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# Dynamic correlations in symmetric electron-electron and electron-hole bilayers

## I Introduction

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the study of systems composed of two or more (equispaced) electron layers. The advances in the nanoscale semiconductor fabrication technology (such as the molecular beam epitaxy, the lithography techniques, etc.) have made available these electron systems in the coupled semiconductor quantum-well structures with a good control on the electron number density and the interwell spacing. A variety of new interesting phenomena have been observed, due entirely to the presence of interlayer Coulomb interactions. The stability of new fractional quantum Hall states r1  and the discovery of an insulating Wigner crystal (WC) phase r2 , in the bilayer electron system in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field, are some prominent examples. Theoretical r3 ; r3a  as well as recent diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) r4a ; r4  studies have predicted, even in the absence of magnetic field, the stabilization of the WC phase in the electron bilayer in the close proximity of layers $`dr_sa_0^{}`$ (see below for the definition of relevant parameters) at sufficiently low electron density. More precisely, the critical density for the phase transition is predicted to shift towards the higher density side as compared to the corresponding value in the case of an isolated electron layer. In the following we shall be confining our discussion to the double layer system.

Central in understanding the behavior of the layered electron systems are the intra- and interlayer many-body correlation effects. Since the early random-phase approximation (RPA) study by Das Sarma and Madhukar r5 , there have been many investigations focusing on the role of many-body correlations. The theoretical techniques used have mostly relied on the extensions to two dimensions (2D) of existing theories. Zhang and Tzoar r6 , Neilson and co-workers r7 , and Zheng and MacDonald r8  have used the mean-field approximation of Singwi, Tosi, Land, and Sjölander (STLS) r9  to study the effect of correlations on the various ground-state properties of an electron bilayer system. On the other hand, Kalman and co-workers r10  have incorporated correlations by satisfying the third-frequency sum rule of the density-density response function to study the collective modes. A general conclusion has emerged that the interlayer interactions add further to the importance of many-body correlations, which are already known to be very important in an isolated electron layer rjon . Both in the STLS and Kalman’s group approaches, correlations enter in the theory in the form of a static local-field correction (LFC). In STLS, the LFC’s are obtained numerically in a self-consistent way, while in the latter approach their calculation rely on the knowledge of accurate pair-correlation functions. The extent of validity of the STLS or other theories in the present context can be tested by making a direct comparison with the accurate DMC simulation results of Rapisarda and Senatore r4a ; r4 . However, no such comparison of the STLS results has been made so far. A comparative study is available only in case of an isolated electron layer r11 , where it has been found that the STLS theory, although providing a significant improvement over the lower order random-phase and Hubbard hubb  approximations, yet it fails to give an adequate description of correlations beyond $`r_s>3`$. In particular, it yields negative value for the pair-correlation function (an unphysical result) at small separation for $`r_s>3`$. This failure of the STLS approach also appears in the bilayer problem r8 . As usual, here $`r_s=1/(a_0^{}\sqrt{n\pi })`$ is the dimensionless density parameter, with $`a_0^{}=\mathrm{}^2/(m_e^{}e^2)`$ the effective Bohr atomic radius and $`n`$ the in-layer areal number density. $`m_e^{}`$ is the effective (band) mass of electron. We recall that $`r_s`$ also provides a rough estimate of the in-layer coupling, as ratio of the (independent particle) potential and kinetic energies of the system. The failure of the STLS theory at higher $`r_s`$ has been traced back to its basic assumption of treating as static (i.e., time-independent) the electronic exchange-correlation holer12 .

In the two-layer system, the interlayer interactions will result in an increase in Coulomb coupling as compared to that in an isolated layer at the same density. Therefore, we anticipate that the dynamics of correlations will be even more crucial in the two-layer system, with respect to an isolated layer. This forms part of our motivation for the present work. Here, we intend to examine the ground-state behavior of the symmetric electron-electron (e-e) bilayer by including dynamic electron correlation effects. To this end, we make use of the dynamic or quantum version of the STLS approach (qSTLS). The qSTLS theory embodies correlations beyond the conventional STLS approach and as an important improvement, its LFC is frequency-dependent. It should be pointed out here that the so-called qSTLS theory was originally developed by Hasegawa and Shimizu r13  for the 3D electron system, and that its predictions of many-body properties, as adjudged by comparison with the MC results, are better irrespective of the dimensionality r11  and the carrier statistics r14 . In view of the very recent DMC study of the symmetric electron-hole (e-h) bilayer by De Palo, Rapisarda, and Senatore r15 , we also employ the qSTLS theory to examine the ground-state properties of such system. For both the e-e and e-h bilayers we present results for the pair-correlation functions, the LFC factors, and the ground-state energy over a wide range of density and layer spacing. We also look for signs indicating an instability of the homogeneous liquid with respect to inhomogeneous phases of the charge-density-wave (CDW) and WC type. Finally, we compare our results with those of the DMC studies.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In Sec. II, we present in brief the qSTLS formalism for the double-layer system. Results and discussion are presented in Sec. III. In Section IV, we conclude the paper with a brief summary.

## II Theoretical formalism

### II.1 Model

We consider a double quantum-well structure with $`d`$ as the center-to-center well separation. The carriers are electrons in one well and electrons or holes in the other, respectively for the e-e and e-h bilayer. The motion of carriers is free along the $`xy`$-plane and under the action of a double well potential profile in the $`z`$-direction. We assume that the wells are extremely narrow and the potential barriers along the $`z`$-axis are high enough so that the particles occupy only the lowest energy subband for the $`z`$ motion and there is negligible overlap between the wave functions of particles in the two wells. The wells are assumed to be identical in each respect except for the charge of carriers in the e-h bilayer. Further, the bilayer system is assumed to be embedded in a uniform charge neutralizing background. On neglecting the effect of integrating over the finite extent of the particle wave function in the $`z`$-direction, the Coulomb interaction potential among the carriers is obtained as

$$V_{ll^{}}(q)=\alpha _{ll^{}}V(q)e^{q|ll^{}|d},$$
(1)
with $`l=1,2`$ the layer index and $`V(q)=2\pi e^2/(qϵ_0)`$ the intralayer interaction potential. Above $`ϵ_0`$ is the background dielectric constant and $`\alpha _{ll^{}}=1`$ and $`(1)^{|ll^{}|}`$, respectively, for the e-e and e-h bilayers.

Apparently, the ground state of the above bilayer model will depend, apart from $`r_s`$, on the interlayer spacing $`d`$. It turns out convenient to introduce an additional coupling parameter as the ratio of the typical interlayer and in-layer Coulomb energies, namely, $`\gamma =r_sa_0^{}/d`$. Thus, at $`T=0`$, which is the case considered here, the bilayer model may be completely specified by $`r_s`$ and $`\gamma `$ (or $`d`$).

### II.2 Density response function

In the dielectric approach, the density-density linear response function $`\chi (q,\omega )`$, which describes the response to an external potential $`V^{ext}(q,\omega )`$ that couples to the particle density, plays the role of a central quantity in determining the many-body properties of the system. For the bilayer, the linear response matrix $`\chi _{ll^{}}(q,\omega )`$ is formally defined by

$$\delta \rho _l(q,\omega )=\underset{l^{}=1}{\overset{2}{}}\chi _{ll^{}}(q,\omega )V_l^{}^{ext}(q,\omega ),$$
(2)
where $`\delta \rho _l(q,\omega )`$ represents the induced particle density in the $`l`$th layer and $`V_l^{ext}(q,\omega )`$ the potential that couples to the density in the layer $`l`$. For completeness, we give in the following a very brief account of the qSTLS formulation of the density response for the two-layer system.

