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# Solar Flares as Cascades of Reconnecting Magnetic Loops

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## Abstract

A model for the solar coronal magnetic field is proposed where multiple directed loops evolve in space and time. Loops injected at small scales are anchored by footpoints of opposite polarity moving randomly on a surface. Nearby footpoints of the same polarity aggregate, and loops can reconnect when they collide. This may trigger a cascade of further reconnection, representing a solar flare. Numerical simulations show that a power law distribution of flare energies emerges, associated with a scale free network of loops, indicating self-organized criticality.

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One can think of the magnetic field beneath the photosphere of the sun as a giant ball of yarn. Magnetic flux tubes are irregularly expelled into the corona as loops anchored to the photosphere. They form the building blocks for larger scale magnetic structures such as active regions or the magnetic carpet. A solar flare is a rapid change in a strong, complicated coronal magnetic field. According to a physical picture proposed by Parker, turbulent plasma flow below the photospheric surface drives the anchored flux tubes into complex, stressed configurations. When local magnetic field gradients become sufficiently steep, a plasma instability allows the coronal magnetic field to change its topology via reconnection, suddenly releasing energy.

The observed statistics of peak X-ray flux distributions, the energy released, and the quiescent time intervals between solar flares are all characterized by power law distributions. The energy distribution is particularly striking, exhibiting scale-free behavior over more than eight decades in energy. These statistics indicate that the solar corona may be in a state of self-organized criticality (SOC). Such a view implies that large classical X-ray flares and small transient brightenings in the EUV spectrum are not fundamentally different; they are large and small avalanches of reconnection events. In fact, the statistics of solar coronal behavior shares some common features with other intermittent scale free phenomena such as earthquakes, forest fires, traffic, evolution, and turbulence.

Here we introduce a dynamical model of multiple magnetic loops that are randomly driven at their footpoints, and can interact. A pair of footpoints, of opposite polarity, anchors each directed loop to a two dimensional surface, representing the photosphere. Footpoints of the same polarity interact by local aggregation on the surface. Loops also interact by exchanging footpoints when they collide. A single rewiring, or reconnection, can lead to more loop collisions and thereby trigger a cascade of further reconnection. These cascades of magnetic loop reconnection are identified with solar flares.

Loop configurations observed in numerical studies of the model (see Fig. 1) are qualitatively similar to the magnetic carpet deduced from observations of the quiet sun. The pattern of loops dynamically forms a scale free network, where the number of loops emerging from each footpoint is distributed as a power law. This network gives rise to a power law distribution of flare energies. Results from our model also suggest that the probability distribution of net magnetic flux emerging from small areas of the photosphere exhibits power law behavior, while the distribution of lengths of flux tubes in the corona is exponential. Our results support the idea that solar flare statistics reflect coronal SOC resulting from magnetic reconnection.

The conventional techniques of plasma physics have generated substantial progress in the theoretical understanding and computational modelling of local reconnection in laboratory, space, and solar plasmas. However, it remains computationally prohibitive to use the equations of plasma physics to describe extended spatial regions containing multiple evolving flux tubes that interact via magnetic reconnection. This has motivated the adoption of simpler numerical approaches.

Lu and Hamilton (LH) used a cellular automaton as a simple model for the reconnection process leading to flares. The LH avalanche model is similar to the original sandpile model of Bak, Tang, and Weisenfeld. It is conceptually far reaching, and has stimulated many further investigations (see for example), as well as other cellular automata models.

The multiloop reconnection model introduced here is not a cellular automaton and differs fundamentally from previous approaches. But it makes explicit contact with the physics of solar flares in two ways. First, it retains the basic topological constraints that the high conductivity of the corona and the physics of reconnection impose on magnetic field evolution. Second, it incorporates turbulent footpoint motion and the resultant driving of coronal magnetic field energy. The key elements of our model are as follows:

1. Loop structure. A loop labels the midline of a magnetic flux tube, which has a diameter of order $`100km`$ at its footpoint on the photosphere. Therefore, the coronal magnetic field is represented by numerous infinitesimally thin directed loops, which are semicircles emerging from the $`(xy)`$ plane. Each loop has a positive footpoint, where magnetic flux emerges from the photosphere, and a negative one, where flux returns. The size of the system in the $`(xy)`$ plane, which represents a region of the photospheric surface, is $`L\times L`$. Loops are labeled by an integer, $`n`$, and the positions of the two footpoints of the $`n`$th loop are labeled in the $`(xy)`$ plane by $`𝐫_n^+`$ and $`𝐫_n^{}`$. Each loop is associated with one unit of magnetic flux, so that the magnetic energy of a loop is proportional to its length $`l_n=\frac{\pi }{2}|𝐫_n^+𝐫_n^{}|`$. The sum of the lengths of the loops, $`E=_nl_n`$, is then a measure of the total magnetic energy of the system, and changes in the value of $`E`$ correspond to the magnetic energy release in solar flares.

2. Footpoint motion. Footpoints are considered to be passively convected by the turbulent plasma motion beneath the photospheric surface. This is represented in the present model by a random walk. At an update step, an arbitrary footpoint is chosen at random and its position is moved, $`𝐫𝐫+\mathrm{\Delta }𝐫`$. The vector $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝐫`$ has length and angle chosen randomly from uniform distributions between 0 and 1, and 0 and $`2\pi `$, respectively. If the initial loop lengths are small, random footpoint motion will tend on average to increase the length of the loops. In this way, photospheric turbulence pumps magnetic energy into the coronal magnetic field. Note that footpoints can have more than one loop attached, as per step 5.

3. Loop injection and submergence. The coronal magnetic field is also driven by injection of new loops from beneath the photospheric surface. In the model, small loops are injected into the system at random locations, with footpoints initially separated by a distance $`l_{nl}=4`$. Loops with footpoints closer than distance $`l_{min}=2`$ are removed from the system. The precise length scales of these two processes do not effect the critical properties of the system. The essential feature is that at small length scales the model dynamically maintains a flow of loops. Thus the magnetic field of the corona is represented as an open system.

4. Loop reconnection. Flux freezing in the coronal plasma is relaxed when local field gradients become sufficiently steep: the magnetic field then changes its topology, and releases energy by reconnection events. Reconnection can occur in our model when either (a) two loops collide in three dimensional space, or (b) two footpoints annihilate as explained in step 6. In the first case, the midlines of two flux tubes have crossed resulting in a strong magnetic field gradient at that point. The flux emerging from the positive footpoint of one of the reconnecting loops is then no longer constrained to end up at the other footpoint of the same loop, but may instead go to the negative footpoint of the other loop (see Fig. 2). Reconnection is only allowed if it shortens the combined length of the two colliding loops. This process is rapid compared to the driving, because information is transmitted along the flux tubes at the Alfvén speed.

If rewiring occurs, it may happen that one or both loops need to cross some other loop in order to reach its rewired state. Thus a single reconnection between a pair of loops can trigger an avalanche-like cascade of causally related reconnection events. The reconnection dynamics of multiply connected footpoints that we used in the numerical simulations is a straightforward extension.

5. Footpoint aggregation. It has been observed that footpoints of the same polarity can merge when they approach. In addition, calculations of the coronal magnetic field, based on measurements of the photospheric field, indicate that flux tubes starting at a particular footpoint can terminate at several different footpoints of opposite polarity. In our model, if a footpoint moves within the distance $`l_{min}`$ of another footpoint of the same polarity, it is reassigned to the latter footpoint’s position and they move as one footpoint thereafter.

6. Footpoint annihilation. Footpoints of opposite polarity, belonging to different flux tubes, can annihilate when they approach on the photosphere. When footpoints of opposite polarity belonging to different loops approach within a distance $`l_{min}`$ in the model, both footpoints are eliminated and the remaining two footpoints are attached, forming one loop, where before there were two. The annihilation dynamics of footpoints with more than one attached loop can be implemented in different ways. The scaling behavior of the model does not appear to be sensitive to the precise algorithm. Footpoint annihilation may cause collisions between loops leading to further reconnection, as per step 4.

7. Time stepping and boundary conditions. In each time step of the model, either a footpoint is chosen for random motion or a new loop is added. This is governed by a control parameter, the stirring rate $`m`$, such that the number of footpoint updates that separate an update step where a new loop is injected into the system is $`m`$ times the number of footpoints in the system at that time. We study a system with open reflective boundary conditions; if a footpoint attempts to move outside the $`L\times L`$ box in the $`(xy)`$ plane, it is elastically reflected back into the box.

The configuration of loops slowly evolves in response to the driving, aggregation and reconnection processes described above. It reaches a dynamic equilibrium whose statistical character is independent of the initial conditions. Below, numerical simulation results are presented for system size $`L=200`$ with a range of stirring rates $`m`$ from 0.01 to 1, including approximately $`10^7`$ avalanches of reconnection events in the steady state. The observed power law behavior is robust on varying the stirring rate, even though the total magnetic energy and the fluctuations in the total energy vary widely.

Figure 3 shows the probability distribution of the number $`k`$ of loops emerging from each footpoint, $`P_{foot}(k)`$. It is well described by a power law $`P_{foot}(k)k^\gamma `$, with $`\gamma =2.0\pm 0.1`$ over more than two decades in number of links. The cutoff in the distribution increases with decreasing $`m`$ for fixed $`L`$. This is due to the fact that the total number of loops in the system is increasing.

