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# High Velocity Cloud Edges and Mini-HVCs

## 1 Introduction

This paper is mainly concerned with Arecibo111The Arecibo Observatory is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which is operated by Cornell University under a management agreement with the National Science Foundation. H I observations of two High Velocity Clouds (HVC) and three smaller high velocity features found serindipitously. While there is controversy about the location and nature of the various types of HVCs (Richter et al., 1999; Wakker et al., 1999; Putman et al., 2002; Richter et al., 2001), the Compact HVCs (CHVCs) as defined by Braun & Burton (1999) are thought by many researchers to be metal-poor and associated with the Local Group of galaxies as a whole rather than with the immediate vicinity of the Milky Way disk (Blitz et al., 1999; Braun & Burton, 1999, 2000, 2001; Putman et al., 2002). Even if this hypothesis is correct in general, there is still controversy as to whether distances to the CHVCs are mostly of order 650 kpc to 1 Mpc (about the distance to Andromeda) or of order one-third that value (still affiliated with the Local Group, but closer than its barycenter). One of the two selected HVCs is a fairly typical CHVC; the other is somewhat more extended. We shall use the term CHVC throughout for clouds such as both of these, extending the definition of Braun & Burton (1999) to include more extended — and possibly closer — sources.

The H I mapping of the two CHVCs reported here gives data relevant to three questions: (1) Does the column density decrease roughly exponentially below $`1\times 10^{19}`$ atoms $`\mathrm{cm}^2`$, or is there a sudden change in slope somewhere between $`2\times 10^{18}`$ and $`1\times 10^{19}`$ atoms $`\mathrm{cm}^2`$? (2) Are the cloud edges relatively smooth or severely corrugated on $`3\mathrm{}`$ scales? (3) Does the gas temperature and/or turbulence increase at the outermost points, as might be expected if the clouds are surrounded by an outside very hot medium? The present data does not address a fourth question: How asymmetric are the clouds? The three observational questions are related to the following theoretical controversies.

A few bright spiral galaxies have been mapped in H I with good sensitivity to large radial distance from the center. These show an “outer H I edge” in the sense that the exponential decrease of the neutral hydrogen column density $`N_{HI}`$ (as distinct from the total hydrogen column density $`N_{H,tot}`$) shows a sudden steepening beyond some radius (Corbelli, Schneider & Salpeter, 1989; van Gorkom, 1993). The rapid decrease in $`N_{HI}`$ outside the edge is due to a rapid increase in the ionized fraction of hydrogen, in agreement with theoretical models (Corbelli & Salpeter, 1993; Maloney, 1993; Dove & Shull, 1994). We shall denote the theoretical value of the edge column density, defined as the neutral gas column density in the region where the neutral and ionized fractions are equal, as $`N_{1/2}`$. The value of $`N_{1/2}`$ is close to the observed column density where the H I scalelength decreases rapidly, although the exact relation depends on the assumed morphology of gas and dark matter and on the spectrum of the external ionizing flux. For galaxies $`N_{1/2}`$ is $`2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and the central column density is orders of magnitude larger, so the observed $`N_{HI}`$ scalelength far inside the edge gives a reliable value for the $`N_{H,tot}`$ scalelength everywhere. Incidentally, observations of Lyman Limit Systems at intermediate redshifts give an independent estimate of $`N_{1/2}`$ (Corbelli, Salpeter & Bandiera, 2001), which is similar (slightly larger than $`2\times 10^{19}`$ atoms $`\mathrm{cm}^2`$, but the UV flux at that time was also larger).

Qualitatively similar arguments must apply to the hydrogen in CHVCs (earlier claims of some “sharp” edges on $`10`$-$`20\mathrm{}`$ scales are reviewed by Wakker & van Woerden (1997)). However, the value of $`N_{1/2}`$ (and the observed edge column density, close to that value) depends on gas density and on the ionizing flux, and could therefore be different for CHVCs. If $`N_{1/2}`$ were appreciably smaller for a CHVC than for a galaxy (as in question 1 above) one could again get the $`N_{H,tot}`$ scalelength from the observed $`N_{HI}`$ scalelength. However, we shall see that $`N_{1/2}2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ is also typical for CHVCs, but that the central column density is larger by only a factor of a few and the small intervening region is further complicated by the transition from cold to warm neutral hydrogen (Braun & Burton, 2000). As a consequence, the observed H I scalelengths and masses may or may not greatly underestimate the size and mass of total hydrogen. Numerical modelling will be needed to settle this issue, but we give some conjectures in Sect. 5.

Murphy, Lockman & Savage (1995) and Lockman et al. (2002) (We shall refer to these papers jointly as the “Murphy-Lockman Survey,” abbreviated MLS.) report that 37% of sightlines to quasars (randomly selected with respect to known HVCs) show H I emission at velocities typical of HVCs, with column densities $`7\times 10^{17}`$ atoms $`\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and above when averaged within the $`21\mathrm{}`$ beam of the Green Bank 43m telescope. Such column densities are far below the suggested $`N_{1/2}`$ $`2\times 10^{19}`$ atoms $`\mathrm{cm}^2`$, and most of the hydrogen must be ionized if the column density is uniform over the $`21\mathrm{}`$ beam. While most of the MLS sources are evidently extended outskirts of major HVC complexes, a few of the more isolated sources might be highly clumpy, consisting of much smaller “mini-HVCs” which have central column densities closer to $`N_{1/2}`$ than to $`7\times 10^{17}`$ atoms $`\mathrm{cm}^2`$ but which cover much less than the full $`21\mathrm{}`$ beam. We hope to map (with Arecibo resolution) some of the more isolated MLS sightlines in the future, but serendipitously our present observations have found three “mini-HVCs” with angular sizes larger than the Arecibo beam but smaller than $`21\mathrm{}`$.

Our Arecibo mapping procedures are detailed in Sect. 2. Results are presented in Sect. 3 for W486 and W491 and in Sect. 4 for the three mini-HVCs. The CHVC distance controversy is discussed in Sect. 5, along with the relation of the mini-HVCs to that controversy, likely values of $`N_{1/2}`$, and the question of pressure vs. gravity confinement. Sect. 6 restates our conclusions succinctly.

## 2 Arecibo Observations

We selected two HVCs from the compilation of Wakker & van Woerden (1991) for study: one object, entry number 486 (hereafter referred to as W486) in that list, is considered a typical Compact HVC (CHVC) by Braun & Burton (1999); a map at the resolution of the Dwingeloo 25 m radio-telescope was given there. The second HVC, W491, is somewhat more extended and possibly nearer, but more likely to have properties similar to the CHVC than to the large complexes. Throughout this paper we will broaden the definition of the term CHVC beyond the strict definition of Braun & Burton (1999) to include somewhat larger and somewhat less isolated HVCs like W491 — all HVCs that are not more than $`3\mathrm{°}`$ in diameter as listed in Wakker & van Woerden (1991) and not clearly associated with any of the major complexes. A map of W491 using the NRAO 43m telescope was given by Wright (1979). W486 is part of Wakker & van Woerden’s Anti-Center Very High Velocity (ACVHV) complex in Population AC (clouds near the Galactic anticenter with $`v_{LSR}<150\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) while W491 is a member of Population EN (extreme negative-velocity clouds that are not associated with the Magellanic Stream nor the Galactic Center nor Anti-Center populations). Both have $`v_{LSR}<250\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, well removed in velocity from emission from the Galactic disk. Both are at southern Galactic latitudes and were observed during nighttime at Arecibo in order to have the quietest possible spectral baselines.

Observations were conducted in July/August 1999 and August 2000. We used the Gregorian feed system with the “L narrow” receiver in total power (position-switched) mode, with 3.05 kHz (about $`0.63\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) channel spacing. The reference beams trailed the on-source beam positions by $`6^m`$ in right ascension ($`85\mathrm{}`$ at the declinations of these sources), in all cases well outside the contours of the clouds in the available lower resolution maps. Calibration was accomplished by observing several continuum sources from the VLA calibrator list, chosen to have small size compared to the $`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ beam. In addition, we reobserved a few spiral galaxies for which we had high signal-to-noise pre-upgrade H I measurements and which were known to be $`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ in extent. After calibration, each spectrum was baselined and smoothed with a Savitsky-Golay filter.