The equation of motion for the one-particle Wigner distribution function (WDF) $`f_l^\sigma (𝐫,𝐩;t)`$ (the superscript $`\sigma `$ is the spin index) involvesr11 , the unknown two-particle WDF $`f_{ll^{}}^{\sigma \sigma ^{}}(𝐫,𝐩;𝐫^{},𝐩^{};t)`$. Progress can however be made resorting to the STLS approximate decoupling ansatz r9 , which in the two-layer system becomes

$$f_{ll^{}}^{\sigma \sigma ^{}}(𝐫,𝐩;𝐫^{},𝐩^{};t)=f_l^\sigma (𝐫,𝐩;t)f_l^{}^\sigma ^{}(𝐫^{},𝐩^{};t)g_{ll^{}}^{\sigma \sigma ^{}}(|𝐫𝐫^{}|),$$
(3)
with $`g_{ll^{}}^{\sigma \sigma ^{}}(|𝐫𝐫^{}|)`$ the equilibrium static pair-correlation function between carriers of spin $`\sigma `$ and $`\sigma ^{}`$ in the layers $`l`$ and $`l^{}`$. Expressing the particle density in terms of the the one-particle WDFr13 , one readily obtains the induced density $`\delta \rho _l(q,\omega )`$ in the $`l`$th layer as

$$\delta \rho _l(q,\omega )=\chi _l^0(q,\omega )\left[V_l^{ext}(q,\omega )+V_l^{pol}(q,\omega )\right],$$
(4)
with

$$V_l^{pol}(q,\omega )=\underset{l^{}=1}{\overset{2}{}}\delta \rho _l^{}(q,\omega )V_{ll^{}}(q)[1G_{ll^{}}(q,\omega )]$$
(5)
the polarization potential, $`\chi _l^0(q,\omega )`$ the density response function of non-interacting electrons in layer $`l`$ (i.e., the Stern function r16 ) and

$$G_{ll^{}}(q,\omega )=\frac{1}{n}\frac{d𝐪^{}}{(2\pi )^2}\frac{\chi _l^0(𝐪,𝐪^{};\omega )V_{ll^{}}(q^{})}{\chi _l^0(q,\omega )V_{ll^{}}(q)}[S_{ll^{}}(|𝐪𝐪^{}|)\delta _{ll^{}}],$$
(6)
the dynamic LFC factor that accounts for correlation effects among carriers in the layers $`l`$ and $`l^{}`$. In Eq. (6), $`S_{ll^{}}(q)`$ is a static structure factor and $`\chi _l^0(𝐪,𝐪^{};\omega )`$ the inhomogeneous Stern function given by

$$\chi _l^0(𝐪,𝐪^{};\omega )=2\frac{d𝐤}{(2\pi )^2}\frac{f_l^0(𝐤+𝐪^{}/2)f_l^0(𝐤𝐪^{}/2)}{\omega \mathrm{}𝐤𝐪/m+\iota \eta },$$
(7)
where $`f_l^0(𝐤)`$ is the usual non-interacting Fermi-Dirac distribution function and $`\eta `$ is a positive infinitesimal. For $`𝐪^{}=𝐪`$, $`\chi _l^0(𝐪,𝐪^{};\omega )`$ reduces to Stern function $`\chi _l^0(q,\omega )`$. Using Eqs. (2), (4), and (5) the elements of the inverse of the linear response matrix are readily obtained as

$$\chi _{}^{1}{}_{ll^{}}{}^{}(q,\omega )=\frac{\delta _{ll^{}}}{\chi _l^0(q,\omega )}V_{ll^{}}(q)[1G_{ll^{}}(q,\omega )].$$
(8)
The fluctuation-dissipation theorem, which relates the static structure factors with the imaginary part of the linear response functions as

$$S_{ll^{}}(q)=\frac{\mathrm{}}{n\pi }_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega Im\chi _{ll^{}}(q,\omega ),$$
(9)
closes the qSTLS set of equations for the density response matrix. Evidently, the response function calculation has to be carried out numerically in a self-consistent way. In view of the symmetry of the bilayer, we will have $`A_{11}=A_{22}`$ and $`A_{12}=A_{21}`$, where $`A`$ refers to the general layer property.

### II.3 Pair-correlation function and ground-state energy

The pair-correlation function $`g_{ll^{}}(r)`$ can be obtained directly from the inverse Fourier transform of the static structure factor as

$$g_{ll^{}}(r)=1+\frac{1}{n}\frac{d𝐪}{(2\pi )^2}e^{\iota 𝐪.𝐫}[S_{ll^{}}(q)\delta _{ll^{}}].$$
(10)
The ground-state energy $`E_{gs}`$ (defined here as per particle) is determined by a straightforward extension of the ground-state energy theorem mahan  to the two-layer system as

$$E_{gs}=E_0+_0^{e^2}\frac{d\lambda }{\lambda }E^{int}(\lambda ),$$
(11)
where $`E_0=p_F^2/(4m_e^{})`$ is the kinetic energy per particle of the non-interacting system ($`p_F=\mathrm{}q_F`$, is the Fermi momentum), $`\lambda `$ is the strength of Coulomb interaction, and $`E^{int}(\lambda )`$ is the interaction energy per particle given by

$$E^{int}(\lambda )=\frac{1}{4}\underset{l,l^{}}{\overset{2}{}}\frac{d𝐪}{(2\pi )^2}\lambda V_{ll^{}}(q)[S_{ll^{}}(q;\lambda )\delta _{ll^{}}].$$
(12)
In the next section, we present results for the ground-state properties of the e-h and e-e bilayers.

## III Results and discussion

### III.1 Pair-correlation functions

Equations (6), (8), and (9) are solved numerically in a self-consistent way for $`S_{ll^{}}(q)`$. The $`\omega `$-integration in the computation of $`S_{ll^{}}(q)`$ (Eq. (9)) is performed along the imaginary $`\omega `$-axis in order to avoid the problem of dealing with the plasmon poles which appear on the real $`\omega `$-axis (see de Freitas et al r17  and Ref. r11 ). We accepted the solution when the convergence in $`S_{ll^{}}(q)`$ at each $`q`$ in the grid of $`q`$-points was better than $`0.001\%`$. It is important to point out here that in all our calculations for the e-h bilayer we have taken $`m_h^{}/m_e^{}=1`$ ( $`m_h^{}`$ is the effective mass of hole).

Figures 1 ((a)-(g)) and 2 ((a)-(b)) show results for the intra- and interlayer pair-correlation functions, $`g_{11}(r)`$ and $`g_{12}(r)`$, for the e-h and e-e bilayers, respectively, at $`r_s`$ ($`10`$) and $`d`$ values where the DMC results are available for comparison. In order to have a close comparison between the qSTLS and STLS results, the STLS curves are also depicted in the same figures. We first discuss the results for the e-h bilayer: Looking at Fig. 1 ((a)-(g)), we infer immediately that the pair-correlation functions in qSTLS are in overall better agreement with the DMC data than those in STLS. Among the notable features, the qSTLS theory, as a marked improvement over STLS, accounts fairly well for the oscillatory structure that develops in the DMC $`g_{11}(r)`$ and $`g_{12}(r)`$ with increasing $`r_s`$, both in terms of amplitude and period. The qSTLS $`g_{11}(r)`$ satisfies the positive definiteness criteria of probability for $`r_s`$ up to $`10`$, whereas the STLS $`g_{11}(r)`$ becomes slightly negative at small $`r`$ for $`r_s>3`$. We also notice that, common at each $`r_s`$, the quality of agreement between theory and DMC data somewhat diminishes for increasing values of $`\gamma `$. Moreover, quite similar is the trend of agreement with increasing $`r_s`$ at a given value of $`\gamma `$; for instance, compare $`g_{11}(r)`$ and $`g_{12}(r)`$ at $`1/\gamma =0.5`$ and $`r_s=2,5,10`$. This shortcoming of the qSTLS theory seems to stem from the fact that the frequency-dependence in its LFC’s represents a quantum-mechanical correction to the conventional STLS theory, while the dynamics of spatial correlations among carriers, which is expected to become vital at higher values of Coulomb coupling, is still missing. It can in fact be shown r11  that the qSTLS LFC’s reduce formally to the frequency-independent STLS LFC’s in the limit $`\mathrm{}0`$.

