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# The Evolution Of LMC X-4 Flares: Evidence For Super-Eddington Radiation Oozing Through Inhomogeneous Polar Cap Accretion Flows ?

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Out of $``$200 known neutron star/black hole X-ray binaries, more than 40 sources have been observed with a wide range of coherent spin period of $``$0.07–1400 s, identifying the central source as a rotating, highly magnetized neutron star powered by accretion (van Paradijs 1995; Bildsten et al. 1997). These accretion-powered X-ray binary pulsars (hereafter, X-ray pulsars) often show abrupt increases in X-ray luminosity known as “bursts” or “flares.” About 30 % of the X-ray pulsars have been observed to show bursts and/or flares, including (1) the low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1626–67 (McClintock et al. 1980), (2) the bursting pulsar GRO J1744–28 (Fishman et al. 1995; Kouveliotou et al. 1996), (3) the high-mass X-ray binaries such as LMC X-4 (e.g., Levine et al. 1991; Woo, Clark, & Levine 1995; Levine, Rappaport, & Zojcheski 2000; Moon & Eikenberry 2001) and SMC X-1 (Angelini, Stella, & White 1991; Moon, Eikenberry, & Wasserman 2002), and (4) the transient Be binary system EXO 2030+375 (Parmar et al. 1989). Although they are easily identified as sudden increases of X-ray luminosity in most cases, the detailed properties of the bursts/flares differ much from source to source. For instance, whereas bursts from the high-mass system SMC X-1 have been detected only once despite extensive studies of the source 111SMC X-1 has been identified as a flaring X-ray pulsar very recently (Moon et al. 2002)., another high-mass system LMC X-4 has been observed with large, semi-regular flaring episodes over the last two decades by various X-ray satellites. This diversity in bursts/flares suggests that many different mechanisms are responsible for the observed phenomena.

Most theoretical studies of the origin of bursts/flares from X-ray pulsars have relied upon one of three following mechanisms: (1) accretion disk instabilities, (2) nuclear burning on the surface of the neutron star, and (3) non-uniform stellar winds from mass-donating companions. Obviously the most well known case for the accretion disk instability is the X-ray bursts from the bursting pulsar GRO 1744–28, for which a thermal-viscous instability in the accretion disk has been investigated to explain the origin of the bursts (e.g., Cannizzo 1996, 1997). The X-ray bursts from GRO 1744–28 share many properties with the Type II X-ray bursts from the Rapid Burster (Lewin et al. 1996) and the X-ray flares from SMC X-1 (Moon et al. 2002). On the other hand, the presence of a He-rich dwarf companion led Brown & Bildsten (1998) to suggest the possibility that $``$1000-s flares from 4U 1626–67 are caused by carbon burning under the neutron star surface. Taam, Fryxell, & Brown (1988) attributed the origin of the flares from EXO 2030+375 to an accretion disk instability caused by the inhomogeneity in the high-velocity ($``$550 km s-1) winds from a Be star companion.

LMC X-4 is a persistent, disk-fed, high-mass system with a pulsational and an orbital period of $``$13.5 s and $``$1.4 d, respectively (Kelley et al. 1983). It is one of a few X-ray binaries showing a super-orbital period ($``$30.3 day; Ilovaisky et al. 1984) possibly caused by a precessing, tilted accretion disk. The optical companion is a 14th magnitude O-type star of $``$15 $`M_{}`$ (Sanduleak & Philip 1977). Over the last two decades, LMC X-4 has exhibited large X-ray flaring episodes which have made it one of the most regular and representative flaring X-ray sources. During the flares, the X-ray spectrum softens considerably, and the pulse profiles become simple, sinusoidal (Levine et al. 1991, 2000). Recently, Moon & Eikenberry (2001) reported two relatively long-time scale structures in the flares: quasi-periodic oscillations of $``$0.65–1.35 and $``$2–20 mHz. They also found that the amplitudes of the flares are almost exactly modulated by those of the neutron star’s coherent pulsations (or vice versa), indicating that the flares occur near the magnetic pole of the neutron star. Although the LMC X-4 flares have been observed for many years with various X-ray satellites, no convincing mechanism has been proposed to explain the origin of the flares (e.g., Levine et al. 2000).

On the other hand, LMC X-4 flares have been known as super-Eddington phenomena: sometimes the flare X-ray luminosity reaches up to $``$1039 ergs s-1 (while its normal state luminosity is $``$2 $`\times `$ 1038 ergs s-1, comparable to the Eddington luminosity of the $``$1.4 $`M_{}`$ neutron star of LMC X-4). Because the key physical parameters of LMC X-4 – such as mass, distance, and magnetic field – are relatively well determined to be 1.4 $`\pm `$ 0.3 $`M_{}`$ (Levine et al. 1991), 50 $`\pm `$ 10 kpc (e.g., Kovács 2000), and $``$1013 G (La Barbera et al. 2001), respectively, the LMC X-4 flares may provide a rare example for studying super-Eddington phenomena thoroughly without assuming the key parameters. This is not the case for most super-Eddington sources owing to relatively large uncertainties in their distances and masses. Considering the recent important controversy over the existence of the so-called “intermediate-mass black holes” (e.g., King et al. 2001; Begelman 2001, 2002), for which mass ($``$102–104 $`M_{}`$) is determined under the assumption that the observed X-ray luminosity is the Eddington luminosity, the investigation of the origin of the super-Eddington radiation from the LMC X-4 flares can also be useful to investigate the origin of the claimed intermediate-mass black holes.

In this paper, we present by far the most extensive observations of the LMC X-4 flares made with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We describe the RXTE observations and our data analyses in §2; we present the results of timing and spectral analyses in §3. We discuss the possible origin of the LMC X-4 flares, as well as their super-Eddington radiation, in §4, We summarize our results in §5.

## 2 Observations and Data Analyses

RXTE (Bradt, Rothschild, & Swank 1993) observed two large flaring episodes of LMC X-4 on 1996 August 19 and 1999 December 19 during its long-exposure (49 and 42 h) observations of the source. The HEAsoft222http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/lheasoft/ package (version 5.1) was used for analyzing the data from the Proportional Counter Array (PCA; Jahoda et al. 1996). The data within 30 minutes after passages through the South Atlantic Anomaly and/or with a higher ($`>`$ 0.1) electron ratio were ignored. Only the data obtained with three or more active Proportional Counter Units (PCUs) were used for timing analyses; only the data obtained with all five PCUs were used for spectral analyses. The photon arrival times from the Good Xenon mode were transformed to the solar system barycenter using the JPL DE400 ephemeris. The Very Large Event Models of Epoch 3 and 4 were used to subtract backgrounds for the data obtained in 1996 and 1999, respectively. The Standard 2 data obtained only from the top xenon layers of the PCUs 0, 1, 2, and 4 were used in spectral fits due to responsivity problems of PCU 3 (R. Remillard 2002, private communication). Only the spectrum between 2.5–25 keV range was considered for the same reason, and a systematic uncertainty of 1 % was assumed in spectral fits. A total of 45 data segments (24 from the 1996 observations and 21 from the 1999 ones) of $``$1-h length was obtained, and flares were observed in 4 and 6 segments of the two observations.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Light curves and Rapid Aperiodic Variability

#### 3.1.1 Light curves

Because no reliable ephemeris of the $``$30.5-d super-orbital period of LMC X-4 around the two observations reported here was available, we used the RXTE All Sky Monitor (ASM; Bradt et al. 1993) data to examine the phase of the super-orbital motion. Figure 1 shows the ASM light curves around the two observations, indicating that they are likely for the high state of the source.

Figure 2 presents background-subtracted light curves of the PCA data – (a) for the 1996 observations; (b) for the 1999 ones. The Modified Julian Dates (MJDs) of the start of the two light curves are 50314.07905 and 51531.48489, respectively. The binary orbital phase in the upper x-axis was determined by the LMC X-4 ephemeris of Levine et al. (2000). The flares are easily identified in the first four data segments of Figure 2a and six data segments of Figure 2b as significant increases in the photon count rates. Whereas the first half of the data of the 1996 observations shows strong flaring activity in the orbital phases $`\varphi `$ $``$ 0.26–0.6, the second half shows no noticeable activity at the same orbital phases (although some phases are missing due to data gaps). The LMC X-4 eclipse appears around $`\varphi `$ = 1.0 as an apparent decrease in the photon count rates. The 1999 observations show flaring activity at $`\varphi `$ $``$ 0.4–0.8. The mean photon count rates of the normal state is $``$44 and $``$54 counts/sec/PCU for the 1996 and the 1999 observations, respectively, and that of the eclipse is $``$13 counts/sec/PCU. (We refer to the normal state in this paper as a state absent of flaring activity and eclipse.)

Figure 3 presents the magnified light curves of the ten data segments containing flares with 4-s resolution. We shall call them “FL1” to “FL10” in time order. Figure 3 shows the complex flaring activities of LMC X-4 summarized as follows. First, the light curves with strong flares (i.e., FL1–5) appear to consist of multiple peaks embedded in the relatively low-intensity regions that are still brighter than the normal state; those with weak flares (i.e., FL6–10) show simple, small peaks connected through the regions of which brightness is comparable to that of the normal state. Secondly, FL1 and FL2 clearly show recurrences of intense flares; FL3 and FL5 show a strong concentration of intense flares with a time scale of $``$2000 s. Finally, while most of the flare peaks show symmetric, Gaussian-like profiles, the largest ones (e.g., those at $`t`$ $``$ 3240 s of FL3, $`t`$ $``$ 1770 s of FL4, and $`t`$ $``$ 2010 s of FL5) appear to show rather asymmetric profiles with a slow decay.

