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# A peculiar spectral state transition of 4U1705–44: when an Atoll looks like a Z

## 1 Introduction

Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) with neutron star primary have been divided in two classes; the so-called Atoll and Z sources (Hasinger & van der Klis 1989). This classification derives from the different shape of their X-ray color-color diagrams (CCD). In CCD, Z sources display a Z-like track, whereas the Atolls display a more curved shaped track (Méndez 1999) (C-like) in which an “island” and a horizontally elongated “banana” states can be identified (see Fig. 1 taken from Wijnands 2001). Different positions on the CCD are associated with different power density spectra of their X-ray variability for both classes of sources (see also Fig. 1). The position of the source on the CCD is thought to be a good indicator of the mass accretion rate ($`\dot{\mathrm{M}}`$), which in the case of Atoll would increase from the island to the banana states (see the arrows in Fig. 1). Many properties of these systems have been shown to correlate well with the source position in the CCD (Méndez 1999). The differences between Atolls and Z were thought to reflect differences in the mass accretion rate and neutron star magnetic fields; where Z sources would have on average larger magnetic fields and larger mass accretion rates in agreement with their larger luminosities (Lamb et al. 1985; Hasinger & van der Klis 1989).

However, recently, two groups have independently shown that, when considering large amounts of data, sampling wider ranges of source states, Atolls CCDs tend to resemble those of Z sources. This is certainly the case for 4U $`170544`$, 4U1608-522 and Aql X-1 (Gierliński & Done 2002a; Muno, Remillard & Chakrabarti 2002). It has thus been argued that the previous distinction between Z and Atolls could be an artifact of incomplete sampling of the source intensity states, further leading to the conclusion that Z and Atolls are actually responding similarly to a varying mass accretion rate.

In this paper, we report on a clear spectral state transition of 4U $`170544`$ observed during consecutive RXTE observations. During these observations, in its CCD the source sampled the top and diagonal branches of the Z reported by Gierliński & Done (2002a) and Muno et al. (2002). We extend previous work on the source by following its path on the CCD, modeling its broad band energy spectrum and computing the Fourier power density spectrum of its variability along the whole transition. This enables us to determine which spectral parameters drive the changes in X-ray colors, to get some insights on the accretion geometry changes associated with the spectral transitions, and finally compare the general properties of 4U $`170544`$ with those of Z sources when they occupy similar branches of the Z on their CCD. We present the RXTE observations and the results of our spectral and timing analysis of the persistent emission of 4U $`170544`$ in section 2, and discuss our results in section 3.

## 2 Observations and results

4U $`170544`$ is a classical LMXB (Liu, van Paradijs & van den Heuvel 2001 and reference therein) characterized by large intensity variations, which make it an ideal tool to study spectral state transitions in those systems. The large variability of the source is best illustrated by the long term RXTE All Sky Monitor (ASM) light curve shown in Figure 2.

Over the last few years, 4U $`170544`$ has been observed many times by RXTE (for a description of RXTE, see Bradt, Rothschild & Swank 1993). One particular set of observations (proposal number 40051 led by Dr. Shuang Nan Zhang) deserves some attention as it started while the source intensity was slowly decaying (in February-March 1999) and then rising again to its original level (see upper panel of Figure 2). A total of 14 snapshots were performed during this episode (see square dots in Fig. 2). The RXTE observation log is given in Table 1. As can be seen, the observations span $`30`$ days, with about 2 days between each.

### 2.1 PCA and HEXTE light curves

We analyzed the RXTE PCA and HEXTE data using FTOOLS 5.1 and following standard recipes, using a customized version of REX 0.3. PCA light curves were extracted from PCA units 0, 1 and 2, in four consecutive energy bands: 2.9-4.3 keV, 4.3-6.5 keV, 6.5-10.1 keV, and 10.1-16.2 keV (REX channels 8-11, 12-17, 18-27, 28-44). We filtered the data using standard criteria: Earth elevation angle greater than 10 degrees, pointing offset less than 0.02 degrees, time since the peak of the last SAA passage greater than 30 minutes, electron contamination less than 0.1. The background of the PCA has been estimated using pcabackest version 2.1e. The PCA light curves from the 14 pointings are shown in the top panel of Figure 3 (hereafter called observations 1 to 14). Two bursts detected during observations 4 and 11 were filtered out. We show the HEXTE-0 light curves in Figure 4 in three consecutive energy bands: 20-40 keV, 40-70 keV, 70-110 keV. The source is detected above the 3$`\sigma `$ level between 70 and $`110`$ keV in the observations 3 to 13.

### 2.2 Color-color diagram

We followed the spectral evolution of the source during the observations by computing hardness ratios: the soft color (HR1) is defined as the ratio between the 4.3-6.5 keV counts and 2.9-4.3 keV counts, and the hard color (HR2) as the ratio between the 10.1-16.2 keV counts and 6.5-10.1 keV counts. The time evolution of the soft and hard colors is displayed in the lower panels of Figure 3. The most spectacular spectral transitions occurred between observations 2 and 4 (in 4 days), and in a reverse way between observations 12 and 14 (again in 4 days). It is remarkable that after the first transition, a slight decrease of HR1 can be observed simultaneously with an increase of HR2 which reached a maximum in observation 6. Then HR2 remained remarkably constant whereas HR1 kept increasing very progressively (observations 7 to 12, 12 days). It is worth noting that while HR2 remained constant, the hard X-ray flux observed by HEXTE continued to increase (see Fig. 4). This indicates that the spectral shape between 6.5-16.0 keV remained constant, only the hard X-ray flux increased. In observation 14, 4U $`170544`$ had returned to a spectral state very similar to the one of observations 1 and 2. Taking the mean colors during each observation, the path followed by the source on its CCD during the transition is shown on Fig. 5.

To complete the lower part of Z, we reanalyzed some archival data from proposal number P20074 (led by Dr. Phil Kaaret), in which the source was observed at much higher intensities (June-September 1997). For that purpose, we computed the hardness ratio in similar energy bands, and correcting for the shift in gain of the PCA between the two observations (both are epoch 3 data). The X-ray colors are very sensitive to the exact values of the channel energy boundaries over which they are computed. For the two observations, we computed the corresponding PCA energy responses to get the channel energy boundaries. We fitted with a polynomial function the count spectrum (normalized in counts/s/keV) of observation P20074. We then computed the expected number of counts by numerically integrating the fitted polynomial function over the energy boundaries of the observation P40051, which is the reference point for the X-ray colors. This is the exact treatment which naturally accounts for the shape of the source spectrum and gain shifts. Gain shift induced color variations within the data of observation P40051 (spanning one month) are less than 1% and are therefore negligible. Residual variations due to the approximations used in the PCA response generation as reported in (Gierliński & Done 2002a) are also negligible. The CCD shown in Fig. 6 combines the two data sets and reveals the Z shape reported previously by Gierliński & Done (2002a) and Muno et al. (2002). The data taken from observation P20074 sampled the bottom branch of the Z, during which the averaged unabsorbed 0.1–200 keV flux was $`1.3\times 10^8`$ergs s-1 cm-2, corresponding to a bolometric source luminosity of $`8.8\times 10^{37}`$ergs s-1 at the distance of 7.4 kpc (Haberl & Titarchuk 1995). This is just about a factor of 10 larger than the minimum luminosity of the observations of proposal P40051. This means that 4U $`170544`$ samples the Z shape while its luminosity changes by only a factor of 10. Hence one might be able to observe a Z, even from those sources characterized by moderate intensity variations and not only from those sources exhibiting very large (factor 100–1000) intensity variations (Gierliński & Done 2002a; Muno et al. 2002).

### 2.3 Spectral analysis

We extracted PCA (units 0, 1, 2, top layer only) and HEXTE spectra for each observation. For the PCA response matrix generation we used pcarsp.v7.11. To account for uncertainties in the PCA response (see for example Tomsick, Corbel & Kaaret 2001), a systematic error of 0.5% has been added to the PCA count spectra corresponding to the four brightest observations. The PCA spectra were fitted between 3.0 and 25.0 keV whereas for HEXTE, the data were fitted up to $`30`$ keV for the soft spectra and up to $`100`$ keV for the hard spectra. For all observations, the PCA and HEXTE (0 and 1) spectra were fitted jointly, leaving the relative normalization between spectra as free parameters of the fit.

With the spectral analysis of the persistent emission, we wish to determine which parameters drive the changes observed in the CCD. For this purpose, we tried to fit the whole data set with several physical models, while trying to keep the number of free parameters as low as possible. The most simple model which provides a good fit to the data is made of the sum of a thermal comptonized component modeled in XSPEC by Comptt (Titarchuk 1994) (a spherical geometry was assumed but a disk geometry works equally well), a soft component which we modeled by a single temperature blackbody and an iron line whose energy was fixed at 6.4 keV. Similar models have been shown to apply to several Atoll sources in similar states (e.g. Barret et al. 2000). Leaving the line energy, as a free parameter yields an average value very close to and consistent with 6.4 keV. The line width ($`\sigma _{6.4\mathrm{keV}}`$) was found to be consistent with being constant and narrow, with a mean value of $`0.7`$ keV. Such a line could be produced through the irradiation of the accretion disk by the central X-ray source (e.g. Barret et al. 2000).

The column density (NH) towards the source is not accurately known and cannot be well constrained by the PCA whose energy threshold for the fit is $`3`$ keV (see e.g. Langmeier et al. 1987). It was initially left free in order to determine its average value. No significant NH variations were found within the observation data set. Therefore, its value was frozen at the average ($`2.4\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2) measured by the PCA. This value is consistent with the one reported by Vrtilek et al. (1991). Fixing the absorption makes the fitting procedure more stable by avoiding the degeneracy between the absorption and blackbody parameters.

