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# Latest measurements of beauty quark production at HERA Talk presented at the 31st International Conference on High Energy Physics, 24-31 July 2002, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

## 1 Introduction

Production of heavy quarks is a fascinating tool to understand the nucleon structure as well as the underlying QCD parton dynamics. In addition production of $`b`$ quarks is a source of background for many searches for new physics at existing and future colliders. The high $`b`$ mass ($`M_b\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$) should provide a solid basis for a perturbative calculation. Nevertheless, so far discrepancies between the experimental cross section measurements and the NLO QCD calculation have been found.

The experimental procedure often relies on the measurement of the transverse momentum $`p_T^{rel}`$ of the muon produced in the semi-leptonic decay with respect to the axis of the closest jet. This spectrum is harder for $`b`$ quarks than for $`c`$ quarks and, therefore, allows a statistical separation of the signal from the background. Additional information such as lifetime measurements provided by silicon detectors can also be used. An alternative tag is given by the coincidence of $`D^{}`$ mesons and muons which provide sensitivity to the region of low transverse $`b`$ quark momenta and is less affected by background.

The recent experimental results obtained at the HERA collider are reviewed in both the photoproduction ($`Q^20`$ GeV2) and the Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS: $`Q^2>1`$ GeV2) kinematic regimes.

## 2 Open Beauty in Photoproduction

When the exchanged photon has small virtuality ($`Q^2`$) the time-scale of the interaction is such that its hadronic structure can be revealed. Photoproduction at HERA can therefore be similar to the processes at hadron colliders and supplies complementary information. Both ZEUS and H1 already published results on $`b`$ photoproduction . The ZEUS experiment has now measured the differential cross sections of beauty photoproduction using events with at least two jets and a muon in the final state . The luminosity used is almost three times larger than in the previous measurements. The fraction of events from $`b`$ decays has been extracted using the $`p_T^{rel}`$ method. The kinematic region is defined by $`Q^2<1`$ GeV2, $`0.2<y<0.8`$, $`p_T^{Jet1(2)}>7(6)`$ GeV, $`|\eta ^{Jet1(2)}|<2.5`$, $`p_T^\mu >2.5`$ GeV and $`1.6<\eta ^\mu <2.3`$ 111$`\eta =\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{tan}\theta /2)`$ is the pseudorapidity, where $`\theta `$ is the polar angle measured with respect to the proton beam direction.. Figure 1 shows a comparison between the measured differential cross section and a NLO QCD calculation for different regions of the muon pseudorapidity. The QCD prediction was calculated using the program FMNR . The hadronization is modeled by a Peterson function and the spectrum of the semi-leptonic muon momentum was extracted from PYTHIA . The bands around the NLO prediction show the results obtained by varying the $`b`$ quark mass as well as the renormalization and factorization scales. The measured cross sections are a factor 1.4 larger than the central NLO prediction but compatible with it within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties.

In addition, a dijet cross section ($`epb\overline{b}XjetjetX`$) has been determined using PYTHIA to extrapolate to the unmeasured part of the muon kinematics and to correct for the branching ratio. For this measurement a different data sample has been used with looser cuts on the transverse momentum of the muon at large pseudorapidities. The result is $`\sigma ^{dijet}=733\pm 61\pm 104`$ pb while the NLO QCD prediction is $`381_{78}^{+117}`$ pb, corresponding to a data excess of a factor of two.

## 3 Open Beauty in DIS

First results in the DIS region have been already released by the H1 collaboration . Thanks to the high luminosity in the new ZEUS measurement  differential distributions have been measured for the first time in DIS. Events were selected by requiring the presence of at least one muon in the final state and at least one jet in the Breit frame222In the Breit frame, defined by $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }+2x\stackrel{}{P}=\stackrel{}{0}`$, where $`\stackrel{}{\gamma }`$ is the momentum of the exchanged photon, $`x`$ is th Bjorken scaling variable and $`\stackrel{}{P}`$ is the proton momentum, a purely space-like photon and a proton collide head-on.. A total visible cross section of $`\sigma ^{vis}=38.7\pm 7.7_{5.0}^{+6.1}`$ pb was measured for the reaction $`epeb\overline{b}Xejet\mu X`$ in the kinematic region defined by: $`Q^2>2`$ GeV2, $`0.05<y<0.7`$, $`p^\mu >2`$ GeV, $`30^{}<\theta ^\mu <160^{}`$ and one jet in the Breit frame with $`E_T^{Breit}>6`$ GeV and $`2<\eta ^{Lab}<2.5`$. Also for this measurement the $`p_T^{rel}`$ method was applied. This result has been compared with a NLO QCD calculation implemented in the HVQDIS program , after folding the $`b`$ quark momentum spectrum with a Peterson fragmentation function and subsequently with a spectrum of the semi-leptonic muon momentum extracted from RAPGAP . The NLO QCD prediction is $`28.1_{3.5}^{+5.3}`$ pb which agrees with the measured value within the errors. The differential cross section as a function of $`Q^2`$ compared to the NLO calculation is shown in Fig. 2.

The prediction of the Monte Carlo program CASCADE , which implements a calculation based on the CCFM evolution equations  and uses a $`k_T`$-dependent gluon density, is 35 pb which is in very good agreement with the measurement. In addition, the simulation gives a good description of the measured differential cross sections.

## 4 $`D^{}\mu `$ correlations

The separation of charm and beauty contributions to the signal can also be performed by exploiting the charge and angle correlations of the $`D^{}`$ meson and of the muon in the reaction $`epeb\overline{b}XeD^{}\mu X`$. Of particular interest is the configuration in which the muon and the $`D^{}`$ originate from the same parent $`B`$-meson yielding unlike charge sign $`D^{}\mu `$ pairs produced in the same hemisphere.

Using this strategy and performing a likelihood fit on the kinematic distributions H1 has extracted the cross sections of beauty and charm production in the kinematic region defined by $`p_T^D^{}>1.5`$ GeV, $`|\eta ^D^{}|<1.5`$, $`p_T^\mu >1`$ GeV, $`|\eta ^\mu |<1.74`$ and $`0.05<y<0.75`$ . The measured values, which confirm previous results, are respectively $`\sigma _{vis}^b=380\pm 120\pm 130`$ pb and $`\sigma _{vis}^c=720\pm 115\pm 245`$ pb which are well above LO+parton shower Monte Carlo expectations.

A similar analysis has been conducted by ZEUS  whose selection has been optimized for decays of $`b`$ quarks. The beauty cross section, measured in a slighty different phase space ($`p_T^D^{}>1.9`$ GeV, $`|\eta ^D^{}|<1.5`$, $`p_T^\mu >1.4`$ GeV, $`1.75<\eta ^\mu <1.3`$), is $`\sigma _{vis}^b=214\pm 52_{84}^{+96}`$ pb. The result is in good agreement with the the H1 measurement once the same cuts are applied. In order to compare the measured cross section with NLO QCD predictions a photoproduction-enriched sample has been selected by applying the cuts $`Q^2<1`$ GeV2 and $`0.05<y<0.85`$. Furthermore, the measurement is restricted in a $`b`$ quark rapidity range $`\zeta ^b<1`$ where the distributions of the Monte Carlo program used to extrapolate agree with the respective FMNR spectra within $`\pm 15\%`$. The result for the extrapolated cross section is $`\sigma _{\gamma pb(\overline{b})X}=15.1\pm 3.9_{4.7}^{+3.8}`$ nb while the NLO prediction of FMNR for this reaction is only $`5.0_{1.1}^{+1.7}`$ nb.

## 5 Conclusions and outlook

The understanding of the $`b`$ quark production mechanism is an outstanding puzzle in QCD. A set of new visible cross sections of beauty production, defined close to the detector acceptance, have been measured at HERA. The results are about a factor 1.4 higher than the NLO QCD predictions but consistent within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties both in the photoproduction and the DIS regions. An excess of measured cross sections over the NLO QCD prediction is observed when attempts are made to extrapolate cross sections to regions which are not directly measured by the detectors.

The HERA collider is now starting a new phase of operation at higher luminosities. Together with the enhanced $`b`$-tagging capabilities of the new H1 and ZEUS vertex detector and tracking triggers more precise and differential measurements can be expected within the next five years.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my collegues of the H1 and ZEUS collaborations for their work and their suggestions to this talk.


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# On the Fate of Close-in Extrasolar Planets

## 1 Introduction

The number of discovered extrasolar planets is increasing quickly during recent years. According to the Extrasolar Planets Catalog maintained by Jean Schneider (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/catalog.html), in May 2002, there are about 77 extrasolar planets around 69 main sequence stars. These planets with mass range from 0.16 to 17 Jupiter masses ($`M_J`$) have semimajor axes from 0.04 AU to 4.5 AU and also a wide range of eccentricities. Interestingly, there is a planet moving on an extremely elongated orbit ($`e=0.927`$) around the solar-type star HD 80606 (Naef et al. 2001). These exciting discoveries provide great opportunities to understand the formation and evolution of planetary systems.

For example, Jiang & Ip (2001) showed that the interaction with disc is important to explain the original orbital elements during the planetary formation. Yeh & Jiang (2001) analytically showed that the scattered planets should in general move on an eccentric orbit and thus the orbital circularization must be important for scattered planets if they are now moving on nearly circular orbits (See Jiang & Yeh 2002a, Jiang & Yeh 2002b for the following up).

In addition to the dynamical studies, Tabachnik & Tremaine (2002) used the maximum likelihood method to estimate the mass and period distributions of extrasolar planets and found there is a mass-period correlation, but they attributed their finding to the observational selection effect.

However, Zucker & Mazeh (2002) claimed that this mass-period correlation cannot be completely explained by the observational selection effect. They did some Monte Carlo simulations and show the real dependency between the mass and period of extrasolar planets. This mass-period correlation gives the paucity of massive close-in planets. Since they are supposed to be the easiest to detect, Zucker & Mazeh (2002) said this paucity was unlikely to be the result of any selection effect.

Pätzold & Rauer (2002) have reported the possible explanation about the absence of massive close-in planets by tidal interaction. They defined “critical mass” to be the maximum mass that the planet can have and survive under the tidal interaction from the central star for a given particular semimajor axis. They determined the critical mass as function of semimajor axis for some assumed stellar dissipation factors and the ages of the planetary systems. Their results showed that most planetary systems are located at the permitted region of the “critical mass-semimajor axis” plot (their Figure 3) except the $`\tau `$ Boo system, which needs more careful treatment for the assumed parameter values.

