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# Comparison of Hadronic Interaction Models at Auger Energies

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The engineering array of the southern Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO)  in Argentina has recently started to take data. The interpretation of the measurements requires reliable numerical simulations of extensive air showers (EAS) in the extremely-high energy (EHE) range $`>10^{19}`$ eV. A large uncertainty in such simulations arises from the models which describe the hadronic interactions. As one has to extrapolate in energy from accelerators by several orders of magnitude and into the forward kinematical range which is unobserved by collider experiments, the models have to rely on theoretical guidelines to describe the EHE collisions. In this contribution model predictions for single interactions of p-$`\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$, p-14N, and $`\pi `$-14N collisions are compared, and we examine how their features influence measurable EAS quantities such as the longitudinal development with the shower maximum $`X_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and the lateral distributions of particle densities at ground.

## 2 MODELS

Presently three hadronic interaction codes coupled with the EAS simulation program CORSIKA  are able to treat hadronic collisions at energies $`>`$ 1019 eV:

DPMJET 2.55 , QGSJET 01 , and SIBYLL 2.1 . In this study neXus 2  is partly included despite of its upper limit of $`<2\times 10^{17}`$eV recommended by its authors. But already at this energy some interesting trends of this model show up. Fig. 1 shows the proton-air cross-sections for production of secondary particles as function of energy.

## 3 SINGLE INTERACTIONS

All models are tuned to reproduce the available collider data. They agree fairly well in the pseudo-rapidity, multiplicity, and transverse momentum distributions obtained by the UA5 , CDF , and P238  experiments.

But when extrapolating to higher energies, already at $`E_{\mathrm{lab}}`$ = 10$`^{17}`$eV (corresponding to $`\sqrt{s}14`$ TeV, which will be reached by the future LHC-collider), the mid-rapidity density at $`|\eta |<4`$ of QGSJET exceeds that of neXus by up to a factor of $``$2 as shown in Fig. 2. In Fig. 3 the charged particle multiplicity distribution of $`\pi `$-14N collisions shows a similar behaviour. Again QGSJET predictions are higher than those of all other models, while the neXus distribution repeats the low multiplicity already shown in the $`\mathrm{p}`$-$`\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ collisions of Fig. 2.

This behaviour reflects the different treatment of the Pomeron exchange by the various models. In QGSJET a hard Pomeron is always coupled to the partons of projectile and target via soft Pomerons, which finally produce the large number of secondary particles.

Secondaries produced by cutting soft Pomerons appear in the mid-rapidity range and take away only a minute energy fraction. Therefore they influence the development of charged particle numbers in EAS rather insignificantly.

Already in the calculation of the Pomeron exchange probabilities neXus applies strict energy conservation, which reduces the number of cut hard and soft Pomerons, thus reducing the overall multiplicity. This decreases the number of particles emitted in the pseudo-rapidity range below $`|\eta |<6`$ while the fraction of secondaries produced in the very forward direction $`|\eta |>8`$ resembles that of the other considered models.

The distribution of the longitudinal momentum fraction taken away by the leading particle is displayed in Fig. 4. Large differences up to a factor of 10 show up in the diffractive region $`x_{\mathrm{lab}}>0.8`$, but also around $`x_{\mathrm{lab}}0.4`$ significant deviations are visible. The extremely low probability of DPMJET to produce baryons at $`x_{\mathrm{lab}}`$ 0.97 in p-14N collisions is remarkable. It reflects the insufficient knowledge on high- and low-mass diffraction: Any detailed treatment within the interaction codes is strongly model dependent.

## 4 INFLUENCE ON EAS FEATURES

In hadronic EAS the $`\pi ^\pm `$-mesons are the most frequent secondary hadronic

particles and nitrogen is the most abundant component of air. Therefore the character of an EAS is essentially influenced by the features of $`\pi `$-14N collisions. In such interactions QGSJET exhibits a lower average elasticity than DPMJET and SIBYLL, see Fig. 5. Therefore EAS simulated with QGSJET develop faster than those produced with the other models.

The second important influence on the development process arises from the cross-sections. The $`\pi `$-air production cross-sections behave similar to those shown in Fig. 1, but with DPMJET staying well below QGSJET above 1015 eV. Therefore EAS simulated with the DPMJET model are expected to develop late, while SIBYLL showers will fall somewhere

in between QGSJET and DPMJET. This is demonstrated in Fig. 6 for proton and Iron induced showers of 1019 eV. At the upper margin of Fig. 6 the positions of the maxima are indicated. They nearly coincide for Iron induced showers, but for proton induced EAS the difference between QGSJET and DPMJET amounts to $``$ 40 g/cm2.

The depth of shower maximum $`X_{\mathrm{max}}`$ as function of primary energy is plotted in Fig. 7. While for Iron induced showers even at highest energies the $`X_{\mathrm{max}}`$ values coincide within $`<20`$g/cm2, with a tendency of DPMJET to predict deeper penetration, the lines of proton induced showers show a clear divergence with increasing energy reaching 55 g/cm2 at 10$`^{20}`$eV. Especially the QGSJET distribution flattens with increasing energy. Starting at 1015 eV with 65 g/cm2 per energy decade the slope reaches 45 g/cm2 per decade at 1020 eV. The flattening has to be attributed to the lowering of the $`\pi `$-14N

elasticity (Fig. 5) together with an increasing $`\pi `$-14N cross-section of QGSJET which exceeds that of DPMJET by 10% at $`E_{\mathrm{lab}}=10^{17}`$eV. Above 1015 eV the $`X_{\mathrm{max}}`$ slopes of the other models show no significant change for proton induced EAS.

Because of its early development QGSJET exhibits the flattest lateral distribution for electrons and for muons. This results in the highest particle densities at distances $`>300`$ m not only for proton but also for Iron induced EAS. Therefore we compare in Fig. 8 the lateral distributions of the other models relative to those of QGSJET. With increasing distance from the shower core the densities predicted by the other models are always smaller. The effect is more pronounced for proton induced showers. In general the SIBYLL densities are lowest and the differences are larger for the muon distributions.

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

We emphasize the importance of future collider experiments to measure the very forward range of particle production thus reducing the present uncertainties in EAS simulations caused by the hadronic interaction models. Despite the unknown elemental composition of the primary cosmic radiation at EHE, the PAO should be able to constrain the hadronic interaction models by evaluating hybrid EAS events which combine the longitudinal information measured by fluorescence telescopes and the lateral particle densities registered by water Cherenkov surface detectors.

## Acknowledgments

Many thanks go to the authors of the hadronic interaction models for their advice in linking their codes with CORSIKA. We thank S. Ostapchenko for enlightening discussions and R. Engel for carefully reading the manuscript. The authors acknowledge support for a British-German Academic Research Collaboration from The British Council and the DAAD.


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# Twist–3 effects in Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering made simple

## Abstract

We show that electromagnetic gauge invariance requires a “spin rotation” of the quarks in the usual twist–2 contribution to the amplitude for Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering. This rotation is equivalent to the inclusion of certain kinematical twist–3 (“Wandzura–Wilczek type”) terms, which have been derived previously using other methods. The new representation of the twist–3 terms is very compact and allows for a simple physical interpretation.

Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS), $`\gamma ^{}(q)+N(p)\gamma (q^{})+N(p^{})`$ at large $`q^2`$ and finite $`t=(p^{}p)^2`$, is the simplest process which could probe the generalized parton distributions (GPD’s) in the nucleon. New experimental results for spin and charge asymmetries of the cross section have been reported at this meeting, allowing for a first comparison of GPD models with data.

The crucial property of DVCS (and a number of other hard electroproduction processes) is that the amplitude can be factorized in a hard photon–quark amplitude, and a soft matrix element containing the relevant information about the structure of the nucleon. Technically, this factorization can be accomplished using QCD expansion techniques familiar from the theory of deep–inelastic scattering. Originally only the contribution from twist–2 operators was included. It was realized that in this approximation the amplitude is not transverse (electromagnetically gauge invariant); the violation is proportional to the transverse component of the momentum transfer, which is not suppressed at large $`q^2`$. A gauge invariant amplitude up to terms $`O(t/q^2)`$ is obtained by including certain “kinematical” twist–3 contributions. These have been derived in various approaches: Momentum–space collinear expansion, coordinate–space light cone expansion, and a parton–model based approach. In the usual formulation the twist–3 terms are parametrized by auxiliary GPD’s given by certain integrals over the basic twist–2 GPD’s, much like the Wandzura–Wilczek part of the spin structure function $`g_2(x)`$ in inclusive DIS. In addition to restoring gauge invariance of the twist–2 contribution, the twist–3 terms give rise to new helicity amplitudes and strongly influence the predictions for the spin and charge asymmetries of the DVCS cross section.

In this talk I would like to point out that the kinematical twist–3 terms in the DVCS amplitude have a simple physical interpretation as being due to a “spin rotation” applied to the twist–2 quark density matrix in the nucleon. This allows for a very compact representation of the twist–3 effects. Most important, it shows that, in spite of the apparent complexity of the amplitude at twist–3 level, DVCS is still a “simple” process. The results reported here have been obtained in collaboration with A. V. Radyushkin (Jefferson Lab and Old Dominion U.)

Consider virtual Compton scattering off an electron in QED at tree level, see Fig. 1a. It is well–known that transversality of the amplitude, $`q_\mu T_{\mu \nu }=0`$ and $`T_{\mu \nu }q_\nu ^{}=0`$, requires not only the Ward identities relating the electromagnetic vertex and the free–field propagator, but also the on–shell conditions for the external particles, i.e., the Dirac equations for the electron spinors.

