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# Current status of weak gravitational lensing

## 1 Introduction

Weak gravitational lensing is a valuable tool to study the (dark) matter distribution of a range of objects in the universe. The differential deflection of light rays by intervening structures allows us to study the projected mass distribution of the deflectors, without having to rely on assumptions about the state or nature of the deflecting matter.

In 1984 Tyson et al. tried to detect the weak lensing signal induced by an ensemble of galaxies using photographic plates. However, the first succesful detection was made using CCD images of the massive cluster of galaxies A1689 (Tyson et al., 1990). Although much theoretical work concentrated on weak lensing by large scale structure (e.g., Miralda-Escudé, 1991; Blandford et al., 1991; Kaiser, 1992), this area of astronomy blossomed with study of the mass distribution in clusters of galaxies (e.g., Bonnet et al., 1994; Fahlman et al., 1994; Luppino & Kaiser, 1997; Hoekstra et al., 1998, 2000, for an extensive review see Mellier 1999) and galaxy groups (Hoekstra et al., 2001a). These results were an important first step in demonstrating the feasibility of the technique, but nowadays more and more studies concentrate on the “field”.

Adequate schemes to correct for a variety of observational distortions (such as PSF anisotropy, seeing, camera distortion) were developed during the 1990s (e.g., Kaiser et al., 1995; Luppino & Kaiser, 1997; Hoekstra et al., 1998; Kuijken, 1999; Kaiser, 2000; Bernstein & Jarvis, 2002). Together with the development of wide field CCD cameras, these advances allowed for the first detections of weak lensing by large scale structure in the spring of 2000 (Bacon et al., 2000; Kaiser et al., 2000; Van Waerbeke et al, 2000; Wittman et al., 2000).

These first detections were based on small data sets, and consequently the accuracy of the measurements was low. However, the amount of data is increasing rapidly (e.g., Bacon et al., 2002; Maoli et al., 2001; Hoekstra et al., 2002a, b; Refregier et al., 2002; Van Waerbeke et al, 2001a, 2002). Current data sets cover a few to tens of degrees on the sky. Planned surveys, such as the CFHT Legacy Survey, which will obtain deep imaging data for 170 deg2 in five filters, will be another major leap forward. The constraints on cosmological parameters are tightening rapidly, and the consistency of the most recent results (Bacon et al., 2002; Hoekstra et al., 2002b; Refregier et al., 2002; Van Waerbeke et al, 2002) suggest that cosmic shear can play an important role in this era of “precision cosmology”.

Another important application of weak lensing is the study of the distribution of the dark matter with respect to the galaxies. For instance, one can study the statistical properties of the galaxy and dark matter distributions: the biasing relations (Hoekstra et al., 2001b, 2002c). Such measurements can provide important constraints on models of galaxy formation. Weak lensing can also be used to study the properties of the dark matter halos surrounding galaxies. Rotation curves of spiral galaxies have provided important evidence for the existence of dark matter halos (e.g., van Albada & Sancisi, 1986). Also, strong lensing studies of multiple imaged systems require massive halos to explain the oberved image separations. However, both methods provide mainly constraints on the halo properties at relatively small radii.

The weak lensing signal can be measured out to large projected distances, and in principle it can be a powerful probe of the potential at large radii, constraining the amount of dark matter (e.g., Brainerd et al., 1996; Griffiths et al., 1996; Dell’Antonio & Tyson, 1996; Hudson et al., 1998; Fischer et al., 2000; Hoekstra, 2000; Wilson et al., 2001; McKay et al., 2001), the extent of the dark matter halos (e.g., Brainerd et al., 1996; Hudson et al., 1998; Fischer et al., 2000; Hoekstra, 2000; Hoekstra et al., 2002d, d) or the average shape of the halos (Hoekstra et al., 2002d).

So far, we have assumed that we can apply the theory of General Relativity to describe gravity. Consequently, the observational data require the existence of dark matter. However, at the large scales probed in this paper, alternative theories have been proposed to explain the shapes of galaxy rotation curves without the use of dark matter. In particular Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND; Milgrom (1983)) succesfully reproduces rotation curves using only visible matter. Ideally, one would like to test such alternative theories far away from the visible matter. Potentially, weak lensing can place tight constraints on such theories (Mortlock & Turner, 2001a, b).

In this review, we will address various applications of, and recent developments in weak gravitational lensing. In Section 2 we concentrate on the cosmic shear measurements, and Section 3 deals with galaxy biasing. The constraints on the halos of galaxies from weak lensing are described in Section 4. In Section 5 we discuss how the lensing data can be used to place limits on alternative theories of gravity.

Throughout the paper we will make use of results based on $`R_C`$-band imaging data from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS; Gladders & Yee, 2000; Yee & Gladders, 2001). We refer the reader to Hoekstra et al. (2002a) for a thorough discussion of the weak lensing analysis of these data.

## 2 Lensing by large scale structure

The measurement of the coherent distortions of the images of faint galaxies caused by weak lensing by intervening large scale structures provides a direct way to study the statistical properties of the growth of structure in the universe. Compared to many other methods, weak lensing probes the matter directly, regardless of the light distribution. In addition it provides measurements on scales from the quasi-linear to the non-linear regime where comparisons between observations and predictions are still limited.

We provide a basic description of the theory of weak lensing by large scale structure. Detailed discussions on this subject can be found elsewhere (e.g., Schneider et al., 1998; Bartelmann & Schneider, 2001). Current measurements of cosmic shear have concentrated on the two-point statistics, which can be related to the convergence power spectrum, which is defined as

$$P_\kappa (l)=\frac{9H_0^4\mathrm{\Omega }_m^2}{4c^4}\underset{0}{\overset{w_H}{}}𝑑w\left(\frac{\overline{W}(w)}{a(w)}\right)^2P_\delta (\frac{l}{f_K(w)};w),$$
(1)
where $`w`$ is the radial (comoving) coordinate, $`w_H`$ corresponds to the horizon, $`a(w)`$ the cosmic scale factor, and $`f_K(w)`$ the comoving angular diameter distance. As shown by Jain & Seljak (1997) and Schneider et al. (1998) it is necessary to use the non-linear power spectrum in equation (1). This power spectrum is derived from the linear power spectrum following the prescriptions from Peacock & Dodds (1996). We note that this approach might not be accurate enough for future measurements (e.g., Van Waerbeke et al, 2001b, 2002).

$`\overline{W}(w)`$ is the source-averaged ratio of angular diameter distances $`D_{ls}/D_s`$ for a redshift distribution of sources $`p_b(w)`$:

$$\overline{W}(w)=_w^{w_H}𝑑w^{}p_b(w^{})\frac{f_K(w^{}w)}{f_K(w^{})}.$$
(2)
Hence, it is important to know the redshift distribution of the sources, in order to relate the observed lensing signal to $`P_\kappa (l)`$.

Until recently, the top-hat variance was the most widely used two-point statistic. It is related to the convergence power spectrum through

$$\gamma ^2(\theta )=2\pi _0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑llP_\kappa (l)\left[\frac{J_1(l\theta )}{\pi l\theta }\right]^2,$$
(3)
where $`\theta `$ is the radius of the aperture used to compute the variance, and $`J_1`$ is the first Bessel function of the first kind.

Another useful statistic is the aperture mass, which is defined as (e.g., Kaiser et al., 1994; Schneider et al., 1998)

$$M_{\mathrm{ap}}(\theta )=d^2\varphi U(\varphi )\kappa (\varphi ).$$
(4)
Provided $`U(\varphi )`$ is a compensated filter, i.e., $`𝑑\varphi \varphi U(\varphi )=0`$, with $`U(\varphi )=0`$ for $`\varphi >\theta `$, the aperture mass can be expressed in term of the observable tangential shear $`\gamma _\mathrm{t}`$ using a different filter function $`Q(\varphi )`$ (which is a function of $`U(\varphi )`$). Using the choice of filter functions from Schneider et al. (1998), the variance of the aperture mass $`M_{\mathrm{ap}}^2`$ is related to the power spectrum through

$$M_{\mathrm{ap}}^2=2\pi _0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑llP_\kappa (l)\left[\frac{12}{\pi (l\theta )^2}J_4(l\theta )\right]^2,$$
(5)
where $`J_4`$ is the fourth-order Bessel function of the first kind. The measurement of $`M_{ap}^2`$ is of particular interest, because the measurements at different scales are only weakly correlated.

The first detections of cosmic shear (Bacon et al., 2000; Kaiser et al., 2000; Maoli et al., 2001; Van Waerbeke et al, 2000; Wittman et al., 2000) actually computed the excess variance in apertures directly from the data. Some more recent studies have used the same technique (Bacon et al., 2002; Hoekstra et al., 2002a; Refregier et al., 2002; Van Waerbeke et al, 2001a).

However, recent studies show that an optimal use of the data is to measure the shear correlation functions from the data (Pen et al., 2002; Van Waerbeke et al, 2002; Hoekstra et al., 2002b). These correlation functions can be related to the various two-point statistics (Crittenden et al., 2002; Pen et al., 2002). In addition, this approach allows one to split the signal into two components: an “E”-mode, which is curl-free, and a “B”-mode, which is sensitive to the curl of the shear field. Gravitational lensing arises from a gravitational potential, and hence it is expected to produce a curl-free shear field. Thus, the “B”-mode can be used to quantify the level of systematics involved in the measurement. The decomposition is naturally carried out by using the aperture mass statistic $`M_{\mathrm{ap}}`$.

