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# Hadrons in Hot and Dense Matter

## 1 Introduction

The study of the phase structure of strong interactions (i.e., QCD phase diagram) not only consists of determining the correct ground state, but also of identifying the relevant excitations, which are, after all, the probes amenable to experiment. At low to intermediate matter densities, this corresponds to the widely investigated topic of in-medium modifications of the hadronic spectrum as we know it from the vacuum.

When passing through a phase transition (or cross-over region) an important question then is how changes in the ground state symmetries (or order parameters) reflect themselves in the spectrum, schematically sketched in Fig. 1. A general approach to the problem obviously requires a common framework which allows to compare results of individual models.

## 2 Correlation and Spectral Functions

### 2.1 Definition

The general description of an excitation in a given quantum-number channel $`\alpha `$ can be formulated by correlation functions of the pertinent current operators Shu93 , averaged over the thermodynamic partition function at temperature $`T`$ and (baryon-) chemical potential $`\mu _B`$. In coordinate space one has

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_\alpha (x)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{tr}\left([j_\alpha (x)j_\alpha ^{}(0)]\mathrm{e}^{(\widehat{H}\mu _B\widehat{N})/T}\right)/𝒵`$ (1)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{d^4q}{(2\pi )^4}\mathrm{\Pi }_\alpha (q)\mathrm{e}^{iqx}}.`$
Its interpretation becomes more transparent in momentum space: in the timelike region, $`M^2=q_0^2\stackrel{}{q}^2>0`$, the ”spectral function” Im$`\mathrm{\Pi }_\alpha `$ contains the information on the physical excitation spectrum, whereas the spacelike region, $`M^2<0`$, encodes screening phenomena as well as fluctuation and susceptibility properties (see Refs. CE01 ; PRWZ02  for recent examples in scalar and vector channel).

In lattice QCD one typically evaluates $`\mathrm{\Pi }_\alpha (x)`$ in (Euclidean) coordinate space; at finite temperatures, the transformation into Minkowski space is complicated by the shrinking of the ”Matsubara box” $`\tau ϵ\{0,1/T\}`$ (due to periodic boundary conditions). However, model calculations in Minkowski space can, in principle, be straightforwardly transformed into Euclidean space for direct comparison with lattice data, see Sect. 3.2 below.

### 2.2 Vacuum: Chiral Breaking vs. Confinement

Correlation functions in free space are determined by the propagation and interaction of anti-/quarks in the nonperturbative QCD vacuum, which is characterized by two main phenomena, confinement and spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry (SBCS). Whereas an understanding of the former is still elusive, the latter is widely believed to be due to instantons, which successfully reproduce QCD vacuum properties as well as low-lying meson and baryon correlation functions, see, e.g., Ref. SS96 . However, attempts to obtain confinement from instantons have failed so far. On the other hand, the well-known Regge-behavior of hadronic masses, $`JM^2`$, is suggestive for string-like excitations associated with a confining force. Furthermore, at masses $`M2`$GeV, hadronic chiral partners seem to develop a degeneracy pattern suggestive for an ”effective” restoration of chiral symmetry CG01 . Most of these features are indeed supported by the appearance of the baryonic spectrum as extracted from the particle data group pdg00 , cf. Fig. 2.

### 2.3 In Medium: Hadronic Approaches

Various methods to address medium effects on hadronic properties (and the equation of state) are available, cf. Table 1.

At low densities and/or temperatures, systematic expansions using chiral perturbation theory KFW02  or a reduction formalism SYZ97  can be performed.

At intermediate hadronic densities, as, e.g., encountered in the later stages of heavy-ion collisions, many-body effects necessitating (partial) resummations, become important. E.g., in the vector ($`J^P=1^{}`$) channel, the ”melting” of the $`\rho `$-meson RW99  enables to describe the dilepton excess observed at CERN-SPS energies ceres  (cf. Ref. BR02  for an alternate view, and Ref. RW00  for a review). Likewise, in the scalar ($`0^+`$) channel, nuclear many-body effects contribute significantly to the threshold enhancement found in two-pion production experiments on nuclei VO02 .

In the expected phase transition region, both hadronic (below $`T_c`$) and partonic (above $`T_c`$) approaches have to rely on extrapolations. An important realization is, however, that medium modifications of light hadrons already encode precursor phenomena of chiral symmetry restoration. This connection can be made explicit by addressing the modifications of the respective chiral partners on an equal footing (e.g., $`\pi `$-$`\sigma `$, $`\rho `$-$`a_1`$, $`N`$-$`N^{}`$(1535)).

## 3 Recent Applications: Axial-/Vector Channel

### 3.1 Dileptons and $`a_1`$ Spectral Function

There is general consensus that the large excess in low-mass ($`M`$$``$1GeV) dilepton production observed in central $`Pb`$(158 AGeV)+$`Pb`$ collisions by CERES/NA45 ceres  is due to in-medium radiation from strongly modified $`\rho `$-mesons. The importance of baryon-induced effects RW99  is supported by an even larger (relative) enhancement at lower SPS energies (40 AGeV), cf. Fig. 3.

The final interpretation on the nature of chiral restoration is still under debate. As argued above, this requires the evaluation of the in-medium axialvector spectral function. Such an analysis has been performed, e.g., in Ref. UBW02  for a thermal $`\pi \sigma \rho a_1`$ gas. However, even in a net baryon-free environment, the presence of baryon-antibaryon pairs at temperatures close to $`T_c`$ has appreciable impact on the $`\rho `$ spectral function Ra01 . Preliminary results for the $`a_1(1260)`$ within a many-body framework at finite density are shown in Fig. 4. In addition to an in-medium modified $`\pi \rho `$-cloud, significant contributions arise from $`a_1N^{}(1900)N^1`$ excitations, the putative $`SU(2)`$ chiral partner of the $`\rho N(1520)N^1`$ bubble. Experimental information on the decay modes of baryon resonances, here $`N(1900)Na_1`$ (possibly measurable with the HADES detector using $`\pi `$-beams at GSI), would be of great help to constrain such calculations.

### 3.2 Vector Correlator in Euclidean Space

We finally return to the question of model comparisons with lattice-QCD results. In a ”mixed” representation, the temporal Euclidean correlator is related to the spectral function in Minkowski space via

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_\alpha (\tau ,q)=\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{dq_0}{\pi }\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }_\alpha (q_0,q)\frac{\mathrm{cosh}(q_0[\tau \frac{1}{2T}])}{\mathrm{sinh}(q_0/2T)}.$$
(2)
A quenched lattice analysis of the vector correlator at zero 3-momentum, $`\mathrm{\Pi }_V(\tau ,q=0)`$, above $`T_c`$ has recently been presented in Ref. Ka02 .

For illustration, we show in Fig. 5 results for the same quantity using the sum of (free and in-medium) $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$ spectral functions, supplemented with a perturbative continuum above $`q_01.3`$ GeV. We stress that the enhancement at large $`\tau T`$0.5 is at the origin of the dilepton excess at low-mass (cf. solid line in Fig. 3).

## 4 (Some) Open Issues

The investigation of hadronic excitations and their medium modifications provides important insights into nonperturbative properties of the QCD phase diagram. In vacuum, confinement and chiral symmetry breaking establish themselves in different (mass-) regimes of the spectrum, whereas associated phase transitions seem to occur at the same critical temperature (whether this holds true at high baryon densities is an open question). In particular, the role of (baryonic) resonances requires further understanding: on the one hand, they importantly figure into medium effects on, e.g., light (axial-) vector mesons (as inferred from dilepton spectra) and thus into (the approach towards) chiral restoration; on the other hand, their copious population close to $`T_c`$ significantly reduces the ”jump” in the number of degrees of freedom in the transition to an (almost) ideal Quark-Gluon Plasma. Hadronic model calculations can thus be expected to remain an important tool to interpret both experimental and lattice data.


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# Light Curve Analysis of Be Star Candidates in the Small Magellanic Cloud

## 1. Introduction

Detailed studies of Be stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) have been performed only in recent years, being especially confined to open clusters like NGC 330 (e.g. Keller, Wood and Bessell 1999). These studies show the importance of studying Be stars in the low metallicity environment of the SMC since they serve as probes to test for the mechanisms of disk formation and of global disk oscillations (Baade et al. 2001, Hummel et al. 1999).

Recently, Mennickent et al. (2002, hereafter M02), based on a search of public OGLE data, reported the discovery of about 1000 Be star candidates in the SMC showing spectacular light curve variations. M02 classified their sample in Type-1 stars (showing outbursts), Type-2 stars (showing sudden luminosity jumps), Type-3 stars (showing periodic or near-periodic variations) and Type-4 stars (showing similar light curves that Galactic Be stars). M02 present examples of light curves for each one of these groups, giving some basic statistical information about colours and periodicities. Here we pursue this analysis, with a more detailed statistical study of the photometric properties of each group.

## 2. Results

### 2.1. Type-1 Stars

We have investigated the (I-band) outburst properties of a sample of these stars (the first 40 stars in the $`RA`$ ordered list, corresponding to 30% of the total), measuring the amplitude $`A`$, duration $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ and asymmetry $`\delta `$, of all detected outbursts, amounting to 105, according to the definitions shown in Fig. 1. The $`A`$ distribution reveals a strong, broad peak with a maximum around 0.1 mag (Fig. 2). The $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ distribution shows a maximum around 25 d, with a steep decrease toward shorter periods and a much flatter decrease towards longer periods. The $`\delta `$ distribution reveals that about 30% of the outbursts have $`\delta `$ $`<`$ 1, the rest shows rapid rises and slower declines.

### 2.2. Type-2 Stars

We measured the amplitude of the photometric jumps in the I-band for these stars. Few objects showed two or even three (generally low amplitude) jumps during the observing period, the more prominent jump was used for the statistics in these cases. The histogram of amplitudes in Fig. 3 shows a prominent concentration around 0.15$``$0.25 mag. There is no correlation between the jump amplitude and the stellar magnitude, $`BV`$ or $`VI`$ color.

### 2.3. Type-3 Stars

Some information about the variability of these stars is already given in M02. Here we focus on the amplitudes of these variables, the morphology of their I-band light curves and the overall period distribution. Accordingly to Table-5 of M02, Type-3 stars could be classified as follows: those showing a possible period change (2 cases), those showing eclipses (5 cases), those whose periodicity appears after removing a long-term tendency (17 cases), and those showing rather clear oscillations, although usually of variable amplitude (54 cases). We fit the phase curves of the two later groups (obtained using residuals when neccessary) with a simple sine function, obtaining the amplitudes for the oscillations. The period distribution for Type-3 stars shown in Fig. 4. suggests the existence of a bimodal distribution. We observe a broad concentration of stars with periods between 20 and 130 days and a narrower concentration with periods between 140 and 210 days. There is no priviliged location for the different Type-3 classes in the above diagram (neither in the diagrams shown later in this section). Both bright and faint stars are found inside the two peaks of the period distribution. Surprisingly, we find that all stars in the secondary peak show rather “clean” light curves; for these stars it was not neccessary to remove a a long-term trend in order to find the period, as occurred for 17 Type-3 stars (M02). Some phase curves of Type-3 stars with periods in the range of 140 to 210 days are shown in Fig. 5. Another interesting result is that large amplitude oscillations are only observed in low luminosity systems (Fig. 6). On the other hand, the amplitude$``$period diagram (Fig. 6) shows that, in general, the oscillation amplitude tends to increase with the period. It is worthy to mention that inclination effects are not included in Fig. 7, and they could be responsible for the large scatter shown by the data.