Short-integration mapping a few beamwidths around the nominal HVC centers served to locate the highest column density cores of the clouds more precisely. Armed with that information, we proceeded to map along a straight line (i.e., a “spoke,” analogous to a spoke of a wheel) from the center toward the nearest edge of each cloud (as indicated in the coarser maps cited above) with beam positions separated by a beamwidth. Integration times ranged from 5 min ON at inner positions to 50 min ON at the outermost positions, approximately $`30\mathrm{}`$ from the center. To set limits on possible sidelobe contributions, we first mapped several bright continuum sources of negligible extent at declinations comparable to those of our two HVC, then observed beam positions with perpendicular separation $`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2\sqrt{3}=5\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}54`$ from the positions along the spoke, as indicated on Fig. 3 for W486. (Fig. 5 shows the points to the west of the spoke for W491; corresponding points to the east are not shown.) This placed the off-spoke points near the peak of the first sidelobe ring for the next outermost point on the chosen spoke. In the follow-up mapping, conducted in August 2000, we added more points off-spoke in both directions for W486 (shown in Fig. 3 below), to investigate how corrugated the edge might be at the $`2\times 10^{18}`$ atoms $`\mathrm{cm}^2`$ level, and we mapped the full extent of a cloudlet (“mini-HVC” in the language of the Introduction) discovered superimposed on the western off-spoke points for W491 (see Fig. 5 below).

The sidelobe was found to peak at a level of $`15`$ dB on average, in a slightly elliptical ring about $`10\times 11\mathrm{}`$ in diameter, with the minimum between the main beam and the sidelobe being similarly elliptical, about $`7\times 8\mathrm{}`$ in diameter (see also Heiles et al. (2001)). The strength varies considerably with azimuth and zenith angle, however; in some orientations the maximum sidelobe response is as high as $`12`$ dB, in others the response is below $`18`$ dB. On average (appropriate when repeated scans on each point occur in different orientations of the Gregorian subreflector), each octant of the sidelobe ring contributes about 4.7% of the response of the main beam, each sextant about 6.2%. For a complete map, these figures would allow us to approximately subtract sidelobe contributions iteratively. Since we do not have complete maps of these clouds, we estimated sidelobe contributions by assuming approximate symmetry about the centers of the clouds. In this way, we determined that the first sidelobe ring contributes about 20% to each spectrum (i.e., about half the response it would give for a completely uniform source much more extended than the sidelobe ring) for these observations. Since reduction of each flux by a fixed percentage does not affect the derived scalelength, and to avoid compounding uncertainties, we present the spectra without any correction for sidelobes.

“Far” sidelobes (i.e., all those beyond the first sidelobe ring discussed above, including what is sometimes called “stray radiation”), due to scattering off the triangular platform and the support cables as well as diffraction through the partially blocked aperture, are known to exist (Perillat & Howell, 2001). In at least one pathological orientation of the Gregorian subreflector, there is a spot in the “far” sidelobes which rises almost to the level of the first sidelobe ring. However, in most orientations the “far” sidelobes are down by at least another 3 or 4 dB from the first sidelobe ring. The average integrated response of the “far” sidelobes is unknown at this point. For observations on the outskirts of a very strong source like DDO 154, “far” sidelobes can contribute noticeably (Hoffman et al., 2001) in integrations as long as the ones employed here. The core of W491 is weaker by a factor of 5 than DDO 154, that of W486 by a factor of 10. That should reduce the “far” sidelobe contributions to the noise level in these observations, except in pathological orientations.

## 3 Results for the Targetted HVCs

### 3.1 W486 = CHVC 39 = HVC 158-39-285

Representative spectra for the CHVC W486 (with no correction for sidelobes) are shown in Figure 1. The figure includes a spectrum (labelled W486C — C for “center”) from the core of the cloud, integrated 5 min ON, and one (labelled W486R7 — R7 for “seventh beamwidth out along the radius”) from a point $`7\times 3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2=22\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}4`$ out from the core along the mapped spoke. The latter was integrated 50 min ON and has rms noise 0.7 mJy after smoothing, typical of the outermost spectra on each cloud. The displacement in velocity by $`17\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is characteristic of the trend along the spoke: profile center velocities (defined to be the midpoint between the points at 50% of peak on either side of the feature) rise monotonically from $`285\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (heliocentric; $`\upsilon _{LSR}=292`$, $`\upsilon _{GSR}=228`$, $`\upsilon _{LGSR}=150\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) at the core to $`\upsilon _{\mathrm{}}=268\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at the outermost points. Whether this represents systematic rotation or a shear (tidal or otherwise) remains to be determined, but Braun & Burton (2000) report similar velocity gradients for the cores of the six CHVC they have mapped at Westerbork. Velocity corrections to GSR and LGSR follow the conventions of Braun & Burton (1999). Profile widths (FWHM) remain essentially constant along the spoke, ranging between 23 and $`27\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for the core through R6. The outer, noiser points appear slightly broader (The spectrum from a point 7 beamwidths out from center measures $`34\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ FWHM) but that is likely to be an artifact of the noise.

The neutral hydrogen column density along the mapped spoke is shown in Fig. 2. It is fairly constant near $`3\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for about $`13\mathrm{}`$ out from the center, then tails off smoothly and exponentially from $`2\times 10^{19}`$ down to $`1\times 10^{18}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ at a radius of $`30\mathrm{}`$. Sidelobe corrections, if we could apply them accurately, might shift all points downward by 0.10 in $`\mathrm{log}N_{HI}`$ with no significant change in slope. The scalelength is $`5\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$. That is a bit smaller than might be inferred from the constant declination cut presented by Burton, Braun & Chengalur (2001a), consistent with our choice of mapping along the spoke with the greatest gradient in column density as suggested by the map of Braun & Burton (1999) and confirmed by the more detailed map of Burton, Braun & Chengalur (2001a). The steady shift in centroid velocity of our profiles is consistent with the velocity field for the higher column density parts of the cloud in Burton, Braun & Chengalur (2001a). There are no signs of the outer edge being broken up into cloudlets on the scale of the Arecibo beam ($`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$).

The fluxes, integrated over velocity, for each observed beam position are shown in Fig. 3. Each observed point has been convolved with a $`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ beam, and each beam position is marked by a small cross. The greyscale is logarithmic. Some asymmetry perpendicular to the chosen spoke is evident, and the edge is not perfectly smooth, but the beam-to-beam variations perpendicular to the spoke do not exceed a factor of a few.

### 3.2 W491 = HVC 102-40-409

Representative spectra for W491 (no correction for sidelobes) are shown in Fig. 4. The centroid velocity is $`\upsilon _{\mathrm{}}=415`$, $`\upsilon _{LSR}=412`$, $`\upsilon _{GSR}=249`$, $`\upsilon _{LGSR}=186\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. In this case no systematic velocity gradient is evident along the chosen spoke although the profile width increases slightly, from $`15\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at the center of the cloud to $`30\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at a point $`16\mathrm{}`$ out, and then remains approximately constant at $`30\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ from that point on out. The narrower profiles at the core of the cloud are consistent with there being a cold core similar to those observed with synthesis arrays for other CHVCs (Braun & Burton, 2000).

The fluxes, integrated over velocity separately for the main cloud and the mini-HVC discussed below, are shown in Fig. 5. Convolution and greyscale are the same as for W486 (Fig. 3). For the main cloud we were not able (due to time constraints) to map to as low a column density over as wide a range of positions as for W486, but as best we can tell there are no significant corrugations of the portion of the edge that we have mapped.

The column density vs. radius for the main cloud of W491 is shown in the righthand panel of Fig. 2. The central region has nearly constant column density, with a slow decline from $`5\times 10^{19}`$ to $`2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. After that the decline is more rapid; it is not quite so smooth as for W486, but it is still best characterized as exponential from $`2\times 10^{19}`$ down to the lowest column density observed, just less than $`1\times 10^{18}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, with a slightly larger scalelength $`7\mathrm{}`$. In detail, on the chosen spoke the decline is more nearly exponential, with a scalelength of $`5\mathrm{}`$, to $`2\times 10^{18}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, then there is a $`6\mathrm{}`$ wide plateau before the decline resumes with approximately the same scalelength as before. A better sense of the decline can be gotten from Fig. 6, in which the column density for the main cloud alone (i.e., excluding the velocity range in which the mini-HVC appears) is plotted as a function of the distance from our fiducial cloud center as if the cloud were spherical. Here the point to point variations wash out the “plateau,” leaving on average a simple exponential decline with a scalelength of about $`6\mathrm{}`$. There are no indications of corrugation of the edge of W491 either. As for W486, sidelobe corrections would shift all data points downward by 0.1 in $`\mathrm{log}N_{HI}`$ without significantly changing the derived scalelength.

