format: text

text:
# Isolated ionospheric disturbances as deduced from global GPS network

## Keywords

Ionosphere (ionospheric irregularities, instruments and techniques), radio science (ionospheric propagation)

## 1 Introduction

Of the known ionospheric irregularities of a different class, mid-latitude isolated ionospheric disturbances (IIDs) stand out as a highly unusual type. The past 40 years saw a consistent interest in the study of the origin of IIDs that was aroused due to difficulties in determining an adequate mechanism for IID generation in mid-latitudes, as well as by the fact that the IID have a marked effect on amplitude and phase characteristics of transionospheric signals from radio engineering communication and navigation systems (Afraimovich et al., 1992) by causing serious malfunctions of these systems.

A large number of publications (e.g., Karasawa, 1985; Titheridge, 1971), including a review by Bowman (1989) were devoted to the study along this line. IIDs are detected when recording amplitude and phase scintillations of transionospheric radio signals in the form of rarely occurring single aperiodic negative impulses with a duration from a few to several tens of seconds (Karasawa, 1985). To name this uncommon type of scintillation Karasawa (1985) seems to be the first to coin the term ”spikes-type” (S-) scintillations.

Karasawa et al. (1985) noticed from a long-term recording of the signal from the geostationary MARISAT satellite at 1.5 GHz frequency that synchronous with amplitude S-scintillations, there occur similar-appearing changes of the rotation angle of polarization plane that are proportional to a corresponding disturbance of total electron content (TEC). Anomalous fluctuations, recorded during 13 months of observation, occur predominantly in the night-time and last from 5 s to 2 min. The diurnal dependence of the S-type oscillations shows two distinct peaks: 09:00-15:00 in the daytime, and 20:00-01:00 at night. As far as the seasonal dependence is concerned, however, a maximum of the oscillation distribution corresponds to early summer (June). It is customary to associate the occurrence of S-type oscillations with diffraction or interference from small-scale irregularities, ”blobs” and ”bubbles”, generated in the ionosphere.

Titheridge (1971) found that amplitude and phase S-scintillations are caused by refraction and diffraction effects at the propagation of the transionospheric signal in a medium with IIDs and presented the corresponding formulae for estimating these effects as a function of relationship of the wavelength of the radio wave, the irregularity size and the sounding geometry (LOS to the satellite and the distance to the layer with IIDs).

However, in spite of the many years of experimental and theoretical investigations, there is as yet no clear understanding not only of the physical nature of IIDs but even of their morphology (the occurrence frequency as a function of geographical position, time, level of geomagnetic and meteorological activity, etc.).

To tackle these questions requires statistically significant sets of experimental data with good spatial and temporal resolution in order to gain insight into not only morphological but also dynamic IID characteristics: the direction of travel, the propagation velocity, and the location of the possible disturbance source. Another important requirement implies a continuity and global coverage of observations since such phenomena are relatively rare in time and random in space.

Such an opportunity is for the first time provided by the use of the international ground-based network of two-frequency receivers of the GPS, consisting of no less than 1000 sites as of the beginning of 2002 and posting its data on the Internet, which open up new avenues for a global, continuous, fully computerized monitoring of ionospheric disturbances of a different class. Analysis and detection of IIDs was made possible through the use of the technology for global detection and determination of parameters of ionospheric disturbances of a different class that was developed at the ISTP (Afraimovich, 2000b).

The objective of this paper is to study the morphology and spatial and temporal properties of IIDs using data from a global network of GPS receivers. Following Karasawa et al. (1985), the term TECS (total electron content spikes) will be used here to designate the IID-induced TEC disturbances. The sample statistic of the occurrence frequency and morphology used in this study does refer to TECS recorded from GPS data. Within the framework of certain model representations, using these data it is possible to reconstruct amplitude and spatial characteristics of local electron density disturbances, i.e. of IIDs themselves. On this basis, the term IIDs will be used below interchangeably with the term TECS.

Section 2 describes the method for detecting the TECS obtained in our study. Section 3 presents the TECS morphology. Section 4 is devoted to a detailed analysis of the spatial and temporal properties of IIDs by considering the most pronounced manifestation of TECS on October 5, 2001 in California, USA. The discussion of results compared with findings reported by other authors is presented in Section 5.

Our comparison of IID characteristics with geomagnetic field variations used data from near-lying magnetic variation stations of the INTERMAGNET network (address: http://www.intermagnet.org).

## 2 Method of processing the data from the global network. Selection of TECS

The standart GPS technology provides a means for wave disturbances detecion based on phase measurements of TEC at each of spaced two-frequency GPS receivers (Hofmann-Wellenhof et. al, 1992):

$$I_o=\frac{1}{40.308}\frac{f_1^2f_2^2}{f_1^2f_2^2}[(L_1\lambda _1L_2\lambda _2)+const+nL],$$
(1)
where $`L_1\lambda _1`$ and $`L_2\lambda _2`$ are additional paths of the radio signal caused by the phase delay in the ionosphere, (m); $`L_1`$ and $`L_2`$ represent the number of phase rotations at the frequencies $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$; $`\lambda _1`$ and $`\lambda _2`$ stand for the corresponding wavelengths, (m); $`const`$ is the unknown initial phase ambiguity, (m); and $`nL`$ are errors in determining the phase path, (m).

Phase measurements in the GPS can be made with a high degree of accuracy corresponding to the error of TEC determination of at least $`10^{14}`$ m-2 when averaged on a 30-second time interval, with some uncertainty of the initial value of TEC, however (Hofmann-Wellenhof et. al, 1992). This makes possible detecting ionization irregularities and wave processes in the ionosphere over a wide range of amplitudes (up to $`10^4`$ of the diurnal TEC variation) and periods (from 24 hours to 5 min). The unit of TEC $`TECU`$, which is equal to $`10^{16}`$ m-2 and is commonly accepted in the literature, will be used in the following.

Primary data include series of ”oblique” values of TEC $`I_0(t)`$, as well as the corresponding series of elevations $`\theta _s(t)`$ and azimuths $`\alpha _s(t)`$ of the LOS to the satellite calculated using our developed CONVTEC program which converts the GPS system standard RINEX-files on the INTERNET (Gurtner, 1993).

Series of the values of elevations $`\theta _s(t)`$ and azimuths $`\alpha _s(t)`$ of the LOS to the satellite were used to determine the coordinates of subionospheric points, and to convert the ”oblique” TEC $`I_0(t)`$ to the corresponding value of the ”vertical” TEC by employing the technique reported by Klobuchar (1986)

$$I=I_0\times cos\left[arcsin\left(\frac{R_z}{R_z+h_{max}}cos\theta _s\right)\right],$$
(2)
where $`R_z`$ is the Earth’s radius, and $`h_{max}`$=300 km is the height of the $`F_2`$-layer maximum. All results in this study were obtained for elevations $`\theta _s(t)`$ larger than 30.

The technology of global detection of TEC disturbances that was developed at the ISTP SB RAS makes it possible to select - in the automatic mode from an extensive amount of experimental material \- TEC disturbances which can be classed as TECS. TECS were selected by two criteria. TEC variations were selected first, the standard deviation (rms) of which exceeded the prescribed level $`ϵ`$. The statistic of TECS discussed in this paper was obtained for $`ϵ`$ = 0.1 $`TECU`$. Then, for each filtered series we verified the fulfilment of the ”singleness” condition of the TEC overshoot.

Fig. 1 illustrates the TECS selection procedure. Fig. $`1𝐚`$ presents an example of weakly disturbed disturbances of a ”vertical” TEC $`I(t)`$ recorded on February 11, 2001 at station COCO ($`96.8^{}`$E; $`12.1^{}`$S; the satellite number is PRN30). Fig. $`1𝐛`$ presents the filtered (from the initial $`I(t)`$-series) $`dI(t)`$-variations. Thin horizontal lines show the prescribed threshold $`ϵ`$. The standard deviation of the $`dI(t)`$-variations is 0.007 $`TECU`$, that is, does not reach the prescribed threshold, $`ϵ`$ = 0.1 $`TECU`$.

Figs. $`1𝐝`$ and $`1𝐞`$ plot the same dependencies as in Figs. $`1𝐚`$ and $`1𝐛`$, but for station BAKO ($`106.8^{}`$E; $`06.5^{}`$S; the satellite number is PRN26). It is evident from Fig. $`1𝐝`$ that unusual (for background disturbances) TEC variations in the form of a single impulse of a duration on the order of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$=10 min are clearly identified at the background of slow TEC variations.

The time $`t_{min}`$, corresponding to the value of $`A_{min}`$ of the filtered TEC variation $`dI(t)`$, is shown in Fig.1e by the shaded triangle. The value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ is determined from the level of 0.5 $`A_{min}`$. The amplitude of this pulse $`A_{min}`$ far exceeds the specified threshold $`ϵ`$ and at least an order of magnitude higher than the background TEC fluctuation intensity for this range of periods (Afraimovich et al., 2001b).

The relative amplitude of such a response $`A_{min}/I_0`$ has a significant value, 2$`\%`$. We used, as the background value of $`I_0`$, the absolute ”vertical” TEC value $`I_0(t)`$ for the site located at $`7.5^{}`$S; $`105^{}`$E, obtained from IONEX-maps of TEC (Mannucci, 1998).

It should be noted that the above examples both refer to the same time interval and to the stations spaced by a distance over 1300 km. This indicates a local character of the phenomenon and is in agreement with the overall statistic characterizing its spatial correlation (see Section 3).

For each of the events satisfying the above TECS selection criteria, a special file was used to store information about the GPS station name and geographic latitude and longitude; GPS satellite PRN number; amplitude $`A_{min}`$; time $`t_{min}`$ corresponding to the minimum value of the $`A_{min}`$ amplitude; and about the TECS duration $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$. The sample statistic, presented below, was obtained by processing such files.

