text:
# Nonlinear 𝑟-Modes in Neutron Stars: Instability of an unstable mode

## Abstract

We study the dynamical evolution of a large amplitude $`r`$-mode by numerical simulations. $`R`$-modes in neutron stars are unstable growing modes, driven by gravitational radiation reaction. In these simulations, $`r`$-modes of amplitude unity or above are destroyed by a catastrophic decay: A large amplitude $`r`$-mode gradually leaks energy into other fluid modes, which in turn act nonlinearly with the $`r`$-mode, leading to the onset of the rapid decay. As a result the $`r`$-mode suddenly breaks down into a differentially rotating configuration. The catastrophic decay does not appear to be related to shock waves at the star’s surface. The limit it imposes on the $`r`$-mode amplitude is significantly smaller than that suggested by previous fully nonlinear numerical simulations.

The $`r`$-modes of rotating neutron stars are unstable growing modes driven by gravitational radiation reaction Andersson:1 ; Friedman:1 . If the $`l=m=2`$ $`r`$-mode of a young, rapidly rotating star can grow to an amplitude of order unity, the gravitational radiation it emits would carry away most of the star’s angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy; and the radiation might be detectable by the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO II) Owen  (for recent reviews see Andersson:2 ; Friedman:2 ). Even if its amplitude were smaller, the $`r`$-mode instability would limit the periods of hot, young neutron stars (and, possibly, of old stars spun up by accretion). A number of mechanisms to damp the mode have been examined, including shear viscosity enhanced by crust-core coupling and by nonstandard cooling crust ; bulk viscosity enhanced by a hyperon-rich core hyperon ; and energy loss to a magnetic field driven by differential rotation diff\_rot . But none of these definitively eliminates the instability.

The significance of the $`r`$-mode instability depends strongly on its maximum possible amplitude. In two recent Letters, Stergioulas and Font Nick:1  and Lindblom, Tohline, and Vallisneri LB:1  performed numerical simulations of nonlinear $`r`$-modes, both finding that large-amplitude nonlinear $`r`$-modes can exist for some long period of time. In addition, in LB:1 ; LB:2 , Lindblom et al. carried out numerical simulations of the growth of the $`r`$-modes driven by the current quadrupole post-Newtonian radiation reaction force in Newtonian hydrodynamics. In order to achieve a significant growth of the $`r`$-mode amplitude in a reasonably short computational time, they artificially multiplied the radiation reaction force by a factor of 4500. This decreases the growth time of the $`r`$-mode from about 40 s to 10 ms. The (dimensionless) $`r`$-mode amplitude $`\alpha `$ grew to $`3.3`$ before shock waves appeared on the surface of the star and the $`r`$-mode amplitude collapsed. Lindblom et al. suggested that the nonlinear saturation amplitude of the $`r`$-modes may be set by dissipation of energy in the production of shock waves. Here, we show that a hydrodynamical effect will restrict the $`r`$-mode amplitude to a value significantly below that reported in LB:1 ; LB:2 .

We note that, with the artificially large radiation reaction, the results in LB:1 ; LB:2  assume that no hydrodynamic process takes energy from the $`r`$-mode in a time scale between 10 ms and 40 s (the artificial growth time and the actual physical growth time, respectively). In this paper we investigate the evolution of large amplitude $`r`$-modes in these time scales (10 ms-40 s). We find that (i) a catastrophic decay of the mode, occuring within these time scales, significantly reduces the amplitude to which an $`r`$-mode can grow, and (ii) in a large amplitude $`r`$-mode this catastrophic decay leads to a differentially rotating configuration. (As in Refs. LB:1 ; LB:2 , we assume a perfect fluid with no magnetic fields.)

We solve the Newtonian hydrodynamics equations for a non-viscous fluid flow in the presence of gravitational radiation reaction:

$$\frac{\rho }{t}+\left(\rho \stackrel{}{v}\right)=0,$$
(1)
$$\rho \left(\frac{\stackrel{}{v}}{t}+\stackrel{}{v}\stackrel{}{v}\right)=P\rho \mathrm{\Phi }+\rho \stackrel{}{F}_{\mathrm{GR}},$$
(2)
where $`\rho `$ is the density, $`P`$ is the pressure, $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ is the velocity, $`\stackrel{}{F}_{\mathrm{GR}}`$ is the radiation reaction force per unit mass, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the Newtonian potential, satisfying

$$^2\mathrm{\Phi }=4\pi G\rho .$$
(3)
A high resolution shock capturing scheme (Roe solver) is used to solve the hydrodynamic equations. In addition, as in Nick:1 , we applied the 3rd order piecewise parabolic method (PPM) Collela84  for the cell-reconstruction process in order to simulate rapidly rotating stars accurately for a large number of rotational periods.

As $`r`$-modes couple to the gravitational radiation mainly through the current multipoles $`J_{lm}`$, we assume that the contribution to the reaction force $`\stackrel{}{F}_{\mathrm{GR}}`$ comes solely from the dominant current multipole $`J_{22}`$, an approximation used also in LB:1 ; LB:2 . The resulting expression for $`\stackrel{}{F}_{\mathrm{GR}}`$ is given by (see Luc:1 ; Rez ; LB:1 )

$$F_{\mathrm{GR}}^xiF_{\mathrm{GR}}^y=\kappa i\left(x+iy\right)\left[3v^zJ_{22}^{(5)}+zJ_{22}^{(6)}\right],$$
(4)
$$F_{\mathrm{GR}}^z=\kappa \mathrm{Im}\left\{\left(x+iy\right)^2\left[3\frac{v^x+iv^y}{x+iy}J_{22}^{(5)}+J_{22}^{(6)}\right]\right\},$$
(5)
where $`J_{22}^{(n)}`$ is the nth time derivative of $`J_{22}`$ and $`\kappa =\kappa _032\sqrt{\pi }G/(45\sqrt{5}c^7)`$. A technical difficulty in evaluating $`\stackrel{}{F}_{\mathrm{GR}}`$ is that it depends on high-order time derivatives of $`J_{22}`$. To circumvent this problem, we assume that $`J_{22}^{(n)}=(i\omega )^nJ_{22}`$, with the nonlinear $`r`$-mode frequency $`\omega `$ defined by $`\omega =|J_{22}^{(1)}|/|J_{22}|`$, as in LB:1 ; LB:2 . Notice that $`J_{22}^{(1)}`$ can be expressed as an integral over the fluid variables and is thus calculated on each time slice LB:1 ; LB:2 ; Rez .

To investigate the dynamical properties of a large amplitude $`r`$-mode numerically, one must first generate initial data. However, analytically we know only the expression of an $`r`$-mode in the linear regime, under the assumption of $`\alpha 1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_00`$. In particular, the $`l=m=2`$ $`r`$-mode perturbation (at the first order of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$) is given by LB:3

$$\delta \stackrel{}{v}=\alpha _0R_0\mathrm{\Omega }_0\left(\frac{r}{R_0}\right)^2\stackrel{}{Y}_{22}^Be^{i\omega t},$$
(6)
where $`\alpha _0`$ is a dimensionless amplitude, $`R_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ are the radius and angular velocity of the unperturbed rotating star model, and $`\stackrel{}{Y}_{22}^B`$ is the magnetic-type vector spherical harmonic defined by $`\stackrel{}{Y}_{lm}^B=[l(l+1)]^{1/2}\stackrel{}{r}\times Y_{lm}`$. Using Eq. (6) with a large $`\alpha _0`$ introduces other modes in the initial data LB:2 ; that is, the resulting configuration is not the same as an $`r`$-mode growing from small amplitude driven by gravitational radiation reaction. In the following, we will show how we obtain a large amplitude $`r`$-mode in our study.

Beyond the linear regime, there is no unique mode decomposition, and hence no unique definition of an $`r`$-mode. In this paper, by a large amplitude $`r`$-mode we mean a configuration resulting from the growth of an infinitesimal $`r`$-mode due to gravitational radiation reaction. We define the amplitude $`\alpha `$ of the nonlinear $`l=m=2`$ mode in terms of its contribution to $`J_{22}=\rho r^2\stackrel{}{v}\stackrel{}{Y}_{22}^Bd^3x`$:

$`\alpha (t)\left|{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^3}}{\displaystyle \stackrel{~}{\alpha }(x)e^{i\varphi (x)}d^3x}\right|,`$ (7)
(8)
$`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(x)e^{i\varphi (x)}{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi R^4\left(\rho r^2\stackrel{}{v}\stackrel{}{Y}_{22}^B\right)}{\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}(t)\rho r^4d^3x}}.`$ (9)
Here $`R`$ is the radius of the corresponding nonrotating star model and $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(x)`$ is the amplitude density. The phase factor $`\varphi (x)`$ is defined so that $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(x)`$ is real. The definition of the amplitude is similar to that of LB:1 , except that we normalize $`\alpha (t)`$ by the average angular velocity of the star $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}(t)`$ instead of a fixed initial $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$.

In Fig. 1, we show the time evolution of $`\alpha `$ for two cases in a slowly rotating star with $`T=4.42\mathrm{ms}`$. In the first case $`\kappa `$ is set to the correct Post-Newtonian value $`\kappa _0`$ (represented by the solid line labeled “$`\kappa _0`$”). The evolution begins with a small (linear) $`r`$-mode perturbation given by Eq. (6) with $`\alpha _0=0.1`$. The simulation is carried out up to $`t=0.6\mathrm{ms}`$. To compare, we plotted as dashed line the evolution of $`\alpha `$ as predicted by the linear theory LB:3 : $`\alpha =\alpha _0e^{t/\tau _{\mathrm{GR}}}`$, where the gravitational radiation time scale is given by

$$\frac{1}{\tau _{\mathrm{GR}}}=\frac{G\mathrm{\Omega }_0^6}{2c^7}\left(\frac{256}{405}\right)^2\left(\frac{\kappa }{\kappa _0}\right)\rho r^4d^3x.$$
(10)
We note that this formula is correct only to linear order in $`\alpha `$ and in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and is thus accurate only for (i) $`\alpha <<1`$ and (ii) $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0/\sqrt{G\overline{\rho }}<<1`$. While assumption (i) is reasonably good, (ii) is actually not accurate for the model used: rotation period 4.42 ms, corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Omega }/\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{max}}0.25`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{max}}2\sqrt{\pi G\overline{\rho }}/3`$ is the Kepler limit, where $`\overline{\rho }`$ represents the average density of the star). Nevertheless, the two lines nearly coincide.

