text:
# Temperature induced shift in the pinch-off voltage of mesoscopic devices

## I Introduction

In numerous studies of ballistic mesoscopic devices reported in the literature the main effect of increasing the temperature is thermal smearing smearing  of the conductance traces as $`k_BT`$ becomes comparable with the characteristic intrinsic energy scale of the device. This is also the main effect in the six sets of gate characteristics (conductance $`G`$ versus gate voltage $`V_g`$) in Fig. 1 taken from our own experiments Kristensen2000 ; Hansen2001  on GaAs quantum point contacts (QPC), quantum wires (QW), and Aharonov-Bohm (AB) rings.

On closer inspection we also observe that the gate characteristics always exhibit a systematic downward shift in gate voltage with increasing temperature. We observe this shift in all our shallow-etched mesoscopic devices independent of the sample geometry and of the measurement set-up. This observation is the main topic of this paper, and to our knowledge it has not been reported in the literature before. The effect may easily be masked by thermal smearing of the conductance traces, so to study it in detail it is important to make the intrinsic energy scale as large as possible. As in our previous work Kristensen2000 , we achieve this by relying on a shallow-etch technique in the fabrication of the mesoscopic devices. This technique yields particularly strong lateral confinement allowing for well quantized conductances up to 10 K. The shift of the conductances traces is most clearly seen in Figs. 1a and 1b, which are QPCs with large subband-spacings, above 10 meV. Hence, these samples are chosen for the detailed analysis in the following sections.

## II Shallow etched mesocopic devices

Our devices were fabricated on modulation doped GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructures with a 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) buried 90 nm below the surface. Typical 2DEG mobilities and densities are 60–100 m2V-1s-1 and 1.5 – 3$`\times `$1015 m-2, respectively. The samples were processed with a $`20\mu \mathrm{m}`$ wide and $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$ long Hall bar mesa fitted with ohmic Au/Ge/Ni contacts to the 2DEG. The mesoscopic devices were defined on top of the mesas by electron beam lithography and an approximately 30 nm deep wet shallow-etch. The electron densities are controlled by gate-electrodes in the form of either Cr/Au top-gate electrodes, deposited on top of the mesoscopic devices, or by in-plane side-gate electrodes using the 2DEG outside the shallow etched trenches. For details of the samples and the sample fabrication, we refer to Ref. Kristensen2000, .

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) pictures of some of our shallow etched mesoscopic devices are shown as insets in Fig. 1. The two devices in Figs. 1a and 1b are QPCs, the two devices in Figs. 1c and 1d are QWs, and the last two devices in Figs. 1e and 1f are AB rings. The QWs are controlled by side-gate electrodes, while the QPCs and the AB rings were fitted with top-gate electrodes after the SEM pictures were taken. The electrically insulating, shallow-etched regions appear dark on the pictures. The mesoscopic devices are normally pinched-off, and positive gate voltage $`V_g`$ is applied to open for electron transport as seen on Fig. 1. The gate electrode leakage current was always negligible (less than 100 pA) in the data presented here.

The QPCs in Figs. 1a and 1b, henceforth denoted device A and B, are studied in detail in the following sections. They are fabricated from the same GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure, with a 2DEG having the density $`2\times 10^{15}`$ m-2 and the mobility 80 m2/Vs. The two QPCs have etched widths of 70 nm and 150 nm, respectively. On both devices, a $`10\mu \mathrm{m}`$ wide Cr/Au top-gate electrode covers the etched constriction and the neighboring 2DEG. The devices were characterized by finite source-drain bias spectroscopy Patel91 , and we found an energy spacing between the first two subbands of 14 meV and 10 meV, respectively.

The data from sample A and B presented here, were recorded by immersing the sample into a liquid helium container. Temperatures above $`4.2`$ K were obtained with the sample placed at different heights in the helium vapor above the liquid. The differential conductance $`dI/dV_{\mathrm{sd}}`$ was measured in a four-terminal voltage controlled setup, using a standard lock-in technique at 117 Hz. Here $`V_{\mathrm{sd}}`$ is the source-drain voltage bias and $`I`$ the corresponding current. The rms amplitude of the applied $`V_{\mathrm{sd}}`$ was $`20\mu \mathrm{V}`$, selected to be much smaller than $`k_BT/e`$ to ensure linear response. The dc-component of $`V_{\mathrm{sd}}`$ was zero with a precision of a few $`\mu V`$.

Our four-terminal measurement setup eliminates most of the series resistance from the surrounding 2DEG except for a small residual. To study the thermally induced translation of the conductance traces it is not necessary to correct for the residual series resistance. However, following the procedure described in Ref. Hansen2002,  it is easy to do so, and in fact it was done with the data from sample A in the following analysis.

## III Conductance and pinch-off

In Fig. 2 we have replotted the conductance data from Fig. 1a, i.e. from sample A. Fig. 2a contains a zoom-in on the first conductance step. It is apparent from this plot that the conductance traces below $`e^2/h`$ for the lowest temperatures have almost identical shapes. The inevitable thermal smearing is only significant for the highest temperature in the plot, $`T=20`$ K. It seems that the conductance traces are translated towards lower gate voltages as temperature is increased. This hypothesis is tested successfully in Fig. 2b, where the conductance traces have been shifted horizontally along the gate voltage axis to coincide at the conductance value $`G=e^2/h`$. All the curves (except the $`T=20`$ K curve) fall nearly on the same trace for $`0<G1.2e^2/h`$. The temperature dependence of the conductance is different for $`G1.2e^2/h`$ due to the so-called 0.7 structure Thomas , an effect we do not study in this work.

We choose the value $`G=e^2/h`$ as the anchor point in the translation of the conductance traces for two reasons. Firstly, in the simplest single-particle models of QPC-conductance this point remains fixed when temperature is raised until the quantized conductance is destroyed, i.e., for temperatures smaller than subband spacing ($`3.5k_BT\mathrm{\Delta }E`$)Buttiker1990 . Secondly, it is natural to define the ’pinch-off’ voltage $`V_{\mathrm{po}}`$ at a given temperature as the gate voltage at which the chemical potential of the reservoirs aligns with the subband edge of the first 1D subband and the conductance acquires half its full plateau value, i.e. $`G(V_{\mathrm{po}})=e^2/h`$. The translation we perform is thus achieved by replacing $`V_g`$ with $`V_gV_{\mathrm{po}}`$.

In Figs. 2c and 2d we examine the shift in pinch-off voltage for the higher conductance plateaus. Panel (c) and (d) show the data before and after translation, respectively. On Fig. 2d we observe that the translation have turned not only $`G=e^2/h`$ into a fix point but also to a good approximation $`G=ne^2/h,n=2,3,4,5`$, as predicted by the simple QPC-models Buttiker1990 .

To summarize, our data analysis of Fig. 2 reveals that in addition to smearing, an increased temperature also gives rise to a systematic downward shift of the conductance traces towards lower gate voltage. The same conclusion is reached when analyzing other samples, including the ones shown in Fig. 1.

## IV The shift in pinch-off voltage

To study the pinch-off voltage shift in more detail, we show in Fig. 3 data from sample A (top row panels) and sample B (bottom row panels).

In the left column, panels (a) and (d), we have plotted the measured pinch-off voltage versus temperature as filled circles. For sample A in panel (a) the open circles show the ’pinch-off’ voltage for the second conductance step defined by using $`G=3e^2/h`$ instead of $`G=e^2/h`$. These data points have been shifted by $`111`$ mV to fit in the figure. We note that all three data sets show an apparent linear downward shift of the pinch-off voltage with increasing temperature. The solid lines represent linear fits to the three data sets, and we find nearly identical slopes $`\alpha `$, namely $`\alpha _{A1}=(1.3\pm 0.1)`$ mV/K for sample A first step, $`\alpha _{A2}=(1.0\pm 0.1)`$ mV/K for sample A second step, and $`\alpha _{B1}=(1.7\pm 0.2)`$ mV/K for sample B first step. The nearly identical $`\alpha _{A1}`$ and $`\alpha _{A2}`$ gives quantitative support for our claim (see Fig. 2) that the shift in pinch-off voltage is in fact a shift of the entire conductance trace. More remarkable is the nearly identical $`\alpha _{A1}`$ and $`\alpha _{B1}`$, i.e. two differently designed devices from the same heterostructure exhibit the same shift. This leads to the idea that the temperature induced shift in the pinch-off voltage is caused by the 2DEG surrounding the mesoscopic device rather than by the device itself.

The middle and right columns in Fig. 3 are shown to document our measurement procedure, and to illustrate that the indeed quite small shift in pinch-off voltage is significant and reproducible.

The middle column, panel (b) and (e), show the order in which the data in panel (a) and (d) have been recorded. For each data point the corresponding temperature in kelvin is indicated. Each sequence was recorded over several hours to ensure proper thermal equilibrium at the different temperatures. In order to exclude device instabilities as an explanation for the observed shifts in pinch-off voltage, measurements at base temperature 4.2 K were repeated. The 4.2 K data in panels (b) and (e) verify the stability of the devices.

In the right column, panel (c) and (f), the solid lines are plots of the whole conductance trace for all base temperature measurements of panel (b) and (e). These plots show a negligible temporal drift of the entire conductance trace. The dashed lines in panel (c) and (f) are conductance traces recorded at high temperature. From the plots we see that the temperature induced shift of a few mV is significant compared to the temporal drift.

## V Suppression of thermal smearing

For conductances in the range $`0<G<e^2/h`$ there is a tendency to suppression of thermal smearing. While this effect is not central to the shift in pinch-off voltage, it is very useful in establishing the very existence of this shift, as demonstrated clearly in Fig. 2.

