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# Deformation effects in low-momentum distributions of heavy nuclei

## Abstract

Momentum distributions (MD) of deep hole proton states in 238U are studied paying particular attention to the influence of deformation. Two essentially different mean-field models, Woods-Saxon (WS) and Skyrme-Hartree-Fock with the SkM force, are used. Noticeable deviations between the WS and SkM results are found. They are mainly due to the difference in effective nucleon mass. In particular, SkM gives much weaker deformation effects at low momenta than WS. It is shown that, in spite of the deformation mixing, MD at low momenta can serve for identification of $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ hole states originating from $`s_{1/2}`$ spherical sub-shells. Moreover, following the WS calculations, the deformation results in additional $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ states with strong $`l=0`$ contributions. A possibility to probe such states in knock-out experiments is discussed.

The momentum distribution (MD) of nucleons in a nucleus is an important issue for analyzing single-particle aspects of nuclear structure, for a review see Ant . One of the still open problems is the influence of global nuclear deformation on MD. There exists already some studies on that subject, see, e.g. guer  and references. therein. Nonetheless, the present knowledge about deformation effects in MD is still rather poor, especially in heavy deformed nuclei. At the same time, these effects can be essential for a correct treatment of knock-out reactions, like $`(e,e^{}p)`$, in rare earth and actinide regions and for investigation of deep hole states in deformed nuclei (see, e.g. Likh ).

Experimental data on deep hole states are scarce in spherical nuclei and practically absent in heavy deformed nuclei Ant . The deformation mixes spherical configurations in single-particle wave functions Gar  and thus should influence the MD. At the first glance, this effect, together with a dense spectrum in deformed nuclei and possible coupling with vibrations, should make MD too vague to extract from them a reliable information about single-particle levels. However, as is shown below, there remains a chance to identify some hole $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ levels through their MD at low momenta. Moreover, the deformation mixing can increase the number of such levels. Experimental observation of the $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ level sequence in $`(e,e^{}p)`$ could be a very important step in our knowledge on the mean field in heavy deformed nuclei. Besides, it could have a serious impact in such urgent problems, as, e.g., a search for shell-stabilized super-heavy nuclei Afa .

The present paper pursues two aims. First, we will try to exhibit, at least briefly, a general view of deformation effects in deep hole MD of heavy deformed nuclei. To make the study more reliable, two different single-particle potentials, phenomenological Woods Saxon and self-consistent Skyrme, will be used. Second, we will demonstrate that low momentum distributions in heavy deformed nuclei represent a relevant test for different models and deserve a careful experimental investigation.

The calculations have been performed for 238U, a typical heavy deformed nucleus. Two different models for single-particle structure were used: the phenomenological Woods-Saxon (WS) potential Pash ; Ivan  with parameters from WS99  and the self-consistent Skyrme-Hartree-Fock potential Skyrme  with the parametrization SkM skms . We have chosen SkM as a widely established standard well suited to describe deformed nuclei (SkM was fitted to describe fission barriers in actinide region). The WS calculations were performed in a basis expansion while the SkM calculations employed an axially symmetric coordinate-space grid. For both WS and SkM, the equilibrium ground-state deformations were determined by minimizing the energy of the system. MD were defined as single-particle densities $`n_\alpha (𝐤)=|\stackrel{~}{\phi }(𝐤)|^2`$ in momentum space. They were obtained by Fourier transforming the spatial wavefunctions, for procedure and definitions see Likh . It is worth noting that in general single-particle models are not well suited to describe MD because of the important contributions from short- and long-range correlations Ant . However these perturbing effects take place mainly in the high-momentum domain with $`k>k_\mathrm{F}1.3\mathrm{fm}^1260\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{c}`$. We will focus on MD in the low $`k`$ domain, which can be still described by single-particle models.

As is seen from table 1, both single-particle models reproduce nicely the ground state deformation (quadrupole moments) in 238U. The Fermi energy $`E_F`$ is also nearly the same in both models. However, the lowest proton hole state $`E_0`$ is much deeper bound for SkM\*. The difference in $`E_0E_F`$ indicates a different level density. This is also visible in the single proton levels shown in table 2. The SkM spectrum is less dense because of the lower effective mass $`m^{}/m=0.79`$ as compared to $`m^{}/m=1`$ in the WS model. Note that table 2 shows only a subset of the levels whose MD will be discussed further in more detail.

Figure 1 shows the calculated MD for six deep hole proton states given in the table 2. These states represent a selection with different energies and quantum numbers. SkM results are given for the equilibrium deformed ground state and, for reasons of comparison, in the spherical limit produced by constraint. One sees that in both these cases MD are very close. Modest changes are caused by the deformation at low momenta in $`1/2^{}[321]`$, $`1/2^+[440]`$, and $`1/2^{}[541]`$, i.e. in states with a minimal projection $`K`$. At the same time, as illustrated by the plots for $`5/2^{}[312]`$ and $`3/2^+[422]`$, MD of the hole states with $`K3/2`$ are almost unaffected. The latter can be easily explained by the fact that states with high $`K`$ have lower level density and so less chances for deformation mixing.

Figure 1 compares also SkM and WS results. Unlike SkM, WS gives impressive deformation effects at low momenta for the $`1/2^{}[321]`$, $`1/2^+[440]`$, $`3/2^+[422]`$, and $`1/2^{}[541]`$ states, where one-bump spherical MD are transformed by deformation to more complex structures. The discrepancies between WS and SkM can be explained, to a large extent, by the lower effective mass $`m^{}/m=0.79`$ in SkM. This stretches the single-particle spectrum Mahaux  for SkM and thus weakens the deformation effects.

As was mentioned above, single-particle models are not reliable in the high-momentum domain with $`k>260\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{c}`$. Nevertheless, it is worth to comment on some basic trends of the models as such, hinted by high-momentum MD. First, as compared with SkM, the MD of WS are characterized by a stronger high-momentum tail and thus by a smaller peak height at $`k170`$ MeV/c. Second, SkM results for $`1/2^+[440]`$ and $`1/2^{}[541]`$ show that the deformation can influence the high-energy MD tail.