Since decreasing $`d`$ at a given $`r_s`$ or increasing $`r_s`$ at a given $`d`$ result in an increase in the Coulomb coupling among carriers in the bilayer, the qSTLS assumption of static spatial correlations (i.e., the assumption of using static pair-correlation function in Eq. (3)) is expected to become relatively less reliable at larger values of $`\gamma `$ or $`r_s`$. Further, we find that it becomes almost impossible to obtain the self-consistent solution in both the qSTLS and STLS above a critical value of $`\gamma `$ ($`r_s`$) at a given $`r_s`$ ($`\gamma `$). The critical parameters are of course different in the two approaches. This is the reason that the STLS curves are absent at $`r_s=2`$ for $`1/\gamma =0.1`$ in Fig. 1 (c). The difficulty in obtaining the self-consistent solution, as we will see in detail in a subsequent section, is related to the instability of the system against transition to a density-modulated ground state.

For the e-e bilayer, the DMC pair-correlation functions are at present available only in the strong coupling region $`r_s10`$. Figure 2 ((a)-(b)) present a comparison of our results at $`r_s=10`$ for $`1/\gamma =1`$ and $`0.5`$. We notice that the qSTLS provides a reasonable estimate for $`g_{11}(r)`$, but it fails ( together with STLS) to give a satisfactory description of $`g_{12}(r)`$ at $`1/\gamma =0.5`$. This points once again to the importance of dynamics of spatial correlations among electrons in the e-e bilayer. The improvement over the STLS predictions is again quite noticeable.

### III.2 Ground-state energy

The self-consistently obtained static structure factors $`S_{11}(q;\lambda )`$ and $`S_{12}(q;\lambda )`$ are used in Eq. (12) to calculate $`E^{int}(\lambda )`$ as a function of $`\lambda `$. The ground-state energy is then determined by performing the coupling-constant ($`\lambda `$) integration in Eq. (11). Results for the ground-state energy per particle for the e-h and e-e bilayers are given, respectively, in Tables 1 and 2 at $`r_s`$ ($`10`$) and $`\gamma `$ values where DMC data are available for comparison. The STLS results are also reported. Apparently, the qSTLS results compare more favorably with the DMC data. There is an increase in error with respect to the DMC data with increasing $`r_s`$ at a given $`\gamma `$ and with increasing $`\gamma `$ at a given $`r_s`$, which obviously is the reflection of the behavior of the pair-correlation functions under these conditions.

### III.3 Density-modulated ground states

The DMC studies have predicted that both the e-e and e-h bilayers will favor energetically the WC ground state above a critical value $`r_s^c`$ of the in-layer coupling, at given $`d`$. We calculate here the static ($`\omega =0`$) generalized susceptibility (i.e., density-density response) in the liquid phase to find out any evidence that the qSTLS theory might provide for the transition to a WC ground state. If such a transition does occur, it may appear in the static susceptibility as a divergence at the reciprocal lattice vector (RLV) of the WC lattice. Diagonalizing the density response matrix (8), the static susceptibility is obtained as

$$\chi _\pm (q,0)=\frac{\chi _1^0(q,0)}{1\chi _1^0(q,0)\left[V_{11}(q)(1G_{11}(q,0))\pm V_{12}(q)(1G_{12}(q,0))\right]}.$$
(13)
The $`+`$ and $``$ signs correspond, respectively, to the in-phase and out-of-phase ($`\pi `$) modes of density modulations $`\delta \rho (q,0)`$ in the two layers. An inspection of Eq. (13) makes it clear that $`\chi _\pm (q,0)`$ can exhibit divergence at some $`q`$ value only if the quantity within the square brackets in its denominator becomes sufficiently negative (on account of the negative sign of $`\chi _1^0(q,0)`$) . In an isolated layer (i.e., when $`V_{12}(q)=0`$) this can happen only if $`G_{11}(q,0)`$ has values exceeding unity. However, in a bilayer r3 ; r7 , the interlayer interaction term can cause a divergence even if $`G_{11}(q,0)`$ has values below unity. Apparently, it is the in-phase component of susceptibility that can have divergence in the e-h bilayer, while it is the out-of-phase component in the e-e bilayer. Further, as the e-h and e-e correlations are of opposite nature (i.e., $`G_{12}(q,0)`$ is negative in the e-h bilayer, while it is positive in the e-e bilayer), they will act, respectively, to support and oppose the formation of density-modulated phase (if any) in the e-h and e-e bilayers.

The static LFC factors, $`G_{11}(q,0)`$ and $`G_{12}(q,0)`$, required in the calculation of the susceptibility are determined by using the self-consistently obtained static structure factors in Eq. (6). We find quite generally that $`\chi _+(q,0)`$ ($`\chi _{}(q,0)`$) exhibits for the e-h bilayer (e-e bilayer) a strong peak-structure at a finite wavevector value in the close proximity of two layers ($`dr_sa_0^{}`$). A critical layer separation $`d_c`$ (critical $`r_s^c`$) at a given $`r_s`$ ($`d`$) is encountered below (above) which it becomes almost impossible to obtain the self-consistent solution. Tracing carefully the different steps involved in the solution of the qSTLS equations, the difficulty in obtaining the convergent solution is found to be related directly to the emergence of the strong peak structure in $`\chi _\pm (q,0)`$. For $`d<d_c`$ at a given $`r_s`$ or for $`r_s>r_s^c`$ at given $`d`$, a numerical instability (singularity) appears in $`S_{ll^{}}(q)`$ during the iterative calculation, at a $`q`$ coinciding exactly with the peak position in $`\chi _\pm (q,0)`$, while calculating $`S_{ll^{}}(q)`$ from $`\chi _{ll^{}}(q,\omega )`$ in Eq. (9). We find it extremely difficult to handle the instability in the self-consistent calculation and therefore, are unablenote  to find the convergent $`S_{ll^{}}(q)`$ below (above) a critical value of $`d`$ ($`r_s`$). This forbids us, in turn, to calculate $`\chi _\pm (q,0)`$ below (above) a critical value of $`d`$ ($`r_s`$) at a given $`r_s`$ ($`d`$). On the other hand, the emergence of a strong peak in $`\chi _\pm (q,0)`$ at a finite wavevector value followed by the numerical instability at the same wavevector during the self-consistent calculation of the density response functions could be interpreted in our theory as an indication for the onset of a phase transition from the liquid to the density-modulated ground state.

#### III.3.1 Electron-hole bilayer

Results for $`\chi _+(q,0)`$ at some selected values of $`r_s`$ and $`d`$ are shown in Fig. 3 ((a)-(c)). For $`r_s<5`$, $`\chi _+(q,0)`$ has a single strong peak at small $`q`$; for instance, at $`r_s=2`$ (Fig. 3(a)) the peak is positioned at $`q/q_F0.2`$ and $`d_c/(r_sa_0^{})0.095`$. For $`r_s5`$, however, a second peak starts developing in $`\chi _+(q,0)`$ at $`q/q_F2.5`$, with its strength relative to that of the peak at small $`q/q_F`$ growing continuously as a function of increasing $`r_s`$. At $`r_s=10`$ (Fig. 3(b)), the peak at $`q/q_F2.5`$ eventually dominates the small-$`q`$ peak and $`d_c/(r_sa_0^{})0.36`$. With further increase of $`r_s`$, the small-$`q`$ peak disappears completely as shown in Fig. 3(c) at $`r_s=15`$; $`d_c/(r_sa_0^{})1.10`$. The position of the peak located at $`q/q_F2.5`$ matches quite closely with the RLV for a triangular Wigner lattice ($`2.7`$) and therefore, we speculate that this peak signals a transition to the coupled in-phase WC ground state in the e-h bilayer. Our speculation draws further support from the fact that near the transition point $`g_{11}(r)`$ and $`g_{12}(r)`$ exhibit strong in-phase oscillations typical of an ordered phase, and this feature of $`g(r)`$ is illustrated in Fig. 1(h) at $`r_s=15`$. On the other hand, the small-$`q`$ peak, whose position varies with $`r_s`$, indicates the instability of the e-h liquid against a CDW ground state. Thus, there seems to occur a crossover from a CDW to a WC ground state at a critical density $`r_s^c10`$. The qSTLS indication of a transition to a WC state is in agreement with the findings of the DMC study r15 . However, the critical $`r_s`$ for the onset of the phase transition is underestimated by a factor of about $`2`$. The qSTLS theory signals a Wigner crystallization also for an isolated electron layer, at $`r_s^c17`$, again with an overestimate of the critical coupling by a factor of about 2, as compared with the available DMC predictionsr4a ; r4 ; r18 ; r18a . Nevertheless, an important result to note is that the electron-hole correlations in the e-h bilayer act to lower the critical $`r_s`$ value, as compared to that in an isolated layer, by a factor of about $`1.7`$, which matches closely with the DMC prediction.

