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# One Ring to Encompass them All: A giant stellar structure that surrounds the Galaxy

## 1 Introduction

Due to our location within the disk of the Milky Way, studies of the global structure of this galactic component are hampered by projection problems, crowding, dust, and the presence of intervening populations (such as the Bulge). Nowhere is this so problematic as in the study of the very outer edge of the disk. The advent of the recent wide-area infra-red surveys (e.g. 2MASS and DENIS) have alleviated the extinction problem, but the other problems remain, with the distance ambiguity being particularly limiting. Even the future astrometric mission GAIA (Perryman et al., 2001) is unlikely to give us a full picture of the Galactic disk, due to telemetry limits in regions of high stellar density.

Yet the outer regions of galactic disks are important regions to study, as they provide important clues to our understanding of the global structure and formation of galaxies (see, e.g., van der Kruit, 2001). These are the least self-gravitating regions of galactic disks, and the presence of the dark matter halo can begin to be felt at these radii. The flaring of the outer disk constrains the dark matter fraction in these regions (Olling & Merrifield, 2000, and references therein). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the very outermost edge of the disk is that it is expected to be young. In galaxy formation simulations that contain a gas component as well as Cold Dark Matter, galaxy disks tend to grow from the inside out, with the most recently accreted gas settling down onto the end of the disk (Navarro & Steinmetz, 1997). Ensuing star-formation in regions of sufficient density produces young stars, leading to a primarily young, metal-poor stellar population in these galactic extremities, though radial mixing in the disk may smear this information out (Sellwood & Binney, 2002). However, recent simulations (Sommer-Larsen, Gotz & Portinari, 2002) show that some disks form outside-in as well as inside-out, in agreement with tantalising new evidence that indicates that the outer disk of the Andromeda galaxy may well be old (Ferguson & Johnson, 2001). Determining the age of disk populations at large radius will provide a good test of current disk formation models.

An interesting recent development in the study of the stellar populations of the outer disk has been presented by Newberg et al. (2002), based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry of fields towards the Galactic anticentre direction. Newberg et al. (2002) find an overdensity of F-colored stars close to the Galactic plane in the constellation “Monoceros”, with a narrow colour-magnitude sequence that belies a stellar population $`11\mathrm{kpc}`$ from the Sun and $`18\mathrm{kpc}`$ from the Galactic centre. The narrow magnitude spread implies a distance spread of about $`2\mathrm{kpc}`$, despite the fact that the structure is seen over a wide range above and below the Galactic plane stretching from $`b25^{}`$ to $`b20^{}`$ (i.e. $`5.5\mathrm{kpc}<z<4.5\mathrm{kpc}`$).

The analysis of Newberg et al. (2002) suggested that this stellar population was a very nearby orbiting Galactic satellite. Here we present evidence of similar color-magnitude features in fields taken as part of a survey of the Andromeda galaxy with the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), and as part of a public survey observed with the same telescope entitled the INT Wide Field Survey (WFS).

## 2 The Isaac Newton Telescope Wide Field Camera Surveys

The INT WFS is an initiative by the UK and Dutch communities to devote a large fraction of the INT to deep and wide-field surveys. Many fields have now been observed since 1998. However, the resulting coverage at the present time is patchy, with most time having been spent in large extragalactic surveys towards the Galactic polar caps. Table 1 is a listing of suitable WFS or WFC observations below $`|b|\stackrel{<}{}50^{}`$. In Figure 1 we display an example of one of these fields, the Elais field N1, located at $`\mathrm{}=85^{}`$, $`b=+44^{}`$, which shows the normal Galactic stellar population sequences. In contrast, Newberg et al. (2002) have shown that the anticentre (“Monoceros”) region shows an additional feature in colour-magnitude space (their Figure 12), with shape similar to a main sequence that has a turnoff at $`g^{}r^{}=0.25`$, $`g^{}19.5`$ (in the AB system).

In examining INT WFC survey fields, we have detected the presence of this unexpected feature in other distant fields. Figure 2 displays the colour-magnitude diagram of the INT WFC field “Mono-N” (located at $`\mathrm{}=150^{}`$, $`b=+20^{}`$); a population that follows a track similar to a narrow-main sequence is seen in addition to the usual Galactic components. This sequence is shown more clearly in the right-hand panel of Figure 3, in which we have used the Elais-N1 field as a “background” to subtract off the normal Galactic components. Due to the difference in Galactic latitude between the target and control fields, the thick disk is not subtracted cleanly: this poor subtraction of the thick disk is seen as a smear to brighter magnitudes and redder colours than the narrow sequence that delineates the abrupt faint end of the right hand panel of Figure 3. Another INT WFS field that displays this excess population is the field named WFS-0801 ($`\mathrm{}=180^{}`$, $`b=+30^{}`$), the colour-magnitude diagram of which is displayed in Figure 4. Subtracting a background estimated from the Elias-N1 field gives the Hess diagram displayed on the right-hand panel of Figure 5. As the “background” field is closer in Galactic latitude to the WFS-0801 field, this statistical subtraction is much cleaner, allowing us to show the unexpected excess population relatively free of contamination from the expected Galactic components.

The other two proprietary large surveys (Ibata et al., 2001; Ferguson et al., 2002, 2003) were conducted by our group to reveal the structure and stellar populations in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy ($`\mathrm{}=122^{}`$, $`b=21^{}`$) and M33 ($`\mathrm{}=134^{}`$, $`b=31^{}`$). A further two fields were observed for use as comparison regions for these surveys. Table 1 also lists these fields. In Figures 6 and 8 we display the $`\mathrm{V}_0`$, $`(\mathrm{V}\mathrm{i})_0`$, colour-magnitude diagram in our M31 survey, where we have plotted separately the northern (lower $`|b|`$) and southern quadrants of the survey. The CMD structure seen in the SDSS “Monoceros” field is also observed in our 30 square-degree field around M31. The left-hand panel of Figure 7 shows the Hess diagram of the northern M31 field (note that this is a zoomed-in view of Figure 6). Lacking an appropriate background field in $`V`$ and $`i`$ pass-bands, we have been forced to use the southern M31 field as a comparison region. The result of subtracting the southern M31 field from the northern M31 field is displayed in the right-hand panel of Figure 7; the excess population is again clearly seen as a narrow sequence.

The high statistical significance of the detection of the excess population in the different fields is demonstrated in Figure 9, where we show the distribution of stars as a function of their displacement in colour from the ridge-lines. Due to the lack of a suitable background field, we are unable to provide a similar estimate of the significance of the detection in the southern M31 field, though the population is clearly present in that field, as we show in Figure 10.

## 3 Results and Conclusions

The detection of a stellar population almost identical to that seen in the SDSS Monoceros fields shows that this structure is immense. The M31 field is $`100^{}`$ away in longitude from the S223+20 field, towards the diametrically opposite side of the Galaxy. The structure is also seen both below the Galactic plane (in the M31 field and in S200-24) and above it (in fields Mono-N, WFS-0801, S183+22, S218+22, and S223+20), covering a vertical range of more than $`50^{}`$. The fields at higher Galactic latitude than $`|b|30^{}`$ did not show up a similar CMD feature, and neither was the feature detected in the lower latitude ($`b=31^{}`$) M33 field. The structure appears to be confined close to the Galactic plane.

To investigate the difference in Heliocentric distance between the fields, we compared the colour-magnitude sequence detected by Newberg et al. (2002) in the S223+20 field to the three INT fields Mono-N, WFS-0801, and M31. Due to the difference in the photometric systems between the surveys, conversions need to be made to shift measurements in the SDSS (g’,r’) system to Vega-normalized (g,r) and (V,i). For the (g,r) fields we used an South Galactic Pole region where there are overlapping INT and SDSS data (the latter from the Early Data Release, Stoughton et al., 2002); we find $`(gr)=0.21+0.86(g^{}r^{})`$ and $`g=g^{}+0.150.16(gr)`$. The resulting transformed track of the S223+20 field requires an offset of $`0.4\mathrm{mag}`$ to match the Mono-N and WFS-0801 fields (i.e. stars in the Mono-N and WFS-0801 features are brighter). To convert to (V,i) we took $`V=g0.030.42(gr)`$ (Windhorst et al., 1991), and used the WFS photometry in the WFS-2240 field to find the following necessary transformation: $`(gi)=0.09+1.51(gr)`$. The offset of the S223+20 ridge-line was found to be $`0.8\mathrm{mag}`$ for the northern M31 field (the feature in the southern M31 field has too low S/N to fit). Assuming that the S223+20 feature is $`11\mathrm{kpc}`$ distant (Newberg et al., 2002), and interpreting these magnitude offsets as due to distance variations, puts the structure in the Mono-N, WFS-0801 and M31 fields at a distance of $`9\mathrm{kpc}`$, $`9\mathrm{kpc}`$ and $`8\mathrm{kpc}`$ respectively. The corresponding Galactocentric distances, in order of increasing Galactic longitude 111Please note that the photometric conversions, especially the extrapolation from (g’,r’) on the AB system to (V,i) on the Vega system, may have significant systematic errors. The estimated distances are therefore only indicative., are: $`14\mathrm{kpc}`$ in M31 (at $`\mathrm{}=123^{}`$), $`16\mathrm{kpc}`$ in Mono-N (at $`\mathrm{}=149^{}`$), $`16\mathrm{kpc}`$ in WFS-0801 (at $`\mathrm{}=180^{}`$), and $`17.7\mathrm{kpc}`$ in S223+20 (at $`\mathrm{}=221^{}`$).

The substantial area of our M31 field allows a first estimation of the scale-height of this unexpected population. To this end we selected stars in a banana-shaped region between $`20.5<\mathrm{V}_0<21.5`$ and $`0.5+0.02(\mathrm{V}_017.0)^2<(\mathrm{V}\mathrm{i})_0<0.8+0.02(\mathrm{V}_017.0)^2`$. The density of these sources is displayed as filled circles in Figure 10, and shows a rapid rise towards the Galactic plane. After subtracting a “background” level measured from the same colour-magnitude region in the M33 field ($`b=31^{}`$), we performed a straight-line fit to the logarithm (base-ten) of the counts per square degree, which yields a slope of $`0.081\pm 0.004`$ per degree of Galactic latitude. Taking the distance of $`8\mathrm{kpc}`$ derived above, this implies a scale height of $`0.75\mathrm{kpc}\pm 0.04\mathrm{kpc}`$. The open circles in Figure 10 show a similar selection, just slightly bluer, which picks out Galactic halo stars. In contrast, this second selection gives an almost flat distribution, consistent with our preconceptions of the Halo as an almost spherically-distributed component.