## 3 Morphology of TECS

A total number of the TEC series (radio paths) used in the analysis, corresponding to the observation along a single receiver-satellite LOS, with a duration of each series of about 2.3 hours, exceeded 850000. The method outlined above was used to obtain a set of TECS totaling about 10000 cases, or making up about 1$`\%`$ of the total number of the LOS’s. An analysis of the resulting statistic revealed a number of dependencies of TECS parameters on different factors.

First we consider the seasonal dependence of the TECS occurrence frequency and amplitude (Fig. 2). Fig. $`2𝐚`$ plots the number of days of observation $`M`$ versus season. As is evident, the autumn is represented best statistically. Fig.$`2𝐛`$ shows the seasonal dependence of the number of TECS, $`N`$. Fig. $`2𝐜`$ plots the number of TECS per day as a function of season $`L=N/M`$. This dependence has maxima in spring and in autumn.

The relative density of TECS, $`D`$, obtained as the ratio of the number of TECS identified, $`N`$, to the number of LOS’s, is presented in Fig. $`2𝐝`$.

Vertical lines in Fig. $`2𝐝`$ show TECS standard deviations (rms). The dashed horizontal line plots the threshold in amplitude $`ϵ`$ = 0.1 $`TECU`$. The most probable value of $`<|A_{min}|>`$ with a small scatter varies around the value 0.3 $`TECU`$, independently of the season.

Fig. $`3𝐚`$ plots the dependence $`P(|\mathrm{𝐷𝑠𝑡}|)`$ of the number of TECS on the modulus of values of the geomagnetic activity index $`\mathrm{𝐷𝑠𝑡}`$. There is a general tendency of the number of TECS to increase with the decreasing level of geomagnetic activity. Most (80$`\%`$) of TECS occur when values of the $`\mathrm{𝐷𝑠𝑡}`$-index are below 50 nT.

Fig. $`3𝐛`$ presents the diurnal distribution of TECS, $`P(t_{min})`$, for the times $`t_{min}`$ corresponding to the minimum value of the amplitude $`A_{min}`$. It is evident that the distribution has maxima in the night-time and in the morning hours, approximately from 00:00 to 07:00, and from 23:00 to 24:00 of local time LT.

Fig. $`3𝐝`$ presents the normalized probability distribution $`P(|A_{min}|)`$ of TECS occurrence with a given amplitude $`A_{min}`$. The vertical dashed line shows the threshold in amplitude $`ϵ`$ = 0.1 $`TECU`$. It was found that the largest probable value of the amplitude $`|A_{min}|`$, also shown in Fig.$`3𝐝`$, is about 0.3 $`TECU`$, and the half-width of the distribution is 0.2 $`TECU`$. As demonstrated by Afraimovich et al. (2001a), the mean values of the TEC variation amplitude with a period of 20 min for the magnetically quiet and magnetically disturbed days do not exceed 0.01 $`TECU`$ and 0.07 $`TECU`$, respectively. Thus the most probable value of the amplitude $`A_{min}`$ of the TECS identified here exceeds the mean values of the TEC phase variation amplitude by a factor of 4-5 as a minimum.

The availability of a large number of stations in some regions on the globe, for instance, in California, USA, and West Europe, furnishes an opportunity to determine not only the temporal but also spatial characteristics of TECS. In order to estimate the radius of spatial correlation of events of this type, the number of cases was calculated where TECS within a single 2.3-hour time interval were observed at any two GPS stations spaced by a distance $`dR`$. Fig. $`3𝐜`$ presents the histogram of the number of such cases $`P(dR)`$ as a function of distance $`dR`$. It was found that the localization of TECS in space is sharply defined. In 90$`\%`$ of cases the distance $`dR`$ does not exceed 500 km.

## 4 Dynamics and anisotropy of IIDs as deduced from the October 5, 2001 event over California, USA

The event of October 5, 2001 was used in the analysis of the TECS dynamic characteristics of TECS. On that day between 08:00 and 18:00 UT, a number of GPS stations located in California, USA (220-260E; 28-42N) recorded a large number of traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) of the TECS type. For the above-mentioned time interval and the selected longitude range, the local time varied from 00:00 to 10:00 LT (for the longitude of 240E corresponding to the center of the GPS station array used in the analysis). So that the experimental conditions were characteristic for the night-time ionosphere.

Fig. 4 illustrates the geometry of the experiment on October 5, 2001. Heavy dots show the GPS stations, and small dots indicate the position of subionospheric points for all LOS’s. Since several (at least four) GPS satellites are observed at each receiving site simultaneously, the number of LOS’s far exceeds the number of stations, which enhances considerably the possibilities of the analysis. Panel a presents the entire set of GPS stations and subionospheric points that were used in the experiment for the time interval from 8:00 to 10:00 UT. Panels b and c show the stations and subionospheric points where the TEC variations revealed TECS with an amplitude exceeding the specified threshold $`ϵ`$=0.01 $`TECU`$ (b), and $`ϵ`$=0.1 $`TECU`$ (c). Except in a single case, TECS were recorded along the LOS running over land. As is evident from the figure, the increase of the recording threshold did not change the number of events recorded.

Fig. 5 presents the geomagnetic field $`\mathrm{𝐷𝑠𝑡}`$-variations (a) for October 5, 2001. $`H(t)`$-variations of the horizontal component of the geomagnetic field as recorded at station Victoria (48.52N; 236.58E) - b. $`dH(t)`$-variations of the horizontal component of the geomagnetic field, filtered from the $`H(t)`$-series in the range of 2-20-min periods - c. At the lower time scale in Fig. 5, the local time LT is represented for the longitude of 240E.

Fig. 5d presents the distribution of the values of the GPS station latitudes and time $`t_{min}`$, corresponding to each of the TECS detected that day by all GPS stations of the California region that were used in the analysis (220-260E; 28-42E). The letters A, B, C, and D in Fig. 5d label the TECS ”traces” that are presented in Fig. 6 on a smaller time scale (see Section 4.2). Fig. 5e \- same as in Fig. 5d, but for the station longitudes and $`t_{min}`$.

Fig. 5f presents the distribution $`N(t)`$ of the number of TECS that were detected that day at all GPS stations used in the analysis, with the rms above $`ϵ`$=0.1 $`TECU`$.

### 4.1 Determining the dynamic characteristics of IIDs by the SADM-GPS method

The methods of determining the form and dynamic characteristics of TIDs that are used in this study are based on those reported in (Mercier, 1986; Afraimovich, 1997; Afraimovich et al., 1998; 1999; 2000c).

We determine the velocity and direction of motion of the phase interference pattern (phase front) in terms of some model of this pattern, an adequate choice of which is of critical importance. In the simplest form, space-time variations in phase of the transionospheric radio signal that are proportional to TEC variations $`dI(t,x,y)`$ in the ionosphere, at each given time $`t`$ can be represented in terms of the phase interference pattern that moves without a change in its shape (the non dispersive disturbances):

$$I(t,x,y)=F(tx/u_xy/u_y)$$
(3)
where $`u_x(t)`$ and $`u_y(t)`$ are the displacement velocities of intersection of the phase front of the axes x (directed to the East) and y (directed to the North), respectively.

It should be noticed, however, that in real situations this ideal model (3) is not realized in a pure form. This is because that the TIDs propagate in the atmosphere in the form of a dispersing wave packet with a finite value of the width of the angular spectrum. But in the first approximation on short time interval of averaging compared to time period of filtered variations of TEC, the phase interference pattern moves without a substantial change in its shape.

A Statistical, Angle-of-arrival and Doppler Method (SADM) was proposed by Afraimovich (1997) for determining the characteristics of the dynamics of the phase interference pattern in the horizontal plane by measuring variations of phase derivatives with respect to the spatial coordinates $`I_x^{}(t)`$, $`I_y^{}(t)`$, and to the time $`I_t^{}(t)`$. This permits the determination of the unambiguous orientation of $`\alpha (t)`$ of the wave-vector $`𝑲`$ in the range 0–360 and the horizontal velocity $`V_h(t)`$ at each specific instant of time.

Afraimovich et al. (1998, 1999, 2000c) described updating of the SADM algorithm for GPS-arrays (SADM-GPS) based on a simple model for the displacement of the phase interference pattern that travels without a change in the shape and on using current information about the angular coordinates of the LOS: the elevation $`\theta _s(t)`$ and the azimuth $`\alpha _s(t)`$.

The method SADM-GPS makes it possible to determine the horizontal velocity $`V_h(t)`$ and the azimuth $`\alpha (t)`$ of TID displacement at each specific instant of time (the wave-vector orientation $`𝑲`$) in a fixed coordinate system ($`x`$, $`y`$):

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \alpha (t)& =\mathrm{arctan}(u_y(t)/u_x(t))\hfill \\ \hfill u_x(t)& =I_t^{}(t)/I_x^{}(t)=u(t)/\mathrm{cos}\alpha (t)\hfill \\ \hfill u_y(t)& =I_t^{}(t)/I_y^{}(t)=u(t)/\mathrm{sin}\alpha (t)\hfill \\ \hfill u(t)& =|u_x(t)u_y(t)|/(u_x^2(t)+u_y^2(t))^{1/2}\hfill \\ \hfill V_x(t)& =u(t)\mathrm{sin}\alpha (t)+w_x(t)\hfill \\ \hfill V_y(t)& =u(t)\mathrm{cos}\alpha (t)+w_y(t)\hfill \\ \hfill V_h(t)& =(V_x^2(t)+V_y^2(t))^{1/2}\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
where $`w_x`$ and $`w_y`$ are the $`x`$ and $`y`$ projections of the velocity $`w`$ of the subionospheric point (for taking into account the motion of the GPS satellite).

