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# 1 Dependence of Δ𝑟⁽²⁾_bos on Higgs mass 𝑀_𝐻 (see explanation in the text). Parameter choice for the pole masses: 𝑀_𝑍=91.1876GeV and 𝑀_𝑊=80.423GeV.

Two-Loop Bosonic Electroweak Corrections to the Muon Lifetime and $`M_Z`$$`M_W`$ Interdependence

A. Onishchenko111 E-mail: onish@particle.uni-karlsruhe.de 222 Supported by DFG-Forschergruppe “Quantenfeldtheorie, Computeralgebra und
Monte-Carlo-Simulation” (contract FOR 264/2-1) and O. Veretin333 E-mail: veretin@particle.uni-karlsruhe.de 444 Supported by BMBF under grant No 05HT9VKB0.

Institut für Theoretische Teilchenphysik,

Universität Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Deutschland

## Abstract

The two-loop electroweak bosonic correction to the muon lifetime and the $`M_W`$$`M_Z`$ interdependence is computed using analytical methods of asymptotic expansion. Combined with previous calculations this completes the full two-loop correction to $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ in the Standard Model. The shift to the prediction of $`W`$-boson mass due to two-loop bosonic corrections does not exceed 1 MeV for the range of the Higgs boson mass from 100 to 1000 GeV.

The Fermi constant $`G_F`$ plays an important role in the precision tests of the Standard Model. Theoretically $`G_F`$ can be related to other precision observables: the electroweak coupling constant $`\alpha `$ and the masses of electroweak gauge bosons $`M_Z`$ and $`M_W`$. Other parameters enter this expression through quantum corrections. Usually one inverts this relation in order to predict $`M_W`$ through $`M_Z`$ which is measured much more accurate. This $`M_ZM_W`$ interdependence can be then confronted with experimental value $`M_W^{\mathrm{exp}}`$. The current error (39 MeV) of $`M_W^{\mathrm{exp}}`$ will be drastically reduced at future colliders. In fact, at LHC the experimental error can be reduced to 15 MeV  and at Linear Collider even down to 6 MeV . Therefore much efforts have been spent to reduce the error of the theoretical prediction.

Fermi constant is defined as the coupling constant in the low energy four fermion effective Lagrangian describing the decay of the muon

$$_F=_{\mathrm{QED}}+\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}\left[\overline{\nu }_\mu \gamma ^\alpha (1\gamma _5)\mu \right]\left[\overline{e}\gamma _\alpha (1\gamma _5)\nu _e\right]$$
(1)
where $`e`$ and $`\mu `$ are electron and muon fields, $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\mu `$ are the corresponding neutrinos and $`G_F`$ is the Fermi constant. From the Lagrangian (1) one gets the following value for the muon lifetime

$$\frac{1}{\tau _\mu }=\frac{G_F^2m_\mu ^5}{192\pi ^3}\left(18\frac{m_e^2}{m_\mu ^2}\right)(1+\mathrm{\Delta }q),$$
(2)
where the factor $`\mathrm{\Delta }q`$ describes all the quantum corrections in the low energy effective theory (i.e. QED corrections). At one-loop order these corrections have been computed a long time ago . Recently also the two-loop result for $`\mathrm{\Delta }q`$ has been obtained . Taking it into account, the error of $`G_F`$ is nowadays dominated by the experimental error of $`\tau _\mu `$ measurement555The present value is $`G_F=1.16637(1)\times 10^5\text{GeV}^2`$ and possible future experiments could reduce the error by an order of magnitude..

In order to relate $`G_F`$ to $`M_W`$ one can use the matching condition between effective theory (1) and the Standard Model, which requires that the value of $`\tau _\mu `$ does not depend on whether it is evaluated in the Fermi theory or in the full Standard Model. This brings us to the relation

$$\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}=\frac{e^2}{8s_W^2M_W^2}(1+\mathrm{\Delta }r),$$
(3)
where $`e`$ is the electric charge, $`s_W=\mathrm{sin}\theta _W`$ is the SM mixing angle and $`M_W`$ is the $`W`$-boson mass. The factor $`e^2/8s_W^2m_W^2`$ corresponds to the matching at the three level, while the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=\mathrm{\Delta }r^{1\mathrm{loop}}+\mathrm{\Delta }r^{2\mathrm{loop}}+\mathrm{}`$ is defined to absorb quantum corrections coming from the matching procedure at higher loop orders. At the one-loop level $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ was first evaluated in . Further improvement of $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ was achieved in  where the leading and subleading large $`t`$-quark corrections were computed at $`O(\alpha ^2)`$ order. Other two-loop fermionic corrections were considered in a series of papers .

The aim of this work is to compute the remaining $`O(\alpha ^2)`$ pure bosonic contribution in order to complete the full $`O(\alpha ^2)`$ approximation to $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$. As this work was in progress Ref.  has appeared where this missing contribution has been computed numerically using the integral representation for the massive two-point functions .

Our approach is complementary to that of . We use the methods of asymptotic expansion  in two different regimes: 1) large Higgs mass expansion and 2) expansion in difference of masses $`M_H^2M_Z^2`$. In addition we consider also $`s_W^2=\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$ as a small parameter in the spirit of .

The details of our calculation will be presented in a separate publication  and here we only sketch the most important moments.

* $`G_F`$ is nothing but the Wilson coefficient function of the corresponding operator in the low energy four fermion effective theory. Therefore it depends only on the “hard” physics and is insensitive to low energy field modes in loops. The simplest way to compute such a quantity is the use of the factorization theorem (if it exists), which allows one to separate “hard” and “soft” physics666In our case by “soft” we understand energies and momenta of order of muon mass $`m_\mu `$, while “hard” means scales $`m_\mu `$. This theorem for the construction of low energy effective theories is known for a long time (see e.g. ) and is based on the euclidean structure of large mass expansion.
* Using the factorization theorem the problem is reduced to the evaluation of two-loop bubble diagrams.
* All the calculations have been performed in a general $`R_\xi `$ gauge with three arbitrary gauge parameters. By explicit calculation we checked that contribution to $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ is gauge invariant.
* In order to have explicit gauge invariant expressions also at the level of bare quantities we explicitely include tadpole diagrams. We have checked that applying this prescription all the bare parameters and all the counterterms for the masses and the coupling constant are explicitely gauge invariant.
* The renormalization was performed in two different schemes: $`\overline{\mathrm{MS}}`$ and on-shell scheme. For the transformation from one scheme to another one needs the results of  where the transformation formulae for the gauge boson masses were given to two loops.

To obtain the two-loop bosonic contribution to $`\mathrm{}r`$ a number of two-loop diagrams of the order of $`10^4`$ should be evaluated. In our calculation the computer algebra system FORM  was used. In order to obtain the FORM readable input we make use of the input generator DIANA .

Let us now present the results of the calculation. In Fig. 1 the results of expansions are plotted as a function of the on-shell Higgs boson mass $`M_H`$ starting from the experimental low bound 114 GeV  up to 1 TeV. First we expand in the limit $`M_HM_Z`$, e.g. in the difference $`(M_H^2M_Z^2)`$. By summing this series we have found that with 6-10 coefficients it works well for the values of $`M_H`$ down to $`125`$ GeV. In order to accelerate the convergence of this series we apply Páde approximation w.r.t. the variable $`y=(M_H^2M_Z^2)/M_Z^2`$. The left bold curve in Fig. 1 represents the \[3/3\] Páde approximant which behaves smooth down to $`170`$ GeV. The other bold curve is a sum of the first 4 terms of large Higgs mass expansion. This series appeares to be nonalternating and the application of Páde did not show any considerable improvement. In the intermediate region $`155\text{ GeV}<M_H<350\text{ GeV}`$ both approximations fail to converge. (This is due to the presence of singularities in $`M_H`$-plane at $`|M_H|=2M_W`$ or $`|M_H|=2M_Z`$. Such singularity appears for example in diagram of Fig. 2. This manifests itself as a divergence of the series as $`M_H`$ approaches $`2M_Z`$.) Therefore, in order to get a result for Higgs mass values in the region 155–350 GeV we made simple polynomial interpolation.

Our comparison with the numerical curve from Ref.  shows a perfect agreement between the two calculations. The difference for $`155\text{ GeV}<M_H<350\text{ GeV}`$ does not exceed 5% while for $`M_H`$ below 155 GeV and above 350 GeV it is much smaller.

Let us now turn to the $`M_ZM_W`$ interdependence. By inverting Eq. (3) we can find how much does the computed $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{bos}}^{(2)}`$ contribute to the shift of the value of the $`W`$-boson mass. This contribution is plotted in Fig. 3. For the broad region of $`M_H`$ from 100 to 1000 GeV this correction does not exceed 1 MeV and appears to be insignificant. Therefore, we can see that the uncertainty in $`M_W`$ prediction at the moment is dominated by the uncertainty in the experimental value of $`t`$-quark pole mass.

In conclusion, the bosonic contributions to $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ has been computed using methods of asymptotic expansions and the low energy factorization theorem. The influence of this correction on the theoretical prediction of $`M_W`$ is found. The gauge invariance of $`\mathrm{\Delta }r_{\mathrm{bos}}^{(2)}`$ has been proved explicitly. By the inclusion of Higgs-tadpole diagrams it has been checked that all mass- and charge- counterterms are gauge invariant.

Acknowledgments: Authors would like to thank M. Kalmykov, M. Awramik, M. Czakon, K. Chetyrkin and J. Kühn for fruitful discussions and F. Campanario for the careful reading the paper. We are also grateful to M. Tentyukov for his help with input generator DIANA.


