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# Limits of Confinement: The First 15 Years of Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Studies

## 1 The Beginning

It all began with the idea of an intrinsic limit to hadron thermodynamics. During the past fifty years, different conceptual approaches had led to an ultimate temperature of strongly interacting matter. Pomeranchuk  first obtained it from the finite spatial extension of hadrons: a hadron can only have an independent existence if it has an independent volume. Then Hagedorn  arrived at a limiting temperature by postulating a self-similar hadronic resonance composition: a resonance consists of resonances which consist of resonances, and so on. The resulting excitation spectrum was later also derived in the dual resonance model . With the advent of the quark infrastructure of hadrons and of quantum chromodynamics, it became clear that the ultimate temperature found in all these considerations was really a transition point to a new state of matter, to a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons .

Statistical QCD, in particular in the finite temperature lattice formulation, has subsequently confirmed this hypothesis: at a now rather well determined temperature (for vanishing baryon density, $`T_c150180`$ MeV), strongly interacting matter undergoes a transition from a medium of color singlet hadronic constituents to one of deconfined colored quarks and gluons . The energy density at the transition point was found to be $`ϵ(T_c)0.71.0`$ GeV/fm3. Moreover, the transition turns a hadronic state of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry into a quark-gluon plasma in which this symmetry is restored: at $`T_c`$, the effective constituent quark mass of some 0.3 GeV vanishes, and we recover the bare quark mass of the QCD Lagrangian.

The obvious desire to test this fascinating phase structure of strongly interacting matter first led to the fixed target experiments at the AGS in Brookhaven (with $`\sqrt{s}5`$ GeV) and at the CERN-SPS (with $`\sqrt{s}20`$ GeV). In 1986/87, light ion beams on heavy ion targets started the program, and in 1994/95, heavy ion beams followed. Today, much of this program is concluded. So, what have we learned during the past fifteen years? In this opening talk, I will address that question by asking:

* What did we expect to find?
* What did we find?
* What does that tell us?

In my report, I will first recall briefly the expectations concerning signatures at the beginning of the experimental heavy ion program at the AGS and SPS in 1986 and then summarize what had really been found when it was (in first generation experiments) completed in 2000. Following this, I will try to indicate what conclusions can be drawn from these results, for the conditions reached, from the hard probes of the early stages and from the observed hadronisation pattern at freeze-out.

## 2 Hopes

The evolution of a high energy nucleus-nucleus collision was pictured in the form shown in Fig. 1. After a rather short equilibration time $`\tau _01`$ fm, the presence of a thermalized medium was assumed, and for sufficiently high initial energy densities, this medium would be in the quark-gluon plasma phase.

The initial energy density of the produced medium at the time of thermalization was (and still is) generally determined by the Bjorken estimate

$$ϵ=\left(\frac{dN_h}{dy}\right)_{y=0}\frac{w_h}{\pi R_A^2\tau _0},$$
(1)
where $`(dN_h/dy)_{y=0}`$ specifies the number of hadronic secondaries emitted per unit rapidity at mid-rapidity and $`w_h`$ their average energy. The effective initial volume is determined in the transverse plane by the nuclear radius $`R_A`$, and longitudinally by the formation time $`\tau _0`$ of the thermal medium.

The temperature of the produced medium was assumed to be observable through the transverse mass spectrum of thermal dileptons and the momentum spectrum of thermal photons . The observation of thermal dilepton/photon spectra would also indicate that the medium was indeed in thermal equilibrium. The functional form of the spectra is the same for radiation from hadronic matter and from a QGP; but the observed rates and temperatures were expected to differ in the two cases. It was clear from the beginning that these signals would be emitted during the entire thermal evolution of the system, making a separation of different phases of origin not very straight-forward.

The determination of the nature of the hot initial phase required a signature sensitive to deconfinement. It was argued that in a deconfined medium the J/$`\psi `$ would melt through color screening  and that, therefore, QGP production should lead to a suppression of J/$`\psi `$ production in nuclear collisions, compared to the rates extrapolated from $`pp`$ data. Similarly, the QGP was expected to result in a higher energy loss for a fast passing color charge than a hadronic medium, so that jet quenching  should also signal deconfinement.

The behavior of sufficiently short-lived resonances, in particular the dilepton decay of the $`\rho `$, was considered as a viable tool to study the hadronic medium in its interacting stage and thus provide information on the approach to chiral symmetry restoration .

The expansion of the hot medium was thought to be measurable through broadening and azimuthal anisotropies of hadronic transverse momentum spectra . The size and age of the source at freeze-out was assumed to be obtainable through Hanbury-Brown–Twiss (HBT) interferometry based on two-particle correlations . It was expected that increasing the collision energy would increase the density and hence the expansion of the produced medium, so that the HBT radii should grow with $`\sqrt{s}`$.

The final interacting hadronic medium was discussed in terms of an ideal resonance gas, following an old suggestion  brought to hadron physics by Hagedorn : an interacting system of elementary constituents can be replaced by a non-interacting gas of resonances, provided the elementary interactions are resonance-dominated. This would provide the relative abundances of all hadron species in terms of just two parameters, the temperature and the baryon number density. One particularly interesting feature here was the fact that in elementary hadronic interactions, an overall reduction of strangeness production was observed. Nuclear collisions, in particular if leading to a QGP as initial stage , were expected to remove this reduction and lead to strangenes production in accord with thermal predictions.

## 3 Facts

The initial energy density, as specified by the Bjorken estimate, Eq. (1), was measured in almost all SPS experiments. In Fig. 3 we show $`ϵ`$ as function of centrality, determined by the number of participant nucleons ; it covers the range from somewhat above 1 to almost 3.5 GeV/fm3. Finite temperature lattice calculations, as already mentioned, give for the energy density at deconfinement, $`ϵ(T_c)`$, values around or slightly below 1 GeV/fm3 . However, also high energy $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions lead to energy density estimates well above 1 GeV/fm3.

Thermal photon or dilepton spectra have so far not been unambiguously identified. Some photon excess over the expected hadronic decay yield has been reported , but its interpretation is still open. An observed excess of dileptons in the mass range between the $`\varphi `$ and the J/$`\psi `$  has been attributed to thermal emission during the evolution of the system , but only a small fraction would be due to the hot early stage; also here, more data is needed to understand the origin of the observed effects.

J/$`\psi `$ production was found to be suppressed in O-U, S-U and then Pb-Pb collisions; the suppression always increases with centrality . Studying p-A collisions, it was observed that already normal nuclear matter leads to reduced charmonium production. Extrapolating this ‘normal’ suppression to $`AB`$ interactions is enough to account for the observed yields up to central S-U collisions. In central Pb-Pb collisions, however, an additional ‘anomalous’ suppression was observed . Peripheral Pb-Pb collisions follow the normal pattern; then, with increasing centrality (measured either through the associated transverse energy or through the number of participating nucleons), there is a pronounced onset of further suppression (Fig. 3). The very peripheral data points shown in this figure are somewhat above the normal suppression curve; this was shown to be due to beam-air interactions and is no longer the case in the data collected in year 2000, when the target was placed in vacuum .

The dilepton mass spectrum in the region below the $`\rho `$ peak was indeed found to differ considerably from the yield and form expected from known hadronic sources , indicating the presence of in-medium resonance modifications (Fig. 5). This ‘low mass dilepton enhancement’ is observed in S-U and Pb-Pb collisions, and for the latter at beam energies of 40 GeV as well as of 160 GeV. The broadening of transverse momentum spectra, expected as consequence of transverse flow, was observed in the predicted form of increasing broadening with hadron mass. If parametrized in terms of radial flow , the extracted flow velocity $`\beta _T`$ appears to saturate with increasing collision energy (Fig. 5).

The transverse momentum spectra, moreover, also showed the azimuthal anisotropy predicted for non-central collisions. The behavior shown in Fig. 8 indicates at low collision energy a reduced emission in the transverse direction, where spectator nucleons are present; at high energy, there is enhanced production in the direction of the higher pressure gradient as determined by the anisotropic interaction volume .

The expected increase of source size in HBT correlation studies has not been observed; instead, one finds that, with increasing collision energy, the observed source radii are essentially determined by those of the involved nuclei . Thus one finds $`R_{\mathrm{side}}R_{\mathrm{out}}56`$ fm for Au-Au/Pb-Pb collisions from AGS to SPS (and on to RHIC), as seen in Fig. 8. This is to be contrasted to predicted values for Pb-Pb collisions ranging from 14 fm for the SPS to 20 fm for RHIC, if freeze-out occurs when the mean free path of a hadron exceeds the system size

$$R_f0.7\left(\frac{dN_h}{dy}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(2)
For a freeze-out at the ideal pion gas energy density, one has $`R_f(dN_h/dy)^{1/3}`$, which increases from 9 to 12 fm between SPS and RHIC energies. Another unexpected feature is that the outward and sideward radii, $`R_{\mathrm{out}}`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{side}}`$, whose difference could provide information about the life-time of the emitting medium, appear to be approximately equal. The HBT source radii in nuclear collisions thus seem to be energy-independent and fixed by the initial nuclear size .

Hadron abundances showed the expected enhancement of strangeness production; in Fig. 8 we show the most striking example, where the production of strange baryons is increased up to 10 times and more in comparison to $`pp`$ rates . In Fig. 11, it is seen that, quite generally, the Wroblewski measure for strangeness content is about a factor two higher in $`AA`$ collisions than in elementary particle reactions. Of course, the role of the changing baryon density has to be kept in mind when comparing strangeness production in $`pp`$ and $`AA`$ collisions, or among $`AA`$ collisions of different energies.

Nevertheless, in all cases the abundance of the different hadron species is very well described by an ideal resonance gas. A fit to the latest NA49 data is shown in Fig. 11 . The hadronization temperature increases with increasing collision energy and converges for all hadron production, from $`e^+e^{}`$ and $`pp/p\overline{p}`$ to high energy $`AA`$ collisions, to a stable value around 150–180 MeV; see Figs. 5 and 11. The associated baryo-chemical potential decreases when going from AGS to SPS and on to RHIC.

## 4 Lessons

What can we learn from the results just listed? On the one hand, this is still a rather subjective issue, and so I proceed with due apologies to all those who feel that I have misunderstood what nature is trying to tell us. On the other hand, our theoretical understanding is presently at what might be a crucial point. It was and is generally thought that high energy nuclear collisions will produce a thermalized medium of deconfined quarks and gluons, so that we can test the predictions of finite temperature statistical QCD. In recent years, however, the role of the primary parton state has been emphasized in two independent but closely related approaches, color glass condensation  and parton percolation . We are thus today confronted with the interesting question of knowing what part of the observable features of nuclear collisions are determined by the primary initial conditions, before any thermalization may take place.