There are several possible explanations for the suppression of thermal smearing. One is the tunnelling effect through the QPC barrier. For example, in the quadratic saddle point approximation the transmission at zero temperature is described by a Fermi-function with an effective temperature $`T_t`$. For temperatures less than $`T_t`$ the shape of the conductance trace is roughly independent of temperature and thermal smearing only becomes significant for $`TT_t`$.Buttiker1990

Another explanation involves Coulomb interaction between electrons. This interaction gives rise to an energy scale $`E_C=k_BT_C`$ that suppresses the thermal smearing for $`T<T_C`$. This effect may be seen in the simulations presented in Ref. Hirose, .

## VI Discussion

We have presented detailed experimental studies of the conductance of mesoscopic devices in the few-mode regime. Our data show a novel thermal effect: for temperatures up to at least 10 K the measured conductance traces are systematically shifted downwards in gate voltage as the temperature is raised. This shift is ’universal’: it is always observed in our shallow-etched mesoscopic devices independent of sample geometry and measurement set-up. This apparent ’universality’ of the shift leads to the idea that the effect originates in the physics of the surrounding 2D electron gas and not in the physics of the mesoscopic device itself. The observation that different devices from the same wafer exhibits nearly the same shift lends further support to this idea.

The data presented here are far from sufficient to draw final conclusions regarding the underlying physics of the temperature shift. We can rule out non-interacting models. Although these models are capable of producing a thermally induced change of the anchor point $`G=e^2/h`$ by allowing for transmission functions $`𝒯_n(\epsilon )`$ with non-trivial energy dependencies, such changes are induced by, and cannot therefore be separated from, thermal smearing. This is in contrast to the experimental observations. It may therefore be interesting to consider interaction effects, e.g., the following possibilities.

The almost pure translation of the conductance traces could most simply be explained in terms of a temperature dependent shift in the chemical potential of the surrounding 2DEG. Within the Landauer-Büttiker formalism such a shift measured relative to the transmission barrier of the mesoscopic device would directly lead to a translation of the conductance trace, since the temperature would then play a role similar to a conventional density-controlling gate electrode. The observed downward shift of the conductance traces would arise if the chemical potential of the 2DEG rises with increasing temperature. Such a rise could be due to a gradual reduction of the exchange and correlation energy in the 2DEG.

Another possible explanation could be based on a Coulomb-interaction induced shift of the subband edge in the mesoscopic device Hirose  combined with the existence of a threshold density controlling the onset of electron transmission. In this case, an increase in temperature widens the derivative of the Fermi-distribution, which controls the conductance. The high-energy tail will then reach the subband edge for a lower chemical potential. Consequently, the threshold density is reached for lower chemical potential, i.e. for lower gate voltage, as the temperature is raised.

We would like to emphasize that the ’universality’ of the observed temperature induced shift of the pinch-off voltage means that the samples shown here are not in any way unique, they simply represent the samples where the temperature dependence has been checked most thoroughly by the procedure shown in Fig. 3.

## Acknowledgements

We thank C.B. Sørensen for growing the semiconductor structures. This work was partly supported by the Danish Technical Research Council (grant no. 9701490) and by the Danish Natural Science Research Council (grants no. 9502937, 9600548 and 9601677). The III-V materials used in this investigation were made at the III-V NANOLAB, operated jointly by Research Center COM, Technical University of Denmark, and the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.


format: text

text:
# Quantum Cosmology and Conformal Invariance

## Abstract

According to Belinsky, Khalatnikov and Lifshitz, gravity near a space-like singularity reduces to a set of decoupled one-dimensional mechanical models at each point in space. We point out that these models fall into a class of conformal mechanical models first introduced by de Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan (DFF). The deformation used by DFF to render the spectrum discrete corresponds to a negative cosmological constant. The wave function of the Universe is the zero-energy eigenmode of the Hamiltonian, or the spherical vector of the representation of the conformal group $`SO(1,2)`$. A new class of conformal quantum mechanical models with enhanced ADE symmetry is constructed, based on the quantization of nilpotent coadjoint orbits.

Conformal quantum mechanics, Wheeler-DeWitt equation, Coadjoint orbits  preprint: LPTHE-02-42, hep-th/0209044

While cosmological singularities have so far eluded any satisfactory treatment in quantum gravity, insight into their generic properties is afforded by the classical analysis of Belinsky, Khalatnikov and Lifshitz (BKL) bkl . Under a self-consistent hypothesis of decoupling of the dynamics at nearby points upon approaching a space-like singularity, they show that a generic solution of four-dimensional Einstein gravity exhibits a chaotic oscillatory behavior near the big bang (or big crunch). This subject has attracted much recent attention, with the discovery that the chaotic properties of the dynamics are tied to the hyperbolicity of the Kac-Moody algebra underlying the billiard geometry on which the motion takes place Damour:2000hv ; Damour:2001sa . This is in particular the case of all models descending from eleven-dimensional supergravity or $`N=1`$ supergravity in ten dimensions Damour:2000wm . The spatial gradients, although subleading at the singularity, are also described by the Kac-Moody structure Damour:2002cu .

Our aim in this letter is twofold. Firstly, we point out an important feature of the one-dimensional model for the gravity modes at each decoupled point: it exhibits the conformal invariance found in one-dimensional quantum mechanics by de Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan (DFF) dff . Conformal quantum mechanical models have already appeared in black hole physics claus ; volo , yet their relevance to cosmology seems to have been hitherto unnoticed. More specifically, the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is but the Schrödinger equation considered by DFF, restricted to zero energy. The wave function of the universe thus lies at the bottom of a continuum of delta-function normalizable states. Retaining the effect of a negative cosmological constant discretizes the spectrum while preserving conformal invariance. In mathematical terms, the wave function of the universe is therefore the spherical vector of the representation of the conformal group. Secondly, we construct a new class of conformal quantum mechanical models, where the conformal group is enhanced to an ADE non-compact group. In these models, the spherical vector, and hence the wave function of the universe is known exactly.

We start with $`n`$+1 dimensional Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant and reduce down to a 0+1 dimensional system. Parameterizing the metric as

$$ds^2=\left[\frac{\eta (t)}{V(t)}\right]^2dt^2+V^{2/n}(t)\widehat{g}_{ij}(t)dx^idx^j,$$
(1)
the Einstein-Hilbert action reduces to

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill & dtd^nx\sqrt{g}(R2\mathrm{\Lambda })=\hfill \\ & 𝑑t\left\{\frac{1}{2\eta }\left[\frac{2(n1)}{n}\dot{V}^2+V^2\dot{U}^MG_{MN}\dot{U}^N\right]2\mathrm{\Lambda }\eta \right\}\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
where $`V`$ denotes the volume of the spatial metric and $`U^M`$ coordinatize the symmetric space $`S=Sl(n)/SO(n)`$, with constant negative curvature, and homogeneous metric $`dU^MG_{MN}dU^N:=\frac{1}{2}d\widehat{g}_{ij}d\widehat{g}^{ij}`$ (with $`det\widehat{g}=1`$). In this form, we recognize the action for a “fictitious” point particle, with mass squared $`m^2=4\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, tachyonic for negative (AdS) $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, propagating on a Lorentzian cone with base $`S`$ and metric

$$d\sigma ^2=\frac{2(n1)}{n}dV^2+V^2dU^MG_{MN}dU^N.$$
(3)
The rescaled lapse $`\eta `$ plays the role of an einbein gauge field enforcing invariance under general time reparameterizations. The appearance of the volume $`V`$ with a negative kinetic term suggests its use as a “cosmological time”. Indeed, it develops with time as $`[(V/\eta )d/dt]^2V=[2n\mathrm{\Lambda }/(n1)]V`$, while the particle follows geodesics on the cone and hence on its base $`S`$. A similar reduction in the presence of extra scalar and gauge fields would yield a cone over an enlarged homogeneous space (e.g. $`SO(n,n)/[SO(n)\times SO(n)]`$ in the presence of a Kalb-Ramond two-form and dilaton).

Since the conical moduli space (3) admits an homothetic Killing vector $`V_V`$, the free particle should exhibit conformal invariance volo . This is easily shown by introducing conjugate momenta $`p`$ and $`P_M`$ for the canonically normalized volume coordinate $`\rho =\sqrt{8(n1)V/n}`$ and the shape moduli $`U^M`$. The Hamiltonian following from the action (2) reads

$$H=\frac{\eta }{V}\left[\frac{1}{2}p^2+\frac{4(n1)}{n\rho ^2}\mathrm{\Delta }\frac{n\mathrm{\Lambda }}{4(n1)}\rho ^2\right].$$
(4)
The equation of motion of $`\eta `$ forces $`H`$ to vanish, after which the gauge $`\eta =V`$ can be imposed. Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }=P_MG^{MN}P_N`$ is the quadratic Casimir of the action of $`Sl(n)`$ on the homogeneous space $`Sl(n)/SO(n)`$ and has vanishing Poisson bracket withs $`\rho `$ and $`p`$. Therefore it effectively plays the rôle of a coupling constant $`g=8(n1)\mathrm{\Delta }/n`$ for the $`1/\rho ^2`$ potential. Indeed at $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$, we recognize in (4) the Hamiltonian of the conformal mechanical system introduced by de Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan dff . The generators

$$E_+=\frac{1}{2}\rho ^2,D_0=\frac{1}{2}\rho p,E_{}=\frac{1}{2}\left(p^2+\frac{g}{\rho ^2}\right)$$
(5)
represent the conformal group $`SO(1,2)`$ in 0+1 dimensions, $`\{E_+,E_{}\}=2D_0,\{D_0,E_\pm \}=\pm E_\pm `$. For vanishing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the Hamiltonian $`H=E_{}`$ has unit dimension w.r.t. the generator of conformal rescalings $`D_0`$, hence the system is conformally invariant. Remarkably, the introduction of a cosmological term preserves the action of the conformal group $`SO(2,1)`$, as it simply amounts to choosing a different generator $`H=E_{}n\mathrm{\Lambda }/(2n2)E_+`$ as the Hamiltonian. This deformation was considered in dff  although without a clear physical motivation.

