^2[1+(a_0q_v/2)^2]^2}{q(\epsilon E_{\mathrm{LO}})}|^2.$$
(2)
Here $`a_0`$ is the exciton Bohr radius, $`q`$ is the wave vector of the LO phonon, $`q_{c,v}=q(\mu /m_{c,v})`$, where $`\mu =m_cm_v/(m_c+m_v)`$. The inset of Fig. 2 shows the calculated result by using the parameters of ZnSe QW. We find an increase of the recombination probability with the exciton kinetic energy.

The spatially resolved PSB spectroscopy is performed with a solid immersion lens (SIL)–enhanced confocal $`\mu `$–PL system. The details of the system has been reported previously.apl801391  The sample is excited locally by a tunable cw laser through the objective, with an excitation spot of about 200 nm half width at half maximum. The size of the pinhole–defined detection spot is 460 nm in diameter. Although the resolution of this system is lower than that of a scanning near field optical microscope (SNOM) using coated fiber tips, the collection efficiency is much higher than for the latter. Since the PSB is much weaker than the ZPL (see Fig. 1), a high collection efficiency is paramount for the PSB spectroscopy. One can improve the collection efficiency of a SNOM by using an uncoated fiber tip,apl76203  but simultaneously the spatial resolution drops. Furthermore, a SNOM experiment has another disadvantage: one cannot detect spectra from positions outside of the excitation spot since local excitation and detection are achieved by the same fiber tip. In contrast, by moving the pinhole in the image plane of the microscope we can detect spectra from positions outside of the excitation spot in a well–defined way. This enables us to investigate the transport rather directly.

By scanning the pinhole thus varying the distance between the excitation and detection spots, $`d`$, we detect the spatially resolved PSB spectra, as shown in the left part of Fig. 3. With increasing the $`d`$, we observe the change of the PSB spectral shape. From these PSB spectra, we deduce the kinetic–energy distributions of the excitons as shown in the right part of Fig. 3.

The energy relaxation of the nonthermal excitons during the transport is clearly observed. We note that after a transport of 1380 nm, the exciton distribution is still nonthermal.

From the kinetic–energy distribution, we calculate the average kinetic energy of the excitons. The spatial profiles of the average kinetic energy are shown in Fig. 4

for several values of $`E_{\mathrm{ini}}`$, the initial kinetic energy of the excitons for the relaxation and transport processes. Such a quantity is well–defined by $`E_{\mathrm{exc}}`$ (see Fig. 1). We find the reduction of the average energy is only $`20\%`$ after a transport of about 1500 nm. By comparing the slopes of the curves in Fig. 4, we also find that the spatial energy relaxation is slower for excitons with less kinetic energy. This feature is consistent with the fact that the rate of the acoustic–phonon emission, being the dominant relaxation mechanism, increases with the exciton energy.b316552  In our experiment, we cannot measure the average energy of excitons at a position further than 1500 nm from the excitation spot since the signal is too weak. However, we can conclude from the earlier two facts that the excitonic transport on a length scale of at least several micrometers is coupled to the energy relaxation. Although the experiment is done on ZnSe QWs, the conclusion is qualitatively general among other structures. In GaAs QW, the hot–exciton transport feature is anticipated to be even more pronounced due to the weaker Fröhlich coupling (thus longer energy–relaxation time) and the generally higher sample quality (e.g., better interface quality thus higher mobility). Up to now, excitonic transport in QWs after hot–exciton injection was generally discussed in terms of classical diffusion. For example, excitonic transport experiments of GaAs QWs performed on micrometer length scale were modelled by diffusion equation, although the carriers are excited with an excess energy of several 100 meV.apl531937 ; b3910901 ; b423220 ; b451240  In investigations of ZnSe based QWs, diffusion length and diffusivity of excitons were also deduced based on diffusion equations.jap81536 ; apl74741 ; jap843611  In the InGaN/GaN system, the transport within 1 $`\mu `$m was analyzed by neglecting relaxation/thermalization processes.apl74850  Our experiment shows clearly that in the case of nonresonant excitation, the excitons remain hot and nonthermal on a length scale of several micrometers, thus the transport is not a classical diffusion.