Similarly, during the first run we found that the seed photon temperature derived from Comptt was systematically lower than 1.0 keV, and also poorly constrained. In the fits, its value was frozen at the mean observed during the first run (i.e. 0.4 keV). Finally, 4U $`170544`$ is relatively faint for HEXTE, which means that for the lowest statistics spectra, the electron temperature and the optical depth ($`\tau `$) of the Comptt model cannot be constrained simultaneously. This is the case for observations 4 to 8. We checked, by computing hardness ratios between (40-70 keV to 20-40 keV) in HEXTE, that the source did not exhibit any significant spectral changes in the HEXTE energy range between observation 4 to 10 (note that the constancy of the hard color as shown on Fig. 3 indicates that the spectral shape between 6 and 16 keV is constant as well). We set $`\tau `$ to 5.5 for observations 4 to 8, as this is the mean value derived from observations 9 and 10, during which it was the best constrained. Leaving $`\tau `$ as a free parameter yields consistent results within error bars. The results of the spectral fitting are listed in Table 2. Four representative spectra are shown in Figure 7. The way the spectral parameters and luminosities evolve during the observations is shown in Fig 8 and Fig. 9.

Finally, beside the above model, is worth noting that for observations 1, 2 and 14 (high luminosities), another simple physical model fit the data as well. In this model, the seed photon temperature is left free and the soft component is fitted by a multicolor disk blackbody. The parameters of the comptonized component (electron temperature and optical depth) do not change significantly with respect to the model described above. In all three observations, the seed photon temperature derived is $`1.1`$ keV, the inner disk temperature is $`0.60.7`$ keV, and the projected inner disk radius ($`R_{\mathrm{in}}\sqrt{\mathrm{cos}\theta }`$) is $`20\pm 5`$ km (at the distance of 4U $`170544`$). Such a model has also been shown to apply to Atoll sources when observed in similar spectral states (e.g. 4U1608-52, Gierliński & Done 2002b).

### 2.4 Power Density Spectra

Power density spectra were computed using E\_16us\_64M\_0\_1s data in the 0.015-2048 Hz range between 3 and 30 keV, in the exact same time intervals as the energy spectra. The spectra of observations 7, 8, and 9, 10 are very similar and were grouped together. The Poisson counting noise level estimated between 1300 and 2048 Hz was subtracted. The 12 power density spectra so computed together with the integrated RMS amplitude are shown in Figure 10.

Without entering into the details of the shape of the power density spectra, there are several noticeable features worth mentioning. All power density spectra are characterized by the presence of a strong band-limited noise component. This noise is made of up to 3 broad features whose characteristic frequencies evolve during the observations. Noise is detected up to $`500`$ Hz between observations 7 to 13, during which the total integrated RMS amplitude is the largest (15–18%). This high frequency component has been established in several Atoll sources, and proposed as a possible way to distinguish between black hole candidates and neutron star systems (Sunyaev & Revnivtsev 2000; see however Belloni, Psaltis & van der Klis 2002). Between observations 1 and 2, whereas the energy spectrum remained unchanged despite a decrease of $`15`$% in count rate, the power density spectra of observation 2 reveals the presence of an additional low-frequency component below 1 Hz. This shows that, there is not a one-to-one relationship between the energy spectrum and the variability of the source, and there are processes contributing to or modifying the power density spectra without affecting the shape of the energy spectrum. The power density spectra of observations 1 and 14 are very similar in shape but differ in RMS values, due to the presence of a $`750`$ Hz Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO) in the latter observation (it is barely visible in Fig. 10). A detailed modeling of the power density spectra with multi-Lorentzians (e.g. as in van Straaten et al. 2000; Belloni et al. 2002), and the evolution of the characteristic parameters of these Lorentzians as a function of colors, spectral parameters and fluxes will be reported elsewhere.

## 3 Discussion

We carried out a spectral and timing study of 4U $`170544`$ during a well sampled spectral state transition. We discuss below the results so obtained, emphasizing the spectral parameters driving the changes in X-ray colors, the path followed by the source on its CCD during the transition, and the implications of our observations in the framework of an accretion model proposed for Atoll sources. Then, we briefly comment on the remaining differences between Z and Atolls.

### 3.1 Spectral transitions in 4U $`170544`$

The energy spectrum of 4U $`170544`$ is accurately fitted by the sum of a Comptonized component, a blackbody, and a 6.4 keV iron line. Within this model, the two spectral parameters which vary the most during the observations are the blackbody temperature (kTBB) and the electron temperature of the Comptonizing cloud (kTe). The spectral transitions soft to hard and later hard to soft (associated in the CCD with a decrease/increase of the hard color) are clearly related to an increase and then a decrease of kTe. The good correlation between the hard color and kTe is shown in Fig. 11. In the hard state (at constant hard color), changes in the soft color are driven by changes in kTBB (see Fig. 11).

During our observations, the bolometric source luminosity computed by extrapolating the fitted model from 0.1 to 200 keV ranged from $`6.9\times 10^{36}`$ to $`3.1\times 10^{37}`$ ergs s-1 (see Fig 9). The Comptonized component is always carrying most of the luminosity (up to $`95`$%). The fraction of luminosity in the blackbody is the largest in observations 1, 2, and 14, when it reaches $`20`$%. We showed that a significant fraction of the X-ray luminosity can be carried out (up to 30%) in hard X-rays (20-200 keV, Fig. 9). This is typical of Atoll sources in the low luminosity regime (e.g. Barret et al. 2000). The X-ray count rate is a good measure of the bolometric source luminosity for soft spectra but can underestimate the luminosity of the source by up to $`30\%`$ for hard spectra (see the parameter $`\eta `$ in Table 2).

The present observations demonstrate that in the hard state, the source evolves from left to right in the CCD while the mass accretion rate (inferred from the bolometric source luminosity) increases (Fig 5). This has already been shown by Gierliński & Done (2002a) and is different from what has been assumed in the past (see Fig 1). When moving from and to the bottom of the Z, the source followed different paths, as shown in Fig. 5. Between observations 1 and 6 during which the soft to hard spectral transition occurred, the bolometric luminosity decreased by about a factor of $`3`$; from $`2.1`$ to $`0.7\times 10^{37}`$ ergs s-1. On the other hand, during the opposite transition (hard to soft) between observations 12 and 14, the source luminosity was higher and increased only by a factor of $`1.2`$ (from $`2.5`$ to $`3.1\times 10^{37}`$ergs s-1). In addition, during observation 13, the bolometric luminosity of 4U $`170544`$ stopped increasing (it even decreases slightly, Fig. 9). This observation is characterized by a strong decrease of the hard X-ray flux, whereas the soft X-ray flux continues to increase smoothly. This effect has been observed in other sources (Aql X-1, 4U1608-52) and led to the interesting speculation that it could be associated with the formation of a jet (Gierliński & Done 2002a). The source luminosity would stop increasing because some energy would be dissipated as kinetic energy in the jet instead of being radiated. So far, 4U $`170544`$ has not yet been detected at radio wavelengths (Fender & Hendry 2000), but radio observations during these episodes of variability would be worthwhile.

The X-ray spectra of Atoll sources are generally explained in the framework a model made of a truncated accretion disk with a hot inner flow which merges smoothly with the boundary layer (Barret et al. 2000; Barret 2001; see also Done 2002). Conduction of heat between the hot inner flow and a cold standard disk leading to the evaporation of the disk has been proposed as a mechanism for the transition (Różańska & Czerny 2000). The truncation radius of the disk is the critical parameter of this model. This is because the disk represents a powerful source of cooling (in addition to the neutron star) for the comptonization; the closer the disk gets to the neutron star, the more effective it cools the inner flow (e.g. Done 2002). The spectral evolution of 4U $`170544`$ presented here can be interpreted in the framework of this model, involving a varying disk truncation radius.

At the beginning of our observations (1 and 2), the truncation radius is small; the disk is close to the neutron star surface. Its temperature is high enough to be detectable in the PCA band pass. At the same time, the inner flow is cool and the relatively large optical thickness of the inner flow prevents from seeing the neutron star surface. The soft component is therefore likely to arise from the disk. This would favor the spectral model in which the soft component is fitted with a multi-color disk blackbody (see section 2.3).

Later on (from observation 3 to 6), the disk recedes (the truncation radius increases), and simultaneously the inner flow heats up while its optical depth decreases (the hard color increases). The soft to hard spectral transition might occur simultaneously with the disappearance of the disk emission and the appearance of the neutron star surface emission, resulting in the complex behaviour of the soft color, which first increased and then decreased. Unfortunately, the sensitivity and spectral resolution of the PCA do not allow to separate the disk and the neutron star surface emissions, and determine which one is present and dominates over the other.

From observations 6 to 12, the disk is still truncated at large radii and the soft emission remains dominated by the neutron star surface, and the corresponding temperature of the blackbody increases. This translates to an increase of the soft color, while the hard color remains constant. Again, the data does not allow to rule out a disk origin for the soft component, but the small radius measured for the blackbody component supports the idea that it comes from the neutron star.

Later (between observations 12 and 13), the disk may get sufficiently close to the neutron star that its emission reappears in the PCA band pass. Then, the disk contributes to the cooling of the inner flow, which becomes cooler and thicker. The soft and hard color decreases; this is the transition between the hard state to the soft state. In observation 14, the system is back to a state similar to observations 1 and 2. It has been shown that at even higher accretion rates (not explored with the present data), the temperature of the disk further increases, which leads to an increase of the soft color and thus explains the elongated shape of the soft state seen in the CCD (Gierliński & Done 2002b).

Now the reasonable question to ask is which parameter sets the disk truncation radius? The data presented here demonstrate clearly that it cannot be the instantaneous mass accretion rate inferred from the bolometric source luminosity. This is best illustrated by comparing observations 3 and 9 (also 2 and 11) which have very similar inferred accretion rates and very different spectral shapes. One possibility could be that the truncation radius depends at some level on the average accretion rate over timescales of days, similarly to what has been proposed by van der Klis (2001) to explain the ”parallel tracks” phenomenon in LMXBs. A detailed modeling of the Fourier power density spectra is underway to determine how the timing properties of 4U $`170544`$ and their relation to its spectral evolution can better constrain this hypothesis.