## 4 Low Column Density Mini-HVCs

### 4.1 A Mini-HVC Superimposed on W491

Points to the west of the spoke mapped in W491, observed to check sidelobe contamination, exhibited emission displaced $`66\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ higher in velocity. The emission shows up as a distinct feature (see Fig. 4, righthand panel) in every spectrum in which it appears since both the main cloud and the mini-HVC have quite narrow profiles ($`23`$ and $`36\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at 50% of peak, respectively, at positions where the mini-HVC appears). We can trace the signal contiguously over a roughly elliptical shape, $`20\times 10\mathrm{}`$ in extent, aligned very nearly NS as shown in the righthand panel of Fig. 5. There is no trace of signal at this position and velocity in the less-resolved and less sensitive Leiden/Dwingeloo Survey (Hartmann & Burton, 1997). Nor does it appear in the map published by Wright (1979), based on NRAO 43m data. We shall call this small cloud, displaced in velocity from the chosen CHVC, a “mini-HVC” no matter whether it is a part of some other extended HVC complex or a distinct smaller or more distant CHVC.

Column density as a function of radius is shown for the mini-HVC in Fig. 7. The center is taken to be the point for which the spectrum is shown in Fig. 3 (right-hand panel), which is close to the point of highest column density in the cloudlet. Spokes in different directions, spaced by $`60\mathrm{°}`$, are shown with different symbols. Upper limits are shown in the figure by downward arrows. Our spatial resolution is poor, but as best we can tell the column density falls exponentially in all directions, from a peak $`5\times 10^{18}`$ to $`5\times 10^{17}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ in 8 or $`10\mathrm{}`$. The H I scalelength along the major axis is thus of order $`4\mathrm{}`$, slightly smaller than for the CHVCs W491 or W486 themselves. Both the peak column density and the extent of the mini-HVC are much less than those for the CHVCs, so sidelobe corrections should not exceed the noise in the spectra for the mini-HVC.

### 4.2 Two More Mini-HVCs

In preliminary data for future mapping of two more small HVCs, we have uncovered two additional mini-HVCs, both superimposed on W479 = HVC 132-37-334. The peak column densities are $`1\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for each, a bit higher than for the mini-HVC superimposed on W491. The angular displacements from the center of W479 are $`17\mathrm{}`$ and $`43\mathrm{}`$; the angular sizes are comparable to that of the mini-HVC superimposed on W491 although we will need mapping with longer integration at each point to know the full extents. Each has heliocentric velocity $`245\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ ($`\upsilon _{LSR}=247`$, $`\upsilon _{GSR}=118`$, $`\upsilon _{LGSR}=40\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$), $`98\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ above the velocity of W479 itself. The profile widths (at 50% of peak) are about $`30\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, comparable to that of the W491 mini-HVC. The preliminary mapping of W413, the second of those two additional HVCs, did not reveal any mini-HVCs with peak column density $`1\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

Fig. 8 plots heliocentric velocity as a function of the angle $`\theta `$ between the line-of-sight and the direction to the Local Group center, for our four CHVCs and the three mini-HVCs. The four CHVCs were chosen for their particularly large negative velocities (and, indirectly, small $`\theta `$). The three mini-HVCs all have appreciably less negative velocities than the CHVCs, and we think it is likely that they are chance superpositions rather than physical associations. The radial components of their velocities are close to that for the end of the Magellanic Stream (which Lockman et al. (2002) and Stanimirović et al. (2002) argue is $`10\mathrm{°}`$ more extended than previously thought), but also close to that of the Local Group barycenter, with deviations of only $`40`$, $`40`$, and $`120\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, respectively.

The area on the sky of each mini-HVC is about one-tenth that of a typical CHVC ($`20\mathrm{}\times 10\mathrm{}`$ vs. $`60\mathrm{}\times 30\mathrm{}`$ or more). The average of the peak column density is about one-fifth that of an average CHVC, $`8\times 10^{18}`$ vs. $`4\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The three mini-HVCs in total cover about 10% of the area we have mapped so far in studying the four HVCs. As mentioned, these three cloudlets could be either distant and/or smaller CHVCs or some small structures associated with extensions of the Magellanic Stream. The latter possibility is perhaps more likely, partly because of the low central density and partly because of the greater extension of the Magellanic Stream mentioned above.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Edge Column Density and Ionized Hydrogen

We have defined the edge column density, $`N_{1/2}`$, as the column density of neutral atomic hydrogen where the neutral and ionized column densities are equal. As mentioned in the Introduction, $`N_{1/2}`$ is of order $`2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for nearby spiral galaxies, as observed by the shortening of the $`N_{HI}`$ scalelength when $`N_{HI}<N_{1/2}`$ and confirmed by theoretical modelling (Corbelli & Salpeter, 1993; Maloney, 1993; Dove & Shull, 1994). Theoretical models have also been carried out for gas clouds representing Lyman Limit Systems (Corbelli, Salpeter & Bandiera, 2001; Corbelli & Bandiera, 2002). The middle curve of Fig. 3 in Corbelli, Salpeter & Bandiera (2001) shows a likely $`N_{HI}N_{H,\mathrm{tot}}`$ relation. Their analysis of the distribution function for $`N_{HI}`$ at intermediate redshifts gave a value of $`N_{1/2}`$ only slightly larger than for nearby galaxies, which may reflect the increase of the extragalactic UV flux with redshift. As shown in Fig. 2 for the two CHVC main clouds which we mapped in detail, W486 and W491, there is a change of slope near $`N_{HI}2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ in the H I column density as a function of radius, and $`N_{HI}`$ drops smoothly and approximately exponentially from $`1\times 10^{19}`$ to $`2\times 10^{18}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Discounting the unlikely possibility of $`N_{1/2}<2\times 10^{18}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, a value of $`N_{1/2}`$ near $`2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ is thus likely for CHVCs, similar to that for galaxies and Lyman Limit Systems.

With $`N_{1/2}2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ the hydrogen at the center of W486 and W491 is mostly neutral, but further out the undetected contribution of ionized hydrogen is uncertain and likely to be large. In the absence of explicit numerical modelling, we have estimated $`N_{H,tot}`$ as follows: We adopt the $`N_{HI}N_{H,\mathrm{tot}}`$ relation for almost spherical clouds from Corbelli, Salpeter & Bandiera (2001), using the middle curve of their Fig. 3 which corresponds to $`N_{1/2}2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. We can then construct a curve for $`N_{H,tot}`$ vs. radius from our Fig. 2 or 6 out to radius $`30\mathrm{}`$. With these theoretical assumptions, we estimate that the scalelength for total hydrogen is 3 or 4 times larger than the observed scalelength for H I ($`20\mathrm{}`$ for W491). Allowing for the mostly neutral core (radius $`<10\mathrm{}`$), we estimate a larger total mass $`M_{H,\mathrm{tot}}5M_{HI}`$. For comparisons with structure formation calculations, the ratio of baryon mass to dark mass is important. This is now $`5`$ times larger than estimates in the literature which use only $`M_{HI}`$. For comparison with Lyman Limit Systems, the radius where $`N_{HI}`$ drops to $`1\times 10^{17}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ is important (Charlton, Churchill & Rigby, 2000). Using the same $`N_{HI}N_{H,\mathrm{tot}}`$ relation, we estimate this to be $`40\mathrm{}`$ compared with the observed radius $`30\mathrm{}`$ in Fig. 2.