In summary, we show that the LO–phonon assisted recombination process can be used for direct investigation of hot excitons. By performing spatially resolved PSB spectroscopy, we observe directly the spatial evolution of the nonthermal kinetic–energy distribution of excitons. We find that at low temperatures the excitonic transport on a length scale of several micrometers is coupled to the energy relaxation, thus cannot be described as a classical diffusion process.

We gratefully acknowledge the growth of excellent samples by the group of M. Heuken (RWTH Aachen), and useful discussion with H. Giessen (Universität Bonn). This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Center of Functional Nanostructures (CFN).


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# Large Magellanic Cloud Bump Cepheids: Probing the Stellar Mass-Luminosity Relation

## 1 Introduction

Cepheids are classical distance indicators. Their tight conformity to a period-luminosity relationship has made them the fundamental basis of the extra-galactic distance scale and hence integral to observational cosmology. Ideally, we would like to have theoretical models capable of accurately predicting the period-luminosity relation and its metallicity dependence. The regularity of Cepheid pulsation provides a set of well defined observational parameters with which to confront the predictions of theoretical models of stellar pulsations. In this way, Cepheids provide us the ability to closely scrutinise the accuracy of input physics within pulsation models.

Cepheid light curves display a variety of shapes and amplitudes that are period dependent (the Hertzsprung (1926) progression). A feature of the lightcurves of some Cepheids is a pronounced bump either preceding or following maximum. The bump arises from resonance between the fundamental mode and second overtone. This resonance becomes particularly prominent when the period ratio of these two modes ($`P_0/P_2`$=$`P_{02}`$) is $`2`$.

The bump enables us to break the degeneracy that exists between observable quantities; lightcurve shape, amplitude, period and the intrinsic properties; mass, luminosity and temperature of the Cepheid. Such a technique was first proposed by Stobie (1969) and was demonstrated by Wood, Arnold, & Sebo (1997)(hereafter Paper 1) in their non-linear pulsation analysis of the LMC bump Cepheid HV 905.

Through the analysis of bump Cepheids we have a probe of the stellar mass-luminosity (M-L) relation for core He-burning stars. The M-L relation depends critically on the size of the central He core established (largely) during the course of the star’s main-sequence lifetime. The size of the He core is in turn, determined by the extent of convection in the vicinity of the convective core.

The treatment of convection remains the weakest point in our description of massive stars. Ongoing debate focuses on the degree of extension to the convective core beyond that predicted by standard, non-rotating stellar evolution models. Extension of the convective core has traditionally been discussed in terms of convective core overshoot (CCO) in the formalism of mixing-length theory. The CCO parameter, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$, sets the height (as a fraction of the pressure scale height) to which gas packets from the convective core rise into the formally convectively stable region surrounding the core.

Mixing in the vicinity of the convective core produces a number of important evolutionary changes that are expressed in a stellar population. It expands the amount of H available to the core and hence extends the main-sequence lifetime. The star consequently develops a more massive He core and the subsequent post-main-sequence evolution occurs at a more rapid pace and at higher luminosities. That is, the M-L relation is significantly more luminous than that of classical models.

Numerous studies have attempted to ascertain the efficiency of CCO from a theoretical basis with results that range from negligible to substantial (see e.g. Bressan, Chiosi, & Bertelli (1981)). An analytical approach appears limited given the complexity of the phenomenon. Laboratory fluid dynamics shows that an understanding of convective mixing requires a description of the turbulence field at all scales, a problem that will require detailed hydrodynamical modelling.

Observations are required to ascertain the amount of CCO to apply in stellar evolutionary models. Many studies have sought to do so through the study of young cluster populations (most recently Barmina et al. (2002); Keller, Da Costa, & Bessell (2001)) and from the broader field population (Beaulieu et al., 2001; Cordier et al., 2002) of the Magellanic Clouds. Whilst large uncertainties exist in the derived values of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$, the broad consensus of these studies is the necessity of some level of CCO.