However, if these planets could be formed a bit farther from the central star initially, they should still survive under the tidal interaction and thus might be detected during the inward migration. One should keep in mind that the location where the planets are detected are not where they are formed. The planets from farther place could migrate inward to the region closer to the central star and probably have chances to be detected by us.

To further investigate this problem, we carefully study the planetary migration due to tidal interaction. We try to include the effect of orbital eccentricity at the beginning and we confirm that that the model used in Pätzold & Rauer (2002) is a good approximation. We thus use the similar model in Pätzold & Rauer (2002) for the rest calculations. We describe our basic models for tidal interaction in Section 2 and the results will be in Section 3. We provide concluding remarks in Section 4.

## 2 The Models for Tidal Interaction

A tide is raised on the central star by the close-in planet because the force experienced by the side of the central star facing the planet is stronger than that experienced by the far side of the central star. We consider below the models for planets on both circular and eccentric orbits.

### 2.1 Circular Orbits

If the close-in planet is moving on a circular, equatorial orbit, according to the tidal potential theory, this planet would change its orbit following below formula:

$$\frac{da}{dt}=\mathrm{sign}(\mathrm{\Omega }n)\frac{3k}{Q}\frac{m}{M}(\frac{R}{a})^5na,$$
(1)
where $`a`$ is the semimajor axis, $`t`$ is the time, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the rotating angular speed of the central star, $`k`$ is the stellar Love number, $`Q`$ is the tidal dissipation function, $`m`$ is the planetary mass, $`M`$ is the mass of the central star, $`R`$ is the central star’s radius and $`n`$ is the orbital mean motion which is determined by

$$n=\sqrt{\frac{G(M+m)}{a^3}}.$$
(2)
We set $`k=0.2`$ (Murray & Dermott 1999) and take $`Q=3.0\times 10^5`$ (the average value in Pätzold & Rauer 2002).

The above formula provides a good simple tool to study the tidal orbital decay for close-in planets. However, in fact, most discovered planets have certain amount of orbital eccentricities. Some of these eccentricities are even very big. We plan to include the effect of eccentricity into the calculations by the following equations.

### 2.2 Eccentric Orbits

We know that the angular momentum is related to orbital eccentricity $`e`$. Thus, the evolution of semimajor axis $`a`$ due to tidal interaction should depend on eccentricity $`e`$ because the tidal torque change the orbital angular momentum of planets.

The mechanical energy decreasing rate $`dE/dt`$ due to tidal interaction is

$$\frac{dE}{dt}=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{d\theta }{dt}),$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the magnitude of the torque, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the spin angular speed of the central star and $`d\theta /dt`$ is the orbital angular speed of the planet at particular time.

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ can be approximated by:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{3}{2}k\frac{Gm^2}{a^6}R^5\frac{1}{Q},$$
(4)
these parameters are defined in last sub-section.

The orbital angular speed of the planet can be expressed as

$$\frac{d\theta }{dt}=\frac{h}{r^2},$$
(5)
where $`h=\sqrt{G(M+m)a(1e^2)}`$ and $`r`$ is approximated as $`r=a(1e\mathrm{cos}nt)`$.

Therefore,

$$\frac{dE}{dt}=\frac{3}{2}k\frac{Gm^2}{a^6}R^5\frac{1}{Q}[\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{\sqrt{G(M+m)a(1e^2)}}{a^2(1e\mathrm{cos}nt)^2}]$$
(6)
On the other hand, the mechanical energy of the system can be expressed as

$$E=\frac{1}{2}I\mathrm{\Omega }^2G\frac{Mm}{2a}$$
(7)
and

$$\frac{dE}{dt}=I\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }}{dt}+G\frac{Mm}{2a^2}\frac{da}{dt}$$
(8)
By Kepler’s third law,

$$G(M+m)=n^2a^3,$$
(9)
we have

$$\frac{dE}{dt}=I\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }}{dt}+\frac{Mm}{2(M+m)}n^2a\frac{da}{dt}.$$
(10)
Further, the angular momentum of the system is

$$L=I\mathrm{\Omega }+\frac{Mm}{M+m}a^2n(1e^2)^{1/2},$$
(11)
where $`I`$ is the moment of inertia of the central star, $`e`$ is the orbital eccentricity and we have ignore the contribution from the spin of the planet.

By the conservation of angular momentum, $`dL/dt=0`$, we have

$$I\frac{d\mathrm{\Omega }}{dt}=\frac{1}{2}\frac{Mm}{M+m}na\frac{da}{dt}\sqrt{1e^2}+\frac{Mm}{M+m}na^2\frac{ede/dt}{\sqrt{1e^2}}.$$
(12)
In general, both terms on the right hand side of Equation (12) should be considered. The second term divided by the first term would be

$$e^2(1e^2)[\frac{63}{6}\frac{Q}{k\mu _pQ_p}(\frac{M}{m})^2(\frac{R_p}{R})^5],$$
(13)
where Equation (4.198) in Murray & Dermott (1999) has been used to estimate the value of $`de/dt`$ and we use $`\mu _p`$, $`Q_p`$ and $`R_p`$ etc. to replace the corresponding parameters $`\stackrel{~}{\mu _s}`$, $`Q_s`$ and $`C_s`$ etc. of Equation (4.198) in Murray & Dermott (1999). If we use the Jupiter as an example, this ratio would be about 1 when $`e=0.1`$ and $`Q/(k\mu _pQ_p)=1`$.

We plan to consider the simple case when $`e^2Q/(k\mu _pQ_p)`$ is small enough and the second term can be ignored. We will leave more general case in which both orbital migration and circularization need to be included to the future work.

Thus,

$$\frac{dE}{dt}=\frac{1}{2}(n\mathrm{\Omega }\sqrt{1e^2})\frac{Mm}{M+m}na\frac{da}{dt}$$
(14)
From Equation (14) and Equation (6), we have

$$\frac{da}{dt}=3k\frac{Gm^2}{a^7}\frac{R^5}{Qn}\frac{M+m}{Mm}(n\mathrm{\Omega }\sqrt{1e^2})^1[\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{\sqrt{G(M+m)a(1e^2)}}{a^2(1e\mathrm{cos}nt)^2}],$$
(15)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is related to $`a`$ by Equation (11).

Given an assumed initial angular momentum $`L`$ etc., $`a`$ can be solved numerically by Equation (15).

## 3 Results

By the equations in last section, we can study the inward migration of planets due to tidal interaction. We place the planet at different initial semimajor axis as different case: 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05 and also 0.06 AU. Figure 1 are the plots of semimajor axis as function of time for these different initial semimajor axes when we set the planetary mass to be particular value. Thus, there are five curves on each panel of Figure 1. Figure 1(a)-(d) are the results when the planetary masses are assumed to be 5$`M_J`$, 2$`M_J`$, $`M_J`$, 0.5$`M_J`$ individually. Since 2 Gyrs is about the age of $`\tau `$ Boo system and thus we regard 2 Gyrs as the typical age of extrasolar planetary systems. Those planets who can survive for 2 Gyrs under the tidal interaction are possible to be detected.

All the curves are the results when we assume the planets move on circular orbits and the triangle points are the results when the planets move on eccentric orbits (assume $`e=0.5`$ and $`e^2Q/(k\mu _pQ_p)`$ is small enough). In general, the results of eccentric orbits are quite similar to the results of circular orbits and the ignorance of eccentricity will not affect the determination of planet surviving time scale etc. This confirms that the equations used in Pätzold and Rauer (2002) are good approximations and we thus use the model of circular orbits for all the rest calculations.

Figure 1(a)-(d) show that when initial semimajor axis $`a_i=0.06`$ AU the planet would only have tiny migration during 2 Gyrs. The planet can easily survive under the tidal interaction. If initial semimajor axis $`a_i=0.05`$ AU, the orbital semimajor axis decays a bit more. If the initial semimajor axis $`a_i=0.04`$ AU, the planet fall into the central star when $`t`$ is about 1 Gyrs for the case of 5$`M_J`$ but still survive for all other cases. When initial semimajor axis $`a_i=0.03`$ AU, the planet falls into the central star within 1.5 Gyrs. If initial semimajor axis $`a_i=0.02`$ AU, the planet almost approaches to the central star immediately.

The detection probability for particular range of semimajor axis depends on how much time the planet can survive around that range. We plot the time the planet should spend from one semimajor axis $`a_j`$ to another semimajor axis $`a_{j+1}`$ (we assume $`a_j>a_{j+1}`$) during the orbital decay in Figure 2. There are two sets of $`a_j`$: one makes $`\delta aa_ja_{j+1}=0.005`$ AU (dotted lines), another set $`\delta aa_ja_{j+1}=0.0025`$ AU (solid lines). Figure 2(a)-(d) are the results when we set the planetary mass to be 5$`M_J`$, 2$`M_J`$, $`M_J`$, 0.5$`M_J`$ individually.

In Figure 2(a)-(b), the planet spends more than 1 Gyrs to stay around 0.05 AU and thus the planet is likely to survive during 2 Gyrs. However, the planet only stays around $`0.04`$ AU for about 0.5 Gyrs and around $`0.03`$ AU for about 0.2 Gyrs only. These time scales are considerablely smaller than the age of the planetary system and thus the planet initially formed around these locations are very unlikely to be observed.

When the planetary mass is smaller as in Figure (c)-(d), the planet can survive for much longer (more than 1.5 Gyrs) around 0.04 AU and still only stays around 0.03 AU for order of 0.5 Gyrs. This implies that the probability that the planet is detected to be around 0.03 AU is very small.

Figure 3 are the $`\mathrm{ln}(a/\mathrm{AU})\mathrm{ln}(M/M_J)`$ plots for all discovered extrasolar planets, where $`M`$ is the planetary mass and $`a`$ is the semimajor axis. The data for these planets are from Extrasolar Planets Catalog (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/catalog.html) in May 2002. In Figure 3(a), we take $`a`$ to be the values of current semimajor axes of these discovered extrasolar planets. However, in Figure 3(b)-(d), we take $`a`$ to be the planetary semimajor axes backward in time for 2, 6, 12 Gyrs individually. The values of $`a`$ backward in time can be obtained by Equation (1).

