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# Microlensing induced absorption line variability

## 1 Introduction

With the advent of dedicated monitoring programs, gravitational microlensing of quasars has provided some of the strictest limits on the scale of the central accretion disk (e.g. Wyithe, Agol & Fluke 2002) and extended emission line material (Lewis, Irwin, Hewett & Foltz 1998). As well as imaging the source, microlensing also probes the nature of the lensing galaxy, with the statistics of microlensing variability constraining the mass function of the microlensing masses in the intervening system (Wyithe et al. 2000; Wyithe & Turner 2001).

In this paper we demonstrate how microlensing provides a further probe of the distribution of material within a lensing galaxy. Rather than focusing upon the point-like microlensing masses, we examine the influence of material responsible for producing absorption signatures in the spectrum of the more distant quasar. This absorption signature is time dependent, as relative movement of the microlenses results in differing microimage brightnesses.

In Section 2 we outline the general approach, with an extension into the high optical depth microlensing regime in Section 2.1. Sections 3 and 4 describe the cloud distributions employed in this study and the magnification maps from which the results are taken. Section 5 examines whether the radio spectral variability observed in the lensed radio quasar PKS 1830-211 is consistent with the hypothesis presented in this paper, while the conclusions to this study are presented in Section 6.

## 2 Microlensing through variable absorption

The most dramatic influence of a microlens as is crosses the line-of-sight to a distant source in the resultant variation in the apparent brightness of that source. Such variability has been seen for not only microlenses within our own Galaxy (Alcock et al. 1993), but also in microlensing of distant quasars (Irwin et al. 1989; Corrigan et al. 1991).

If galaxies were comprised solely of smoothly distributed matter then gravitationally lensed images would be just single distorted versions of the source. Due to the granularity of matter, distributed on the small scale in compact objects such as stars, a closer examination of gravitationally lensed images would reveal them to be comprised of a myriad of microimages. These are distributed on scales smaller than current imaging resolution and only a single composite macro image is observed. These images possess a distribution of brightnesses which is dependent upon the relative positions of the microlensing masses and the projected position of the source. The brightness weighted mean position of the resulting light distribution will not necessarily lie at the position of the macroimage in the smooth matter lens. Hence, as microlensing is a temporal phenomenon, the movement of a microlensing mass produces a time varying astrometric offset. For microlensing events in the Galactic halo (Paczynski 1998), the astrometric shifts are of the order of several milliarcseconds and will be readily detectable with the launch of space-based interferometers such as SIM (http://sim.jpl.nasa.gov/).

Typically it is assumed that the various light paths pass through empty space, or through a smooth matter component that does not absorb the light. As well as stars, galaxies contain continuously distributed material, namely gas and dust. This material is clumped on a range of scales, with indications that the interstellar medium exhibits fractal structure (Elmegreen 1997). Figure 1 presents a (very) schematic example of microlensing through inhomogeneous absorption material; the dashed line depicts the path of light from the source to an observer in the absence of a microlensing mass. In this example, this path does not impinge upon any absorbing material and the spectrum of the source does not possess any absorption feature, as represented by the dashed line in the inset spectrum. With a microlensing mass close to the line-of-sight, however, the light from the source follows one of two paths from the source to the observer. With this example, one of these paths passes though a cloud of absorbing material, resulting in an absorption imprint. As the individual microimages are unresolved, the resultant spectrum will be the sum of the light from the two paths, one of which possesses an absorption trough; this is illustrated as the solid line in the inset spectrum. As microlensing is a temporal phenomenon, the spectrum of the source will begin unabsorbed. As the microlensing mass passes through the line-of-sight, the absorption will be seen to appear and change, until finally the microlensing mass moves away from the line-of-sight and the spectrum returns to its unabsorbed state.

Seen at cosmological distances, however, microlensing by individual stars is unlikely to show such an effect. This can be seen when considering the physical separation of the rays of light through the lens. When there is a good alignment between the source and lens, the resulting images undergo a similar magnification and are separated by roughly twice the Einstein Radius, hence

$$Separation2.\sqrt{4\frac{GM}{c^2}\frac{D_{ol}D_{ls}}{D_{os}}}$$
(1)
where $`D_{ij}`$ are the angular diameter distances between the observer $`o`$, lens $`l`$ and source $`s`$. For solar mass objects at cosmological distances, this is of order $`0.01`$ parsecs, and hence inhomogeneities in the absorbing material would have to occur on scales substantially smaller than this to influence the individual light paths and hence modify the absorption line profile.

### 2.1 High optical depth microlensing

The light from macro imaged quasars shines through relatively dense regions of the lensing galaxy where the optical depth to microlensing is of order unity. In this regime, many stars influence the light from the quasar and the resulting lensing is correspondingly more complex than that seen for an isolated mass. The details of these are described in several recent reviews and will not be reproduced here (e.g. Wambsganss 2001).

At such high optical depths, the observed macroimage is actually composed of an unresolved myriad of microimages. The relative brightnesses of these images change as the microlensing stars change their position in front of the source. Recently, Lewis & Ibata (1998) examined the astrometric shift in the macroimage as a result of the changing microimage configuration, finding appreciable shifts of milliarcseconds; such shifts will be readily observable with the next generation of space-based interferometers.

The numerical approach of Lewis & Ibata (1998) was to image the quasar source as it shines through an ensemble of microlensing masses; from this the brightness weighted macroimage centroid can be simply calculated. It is, however, quite straightforward to extend this approach to consider the influence of a distribution of observing material amongst the lensing masses; such an approach was adopted here.

In summary, the numerical routine was based on the ray tracing procedure which has been the work horse in the study of gravitational microlensing (e.g. Kayser, Refsdal & Stabell 1986), in which a large number of rays are fired through a population of lensing masses. Considering where each ray intercepts the source plane, a microlensing magnification map can be derived and the statistics of microlensing induced variability inferred (e.g. Wambsganss 1992). For the purposes of this study, absorbing material is added between the microlensing masses, attenuating the rays as they pass through the lensing galaxy. The presence of absorbing material will influence the form of the magnification map, as regions will receive less rays than they would without it. Hence, a comparison between the ‘raw’ magnification map, with no absorbing material, and that in the presence of the attenuating screen, gives the relative strength of the absorption line to the continuum. It is assumed that the clouds are effectively massless, not contributing to any additional gravitational microlensing convergence (Wambsganss 1992; Lewis & Irwin 1995; Schechter & Wambsganss 2002).

The complex patterns seen in gravitational microlensing magnification maps depend strongly on the surface density of microlensing objects (the optical depth $`\sigma `$) and the large scale shear over the star field (the shear $`\gamma `$). Furthermore, for a particular macrolens and source, where the physical scales are fixed, varying the mass function of the microlensing masses also changes the patterns of the magnfication maps (Kayser, Refsdal & Stabell 1986; Wambsganss 1992). Hence, the potential parameter space available for study is considerable. For this study, a fiducial microlensing parameters of $`\sigma =0.5`$ and $`\gamma =0.0`$ were employed, considering a source region which is 20 Einstein radii in extent. The corresponding star field is scattered over a region of radius $`70`$ Einstein radii in the lens plane.

## 3 Absorption Cloud Distribution

Absorption clouds can be distributed in a multitude of ways, with varying shapes and sizes and absorption profiles etc. and hence the potential parameter space to be explored is immense. Such an exploration is beyond this current contribution, and so, for the purposes of this study, the absorption clouds are simply represented as being circular with uniform absorption. Two fiducial cloud sizes were considered, the larger possessing a radius of 8 Einstein radii (ER), the smaller clouds being $`1`$ Einstein radii. Two densities of each cloud distribution were also considered. Model A possesses small clouds scattered with a density of 391 clouds per 100 square Einstein radii, model B also has small clouds, but scattered with a density of 40 clouds per 100 square Einstein radii. Model C utilises large clouds, with a density of 31 clouds per 100 Einstein radii and model D again uses large clouds with a density half that of model C. Figure 2 presents examples of the four cloud distributions employed in this study; the grey-scale represents the distribution of the absorbing material, whereas the points are the positions of the stars. Furthermore, the clouds were considered to be either completely opaque, absorbing all photons (absorption model A) or producing 50% absorption (absorption model B).

Studies of the interstellar medium reveal that clouds are distributed fractally, possessing structure on a range of scales (Elmegreen 1997). When sources possess a fractal distribution it is found that the scales of structure are imprinted on the light curve as the source is microlensed (Lewis 2002). While it is expected that any fractal structure in the absorbing clouds will result in similar imprinting of a scale of structure on the microlensing light curve, the calculations required go beyond this study and are deferred for further work.

## 4 Magnification Maps

Figures 4 to 11 present the results of the numerical simulations detailed in the previous sections. The left hand upper panel presents the microlensing magnification map without considering the influence of absorbing material, with dark areas corresponding to regions of magnification, while the light areas represent regions of demagnification; the sharp boundaries corresponding to caustics in the map are clearly visible. The upper-right hand panel again presents a magnification map, but in this case any rays which impinge on absorbing clouds as they pass through the microlensing screen are appropriately denuded. With this, the upper-left hand panel can be seen to be the magnification of continuum emission, while that in the upper-right hand panel is that in the absorption line. The relative depth of the emission line seen at any particular instant is the ratio of these two maps. This can be simply seen if one considers a large screen of absorption that uniformly and completely covers the microlensing star field. Hence, the magnification map in the absorption line would uniformly possess values that are a fixed fraction of those in the continuum map, such that the ratio of the two would be a constant and would demonstrate that, in this case, that there would be no absorption line variability.