Assuming thermal equilibration, with $`\tau _01`$ fm, the initial energy densities in central Pb-Pb collisions at the SPS are estimated to reach 3 GeV/fm3 or more. What kind of medium can we have at this stage — could it be hadronic matter, a system of hadronic comovers of some kind? I believe that the answer is a clear NO. The average energy per hadron in these reactions is around 0.5 GeV, so that the mentioned energy density estimates would imply a hadron density of some 6 hadrons/fm3. The hadronic mean free path in such a medium, $`\lambda =1/n_h\sigma _h`$, reaches something like $`\lambda 0.06`$ fm, with a typical hadron-hadron interaction cross section of around 30 mb. The time needed by a hadron to react to a single collision is around 1 fm, and in that time it travels a distance $`1`$ fm. In other words, the hadron undergoes almost twenty collisions in the time it needs to react to a single one. This rules out any medium consisting of independent hadrons .

If the produced medium is not hadronic, does that mean that it is a quark-gluon plasma? The answer is not as easy as we once thought, so let us approach this problem slowly and carefully.

In a comparative study of the hadronization temperature $`T_H`$ as function of the initial energy density for different production processes, from $`e^+e^{}`$ and $`pp/p\overline{p}`$ reactions up to the heaviest $`AA`$ collisions, we have to take into account the different values of the associated baryo-chemical potential. Since in all cases hadronization can be described in terms of an ideal resonance gas, we can extrapolate the baryon-rich low energy $`AA`$ results at constant entropy to $`\mu _B=0`$; the resulting behavior is shown in Fig. 13 . It is quite striking: above some threshold value $`ϵ_c1`$ GeV/fm3, putting more energy into the system has no effect on the critical temperature $`T_H`$ which determines the hadron abundances. In the end, Hagedorn was right . This is like observing that water vapor always condenses to water at 100 C, whatever was the initial temperature of the vapor. While this shows that the water at the condensation point gives no information about the earlier vapor temperatures, it also indicates that the condensation process exhibits critical behavior. In the same way, a constant $`T_H`$ for hadronic matter of arbitrarily high energy densities appears to signal critical behavior . With this in mind, we now look once more at the experimental numbers. The saturation temperature is 150–180 MeV, and is reached for $`ϵ1`$ GeV/fm3; both values are in excellent agreement with the mentioned results from lattice QCD studies . For very small or vanishing baryon density, experiment and theory thus fully agree on the boundary of hadron physics.

Extending the resonance gas analysis of species abundances to finite baryon density, one obtains the ‘chemical’ freeze-out curve  in the $`T\mu _B`$ plane; it is illustrated schematically in Fig. 13. Also included in this figure are the thermal freeze-out curve (obtained from a flow analysis of transverse momentum spectra) and the expected deconfinement transition curve . Some first and quite promising attempts of lattice gauge theory to study deconfinement at non-zero baryo-chemical potential, $`\mu _B`$, agree with the deconfinement curve for $`\mu _B0.8`$ GeV . It is clear that the deconfinement curve must lie above the freeze-out curve at large $`\mu _B`$: the interactions in cold dense nuclear matter are dominated by baryon repulsion and hence cannot be described in terms of an ideal resonance gas. At $`T=0`$, freeze-out occurs at normal nuclear matter density, where baryon repulsion and attractive (pion exchange) interactions just balance each other. Neutron stars are examples of confined states of higher baryon densities.

Since Figs. 11, 13 and 13 include both data from elementary particle and from nuclear collisions, statistical hadron abundances alone are not sufficient to indicate the presence of a large-scale system. Therefore, it is necessary to check if $`AA`$ collisions produce large thermal systems or just the sum of the smaller ones. The answer to that question is obtained through the study of strangeness production. In elementary particle collisions, there is an overall suppression of strange particle production compared to the predictions of the grand canonical form of an ideal resonance gas. This can be interpreted as the consequence of local strangeness conservation: if only one $`s\overline{s}`$ pair is formed in the gas, the corresponding Boltzmann factor should be $`\mathrm{exp}\{2m_s/T\}`$, instead of the grand canonical form $`\mathrm{exp}\{m_s/T\}`$. If nuclear collisions lead to a connected large-scale system, strangeness conservation can occur between the products from different nuclei, leading to the grand canonical Boltzmann factor. As a consequence, we expect for the Wroblewski measure in elementary particle collisions

$$\lambda _s\frac{2<s\overline{s}>}{+<d\overline{d}>}\mathrm{exp}\{2m_s/T\}0.2,$$
(3)
while central high energy $`AA`$ collisions should approach

$$\lambda _s\mathrm{exp}\{m_s/T\}0.4.$$
(4)
Keeping in mind that the different baryon densities also lead to modifications, we see in Fig. 11 that Eqs. (3) and (4) are in fact quite well satisfied. We thus conclude that nuclear collisions indeed produce large-scale connected systems.

The observed behavior of the hadronic transverse momentum spectra is also often taken as indication for collective behavior of the produced medium. In particular, azimuthal asymmetries seem to indicate that global effects influence the spatial hadron emission: in non-central collisions, there is more (elliptic) flow in the direction of the greater pressure gradient. For the time being, however, it is not so easy to reconcile a constant radial flow velocity at high energy (Fig. 5) and energy-independent HBT radii of nuclear size (Fig. 8) with an initial state of partonic matter at higher and higher energy densities. Apparently a change of conditions in the pre-hadronic phase, whatever its nature, is not reflected in radial flow or source size.

We conclude that there seems to be a universal limit to the hadronization regime in high energy nuclear collisions; the abundances of the produced hadron species, including the strange ones, are determined by values of temperature and energy density in good agreement with what is known about the confined region of the QCD phase diagram. As function of the incident energy, the hadronization temperature $`T_H`$, the strangeness content $`\lambda _s`$ and the transverse momentum broadening (radial flow velocity $`\beta _T`$) all seem to converge to constant values. The value of the temperature $`T_H150180`$ MeV and of the corresponding energy densities agree with the confinement/deconfinement transition values obtained in lattice QCD. The strangeness content agrees with what is expected from the value of the Boltzmann factor $`\mathrm{exp}\{m_s/T\}`$ at $`T=T_H`$. In fact, even the low mass dilepton enhancement appears to remain essentially invariant under changes of nuclear size and of collision energy (in the SPS range). The origin of the effect is not yet really clear (see, however, ), but low mass dilepton production does seem to behave in the same way as the mentioned hadronic observables. Since it may be the most sensitive to changes in the initial baryon density , this observation could be a reflection of the weak $`\mu `$-dependence of the confinement limit in the small $`\mu `$ region.

Before analyzing the earlier stages of the nuclear collisions, we briefly mention attempts to include charmonium production in a statistical hadronization scheme, either by assuming thermal formation at the freeze-out point $`T=T_H`$ of the resonance gas , or by assuming a thermal distribution of the produced $`c\overline{c}`$ pairs among the different possible open and hidden charm channels . To evaluate the viability of these approaches, we recall that J/$`\psi `$ production from $`pp`$ to central S-U and peripheral Pb-Pb collisions is seen to be in accord with the normal nuclear suppression determined in p-A interactions. In contrast, more central Pb-Pb collisions show a well-defined onset of anomalous suppression in a narrow centrality range, seen both in the ratio of J/$`\psi `$ to Drell-Yan production and in the overall J/$`\psi `$ yield (see Fig. 3). Such an onset cannot be obtained in any thermal production model, nor can the centrality-dependent $`\psi ^{}`$/$`\psi `$ ratio found in S-U collisions . Hence, the present data indicate that the production and subsequent fate of charmonium states in nuclear collisions differ significantly from that of light hadrons. We shall return shortly to the interpretation of the observed charmonium patterns.

The study of the behavior of (light quark) hadrons has thus provided us with clear indications determining where the hadronic regime ends. It does not tell us, however, where the QGP begins. High energy elementary particle collisions lead to initial energy density estimates higher than those of Pb-Pb collisions at SPS or RHIC energies (see Fig. 13); for the resulting hadronization temperatures we always get the universal $`T_H`$. Therefore, one has tried to find evidence for pre-hadronic interactions, between partons from different sources. In $`e^+e^{}`$ interactions at LEP energies ($`\sqrt{s}200`$ GeV), this can be done by comparing hadron multiplicities in two-jet and four-jet decays of $`W^+W^{}`$ pairs produced essentially at rest (see Fig. 14). ‘Cross talk’ between jets from different $`W`$’s should be reflected in hadron multiplicities, with the prediction  that $`N_h(4jet)<2N_h(2jet)`$. The data do not show any evidence for such ‘color interconnection’ , even though the energy density calculated according to the Bjorken estimate (1) reaches values around 2 GeV/fm3. The partons from different sources simply don’t seem to know of each other. Color interconnection is clearly a prerequisite for thermalization on a partonic level; hence $`ϵ1`$ GeV/fm3 is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for QGP formation. We must somehow assure that the partons in the early stages of the collision reach a density so high that they interact and allow color interconnection to set in. In other words, the pertinent question is: when do the individual partons from the different nucleons of the colliding nuclei condense to form a large connected cluster?

From percolation theory , it is known that the formation of large-scale clusters is a critical phenomenon; it does not occur gradually as function of parton density. In the ‘thermodynamic’ limit of large nuclei, the cluster size diverges at a specific critical parton density, and even for finite systems it suddenly increases in a very narrow band of density. Thus there exists a statistical approach to critical behavior which does not pre-suppose thermalization and which can be applied to the pre-equilibrium stage of the nuclear collision evolution .

In a central high energy nucleus-nucleus collision, the partons in the two nuclei lead in the transverse plane to an initial condition schematically illustrated in Fig. 15. The transverse size of the partons is essentially determined by the intrinsic transverse momentum, $`\sigma _q\pi /k_T^2`$. The number of partons contained in a nucleon is known from deep inelastic scattering experiments. It is parametrized by a parton distribution function depending on the fraction $`x=k/p`$ (denoting parton and nucleon momenta by $`k`$ and $`p`$, respectively) and on the scale $`Q`$ used to resolve the nucleonic parton structure. While in lepton-hadron scattering the scale is set by the virtual photon, in minimum bias nucleon-nucleon or $`AA`$ collisions it is determined by the transverse momentum of the partons themselves.