Thus, the system of loops that emerges forms a scale free network, with a cutoff determined only by the number of loops (links) in the system. Scale free networks, in the form of graphs, have been invoked recently to describe a wide variety of phenomena including e.g. citation networks, the internet, and some biological systems; for reviews see Refs. . Unlike most of these examples, our network is embedded in three-dimensional space, and geometrical constraints are crucial to the dynamical self-organization by which this network emerges.

Figure 4 shows the probability distribution for flare event energy release, $`P_{flare}(E)`$. This also follows a power law $`P_{flare}(E)E^{\alpha _E}`$, with $`\alpha _E=3.0\pm 0.2`$. This value is much larger than the exponent obtained from the LH type avalanche models, which give $`\alpha _E1.4`$. The distribution of individual loop lengths in our multiloop model, unlike that of flare energies, is exponential.

The total energy released in a solar flare is not directly measured, but is inferred from narrow frequency band observations of photon fluxes. A number of simplifying assumptions are used to relate these fluxes to total energy release, as explained in e.g. Refs. . There is some uncertainty in the value of the exponent of the measured energy distribution of solar flares, with reported values ranging from $`\alpha _E=1.5\mathrm{to}2.6`$. However, if a consistent set of geometrical assumptions are made, the upper value may be reduced from 2.6 to approximately 2.1. Our present result is outside this range, but is nevertheless consistent with Parker’s conjecture for coronal heating by nanoflares which minimally requires that $`\alpha _E2`$.

Another, possibly related difference from observations concerns temporal correlations. Solar flares, like earthquakes and other intermittent phenomena, exhibit power law statistics for the waiting times between events whose magnitude exceeds some threshold. The model presented here, like LH avalanche models, does not exhibit any temporal correlations in the waiting times between events. This may be due to the assumption of complete randomness in the external driving.

Flux tubes are tangled into complex configurations by the turbulent plasma below the photosphere. As a starting point, we have modeled the turbulent forces as inducing both completely random footpoint motion and completely random injection of new loops. These assumptions neglect some features of the photosphere that involve spatiotemporal correlations, such as granulation of the surface, phenomena such as homologous flares, and the observation that active regions, where most large flares occur, have very high rates of magnetic flux emergence compared to the quiet sun. Since we describe the magnetic loop configurations as being passively driven by an external source, our model could easily be extended to incorporate specific spatiotemporal correlations in the driving, in particular in the rate that loops are added to the system at different places.

Following a suggestion by Wheatland that nonstationary driving could induce waiting time correlations, Norman et al have studied LH avalanche models with a driving rate modulated by a random walk and found both a change from exponential to a power law distribution of waiting times, as well as a small change in the critical index $`\alpha _E`$. Perhaps a similar nonstationary driver would have comparable effects in our model.

We have introduced a model of the solar coronal magnetic field consisting of multiple reconnecting magnetic loops. We believe that this model captures essential elements of the physics governing such structures. Our approach applies to situations involving more loops, and over greater length and time scales, than are accessible to traditional analytical and computational techniques based on the underlying equations.

The striking feature of our multiloop reconnection model is the dynamical self-organization of a magnetic field which gives rise to a power law distribution of solar flare energies, and which forms a scale free network that qualitatively resembles the actual coronal magnetic field. The behavior, $`P_{foot}(k)k^\gamma `$, could perhaps be tested by imposing a fine grid on the photosphere, depending on resolution capabilities, and measuring the probability distribution of total magnetic flux within each grid cell. Our model results suggest that this distribution would have power law behavior, with index $`\gamma `$, while the distribution of lengths of flux tubes would be exponential.

We thank P. Cargill and S.C. Cowley for discussions. This work was funded in part by the UK Department of Trade & Industry and the EPSRC.


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# High Energy Astrophysical Tau Neutrinos: The ExpectationsTalk given at 12th International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions (XII ISVHECRI), 15-20 July, 2002, Geneva, Switzerland.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

A search for high energy astrophysical tau neutrinos will not only yield quite useful information about some of the highest energy phenomenons occurring in the present universe related to the origin of observed high energy gamma rays and ultra high energy cosmic rays but also can possibly probe physics beyond standard model of particle physics.

The representative extra terrestrial sources of high energy astrophysical tau neutrinos with energy greater than $`10^3`$ GeV include the atmosphere of earth, the plane of our galaxy, the center of distant (active) galaxies as well as possibly the sites of gamma ray bursts (GRBs). Here, I summarize the present status of intrinsic flux estimates for high energy astrophysical tau neutrinos, both originating from the source itself as well as during propagation (of ultra high energy cosmic rays, assumed to be dominantly protons here). In light of recently growing empirical evidence for neutrino flavor oscillations, I will mention the effects of neutrino flavor mixing on this intrinsic flux (in two flavor approximation, for simplicity). The presently envisaged prospects for possible observations of intrinsic and oscillated high energy astrophysical tau neutrino flux through several different detection strategies will also be presented. For a recent brief review on high energy astrophysical neutrinos, see .

## 2 HIGH ENERGY ASTROPHYSICAL TAU NEUTRINOS

### 2.1 Production

High energy astrophysical tau neutrino production can occur in $`pp`$ and $`p\gamma `$ interactions taking place in cosmos. These interactions produce unstable hadrons such as $`D_S`$ and $`B_S`$. At further higher center of mass energy, production of other heavier states such as $`t\overline{t}`$, $`W^{}`$ as well as $`Z^{}`$ is also possible. All of these states decay into $`\nu _\tau `$ directly or indirectly, with $`D_S`$ being the lightest one to decay directly into $`\nu _\tau `$. Copious production of $`\pi ^\pm `$ also occurs in these interactions, which decay into non tau neutrinos. The absolute normalization of high energy astrophysical tau neutrinos is fixed in a similar way as for high energy astrophysical muon neutrinos. In general, the $`D_S`$ dominates the tau neutrino production over the entire energy range under consideration here. In these interactions, the target protons and photons are considered to be present inside the source as well as in the interstellar medium between the source and the detector. The high energy tau neutrinos possibly originating from GRBs are an example of the former situation, whereas the galactic plane and GZK tau neutrinos are examples for the latter situation. The GZK tau neutrinos are a result of neutrino flavor oscillations of GZK muon neutrinos, which are produced in $`p\gamma \mathrm{\Delta }\pi ^\pm X`$ interactions . The atmospheric tau neutrino flux is estimated in , whereas the galactic tau neutrino flux is estimated and compared with atmospheric one in . In these estimates, the tau neutrino flux is obtained by solving the system of coupled cascade equations that describes the propagation of protons, unstable hadrons and leptons in the presence of a varying target density medium.

Depending upon the distance to the source and the concerned energy range, the production of high energy tau neutrinos may or may not become comparable to the high energy muon neutrinos. For instance, in case of galactic plane, it is the intrinsic muon neutrino flux that dominates, however, it is not the case for atmosphere of earth for the whole energy range under consideration here. In the atmosphere of earth, for $`E>10^5`$ GeV, intrinsic tau neutrino production is quite comparable to intrinsic muon neutrino production as both originate from $`D`$’s.

### 2.2 Oscillations during propagation

The empirical evidence for neutrino flavor mixing is now rather compelling. In particular, the explanation of recent statistically significant data concerning the atmospheric muon neutrino deficit is suggestive of $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ flavor oscillations. In the context of two neutrino flavors, the oscillation probability formula is

$$P(\nu _\mu \nu _\tau )=\mathrm{sin}^22\theta \mathrm{sin}^2(l/l_{\mathrm{osc}}).$$
(1)
Here $`\theta `$ is neutrino flavor mixing angle between $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$, whereas $`l_{\mathrm{osc}}\pi E/\delta m^2`$. Presently, the global best fit values of $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta `$ and $`\delta m^2`$ are essentially $`1`$ and $`2.510^3`$ eV2, respectively . In Eq. (1), $`l`$ is the distance between the source and the detector. In case of complete averaging, namely when $`ll_{\mathrm{osc}}`$, the second $`\mathrm{sin}^2`$ factor is equal to 0.5. Taking $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta 1`$, I obtain, $`P0.5`$. This is substantial, as compared to the intrinsic production probability of high energy astrophysical tau neutrinos, which is rather suppressed relative to that for muon neutrinos in some distant astrophysical sites as mentioned in the last section. High energy astrophysical tau neutrinos thus seem to be roughly as abundant as high energy muon neutrinos except from the atmosphere of earth, given the present status of neutrino flavor mixing. For a description of three (and four) neutrino flavor mixing effects for high energy astrophysical tau neutrinos, see .

Equation 1 ignores the effect of a possible enhancement in $`\theta `$ due to (coherent forward) neutrino scattering during propagation.