The increases in scalelength and mass to account for the unobserved ionized hydrogen, as estimated above, are uncertain and may not be quite as large for typical CHVCs which tend to have larger central $`N_{HI}`$ than W486 and W491, but the increases are still likely to be appreciable. The earlier papers on the CHVC distance scale (Blitz et al., 1999; Braun & Burton, 1999, 2000; Burton, Braun & Chengalur, 2001a, b) showed that typical distances $`D600\mathrm{kpc}`$ to 1 Mpc led to physical scalelengths and baryon fractions consistent with those for dwarf galaxies if ionized hydrogen were neglected. The scalelength and baryon fraction both scale as $`D`$, so the increase from H I to $`\mathrm{H}_{tot}`$ will give consistency for somewhat smaller distances $`D`$. The scarcity of starless gas clouds in other galaxy groups (Zwaan, 2001; Zwaan & Briggs, 2000; de Blok et al., 2002) has been used as an argument against $`D600`$ kpc. The shortening of the distance scale, along with some recalibration, tends to remove the discrepancy (Braun & Burton, 2001; Putman et al., 2002). Similarly, arguments about distant CHVCs contributing too many Lyman Limit Systems (Charlton, Churchill & Rigby, 2000) are ameliorated by a shorter distance scale.

### 5.2 Confinement, Clumpiness, and Other Uncertainties

There is still some controversy as to whether HVCs, CHVCs in particular, are confined by dark matter gravity or by pressure from an external very hot gas. Both our observations of CHVCs and those by Burton, Braun & Chengalur (2001a) have shown that (i) $`N_{HI}`$ decreases smoothly and appreciably with distance $`r`$ from the cloud center, and (ii) linewidths (and hence thermal plus turbulent energy) do not increase with $`r`$. The total gas pressure therefore decreases with $`r`$, as it should if the cloud is confined by dark matter gravity, in contrast to the constant pressure that pressure equilibrium would produce. The thermal conductivity of an external very hot gas is still controversial (see Narayan & Medvedev (2001)), but confinement by hot gas might also heat and perturb the outer layers of a CHVC too much.

The importance of ionized hydrogen would be less if the H I in HVCs were highly clumpy, so that much of the overall cloud area had very low column density (see Charlton, Churchill & Rigby (2000)). For W486 and W491 we have not found any strong irregularities on the scale of $`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$, which is quite a bit smaller than the cloud diameters. Braun & Burton (2000) and Burton, Braun & Chengalur (2001a) also do not find very pronounced holes. Thus, strong clumpiness is not likely to be important for column density distributions in the HVCs that have been mapped to date, although volume density fluctuations on smaller scales cannot be excluded.

For the main portions of the extended HVC complexes, $`N_{HI}`$ is larger than for CHVCs and the contribution from ionized hydrogen should be unimportant. On the other hand, the sources described by Murphy, Lockman & Savage (1995) and Lockman et al. (2002), while mostly outlyers of extended HVC complexes, mostly have $`N_{HI}<<2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, and ionized hydrogen is likely to dominate over the neutral phase. A small number, up to 7%, of these sources seem to be smaller than the $`21\mathrm{}`$ beam and might be small enough for the actual central $`N_{HI}`$ to be of order $`2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ or only slightly smaller, similar to the three mini-HVCs described above. Such compact sources contribute little to the total gas mass, and even less to obscuration of UV from quasars, but their $`N_{HI}`$ distribution function is important whether the sources are isolated or extensions of HVC complexes. Better statistics in this range of $`N_{HI}`$ could pin down a global value of the edge column density $`N_{1/2}`$ or find evidence for variations in $`N_{1/2}`$ (see the discussion in Corbelli & Bandiera (2002)). The value of $`N_{1/2}`$ may well vary from place to place because the flux of ionizing radiation may vary for two reasons: (i) More than 37% of directions on the sky have $`N_{HI}`$ above $`1.6\times 10^{17}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (unit UV optical depth at the Lyman edge — Murphy, Lockman & Savage (1995)), so the extragalactic flux may be highly obscured in some places and less so in others; and (ii) in some galaxy group environments the extragalactic ionizing UV flux may be greatly enhanced by some UV leaking out of galaxies (Bland-Hawthorn, Freeman & Quinn, 1997; Castellanos, Díaz & Tenorio-Tagle, 2002; Ciardi, Bianchi & Ferrara, 2002).

Quite apart from the CHVC distance controversy, it is puzzling why there are so few starless clouds compared with dwarf galaxies in other galaxy groups if $`N_{1/2}2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ is universal: $`N_{1/2}`$ is then much less than the minimum $`N_{H,\mathrm{tot}}`$ for star formation to occur, and one should expect there to be hydrogen clouds with $`N_{H,\mathrm{tot}}`$ a few times larger than $`2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, mostly neutral and easily detected, but starless. The puzzle could be relieved if $`N_{1/2}`$ were appreciably larger in many galaxy groups, since most clouds would be either highly ionized or rich in stars.

## 6 Conclusions and summary

High sensitivity Arecibo mapping along a radial spoke in each of two Compact High Velocity Clouds (CHVCs, defined as a slightly broader class than the very compact and very isolated examplars catalogued by Braun & Burton (1999)) along with preliminary work on two more CHVCs has led to the following conclusions:

(1) The neutral hydrogen column density falls exponentially, with scalelengths of $`5\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ and $`7\mathrm{}`$ for W486 and W491, respectively. The exponential decline continues as far as we can trace the gas, from column densities near $`2\times 10^{19}`$ to below $`10^{18}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

(2) The most reasonable explanation of these results is that the exponential decline we observe is the truncation edge itself, with the edge column density $`N_{1/2}`$, defined as the neutral gas density where the neutral and ionized fractions are equal, around $`2\times 10^{19}\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, similar to $`N_{1/2}`$ values for nearby galaxies and for Lyman Limit Systems. The cores of the CHVCs we mapped are only slightly above this value. The bulk of the gas in these CHVCs must be ionized rather than neutral, the scalelengths must be larger for total hydrogen (ionized plus neutral) than for H I alone, and the baryon fraction must be larger than the H I mass fraction alone.

(3) The cloud edges are relatively smooth on the scale of the $`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ beam. There is little sign of clumpiness and the linewidths are fairly constant.

(4) W491 has a superimposed mini-HVC, displaced in velocity by $`66\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, with a peak column density only $`5\times 10^{18}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Preliminary data toward future mapping of two more CHVCs has revealed two more mini-HVCs of similar size and similarly low central column density, displaced even more in velocity.

To date there has been very little mapping of the HVC population with the sensitivity and resolution required to detect cloudlets like the mini-HVC superimposed on W491. Nor do we know whether the smoothness of the edges of W486 and W491 is typical of the general CHVC population. Mapping of a statistically significant sample of CHVCs, with further exploration around the edges of each, will be required before we know whether or not there are differences in the corrugation of the edges of more-isolated and less-isolated CHVCs that might indicate different exposures to Galactic and extragalactic UV. Mapping of some sightlines independent of known CHVCs with sufficient sensitivity to detect low column density gas is also needed to assess whether the three mini-HVCs really are independent of the CHVCs against which they are seen. The few isolated beam positions at which low column density emission was found by Lockman et al. (2002) might be fruitful starting points. It will also be important to map some sightlines further removed from the Magellanic Stream to ascertain that the mini-HVCs are not related solely to that tidal feature. Arecibo resolution is important since the mini-HVCs we have detected to date subtend only a few Arecibo beams (and only a single Green Bank Telescope beam). A statistical sample of mini-HVCs will be needed before we can assess (a) the likelihood that they are candidates for the Local Group wide infalling gas clouds for which Blitz et al. (1999) (and others before them) have argued, and (b) implications for the total hydrogen column density distribution (Corbelli & Bandiera, 2002).

We thank R. Braun, J. Charlton, E. Corbelli, M. Shull and the anonymous referee for valuable discussions and comments, and we are grateful to J. Dickey and S. Stanimirović for making ANZUV available to us. P. Perilat provided invaluable assistance with procedures at the telescope, and the Arecibo telescope operators were, as always, courteous and capable. R. Gildea and A. Hirani assisted with the Arecibo observations. Partial funding was provided by the Crafoord Prize Fund at Cornell University. Travel support was provided by NAIC and a grant from Lafayette College.


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# Quantum time-of-flight measurements: kick clock versus continuous clock.