The lower-right hand panel presents several cuts across the magnification map with the absorption. There are three paths (indicated by the lines across the upper-right hand panel). The absorption depth indicates how deep a line would cut into a normalised continuum; a value of one indicated no absorption of the continuum, whereas 0 indicates complete extinction in the line. Three Gaussian source sizes were considered: 0.02, 0.2 and 1 Einstein radii. In the figures, the lightest lines correspond to the smallest source, whereas the darkest lines are the largest.

Finally, the lower-left hand panel presents a relative measure of the probability of a particular absorption occurring (normalised to the peak probability). Again, the lightest line in this panel corresponds to the smallest source, and the darkest line is that for the largest source.

Neglecting the influence of gravitational microlensing, what would be expected if the cloud distributions described in Section 3 drifted across a source? If the source is smaller than the size of the clouds, then either source will appear unabsorbed or completely covered by an absorbing cloud. If we assume that the absorbing material drifts across the sky with a velocity V, then the typical time scale that the source lies behind an absorbing cloud is $`t_{abs}R_{cloud}/V`$. While completely behind a cloud, however, a source will not display any absorption line variability, and so another important time scale is the time taken for a cloud to pass from being unabsorbed to completely absorbed; $`t_{abs}R_{src}/V`$ for a source smaller than the absorbing cloud. A more detail discussion of the temporal properties of the light curve appears later in this section.

The effects of microlensing can be seen when considering the top two panels of each of the simulation outputs. When comparing the left-hand panel (the magnification map without absorption) and the right-hand panel (the same map but including the presence of the absorbing material), it is clear that the presence of the absorbing material denudes regions of the magnification map. Due to the gravitational lensing distortion, these regions are are not circular, like the absorbing clouds, but rather are distorted. For the simulations where large, opaque clouds are considered (C & D), this results in large sections of the magnification map being essentially zero (Figures 6 & 7). When the opacity of the clouds is 50%, the effect is less severe.

Examining Figures 4 to 11, several features of the absorption line variability are apparent. Even with the limited range of absorption cloud distributions presented in this paper, it is clear that quite complex variability in the strength of an absorption line results. As with the strength of microlensing induced magnification, the degree of variability is seen to be strongly dependent upon the angular size of the source, with small sources displaying the most most dramatic and rapid variability. The variability strongly reflects the size of the clouds with the larger clouds leaving a longer imprint on the absorption line light curve. For virtually all the scenarios considered, the source size was substantially smaller than the absorbing cloud (the exception being the largest source in models A & B, where the source is comparable to the size of the clouds). Hence, if the influence of microlensing is neglected, a source would therefore find itself unobscured by absorption material or completely behind a cloud, with a small transition region. This would lead to an essentially binary distribution when considering the absorption depth probabilities, with a peak at one and another at the absorption strength of the clouds (zero for model 1 and 0.5 for model 2). Figure 3 presents the relative probability for a particular absorption depth occurring in this non-microlensed case, clearly revealing the strong binary nature of the expected absorption depths. As revealed in Figures 4 to 11, there is a significant probability in all cases to get absorption depths in between the two extremes, with quite different distributions to the non-microlensing case. In the non-microlensing case, absorption depths at levels between the two potential extremes can only occur if the source lies partly behind an absorbing cloud. With microlensing, however, this is further augmented by the fact that the observed macroimage is composite and consists of many microimages. Unless all these microimages suffer absorption then the observed depth of the absorption line will be less than a single source viewed through a cloud.

In further addressing the influence of microlensing, it is instructive to examine the cloud distributions in Figure 2; the squares in the centre of each plot represent the source region over which the magnification map is calculated. Hence, paths across this square at the same location as those in Figures 8 to 11 (only model 2 is considered as they employ the specific cloud distributions in Figure 2) represent the same light curve durations as those presented in the microlensed case. Firstly, it is apparent that in the absence of microlensing, Run2B and Run2C should exhibit no absorption line variability as they possess no clouds within the central box. When considering the influence of microlensing, Run2B does appear to show little variability, but significant changes do occur (as revealed by the absorption depth probability distribution). Run2C, however, shows more significant variability, with the gravitational microlensing effect ‘folding’ the absorption information into the inner square. An examination of the cloud distribution of Run2D suggests that, in the absence of microlensing, the uppermost path in Figure 11 should be unobscured, while the lower path should be completely obscured. This is quite different to the behaviour when microlensing is considered, with the light curves displaying more complex variability.

In further examining the temporal properties of light curves with and without microlensing, a study was made of the expected change in the absorption depth as a function of time; as routine spectroscopic monitoring of lensed systems is not currently undertaken, any observations are likely to be randomly spaced in time. For this, this study considers the statistics of two measurements of the absorption line depth as a function of their separation in Einstein radii; this separation can be converted to time by considering the relative velocities of the source and lens. The results of this study are presented in Figures 12,13, 14 and 15; for each model (labeled at the far left) consists of six panels. The upper three panels present the statistics for the non-microlensing cases, the lower three panels are for the microlensing case. In each set of three, the left-to-right subpanels are for the smallest to largest source. The x-axis present the separation in Einstein radii; as the typical crossing time of an Einstein radius of a cosmological source is of order decades, a small range in Einstein radius was considered. The y-axis presents the percentage of observations with this separation displaying variation within a particular range, denoted by the greyscale key at the bottom of the plot; note that both axes are logarithmic. The percentage changes are in terms of the maximal possible change, which is unity for models Run1, and 0.5 for models Run2.

Examining Figure 12 reveals that the temporal behaviour is complex. Comparing firstly the smallest sources in each model, it is clear that observations at small separations in the non-microlensing case are dominated by the smallest changes in absorption. Within increasing separation, however, the largest absorption change grows in importance, reflecting the binary nature of the probability curves presented in Figure 3. Examining the same panels for the microlensed case we see that absorption line variability is more likely to be seen at small separation (except model Run2B), although the differences are smaller than the maximum; hence, for the smallest source, more rapid variability will be apparent in the light curves of microlensed systems, although at a value less than the maximum. Considering the middle source size, the situation is more complex. Again, the shortest time scales are dominated by there being essentially no change in the observed absorption line depth in both cases. For the non-microlensed case, however, the several models display more significant variability into the shortest time scales. With microlensing of the middle source size, it is apparent that significant variation at the very shortest time scales is unlikely, although the probability of observing more significant changes is enhanced over the non-microlensing case. The situation for the largest source size is more complex, with all of the non-microlensing models displaying similar shapes (although different normalization) for the various distribution. With microlensing, however, the models present differing distributions. Examining the distributions presented in Figure 4 through 11 it is clear that due to the very smooth nature of the light curve for the largest source, with no rapid variability occurring on short time scales. While, from the figure, longer time scale variability is apparent for such sources, on the shorter time scale important to observational programs, significant variation will not be seen for large sources. Hence, we can conclude that for the smaller sources, microlensing leads to an enhancement in the possibility of observing a change in observations at different epochs.

Is there a correlation between the expected microlensing induced fluctuations of the continuum and the expected variability in the depth of the absorption lines? When examining the magnification maps in the various figures, it is apparent that the value of the magnification at a particular location is actually the sum of rays that have traversed differing regions of the lens plane. With the presence of absorbing material, however, some rays being collected in the source plane will be attenuated. A closer examination of the magnification maps reveals that some caustic structures can lie over regions which have been strongly absorbed. Hence, we would expect some correlation between the continuum variability and the observed variations in the absorption depth. This can be seen in Figure 16 which presents the light curves and absorption variability for the lower path across the magnification map in Figure 4. The top panel presents the light curve (darker line) and absorption variability (lighter line) for the smallest source considered, whereas the lower panel presents the same for the largest source. It is clear that, for the smallest source, that some changes in the observed absorption correlated strongly with changes in the continuum brightness (e.g. rapid change in both at $``$+1Einstein radii), but other dramatic changes in either the light curve or absorption strength occur unaccompanied. A similar trend is seen in the larger source (middle panel), but in the largest source considered, much of the structure is washed out and no strong correlations occur.

This paper has considered the simple situation of comparing continuum flux with that at the centre of an absorption line, with the absorption line profile simply scaling with this central depth. The true situation could be more complex, as the absorbing clouds are likely to possess a range of velocities. Hence, the cloud distributions presented in Figure 3 would represent the view at a specific wavelength, whereas other wavelengths may present a different cloud distribution. Hence, as well as the overall strength of the absorption line changing due to the influence of gravitational microlensing, the form of the line profile will also be time dependent (e.g. Lewis & Belle 1998).

## 5 PKS 1830-211

Jauncy et al (1991) resolved the double radio source PKS 1830-211 into a ring-like structure, uncovering its gravitational lens nature. Wilkind & Combes (1996) identified absorption due to five different molecular species, revealing the lens to be at a redshift of z=0.89, whereas the quasar source was found to be at a redshift of z=2.51 (Lidman et al. 1998). Several approaches have successfully modelled the gravitational lensing potential (Kochanek & Narayan 1992; Nair, Narashimha & Rao 1993). Recently, Winn et al. (2002) and Courbin et al. (2002) <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1It should be noted that these two papers have differing interpretations of the same data, leading to different gravitational lens models. identified the lensing galaxy in PKS 1830-211, a face-on spiral, in deep HST imaging; this naturally explains the large quantities of molecular gas seen in PKS 1830-211 as the images are observed through the spiral arms of the lensing galaxy.

