text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The All Sky Automated Survey (Pojmański 1997, 1998, 2000) has finally achieved its important goal - photometric monitoring of the large part of the sky (Paczyński 1997). After installing two wide-field ($`9^{}\times 9^{}`$) cameras in October 2000 (Pojmański 2001) ASAS gained capability to measure brightness of the observable stars on the nightly basis.

The prototype ASAS system using small commercial CCD camera, 135 mm f/1.8 telephoto lens and $`I`$-band (Schott RG-9, 3mm) filter was used in the years 1997-2000 to monitor 0.7% of the sky to the limiting magnitude of $`I13`$. During 3 years of operation it has collected over $`50\times 10^6`$ measurements of over 150.000 stars and detected almost 4000 variable stars.

The instrument, data acquisition and reduction pipeline, the ASAS Catalog and summary of the variability search were described by Pojmański (1997, 1998, 2000),

In summer 2000 we have installed upgraded ASAS-3 system in the dome of the 10” astrograph in the Las Campanas Observatory (operated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington). New hardware consisted of the three independent instruments each equipped with the automated paralactic mount, imaging optics with standard filter, 2K $`\times `$ 2K (14 um pixels) CCD camera and dedicated computer.

Two wide-field systems are equipped with the Minolta 200/2.8 APO-G telephoto lenses giving superb sharpness (FWHM $`<2`$ pixels) but also strong vignetting (40-50 % in the corners). Field of view is $`8.8^{}\times 8.8^{}`$. The two systems are equipped with standard $`I`$ and $`V`$ filters.

Narrow field instrument is $`D=250`$ mm, $`F=750`$ mm Cassegrain system with three element, Wyne-type field corrector. It gives sharp images (FWHM $`<2.2`$ pixels) in the field of $`2^{}`$ diameter. With $`2048\times 2048`$ CCD field of view is $`2.2^{}\times 2.2^{}`$. This system has $`I`$ filter in its optical path.

Three AP-10 (Apogee) commercial cameras were purchased for the project. High readout noise ($`>10e^{}`$) and 14 bit ADC were accepted as a trade-off for 5 sec readout time. Unfortunately two of three systems did not meet factory specifications (increased noise resulting in substantially reduced sensitivity, failed thermo-cooler) and had to be sent for repair after first months of operation. ASAS-3 was left with only wide-field $`V`$-band camera running.

## 2 Observations

Although mechanical quality of the mount allows for unguided exposures as long as 5-10 minutes for wide-field systems, only 3 minute exposures are taken in $`V`$-band giving the limiting magnitude of almost 15.0 and causing saturation of the stars brighter than $`V=8.5`$.

The whole sky was divided into 709 $`8^{}\times 8^{}`$ fields of which 422 (60%) with $`\delta <+20^{}`$ can be observed from Las Campanas (up to 300 on a single summer night). Due to the obscuration by the dome only fields with $`\delta <+2^{}`$ were observed by the $`V`$ instrument.

The routine observing schedule for each wide-field camera consists of cycling through the list of fields and picking up the one that is the most suitable for observation at the moment. Selection algorithm was not uniform enough, so equatorial fields were observed two times less often than the circumpolar ones.

Although the sky-flats are not best suited for the wide-field instruments we are using them both as the first order correction for vignetting and pixel-to-pixel sensitivity variation. Each night a series of sky-flat exposures is taken after the sunset, followed by the dark exposures.

Between 160 and 200 frames per night in $`V`$-band are taken each night (depending on the season), enabling camera to cover the whole available sky in less than two days. The raw data stream of one ASAS-3 instrument is about 1.5 GB per night. The loss-less compression reduces this stream to 0.7 GB per night (2-3 DAT-3 tapes per month), so we are considering some lossy compression in future.

## 3 Data Reduction

The data reduction pipe-line used for ASAS 1-2 observations was described by Pojmański (1998). ASAS-3 incorporates only some minor changes to that schematics.

Current optics gives sharp images and produces less scattered light than the previous one. In fact images can be so sharp (FWHM $``$ 1.4-1.6 pixels) that only aperture photometry can properly deal with them. Therefore we are now making simultaneous photometry through five apertures varying in size from 2 to 6 pixels in diameter. Each aperture data is process separately, so one can use data obtained with the smallest one for the faint objects and with the largest one for the brightest objects in the catalog.

Reducing ASAS-2 data we partly managed to correct photometry for saturation and bleeding and have included overexposed stars in the ASAS Catalog. Unfortunately current CCD cameras do not allow for such correction and current photometry of the saturated images is practically useless.

Less scattered light in the optics (partly due to the smaller opening: f/2.8 vs. f/1.8) have substantially improved the quality of the sky-flats allowing us to obtain good first-order correction of the vignetting.

The astrometry is now based on the ACT catalog. Using 3-d order polynomials in X and Y we usually obtain positional accuracy better than 0.2 pixels ( $`<3`$ arcsec).

The zero-point offset of our photometry is based on the Hipparcos (Perryman et al. 1997) data. A few hundred Hipparcos stars are usually located in each 9x9 deg field, We use them for precise offset calibration. The rms scatter between ASAS and Hipparcos calculated for all stars lying close to the frame center is about 0.015 mag (Fig. 3a) Close to the edges it is significantly larger (Fig. 3b) due to systematic effects caused by non-perfect flat-fielding. Erros are most prominent (Fig. 3c) when we compare brightness of the stars located in the overlapping areas of the neighboring fields (Fig. 3c).

The final catalog is divided in two parts now. The first, flexible one is relatively slow, but is capable to store information about all sources detected on the frame. This catalog is regularly analyzed and significant measurements are moved into the second, fast-access part of the catalog. The remaining data (usually single entries caused by the image flaws) are archived separately.

All data processing is normally done in real time on the instrument’s computer, but due to the necessity of fine-tuning of many elements of the pipe-line we are reprocessing the data from the tapes at the Warsaw head-quarters.

## 4 Variability Search

Data analyzed in this paper cover the period of one year (2001) of unattended operation. During that time all southern sky has been covered with observations at least 50-150 times. Over 50.000 frames have been collected in $`V`$-band. More than 10.000 for $`0^h6^h`$ quarter of the Southern Hemisphere alone. 1.3 million stars have been measured in this area more than 40 times. These stars were subject to variability analysis similar to that performed for the ASAS-2 data (Pojmański 2000).

First, light curves for each star in the field were extracted and median magnitude and dispersion were calculated (in each aperture separately). These were plotted on the magnitude-dispersion diagram (Fig. 2) and stars lying above the 95% centile were selected for the further analysis.

For each suspected star AOV period analysis (Schwarzenberg-Czerny 1989) was performed. Stars with statistics value larger than 10. were accepted. The other stars were subject to long-term variability tests: variance analysis in variable-length bins and trend analysis (average number of consecutive observations showing the same direction of brightness change). Proper thresholds for these observables were selected after tests. Finally all stars showing dispersion above 99.9% centile were added to the set.

As many as 18.000 stars have passed selection criteria and had to be further inspected. About 3.200 have passed visual inspection. The large number of rejected stars was due to several reasons: First - small number of observations, which usually forces AOV algorithm to produce spurious (or at least hard to verify) frequencies. Second - trends (slopes) in brightness changes of some stars which were partly produced by the increasing defocus of the optics in the course of the last two months. We decided not to include any light variation of this kind, although we are convinced some of these are real. Third - saturation, which has disappeared for some stars after they’ve got defocused.

The relative number of the variable stars detected so far (0.2% of the total) is 10 times lower than that obtained by ASAS 1-2 in the selected fields. This has been caused by several factors.

First, we have investigated only stars above 95% centile in the magnitude-dispersion diagram. while previously we have inspected almost 75% of the stars, discovering many low-amplitude variables. This will be done also for current data, but not earlier than more efficient algorithms for data selection are worked out.

Second, data span is one year now vs. almost three years previously. Since we have also omitted most of the slowly varying objects much lower number of long-term variables has been discoverd. Previously we have discoverd about 400 periodic stars (0.26%) and 3400 long-term ones (2.2%), while now about 2200 (0.16%) periodic and 1000 (0.08%) long-term.

Third, number of data points for each star is on average several times smaller than in ASAS-2 database.

Fourth, data sampling was different - a few times per night previously vs. once per night now. This resulted in significant aliasing. We will solve this problem in future observing each field for some time in the ”high frequency” mode - at least several times per night. As for now we can only present our best choice and try to improve lists available on the INTERNET as soon as new data are available.

506 variable stars observed by ASAS-2 are located in the currently analyzed region. 466 of them were observed by the ASAS-3 system. Most of the others were faint in $`I`$ band, so probably were to faint for the $`V`$ instrument. One was bright (053820-6937.4 $`I9.69`$), but since it is irregular variable it might have faded below our $`V`$ detection limit. Only about 100 of 466 stars were detected to be variable in $`V`$-band by the present analysis.

62 other objects were selected by the detection algorithm but were rejected after visual inspection. Only 3 of these were of ”periodic” type and in all cases primary rejection reason was small number of points and low power in spectrum. For example ASAS 053936-7958.6 with an amplitude of 0.1 and only 40 data points was not found to be variable by the present analysis, while ASAS-2 has easily detected its variability with almost 4000 measurements.

Most of the other light curves that did not pass visual inspection were of the ”long-term” type and were rejected because their slow varaition or sparse data were not convincing enough.

The other 300 (65%) stars were not even preselected by the selection algorithm, again due to small number of data points or minuit brightness changes. In most cases however, plotting their light-curves folded with the known period clearly reveals periodic variation.

## 5 Variability Classification

Only 2.000 of the 18.000 stars in the initial set of the candidate variable stars were selected by a quite robust long-term selection algorithm. Almost 1.500 of them have passed visual inspection.

The other 16.000 stars were selected by the AOV algorithm, thus their folded light curves had to be inspected visually one by one. Unfortunately, the relative number of true variables dramatically decreases as the AOV statistics comes closer to threshold, making verification process highly non-efficient.

Survey catalogs do not necessary need to provide object classification, but their usefulness increases if they do. However, since volume of the data is growing rapidly, such step requires some automation providing necessary speed, repeatability and consistency.

Several attempts have been made so far to create classification machines based on neural networks and machine learning (e.g. Eyer and Blake 2002, Wozniak et al. 2002b) or on direct parametric analysis (e.g. Udalski et al. 1999a, for cepheids, Ruciński 1993, 1997, Szymański, Kubiak, Udalski 2001 for contact binaries).

