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# The Dwarf Spheroidal Companions to M31: Variable Stars in Andromeda VI1footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under NASA Contract NAS 5-26555.

## 1 Introduction

Galactic dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) have been shown to be quite diverse in their star formation histories (e.g., Da Costa 1998; Grebel 1999). These galaxies generally also possess a range in metallicity among their stars. A detailed examination of these and other dwarf galaxies is important in understanding galaxy formation and gives insight into cosmology (e.g., Klypin et al. 1999). The diverse stellar populations in these systems is also reflected in their variable stars. dSphs contain significant numbers of RR Lyrae (RRL) implying an older ($`t>10`$ Gyr) stellar population. Contrary to Galactic globular clusters whose RRab stars can be classified into one of two Oosterhoff types (Oosterhoff 1939), the mean period of the RRab stars in a number of dSphs is “intermediate” between the two types. A second difference between Galactic globular clusters and dSphs as regards their variable star content, is the existence of anomalous Cepheids (ACs) in dSphs. Only one AC is known among the entire Galactic globular cluster population, V19 in NGC 5466 (Zinn & King 1982), but there exists at least one AC in every dSph surveyed for variable stars. These fundamental differences between dSphs and Galactic globular clusters are presumably indicative of the differences in the stellar populations of these systems.

Clearly, a large and diverse sample of variable stars in dSphs can contribute to the understanding of the underlying stellar populations in these systems. While there have been many detailed variability surveys for the Galactic dSphs (e.g., Kaluzny et al. 1995; Mateo, Fischer, & Krzeminski 1995; Siegel & Majewski 2000; Held et al. 2001; Bersier & Wood 2002), there are none available for the M31 dSph companions. In this paper we examine the variable star content of the M31 dSph Andromeda VI (And VI, also known as the Pegasus dSph). Armandroff, Jacoby, & Davies (1999, hereafter AJD99) found And VI to have a mean metallicity of $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58\pm 0.20`$ dex from the mean ($`V`$$`I`$) color of the red giant branch. This places And VI among the more metal–rich of the dSphs within the Local Group. AJD99 also derived a distance of $`775\pm 35`$ kpc for And VI from the $`I`$ magnitude of the tip of the red giant branch. A detailed analysis of the And VI color–magnitude diagram, based on HST/WFPC2 images, will be presented in Armandroff et al. (2002). Here, we present the discovery of 118 variables in And VI from that data; 111 RRL, 6 ACs, and 1 whose classification is uncertain. Light curves and mean properties are given for each variable. We then use these data to compare the properties of the And VI variables with those for other dSphs.

## 2 Observations and Reductions

As part of our GO program 8272, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged And VI with the WFPC2 instrument on 1999 October 25 and, with the same orientation, on 1999 October 27. For each set of observations, four 1100s exposures through the F555W filter and eight 1300s exposures through the F450W filter were taken. The second set of observations was offset slightly from the first set in order to aid in distinguishing real stars from image defects. The images were taken with a gain of 7 electrons/ADU. The raw frames were processed by the standard STScI pipeline. Each frame was separated into individual images for each CCD and the vignetted areas were trimmed using the limits defined in the WFPC2 Handbook.

### 2.1 Photometry

In order to create a star list for photometry that is relatively free of contamination by cosmic ray events, star detection was performed on a cleaned image. To do this, we used the Peter Stetson routine, montage ii. This program creates a median image from all available images. The advantage of this is that the median image eliminates nearly all of the cosmic rays and other defects that are found on the individual images. A search for stellar objects was then performed on the median image for each CCD using a full-width at half maximum of 1.6 pixels. Aperture photometry on these median images was then obtained using Stetson’s (1992) stand-alone version of daophot ii. An aperture radius of 2.0 pixels was used. The allstar routine was then employed to obtain profile–fitting photometry for the stars on the median images, adopting a fitting radius of 1.6 pixels. The point-spread functions for each CCD were obtained from Peter Stetson; they were created for reducing data in the Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project (Stetson et al. 1998). The objects that were fit by allstar on the median image were assumed to be stars and not image defects or resolved galaxies.

The master list of objects was then used by allframe (Stetson 1994) to obtain profile-fitting photometry for each individual CCD exposure. This program is designed to reduce all of the images simultaneously for each CCD. The resulting photometry was investigated for variable stars using the Stetson routine daomaster. daomaster compared the rms scatter in the photometric values to that expected from the photometric errors returned by the allframe program. The PC was searched for variable stars and only turned up a handful of candidate RRL with no ACs. Since this small number of RRL would add little to the final results, we decided to ignore the PC data.

### 2.2 CTE and Aperture Corrections

It is well known that the WFPC2 CCDs suffer from poor charge-transfer efficiency (CTE) which affects the photometry (Holtzman et al. 1995; Stetson 1998; Whitmore, Heyer, & Casertano 1999; Dolphin 2000). In order to correct for this effect we applied equations (2c) and (3c) from Whitmore, Heyer, & Casertano (1999) to the profile-fitting photometry for each frame.

To place the photometry on the system of Holtzman et al. (1995), aperture corrections are required to convert the profile–fit magnitudes to magnitudes within a 5 pixel radius aperture. As part of this process, a comparison of the profile–fit photometry for each individual frame to that for an adopted “reference” frame (the first image in the sequence for the first pointing) was carried out. This revealed that there were cyclic differences from frame–to–frame that followed the exposure sequence of the observations. As a result, we decided to determine the aperture correction for the adopted “reference” frame and base the aperture corrections for the other frames on the differences seen between the profile-fitting photometry of each frame as compared to the “reference” frame.

In order to do this, the difference between the 5 pixel radius aperture magnitudes from the “gcombined” frames222The gcombined frames were used because they have a higher signal-to-noise ratio and cosmic rays are eliminated. for each CCD (Armandroff et al. 2002) and the profile–fit magnitudes for the “reference” frame was then computed for those stars that had no neighbors within a 7 pixel radius. We then generated the weighted mean of these differences for all stars brighter than the horizontal branch by approximately 1 magnitude for each filter. In this calculation, stars whose differences were greater than 0.4 mag were excluded. This gave us the aperture correction for the “reference” frame. The aperture corrections for the rest of the frames were then calculated from the aperture correction for the “reference” frame and the differences in the profile–fit photometry between this frame and each individual frame.

The resulting aperture corrections were then applied to the profile–fit photometry along with the CTE corrections. After correction, the resulting mean differences in the photometry between the frames were, for the most part, below 0.01 mag with the maximum difference being around 0.015 mag.

## 3 Light Curves

With at most 16 epochs in F450W and 8 epochs in F555W, phasing the photometry and finding accurate periods in both colors presents a challenge. In order to employ the maximum number of photometric measures in the period finding, we sought to use the F450W and F555W data together. Therefore, we need to determine the magnitude offset for each star to place the F555W observations on the F450W magnitude scale. We began this process by noting that the last F555W observation and the first F450W observation were taken consecutively. Therefore, we can assume that this F555W magnitude, which we denote by $`m_{0,\mathrm{F555W}}`$, corresponds to the F450W magnitude, which we denote by $`m_{0,\mathrm{F450W}}`$. The other F555W magnitudes are then converted to their F450W equivalents by using the equation:

$$m_{\mathrm{n},\mathrm{F450W}}=m_{0,\mathrm{F450W}}+1.3(m_{\mathrm{F555W}}m_{0,\mathrm{F555W}})$$
(1)
where $`m_{\mathrm{n},\mathrm{F450W}}`$ is the F450W magnitude derived from the F555W magnitude $`m_{\mathrm{F555W}}`$. The 1.3 value is the approximate ratio of the amplitudes in $`B`$ to $`V`$ for the light curves. This value was determined from a number of RRL in various Galactic GCs which had clean light curves in both colors. While this ratio may not be exactly the same as the F450W to F555W ratio for the amplitudes, a difference of $`\pm 0.1`$ in the amplitude ratio does not affect the results. This combined dataset was then used to determine the period of the star through the use of routines created by Andrew Layden333Available at http://physics.bgsu.edu/$``$layden/ASTRO/DATA/EXPORT/lc\_progs.htm from A. C. Layden. (Layden & Sarajedini 2000 and references therein). The program is designed to determine the most likely period from the chi–squared minima by fitting the photometry of the variable star with 10 templates over a selected range of periods. Since there is little difference in light curve shape between RRL and ACs, we are confident that the templates will work well for any ACs we find. Due to the aliasing from the observations, these periods were tested in a period–amplitude diagram to determine their accuracy. A small number of RRL with periods scattered from where the majority were found in this diagram were revised in order to reduce the scatter. These typically were stars that had large gaps in their light curves making it difficult to accurately determine their period. The combination of the template-fitting program and the period-amplitude diagram allowed us to reduce the likelihood that the given period for a variable is an alias of the true period, although there is a slight possibility that a small number of the And VI variables may have an alias period. The typical uncertainty in the periods is about $`\pm 0.005`$ day.

Once an accurate period was determined, we fit a light curve template to the combined data by another routine created by Andrew Layden. A copy of this template was then converted back to the F555W system in a reverse of Eq. 1. Having a template for each filter now allows us to make use of Eq. 8 and the coefficients in Table 7 of Holtzman et al. (1995) to calibrate the F450W,F555W templates to $`B`$,$`V`$ templates for each phase along the light curve. The individual F450W,F555W data points at each phase were converted to $`B`$,$`V`$ through the color information provided by the template $`B`$,$`V`$ light curves. New template light curves were then fit to the $`B`$,$`V`$ data points. The preceding two steps were repeated until convergence of the $`B`$,$`V`$ magnitudes was achieved.

In the following sections, we use the intensity-weighted mean $`V`$, $`B`$ magnitudes and magnitude-weighted ($`\mathrm{B V}`$) colors for each variable, determined by a spline fit to the $`B`$,$`V`$ light curve templates.

### 3.1 Variable Star Colors

Choosing the correct magnitude offset as discussed in §3 provided a challenge with the variable stars due to the varying brightness along the light curve. However, for RRL with uniform reddening, it is known that the colors during minimum light are approximately the same. With this in mind, we calibrated those stars for which we had photometry in both filters during minimum light. These variable stars fell within the expected instability strip, which is approximately $`0.26<(\mathrm{B V})<0.46`$ given $`E(\mathrm{B V})=0.06`$ from AJD99. Knowing what the magnitude offsets should look like from these variable stars, we were able to accurately calibrate the approximately 25% of the variable stars which only had photometry during minimum light for one filter.

In Figure 1 we show the location of the variables within the color-magnitude diagram. All variables lie within the instability strip with the RRL forming a distinct group along the horizontal branch, while the brighter stars are likely to be ACs. We investigated the stars scattered about the location of the ACs and found them to show no variability. It should be noted that the colors and magnitudes for all the stars have inherent uncertainties of order 0.02-0.03 mag due to the method we have used to calibrate the data to the $`B`$,$`V`$ system. Nevertheless, our approach is adequate to investigate the general properties of And VI as demonstrated in the following sections.