Let us take a brief look at the sequence of data handling procedures. Out of a large number of GPS stations, three points (A, B, C) are chosen in such a way that the distances between them do not exceed about one-half the expected wavelength $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ of the disturbance. The point B is taken to be the center of a topocentric frame of reference. Such a configuration of the GPS receivers represents a GPS-array (or a GPS-interferometer) with a minimum of the necessary number of elements. In regions with a dense network of GPS-points, we can obtain a broad range of GPS-arrays of a different configuration, which furnishing a means of testing the data obtained for reliability; in this paper we have taken advantage of this possibility (Section 4.2).

The input data include series of the vertical TEC $`I_A(t)`$, $`I_B(t)`$, $`I_C(t)`$, as well as corresponding series of values of the elevation $`\theta _s(t)`$ and the azimuth $`\alpha _s(t)`$ of the LOS. Series of $`\theta _s(t)`$ and $`\alpha _s(t)`$ are used to determine the location of the subionospheric point, as well as to calculate the elevation $`\theta `$ of the wave vector $`𝑲`$ of the disturbance from the known azimuth $`\alpha `$ (see formula (5)).

Since the distance between GPS-array elements (from several tens to a few hundred of kilometers) is much smaller than that to the GPS satellite (over 20000 km), the array geometry at the height near the main maximum of the $`F_2`$-layer is identical to that on the ground.

Linear transformations of the differences of the values of the filtered TEC $`(I_\mathrm{B}I_\mathrm{A})`$ and $`(I_\mathrm{B}I_\mathrm{C})`$ at the receiving points A, B and C are used to calculate the components of the TEC gradient $`I_x^{}`$ and $`I_y^{}`$ (Afraimovich et al., 1998). The time derivative of TEC $`I_t^{}`$ is determined by differentiating $`I_\mathrm{B}(t)`$ at the point B.

The resulting series are used to calculate instantaneous values of the horizontal velocity $`V_h(t)`$ and the azimuth $`\alpha (t)`$ of TID propagation. Next, the series $`V_h(t)`$ and $`\alpha (t)`$ are put to a statistical treatment. This involves constructing distributions of the horizontal velocity $`P(V_h)`$ and direction $`P(\alpha )`$ which are analyzed to test the hypothesis of the existence of the preferred propagation direction. If such a direction does exist, then the corresponding distributions are used to calculate the mean value of the horizontal velocity $`V_h`$, as well as the mean value of the azimuth $`\alpha `$ of TID propagation.

The correspondence of space-time TEC characteristics, obtained through transionospheric soundings, with local characteristics of disturbances in the ionosphere was considered in detail in a wide variety of publications (Afraimovich et al., 1992; Mercier and Jacobson, 1997) and is not analyzed at length in this study. The most important conclusion of the cited references is the fact that, as for the extensively exploited model of a ‘plane phase screen’, disturbances $`dI(x,y,t)`$ of TEC faithfully copy the horizontal part of the corresponding disturbance $`dN(x,y,z,t)`$ of local concentration, independently of the angular position of the source, and can be used in experiments on measuring the wave velocity of TEC.

However, the TEC response amplitude experiences a strong ‘aspect’ dependence caused by the integral character of a transionospheric sounding. As a first approximation, the transionospheric sounding method is responsive only to TIDs with the wave vector $`𝑲`$ perpendicular to the direction $`𝒓`$ of the LOS. A corresponding condition for elevation $`\theta `$ and azimuth $`\alpha `$ of $`𝑲`$ has the form

$$\mathrm{tan}\theta =\mathrm{cos}(\alpha _s\alpha )/\mathrm{tan}\theta _s$$
(5)
We used formula (5) in determining the elevation $`\theta `$ of $`𝑲`$ from the known mean value of azimuth $`\alpha `$ by Afraimovich et al. (1998).

The phase velocity modulus $`V`$ can be defined as

$$V=V_h\times cos(\theta )$$
(6)
Hence at least the dynamic (two-dimensional) characteristics of TEC disturbances (TECS in the case under consideration) may well be referred qualitatively to the corresponding characteristics $`dN/N`$ of local electron density disturbances (IIDs). Reconstructing the quantitative characteristics of local density disturbances, $`dN/N`$, in terms of the solution of an inverse problem of transionospheric sounding is a highly difficult, special problem, constituting the subject of our further investigation.

On the basis of using the transformations described in this section, for each of the GPS arrays chosen for the analysis we obtained the average for the selected time interval values of the following TECS parameters: $`\alpha `$ and $`\theta `$ – the azimuth and elevation of the wave vector $`𝑲`$; $`V_h`$ and $`V`$ – the horizontal component and the phase velocity modulus, the azimuth of a normal to the TECS front $`\alpha _c`$ from the method reported by Mercier (1986).

### 4.2 The dynamic characteristics of IIDs

For the PRN05 and PRN30 satellites, Fig. 1c and 1f give an example of the filtered TECS for different spaced stations, and for the GPS satellites on October 5, 2001. It is evident from the figure that the selected typical TEC variations such as TECS are identical and shifted by a certain amount of delay, which makes it possible to calculate the velocity and direction of the IID that causes the observed TEC variations. The panels show the values of the IID velocity $`V`$ and direction $`\alpha `$ inferred using the above data processing procedures.

Using different sets of GPS arrays for the entire California region we were able to obtain stable mean estimates of the IID velocity modulus $`V`$, horizontal projection $`V_h`$ and direction $`\alpha `$ in the horizontal plane, as well as the elevation angle $`\theta `$ of the displacement vector $`𝑲`$ in the vertical plane.

Fig. 7. present the distributions of the TECS parameters as determined by the SADM-GPS method, for the ”trace” A (on the left; 660 arrays), and for the ”trace” B (on the right; 280 arrays). a, d – modulus $`V`$ (line 1) and horizontal component $`V_h`$ (line 2) of the TECS phase velocity; b, e – azimuth $`\alpha `$; c, f – elevation $`\theta `$ of the TECS wave vector $`𝑲`$. Same parameters as in Fig.7, but for the ”trace” C (on the left; 376 arrays), and for the ”trace” D (on the right; 280 arrays), are presented on Fig.8.

According to our data, the following values were obtained (using SADM-GPS method): $`<V_h>`$=179 m/s, $`V`$=160 m/s, $`\alpha `$=360, and $`<\theta >`$=22 for the trace” A (Fig.7, on the left); $`<V_h>`$=190 m/s, $`V`$=165 m/s, $`\alpha `$=5, and $`<\theta >`$=27.6 for the trace” B (Fig.7, on the right); $`<V_h>`$=171 m/s, $`V`$=151 m/s, $`\alpha `$=5, and $`<\theta >`$=24 for the trace” C (Fig.8, on the left); and $`<V_h>`$=90 m/s, $`V`$=74 m/s, $`\alpha `$=360, and $`<\theta >`$=20 for the trace” D (Fig.8, on the right).

An analysis of the distribution of the azimuths $`P(\alpha )`$ (Figs. 7b, 7e, 8b, and 8e) shows a clearly pronounced northward direction of TECS displacement. The elevation of the TECS wave vector, determined from the aspect condition (5), has mostly a small positive value (Figs. 7c, 7f, 8c, and 8f).

### 4.3 The anisotropy and sizes of IIDs

Let us consider in greater detail the ”traces” A, B, C, and D. Fig. 6 (a - d) plots the dependencies of the values of the GPS station latitudes $`N_i`$ on the time $`t_{min,i}`$, corresponding to each of the TECS detected that day at all GPS stations of the California region used in the analysis (220-260E; 28-42N); fig. 6 (e - h) - same as above, but for the station longitudes $`E_i`$ and $`t_{min,i}`$. TECS only for a single selected satellite number are considered for each trace.

Figs.6 (a - d) suggest the conclusion that at each given time there are only a few TECS with close values of the coordinates $`N_i`$, and there is a clearly pronounced gradual displacement of the subionospheric point in the northward meridional direction. With a knowledge of the range of TECS displacement in latitude and the time interval corresponding to this displacement, it is easy to determine that the meridional projection of the displacement velocity $`V_N`$ is close to 200 m/s, which is in agreement with estimates obtained using the SADM-GPS method.

On the other hand, the dependencies of the longitude $`E_i`$ of the TECS observed on $`t_{min,i}`$ suggest a spatial extent of the traveling irregularity in longitude.

Thus the shape of the observed irregularities (”traces” A, B, C, and D) show up as ellipsoids traveling northward with a velocity of about 200 m/s.

The IID anisotropy was analyzed by determining the ”contrast” $`C`$ (Mercier, 1986). We calculated the ratio $`C_{N,E}`$:

$$\begin{array}{cccc}\hfill C_{N,E}& =\sigma _N/\sigma _E,\hfill & \hfill \text{if }\sigma _N& >\sigma _E\hfill \\ \hfill C_{N,E}& =\sigma _E/\sigma _N,\hfill & \hfill \text{if }\sigma _E& >\sigma _N\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)
where $`\sigma _N`$ and $`\sigma _E`$ are the standard deviations of the corresponding series of the TECS coordinates $`N_i`$ and $`E_i`$. These series were obtained by transforming the initial series $`N_i^{}`$ and $`E_i^{}`$ by rotating the original coordinate system (N, E) by an angle $`\beta `$:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill N& =N^{}\mathrm{sin}\beta +E^{}\mathrm{cos}\beta \hfill \\ \hfill E& =N^{}\mathrm{cos}\beta +E^{}\mathrm{sin}\beta \hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
Mercier (1986) showed that it is possible to find such a value of the rotation angle $`\beta _0`$, at which the ratio $`C_{N,E}`$ will be a maximum and equal to the value of contrast $`C`$. This parameter characterizes the degree of anisotropy of the phase interference pattern. The angle $`\beta _0`$ in this case indicates the direction of elongation, and the angle $`\alpha _c=\beta _0+\pi /2`$ indicates the direction of the wave vector $`𝑲`$ coincident (module 180) with the propagation direction of the phase front.