This approximation is presently justified, given the current status of high energy astrophysical tau neutrino observations . Further discussion on propagation effects of mixed high energy (tau) neutrinos can be found in , whereas for unmixed high energy tau neutrinos propagation effects (mainly related to observations), see . Given the intrinsic neutrino fluxes, $`\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\mu }^{\mathrm{int}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E)`$ and $`\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\tau }^{\mathrm{int}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E)`$ at the production site, the total tau neutrino flux $`\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\tau }^{\mathrm{tot}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E)`$ arriving at the detector, including the effects of neutrino flavor oscillations during the propagation, is

$`\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\tau }^{\mathrm{tot}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E)=P\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\mu }^{\mathrm{int}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E)`$
$`+(1P)\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\tau }^{\mathrm{int}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E),`$ (2)
where $`PP(\nu _\mu \nu _\tau )`$ is given by Eq. 1. Figure 1 displays the $`\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\tau }^{\mathrm{tot}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E)`$ from some representative extra terrestrial sources.

Let me emphasize here a simple point that neutrino flavor mixing is an intrinsic property of the neutrino state. It has nothing to do with the energy of the neutrino. It is the probability of neutrino oscillation that depends on neutrino energy.

### 2.3 Prospects for possible observations

Present status of currently operating and under planning high energy (tau) neutrino detectors is described in . In general, the high energy astrophysical tau neutrino flux arrives at an earth based detector in three general directions.

#### 2.3.1 Downward going

It might be possible to search for downward going high energy tau neutrinos through double shower technique . Quantitative details of this suggestion for a typical Km3 instrumented volume (ice) Cherenkov radiation detector were given in . The event simulations done by IceCube collaboration based on  can be found in . In principle, this technique may also be feasibly implemented in other alternative detection methods as well. A high energy tau neutrino flux at the level of $`10^{11}(\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}\mathrm{sr})^1`$ gives several double shower type events per year irrespective of its origin in an instrumented volume of Km3 for an incident energy of several $`10^6`$ GeV.

For the energy range between $`10^3`$ GeV to $`510^5`$ GeV, the two showers will be quite difficult to separate from each other for typical Cherenkov radiation detectors. Between $`510^5`$ GeV and $`10^6`$ GeV, the proposed Megaton detectors are a possibility, whereas between $`210^7`$ GeV and $`510^8`$ GeV, detectors with instrumented volume of more than Km3 may be needed. On the other hand for energy greater than $`10^9`$ GeV, the two showers are too distant from each other (essentially hundreds of Km), so are difficult to track for presently planned (single) earth based detectors .

#### 2.3.2 Quasi horizontal

The possibility of observation of near horizontal high energy tau neutrinos through double shower technique for Pierre Auger array was briefly considered in . Following , an approximately half an order of magnitude energy interval, namely $`510^8E/\mathrm{GeV}10^9`$, was obtained by requiring that the longitudinal profile of the two showers do not overlap in the array length, taken to be $``$ 60 Km (see Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 for illustration). The two showers are considered to develop in the air. For energy above $`10^9`$ GeV, the decay length of the tau lepton in air is larger than the size of the array and the double shower signature can not be observed. However, the energy at which the two showers start separating in Pierre Auger array lies below the presently planned threshold for high energy neutrino detection. The crucial factor here being the difference in the incident tau neutrino energy dependence on the spread and separation of the two showers. The double shower type event rate for Pierre Auger array can be estimated following .

#### 2.3.3 Upward going

The upward going tau neutrino flux is suppressed by the deep inelastic tau neutrino nucleon scattering inside the earth for $`E510^4`$ GeV . In fact, for upward going high energy tau neutrinos which cross almost all the diameter of the earth, the suppression in the incident flux is essentially exponential.

A variant of the last two situations is a scenario in which the high energy tau neutrino nucleon charged current deep inelastic interaction occurs just once inside the earth and a tau lepton is produced. This tau lepton after exiting the earth produces an air shower which might possibly be measured in a future large earth, plane, balloon or space based detector .

## 3 CONCLUSIONS

$``$ So far, there are only few explicit estimates for intrinsic high energy astrophysical tau neutrino flux. Existing ones are for atmosphere of earth and for our galaxy.

$``$ Neutrino flavor oscillations is an interesting possibility to expect $`\nu _\tau `$ from $`\nu _\mu `$. For distant astrophysical tau neutrino sources in the energy range $`10^3E/\text{GeV}10^{11}`$, presently $`\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\tau }^{\mathrm{tot}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E)0.5\mathrm{d}N_{\nu _\mu }^{\mathrm{int}}/\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{log}_{10}E).`$

$``$ High energy astrophysical tau neutrino observation can possibly be achieved in future large arrays through several different detection strategies.

The author thanks Physics Division of National Center for Theoretical Sciences for support.


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# Evolution of the symbiotic nova RX Puppis

## 1 Introduction

RX Pup is a long-period interacting binary system consisting of a Mira variable pulsating with P=578 days, surrounded by a thick dust shell, and a hot white dwarf companion accreting material from the Mira’s wind. The binary separation could be as large as $`a50`$ a.u. (corresponding to $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}200`$ yr) as suggested by the permanent presence of a dust shell around the Mira component (m99 ).

The analysis of multifrequency observations by m99  has shown that most, if not all, photometric and spectroscopic activity of RX Pup in the UV, optical and radio range is due to activity of the hot component, while the Mira variable and its circumstellar environment is responsible for practically all changes in the IR range (Fig.1). In particular, RX Pup underwent a nova-like eruption during the last three decades. The evolution of the hot component in the HR diagram (Fig.11 of m99 ) as well as evolution of the nebular emission in 1970$``$1993 is consistent with a symbiotic nova eruption, with the luminosity plateau reached in 1972/75 and a turnover in 1988/89. The hot component contracted in radius at roughly constant luminosity from c. 1972 to 1986; during this phase it was the source of a strong stellar wind and therefore could not accrete any further material. By 1991 the luminosity of the nova remnant had decreased to a few per cent of the maximum (plateau) luminosity, and the hot wind had practically ceased. By 1995 the hot component start to accrete material from the Mira wind, as indicated by a general increase of the optical continuum and Balmer H i emission. The quiescent optical spectrum of RX Pup resembles the quiescent spectra of symbiotic recurrent novae, while the hot component luminosity is consistent with variable wind-accretion at a high rate, $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}10^7\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ ($`1`$ per cent of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cool}}`$). RX Pup may be a recurrent nova; there is some evidence that a previous eruption occurred around 1894.

In the following we discuss results of optical and red spectroscopic observations of RX Pup obtained during 1995$``$2001 with the REOSC echelle spectrograph at the 2.15-m CASLEO telescope at San Juan, Argentina (see m99  for details), and low resolution CCD spectra obtained from the Vainu Bappu Observatory, India (see e.g. am99  for details).

## 2 Results and discussion

In the period covered by our spectroscopic observations, both components of RX Pup were active, although their changes were generally not correlated (Fig. 1). In particular, the near-IR flux was gradually decreasing in 1995$``$2000, suggesting that the Mira had entered a new obscuration phase (m01 ). At the same time, the visual light curve revealed a small eruption with maximum in 1998. The lack of any molecular absorption bands in our spectra ($`\lambda 8600\mathrm{\AA }`$), as well as the absence of any Mira pulsations in the optical and red light curves (Fig.1; m99 ; m01 ) implies that the hot component is responsible for all changes in the optical and red spectral range.

The optical brightening was accompanied by significant spectroscopic changes. The changes were the most remarkable in Balmer H i lines: they were strong and narrow in $`198891`$ (m99 ) whereas in $`19952001`$ they developed a prominent flattened red wing (Fig. 2). The broad asymmetric wings were also present in He i and near infrared Ca ii triplet. The ionization level remained low, although the decline from the visual maximum in 1998 was associated with increase in \[O iii\] and He i emission line fluxes. Our spectra also showed the presence of a variable blue continuum with A/F-type shell absorption lines. The colour temperature of the continuum is low, $`60009000\mathrm{K}`$ for $`E_{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}}0.8`$, and it has a luminosity of $`5001000(d/1.8\mathrm{kpc})^2\mathrm{L}_{}`$. On the other hand, the optical emission lines indicate a higher, $`2.54\times 10^4\mathrm{K}`$, temperature source with a roughly comparable luminosity. m01  also detected large changes in the degree of polarization in the optical and red spectral range, and found that the polarized component is radiation from the blue continuum source scattered in the dust envelope surrounding the Mira.

We find here a striking similarity between RX Pup and the quiescent symbiotic recurrent novae RS Oph and T CrB, as well as the hot component of CH Cyg during bright phases. In all these systems, the optical data indicate the presence of relatively cool F/A- (CH Cyg) or A/B-type source (RS Oph and T CrB), while the optical emission lines indicate a higher temperature source, with a roughly comparable luminosity (m88 ; d96 ; am99 ). For example, in RS Oph the IR colours indicate the presence of an additional warm, $`7000`$ K, source whereas the IUE and optical spectra show an A-B type shell source with $`L100600\mathrm{L}_{}`$, accompanied by strong H i and moderate He i emission lines (d96 , and references therein). Similar variable UV/optical continuum with $`L40100\mathrm{L}_{}`$ was observed in T CrB (am99  and references therein). Although both in the symbiotic recurrent novae, T CrB and RS Oph, and in RX Pup, the average luminosity of the B/A/F-type shell source is consistent with the accretion rate, $`\dot{M}10^8\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, required by the theoretical models, the effective temperatures places the hot components far from the standard massive white dwarf tracks in the HR diagram. Simultaneously, the X-ray data suggest 1$``$2 orders of magnitude lower accretion rates (m99 , and references therein). All three systems show similar quiescent behaviour: their hot components have highly variable luminosity and occasionally display blue-shifted absorption features, and broad asymmetric emission line wings (see also m99 ; am99 ; d96 ).