Another way of quantifying $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ is to use masses and luminosities of Cepheids. Dynamical masses for Cepheids are presented by Evans et al. (1997, 1998) and Bohm-Vitense et al. (1997a, b). Derived masses have considerable uncertainties but the combined sample (Evans et al., 1998) indicates the necessity for some level of CCO.

This study aims to quantitatively establish the level of CCO by an examination of the M-L relation of a sample of bump Cepheids from the LMC. A consistent result of pulsation modelling is that the M-L relation for Cepheids is significantly brighter than predicted by classical stellar evolution. The study of the bump Cepheid HV905 in Paper 1 found a bump mass 29% lower than that required by evolutionary models without CCO. Recently, Bono, Castellani, & Marconi (2002) applied non-linear modelling techniques that incorporate turbulent convection to two LMC bump Cepheids. They found that an acceptable match between model and observed lightcurves required a mass-luminosity relation in which stars are $``$15% lower in mass than predicted by evolutionary models that neglect convective core overshoot. Linear pulsation analyses (Sebo & Wood, 1995; Kanbur & Simon, 1994) similarly require pulsation masses for Cepheids that are significantly lower than evolution masses.

## 2 Observations

Photometry for the LMC bump Cepheids considered here is taken from the MACHO photometric database. Stars are only considered from the central bar region (the top 22 MACHO fields) in which standardised photometry exists. Magnitudes in the MACHO B and R passbands have been converted to Kron-Cousins $`V`$ and $`R`$ using existing transofromations described in Alcock et al. (1999). Photometric uncertainties are quoted as $`\pm 0.035`$ mag in zero point and $`V`$$``$$`R`$ colour. The observed Cepheids are listed in Table 1.

## 3 Model Details

Details of the non-linear pulsation code are given in Paper 1. The opacities have been updated to OPAL 96 (Iglesias & Rogers, 1996), supplemented at low temperatures by those of Alexander & Ferguson (1994). Convective energy transport was included by means of mixing-length theory with the assumption of a mixing length of 1.6 pressure scale heights. A linear non-adiabatic code was used to derive the starting model for each simulation. Models contained 460 mass points outside an inner radius of 0.3 R. Transformation of $`L`$ and $`T_{eff}`$ into $`V`$ and $`V`$$``$$`R`$ of our observations was made through interpolation into a grid of synthetically derived colours and bolometric corrections. The colors were computed for the revised Kurucz (1993) fluxes used in Bessell, Castelli, & Plez (1998) and described in more detail in Castelli (1999). Magnitudes were computed through energy integration using the passbands of Bessell (1990). We computed non-linear models at a fixed composition of Y=0.27 and Z=0.008 found for young objects in the LMC (Russell & Bessell, 1989).

In contrast to Bono, Castellani, & Marconi (2002), our method uses only stellar pulsation and stellar atmosphere theory, we do not make recourse to existing mass-luminosity (M-L) relations. Once abundance is assumed three parameters, $`M`$, $`L`$ and $`T_{eff}`$ remain to characterise the the pulsating envelope of each Cepheid. Thus three conditions are required to determine these quantities.

The first condition is that the fundamental pulsation period of the starting linear models must satisfy the observed period of the Cepheid. The other two conditions come from fitting non-linear model lightcurves to the observations. The two parameters we chose as independent variables for the lightcurve fit were $`T_{eff}`$ and P02, the ratio of the fundamental to second overtone periods. The amplitude of pulsation is dependent on the star’s temperature relative to the blue edge of the IS. Hence the amplitude of pulsation is a strong constraint on $`T_{eff}`$. The phase of the bump is dependent on P02 and furthermore, is independent of the pulsation amplitude (Simon & Lee, 1981).