### 3.2 Atolls versus Z

CCDs have been extensively used not only because they are sensitive to spectral variations, but also because different power density spectra are associated with different positions in the CCD. The similarities in the CCD of 4U $`170544`$ and Z sources make relevant the comparison of the power density spectra of 4U $`170544`$ and Z sources.

Comparing Figures 1 and 10, the most significant difference is found between the diagonal branch power spectra of 4U $`170544`$ and the normal branch power spectra of Z sources. On the normal branch, the power spectra of Z sources are characterized by power law noise at low frequencies below $`1`$ Hz, a normal branch oscillation ($`57`$ Hz) and above $`10`$ Hz a high frequency noise which cuts off between 50 and 100 Hz (Wijnands 2001, see Fig 1). The power spectra of 4U $`170544`$ measured during the transition (e.g. observations 3, 4, 5 and 13) are different; they are characterized by band-limited noise with a strong high frequency component, and remain similar to those measured on the top branch of the Z (hard state).

On the other hand, the power density spectra of 4U $`170544`$ computed on the top branch of the Z (see Fig. 10) are at first order similar in shape (presence of band-limited noise, high frequency noise) with the horizontal branch power spectra of Z sources, as previously found (Wijnands & van der Klis 1999; Wijnands 2001). Note however that the feature seen around 10 Hz in observations 6 to 13 (see Fig. 10), if similar to an horizontal branch oscillation, is less coherent in 4U $`170544`$ than it is in Z sources (Wijnands 2001 and Fig 1, see however Homan et al. 1998).

Beside the possible difference in their power spectra on the diagonal branch, there are two other differences between Z sources and Atoll sources as illustrated in this paper; one lies in their energy spectra, the other one in the luminosities associated with the spectral transitions. The spectral changes of Z sources are much less spectacular than in Atolls (see e.g. Schultz & Wijers 1993). In almost all states the energy spectra of Z sources remain very soft (see e.g. Di Salvo et al. 2000), resembling those of Atoll sources in their soft states (see Barret 2001 for a review of neutron star LMXB spectra). At the opposite, Atolls display large spectral variability with clear state transitions while moving on their CCD as illustrated in this paper (see Figure 7). In Z sources, the transitions are not related to large intensity changes (less than a factor of 2) and take place at luminosities around LEdd (LEdd is the Eddington limit assumed to be $`2.5\times 10^{38}`$ergs s-1, see e.g. Schulz & Wijers 1993; Di Salvo et al. 2000, 2001). In 4U $`170544`$, the transitions occurred between 5 and 10% LEdd, and probably at lower luminosities in other sources (Gierliński & Done 2002a).

Despite these differences, the observed similarities in the CCD of Atoll and Z sources suggest that the underlying geometries of these systems respond similarly to a varying mass accretion rate (Gierliński & Done 2002a). Trying to accommodate the differences in the critical luminosity for state transitions and spectral shapes, Gierliński & Done (2002a) proposed that they can be reconciled in a model where the only fundamental difference between Z and Atoll sources is the neutron star magnetic field. It is assumed that the magnetic field of Z sources is stronger than in Atolls (Lamb et al. 1985; Hasinger & van der Klis 1989). The same spectral behavior can be observed in both Z and Atolls, but the higher accretion rate of Z implies that they are stable against the disk instability, and so vary only within a factor of $`2`$. In addition, the accretion rate is so high that evaporation is inefficient, and the truncation of the disk is caused by the neutron star magnetic field (Done 2002). Hence, the disk is truncated closer to the neutron star than in Atoll sources, the inner flow is thus cooler, giving rise to softer spectra (Gierliński & Done 2002a). Because the accretion geometry remains basically the same, such a model could explain at the same time the similarities in the CCD shape of Atoll and Z sources, together with the differences in spectral shapes and in luminosities for state transitions. Now, it would be worth investigating whether it could also accommodate the difference in power spectra observed between 4U $`170544`$ and Z sources on the diagonal branch of the Z. This again will be discussed in a forthcoming paper.

## 4 Conclusions

We followed the spectral and timing evolution of 4U $`170544`$ while it moved on the upper branches of the Z reported recently in its color-color diagram (Gierliński & Done 2002a; Muno et al. 2002). The data set presented here is remarkable by the fact that there are several observations with similar bolometric luminosities, but different properties of the energy and power density spectra. This nicely illustrates the difficulty in interpreting snapshot observations of a variable source, for which the long term history is unknown.

We have related the changes in X-ray colors to changes in the energy spectrum modeled by the sum of a dominating comptonized component, a blackbody and a 6.4 keV line. The spectral transitions are primarily driven by changes of the electron temperature. The spectral evolution of 4U $`170544`$ can fit within a scenario in which the accretion geometry is made of a truncated accretion disk of varying radius and an inner flow merging smoothly with the neutron star boundary layer. The soft component observed could be dominated by the accretion disk emission at the highest luminosities, and by the neutron star surface at the lowest luminosities. The comptonized component is always originating from the inner flow. The data presented here show that the truncation radius is not set by the instantaneous mass accretion rate, as observations with the same bolometric luminosity have very different spectral (and timing) properties.

Comparing the power density spectra of 4U $`170544`$ and Z sources when they occupy similar branches of the Z shows that the most significant difference is on the diagonal branch on which the power density spectra of 4U $`170544`$ remain similar to those measured on the top branch of the Z (the hard state). There are two other differences between Z sources and 4U $`170544`$ both in the luminosity associated with the spectral transitions and on the spectral shape.

## 5 Acknowledgments

This research has used the HEASARC database for retrieval of the archival RXTE observations of 4U $`170544`$. We are grateful G. K. Skinner, J. P. Lasota, J. M. Hameury for helpful comments. We thank M. Gierliński for a careful reading of the paper and for providing us with a paper on 4U1608-52 in advance of publication.

Finally, we wish to thank an anonymous referee for his/her excellent report which helped us to clarify some of the arguments presented in this paper.


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# Time advancement in resonance regions of 𝜋𝑁 scattering

## I Introduction

The precise definition of a resonance has been a matter of much debate in literature (see  and references therein). The notion of a resonance not being so clear, different criteria are used for identifying resonances and determining their parameters. Conventionally, the baryon resonances are identified by analyzing the meson baryon scattering data using partial wave techniques. The resonance parameters (eg. those listed in the Summary Table (ST) of the Particle Data Group ) are determined by fitting some energy dependent functional form such as the Breit-Wigner to the scattering amplitude. The resonances are then located using techniques such as the Argand diagrams and Speed Plots  of the energy dependent complex amplitude. In contrast to these conventional procedures we make use of one of the basic criteria for the existence of a resonance, namely, a positive peak in the time delay in collisions. Intuitively one would expect the scattering particles to be held up for a while due to the formation and decay of a resonance, leading to a positive time delay peaked in energy around the resonance mass. This time delay as we shall see below is related to the lifetime of a resonance. In fact, in ref., where the authors discuss several criteria for identifying resonances, it was noted that a bump in the cross section may not always be due to a resonance, but a sharp maximum in time delay is sufficient condition for the existence of a resonance.

An exploratory study of the time delay in $`\pi N`$ elastic scattering led us to an interesting finding, namely, the observation of negative time delay or time advancement in some resonance regions of $`\pi N`$ elastic scattering. Though we find positive peaks within the mass range specified for the resonance (by the ST), these peaks are surrounded by regions of negative time delay, thus restricting the possible mass range for the resonance. Contrary to our understanding of relating a resonance with time delay, we observe that the resonances identified by some of the conventional analyses fall in the regions of time advancement. We wish to emphasize that it has been mentioned in literature as well as text books  that a positive time delay is necessary for the existence of a resonance. The present work identifies those energy regions which do not satisfy this criterion and also those analyses which do not fulfill this necessary condition.

## II Time delay and S-matrix

The formation of a resonance which occurs as an unstable intermediate state in scattering processes, introduces a time delay between the arrival of the incident wave packet and its departure from the collision region. Using a wave packet analysis in the early fifties, it was shown by Bohm , Eisenbud  and Wigner , that the time delay $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ in collisions can be defined in terms of the energy derivative of the scattering phase shift as follows:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)=2\mathrm{}\frac{d\delta (E)}{dE}.$$
(1)
The connection between the lifetime matrix and S-matrix was later established by Smith  and it was shown that the time delay for a particle injected in the $`i^{th}`$ channel and emerging in the $`j^{th}`$ channel is given in terms of the S-matrix as,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ij}(E)=Re\left[i\mathrm{}(S_{ij})^1\frac{dS_{ij}}{dE}\right].$$
(2)
Using a phase shift formulation of the S-matrix, we get,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}(E)=2\mathrm{}\frac{d\delta (E)}{dE}$$
(3)
by substituting $`S_{ii}=e^{2i\delta }`$ in eq. (2). This is exactly the relation mentioned in eq. (1). The scattering phase shift $`\delta `$ is real. The time delay $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}(E)`$ is actually the lifetime of metastable states or resonances in elastic scattering.

At high energies, in addition to elastic scattering, several inelastic channels open up, giving rise to multichannel resonances. The S-matrix is then modified and defined as $`S=\eta e^{2i\delta }`$, where $`\eta `$ is the inelasticity parameter such that, $`0\eta 1`$. By substituting the modified $`S`$ in the expression for $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}`$ in eq. (2), we obtain the time delay in elastic scattering, in the presence of inelastic channels. It can be easily checked that even with the modified $`S`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}=2\mathrm{}\frac{d\delta (E)}{dE}`$ as in the purely elastic case. The phase shift $`\delta `$ is still real, but its value is affected by the presence of the inelastic channels.