In Figure 3(b)-(d), we found that most planets do not move on the $`\mathrm{ln}(a/\mathrm{AU})\mathrm{ln}(M/M_J)`$ plane but some of them do move a lot when they are backward in time.

It is quite obvious that the planets line up on the left side of the plots in Figure 3(b)-(d) and the position of this line hardly moves from Figure 3(b) to 3(d). This line can be approximated by

$$\mathrm{ln}(M/M_J)=\frac{1}{5}[28\mathrm{ln}(a/\mathrm{AU})+62].$$
(16)
We can also see that those planets do not move much are all on the right side of this line. This line can thus be regarded as the “critical line”: all planets on the right side of this line would not migrate much during their lifetime but all the planets standing on this critical line of Figure 3(b)-(d) would move to the left-up corner of Figure 3(a) after 2, 6 or 12 Gyrs and finally all the planets on the left side of this line would migrate inward quickly to approach the central star and thus cannot be detected.

## 4 Concluding Remarks

As dynamical friction successfully explained the orbit of Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Jiang & Binney 2001), the tidal interaction can indeed explain the current observed mass-period correlation reported by Zucker & Mazeh (2002). The results in Figure 1 give us the full picture of inward migration due to tidal interaction. We found that 0.03 AU seems to be the critical semimajor axis for the planet with mass of order of $`\tau `$ Boo system to survive in 2 Gyrs. This is consistent with the current observational results that the smallest semimajor axis of discovered planet is about 0.04 AU.

On the other hand, we can also check this minimum possible semimajor axis from another point of view. In Figure 2, the time scale for a planet can survive is smaller if the planet is closer to the central star initially and the time a planet can stay around 0.03 AU is considerablely much less than 2 Gyrs, which was regarded as the typical age of these planetary systems. Because time scale is too short, the probability to detect the planet is very small.

Moreover, we interestingly discover the observational “critical line” on $`\mathrm{ln}(a/\mathrm{AU})\mathrm{ln}(M/M_J)`$ plane. All the planets on the left side of this line would migrate inward quickly to approach the central star and thus cannot be detected.

Therefore, the initial configuration on $`\mathrm{ln}(a/\mathrm{AU})\mathrm{ln}(M/M_J)`$ plane might be composed of all the points on Figure 3(b) plus those points which might have been on the left side of the “critical line” about 2 Gyrs ago but disappear in Figure 3(a) because these planets already fall into the central star. From this point of view, even there is correlation between mass and period for current discovered planets as claimed by Zucker & Mazeh (2002), this correlation could be weaker or less obvious at the time when these planets were just formed since we can add arbitrary number of “possible” planets on the left side of our observational “critical line” if there is no difficulty to form planets there in theory. This tells us that we should be careful when we try to link the mass-period correlation to the theory of planetary formation.

## Acknowledgment

We are grateful to the referee’s good suggestions. This work is supported in part by the National Science Council, Taiwan, under Grants NSC 90-2112-M-008-052.

## REFERENCES

Jiang, I.-G. & Binney, J., 2000, MNRAS, 314, 468

Jiang, I.-G. & Ip, W.-H., 2001, A&A, 367, 943

Jiang, I.-G. & Yeh, L.-C., 2002a, Int. J. Bifurcation and Chaos, in press, astro-ph/0201022

Jiang, I.-G. & Yeh, L.-C., 2002b, in preparation

Murray, C. D. & Dermott, S. F., 1999, Solar System Dynamics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Naef, D. et al., 2001, A&A, 375, L27

Pätzold, M. & Rauer, H., 2002, ApJ, 568, L117

Tabachnik, S. & Tremaine, S., 2001, submitted to AJ, astro-ph/0107482

Yeh, L.-C. & Jiang, I.-G., 2001, ApJ, 561, 364

Zucker, S. & Mazeh, T., 2002, ApJ, 568, L113


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# Liquid-vapor phase transition in nuclei or compound nucleus decay?

## Abstract

Recent analyses of multifragmentation in terms of Fisher’s model and the related construction of a phase diagram brings forth the problem of the true existence of the vapor phase and the meaning of its associated pressure. Our analysis shows that a thermal emission picture is equivalent to a Fisher-like equilibrium description which avoids the problem of the vapor and explains the recently observed Boltzmann-like distribution of the emission times. In this picture a simple Fermi gas thermometric relation is naturally justified. Low energy compound nucleus emission of intermediate mass fragments is shown to scale according to Fisher’s formula and can be simultaneously fit with the much higher energy ISiS multifragmentation data.

preprint: LBNL-51306

After many decades of theoretical studies and of experimental pre-discoveries, recent papers have published what can be considered a quantitative, credible liquid-vapor phase diagram containing the coexistence line up to the critical temperature Elliott et al. (2002a). Somewhat unexpectedly, this diagram has not been obtained through the study of caloric curves Pochodzalla et al. (1995); Chernomoretz et al. (2001) or anomalous heat capacities Gulminelli and Chomaz (1999); D’Agostino et al. (2000). Rather, it was generated from the fitting of the charge distributions in multifragmentation by means of a Coulomb corrected Fisher’s formula Elliott et al. (2002a); Fisher (1969) giving the cluster composition of a vapor:

$$n_A(T)=q_0A^\tau \mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mu A}{T}\frac{c_0ϵA^\sigma }{T}\frac{E_{\mathrm{Coul}}}{T}\right],$$
(1)
where $`q_0`$ is a normalization constant Fisher (1969), $`\tau `$ is the critical exponent giving rise to a power law at criticality, $`A`$ is the cluster number, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu `$ is the difference of chemical potentials between the liquid and the vapor, $`c_0`$ is the surface energy coefficient, $`T`$ is the temperature, $`ϵ`$ is the distance from the critical temperature $`T_c`$ and is $`ϵ=(T_cT)/T_c`$, $`\sigma `$ is another critical exponent (expected to be approximately 2/3, if one interprets the second term in the exponent as the surface energy of a cluster of mass $`A`$ divided by the temperature) and $`E_{\mathrm{Coul}}`$ is the Coulomb energy 111A specific form for the Coulomb term was used in Elliott et al. (2002a) which accounts for the change in sign in the notation of this paper and that of Elliott et al. (2002a).. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu =0`$ the liquid and the vapor are in equilibrium and Eq. (1) can be taken to be the equivalent of the coexistence line. More conventionally, one can immediately obtain from Eq. (1) the usual $`p,T`$ and $`\rho ,T`$ phase diagrams by recalling that in Fisher’s model, the clusterization is assumed to exhaust all the non-idealities of the gas. It then becomes an ideal gas of clusters. Consequently, the total pressure is

$$p(T)=\underset{A}{}p_A(T)=T\underset{A}{}n_A(T),$$
(2)
the scaled pressure $`p/p_c`$ is

$$\frac{p}{p_c}=\frac{Tn_A(T)}{T_cn_A(T_c)},$$
(3)
and the density is

$$\rho =\underset{A}{}An_A(T).$$
(4)
Tests on the 3-dimensional Ising model Mader et al. (2002) demonstrate a beautiful agreement between the Ising cluster distributions and Eq. (1), and analysis of many multifragmentation reactions Elliott et al. (2002a, b) show equally good agreement, leading to the claim of characterization of the nuclear liquid-vapor phase diagram.

The only troubling point in this otherwise elegant picture is summarized by the question: where is the vapor? Does the nuclear system truly present itself at some time like a mixed phase system with the vapor being somehow restrained, either statically or dynamically in contact with the liquid phase, whatever that might be? And, what is the meaning of vapor pressure, when clearly the system is freely decaying in vacuum against no pressure?

The purpose of this paper is to show:

$``$ why an equilibrium description, such as Fisher’s, is relevant to the free vacuum decay of a multifragmenting system;

$``$ how we can talk about coexistence without the vapor being present;

$``$ and why a simple thermometric equation such as $`E=aT^2`$ works better than empirical thermometers such as isotope thermometers.

We begin with a time-honored assumption which we do not try to justify other than through the clarification it brings to the experimental picture. We assume that, after prompt emission in the initial phase of the collision has been isolated or accounted for, the resulting system relaxes in shape and density and thermalizes on a time scale faster than its thermal decay. This will undoubtedly bring to mind the compound nucleus assumption, and not without reason.

At this point the system emits particles in vacuum, according to standard statistical decay rate theories. Experimentally, the initial excitation energy is typically evaluated calorimetrically after accounting for pre-equilibrium emission, and the initial temperature can be estimated by the thermometric equation of a Fermi gas

$$E=aT^2$$
(5)
allowing perhaps for a weak dependence of $`a`$ on $`T`$, and remembering that the system is most likely still in the strongly degenerate regime.

But again, what is the relevance of this to liquid-vapor phase transition, and where is the vapor?

Let us for a moment imagine the nucleus surrounded with its saturated vapor. At equilibrium, any particle evaporated by the nucleus will be restored by the vapor bombarding the nucleus. In other words, the outward evaporation flux from the nucleus to the vapor is exactly matched by the inward condensation flux. This is true for any kind of evaporated particle. Thus, the vapor acts like a mirror, reflecting back into the nucleus the particles which it is trying to evaporate. One can obviously probe the vapor by putting a detector in contact with it. But since the outward and inward fluxes are identically the same, one might as well put the detector in contact with the nucleus itself. At equilibrium, the two measured fluxes must be the same. Therefore, we do not need the vapor to be present in order to characterize it completely. We can just as well study the evaporation of the nucleus in equilibrium and dispense with our imaginary surrounding saturated vapor.

Quantitatively, we can simply relate the concentration $`C_A(T)`$ of any species $`A`$ in the vapor to the corresponding decay rate $`P_A(T)`$ (controlled by a decay width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_A`$) from the nucleus by matching the fluxes

$$P_A(T)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_A(T)}{\mathrm{}}=C_A(T)v_A(T)\sigma _{\mathrm{inv}}(v_A)$$
(6)
where $`v_A(T)`$ is the velocity of the species $`A`$ (of order $`(T/A)^{1/2}`$) crossing the nuclear interface represented by the inverse cross section $`\sigma _{\mathrm{inv}}`$.