Fig. 9 ($`𝐚,𝐜,𝐞,𝐠`$) plots the dependencies of the standard deviation $`\sigma _N(\alpha )`$ of the values of the coordinates of subionospheric points in a topocentric coordinate system, and of the corresponding to $`t_{min}`$, on the rotation angle $`\alpha _c`$=$`\beta _0`$+$`\pi `$/2 ($`\beta `$ stands for the rotation angle of the original coordinate system) for the ”traces” A, B, C, and D (Figs. 5 and 6); Fig. 9 ($`𝐛,𝐝,𝐟,𝐡`$) plots the dependencies of the value of the ratio $`C_{N,E}`$ on $`\alpha _c`$=$`\beta _0`$+$`\pi `$/2. The values of the contrast $`C`$ are shown by the horizontal dashed line.

It is apparent from the figure that the value of $`C`$ fluctuates from 6 to 10, and the greatest contrast for the traces under consideration corresponds to the ”trace” C and, hence, this trace has the greatest anisotropy.

Furthermore, the direction of elongation of the major axis of the IID ellipse $`\beta _0`$ = -85. For the other ”traces” the values of the parameter $`\beta _0`$ lie in the range from -80 to -85. The panels show the mean values of the angles $`\alpha _c`$ obtained by the method reported in Mercier (1986), and the mean values of $`\alpha `$ inferred by the SADM-GPS method (Afraimovich, 1997; Afraimovich et al., 1998; 1999; 2000c) for each of the ”traces”. As is evident from the figure, the values of the angle $`\alpha `$, calculated by the two methods, agree to within 5-10.

We now estimate the horizontal sizes of the IID. With the mean duration of 10 min and the travel velocity of 180 m/s, we obtain the transverse size of the irregularity equal to 108 km. With the value of the contrast $`C`$=9, the longitudinal size equal to 864 km.

### 4.4 Estimating the relative IID amplitude

Let us now obtain the mean estimate of the relative amplitude of a local electron density disturbance typified by the IID of October 5, 2001.

A mean TECS absolute amplitude over California equal 0.1 $`TECU`$ (see Fig.1c, f). As the background value of $`I_0`$, we used the absolute ”vertical” TEC value of $`I_0(t)`$ obtained from IONEX-maps of the TEC (see Fig.10c). These maps with two-hour temporal resolution were constructed using the well-known methods and are placed on the Internet site ftp://cddisa.gsfc.naa.gov/.

Fig.10c shows the variations of the absolute ”vertical” TEC value $`I_0(t)`$ for the site with the coordinates 240E; 35N. At the lower time scale in Fig.10, the local time LT is represented for the longitude of 240E. For comparison Fig.10d present the distribution $`N(t)`$ of the number of TECS that were detected that day at all GPS stations used in the analysis, with the rms above $`ϵ`$=0.1 $`TECU`$ (this is copy of Fig.5f).

Comparison of Fig. 10c and d reveals that the greatest TECS occurrence probability corresponds to the night-time hours for which the ”vertical” TEC value $`I_0(t)`$ does not exceed 10 $`TECU`$.

Hence the relative amplitude of TECS $`dI/I_0`$ makes up 1$`\%`$, that is quite significant for this disturbance period ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ = 10 min) and exceeds one order of magnitude the amplitude of typical background TEC fluctuations (Afraimovich et al., 2001a).

It is further assumed that the characteristic vertical size of the IID is of the same order as the transverse horizontal size (of about 100 km - see Section 4.3). The vertical extent of the part of the ionosphere that makes the main contribution to the TEC modulation is no less than 500-1000 km. Hence it follows that the relative amplitude $`dN/N`$ of the local electron density disturbance for IID reaches a considerably large value, 5–10$`\%`$.

## 5 Discussion

What is the nature of the ionospheric irregularities that are responsible for the occurrence of TECS, and Do they differ from the known published ionospheric disturbances? We shall try to unravel this situation using the sample statistic obtained in Section 3 and the October 5, 2001 event as an example, because for this event it was possible not only to record a large number of TECS but also to obtain estimates of the size, anisotropy and velocity of isolated ionospheric irregularities that are responsible for the occurrence of TECS (Section 4).

It is significant that, according to Internet data for the concerned region of the USA and for the time interval of October 5, 2001 of our interest, there were not observable meteorological phenomena (site http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/), powerful explosions and rocket launchings able to cause TEC variations of the TECS type. The $`Titan4`$ rocket was launched from the ”Vandenberg” spaceport ($`239.5^{}`$E; $`34.8^{}`$N) on October 5 at 21:21 UT (the launching time is shown by the filled triangle in Fig.5f). However, most TECS on that day were observed before the launching time.

As far as seismic activity is concerned, we analyzed the data covering not only the time interval of our interest but also for the period from October 4 to 20, 2001 (http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/FM/previous/0107.html). No earthquakes with the magnitude larger than 3.5 were recorded in the region of our interest for the above time interval.

For the October 5, 2001, time interval of our interest, TEC fluctuations similar to TECS detected over California were absent elsewhere on the globe. No solar flare-induced background fluctuations of the TEC disturbance were also revealed. A similar, quiet, behavior over this time interval was also characteristic for the energetic particle flux. We do not present here the relevant data for reasons of space. They may be found on the site http://www.sel.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/lists.html.

The geomagnetic situation on October 5, 2001 can be characterized as a weakly disturbed one, which must lead to some increase of the level of TEC background fluctuations; however, this cannot cause any large-scale changes in electron density which are characteristic for the geomagnetically disturbed ionosphere. In the analysis of the geomagnetic situation we used the data from magnetic observatory Victoria (48.52N; 236.58E) which, for the time interval 15:00 - 18:00 UT of our interest, recorded a geomagnetic disturbance implying a decrease of the horizontal component of the magnetic field by 100 nT (Fig. 5b).

This disturbance was also accompanied by an increase of the $`H`$-component fluctuation amplitude in the range of 2-20-min periods (Fig.5c). The variation range of the geomagnetic $`\mathrm{𝐷𝑠𝑡}`$-index for the selected time interval was also relatively small (no more than 20 nT); however, the period from 08:00 to 15:00 UT showed a clearly pronounced increase in variations of the $`\mathrm{𝐷𝑠𝑡}`$-index that coincided with the period when the $`H`$-component of the magnetic field was increasing (Fig. 5a).

Hence, the data from magnetic-variation stations do not suggest the conclusion that the observed TECSs are associated with magnetic field variations.

### 5.1 The difference of TECS from the TEC response to shock-acoustic waves generated due to rocket launchings and earthquakes

First of all, it is important to remark that TECS variations are close in amplitude, form and duration to the TEC response to shock-acoustic waves (SAW) generated during rocket launchings (Calais and Minster, 1996; Calais et al., 1998b; Li et al., 1994; Afraimovich et al., 2000a; 2001b), earthquakes (Calais and Minster, 1995; Afraimovich et al., 2001c), and explosions (Fitzgerald, 1997; Calais et al., 1998a). In this connection, TECS can mask TEC responses to technogenic effects and lead to spurious signals recorded in detection systems for such effects, based on analyzing signals from the global GPS network.

Afraimovich et al. (2000a; 2001b; 2001c) found that spite of a difference of rockets and earthquakes characteristics, the ionospheric TEC response for all such events had the character of an $`N`$–wave corresponding to the form of a shock wave. The SAW period $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ is 270–360 s, and the amplitude exceeds the standard deviation of total electron content background fluctuations in this range of periods under quiet and moderate geomagnetic conditions by factors of 2 to 5 as a minimum. The angle of elevation $`\theta `$ of the SAW wave vector varies from 30 to 60, and the SAW phase velocity $`V`$ (900–1200 m/s) approaches the sound velocity at heights of the ionospheric $`F`$-region maximum.

A spatial and temporal processing of data from GPS arrays can be used in selecting these phenomena in order to estimate the propagation velocity of TEC disturbances. In particular, the velocity of IIDs (150–200 m/s) is far less than the SAW velocity (900–1200 m/s) and is most likely to correspond to the propagation velocity of medium-scale background AGW (Kalikhman, 1980; Afraimovich et al., 1998; 1999; Mercier, 1986; Mercier and Jacobson, 1997; Hocke and Schlegel, 1996; Oliver et al., 1997). The SAW and IID responses can be distinguished using this attribute, as well as from the difference of angular characteristics of the disturbance wave vector (see Section 4).

### 5.2 Can TECS be caused by the $`E_s`$-layer ionospheric irregularities that are responsible for S- and QP-scintillations?

As has been pointed out in the Introduction, a large number of publications (e.g., Karasawa, 1985; Titheridge, 1971; etc.), were devoted to the study the ”spikes-type” (S-) scintillations.

Bowman (1989) observed quasi-periodic (QP) oscillations of the signal from an orbiting satellite at 150 MHz frequency. The anticipated cause of the occurrence of such QP oscillations is Fresnel diffraction from ionospheric irregularities. Evidently, irregularities giving rise to QP oscillations reside in the $`E_s`$ level containing a host of small regions (less than 200 m in size) with high electron density separated from one another by a distance of several tens of kilometers. The occurrence of QP oscillations is peaked in the night-time hours. The calculated velocities of irregularities and $`E_s`$ structures range from 50 to 100 m/s.

The cited authors point out that transionospheric signal variations of this kind are observed mostly at night and are most likely caused by the irregularities located in the $`E_s`$-layer. This brings up the question of whether the TECS recorded by us are able to be caused by such ionospheric irregularities. At this point it should be noted that TECS are also observed mostly at night, and their velocities (on the order of 100 km/s) are close to those obtained by Karasawa (1985), Titheridge (1971), and Bowman (1989).

In order to verify the validity of this TECS model for the October 5, 2001 event we availed ourselves of the data (placed on the site http://spidr.ngdc.noaa.gov/spidr/) from the ionospheric station Point Arguello located in the center of the region of our interest.