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# High energy photon flux prediction from neutralino annihilation in the globular cluster Palomar 13

## 1 Introduction

The distant globular cluster Palomar 13 has been found to have a very high M/L ratio of $`40M_{}/L_{}`$ and its profile can be well fitted either by a King profile with a power-law tail or a NFW model  with scale radius $`2.4\pm 0.2`$pc and central density $`80M_{}pc^3`$. A possible explanation is that this distant cluster $`(D=24.3kpc)`$ is one of the numerous dark clumps predicted by CDM scenarios, which was not destroyed by the galactic tidal field. It may be a disrupted cluster as well, out of dynamical equilibrium. Here we assume that the NFW profile is the signature of a halo made of cold particles. Physics beyond the standard model could be supersymmetry. The lowest massive supersymmetric particle, i.e. the neutralino, is a natural candidate for CDM. If R-parity is conserved the neutralino is stable, is its own antiparticle and has a very small cross-section for annihilation. We assume that the halo of Palomar 13 is made of neutralinos and calculate the flux in high energy $`\gamma `$-rays due to their annihilation.

## 2 Theoretical physics models, tools and benchmarks

Theoretical physics beyond the standard model is reviewed by J. Ellis in this book. The SUSY benchmark models have been proposed to provide a common way of comparing the discovery potential of future accelerators . These scenarios correspond to 13 configurations of the 5 mSUGRA parameters with the trilinear coupling parameter $`A_0`$ set to 0. The models fulfill the conditions imposed by LEP measurements, $`g_\mu 2`$ result and relic density constraint $`0.1<\mathrm{\Omega }_\chi h^2<0.3`$. We calculate the $`\gamma `$ fluxes for the benchmark models BCGIL in the “bulk” region with our current MC simulation programs: DarkSUSY  and SUSPECT . The simultaneous use of the SUSPECT and DarkSUSY package allows to perform the RGE evolution from the GUT scale to the EWSB scale.

## 3 Predicted fluxes for Palomar 13

The fluxes (in $`10^{12}cm^2s^1`$) obtained by varying the threshold energy and integrated within $`\mathrm{\Theta }=10^3sr`$ are shown in the following figure.

## 4 An array of 16-20 Cerenkov telescopes at high altitude

The main points are that we need to work at low energy threshold and very low flux $`(10^{12.5}cm^2s^1)`$. These fluxes are not out of reach but ground-based ongoing instruments will have to be improved by one order of magnitude for that purpose. An array of 5 HESSes (each including four 15-m class telescopes like in HESS), operating in adjacent areas at 5000m altitude, would reach a flux limit of $`2.5\times 10^{13}cm^2s^1`$ at 25 GeV in 400 h. With that flux limit most of the neutralino parameter space in the Galactic Center could be explored. This is roughly the instrument needed to demonstrate or disprove supersymmetry in astrophysics.


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# Zipf’s Law in Gene Expression

## Abstract

Using data from gene expression databases on various organisms and tissues, including yeast, nematodes, human normal and cancer tissues, and embryonic stem cells, we found that the abundances of expressed genes exhibit a power-law distribution with an exponent close to -1, i.e., they obey Zipf’s law. Furthermore, by simulations of a simple model with an intra-cellular reaction network, we found that Zipf’s law of chemical abundance is a universal feature of cells where such a network optimizes the efficiency and faithfulness of self-reproduction. These findings provide novel insights into the nature of the organization of reaction dynamics in living cells.

In a cell, an enormous number of organized chemical reactions are required to maintain its living state. Although enumeration of detailed cellular processes and the construction of complicated models is important for a complete description of cellular behavior, it is also necessary to search for universal laws with regard to the intra-cellular reactions common to all living systems, and then to unravel the logic of life leading to such universal features. For example, scale-free networks have recently been discussed as a universal property of some biochemical reaction networks within existing organisms metabolic ; lethal . These studies, however, only focused on the properties of the network topologies, while the reaction dynamics of the networks were not discussed. Here, we report a universal property of the reaction dynamics that occurs within cells, namely a power-law distribution of the abundance of expressed genes with an exponent close to -1, i.e. a power-law distribution that obeys Zipf’s law Zipf . By using an abstract model of a cell with simple reaction dynamics, we show that this power-law behavior in the chemical abundances generally appears when the reaction dynamics leads to a faithful and efficient self-reproduction of a cell. These findings provide insights into the nature of the organization of complex reaction dynamics in living cells.

In order to investigate possible universal properties of the reaction dynamics, we examined the distributions of the abundances of expressed genes (that are approximately equal to the abundances of the corresponding proteins) in 6 organisms and more than 40 tissues based on data publicly available from SAGE (Serial Analysis of Gene Expression) databases SAGE1 ; SAGE2 ; SAGE3 . SAGE allows the number of copies of any given mRNA to be quantitatively evaluated by determining the abundances of the short sequence tags which uniquely identify it SAGE\_method .

In Fig.1, we show the rank-ordered frequency distributions of the expressed genes, where the ordinate indicates the frequency of the observed sequence tags (i.e. the population ratio of the corresponding mRNA to the total mRNA), and the abscissa shows the rank determined from this frequency. As shown, the distributions follow a power-law with an exponent close to -1 (Zipf’s law). We observed this power-law distribution for all the available samples, including 18 human normal tissues, human cancer tissues, mouse (including embryonic stem cells), rat, nematode (C. elegans), and yeast (S.cerevisiae) cells. All the data over 40 samples (except for 2 plant data) show the power-law distributions with the exponent in the range from $`10.86`$. Even though there are some factors which may bias the results of the SAGE experiments, such as sequencing errors and non-uniqueness of tag sequences, it seems rather unlikely that the distribution is an artifact of the experimental procedure.

The abundance of each protein is the result of a complex network of chemical reactions that is influenced by possibly a large number of factors including other proteins and genes. Then, why is Zipf’s law universally observed, and what class of reaction dynamics will show the observed power-law distribution? Because the power-law distribution applies to a wide range of existing organisms, it is expected that it appears as a general feature of the reaction dynamics of cellular systems.

In order to investigate the above questions, we adopt a simple model of cellular dynamics that captures only its basic features. It consists of intra-cellular catalytic reaction networks that transform nutrient chemicals into proteins. By studying a class of simple models with these features, we clarify the conditions under which the reaction dynamics leads to a power-law distribution of the chemical abundances.

Of course, real intra-cellular processes are much more complicated, but if the mechanism is universal, the power-law should be valid regardless of how complicated the actual processes are. Hence it is relevant to study as simple as possible a model when trying to understand a universal law in real data.

Consider a cell consisting of a variety of chemicals. The internal state of the cell can be represented by a set of numbers $`(n_1,n_2,\mathrm{},n_k)`$, where $`n_i`$ is the number of molecules of the chemical species $`i`$ with $`i`$ ranging from $`i=1`$ to $`k`$. For the internal chemical reaction dynamics, we chose a catalytic network among these $`k`$ chemical species, where each reaction from some chemical $`i`$ to some other chemical $`j`$ is assumed to be catalyzed by a third chemical $`\mathrm{}`$, i.e. $`(i+\mathrm{}j+\mathrm{})`$ . The rate of increase of $`n_j`$ (and decrease of $`n_i`$) through this reaction is given by $`ϵn_in_{\mathrm{}}/N^2`$, where $`ϵ`$ is the coefficient for the chemical reaction. For simplicity all the reaction coefficients were chosen to be equal hetero , and the connection paths of this catalytic network were chosen randomly such that the probability of any two chemicals $`i`$ and $`j`$ to be connected is given by the connection rate $`\rho `$ stem .

Some resources (nutrients) are supplied from the environment by diffusion through the membrane (with a diffusion coefficient $`D`$), to ensure the growth of a cell. Through the calaytic reactions, these nutrientsnote1  are transformed into other chemicals. Some of these chemicals may penetrate hetero  the membrane and diffuse out while others will not. With the synthesis of the unpenetrable chemicals that do not diffuse out, the total number of chemicals $`N=_in_i`$ in a cell can increase, and accordingly the cell volume will increase. We study how this cell growth is sustained by dividing a cell into two when the volume is larger than some threshold. For simplicity the division is assumed to occur when the total number of molecules $`N=_in_i`$ in a cell exceeds a given threshold $`N_{max}`$. Chosen randomly, the mother cell’s molecules are evenly split among the two daughter cells.

In our numerical simulations, we randomly pick up a pair of molecules in a cell, and transform them according to the reaction network. In the same way, diffusion through the membrane is also computed by randomly choosing molecules inside the cell and nutrients in the environment. In the case with $`Nk`$ (i.e. continuous limit), the reaction dynamics is represented by the following rate equation:

$`dn_i/dt={\displaystyle \underset{j,\mathrm{}}{}}Con(j,i,\mathrm{})ϵn_jn_{\mathrm{}}/N^2`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{j^{},\mathrm{}^{}}{}}Con(i,j^{},\mathrm{}^{})ϵn_in_{\mathrm{}^{}}/N^2+D\sigma _i(\overline{n_i}/Vn_i/N),`$
where $`Con(i,j,\mathrm{})`$ is 1 if there is a reaction $`i+\mathrm{}j+\mathrm{}`$, and 0 otherwise, whereas $`\sigma _i`$ takes 1 if the chemical $`i`$ is penetrable, and 0 otherwise. The third term describes the transport of chemicals through the membrane, where $`\overline{n_i}`$ is a constant, representing the number of the i-th chemical species in the environment and $`V`$ denotes the volume of the environment in units of the initial cell size. The number $`\overline{n_i}`$ is nonzero only for the nutrient chemicals.