In Table 1 we present the photometric properties for the 118 variables while their photometric $`B`$ and $`V`$ data are in Tables 2 and 3. Column 1 of Table 1 lists the star’s ID, while the next two columns give the RA and Dec. Finding charts for the variables are found in Figure 2. Of these variables, 6 are likely ACs and they are discussed in the following section with their light curves shown in Figure 3. A further 111 are RRL and Figure 4 shows their light curves with their properties discussed in §5, with the exception of V103. The variable V103 only had photometry along the descending branch of the light curve. Therefore no templates adequately fit the data. We were unable to classify one candidate variable (V34). The best fit for the data implies that it is a contact binary. On the other hand, its magnitude and color place it among the RRL. For this reason we have not definitively classified this variable and have left it out of our analysis.

## 4 And VI Anomalous Cepheids

ACs are typically 0.5 - 1.5 mag brighter than the RRL in a system. This difference indicates that ACs have masses in the range of 1 - 2 $`M_{}`$ (Norris & Zinn 1975; Zinn & Searle 1976; Zinn & King 1982; Smith & Stryker 1986; Bono et al. 1997b). In order for such stars to evolve into the instability strip, they are required to have low metallicities, approximately $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]<1.3`$ (Demarque & Hirshfeld 1975). Given that masses in excess of the turnoff mass of old globular clusters ($`M>0.8M_{}`$) are required, the two leading hypotheses for the origin of ACs are that they are either stars from an intermediate age population, age less than 5 Gyr (e.g., Demarque & Hirshfeld 1975; Norris & Zinn 1975), or stars of increased mass due to mass transfer in a binary system of older stars (Renzini, Mengel, & Sweigart 1977). Both scenarios are plausible. It may be the case that the origin of the ACs is tied to the system in which they originate. While there seems to be no clear way of selecting between the two origin scenarios, the most likely explanation for the ACs found in globular clusters, such as NGC 5466 (Zinn & Dahn 1976) and possibly $`\omega `$ Centauri (Wallerstein & Cox 1984), is the mass transfer scenario. For dSphs, both scenarios may be effective.

While ACs are almost nonexistent in globular clusters, they are common in dSphs. Every dSph surveyed for variable stars has been shown to include at least one AC. Thus it is not unexpected that And VI would contain at least one AC, especially given the mean metallicity of the dSph ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58`$, AJD99).

Six of the 118 variables found in this survey are likely ACs. Their photometric properties are listed in Table 1 and their light curves are shown in Figure 3. The first and fourth columns of Table 1 list the star’s identification along with its period. The intensity-weighted $`V`$ and $`B`$ magnitudes are given in the fifth and sixth columns. The magnitude-weighted B Vcolor, $`(\mathrm{B V})_{\mathrm{mag}}`$, is listed in the seventh column. Columns eight and nine list the $`V`$ and $`B`$ amplitudes for the variables. The other columns will be discussed subsequently, but the classifications are in column twelve. We searched the literature for ACs with $`(\mathrm{B V})`$ colors and found that they lie between the typical red and blue edges of the RRL instability strip. As can be seen in Figure 1, the And VI candidate ACs are consistent with the expected position for ACs in the CMD. For two ACs we were not able to make full use of the data. V44 was very near the edge of the WFC2 CCD in the second pointing, and so only photometry from the first pointing is available. For V83, the star fell near or on a bad column in the first pointing. This resulted in the loss of all the F450W data for this star at this pointing, though the F555W photometry was unaffected. Similarly, for the second pointing, we were able to only use two F555W and two F450W measurements for this star. As a result, the magnitudes and colors for V44 and V83 are less well determined than for the other variables. However, their periods and absolute magnitudes are consistent with those for the other ACs.

One way to classify the pulsation modes of variable stars is on the basis of the shape of their light curves. First-overtone mode stars typically have a more sinusoidal shape to their light curves, while fundamental mode stars have more asymmetric light curves. This is clearly seen in RRL and other Cepheid stars, but the case is not so clear for ACs. While some first-overtone mode ACs may have more sinusoidal light curves, others look “less asymmetric” than a light curve for a fundamental mode star. An example of this would be the difference between a RRa star, which has a sharp rise to maximum light, and a RRb star, which has a gentle rise to maximum light (Bailey 1902), though both are fundamental mode pulsators. On this basis, we can attempt to classify the ACs in And VI. And VI ACs pulsating in the fundamental mode are V06 and V84. First-overtone mode stars are V52 and V93. We are unable to definitively classify V44 and V83 due to the small number of points and difficulties with the photometry as stated above. On the other hand, the small number of points renders these classifications preliminary. For example, from the absolute magnitude versus the period of the ACs, V93 may well be pulsating in the fundamental mode (see §4.1).

### 4.1 Anomalous Cepheid Absolute Magnitudes

In order to compare the properties of the And VI ACs with those for other known ACs, we have converted the available photometry to absolute magnitudes. AJD99 derive an And VI distance modulus $`(mM)_0=24.45`$ from the $`I`$ magnitude of the tip of the red giant branch. We have adopted this value together with their listed And VI reddening, $`E(\mathrm{B V})=0.06`$ mag.

For the ACs in Galactic dSphs, we have adopted reddenings from Mateo (1998), while for the AC in the globular cluster NGC 5466 we have used the reddening from Harris (1996). In order to have all distance moduli on the same system, we have searched the literature for distance estimates derived from the tip of the red giant branch. For the cases where these estimates were not available, we used the mean magnitude of the RRL along with the absolute magnitude based on the Lee, Demarque, & Zinn distance scale (Eq. 7 of Lee, Demarque, & Zinn 1990) to calculate the distance modulus. The tip of the red giant branch method is based upon this distance scale. We have also adopted total-to-selective extinction ratios $`R_V=3.1`$ and $`R_B=4.1`$, respectively. The results are given in Table 4. Here the first column identifies the system while the second and third give the associated distance modulus and reddening. The ID for each AC and the mode of pulsation (F$`=`$fundamental mode; H$`=`$first-overtone mode) based on the position in the absolute magnitude versus the logarithm of the period diagram (see below) are given in columns 4 and 5, respectively, along with the period (column 6). Note that the IDs given for the ACs taken from Bersier & Wood (2002) only list the last three digits of the full IDs given in that paper. The mean apparent magnitudes and respective absolute magnitudes are listed in columns 7 through 10. Columns 11 and 12 list the $`V`$ and $`B`$ amplitudes for the ACs. In each case we have reviewed the original photometry to check the periods and magnitudes. Cases where we have made revisions to previous adopted values are indicated by an asterisk. We have not attempted to revise the Leo I data because of its generally poorer quality.

Figure 5 shows the $`B`$ absolute magnitudes for the ACs as a function of their period. In Figure 5a, which plots all available ACs, scatter is present in the plot and the difference between the two pulsational modes is not clear. Since there is significant scatter in the photographic light curves of the Carina and Leo I ACs, we have removed these ACs in Figure 5b. The difference between the pulsation modes is more evident in this plot. It is clear that the slopes for the two pulsation modes are not parallel. This contradicts the suggestion of Nemec, Nemec, & Lutz (1994) (cf. Figure 5), although the idea of non-parallel lines is in better agreement with the original analysis of Nemec, Wehlau, & Mendes de Oliveira (1988). The difference in slopes was also noted by Bono et al. (1997b) in their analysis of ACs based on the Nemec, Nemec, & Lutz data. Using Eqs. 13 and 14 of Bono et al., we have plotted these lines in Figure 5b for the different pulsational modes. The lines appear to be slightly fainter than the data. We have attempted to fit lines to the data in Figure 5b. Due to the fundamental and first-overtone ACs converging at short periods, there is some uncertainty in the classification of those variables. For the purposes of fitting the lines, we have left out V9 in Sextans since it is unclear whether it is pulsating in the fundamental or first-overtone mode. The equations for the resulting lines are:

$$M_{B,\mathrm{F}}=2.62(\pm 0.18)\mathrm{log}P0.40(\pm 0.04)$$
(2)
$$M_{B,\mathrm{H}}=3.99(\pm 0.27)\mathrm{log}P1.43(\pm 0.09)$$
(3)
The slopes for our lines match well with what was found by Bono et al., but the zeropoint is different, perhaps as a result of different adopted distance scales.

In Figure 6 we have plotted $`M_V`$ versus period. Again, in Figure 6a we have included all available data. Much of the scatter is due to the Fornax ACs from Bersier & Wood (2002). Because of the high scatter in their light curves, we have left out these variables in Figure 6b. As for the $`B`$ data, we have fit lines to the data in Figure 6b. We again omit from the fit V9 in Sextans, and also V1 in Leo II for similar reasons which will be discussed in §4.2.

$$M_{V,\mathrm{F}}=2.64(\pm 0.17)\mathrm{log}P0.71(\pm 0.03)$$
(4)
$$M_{V,\mathrm{H}}=3.74(\pm 0.20)\mathrm{log}P1.61(\pm 0.07)$$
(5)
The slopes for these lines match well to those found for the $`B`$ AC data. We are not aware of any a priori reason why this should be true.

### 4.2 Anomalous Cepheid Period-Amplitude Diagram

In Figure 7 we plot the amplitudes versus log period for our sample of ACs. The Carina and Leo I ACs have been excluded from Figure 7a due to the large scatter in their photometry, while the Fornax ACs from Bersier & Wood (2002) have been left out of Figure 7b for similar reasons. The pulsation modes are assigned according to each variable’s positions in the $`M\mathrm{log}P`$ diagrams. In Figure 7 there is no clear trend in $`V`$ or $`B`$ amplitude with pulsation mode. This is similar to what was found by Nemec, Nemec, & Lutz (1994, their Fig. 10). The same is not true for RRL where there are clear distinctions between pulsation modes in the period-amplitude diagram. For RRL, there is a clear break in period between fundamental mode, RRab, and first-overtone mode, RRc, stars with the longest period RRc star having a shorter period than the shortest period RRab star in a given system. This is due to the ionization zone being located deeper within the envelope for the bluer variables. A similar effect is seen in the classical Cepheids (e.g., Smith et al. 1992) where the first-overtone Cepheids tend to have lower amplitudes coupled with their shorter periods.

Bono et al. (1997b) used theoretical models to analyze the properties of ACs. They argued that the predicted location of the zero-age horizontal branch in the amplitude-$`\mathrm{log}P`$ diagram provided a transition between the fundamental mode pulsators and the first-overtone mode pulsators in the period-amplitude diagram. We have plotted this line in Figure 7b. Bono et al. stated that all ACs with period shorter than this line are pulsating in the first-overtone and those with longer periods are pulsating in the fundamental mode.