Fig.10a present the values of the critical frequencies $`f_0F_2`$ – heavy dots; $`f_0E_s`$ – crosses; $`f_0E`$ –shaded triangles, measured on October, 5, 2001 at ionospheric station Point Arguello (239.4$`{}_{}{}^{}E`$; 34.6$`{}_{}{}^{}N`$); Fig.10b – variations of virtual height $`h^{}E`$ – shaded triangles, $`h^{}E_s`$ – crosses.

An analysis of the dependence of critical frequencies and effective heights of reflections from the $`F`$\- and $`E_s`$-regions showed that during 08-14 UT when the largest number of TECS was recorded, reflections from the $`E_s`$-layer were absent altogether (cf. panels a, b, d).

Thus we did not obtain any direct confirmation of the fact that TECS were caused by intense ionospheric irregularities located in the $`E_s`$-layer. The question of the origin of the IID that are responsible for TECS remains open.

It should be noted that direct comparison of our results with the data obtained by Karasawa (1985), Titheridge (1971), and Bowman (1989), is made difficult by the fact that the overwhelming amount of earlier data was obtained for amplitude, rather than phase, scintillations. On the other hand, extracting data on amplitude variations of GPS signals from Internet RINEX-files is highly difficult (Gurtner, 1993).

To understand the nature of TECS requires invoking data from different, independent diagnostic tools, including incoherent scatter radars, ionosondes, magnetometers, etc.

## 6 Conclusion

Main results of this study may be summarized as follows:

1. TECS constitute a rare event that occurs mainly in the night-time in the spring and autumn periods, in a weakly disturbed or quiet geomagnetic situation.
2. In the time region, TECS represent single negative aperiodic abrupt changes of TEC with a duration of about 10-20 min; the mean value of the TECS amplitude exceeds the mean value of the TEC variation amplitude by a factor of 4-5 as a minimum and is 0.2 $`TECU`$.
3. TECS represent a local phenomenon with a typical radius of spatial correlation not larger than 500 km.
4. The TECS we recorded on October 5, 2001, were caused by isolated ionospheric irregularities of the ellipsoid shape, with the direction of elongation of the major axis of the ellipse on the order of -85. IIDs travel in a direction perpendicular to their elongation (northward in the case under consideration) with the mean velocity $`<V>`$=160 m/s, which corresponds to the velocity of medium-scale AGW (of about 100-200 m/s). The size of the observed irregularities is 100 km by 800 km, respectively.

We are aware that this study has revealed only the key averaged patterns of this phenomena, and we hope that it would give impetus to a wide variety of more detailed investigations.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are indebted to Dr. N.T. Afanasyev for participating in discussions. We thank O.S. Lesyuta and S.V. Voeykov for help in organizing the experiment. We are also grateful to V.G. Mikhalkovsky for his assistance in preparing the English version of the manuscript. This work was done with support under RFBR grant of leading scientific schools of the Russian Federation No. 00-15-98509 as well as Russian Foundation for Basic Research grants No. 00-05-72026 and 02-05-64570.


text:
# Untitled Document

KURUCZ MODEL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS: A COMPARISON WITH REAL STARS. II. METAL-DEFICIENT STARS

V. Straižys1, R. Lazauskaitė1,2 and G. Valiauga11 Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Goštauto 12,  Vilnius 2600, Lithuania;

2 Department of Theoretical Physics, Vilnius Pedagogical University,  Studentu̧ 39, Vilnius 2340, Lithuania.Received July 25, 2002.

Abstract. Energy distributions of synthetic spectra for Kurucz model atmospheres are compared with observed energy distributions of metal-deficient stars of the blue horizontal-branch (BHB), F–G–K subdwarf (SD) and G–K giant (MDG) types. The best coincidence of the synthetic and observed energy curves is found for BHB stars. The largest differences are found in the ultraviolet wavelengths for subdwarfs and cool MDGs. The influence of errors of effective temperatures, gravities and metallicities is estimated.

Key words: stars: fundamental parameters, spectral energy distribution – stars: horizontal-branch, subdwarfs, metal-deficient giants

1. INTRODUCTION

Synthetic energy distributions of the Kurucz models (Kurucz 1995) are frequently used for a selection of optimum positions of passbands for multicolor photometric systems and for calculation of parameters of photometric systems or of transformation equations between color indices of different photometric systems. However, the use of synthetic spectra for these tasks is justified only in the case if the synthetic spectra of model atmospheres coincide sufficiently well with energy distributions of real stars having the same physical parameters (effective temperatures, gravities and metallicities).

In our first paper (Straižys, Liubertas & Valiauga 1997) we have compared energy distributions of the Kurucz model atmospheres with the mean energy distributions of stars of various spectral types of solar metallicity published by Straižys & Sviderskienė (1972) and revised by one of the authors. In the present paper we compare the Kurucz synthetic spectra of metal-deficient models with spectral energy distributions of real stars – blue horizontal-branch (hereafter, BHB) stars, F–G subdwarfs (hereafter, SD) and G–K metal-deficient giants (hereafter, MDG) published by Sviderskienė (1992).

2. INTRINSIC ENERGY DISTRIBUTION CURVES OF STARS

Energy distribution functions of 52 stars – 9 blue horizontal-branch stars, 11 extreme F–G–K subdwarfs, 10 mild F–G subdwarfs, 14 mild metal-deficient G–K giants and subgiants and 6 extreme metal-deficient G–K giants – were published by Sviderskienė (1992). The wavelength dependence of energy fluxes for each of these stars was determined by averaging the data from all sources found in the literature until 1990. For the majority of stars the flux data cover the range from 300 to 1050 nm. For some stars observed with the IUE orbiting observatory, the fluxes are available down to 150–170 nm. The energy distribution curves are given in the absolute-relative form, i.e. they all are normalized to 100 at 550 nm. The mean energy distribution of each star is given in the intensities per unit wavelength interval. Each value given in the catalog is the intensity integral in the interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$ = 5 nm centered on a given wavelength. The stars affected by interstellar extinction, are dereddened. The accuracy of the observed energy distributions will be estimated in the last section of this paper.

In the catalog of Sviderskienė (1992), Table 4 on pages 44–48 has a typographic error – the numbers of stars are given in wrong positions. The right order of HD numbers in the heading of the Table should be: HD 127665, 135722, 216763, 217906, 219615 and 2857 (instead of 217906, 219615, 2857, 127665, 135722 and 216763).

3. A COMPARISON OF THE MODEL AND THE OBSERVED SPECTRA

For the present investigation we have selected only the stars with extreme metal-deficiency: 6 blue horizontal-branch stars, 11 extreme subdwarfs and 6 extreme metal-deficient giants. These stars are listed in Table 1.

Effective temperatures, gravities and metallicities for most of these stars are taken from Cenarro et al. (2001) where these parameters are reduced to a unique system based on high-dispersion spectral analysis. According to that paper, the estimated errors of the parameters are $`\pm `$100 K for $`T_\mathrm{e}`$, $`\pm `$0.2 dex for $`\mathrm{log}g`$ and $`\pm `$0.15 dex for \[Fe/H\]. For some stars the parameters are taken from other sources listed in the Notes to Table 1.

Sviderskienė (1992) has excluded the interstellar extinction effect on energy distribution curves for some giants which were found to be slightly reddened. We have made a new search of interstellar reddenings for the stars of Table 1. The values of color excesses, given in the Table, were used to deredden energy distributions of the stars. Intrinsic energy distributions $`I_0(\lambda )`$ were calculated from the observed $`I(\lambda )`$ by the equation

$$I_0(\lambda )=\frac{I(\lambda )}{\tau ^x(\lambda )},$$
$`(1)`$
where $`\tau (\lambda )`$is the transmittance function of the unit mass of interstellar dust and $`x`$ is the amount of unit masses. The values of $`x`$ for different color excesses were calculated by the equation

$$x=\frac{E_{BV}}{E_{BV}^{(x=1)}}.$$
$`(2)`$
Here $`E_{BV}^{(x=1)}`$ for stars of various spectral types are calculated from the standard interstellar extinction law $`\tau (\lambda )`$ given in Table 3 of the Straižys (1992) monograph using the following equations:

$$A_m=2.5\mathrm{log}\frac{I(\lambda )R_m(\lambda )\tau ^x(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }{I(\lambda )R_m(\lambda )𝑑\lambda }.$$
$`(3)`$
and

$$E_{m_1m_2}=A_{m_1}A_{m_2}.$$
$`(4)`$
Here $`I(\lambda )`$ are the intrinsic energy distribution functions of stars, $`R_m(\lambda )`$ are the response functions of the $`B`$ and $`V`$ passbands, $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$ are $`B`$ and $`V`$ magnitudes. Mean energy distribution functions for stars of various spectral classes were taken from Straižys & Sviderskienė (1972) with the slightly revised ultraviolet. The values of $`E_{BV}^{(x=1)}`$ due to the band-width effect slightly depend on the intrinsic energy distribution of the star: for O–B–A stars (including BHB stars) it is close to 1.00 and for the G5–K5 giants (including MDG stars) it is $``$0.85.

For the stars, which were dereddened by Sviderskienė, only differential reddening due to different color excess value was taken into account.