Here we propose simplified approach that mimics nonlinear neural network behavior. Its parameters (”weights”) can be easily defined in terms of the light curve parameters. ”Teaching” in this case is done by defining the multidimensional solids describing selected classes. Classification could then be done by selecting the closest solid in the multidimensional parametric space. To simplify our task we use carefully selected two-dimensional cross-section of that space.

Ruciński (1993, 1997) has shown that light curves of the contact configurations of W UMa systems can be easily described using only two coefficients, $`a_2`$ and $`a_4`$, of the cosine series $`a_i\mathrm{cos}(2\pi i\theta )`$. We have extended this approach tested behavior of the semi-detached and detached configurations in the $`a_2`$-$`a_4`$ plane.

Several thousands theoretical light curves were calculated using the Wilson-Devinney (1971) code for a wide range of binary parameters: masses $`M_1,M_2`$ temperatures $`T_1,T_2`$ and radii $`R_1,R_2`$ characteristic for the main sequence O…M stars, periods $`P`$ varying from the contact configuration to 100 days and inclinations $`i`$ in the range of $`60^{}90^{}`$. For each combination of $`M_1,M_2`$ and $`P`$ we have varied $`R_1`$ and $`R_2`$ between the main sequence and the Roche lobe sizes.

Harmonic series of the form:

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}(a_i\mathrm{cos}(2\pi i\phi )+b_i\mathrm{sin}(2\pi i\phi ))$$
(1)
was then fitted to all light curves.

Fig. 5a shows coefficients $`a_2`$ and $`a_4`$. Filled and open dots represent contact and detached configurations respectively, while pluses and crosses denote semi-detached configurations with primary and secondary filling its Roche lobe, respectively. Grey area covers contact configurations calculated by Ruciński (1993, Fig. 6).

Fig. 5a clearly indicates that in most cases contact, semi-detached and detached configurations can be unambiguously distinguished in the $`a_2`$-$`a_4`$ plane. However, looking at individual light curves one can note some confusion introduced by widely used $`EW`$, $`EB`$, $`EA`$ classification of the light curves: contact or almost contact configurations do not necessary have minima of the same depth; there are frequent semi-detached configurations with equal minima; detached binaries do not necessary have flat maxima. Thus, although often used in such context, $`EW`$, $`EB`$ and $`EA`$ classes do not correspond entirely to the contact/detached discrimination. Since we feel that the later is physically more interesting, we would prefer to recognize “c”, “sd”, and “d” configurations. Thus we will classify as $`EC`$ contact configurations lying above the upper line in Fig. 5a, as $`ED`$ detached binaries located below the lower line, and as $`ESD`$ remaining semi-detached systems located between the dashed lines.

In case of real data some additional steps have to be taken before applying Fourier decomposition. First the “base” frequency, $`f_0`$, that equals to the frequency of the eclipsing system and is half of the pulsation frequency for the pulsating stars has to be located in the power spectrum. AOV spectrum puts most of the power either into $`2f_0`$, $`f_0`$ or even $`2/3f_0`$, depending on the light curve shape and distribution of observations - complicating automation of the process.

Fortunately a slightly slower ORTPER code (AOV Multiharmonic Periodogram for Uneven Sampling, Schwarzenberg-Czerny, 1996) usually properly selects $`2f_0`$ for the pulsating stars and $`f_0`$ or $`2f_0`$ for eclipsing light curves. The final test on $`f_0`$ is done performing Fourier decomposition using $`f_0`$. In properly phased light curve we expect the $`a_2`$ term to be dominant, so if we obtain $`a_4/a_2>1.`$ we have to halve the initial value of $`f_0`$.

The second step necessary for direct comparison of the Fourier coefficients is consistent determination of the zero phase. We do that by locating minimum on the reconstructed light curve.

In the present work we use only the first 4 harmonics. This reduces our ability to recognize tiny features on the light curves in return for smaller coefficient scatter.

Large data set of uniform light curves is necessary to efficiently divide parametric volume into class solids. We have used 3 major sources of data: our own (ASAS) light curves that were provisionally classified into $`DSCT`$, $`RRAB`$, $`RRC`$, $`DCEP`$, $`EW`$, $`EB`$ and $`EA`$ classes; OGLE SMC and LMC cepheids (Udalski et al. 1999a, 1999b) carefully divided into $`DCEP_{FU}`$ and $`DCEP_{FO}`$ (fundamental and first overtone) classes; and subset of the OGLE Bulge variables (Wozniak 2002a), that were provisionally divided into pulsating and eclipsing groups.

In Fig. 5b the OGLE Bulge eclipsing variables (Wozniak 2002a) are plotted, while in Fig. 5c ASAS data from this paper. It is interesting that in case of OGLE data significant deficiency of the semi-detached systems could be spotted.

In Fig. 5d the OGLE Bulge pulsating stars are plotted to show that $`a_2`$-$`a_4`$ plane cannot be used for separating pulsating and eclipsing systems. Instead $`b_2`$-$`b_4`$ or $`a_4`$-$`b_4`$ coefficient pairs (Fig. 5ab) provide necessary segregation.

Finally we need to recognize different types of pulsating stars. We have done this using $`a_{42}=\frac{a_4}{a_2}`$ vs. $`\phi _{42}=\phi _4\phi _2`$ (radial coordinates, Fig. 5a,b) and $`\mathrm{log}P`$ vs. $`a_{42}`$ (Fig. 5c,d) diagrams, on which categorized ASAS data and OGLE Bulge pulsating stars were plotted. The later one is an equivalent of the well known $`R_{21}`$ vs. $`\mathrm{log}P`$ diagram used for cepheid classification. Although ASAS data were scattered, they provided necessary clues to define sharp polygons enclosing different classes of OGLE Bulge variables in both planes.

Besides the period $`P`$ three other non-Fourier parameters describing light curves were needed to reduce the number of wrong classifications: two describing difference in minima and maxima levels and the third describing vertical asymmetry of the light curve (fraction of the measurements brighter than the average). They were necessary, because the fourth order harmonics could not properly recognize narrow, unequal minima or sharp maxima.

Process of automated classification is now straightforward: each class is described by a set of polygons in several cross-sections (planes) of the parametric space. In each plane score function is calculated: it equals 1.0 inside the polygon and decreases exponentially outside the polygon. The rate of decrease depends on the accuracy with which we determine the observable, so even large distances from the polygons could be accepted for noisy data. All scores are multiplied and the class with the highest result is selected as a winner. If other classes have similar scores (at least 75% of the maximum) multiple classification is accepted. If the highest score is below 0.50 uncertainty flag (:) is added, while for very low scores (less then 0.2) general class of $`PULSE`$ is applied. So far we have defined three eclipsing classes: $`EC`$, $`ESD`$, $`ED`$ and six pulsating: $`DSCT`$, $`RRAB`$, $`RRC`$, $`DCEP_{FU}`$, $`DCEP_{FO}`$, $`M`$.

Such algorithm has many advantages. It is fast, easy to verify and very flexible. Adding new observables (like location in color-magnitude or period-luminosity diagrams, spectral type etc.) is instant and needs only defining a new polygon in the parametric space. The obvious disadvantage is that only predefined classes could be selected.

In this paper, using only one color photometric data, we are in fact classifying data according to the the light curve shape and period only. Therefore caution must be taken not to over-interpret results: Many $`RRC`$ objects might be in fact $`EC`$ or $`DSCT`$. The algorithm will usually recognize and mark such situations. $`DCEP`$ classes are based on SMC/LMC data and will not entirely correspond to Galactic objects. $`DCEP_{FU}`$ are usually easily recognized by their $`RRAB`$-like shapes, but around $`\mathrm{log}P=1.`$ many sinusoidal cases are encountered and probability of wrong classification increases. $`M`$ (Mira) class was defined for objects with $`\mathrm{\Delta }V>2.`$ and $`P>70^\mathrm{d}`$, so some SR, IR and even CV objects might have been also classified as $`M`$.

We have discovered many “M” shaped variables, both in ASAS and OGLE data, with periods of tens of days. The algorithm tends to classify them as $`EC`$ or $`ESD`$, implying they are contact or semi-detached giant stars. In fact in case of OGLE variables most of them are located close to the Red Clump (Udalski, 2002), so there is no inconsistency. That is why we did not restrict $`EC`$ class to the short periods only.

Another problem with automated classification is caused by semiregular and irregular variables, which often show strong signal in the power spectrum. Unless detected by other means these stars have a good chance to be falsely classified. We have tried to define $`SR`$ and $`IR`$ classes in terms of long-term variations in the light curve, but results are not satisfactory yet. For the present analysis we decided to relay on the initial visual inspection of light curves, during which we have selected about 1100 irregular ones that were marked as $`MISC`$ and were not subject to automated classification. These are mostly semiregular ($`SR`$), irregular ($`IR`$), slow irregular ($`L`$), $`LBV`$ and other less regularly changing stars with time scales of variation between 10 and 200 days.

## 6 The catalog

Current list of candidate variable stars in the first quarter of the Southern Hemisphere contains 3126 stars.

For each star the following data are provided: ASAS identification $`ID`$ (coded from the star’s $`\alpha _{2000}`$ and $`\delta _{2000}`$ in the form: $`hhmmssddmm.m`$), period $`P`$ in days (or characteristic time scale of variation for irregular objects), $`T_0`$ \- epoch of minimum brightness (for eclipsingi stars) or maximum brightness (for pulsating stars), $`V_{max}`$ \- brightness at maximum , $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ \- amplitude of variation, $`Type`$ \- one of the predefined classes: $`EC`$, $`ESD`$, $`ED`$, $`DSCT`$, $`RRC`$, $`RRAB`$, $`DCEP_{FU}`$, $`DCEP_{FO}`$, $`M`$, $`PULS`$ and $`MISC`$.

67 stars marked with “:” were inspected visually, and in about 20 cases original classification was changed (in most cases for highly distorted $`ED`$ curves, that were classified as pulsating ones). 680 objects have multiple classification. For 330 cases this is exclusively due to $`EC/ESD`$ or $`ED/ESD`$ confusion, but for 180 other this is a more serious $`EC/RRC`$ or $`EC/DSCT`$ double classification. Quite often visual inspection may help to remove such degeneracy.