Several sources of B-mode have been identified. For instance, simple models describing the intrinsic alignments of galaxies predict a small B-mode (e.g., Crittenden et al., 2002), although the amplitude is still uncertain. Hence, any measured B-mode is dominated by residual systematics in the data (e.g., imperfect correction of the PSF anisotropy) or intrinsic alignments. The effect of intrinsic aligments can be minimized by selecting galaxies with a broad redshift distribution. In future surveys, with photometric redshift information for the galaxies, the contribution from intrinsic aligments can be removed completely by correlating the shapes of galaxies with different redshifts.

Figure 1 shows the results of such a decomposition into “E” and “B”-modes. The analysis, which is described in detail in Hoekstra et al. (2002b), uses 53 deg2 of RCS imaging data. For all three samples we find that the “B”-mode (lower panels) vanishes on scales larger than $`10`$ arcminutes, suggesting that neither observational distortions or intrinsic alignments of sources have corrupted our measurements.

On smaller scales we detect a significant “B”-mode. Interestingly, we detect a significant signal for the bright galaxies $`(20<R_C<22)`$. These galaxies have sizes that are large compared to the PSF, and therefore they are less affected by residual systematics. Intrinsic alignments are expected to be particularly important for these bright galaxies, and we therefore conclude that (at least part of) the observed “B”-mode is likely to be caused by intrinsic alignments.

The next step is to relate the observed signal to estimates of cosmological parameters. Our current understanding of the redshift distribution of the source galaxies is sufficient to obtain accurate constraints. The most accurate results are derived when one uses external priors on the parameters. Useful constraints come from redshift surveys and the temperature fluctuations in the CMB. Current weak lensing measurements provide joint constraints on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ and $`\sigma _8`$, and Figure 2 shows the results from Hoekstra et al. (2002b). However, measurements of higher order statistics, such as the skewness, can be used to break the degeneracies between $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$, and $`\sigma _8`$ (e.g., Van Waerbeke et al., 1999). Recently the first detection of a measure of skewness was reported (Bernardeau et al., 2002a, b), and the prospects for measurements of higher order statistics are good.

In Table 1 we list the estimates of $`\sigma _8`$ (for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.21`$) as derived by the most recent weak lensing surveys (Bacon et al., 2002; Hoekstra et al., 2002b; Refregier et al., 2002; Van Waerbeke et al, 2002). Despite the fact that these results have been obtained using a wide variety of telescopes (both ground based and HST), filters, and integration times, the agreement is remarkable.

We note that the value of $`\sigma _8`$ determined from the RCS data is essentially constrained by the measurements at scales larger than 10 arcminutes, where the “B”-mode is negligible. The result from Van Waerbeke et al. (2002) might be biased high, because of their large scale “B”-mode. Both Bacon et al. (2002) and Refregier et al. (2002) do not separate their signal into “E” and “B’-modes, and therefore it might also include some residual systematics.

A widely used method to determine the normalization of the power spectrum uses the number density of rich clusters of galaxies (e.g., Borgani et al., 2001; Carlberg et al., 1997; Eke et al., 1996; Fan & Bahcall, 1998; Pen, 1998a; Pierpaoli et al., 2001; Reiprich & Böhringer, 2001; Seljak, 2001; Viana et al., 2001). Such systems are rare, and as a result a very sensitive probe of $`\sigma _8`$, provided one can determine their mass. The derived values for $`\sigma _8`$ from this technique range from values as low as $`0.61\pm 0.05`$ (Viana et al., 2001) to values around unity (e.g., Fan & Bahcall, 1998; Pen, 1998a; Pierpaoli et al., 2001). The statistical error bars on most of these measurements are small, and hence the large spread in values suggests an underlying large systematic uncertainty.

## 3 Galaxy biasing

The growth of structures in the universe via gravitational instability is an important ingredient in our understanding of galaxy formation. However, the connection to observations is not straightforward, as we need to understand the relation between the dark matter distribution and the galaxies themselves. Galaxy formation is a complex process, and it is not guaranteed a priori that this relation, referred to as galaxy biasing, is a simple one. The bias might be non-linear, scale dependent or stochastic. In the simplest case, linear, deterministic biasing, the relation between the dark matter and the galaxies can be characterized by a single number $`b`$ (e.g., Kaiser, 1987).

Most observational constraints of biasing come from dynamical studies (see Strauss & Willick, 1995) which probe relatively large scales ($`10h_{50}^1`$ Mpc or more). Recent estimates on these scales suggest values of $`b1`$ for $`L_{}`$ galaxies (e.g., Peacock et al., 2001; Verde et al., 2001). On smaller scales some constraints come from measurements of the galaxy two-point correlation function, which is compared to the (dark) matter correlation function computed from numerical simulations. These studies indicate that the bias parameter $`b0.7`$ on scales less than $`2h_{50}^1`$ Mpc $`(\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7)`$. On larger scales $`b`$ increases to a value close to unity (Jenkins et al., 1998) Although this procedure provides useful information about the bias parameter $`b`$ as a function of scale, it does rely on the assumptions made for the numerical simulations. In addition, it cannot be used to examine how tight the correlation between the matter and light distribution is. To do so, we need to measure the galaxy-mass cross-correlation coefficient $`r`$, which is a measure of the amount of stochastic and non-linear biasing (e.g., Pen, 1998b; Dekel & Lahav, 1999; Somerville et al., 2001).

Redshift surveys can be used to determine the relative values of $`b`$ and $`r`$ for different galaxy types (Tegmark & Bromley, 1999; Blanton, 2000), but weak gravitational lensing provides the only direct way to measure the galaxy-mass cross-correlation function (e.g., Fischer et al., 2000; Wilson et al., 2001; McKay et al., 2001; Hoekstra et al., 2001b). Fischer et al. (2000) used the SDSS commissioning data to measure the galaxy-mass correlation function and their results suggested an average value of $`b/r1`$ on submegaparsec scales. This approach has been explored by Guzik & Seljak (2001) who used semi-analytic models of galaxy formation combined with N-body simulations. Their results suggest that the cross-correlation coefficient is close to unity.

To study the galaxy biasing we use a combination of the galaxy and mass auto-correlation functions, as well as the cross-correlation function. A common definition of the “bias” parameter is the ratio of the variances of the galaxy and dark matter densities, which is the definition we will use here. In the case of deterministic, linear biasing the galaxy density contrast $`\delta _g`$ is simply related to the mass density contrast $`\delta `$ as $`\delta _g=b\delta `$ (Kaiser, 1987), and the ratio of the variances is the only relevant parameter. However, the bias relation is likely to be more complicated as it depends on the process of galaxy formation, and might be stochastic, non-linear or both. We allow for non-linear stochastic biasing by including the galaxy-mass cross-correlation coefficient $`r`$ (e.g., Pen, 1998b; Dekel & Lahav, 1999; Somerville et al., 2001). The cross-correlation coefficient $`r`$ mixes non-linear and stochastic effects (Dekel & Lahav, 1999; Somerville et al., 2001) which we currently cannot disentangle with weak lensing.

The bias parameters are related to the observed correlation functions through (Hoekstra et al., 2002c)

$$b^2=f_1(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}},\mathrm{\Omega }_m,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda })\times \frac{N^2(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}})}{M_{\mathrm{ap}}^2(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}})},$$
(6)
and

$$r=f_2(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}},\mathrm{\Omega }_m,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda })\times \frac{M_{\mathrm{ap}}(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}})N(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}})}{\sqrt{N^2(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}})M_{\mathrm{ap}}^2(\theta _{\mathrm{ap}})}},$$
(7)
where $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ depend on the assumed cosmological model and the redshift distributions of the lenses and the sources (see Van Waerbeke, 1998; Hoekstra et al., 2002c). The values of $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$, however, depend minimally on the assumed power spectrum and the angular scale.

There is no reason for $`b`$ or $`r`$ to be constant with scale, but as long as $`b`$ and $`r`$ vary slowly with scale, we can still infer the bias parameters from Eqs. (3) and (4). The $`M_{\mathrm{ap}}`$ statistic is sensitive to a fairly small range in $`k`$ in Fourier space for a given aperture size. If the galaxy power spectrum $`P_{\mathrm{gg}}(k)`$ can be related to the matter power spectrum $`P_{\mathrm{mm}}(k)`$ through $`P_{\mathrm{gg}}(k)=b^2(k)P_{\mathrm{mm}}(k)`$, we essentially measure the average value of $`b(k)`$ in the $`k`$-range probed by the $`M_{\mathrm{ap}}`$ statistic (Van Waerbeke, 1998; Hoekstra et al., 2002c). In other words, $`M_{\mathrm{ap}}`$ is a pass-band filter, which also explains why different scales are only slightly correlated (Schneider et al., 1998).

Hoekstra et al. (2002c) studied the bias properties of galaxies with $`19.5<R_C<21`$. They combined the weak lensing measurements from the RCS and the VIRMOS-DESCART survey (e.g., Van Waerbeke et al, 2002) to obtain the first direct measurements of the bias parameter $`b`$ and the galaxy-mass cross-correlation coefficient $`r`$ as a function of scale (with scales ranging from 0.1 to 4 $`h^1`$ Mpc). The results of this analysis are presented in Figure 3. Hoekstra et al. (2002c) find that both $`b`$ and $`r`$ vary with scale for this sample of galaxies. The low value of $`r`$ on scales $`0.51h^1`$ Mpc suggests significant stochastic biasing and/or non-linear biasing. Although both $`b`$ and $`r`$ vary with scale, the ratio $`b/r`$ turns out to be almost constant with scale. Hoekstra et al. (2002c) find that $`b/r=1.090\pm 0.035`$ out to $`7h^1`$ Mpc.