Turning now to DVCS off a hadron, the twist–2 contribution to the amplitude in QCD is given by exactly the same diagrams as Fig. 1a, describing virtual Compton scattering off a free quark, only the wave functions of the initial and final particle have been replaced by the transition matrix element of the appropriate non-local quark/antiquark density matrix between the hadronic states, see Fig. 1b. The twist–2 part of the latter is defined as

$$M_{ij}(z|X)^{\text{twist–2}}=_0^1𝑑\lambda \left(\gamma _\sigma \right)_{ij}\frac{}{z_\sigma }p^{}|\overline{\psi }(X\lambda z/2)\widehat{z}\psi (X+\lambda z/2)|p$$
(1)
plus a similar contribution with $`\gamma _\sigma \gamma _5\gamma _\sigma `$ and $`\widehat{z}\widehat{z}\gamma _5`$. The density matrix is presented here in perhaps somewhat unusual form, in coordinate space, with the quark/antiquark “ends” located at $`X\pm z/2`$ ($`X`$ is the center coordinate, $`z`$ the separation); $`i`$ and $`j`$ are the Dirac spinor indices. Here $`\overline{\psi }`$ and $`\psi `$ are the quark fields (we omit the flavor labels), and the bilinear operator is really a traceless QCD string operator, see Ref. for details. What is important is that this twist–2 density matrix does not satisfy the free–field Dirac equations with respect to the quark/antiquark “ends”; the violation is proportional to the momentum transfer $`\mathrm{\Delta }=p^{}p`$. The reason is, simply put, that in the twist–2 operator in Eq.(1) the quark spin is projected on a fixed direction, determined by the vector $`z`$, while the Dirac equations require that the spin projection changes between the two ends in accordance with the momentum transfer between the quark lines.111In the usual collinear expansion around a fixed light–like direction, the vector operator in Eq.(1) would have a large “plus” component, while the quark/antiquark ends have transverse momenta because of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{}0`$. As a consequence, the twist–2 part of the DVCS amplitude alone is not electromagnetically gauge invariant; the amplitude violates transversality by terms proportional to $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

It is not difficult to see what must be done in order to fix this problem. We must rotate the spin projection of the quarks in the density matrix (1) such as to align it with the momenta of the incoming and outgoing quark ends. This is achieved by a position–dependent rotation with a matrix

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }(z/2)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{i}{4}z_\alpha \sigma _{\alpha \beta }\mathrm{\Delta }_\beta \right].$$
(2)
The modified density matrix is ($`\overline{\lambda }1\lambda `$)

$`M_{ij}(z|X)^{\text{rot}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑\lambda \left[\mathrm{\Sigma }(\overline{\lambda }z/2)\gamma _\sigma \mathrm{\Sigma }(\overline{\lambda }z/2)\right]_{ij}`$ (3)
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{}{z_\sigma }}p^{}|\overline{\psi }(X\lambda z/2)\widehat{z}\psi (X+\lambda z/2)|p`$
plus the same with $`\gamma _\sigma \gamma _5\gamma _\sigma `$ and $`\widehat{z}\widehat{z}\gamma _5`$. This “rotated” form satisfies the Dirac equations with respect to the external ends, up to terms proportional to $`t`$, see Ref. for details. As a result, the DVCS amplitude obtained with Eq.(3) is gauge invariant up to terms of order $`O(t/q^2)`$. Schematically, our modification of the twist–2 contribution to the DVCS amplitude can be represented as in Fig.2, with the spin rotation as an “intermediate step” between the twist–2 density matrix and the free quark Compton amplitude.

In the terminology of the light cone expansion, the spin rotation of Eq.(3) amounts to the inclusion of certain twist–3 operators, which, however, are completely given in terms of total derivatives of twist–2 operators (“kinematical twist–3”). When substituting parametrizations for the basic twist–2 matrix elements, Eq.(3) reproduces the Wandzura–Wilczek type relations for the twist–3 GPD’s, which were derived previously using other techniques. Thus, all the complexity of the kinematical twist–3 effects in DVCS can be reduced to the simple spin rotation of Eq.(3).

The effect of kinematical twist–3 terms on DVCS observables have been discussed in the literature. The twist–3 terms affect in particular the spin and charge asymmetries of the cross section. The spin rotation representation could be helpful in developing a more intuitive understanding of the twist–3 effects in DVCS observables. This problem certainly deserves further study.

C.W. is supported by a Heisenberg Fellowship from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).


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# Final 𝑅-value results from 2-5 GeV from BES and QCD test with 𝑅 scan data

## 1 Introduction

The lowest order cross section for $`e^+e^{}\gamma ^{}\text{hadrons}`$ in units of the lowest-order QED cross section for $`e^+e^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ is defined as $`R`$, namely $`R=\sigma (e^+e^{}\text{hadrons})/\sigma (e^+e^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{})`$, where $`\sigma (e^+e^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{})=\sigma _{\mu \mu }^0=4\pi \alpha ^2(0)/3s`$. Presently the uncertainty in $`R`$ in the energy region below 5 GeV dominates the uncertainties in both $`\alpha (M_Z^2)`$, the QED running coupling constant evaluated at the Z pole, and $`a_\mu ^{SM}`$, the value of $`(g2)_\mu `$ based on the Standard Model calculation .

Hadron production from $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation is one of the most valuable testing grounds for Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Particularly, it is interesting and important to analyze low energy $`e^+e^{}`$ collision data, for example, the inclusive momentum spectrum, defined as $`\xi =\mathrm{ln}(2p/\sqrt{s})`$, where $`p`$ and $`\sqrt{s}`$ are the momentum of the charged particles and center-of-mass (c.m.) energy respectively, with today’s knowledge. A purely analytical approach giving quantitative predictions for $`\xi `$ is the QCD calculation using the so-called Modified Leading Logarithmic Approximation (MLLA)  under the assumption of Local Parton Hadron Duality (LPHD) , which expresses the limiting spectrum for hadrons as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sigma _{had}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\xi }}=K_{LPHD}\times f_{MLLA}(\xi ,\mathrm{\Lambda }_{eff})`$ (1)
where $`K_{LPHD}`$ is an overall normalization factor describing hadronization and $`f`$ is a complex function of $`\xi `$ and effective scale parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{eff}`$ . Eq. 1. is valid in the range of $`0\xi \mathrm{ln}(0.5\sqrt{s}/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{eff})`$.

Another example is the second binomial moments, which is a measure of the strength of hadron-hadron correlations and a sensitive probe for higher order QCD or non-perturbative effect. It is defined as $`R_2=n_{ch}(n_{ch}1)/n_{ch}^2`$, where $`n_{ch}`$ is the charged particle multiplicity. According to the next leading order QCD calculation (NLO), $`R_2`$ is given by

$`R_2={\displaystyle \frac{11}{8}}(1c\sqrt{\alpha _s(\sqrt{s})})`$ (2)
with $`c=0.55(0.56)`$ for five (three) active flavors. There has been a long standing discrepancy between the value of $`R_2`$ calculated by NLO and that measured with $`e^+e^{}`$, $`\mu ^+p`$ and $`\nu _\mu p`$ experiments. In addition, there is relatively little data in the energy region below 5 GeV to compare with QCD calculations.

This paper presents the final results of the $`R`$ values measured with BESII  at BEPC in the energy region from 2-5 GeV. We also report preliminary results on the inclusive momentum spectra, the momentum distribution of charged particles, and second binomial moments $`R_2`$ obtained from the analysis of $`R`$ scan data.

## 2 $`R`$ values in 2-5 GeV

Refs.  describe in detail the $`R`$ scan performed by BES at 91 energy points between 2-5 GeV, and the experimental study of the background, particularly the beam associated background. The triggers and the determination of the trigger efficiency; the measurement of luminosity; the hadronic event selection and background subtraction; the determination of the detection efficiency for hadronic events; and the initial state radiative correction can be also found in Refs. .

The final $`R`$ values measured by BES in this experiment are displayed in Fig. 1, together with those measured by MarkI , $`\gamma \gamma 2`$  and Pluto . The $`R`$ values from BESII have an average uncertainty of about 6.6%, which represents a factor of two to three improvement in precision in the 2 to 5 GeV energy region. These improved measurements have a significant impact on the global fit to the electroweak data and the determination of the SM prediction for the mass of the Higgs particle . In addition, they are expected to provide an improvement in the precision of the calculated value of $`a_\mu ^{SM}`$, and test the QCD sum rules down to 2 GeV .

## 3 Test of QCD models with $`R`$ scan data

### 3.1 $`\xi `$ spectrum

The measured $`\xi `$ spectrum at five different energies between 2.6 and 4.8 GeV are shown in Figure 2. The errors in the spectrum include errors from hadronic event selection and uncertainties from the event generators.

### 3.2 Momentum spectrum

The momentum spectra at the five energy points are shown in Figure 3, together with those measured at higher energy up to 130 GeV in other experiments. The momentum spectra show that hadron production at very small momentum $`p0.1`$ GeV is approximately energy independent. This behavior has been explained in Ref.  to be due to the coherent emission of low energetic (i. e. long wavelength) gluons by the total color current. Correspondingly the number of produced hadrons at small momentum is approximately constant.

### 3.3 Second binomial moment

Based on the multiplicity measured, we can obtain the second binomial moment $`R_2`$. The results are displayed in Figure 4, together with both NLO calculations and published data at higher energies up to 100 GeV from $`e^+e^{}`$, $`\mu ^+p`$ and $`\nu _\mu p`$ experiments . Our measured $`R_2`$, although with large errors, are consistent with those of other measurements done at higher energies.

It’s interesting to see that $`R_2`$ predicted by LO QCD are significantly higher than the measured data, while the NLO calculation comes closer to the data, although disagreement ($`0.07`$ in $`R_2`$) remains sizeable.