With radiation reaction coefficient $`\kappa _0`$, an evolution time $`t3\times 10^8\mathrm{ms}`$ is needed to reach $`\alpha =1`$. For a $`129^3`$ grid-point simulation, this would take $`O(10^{11})`$ time steps, requiring a clearly impractical $`O(10^8)`$ hours on a 128 CPU Origin 2000 (MIPS R12000).

To arrive at a large amplitude $`r`$-mode we use an artificially large $`\kappa `$ as in LB:1 ; LB:2 . In Fig. 1, the solid line labeled “$`9\times 10^7\kappa _0`$” represents the evolution of $`\alpha `$ with $`\kappa =9\times 10^7\kappa _0`$. For comparison, we also plot the evolution of $`\alpha `$ as predicted by the linear theory with this $`\kappa `$ as the dashed line. The slight offset between the dashed and solid lines at the initial time is due to the fact that $`\alpha (t=0)`$ as calculated from Eq. (9) equals to $`\alpha _0`$ as defined in Eq. (6) only in the limit $`\alpha _01`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_00`$.

In Fig. 2 (left), we show the growth of an $`r`$-mode (with $`\alpha _0=0.5`$) to a large amplitude with an artificial $`\kappa `$ of $`4500\kappa _0`$ in our fast rotating star model: The star has a mass of $`M=1.64M_{}`$ with a polytropic equation of state $`P=k\rho ^2`$. The equatorial radius $`R_e=14.5\mathrm{km}`$. The ratio of the polar to equatorial radii is 0.76. The rotation period is $`T=1.24`$ ms. This model is used for the rest of the simulations discussed in this paper. Unless otherwise noted, we use $`129^3`$ Cartesian grid points with $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=\mathrm{\Delta }y=\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.42\mathrm{km}`$.

In Fig. 2 (left), the amplitude $`\alpha `$ rises from 0.5 to 2.2 in 19 ms. An indicator of the accuracy of the simulation is that the total mass of the system is constant to 0.08% by 20 ms in our $`129^3`$ runs. Also, the actual numerical evolution of the total angular momentum $`J=|\rho \stackrel{}{r}\times \stackrel{}{v}d^3x|`$ agrees with the theoretical prediction \[see Eq. (11) of Ref. LB:1 \] to about 1%.

While the discussion above shows the accuracy of our numerical treatment, one still must ask whether the large amplitude $`r`$-mode obtained with the large artificial pumping is physical or not, in the sense that whether the rapid pumping excites modes that would not be excited with $`\kappa =\kappa _0`$. We compare the large amplitude $`r`$-modes obtained with different pumping rates and conclude that the resulting fluid flow pattern does not depend sensitively on the pump rate (as long as the pump rate is large enough so that the large amplitude $`r`$-mode can be arrived at). In Fig. 2 (right), we show the rotational velocity profile $`v^y`$ along the $`x`$ axis for $`\kappa =9000,4500\kappa _0`$ at the point when $`\alpha =2.0`$, starting with the same initial model. For comparison, we also plot the initial profile in the same figure. We see that the two lines, $`\kappa =9000,4500\kappa _0`$, agree with each other to better than 3%, with smaller discrepancy away from the surface. In the rest of this paper, we will take the “pumped up” configurations given in Fig. 2 (left) as the initial state in our investigation of the hydrodynamical behavior of the large amplitude $`r`$-mode. To the extent that different pumping rates are not affecting the initial state we use, the artificial pumping is not affecting the results we report below.

Here we focus on one question: What is the fate of a large-amplitude $`r`$-mode in a rapidly rotating neutron star for a sufficiently long time evolution, modeled as the 1.24 ms polytrope described above. That is, what evolution is implied by Eqs. (1)-(3), with the correct amount of radiation reaction?

In Fig. 3 (left) we show the evolution of $`\alpha `$ vs time for various large amplitude $`r`$-modes starting off with $`\alpha =2.2,2.0,1.8,1.6`$. We see that the mode amplitudes start off slowly decaying, leaking energy to other modes. The decay rate is small, until a certain time. We plot in Fig. 3 (right) the Fourier transform of the velocity component $`v^z`$ along the $`x`$ axis at a typical point inside the star at two different time slots in the evolution of the $`\alpha =1.6`$ case \[the lowest line in Fig. 3 (left)\]. The dashed line is the profile at the beginning of the evolution (13 ms-35 ms), we see that there is only one large peak at the $`r`$-mode frequency (0.93 kHz). This is compared to the solid line representing the spectrum at a later time slot (35 ms - 50 ms). We see that various smaller peaks appear in the spectrum, especially the one at twice the $`r`$-mode frequency (1.86 kHz). Spectra at different points inside the star give similar structure, with those in the core region showing more peaks at different frequencies.

The most interesting feature of Fig. 3 (left) is that after some slow leaking of energy into other fluid modes, the $`r`$-mode amplitude drops catastrophically to a value much smaller than 1. This abrupt drop occurs through nonlinear couplings with other fluid modes: In the slow leaking phase, these other fluid modes are growing linearly until a certain unstable point. The time it takes to reach the unstable point depends sensitively on the $`r`$-mode amplitude. It shortens from approximately 45 ms to 8 ms when the initial value of $`\alpha `$ changes from 1.6 to 2.2.

To further investigate this catastrophic decay we perform a set of numerical experiments in which we pump energy into the $`r`$-mode by turning on the artificial radiation reaction force with coefficient $`\kappa =4500\kappa _0`$ whenever its amplitude drops down below its initial value. The resulting evolution of $`\alpha `$ vs time is given in Fig. 4. The evolution tracks of $`\alpha `$ starting off with values $`\alpha =2.1,1.9,1.7,1.5,1.4,1.0`$ are given. With the large artificial pumping $`\alpha `$ remains constant despite energy leaking to other modes. In all cases (except $`\alpha =1.0`$ where the simulation is not evolved long enough), however, the hydrodynamical nonlinear interaction eventually overwhelms the artificial pumping, and the $`r`$-mode amplitude falls catastrophically.

In Fig. 5 we compare the distribution of the amplitude density $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(x)`$ as defined in Eq. (9) on the equatorial plane before (left) and after (right) the breakdown respectively for the case where the initial $`\alpha `$ is 2.0 (the $`\alpha =2.0`$ line in Fig. 3). In the figure, the brighter region represents higher amplitude density. During the catastrophic decay, the $`r`$-mode pattern changes rapidly from a 4-fold “regular” shape (left) to a whirlpool-like spiral (right). We also see in our simulations that strong differential rotation is developed during the breakdown, a potentially important fact regarding whether subsequent re-growth of the $`r`$-mode is possible or not Karino .

In Fig. 6 we plot the rotational velocity profile $`v^y`$ along the $`x`$ axis for the case where the initial $`\alpha `$ is 2.0. The solid line is the initial profile, while the dashed line is the profile after the decay. To further quantify the amount of differential rotation, we define the kinetic energy associated to differential rotation by $`I=\frac{1}{2}\rho \left(v_\varphi \overline{v}_\varphi \right)^2d^3x`$, where $`\overline{v}_\varphi =\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}\sqrt{x^2+y^2}`$ with $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ being the average angular velocity of the star. We plot the evolution of $`\alpha `$ and $`I`$ together in Fig. 7 (left). It is seen that the amount of differential rotation ($`I`$) rises rapidly during the breakdown of $`\alpha `$. We also see in our simulations that the star has a relatively large amplitude pulsation during the breakdown. Fig. 7 (right) shows the quadrupole-moment component $`Q_{xy}`$ against time for the same case as in Fig. 7 (left). We see that $`Q_{xy}`$ is basically zero until the breakdown and it then oscillates rapidly afterward. However, based on an order-of-magnitude estimation, the gravitational radiation amplitude due to the changing quadrupole moment is only about 1% of that due to the $`r`$-mode.

In contrast to the study of Refs. LB:1 ; LB:2 , we do not see evidence that this catastrophic decay is due to the generation of shock waves on the surface of the star.

We found in this paper that a large amplitude $`r`$-mode will lose energy to other fluid modes whose growth in turn trigger a catastrophic decay of the $`r`$-mode. For an $`r`$-mode with an amplitude $`\alpha `$ of order one, the onset of catastrophic decay requires a time much shorter than the growth time of the $`r`$-mode due to radiation reaction; and the decay thus limits the $`r`$-mode amplitude to a value less than that found by LB:1 ; LB:2 . Further work is in progress to determine the nature of this catastrophic decay, whether it is related to any known hydrodynamical instability of nonlinear flow, and how large an $`r`$-mode amplitude can be with this effect taken into account.

Note added. Towards the end of the preparation of this paper we learned the results of Arras et al. Arras . We note the following differences between the hydrodynamical phenomenon studied in this paper and that studied by them: The work of Arras et al. points to a slow leakage of the $`r`$-mode energy into some short wavelength oscillation modes, leading to an equilibrium distribution of mode amplitudes. This in turn, through viscosity dissipation, limits the $`r`$-mode amplitude to a small value. In this paper we find a sudden and complete breakdown of the $`r`$-mode that operates independent of viscosity. Further numerical investigation will be carried out to investigate the interactions of $`r`$-modes with other oscillation modes. Such investigation is beyond the resolution power of our present simulations. Note that, if the conclusions of Arras  are correct, there may be no astrophysical situation in which $`r`$-modes grow to amplitudes large enough to exhibit the sudden decay seen in our simulations.