For quantitative analyses, we performed multi-component Gaussian fits to the flare peaks in Figure 3. Table 1 summarizes parameters of the 68 Gaussian-fitted flare peaks of which peak intensity is greater than 90 counts/sec/PCU. The mean peak intensity and full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) are 172 $`\pm `$ 103 counts/sec/PCU and 68 $`\pm `$ 31 s, respectively. The median and mean values of the reduced chi-square (= $`\chi _\nu ^2`$) of the fits are 1.6 and 3.8 $`\pm `$ 5.7, respectively. This indicates that while most of the flare peaks are fitted reasonably well (i.e., $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ $`<`$ 2) with a Gaussian function, some significantly deviate from a Gaussian. If we exclude the six flare peaks with $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ greater than 10 (including the three aforementioned largest flare peaks that apparently show slow decays), the mean $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ decreases to 2.2 $`\pm `$ 1.9. The mean fluence of the flare peaks is (3.1 $`\pm `$ 2.9) $`\times `$ 1040 ergs, with the maximum at 1.9 $`\times `$ 1041 ergs. The fluence is the integrated luminosity over the FWHM, and the luminosity was computed by spectral fits (see §3.2). (All the errors quoted here represent 1-$`\sigma `$ rms deviation.)

In Figure 3, the light curves FL2, FL3, and FL4 begin with a normal state, while other light curves begin with a flaring state. The mean photon count rates of the first 500 s of FL2, FL3, and FL4 are $``$35, $``$39, and $``$40 counts/sec/PCU, respectively, similar to those of the normal state. This offers an opportunity to examine the light curve transition from a normal states to a flaring state. In fact, the magnified views around the beginnings of the flares in FL2, FL3, and FL4 (Figure 4) identify the existence of the rather flat precursors of the flares lasting for a few minutes just before abrupt increases in photon count rates.

In contrast with the complicated differences in the flare light curves (Figure 3), the pulse profiles of FL1–10 show a remarkable similarity (Figure 5), all having simple, sinusoidal profiles. Figure 6 compares the pulsed fraction with the peak intensity of the 10 pulse profiles in Figure 5. The pulsed fraction is proportional to the peak intensity of the pulse profile with a linear correlation coefficient of $``$0.76.

#### 3.1.2 Rapid Aperiodic Variability

In order to examine the possible existence of any rapid variability associated with the flares, we present 45-s light curves of FL1–10 with 0.0625-s resolution around the brightest peak in each light curve (Figure 7). The light curves are modulated by $``$13.5-s pulsations of the neutron star of LMC X-4, and exhibit strong narrow peaks of which intensities are significantly greater than those expected from the Poisson noise of the given light curve. The Leahy-normalized power-density spectra (PDSs) of the light curves of the central 10-s segments reveal the existence of significant powers up to a few hertz, especially for the bright flares such as FL2–5. (Figure 8; We only used the central 10-s segments in order to avoid the contamination by the source’s pulsations in PDSs. Note that the Leahy power owing to a Poisson noise is 2 \[Leahy et al. 1983\]).) We investigated this possible correlation between the existence of the significant powers in the PDSs and the flare intensity more as follows. First, we divided the FL1–10 light curves (Figure 3) into segments of which lengths are equal to the pulsational period ($``$13.5 s) of LMC X-4 determined by Fourier transformations of the light curves. Next, we computed the Leahy-normalized PDSs of the all $``$13.5-s segments, as well as their integrated intensities. The correlation between the flare intensity and the existence of the significant powers in PDSs is evident in Figure 9, where we compare the distributions of the integrated intensities with those of the significant powers ($`>`$ 10) (in PDSs) of the $``$13.5-s segments. This confirms that the rapid aperiodic variability during the flares increases along with the flare intensity, which sometimes appears as strong narrow peaks in the light curves (Figure 7).

### 3.2 Spectral Evolution of the Flares

#### 3.2.1 Softness Ratio Distribution

We investigated the spectral evolution of the flares via the softness ratio, which we defined to be the ratio of the soft X-ray (2–8 keV) photon count rates to those of the hard X-ray (10–20 keV). Figure 10 compares the total photon count rates (integrated over the 2–25 keV range) of the flares with the softness ratios obtained with 32-s resolution, identifying a strong linear correlation between them with a linear correlation coefficient of $``$0.95.

However, Figure 11a, which is the same as Figure 10 but obtained with 0.0625-s resolution, shows that the strong correlation identified with 32-s resolution disappears when time resolution improves – the linear correlation coefficient decreases to $``$0.30. The data points with large photon count rates (so with small Poisson noise) show more significant deviations from the linear correlation (identified with 32-s resolution) than those with small photon count rates, indicating that the deviation is not simply owing to the increased Poisson noise caused by the improved time resolution. We investigated this further via comparison of the correlations obtained from two separate groups of the data: one is the “faint group” having small total photon count rates; the other is the “bright group” having large total photon count rates. We chose the faint group as the group of data points of which total photon count rates belong to the lower 90 %; the bright group of which total photon count rates belong to the upper 1 %. The dotted and dashed lines in Figure 11a represent the correlations obtained in the faint and bright groups, respectively. The correlations obtained in the two groups are quite distinctive: while the faint group (dotted line) shows a positive correlation with a slope similar to that obtained with 32-s resolution (Figure 10), the bright group (dashed line) does not show any apparent correlation, indicating that the strong linear correlation between the flare intensities and the softness ratios obtained with 32-s resolution does not hold for this component (i.e., the narrow, spiky peaks in Figure 7).

In order to examine the effect of the increased Poisson noise caused by the improved time resolution in Figure 11a more thoroughly, we used a Monte Carlo simulation by re-sampling the each data point obtained with 32-s resolution (Figure 10) with 0.0625-s resolution. We re-sampled the 32-s resolution data points using a Gaussian distribution with the 1$`\sigma `$ standard deviation equal to the Poisson noise of 0.0625-s resolution. We performed the simulation 1000 times, and present a typical result in Figure 11b. Although the correlation coefficients of the three lines representing the all data points (solid line, $``$0.20), the faint group (dotted line, $``$0.09), and the bright group (dashed line, $``$0.25) are much smaller than that obtained with 32-s resolution ($``$0.95), they show very similar slopes to that obtained with 32-s resolution and no apparent difference among them. This contrasts with the real data (Figure 11a), demonstrating that the simulated data are unable to produce the decreases in the softness ratios of the bright group of the real data (while the correlation coefficients of the simulated data decrease due to the increased Poisson noise caused by the improved time resolution, 0.0625 s). Therefore, the absence of the linear correlation between the softness ratios and the total photon count rates in the bright group of the real data seems to be of statistical significance. Table 2 summarizes the correlation coefficients and slopes of the lines in Figures 10 and 11.

The systematic difference in the softness ratios of the bright and faint groups of the real data is more clearly identified in Figure 12, where we compare the binned softness ratios of the real data (dotted line) in Figure 11a with those of the simulated data (solid line) in Figure 11b. For this, we made 100 bins of the total photon count rates (each bin with $``$1230 data points), and computed the mean softness ratios in each bin. As we see in Figure 12, the softness ratios of the real data with small total photon count rates ($`<`$ 300 counts/sec/PCU) are almost identical to those of the simulated data; however, the real data show a clear systematic decrease in the softness ratios as the total photon count rates increase ($`>`$ 300 counts/sec/PCU). About 85 % of the data have total photon count rates less than 300 counts/sec/PCU.

#### 3.2.2 Spectral Fits

In order to study the spectral evolution of the flares more thoroughly, we obtained flare spectra over 32-s interval, and fitted them to a model spectrum consisting of a power law, a black body, and a Gaussian component, as well as a component for photoelectric absorption due to the intervening interstellar matter. The power law and Gaussian components represent non-thermal magnetospheric emission and iron line emission, respectively, which is typical of X-ray pulsar (e.g., White, Swank, & Holt 1983). The black body component represents the thermal emission associated with the neutron star polar cap and the accretion columns during the flares. The model spectrum is given by

$$I(E)=\mathrm{exp}[\sigma (E)N_\mathrm{H}]\times \{I_\mathrm{P}E^\alpha +BB(E)+G(E)\}\mathrm{photons}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{keV}^1$$
(1)
where $`E`$ is the photon energy in keV; $`\sigma `$(E) and $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ are the photoelectric cross section and the hydrogen nuclei column density of the intervening matter; $`I_\mathrm{P}`$ and $`\alpha `$ are the norm and the power-law index of the power-law component. $`BB(E)`$ is the black body function of temperature $`kT`$; $`G(E)`$ is the Gaussian function for the iron line emission with its center at $`E_\mathrm{G}`$. The lower limit of $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ was fixed to be 3 $`\times `$ 1020 cm-2 based on the previous results (Woo et al. 1995, and references therein). We obtained the mean $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ of 0.99 $`\pm `$ 0.22 with $``$43 degrees of freedom from spectral fits between 2.5 and 25 keV.

Figure 13 presents the distributions of the resulting power index ($`\alpha `$, 13a) and the black body temperature ($`kT`$, 13b) along with the flux obtained from the model fits in the 2.5–25 keV range. The power index increases as the flux increases; the black body temperature decreases on the contrary. The possible saturation in the decrease of the black body temperature may be due to the lower energy limit of the fits (= 2.5 keV). Figure 13 shows that both the power-law and black body components soften as the flare intensity increases, which is consistent with the softness ratio distribution obtained with 32-s resolution (Figure 10). (We tried many different model spectra, e.g., adding a high-energy cutoff to the power-law component, subtracting the Gaussian component or the black body component, and fixing the hydrogen nuclei column density. The fits to these trial spectra gave us a moderately reasonable $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ ($`<`$ 2). The trends identified in Figure 13 always existed in the spectral fits to these trial model spectra. The fits to the model spectrum of Eqn.  yielded the least $`\chi _\nu ^2`$.) Table 3 lists the luminosities of the precursors (Figure 4) and the brightest flare peak of each FL1–10 (Figure 3), as well as the fluence of FL1–10. We used a distance of 50 kpc to LMC X-4 to estimate the luminosity. Figure 14 presents a comparison between the best-fit model spectra (solid lines) and the observed ones (crosses) of the brightest flare peak of each FL1–10. Table 4 summarizes the best-fit parameters of Figure 14.