## Abstract

The measurement of time durations or instants of ocurrence of events has been frequently modelled “operationally” by coupling the system of interest to a “clock”. According to several of these models the operational approach is limited at low energies because the perturbation of the clock does not allow to reproduce accurately the corresponding ideal time quantity, defined for the system in isolation. We show that, for a time-of-flight measurement model that can be set to measure dwell or arrival times, these limitations may be overcome by extending the range of energies where the clock works properly using pulsed couplings rather than continuous ones.

In the standard formulation of quantum mechanics the measurements are assumed to take place at one instant of time. Correspondingly, the expectation values are calculated for particular instants. Within this theoretical scheme it is not obvious how to obtain averages or, more generally, distributions for durations of processes, or for the instants when a particular event occurs ML00 ; MSE02 . The approaches to formalize time observables may be classified in two groups: those which rely on the system of interest alone to produce “ideal quantities”; and “operational approaches” where the system of interest is coupled to an auxiliary system or additional degree(s) of freedom which act as a clock or stopwatch. The coupling and auxiliary system may be more or less realistic, but even simple “toy models” have been useful to gain insight into the peculiarities of time measurements. Several of these models show the limitations of the operational route to reproduce accurately either the corresponding ideal time quantity, or the reference of the classical time for low particle energies, due to the perturbation induced by the clock Peres80 ; Peres95 ; AOPRU98 . In this letter we show that these limitations may be overcome by extending the range of energies where the clock works properly using pulsed couplings rather than continuous ones. Our study case is the time-of-flight gedanken experiment put forward by Peres Peres80 , based on the Salecker-Wigner clock SalWig58 . With a minor modification this is essentially the same model used in AOPRU98  for a time-of-arrival measurement.

Consider first the clock in isolation, described by the Hamiltonian SalWig58  $`\widehat{H}_c=\omega \widehat{J}=i\mathrm{}\omega _\theta `$, where $`\widehat{J}=i\mathrm{}/\theta `$, $`\omega `$ is the angular frequency and $`\theta [0,2\pi )`$ the angle. This Hamiltonian has normalized eigenfunctions

$$u_n(\theta )=\mathrm{exp}(in\theta )/(2\pi )^{1/2},$$
(1)
where $`n`$ is any integer. Let us choose now the following initial state,

$$v(\theta ,t=0)=\underset{n}{}u_n(\theta )/\sqrt{N},$$
(2)
where $`jnj`$ and $`N2j+1`$. $`v(\theta ,t=0)`$ is peaked at $`\theta =0`$ with an “angle uncertainty” $`2\pi /N`$ (This is defined as the angle necessary to obtain an orthogonal state by rigid displacement, see also Eq. (5) and the discussion below.) Since the evolution of this function with $`\mathrm{exp}(i\widehat{H}_ct/\mathrm{})`$ during a time $`t`$ is simply a rigid diplacement along $`\theta `$ by $`\omega t`$,

$$v(\theta ,t)=v_0(\theta \omega t,0),$$
(3)
the state acts as the hand of the clock. Between 0 and $`2\pi `$ its peak indicates the time (between $`t=0`$ and $`t=2\pi /\omega `$) as $`t=\theta _{peak}/\omega `$ . Alternatively,

$$t=\widehat{\theta }/\omega .$$
(4)
A single measurement of $`\theta `$ does not provide $`\widehat{\theta }`$ or $`\theta _{peak}`$ because of the hand width, so it is useful to define

$$\tau =\frac{2\pi }{N\omega }$$
(5)
as the time resolution of the clock for a given hand and frequency $`\omega `$. This is the time required to clearly separate two successive hand positions; more precisely, it is the time required to make two states orthogonal. Note that, at variance with ref. Peres80 , we do not restrict the Hilbert space of the possible clock states by a finite basis set, so that $`\theta `$ or functions of $`\theta `$ may be considered observables here. A consequence is that there is no need to introduce a discretized clock time operator whose average provides the correct time only at multiples of $`\tau `$, nor there is any need to perform a calibration to improve its performance Leavens93 ; LMK94 . Eq. (4) provides the correct parametric time $`t`$ at all times, modulo $`2\pi /\omega `$.

Let us next consider a particle of mass $`m`$ moving freely in one dimension with Hamiltonian $`\widehat{H}_s=\widehat{p}_x^2/2m`$. In a certain region of length $`d`$ the particle is coupled to the clock as follows Peres80 ; Leavens93 ; LMK94 ; LS98 ; rae ,

$$\widehat{H}=\widehat{p}_x^2/2m+\chi _d(\widehat{x})\omega \widehat{J}=\widehat{p}_x^2/2mi\omega \mathrm{}\chi _d(\widehat{x})/\theta ,$$
(6)
where

$$\chi _d(x)=\{\begin{array}{cc}1,\text{if x}[0,d]\hfill & \\ 0,\text{elsewhere}\hfill & \end{array}$$
(7)
is the characteristic function indicating that the clock runs only when the particle “is” within the interval $`[0,d]`$.

Noting that $`\widehat{H}`$ commutes with $`\widehat{J}`$, the time dependent wave function with initial state $`\psi (x)v(\theta ,t=0)`$ is given by

$$\frac{1}{N^{1/2}}\underset{n}{}\psi _n(x,t)e^{in\omega t/\mathrm{}}u_n(\theta ),$$
(8)
where $`\psi _n(x,t)`$ is the (partial) wave that evolves from $`\psi (x)`$ with the Hamiltonian

$$\widehat{H}_s+\widehat{V}_n=\widehat{p}_x^2/2m+n\mathrm{}\omega \chi _d(\widehat{x}),$$
(9)
which represents a particle that collides with a rectangular barrier (well) of heigth (depth) $`V_n=n\mathrm{}\omega `$ and width $`d`$. For an incident particle with energy $`E=p_x^2/2m`$ and wavenumber $`k=\sqrt{2mE}/\mathrm{}`$, the wavenumber inside the barrier is $`k^{}=\sqrt{2m(EV_n)}/\mathrm{}`$ so that the phase shift caused by the barrier is approximately given by

$$(k^{}k)dn\omega t_f,$$
(10)
where $`t_f=d/(2E/m)^{1/2}`$ is the classical time of flight. The right hand side in Eq. (10) is a good approximation if $`E>>|V_n|`$, which means that the disturbance caused by the measurement is negligible. If the incident wave packet is very much peaked (in wave number) around

$$\psi _i(x,\theta )=e^{ikx}v_0(\theta )=e^{ikx}\underset{n=j}{\overset{j}{}}u_n(\theta )/\sqrt{2j+1},$$
(11)
the outgoing one after the barrier for the particle plus the clock system will be very much peaked around

$$\psi _f(x,\theta )e^{ikx}v(\theta \omega t_f(k)),$$
(12)
so that the hand points at the expected classical time-of-flight through the region of interest. In the clock, $`|V_n|`$ can be as large as $`j\mathrm{}\omega \pi \mathrm{}/\tau `$ so that the condition of negligible disturbance is given by Peres80 ; Peres95

$$\tau >>\frac{\pi \mathrm{}}{E}\text{or}E>>\frac{\pi \mathrm{}}{\tau }.$$
(13)
The same result may be obtained by imposing that the transmission probability should be close to one AOPRU98 .

Eq. (13) imposes a lower limit on the time resolution of the clock. Equivalently, it imposes a lower bound on the incident energy of the particle such that a clock with resolution $`\tau `$ can be considered as a small disturbance to the incident particle during the measuring process. It is worth noticing that this limitation affects equally the measurement of dwell times in the region of lenght $`d`$ Peres80 , or arrival times at $`x=d`$ AOPRU98 , which are obtained respectively by locating the initial wave packet outside or inside the selected interval $`[0,d]`$.