If the total number of molecules $`N_{max}`$ is larger than the number of chemical species $`k`$, the population ratios $`\{n_i/N\}`$ are generally fixed, since the daughter cells inherit the chemical compositions of their mother cells. For $`k>N_{max}`$ large\_K , the population ratios do not settle down and can change from generation to generation. In both cases, depending on the membrane diffusion coefficient $`D`$, the intra-cellular reaction dynamics can be classified into the three classes rho .

First, there is a critical value $`D=D_c`$ beyond which the cell cannot grow continuously. When $`D>D_c`$, the flow of nutrients from the environment is so fast that the internal reactions transforming them into chemicals sustaining ‘metabolism’ cannot keep up. In this case all the molecules in the cell will finally be substituted by the nutrient chemicals and the cell stops growing since the nutrients alone cannot catalyze any reactions to generate unpenetrable chemicals. Continuous cellular growth and successive divisions are possible only for $`DD_c`$. When the diffusion coefficient $`D`$ is sufficiently small, the internal reactions progress faster than the flow of nutrients from the environment, and all the existing chemical species have small numbers of approximately the same level. A stable reaction network organization is obtained only at the intermediate diffusion coefficient below $`D_c`$, where some chemical species have much larger number of molecules than others.

The rank-ordered number distributions of chemical species in our model are plotted in Fig.2, where the ordinate indicates the number of molecules $`n_i`$ and abscissa shows the rank determined by $`n_i`$. As shown in the figure, the slope in the rank-ordered number distribution increases with an increase of the diffusion coefficient $`D`$. We found that at the critical point $`D=D_c`$, the distribution converges to a power-law with an exponent -1.

The power-law distribution at this critical point is maintained by a hierarchical organization of catalytic reactions, where the synthesis of higher ranking chemicals is catalyzed by lower ranking chemicals. For example, major chemical species (with e.g. $`n_i>1000`$) are directly synthesized from nutrients and catalyzed by chemicals that are slightly less abundant (e.g. $`n_i200`$). The latter chemicals are mostly synthesized from nutrients (or other major chemicals), and catalyzed by chemicals that are much less abundant. In turn these chemicals are catalyzed by chemicals that are even less abundant, and this hierarchy of catalytic reactions continues until it reaches the minor chemical species (with e.g. $`n_i<5`$) hierarchy .

Based on this catalytic hierarchy, the observed exponent -1 can be explained using a mean field approximation. First, we replace the concentration $`n_i/N`$ of each chemical $`i`$, except the nutrient chemicals, by a single average concentration (mean field) $`x`$, while the concentrations of nutrient chemicals $`S`$ is given by the average concentration $`S=1k^{}x`$, where $`k^{}`$ is the number of non-nutrient chemical species. From this mean field equation, we obtain $`S=\frac{DS_0}{D+ϵ\rho }`$ with $`S_0=_j\overline{n_j}/V`$. With linear stability analysis, the solution with $`S1`$ is stable if $`D<\frac{ϵ\rho }{S_01}D_c`$. Indeed, this critical value does not differ much from numerical observation.

Next, we study how the concentrations of non-nutrient chemicals differentiate. Suppose that chemicals $`\{i_0\}`$ are synthesized directly from nutrients through catalyzation by chemicals $`j`$. As the next step of the mean-field approximation we assume the concentrations of the chemicals $`\{i_0\}`$ are larger than the others. Now we represent the dynamics by two mean-field concentrations; the concentration of $`\{i_0\}`$ chemicals, $`x_0`$, and the concentration of the others, $`x_1`$. The solution with $`x_0x_1`$ satisfies $`x_0x_1/\rho `$ at the critical point $`D_c`$. Since the fraction of the $`\{i_0\}`$ chemicals among the non-nutrient chemicals is $`\rho `$, the relative abundance of the chemicals $`\{i_0\}`$ is inversely proportional to this fraction. Similarly, one can compute the relative abundances of the chemicals of the next layer synthesized from $`i_0`$. At $`DD_c`$, this hierarchy of the catalytic network is continued. In general a given layer of the hierarchy is defined by the chemicals whose synthesis from the nutrients is catalyzed by the layer one step down in the hierarchy. The abundance of chemical species in a given layer is $`1/\rho `$ times larger than chemicals in the layer one step down. Then, in the same way as this hierarchical organization of chemicals, the increase of chemical abundances and the decrease of number of chemical species are given by factors of $`1/\rho `$ and $`\rho `$, respectively. This is the reason for the emergence of power-law with an exponent -1 in the rank-ordered distribution details .

In general, as the flow of nutrients from the environment increases, the hierarchical catalyzation network pops up from random reaction networks. This hierarchy continues until it covers all chemicals, at $`DD_c0`$. Hence, the emergence of a power-law distribution of chemical abundances near the critical point is quite general, and does not rely on the details of our model, such as the network configuration or the kinetic rules of the reactions. Instead it is a universal property of a cell with an intra-cellular reaction network to grow, by taking in nutrients, at the critical state, as has been confirmed from simulations of a variety of models.

There are two reasons to assume that such a critical state of the reaction dynamics is adopted in existing cellular systems. First, as shown in Fig.3, the growth speed of a cell is maximal at $`D=D_c`$. This suggests that a cell whose reaction dynamics are in the critical state should be selected by natural selection. Second, at the critical point, the similarity of chemical compositions between the mother and daughter cell is maximal as shown in Fig.3. Indeed, for $`k>N`$, the chemical compositions differ significantly from generation to generation when $`DD_c`$. When $`DD_c`$, several semi-stable states with distinct chemical compositions appear. Daughter cells in the semi-stable states inherit chemical compositions that are nearly identical to their mother cells over many generations, until fluctuations in molecule numbers induce a transition to another semi-stable state. This means that the most faithful transfer of the information determining a cell’s intra-cellular state is at the critical state. (Inheritance of chemical compositions is also discussed in Lancet  in connection with the origin of reproducing cells). In this state, cells of specific chemical compositions are reproduced and can also ’evolve’ into other states. For these reasons, it is natural to conclude that evolution favors a critical state SOC  for the reaction dynamics.

Last, we investigated the relationship between the abundance of a chemical species and the number of reaction paths connected with it. By comparing the SAGE data and the protein-protein interaction data in yeast (S.cerevisiae) yeast\_data1 ; yeast\_data2 , obtained by systematic two-hybrid analysis, we found that there is a significant negative correlation between the abundance of any given mRNA and the number of protein-protein interaction links that the corresponding protein takes part in ($`p<0.01`$; determined by randomization test). In our model simulations, this negative correlation between the abundance of chemical species and the number of possible catalytic paths of the chemical is also found. In this sense, chemicals minor in abundance can play a relatively important role in the control of the behavior of a cellminority . In the future it will be important to study this kind of interplay in the context of evolution since the evolution of reaction networks has only been discussed in the context of network topology metabolic ; lethal .

We would like to thank Tetsuya Yomo and Lars Martin Jakt for stimulating discussions and Frederick H. Willeboordse and Adam Ponzi for critical reading of the manuscript. Grant-in-Aids for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan (11CE2006).


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# A Note on Strings in a Rindler Background

## 1 Introduction

The problem of Strings in a Rindler background is an important one and remains intractable for arbitrary temperatures. The near horizon geometry of most black holes is well approximated by Rindler and a better understanding of strings in this background could serve as a handle to deal with more complicated geometries like Schwarzschild. The familiar connection between the Rindler vacuum (at temperature $`\mathrm{\Theta }=\frac{1}{2\pi }`$) and the Minkowski vacuum corresponds to the unique map that takes the non-linear Rindler sigma model into the linear Minkowski sigma model. Any change in temperature away from this value causes the geometry to become conical with a curvature singularity at the origin. This problem may be overcome to some extent by viewing the geometry as an orbifold of $`\frac{R_2}{Z_N}`$ . This reproduces the conical geometry and allows us to calculate at temperatures that are integer multiples of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$. The purpose of this note is to use D-branes to reproduce these same temperatures. It appears as if the orbifold and D-brane pictures are very similar. Further we claim that the closed string spectra in these theories are the same.

## 2 Strings in Rindler

### 2.1 Rindler Space

The Rindler ‘wedge’ is Minkowski space mod $`Z_4`$. This space (of uniformly accelerated observers) has horizons and is a good toy model for black hole physics. The metric for 2-D Rindler space is obtained from the Minkowski metric,

$$ds^2=dt^2dx^2$$
(1)
by the following transformations,

$`t={\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}e^{a\xi }\mathrm{sinh}a\eta `$
$`x={\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}e^{a\xi }\mathrm{cosh}a\eta `$ (2)
which yield,

$$ds^2=e^{2a\xi }(d\eta ^2d\xi ^2)$$
(3)
Black Hole entropy is an interesting quantity and its calculation requires a knowledge of the partition function. This is computed using the Euclidean continuation of the Rindler metric,

$$ds^2=\rho ^2d\theta ^2+d\rho ^2$$
(4)
where $`\theta =i\eta `$ is the periodically identified time coordinate with period $`\beta `$ (the inverse temperature) and $`\rho =e^{a\xi }`$. Any change in $`\beta `$ away from $`2\pi `$ causes the Euclidean geometry to become conical with a curvature singularity at the origin.