We compared the spectrum from the normal state with that of the brightest flare peak in all FL1–10 (i.e., the peak at $`t`$ $``$ 1770 s of FL4 in Figure 3). We used three different model spectra: (1) the model spectrum given by the Eqn. (1), (2) a model spectrum consisting only of a power-law component and a Gaussian component, (3) the same model spectrum of (2) but with a high-energy cutoff for the power-law component. For the case (3), the model spectrum is given by

$$I(E)=\mathrm{exp}[\sigma (E)N_\mathrm{H}]\times \{I_\mathrm{P}E^\alpha f_{hi}(E)+G(E)\}\mathrm{photons}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{keV}^1$$
(2)
where

$$f_{hi}(E)=\{\begin{array}{cc}1,\hfill & E<E_c\hfill \\ exp(\frac{(EE_c)}{E_f}),\hfill & EE_c\text{,}\hfill \end{array}$$

represents the high-energy cutoff for the power-law component. Figure 15 compares the three best-fit model spectra (solid lines) with the observed ones (crosses), and Table 5 summarizes the best-fit parameters. All the spectral fits to the three model spectra gave us acceptable $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ ($`<`$ 2). We noted that the fitted values for the high-energy cutoff component of the normal state were very close to those previously obtained (16.1 $`\pm `$ 0.4 and 35.6 $`\pm `$ 6.7 keV; Woo et al. 1996), whereas those for the flare peak were considerably different. In order to examine the significance of this change in the high-energy cutoff component, we fit the flare peak spectrum to the model spectrum given by the Eqn. (2) with the high-energy cutoff component fixed to the values obtained from the normal state: $`E_\mathrm{c}`$ = 16.1 keV and $`E_\mathrm{f}`$ = 27.4 keV. The resulting best-fit parameters are: $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ = (6.5 $`\pm `$ 0.7) $`\times `$ 1022 cm-2, $`\alpha `$ = 3.3 $`\pm `$ 0.2, and $`E_\mathrm{G}`$ = 5.8$`{}_{+0.4}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{0.6}`$ keV (with $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ $``$ 1.3), similar to the values in Table 5. Therefore, the changes in the high-energy cutoff component between the normal state and flares do not seem to be significant. The mean luminosity of the normal state luminosity is $``$1.5–2.0 $`\times `$ 1038 ergs s-1.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Possible Origin of the Flares

#### 4.1.1 Thermonuclear Burning

Levine et al. (2000) discussed the possibility of carbon burning under the neutron star surface as the origin of the LMC X-4 flares. According to their discussion, the nuclear burning scenario can roughly explain several features of the flares, including the luminosity, the daily recurrence time, the rapid rise and gradual decay, and the spectral softening. Shortcomings are an absence of any mechanism which can explain the $``$100–200 s substructure and the lack of enough carbon material needed for powering the flares when the accreting material is mostly H-rich material (Brown & Bildsten 1998). Although it might be possible to attribute the $``$100–200 s substructure to an accretion disk origin (Moon & Eikenberry 2001), the results of this paper are not supportive of the nuclear burning mechanism as the origin of the flares. First, the precursors found in this paper (Figure 4) do not reconcile readily with the nuclear burning scenario, because the higher accretion rate during the precursor on the polar cap region would suppress the thermonuclear instability (e.g., Bildsten & Brown 1997; Brown & Bildsten 1998). We note that Type I X-ray bursts, which are known to be caused by nuclear flashes on the neutron star surface in low-mass X-ray binaries, have occasionally been observed with precursors of a few seconds (e.g., Lewin, Vacca, & Basinska 1984). However, the burst precursors are distinctive from the precursors of the LMC X-4 flares of this paper. The burst precursor is generally followed by a normal state of a few seconds due to a rapid expansion and subsequent cooling of the neutron star photosphere, which is clearly different from the LMC X-4 flares. In addition, while many Type I X-ray bursts have been observed with spectral softening during the decay, the LMC X-4 flares show the opposite phenomena: the spectrum is hardening during the decay. The very strong magnetic field strength of LMC X-4 ($``$1013 G; La Barbera et al. 2001) also makes the nuclear burning scenario less likely – no X-ray pulsars have been observed with Type I X-ray bursts except for rare accreting millisecond pulsars (e.g., SAX J1808.4–3658; in ’t Zand et al. 1998). Finally, the observed spectra of the flares are far from thermal, although the thermal spectra from a highly magnetized object may be very different from those of non-magnetized objects. Therefore, it is very difficult to explain the LMC X-4 flares in terms of the nuclear burning scenario.

#### 4.1.2 Viscous Instability

We note that X-ray bursts/flares from the X-ray pulsars GRO J1744–28 and SMC X-1 have been explained as results of viscous instabilities in the accretion disk (Cannizzo 1996, 1997; Li & van den Heuvel 1997; Moon et al. 2002). If the radiation pressure is comparable to the gas pressure around the inner-disk radius, the accretion disk is susceptible to a viscous instability. Under the classical $`\alpha `$-disk configuration (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973), this requires that the transition layer between the radiation-pressure-dominated and the gas-pressure-dominated regions be comparable to the inner-disk radius. In order to satisfy this condition, the magnetic moment of the neutron star is expected to be (Shapiro & Teukolsky 1983)

$$\mu _{30}4\times 10^3\dot{M}_{17}^{11/6}$$
(3)
where $`\mu _{30}`$ is the magnetic moment of a neutron star in unit of 1030 G cm3, and $`\dot{M}_{17}`$ is the mass accretion rate in unit of 1017 g s-1. We assumed 1.4 $`M_{}`$ and 10 km for the mass and radius of the neutron star, respectively, and obtained $`\mu _{30}`$ $``$ 0.3 with $`\dot{M}_{17}`$ $``$ 10. This is significantly smaller than the value estimated from observations ($`\mu _{30}`$ $``$ 11; La Barbera et al. 2001), indicating that the viscous instability is difficult to grow in the accretion disk around LMC X-4 with the $`\alpha `$-disk configuration. This also confirms that it is unlikely that radiation-pressure-dominated regions can exist around highly-magnetized neutron stars (i.e., X-ray pulsars).

#### 4.1.3 Plasma Rayleigh-Taylor Instability and Stellar Winds

LMC X-4 is known to be in a spin equilibrium state (Naranan et al. 1985; Woo et al. 1995; La Barbera 2001) in which the magnetospheric radius is comparable to the corotation radius of the source. In this case, it has been suggested that the plasma Rayleigh-Taylor instability (which is known as the Kruskal-Schwarzschild instability) can develop to result in X-ray bursts from the neutron star X-ray binaries (Baan 1977, 1979). According to this scenario, accreting matter can be accumulated outside the magnetosphere when the neutron star spins faster than the inner accretion disk owing to the centrifugal barrier of the magnetosphere. Once the density of the accumulating matter exceeds the critical value, the effective gravity becomes larger, driving the magnetosphere inside the corotation radius, and an abrupt increase in the accretion onto the neutron star can occur. Based on this mechanism, Apparao (1991) explained the origin of the six flares observed from EXO 2030+375. We note that the flares of EXO 2030+375 share similar properties with the LMC X-4 flares, including the $``$3–4 h flare recurrence time, the $``$1–2 h flare duration, the high fluences of the flares ($`>`$ 1040 ergs), the very similar precursors, the rapid rise with gradual decay, and the absence of any significant spectral change (Parmar et al. 1989; Parmar, White, & Stella 1989). Similar to LMC X-4, $``$1013 G magnetic field strength is expected from EXO 2030+375 (Apparao 1991). These similar properties are suggestive that the same mechanism may be responsible for the flares from the both objects.

Finally, we investigate the possibility that the LMC X-4 flares are caused by non-uniform stellar winds from the O-type companion. One noticeable result is that, based on the estimation of stellar mass loss rate, Boroson et al. (1999) found that the gravitational capture of stellar winds could power $``$3 $`\times `$ 1037 ergs s-1 luminosity of LMC X-4, which is comparable to the excess luminosities of the flare precursors over the normal states (Table 3). In fact, several early type stars have been observed with non-uniform stellar winds of $``$2–3 h periods (Vogt & Penrod 1983; Kudritzki & Puls 2000), which is similar to the time interval of the three consecutive flares of the LMC X-4 (FL1–3; Figure 2 and 3). (The flares FL6–10 are also consecutive, but it is difficult to estimate flare recurrence time from these flares.) Additionally, the roughly estimated recurrence period of the flaring episode of LMC X-4 is compatible to its orbital period, $``$1.4 d. Based on these, one can imagine a very speculative scenario in which the LMC X-4 flare precursors are caused by the capture of material in the non-uniform stellar winds from the companion star related to binary orbital motion, and then the precursor induces instabilities in the accretion disk (such as the plasma Rayleigh-Taylor instability) by satisfying the conditions for the instability to develop.

### 4.2 Softness Ratio Distributions and Inhomogeneous Polar Cap During Super-Eddington Flares

#### 4.2.1 Softness Ratio Distributions and Inhomogeneous Polar Cap Accretion Flows

As identified by the analysis with 0.0625-s resolution, the LMC X-4 flares appear to consist of two distinctive components. The first one, which is the major component corresponding to $``$85 % of the total data, has relatively small total photon count rates ($`<`$ 300 counts/sec/PCU); the second one, which is the minor component corresponding to the remaining $``$15 %, has large total photon count rates ($`>`$ 300 counts/sec/PCU). The softness ratio distribution of the major component is almost equal to that obtained with 32-s resolution, showing a strong linear correlation between the softness ratio and flare intensity (Figure 10 and 12). The minor component also shows an overall proportionality between them; however, it has a distinctive feature showing a much slower increase in the softness ratio, as the flare intensity increases, than the major component (Figure 12). The minor component often appears as very narrow, spiky peaks in the light curves (Figure 7), and is also responsible for the increased rapid aperiodic variability in PDSs (Figure 8). We shall call the major component the “broad, normal” component; the minor component the “narrow, spiky” one. With 32-s resolution, the narrow, spiky component is dominated by the broad, normal component, so that it is impossible to identify them.