As the quasar images of PKS 1830-211 are seen through the disk of a spiral galaxy suggests that our view of this system may be further distorted by the influence of gravitational microlensing as stars stream across the image of the quasar. Lovell et al. (1998) presented the results of monitoring campaign of PKS 1830-211 at 8.6GHz, from which the time delay between the images was determined to be $`26`$days. It is clear, however, that there are no strong differences between the image light curves that would suggest the influence of gravitational microlensing. Oshima et al. (2001), however, noted that the relative image brightnesses in PKS 1830-211, as observed with ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics), were markedly different to those determined from radio observations, leading them to conclude that microlensing was playing a role in the observed properties of this system. While it appears that the emission at 8.6GHz comes from too large a region to be significantly enhanced by microlensing (see Wambsganss 1992; however Koopmans & de Bruyn 2000 identified microlensing at 8.5GHz in CLASS B1600+434), Garrett et al. (1997) noted structural changes, on scales of $`1`$milliarcsec, in 15GHz and 43GHz maps taken at several epochs. Garrett et al. (1997) suggested that these variations were due to millilensing by masses of $`10^{4.5}\mathrm{M}_{}`$. Interestingly, Jin et al. (1999) observed PKS 1830-211 with the VLBA at 43GHz over eight epochs, finding that the centroids of the core emission varied significantly ($``$80 microarcseconds over a period of 2 weeks). Similarly, a comparison to archival 43GHz data from one year earlier revealed that the core separation had changed by $``$280microarcseconds.

Wiklind & Combes (1998) presented new observations of the molecular absorption lines associated with the lens at $`z=0.89`$. These reveal that the gravitationally lensed images lie behind distinct absorption clouds separated by $`150`$km/s. When comparing to previous observations, Wiklind & Combes (1998) discovered that the profile of the $`\mathrm{HCO}^+(21)`$ line changed over a $`6`$month time scale; while these changes are relatively small, they are significant.

Is the change of centroid position in PKS 1830-211 consistent with it undergoing microlensing at radio wavelengths, and if so, is this responsible for the observed absorption line variability? The Solar mass Einstein radius in the source plane for PKS 1830-211 is $`8\times 10^3h^{\frac{1}{2}}`$pc<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2The values have a weak cosmological dependence., and sources must be smaller than this if they are to be significantly enhanced. This corresponds to an angular scale of $`2`$microarcseconds. In their study of the quadruple lens Q2237+0305, Lewis & Ibata (1998) found that image shifts of 20-30 Einstein radii can occur on time scales substantially shorter than the crossing time of an Einstein radius. For PKS 1830-211 this crossing time is $`33h^{\frac{1}{2}}`$yrs, and the subsequent caustic crossing time will be of order weeks to months. Hence, it is expected that the separation between the images in PKS 1830-211 will change by $`10100`$ microarcseconds on this time scale. It should be noted, however, that the degree of the expected astrometric shifts are a function of several parameters, especially the macrolensing shear. Given the ring-like nature of PKS 1830-211 (Jauncy et al. 1991), this may be substantial in the vicinity of the images of the quasar core, potentially accounting for the large scale shifts observed by Garrett et al. (1997). More detailed simulations, undertaken using the macrolensing parameters for PKS 1830-211, are required before this can be fully addressed.

If the observed line profile variability in PKS 1830-211 is due to microlensing, then the clouds must be of parsec/subparsec scales. Rather than reflecting individual clouds, however, these may represent inhomogeneities in a larger scale absorption distribution, which could, potentially, be fractal (Elmegreen 1997). It is apparent that PKS 1830-211 is subject to gravitational microlensing to some degree, although the evidence is currently only suggestive that the observed line profile differences are due to the absorption mechanism outlined in this paper. Hence, further spectroscopic monitoring of the radio absorption lines, as performed by Wiklind & Combes (1998), is required. Coupled with detailed numerical simulations, such monitoring may provide clues to the distribution of absorbing material in galaxies on subparsec scales.

## 6 Conclusions

Employing a numerical approach, this paper has investigated the influence of a combination of microlensing and a distribution of absorbing material within the lensing galaxy upon temporal changes in the depth of absorption lines in quasar spectra. It is found that the action of macrolensing compresses the large scale absorption cloud information into smaller region, as seen by the source, whereas the microlensing ‘folds’ the absorption patten. Several clouds distributions were examined, and significant modulation of the depth of the absorption line resulted. The form of the absorption line variability differed significantly from the simple case where the light from the quasar shone solely through an absorbing medium with no additional influence from gravitational lensing. Hence, such variability could influence systems suffering gravitational microlensing. Due to the small size of the Einstein radius of stellar mass objects at cosmological distances, however, only sub-parsec scale variations in absorbing material will result in an observable effect.

The gravitationally lensed quasar, PKS 1830-211, possess several temporal features that are consistent with it undergoing gravitational microlensing. Furthermore, PKS 1830-211 possesses a number of prominent molecular absorption lines visible at radio wavelengths. In one of these, $`\mathrm{HCO}^+(21)`$, small, but significant variations in the absorption line profile over a period of six months have been reported. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that these changes may be due to the influence of gravitational microlensing. It is important to note, however, that currently very little is known about the scale of structure of absorbing material within external galaxies and hence the identification of any line variability as being due to microlensing may be problematic. While this paper has demonstrated that microlensing induced absorption line variability is not perferctly correlated with the variability of the brightness of the macrolensed images, some correlation does exist. Hence, long term photo-spectral monitoring at high resolution of potential systems, such as PKS 1830-211, is required before such a conclusion is confirmed.

## Acknowledgements

GFL gratefully acknowledges discussions with Joachim Wambsganss and Rachel Webster on aspects of microlensing. Joachim Wambsganss is also thanked for providing his microlens code on which this study is based. We also thank Terry Bridges for allowing us to hammer odin, the computer on which these simulations were undertaken. The referee, Stuart Wyithe, is thanked for comment which improved this contribution.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

While there have been many analytical studies of spherical gravitational collapse, there have been only few investigations of non-spherical collapse, the obvious reason being the complexity of Einstein equations. Thus most of our present understanding of cosmic censorship and the nature of singularities stems from studies of spherical collapse. Given the impact that the results of these studies have had on our understanding of the end states of classical collapse, it is of interest to ask what may emerge from studies of gravitational collapse with different topologies.

A very useful study of the collapse of an infinite dust cylinder was initiated by Thorne . This is described by the metric

$$ds^2=e^{(GP)}\left(dt^2dr^2\right)e^Pdz^2\alpha ^2e^Pd\varphi ^2.$$
(1)
The metric functions depend on $`t`$ and $`r`$. This form of the metric can be inferred by first writing down the static Weyl axisymmetric metric for an infinite line Newtonian source

$$ds^2=e^Pdt^2\alpha ^2e^Pd\varphi ^2e^{(GP)}\left(dr^2+dz^2\right)$$
(2)
in which the metric functions depend only on $`r`$ and $`z`$. The transformation $`tiz`$, $`zit`$ in this metric then yields the metric (1). It is invariant under Lorentz transformations in the $`(t,r)`$ plane and can be used to represent the collapse of a cylindrical dust shell. Apostolatos and Thorne  used the above metric to show that rotation can halt the collapse of the cylinder. The formation of a naked singularity for the infinite cylindrical shell collapse was established by Echiverria . Naked singularities for counter-rotating dust shells were shown to occur, by Goncalves and Jhingan  and by Nolan , and an exact dynamical solution was given by Pereira and Wang . The collapse of infinite cylindrical dust clouds has been studied also by Chiba , by Senovilla and Vera  and by Bondi .

Although the collapse of an infinite cylinder may not constitute a “realistic” collapse scenario, it can simulate the collapse of a finite “bar” or spindle-like matter distribution very near the central regions of the spindle. In this sense the collapse of an infinite cylinder is of astrophysical interest. More importantly, however, the problem probes the structure of the general theory of relativity. Our analysis in the present paper is of an infinite cylindrical cloud of time-like dust and is motivated by what is known for spherical time-like dust collapse, i.e., the Tolman-Bondi spacetime. We make one assumption, namely that the azimuthal and axial metric components are equal to each other. As we show, this assumption implies that the solution is homogeneous. Also, the resulting system is a 2-d system in which the metric depends on a radial coordinate, $`r`$ and on time, $`t`$.

## 2 Collapse of an infinite dust cylinder

Consider an infinite cylindrical cloud of pressure-less, inhomogeneous, time-like dust described by the stress tensor

$$T_{\mu \nu }=ϵ(x)u_\mu u_\nu ,$$
(3)
where $`u^2=1`$. We first set up the metric for the interior of this infinite dust cylinder, using comoving coordinates $`(t,r,z,\varphi )`$. Assuming that $`z`$ represents the axis of symmetry of the cylinder, the metric functions depend only on $`t`$ and $`r`$. The dust cloud is assumed to extend up to some radius $`r_s`$; matching to a vacuum exterior will be discussed in Section 5. As a consequence of axisymmetry the functions $`g_{t\varphi }`$, $`g_{r\varphi }`$ and $`g_{z\varphi }`$ all vanish. Moreover, for an infinite cylinder, invariance under $`zz`$ implies that $`g_{tz}`$ and $`g_{rz}`$ also vanish. We can use the freedom of coordinate transformations from the pair $`(t,r)`$ to a new pair $`(t^{},r^{})`$ to set two functions to zero: these are $`g_{tr}`$ and the radial velocity $`u^r`$. As a result of the latter condition, $`r`$ is determined to be a comoving coordinate. Since the matter is dust, the metric can be comoving and synchronous, so that $`g_{00}=1`$. The metric for an infinite dust cylinder can hence be written in terms of three unknown functions of two variables as

$$ds^2=dt^2+L^2(t,r)dr^2+M^2(t,r)dz^2+B^2(t,r)d\varphi ^2.$$
(4)
The energy-density $`ϵ(t,r)`$ being the only non-zero component of the energy-momentum tensor, Einstein’s equations for this spacetime are (dot and prime denote derivatives w.r.t. $`t`$ and $`r`$, respectively):