We thank N. Andersson, G. Comer, E. Evans, S. Iyer, L. Lindblom, M. Miller, Y. Mino, B. Owen and C. Will for useful discussions. The simulations in this paper made use of the following code components: Newton\_evolve (Newtonian gravity and evolution) by P. Gressman, PPM (PPM reconstruction) by T. Font, Newton\_anal (modules for various Newtonian analyses) by L.-M. Lin, and the Cactus computational toolkit by T. Goodale et al. The research is supported by NSF Phy 00-71044, 00-96522, 99-79985 (KDI Astrophysics Simulation Collaboratory Project), NRAC MCS93S025, the EU Programme “Improving the Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base” (Research Training Network Contract HPRN-CT-2000-00137), KBN-5P03D01721, and support from the NASA AMES NAS.


format: text

text:
# References

Conformal Invariance,
Anomalous Gravitational Coupling and Derivation of a Particle Concept
$`\mathrm{𝐇𝐚𝐝𝐢}\mathrm{𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐡𝐢}`$ ***e-mail: h-salehi@cc.sbu.ac.ir.

Institute for Studies in Nonlinear Analysis, School of Mathematical Sciences,
Shahid Beheshti University, P.O.Box 19395-4716, Evin, Tehran 19834, Iran.
and

Department of Physics, Shahid Beheshti University, Evin, Tehran 19839, Iran.
$`\mathrm{𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟}\mathrm{𝐁𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐫}`$e-mail: y-bisabr@srttu.edu.

Department of Physics, Shahid Rajaee University, Lavizan, Tehran 16788, Iran.

## Abstract

We study a gravitational model whose vacuum sector is invariant under conformal transformations. In this model we investigate the anomalous gravitational coupling of the large-scale matter. In this kind of coupling the large-sale matter is taken to couple to a metric which is different but conformally related to the metric appearing explicitly in the vacuum sector. The effect of the conformal symmetry breaking of the large-scale matter would lead in general to a variable strength of the anomalous gravitational coupling. This feature is used to derive a relativistic particle concept which shares the essential dynamical characteristics of the particle concept used in the causal interpretation of quantum mechanics with respect to the form of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The basic aspect of this result is that it relates the variable strength of the anomalous gravitational coupling of the large-scale matter to the appearance of a term similar to a quantum potential term. Some of the general characteristics of the corresponding pilot wave are discussed.

The principle of conformal invariance requires that all the fundamental equations of physics should be invariant under local (spacetime dependent) changes of units of length and time . This requirement poses a fundamental symmetry in physical theories which is of ever-increasing interest. The establishment of such a symmetry in the vacuum sector of a gravitational model leads one to face with a problem concerning the incorporation of matter to such models. In fact, once the vacuum sector is taken to be conformally invariant, all the conformal frames of the metric should be considered as dynamically equivalent. By implication there is no $`apriori`$ evidence determining to which of these frames the matter couples. From a classical point of view one may appeal to the weak equivalence principle which forces us to consider the coupling of matter to the metric which enters explicitly the action describing the vacuum sector. This is what is generally known as the normal coupling. At the quantum level, however, there is not a direct evidence demonstrating the validity of the weak equivalence principle. Thus questions such as what is the nature of gravitational coupling of matter at this level and what are the physical consequences of this coupling are of obvious theoretical significance.

In this paper we deal with questions of this type in the framework of a conformal invariant gravitational model in which the gravitational interaction of matter can be described both by the normal coupling and the anomalous coupling. The anomalous coupling means that the metric tensor entering the gravitational part and that entering the matter part of the action correspond to different conformal frames. We shall establish such a distinction by introducing a nontrivial conformal factor which in our model is considered as a dynamical field. We show that the emergence of this field can be used to model a relativistic particle concept which shares the essential characteristics of the particle concept in the casual interpretation of quantum mechanics  with respect to the form of the Hamilton Jacobi equation. This deduction of the particle concept is carried out on the basis of a conformal symmetry breaking.

It should be noted that the relation between the conformal invariant gravitational models and causal interpretation of quantum mechanics has been studied in many works, see, e.g   . The present work deals with the exploration of the role played by the anomalous gravitational coupling in this context. Throughout the following we shall use units in which $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$ and the signature is (-+++).

Consider the vacuum sector of a scalar tensor theory defined by the conformal invariant gravitational action functional

$$S=\frac{1}{2}d^4x\sqrt{g}(g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi +\frac{1}{6}R\varphi ^2),$$
(1)
where $`\varphi `$ is a scalar field, $`R`$ is the curvature scalar associated with the metric tensor $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`_\mu `$ denotes a covariant differentiation.

The conformal invariance of the action (1) means that it is invariant under conformal transformations

$$g_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Omega }^2g_{\mu \nu },$$
(2)
$$\varphi (x)\mathrm{\Omega }^1\varphi (x),$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is a smooth dimensionless spacetime function. The implication is that in the vacuum sector of a gravitational model defined by the action (1) the conformal frame of the metric remains dynamically unspecified. This point is very important concerning the gravitational coupling of a matter system. In fact if one wants to add a matter action to the gravitational action (1) one has to decide which conformal frame of the metric is chosen for the description of the matter action. The dynamical characteristics of a matter system may depend significantly on the choice of this conformal frame.

To incorporate a matter system one may assume that the conformal frame of the metric used in the matter action is the same as that of the gravitational action (1) . This corresponds to the normal gravitational coupling and reflects one of the main characteristics in the standard description of matter systems. For our purpose we need to consider besides the normal coupling the anomalous coupling in which case one distinguishes between the conformal frame of the metric used in the gravitational action (1) and that used in the matter action. In explicit terms we intend to investigate a biscalar-tensor theory defined by the action functional

$$S^{^{}}=\frac{1}{2}d^4x\sqrt{g}\{g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi +(g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \sigma _\nu \sigma +\frac{1}{6}R)\varphi ^2+\frac{1}{2}\lambda \sigma \varphi ^4\}+S_m[\psi ,\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }],$$
(4)
in which $`\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }=e^\sigma g_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`S_m[\psi ,\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }]`$ stands for the matter action which contains some matter field variables, collectively denoted by $`\psi `$, with anomalous gravitational coupling. The new scalar field $`\sigma `$ describes the distinction between the two conformal frames of the metric describing the gravitational and the matter part of the action (4). The presence of a kinetic term for $`\sigma `$ implies that $`\sigma `$ is considered as a dynamical field. The action (4) contains also an interaction term $`\lambda \sigma \varphi ^4`$ in which $`\lambda `$ is a dimensionless coupling constant. The particular form of this interaction term and the kinetic term of $`\sigma `$ is suggested by the fact that these terms respect the conformal symmetry of the gravitational action (1)Note that $`\sigma `$ as a dimensionless function does not transform under a conformal transformation.. Thus the total action (4) is distinguished by the fact that a conceivable (conformal) symmetry breaking may be linked to the physical characteristics of the matter at hand.

At this point it is necessary to clarify the notion of the anomalous gravitational coupling introduced by the action (4) with respect to other existing publications devoted to this issue. Usually one uses conformal transformations of the metric to transfer the action of a scalar-tensor theory into different inequivalent representations, for a review see . This is done, for example, in Brans-Dicke theory to represent the corresponding action in the so called Einstein frame in which a constant strength of the gravitational coupling can be established. In this approach there is no a priori distinction between the conformal frame of the metric used in the gravitational part and that used in the matter part of the original action. The anomalous gravitational coupling emerges in all these cases because the applied conformal transformation generates an exponential factor before the metric  in the matter action or occasionally before the matter part of the Lagrangian . The notion of the anomalous coupling introduced by the action (4) is however conceptually different with respect to two points. Firstly, it allows us to have an a priori distinction between the two conformal frames of the metric used in the gravitational part and in the matter part of the original action. Secondly, the action is constructed in such a way that the gravitational part of the action exhibits the conformal symmetry so that the physical characteristics of the matter may be considered as responsible for a conceivable conformal symmetry breaking. §§§Note that the class of scalar tensor theories which is mostly discussed in the context of the anomalous coupling breaks the conformal symmetry already in the vacuum sector, i.e., at the level of the gravitational part of the original action.. This last point has important implications regarding a new symmetry breaking phase if the matter actually breaks the conformal invariance. In such cases the anomalous gravitational coupling of matter can be related to an anomalous phase of the symmetry breaking. This anomalous phase is often ignored in the consideration of conformal symmetry breaking  which is usually based on the normal coupling (the normal phase). We shall deal with this issue later in connection with the symmetry breaking effect due to the gravitational coupling of the large-scale matter.

Varying $`S^{^{}}`$ with respect to $`g^{\mu \nu }`$, $`\varphi `$ and $`\sigma `$ yields, respectively,

$$G_{\mu \nu }\frac{3}{2}\lambda \sigma \varphi ^2g_{\mu \nu }=6\varphi ^2(e^\sigma \mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }+\tau _{\mu \nu })+6t_{\mu \nu },$$
(5)
$$\mathrm{}\varphi \frac{1}{6}R\varphi \lambda \sigma \varphi ^3\varphi _\alpha \sigma ^\alpha \sigma =0,$$
(6)
$$_\mu J^\mu =\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{g}(\frac{1}{2}\lambda \varphi ^4+e^\sigma g^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }),$$
(7)
where

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }=\frac{2}{\sqrt{\overline{g}}}\frac{\delta }{\delta \overline{g}^{\mu \nu }}S_m[\psi ,\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }],$$
(8)
$$J^\mu =\sqrt{g}\varphi ^2g^{\mu \nu }_\nu \sigma ,$$
(9)
and

$$\tau _{\mu \nu }=(_\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi \frac{1}{2}g_{\mu \nu }_\alpha \varphi ^\alpha \varphi )\frac{1}{6}(g_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{}_\mu _\nu )\varphi ^2,$$
(10)
$$t_{\mu \nu }=_\mu \sigma _\nu \sigma +\frac{1}{2}g_{\mu \nu }_\alpha \sigma ^\alpha \sigma .$$
(11)
Here $`\mathrm{}g^{\mu \nu }_\mu _\nu `$ and $`G_{\mu \nu }`$ is the Einstein tensor of the metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$. In the equation (5) we consider $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }`$ as the matter stress tensor. Note that this tensor appears in (5) with a conformal weight $`e^\sigma `$. This is a consequence of the anomalous coupling which forces us to define $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }`$ in terms of functional differentiation with respect to $`\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }`$In the present context, there may be an ambiguity in the definition of the conformal weight of the matter stress tensor when matter systems anomalously couple to gravity. This ambiguity does not affect the basic result of the present work. The exploration of the issue is however deserved to be investigated elsewhere..