### 2.2 The Rindler Sigma Model

A string sweeps out a two dimensional worldsheet which is described by two parameters, $`\sigma `$ and $`\tau `$ (proper time). The Nambu-Goto action for a string propagating in space time may be rewritten in a more convenient form, introduced by Brink et al ,

$$S_P=\frac{1}{4\pi \alpha ^{}}𝑑\tau 𝑑\sigma (\gamma )^{\frac{1}{2}}\gamma ^{ab}_aX^\mu _bX^\nu \eta _{\mu \nu }$$
(5)
where $`\frac{1}{2\pi \alpha ^{}}`$ is the string tension, $`\gamma ^{ab}`$ is the worldsheet metric, $`X^\mu `$ are scalar fields (from a worldsheet point of view) and $`\eta _{\mu \nu }`$ is the spacetime Minkowski metric. With the choice of a Euclidean world sheet metric $`\gamma ^{ab}=\delta ^{ab}`$, the equations of motion may be solved to obtain a very simple solution for the closed string fields $`X`$,

$$X=x+p\tau +\frac{i}{2}\underset{n0}{}\frac{\alpha _n}{n}e^{2in(\tau \sigma )}+\frac{i}{2}\underset{n0}{}\frac{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n}{n}e^{2in(\tau +\sigma )}$$
(6)
with $`x`$ and $`p`$ being the center of mass position and momentum. $`\alpha `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$ are the left and right moving oscillators respectively. This model is easily generalized to curved spacetimes by replacing the flat metric $`\eta _{\mu \nu }`$ in (5) by the general metric $`G_{\mu \nu }`$.

$$S_P=\frac{1}{4\pi \alpha ^{}}𝑑\tau 𝑑\sigma (\gamma )^{\frac{1}{2}}\gamma ^{ab}_aX^\mu _bX^\nu G_{\mu \nu }$$
(7)
This is where the problem arises because the Rindler metric causes this theory to become coupled due to the factor of $`e^{2a\xi }`$ in (3). As long as this space remains flat ($`\mathrm{\Theta }=\frac{1}{2\pi }`$), the inverse transformations to (2.1) allow us to map this non-linear sigma model back to the free sigma model. This is not possible at other temperatures.

### 2.3 $`\frac{R_2}{Z_N}`$ Orbifolds

Strings do not propagate on a cone but as mentioned earlier the geometry may be described as an orbifold of $`\frac{R_2}{Z_N}`$(for integer $`N`$). An orbifold identifies spacetime points under a discrete symmetry. In the case of $`\frac{R_2}{Z_N}`$, we define the operator $`\alpha `$,

$$\alpha :X=e^{\frac{2\pi ik}{N}}X$$
(8)
which identifies various $`X`$ that are related to each other by the action of $`\alpha `$. These identifications cause the manifold to become conical with a singularity at the origin. $`N`$ determines the periodicity $`\beta `$ (and the deficit angle) and hence controls the temperature of this space. $`k=1\mathrm{}N1`$ correspond to the twisted sectors in the spectrum. The orbifold group acts on the string field $`X`$ by multiplication. The partition function is computed as a trace weighted by the exponential of the Hamiltonian and momentum with the projection operator inserted within the trace . For example, in the case $`N=3`$,

$$Z=(q\overline{q})^{\frac{1}{48}}Tr(\frac{1+\alpha +\alpha ^2}{3}q^{L_0}\overline{q}^{\stackrel{~}{L}_0})$$
(9)
where $`q=e^{2\pi i(\sigma +i\tau )}`$, $`L_0`$ is the zero mode of the Virasoro generators and $`\alpha ^3=1`$.

The drawback in this procedure being that the range of accessible temperatures is limited by the integer nature of $`N`$, to be of the form $`\frac{N}{2\pi }`$.

## 3 D-23 Branes and the Rindler Metric

We work in a 26 dimensional spacetime of the form $`M_{24}\times E_2`$ where $`M`$ refers to a 24 dimensional Minkowski surface (D-23 brane) and $`E`$ a two dimensional Euclidean ‘transverse’ space. $`M`$ and $`N`$ are spacetime indices and run over $`0\mathrm{}25`$, $`\mu `$ and $`\nu `$ are brane indices and run from $`0\mathrm{}23`$ and $`a`$ and $`b`$ run over 1, 2 (transverse indices). We fix a D-23 brane at $`x^a=0`$. The action for this D-23 Brane reads ,

$$S=f_\mathrm{\Sigma }d^{24}x\sqrt{\widehat{G}}+M_{P}^{}{}_{}{}^{24}d^{26}x\sqrt{G}R$$
(10)
where $`G`$ is the spacetime metric with Ricci scalar $`R`$. $`f`$ is the D-brane tension, $`M_P`$ the 26 dimensional Planck mass and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is the surface defined by $`x^a=0`$. $`\widehat{G}`$ is the metric induced on the 23-brane,

$$\widehat{G}_{\mu \nu }=\delta _{\mu }^{}{}_{}{}^{M}\delta _{\nu }^{}{}_{}{}^{N}G_{MN}|_\mathrm{\Sigma }$$
(11)
The equations of motion for (10) are

$$R_{MN}\frac{1}{2}G_{MN}R+\frac{1}{2}\frac{\sqrt{\widehat{G}}}{\sqrt{G}}\delta _{M}^{}{}_{}{}^{\mu }\delta _{N}^{}{}_{}{}^{\nu }\widehat{G}_{\mu \nu }\frac{f}{M_{P}^{}{}_{}{}^{24}}\delta ^{(2)}(x^a)=0$$
(12)
Choose an Ansatz of the form,

$$ds^2=\eta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu +e^{2\gamma (x^a)}[d\rho ^2+\rho ^2d\varphi ^2]$$
(13)
for which

$$R_{\mu \nu }=R_{\mu a}=0,R_{ab}=\frac{1}{2}G_{ab}R$$
(14)
and the equations of motion yield,

$$\sqrt{G}R=4\pi T\delta ^{(2)}(x^a)$$
(15)
where $`R`$, $`R_{ab}`$ are obtained from the two dimensional metric and we have defined the dimensionless quantity,

$$T=\frac{f}{4\pi M_{P}^{}{}_{}{}^{24}}$$
(16)
Since for a conformally flat metric $`\sqrt{G}R=2^a_a\gamma `$, our equation becomes

$$^a_a\gamma =2\pi T\delta ^{(2)}(x^a)$$
(17)
from which we get,

$$\gamma (x^a)=\frac{1}{2}T\mathrm{ln}(\frac{x^2}{q^2})$$
(18)
where $`q`$ is a constant of integration.

Assume $`T<1`$, substitute $`\gamma `$ back in the Ansatz and define a new coordinate

$$r=e^\beta q^{(T)}\rho ^{(1T)}$$
(19)
where $`e^\beta =1T`$.

The spacetime metric now reads

$$ds^2=\eta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu +dr^2+e^{2\beta }r^2d\varphi ^2$$
(20)
Thus our 26 dimensional space-time is now the product of a 24 dimensional Minkowski space and a 2 dimensional wedge, with deficit angle

$$\delta =2\pi [1e^\beta ]=2\pi T$$
(21)
The transverse space is a Euclideanized version of Rindler space and the D-brane tension serves as a thermostat for this space.

## 4 Brane-Orbifold Duality

Our analysis so far has been very general (holds for arbitrary dimensions) and is not directly related with strings. We want to use this constructed background to study bosonic closed strings. Our choice of a 23-brane (for 2-D Rindler) is explained by the fact that bosonic string theory is consistent only in 26 dimensions. The geometry of this D-23 brane model puts spacetime restrictions on fields in the transverse space. A choice of

$$T=1\frac{1}{N}\delta =2\pi (1\frac{1}{N})$$
(22)
with integer $`N`$, demands that the closed string fields within the wedge satisfy,

$$X=e^{\frac{2\pi i}{N}}X$$
(23)
which is the same demand made by the $`\frac{R_2}{Z_N}`$ orbifold. The partition function is computed in exactly the same fashion as the orbifold . The worldsheet at one loop is a torus. The partition function in the transverse space is simply the path integral of a single complex boson subject to twisted boundary conditions. It follows then that the closed string spectrum in $`\frac{R_2}{Z_N}`$ is identical to the closed string spectrum in the transverse space of our D-23 Brane (An orbifold has multiple ‘copies’ of a string which arise from repeated identifications using (8) but this is true with (23) as well. Further the important space is the wedge, the only space that really remains. The string itself has no way of knowing what causes this identification, so the manner in which the space is constructed is immaterial). The D-brane approach may in fact be a more fundamental way of imposing the restriction (23).

## 5 Unresolved Issues

At this stage, the brane tension appears as a free parameter. At specific values of this parameter, we have identified the connection with orbifolds. However the significance of these specific values remains unclear. We also need to understand why 26 spacetime dimensions are special from a D-brane point of view. The energy density or tension of the D-brane needs to be physically controlled. We suggest a couple of methods to achieve this tuning and hope to return to these issues later.