Thus, the vapor phase in equilibrium can be completely characterized in terms of the decay rate. The vapor need not be there at all. This is not a nuclear peculiarity. It is just the same for a glass of water exposed to dry air or vacuum. One speaks in these situations of a “virtual vapor”, realizing that first order phase transitions depend exclusively upon the intrinsic properties of the two phases, and not on their interaction. But, of course, if the vapor is not there to restore the emitting system with its back flux, evaporation will proceed, leading to a cooling off of the system. Instantaneously, the physical picture described above is still valid, but not globally. The result of a global evaporation in vacuum is unfortunate in terms of the analysis, as it integrates over a continuum of temperatures. It is unfortunate for the complications it lends to the possible thermometers (kinetic energy, isotope ratios, etc.), as well as to the abundances of the various species. In this aspect lies the real difference between our approach and any true equilibrium approach.

But, there is a simple, astute way to avoid this complication. Let us choose to consider only particles that are emitted very rarely so that, if they are not emitted at the beginning of the decay, they are effectively not emitted at all. In other words, let us consider only particles that by virtue of their large surface energy, have a high emission barrier.

As an example, consider a decaying system with only three available exit channels. We call them channels $`a,b,`$ and $`n`$ with barriers $`B_a`$, $`B_b`$, and $`B_n`$. For $`B_nB_a`$ and $`B_b`$ we know that the probability of emission of particles of type $`b`$ at a fixed temperature is approximately

$$p_be^{(B_bB_n)/T}.$$
(7)
Since the nucleus cools as particles are emitted, the total emission probability of particles of type $`b`$ from a nucleus at initial temperature $`T_0`$ goes like

$$P_b_0^{T_0}e^{(B_bB_n)/T}2aT𝑑T.$$
(8)
A similar expression exists for $`P_a`$. The ratio of $`P_b/P_a`$ is

$$\frac{P_b}{P_a}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_b^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }_a^2}\frac{_0^{T_0/\mathrm{\Delta }_b}e^{1/x}x𝑑x}{_0^{T_0/\mathrm{\Delta }_a}e^{1/x}x𝑑x}$$
(9)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_b=B_bB_n`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_a=B_aB_n`$. The ratio $`P_b/P_a`$ can also be used to extract an effective temperature $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$

$$\frac{P_b}{P_a}=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{B_bB_a}{T_{\mathrm{eff}}}\right).$$
(10)
An example of how the effective temperature compares with the initial temperature $`T_0`$ is given in Fig. 1 for different values of $`B_b`$ and $`B_a`$. The case where $`B_a`$ and $`B_b`$ are large (crosses) gives effective temperatures very near to the initial temperature $`T_0`$ (open circles). When either $`B_a`$ or $`B_b`$ is near the barrier of the most probable channel (solid circles), the effective temperature is very different from the initial temperature.

Our goal then should be to choose exit channels with large barriers in order to justify our use of the initial Fermi temperatures. This is what has been done in the analyses leading to the nuclear phase diagrams Elliott et al. (2002a, b), where the fragments with charge $`Z<5`$ were excluded. Under these conditions, the validity of Eq. (6) is guaranteed. The rate can be related to the vapor concentration and the phase diagram can be constructed. The temperature necessary for our purpose is fortunately the initial temperature and not the average temperature determined for multiply emitted particles. The correctness of a thermometric relation $`E=aT^2`$ can be tested “a posteriori” by verifying the linearity of the Fisher’s plots Elliott et al. (2002a, b) and their predecessors Moretto et al. (1997). This linearity, extending over many orders of magnitude for a variety of fragments, is in our view the strongest test yet of a Fermi gas thermometric relationship. In fact one can turn the problem around and determine the thermometric relationship up to rather high excitation energies by the requirement that it leads to a linear Fisher’s plot.

We offer three additional proofs for our physical picture of a hot remnant evaporating particles.

First, the abundances of the observed fragments as a function temperature allow us to construct an Arrhenius plot ($`\mathrm{log}P`$ versus $`1/T`$) which is equivalent to a Fisher’s plot Elliott et al. (2002a, b); Moretto et al. (1997). The slope is the effective “barrier” $`B`$ for the emission of the particle. This can be seen immediately by considering that the yields $`n`$ reflect the thermal scaling of the decay width

$$n\mathrm{\Gamma }e^{B/T}.$$
(11)
But the very same barrier and the very same Boltzmann factor intervene in determining the mean time separation $`t`$ between two fragments since

$$t=\frac{\mathrm{}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}e^{B/T}.$$
(12)
Such a time $`t`$ is the reciprocal of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Therefore, the same Arrhenius plot with the same barrier ought to explain both the temperature dependence of the abundances and of the times. This is exactly the case as shown in Fig. 2. The ISiS collaboration has measured the yields (open symbols) Elliott et al. (2002a) and the mean emission times (solid symbols) Beaulieu et al. (2002, 2001) of intermediate mass fragments as a function of excitation energy. These energies can be translated into a Fermi temperature Elliott et al. (2002a) as discussed above. A Boltzmann fit to the yields is shown by the solid line. That same line has been superimposed (shifted) onto the emission time data and describes the data very well. In other words, the two different observables and their energy dependence are described by the same barrier.

Second, since all that has been said above holds exactly for low excitation energies, compound nuclear decay suddenly becomes relevant to the liquid-vapor phase transition. We should be able to scale known low energy compound nucleus particle yields Fan et al. (2000) according to the Fisher’s scaling.

This works out rather well as can be seen in Fig. 3 for the reaction of 64Ni+12C Fan et al. (2000). These data were taken at the 88-inch cyclotron using Ni beams with energies between 6 and 13 MeV/nucleon. Given that the excitation energies are extremely small and that the fragment emission barriers are large compared to those of neutron evaporation, there is here little doubt about a thermometric relation of the kind $`E=aT^2`$. The data have been scaled using the very same Fisher parameters as extracted from the ISiS data Elliott et al. (2002a), except for the critical excitation energy $`E_C`$, the Coulomb correction parameter Elliott et al. (2002a, b), and the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu `$ which were allowed to vary freely. The values of the Fisher parameters are listed in Fig. 3.

The data scale over many orders of magnitude. With the compound nucleus data, we are far from the critical temperature, yet the resulting extraction of $`E_C`$ gives only a modest uncertainty ($`\pm 0.3`$ MeV). If the other Fisher parameters are also allowed to vary freely (not constrained to ISiS values), the uncertainty of $`E_C`$ becomes large, $`\pm 2`$ MeV. Still, it is remarkable that we observe a consistent scaling in the compound nucleus data using the scaling parameters from the high excitation energy experiments. From this example we see in these low energy reactions a very interesting source for further characterization of the phase transition, in particular for anchoring the parameters of Fisher’s model to the well established $`T`$=0 parameters of the liquid drop model.

For our third and final demonstration, we show the results of a consistent fit of the ISiS data Elliott et al. (2002a) and of the low energy compound nucleus data Fan et al. (2000) with the Fisher model modified for Coulomb (Eq. (1)). The resulting Fisher scaling is shown in Fig. 4 for both systems. A smooth, continuous behavior is observed from the compound nucleus data up to the higher energy systems. This smooth behavior using a consistent set of Fisher parameters indicates a natural extension of the compound nuclear decay mechanism up to higher energies.

In conclusion, the ISiS data as well as low energy compound nucleus data contain the signature of a liquid to vapor phase transition via their strict adherence to Fisher’s model. Through a direct examination of the mean emission times of the ISiS fragmentation reactions, we infer a stochastic, thermal emission scenario consistent with complex fragment emission at much lower excitation energies.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy.


text:
# Magnetic properties of 𝐍𝐢_2.18𝐌𝐧_0.82𝐆𝐚 Heusler alloys with a coupled magnetostructural transition

## Abstract

Polycrystalline $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$ Heusler alloys with a coupled magnetostructural transition are studied by differential scanning calorimetry, magnetic and resistivity measurements. Coupling of the magnetic and structural subsystems results in unusual magnetic features of the alloy. These uncommon magnetic properties of $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$ are attributed to the first-order structural transition from a tetragonal ferromagnetic to a cubic paramagnetic phase.

In $`\mathrm{Ni}_2\mathrm{MnGa}`$, as in many other Heusler alloys containing manganese, the indirect exchange interaction between magnetic ions results in ferromagnetism, which is usually described in terms of the local magnetic moment at the Mn site. plog ; kub  This makes it possible to discuss the occurrence of ferromagnetism in terms of the dependence of the exchange interaction on the spatial separations of neighboring manganese atoms. Hydrostatic pressure experiments performed on ferromagnetic Mn-containing Heusler alloys (see Refs. kano,  and kyuji, , and references therein) demonstrated that this actually is the case. In contrast with other Mn-containing Heusler alloys, stoichiometric and nonstoichiometric Ni-Mn-Ga alloys have been the subjects of numerous investigations in resent years due to their interesting physical properties. worg ; planes ; zhel ; cast ; ull ; tickle ; mur ; dik

For stoichiometric $`\mathrm{Ni}_2\mathrm{MnGa}`$, a structural phase transition of the martensitic type from the parent cubic to a complex tetragonally based structure takes place at $`T_m=202`$ K, whereas ferromagnetic ordering sets at $`T_C=376`$ K (Ref. web, ). The structural phase transition is driven by a band Jahn - Teller distortion, fujii ; brown  and is accompanied by a reduction in the unit-cell volume. In Ref. vas,  it was suggested that in $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2+x}\mathrm{Mn}_{1x}\mathrm{Ga}`$ alloys the martensitic and ferromagnetic phase transitions couple (i.e., the order-disorder magnetic transition occurs simultaneously with the order-order crystallographic phase transition) in the range of compositions $`x=0.180.20`$.

The phenomenon of coupled magnetic and structural phase transitions is very rare in condensed-matter physics and just a few intermetallic compounds with this specific type of transition have been mentioned in the literature (Refs. levin, ; roz, ; zach, , and references therein). Generally, in this case the strong interrelation of magnetic and structural subsystems leads to an unusual magnetic behavior of the materials. levin ; roz  Such systems, with a close relation between crystallographic structure and magnetism, are also of a great technological significance, since they demonstrate such attractive properties as giant magnetocaloric effect, magnetostriction, and magnetoresistance. VKP ; morellon  Therefore, finding and investigating a system with coupled magnetostructural transition may be of importance. Although $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2+x}\mathrm{Mn}_{1x}\mathrm{Ga}`$ alloys were studied by a variety of methods, a systematic study of their magnetic properties in the vicinity of the magnetostructural transition is lacking. In this paper we report an experimental study of the magnetostructural transition in $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$.