We denote the nuclear radius in Fig. 15 by $`R`$, the average parton radius by $`r`$, and then study the variation of the average cluster size as function of the parton density $`n=N_{\mathrm{parton}}/\pi R^2`$. In the limit $`R\mathrm{}`$, the cluster size diverges at the percolation threshold $`n_p1.13/\pi r^2`$:

$$S_{cl}(n_pn)^\gamma ,$$
(5)
with the critical exponent $`\gamma =43/18`$ . Percolation thus specifies the onset of connection as a critical phenomenon. For finite $`R`$, there is a pronounced but finite peak at a slightly shifted density, as shown in Fig. 16.

To apply this formalism to nuclear collisions , we need the transverse parton size and the effective number of partons for a given collision configuration. The distribution of partons in a nucleon is determined in the analysis of deep inelastic scattering data; per nucleon in a nucleon-nucleon collision, at mid-rapidity and for c.m.s. energy $`\sqrt{s}`$, one has

$$N_{\mathrm{parton}}(x,Q^2)=\left(\frac{dN_q}{dy}\right)_{y=0}=xg(x,Q^2)+[xq(x,Q^2)+x\overline{q}(x,Q^2)],$$
(6)
where $`g,q,\overline{q}`$ label the gluon, quark and antiquark distributions, respectively, and the sum runs over the quark species. At $`y=0`$, the fractional parton momentum $`x=k/p`$ becomes $`x=Q/\sqrt{s}`$. As shown in Fig. 15, there is a distribution of partons of different transverse sizes up to the resolution scale $`Q^2`$; we approximate this by the average value $`\pi <r^2>\pi /Q^2`$.

In nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS energies, it is a good approximation to consider that the activated partons originate from wounded or participant nucleons. At higher energies, there will also exist collision-dependent contributions .

We thus obtain for central $`AA`$ collisions the percolation condition

$$\frac{2A}{\pi R_A^2}N_{\mathrm{parton}}(x,Q^2)=\frac{1.13}{\pi Q^2};$$
(7)
it determines the onset of color connection as function of $`A`$ and of the c.m. collision energy $`\sqrt{s}`$. At $`\sqrt{s}=20`$ GeV, we obtain :

for $`A<60`$, no color connection,

for $`A>60`$, a connected parton condensate.

The parton condensate formed beyond the percolation point consists of overlapping and hence interacting partons from all involved nucleons. It thus constitutes a deconfined pre-thermal medium, which is a necessary precursor for QGP formation, since color connection is a prerequisite for thermalization. The parton condensate is characterized by a scale $`Q=Q_s`$, where $`Q_s(A,\sqrt{s})`$ specifies the onset of percolation for central collisions at a given $`A`$ and $`\sqrt{s}`$. The average transverse momentum of partons in the condensate is determined by this scale, so that $`Q_s`$ is in a sense a precursor of temperature. Increasing $`A`$ or $`\sqrt{s}`$ leads to higher $`Q_s`$, indicating something like a “hotter” medium.

We have here concentrated on the onset of parton condensation as a critical phenomenon determined by percolation of quarks and gluons as geometric entities in the transverse plane. The behavior of the dense parton condensate in the limit of large $`A`$ and $`\sqrt{s}`$, the color glass condensate, has been studied intensively over the past years in terms of classical color fields. It is becoming increasingly clear from these studies that the pre-equilibrium stage plays a much more decisive role in nuclear collisions than previously envisioned. In the last part of this section, we consider one interesting experimental consequence of the onset of parton condensation.

To study this onset as function of centrality in a given $`AA`$ collision, we have to replace $`2A/\pi R_A^2`$ in Eq. (7) by the density of wounded nucleons $`n_w(b)`$ calculated for a given impact parameter $`b`$, using the actual nuclear profile (Woods-Saxon). For Pb-Pb collisions at $`\sqrt{s}=17`$ GeV, this leads to

for $`N_w<150`$, no color connection,

for $`N_w>150`$, a connected parton condensate.

Instead of the impact parameter, we have here used the number of wounded nucleons to specify the collision centrality, with $`N_w390`$ for $`b=0`$. Note that at this threshold point, the Bjorken estimate for the energy density gives $`2.5`$ GeV/fm3. This clearly shows that the onset of color connection only occurs at a much higher energy density than the value given by finite temperature lattice QCD for a thermalized medium.

As mentioned above, charmonium suppression in nuclear collisons was one of the proposed signatures for quark-gluon plasma formation. In the light of present thinking, we have to consider the fate of the charmonium states already in the parton condensate phase. This can be addressed in different ways, invoking generalized color screening , dipole break-up in a random color field , etc. We shall here simply consider the intrinsic scale $`Q_i`$ of a given charmonium state $`i`$ (J/$`\psi `$, $`\chi _c`$, $`\psi ^{}`$) and assume that when it is exceeded by the condensate scale,

$$Q_s>Q_i,$$
(8)
the charmonium state is dissolved. We are thus assuming that $`Q_s`$ plays in the pre-equilibrium state the role of the critical temperature or of the screening mass in a thermal medium.

To show the consequences of this assumption, we must first recall that J/$`\psi `$ production in hadronic collisions occurs in part through feed-down from higher excited states: about 60 % of the observed J/$`\psi `$ in proton-proton collisions are directly produced $`(1S)`$ states, the remaining 40 % coming from $`\chi _c`$ ($``$ 30 %) and $`\psi ^{}`$ ($``$ 10 %) decays. The intrinsic scales of these states are given by their radii,

$$r_{\mathrm{J}/\psi }(0.9\mathrm{GeV})^1,r_\chi (0.6\mathrm{GeV})^1,r_\psi ^{}(0.6\mathrm{GeV})^1.$$
(9)
From the centrality dependence of $`Q_s`$ shown in Fig. 17, we find that, at SPS energies, charmonia suppression sets in at

$`N_w>150`$ for the $`\chi _c`$ and $`\psi ^{}`$ contributions,

$`N_w>250`$ for direct J/$`\psi `$ production,

to be compared with the observed pattern shown in Fig. 18. Obviously these results must be studied in more detail, but it appears quite likely that the onset of J/$`\psi `$ suppression indeed indicates an onset of deconfinement, while not implying any thermalization.

## 5 Summary

So let us summarize what we have learned in the first fifteen years of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions.

We know that there is an intrinsic limit to hadronic matter, in accord with the phase diagram determined in statistical QCD. The confinement boundary is established by the SPS/AGS program and agrees, both qualitatively and quantitatively, with the predictions of lattice QCD. I believe that the RHIC and LHC experiments can only reconfirm this. For small $`\mu _B`$, we know the onset of hadronization, and we know that strangeness enhancement, transverse momentum broadening and HBT radii saturate at this onset.

The early stage of the medium produced in nuclear collisions at the SPS is partonic. With increasing $`A`$, the partons begin to form connected clusters, and at a certain critical density, they form a color condensate consisting of interacting partons from many different nucleons. Hence, at this point, color deconfinement begins: partons no longer have a clear origin or exist in well-defined numbers. The parton condensate is a necessary precursor of the QGP: it provides the interacting deconfined partons which, if given enough time for equilibration, can make a QGP.

Charmonium states of different binding energies and spatial sizes probe different parton scales of the produced initial state. The observed step-wise form of anomalous J/$`\psi `$ suppression appears to provide the first signal for color deconfinement through parton condensation; this does not require any thermalization. The forthcoming J/$`\psi `$ production measurements at full SPS energy but with lower $`A`$, to be performed by NA60, should further clarify this point. In particular, the comparison between Pb-Pb and In-In J/$`\psi `$ suppression patterns should determine the critical densities and scales.

Pioneering results in physics always need to be reconfirmed. But if these limits of confinement survive the test of time, we will remember that they were first found in SPS/AGS experiments.

So, at the beginning of the collision evolution at the SPS, there appears to be color deconfinement; at the end, thermalization and collective behavior. To produce a quark-gluon plasma medium, we need to have both at the early stage. Let us see if the future data from experiments at the much higher RHIC and LHC energies can achieve this. But no matter how well-defined the road for further exploration may seem to be, I am sure that the forthcoming studies will rediscover the one feature which has made this field so challenging and exciting. It is perhaps best summarized by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado :

Caminante, son tus huellas el camino, y nada más;

caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.

Traveller, the road is nothing more than your footprints;

traveller, there is no road, you make it as you go.

## Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help of many colleagues in the preparation of this survey; special thanks go to P. Braun-Munzinger, S. Digal, S. Fortunato, F. Karsch, D. Kharzeev, M. Nardi, P. Petreczky, K. Redlich, H. Specht, U. Wiedemann and, in particular, to C. Lourenço. I am grateful to L. Vázquez for literary support.


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# Submitted to ”IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking” in August 2002 Correction to Low and Lapsley’s article ”Optimization Flow Control, I: Basic Algorithm and Convergence”

## 1 Error in the proof of the Theorem 2

The last passage in the assessment (29) on the page 873 (the proof of Lemma 6), namely

$$D(p(t+1))D(p(t))\left(\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1\right)\pi (t)^2$$

$$+A_2\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})\pi (t)$$

$$D(p(t))\left(\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1\right)\pi (t)^2$$

$$+A_2\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (t)^2$$
(1)
is incorrect. Low and Lapsley justify it: ”where the last inequality holds because the convex function $`_iy_i^2+z^2_iy_iz`$ attains a unique minimum over $`\{(y_i,z)|y_i0,z0\}`$ at the origin.”
But this is not true. It is sufficient to take $`dimy=5`$ and $`y=[5,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4},\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}]`$, $`z=10`$. The considered function takes the value $`19`$.
It is so, because the Hessian of this function has the form (taking: $`x=[y_1,y_2,\mathrm{},z]^{}`$):

$$H=\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}2& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 0& 1\\ 0& 2& 0& \mathrm{}& 0& 1\\ 0& 0& 2& \mathrm{}& 0& 1\\ \mathrm{}& & & & & \\ 0& 0& 0& \mathrm{}& 2& 1\\ 1& 1& 1& \mathrm{}& 1& 2\end{array}\right]$$
(2)
and its characteristic polynomial (e.g. calculated from the Schur’s formula: for $`A:n\times n;`$$`D:m\times m,B^T,C:m\times n;det([A,B;C,D])=det(A)det(DCA^1B)`$ ) will be:

$$det(H\lambda I)=(2\lambda )^{n1}(\lambda ^24\lambda +4n)$$
(3)
where $`n=dimy`$. In this way we will have eigenvalues: $`\lambda _i=2,i=1,\mathrm{},n1`$ and $`\lambda _{n,n+1}=2\pm \sqrt{n}`$. This means, that for $`n>4`$ there will be one negative eigenvalue and the function will not be convex.