Let us now work out a pulsed version of the particle-clock system to avoid the excessive disturbance of the continuous clock. The simplest realization of a pulsed interaction is a succession of instantaneous kicks separated by a time $`𝖳`$. (For examples of kicked systems see CC95 ; SZAC2000a ; SZAC2000b ; SZAC2001 . An experimental realization of a kicked rotor can be found in raizen . We refer the interested reader to CC95  for further details.) The Hamiltonian for the kicked Peres-Salecker-Wigner clock is rae

$$\widehat{H}(t)=\frac{\widehat{p}_x^2}{2m}+𝖳\delta _𝖳(t)\omega \chi _d(\widehat{x})\widehat{J},$$
(14)
where we have defined $`\delta _𝖳(t)=_{n=\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\delta (n𝖳t)`$, and the evolution operator of the kicked clock right before two kicks is

$$\widehat{U}^𝖳=e^{\frac{i}{\mathrm{}}𝖳\widehat{p}_x^2/2m}e^{𝖳\omega \chi _d(x)/\theta }=\widehat{U}_s^𝖳\widehat{U}_{cs}^𝖳.$$
(15)
If $`𝖳0`$, the infinitesimal evolution operator, $`\widehat{U}^{𝖳0}`$, of the kicked system coincides with the infinitesimal evolution operator of the continuous-coupling clock up to $`𝒪(𝖳^2[\widehat{H}_s,\widehat{H}_{cs}])`$, which goes to zero with $`𝖳`$. The difference between the pulsed and continuous-coupling clocks will therefore be seen for larger values of $`𝖳`$. These larger values may also avoid an excessive perturbation, but the time interval between kicks cannot be arbitrarily large. If we want to extract a characteristic time scale of the particle, $`𝖳`$ must be smaller than the time scale we want to measure.

We shall next show that the kicked clock can be succesfully used for energies which are smaller than $`\pi \mathrm{}/\tau `$. Note first that

$$\widehat{U}_{cs}^𝖳u_n(\theta )=\mathrm{exp}(i𝖳\omega n)u_n(\theta ).$$
(16)
If the phase, $`𝖳\omega n`$, is written as

$$𝖳\omega n=2\pi s+\nu _n,s𝒩,\nu _n$$
(17)
then

$$\mathrm{}\omega n=\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{𝖳}s+\frac{\mathrm{}}{𝖳}\nu _n,$$
(18)
and Eq. (16) takes the form

$$\widehat{U}_{cs}^𝖳u_n(\theta )=\mathrm{exp}(i\nu _n)u_n(\theta ).$$
(19)
For the different energies of the clock, $`\mathrm{}\omega n`$, Eq. (18) provides a set of $`\nu _n`$,

$$\frac{\mathrm{}\nu _n}{𝖳}=\text{Mod}[\mathrm{}\omega n,\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{𝖳}].$$
(20)
Provided

$$\mathrm{}\omega j>\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{𝖳},$$
(21)
or equivalently, $`T>(2j+1)\tau /j`$, and if the clock is to produce a small disturbance to the system, the incident energy of the particle $`E`$ must satisfy

$$E>>\{\text{Maximum value of }\frac{\mathrm{}\nu _n}{𝖳},n\}=\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\nu _n}{𝖳}\right)_{max},$$
(22)
but, by definition of $`\nu _n`$,

$$\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\nu _n}{𝖳}\right)_{max}\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{𝖳},$$
(23)
which together with Eq. (22) leads to

$$E>>\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{𝖳}.$$
(24)
However, for sufficiently small $`𝖳`$ the kick clock behaviour resembles the one of the continuous-coupling clock and Eq. (13) holds instead of Eq. (24). When

$$\mathrm{}\omega j<\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{𝖳},$$
(25)
then,

$$\text{Mod}[\mathrm{}\omega j,\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}}{𝖳}]=\mathrm{}\omega n,$$
(26)
and Eq. (13) is recovered. Since we must also have $`t_f>𝖳`$, the proper working regime of the pulsed apparatus is defined by the conditions

$$t_f>𝖳>\frac{2j+1}{j}\tau .$$
(27)
We may in addition set $`2\pi /\omega `$ as the maximum time to be measured by the apparatus, to avoid the possibility of multiple times corresponding to a single $`\theta `$. A measurement of $`\theta `$ at an asymptotically large time well after the particle-clock interaction will not tell us the number of $`2\pi `$ cycles that have occurred, so that the time read is only known modulo $`2\pi /\omega `$. This ambiguity may be avoided by substituting the periodic hand motion by a linear one as in AOPRU98 .

From our previous considerations it is clear that the energy of the particle may violate the inequality in Eq. (13) and still lead to a succesfull time-of-flight measurement for $`T>(2j+1)\tau /j`$, as we shall illustrate below with numerical examples in which a minimun uncertainty product Gaussian wave packet with negligible negative momenta is prepared at $`t=0`$ outside the region where the clock (continuous or kicked) is activated. Of course, because of the momentum width we should not expect a single time but a distribution. Well after the packet collision with the interaction region the probability to find the value $`\theta `$ is calculated and the corresponding (operational) time of flight distribution is obtained from the scaling $`t=\theta /\omega `$.

Fig. 1A shows the ideal distribution of flight times obtained for the system in isolation, $`𝒫_d`$, and the operational distributions obtained from a kicked clock and from the continuous clock. (Incidentally, note that the continuous-coupling-clock distribution may also be obtained using D. Sokolovski’s Feynman-path based theory Soko ). The parameters are chosen so that the classical time of flight for the average momentum of the wave packet is $`10`$ a.u., and in such a way that the inequality in Eq. (13) is not obeyed, i.e., the continuous-coupling clock does not work correctly: note the large early peak denoting an important reflection in its distribution, and the displacement of the second peak with respect to $`𝒫_d`$ to shorter times because of the filtering effect of the more energetic barriers and wells that hinder the passage of slower components and allows a dominant contribution of faster components AOPRU98 .

The reference (ideal) curve $`𝒫_d(t)`$ is the distribution of the free-particle probability distribution of dwell times. For positive-momentum states the dwell time probability distribution is given by

$$𝒫_d(t)=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑p\delta (tmd/p)P(p),$$
(28)
where $`P(p)`$ is the momentum distribution. $`𝒫_d`$ is both the dwell time distribution for an ensemble of classical particles with momentum distribution $`P(p)`$, and the quantum dwell time distribution $`\delta (t\widehat{\tau }_d)`$, where

$$\widehat{\tau }_d=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑te^{i\widehat{H}_st/\mathrm{}}\left(_0^d|x𝑑xx|\right)e^{i\widehat{H}_st/\mathrm{}}$$
(29)
is the dwell-time operator Muga .

Figs. 1B and 1C show the cumulative distributions for several values of $`𝖳`$ and the cumulative distributions for $`𝒫_d`$ and for the continuous-coupling clock. As $`𝖳`$ is increased there is a passage from the continuous-like regime to the truly kicked regime, where the cumulative distributions reproduce in a step-like fashion the behaviour of the reference ideal curve. The perturbation of the kicks may be seen in the broader wings, which grow with decreasing $`𝖳`$.

In summary, it is possible to extend the energy domain where a clock coupled to the particle’s motion provides its (free motion) time-of-flight by using a pulsed particle-clock coupling rather than a continuous one.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors thank S. Brouard and C.R. Leavens for many discussions. Support has been provided by Gobierno de Canarias (PI2000/111), Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (BFM2001-3349 y BFM2000-0816-C03-03), UPV-EHU (00039.310-13507/2001), and the Basque Government (PI-1999-28).


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# Sensitivity to initial conditions at bifurcations in one-dimensional nonlinear maps: rigorous nonextensive solutions

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank C. Tsallis and L.G. Moyano for useful discussions and comments. AR gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas where this work was carried out and the financial support given by the CNPq processo 300894/01-5 (Brazil). AR was also partially supported by CONACyT grant 34572-E and by DGAPA-UNAM grant IN110100 (Mexican agencies). FB has benefitted from partial support by CAPES, PRONEX, CNPq, and FAPERJ (Brazilian agencies).


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# Measurements of atmospheric muon spectra at mountain altitude

## 1 Introduction

Atmospheric muons observed in the deep atmosphere are carrying information on the interaction of primary and secondary cosmic-ray particles in the atmosphere. Since decay probability and energy loss rate depend on energy, high-statistics measurement of spectral shape can provide useful knowledge to understand propagation process of cosmic-ray particles through the atmosphere. For a more detailed study of neutrino oscillation phenomena observed in atmospheric neutrinos it is essentially important to reduce the systematic errors in the predicted energy spectra of neutrinos. In order to improve the accuracy of the predictions, a detailed understanding of hadronic interactions, as well as precise information of primary cosmic-ray fluxes, is indispensable. As for absolute fluxes of cosmic-ray protons and helium nuclei below 100 GeV, a very precise measurement was carried out by using the BESS detector . Two independent experiments, the AMS  and the BESS, show extremely good agreement with each others in their results. Since production and decay process of muons are accompanied by neutrino productions, the muons fluxes correlate directly to the hadronic interactions. Thus the precise measurement of atmospheric muon spectra can also provide important information to improve accuracy of atmospheric neutrino calculations.