Furthermore, the DMC studyr15  has found that the WC ground state (also, the liquid state when $`r_s<r_s^c`$) becomes energetically unstable against transition to an excitonic ground state as the layers of electrons and holes are brought close to each other ($`dr_sa_0^{}`$). There is some indication in our results, in terms of the steady buildup of $`g_{12}(r=0)`$ in the close vicinity of layers, for the formation of excitons exciton , but there is no apparent way in our theory to directly detect the transition to the excitonic ground state.

It is appropriate at this point to draw a comparison of our results with the previous work on the e-h bilayer by Liu et al r7  and Szymanski et al r7 . Liu et al treated the correlations within the STLS approach and found at all $`r_s`$, in the close vicinity of layers, always an instability towards the CDW ground state. The STLS $`\chi _+(q,0)`$ is plotted for comparison at $`r_s=15`$ in Fig. 3(c); the CDW wavevector $`q/q_F`$ is $`2`$ and $`d_c/(r_sa_0^{})0.48`$. Also shown for comparison in Fig. 1(h) are the STLS $`g_{11}(r)`$ and $`g_{12}(r)`$ near the CDW instability (at $`d/(r_sa_0^{})=0.49`$) at $`r_s=15`$. On the other hand, Szymanski et al employed the STLS local-fields to include the correlation effects, but instead of carrying out the fully self-consistent STLS calculation, they fixed the intralayer LFC $`G_{11}(q)`$ through the MC structure factor for an isolated layer r18 , while the interlayer LFC $`G_{12}(q)`$ was determined self-consistently by keeping $`G_{11}(q)`$ as a fixed input. Following this mixed STLS procedure, they predicted the presence of both the CDW and WC instabilities, and also a crossover from the CDW state to the WC state at $`r_s15`$. Thus, there is a qualitative similarity between the qSTLS results and the findings of Szymanski et al.

It is gratifying to note that the qSTLS theory seems to capture at least qualitatively the WC transition in the e-h bilayer. The breakdown of the STLS approach even at the qualitative level seems to have roots in its assumption of treating correlations through the frequency-independent (i.e., static) LFC’s. To elucidate this viewpoint, the static ($`\omega =0`$) qSTLS LFC’s and the STLS LFC’s, which in fact determine completely the behavior of $`\chi _+(q,0)`$, are compared in Fig. 4 at $`r_s=15`$ for different $`d^{}s`$. The LFC’s differ markedly in the two approaches. In particular, we note that $`G_{11}(q,0)`$, in contrast with the STLS $`G_{11}(q)`$, exhibits an oscillatory behavior, with pronounced maximum at $`q/q_F3`$ and with its values lying well above unity in the relevant wavevector region of $`2<q/q_F<3`$, before saturating to its limiting value of $`(1g_{11}(0))`$. Also, $`G_{12}(q,0)`$ is rapidly varying in the same $`q`$region. Consequently, the qSTLS effective static intralayer interaction, namely $`[V_{11}(q)(1G_{11}(q,0))]`$, becomes attractive in this $`q`$-region, and this effect of $`G_{11}(q,0)`$ in combination with the attractive interlayer e-h correlations gives rise to a strong peak in $`\chi _+(q,0)`$ at $`q/q_F2.5`$. The static LFC factor exhibits a similar oscillatory behavior in an isolated electron layer. Though the peaked-structure in the qSTLS static LFC factor seems to enable the qSTLS theory to capture qualitatively the WC instability, we have to mention that at least for an isolated layer such an oscillatory structure is exaggerated as compared to that found in QMC simulationsr18b .

We also examine the stability of the ground state of the e-h bilayer as a function of spin-polarization. For simplicity reasons, only two states of spin-polarization, namely the fully polarized and unpolarized (which otherwise is the case throughout the paper), are considered. A comparison between the ground-state energies of the e-h bilayer in the two states of spin-polarization (Fig. 5) reveals that a polarization transition occurs at a critical density in the liquid phase from the unpolarized to the polarized state before the unpolarized liquid could actually make transition to the seemingly WC phase. The critical density for polarization transition depends only weakly on $`d`$; for instance the critical $`r_s`$ decreases from $`6`$ to $`5.5`$ as $`d/a_0^{}`$ increases from $`3.6`$ to $`20`$. We emphasize here that $`d/a_0^{}=3.6`$ is the critical value of layer spacing at $`r_s=10`$ for the WC instability. In this perspective, it becomes interesting to investigate the ground state of the polarized e-h bilayer. We find after analyzing the static susceptibility results that the qualitative behavior of the e-h ground state does not depend upon the spin-polarization. However, the crossover from the CDW phase to the WC phase now occurs at $`r_s27`$. The dependence of the point of instability on the spin-polarization is depicted in Fig. 6. Evidently, the critical spacing $`d_c`$ in the polarized phase lies always below to that in the unpolarized phase.

#### III.3.2 Electron-electron bilayer

In contrast with the e-h bilayer, the interlayer correlations in the e-e bilayer tend to oppose the transition to the density-modulated phase. But, we find that this tendency of the interlayer correlations depends crucially on the rate of their growth with decreasing $`d`$, and that this rate is not strong enough to preclude transition to the density-modulated phase. We find indication for both the CDW and WC instabilities.

The $`\chi _{}(q,0)`$ results are shown in Fig. 7 at $`r_s=10`$ and $`16`$ for some selected $`d`$’s. The CDW instability now completely dominates for $`r_s`$ up to 15. But, we notice an interesting behavior of $`\chi _{}(q,0)`$ at $`r_s=16`$. $`\chi _{}(q,0)`$ exhibits a single strong peak at $`q/q_F2.5`$ when the layers are widely separated. The peak-height initially increases with decrease in $`d`$, nearly diverges at $`d/(r_sa_0^{})1.56`$, and then decreases monotonically with further decrease in $`d`$. There starts developing, however, a second peak in $`\chi _{}(q,0)`$ at $`q/q_F0.5`$ for $`d/(r_sa_0^{})0.5`$, and this peak eventually dominates at $`d/(r_sa_0^{})0.45`$ and then appears to diverge for $`d/(r_sa_0^{})<0.42`$. This might possibly imply that there is a crossover to the WC ground state at $`r_s16`$, with the WC state however remaining stable only over a certain range of layer spacings, with a transition back to the CDW-like phase when the distance is further diminished. The pair-correlation functions in the relevant range of $`d`$ values are shown in Fig. 8. Evidently, there is a continuous decline in the amplitude of oscillation in $`g_{11}(r)`$ with decreasing $`d/(r_sa_0^{})`$ below $`1.56`$ pointing to the obvious screening of in-layer correlations by the interlayer interactions. The present suggestion of the stability of the WC ground state in the e-e bilayer only at intermediate distances is compatible with the findings of DMC calculationsr4a ; r4 , which for $`r_s`$ not too large predict the WC phase to remain stable only at intermediate layer spacing, with the liquid phase becoming stable again at smaller spacing.