Taking the four-divergence of (5) and combining the result with (6) and (7) leads to

$$^\mu (e^\sigma \mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu })=\frac{1}{2}_\nu \sigma e^\sigma g^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu },$$
(12)
which indicates that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }`$ can not be conserved due to the presence of $`\sigma `$. We also note that in the absence of matter the trace of (5) would lead directly to the equation (6) and, therefore, the latter would not contain any new information. This is a direct consequence of conformal invariance of the vacuum sector of (4). In the presence of matter, on the other hand, we obtain the following condition

$$e^\sigma g^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }=0,$$
(13)
by comparing the trace of (5) with the equation (6). This is a dynamical consistency relation imposed on the behavior of matter systems in this model. It means that only the gravitational coupling of traceless matter systems is allowed to be described by (4). To describe the gravitational coupling of matter systems with nonvanishing trace of the corresponding stress-tensor one may add a term such as $`\frac{1}{2}d^4x\sqrt{g}\mu ^2\varphi ^2`$ to the total action in (4) with $`\mu `$ being a constant mass parameter. In this case the analog of the equations (5) and (6) are

$$G_{\mu \nu }3\mu ^2g_{\mu \nu }\frac{3}{2}\lambda \sigma \varphi ^2g_{\mu \nu }=6\varphi ^2(e^\sigma \mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }+\tau _{\mu \nu })+6t_{\mu \nu },$$
(14)
$$\mathrm{}\varphi \frac{1}{6}R\varphi \lambda \sigma \varphi ^3\mu ^2\varphi \varphi _\alpha \sigma ^\alpha \sigma =0,$$
(15)
and the equation (7) remains unchanged. The relation (13) takes then the form

$$e^\sigma g^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }=\mu ^2\varphi ^2.$$
(16)
This ensures the consideration of the gravitational coupling of matter systems with nonvanishing trace of the corresponding stress-tensor to be dynamically consistent.

It should however be noted that the appearance of a constant dimensional parameter such as $`\mu `$ clearly breaks the conformal symmetry. We are primarily interested in the investigation of a cosmological symmetry breaking emerging from the gravitational coupling of the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. In this case the length scale $`\mu ^1`$ should be related to the typical size of the universe $`R_0`$, namely $`\mu ^1R_0`$. We first consider the normal phase of the symmetry breaking which is taken to be based on the normal coupling of the large-scale distribution of matter. This demands a vanishing average value for $`\sigma `$ at large scales, namely $`\overline{\sigma }=0`$. It this case it is possible to obtain an estimation for the constant background average value of $`\varphi `$ which provides the strength of the gravitational coupling. In fact, the trace of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }`$ can be measured in terms of the average density of the large-scale distribution of matter, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\mu ^\mu M/R_0^3`$ which $`M`$ denotes the mass of the universe. If one uses the empirical fact that the radius of the universe coincides with its schwarzschild radius $`2GM`$, one then gets an estimation of the constant background value of $`\varphi `$

$$\varphi ^2Gm_p^2,$$
(17)
where $`G`$ and $`m_p`$ are the gravitational constant and the Planck mass, respectively. In this case, the gravitational equation (14) reduces to the Einstein field equations with a small cosmological constant. It is important to note that the use of $`\lambda \sigma \varphi ^4`$, instead of the usual $`\lambda \varphi ^4`$ term, allows to avoid the cosmological constant problem in a cosmological context.
Thus it is possible to use a constant configuration of $`\varphi `$ to measure a constant strength of gravitational coupling of the large scale distribution of matter in the normal coupling. It should be emphasized that this feature seems to be characteristic only to the normal phase of the symmetry breaking which is based on the normal coupling. In the case of anomalous coupling the conformal symmetry breaking can not be used to achieve a precise estimation of the energy density of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mu \nu }`$. This means that we may not obtain any knowledge of the configuration of the scalar field $`\varphi `$ as a measure for the strength of the anomalous gravitational coupling.

We proceed now to the consideration of the anomalous phase of the symmetry breaking which is taken to be based on the anomalous coupling of the large-scale distribution of matter. The corresponding symmetry breaking is characterized by the relation (16) in which the length scale $`\mu ^1`$ again measures the typical size of the universe. But (16) implies that the local variations of $`\sigma `$ lead to a variable configuration of $`\varphi `$. As a consequence, the strength of the anomalous gravitational coupling of the large scale distribution of matter should not be considered as constant. This feature can be used to derive a particle concept in the anomalous phase of the symmetry breaking. From (15) we obtain

$$g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \sigma _\nu \sigma =m^2\frac{1}{6}R+\frac{\mathrm{}\varphi }{\varphi },$$
(18)
which may be interpreted as a generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equation of a relativistic particle with a variable mass $`m=(\lambda \sigma \varphi ^2+\mu ^2)^{1/2}`$. The major characteristic of (18) lies in the term $`\frac{\mathrm{}\varphi }{\varphi }`$. It is similar to the term related to the so-called quantum potential in the context of causal interpretation of relativistic quantum mechanics . In present context, this term emerges because the anomalous gravitational coupling of large-scale matter systems does not provide us a constant strength for the gravitational coupling.

In order for the particle interpretation of (18) to be valid two general characteristics should be present. Firstly the particle trajectories must be timelike. Secondly the variable mass scale $`m`$ must remain constant along the particle trajectories. To establish the first characteristic one may impose the condition $`_\alpha \sigma ^\alpha \sigma <0`$ to ensure that the particles move along timelike trajectories. Looking at (11) we see that this acts as an energy condition on the stress tensor $`t_{\mu \nu }`$. It selects, namely, those configurations of $`\sigma `$ for which the trace of $`t_{\mu \nu }`$ is negative. For the stress tensors of matter systems this assumption is dynamically consistent, as one may infer from (16). Thus the restriction to timelike trajectories means that the stress tensor $`t_{\mu \nu }`$ which appears on the right hand side of (14) follows the general behavior of dynamically allowed matter systems with respect to the sign of the trace. The establishment of the second characteristic needs careful considerations. The constant mass scale of a particle seems to be a feature which is valid if a particle could ideally be considered as a quasi-isolated object. To perform the corresponding limiting procedure we propose to consider the scaling limit $`\mu 0`$, i.e., the idealized limit of infinite size of the universe. In this limit the conformal invariance is restored. Taking this limit as reasonable we may then select a conformal frame (a particle frame) by the condition

$$_\alpha \sigma ^\alpha m=0,$$
(19)
which ensures that the mass scale $`m`$ remains constant along the particle trajectoriesThe masses of the particles contribute to vacuum energy density and appear as a large cosmological constant in the gravitational equation (14). Thus the question arises whether this would lead to a cosmological constant problem . This issue is difficult to be resolved, but we make here only a modest remark. In the present case this problem arises only in the anomalous phase of symmetry breaking. In fact the mass of the particles is generated by a nonvanishing value of $`\sigma `$ which in our presentation is characteristic to the anomalous coupling of the large-scale matter. However the considerations in cosmology are offer based on the normal coupling of the large-scale matter. The vanishing value of $`\sigma `$ ensures in this case that no cosmological constant problem arises. One can probably say that the cosmological constant problem arises if one makes no distinction between the nature of gravitational coupling of matter in cosmology and particle physics . The issue is however too difficult to be resolved within the scope of this paper..

Finally we turn to the general particle concept described by (18) and remark that the motion of the particles can be regarded as influenced by a guidance wave, or a pilot wave, defined by

$$\psi =\varphi e^{i\sigma }.$$
(20)
Using (9) and (18), one can easily show that $`\psi `$ satisfies the wave equation

$$(\mathrm{}m^2\frac{1}{6}R)\psi =\frac{i\varphi ^2}{\sqrt{g}}_\mu J^\mu \psi .$$
(21)
As a consequence of (7) and in the scaling limit $`\mu 0`$, this reduces to

$$(\mathrm{}m^2\frac{1}{6}R)\psi =i\frac{m^2}{4\sigma }\psi .$$
(22)
The right hand side of this equation indicates that there is an imaginary contribution to the squared mass of the particles. However one expects that such a contribution to be vanishingly small since in order to achieve a particle interpretation, there should exist a precise distinction between the two conformal frames of the metric describing the gravitational and the matter part of the action (4). Thus one may require that $`\sigma `$ takes sufficiently large values. In this case the right hand side of the equation (22) drops out and this equation takes the form of the usual field equation in a gravitational background.

We summarize our observations as follows: A breakdown of conformal invariance of the gravitational model (4) in the anomalous phase provides a theoretical framework by which one may derive a particle concept. This derivation entails the existence of a dynamical field which describes the anomalous coupling of the large-scale matter, namely the scalar function $`\sigma `$. This scalar function makes it possible to have a distinction between the conformal frame of the metric used in the description of the large-scale matter system and that used in the description of the geometry of spacetime. In the absence of this distinction (the normal phase of symmetry breaking) the theory describes just the usual gravitational coupling of large-scale distribution of matter. In the presence of this distinction (the anomalous phase of symmetry breaking), on the other hand, the theory can be used to model local particle systems. In this case it is essentially the local variation of the scalar function $`\sigma `$ that leads one to a particle interpretation in which $`\sigma `$ plays the role of the Hamilton-Jacobi function. This demonstrates the nontrivial role of the absolute value of the phase of a wave function in the gravitational context. The local variation of $`\sigma `$ has another important implication in that it predicts a variable strength of the gravitational coupling of the large-scale matter. This leads to the appearance of a corresponding term in the Hamilton-Jacobi equation which is similar to the quantum potential term used in the causal interpretation of quantum mechanics. The whole derivation of the particle concept suggests that the anomalous phase of the symmetry breaking due to the anomalous gravitational coupling of the large-scale matter may have a vital role to play in the geometric interpretation of causal framework of quantum mechanics.


text:
# The Time-of-Flight Technique for the HERMES Experiment

## 1 Introduction

The HERMES experiment at DESY  is a second generation polarised deep-inelastic scattering experiment to study the spin structure of the nucleon. Several experiments over the last decade have provided accurate data on the polarisation asymmetry of the cross-section for inclusive scattering where only the scattered lepton is detected. Further knowledge of the origin of the nucleon’s spin can be gained by studying semi-inclusive processes involving the detection of hadrons in coincidence with the scattered lepton. This increases the demands on hadron identification of the detection system.
The time-of-flight (TOF) particle identification method is a fast, inexpensive and efficient technique  for hadron identification. Its implementation at HERMES is possible because of a) the presence of two scintillator counter walls H1 and H2 in the HERMES spectrometer, and b) the fine time structure of the HERA electron beam (with bunch lengths of 27 ps and time between bunches of 96 ns), which allows particles from different bunches to stay completely separated in time.