Figure 1 shows that MD for $`1/2^+[440]`$ is peaked at $`k=0`$ thus manifesting an appreciable $`l=0`$ component. This feature can essentially facilitate identification of the hole $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ levels in knock-out reactions. We are thus inspecting these states in more detail. Figure 1 collects MD for all hole $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ levels in 238U (the spectroscopic information is given in table 2). It is seen that WS calculations predict an appreciable $`l=0`$ strength (peak at $`k=0`$) for 7 states, namely for all those with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$. The maximal strength takes place for states $`1/2^+[000]`$, $`1/2^+[200]`$, and $`1/2^+[400]`$ originating from $`1s`$, $`2s`$, and $`3s`$ spherical subshells, respectively. The other four states, $`1/2^+[220]`$, $`1/2^+[440]`$, $`1/2^+[420]`$, and $`1/2^+[660]`$, have higher $`l`$ ancestors but acquire such a feature due to the admixture of $`l=0`$ spherical sub-shells, caused by the deformation mixing. So, the deformation leads to an increased number of $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ states with a strong $`l=0`$ component. As was mentioned above, SkM produces much weaker deformation effects. Indeed, SkM gives $`k=0`$ peaks only for the states originating from $`1s`$, $`2s`$, and $`3s`$ spherical subshells, being consistent in this case with the WS results. The $`l=0`$ strength for other states is negligible.

Altogether, figure 2 indicates that MD at low momenta allow to extract important information on the underlying mean field. Namely, a sequence of hole $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ levels can be found experimentally. The question is whether one can resolve them. In the following, we will analyze this point in more detail.

Figure 3 shows the calculated energy distribution of MD strength at $`k=0`$ for the hole $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ levels. It is seen that SkM and WS represent two different scenarios. In the SkM case, only $`1/2^+[000]`$, $`1/2^+[200]`$, and $`1/2^+[400]`$ levels originating from $`1s`$, $`2s`$, and $`3s`$ spherical subshells and giving the biggest $`k=0`$ peaks can be resolved. The picture looks like in heavy spherical nuclei. Indeed, in the $`{}_{}{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}(e,e^{}p)`$ reaction, the $`l=0`$ strength was observed only as the ground state $`3s_{1/2}`$ and deep hole $`2s_{1/2}`$ structures Heyde . The former was found as a strong narrow peak and the latter as a broad bump spreaded in the interval 7-8 MeV with the centroid at $`21.3`$ MeV (the $`1s_{1/2}`$ was beyond the energy interval covered in the experiment). WS calculations predict more interesting situation when at least three additional levels ($`1/2^+[440]`$, $`1/2^+[420]`$, and $`1/2^+[660]`$) placed between $`1/2^+[200]`$ and $`1/2^+[400]`$ have a chance to be observed (more deeply bound levels can hardly be indicated because of a too strong broadening expected for them).

Single particle energies in mean field models have well defined discrete values as indicated by the simple bars in figure 3. However, $`l`$-strengths measured in $`(e,e^{}p)`$ experiments are spreaded, becoming broader while going away from the Fermi energy towards deeply bound states. The spread is caused by correlations beyond the mean field approximation, in particular by the coupling the holes with 1ph configurations and vibrations (see Ant ; Heyde ; Mahaux  and references therein). The deformation also contributes to the spread. Knock-out reactions are sensitive only to single-hole components which are the door-way states for them. So, the MD signal at $`k=0`$ will not be masked by complex components of the wave function, caused by the correlations. But the signal will be smeared out energetically to a more or less broad bump corresponding to a certain $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ level. The question is whether these bumps overlap each other or they are still separated enough to allow identification of the various $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ levels in $`(e,e^{}p)`$ reaction.

As is seen from figure 3, in the SkM calculations the relevant levels $`1/2^+[200]`$ and $`1/2^+[400]`$ are well separated in energy and so, in spite of a (weak) deformation mixing, can be observed. In the WS calculations, the levels $`1/2^+[200]`$, $`1/2^+[440]`$, $`1/2^+[420]`$, $`1/2^+[660]`$, and $`1/2^+[400]`$ are separated by the intervals 3-6 MeV (which hint at the energy scale for the deformation mixing). Following the $`{}_{}{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}(e,e^{}p)`$ data Heyde , the correlation spread should not exceed 7-8 MeV and for most of the states (as less bound) should even much weaker. For these states the correlation and deformation spreads seem to be of the same order of magnitude. So, we probably have an interesting situation when the deformation does not noticeably hinder the identification of $`l=0`$ structures but instead can increase the number of such structures.

In summary, momentum distributions (MD) for single-hole proton states in 238U were analyzed within two different mean field models: phenomenological Woods-Saxon (WS) and self-consistent Skyrme-Hartree-Fock with the force SkM. WS gives much stronger deformation effects than SkM, which is explained by the lower effective mass in SkM (in fact SkM description stays close to the spherical case). The deformation mainly influences $`K^\pi =1/2^+,1/2^{}`$ hole states in the low momentum domain. WS results predict a sequence of $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ states with strong $`l=0`$ contributions. Some of these states acquire the $`l=0`$ strength due to the deformation mixing. The property of $`l=0`$ strength to give a peak in MD at zero momenta considerably simplifies identification of $`l=0`$ structures. Our analysis shows that the $`K^\pi =1/2^+`$ states have a good chance to be discriminated in knock-out reactions. Observation of a sequence of such states in heavy deformed nuclei would provide a valuable information about their mean field. Besides, experimental study of the low-momentum MD in heavy deformed nuclei would help to discriminate the various mean-field models.

Acknowledgment: The work was partly supported by grants from FAPESP (Grant No. 2001/06082-1), RFBR (Grant No. 00-02-17194), and Germany-BLTP JINR ( Heisenberg-Landau). We express also our gratitude to Profs. A.N. Antonov, A.V. Afanasjev and J.R. Marinelli for their useful comments.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Figure 1: MD for selected hole proton states in 238U: SkM (solid curve) and WS (dashed curve) results at equilibrium deformations as well as SkM results in the spherical limit (dotted curve).