The STLS approach again does not give any indication of the WC phase transition. As in the case of e-h bilayer, this inability of STLS is a manifestation of its assumption of frequency-independent LFC’s. This point is illustrated in Fig. 9 by drawing a comparison between the static qSTLS LFC’s and the STLS LFC’s. We notice that $`G_{11}(q,0)`$ and $`G_{12}(q,0)`$ both exhibit, in contrast with their STLS counterparts, a pronounced peaked-structure in the intermediate wavevector region before converging to their respective limiting values, which are close to the corresponding STLS limiting values.

### III.4 Dynamic local-fields

We have seen above that it is the frequency-dependence of LFC’s which brings in a marked difference in the qSTLS description of correlations as compared to the STLS one. Therefore, we examine the LFC’s for their dependence on frequency. The results for the e-h and e-e bilayers are reported, respectively, in Figs. 10 and 11 at $`q/q_F=1.5`$, $`r_s=5`$, and different $`d^{}s`$. The real and imaginary parts of both the intra- and interlayer LFC’s are oscillatory functions of frequency - a feature which is analogous to that has been found in 3D r19 , 2D r11 , and 1D r20  electron systems. In the large frequency limit, both $`G_{11}(q,\omega )`$ and $`G_{12}(q,\omega )`$ approach formally the STLS LFC’s. The LFC’s in the e-h and e-e bilayers have qualitatively a similar dependence on frequency. However, we notice that, apart from the obvious difference of sign between the interlayer LFC’s of the e-h and e-e layers, the attractive interlayer correlations in the former are relatively stronger in the close proximity of layers. Similar is the behavior of LFC’s at other $`q`$ and $`r_s`$ values.

## IV Summary and conclusions

In summary, we have presented a study of the ground-state behavior of the symmetric e-e and e-h bilayers by including the effect of dynamic correlations within the qSTLS theory. We have found that the inclusion of the dynamical nature of correlations introduces quantitative as well as qualitative differences in the description of many-body properties as compared to static mean-field theories of the STLS type. The qSTLS predictions for the intra- and interlayer pair-correlation functions and the ground-state energy are found to be in overall better agreement with the DMC results. The growing oscillatory trends in the DMC intralayer correlation function with increasing $`r_s`$ are accurately reproduced both in terms of amplitude and period for $`r_s10`$ and $`1/\gamma 0.5`$ \- a feature that is missing in the STLS results. However, the degree of agreement with the DMC data, specifically at small interparticle separation, becomes somewhat worse with increasing $`\gamma =r_sa_0^{}/d`$, at a given $`r_s`$ or $`d`$, i.e., in the strong coupling regime. Another unique and important feature of the qSTLS theory is that, in both the e-h and e-e bilayers, it exhibits an instability towards a coupled WC ground state, below a critical density (i.e., for $`r_s>r_s^c`$) and in the close proximity of the layers. Moreover, at high density (for $`r_s<r_s^c`$) it indicates transition to a CDW ground state. Thus, a crossover from the CDW instability to the WC instability takes place at $`r_s=r_s^c`$. Our prediction of Wigner crystallization agrees qualitatively with the findings of the DMC calculations. However, the critical value of $`r_s`$ (i.e., $`r_s^c`$) is underestimated. This discrepancy in the estimate of $`r_s^c`$ seems to reflect the misrepresentation of short-range correlations at large $`\gamma `$ or $`r_s`$ in the qSTLS theory. Since the Coulomb coupling among carriers grows with increasing $`\gamma `$ or $`r_s`$ and the exchange correlations are relatively less important in the strong coupling regime, we believe that the failure of the qSTLS theory in such a regime arises from its neglect of the dynamics of the Coulomb correlations, i.e., of the Coulomb correlation hole. Another contribution to the failure is possibly due to the neglect of interaction effects on the momentum distribution function. These issues deserve further investigation.

Finally, we have also employed the qSTLS theory to examine the spin-polarization effects in the e-h bilayer. Interestingly enough, a polarization transition is found to take place from the unpolarized to the polarized liquid (at $`r_s6`$) well before the unpolarized liquid could actually make transition to the WC ground state. The polarized e-h bilayer too supports the CDW and WC instabilities, but the crossover density is now lowered to $`r_s27`$.

##### Acknowledgments

One of us (RKM) gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Ministero dell’Universitá e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica.


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# On the Period-Luminosity-Colour-Metallicity relation and the pulsational characteristics of 𝜆 Bootis type starsBased on observations from the Austrian Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (Fairborn Observatory), SAAO and Siding Spring Observatory

## 1 Introduction

In this paper we present an extensive survey to analyse the pulsational characteristics of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars. This small group comprises late B- to early F-type, Population I stars which are metal weak (particularly the Fe group elements), but with the clear exception of C, N, O and S. Only a maximum of about 2% of all objects in the relevant spectral domain are believed to be $`\lambda `$ Bootis type stars.

Several theories were developed to explain the peculiar abundance pattern for members of this group. The most acknowledged models include diffusion as main mechanism together either with mass-loss (Michaud & Charland 1986, Charbonneau 1993) or with accretion of circumstellar material (Venn & Lambert 1990, Turcotte & Charbonneau 1993). Another two theories deal with the influence of binarity on this phenomenon (Andrievsky 1997, Faraggiana & Bonifacio 1999). Heiter (2002) and Heiter et. al (2002) also tried to explain the abundance pattern in the context of the proposed theories.

In general, chemical peculiarity inhibits $`\delta `$ Scuti type pulsation (e.g. for Ap and Am stars, see Kurtz 2000 for a recent discussion) but for the group of $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars it is just the opposite. In two previous studies (Paunzen et al. 1997, 1998), we presented non-variable as well as pulsating $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars. Since then, we have observed 22 additional objects and found eight new pulsators and confirmed another. Furthermore, new spectroscopic data (Paunzen 2001) has allowed us to sort out misidentified candidates and to add true members of the group.

Turcotte et al. (2000) investigated the effect of diffusion (probably the main cause of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis phenomenon) on the pulsation of stars at the upper main sequence. Although these authors mainly investigated the theoretical behaviour of apparently metal-rich objects, their conclusions also have an impact for the $`\lambda `$ Bootis group: little direct pulsational excitation from Fe-peak elements was found, but effects due to settling of helium along with the enhancement of hydrogen are important. Turcotte et al. (2000) find that, as their models of peculiar stars evolve, they become generally pulsational unstable near the red edge of the instability strip, whereas the behaviour at the blue edge is mainly sensitive to the surface metal abundance. Although the proposed models are still simplified (e.g. treatment of convection) these preliminary results already point towards the most important effects on the theoretical pulsational instability and behaviour of chemically peculiar stars.

The aim of the present paper is to analyse the pulsational characteristics of the group of $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars and to test for the presence of a possible Period-Luminosity-Colour-Metallicity relation. The latter is especially interesting in the light of the models by Turcotte et al. (2000). The pulsational characteristics of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis group (e.g. ratio of variable to non-variable objects and distribution of pulsational constants) may help to put tighter constraints on these models.

## 2 Program stars, observations and reductions

Since our previous works (Paunzen et al. 1997, 1998) several then-selected group members were investigated with classification resolution spectroscopy and found to be misclassified. These are: HD 66920, HD 79025, HD 82573, HD 141851, HD 143148, HD 145782, HD 149303, HD 179791, HD 188164 and HD 192424 (Paunzen 2001). In total, 65 members were selected from the lists of Gray & Corbally (1993) and Paunzen (2001) which contain well established as well as good candidate $`\lambda `$ Bootis type objects. Together with the two newly discovered objects (HD 42503 and HD 213669; Sect. 2.3.1), we have a sample of 67 $`\lambda `$ Bootis type stars.