The average time delay for a particle injected in the $`i^{th}`$ channel (assuming that it has a probability $`|S_{ij}|^2`$ of emerging into the $`j^{th}`$ channel) is given as ,

$$<\mathrm{\Delta }t_i>_{av}=\underset{j}{}S_{ij}^{}S_{ij}\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ij}$$
(4)
Separating the contributions of the elastic and inelastic channels, we get,

$$<\mathrm{\Delta }t_i>_{av}=\eta ^2\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}+\underset{ji}{}S_{ij}^{}S_{ij}\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ij}.$$
(5)
Thus we see that, in the absence of inelastic channels (i.e. when the resonance formed from the $`i^{th}`$ channel decays with a 100% branching fraction into the $`i^{th}`$ channel) $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}`$ gives the full lifetime of the resonance, while in general, in the presence of inelastic channels, the time delay $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}`$ is associated with the partial lifetime of a multichannel resonance which decays back to the channel from which it originated.

Instead of using the phase shift formulation of the S-matrix, one could also start by defining the S-matrix in terms of the T-matrix as,

$$S=1+2iT$$
(6)
as is usually done in the partial wave analyses of resonances . The matrix $`T`$ contains the entire information of the resonant and non-resonant scattering and is complex ($`T=T^R+iT^I`$). Now, substituting for $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ij}`$ from eq. (2) into eq. (4) for the average time delay, we get,

$$<\mathrm{\Delta }t_i>_{av}=Re\left[i\mathrm{}\underset{j}{}(S_{ij})^{}\frac{dS_{ij}}{dE}\right]$$
(7)
which, with the substitution of the S-matrix of eq. (6) gives,

$$<\mathrm{\Delta }t_i>_{av}=\underset{j}{}2\mathrm{}\left[\frac{dT_{ij}^R}{dE}+2T_{ij}^R\frac{dT_{ij}^I}{dE}2T_{ij}^I\frac{dT_{ij}^R}{dE}\right].$$
(8)
From the above equation we see that in addition to the possibility of evaluating time delay from the scattering phase shifts, we can also evaluate it using an energy dependent amplitude $`T`$. The time delay $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}`$, in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the amplitude $`T`$ is given as,

$$S_{ii}^{}S_{ii}\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}=2\mathrm{}\left[\frac{dT_{ii}^R}{dE}+2T_{ii}^R\frac{dT_{ii}^I}{dE}2T_{ii}^I\frac{dT_{ii}^R}{dE}\right],$$
(9)
where $`S_{ii}^{}S_{ii}`$ can be evaluated using eq. (6).

In what follows, we shall evaluate the time delay in $`\pi N`$ elastic scattering. We have checked that the values of time delay, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{ii}`$, obtained either using the derivative of the real phase shifts as in eq. (3) or the T-matrix as in eq. (9) are the same. We shall initially show the time delay plots evaluated using fits to the single energy values of the scattering amplitude and identify in addition to the resonances, regions of negative time delay. Later on, choosing the energy dependent solution of a particular analysis , we demonstrate that the time delay evaluated using their complex amplitude is negative exactly in the regions where they locate the resonant poles.

Before we proceed to the results, we note that the energy derivative of the phase shift is related to the change in the density of states at a given energy due to interaction .

$$\underset{l}{}g_l(E)g_l^o(E)=\underset{l}{}\frac{2l+1}{\pi }\frac{d\delta _l(E)}{dE}$$
(10)
where $`g_l(E)`$ and $`g_l^o(E)`$ are the densities of states with and without interaction respectively. We can see from the above equation that if $`\delta _l`$ (phase shift in the $`l^{th}`$ partial wave) rises steeply over a narrow energy range and then flattens, it will give rise to a rapid increase in the density of states. Since $`d\delta _l/dE`$ is related to the time delay $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)`$, in the resonance region where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)`$ is large and positive, $`g_l(E)`$ is much larger than $`g_l^o(E)`$. The negative time delay or time advancement would correspond to situations where due to interaction, the density of states is less than in the absence of interaction. We shall come back to this point later.

## III Time delay in $`\pi N`$ elastic scattering

To demonstrate the validity of the method, we first plot the lifetime of some of the well known baryon resonances. In Fig. 1 are shown the scattering amplitude ($`T`$) and phase shifts ($`\delta `$) for the $`P_{33}`$ and $`D_{13}`$ partial waves in $`\pi N`$ scattering (partial wave notation: $`L_{2I,2J}`$), in the energy region around the two known resonances, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1232)`$ and $`N(1520)`$. Using fits which pass through the single energy values of $`T`$, extracted from the cross section data , we evaluate the lifetime distribution $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)`$ for the 2 cases mentioned above. Both resonances show up as distinct peaks in $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)`$ as a function of energy. The widths of the $`P_{33}`$ and $`D_{13}`$ peaks at half maximum can be read from Fig. 1 to be around 116 and 50 MeV respectively. The peaks in their lifetime distributions occur at 1216 and 1512 MeV respectively. In the case of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1232)`$ which has 99% fraction of its decay to the $`\pi N`$ mode, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)`$ plot gives the full width of this resonance. In the other case, the width of the peak in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)`$ distribution is the partial width corresponding to 50-60% decay to the $`\pi N`$ mode as listed in the ST.

We have seen in Fig. 1, that in the energy regions close to resonances, the time delay is large and positive. One can say that the incident particle is held up by the scatterer for some time. It is also possible that the interaction between the beam and scatterer is such that the incident particle is accelerated through the central region of scattering. This would lead to a time advancement or negative value of time delay. Alternatively, if we consider the interpretation of time delay in terms of the density of states as in eq. (10), then a negative value of time delay would mean a reduction in the density of states, or a loss of flux from the channel under consideration. In the present work, we are interested in calculating the energy distribution of the time delay in elastic scattering. At energies corresponding to the opening up of inelastic channels, we expect that the loss of flux from the elastic channel will give rise to negative values of time delay. A negative dip in the energy distribution of time delay is thus expected at the energy corresponding to maximum inelasticity. However, in the event that an inelastic channel opens up with the formation of a resonance which can also decay to the elastic channel, we will not see a dip but rather a positive peak due to the resonance. For example, the inelasticity in the $`D_{13}`$ partial wave (or in other words, the reaction cross section) reaches a maximum at $`E1520`$ ; however, the presence of the resonance does show up as a peak in $`\mathrm{\Delta }t(E)`$ as seen in Fig. 1. $`S_{11}`$ resonance region Let us first consider the $`S_{11}`$ resonance region in $`\pi N`$ elastic scattering. The well known resonance $`N(1535)`$ in the $`S_{11}`$ partial wave, apparently plays a very important role in several reactions at intermediate energies. It has very often been incorporated in theoretical models aimed at explaining $`\eta `$-meson production and those investigating the possibility of the formation of $`\eta `$-mesic nuclei. The fractional decay of this resonance is listed in the ST to be 35-55% for both the $`N^{}\pi N`$ and $`N^{}\eta N`$ decay modes. In Fig. 2a (left half of Fig. 2) we plot the $`\pi N`$ amplitude ($`T`$), scattering phase shifts ($`\delta `$) and the energy distribution of the lifetime calculated from the fit (solid line) made to the single energy values of $`T`$. We observe a negative dip in time delay around E = 1535 MeV.

In the right half, i.e. in Fig. 2b, we show the energy dependent solutions of the VPI group  (solid lines passing through the single energy values of phase shifts and inelasticities) and the time delay evaluated using their solution for $`T`$. The time delay appears to be similar as in Fig. 2a except for the resonance region around 1650 MeV. The smooth VPI solutions give rise to a single resonance around 1650 MeV, whereas, the fit in Fig. 2a gives rise to 4 resonances in this region. The 4 peaks are located at 1.59, 1.63, 1.68 and 1.7 GeV. It could be a matter of debate whether making a fit to the detailed structure of the single energy values of phase shifts or $`T`$ (which gives rise to the 4 peaks) is reasonable. However, there is some support to this structure from recent works in literature , where the existence of new resonances at 1.6 and 1.7 GeV is predicted within quark models.

Coming back to the negative dip around 1535, it can be seen from Fig. 2b that this dip occurs at an energy corresponding to the peak in inelasticity. We see from eq. (3) and also from Fig. 2 that the falling phase shift gives rise to negative time delay, thus ruling out the existence of a resonance in that energy region. This observation is different from that of ref.  which is based on Speed Plots, which as we shall see later are not time delay plots.

Established regions of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonances In Fig. 3 we plot the energy distribution of time delay in the $`S_{31}`$, $`D_{33}`$ and $`F_{35}`$ partial waves of $`\pi N`$ elastic scattering. The time delay shown in the figure is evaluated using the dashed curves which are fits made to the single energy values of phase shifts. We repeat again that the time delay evaluated using the amplitude $`T`$ instead of phase shifts (eq. (9)) is the same. The known resonances occuring in these partial waves in the energy regions shown in the figure are the $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1620)`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1700)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1905)`$ respectively, as listed by the Particle Data Group. They have been assigned 4 stars in the ST and are hence supposed to be well established. However, even when the resonances are well established, there is a large difference in the values of the mass or pole positions as reported by different analyses. We find two peaks in the $`S_{31}`$ partial wave at 1624 and 1680 MeV, one peak in $`D_{33}`$ at 1770 MeV and one in the $`F_{35}`$ at 1920 MeV. The widths of these peaks are listed in Table I. Some of these peaks and widths in the time delay plots match with the resonance masses and partial widths quoted by Cutkosky and Manley (see Table II). There are however broad regions of negative time delay in all the three partial waves. The resonances identified by some of the analyses fall in the regions of negative time delay shown in Fig. 3. We list such cases (bold faced numbers) in Table II.

At this point it is necessary to add a word of caution regarding the time delay evaluated from the fits made to the single energy values of $`T`$. Since these fits are not analytic in nature, the occurence and positions of the resonant peaks arising from small changes in the single energy values (like the 4 peaks in Fig. 2a and the $`F_{35}`$ resonance in Fig. 3) can change depending on the cross section data considered to extract the single energy values. It could be useful to focus on such regions and obtain more precise cross section data to define precisely the unallowed regions of negative time delay and hence more precise values of the resonance masses.