Taking a closer look at the fundamental mode ACs to the left of the Bono et al. line, the likely reasons for their being to the left of the line are either they have the wrong classification or their periods and/or amplitudes are incorrect. V6 from And VI is close enough to the line that we leave it out of further discussion. V93 from And VI is another one of the fundamental mode ACs to the left of the line. Due to the fundamental mode and first-overtone mode lines nearly intersecting as seen in Figures 5 and 6, it is possible that V93 is actually a first-overtone pulsator although it doesn’t seem likely. A better case may be made for V9 in Sextans. Still, there are a few other ACs (V1 and V56 of Ursa Minor and V055 and V208 of Draco) that are found among the first-overtone pulsators that appear to be pulsating in the fundamental mode according to their position in the absolute magnitude versus $`\mathrm{log}P`$ plots. In any case, more and better observations would likely help in better defining the period-amplitude diagrams.

## 5 And VI RR Lyrae

The presence of RRL within a system indicates the existence of an old population ($`t>10`$ Gyr). For And VI we have detected 111 RRL with 91 pulsating in the fundamental mode (RRab) and 20 pulsating in the first-overtone mode (RRc). There is one RRL (V103) which we were unable to place on the $`B`$,$`V`$ system due to a large gap in its light curve. As a result, its magnitude and amplitude were not used in the following results. Although our search for variables was extensive, the number of RRc stars is more than likely greater than what we found. The scatter in the photometry along with the low amplitude of the RRc star makes it difficult to detect this type of variable. A histogram of the RRL periods in And VI is compared to other dSphs in Figure 8, with the dSphs increasing in mean metallicity from the top, Ursa Minor, to the bottom, Fornax. The sources for the data are the same as those listed in Table 4. There is a clear trend in the populations of the RRab stars with the more metal-poor dSphs tending to have longer period RRab stars than the more metal-rich dSphs. There appears to be no obvious trend with the RRc stars. This may be due, in part, to the difficulty in detecting the smaller amplitude RRc stars, as we noted in this survey.

From the sample of RRL in And VI we find the mean magnitude to be $`V=25.29\pm 0.03`$, where the uncertainty is the aperture correction uncertainty, the photometry zeropoint uncertainty, and the spline-fitting uncertainty added in quadrature to the standard error of the mean. In order to convert this RRL magnitude to a distance on the same scale as the tip of the red giant branch distance of AJD99, we calculated $`M_V`$ of the RRL from Lee, Demarque, & Zinn (1990),

$$M_{V,\mathrm{RR}}=0.17[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]+0.82.$$
(6)
Adopting $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58\pm 0.20`$ and $`E(\mathrm{B V})=0.06\pm 0.01`$ from AJD99, we find $`M_{V,\mathrm{RR}}=0.55`$ and $`A_V=3.1E(\mathrm{B V})=0.19\pm 0.03`$. The resulting distance is $`815\pm 25`$ kpc. This matches up well with the tip of the red giant branch distance estimate by AJD99 of $`775\pm 35`$ kpc.

### 5.1 RR Lyrae Period-Amplitude Diagram

The period-amplitude diagram provides an important diagnostic tool when investigating the properties of a system as the period and the amplitude of a variable are independent of quantities such as distance and reddening. It is generally thought that the position of a RRL in the period-amplitude diagram is dependent on the metallicity of the star (Sandage 1993b). More recently, Clement et al. (2001) in a study of the properties of the RRL in Galactic globular clusters suggested that while this may be true for the more metal-rich Oosterhoff type I clusters, the same may not be true for the more metal–poor Oosterhoff type II clusters.

In Figure 9, we plot the RRL found in And VI in a period-amplitude ($`A_B`$) diagram. The RRL fall in the expected positions with the RRc stars at shorter periods and lower amplitudes as compared to the longer period RRab stars. The RRc stars appear to fall into a parabolic shape, an effect predicted by Bono et al. (1997a). The width seen in the RRab stars is similar to what is seen in other dSphs (e.g., Leo II: Siegel & Majewski 2000; Sculptor: Kaluzny et al. 1995). This is not unexpected since dSphs are known to have a spread in their metallicity (see Mateo 1998 and references therein). It is uncertain how much the And VI spread in metallicity ($`\sigma ([\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}])0.3`$, AJD99) may be the cause of the observed spread of the RRab stars in the period-amplitude diagram and how much may be due to other effects such as age or evolutionary effects.

To allow comparison to other dSphs, we fit the RRab stars in the period-amplitude diagram by linear regression fits using the second equation from Table 1 of Isobe et al. (1990). This version of “least squares,” which places the dependence on the x-variable against the independent y-variable and accounts for uncertainties in both variables, gives the best fit visually to the data. Figure 10 plots the fits for And VI, Leo II (Siegel & Majewski 2000), Draco (Kinemuchi et al. 2002), and Sculptor (Kaluzny et al. 1995). For reference we also plotted the fits to two Oosterhoff clusters: NGC 6934 (Oosterhoff type I; Kaluzny, Olech, & Stanek 2001) and M53 (Oosterhoff type II; Kopacki 2000). These two clusters were chosen due to their well-defined data. It should be noted that these globular cluster lines are similar to the Oosterhoff lines defined by Clement (2000 and private communications). Table 5 lists the equations for each system. The fit for the RRab stars in And VI coincides with the fit for NGC 6934. This agrees with the idea that the position of RRab stars in a period-amplitude diagram is dependent on the metallicity since the metallicities of NGC 6934 ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.54`$) and And VI ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58`$) are the same.

The fit of the Sculptor data, although slightly shifted toward longer periods, is found to be similar to the line for the more metal-rich NGC 6934. This is a bit surprising given the metallicity of Sculptor ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.8`$). With \[Fe/H\] values of -2.0 and -1.9 for Draco and Leo II, respectively (Mateo 1998), one would expect the RRab stars to fall near the M53 ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.04`$) line in Figure 10. Instead the fits to the data fall somewhere between NGC 6934 and M53 lines. The slopes of the lines for Leo II and Draco, while similar to each other are different from the slopes of And VI and Sculptor which also are similar to each other. Although the exact reason for the differences seen in the slopes and locations of the fits are uncertain, it is an effect that is seen in other dSphs, where the mean periods of the RRab stars in dSph systems do not follow the shift in period with abundance seen in Galactic GCs. We discuss this in the next section.

### 5.2 Oosterhoff Classification

The RRab stars in metal-poor globular clusters have longer mean periods ($`P_{ab}=0.64`$d) and higher ratios of RRc stars compared to the total number of RRL ($`N_c/N_{RR}=0.44`$) than do RRab stars in metal-rich clusters (Oosterhoff 1939) where $`P_{ab}=0.55`$d and $`N_c/N_{RR}=0.17`$ (see Smith 1995 and references therein). Further, Galactic globular clusters having $`2.0<[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]<1.7`$ contain few RRL because their horizontal branches lack stars in the vicinity of the instability strip. Although it is clear that metallicity is the first parameter governing the morphology of the horizontal branch and therefore the RRL content within the instability strip, secondary parameters (e.g., age, mass loss along the red giant branch, and rotation) also affect the horizontal branch morphology and thus confuse the general Oosterhoff trend.

RRL in the Galactic dSphs fall along a continuum within the Oosterhoff gap (van Agt 1973; Zinn 1978, 1985; Kaluzny et al. 1995; Mateo et al. 1995). A number of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) globular clusters also fall within the Oosterhoff gap. In Table 6 we list the properties of the dSphs, including And VI, and the LMC globular clusters with at least 15 RRab stars whose light curves have minimum scatter and gaps in the data. For comparison, the mean properties for the Oosterhoff groups are also listed. The first two columns identify the various systems. The metallicities for the dSphs in the third column were taken from Mateo (1998; except for Leo I which is from Gallart et al. 1999), while the metallicities for the LMC GCs were taken from the literature. Columns 4 and 5 give the mean periods for the RRab and RRc stars and columns 6–8 give the number of RRab and RRc stars, along with the ratio of RRc stars to the total number of RRL. To better illustrate how these systems fill in the “intermediate” metallicities we have also plotted the logarithm of the mean RRab periods versus the metallicity of the parent system in Figure 11. We have left out the Sagittarius dSph since the precise metallicity related to the RRL is uncertain. Also plotted in the figure are Galactic globular clusters with at least 15 RRab stars (Clement et al. 2001 and references therein). Excluding $`\omega `$ Centauri, which has a spread in metallicity (e.g., Freeman & Rodgers 1975), and M2, which shows the second parameter effect (e.g., Lee & Carney 1999), the Oosterhoff dichotomy is clearly seen in the Galactic globular clusters as noted by Oosterhoff (1939). As discussed above, the properties of And VI are consistent with the Galactic dSphs. The one Galactic dSph that is somewhat offset from the other dSphs in Figure 11 is Fornax. Given the large age and abundance range in Fornax, it is possible that the mean \[Fe/H\] of the RRL is lower than that of the galaxy as a whole (see Bersier & Wood 2002). This effect would act to displace Fornax toward the other dSphs in Figure 11.

While studying M15 and M3, Sandage, Katem, and Sandage (1981) noticed a period shift between the RRL in these clusters in the period-amplitude diagram that correlated with metallicity (Sandage 1981;1982a,b). Metal-poor clusters tend to have longer periods for a given amplitude when compared to metal-rich clusters such that,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P=(0.129A_B+0.088+\mathrm{log}P)$$
(7)
relative to M3 (Sandage 1982a,b). From Eq. 7, Oosterhoff type I clusters have $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P0.01`$, while Oosterhoff type II clusters have $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P0.05`$ and field RRL tend to avoid a range $`0.05\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P0.01`$ (Suntzeff et al. 1991).

RRL in dSphs, though, are found in the $`0.05\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P0.01`$ range (Sextans: Mateo et al. 1995; Leo II: Siegel & Majewski 2000). For And VI we calculated the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P`$ values for the RRab stars, listed in column ten of Table 1, and plot them against $`\mathrm{log}P`$ in Figure 12. There are a number of stars in the region where Galactic RRab stars are absent. This shows that the “intermediate” mean periods of the RRab stars in dSphs are not a result of a superposition of Oosterhoff type I and II populations. Still, it is interesting to note that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P=0.00`$ for And VI arguing that there is no period shift compared to the Oosterhoff type I cluster, M3. Again, this is not unexpected since the metallicity of M3 ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.57`$, Harris 1996) is the same as And VI ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58`$, AJD99).

It is easy to see from Table 6 that the mean periods of the RRab stars in the “intermediate” systems primarily follow the metallicity of the parent system. Therefore it is not surprising to see that $`P_{ab}`$ for And VI is similar to the values found in Galactic globular clusters of similar \[Fe/H\]. This is consistent with our finding in §5.1 that the individual RRab stars in And VI fall along the line defined by the Oosterhoff type I cluster, NGC 6934 ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.54`$, $`P_{ab}=0.574`$d, Kaluzny et al. 2001).