### 5.1 Tachyon Potential

The tuning process is tricky because the very mechanism of tuning the D-brane tension may interfere with the set up and mess up the geometry. One method advocated by A. Sen  is to use the tachyon potential to tune the D-brane tension. D-branes are usually described by boundary conditions on the open strings that end on them. However they may also be regarded as open string field theory solitons. Each D-brane in bosonic string theory has a tachyonic mode. It is believed that as the tachyon field $`A`$ rolls to the minimum of the tachyon potential $`V(A)`$, the negative contribution from the tachyon potential exactly cancels the tension of the D-brane. Since the brane itself disappears, this vacuum cannot support open string excitations. It has been shown that pushing the tachyon toward the side of the maximum where there is a local minimum corresponds to adding a positive definite boundary term to the world sheet action. The boundary state description associated with this ‘rolling’ tachyon solution allows us to compute the tachyon potential energy contribution to the total energy density on the brane. For small displacements $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ of the tachyon field, the tachyon potential energy is $`\frac{\stackrel{~}{\lambda }^2}{2g^2}`$ where $`g`$ is the open string coupling and this adds to the initial energy density on the D-brane, effectively tuning it. For instance, in order to reproduce the wedge arising from an orbifold of $`\frac{R_2}{Z_3}`$ we need a D-brane with,

$$T=\frac{2}{3}\delta =\frac{4\pi }{3}$$
(24)
which corresponds to $`N=3`$ in (22). A choice of $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda }`$ such that $`(\frac{1+cos(2\pi \stackrel{~}{\lambda })}{2})=2/3`$, will yield a system with energy density that is 2/3 times the tension of the original D-brane. Note however that this is not a static system, and will evolve with time. In the classical approximation the energy density will remain constant at 2/3 times the tension of the original brane, but the other components of the energy-momentum tensor (pressure) will go to zero exponentially111Dr. Ashoke Sen, private communication.

### 5.2 External Fields

The tension may also be tuned by turning on external fields (like a background B field). The effect of such a $`B`$ field is among other things to change the effective tension of open strings(stretched in the direction of the field). The value of the bosonic D p-brane tension is related to $`\alpha ^{}`$ by $`\tau _{p}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\alpha _{}^{}{}_{}{}^{11p}`$. For a background electric field alone, the effective tension for an open string is given by ,

$$\frac{1}{2\pi \alpha _{}^{}{}_{eff}{}^{}}=\frac{1\stackrel{~}{E}^2}{2\pi \alpha ^{}}$$
(25)
The net brane tension will then have a contribution from strings lying along the field. These strings with modified $`\alpha ^{}`$ will alter the tension of the brane. However an external field may warp the cone (the $`\beta `$ functions must be computed in order to determine the exact effect on the geometry).

## 6 Conclusions

The main advantage of this analysis is the possible ‘extra’ freedom afforded by the tension. Such a continuous parameter is unavailable in the orbifold approach and is a handicap for tuning the temperature. However we have illustrated the strong similarities in these approaches. Only certain values of the tension seem related to the orbifold case. At those values of the D-brane tension, where the connection with orbifolds is made, strings will propagate in this space. It is still unclear if strings propagate in this space at other values of the tension (which is what will provide us with a continuous range of temperatures). It will be interesting to understand what makes these values of the tension special. Tuning via the tachyon (or the background field) may provide clues as to what picks out these values.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Pierre Ramond for his constant interest, support and guidance during the course of this work. I would also like to thank Dr. Zongan Qiu for many helpful discussions.


text:
# Hysteresis in the Light Curves of Soft X-ray Transients

## 1 Introduction

Soft X-ray transients (SXTs) represent a class of X-ray binaries which undergo occasional, perhaps quasi-periodic outburst cycles during which their luminosities rise by factors of $`10010000`$ (in the case of neutron star systems) to factors of $`10^6`$ or more (in the case of black hole systems). Their spectral states also change during these luminosity transitions. At the lowest luminosities for which the spectrum can be measured well, their continua generally look to be a hard ($`\frac{dN}{dE}E^{1.5}`$) power law, with a cutoff typically between 50 and 500 keV - the low/hard state. The low/hard state emission mechanism is generally thought to be thermal Comptonisation by hot electrons (e.g. Sunyaev & Titarchuk 1980). At luminosities greater than $``$ a few percent of the Eddington luminosity, the spectrum resembles, to first order, the standard multi-temperature blackbody model of Shakura & Sunyaev (1973) - the high/soft state. In some cases, a “very high state” exists where the multi-temperature blackbody from the thin disc is seen at the same time as a hard power law tail (albeit with a spectral photon index typically around 2.5) that extends to $`\gamma `$-ray energies with no apparent cutoff. The radiation mechanisms in the very high state are not as well understood as in the other states. There also exists an “off state” at very low luminosities. Current observational evidence seems to favor the idea that the off state is merely an extension of the low/hard state to very low luminosities (see e.g. Corbel et al. 2000 - C00), but the data is relatively sparse. For a review of the properties of the different spectral states, see Nowak (1995).

Past work has shown that the spectral state correlates with the system luminosity (see e.g. the reviews by Tanaka & Lewin 1995; Nowak 1995). In black hole systems, the spectral state transitions are currently thought to be driven by the shift in accretion flow geometry from a thin disc that extends to $``$ the innermost stable circular orbit (high/soft state) to either a thin disc with a hole in it or a thin disc with a hot corona above it (the low/hard state). In this low/hard state, the hard X-rays are then thought to be produced by Compton scattering of these disc photons in a hot, quasi-spherical flow inside this hole (e.g. Shapiro, Lightman & Eardley 1976; Ichimaru 1977; Rees et al. 1982; Narayan & Yi 1994), a magnetically powered corona above the disc (e.g. Nayakshin & Svensson 2001), or the hot base of a relativistic jet (e.g. C00; see also Markoff, Falcke & Fender 2001 who claim the X-rays are synchrotron radiation from this jet).

To the extent that the accretion mode is determined only by the presence of a deep gravitational potential well, these models may apply to neutron star SXTs as well. However, neutron stars may possess significant magnetic fields and the “propeller model” may be relevant in explaining the state transitions in some or all of these systems (e.g. Lamb, Pethick & Pines 1973; Zhang, Yu & Zhang 1998; Campana et al. 1998). In the propeller model, the inner region is kept empty of mass by the magnetosphere of the neutron star when the magnetospheric radius is larger than the corotation radius, and hence the magnetic pressure of the magnetosphere is larger than the gas’ ram pressure. The neutron star then becomes very much like an isolated radio pulsar and the X-ray luminosity is then provided by some combination of a small fraction of the gas accreting along the magnetic poles and the collision of the pulsar wind with the accreting gas (Campana et al. 1998).

Until recently, the standard lore has held that the SXT outbursts usually proceed directly from quiescence into the high/soft state, perhaps going through a very high state first. This assumption has been recently contradicted by the observations of XTE J 1550-564 (Wilson & Done 2001), XTE 1859+226 (Brocksopp et al. 2002) and of Aql X-1 (Jain 2001), who have found hard states in the rising portions of the outbursts. These initial hard states are not very long lived, and it is only due to the advent of the RXTE All-Sky Monitor, which has greater sensitivity than previous all-sky monitors, to dedicated optical monitoring programs (e.g. Jain 2001 and references within), and to the rapid response of the pointed instruments on the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer that detections of this brief hard state have been possible.

In this paper, we discuss Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer light curves from the All Sky Monitor (ASM) and from the pointed Proportional Counter Array (PCA) of several soft X-ray transients: the neutron star system Aql X-1, and the black hole candidates 1748-288, 1859+226, 2012+381, XTE J1550-564, and GRO J1655-40 (see Liu, van Paradijs, & van den Heuvel 2001 and references within for discussion of source identifications; see also Orosz et al. 2002 for a dynamical confirmation that XTE J 1550-564 contains a black hole primary star; Fillipenko & Chornock 2001 for analogous work on 1859+226). We show that in all cases except 1655-40, the lightcurves seem to show hard states in the rising and falling phases of the outburst and hysteresis loops in diagrams of spectral hardness versus intensity. We discuss the implications for the different models of state transitions in SXTs. We note that the similarities between the outburst cycles could imply a common origin for the state transitions of black hole and neutron star SXTs and that a particular difficulty is presented for propeller models as the sole mechanism for state transitions in neutron star systems.

## 2 Observations

In general, hardness ratios of neutron star transients in the low/hard state cannot be well constrained by the ASM on RXTE because the source fluxes are too low. Fortunately, a full outburst cycle has been observed with the PCA for Aql X-1 by using ground-based optical monitoring from the Yale 1m telescope (operated by the YALO consortium \- see Bailyn et al. 1999) to trigger the series of target-of-opportunity X-ray observations we analyse here. (See Jain 2001 for a discussion of the optical observations). Because the full-scale outbursts in Aql X-1 occur roughly once per year, and because the optical flux rises several days earlier than the X-ray flux, such a monitoring program is feasible, effective, and necessary in order to catch the rising phase of the X-ray outburst with pointed instruments. It is more difficult to get useful pointed observations of typical black hole transient sources in all spectral states - either they are new transients, in which case one does not know where to point the monitoring optical telescope, or they are recurring ones, but with substantially longer outburst cycles (typically $``$ 10 years).

Aql X-1 is also an especially useful source for testing propeller models in neutron star systems because its spin frequency of 550 Hz has been measured as the coherent quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) frequency in a Type I X-ray burst (W. Zhang et al. 1998). Until recently, there had been some controversy as to whether the coherent QPO frequency represented the neutron star’s spin frequency or twice its spin frequency. A series of 5 bursts from KS 1731-260 with coherent QPOs was examined to look for oscillations at 1/2 and 3/2 of the strongest coherent QPO frequency and an upper limit on the power at these frequencies of 5% of the power of the strongest frequency was found (Muno et al. 2000), making it extremely unlikely that the strongest frequency seen during the Type I bursts is actually a harmonic (although see Abramowicz, Kluzniak & Lasota 2001 for an argument against the claim that the coherent kilohertz QPOs show the rotational frequency of the neutron star).