## 3. Discussion

The first impression, after the visual inspection of Type-1 light curves, was that the outbursts were divided in hump-like and sharp outbursts. However, a clear separation between these groups is not confirmed by the distributions of the parameters $`A`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ and $`\delta `$, which instead suggest smooth transitions between one outburst type and the other. The above results do not help to discriminate between the possible hypotheses for these outbursts rised by M02, viz. thermal instabilites in circumstellar discs or accretion by an unseen white dwarf.

The discovery of a bimodal period distribution in Type-3 stars is surprising and deserves further study. At present, we do not have an explanation for this finding, but we expect to make a deeper analysis of these stars incorporating spectroscopic data at the end of this year.

The fact that only Type-3 systems with faint absolute magnitude show large amplitude oscillations could be the clue to understand the underlying cause of this phenomenon. M02 suggested that Type-3 variability could be due to some kind of oscillation in a circumstellar envelope. More massive envelopes could trigger larger amplitude oscillations. Perhaps low luminosity stars can host massive envelopes, whereas the higher radiation pressure of higher luminosity stars conspires against the formation and maintenance of massive envelopes. This could explain the absence of large amplitude variations in high luminosity systems.

#### Acknowledgments.

We thank Ligia Barros and Paulina Assmann for their help during the process of light curve analysis. This research was supported by Grant Fondecyt 1000324.

## 4. References

Baade, D., Rivinius, T., Štefl, S., & Kaufer, A., 2002, A&A, 383, L31.
Hummel, W., Gässler, W., Muschielok, B., Schink, H., Nicklas, H., et al. 2001, A&A, 371, 932.
Keller, S. C., Wood, P. R., & Bessell, M. S., 1999, A&AS, 134, 489
Mennickent, R.E., Pietrzyński, G., Gieren, W., & Szewczyk, O., 2002, A&A, in press.

Figure Captions

Fig.1: Definition of amplitude (A), duration ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$) and asymmetry ($`\delta `$) for Type-1 star outbursts.

Fig.2: Distributions for the parameters A, $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ and $`\delta `$.

Fig.3: The distribution of amplitudes for Type-2 star jumps.

Fig.4: The period histogram for Type-3 stars. Note the bimodal distribution.

Fig.5: Examples of phase curves for Type-3 stars with periods between 140 and 210 days.

Fig.6: The amplitude$``$magnitude diagram for Type-3 stars. Error bars are plotted when available.

Fig.7: The amplitude$``$period diagram for Type-3 stars.


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# Primordial Stellar Populations

## 1. Introduction

The first generation of stars in the Universe marks the beginning of the evolution that eventually lead to the world as we know it. Before the formation of any star, the chemical composition is the one produced by the Big Bang, i.e. mostly Hydrogen (about 93% by number) and Helium (about 7% by number) and traces of other light elements, such as Deuterium, Lithium, etc. (*e.g.* Truran, this Conference). The stars of the first generation, the so-called “population III” stars, will reflect the lack of metals in having considerably higher effective temperatures than stars of equal mass but with appreciable quantities of heavy metals (see *e.g.* Castellani, Chieffi & Tornambè 1983, and many more; see Marigo *et al.* 2001 for extensive calculations and a thorough review). On this basis, Tumlinson, Giroux & Shull (2001) and Bromm, Kudritzki & Loeb (2001) have argued that the high temperatures of the most massive stars will produce HII regions in which part of the helium is twice ionized. From this, they predict intensities of the HeII 1640Å line so uniquely high (I(1640Å)/I(H$`\beta `$)$`>0.5`$) that the detection of a strong HeII 1640Å line in the spectrum of a high redshift galaxy should constitute clear evidence for a primeval stellar generation. These predictions are heavily based on the assumption that primordial stars are all massive stars or, in other words, that a “top-heavy” Initial Mass Function (IMF) is appropriate for population III stars. Undoubtedly, it is intuitive that the absence of metals makes the temperature in primordial star forming clouds higher than it is in the local Universe, so that the Jeans mass is higher and the formation of high mass stars should be highly favored while the formation of low mass stars is expected to be greatly reduced or completely inhibited. On the other hand, the discovery of Milky Way halo stars with metallicities as low as $`[Fe/H]4`$ (*e.g.* Depagne *et al.* 2002, and references therein) casts disturbing doubts about the general validity of a top-heavy IMF in the early Universe.

Another possible problem is that the phase of “primordial” abundance may be so short that the probability of catching any proto-galaxy in that phase could be exceedingly low. In fact, in a short time after the very beginning of star formation (about 3 million years after the birth of the first massive stars in the Universe) supernova explosions will start polluting the environment and the conditions will suddenly change.

It is then clear that identifying and characterizing the properties of the second generation of stars, *i.e.* stars formed in the metal enriched environment just after the first episode of SN pollution, is at least as important as identifying the truly primeval stellar population.

In the following section we will show that a proper characterization of truly primeval stellar generations has to be based on the simultaneous presence of high intensities and equivalent widths of suitable lines of Hydrogen and Helium, such as Ly-$`\alpha `$ and HeII 1640Å (and/or their rest-frame optical counterparts, H$`\alpha `$ and HeII 4686Å), and the absence of collisionally excited metal lines, mostly from the first heavy elements to be synthetized in large quantities, *i.e.* C and O, which are expected to have lines such CIII\] 1909Å, OIII\] 1666Å, \[OIII\] 5007Å, it etc., with intensities above 10% the intensity of the H$`\beta `$ line already for metallicities as low as $`10^3`$ solar.

## 2. Primordial Stars: Expected Properties

As mentioned before, the current paradigm is that at zero metallicity the Jeans mass in star forming clouds is much higher than it is in the local Universe, and, therefore, the formation of massive stars, say, 100 M or higher, is highly favored (*c.f.* Figure 1). The spectral distributions (SED) of these massive stars are characterized by effective temperatures on the Main Sequence (MS) around $`10^5`$ K (Tumlinson & Shull 2000, Bromm *et al.* 2001, Marigo *et al.* 2001). Due to their temperatures these stars are very effective in ionizing hydrogen and helium. It should be noted that zero-metallicity stars of all masses are expected to have essentially the same MS luminosities as, but to be much hotter than their solar metallicity analogues (Tumlinson & Shull 2000, Bromm *et al.* 2001, Marigo *et al.* 2001; see *e.g.* Fig. 2). Note also that only stars hotter than about 90,000 K are capable of ionizing He twice in appreciable quantities, say, more than about 10% of the total He content (*e.g.* Oliva & Panagia 1983, Tumlinson & Shull 2000). As a consequence even the most massive population III stars can produce HeII lines only for a relatively small fraction of their lifetimes, say, about 1 Myr or about 1/3 of their lifetimes (Baraffe, Heger & Woosley 2001; *c.f.* Fig. 1).

The second generation of stars forming out of pre-enriched material will probably have different properties because cooling by metal lines may become a viable mechanism and stars of lower masses may be produced (Bromm *et al.* 2001). On the other hand, if the metallicity is lower than about $`5\times 10^4`$Z, build up of H2 due to self-shielding may occur, thus continuing the formation of very massive stars (Oh & Haiman 2002).

Thus, it appears that in the zero-metallicity case one may expect a very top-heavy Initial Mass Function (IMF). It is less clear whether the second generation of stars is also top-heavy or characterized by a more normal IMF. We will discuss both possibilities.

Population III objects are characterized by nucleosynthetic patterns different from those produced by ordinary stars (Heger & Woosley 2002, Oh *et al.* 2001). In principle, such patterns could be identified by studying low metallicity objects at low redshifts.

## 3. Primordial HII Regions

Given the high effective temperatures of zero-metallicity stars we can expect high ionizing photon fluxes for both hydrogen and helium. By the same token, we also expect low optical and UV fluxes. This is because the optical/UV domains fall in the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the spectrum where the flux is proportional to the first power of the effective temperature, $`T_{eff}`$, so that, for equal bolometric luminosity, the actual flux scales like $`T_{eff}^3`$. Therefore, an average increase of effective temperature of a factor of $`2`$ will give a reduction of the optical/UV flux by a factor of $`8`$. As a result, one should expect the rest-frame optical/UV spectrum of a primordial HII regions to be largely dominated by its nebular emission (both continuum and lines).

More quantitatively, we have computed an extensive grid of models to study the detailed properties of primordial HII regions (Panagia *et al.* 2002). The calculations were made using Cloudy90 (Ferland *et al.* 1998),and exploring a wide range of densities (1–106 cm-3), metallicities (10-6–3 Z), and effective temperatures (30,000–150,000 K). For the SED of the ionizing stars we considered both model atmospheres, as provided by Cloudy90 database and black body distributions. We have also considered the cases of both groups of identical stars and clusters of MS stars with a Salpeter IMF. Although a variety of relative elemental abundances were investigated, in most models we varied the metallicity by simply scaling all metal abundances by one and the same factor, relative to the solar abundances as listed in the Cloudy90 manual. The main results of our model calculations for the case of zero metallicity are:

* The electron temperature is much higher than in galactic HII regions, in excess of 20,000 K in all cases. This is because both the average energy of the ionizing photons is considerably higher (by about 3-4 eV), and most of the cooling is provided by collisional excitation of hydrogen levels, whose lowest excitation potential is about 10.2 eV.
* As a corollary the intensities of all hydrogen lines are enhanced relative to the classical Baker & Menzel (1938) case B recombination regime. In particular, thanks to collisional excitation, the Ly-$`\alpha `$ line is about twice as predicted from recombinations alone, and its luminosity may amount to as much as 46% of the total luminosity of the ionizing star(s). Similarly, the H$`\alpha `$ to H$`\beta `$ intensity ratio goes to about 3.2, *i.e.* about 10% higher than the standard case B ratio.
* As anticipated, the continuous emission is largely dominated by the nebular continuum at all wavelengths longer than Ly-$`\alpha `$. As a consequence, the resulting SED is much flatter than the stellar one, and is also appreciably flatter than that of solar abundance HII regions (*c.f.* Fig. 3). This effect results both from the higher electron temperature that makes the $`fb`$ and $`ff`$ spectra considerably flatter, and from the collisional excitation of the $`2s`$ level of hydrogen, whose decay produces the well known two-photon emission that extends from 0 energy up to E(Ly-$`\alpha `$) and dominates the nebular emission between 1216Å and, say, 5000Å, at least.
* Helium is mostly once ionized but, as long as the effective temperature of the ionizing stars is above 90,000 K, emission lines of HeII can also be detected. In particular, for $`T_{eff}=`$100,000 K, the fraction of twice ionized He is 29% for a model atmosphere SED and 10% for a black body SED. Correspondingly, the intensities of the HeII lines at 1640Å and 4686Å are about 1.26 and 0.16 (for model atmospheres), and 0.62 and 0.078 (for black bodies) the intensity of the H$`\beta `$ line, respectively.
* There are no metal lines, of course.
* There is no dust absorption of any kind, but both the higher H$`\alpha `$ to H$`\beta `$ intensity ratios and the flatter rest-frame UV continuum mimick the effects of dust extinction at a level equivalent to E(B-V)$``$0.1 if a Milky Way average extinction law is adopted. This, in turn, may (incorrectly) be taken as evidence for a substantial metallicity, up to 0.1Z, in these primordial regions.