We measured absolute fluxes of atmospheric muons at the top of Mt. Norikura, Japan with the BESS detector, which was the same apparatus as we utilized to measure sea-level muons  as well as the primary protons and helium nuclei . These measurements provide fundamental and very useful information about hadronic interactions and geomagnetic effects.

## 2 BESS experiment

### 2.1 BESS Detector

The BESS ($`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{B}}`$alloon-borne $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{E}}`$xperiment with a $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{S}}`$uperconducting $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{S}}`$pectrometer) detector  is a high-resolution spectrometer with a large acceptance to perform highly sensitive searches for rare cosmic-ray components, and precise measurement of the absolute fluxes of various cosmic rays. Fig. 1 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the BESS instrument. In the central region, a uniform magnetic field of 1 Tesla is provided by using a thin superconducting solenoidal coil. A magnetic-rigidity ($`RPc/Ze`$) of an incoming charged particle is measured by a tracking system, which consists of a jet-type drift chamber (JET) and two inner-drift-chambers (IDC’s) inside the magnetic field. The deflection ($`R^1`$) and its error are calculated for each event by applying a circular fitting using up-to 28 hit points, each with a spatial resolution of 200 $`\mu `$m. The maximum detectable rigidity (MDR) was estimated to be 200 GV. Time-of-flight (TOF) hodoscopes provide the velocity ($`\beta `$) and energy loss ($`E/x`$) measurements. A 1/$`\beta `$ resolution of 1.6 % was achieved in this experiment.

Particle identification was made by requiring proper 1/$`\beta `$ as well as $`E/x`$ as a function of the rigidity. An electromagnetic shower counter has been equipped for electron/muon separation. It consists of a 2 $`X_0`$ thick lead plate and an acrylic $`\stackrel{ˇ}{\mathrm{C}}\mathrm{erenkov}`$ counter. The lead plate covers about 1/5 of the total acceptance.

The simple cylindrical shape and the uniform magnetic field make it simple and reliable to determine the geometrical acceptance precisely. The live data-taking time was measured exactly by counting 1 MHz clock pulses with a scaler system gated by a “ready” status that controls the first-level trigger. The resultant live-time ratio was as high as 98.8 % through the measurement.

### 2.2 Data samples

The atmospheric cosmic-ray events were observed at Norikura Observatory, ICRR, the University of Tokyo, Japan. It is located at $`36^{}06^{}N,137^{}33^{}E`$, which is about 40 km southeast of Kamioka. The altitude is 2,770 m above sea level. The vertical geomagnetic cutoff rigidity is 11.2 GV . The experiment was performed during two periods of 17th – 19th and 21st – 23th of September 1999. During the observation, the atmospheric pressure and temperature varied as shown in Fig. 2. The mean (root-mean-square) atmospheric pressure and temperature were 742.4 (2.9) $`\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and 10.9 (1.1) $`{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{C}`$, respectively. The total live data-taking time was about 4 days.

## 3 Data analysis

### 3.1 Data Reduction

In this analysis, the BESS detector was divided into two sections as shown in Fig. 1; i.e., the “normal” section and the “EM shower” section. The EM shower section includes the shower counter. The normal section was used to measure muon momentum spectra. In order to estimate small contaminations of electrons, the data samples recorded in the EM shower section were examined.

In the first stage of data reduction, we selected events with a single-track fully contained within a fiducial volume. The fiducial volume was defined as a central region in the JET chamber. This definition ensured the longest track to achieve the highest resolution in the rigidity measurement. The zenith angle ($`\theta _z`$) was limited to be $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _z0.98`$ to obtain near vertical fluxes. The single-track event was defined as an event which has only one isolated track and one or two hit-counters in each layer of the TOF hodoscopes. Since the major component of the observed particles was muons, those which can easily penetrate the detector, almost all particles passed this selection criterion. The single-track selection eliminated very rare interacting events. In order to verify the selection, events were scanned randomly. It was confirmed that 1,995 out of 2,000 visually-identified single-track events passed this selection criteria and interacting events were fully eliminated. Thus, the track reconstruction efficiency was determined to be $`99.8\pm 0.1`$ % for the single-track event. The single-track events selected in this stage were followed by the succeeding analysis.

The $`E/x`$ inside the TOF hodoscope was examined to ensure that the particle was singly charged. The particle identification was performed by requiring proper 1/$`\beta `$ as a function of the momentum as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Since the 1/$`\beta `$ distribution was well described by Gaussian and a half width of the 1/$`\beta `$ selection band was set at 3.89 $`\sigma `$, the efficiency was very close to unity. Taking into account a small deviation from pure Gaussian, the efficiency was evaluated to be 99.9 %. In order to assure accuracy of the momentum measurement, event qualities such as $`\chi ^2`$ in the track fitting procedure were required. The efficiency of this quality-check was evaluated to be $`96.3\pm 0.1`$ % as a ratio of the number of good quality events to all events between 10 and 20 GeV/$`c`$. Since the quality-check required consistency between the fitted track and each hit in the tracking detector, its efficiency does not depend on the momentum in higher momentum region where multiple scattering can be neglected. Accordingly the above value of the quality-check efficiency was applied to higher momentum region. Before and after the quality-check and succeeding correction of its efficiency, the obtained flux above 10 GeV/$`c`$ changed no more than $`\pm 2.2`$ %. These changes were treated as systematic errors in the quality-check. Below 10 GeV/$`c`$, quality-check was not imposed, because momentum resolution before the quality-check was high enough to measure the momentum. Thus there was no systematic error associated with the quality-check.

With the data reduction described above, 707,563 muon candidates were selected. The combined efficiency in the data reduction process was $`99.6\pm 0.1`$ % and $`95.8\pm 2.2`$ % below and above 10 GeV/$`c`$, respectively.

### 3.2 Contamination estimation

As seen in Figs. 3 and 4, main background sources were protons for positively charged muons whereas electrons and positrons for both positively and negatively charged muons. Protons were identified by examining 1/$`\beta `$ distribution. Below 1.6 GeV/$`c`$, protons were clearly separated from muons. Between 1.6 and 3.2 GeV/$`c`$, the proton contamination in the muon candidates and its error were estimated by fitting the 1/$`\beta `$ distribution with a double-Gaussian function as shown in Fig. 5. The ratio of observed protons to muons was found to be well described as a simple power law as $`p/\mu ^+=0.24P^{0.80}`$ in a momentum region of 1 – 3 GeV/$`c`$. The proton contamination above 3 GeV/$`c`$ was estimated by extrapolating this power law. Above around 10 GeV/$`c`$, however, the $`p/\mu ^+`$ ratio will be constant. It is reasonably assumed that pions are produced having a similar spectral index of the parent protons and then decay to muons, those which can reach the mountain altitude before they decay in a higher momentum region. Under this assumption, the spectral index of muons is similar to that of the parent protons, resulting in a constant $`p/\mu ^+`$ ratio. This tendency was well reproduced by two Monte Carlo simulations ; one simulation incorporated the FRITIOF7  as a hadronic interaction model and the other was developed based on the DPMJET-III event generator. In this analysis, the $`p/\mu ^+`$ ratio above 10 GeV/$`c`$ was assumed to take a constant value of 3.8%. These proton contaminations were subtracted from the muon candidates. An error originated from the proton subtraction between 1.6 and 3.2 GeV/$`c`$ was estimated during the fitting procedure to be less than 1 %. In a higher momentum region, the $`p/\mu ^+`$ ratios predicted by the two Monte Carlo simulations agreed with each other within $`\pm 1\%`$. These discrepancies were included into systematic errors.

The muon candidates might include pion contamination, since it has the same signature and is hardly identified. According to the same Monte Carlo simulations that was utilized for $`p/\mu ^+`$ ratio estimations, $`\pi /\mu `$ ratio was estimated to be less than 1 % below 40 GeV/$`c`$ and less than 3 % between 40 and 100 GeV/$`c`$. It is smaller than the statistical errors over the whole momentum range in this analysis. The pions were neglected in this analysis both in contamination subtraction and systematic error estimation.