Figure 2: MD for $`K_i^\pi =1/2^+`$ hole proton states in 238U: SkM (solid curve) and WS (dashed curve) results.

Figure 3: MD at $`k=0`$ for the $`K_i^\pi =1/2^+`$ hole proton states (the same as in figure 2).


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# Violation of Bell’s Inequality with Photons from Independent Sources

## Abstract

We report a violation of Bell’s inequality using one photon from a parametric down-conversion source and a second photon from an attenuated laser beam. The two photons were entangled at a beam splitter using the post-selection technique of Shih and Alley \[Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2921 (1988)\]. A quantum interference pattern with a visibility of 91% was obtained using the photons from these independent sources, as compared with a visibility of 99.4% using two photons from a central parametric down-conversion source.

Nearly all experimental tests of nonlocality based on Bell’s inequality  have used pairs of photons emitted in an entangled state by a common source . Nonetheless, Yurke and Stoler have shown that Bell’s inequalities can be violated even if the two particles do not originate from a common source , and this has been demonstrated  using two pairs of entangled photons from parametric down-conversion combined with entanglement swapping . Here we describe an experimental violation of Bell’s inequality using one photon from parametric down-conversion and a second photon from an attenuated laser beam. The two photons were entangled at a beam splitter using the post-selection technique of Shih and Alley . The ability to obtain non-classical interference effects using photons from independent sources is an important requirement for an optical approach to quantum information processing .

One of the interesting features of this experiment is the fact that a coherent state produced by a laser is essentially a classical beam of light. Nevertheless, quantum interference patterns with visibilities as high as 91% were obtained using the two photons from independent sources. For comparison, a visibility of 99.4% was obtained using two photons from a central parametric down-conversion source. The lower visibility for photons from independent sources was due to imperfect mode matching and a decreased signal-to-noise ratio, as will be discussed in more detail below.

In the first Bell-inequality experiment to use photons from parametric down-conversion, Shih and Alley  combined two photons of a down-conversion pair at a 50/50 beam splitter as shown in Figure 1. In this experiment, one of the photons is horizontally polarized (denoted $`|H`$), while the second photon is vertically polarized ($`|V`$). Provided these photons are otherwise indistinguishable , the output state can be expressed as $`\frac{1}{2}(|H_1V_2+i|H_1V_1+i|H_2V_2|V_1H_2)`$, where the subscripts denote the output port of the beam splitter. Coincidence measurements in which one photon is detected in each output port post-selects an entangled state of the form:

$$|\psi ^{}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|H_1V_2|V_1H_2)$$
(1)
which is suitable for a test of Bell’s inequalities .

In our experiment, one of the inputs to the beam splitter in Figure 1 was a single-photon heralded from a down-conversion pair , while the second input photon was derived from a weak coherent state. The quality of the resulting post-selected state (1), and consequently the ability to violate Bell’s inequality in this situation, relied on the indistinguishability of the photons from these two different sources .

There have been several experiments demonstrating various aspects of the potential indistinguishability of down-converted photons and photons from weak coherent states (see, for example, ). In particular, Rarity and Tapster performed an experiment  in which the well known Hong-Ou-Mandel “dip”  was observed when a weak coherent state was mixed with a single heralded down-conversion photon at a 50/50 beam splitter. The key to their experiment was the elimination of timing information that, in principle, could distinguish the detected photons. This was accomplished by using ultrashort laser pulses to pump the down-conversion source, followed by narrowband interference filters to increase the coherence length of the photons and produce an overlap of their wavepackets . This same technique has also been successfully used in several experiments demonstrating higher-order interference effects involving single photons emitted from multiple down-conversion events .

In the first step of our experiment, the observation of a high visibility dip  signalled the experimental conditions necessary for the required indistinguishability of the independent photon sources. The second step then involved rotating the polarizations to repeat the Shih-Alley experiment  depicted in Figure 1. A simplified schematic of our experimental apparatus is shown in Figure 2.

Short laser pulses ($``$150 fs) at 780nm from a mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser were frequency doubled in a BBO crystal (labelled x2), providing UV pulses (390nm) that were then used to pump a second BBO crystal (labelled PDC) optimized for degenerate type-I non-collinear parametric down-conversion. This down-conversion source emitted pairs of horizontally polarized photons at 780nm which were then coupled into single mode optical fibers labelled $`A`$ and $`B`$. An optical delay unit formed by two translating glass wedges was inserted in one of the free-space down-conversion beams.

A small fraction of the original 780nm pumping beam was picked off and used as the weak coherent state. A variable attenuator was used to reduce the magnitude of this coherent state to the single-photon level, and a half-wave plate ($`\lambda /2`$) was used to rotate the linear polarization state as needed. Photons from the weak coherent state were coupled into the single-mode fiber labelled $`C`$.

Fibers $`B`$ and $`C`$ were connected to the input ports of a fused 3dB fiber coupler (labelled 50/50) that served as the 50/50 beam splitter for the Shih-Alley experiment of Figure 1. The output fibers of the 3dB coupler were used to direct the output beams to two single-photon detectors $`D_1`$ and $`D_2`$. These detectors, as well as the single-photon triggering detector $`D_t`$, were preceded by narrowband interference filters (not shown) centered at 780nm. $`\theta _1`$ and $`\theta _2`$ were polarization analyzers.

As shown in Figure 2, the various fibers were joined with standard fc:fc connectors. In order to test the quality of the 3dB fiber coupler, along with the alignment and correlations of the down-converted beams, we first repeated the Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment  by temporarily connecting fibers $`A`$ and $`B`$ (rather than $`B`$ and $`C`$) to the two input ports ($`1`$ and $`2`$) of the coupler. $`\theta _1`$ and $`\theta _2`$ were set to their horizontal values to match the horizontal polarizations of the down-converted photon pairs, and the effects of birefringence in the single-mode fibers were minimized using standard fiber polarization controllers. Using interference filters with a 10nm FWHM bandpass, coincidence counts between $`D_1`$ and $`D_2`$ were recorded as a function of the relative optical delay imposed by the glass wedges. As shown in Figure 3, a standard two-photon dip was observed with a visibility of ($`99.4\pm 0.1`$)%. This high visibility indicated a nearly perfect 50/50 beam splitter and a minimum of scattered photons from the original 780nm pumping pulses; both of these were critical requirements for the subsequent experiments of interest.