$`ELL`$ and $`SR`$ suffixes were added in several (54 and 45) cases for almost purely sinusoidal light curves and for evident long term changes respectively.

Search for detected variables in the SIMBAD database revealed only 800 matches with stars known to be variable (almost 200 of them are in the the SMC and LMC fields), so over 75% of stars are probably new detections.

Table 6 contains a compact version of the catalog. Only four columns are listed for each star: identification $`ID`$, period $`P`$, $`V`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$. Column $`ID`$ also contains some flags - ”:” if classification was uncertain, ”?” if multiple classes were assigned, ”v” if SIMBAD lists a star to be variable. Table 6 summarizes classification results.

Figs. 7 through 39 in the Appendix show thumbnail pictures of all light curves. Only $`ID`$ is given for each. For periodic variables phase in the range (-0.1 - 2.1) is plotted along the $`x`$-axis, while for Mira’s and miscellaneous stars - HJD in the range (2451800-2452300). On the $`y`$-axis magnitudes are given. Larger ticks always mark 1 magnitude intervals and vertical span is never smaller than 1 mag.

The full catalog of variable stars observed by the ASAS system containing more classification details and complete photometric data is available over the INTERNET:

http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/$``$gp/asas/asas.html

or

http://archive.pinceton.edu/$``$asas

.

## 7 Conclusions

We have presented preliminary results of the search for variable stars in the southern hemisphere. Only a quarter of available data covering right ascension between $`0^\mathrm{h}`$ \- $`6^\mathrm{h}`$ has been presented in this paper. Over 3000 variable stars were found so far among 1,300,000 stars brighter than $`V15`$ mag. Comparison to the ASAS-2 data suggests, that number of variable stars should increase 3-10 times, as more observations are collected.

Most of these stars belong to the ”periodic” class, as we have not included many candidate objects with the ”long-term” variation. There is a large subset of bright ($`V<12`$ mag) detached binaries - useful for distance scale calibration - perfect targets for small size spectroscopic instruments.

Fully automated classification algorithm that we have described in this paper, efficiently separates stars into predefined classes. For a good quality data its efficiency reaches 100% in those regions of the parametric space, where the classes do not overlap. For poor data or overlapping regions alternative classes are always proposed. Currently our algorithm works properly only if the highest peak in the power spectrum corresponds to the true frequency or one of its harmonics, which is not necessary true for noisy, poorly sampled data. What is still missing is a robust algorithm that will allow to separate light curves into strictly periodic and irregular ones.

However, at this time we feel it is better to publish imperfect data and to allow a broad range of astronomers to see the diversity of raw results and to work on variety of scientific topics. Note a recent paper by Pietrukowicz (2001), who used the past ASAS data to determine period changes in cepheids in the LMC.

Processing of the remaining ASAS data is in progress, so we plan to release next parts of this catalog soon. Also, four ASAS instruments are taking data, covering the whole southern sky each night. Over 120,000 images have been collected so far in $`V`$, $`I`$ and $`R`$ bands, covering the whole hemisphere more than 300 times. Soon real time photometry will be achieved, finally allowing us to setup the Early Warning System.

## 8 Acknowledgments

This project was made possible by a generous gift from Mr. William Golden to Dr. Bohdan Paczyński, and funds from Princeton University. It is a great pleasure to thank Dr. B. Paczyński for his initiative, interest, valuable discussions, and the funding of this project.

I am indebted to the OGLE collaboration for the use of facilities of the Warsaw telescope at LCO, for their permanent support and maintenance of the ASAS instrumentation, and to The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington for providing the excellent site for the observations. I am especially indebted to Marcin Kubiak for providing selected light curves from the OGLE Bulge database.

This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France.

This work was partly supported by the KBN 2P03D01416 grant.

References

* Eyer, L. and Blake, C. 2002, Radial and Nonradial Pulsations as Probes of Stellar Physics, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 259, 160.
* Paczyński, B. 1997, “The Future of Massive Variability Searches”, in Proceedings of 12th IAP Colloquium: “Variable Stars and the Astrophysical Returns of Microlensing Searches”, Paris (Ed. R. Ferlet), p. 357.
* Perryman, M.A.C. et al. 1997,  Astron. Astroph,  323, L49.
* Pojmański, G. 1997, Acta Astr., 47, 467.
* Pojmański, G. 1998, Acta Astr., 48, 35.
* Pojmański, G. 2000, Acta Astr., 50, 177.
* Pojmański, G. 2001, in: Small Telescope Astronomy on Global Scales, ASP Conference Series Vol. 246, IAU Colloquium, 183, 53.
* Pietrukowicz, P. 2001, Acta Astr., 51, 247.
* Ruciński, S. 1993, PASP, 105, 1433.
* Ruciński, S. 1997, Astron. J., 113, 1112.
* Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A. 1989, MNRAS, 241, 153.
* Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A. 1996, Astrophys. J., 460, L107.
* Szymański, M., Kubiak, M., Udalski, A. 2001, Acta Astr., 51, 259.
* Udalski, A., Soszyński, I., Szymański, M., Kubiak, M., Pietrzyński, G., Wozniak, P., Żebruń, K. 1999a, Acta Asr., 49, 223.
* Udalski, A., Soszyński, I., Szymański, M., Kubiak, M., Pietrzyński, G., Wozniak, P., Żebruń, K. 1999b, Acta Astr., 49, 437.
* Udalski, A. 2002, private communication., , .
* Wilson, R. E. and Devinney, E. J. 1971, Astrophys. J., 166, 605.
* Wozniak, P., Udalski, A., Szymański, M., Kubiak, M., Pietrzyński, G., Soszyński, I., Żebruń, K. 2002a, Acta Astr., 52, 129.
* Wozniak, P. et al. 2002b, American Astronomical Society Meeting, 199, 130.04.

Appendix.
ASAS Atlas of Variable Stars. 0<sup>h</sup> \- 6<sup>h</sup> Quarter of the Southern Hemisphere. Only first 16 light curves of each type are presented here. Complete set of thumbnails can be obtained from
http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/$``$gp/asas/appendix.ps.gz or
http://archive.princeton.edu/$``$asas/appendix.ps.gz

Stars classified as EC.
Stars classified as ESD.
Stars classified as ED.
Stars classified as DSCT.

Stars classified as RRAB.
Stars classified as DCEP-FU.
Stars classified as DCEP-FO.
Stars classified as PULS.
Stars classified as MIRA.


format: text

text:
# Magnetization of small lead particles

## Abstract

The magnetization of an ensemble of isolated lead grains of sizes ranging from below $`6`$ nm to $`1000`$ nm is measured. A sharp disappearance of Meissner effect with lowering of the grain size is observed for the smaller grains. This is a direct observation by magnetization measurement of the occurrence of a critical particle size for superconductivity, which is consistent with Anderson’s criterion.

In 1957 Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) introduced their mechanism for superconductivity, which gives an excellent description of low $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ superconductivity in bulk samples. Very soon afterwards, the question of the size dependence of superconductivity arose, and in $`1959`$ Anderson claimed that for grains so small such that their level spacing $`d`$ is larger than the bulk gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, superconductivity would not exist, since such a grain will not have even one condensed level. Anderson’s statement was particularly intriguing since it claims, on the other hand, that grains much smaller than the coherence length $`\xi `$ do have superconducting properties (the condition $`d=\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is fulfilled at a grain of size $`\xi ^{(1/3)}\lambda _\mathrm{F}^{(2/3)}\xi `$ where $`\lambda _\mathrm{F}`$ is the Fermi wave length). Motivated by this statement, Giaver and Zeller  measured the conductivity of small superconducting grains. They have indeed confirmed that grains much smaller than $`\xi `$ have a gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in their single particle spectrum, but they could not confirm the loss of this property at smaller grains, in the regime where $`d>\mathrm{\Delta }`$ (to be called the ultrasmall regime). Only recently Ralph Black and Tinkham (RBT) have shown that a superconducting property persists when the size of the grain is reduced until the Anderson limit (where $`d=\mathrm{\Delta }`$), but is lost in the ultrasmall regime. RBT have measured the tunneling spectrum of single Aluminum grains in the range of $`35`$ nm, and have shown that for the larger grains, for which $`d<\mathrm{\Delta }`$, there exists a gap of $`2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in the tunneling spectrum of grains with an odd number of particles. The smaller grains, with $`d\mathrm{\Delta }`$ did not show this property. This beautiful experiment initiated vast theoretical work, in which superconductivity of small grains was studied, and particularly the crossover between the regime where $`d>\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and the ultrasmall regime (see  and references therein). However, on the experimental side the work of RBT remained the single work which investigated the crossover across the Anderson limit.

In this paper we present measurements of the magnetization of an ensemble of $`10^{12}`$ Pb grains, ranging in size from $`1000`$ nm down to grains smaller than $`6`$ nm. The larger grains, down to $`30`$ nm in size, showed diamagnetic response with the well known finite size correction. However, at a smaller size, estimated to be roughly $`5`$ nm, an abrupt change was found in the diamagnetic response, which, within the experimental accuracy, vanishes for the smaller grains. The above size is in agreement with the Anderson limit for lead. Thus, our results suggest that grains with $`d<\mathrm{\Delta }`$ show the Meissner effect, and grains with $`d>\mathrm{\Delta }`$ do not. In the case of RBT the loss of the superconducting property at the Anderson limit was a direct consequence of the criterion itself, i.e. as soon as $`d>\mathrm{\Delta }`$ the superconducting gap can not be distinguished from the gap due to the finite level spacing. For the Meissner effect measured here, the relation between the Anderson limit and the existence of the superconducting property is less immediate, and therefore of a deep physical meaning, reflecting the connection between the superconducting correlations and the Meissner effect. It suggests that indeed, as long as there are even a few condensed levels, their correlations suffice to create the Meissner effect, but as soon as there is not even one condensed level, the Meissner effect disappears.

A measurement of the magnetic response of small superconducting grains required the possibility to produce a large ensemble of small grains, with good size control, which are isolated one from the other. We achieved this by using a method developed in our laboratory in 1990 . The lead particles are deposited into the pores of polycarbonate nuclepore membranes (NP), and due to the confinement in the pores the particles do not agglomerate. The deposition of lead particles into NP membranes was performed by counter-current diffusion of a Pb-salt and a reducing agent from opposite sides of the membranes (see experimental setup in Fig.1). These hydrophilic polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) coated polycarbonate membranes have straight - through pores distributed randomly on the surface and penetrating the surface at an angle of incidence $`\pm 34^{}`$. The NP membranes were equilibrated in triple distilled water for an hour; the membranes were mounted into a cell shown in Fig.1.