Models of galaxy formation predict the relation between the galaxies and the underlying dark matter distribution. The two commonly used approaches are hydrodynamic simulations (e.g., Blanton et al., 2000; Yoshikawa et al., 2001) or (e.g., Kauffmann et al., 1999a, b; Somerville et al., 2001; Guzik & Seljak, 2001). A comparison of the models with the lensing results can provide accurate constraints. Unfortunately, current models of galaxy formation are limited to relatively bright (i.e., massive) galaxies, because of the mass resolution of the numerical simulations. Most of the galaxies in the sample studied by Hoekstra et al. (2002c) are too faint to be included in the simulations. This severely limits a direct comparison. However, with available multi-color data the weak lensing results can be matched better to the models, and vice versa, future models should include lower mass galaxies.

## 4 Constraints on the halos of galaxies

Rotation curves of spiral galaxies (e.g., van Albada & Sancisi, 1986) and strong lensing analyses of multiple imaged sources have provided strong evidence for the existence of massive dark matter halos around galaxies. However, the lack of visible tracers hampers our knowledge of the gravitational potential at large projected distances. Only satellite galaxies (e.g., Zaritsky & White, 1994) provide a way to probe the outskirts of isolated galaxy halos.

However, the weak gravitational lensing signal induced by such galaxies can be measured out to large projected distances, thus providing a powerful probe of the potential at large radii, which can be used to study the extent of the dark halos (e.g., Brainerd et al., 1996; Hudson et al., 1998; Fischer et al., 2000; Hoekstra, 2000; Hoekstra et al., 2002d, d).

The lensing signal induced by an individual galaxy is too low to be detected, and one has to study the ensemble averaged signal around a large number of lenses. Early measurements of the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal were limited by the small number of lenses/sources (e.g., Brainerd et al., 1996; Hudson et al., 1998), because of the lack of panoramic cameras. Recently the accuracy with which the lensing signal can be measured has improved significantly. Fischer et al. (2000) measured a very significant signal, and Wilson et al. (2001) studied the signal around early type galaxies as a function of redshift. McKay et al. (2001) used the redshift information from the SDSS to study the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal as a function of galaxy properties.

Here we present some preliminary results based on 45 deg2 of RCS $`R_C`$ band data. The detailed analysis is described in Hoekstra et al. (2002d), and a description of the method can be found in Hoekstra (2000). We use galaxies with $`19.5<R_C<21`$ as lenses, and galaxies with $`21.5<R_C<24`$ as sources which are used to measure the lensing signal. The simplest approach to galaxy-galaxy lensing is to measure the ensemble averaged tangential distortion as a function of radius around the sample of lenses. The result for our data is presented in Figure 4a. The signal when the phase of the shear is increased by $`\pi /2`$ is presented in Figure 4b. This signal is consistent with zero, indicating that observational systematics have been successfully corrected for.

We fit a SIS model to the tangential distortion which yields $`r_E=0.^{\prime \prime }129\pm 0.^{\prime \prime }011`$. Given the redshifts of the lenses and the sources this corresponds to a velocity dispersion of $`\sigma ^2^{1/2}=123\pm 5`$ km/s. The corresponding circular velocity can be obtained using $`V_c=\sqrt{2}\sigma `$.

The tangential shear profile is a convolution of the actual halo profile around galaxies and the clustering properties of the lenses. Fischer et al. (2000) used this tangential shear profile, taking into account the clustering of the lenses, to obtain constraints on the extent of the dark matter halos surrounding the lenses. They conclude that the halos are large, but they were unable to obtain tight constraints. In Section 4.1 we show the results of a maximum likelihood analysis of the data, and demonstrate that this approach gives much better constraints on the sizes of halos.

An application of galaxy-galaxy lensing that is still in its early stage is the measurement of the shapes of galaxy halos. If the halos are flattened, the lensing signal will be slightly anisotropic. Provided the halos and the galaxies are aligned, we can measure this angular dependence of the tangential shear. In Section 4.2, we present the first results of such an analysis.

### 4.1 Sizes of galaxy halos

For an isolated lens, the induced lensing signal is purely tangential. This is no longer the case for an ensemble of lenses (which also cluster): the other lenses cause small perturbations, and the shear is no longer tangential. To study the sizes of halos around galaxies Fischer et al. (2000) used only the tangential component. However, Hoekstra (2000) was able to obtain better constraints using a maximum likelihood analysis on their imaging data of CNOC2 fields. The maximum likelihood analysis uses a parameterized model for the mass distribution of individual galaxies is compared to the data. This has the advantage that one uses the information contained in both components of the distortion. It implicitely assumes that all clustered dark matter is associated with galaxies. Furthermore, the contributions from faint neighboring galaxies are not included in the model, and as such, the results reflect the average density profile around the lenses.

A useful model to describe a truncated halo is (Schneider & Rix, 1997; Hoekstra, 2000)

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }(r)=\frac{\sigma ^2}{2Gr}\left(1\frac{r}{\sqrt{r^2+s^2}}\right),$$
(8)
where $`s`$ is a measure of the truncation radius (i.e., the scale where the profile steepens). The total mass of this model is finite, and half of the mass is contained with $`r=\frac{3}{4}s`$.

As before we assume that $`\sigma L_B^{1/4}`$. We also have to assume a scaling relation for the truncation parameter $`s`$. Currently, no such observational constraints exist, although galaxy-galaxy lensing analyses with redshifts for the lenses can be used to this end. As shown by Hoekstra (2000) different scaling relations lead to somewhat different values for $`s`$. Also one can compare the predictions from N-body simulations (Navarro et al., 1997) to the data. The aim here is not to derive the definitive value of $`s`$, but to demonstrate that weak lensing can constrain the “extent” of the dark matter halos.

Currently, we do not have (photometric) redshift information for the lens galaxies in the RCS fields. To derive constraints on the dark matter halos we follow Hoekstra (2000), and make mock catalogs of lenses where the redshifts are drawn from the CNOC2 redshift survey (Yee et al., 2000) on the basis of their $`R_C`$-band magnitude. This provides a very crude redshift estimate. We found that the derived results did not change much between realisations.

In the analysis we assumed that the velocity dispersion $`\sigma `$ scales $`L_\mathrm{B}^{1/4}`$, and that the truncation parameter $`s`$ scales $`L_\mathrm{B}^{1/2}`$ (or $`\sigma ^2`$). Figure 5 shows the results of maximum likelihood analysis for a galaxy with a fiducial luminosity of $`L_{}=10^{10}h^2\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{B}`$. For such a galaxy we find $`\sigma _{}=118_4^{+5}`$, in fair agreement with other estimates. In addition, the average extent of the dark matter halo is well constrained, and we obtain $`s_{}=265_{25}^{+33}h^1`$ kpc, and a 99.7% confidence upper limit of $`s_{}<390h^1`$ kpc.

### 4.2 Shapes of galaxy halos

Numerical simulations of cold dark matter result in triaxial halos, with typical ellipticity of $`0.3`$ (e.g., Dubinski & Carlberg, 1991). In the context of collisionless cold dark matter, the theoretical evidence for flattened halos is quite strong. However, the observational evidence is still limited. Sackett (1999) gives an overview of current constraints which probe the vertical potential on scale $``$ 15 kpc. These results suggest an average value of $`c/a=0.5\pm 0.2`$ (where $`c/a`$ is the ratio of the shortest to longest principle axis of the halo).

Current constraints are mainly limited by the lack of visible tracers that can probe the gravitational potential around galaxies. Hence, galaxy-galaxy lensing is potentially the most powerful way to derive constraints on the average shape of dark matter halos. As such, it provides an important test of the collisionless cold dark matter paradigm. Brainerd & Wright (2000) and Natarajan & Refregier (2000) examined the data requirements needed for a detection of the halo flattening. Although their estimates appear to be too optimistic, it is clear that large amounts of data are required. The measurement of the average shape of the dark matter halos is much more difficult than the previous measurements: the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal is small, and now one needs to measure an even smaller azimuthal variation. Furthermore one has to assume that the galaxy and its halo are aligned, which appears to be a reasonable assumption.

Our approach is different from that of Brainerd & Wright (2000) and Natarajan & Refregier (2000), who propose to study the azimuthal variation in the tangential shear around the lenses. Instead we use a maximum likelihood analysis to derive constraints on the shapes of dark matter halos. We note that this is a first attempt to do so, and more detailed work is required. We simply assume that the (projected) ellipticity of the dark matter halo is related to the shape of the galaxy as $`e_{\mathrm{halo}}=fe_{\mathrm{lens}}`$, and use the best fit parameters for the velocity dispersion and truncation. The ellipticities of the lenses have been corrected for the PSF, similar to the sources. The lensing signal is dominated by the contribution from early type galaxies, and therefore our parameterisation of the halo shape is reasonable.

The resulting $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$ as a function of $`f`$ is presented in Figure 6. The main conclusion from this analysis is that spherical halos are excluded with 99% confidence. Although the inferred ellipticity of dark matter halos depends on the adopted dependence on the light distribution, we note that the exclusion of a spherical halo is robust. Compared to the measurement of the tangential shear as a function of radius, the result presented here is more sensitive to residual systematics. A detailed analysis, however, demonstrates that our result is robust, and not caused by systematics.

The average ellipticity of the lens galaxies is $`e_{\mathrm{lens}}=0.261`$. The best fit value of $`f=0.8`$ then implies a average projected halo ellipticity of $`e_{\mathrm{halo}}=0.21_{0.08}^{+0.02}`$ (68.3% confidence), which corresponds to an projected axis ratio of $`c/a=0.65_{0.02}^{+0.12}`$ (68.3% confidence). Although the weak lensing yields a projected axis ratio, the result is in fair agreement with the numerical simulations. We note, however, that it is not straightforward to interpret this result: the lensing signal comes from a range of galaxy types, although typically the lensing signal is dominated by the early type galaxies, for which our halo model might be appropriate.