The nature of this structure remains a puzzle. It is clear that it cannot be related to the normal thin disk, as it lies several magnitudes below the expected thin disk sequence. The rapid decline in the density of the feature away from the Galactic plane also rules out a direct connection to the halo. This leaves the thick disk as the only normal Galactic option. We used the Galaxy starcounts model of Ibata (1994) to predict the $`\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}`$, V colour-magnitude diagram of the thick disk in all of the fields investigated ($`\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}`$ colours are close to $`\mathrm{g}\mathrm{r}`$). For the thick disk, we find that the spread in V magnitude at constant colour has a FWHM exceeding 3 magnitudes in all of our fields (we chose to sample 0.05 magnitudes about $`\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}=1.0`$ which gives the minimum spread in magnitude). The detected feature therefore cannot be the standard thin disk, halo or even thick disk, in agreement with Newberg et al. (2002). Several possibilities present themselves:

* One option is that the various surveys probe small areas of a gigantic ring that encompasses the disk. The ring has a radius of $`15`$$`20\mathrm{kpc}`$, a radial thickness of $`2\mathrm{kpc}`$, and a vertical scale height of $`0.75\mathrm{kpc}`$. Due to the presence of the Magellanic Clouds and the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, the ring is warped and non-circular, explaining the variation in Galactocentric radius between some of the survey fields. The stellar mass of the structure can be estimated by taking the surface density in the M31 field as representative of the whole ring, and assuming axisymmetry and some vertical profile. If the vertical profile is exponential, as is suggested by the data displayed in Figure 10, we find that the total stellar mass of the structure is $`M=10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$, whereas if the surface density remains constant below $`|b|=18^{}`$, the mass is $`M=2\times 10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (for these estimates we have taken the luminosity function of Jahreis & Wielen 1997 and the mass-luminosity relation of Henry & McCarthy 1993). A possible mechanism to form such a ring may be repeated warpings of the outer disk. In the Andromeda Galaxy (seen almost edge-on), the outer stellar disk has a complicated non-axisymmetric shape (Ferguson et al., 2002), with large vertical deviations suggestive of ancient warps which now no longer follow the warp seen in the gas. The possible Ring seen in the outer disk of the Milky Way may be of similar origin. One would expect such structures to eventually mix entirely, leaving a flared outer disk, rather than a radially thin ring. Either there is another factor at play, such as, for instance, a strong interaction with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Ibata & Razoumov, 1998) or the Magellanic Clouds (e.g., Tsuchiya, 2002), or the ring is a recent phenomenon (note however, that the stellar constituents could be older than the structure). If the structure is a perturbation, the wave may have been amplified to the current large vertical extent (in the manner of a whip) in passing outwards through the disk to regions of progressively lower density.

The low-latitude HVC field (Lewis et al., 2002), located at ($`\mathrm{}=327^{}`$, $`b=15^{}`$), is not in contradiction with the interpretation of the structure as a Galactic ring. Assuming that the ring has a radius of $`18\mathrm{kpc}`$, implies a distance of $`24\mathrm{kpc}`$ in this direction, more than twice the distance to the fields in which the “Monoceros”-like CMD structure has been detected. The HVC field may simply lie too far below the Galactic plane (in that direction) to detect the Ring (the field also covers a relatively small solid angle of sky).

The reason the Ring may not have been discovered before is due to its low surface density. Very large areas need to be surveyed to detect it. It would also be difficult to detect with, for instance, the poorer photometry available from photographic plates.
* Another possibility is that the surveys probe different regions of the disrupted tidal stream of an accreted satellite galaxy. Halo satellites are expected to have high eccentricity orbits, with apocentre to pericentre ratio of $`4`$ (van den Bosch et al., 1999). For sufficiently massive satellites ($`\stackrel{>}{}10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$), the continual braking effect of dynamical friction with the Galactic halo and disk can eventually lead to the decay of the orbit. However, simulations show that satellite orbits are not readily circularized by dynamical friction (van den Bosch et al., 1999; Colpi, Mayer & Governato, 1999), so it is hard to explain the near circular orbit required by this scenario. A second problem relates to the small distance spread along the line of sight. As the orbit of the satellite decays, constituent stars will be lost by tidal disruption. Over time, the tidally removed stars become phased-mixed, spreading out over the orbit, and occupying the region between the orbit pericentre and apocentre. The fact that the “Monoceros”-like population is seen confined in a narrow distance interval along the line of sight therefore also argues against this scenario. The problem may be alleviated if the progenitor satellite disrupted only recently. A further concern with this scenario comes from the disruptive effect of the satellite on the Milky Way. Current cosmological simulations suggest that galaxy satellites have their own massive dark matter mini-haloes (Stoehr et al., 2002), a possibility that is supported by the high mass to light ratios inferred from small Galactic dwarf spheroidals (Mateo, 1998), and from the survival requirement of the Sgr dwarf galaxy (Ibata et al., 1997; Ibata & Lewis, 1998). Including the dark matter halo of a satellite that has a stellar mass in the range $`2\times 10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$ to $`10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ increases significantly the potential damage to the disk of the Milky Way, and raises the question of whether the thin disk would survive such an encounter (see, e.g., Tóth & Ostriker, 1992; Velazquez & White, 1999).
* Another possibility is that we are seeing part of an outer spiral arm, or various arm fragments. Davies (1972) has identified a variety of spiral features in the outer Galaxy via 21cm emission, extending out to a radius of $`25\mathrm{kpc}`$. Many of these structures lie in directions where we have also detected an anomalous stellar component, leading one to speculate if these could be associated stellar arms. Indeed, if an underlying global mode were responsible for driving the spiral structure, it would not be unexpected to find an older stellar population tracing out the same pattern as the gas (e.g. Rix & Rieke, 1993; Thornley & Mundy, 1997). The narrow line-of-sight thickness of the structures stands in favour of this hypothesis. The thickness of the stellar component may be problematic for the spiral arm hypothesis however, although one might be able to appeal to warping to bring the bulk of the stars out of the plane.
* The beating motion of an asymmetric Galactic component (such as the bar) induces resonances in the disk component. However, these resonances occur very close to the plane of the disk, and stars with significant vertical motions are unlikely to partake in a strong resonance. It seems implausible, therefore, that a resonance is the cause of the detected structure.

The photometric information presented here is not sufficient to discriminate between the first three scenarios. Further photometry, especially at low Galactic latitude will be invaluable if we are to be able to properly follow the structure, and ascertain whether it is a Galactic Ring, an inhomogeneous mess due to ancient warps and disturbances, or part of a disrupted satellite stream. If this manifestly old population turns out to be the outer stellar disk, it will pose a very interesting challenge to galaxy formation models that predict inside-out assembly. Alternatively, if it transpires that the structure is due to a disrupted satellite whose orbit has been circularised and accreted along with its cargo of dark matter onto the Disk, it will provide a unique first-hand opportunity to understand the effect of massive accretions on to the inner regions of galaxies.


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# CP violation in 𝐵→ϕ𝐾_𝑆 decay at large tan𝛽

## Abstract

We consider the chargino contribution to the CP violation in $`B\varphi K_S`$ decay in the minimal supersymmetric standard model at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. It is shown that the Wilson coefficient $`C_{8g}`$ of the chromomagnetic penguin operator can be significantly enhanced by the chargino-mediated diagrams while satisfying other direct/indirect experimental constraints. The enhanced $`C_{8g}`$ allows large deviation in the CP asymmetry from the standard model prediction, especially it can explain the apparent anomaly reported by BaBar and Belle.

preprint:     hep-ph/0301269 KIAS-P03010

The measurement of CP asymmetries at B-factories is a powerful probe of new physics (NP). In the standard model (SM), the origin of CP violation is the phase $`\delta _{\mathrm{CKM}}`$ in the $`3\times 3`$ Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix of quark mixing. In general, there can be many new sources of CP violation in new physics models beyond the SM.

The time-dependent CP asymmetry in the neutral $`B`$ decays to CP eigenstates $`Bf_{\mathrm{CP}}`$ gives information on the two classes of CP violation $`C_f`$ and $`S_f`$ Nir:2002gu :

$`A_{\mathrm{CP}}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{B}(t)f_{\mathrm{CP}})\mathrm{\Gamma }(B(t)f_{\mathrm{CP}})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{B}(t)f_{\mathrm{CP}})+\mathrm{\Gamma }(B(t)f_{\mathrm{CP}})}}`$ (1)
$`=`$ $`C_f\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt)+S_f\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt),`$
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_B`$ is the mass difference of the $`B`$ system and $`B(\overline{B})(t)`$ is the state at time $`t`$ which was $`B(\overline{B})`$ at $`t=0`$. The CP asymmetries $`C_f`$ and $`S_f`$ are determined by

$`\lambda _{\mathrm{CP}}e^{2i(\beta +\theta _d)}{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{A}}{A}},`$ (2)
where $`\beta (\theta _d)`$ is the contribution of SM (NP) to the phase in the $`B\overline{B}`$ mixing and $`\overline{A}(A)`$ is the decay amplitude for $`\overline{B}(B)f_{\mathrm{CP}}`$.

The time-dependent CP asymmetry in $`BJ/\psi K`$ decay measured at BaBar sin2b\_babar  and Belle sin2b\_belle  shows the existence of CP violation in the $`B`$-meson system, and the current world average Nir:2002gu

$`\mathrm{sin}2\beta _{J/\psi K_S}S_{J/\psi K_S}=0.734\pm 0.054.`$ (3)
is fully consistent with the CKM picture of CP violation of the SM. In the SM, the CP asymmetry in $`B\varphi K_S`$ also measures the same angle angle $`\beta `$ because the CP violation in the decay amplitude is suppressed by the Cabibbo angle $`\lambda `$ ($`0.22`$): $`S_{\varphi K_S}=S_{J/\psi K_S}+𝒪(\lambda ^2)`$.

Recently, BaBar b2kp\_babar  and Belle b2kp\_belle  have announced the first measurement of time-dependent CP asymmetries in $`B\varphi K_S`$. The weighted average of the mixing-induced CP asymmetry

$`\mathrm{sin}2\beta _{\varphi K_S}S_{\varphi K_S}=0.39\pm 0.41`$ (4)
differs from the SM prediction of (3) by 2.7$`\sigma `$. The Belle collaboration has also reported the direct CP asymmetry

$`C_{\varphi K}=0.56\pm 0.43,`$ (5)
which is consistent with zero as predicted in the SM.