$$G_{rr}=0:\frac{\ddot{M}}{M}+\frac{\ddot{B}}{B}+\frac{\dot{M}}{M}\frac{\dot{B}}{B}=\frac{B^{}M^{}}{BML^2},$$
(5)
$$G_{zz}=0:\frac{\ddot{B}}{B}+\frac{\ddot{L}}{L}+\frac{\dot{B}}{B}\frac{\dot{L}}{L}=\frac{B^{\prime \prime }LB^{}L^{}}{BL^3},$$
(6)
$$G_{\varphi \varphi }=0:\frac{\ddot{M}}{M}+\frac{\ddot{L}}{L}+\frac{\dot{M}}{M}\frac{\dot{L}}{L}=\frac{M^{\prime \prime }LM^{}L^{}}{ML^3},$$
(7)
$$G_{tr}=0:\frac{\dot{M}^{}}{M}+\frac{\dot{B}^{}}{B}=\frac{\dot{L}}{L}\left(\frac{M^{}}{M}+\frac{B^{}}{B}\right),$$
(8)
$$G_{tt}=ϵ(t,r):\frac{B^{\prime \prime }LB^{}L^{}}{BL^3}\frac{M^{\prime \prime }LM^{}L^{}}{ML^3}\frac{B^{}M^{}}{BML^2}+\frac{\dot{B}}{B}\frac{\dot{L}}{L}+\frac{\dot{M}}{M}\frac{\dot{L}}{L}+\frac{\dot{B}}{B}\frac{\dot{M}}{M}=ϵ.$$
(9)
The conservation of the energy-momentum tensor gives the relation

$$ϵ(t,r)=\frac{2\psi (r)}{LMB}$$
(10)
where $`\psi (r)`$ is an integration function, to be determined by the initial data. We also note that adding equations (5), (6) and (7), and using (9) and (10) gives the relation

$$\frac{\ddot{M}}{M}+\frac{\ddot{B}}{B}+\frac{\ddot{L}}{L}=\frac{\psi (r)}{LMB}.$$
(11)
Instead of working with the five Einstein equations (5)-(9) we will work with the equivalent set given by the equations (5), (8), (10), (11) and the difference (6)$``$(7).

We now assume that $`B(t,r)rM(t,r)`$. For a finite axisymmetric object like a spheroid this would probably not be allowed by Einstein equations but, as we see below, the equations are self-consistent when this assumption is made for an infinite cylinder. The study of this system may be thought of as a prelude to examining the most general case, when $`B`$ and $`M`$ are not related. The physical meaning of the assumption is that the object shrinks at the same rate along the radial direction and the axis, so that its ‘prolateness’ or ‘oblateness’ does not change with time. More importantly, we show that this assumption implies that the matter distribution is homogeneous. It is not the most general homogeneous solution, but a special case.

With the above assumption the metric (4) becomes

$$ds^2=dt^2+L^2(t,r)dr^2+M^2(t,r)\left[dz^2+r^2d\varphi ^2\right]$$
(12)
and Einstein’s equations for this metric are as follows: eqn. (5) becomes

$$\frac{2\ddot{B}}{B}+\frac{\dot{B}^2}{B^2}=\frac{1}{L^2}\left(\frac{B^2}{B^2}\frac{B^{}}{Br}\right),$$
(13)
while eqn. (11) reduces to

$$\frac{2\ddot{B}}{B}+\frac{\ddot{L}}{L}=\frac{\psi (r)}{rLM^2}$$
(14)
These two are the dynamical equations, while the remaining three equations are constraints. Eqn. (8) now becomes

$$\frac{2\dot{M}^{}}{M}+\frac{\dot{M}}{rM}=\frac{\dot{L}}{L}\left(\frac{2M^{}}{M}+\frac{1}{r}\right)$$
(15)
whereas the difference (6)$``$(7) gives

$$\frac{2M^{}}{M}=\frac{L^{}}{L}$$
(16)
and the conservation equation (10) now is

$$ϵ(t,r)=\frac{2\psi (r)}{rLM^2}.$$
(17)
Eqns. (13)-(17) are the Einstein equations for the metric (12). Eqn. (16) can be solved to give

$$L(t,r)=h(t)M^2(t,r)$$
(18)
where $`h(t)`$ is a arbitrary function of time. Eqn. (15) implies that

$$\left(\sqrt{r}M\right)^{}=g(r)L(t,r)$$
(19)
where $`g(r)`$ is an integration function. Using (19) and (18) in the first dynamical equation (13) gives

$$2\ddot{B}B+\dot{B}^2=rg^2(r)\frac{r^2}{4h^2B^2}$$
(20)
while the second dynamical equation becomes

$$B\ddot{h}+4\dot{B}\dot{h}=\frac{r^3\psi (r)}{B^3}+\frac{r^2}{2hB^3}\frac{2rg^2h}{B}.$$
(21)
## 3 Exact solution for a class of homogeneous dust collapse

We choose the scaling $`B(0,r)=r`$ at time $`t=0`$, when collapse is assumed to begin. This implies $`M(0,r)=1`$. We also choose $`h(0)=1`$, which from (18) implies $`L(0,r)=1`$. From Eqn. (19), written at $`t=0`$, we get the relation $`g(r)=1/2\sqrt{r}`$. Then, solving (19) yields

$$\frac{1}{M}=h(t)+K(t)\sqrt{r}.$$
(22)
In this equation, $`h(t),K(t)`$ are functions of time only. Now the differential equations (20) and (21) should be valid at all r (including $`r=0`$). Substituting $`B=rM`$ in equation (20) gives

$$2\ddot{M}+\dot{M}^2=\frac{1}{4r^2}\frac{1}{4r^2h^2M^2}$$

$$=\frac{h^2(h+K\sqrt{r})^2}{4r^2h^2}$$
(23)
The $`1/r^2`$ term in the denominator makes the equation invalid for $`r=0`$. This can be avoided by setting $`K(t)=0`$, which implies $`h=1/M`$ and hence that $`M`$ is a function only of time. Similarly equation (21) gives

$$M\ddot{h}+4\dot{M}\dot{h}=\frac{\psi (r)}{rM^3}+\frac{1}{2hr^2M^3}\frac{h}{2Mr^2}.$$
(24)
The sum of the last two terms vanishes when we set $`K(t)=0`$. There is a $`1/r`$ in the denominator of the coefficient of $`\psi (r)`$. Since the left hand side is independent of $`r`$, we are constrained to choose $`\psi (r)=k_1r`$, where $`k_1`$ is a constant. Substituting for $`\psi `$ in equation (17) gives

$$ϵ(t,r)=\frac{2k_1}{hM^4}=2k_1h^3.$$
(25)
Since $`h`$ is a function of time only, this means that the density distribution is homogeneous. Explicit solution for the metric can be obtained by solving the equation

$$2\ddot{M}M+\dot{M}^2=0$$
(26)
which gives

$$M=(c_1t+c_2)^{2/3}$$
(27)
Substituting the value of $`M`$ in equation (24) gives the relation between $`k_1`$ and $`c_1`$; $`k_1=2c_1^2/3`$. Also, with $`h(0)=1`$, and assuming $`c_1`$ to be negative, we can write

$$M=c_1^{2/3}(t_0t)^{2/3}$$
(28)
where $`t_0=1/|c_1|`$. The metric can now be written as

$$ds^2=dt^2+k^2(t_0t)^{4/3}(dr^2+dz^2+r^2d\varphi ^2)$$
(29)
where $`k`$ is a constant. At time $`t=t_0`$ there occurs a curvature singularity. All the shells become singular at the same time $`t_0`$. This is similar to the spherical Oppenheimer-Snyder dust collapse.

## 4 Comparison with spherical dust collapse

Let us compare this system of equations with those for spherical dust collapse, described by the Tolman-Bondi spacetime:

$$ds^2=dt^2+L^2(t,r)dr^2+R^2(t,r)\left[d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2\right].$$
(30)
The Einstein equations for this metric are:

$$G_{rr}=0:\frac{2\ddot{R}}{R}+\frac{\dot{R}^2}{R^2}=\frac{1}{R^2}\left(\frac{R^2}{L^2}1\right),$$
(31)
$$G_{\theta \theta }=G_{\varphi \varphi }=0:\frac{\ddot{L}}{L}+\frac{\ddot{R}}{R}+\frac{\dot{L}}{L}\frac{\dot{R}}{R}=\frac{R^{\prime \prime }LR^{}L^{}}{RL^3},$$
(32)
$$G_{tr}=0:\frac{\dot{R}^{}}{R}=\frac{\dot{L}}{L},$$
(33)
$$G_{tt}=ϵ:\frac{R^{\prime \prime }LR^{}L^{}}{RL^3}\frac{R^2}{2L^2R^2}+\frac{\dot{R}^2}{2R^2}+\frac{\dot{L}}{L}\frac{\dot{R}}{R}+\frac{1}{2R^2}=ϵ$$
(34)
The conservation equation is

$$ϵ(t,r)=\frac{\psi (r)}{LR^2}.$$
(35)
We also note that adding equations (31) and (32) and using (34) gives

$$\frac{2\ddot{R}}{R}+\frac{\ddot{L}}{L}=\frac{\psi (r)}{LR^2}.$$
(36)
These equations should be compared with those for the cylinder: Eqn. (31) should be compared with Eqn. (13), Eqn. (32) should be compared with Eqn. (6), Eqn. (33) should be compared with Eqn. (15), Eqn. (34) should be compared with Eqn. (9), Eqn. (35) should be compared with Eqn. (17), and Eqn. (36) should be compared with Eqn. (14)

Thus, although there is similarity in the forms of the metrics (12) and (30), the cylindrical metric (12) describes homogeneous collapse, whereas the spherical metric (30) describes general inhomogeneous collapse. This is because of the additional Einstein equation (16) which is not there in the spherical case.