For the subsequent experiments, the fibers were reconnected as shown in Figure 2. The detection of a down-converted triggering photon by $`D_t`$ heralded the presence of the horizontally polarized twin photon in fiber $`B`$ with some limited probability, and was also used to gate the coincidence counting between $`D_1`$ and $`D_2`$ . Because the probability of two down-conversion events from a single pump pulse was negligibly small, a gated coincidence count between $`D_1`$ and $`D_2`$ therefore implied (with high probability) the joint detection of the heralded single-photon and a single photon from the vertically polarized weak coherent state coupled into fiber $`C`$. In these instances the three-photon (ie. gated two-photon) coincidence measurements post-selected an entangled state as in the Shih-Alley experiment , but with independent sources as depicted in Figure 1.

The allowable magnitude of the weak coherent state was limited by the probability of successfully heralding a single photon from a down-conversion pair. Roughly speaking, the probability of a three-photon event of interest $`P`$ was proportional to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\alpha `$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ corresponds the probability (per pump pulse) of a detectable down-conversion pair, and $`\alpha `$ is the probability per pulse of a detectable single photon from the weak coherent state. On the other hand, the largest background noise contribution $`P^{}`$ (ie. unwanted three-photon detection event) was proportional to $`H\mathrm{\Gamma }\alpha ^2`$, where $`H\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ denotes the probability of detecting a down-converted triggering photon while the twin photon has been lost. In order to observe the high visibility gated two-photon interference effects necessary for a violation of Bell’s inequality, we require that $`PP^{}`$ (eg. high signal-to-noise), which implies that $`\alpha \frac{1}{H}`$.

The other requirement for high visibility in this experiment was the bandpass of the interference filters, which is primarily dictated by the dispersive properties of the down-conversion crystal, the pump pulse duration, and the crystal length . With our 0.7mm thick BBO down-conversion crystal, we found interference filters with a 3nm FWHM to be sufficient. With these filters in place we would typically obtain approximately 23 down-conversion coincidence detections per second between the triggering detector $`D_t`$ and either $`D_1`$ or $`D_2`$, while the singles counting rate in $`D_t`$ was typically around 1300 counts per second. This implied a value of $`H28`$, which reflects a combination of inefficient coupling of the down-converted photons into the fibers, as well as fiber losses, limited polarizer and filter transmission, and limited detection efficiency. For the 76 MHz repetition rate of the mode-locked laser, this required us to limit the magnitude of the coherent state so that the singles counting rates (due to path $`C`$) in $`D_1`$ or $`D_2`$ were much less than $`1.4\times 10^6`$ per second. For the data shown below, we therefore kept this value at roughly $`1.5\times 10^5`$ counts per second ($`\alpha 4\times 10^3`$). Based on the signal-to-noise ratio obtained from these values, we would expect at most a 95% visibility of the quantum interference patterns.

The data shown in Figure 4 is a plot of the three-photon coincidence counting rate as a function of the optical delay imposed by the glass wedges. In analogy with the Hong-Ou-Mandel experiment , the half-wave plate was used to horizontally polarize photons from the weak coherent state, and $`\theta _1`$ and $`\theta _2`$ were set to their horizontal values. The experimental results show the expected gated Hong-Ou-Mandel dip  with a visibility of ($`90.8\pm 1.7`$)%. As described above, this high visibility implied that the experimental conditions necessary to maintain the indistinguishability of the two photons were met when the relative optical delay corresponded to the bottom of the dip.

The test of Bell’s inequality with photons from independent sources could then be implemented by vertically polarizing the photons from the weak coherent state. The data shown in Figure 5 is a plot of the number of gated two-photon coincidence detections in this situation as a function of the setting of the polarization analyzer $`\theta _1`$, with $`\theta _2`$ fixed at $`45^o`$. Figure 5 represents the main result of this paper. The experimental results show the functional $`Sin^2(\theta _1\theta _2)`$ signature of the entangled state in equation (1), with a visibility of ($`86.4\pm 3.2`$)% . As is well known, a visibility greater than 71% in this situation is sufficient for a violation of variants of Bell’s inequalities subject to certain reasonable assumptions .

We also gathered extensive data at the various combinations of $`\theta _1`$ and $`\theta _2`$ settings required for a test of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) version of the Bell inequality, for which local hidden-variables models are bound by a parameter $`|S|2`$ . A discussion of the various assumptions and loopholes related to this experiment is beyond the intended scope of this paper . We obtained an experimental value of $`S=2.44\pm 0.13`$, which is consistent with what one would expect from the visibility of 86% observed in Figure 5.

Although a common laser beam was used throughout the experiment, the same effects would be expected theoretically if two different pump lasers had been used. The two photons of interest were known to have been emitted in two different crystals, one in the Ti:Sapphire crystal of the laser and the other in the BBO down-conversion crystal. Any potential phase relationship between these two sources should factor out of the final state in equation (1) and have no effect on the results. The absence of any coherent effects from the laser could be seen experimentally from the fact that the relevant beams propagated over long unstabilized paths that were known to cause large phase drifts on time scales much shorter than the data accumulation time. In addition to the lack of any phase correlation, a comparison of the singles and coincidence rates showed that any intensity correlations between the two photon sources were less than 1% and consistent with zero.

In conclusion, we have violated Bell’s inequality using one photon from parametric down-conversion and a second photon from an attenuated laser beam. The two photons were entangled at a beam splitter through the post-selection technique of Shih and Alley . These results demonstrate that non-classical interference effects can be obtained using photons from independent sources, which is an important requirement for optical approaches to quantum information processing .