Contrary to the $`BJ/\psi K_S`$ decay where $`\overline{A}/A=1`$ to a good approximation even in the presence of NP, the loop-induced process $`B\varphi K_S`$ generally allows large deviation from 1 in phase and modulus of $`\overline{A}/A`$. There are already many works which explain the apparent deviation (4) in various NP models Hiller:2002ci ; Ciuchini:2002pd ; R-parity ; Raidal:2002ph ; b2kp\_glu .

The measured $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$’s from $`B\eta ^{}K_S`$, $`B(K^+K^{})K_S`$ b2kp\_belle  and $`\mathrm{sin}2\alpha `$ from $`B\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ hep-ex/0301032  are consistent with the SM although the errors are large. We note that, however, $`B\varphi K_S`$ is unique in that it doesn’t have the tree-level amplitude in the SM unlike most other $`B`$-decays. Therefore, it is not unlikely that the NP manifests itself only in the $`B\varphi K_S`$ decay baek\_long .

The minimal supersymmetric(SUSY) standard model (MSSM) has many new CP violating phases besides the CKM phase of the SM. With CP violating phases of order one the electric dipole moments (EDMs) easily exceed the experimental upper bounds by several orders of magnitude. In addition, the general structure of the sfermion mass matrices in the generation space leads unacceptable flavor changing neutral currents (FCNC) by gluino mediation. These SUSY CP and SUSY FCNC problems strongly constrain the MSSM parameters.

In the MSSM, it has been shown that (4) can be accomodated if there exist new flavor structures in the up- or down-type squark mass matrices Hiller:2002ci ; b2kp:before ; b2kp\_glu . In this paper, we will show that the chargino contribution can generate large deviation in $`S_{\varphi K}`$ at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, even if CKM is the only source of flavor mixing.

Specifically, we adopt a decoupling scenario where the masses of the first two generation scalar fermions are very heavy ($`𝒪(10\text{ TeV})`$), so that the SUSY FCNC and SUSY CP problems are solved without a naturalness problem Cohen:1996vb . We also assume the flavor-changing off-diagonal elements of scalar fermions are vanishing to guarantee the absence of the gluino mediated FCNC. In this case the CKM matrix is the only source of flavor mixing, while there are new CP violating parameters $`\mu ,M_2`$ in the chargino matrix

$`M_C=\left(\begin{array}{cc}M_2& \sqrt{2}m_W\mathrm{sin}\beta \\ \sqrt{2}m_W\mathrm{cos}\beta & \mu \end{array}\right)`$ (8)
and $`A_t`$ in the scalar top mass-squared matrix

$`M_{\stackrel{~}{t}}^2=\left(\begin{array}{cc}m_{\stackrel{~}{Q}}^2+m_t^2+D_L& m_t(A_t^{}\mu \mathrm{cot}\beta )\\ m_t(A_t\mu ^{}\mathrm{cot}\beta )& m_{\stackrel{~}{t}}^2+m_t^2+D_R\end{array}\right),`$ (11)
where $`D_L=(1/22/3\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W)\mathrm{cos}2\beta m_Z^2`$ and $`D_R=2/3\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W\mathrm{cos}2\beta m_Z^2`$.

In this decoupling scenario, it has been shown that the light stop and chargino contributions still allows large direct CP asymmetry in the radiative $`B`$ decay up to $`\pm 16`$Baek:1998yn . It should be noted that the new contribution to $`B\overline{B}`$ mixing is very small and this model is naturally consistent with (3Baek:1998yn .

The decay $`B\varphi K_S`$ is described by the $`\mathrm{\Delta }B=1`$ effective Hamiltonian Beneke:2001ev . The chargino contribution to the Wilson coefficients of QCD penguin operator is given by

$`C_3^{\stackrel{~}{\chi }^\pm }={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{12\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{I,k=1}{\overset{2}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_W^2}{m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_I^\pm }^2}}(\chi _I^L)_{k2}^{}(\chi _I^L)_{k3}P_2(x_{Ik}),`$ (12)
where $`x_{tH}=m_t^2/m_{H^\pm }^2`$, $`x_{Ik}=m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_I^\pm }^2/m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_k}^2`$ and $`P_2(x)`$ is the loop-function baek\_long . $`(\chi _I^{L(R)})_{kq}`$ is the stop($`k`$)–chargino($`I`$)–down-quark($`q_{L(R)}`$) coupling:

$`(\chi _I^L)_{kq}`$ $`=`$ $`V_{I1}^{}S_{\stackrel{~}{t}_k\stackrel{~}{t}_L}+V_{I2}^{}S_{\stackrel{~}{t}_k\stackrel{~}{t}_R}{\displaystyle \frac{m_t}{\sqrt{2}m_W\mathrm{sin}_\beta }},`$
$`(\chi _I^R)_{kq}`$ $`=`$ $`U_{I2}S_{\stackrel{~}{t}_k\stackrel{~}{t}_L}{\displaystyle \frac{m_q}{\sqrt{2}m_W\mathrm{cos}\beta }},`$ (13)
where $`U,V`$ ($`S`$) diagonalize(s) the chargino (stop) mass matrix. The other Wilson cofficients of QCD penguin operators are simply related to $`C_3`$ by $`C_5=C_3,C_4=C_6=3C_3`$, where we have neglected the box diagram contributions which are suppressed by $`\lambda `$. In the analysis we decouple the charged Higgs contribution by assuming $`m_{H\pm }=1`$ TeV. The effect of $`H^\pm `$ will be mentioned below. The expressions for the Wilson coefficients of magnetic operators $`C_{7\gamma ,8g}^{\chi ^\pm }`$ can be found, for exmample, in bsr ; baek\_long .

We note that the $`C_{7\gamma (8g)}^{\chi ^\pm }`$ has the enhancement factors $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_I^\pm }/m_b`$ by the chirality flip inside the loop and can dominate the SM contribution. On the other hand the $`C_{3,\mathrm{},6}^{\chi ^\pm }`$ preserve the chirality and don’t have such enhancement factors. In addition, due to the super-GIM mechanism, the chargino contribution to $`C_{3,\mathrm{},6}`$ are much smaller than the SM values. The contribution to chirality flipped operators $`C_{7\gamma (8g)}^{{}_{}{}^{}\stackrel{~}{\chi }_{}^{\pm }}`$ are suppressed by $`m_s/m_b`$. We neglect the contribution of electroweak penguin operators which are also expected to be negligible in our scenario. Therefore the large deviation in $`\overline{A}/A`$ should be generated soley by $`C_{8g}`$ in this scenario.

To calculte the hadronic matrix elements we use the QCD factorization method in ref. Beneke:2001ev . In this approach it has been demonstrated that the strong phases of QCD penguin operators cancel out in the SM Ciuchini:2002pd . Since the NP contribution to $`C_{3,\mathrm{},6}`$ are negligible in our scenario, the strong phase is small as in the SM. The required $`C_{8g}^{\stackrel{~}{\chi }^\pm }(m_b)`$ ($`C_{8g}^{\mathrm{SM}}(m_b)0.147`$) for large deviation of CP asymmetries can be estimated from the approximate numerical expression for $`\overline{A}`$ Beneke:2001ev ; Ciuchini:2002pd :

$`\overline{A}`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{p=u,c}{}}V_{ps}^{}V_{pb}(a_3+a_4^p+a_5)`$ (14)
$``$ $`3.9\times 10^4(3.7e^{0.21i}+4.5C_{8g}).`$
In Fig. 1, we show $`S_{\varphi K}`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{arg}(C_{8g})`$ for $`|C_{8g}|=0.33,0.65`$ and $`1.0`$. From this figure, we can see $`|C_{8g}|0.330.65`$ with large positive phase can accomodate the deviation within 1$`\sigma `$.

Since the chargino contributions to $`C_{7\gamma }`$ and $`C_{8g}`$ have similar structures, one can think that large deviation in $`C_{8g}`$ may result in the large deviation $`C_{7\gamma }`$. Too large deviation in $`C_{7\gamma }`$ will violate the measurement of $`B(BX_s\gamma )`$, for which we take $`2\times 10^4<B(BX_s\gamma )<4.5\times 10^4`$ Chen:2001fj , because it is already consistent with the SM prediction.

Due to the different loop functions, however, the two Wilson coefficients are not strongly correlated, and it is possible to have large deviation in $`C_{8g}`$ while keeping $`|C_{7\gamma }|`$ constrained to satisfy $`B(BX_s\gamma )`$. Since $`\chi ^R`$ in (13) is proportional to $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ for large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, we need relatively large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ to have sizable effects.

The neutral Higgs boson $`h^0`$ which is lighter than the $`Z`$-boson at tree level has large radiative corrections Okada:1990vk  which can be approximated at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ as

$`m_{h^0}^2m_Z^2+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_t^4}{v^2}}\mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_2}}{m_t^2}}\right),`$ (15)
where $`v246`$ GeV. LEP II sets the lower limit on the SM-like Higgs boson mass: $`m_{h^0}114.3`$ (GeV) at 95% CL Hagiwara:fs . This limit gives very strong constraint on the stop masses.

At large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$($`𝒪(50)`$), the SUSY QCD and SUSY electroweak correction to the non-holomorphic couplings $`H_u^{}D^cQ`$ become very important. This gives large correction on the down-type quark masses and some CKM matrix elements Hall:1993gn

$`m_b={\displaystyle \frac{\overline{m}_b}{1+\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_3\mathrm{tan}\beta }},V_{JI}=V_{JI}^{\mathrm{eff}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1+\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_3\mathrm{tan}\beta }{1+ϵ_0\mathrm{tan}\beta }}\right]`$ (16)
where $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_3ϵ_0+ϵ_Yy_t^2`$ and $`(JI)=(13)(23)(31)(32)`$. $`\overline{m}_b`$, $`V_{JI}^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ are $`b`$-quark mass and CKM elements measured at experiments, respectively. At one-loop and $`SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y`$ symmetric limit, the $`ϵ_0`$ and $`ϵ_Y`$ are given by

$`ϵ_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\alpha _s}{3\pi }}\mathrm{Re}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu ^{}}{m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}}}\right)j(y_{\stackrel{~}{b}\stackrel{~}{g}},y_{\stackrel{~}{Q}\stackrel{~}{g}}),`$
$`ϵ_Y`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{16\pi ^2}}\mathrm{Re}\left({\displaystyle \frac{A_t}{\mu }}\right)j(y_{\stackrel{~}{Q}\mu },y_{\stackrel{~}{t}\mu }),`$ (17)
where $`y_{\stackrel{~}{b}\stackrel{~}{g}}=m_{\stackrel{~}{b}}^2/|m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}|^2`$, $`y_{\stackrel{~}{Q}\stackrel{~}{g}}=m_{\stackrel{~}{Q}}^2/|m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}|^2`$, $`y_{\stackrel{~}{Q}\mu }=m_{\stackrel{~}{Q}}^2/|\mu |^2`$, $`y_{\stackrel{~}{t}\mu }=m_{\stackrel{~}{t}}^2/|\mu |^2`$. The loop-function is given by $`j(x,y)=(j(x)j(y))/(xy)`$ with $`j(x)=x\mathrm{log}x/(x1)`$. Note that these SUSY threshold corrections are not easily decoupled even for very heavy superparticles.