Independent of the time resolution used, the LMC X-4 flare spectra become softer as the flare intensities increase (Figure 10, 12, and 13). For the case of high-luminosity sources ($`>`$ 1038 ergs s-1 for example), the accretion column is expected to be optically thick to its own X-ray radiation and to re-radiate in soft X-rays (Basko & Sunyaev 1976). Because the number of reprocessings (i.e., scatterings/absorptions) of photons are expected to be proportional to the flare intensities (i.e, the accretion rates), it seems natural to attribute the origin of the broad, normal component to the increased optical depths of the accretion columns during the flares, which can explain the spectral softening along with the flare intensities. (See Basko & Sunyaev  for detailed mechanisms responsible for the spectral softening. We assume here that the LMC X-4 flares are caused by the abruptly increased accretion rates possibly caused by an accretion disk instability \[see §4.1\].)

This mechanism can also account for the proportionality between the softness ratios and flare intensities of the narrow, spiky component. However, it is not readily capable of explaining the much slower increase in the softness ratios as the flare intensities increase (Figure 12), indicating that a different mechanism is responsible for it. We propose here that density inhomogeneity in the accretion columns onto the neutron star polar cap during the flares may be responsible for the observed softness ratio distributions. If the accretion column is inhomogeneous, it is possible that some photons escape it without suffering as many reprocessings as expected by the flare intensities. As indicated by the increase of the rapid aperiodic variability (Figure 9), the inhomogeneity in the accretion columns is most likely proportional to the flare intensities, suggesting that the probability of the leakage of photons is higher for the intenser flares. In this case, the photons from more intense flares are expected to have a greater chance of leaking through the inhomogeneous accretion columns. Therefore, while the overall softness ratios are still proportional to the flare intensities, the intense flares are expected to show a slower increase in the softness ratio as the flare intensities increase – consistent with the observed softness ratio distributions (Figure 10 and 12). In contrasts with the large scatter in the softness ratios of photons having similar total photon count rates (Figure 10), the statistically averaged softness ratios show a well-defined systematic behavior (Figure 12). This is also consistent with the argument given above, because it is based on the probability of the leakage of photons, which can best appear as a statistical behaviour. In conclusion, the narrow, spiky peaks in the light curves (Figure 7) seem to represent the photons leaking through the inhomogeneous accretion columns; the rapid aperiodic variability proportional to the flare intensity (Figures 8 and 9) is most likely related to the scale of the density inhomogeneity in the accretion columns.

For bright X-ray pulsars, the previous studies have shown that low-density “photon bubbles” form at the settling mound of the accretion column above a polar cap (Arons 1992), because the relatively heavy accretion column is supported against gravity by radiation. If the X-ray radiation is strong enough ($`L`$ $``$ 1036 ergs s-1), a radiative shock forms at the bottom of the accretion column (Basko & Sunyaev 1976; Wang & Frank 1981; White et al. 1995). Numerical studies (Klein et al. 1996a) have shown a variation in the number of photon bubbles if accretion continues onto the neutron star polar cap, resulting in quasi-periodic variations in the luminosity by changing the efficiency of radiation transport in the accretion column. These are known as the “photon-bubble oscillations” (PBOs). Klein et al. (1996b) have found the relation, $`\nu _{\mathrm{PBO}}`$ $``$ $`L^{0.617}`$, between the frequency of the PBOs and luminosity in the numerical simulation for the narrow polar cap model, assuming $`\theta _\mathrm{c}`$ = 0.1, $`B`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 1012 G, and $`L`$ = (0.07–2) $`\times `$ 1038 ergs s-1 for the polar cap radius, the neutron star magnetic field, and the luminosity, respectively. This narrow polar cap model predicts fast ($`>`$ 1000 Hz) PBOs. Due to the increased photon diffusion time, Klein et al. (1996b) have also found that the frequency of PBOs decreases if the polar cap size increases. According to their results on the larger polar cap model ($`\theta _\mathrm{c}`$ = 0.4), $``$85 Hz PBOs are possible for an X-ray pulsar with $`L`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 1037 ergs s-1 and $`B`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 1012 G. Because no previous study is directly applicable to the extreme conditions of the LMC X-4 flares studied in this paper ($`L`$ $``$ 1039 erg s-1; $`B`$ $``$ 1013 G), we extended the results of Klein et al. (1996b) to the LMC X-4 flares. If we use the $`\nu _{PBO}`$ $``$ $`L^{0.617}`$ scaling law obtained from the narrow polar cap model and $`\nu _{PBO}`$ = 85 Hz from the larger polar cap model of $`L`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 1037 ergs s-1, the expected PBO frequency of the LMC X-4 flares is $``$10 Hz for $`L`$ $``$ 1039 ergs s-1, comparable to the observed frequencies of the aperiodic variabilities during the flares (Figure 8). We need a more through numerical simulation directly applicable to the LMC X-4 flares to investigate the possible relations between the rapid aperiodic variability discovered in this paper and PBOs.

#### 4.2.2 Origin of the Super-Eddington Radiation of the Flares

The flare luminosities obtained in this paper are often well in excess of the Eddington luminosity of the 1.4 $`M_{}`$ neutron star in LMC X-4, $``$2 $`\times `$ 1038 ergs s-1. However, the Eddington luminosity is the upper limit that a steady, isotropic, homogeneous, and fully ionized atmosphere can support, which is not the case for LMC X-4 primarily because that most emission is through the neutron star polar cap. The size of the neutron star polar cap is expected to be much smaller than the total neutron star surface (i.e., $``$ 10 %). Therefore, if all the observed emission is through the polar cap, this indicates that sometimes LMC X-4 flare luminosities are above the Eddington limit by more than two orders of magnitude. However, because a significant fraction of the emission may be transported as fan beams through the sides of accretion columns above the polar cap (due to the increased optical depths along the direction of the magnetic field), it is not clear if the polar cap emission can really decrease the Eddington limit by such magnitude. On the other hand, the photon scattering cross-section in a strongly magnetized plasma has been known to be considerably reduced along the magnetic field lines for the photons of which energy is much lower than the cyclotron energy (White, Nagese, & Parmar 1995, and references therein). According to the results of Paczy$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{n}}`$ski (1992), the strong magnetic field ($``$1013 G) of LMC X-4 can render its X-ray luminosity up to $``$50 times of the Eddington limit at the neutron star surface by reducing Thomson and Compton cross sections. However, this effect is expected to be substantially diminished during the LMC X-4 flares. This is because, during the flares, radiative shocks can easily form at the bottom of the accretion columns, supporting the accretion columns above the neutron star polar cap (Basko & Sunyaev 1976; Wang & Frank 1981; White et al. 1995), which would significantly decrease the effect of the magnetic field on the photon cross sections (note that the magnetic field is decaying $`1/r^3`$). Therefore, we regard the LMC X-4 flares as super-Eddington phenomena.

What then is the origin of the super-Eddington radiation of the LMC X-4 flares ? We suggest that the inhomogeneous accretion columns during the flares, which were already proposed to explain the softness ratio distributions and rapid aperiodic variability (§4.2.1), are also responsible for the super-Eddington radiation. Recently, some authors have proposed that a magnetized, radiation pressure-dominated atmosphere (and an accretion disk) is susceptible to a density inhomogeneity (e.g., Shaviv 1998, 2000; Begelman 2001, 2002), most likely caused by the non-linear development of a “photon-bubble instability” (Arons 1992; Gammie 1998). In this mechanism, once the matter is trapped in the magnetic field by radiation pressure, the magnetic field prevents the trapped matter from spreading sideways, maintaining the density inhomogeneity. The net flux through this inhomogeneous atmosphere can easily exceed the Eddington limit by a large factor primarily through the low-density (= low-opacity) regions (Shavie 1998, 2000; Begelman 2001). We note that the LMC X-4 flares satisfy the conditions for the development of the density inhomogeneity in the accretion columns easily owing to their high luminosities and the strong magnetic field of the source. In addition, because a radiative shock can readily develop above the polar cap due to the high luminosities of the LMC X-4 flares, the “photon bubbles” are expected to form at the bottom of the accretion columns during the flares, which can be a seed for the proposed density inhomogeneity.

### 4.3 Pulse Profiles

During the LMC X-4 flares, the accretion columns are expected to be highly opaque. In this case, one might expect that a significant fraction of the flare emission is transported via the fan beams in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field due to the relatively smaller optical depths in this direction than the direction parallel to the magnetic field. The increased fan beams then can result in substantial gravitational bendings of the X-ray photons from the neutron star polar cap (e.g., Brainerd & M$`\stackrel{´}{e}`$sz$`\stackrel{´}{a}`$ros 1991), which may be responsible for the broad pulse profiles of the LMC X-4 flares. On the other hand, the simple sinusoidal, in-phase pulse profiles may indicate that pulse profiles are simply dominated by one mechanism, i.e., the flares, probably at one magnetic pole.

## 5 Summary and Conclusion

In this paper, we have analyzed two extensive observations of the LMC X-4 flares made with RXTE. We summarize our main results as follows. (1) The flare light curves reveal the existence of the flat precursors preceding the flares, with the complex activity of the LMC X-4 flares. (2) The FWHM and mean fluence of the flares are 68 $`\pm `$ 31 s and (3.1 $`\pm `$ 2.9) $`\times `$ 1040 ergs, respectively. (3) The pulse profiles during the flares are broad, sinusoidal, and the pulsed fractions increase with the flare intensities. (4) With 0.0625-s resolution, narrow, spiky peaks appear in the light curves, so does the rapid aperiodic variability in PDSs. Both intensify along with the flare intensities. (6) The softness ratios and spectral fits show that the flare spectra soften as the intensities increase. (7) With 0.0625-s resolution, while the photons having count rates less than 300 counts/sec/PCU show the softness ratio distributions almost equal to those obtained with 32-s resolution, the photons having larger photon count rates show a much slower increase in the softness ratios as the flare intensities increase. (8) The peak luminosity of the flares reaches up to $``$2.1 $`\times `$ 1039 ergs s-1, well above the Eddington limit for an 1.4 $`M_{}`$ neutron star.