## 4. Low Metallicity HII Regions

As soon as the first massive star reaches the end of its lifetime (about 3 Myrs; *c.f.* Baraffe *et al.* 2001, Marigo *et al.* 2001) and explodes as a core collapse (type II) supernova (SNII), its environment is polluted and may show the effects of the ensuing metal enrichment. It is important to realize that a few SN explosions are more than enough to pollute a big cloud appreciably. For instance, if we assume that, similarly to local Universe SNII, a primordial SNII explosion ejects about 10 M of metals with a total kinetic energy of few 1051ergs, it is easy to verify that the ejecta will be stopped (actually, thermalized) in about 1 Myr after sweeping, and mixing with about 106 M of gas of the parent cloud. This corresponds to an average metallicity of $`Z0.00001Z_{}`$/2000. Therefore, we can expect that eventually, when all massive stars of the first generation have gone SNII, even a cloud with as much as 107 M in gas will be polluted to a level of about 10-3Z. Interestingly enough, this is the same level of metal enrichment as expected for the Universe at the epoch of re-ionization (*e.g.* Miralda-Escudé & Rees 1998). While a little confusing (which is which? which is first?) this fact simplifies the job of recognizing “pristine” stars and clouds: whatever is above the limit of $``$10-3Z is the product of one or more episodes of metal enrichment.

The properties of HII regions with various amounts of metal enrichment can be inferred from Figures 3-6. In particular, Figure 3, illustrates four different scenarios (top to bottom): (1) both stars and gas are metal free, (2) the stars are primordial but the gas is already enriched to 10-3Z, (3) both stars and gas have a metallicity of 10-3Z, and (4) the metallicity of both stars and gas is 0.1Z, similar to the SMC metallicity. We see that, as long as primordial massive stars dominate the ionization ((1) and (2)), HeII emission lines are present (*e.g.* 1640Å, 4686Å), but as soon as the gas metallicity goes up ((2)) also metal lines become detectable, *e.g.* \[OIII\] 5007Å which is the strongest metal line in the spectrum and whose intensity is about 10% of that of the H$`\beta `$ line for a 10-3Z metallicity. When the metal content in the stars increases (case (3)), their effective temperatures are not high enough to ionize He twice and, therefore, one finds weak, but detectable, metal lines while HeII emission lines have disappeared. Finally, for high metallicities the emission line spectrum is dominated by metal lines, as customarily found in local Universe HII regions and Planetary Nebulae.

More in detail, we note that both the luminosity and the equivalent width of the Ly-$`\alpha `$ line increase monotonically with decreasing metallicity (*c.f.* Figures 4 and 5). In particular, we note that equivalent widths in excess of 1,000Å are possible already for objects with metallicity $`10^3Z_{}`$. This is particularly interesting given that Ly-$`\alpha `$ emitters with large EW have been identified at z=5.6 (Rhoads & Malhotra 2001).

Even though the metal lines at low metallicities are weak, some of them can be used as metallicity tracers. In Figure 6 the intensity ratio of \[OIII\]$`\lambda 5007`$ to H$`\beta `$ is plotted for a range of stellar temperatures and metallicities. It is immediately apparent that for $`Z<0.03Z_{}`$ this line ratio traces metallicity linearly. Our reference value $`Z=10^3Z_{}`$ corresponds to an intensity ratio I(\[OIII\])/I(H$`\beta `$) $``$ 0.1. The weak dependence on the effective temperature makes sure that this ratio remains a good indicator of metallicity not only for populations with a top-heavy IMF but also in the more general case of sources with a wide range of stellar masses. And indeed these predictions match quite well the observational results found for blue dwarf galaxies (Izotov & Thuan 1998, and references therein; Panagia *et al.* 2002).

Another difference between zero-metallicity and low-metallicity HII regions is that the latter may contain dust, which could absorb part of the stellar and nebular radiation and re-emit it in the far infrared. For example, assuming that dust formation processes work equally well at all metallicities, and, therefore, that the dust content of a region is proportional to its metallicity, the dust optical depth in a 106 M cloud with $`Z=10^3Z_{}`$ is expected be $`\tau 0.03`$ at the Ly-$`\alpha `$ wavelength and $`\tau 0.01`$ in the visual. As a consequence, while only about 2% of the stellar and non-resonant nebular radiation is absorbed, as much as 30% of the Ly-$`\alpha `$ line is likely to be absorbed (*e.g.* Panagia & Ranieri 1973). Since the Ly-$`\alpha `$ luminosity is about 40% of the total luminosity of the system, as much as 10-15% ot the total energy will be absorbed by dust and re-emitted in the far IR (Panagia *et al.* 2002).

## 5. Finding and characterizing Primordial HII Regions

From an observational point of view one cannot measure a zero-metallicity but one will usually be able to place an upper limit to it. When is such an upper limit uniquely indicative of a population III object? In the previous sections we argue that a metallicity Z$`10^3Z_{}`$ can be used as a dividing line between the pre and post re-ionization phase of the Universe, and that essentially the same value results from pollution by SNII explosions in a primordial cloud (see also Panagia *et al.* 2002). Thus, any object with a metallicity higher than $`10^3Z_{}`$ is not a true first generation object. Also, we have seen which type of diagnostics we have to characterize primordial and low-metallicity HII regions.

Now next question is: can we do it? do we have the means to detect primordial sources and verify that they are indeed pristine?

In this section we will focus on the capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) that, thanks to its large aperture (6m class) and very low background (space-borne, passively cooled to less than 50 K), is our best bet for success.

Before proceeding further, we have to consider the effects of intergalactic HI absorption, *i.e.* the well known Gunn-Peterson effect (Gunn & Peterson 1965): all radiation shortward of the Ly-$`\alpha `$ wavelength, as well as in the damping wing extending up to several thousand km s-1 longward of it, is suppressed if IGM hydrogen is mostly neutral. This could be a serious problem because the Ly-$`\alpha `$ line alone carries as much as 40-45% of the total energy and, by being concentrated in a narrow wavelength range, typically $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \lambda _0/10001.2`$Å, is easily detectable (*c.f.* Figures 3 and 9). Fortunately, part of the same radiation that ionizes the HII region can also leak out and ionize the surrounding region of the IGM. This may sound like a contrived ad hoc hypothesis but an HII configuration that is density bounded in some directions and ionization bounded in others is quite common in nature, as well demonstrated by many galactic HII regions, such as M42 (the Orion Nebula) or M8 (the Lagoon Nebula), etc. It follows that for any given leakage fraction, the higher is the ionizing photon flux of the source, the bigger is the ionized sphere of IGM gas, and, because of cosmic expansion, the damping wing of the IGM HI trough shifts to more amd more negative velocities, thus reducing the absorption on the Lyman $`\alpha `$ emission profile (Miralda-Escudé & Rees 1998, Madau & Rees 2001, Panagia *et al.* 2002). A comparison of the observed vs emitted Ly-$`\alpha `$ intensities is given in Figure 7. The transmitted Ly-$`\alpha `$ flux depends on the total luminosity of the source since this determines the radius of the resulting Strömgren sphere. A Ly-$`\alpha `$ luminosity of $`10^{10}`$ L corresponds to $`10^6`$ M in massive stars. In the following we will consider a star cluster of this luminosity as our reference case.

Now, if we convolve the synthetic spectra derived above, including the appropriate effect of neutral IGM absorption, with a broad band filter response we obtain a spectral energy distribution that can be compared directly to the NGST imaging sensitivity. Figure 8 shows the comparison of the flux from a $`10^6`$M starburst at z=15, convolved with a bandwidth of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda /\lambda =5`$, with the expected limiting flux that a 6m NGST can reach in an exposure of $`4\times 10^5`$s with a S/N=10. It is clear that NGST will be able to easily detect such objects over the range 2–4 $`\mu m`$.

The synthetic spectra can also be compared to the NGST spectroscopic sensitivity for $`4\times 10^5`$s exposures (see Figure 9): it appears that while the Ly-$`\alpha `$ line can be detected up to redshifts as high as 15 or 20, for our reference source only at relatively low redshifts (z$`7`$), can NGST detect other diagnostics lines lines such as HeII 1640Å, and Balmer lines. Determining metallicities is then limited to either lower redshifts or to brighter sources. Note that a “bright” source may be a more massive source but may also be a gravitationally lensed object, of the type discovered by Ellis *et al.* (2002) at redshift $`5.6`$.

We can reverse the argument and ask ourselves what kind of sources can NGST detect and characterize with spectroscopic observations. Figure 10 displays, as a function of redshift, the total luminosity of a starburst that is required for a S/N=10 measurement of a given line with an exposure time of $`4\times 10^5`$s. The loci for Ly-$`\alpha `$, HeII 1640Å, H$`\beta `$, and \[OIII\] 5007Å are shown. It appears that Ly-$`\alpha `$ is readily detectable up to z$``$20 even for sources 10 fainter than our reference case, HeII 1640Å can also be detected up to high redshifts if massive stars are indeed as hot as predicted, whereas “metallicity” information, *i.e.* the intensity ratio I(\[OIII\])/I(H$`\beta `$), can be obtained at high redshifts only for sources that either are 10–100 times more massive or are 10–100 times magnified by gravitational lensing.

## 6. Conclusions

It is possible to discern truly primordial populations from the next generation of stars by measuring the metallicity of high-z star forming objects. The very low background of NGST will enable it to image first-light sources at very high redshifts, identifying them through the Lyman break technique and/or spectroscopic detection of the Ly-$`\alpha `$, and possibly HeII 1640Å emission. The relatively small collecting area of a 6m NGST limits its capability in obtaining spectra of z$``$10–15 first-light sources to either the bright end of their luminosity function or to strongly lensed sources.

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text:
# TIME EVOLUTION OF THE FINE STRUCTURE CONSTANT

## 1 Introduction

The assumption that the constants of Nature remain constant in spacetime should be experimentally tested . Strong motivation for varying constants comes from modern unified theories . Here we review the QSO absorption line constraints on possible variation of the electromagnetic coupling constant, $`\alpha `$. Our most recent published results are summarized in reference  and in Section 4 we present new preliminary results from a significantly extended optical sample.