For the black hole candidates, data from the ASM (see Levine et al. 1996 for an instrument description) are used. We take the ratio of counts from 5-12 keV (band 3) to counts from 1-3 keV (band 1) and construct a new hardness ratio. Since the typical disc temperature for a soft X-ray transient is about 1 keV (giving a spectral peak near 3 keV), the 1-3 keV band should be dominated by disc emission whenever a strong disc is present and the 5-13 keV band should be well above the cutoff energy for the disc component. Thus this ratio should give a good indication of whether the accretion flow is in the hard state (where the $`\nu F_\nu `$ peak will be well above 10 keV) or in the soft state (where the $`\nu F_\nu `$ peak will be below 5 keV). An exception must be made in the case of GRO J 1655-40. In this source, the disc temperature in the high/soft state can be quite large - up to a few keV (e.g. Sobczak et al. 2000). This can push the peak energy in the disc spectrum up past 5 keV (i.e. into the hardest band on the ASM) and can make any ratio of the count rates in two ASM bands a poor indicator of the spectral state. The ASM hardness ratios for GRO J 1655-40 seem to scale with luminosity (i.e. the source becomes harder as it becomes brighter, because its disc temperature and disc flux are correlated), regardless of spectral state, consistent with these expectations, and thus indicating that the ASM cannot constrain the ratio of disc to power law flux for this system. For XTE J 1550-564, which has undergone three outburst cycles since the beginning of the RXTE mission (e.g. Jain et al. 2001; Smith et al. 2000) we plot the results from only the earliest (late summer-early fall 1998) outburst, which is qualitatively similar to the plot for the other two outburst cycles. We further restrict the data sets by including only those days where the count rates in all three bands are positive (allowing for the construction of hardness ratios) and the net count rate in all three bands is greater than 1.5 counts per second. The crude spectral measures from the ASM and the rather large uncertainties in the distances of the black hole systems will preclude accurate measurements of the luminosities of these systems from being made, but are sufficient for comparing relative fluxes for a given source.

The PCA data for Aql X-1 are extracted using the standard FTOOLS 5.0, using the standard RXTE Guest Observer Facility recommendations for screening criteria. The observations used are from the May/June 1999 outburst (proposal IDs 40047 and 40049). They are then fit in XSPEC 11.0 using a thermal Comptonisation model (EQPAIR - see Coppi 1998 for a description of the model). The details of the spectral fitting procedure and the results of the spectral fits will be described in a follow-up paper (Maccarone & Coppi, in preparation). The essence of the procedure that is relevant to this work is that (1) by fitting a model, we may accurately estimate the flux from the source and (2) the model returns as a fit parameter the ratio of luminosity in the Comptonising electrons to the luminosity in the disc, which indicates the spectral state of the system.

## 3 Results

For Aql X-1, we plot flux versus the ratio of Comptonising electron luminosity in the corona to disc luminosity in Figure 1a. Arrows trace the outburst cycle from earliest time to latest time. To facilitate comparisons with the black hole systems, we also plot, in Figure 1b, the Aql X-1 data converted into ASM units. We make this conversion by dividing the ASM model counts by the Crab model counts (as given in Wilms et al. 1999) in the two energy ranges (1-3 keV and 5-12 keV) then multiplying the resulting ratios by the Crab count rates. Since the Crab ratios do not strictly represent a response matrix, slight systematic errors may be introduced in this way. Additional systematic errors may be introduced by the extrapolation of the best fitting model for Aql X-1 to energies below the range where the fit was made. Nonetheless, this figure should make it easier for the reader to see the qualitative similarities between the black hole and neutron star systems. The figures look essentially the same with one exception - the compactness monotonically decreases early in the Aql X-1 outburst cycle, but the hardness increases for the first few points. This time period corresponds to an increase in the best-fitting seed photon temperature which pushes the peak of the accretion disc’s spectrum from the lowest ASM channel to the middle ASM channel. When the temperature is low and the disc’s spectrum is peaking in the lowest channel, the ratio of counts in band three to counts in band 1 is lower for a given ratio of disc luminosity to corona luminosity than it does when the disc spectrum peaks in the second ASM channel.

In Aql X-1, the observed transition from hard state to soft state occurs at a flux level of $`4.25.5\times 10^{36}`$ ergs/sec, assuming a distance of 2.5 kpc (Chevalier et al. 1999), while the transition from the soft state back to the hard state occurs at $`6.17.5\times 10^{35}`$ ergs/sec; that is to say, the ratio of luminosity in the hard component to luminosity in the soft component remains roughly constant from the onset of the soft state until the return to the hard state a factor of 5-10 lower in luminosity. The possibility of hysteresis behavior in Aql X-1 has been pointed out based on observations the system at a higher luminosity in the hard state of one outburst cycle than in the soft state of another outburst cycle (see e.g. Cui et al. 1998; Reig et al. 2000), but the effect is shown here definitively for the first time. Some additional previous evidence for hysteresis has been seen in other sources - steadily accreting neutron stars have shown signs of hysteresis in the transitions between island and banana states (Muno, Remillard & Chakrabarty 2002), the candidate microquasar XTE 1550-564 shows brief interludes where its spectral and variability properties seem to resemble those of the very high state, but without its luminosity rising above the typical luminosity in the high/soft state (Homan et al. 2001), the black hole candidate GX 339-4 shows a very similar hysteresis effect in its state transitions between the low/hard and high/soft states (Grebenev et al. 1991; Miyamoto et al. 1995; Nowak 1995; Nowak, Wilms & Dove 2002), and several persistently bright low mass X-ray binaries containing black holes have shown different luminosities for the hard-to-soft and soft-to-hard state transitions (SHS).

The results from the All-Sky monitor work on the black hole systems are plotted in Figure 2. We note that analogously to the case of Aql X-1, the hardness ratios of the black hole systems remain roughly constant over a drop by a factor of $``$ 10 in count rate. Like the inferred ASM rates for Aql X-1, all four figures span 3 decades in count rate and two decades in hardness ratio. Since the count rates for 1859+226 and 2012+381 are similar to the count rates for Aql X-1, these three sources are all plotted for the same range of hardness and count rate values, so their curves are not centered in the graphs. The only major difference is that Aql X-1 is somewhat harder than the two black hole sources at all count rates, but this offset is roughly constant as a function of count rate and we cannot be sure whether it is a real effect or is an artefact of the process by which we have inferred the ASM count rates from the PCA. Because the hardness ratio is roughly constant, the conversion from count rate to luminosity should also remain roughly constant. Often the transition from soft-to-hard cannot be seen because by the time the transition is made, the flux level has dropped below the threshold of 1.5 counts per second, and the hardness ratios are hence unreliable due to poor statistics. Thus we cannot be certain that the state transition that occurs is to the “low/hard” state rahter than the “off” state, but as noted above and in C00, there is no evidence for substantial differences in properties between the low/hard and off/state; the off state has generally been defined based on source luminosities being lower than instrumental thresholds and not based on any spectral transition or rapid luminosity change from the low state. Arrows trace the outburst cycles from earliest time to latest time. The errors are left unplotted for XTE J 1748-288; because this source lies in a high background region toward the Galactic Center (Revnitsev et al. 2000), the errors for this source are quite large and plotting them severely confuses the figure. Thus conclusions about 1748-288 should be weighed accordingly. We plot the results nonetheless because they seem qualitatively similar to the other three sources for which good ASM lightcurves can be made.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Connection with previous hysteresis observations

Hysteresis results have previously been noted for several X-ray binary black hole systems that are not classical transients because they never enter the off state (Smith, Heindl & Swank 2002 - SHS). The power law indices of these sources were compared with their photon fluxes. For the low mass X-ray binary systems, the hardening of the power law components was found to lag behind the drop in brightness. Such behaviour is qualitatively similar to what we have observed in the classical transients.

The high mass X-ray binaries in the SHS sample, Cygnus X-1 and Cygnus X-3 do not fit this trend. It has been shown that for both these systems, the RXTE count rate and spectral index track one another with only short time lags (SHS). SHS thus suggest that the hard and soft components of the spectra are caused by two different accretion flows (a picture similar to that invoked by van der Klis 2001 to explain properties of quasi-periodic oscillations), and that the difference between the two Cygnus systems and the other X-ray transients is caused by the high mass nature of the mass donor. Since wind driven accretion tends to form smaller accretion discs, disturbances should pass through the discs more quickly. Changes in the hard X-ray accretion flow (the corona) occur quickly in all systems, while changes in the soft X-ray flow (the disc), occur on a timescale of order the viscous timescale of the accretion disc. The accretion disks are larger in the low mass systems than in the high mass systems, so the viscous timescales might be expected to be longer in the low mass systems.

We note, however, that the “soft” state of Cygnus X-1 is not a typical soft state, as it has a rather substantial hard X-ray tail, probably related to Comptonisation off non-thermal electrons (see e.g. Gierlinski et al. 1999). Furthermore, it occurs at a luminosity probably not much higher than the low/hard state luminosity (see e.g. Frontera et al. 2001), and the bolometric luminosity changes in Cygnus X-1 are, in fact, never very large. As we discuss below, the hysteresis effect could in part reflect the radical, non-equilibrium nature of a transient outburst, particularly during the rising phase. Cygnus X-1 never experiences such violent changes.