## 5 Matching the interior cylindrical metric to a static exterior

The metric (29) is valid in the interior of a collapsing dust cloud. The exterior is vacuum. The above metric will be a solution of Einstein equations if it can be successfully matched to a static or a time dependent exterior. It can be easily guessed that the interior metric might not match to a static exterior, since the quadrupole tensor for the matter distribution is non-zero, and the collapsing system emits gravitational waves.

To verify explicitly the impossibility of static exterior vacuum solution, we assume a static exterior metric of the form

$$ds^2=e^AdT^2+e^BdR^2+e^CdZ^2+R^2d\mathrm{\Phi }^2$$
(37)
where $`A,B,C`$ are functions of $`R`$. Only the diagonal components of the Einstein tensor survive.

$$G_{00}=\frac{e^{AB}(2C^{}RC^2+B^{}(2+RC^{})2RC^{\prime \prime })}{4R}$$
(38)
$$G_{11}=\frac{2C^{}+A^{}(2+RC^{})}{4R}$$
(39)
$$G_{22}=\frac{e^{CB}(RA^22B^{}+A^{}(2RB^{})+2RA^{\prime \prime })}{4R}$$
(40)
$$G_{33}=\frac{e^BR^2(A^2B^{}C^{}+C^2+A^{}(B^{}+C^{})+2A^{\prime \prime }+2C^{\prime \prime })}{4}$$
(41)
All the components equal zero in vacuum. Solving the Einstein equations gives

$$C=l_1\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{R}{R_0}\right)+l_2.$$
(42)
$$A=\frac{2l_1\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{R}{R_0}\right)}{2+l_1}+l_3.$$
(43)
$$B=\frac{l_1^2\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{R}{R_0}\right)}{2+l_1}+l_4.$$
(44)
$`R_0`$ is a length scale which, as seen below, gets fixed by the matching. We can get rid of $`l_2`$ and $`l_3`$ by rescaling $`T`$ and $`Z`$. So there are two unknown constants. (see also ).

In the interior let the outermost shell be labelled by $`r=r_s`$. The coefficient of $`d\mathrm{\Phi }^2`$ is interpreted as the square of the radius. The expression $`r_sk(t_0t)^{2/3}`$ represents the evolution of the radius of the outer boundary of the collapsing dust with time. Further, it can be assumed that $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`Z`$ represent the same coordinates in both interior and exterior, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\varphi `$ and $`Z=z`$. Consider the hypersurface $`r=r_s`$. On this hypersurface, the interior metric is given by

$$ds^2=dt^2+k^2(t_0t)^{4/3}(dr^2+dz^2+r_s^2d\varphi ^2).$$
(45)
The exterior is given by (37).

The metric coefficients of $`\varphi `$ and $`z`$ should be same in both the interior and exterior. Equating the coefficient of $`d\varphi ^2`$ we get

$$R_s^2=r_s^2k^2(t_0t)^{4/3}$$
(46)
The subscript $`s`$ in $`R_s`$ is to indicate the hypersurface in the exterior coordinates. Similarly equating the coefficients of $`dZ^2`$ for both interior and exterior gives

$$e^{l_1\mathrm{ln}R_s/R_0}=k^2(t_0t)^{4/3}$$
(47)
which implies $`l_1=2`$ and $`R_0=r_s`$. So the exterior metric on the hypersurface is

$$ds^2=\frac{r_s}{R_s}dT^2+\frac{cR_s}{r_s}dR^2+\left(\frac{R_s}{r_s}\right)^2dZ^2+r_s^2d\varphi ^2$$
(48)
where $`c`$ is a constant to be determined by matching the second fundamental form. Matching the remaining components of the metric on the hypersurface yields

$$dt^2=\frac{r_s}{R_s}dT^2+\frac{cR_s}{r_s}dR^2.$$
(49)
This can be used to obtain the relation between the interior and exterior time. The second fundamental form  is given by

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=(n_{\mu ;\nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu )$$
(50)
and the extrinsic curvature is given by

$$K_{\mu \nu }=n_{\mu ;\nu }$$
(51)
where $`n_\mu `$ is the unit normal to the hypersurface. For the interior metric given by (45) the hypersurface is given by $`r=r_s`$. Calculating $`K_\varphi ^\varphi `$ yields

$$K_\varphi ^\varphi =\frac{1}{R_s}$$
(52)
where $`R_s`$ is given by (46). Similarly for the exterior metric $`K_\varphi ^\varphi `$ can be computed. The normal to the hypersurface $`R_s`$ can be obtained by differentiating (46),

$$dR+\frac{(2r_s\sqrt{k}(t_0t)^{1/3}\frac{dt}{dT})dT}{3}=0.$$
(53)
Using the above equation and evaluating $`K_\varphi ^\varphi `$ gives

$$K_\varphi ^\varphi =\frac{n^R}{R_s}$$
(54)
where $`n^R`$ is the contravariant component in the $`R`$ direction. By equating $`K_\varphi ^\varphi `$ for both interior and exterior we obtain the value for $`c`$,

$$c=\frac{1}{\frac{R_s}{r_s}\frac{4r_s^2k^3}{9}}$$
(55)
$`c`$ was initially assumed to be a constant. In equation (55) $`c`$ is dependent on $`R_s`$ which is given by (46). So c is not a constant as assumed but is time dependent. Hence there is no static exterior for the metric given by (45).

## 6 Matching with time dependent exterior

In this section it will be shown that the interior metric (45) can be matched to a time dependent exterior. Let us assume an exterior of the form,

$$ds^2=e^{(GP)}(dT^2dR^2)e^Pdz^2\alpha ^2e^Pd\varphi ^2,$$
(56)
where $`G,P,\alpha `$ are functions of $`R,T`$. The Einstein equations are

$$G_{TT}=\frac{\alpha (P^2+\dot{P}^2)+2(G^{}\alpha ^{}2\alpha ^{\prime \prime }+\dot{G}\dot{\alpha })}{4\alpha }=0$$
(57)
$$G_{TR}=\frac{\alpha ^{}\dot{G}\alpha P^{}\dot{P}+G^{}\dot{\alpha }2\dot{\alpha ^{}}}{2\alpha }=0$$
(58)
$$G_{RR}=\frac{\alpha (P^2+\dot{P}^2)+2(G^{}\alpha ^{}2\ddot{\alpha }+\dot{G}\dot{\alpha })}{4\alpha }=0$$
(59)
$$G_{ZZ}=\frac{e^{G+2P}(\alpha (P^2+2G^{\prime \prime }4P^{\prime \prime }\dot{P}^22\ddot{G}+4\ddot{P})+4(P^{}\alpha ^{}+\alpha ^{\prime \prime }+\dot{P}\dot{\alpha }\ddot{\alpha }))}{4\alpha }=0$$
(60)
$$G_{\varphi \varphi }=\frac{e^G\alpha ^2(P^2+2G^{\prime \prime }\dot{P}^22\ddot{G})}{4}=0$$
(61)
Here prime and dot denote partial derivative with respect to $`R`$ and $`T`$ respectively. In vacuum all the above expressions equal zero. Subtracting equations (57) and (59) gives

$$\alpha ^{\prime \prime }\ddot{\alpha }=0$$
(62)
Equation (61) gives

$$G^{\prime \prime }\ddot{G}=\frac{\dot{P}^2P^2}{2}$$
(63)
Substituting equations (62) and (63) in equation (60) gives

$$P^{\prime \prime }\ddot{P}+\frac{P^{}\alpha ^{}\dot{P}\dot{\alpha }}{\alpha }=0$$
(64)
The remaining two equations can be written as

$$\dot{G}\alpha ^{}P^{}\dot{P}\alpha +G^{}\dot{\alpha }2\dot{\alpha }^{}=0$$
(65)
$$\alpha (P^2+\dot{P}^2)+2(G^{}\alpha ^{}2\alpha ^{\prime \prime }+\dot{G}\dot{\alpha })=0.$$
(66)
The equations (62), (63), (64) are second order partial differential equations in $`T`$ and $`R`$. The outer boundary of the collapsing matter (hypersurface $`r=r_s`$) is a priori unknown in the exterior coordinates. It is of the form $`f_1(T,R)=const`$. To solve completely the partial differential equation (62) (second order in both $`T`$ and $`R`$), we need to know the value on the hypersurface and also the first derivative in the direction perpendicular to the hypersurface. We assume that $`Z`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ represent the same coordinates in both the interior and exterior. So on the hypersurface the metric components have to match. Equating coefficient of $`d\varphi ^2`$ for both metrics we get

$$\frac{\alpha ^2}{e^P}=r_s^2k^2(t_0t)^{4/3}$$
(67)
Similarly equating coefficient of $`dZ^2`$ we get.

$$e^P=k^2(t_0t)^{4/3}$$
(68)
Multiplying both we get

$$\alpha =k^2r_s(t_0t)^{4/3}$$
(69)
To solve the equations of the type $`\alpha ^{\prime \prime }\ddot{\alpha }=0`$, we already know the value on the hypersurface given by (69). We need one more arbitrary function to provide information about the value of the derivative in the perpendicular direction. Similarly we know the value of $`P`$ on the hypersurface (68). To solve the equation (64) we need one more arbitrary function. For solving equation (63) we need two arbitrary functions since we do not know the value of $`G`$ on the hypersurface. These four arbitrary functions along with the initial hypersurface $`f_1(T,R)`$ makes five arbitrary functions. The matching will be possible if the five arbitrary functions are enough to satisfy all the constraints which are required during matching. The relation between the interior time and the exterior coordinates can be obtained by the equation similar to equation (49)

$$dt^2=e^{GP}(dT^2+dR^2)$$
(70)
Equations (65) and (66) act as constraints and can be used to eliminate two of the five arbitrary functions. Now matching the second fundamental form

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=K_{tt}dt^2+K_{zz}dz^2+K_{\varphi \varphi }d\varphi ^2$$
(71)
gives at most three independent constraints. There are three arbitrary functions left which can take care of the constraints offered by the second fundamental form. So in principle the interior metric (45) can be matched to the time dependent exterior given by (56).