To commence the modelling process values of $`T_{eff}`$ and P02 were specified and parameters $`L`$ and $`M`$ were iterated until the required linear period and P02 were produced. Once model parameters were determined, the static model was perturbed with the eigenfunction of the linear adiabatic fundamental mode. The perturbed model was run until the kinetic energy of the pulsation reached a limit cycle.

Our models incorporate convective energy transfer through the mixing length approximation. This is known to be only a partial description of the internal physics in a Cepheid atmosphere. In particular, at cooler temperatures as the convective regions become larger and the dynamical timescale becomes a significant fraction of the pulsation period our models are expected to become increasingly divergent. This is a well known shortcoming of models that implement the mixing-length approximation. Whilst our models can match the blue edge of the instability strip (IS) they can not reproduce its red edge. In the vicinity of the red edge the amplitude of pulsation is too high, a feature that can not be circumvented by modification of artificial viscosity parameters. To produce a physical red edge an additional form of energy dissipation is required. Convective processes are the likely cause of this. Yecko, Kollath, & Buchler (1998) shows that models with a parametrised formulation of turbulent convective mixing are able to match the fundamental and first overtone instability strips through a fine tuning of parameters.

Yecko et al. consider the case of a 5M star modeled both with mixing-length approximation and with turbulent convection. Consideration of the model growth rates (their figure 11) shows insignificant differences over the bluest 1/4 of the IS, becoming increasingly divergent thereafter. In order to avoid as much as possible the short comings of the mixing-length approach we have sought bump Cepheids close to the blue edge of the IS (see Fig. 1).

## 4 Results

In figures 2 & 3 we show the effects of variation of the two parameters $`T_{eff}`$ and P02. As we change P02 we modify the phase at which the bump is located. Similarly, as $`T_{eff}`$ is varied the amplitude is changed. The best fit to the observed light curve is shown in the central panel. Here for the purpose of illustration we show five models widely separated in parameter space. In the determination of the best model, however, we use a iterative chi-squared minimisation technique.

The offset of the model MV and observed $`V`$ light curves gives the apparent distance modulus. Having obtained a model that matches the $`V`$ light curve of each bump Cepheid, the observed $`V`$-$`R`$ colour curve was shifted onto the model intrinsic $`V`$-$`R`$ colour curve. The shift required to do so is the colour excess, EV-R, which can be converted to visual absorption, AV, using a standard reddening curve (AV=1.78E($`VR`$) was used). The true distance modulus can then be obtained from the apparent distance modulus. The best fit parameters for the Cepheids in our sample are given in Table 2.

Limits of *internal* accuracy in the determination of the best model solution arises from cycle-to-cycle variations in the model output. By monitoring on the order of 30 cycles we can quantify the uncertainty introduced by these model variations. The errors in the determined parameters are dominated by the uncertainty in P02. This becomes problematic towards lower masses as the bump amplitude diminishes. *Systematic* uncertainties dominate the total uncertainty however. The quoted photometric uncertainties for the MACHO photometry account for $`\pm `$0.1M in mass and $`\pm `$0.002 dex in luminosity. Error bars shown in figure 4 are the quadrature sum of systematic and internal uncertainties.

As stated above, a value of metallicity is adopted in our analysis. It is important to remark on the effects that varying this metallicity has on our models. An exploration of this has been presented by us in Paper 1. In this work, models were additionally constructed for solar and SMC metallicities. It was found that the models cannot be used to distinguish the abundance of the Cepheid with any meaningful uncertainty. If the abundance of our sample is assumed to lie in the range Z=0.006-0.01 and Y=0.25-0.29 the resulting error in the derived parameters from the uncertainty due to abundance is of similar magnitude as that reported from P02 and Teff.

A less constrainable systematic effect may arise from our treatment of convection. We note the work of Buchler et al. (1996) and Feuchtinger, Buchler & Kollath (2000) who find that the effects of convection are important even in the vicinity of the blue edge. Whilst a large degree of freedom is available in the internal parameters of turbulent convection models the magnitude of this possible systematic effect remains uncertain.