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# A Flaring L5 Dwarf: The Nature of H𝛼 Emission in Very Low Mass (Sub)Stellar Objects

## 1 Introduction

With the recent discoveries of numerous late M, L and T dwarfs, it has become apparent that the level of chromospheric activity as measured by the H$`\alpha `$ emission line flux relative to the total bolometric flux generally declines rapidly later than about M6-7 spectral type (Gizis et al. 2000, Basri 2000). In the former reference, H$`\alpha `$ emission was not even detected in any dwarf from the 2MASS sample later than L3. Similar trends have been apparent in the DENIS and SDSS discoveries of L dwarfs (Delfosse et al. 1997, Phan-Bao et al. 2001, Hawley et al. 2002). Only two of the few dozen 2MASS T dwarfs (Burgasser et al. 2002b) showed a detected emission line in low resolution spectra, where admittedly most of these are single-epoch observations. Upper limits for the H$`\alpha `$ emission of late L and T dwarfs relative to the estimated bolometric luminosities are typically an order of magnitude below the detected fluxes of late M dwarfs. The simple interpretation is that late L and T dwarfs generally exhibit weak or no chromospheric activity. The T dwarf 2MASSI J1237392+652615 (hereafter 2M1237) is an extraordinary exception to this trend: it has shown strong H$`\alpha `$ emission on each of several nights it has been observed (Burgasser et al. 2000,2002a), in a manner similar to the M9.5 dwarf PC 0025+0447 (Schneider et al. 1991; Martín, Basri & Zapatero Osorio 1999, hereafter PC0025).

Another property of the chromospherically-active late M dwarfs is the occurrence of flares, observed at ultraviolet, X-ray and radio frequencies as well as via optical spectra or photometry. Bursts of X-ray emission interpreted as coronal flares were detected in Chandra observations of the long-known M8V dwarf VB 10 (Fleming, Giampapa, & Schmitt 2000) and the young M9 brown dwarf LP 944-20 (Rutledge et al. 2000). The former exhibited a far-ultraviolet flare observed by Linsky et al. (1995) using the GHRS on the Hubble Space Telescope. Likewise LP 944-20 has been observed to emit bursts at radio frequencies (Berger et al. 2001).

A 2MASS M9.5 dwarf (2MASSW J0149090+295613, hereafter 2M0149) exhibited very strong H$`\alpha `$ and excess red continuum emission for a few tens of minutes, but then the emission line weakened and the normal photospheric absorption spectrum was observed (Liebert et al. 1999). If larger amounts of energy were radiated at far-UV and X-ray wavelengths as found in multi-wavelength studies of M flare stars (cf. Eason et al. 1992), the total energy release could have approached or exceeded the normal photospheric luminosity for $``$10 minutes. This object has subsequently been observed several times in the course of spectrophotometric surveying of 2MASS sources, and has exhibited only weak H$`\alpha `$ emission.

Another M9.5 dwarf, BRI 0021-0214 (hereafter BRI0021), was observed to flare by Reid et al. (1999). This rapidly-rotating object ($`v_{sini}`$40 km s-1) generally shows no H$`\alpha `$ emission (Basri & Marcy 1995). This underscores the probability that many of the latest M and perhaps L dwarfs exhibiting no apparent H$`\alpha `$ emission on their classification spectra may at times show strong emission in flares.

Hall (2002a) found the first L dwarf to show strong H$`\alpha `$ emission, 2MASSI J1315309-264951 (hereafter, 2M1315), which he estimated to be of type L3. This emission was also present though a factor of two weaker at a second observation five months later. It was thus not clear on what time scale the variability takes place, but Hall argued that chromospheric activity was the likely cause, and that this may be the first observation of a flaring L dwarf. Gizis (2002) independently found this object to show strong H$`\alpha `$ emission for six contiguous 600 second exposures on one night and two consecutive 900 second exposures on the following night. Since the emission was constant over those time periods, Gizis argued that the object is an L analog to the anomalous T emission object discussed in the first paragraph. Gizis classified the dwarf as L5 (and we adopt this subtype here). Finally, Hall (2002b) reports a fourth epoch of spectroscopy, again finding very strong H$`\alpha `$ emission.

In this paper we present data for the L5 dwarf 2MASS 01443536-0716142 (hereafter, 2M0144) which we show to be the first L-dwarf detected in an unambiguous flare. In section 2 we present the time series of spectrophotometric data. Section 3 is a brief discussion of the chromospheric properties and variability of the relatively few known active L dwarfs.

## 2 Observations

2M0144 is one of the brightest of the 2MASS L dwarfs with J= 14.19$`\pm `$0.04, H= 13.01$`\pm `$0.04, and Ks= 12.27$`\pm `$0.04. Its J-Ks = 1.92$`\pm `$0.06 is consistent with the spectral type.

2M0144 was first observed spectroscopically on 20 Feb 2001 with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrophotometer (LRIS, Oke et al. 1995) on the Keck I telescope. These spectra were reduced using the IRAF package and techniques described in Kirkpatrick et al. (1999). A second, separate observation was obtained with the CTIO 4m Blanco reflector on 24 Jan 2002; the IRAF data reduction techniques used were similar to the description in Cruz & Reid (2002). Because of an error in the flux calibration at the red end of the CTIO spectrum, however, an empirical adjustment was derived from a comparison of the Keck and CTIO spectra to correct the flux scaling of the CTIO data. In adopting this procedure, we make the assumption that the long-wavelength continuum of the spectrum is not variable.

These spectra are shown in Figure 1. The Keck spectra were a consecutive sequence of two 180 second exposures followed by two more 300 second integrations. The CTIO spectrum was a single 1800 second exposure. It is readily seen that the H$`\alpha `$ is strongest in the first scan, but is nearly 75% weaker on the last integration of the Keck dataset. Only an upper limit was measured from the CTIO spectrum. The NOAO Image Reduction and Analysis Facility ($`IRAF`$) “splot” routine was used to estimate equivalent widths and line fluxes. For each UT starting time, these measurements are listed in Table 1, with the fluxes in units of $`10^{16}`$ erg cm-2 s-1.

The measurements of the H$`\alpha `$ and the continuum fluxes depend on both the numbers of photons detected and the accuracy of the absolute calibration of the spectrophotometry. Since the continuum may be measured over a fairly wide bandpass about the line position, the photon flux accuracy is certainly a few per cent, as is the line flux at the peak of the flare. However, the accuracy of the spectrophotometry is limited by the use of a mean extinction curve, and especially by the ability to center the faint star on the slit using the acquisition TV. We therefore estimate that the peak H$`\alpha `$ and continuum fluxes are measured to 10% accuracy for 2M0144, the main subject of this paper. However, for a really faint target like the T dwarf 2M1237, these measurements may be no better than 30%.

2M0144 clearly exhibits the characteristics of flaring, with a time scale similar to that shown on the data set for 2M0149 (Liebert et al. 1999). However, the flare was much weaker in total amplitude than exhibited by the M9.5 dwarf. A He I 6678Å emission line was measured at 3.5$`\pm `$2Å EW or 1.5$`\times `$10-17 erg cm-2 s-1 on the first Keck exposure, but the spectrum is too noisy for this to be a definite detection. The short wavelength end of the first spectrum exhibited no continuum enhancement relative to the ones with weaker H$`\alpha `$ emission.

Finally, we coadded the four Keck I spectra to maximize S/N near the Li I 6707Å resonance doublet. We estimate an upper limit equivalent width of 2Å for this absorption feature. In Kirkpatrick et al. (2000), about 40% of the well-observed dwarfs near type L5 show easily detectable lithium (at $``$10Å), an unambiguous signature of an interior incapable of hydrogen fusion. Thus, we cannot claim that this is a brown dwarf, although it may well be a massive brown dwarf capable of depleting lithium but not burning hydrogen. Note that the published spectra taken of 2M1315 probably measure the continuum too weakly at these wavelengths for a strong lithium absorption feature to be detected.

The 9400Å H2O band absorption appears substantially stronger on the CTIO spectrum than on the Keck scans. Since no attempt was made to remove telluric water absorption on either observation, we cannot rule out a terrestrial origin for this apparent variability.

## 3 Discussion

As mentioned in the Introduction, it is customary to consider the ratio of the H$`\alpha `$ flux to the estimated bolometric flux (f/fbol) as a measure of the relative strength of this activity. Since the spectral type of 2M0144 is L5, we adopt for the bolometric correction to the K magnitude (BCK) the value of 3.3 magnitudes determined for the well-observed prototype L4 dwarf GD 165B. This quantity varies only slowly with subtype through the L sequence (Leggett et al 2001, Reid et al. 2001). We thus estimate an apparent bolometric magnitude of mbol= 16.0, yielding f/fbol in the range 0.8–2.4$`\times `$10-5 for the 20 Feb 01 flare sequence. The upper limit from the CTIO spectrum corresponds to a flux ratio of 0.4$`\times `$10-5. We estimate that the bolometric flux of 2M0144 is estimated to 5% accuracy, so that the ratios may be measured to better than 15%.

In Figure 2 we plot the log of this ratio vs. spectral type for several H$`\alpha `$-active objects discussed here, in comparison with late M dwarfs (X’s and upper limits), L dwarfs (open circles and upper limits) and T dwarfs (open square and upper limits) from the data sets of Hawley, Gizis and Reid (1996), Cruz and Reid (2002), Gizis et al. (2000) and Burgasser et al. (2002b). Here a numerical code is used for the spectral type where 0, 10 and 20 correspond to M0, L0 and T0, as shown. The errors in the measurements of f and fbol, which add uncertainty to the range exhibited of the ratio, are not displayed in the figure.

The full range from maximum to quiescence is shown by the connected points for the three flare stars observed in time series, 2M0149, BRI0021 and 2M0144 (filled squares); in quiescence, these show fluxes typical of other late M and L dwarfs. Note that virtually all of the fluxes shown for the other M, L and T dwarfs shown here were obtained in quiescence, yet one wonders if many/all of them can exhibit similar flares. In contrast, the maximum and minimum of four epochs of observation of 2M1315 (asterisks) by Hall (2002a) and Gizis (2002) all lie in a range two orders of magnitude higher than the limits for all but a few middle/late L dwarfs. Its discovery likely adds a third field object to the possible class (with PC0025 and 2M1237, also plotted as asterisks) exhibiting a continual or persistent state of high H$`\alpha `$ emission (Gizis 2002). The factor of four range in H$`\alpha `$ flux for PC0025 reported by Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio (1999) is shown, and the BCK = 3.19 for LHS 2924 (M9V) obtained by Tinney, Mould, & Reid (1993) is used to compute the bolometric magnitude. It is not clear that the small range observed from fewer measures of the H$`\alpha `$ flux of 2M1237, given the larger uncertainty in its H$`\alpha `$ flux mentioned earlier, represents real variability (Burgasser et al. 2002a).