Let us now discuss some aspects of the quantum dynamics in this toy model of a cosmological singularity. While we understand little about quantum gravity at a space-like singularity, we may assume that the decoupling of nearby points still holds and work in a minisuperspace truncation. Replacing canonical momenta by their Schrödinger representation $`pi/\rho ,P_Mi/U^M`$, the Hamiltonian constraint (4) becomes the Wheeler-DeWitt equation dw ,

$$H\psi =\left(\frac{1}{2}^2+\frac{4(n1)}{n\rho ^2}\mathrm{\Delta }\frac{n\mathrm{\Lambda }}{4(n1)}\rho ^2\right)\psi =0,$$
(6)
acting on wave functions $`\psi (\rho ,U^M)`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the quadratic Casimir of the $`Sl(n)`$ action on the homogeneous space $`S`$. As usual, a vanishing Hamiltonian implies that the wave function $`\psi `$ is independent of the time $`t`$, nevertheless correlations between the volume $`\rho `$ and the other observables $`U_M`$ may be used to set up measurements dw . One may now recognize the Wheeler-DeWitt equation (6) as the Schrödinger equation of DFF’s conformal quantum mechanics, with coupling $`g=8(n1)\mathrm{\Delta }/n`$, restricted to zero-energy states. Invariance under the conformal group $`SO(1,2)`$ is retained at the quantum level after resolving the ordering ambiguity $`D_0(\rho p+p\rho )/4`$. (Indeed, the requirement of conformal symmetry and its extension below, uniquely fix all ordering ambiguities.) In particular, the effect of a cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }<0`$ is to replace the parabolic generator $`E_{}`$ with continuous spectrum $`^+`$, by a compact, discrete spectrum, generator $`H=E_{}n\mathrm{\Lambda }/(2n2)E_+`$ (for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$, $`H`$ has a continuous spectrum). It is intriguing that this seemingly favorable case corresponds to a tachyonic fictitious particle.

Despite the formal identity between the WDW and DFF Hamiltonians, it is worth noting several crucial differences. Firstly, the WDW equation picks out zero energy modes of $`H`$ only, so that the requirement of boundedness from below is no longer necessary. Indeed, the coupling $`g`$ in our problem appears to be negative on square integrable wave functions on $`S`$ (for which $`\mathrm{\Delta }<0`$), and so does the mass term for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }<0`$. This is in fact a standard feature of canonical gravity, where the conformal factor always appears with a kinetic term of the “wrong” sign dw . Similarly, in a traditional quantum mechanics set-up, one usually requires states to have a finite $`L_2`$ norm around $`\rho =0`$ dff . When $`\rho `$ is viewed as a cosmological time, the requirement of square normalisability is no longer sensible (it can however be useful to select recollapsing universes dw ). The analogy of (6) with a massive Klein–Gordon equation would suggest instead to consider the Klein-Gordon norm on space-like slices of fixed $`\rho `$ (“third” quantization may be used to cure the non-positive definiteness third , although its interpretation remains unclear.) At any rate, our current understanding of cosmological singularities does not allow us to specify the boundary conditions reliably, we therefore proceed without further ado.

A few comments are in order about the chaotic properties of these cosmological models. Firstly, our discussion was carried out for free Kasner flights, in the absence of the potential terms coming from spatial gradients. As one approaches the space-like singularity, the potential terms behave as infinitely steep reflection walls Misner . It is possible that their effect could be mimicked by modding out by a discrete symmetry group (e.g, the walls exchanging the various radii are included in a $`Sl(n,)`$ subgroup of $`Sl(n)`$ acting on $`S`$). This group is however of a rather wild nature, as it should contain the Weyl group of an hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebra Damour:2000hv ; Damour:2001sa  and it is unclear at this stage how to describe the geodesic motion on such an object. One may speculate that the universal $`SO(2,1)`$ subalgebra uncovered in Nicolai:2001ir  in general hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebra may play a role in implementing conformal invariance.

We now present a construction of a class of conformally invariant quantum systems based on the quantization of nilpotent coadjoint orbits of finite Lie groups. In contrast to generic orbits, nilpotent ones are especially interesting as they possess fewer or no free parameters. Such conformal systems were first found in the course of constructing of theta series for non-symplectic groups kpw , and a particular example was given independently in gkn  for the minimal representation of $`E_8`$. For simplicity, we shall illustrate it on the simplest non-trivial case, $`D_4`$, which will coincide with the model (6) for $`2+1`$ gravity.

The classical phase space of our systems arises from the coadjoint orbit of a nilpotent element of smallest order in a finite simple Lie algebra $`G`$. This element can be conjugated into the generator associated to the lowest root $`E_\omega `$. The $`Sl(2)`$ subalgebra generated by $`\{E_\omega ,D_\omega ,E_\omega \}`$ with $`D_\omega =[E_\omega ,E_\omega ]`$ will be the conformal group in 0+1 dimensions, and $`E_\omega `$ be chosen as the Hamiltonian. The Cartan generator $`D_\omega `$ grades the algebra into 5 subspaces, $`G=G_2G_1G_0G_1G_2`$, such that the top and bottom subspaces are one-dimensional, $`G_{\pm 2}=E_{\pm \omega }`$. The coadjoint orbit of $`E_\omega `$ can be parameterized by $`P\backslash G=H_\omega G_1G_2`$, where $`P`$ is the stabilizer of $`E_\omega `$ under the coadjoint action. The level-one space $`G_1`$ is a Heisenberg algebra, which can be diagonalized in the form $`[E_{\beta _i},E_{\gamma _j}]=\delta _{ij}E_\omega `$. We can thus represent these generators as canonical coordinates and conjugate momenta, $`E_{\beta _i}=yp_i,E_{\gamma _i}=x_i,E_\omega =y`$. The maximal subalgebra $`H`$ in $`G`$ commuting with $`SO(2,1)`$ lies in $`G_0`$ and acts linearly as canonical transformations on the coordinates and momenta $`\{x_i,p_i\}`$, leaving $`y`$ invariant. The choice of a polarization of $`G_1`$ into coordinates and momenta further breaks $`H`$ to a subgroup $`H_l`$ acting linearly on the coordinates. A standard polarization is to choose for $`\beta _0`$ the simple root to which the affine root $`\omega `$ attaches on the Dynkin diagram of $`G`$ and for $`\beta _{i>0}`$ the positive roots such that $`\beta _0,\beta _i=1`$ kazhdan . The canonical momentum associated to $`y`$ is obtained in turn from the Cartan generator associated to $`\beta _0`$, $`D_{\beta _0}:=[E_{\beta _0},E_{\beta _0}]=pyp_0x_0`$. So as to bring the generator $`E_\omega `$ to the conformal quantum mechanics form (5), we make a canonical transformation

$$y=\frac{\rho ^2}{2},x_i=\frac{\rho q_i}{2},p=\frac{1}{\rho }p_\rho \frac{1}{\rho ^2}q_i\pi _i,p_i=2\frac{\pi _i}{\rho }$$
(7)
The generators of the $`SO(2,1)`$ subalgebra take the form

$$E_\omega =\frac{1}{2}\rho ^2,D_\omega =\rho p_\rho ,E_\omega =\frac{1}{2}\left(p^2+\frac{4\mathrm{\Delta }}{\rho ^2}\right)$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is, up to an additive constant, the quadratic Casimir of $`H`$, hence a quartic invariant of the coordinates and momenta $`\{q_i,\pi _i\}`$. Finally, the symmetry is enhanced from $`SO(2,1)\times H`$ to all of $`G`$ using two discrete generators: (i) the Fourier transform on all positions $`q_i`$ at once, corresponding to the longest word in the Weyl group, and (ii) the Weyl reflection with respect to $`\beta _0`$, acting on wave functions as $`W\psi (\rho ,q_0,q_i)=e^{\frac{I_3(q_i)}{2q_0}}\psi (\sqrt{\rho q_0},\sqrt{\rho ^3/q_0},\sqrt{\rho q_i/q_0})`$ where $`I_3`$ is the cubic invariant of the positions under the linearly realized $`H_l`$. The compatibility between the two actions, and indeed the whole construction, relies heavily on the invariance of the non-Gaussian character $`\mathrm{exp}(iI_3(x_i)/x_0)`$ under Fourier transform kazhdan .

As an example, the algebra $`D_4`$ decomposes as $`1_2(2,2,2)_1[(1,1,1)+(3,1,1)+\mathrm{perm}]_0(2,2,2)_11_2`$ under $`Sl(2)^3\times `$, where $``$ denotes the Cartan generator $`D_\omega `$ associated to the highest root. The coordinates and momenta correspond to the grade-one space and transform as a $`(2,2,2)`$ of $`H=Sl(2)^3`$. They satisfy the Heisenberg algebra $`[q^{aA\alpha },q^{bB\beta }]=ϵ^{ab}ϵ^{AB}ϵ^{\alpha \beta }`$.The actions of each $`Sl(2)`$ factor in $`H`$ are represented by the angular momentum-like operators $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^\mu =\sigma _{\alpha \beta }^\mu ϵ_{ab}ϵ_{AB}q^{aA\alpha }q^{bB\beta }`$,with similar definitions for $`s^m`$ and $`S^M`$. It is easy to check that these generators satisfy the $`Sl(2)`$ algebra, $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }^\mu ,\mathrm{\Sigma }^\nu ]=ϵ^{\mu \nu \rho }\mathrm{\Sigma }^\rho `$. The quadratic Casimirs of all three $`Sl(2)`$’s are identical and equal to the unique quartic invariant of the $`(2,2,2)`$ representation. The generators of the $`SO(2,1)`$ subalgebra then read as in (8) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the common quadratic Casimir of the three $`Sl(2)`$. To clarify the meaning of the Hamiltonian in (8), let us choose a polarization such that the $`Q^{A\alpha }=q^{1A\alpha }`$ are coordinates and $`q^{2A\alpha }`$ are momenta. The bispinor $`Q^{A\alpha }`$ can be thought of as a vector $`Q^I`$ of $`SO(2,2)`$, parameterized by three “polar angles” $`\mathrm{\Omega }H_3=SO(2,2)/SO(2,1)=SO(2,1)`$ and its length squared $`\kappa ^2=Q^I\eta _{IJ}Q^J`$, where $`\eta _{IJ}`$ is the signature $`(2,2)`$ metric. The quadratic Casimir then corresponds to the angular momentum squared on the pseudo-sphere $`H_3`$, i.e. the Laplacian on $`Sl(2)`$. Out of the four coordinates $`Q^I`$, we see that only the three hyperbolic polar angles receive kinetic terms in the Hamiltonian $`E_\omega `$, while the radius $`\kappa `$ decouples.