### 4.1 Reddenings and Distance Modulus

Another independent prediction of the bump Cepheid models is the reddening to each object. In figure 5 we present the histogram of determined reddenings. Our derived mean reddening is 0.08.

A number of studies of line-of-sight redddening to LMC stars have been presented in the literature. Bessell (1991) showed that the historically low values for reddening to the LMC ($`<E`$($`B`$$``$$`V`$)$`>`$0.03) were too low and used the Johnson & Morgan reddening-free $`Q`$ index and spectroscopic temperatures to show that the $`<`$E($`B`$$``$$`V`$)$`>`$0.12. Harris, Zaritsky, & Thompson (1997) use $`Q`$ to form a histogram of E($`BV`$) from a 2.8°2 region of the LMC. They find a mean reddening of 0.20 with a non-gaussian tail extending to higher E($`BV`$). Larsen, Clausen, & Storm (2000) report $`<`$E($`B`$$``$$`V`$)$`>=0.085`$. Zaritsky (1999) revisits the data of Harris et al. and reports a strong dependence of $`<`$E($`B`$$``$$`V`$)$`>`$ on the spectral type of objects used to define it. Namely, low extinctions result from red clump stars, high extinction from OB stars. Zaritsky proposes that is the result of a larger scale height for older stars, placing them statistically in lower reddening regions than the OB stars that reside in the dusty disk. With this background we find that our reddenings are applicable for objects within the LMC.

The mean LMC distance modulus shown in Figure 5 is 18.55$`\pm `$0.02. This in good agreement with recent analysis (18.57$`\pm `$0.14 from the compilation of Gibson 2000).

The consistency of our derived reddening and distance modulus with previous studies provides a validation to the input of our model. It means that the results we present here will be consistent with results derived from linear pulsation models. Linear pulsation models that utilize the observed colours, reddenings, apparent luminosity and distance modulus by Sebo & Wood (1995) do indeed show pulsation masses for LMC Cepheids that are similarly lower than evolution masses. This gives us confidence in the consistency of the linear and non-linear pulsation theory as well as the bolometric corrections and colour transformations.

### 4.2 The Mass-Luminosity Relation

By modelling the bump Cepheid sample we have independently determined both $`L`$ and $`M`$ for each object. We use these values to construct the mass-luminosity relation for core-He burning stars in the LMC. Figure 4 shows the mass-luminosity relationship described by our sample. Overlaid are the M-L relations (due to Fagotto et al. (1994) and Bressan (2001)) for three levels of convective core overshoot efficiency with Z=0.008 and Y=0.25.

The data are significantly more luminous than the predictions of standard “mild” convective core overshoot (i.e. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c=0.5`$). Figure 4 recommends a degree of convective core overshoot of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c=0.65\pm 0.03l/H_p`$. Put another way, our results favour a mass 19.5$`\pm 1.0`$% lower than classical evolutionary models.

The problem of reconciling mass determinations from the various techniques available has been a problem that has plagued the field. The many phases of debate, and their convergence, have been extensively discussed in the literature (see e.g. Cox (1980)). The longest standing of these, the bump and beat Cepheid mass discrepancy, has to a large part been resolved by Moskalik, Buchler, & Marom (1992) through the introduction of OPAL opacities. The discrepancy between pulsation and evolutionary mass has not been removed by improvements in input physics.

One possibility that has been suggested by Bono, Castellani, & Marconi (2002) is that mass loss is responsible for the reduction in mass. As opposed to the evolutionary models used in the study of Bono et al. that neglect mass loss, the models shown in figure 4 incorporate the mass loss prescription of de Jager et al. (1988). This is largely responsible for the curvature of the M-L relation towards higher masses. Furthermore, mass loss during the Cepheid phase does not appear to be enhanced from that expected from the de Jager description (Deasy, 1988). We conclude that mass loss alone can not explain the Cepheid mass discrepancy.