We acknowledge useful discussions with M.M. Donegan, M.J. Fitch, and B.C. Jacobs. This work was supported by ARO, NSA, ARDA, ONR, and IR&D funding.


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# High speed photometry of faint Cataclysmic Variables: III. V842 Cen, BY Cir, DD Cir, TV Crv, V655 CrA, CP Cru, V794 Oph, V992 Sco, EU Sct and V373 Sct

## 1 Introduction

In continuation of this series (Woudt & Warner 2001,2002) we present the results of high speed photometry of a further 10 cataclysmic variable stars (CVs). These are mostly quite faint and in crowded fields, requiring the use of the University of Cape Town’s CCD photometer (O’Donoghue 1995) in frame transfer mode and with no optical filter (i.e. the observations were made in ‘white light’). All of our observations were made at the Sutherland site of the South African Astronomical Observatory, using the 1.9-m (74-in) and 1.0-m (40-in) reflectors. The photometry was calibrated by observing hot white dwarf standards, but is not considered of high quality because CVs have non-standard flux distributions, so transformations to a standard photometric system (and, indeed, choice of the correct atmospheric extinction coefficient) are not possible. We leave our magnitudes on our own non-standard system.

As in the previous papers, we have concentrated on faint nova remnants. These have proved to be rewarding (e.g. for discovery of magnetic associated phenomena) and are in any case in most need of increased knowledge of orbital periods and of the discovery of eclipsing systems. Our observational philosophy is to consider this work as a survey, spending only sufficient time on each star to establish its essential properties. For the faintest objects where no certain identification has hitherto been given, we are usually satisfied merely to discover which of the candidates in the field shows rapid brightness variations. Often such a demonstration requires several attempts before the seeing conditions are good enough to isolate candidates from their neighbours. We use psf fitting, aperture photometry and image subtraction techniques in this quest. In the survey we are frequently pushing the telescopes to their magnitude limits and adjust the integration time according to seeing or faintness. We only observe brighter objects if the seeing is poor, or there is intermittent cloud, or there is a proximate moon.

In Section 2 we give the results of our observations; Table 1 contains the list of runs and the details for all the observed stars. Section 3 contains a summary of the results obtained from these new observations.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 V842 Centauri

V842 Cen was Nova Centauri 1986 No. 2, discovered at magnitude 5.6 but subsequently assigned a maximum magnitude of V = 4.6 (Duerbeck 1987). It was a moderately fast nova, with $`t_3`$ = 48 d, which developed an obscuring dust shell. De Freitas Pacheco et al. (1989) determined E(B-V) = 0.54 mag, and Downes & Duerbeck (2000) measured V = 15.82 in 1998 and detected a $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ diameter ejecta shell around the nova remnant. An IUE spectrum has been published (Gonzalez-Riestra, Orio & Gallagher 1998), obtained in 1991, showing the strong emission lines of CII, SiIV, NIV, HeII and CIII characteristic of a post nova with a white dwarf primary that is still very hot.

We have made two long runs on V842 Cen, listed in Table 1 and shown in Fig. 1. It is evident that V842 Cen is continuously flaring with rises of up to 0.25 mag on a characteristic time scale of $``$5 mins. This is one of the most active nova remnants we have seen. Although the light curves are both $``$10.5 h long, we see no clear indication of any orbital modulation and conclude that V842 Cen is probably of low inclination. We have made Fourier transforms (FTs) of the runs, and subsections of them, and find that there are no short period (tens of seconds) modulations that would be classified as dwarf nova oscillations (DNOs). However, occasionally there appear to be strong quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) present with time scales $``$750 s and $``$1300 s on the first night and $``$950 s on the second night. These QPOs will be analysed and discussed elsewhere, together with results from other CVs. We point out, however, the striking similarity of the light curve of V842 Cen to that of the nova-like TT Ari (see Figure 9 of Patterson 1994).

### 2.2 BY Circini

BY Cir was Nova Circini 1995, discovered at V $``$ 7.2 on 27 January 1995 (Liller 1995) and reported to be at V = 15.9 on 23 March 1998 (Downes & Duerbeck 2000). The light curve is illustrated by Bateson & McIntosh (1998); it shows that BY Cir was a slow nova, falling smoothly with $`t_3`$ = 157 d.

We observed BY Cir on four nights (Table 1), finding on the first night that it is an eclipsing system with eclipses $``$0.9 mag deep. The following two nights we made longer runs to determine the orbital period, and subsequently another short run to improve the accuracy of the period. BY Cir had faded to $``$17.8 in the 4 years since Downes and Duerbeck observed it. The light curves are displayed in Fig. 2, phased at the orbital period of 6.76 h. This is quite long for a nova: BY Cir joins BT Mon ($`P_{orb}`$ = 8.01 h) and QZ Aur ($`P_{orb}`$ = 8.58 h) as a long period deeply eclipsing nova remnant. The ephemeris for the times of mid-eclipse is

$$\mathrm{HJD}_{\mathrm{min}}=2452347.5790+0.^\mathrm{d}2816(\pm 2)\mathrm{E}.$$
(1)
The depth of eclipse is seen to vary by about 0.3 mag and there is variable asymmetry in the eclipse profile. Flickering is present on a number of time scales, and the profile of the final eclipse has clusters of points showing that the flickering continues during at least the falling and rising portions.

An FT of the combined light curves (with the eclipses removed) shows no evidence for any persistent coherent periodicities other than $`P_{orb}`$ and its harmonics; on individual nights there are no dwarf nova oscillations (DNOs: periodicities $``$10–50 s) detected.

### 2.3 DD Circinus

DD Cir was discovered as Nova Cir on 23 August 1999 at an apparent magnitude of 7.7 (Liller 1999). It proved to be a very fast nova, with a pre-eruption brightness V $`>`$ 21 (Downes et al. 2001) and $`t_2`$ $``$ 4.5 d. There are no recent estimates of its brightness. The chart published by Downes et al. does not identify DD Cir, so we reproduce one of our CCD frames in Fig. 3.