The presence of systems within the gap between the Oosterhoff groups brings up questions regarding whether there is an Oosterhoff dichotomy as seen in Galactic globular clusters or an “Oosterhoff continuum” as seen in dSphs (Renzini 1983; Castellani 1983). The question is: What is the origin of the difference between systems such as the dSphs and LMC globular clusters that have significant numbers of RRL and the Galactic globular clusters in the same abundance range which have little or no RRL? Clearly, the presence of RRL in this metallicity range is due to the differences in the horizontal branch morphology between the systems. All dSphs with adequately deep CMDs, except Ursa Minor, exhibit the second parameter effect. The combined effects of metallicity spreads, in addition to extended periods of star formation (Mateo 1998), may explain the different horizontal branch morphology in the dSph systems. Yet it is unlikely this can be the explanation for the LMC globular clusters which have no metallicity spread and have been shown to have the same ages as their Galactic counterparts (Olsen et al. 1998; Johnson et al. 1999). Further observations of other systems within this metallicity range would help in clearing up this debate. In any case, the idea of metallicity being the first parameter governing the horizontal branch morphology and $`P_{ab}`$ is clear in Figure 11.

### 5.3 Metallicity Estimates from RR Lyrae

A number of Galactic dSphs have been shown to exhibit a spread in their metallicities (see Mateo 1998 and references therein). Consequently, the exact metallicities for the individual RRL are uncertain. One method for determining the metallicity of the bulk of the RRL is through a relation determined by Alcock et al. (2000) relating the metallicity of a RRab star to its period and $`V`$-band amplitude. The relation,

$$[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]_{\mathrm{ZW}}=8.85(\mathrm{log}P_{ab}+0.15A_V)2.60,$$
(8)
was calibrated using the RRab stars in M3, M5, and M15, where ZW refers to the Zinn & West (1984) scale. Their calibration predicted the metallicity of the RRL in those systems with an accuracy of $`\sigma _{[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]}=0.31`$ per star. Alcock et al. tested this formula on their sample of RRab stars from the LMC and found the resulting median metallicity to be in good agreement with previous results.

We list in column eleven of Table 1 the resulting metallicities for the individual RRab stars using Eq. 8. These results were plotted in the \[Fe/H\] distribution plot seen in Figure 13. A gaussian fit to the data reveals a mean metallicity of $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58`$ with a fitting error of 0.01 and a standard deviation of 0.33. This is exactly what was found by AJD99 ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58\pm 0.20`$) using the red giant branch mean $`V`$$`I`$ color. Since the accuracy of the Alcock et al. equation is on the order of $`0.3`$ dex, there is no evidence for any abundance dispersion in the RRab stars given $`\sigma =0.33`$. We also investigated the distribution of $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ values with distance from the center of And VI and saw no convincing evidence for any metallicity gradient.

Sandage (1993a) studied cluster and field RRL spanning a wide range of metallicities and related the average periods of RRL to their metallicities through the relations

$$[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]_{\mathrm{ZW}}=(\mathrm{log}P_{ab}0.389)/0.092$$
(9)
$$[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]_{\mathrm{ZW}}=(\mathrm{log}P_c0.670)/0.119$$
(10)
Siegel & Majewski (2000) and Cseresnjes (2001) showed that, although these relations were derived from cluster and field RRL, the RRL in dSphs follow the same relations. For And VI, $`P_{ab}=0.588\pm 0.005`$d and $`P_c=0.382\pm 0.005`$d resulting in $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]_{\mathrm{ZW}}=1.72\pm 0.04`$ (internal error) for the RRab stars and $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]_{\mathrm{ZW}}=2.12\pm 0.05`$ (internal error) for the RRc stars. The estimate derived from the RRab stars is slightly metal-poor when compared to the estimate derived from the Alcock et al. (2000) formula, but given the uncertainties in both methods, the values are not inconsistent with each other. The metallicity estimate from the RRc stars is much more metal-poor than what was derived from the RRab stars. This should be taken with some caution since as discussed in §5, our search for RRc stars is more than likely incomplete. As a result, the mean period for the RRc stars is probably inaccurate.

## 6 Summary & Conclusions

We have presented the light curves and photometric properties for 118 variables found in the And VI dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The properties of the variable stars in And VI were shown to be consistent with those found in other dSphs. In particular, the 6 anomalous Cepheids found in And VI have periods and absolute magnitudes similar to the anomalous Cepheids in other systems. We redetermined the period-luminosity relations for the anomalous Cepheids and concur with the previous results of Nemec, Wehlau, & Mendes de Oliveira (1988) and Bono et al. (1997b), that the lines representing the different pulsation modes are not parallel. Unlike the situation for RR Lyrae, we were not able to make a clear distinction between the fundamental and first-overtone mode anomalous Cepheids in a period-amplitude diagram.

From a sample of 110 RR Lyrae, we found the mean $`V`$ magnitude to be $`25.29\pm 0.03`$ resulting in a distance for And VI of $`815\pm 25`$ kpc on the Lee, Demarque, & Zinn (1990) distance scale. The mean period of the RRab stars in And VI, $`P_{ab}=0.588`$d, is consistent with the galaxy’s mean metallicity of $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58`$ and follows the trend of the Galactic dwarf spheroidal galaxies filling in the gap between the Oosterhoff groups. The location of the RRab stars in a period-amplitude diagram is consistent with Galactic globular clusters of similar metallicity. We were also able to show that a number of RR Lyrae metallicity indicators, such as Eq. 2 from Alcock et al. (2000) and the Sandage (1982a,b) period shift, give results consistent with the mean abundance ($`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=1.58\pm 0.20`$) derived by AJD99 from the red giant branch. Indeed, based on the properties of its variable stars, the And VI dSph is indistinguishable from the Galactic dSph companions.

This research was supported in part by NASA through grant number GO-08272 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. We would like to thank Dr. Peter Stetson for graciously sharing his PSFs for the WFPC2 and for the use of his data reduction programs. Thanks to Dr. Andrew Layden for the use of his light curve analysis programs. Thanks also to all of the groups who allowed us to use their results in this paper: Karen Kinemuchi and collaborators, Dr. David Bersier, and Dr. Janusz Kaluzny. We would also like to thank Dr. Gisella Clementini for testing our period determinations.


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# XMM-Newton observations of the isolated neutron star RX J0806.4-4123XMM-Newton is an ESA Science Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member states and the USA (NASA)

## 1 Introduction

The ROSAT all-sky survey source RX J0806.4-4123 (1RXS J080623.0-412233) was suggested as candidate for an isolated neutron star (INS) by Haberl et al. (1998) based on X-ray properties of this source similar to the established cases RX J1856.5-3754 (Walter et al. 1996) and RX J0720.4-3125 (Haberl et al. 1997). While the latter two (the brightest in the sample of INSs discovered with ROSAT) were optically identified with $`m_\mathrm{V}`$ $`25.6`$ (Walter & Matthews 1997) and $`m_\mathrm{B}`$ $`26`$ (Motch & Haberl 1998; Kulkarni & van Kerkwijk 1998) blue objects, respectively, optical observations of RX J0806.4-4123 were only able to derive a limiting B magnitude $`m_\mathrm{B}`$ $`>24`$ for a possible optical counterpart (Haberl et al. 1998). High resolution X-ray spectra obtained from RX J1856.5-3754 and RX J0720.4-3125 have revealed no evidence for photospheric absorption or emission features and are well modeled as blackbody radiation with little interstellar absorption (Paerels et al. 2001; Burwitz et al. 2001).

Today seven ROSAT discovered INSs (hereafter dim INS) are known (see references in Motch 1999; Zampieri et al. 2001) with RX J0720.4-3125 (rotation period $`P`$=8.39 s; Haberl et al. 1997), RX J0420.0-5022 ($`P`$=22.7 s; Haberl et al. 1999) and RBS 1223 ($`P`$=5.16 s; Hambaryan et al. 2002) showing pulsations in the X-ray flux. No radio emission has been detected yet from these objects. While little doubt is left that these objects are indeed INSs, the origin of their X-rays is still a matter of debate. If we see thermal emission from young cooling neutron stars, the observed blackbody temperatures in the range of 50–120 eV imply ages younger than $`10^6`$ years for standard cooling curves. Older neutron stars may be re-heated by accretion of interstellar matter, producing X-ray luminosities sufficiently high to be observable. However, the accretion rate strongly depends on the velocity of the neutron star relative to the interstellar medium, and the neutron star must rotate slowly enough to allow the matter to enter the magnetosphere (see the review of Treves et al. 2000). The recent estimates of a pulse period derivative of $`(0.72.0)10^{11}`$ s s-1 from RBS 1223 (Hambaryan et al. 2002) and $`10^{14}`$ s s-1 from RX J0720.4-3125 (Zane et al. 2002) with inferred magnetic field strengths of $``$2$`10^{14}`$ G and $`10^{13}`$ G, respectively, favour the models invoking a young (or middle-aged) cooling neutron star rather than the accretion heating, at least for these pulsating sources111 Kaplan et al. (2002) derived a less stringent upper limit for $`\dot{P}`$ for RX J0720.4-3125 by not including XMM-Newton data, but also their results support the interpretation that this source is a cooling neutron star.. By virtue of this, the dim nearby neutron stars are suggested to be different from anomolous X-ray pulsars which have been proposed to be powered either by superstrong magnetic fields (Thompson & Duncan 1996) or accretion (Mereghetti & Stella 1995).

and are well modeled as blackbody radiation with little interstellar absorpt Following the spin history of the three known pulsars among the seven dim INSs and searching for pulsations in the others with new sensitive instruments is important for the understanding of the origin of their X-ray emission. Here we report on an XMM-Newton observation of the poorly known INS RX J0806.4-4123. We present an improved X-ray position, the X-ray spectrum and the detection of a candidate for the rotation period of the star.

## 2 The XMM-Newton observation

XMM-Newton (Jansen et al. 2001) observed RX J0806.4-4123 during the satellite revolution #168 on November 8, 2000. Here we report on the analysis of the data collected with the European Photon Imaging Cameras (EPICs) based on MOS (EPIC-MOS1 and -MOS2, Turner et al. 2001) and pn (EPIC-pn, Strüder et al. 2001) CCD detectors which are mounted behind the three X-ray telescopes (Aschenbach et al. 2000). All cameras were operated in the Full-Frame mode (FF) providing data over a field of view of $``$13′ radius. Further details of the EPIC observations are summarized in Table 1. The data were processed using the XMM-Newton analysis package SAS version 5.2 to produce the photon event files and tools from version 5.3 for further spatial, spectral and timing analysis. The event times were corrected to solar barycenter using the SAS task “barycen 1.13.1” (in which a timing problem present in older versions has been solved).