The photometric observations were performed as described by Paunzen et al. (1998) using photoelectric detectors (except for Ref. “4”, Table 1, for which a CCD was used) and (if possible) two comparison stars. A standard reduction method for dealing with dead-time, dark counts and tube drifts was applied. The sky measurements (typically one per half hour) were subtracted and differential light curves were generated. For the reduction of the CCD frames for HD 290492 the standard SAAO reduction package as well as the program MOMF (Kjeldsen & Frandsen 1992) were used. Figure 1 shows light curves of some of our variable program stars.

Frequencies and amplitudes for the variable program stars (listed in Table 2) were derived using a standard Fourier algorithm (Deeming 1975). An analysis with the Phase-Dispersion-Minimization (Stellingwerf 1978) gave essentially the same results. A star is considered to be constant, if the Fourier spectrum of the differential light curve does not contain a statistically significant peak (Paunzen et al. 1997). These objects are listed in Table 3.

### 2.1 Previously known pulsating $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars

The following nine stars were already known as variable. With the only exception of HD 75654 (see below), they have not been re-observed by us:

* HD 6870: Breger (1979) lists a period of 94 minutes and an amplitude of 15 mmag for Johnson \[V\].
* HD 11413: This star is multiperiodic (Waelkens & Rufener 1983) with a dominant frequency of 54 minutes and an amplitude of 18 mmag. New measurements (Koen, private communication) confirm the multiperiodic pulsations of this object.
* HD 15165: The multiperiodicity of VW Arietis motivated the fifth STEPHI campaign (Liu et al. 1996). Seven significant periods between 1.8 and 3.9 hr were found in a data set of about 150 hr.
* HD 75654: This object was discovered as a $`\delta `$ Scuti type pulsator by Balona (1977), who reported a period of 0.087 d (11.49 d-1). Since no other photometric measurements were published, we decided to re-observe this object. We find two frequencies (14.80 and 15.99 d-1) based on observations during six nights.
* HD 87271: The suspected variability of this star (Handler 2002) was confirmed by Handler et al. (2000). Although the measured light curve spans only several hours, multiperiodicity with a time scale of about 80 minutes is evident.
* HD 105759: Martinez et al. (1998) performed a multisite campaign, detecting five pulsation periods between 1.0 and 2.8 hr, as well as a detailed abundance analysis for this star.
* HD 110377: Radial velocity variations as well as multiperiodicity with periods between 0.5 and 2.0 hr were reported by Bartolini et al. (1980b). Evidence for amplitude and frequency variations makes this object very interesting for detailed follow-up investigations. Such observations are however beyond the scope of this paper.
* HD 153747: Desikachary & McInally (1979) reported multiperiodicity (periods between 0.96 and 1.2 hr) as well as a variable frequency spectrum of this object. Unfortunately no further references on the pulsational behaviour of this star were found.
* HD 192640: This star’s variability was discovered by Gies & Percy (1977). Since 1995 permanent multisite observations have been performed. No detailed overall analysis has been published to date. Data subsets (Kusakin & Mkrtichian 1996; Paunzen & Handler 1996; Mkrtichian et al. 2000) suggest multiperiodicity with a main period of 38 minutes and an amplitude of 20 mmag in Johnson V.

We have used the published frequencies and amplitudes of these objects from the above-mentioned references in our analysis. If more than one frequency has been published, we have weighted the individual periods with the squared amplitude to obtain a mean period.

### 2.2 Group members not observed by us

Five well established members of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis group were not photometrically investigated: HD 110411, HD 125889, HD 170680, HD 184779 and HD 198160. For three of them (HD 110411, HD 170680 and HD 198160) photometric measurements in the HIPPARCOS and TYCHO catalogues (ESA 1997) were found. Since these observations are not optimal to find $`\delta `$ Scuti type pulsation, only a rough estimate for variability can be made. We find a level of non-variability based on the HIPPARCOS photometry of 3 mmag for HD 110411 and HD 170680, and 4 mmag for HD 198160. In fact, HD 110411 was suspected as variable by Bartolini et al. (1980a), but Antonello & Mantegazza (1982) concluded that there is no evidence for periodic terms in the light curve: different oscillation modes may be excited occasionally and then be damped again. We therefore treat this star as being constant within a limit of 3 mmag. Consequently, the other two objects (HD 125889 and HD 184779) were not considered in the following analysis.

### 2.3 Notes on individual stars

In the following sections we describe special properties of some individual stars in more detail.

#### 2.3.1 HD 42503 and HD 213669

These two objects were suspected $`\delta `$ Scuti type pulsators based on HIPPARCOS photometry (Handler 2002). Handler (1999) presented Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ photometry which puts these stars well within the typical area of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis objects in a $`m_1`$ versus $`(by)`$ diagram (Paunzen et al. 1998). Our photometric measurements confirmed the pulsation.

We have performed additional spectroscopic observations to establish the nature of these stars. These observations were done on the 1.9 m telescope at SAAO in the night of 03./04.10.2000. The Grating Spectrograph with the SITe CCD together with the 600 lines mm-1 grating resulted in a useful wavelength range of 1600 Å, a resolution of 2 Å and a signal-to-noise ratio of about 200. The wavelength calibration was done with the help of a CuAr lamp within standard IRAF routines. The classification was done within the system described by Paunzen (2001). Both objects are very good $`\lambda `$ Bootis candidates, with derived spectral types of A2 V ($`\lambda `$ Boo) and kA1hF0mA1 V $`\lambda `$ Boo for HD 42503 and HD 213669, respectively. The notation of the spectral classification is according to Gray (1988) where $`k`$ stands for the classification of the Ca ii K line, $`h`$ for the hydrogen lines and $`m`$ for the appearance of the metallic-line spectrum compared to MK standards. We therefore included them in our sample. Figure 2 shows their spectra together with those of two well established $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars (HD 107233 and HD 198160; taken from Paunzen 2001) which exhibit similar spectral characteristics. However, we note that a final decision on their group membership has to be made after a detailed determination of their chemical abundances (especially of C, N, O and S) which was not done so far.

#### 2.3.2 HD 64491 and HD 111786

Both stars are $`\delta `$ Scuti type pulsators and were reported as well established members of the group by Gray (1988) and Paunzen & Gray (1997). However, both objects are spectroscopic binary systems (Faraggiana & Bonifacio 1999; Iliev et al. 2001). The published information on these stars does not allow us to decide whether they are true $`\lambda `$ Bootis type objects, thus we have not included either of them in our sample.

#### 2.3.3 HD 74873

We have re-observed this object because the upper limit for non-variability given by Paunzen et al. (1997) was very high (9.4 mmag). Our new observations showed no variability within a limit of 1.6 mmag.

#### 2.3.4 HD 175445

This object exhibits a peculiar behaviour which we have, so far, been unable to understand. During our first short observing run (on 06/07 July 2001), its magnitude and colour were consistent with their standard values from the literature ($`b`$ = 7.85, $`vb`$ = 0.222), and marginal evidence for pulsational variability was found. However, when we attempted to re-observe the star on 05/06 August 2001, it appeared much fainter and redder than in the previous month.

Consequently, we double-checked its correct identification and re-examined the literature. We found no evidence for a misidentification or previous peculiar behaviour. We obtained a 3 hr light curve on the night of 06/07 August 2001, where the object appeared as a star of $`b`$ = 10.67 and $`vb`$ = 1.17. These observations are consistent with an eclipse by a late K subgiant companion. However, the evolutionary history of such a system would require the binary to be close, and no other possible eclipses have yet been reported.

#### 2.3.5 HD 290799

Paunzen et al. (1998) reported this star as constant with an upper limit of 10 mmag in Geneva $`V_1`$. Our new observations show the star to be pulsating with a frequency of 23.53 d-1 and an amplitude of 6 mmag in Strömgren $`b`$.