A polycrystalline $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$ ingot was prepared by a conventional arc-melting method in argon atmosphere. The ingot was homogenized at 1050 K for nine days, and quenched in ice water. Determined by x-ray diffraction the crystal structure of the alloy at room temperature has a simple tetragonal modification with lattice parameters $`a=b=0.774`$ nm, and $`c=0.6485`$ nm. Samples for differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), resistivity, and magnetic measurements were spark cut from the middle part of the ingot. The DSC measurements were done by a Perkin-Elmer thermal analysis equipment with a heating/cooling rate of 5 K/min. Temperature and magnetic field dependencies of magnetization were performed by a superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer. Electrical resistivity was measured by a standard four-probe technique in a zero magnetic field with a heating/cooling rate of 1 K/min.

As evident from the DSC measurements (Fig. 1), both direct and reverse martensitic transitions are accompanied by a well-defined peak on the heat flow due to the latent heat of the transition. Critical temperatures of the martensitic transition, austenite finish ($`A_f`$), and martensite start ($`M_s`$), determined from DSC curves are equal to $`A_f=338`$ K and $`M_s=330`$ K. A temperature hysteresis of the martensitic transformation estimated as $`\delta T=A_fM_s`$ was found to be 8 K. The calculated value of the latent heat of transition, $`Q=9.6`$ J/g, is in agreement with values obtained for nonstoichiometric alloys by Chernenko et alcher

The temperature dependencies of electrical resistivity of $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$, during heating and cooling, are shown in Fig. 2. Generally, the resistivity has a normal metallic character, and upon heating continuously increases due to the increase in both electron-phonon and electron-magnon scatterings. A distinguishing feature of the resistivity is a very large temperature hysteresis between heating and cooling processes, extending up to several hundreds degrees. The behavior of the resistivity in the neighborhood of the magnetostructural transition (inset in Fig. 2) gives rise to the conclusion that the transition has a temperature hysteresis. Indeed, in ferromagnetic materials $`\rho (T)`$ can be presented as $`\rho (T)=\rho _0+\rho _{ph}+\rho _{mag}`$, where $`\rho _0`$ represents the residual resistivity, and $`\rho _{ph}`$ and $`\rho _{mag}`$ are contributions due to the lattice vibration and spin-disorder scattering, respectively. In a paramagnetic state $`\rho _{mag}`$ becomes temperature independent, and the resistivity increases due to the contribution from electron-phonon scattering, which can be approximated as $`\rho _{ph}=AT`$, with $`A`$ a constant. As seen from Fig. 2, for the alloy studied the linear part of the resistivity starts at 337 K upon heating, but extends down to 329 K upon subsequent cooling. These critical temperatures, 337 and 329 K, are in good consistent with $`A_f`$ and $`M_s`$ temperatures determined from the DSC measurements (Fig. 1).

The temperature dependencies of the magnetization $`M`$ of $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$, for continuous heating and cooling, confirm the hysteretic feature of the magnetostructural transition (Fig. 3). The temperature hysteresis of magnetization in a 0.1 kOe magnetic field \[Fig. 3(a)\] is estimated as $`\delta T6`$ K, in good accordance with the results of DSC and resistivity measurements. A notable feature of the magnetization measured in this field is that during heating $`M`$ increases up to a temperature at which the transformation into a paramagnetic state occurs. We suggest that this behavior is caused by the formation of ferromagnetic austenite, which possesses a higher magnetization in low magnetic fields. web  Measurements of the magnetization in higher magnetic fields \[Figs. 3(b) and 3(c)\] point to a shift of the characteristic temperatures of the magnetostructural transition, which is accompanied by a narrowing of the temperature hysteresis of magnetization. The critical temperatures of the direct and reverse martensitic transitions $`A_f`$ and $`M_s`$, determined as a minimum on the $`(M/T)_H`$ derivative, were found to increase from 336 to 338 K for $`A_f`$ temperature and from 330 to 335 K for $`M_s`$ temperature as the magnetic field increases from 0.1 to 10 kOe.

Since representatives of intermetallic compounds with coupled magnetostructural transitions usually show pronounced anomalies on isothermal magnetization curves, levin  a similar behavior could be expected for $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$. With this aim we undertook measurements of isothermal magnetization in the vicinity of the magnetostructural transition. Contrary to the expectation, the measurements revealed field dependencies of the magnetization, typical of a ferromagnet (Fig. 4). At $`T=330`$ K, the magnetization saturates in a magnetic field of 5 kOe. The value of the magnetization saturation, $`M_s54`$ emu/g, is in good correspondence with the results of $`M(T)`$ measurements \[Fig. 3(b)\]. However, the $`M(H)`$ dependencies measured for another Ni2.18Mn0.82Ga sample at the same temperatures revealed that the isothermal magnetization process is essentially sample dependent. As is seen from the inset in Fig. 4, a well-defined anomaly appears at the $`M(H)`$ curve taken at 330 K when the magnetic field reaches a critical value of 15 kOe. The $`M(H)`$ dependencies, measured at higher temperatures, show a monotonic increase of $`M`$; thus no anomaly is seen up to the maximum magnetic field used in the measurements. Since Ni2.18Mn0.82Ga is on the edge of the compositional interval of alloys with coupled magnetostructural transitions, this drastic difference in the magnetization process between two sample could be due to a slight compositional inhomogeneity which is intrinsic for intermetallic compounds.

The spatial dependence of the Mn - Mn exchange interaction in Mn-containing Heusler alloys was demonstrated by hydrostatic pressure experiments. kano ; kyuji  The authors found that the Curie temperature $`T_C`$ of $`\mathrm{Ni}_2\mathrm{MnZ}`$ (Z = Al, Ga, In, Sn, and Sb) increases with increasing pressure. Based on these and previously published results, Kanomata et al. kano  defined an interaction curve where $`T_C`$ was plotted as a function of the interatomic distance of Mn-Mn atoms. This curve also supports the idea that ferromagnetic ordering in Heusler alloys containing manganese depends strongly and definitely on the Mn-Mn distance.

This strong dependence of $`T_C`$ on Mn-Mn distance is presumably responsible for the surprising temperature hysteresis in the ferromagnetic ordering of $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$ observed by the resistivity (Fig. 2) and confirmed by the magnetization measurements (Fig. 3). Since previous magnetic studies of Ni-Mn-Ga did not report on a hysteretic feature of magnetization, vas-1990 ; hu  it can be assumed that the coupling of magnetic and structural transitions plays the sole role in the hysteretic behavior of the magnetization in Ni2.18Mn0.82Ga. Taking into account the crucial role of the nearest Mn-Mn distance in the formation of long-range ferromagnetic ordering, a first-order martensitic transition from a low-temperature low-volume tetragonal phase to a high-temperature high-volume cubic phase provokes a temperature hysteresis of the magnetization due to the fact that the temperature at which the high-volume cubic phase nucleates upon warming up is higher than the temperature at which it transforms to the low-volume tetragonal phase upon subsequent cooling down. Comparison of the results of the DSC and resistivity measurements (Figs. 1 and 2) reflects this strong sensitivity of the long-range ferromagnetic order to the unit-cell volume. As is evident from Fig. 2, during warming up the sample transforms to the paramagnetic state at 337 K, which matches with the austenite finish temperature $`A_f`$ = 338 K determined from the DSC measurements. Upon subsequent cooling down the linear temperature dependence of the resistivity, suggesting that the sample is in paramagnetic state, extends down to 329 K, which agrees well with the onset of formation of the low-volume martensitic phase: $`M_s`$ = 330 K. Therefore, from these results it can be deduced that the ferromagnetic ordering sets in (or disappears) not by means of a classical mechanism but due to the structural transformation.

The shift of transition temperature in a magnetic field can be estimated using the Clapeyron-Clausius equation. For a transformation from ferromagnetic martensite to paramagnetic austenite, the temperature shift has the form $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=M_MHT_m/Q`$ (Ref. vas, ), where $`M_M`$, $`H`$, $`T_m`$, and $`Q`$ are magnetization of martensite, magnetic field, martensitic transition temperature, and the latent heat of transition, respectively. From our experimental results $`M_s50`$ emu/g, $`Q`$ = 9.6 J/g, and $`T_m=(A_f+M_s)/2=333`$ K, and the calculation yields $`d\mathrm{\Delta }T/dH0.18`$ K/kOe. This estimation is less than half the experimental value determined from the magnetization data, $`0.35`$ K/kOe. This experimental value as well as the observed narrowing of the hysteresis interval is in contradiction with the experimental results obtained by an optical method bozhko  for Ni2.19Mn0.81Ga in magnetic fields up to 10 kOe, which suggest that the temperatures of the direct and reverse martensitic transformations as functions of the applied magnetic field, have a linear field dependence with a slope of $`0.15`$ K/kOe. These differences between Ni2.18Mn0.82Ga and Ni2.19Mn0.81Ga can comprise evidence that in the interaction of magnetic and structural subsystems in Ni2+xMn1-xGa ($`x=0.180.20`$), chemical composition is the crucial factor.

Theoretical calculations dik  for Ni2+xMn1-xGa with $`x0.16`$ indicate that generally the temperature of the direct martensitic transformation is more sensitive to the application of a magnetic field than that of the reverse martensitic transformation. When compared to the theoretical results, dik  the field dependencies of the transition temperatures determined from our experiment have anomalously high rates. This can be accounted for by the fact that, contrary to the $`x0.16`$ alloys, where a martensitic transformation occurs in the ferromagnetic matrix, in the alloy studied the structural transformation also results in a switch of the magnetic state of the material.