For the numerical analysis we fix the CKM matrix by using $`|V_{us}|=0.2196`$, $`|V_{cb}|=4.12\times 10^2`$ and $`|V_{ub}|=3.6\times 10^3`$ Hagiwara:fs , leaving only $`\delta _{\mathrm{CKM}}`$ as free parameter. For example, for $`\delta _{\mathrm{CKM}}=\pi /3`$, we get $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{B_d}=0.491`$ ps-1 and $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta =0.729`$, which are close to the experimental central values Hagiwara:fs . The free SUSY parameters in our scenario are $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, $`M_2`$, $`\mu `$, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{Q}}`$, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{t}}`$ and $`A_t`$ ($`m_{H^\pm }=1`$ TeV) (also $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}},m_{\stackrel{~}{b}}`$ are relevant for large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$). In Fig. 2, we show the distribution of $`C_{8g}`$ in the complex plane for $`\delta _{\mathrm{CKM}}=\pi /3`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =35(60)`$, $`m_{H^\pm }=1`$ TeV, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{Q}}=0.5`$ TeV, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}=1`$ TeV, and $`m_{\stackrel{~}{b}_R}=0.5`$ TeV. We scanned the other parameters as follows:

$`0<m_{\stackrel{~}{t}}<1\text{ TeV},0<|\mu |<1\text{ TeV},`$
$`0<|A_t|<2\text{ TeV},0<|M_2|<1\text{ TeV},`$
$`\pi <\mathrm{arg}(\mu ),\mathrm{arg}(A_t),\mathrm{arg}(M_2)<\pi .`$ (18)
We have fixed the phase on the gluino mass parameter such that $`\mathrm{arg}(m_{\stackrel{~}{g}})+\mathrm{arg}(\mu )=\pi `$ to maximize the SUSY QCD correction. When scanning, we imposed the $`B(BX_s\gamma )`$ constraint and the direct search bounds on the (s)particle masses Hagiwara:fs : $`m_{h^0}114.3`$ GeV and $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^\pm },m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}100`$ GeV.

From Fig. 2, we can see that our scenario can easily accommodate the discrepancy (4). As mentioned above, we have chosen large value for the charged Higgs mass $`m_{H^\pm }=1`$ TeV to safely suppress the Barr-Zee type two-loop EDM constraints which are significant if $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ Chang:1998uc  is large and the pseudo-scalar Higgs boson ($`A^0`$) is relatively light 111The SUSY contribution to $`(g2)_\mu `$ is also small in this case. Arhrib:2001xx .. We have checked that for the smaller $`m_{H^\pm }`$ the larger deviation in $`S_{\varphi K}`$ is possible due to the cancellation in the real part with the chargino contribution baek\_long . Therefore Fig. 2 is a rather conservative result for $`S_{\varphi K}`$. We have checked that the allowed range for $`S_{\varphi K}`$ is not sensitive to the change in $`\delta _{\mathrm{CKM}}`$ if we impose the constraint (3).

$`C_{\varphi K}`$ is correlated with $`S_{\varphi K}`$. In Fig 3, the correlation is shown for $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =60`$. We can see that it can also accommodate (5) although it favors small negative $`C_{\varphi K}`$, which will be clarified by future experiments.

The direct CP asymmetry in $`BX_s\gamma `$ decay is also expected to be large when $`S_{\varphi K}`$ has large deviation from the SM expectations. We have checked that actually it can be very large but it is not correlated with $`S_{\varphi K}`$. It is because $`S_{\varphi K}`$ is determined by the complex phase on $`C_{8g}`$ while $`A_{CP}(BX_s\gamma )`$ is mainly controlled by that on $`C_{7\gamma }`$ Kagan:1998bh . Because we have phase on three independent parameters $`\mu `$, $`A_t`$ and $`M_2`$, the phases of $`C_{7\gamma }`$ and $`C_{8g}`$ need not have strong correlations.

The $`B(B\varphi K)`$ varies moderately over the parameter space we considered and seldom exceeds $`15\times 10^6`$, which is acceptable compared with the experimental measurements b2kp\_babar ; b2kp\_belle . Also the mass difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ in the $`B_s\overline{B_s}`$ system is close to the SM expectation $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s14.5`$ ps-1 in the most region of parameter space we considered, which may distinguish our scenario from other scenarios in refs. b2kp\_glu ; b2kp:before .

For large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ in the MSSM, through the Higgs-mediated FCNC the $`B(B_s\mu ^+\mu ^{})`$ can be enhanced by a few orders of magnitude over the SM prediction bsll . Observation of this leptonic decay mode, for example at Tevatron Run II, would be clear signal of NP. However, this is possible only for relatively light $`A^0`$. Since the large deviation in the $`S_{\varphi K}`$, although it needs new CP violating phase(s) of $`𝒪(1)`$, does not necessarily require light $`A^0`$ as we have shown, these two decay modes can be complementary to each other in searching for the MSSM at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$.

In our scenario the sole source of large deviation in $`S_{\varphi K}`$ is $`C_{8g}`$. It can have simultaneous effects on other decays such as $`B\varphi \varphi `$, $`B\pi \pi `$, $`BK\pi `$, etc baek\_long .

In conclusion we have considered the chargino contribution to the CP asymmetries $`S_{\varphi K}`$ and $`C_{\varphi K}`$ of $`B\varphi K_S`$ decay in the CP violating MSSM scenario at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. We have shown that through the enhanced Wilson coefficient $`C_{8g}`$ of chromo-magnetic penguin operator by the large SUSY threshold corrections Hall:1993gn , there can be large deviations in the CP asymmetries.

###### Acknowledgements.

The author would like to thank S. Y. Choi for invaluable comments and carefully reading the manuscript and E. J. Chun and K. Y. Lee for useful discussions.


text:
# HST and VLT observations of Isolated Neutron Stars

## PSR J0108-1431

PSR J0108$``$1431 was discovered by Tauris et al. (1994) during the Parkes Southern Pulsar Survey. With a period $`P=0.808`$ s and a period derivative $`\dot{P}=7.44\times 10^{17}`$ s s-1 (D’Amico et al. 1998), the pulsar has a characteristic age $`P/2\dot{P}=170`$ Myr, rotation energy loss rate $`\dot{E}=5.6\times 10^{30}`$ erg s-1, and magnetic field $`B=2.5\times 10^{11}`$ G. From the Taylor & Cordes model (1993), the low dispersion measure ($`2.38\pm 0.01`$ cm-3 pc) puts PSR J0108$``$1431 at a distance of 60-130 pc. Although very close, PSR J0108-1431 has never been detected so far outside the radio band. Virtually undetectable according to standard cooling models, which predict a temperature $`T<10^4`$ K for an age of $``$ 170 Myr (Tsuruta 1998), the detection of optical-UV thermal radiation from the neutron star (NS) surface would allow one to constrain possible heating mechanisms like the dissipation of energy of differential rotation (e.g. Van Riper et al. 1994) and Joule heating caused by dissipation of the magnetic field in the NS crust (Miralles, Urpin & Konenkov 1998). Thus, if some heating mechanisms indeed operate, one can expect the surface NS temperature of a few times $`10^4`$ K, detectable in the optical-UV but undetectable in X-rays. Optical observations of PSR J0108-1431 were carried out with the 6-m telescope of Special Astrophysical Observatory (Russia), but they were not deep enough to detect the pulsar (Kurt et al. 2000). Therefore, we performed a deep observation with the Antu unit of the ESO Very Large Telescopes (VLT) between July and August 2000. Images were obtained in the Bessel filters $`U`$ (9000s), $`B`$ (5400s), and $`V`$ (7200s) using the FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph 1 (FORS1) instrument operated at its standard angular resolution of 0.2” per pixel, with a corresponding field of view of $`6.8^{}\times 6.8^{}`$. See Mignani, Manchester and Pavlov (2003) for details on the observations and the data reduction. To obtain an updated reference radio position of the pulsar, we performed new observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) on 2001 March 31 in two bands centered on 1384 MHz and 2496 MHz. We derived a mean position (epoch 2001.3) of $`\alpha _{J2000}`$=$`010808.317\pm 0.010s`$, $`\delta _{J2000}`$=$`143149.35\pm 0.35\mathrm{"}`$, coincident within the uncertainties with that obtained from the timing data (D’Amico et al. 1998). This implies an upper limit on the pulsar proper motion of 82 mas yr-1, corresponding to a total velocity $`v<50d_{130}`$ km s-1 (with $`d_{130}`$ being the pulsar distance in units of 130 pc) i.e. within the bottom 10% of the measured pulsar velocity distribution (Lorimer, Bailes and Harrison 1997). By using as a reference the positions of stars selected from the GSC II, the most recent pulsar position was finally registered on the FORS1 images (overall accuracy $`0.33^{\prime \prime }`$ in R.A. and $`0.46^{\prime \prime }`$ in Dec). The pulsar position at the epoch of our optical observations is marked in Fig.1 (left). To facilitate the object detection, all the images have been smoothed using a gaussian filter. The pulsar position falls about $`0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ East from an elliptical galaxy in the field. Since such a distance corresponds to about twice the uncertainty of the pulsar position in R.A, it is unlikely that the pulsar is hidden behind the galaxy, but we cannot rule it out. Only few point-like objects (labelled in Fig.1, left) have been detected within a radius of $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ from the pulsar position but they are too distant from the nominal pulsar position to be considered candidate counterparts. Therefore, we conclude that no optical counterpart to the pulsar can be identified in our data down to $`3\sigma `$ upper limits of $`V28`$, $`B28.6`$ and $`U26.4`$ e.g. more than 3 magnitudes deeper than those obtained by Kurt et al. (2000). For a distance of 130 pc, estimated from the pulsar’s dispersion measure, our constraints on the optical flux put an upper limit of $`T=4.5\times 10^4`$ K for the surface temperature of the neutron star, assuming a stellar radius $`R_{\mathrm{}}=13`$ km.