In Fig. 4 we plot the phase shift solutions and amplitude $`T`$ of Arndt et al.  (VPI group) and the time delay evaluated using these solutions. The resonance masses identified by this group are as given in Table II. However, the time delay evaluated from their solutions of $`T`$, around these masses is negative. Since a positive value of time delay is a necessary condition for the existence of a resonance, one would expect that the energy dependent T-matrix which is used to locate resonances should give rise to positive time delay and not time advancement in the energy regions identified as resonance regions by the same T-matrix.

## IV Ambiguity of Speed Plots

The method of Speed Plots  involves the definition of a quantity,

$$SP(E)=\left|\frac{dT(E)}{dE}\right|$$
(11)
which is called the speed of the complex partial wave amplitude $`T(E)`$ in the Argand diagram. In ref.  it is mentioned that “a pronounced maximum of $`SP(E)`$ indicates a maximum of the time delay, i.e. the formation of an unstable excited state”. It is clear from eqs. (8) and (9) that such an interpretation of $`SP(E)`$ is ambiguous since $`SP(E)`$ and the time delay $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ are not the same. Since the definition in eq. (11) involves a modulus, it is clear that bumps in Speed Plots are always positive. This is not the case with time delay and in fact as shown in Table II, some of the resonances identified by Speed Plots fall in regions of negative time delay.

In conclusion, we mention that it is important to consider the criterion of positive time delay in the extraction of resonances. A detailed discussion of the time delay plots in $`\pi N`$ scattering is done elsewhere . We believe that the existence of a positive time delay should go as a constraint in the conventional analyses. If a certain analysis generates an energy dependent T-matrix and identifies resonances using this T-matrix, then it should be made sure that the same T-matrix also gives rise to a positive time delay in the resonance regions. The observation of time advancement narrows down the energy regions over which one would expect the resonances to exist, thus making resonance determination more precise. The precise determination of resonance parameters is necessary for a better understanding of several phenomena which proceed through resonance formation.

I am very grateful to M. Nowakowski for many useful discussions which have helped in improving this work and to R. A. Arndt, R. S. Bhalerao, J. C. Sanabria and K. P. Khemchandani for critical comments. I wish to thank S. R. Jain for inspiring discussions on time delay.


text:
# Nucleus-nucleus collisions at high baryon densities

## Abstract

We study central collision of $`Pb+Pb`$ at 20, 40, 80 and 160 A$``$GeV within the UrQMD transport approach and compare rapidity distributions of $`\pi ^{},K^+,K^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ with the recent measurements from the NA49 Collaboration at 40, 80 and 160 A$``$GeV. It is found that the UrQMD model reasonably describes the data, however, systematically overpredicts the $`\pi ^{}`$ yield by $`20`$%, whereas the $`K^+`$ yield is underestimated by $`15`$%. The $`K^{}`$ yields are in a good agreement with the experimental data, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ yields are also in a reasonable correspondence with the data for all energies. We find that hadronic flavour exchange reactions largely distort the information about the initial strangeness production mechanism at all energies considered.

PACS: 25.75.+r

Keywords: Relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The dynamics of nucleus-nucleus collisions at high baryon density – contrary to the high energy density at RHIC and LHC – is of present interest with respect to the parton/hadron phase transition at high quark chemical potential. Furthermore, as has been proposed early by Rafelski and Müller  the strangeness degree of freedom might play an important role in distinguishing hadronic and partonic dynamics. This also relates to the entropy per baryon (or number of constituent quarks) which provides information on the effective number of degrees of freedom involved. Additionally, one expects that at high net quark density the chiral symmetry of QCD – which is broken in the vacuum as reflected in the non vanishing quark condensate $`\overline{q}q`$ – becomes restored for considerable space-time intervals (cf. Figs. 3,4 in ). Thus the (at least partial) restoration of chiral symmetry should lead to dramatic changes of the hadron spectral functions, which either might show poles at zero masses  or a complete mixing for chiral partners such as the $`\rho `$\- and $`a_1`$-mesons . The related questions are addressed in more detail in the proposal for the (discussed) future heavy-ion facility at GSI Darmstadt .

Whereas experimentally the dynamics of heavy nucleus-nucleus collisions have been studied up to 11.6 A$``$GeV at the BNL AGS and an extensive program has been carried out at the ’top’ CERN SPS energy of 160 A$``$GeV, the intermediate range from $`11`$ to 160 A$``$GeV essentially has been ’terra incognita’. Only recently, experiments have been carried out at the CERN SPS for 40 and 80 A$``$GeV  and further experimental studies are foreseen at 20 A$``$GeV and 30 A$``$GeV . The elementary question thus arises to what extend we might find signatures for an intermediate QGP state or do we just see strongly interacting hadronic matter  ?

The experimentally measured $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio, which has been suggested to be a deconfinement indicator (see e.g.  and references therein), shows a non-monotonic behaviour with a possible maximum between 11.6 and 40 A$``$GeV. Such behaviour can not be fully reproduced by different microscopic transport approaches as RQMD , HSD  and UrQMD  (for more details see e.g.  and references therein). The statistical model  is in better agreement with the data, however, it can not shed light on chiral symmetry restoration or the existence of a QGP since this model is based on hadronic degrees of freedom, which are even non-interacting (contrary to the dynamical picture of transport models). The failure of transport approaches – based on hadronic and quark-string degrees of freedom  – to reproduce the $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio has been interpreted in  as a possible indication for the formation of unbound quark matter at high baryon density reached in the initial phase of central $`Au+Au`$ (or $`Pb+Pb`$) collisions.

Whereas the $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio is basically attributed to the midrapidity yields, it is important to look also at the full rapidity range and independently on pion and strange particle yields for a better understanding of the collisional dynamics. The recent high accuracy data from the NA49 Collaboration  allow to make a more conclusive comparison on this issue. In this work we study central nucleus-nucleus collisions within a microscopic transport approach – the ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model (version 1.3) – and compare with the data from the NA49 Collaboration for central $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions at 40, 80 and 160 A$``$GeV. Also we make predictions for pion and strangeness production at 20 A$``$GeV.

The UrQMD transport approach is described in Refs.  and includes all baryonic resonances up to an invariant mass of 2 GeV as well as mesonic resonances up to 1.9 GeV as tabulated in the PDG . For hadronic continuum excitations we employ a string model with meson formation times in the order of 1-2 fm/c depending on the momentum and energy of the created hadrons. The transport approach is matched to reproduce the total nucleon-nucleon, meson-nucleon and meson-meson cross section data in a wide kinematical regime . We note, that uncertainties remain with respect to the differential spectra in rapidity $`y`$ and transverse momentum $`p_T`$, that are not sufficiently controlled by experimental data especially when short-lived resonance states are involved in the reaction. At the high energies considered here the particles are essentially produced in primary high-energy collisions by string excitation and decay, however, the secondary interactions among produced particles (e.g. pions, nucleons and excited baryonic and mesonic resonances) also contribute to the particle dynamics – in production as well as in absorption. In transport calculations all global symmetries like baryon number, charge and strangeness are strictly conserved as well as energy and momentum in each individual reaction.

Before coming to the results for central nucleus-nucleus collisions it is instructive to look at the UrQMD results for $`\pi ^{},K^\pm `$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ rapidity spectra from $`pp`$ collisions at the same bombarding energies per nucleon. The calculated rapidity spectra (normalized to the total $`pp`$ cross sections) are shown in Fig. 1 for $`\pi ^{},K^\pm `$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$’s at 20, 40, 80 and 160 GeV, respectively. One observes a smooth increase with energy of the $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`K^+`$ spectra, both in magnitude and width. This increase with energy is more pronounced for the antikaons, which show a significantly smaller width in rapidity than the $`K^+`$ mesons. On the other hand, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ midrapidity spectra are almost constant from 40 - 160 GeV while the width in rapidity increases substantially with energy. These general tendencies have to be kept in mind when interpreting the calculated results from central nucleus-nucleus collisions (see below). Furthermore, related differential experimental spectra would be highly welcome to shed some light on the dominant ’elementary’ production process of pions and strange hadrons at these energies.

We continue with the related results for pions, kaons, antikaons and hyperons from $`A+A`$ collisions and start at the highest bombarding energy of 160 A$``$GeV. A comparison of our calculations for the most central (5%) $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions at 160 A$``$GeV with the data from Ref.  is shown in Fig. 2 for $`\pi ^{},K^+,K^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$. We note that the centrality of the reactions has been determined by a comparison of our calculations to the energy distribution in the experimental Veto-calorimeter from NA49. It is seen that the spectral shape is rather well reproduced, however, the $`\pi ^{}`$ yield is overestimated by $`17`$%, whereas the $`K^+`$ and $`K^{}`$ spectra are underpredicted by $`15`$% and $`6`$%, respectively. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ rapidity distribution is on the upper level of the experimental error bars. Though it has been claimed in Ref. , that a QGP might have been seen, the comparison of the hadron resonance/string approach with the data on $`\pi ^{},K^\pm ,\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ rapidity distributions does not show clear signs of new (i.e. partonic) degrees of freedom at this energy. This finding essentially agrees with independent studies in the HSD transport approach .

We now step down in energy to the intermediate regime that has not been investigated experimentally so far. The data of the NA49 Collaboration for $`Pb+Pb`$ at 80 A$``$GeV  for $`\pi ^{},K^+,K`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ are shown in Fig. 2 (3rd column) and compared to our calculations for the central (7%) events. Here we again observe an overestimation of the $`\pi ^{}`$ yield by $`20`$%, a very good description of the $`K^{}`$ rapidity spectra and a reasonable agreement with the data for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ rapidity distribution. The $`K^+`$ yield falls off in the calculation by $`17`$% such that the experimental $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio is underestimated by $`30`$% from the UrQMD calculations. The situation is similar at 40 A$``$GeV for the central (7%) collisions of $`Pb+Pb`$ (cf. Fig. 2 - 2nd column) where $`K^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ rapidity distributions are well described, the $`K^+`$ yield is underestimated by $`15`$% while the $`\pi ^{}`$ spectrum from the calculations is too high by about $`25`$%.