## 2 Counter Design

HERMES is a forward spectrometer with a large dipole magnet, a set of tracking detectors, and particle identification (PID) detectors consisting of a Čerenkov detector, a Transition Radiation Detector (TRD), a preshower detector and a calori-meter . In 1998 the threshold-Čerenkov counter was upgraded to a Ring Imaging Čerenkov (RICH) detector . A scintillator hodoscope (H1) and a Pb-scintillator preshower counter (H2) (Fig. 1) provide trigger signals and particle identification information. Both counters are composed of vertical scintillator modules (42 each in the upper and lower detectors), which are 1 cm thick and 9.3 cm x 91 cm in area.

The material for the modules is BC-412 from Bicron Co., a fast scintillator with large attenuation length (300-400 cm for scintillation light). The scintillation light is detected by 5.2 cm diameter Thorn EMI 9954 photomultiplier tubes coupled via a light guide to the outer end of each scintillator (away from the beam plane). The modules are staggered to provide maximum efficiency with 2-3 mm of overlap between each unit. Each hodoscope photomultiplier (PMT) signal is passively split with one output going to a LeCroy 1881M ADC and the other going to a LeCroy 3420 Constant Fraction Discriminator (CFD). The individual CFD outputs are fed to LeCroy 1875A time to digital converters (TDC), which measure the time-of-flight using the HERA-clock as a reference signal. This signal corresponds to the moment when the HERA bunch cros-ses the center of the target. When some interesting event configuration is recognized by the HERMES trigger logic, the HERA-clock signal is enabled to start the TDC modules in common-start mode, with the STOP signals coming from each scintillator. The time base for the TDC is 50 ps/channel.

## 3 Calibration procedure

The calibration procedure is based on the fact that electrons above 10 MeV are moving at essentially the speed of light. Any measured deviations from this must be artifacts of the experiment that should be corrected.
In Fig. 2 the time distribution for electrons over the paddles is shown for part of one detector. The electron sample is selected by a combination of cuts on TRD, Čerenkov, Preshower and Calorimeter.

The time distribution is spread within each paddle as well as between paddles. The differences between the paddles (due to different cable lengths, etc) were removed by setting the average speed of the electrons to the speed of light for each paddle individually. A single-counter time response is described by

$$t=t_{pf}+t_{lf}+t_0$$
(1)
where $`t_{pf}`$ is the particle time-of-flight from the interaction point to the scintillator plane, $`t_{lf}`$ is the time needed for the light created in the scintillator to reach the PMT, $`t_0`$ is the constant time offset specific to each paddle, arising from the PMT response time, cable delays, TDC calibration intercept, etc. The path length $`l_H`$ of each track to hodoscope H was calculated using the reconstructed track parameters, along one straight line segment from the interaction point in the target to the mid-plane of the spectrometer magnet, and continuing along another straight line from there to the plane of the hodoscope H. This approximation is adequate because the magnet bend angle is less than $`\pi /20`$. The calibration for each paddle n of hodoscope H was done with electron tracks by fitting the y-distribution of $`1/v=t/l_H`$ shown in Fig. 3 to the known value of $`1/c`$ using a fourth-order correction polynomial $`F_n(y)`$:
$`F_n(y)=1/ct/l_H`$.

The constant term in the polynomial incorporates $`t_0`$ in Eq. 1 for each paddle. A similar method has been used in  where a more detailed explanation for each coefficient of the polynomial is given. Occasional shifts in the HERA-clock signal derived from the electron beam accelerator system, shown in Fig. 4, were compensated by re-fitting the constant term for each run of approximately 10 minutes.

The final corrected distribution of $`1/v_e=t/l_H+F_n(y)`$ for electrons is shown in Fig. 5. The resolution extracted from a Gaussian fit corresponds to $`\sigma `$=0.49 ns.

## 4 Hadron Identification via
Time-of-Flight

From the relativistic momentum of the particle

$$p=m\beta /\sqrt{(1\beta ^2)},$$
(2)
the mass $`m`$ is extracted using the speed $`\beta =v/c`$ obtained through the hodoscope timing:

$$m^2=p^2(\frac{1}{\beta ^2}1).$$
(3)
The squared mass of the particle was chosen as the parameter for the identification. To check the algorithm and calibration, the proton and kaon squared masses have been extracted giving values of $`m_p^2=0.88`$ (GeV/c2)2 and $`m_K^2=0.25`$ (GeV/c2)2, respectively, which agrees well with the expected values (Fig. 6). At momenta below $`2`$ GeV/c the kaon flux is two orders of magnitude smaller than the pion flux, so that no separation is possible via TOF for momenta above $`1.5`$ GeV/c. Therefore in the momentum range $`1.5<p<2.0`$ GeV/c, kaons are included in the pion spectrum as a negligible contamination ($`<1`$ %). At higher momenta, a RICH detector takes over.

Fig. 7 shows the squared hadron mass distribution for the momentum region $`1.5<p<2.0`$ GeV/c. The good separation between protons and pions is clearly visible. Using TOF information from only one detector (e.g. hodoscope H1), the upper bound for the separation is about 2.4 GeV/c.

The availability of two independent detectors H1 and H2 suggests the use of two-dimensional distributions, as shown in Fig. 8. Independent constraints on the TOF values from both hodoscopes is the best strategy to minimize the contamination. However, this is not the best way to maximize the efficiency while maintaining a low contamination. In the case of two detectors a linear ’valley cut’ in the plane of the two detector responses gives an improvement . It is possible to apply the combined constraint on the sum $`m_{H1}^2+m_{H2}^2`$.

This evaluation provides an improvement in the separation between protons and pions \- especially for higher momenta - and therefore extends the momentum region for hadron identification with high efficiency and low contamination. The identification of kaons is limited to $`p<1.5`$ GeV/c, due to the very low kaon flux (see Fig. 6).

The comparison of the pion contamination in the proton sample for individual constraints on the two hodoscopes with that for the combined constraint is presented in Fig. 9.

The most important parameters for particle identification are the efficiency for identification of certain particle types and the contamination from other types. Fig. 10 presents both parameters for proton and pion identification. The valley cut allows identification of protons and pions up to 2.9 GeV/c. The resulting pion sample has an efficiency above 98% and less than 4% proton contamination, while the protons have an efficiency of more than 85% and less than 6% pion contamination in the highest momentum bin. All analysis was done using semi-inclusive data samples from the year 1997 on polarized hydrogen target.

## 5 Conclusion

The TOF method, as presented in this paper, allows an extension of the momentum range for hadron identification in HERMES towards lower momenta. The application of this method provides more statistics for hadrons detected within the HERMES acceptance and extends the minimum value of $`z=\frac{E_h}{\nu }`$, where $`E_h`$ is the hadron energy and $`\nu `$ is the virtual photon energy.

## 6 Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the DESY management for its support and the DESY staff and the staffs of the collaborating institutions for their strong and enthusiastic support.


text:
# Technique for detecting warm-hot intergalactic gas in quasar UV spectra

## 1 Introduction

The ionizing spectral energy distribution (hereafter ISED) of nearby active galactic nuclei cannot be observed directly, due to the large Galactic absorption beyond the Lyman limit. Owing to the redshift effect, however, we can get a glimpse of the ISED from the spectra of distant quasars. The pioneering work of Zheng et al. (1997, ZK97), using HST-FOS archived data, identified a noticeable steepening in quasar SEDs near 1200 Å. The power-law index $`\alpha `$ ($`F_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$) in quasars steepens from $`1`$ for $`\lambda >1200`$Å to $`2`$ at shorter wavelengths111Throughout the text, $`\lambda _{obs.}`$ and $`\lambda _{rest}`$ will denote wavelengths in the quasar rest-frame or in the observer-frame, respectively \[$`\lambda _{rest}=(1+z_Q)^1\lambda _{obs.}`$\]., down to 350 Å ($`\lambda _{rest}`$). In a more recent study, Telfer et al. 2002 (hereafter TZ02) found similar results with a composite spectrum characterized by a mean near-UV index of $`0.7`$ steepening to $`1.7`$ in the far-UV. The above authors favor the interpretation that the steepening is intrinsic to quasars and that it is the signature of a comptonized accretion disk.

On the other hand, certain distributions of intergalactic absorption gas can also cause an (apparent) steepening of the SED, starting at 1200 Å ($`\lambda _{rest}`$), as shown in this Paper, that is, located in the same position as the break encountered by TZ02. As long as ISED studies are based on detectors that do not extend beyond 1200 Å ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$), one cannot readily distinguish between the contribution to the observed steepening from an intervening absorption model and that of a purely intrinsic break in the quasar SED as proposed by ZK97 or TZ02. FUSE or HST-STIS spectra, however, extend much farther into the UV and will be shown here to provide us with a compelling test to discriminate between the two interpretations.

Large scale structure formation models predict that a substantial fraction of baryons should reside in a warm-hot phase at current epoch, possibly up to 30–40% of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{bar.}`$ (Davé et al., 2001). Depending on its temperature and distribution with redshift, this warm-hot gas may contribute to a reduced fraction of the observed steepening of the ISED. In this Paper, we show that this component may give rise to a slight flux increase (that is, a discontinuity) in the region 1050–1190 Å ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$) with respect to longer wavelengths. The calibration of the level of this discontinuous excess flux can be used as a technique to set useful limits for the baryonic mass contribution from the warm-hot intergalactic component.