We note here that similar A/F-type shell absorption spectrum was detected in AR Pav and other Z And-type symbiotic stars with multiple outburst activity(e.g. q02 ). The blue absorption system in these systems traces the orbit of the hot component, and it is probably formed in a geometrically and optically thick accretion disc seen nearly edge-on and in a gas stream (mk92 ; q02 , and references therein). Parenthetically, the timescales and amplitudes for their eruptions are very similar to the timescales and amplitudes of the hot component luminosity variations (high and low states) in RX Pup and other symbiotic recurrent novae between their nova outbursts, as well as in accretion-powered systems CH Cyg and MWC 560.

It is also interesting that the shell spectrum appears only during the late decline from the nova outburst. In particular, the optical/visual light curves from the outbursts of T CrB, RS Oph and RX Pup show more or less pronounced minima followed by a standstill (or secondary maximum) associated with the appearance of the shell spectrum. We suggest the minima are due to a decline in the hot component’s luminosity after it passes the turnover in the HR diagram. The strong hot component wind during the plateau phase prevents accretion onto the hot component. Following the decline in luminosity the wind also ceases, and accretion of the material from the cool giant can be restored. We believe that the shell-type features and variable ”false atmosphere” observed at quiescence together with the complex and broad emission lines originate from the accretion flow. The observed variability could be due to fluctuations in the mass-loss rate from the cool giant, the shell spectrum becomes stronger as $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{cool}}`$ increases and as a result $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}`$ increases. In the recurrent novae T CrB, RS Oph and the accretion- powered systems of CH Cyg and MWC 560, the brightening of the hot component (or high activity stage) is associated with the presence of flickering (e.g. am99 ). Such flickering, however, has not yet been detected in RX Pup.

Summarizing, the spectral development of RX Pup during the large outburst in 1969$``$1990 resembles that of symbiotic novae AG Peg, HM Sge and V1329 Cyg as well as of the symbiotic recurrent nova RS Oph (m99 ), although these other systems seem to be evolving on very different timescales, possibly reflecting differences in the mass of the white dwarf component. At quiescence the hot component shows activity (high and low activity states) resembling that of symbiotic recurrent novae T CrB and RS Oph, which is probably due to relatively high mass transfer/accretion rate, of order of $`10^7\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. A high accretion rate, $`10^8\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, is also required to account for the recurrence time, $``$ 80, 80 and 22 yr, for RX Pup, T CrB, and RS Oph, respectively.

This study was partly supported by KBN research grant No. 5P03D 019 20.


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# REFERENCES

Study of Low-energy States of Clusters of Spin-1/2 and Spin-1 Triangles with Kagome-like Geometries

Indranil Rudra1, Diptiman Sen2 and S. Ramasesha1

1 Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit

2 Centre for Theoretical Studies

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India

## Abstract

We study the low-energy properties of Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 and spin-1 systems on various clusters made up of triangles. Some of the clusters have a geometry similar to representative pieces of the Kagome lattice, while others have the geometry of a sawtooth chain. While the ground state always has the lowest possible spin (0 or 1/2), the nature of the low-energy excitations depends on the geometry and the site spin. For the Kagome clusters with spin-1 sites, the lowest excitations are gapped, with singlet and triplet excitations having similar gaps. This is in contrast to Kagome clusters with spin-1/2 sites where there are several low-energy singlet excitations (possibly gapless in the thermodynamic limit), while triplet excitations have a gap. For the sawtooth chain with spin-1 sites, the lowest excitations are triplets with a gap; the gap to singlet excitations is about twice the triplet gap.

PACS number: 75.10.Jm, 75.50.Ee

There has been a great deal of interest in recent years in quantum spin systems which are strongly frustrated . Examples of such systems include lattices involving triangles of Heisenberg spins as motifs which interact antiferromagnetically with each other. Some of the systems which have been studied experimentally in one and two dimensions are the sawtooth chain  and the Kagome lattice . A variety of theoretical techniques, both analytical and numerical, have been used to study models of such systems .

Classically (i.e., in the limit in which the site spin $`S\mathrm{}`$), the sawtooth and Kagome antiferromagnetic systems have an enormous ground state degeneracy arising from local rotational degrees of freedom which cost no energy; this leads to an extensive entropy at zero temperature. Quantum mechanically, this degeneracy is lifted due to nonzero matrix elements between different classical ground states. However, one might still expect a remnant of the classical degeneracy in the form of a large number of low-energy excitations. In the quantum limit, it is well-known that the physics of some spin-1/2 and spin-1 lattices in low dimensions is different in nontrivial ways. It is therefore useful to study the lattices involving triangular motifs for site spin-1/2 and spin-1 to see if there is any systematic difference between the two cases.

The spin-1/2 Kagome system is known to exhibit a variety of unusual low-energy properties . For instance, it is believed that there is a small gap between the singlet ground state and the nonsinglet excited states. Secondly, there is a band of singlet excited states with no band gap to the ground state. Finally, the two-spin correlation function decays rapidly with distance indicating that the magnetic correlation length is comparable to the lattice spacing. All these features can be explained qualitatively by assuming that a set of disjoint triangles are in their ground states with total spin-1/2. Then these spin-1/2 states of nearest neighbor triangles can form dimers, thus producing a singlet state . The number of such dimer configurations is about $`1.15^N`$ if the number of sites is $`N`$; this number is macroscopically large even though it is much smaller than the number of singlets which one can form out of $`N`$ spin-1/2 objects which is about $`2^N`$. The gapless band of singlet excitations can be thought of as arising from these dimer states, with a small dispersion being produced by the admixture amongst the different dimer states. In contrast to the spin-1/2 case, the ground state of a single spin-1 triangle is unique with a gap to all its excited states. Following arguments similar to the one given above for the spin-1/2 Kagome lattice, one might then expect the ground state of the spin-1 Kagome lattice to be unique with a gap to all excitations.

For the spin-1/2 sawtooth chain, the ground state has a degeneracy proportional to the number of sites. This degeneracy arises from the existence of spin-1/2 kinks (a free spin located at the base of a triangle shown in Fig. 6) which do not cost any energy regardless of their lattice position . There are also spin-1/2 antikinks (a free spin located at the top of a triangle in Fig. 6) which cost a finite energy. The lowest excitations in a chain with periodic boundary conditions are given by a kink-antikink pair which has a gap; the total spin of the pair may be either 0 or 1. The spin-1 sawtooth chain had not been studied earlier. We will present a numerical study of this system and will also construct an approximate analytical ground state using a simple physical picture.

In this paper, we will carry out exact diagonalization studies of the Hamiltonian for both spin-1/2 and spin-1 Kagome clusters as well as the spin-1 sawtooth chain. We will discuss the numerical results for the low-energy spectrum in the different cases, and will use trial wave functions to provide an understanding of the results for the spin-1 sawtooth chain.

We will study the lattices of spins shown in Figs. 1-6. Figs. 1-5 show Kagome-type clusters, with the largest number of sites being 21 for spin-1 and 27 for spin-1/2. Fig. 6 shows a 21-site sawtooth lattice which we have studied for site spin-1. The Hamiltonian used in our calculation is the Heisenberg Hamiltonian with isotropic exchange, written as

$$\widehat{H}=J\underset{<ij>}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}\widehat{𝐒}_i\widehat{𝐒}_j,$$
(1)
where $`J`$ is the exchange interaction, and $`<ij>`$ sums over the bonded sites shown in Figs. 1-6. We have imposed periodic boundary conditions at the edges of the various clusters as indicated by the dotted lines in Figs. 1-6. The properties of the system can be computed from the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian which are obtained by setting up the Hamiltonian matrix in a suitable basis and diagonalizing it thereafter. The dimension of the space spanned by the Hamiltonian rapidly increases with the number of spins in the system. Though the use of a constant $`M_S`$ (i.e., eigenstates of total $`S^z`$) basis is quite straightforward, the dimensions of the space for large clusters which have no spatial symmetry are prohibitively large. Hence we have used the valence bond (VB) technique  to construct spin adapted functions (eigenstates of the total $`\widehat{𝐒}^2`$ operator). The advantage of this method is that the dimensions of the constant total $`S`$ subspaces are much smaller compared to the constant $`M_S`$ subspaces. After constructing the VB basis, we obtain the Hamiltonian matrix by operating with Eq. (1) on each of the basis states. The matrix representing the Hamiltonian in the VB basis is in general nonsymmetric since the VB basis is nonorthogonal. We use Rettrup’s algorithm  to obtain the lowest few eigenstates and eigenvectors in each of the total S subspaces. We have transformed the nonorthogonal VB basis to the orthogonal constant $`M_S`$ basis which are also eigenstates of the $`z`$ component of the site spins. This enables us to calculate the spin-spin correlation functions, $`<S_i^zS_j^z>`$, for the different clusters.