Our photometric observations are listed in Table 1 and show that DD Cir has a mean magnitude of $``$ 20.1. Maximum brightness during eruption may have been missed, and it is not certain that it has yet reached its quiescent magnitude, so we can only deduce that the range is $``$ 12.5 mag. With the inclination $`79^{}`$ deduced below, DD Cir should have a range $``$ 15 mag (see Figure 5.4 of Warner 1995) and therefore may fade out of sight in the next few years.

The light curves of DD Cir are displayed in Fig. 4 and show that it is an eclipsing system with an eclipse depth $``$ 0.6 mag and an orbital period of 2.339 h. A period of that value is of particular significance because it lies within the ‘period gap’ shown by dwarf novae and nova-like variables (Warner 1995), further reducing the case for such an orbital period gap in the classical novae (e.g. Warner 2002). The ephemeris for time of mid-eclipse, deduced from our light curves, is

$$\mathrm{HJD}_{\mathrm{min}}=2452426.2102+0.^\mathrm{d}09746(\pm 1)\mathrm{E}.$$
(2)
The upward convexity and variability of the light curve between eclipses encouraged us to look for a superhump signal, but removing the eclipses from the light curves, or prewhitening at the orbital period and its harmonics, leaves no indication of any signal near to $`P_{orb}`$ in the FTs. Therefore we interpret the convexity as a reflection effect, resulting from the fact that DD Cir was a nova less than three years ago and the primary may still be quite hot. The high inclination favours such a reflection effect.

A sinusoidal fit to the mean light curve outside of eclipses gives a peak-to-peak range of 0.30 mag for the reflection signal – see Fig. 5. (For this mean light curve we have omitted the final run, S6425, which shows deep dips and asymmetry.) Reflection effects in post-novae are expected to be large only when a high mass transfer rate (high $`\dot{M}`$), high luminosity accretion disc does not dominate the system. A relatively short period and high inclination system such as DD Cir is optimal for a strong reflection effect. Alternatively, if the system is strongly magnetic (as in a polar) then no disc exists and reflection luminosity can also dominate, as in the nova V1500 Cyg (Kaluzny & Chlebowski 1988). In DD Cir, however, there is clear evidence of an accretion disc: the eclipse profile is that of partial eclipse of an extended disc.

This can be made more quantitative as follows. The total width of eclipse is 2$`\varphi _d`$ = 0.19 and the total width at half depth is 2$`\varphi _p`$ = 0.074. Inserted into Equation (2.65) of Warner (1995) (which is correct for deep eclipses: because part of the reflected light remains at mid-eclipse, the eclipse is actually a little deeper than measured) this gives a disc radius $`r_d`$/$`a`$ $``$ 0.47, where $`a`$ is the separation of components. At $`P_{orb}`$ = 2.34 h we expect the mass of the secondary to be 0.19 M (Equation (2.100) of Warner 1995), and adopting a primary mass of 1.1 M (in accordance with the typically high masses for the primaries of novae) we have a mass ratio q = 0.17. Harrop-Allin and Warner (1996) find from analysis of many CV eclipses that high $`\dot{M}`$ discs have radii comparable to the tidal truncation radius $`r_t`$/$`a`$ = $`0.60(1+q)`$, which is $`r_t/a`$ = 0.51 for $`q`$ = 0.17. It is clear, therefore, that DD Cir contains a high $`\dot{M}`$ disc.

The individual light curves, and the mean curve (Fig. 5), show that the brightness at phase 0.5 falls below what would be expected of a sinusoidal reflection effect. It is possible that this is the effect of a secondary eclipse. That such might be detectable in special circumstances is shown by the following analysis.

With the parameters for DD Cir deduced above, and using the graphs of the relationships between $`q`$, inclination $`i`$, and $`\varphi _p`$ given by Horne (1985), we find $`i=79^{}`$ for DD Cir. Ignoring the vertical thickness of the disc, the disc seen in projection at orbital phase 0.5 obscures the irradiated secondary from its pole down towards lower latitudes when $`\mathrm{cos}i=(R_2/a)(1+r_d/a)^1`$, where $`R_2`$ is the radius of the secondary. For $`q`$ = 0.17 we find $`R_2/a`$ = 0.24 (Warner 1995), which gives $`i=80.5^{}`$. It happens, therefore, that in DD Cir the inclination is such that a large fraction of one hemisphere of the irradiated secondary is obscured by the optically thick accretion disc. With the above parameters we find that the disc obscures the primary from its pole down to a latitude $`l20^{}`$ (see Fig. 6), and that as a result $``$ 30% of the surface area of the secondary is obscured at orbital phase 0.5. Such obscuration is of course the case for all high inclination CVs, but in general the secondary contributes such a small fraction of the total luminosity that the effect is not detectable. In DD Cir, however, we have a unique CV with high inclination and substantial luminosity of one side of the secondary, so we may hope to see secondary eclipses in the light curve.

DD Cir has one more property of interest. In runs S6416, S6421 and S6425 the FTs show distinct periodic signals at 662 s, 665 s and at 673 s respectively, all with amplitudes $``$ 0.025 mag. Note that for the analysis of this $``$670 s signal in the various runs, we have removed the eclipses in each of the runs. The differences in period are within the uncertainties due to noise and data length. Furthermore, in S6399 there is a signal with amplitude 0.011 mag at 668 s, which is only at the level of the noise, but supports the possible existence of a persistent periodicity. In S6404 the amplitudes near 670 s are $`<`$ 0.01 mag, but a small amount of noise in antiphase with the signal could cause cancellation. The mean light curve for S6421, which has the clearest signal, is shown in Fig. 7, where the amplitude is 0.026 mag. The FT for the entire data set, excluding S6404, naturally has an alias problem; the two highest peaks are at 666.08 s and its one day alias 671.28 s, both with amplitudes of 0.017 mag.

The $``$670 s signal is indicative of the rotation period of the primary or its orbital sideband. It would be valuable to extend observations of DD Cir, with larger telescopes, before it fades further.