The electron contamination was to be considered as a background well below 1 GeV/$`c`$. For an estimation of electron contamination, events passed through the EM shower section were considered. The $`\stackrel{ˇ}{\mathrm{C}}\mathrm{erenkov}`$ light yield from the shower counter was examined to estimate an $`e/\mu `$ ratio. Fig. 6 demonstrates the following estimation procedure. The $`\stackrel{ˇ}{\mathrm{C}}\mathrm{erenkov}`$ light yields for electrons and muons were individually obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. The observed light output distribution is a sum of these two distributions with appropriate weights. By changing weights for those two distributions, the best fit $`e/\mu `$ ratio was obtained. The electron contamination in the muon candidates observed in the EM shower section was about 1.5 % at 0.6 GeV/$`c`$ and rapidly decreased with increasing momentum. The $`e/\mu `$ ratio below 1 GeV/$`c`$ was found to be described as $`e/\mu =0.0024P^{3.7}`$. Above 1 GeV/$`c`$, the number of observed electron events was too small to estimate its ratio by this procedure. We estimated the electron contamination by extrapolating the ratio obtained below 1 GeV/$`c`$ to a higher momentum region. After correcting the different data reduction efficiency in the normal section from that in the EM shower section by using the Monte Carlo simulations, the electron contamination was subtracted from the muon candidates observed in the normal section. Accuracy of the electron subtraction was limited by poor statistics of electron events. An error in this subtraction was estimated from the fitting procedure to be 1.0 % at 0.6 GeV/$`c`$ and rapidly decrease with increasing momentum.

The proton contamination was to be properly subtracted above a few GeV/$`c`$. On the other hand, the electron contamination should be carefully considered and properly subtracted in a different momentum region below 1 GeV/$`c`$. Thus the overall error in the contamination subtraction was as small as 1 % over the whole momentum range. It may be worth mentioning that $`e/\mu `$ and $`p/\mu `$ ratios discussed above are different from flux ratios because the efficiencies for protons and electrons are not same as that for muons.

### 3.3 Corrections

In order to determine the atmospheric muon spectra at the mountain altitude, the following corrections are required; (i) exposure factor, (ii) ionization energy loss, and (iii) interaction loss.

The exposure factor is a product of geometrical acceptance and live-time. The geometrical acceptance defined for this analysis was calculated by simulation technique  to be $`0.0214`$ $`\mathrm{m}^2\mathrm{sr}`$ for energetic particles which have straight track inside the tracking volume. It was almost constant over the whole momentum range. The simple cylindrical shape and the uniform magnetic field make it simple and reliable to determine the geometrical acceptance precisely. The error arose from uncertainty of the detector alignment was estimated to be 0.4 %. Between observed and simulated zenith angular distributions of the trajectories, a small discrepancy was found below 2 GeV/$`c`$. In the simulation isotropic trajectories were generated to obtain the geometrical acceptance, however, the flux of atmospheric muons has a zenith angle dependence. In a low momentum region, the dependence might be significant even in the so near vertical direction as $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _z0.98`$. The discrepancy was included in the systematic errors. The systematic error associated with this discrepancy was estimated to be 3.5 % at 0.6 GeV/$`c`$ and decreased with increasing momentum. The live data-taking time was measured exactly to be 339,874 seconds.

The energy of each particle at the top of the instrument was calculated by summing up the ionization energy losses inside the instrument with tracing back the event trajectory.

In order to estimate the interaction loss probabilities inside the BESS detector, Monte Carlo simulations with the GEANT code  were performed. The probabilities that muons can be identified as single-track events were evaluated by applying the same selection criterion to the Monte Carlo events. The resultant single-track efficiency was 97.9 % at 10 GeV/$`c`$ and almost constant over the momentum region discussed here. The Monte Carlo simulation of the BESS detector well reproduced the observed event profile. By comparing the observed and simulated parameters used in the single-track selection, i.e., the number of tracks inside the tracking volume and the number of hit-counters in each layer of the TOF hodoscopes, it was concluded that a discrepancy between the observed and simulated event shapes was no more than $`\pm 1.6\%`$ in the whole momentum range discussed here. This discrepancy was included in the systematic error of the single-track efficiency. Another source of the systematic error in the Monte Carlo simulation was uncertainty of the material distribution inside the BESS detector, which was estimated to be $`\pm 10`$ %. Since the single-track efficiency was as high as 98 %, the systematic error originated from this uncertainty was as small as 0.2 %.

The combined systematic errors obtained by quadratically adding the uncertainties were $`\pm 3.0`$, $`\pm 1.4`$, and $`\pm 1.7`$ % at 1, 10, and 100 GeV/c, respectively.

### 3.4 Spectrum deformation effect

Because of the finite resolution in the rigidity measurement and the steep spectral shape, the observed spectrum may suffer deformation. In a low rigidity region well below the MDR, the spectrum deformation is negligibly small. In a higher rigidity region, however, a deflection becomes comparable to an error in curvature measurement; thus, the spectrum deformation is to be considered. This spectrum deformation effect of the BESS detector was discussed in our previous paper . According to the discussion, the effect was estimated to be no more than 3 % below 120 GeV/$`c`$. The deformation effect is smaller than the statistical errors over the whole momentum range in this analysis. Thus no correction was applied to the measured spectra.

## 4 Results and discussions

The momentum spectra of the atmospheric muons in momentum ranges of 0.6 through 106 GeV/$`c`$ at a mountain altitude of 2,770 m above sea level have been measured with the BESS detector. The results are summarized in Table 1 and shown in Fig. 7. The first and second errors in Table 1 represent statistical and systematic errors, respectively. The overall errors including both errors are less than $`\pm 10`$ %. In Fig. 7, our result is compared with other absolute flux measurements . A discrepancy between the observed muon fluxes is mainly due to the difference in altitudes.

Fig. 8 shows charge ratios of atmospheric muons observed in a series of muon measurements with the BESS detector. The big difference in the charge ratios observed in Japan and Canada comes from the influence of the geomagnetic cutoff rigidity as discussed in Ref. . Below 10 GeV/$`c`$, the charge ratio at mountain altitude is slightly lower than that at sea level. This tendency was made by energy loss inside the atmosphere between mountain altitude and sea-level. In a higher momentum region, the ratio seems to approach to around 1.28.

Our results were compared with theoretical predictions, in which atmospheric muon spectra were calculated simultaneously with atmospheric neutrinos. Fig. 9 shows comparisons between our results and the predictions. The predicted spectra were calculated based on Ref. , but some parameters, such as atmospheric pressure, temperature and zenith angle limit, were adjusted to reproduce the experimental conditions. In Ref. , two calculations were discussed; one was developed on the basis of the HKKM interaction model  and the other was calculated by employing the DPMJET-III event generator  as hadronic interaction models. As Fig. 9 indicates, the DPMJET-III interaction model reproduced the observed spectra better than the HKKM interaction model. Some deviation, however, was found between the observed and calculated spectra especially below 1 GeV/$`c`$. It seems reasonable to suppose that the hadronic interaction models are to be tested and improved by accurate spectra of atmospheric muons. The precise measurement of atmospheric secondary particles will improve the accuracy in the atmospheric neutrino calculations.

## 5 Summary

We have measured absolute fluxes of atmospheric muons at the top of Mt. Norikura, Japan. It is located at an altitude of 2,770 m above sea level. The overall errors of our measurements are less than $`\pm 10`$ %. The absolute fluxes showed relatively good agreement with theoretical predictions calculated by using the DPMJET-III hadronic interaction model. The precise measurement of the atmospheric muons can modify the hadronic interaction model and improve accuracy of atmospheric neutrino calculations.

We would like to thank all staffs in the Norikura Observatory, ICRR, the University of Tokyo for their cooperation. We are indebted to M. Honda and K. Kasahara for their Monte Carlo simulations and theoretical interpretations. This experiment was supported by Grants-in-Aid from the ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology, MEXT. We would like to thank ISAS and KEK for their continuous support and encouragement for the BESS experiment. The analysis was performed with the computing facilities at ICEPP, the University of Tokyo.