A natural object in the theory of minimal representations is the spherical vector, i.e. the wave function annihilated by all compact generators $`E_\alpha +E_\alpha `$. For irreducible and so-called spherical representations, this vector is unique. From the expression (8), we see that a spherical vector corresponds to a zero-energy state of the Hamiltonian with a negative “cosmological constant”, i.e. $`H=E_\omega +E_\omega `$. For $`D_4`$, the spherical vector should also be invariant under the compact $`U(1)`$ inside each $`Sl(2)`$ factor, so the coordinates of the $`D_4`$ conformal quantum mechanics are effectively valued in $`H_3/U(1)=Sl(2)/U(1)`$. This is indeed the conformal model (6) of $`2+1`$ gravity with $`S=SO(2)`$! Therefore, supplementing the fields $`(\rho ;U_1,U_2)\times Sl(2)/U(1)`$ with an angular variable and a decoupled radius $`\kappa `$, the conformal symmetry of reduced $`D=2+1`$ gravity is enhanced to an $`SO(4,4)`$ non-compact spectrum generating symmetry. The spherical vector of the $`D_4`$ minimal representation has been obtained in kpw , in the polarization used here it reads

$$\psi _{D_4}=\frac{\rho ^{3/2}e^S}{S},S=\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\rho ^4+\rho ^2\mathrm{tr}(Q^tQ)+\kappa ^4}$$
(9)
It would be very interesting if the new coordinate $`\kappa ^2=det(Q^{A\alpha })`$, appearing here as a degeneracy label, had a cosmological interpretation.

A similar conformal quantum mechanical system can be constructed for any finite simple Lie algebra $`G`$, except for the $`SO(2n+1)`$ series. The details of the construction of the minimal representation have been spelled out for the simply laced case in kpw , where the spherical vector has also been obtained. In order to translate the results of kpw  into the presentation (8) suitable for interpreting $`E_\omega `$ as the Hamiltonian of a quantum mechanical system, one only needs to perform the canonical transformation (7). We thus obtain a class of quantum mechanical systems with an enhanced conformal symmetry $`G`$ corresponding to any finite simple Lie group in (non-compact) split real form. The field content and symmetries of these models are summarized in Table 1. A similar construction can also be carried out for other (non-nilpotent) orbits, or for the non-simply laced groups $`G_2`$ and $`F_4`$, whose minimal representation does not possess any spherical vector, so that part of the compact symmetries are spontaneously broken. An open problem is to identify gravitational theories reducing to those in the process of dimensional reduction.

In conclusion, conformal quantum mechanics is relevant to the dynamics of gravity at a space-like singularity. A negative cosmological constant renders the spectrum of the Wheeler-DeWitt operator discrete. The wave function of the universe is then obtained as the spherical vector of the representation of the enhanced conformal group. We have constructed a family of conformal quantum mechanical models with symmetry enhanced to an arbitrary simple non-compact group $`G`$ in split real form. For $`G=D_4`$, this reproduces the conformal mechanics arising from the reduction of $`2+1`$-dimensional gravity, together with a decoupled field $`\kappa `$ yet to be understood. An important question is whether this construction can be extended to infinite Kac-Moody groups such as $`E_{10}`$ or $`BE_{10}`$, which should control the dynamics of M-theory or the heterotic string at a space-like singularity. It would be exciting if the dynamics of gravity at a spacelike singularity was related to the geodesic motion on a coadjoint orbit of $`E_{10}`$, in analogy with conventional incompressible fluid hydrodynamics.

###### Acknowledgements.

Acknowledgments. It is a pleasure to thank E. Rabinovici, M. Berkooz, H. Nicolai for valuable discussions, and the Albert Einstein Institute, Golm and Max Planck Institut für Mathematik, Bonn for hospitality. Research supported in part by NSF grant PHY-0140365.


text:
# Astrometric signatures of self-gravitating protoplanetary discs

## 1 Introduction

High precision astrometry is a powerful tool to search for companions to nearby stars. It also has the potential to discover significant numbers of extrasolar planetary systems. In this paper we discuss the potential of astrometry as a probe of self-gravitating discs around pre-main sequence stars.

A gaseous disc with sound speed $`c_s`$, surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, and epicyclic frequency $`\kappa `$ is described as self-gravitating if the Toomre (1964) $`Q`$ parameter,

$$Q=\frac{c_s\kappa }{\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }},$$
(1)
is of order unity. In discs where self-gravity is important, the outcome can either be fragmentation into one or more bound objects, or a quasi-steady state in which gravitational instabilities lead to the outward transport of angular momentum. Local simulations suggest that the boundary between these possibilities is set by the ratio of the local dynamical time-scale $`\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ to the time-scale on which the disc radiates thermal energy. Fragmentation occurs whenever the cooling time $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}\stackrel{<}{}3\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$, while longer cooling times lead to stable angular momentum transport (Gammie 2001).

Circumstantial evidence suggests that self-gravity could play a role in protoplanetary discs as late as the optically visible Classical T Tauri phase, which lasts for several Myr (Haisch, Lada & Lada 2001). Evidence that relatively old disc may be self-gravitating comes, first, from models of FU Orionis outbursts, which require a low efficiency of disc angular momentum transport to reproduce the observed $`10^2\mathrm{yr}`$ time-scales. If the viscosity is parameterized using the Shakura-Sunyaev (1973) prescription, $`\nu =\alpha c_sh`$, where $`h`$ is the vertical scale height, FU Orionis models suggest a quiescent $`\alpha 10^4`$ (Bell & Lin 1994; Bell et al. 1995). For a given accretion rate, small values of $`\alpha `$ imply high surface densities, so that the disc would be self-gravitating at $`r1\mathrm{au}`$. Second, theory suggests that angular momentum transport ought to be suppressed in cool regions of the disc where the gas is poorly coupled to magnetic fields (Matsumoto & Tajima 1995; Gammie 1996; Fleming, Stone & Hawley 2000; Sano et al. 2000; Reyes-Ruiz 2001; Sano & Stone 2002). Again, this suggests that self-gravity may set in at radii of a few au as the first significant non-magnetic source of angular momentum transport (Armitage, Livio & Pringle 2001). Ascertaining when self-gravity is at work within the disc requires either the observation of spiral patterns using extremely high resolution imaging, or detection of the astrometric motion of the stellar photocentre induced by the self-gravitating disc. It has been shown (Adams et al. 1989) that self-gravitating perturbations with $`m=1`$, can force the central star to move from the centre of mass.

In this paper, we use numerical simulations to quantify the magnitude of the astrometric displacement. This has previously been studied by Boss (1998), who simulated a disc with a mass of $`0.2M_{}`$ and found a large motion of the star, of the order of 0.1 au. This corresponds to milliarcsecond displacements at the distance of the nearest star-forming regions, which would be easily detectable by any of the forthcoming high precision astrometry experiments. The disc simulated by Boss (1998), however, was highly unstable, and subsequently fragmented with the formation of substellar objects. Although promising for giant planet formation (Armitage & Hansen 1999; Boss 2000), prompt fragmentation implies that extremely fortuitous timing would be needed for the astrometric detection of self-gravitating discs. We concentrate instead on marginally unstable discs, which are not vulnerable to fragmentation and could potentially exist around many Classical T Tauri stars.

## 2 Numerical simulations

### 2.1 Smooth particle hydrodynamics code

The three-dimensional simulations presented here were performed using smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH), a Lagrangian hydrodynamics code (e.g., Benz 1990; Monaghan 1992). Our implementation allows for the inclusion of point masses and for point mass creation (Bate et al. 1995). In this simulation the central star is modelled as a point mass onto which gas particles can accrete if they approach to within the sink radius. Although point mass creation is allowed, the discs considered here are stable against fragmentation and the density never reaches values high enough for the creation of a point mass within the disc itself. A great saving in computational time is made by using individual, particle time-steps (Bate et al. 1995; Navarro & White 1993). The time-steps for each particle are limited by the Courant condition and a force condition (Monaghan 1992). Both point masses and gas use a tree to determine neighbours and to calculate gravitational forces (Benz et al. 1990).

An advantage of using SPH for this calculation is that it is not necessary to impose any outer boundary conditions, and the SPH particles are free to move to radii greater than the initial disc radius. The outer edge of the disc is therefore free to distort and modes with $`m=1`$ will not be affected or artificially driven by the outer boundary conditions (Heemskerk et al., 1992).

### 2.2 Initial conditions

We consider a system comprising a central star, modelled as a point mass with mass $`M_{}`$, surrounded by a gaseous circumstellar disc with a mass of $`0.1M_{}`$. The disc temperature is taken to have an initial radial profile of $`Tr^{0.5}`$ (e.g. Yorke & Bodenheimer 1999) and the Toomre $`Q`$ parameter is assumed to be initially constant with a value of $`2`$. A stable accretion disc where self-gravity leads to the steady outward transportation of angular momentum should have a near constant Q throughout. A constant $`Q`$ together with equation (1) then gives a surface density profile of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }r^{7/4}`$, and hydrostatic equilibrium in the vertical direction gives a central density profile of $`\rho r^3`$.