## 2 QSO absorption systems and the alkali doublet method

For small variations in $`\alpha `$, the relative wavelength separation between the transitions of an alkali doublet (AD) is proportional to $`\alpha `$. Savedoff  first utilized this to constrain possible variations in $`\alpha `$ from AD separations seen in galaxy emission spectra. The advantage of this technique is the large look-back times inherent in such cosmological observations ($`10\mathrm{Gyr}`$). Absorption lines produced by intervening clouds along the line of sight to QSOs are substantially narrower than intrinsic emission lines and so yield tighter limits on $`\alpha `$-variation .

Spectrographs on 8–10-m optical telescopes can record high resolution ($`\mathrm{FWHM}7\mathrm{kms}^1`$), high signal-to-noise ($`\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{N}30\mathrm{per}\mathrm{pixel}`$) spectra of high redshift QSOs over most of the optical range (i.e. 3000–8000 Å) in several $`1\mathrm{hr}`$ exposures. Fig. 1 shows an example QSO spectrum with a C iv AD. Many velocity components of the absorption system are clearly resolved.

Varshalovich et al.  have recently used spectra of 16 Si iv ADs with a mean redshift $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.6`$ to obtain a value for the fractional difference between $`\alpha `$ in the laboratory and in the QSO spectra, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha (\alpha _z\alpha _0)/\alpha _0=(4.6\pm 4.3_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 1.4_{\mathrm{sys}})\times 10^5`$. The systematic error term arose from uncertainties in the laboratory wavelengths of the Si iv transitions: the astronomical spectra were of comparable quality to UV laboratory spectra. Significant improvements in the laboratory wavelengths  reduce this systematic error to $`0.2\times 10^5(1\sigma )`$. We have analyzed 21 high quality Si iv doublets observed with the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck I 10-m telescope in Hawaii, finding

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =(0.5\pm 1.3_{\mathrm{stat}})\times 10^5$$
(1)
at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.8`$. The factor of 3 improvement in precision is due to the high spectral resolution of the HIRES data. This is currently the strongest constraint on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ from the AD method.

## 3 The many-multiplet method

The AD method is simple, but inefficient. The $`s`$ ground state is most sensitive to changes in $`\alpha `$ (i.e. it has the largest relativistic corrections) but is common to both transitions (Fig. 2a). A more sensitive method is to compare transitions from different multiplets and/or atoms, allowing the ground states to constrain $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ (Fig. 2b). This is the many multiplet (MM) introduced in .

To illustrate the MM method, consider the following semi-empirical equation for the relativistic correction, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, for a transition from the ground state with total angular momentum, $`j`$:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(Z\alpha )^2\left[\frac{1}{j+1/2}C\right],$$
(2)
where $`Z`$ is nuclear charge and many-body effects are described by $`C0.6`$. To obtain strong constraints on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ one can (a) compare transitions of light ($`Z10`$) atoms/ions with those of heavy ($`Z30`$) ones and/or (b) compare $`s`$$`p`$ and $`d`$$`p`$ transitions of heavy elements. For the latter, the relativistic corrections will be of opposite sign which further increases sensitivity to $`\alpha `$-variation and strengthens the MM method against systematic errors in the QSO spectra (see Section 5).

More formally, we may write the following equation for the rest-frequency, $`\omega _z`$, of any transition observed in the QSO spectra at a redshift $`z`$:

$$\omega _z=\omega _0+q\left[\left(\frac{\alpha _z}{\alpha }\right)^21\right],$$
(3)
where $`\omega _0`$ is the frequency measured in the laboratory on Earth (we omit higher order terms here for simplicity). Laboratory measurements  of $`\omega _0`$ for many transitions commonly observed in QSO spectra now allow a precision of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha 10^7`$ to be achieved. The $`q`$ coefficient contains all the relativistic corrections and measures the sensitivity of each transition frequency to changes in $`\alpha `$. These have been calculated in  to $`<10\%`$ precision using the Dirac-Hartree-Fock approximation and many-body perturbation theory. Note that the form of Eq. 3 ensures one cannot infer a non-zero $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ due to errors in the $`q`$ coefficients.

Fig. 3 shows the distribution of $`q`$ coefficients in (rest) wavelength space. Our sample conveniently divides into low- and high-$`z`$ subsamples with very different properties. Note the simple arrangement for the low-$`z`$ Mg/Fe ii systems: the Mg transitions are used as anchors against which the large, positive shifts in the Fe ii transitions can be measured. Compare this with the complex arrangement for the high-$`z`$ systems: low-order distortions to the wavelength scale will have a varied and complex affect on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ depending on which transitions are fitted in a given absorption system. In general, the complexity at high-$`z`$ will yield more robust values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$.

## 4 Recent results

For each absorption system we fit multiple velocity component Voigt profiles to all available (typically $``$5) MM transitions. We minimize $`\chi ^2`$ for all velocity components simultaneously to obtain the best fitting value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$. The 1 $`\sigma `$ error is derived from the diagonal terms of the final parameter covariance matrix. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate the reliability of both $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ and the errors.

The MM method was first applied to 30 low-$`z`$ Mg/Fe systems and provided a tentative non-zero $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ . In  we extended the sample of  to 49 absorption systems, finding 4.1 $`\sigma `$ evidence for a smaller $`\alpha `$ in the redshift range $`0.5<z_{\mathrm{abs}}<3.5`$. We have now increased our sample to 128 absorption systems, all observed with Keck/HIRES. Our new preliminary weighted mean is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =(0.57\pm 0.10)\times 10^5$$
(4)
for $`0.2<z_{\mathrm{abs}}<3.7`$, i.e. 5.7 $`\sigma `$ statistical evidence for a smaller $`\alpha `$ in high redshift absorption systems. We plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ versus $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}`$ in Fig. 4. Note the overall internal consistency of the results. Fig. 5 suggests possible evolution of $`\alpha `$ with cosmological time, although see Section 7 for further discussion and caveats of fixing $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =0`$ at $`z=0`$.

## 5 Systematic errors?

The statistical error in this result is now small: we do detect line shifts in the QSO spectra. But are the line shifts due to systematic errors or really due to varying $`\alpha `$? We have thoroughly searched for possible systematic errors in our previous results , finding none which provide an alternative interpretation of the data. We have extended this search to the new data in Fig. 4 with similar results. Currently, our two largest sources of possible systematic error are:

1. Atmospheric dispersion effects: Before 1996 Keck/HIRES had no image rotator and so the effects of atmospheric dispersion on the wavelength scale could not be avoided. Effective compression of the spectra may result, possibly mimicking a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ at low-$`z`$. 77 of our 128 absorption systems could have been affected. However, we find no evidence for these effects: the “affected” and “unaffected” subsamples yield the same $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$. Nevertheless, we modeled the potential effect and correct the 77 affected systems in Fig. 6 (top panel). This correction reduces the significance of the low-$`z`$ points but increases the significance of those at high-$`z`$, enhancing the apparent trend in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ with $`z`$.
2. Isotopic ratio evolution: We fit Mg and Si absorption lines with terrestrial values of the isotopic ratios. If the isotopic abundances in the absorption clouds are different to the terrestrial values then we may introduce artificial line shifts, potentially leading to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha 0`$. Galactic observations  and theoretical models  strongly suggest that only the 24Mg and 28Si isotopes will exist in the absorption clouds with significant abundances. The middle panel of Fig. 6 shows that the low-$`z`$ points become more significant when we fit only these isotopes to our data.

The above two effects cannot explain our results. Indeed, applying both corrections (lower panel of Fig. 6), yields a more significant result.

## 6 Other QSO absorption line methods

Comparing absorption lines of the hydrogen hyperfine (21-cm) transition and millimetre-wave molecular rotational transitions offers an order of magnitude gain in precision over the MM method (per absorption system). The 21-cm/mm frequency ratio is $`\alpha ^2g_p`$ : $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha 0`$ manifests itself as a difference between the 21-cm and mm absorption redshifts. A similar difference may arise between 21-cm and optical absorption lines, in this case constraining $`\alpha ^2g_pm_e/m_p`$ . Here, $`g_p`$ is the proton $`g`$-factor and $`m_e/m_p`$ is the electron-proton mass ratio.

However, systematic errors in these techniques are more difficult to quantify than for the optical MM method. Since the radio and mm continuum emission come from separate regions of the background QSO, the 21-cm and mm absorption may occur along slightly different sight-lines. Thus, a statistical sample of such measurements is required. Unfortunately, due to the paucity of known absorption systems, only two 21-cm/mm comparisons  and one 21-cm/optical comparison  presently exist (Fig. 7).

## 7 Other limits on varying $`\alpha `$

We summarize the strongest current constraints on $`\alpha `$-variation in Fig. 7. For brevity, we do not discuss the reliability of the ‘local’ constraints, and refer the reader to  for a review.

Instead we focus on a comparison of the local and cosmological constraints. Despite the tight limits on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha `$ from laboratory atomic clocks, the Oklo phenomenon and meteoritic $`\beta `$-decay, a simple non-linear evolution of $`\alpha `$ with time can explain all results simultaneously. Moreover, we emphasize that it is dangerous to compare local and cosmological limits without a better understanding of possible spatial variations in $`\alpha `$ . For example, absorption spectroscopy of $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}0`$ absorption clouds in our Galaxy may not yield $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha =0`$ (cf. Fig 5). Even comparing the different QSO absorption constraints is difficult since the MM and AD methods constrain $`\alpha `$ whereas the 21-cm/mm and 21-cm/optical methods constrain $`\alpha ^2g_p`$ and $`\alpha ^2g_pm_e/m_p`$ respectively.

## 8 The future

Although the results in Fig. 4 would have tremendous theoretical implications, confirming or refuting them is an observational issue. We are taking two main steps to check our recent results:

1. Independent optical data. The greatest present concern is that only one instrument has been used for all our observations. QSO spectra of similar quality to the Keck/HIRES data are now becoming available. Data from other telescopes/instruments (e.g. VLT/UVES) will provide an important check on our results.
2. Further 21-cm/mm/optical comparisons. We are carrying out observations aimed at identifying new H i 21-cm and mm-band molecular rotational absorption systems (e.g. ). Obtaining a statistical sample of 21-cm/mm and 21-cm/optical comparison is vital for negating the line-of-sight velocity differences discussed above.

If step (1) confirms our Keck/HIRES results then step (2) will be a crucial check with entirely different systematic errors.

## Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the continued support of Chris Churchill, Jason Prochaska and Arthur Wolfe who provided the previous Keck/HIRES datasets. We are indebted to Wallace Sargent for the new Keck/HIRES dataset. We are grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for supporting this work. MTM thanks the PIC organizing committee for organizing financial support to speak at this conference.


text:
# The 1.6𝜇m Bump as a Photometric Redshift Indicator

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The study of galaxy formation and evolution will gain an enormous boost from space-borne observations in the infrared (IR), first with the advent of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) and then, at the end of this decade, with the appearance of the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST). SIRTF, scheduled for launch in early 2003, will allow us to efficiently observe distant galaxies at mid- and far-infrared wavelengths. In particular, SIRTF’s Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) will operate at 3.6$`\mu `$m, 4.5$`\mu `$m, 5.8$`\mu `$m, and 8$`\mu `$m, providing a window on the rest-frame near-IR properties of galaxies at $`z`$$``$1. A number of deep SIRTF imaging surveys that will detect many thousands of galaxies to high redshift are already scheduled (e.g., GOODS111see http://www.stsci.edu/science/goods/, SWIRE222see http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/SWIRE/), and it will be enormously important to efficiently estimate redshifts of galaxies in these samples. However, large-scale spectroscopic follow-up of these IR-selected surveys will be very time-consuming and only small sub-samples of objects are likely to be targeted. Instead, spectroscopic redshifts are likely to be complemented by the less precise but much more efficient photometric redshifts.