For the spin-1 Kagome clusters, we note that the ground state is always a singlet. The lowest excited states are gapped, with the gap for singlet and triplet excitations being approximately equal as shown in Fig. 7. There is a good trial wave function for the singlet ground state due to Hida . We consider each spin-1 as being made out of two spin-1/2’s in a symmetrized combination. For the Kagome clusters that we have considered, we see that each spin-1 site belongs to only two hexagons. We can therefore associate each of the composite spin-1/2’s (forming a spin-1) with one hexagon. For each hexagon, we then consider the state $`\psi _0`$ which is the singlet ground state that arises when six spin-1/2’s interact antiferromagnetically with nearest neighbors. A trial wave function for the ground state of the whole cluster is then given by a product of $`\psi _0`$’s over all the hexagons, which is then symmetrized between all the pairs of composite spin-1/2’s. This trial wave function gives a good estimate of the ground state energy . However, this approximate picture fails to provide a good understanding of the spectrum of low-energy excited states. For six spin-1/2’s which form a hexagon and interact antiferromagnetically, the lowest excited state is a triplet and the first singlet excitation lies above this triplet state by about 1.3 $`J`$. However, for the spin-1 Kagome clusters, we find numerically that the singlet and triplet excitations have comparable gaps to the ground state; excitations with spin-2 have a much higher energy. It would be very useful to understand these features of spin-1 Kagome systems, even qualitatively through variational wave functions.

For the spin-1/2 Kagome clusters, we see from Fig. 8 that there is a large number of low-lying states which have the same spin as the ground state. It is possible that in the thermodynamic limit, these states will form a band with the band bottom touching the ground state. On the other hand, the first excited state with spin one higher than the ground state spin seems to be separated from the ground state by a finite gap. All this is in accordance with the numerical results obtained earlier in Ref. , and can be understood from the exponentially large number of dimer configurations as mentioned above .

We now turn to the two-spin correlation functions $`<S_i^zS_j^z>`$, where $`i,j`$ denote two sites of a Kagome cluster. Table 1 shows that the correlations fall off very rapidly beyond the second neighbor for the spin-1 case (with 21 sites as in Fig. 3) and beyond the first neighbor for the spin-1/2 case (with 27 sites as in Fig. 5). Thus the magnetic correlation length is very short, although it appears to be a bit longer for the spin-1 Kagome clusters compared to spin-1/2. However, within the second neighbor sites for spin-1 and within the first neighbor sites for spin-1/2, there is no obvious pattern in the correlation functions. For instance, within the triangle 1-2-3 in the spin-1 case (Fig. 3) and the triangle 13-14-15 in the spin-1/2 case (Fig. 5), the three nearest neighbor correlations are not equal. Similarly, in the spin-1 case, the correlation between the second neighbor sites 2-4 is about twice as big as the correlation between the first neighbor sites 3-4. It is possible that these peculiarities are due to finite size effects, which would indicate an unusual sensitivity of the correlation functions to the boundary conditions. It would be very useful to understand these patterns of correlation functions even qualitatively.

Finally, we come to the the spin-1 sawtooth chain (Fig. 6). The energies of the low-lying are shown in Fig. 9. We see that there is a gap to the triplet excitation; the singlet excitations have a gap which is about twice as large as the triplet excitation gap. This clearly suggests that the elementary excitations of the spin-1 sawtooth chain are triplets, and the lowest singlet excitations are probably made up of two well-separated excited triplets.

There is an approximate way of visualizing the ground state and triplet excitations of the spin-1 sawtooth chain. Let us first introduce an algebraic parametrization for spins . Let $`u=\mathrm{cos}\theta e^{i\alpha }`$ and $`v=\mathrm{sin}\theta e^{i\beta }`$ denote the spin-$``$ and spin-$``$ states respectively of a spin-1/2 object. The angles $`\theta ,\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ parametrize the surface of the sphere $`S^3`$, lying in the ranges $`0\theta \pi /2`$, $`0\alpha ,\beta 2\pi `$. Then the three states of a spin-1 object are given by

$`|S^z=1>`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{3}u^2,`$ (2)
$`|S^z=0>`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{6}uv,`$ (3)
$`|S^z=1>`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{3}v^2,`$ (4)
where the normalization factors on the right hand sides are found by integrating with the measure $`d\mathrm{\Omega }=d\theta d\alpha d\beta \mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta /(2\pi ^2)`$. (For instance, $`𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }u^2u^2=1/3`$). Given two spin-1/2 objects at sites $`i`$ and $`j`$, the singlet state $`\psi _{i,j}`$ is given by $`(u_iv_ju_jv_i)`$. Then a trial ground state for the (infinitely long) spin-1 sawtooth lattice is given by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_0=\underset{i=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\psi _{i,i+1}.$$
(5)
This is the AKLT state involving all the sites of the chain . In this state, the expectation values of $`<\widehat{𝐒}_i\widehat{𝐒}_{i+1}>`$ and $`<\widehat{𝐒}_i\widehat{𝐒}_{i+2}>`$ are equal to $`4/3`$ and $`4/9`$ respectively . For the sawtooth chain, this trial state gives an energy per site, $`e_0`$, equal to $`10/9J1.111J`$, compared to the numerically obtained value of $`1.117J`$. The trial state in Eq. (5) is the unique state which has the maximum number of singlets between the composite spin-1/2 objects (of the site spin-1’s) on nearest neighbor sites. It is therefore not surprising that it gives such a good estimate of the ground state energy.

A trial state for the lowest triplet state is given by a superposition of the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(k)=\underset{n}{}e^{ikn}(\underset{i=\mathrm{}}{\overset{2n2}{}}\psi _{i,i+1})\psi _{2n1,2n+1}(\underset{i=2n+1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\psi _{i,i+1}),$$
(6)
where $`k`$ denotes the momentum of the state. Each of the wave functions on the right hand side (RHS) of Eq. (6) have the form of a AKLT state which omits the site labeled $`2n`$ (which lies at the top of a triangle in Fig. 6); it therefore describes a state with total spin-1. It is difficult to compute the expectation value of the Hamiltonian in the state in Eq. (6), particularly because the different states on the RHS are not orthogonal. However, we expect this state to have the lowest energy amongst the triplet trial states because each of the states on the RHS of Eq. (6) is the unique (up to translations) total spin-1 state having the maximum number of singlets between the composite spin-1/2’s on nearest neighbor sites. Similarly, a trial state for the next excited state can be constructed as a superposition of AKLT states which omit two spin-1’s, say, at sites $`2m`$ and $`2n`$ and with wave numbers $`k_1`$ and $`k_2`$. The total spin of such states can be either $`0`$, $`1`$ or $`2`$. The bottom of this band may be expected to correspond to a gap which is about twice as large as the gap to the bottom of the band with a single ”free” spin-1 excitation. This appears to be the case for the low-energy spectrum of the 19-site spin-1 sawtooth chain shown in Fig. 9; we see that the lowest spin-0 and spin-2 excitations have a gap which is about twice as large as the gap to triplet excitations. For the 21-site chain, we could only get three singlets and two triplets since the Hilbert space of the system is much larger than for the 19-site system. The low-energy spectrum for the states common to the 19-site and 21-site systems are very similar.

To summarize, we have numerically studied a variety of spin-1 and spin-1/2 clusters with triangular motifs. We find significant differences between the low-energy spectra of the spin-1/2 and spin-1 systems. For the Kagome clusters, the spin-1/2 model has a large number of possibly gapless singlet excitations and a finite gap to the lowest triplet excitation. Hence the specific heat goes to zero as a power law ($`T^2`$), while the magnetic susceptibility falls off exponentially as $`\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }E_T/k_BT)`$ on approaching 0 $`K`$ . On the other hand, the spin-1 Kagome clusters have a gap to all excitations; hence both the specific heat and the magnetic susceptibility are expected to fall off exponentially as one approaches 0 $`K`$. It is difficult to conclude from our studies if these differences are generic to integer spin versus half-odd-integer spin Kagome lattices. For the sawtooth chain, the spin-1/2 model is known to have a number of degenerate ground states; the lowest excitations are singlets and triplets with the same gap . The spin-1 sawtooth chain has a nondegenerate ground state; the lowest excited states are triplets which have a nonzero gap to the ground state. We have presented a simple physical picture of the low-energy states of the spin-1 sawtooth chain. Our numerical results will be useful for developing a quantitative analytical understanding of the low-energy states of the spin-1 Kagome clusters.

We thank C. Lhuillier for drawing our attention to the spin-1 clusters. DS thanks DST, India for financial support under project SP/S2/M-11/00. SR thanks CSIR, India (CSIR/SR/CSS/187) and DAE-BRNS, India (DAE0/SRS/CSS/091) for financial support.