### 2.1 The X-ray position of RX J0806.4-4123

Haberl et al. (1998) derived an error radius of 11″ (90% confidence) from the ROSAT PSPC observations of RX J0806.4-4123. The error is dominated by systematic uncertainties in the attitude reconstruction which could not be reduced due to the lack of other X-ray sources with optical counterparts detected in the field of view to define a reference coordinate frame. In order to find field stars in the EPIC images, a standard source detection analysis using combined box sliding and maximum likelihood techniques as available in SAS, was performed simultaneously in the three energy bands 0.3–1.0, 1.0–2.0 and 2.0–7.5 keV. This yielded 50, 29 and 33 detections with existence likelihood larger than 10 in the pn, MOS1 and MOS2 images, respectively. Fig. 1 shows an EPIC-pn soft X-ray image. To identify possible optical counterparts to the X-ray sources, finding charts were produced using the DSS2 (red) image. To secure the identification, the following criteria were applied: (i) only X-ray sources which were detected by at least two EPIC instruments were used, (ii) a stellar-like object was found in the X-ray error circle, and (iii) both X-ray (spectral) and optical properties (R and B magnitudes as derived from the USNO A2.0 catalogue produced by the US Naval Observatory) must be compatible with a star. This resulted in the identification of five X-ray sources with field stars as summarized in Table 2. Hardness ratios are defined as HR1 = (B+A)/(B-A) and HR2 = (C+B)/(C-B) with A, B and C as count rates in the energy bands 0.3–1.0, 1.0–2.0 and 2.0–7.5 keV, respectively. Coronal emission from stars is characterized by relatively soft X-ray spectra with the bulk of emission below 2 keV. This results in negative values for both hardness ratios with HR1 depending on the amount of interstellar absorption (see also Haberl 2002). HR2 values of weak sources are often undetermined due to the lack of statistics in the 2.0–7.5 keV band. For comparison the X-ray properties of the target are also shown in Table 2.

Using the SAS task “eposcorr” the X-ray source positions were corrected to the USNO A2.0 catalogue reference frame by minimizing the differences in X-ray to optical position for the five field stars. The uncertainties on the required coordinate shifts can be regarded as the remaining systematic error of the X-ray bore-sight and are 2.1″, 3.1″ and 2.5″ for pn, MOS1 and MOS2, respectively. Fig. 2 shows the B-band image of the area around RX J0806.4-4123 as obtained by Haberl et al. (1998) with the three error circles derived from the EPIC instruments after the bore-sight correction. The corresponding position deduced from the pn image is RA = 08h06m23$`\stackrel{s}{.}`$47 and Dec = –41°22′32$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 (J2000.0). The error circles obtained from the EPIC data agree with each other and are completely inside the ROSAT circle. This confirms that none of the surrounding stars is responsible for the X-ray emission from RX J0806.4-4123.

### 2.2 The temporal behaviour of RX J0806.4-4123

EPIC light curves of RX J0806.4-4123 were extracted in the 0.12–1.2 keV energy band (using events with pixel patterns 0-12) which covers most of the X-ray spectrum (see the next Section). The light curves show no significant variations over the duration of the observation with average net count rates of 1.81 cts s-1, 0.369 cts s-1 and 0.405 cts s-1 in the pn, MOS1 and MOS2 detectors, respectively (Fig. 3). To search for periodicities on short time scales, we used 29,549 events extracted from a circle with radius of 45″ centered on the position of the target in the pn data. Of these selected events, about 97.5% were estimated to belong to the source. As a periodicity test we used the Rayleigh $`Z_n^2`$ method (Buccheri et al. 1983) with one harmonic involved ($`n=1`$) which is expected to be optimal to search for rather smooth pulsations. The 0.073 s time resolution of the pn data limits the periodicity search to frequencies below $``$ 3 Hz. We performed the $`Z_1^2`$ test in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }f=0.0013`$ Hz frequency range with a step of $`510^6`$ Hz. The oversampling by a factor of 10 (compared to the expected widths of $`1/T_{\mathrm{sp}}`$ of the $`Z_1^2`$ peaks, where $`T_{\mathrm{sp}}=15.7`$ ks is the observational time span) was chosen to resolve separate $`Z_1^2`$ peaks and to assure that no peak corresponding to a periodic signal is missing. As the variable $`Z_n^2`$ has a probability density function equal to that of $`\chi ^2`$ with $`2n`$ degrees of freedom (e. g., Bendat & Piersol 1986), the probability to obtain a noise peak of a given $`Z_1^2`$ height in one trial is $`\mathrm{exp}(Z_1^2/2)`$. The number of independent trials in the chosen frequency range estimated as $`N=\mathrm{\Delta }fT_{\mathrm{sp}}=47.110^3`$ puts a lower limit on a $`Z_1^2`$ value to be yielded by a periodic signal with a probability $`p>0`$, $`Z_1^2>2\mathrm{log}(N)=21.5`$ (peaks with $`Z_1^2<21.5`$ are regarded as noise with a probability of 100%). This test resulted in only one peak higher than that lower limit, $`Z_1^2=33.9`$ at the frequency $`f_{}=0.087936`$ Hz (see Fig. 4). The probability to obtain by chance a peak of $`Z_1^2=33.9`$ in $`N`$ independent trials is $`p=N\mathrm{exp}(Z_1^2/2)=2.010^3`$, which corresponds to a detection of pulsations at a confidence level of $`C=(1p)100\%=99.8\%`$, or $`3.1\sigma `$. Involving higher harmonics gives values $`Z_2^2=42.9`$, $`Z_3^2=43.0`$ and $`Z_4^2=43.2`$ at the same frequency $`f_{}`$. These numbers indicate that, according to the $`H`$-test suggested by de Jager et al. (1989), there is a statistically significant contribution from the second harmonic. A probability to obtain a noise peak of $`Z_2^2=42.9`$ in one trial is only $`p=1.110^8`$ and in $`N`$ independent trials is $`p=5.110^4`$, that increases the significance of the period detection up to a $`3.5\sigma `$ level. We note this $`Z_2^2`$ peak is highest in the frequency range chosen for the periodicity search (all other $`Z_2^2`$ peaks are below 27.0 and produced by noise with probabilities $`p>94\%`$). We also performed the $`Z_n^2`$-test adding 14,210 source photons detected with two MOS cameras to the pn data. The increase of the total statistics by about 50% results only in small increments in $`Z_n^2`$ values ($`Z_1^2=37.5`$ and $`Z_2^2=43.9`$ at the same frequency $`f_{}`$) and significance of the detected signal (to a 3.6$`\sigma `$ level). That can be explaind by the low time resolution of the MOS data (see Table 1) which should lead to a strong smearing of the weak signal.

To determine the pulsation frequency and its uncertainties more accurately, we applied the Odds-ratio method by Gregory & Loredo (1996) based on the Bayesian formalism. The frequency-dependent Odds-ratio $`O(f)`$ specifies how the data favour a periodic model of a frequency $`f`$ over the unpulsed model. This ratio allows one to obtain the probability distribution function $`p(f)O(f)f^1`$ for a signal to be periodic in a chosen frequency range (see Zavlin et al. 2000, for more details). Fig. 4 shows the dependence of $`O(f)`$ in a range around the frequency $`f_{}`$ resulting from the $`Z_1^2`$ test. The maximum value $`O_{\mathrm{max}}=1.310^5`$ is at $`f=f_0=0.087940`$ Hz ($`f_0f_{}=410^7\mathrm{Hz}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/T_{\mathrm{sp}}`$). The uncertainties of $`f_0`$ at the 68% and 90% confidence levels are $`\delta f=2.310^6`$ and $`10.510^6`$ Hz, respectively. The corresponding rotation period is $`P_0=11.37139`$ s with uncertainties of $`3.010^4`$ and $`13.610^4`$ s at the 68% and 90% levels, respectively.

The folded light curve extracted at $`f=f_0`$ from the pn data (see Fig. 5) reveals one broad pulse per period with the pulsed fraction of $`f_p=6.2\pm 1.0\%`$. The MOS light curve extracted at $`f=f_0`$ shows a remarkable similarity with that obtained from the pn data (Fig. 5), although the MOS time resolution makes its pulse somewhat broader and pulsed fraction smaller than those in the pn light curve. We also note that the ROSAT PSPC observation of RX J0806.4-4123 in October 1993 yielded too scanty statistics (about 900 counts) for searching a signal of such a small pulsed fraction (the signal should result in a too low peak with $`Z_1^21`$, which cannot be discriminated from the noise).

### 2.3 The X-ray spectrum of RX J0806.4-4123

The X-ray spectra were extracted using single- and double-pixel events (pattern 0-4) from pn and pattern 0-12 events from MOS data. Detector response matrix files were used as available from the hardware groups in November 2001 (version 6.1 for pn and v9q20t5r6 for MOS). First, an absorbed blackbody model with normalization parameters allowed to be free for the individual instruments was simultaneously fitted to the three spectra (left panels in Fig. 6). From the best fit a blackbody temperature of $`kT^{\mathrm{}}=94\pm `$1 eV222 The superscript  is used to indicate that quantities are given as measured by a distant observer. Errors on the spectral parameters are given at a 90% confidence level. and an upper limit for the hydrogen column density $`n_\mathrm{H}`$ of $`10^{18}`$ cm-2 were found ($`\chi _\nu ^2=2.9`$ for 228 degrees of freedom, dof). The low value for the absorption may be caused by calibration uncertainties mainly below 0.5 keV. The radius of the emitting area derived from the blackbody fit is $`R^{\mathrm{}}0.6(d/100\mathrm{pc})`$ km. Fitting the pn and MOS spectra separately yields blackbody temperatures of $`kT^{\mathrm{}}=97\pm 1`$ eV and $`91\pm 1`$ eV for the pn and MOS data, respectively ($`\chi _\nu ^2=2.5`$ for 224 dof). The model fluxes in the 0.1-2.4 keV range, 2.82$`10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, 3.08$`10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 and 3.38$`10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 as derived from the combined fit for the pn, MOS1 and MOS2 spectra (respectively), show differences between the three instruments larger than the typical statistical errors of 1–2% obtained from the fit. For comparison, Haberl et al. (1998) derived a flux of (2.9$`{}_{0.15}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.30}`$)$`10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (90% confidence) from the ROSAT PSPC data.