## 5 Limits on alternative theories of gravity

In the context of General Relativity, we have to invoke large amounts of dark matter to explain a wide variety of observational results. However, at the large scales probed in this paper, no definite tests of general relativity have been made, and alternative theories of gravity have been proposed to explain the shapes of galaxy rotation curves without the use of dark matter. In particular Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND; Milgrom (1983)) succesfully reproduces rotation curves using only visible matter.

Dynamical studies can provide useful constraints on such theories, but only in the regions where there is visible matter. The best regime to test such alternative theories is far away from the visible matter. This requires a way to probe the gravitational potential on large physical scales. Weak gravitational lensing is currently the best approach to this end. As shown above, it can accurately probe the gravitational potential on scales where other methods fail. In addition, in the absence of dark matter halos, galaxy-galaxy lensing is simple, because the galaxies can be treated as point masses. Unfortunately most alternative theories of gravity do not provide a useful description of gravitational lensing. For instance, MOND lacks a relativistic theory that can describe light deflection.

To test alternative theories of gravity we can use two different approaches. A measurement of the radial dependence of the lensing signal gives the best accuracy, but it requires knowledge of the deflection law. The most direct test is the detection of the the azimuthal variation of the lensing signal around the lenses: alternative theories predict an isotropic lensing signal, and the measurement does not require knowledge of the deflection law!

In alternative theories of gravity, any anisotropy in the lensing signal caused by the intrinsic shapes of the galaxies (i.e., the light and gas distribition) decreases $`r^2`$, and hence is negligible on the scales probed here. Therefore the observed anisotropy in the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal (see Section 4.2) poses a serious problem for alternative theories of gravity. More detailed work is required to confirm this result, but new data sets will provide much better constraints in the very near future, and allow us to study the anisotropy a function of projected distance from the galaxy.

The detection of the anisotropy of the lensing signal around galaxies provides the best evidence for the existence of dark matter halos around galaxies. For completeness we also discuss constraints on the radial dependence of gravity, following the approach suggested by Mortlock & Turner (2001b).

### 5.1 Constraints on the radial dependence of light deflection

Mortlock & Turner (2001b) considered a “zero-th” order approach, by recalling that the deflection angle in GR is twice the Newtonian value. They simply assumed that a similar relation holds for MOND, and derive the “deflection law”. We note, however, that this approach is rather simplistic, and ad hoc, because the force law used by Mortlock & Turner (2001b) does not return to the Newtonian form on large scales (although with a modified gravitational constant), which is required from general considerations (e.g., Sanders, 1986; Walker, 1994; White & Kochanek, 2001).

The aim of this section is to give an indication of the potential of current data sets for the purpose of testing alternative theories of gravity. Along this line of reasoning, we first concentrate of the general class of models considered by Mortlock & Turner (2001a). One simply starts from the deflection law for a point mass. In General Relativity, the deflection law is

$$\alpha (\theta )=\frac{\theta _\mathrm{E}^2}{\theta },$$
(9)
where $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$ is the Einstein radius of the lens. The Einstein radius depends on the mass $`M`$ of the lens and the angular diameter distances from observer to lens $`(D_l)`$, observer to source $`(D_s)`$, and lens to source $`(D_{ls})`$:

$$\theta _\mathrm{E}=\sqrt{\frac{4GM}{c^2}\frac{D_s}{D_lD_{ls}}}.$$
(10)
Hence, another complication of lensing in alternative theories of gravity arises because it is not clear how the angular diameter distances vary with redshift. However, this uncertainty should only affect the amplitude of the lensing signal, and not its angular dependence.

Mortlock & Turner (2001a) considered a generic deflection law, which is parameterized as

$$\alpha (\theta )=\frac{\theta _\mathrm{E}^2}{\theta }\left(\frac{\theta _0}{\theta +\theta _0}\right)^{\xi 1}.$$
(11)
For $`\theta \theta _0`$, this deflection law reduces to the usual deflection, as is the case for $`\xi =1`$. For large $`\theta `$ the deflection angle decreases $`\theta ^\xi `$. The case of $`\xi =0`$, can be considered as the approximate MOND deflection angle.

It is straightforward to relate the deflection angle to the observable shear. For this particular choice of deflection angle we obtain (Mortlock & Turner, 2001a)

$$\gamma (\theta )=\frac{\theta _\mathrm{E}^2}{\theta _0\theta ^2}\left(\frac{\xi +1}{2}\theta +\theta _0\right)\left(\frac{\theta _0}{\theta +\theta _0}\right)^\xi .$$
(12)
Mortlock & Turner (2001a) compared this model to the observed ensemble averaged tangential shear around galaxies in the SDSS (Fischer et al., 2000). They found a best fit value of $`\xi =0.1`$ and $`\theta _0=3.7`$ arcsecond. As a result, Mortlock & Turner (2001a) concluded the MOND “predictions” are consistent with the SDSS measurements.

However, as we will show now, a maximum likelihood analysis can provide much better constraint. As before, we use the measurements from the RCS. We now treat the lenses as point masses with the deflection law given by equation 11.

Figure 7 shows the results of a maximum likelihood analysis of 16 deg2 of $`R_C`$ band imaging data from the RCS. The left panel shows the constraints on $`\theta _0`$ and $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$ for $`\xi =0`$ (i.e., the “MOND” approximation). The allowable range for the value of $`\theta _0`$ excludes small values: the MOND regime sets in at too large physical scales. The best fit value for the Einstein radius corresponds to a mass-to-light ratio of $`M/L_B=1.5\mathrm{M}_{}/\mathrm{L}_B`$, which is similar to what one would expect from the stars themselves. The right panel of Figure 7 shows the constraints on $`\theta _0`$ and $`\xi `$ when we marginalize over $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$. Both the $`\xi =1`$ (GR without dark matter) and the $`\xi =0`$ case (“MOND”) are excluded by the current data.

Comparison of the maximum likelihood solution to the best fit “GR + truncated dark matter halo” model shows that the latter is a much better fit. The results from the “truncated dark matter halo” model indicate that the data favor a model in which the projected mass distribution has a profile that is $`1/r`$ on small scales, and steepens on larger scales. This explains why the $`\xi =0`$ model results in large values of $`\theta _0`$, and why the data favor a value of $`\xi 0.35`$: the best fit model is a compromise between the $`1/r`$ and $`1/r^2`$ profiles, reflecting the change in slope in the density profile. Comparison of the likelihoods of the deflection law models given by equation 11 and the “truncated halo” model shows that the former models are excluded at the $`10\sigma `$ confidence level.

The problems with the deflection laws considered by Mortlock & Turner (2001a) arise because of the form of the deflection law on large scales. As mentioned above, the law of gravity has to return to the $`1/\theta `$ form on large scales, and consequently, such theories should not only specify a scale where the effect of alternative gravity becomes important, but also large scale $`\theta _{\mathrm{out}}`$, where the theory returns to “normal” gravity.

To allow for such a scale, we modify the Mortlock & Turner (2001a) deflection law (for $`\xi =0`$, i.e., the “MOND” case) to

$$\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(\theta )=\frac{\theta _\mathrm{E}^2}{\theta \theta _0}\left(\theta +\theta _0\frac{\theta ^2}{\theta +\theta _{\mathrm{out}}}\right),$$
(13)
which gives a shear

$$\stackrel{~}{\gamma }(\theta )=\frac{\theta _\mathrm{E}^2}{\theta _0\theta ^2}\left[\frac{\theta }{2}+\theta _0\frac{\theta ^3}{2(\theta +\theta _{\mathrm{out}})^2}\right],$$
(14)
For $`\theta \theta _{\mathrm{out}}`$ this modified deflection law leads to a deflection angle (or shear) that is a factor $`\theta _{\mathrm{out}}/\theta _0`$ times the GR value. Hence, the ratio $`\theta _{\mathrm{out}}/\theta _0`$ is a measure of the “mass descrepancy”. Comparison with the truncated halo model shows that both profiles are nearly identical on scales larger than a few $`\theta _0`$, provided the truncation parameter $`s=\theta _{\mathrm{out}}`$. We find that such a model provides a good fit to the data. However, we note that the introduction of $`\theta _{\mathrm{out}}`$ is rather ad hoc.

The study of the radial dependence of the deflection law is potentially useful when it is predicted completely by the theory. The ad hoc approach used here can fit the data, and hence gives inconclusive results. As mentioned above, the azimuthal variation of the lensing signal around galaxies provides a more robust method. The detection of an anisotropic lensing signal poses a serious problem for alternative theories of gravity.

## 6 Conclusions

Weak gravitational lensing has shown tremendous progress in the last few years, thanks mainly to the fact that large areas of the sky can now be observed with wide field cameras, such as the CFH12k camera on CFHT. In this review we have highlighted some of the most recent results.

The most recent cosmic shear studies (Bacon et al., 2002; Hoekstra et al., 2002b; Refregier et al., 2002; Van Waerbeke et al, 2002) show excellent agreement. This is remarkable, given the fact that the data have been taken with different instruments, filters, and depths. These most recent results demonstrate that weak lensing by large scale structure can play an important role in the era of precision cosmology.