We find it difficult to explain the observed properties of the LMC X-4 flares in terms of the thermonuclear instability on the neutron star surface or the viscous instability at the inner accretion disk. We consider the possibility that the plasma Rayleigh-Taylor instability in the accretion disk may be responsible for the flares. We propose that increased optical depths and density inhomogeneity in the accretion columns onto the neutron star polar cap during the LMC X-4 flares are responsible for the observed properties, including the super-Eddington luminosities of the flares. If confirmed, this is the first observational evidence for the inhomogeneous atmosphere responsible for super-Eddington radiation. The broad pulse profiles of the LMC X-4 flares may be caused by substantial gravitational bending of the flare emission transported via fan beams.

We would like to thank the anonymous referee for his (or her) comments which substantially improved this paper. We also would like to thank Ron Remillard for his help on the RXTE data analyses. D.-S. M. acknowledges Akiko Shirakawa for her comments. This research has made use of data obtained from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. D.-S. M. is supported by NSF grant AST-9986898, and S. S. E. is supported in part by an NSF Faculty Early Careeer Development award (NSF-9983830). I. M. W. is supported by the NASA grant NAG-5-8356.


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# A brief introduction to Gromov’s notion of hyperbolic groups

## Basic concepts

Let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ be a group, and let $`F`$ be a finite set of elements of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. By a *word* over $`F`$ we mean a formal product of elements of $`F`$ and their inverses. Every word over $`F`$ determines an element of the group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, simply using the group operations. The “empty word” is considered a word over $`F`$, which corresponds to the identity element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

If $`z`$ is a word over $`F`$, then the length of $`z`$ is denoted $`L(z)`$ and is the number of elements of $`F`$ such that they or their inverses are used in $`z`$, counting multiplicities. A word $`z`$ is said to be irreducible if it does not contain an $`\alpha F`$ next to $`\alpha ^1`$, i.e., so that all obvious cancellations have been made. If a word $`z`$ over $`F`$ corresponds to the identity element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, then $`z`$ is said to be trivial.

A finite subset $`F`$ of a group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is a set of *generators* of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ if every element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ corresponds to a word over $`F`$. A group is said to be *finitely-generated* if it has a finite set of generators. Let us make the convention that a generating set $`F`$ of a group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ should not contain the identity element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

Suppose that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is a group and that $`F`$ is a finite set of generators of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. The *Cayley graph* associated to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`F`$ is the graph consisting of the elements of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as vertices with the provision that $`\gamma _1`$, $`\gamma _2`$ in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are adjacent if $`\gamma _2=\gamma _1\alpha `$, where $`\alpha `$ is an element of $`F`$ or its inverse. Thus this relation is symmetric in $`\gamma _1`$ and $`\gamma _2`$.

A finite sequence $`\theta _0,\theta _2,\mathrm{},\theta _k`$ of elements of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is said to define a *path* if $`\theta _j`$, $`\theta _{j+1}`$ are adjacent in the Cayley graph for each $`j`$, $`0jk1`$. The *length* of this path is defined to be $`k`$. We include the degenerate case where $`k=0`$, so that a single element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is viewed as a path of length $`0`$.

If $`\varphi `$, $`\psi `$ are elements of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, then the *distance* between $`\varphi `$ and $`\psi `$ is defined to be the shortest length of a path that connects $`\varphi `$ to $`\psi `$. In particular, note that for any two elements $`\varphi `$, $`\psi `$ in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ there is a path which starts at $`\varphi `$ and ends at $`\psi `$. To see this, one can write $`\psi `$ as $`\varphi \beta `$ for some $`\beta `$ in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and then use the assumption that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is generated by $`F`$ to obtain a path from $`\varphi `$ to $`\psi `$ one step at a time.

These definitions are invariant under *left* translations in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. In other words, if $`\delta `$ is any fixed element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, then the tranformation $`\gamma \delta \gamma `$ on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ defines an automorphism of the Cayley graph, and it also preserves distances between elements of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. This follows from the definitions, since the Cayley graph was defined in terms of right-multiplication by generators and their inverses.

A basic fact is that this definition of distance does not depend too strongly on the choice of generating set $`F`$, in the sense that if one has another finite generating set, then the two distance functions associated to these generating sets are each bounded by a constant multiple of the other. This is not difficult to check, by expressing each generator in one set as a finite word over the other set of generators. There are only a finite number of these expressions, so that their maximal length is a finite number.

Let us continue with the assumption that we have a fixed generating set $`F`$ for the group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Suppose that $`R`$ is a finite set of words over $`F`$. We say that $`R`$ is a set of *relations* for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ if every element of $`R`$ is a trivial word. The inverses of elements of $`R`$ are also then trivial words, as well as conjugates of elements of $`R`$. That is, if $`r`$ is an element of $`R`$ and $`u`$ is any word over $`F`$, then $`uru^1`$ is the conjugate of $`r`$ by $`u`$, and it is a trivial word since $`r`$ is. Products of conjugates of elements of $`R`$ and their inverses are trivial words too, as well as words obtained from these through cancellations, i.e., by cancelling $`\alpha \alpha ^1`$ and $`\alpha ^1\alpha `$ whenever $`\alpha `$ is an element of $`F`$. The combination of $`F`$ and a set $`R`$ of relations defines a *presentation* of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ if every word over $`F`$ which corresponds to the identity element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ can be obtained in this manner. The empty word is viewed as being equal to the empty product of relations, so that it is automatically included. A group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is said to be *finitely-presented* if there is a presentation with a finite set of generators and a finite set of relations. For instance, if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the free group with generators in $`F`$, then one can take $`R`$ to be the set consisting of the empty word, and this defines a presentation for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

Let us call a word over $`F`$ *trivial* if it corresponds to the identity element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Suppose that $`w`$ is a trivial word, with

(1)
$$w=\beta _1\beta _2\mathrm{}\beta _n,$$

where each $`\beta _i`$ is an element of $`F`$ or an inverse of an element of $`F`$. This leads to a path $`\theta _0,\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _n`$, where $`\theta _0`$ is the identity element of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\theta _j`$ is equal to $`\beta _1\beta _2\mathrm{}\beta _j`$ when $`j1`$. Because $`w`$ is a trivial word, $`\theta _n`$ is also the identity element in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, which is to say that this path is a loop that begins and ends at the identity element.

Fix a finite set $`R`$ of relations, so that $`F`$ and $`R`$ give a presentation for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Let $`w`$ be a trivial word over $`F`$ which is also irreducible. Define $`A(w)`$ to be the smallest nonnegative integer $`A`$ for which there exist relations $`r_1,r_2,\mathrm{},r_k`$ in $`R`$, integers $`b_1,b_2,\mathrm{},b_k`$, and words $`u_1,u_2,\mathrm{},u_k`$ over $`F`$ such that the expression

(2)
$$u_1r_1^{b_1}u_1^1u_2r_2^{b_2}u_2^1\mathrm{}u_kr_k^{b_k}u_k^1$$

can be reduced to $`w`$ after cancellations as before,

(3)
$$\underset{j=1}{\overset{k}{}}L(u_j)A,$$

and

(4)
$$\underset{j=1}{\overset{k}{}}|b_j|L(r_j)^2A.$$

Here if $`z`$ is a word over $`F`$ and $`b`$ is an integer, then $`z^b`$ is defined in the obvious manner, by simply repeating $`z`$ $`b`$ times when $`b0`$, or repeating $`z^1`$ $`b`$ times when $`b<0`$. A representation of this type for $`w`$ necessarily exists, since $`F`$ and $`R`$ give a presentation for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

The group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is said to be *hyperbolic* if there is a nonnegative real number $`C_00`$ so that

(5)
$$A(w)C_0L(w)$$

for all irreducible trivial words $`w`$. The property of hyperbolicity does not depend on the choice of finite presentation for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and in fact there are other definitions for which one only needs to assume that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is finitely generated, and the existence of a finite presentation is then a consequence. This characterization of hyperbolicity is discussed in Section 2.3 of . Some examples of hyperbolic groups are finitely-generated free groups and the fundamental groups of compact connected Riemannian manifolds without boundary and strictly negative curvature. In particular, this includes the fundamental group of a closed Riemann surface with genus at least $`2`$.

## Spaces of homogeneous type

Let us digress now a bit and review some notions from real-variable harmonic analysis. Let $`M`$ be a nonempty set. A nonnegative real-valued function $`d(x,y)`$ on the Cartesian product $`M\times M`$ is said to be a *quasimetric* if $`d(x,y)=0`$ exactly when $`x=y`$, $`d(x,y)=d(y,x)`$ for all $`x,yM`$, and

(6)
$$d(x,z)C\left(d(x,y)+d(y,z)\right)$$

for some positive real number $`C`$ and all $`x,y,zM`$. If this last condition holds with $`C=1`$, then $`d(x,y)`$ is said to be a *metric* on $`M`$.

If $`d(x,y)`$ is a quasimetric on $`M`$ and $`a`$ is a positive real number, then $`d(x,y)^a`$ is also a quasimetric on $`M`$. If $`d(x,y)`$ is a metric on $`M`$ and $`a`$ is a positive real number such that $`a1`$, then $`d(x,y)^a`$ is a metric on $`M`$ too. These statements are not difficult to verify. There is a very nice result going in the other direction, which states that if $`d(x,y)`$ is a quasimetric on $`M`$, then there are positive real numbers $`C^{}`$, $`\delta `$ and a metric $`\rho (x,y)`$ on $`M`$ such that

(7)
$$C^1\rho (x,y)^\delta d(x,y)C^{}\rho (x,y)^\delta $$

for all $`x,yM`$. See .