## PSR B1929+10

PSR1929+10 is also an old ($`310^6`$ yrs) and relatively nearby ($``$ 330 pc - Brisken et al. 2002) radio pulsar. Originally detected in X-with Einstein (Helfand 1983), pulsations at the radio period (227 ms) were discovered by ROSAT (Yancopulous et al. 1994) and confirmed by ASCA (Wang and Halpern 1997). The X-ray spectrum could be either thermal ($`T3510^6K`$) and produced from hot polar caps (Yancopulous et al. 1994; Wang and Halpern 1997) or non-thermal with a spectral index $`\alpha 1.27\pm 0.4`$ (Becker and Trümper 1997). A candidate optical counterpart was identified with the HST/FOC by Pavlov et al. (1996) from the positional coincidence with the radio coordinates. To secure the identification of the PSR B1929+10 optical counterpart we have applied the strategy used by Mignani et al.(2000), i.e., the measure of a proper motion consistent with the radio one. The field of PSR B1929+10 was imaged with the HST/STIS between August and October 2001. Ten 1200s exposures were obtained over five visits with the NUV-MAMA detector ($`24.7^{}\times 24.7^{}`$ field of view, $`0.024^{\prime \prime }`$ pixel size) through the F25QTZ filter ($`\lambda =2364\AA ,\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda 842\AA FWHM`$). The STIS time-integrated images were calibrated using the standard HST pipeline and corrected for the CCD geometric distortion. As starting point for our proper motion measurement we used the FOC observations of Pavlov et al. (1996), retrieved from the ST-ECF public archive and recalibrated on-the-fly. A complete description of the relative astrometry procedure with a detailed discussion of the error budget is reported in Mignani et al.(2002). After the registration of the different epoch images in a unique reference frame, we could measure the candidate optical counterpart displacement over the 7.2 years (Fig.2, left). The five independent measurements yielded results fully consistent within the errors. By means of a simple $`\chi ^2`$ fit we obtained the best proper motion values: $`\mu _\alpha cos(\delta )=+97\pm 1`$ mas yr-1 $`\mu _\delta =+46\pm 1`$ mas yr-1 corresponding to a position angle (PA) of 64.63 $`\pm `$ 0.55. Within the errors, these results are fully compatible in both magnitude and direction with the radio ones (Brisken et al. 2002): $`\mu _\alpha cos(\delta )=+94.82\pm 0.26`$ mas yr-1 $`\mu _\delta =+43.04\pm 0.15`$ mas yr-1 (PA=65.58 $`\pm `$ 0.09). Our proper motion measurement thus provide a robust proof that the candidate proposed by Pavlov et al.(1996) is indeed the optical counterpart of PSR B1929+10. The STIS/F25QTZ flux of the pulsar has been compared with the photometry of Pavlov et al. (1996) in the F130LP ($`\lambda =3437.7\AA ,\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda 1965\AA FWHM`$) and F342W ($`\lambda =3402\AA ,\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda 442\AA FWHM`$) filters. At a variance with middle-aged ($``$ $`10^5`$ yrs) pulsars such as PSR B0656+14, PSR B1055-52 and Geminga, for which the optical fluxes are somewhat compatible with the extrapolations of their X-ray spectra, the flux of the PSR 1929+10 candidate counterpart deviates by about 3 orders of magnitude from the predicted values (Fig.2, right). In addition, the data seems to be consistent with a power law, with spectral index $`\alpha =0÷1`$, depending on the actual value of the reddening. This result is apparently in contrast with the available data from young to middle-aged pulsars which suggest, as a general trend, a decreasing importance of non-thermal processes with the age.

## The Vela pulsar optical nebula

A compact ($`4^{}`$) X-ray nebula around the Vela pulsar was detected in soft X-rays with the Einstein HRI (Harnden et al. 1985) and firstly interpreted as a pulsar-wind nebula (PWN) powered by relativistic particles ejected by the pulsar, which shock in the ambient medium and emit synchrotron radiation. Based on its “kidney-bean” shape, Markwardt & Ögelman (1998) proposed an interpretation in terms of a bow-shock produced by the supersonic motion of the pulsar through the ambient medium. The Vela pulsar and its PWN have been recently observed with both the High Resolution Camera (HRC) and the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) on board the Chandra X-ray observatory. Thanks to the excellent angular resolution of Chandra, the morphology of the PWN was resolved in a complex structure, similar to that of the Crab PWN, which cannot be explained by a simple bow-shock model. The brighter part of the PWN ($`2^{}`$), shows an approximately axisymmetric structure, with two arcs, a jet, and a counter-jet, embedded into an extended diffuse emission. The axis of symmetry, which can be associated with the pulsar rotational axis, nearly coincides with the direction of the pulsar’s proper motion (P.A. = 301 — e.g., Caraveo et al. 2001a). The inner PWN is then surrounded by a bean-shaped diffuse nebula ($`2^{}\times 2^{}`$) with an elongated region of fainter diffuse emission southwest of the brighter part of the PWN and detected up to $`4^{}`$ from the pulsar. A $`100^{\prime \prime }`$-long outer jet is also seen northwest of the inner PWN. The overall spectrum of the PWN can be described by a power law with an average spectral (energy) index $`\alpha 0.5`$, which can be interpreted as synchrotron emission of relativistic electrons and/or positrons. Such a spectrum is expected to extend to optical and radio frequencies. Although the radio emission from the compact nebula is probably dominated by the brightness of the pulsar, highly polarized (up to 60% at 5 GHz) extended ($`4^{}`$) radio emission has been indeed detected in the surrounding region (Lewis et al. 2002; R. Dodson 2002, private communication) with two radio lobes southeast ($`18`$ arcmin2) and northeast ($`5`$ arcmin2) wrt the pulsar. One can then expect the presence of an optical nebula around the Vela pulsar, as observed in several other young pulsars like the Crab PWN (see, e.g., Hester et al. 2002, and references therein) and PSR B0540–69 (Caraveo et al. 2001b). Contrary to the Crab and PSR 0540-69, searches for the Vela PWN in optical have been inconclusive so far. Ögelman et al. (1989) reported only a marginal detection of a putative optical PWN ($`2^{}`$).

Here we discuss the results of spatial correlations between the recently obtained Chandra ACIS images and HST WFPC2 images, together with observations obtained with the ESO NTT/VLT/2.2m telescopes (Mignani et al. 2003). See Table 1 for a detailed summary of the optical observations. For a direct compararison, optical and X-ray images have been superimposed with respect to the absolute ($`\alpha `$,$`\delta `$) reference frame, relying on the astrometric solution of each image. The absolute frame registration between the optical and X-ray images turned out to be accurate within $`1^{\prime \prime }`$$`2^{\prime \prime }`$, comparable with the uncertainty in the absolute astrometry of each frame. Our starting point was the combined WFPC2 F555W image, which is by far the deepest optical image of the Vela pulsar field. The final image is shown in Fig. 3 (left), where we have superimposed the X-ray contour map obtained from the combined Chandra ACIS exposure of the region. The point source within the innermost X-ray contour is the optical counterpart of the Vela pulsar. The central PC field is large enough to map the inner part of the X-ray PWN, i.e., the inner arc, the jet and the counter-jet, easily identifiable in the contour map. Unfortunately, the outer arc region is partially coincident with the CCD gaps between the PC and WFC chips. No optical counterparts of the known X-ray features can be identified in the combined WFPC2/555W image, nor any other structure symmetric to the pulsar proper motion direction (Fig.3 - left). We set 3$`\sigma `$ upper limits of 27.4 mag arcsec-2 (0.39 $`\times 10^{30}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 Hz-1 arcsec-2) and 27.1 mag arcsec-2 (0.57 $`\times 10^{30}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 Hz-1 arcsec-2) for the innermost region (inner arc, jet, and counter-jet) and the outer arc, respectively. After correcting for interstellar extinction, these values translate to $`27.0`$ mag arcsec-2 (0.52 $`\times 10^{30}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 Hz-1 arcsec-2) and $`26.7`$ mag arcsec-2 (0.57 $`\times 10^{30}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 Hz-1 arcsec-2), respectively. The analysis was repeated for the rest of the optical database, but no evidence for a compact optical nebula was found. We used the wider NTT images to search for diffuse optical emission up to distances of $`3`$ arcmin, in particular at the position of the southwest extension of the X-ray nebula. Although many background enhancements can be recognized in the combined NTT $`UBVR`$ image (Fig.3 - right), they can be also identified in the ESO/2.2m Hα one, suggesting that they are most likely associated with the bright filaments of the Vela supernova remnant. We thus put upper limits on the extended emission of 25.4 mag arcsec-2 (2.5 $`\times 10^{30}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 Hz-1 arcsec-2). We have compared the measured optical upper limits on the brightness of the Vela PWN for the outer arc and the diffuse emission southwest of the pulsar with the extrapolation of the X-ray and radio data. While the optical upper limits for the inner/outer arcs are close to such extrapolation, in the case of the southwest diffuse emission they lie about 3 orders of magnitudes above the expected value (Mignani et al. 2003). To summarize, we conclude that it is very likely that just a slightly deeper optical observation would allow one to detect the outer/inner arc (and other bright elements of the inner PWN), while even deeper optical observations are needed to detect the emission from the Vela PWN at large.


text:
# Progressive Decoherence and Total Environmental Disentanglement

## I Introduction

Perfect isolation of a real physical system $`𝒮`$ is not possible. Even the simplest quantum system, like the spin of an electron, may be in weak though continuous interaction with the environment $``$. The sensitivity of quantum systems to environmental interactions goes beyond the sensitivity of classical systems. In our example, the coherence of local superpositions will asymptotically be lost at a certain decoherence time scale $`\tau `$. We consider the simplest isotropic model of environmental decoherence of a Pauli-spin vector $`\stackrel{}{\sigma }`$:

$$\frac{d\rho }{dt}=\frac{1}{4\tau }[\stackrel{}{\sigma },[\stackrel{}{\sigma },\rho ]],$$
(1)
where $`\rho `$ is the $`2\times 2`$ density matrix of the spin. This equation may, e.g., correspond to the proper statistical average Goretal78  of the Schrödinger-equation

$$\frac{d\psi }{dt}=\frac{i}{2}\stackrel{}{\omega }\stackrel{}{\sigma }\psi $$
(2)
over the random magnetic field $`\stackrel{}{\omega }`$ which is $`\tau ^{1/2}`$-times the standard isotropic white-noise. The solution $`\rho (t)`$ encodes the statistics of all possible local phenomena, i.e., the physics of the spin. It is, nonetheless, known from the famous work of John Bell Bel66  that quantum correlations with remote systems paralyze the standard statistical interpretation of the local state $`\rho `$. We are going to analyze the fate of such external quantum correlations of our local system during its irreversible evolution (1). We recapitulate the definition of quantum correlation (entanglement) through the notion of separability Wer89 . We can prove that all external quantum correlations will disappear if and only if

$$t\tau \mathrm{log3}.$$
(3)
The result comes from a recent theorem on ‘entanglement breaking quantum channels’ Sho02 ; Hol99 ; Rus02 . I will present an elementary alternative proof. We shall mention a contrary case:

$$\frac{d\rho }{dt}=\frac{1}{\tau }[\sigma _3,[\sigma _3,\rho ]].$$
(4)
This is continuous measurement of the $`\sigma _3`$ spin-component where the total damping of external quantum correlations takes an infinite long time.