The objective (and results) of this Paper is threefold:

1. Find the simplest and yet physically meaningful absorption gas distribution which can mimic the observed steepening (§3.1),
2. Devise a technique to falsify the previous proposition that the break is due to absorption, thereby confirming the idea that the steepening is intrinsic to quasars (§3.2),
3. Propose a dependable technique to reveal traces of a warm-hot baryonic component in the local Universe using UV spectra (§3.3).

## 2 Procedure and calculations

### 2.1 Generalized Gunn-Peterson effect

The Gunn-Peterson (GP) effect (Gunn & Peterson, 1965) sets stringent limits for the presence of neutral diffuse gas at high redshifts. In the simplest form of the GP test, the absorption gas produces a flux decrement between Ly$`\alpha `$ and Ly$`\beta `$. The decrement is measured against a continuum level, usually taken to be a power-law extrapolated from the region redward of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line. With high resolution spectra, this technique is sensitive to H i columns otherwise too small to produce resolvable Ly$`\alpha `$ lines. Songaila, Hu, & Cowie (1999) in this manner could set a limit of the GP opacity $`\tau _{GP}<0.1`$ at $`z=4.7`$. Another manifestation of the GP effect is illustrated by the staircase transmission curve of Møller & Jakobsen (1990), which is the result of unresolved Ly$`\alpha `$ forest lines in intermediate resolution spectra. This transmission curve is also characterized by a broad trough (partly due to photoelectric absorption), the Lyman valley, whose minimum occurs at a rest-frame wavelength $`650`$ Å. Before averaging their quasar spectra, ZK97 and TZ02 statistically corrected each quasar spectrum for the presence of such a Lyman valley by calculating the appropriate transmission curve, using the scheme developed by Møller & Jakobsen (1990). Finally, the GP effect can be generalized to include the broadened wings of faint Ly$`\alpha `$ forest lines as a result of the Hubble flow in underdense regions.

Our contention is that these manifestations of the GP effect are sensitive to certain classes of H i distributions as a function of redshift. Other H i distributions might instead be associated to large scale voids. In that case, the amount of absorption gas would be decreasing towards the background quasar, against which we are trying to detect it. Such opacity behavior might be harder to pinpoint, since it would not necessarily produce a recognizable absorption break at the rest-frame Ly$`\alpha `$. Another factor that could hinder the detection of intergalactic absorption is that the absorption component evolves in the opposite direction as the Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds, becoming in other words progressively more abundant towards lower redshifts. For instance, hierarchical structure formation is expected to generate a hot gas phase, whose mass is predicted to increase with time (e.g. Phillips, Ostriker, & Cen, 2001), that is, with a temporal evolution which is opposite to that of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. Any residual absorption it may cause would occur at much shorter wavelengths, in a wavelength domain too far from the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line ($`\lambda _{rest}`$) to rely on an extrapolation of the continuum observed redward of this line.

With these considerations in mind, we have explored various H i distributions, whose absorption behavior is not as evident as that expected from the traditional GP effect. The hypothesis being tested is this Paper is whether all or just a small fraction of the far-UV steepening in $`F_\nu `$ is caused by absorption. We will demonstrate in § 3 how this hypothesis is observationally falsifiable. Even if most of the SED break turns out to be intrinsic to quasars, the technique can still be used to set a lower limit on the temperature of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM).

### 2.2 Derivation of the transmission curve

The technique used to generate a simulated composite spectrum to compare with the observed spectrum of ZK97 is described in Binette et al. (2002). Briefly, we assume a typical spectrograph sensitivity window for FOS of 1300–3000 Å. We then simply redshift this window in locked steps in order to simulate quasars of different redshifts in the range $`0.33z_Q3.6`$ (the same range as ZK97). Before averaging, each redshifted quasar SED is multiplied by the redshift integrated transmission curve $`T_\lambda `$ (defined below). We assume the concordance $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$ and $`h=0.67`$ with $`h=H_0/100`$.

To be definite, we adopt a uniform gas distribution (see Binette et al., 2003). Equivalent calculations assuming a clumpy medium were also carried out for comparison. We found that the ill-defined additional parameters required then do not reveal anything fundamental or even interesting. Furthermore, the two formalisms are equivalent for the assumed opacity regime in which the diffuse absorption component lies in the linear part of the curve of growth, that is for H i columns $`N_{H^0}10^{12}`$$`\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

The simulated quasar spectra are divided in energy bins, and for each quasar rest-frame wavelength bin $`j`$, we calculate the transmitted intensity $`I_{\lambda _j}^{tr}=I_{\lambda _j}T_{\lambda _j}=I_{\lambda _j}e^{\tau (\lambda _j)}`$ by integrating the opacity along the line-of-sight to quasar redshift $`z_Q`$

$$\begin{array}{cc}\tau (\lambda _j)=_{i=0}^{10}_0^{z_Q}\sigma _i(\frac{\lambda _j}{1+z})n_{H^0}(z)\frac{dl}{dz}𝑑z& \end{array}$$

where $`\lambda _j`$ is the quasar rest-frame wavelength for bin $`j`$ and $`n_{H^0}(z)`$ the intergalactic neutral hydrogen density, which consists of one of the three density distributions discussed below \[eqs (1–3)\]. The summation is carried out over the following opacity sources: photoionization ($`i=0`$) and line absorption from the Lyman series of hydrogen ($`1i10`$). Although our code could include up to 40 levels, we found that considering only the 10 lowest proved to be adequate. We adopted a fiducial velocity dispersion $`b`$ of 30 km/s and assumed a Gaussian profile for the $`\sigma _i`$ of the lines.

### 2.3 Heuristic H i gas distributions

#### 2.3.1 Three H i distributions to test

In calculating the transmission function of a quasar at redshift $`z_Q`$, we will consider three different distributions of absorption gas density, $`n_{H^0}`$, with redshift, which we will then compare with the composite SED of either ZK97 or TZ02. The first is given by

$$\begin{array}{cc}n_{H^0}(z)=n_{H^0}^0(1+z)^3(1+z)^\gamma (z_Q^{})^\beta & \end{array}$$
(1)
where $`z`$ is the absorbing gas redshift, $`z_Q`$ the quasar redshift, $`z_Q^{}`$ the quasar redshift as seen from the absorbing gas at $`z`$ \[that is $`z_Q^{}=(1+z_Q)/(1+z)1`$\], and $`n_{H^0}^0`$ the neutral gas density at zero redshift. $`\gamma `$ and $`\beta `$ are adjustable parameters. The $`(1+z)^3`$ factor represents the cosmological expansion of the Universe. The factor $`(z_Q^{})^\beta `$ with $`\beta >0`$ implies that the density decreases in the neighborhood of individual quasars.

The second distribution which will be considered is

$$\begin{array}{cc}n_{H^0}(z)=n_{H^0}^0(1+z)^3\frac{(1+z)^\gamma }{1+(z_P/z_Q^{})^\beta }& \end{array}$$
(2)
where $`z_P`$ is the size of the region (near each quasar) within which the density decreases as $`(z_P/z_Q^{})^\beta `$ towards the quasar \[note that $`\beta >0`$ as in eq. (1)\]. It is possible to substitute the denominator above by the expression $`1+(r_P/r_Q^{})^\beta `$. For each value of $`z_P`$ discussed below, we we have searched for the value of $`r_P`$ which would give us an equivalent fit of the composite ISED. The parameter $`r_P`$ represents the zone of influence (or cavity radius) of the quasars in spatial units. Although the density decreases smoothly towards each quasar, in this text we will refer to this zone, where $`r_Q^{}<r_P`$ near each quasar, as a ‘cavity’.

The third distribution is given by

$$\begin{array}{cc}n_{H^0}(z)=n_{H^0}^0(1+z)^3\frac{\mathrm{exp}[(z/1.6)^{1.4}]}{1+(z_P/z_Q^{})^\beta }& \end{array}$$
(3)
where the exponential function in the numerator is a parametric fit to the increase of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) towards the current epoch as calculated by Davé et al. (2001) (their Model D2). We will again discuss which value of $`r_P`$ produces a fit equivalent to that provided by our favored $`z_P`$ values.

#### 2.3.2 Three conditions to satisfy

The above distributions lie in a sequence of increasing plausibility, as discussed below. We emphasize that our exploration included many more functions than the above three, the vast majority of which could not reproduce a smooth steepening of the spectrum near 1100 Å ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$) (failing condition a below). Nevertheless, these three distributions will suffice for the purpose of unequivocally testing the absorption hypothesis.

In our search, the following procedure was adopted: we explored a large set of functions with the following three priorities in mind: a) the $`n_{H^0}`$ distribution must produce an acceptable fit of the the composite ISED without a discontinuity near Ly$`\alpha `$, b) it must be a physically meaningful function, and c) it must be consistent with other information we have about the Universe such as, for instance, the volume density of quasars. We were able to satisfy conditions a and b, although c could not be strictly respected for our favored test case Model C, as discussed below.

## 3 Model results

### 3.1 Reproducing the observed steepening

If we adopt the first distribution of H i corresponding to eq. (1) and the parameters listed in Table 1 for Model A, that is, a zero redshift density $`n_{H^0}^0=4.7\times 10^{12}`$$`\mathrm{cm}^3`$, $`\gamma =1.5`$ and $`\beta =0.8`$, we can reproduce the observed smooth steepening of the composite spectrum of ZK97 remarkably well as shown in Fig. 1 by the thick solid line. The intrinsic SED considered in Model A is a single power-law of index $`1`$ (short-long dashed line), which we extend to all wavelengths. This index provides a good fit at the longer wavelengths (1300–2300Å) of the underlying continuum in the ZK97 composite spectrum.

This first distribution has also the property that the far-UV index, $`\alpha _{FUV}`$, defined in the range 350–900 Å ($`\lambda _{rest}`$), increases very little with quasar redshift (Binette et al., 2003). This agrees with the findings of TF02 (c.f. their Fig. 12). However, although the simplest, this distribution is not physically meaningful in the following aspect: the limitless range of the dependence of eq. (1) on $`z_Q^{}`$ implies that the local H i density depends on the quasar redshift. To clarify this point: two independent quasars, one nearby and the other at redshift 3, but lying along very nearby line-of-sights on the sky, would be characterized by very different local H i densities according to eq. (1). Such behavior is unphysical, because the H i density in the local Universe should not depend at what distance the background quasar is located. We therefore conclude that condition b (‘physically meaningful’, see §2.3.2) is not satisfied and that the $`n_{H^0}`$ distribution of eq. (1) must be rejected. In the text, we will refer to this undesirable property as the “nearby line-of-sight problem”.