Spin-spin correlation functions for a 21 site spin-1 cluster

| Site i | Site j | S=0 Ground State | S=1 Excited State |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 1 | 0.667 | 0.656 |
| 2 | 2 | 0.667 | 0.793 |
| 3 | 3 | 0.667 | 0.656 |
| 1 | 2 | -0.171 | -0.222 |
| 1 | 3 | -0.296 | -0.247 |
| 2 | 3 | -0.171 | -0.222 |
| 1 | 4 | -0.021 | 0.006 |
| 1 | 5 | 0.076 | -0.007 |
| 1 | 6 | -0.020 | -0.014 |
| 2 | 4 | -0.273 | -0.180 |
| 2 | 5 | 0.055 | 0.150 |
| 2 | 6 | 0.000 | 0.030 |
| 3 | 4 | 0.138 | 0.078 |
| 3 | 5 | -0.136 | -0.099 |
| 3 | 6 | 0.018 | -0.005 |

Spin-spin correlation functions for a 27 site spin-1/2 cluster

| Site i | Site j | S=0.5 Ground State | S=1.5 Excited State |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 13 | 13 | 0.250 | 0.250 |
| 14 | 14 | 0.250 | 0.250 |
| 15 | 15 | 0.250 | 0.250 |
| 13 | 14 | -0.128 | -0.050 |
| 14 | 15 | 0.025 | -0.107 |
| 13 | 15 | -0.128 | -0.050 |
| 14 | 10 | -0.010 | -0.009 |
| 14 | 11 | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| 14 | 12 | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| 13 | 10 | 0.002 | 0.008 |
| 13 | 11 | 0.004 | 0.020 |
| 13 | 12 | -0.009 | -0.009 |
| 15 | 10 | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| 15 | 11 | -0.012 | -0.013 |
| 15 | 12 | 0.005 | 0.001 |

Table 1. Spin-spin correlation functions $`<S_i^zS_j^z>`$ for the 21 site spin-1 Kagome cluster and the 27 site spin-1/2 Kagome cluster.

Figure Captions

1. A Kagome cluster of 15 sites.

2. A Kagome cluster of 18 sites.

3. A Kagome cluster of 21 sites.

4. A Kagome cluster of 24 sites.

5. A Kagome cluster of 27 sites.

6. A sawtooth chain of 21 sites.

7. Low-lying energy levels of three spin-1 Kagome clusters (in units of $`J`$). The singlet gaps are equal to 0.28 $`J`$, 0.27 $`J`$ and 0.25 $`J`$. The triplet gaps are equal to 0.35 $`J`$, 0.31 $`J`$ and 0.28 $`J`$.

8. Low-lying energy levels of three spin-1/2 Kagome clusters (in units of $`J`$). The lowest doublet/singlet gaps are equal to 0.04 $`J`$, 0.04 $`J`$ and 0.04 $`J`$.

9. Low-lying energy levels of two spin-1 sawtooth chains (in units of $`J`$). The triplet gaps are equal to 0.25 $`J`$ and 0.24 $`J`$. The singlet gaps are equal to 0.5 $`J`$ and 0.5 $`J`$.


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# On Normal Stratified Pseudomanifolds

## Foreword

For an entire version of this article the reader should go better to Extracta Math. Vol. 15 (3), 383-412.

A stratified pseudomanifold is normal if its links are connected. A normalization of a stratified pseudomanifold $`X`$ is a normal stratified pseudomanifold $`X^N`$ together with a finite-to-one projection $`𝔫:X^NX`$ preserving the intersection homology. Recall that intersection homology is the suitable algebraic tool for the stratified point of view: it was first introduced by Goresky and MacPherson in the $`pl`$-category and later extended for any topological stratified pseudomanifold , . Following Borel the map $`𝔫`$ is usually required to satisfy the following property: For each $`xX`$ there is a distinguished neighborhood $`U`$ such that the points of $`𝔫^1(x)`$ are in correspondence with the connected components of the regular part of $`U`$. A normalization satisfying the above condition always exists for any $`pl`$-stratified pseudomanifold , . In this article we study the main properties of the map $`𝔫`$. More precisely, we prove that $`𝔫`$ can be required to satisfy a stronger condition: it is a locally trivial stratified morphism preserving the conical structure transverse to the strata. We make an explicit construction of such a normalization for any topological stratified pseudomanifold. Our construction is functorial, thus unique. We exhibit the relationship between the stratifications of $`X`$ and $`X^N`$. Finally we prove that the normalization preserves the intersection homology with the family of perversities given in , see also ,. This family of perversities is larger than the usual one. With little adjust our procedure holds also in the $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ category.


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# Why everyone should know number theory

Pythagoras’ dictum that ‘all is number’ is well-known. But my impression is that even practicing mathematicians are often not entirely aware of the thoroughness with which we have developed this very idea over the centuries in the formation of our world-view, from the evolution of the cosmos to the structure of elementary particles, and even in attempts to describe the ultimate nature of human consciousness.

Any standard book on cosmology will tell you that the universe is a manifold with such and such structure. What is a manifold? Nothing but a collection of coordinate charts, i.e., open subsets of $`𝐑^n`$ (a collection of n-tuples of numbers) together with rules for gluing them together. What are the rules? They are maps, each from a subset of one coordinate chart to a subset of another coordinate chart. What is a map? In the modern view of set theory, a map from $`U`$ to $`V`$ is a subset of $`U\times V`$ satisfying certain conditions. Thus, when $`U`$ and $`V`$ are collections of tuples of numbers, so is a map from $`U`$ to $`V`$. Thus, we see that a manifold is nothing but a collection of collections of numbers. It is a rather instructive exercise to try to express in these terms extra structures on manifolds, such as a metric, or other objects in mathematics whose numerical nature we tend to forget (actually for good reasons). Going from the large to the small scale, according to quantum mechanics, the state of the entire universe is described by a single vector in a large Hilbert which is a tensor product in a natural way of many other Hilbert spaces. We can completely trace the evolution of (all objects in) the universe by keeping track of this vector. Such a vector is of course nothing but an $`\mathrm{}`$-tuple of numbers.

The most popular models of the brain these days views it as an ensemble of discrete state spaces, which themselves might be a collection of binary digits. That is, the state of the brain is a vector in $`S=\{0,1\}^N`$ for some large $`N`$, with rules for responding to various external stimuli, and it is hoped that sophisticate mental states can be modelled as certain subsets of $`S`$. The problem of describing consciousness amounts to locating a suitable region in $`S`$ correlated to the conscious state. (Of course each factor of $`S`$ should eventually come with a label allowing us to interprete the different states.)

In sum, modern science has implemented Pythagoras’ dictum to an absurd degree, certainly beyond anything he could have imagined. (If we recall his inspiration, on the other hand, whereby musical notes could be constructed via suitable combinations of modes of string oscillations, one could argue that his view was not very different from that of modern physics.)

Now, as briefly mentioned above, there are good reasons for forgetting that our models of the world are so dependent on numbers. One is that any given number or collection of numbers is too restrictive to convey the full richness of the object we are trying to model. The fact that we can use many different numbers, depending on our point of view is the genesis of the important idea of coordinate transformations. Working with coordinate transformations for a while then naturally leads to the idea that it might be profitable to work with mathematical models which themselves are not necessarily a priori numerical in nature. Hence, one now works with, say, abstract manifolds which do not have a priori coordinate charts, but which only admit coordinate charts, or vector spaces that do not have an a priori basis. The notion of an abstract set and its many descendants has undoubtedly given rise to tremendous economy of description and conceptual clarity in modern mathematics. (According to Dieudonne, the definition of tensors in physics texts are remnants from the days when the only sets used in modelling were sets of numbers.) Nonetheless, it is clear that in practice, even abstract objects are conceptually convenient substitutes for equivalence classes of numbers.

Given the discussion above, one might expect all mathematicians to be number theorists, and maybe in some sense they are. However, there is an even more essential reason why most practicing mathematicians can get by with a rather naive understanding of numbers and might be better off doing so. This is because of the extremely useful geometric picture of the real and complex numbers. Much of the time, it is perfectly reasonable to visualize the complex numbers as a geometric plane, and base all other constructions upon that basic picture, oblivious to the fine structure of our objects, pretty much as one can do plenty of classical physics without worrying about the fact that the macroscopic objects we are considering arise from the complicated interaction of elementary particles. Now, my claim is that the role of a number theorist in mathematics is exactly analogous to the role of a particle theorist in physics. That role being to probe the nature of the ultimate constituents of the objects that others study from a far coarser perspective. Thus, in contrast to the continuum picture of the complex plane, a number theorist is more likely to perceive of each individual number or groups of numbers in a discrete fashion, and in nested hierarchies reflecting various complexities, and even attach a symmetry group to each individual number. It is not that number theorists avoid the plane model, since it is also an important tool in much of number theory. It is just that the plane has a much more grainy and elaborate shape, with many levels of microscopic detail and structure. Now particle physicists would be viewed as denizens of a baroque world of their own making if not for the tremendous impact that the theory of the microscopic eventually has on the macroscopic world, and the hope that we will someday have a complete picture of how to reconstruct the macroscopic world from the structure of particles and their interactions. But can we make similar claims for number theory, that such detailed understanding of numbers such as the arithmetician strives for leads to some global macroscopic insight (e.g. for geometry)?