## 2 Correction to the proof of the Theorem 2

The mentioned passage in the assessment (29) in  (here ineq. (1)) should be changed. The changes are based on a very simple assessment:

$$y_i,z(y_iz)^2=y_i^22y_iz+z^20$$
(4)
From which after elementary operations we get:

$$y_iz\frac{y_i^2+z^2}{2}$$
(5)
Let us apply the assessment (5) to all elements of a finite set of real numbers $`\{y_i,iI\}`$, where $`I`$ is a set of integer indices, and sum up both sides of these inequalities over all $`iI`$. We will obtain:

$$\underset{iI}{}y_iz\frac{1}{2}\underset{iI}{}\left(y_i^2+z^2\right)=\frac{1}{2}\overline{\overline{I}}z^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{iI}{}y_i^2$$
(6)
That is:

$$\underset{iI}{}y_iz\frac{1}{2}\overline{\overline{I}}z^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{iI}{}y_i^2$$
(7)
where $`\overline{\overline{I}}`$ is the number of elements of the set $`I`$. We will use the assessment (7) to transform the first part of assessment (1). In particular, owing to (7), for the last component of the right hand side we will have:

$$\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})\pi (t)\frac{1}{2}\left[t1\left(t2t_0\right)+1\right]\pi (t)^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})^2=$$

$$=t_0\pi (t)^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})^2$$
(8)
Let us notice that:

$$t_0\pi (t)^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})^2=t_0\pi (t)^2\frac{1}{2}\pi (t)^2+\frac{1}{2}\pi (t)^2+$$

$$+\frac{1}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})^2=\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)\pi (t)^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (t^{})^2$$
(9)
So, for the value of $`_{t^{}=t2t_0}^{t1}\pi (t^{})\pi (t)`$ we will have the following assessment:

$$\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})\pi (t)\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)\pi (t)^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (t^{})^2$$
(10)
The correct form of the assessment (29) in the article  will be then:

$$D(p(t+1))D(p(t))\left(\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1\right)\pi (t)^2$$

$$+A_2\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t1}{}}\pi (t^{})\pi (t)$$

$$D(p(t))\left(\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1\right)\pi (t)^2$$

$$+A_2\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)\pi (t)^2+\frac{A_2}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (t^{})^2=$$

$$=D(p(t))\left[\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1A_2\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)\right]\pi (t)^2+\frac{A_2}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (t^{})^2$$

That is:

$$D(p(t+1))D(p(t))\left[\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1A_2\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)\right]\pi (t)^2+\frac{A_2}{2}\underset{t^{}=t2t_0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (t^{})^2$$
(11)
Now, applying this inequality recursively to all $`D(p(\tau )),\tau =t,t1,\mathrm{},1`$, taking $`\pi (t)=0`$ for $`t<0`$, we will get the following total assessment which replaces wrong assessment (30) in the article :

$$D(p(t+1))D(p(0))\left[\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1A_2\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)\right]\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2+\frac{A_2}{2}\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\underset{t^{}=\tau 2t_0}{\overset{\tau }{}}\pi (t^{})^2$$
(12)
Let us notice, that under the assumption that $`\pi (t)=0`$ for $`t<0`$:

$$\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\underset{t^{}=\tau 2t_0}{\overset{\tau }{}}\pi (t^{})^2=\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\underset{t^{\prime \prime }=0}{\overset{2t_0}{}}\pi (t^{\prime \prime }+\tau 2t_0)^2=\underset{t^{\prime \prime }=0}{\overset{2t_0}{}}\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau +t^{\prime \prime }2t_0)^2$$

$$\underset{t^{\prime \prime }=0}{\overset{2t_0}{}}\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2=(2t_0+1)\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2$$
(13)
Putting (13) into (12) we finally get:

$$D(p(t+1))D(p(0))\left[\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1A_2\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)\right]\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2+\frac{A_2}{2}(2t_0+1)\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2$$

$$=D(p(0))\left[\frac{1}{\gamma }A_1A_2\left(t_0\frac{1}{2}\right)A_2\left(t_0+\frac{1}{2}\right)\right]\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2=$$

$$D(p(0))\left(\frac{1}{\gamma }A_12A_2t_0\right)\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2$$
(14)
That is:

$$D(p(t+1))D(p(0))\left(\frac{1}{\gamma }A_12A_2t_0\right)\underset{\tau =0}{\overset{t}{}}\pi (\tau )^2$$
(15)


text:
# Multi-wavelength observations of the TeV Blazars Mkn 421, 1ES1959+650, and H1426+428 with the HEGRA Cherenkov telescopes and the RXTE X-ray satellite

## 1. Introduction

The surprisingly large number of Active Galactic Nuclei discovered by the EGRET instrument on-board the Compton Gamma Ray observatory has fueled interest in the search for TeV emission from these sources. Particularly, the Blazars (flat radio spectrum quasars and BL Lac objects) among the EGRET identified sources have raised the interest of observers at energies accessible to ground based imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). All currently known extragalactic sources of TeV $`\gamma `$-radiation belong to the class of nearby BL Lac objects. These sources are believed to produce $`\gamma `$-rays emanating from a population of energetic non-thermal particles which move relativistically along the jet-axis aligned with the line of sight. The nature, origin, and initial acceleration mechanism of these relativistic particles are however not yet identified.
The observations of Blazars at TeV energies have so far helped to constrain the size of the emission region and set lower limits to the relativistic Doppler factor that one has to assign to the bulk motion of the emitting region.
In Section 2., We will summarize results on three Blazars with different red shift (Mkn 421, 1ES1959+650, H1426+428) obtained with the HEGRA system of IACTs. Initial results of an extended RXTE campaign to observe Mkn 421 simultaneously at X-ray and TeV energies will be reported in Section 3.

## 2. Observations with the HEGRA CT-System

### 2.1. Mkn 421 ($`z=0.030`$)

This object has been intensively monitored with the HEGRA IACTs since 1997 (Aharonian et al. 1999). Until June 2000, the source has remained at a low flux level. However, strong activity has been observed during the years 2000 and 2001, where the source remained at an overall flux level of approximately twice the flux of the Crab Nebula (Aharonian et al. 2002b). The energy spectra for different average flux levels have been derived (Fig. 1a), indicating at all flux levels a curvature well described by an exponential cut-off at $`3.6\pm 0.3`$ TeV. The observations reveal clear evidence for a correlation of the spectral shape and the flux level. The spectrum becomes harder during higher fluxes and softens at lower fluxes. The correlation of photon index and flux is shown in Fig. 1b. We have observed diurnal variations of the energy spectrum. Plotting the hardness-ratio and integral fluxes in a diagram, we see a clock-wise behavior in the hardness-ratio vs. flux diagram (see Fig 1c).

### 2.2. 1ES1959+650 ($`z=0.047`$)

A deep observation with HEGRA of 94 hrs in 2000 and 2001 has revealed this object as a weak TeV source, confirming earlier tentative claims (Nishiyama et al. 1999). The integral flux level averages at 5% of the flux observed from the Crab-Nebula. The significance of the detection is at $`5.4\sigma `$. The energy spectrum extracted from these data shows a steep source spectrum well described by a power-law with photon index $`\alpha =3.2\pm 0.3`$ (Aharonian et al. 2002c). Recent observations in May 2002 showed strong variations of the flux level with peak values being more than an order of magnitude higher than the previous detection in the years 2000 and 2001. The preliminary energy spectrum during the flare exhibits pronounced curvature and deviates significantly from the steep spectrum seen during the quiescent state (see Fig. 2).

### 2.3. H1426+428 ($`z=0.129`$)

This object was discovered by HEAO observations and was later identified as a BL Lac object and confirmed as a steady and bright X-ray source in Einstein and EXOSAT observations (Remillard et al. 1989). Furthermore, during Beppo-SAX observations in 1999 (Costamante et al. 2001), the X-ray spectrum has been found to be very hard and to extend up to $``$100 keV without indication of a steepening. The source is a member of the class of extreme Synchrotron BL Lacs (Costamante et al. 2001) with features similar to those observed at X-rays from Mkn 501 during the high-state in 1997 (Pian et al. 1998). The HEGRA system of IACTs has been used to observe the source in 1999 and 2000 for a total of 44.4 hrs. An excess with a significance of $`5.8\sigma `$ from the direction of H1426+428 reveals this source as an emitter of TeV emission. No strong indication of variability was found (Aharonian et al. 2002a).
The energy spectrum has been extracted (Fig. 3a). Given the red-shift of the object of $`z=0.129`$ and the expected diffuse extragalactic background light (EBL) at wavelengths between 1 and 15 $`\mu `$m (see Fig. 3b), considerable absorption of the TeV photons is to be expected (see Fig. 3c). However, given the uncertainty of the currently available measurements and estimates of the strength of the EBL, the optical depth at 5 TeV is roughly constrained to be $`2<\tau <5`$. In any case, the observed spectrum is expected to be modified by absorption features. We have adapted a model for the EBL similar to one calculated by Primack (2001) to a current compilation of measurements. This model of the EBL predicts a steep slope of the SED between 2 and 15 $`\mu `$m. The steep slope produces a flattening of the optical depth between 2 and 8 TeV which would lead to a flattening of the observed spectrum (see Fig. 3c). Indeed, such a flattening is consistent with the observed data points (see again Fig. 3a). Remarkably, the 5 TeV data point itself shows the highest significance which is consistent with a very hard spectrum in this energy-region. The recently published spectral data at lower energies (Petry et al. 2002, Djannati-Ataï et al. 2002) hint at a steep slope with a photon index of $`3.5`$ below $`2`$ TeV. This would be consistent with our low energy data and would support our claim about a spectral flattening at higher energies as it is expected for a heavily obscured TeV-spectrum.

## 3. Observations with RXTE

In March 2001, the RXTE pointed instruments have been used to monitor Mkn 421 continuously for one week. During this time, the flux showed strong flux and spectral variability at TeV and X-ray energies. A more in depth analysis of the data are in preparation. Here, we present the combined X-ray and TeV light-curve of Mkn 421 during the monitoring (see Fig. 4). The flux variations show a complex pattern at both energy regions. Notably, a tight correspondence of flaring activities is not evident.

## 4. Conclusion

The HEGRA system of Cherenkov telescopes continues to successfully explore the wealth of Blazar phenomena at the highest energies. So far, four BL Lac objects have been detected by HEGRA and the energy spectra have been studied in detail. Here, we have presented results on three of the four BL Lac objects (not including Mkn 501) that have been observed extensively with HEGRA. For Mkn 421, spectral variations correlated with the flux level have been observed. The simultaneous observations at X-ray and TeV energies indicate a complex light curve with only little correspondence of the flaring behaviour at the two energies. The newly discovered source 1ES1959+650 has been detected at the level of $`5.4\sigma `$ during a deep observation in 2000 and 2001. This source has shown strong and unprecedented flares in 2002 accompanied by indications for a flattening of the observed energy spectrum similar to what has been observed for Mkn 421. The most distant TeV source H1426+428 ($`z=0.129`$) has been detected and the observed energy spectrum is consistent with absorption features caused by pair-production processes with the diffuse extragalactic background light between $`115\mu `$m.