## II Separability, entanglement, statistical consistency

To study the structure of the external correlations of our system, we divide the universe $`𝒰`$ Uni  into three parts: the local system $`𝒮`$ of interest, its environment $``$ responsible for the irreversible evolution (1), and the rest $``$ which has no current interaction with $`𝒮`$ but might have had it in the remote past. This time we concentrate on the correlations between $`𝒮`$ and $``$. We do not consider $``$ a dynamical system at all. We model it merely as a source of classical magnetic noise leading to the irreversible equation (1) for the local system $`𝒮`$. One says that the local system is *classically correlated* with the rest of the universe if the total quantum state is *separable* Wer89 :

$$\rho _𝒰=\underset{\lambda }{}w^\lambda \rho ^\lambda \rho _{}^\lambda ,$$
(5)
i.e., it is the weighted mixture of uncorrelated (product) states.

Such an expansion is always possible for correlated classical systems. Their density matrices are always diagonal. For the corresponding classical densities the separability condition (5) reads:

$$\rho _𝒰(x,X)=\underset{\lambda }{}w^\lambda \rho ^\lambda (x)\rho _{}^\lambda (X),$$
(6)
where $`x`$ and $`X`$ label the states of the classical systems $`𝒮`$ and $``$, respectively. To construct the r.h.s., first we identify $`\lambda `$ by the composite label $`(x^{},X^{})`$ and we identify $`w^\lambda `$ by $`\rho _𝒰(x^{},X^{})`$. Then we can make the choices $`\rho ^\lambda (x)=\delta (xx^{})`$ and $`\rho _{}^\lambda (X)=\delta (XX^{})`$.

Quantum systems differ radically. They may not satisfy the separability (5). By definition, the local system $`𝒮`$ is *quantum-correlated (entangled)* with the rest $``$ of the universe if the composite state $`\rho _𝒰`$ is non-separable. Most typically, this is the case when the universe is in a pure state $`\rho _𝒰=|𝒰𝒰|`$ which is not a product state:

$$|𝒰|𝒮|.$$
(7)
Why do any sort of correlation with the remote part of the universe should bother our observations on the local system? The reason is tricky. If the separability condition (5) holds then the correlation between local phenomena in $`𝒮`$ and remote phenomena in $``$ can in principle be explained on the ground of classical statistics Wer89 . If, however, the separability condition does not hold then the local and remote phenomena may become inconsistent from the viewpoint of classical statistical rules unless we allow instantaneous signal propagation between the local and remote systems $`𝒮`$ and $`𝒰`$, respectively Bel66 . Such faster-than-light propagation is impossible because it contradicts to our notion of locality. The external quantum-correlations (entanglements) of a local system will thus object that the usual statistical interpretation of the local system be consistent with the simultaneous statistical interpretation of other possible systems populating the rest of the universe. *It is therefore not possible to claim that $`\rho `$ is the unconditional local state unless we make sure that the local system $`𝒮`$ is totally disentangled from the rest $``$ of the universe*. There should be no quantum correlations left between them.

## III Total disentanglement

We shall discuss the existence and fate of the external quantum correlations of our chosen system. The formal solution of the equation (1) contains a linear time-dependent map $`(t)`$:

$$\rho (t)=(t)\rho (0).$$
(8)
The state $`\rho (t)`$ does obviously not encode external correlations, i.e., those between the two-state system $`𝒮`$ and the rest of the universe $``$. The generic state $`\rho _𝒰`$ does not satisfy the separability condition (5) because usually it contains quantum correlations between $`𝒮`$ and $``$. So does the initial state $`\rho _𝒰(0)`$. Surprisingly, a recent theorem Sho02 ; Hol99 ; Rus02  enables us to conclude that after a finite threshold time the state $`\rho _𝒰(t)`$ becomes totally separable, i.e., the local system $`𝒮`$ disentangles from the rest $``$ of the universe. The power of the theorem lies in that it needs only the local map $`(t)`$ though with the tacit assumption that $`𝒮`$ and $``$ evolve independently.

Accordingly, a certain map $``$ will completely disentangle the local system if and only if it acts as follows:

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}p^\lambda \rho ^\lambda ,`$
$`p^\lambda =\mathrm{tr}[P^\lambda \rho ],`$ (9)
where $`\{\rho ^\lambda \}`$ is a certain set of states that does not depend on the original state $`\rho `$. The mixing probabilities $`\{p^\lambda \}`$ depend on $`\rho `$ via a generalized measurement, i.e., the set $`\{P^\lambda \}`$ must be a positive-operator-valued-measure (POVM) JauPir67 :

$$P^\lambda 0,\underset{\lambda }{}P^\lambda =I.$$
(10)
One confirms easily that the above conditions are sufficient for the separability of the mapped composite state. Recall that we assumed independent maps for $`𝒮`$ and $``$:

$$_𝒰\rho _𝒰=\left(_{}\right)\rho _𝒰.$$
(11)
By inserting $``$ from Eq. (III), where we set

$`p^\lambda =\mathrm{tr}\left[(P^\lambda _{})\rho _𝒰\right],`$
$`\rho _{}^\lambda ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{p^\lambda }}\mathrm{tr}_𝒮\left[(P^\lambda _{})\rho _𝒰\right],`$ (12)
the separable form (5) is obtained for $`_𝒰\rho _𝒰`$. The proof of necessity of the condition (III) is a harder task.

## IV The disentanglement time

Let us test the condition (III) on the map $`(t)`$ solving the Eq. (1) for $`t0`$. The identical map $`(0)`$ can of course never admit the form (III). Neither does $`(t)`$ at short times. But a threshold time will exist after which the map $`(t)`$ can already be written into the desired form (III). The irreversible equation (1) describes an exponential isotropic depolarization. Its solution (8) can be written into this concrete form:

$$\rho (t)(t)\rho (0)=\frac{1}{2}\left[I+e^{t/\tau }\stackrel{}{\sigma }\mathrm{tr}[\stackrel{}{\sigma }\rho (0)]\right].$$
(13)
If follows from a theorem in Ref. Rus02  that the map $`(t)`$ is entanglement breaking if and only if $`3e^{t/\tau }1`$ which is the condition (3). Here I present a constructive proof. In order to put the time-dependent map $`(t)`$ into the desired form (III), let us try the following. We assume the set $`\{\rho ^\lambda \}`$ to consist of six states labeled by $`\lambda =(\alpha ,s)`$:

$$\rho ^{\alpha s}=\frac{1}{2}\left[I+3se^{t/\tau }\sigma _\alpha \right],$$
(14)
where $`\alpha =1,2,3`$ while $`s=\pm 1`$ in turn. Let the corresponding six POVM elements be proportional to six different completely polarized pure state projectors:

$$P^{\alpha s}=\frac{1}{6}\left[I+s\sigma _\alpha \right].$$
(15)
By inserting the Eqs. (14,15) into (III), we obtain the solution (13) indeed. However, a closer look at the Eq. (14) warns us that the states $`\rho ^{\alpha s}`$ do not exist until the absolute value of the coefficient $`3e^{t/\tau }`$ descends from the initial value $`3`$ to $`1`$. This completes our proof. The map $`(t)`$ disentangles any initial state $`\rho (0)`$ from the rest of the universe after time (3).

Let us assume that $``$ is just another two-state system and its evolution is trivial: it does not evolve at all. Then the composite state satisfies the trivial extension of the local evolution equation (1):

$$\frac{d\rho _𝒰}{dt}=\frac{1}{4\tau }[\stackrel{}{\sigma }I_{},[\stackrel{}{\sigma }I_{},\rho _𝒰]].$$
(16)
Assuming the initial composite state $`\rho _𝒰(0)`$ is the maximally entangled singlet state, we can find the following time-dependent solution:

$$\rho _𝒰(t)=\frac{1}{4}\left[II_{}e^{t/\tau }\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{\sigma }\right].$$
(17)
This state remains entangled for $`e^{t/\tau }>1/3`$ (c.f. Wer89 ) which shows that the threshold (3) can not be sharpened.

## V Discussion and outlook

I have analyzed the simplest case of noisy environment (1) which is capable to destroy all external quantum correlations of a local system in finite time (3). It is important to note that classical correlations may survive the death of quantum ones. The studied environment is classical and non-dynamical, its simplest realization is an isotropic classical magnetic white-noise field. The corresponding map is called the ‘depolarizing chanel’ in quantum communication theory NieChu00 . There is a non-isotropic environment producing decoherence on the same time scale as Eq. (1) did but with a different structure (4). This is called the ‘measurement channel’ since for infinite time it describes the ideal measurement of the spin-component $`\sigma _3`$. Obviously it disentangles the local system $`𝒮`$ from $``$ at time $`t=\mathrm{}`$ as any ideal spin-measurement should. Regarding finite times, however, the external quantum correlations may always survive. When I tried the sort of constructive proof, successful for the ‘depolarizing chanel’ (1), it failed for the ‘measurement one’ (4). An ultimate proof may be learned in Ref. Rus02 : the ‘measurement chanel’ only eliminates external quantum correlations at $`t=\mathrm{}`$, i.e., not before the ideal measurement is completed. Recently, I have found a third, affirmative, example. From earlier results of Kiefer and myself DioKie02  on the emergent exact positivity of the Wigner- and the P-functions, it follows that a free particle in simplest position decohering environment will become disentangled in finite time. This result may certainly be extended for the broader class Dek81  of evolution equations including harmonic potential and friction as well.