A distribution without any dependence on $`z_Q^{}`$ would not suffer from this problem. However, in all the distributions that succeeded in reproducing the smooth roll-over near 1200 Å, some kind of smooth gas cavity near each quasar had to be taken in, otherwise, a deep and sharp absorption discontinuity222In Binette et al. (2002), such a discontinuity at 1216 Å ($`\lambda _{rest}`$) was smoothed out by invoking photoionization by the background quasar (in analogy with the “proximity effect”). However, the metagalactic background radiation (relative to a single quasar) is much too strong for this proposition to be sustained. Eastman, MacAlpine, & Richstone (1983) avoided the discontinuity by invoking absorption cloudlets being progressively accelerated up to $`0.8c`$ within a region $`<10`$ kpc near the background quasar. The main problem was that the cloudlets themselves emitted more UV than the background quasar. unavoidably appears at 1216 Å ($`\lambda _{rest}`$) in the synthesized composite SED, a feature that is obviously not observed. The thin long-dashed line in Fig. 1, for instance, illustrates the magnitude of this sharp discontinuity present near Ly$`\alpha `$ when no cavity is considered (here with $`\beta `$ set to zero in eq. (1)).

The solution to this problem is to have the dependence on $`z_Q^{}`$ limited to a reduced zone of influence near each quasar. This is achieved with the expression in the denominator in eqs (2) and (3), where $`z_P`$ limits the distance scale within which the density is decreasing (towards the quasar) as a power-law of index $`\beta `$. We therefore have two competing effects present in our subsequent distributions \[of eq. (2) or eq. (3)\]: one factor describes the H i density as a function of redshift (seen from us) $`z`$, which has no other QSO close to the selected line-of-sight, and the other describes the H i density within the neighborhood of QSOs (within a zone of influence $`r_P`$). Two different line-of-sights lying at a projected distance on the sky greater than $`r_P`$ will be described by a unique and self-consistent distribution of H i with redshift. As a consistency check, the volume occupied by all the QSO cavities must be smaller than the total volume sampled.

A possible interpretation of the decreasing density towards individual quasars is that our putative H i distribution is associated to the largest scale voids. The environment of quasars might also be hotter and transparent as a result of (protocluster) stellar winds from the associated large scale and most massive structures. Our aim will be to make $`z_P`$ as small as possible, but without producing any discontinuity or dip near 1200 Å. The short-dashed line in Fig. 1 shows that the distribution corresponding to eq. (2) (Model B) results in as good a fit to the ZK97 spectrum as Model A, when using $`\gamma =3.0`$, $`z_P=0.7`$ and $`\beta =1.5`$ (see Table 1).

Nevertheless, this Model B is not satisfactory. In effect, a cavity with $`z_P=0.7`$ requires a cavity of size $`r_P2`$ Gpc, which is more than half the path-length to the highest-$`z`$ quasar in the sample (i.e. 3.75 Gpc for $`z_Q=3.6`$). Hence most line-of-sights would cross many overlapping cavities (hence condition b is not satisfied) and such a situation not properly described by eq. (2). Condition c (‘consistency with other reliable information’, see §2.3.2) is not respected either. First, the cumulative volume of quasar influence on H i exceeeds 15% of the total volume sampled. Second, the exponent of $`(1+z)`$, $`\gamma =3.0`$, is much too steep if we were to compare our Model B to model-predictions of the evolution of the WHIM. For instance, most models in Davé et al. (2001) are characterized by redshift-averaged values of $`\gamma `$ in the range $`1.1`$ to $`1.5`$.

In order to ensure a physically more meaningful H i distribution, we replaced the ($`\gamma `$) power-law dependence on redshift by an exponential fit to the WHIM Model D2 of Davé et al. (2001), the description of which lies in the numerator of eq. (3). Replacing the previous best fit distribution with $`\gamma =3`$ by a distribution that matches the behavior of the WHIM with redshift better \[by using either eq. (3) or $`\gamma 1.2`$ and eq. (2)\] comes at a price, however. In effect, such distributions always result in a smooth rise in transmission towards the short wavelength extremity of the SED, beyond 500 Å. Interestingly, the more recent composite spectrum from TZ02 presents such a rise in the far UV as displayed in Fig. 2. TZ02 have questioned the reality of this rise. The latter might be caused by a tendency of high redshift quasars to have a harder ISED. Nonetheless, because the TZ02 work contains more objects than the ZK97, and because this feature is seen in both radio-loud as well as radio-quiet quasars, we will take their results at face values and compare their radio-quiet composite SED with models which used eq. (3). The thick solid line in Fig. 2 represents our Model C, which is characterized by a significantly smaller $`z_P=0.3`$. Although the fit is imperfect, it matches the overall trends present in the TZ02 composite spectrum. The adopted intrinsic SED used here is somewhat harder, corresponding to an index of $`0.72`$ (which is the value inferred by TZ02).

For Model C, with $`z_P=0.3`$ we find that $`r_P=800`$ Mpc. A single cavity occupies therefore 1% of the total volume sampled. Using the known luminosity function of bright QSOs \[i.e. a quasar density of order $`\xi =3\times 10^7\mathrm{Mpc}^3`$ (Boyle, 2001)\], the volume333That is, one should realize the condition $`V_Q=\frac{4}{3}\pi r_P^3\xi ^1`$ . corresponding to this value of $`r_P`$ is too large by a factor $`650`$ and condition c is therefore not fulfilled on the ground of the known density of QSOs. With this caveat in mind, we proceed to study the behavior of the absorption of our putative intergalactic component at wavelengths shorter than provided by HST-FOS. This will allow us to calibrate a new method to detect the WHIM and, indirectly, to determine to what extent condition b is satisfied in Model C.

### 3.2 Prediction of a possible discontinuity in the far UV

#### 3.2.1 Analysis of the transmission curves

The derivation of the composite SED of Model C required using eq. (3) and calculating the transmission function at evenly spaced redshift values. We now turn to the particularities of these transmission curves. Two such transmission curves are presented in Fig. 3 for illustrative purposes for quasars of redshifts 2.76 and 0.33. Clearly, the main opacity source is the Ly$`\alpha `$ line. The contribution of photoelectric absorption to the total opacity is relatively small as illustrated in the Figure while the contribution of higher series lines can be appreciated by the reduced size of the jumps that are visible in the transmission curves. The main result to emphasize is that a discontinuity appears to the blue of Ly$`\alpha `$ ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$) (that is beyond the UV limit of the HST-FOS detector) in all the calculated transmission curves, not only when assuming the parameters of Model C, but in all the H i distributions that satisfied condition a (‘good fit’, see §2.3.2).

By comparing the transmission curves in Fig. 3 with those resulting from Ly$`\alpha `$ forest absorbers, a clear difference emerges. The transmission functions derived by (Møller & Jakobsen, 1990) (or ZK97) are characterized by a stair-case behavior, in which the opacity from each physical process (either a Lyman series line or photoelectric absorption) decreases towards shorter wavelengths, due to the strong evolutionary nature of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest, in which the density of absorbers increases steeply with redshift. In the case of the transmission resulting from equations (1)–(3), the opacity (along a given step of the staircase transmission curve) tends to either remain high or increase towards shorter wavelengths (but, of course, only up to the threshold wavelength of the absorption process involved). The obvious reason for this marked difference is that the H i distributions used here are characterized by a density that increases towards smaller redshifts $`z`$.

An inspection of Fig. 3 suggests that, rather than looking for a sharp absorption edge near Ly$`\alpha `$ in the quasar rest-frame, the most obvious demarcation produced by $`n_{H^0}^0`$ distributions (which satisfy condition a of a ‘good fit’) is at the shorter wavelength end, in the 1190–1070 Å observer-frame region where Ly$`\beta `$ rather than Ly$`\alpha `$ dominates the absorption. In order to detect such a discontinuity near 1216 Å ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$), one requires detectors with a sensitivity, which extends to wavelengths shorter than the earlier HST-FOS window, such as provided by FUSE or HST-STIS.

#### 3.2.2 Operative measurement of the jump: $`\tau _{1160}`$

In order to test our absorption hypothesis against individual quasar spectra observed by STIS or FUSE, we must first calibrate the depth of the expected discontinuity (on the blue side of local Ly$`\alpha `$) as a function of $`n_{H^0}^0`$ for our different models. Since the intrinsic far-UV spectral index, $`\alpha _{FUV}`$, is not precisely known and, as suggested by the substantial scatter found by TZ02, may even vary from quasar to quasar, it makes sense to measure the depth of the jump in a way that does not depend on an a priori knowledge of the intrinsic ISED. The technique proposed here is to evaluate the discontinuity’s depth at 1160 Å ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$) by comparing the flux there to the extrapolated value from a power-law fit redward of Ly$`\alpha `$ ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$), within the narrow window 1260–1360 Å. This window is meant to exclude the Galactic Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption trough as well as the geocoronal Ly$`\alpha `$. We define the quantity $`\tau _{1160}=\mathrm{log}_\mathrm{e}[F_{obs.}^{1160}/F_{extr.}^{1160}]`$, which can be shown to be insensitive to the power-law index of the intrinsic ISED assumed. In Fig. 3, we illustrate the procedure by taking as example the transmitted SED of a $`z_Q=1.0`$ quasar and Model C (the calculation assumes an ideal detector without wavelength coverage limitations). The two squares illustrate the position (albeit here in the quasar rest-frame), at which it is proposed to define $`\tau _{1160}`$. For each model discussed (A–D), we list in Table 1 the value of $`\tau _{1160}`$ evaluated at $`z_Q=1`$, while in Fig. 4 we plot the behavior of $`\tau _{1160}`$ as a function of $`z_Q`$.