## References

Aharonian, F.A. et al. 1999, A&A, 350, 757

Aharonian, F. et al. 2002a, A&A, 384,23

Aharonian, F. et al. 2002b, A&A, in press

Aharonian, F. et al. 2002c, A&A, in prep.

Costamante, L. et al. 2001, A&A, 371, 512

Djannati-Ataï, A. et al. 2002, A&A, 391, 25

Nishiyama, T. et al. 1999 in Proc. 26th ICRC, Vol. 3, 370

Pian, E. et al. 1998, ApJ, 492, 17

Petry, D. et al. 2002, ApJ, in press

Primack, J.R et al. 2001, AIP Conf. Proc. Vol. 558, 463

Remillard, R.A. et al. 1989, ApJ, 340, 140


text:
# submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters Cosmic Needles versus Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

## 1 Introduction: Absorption Properties of Cosmic Needles

The 2.7$`\mathrm{K}`$ cosmic microwave background (CMB) is generally interpreted as being relic radiation from the early hot universe of a big bang origin. Alternative attempts at explaining the observed CMB as a post-big bang phenomenon have been continuously made in terms of emission from “Population III” objects at high redshift (presumably either a pre-galactic generation of very massive stars or black hole accretion flows) thermalized by hollow spheres (Layzer & Hively 1973) or long slender conducting cosmic whiskers or “cosmic needles” (Hoyle, Wickramasinghe, & Reddish 1968; Wickramasinghe et al. 1975; Rana 1980; Wright 1982; Hoyle, Narlikar, & Wickramasinghe 1984; Hawkins & Wright 1988; Hoyle & Wickramasinghe 1988; Bond, Carr, & Hogan 1991; Wickramasinghe 1992; Wickramasinghe et al. 1992; Wickramasinghe & Hoyle 1994; Aguirre 2000).

The reason for invoking “conducting needles” is because neither spherical grains (both dielectric and metallic) nor dielectric needles have high enough opacity in the far infrared (IR) to be an efficient thermalizing agent unless an unreasonably large amount of dust is invoked. This can be seen from the absorption cross section expressions of spherical or spheroidal grains. Let $`ϵ(\lambda )=ϵ_1+iϵ_2`$ be the dust complex dielectric function at wavelength $`\lambda `$. The absorption cross section $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}`$ per unit volume ($`V`$) for spheres in the Rayleigh regime (Bohren & Huffman 1983) is

$$C_{\mathrm{abs}}/V\frac{18\pi }{\lambda }\frac{ϵ_2}{(ϵ_1+2)^2+ϵ_2^2}.$$
(1)
For dielectric spheres, $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}\lambda ^1ϵ_2\lambda ^2`$ approaches zero as $`\lambda \mathrm{}`$ since at far-IR $`ϵ_1`$ approaches a constant $`ϵ_2`$ while $`ϵ_2\lambda ^1`$; for metallic spheres with a conductivity of $`\sigma `$, $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}\lambda ^1ϵ_2^1\lambda ^2`$ also approaches zero as $`\lambda \mathrm{}`$ since $`ϵ_2=2\lambda \sigma /c\lambda `$ ($`c`$ is the speed of light) and $`ϵ_1ϵ_2`$. Let needle-shaped grains be represented by thin prolate spheroids of semiaxes $`l`$ along the symmetry axis and $`a`$ perpendicular to the symmetry axis. In the Rayleigh limit, the absorption cross section per unit volume for needle-like prolate grains ($`la`$) is approximately

$$C_{\mathrm{abs}}/V\frac{2\pi }{3\lambda }\frac{ϵ_2}{\left[L_{}(ϵ_11)+1\right]^2+\left(L_{}ϵ_2\right)^2}$$
(2)
where $`L_{}\left(a/l\right)^2\mathrm{ln}(l/a)`$ is the depolarization factor parallels to the symmetry axis. For dielectric needles, $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}\lambda ^1ϵ_2\lambda ^2`$ at far-IR since we usually have $`L_{}(ϵ_11)+1L_{}ϵ_2`$ while $`ϵ_1`$ is insensitive to $`\lambda `$ at long wavelengths; for metallic needles, it appears at first glance that, for a given value of $`ϵ_2`$ (at a given $`\lambda `$) – no matter how large – one can always find a sufficiently long needle with $`L_{}ϵ_21`$ and $`L_{}(ϵ_11)1`$ (Greenberg 1972) so that $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}\lambda ^1ϵ_2\sigma `$ which can be very large.111This should not be considered inconsistent with the Kramers-Kronig relation since for a given elongation $`\left(l/a\right)`$ there exists a long-wavelength cutoff ($`\lambda _0`$) for $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}`$: $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}\lambda ^2`$ as $`\lambda >\lambda _0`$ (see Eqs.\[3-5\]).  Therefore, it is possible for metallic needles with high electrical conductivities to provide a large quantity of opacity at long wavelengths to thermalize the cosmic background.

For conducting needles Eq.(2) can be expressed as (Wright 1982)

$$C_{\mathrm{abs}}=\frac{C_{\mathrm{abs}}^0}{1+\left(\lambda /\lambda _0\right)^2}$$
(3)
where the long-wavelength cutoff $`\lambda _0`$ is

$$\lambda _0\frac{\rho c}{2}\frac{1+L_{}\left(ϵ_11\right)}{L_{}}\frac{\rho c}{2}\frac{\left(l/a\right)^2}{\mathrm{ln}\left(l/a\right)}$$
(4)
and

$$C_{\mathrm{abs}}^0\frac{4\pi V}{3\rho c}\frac{1}{\left[1+L_{}\left(ϵ_11\right)\right]^2}\frac{4\pi V}{3\rho c}$$
(5)
where $`\rho =1/\sigma `$ is the dust material resistivity. It is seen that Eq.(4) establishes a lower bound on the elongation $`l/a`$ of the needles which absorb strongly at wavelengths out to $`\lambda _0`$.

Eqs.(2-5) have been widely used in obtaining the dust opacity in the far-IR and microwave range (Rana 1980; Wright 1982; Hawkins & Wright 1988; Hoyle & Wickramasinghe 1988; Bond, Carr, & Hogan 1991; Wickramasinghe et al. 1992; Wickramasinghe & Hoyle 1994). However, none of these has explicitly taken into account the criterion to which the Rayleigh approximation is applicable (Bohren & Huffman 1983):

$$\frac{2\pi l}{\lambda }1;|m|\frac{2\pi l}{\lambda }1$$
(6)
where $`m(\lambda )=m^{}+im^{\prime \prime }`$ is the complex refractive index ($`ϵ=m^2`$). For metals at long wavelengths we have $`m^{}m^{\prime \prime }\left(\sigma \lambda /c\right)^{1/2}`$. Therefore, the Rayleigh approximation (Eq.) establishes an upper bound on the needle length:

$$l\frac{1}{2\pi }\left(\frac{\lambda c}{\sigma }\right)^{1/2}=\frac{1}{2\pi }\left(\lambda \rho c\right)^{1/2}.$$
(7)
The reason for applying this criterion for limiting the needle size is that, when it is not satisfied, the cross sections given by Eq.(2) are overestimates of the true cross sections. It is only when all elements within the particle radiate in phase with each other (i.e. negligible phase shift of light within the particle) that we can achieve the high absorptivities (Greenberg 1980). The implication of Eq.(7) for cosmic needles is significant. For example, for iron needles of $`\rho =10^{16}\mathrm{s}`$ to absorb efficiently out to $`\lambda _0=5\mathrm{mm}`$, Eq.(4) requires an elongation of $`l/a1600`$ (also see Wright 1982). To satisfy the Rayleigh criterion, Eq.(7) leads to $`l1.9\mu \mathrm{m}`$. A combination of Eq.(4) and Eq.(7) requires the needle radius $`a12\mathrm{\AA }`$. It is unlikely that such tiny iron needles exist in astrophysical environments. After all, for stacks of layers of $`2\times 2`$ and $`3\times 3`$ iron atoms the needle radius would already be $`2.8,4.2\mathrm{\AA }`$, respectively. To be conservative, we therefore take the minimum radius of iron needles to be $`a_{\mathrm{min}}=3.5\mathrm{\AA }`$. In the following text, we will take the Rayleigh criterion to be

$$|m|\frac{2\pi l_{\mathrm{max}}}{\lambda }0.1;l_{\mathrm{max}}\frac{1}{20\pi }\left(\lambda \rho c\right)^{1/2}$$
(8)
where $`l_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is the maximum value of the needle length $`l`$ for which the Rayleigh approximation is still valid.

For a given wavelength $`\lambda `$ and a given dust conductivity $`\sigma `$ which is dependent on dust material and temperature we can obtain from Eq.(4) $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{min}}`$ – the lower limit on the needle elongation which displays appreciable opacity at wavelengths up to $`\lambda `$ (following Wright 1982, we take $`\lambda =5\mathrm{mm}`$ for discussion); and from Eq.(8) $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{max}}=l_{\mathrm{max}}/a_{\mathrm{min}}`$ – the upper limit on the needle elongation to which the Rayleigh approximation (Eq.) is applicable. In Figure 1 we present $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{min}}`$ and $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{max}}`$ for cosmic iron needles (see §2) thermalizing the background radiation emitted at redshift $`z`$ and observed at wavelength $`\lambda =5\mathrm{mm}`$. It is seen in Figure 1 that even with $`a_{\mathrm{min}}=3.5\mathrm{\AA }`$, $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{max}}\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{min}}`$ for $`z`$ up to 200. This clearly indicates that it is not appropriate to adopt the Rayleigh approximation (Eq.) when studying the CMB thermalization by cosmic iron needles.