It was verified experimentally for $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2+x}\mathrm{Mn}_{1x}\mathrm{Ga}`$ alloys dik ; bozhko ; inoue  that high magnetic fields favor a martensitic phase. This suggests that if, at some temperature fixed within an interval from $`A_s`$ to $`A_f`$, there is a fraction of paramagnetic austenite, it will be transformed to a highly magnetized state at some critical value of the applied magnetic field. Therefore, it is likely that the anomaly observed at the magnetization isotherm taken at 330 K (the inset in Fig. 4) is due to a magnetic-field-induced transformation of a fraction of austenite which is paramagnetic at the given temperature to the ferromagnetic martensite. Since such a transformation results in marked anomalies on isothermal magnetization of $`\mathrm{Gd}_5(\mathrm{Si}_x\mathrm{Ge}_{4x})`$ alloys, levin  more pronounced anomalies can be observed at $`M(H)`$ for $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2+x}\mathrm{Mn}_{1x}\mathrm{Ga}`$ $`(x=0.180.20)`$ at higher temperatures and in stronger magnetic fields.

In summary, in this paper we have reported on unusual magnetic behavior (first-order character of the ferromagnetic - paramagnetic transition) in $`\mathrm{Ni}_{2.18}\mathrm{Mn}_{0.82}\mathrm{Ga}`$ Heusler alloy. The obtained experimental results imply that the uncommon magnetic properties of the alloy originate from a first-order structural transition from a tetragonal ferromagnetic structure to a cubic paramagnetic structure. The observed narrowing of the temperature hysteresis of magnetization at high magnetic fields is attributed to differences in the magnetic field dependencies of the temperatures of the direct and reverse martensitic transformations. Since magnetostructural transitions frequently lead to physical properties of technological significance, our finding may also make the Ni2+xMn1-xGa ($`x=0.180.20`$) alloys attractive from the point of view of their potential application for magnetic refrigeration or magnetostrictive transducers.

We are grateful to Professor A. N. Vasil’ev for helpful discussions. Christina Wedel is acknowledged for help with x-ray diffraction measurements. This work was partially supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) No. 11695038 from the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science and by a Grant-in-Aid of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research No. 99-02-18247.


text:
# Superconducting Properties of Atomic-Disordered Compound MgCNi3

## Abstract

The effect of radiation-induced disordering in a nuclear reactor (fast neutrons fluence $`\mathrm{\Phi }=510^{19}`$ cm2, $`T_{\text{irr}}`$ = 340 K) on resistivity $`\rho `$, superconducting transition temperature $`T_C`$ and upper critical field $`H_{C_2}`$ of polycrystalline MgCNi3 samples was investigated. It was found that $`T_C`$ decreases under irradiation from 6.5 to 2.9 K and completely recovers after annealing at 600 C. Temperature dependences $`\rho (T)`$ are characteristic of compounds with strong electron-phonon interaction. The $`dH_{C_2}/dT`$ behaviour testifies to a considerable decrease in density of electronic state at Fermi level $`N(E_F)`$ in the course of disordering.

Radiation-induced disordering caused by irradiation with high-energy particles is a unique method of investigating the properties of superconducting and normal states of ordered crystals 1 ; 2 . Even in broad-band metals, such as intermetallic compounds with A15 structure, long-range ordering loss leads to considerable rearrangement of the electronic spectrum, resulting in disappearance of individual features of the electronic structure. Disordering causes decrease in densities at Fermi level $`N(E_F)`$ and respective noticeable drop of $`T_C`$ in compounds with high initial $`N(E_F)`$ (Nb3Sn or V3Si), and considerable (from 1.5 to 7 K) rise of $`T_C`$ in compounds with low $`N(E_F)`$ and $`T_C`$ due to growth of $`N(E_F)`$ (Mo3Si and Mo3Ge) 3 ; 4 ; 5 . In type HTSC compounds, disordering leads to more significant changes in properties: fast and complete $`T_C`$ degradation is accompanied with $`N(E_F)`$ decrease and metal-insulator transition 2 . Thus investigation of response of a system to radiation-induced disordering serves as a kind of a test to reveal the characteristic features of its electron states. It was shown in recent papers 6 ; 7  that $`T_C`$ drop from 38 to 5 K observed at MgB2 under radiation-induced disordering is connected mainly with considerable drop of $`N(E_F)`$, similar to Nb3Sn or V3Si compounds. In our investigation, we concentrated on the effect of disordering on the properties of superconducting compound MgCNi3 ($`T_C8`$ K) with perovskite cubic structure of type SrTiO3, unconventional for intermetallides 8 . Our interest in this system was explained by the fact that its ground state is close to ferromagnetic due to the presence of a narrow peak in $`N(E)`$ located 45 meV below the Fermi level 9 . This allowed us to regard it as a candidate for an unconventional (possibly triplet) superconductivity, similar to Sr2RuO4 compound. It is known that in Sr2RuO4, as distinct from conventional superconducting compounds (intermetallides), $`T_C`$ undergoes anomalously strong suppression even under a slight disorder 10 . In MgCNi3, maximum $`T_C`$ is achieved at excess of carbon content only (nominal composition MgC1.5Ni3), even though, according to neutron diffraction study, the actual composition is closer to Mg0.96CNi3, and excess carbon occupies the region between sample grain boundaries 11 .

In the sample preparation, fine powders Mg, C and Ni with purity better than 99.5% were used as starting materials. The mixtures of appropriate composition were pressed into pellets; the pellets were wrapped in Ta foil and enclosed in an evacuated quartz tube, placed in a furnace, heated to 950 C at a rate of 150 C/h and kept at this temperature for 5 h, followed by furnace-cooling to room temperature. The highest $`T_C=6.5`$ K and the best superconducting transition corresponded to the nominal composition $`x=1.45`$ 12 . Samples $`0.5\times 1\times 5`$ mm3 in size were irradiated with fast neutrons at $`T_{\text{irr}}=(330\pm 10)`$ K, then annealed during 20 min at temperatures $`T_{\text{ann}}`$ from 100 to 600 C in step of 100 C. Resistivity $`\rho (T)`$ in fields up to 13.6 T was measured using a standard four-probe method.

The initial sample resistivity curve of transition to superconducting state (Fig. 1) is stretched in the direction of higher temperatures, onset is about 8 K.

Mean transition temperature is 6.5 K. We defined the superconducting transition temperature $`T_C`$ as the temperature exhibiting half of the normal-state resistivity. Irradiation leads to $`T_C`$ drop to 2.9 K, and transition becomes narrower. Annealing at 500 C almost completely recovers the initial form of dependence $`\rho (T)`$, while after annealing at 600 C, transition becomes more abrupt with a higher $`T_C`$ = 7.1 K compared with the initial sample.

Temperature dependences $`\rho (T)`$ of the initial, irradiated and isochronally annealed MgCNi3 samples (Fig. 2) present curves with saturation, typical of the systems with strong electron-phonon interaction of types Nb3Sn or V3Si 3 .

A rather large value of residual resistivity $`\rho _0=0.137`$ mOhm$``$ cm (found by $`\rho `$ extrapolation to $`T=0`$) of a sample in the initial state testifies to an insufficient degree of ordering. The absolute value of $`\rho (T)`$ approximately coincides with the data in 13  and is three times higher than in , even though temperatures dependences $`\rho (T)`$ are practically identical in all cases. Evidently, after irradiation and subsequent annealing at 600 C, further ordering and residual resistivity drop to $`\rho _0=0.124`$ mOhm$``$cm occur in the sample.

The upper critical field $`H_{C_2}`$, as determined from the half-transition temperature (0.5 of the normal-state resistivity), has a form typical of second-order superconductors (Fig. 3), the initial sample value of $`dH_{C_2}/dT`$ is in good agreement with the data of paper 13 .

A relatively weak change in the slope of $`dH_{C_2}/dT`$ should be noted; a very similar behaviour at disordering was observed for MgB2 . So, for dirty superconductor

$$(dH_{C_2}/dT)_{\text{dirty}}=(8ek_B/\pi )(1+\lambda )N(E_F)\rho _0,$$
(1)
the relatively weak change in $`dH_{C_2}/dT`$ (Fig. 3) would evidently be compensated by a considerable (about 2.5 times) decrease in $`N(E_F)`$.

Deviations from the Block-Gr’́uneisen law

$$\rho (T)=\rho _0+\lambda _{\text{tr}}F_{\text{BG}}(\theta /T),(2)$$
(2)
defining linear behaviour of $`\rho (T)`$ at high $`T`$, where $`\theta `$ is Debye temperature, $`\lambda _{\text{tr}}`$ is electron-phonon interaction constant proportional to parameter $`\lambda `$ in the McMillan expression for superconducting transition temperature

$$T_C(\omega _{\text{ln}}/1.2)\mathrm{exp}\{(1+\lambda )/(\lambda \mu )\},\mu 0.1,$$
(3)
are often described by an empirical expression

$$1/\rho (T)=1/\rho _{\text{sat}}+1/(\rho _0+\lambda _{\text{tr}}F_{\text{BG}}(\theta /T)),$$
(4)
so $`\rho (T)`$ cannot exceed the value of saturation resistivity $`\rho _{\text{sat}}`$, which for type A15 intermetallides is about 0.2 mOhm$``$cm. Intuitive substantiation of (4) boils down to the fact that electron scattering becomes inefficient when the electron free path $`l_{\text{tr}}`$ becomes shorter than the Fermi wavelength, inversely proportional to wave-vector $`k_F`$; therefore, in the expression for conductivity $`\sigma (k_F)^2l_{\text{tr}}`$, $`l_{\text{tr}}`$ should be substituted by a value close to $`(k_F)^1`$. The interpolation formula $`\sigma (k_F)^2l_{\text{tr}}+k_F`$ is equivalent to (4).

Fitting of experimental data on MgCNi3 to expression (4), containing 4 fitting parameters $`\rho _{\text{sat}}`$, $`\rho _0`$, $`\lambda _{\text{tr}}`$ and $`\theta `$, yields good agreement with the close values of $`\theta =(140155)`$ K. A similar fitting procedure for MgCNi3 ($`T_C`$ 8 K) carried out in  with Einstein, instead of Debye, spectrum, yields the following parameters: Einstein temperature $`\theta _E=206`$ K, $`\rho _{\text{sat}}=0.574`$ mOhm$``$cm. The obtained value of $`\theta `$ is noticeably lower than that obtained in heat capacity measurements, Debye temperature $`\theta _D235`$ K . However, using the value of $`\theta =150`$ K and on the assumption of the Debye spectrum, we obtain $`\omega _{\text{ln}}=\mathrm{exp}(1/3)\theta 105`$ K, which is considerably lower than $`\omega _{\text{ln}}480`$ K for MgB2 14 . Expression (3) yields $`\lambda 0.8`$, which compares well with the value of $`\lambda 1.1`$ for MgB2 . Value $`\lambda `$ as a function of $`\rho _0`$ (Fig. 4) may be described with a linear dependence

$$\lambda =\lambda _0(1(\rho _0/R)),$$
(5)
where $`\lambda _0=0.92`$, and $`R=0.85`$ mOhm$``$cm.