## 7 Nature of the singularity

The question of interest is to find out whether the curvature singularity resulting in the matter interior from the gravitational collapse of the dust cloud is naked or covered. This question can be addressed by looking at the null geodesic expansion $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ for the radial null geodesics. The non-zero components of the tangent to the null geodesic are $`K^r(t,r)`$ and $`K^t(t,r)`$. The calculation of $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ for the cylindrical metric (12) proceeds exactly as for the spherical case discussed in  and we get the result

$$\theta =2K^r\frac{Z^{}}{Z}\left[1+\frac{\dot{B}}{\sqrt{r}g(r)}\right]=2K^r\frac{Z^{}}{Z}\left[1+2h(0)\dot{B}\right]=\frac{K^r}{r}\left[1+2r\dot{M}\right]$$
(72)
where $`ZB/\sqrt{r}=\sqrt{r}M(t)`$. $`Z^{}/Z`$ is positive, because of equation (19), and $`K^r`$ is positive because we are examining outgoing geodesics.

$`K^r`$ and $`K^t`$ can be evaluated explicitly from the geodesic equations

$$\frac{dK^t}{dk}=\frac{\dot{M}}{M}\left(K^t\right)^2,\frac{dK^t}{dk}=2\dot{M}\left(K^r\right)^2$$
(73)
Here, $`k`$ is the affine parameter and we have used the relation $`dt/dr=M(t)=K^t/K^r`$ for outgoing geodesics, which follows from using $`ds^2=0`$ for radial null geodesics.

The explicit solution is however not necessary for our purpose. As the singularity is approached, i.e as $`t`$ tends to $`t_0`$, $`\dot{M}`$ tends to $`\mathrm{}`$, and hence so does the geodesic expansion $`\theta `$, showing that the singularity is covered. The expression for $`\theta `$ is in fact identical to that for the spherical marginally bound homogeneous dust solution \[Oppenheimer-Snyder\] for which the metric is

$$ds^2=dt^2+S^2(t,r)\left[dr^2+r^2d\theta ^2+r^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2\right]$$
(74)
and the scale factor $`S(t)`$ goes as $`(t_0t)^{2/3}`$. Comparison of this metric with the cylindrical homogeneous metric (29) makes it clear that the geodesic expansion $`\theta `$ behaves identically in the two cases.

It has earlier been demonstrated  that the collapse of an infinite dust cylinder results in a naked singularity, in accord with the hoop conjecture. How is our result above consistent with these earlier findings? A possible explanation is that there is a singular Cauchy horizon in the exterior, as discussed recently by Tod and Mena . It should be noted that our analysis here does not provide information about the formation of a singularity, or otherwise, in the exterior spacetime.

## 8 Conclusion

In this paper we have considered the collapse of an infinite cylindrical cloud of time-like homogeneous and pressureless dust subject to the condition that the axial and azimuthal metric functions are equal. We have explicitly shown that the resulting solution is homogeneous and that the collapse terminates in a curvature singularity. We have shown that there exists a vacuum exterior and it can be demonstrated that the singularity forming in the matter region is covered.

Acknowledgments

It is a pleasure to thank Tomohiro Harada for helpful conversations, and Sergio Goncalves for extensive and useful discussions and suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript.


text:
# Variable stars in Stellar Systems

## 1. Introduction

Variable stars in stellar systems such as GCs and dwarf galaxies have played a fundamental role in improving our knowledge on stellar populations (Baade 1958) as well as on the physical mechanism that drive the pulsation instability (Schwarzschild 1942). The main advantage of cluster variables when compared with field ones is that they are located at the same distance, and possibly the same reddening. Moreover, they formed from the same proto-globular cloud and therefore they have the same age, and chemical composition. Even though cluster variables present several undoubted advantages current knowledge concerning the pulsation properties of these objects is still limited. Recent estimates based on new data reduction procedures to perform differential photometry (ISIS, Alard 2000) suggest that the incompleteness factor in the detection of RR Lyrae stars is at least of the order of 30% (Kaluzny et al. 2001; Corwin & Carney 2001) in Galactic GCs characterized by high central densities. This limit is even more severe for OBSs, since the luminosity amplitude range from hundredths of a magnitude to a few tenths. Moreover, their radial distribution peaks toward the center of the cluster, and therefore ground based observations are strongly limited by crowding (Gilliland et al. 1998; Santolamazza et al. 2001). The same outcome applies to Miras and to Semi-Regular variables in GGCs, but for a different reason, quite often they are saturated in current CCD chips. This is a real limit for metal-rich clusters of the Galactic bulge, since they lack of RR Lyrae stars or host a few of them (Pritzl et al. 2002), and the detection of Miras could supply an independent distance estimate (Feast et al. 2002).

Variable stars in dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies presents several pros and cons when compared with variables in GGCs. The star formation history as well as the dynamical evolution of dSph galaxies is much more complex than for GGCs. Typically the age of stellar populations in LG dSphs ranges from a few Gyr to 12-13 Gyr, i.e. as old as stars in GGCs (Da Costa 1999). Wide photometric surveys strongly support the evidence of extra-tidal stars near several dSphs (Irwin & Hatzidimitriou 1995; Martinez-Delgado et al. 2001). The observation of these stellar debris resembles the tidal tails detected in several GGCs (Leon et al. 2000). On the other hand, dSph galaxies apparently host large amounts of Dark Matter (DM), and indeed the mass-to-light ratios in these systems range from $`(M/L)_V5`$ (Fornax) to $`100`$ (Ursa Minor). However, the scenario is still quite controversial and the evidence that dSphs present large DM central densities would suggest that they are not a large version of GGCs, since the latter present M/L ratios $`12`$. Photometric and spectroscopic data on variable stars in dSphs might supply new insights on the impact that environmental effects have on their evolutionary and pulsation properties. Unfortunately, data available in the literature are limited, since these stellar systems cover wide sky regions. The use of wide field imagers and wide field, multifiber spectrographs might overcome these problems.

In the following we discuss the impact that variables in stellar systems might have on cosmic distances and on stellar populations.

## 2. Variables in globular clusters

RR Lyrae stars together with subdwarf main sequence fitting are the most popular standard candles to estimate the distance to GGCs (Carretta et al. 2000; Bono et al. 2001). Both of them require accurate evaluations of cluster metal abundance, but the latter ones are more sensitive to reddening corrections (Castellani 1999). RR Lyrae stars present the non trivial advantage that individual reddening can be estimated on the basis of mean colors. During the last few years have been suggested new methods that rely on observables that do not depend at all on color excess, namely the pulsation period and the luminosity amplitude (Kovacs & Walker 2001; Piersimoni et al. 2002). Even though these pulsation parameters can be easily estimated, the accuracy of individual reddenings might be affected by systematic uncertainties. Empirical evidence suggest that approximately the 30% of fundamental pulsators are affected by the Blazhko phenomenon (Kolenberg, this meeting), i.e. the light curve shows both amplitude and possibly phase modulation (Kurtz et al. 2000). The previous number fraction is supported by recent multiband investigation of RR Lyrae in NGC 3201 (Piersimoni et al. 2002) and in M3 (Corwin & Carney 2001).

Fig. 1 shows the suspected Blazhko RR Lyrae detected in NGC 3201. Note that secondary Blazhko periods are only available for a few GGCs such as M3. Although, this pulsation feature was detected long time ago (Blazhko 1907) we still lack a firm knowledge of the physical mechanisms that drive the occurrence of such a phenomenon. Moreover, empirical data for cluster variables are poor, since they typically cover short-time intervals. This limits the use of the Bailey diagram (amplitude vs period) not only to estimate the intrinsic parameters of RR Lyrae (Bono et al. 1997) but also to estimate their individual color excesses.

This limit affects not only the detection of Semiregular (SR) and Long-Period-Variables (LPVs) but also variables along the RGB and long-period binary systems. On the other hand, the poor spatial resolution of ground based measurements and the limited accuracy hampered the detection of low-amplitude variables such as SX Phoenicis stars and BY Draconis in the innermost regions of GCs. The unprecedented amount of homogeneous and accurate time series data collected by Gilliland and collaborators to detect planets around G type stars in 47 Tuc demonstrated that current knowledge concerning cluster variables is still limited. In particular, they found a wealth of binary systems, as well as a new class of variable stars located at the base of the sub giant branch that they called “Red Stragglers” (see Table 1).

These facts further strengthen the evidence that the knowledge of periodic and aperiodic phenomena among cluster stars might be biased by selection effects (luminosity amplitudes and time resolution). Ground based observations can certainly help to overcome these limits for GGCs with low-central densities, but for high-central densities and post-core-collapse clusters the use of HST is mandatory.

## 3. Variables in dwarf galaxies

Photometric investigations of variable stars in nearby dwarf galaxies have been hampered by the reduced field of view of current CCDs. These stellar systems are characterized by low central densities and very large tidal radii (Mateo 1998). However, during the last few years wide field imagers (WFI) with fields of view of the order of 0.2-0.3 degree2 become available111In this site you can find more detailed information concerning present and future WFIs http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/2p2/E2p2M/WFI. The absolute and the relative calibration of individual CCD chips is quite often challenging. Recent results concerning time series data collected with the WFI@2.2m ESO/MPI telescope seem to suggest that these thorny problems can be overcome at the level of a few hundredths of a magnitude (Monelli et al. 2002).