One Cepheid (MACHO 2.4661.3597: HV 905) has been the target of previous analysis in Paper 1. However, the current work uses updated OPAL opacities and improved low temperature opacities from Alexander & Ferguson (1994), and replaces bolometric corrections of Kurucz (1993) with those of Castelli (1999). The results from this previous work were $`M`$=5.15$`\pm `$0.35M and $`log(L/L_{})`$=3.69$`\pm `$0.01 (uncertainties determined post-fact from the details presented in Paper 1). Here we find $`M`$=5.62$`\pm `$0.22M and $`log(L/L_{})`$=3.701$`\pm `$0.004.

In their description of their non-linear pulsation models that incorporate turbulent convection, Bono, Marconi, & Stellingwerf (1999) compare their model output for HV 905 with that of Paper 1. They use the mass, luminosity, Teff and abundance in Paper 1 and retrieve a limit cycle lightcurve that is very similar in shape to that of Paper 1. In addition, the P02 differs by only 1% and the luminosity amplitude differs by 0.06-0.08 mag from that presented in Paper 1. This gives us confidence that our study is unaffected by our treatment of convection under the mixing length approximation.

Future refinement of the technique described here is possible through the comparison of observed radial velocity variations of bump Cepheids to those predicted by our model. This has the benefit of limiting systematic errors. At present, the accuracy of our technique is limited by systematic photometric uncertainties (in particular transformations of MACHO bandpasses and zeropoints). The radial velocity curve is a more robust output of the non-linear pulsation model. Radial velocities are more closely related to the dynamical processes within the stellar atmosphere than that of photometry which is more affected by temperature changes than dynamical effects. Work is currently underway by us to use radial velocity curves for bump Cepheids as a stringent test on our pulsation models. Models should be able to accurately reproduce all observational constraints (period, shapes of light *and* velocity curves). Such a critical examination of the dynamics of Cepheid pulsation offers the potential of further model refinement.

We note that demonstrating the convective core is of greater extent than the core defined by the Schwarzschild criterion does not determine its causation. Recent studies have shown that rotation can provide a natural way to bring about increased internal mixing and hence a larger core (Heger, Langer, & Woosley, 2000; Meynet & Maeder, 2000).

Attention to rotational mixing has been promoted by the findings of chemical abundance studies of A supergiants (Venn, 1995), B supergiants (Dufton et al., 2000), and main-sequence B stars (Daflon et al., 2001; Gies & Lambert, 1992) which imply a broad range of enhancements. This behavior is interpreted as arising from self-contamination with CN-cycled material prior to the first dredge-up. Such surface modifications can not be achieved through CCO.

Furthermore, the CNO abundances for a set of 10 SMC A supergiants have been studied by Venn (1999). These stars show a large range in N abundance enhancements ranging from negligible to levels greater than first dredge-up. The magnitude of enhancement is much greater than that found for a similar sample of Galactic A supergiants (Venn, 1995) which suggests a possible metallicity effect in the underlying physics of internal mixing.

Bump Cepheids of the SMC offer the opportunity to investigate the metallicity dependence of internal mixing. A greater level of internal mixing such as would be produced by generally higher stellar rotation velocities in the SMC (Venn, 1999) should result in a clear modification of the M-L relation. Work is underway to look for such effects.

## 5 Conclusions

In this study we have applied non-linear pulsation models to match the observed light and colour curves of 20 LMC bump Cepheids. We have been able to place tight constraints on the stellar parameters mass, luminosity and effective temperature as well as individual reddenings. We have described the mass-luminosity relation over the mass range of bump Cepheids. We find our sample is $``$20% more luminous for their mass predicted by stellar evolution models that do not incorporate extension to the convective core. Under the paradigm of convective core overshoot this amounts to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ of 0.65$`\pm `$0.03$`l/H_p`$. The models yield an LMC distance modulus of 18.55$`\pm `$0.02.

We thank A. Bressan et al. for providing us with unpublished evolutionary models for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$=1.0. We thank our referee Dr. Z. Kollath for his comments and personal calculations regarding systematic effects due to turbulent convection. Work performed by SCK was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-47.