If $`d(x,y)`$ is a quasimetric on $`M`$ and $`f`$ is a real-valued function on $`M`$, then $`f`$ is said to be *Lipschitz* if there is a nonnegative real number $`L`$ such that

(8)
$$|f(x)f(y)|Ld(x,y)$$

for all $`x,yM`$. In general, for a quasimetric, there may not be any nonconstant Lipschitz functions. This is the case when $`M=𝐑^n`$ equipped with the quasimetric $`d(x,y)^a`$ with $`a>1`$, for which any Lipschitz function would have to have first derivatives equal to $`0`$ everywhere. However, if $`d(x,y)`$ is a metric, then $`f_p(x)=d(x,p)`$ satisfies the Lipschitz condition with $`L=1`$ for all $`p`$ in $`M`$. This can be checked using the triangle inequality.

If $`d(x,y)`$ is a quasimetric on $`M`$, then one has many of the same basic notions as for a metric, such as convergence of sequences, open and closed sets, dense subsets, and so on. One should be a bit careful with some of the standard results, since for instance it is not so clear that an open ball defined using a quasimetric is an open set, as in the situation of ordinary metrics. At any rate, it still makes sense to say that $`M`$ is separable with respect to a quasimetric if it has a subset which is at most countable and also dense, and one can define the topological dimension for $`M`$ as in . The diameter of a subset can be defined in the usual manner using the quasimetric, and this permits one to define the Hausdorff dimension of a nonempty subset of $`M`$. A famous result about metric spaces is that the topological dimension is always less than or equal to the Hausdorff dimension. See Chapter VII of . This does not work for quasimetrics in general, and it cannot possibly work. For if $`(M,d(x,y))`$ is a quasimetric space with Hausdorff dimension $`s`$ and $`a`$ is a positive real number, then $`(M,d(x,y)^a)`$ has Hausdorff dimension $`s/a`$, while the topological dimension of $`(M,d(x,y)^a)`$ is the same as that of $`(M,d(x,y))`$.

A quasimetric space $`(M,d(x,y))`$ is said to have the *doubling property* if there is a positive real number $`C_1`$ so that every open ball $`B(x,r)=\{yM:d(x,y)<r\}`$ in $`M`$ of radius $`r`$ can be covered by a family of at most $`C_1`$ open balls of radius $`r/2`$. By iterating this condition one obtains that for each positive integer $`l`$ and each open ball $`B(x,r)`$ there is a family of at most $`C_1^l`$ open balls of radius $`2^lr`$ which covers $`B(x,r)`$. This is a kind of condition of polynomial growth; if one chooses $`\alpha 0`$ so that $`2^\alpha =C_1`$, then we can say that each open ball $`B(x,r)`$ can be covered by a family of at most $`(2^l)^\alpha `$ balls of radius $`2^lr`$. Note that if $`(M,d(x,y))`$ has the doubling property, then so does $`(M,d(x,y)^a)`$ for any positive real number $`a`$.

Suppose that $`(M,d(x,y))`$ is a quasimetric space, and that $`\mu `$ is a nonnegative Borel measure on $`M`$. Let us assume that open balls in $`M`$ are Borel sets. Of course, if $`d(x,y)`$ is a metric, then open balls are open sets, and hence are Borel sets. In practice, the quasimetrics that one would consider do have this property, and anyway one could make adjustments if necessary. One says that $`\mu `$ is a *doubling measure* if the $`\mu `$-measure of open balls is positive and finite, and if there is a positive real number $`C_2`$ such that

(9)
$$\mu (B(x,2r))C_2\mu (B(x,r))$$

for all $`xM`$ and $`r>0`$. A basic fact is that if there is a doubling measure on $`(M,d(x,y))`$, then $`(M,d(x,y))`$ is doubling as a quasimetric space.

A quasimetric space $`(M,d(x,y))`$ equipped with a doubling measure $`\mu `$ is often called a *space of homogeneous type*. As in , a lot of real-variable methods in harmonic analysis carry over to spaces of homogeneous type. See  for the classical setting of harmonic analysis on Euclidean spaces, and see  for more information related to real-variable methods, doubling measures, spaces of homogeneous type, etc.

## Spaces at infinity of hyperbolic groups

Let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ be a finitely-presented group which is hyperbolic. Associated to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is a space $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ which is a kind of “space at infinity” or ideal boundary of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, consisting of equivalence classes of asymptotic directions in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. This space is a compact Hausdorff topological space of finite dimension, as on p110-1 of , and it contains a copy of the Cantor set as soon as it has at least three elements. If $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ has at most two elements, then $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is said to be *elementary*. For a free group with at least two generators the space at infinity is homeomorphic to a Cantor set, while $`𝐙`$, a free group with one generator, is elementary and has two points in the space at infinity. If $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the fundamental group of a closed Riemann surface of genus at least $`2`$, then $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is homeomorphic to the unit circle in $`𝐑^2`$. More generally, if $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the fundamental group of a compact $`n`$-dimensional Riemannian manifold without boundary with strictly negative curvature, then $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is homeomorphic to the unit sphere $`𝐒^{n1}`$ in $`𝐑^n`$.

Actually, the space at infinity is defined for any hyperbolic metric space in , and this can be specialized to a hyperbolic group. It is often preferable to work with metric spaces which are “geodesic”, in the sense that any pair of points can be connected by a curve whose length is equal to the distance between the two points. It is often useful to think of a hyperbolic group as acting on a geodesic hyperbolic metric space by isometries, and to use that to study the space at infinity.

It does not customarily seem to be said this way, but I think it is fair to say that what are basically defined on the space at infinity are quasimetrics, at least initially. More precisely, it is more like the logarithm of a quasimetric, or, in other words, there is a one-parameter family of quasimetrics which are powers of each other. In Section 7.2 of  one takes a different route, in effect compactifying a geodesic hyperbolic metric space by looking at different measurements of lengths of curves which take densities into account, densities which decay suitably at infinity. For a parameter in the density in an appropriate range, this measurement of lengths of curves leads to a measurement of distance on the compactification with nice properties, including upper and lower bounds by positive constant multiples of quantities defined more directly. By defining distance in terms of lengths of curves in the compactification one gets an actual metric in particular, i.e., with the usual triangle inequality.

It should perhaps be emphasized that in measuring distances between points at infinity through weighted lengths of curves, the curves are going through the hyperbolic metric space; curves in the space at infinity are another matter, especially with about the correct length.

In nice situations, such as hyperbolic groups, and universal coverings of compact Riemannian manifolds without boundary and strictly negative curvature in particular, there are doubling conditions on the space at infinity. Compare with . There are also interesting measures around, as in .

A well-known result of Borel  says that simply-connected symmetric spaces can be realized as the universal covering of a compact manifold. If the symmetric space is of noncompact type and rank $`1`$, it has negative curvature, and thus the fundamental group of the compact quotient, which is a uniform lattice in the group of isometries of the symmetric space, is a hyperbolic group. If the symmetric space is a classical hyperbolic space of dimension $`n`$, with constant negative curvature, then the space at infinity can be identified with a Euclidean sphere of dimension $`n1`$. If the symmetric space is a complex hyperbolic space of complex dimension $`m`$, then the space at infinity can be identified topologically with a Euclidean sphere of real dimension $`2m1`$, but the geometry corresponds to a sub-Riemannian or Carnot–Carathéodory space when $`m2`$, associated to a distribution of hyperplanes in the tangent bundle of the sphere. One can think of the sphere as being the unit sphere in $`𝐂^m`$, and the hyperplanes in the tangent bundle are the maximal complex subspaces. For other symmetric spaces of noncompact type and rank $`1`$, one again obtains topological spheres of dimension $`1`$ less than the real dimension of the symmetric space, and with sub-Riemannian structures coming from distributions of planes of larger codimension in the tangent bundle.


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# Extensive Entropy Bounds

## I Acknowledgments

I would like to thank J. Bekenstein for his influence and inspiration. I would also like to thank D. Page and V. Frolov for helpful discussions and to A.J.M. Medved for reading and improving the English in the manuscript. The author is also grateful to the Killam Trust for its financial support.


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# Evolution of AGB stars at varying surface C/O ratio: The crucial effect of molecular opacities

## 1. Introduction

The observed spectral dichotomy between M-type (with C/O$`<1`$) and C-type (with C/O$`>1`$) stars was first explained by Russell (1934) on the basis of of molecular equilibria calculations. It was pointed out that the C/O ratio plays the key-role in determining the different patterns of molecular abundances, hence different dominant molecular bands, characterising the two classes of giant stars.

Despite this basic fact, the description of molecular opacities is still improper in most evolution models of AGB stars. In fact, the usually adopted opacity tables (e.g. Alexander & Ferguson 1994) are strictly valid for solar-scaled abundances of elements heavier than helium, corresponding to C/O$`=0.48`$ (hereinafter also $`\kappa _{\mathrm{fix}}`$ prescription).

Therefore, it is already clear that the inadequacy of the opacity prescription becomes particularly serious when modelling carbon stars, characterised by surface C/O$`>1`$ as a consequence of recurrent third dredge-up episodes during the TP-AGB evolution.

Marigo (2002) investigates the effects on the AGB evolution due to variable molecular opacities (hereinafter also $`\kappa _{\mathrm{var}}`$ prescription), that are now computed consistently to the current envelope chemical composition of TP-AGB models experiencing the third dredge-up and hot-bottom burning (HBB).

As illustrated in the following, from comparing the new $`\kappa _{\mathrm{var}}`$ with the standard $`\kappa _{\mathrm{fix}}`$ results, the impact turns out indeed significant.

## 2. Solar-scaled vs. variable molecular opacities

A routine has been constructed to derive the molecular concentrations through dissociation equilibrium calculations, and estimate the opacities due to H2, H2O, OH, C2, CN, and CO for any given density, temperature and chemical composition of the gas (Marigo 2002).

Figure 1 displays an example of the expected chemical pattern at increasing C/O ratio (carbon abundance is augmented, while that of oxygen is kept fixed). Note the abrupt change in the chemical abundances, as C/O increases from below to above unity, for all species but for CO molecule. In fact, most atoms of the least abundant element between C and O are trapped into the CO molecule, due to its high binding energy.