The absorption cross sections of needles may be approximated by those of infinite cylinders provided $`l`$ exceeds $`a`$ by a factor of $`4`$ (Wickramasinghe 1973) or $`9`$ (Lind & Greenberg 1966). For needles with a radius less than $`10\mathrm{\AA }`$ the classical scattering theory does not apply (Platt 1956; Greenberg 1960). We will adopt the infinite cylinder results but take a cutoff at $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}400l`$ (Platt 1956). Similar to Li & Draine (2001), we assume a continuous distribution for the absorption properties of classic infinite cylinders and Platt particles ($`a10\mathrm{\AA }`$):

$$C_{\mathrm{abs}}(\lambda )=C_{\mathrm{abs}}^{\mathrm{inf}}\left[\xi _{\mathrm{QM}}\eta _{\mathrm{cut}}+\left(1\xi _{\mathrm{QM}}\right)\right],$$
(9)
$$\xi _{\mathrm{QM}}(a)=\mathrm{min}[1,(a_\xi /a)^3],a_\xi =10\mathrm{\AA },$$
(10)
$$\eta _{\mathrm{cut}}(\lambda ,\lambda _\mathrm{c})=\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{arctan}\left[\frac{10^3(y1)^3}{y}\right]+\frac{1}{2},y=\lambda _\mathrm{c}/\lambda ,\lambda _\mathrm{c}=400l$$
(11)
where $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}^{\mathrm{inf}}(=2aQ_{\mathrm{abs}})`$ is the absorption cross sections for infinite cylinders ($`Q_{\mathrm{abs}}`$ is the absorption cross section per unit length divided by $`2a`$), and $`\eta _{\mathrm{cut}}`$ is a cutoff function.

In the far-IR and microwave regions, for metallic needles both inductance and charge separation effects are ignorable (Hoyle & Wickramasinghe 1988). Therefore, conducting needles can be treated as an antenna (Wright 1982): $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}/V=4\pi /\left(3\rho c\right)`$ for $`\lambda <\lambda _0`$ where $`\lambda _0`$ is the same as in Eq.(4). Taking into account the quantum mechanical effect, the absorption cross section of an antenna can be expressed as

$$C_{\mathrm{abs}}(\lambda )/V=\frac{4\pi }{3\rho c}\left[\xi _{\mathrm{QM}}\eta _{\mathrm{cut}}(\lambda ,\lambda _\mathrm{c})+\left(1\xi _{\mathrm{QM}}\right)\right]/\left[1+\left(\lambda /\lambda _0\right)^2\right]$$
(12)
where the $`1/\left[1+\left(\lambda /\lambda _0\right)^2\right]`$ term accounts for the cutoff at $`\lambda _0`$ which has been justified by Wright (1987).

In Figure 2 we compare the absorption cross sections (per unit volume) at $`\lambda =5\mathrm{mm}`$ calculated from infinite iron cylinders and iron antennae with a radius of $`a=0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and a range of elongations at $`T_\mathrm{d}=2.7\mathrm{K}`$. Although the Rayleigh approximation is not valid for iron needles capable of efficiently supplying far-IR and microwave opacity, we also present in Figure 2 results obtained from the Rayleigh approximation (Eq.) since it is widely used in literature. It is seen in Figure 2 that the infinite cylinder model predicts a much larger 5$`\mathrm{mm}`$ opacity for $`\left(l/a\right)<3\times 10^4`$ and a much smaller one for $`\left(l/a\right)>3\times 10^4`$. The antenna model shows a rapid drop at $`\left(l/a\right)<1.2\times 10^5`$ which corresponds to a cutoff wavelength $`\lambda _05\mathrm{mm}`$ (see Eq.). This is because the long-wavelength cutoff becomes smaller as $`\left(l/a\right)`$ decreases so that the iron opacity at 5$`\mathrm{mm}`$ decreases rapidly, too. This trend is also seen in the Rayleigh curve.222The reason why the onset $`ł/a`$ value of the drop in the $`C_{\mathrm{abs}}/V`$ curve for the Rayleigh approximation model differs from that for the antenna model is because the second term in the r.h.s of Eqs.(4-5) does not always hold.  The dramatic differences among the absorption cross sections calculated from the three methods will have dramatic effects on the CMB thermalization model (see §3).

It is the purpose of this Letter first to show (see above) that the widely adopted Rayleigh approximation is not applicable to studies of the CMB as a result of thermalization by cosmic needles, and then to estimate the quantity of dust required to thermalize the background radiation using the absorption cross sections of either infinite cylinders or antennae. We will only consider iron grains since they absorb more efficiently in the far-IR than graphite and also because the upper bound on the total amount of microwave radiation generated by graphite needles was shown considerably smaller than the observed CMB and it was also shown that the optical depth of the graphite needle-containing cloud is not sufficiently large for the cloud to radiate like a black body (Sivaram & Shah 1985). Condensed in supernova ejecta, iron grains may likely form as slender whiskers by the “screw dislocation” mechanism which has been attested experimentally and (at least some fraction of them) are then expelled into extragalactic space without significant destruction due to sputtering (see Hoyle & Wickramasinghe 1988 and references therein). It is interesting to note that small iron particles were among the materials initially proposed to be responsible for the interstellar reddening, based on an analogy with small meteors or micrometeorites supposedly fragmented into finer dust (Schalén 1936; Greenstein 1938). In §2 we calculate the dielectric functions of iron grains based on the Drude theory. In §3 we calculate the extinction optical depth caused by cosmologically distributed iron needles and estimate the amount of iron needles required to thermalize the CMB and compare it with the available intergalactic iron density. Concluding remarks are given in §4.

## 2 Optical Properties of Iron Grains

We use the Drude free-electron model (Bohren & Huffman 1983) to calculate the iron dielectric functions:

$$ϵ(\omega )=1\frac{\left(\omega _\mathrm{p}\tau \right)^2}{\left(\omega \tau \right)^2+i\omega \tau }$$
(13)
where $`\omega =2\pi c/\lambda `$ is the angular frequency; $`\omega _\mathrm{p}`$ is the plasma frequency

$$\omega _\mathrm{p}^2=\frac{4\pi e^2n_e}{m_{\mathrm{eff}}}$$
(14)
where $`e`$ is the proton charge; $`n_e`$ is the density of free electrons; $`m_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the effective mass of a free electron; $`\tau `$ is the collision time

$$\tau ^1\frac{\omega _\mathrm{p}^2}{4\pi \sigma }+\frac{v_\mathrm{F}}{a}$$
(15)
where $`v_\mathrm{F}`$ is the velocity of electrons at the Fermi surface which we take to be $`v_\mathrm{F}=10^8\mathrm{cm}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The first term in the r.h.s of Eq.(15) is for bulk material; the second term accounts for the small size effect: the inverse of the collision time is increased because of additional collisions with the needle boundary.

Lack of knowledge of the temperature dependence of $`\omega _\mathrm{p}`$, we adopt the room temperature value of $`\omega _\mathrm{p}=5.56\times 10^{15}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Ordal et al. 1988). We fit the temperature dependent electrical resistance $`\rho (T)`$ (Lide & Frederikse 1994) by polynomials:

$$\left[\frac{\rho (T)}{10^{18}\mathrm{s}}\right]=\{\begin{array}{cc}0.0286\mathrm{7.57\; 10}^4T+\mathrm{5.48\; 10}^5T^2,\hfill & \hfill 0\mathrm{K}<T<40\mathrm{K},\\ 0.0759\mathrm{8.96\; 10}^3T+\mathrm{2.22\; 10}^4T^2,\hfill & \hfill 40\mathrm{K}<T<130\mathrm{K},\\ 0.300+0.0120T+\mathrm{8.38\; 10}^5T^2,\hfill & \hfill 130\mathrm{K}<T<1000\mathrm{K}.\end{array}$$
(16)
In Figure 3 we show the refractive indices calculated for $`T=2.7\mathrm{K},300\mathrm{K}`$ for $`a=0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$. We have also taken the following “synthetic” approach to obtain the room temperature complex refractive index $`m(\lambda )=m^{}+im^{\prime \prime }`$ for iron: for $`0.01<\lambda <0.248\mu \mathrm{m}`$ we take $`m^{\prime \prime }`$ of Moravec, Rife, & Dexter (1976); for $`0.367<\lambda <0.667\mu \mathrm{m}`$ we take $`m^{\prime \prime }`$ of Gray (1972); for $`0.667<\lambda <285\mu \mathrm{m}`$ we take $`m^{\prime \prime }`$ of Ordal et al. (1988); for $`\lambda >285\mu \mathrm{m}`$ we approximate $`m^{\prime \prime }(\lambda )m^{\prime \prime }(285\mu \mathrm{m})\left(\lambda /285\mu \mathrm{m}\right)^{1/2}`$ since in the far-IR for metals we have $`m^{\prime \prime }\left(\lambda /\rho \right)^{1/2}`$. After smoothly joining the adopted $`m^{\prime \prime }`$ (in so doing, the Gray  data is reduced by a factor of 1.2), we calculate $`m^{}`$ from $`m^{\prime \prime }`$ through the Kramers-Kronig relation (Bohren & Huffman 1983). The results are also presented in Figure 3. It is seen in Figure 3 that the Drude free-electron model provides a good approximation for $`\lambda >20\mu \mathrm{m}`$.

## 3 On Cosmic Needles Origin of CMB

Following Draine & Shapiro (1989), we define $`n_\mathrm{d}(z)f_\mathrm{d}(z)n_\mathrm{d}(0)(1+z)^3`$ as the number density of needle-shaped grains at redshift $`z`$, where $`n_\mathrm{d}(0)`$ is a constant and $`f_\mathrm{d}`$ is the ratio of the actual number density of grains at $`z`$ to the number density if the grain number per comoving volume were constant. The extinction optical depth for radiation emitted at redshift $`z_0`$ and observed at wavelength $`\lambda `$ is

$$\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}(z_0,\lambda )=\left(\frac{c}{H_0}\right)n_\mathrm{d}(0)_0^{z_0}\sigma _{\mathrm{abs}}(\frac{\lambda }{1+z},T_0\left[1+z\right])\frac{f_\mathrm{d}(z)\left(1+z\right)dz}{\left(1+2q_0z\right)^{1/2}}$$
(17)
where $`H_0`$ is the Hubble constant, $`q_0`$ is the cosmological deceleration parameter, $`T_0`$ ($`2.7\mathrm{K}`$) is the current temperature of the microwave background, and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{abs}}`$ is the absorption cross section333Since the iron dielectric functions are dependent on temperature (see §2), the absorption cross sections are thus a function of temperature, too. We set $`T=T_0(1+z)`$ because we want to thermalize the background, not to distort it (see Wright 1982). If iron needles act as a thermalizer to produce the $`T_0(1+z)`$ background, it is necessary that they are themselves thermalized to $`T_0(1+z)`$.  integrated over a distribution of needle elongations $`\left(l/a\right)`$

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{abs}}(\lambda ,T)=_{\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{low}}}^{\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{upp}}}C_{\mathrm{abs}}(\lambda ,T)\frac{dn\left(l/a\right)}{d\left(l/a\right)}d\left(l/a\right)$$
(18)
where the lower cutoff $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{low}}`$ is taken to be 10; the upper cutoff $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{upp}}`$ is set at $`10^5`$ since laboratory-grown iron needles display values of $`\left(l/a\right)`$ up to $`10^5`$ (see Hoyle & Wickramasinghe 1988 and references therein; Agurrie 2000). We assume a power-law distribution for the needle elongation for $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{low}}\left(l/a\right)\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{upp}}`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dn\left(l/a\right)}{d\left(l/a\right)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{ln}\left[\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{upp}}/\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{low}}\right]}}\left(l/a\right)^1,\beta =1;`$ (19)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(1\beta )}{\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{upp}}^{1\beta }\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{low}}^{1\beta }}}\left(l/a\right)^\beta ,\beta 1;`$ (20)
where $`\beta `$ is the power-law index. We will consider two cases: $`\beta =1`$ (mass-equipartition distribution) and $`\beta =3.5`$; the former may arise from a plausible whisker formation process and can be maintained through an ongoing fragmentation process (Wickramasinghe & Wallis 1996; Aguirre 1999); the latter may result from shattering from grain-grain collisions.