Weak lensing provides a direct measure of the (dark) matter distribution on all scales, and hence it is one of the most powerful probes of the relation between the galaxies and the underlying mass distribution. As a result, it provides a direct way to determine the bias parameter $`b`$ and the galaxy-mass cross-correlation coefficient $`r`$ as a function of scale, on scales not accessible by other techiques. The results obtained by Hoekstra et al. (2002c) suggest significant non-linear or stochastic biasing on scales $`0.51h^1`$ Mpc. These measurements provide important observational constraints on models of galaxy formation.

The lack of visible tracers hampers our knowledge of the gravitational potential around galaxies at large projected radii. Weak lensing has proven to be a powerful tool to probe the extent and shapes of dark matter halos. The maximum likelihood analysis of RCS data indicates a clear steepening of the mass distribution on scales larger than $`250h^1`$ kpc (Hoekstra et al., 2002d). Furthermore, the data allowed for the first detection of the flattening of dark matter halos, with sperical halos excluded at the 99% confidence level.

Finally weak lensing can be used to constrain alternative models of gravity (without dark matter). Ad hoc approaches to study the radial dependence of the deflection law remain inconclusive, mainly because of the lack of predictions. These theories, however, predict an essentially isotropic lensing signal around galaxies, irrespective of the actual deflection law. The detection of an anisotropic lensing signal around galaxies therefore poses a serious problem for theories of alternative gravity, such as MOND.

The main results discussed in this review were obtained in the last few years. The progress made in such a small amount of time suggests that exciting times are ahead, when even larger data sets become available.

HH thanks the organizers for the invitation to an interesting meeting.


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# Local threshold field for dendritic instability in superconducting MgB2 films

## I Introduction

An abrupt penetration of magnetic flux in the form of branching patterns was first observed in 1967, in superconducting Nb alloys. The phenomenon received much attention in the 1990s, when advancements in magneto-optical (MO) imaging allowed studies with a much higher spatial resolution. The branching phenomenon, or dendritic instability, has now been observed in YBa2Cu3O7 films (induced by a laser pulse), in field-cooled Nb films and in zero-field-cooled (ZFC) patterned Nb films. However, the material most sensitive to the instability seems to be the recently discovered superconductor MgB2, the only material where the flux dendrites appear in uniform ZFC films placed in an applied field or triggered by passing a transport current.

The dendritic flux instability is believed to be of thermo-magnetic origin, similarly to the much more explored phenomenon of flux jumps. Flux jumps is a dominant threat to the stability of the critical state in superconductors, and is especially important in high-current and high-field applications. Local heating due to motion of the magnetic vortices reduces the pinning, and will facilitate their further motion. This may lead to an avalanche process, where a macroscopic amount of flux suddenly invades the superconductor – a process accompanied by a strong heating.

A number of common features indicate that the same physical mechanism is underlying both the dendritic instability and flux jumps. First, both phenomena occur only at low temperatures, and they develop very fast ($`10^410^6`$ cm/s, see Refs. , and ). Moreover, both instabilities can be suppressed by contacting the superconductor with normal metal so that heat is removed more efficiently Furthermore, dynamics in the form of branching flux and temperature distributions has recently been obtained by computer simulations accounting for the heat produced by flux motion, and thus support strongly that the flux dendrites indeed results from a thermo-magnetic instability.

There seems to be two necessary conditions for an instability to develop along the dendritic scenario. The first is a small thickness of the superconductor: the dendrites have so far been observed only in films with thickness $`0.5\mu `$m. The long-range vortex-vortex interactions typical for thin films are probably essential for the branching flux structures to form. Secondly, the process should be adiabatic so that the temperature distribution remains highly nonuniform during the dendrite growth. Computer simulations have demonstrated that dendrites occur only when the heat diffusivity is much smaller than the magnetic diffusivity.

The key quantity characterizing flux-jump is the applied field, $`B_{\mathrm{fj}}`$, when the first jump occurs in a ZFC superconductor. The $`B_{\mathrm{fj}}`$ also determines the interval between complete flux jumps (the magnetization dropping to zero) as seen in Fig. 1(left). Therefore, the central question is: “Does a threshold field exist also for dendritic flux jumps?”.

From typical $`M(B)`$ data for an MgB2 film shown in Fig. 1(right) the answer seems “No”. The jumps are here very small, typically $`\mathrm{\Delta }M10^2M`$, because one dendritic structure occupies only a small fraction of the sample. Furthermore, they are irregularly spaced along the applied field axis, and the exact jump pattern is irreproducible when the experiment is repeated.

In the search for a “dendritic” $`B_{\mathrm{fj}}`$ we have performed a magneto-optical study of flux penetration in a virgin MgB2 film, and analyzed quantitatively the flux density distributions produced by the dendritic instability. We find that the dendritic instability indeed has a threshold field. However, this is a threshold not for the applied field but instead for the local flux density. This local threshold field determines when and where in the superconducting film the dendritic structures nucleate.

The paper is organized as follows. In section II the sample and the experimental method used in this work are briefly described. The results of the MO imaging investigation are presented in section III, and a discussion follows in section IV. Finally, the conclusion are given in section V.

## II Experimental

Films of MgB2 were fabricated on Al2O3 substrates using pulsed laser deposition. A 300 nm thick film shaped as a square with dimensions 5$`\times `$5 mm2 was selected for the present studies. The sample has a high degree of $`c`$-axis alignment perpendicular to the plane, and shows a sharp superconducting transition at $`T_c=39`$ K.

The flux density distribution in the superconducting film was visualized using MO imaging based on the Faraday effect in ferrite garnet indicator films. For a recent review of the method, see Ref. , and a description of our setup is found elsewhere. The sample was glued with GE varnish to the cold finger of the optical cryostat, and a piece of MO indicator covering the sample area was placed loosely on top of the MgB2 film. Before the mounting a few plastic spheres of diameter 3.5 $`\mu `$m was distributed over the sample surface to avoid thermal influence of the MO indicator.

As usual, the gray levels in the MO images were converted to magnetic field values using a calibration curve obtained above $`T_c`$. In all the images shown in the present work, the bright regions correspond to high values of the flux density, while the fully dark areas are free of flux, i.e. Meissner state regions. All the experiments were carried out at $`T=3.6`$ K on an initially ZFC sample.

## III Results

The MgB2 film was placed in a slowly increasing perpendicular applied field, $`B_a`$. At small fields, up to $`B_a=2`$ mT, we observed just conventional flux penetration where a gradual increase in $`B_a`$ results in a smooth advancement of the flux front. Increasing the field further this smooth behavior starts to be accompanied by a sudden invasion of macroscopic dendritic structures, as illustrated in Fig. 2 showing MO images of the flux distribution near the edge at $`B_a=2.3`$, 3.2 and 7.4 mT. The images cover different parts of the sample which have in common that dendritic structures had been formed just before the images were recorded. As in earlier studies, these structures are seen to develop at seemingly random places that vary from one experiment to another, and the dendrites grow to final size faster than we can detect (1 ms). As the applied field continues to increase we find that outside the dendritic areas the flux front advances gradually, while the dendrites that are already formed always remain completely frozen. Below we focus on the dendritic flux behavior, whereas the gradual ”background” penetration, also displaying interesting non-uniform features, will be the subject of a separate paper.

Let us first look more detailed on one individual branch of a dendritic structure, where the area marked by a white rectangle in Fig. 2(c) was chosen as a typical example. Several flux density profiles across the large branch were measured with the result seen in Fig. 3. The profiles have an overall triangular shape that varies only little along the branch. The maximum flux density in the center remains essentially the same, 10-12 mT, whereas the branch width increases from $`30\mu `$m near the root towards $`50\mu `$m near the tip. The reason for such broadening is not fully clear, but is probably related to the fact that near the tip the distance from neighboring branches is larger. Near the root of a dendritic structure the branches always grow densely and their mutual repulsion causes each of them to be compressed.

Shown in Fig. 4 is a series of flux density profiles across the whole dendritic “tree” seen in Fig. 2(b). To avoid overlap of graphs, the subsequent profiles C…H are shifted along the vertical axis. By comparing the two figures each peak can be identified as a branch present in the MO image. For the profiles C-E the outmost branches of the tree are the more pronounced, and many minor ones are located in between. In the profiles F-H the number of branches reduces, and large flux-free regions exist between them. From this set of curves we see that, like in Fig. 3, the maximum flux density (at the dendrite core) remains essentially constant, $`B_{\mathrm{max}}12`$ mT, along one branch. Moreover, a striking fact is that this value is the same for all branches.

This universality motivates a comparison also with the $`B`$ profile across the film edge. Due to demagnetization effects the field becomes concentrated near the edge of a superconducting film, and hence the MO images show a line of maximum brightness exactly along the sample edge. For the comparison we choose the MO image from Fig. 2(a), where the flux penetration near the edge is most regular. The flux density profiles along the lines A-A and B-B are presented in Fig. 5. Note that in the A profile only the part to the right of the peak is relevant, i.e., representing penetrated magnetic flux. Remarkably, we find that the peak values as well as the slopes of the profiles are essentially the same. Hence, this together with similar investigations made at other locations lead us to conclude that the MgB2 film does not allow anywhere in the sample the local field to exceed the value of $`B_{\mathrm{max}}12`$ mT.

How this universality of the $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ applies very generally can be illustrated by histograms of the flux density distributions at different applied field. Shown in Fig. 6 are histograms of $`B(x,y)`$ over the entire field-of-view of the MO images for three applied fields in the range of 2-8 mT. At 2.3 mT the number of dendrites is small and so is their size, and only a very small fraction of the sample are has a local field exceeding 10 mT. As the applied field increases the histogram develops a pronounced peak near 10 mT and the existence of a maximum local field becomes evident. It is clear that although the dendrites that are formed vary widely in their size, and the total area covered by dendrites is very different, the maximum local field remains the same.