We note in passing that a simple strangeness counting rule, i.e. $`N_\mathrm{\Lambda }+N_K^{}N_{K^+}`$, does not hold in our case since the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ yields include the decay from $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ and in the total strangeness balance also $`K^0,\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }},\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}`$ etc. (with $`K^+`$) and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^\pm `$ as well as $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$’s and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$’s have to be considered, too.

Our predictions for the 7% most central $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions at 20 A$``$GeV, that will be measured at the SPS  and possibly in more detail at the future GSI facility , are shown in Fig. 2 (1st column) for $`\pi ^{},K^+,K^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$. Following the trend from the higher energies in Fig. 2 we expect also to overpredict the $`\pi ^{}`$ yield and to underestimate the $`K^+`$ cross section.

The question remains to what extend the deviation of our transport calculations from the data in Fig. 2 might indicate new physics or the traces from partonic degrees of freedom. To this aim in Fig. 3 we present the channel decomposition (fraction in %) for the final $`K^+`$ (upper part) and $`K^{}`$ yields (lower part) calculated for central ($`b=0`$ fm) $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions at 20, 40, 80 and 160 A$``$GeV. In order to explain the results from Fig. 3 we note that initially $`s,\overline{s}`$ quarks are produced in high energy nucleon-nucleon collisions and later on in meson-baryon interactions via string excitations and decays. However, afterwards the strange particles (produced initially) participate in chemical reactions with flavor exchanges. Thus only a few percent of the ’primary’ kaons/antikaons remain unaffected by secondary inelastic interactions (cf. the lines denoted as ’BB string’ in Fig. 3). Most of the final $`K^+`$ and $`K^{}`$ mesons finally stem from $`K^\pm (892)`$ decays (lines ’$`K^{}`$ decay’) which are either produced directly in string decays or by pion-kaon resonant scattering. About 2% of the final $`K^+`$ and $``$5% of $`K^{}`$ appear from the $`\varphi (1020)`$ meson decays (lines ’$`\varphi `$ decay’). The lines ’$`m^{}`$ decays’ denote the fraction of final kaons and antikaons coming from higher mesonic resonance decays (i.e. $`K^{}(1410),K^{}(1680),K_0^+(1430),a_0(980),f_0(980)`$, etc.). At the SPS energies considered here only a small fraction of the final kaons/antikaons can be attributed to baryonic resonance decays (’$`B^{}`$ decays’). This fraction slightly increases when lowering the bombarding energy. About 15-20% of $`K^+`$ and $`20`$% of $`K^{}`$ stem from meson-baryon string decays (’$`mB`$ string’) excited in energetic secondary meson-baryon interactions that do no longer participate in further inelastic reactions. Note, that in the channel denoted as ’$`mB`$ string’ the kaon/antikaon-baryon collisions are also counted.

The picture, which emerges from the interpretation of Fig. 3, thus is as follows: only a small fraction of kaons/antikaons from energetic initial collisions survives the hadronic rescattering phase during the expansion of the fireball. Most of the final strangeness yield emerges after rescattering – shifting $`s`$ quarks from mesons to baryons and vice versa – thus providing a very distorted picture on the initial strangeness production mechanism and the elementary degrees of freedom involved. Thus the $`K^\pm `$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ spectra do not allow for stringent conclusions on the initial phase of high energy density. On the other hand, these frequent flavor exchange reactions might be the reason why statistical models - employing chemical equilibration - seem to work reasonably well.

In summary, our detailed transport study with the UrQMD approach for central collisions of $`Pb+Pb`$ at 20, 40, 80 and 160 A$``$GeV has shown that the UrQMD model – involving string as well as hadronic degrees of freedom – reasonably describes the data from the NA49 Collaboration, however, systematically overpredicts the $`\pi ^{}`$ yield by $`25`$%. On the other hand, the $`K^+`$ yield is underestimated by $`1520`$% from 40 and 80 A$``$GeV while the $`K^{}`$ yields are in a good agreement with the data for all energies. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0)`$ multiplicities are found to roughly reproduce the data for all energies. The explicit channel decomposition of the final $`K^\pm `$ suggests that the kaon/antikaon rapidity spectra do not allow to determine the effective degrees of freedom – either partonic or string/hadron like – in the initial phase of the reaction due to the strong hadronic interactions in the expansion phase of the system.

The systematic overprediction of pions and underprediction of $`K^+`$ mesons might suggest that the hadron/string approach systematically fails in the energy regime from 20-160 A$``$GeV especially when looking at the $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio (cf. Refs. ). Such a ’failure’ might indicate the presence of partonic degrees of freedom in the initial phase of the collision and/or reflect a partial restoration of chiral symmetry . However, some cautious remarks appear necessary: presently it is not clear if all the differential hadronic reactions employed in the transport calculation are sufficiently controlled by experimental data. This is even obvious for reactions involving short-lived resonance states. Thus it might well be that the $``$20% differences found in comparison to the NA49 hadron spectra could be attributed to uncertainties in hadronic cross sections or string fragmentation functions. Some further theoretical work and related data on the ’primary’ $`NN`$ and $`\pi N`$ reactions will be necessary to clarify this presently open issue.

The authors are grateful to M. Gaździcki and T. Kollegger for providing us with the data from the NA49 Collaboration in digital form.


text:
# Effects of an external drive on the fluctuation-dissipation relation of phase-ordering systems

## Abstract

The relation between the autocorrelation $`C(t,t_w)`$ and the integrated linear response function $`\chi (t,t_w)`$ is studied in the context of the large-$`N`$ model for phase-ordering systems subjected to a shear flow. In the high temperature phase $`T>T_c`$ a non-equilibrium stationary state is entered which is characterized by a non-trivial fluctuation-dissipation relation $`\chi (tt_w)=\stackrel{~}{\chi }(C(tt_w))`$. For quenches below $`T_c`$ the splitting of the order parameter field into two statistically independent components, responsible for the stationary $`C^{st}(tt_w)`$ and aging $`C^{ag}(t/t_w)`$ part of the autocorrelation function, can be explicitly exhibited in close analogy with the undriven case. In the regime $`tt_wt_w`$ the same relation $`\chi (tt_w)=\stackrel{~}{\chi }(C^{st}(tt_w))`$ is found between the response and $`C^{st}(tt_w)`$, as for $`T>T_c`$ . The aging part of $`\chi (t,t_w)`$ is negligible for $`t_w\mathrm{}`$, as without drive, resulting in a flat $`\chi (C)`$ in the aging regime $`tt_wt_w`$.

Understanding non-equilibrium processes is a central topic of modern statistical physics. Many systems in nature are observed in a persistent non-equilibrium regime. Among these two important categories can be identified according to the asymptotic state towards which they evolve. Systems subjected to a change of thermodynamic variables, such as temperature or pressure, belong to the first class. In this case, an equilibrium state is approached which, however, can be hardly reached if the ergodic time grows in the thermodynamic limit. This is usually observed when the initial and final states are separated by a phase transition. Typical examples are glassy materials or phase-separating systems quenched below the critical temperature. The off-equilibrium dynamics in this case is characterized by the aging property of the autocorrelation function . A different situation, on the other hand, is observed when external power is injected into a system with rate $`\gamma `$ by doing work on it, as in the case of stirred or sheared materials. In this case a time translational invariant (TTI) stationary regime can be entered, depending on the thermodynamic parameters, which is not an equilibrium state.

A characterization of non-equilibrium states has been given in different contexts by generalizing the fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT). In equilibrium the FDT relates the integrated linear response function $`\chi (tt_w)`$ to a perturbation applied at time $`t_w`$ and the autocorrelation function $`C(tt_w)`$ of the unperturbed system through $`\chi (tt_w)=(1/T)[C(0)C(tt_w)]`$. In stationary states these quantities still depend on the time difference so that $`\chi (tt_w)=\stackrel{~}{\chi }[C(tt_w)]`$, where $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }`$ is a non trivial function that may give informations on the off-equilibrium properties. Also in the late stage evolution of aging systems the dependence of the response function on the two times generally enters through the autocorrelation, $`\chi (t,t_w)=\stackrel{~}{\chi }[C(t,t_w)]`$, as originally observed by Cugliandolo and Kurchan  in the framework of mean field glass models.

In these cases the fluctuation dissipation ratio (FDR) $`X(C)=Td\chi (C)/dC`$ describes deviations from equilibrium, where $`X(C)1`$, and different physical informations can be extracted from it. First, $`T_{eff}=TX^1(C)`$ can be interpreted as an effective  temperature of the system, different from that of the thermal bath, as recognized in turbulence  or glass physics . Second, the theorem by Franz, Mezard, Parisi and Peliti  connects the FDR of aging systems to the static properties of the equilibrium state through $`dX(C)/dC|_{C=q}=P(q)`$, where $`P(q)`$ is the equilibrium probability distribution of the overlaps . Moreover it was argued recently  that aging and driven systems can be related through the off-equilibrium generalization of the FDT because $`X(C)`$ is expected to be the same in the limit of small entropy production, namely for $`t_w\mathrm{}`$ in aging systems or $`\gamma 0`$ in driven systems.

In this Letter we study this subject in the framework of the large-$`N`$ model for systems with non conserved order parameter  under plain shear flow; this is a solvable theory which retains the basic features of the equilibrium and off-equilibrium kinetics of several non-disordered systems, such as liquid crystals , which are relevant for many applications. In this context the autocorrelation and the response functions are exactly computed and the fluctuation dissipation ratio discussed explicitly. The model is particularly suited for a unitary discussion of the FDT in the different non-equilibrium situations discussed above, which correspond to dynamical states at different temperatures. In particular, for $`T`$ larger than a critical  temperature $`T_c(\gamma )`$, a stationary state is entered, for long enough times, characterized by a non-trivial $`X(C)`$. By quenching below $`T_c(\gamma )`$, instead, the complex interplay between the phase-ordering process and the external drive gives rise to peculiar aging properties. Nonetheless, by recognizing that a separation of the degrees of freedom into two statistically independent contributions, responsible for the stationary $`C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$ and aging $`C_\gamma ^{ag}(t/t_w)`$ part of the autocorrelation, can be explicitly performed, the interpretation of the dynamics is clarified by the analogy with the phase-ordering kinetics of the undriven case.