Table 1. A list of the stars whose spectral energy distribution data are compared with the Kurucz models.

| HD, BD | Te | log g | \[Fe/H\] | EB-V |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BHB stars | | | | |
| 2857 | 7563 | 2.67 | –1.60 | 0.02 |
| 60778a | 8690 | 3.30 | –0.50 | 0.01 |
| 74721b | 8640 | 3.55 | –1.48 | 0.01 |
| 86986b | 7850 | 3.10 | –1.81 | 0.02 |
| 109995 | 8034 | 2.98 | –1.55 | 0.00 |
| 161817 | 7639 | 2.96 | –0.95 | 0.01 |
| F–G–K subdwarfs | | | | |
| 19445 | 5918 | 4.35 | –2.05 | 0.00 |
| 25329 | 4787 | 4.58 | –1.72 | 0.00 |
| 64090c | 5446 | 4.45 | –1.76 | 0.00 |
| 84937 | 6228 | 4.01 | –2.17 | 0.00 |
| 94028 | 5941 | 4.21 | –1.49 | 0.00 |
| 103095 | 5025 | 4.56 | –1.36 | 0.00 |
| 140283 | 5687 | 3.55 | –2.53 | 0.01 |
| 188510 | 5490 | 4.69 | –1.59 | 0.00 |
| 219617 | 5878 | 4.04 | –1.39 | 0.00 |
| +26 2606d | 6146 | 4.23 | –2.29 | 0.01 |
| +17 4708 | 6005 | 4.01 | –1.74 | 0.01 |
| G–K metal-deficient giants | | | | |
| 2665 | 5013 | 2.35 | –1.96 | 0.06 |
| 6755 | 5102 | 2.40 | –1.41 | 0.04 |
| 88609 | 4513 | 1.26 | –2.64 | 0.02 |
| 122563 | 4566 | 1.12 | –2.63 | 0.01 |
| 165195 | 4471 | 1.11 | –2.15 | 0.15 |
| 221170c | 4465 | 1.04 | –2.10 | 0.03 |

NOTES:

a HD 60778: parameters are from Danford & Lea (1981).

b HD 74721 and HD 86986: parameters are from Adelman & Philip (1994).

c HD 64090 and HD 221170: parameters are from Soubiran et al. (1998).

d BD +26 2606: parameters are from Gratton et al. (1996).

Figures 1–23 compare the energy distribution curves of Kurucz and Sviderskienė for the metal-deficient stars of Table 1. The temperatures of the models are rounded to the nearest number multiple of 10. For each star two Kurucz energy curves are plotted with the temperatures $`\pm `$200 K from the right value. The space between these two curves is shown in grey. The synthetic curves for the specific $`T_\mathrm{e}`$, $`\mathrm{log}g`$ and \[Fe/H\] are obtained by linear interpolation between the grid curves given by Kurucz. The following conclusions can be made for different types of stars.

(1) For the BHB stars the coincidence of energy distributions is relatively good. However some stars show considerable differences in some spectral ranges. For example, the model of HD 60778 (Figure 2) is stronger by 10–20% in the ultraviolet and violet and fainter by $``$5% in the red and infrared. This difference can be corrected by taking a lower value of $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ of the star. The model energy curve of HD 161817 (Figure 6) is also higher by $``$10% in the ultraviolet and violet, but no difference is seen in long wavelengths.

(2) In case of the extreme subdwarfs the coincidence is relatively good in the whole spectral range (from the ultraviolet to the infrared) only for HD 25329 (Figure 8) and BD+26 2606 (Figure 16). For the remaining nine subdwarfs the model curves, corresponding to the $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ values given in Table 1, are too low by 10–15% in the blue, violet and ultraviolet ranges. These differences cannot be explained by a $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ error, since in the red and infrared the model and the observed curves are close to each other. Only for HD 19445 (Figure 7) an increase in the temperature of the star by 200 K would force the observed and the model curves to be in sufficient agreement.

(3) For the extreme metal-deficient giants the coincidence of the observed and model curves in the red and infrared is also good. For HD 2665 (Figure 18) and HD 165195 (Figure 22) the model curve is good also in the violet and ultraviolet. However, for the other four stars there are systematic differences in the short wavelength part of the spectrum: there is a general weakening of model spectra in the violet and ultraviolet for HD 6755, HD 88609, HD 122563 and HD 221170. The upper limit of the shadowed area in short wavelengths almost coincides with the real energy curve for all these four stars. This might indicate that $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ accepted for the stars is by $``$200 K too low. However, acceptance of higher temperature will lead to a disagreement of energy curves in the red and infrared.

For the evaluation of the effect of gravity uncertainties, we have chosen three stars, representing BHB, SD and MDG stars. The value of $`\mathrm{log}g`$ was varied by $`\pm `$0.3 dex from the true value, keeping the $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ and \[Fe/H\] values constant. Model energy curves for these stars are compared with the observed energy curves in Figures 24–26. It is evident that the gravity effects are of minor importance and they cannot help to explain the differences seen in Figs. 1–23. The same is true in the case of \[Fe/H\] variations by $`\pm `$0.3 dex (Figures 27–29).

4. A COMPARISON OF SYNTHETIC COLOR INDICES

For a quantitative evaluation of the differences between the model and the observed energy distributions, we calculated and intercompared synthetic color indices in the Vilnius photometric system and the UBV system of the metal-deficient stars from Table 1 and the stars of luminosities V and III of solar chemical composition (hereafter, normal stars). The method of synthetic photometry used is described by Straižys (1996). Energy distributions for normal stars were taken from Straižys & Sviderskienė (1972) (with the corrected ultraviolet, as described in Paper I) and for metal-deficient stars – from Sviderskienė (1992). The response functions of the Vilnius and UBV systems were taken from Straižys (1992).

The results are shown in Figs. 30–37, where the differences $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of corresponding color indices (“model” minus “observed”) are plotted against the effective temperatures. The temperatures for metal-deficient stars are taken from Table 1 and for the normal stars – from Paper I.

Synthetic color indices reflect the differences seen in energy distributions. For stars of solar chemical composition (dots and crosses) the scatter of stars gradually increases with decreasing temperature. However, for stars with $`T_\mathrm{e}`$$`>`$4500 K the deviations $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ do not exceed $`\pm `$0.2 mag even in case of color indices containing the ultraviolet magnitudes. The deviations of subdwarfs are also within these limits. The largest deviations (plus 0.3–0.4 mag) are observed for the three coolest metal-deficient giants with the temperatures near 4500 K. It is probable, that in the ultraviolet these stars are really brighter than their Kurucz models.

5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The comparison of energy distributions of real stars and their models, described in the previous sections, is a difficult problem for interpretation since there are several causes affecting the accuracy of the results. They are: (1) accidental and systematic errors of the observed energy distributions, (2) systematic errors in the account of opacity sources in model stellar atmospheres, and (3) errors of the accepted effective temperatures of the stars. Let us discuss these error sources separately.

When we plot energy distributions of a star, determined by different authors, and normalize all of them at one wavelength, say at 550 nm, then we find a considerable scatter of individual determinations at both ends of the wavelength interval covered. If we limit ourselves with the traditional ground-based data, covering the wavelengths between 320 nm and 1 $`\mu `$m, then the usual scatter of the energy flux values for G–K–M type stars is: $`\pm `$5–10% at 350 nm and $`\pm `$5% at 1 $`\mu `$m (Straižys & Sviderskienė 1972, Sviderskienė 1988). The flux values obtained as averages from the results of several authors should be more accurate.

A good test of the accuracy of the average spectral energy curves is a comparison of color indices obtained from these curves by synthetic photometry and color indices of the same stars observed photoelectrically with sufficiently high accuracy ($`\pm `$0.01 mag). Such a comparison in the passbands of the Vilnius photometric system has been done both for normal stars of various luminosities (Sviderskienė 1988) and for metal-deficient stars (Sviderskienė 1992). In both cases the stars exhibit differences between the ultraviolet synthetic and observed color indices within $`\pm `$0.10 mag. Consequently, a considerable part of the differences seen in Figures 1–37 can be explained by the errors in observed energy distributions.

It is strange enough that the differences of the observed and the model energy distributions give an evidence that at least part of metal-deficient stars (subdwarfs and giants) exhibit overestimation of opacity in stellar atmospheres. It is more usual that synthetic spectra of model atmospheres demonstrate a “missing opacity”. On the other hand, some model stars exhibit a perfect coincidence of their spectral energy distributions with observations. If the opacity were a problem, then all stars of a given type would behave in the same way.

The errors of the accepted effective temperatures is the third possibility. Although Cenarro et al. (2001) estimate their temperatures to be accurate within $`\pm `$100 K, it is not excluded that in some cases these errors may be twice larger. The vertical bars in Figures 35–37 show how the temperature errors of $`\pm `$200 K affect the plotted differences of color indices. It seems that these error bars are capable to explain the scatter of most stars in these figures, except of the stars cooler than $``$4500 K.

Thus we conclude that the present investigation gives evidence that spectral energy distributions of the Kurucz metal-deficient models of the effective temperatures $`>`$4500 K do not contradict the observed energy distributions of real stars belonging to the blue horizontal branch, extreme subdwarfs and extreme metal-deficient giants, if we take into account the errors of the observational data and of the effective temperatures. Cooler models probably exhibit some systematic differences in the ultraviolet and violet wavelengths.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT. We are grateful to A. G. Davis Philip for his important comments.

REFERENCES

Adelman S. J., Philip A. G. D. 1994, MNRAS, 269, 579

Cenarro A. J., Gorgas J., Cardiel N., Pedraz S., Peletier R. F., Vazdekis A. 2001, MNRAS, 326, 981

Danford S. C., Lea S. M. 1981, AJ, 86, 1909

Gratton R. G., Carretta E., Castelli F. 1996, A&A, 314, 191

Kurucz R. L. 1995, personal communication

Soubiran C., Katz D., Cayrel R. 1998, A&AS, 133, 221

Straižys V. 1992, Multicolor Stellar Photometry, Pachart Publishing House, Tucson, Arizona

Straižys V. 1996, Baltic Astronomy, 5, 459

Straižys V., Liubertas R., Valiauga G. 1997, Baltic Astronomy, 6, 601 (Paper I)

Straižys V., Sviderskienė Z. 1972, Bull. Vilnius Obs., No. 35, 3

Sviderskienė Z. 1988, Bull. Vilnius Obs., No. 80, 3

Sviderskienė Z. 1992, Bull. Vilnius Obs., No. 86, 3

Fig. 1. Spectral energy distribution of HD 2857 (BHB star). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 2. Spectral energy distribution of HD 60778 (BHB star). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 3. Spectral energy distribution of HD 74721 (BHB star). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 4. Spectral energy distribution of HD 86986 (BHB star). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 5. Spectral energy distribution of HD 109995 (BHB star). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 6. Spectral energy distribution of HD 161817 (BHB star). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 7. Spectral energy distribution of HD 19445 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 8. Spectral energy distribution of HD 25329 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 9. Spectral energy distribution of HD 64090 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 10. Spectral energy distribution of HD 84937 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 11. Spectral energy distribution of HD 94028 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 12. Spectral energy distribution of HD 103095 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 13. Spectral energy distribution of HD 140283 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 14. Spectral energy distribution of HD 188510 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 15. Spectral energy distribution of HD 219617 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 16. Spectral energy distribution of BD+26 2606 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 17. Spectral energy distribution of BD+17 4708 (subdwarf). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 18. Spectral energy distribution of HD 2665 (MD giant). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 19. Spectral energy distribution of HD 6755 (MD giant). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 20. Spectral energy distribution of HD 88609 (MD giant). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 21. Spectral energy distribution of HD 122563 (MD giant). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 22. Spectral energy distribution of HD 165195 (MD giant). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 23. Spectral energy distribution of HD 221170 (MD giant). The effective temperature of the model is changed by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 24. Spectral energy distribution of HD 109995 (BHB star). The gravity of the model is changed by $`\pm `$0.3 dex.