## IV Discussion

The existence of the universal field $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ sheds new light on the mechanism of dendrite formation. The present results suggest that $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ serves as a local threshold field for nucleation of the instability. When the ZFC superconducting film is placed in an increasing applied field, its interior remains first flux free, and the field becomes enhanced at the edges. When the local edge field exceeds $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$, an avalanche-like invasion of flux is nucleated there. The avalanche development is then driven not only by local heating, as in bulk superconductors, but in a film also by a local increase of the field. Geometrical field amplification at concave defects along the edge is an effect well-known from MO imaging studies, and is due to the bending of the Meissner currents that are forced to flow around the defected region, in this case the heated spot where the avalanche starts. In the first stage the avalanche grows predominantly in the direction perpendicular to the edge, as seen from the distinct root of the dendritic structures. In a similar way, any perturbation along this penetration channel will be enhanced due to the Meissner current bending, and eventually result in multiple branching. Note that the irreproducibility of the dendritic patterns indicate that the branching points are not directly related to the pinning landscape or other non-uniformities grown into the sample. The dendritic structure will grow and continue branching until the flux density reduces to $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ in the cores of all branches. This is the final state of the instability, and is what we see in the MO images. Upon further increase of the applied field, the condition $`B<B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ becomes soon violated again, now at a different place along the edge from where a new dendritic structure will invade the film.

Another interesting result most clearly seen from Fig. 5 is that the slope of the $`B`$ profiles near the film edge, and across a dendritic branch is essentially the same. Actually, this slope is also characteristic for all profiles across the large dendritic structure shown in Fig. 4. Since the slopes reflect the local critical current density, $`j_c`$, this suggests that they were formed at the same temperature, since $`j_c`$ is strongly temperature dependent. It is then clear from Fig. 5 that the heating during the dendrite propagation stage was localized to a very narrow core of the branch. The sharpness of the peaked flux profiles shows that the heated core has a width of 15 $`\mu `$m, or less. This is consistent with results obtained also by Bolz et al.

The magnitude of the critical current density can be estimated from the profiles of Fig. 5 using the Bean model formula for a thin strip in a perpendicular field. For small fields, the flux penetration depth is given as $`\delta =0.5w(\pi B_a/\mu _0dj_c)^2`$, where $`w`$ is the strip halfwidth, and $`d`$ is its thickness. Substituting here $`\delta =30\mu `$m, and $`w=2500\mu `$m one obtains $`j_c10^7`$ A/cm2. Unfortunately, this high $`j_c`$ is compromised by the dendritic instability which largely influence the macroscopic magnetic properties of the film. Magnetization curves of MgB2 films in general (i) contain numerous dips of different magnitudes (noisy behavior) and (ii) the averaged $`M`$ recalculated into critical current density gives a much lower value than the ”true” $`j_c`$.

Let us compare the experimentally found threshold field 12 mT with theoretical estimates. The first jump field within the adiabatic approach and the Bean model is given as

$$B_{\mathrm{fj}}=\left(\frac{2\mu _0Cj_c}{j_c/T}\right)^{1/2},$$
(1)
where $`C`$ is the heat capacity. This result is obtained for bulk superconductors and should be modified for thin samples in a perpendicular field. Using the Bean-model flux distributions in thin films one can show that the field $`B_{\mathrm{fj}}`$ should be multiplied by a factor $`\sqrt{d/w}`$. Then, substituting $`C=0.3`$ kJ/Km3 (Ref. ) in Eq. (1), assuming $`j_c(T)(T_cT)`$, we obtain $`B_{\mathrm{fj}}=1.5`$ mT at 4 K. Note that this $`B_{\mathrm{fj}}`$ should give the applied field when the first flux dendrite enters a ZFC film. For our experiments on the MgB2 film this field equals 2 mT, in excellent agreement with the theoretical estimate.

At this field, $`B_a=2`$ mT, the local flux density was measured to be 12 mT (Fig. 5) at the film edge. After many dendrites have entered the film, the flux distribution became strongly non-uniform, and the criterion for the threshold applied field $`B_{\mathrm{fj}}`$ is no longer applicable. Nevertheless, we find that the value 12 mT can still be used as a local threshold field.

## V Conclusions

In summary, we have found using magneto-optical imaging, that the nucleation as well as the termination of dendritic flux avalanches in superconducting MgB2 films is governed by a local threshold field, $`B_{\mathrm{max}}12`$ mT. Avalanches nucleate near the edge whenever the local flux density exceeded $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and the flux invasion proceeds as long as there exist regions where $`B>B_{\mathrm{max}}`$. As a result, each avalanche ends with having a flux distribution where $`B=B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ in the cores of all branches of the dendritic structure. We find that as the applied field is increased, the flux density at the edge remains equal to $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$, while new dendritic flux structures will invade the film The width of the dendrite cores, which are the heated channels of flux invasion was found to be 15 $`\mu `$m, or less, whereas in the final state the dendrite fingers are 60-80 $`\mu `$m wide.

## Acknowledgements

The financial support from the Research Council of Norway, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 01-02-06482), and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea through the Creative Research Initiative Program is gratefully acknowledged.


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# Visible–IR Colors and Lightcurve Analysis of Two Bright TNOs: 1999 TC36 and 1998 SN165

## 1 Introduction

Beyond the orbit of Neptune there exists a population of bodies remnant from the formation of the solar system, planetesimals whose number density inhibited further accretion and whose orbits are, in general, stable on solar system time scales. These are the so-called Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), also known as Edgeworth-Kuiper Objects (EKOs) or Kuiper-Belt Objects (KBOs). Postulated by Edgeworth (1943, 1949) and Kuiper (1951), their existence has only recently been confirmed observationally by Jewitt & Luu (1993).

The Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt (EKB) is also most probably the source of the short-period comets (Duncan et al. 1988) and a transient population of objects between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune: the Centaurs.

Although there are no strict definitions, the TNOs are generally classified in three groups: resonant objects, classical objects and scattered objects. The resonant are objects trapped in orbital resonances with Neptune, mainly in the 2:3 like Pluto, and are therefore also called Plutinos. The classical objects have semi-major axes mostly confined between 40 and 48 AU. Scattered objects have highly eccentric and inclined orbits. Presently, about 590 TNOs and 33 Centaurs are known.

The physical properties of the TNOs and Centaurs are still poorly understood. Spectroscopic studies of these objects are only possible with 8-10 meter class telescopes and limited to the brightest ones. Therefore, broadband photometry is still the most feasible method allowing a compositional survey relevant for statistical work. At present, several adequate samplings of the visible colors of these objects are published, allowing already some statistical analysis (e.g.: Tegler & Romanishin 2000; Doressoundiram et al. 2001; Hainaut & Delsanti 2002, and references therein). However, this data is not yet enough to support or refute some claimed relations between colors, sizes and orbital parameters. On the other hand, Barucci et al. (2001) showed the importance of the $`VJ`$ color in any taxonomical work characterizing the TNOs, but with $`20`$ objects measured so far (Boehnhardt et al. 2001; Davies et al. 2000, and references therein) IR data is still scarce.

Precise and unequivocal determination of TNOs’ rotational periods is difficult to accomplish. Romanishin & Tegler (1999) detected for the first time lightcurve variability among this class of objects, estimating rotational periods for $`1995`$ QY9, $`1994`$ VK8 and $`1994`$ TB. Presently, three more TNOs have published periods with good accuracy: Varuna (Farnham 2001; Jewitt & Sheppard 2002), $`1996`$ TO66 (Hainaut et al. 2000) and $`1998`$ SM165 (Romanishin et al. 2001). This latter object has recently been found to be a binary (Brown & Trujillo 2002). Centaurs, which are brighter and easier to study, are better sampled, with rotational periods published for Chiron (Bus et al. 1989), Asbolus (Brown & Luu 1997), Pholus (Buie & Bus 1992), $`1999`$ UG5 (Gutiérrez et al. 2001), $`2000`$ QC243 and $`2001`$ PT13 (Ortiz et al. 2002).

Knowledge of rotation rates of TNOs and Centaurs may provide insight into their collisional evolution. Indeed, the present wide color diversity among TNOs may have originated from collisional resurfacing processes. Moreover, albedo measurements, spectroscopic studies, and accurate multicolor photometry on these objects depend critically on the knowledge of their rotational properties (or magnitude variations). This is necessary due to the non-simultaneity of the observations in the several bands and the long exposure time needed, particularly in the infrared. Large samples are usually necessary for precise determination of the rotational periods. Such samples are hard to obtain due to the faintness and small magnitude variations expected in the vast majority of the TNOs. The identification of short term magnitude variations is, consequently, of most importance, as it allows us to filter candidates for rotational period detections.

We here report on observations of two TNOs. Our results consist of a possible determination of a rotational period for $`1998`$ SN165 and a measurement of the $`VJ`$ color for $`1999`$ TC36. Within our observational errors we can exclude a rotational period inferior to 8 hours for $`1999`$ TC36. These two objects are of increasing interest, since $`1999`$ TC36 has recently been reported to possess a companion object (Trujillo & Brown 2002) and it has been suggested that $`1998`$ SN165 belongs to a new dynamical sub-class of TNOs (Doressoundiram et al. 2002).

## 2 Observations

This study is based on two observational campaigns: one dedicated to J-band photometry and the other to lightcurve analysis.