Upon completion of the mounting process, the two stirred chambers were filled with lead salt on the dull side of the membrane and with reducing agent on the shining side. The reducing agent was $`0.2\mathrm{M}`$ aqueous $`\mathrm{NaBH}_4`$ solution. The lead salt solution was $`80\mathrm{c}\mathrm{c}`$ of $`0.03\mathrm{M}\mathrm{PbNO}_3+20\mathrm{c}\mathrm{c}`$ of $`1\mathrm{M}\mathrm{HNO}_3`$. These two solutions were introduced simultaneously to the two chambers of the diffusion cell. The deposition time varied with the pore size of the membranes and the desired lead loading into the pores. This time varied from a few minutes for a full loading of a $`1000`$ nm membrane to a few hours for a $`10`$ nm NP. Upon completion of the deposition process, both chambers were emptied and filled with absolute alcohol for one minute. The NP membranes were then dried on blotting paper. Note that the lead salt was introduced in an acidic solution to prevent the formation of hydroxide species which may lead to the formation of lead oxide. To reveal the morphology of the lead particles in the pores of the NP membranes TEM (transmission electron microscope) imaging was carried out. NP membranes were embedded in epoxy resin and sectioned into thin ($`5070`$nm) slices. Slices were cut parallel to the NP membrane surface, thus approximately perpendicular to the pores in the membranes. Fig. 2 shows such slices through the membranes for few NP diameters. In Fig. 3 we show a slice which is almost parallel to the pores of the NP. The TEM micrographs show good control of the diameter of the embedded particles. However the particle length, especially at high loading, varies as shown in Fig. 3. The lead weight content per unit surface of a membrane was determined by inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP) after digestion of lead into a $`65\%\mathrm{HNO}_3`$ solution. XRD characterization of the lead loaded NP membranes showed the presence of metallic lead.

Magnetization measurements were performed with a $`\mathrm{MPMS}_2`$ field screened magnetometer. All magnetization curves presented are corrected for the diamagnetic contribution of the polymeric membranes. For the larger grains, of sizes $`301000`$ nm, we obtain the known magnetization curves of small superconducting particles. In Fig. 4 we present Magnetization ($`M`$) vs. magnetic field ($`H`$) curves at $`5K`$ for few pore sizes in the above range. These measurements were performed with $`H`$ parallel to the membrane surface. The data were normalized according to Eq. (1), assuming that the difference between the free energy density $`g_ng_s`$ is independent of the size of the particles;

$$g_ng_s=_0^hM𝑑H_e=A$$
(1)
where $`H_e`$ is the external field and $`A`$ is the area under the magnetization curve . Since the slope of the magnetization curve is smaller for a small specimen than for a bulk one of the same shape, the magnetization continues to higher fields to have the same area, i.e. the critical field, $`h`$, as determined from the intercept of the tangent to the rising branch of magnetization and the horizontal field independent branch, shifts to higher fields for smaller particles. We observe this shift, as well as a shift of the magnetization minimum to higher field values upon the decrease in the diameter of the particles. Plotting $`h/H_c`$ as function of $`1/R`$, where $`R`$ is the radius of the pores in the NP membrane and $`H_c`$ is the critical field for the bulk lead ($`H_c=415`$ Oe at $`5K`$), we obtain (see insert of Fig 4) the relationship

$$\frac{h}{H_c}=1+\frac{b}{R}$$
(2)
with $`b=7.6210^6`$ cm (for the data in Ref.  a similar relation was found, with $`b=1110^6`$ cm).

However, for smaller grains, of sizes $`10`$ nm and below, we find a very different behavior of $`M`$ vs. $`H`$. We use a membrane with $`10`$ nm pores, and control the size of the lead grains inside these pores by varying the deposition time. The content of lead per unit area of the membranes was determined by the ICP technique. We find that below $`5\mu \mathrm{g}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ loading no Meissner effect is observed, see Fig. 5. The transition, as function of size, between the regime where Meissner effect is observed and the regime where it is not observed is sharp, as can be seen in the insert of Fig. 5, where the integral values under the magnetization curves as function of the lead loadings are drawn. We estimate the size of the grains for which the transition occurs to be below $`6`$ nm. This estimate is consistent with the condition $`d=\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for lead particles, which gives an approximate size of $`5`$ nm. This is the central result of this paper.

Another observation for these grain sizes is that the critical field, $`h`$, does not obey Eq. (2), but is considerably smaller. We do not have a clear understanding of the physics responsible for this observation. We would like to mention, in this regard, that recent experimental and numerical works have found that at grain sizes of this order, lead grains change their crystalline structure due to the large portion of surface atoms. Such a change could affect the superconducting properties of the grain. We would like to stress that the lowering of the critical field and the loss of the Meissner effect occur at different grain sizes, and are therefore clearly two different phenomena.


text:
# Swing wave-wave interaction: Coupling between fast magnetosonic and Alfvén waves

## I Introduction

Many observed phenomena can be associated with wave-like motions, increasing interest in the study of wave dynamics. Linear perturbation theory considers an arbitrary disturbance as a superposition of independently evolving eigenmodes, thus simplifying the description of the process. However, interactions between different harmonics as well as between different kind of waves leads to the appearance of substantially new phenomena.

In the case of large-amplitude acoustic waves, nonlinearity leads to the generation of higher harmonics which cause steepening of the wave front and consequently the formation of shock waves. Also developments in plasma theory raise interest in the study of interactions between different waves. It is shown that nonlinear interaction leads to the generation of resonant triplets (or multiplets) in the plasma gal (1, 2, 3). The nonlinear interaction between magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves has been studied in various astrophysical situations gold (4, 5, 6, 7). Additionally, MHD wave coupling due to inhomogeneity of the medium ion (8, 9, 10, 11, 12) or a background flow chag1 (13, 14, 15) has also been developed.

Recently, a new kind of interaction between sound and Alfvén waves has been discussed by Zaqarashvili . The physical basis of this interaction is the parametric influence; sound waves cause a periodical variation in the medium’s parameters, which affects the velocity of transversal Alfvén waves and leads to a resonant energy transformation into certain harmonics. In a high $`\beta `$ plasma, it is shown that periodical variations of the medium’s density, caused by the propagation of sound waves along an applied magnetic field, results in Alfvén waves being governed by Mathieu’s equation (here $`\beta =8\pi p/B^21`$, where $`p`$ is the plasma pressure and $`B`$ is the magnetic field). Consequently, harmonics with half the frequency of sound waves grow exponentially in time. The same phenomenon was developed in the case of standing sound waves zaq2 (17). The process of energy exchange between these different kinds of wave motion is called swing wave-wave interaction. This terminology arises from an analogy with a swinging pendulum, as described below.

In this paper we further develop the theory for interactions between fast magnetosonic waves and Alfvén waves. For clarity of presentation we first recall the pendulum analogy and show that under certain conditions the energy of spring oscillations along the pendulum axis is transformed into the energy of transversal oscillations of the pendulum, and vice versa. Following a discussion of the general physics of swing interaction we go on to consider the example of coupling between fast magnetosonic waves propagating across an applied magnetic field and Alfvén waves propagating along the field. Finally, we briefly describe the applications of the theory to various astrophysical situations.

## II Swing pendulum

It is useful to begin with a mechanical analogy of the wave dynamics in a medium (see sag (2) in the case of three-wave interaction). Consider a mathematical pendulum with mass $`m`$ and equilibrium length $`L`$ (see Fig. 1). Part of the pendulum length consists of a spring with stiffness constant $`\sigma `$. There are two kinds of oscillation in this system: transversal oscillations due to gravity and spring oscillations along the pendulum axis due to the elasticity of the spring. This is a swing pendulum.

In equilibrium, gravity is balanced by the stiffness force $`T_0`$ of the spring so that

$$T_0=\sigma h=mg,$$

where $`g`$ is the gravitational acceleration and $`h`$ is the equilibrium length of the spring (the natural length of the spring is supposed negligible).

For displacement $`x`$ along the pendulum axis, the stiffness force becomes

$$T=\sigma (h+x)=mg+\sigma x.$$

Newton’s second law applied along the pendulum axis, when the pendulum makes an angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ with the vertical (see Fig.1), gives the equation of motion (the centrifugal force due to the transversal oscillation is neglected)

$$\ddot{x}+\frac{\sigma }{m}x=g(\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Theta }1).$$

Due to the oscillation of the spring along the axis, the pendulum length is a function of time and the equation of transversal motions of the pendulum under gravity is

$$\ddot{\mathrm{\Theta }}+\frac{g}{L+x}\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Theta }=0.$$

For clarity of presentation a term $`2\dot{x}\dot{\mathrm{\Theta }}/(L+x)`$ is here neglected; it does not affect the physical nature of the phenomenon (for general consideration, see mag (18, 19)). So we have two different oscillations of the pendulum, which are coupled, and each oscillation influences the other. Considering small amplitude oscillations, we find two coupled equations governing the dynamics of the pendulum:

$$\ddot{x}+\omega _1^2x=\frac{1}{2}g\mathrm{\Theta }^2,$$
(1)
$$\ddot{\mathrm{\Theta }}+\omega _2^2(1\frac{x}{L})\mathrm{\Theta }=0,$$
(2)
where $`\omega _1=\sqrt{g/h}`$ and $`\omega _2=\sqrt{g/L}`$ are the fundamental frequencies of the system.

From equations (1) and (2) we can see that longitudinal oscillations of the pendulum causes a periodical variation of the pendulum length. In certain conditions this can lead to the well known parametric amplification of transversal oscillations. When $`x`$ is a periodical function of time, then equation (2) becames Mathieu’s equation and it has a resonant solution when

$$\omega _2=\frac{1}{2}\omega _1,$$
(3)
corresponding to $`L=4h`$.

Under these conditions, initial spring oscillations, $`x`$, along the pendulum axis can amplify small transversal perturbations, $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ (see equation (2)). On the other hand, transversal oscillations may be considered as an external periodic force (see equation (1)) which causes the damping and consequent amplification of longitudinal oscillations. So, in the absence of dissipation, there is a subsequent energy exchange between different oscillations in the system. But if some kind of external force supports the spring oscillations then they can amplify the transversal oscillations until nonlinear effects became significant.