Such an abrupt change in molecular abundances at the transition from C/O$`<1`$ to C/O$`>1`$ results, in turn, into a drastic change in the dominant sources of molecular opacities. This is illustrated in Fig. 2, based on Marigo’s (2002) calculations (solid line). As C/O increases the H2O opacity bump, preponderant as long as C/O$`<1`$, progressively reduces until it completely disappears for C/O$`=1`$, and finally the CN opacity bump develops as soon as C/O$`>1`$. We also notice that, instead, the solar-scaled opacities (dashed line) would predict a minimum just in place of the CN bump.

## 3. New synthetic TP-AGB models with variable molecular opacities

Synthetic TP-AGB models, based on complete envelope integrations (see Marigo et al. 1996, 1998), are computed by adopting either the new $`\kappa _{\mathrm{var}}`$ routine, or Alexander & Ferguson (1994) opacity tables, the standard $`\kappa _{\mathrm{fix}}`$ prescription. A number of important consequences derive from the comparison of the results.

### 3.1. Effective temperatures, C/O ratios, and lifetimes of C-stars

The empirical data shown in Fig. 3 clearly indicates two major facts, namely: i) the almost complete segregation in effective temperature between oxygen-rich and carbon-rich stars; and ii) the relatively low C/O values ($`<2`$) measured in carbon-rich stars.

The disagreement is remarkable for $`\kappa _{\mathrm{fix}}`$ models, that are characterised by too high effective temperatures and C/O ratios. New $`\kappa _{\mathrm{var}}`$ models, instead, very well succeed in reproducing the observed location of both oxygen- and carbon-rich stars in the C/O vs. $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ diagram.

The reason resides just in the abrupt opacity change occurring at the transition from the O-rich to C-rich class, which causes the large excursion towards lower effective temperatures. This effect is not present in $`\kappa _{\mathrm{fix}}`$ models.

The photospheric cooling, in turn, favours larger and larger mass-loss rates, contributing to anticipate the onset of the super-wind, hence the end of the AGB phase. This effect implies a shortening of the C-star phase, and a lowering of the typical C/O ratios because of fewer thermal pulses, hence dredge-up episodes. We estimate that, for the same model prescriptions (i.e. dredge-up parameters and mass-loss law), the C-star lifetimes can be reduced up to a factor of 2 – 3 when adopting the variable opacities.

### 3.2. Effects on the third dredge-up

With the aid of envelope integrations we have explored the possible effects on the third dredge-up due to the $`\kappa _{\mathrm{var}}`$ prescription. In summary it turns out that, at the stage of the post-flash luminosity maximum (corresponding to the maximum penetration of envelope convection), the envelope base temperature, $`T_\mathrm{b}`$, may significantly decrease as soon as C/O$`>1`$.

This fact would translate into a likely reduction of the third dredge-up efficiency, even determining a possible inhibition of further dredge-up events. In other words, besides the reduction of the envelope mass due to mass loss, another possible mechanism leading to the shut-down of the third dredge-up may be related to the envelope cooling caused by opacity effects.

Preliminary calculations (see Fig. 4) indicate that, especially at lower metallicities, low-mass TP-AGB stars may experience just one single dredge-up episode, become carbon stars, and thereafter preserve their chemical composition unchanged. It is also interesting to notice that, in case of solar metallicity low-mass stars, the freezing of the surface abundances as soon as C/O$`>1`$ could provide a possible explanation to the formation of S-type stars. At larger masses the recurrence of dredge-up episodes could have an intermittent behaviour, the final shut-down possibly occurring at later stages.

### 3.3. Effects on hot-bottom burning

Our investigation is then extended to stars with larger masses, say $`M>4.5M_{}`$ (Marigo 2003, in preparation). It turns out that variable molecular opacities may significantly influence the structure and nucleosynthesis of massive AGB stars by affecting the efficiency of HBB.

Specifically, test calculations with $`\kappa _{\mathrm{var}}`$ prescription (see Fig. 5) indicate that if  during the early stages of its TP-AGB evolution, a massive AGB star has experienced efficient carbon dredge-up becoming a carbon star, then HBB may be significantly weakened or even prevented. The main reason is two-fold: The increase in opacities as soon as C/O$`>1`$ produces a cooling of both i) the envelope base – hence lowering the nuclear reaction rates –, and ii) the surface – hence lowering $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ with consequent earlier attainment of larger mass-loss rates.

All these feedback effects are missed in the case of $`\kappa _{\mathrm{fix}}`$ models, as we see by comparing the evolution of envelope chemical abundances presented in Fig. 5. For instance, note that at some stage the $`\kappa _{\mathrm{var}}`$ model should appear as a luminous J-type carbon star (with C/O$`>1`$ and 12C/13C close to the equilibrium value), whereas the $`\kappa _{\mathrm{fix}}`$ model would belong to the class of luminous M-type giants.

## 4. Conclusions

This explorative study has shown how large is the impact of introducing variable molecular opacities in AGB models. This has improved the comparison with observations and brought many new results, which may critically change and revitalise, in various aspects, the present scenario of AGB evolution.

#### Acknowledgments.

It is a pleasure to thank G. Meynet, C. Charbonnel, and D. Schaerer for their kindness and the successful organisation of the workshop, and Prof. A. Maeder (many wishes!) for fruitful discussions.

## References

Alexander D.R., & Ferguson J.W. 1994, ApJ, 437, 879

Bergeat J., Knapik A., & Rutily B. 2001, A&A, 369, 178

Lambert D.L., Gustafsson B., Eriksson K., & Hinkle K.H. 1986, ApJS, 62, 373

Marigo P. 2002, A&A, 387, 507

Marigo P., Bressan A., & Chiosi C. 1998, A&A, 331, 564

Marigo P., Bressan A., & Chiosi C. 1996, A&A, 313, 545

Ohnaka K., Tsuji T., & Aoki W. 2000, A&A, 353, 528

Ohnaka K., & Tsuji T. 1996, A&A, 310, 933

Smith V., & Lambert D.L. 1990, ApJS72, 387


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# Anisotropic flow in 4.2A GeV/c C+Ta collisions

## Abstract

Anisotropic flow of protons and negative pions in 4.2A GeV/c C+Ta collisions is studied using the Fourier analysis of azimuthal distributions. The protons exhibit pronounced directed flow. Directed flow of pions is positive in the entire rapidity interval and indicates that the pions are preferentially emitted in the reaction plane from the target to the projectile. The elliptic flow of protons and negative pions is close to zero. Comparison with the quark-gluon-string model (QGSM) and relativistic transport model (ART 1.0) show that they both yield a flow signature similar to the experimental data.

The anisotropic transverse flow of particles has been actively studied in nuclear collisions over a wide range of energies. At lower energies DanO85 ; Part ; Chance ; Reis ; Andro01 , the flow is usually studied in terms of the mean in-plane component of transverse momentum at a given rapidity, $`p^x(y)`$ DanO85 , and additionally quantified in terms of derivative at midrapidity $`F_y=dp^x/dy`$. At high energies, the Fourier expansion of the azimuthal distribution of particles constructed with respect to the reaction plane is used Barrette94 ; VolZhang ; PosVol . In this expansion the first harmonic, $`v_1`$, quantifies the directed flow while the second harmonic, $`v_2`$, quantifies the elliptic flow. Using the Fourier expansion, the anisotropic transverse flow was analyzed for heavy symmetric systems at the AGS Barrette94 ; Baret97a ; Ajit98 , SPS Appel ; Aggar  and RHIC Acker  energies. It was found that the flow observables are important tools for investigating properties of high density region created during the initial collisions. In particular, the elliptic flow measurements may provide an important constraint on the Equation of State (EOS) of high density nuclear matter Pinken ; Dan98 .

In this paper the anisotropic transverse flow of protons and negative pions in 4.2A GeV/c C+Ta collisions is studied using the Fourier analysis of azimuthal distributions. The analysis is performed using 1000 C+Ta semicentral and central collisions obtained with the 2-m propane bubble chamber, exposed at JINR, Dubna synchrophasotron. The semicentral and central collisions are selected by rejecting $`50\%`$ events with the smallest multiplicity of participant protons. Additionally, the same type of analysis is performed using 100000 events generated by the Quark-Gluon-String Model (QGSM) Amel  , and the same number of events generated by the relativistic transport model (ART 1.0) Bao . For these events the same centrality criterion is applied as in experiment, leading to the average impact parameter $`b`$ 4.54 (4.05) fm according to QGSM (ART 1.0).

In order to study the inelastic interactions with tantalum nucleus, (181 Ta), three tantalum foils (1 mm thick and 93 mm apart) were placed inside the chamber working in the 1.5-T magnetic field. The characteristics of the chamber allow precise determination of the multiplicity and momentum of all charged particles, as well as identification of all negative and positive particles with momenta less than 0.5 GeV/c. All recorded negative particles, except the identified electrons, are taken to be $`\pi ^{}`$. Among them remains admixture of unidentified fast electrons ($`<`$ 5%) and negative strange particles ($`<1\%`$). All positive particles with momenta less than 0.5 GeV/c are classified either as protons or $`\pi ^+`$ mesons according to their ionization density and range. Positive particles above 0.5 GeV/c are taken to be protons, and because of this, the admixture of $`\pi ^+`$ of approximately 7% is subtracted statistically using the number of $`\pi ^{}`$ mesons with $`p>0.5`$ GeV/c as follows: $`n_p=n_+n_{\pi ^+}(p0.5\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c})0.82n_\pi ^{}(p>0.5\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c})`$, where $`n_+`$ denotes the number of single positively charged particles, and 0.82 takes into account the proton deficit in tantalum nuclei and consequently also $`\pi ^+`$ deficit. From the ratio for each momentum interval we determine the weight of protons which we further use when calculating distributions of other kinematical variables. From the resulting number of protons, the projectile spectators (protons with momenta $`p>`$ 3 GeV/c and emission angle $`\theta <4^\mathrm{o}`$) and target spectators (protons with momenta $`p<`$ 0.3 GeV/c) are further subtracted. The resulting number of participant protons still contains some 17% of deuterons (with $`p>`$ 0.48 GeV/c) and $`11\%`$ of tritons (with $`p>`$ 0.65 GeV/c). The experimental data are also corrected to the loss of particles emitted at small angles relative to the optical axes of chamber and to the loss of particles absorbed by the tantalum plates. The aim of this correction is to obtain isotropic distribution in azimuthal angle and smooth distribution in emission angle (both measured with respect to the direction of the incoming projectile).