In contrast to the objects exhibiting continually strong emission, 2M0144 was observed with an f flux more than a factor of 10 higher than the mean (including mostly upper limits) for L dwarfs of similar spectral type. It may therefore be the only true H$`\alpha `$ flare star yet found later than M9.5. Yet, at least 100 spectra of L dwarfs have been taken of 2MASS candidates alone (Kirkpatrick et al. 2000), another 48 are reported in Hawley et al. (2002), and at least a few dozen in DENIS papers in order to discover and classify these objects. That virtually all of these were caught in a quiescent state indicates that magnetic eruptions are indeed rare, ie. occur only of the order $``$1% of the time. This “duty cycle” estimate applies only to the fraction of the time spent in strong emission (ie. $``$ an order of magnitude stronger than the mean). Using a similar criterion, Gizis et al. (2000) estimated that very late M dwarfs spend $``$7% of the time in a flare state, very similar to the duty cycle for BRI0021 alone estimated by Reid et al. (1999) from $``$36,600 seconds of published observations.

Mohanty et al. (2002) suggest that the very high electrical resistivities in the cool, predominantly-neutral atmospheres of L dwarfs cause the drop-off in chromospheric activity beginning with late M dwarfs. Earlier a similar argument had been made to account for the weak, quiescent coronal X-ray fluxes of late M dwarfs by Fleming, Giampapa, & Schmitt (2000). The increasingly-cool boundaries may inhibit the magnetic field flux tubes from penetrating the surface to cause flares. This might account for the apparently decreasing flare “duty cycle” with decreasing Teff. The relationship of the recently-discovered outbursts of radio emission in cool dwarfs as late as L3.5 (Berger 2002) to the H$`\alpha `$ flares remains unclear.

The bigger puzzle may be in explaining the few field objects showing persistent, strong H$`\alpha `$ emission. Statistically, these seem also to be of the order of 1% of the known samples of very late M, L and T dwarfs.

First, we consider the hypothesis that continuous flaring or chromospheric/coronal energy release by an extremely active magnetic dynamo is taking place, as Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio (1999) argued for PC0025. However, these authors measured $`vsini`$ of only 13 km s-1 for PC0025. This is considerably less than the $``$40 km s-1 measured for relatively inactive objects like BRI0021. Thus, the nature of the dynamo may differ from the rotation-driven “shell” dynamo believed to be operative in the Sun and late-type dwarfs with radiative cores. Durney, De Young & Roxburgh (1993) proposed a turbulent (or distributed) dynamo model which could operate in completely-convective interiors while having a weaker effect on the internal angular momentum. It is not clear, however, why a “special” dynamo would operate in just a few of the ultracool dwarfs, all of which are believed to have completely-convective interiors.

Alternatively, we have suggested that the emission in these objects is caused by their being interacting binaries (Burgasser et al. 2000). However neither Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio (1999, for PC0025) nor Burgasser et al. (2002a, for 2M1237) found any evidence in favor of the binary hypothesis.

Finally, we consider the possibility that the strong H$`\alpha `$ emitters are very young objects. Objects with M7-9 spectra in very young associations and clusters are observed to show such strong emission – such as 162349.8-242601 in $`\rho `$ Oph (Luhman, Liebert, & Rieke 1997), CFHT-BD-Tau J043947.3+260139 in Taurus (Martín et al. 2001), S Ori 55 and 71 in the Sigma Orionis cluster (Zapatero Osorio et al. 2002a, Barrado y Navascués et al. 2002), and probably 2MASSW J1207334-393254 in TW Hya (Gizis 2002). We plot the strongest of these sources, S Ori 71, as an asterisk in Figure 2. These all belong to stellar systems which are arguably no older than 10 Myr. Accretion may be the dominant contributor to the emission in these objects, although likely driven by a strong protostellar magnetic field (Shu et al. 1994).

Gizis (2002) found 2M1315 because it was in the wide area of the TW Hya association he was surveying. Unlike the aforementioned objects, however, he found that the spectrum did not show photospheric absorption features indicative of a low gravity, and therefore the object is not likely to be a member of the association.

There is no such ambiguity with PC0025 and 2M1237: these objects do not lie in or near any apparent site of recent star formation. Moreover, if one assumed an age of only 10 Myr, the models of Burrows et al. (2002, see Fig. 8) suggest that PC0025 should be barely massive enough to fuse deuterium (15-20 MJ). For 2M1237 to have faded to a likely Teff below 1,000 K within 10 Myr, the models suggest it would have a mass of 3-4MJ!

Spectroscopic studies of brown dwarf candidates in clusters an order of magnitude older – Alpha Per at $``$90 Myr (Stauffer et al. 1999), and the Pleiades at $``$120 Myr (Stauffer, Schultz, & Kirkpatrick 1998) – have shown that these clusters do not harbor objects of late M spectral class exhibiting H$`\alpha `$ emission stronger than about 10Å equivalent width. A similar conclusion was reached by Gizis, Reid, & Hawley (2002) for nearby field dwarfs: by an approximate age of 108 years, though less rigorously estimated than for a cluster, the samples of M dwarfs do not include objects with H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths $`>`$10Å.

There is nonetheless an order of magnitude difference in age between Rho Oph, Taurus, Sigma Ori, and TW Hya ($`<`$10 Myr) and Alpha Per/Pleiades ($``$100 Myr). It appears that examples of extreme H$`\alpha `$ emission, which exist at 10 Myr, disappear by 100 Myr. But at what intermediate age does the strong emission fade? A few clusters (IC 2602, IC 2391) with 30-50 Myr ages have been surveyed photometrically, and large numbers of substellar candidates identified (Barrado y Navascués et al. 2001a), but spectroscopic investigation of the low mass potential members has apparently not yet shown whether extreme, persistent H$`\alpha `$ emitters are present.

The most straightforward, but perhaps naive, conclusion may be that PC0025, 2M1237 and probably 2M1315 are rare objects of ages 10-100 Myr in the solar neighborhood. If the T6 dwarf 2M1237 formed 100 Myr ago, the Burrows et al. (2001) tracks suggest a mass of $``$12 MJ, marginal for a deuterium-burning phase. The apparent discovery of such low mass objects in the Sigma Orionis cluster (Barrado y Navascués et al. 2001b, Zapatero Osorio et al. 2002b) suggests that they can form in isolation, at least within a cluster. However, the lack of any apparent association with a known, young stellar association or cluster leaves us uncomfortable with this conclusion.

In summary, the great majority of L dwarfs exhibit much less chromospheric activity than their more massive counterparts. They can exhibit flares, but the duty cycle appears to be only of order 1%. Three of the known objects showing persistent, strong H$`\alpha `$ emission are either young objects which managed to form in relative isolation from known young associations and clusters; or, perhaps more likely, may be exhibiting a different, as-yet unknown mechanism for the line emission.

We thank the referee, Suzanne Hawley, for several helpful suggestions and comments, and acknowledge insightful discussions with Mark Giampapa. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. The data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA. The authors also wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have had the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. The NStars research described in this paper was supported partially by a grant awarded as part of the NASA Space Interferometry Mission Science Program, administered by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. AJB acknowledges support by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF-01137.1 awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS 5-26555. KCL acknowledges support from an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This research is supported by a NASA JPL grant (961040NSF). Finally, as we write this on the eve of the final release of the all-sky 2MASS data, we thank in particular the survey Principal Investigator Mike Skrutskie, Project Manager Rae Stiening, and the NASA IPAC staff led by Roc Cutri, for all their efforts that made studies like this possible. We also add particular thanks to Susan Kleinmann and Frank Low, without whose vision and energy the project might never have gotten started.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM)  or an $`\mathrm{E}_6`$ inspired model with one extra neutral gauge boson $`Z^{}`$ and one additional singlet superfield  neutralinos with a dominant singlet higgsino (singlino) component exist for large values of the singlet vacuum expectation value (vev) $`x1`$ TeV. We study scenarios where the MSSM-like neutralinos have similar masses and mixing character as in the ‘typical mSUGRA’ SPS 1a scenario for the MSSM .

Since the singlino component does not couple to gauge bosons, gauginos, (scalar) leptons and (scalar) quarks, cross sections for the production of the exotic neutralinos are generally small. We analyze the regions of $`x`$ where the associated production of the singlino-dominated neutralino yields detectable cross sections at a linear $`e^+e^{}`$collider.

Since also the decay of an MSSM-like neutralino into a singlino-dominated neutralino is strongly suppressed the decay vertex can be significantly displaced from the production vertex in the detector. Within the SPS 1a scenario we discuss the singlet vacuum expectation values which lead to displaced decay vertices of an MSSM-like next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) decaying into an exotic LSP. The production of singlino-dominated neutralinos is extensively discussed in . More details of displaced vertices can be found in .

## 2 Scenarios

### 2.1 NMSSM

The NMSSM parameters (for details see ) $`M_1=99`$ GeV, $`M_2=193`$ GeV, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =10`$ and the effective $`\mu `$ parameter $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}=\lambda x=352`$ GeV are chosen according to the scenario SPS 1a. For large $`x|M_2|`$ a singlino-dominated neutralino $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ with mass $`2\kappa x`$ in zeroth approximation decouples in the neutralino mixing matrix while the other four neutralinos $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_{1,\mathrm{},4}^0`$ have MSSM character as in SPS 1a with masses 96 GeV, 177 GeV, 359 GeV and 378 GeV.