## III Swing wave-wave interaction

The generalisation of the above analogy to waves in a medium leads to interesting phenomena. Spring oscillations do work against gravity and cause periodical variations of the parameter (pendulum length $`L`$) of transversal oscillations. As a result of this work, the energy of spring oscillations transforms into the energy of transversal oscillations. So we may expect a similar process in a medium when one kind of waves cause a periodical variation of another wave parameters.

There are three main forces in the equation of motion for an ideal conductive fluid: the pressure gradient $`p`$, gravity $`\rho \varphi `$, and the Lorentz force $`𝐣\times 𝐁`$. Here $`p`$ and $`\rho `$ denote the plasma pressure and density, $`\varphi `$ is the gravitational potential and $`𝐣`$ is the current in a magnetic field $`𝐁`$. Each of these forces represents the restoring force against the fluid inertia and thus leads to the generation of different kinds of wave motion. Of these forces, only the Lorentz force does not include the density (in the pressure gradient the density arises from the equation of state). This fact leads to the appearance of the density in the expression for the magnetic speed, the Alfvén speed $`V_A=B/\sqrt{4\pi \rho }`$, which describes the propagation of magnetic waves and depends on the medium density $`\rho `$. For a similar reason, the frequency of pendulum oscillations does not depend on the pendulum mass (because the gravitational force depends on it), while the frequency of spring oscillation does depend on the mass (because the stiffness force does not depend on it). On the other hand, compressible waves cause density variations in the medium and therefore they may affect the propagation properties of magnetic waves. This suggests a coupling between longitudinal, compressible waves (leading to density perturbations) and transversal magnetic waves propagating with a velocity which depends on the density. The later can be associated with Alfvén waves which are transversal and represent the purely electromagnetic properties of the medium. The compressible waves cause a periodical variation of the density and so of the Alfvén speed, and may lead to the effective energy transmission into certain harmonics of Alfvén waves. The swing coupling between sound and Alfvén waves propagating along an applied magnetic field \[16-17\] is a good example of this phenomenon. On the other hand, magnetosonic waves propagating at an angle to the magnetic field also cause periodical variations of the Alfvén speed and may lead to similar phenomena. It is worth noticing that, contrary to the Alfvén waves, the magnetosonic waves can be easily excited in a medium by any force (even of non electromagnetic origin). Therefore, the coupling between magnetosonic and Alfvén waves allows the transmission of energy into purely transversal magnetic oscillations through compressible magnetosonic oscillations.

To show the mathematical formalism of swing wave interaction we consider the case of magnetosonic wave propagation across the applied magnetic field. In this case we have fast magnetosonic waves. For simplicity we consider a rectangular geometry, which then can be generalised to cylindrical and spherical symmetries.

### III.1 Coupling between fast magnetosonic and Alfvén waves

Consider motions of a homogeneous medium, with zero viscosity and infinite conductivity, as described by the ideal MHD equations:

$$\frac{𝐁}{t}+(𝐮)𝐁=(𝐁)𝐮𝐁𝐮,𝐁=0,$$
(4)
$$\rho \frac{𝐮}{t}+\rho (𝐮)𝐮=\left[p+\frac{B^2}{8\pi }\right]+\frac{(𝐁)𝐁}{4\pi },$$
(5)
$$\frac{\rho }{t}+(𝐮)\rho +\rho 𝐮=0,$$
(6)
where $`𝐮`$ is the fluid velocity. We consider adiabatic processes, so the pressure $`p`$ and density $`\rho `$ are connected by the relation

$$p=p_0\left(\frac{\rho }{\rho _0}\right)^\gamma ,$$
(7)
where $`p_0`$ and $`\rho _0`$ are the unperturbed uniform pressure and density and $`\gamma `$ is the ratio of specific heats. We neglect gravity, though it may be of importance under some astrophysical conditions.

Linear analysis of equations (4)-(7) show the existence of three kinds of MHD waves: Alfvén and magnetosonic (fast and slow) waves. The difference between these waves is that the restoring force of Alfvén waves is the tension of magnetic field lines, $`(𝐁)𝐁/4\pi `$, acting alone, while the restoring force of magnetosonic waves is mainly the gradient of ordinary and magnetic pressures, $`\left[p+B^2/8\pi \right]`$. The various waves can be distinguished by their different speeds and polarizations. The linear evolution of the waves in a homogeneous medium is governed by the usual linear wave equations.

Consider a uniform, unperturbed, magnetic field $`𝐁_\mathrm{𝟎}=(0,0,B_0)`$ directed along the $`z`$-axis, and the case of magnetosonic wave propagation across the field in the $`x`$ direction (see Fig. 2). Then there are only fast magnetosonic waves (the slow wave is absent) which in the linear approximation is described by the equations:

$$\frac{b_z}{t}=B_0\frac{u_x}{x},$$
(8)
$$\rho _0\frac{u_x}{t}=\frac{}{x}\left[c_s^2\rho +\frac{B_0b_z}{4\pi }\right],$$
(9)
$$\frac{\rho }{t}=\rho _0\frac{u_x}{x},$$
(10)
where $`b_z`$ and $`u_x`$ are the perturbations of magnetic field and velocity, respectively, and $`c_s=\sqrt{\gamma p_0/\rho _0}`$ is the sound speed. Here and afterwards $`\rho `$ denotes the perturbation of density (in equations (4)-(5) $`\rho `$ was the total density). The wave equation for linear fast magnetosonic waves then follows,

$$\frac{^2u_x}{t^2}V_f^2\frac{^2u_x}{x^2}=0,$$
(11)
where $`V_f=\sqrt{c_s^2+V_A^2}`$ is the phase velocity of fast waves and $`V_A=\sqrt{B_0^2/4\pi \rho _0}`$ is the Alfvén speed.

The solution of the wave equation can be either propagating or standing patterns. The boundedness of the medium leads to the formation of a discrete spectrum of harmonics which represent the normal modes (eigenmodes) of the system. We consider the standing fast magnetosonic waves, which have a straightforward extention to cylindrical (pulsating magnetic tube) and spherical (pulsating sphere with dipole-like magnetic field) geometries. The solutions for standing (plane) fast magnetosonic waves are:

$$\begin{array}{c}u_x=\alpha V_f\mathrm{sin}(\omega _nt)\mathrm{sin}(k_nx),\hfill \\ \rho =\alpha \rho _0\mathrm{cos}(\omega _nt)\mathrm{cos}(k_nx),\hfill \\ b_z=\alpha B_0\mathrm{cos}(\omega _nt)\mathrm{cos}(k_nx),\hfill \end{array}$$
(12)
where $`k_n=\frac{n\pi }{l}`$ ($`n=1,2,\mathrm{}`$) is the eigenvalue for a system of size $`l`$ in the $`x`$ direction, $`\omega _n`$ is the corresponding eigenfrequency, and $`\alpha `$ is the relative amplitude of the waves. Eigenvalues and eigenfrequencies are related by the dispersion relation $`\omega _n/k_n=V_f`$.

It is seen from the expressions (12) that standing fast magnetosonic waves cause a local periodical variation in both the density and the magnetic field. This variation is maximal near the nodes of the velocity and approaches to zero near the antinodes. The amplitude of the variation is considered to be small $`(\alpha 1)`$, and so does not affect the fast magnetosonic wave itself.

Consider now the influence of the density and the magnetic field variations (12) on Alfvén waves, considered to be polarised in the $`yz`$ plane. Then the velocity fields of fast magnetosonic and Alfvén waves are decoupled. The linear equations for Alfvén waves are:

$$\frac{b_y}{t}=B_0\frac{u_y}{z},$$
(13)
$$\rho _0\frac{u_y}{t}=\frac{B_0}{4\pi }\frac{b_y}{z},$$
(14)
where $`b_y`$ and $`u_y`$ are small perturbations of the magnetic field and the velocity. These equations lead to the wave equation

$$\frac{^2b_y}{t^2}V_A^2\frac{^2b_y}{z^2}=0.$$
(15)
The influence of the fast magnetosonic waves can be expressed by modifying equations (13) and (14), which now became

$$\frac{b_y}{t}=(B_0+b_z)\frac{u_y}{z}\frac{u_x}{x}b_y,$$
(16)
$$(\rho _0+\rho )\frac{u_y}{t}=\frac{B_0+b_z}{4\pi }\frac{b_y}{z}.$$
(17)
Here we have neglected the advective terms $`u_xb_y/x`$ and $`(\rho _0+\rho )u_xu_y/x`$ for several reasons. At the initial stage, the perturbations $`b_y`$ and $`u_y`$ of Alfvén waves propagating along the $`z`$ axis do not depend on the $`x`$ coordinate; each magnetic surface across $`x`$ evolves independently. The $`x`$ dependence arises due to the action of the fast magnetosonic waves, and so the neglected terms are second order in $`\alpha ^2`$. Moreover we can consider the Alfvén waves at the velocity node of standing fast magnetosonic waves, where these terms are zero. In principle, the coordinate $`x`$ stands as a parameter in equations (16) and (17) of Alfvén waves.

Equations (16) and (17) lead to the Hill type second order differential equation

$$\frac{^2b_y}{t^2}\frac{(2B_0+b_z)\dot{b}_z}{B_0(B_0+b_z)}\frac{b_y}{t}\frac{(B_0+b_z)\ddot{b}_z\dot{b}_z^2}{B_0(B_0+b_z)}b_y$$

$$\frac{(B_0+b_z)^2}{4\pi (\rho _0+\rho )}\frac{^2b_y}{z^2}=0,$$
(18)
where $`\dot{b}_z`$ denotes the time derivative of the perturbing field. Introducing

$$b_y=h_y(z,t)\mathrm{exp}\frac{(2B_0+b_z)\dot{b}_z}{2B_0(B_0+b_z)}𝑑t$$
(19)
and neglecting terms of order $`\alpha ^2`$ leads to the equation

$$\frac{^2h_y}{t^2}V_A^2\left[1+\alpha \mathrm{cos}(k_nx)\mathrm{cos}(\omega _nt)\right]\frac{^2h_y}{z^2}=0.$$
(20)
Comparing equations (20) and (15) we can see that the influence of standing fast magnetosonic waves is expressed through a periodical variation of the Alfvén speed.