The model describes the system in terms of an $`N`$-component vectorial order parameter field $`\stackrel{}{\phi }(𝐫,t)`$ through the Ginzburg-Landau hamiltonian

$$\{\stackrel{}{\phi }\}=d^Dr\{\frac{\kappa }{2}\stackrel{}{\phi }^2+V(\stackrel{}{\phi })\}$$
(1)
with

$$V(\stackrel{}{\phi })=\frac{r}{2}\stackrel{}{\phi }^2+\frac{u}{4N}\left(\stackrel{}{\phi }^2\right)^2.$$
(2)
where $`r,u`$ and $`\kappa `$ are positive constants. When a convective field $`𝐯`$ is imposed the dynamics of the generic component $`\alpha `$ of a non-conserved order parameter is described by the equation

$$\frac{\phi _\alpha }{t}+(\phi _\alpha 𝐯)=\mathrm{\Gamma }\frac{\delta }{\delta \phi _\alpha }+\eta _\alpha $$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is a transport coefficient and the gaussian stochastic variable $`\stackrel{}{\eta }`$, representing thermal noise, obeys $`\eta _\alpha (𝐫,t)=0`$ and $`\eta _\alpha (𝐫,t)\eta _\beta (𝐫^{},t^{})=2T\delta _{\alpha ,\beta }\mathrm{\Gamma }\delta (𝐫𝐫^{})\delta (tt^{})`$, with $`<\mathrm{}>`$ denoting ensemble averages. In the following we will set $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1`$. The velocity $`𝐯`$ is chosen to be a planar Couette or shear flow $`𝐯=\gamma y𝐞_x`$, where $`\gamma `$ is the spatially homogeneous shear rate, and $`𝐞_x`$ is a unit vector in the flow direction. In the large-$`N`$ limit summing over infinitely many components effectively realizes an ensemble average and the substitution

$$\frac{1}{N}\stackrel{}{\phi }(𝐫,t)^2=\frac{1}{N}\underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{N}{}}\phi _\alpha ^2\phi _\alpha ^2$$
(4)
becomes exact . Given space-translational invariance the average squared field fluctuation $`S(t)=\phi _\alpha ^2`$ does not depend on the spatial coordinates and (3) is formally linearized. In momentum space it reads

$$\frac{\phi (𝐤,t)}{t}\gamma k_x\frac{\phi (𝐤,t)}{k_y}=[k^2+uS(t)r]\phi (𝐤,t)+\eta (\stackrel{}{k},t)$$
(5)
where we have dropped the component index, due to internal symmetry, $`\eta (𝐤,t)=0`$ and $`\eta (𝐤,t)\eta (𝐤^{},t^{})=2T(2\pi )^D\delta (𝐤+𝐤^{})\delta (tt^{})`$ . The formal solution of Eq.(5) can be obtained from the knowledge of the configuration at an arbitrary time $`t_0`$ by the method of characteristics

$$\phi (𝐤,t)=\phi [𝒦(tt_0),t_0]\sqrt{\frac{g(t_0)}{g(t)}}e^{_0^{tt_0}[𝒦^2(z)]𝑑z}+_{t_0}^t\sqrt{\frac{g(z)}{g(t)}}e^{_0^{tz}[𝒦^2(s)]𝑑s}\eta [𝒦(tz),z]𝑑z$$
(6)
where $`𝒦(z)=𝐤+\gamma zk_x𝐞_y`$ and $`g(t)=\mathrm{exp}\left\{2_0^t[uS(t^{})r]𝑑t^{}\right\}`$. Eq. (6) allows the computation of the structure factor $`𝒞_\gamma (𝐤,t)=\phi (𝐤,t)\phi (𝐤,t)`$ and the relation

$$S(t)=\frac{d^Dk}{(2\pi )^D}e^{\frac{k^2}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}}𝒞_\gamma (𝐤,t),$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a regularization cut-off, provides the self-consistent closure of the model. The knowledge of $`g(t)`$, therefore, amounts to the solution of the theory.

The existence of critical temperature was shown in . For small $`\gamma /\mathrm{\Lambda }^2`$ in $`D=3`$ the critical temperature behaves as $`T_c(\gamma )=T_c(0)[1+a\sqrt{\gamma \mathrm{\Lambda }^2}]`$, where $`a`$ is a positive constant. In general, it can be shown that, in this model, $`T_c(\gamma )`$ is a monotonously increasing function of the shear rate. We will consider quenches from an high temperature disordered state to a final temperature $`T_F`$. In the following we will briefly discuss the most relevant case $`D=3`$. A complete analysis, containing also more technical details, will appear elsewhere . $`g(t)`$ can be evaluated by Laplace transform techniques, similarly to the case $`\gamma =0`$ , yielding

$$g(t)=\{\begin{array}{cc}g_+e^{s_0t}\hfill & \text{, for }T_F>T_c(\gamma )\hfill \\ g_c\hfill & \text{, for }T_F=T_c(\gamma )\hfill \\ g_{}t^{\frac{5}{2}}\hfill & \text{, for }T_F<T_c(\gamma )\text{,}\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
where $`g_+,g_c,g_{}`$ are constants. $`s_0(T)`$ is related to the longitudinal coherence length by $`s_0=2\xi (T)^2`$. These behaviors are reminiscent of the case without shear , where the algebraic decay of $`g(t)`$ below the critical temperature is a signature of the power-laws characteristic of the phase-ordering process. Then, in the case of a quench from high temperature to $`T_F`$ below $`T_c(\gamma )`$, the effects of shear change the phenomenology of the phase-ordering process but do not interrupt it. Moreover, since $`T_c(\gamma )>T_c(0)`$, complete phase-ordering is always observed for each $`T_F<T_c(0)`$, regardless of the presence of shear. This is an important difference with respect to the case often considered  where the aging process is interrupted by a power input. This is what happens when we shake, for instance, a mixture of water and oil to make droplets smaller. Actually the possibility of stabilizing a state with a finite coherence length by shearing a phase-ordering system is a debated question  which may depend crucially on hydrodynamic effects .

From the knowledge of $`g(t)`$ two-time quantities can be computed.

$`𝑻_𝑭\mathbf{>}𝑻_𝒄\mathbf{(}𝜸\mathbf{)}`$

For quenches to $`T_F>T_c(\gamma )`$ the autocorrelation function $`C_\gamma (t,t_w)=(2\pi )^{2D}d^Dkd^Dk^{}\phi (𝐤,t)\phi (𝐤^{},t_w)\mathrm{exp}\{(k^2+k^2)/(2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2)\}`$ is a time translational invariant quantity, $`C_\gamma (t,t_w)=C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$, for $`t_w1/s_0`$. From (6) one finds

$$C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)=\frac{4T_F}{(8\pi )^{3/2}}_{\frac{tt_w}{2}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{e^{s_0z}\left(z+\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}\right)^{3/2}}{\sqrt{4+\frac{1}{3}\gamma ^2z^2+\frac{\gamma ^2}{2}(tt_w)^2\left[1\frac{(tt_w)^2}{8z^2}\right]}}𝑑z.$$
(9)
The next point is the calculation of the linear response function $`(𝐤,t;𝐤^{},t^{})=`$
$`(2\pi )^D\delta \phi (𝐤,t)/\delta h(𝐤^{},t^{})_{h(𝐤,t)=0}`$ (with $`tt^{}`$) to a perturbation $`\stackrel{}{h}(𝐫,t)`$ entering the hamiltonian through $`d^Dr\stackrel{}{h}(𝐫,t)\stackrel{}{\phi }(𝐫,t)`$. From this quantity the integrated response function is obtained as $`\chi _\gamma (t,t_w)=_{t_w}^t𝑑t^{}(2\pi )^{2D}d^Dkd^Dk^{}(𝐤,t;𝐤^{},t^{})\mathrm{exp}\{(k^2+k^2)/(2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2)\}`$. For $`t_w1/s_0`$ it can be shown that $`\chi _\gamma (t,t_w)=\chi _\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$ with

$$\chi _\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{3}{2})}{2\pi ^2}_0^{tt_w}𝑑ze^{\frac{s_0z}{2}}\frac{\left(z+\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^2}\right)^{3/2}}{\sqrt{4+\frac{1}{3}\gamma ^2z^2}}.$$
(10)
Writing the argument of $`\chi _\gamma (tt_w)`$ in terms of $`C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$ through (9) one obtains the fluctuation dissipation relation $`\chi _\gamma (tt_w)=\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\gamma (C_\gamma ^{st})`$ plotted in Fig. 1. The comparison with the case without shear, regulated by equilibrium FDT, shows that for small $`\gamma (tt_w)`$ the two curves collapse but, for larger time differences the lines with $`\gamma 0`$ bend and lower asymptotic values are reached. The behavior of the FDR is shown in the inset of Fig. 1. Starting from $`X(0)=1`$, this quantity decreases to a minimum and then raises towards $`X(C)=1`$ again when $`C1`$. Therefore one finds a different and more complex behavior with respect to the two-temperature scenario proposed for driven supercooled fluids .

$`𝑻_𝑭\mathbf{=}𝑻_𝒄\mathbf{(}𝜸\mathbf{)}`$

For quenches at the critical temperature the asymptotic behavior of the two time quantities considered above is the same as for $`T_F>T_c(\gamma )`$, with $`s_0=0`$ in (9) and (10). In particular $`C_\gamma (t,t_w)`$ and $`\chi _\gamma (t,t_w)`$ in the large $`\gamma t_w`$ limit depend only on $`tt_w`$.