### 2.4 TV Corvi

TV Crv is an SU UMa type dwarf nova with a quiescent magnitude V $``$ 19 and superoutbursts spaced about a year apart (Levy et al. 1990). During the superoutburst in June 1994 superhumps were observed with a period $`P_{sh}`$ of 1.56 $`\pm `$ 0.02 h (Howell et al. 1996). Superhumps usually have periods a few percent longer than the orbital periods (Warner 1995), so a $`P_{orb}`$ $``$ 1.50 h is expected. No spectroscopic or photometric periods in quiescence have hitherto been obtained.

We observed TV Crv at minimum light in the hope of detecting an orbital modulation. Our observations are listed in Table 1. Having found a clear orbital modulation on the first night, we observed on the second night for just sufficient time to include another orbital hump. The double humped profile of the light curve puts a great deal of power into the first harmonic, which has three aliases in the FT; we use these to find three possibilities for the fundamental period: 1.414, 1.461 and 1.512 h. In addition, there are three aliases at the fundamental itself, at 1.506, 1.617 and 1.747 h. Knowing the superhump period enables unambiguous selection of $`P_{orb}`$ = 1.509 h from this suite. The ephemeris for times of maxima is given by

$$\mathrm{HJD}_{\mathrm{max}}=2452372.3371+0.^\mathrm{d}06288(\pm 13)\mathrm{E}.$$
(3)
In Fig. 8 we show the mean light curve, co-added at the orbital period. The range of the orbital modulation is 0.2 mag. The superhump excess ($`P_{sh}P_{orb}`$)/$`P_{orb}`$ = 0.034, and the beat period $`P_b`$ = ($`P_{orb}^1P_{sh}^1`$)-1 = 1.9 d. These values are similar to those of other SU UMa stars with orbital periods near 1.5 h (Warner 1995).

### 2.5 V655 Coronae Austrinae

Nova Coronae Austrinae was discovered on objective prism plates in June 1967 and was very poorly observed. Downes et al. (2001) give a magnitude of 17.6 at quiescence, measured on a J plate. No observations of V655 CrA at quiescence have previously been reported; our photometric runs are listed in Table 1. A CCD frame of the vicinity of V655 CrA is illustrated in Fig. 9; this shows that the nova remnant is a member of a close triplet of stars. The star that we have found to be variable is marked.

The light curves of V655 CrA are displayed in Fig. 10. There are large variations around a mean magnitude of 17.6. Although there are clearly preferred time scales associated with the variations, we find nothing in the FTs indicative of repetitive modulations – as we added more data, the FT changed in character and in the positions of the principal peaks.

### 2.6 CP Crucis

CP Cru was Nova Crucis 1996, discovered by Liller at V = 9.2 (Liller 1996) and observed at V = 19.48 in March 1998 (Downes & Duerbeck 2000). It was a very fast nova ($`t_24`$ d) and is seen in an HST image to have a $`0.6^{\prime \prime }\times 0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ shell (Downes & Duerbeck 2000). True maximum light was probably missed.

Our observations are listed in Table 1 and show that the nova was at V $``$ 19.6 in March 2002, and therefore is now probably near to its quiescent level. Such a fast nova, seen at the relatively high inclination that we deduce below, should have an eruption range $``$ 14.4 mag (Figure 5.4 of Warner 1995) and therefore could have reached V $``$ 5.2 at maximum. This is in agreement with Downes & Duerbeck, who deduce an absolute magnitude MV $``$ -5.3 which is about 3.7 mag too faint for the speed of the nova.

The light curves of CP Cru are shown in Fig. 11 and reveal that it has shallow eclipses, about 0.25 mag deep, giving it an inclination $`70^{}`$. We observed CP Cru just sufficiently to determine its orbital period unambiguously (the initial observations gave several possible aliases; we chose our subsequent observing times to eliminate or confirm these). The orbital period is 22.7 h111The $`P_{orb}`$ reported earlier (Warner 2002) was mistakenly the first harmonic of the actual period., which is the third longest period known for a classical nova. The secondary in CP Cru must be considerably evolved. The ephemeris for mid-eclipse is

$$\mathrm{HJD}_{\mathrm{min}}=2452346.620+0.^\mathrm{d}0944(\pm 1)\mathrm{E}.$$
(4)
### 2.7 V794 Ophiuchi

V794 Oph was discovered by Burwell & Hoffleit (1943) on an objective prism plate taken in July 1939 and became a slow nova with $`t_3`$ = 220 d, resembling HR Del in its light curve (Duerbeck 1987). Szkody (1994) gave V = 17.70 and (B–V) = 1.5, measured in 1989, and Hoard et al. (2002) give J, H, and K magnitudes of the same star, identified on Duerbeck’s (1987) finding chart. Ringwald, Naylor & Mukai (1996) obtained a spectrum of the star, showing a featureless continuum increasing strongly to long wavelengths.

At maximum, V794 Oph was $`m_{pg}`$ = 11.7. The range of such a slow nova would be expected to be 8–11 mag, depending on its orbital inclination (Figure 5.4 of Warner 1995). The candidate star at V $``$ 17.7 would therefore seem rather too bright to be the nova remnant, and this conclusion is supported by the spectrum.

We have obtained high speed photometry of the candidate, see Table 1, and find no variability in it. We have not found rapid variability of any other stars in the field, either of the candidate, or of stars near the position given by Burwell & Hoffleit, which differs from Duerbeck’s candidate by nearly 1. It is not clear by how much maximum brightness was missed, but we suggest that the true nova remnant is likely to be considerably fainter than the candidate’s 17.7. Our magnitude estimate for the V794 Oph candidate is somewhat uncertain due to its red colours.

### 2.8 V992 Scorpii

Nova Scorpii 1992 was discovered at V $``$ 8.2 by Camilleri (1992) and brightened to V = 7.26 four days after discovery (Kilmartin 1992). It was a slow nova, the light curve of which is shown by Smith et al. (1995).