J-band photometric data was obtained on the 9th of August 2000, with the ARNICA near-infrared camera on the 3.58 m Italian National Telescope (TNG; La Palma, Spain) equipped with a HgTeCd array detector with $`256\times 256`$ pixels (pixel scale=1”, pixel size=40 $`\mu m`$).

V-band relative photometric data was obtained on the 30th of September 2000, at the 3.6 m New Technology Telescope (NTT; ESO, La Silla, Chile) with the SUSI2 CCD camera on the f/11 Nasmith focus, equipped with a mosaic of two EEV CCDs with $`2048\times 4096`$ pixels each (pixel scale=0.16”, pixel size=15 $`\mu m`$). This night was non-photometric – seeing varied from 1.3” to 2.6”.

The sufficiently small angular motion of the targets allowed for sidereal tracking rate in all runs (see table 1).

## 3 Data Reduction

V-band lightcurve data was reduced with IRAF’s CCDRED package. For $`1999`$ TC36, we used an aperture radius of 4.5” centered around the object (and reference stars) with the sky level estimated by using the mode value within a concentric ring between 11.2” and 12.8 ” (farther than 4.3 times the worst seeing). Relative magnitude was computed relative to a “superstar” made with the 3 brightest field stars, whose stability was verified. To check for the significance of eventual magnitude variations on the target, two stars of about the same magnitude as the object were also measured. For $`1998`$ SN165, an aperture of 3.8” was used. This object was fainter than the previous and more sensitive to sky variations, therefore a smaller aperture was used in order to improve the S/N ratio. Sky was estimated on a ring between 8.0” and 9.6” in most of the images due to the presence of a close star in some of the frames. However, for images with seeings above 2.0”, the sky ring was moved away to 11.2” to ensure that the sky was being estimated at distances were no (significant) signal from the object was expected. Magnitude was computed relative to a “superstar” made with the 2 brightest field stars that were also checked for stability. A star with magnitude close to the object’s was taken as a reference for fluctuations. Relative magnitudes obtained are presented in table 2.

Note that we may expect some flux loss in a few bad seeing images with the fixed apertures used. However, since we performed relative photometry, this effect will not change the measured relative magnitude if the reference stars have the same FWHM as the object. We check for all cases and discard any images presenting seeing variations above 0.3”.

Near-Infrared J-band data was reduced using both IRAF and MIDAS following the standard techniques of flatfielding, using twilight flats, estimation of a sky frame, subtraction of the sky from all frames, after proper scaling, determination of the offsets between frames based on the image headers and final image registration. Details on the reduction procedure can be found in Romon et al. (2001).

## 4 Colors and Reflectivities

The $`VJ`$ color of $`1999`$ TC36 was calculated using the V magnitude reported by Doressoundiram et al. (2001), which was obtained with only 22 minutes of time difference with our J-band data (see table 3). To compare the spectral behaviors, we quote also the $`BVRI`$ colors for $`1999`$ TC36 and $`1998`$ SN165 (Doressoundiram et al. 2001), and $`VJ`$ color for $`1998`$ SN165 (McBride et al. 2002). Relative spectral reflectances at the central wavelengths of the broadband filters, normalized to the V filter, are plotted in figure 1.

Analysis of figure 1 shows that $`1999`$ TC36 possess a red spectrum at all studied wavelengths, indicating that its surface may be covered by some organic material (Cruikshank 1989; Thompson 1987), while $`1998`$ SN165 presents an almost flat spectrum at all wavelengths. This illustrates the wide color diversity seen among the TNOs population, with colors varying from gray ($`1998`$ SN165) to red ($`1999`$ TC36).

## 5 Lightcurve Analysis

### 5.1 $`1998`$ SN165

In figure 2 we plotted the lightcurve for $`1998`$ SN165 resulting from the data in table 2. We have also plotted the data for a reference star of about the same magnitude as the object, used to check for the significance of any eventual variability. It seems patent that the object has a periodic variation of magnitude.

A first test for non-random variation was performed with the Chi-Square Test, in which the null hypothesis is: there is no non-random variation (Collander-Brown et al. 1999). The weighted mean magnitude is calculated for the object ($`\overline{x}_w`$) and then the Chi-Square :

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{(x_i\overline{x}_w)^2}{\sigma _i^2}$$

were $`x_i`$ are the relative magnitude values, $`\sigma _i`$ the corresponding errors and $`n`$ the number of data-points. Assuming that the errors are gaussian, and that $`n`$ is a large number, the mean limiting distribution is $`\chi ^2=n1`$ and the variance is $`\sigma ^2=2(n1)`$. For $`1998`$ SN165 and using a 26 data-point sample, we obtained $`\chi ^2=79.96`$, which is $`7.8\sigma `$ ($`\sigma =7.07`$) above the mean $`\chi ^2=25`$. Since the result is larger than $`3\sigma `$, we have a significant rejection of the null hypothesis.

To search for any periodic signal concealed in the data, we applied the Lomb-Scargle periodogram (Lomb 1976; Scargle 1982; Horne & Baluinas 1986; Press et al. 1992). A high peak is detected at the frequency $`f=0.199h^1`$ with a power of $`8.28`$ (fig. 3).

To check for the level of significance in the estimated period, we carried out a Monte-Carlo simulation. Holding fixed the number of data-points, their time locations $`t_i`$ and the corresponding errors $`\sigma _i`$, 10 000 random data-sets were constructed. Each random $`x_ix(t_i)`$ was generated following a gaussian distribution of standard deviation $`\sigma _i`$. Applying the Lomb-Scargle periodogram to each one of these random data-sets, we may estimate the probability of our detected frequency being due to noise — the false period probability ($`P_f`$). With only 4 events with higher powers than $`8.28`$ we have a $`P_f=0.04\%`$, that is, a significance level of $`99.96\%`$.

By fitting a sine-wave of $`f=0.199h^1`$ to the data with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, we determine the magnitude variation, i.e., peak to peak amplitude, of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m=0.151`$. After subtracting this signal sine-wave to the data, we obtained a noise sample with standard deviation $`\sigma _N=0.031`$, which is of the order of our average error bars. This revealed a good signal subtraction.

To determine the error in the frequency, we also performed a Monte-Carlo simulation. Analogously to the previous simulation, we generated 1 000 data-sets, now adding the gaussian noise to the signal obtained from the fitted sine wave and applying the Lomb-Periodogram to each set. The resulting distribution had a mean value of $`f=0.198`$ and a standard deviation of $`\sigma _f=0.016`$. Therefore, our detected frequency is:

$$f=0.199\pm 0.016h^1$$

The error in the amplitude is estimated by taking the two extreme values (amplitude plus or minus its error from the fit), resulting from fitting the sine-wave with $`f=0.199+\sigma _f`$ and $`f=0.199\sigma _f`$. We get a lightcurve amplitude of:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m=0.151_{0.030}^{+0.022}$$

However, we should be cautious in considering the significance of the detected frequency, since the lightcurve is not sufficiently sampled to allow detection of eventually more complex behaviors than a single sine-wave variation. Nevertheless, we may still make considerations on its rotational period and possible asymmetry. Assuming an uniform surface albedo for the object, the lightcurve is the result of the variation of the projected cross-section area of an elongated shape in rotation. Therefore, a full rotation produces a lightcurve with two minima and two maxima. With this assumption, the period found with our observations is only due to half rotation. Hence, the estimated rotation period is:

$$P=10.1\pm 0.8h$$

Supposing a tri-axial ellipsoidal body (with $`a>b>c`$) rotating along the shortest axis ($`c`$) perpendicular to the line of sight, from the determined amplitude of the lightcurve $`\mathrm{\Delta }m`$ we estimate a minimum value for the ratio between the semi-axis $`a`$ and $`b`$, from the equation $`\mathrm{\Delta }m2.5\mathrm{log}a/b`$:

$$\frac{a}{b}1.148_{0.031}^{+0.024}$$

However, the hypothesis of a rotating non-uniform albedo object producing a mono-peak lightcurve cannot be ruled out, in which case the rotational period would be half of the computed value above.

In order to check for the real variability of the object’s magnitude, we performed also the Chi-Square test on a reference star. A $`\chi ^2=27.00`$ was found, which is only $`0.28\sigma `$ above the $`\chi ^2`$, well within the $`3\sigma `$ bounds of the null hypothesis. The results assure the stability of the relative photometry and thus confirm that the object’s variability is real. Also, the Lomb-Scargel periodogram applied to the reference star did not reveal any significant periodic signal.

### 5.2 $`1999`$ TC36

We observed $`1999`$ TC36 over 8.362 hours and no apparent periodic variation seems present within this time span (see fig. 4).

With a sample of 30 data-points, we expect a $`\chi ^2=29`$ and $`\sigma =7.62`$. The Chi-Square test on the object, resulted in a $`\chi ^2=77.274`$, which is $`6.34\sigma `$ above the $`\chi ^2`$ . This would imply a rejection of the null hypothesis. However, if we reject the 2 lowest points that seem slightly wayward, we obtain a $`\chi ^2=46.78`$, now only $`2.69\sigma `$ above $`\chi ^2`$ and within the null hypothesis interval. Once more, we performed the same test on a close magnitude field star (see fig. 4), obtaining a $`\chi ^2=37.24`$, only $`1.08\sigma `$ above $`\chi ^2`$. This again assures the stability of the relative photometry. The Lomb-Scargle periodogram does not find any significant period in the data, neither in the object nor in the reference star. Comparing the data samples of the object and the reference star, we see a slight systematic magnitude decrease for the object ($`\mathrm{\Delta }m0.1`$), that might indicate this object as a good candidate for a longer rotational period. However, this result should be taken with caution since the scatter of data at the end of the night increases due to the degradation of seeing conditions. Nonetheless, it is clear that the objects does not possess a detectable periodic variation below $`8.4h`$ within the observed errors.