## 3 Basic stellar parameters

In this section we describe the calibration procedures within various photometric systems and derivation of the basic stellar parameters required to analyse the pulsational characteristics of these stars, such as the effective temperature, surface gravity and the luminosity.

The required standard photometric colours were taken from the General Catalogue of Photometric Data (GCPD; http://obswww.unige.ch/gcpd/) as well as the HIPPARCOS and TYCHO databases (ESA 1997). If available, averaged and weighted mean values were used.

The following calibrations for the individual photometric systems were used to derive effective temperatures and surface gravities:

* Johnson $`UBV`$: Napiwotzki et al. (1993)
* Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$: Moon & Dworetsky (1985) and Napiwotzki et al. (1993)
* Geneva 7-colour: Kobi & North (1990) and Künzli et al. (1997)

The calibrations for the Johnson $`UBV`$ and Geneva 7-colour system need an a-priori knowledge of the reddening, which is, in general, not easy to estimate.

Normally, the reddening for objects within the solar neighborhood is estimated using photometric calibrations in the Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ system (Strömgren 1966; Crawford 1979; Hilditch et al. 1983). These calibrations are not very reliable for stars with spectral types from A0 to A3 (Gerbaldi et al. 1999), mainly because for these stars, the reddening free parameter $`\beta `$ is no longer a temperature indicator alone but is also sensitive to the luminosity. From the photometry we find that two of our pulsating (HD 125162 and HD 183324) and nine constant (HD 23392, HD 31295, HD 36726, HD 74873, HD 110411, HD 130767, HD 170680, HD 261904 and HD 294253) program stars fall into A0 to A3 spectral region.

An independent way to derive the interstellar reddening is to use galactic reddening maps, which are derived from open clusters as well as from galactic field stars. Several different models have been published in the literature (Arenou et al. 1992, Hakkila et al. 1997). Chen et al. (1998) compared the results from Arenou et al. (1992) and those derived from the HIPPARCOS measurements and found an overestimation of previously published results from Arenou et al. (1992) for distances less than 500 pc. They consequently proposed a new model for galactic latitudes of $`\pm `$10$`\mathrm{°}`$, but otherwise find excellent agreement with the model by Sandage (1972). We have used the proposed model by Chen et al. (1998) to derive the interstellar reddening for all program stars. The values from the calibration of the Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ and the model by Chen et al. (1998) are in very good agreement. To minimize possible inconsistencies we have averaged the values from both approaches.

In Table 7, we compare our photometrically derived effective temperatures and surface gravities of 29 program stars from this work (TW) with those of Table 1 from Heiter et al. (2002), which contains averaged values from the literature based on spectroscopic analyses. The average difference for the effective temperature is $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$(Lit.) $``$$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$(TW) = +72(210) K, and for the average surface gravity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}g`$ = $`\mathrm{log}g`$(Lit.) $``$$`\mathrm{log}g`$(TW) = +0.07(24) dex. We note that there are some stars for which the spectroscopically derived values are significantly different from the photometrically derived ones (e.g. HD 106223 and HD 107233). These cases were already extensively discussed by Heiter et al. (2002). Although such deviating cases obviously exist, we believe that our calibration method is consistent and therefore suitable for a statistical analysis.

For all program stars photometrically calibrated absolute magnitudes (assuming that all objects are single) were estimated with an error of $`\pm `$0.3 mag. As an independent source we have taken the HIPPARCOS parallaxes (if available) to derive absolute magnitudes using the visual magnitude and reddening. Since we also corrected for the Lutz-Kelker effect (Koen 1992) which is only possible for parallax measurements with an absolute error of \[$`\sigma (\pi )/\pi `$\] $`<`$ 0.175 it seriously limits the useful data. Oudmaijer et al. (1998) showed that this effect has to be taken into account if individual absolute magnitudes are calculated using HIPPARCOS parallaxes. Stars without measurements satisfying \[$`\sigma (\pi )/\pi `$\] $`<`$ 0.175 are marked with an asterisk in Tables 4 and 6 (20 stars in total). For the other 45 objects we are able to derive weighted means (taking the errors as weights, i.e. a larger error is a lower weight) for the absolute magnitude using the values from the photometric calibration procedure and the conversion of the HIPPARCOS parallax measurements. For the remaining 20 stars only photometrically calibrated absolute magnitudes are available. We then calculated luminosities (log L/L) using the absolute bolometric magnitude of the Sun $`M_{\mathrm{Bol}}(\mathrm{})`$ = 4.75 mag (Cayrel de Strobel 1996) and bolometric corrections taken from Drilling & Landolt (2000).

For HD 84948B we have used the astrophysical parameters listed by Iliev et al. (2002; Table 1). This is an evolved spectroscopic binary system which contains two similar $`\lambda `$ Bootis components; Iliev et al. (2002) have taken the binary nature into account.

Individual abundances and projected rotational velocities for members of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis group were published by Uesugi & Fukuda (1982), Venn & Lambert (1990), Stürenburg (1993), Abt & Morrell (1995), Holweger & Rentzsch-Holm (1995), Chernyshova et al. (1998), Heiter et al. (1998), Paunzen et al. (1999a,b), Kamp et al. (2001), Solano et al. (2001), Heiter (2002) and Andrievsky et al. (2002). The individual values were weighted (if possible) with the errors listed in the references and averaged.

The published abundances do not allow an investigation of the correlation of individual abundances of different elements (which have different diffusion properties) with the pulsational period. It is well known that the typical abundance pattern of $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars is characterized by moderate to strong underabundances of elements heavier than C, N, O and S. To get an overall estimate of the (surface) abundance we have applied the following method:

* A weighted mean for Mg, Ca, Sc, Ti, Cr and Fe was calculated and taken as a measurement of \[Z\]. This should minimize measurement errors for individual elements.
* We determined $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_2`$ from the Geneva 7-colour as well as $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_1`$ from the Strömgren $`uvby\beta `$ photometric system (for the definition of these parameters see Golay 1974).
* Then we correlated $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_2`$ or $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_1`$ with \[Z\] for stars without published individual element abundances

The third step is only valid for effective temperatures cooler than 8500 K; otherwise the metallicity indices are no longer sensitive. This method was applied to nine pulsating $`\lambda `$ Bootis type objects: HD 6870, HD 30422, HD 42503, HD 102541, HD 109738, HD 110377, HD 153747, HD 168947 and HD 213669.

## 4 Results

Besides two objects (HD 125889 and HD 184779), all members of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis group were photometrically investigated. All previously published results were taken from Paunzen et al. (1997, 1998) as well as from the references quoted in Sect. 3. Of these 65 stars, 32 are presumed to be constant whereas 33 are pulsating. The upper limits for non-variability, which are below 5 mmag for all but three stars (HD 31925, HD 91130 and HD 294253), are shown in Fig. 3.

In order to investigate the pulsational characteristics of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars as a group, we compare them with those of “normal” $`\delta `$ Scuti variables. The next subsection describes the compilation of the latter sample.

### 4.1 A sample of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars

As a basis we have used the catalogue of Rodriguez et al. (2000). From this sample, stars have been rejected following these criteria:

* Classification as Am, Ap, $`\delta `$ Delphini and SX Phoenicis objects
* $`v`$ sin $`i`$$`<`$ 45 kms-1 (if available)
* $`\sigma (\pi )/\pi `$$`>`$ 0.175
* log $`P<1.7`$ and log $`P>0.8`$
* Amplitude $`>`$ 0.08 mag (if no $`v`$ sin $`i`$ available)
* without Johnson and Geneva photometry
* $`E(by)`$$`>`$ 0.05 mag

Such a choice is based on the characteristics of our $`\lambda `$ Bootis type sample and is hoped to guarantee a comparable sample of $`\delta `$ Scuti type stars. In total, 69 objects remain in the sample. The basic parameters, etc. were derived in exactly the same way as for the $`\lambda `$ Bootis type objects, as described in Sect. 3. Table 5 lists all calibrated parameters together with the periods given by Rodriguez et al. (2000).