The number of LG dwarf galaxies for which is available a detailed census of variable stars is limited (Mateo 1998; Cseresnjes 2001; Bersier & Wood 2002). This limit applies not only to long-period and aperiodic variables but also to classical ones such as RR Lyrae (Dall’Ora et al. 2002) and $`\delta `$ Scuti stars (Mateo, Hurley-Keller, & Nemec 1998). The reasons why dwarf galaxies might play a crucial role in improving current knowledge on stellar populations are manifold.

i) Dwarf galaxies harbor stellar populations whose age might range from less than 1 Gyr to more than 12 Gyr, i.e. the stellar masses range from $`M/M_{}0.1`$ to $`M/M_{}2`$. Therefore they are fundamental laboratories to investigate variable stars that are not present in GGCs such as Anomalous Cepheids (AC)222Only one AC is known among GGCs (NGC 5466), see Bono et al. (1997) and Corwin, Carney, & Nifong (1999).. Recent findings based on evolutionary and pulsation properties support the evidence that these objects are intermediate-mass stars during their central He-burning phase (Dall’Ora et al. 2002). However, we cannot exclude that some ACs could be the result of mass transfer in old binary systems (Renzini, Mengel, & Sweigart 1977). Moreover, dwarf galaxies might supply fundamental constraints on the accuracy of the Period-Luminosity (PL) relation of $`\delta `$ Scuti. In fact, these stellar systems often host both RR Lyrae and $`\delta `$ Scuti, and therefore independent distances may be derived to reduce the systematic uncertainties. It is noteworthy that dwarf galaxies, in contrast with open clusters, host simultaneously $`\delta `$ Scuti variables, i.e. young intermediate-mass stars, and OBSs, i.e. intermediate-mass stars formed via binary collision or binary merging of two old, low-mass stars (Santolamazza et al. 2001).

ii) Even though GGCs are the template of low-mass population II stars, the HB morphology is affected by the second parameter problem. This means that two GGCs with the same metal abundance might have quite different stellar distributions on the ZAHB. Dwarf galaxies supply the unique opportunity to test whether the dynamical history somehow affects the HB morphology.

iii) The number of GGCs that host sizable samples of RR Lyrae is limited, while dwarf galaxies with old stellar populations present large samples of RR Lyrae. This means that they can be soundly adopted to constrain the accuracy of theoretical predictions concerning the topology of the instability strip.

To investigate in more detail the last point, Fig. 2 shows the number fraction between first overtones and the total number of RR Lyrae as a function of the mean fundamental period. Data plotted in this figure show that a few dwarf galaxies such as Carina, Draco, and Leo II (see data listed in Table 2) can be hardly classified as Oosterhoff type I ($`<P_{ab}>0.55`$) or Oosterhoff type II ($`<P_{ab}>0.64`$) clusters. They present mean $`<P_{ab}>`$ values that are typical of Oo type II clusters, but the ratio between $`RR_c`$ and total number of RR Lyrae is more typical of Oo type I ($`N_c/(N_{ab}+N_c)0.2`$) than of Oo type II ($`N_c/(N_{ab}+N_c)0.5`$) clusters. On the other hand, Ursa Minor present a mean metallicity quite similar to Draco ($`[Fe/H]=2.2\pm 0.1`$ vs $`[Fe/H]=2.0\pm 0.1`$, Mateo 1998) but the mean $`<P_{ab}>`$ value and the number ratio of $`RR_c`$ variables is typical of Oo type II clusters. Unfortunately, the number of dwarf galaxies in which have been identified mixed-mode variables is still limited and no firm conclusion concerning their occurrence can be drawn.

## 4. Discussion

The results presented in the previous sections bring forward the evidence that the empirical scenario for variable stars in stellar systems such as GCs and LG dwarf galaxies is far from being complete. The limit applies not only to aperiodic variables but also to long-period variables such as Miras and Semi-Regulars. The same outcome applies to RR Lyrae stars affected by the Blazhko effect.

Even though several LG dSphs present stellar populations with chemical compositions and stellar ages quite similar to stars in GCs, the RR Lyrae variables present pulsation properties that are a bridge between Oosterhoff type I and Oosterhoff type II clusters. This preliminary evidence seems to suggest that either the dynamical history and/or the chemical evolution in these stellar systems might play a role to explain this difference. In this context the use of the new wide field imagers will supply the unique opportunity to investigate on a star-by-star basis the stars and the variables in LG dwarf galaxies.

Although new theoretical frameworks have been developed to account for the occurrence of mixed-mode pulsators among RR Lyrae and OBSs we still lack a comprehensive explanation of the physical mechanisms that drive the occurrence of such a phenomena. It goes without saying that new sets of full amplitude nonlinear, convective models tightly connected with evolutionary models are highly requested to constrain the region of the instability strip where these pulsators present this intriguing behavior.

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text:
# An Overview of the Basic Physical Properties of MgB2

## 1 Introduction

Given that the existence of superconductivity in MgB2 was only announced in January of 2001,  there has been an explosive growth in humanity’s understanding of the basic physical properties of this simple binary compound over the past two years. At this point in time there is a consensus about most of the fundamental properties of this material and a rapidly growing understanding of, as well as appreciation for, the dramatic differences between this extreme example of BCS superconductivity and other, older examples of intermetallic superconductivity.

In this paper we will summarize the status of our experimental understanding of the basic properties associated with the normal and superconducting states of MgB2.

## 2 Experimental procedures

All of the data presented in this paper comes from measurements of polycrystalline samples of MgB2. Two basic types of samples were used: sintered pellets and wire segments. Both types of samples were synthesized by exposing boron to Mg vapor at, or near, 950C. The sintered pellets were made by combining stoichiometric amounts of high purity magnesium and isotopically pure boron and reacting them in a sealed Ta tube.  The wire segments were made by using a different initial form of boron: boron filament. In this case the boron filament was exposed to magnesium vapor by sealing it in a Ta tube with excess Mg and heating to or near 950C.  This same method has been used to transform thin films of boron into MgB2 thin films.  As those skilled in the art will realize, the steps outlined above provide a form preserving method of turning boron objects (filaments, films, tapes) into MgB2 objects with similar morphologies.  Polycrystalline MgB2 synthesized in this manner is single-phased and, as will be discussed below, manifests the properties of a high purity sample. Further details about sample synthesis can be found in references  as well as the paper by Ribeiro et al. in this volume.

Virtually all the measurements presented in this paper were performed on Quantum Design MPSM-5, MPMS-7, and PPMS-9 machines. Electrical contact was made to the samples by using Epotek H20E silver epoxy and Pt wires. High field magneto-transport data was measured at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Los Alamos for magnetic field up to 18 T.

## 3 Isotope effect measurements

Immediately after the announcement of the discovery of superconductivity in MgB2 the first question that had to be addressed was one of mechanism. Whereas most researchers experienced with intermetallic compounds assumed that MgB2 was the long sought after, extreme example of phonon-mediated, BCS superconductivity, some researchers, steeped in the lore of high-$`T_c`$ oxides, assumed that a 40 K superconductor had to stem from a more exotic coupling mechanism. The simplest way to shed light on this question was to measure the boron isotope shift of $`T_c`$. Looking at boron rather than magnesium was motivated by physical, economic and time considerations. Given the high $`T_c`$ of $``$40 K it seemed likely that the lightest (as well as most prevalent) element would be responsible for the phonons associated with the pairing of electrons. In addition, isotopically pure boron is relatively cheap given its natural abundance ($``$80$`\%`$ 11B and 20$`\%`$ 10B) and the fact that its light atomic weight allow for separation via diffusion rather than requiring mass spectroscopy. This fact means that many materials preparation labs, particularly ones working with neutron scatters (who require the use on non-absorbing 11B), have supplies of isotopically pure boron on hand.

Figure 1 presents temperature dependent electrical resistance and magnetization data taken on Mg11B2 and Mg10B2 samples. A clear 1.0 K shift in $`T_c`$ can be seen in both measurements. Specific heat data (not shown) taken on the same samples show the same 1.0 K shift. This 1.0 K shift is to be compared with the simple prediction of the BCS model, $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_c`$ $``$ 0.85 K, based upon $`T_c`$ 1/(formula unit mass)-1/2. The partial isotope exponent for boron is $`\alpha _B`$ = 0.26. . These data by themselves are not proof that Cooper pair formation in MgB2 is mediated by phonons, but it is consistent with it and strongly reinforced the idea that MgB2 was an extreme example of phonon-mediated BCS superconductivity.

Subsequent measurements  confirmed the boron isotope shift and found that there was virtually no magnesium isotope shift. All of the isotope shift data have subsequently explained within the context of phonon-mediated, BCS superconductivity. .

## 4 Basic properties

Once the question of mechanism has been addressed, the next set of questions that arise concern the basic properties associated with both the normal and superconducting state. Let’s start with electrical transport. Figure 2 (upper panel) presents the temperature dependent resistance of a piece of sintered pellet for various values of applied magnetic field. Given that the density of the sintered pellet is not close to 100$`\%`$ we can only estimate the resistivity of MgB2 at 42 K to be $``$ 1 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$-cm based on these data. On the other hand what can be clearly seen is that there is a substantial loose of scattering associated with cooling the sample from 300 K down to 40 K. In fact the residual resistivity ratio ($`RRR`$), $`R`$(300 K)/$`R`$(42 K), is close to 20. A consequence of this very low, normal state resistance is the substantial magneto-resistance observed in the normal state. These effects can be seen even more clearly in the temperature dependent resistivity data from the MgB2 wire segment (Fig. 2, lower panel). Given a sample density of better than 95$`\%`$ combined with a well-defined geometry the resistivity can be easily determined: e.g. $`\rho `$(300 K) = 9.6 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$-cm and $`\rho `$(40 K) = 0.38 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$-cm. The temperature dependence of the wire sample is quantitatively similar to that seen for the sintered pellet and it manifests the same, large, normal-state magneto-resistivity.