Photometric redshifts enjoy great popularity as a way to estimate the redshifts of faint galaxies (e.g., Connolly et al. 1995; Gwyn & Hartwick 1996; Sawicki, Lin, & Yee 1997; Fernández-Soto, Lanzetta, & Yahil 1999; Rudnick et al. 2001). Traditionally, photometric redshifts rely on the photometric signatures of the Lyman and 4000Å breaks to estimate redshifts from optical and near-IR data. However, the availability of mid-IR data from SIRTF (and, later, NGST) surveys opens up the possibility of using a hitherto untried photometric redshift technique that could obviate the need for optical imaging of SIRTF and NGST survey fields, or provide independent redshift estimates where such imaging is already present. Specifically, the spectral “bump” at 1.6$`\mu `$m, caused by the minimum in the opacity of the H- ion present in the atmospheres of cool stars, is a nearly ubiquitous feature of almost all stellar populations and the photometric signature of this bump can be expected to provide a means of estimating redshifts to distant galaxies.

The importance of the imprint of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump on SIRTF IRAC colors has been appreciated for a long time (e.g., Wright, Eisenhardt, & Fazio 1994), and indeed the filter transmission curves of the IRAC filters have been designed partially with photometric redshifts in mind by modeling the expected colors of high-$`z`$ galaxies (Simpson & Eisenhardt 1999). The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate the potential of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump as a photometric redshift indicator and to explore some of the possible limitations of the technique at high redshift. Section 2 illustrates, with real data at 0$`<`$$`z`$$`<`$1, that the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump is an effective photometric redshift indicator and describes the source of the photometric redshift signal. Section 3 discusses the applicability of the technique to SIRTF IRAC data and explores some of the limitations that could be present at high redshift due to effects such as metallicity, dust, and star formation history. The main conclusions of the paper are summarized and discussed in Section 4.

## 2 PRINCIPLE AND PROOF OF CONCEPT

### 2.1 The 1.6$`\mu `$m Bump

The opacity of the H- ion has a minimum at $``$1.6$`\mu `$m (e.g., John 1988), which imprints itself as a maximum, or “bump,” on the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of cool stars. Consequently, the SEDs of composite stellar populations that contain significant numbers of such stars can be expected to possess the same spectral imprint. This assertion is illustrated in Fig. 1, which shows the spectral energy distributions of model stellar populations from the 1996 version of the GISSEL spectral synthesis code of Bruzual & Charlot (1993). The 1.6$`\mu `$m bump is easily discernible in all but the extremely young ($``$1 Myr) stellar populations, where it is swamped by the essentially power-law spectra of very hot, massive young stars. Given the strength and near universality of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump, it is reasonable to expect that it will imprint a significant signal on the colors of distant galaxies, and hence, as was pointed out by Simpson & Eisenhardt (1999), that it might make a good photometric redshift indicator.

### 2.2 The 1.6$`\mu `$m Bump in the Hubble Deep Field

While the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump has been suggested as a photometric redshift indicator before, its feasibility remains to be tested with real data. The $`JHKL`$ filter set straddles the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump at $`z`$$``$0–1, and so $`JHKL`$ photometry of Hubble Deep Field (HDF; Williams et al. 1996) galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts will be used to test if the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump can provide a strong enough photometric imprint to constrain redshifts. Note that the $`JHKL`$ filter set provides a reasonable surrogate of the IRAC quartet of bandpasses, albeit shifted by a factor of $``$2.5–3 in observed wavelength: while filters of the $`JHKL`$ set cover the rest-frame 1.6$`\mu `$m bump for galaxies at $`z`$$``$0–1, the corresponding redshift range for the IRAC filters is $`z`$$``$1.8–4. Consequently, $`JHKL`$ photometric redshifts of $`z`$$`<`$1 galaxies provide a useful demonstration of how well SIRTF may do at these higher redshifts.

Nine galaxies were detected at $`L`$-band (3.2$`\mu `$m) in the deep Keck imaging of the HDF by Hogg et al. (2000). All nine have redshifts at 0$`<`$$`z`$$`<`$1, as measured by Cohen et al. (1996, 1999) and Lowenthal et al. (1997). The $`L`$-band photometry of these objects was adapted from Hogg et al. (2000), while their $`JHK`$ magnitudes were measured from the public Kitt Peak infrared images of the HDF (Dickinson, 1998; Dickinson et al. 2002, in prep.). The $`JHK`$ magnitudes were measured in 2″apertures using the SExtractor package (Bertin & Arnouts, 1996), while the $`L`$-band magnitudes of Hogg et al. (which they measured in 2″apertures but then extrapolated to 6″ ones) were transformed back to 2″apertures by scaling (in reverse of the procedure used by Hogg et al.) the $`L`$-band 6″ magnitudes by the ratio of $`H`$-band fluxes measured in 2″ and 6″ apertures. The resulting 2″-aperture magnitudes are listed in Table 1.

Photometric redshifts of the nine galaxies were estimated by comparing their observed broadband spectral energy distributions (as listed in Table 1) with model templates generated from the 1996 version of the GISSEL spectral synthesis package (Bruzual & Charlot 1993). Solar-metallicity GISSEL spectra of constant star formation rate (SFR), and with ages spanning the full available range of models (0–20 Gyr), were used as the starting point in the construction of the templates. These model spectra were redshifted onto a grid of redshifts spanning $`z`$=0–1.5 in steps of $`\delta z`$=0.05, and were then integrated through the filter transmission curves (FTCs) to produce the template broadband fluxes

$$f_{tpt}(i)=SED(\lambda (1+z))FTC(i,\lambda )𝑑\lambda $$
(1)
in the four filters $`i`$=($`J,H,K,L`$). The resulting grid contains 6851 templates, each of four broadband fluxes, and spans 0$``$$`z`$$``$1.5 linearly and 0$``$age$``$20 Gyr quasi-logarithmically.

For each observed object, the observed fluxes were compared to each template in the template grid by computing the goodness-of-fit measure

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i}{}\left[\frac{f_{obs}(i)sf_{tpt}(i)}{\sigma (i)}\right]^2,$$
(2)
where $`f_{obs}(i)`$ and $`\sigma (i)`$ are the observed flux and its uncertainty in the $`i^{th}`$ filter, $`f_{tpt}(i)`$ is the flux of the template in that filter, and $`s`$ is the scaling between the observed and template fluxes that can be computed analytically using

$$s=\underset{i}{}\frac{f_{obs}(i)f_{tpt}(i)}{\sigma ^2(i)}/\underset{i}{}\frac{f_{tpt}^2(i)}{\sigma ^2(i)}.$$
(3)
For each object, the best-fitting template — and, hence, the most likely redshift — is then identified as the one that produces the smallest value of $`\chi ^2`$. Note that variants of this procedure are a common way of computing photometric redshifts using model templates (e.g., Gwyn & Hartwick 1996; Sawicki et al. 1997, Arnouts et al. 1999), with the key difference being that the data and templates used here do not span the traditional 4000Å or Lyman breaks, but, instead, cover the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump.

The fidelity of the photometric redshifts obtained using solely $`JHKL`$ photometry is remarkably good, as is shown in Fig. 2 which compares the photometric and spectroscopic redshifts of the nine HDF galaxies (Table 1 lists the $`z_{phot}`$ values object by object.). The scatter between photometric and spectroscopic redshifts is only $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }z}`$=0.09, which is similar to the scatter typically obtained over the same redshift range in the HDF using the Balmer-break sensitive optical photometric redshift techniques (e.g., Sawicki et al. 1997; Fernández-Soto et al. 1999). Although the comparison between photometric and spectroscopic redshifts is based on the very small sample of nine galaxies, the tight correlation between $`z_{phot}`$ and $`z_{spec}`$ demonstrates, for the first time, that the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump is a viable indicator of redshift.

### 2.3 The Source of Photometric Redshift Signal

To understand how the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump produces a photometric redshift signature, it is instructive to consider how the infrared colors of galaxies depend on redshift. The $`JHKL`$ filter set used in §2.2 can be represented as six constituent colors; Fig. 3 shows these six colors for GISSEL models of constantly star-forming stellar populations of seven different ages. The solid lines represent colors of stellar populations ranging in age from 20 Myr to 20 Gyr, while the dotted line is for the extremely young 1 Myr-old population.

For the extremely young, 1 Myr-old model, all six colors are virtually constant with redshift: the spectra of the very young, hot stars that dominate this ultra-young stellar population are essentially featureless Rayleigh-Jeans power laws (see Fig. 1) and because redshifting a power law does not affect its spectral shape, the colors of extremely young stellar populations remain degenerate with redshift. Consequently, the redshift of a galaxy dominated by an extremely young stellar population cannot be determined photometrically. Fortunately, stellar populations older than a few Myr develop the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump (see Fig. 1), and it is the passage of this bump through the $`JHKL`$ filter set that imprints itself on the colors of galaxies in Fig. 3. For the remainder of this section, extremely young ($``$1 Myr-old) stellar populations will be ignored and the analysis will focus on the more prosaic models with age$``$10 Myr.

Clearly, colors which are degenerate with redshift cannot provide redshift information: for example, the $`J`$$``$$`H`$ colors of all model ages are essentially flat with redshift and so $`J`$$``$$`H`$ contains little information about redshift. In contrast, where a color changes steeply with redshift, such as $`K`$$``$$`L`$ over 0.4$``$$`z`$$``$0.8, it provides strong redshift signal. However, to be useful, the color must not only change steeply, but must also be unique with redshift: thus, although the $`J`$$``$$`L`$ color changes steeply with redshift at $`J`$$``$$`L`$=$``$0.5, it does not constrain redshift well since models of different age produce that same color at different redshifts. Therefore, the requirements for a color to be a good photometric redshift indicator are that (1) it change steeply with redshift and (2) it be unique for a given redshift.

Fig. 3 shows that $`J`$$``$$`H`$ is a poor redshift indicator over all redshifts $`z`$$`<`$1.5; $`H`$$``$$`K`$ is fine only at $`z`$$``$0; $`J`$$``$$`K`$ would be fine at low redshift were it not for the fact that in this color $`z`$$``$0 objects are degenerate with young stellar populations at $`z`$$``$1; $`J`$$``$$`L`$ is fine at $`z`$$``$0, $`H`$$``$$`L`$ at 0$``$$`z`$$``$0.4, and $`K`$$``$$`L`$ at 0.4$``$$`z`$$``$0.8. Thus, the success of the $`JHKL`$ filter set at determining the redshifts of the nine HDF galaxies is primarily due to the $`H`$$``$$`L`$ color below $`z`$$``$0.4 and $`K`$$``$$`L`$ at higher $`z`$.