Let $`\rho _\mathrm{d}`$ ($`7.86\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$) be the mass density of iron grains, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}`$ be the ratio of the space-averaged comoving mass density of needles to the present critical density: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}f_\mathrm{d}(z)n_\mathrm{d}(0)V^{\mathrm{tot}}\rho _\mathrm{d}\left[8\pi G/3H_0^2\right]`$ ($`G`$ is the Gravitation constant) where

$$V^{\mathrm{tot}}=_{\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{low}}}^{\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{upp}}}\psi \pi a^3\left(l/a\right)\frac{dn\left(l/a\right)}{d\left(l/a\right)}d\left(l/a\right)$$
(21)
where $`\psi =1`$ for cylinders and $`\psi =4/3`$ for prolates. For simplicity, we take $`f_\mathrm{d}(z)=1`$ for $`0<z<z_0`$ and $`f_\mathrm{d}(z)=0`$ otherwise (i.e. assuming a uniform comoving number of dust grains back to redshift $`z_0`$; see Draine & Shapiro 1989). Therefore, we can estimate the amount of iron needles required to produce an optical depth of $`\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}`$ at redshift $`z_0`$ and wavelength $`\lambda `$

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}=\left(\frac{8\pi G\rho _\mathrm{d}}{3cH_0}\right)\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}(z_0,\lambda )/_0^{z_0}\sigma _{\mathrm{abs}}(\frac{\lambda }{1+z},T_0\left[1+z\right])/V^{\mathrm{tot}}\frac{\left(1+z\right)dz}{\left(1+2q_0z\right)^{1/2}}.$$
(22)
Adopting $`H_0=65\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ and $`q_0=0.5`$, we present in Figure 4 the results on $`h_{65}\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}/\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}`$ given by Eq.(22) for $`\lambda =5\mathrm{mm}`$ as a function of $`z`$ where $`h_{65}H_0/100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1=0.65`$. The absorption cross sections are obtained from infinite cylinders (Eq.) and antennae (Eq.) with a radius of $`a=10,100,1000,10^4\mathrm{\AA }`$. For comparison, results for spherical “astronomical silicates” (Draine & Lee 1984) are also plotted. It can be seen in Figure 4 that (1) $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}`$ decreases with the increasing of $`z`$ as expected from Eq.(22); (2) for a given $`z`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}`$ decreases with radius $`a`$ ($`a0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$) for infinite cylinders while it is insensitive to $`a`$ for antennae provided $`a10\mathrm{\AA }`$ as expected from Eq.(12); (3) for infinite cylinders with $`a10\mathrm{\AA }`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}`$ is insensitive to $`\beta `$ as expected from the way we calculate their absorption cross sections; for antennae $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}`$ increases with $`\beta `$ since a higher $`\beta `$ implies fewer highly-elongated needles and thus a lower opacity at $`\lambda =5\mathrm{mm}`$ since the long-wavelength cutoff shifts to shorter wavelengths for needles with smaller elongations.

Aguirre (2000) argued that the density of intergalactic dust is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{dust}}10^5`$. Assuming a solar-like metallicity ratio pattern, this leads to an iron density of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Fe}}10^6`$. In order to obtain the observed high degree of spacial isotropy and Planckian nature of the CMB, one requires the optical depth $`\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}1`$ in the microwave region (Wickramasinghe et al. 1975; Rana 1980; Sivaram & Shah 1985). It is clear from Figure 4 that it is unlikely for the intergalactic iron needles modelled as infinite cylinders to produce $`\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}(\lambda =5\mathrm{mm})1`$ even if all available intergalactic iron have been locked up in needles since $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Fe}}/\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}<1`$ for $`z<1020`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Fe}}/\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}`$ is just about 10 for $`z100200`$. It is also clear from the spherical silicate model that direct thermalization of pregalactic starlight by intergalactic dielectric dust spherical in shape is not viable since $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Si}}/\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{d}1`$.

Wickramasinghe et al. (1992) argued that the infinite cylinder approximation for slender needles is only valid when the inductance and charge separation effects are not important which requires $`\lambda <\left(\rho c/4\right)\left(l/a\right)^2/\mathrm{ln}\left(l/a\right)`$. This would strengthen the conclusion drawn above for the infinite cylinder model: there is simply not enough iron dust to produce a large optical depth at microwave range since with this taken into account the absorption cross section (per unit dust mass) at this wavelength region would be reduced. Increasing $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{low}}`$ and/or $`\left(l/a\right)_{\mathrm{upp}}`$ would have little effects on the infinite cylinder model. Increasing the cylinder thickness ($`a>0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$) either does not help (see Figure 4).

However, if appealing to the antenna theory, it appears that $`\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}(\lambda =5\mathrm{mm})1`$ is attainable by models with a relatively flat distribution of needle elongation ($`\beta 2.5`$) since the absorption cross sections per unit dust mass for exceedingly elongated grains ($`l/a>3\times 10^4`$) calculated from the antenna theory are much larger than those from the infinite cylinder approximation (see Figure 2). However, it is not clear whether the antenna theory applies to thin needles with a thickness of nanometer/micrometer in size. Unfortunately, the Discrete Dipole Approximation, the currently most powerful tool for solving the light scattering problem of non-spherical grains, is limited to grains of small size parameters and small refractive indices (Draine 1988). Lack of an accurate solution, we are therefore not at a position to either approve or disprove the antenna theory for exceedingly thin needles.

## 4 Conclusion

A wide variety of work have proposed the cosmic needle model as the CMB thermalizing agent: if cosmic metallic needle-shaped grains absorb strongly at all wavelengths from IR to microwave wavelengths it is possible to ascribe the observed background radiation at frequencies greater than $`1\mathrm{cm}^1`$ as originating from thermalization, by these slender needles, of the radiation of Population III objects. It is pointed out here that in many of these results insufficient attention was given to the limits of applicability of the small particle (Rayleigh) approximation. It is shown that the widely adopted Rayleigh approximation is not applicable to conducting needles capable of supplying high far-IR and microwave opacities. Due to lack of an accurate solution to the absorption properties of slender needles, we model them either in terms of infinite cylinders or the antenna theory. It is found that the available intergalactic iron dust, if modelled as infinite cylinders, is not sufficient to produce a sufficiently large optical depth at long wavelengths required by the observed isotropy and Planckian nature of the CMB. In the context of the antenna theory, conducting needles with exceedingly large elongations ($`>10^4`$) appear to be capable of satisfying the optical depth requirement without violating the iron density limit. But the applicability of the antenna theory to exceedingly thin needles of nanometer/micrometer in thickness needs to be justified.

I am grateful to A. Burrows, A.G.W. Cameron, B.T. Draine, J.I. Lunnine, …, and the late J.M. Greenberg for valuable discussions and suggestions. I thank The University of Arizona for the “Arizona Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical Astrophysics”.


text:
# Multiplicities, fluctuations and correlations Talk given at the 31st International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP 2002), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 24 – 31 July 2002

## 1 Introduction

One of the most important observables in particle production processes is multiplicity, i.e. the number of particles (mostly, hadrons) produced in the collision . The multiplicity dependence on the energy scale, species of particles, event flavour content are among the main predictions of the theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) . On the other hand, the multiplicity is used to select or to describe events, e.g. as a trigger for specific processes, as an input for kinematic variables’ spectra. The distribution of multiplicity, its mean value and multiplicity fluctuations are the essential characteristics of the collision dynamics. However, the multiplicity distribution tells us just about the averaged, integrated numbers, while deeper information comes from the moments of the distribution, which measure particle correlations, i.e. probe the interaction dynamics .

Here, I report on the multiplicity flavour dependence111Other aspects of multiplicity studies such as multiplicity energy dependence, 3-jet multiplicity, multiplicities of quark and gluon jets etc. are reviewed by M. Siebel ., on the analyses of local multiplicity fluctuations and multiparticle correlations222 Bose-Einstein correlation studies are reviewed by Š. Todorova-Nová .. These studies provide us with details of strong interactions and allow us to estimate the level of the applicability of QCD, based on the partonic picture, to the production of hadrons which are the experimentally observed objects.

## 2 Definitions and notations

The multiplicity distribution, or the density $`\rho _n`$, of multiplicity $`n`$ of particles with kinematic variables $`p_1,p_2,\mathrm{},p_n`$ is defined by the inclusive probability spectrum,

$$\rho _n(p_1,p_2,\mathrm{},p_n)=\frac{1}{N_{\mathrm{ev}}}\frac{dn(p_1,p_2,\mathrm{},p_n)}{dp_1dp_2\mathrm{}dp_n},$$

where $`N_{\mathrm{ev}}`$ is the number of events.

As it follows from this formula, the single particle distribution $`\rho _1(p_1)`$ gives an average multiplicity, $`n=\rho _1(p_1)𝑑p_1`$, while integration of the $`q`$-particle densities leads to the unnormalised $`q`$th order factorial moments,

$$f_q=\rho _1(p_1,p_2\mathrm{}p_n)𝑑p_1𝑑p_2\mathrm{}𝑑p_n$$

(1)
$$=n(n1)\mathrm{}(nq+1)n^{[q]}.$$

The normalised factorial moments are then defined as $`F_q=f_q/n^q`$.

The $`q`$-particle densities give us a way to study particle correlations described by the $`q`$-particle correlation functions, (factorial) cumulants, $`C_q(p_1,\mathrm{},p_q)`$. The cumulants vanish whenever one of their arguments is statistically independent, i.e. these functions measure genuine $`q`$-particle correlations.