The value of the low temperature, normal-state resistivity is important for two rather different reasons. If we take $`v_F`$ = 4.8$`\times 10^7`$ cm/s we can extract an electronic mean free path of $`l`$ $``$ 600 $`\AA `$.  As will be shown below, when this length scale is compared to the superconducting coherence length, $`\xi _0`$, it becomes clear that MgB2 is deep in the clean limit of superconductivity, i.e. $`l\xi _0`$. A low resistivity is also very important for possible applications, specifically high current ones. An intrinsically small, low-temperature, normal state resistivity means that there is far less chance of quenching magnets made from this material.

Figure 3 presents the normal state magneto-transport data, shown in part in the lower panel of Fig. 2 as well as the inset of Fig. 3, in the form of a Kohler plot.  The fact that all of these data fall onto a single manifold is consistent with MgB2 being a simple ($`s`$ and $`p`$band) metal with a single salient scattering time in the normal state. These data, along with the isotope effect data, help demonstrate that MgB2 is indeed a representative example of intermetallic superconductivity, i.e. there is no need for more exotic, high-$`T_c`$-like, theoretical explainations.

It should be noted though, that whereas we have had no difficulty in preparing high-purity, low resistivity, polycrystalline samples of MgB2, other groups had difficulty in reproducing these results. Residual resistivity values as high as 70 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$-cm  or 20 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$-cm  have been reported. In addition it was suggested that metallic magnesium in parallel with the MgB2 could be responsible for the low resistivities we have found.  This controversy spurred us to examine the possible sources of this apparent variation in sample quality (see reference  as well as paper by R. Ribeiro et al. in this volume). We found that the use of very high purity boron is vital to the formation of low resistivity samples. We also found that for the stiochiometric pellets as well as the wire segments formed via exposure to boron filament to Mg vapor the low resistivity is not associated with free magnesium, but rather is an intrinsic feature of high purity MgB2. Fortunately as more and more data on MgB2 (polycrystals, films, and single crystals) becomes available there values of both room temperature and residual resistivity are asymptotically approaching the values presented in Fig. 2.

The magneto-transport data shown in Fig. 2 can also be used to extract information about the superconducting state, specifically the upper critical field, $`H_{c2}(T)`$. The $`H_{c2}(T)`$ data are plotted in Fig. 4. $`H_{c2}(T)`$ rises to slightly above 16 T at 1.5 K.  From this value we can extract an estimate of $`\xi _0`$ of $``$ 50 $`\AA `$, a value that is indeed much less than the electronic mean free path, $`l`$ $``$ 600 $`\AA `$. As mentioned above, given that $`l\xi _0`$, MgB2 is deep within the clean limit of superconductivity.

There are several other field scales of interest: the irreversibility field, $`H_{irr}`$ and the thermodynamic critical field, $`H_c`$. Figure 5 presents $`M(H)`$ data that clearly show the irreversibility field for representative temperatures. The $`H_{irr}(T)`$ curve deduced from these data is presented as the lower curve in Fig. 4. As can be seen, $`H_{irr}`$ is approximately one half of $`H_{c2}`$. Whereas the values of $`H_{c2}`$(1.5 K) $``$ 16 T and $`H_{irr}`$(5 K) $``$ 7 T are neither very low nor very high, there are already examples of dirtier samples for which the low temperature $`H_{c2}`$ $``$ 30 T and the low temperature $`H_{irr}`$ $``$ 15 T.  One of the current, key areas of applied research on MgB2 is focusing on the attempt to understand how pinning, as well as $`\kappa `$, in this material can be simply and reproducibly controlled.

The thermodynamic critical field can be inferred, at least for $`T`$ near $`T_c`$, from magnetization loops.  The inset to Fig. 6 presents $`H_c(T)`$ for $`T`$ close to $`T_c`$. $`H_c(T)`$ was determined by integrating the area under the equilibrium magnetization versus field curve where $`M_{eq}=(M_{inc}+M_{dec})/2`$, and $`M_{inc}`$ and $`M_{dec}`$ are the increasing field magnetization and decreasing field magnetization respectively.  The $`H_c(T)`$ data can be used to estimate another length scale, the London penetration depth, $`\lambda `$, by using the simple relations $`\kappa =H_{c2}/[1.41H_c]=\lambda /\xi _0`$. Using the $`H_{c2}(T)`$ data from Fig. 4 as well as the $`H_c(T)`$ data from Fig. 6 we find that $`\kappa `$ $``$ 25 and $`\lambda `$ $``$ 1400 $`\AA `$.

The values of $`l`$, $`\xi _0`$, $`\lambda `$ and $`\kappa `$ derived above are average values. There has been no effort made to account for the anisotropy associated with the hexagonal unit cell of MgB2. This means that these values should be taken as bench marks rather than definitive, final values. The reason for this caveat is the fact that there are very large anisotropies in many of the properties of MgB2. Perhaps the most conspicuous is the anisotropy in the value of $`H_{c2}(T)`$.  Whereas early estimates of this anisotropy, $`\gamma H_{c2}^{basalplane}/H_{c2}^{caxis}`$, were rather low ($`\gamma `$ = 1.73),  measurements on unoriented, high purity powders allowed us to determine the anisotropic $`H_{c2}(T)`$ in detail.  Figure 7 presents the temperature dependence of the anisotropic $`H_{c2}(T)`$ curves. The lower curve is for the crystallites with the field aligned along the crystallographic $`c`$-axis and the upper curve is for the crystallites with the field aligned along the basal plane.  At low temperatures $`\gamma `$ approaches a remarkably high value between 6 and 7. Over the past several months, detailed measurements on small single crystalline samples have confirmed not only the size of the low temperature anisotropy, but also the full temperature dependence of $`\gamma (T)`$.  The low temperature value of the anisotropy, $`\gamma `$ = 6-7, is in excellent agreement with the anisotropic $`H_{c2}(T)`$ that would be anticipated if only the two dimensional, cylindrical Fermi surface is responsible for the low-$`T`$, $`H`$ 2 T, superconductivity.  If this is the case, as recent experiments seem to confirm,  then $`H_{c2}^{max}/H_{c2}^{min}=(v_{ab}^2/v_c^2)^{1/2}`$, assuming that the gap over the cylinder is essentially constant. Using the anisotropic Fermi velocities for the 2-D cylinder  we find that this ratio to be $``$ $``$ 40 which is in excellent agreement with the measured value of $`\gamma `$ at low temperatures. A fuller and more detailed presentation of the temperature dependence of anisotropies in MgB2 will be presented by Kogan et al., as well as others, later in this volume.

## 5 Critical current density

The $`M(H)`$ isotherms that were used to determine $`H_{irr}(T)`$ as well as $`H_c(T)`$ also yielded information about the critical current density, $`J_c`$. Figure 8 presents $`J_c(H)`$ for a variety of representative temperatures. The higher values of $`J_c(H,T)`$ were inferred from magnetization data using the Bean model  and the lower values of $`J_c`$ were directly measured via $`V(I)`$ measurements.  For comparison $`J_c(H)`$ data for Nb3Sn are also shown for $`T`$ = 4.2 K.

Several points are worth noting. First of all, even though these $`J_c`$ values are lower than those for Nb3Sn at 4-5 K, the $`J_c`$ values are not all that small, especially when you consider that the sample was high purity MgB2. In addition, at 20 K Nb3Sn is in the normal state (i.e. $`J_c`$ = 0) whereas the $`J_c`$ values for MgB2 are still sizable for low to intermediate fields. Secondly, $`J_c(H,T)`$ is an extrinsic property that can be increased dramatically by judicious choices of impurities and defects to act as pinning sites. Over the past year $`J_c`$ values in wire segments have increased by approximately an order of magnitude. Recent work by Finnemore et al. (see later in this volume) on Ti and C doped wires has shown that the low temperature, low field value of $`J_c`$ can be increased to mid- 106 A/cm2. Comparable values have been found for thin film samples. . Hopefully further increases in $`J_c`$, not only for low fields, but also for higher fields will continue over the next few years.

## 6 Summary

MgB2 is a poster child for two very different and important observations about solid state physics. First, the field of solid state physics has come a fantastically long way given that the basic physical properties of MgB2, as well as our theoretical understanding of them, were well delineated within less than a year of its rediscovery. This is a remarkable fact and should not be given short shrift. Secondly, superconductivity in this simple binary compound lay undiscovered until the new millennium, despite extensive searches over the past 80 years, and although superconductivity in this material is now well understood, it was not predicted a priori. It is vital to experimentally search for (i) new materials and (ii) new properties / groundstates in old ones. The continued search for new materials and new properties in binary, ternary, quaternary, and even more complex compounds is one of the most important engines driving this field of science.

We gratefully acknowledge useful interactions with A. H. Lacerda, M-H. Jung, N. Anderson, G. Lapertot, R. Ribiero, C. Petrovic, J. E. Ostenson, V. G. Kogan and V. P. Antropov. We also thank the U.S. D.O.E. Office of Basic Energy Sciences for the flexibility in funding that to allowed us to chase after this wonder material. Ames Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under contract No. W-7405-ENG-82. The work was supported by the Director of Energy Research, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U. S. Department of Energy.