The two most useful colors, $`H`$$``$$`L`$ at $`z`$$``$0.4 and $`K`$$``$$`L`$ at $`z`$$``$0.4, have an important feature in common: they both contain the longest-wavelength $`L`$ filter. The role of this filter may be appreciated in Fig. 1: At all redshifts $`z`$$``$1, the $`L`$ filter is redward of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump — i.e., at wavelengths at which the spectra of virtually all stellar populations are nearly identical. Thus, the $`L`$ filter provides a universal “anchor,” which is independent of galaxy type. The role that the other two filters ($`H`$ and $`K`$) play now becomes apparent: while $`L`$ acts as a redshift-invariant anchor, the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump moves with increasing redshift first through $`J`$ and then through $`K`$. The passage of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump through the $`J`$ and $`K`$ bandpasses depresses the fluxes in these filters with respect to the invariant $`L`$-band anchor, thus resulting in the steep yet age-invariant evolution of the $`H`$$``$$`L`$ and $`K`$$``$$`L`$ colors over 0$``$$`z`$$``$0.4 and 0.4$``$$`z`$$``$0.8, respectively.

As is shown in Fig. 1, spectra of galaxies are virtually identical redward of rest-frame 1.5$`\mu `$m and so the $`H`$$``$$`L`$ and $`K`$$``$$`L`$ colors of galaxies are independent of age over the, respectively, 0$``$$`z`$$``$0.4 and 0.4$``$$`z`$$``$0.8 redshift ranges. At wavelengths below rest-frame 1.5$`\mu `$m, galaxy colors become strongly dependent on age and, consequently, at $`z`$$``$0.4, the $`H`$$``$$`L`$ color develops an age-redshift degeneracy. However, the $`K`$$``$$`L`$ color takes over at $`z`$$``$0.4 as a redshift indicator, and the $`H`$$``$$`L`$ color now can assume a different role — that of providing information about the evolutionary state of the galaxy’s stellar population!

The above discussion illustrates the general principle of selecting filters for measuring redshifts using the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump: One needs an “anchor” filter which will at all redshifts of interest remain in the age-invariant part of the spectrum redward of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump. Furthermore, one needs a filter whose bandpass corresponds to the wavelengths through which the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump will be passing in the redshift range of interest. A third filter can then be deployed in the age-sensitive region blueward of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump to gain information about the state (age) of the galaxy’s stellar population. Finally, to cover an extensive redshift range, a set of adjacent filters is necessary so that the filters can take over from each other at different redshifts. In practice, of course, fluxes from all available filters contribute when the photometric redshift is determined via $`\chi ^2`$ minimization of broadband spectral energy distributions; nevertheless, the bulk of the photometric redshift signal at a given redshift $`z`$ comes from the combination of a long-wavelength anchor bandpass and a bump-containing filter at $`\lambda _{filter}`$$``$$`(1+z)`$1.6$`\mu `$m.

## 3 THE 1.6$`\mu `$m BUMP AND SIRTF

Armed with the understanding of how the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump interacts with broadband filters, let us consider how the SIRTF IRAC 3.6$`\mu `$m, 4.5$`\mu `$m, 5.8$`\mu `$m, 8$`\mu `$m bandpasses can be used to estimate redshifts. The 8$`\mu `$m bandpass is the reddest of the IRAC filters and so it naturally serves as the long-wavelength anchor. In combination with the 8$`\mu `$m anchor, the bluer 3.6$`\mu `$m, 4.5$`\mu `$m, and 5.8$`\mu `$m bandpasses then provide the bulk of the photometric redshift signal over different redshift ranges. This principle is illustrated in Fig. 4, which shows the IRAC colors of model stellar populations (see also Fig.9 of Simpson & Eisenhardt 1999). The m3.6$``$m8 color provides a good photometric redshift indicator over 1.3$``$$`z`$$``$2, while becoming degenerate to galaxy age at higher redshifts; the m4.5$``$m8 color works at 2$``$$`z`$$``$2.7, while m5.8$``$m8 is good at 2.7$``$$`z`$$``$3.

Note that at low redshift ($`z`$$``$1–2, depending on the central wavelength of the blue filter) IRAC filters are not probing the region around the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump. Instead, they are sensitive to the presence of the CO absorption band at 2.4$`\mu `$m. The interplay of the IRAC filters with the CO band results in a series of “wiggles” in the colors at $`z`$$``$1–2. These wiggles make the IRAC colors degenerate at low redshift and so restrict the redshift range over which IRAC photometry can be used to measure redshift.

Let us now consider in more detail what biases and uncertainties can be expected when trying to determine redshifts using SIRTF IRAC photometry. Photometric redshift measurements can be biased, sometimes catastrophically, by random errors in photometry, as well as, in a more systematic way, by incorrect assumptions about the target galaxy’s spectral energy distribution. Section 3.1 will examine the biases that can be introduced by simple Gaussian scatter in photometric measurements, while §3.2 will examine the problems that may arise from incorrect assumptions about the metallicities, star formation histories, and dust content of high-$`z`$ galaxies.

### 3.1 Random Photometric Errors

In practice, photometric redshifts of SIRTF-selected galaxies will be computed using all four IRAC bandpasses (plus possibly additional observations at other wavelengths), using a method similar to the template-fitting technique that was used to determine photometric redshifts of HDF $`z`$$``$1 galaxies in §2.2. To understand how random Gaussian photometric errors can affect the measurement of photometric redshifts, it is instructive to consider how such photometric errors propagate through eq.(2).

To simulate the IRAC colors of high-$`z`$ galaxies, a grid of models was computed based on the constant star formation GISSEL spectra covering the full range of available ages 0$``$age$``$20Gyr and spanning 0$``$$`z`$$``$5 in steps of $`\delta z`$=0.05. Since high-$`z`$ galaxies can be expected to have sub-solar metallicities, $`Z`$=0.2 $`Z_{}`$ GISSEL SEDs were used. These SEDs were integrated through the four SIRTF IRAC filter transmission curves (see eq.) to produce a grid of predicted fluxes. Sample “observed” galaxies were taken from this model grid and were fit via eq.(2) with the full grid of models as the template grid. Each “observed” galaxy was assigned photometric errors of $`\sigma (i)`$=(0.05, 0.05, 0.75, 0.1) in the four IRAC filters, $`i`$=(3.6$`\mu `$m, 4.5$`\mu `$m, 5.8$`\mu `$m, 8$`\mu `$m), which correspond to the errors expected for a $`z`$=3 $`L^{}`$ galaxy in the GOODS fields.

Fig. 5 shows the fit results in redshift-age space for ten “observed galaxies” — at two input, i.e. “true,” ages (agein=50Myr in the left-hand panels and 1Gyr in the right-hand panels) and five redshifts, $`z_{in}`$=0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4 (top to bottom). In each panel, the true redshift-age location of the “observed” galaxy is shown as a filled circle; since the “observed” galaxies are taken directly from the fitting grid, this is also, by construction, the location of the best-fit template identified by the fitting process. Regions of fit confidence are identified by selecting those templates for which $`\chi ^2`$ values depart by less than a certain amount from the best-fitting $`\chi _{min}^2`$; shown are regions of 95% confidence for “observed” data with random Gaussian photometric errors of $`\sigma (i)`$=(0.05, 0.05, 0.075, 0.1) in the IRAC filters $`i`$=(3.6$`\mu `$m, 4.5$`\mu `$m, 5.8$`\mu `$m, 8$`\mu `$m). It is the shapes of these confidence regions that illustrate the biases and scatter that will exist in photometric redshifts derived from SIRTF IRAC data.

The inspection of Fig. 5 leads to a number of observations:

1. The girth of the contours in the top two rows of Fig. 5 is indicative of the expected scatter in photometric redshifts at $`z`$$``$1.5 and illustrates that the determination of photometric redshifts with IRAC data alone is unfeasible at z$``$1.5. This large scatter within 0$``$$`z`$$``$1.5 results from the degeneracies in IRAC colors seen at low $`z`$ in Fig. 4. Thus, IRAC colors alone are insufficient for determining redshifts of $`z`$$``$1.5 galaxies with any precision. However, following the principles of filter selection that were detailed in §2.3, it should be possible to determine accurate photometric redshifts of $`z`$$``$1.5 galaxies in SIRTF surveys by augmenting their IRAC fluxes with $`H`$\- and $`K`$-band data. Of course, if optical data are available — as, for example, will be the case for the SIRTF GOODS survey — it will be possible to also use “traditional” (4000Å-break-dependent) photometric redshifts to estimate reliable distances to $`z`$$``$1 SIRTF-selected objects.
2. In addition to the large scatter within 0$``$$`z`$$``$1.5, the contours in the top two rows of Fig. 5 show that $`z`$$``$1.5 galaxies can be easily mistaken for very young (age $``$10Myr) stellar populations at nearly any redshift. Conversely, extremely young stellar populations at high redshift ($`z`$$``$1.5) can easily be misidentified as $`z`$$``$1.5 galaxies. This degeneracy is a result of the similarity between the colors of low-$`z`$ objects and those of very young stellar populations at any redshift (Fig. 4). Because of this degeneracy, SIRTF data alone cannot be used as a reliable way to say that a galaxy is at $`z`$$``$1.5; neither can they be used to unambiguously identify high-$`z`$ galaxies that are dominated by very young stellar populations. Such degeneracies could possibly be broken with the addition of UV–optical data that enable the use of the Lyman break technique (e.g. Steidel et al. 1996) or of “traditional” photometric redshifts (e.g. Sawicki et al. 1997).
3. Photometric redshift of galaxies whose fits show them to be both at $`z`$$``$1.5 and older than $``$20 Myr can be relied on: there exists no confusion in Fig 5 between $`z`$$``$1.5 galaxies and older higher-$`z`$ objects, at least under the assumption (in force here) that all the errors in photometric redshifts arise from random errors in photometry. Rejecting galaxies whose photometric redshifts claim them to be either at $`z`$$``$1.5, or younger than $``$20 Myr, leaves a reliable core of objects which should be free of catastrophic errors in photometric redshift.
4. The expected scatter in photometric redshifts of objects with $`z`$$``$1.5 and ages$``$20Myr is smallest at $`z`$$``$2 and increases to higher redshifts. This increase results because IRAC colors become progressively flatter and more degenerate with increasing redshift (see Fig. 4) as the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump encroaches into the reddest (anchor) bandpass. The addition of a redder filter would provide an anchor bandpass that would improve the accuracy of photometric redshifts at $`z`$$``$3 and beyond. Fortunately, with IRAC data alone, the scatter is small at $`z`$$``$2, which is precisely the epoch where spectroscopic redshifts are hardest to secure. The epoch around $`z`$$``$2 is also the era where the cosmic star formation appears to plateau (e.g., Sawicki, Lin, & Yee 1997; Steidel et al. 1999) after its strong rise with lookback time from $`z`$=0 to $`z`$$``$1 (Lilly et al. 1996); the ability of SIRTF data to reliably select $`z`$$``$2 galaxies makes SIRTF surveys well-poised to fill the gap in our picture of the galaxy population at this crucial transitional epoch.
5. IRAC data alone are insufficient to provide strong constraints on galaxy ages. The ages of intrinsically very young stellar populations (age$``$10Myr) could in principle be constrained well if one could break the strong degeneracy between such objects and those at $`z`$$``$1.5 by the addition of bluer filters, or — ideally — spectroscopic redshifts. The ages of intrinsically older galaxies (age$``$50 Myr) are more difficult to constrain because IRAC colors at high $`z`$ do not evolve quickly with time. However, while the scatter in photometric redshifts increases with redshift past $`z`$$``$2, the accuracy of age determination improves because of the divergence of (primarily) m3.6$``$m8 colors at higher redshifts; the addition of bluer IR filters should allow ages to be constrain even more precisely.