The disc is modelled using 250,000 SPH particles, which are initially distributed according to the specified density profile between inner and outer radii of $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$ respectively. The actual particle positions are chosen randomly, subject to the constraint that the centre of mass (and momentum) of the disc is initially coincident with that of the star. To achieve this, we simply add particles in point symmetric pairs about the central point mass.

The calculations performed here are essentially scale free. In code units, we take $`M_{}=1`$, $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=1`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=25`$. To simplify the discusion we will generally assume a physical mass scale of $`1M_{}`$ and a length scale of $`1`$ au. The circumstellar disc therefore has a mass of $`0.1M_{}`$, extends from 1 au to 25 au, and surrounds a star of mass $`1M_{}`$.

### 2.3 Cooling

Previous work has shown that the outcome of gravitationally unstable discs depends critically on the treatment of the energy equation (Pickett et al. 2000; Gammie 2001). Our global simulations adopt the same approach as was used for local models by Gammie (2001). We use an adiabatic equation of state, with adiabatic index $`\gamma =5/3`$, and allow the disc gas to heat up due to both PdV work and viscous dissipation. In the absence of cooling, viscous dissipation would act to heat up the disc, increase the Toomre $`Q`$ parameter, and drive the disc towards stability. Cooling is implemented by adding a simple cooling term to the energy equation. Specifically, for a particle with internal energy per unit mass $`u_i`$,

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}u_i}{\mathrm{d}t}=\frac{u_i}{t_{\mathrm{cool}}}$$
(2)
where $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}`$ is a radially dependent parameter which we specify for each run.

Although simple, this approach to the energetics of the disc can be related (at least approximately) to the real physics of an accretion disc. For an optically thick disc in equilibrium the cooling time is the ratio of the thermal energy per unit area to the radiative losses per unit area. It can be shown (see e.g. Pringle 1981) that in such a viscous accretion disc, the cooling time is given by

$$t_{\mathrm{cool}}=\frac{4}{9\gamma }\frac{1}{\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }}$$
(3)
where $`\gamma `$ is the adiabatic index, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the angular frequency, and $`\alpha `$ is the Shakura & Sunyaev (1973) viscosity parameter. Based on this, we assume radially dependent cooling times that scale as $`\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$,

$$t_{\mathrm{cool}}=\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^1,$$
(4)
with $`\beta `$ a constant. Gammie (2001) has shown, using a local model, that cooling times of $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}<3\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ lead to fragmention, while longer cooling times lead to a quasi-stable state. Since we are interested in the possibility of detecting, through the displacement of the central star, the presence of gravitational instabilities in quasi-stable circumstellar discs, we will use $`\beta `$ values greater than 3.

## 3 Astrometric signal

We consider a $`0.1M_{}`$ disc with an inner radius of 1 au and an outer radius of 25 au. The disc is initially gravitationally stable ($`Q2`$ at all radii) and undergoes cooling with a radially dependent cooling time given by $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^1`$. We consider cooling times of $`5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ and $`10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ which, according to Gammie (2001), should lead to quasi-stable discs that do not fragment. The $`t_{cool}=10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ and $`t_{cool}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ simulations were run for 2.6 and 3.7 orbits of particles at the outer disc edge at $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=25`$. These run times are short (326 years and 467 years respectively for our assumed scaling) compared to the evolutionary time of the disc (i.e the viscous time, $`r^2/\nu `$) but are sufficient to reach a quasi-steady state in which heating and cooling are locally in balance.

For a cooling time of $`10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ (Figure 1) there is no noticeable structure in the disc. For a cooling time of $`5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ (Figure 2) there is significant structure in the disc but, as in Gammie (2001), there has been no fragmentation. The filamentary spiral structure which we observe is consistent (e.g. Nelson et al. 1998) with previous simulations of discs with masses significantly less than that of the central star. Although it is likely that the $`m=1`$ mode is the dominant mode driving the stellar motion (Adams et al. 1989), it is not an obviously dominant mode in the disc.

Figures 3 and 4 show the surface densities of the $`t_{cool}=10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ and $`t_{cool}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ simulations at the beginning and end of each run. Because we have not attempted to model the inner boundary condition of the disc in any detail, there is rapid accretion and a drop in surface density close to the inner boundary. As discussed below, we find that the main contribution driving displacement of the star comes from material near the outer edge of the disc, so this numerical effect near the inner boundary is not a major concern. Apart from these particles with radii between 1 and 2 being accreted onto the central star, the surface density profile does not change significantly during the course of the simulation.

Figures 5 and 6 shows the Toomre $`Q`$ parameter at the beginning and end of each simulation. For $`t_{cool}=10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ the value of $`Q`$ at the end of the simulation is smaller than the initial value of $`2`$ but still generally greater than $`1`$. This disc is largely stable, although $`Q`$ is small enough that some structure (not noticeable in Fig 1) may exist. For $`t_{cool}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ the final $`Q`$ value is close to 1 for radii between 2 and 15. The disc is quasi-stable with heating through gravitational instabilities balancing the cooling to give $`Q1`$.

Figures 7 and 8 show the displacement of the central star from the centre of mass of the star-disc system as a function of time, for the runs with $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ and $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ respectively. The displacement grows approximately exponentially at early times, before saturating (Laughlin et al. 1997) and reaching a plateau at a displacement which depends upon the assumed cooling time. For the more unstable disc, with $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$, the saturation level of the stellar displacement is $`5\times 10^3`$ au, while for the more stable disc with $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ the plateau occurs at a lower level of $`10^3`$ au. For a source at 100 pc, the above displacements will produce angular displacements of 0.1 milliarcsec (mas) and 0.02 mas respectively. In both cases the star is executing an approximately circular orbit around the centre of mass, with periods of approximately 50 yr (for $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$) and 35 yr (for $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=10\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$).

Instead of the disk extending from 1 - 25 au, the scale free nature of the simulation means that we could equally well assume, without changing the mass scale, that it extends from 4 - 100 au, closer to a more commonly observed disc size (Padgett et al. 1999). The displacement of the central star from the center of mass and the angular displacement would both be 4 times greater, and the period of the orbit would be 8 times greater than that of a 25 au disk. A planet producing the same displacement with the same period as that calculated here, would have a mass several times less than that of Jupiter. A Jupiter mass planet producing the same displacement would be significantly closer to the central star and hence would have a correspondingly smaller period. It therefore seems unlikely (unless considering low mass planets at large radii) that there could be much confusion between astrometric signals caused by planets and those due to disc instabilities.

In addition to a roughly circular motion, gravitational instability in the disc also generates lower amplitude, short-timescale motions. This is illustrated in Figure 9, which shows a projection of the position of the central star onto the orbital plane for the last 57 years of the simulation with $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$. The center of mass is located at $`x=0,y=0`$. As well as the large orbit taking $`50`$ years there are a number of smaller orbital structures due to the presence of higher order modes in the disc.

For our surface density profile, most of the mass in the disc lies at relatively large radius (the enclosed mass scales as $`r^{1/4}`$). This behaviour is even stronger for the flatter surface density profiles (typically $`r^1`$ or $`r^{3/2}`$) often considered as appropriate for protoplanetary discs. As expected given this mass distribution, the timescale of the dominant circular motion of the star is of the same order as the dynamical timescale in the outer disc. Assuming this to be true more generally, we can obtain estimates for the angular displacement $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ and characteristic timescale $`\tau `$ as a function of the outer radius, $`r_{\mathrm{grav}}`$, within which a disc is self-gravitating. For a star at distance $`d`$ we find,

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ $``$ $`100\left({\displaystyle \frac{r_{\mathrm{grav}}}{25\mathrm{au}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{d}{100\mathrm{pc}}}\right)^1\mu \mathrm{arcsec}`$ (5)
$`\tau `$ $``$ $`50\left({\displaystyle \frac{r_{\mathrm{grav}}}{25\mathrm{au}}}\right)^{3/2}\mathrm{yr},`$ (6)
where we have used the numbers from the $`t_{\mathrm{cool}}=5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ run for the estimate. We expect the exact numbers to depend upon the actual surface density distribution in the disc, and on the mass, so these figures should be regarded as order of magnitude estimates for discs with masses around a tenth of the mass of the star.

We can also compare the displacement caused by a gravitionally unstable disc with that generated by an orbiting planet within the disc. For a planet whose mass ratio to the central star is $`q=M_p/M_{}`$, in a circular orbit at radius $`a`$, the displacement is,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =50\left(\frac{q}{10^3}\right)\left(\frac{a}{5\mathrm{au}}\right)\left(\frac{d}{100\mathrm{pc}}\right)^1\mu \mathrm{arcsec},$$
(7)
i.e. of similar magnitude to the result derived above. The period of the stellar oscillation caused by the planet, however, is substantially shorter than that generated by the disc. We conclude, therefore, that even in the worst case scenario where (i) the disc is gravitationally unstable, and (ii) the cooling time is within a factor of two of the fragmentation boundary, stellar displacements due to the disc are not likely to be confused with the signal from a Jupiter mass planet. At substantially lower masses, of course, confusion would be possible. In this case, detection of the substructure in the orbit shown in Figure 9 would be necessary to unambiguously determine whether an observed signal was of disc or planetary origin. The disc mass of $`0.1`$ M is also quite large, with most T Tauri stars having disc masses smaller than that used here (Beckwith et al. 1990). Not only will lower mass discs be less likely to be gravitationally unstable (see Equation (1)), the amplitude of the displacement of the central star is likely to be smaller than that obtained here. This will further reduce the possibility of confusing stellar displacements due to the disc with that due to an orbiting planet.