#### 3.2.3 Condition b and the behavior of $`\tau _{1160}`$

As discussed in §3.1 concerning the “nearby line-of-sight problem”, it is unphysical to have the local density vary when the background quasar, for instance, lies at redshift 2 rather than 3. We can easily find out when a distribution suffers from this problem by checking whether or not $`\tau _{1160}`$ is constant at moderate and high values of quasar redshift. It is apparent in Fig. 4 that Models A and B suffer severely from the above-mentioned problem. In the case of Model C, however, $`\tau _{1160}`$ is flat, at least beyond $`z_Q0.6`$. However, within a radius around us given by the large value of $`r_P800`$ Mpc, we may reasonably expect to lie within the zone of influence of a (dominant) quasar. In this case, rather than the smoothly increasing function depicted in Fig. 4, a single value of $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$ may instead apply ($`\tau _{1160}`$ reflects the local H i density). Its value would depend on our distance from this dominant quasar. Furthermore, $`\tau _{1160}`$ would not necessarily be isotropic. In conclusion, the smooth initial rise of $`\tau _{1160}`$ in Model C is at best an idealization. Given the likelihood of being positioned inside the cavity of a single quasar, the predicted $`\tau _{1160}`$ constitutes an upper limit (a more probable value may lie a factor of a few lower).

#### 3.2.4 Negative results using two EUV quasar spectra

We now use Model C as a test case, since it is the most physical at hand under the assumption that the 500 Å rise in the composite ISED of TZ02 is real and that the break is entirely due to intergalactic absorption. For any quasar $`z_Q>0.5`$, one finds that $`\tau _{1160}`$ is quite significant. Typically, $`\tau _{1160}0.25`$ as seen in Fig.4. If that much absorption were present, it would therefore be a striking feature in the far-UV spectra \[provided the quasar could be observed blueward of 1200 Å ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$)\]. It turns out, however, that the observations of the quasar HS1543+5921 by (Bowen, Tripp, & Jenkins, 2001, $`z_Q=0.807`$) with STIS and HE2347–4342 by (Kriss et al., 2001, $`z_Q=2.885`$) with FUSE, show no indication at all of a discontinuity at the expected level of $`\tau _{1160}=0.27`$ and 0.28, respectively, in the 1160 Å region, as compared to the extrapolation from the 1270 Å region. We consider that a discontinuity as small as $`\tau _{1160}=0.05`$, if present in the two spectra, would have been apparent.

We conclude that intergalactic absorption cannot be the main cause of the observed steepening in the composite SED. Model C fails not only because of the observed absence of a discontinuity in the far-UV but also because it is inconsistent with the known density of quasars (condition c). No other H i distribution could be found that would solve alll three conditions. Our study therefore confirms that the change of slope near 1100 Å must be in origin intrinsic to quasars, as proposed by ZK97 and TZ02. This general conclusion is not dependent on the particular distribution adopted, since in all the distributions we have explored (which satisfied condition a), $`\tau _{1160}`$ was always $`0.2`$ when $`z_Q>0.5`$.

### 3.3 Detecting the WHIM in absorption

Having recognized that most of the break is intrinsic to quasars, we now turn to the problem of determining how much flux discontinuity near 1160 Å (i.e. $`\tau _{1160}`$) can be expected if we assume the H ii density predicted by WHIM models and a fiducial temperature of $`10^{5.3}`$ K. For this purpose, we adopt an intrinsic SED, which already incorporates the intrinsic far-UV steepening. It consists of a broken power-law, which has the same index of $`0.72`$ in the near-UV as in Fig. 2, but that sharply turns over at 1200 Å ($`\lambda _{rest}`$) into a steeper index of $`1.57`$ in the far-UV, as represented by the short-long dashed line in Fig. 5. These two indices correspond to the values characterizing the radio-quiet quasar composite of TZ02 while the turn-over wavelength is within the range of values encountered by TZ02 ($``$ 1200–1300 Å).

#### 3.3.1 Model D using a broken power-law SED

Adopting eq. (3) and the above broken power-law, we first determine which values of $`n_{H^0}^0`$ and $`z_P`$ best reproduce the observed composite SED. The result is Model D, plotted as the solid line in Fig. 5. The same $`\beta =1.5`$ is used as for Model C and $`z_P`$ could now be set to the small value of 0.08 without producing any significant discontinuity444The value of $`r_P`$ which can provide an equivalent fit is 200 Mpc. Interestingly, this value is only a factor of two too large with respect to the density of quasars at high redshifts. This can be resolved if we use a function $`r_P`$ of redshift such as $`300(1+z)^1`$ Mpc. Although $`r_P`$ is then larger in the local Universe, at redshifts $`2`$ we get $`r_P100`$ Mpc, which is the epoch when the density of quasar is known to peak. Condition c is marginally satisfied in Model D. on the blue side of the quasar Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line. Model D succeeds rather well in fitting the TZ02 composite. It does not constitute, however, a unique solution because of the uncertainties regarding the intrinsic SED. If for instance, we shifted the break from 1200 to 1100 Å, the assumed ISED would lie higher above the composite of TZ02 and a higher density WHIM would therefore be required for the model to overlap the data.

With a predicted value of $`\tau _{1160}`$ as small as $`0.05`$ (see Table 1), Model D is characterized by a much smaller discontinuity than Models A–C, simply because the assumed ISED is much closer to the observed composite of TZ02. Furthermore, $`\tau _{1160}`$ does not depend on redshift anymore, as shown in Fig. 4, which indicates that the cavity near the individual quasars is not affecting our determination of $`n_{H^0}^0`$. Inspection of the published spectra of HS1543+5921 by (Bowen, Tripp, & Jenkins, 2001) and HE2347–4342 by (Kriss et al., 2001) suggests, however, that $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$ is likely to be smaller than 0.05. A thorough analysis aiming at setting stringent upper limits on $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$ would clarify the matter.

#### 3.3.2 Deriving $`\tau _{1160}`$ from the expected WHIM

Let us now turn to the inverse problem of determining the height of the jump $`\tau _{1160}`$ expected from a WHIM component that would contribute 30% of the total baryonic mass in the local Universe (as in Model D2 of Davé et al., 2001). One advantage of the operative definition of $`\tau _{1160}`$ proposed in §3.2.2 is that the choice of a given intrinsic SED is not critical to the purpose of determining $`n_{H^0}^0`$. This is verified from Table 1 where the quotient $`n_{H^0}^0/\tau _{1160}`$ evaluated at $`z_Q=1`$ in Models C and D are $`1.89\times 10^{11}`$ and $`1.80\times 10^{11}`$ $`\mathrm{cm}^3`$, respectively. They differ by only 5%, despite the use of very different intrinsic SEDs. Because $`n_{H^0}^0`$ scales linearly with $`\tau _{1160}`$, all the information needed to derive $`\tau _{1160}`$ can be extracted from Model D independently of whether or not the density inferred turns out very different than in Table 1 or whether the ISED assumed is somewhat incorrect.

For any arbitrarily small observed discontinuity $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$, the inferred H i density is given by $`n_{H^0}^0=1.8\times 10^{11}\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$$`\mathrm{cm}^2`$ which does not depend on $`z_Q`$ because we have $`z_P0.4`$. In terms of the critical density $`3H_0^2/8\pi Gm_H`$, this density becomes

$$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Omega }_{WHIM}=\frac{1.6\times 10^6}{xh^2}\tau _{1160}^{obs.}& \end{array}$$
(4)
where $`x`$ is the neutral fraction of the putative WHIM absorption gas component. We can express $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{WHIM}`$ as a fraction $`F_b`$ of the (current epoch) total baryonic mass $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{bar.}=0.021h^2`$

$$\begin{array}{cc}F_b=\mathrm{\Omega }_{WHIM}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{bar.}=\frac{7.6\times 10^5}{x}\tau _{1160}^{obs.}& \end{array}$$
(5)
With $`F_b=0.3`$, we obtain that $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}x/2.5\times 10^4`$. Since the WHIM is likely to be highly ionized, we are lead to expect very small values of $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$. For example, for a collisionally ionized WHIM at a temperature $`10^{5.3}`$ K, we derive $`x3.1\times 10^6`$ and therefore $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}=0.012`$. Clearly, a high S/N spectrum is required in order to be able to detect a 1% excess flux at 1160 Å. It remains nevertheless a worthwhile exercise to carry out, since any limit that can be put on $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$ would directly translate into a lower limit on the neutral fraction (hence on the temperature) of the WHIM component. Note that, with that small $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$, we have the liberty to set $`z_P`$ to zero in eq. (3) and condition c2.3.2) is therefore implicitly satisfied. By the same token, we do not have to worry about whether we possibly lie in the zone of influence of a single quasar anymore. In order to optimize the detection sensitivity, the strategy to follow would be to add together as many EUV quasar spectra as possible (ideally with redshift in the range $`0.5z_Q0.8`$) and then extract $`\tau _{1160}^{obs.}`$ from the summed stack.

## 4 Conclusions

In all the distributions of $`n_{H^0}(z)`$ used for reproducing the steepening observed in the energy distribution of quasars, the dominant atomic process contributing to the opacity is Ly$`\alpha `$ scattering. An important implication of these calculations is that the transmission curve shows a significant discontinuity to the blue of Ly$`\alpha `$ ($`\lambda _{obs.}`$) where the transmission rises sharply. The size of the discontinuity, $`\tau _{1160}`$, for any distribution of intergalactic gas that can successfully reproduce the SED steepening reported by TZ02 (assuming a single power-law SED), is predicted to be typically $`>0.25`$ in spectra of quasar redshift $`z_Q>0.5`$. Since the two quasars HS1543+5921 and HE2347–4342, which were observed by HST-STIS and FUSE, respectively, do not show any sign of a discontinuity anywhere near this level, we consider the case proven that most if not all of the 1200 Å continuum steepening is intrinsic to quasars rather than due to H i absorption. On the other hand, a small flux increase by as little as 1% percent is still possible and would be consistent with a WHIM temperature $`10^{5.3}`$ K contributing up to 30% of the current baryonic matter.

This work was supported by the Mexican Science Funding Agency CONACyT under grant 32139-E. We are indebted to Wei Zheng and Randal Telfer for sharing their published composite spectrum which are used in Fig. 1 and 2, respectively. We are grateful to V. Avila-Reese for constructive discussions about the manuscript.