Thus, it appears that SIRTF IRAC colors alone may be sufficient to measure photometric redshifts of high-$`z`$ galaxies, provided that care is taken to reject objects whose fits claim them to be either at $`z`$$``$1.5 or younger than $``$20 Myr (these redshift and age cut-offs can be adjusted depending on the size of the photometric uncertainties and on the desired balance between completeness and contamination of the sample). At $`z`$$``$1.5 the accuracy of photometric redshifts would greatly improve with the addition of $`H`$ and $`K`$ fluxes, while at higher redshifts ($`z`$$``$2.5) low-$`z`$ contaminants can potentially be separated from young high-$`z`$ galaxies by the addition of UV-optical data that are sensitive to the presence of the Lyman break. Overall, random photometric errors of reasonable size appear to allow photometric redshifts to be determined using SIRTF data over selected regions of parameter space.

### 3.2 Systematic Errors

So far only the effects of random photometric errors have been considered. However, given our incomplete state of knowledge about the nature of high-$`z`$ galaxies, there exist many potential sources of systematic error. If the spectral energy distributions of high-$`z`$ galaxies are different from what we assume, our photometric estimates of these galaxies’ redshifts may be biased. Metallicity effects, deviations from the expected makeup of the stellar populations, and the presence of dust can all modify the shape of the spectrum around 1.6$`\mu `$m, and thus can systematically bias photometric redshifts. This section considers what happens when the dust-free, constantly star-forming, $`Z`$=0.2 $`Z_{}`$ template grid of §3.1 is used to fit “observed” galaxies of discrepant metallicity, star formation history, or dust content.

#### 3.2.1 Dust

High-$`z`$ galaxies can be shrouded by substantial amounts of interstellar dust. For example, Sawicki & Yee (1998) found that some Lyman Break Galaxies in the HDF may be reddened by as much as $`E(BV)`$$``$0.4, or $`A_V`$$``$2 (see also Papovich, Dickinson, & Ferguson 2001; Shapley et al. 2001). Because interstellar dust tends to preferentially suppress flux in the blue, it can be expected to both shift the apparent wavelength of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump and to make the stellar population appear older.

To study the effect that dust may have on the accuracy of photometric redshifts, templates constructed from constantly star-forming, $`Z`$=0.2 $`Z_{}`$, dust-free GISSEL models (i.e., identical to those in §3.1) were used to fit “observed” galaxies that had the same metallicity and star formation history as these fitting templates, but were reddened with $`E(BV)`$=0.3 following the Calzetti (1997) starburst dust curve. Fit results are shown in Fig. 6; as with Fig. 5, input galaxies of agein=50 Myr and 1Gyr, and located at $`z_{in}`$=0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 4, were used. The asterisks in Fig 6 indicate the locations of these input parameters, while — as in Fig. 5 — filled circles and contours show the best-fit values and regions of 95% confidence for $`\sigma (i)`$=(0.05, 0.05, 0.075, 0.1) Gaussian photometric errors.

The dust-free template grid recovers faithfully (certainly to well within the 95% error bars in $`z_{fit}`$) the redshifts of the dusty “observed” galaxies. At $`z`$$`>`$3, the recovered ages are noticeably older than the input ones — presumably because dust preferentially suppresses flux blueward of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump, thereby mimicking the redder SEDs of older stellar populations. Nevertheless, the ability to determine redshifts from IRAC photometry is not compromised by a mismatch in dust content between the target galaxy and the fitting template grid. Provided the earlier caveats against accepting fits with $`z_{fit}`$$``$1.5 or agefit$``$20 Gyr are heeded, IRAC colors should allow faithful measurements of redshifts even in the presence of substantial amounts of dust.

#### 3.2.2 Star Formation History

The star formation histories of high-$`z`$ galaxies are at present not well understood (see, e.g., Sawicki & Yee 1998; Papovich et al. 2001; Shapley et al. 2001). Two extreme illustrative scenarios are (1) an instantaneous burst of star formation and (2) a constantly star-forming system. The effect of star formation history on the fidelity of photometric redshifts was studied by using the standard grid of constantly star-forming, $`Z`$=0.2 $`Z_{}`$, dust-free templates to fit “observed” galaxies that have the same metallicity and dust content as the grid, but which underwent only a single, instantaneous burst of star formation that occurred either 50Myr or 1Gyr (left and right-hand panels in Fig. 7, respectively) before being “observed.”

As Fig. 7 shows, despite a mismatch in star formation history between “observed” objects and fitting templates, redshifts of $`z_{in}`$$`>`$1.5 galaxies are recovered faithfully. At $`z_{in}`$$`>`$3, the ages of galaxies tend to be overestimated — a result of the deficit of young, blue stars in the instantaneous-burst “observed” galaxies that makes them seem older than they are when fit with constant SFR templates. Nevertheless, IRAC-based photometric redshifts can be trusted provided that, as before, one avoids objects with $`z_{fit}`$$``$1.5 or agefit$``$20Gyr.

#### 3.2.3 Metallicity

The creation of the H- ion relies on the presence of a supply of free electrons, and so the abundance of metals in stellar atmospheres may affect the strength of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump. A metal-poor object can be expected to have a less pronounced 1.6$`\mu `$m bump and a modified shape of the SED either side of the bump, potentially affecting both the recovered redshift and age of the target galaxy. Metallicities of high-$`z`$ galaxies are as yet poorly constrained, ranging at least over $`Z`$=0.2–1 $`Z_{}`$ for Lyman Break Galaxies (Kobulnicky & Koo 2000; Pettini et al. 2000, 2001; Teplitz et al. 2000), and extending to even lower values for damped Ly$`\alpha `$ systems (e.g., Pettini et al. 1999; Prochaska, Gawiser, & Wolfe 2001). To study the effect that metallicity has on the fidelity of photometric redshifts, the standard grid of constantly star-forming, $`Z`$=0.2 $`Z_{}`$, dust-free templates was used to fit “observed” galaxies that have the same star formation history and dust content as the grid, but which have either higher ($`Z_{in}`$ = $`Z_{}`$), or lower ($`Z_{in}`$=0.02 $`Z_{}`$) metallicities.

Fig. 8 shows the results of the fit for “observed” galaxies of solar metallicity (Fig. 9 shows fit results for $`Z_{in}`$=0.02 $`Z_{}`$). As Fig. 8 illustrates, photometric redshifts of “observed” galaxies that are more metal-rich than the fitting template grid are not strongly affected. At high redshift ($`z_{in}`$$``$4) the ages derived from the fit are overestimated — as expected given that metal-rich galaxies have a stronger 1.6$`\mu `$m bump that makes their age-sensitive $`\lambda _{rest}`$$`<`$1.6$`\mu `$m SEDs appear more depressed and, hence, older.

Fit results for “observed” galaxies that are more metal-poor than the template grid are shown in Fig. 9. Not surprisingly, at $`z_{in}`$$``$3 fit ages are younger than the true ages, agein. For intrinsically old galaxies (agein=1Gyr) this does not affect the recovery of redshift significantly. However, for intrinsically young objects (agein=50Myr), this underestimate of the true age pushes the fit into the region at agefit$``$10Myr that can be heavily degenerate with $`z_{fit}`$$``$1.5 solutions. Thus, while the redshifts of metal-rich high-$`z`$ galaxies should be recovered faithfully, IRAC colors alone are not sufficient to unambiguously identify high-$`z`$, very metal-poor galaxies that are dominated by young stellar populations (see also Simpson & Eisenhardt, 1999).

## 4 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

This paper considers the viability of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump as a photometric redshift indicator. In §2.2 it was shown that $`JKHL`$ photometry can be used to estimate the redshifts of $`z`$$`<`$1 galaxies, thus demonstrating with real data that the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump is a viable photometric redshift indicator. The analysis of the dependence of galaxy colors on redshift (§2.3) leads to the conclusion that photometric redshift signal at a given redshift comes primarily from two filters: an “anchor” filter which at all redshifts of interest remains in the invariant part of the spectrum redward of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump, and a second filter whose redshifted bandpass corresponds to 1.6$`\mu `$m. To cover an extensive redshift range and to reduce redshift degeneracies, one needs — in addition to the long-wavelength anchor filter that is always redward of (1+$`z`$)1.6$`\mu `$m — multiple filters that span the possible range of redshifted 1.6$`\mu `$m. Filters that are located blueward of the redshifted 1.6$`\mu `$m bump do not constrain redshift well, but instead provide information about the age of the stellar population. In this manner, the $`HKL`$ filter set was used to determine redshifts of galaxies at $`z`$$``$0–1 (the $`J`$ filter does not provide redshift information but could be used as an age indicator), while the SIRTF IRAC 3.6$`\mu `$m, 4.5$`\mu `$m, 5.8$`\mu `$m, 8$`\mu `$m filters can be expected to work at higher redshifts.

Simulations (§3.1) suggest that SIRTF IRAC colors alone may be sufficient to measure photometric redshifts of high-$`z`$ galaxies, provided that care is taken to reject the degenerate objects whose fits claim them to be either at $`z`$$``$1.5 or younger than $``$20 Myr (these redshift and age cut-offs can be adjusted depending on the levels of completeness and contamination that are acceptable). At higher redshifts ($`z`$$``$2.5) low-$`z`$ contaminants can be separated from young high-$`z`$ galaxies by the addition of UV-optical data that are sensitive to the presence of the Lyman break; at $`z`$$``$1.5, the accuracy of photometric redshifts would be restored with the addition of $`H`$ and $`K`$ bands.

As was illustrated in §3.2, the ability to determine photometric redshifts from IRAC photometry should not be significantly compromised by the unknown metallicities, dust content, and star formation histories of high-$`z`$ galaxies. Provided the caveats about rejecting galaxies with $`z_{fit}`$$``$1.5 or agefit$``$20Myr are followed, SIRTF-based photometric redshifts should provide a powerful way to estimate the redshifts of distant galaxies. With SIRTF IRAC data alone, photometric redshifts can be expected to be most accurate for galaxies at $`z`$$``$2, with the accuracy decreasing to higher redshifts; they can be expected to be completely inaccurate for galaxies at $`z`$$``$1.5. The epoch at $`z`$$``$2 is the transitional era where the cosmic star formation appears to plateau (e.g., Sawicki, Lin, & Yee 1997; Steidel et al. 1999) after its rapid rise with lookback time over 0$`<`$$`z`$$``$1 (Lilly et al. 1996); the expected high accuracy of IRAC photometric redshifts at $`z`$$``$2 means that SIRTF surveys are well-poised to study galaxies at this hitherto unexplored epoch of transition.