Our photometric observations of V992 Sco are listed in Table 1 and show the nova to have faded to V $``$ 17.1 by early 2002, giving an eruption range of at least 9.8 mag. The light curve of the longest run in the May 2002 set of runs (S6398) is shown in Fig. 12. An FT of this data set, followed by a non-linear least squares fit to the fundamental and first harmonic, delivers a fundamental period of 3.686 h with an amplitude of 0.044 mag and a first harmonic with an amplitude of 0.018 mag. Similar treatment of the March 2002 runs gives the independent estimates 3.685 h at 0.070 mag and the harmonic at 0.015 mag. Fig. 13 shows the mean light curves of the March and May runs, co-added at the 3.686 h period, which we interpret as $`P_{orb}`$ for V992 Sco. The low amplitude of the orbital modulation suggests an intermediate orbital inclination, probably $``$40.

The FTs show no other coherent periodicities in the light curves.

### 2.9 EU Scuti

EU Sct was Nova Scuti 1949, discovered on 31 July of that year and reaching a photographic magnitude of 8.4 at maximum brightness 5 days later. It was a moderately fast nova with $`t_3`$ = 42 d. Szkody (1994) measured V = 17.37 and (B–V) = 2.66 in 1988 for the candidate star indicated in Deurbeck’s (1987) finding chart. Szkody pointed out the extreme redness of this star, as also did Weight et al (1994), who proposed (by comparison with the recurrent novae RS Oph and T CrB which have red giant companions) that EU Sct might be a recurrent nova. There has been no detailed spectroscopic study of EU Sct in quiescence.

Our observations of EU Sct are listed in Table 1. The photometric calibration that we normally apply is not appropriate for an object with such red colours. We therefore do not list the mean magnitude of EU Sct in Table 1. We find no rapid variation in the candidate star – which, being very red, appears much brighter on our CCD frames than on the photographic finding chart and is easy to measure accurately. However, there is a 19.1 mag companion $`4^{\prime \prime }`$ south of the candidate, which is difficult to observe but in the first of our runs has possible photometric variations. If this is the true candidate then the eruption range was 10.7 mag, which is compatible with a nova having $`t_3=42`$ d if it has low orbital inclination (Fig. 5.4 of Warner 1995). Spectra of the two objects are required to test our suspicions.

### 2.10 V373 Scuti

V373 Sct was discovered as a nova on 15 Jun 1975, but it was subsequently found that maximum light, at V = 7.1, had occurred just over a month earlier (Duerbeck 1987). It was a moderately fast nova with $`t_3=85`$ d. The spectrum obtained by Ringwald et al. (1996) in 1991 showed strong Balmer emission on a blue continuum, and very strong HeII 4686Åand the CIII/NIII blend at 4650Å, which is often indicative of a magnetic system. Their photometry gave a V magnitude of 18.7.

Our observations are listed in Table 1. We also find a mean magnitude near 18.7, showing that V373 Sct has settled down at minimum light. The eruption range of 11.6 mag and value of $`t_3`$ combine to suggest a high inclination orbit. However, the light curves, seen in Fig. 14, show great activity but no hint of any orbital modulation.

The large amplitude flickering, as with the strong ionic emission lines, is also often a signature of a magnetic system. In V373 Sct we have found that a third magnetic diagnostic is present – a coherent luminosity modulation of the kind seen in non-synchronous rotators such as DQ Herculis stars and intermediate polars. The only significant feature in the FTs of the three light curves is a narrow spike at a period of 258.3 s in run S6361 – see Fig. 15. There is no significant power at this period in the FTs of the other two runs – but there is considerable noise in this region due to the flickering. There is no significant amplitude at the first harmonic of the signal.

Fig. 16 shows the O–C diagram and amplitude plot for run S6361. Five cycles of the signal, with 50% overlap, have been fitted to a sinusoid with a period of 258.3 s. There is an increase in the length of the error bars on the amplitude points where steep slopes occur in the light curve. It is difficult to filter the large amplitude rapid variations out of the light curve without removing part of the coherent signal, which is of similar time scale, so we have merely analysed the raw light curve. The O–C phase variations are consistent with a signal of constant period, the mean amplitude of which is $``$ 0.02 mag.

A modulation at 258 s is considerably longer than any DNOs observed in CVs (which usually have periods much less than 100 s). However, the three old novae V533 Her, DQ Her and GK Per show (or have shown, in the case of V533 Her, where the signal is no longer visible) highly stable modulations at 63.63, 71.07 and 351.34 s respectively (see, e.g., the review in Warner 1995). If the 258 s periodicity proves to be persistent and coherent then V373 Sct will join this group of rapid rotators.

## 3 Summary

The most important result from our survey is that we have detected eclipses in three old novae: BY Cir with $`P_{orb}`$ = 6.76 h, DD Cir with $`P_{orb}`$ = 2.339 h (placing it squarely in the “orbital period gap”), and CP Cru with $`P_{orb}`$ = 22.7 h, which is the third longest period known for a classical nova. We also find a fourth orbital period, from the presence of a modulation at 3.686 h in the old nova V992 Sco. In addition, DD Cir has a $``$ 670 s low amplitude photometric modulation and the old nova V373 Sct has a 258.3 s modulation; these are signatures of magnetic primaries with these as their spin period, or orbital side bands. There is some evidence that DD Cir has a 0.3 mag reflection effect that is partly obscured at phase 0.5, producing a secondary eclipse caused by the optically thick accretion disc.

The old novae V842 Cen and V655 CrA are highly active photometrically but show no clear periodic modulation, indicating that they are low inclination systems.

We have also measured $`P_{orb}`$ = 1.509 h for the SU UMa star TV Crv from an orbital modulation seen during quiescence. Only the superhump period, observed during superoutburst, was previously known for this star.

Our observations of V794 Oph and EU Sct throw doubt on the currently proposed identification of these old novae.

## Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. D. O’Donoghue for the use of his EAGLE program for Fourier analysis of the light curves. PAW is supported by funds made available from the National Research Foundation and by strategic funds made available to BW from the University of Cape Town. BW’s research is supported by the University.