Affirmative examples are abundant. Recall for example the various impossibility proofs for ruler and compass constructions. There the problems posed were evidently macroscopic in nature. The resolution had to wait for a microscopic classification of at least certain classes of numbers in terms of their symmetry groups: The numbers that can be generated by ruler and compass constructions are all algebraic numbers with solvable symmetry groups having elementary 2-groups as the quotients of the composition series. Doubling the cube, for example, would have involved constructing a number, $`2^{1/3}`$ with $`S_3`$ symmetry group. The impossibility of squaring the circle was eventually understood only with Lindemann’s proof that $`\pi `$ is in fact a transcendental number. (Recall that a transcendental number is a number with an infinite symmetry group.)

This classification of numbers by symmetry groups, which is at present an intractable problem, is still just a beginning of the program to understand how to go from the microscopic to the macroscopic. It is not hard to ‘find’ all numbers with simple symmetry groups: For example, a number has symmetry group $`Z/2`$ iff it can be written in the form $`a+b\sqrt{n}`$ where $`a,b,n`$ are rational. The numbers with symmetry group $`Z/3`$ or $`S_3`$ are exactly the ones obtained from the rationals using field operations and cube roots. (It is slightly subtle to distinguish between the numbers with the two different types.) Among the deeper results already known are the theorem that a number can be obtained from the rationals through field operations and radicals iff its symmetry group is solvable, and the beautiful theorem of Kronecker and Weber that a number can be written as a finite Fourier series

$$a=\underset{j}{}q_j\mathrm{exp}(2\pi ik_j/n_j)$$

with rational coefficients iff its symmetry group is abelian. For example,

$$\sqrt{5}=e^{2\pi i/5}e^{4\pi i/5}e^{6\pi i/5}+e^{8\pi i/5}.$$

This is a prototype of a deep ‘parametrization’ theorem, which tells us exactly how to generate a class of numbers with an abstract definition. The vague notion I have introduced of attaining a microscopic understanding of numbers should be fleshed out by examples of this sort, until a more systematic program can be formulated.

We note that telling numbers apart by studying their symmetry groups is very analogous to telling spaces apart through discrete invariants. That is, one may be able to use geometric intuition to see that two spaces are homeomorphic, but to prove that they are not homeomorphic requires the use of discrete invariants. Similarly with numbers, symmetry groups provide us with convenient labels with which to unravel their amorphous geometry.

Leaving it to the experts to trace the history of such global ‘applications’ of number theory, we will move on to some thoroughly modern examples:

Suppose $`X`$ is a submanifold of $`𝐂^2`$ defined by a polynomial equation $`f(x,y)=0`$ with the property that the equation has only finitely many solutions in any ring that is finitely generated as a $`𝐙`$-algebra. Then $`X`$ admits a hyperbolic metric. (That is, the universal covering spaces of $`X`$ is the upper-half plane.)

Let $`X`$ and $`Y`$ be submanifolds of $`𝐏^n`$ defined by homogeneous polynomial equations $`f_1=0,\mathrm{},f_m=0`$ and $`g_1=0,\mathrm{},g_k=0`$ with integral coefficients. Suppose there is a ‘sufficiently large’ prime $`p`$ such that $`f_1=0,\mathrm{},f_m=0`$ and $`g_1=0,\mathrm{},g_k=0`$ have the same number of solutions in every finite field of characteristic $`p`$.

Then $`X`$ and $`Y`$ have isomorphic cohomology groups in each degree. (Grothendieck)

Let $`X`$ and $`Y`$ be subspaces of $`C^n`$ defined by polynomial equations $`f_1=0,\mathrm{},f_m=0`$ and $`g_1=0,\mathrm{},g_m=0`$ and assume:

(1) The same monomials appear with (different) non-zero coefficients in $`f_i`$ and $`g_i`$ for each $`i`$;

(2) The coefficients appearing in $`f_1,\mathrm{},f_m`$ are algebraically independent, and the same for the $`g_i`$’s.

Then $`X`$ and $`Y`$ have isomorphic cohomology groups in every degree. (Grothendieck)

After stating this theorem, I tried to find some concrete non-trivial examples with many variables. I found this hard to do because of the paucity of theorems on algebraic independence of numbers. It is very hard to tell if a given collection of numbers are algebraically independent. For example, it is not known if $`e`$ and $`\pi `$ are algebraically independent! Thus, after millenia of research, even a number-theorist’s understanding of the structure of numbers is embarrassingly primitive.

More generally, start with the subspace $`X`$ of $`𝐂^n`$ given by a set of polynomial equations

$$f_1=0,\mathrm{},f_m=0.$$

Let $`\sigma (X)`$ be the space obtained by hitting the coefficients of the the $`f_i`$’s with a field automorphism $`\sigma `$ of $`𝐂`$. Then $`X`$ and $`\sigma (X)`$ have isomorphic cohomology groups. (Grothendieck)

Let $`X`$ and $`Y`$ be simply connected submanifolds of $`𝐏^n`$ defined by homogeneous polynomial equations $`f_1=0,\mathrm{},f_m=0`$ and $`g_1=0,\mathrm{},g_k=0`$ with integral coefficients. Suppose there are two sufficiently large primes $`p`$ and $`l`$ such that the collections $`\{f_1,\mathrm{},f_m\}`$ and $`\{g_1,\mathrm{},g_k\}`$ are congruent modulo $`p`$ and $`l`$. Then $`X`$ and $`Y`$ have the same higher homotopy groups (Artin-Mazur).

The proof of most of these results are rather difficult, and require the machinery of arithmetical algebraic geometry in a heavy way. I should mention also that there are many results whose statements are purely in complex geometry, but whose proofs require arithmetic sophistication, such as Mori’s remarkable theorem that a Fano variety can be covered by rational curves, or Batyrev’s theorem that two birational Calabi-Yau Manifolds have the same Betti numbers. Also of interest in this connection is Deligne and Illusie’s arithmetic proof of the existence of Hodge decomposition for projective manifolds, a result usually thought to require hard analysis. Another interesting relation to analysis occurs in some recent work of Igor Rodnianski, who studies the Schrödinger equation on a torus and finds that the fundamental solution is more singular at rational times, and in general, the degree of the singularity at a given time $`t`$ depends on how well $`t`$ can be approximated by rationals. It is clear that the precise structure of numbers makes its influence felt in many different areas of mathematics.

With this smattering of examples in mind, we will move on to more general considerations, and spend the rest of our time discussing a theorem coming from meta-mathematics, which could be viewed as ‘explaining’ the ubiquity of number theory. There are at least two ways to view such results: One can be a hard-core mathematician and treat meta-mathematics with the same disdain that the artist reserves for the art-critic, and declare all meta-mathematical theorems to be irrelevant to true mathematics. On the other hand, one can regard meta-mathematics as a bridge linking mathematics to philosophy, taken in the purest sense, and thence to the eternal and most archetypal questions of human existence. My own view tends to be somewhere between those two extremes, but the example I am about to discuss provides such a nice answer to the title of this lecture that it is hard to resist believing in some genuine significance it must carry.

We start the discussion with some terminological prerequisites.

A subset $`S`$ of the natural numbers $`𝐍`$ is called listable if it can be algorithmically generated. That is, we are requiring the existence of an algorithm which if allowed to run indefinitely, will eventually have any element of $`S`$ in its output set, and no element of $`𝐍S`$. For example, the even numbers are clearly listable, and any of us can immediately produce a program which will do the trick. The fact that the prime numbers are listable is verified in many introductory courses in programming: For any given number, there is an obvious algorithm for checking whether or not it is prime. Then one can easily design a program which goes through the natural numbers one by one, outputs a given number if it is prime and moves onto the next number if it is not. When one speaks of an algorithm in this context, it suffices to understand the word in an intuitive sense, and take it on faith that it is possible to formalize this notion in a satisfactory way. But for the morbidly curious, I will state that an algorithm refers to a program written in the language whose alphabet consists of the natural numbers and a suitable collection of variables, and a collection of labels (for commands). The allowable commands are one of three types:

$$\begin{array}{ccc}V& & V+1\\ V& & V1\\ \text{IF}& V0& \text{GO TO}L\end{array}$$

This seemingly poor programming language has been sufficient thus far for implementing all processes that we feel intuitively to be an ‘algorithm’, and it has been shown that the algorithms arising from this language coincide with those coming from a wide variety of seemingly independent reasonable models of computation. The proposal that this will always be the case, so that me may with confidence use the above class of programs for the definition of an algorithm is known as Church’s thesis, and is universally accepted by computer scientists.

Here is a rather subtle example of a listable set: take a polynomial $`f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ with integer coefficients in $`n+1`$ variables. For any natural number $`t`$ we plug it into the first slot, yielding a polynomial of $`n`$-variables. We then ask whether or not the equation

$$f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)=0()$$

has a solution in natural numbers $`(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$. Now let $`S`$ be exactly the set of values $`t`$ for which this equation has a solution. It is an easy exercise to check that $`S`$ is a listable set (One important thing to realize is that one does not need an algorithm that figures out the solvability of (\*) in order to list $`S`$). The sets that arise in this fashion as a parameter set for solvable Diophantine equations is called a Diophantine set. Another characterization is to say that a subset of $`𝐍`$ is Diophantine if it is the collection of first coordinates to the set of solutions of a Diophantine equation.