The relatively large value of $`\lambda `$ (and hence, $`\lambda _{\text{tr}}`$) is generally in an agreement with significant nonlinearity of $`\rho (T)`$ characteristic of compounds with strong electron-phonon interaction. However, fitting parameter $`\rho _{\text{sat}}`$, varies significantly from 0.85 mOhm$``$cm for the initial sample to 0.5 mOhm$``$cm for the irradiated sample, which agrees poorly with the meaning of value $`\rho _{\text{sat}}(kF)^1`$, which must be constant in case of a broad-band metal.

The origin of $`\rho (T)`$ ”saturation” for systems with strong electron-phonon interaction were analyzed in terms of the mean field theory in 15 , where it was shown that (in case of a relatively weak coupling which does not lead to formation of a pseudogap) scattering rate is proportional not to the value of ions r.m.s. displacement $`u^2`$, but rather to $`(u^2)^{0.5}`$, and so, in this case, instead of (2), we have

$$\rho (T)=\{(\rho _0)^2+\lambda _{\text{tr}}F_{\text{BG}}(\theta /T)\}^{0.5},$$
(6)
which results in type $`\rho (T)T^{0.5}`$ behaviour at high $`T`$. However, use of (6) fails to yield a satisfactory data description. The probable reason is that value $`\lambda _{\text{tr}}`$, in its turn, also depends on disordering (is characterized by a sum of static and thermal displacements), i.e., on $`\rho (T)`$; the same reason causes decrease in $`\lambda `$ with increase in $`\rho _0`$ (Fig. 4). Considering $`\lambda _{\text{tr}}`$ being in dependence on $`\rho (T)`$, similar to that of $`\lambda `$ on $`\rho _0`$ in (4), expression (6) is transformed into an equation

$$\rho (T)=\{(\rho _0)^2+\lambda _{\text{tr}0}(1\rho (T)/R_{\text{tr}})(F_{\text{BG}}(\theta /T))\}^{0.5},$$
(7)
which, when solved for $`\rho (T)`$, yields the required expression, also containing four fitting parameters $`R_{\text{tr}}`$, $`\rho _0`$, $`\lambda _{\text{tr}}`$ and $`\theta `$. Expression (7) describes data with the same accuracy as expression (4), with similar values of $`\theta `$, but with almost equal fitting parameters $`R_{\text{tr}}`$ varying within (0.75 - 0.88) mOhm$``$cm. Such a good agreement between the values of $`R`$ in (5) and $`R_{\text{tr}}`$ in (7) does not look casual.

In conclusion, let us consider the probable causes of superconductivity degradation in MgCNi3 under disordering. Loss of long-range order must lead to smearing of the fine structure of electron densities of state; at that, function $`N(E)`$ smoothes out, but without becoming zero. For superconductors with electron-phonon interaction, $`\lambda N(E_F)`$, therefore $`T_C`$ should never go down exactly to zero; the latter requirement is evidently satisfied for the majority of compounds which may be related to broad-band intermetallides. A qualitatively different behaviour is observed in HTSC compounds: in all cases superconductivity is completely depressed at a mush higher rate than in intermetallides, probably due to non electron-phonon mechanisms of superconductivity as well as to a proximity to metal-insulator transition 16 .

Value $`\lambda `$ calculated by expression (3) decreases 1.5 times at MgCNi3 under irradiation (Fig. 4), while the above value of $`N(E_F)`$ estimated using expression (1) decreases almost 2.5 times. Probably, such discrepancy in change of $`\lambda `$ and $`(dHC_2/dT)`$, as it was similarly supposed for, e.g., MgB2 6 , may be due to the fact that the dirty limit of $`l_{\text{tr}}\xi `$ is not reached in the given region. Coherent length $`\xi `$ may be estimated from the relation

$$\xi ^2=\mathrm{\Phi }_0/\{2\pi (0.69dH_{C_2}/dT)T_C\},$$

which yields $`\xi =55`$ and 75 $`\AA `$ for the initial and the irradiated samples, respectively. Free path $`l_{\text{tr}}`$ may be estimated from an conventional expression used for conductivity

$$(\rho _0)^1=(3\pi ^2)^{1/3}(e^2/\mathrm{})n^{2/3}l_{\text{tr}},$$

which yields $`l_{\text{tr}}20`$ $`\AA `$ for $`\rho _0=0.137`$ mOhm$``$cm (initial sample) and $`l_{\text{tr}}8`$ $`\AA `$ for $`\rho _0=0.337`$ mOhm$``$cm (irradiated sample). These relations of $`l_{\text{tr}}`$ and $`\xi `$ are definitely closer to the dirty limit. Further, expression (1) allows us to estimate $`(dH_{C_2}/dT)`$ using the experimental values of $`\gamma `$ and $`\rho _0`$ or those obtained from band calculations $`N(E_F)`$. According to band calculations 9 ; 17 ; 18 , $`N(E_F)2.5`$ $`(\text{eV}\text{spin}\text{cell})^1=2.810^{47}`$ $`(\text{J}\text{m}^3)^1`$, using $`\lambda 0.8,\rho _00.1`$ mOhm$``$cm, we obtain $`(dH_{C_2}/dT)3`$ T/K, which is quite commensurate with the experimental value $`(dH_{C_2}/dT)2.5`$ T/K. Thus there are probably no reasons to doubt the dirty limit applicability in the given case. Assuming $`\lambda N(E_F)`$, using (1) and (5), we obtain the dependence

$$(dH_{C_2}/dT)_{\text{dirty}}\lambda (1+\lambda )\rho _0=\lambda _0\{1(\rho _0/R)\}(1+\lambda _0\{1(\rho _0/R)\})\rho _0,$$
(8)
shown as a solid line in Fig. 4. The causes of noticeable deviations at $`\rho _0>0.25`$ mOhm$``$cm are unclear, it should be noted only that very similar changes in $`dH_{C_2}/dT`$ at radiation-induced disordering were observed for MgB2 . Nevertheless, for MgCNi3, the response to disordering is similar to that observed for conventional systems (intermetallides) with strong electron-phonon interaction.

###### Acknowledgements.

Work supported by Minpromnauka, Russia (State Contracts No. 40.012.1.1.1150, No. 40.012.1.1.1146/Contract No. 15/02), Program of government support to leading scientific schools of Russia (Project No. 00-15-96581) and Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research (Project No. 01-02-16877).


text:
# References

Water Observed in Red Giant and Supergiant Stars - Manifestation of a Novel Picture of the Stellar Atmosphere or else Evidence against the Classical Model Stellar Photosphere111Proceedings of the Symposium “Exploiting the ISO Data Archive - Infrared Astronomy in the Internet Age”, 24 - 27 June 2002, Sigüenza, Spain (C. Gry et al. eds., ESA SP-511)

Takashi Tsuji

Institute of Astronomy, School of Science, The University of Tokyo Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-0015 Japan

Abstract: We detected the H2O 6.3 $`\mu `$m bands in more than 30 normal red giants stars from K5III to M8III as well as in some early M supergiants on the SWS spectra retrieved from the ISO Data Archive. This result, however, shows serious inconsistency with the present model photospheres which predict H2O only in the latest M (super)giant stars. Also H2O was once discovered in the early M (super)giant stars nearly 40 years ago with the balloon-borne telescope named Stratoscope II. This discovery was so unexpected at that time that it was not understood correctly and overlooked for a long time. Now, we reflect on our ignorance of this important discovery during the 40 years and should consider more seriously the meaning of the rediscovery of water in so many red (super)giant stars with ISO.

Keywords: ISO SWS – MOLsphere – Photosphere – Water

1. INTRODUCTION

At this monumental epoch to celebrate the opening of the ISO active archive phase, it may be instructive to recall a short history of stellar spectroscopy in space. At the infancy of the infrared astronomy in the 1960’s, an ambitious attempt to observe stellar spectra with a balloon-born telescope was undertaken and this mission named Stratoscope II, launched on March 1963, successfully observed infrared spectra (0.8 – 3.1 $`\mu `$m) of several red giant and supergiant stars (and invaluable spectra of Jupiter). The results showed beautiful spectra of water in Mira variables $`o`$ Cet and R Leo (Woolf et al. 1964). This result was well in accord with the theoretical prediction (Russell 1934) and thus was well appreciated at that time.

However, the Stratoscope observers reported a more surprising result that water was detected in the earlier M giants $`\mu `$ Gem (M3III) and $`\rho `$ Per (M4II) as well as in the early M supergiants $`\alpha `$ Ori (M2Iab) (Woolf et al. 1964) and $`\mu `$ Cep (M2Ia) (Danielson et al. 1965). However, this discovery was not in accord with the understanding of cool stellar atmosphere at that time and it was finally reinterpreted that the absorption bands at 0.9, 1.1, 1.4, & 1.9 $`\mu `$m identified with H2O by the Stratoscope observers should instead be due to the CN Red System which also has band heads at about the same positions (Wing & Spinrad 1970). This proposition was more easily accepted by the astronomical community since then, since CN had been observed in a wide range of oxygen-rich stars from the Sun to red supergiants, not to speak of carbon stars.

Meanwhile, the discovery of water, at least in the coolest Miras, confirmed the importance of water as a source of opacity in cool stars, and actual computation of the non-grey model photospheres revealed that this is true in red giant stars with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ cooler than about 3200 K (Tsuji 1978), which roughly corresponds to M6III (Ridgway et al. 1980). This result was well consistent with the detection of the strong H2O bands in the Miras but was contradicting with the identification of H2O in the M2 - M4 (super)giants by the Stratoscope II observers. Thus, this result lent further support to the Wing-Spinrad proposition. A blind spot in this apparently reasonable conclusion, however, was that we were not aware at that time that the model photosphere, often referred to inadvertently as model atmosphere, is simply a model of the photosphere $`(0<\tau <\mathrm{})`$ and not of the atmosphere $`(\mathrm{}<\tau <\mathrm{})`$, which may still involve unknown problems.