Nonmagnetic neutron star hydrogen atmosphere models (Zavlin et al. 1996)333 The hydrogen atmosphere models are available at http://legacy.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xanadu/xspec fit the pn and MOS spectra fairly well, resulting in the surface temperature $`kT^{\mathrm{}}26`$ eV and a 110 pc distance to RX J0806.4-4123 assuming the “canonical” neutron star radius $`R_{\mathrm{NS}}=10`$ km and mass $`M_{\mathrm{NS}}=1.4M_{}`$ ($`\chi _\nu ^2=1.8`$ for 228 dof; right panels in Fig. 6). To account for systematic calibration uncertainties, $`n_\mathrm{H}`$ was allowed to vary in fits to the spectra from the different instruments, while the surface temperature and distance were kept at the same values for all three spectra. The obtained values of the hydrogen column density are $`n_\mathrm{H}`$ 1.6$`10^{20}`$ cm-2, 1.0$`10^{20}`$ cm-2 and 0.4$`10^{20}`$ cm-2 for the fits to the pn, MOS1 and MOS2 data, respectively. Neither pure iron nor solar-mixture atmosphere models fit the EPIC spectra of RX J0806.4-4123 ($`\chi _\nu ^220`$).

## 3 Discussion

The XMM-Newton observations of the INS candidate RX J0806.4-4123 revealed pulsations in its X-ray flux with a period of 11.3714 s. This is well within the range of 5.16 s to 22.7 s observed from three other dim INSs. Although detected at a statistical level of $`3.5\sigma `$, the similar pulse profiles seen in the data from all EPIC instruments inspire confidence that the modulation is real and indicates the rotation period of the neutron star. The pulsed fraction of 6.2% is the weakest detected so far in X-rays from these objects (9% in the X-ray flux of RX J0720.4-3125, Cropper et al. (2001); 20$`\pm `$2% in RBS 1223, Hambaryan et al. (2002); 43$`\pm `$14% in RX J0420.0-5022, Haberl et al. (1999)). Such a modulation is too small to be found in available data of any of the other dim INSs. For example, only an upper limit of 4.5% was derived from a 450 ks Chandra observation of RX J1856.5-3754 (Ransom et al. 2002). A simplest explanation for a small pulsed fraction in X-ray radiation from an INS is that the rotational axis of the star is nearly co-aligned with either the line of sight to a distant observer or the magnetic axis of the star (or both). Another reason resulting in the small pulsed fraction can be the effect of light bending in the strong gravitational field near the neutron star surface (e. g. Pechenick et al. 1983; Riffert & Mészáros 1988), For instance, if a neutron star is rather massive, so that $`[M_{\mathrm{NS}}/M_{}]/[R_{\mathrm{NS}}/1\mathrm{km}]>0.177`$, the whole star’s surface becomes visible (e. g. Zavlin et al. 1995b), which should result in a strong smearing of the modulated X-ray flux emitted by the neutron star (even if the radiation originates from a small spot on the star’s surface). However, assuming that radii and masses of the detected INSs are clustering around the canonical values of $`R_{\mathrm{NS}}=10`$ km and $`M_{\mathrm{NS}}=1.4M_{}`$, we may conclude that the different observed pulsed fractions are mainly caused by geometrical effects, namely, different orientations of the stars’ axes and/or different sizes of the emitting areas.

In this respect it is interesting that for the two dim INSs with the estimates on strength of the surface magnetic fields, $``$2$`10^{13}`$ G for RX J0720.4-3125 (Zane et al. 2002) and $``$2$`10^{14}`$ G for RBS 1223 (Hambaryan et al. 2002), the pulsed fraction in the X-ray flux from the object with the stronger field is significantly higher, as is expected if the radiation is emitted from hot spots around the magnetic poles. Hot polar caps can either be produced by a flux of relativistic particles falling down onto the polar caps from the pulsar magnetosphere or anisotropy of the thermal conductivity in the neutron star crust caused by a very strong magnetic field (see, e. g., Greenstein & Hartke 1983). While it looks feasible to explain the shallow modulation observed from RX J0806.4-4123 by the anisotropic heat conduction, Cropper et al. (2001) argue that the relatively smooth temperature gradient on the neutron star surface produced by this mechanism alone can only marginally explain the pulse profile of RX J0720.4-3125. Higher pulsed fractions will be even more difficult to reconcile with this model, unless the surface radiation is intrinsically anisotropic as it may emerge from a magnetized neutron star atmosphere (Pavlov et al. 1994; Zavlin et al. 1995a). It is clear that whatever mechanism produces the hot polar regions, measuring rotational period changes and, therefore, magnetic field strengths for the pulsating dim INS is crucial for understanding the origin of their X-ray emission.

The EPIC spectral data on RX J0806.4-4123 are well consistent with a smooth, featureless model and can be fitted with both blackbody and neutron star hydrogen (or helium) atmosphere spectra (since there are still fairly large uncertainties in the calibration of the instrument responses at energies below 0.5-0.6 keV, we do not consider the blackbody approach as rejected by the data because of the rather poor quality of the spectral fit). The derived blackbody temperature of $``$94 eV is within the range of values found for other X-ray dim neutron stars, in particular, it is close to that of RX J1605.3+3249 (Motch et al. 1999). Extrapolating the best-fit blackbody model to the optical wavelength range gives a B magnitude $`m_\mathrm{B}30.8`$ (neglecting extinction) for a possible optical counterpart – much fainter flux than the upper limit put by Haberl et al. (1998). It is worthwhile to mention that the optical counterparts found for the INSs RX J1856.5-3754 and RX J0720.4-3125 are significantly brighter than the extrapolations of the blackbody spectra obtained from the X-ray data on these two objects (Pons et al. 2002; Motch & Haberl 1998). The hydrogen atmosphere model fit predicts $`m_\mathrm{B}26.9`$, still in agreement with the upper limit $`m_\mathrm{B}>24`$. On the other hand, optical fluxes predicted by the light-element atmosphere models for RX J1856.5-3754 (Pavlov et al. 1996; Pons et al. 2002) and RX J0720.4-3125 (Motch & Haberl 2002) are much brighter than the actually measured values. If RX J0806.4-4123 has properties similar to those of these two INSs, then the B magnitude of its optical flux is expected to be in the range of 28–30. Utilizing the improved X-ray position derived from the XMM-Newton data on RX J0806.4-4123, more stringent constraints on the neutron star parameters can be obtained from future deep optical observations.

###### Acknowledgements.

The XMM-Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (BMBF / DLR), the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and the Heidenhain-Stiftung.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

There is a powerful but under-utilized technology available for dealing with three-manifolds, due to the work of mathematicians in the 1970’s and 1980’s and culminating in Thurston’s Geometrization Conjecture 111A fairly clear exposition of this can be found in the review article by P. Scott . There has been some use made of the Geometrization Conjecture in cosmology, beginning with the paper by Fagundes . A non-exhaustive list of other work along these lines is in . Examples of attempts to understand the proof of the conjecture using techniques from gravitional and particle physics are . The role of the conjecture in high-energy physics is explored in .. This conjecture states that a three-manifold with a given topology has a canonical decomposition into a connected sum of ‘simple three-manifolds,’ each of which admits one, and only one, of eight homogeneous geometries: $`H^3`$, $`S^3`$, $`E^3`$, $`S^2\times S^1`$, $`H^2\times S^1`$, Sol, Nil and SL(2,R). The conjecture has not been completely proven but few in the field doubt its veracity.

To see why this technology would be important in fundamental physics, consider the case of two-dimensional physics, such as conformal field theories or the world-volume of string theory. In the path-integral formalism, one must sum over two-dimensional topologies and geometries. This procedure is executable for two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds because of the existence of a geometrization theorem . Namely, a closed two-dimensional manifold with handle number (i.e. topology) $`h=0`$, $`1`$ or $`2`$, respectively, admits the spherical, torus, or hyperbolic geometry. Hence, in the path integral, we can sum over deformations of each of these geometries, then sum over the handle number.

In (super)membrane physics  or in three-dimensional quantum gravity we should be able to perform path-integral quantization via a similar procedure to that in two dimensions. However, it is crucial to understand the connection between three-dimensional topology and M-theory in an analogous manner to the two-dimensional case, where two-dimensional topology provides the stringy analogue of Feynman diagrams. We are a long way from this but as a first step we search for a theory which admits the eight Thurston spaces as solutions.

The plan of this paper is as follows. In section 2, we discuss the difficulties involved in attempting to obtain all eight Thurston spaces from a single ‘master theory’ in three dimensions. This serves as motivation to search for a ‘master theory’ in higher dimensions. In section 3, we show how three of the Thurston geometries are of the form $`N_2\times S^1`$, where $`N_2`$ denotes $`H^2`$, $`E^2`$ or $`S^2`$. In an M-theoretic context, these geometries can be T-dualized into other Thurston geometries which are a $`U(1)`$ bundle over $`N_2`$. The only Thurston space which does not naturally fit into this scheme is Sol, which results from the dimensional reduction of the decoupling limit of the D3-brane in a background $`B`$ field. We present conclusions in section 4.

## 2 Difficulties finding ‘master theory’ in three dimensions

One can construct three-dimensional Chern-Simons gauge theories in which each gauge group is the group of isometries of a given Thurston geometry. This is well-known for the isotropic geometries $`E^3`$, $`S^3`$ and $`H^3`$, and can also be done for the anisotropic Thurston geometries222For example, the isometry group of Sol is the solvable Lie Group with the three generators $`T,L,M`$ which satisfy the algebra $`[T,L]=L;[T,M]=M;[L,M]=0`$. The gauge potential is $`𝒜=𝒜^1T+𝒜^2M+𝒜^3L`$. The Chern-Simons equation of motion is $`F(𝒜)=d𝒜+\frac{1}{2}[𝒜,𝒜]=0`$, which has a solution $`𝒜^1=dx;𝒜^2=e^xdz;𝒜^3=e^xdy`$. These are the frame-fields for metric corresponding to Sol.. Of the Thurston spaces, only $`E^3`$, $`S^3`$ and $`H^3`$ are solutions of Einstein gravity. In search of a single theory from which all eight of the Thurston geometries arise, we next turn to the low-energy limit of three-dimensional string theory, which has a metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$, dilaton $`\varphi `$, Abelian 2-form potential $`B_{(2)}`$ with field strength $`H_{(3)}=dB_{(2)}`$ and a ‘constant’ term in the level of the original sigma model . Finding that this theory fares no better than pure gravity as a ‘master theory,’ we consider a hypothetical three-dimensional theory which is identical to the low-energy limit of three-dimensional string theory, except for an additional Abelian gauge field $`A_{(1)}`$. This hypothetical theory will serve as a straw man to be knocked down, in order to effectively demonstrate the difficulties encountered in our search for a three-dimensional ‘master theory’. The corresponding action is given by

$$S=d^3x\sqrt{g}e^{2\varphi }\left(\frac{4}{k}+R+4|\varphi |^2\frac{1}{12}H_{\mu \nu \rho }H^{\mu \nu \rho }\frac{1}{2}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }\right)+\frac{e}{3}ϵ^{\mu \nu \rho }A_\mu F_{\nu \rho },$$
(2.1)
where the last term is the Abelian Chern-Simons term for the field $`A_{(1)}`$, and $`F_{(2)}=dA_{(1)}`$. All the Thurston geometries are solutions of the equations of motion of this theory for various values of the level $`k`$ and the constant $`e`$, as well as the other fields.