## 6 Conclusions

A periodic signal of frequency $`f=0.199`$ (periodicity $`T=5.03h`$) with a confidence level above $`99.9\%`$ is present on our V-band lightcurve of $`1998`$ SN165 with a peak-to-peak magnitude variation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m=0.15`$. A possible rotational period of $`P=10.1\pm 0.8h`$ and asymmetry ratio of $`a/b1.15`$ are estimated. This rotational period is to be taken with caution and should be confirmed with better sampled observations. For $`1999`$ TC36, we do not detect any periodic variation over our $`8.4h`$ time-span within the uncertainties. If $`1999`$ TC36 has a detectable rotational period it warrants longer observations. From the relative reflectance spectra obtained with the BVRIJ colors, of $`1999`$ TC36 we see that it possesses a red spectrum, probably resulting from a cover of organic material on its surface.

## Acknowledgments

The authors most kindly thank text revision from M.E. Filho (Kapteyn Inst.) and constructive comments from M. Roos-Serote (OAL/CAAUL) and M.A. Barucci (Obs. Paris). N.P. is funded by the grant (SFRH/BD/1094/2000) and project (ESO/PRO/40158/2000) from the FCT (Portugal).


text:
# References

NTUTH-02-505B

May 2002

Light quark masses in quenched QCD with exact chiral symmetry

Ting-Wai Chiu and Tung-Han Hsieh

Department of Physics, National Taiwan University

Taipei, Taiwan 106, Taiwan.

E-mail : twchiu@phys.ntu.edu.tw

## Abstract

The parameters in the pseudoscalar meson mass formula in quenched chiral perturbation theory to one-loop order are determined by quenched lattice QCD with overlap Dirac operator, and from which the light quark masses are determined with the experimental inputs of pion and kaon masses, and the pion decay constant. Our results are $`m_{u,d}=5.3\pm 0.3`$ MeV, and $`m_s=115\pm 8`$ MeV, in the $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ scheme at scale $`\mu =2`$ GeV.

PACS numbers: 11.15.Ha, 11.30.Rd, 12.38.Gc

Keywords : Chiral Perturbation Theory, Chiral Symmetry, Lattice QCD, Overlap Dirac Quark.

In the standard model, the quark masses are fundamental parameters which have to be determined from high energy experiments. However, they cannot be measured directly since quarks are confined inside hardrons, unlike an isolated electron whose mass and charge both can be measured directly from its responses in electric and magnetic fields. Therefore, the quark masses can only be determined by comparing a theoretical calculation of physical observables ( e.g., hadron masses ) with the experimental values. Evidently, for any field theoretic calculation, the quark masses depend on the regularization, as well as the renormalization scheme and scale.

One of the objectives of lattice QCD is to compute the hadron masses nonperturbatively from the first principle, and from which the quark masses are determined. However, the performance of the present generation of computers is still quite remote from what is required for computing the light hadron masses at the physical ( e.g., $`m_\pi 140`$ MeV ) scale, on a lattice with enough sites in each direction such that the discretization errors as well as the finite volume effects are both negligible comparing to the statistical ones. Nevertheless, even with lattices of moderate sizes, lattice QCD can determine the values of the parameters in the hadron mass formulas of the ( quenched ) chiral perturbation theory. Then one can use these formulas to evaluate the hadron masses at the physical scale, as well as to determine the quark masses.

In quenched chiral perturbation theory , the pion and kaon masses to one-loop order read as

$`m_\pi ^2`$ $`=`$ $`Cm\left\{1\delta \left[\text{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Cm}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi ^2}}\right)+1\right]\right\}+Bm^2`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{m_K^2}{m_\pi ^2}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m+m_s}{2m}}\left\{1+\delta \left[1{\displaystyle \frac{m}{m_sm}}\text{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_s}{m}}\right)\right]\right\}`$ (2)
where $`m`$ denotes $`u`$ and $`d`$ quark bare masses in the isospin limit ( $`m_u=m_dm`$ ), $`m_s`$ the $`s`$ quark bare mass, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi =2\sqrt{2}\pi f_\pi `$ ( $`f_\pi 132`$ Mev ) the chiral cutoff, $`\delta `$ the coefficient of the quenched chiral logarithm, and $`C`$ and $`B`$ are parameters. Similar to the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation,

$`m_\pi ^2={\displaystyle \frac{4m\overline{\psi }\psi }{f_\pi ^2}},`$ (3)
the condensates to one-loop order are

$`\overline{u}u`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi ^2C}{4}}\left\{1\delta \left[\text{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{Cm}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi ^2}}\right)+1\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{Bm}{C}}\right\}`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{s}s}{\overline{u}u}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m}{m_s}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2m_K^2}{m_\pi ^2}}1\right)`$ (5)
where the parameter $`C`$ is related to the $`u`$ quark condensate at the zeroth order

$`C={\displaystyle \frac{4\overline{u}u_0}{f_\pi ^2}}.`$ (6)
Note that the condensate $`\overline{u}u`$ diverges logarithmically as the bare quark mass $`m0`$, a pathology of quenched approximation. Thus the chiral symmetry breaking in QCD can only be properly addressed with dynamical quarks.

With experimental values of pion and kaon masses as inputs to (1) and (2), one can determine the ratio of light quark bare masses $`m_s/m`$, but the absolute scale cannot be fixed by quenched chiral perturbation theory. At this point, lattice QCD plays the important role to fix the values of parameters $`C`$, $`B`$ and $`\delta `$, by measuring the pion mass versus the bare quark mass. Then the light quark masses $`m`$ and $`m_s`$ can be determined with experimental inputs of $`m_\pi `$, $`f_\pi `$ ( to fix the lattice spacing $`a`$ ), and $`m_K`$.

Recently, we have determined the parameters $`C`$, $`B`$ and $`\delta `$  in lattice QCD with overlap Dirac operator . For 100 gauge configurations generated with the Wilson gauge action at $`\beta =5.8`$ on the $`8^3\times 24`$ lattice, we computed quenched quark propagators for 12 bare quark masses. The pion decay constant \[ $`f_\pi a=0.0984(3)`$ \] is extracted from the pion propagator, and from which the lattice spacing is determined to be

$`a=0.147(1)\text{fm}`$ (7)
By fitting (1) to our data of $`(m_\pi a)^2`$, we obtained

$`\delta `$ $`=`$ $`0.2034(140),`$ (8)
$`Ca`$ $`=`$ $`1.1932(182),`$ (9)
$`B`$ $`=`$ $`1.1518(556).`$ (10)
Now inserting (8) and experimental values of meson masses ( $`m_K=495`$ MeV and $`m_\pi =135`$ MeV ) into Eq. (2), we obtain the quark mass ratio

$`{\displaystyle \frac{m_s}{m}}=21.92(23),`$ (11)
comparing with the ratio at the zeroth order ( $`\delta =0`$ )

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_s}{m}}\right)_0=25.88`$ (12)
From (1), with values of $`a`$, $`\delta `$, $`Ca`$ and $`B`$ in (7)-(10), and $`m_\pi =135`$ MeV, we obtain

$`m=6.3\pm 0.3\text{MeV},`$ (13)
which is inserted into (11) to yield

$`m_s=138\pm 8\text{MeV}.`$ (14)
Here we do not intend to estimate the finite volume and discretization errors, in view of the exploratory nature of our present investigation which will be followed by a systematic study with larger volumes, smaller lattice spacings, and better statistics.

In order to transcribe above results (13)-(14) to their corresponding values in the usual renormalization scheme $`\overline{\text{MS}}`$ in high energy phenomenology, one needs to compute the lattice renormalization constant $`Z_m=Z_s^1`$, where $`Z_s`$ is the renormalization constant for $`\overline{\psi }\psi `$. In general, $`Z_m`$ should be determined non-perturbatively. In this paper, we use the one loop perturbation formula  ( $`m_0=1.30`$ )

$`Z_s=1+{\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{4\pi ^2}}\left[\text{ln}(a^2\mu ^2)+6.7722\right]`$ (15)
to obtain an estimate of $`Z_s`$. At $`\beta =5.8`$, $`a=0.147(1)`$ fm, and $`\mu =2`$ GeV, (15) gives $`Z_s=1.19(1)`$. Thus the quark masses in (13)-(14) are transcribed to

$`m_{u,d}^{\overline{\text{MS}}}(2\text{ GeV})`$ $`=`$ $`5.3\pm 0.3\text{ MeV}`$ (16)
$`m_s^{\overline{\text{MS}}}(2\text{ GeV})`$ $`=`$ $`115\pm 8\text{ MeV}`$ (17)
It is expected that above values may become smaller if non-perturbative renormalization is performed, however, the decreases should be less than $`10\%`$. Nevertheless, the light quark masses in (16)-(17) are in good agreement with the current lattice world average . We also note that in previous determinations  of quark masses in quenched QCD with overlap Dirac operator, $`(m_{u,d}+m_s)`$ is obtained  with (1) and (2) at the zeroth order ( $`\delta =0`$, $`B=0`$ ); while in Ref. , $`m_{u,d}`$ is obtained via the axial Ward identity.

In summary, the parameters of hadron mass formulas in ( quenched ) chiral perturbation theory can be fixed by lattice QCD with overlap Dirac quarks. This provides a viable approach to the determination of ( light ) quark masses, as well as ( light ) hadron masses.

This work was supported in part by the National Science Council, ROC, under the grant number NSC90-2112-M002-021, and also in part by NCTS.