For future investigations, the generic problem can be formulated in the following way. Suppose the environment induces a semi-group evolution for the local system, described by the generator $``$ Lin76Goretal76 :

$$\frac{d\rho }{dt}=\rho .$$
(18)
We construct the time-dependent map of the semi-group:

$$(t)=\mathrm{exp}(t),$$
(19)
which solves the evolution equation. Then one has to apply the condition (III) to the above map in order to determine if it disentangles in finite/infinite time or whether it disentangles at all.

## Acknowledgment(s)

I am grateful to the organizers and sponsors of the conference on ”Irreversible Quantum Dynamics” for the invitation to talk in Triest and to contribute to this volume. My research was also supported by the Hungarian OTKA Grant No. 032640.


text:
# Head-on/Near Head-on Collisions of Neutron Stars With a Realistic EOS

## Introduction.

Shapiro Shapiro98a  has conjectured that two neutron stars (NSs) falling from infinity and colliding head-on would not, independent of their masses, promptly collapse to a black hole. The basic argument for the conjecture is that, until there is significant neutrino cooling, the thermal pressure generated by shock heating is always enough to support the merged object. Since neutrino cooling operates on time scales of seconds instead of the NS dynamical time scale of milliseconds, this could have significant implications on gravitational wave and neutrino emissions. The results obtained in Shapiro98a  were based on a polytropic equation of state (EOS) $`P=K\rho ^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (with $`K`$ a function of the entropy), and it was suggested that the result was true for a general EOS.

We have shown in Miller01a  that one implicit assumption used in the derivation in Shapiro98a , namely that the collision can be approximated by a quasi-equilibrium process, is not valid. We carried out simulations of the head-on collision of neutron stars described by a polytropic EOS, as in the conjecture. For two 1.4 $`M_{}`$ NSs (with a polytropic index of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$, initial polytropic coefficient $`K`$ of $`1.16\times 10^5\mathrm{cm}^5/\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}^2`$ as in a typical NS model), we showed that the merged object collapsed promptly. The shock front generated in the collision does not even have time to propagate to the outer part of the merged object before it is engulfed in an apparent horizon, let alone produce enough thermal pressure to support the merged object as envisioned in the quasi-equilibrium argument of Shapiro98a . In our study in Miller01a , the merged object had a mass well above the critical mass (the maximum mass that the EOS with the polytropic constants $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`K`$ given above can support). We pointed out in Miller01a ; Miller99c  that the prompt collapse is due to the dynamical compression of the collision that is absent in the quasi-equilibrium analysis in Shapiro98a ; Shapiro99a .

This brings up three further questions: 1. What if the mass of the merged object is less than the critical mass? Will the dynamical compression in the collision process be strong enough to initiate a collapse? 2. What if we use a realistic EOS instead of a polytropic EOS? 3. What if we break the exact axisymmetry? In this paper we answer these three questions with one set of numerical simulations. The simulations are based on the GR-Astro code (formerly called GR-3D) constructed in the NASA Neutron Star Grand Challenge project NASA  and the NSF Astrophysics Simulation Collaboratory (ASC) project ASC . For the construction of the code and the classes of validation tests we have carried out for it, see Font98b ; Font98f ; Font01b ; Suen99a . The GR-Astro code solves the coupled set of the Einstein equations and the general relativistic hydrodynamic equations with a realistic EOS. It will be released to the community through the ASC portal ASC  upon completion of the project.

In this paper, we report on simulations of NSs constructed with the Lattimer-SwestyLattimer91  (LS) EOS, which has been used in various neutron star studies (all existing simulations based on the LS EOS that we are aware of are based on Newtonian gravity and hence cannot answer questions of collapse). To the best of our knowledge, our simulations represent the first set of general relativistic 3D simulations based on a realistic EOS (for polytropic EOS simulations, see Shibata99d ). In this study, we use neutron stars of rest (baryonic) mass 1.6 $`M_{}`$ (corresponding to an ADM mass of $`1.4M_{}`$ in isolation), with a radius of $`13.8\mathrm{km}`$ (proper distance). The merged object has a rest mass of 3.2 $`M_{}`$ which is considerably lower than the critical mass of 3.67 $`M_{}`$ in the LS EOS with our choice of parameters. Nevertheless, we find that the merged object will promptly collapse to a black hole within a dynamical timescale. An apparent horizon is found engulfing the shock wave at $`0.15\mathrm{ms}`$ after the two stars have touched, with time measured at infinity, i.e. at the edge of the computational grid, which is $`47\mathrm{km}`$ away from the collision center. The prompt collapse is verified for both the head-on collision case and an off-axis collision (the axisymmetry is broken by an impact parameter of 1/2 stellar radius). This study demonstrates that dynamical effects are strong enough to cause a prompt collapse even when the total mass is below the single-star critical mass, and that this result is not a consequence of exact axisymmetry. We hence post the following “Prompt Collapse Conjecture”: For head-on and near head-on collisions of neutron stars described by a generic equation of state and infalling from rest at infinity, there exists a window in the rest mass of the merged object, below the critical single-star rest mass, where prompt collapse to a black hole can occur. The claim of the “near head-on” part means that the prompt collapse is stable with respect to small perturbations of the initial velocity.

## The Setup.

In this paper we use our implementation of the LS EOS as described in NASA\_EOS . We use the LS EOS in a tabular form with rest mass density and specific energy density as the two independent thermodynamic variables, which are evolved using the general relativistic hydrodynamic (GR-Hydro) equations (the lepton to baryon ratio is set to a constant (0.1) in all simulations in this paper). As in the Newtonian LS EOS simulations of Ruffert96b ; Ruffert97a , we set the initial specific energy density of the NSs at a relatively large value of $`0.9\mathrm{Mev}`$. The ADM mass and rest mass as a function of central rest mass density for a single static NS is given in Fig. 1. We see that the critical rest mass of an LS EOS star is at 3.67 $`M_{}`$. In our simulation we use NSs with a rest mass of 1.6 $`M_{}`$ (marked by a X in Fig. 1). The merged object is hence guaranteed to have a rest mass below the critical single-star mass. In Fig. 1 we have also plotted the corresponding curves for the case of a polytropic EOS with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$ and $`K=1.16\times 10^5\mathrm{cm}^5/\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}^2`$ for comparison.

In the head-on collision case, we put the two stars at a proper distance of $`d=42\mathrm{km}`$ apart (about $`3R`$ separation, $`R`$ = radius of star) along the z-axis, and boost them toward one another at the speed (as measured at infinity) of $`\sqrt{GM/d}`$ (the Newtonian infall velocity). The metric and extrinsic curvature of the two boosted stars are obtained by (i) adding the off-diagonal components of the metric, (ii) adding the diagonal components of the metric and subtracting 1, (iii) adding the components of the extrinsic curvature. The resulting matter distribution, momentum distributions, conformal part of the metric, and transverse traceless part of the extrinsic curvature are used as input to York’s procedure York79  for determining the initial data. The initial data satisfies the complete set of Hamiltonian and momentum constraints to high accuracy (terms in the constraints cancel to $`10^6`$), and represents two NSs in head-on collision.

The initial data is then numerically evolved by solving the coupled Einstein GR-Hydro evolution equations with numerical methods described in Font98b . The simulations reported here use the “$`1+\mathrm{log}`$” slicing Anninos94c . The simulations have been carried out with resolutions ranging from $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=0.74\mathrm{km}`$ to $`0.3\mathrm{km}`$ (28 to 70 grid points across each NS) for convergence and accuracy analysis. We find that the constraint violations rise linearly throughout the evolution, and converge to zero with increased numerical resolution. The total rest mass of the system is conserved to better than 0.2% throughout the simulations.

## The Results.

In Fig. 2a, we show the collapse of the lapse along the $`z`$ axis from $`t=0\mathrm{ms}`$ to $`t=0.37\mathrm{ms}`$ at intervals of $`0.0926\mathrm{ms}`$. (With the reflection symmetry across the $`z=0`$ plane and the axisymmetry of the head-on collision, we only need to evolve the first octant.) By the time $`t=0.37\mathrm{ms}`$, the lapse has collapsed significantly. Fig. 2b shows the corresponding evolution of the $`zz`$ component of the metric function. The “grid stretching” peak, characteristic of a black hole evolved in a singularity avoiding slicing, is apparent.

Fig. 3 shows contour lines in the $`y=0`$ plane of the log of the gradient of the rest mass density $`\mathrm{log}\left(\sqrt{^i(\rho )_i(\rho )}\right)`$ at time $`t=0.37\mathrm{ms}`$. Sharp changes in rest mass density (where contour lines bunch up) indicate shocks. We see that the shock front is at $`7\mathrm{km}`$ in the x direction, and $`10\mathrm{km}`$ along the $`z`$ direction (the collision axis) and has not yet reached the back end of star (at $`14.5\mathrm{km}`$). At this point the shock front is still moving outward in coordinate space, although it is completely engulfed by the apparent horizon, as seen in Fig. 4 below.

In Fig. 4, we show the intersection of the apparent horizon (AH) with the $`xz`$ plane. To confirm the location of the AH, convergence tests, both in terms of resolution and in terms of location of the computational boundary, have been carried out. The solid, short dashed, long dashed and dotted lines correspond to the AH locations at resolutions of $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=0.74,0.52,0.37`$ and $`0.30\mathrm{km}`$. The inset is a close-up view near the $`z`$-axis. We see that the location of the AH converges in a first order manner. We emphasize the importance of demonstrating the convergence of the final results in a numerical simulation. Such a validation of the final result is computationally expensive but nevertheless indispensable, as a short term convergence test of the numerical code does not guarantee the convergence of the final result at late time. In Fig. 5 we show the hamiltonian constraint converging linearly with respect to resolution for the whole duration of the numerical evolution.

## Analysis of the Results.

The above results demonstrate the phenomenon of a “sub-critical mass collapse”: a prompt collapse of the merged object, despite the fact that its total rest mass is below the critical rest mass of a single NS.