Fig. 1 shows the mixing character of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ as a function of the singlet vacuum expectation value $`x`$ while $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=70`$ GeV and 120 GeV and $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ are fixed by the parameters $`\kappa `$ and $`\lambda `$, respectively. In order to obtain a singlino content of 90% (99%), $`x`$ must be larger than about 1200 GeV (4000 GeV) for $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=70`$ GeV and 1500 GeV (5000 GeV) for $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=120`$ GeV. Generally the singlino content increases with increasing value of $`x`$. The couplings of the singlino-dominated neutralino and therefore the production cross sections and decay widths are determined by the remaining MSSM content, which decreases as $`1/x^2`$ in good approximation. In the SPS 1a inspired scenario the gaugino content dominates the MSSM content of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$, which increases the couplings to the gaugino-like $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ .

### 2.2  $`𝐄_\mathrm{𝟔}`$ model

We consider an $`\mathrm{E}_6`$ inspired model with one extra neutral gauge boson $`Z^{}`$ and one additional singlet superfield which contains six neutralinos . Again the MSSM parameters and masses of the MSSM-like neutralinos are fixed according to the scenario SPS 1a, while a nearly pure light singlino-like neutralino $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ with mass $`0.18x^2/|M^{}|`$ in zeroth approximation exists for very large values $`|M^{}|x`$ . The sign of $`M^{}`$ is fixed by requiring relative sign $`+1`$ between the mass eigenvalues of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ .

In scenario SPS 1a with $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=70`$ GeV the $`\stackrel{~}{Z}^{}`$ content is very small (Fig. 1). Hence the MSSM components of the singlino-dominated neutralino are of comparable size as in the corresponding NMSSM scenario. A singlino purity of 90 % is reached at $`x=1260`$ GeV and 99 % at $`x=4200`$ GeV. In the scenario with $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=120`$ GeV the $`\stackrel{~}{Z}^{}`$ content is larger resulting in a smaller gaugino content of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ than in the NMSSM. Here $`x`$ must be larger than 1600 GeV and 5200 GeV to obtain a singlino content of 90 % and 99 %, respectively.

## 3 Production of singlino-dominated neutralinos

Direct experimental evidence of a fifth neutralino would be an explicit proof for an extended SUSY model. An exotic neutralino which is not the LSP is omitted in the decay cascades and must be directly produced with sufficient cross section to be detected. The visibility of the cross sections for neutralinos with major exotic components is also crucial to apply sum rules in order to test the closure of the neutralino system .

We discuss the associated production of the singlino-dominated $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ together with the lightest MSSM-like neutralino $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation. Since in the SPS 1a inspired scenario $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ is gaugino-like the production proceeds mainly via $`t`$\- and $`u`$-channel exchange of selectrons and the gaugino content of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ is crucial for the size of the cross section (Fig. 1). Analytical formulae are given in  for the NMSSM and  for the $`\mathrm{E}_6`$ model. The selectron masses are fixed according to the SPS 1a scenario in both models: $`m_{\stackrel{~}{e}_R}=143`$ GeV and $`m_{\stackrel{~}{e}_L}=202`$ GeV. We will assume a cross section of 1 fb to be sufficient of the production process. Of course the discovery limit depends on the neutralino decay properties that are discussed in detail in .

In Fig. 2 the cross sections are shown for two masses 70 and 120 GeV of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$, where the singlino-dominated neutralino is the LSP and NLSP, respectively. In all scenarios the cross sections are decreasing in good approximation as $`1/x^2`$ according to the gaugino content of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$. In the NMSSM with $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=70`$ GeV (120 GeV) the unpolarized cross section is larger than 1 fb for $`x<7.4`$ TeV (9.7 TeV) which corresponds to a singlino content of 99.7 %. While the cross sections in the $`\mathrm{E}_6`$ model with $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=70`$ GeV are enhanced because of a positive $`\stackrel{~}{Z}^{}`$ contribution to the electron-selectron-neutralino coupling, the smaller gaugino content of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ and a negative $`\stackrel{~}{Z}^{}`$ contribution reduces the cross section for $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0}=120`$ GeV.

We also show the cross sections for polarized beams with 80 % electron and 60 % positron polarizations expected at a future linear collider . In the extended SPS 1a scenarios always the configuration $`P_{}=+0.8`$, $`P_+=0.6`$ enhances the cross sections by a factor 2 – 3 .

## 4 Displaced vertices

Displaced vertices of an MSSM-like NLSP appear if the couplings of a singlino-dominated LSP to the NLSP are strongly suppressed at large values of $`x`$ . Then assuming conserved $`R`$-parity all SUSY particles first decay into the NLSP which finally decays into the LSP with a decay vertex displaced from the production vertex.

In Fig. 3 we show the total decay width and decay length of the MSSM-like NLSP $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ for two masses of the singlino-like LSP $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ of 70 GeV and 85 GeV. For the larger mass difference between $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ displaced vertices appear for $`x>710^2`$ TeV and $`x>810^2`$ TeV in the NMSSM and $`\mathrm{E}_6`$ model, respectively. For the smaller mass difference phase space effects outweigh the larger mixing and the area of displaced vertices is reached for $`x>310^2`$ TeV .

Since the direct production of singlino-like neutralinos is visible up to $`𝒪(10\mathrm{TeV})`$, displaced vertices would be helpful to study exotic LSPs for large $`x=10^2`$$`10^4`$ TeV. If, however, the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_S^0`$ is not the LSP it remains invisible in this parameter region.

## 5 Conclusion

We have discussed the production of singlino-dominated neutralinos and the neutralino decay with displaced vertices in extended versions of the SPS 1a scenario within the NMSSM and an $`\mathrm{E}_6`$ inspired model with one new gauge boson. Since the singlet vacuum expectation value $`x`$ determines the singlino content it is the crucial parameter which triggers the production and decay properties of the exotic neutralino.

An exotic neutralino that is not the LSP is only visible in direct production since it is omitted in the decay cascades of the other SUSY particles. At a high luminosity linear $`e^+e^{}`$ collider the associated production of a singlino-dominated neutralino is detectable up to $`x`$ values of order 10 TeV, which corresponds to a singlino content of more than 99 %. Displaced vertices of an MSSM-like NLSP into a singlino-dominated LSP exist for very large $`x`$ of order 100 – 1000 TeV, significantly above the region where direct production occurs.

## Acknowledgment

We thank A. Bartl and H. Fraas for many helpful discussions and the careful reading of the manuscript. This work is supported by the ‘Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung’ of Austria, FWF Project No. P13139-PHY, by the EU TMR Project No. HPRN-CT-2000-00149 and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under contract No. FR 1064/5-1.


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# A high-sensitivity OH 5-cm line survey in late-type stars11footnote 1Table 1 is also available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/

## 1 Introduction

Emission from the first two rotationally excited states of OH was first discovered by Zuckerman et al. (1968) and Yen et al. (1969) for the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{},J=1/2`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{},J=5/2`$ states, respectively. The $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{},J=5/2`$ state of OH lies immediately above the ground-state and gives rise to four hyperfine transitions, with the $`F=33`$ and $`22`$ main lines at 6035.092 and 6030.747 MHz and the $`F=32`$ and $`23`$ satellite lines at 6049.084 and 6016.746 MHz, respectively (Fig. 1). The theoretical treatment of OH excitation in star-forming regions has progressed significantly in recent years (see Cesaroni & Walmsley, 1991; Gray et al., 1992; Pavlakis & Kylafis, 1996), and good predictions of relative OH line intensities can be made on the basis of these models, which show the importance of multi-line studies. In the circumstellar environment of late-type stars the model developed by Elitzur et al. (1976) successfully explains the excitation of strong 1612 MHz emission. This results from a cascade of the OH population down to the J=1/2 and 3/2 states after far infrared photons at 34.6 micron and 53.3 micron (see Figure 1) have excited the OH to the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{},J=5/2`$ and $`3/2`$ states. There are enough far infrared photons to excite the 1612 MHz line (e.g. Epchtein et al., 1980). However, it is only recently that the direct detection of the 34.6 microns absorption line has been reported with the ISO telescope toward IRC+10420 (see Sylvester et al., 1997). Besides the conspicuous 1612 MHz line emission, 18 cm main line emission is often observed in late-type stars. Conditions for this emission are carefully investigated in the work of Collison & Nedoluha (1994, 1995) and we discuss later in this work the implication of their excitation mechanism for the J=5/2 state of OH.

The main goal of the present observations was to survey the 5cm $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ doublet lines of OH in a number of stars ranging from typical Miras to OH/IR objects or pre-planetary nebulae. These stars sample various late stages of stellar evolution. In addition, observations of the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{},J=5/2`$ state lying immediately above the ground-state provide a critical test for OH excitation models.

These observations and our results obtained in 64 sources are presented in Sects. 2 and 3. Some OH properties of selected stars are also presented in Sect. 3. In Sect. 4 we discuss stellar OH pumping schemes and variability of OH main line emission sources in the light of our results.

## 2 Observations

Observations were made with the 100-m antenna at Effelsberg222The 100-m telescope at Effelsberg is operated by the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) on behalf of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG). in December 1999. We used a cooled HEMT dual-channel receiver connected to only one sense of polarization, Left Circular Polarization ($`LCP`$). The system temperature was $``$ 60 K ($`T_{\mathrm{mb}}`$) including ground pick up and sky noise. We used a position switching observing mode with the reference position offset by 600” in longitude from the source position (the half-power beamwidth of the telescope at 6 GHz is 130”). The new auto-correlator AK90 was split into 2 bands of 20 MHz each thus allowing us to simultaneously observe the 2 main lines and the two satellites lines of the J=5/2 state. There were 4096 channels per band giving a channel separation of 4.9 kHz and thus an effective spectral velocity resolution of 0.29 km s-1. Proper functioning of the system was checked by observations of the strong 5cm OH emission from the two compact HII regions W3(OH) and ON1 (see Table 1).