We note that the case of Cygnus X-3 is likely to be unique. Given that the most likely distance estimate of 11.5 kpc implies Cyg X-3 has a minimum luminosity of $`2\times 10^{38}`$ ergs/sec and that its strong radio flares correspond with strong X-ray flares (Mioduszewski et al. 2001), and that archival Green Bank Interferometer data show that the radio flux from Cygnus X-3 in the 2.3 GHz and 8.3 GHz bands never drops below 20 mJy for more than a few days at a time over the $``$ 4 yrs of public data, we conclude that Cyg X-3 is likely to be in the very high state at all times. Its spectral state changes are thus more likely to be like those in GRS 1915+105 (see e.g. Belloni et al. 2000) than those of Cygnus X-1 or of the soft X-ray transients. It would thus be beneficial for us to observe some high mass X-ray binaries which go through the classical set of state transitions before evaluating whether the “two accretion flow” scenario is correct. At present no such systems are known in the Galaxy, and for theoretical reasons, it may be that no wind-driven soft X-ray transients can exist.

#### 4.1.1 Comparison with GX 339-4 Radio/X-ray Results

A phenomenological similarity exists between the results found here and the hysteresis diagram of radio flux versus X-ray flux for GX 339-4 found in C00. That plot shows that the radio flux is strong and correlated with the X-ray flux during the hard state, falls as the X-ray flux rises in the transition state, and is unobservable during the high/soft state. The X-ray flux then falls during the soft state while the steady radio flux remains quenched. The source sometimes then enters an off-state where it is undetectable in X-rays and in radio, but sometimes proceeds directly back into the low luminosity end of the hard state. The hard-to-soft transitions always occur at higher luminosities than the soft-to-hard or soft-to-off transitions. It has been noted elsewhere that the hard state luminosities of GX 339-4 sometimes exceed its soft state luminosities (e.g. Nowak, Wilms & Dove al. 2002; Kong et al. 2002). While GX 339-4 shows all the spectral states of X-ray transients, it is not usually considered a classical soft X-ray transient because it frequently spends long periods of time in the hard state and does not always go into the off/quiescent state in between high state episodes. Still the fact that its outburst cycles also show hysteresis loops suggest that the phenomenon is present in X-ray transients of all kinds. Furthermore, that the radio emission is completely quenched in the soft state suggests that no persistent outflow is occurring in the soft state. This provides additional, albeit indirect, evidence that the wind in the soft state of Aql X-1 is likely to be weak if present since strong outflows generally show some radio emission. The analogies between GX 339-4 and the more standard transient sources also underscore the need for relatively deep radio monitoring data on the soft X-ray transients. While many of these sources are monitored in the radio by the VLA (and were monitored by the Green Bank Interferometer), the observations so far have generally not been deep enough to make detections (M.Rupen, private communication). We note that we have tentative evidence for a 0.2 mJy detection of Aql X-1 as it enters the low/hard state in the 2002 outburst (Maccarone et al. 2002, in prep). It is still not clear whether these observations indicate that the jet/outflow is supplying the X-rays, as suggested by C00 (see also Markoff, Falcke & Fender 2001) or that the jet has a power proportional to the X-ray luminosity and only turns on when the accretion flow is geometrically thick (see e.g. Meier 2001).

### 4.2 Implications for Propeller Models and the Magnetic Field of Aql X-1

The similarities between the outburst cycles of the neutron star system Aql X-1 and the black hole systems are quite striking. The simplest conclusion is that the same mechanism drives the state transition in both accreting black holes and accreting neutron stars. This in turn casts serious doubt on propeller models for the state transitions in Aql X-1, which to date has been one of the strongest candidates for showing this effect (Zhang, Yu, & Zhang 1998 - ZYZ; Campana et al. 1998). According to ZYZ (1998), the propeller effect becomes important at a critical luminosity, determined by the magnetic field and the rotation rate of the neutron star, properties which remain nearly constant throughout a single outburst cycle. Under these assumptions the propeller model can be unequivocally ruled out as the sole cause of state transitions based on these observations. In the derivation of the critical propeller luminosity (Lamb, Pethick, & Pines 1973 - LPP), it is shown that it is the ram pressure and hence the accretion rate itself that is the critical factor, not the luminosity. Thus if one posits a strong wind inside the magnetospheric radius only after the soft state has started, then one can keep a high ram pressure at the magnetospheric radius while reducing the flux of mass that reaches the surface of the neutron star and hence reducing the luminosity of the accretion flow. Still no current models exist to explain how such an outflow would occur, and even given such a model, the difficulty of explaining the very similar black hole state transitions with a qualitatively different model would remain. In fact, most current theoretical work suggests that outflows should be more important in the low/hard state than in the high/soft state (see for example, Blandford & Begelman 1999).

Having established that standard propeller effects can cause only the soft-to-hard transitions (and then only possibly), we can place an upper bound on the magnetic field strength by finding the critical magnetic field needed for propeller effects to be important:

$$B_9=P_2^{7/6}M_{1.4}^{1/3}R_6^{5/2}L_{x,36}^{1/2},$$
(1)
where $`L_{x,36}`$ is the X-ray luminosity in $`10^{36}`$ ergs/second, $`B_9`$ is the surface magnetic field in units of $`10^9`$ Gauss, $`P_2`$ is the spin period in units of 10 milliseconds, $`M_{1.4}`$ is the neutron star mass in units of 1.4 solar masses, and $`R_6`$ is the neutron star’s radius in units of 10 km (LPP; ZYZ). Setting $`L_x`$ to $`6.1\times 10^{35}`$ ergs/sec (the lower bound for the soft-to-hard state transition), the radius to 10 km, the mass to 1.4 $`M_{}`$, and the period to 1.8 milliseconds (as given by the 550 Hz quasiperiodic oscillation), we find that the magnetic field must be less than $`7\times 10^7`$ Gauss. In fact, the magnetic field would only be this large if the soft-to-hard state transition is cause by the propeller effect; if it is not caused by propellers, then the field could be arbitrarily small. Explaining the hard-to-soft state transition with propeller effects would require a magnetic field of about $`2\times 10^8`$ Gauss.

An additional problem apart from the necessity of a wind in the soft state arises from explaining both transitions with the propeller effect - the magnetic field of the neutron star will then exceed its equilibrium value, in contradiction to generally accepted models of millisecond pulsar evolution (e.g. Srinivasan 1995). If one replaces the instantaneous luminosity in equation (1) with the mean luminosity, then the equilibrium magnetic field (i.e. the magnetic field where the spin-up due to accretion and the spin-down due to magnetic braking are in equilibrium) results (Bhattacharya 1995). Given the mean luminosity for Aql X-1 of $`5\times 10^{35}`$ ergs/second as estimated from the ASM count rates, a 1.8 millisecond period from the 550 kHz QPO, and the canonical values for the other parameters, the equilibrium magnetic field would be $`6\times 10^7`$ Gauss, far less than the $`2\times 10^8`$ Gauss field needed to cause the hard-to-soft transition.

A quick timing analysis has shown that there are no coherent pulsations at 550 Hz in the RXTE data down at the level of $``$ 2% in the two low state observations that occurred after the soft-to-hard transition. This provides potentially strong evidence that the propeller effects are not likely to cause the state transitions in Aql X-1. This observation is not definitive, though, because the intrinsically narrow QPO from matter falling along the magnetic poles may be broadened in time by the bulk Comptonisation that causes the X-ray spectrum in the propeller state to be hard. The magnetospheric radius of Aql X-1 is at least 500 kilometers, since the state transition luminosity is no more than $`7.5\times 10^{35}`$ ergs/sec. Since the bulk Comptonisation will occur mostly outside the magnetospheric radius (and should not be in the extreme Klein-Nishina limit where forward scattering dominates), the initially coherent pulses will be smeared out by the Comptonisation. Since the light travel time though the magnetosphere is of over the pulse period, this smearing effect could sufficient to make the coherent QPOs unobservable in the hard X-ray bands of RXTE. A future timing mission with better soft X-ray coverage, such as the proposed timing mission for XEUS (Barret et al. 2002) could make a more definitive statement based on the lack of pulsed emission.

Propeller effects might still be important at lower accretion rates such as those which put the source in quiescence (e.g. Menou & McClintock 2001) and hence with Aql X-1’s having a lower magnetic field than that claimed by ZYZ (1998) and by Campana et al. (1998). In fact, given that the mean $`L`$ for Aql X-1 is very close to the $`L`$ at the transition from soft state to hard state, (and hence if the source is in equilibrium, the propeller effect’s critical mass accretion rate is close to the soft-to-hard transition accretion rate) the propeller effect may set in very shortly after the transition from soft state to hard state, or it may even cause the soft-to-hard state transition to occur at a slightly higher accretion rate than would occur in the absence of a magnetic field. If, however, the neutron star is still spinning up, then the magnetic field must be lower than the equilibrium value of $`6\times 10^7`$ G. Such a magnetic field value would be lower than any other measured neutron star magnetic field (see Cheng & Zhang 2000 for a list of pulsar magnetic fields), which should not be too surprising, since few pulsars have frequencies as fast as the 550 Hz frequency of Aql X-1.

Magnetic screening by accreted material on the surface of a neutron star has been suggested as a mechanism for finding an inferred magnetic field lower than the actual surface value, but has been found to be important only for accretion rates above $`1\%`$ of the Eddington luminosity (Cumming, Zweibel & Bildsten 2001). Since the luminosities here (both for the soft-to-hard state transition and for the mean luminosity) are well below that value, magnetic screening is unlikely to be important. If the mean luminosity of Aql X-1 in the last $``$ 100-1000 years has been substantially (i.e. about 5 times) higher than the average over the RXTE mission lifetime, magnetic screening could be important.