Fig. 25. Spectral energy distribution of BD+26 2606 (subdwarf). The gravity of the model is changed by $`\pm `$0.3 dex.

Fig. 26. Spectral energy distribution of HD 165195 (MD giant). The gravity of the model is changed by $`\pm `$0.3 dex.

Fig. 27. Spectral energy distribution of HD 109995 (BHB star). The metallicity of the model is changed by $`\pm `$0.3 dex.

Fig. 28. Spectral energy distribution of BD+26 2606 (subdwarf). The metallicity of the model is changed by $`\pm `$0.3 dex.

Fig. 29. Spectral energy distribution of HD 165195 (MD giant). The metallicity of the model is changed by $`\pm `$0.3 dex.

Fig. 30. A comparison of the UV color indices of stars and their models (model minus observed). Mean wavelengths of the U and V passbands are 345 and 544 nm. The vertical bars indicate the errors originating from the temperature changes by $`\pm `$200 K.

Fig. 31. The same as in Fig. 30 but for PV. The mean wavelength of the P passband is 375 nm.

Fig. 32. The same as in Fig. 30 but for XV. The mean wavelength of the X passband is 405 nm.

Fig. 33. The same as in Fig. 30 but for YV. The mean wavelength of the Y passband is 466 nm.

Fig. 34. The same as in Fig. 30 but for ZV. The mean wavelength of the Z passband is 516 nm.

Fig. 35. The same as in Fig. 30 but for VS. The mean wavelength of the S passband is 656 nm.

Fig. 36. The same as in Fig. 30 but for UV of the UBV system. Mean wavelengths of the U and V passbands are 364 and 550 nm.

Fig. 37. The same as in Fig. 30 but for BV of the UBV system. The mean wavelength of the B passband is 442 nm.


text:
# Dynamic structure factor of a Bose Einstein condensate in a 1D optical lattice

## Abstract

We study the effect of a one dimensional periodic potential on the dynamic structure factor of an interacting Bose Einstein condensate at zero temperature. We show that, due to phononic correlations, the excitation strength towards the first band develops a typical oscillating behaviour as a function of the momentum transfer, and vanishes at even multiples of the Bragg momentum. The effects of interactions on the static structure factor are found to be significantly amplified by the presence of the optical potential. Our predictions can be tested in stimulated photon scattering experiments.

When a Bose-Einstein condensate is loaded into an optical lattice, its properties change in a very strong way . For deep potential wells, it even happens that the coherence of the sample is lost and one observes the transition to the Mott-insulator phase . Interesting phenomena occur also for low optical potential depth, for instance Bloch oscillations  and tunneling effects  can be investigated in this regime. In 1D optical lattices the transition to the insulator phase is expected to take place for very large intensities of the optical lattice, so that there is a very extended range of parameters where the gas can be described as a fully coherent system.

In this Letter, we study the elementary excitations of an interacting Bose gas in the presence of a periodic potential and discuss how these states can be excited via inelastic processes using, for example, Bragg spectroscopy . To this purpose we develop the formalism of the dynamic structure factor, a quantity directly related to the linear response of the system.

We will restrict ourselves to the case of a system in the presence of a 1-dimensional optical potential

$`V(z)=sE_R\mathrm{sin}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi z}{d}}\right)`$ (1)
created by two counterpropagating laser beams. In Eq.(1) $`d`$ is the lattice spacing and $`s`$ is a dimensionless parameter which denotes the intensity of the laser in units of the recoil energy $`E_R=q_B^2/2m`$. Here $`q_B=\mathrm{}\pi /d`$ is the Bragg momentum denoting the boundary of the first Brillouin zone and $`m`$ is the atomic mass. The inclusion of an additional harmonic potential produced, for example, by magnetic trapping does not modify the excitation spectrum in a profound way, unless the wave length of the excitation is comparable with the size of the sample. Along the tranverse directions we assume uniform confinement, so that the 3D Gross-Pitaevkii (GP) equation for the ground state order parameter $`\phi (z)`$ takes the 1D form

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}+sE_R\mathrm{sin}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi z}{d}}\right)+gnd|\phi (z)|^2\right]\phi (z)=`$ (2)
$`=\mu \phi (z),`$ (3)
where $`n`$ is the average 3D density and the order parameter $`\phi `$ is normalized according to $`_{d/2}^{d/2}|\phi (z)|^2𝑑z=1`$. As usual $`g=4\pi \mathrm{}^2a/m`$ is the interaction coupling constant fixed by the scattering length $`a`$.

The elementary excitations correspond to the solutions of the linearized time-dependent GP-equation and are described by the Bogoliubov equations

$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}+sE_R\mathrm{sin}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi z}{d}}\right)\mu +2gnd|\phi |^2\right]u_{jq}+`$ (4)
$`+gnd\phi ^2v_{jq}=\mathrm{}\omega _j(q)u_{jq},`$ (5)
$`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{z^2}}+sE_R\mathrm{sin}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi z}{d}}\right)\mu +2gnd|\phi |^2\right]v_{jq}+`$ (6)
$`+gnd\phi ^2u_{jq}=\mathrm{}\omega _j(q)v_{jq},`$ (7)
where $`\phi `$ is the ground state solution of Eq.(3) and the amplitudes $`u_{jq}`$ and $`v_{jq}`$ satisfy the normalization condition $`_{d/2}^{d/2}\left[|u_{jq}(z)|^2|v_{jq}(z)|^2\right]𝑑z=1`$. The solutions $`u_{jq}(z)`$ and $`v_{jq}(z)`$ are Bloch waves: $`u_{jq}(z)=\mathrm{exp}(iqz/\mathrm{})\stackrel{~}{u}_{jq}(z)`$ where $`\stackrel{~}{u}_{jq}`$ is periodic in space with period $`d`$ and analogously for $`v_{jq}`$. For each value of the quasi-momentum $`q`$, Eqs.(5,7) provide an infinite set of solutions $`\omega _j(q)`$, forming a band structure labelled with $`j`$ (“Bogoliubov bands”). Due to the periodicity of the problem, the solutions of Eqs.(5,7) with $`q`$ restricted to the first Brillouin zone and $`j`$ varying over all the bands, exhaust the elementary excitations of the system. Still it is often convenient to consider values of $`q`$ outside the first Brillouin zone and to treat the energy spectrum and the functions $`u_{jq}`$ and $`v_{jq}`$ as periodic in quasi-momentum space with period $`2q_B`$ (see Fig.1). The intensity $`s`$ of the optical potential and ratio $`gn/E_R`$ between the interaction and the recoil energy are the relevant dimensionless parameters in terms of which we will discuss the physical behaviour of the system. First numerical solutions of Eqs.(5,7) in the presence of a periodic potential were obtained in .

The capability of the system to respond to an excitation probe transferring momentum $`p`$ and energy $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ is described by the dynamic structure factor. In the presence of a periodic potential the dynamic structure factor takes the form

$`S(p,\omega )={\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}Z_j(p)\delta (\omega \omega _j(p)),`$ (8)
where $`Z_j(p)`$ are the excitation strengths relative to the $`j^{th}`$ band (see Eq.(14) below) and $`\mathrm{}\omega _j(p)`$ are the corresponding excitation energies, defined by the solutions of Eqs.(5,7). Note that $`p`$, here assumed to be along the optical lattice ($`z`$ axis), is not restricted to the first Brillouin zone, being the momentum transferred by the external probe. In this respect, it is important to point out that, while the excitation energies $`\mathrm{}\omega _j(p)`$ are periodic as a function of $`p`$, this is not true for the excitation strengths $`Z_j`$.

The dynamic structure factor satisfies important sum-rules. The integral of the dynamic structure factor provides the static structure factor (non energy weighted sum-rule)

$`S(p)={\displaystyle S(p,\omega )𝑑\omega }.`$ (9)
As we will see later $`S(p)`$ is strongly affected by the combined presence of two-body interactions and of the optical lattice.

A second important sum-rule obeyed by the dynamic structure factor is the model independent $`f`$-sum rule

$`{\displaystyle \mathrm{}\omega S(p,\omega )𝑑\omega }={\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{2m}}.`$ (10)
Another important sum-rule is the compressibility sum-rule (inverse energy weighted sum-rule)

$`{\displaystyle \frac{S(p,\omega )}{\mathrm{}\omega }𝑑\omega }|_{p0}={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{2}},`$ (11)
where $`\kappa =[n(\mu /n)]^1`$ is the thermodynamic compressibility. The density dependence of the chemical potential, and hence $`\kappa `$, can be obtained by solving the GP equation (3) . The compressibility $`\kappa `$ is naturally expressed in terms of the sound velocity $`c`$, characterizing the low $`q`$ phononic behaviour of the dispersion law ($`\mathrm{}\omega =cq`$), through the relation

$`\kappa ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{m^{}c^2}},`$ (12)
where the effective mass $`m^{}`$ differs from the bare mass because the Hamiltonian is not translationally invariant. The effective mass in the presence of the external potential (1) has been recently calculated in .