Calibration of the data followed the procedure used in the 6 GHz survey of star-forming regions made by Baudry et al. (1997). OH spectra were calibrated in terms of the noise source coupled to one polarization channel and the flux density scale was determined by observations of NGC 7027 (Ott et al., 1994). The noise tube was calibrated in Jy assuming that the 6 GHz flux density of NGC7027 was 5.9 Jy. We estimate that the flux density scale uncertainty is within 10%. All spectra were calibrated in terms of single polarization flux densities. This is one-half of the two polarization flux density. For possible 5 cm radio interference, we proceeded as in Baudry et al. (1997).

Our input catalog is listed in Table 1. It is based on 18 cm OH data. We selected sources which clearly exhibit the 1612 MHz satellite line and/or the 1665/1667 main lines. By these means we obtained targets with noticeable amounts of OH molecules and IR photons, that are not excessively distant in order to be detected.

The sources are essentially OH Miras with thin or moderately thick envelopes, and thick OH/IR objects. Bright Miras with both satellite and main lines were selected, from the Sivagnanam et al. (1988) comprehensive OH survey of the 1-kpc solar neighborhood. Most of them are also known as 22 GHz water maser sources. From the David et al. (1993) Nançay survey of OH/IR objects, we retained bright 1612 MHz sources with detected 1667 MHz emission. Targets have been chosen in order to sample objects lying along the sequence drawn by evolved stars in the IRAS two-color diagram (see Fig. 2). They mostly belong to the AGB. This sequence of envelope thicknesses is thought to reflect various evolutionary stages, and a certain initial mass distribution. Given our selection criteria we favored the best candidate stars for showing OH maser emission i.e. the nearby OH/IR stars with high luminosity and large amounts of dust and infrared photons.

We also included in our survey a few typical Semi-Regular variables, Proto-Planetary Nebulae (PPN), and Planetary Nebulae (PN), that are thought to be linked to the same evolutionary tracks. We added some red Supergiants (SG). The latter are luminous massive stars that are not on the AGB, but which usually present somewhat similar circumstellar envelopes. In our input catalog are NML Cyg (SG) and Vy 2-2 (PN), for which tentative detections at 5 cm have been reported in the literature.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Previous Surveys

Previous attempts made to search for excited OH from circumstellar envelopes gave only negative or controversial results with the exception of one object. As far as we are aware only a few searches for J=1/2 and 5/2 OH emission at 4.7 and 6 GHz from stars have been undertaken (see Thacker et al., 1970; Zuckerman et al., 1972; Baudry, 1974; Claussen & Fix, 1981; Jewell et al., 1985). The latter work was the most sensitive search for excited OH from stars yet performed. Zuckerman et al. (1972) reported weak 6035 MHz ($`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{},J=5/2`$) emission from NML Cyg and Claussen & Fix (1981) reported weak 4751 MHz ($`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{},J=1/2`$) emission from AU Gem. However, both detections were not confirmed by Jewell et al. (1985). On the other hand, Jewell et al., reported weak 6035 MHz maser emission from the planetary nebula Vy 2-2 appearing at the same velocity, –62km s-1, as the peak 1612 MHz maser emission detected by Davis et al. (1979).

### 3.2 New Effelsberg survey

In Table 1, we list the 64 late type stars observed by us. For all sources, the velocity range of search for emission is given (with the systemic velocity in parenthesis), together with the sensitivity limit achieved in our new survey at 3$`\sigma `$. The average noise level reached in our survey is (at 3$`\sigma `$ with a channel width of 0.29 km s-1) around 80 mJy ; in comparison, Jewell et al. (1985) have reached about 230 mJy (with a channel width of 0.06 km s-1).

Of the 64 sources observed, no one exhibits a clear emission or absorption signal. There are however two sources with tentative detections, NML Cyg (see Fig. 3) and Vy 2-2 (Fig. 4). For NML Cyg, we reached a sensitivity of 20 mJy (at 3$`\sigma `$ level) over the observed LSR velocity range. The 0.8 K (2.2Jy) signal reported by Zuckerman et al. (1972) and lying close to +5 km s-1, would have been easily detected by us. However, we can not exclude that the emission varies with time. The tentative feature at about –17 km s-1 (Fig. 4) is only detected at a $``$3$`\sigma `$ level and is therefore not convincing, but we note that 1612 MHz line emission at –18 km s-1 has been reported previously (see e.g. Engels, 1979).

The case of Vy 2-2 is different. With an integrated intensity of $``$48 mJy km s-1, we have obtained a 6$`\sigma `$ detection. Only the F=3–3 maser line transition lying at 6035 MHz was detected. No absorption or emission can be observed for the other transitions. Fig. 4 shows the observed 6035 MHz spectrum. The parameters and uncertainties (1$`\sigma `$) of Gaussian fits to the detected features are displayed in Table 2. The derived apparent luminosity is 1.1 Jy km s-1kpc2 (assuming a distance of 3.8kpc, Bensby & Lundström, 2001). The lack of F=2-2 emission777In the LTE approximation we obtain F=3-3/F=2-2 approx 1.4 whereas we observe here $`>`$2. and the narrow F=3-3 linewidth suggest that the observed F=3-3 line results from a maser process. However, only interferometric observation could give a definitive proof of it.

This detection is consistent with the results of Jewell et al. (1985) who observed maser emission at nearly the same velocity ($``$ –62.3 km s-1) and with about the same line width ($``$1.5 km s-1) but with a peak flux intensity four times stronger (0.15 Jy). The presence of the two features (Fig.4) is likely real. After splitting our data in two equal parts, the same two components appear. In another data reduction test, we have degraded our spectral resolution. This yields one single feature with a line width of $``$2.5 km s-1, i.e. twice the line width observed by Jewell et al., centered around -62.3 km s-1. Our observations and data reduction confirm long term OH emission from Vy2-2.

### 3.3 Vy 2-2

As is the case for other Galactic planetary nebulae, the distance to Vy 2-2 (G045.4-02.7) is poorly known. Previous attempts to determine the distance have resulted in a wide range of estimates. Those estimates put this object from 1.9 kpc (see Acker, 1978) based on an optical calibration to a kinematic distance of 20 kpc (Davis et al., 1979). The most recent estimate, based on a compilation of previous measurements (see Bensby & Lundström, 2001) gives a distance of 3.8 kpc. Vy 2-2 is a source of free-free radio continuum radiation and dust-type infrared emission. VLA maps show a slightly elongated continuum source (Seaquist & Davis, 1983). The continuum emission originates from a compact (diameter$``$0.5”) and narrow (thickness $`<`$ 0.”12) shell of ionized gas. This ionized region is surrounded by an extended halo of over 25” in radius, detected through its H$`\alpha `$ line emission (see Miranda & Solf, 1991). From the visibility analysis, Christianto & Seaquist (1998) estimate an angular expansion of 1.13$`\pm `$0.12 mas/yr-1. This would give for a distance of 3.8 kpc an expansion velocity of about 20km/s, in contradiction with the expansion velocity of 6 km s-1 measured by Miranda & Solf (1991) in the equatorial plane and qualified to be slow. Taking a systemic velocity for the source of –44.3$`\pm `$1.0km s-1 (tentative detection of Knapp & Morris, 1985) this would give a blue-shifted velocity for the OH maser of about 20 km s-1. The inferred expansion velocity is then in good agreement with the value derived by Christianto & Seaquist (1998) for a distance of 3.8 kpc. The kinematic age of the nebula they derived is 213 years and supports the conclusion that this object is a very young planetary nebula. The temperature of the central star is estimated to be greater than 35000K (see Zijlstra et al., 1989; Clegg & Walsh, 1989). The dust color temperature was estimated by Cohen & Barlow (1974) to be less than 190K.

Jewell et al. (1985) and Cohen et al. (1991) searched without success for $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{},J=1/2`$ maser emission (down to a $`3\sigma `$ limit of $``$0.25Jy). The 1612 MHz maser emission, the only ground-state maser transition observed, was first detected by Davis et al. (1979). Seaquist & Davis (1983) located the maser at the front edge of the ionized shell, coincident with a shock front and an ionization front, placing the OH maser on the near side of the expanding shell and thus providing an explanation for the blue-shifted maser feature. This is consistent with the fact that OH molecules are effectively produced in the outer parts of circumstellar envelopes due to photoionization of H2O by interstellar UV photons. The typical abundance for OH molecules relative to H2 is about $`10^5`$ and HST observations (see Sahai & Trauger, 1998) show a compact bright bipolar source expanding along an axis roughly orthogonal to the bipolar axis. Despite the fact that almost all planetary nebulae appear optically thin at 5GHz, Vy 2-2 is optically thick (see Purton et al., 1982).

## 4 Implications on Pumping Schemes

There exist two main ways to invert the 5cm maser transition, (1) by radiative pumping of far infrared (FIR) photons or (2) by collisions with H2 molecules (in combination with local and non-local line overlap). Chemical pumping does not seem applicable and interstellar UV photons are only responsible for the dissociation of H2O molecules in the outer part of the circumstellar envelope to produce OH (the contribution of stellar UV photons is negligible except perhaps for the innermost= regions of the envelope).

### 4.1 About the ground-state masers

Theoretical studies of the pumping mechanism of the 18cm OH lines are quite advanced. The absorption of FIR photons at 34.6 $`\mu `$m and 53.3 $`\mu `$m excites the OH from the ground state to the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{}`$ ladder. Subsequent cascading of the populations through the J=1/2 and J=3/2 levels inverts the J=3/2 ground state (Elitzur et al., 1976). This scheme explains rather well the strong 1612 MHz line and essentially avoids the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}`$ ladder (Davis et al., 1979). Therefore, in circumstellar regions where 1612 MHz is strong and the above mechanism prevails one should not expect to detect 5 cm OH emission.