### 4.3 Implications for Advection Dominated Flows

Outburst cycles in the advection dominated accretion flow picture are also often explained in terms of disc instability models (e.g. Menou et al., 2000). The triggering of an outburst due to the disc instability and the change from an advection dominated flow to a thin disc need not happen at the same accretion rate. Despite the claim in the standard picture that the state changes depend only on the accretion rate (e.g. Esin, McClintock, & Narayan 1997) it is likely that in the ADAF picture, some sort of hysteresis would occur. Advection (at low luminosities) occurs when the mass density is too low for electrons and protons to exchange energy efficiently through Coulomb interactions. When the accretion flow is geometrically thick, the mass density and hence the interaction rate between electrons and protons are reduced compared to when the accretion flow is geometrically thin. Thus the critical accretion rate below which the disc must drop to become a geometrically thick ADAF should be smaller than the critical accretion rate above which the ADAF must collapse into a thin disc. In fact, the work of Zdziarski (1998) shows that the luminosity of the state transitions should be approximately $`0.15y^{3/5}\alpha ^{7/5}L_{EDD}`$, where $`y=(4k_BT/m_ec^2)Max(\tau ,\tau ^2)`$. Thus barring a large increase in $`\alpha `$ during the soft state, the hard-to-soft transition should be expected to occur at a higher luminosity than the soft-to-hard transition, since $`y`$ will be higher in the hard state than in the soft state.

Three possible scenarios have been outlined for determining whether a system will enter an advection dominated flow: the “Strong ADAF Principle”, which states that a system will enter an advection dominated flow whenever such a solution is possible; the “Weak ADAF Principle”, which states that the ADAF will be chosen whenever it is the only stable solution possible; and the “Initial Condition Principle”, which states that the initial conditions determine which solution will be chosen (Narayan & Yi 1995; Svensson 1999). The observations of hard spectra at the high accretion rates seen in the rising portion of the low/hard state imply that advection dominated flows are possible (if they do, indeed describe the hard states) at the luminosities where the system is seen in the soft state in the decaying phase of the outburst. This provides a clear rejection of the Strong ADAF principle. It is likely that the system is stable in the soft state where the luminosity is dropping, because the luminosity is changing rather slowly here. It may be unstable in the rising portion where the luminosity is changing rapidly, and may hence be pushed into a spectral state it would not enter if the luminosity changes were slow. Thus either the “Weak ADAF Principle” may apply, if ADAF solutions are stable when the disc luminosity is changing rapidly, but thin disc solutions are not stable to rapid luminosity changes or the Initial Condition Principle may apply. In fact, the standard ADAF may be unstable itself (Blandford & Begelman 1999). Whether the specific hot adiabatic accretion flow in the hard state is the ADAF picture or one of the scenarios with outflows or convection is beyond the scope of this paper.

### 4.4 Disc evolution and evaporation?

A possible picture to explain how the initial conditions affect the spectral state is that when the accretion rate shuts off at the end of the outburst, the system stays in a disc-dominated flow until the disc is evaporated into the corona (e.g. Mineshige 1996; Cannizzo 2000; Meyer, Liu & Meyer-Hofmeister 2000; Dubus, Hameury & Lasota 2001). The observed hysteresis effect may then be a result of the time between when the evaporation dominates over disk inflow (i.e. when the system begins filling the corona with gas) and when the corona dominates the total energetics of the system (i.e. when the corona becomes filled). The fraction of the accretion flow that is pumped into the corona and the disc may depend only on the accretion rate, but the state of the system will depend also on the recent history of the accretion flow. The inner disc will fill in as it accretes matter from the disc at larger radii, but the inner disc will empty by dumping matter into the corona. Since the matter follows a different geometric path on its way into and out of the disc, hysteresis might be expected. This picture has already had some success in explaining the fast-rise exponential decay light curve profiles for the outbursts of X-ray transients (Cannizzo 2000). Numerical modeling is currently underway to determine whether this picture can match the quantitative details of the observations (J. Cannizzo, private communication). In essence, in this picture, this disc can fill in much more rapidly than it can be evacuated by evaporation or other means. Such a scenario might also be able to explain the results seen in Cygnus X-1, where, as noted by SHS, the disc is likely to be smaller, and where the luminosity changes are also smaller, indicating that the system is not as severely perturbed from the steady state. In essence, the class of models where the rate of disc filling and evacuation determines the properties of the accretion flow solution is a realisation of the “Initial Condition Principle” - when the system is changing rapidly as in the outburst, it may enter into non-steady state regions of phase space where an ADAF is supported at relatively high accretion rates. When the system is changing slowly as in the decline, or in systems like Cygnus X-1 where the luminosity is nearly constant over the outburst, these regions of phase space are not accessed.

Other evidence for initial conditions affecting the accretion flow on rather long timescales has been seen in the parallel tracks of luminosity versus QPO frequencies seen in several low mass X-ray binaries (van der Klis 2001). In this picture, the only important initial condition is the time averaged luminosity. The key feature is that there are two accretion flows, one radial and one disclike. The radial flow is assumed to be a constant fraction of the disc flow, but to be averaged over the accretion rate in a large annulus of the disc. The radial flow propagates inwards more quickly than does the disc flow, so changes in the overall accretion rate are manifested in the radial flow before they are manifested in the disclike flow, and mathematically, it can be represented as a time average of the future disclike accretion rate. The total luminosity is then the disc luminosity plus the radial flow’s luminosity. The quasi-periodic oscillation frequencies then are assumed to vary as a function of the instantaneous accretion rate divided by the mean luminosity. Thus parallel tracks are formed because the disc luminosity varies much more quickly than the radial flow luminosity. The increase of frequency with luminosity on short timescales comes from the fact that only the disc luminosity changes on short timescales. The parallel offsets of the tracks come from changes in the radial component’s contribution to the luminosity.

Our data challenge this specific two-flow picture. In the Aql X-1 data, where the soft-to-hard state transition is well observed, the state transition is rapid compared to the decay; after about 20 days of steadily dropping luminosity in the high/soft state, the spectrum goes from a high optical depth and a low compactness to a low optical depth and high compactness in two days. If the radial flow, which makes up the hard component, represents a time-average of the future disc luminosity, then the transition from the soft state back to the hard state should not be rapid for an outburst which decays slowly in luminosity and one would expect the source’s spectrum to harden quite gradually. This picture has success in predicting the properties of the quasi-periodic oscillations, however, and should not be rejected too hastily. The best test of this model, tracking the QPO frequencies through the outburst so that the time-averaged luminosity can be measured directly and compared with the QPO frequencies is not easily accomplished; the QPOs are not strong enough to be seen in all these Aql X-1 observations, most likely because not all the proportional counters are turned on for all the observations and some of the exposures are rather short. The scenario of van der Klis (2002) might be modified by making the radial-to-disc accretion ratio a function of the luminosity, which presumably becomes a steep function around the state transition luminosity. It then becomes essentially similar to the disc evaporation picture described above, with the added feature of explaining the quasi-periodic oscillation frequencies.

## 5 Conclusions

We find that for soft X-ray transients with a neutron star primary (Aql X-1), and four soft X-ray transients with black hole candidate primaries (certainly XTE J 1550-564, XTE J 1859+226, and XTE J 2012+381, and probably XTE J 1748-288), plots of spectral state versus luminosity show hysteresis loops. In all cases, hard states are seen in the rising phases of the outburst cycle. The luminosity of the hard-to-soft transition is generally a factor of $``$ 5 or more brighter than the soft-to-hard transition. The observation for Aql X-1 suggests that the turning off of the propeller effect cannot cause the state transition from the hard state to the soft state. The magnetic field of the neutron star in Aql X-1 can be constrained to be $`<7\times 10^7`$ Gauss, a lower value than that for any other known neutron star. The similarities between the outburst cycles in neutron stars and black hole candidates suggest a common state transition mechanism. Three promising possibilities are (1) the state transition luminosity from an adiabatic accretion flow to a thin disk is higher than the transition luminosity from a thin disk to an adiabatic flow because interactions are more efficient in the thin disk where the mean particle separation is smaller (2) during the rapid luminosity rise, a geometrically thin accretion flow is not stable, so the geometrically thick flow persists because the system is out of equilibrium and (3) a time lag is present in the transition from thin disk to geometrically thick accretion flow because the disk must be evacuated or evaporated. Given the present data and the present state of theoretical work, we cannot distinguish among these possibilities. The analogous hysteresis properties of the radio and hard X-ray fluxes of GX 339-4 lends some credence to the idea that the effects of jets may be of some importance. Observations of the full series of spectral states of additional neutron stars may to determine whether the soft-to-hard state transitions may be routinely caused by propeller effects, and hence whether the similarity between the mean luminosity and the soft-to-hard transition luminosity is a coincidence or is due to the soft-to-hard state transition’s being caused by propeller effects. Better monitoring of soft X-ray transients at radio wavelengths is also necessary to improve our understanding of what role jets may play in the production of the hard X-rays.

## 6 Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Charles Bailyn, Mike Nowak, and Cole Miller for useful suggestions. We also wish to thank Raj Jain and Charles Bailyn for sharing the results of their optical/X-ray monitoring campaign of Aql X-1 in advance of publication. We thank John Cannizzo for pointing out the potential importance of disc evaporation. We thank the referee, Chris Done, for useful comments which have improved both the quality and clarity of this paper, especially for pointing out the possibility of non-equilibrium effects mattering in the rising hard state. This work is based on results provided by the ASM/RXTE teams at MIT and at the RXTE SOF and GOF at NASA’s GSFC. This research has made use of data obtained from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.