Performing a Fourier transform of $`h_y`$ with $`h_y=\widehat{h}_y(k_z,t)e^{ik_zz}𝑑k_z`$, equation (20) leads to Mathieu’s equation abr (20)

$$\frac{^2\widehat{h}_y}{t^2}+\left[V_A^2k_z^2+\delta \mathrm{cos}(\omega _nt)\right]\widehat{h}_y=0,$$
(21)
where

$$\delta =\alpha V_A^2k_z^2\mathrm{cos}(k_nx),$$
(22)
with $`x`$ playing the role of a parameter. Equation (21) has main resonant solution if

$$\omega _A=\frac{B_0k_z}{\sqrt{4\pi \rho _0}}=\frac{\omega _n}{2}$$
(23)
and it can be expressed as

$$\widehat{h}_y=h_0e^{\frac{\left|\delta \right|}{2\omega _n}t}\left[\mathrm{cos}\frac{\omega _n}{2}t\mathrm{sin}\frac{\omega _n}{2}t\right],$$
(24)
where $`h_0=h(0)`$. The solution has a resonant character within the frequency interval

$$\left|\omega _A\frac{\omega _n}{2}\right|<\left|\frac{\delta }{\omega _n}\right|.$$
(25)
Equation (24) shows that the harmonics of Alfvén waves with half the frequency of fast magnetosonic waves grow exponentially in time. The growth rate of Alfvén waves is maximal at the velocity nodes of fast magnetosonic waves and tends to zero at the antinodes (see equations (12) and (22)). The amplitude of the magnetic field component in Alfvén waves depends on the $`x`$ coordinate, i.e. there is the periodical magnetic pressure gradient along this direction. Energy conservation implies that this gradient leads to the damping of initial fast magnetosonic waves, i.e. the energy transformed into Alfvén waves is extracted from fast magnetosonic waves. To show this, we consider the backreaction of amplified Alfvén waves on the initial fast magnetosonic waves.

The dependence of $`b_y`$ on the $`x`$ coordinate leads to an additional term in the equation of motion (9) for fast waves,

$$\rho _0\frac{u_x}{t}=\frac{}{x}\left[c_s^2\rho +\frac{B_0b_z}{4\pi }\right]\frac{}{x}\left[\frac{b_y^2}{8\pi }\right].$$
(26)
Therefore the wave equation (11) now becomes

$$\frac{^2u_x}{t^2}V_f^2\frac{^2u_x}{x^2}=\frac{^2}{tx}\left[\frac{b_y^2}{8\pi }\right].$$
(27)
The additional term has the frequency of the initial fast magnetosonic waves $`\omega _n`$ (within the order of $`\alpha ^2`$) and can be considered as the external, periodic force. At the initial stage it can be neglected as of second order of smallness. However, it becomes significant because of the exponential growth of amplitudes (see equation (24)). It oscillates out of phase with respect to the initial fast waves (12), thus leading to their damping (as expected from physical considerations).

Note that equations (1) and (2) describing the pendulum oscillations are similar to equations (20) and (27) describing Alfvén waves and fast magnetosonic waves; the longitudinal oscillations of the pendulum correspond to the fast magnetosonic waves and the transversal oscillations correspond to the Alfvén waves.

Swing coupling between fast magnetosonic and Alfvén waves may be generalised from rectangular geometry to other symmetries, though a detailed description is beyond the scope of this paper.

## IV Discussion

The suggested mechanism of energy transformation from fast magnetosonic into Alfvén waves has important consequences. It can be noted that the Alfvén waves hardly undergo either excitation or damping processes, while magnetosonic waves can be easily excited by external, even nonelectromagnetic, forces. Then swing interaction leads to the intriguing but natural suggestion that the energy of the nonelectromagnetic force which supports the magnetosonic waves in the system can be transmitted into the energy of purely magnetic incompressible oscillations. This result has many astrophysical applications. We briefly describe several of them.

### IV.1 Swing absorption

Resonant interaction between MHD waves, due to the inhomogeneity of the medium, was proposed by Ionson . It arises where the frequency of an incoming wave matches the local frequency of the medium. Then a resonant energy transformation may take place, known as resonant absorption.

Similar phenomenon may arise also due to swing wave interaction. In this case fast magnetosonic waves can transform their energy into Alfvén waves, even in a homogeneous medium. For given medium parameters (magnetic field, density) the energy of fast waves may be ‘absorbed’ by harmonics with wavelengths satisfying the resonant condition (23). Consequently, fast magnetosonic waves can transmit their energy into Alfvén waves in any spatial distribution of density or magnetic field. The process can be called swing absorption. The particular point of swing absorption is that energy ‘absorption’ occurs through the harmonics with half the frequency of incoming waves (see equation (23)). The process may be of importance in the Earth’s magnetosphere and in the solar atmosphere.

### IV.2 Torsional Alfvén waves in solar coronal loops

Swing wave interaction may play an important role in the excitation of torsional Alfvén waves in solar coronal loops. It may be suggested that any external action on the magnetic tube, anchored in the highly dynamical photosphere, causes a radial pulsation at the fundamental frequency, like a tuning fork (see also rob (21)). For a tube of radius $`r_0`$ the fundamental frequency of pulsation will be of order $`V_f/r_0`$, where $`V_f`$ is the phase velocity of fast magnetosonic waves at the photospheric level. If we consider the Alfvén and sound speeds to be of order $`10`$ kms<sup>-1</sup> and the radius of order $`10^2`$ km, then the period of fundamental mode of pulsation will be a few tens of seconds.

Radial pulsations of the tube may lead to the resonant (exponential) amplification of torsional Alfvén waves with half the frequency of the pulsations. These high frequency torsional Alfvén waves can propagate upward and carry energy from the photosphere into the magnetically controlled corona or they may be damped in chromospheric regions leading to the heating of the chromospheric magnetic network.

### IV.3 Coupling between stellar pulsations and torsional oscillations

Swing wave interaction may be of importance in stellar interiors. A radial pulsation of a spherically symmetric star with dipole-like magnetic field may lead to the amplification of torsional oscillations. There are a number of energy sources which can support pulsations: radiation, nuclear reactions, tidal forces in binary stars, convection, etc. (e.g., cox (22)). Then the transformation of pulsational energy into torsional oscillations may lead to new sources for stellar magnetic activity.

## V Concluding remarks

The swing wave-wave interaction zaq1 (16) is developed here in the case of fast magnetosonic waves propagating across a magnetic field and Alfvén waves propagating along the field. In the case of oblique propagation, slow magnetosonic waves also exist and they may transmit their energy into Alfvén waves. In some cases the coupling between slow magnetosonic and Alfvén waves may be of importance. Also, the coupling in the case of different geometries (cylindrical, spherical) may be important in astrophysical situations. The most important result of swing wave interaction is that it reveals a new energy channel for Alfvén waves, permitting the transformation of energy of nonelectromagnetic origin into the energy of electromagnetic oscillations.

###### Acknowledgements.

The work was partially supported by INTAS grant N 97-31931 and NATO Collaborative Linkage Grant No. PST.CLG.976557. T.Z. would like to thank the Royal Society for financial help.


text:
# Untitled Document

The X-shaped, localized field generated by a Superluminal electric charge$`^{()}`$ footnotetext: $`^{()}`$ Work partially supported by INFN and MURST/MIUR (Italy), and by FAPESP (Brazil). E-mail address for contacts: recami@mi.infn.it

Erasmo Recami,a,b Michel Zamboni-Rached,c César A.Dartora,c and K. Z. Nóbrega.c

aFacoltà di Ingegneria, Università statale di Bergamo, Dalmine (BG), Italy;

bINFN—Sezione di Milano, Milan, Italy; and

cD.M.O., FEEC, State University at Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.

Abstract – It is now wellknown that Maxwell equations admit of wavelet-type solutions endowed with arbitrary group-velocities ($`0<v_\mathrm{g}<\mathrm{}`$). Some of them, which are rigidly moving and have been called localized solutions, attracted large attention. In particular, much work has been done with regard to the Superluminal localized solutions (SLS), the most interesting of which resulted to be the “X-shaped” ones. The SLSs have been actually produced in a number of experiments, always by suitable interference of ordinary-speed waves. In this note we show, by contrast, that even a Superluminal charge creates an electromagnetic X-shaped wave. Namely, on the basis of Maxwell equations, we are able to evaluate the field associated with a Superluminal charge (under the approximation of pointlikeness): it results to constitute a very simple example of true X-wave.

PACS nos.: 03.50.De ; 03.30.+p ; 41.20;Jb ; 04.30.Db .

Keywords: Special relativity; Maxwell equations; Superluminal waves; X-shaped waves; Localized beams; Wave propagation; Superluminal charges

1. – Introduction

It is well-known that Maxwell equations have been shown to admit of wavelet-type solutions endowed with arbitrary group-velocities $`0<v_\mathrm{g}<\mathrm{}`$. Some of them, which are rigidly moving and have been called “localized solutions”, attracted large attention. In particular, much work has been done with regard to the Superluminal localized solutions (SLS), the most interesting of which —as predicted by Special Relativity (SR) itself— resulted to be the “X-shaped” ones. Such X-shaped SLSs have been actually produced in a number of experiments.

The theory of SR, when based on the ordinary postulates but not restricted to subluminal waves and objects, i.e., in its extended version, predicts the simplest X-shaped wave to be the one corresponding to the electromagnetic field created by a Superluminal***Incidentally, let us recall that the luminal case was successfully examined by Bonnor, who showed the Maxwell equations to admit of finite-energy solutions even in the limiting case of a (mass-free) “particle” carrying equal amounts of positive and negative electric charge. charge. It is of the utmost importance evaluating the field associated with a Superluminal electric chargeFor simplicity, we are here adopting the standard language, but it should be recalled that we must rather think in terms of an “electromagnetic charge”, which behaves as an electric charge when subluminal and as a magnetic pole when Superluminal: cf. refs.., not only as a contribution to the theory of X-shaped waves, but also as a starting point for predicting the electromagnetic interaction of a charged “tachyon” with ordinary matter (and planning, maybe, the construction of a suitable detector).

2. – The toy-model of a pointlike Superluminal charge

Let us first start by considering, formally, a pointlike Superluminal charge, even if the hypothesis of pointlikeness (already unacceptable in the subluminal case) is totally inadequate in the Superluminal case, as it was thoroughly shown in refs..