With the exceptions of Sol and $`H^3`$, the Thurston spaces can be characterized topologically as Seifert fibre bundles $`\eta `$ over an orbifold $`Y`$. The topology of a Seifert fibre bundle is determined by the Euler number $`\chi (Y)`$ of $`Y`$ and the Euler number $`e(\eta )`$ of the bundle $`\eta `$ . It turns out that the level $`k`$ is related to $`\chi (Y)`$ by $`\chi (Y)=4/k`$ for all the Thurston spaces except Sol and $`H^3`$. In addition, the constant $`e`$ turns out to be precisely the Euler number $`e(\eta )`$.

However, this is a ‘master theory’ only formally since not all of the Thurston geometries arise as physical solutions. The three-form field strength $`H_{(3)}`$ is real only for the Thurston spaces which are Seifert fibre bundles. Specifically, Sol and $`H^3`$ require an imaginary $`H_{(3)}`$. In addition, $`H^2\times S^1`$, Nil and SL(2,R) require an imaginary $`F_{(2)}`$.

In order for all Thurston solutions to have real fields in a hypothetical three-dimensional theory of sufficient generality, we could embark on the guessing game of adding, for example, more scalar fields. For instance, Sol arises as a physical solution when there are three scalars within the theory. However, at the end of this laborious procedure, one is left with a model that is not well-motivated from the three-dimensional viewpoint. We have arbitrarily added fields and do not even know the precise way in which they interact with the already-present fields. However, one could quite naturally regard the additional scalars as being the moduli of compact spaces, due to various reductions from a ‘master theory’ in higher dimensions. Also, the curvatures of the compact spaces yield effective cosmological terms.

## 3 Thurston geometries from eleven dimensions

### 3.1 Twisted spaces

Various $`d`$-dimensional geometries $`M_d`$ can be expressed as $`U(1)`$ bundle over $`(d1)`$-dimensional geometries $`N_{d1}`$. We will consider the case of $`d=3`$, for which the metric of the twisted space has the form

$$dM_3^2=dN_2^2+(dz+A_{(1)})^2,$$
(3.1)
with $`N_{(2)}=dA_{(1)}`$ the volume form on $`N_2`$.

There are three compact, locally homogeneous Riemannian spaces in two dimensions, which we label as $`N_2`$ in order to represent $`S^2`$, $`H^2`$ or $`T^2`$. In three dimensions, according to Thurston’s Geometrization Conjecture , there are eight of such spaces. A direct product of $`N_2\times S^1`$ produces three of the Thurston spaces. A $`U(1)`$ bundle along $`S^1`$ and around $`N_2`$ twists these previous direct product spaces into four other Thurston spaces .

To be explicit, $`S^3`$ as a $`U(1)`$ bundle over $`S^2`$, is expressed as

$$ds_3^2=\frac{1}{4}\left(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2+(d\psi +\mathrm{cos}\theta d\varphi )^2\right).$$
(3.2)
Nil, as a bundle over $`T^2`$, is given by

$$ds_3^2=dx^2+dy^2+(dzxdy)^2.$$
(3.3)
$`H^3`$ can be expressed as twisted $`H^2\times S^1`$ only in the unphysical case of an imaginary $`U(1)`$ field:

$$ds_3^2=\frac{1}{4}\left(\mathrm{cosh}^2\rho dt^2+d\rho ^2+(dz+i\mathrm{sinh}\rho dt)^2\right).$$
(3.4)
On the other hand, SL(2,R) can be expressed as twisted $`H^2\times S^1`$, as in the above equation, except with a real $`U(1)`$ field333$`H^3`$ expressed as an imaginary bundle over $`H^2`$ can be obtained as a Wick rotation of $`AdS_3`$ expressed as a bundle over $`AdS_2`$. The alternative Euclideanization of $`g_{tt}g_{tt}`$ produces SL(2,R) as a real bundle over $`H^2`$. However, since Wick rotations do not ensure that Majorana or self-duality constraints are compatible with the Euclidean signature, it is best to begin with a solution which contains a (Riemannian) hyperbolic factor from the start .. This means that T-duality can physically relate the geometry $`H^2\times S^1`$ with SL(2,R) but not with $`H^3`$. Thus, in particular, from a supergravity geometry which contains $`T^2\times S^1`$ or $`H^2\times S^1`$, one can T-dualize to obtain a solution which contains the less common geometries Nil or SL(2,R), respectively.

Direct products of hyperbolic, spherical and Euclidean spaces frequently result as vacua in the near-horizon regions of $`p`$-brane solutions in string/M-theory. As an example, the near-horizon region geometry of a standard M2/M2/M5/M5 brane intersection can be expressed as $`(AdS_2\times S^1)\times (S^2\times S^1)\times (T^2\times S^1)\times T^2`$. With the appropriate $`D=11`$ three-form field444Hopf T-duality untwists Thurston spaces into the form $`N_2\times S^1`$ only when there are only R-R charges present in the ten-dimensional theory., T-duality serves to twist the above product spaces in the parentheses, in order to obtain other Thurston spaces embedded within the M-theoretic context. T-duality along a $`U(1)`$ fibre is known as Hopf T-duality . The connection between the twisted spaces and direct product spaces is summarized in Table 1.

| Product Space ($`N_2\times S^1`$) | Hopf T-duality | Twisted Space ($`M_3`$) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $`S^2\times S^1`$ | $``$ | $`S^3`$ |
| $`T^2\times S^1`$ | $``$ | Nil |
| $`H^2\times S^1`$ | $``$ | $`H^3`$, SL(2,R) |

Table 1: Twisted Thurston spaces

It is interesting to note that the Thurston spaces which are related to each other by Hopf T-duality share the same value for the level $`k`$ in the hypothetical three-dimensional theory of Section 2. Only Sol does not appear in Table 1.

### 3.2 Sol from D3-brane in $`B`$ field

Consider the decoupling limit of a D3-brane with a constant NS $`B`$ field, for which the $`B`$ field goes to infinity. The metric solution is given by

$$ds_{10}^2=\left(\frac{u}{R}\right)^2\left(dt^2+dx_1^2+\frac{1}{1+b^2(u/R)^4}(dx_2^2+x_3^2)\right)+\left(\frac{R}{u}\right)^2du^2+R^2d\mathrm{\Omega }_5^2,$$
(3.5)
where $`R`$ corresponds to the D3-brane charge and $`b`$ is proportional to the $`B`$ field, which we take to both be unity for simplicity. This is the metric of the supergravity dual to a Yang-Mills gauge theory with noncommuting $`x_2,x_3`$ coordinates. For small $`u`$, the above geometry reduces to $`AdS_5\times S^5`$, corresponding to ordinary Yang-Mills occupying the IR region of the dual field theory. Using the metric Ansatz

$$ds_D^2=\mathrm{e}^{2\alpha \phi }ds_d^2+\mathrm{e}^{2(d2)\alpha \phi }dz^2,$$
(3.6)
where $`\alpha =1/\sqrt{2(d2)(D2)}`$, we dimensionally reduce on $`S^5`$, $`t`$ and $`x_3`$. Approaching the boundary at $`u=\mathrm{}`$ yields the metric for Sol, given by

$$ds_3^2=u^2dx_1^2+\frac{dx_2^2}{u^2}+\frac{du^2}{u^2}.$$
(3.7)
Note that all the fields in our three-dimensional hypothetical model of Section 2, for which Sol is a solution, are accounted for via the above dimensional reduction from ten dimensions. In particular, the five-form field strength and $`B`$ field dimensionally reduce to three and two-form field strengths respectively. Also, the ten-dimensional dilaton and moduli of $`t`$ and $`x_3`$ correspond to the three scalar fields in our hypothetical model.

Since we took the large $`u`$ limit in (3.5), Sol originates from the dual gravity description of the UV regime of non-commutative Yang-Mills.

## 4 Conclusions

Thurston spaces can be obtained as solutions to various Chern-Simons gauge theories. The Euclidean path-integral approach to three-dimensional quantum gravity and (super) membrane physics motivated us to search for a single ‘master theory’ for all of the Thurston spaces. In this vein, we constructed a model theory by adding a gauge field to low-energy string theory in three dimensions. We found that some of the Thurston solutions required an imaginary flux unless there are additional scalar fields in the theory.

Although such a three-dimensional theory does not give a complete picture of the Thurston geometries, it yields some interesting hints of the underlying structure. This is contained in the correspondence between the orbifold topology of six of the eight geometries that are Seifert fibre bundles and the parameters $`e`$ and $`k`$ of the string theory/sigma model whose low-energy effective action is (2.1). It would also appear that the fact that Sol and $`H^3`$ do not admit a Seifert fibre bundle structure  is related to the non-existence of a real 2-form potential, unless there are additional scalar fields.

Additional scalars arise naturally as the moduli of compact dimensions. Also, various cosmological terms required by most of the Thurston solutions could be considered as the curvatures of compact spaces. We were thus motivated to look to higher dimensions for a ‘master theory’ for the Thurston solutions. Two and three-dimensional Euclidean, spherical and hyperbolic spaces frequently occur within M-theoretic vacuum solutions. T-dualizing such spaces yields additional Thurston geometries expressed as a $`U(1)`$ bundle over a two-dimensional Einstein space. In particular, T-duality twists $`T^2\times S^1`$ and $`H^2\times S^1`$ into Nil and SL(2,R) respectively. The only Thurston space which does not fit into this scheme is Sol, which is derivable from the decoupling limit of a D3-brane in a background $`B`$ field.

Sol originates from the dimensional reduction of a dual gravity description of the UV regime of non-commutative Yang-Mills. Whether this indicates that Sol may be a useful toy model for the study of holography is still in the realm of speculation. The scalar wave equation on the Sol background, as for the ten-dimensional origin, is a Mathieu equation. This would indicate that the correlation functions in our toy model would have the same form as that derived from ten-dimensional theory. Sol has boundaries at $`u=0`$ and $`u=\mathrm{}`$, and holographical dual field theory would reside at the latter boundary.

Perhaps understanding how the Thurston spaces arise from the deep well of M-theory may indicate whether the Euclidean path integral approach to quantum gravity lies within a corner of M-theory. We are currently exploring issues involving the topology of the Thurston spaces and the structure of the fields in the three and higher-dimensional theories of origin.

## Acknowledgments

J.G. is partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. S.V. is partially supported by US Department of Energy grant DE-FG03-91ER40674. J.F.V.P. is supported in full by the Francqui Foundation (Belgium), the Actions de Recherche Concertées of the Direction de la Recherche Scientifique - Communauté Francaise de Belgique, IISN-Belgium (convention 4.4505.86).