Since then, important infrared missions such as IRAS and COBE have been successfully undertaken, but few observations of the near infrared stellar spectra were done in space, except for continued efforts with KAO which provided fine low resolution stellar spectra (e.g. Strecker et al. 1979). Finally, ISO launched on November 1995 (Kessler et al. 1996) provided the means by which to observe astronomical spectra at higher resolutions for a wider spectral coverage at last. One of the unexpected results in the initial ISO observations with SWS (de Graauw et al. 1996) was a detection of water in the M2 giant $`\beta `$ Peg (Tsuji et al. 1997) and in several early M supergiants in $`h+\chi `$ Per clusters (Tsuji et al. 1998). It took sometime before we recognized that the Stratoscope II observers correctly identified water in the M2 – M4 (super)giant stars and that the Wing-Spinrad proposition was not correct (Tsuji 2000a). Further, IRTS launched by ISAS on March 1995 detected H2O bands at 1.9 $`\mu `$m in several M (super)giants earlier than M6 (Matsuura et al. 1999). Also, ground-based mid-infrared spectroscopy revealed H2O pure-rotation lines in $`\alpha `$ Ori and $`\alpha `$ Sco (Jennings & Sada 1998).

All these results that H2O exists in red (super)giants earlier than about M6, however, could not be understood with the present model photospheres. We now encounter a serious problem: are we confronting with a fall of the classical model stellar photosphere or else with a rise of a novel picture of the stellar atmosphere (including the photosphere as a part)? A rather intriguing story of water in red (super)giant stars still remains open, and we hope to utilize the extensive ISO Data Archive to extend and finalize this fascinating story.

2. A RED GIANT SAMPLE

Our initial detection of water was done with the H2O 2.7 $`\mu `$m bands which, however, are contaminated by OH, CO, and other molecular bands. Then, we analyzed the H2O 6.3 $`\mu `$m bands which are little disturbed by other molecular bands. The expected spectra of the H2O $`\nu _2`$ bands computed with the use of HITEMP (Rothman 1997) based on a single absorption slab model are shown in Fig.1.

We first examined a dozen of high resolution spectra of red giants in the ISO Data Archive. The H2O 6.3 $`\mu `$m bands are detected in the K5 giant Aldebaran (but not in other two K giants) as well as in all the M giants between M0III and M3.5III (Tsuji 2001), and also in the later M giants (M6-7III), as shown in Fig. 2. We found $`T_{\mathrm{ex}}1500`$K (and log $`N_{\mathrm{col}}`$ noted on Fig. 2) by referring to the spectra such as shown in Fig.1. It is remarkable that SWS detected such faint water bands in the K giant star $`\alpha `$ Tau. This result is quite unexpected but confirmed recently in another K giant Arcturus ($`\alpha `$ Boo) with the high resolution ground-based spectroscopy in the 12 $`\mu `$m region (Ryde et al. 2002).

Next, we extend our survey to a larger sample of the low resolution SWS spectra. We found dozens of spectra in this category from the ISO Data Archive. At the lower resolution, some details of the band structure seen at the higher resolution are smeared out (Fig.1). Nevertheless we can detect the dip at 6.63 $`\mu `$m due to the H2O $`\nu _2`$ bands in 25 M giants from M0III to M8III. Some examples are shown in Fig.3 and we estimated $`N_{\mathrm{col}}`$ values for these M giants, again with the single slab model of Fig.1.

The resulting values of $`N_{\mathrm{col}}`$ from the high and low resolution samples are plotted against spectral types in Fig.4. For comparison, the predicted values of $`N_{\mathrm{col}}`$ from the spherically extended non-grey model photospheres are shown by the dashed line. It is clear that the observed $`N_{\mathrm{col}}`$ values cannot be explained at all by the predicted ones. Thus, H2O detected in M giants should be non-photospheric in origin, but where does it come from?

3. A RED SUPERGIANT SAMPLE

In red supergiant stars, the H2O 6.3 $`\mu `$m bands are found as absorption in $`\alpha `$ Ori (M2Iab) and $`\alpha `$ Sco (M2Ib), as in K - M giants. Further, water appears in absorption at $`\lambda <5\mu `$m but in emission at $`\lambda >5\mu `$m throughout in $`\mu `$ Cep (M2Ia) (Tsuji 2000b). This detection of water in distinct emission should be an important clue to the origin of H2O, since such emission should most probably originate in the outer atmosphere and not, for example, in the “starspots”.

To account for the emission, we upgrade our single slab model to a spherically extended molecular sphere (MOLsphere for simplicity). Since we already know that $`T_{\mathrm{ex}}1500`$ K and $`N_{\mathrm{col}}3\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 from the Stratoscope II data (Tsuji 2000a), an additional free parameter is the inner radius of the MOLsphere $`r_i`$. For simplicity, we consider only H2O whose absorption cross-section is as large as $`10^{18}`$ cm2 and thus the H2O gas is optically thick. Then we solve the transfer equation with the photospheric radiation, resulting in $`F_\mathrm{P}`$, as a boundary condition, which shows absorption bands due to CO, CN, OH, SiO etc (Fig.5). We found that the resulting emergent flux from the MOLsphere $`F_{\mathrm{P}+\mathrm{M}}`$ with $`r_\mathrm{i}2R_{}`$ ($`R_{}`$ is the stellar radius) accounts for the prominent emission lines due to H2O at $`\lambda >5\mu `$m as well as the absorption bands at $`\lambda <5\mu `$m (Tsuji 2000b).

Further, we found that the huge infrared excess can be explained by an optically thin dust envelope with $`\tau _{10\mu m}^\mathrm{d}0.1`$ and $`r_i^\mathrm{d}13.5R_{}`$. Then the dust emission is simply added to $`F_{\mathrm{P}+\mathrm{M}}`$. The entire spectra of $`\mu `$ Cep observed with the ISO SWS (corrected for $`A_\mathrm{V}=1.5`$ mag.) can reasonably be explained by our final spectrum resulting from Photospher + MOLsphere + Dust Envelope, $`F_{\mathrm{P}+\mathrm{M}+\mathrm{D}}`$. Some details of the water emission in the 6 $`\mu `$m and 40 $`\mu `$m regions can be well reproduced by our model as shown in the inserted boxes of the left and right, respectively, in Fig.5. So far, the huge IR excess of $`\mu `$ Cep was thought to be due to dust alone, but now it is clear that it includes water emission originating in the MOLsphere.

4. DISCUSSION

Although we have assumed MOLsphere for $`\mu `$ Cep, this is not a theoretical model of the usual meaning but simply a kind of working hypothesis or an empirical model at best. We know nothing about the origin of the MOLsphere and it is a major challenge how to resolve this issue. Such a difficulty, however, may be shared with the origin of the chromosphere as well as of the mass-loss outflow (at least in non-pulsating stars). With this reservation, our empirical model for $`\mu `$ Cep is reasonably successful, and a problem is if such a model can be extended to other cases. Although we see no emission in the 6 $`\mu `$m region in our large sample of red giant stars, it is interesting to notice that the H2O column densities tend to lever-off at about M5 and then to be smaller than the predicted photospheric values (Fig.4). Moreover, water bands almost disappear in M7 giant EP Aqr. These results suggest that the photospheric H2O bands may be filled in by the emission due to H2O itself in the late M giants. Also, in the late M giants, H2O appears as emission in the 40 $`\mu `$m region (Tsuji et al. 1999), CO2 shows prominent emission in the 15 $`\mu `$m region (Jasttanont et al. 1998), and SO2 shows emission as well as absorption in the 7 $`\mu `$m region (Yamamura et al. 1999). Based on these observations, it should be reasonable to assume the presence of MOLsphere in late M giants.

However, a possibility that there are some serious flaws in the present model photospheres cannot be excluded, especially for K (see Ryde et al. 2002) and early M giants for which there is no direct evidence for MOLsphere. This case offers a more serious problem, since our present stellar spectroscopy (e.g. abundance analysis) loses its basis. Also, if this is the case, we must give up to have a unified picture for cool luminous stars including K and early M giants. We are yet tempted to have a unified picture, ISO’s innovation of which may be illustrated as in Fig.6. The presence of the high excited molecular gas has been known for late (super)giants from the H2O and SiO masers for a long time, but ISO revealed that the presence of such a warm molecular gas, including not only H2O and SiO but also CO2 and SO2, may be a general phenomenon in red giant and supergiant stars.

5. CONCLUDING REMARKS

In concluding, we summarize our present viewpoint:

1. Water was discovered in several early M (super)giants nearly 40 years ago with Stratoscope II, but this discovery has been mis-interpreted and overlooked until recently. We regret that this important discovery did not provide major impact on the theory of cool stellar atmosphere during these 40 years. We certainly hope that such an unfortunate history should not be repeated with the ISO data.
2. After 40 years, we confirmed H2O absorption bands in more than 30 red giant stars from K5III to M8III with the use of the ISO Data Archive. Thus ISO finally established that the presence of water is a general phenomenon in red giant stars including K and early M types.
3. With ISO SWS, we detected water in emission in the M2 supergiant $`\mu `$ Cep. This fact suggests that water should be in the outer atmosphere rather than in the photosphere. Also, emission not only of H2O but also of CO2 and SO2 are detected in late M giants with ISO and, by implication, water in all the red giant stars may also be originating in the outer atmosphere.
4. We conclude that the presence of a rather warm molecular sphere – MOLsphere – may be a general feature in red giant and supergiant stars. Thus ISO revealed a novel picture of the atmosphere consisting not only of the photospher, chromosphere, and wind so far known but also of a new component – MOLsphere. Certainly, the ISO Data Archive should be an invaluable tool by which to explore the fundamental problem on the atmospheric structure of red giant and supergiant stars.

Acknowledgements: I thank I. Yamamura and T. Tanabé for helpful discussion on the ISO data analysis. This work, supported by JSPS grant No. 11640227, was carried out with the facilities at NAO ADAC.