Although the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump can be used to provide a good estimate of redshift from SIRTF data, particularly at $`z`$$``$2, ages of stellar populations cannot be determined with great precision from SIRTF data alone at any redshift: large scatter in agefit can be expected in the presence of even small photometric uncertainties (§3.1), while significant systematic effects will be present due to the unknown metallicity, star formation history, and dust content of the target galaxy (§3.2). The addition of optical and near-IR data could alleviate some of these problems: while SIRTF data are used to estimate redshifts, near-IR data that span the age-sensitive rest-frame 4000Å break can be added to estimate ages, and dust effects can be constrained in the rest-UV with optical data (see, e.g., Sawicki & Yee, 1998). The addition of spectroscopic redshifts might then free the SIRTF photometry to be used to better constrain star formation histories and/or metallicities of distant galaxies. It is beyond the scope of this paper to explore what constraints can be placed on the evolutionary parameters of high-$`z`$ galaxies by multiwavelength photometry augmented by spectroscopic redshifts; however, such studies that combine spectroscopy with photometry that ranges from rest-frame UV to IR are sure to be an important path to understanding the nature of distant galaxies.

Although §2.2 illustrates that reliable photometric redshifts are possible using the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump, the essential test of the 1.6$`\mu `$m bump as a photometric redshift indicator for SIRTF will come only in the form of a comparison between spectroscopic redshifts and photometric ones based on SIRTF data. The 1.6$`\mu `$m bump technique is expected to be most useful at $`z`$$``$2 — precisely where our ability to determine spectroscopic redshifts is limited by the lack of readily accessible strong spectral features. However, we should be able to reliably assemble large samples of $`z`$$``$2 galaxies by first using photometric redshifts to select $`z`$$``$2 candidates, then obtaining spectroscopic redshifts using deep spectroscopy that targets absorption lines that are weak but accessible in the optical (e.g., C IV 1550, Mg II 1670), and finally using the spectroscopic redshifts to test and calibrate the photometric redshifts. The 1.6$`\mu `$m bump photometric redshift technique applied to SIRTF (and, later, NGST) data appears to be ideally suited to allow a detailed study of galaxies at the crucial epoch around $`z`$$``$2.

This work has benefitted from my interactions with Doug Johnstone, Keith Matthews, Gerry Neugebauer, Tom Soifer, Howard Yee, and the anonymous referee. I thank all of them for their diverse contributions.


text:
# Baryonic coherent state formation from small domain disoriented chiral condensates

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Ever since the first proposal  of using strange hadrons as a probe of the formation of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in relativistic heavy ion collisions, the yields of strange hyperons remain a large part of the standard observables for verifying the detection of any enhancement. In this respect, it is also a goal of numerical models to simulate the amount of this yield in order to make sure that we have understood the underlying production mechanisms that may occur in these collisions. Data from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), which came out gradually over a number of years, have allowed theorists to perform exactly this kind of comparison. It turned out that the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ had proved to be the most stubborn and challenging of the hyperons for numerical models. At the same time thermal fits can be done to most yields of the hadrons without too much of a problem with the exception of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$. In  it was shown that the fits improved dramatically by an order of magnitude as measured by the value of $`\chi ^2`$ (one can of course fit even the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ by lifting the requirement of the best fits should have small $`\chi ^2`$ and allow for arbitrary large $`\chi ^2`$). The general tendency is that there are more $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ than expected even after taking into account of QGP formation (in which case thermal model should suffice). This indicates that another production mechanism is at work.

## 2 PRODUCING HYPERONS FROM DISORIENTED CHIRAL CONDENSATES

It has been pointed out in  that DCC could produce hyperons. Although they were more readily associated with pions, hyperon production is indeed possible when topological defects are created during the chiral phase transition. The remnants in this case are the so-called skyrmions from the Skyrme Model. Skyrmions are well known to be baryons, hence the connection of hyperons to DCC. To test this possibility against data, one has to have two pieces of information. One is the likelihood of a defect being created in the phase transition, and the other is the relative abundance to one another of all the observable baryons that will be produced from a skyrmion. The first piece of information was obtained in ref. . It tells us that in terms of the correlation length $`\xi `$, there should be about $`0.8`$ skyrmion and antiskyrmion per correlation volume $`\xi ^3`$. By itself, this is not sufficient for verifying the hypothesis of hyperon production from DCC. In  one moved forward regardless by taking an assumption on the second piece of needed information, that is equal production probability of any octet and decuplet baryons from a skyrmion was assumed. From this one can deduce from the SPS data that $`\xi 2.0`$ fm. This is within the range expected from theoretical considerations  and is too small for observing DCC using pion distribution . Therefore the possibility is compatible with the existing data and all available information. It is now time for a refined treatment. Improvements can be done in a number of ways but shall be restricted to the removal the assumption of equal likelihood of any type of baryons being produced from a skyrmion.

## 3 BARYON DISTRIBUTION IN A SKYRMION

In experiments one cannot observe a skyrmion directly, since it is not a single observable hadron. It is essential to know exactly what the skyrmion is in terms of the well known baryons. In  it was argued that a skyrmion must necessarily be a coherent state of baryons. In other words it is a superposition of physical baryon states. Being faithful to the original Skyrme model and the set of wavefunctions derived from it using the collective coordinate approach , one can construct coherent states using these as ingredients. The baryon wavefunctions of  all live on $`S^3`$. Therefore the coherent states must also live in this compact space. Coherent states on compact manifolds may sound unfamiliar to a heavy ion physicist but not so in the field of quantum gravity and functional analysis. The basic method and related issues are outlined in a series of papers by different authors . The method itself is not based explicitly on observable states of the Hamiltonian but rather on the position space of the manifold itself. It so happens that the collective coordinate quantization of the Skyrme model produces both spin one-half physical states and integral spin nonphysical states . Therefore one has to be careful that no nonphysical states are actually present in the coherent states that represent the skyrmions.

The method of  requires the construction of annihilation operators and from there one obtains the coherent states as the simultaneous eigenstates of the operators. The annihilation operators in the case of the Skyrme model are of the form

$$\widehat{A}_b=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right)\widehat{a}_b\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right)$$
(1)
where $`\lambda `$ is a constant in the Skyrme Hamiltonian, $`\omega `$ is a fundamental energy scale of the problem, $`\widehat{a}_b`$ ($`b=0,1,2,3`$) are the position operators on the compact manifold of $`S^3`$ and $`\widehat{J}_i`$ are the spin angular momentum operators. One can easily see that the eigenstates must be given by

$$|\psi ,a=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right)|a$$
(2)
with the eigenvalues given by the position label $`a`$. This is, however, not sufficient because the real $`a`$ does not contain enough information to label a coherent state. It must carry information of both position and momentum. To qualify it has first to be analytically continued to complex $`a^{}`$. One now has

$$|\psi ,a^{}=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right)|a^{}.$$
(3)
To check that it has the required physical properties to be a coherent state of baryons, a complete set of spin and isospin states of the Skyrme Hamiltonian is inserted

$$|\psi ,a^{}=\underset{j,m,n,/2}{}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right)|j,m,nj,m,n|a^{}.$$
(4)
As already mentioned the sum over states includes both integral and half-integral (iso)spin states which naturally presents a problem. The simplest solution seems to be to drop all the integral spin states from Eq. (4) but that apparently does not solve the problem. The Skyrme model is usually quantized using the $`SU(2)`$ collective coordinates , hence the coordinates operators are $`\widehat{a}_b`$. The algebra of $`SU(2)`$ dictates that for example $`[\widehat{J}_3,\widehat{a}][\widehat{I}_3,\widehat{a}]\frac{1}{2}\widehat{a}`$, so $`\widehat{a}`$ acting on $`|j,m,n`$ will change $`(j,m,n)`$ from half-integral numbers to integral numbers. Therefore a pure fermion version of Eq. (4) cannot stay within the fermionic space forever. Physical and unphysical states will mix.

A solution to this is to first map from $`SU(2)`$ to $`SO(3)`$  using $`A\tau _iA^{}=\tau _jR_{ji}`$ where $`A=a_0+i\tau _ia_i`$. The resulting nine $`SO(3)`$ coordinate operators $`\widehat{R}_{ij}`$ keeps $`|j,m,n`$ a fermion state if it is one to begin with, because of the algebra $`[\widehat{J}_3,\widehat{R}][\widehat{I}_3,\widehat{R}]\widehat{R}.`$ The solution is then to use the $`SO(3)`$ operators in combination with the original $`SU(2)`$ baryon states of . The annihilation operators become

$$\widehat{A}_{ij}=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right)\widehat{R}_{ij}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right).$$
(5)
So finally one can equate

$$|\psi ,a^{}=\underset{j,m,n/2}{}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{2\lambda \omega }\widehat{J}^2\right)|j,m,nj,m,n|a^{}|S$$
(6)
with a skyrmion. The probability of the skyrmion being in any of the baryon states $`|j,m,n`$ is given by the modulus squared of the coefficient divided by the normalization.

Clearly that the assumption made in  of equal probability for any of the baryon states to emerge from a skyrmion isn’t exactly correct. Applying the above result at low energy appropriate to DCC, using the octet and decuplet baryon mass difference and setting the fundamental energy scale at $`\omega T_c`$ since this is the only scale available, one finds that the instead of 1:1, the octet to decuplet baryon ratio is between 5:1 to 14:1 depending on the exact value of $`T_c`$ used (150–200 MeV). Now proceeding again as in  but with the use of this new found information, one deduces that the domain size is now even smaller but not unreasonably small at $`\xi `$ 1.1–1.5 fm. Because both the SPS data and the probability of skyrmion formation per unit correlation volume do not change, there must be more skyrmions to compensate for this reduction in domain size. This increase is at least double that from the previous estimate of 14 to 30–65.

In conclusion even with the refined treatment of the skyrmions, this mechanism for the production of excess hyperons is still compatible with all the existing SPS data and the theoretical expectation on the small size of the DCC domains. In  it was mentioned that if the system was in equilibrium the domain size would be too small for the observation of DCC through pions. This is assuming that one is using pion distribution as the basis of observation. The mechanism discussed here does not rely on pions and the small size of the domains will not preclude them from being observed. In fact they thrives on small $`\xi `$ . Details of the work done here will be reported elsewhere . Another way to observe DCC also discussed in this conference , when the domain size is small, is by using pion/kaon fluctuations proposed in . Although any attempts so far at detecting DCC have been unsuccessful, they are all based on the premise that the domain size has to be large. It is definitely about time that this old strategy be set aside and new ones be further developed to take into account of the possibility that DCC are formed only in small domains.