In a uniform Bose gas, the sum (8) is exhausted by a single mode with energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _B(p)=\sqrt{p^2/2m\left(p^2/2m+2gn\right)}`$. In this case the static structure factor obeys the Feynman relation

$`S_B(p)={\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{2m\mathrm{}\omega _B(p)}},`$ (13)
where we have used the $`f`$-sum rule (10). For $`p0`$ the static structure factor (13) behaves like $`|p|/2mc_B`$, while the compressibility sum-rule (11) becomes $`1/2mc_B^2`$, where $`c_B=\sqrt{gn/m}`$ is the Bogoliubov sound velocity. The suppression of $`S_B(p)`$ at small momenta is a direct consequence of the phononic correlations. For large momenta, instead, the static structure factor (13) approaches unity (see dotted lines in Figs.2). Notice that in the absence of two-body interactions, $`S(p)=1`$ for any value of $`p`$.

In the presence of the optical lattice the behaviour of the dynamic structure factor changes in a drastic way. In particular, for a given value of momentum transfer $`p`$, it is possible to excite several states, corresponding to different bands (see Eq.(8) and Fig.1). An important consequence is that on one hand it is possible to excite high energy states with small values of $`p`$, and on the other hand one can excite low energy states, belonging to the lowest band, also with high momenta $`p`$ outside the first Brillouin zone. This behaviour introduces new possibilities in Bragg spectroscopy experiments.

In general, the dynamic structure factor has to be calculated numerically. Starting from the solution of Eqs.(5,7), the excitation strengths $`Z_j`$ can be evaluated using the standard prescription (see for example )

$`Z_j(p)=\left|{\displaystyle _{d/2}^{d/2}}\left[u_{jq}^{}(z)+v_{jq}^{}(z)\right]e^{ipz/\mathrm{}}\phi (z)𝑑z\right|^2,`$ (14)
where $`q`$ belongs to the first Brillouin zone and is fixed by the relation $`q=p+2\mathrm{}q_B`$ with $`\mathrm{}`$ integer. This equation shows that, by solving Eqs. (5,7) within the first Brillouin zone, one can calculate the strength $`Z_j(p)`$ also for values of $`p`$ outside the first Brillouin zone. In Figs.2(a,b), we show our results for two different choices of the interaction at $`s=10`$.

Let us first discuss the dynamic structure factor in the low energy region and in particular the behaviour of the contribution $`Z_1(p)`$ arising from the first band (dashed line). We find that $`Z_1(p)`$ exhibits characteristic oscillations whose amplitude is suppressed at large $`p`$. The zeros of $`Z_1(p)`$ at $`p=2\mathrm{}q_B`$ ($`\mathrm{}`$ integer) reflect directly the phonon behaviour of the excitation spectrum which vanishes at the same values (see Fig.1).

The behaviour of $`Z_1(p)`$ can be studied analytically in the large $`s`$ limit where the tight binding approximation applies. In this limit one can approximate the solutions of Eqs. (5,7) in the lowest band by

$`u_q(z)=U_q{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}e^{iqkd/\mathrm{}}f(zkd)`$ (15)
and analogously for $`v_q(z)`$, where $`f(z)`$ is a function localized near the bottom of the optical potential $`V`$ at $`z=0`$, and $`k`$ labels the potential wells. Within this approximation the function $`f`$ also characterizes the ground state order parameter which reads $`\phi (z)=_kf(zkd)`$.

In the tight binding approximation the dispersion law of the lowest band takes the Bogoliubov-like form

$`\mathrm{}\omega (p)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{\epsilon (p)\left[\epsilon (p)+2\kappa ^1\right]},`$ (16)
where

$`\epsilon (p)`$ $`=`$ $`2\delta \mathrm{sin}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{pd}{2\mathrm{}}}\right).`$ (17)
In the above equations $`\delta `$ is the tunneling rate of particles between two consecutive wells. The tunneling rate is related to the effective mass entering the compressibility sum-rule (11,12) by $`\delta =2mE_R/\pi ^2m^{}`$ and decreases by increasing the laser intensity $`s`$. The parameter $`\kappa `$ is the compressibility of the gas as emerges from the low momentum behaviour of the dispersion law (16): $`\mathrm{}\omega =\sqrt{\kappa ^1/m^{}}p`$. In the tight binding limit, one finds $`\kappa ^1=gnd_{d/2}^{d/2}f^4(z)𝑑z`$ .

By approximating the function $`f(z)`$ with the gaussian $`f(z)=\mathrm{exp}[z^2/2\sigma ^2]/(\pi ^{1/4}\sqrt{\sigma })`$, one finds, after some straightforward algebra, the result

$`Z_1(p)={\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon (p)}{\mathrm{}\omega (p)}}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2\sigma ^2p^2}{2d^2q_B^2}}\right)`$ (18)
for the strength relative to the first band, where the width $`\sigma `$ can be calculated numerically by minimization of the ground state energy and behaves like $`\sigma s^{1/4}d/\pi `$ for $`s1`$. Equation (18) reproduces with good accuracy the numerical results obtained by solving the Bogoliubov equations for relatively large values of $`s`$. It accounts for both the suppression of the strength at large $`p`$ through the gaussian term, and the oscillating behaviour through the Feynman-like term $`\epsilon (p)/\mathrm{}\omega (p)`$. The strength $`Z_1`$ has a maximum close to the edge of the first Brillouin zone, where it takes approximately the value $`Z_1(q_B)\sqrt{\kappa \delta /(\kappa \delta +1)}`$. This simple expression shows that $`Z_1`$ is quenched both by increasing interactions ($`\kappa 0`$) and by increasing the optical potential ($`\delta 0`$). In the cases of Figs.1(a,b) one has $`\kappa \delta =0.95`$ and $`0.056`$ respectively. In the noninteracting case ($`\kappa ^1=0`$) one has $`\epsilon (p)=\mathrm{}\omega (p)`$ and the strength (18) reduces to $`Z_1(p)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\pi ^2\sigma ^2p^2/2d^2q_B^2\right)`$. The comparison then clearly shows that the oscillating behaviour of $`Z_1(p)`$ as well as its quenching at large $`s`$ are a direct consequence of two-body interactions. On the other hand, two-body interactions scarcely affect the strengths towards the higher bands, provided $`gn\sqrt{s}E_R`$.

The quantity $`Z_1(p)`$ could be measured in Bragg spectroscopy experiments by tuning the momentum and the energy transferred by the scattering photon to the values of $`p`$ and $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ corresponding to the first Bogoliubov band. In order to detect a sizeable signal at large $`p`$ and to point out the corresponding oscillating behaviour of $`Z_1(p)`$ (see Figs.2), the intensity $`s`$ of the optical potential should be neither too small, nor too large. In fact for $`s0`$ the strength to the lowest band becomes weaker and weaker if $`p`$ is outside the first Brillouin zone. For large $`s`$ the strength is instead quenched for all values of $`p`$ because of the presence of two-body interactions.

In Figs.2 we also report the results for the static structure factor (full line) corresponding to the sum $`S(p)=_jZ_j(p)`$. One finds that for weak interactions (Fig.2(a)) also the static structure factor exhibits characteristic oscillations, reflecting the contribution from the first band. This effect is less pronounced for larger values of $`gn`$ (Fig.2(b)) due to the quenching of $`Z_1(p)`$. In both cases one observes an important difference with respect to the behaviour of $`S(p)`$ in the uniform gas (13) (dotted lines in Figs.2).

The behaviour of $`S(p)`$ at small momenta can be described exactly using sum-rule arguments. In fact, phonons exhaust both the non energy and inverse energy weighted sum rules when $`p0`$, high energy bands giving rise to contributions of order $`p^2`$. As a consequence high energy bands contribute to the $`f`$-sum rule (10) but can not affect the low $`p`$ behaviour of the non energy weighted moment (9) which behaves like $`|p|`$, nor the inverse energy weighted moment (11) which approaches a constant value when $`p0`$. The result is that the low $`p`$ behaviour of the static structure factor is entirely determined by phonon correlations and behaves like

$`S(p)p0{\displaystyle \frac{|p|}{2m^{}c}}`$ (19)
consistently with the phononic dispersion law and Eqs.(11,12) for the compressibility sum-rule. It is worth noticing that result (19) holds for any value of $`s`$ and $`gn`$. In the absence of the optical lattice one has $`m^{}=m`$ and $`c`$ coincides with the Bogoliubov sound velocity $`c_B`$. Since one can write $`m^{}c=\sqrt{m^{}\kappa ^1}`$ and both $`m^{}`$ and $`\kappa ^1`$ increase with $`s`$, one finds that the presence of the lattice results in a suppression of the static structure factor at low values of $`p`$, as clearly shown in Figs.2.

Let us conclude by recalling that in Bragg scattering experiments one actually measures the imaginary part of the response function $`\chi `$ rather than the dynamic structure factor. The two quantities are related by the equation $`\mathrm{Im}(\chi )=\pi (S(p,\omega )S(p,\omega ))`$. The subtraction between the two terms can be crucial also at low temperatures. Actually, due to thermal excitation of phonons, the dynamic structure factor exhibits a strong temperature dependence when $`\mathrm{}\omega <k_BT`$, even if $`T`$ is much smaller than the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation. However the difference $`S(p,\omega )S(p,\omega )`$ cancels out most of this temperature dependence so that the measurement of $`\mathrm{Im}(\chi )`$ provides reliable information on the zero temperature behaviour of the dynamic structure factor .

We would like to thank A. Smerzi for useful discussions. This research is supported by the Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (MIUR).