However, the pump cycle may differ in inner layers where highly excited lines are expected to be found. Moreover, Collison & Nedoluha (1994, 1995) argue that FIR line overlaps are also important to enhance the 1612 MHz line and may even be the primary inverting scheme for the 1612 MHz line in not too optically thick OH envelopes. In the latter case overlaps at 120 $`\mu `$m are important and populating the J=5/2 level is essential. Collison & Nedoluha (1994) argue that FIR line overlaps alone cannot explain the main-line masers in stars (contrary to earlier models) and that near infrared (NIR) overlap effects (with OH or H2O) are likely needed to explain the main line emission from thin circumstellar shells.

The most recent model published on OH masers in circumstellar envelopes (see Thai-Q-Tung et al., 1998) treats only the ground-state excitation and considers two models. The first one is with line overlapping limited by a Doppler shift of 2km s-1 and the other one with large overlapping (up to the expansion velocity). In both models the 1612MHz appears much stronger than the other ground state lines by a factor 102 to 103. They found that the pumping based on FIR hyperfine line overlapping is much smaller in the second case. They suggest that FIR line overlapping occurs inside clumps (small Doppler shift) of circumstellar envelopes (this idea was also invoked by Collison and Nedoluha), but no prediction is made about the excited state. Only the recent work of Pavlakis & Kylafis (1996, 2000) studied excited OH maser emission but only in the case of massive star forming regions.

Modeling the detected maser emission in Vy 2–2 at 1612 and 6035 MHz is a challenge. The particular nature of the source, a very young proto planetary nebulae, may certainly be a clue. The fact that two masers are observed at the same LSR velocity (–62 km s-1) argues in favor of their spatial association. In such a case they would both originate from the thin ionization shell presenting similar conditions as in HII regions. Within this context, PPN shells may be characterized by particularly high densities and long path lengths for coherent amplification that have to be taken into account.

### 4.2 Infrared pumping ?

Excitation of the OH radical results from complex competitive schemes involving both collisional and radiative pumping as well as line overlap effects that are correlated with the velocity field in the OH medium and local line broadening. The 5 cm OH lines arise from energy levels 84 cm-1 above the ground-state and we therefore expect that FIR photons around 100 $`\mu `$m are involved in the OH pumping cycle. To evaluate the possibility of a pumping scheme based only on IR photons, Fig. 5 compares the IRAS flux at 60 $`\mu `$m and the lower limits of OH emission at 6GHz, assuming that the ratio between the radio solid angle and the IR solid angle is $`1`$. Fig. 5 shows that the number of FIR photons largely exceeds the emitted radio photons. Baudry et al. (1997) reached a similar conclusion for compact HII regions but in that case many 5 cm OH masers could be detected. From this we conclude that in stellar envelopes the OH pumping mechanism is different from that in massive star forming regions and that the available FIR radiation is unlikely to work as a pump for this maser. Moreover as the envelopes are dense, it is possible that even if the IR pumping were efficient, collisions could effectively quench the OH maser emission.

## 5 Conclusion

We have observed an extensive sample of OH/IR stars and late-type variables. Except for one atypical source (Vy 2–2) no excited OH maser has been detected. We do not confirm the tentative detection of NML Cyg. Only the blue shifted emission is detected in Vy 2–2 for which we have discussed briefly the morphology and OH production. The absence of detectable excited emission at 5cm (except the unique object Vy 2–2) tends to argue in favor of a pumping scheme based essentially on the absorption of 35 and 53 $`\mu `$m photons. In the case of Vy 2–2 the ionization shell from where the maser emission seems to originate, may present physical conditions (shock, higher temperature and density) similar to those prevailing in HII regions. A hybrid pumping model applying to both OH/IR stars and HII regions or even a pumping scheme similar to OH maser emission in massive star forming regions may be successful. It is interesting to note that no absorption at 35 and 53 $`\mu `$m can be seen for this source in ISO observations. Interferometric observations are needed to spatially determine the likely related positions of the 1612 and 6035 MHz maser emission in Vy 2-2.

###### Acknowledgements.

This research has made use of the SIMBAD database operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France and ASTRID database, operated at GRAAL, Montpellier, France. We thank Dr A.M.S Richard for valuable suggestions to prepare the observations and N.J. Rodríguez-Fernández for his help on ISO data.


text:
# Tunable Molecular Resonances of Double Quantum Dots Embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm Interferometer

## Abstract

We investigate resonant tunneling through molecular states of coupled double quantum dots embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer. The conductance through the system consists of two resonances associated with the bonding and the antibonding quantum states. We predict that the two resonances are composed of a Breit-Wigner resonance and a Fano resonance, those widths and Fano factor depending on the AB phase very sensitively. Further, we point out that the bonding properties, such as the covalent and the ionic bonding, can be identified by the AB oscillations.

While single quantum dots are regarded as artificial atoms due to their quantization of energies , two (or more) quantum dots can be coupled to form an artificial molecule . Resonant tunneling through series quantum dots provides some informations on the coupling between dots , but the phase coherence of the bonding cannot be directly addressed in this geometry. Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometers containing a quantum dot enables investigating the phase coherence of resonant tunneling through a quantum dot . The phase coherence of the Kondo-assisted transmission has been also studied in this geometry . Recently, an AB interferometer setup containing two coupled quantum dots has been realized . This can be considered as the beginning point of the study for experimentally unexplored region where various aspects of double dot molecule can be investigated with probing the phase coherence. There are some previous theoretical works for the AB interferometer containing two quantum dots. Resonant tunneling , cotunneling , Kondo effect , and magnetic polarization current  have been the subjects of the study for the system without direct coupling between dots. Two-electron entanglement in the presence of direct tunneling between dots has been also studied  in the context of quantum communication.

In this Letter, we study phase-sensitive molecular resonances through double quantum dots embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. The geometry we consider is schematically drawn in Fig. 1, and is basically equivalent to the experimental setup of Ref. . We find that the conductance through the system consists of two molecular resonances associated with the bonding and the antibonding quantum states. By careful analysis on the conductance as a function of energy, we argue that the two resonances are always composed of a Breit-Wigner resonance and a Fano resonance, those widths and Fano factor depending on the AB phase very sensitively. Further, we propose that the bonding properties, such as the covalent and the ionic bonding, can be characterized by the AB oscillations.

Our model is described by the following Hamiltonian:

$$H=H_M+H_0+H_T,$$
(2)
where $`H_M`$, $`H_0`$, and $`H_T`$ stand for the artificial molecules of double quantum dots, two electrical leads, and tunneling between the leads and the quantum dots, respectively. For the molecule, we consider coupled non-interacting quantum dots of energies $`\epsilon _1`$, $`\epsilon _2`$ with tunneling matrix element $`t`$ between two dots,

$$H_M=\epsilon _1d_1^{}d_1+\epsilon _2d_2^{}d_2t(d_1^{}d_2+d_2^{}d_1),$$
(3)
where $`d_i`$ ($`d_i^{}`$) with $`i=1,2`$ annihilates (creates) an electron in the $`i`$-th dot. The bonding properties depend on the ratio of the energy difference of the quantum dot levels ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon \epsilon _1\epsilon _2`$) and the tunnel splitting ($`2t`$). The molecular bonding can be called ‘covalent’ for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon |2t`$ where the eigenstates of the electrons are delocalized. On the other hand, the molecule is considered to be in the ‘ionic’ bonding limit for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon |2t`$ where the eigenstates are localized in one of the two dots . $`H_0`$ describes the two (left and right) electrical leads modeled by the Fermi sea as,

$$H_0=\underset{kL}{}E_k^La_k^{}a_k+\underset{kR}{}E_k^Rb_k^{}b_k,$$
(4)
where $`a_k`$ ($`a_k^{}`$) and $`b_k`$ ($`b_k^{}`$) annihilates (creates) an electron in the left and one in the right leads, respectively. These two leads are assumed to be identical, $`E_kE_k^L=E_k^R`$. Finally, tunneling between the leads and the molecule is described by

$$H_T=\underset{k,i=1,2}{}(V_L^id_i^{}a_k+\text{H. c.})\underset{k,i=1,2}{}(V_R^id_i^{}b_k+\text{H. c.}).$$
(5)
For simplicity, we assume that the magnitudes of tunneling matrix elements for the four different arms are same, denoted by $`V`$. Then the matrix elements can be written as $`V_L^1=V_R^2=Ve^{i\phi /4}`$, $`V_L^2=V_R^1=Ve^{i\phi /4}`$. The phase factor $`\phi `$ comes from the AB flux, and is defined by $`\phi =2\pi \mathrm{\Phi }/\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ where $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ are the external flux through the interferometer and the flux quantum ($`=hc/e`$), respectively. The hopping strength between a quantum dot and a lead is denoted by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, defined as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=2\pi \rho (E_F)V^2,$$
(6)
where $`\rho (E_F)`$ stands for the density of states of each leads at the Fermi level, $`E_F`$.