Then, let us consider the ordinary vector-potential $`A^\mu `$ and a current desity $`j^\mu (0,0,j_z;j^\mathrm{o})`$ flowing in the $`z`$-direction. On assuming the fields to be generated by the sources only, one has that $`A^\mu (0,0,A_z;\varphi )`$, which, when adopting the Lorentz gauge, obeys the equation $`\mathrm{}A^\mu =j^\mu `$. Such non-homogeneous wave equation, in cylindrical co-ordinates $`(\rho ,\theta ,z;t)`$ and for axial symmetry \[which requires a priori that $`A^\mu =A^\mu (\rho ,z;t)`$\], writes:As a further check of our calculations, we started also from the so-called scalar Bromwich–Borgnis potential $`u`$, under the hypothesis that $`𝒋=(0,0,j_z)`$, in which case it is $`E_\rho =^2u/\rho z`$; while $`E_z=^2u/\tau ^2+^2u/z^2`$; and $`B_\varphi =^2u/\rho \tau `$, where $`\tau =ct`$. On defining the function $`\psi A_zu/\tau `$, we showed by Maxwell equations that $`\psi `$ has to obey the same non-homogeneous (axially symmetric) wave equation (1), with $`\mu =3`$.

$`{\displaystyle \frac{^2A^\mu }{\tau ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\left(\rho {\displaystyle \frac{A^\mu }{\rho }}\right){\displaystyle \frac{^2A^\mu }{z^2}}=j^\mu ,`$ (1)

where $`\tau ct`$, and $`\mu `$ assumes the two values $`\mu =3,0`$ only.

We shall now choose the “$`V`$-cone variables”, with $`V^2>c^2`$,

$`\{\begin{array}{ccc}\zeta zVt& & \\ \eta z+Vt& & \end{array}`$ (2)

and rewrite eq.(1) as

$`\left[\rho {\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\left(\rho {\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\zeta ^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\eta ^2}}4{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\zeta \eta }}\right]A^\mu (\rho ,\zeta ,\eta )=j^\mu (\rho ,\zeta ,\eta ),`$ (3)

where $`A^\mu (0,0,A_z;\varphi )`$ and

$`\gamma ^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\frac{V^2}{c^2}1}}.`$ (3’)

Let us now suppose $`A^\mu `$ to be actually independent of $`\eta `$, namely, $`A^\mu =A^\mu (\rho ,\zeta )`$. Due to eq.(3), we shall have $`j^\mu =j^\mu (\rho ,\zeta )`$ too; and therefore $`j_z=Vj^0`$ (from the continuity equation), and $`A_z=V\varphi /c`$ (from the Lorentz gauge). Then, by calling

$$\psi A_z,$$

eq.(3) yields the two equations

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\left(\rho {\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\zeta ^2}}\right]\psi (\rho ,\zeta )=j_z(\rho ,\zeta )`$ (4a)

and

$`\varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{c}{V}}\psi `$ (4b)

One can notice that the procedure leading to eqs.(4) constitutes a simple generalization of Lu et al.’s theorem for non-homogeneous equations, i.e., for the case with sources.

As announced above, let us finally analyse the possibility and consequences of having a Superluminal pointlike charge, $`e`$, traveling with constant speed $`V`$ along the $`z`$-axis ($`\rho =0`$) in the positive direction:

$`j_z=eV{\displaystyle \frac{\delta (\rho )}{\rho }}\delta (\zeta ).`$ (5)

Equation (4a) becomes, then, the hyperbolic equation

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\rho }}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\left(\rho {\displaystyle \frac{}{\rho }}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\zeta ^2}}\right]\psi =eV{\displaystyle \frac{\delta (\rho )}{\rho }}\delta (\zeta ).`$ (6)

To solve it, let us apply (with respect to the variable $`\rho `$) a Fourier-Bessel (FB) transformation, carrying by definition a function $`f(x)`$ into the function $`F(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ as follows

$`f(x)={\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}\mathrm{\Omega }f(\mathrm{\Omega })J_0(\mathrm{\Omega }x)d\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (7)

$`f(\mathrm{\Omega })={\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}xf(x)J_0(\mathrm{\Omega }x)dx,`$ (7’)

$`J_0(\mathrm{\Omega }x)`$ being the ordinary zero-order Bessel function. Equation (6) gets transformed, after some calculations, into

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\gamma ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{\zeta ^2}}+\mathrm{\Omega }^2\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{\Omega },\zeta )=eV\delta (\zeta ).`$ (8)

By applying subsequently the ordinary Fourier transformation with respect to the variable $`\zeta `$ (going on, from $`\zeta `$, to the variable $`\omega `$), after some further manipulations we obtain

$`\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{\Omega },\omega )=eV{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma ^2}{(\gamma ^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2\omega ^2)}}.`$ (9)

Finally, the solution of eq.(6) is got by performing the corresponding inverse Fourier and FB transformations:

$`\psi (\rho ,\zeta )=eV\gamma ^2{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}d\omega {\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}d\mathrm{\Omega }{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }J_0(\mathrm{\Omega }\rho )e^{i\omega \zeta }}{(\gamma ^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2\omega ^2)}},`$ (10)

which, on using formulae (3.723.9) and (6.671.7) of ref., yields§§§In the following we shall put $`c=1`$, whenever convenient. \[$`\zeta zVt`$\]:

$`\{\begin{array}{ccc}\psi (\rho ,\zeta )=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}\mathrm{for}0<\gamma \zeta <\rho & & \\ & & \\ \psi (\rho ,\zeta )=e{\displaystyle \frac{V}{\sqrt{\zeta ^2\rho ^2(V^21)}}}\mathrm{for}0\rho <\gamma \zeta .& & \end{array}`$ (11)

In Fig.1 we show our solution $`A_z\psi `$, as a function of $`\rho `$ and $`\zeta `$, evaluated for $`\gamma =1`$ (i.e., for $`V=c\sqrt{2}`$). Of course, we skipped the points in which $`A_z`$ must diverge, namely the vertex and the cone surface.

For comparison, one may recall that the classical X-shaped solution of the homogeneous wave-equation —which is shown, e.g., in Fig.2— has the form (with $`a>0`$):

$`X={\displaystyle \frac{V}{\sqrt{(ai\zeta )^2+\rho ^2(V^21)}}}`$ (12)

In the second one of eqs.(11) it enters expression (12) with the spectral parameter $`a=0`$, which indeed corresponds to the non-homogeneous case \[the fact that for $`a=0`$ these equations differ for an imaginary unit will be discussed elsewhere\].

It is quite important, at this point, to notice that such a solution, (11), represents a wave existing only inside the (unlimited) double cone $`𝒞`$ generated by the rotation around the $`z`$-axis of the straight lines $`\rho =\pm \gamma \zeta `$: This is in full agreement with the predictions of the “extended” theory of Special Relativity.

3. – Evaluating the fields generated by the Superluminal charge

Once the solution (11) for the “potential” $`\psi `$ has been found, we can evaluate the corresponding electromagnetic fields. The standard relations $`𝑬=\mathbf{}\varphi 𝑨/t`$ and $`𝑯=\mathbf{}𝑨`$ imply in the present case \[$`\psi =\psi (\rho ,\zeta )A_z`$; and $`\varphi =\psi /V`$\]:

$$𝑯=\frac{\psi }{\rho }\widehat{𝒆}_\varphi $$

$$𝑬=\frac{1}{V}\frac{\psi }{\rho }\widehat{𝒆}_\rho +(V^21)\frac{\psi }{\zeta }\widehat{𝒆}_z.$$

Then, from eqs.(11), when $`0\rho <\gamma \zeta `$ (i.e., inside the cone $`𝒞`$), the fields result to be:It should be noticed that the same results are obtained when starting from the fourpotential associated with a subluminal charge (e.g., an electric charge at rest), and then applying to it the suitable Superluminal Lorentz “transformation”.

$`E_\rho =\pi e\rho {\displaystyle \frac{V^21}{\sqrt{[\zeta ^2\rho ^2(V^21)]^3}}}`$ (13)

$`E_z=\pi e\zeta {\displaystyle \frac{V^21}{\sqrt{[\zeta ^2\rho ^2(V^21)]^3}}}`$ (14)

$`H_\varphi =\pi eV\rho {\displaystyle \frac{V^21}{\sqrt{[\zeta ^2\rho ^2(V^21)]^3}}}`$ (15)

where, let us recall, $`\zeta zVt`$, with $`V^2>c^2`$. We show in Fig.3 the direction of the various field components in our co-ordinates; while the behavior of $`E_z`$, as a function of $`\rho `$ and $`\zeta `$, is shown in Fig.4.

However, ouside the cone $`𝒞`$, i.e., for $`0<\gamma \zeta <\rho `$, one gets as expected that

$`E_\rho =E_z=H_\varphi =\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}.`$ (16)

One meets therefore a field discontinuity when crossing the double-cone surface, since the field is zero outside it. Nevertheless, the boundary conditions imposed by Maxwell equations are satisfied by our solution (11), or (13-15), since at each point of the cone surface the electric and the magnetic field are both tangent to the cone: We shall discuss this point below.

Here, let us emphasize that, when $`V\mathrm{};\gamma 0`$, the electric field tend to vanish, while the magnetic field tends to the value $`H_\varphi =\pi e/\rho ^2`$. This does agree with what expected from Extended Relativity, which predicts Superluminal charges to behave, in a sense, as magnetic monopoles. In the present note we can only mention such a circumstance, and refer to refs.: Where it is shown that, if one calls electric the “electromagnetic charge” when it is subluminal, then he should call it magnetic when SuperluminalWe have shown elsewhere that a Superluminal charge $`e`$ and a Superluminal current $`j^\mu `$ are a pseudoscalar and a pseudovector, respectively: like in the case of a magnetic charge and a magnetic current; so that they should rather be written as $`\gamma _5e`$ and $`\gamma _5j^\mu `$. But in this preliminary note we shall forget about the symmetry properties of those quantities. (cf. Fig.46 at page 155 of the first one of refs.). Actually, result (11) can be obtained in a quicker way just by applying a Superluminal Lorentz “transformation” to the fields generated by a subluminal (in particular, at rest) electric point-charge.