The cumulants are constructed from the multiplicity densities, e.g.

$$C_1(p_1)=\rho _1(p_1),$$

$$C_2(p_1,p_2)=\rho _2(p_1,p_2)\rho _1(p_1)\rho _1(p_2),$$

$$C_3(p_1,p_2,p_3)=\rho _3(p_1,p_2,p_3)$$

$$\underset{(3)}{}\rho _1(p_1)\rho _2(p_2,p_3)+2\rho _1(p_1)\rho _1(p_2)\rho _1(p_3).$$
(2)
These functions, being properly normalised, are used to study multiparticle correlations in different kinematic variables.

In studies of local fluctuations and correlations, i.e those in phase-space bins, one uses the bin-averaged factorial moments and cumulants. The phase space is divided into $`M`$ bins of equal size, so that $`n_m`$ is the number of particles in the $`m`$th bin. Then, the normalised bin-averaged factorial moment is defined via Eq. (1) averaged over bins,

$$F_q(M)=\frac{1}{M}\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\frac{f_q(m)}{n_m^q}\frac{1}{M}\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\frac{n_m^{[q]}}{n_m^q}.$$
(3)
These factorial moments have been extensively used to extract the non-statistical (non-Poissonian) fluctuations in many types of collisions . Such fluctuations lead to the power-law scaling of factorial moments as a function of $`M`$ called the intermittency phenomenon.

In analogy with Eq. (3), Eqs. (2) are averaged to the bin-averaged normalised cumulants,

$$K_q(M)=\frac{1}{M}\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\frac{k_q^{(m)}}{n_m^q},$$
(4)
where $`k_q^{(m)}`$ are the Mueller moments, the functions of unnormalised moments $`f_q(m)`$, Eq. (1),

$$k_1=n_m,k_2^{(m)}=n_m^{[2]}n_m^2,$$

$$k_3^{(m)}=n_m^{[3]}3n_m^{[2]}n_m+2n_m^3.$$
(5)
## 3 Hadronisation of heavy and light quarks

In this Section, I consider the recent results on hadron multiplicities from fragmentation of heavy and light quarks . The study of the quark content in multiparticle production provides one of the basic tests of QCD. The results from LEP are of a special interest since they cover a wide centre-of-mass energy region and can be directly compared with QCD which is mostly predictable at the asymptotic energies .

In Refs.  and , a study of the fragmentation of heavy b-quark and light quarks (l = u, d, s) is performed. The measurements of the difference in charge particle multiplicities, $`\delta _{\mathrm{bl}}=n_{\mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}}n_{\mathrm{l}\overline{\mathrm{l}}}`$, for $`\mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}`$ and $`\mathrm{l}\overline{\mathrm{l}}`$ events in e+e- annihilation at the centre-of-mass energies above the Z0 peak are carried out. The findings are compared to the theoretical predictions of QCD and to a more phenomenological (the so-called naïve) model (for review, see Ref. ). The QCD calculations predict energy-independent behaviour of the multiplicity difference $`\delta _{\mathrm{bl}}`$, while in the naïve model one expects the decrease with increasing energy. The latter is connected with the assumption that the hadron multiplicity accompanying the heavy hadrons in $`\mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}`$ events is the same as the multiplicity in $`\mathrm{l}\overline{\mathrm{l}}`$ events at the energy left to the system once the heavy quarks have fragmented.

The difference between the heavy and light mean quark-pair multiplicities obtained by DELPHI at 206 GeV is $`\delta _{\mathrm{bl}}=4.50\pm 1.05(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.52(\mathrm{syst})`$ , while OPAL finds $`\delta _{\mathrm{bl}}=3.44\pm 0.40(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.79(\mathrm{syst})`$ in the energy range of 130 – 206 GeV . The difference in the values is connected with some differences in the data processing procedure. In the meantime, the results of the energy-dependence is found to be the same for the both studies: the mean multiplicity difference is energy-independent and favours the QCD predictions while it is inconsistent with the flavour-independent naïve model (Fig. 1). Also in agreement with QCD is the ratio between light quark multiplicities, $`n_\mathrm{i}:n_\mathrm{j}1`$, where i,j ={u,d,s}, as obtained by OPAL at the Z0 peak energy . To note is that the $`n_\mathrm{u}`$ and $`n_\mathrm{d}`$ are highly statistically anti-correlated ($`90`$%) which is due to their fractions in K-mesons.

## 4 Scaling of local fluctuations in hadronic Z0 decays

During the last decades, the phase-space local multiplicity fluctuations are actively studied in many reactions, from leptonic to nuclear collisions, and the intermittency scaling of the fluctuations has been established .

All the studies show that the intermittency is more pronounced in high dimensions, while in one dimension (e.g., in rapidity) the effect is diluted by projection onto one dimension. This leads to flattenning of the factorial moments. Such a behaviour is well understood from a QCD parton shower which is a three-dimensional branching and naturally leads to the fractality. The best area to study the effect and its connection with QCD is given by e+e- annihilation, where such investigations has been performed earlier  and new analysis is carried out by L3 .

The L3 analysis gives us further hints about the intermittency origin, which is currently far from understanding. The new study employs the fact that so far the fluctuations in many dimensions were studied with the same number $`M`$ of bins in each dimension/direction. This leads to self-similar fractals, i.e. the fluctuations in any direction are assumed to be the same, or isotropic. In case when the dynamics in different directions are not equivalent, the fluctuations become anisotropic and this tells us about the self-affinity . A self-affine behaviour has been observed in hadronic interactions , while a self-similar scaling has been qualitatively confirmed in e+e- annihilation . In terms of factorial moments, Eq.(3), the 3-dimensional moments are expected to exhibit the intermittency property in e+e- collisions when phase-space is partitioned isotropically, while this scaling in hadronic interactions only occurs for anisotropic partitioning.

In order to quantitatively study the observed isotropic fluctuations, the method of the Hurst exponent is used . The Hurst exponent,

$$H_{ab}=\mathrm{ln}M_a/\mathrm{ln}M_b,$$
(6)
is obtained from the fit of the one-dimensional second-order factorial moments,

$$F_2(M_a)=A_a+B_aM_a^{\gamma _a}H_{ab}=\frac{1+\gamma _b}{1+\gamma _a}.$$
(7)
Here $`a`$, $`b`$ are the directions of the $`(a,b)`$ plane. For the isotropic dynamical fluctuations, $`H_{ab}=1`$, while $`H_{ab}1`$ if the fluctuations are anisotropic.

L3 uses rapidity $`y`$, azimuthal angle $`\phi `$ and transverse momentum $`p_t`$ – the variables often used in multiparticle studies – in the analysis. The variables are defined with respect to the thrust axis, as well as the other two frames are considered: the randomised and the q$`\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ frames. In the former one, the $`\phi `$-angles are randomly chosen being uniformly distributed in $`[0,2\pi ]`$, while in the latter case one uses Monte Carlo to correct the original thrust axis to the q$`\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ axis.

The 3-dimensional factorial moments are found to exhibit the intermittency scaling when phase-space is isotropically partitioned. This confirms earlier indications for isotropic fluctuations in e+e- annihilations . No sensitive differences in the different frames as well as no disagreements between the data and Monte Carlos are observed.

Fig. 2 shows the 2nd-order factorial moments in one dimension, from which the quantitative test of the isotropy of the fluctuations is made using Eqs. (7). The calculations of the Hurst exponent give: $`H_{ab}1`$, $`a,b=\{y,\phi ,p_t\}`$, i.e. due to the definition of Eq. (6) one concludes about the equivalence of the directions and about the isotropy of the fluctuations. The fluctuations in $`\phi `$ are nearly absent in the thrust frame. In all frames the data are well described by Jetset, while somewhat less well by Herwig. No sensitivity to Bose-Einstein correlations is seen. From its study, L3 also concludes that there is the dependence on the QCD dynamics which serves to decrease the fluctuations in the thrust frame.

The 2-jet sub-samples are also analysed using the Durham jet algorithm. The fluctuations in the 2-jet events show the self-affine (anisotropic) fluctuations. This looks like the hard gluon emission leads to the isotropy.

## 5 Multiparticle correlations

The multiparticle correlation studies are performed for e+e- annihilations at the Z0 energy  and for $`\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$p annihilation at the incident momentum of 22.4 GeV/$`c`$ .

Genuine multiparticle correlations in e+e- annihilations are studied by OPAL . To extract the correlations, the method of the bin-averaged normalised cumulants is used, see Eqs. (4)–(5). In addition to the earlier analysis  of the cumulants of all charged particles (“all-charge cumulants”), OPAL studies the cumulants of same-charge particles (“like-sign cumulants”). The investigation is performed in rapidity $`y`$, azimuthal angle $`\phi `$ and transverse momentum $`p_t`$, the same variables as in the above described L3 analysis, but the sphericity axis is used as a reference axis.

Fig. 3 shows the all-charge and like-sign cumulants calculated in one (rapidity) and three dimensions. Even in one dimension, positive genuine correlations of groups of two, three, four particles are present. The cumulants exhibit a scaling behaviour, although in rapidity the saturation already appears at the moderate bin sizes. The like-sign cumulants increase faster and drive the all-charge ones at small bins while the unlike-sign cumulants are almost constant. This points to the likely influence of Bose-Einstein correlations.

The comparison between the data and Monte Carlo like-sign cumulants shows that the model describes well the data when Bose-Einstein correlations are implemented. The same is true for the all-charge cumulants (not shown here). This is not the case of the L3 results where no difference is found for the models with and without Bose-Einstein correlations, see Fig. 2. To note is that the OPAL data is described well in one dimension as well as in three dimensions.

From Fig. 3, one can see that Bose-Einstein correlations which are implemented in the model as the correlations of two identical particles and are pair-wise adjusted, well also describe the cumulants of $`q>2`$. This suggests to consider the interdependence of the 2nd- and higher-order cumulants, Fig. 4. The fit akin to the Ochs-Wosiek one  gives the same parameter values for the all-charge and like-sign cumulants, while disagrees with the Negative Binomial predictions.

The multiparticle fluctuations are also studied in  using the Serpukhov fixed target $`\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$p annihilation data at 22.4 GeV/$`c`$. The differential spectra of $`k`$ particles in pseudorapidity bins are analysed relative to the similar background spectra. The dips in the distributions of such ratios are found to be independent on the number $`k`$ of particles, $`1.8`$. The number of clusters is estimated to be about 2-3 with two particles per cluster in average. It is found that the data in the non-annihilation channel is similar to that from the inelastic pp collisions at 69 GeV/$`c`$ from the same accelerator. These observations are treated in frames of different mechanisms, e.g. a model with mesons emitted from intermediate nucleon isobars is suggested.

I am thankful to the ICHEP02 Organising Committee, to convenors of the QCD Session, and to my colleagues at CERN and particularly in OPAL for giving me the opportunity to make this presentation and for their kind help and support.