### 4.2 Hertzsprung-Russell-diagram and the pulsational characteristics

First of all, we have investigated the location of all $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars within the log $`L_{}/L_{}`$ versus log $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`M_\mathrm{V}`$ versus $`(by)_0`$ diagrams (Fig. 4). The borders of the classical instability strip are taken from Breger (1995). There are several conclusions from this figure:

* The published hot and cool borders of the $`\delta `$ Scuti instability strip within the $`M_\mathrm{V}`$ versus $`(by)_0`$ diagram do not coincide with the observed ones for the $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars. The latter are bluer at the Zero Age Main Sequence (ZAMS hereafter) by about 25 mmag. However, the borders are in accordance with the observations within the log $`L_{}/L_{}`$ versus log $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram.
* Taking the average of variable to non-variable objects within the classical instability strip for both diagrams then we derive a value of at least 70 % pulsating objects.

Figure 5 shows the same diagrams for this sample (filled circles) together with those of the selected $`\delta `$ Scuti stars (open triangles). Besides one object (HD 57167), the cool borders are in excellent agreement with the observations. However, there are four hot $`\lambda `$ Bootis type pulsators: HD 120500, HD 125162, HD 183324 and HD 221756. The reason for these shifts is not yet clear. We are able to exclude measurements errors (mean values from several references were used) and the effects of rotation (all stars have moderate $`v`$ sin $`i`$ values). In addition, taking the unreddened colours, all four stars are still outside the hot border. Therefore it is somewhat surprising that only one object (HD 183324) lies significantly outside the borders within the log $`L_{}/L_{}`$ versus log $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram.

As a next step towards analyzing the pulsational characteristics we have calculated the pulsation constants given by

$$\mathrm{log}Q=6.456+0.5\mathrm{log}g+0.1M_\mathrm{B}+\mathrm{log}T_{\mathrm{eff}}+\mathrm{log}P$$

The resulting $`Q`$-values are listed in Table 4 and in Table 5 for our program $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars and for the comparison sample of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars, respectively. For the $`\lambda `$ Bootis group, the $`Q`$-values range from 0.038 to 0.033 for the fundamental radial modes and decrease to about 0.012 for the fifth radial overtone (Stellingwerf 1979; Fitch 1981). Figure 6 (lower panel) shows a histogram of the $`Q`$-values for the pulsating program stars. It seems that only a few stars, if any, pulsate in the fundamental mode, but there is a high percentage with $`Q`$$`<`$ 0.020 d (high overtone modes).

The distribution of the $`Q`$-values for the $`\lambda `$ Bootis type stars is different from that of the $`\delta `$ Scuti type sample (Fig. 6, upper panel) at a 99.9% level (derived from a $`t`$-test).

We also noticed four pulsators (HD 15165, HD 42503, HD 111604 and HD 142994) which have considerably longer periods (log $`P`$$`>`$$``$0.94 corresponding to $`P`$$`<`$ 8.7 d-1) than the rest of our sample. They do, however, show a similar behaviour to the remaining group members.

### 4.3 The Period-Luminosity-Colour-Metallicity (PLCZ) relation

A Period-Luminosity-Metallicity relation was found for Population II type variables such as RR Lyrae and SX Phoenicis stars as well as Cepheids (Nemec et al. 1994). These objects pulsate in the radial fundamental, first and second overtone modes. The dependence of the pulsational period on the metallicity is purely evolutionary, i.e. older objects exhibit a lower overall abundance and a different pulsational period. The Period-Luminosity-Metallicity relation serves as a distance indicator widely used for extragalactic objects.

The situation for $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars is very different. All evidence indicates that we find only peculiar surface abundances whereas the overall abundance of the stars is solar, i.e. these stars are true Population I objects. The conclusion that $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars are true Population I objects is based on their galactic space motions (Faraggiana & Bonifacio 1999) combined with their location in the Hertzsprung-Russell-diagram (Fig. 4). With the exception of the SX Phe stars, Population II type objects are located at much higher absolute magnitudes and thus luminosities than found for the $`\lambda `$ Bootis group. However, the space motions of SX Phe stars are inconsistent with Population I, which facilitates an easy separation from $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars.

To examine the presence of a PLCZ relation, the following basic approach was chosen:

$$\mathrm{log}P=a+b(by)_0+c(M_\mathrm{B})+d[\mathrm{Z}]$$

The \[Z\]-values range from $``$0.71 dex to $``$1.61 dex for the $`\lambda `$ Bootis type sample whereas the $`\delta `$ Scuti type stars have values from $``$0.36 dex to +0.78 dex compared to the Sun. The coefficients for the PLCZ relation were determined simultaneously, applying a multiregression analysis (Christensen 1996). This takes into account the individual errors of the bolometric absolute magnitude and metallicity as weights, whereas the errors for the period and colour were assumed to be constant for all stars. The solution was determined using a least-squares fit and a maximum-likelihood method. Both give consistent results, as summarized in Table 8. Figure 7 shows the individual correlations. The correlations of the bolometric magnitude and color with the pulsational period are compatible with those found for the $`\delta `$ Scuti stars.

To investigate whether the \[Z\] term is indeed significant, a plot \[log $`P`$$``$$`2.86(by)_0`$ \+ 0.195$`(M_\mathrm{B})`$\] versus \[Z\] was drawn (Fig. 8). The coefficients for $`(by)_0`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ are the mean values from Table 8 and are consistent within the errors for both the $`\delta `$ Scuti and $`\lambda `$ Bootis samples. Figure 8 shows that both samples exhibit a trend with \[Z\] (with an offset of about 1 dex). Whereas the \[Z\] term is statistically significant for the selected sample of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars, it is caused by only six $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars with strong underabundances (HD 30422, HD 35242, HD 125162, HD 142703, HD 183324 and HD 192640) and vanishes after excluding them. We have also tested the sample for possible correlations of the \[Z\] term by excluding other data points. We find no other selection criteria of objects by means of a physical explanation, only “suitable” discarding would yield a clear correlation. This implies that the peculiar abundances do not affect the pulsational period for the group of $`\lambda `$ Bootis type stars. However, we find within the errors no difference of the PLC relation for the $`\lambda `$ Bootis and $`\delta `$ Scuti type stars.

## 5 Conclusions

We have investigated the pulsational characteristics of a group of $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars and compared it to a sample of $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsators. The latter was chosen such that it matches our program stars within the global astrophysical parameters. The following properties of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars are different from those of the $`\delta `$ Scuti pulsators:

* At least 70% of all $`\lambda `$ Bootis types stars inside the classical instability strip pulsate
* Only a maximum of two stars pulsate in the fundamental mode but there is a high percentage with $`Q`$$`<`$ 0.020 d (high overtone modes)
* The instability strip of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars at the ZAMS is 25 mmag bluer in $`(by)_0`$ than that of the $`\delta `$ Scuti stars.

We find no clear evidence for a significant term for a \[Z\] correlation with the period, luminosity and colour but the PLC relation is within the errors identical with that of the $`\delta `$ Scuti type stars. We note that for all but one of the investigated pulsators, high-degree nonradial modes were detected spectroscopically (Bohlender et al. 1999), which represents excellent agreement with our work. The spectral variability of the $`\lambda `$ Bootis stars is very similar to that seen in rapidly rotating $`\delta `$ Scuti stars (Kennelly et al. 1992).

###### Acknowledgements.

This work benefitted from the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, project P14984. ERC would like to thank D. Romero, E. Colmenero and S. Potter for their support. Use was made of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France and the GCPD database, operated at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Lausanne. We are also indebted to the committees of the SAAO, Siding Spring and Fairborn Observatory who granted observing time.