We have just stated that every Diophantine set is listable. Now a remarkable theorem of Yuri Matiyasevich says that listable sets and Diophantine sets are in fact one and the same! This is a highly non-trivial theorem. One needs to shows that given an algorithm that lists a set $`S`$ of natural numbers, one can write down a polynomial $`f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ with the property that $`tS`$ iff $`()`$ has a solution. We call such an equation a Diophantine representation of the listable set. It is instructive to try out some elementary examples, such as even numbers, corresponding to the Diophantine equation $`t2x=0`$, or the squares, corresponding to $`tx^2=0`$. The composite numbers can be represented by the equation

$$t(x+2)(y+2)=0$$

One important example is the collection of numbers that are powers of a fixed number, say 2. This set is obviously listable, but the equation that we might naively want to use to express it as a Diophantine set $`t2^x=0`$ is not a polynomial equation. It is in fact non-trivial to find a polynomial for this set, and the study of such exponential equations is a key ingredient in Matiyasevich’s proof. (In fact, what he shows is that the set of triples $`a,b,c`$ such that $`c=a^b`$ has a Diophantine representation, in the sense that there is a three-parameter family of polynomials $`f(t_1,t_2,t_3,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ for which the set of triples satisfying the exponential relation is exactly the ‘solvable locus’ in the parameter space. It had been shown earlier by Julia Robinson that this statement would imply the general form of Matiyasevich’s theorem.) If one considers the case where $`S`$ is the listable set of prime numbers one begins to truly appreciate the uninuitive nature of the result under discussion. But this theorem turns out to have even more surprising consequences: One can reduce the most unlikely problems to problems about Diophantine equations! The key to such a reduction is the possibility of encoding many collections of mathematical objects in an algorithmic way into natural numbers (Gödel numbering in a loose sense), and translating statements about the objects into statements about subsets of $`𝐍`$.

As an example, consider the four-color theorem, given a computer-aided proof by Appel and Hakens. It says that for any planar map, four colors, say red, blue, green, yellow, are sufficient to color all its region so that no two regions sharing a boundary have the same color. (The map can be four-colored.) We reduce this problem to number theory as follows: The essence of the argument is the fact that we can reduce the problem to combinatorics by encoding the map into labels for the regions together with adjacency relations, i.e., into a planar graph whose vertices need to be colored in a suitable fashion. Consider the statement $`P(n)`$ which says that any map with $`n`$ regions can be four-colored. This is obviously an algorithimcally decidable assertion, because the number of (some obvious equivalence classes of) such maps is finite and the possible ways of choosing one of the colors for each region is finite. We just have to check if at least one of the ways works. Thus, we can construct a listable subset $`S`$ of $`𝐍`$ by simply listing all the numbers $`n`$ for which $`P(n)`$ is false. Now, let the equation $`f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)=0`$ be a Diophantine representation of $`S`$. Then $`S`$ is empty, i.e. the four-color theorem is true, iff the Diophantine equation has no solution. Matiyasevich’s theorem is in principle constructive, and in the case of the four-color theorem, one can actually write down the Diophantine equation whose unsolvability is equivalent to it.

Recently, a possibility emerged of reducing one of the most famous unsolved problems in topology, the Poincare conjecture, to the unsolvability of a Diophantine equation, although this reduction is not quite complete. Recall that the Poincare conjecture says that an orientable, compact, connected, simply-connected 3-manifold is actually homeomorphic to the 3-sphere. Since every compact 3-manifold has a finite triangulation, we need to prove the Poincare conjecture just for finite simplicial complexes with simplices from dimension 0 to dimension 3. However, one can easily enumerate all these in an algorithmic way (Exercise). Denote by $`\{s_0,s_1,s_2\mathrm{}\}`$ the collection of three-dimensional simplicial complexes enumerated thus. Out of this, one can attempt to enumerate algorithmically exactly the three-dimensional manifolds that satisfy the hypothesis of the conjecture:

(1) One first enumerates the manifolds by computing the Euler characteristic.

(2) Then for each manifold one computes the homology groups using the incidence relations suitably and enumerates just those with $`H_0=H_3=𝐙`$ and $`H_1=H_2=0`$.

(3) Now, there is an algorithm for computing the fundamental group of a simplicial complex as well, in the sense that one can find a finite presentation for it. So it might be hoped that from the list we have arrived at after step (2), one would be able to cull out the three-manifolds with trivial fundamental group. Unfortunately, the process for doing this is unknown at present because one cannot algorithmically decide from a presentation whether or not a group is trivial. Nevertheless, the experts seem to believe that such an algorithm should exist for the presentations arising from triangulated three-manifolds. So let us assume for the moment that we have such an algorithm in hand. Then we can use it to enumerate a collection of simplicial complexes $`\{c_0,c_1,\mathrm{}\}`$ which are exactly those satisfying the hypothesis of the Poincare conjecture.

Now the key point is this: there is an algorithm, due to Joachim Rubinstein, which given any finite three-dimensional simplicial complex will determine whether or not it is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere. Thus, we can go through the set of 3-d simplicial complexes enumerated above, and put $`nS`$ iff $`c_n`$ is not homeomorphic to the 3 sphere. We arrive thereby at a listable set $`S𝐍`$. According to Matiyasevich, there will then be a polynomial such that $`f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)=0`$ has a natural number solution in the $`x_i`$’s iff $`tS`$. Thus, provided we can find an algorithm for determining the triviality of the fundamental group of three-manifolds, the Poincare conjecture can be reduced to a number-theoretic statement that Diophantine equation in $`n+1`$ variables

$$f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)=0$$

has no solutions in $`𝐍`$.

Before drawing conclusions about the meaning of all this, let us consider finally what is perhaps an even more bizarre consequence of Matiyasevich’s theorem: Consider the notion of ‘formalizable theory’. This is a theory made up of a countable alphabet and a syntax, a countable collection of axioms and rules of inference. In the early years of this century many leading mathematicians and philosophers believed that ‘all’ of mathematics is formalizable in this sense, although we have at present rather strong grounds to be pessimistic. In any case, for any such theory, it is easy to put all the well-formed sentences in 1-1 correspondence with $`𝐍`$, i.e., we can number them $`\{s_0,s_1,s_2,\mathrm{}\}`$, in an algorithmic fashion. One can then also generate all the theorems of the theory by applying the rules of inference in some automatic way to the axioms. That is, the theorems of the theory will give rise to a listable set $`S=\{n𝐍|s_n\text{ is a theorem}\}`$. Corresponding to this, we again find a polynomial $`f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)`$ such that $`tS`$ iff $`f(t,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)=0`$ is solvable. Thus, a one-parameter family of Diophantine equations captures all we would like to know about the theorems of our theory. To check whether the 100th sentence in our theory is a theorem, we need ‘only’ check if $`f(100,x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)=0`$ has a solution is natural numbers. As an aside, we remark that these considerations can be used to see that there is a Diophantine equation for which the existence of a solution is undecidable.

What are we to make of all this? We leave it to the audience to decide for themselves what Matiyasevich’s theorem says about the role of number theory in mathematics. It should be admitted in this connection that thus far, no significant application has been found of this technique of ‘reduction to a Diophantine equation’ to other areas of mathematics. Rather, it is usually invoked to illustrate the difficulty of the subject of Diophantine equations. In the absence of more intricate developments from the theorem within the domain of mathematics proper, the importance to be attached to it will remain a matter of personal taste. However, in conjunction with results of the sort stated earlier, involving straightforward applications of number-theoretic insight, it is hard not to believe that there is something about number theory that is very fundamental and all-pervasive within the entire universe of mathematical objects. For years, I’ve felt the need to deny the popular conception of mathematics that equates it with the study of numbers. It is only recently that I’m returning to a suspicion that mathematics is perhaps about numbers after all. It is said that in ancient Greece the comparison of large quantities was regarded as a very difficult problem. So it was debated by the best thinkers of the era whether there were more grains of sand on the beach or more leaves on the trees of the forest. Equipped now with systematic notation and fluency in the arithmetic of large integers, it is a straightforward (albeit tedious) matter for even a schoolchild to give an intelligent answer to such a question. At present, our understanding of the complex numbers is about as primitive as the understanding of large integers was in ancient Greece. It is tempting to speculate that a precise and systematic knowledge of the structure of complex numbers (in particular a good notational system which would reflect arithmetic properties) will eventually render many problems of seemingly insurmountable conceptual difficulty trivial to schoolchildren in the far future.

The title of this lecture is obviously a bit of an exaggeration. It is no more true that everyone ‘should’ delve deeply into number theory than that a solid-state physicist should have a comprehensive knowledge of mathematics. A vigorous tension between people who feel the constant need to delve into fundamentals and those who gaily apply intuitive reasoning is an essential one for the health of any science. However, I will finish with a personal recollection of my encounter with the physicist Victor Weisskopf, whose lecture I attended in my first year of graduate school when I was still contemplating a research career in mathematical physics. I asked Weisskopf how much mathematics a physics student needs to know, to which he answered with a smile: ‘More.’ The general mathematician who has ever wondered how much knowledge of numbers is necessary for research could do far worse than heed the same advice.

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, TUCSON, AZ 85721