## 4 Conclusion

We have used numerical simulations of discs around Young Stellar Objects to quantify the astrometric displacement of the star caused by a self-gravitating disc. By modelling the energy balance of the disc using a cooling time formalism (Gammie 2001), we have shown that the magnitude of the displacement depends upon how stable the disc is against fragmentation into bound substellar objects. For a cooling time of $`5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$ (within a factor of two of the fragmentation boundary at $`3\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$), a disc mass of $`0.1M_{}`$, and a self-gravitating disc radius of the order of 10 au, we obtain relatively large displacements in the $`1010^2\mu \mathrm{arcsec}`$ range (for a star at a distance of 100 pc). This magnitude of astrometric signal is potentially observable with any of several upcoming high precision astrometric instruments, although the presence of a circumstellar disc is likely to complicate such observations, especially if time dependent perturbations are present within the disc. Although the gravitationally driven instabilities modelled in this work are intrinsically time dependent, their growth saturates (Laughlin et al. 1997) and their filamentary nature (Nelson et al. 1998) makes their structure approximately azimuthally symmetric. Their presence is therefore unlikely to further complicate observations. Discs with cooling times longer than $`5\mathrm{\Omega }^1`$, which are correspondingly more stable, have significantly smaller stellar motions. A detailed model for the angular momentum transport processes in the disc, together with an assessment of the heating and cooling processes at work, would be required to determine whether protoplanetary discs fall into the parameter regime that produces the largest displacements.

Our estimate for the angular displacement of the star caused by a self-gravitating disc is an order of magnitude smaller than that found by Boss (1998). Although there are numerous differences in the initial conditions and numerical techniques used, we believe that the smaller displacement that we obtain primarily reflects our choice of a more stable disc model. By design, our disc is permanently stable against fragmentation into substellar objects, whereas the disc simulated by Boss (1998) broke up towards the end of the simulation. Taken together, our results, plus those of Boss (1998), suggest that a relatively narrow window of self-gravitating disc conditions could lead to small but long-lived astrometric wobbles ($`1010^2\mu \mathrm{arcsec}`$ at 100 pc). More dramatic displacements – perhaps of the order of a mas at the same distance – are also possible, but only as a precursor to fragmentation of the disc into substellar objects. Our simulations suggest that the disc induced wobble could mimic that of a planet a few times smaller than Jupiter and orbiting at a large radius, relative to the disc size. Most T Tauri stars have disc masses smaller than that used in this simulation and would consequently induce a correspondingly smaller motion of the central star, reducing the likelihood of confusion between stellar motion due to disc instabilities and that due to an orbiting planet. The disc induced stellar motions are therefore not likely to be a serious obstacle to the astrometric detection of planets orbiting at small radii (relative to the disc size). For planets orbiting at large radii, the planet mass which could be mimiced by a disc instability depends on the disc mass (relative to the central star) but is likely to be less than a Jupiter mass for most T Tauri disc systems.

## Acknowlegments

The simulations reported in this paper made use of the UK Astrophysical Fluids Facility (UKAFF).


text:
# Building Planets with Dusty Gas

## 1. Introduction

Up until recently we had only one observation to test our theories of planet formation against - our own Solar System. Now however with new planets and solar systems being both identified and parameterised at a rate approaching one a month, the observational constraints are much tighter and our lack of understanding of many aspects of the planet formation process is all too obvious. At the most basic level we know that micron size grains of dust in the pre-solar nebula clump and coagulate together to form planets, objects 1013–1014 times larger. Planet formation is a multi-stage process, taking us from dust grain to boulder to planetesimal to planetary embryo. Analytical arguments (Goldreich & Ward 1973) have presented us with constraints on the time scales for each stage but little more. It is the very first stage of the process that we are concerned with in this paper – from micron scale dust to metre sized boulders.

Theoretical models have changed much in recent years and the simple picture of a thin dust layer accumulating at the disk midplane, becoming gravitationally unstable, and breaking into planetesimals (Safronov 1969; Goldreich & Ward 1973) now seems unlikely. Recently Goodman & Pindor (2000) showed that turbulent drag causes radial instabilities in the dust layer, even if the disk self-gravity is negligible. In their steady state models, grains in a uniform dust layer experience radial drift as expected. However, for perturbed disks they predict that over-dense rings form within an orbital period, with the ring thickness similar to the thickness of the dust layer. These rings eventually collapse into planetesimals in the kilometre size range.

In this paper we present the first three-dimensional numerical simulations that include the effects of hydrodynamical forces, self-gravity and gas drag upon an evolving dusty gas disk. We describe a new numerical code, based upon the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique which uses a collection of particles to approximate a fluid. At present we run simulations with uniform grain size and do not allow dust particles to have individual or time varying chemical and physical properties. Adding this level of sophistication to the model would require only minor changes to the code.

## 2. The Planet Building Code

We have developed a new parallel two-phase (dust & gas) hydro $`+`$ tree code by merging a dusty gas SPH code (Maddison 1998) with an MPI parallel Hashed Oct Tree N-body $`+`$ SPH code (Humble 1999). Following Monaghan & Kocharyan (1995), the dusty gas is approximated by two inter-penetrating flows that interact via a drag force.

The particles are tagged as being gas or dust and are then allowed to interact according to gas-gas, gas-dust and dust-dust interactions. Only gas particles feel a pressure force and are affected by viscosity. The gas-dust combination feel the drag force and also the mixed term seen in both the dust and gas particle acceleration equations. The only dust-dust interaction is through gravity.

The two fluids are coupled by gravity and drag, and the equation of motion is given by:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d𝐯_g}{dt}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}_gP+{\displaystyle \frac{K}{\widehat{\rho }_g}}(𝐯_d𝐯_g)\mathrm{\Phi },`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d𝐯_d}{dt}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}_dP{\displaystyle \frac{K}{\widehat{\rho }_d}}(𝐯_d𝐯_g)\mathrm{\Phi },`$
where the terms on the right hand side are gas pressure, drag force and gravity respectively. The density $`\widehat{\rho }`$ is the mass density per unit volume, while $`\rho `$ is the local density (related via $`\widehat{\rho }=\mathrm{\Theta }\rho `$, where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the volumetric void fraction). The functional form of $`K`$ depends upon the drag regime (e.g. Epstein or Stokes) being considered. In the simulations we present, we have implemented Epstein drag which is appropriate for protoplanetary disks. Thus $`K=(\rho \mathrm{\Theta }C_{\mathrm{drag}}c)/r_{\mathrm{dust}}`$, where $`c`$ the local sound speed, $`C_{\mathrm{drag}}`$ the drag coefficient, and $`r_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ the dust grain size.

The drag term is calculated using a pairwise implicit backward Euler scheme, while the hydrodynamics and self-gravity are solved explicitly. Operator splitting is used to integrate particle orbits under the influence of the un-softened gravity of the central star. The code has been tested for stability and accuracy with standard periodic box simulations to ensure that the drag terms are correct, and collapsing sphere simulations to test the gravity. The code scales linearly to more than 32 processors. For simplicity we assume that the dust grains do not evaporate or coagulate and that the gas does not condense. We take the dust grains to be incompressible.

## 3. The Simulations

We are particularly interested in the effects of grain size upon disk morphology and global disk dynamics. We present the results of 6 simulations of gas disks laden with dust of different grain sizes. All simulations start with a prolate spheroid of rotating, self-gravitating gas (with a star at the centre) that spins down to near-equilibrium. The dust is then added (overlaid on the 3D flared gas disk) and the simulations are then followed for approximately 104 years (which corresponds to 11 orbits at 100 AU).

The model parameters used were: $`M_{}=1.0M_{}`$, $`M_{\mathrm{disk}}=0.01M_{}`$, $`M_{\mathrm{dust}}=0.01M_{\mathrm{disk}}`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}=`$ 100 AU. The grain parameters were: $`\rho _\mathrm{d}=`$ 2.4 g/cm3 and $`r_\mathrm{d}=1,10^1,10^2,10^3,10^4`$ and $`10^5`$ m. The $`\alpha `$-disk parameters used were: $`c(R)=c_0(R/100AU)^{3/8}`$, $`T(R)(R/100AU)^{3/4}`$, $`H/R=0.1`$ at 100 AU, and $`\gamma =5/3`$ with an isothermal equation of state. Low resolution runs used $`2\times 12500`$ particles, and high resolution runs used $`2\times 125000`$ particles. The self-gravity softening $`\epsilon =`$ 1.0 AU, and the SPH artificial viscosity parameters $`\alpha _{\mathrm{SPH}}=0.1`$ and $`\beta _{\mathrm{SPH}}=0.0`$.

## 4. Discussion

For large (10m) and small (micron) dust sizes, we expect that the dust distribution will stay close to the initial flared disk. The largest grains (not shown) are weakly coupled to the gas, and if started in Keplerian motion, they will remain there. On the other hand, the tiny grains are so strongly coupled to the gas that they are essentially co-moving (on the timescales we examine). For both extremes, we see little evolution of the dust distribution. It is for the regime 0.1 mm $`<r_{dust}<`$ 1 m that the most significant disk evolution occurs.

In the $`rz`$ plots of figure 1, significant deviation from the initially flared disk occurs in the inner regions of the 1m and 10cm plots, in the mid regions (from $`r=0.6`$ to $`r=0.9`$) of the 1cm plot, and in the outer regions of the 1mm and smaller plots. In these regions, the dust is moving at close to Keplerian speeds, whereas the gas is (as always) sub-Keplerian. As the velocity difference is sustained, the Epstein drag is optimal, and the energy loss rate is high – allowing a thin layer of dust to form in the midplane and migrate radially. These thin dense dust disks are those that Goodman & Pindor suggest have global turbulent instability modes.

While the 10cm and 1cm dust exhibits the highest surface density (top right of figure 1), the volumetric density is largest in the inner regions of the 1m and 10cm disks. Therefore these size ranges are probably the most interesting from a planet formation viewpoint.