$`𝑻_𝑭\mathbf{<}𝑻_𝒄\mathbf{(}𝜸\mathbf{)}`$

The situation is more complex when quenches below $`T_c(\gamma )`$ are considered. In this case, using (6), in the large $`t_w`$ limit the autocorrelation function can be separated into two contributions, namely $`C_\gamma (t,t_w)=C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)+C_\gamma ^{ag}(t/t_w)`$, which depend, respectively, on the difference and on the ratio between the two times, as usually found in aging systems. This is the signature of a fundamental property of the order parameter field $`\stackrel{}{\phi }(𝐫,t)`$, which decomposes below $`T_c(\gamma )`$ into the sum of two independent stochastic fields $`\stackrel{}{\phi }(𝐫,t)=\stackrel{}{\psi }(𝐫,t)+\stackrel{}{\sigma }(𝐫,t)`$ responsible for the stationary and aging properties of the kinetics, as discussed in . In systems with a scalar order parameter  the physical interpretation of this decomposition goes as follows: given a configuration at time $`t_0`$ well inside the late stage scaling regime, one can distinguish degrees of freedom $`\psi (𝐫,t)`$ in the bulk of domains from those $`\sigma (𝐫,t)`$ pertaining to the interfaces. The first ones are driven by thermal fluctuations and behave locally as in equilibrium; the second ones retain memory of the noisy initial condition, and produce the aging behavior. In the limit $`N\mathrm{}`$ the separation of $`\phi (𝐤,t)`$ can be explicitly constructed, identifying in (6) the two contributions

$$\psi (𝐤,t)=\underset{t_0\mathrm{}}{lim}_{t_0}^t\sqrt{\frac{g(z)}{g(t)}}e^{_0^{tz}[𝒦^2(s)]𝑑s}\eta [𝒦(tz),z]𝑑z$$
(11)
and

$$\sigma (𝐤,t)=\underset{t_0\mathrm{}}{lim}\phi [𝒦(tt_0),t_0]\sqrt{\frac{g(t_0)}{g(t)}}e^{_0^{tt_0}[𝒦^2(z)]𝑑z}$$
(12)
in complete analogy with the case $`\gamma =0`$ . For large-$`N`$, where topological defects are unstable and domains are not well defined, the recognition of the degrees of freedom associated to $`\psi (𝐤,t)`$ and $`\sigma (𝐤,t)`$ is not straightforward as for scalar systems. Nevertheless, the possibility of the splitting (11,12) of the order parameter indicates that the same fundamental property is shared by systems with different $`N`$.

Building the autocorrelation functions of the new fields $`C_\gamma ^\psi (t,t_w)=(2\pi )^{2D}d^Dkd^Dk^{}\psi (𝐤,t)\psi (𝐤^{},t_w)\mathrm{exp}\{(k^2+k^2)/(2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2)\}`$ and $`C_\gamma ^\sigma (t,t_w)=(2\pi )^{2D}d^Dkd^Dk^{}\sigma (𝐤,t)\sigma (𝐤^{},t_w)\mathrm{exp}\{(k^2+k^2)/(2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2)\}`$ it is possible to prove that, for $`t_w/t_0`$ sufficiently large, they coincide, respectively, with $`C_\gamma ^{st}(t,t_w)`$ and $`C_\gamma ^{ag}(t,t_w)`$.

Coming back to the two-time observables the TTI part $`C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$ takes the same form as at $`T_F=T_c(\gamma )`$, namely (9) with $`s_0=0`$. This quantity decays from $`C_\gamma ^{st}(0)=M_\gamma ^2(0)M_\gamma ^2(T_F)`$ to zero for time differences of order $`t_w`$. Here $`M_\gamma (T_F)=M_\gamma (0)[1T_F/T_c(\gamma )]^{1/2}`$ is the spontaneous magnetization at stationarity. The aging part, instead, is given by

$$C_\gamma ^{ag}(\frac{t}{t_w})=2\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}M_\gamma ^2(T_F)\left(1+\frac{t}{t_w}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{\frac{4}{3}\frac{2\left(1\frac{t_w}{t}\right)^3}{1+\frac{t_w}{t}}\frac{\left[2\left(1\frac{t_w}{t}\right)^2\right]^2}{\left(1+\frac{t_w}{t}\right)^2}}},$$
(13)
showing that $`C_\gamma ^{ag}`$ stays approximatively constant, $`C_\gamma ^{ag}(t/t_w)M_\gamma ^2(T_F)`$, for $`tt_wt_w`$ and decays for large time differences as $`(t_w/t)^\lambda `$, with $`\lambda =5/4`$, as opposed to the undriven case where $`\lambda =3/4`$. Computing the response function it is found that the aging part is negligible for large $`t_w`$ and $`\chi (t,t_w)`$ behaves as at $`T_c(\gamma )`$, so that (10) with $`s_0=0`$ is obeyed.

We turn now to discuss the relation between $`\chi _\gamma (t,t_w)`$ and $`C_\gamma (t,t_w)`$. In the case without shear , the equilibrium FDT relates $`\chi ^{st}(tt_w)`$ and $`C^{st}(tt_w)`$ by $`T_F\chi ^{st}(tt_w)=C^{st}(0)C^{st}(tt_w)`$ at every temperature. In the range of times $`tt_wt_w`$ (stationary regime), when $`C^{st}(tt_w)`$ decays to zero, $`C^{ag}(t/t_w)M^2(T_F)`$ and $`T_F\chi ^{st}(t,t_w)`$ grows to its saturation value $`M^2(0)M^2(T_F)`$. Then, plotting $`T_F\chi (t,t_w)`$ against $`C(t,t_w)`$ one gets the straight line with negative slope on the right of Fig. 2. For larger time differences, in the aging regime $`tt_wt_w`$, $`\chi (t,t_w)`$ is a constant, because the aging part of the response is negligible for $`t_w\mathrm{}`$. In the meanwhile $`C^{ag}(t/t_w)`$ slowly decreases, and the characteristic horizontal line of phase ordering is found. When the drive is switched on, $`\chi _\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$ and $`C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$ are not related by equilibrium FDT but, instead, through $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\gamma (C_\gamma ^{st})`$ (Fig. 1). Then in the parametric plot of $`\chi _\gamma (t,t_w)`$ vs $`C_\gamma (t,t_w)`$ (Fig. 2) one finds, in place of the straight line with negative slope, the curve $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\gamma (C_\gamma ^{st})`$ which corresponds to the simple translation of the one plotted in Fig. 1. For $`C_\gamma (t,t_w)<M_\gamma ^2(T_F)`$ the plot is flat for the same reasons as for $`\gamma =0`$. However, due to the bending of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\gamma (C_\gamma ^{st})`$, the asymptotic value $`\chi _\gamma (\mathrm{})`$ is different from the case $`\gamma =0`$. It is interesting to observe that the relation $`T_F\chi (\mathrm{})=M^2(0)M^2(T_F)`$ characteristic of the undriven case is generalized to $`T_F\chi _{\gamma /2}(\mathrm{})=M_\gamma ^2(0)M_\gamma ^2(T_F)`$. Therefore a relation analogous to the case $`\gamma =0`$ holds between the response function of a system with shear rate $`\gamma /2`$ and the stationary magnetization in the presence of a shear rate $`\gamma `$ twice as large. This parameter-free analytical prediction is amenable of experimental testing.

In summary, in this Letter we have studied the effects of a shear flow on the fluctuation-dissipation relation in the large-$`N`$ model for phase-ordering. This approach allows for the analytical computation of two times quantities and the explicit identification of the stochastic fields $`\psi (𝐫,t)`$, $`\sigma (𝐫,t)`$ responsible for the stationary and aging properties of the kinetics below $`T_c(\gamma )`$. The FDT relating the stationary parts of the correlation and response function in the undriven case is generalized under shear into a non-trivial relation $`\chi _\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)=\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\gamma (C^{st}(tt_w))`$, which is obeyed at every temperature. Below $`T_c(\gamma )`$ the lack of time translational invariance is testified by the aging contribution $`C^{ag}(t/t_w)`$ to the correlation function, which behaves asymptotically as $`(t_w/t)^\lambda `$, where $`\lambda =(D+2)/4`$ is a generalization of the Fisher-Huse exponent  to sheared systems. The aging part of the response, on the other hand, is always negligible in the large $`t_w`$ limit, resulting in a flat part of the fluctuation dissipation plot. The global picture provided by the model is closely related to the one observed without shear, the most notable modification being the different relation between $`\chi _\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$ and $`C_\gamma ^{st}(tt_w)`$. The comparison with the case $`\gamma =0`$ will be discussed further in .

The applicability of the two-temperature scenario proposed in  for supercooled fluids to different slowly relaxing systems and, in particular, to the phase-ordering kinetics is a debated  issue which is worth of further studies. According to this scenario an external input of energy stabilizes an aging system into a power-dependent stationary state. In the small $`\gamma `$ limit the fluctuation dissipation plot of this state is a broken line. This provides the identification of two well defined temperatures: The bath temperature $`T_F`$ and an effective  temperature of the system. The results of this Letter allows this problem to be addressed in the context of the large-$`N`$ model. We find that a phase-ordering system is not stabilized by shear. This result agrees with Ref. , where a different approximation scheme is developed. A similar behavior was found in  for the stability of the ferromagnetic phase of the asymmetric spin-glass model in the mean-field limit. This feature is at variance with the basic assumption of the scenario proposed for supercooled fluids. Furthermore, the behavior of $`X(C)`$ shown in the inset of Fig. 1 shows that a two-temperature interpretation of the fluctuation dissipation relation does not hold in this case.

The relevance of these results to real physical systems where $`N`$ is finite and hydrodynamic effects may play a relevant role is a crucial point that deserves further investigations.

\***

We acknowledge support by the TMR network contract ERBFMRXCT980183, MURST(PRIN 2000) and INFM PRA-HOP 1999.

†corberi@na.infn.it ; \*gonnella@ba.infn.it

‡lippiello@sa.infn.it ; §zannetti@na.infn.it