Let us add, more in general, that —as mentioned at the end of the previous Section— extended relativity predicts, e.g., that the spherical equipotential surfaces of the electrostatic field created by a charge at rest get transformed (by a Superluminal Lorentz “transformation”) into two-sheeted rotation-hyperboloids, contained inside an unlimited double-cone: see Fig.5. One ought to notice, incidentally, that this double cone does not have much to do with the Cherenkov cone. In fact the double cone is associated with a constant-speed Superluminal charge even in the vacuum, while Cherenkov radiation emission is induced by a fast electric charge only out of a material medium. Moreover (cf. also Fig.27 at page 80 of the first one of refs.) a Superluminal charge traveling at constant speed, in the vacuum, e.g., does not lose energy.

We go eventually back to the problem that one meets a field discontinuity across the double-cone surface \[see eqs.(13-15) and eqs.(16)\], since the field is zero outside $`𝒞`$; for $`\rho \gamma \zeta `$ the fields (13)-(15) even diverge. Nevertheless, one can straightforwardly verify that our solution (11), or (13-16), satisfies the following boundary conditions, required by Maxwell equations (in the present case of a moving boundary):

$`\{\begin{array}{ccc}\left(𝑬_{\mathrm{ext}}𝑬_{\mathrm{int}}\right)\widehat{𝒏}=\sigma & & \\ & & \\ \left(𝑯_{\mathrm{ext}}𝑯_{\mathrm{int}}\right)\widehat{𝒏}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}& & \\ & & \\ \left(𝑬_{\mathrm{ext}}𝑬_{\mathrm{int}}\right)_{\mathrm{tan}}=(\widehat{𝒏}𝑽)\widehat{𝒏}(𝑯_{\mathrm{ext}}𝑯_{\mathrm{int}})& & \\ & & \\ \left[1(\widehat{𝒏}𝑽)^2\right]\widehat{𝒏}\left(𝑯_{\mathrm{ext}}𝑯_{\mathrm{int}}\right)=𝒋.& & \end{array}`$ (17)

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful, for useful discussions or kind cooperation, to V.Abate, C.E.Becchi, M.Brambilla, R.Chiao, C.Cocca, R.Collina, R.Colombi, G.C.Costa, P.W.Milonni, G.Degli Antoni, F.Fontana, G.Kurizki, G.Pedrazzini, A.Steimberg, J.W.Swart, M.Villa, and particularly to H.E.Hernández-Figueroa, R.Mignani, K.Z.Nóbrega, G.Salesi and A.Shaarawi.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Fig.1 – Behaviour of $`A_z\psi `$, as a function of $`\rho `$ and $`\zeta `$, evaluated for $`\gamma =1`$ (i.e., for $`V=c\sqrt{2}`$). \[Of course, we skipped the points in which $`A_z`$ must diverge: namely, the vertex and the cone surface\].

Fig.2 – Illustration of the real part of a classical X-shaped wave (as a function of $`\rho `$ and $`\zeta `$), evaluated for $`V=5c`$ and $`a=5\times 10^7`$m.

Fig.3 – The direction is here depicted of the various field components, in our coordinates.

Fig.4 – Behavior of the $`z`$-component of the electric field generated by a Superluminal (pointlike) charge as a function of $`\rho `$ and $`\zeta `$, with the same parameters used for Fig.1. \[Once more, we skipped the points in which $`E_z`$ must diverge: namely, the vertex and the cone surface\].

Fig.5 – The spherical equipotential surfaces of the electrostatic field created by a charge at rest get transformed into two-sheeted rotation-hyperboloids, contained inside an unlimited double-cone, when the charge travels at Superluminal speed (cf. refs.). This figures shows, among the others, that a Superluminal charge traveling at constant speed, in a homogeneous medium like the vacuum, does not lose energy. Let us mention, incidentally, that this double cone has nothing to do with the Cherenkov cone (see the text). The present picture is a reproduction of our Fig.27, appeared in 1986 at page 80 of the first one of refs..

REFERENCES

 See, e.g., H.Bateman: Electrical and Optical Wave Motion (Cambridge Univ.Press; Cambridge, 1915); J.A.Stratton: Electromagnetic Theory (McGraw-Hill; New York, 1941), p.356; R.Courant and D.Hilbert: Methods of Mathematical Physics (J.Wiley; New York, 1966), vol.2, p.760. See also, e.g.: V.K.Ignatovich: Found. Phys. 8 (1978) 565; J.N.Brittingham: J. Appl. Phys. 54 (1983) 1179; R.W.Ziolkowski: J. Math. Phys. 26 (1985) 861; J.Durnin, J.J.Miceli and J.H.Eberly: Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 (1987) 1499; P.Hillion: J. Math. Phys. 29 (1988) 1771; A.M.Shaarawi, I.M.Besieris and R.W.Ziolkowski: J. Math. Phys. 31 (1990) 2511; A.O.Barut et al.: Phys. Lett. A143 (1990) 349; Found. Phys. Lett. 3 (1990) 303; Found. Phys. 22 (1992) 1267; Phys. Lett. A180 (1993) 5; A189 (1994) 277; P.Hillion: Acta Applicandae Matematicae 30 (1993) 35; R.Donnelly and R.W.Ziolkowski: Proc. Roy. Soc. London A440 (1993) 541; J.Vaz and W.A.Rodrigues: Adv. Appl. Cliff. Alg. S-7 (1997) 457; S.Esposito: Phys. Lett. A225 (1997) 203.

 Cf., e.g., the brief review-article by E.Recami: Found. Phys. 31 (2001) 1119.

 E.Recami et al.: Lett. Nuovo Cim. 28 (1980) 151; 29 (1980) 241; A.O.Barut, G. D.Maccarrone and E.Recami: Nuovo Cimento A71 (1982) 509. See also E.Recami: refs. and ; E.Recami, F.Fontana and R.Garavaglia: Int. J. Mod. Phys. A15 (2000) 2793; and E.Recami et al.: Il Nuovo Saggiatore 2(3) (1986) 20; 17(1-2) (2001) 21.

 E.Recami: Physica A252 (1998) 586; J.-y.Lu, J.F.Greenleaf and E.Recami: “Limited diffraction solutions to Maxwell (and Schroedinger) equations”, Lanl Archives # physics/9610012 (Oct.1996); R.W.Ziolkowski, I.M.Besieris and A.M.Shaarawi: J. Opt. Soc. Am. A10 (1993) 75; J.-y.Lu and J.F.Greenleaf: IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 39 (1992) 19. Cf. also M.Zamboni Rached, E.Recami and F.Fontana: Phys. Rev. E64 (2001) 066603.

 J.-y.Lu and J.F.Greenleaf: IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 39 (1992) 441; P.Saari and K.Reivelt: Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 (1997) 4135-4138; D.Mugnai, A.Ranfagni and R.Ruggeri: Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 (2000) 4830.

 See E.Recami: Rivista Nuovo Cim. 9(6) (1986) and refs. therein; cf. also E.Recami and R.Mignani: Rivista Nuovo Cim. 4 (1974) 209-290, E398.

 W.B.Bonnor: Int. J. Theor. Phys. 2 (1969) 373.

 See E.Recami: ref., fig.27 and pp.80-81; and refs. therein. Cf. also R.Folman and E.Recami: Found. Phys. Letters 8 (1995) 127-134.

 See E.Recami: ref., pp.82-83 and pp.152-156 (in particular, fig.46); and refs. therein; R.Mignani and E.Recami: Lett. Nuovo Cimento 9 (1974) 367-372; Nuovo Cimento A30 (1975) 533-540; Physics Letters B62 (1976) 41-43. See also E.Recami (editor): Tachyons, Monopoles, and Related Topics (North-Holland; Amsterdam; 1978), pp.X + 285.

 T.J Bromwich: Phil. Mag. 38 (1919) 143.

 Cf. M.Zamboni Rached, E.Recami and H.E.Harnández-Figueroa: “New localized Superluminal solutions to the wave equations with finite total energies and arbitrary frequencies”, Lanl Archives e-print # physics/0109062, in press in Europ. Phys. Journ. D. See also M.Zamboni-Rached, K.Z.Nóbrega, H.E.Hernández-Figueroa and Erasmo Recami: “Localized Superluminal solutions to the wave equation in (vacuum or) dispersive media, for arbitrary frequencies and with adjustable bandwidth”, e-print physics/0209101 (submitted for pub.).

 J.-y.Lu, H.-h.Zou and J.F.Greenleaf: IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control 42 (1995) 850.

 For different generalizations, which take the presence of boundaries into account (as in the cases of cylindrical waveguides, co-axial cables, etc.), see M.Zamboni Rached, E.Recami and F.Fontana: Phys. Rev. E64 (2001) 066603; M.Z.Rached, K.Z.Nobrega, E.Recami & H.E.Hernández F.: “Superluminal X-shaped beams propagating without distortion along a coaxial guide”, e-print physics/0209104, in press in Phys. Rev. E; M.Z.Rached, F.Fontana and E.Recami: “Superluminal localized solutions to Maxwell equations propagating along a waveguide: The finite-energy case”, e-print physics/0209102, submitted to Phys. Rev. E.).

 I.S.Gradshteyn and I.M.Ryzhik: Integrals, Series and Products, 4th edition (Ac.Press; New York, 1965).

 See Fig.4 in A.O.Barut, G.D.Maccarrone and E.Recami: Nuovo Cimento A71 (1982) 509, page 518; Fig.1 in P.Caldirola, G.D.Maccarrone and E.Recami: Lett. Nuovo Cim. 29 (1980) 241, page 243; and E.Recami and G.D.Maccarrone: Lett. Nuovo Cim. 28 (1980) 151-157. Cf. also H.C.Corben: Lett. Nuovo Cim. 11 (1974) 533; Nuovo Cimento A29 (1975) 415.

 M.A.Faria-Rosa, E.Recami and W.A.Rodrigues Jr.: Physics Letters B173 (1986) 233-236; B188 (1987) E511; A.Maia Jr. E.Recami, W.A.Rodrigues Jr. and M.A.F.Rosa: J. Math. Phys. 31 (1990) 502-505; Phys.Lett. B220 (1989) 195-199.

 Cf., e.g., equations (I.23), (I.24), (I.17) and (I.18) at pages 19–22 of J.D.Jackson: Classical Electrodynamics, 2nd edition (J.Wiley; New York, 1975).

 P.D.Noerdlinger: Am. J. Phys. 39 (1971) 191.