The Lagrangian nature of the code means that it is trivial to add empirical grain growth models, and to follow the grain temperature and density histories and hence generate chemical compositions. The equations of state and drag term can easily be altered on a per-region or per-particle basis to account for local disk conditions.

### Acknowledgments.

The research was supported by a Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing Expertise Grant and an Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing Merit Allocation Grant.

## References

Balbus, S. & Hawley, J. (1991) ApJ, 376, p214

Goldreich, P. & Ward, W. R. (1973) ApJ, 183, p1051

Goodman, J. & Pindor, B. (2000) Icarus, 148, p537

Humble, R.J. (1999) “Parallel N-body+SPH”, PhD Thesis, Monash University

Maddison, S.T. (1998) “Gravitational Instabilities in Protostellar Disks”, PhD Thesis, Monash University

Monaghan, J.J. & Kocharyan, A. (1995) J. Comp. Phy., 87, p225

Safronov, V. S. (1969) “Evolution of the Protoplanetary Cloud and Formation of Earth and the Planets” (Engl. transl. NASA TTF-677 1972)

Weidenschilling, S.J. (1988) in Meteorites and the Early Solar System, p348 (University of Arizona Press)

Weidenschilling, S.J. & Cuzzi, J.N. (1993) in Protostars and Planets III, p1031 (University of Arizona Press)


text:
# Prospecting for Heavy Elements with Future Far-IR/Submillimeter Observatories

## 1. Importance of the FIR/SMM Spectral Region

Prior to enrichment with heavy elements the first collapsing protostellar clouds must have given up the bulk of their potential energy through the most readily excited H2 lines, namely those at the rest wavelengths 17 and 28 $`\mu `$m (Haiman, Rees, & Loeb 1996). Heavy elements forged in the first stars polluted the intergalactic and interstellar medium and were incorporated into later stellar generations. Indeed, these elements must have had an effect on the star formation process through their strong influence on the energy balance of the interstellar medium. Among the most prominent manifestations of heavy elements in the rest frame spectrum of a galaxy are the far-IR C, N, and O atomic and ionic fine structure lines, the CO lines from molecular clouds, the far-IR thermal continuum emission from interstellar dust, and the mid-IR \[Ne II\] and \[O IV\] lines and PAH features from gas and dust.

The \[C II\] line at 158 $`\mu `$m, the \[O I\] lines at 63 and 146 $`\mu `$m, the \[OIII\] lines at 52 and 88 $`\mu `$m, and the \[N II\] lines at 122 and 205 $`\mu `$m have potential to serve as metallicity tracers out to very high redshifts, sampling gas exposed to various intensities of ionizing radiation. The 158 $`\mu `$m line alone contains $`0.1`$ – 1% of a galaxy’s bolometric luminosity (Stacey et al. 1991). It is the strongest line in the spectrum of our own galaxy, and the nitrogen lines are also quite strong (Wright et al. 1991; Bennett et al. 1994). Oxygen is the most abundant heavy element, and emission can be expected to be seen in the atomic or ionic O lines depending on the nature of the source. For example, the \[O III\] lines are bright in IR-luminous galaxies (Fischer et al. 1999). Although the relative intensity of the 158 $`\mu `$m line varies from galaxy to galaxy (Fischer et al. 1999), independent diagnostics of the excitation conditions will aid in the interpretation of the line strength, and a good physical model exists for the emission (Wolfire et al. 1989). Significantly, the far-IR lines do not suffer the ill effects associated with extinction, whereas large and uncertain extinction corrections are required at UV/optical wavelengths. Several mid-IR fine-structure lines have been shown to be good diagnostics of the radiation field hardness and emission source (Lutz et al. 1999; Thornley et al. 2000), and the \[O III\] line ratio can be used to measure the electron density in the emitting region (Fischer et al. 1999). Thus, multi-line studies in the FIR/SMM can be used reliably to trace metallicity as a function of redshift out to $`z5`$, and these lines can be followed out to even greater redshifts at millimeter wavelengths with ALMA.

Approximately half of a typical spiral galaxy’s luminosity is emitted in the far-IR because interstellar dust absorbs UV and visible starlight and radiates thermally at these longer wavelengths. The redshifted dust continuum emission peak would remain in the FIR/SMM spectral range for galaxies out to $`z10`$ if galaxies exist there and contain dust. Evidence for dust has been seen in a galaxy at $`z=5.34`$ (Armus et al. 1998), and we would like to know when the first dust formed.

Ultraluminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs) exhibit strong features in their mid-IR spectra, likening them in this respect to starburst galaxies and not AGN (Lutz et al. 1999). While their possible evolutionary connection to quasars makes ULIRGs intrinsically interesting, for the sake of this discussion they warrant attention simply because they are luminous and the spectral features are commonly attributed to emissions from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The 7.7 $`\mu `$m PAH feature has good potential as a tracer of heavy elements out to great distances.

## 2. Future FIR/SMM Space Observatories and Their Measurement Capabilities

Future FIR/SMM space observatories will have the sensitivity needed to detect high-$`z`$ objects, the angular resolution needed to separate the emissions of individual galaxies, and the spectral resolution needed to measure line luminosities and calculate heavy element abundances. In this section we give estimates of the sensitivity of SAFIR and a FIR/SMM interferometer to line emission, PAH spectral features, and the thermal dust continuum emission from high-redshift galaxies.

SAFIR is a filled-aperture far-IR telescope (Rieke et al. 2002) recommended for an end-of-the-decade start in the Decadal Report. As conceived, SAFIR would be background limited over a wavelength range from about 15 to 600 $`\mu `$m to overlap slightly with NGST and ground-based capabilities, and would be diffraction limited at $`40`$ $`\mu `$m. With a 10 m aperture, and with new generations of cold detectors, it would have 150 times the collecting area and an order of magnitude greater angular resolution at a given wavelength than SIRTF. SAFIR instruments would provide imaging and spectroscopic capabilities with maximum spectral resolution $`R=\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda 10^6`$, much greater than that needed for the extragalactic studies discussed here. To achieve the goal of background-limited performance the SAFIR mirror will have to be cooled to about 4 K and the detector NEP will have to be limited to $`10^{20}`$ W Hz-1/2.

The Decadal Report also recommends the development of enabling technologies for FIR/SMM interferometry, recognizing this as a compelling and promising future direction (Leisawitz et al. 2002). In the present context an interferometer is important because it could make spectral line measurements complementary to those of SAFIR at the longer FIR/SMM wavelengths, where SAFIR will be confusion noise limited. Because this paper emphasizes spectral measurements of distant galaxies rather than imaging, we don’t say much about the very long baseline interferometer known as SPECS (the Submillimeter Probe of the Evolution of Cosmic Structure) and instead discuss the Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT), a FIR/SMM spatial and spectral (i.e., “double Fourier”; Mariotti & Ridgway 1988) interferometer on a boom, and a likely forerunner to SPECS. SPIRIT could have a maximum baseline length in the 30 - 50 m range and provide sub-arcsecond angular resolution out to sub-millimeter wavelengths. Like SPECS, SPIRIT is conceived as a background-limited Michelson stellar interferometer with a scanning optical delay line (Mather et al. 2002). The delay line stroke length can be set to provide R = 1000 spectroscopy, and the light collecting mirrors can be moved to provide dense u-v plane coverage, and thus imaging capability.

How sensitive can we expect the future FIR/SMM space observatories to be? Both SAFIR and SPIRIT are supposed to be background limited. We use an empirical model based on COBE observations (Hauser et al. 1998) to calculate the FIR/SMM diffuse background, and Blain’s (2000) model for the confusion noise due to extragalactic sources and Galactic cirrus clouds (Gautier et al. 1992). The diffuse emission model includes zodiacal, Galactic cirrus, and CMB components.

To estimate the sensitivity of SAFIR we assume that the telescope is equipped with an R = 1000 spectrometer, high QE detectors ($`\eta =0.5`$), and has total system transmission $`\tau _{sys}=0.3`$. The minimum detectable line flux ($`1\sigma `$) for a background-limited telescope of aperture area A in exposure time t is $`MDLF=NEP_{bg}(A\tau _{sys}t^{1/2})^1`$, where the noise equivalent power attributable to background photons that reach the detector, $`NEP_{bg}=(2P_{bg}h\nu /\eta )^{1/2}`$, and $`P_{bg}=(\nu I_\nu )_{bg}A\mathrm{\Omega }\tau _{sys}/R`$. The etendue $`A\mathrm{\Omega }\lambda ^2`$ at wavelength $`\lambda `$. The confusion noise for a 10 m diffraction limited telescope in a spectral channel $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu =\nu /R`$ is added in quadrature with this background-limited MDLF to estimate the line flux sensitivity shown in Figure 1. Confusion is expected to be the dominant noise source in any reasonable exposure time at $`\lambda >200`$ $`\mu `$m. In this paper we ignore the possibility that line emission below the confusion limit might be attributable to a particular source if its redshift is independently determined. The effect of confusion is illustrated in Figure 2.

To a good approximation, the MDLF for SPIRIT is related to the background-limited MDLF given above for SAFIR by the factor $`(A_{SAFIR}/A_{SPIRIT})n^{1/2}`$, in which $`A_{SAFIR}=(\pi /4)(10m)^2`$, $`A_{SPIRIT}`$ is the total light collecting aperture of SPIRIT, and $`n`$ is the number of collecting mirrors. The factor $`n^{1/2}`$ allows for the fact that independent, uncorrelated samples of background photons reach the individual collecting mirrors. To derive the sensitivity curve for SPIRIT shown in Figure 1 we assume that the interferometer has two 3 m diameter light collecting mirrors. SPIRIT would not be confusion limited at any wavelength in $`10^5`$ s.