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# Maximizing bandgaps in two-dimensional photonic crystals: a variational algorithm

## 1 Introduction

Photonic crystals are structures where the electromagnetic properties of the constituent material are periodic in space. They have been intensely studied recently  both for their practical applications and the theoretical challenges they pose. One area of research is the design and fabrication of structures that do *not* allow electromagnetic waves with frequencies in a certain range to propagate in them. Such structures are expected to find use as perfect mirrors and guiding structures, etc. In many applications, it is desirable that the excluded frequency range – the bandgap – be as large as possible. In this paper, we focus our attention on the design of structures with such maximal bandgaps.

The design problem that we propose to solve has been addressed before . The starting point in each approach has been to impose the translational symmetries of the structure to be designed, and to impose global constraints that the material properties must staisfy (maximum and minimum dielectric constants, for instance). We do the same. In earlier approaches, the next step involved exploring a subset of the structures that satisfy the imposed translational symmetry. Our algorithm, in contrast, involves an unrestricted exploration of all the structures that satisfy the imposed conditions. Notably, the algorithm is polarization non-specific; it can maximize a complete bandgap (i.e. a frequency range that is excluded for all polarizations).

The algorithm we propose is based on incremental steps, each of which increases the size of the selected bandgap. Each step is based on a variational argument that is discussed in  and outlined below.

The plan of the paper is as follows. In the next section, we present the equations relevant to the problem. Thereafter, we outline the variational argument we use and describe an algorithm to implement this in the case where the dielectric constant of the material is required to lie in a certain range. We have numerically implemented the algorithm; the details of the implementation will be presented elsewhere.

Two remarkable results follow quite easily from our discussion: First, that for a maximal bandgap structure where the dielectric constant is allowed to vary within a range, the dielectric constant at each point takes on either the smallest or the largest possible value. Second, that the wavevectors corresponding to the edges of a maximal bandgap may take on values only from a very small subset of the Brillouin zone.

## 2 Maxwell equations in two-dimensional systems

We consider a two-dimensional photonic crystal with a dielectric constant $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$ that is periodic in two independent directions (that define the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane) and homogeneous in the third (the $`z`$-direction). The magnetic susceptibility of the constituent material is assumed spatially constant. In this system, electromagnetic waves with wave vectors in the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane come in two distinct species: $`E`$-polarization, where the electric field vector is parallel to the $`z`$-direction; and, $`H`$-polarization, where the magnetic field vector is parallel to the $`z`$-direction. In the former case, Maxwell equations yield

$$ϵ^1\left(\frac{^2}{x^2}+\frac{^2}{y^2}\right)E+\frac{\omega ^2}{c^2}E=0,$$
(1)
and in the latter,

$$\left(\frac{}{x}ϵ^1\frac{}{x}+\frac{}{y}ϵ^1\frac{}{y}\right)H+\frac{\omega ^2}{c^2}H=0.$$
(2)
$`E`$ and $`H`$ are the $`z`$-components of the electric field and magnetization vectors, respectively. (See  for details of derivation.) Each of these equations has the form $`Du=\lambda u`$, where $`D`$ is a Hermitian operator. In the case of $`E`$-polarization,

$$Dϵ^{1/2}\left(\frac{^2}{x^2}+\frac{^2}{y^2}\right)ϵ^{1/2}$$
(3)
and $`uϵ^{1/2}E`$. For $`H`$-polarization,

$$D\left(\frac{}{x}ϵ^1\frac{}{x}+\frac{}{y}ϵ^1\frac{}{y}\right)$$
(4)
and $`uH`$. In both cases, $`\lambda \omega ^2/c^2`$. For ease of exposition, we will set $`c=1`$.

It is well-known that the spectra of eigenvalues of the equations above display ‘bands’. Given two bands, the difference between the smallest eigenvalue of the upper band and the largest eigenvalue of the lower band characterizes the bandgap. (We will focus our attention on the spectrum of $`\omega `$, rather than $`\lambda `$.) After having selected two adjacent bands, we will seek a function $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$ that maximizes the bandgap between them. In general, $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$ may be subject to imposed constraints. While the method outlined below may be used to handle a variety of constraints, we will confine ourselves to a specific one: $`ϵ_{min}ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})ϵ_{max}`$.

## 3 The variational algorithm

Starting with the standard eigenvalue problem $`Du=\lambda u`$, where $`D`$ is a Hermitian operator, we will first investigate changes in $`\lambda `$ due to changes in $`D`$. Prefixing $`\delta `$ to denote ‘change in’

$$(u+\delta u)^{}(D+\delta D)(u+\delta u)=\lambda +\delta \lambda .$$

Retaining terms to first order in the changes, and noting that for normalized eigenfunctions, $`u^{}\delta u=0`$,

$$u^{}\delta Du=\delta \lambda .$$

Change in $`D`$ is due to change $`\delta ϵ`$ in $`ϵ`$. In the case of $`E`$-polarization,

$`\delta D`$ $`=`$ $`\delta \left[ϵ^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{^2}{x^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{y^2}}\right)ϵ^{1/2}\right]`$ (5)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\delta ϵ}{2ϵ}}DD{\displaystyle \frac{\delta ϵ}{2ϵ}}`$
so that

$$u^{}\delta Du=\lambda _Cu^{}\frac{\delta ϵ}{ϵ}u𝑑\tau ,$$
(6)
where we use $`d\tau `$ to denote the volume element of the unit cell $`C`$ with boundary $`S`$.

One may proceed similarly in the case of $`H`$-polarization. Using the notational shorthand $`\stackrel{}{}\widehat{𝐢}/x+\widehat{𝐣}/y`$,

$`u^{}\delta Du`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _C}u^{}\stackrel{}{}(\delta (ϵ^1)\stackrel{}{}u)𝑑\tau `$ (7)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _S}(u^{}\delta (ϵ^1)\stackrel{}{}u)\widehat{n}𝑑A{\displaystyle _C}(\stackrel{}{}u^{})(\stackrel{}{}u)\delta (ϵ^1)𝑑\tau `$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _C}\delta (ϵ^1)|\stackrel{}{}u|^2𝑑\tau .`$
Recall that $`\delta \lambda =2\omega \delta \omega `$. To sum up, we have the following:

$$\frac{\delta \omega }{\delta ϵ}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \omega |u|^2/2ϵ:& E\text{polarization}\hfill \\ \hfill |\stackrel{}{}u|^2/2\omega ϵ:& H\text{polarization.}\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
It is not $`\omega `$ but, rather, a difference $`\omega _2\omega _1`$, that we seek to maximize with respect to variations in $`ϵ`$. Thus, we would like to tailor variations in $`ϵ`$ so that $`\delta (\omega _2\omega _1)>0`$. This is achieved if $`\delta ϵ>0`$ wherever $`\delta \omega _2/\delta ϵ>\delta \omega _1/\delta ϵ`$, and vice versa. If $`ϵ=ϵ_{max}`$ ($`ϵ=ϵ_{min}`$), it is impossible to achieve $`\delta ϵ>0`$ ($`\delta ϵ<0`$). Therefore, maximal $`\omega _2\omega _1`$ is expected when $`ϵ=ϵ_{max}`$ wherever $`\delta \omega _2/\delta ϵ>\delta \omega _1/\delta ϵ`$, and $`ϵ=ϵ_{min}`$ wherever $`\delta \omega _2/\delta ϵ<\delta \omega _1/\delta ϵ`$. Note that no explicit reference to polarization has been made; $`\omega _1`$ and $`\omega _2`$ may even be eigenvalues corresponding to different polarizations. This makes it possible for our algorithm to maximize the size of complete bandgaps.

This suggests the following iterative algorithm to a maximal bandgap:

* Choose periodicity of $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$, and the adjacent bands that straddle the bandgap to be maximized. Initialize with an arbitrary (but appropriately periodic) $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$.
* Determine, using $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$, the spectrum of eigenvalues $`\omega `$ and the wavefunctions $`u`$.
* Determine the wavefunctions that correspond to the smallest eigenvalue of the upper band ($`u_2`$ and $`\omega _2`$) and the largest eigenvalue of the lower band ($`u_1`$ and $`\omega _1`$).
* Make *small* changes $`\delta ϵ`$ in $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$: $`\delta ϵ0`$ wherever $`\delta \omega _2/\delta ϵ>\delta \omega _1/\delta ϵ`$ (determined using the expressions in (8)), and vice versa. (Maintain consistency with the constraint $`ϵ_{min}ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})ϵ_{max}`$.)
* Go to 1 unless termination/convergence criteria are met.

A discussion of some of the finer points of each step follows.

The initialization step requires the lattice parameters as input, both to establish a length scale and to fix the translational symmetry of the system. It is in this sense – and this sense only – that the maximum attained is not global. (Observe that, due to the scaling properties of the eigenvalue equations, maximization without an imposed length scale is trivial.)

Considerable work  has been done towards numerical solution of the eigenvalue equations for arbitrary $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$. The usual practice is to first discretize the space in some manner, then select a reasonably dense subset of wavevectors from the Brillouin zone and, finally, obtain the eigenvalues corresponding to each wavevector.

Remarkably, it turns out that it is not necessary to perform a complete bandstructure computation to implement our scheme. To see this, note first that, since $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$ is real, wavevectors $`\pm \stackrel{}{𝐤}`$ have degenerate spectra. Therefore, any arbitrary linear combination $`u=\alpha u_\stackrel{}{𝐤}+\beta u_\stackrel{}{𝐤}`$ is an eigenfunction. Note, too, from our earlier discussion (equation (8) and following paragraph), that either of the wavefunctions $`u=u_2`$ or $`u=u_1`$ that straddle the bandgap must be such that $`|u|^2`$ (or $`|\stackrel{}{}u|^2`$) has the same translational symmetry as the underlying lattice. This severely limits the possible values of $`\stackrel{}{𝐤}`$ at the band-edges. In the case of a square lattice, it is easy to see that the only possible values of $`\stackrel{}{𝐤}`$ are those with $`0`$ or $`\pm \pi `$ as components. It is, thus, possible to limit the search – for a maximal-bandgap producing configuration of $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$ in a 2D square lattice – to wavevectors $`0`$, $`(0,\pi )`$, $`(\pi ,0)`$ and $`(\pi ,\pi )`$!

Another remarkable result – referred to following equation (8) and hinted at in step 3 of the algorithm – is the‘maximum-contrast’ rule: if $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$ is allowed to vary arbitrarily between two limits then maximal bandgaps are obtained when $`ϵ(\stackrel{}{𝐫})`$ attains one or the other extremal value at each point. (See  for a related detailed discussion.)

One question that we have not answered here is whether the iterative algorithm converges. In a one-dimensional system (where exact results may be obtained otherwise and where $`E`$\- and $`H`$-polarization spectra are degenerate), the algorithm does indeed converge rapidly to expected results. In 2D, numerical results obtained so far provide very strong evidence in favor of convergence. These results will be presented elsewhere .