The Hamiltonian is transformed by using symmetric and antisymmetric modes of the leads and the quantum dots. Later it will become obvious that this approach provides better insights into the problem. Let us consider the transformations of electron operators

$`\alpha _k`$ $`=`$ $`(a_k+b_k)/\sqrt{2},\beta _k=(a_kb_k)/\sqrt{2},`$ (8)
$`d_\alpha `$ $`=`$ $`(d_1+d_2)/\sqrt{2},d_\beta =i(d_1d_2)/\sqrt{2}.`$ (9)
Note that, for $`\epsilon _1=\epsilon _2`$, $`d_\alpha `$ and $`d_\beta `$ correspond to the annihilation operator of the bonding and the antibonding modes. By adopting this transformation we can rewrite the Hamiltonian as follows:

$$H=H_\alpha +H_\beta +H_{\alpha \beta },$$
(11)
where $`H_\alpha `$, $`H_\beta `$ take the simple form of the Fano-Anderson Hamiltonian  ($`\gamma =\alpha ,\beta `$)

$$H_\gamma =\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_\gamma d_\gamma ^{}d_\gamma +\underset{k}{}E_k\gamma _k^{}\gamma _k+V_\gamma \underset{k}{}(d_\gamma ^{}\gamma _k+\gamma _k^{}d_\gamma ),$$
(12)
where the energy eigenvalues of the two ‘quantum dot’ modes are given by $`\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_\alpha =\epsilon _0t`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_\beta =\epsilon _0+t`$ where $`\epsilon _0=(\epsilon _1+\epsilon _2)/2`$. The hybridization matrix elements depend on the AB phase as $`V_\alpha =2V\mathrm{cos}(\phi /4)`$ and $`V_\beta =2V\mathrm{sin}(\phi /4)`$. The coupling between two modes is given by

$$H_{\alpha \beta }=\overline{t}d_\alpha ^{}d_\beta \overline{t}^{}d_\beta ^{}d_\alpha ,$$
(13)
with the ‘tunneling’ matrix element being proportional to the difference of the energy levels of two quantum dots, $`\overline{t}=i(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon )/2`$. It is important to note that the coupling term given in Eq.(13) vanishes for $`\epsilon _1=\epsilon _2`$. In other words, for the same single particle energies of the two dots, the original Hamiltonian is mapped onto the problem of two independent Fano-Anderson Hamiltonian.

In the representation of the transformed Hamiltonian (Eq.(Tunable Molecular Resonances of Double Quantum Dots Embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm Interferometer)) the dimensionless conductance can be written as

$$𝒢=\frac{1}{4}|\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha G_\alpha (E_F)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta G_\beta (E_F)|^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta |G_{\alpha \beta }(E_F)|^2,$$
(14)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$ stand for the hopping strengths between the discrete level and the continuum of each modes given by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha =2\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{cos}^2(\phi /4)`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta =2\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{sin}^2(\phi /4)`$, respectively. $`G_\alpha (E_F)`$ ($`G_\beta (E_F)`$) and $`G_{\alpha \beta }(E_F)`$ denote the diagonal and the off-diagonal components of the $`2\times 2`$ Green’s function matrix. After some algebra for the Green’s function we can obtain a very compact form of the conductance

$$𝒢=\frac{(e_\beta e_\alpha )^2+4\mathrm{\Delta }}{|(e_\alpha +i)(e_\beta +i)\mathrm{\Delta }|^2},$$
(16)
where

$`e_{\alpha ,\beta }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha ,\beta }}}(\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_{\alpha ,\beta }E_F),`$ (17)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4|\overline{t}|^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta }}={\displaystyle \frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon )^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta }}.`$ (18)
Note that Eq.(14) becomes equivalent to the one obtained in  in the absence of direct coupling between two quantum dots ($`t=0`$).

First we discuss the covalent bonding limit, $`\epsilon _1=\epsilon _2`$. This limit is very instructive to give insights into the problem, since the coupling term in the Hamiltonian (Tunable Molecular Resonances of Double Quantum Dots Embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm Interferometer) vanishes. Therefore, $`H_{\alpha \beta }=0`$, and it is clear that the transport is associated with two resonances of widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$. In this limit the conductance reduces to

$$𝒢=\frac{(e_\beta e_\alpha )^2}{(e_\alpha ^2+1)(e_\beta ^2+1)}.$$
(19)
In the following we argue that the conductance consists of the convolution of a Breit-Wigner resonance and a Fano resonance of the two molecular (the bonding and the antibonding) states for $`\epsilon _1=\epsilon _2`$. Since the hopping parameters $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$ are sensitive to the AB phase, one can manipulate the resonance widths via AB flux. Let us consider the limit $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$. For the energy scale larger than $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$ ($`|e_\beta |1`$), the conductance of Eq.(19) follows the Breit-Wigner form of its width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$:

$$𝒢𝒢_{BW}=\frac{1}{e_\alpha ^2+1}.$$
(20)
On the other hand, one can find that the conductance shows the Fano-resonance behavior near the antibonding state ($`|e_\beta |1`$),

$$𝒢𝒢_{Fano}=𝒢_b\frac{(e_\beta +q)^2}{e_\beta ^2+1},$$
(21)
where the Fano factor $`q`$ and the background conductance $`𝒢_b`$ are given by $`q=4t/\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ and $`𝒢_b=1/(q^2+1)`$, respectively. From this analysis we find that the conductance is composed of a Breit-Wigner resonance around the bonding state ($`\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_\alpha `$) with its resonance width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$ and a Fano resonance around the antibonding state ($`\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_\beta `$) of width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$, if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$. Further information is obtained from the Fano factor $`q`$. For $`t=0`$ the conductance shows an antiresonance behavior ($`q=0`$), while it becomes more Breit-Wigner-like (large $`q`$) as the inter-dot coupling increases. For the other limit $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$, the same analysis is applied with the role of the bonding and the antibonding states interchanged and the Fano factor given by $`q=4t/\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$. That is, for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$, the conductance consists of the Breit-Wigner resonance for the antibonding state and the Fano resonance near the bonding state.

Fig. 2 shows the conductance as a function of the Fermi energy. The curve demonstrates the features described above, which follows the Breit-Wigner and the Fano asymptotes for the larger and for the smaller width of the resonances, respectively. For $`\phi =0.3\pi `$ used in Fig. 2, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$, therefore, the conductance shows Breit-Wigner behavior for the bonding state ($`E_F\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_\alpha `$), and Fano resonance around the antibonding state ($`E_F\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }_\beta `$). One can also verify that the Fano factor ($`q`$) increases as the bonding becomes stronger. The resonance around the antibonding state evolves from the anti-resonance for weak bonding (small $`q`$) to the Breit-Wigner like resonance behavior for strong bonding (large $`q`$).

Next, we investigate the more general case where $`\epsilon _1\epsilon _2`$. The same kind of analysis about the resonances can be applied here, with the Fano resonance modified. We discuss the limit $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$, without loosing generality. For the energy scale larger than $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$, the conductance takes the Breit-Wigner form of Eq.(20) as in the $`\epsilon _1=\epsilon _2`$ case. However, the conductance near the narrower resonance ($`|e_\beta |1`$) is modified as

$$𝒢𝒢_{Fano}^{}=𝒢_b\frac{|e_\beta ^{}+Q|^2}{e_\beta ^2+1},$$
(23)
where

$$e_\beta ^{}=(e_\beta +𝒢_b\mathrm{\Delta }q)/(1+𝒢_b\mathrm{\Delta }),$$
(24)
and the modified Fano factor given by

$$Q=q\frac{1𝒢_b\mathrm{\Delta }}{1+𝒢_b\mathrm{\Delta }}+i\frac{2\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }}}{1+𝒢_b\mathrm{\Delta }}.$$
(25)
Eq.(Tunable Molecular Resonances of Double Quantum Dots Embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm Interferometer) can be regarded as a generalized Fano resonance formula with the complex Fano factor $`Q`$. As pointed out in Ref. , the Fano factor is complex number in the absence of the time reversal symmetry, for e.g., by applying external magnetic field. This point was addressed experimentally with an AB interferometer containing a single quantum dot .

Two significant changes are found in Eq.(Tunable Molecular Resonances of Double Quantum Dots Embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm Interferometer) compared to Eq.(21). (i) Since the modified Fano factor $`Q`$ is a complex number in general, transmission zero does not exist for $`\epsilon _1\epsilon _2`$ unlike the covalent bonding limit. (ii) The width of the Fano resonance becomes broader due to the difference of the energy levels between the dots as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta ^{}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta +𝒢_b\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon )^2}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha }.$$
(26)
For a fixed value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon `$, one can find that the broadening of the resonance is significant for small inter-dot coupling, recalling the relation $`𝒢_b=1/(q^2+1)`$ with $`q=4t/\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha `$.

The conductance as a function of the Fermi energy for the case of different energy levels is shown in Fig. 3. Since $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha \mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta `$ for $`\phi =0.3\pi `$, the conductance shows again the Breit-Wigner resonance behavior for the larger energy scale corresponding to the “bonding” state. The modified Fano-resonance can be observed around the “antibonding” state. The imaginary part of the modified Fano factor increases as the bonding strength becomes stronger, which implies that the resonance around the antibonding state evolves from the antiresonance to the Breit-Wigner like resonance. One can also verify that the width of the Fano resonance is broader here compared to the case of $`\epsilon _1=\epsilon _2`$.

Finally, we discuss on the Aharonov-Bohm oscillations of the conductance for the molecular states, and show that the bonding properties are identified by the oscillation patterns. As shown in Fig. 4, the oscillation patterns are very different for the ionic and for the covalent bonding limit. Most of all, the periodicity changes from $`2\pi `$ in the ionic bonding to $`4\pi `$ in the covalent bonding limit. This periodicity change can be interpreted in terms of the effective coupling strength between two dots. In the ionic bonding limit of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon |2t`$, the AB oscillation has the usual $`2\pi `$-periodicity since the coupling between the dots is ineffective. However, in the covalent bonding limit, the coupling between dots becomes important, and this strong effective coupling separates the interferometer into two sub-regions with their cross-sectional area halved. Therefore the oscillation period is doubled.

Comparing the AB oscillations of the bonding (Fig. 4(b)) and the antibonding (Fig. 4(c)) states, one finds that there are phase difference by $`2\pi `$ between the corresponding eigenstates. This originates from the difference of the wave function symmetry of the two eigenstates.

In conclusion, we have investigated resonant tunneling through the molecular states of coupled two quantum dots embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer. We have found that the two resonances are composed of a Breit-Wigner resonance and a Fano resonance, those widths and Fano factor depending on the AB phase. Further, we have suggested that that the bonding properties and their symmetries can be characterized by the AB oscillation.