Figure 1 shows that a line flux of $`10^{22}`$ W m-2 is detectable with SAFIR or SPIRIT in a reasonable amount of time anywhere in the FIR/SMM spectral range. Due to its cold temperature and large aperture size SAFIR would be 4 to 5 orders of magnitude more sensitive to line emission than SIRTF, SOFIA, and Herschel. Despite its smaller total aperture area than SAFIR, SPIRIT would beat confusion (Fig. 2) and have comparable sensitivity. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) will provide a similar capability at millimeter wavelengths. From a still broader perspective, nearly all the light emitted by luminous objects from the present back in time to the epoch of their first formation will be accessible to future astrophysicists with NGST, SAFIR, SPIRIT, and ALMA.

Figure 1 also shows the predicted sensitivity of SAFIR and SPIRIT to prominent C, N, and Ne lines emitted by normal galaxies at various redshifts. The mid-IR Ne diagnostic lines could be followed beyond the NGST spectral range with SAFIR out to $`z>5`$, yielding a measure of the excitation conditions, and thereby aiding in the interpretation of C, N, and O line observations. The \[C II\] 158 $`\mu `$m line would be easily detected with SAFIR out to $`z=3`$, with SPIRIT out to $`z=4`$, and with ALMA at least out to $`z=5`$. Confusion noise might prevent SAFIR from observing the \[N II\] lines beyond $`z1.5`$ or 2, and likewise the oxygen lines mentioned previously, but SPIRIT could measure most of these lines all the way to $`z=5`$, and ALMA would pick up the 205 $`\mu `$m \[N II\] line when it exits the SPIRIT spectral range at $`z3`$. All of these estimates of detectability pertain to a galaxy of relatively modest luminosity; the Milky Way spectrum (Wright et al. 1991; Bennett et al. 1994) was used as the standard. An IR-luminous galaxy can be two or more orders of magnitude more luminous than the Milky Way, which would bring the \[O III\] 52 and 88 $`\mu `$m lines, for example, well within the SAFIR sensitivity range for galaxies out to $`z=5`$.

There is a reasonable chance that SAFIR could unveil the H2 line emission from the clouds that collapsed to form the very first generation of stars. The likely presence of a pair of lines at rest wavelengths 17 and 28 $`\mu `$m would compensate for the fact that the epoch of initial star formation, and therefore the redshift, is unknown. Recent estimates place the emission in the redshift range $`z1020`$ (Loeb & Barkana 2001). Thus, fortuitously, the lines would appear in a spectral range where the background noise is nearly at a minimum, enhancing the prospects for detection. The H2 line strength can be estimated as follows. If the protostellar clouds begin at $`T10^3`$ K and $`n_H=100\mathrm{cm}^3`$ they would cool on a timescale of a few Myr. The corresponding cloud luminosity is only about 0.01 L$`_{}`$, but many such clouds could be concentrated in an object as massive as a small galaxy ($`10^{10}`$ M$`_{}`$), and all of this flux would be concentrated in a single SAFIR beam. We ignore Thompson scattering by electrons freed up in the reionization of the universe because the scattering optical depth is likely $`<0.2`$ (D. Spergel, private communication). If all the collapsing cloud energy is apportioned about equally between 17 and 28 $`\mu `$m lines, then the line strengths would be in the $`10^{23}`$ to $`10^{24}`$ W m-2 range. If the epoch of initial cloud collapse was short-lived, then the lines might be found serendiptously when many spectra obtained for other purposes are coadded. If the lines are lost in confusion noise to SAFIR, then there is a chance that SPIRIT or the longer baseline interferometer SPECS would see them. The detection of this emission would be a major coup, as it would tell us when the clock began to tick for heavy element formation and reionization.

The sensitivity of SAFIR to continuum emission or resolved spectral features is given by the minimum detectable flux density, $`MDFD=MDLF/\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ could be $`\nu /5`$ if one were interested in the continuum spectral energy distribution (SED), or $`\nu /100`$ if one were interested in resolving, say, the 7.7 $`\mu `$m PAH feature. Although the sensitivity of an interferometer of the type described above would be further compromised by efficiency factors if its full spectral resolution capability is not exploited, for SPIRIT the loss would be small, and we can scale by $`(A_{SAFIR}/A_{SPIRIT})n^{1/2}8`$, as before, to estimate the MDFD.

The dust continuum emission from a normal galaxy ($`L_{FIR}=2\times 10^{10}`$ L$`_{}`$) at $`z=2`$ would peak at about 50 $`\mu `$Jy at 250 $`\mu `$m in the observer’s reference frame. SAFIR could detect this signal in a very short exposure time, but it would be right at the confusion limit. Although SAFIR would have ample sensitivity to detect continuum emission from normal galaxies well into the Wien regime, where, for a given redshift, the wavelength is shorter and the angular resolution of the telescope is better, the bulk of the emission would become shrouded by confusion when the galaxy is at $`z>2`$. Better resolution is the key to going deeper. SPIRIT could easily measure the dust continuum SEDs of normal galaxies out to $`z=5`$.

IR-luminous galaxies are another story. Such galaxies may have been common in the early universe, and they tend to be warmer than normal galaxies. Lutz et al. (1999) combine ISO measurements of 60 ULIRGs, normalize the spectra to $`S_\nu (60\mu \text{m})=1`$ Jy, and find that the average spectrum contains a PAH 7.7 $`\mu `$m feature with peak flux density 0.01 Jy. The PAH and 60 $`\mu `$m continuum flux density from a $`10^{12}`$ L$`_{}`$ ULIRG, the least powerful source of its class, would be easily detectable with SAFIR out to $`z>5`$. By measuring these emissions from ULIRGs at many different redshifts one might find a trend that reveals the buildup of dust over time. SIRTF will add considerably to our understanding of PAH production and aid in our interpretation of the mid-IR spectral features.

## 3. Summary and Conclusions

Information vital to our understanding of the cosmic history of element synthesis is uniquely available at far-infrared/submillimeter wavelengths. To extract this information we will need telescopes and instruments that provide spectral line sensitivity of the order of $`10^{22}`$ W m-2 at spectral resolution $`R>1000`$, and $`\mu `$Jy sensitivity to continuum emission, over the spectral range 15 – 800 $`\mu `$m. Instruments on SIRTF, SOFIA, and Herschel will operate in this range, but with orders of magnitude less sensitivity than is required to measure the dominant cooling and important diagnostic spectral lines, the dust continuum emission, and the PAH features in the spectra of young galaxies and protogalactic objects at high redshifts. Measurement capabilities comparable to those that will become available at shorter wavelengths with NGST and at longer wavelengths with ALMA will be needed in the FIR/SMM. It is envisioned in the Decadal Report that these capabilities will be provided with the Single Aperture Far-IR (SAFIR) telescope and a far-IR interferometer.

To probe the heavy element and dust formation history of the universe SAFIR should carry instruments that provide medium resolution ($`R10^3`$) spectroscopy over the wavelength range 15 – 600 $`\mu `$m, and low-resolution spectroscopy ($`R10^2`$) over the 15 – 50 $`\mu `$m spectral range. SAFIR should be about 10 m in diameter, not only to provide adequate sensitivity at high spectral resolution (for purposes other than those considered here), but also to provide a view of the extragalactic IR sky unlimited by confusion at wavelengths $`<200\mu \text{m}`$.

At longer wavelengths, confusion noise will limit the sensitivity of SAFIR, so the Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT) should be designed to break the FIR/SMM confusion barrier and make complementary spectroscopic and spectrophotometric measurements of high-$`z`$ objects. An interferometer with a maximum baseline length in the 30 – 50 m range would beat confusion. Due to its smaller total aperture area and mode of operation, SPIRIT would make these measurements more slowly than SAFIR. However, the exposure times would be quite reasonable ($`10^5`$ s) if SPIRIT, like SAFIR, uses ultra-sensitive detectors and cryogenic ($`4`$ K) optics, and if the SPIRIT collecting mirrors are about 3 m in diameter. The SPIRIT optical delay line should be sized to provide $`R10^3`$ spectroscopy over a several arcminute field of view. The wavelength range covered by SPIRIT should extend to the shortest wavelength continuously accessible to ALMA through the atmosphere, $`800`$ $`\mu `$m.

## References

Armus, L., et al. 1998, ApJ, 506, L89

Bennett, C. L., et al. 1994, ApJ, 434, 587

Blain, A. 2000, in ESO/ECF/STScI Workshop Proc. Deep Fields, eds. S. Cristiani, A. Renzini, & R.E. Williams, ESO Symp. Series (Berlin: Springer), 129 (astro-ph/0011479)

Fischer, J., et al. 1999, Ap&SS, 266, 91

Gautier, T. N. III, et al. 1992, AJ, 103, 1313

Haiman, Z., Rees, M. J., & Loeb, A. 1996, ApJ, 467, 522

Hauser, M. G., et al. 1998, ApJ, 508, 25

Leisawitz, D., et al. 2002, “Probing the Invisible Universe: The Case for Far-IR/Submillimeter Interferometry,” white paper submitted to the SEUS Roadmap Committee (http://universe.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/roadmap/ submissions.html)

Loeb, A. & Barkana, R. 2001, ARA&A, 39, 19

Lutz, D. et al. 1999, Ap&SS, 266, 85

Mariotti, J.-M., & Ridgway, S.T. 1988, A&A, 195, 350

Mather, J. C. et al., Rev. Sci. Instr., submitted (astro-ph/9812454)

Rieke, G., et al. 2002, “Charting the Winds that Change the Universe,” white paper submitted to the SEUS Roadmap Committee (http://universe.gsfc.nasa.gov/ docs/roadmap/submissions.html)

Stacey, G. J., et al. 1991, ApJ, 373, 423

Thornley, M. et al. 2000, ApJ, 539, 641

Wolfire, M. G., Hollenbach, D. J., & Tielens, A. G. G. M. 1989, ApJ, 344, 770

Wright, E. L., et al. 1991, ApJ, 381, 200