One might question whether this result depends sensitively on the choice of the initial velocity. As the star was only at about $`3R`$ separation at the start of the simulation the infall velocity determined by the Newtonian formula is not accurate. We have verified that increasing or decreasing the initial velocity by 10% does not change the qualitative feature of the collision, and in particular the prompt collapse result. Likewise, our initial configuration while satisfying the constraints may not have exactly the same gravitational wave content and distortion of the NSs as one that represents free fall from infinity. We do not expect that to have a significant influence on the result of prompt collapse (although it will affect the gravitational waveforms). To verify this point we have also carried out simulations using slightly distorted stars and slightly modified extrinsic curvature for the construction of the initial data. We confirmed that the prompt collapse result is not affected.

One might also wonder whether this prompt collapse result is a consequence of the exact symmetry used. To determine this point we carried out simulations with the two initial NS moving in the $`z`$ direction but offset in the $`x`$ direction by half a radius (an impact parameter of $`6.9\mathrm{km}`$). With this setup, the computation expense is significantly higher, as we can no longer evolve just an octant as in the axisymmetric case above. We found that the inclusion of a small impact parameter does not change the qualitative features of the collision, including the occurrence of prompt collapse. In Fig. 6, we show the apparent horizon found again at $`t=0.37\mathrm{ms}`$. We see that the AH is tilted with respect to the $`z`$ axis, but is very similar in shape and size to the head-on case.

In all the above cases, we have prompt collapses. We have confirmed that at a low enough mass, the merged object will not collapse but will instead merge, bounce, oscillate and form a stable NS. However, the determination of the dividing line between a final state black hole or a final state NS would require extremely high resolution whose computational expense is beyond what is available to our group.

Finally, one may also ask whether the sub-critical mass collapse occurs in the head-on collision of NSs described by a polytropic EOS. Preliminary studies with our 3D code show that, in fact, the dividing line in the rest mass of the final merged object between prompt collapse and non-prompt collapse is quite close to the critical rest mass of a single NS for the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$ polytrope. We are currently working on an axisymmetric version of the code which we will use to not only explore this question, but to also explore the possible existence of type-1 critical phenomena at the interface dividing the prompt collapse and non-prompt collapse cases.

## Conclusions.

In this paper we report on a sub-critical mass collapse phenomenon in the head-on/near head-on collisions of NSs with a realistic EOS. We propose a “Prompt Collapse Conjecture”: For head-on and near-head-on collisions of neutron stars described by a generic equation of state and infalling from rest at infinity, there exists a window in the rest mass of the merged object, below the critical single-star rest mass, where prompt collapse to a black hole can occur. This is the opposite of the Shapiro conjecture Shapiro98a , which predicted no prompt collapse for all NS masses, including those above the single-star critical mass.

It has been argued in Katz96a  that head-on/near head-on collisions of NSs could have a significant event rate, and could be a candidate for a sub-class of short gamma-ray bursts. The results of prompt collapse reported in this paper could have implications on the observation of such processes, with the prompt formation of the horizon cutting off the causal connection of the shock heated matter from outside observers. Note that we are not claiming a prompt collapse in inspiral coalescence of NSs.

## Acknowledgements.

We thank Luc Blanchet, K. Thorne, and C. Will for useful discussions, and Lap-Ming Lin for comments on the manuscript. The simulations in this paper have made use of code components developed by several authors: BAM (multigrid solver) by B. Brügman; AH-FINDER (apparent horizon finder) by M. Alcubierre; CONF-ADM (evolution of the Einstein field equations), MAHC (evolution for the GRHydro equations), and IVP (conformal constraint solver) by M. Miller; PRIM-SOL (solver for the hydrodynamical primitive variables) by P. Gressman, ELS (LS-EOS tabular treatment) by E. Evans, and the CACTUS Computational Toolkit by T. Goodale et al.

Support for this research has been provided by the NSF KDI Astrophysics Simulation Collaboratory (ASC) project (Phy 99-79985), NASA Neutron Star Grand Challenge Project(NCCS-153), the NSF NRAC Project Computational General Relativistic Astrophysics (93S025), and the NASA AMES NAS.


text:
# Ly𝛼 emission from GRB host galaxies

## 1. Introduction

The ability since 1997 to determine precise positions of GRB afterglows have given us a new method by which to locate and study galaxies in the early universe – the host galaxies. An important aspect of Gamma Ray Burst selection compared to other selection mechanisms is that it is not flux limited. This is obviously the case for most other selection methods; Lyman-Break selection (Steidel & Hamilton 1992, Steidel et al. 1996) is continuum flux limited and Ly$`\alpha `$ selection (e.g. Møller & Warren 1993; Cowie & Hu 1998; Fynbo et al. 2001a) is line flux limited. Once an afterglow position has been determined we just need to keep integrating on this position until the host galaxy emerges from the noise. So far this approach has led to the detection of a host galaxy for all well localised GRBs (see e.g. the review by Fruchter in these proceedings) with the possible exception of GRB 020124 (Berger et al. 2002). Therefore, GRB selection allows us to probe the part of the luminosity function currently inaccessible to other techniques. Of course GRB selection is subject to other selection mechanisms that are not yet completely known. The precise nature of these will tell us (something) about the nature of the GRB progenitors.

## 2. Ly$`\alpha `$ emission from GRB host galaxies

Ly$`\alpha `$ emission is indicative of on-going star formation in a dust-poor environment (Charlot & Fall 1993, Valls-Gabaud 1993). Ly$`\alpha `$ imaging is therefore a probe of the star formation rate as well as of the dust-content of GRB hosts. Both of these parameters are central to our understanding of GRB progenitors and of how the properties of the environment affect the propagation of afterglow emission out of host galaxies. In the currently favored scenario the progenitors are very massive stars (Woosley 1993 and the review in these proceedings). Due to their short life-times massive stars are only found in galaxies with on-going star formation. As for the dust it is currently debated whether the non-detection of optical afterglows for 50–70% of well-localised GRBs is due to dust in the hosts or due to intrinsic properties of the bursts (Fynbo et al. 2001; Lazzati et al. 2002; Reichart & Price 2002; Berger et al. 2002; De Pasquale et al. 2002). Such a bias would imply that the current sample of GRB hosts, most of which have been located via bright optical afterglows, would be biased against dusty hosts. From simulations there are furthermore indications that the ability for a super-massive star to produce a GRB is metallicity dependent such that low metallicities are favored (Woosley, these proceedings). If true, this could also imply a bias against very dusty GRB host galaxies. Finally, Ly$`\alpha `$ emission is an efficient way to probe the faint parts of the luminosity function relevant for the majority of GRB hosts (Fynbo et al. 2001a) as the equivalent width of the Ly$`\alpha `$ line can be very high, several hundred Ångstrøm in the rest frame.

### 2.1. Observations of the fields of GRB 000301C and GRB 000926

Our first study in this project consisted of deep Ly$`\alpha `$ narrow-band imaging of the fields of GRB 000301C at $`z=2.0404`$ and GRB 000926 at $`z=2.0378`$ at the 2.56-m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT). Both GRBs had bright optical afterglows. This fortunate situation of two host galaxies with nearly identical absorption redshifts made it possible to use a single 45Å wide custom made interference filter and search for Ly$`\alpha `$ emission from the host galaxies and Ly$`\alpha `$ emitting galaxies in their environment. The observations were done at the NOT in May 2001 and the results are published in Fynbo et al. (2002) and summarized here. The host galaxy of GRB 000926 is an extended (more than 18 kpc), strong Ly$`\alpha `$ emitter with a rest-frame equivalent width of 71$`{}_{15}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+20}`$ Å (see Fig. 1). The galaxy consists of two main components and several fainter knots. GRB 000926 occurred in the western component, whereas most of the Ly$`\alpha `$ luminosity (about 65%) is emitted from the eastern component. From HST F606W and F814W images of the host galaxy we measure the spectral slopes ($`f_\lambda \lambda ^\beta `$) of the two components to $`\beta `$ = $``$2.4$`\pm `$0.3 (east) and $`\beta `$ = $``$1.4$`\pm `$0.2 (west). This implies that both components contain at most modest amounts of dust (Meurer et al. 1999), consistent with both the observed strong Ly$`\alpha `$ emission and the spectral energy distribution of the afterglow (Fynbo et al. 2001c). We did not detect the host galaxy of GRB 000301C in Ly$`\alpha `$ emission nor in our U and I broad-band images. This is consistent with deep STIS/HST imaging from which the host was found to be extremely faint (R$`>`$28, Fruchter in these proceedings; Bloom et al. 2002). The upper limit on the Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent width is $`150`$ Å. Therefore, the GRB000301C host galaxy may also be a large equivalent width Ly$`\alpha `$ emitter, but a 8-m class telescope is required to test this. We detect 19 other galaxies with excess emission in the narrow filter in the two fields. These galaxies are most likely Ly$`\alpha `$ emitting galaxies in the environment of the host galaxies. Based on these detections we conclude that GRB 000926 occurred in one of the strongest centres of star formation within several Mpc, whereas GRB 000301C occurred in an intrinsically very faint galaxy far from being the strongest centre of star formation in its galactic environment.

## 3. Perspectives

In addition to GRB 000926 Ly$`\alpha `$ emission has been detected from the host galaxies of GRB 971214 and GRB 021004 (Kulkarni et al. 1998; Ahn 2000; Møller et al. 2002; Castro-Tirado et al. 2003). In fact, all current evidence is consistent with the conjecture that high-z GRB host galaxies are Ly$`\alpha `$ emitters. This is intriguing as only $``$25% of the Lyman-Break selected galaxies at the bright end of the high-z galaxy luminosity function are Ly$`\alpha `$ emitters (Steidel et al. 2000). This may be due to a bias against dust in GRB hosts, either observational or intrinsic as discussed in Sect. 2. To study this further we will continue the program with observations of more high-z GRB hosts in order to expand the sample. For now we have time to observe the host galaxies of GRB 011211 ($`z=2.140`$) and GRB 020124 ($`z=3.20`$) with Ly$`\alpha `$ narrow band imaging, and in the near future the Swift satellite mission should make it possible to build up a larger sample.

#### Acknowledgments.

JPUF gratefully acknowledges support from an ESO research fellowship and from the Carlsberg Foundation. STH acknowledges support from the NASA LTSA grant NAG5–9364. This work is supported by Danish Natural Science Research Council (SNF).

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