The azimuthal distribution of particles may be represented with the first three terms of the corresponding Fourier expansion

$$\frac{dN}{d\varphi }\frac{1}{2\pi }\left[1+2v_1\mathrm{cos}(\varphi )+2v_2\mathrm{cos}(2\varphi )\right],$$
(1)
where the two coefficients, $`v_1`$ and $`v_2`$, quantify the directed and elliptic flow via $`v_1=cos(\varphi )`$ and $`v_2=cos(2\varphi )`$. In Eq. (1), $`\varphi =\varphi _{lab}\mathrm{\Phi }_{plane}`$ is the particle azimuthal angle determined with respect to the reaction plane, with $`\varphi _{lab}`$ denoting the azimuthal angle of particle in the laboratory frame and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{plane}`$ denoting the azimuthal angle of the (true) reaction plane. Since both the projectile momentum and the impact parameter vectors are available in the QGSM/ART simulations, they are used to determine the corresponding reaction plane. In the experiment the reaction plane is determined, for each event, using the projectile momentum vector and the vector $`𝐐`$ determined from DanO85

$$𝐐=\underset{i}{}𝐩_{Ti}(y>y_{cm}+\delta )\underset{j}{}𝐩_{Tj}(y<y_{cm}\delta ),$$
(2)
where $`𝐩_T`$ represents the transverse momentum of the proton emitted in the forward ($`y>y_{cm}+\delta `$), or backward ($`y<y_{cm}\delta `$), hemisphere. Here, $`y_{cm}`$ denotes the center-of-mass rapidity of participant protons while the quantity $`\delta `$ (=0.2) removes the protons emitted around the $`y_{cm}`$ which are not contributing to the determination of the reaction plane. The reaction plane angle for a proton is determined using this expression only if this proton is not included in the above sum (i.e. if its rapidity lies in the interval from $`y_{cm}\delta `$ to $`y_{cm}+\delta `$). Otherwise, in order to avoid autocorrelation (which is an effect of the finite multiplicity), the $`𝐐`$ vector is constructed by the analogous expression in which the contribution of this proton is simply omitted DanO85 . We found that the reaction plane angle distribution is essentially flat, thus confirming the absence of significant distortions which could influence the magnitude of the extracted flow parameters. The accuracy with which the reaction plane angle is determined, i.e. the reaction plane resolution, is evaluated by the subevent method DanO85 ; PosVol . In this method, each event is divided randomly into two subevents, and then the corresponding two reaction planes are determined. Subsequently, the absolute value of the relative azimuthal angle, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{12}`$, between these two estimated reaction planes is obtained. The relative azimuthal angle distribution is the basis for the correction of the Fourier coefficient, $`v_1^{}`$, obtained with the estimated reaction plane. The relationship between the $`v_1^{}`$, and the Fourier coefficient $`v_1`$ obtained relative to the true reaction plane, is $`v_1^{}=v_1cos(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi })`$, where $`cos(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi })^1`$ is the correction factor determined from $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{12}`$ distribution following the prescription given in PosVol ; Ollit .

We find $`cos(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi })`$=0.59. The correctness of this procedure is checked using the QGSM. Using this model, the coefficient $`v_1`$ vs. rapidity, for protons and negative pions, is calculated with respect to the true reaction plane and also with respect to the estimated reaction plane. The result of comparison is presented in Fig.1.

The QGS calculations show that the $`v_1`$ values obtained with respect to the estimated reaction plane, after applying correction procedure, are somewhat underestimated around projectile rapidity for protons and negative pions. The QGS calculations also show that the correction procedure for $`v_2^{}`$ as outlined above is not applicable because of the smallness of the elliptic flow. Therefore, in the following analysis, this coefficient is not corrected to the reaction plane resolution.

Fig. 1 (top) displays the experimentally determined $`v_1`$ coefficient vs. $`y`$ (with $`y`$ calculated in the lab frame), for protons and negative pions. In the case of protons the dependence of $`v_1`$ on rapidity is characterized by a curve with a positive slope and with the zero-crossing at $`y0.5`$, that corresponds to average rapidity of protons. The curve indicates a positive directed flow with magnitude $`v_10.2`$, at rapidities close to the projectile rapidity ($`y_p=2.2`$, at p=4.2A GeV/c). The QGSM reproduces satisfactorily the shape of $`v_1(y)`$ curve and within error bars reproduces the magnitude of the flow. The experimental results are also compared with the relativistic transport model ART 1.0. These are shown in Fig. 2 where the calculations are performed both for $`\mathrm{𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑓}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝑠𝑜𝑓𝑡}`$ EOS. ART model yields a directed flow which flows trend similar to the experimental data, but underestimates the flow intensity in the projectile/target rapidity region.

Using the extracted values of $`v_1`$ and their relation to the mean transverse momentum projected onto the reaction plane, $`v_1=p_x/p_T`$, we can evaluate $`p_x`$ as a function of rapidity and determine the slope, $`F=dp_x/d(y/y_b)`$, with respect to rapidity normalized to projectile rapidity in the lab frame. In the present analysis we find for the slope at mid-rapidity $`F=215\pm 32`$ MeV/c. Comparison with the other results obtained at the same energy, for various C-nucleus combinations shows increasing of the slope with the target mass: $`F=`$ 144 MeV/c for CC Simic , 134 MeV/c for CNe Chaid  and 198 MeV/c for CCu Chaid . After the normalization to the mass number of the colliding system we obtain the so-called scaled flow $`F_S=F/(A_1^{1/3}+A_2^{1/3})=27\pm 4`$ MeV/c, that allows a comparison of the energy dependence of flow values for different projectile/target mass combinations. This value is in agreement with the observed trend Chance  that after reaching the maximum at a beam energy around 0.7-2A GeV, the directed flow slowly decreases with increasing beam energy.

For negative pions the experimental values of $`v_1`$ are positive in the entire rapidity interval. The $`v_1`$ is largest in the target rapidity region ($`v_1^{max}0.10`$) and monotonically decreases with increasing rapidity towards the projectile rapidity. Such $`v_1`$ dependence on $`y`$ reflects the fact that the pions are preferentially emitted in the reaction plane from the target to the projectile. This behavior is attributed to a shadowing effect of the heavy target. Both QGSM and ART model cannot strictly account for the $`v_1(y)`$ dependence for negative pions.

Figure 1 (bottom) displays the experimentally determined $`v_2^{}`$ coefficient versus $`y`$ for protons and negative pions. The uncorrected values of $`v_2^{}`$ show that in the entire rapidity interval the elliptic flow is small $`|v_2^{}|0.02`$ if not zero, and this is consistent with QGSM (Fig. 1) and ART (Fig. 2) predictions. The values of $`v_2^{}`$ additionally confirm the result Pinken  that at beam energy of $`4`$ GeV the elliptic flow exhibits a transition from negative (out-of-plane) to positive (in-plane) elliptic flow.

Since the QGSM predictions are in fair agreement with the various experimental results at 4.2A GeV/c, we use this model to clarify the question of which of the processes are responsible for the flow effect. In this model, for C+Ta collisions $`43\%`$ of protons and $`83\%`$ of $`\pi ^{}`$ originate from decay of the lowest-lying resonances ($`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$s, $`\varrho ,\omega ,\eta `$ and $`\eta ^{^{}}`$). The rest originates from the ’non-resonant’ primary and secondary interactions of the type: $`NNNN\pi `$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }N\mathrm{\Delta }N`$, $`\pi N\pi N`$, $`\pi NNNN`$. The protons and pions from primary interaction escape the collision zone without further rescattering and comprise $`1\%`$ of the total. According to QGSM, we separately evaluate the flow of protons and pions originating from the following sources:
(i) decay of resonances;
(ii ) primary non-resonant interactions;
(iii ) and secondary non-resonant interactions.

Figure. 3 shows $`v_1`$ vs. rapidity for protons and negative pions originating from the decay of resonances, and from primary and secondary non-resonant interactions. The protons originating both from the decay of resonances and from the secondary non-resonant interactions show a directed flow of similar intensity. The same applies to the flow of pions. For both protons and pions from the primary interactions the directed flow has a maximum around $`y0.6`$, and decreases towards the projectile and target rapidities. These protons and pions are produced at the early stage of the collision, and both are shadowed by the cold spectators. Later, after the spectator matter leaves the collision zone, rescattering of protons near the beam (target) rapidity region is small, while the pions are still affected with the shadowing effect of the participant nucleons trough both pion rescattering and reabsorptions. This could be the underlying mechanism that leads to the different intensity and dependence on rapidity for the directed flow of pions and protons.

In summary, the directed and elliptic flow of protons and negative pions in 4.2A GeV/c C+Ta collisions was examined using the Fourier analysis of azimuthal distributions of experimental events and also by using the events generated by the QGSM and ART 1.0. The protons exhibit strong directed flow with magnitude $`v_10.2`$ at rapidities close to the projectile rapidity. The directed flow of pions is positive in the entire rapidity and slightly peaked at target rapidity, where $`v_10.1`$. This behavior indicates that the pions are preferentially emitted in the reaction plane from the target to the projectile. For both sets of particles in the entire rapidity interval the elliptic flow is close to zero ($`|v_2^{^{}}|0.02`$), this being consistent with the result that at beam energy of $`4`$ GeV the elliptic flow shows a transition from negative to positive. A comparison with the quark-gluon-string model (QGSM) and relativistic transport model (ART 1.0) shows that they both yields the flow signature similar to the experimental data. Additionally, the QGSM shows that two factors that dominantly determine the proton and pion flow at this energy, are the decay of resonances and the rescattering of secondaries. The shadowing by the cold spectator matter affects only the flow of the particles produced at the early stage of the collision.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors are grateful to members of the JINR Dubna group that participated in data processing.