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# Simultaneous BeppoSAX and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of 4U 1812–12

## 1 Introduction

4U 1812–12 (also known as Ser X-2) was discovered with Uhuru by Forman et al. (1976), while the first X-ray bursts from this source were detected with Hakucho by Murakami et al. (1983). This established a neutron star as the compact object in 4U 1812–12, and the system to be a likely low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB).

During the monitoring of the Galactic Center region with the Wide Field Cameras of BeppoSAX, several X-ray bursts were detected from 4U 1812–12. In most of these bursts, clear photospheric radius expansion due to Eddington-limited burst luminosity was detected allowing to estimate the source distance to 4 kpc (Cocchi et al. 2000).

Very little is known about the continuum source spectrum. EXOSAT detected the source as part of its Galactic Plane Survey (Warwick et al. 1988). Gottwald et al. (1995) using the EXOSAT GSPC instrument reported a featureless power law spectrum in X-rays (below 20 keV). Although these observations suggested that 4U 1812–12 could possibly emit hard X-rays, the source has never been detected above 20 keV.

Here we report on the first detection of 4U 1812–12 in the hard X-ray range with the BeppoSAX X-ray satellite, and the first measurement of its rapid X-ray variability with the Rossi X-ray timing explorer (RXTE).

## 2 Observations and results

RXTE/All-Sky Monitor (ASM) data indicate that 4U 1812–12 is a faint, persistent and weakly variable X-ray source at the level of $`20`$ mCrab in the 2-12 keV range. This is illustrated in Fig. 1 which represents the RXTE/ASM light curve over more than 6 years. We observed 4U 1812–12 between April 20th and 21st, 2000 with both BeppoSAX and RXTE. The time of these observations is indicated with an arrow on Figure 1. The ASM data recorded during the BeppoSAX observation indicated that the source was slightly brighter than its average level (1.7 counts s-1 against 1.4 counts s-1, see Fig. 1). In the next section, we present the spectral results obtained from BeppoSAX and present the timing results from the simultaneous RXTE observation.

### 2.1 BeppoSAX

Results from the Low-Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS; 0.1–10 keV, Parmar et al. 1997), the Medium-Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (MECS; 1.8–10 keV, Boella et al. 1997) and the Phoswich Detection System (PDS; 15–300 keV, Frontera et al. 1997) on-board BeppoSAX are presented. All these instruments are coaligned and collectively referred to as the Narrow Field Instruments, or NFI. Unfortunately, no High Pressure Gas Scintillation Proportional Counter data was obtained, since the instrument was switched off during the observation.

The region of the sky containing 4U 1812–12 was observed by BeppoSAX between 2000 April 20 (18:51 UT) to April 21 (13:23 UT). Good data were selected from intervals when the instrument configuration was nominal, using the SAXDAS 2.0.0 data analysis package. LECS and MECS light curves, images and spectra were extracted using radii of 8 and 4, respectively. Background subtraction for the imaging instruments was performed using standard files, but is not critical for such a bright source. Background subtraction for the PDS used data obtained during intervals when the collimators were offset from the source. The LECS and MECS spectra were rebinned to oversample the full width half maximum of the energy resolution by a factor of 3 and to have at least 20 counts per bin to allow use of the $`\chi ^2`$ statistic. A LECS response matrix appropriate for the position and count rates of the source was generated. The PDS spectrum was rebinned using the standard techniques in SAXDAS. The LECS, MECS, and PDS exposure times are 15.5 ks, 32.7 ks, 14.4 kiloseconds.

A visual inspection of the light curves indicated that no X-ray bursts were detected during the observation. The image analysis revealed that 4U 1812–12 was detected at a position of R.A.=18h 15’ 06.4” and Dec=-12 05’ 27.1” (J2000 coordinates). This position is fully consistent with the more accurate one derived from the ROSAT all sky survey (Voges et al. 1999), during which 4U 1812–12 was detected as a bright point source at a position R.A.=18h 15’ 06.1” and Dec= -12 05’ 45.0” (ROSAT total positioning error of 10”).

For the spectral analysis, we selected data in the energy ranges 0.5–10.0 keV (LECS), 1.8–10 keV (MECS), and 15–200 keV (PDS) where the instrument responses are well determined and sufficient counts obtained. Due to the high NH we have not used data below 0.5 keV. A systematic uncertainty of 1% has been added to the data. Factors were included in the spectral fitting to take into account the small differences in the absolute flux determination of the various NFI instruments. These factors were constrained to be within their usual ranges during the fitting111For information about the cross-calibration of the BeppoSAX instruments, see www.asdc.asi.it/bepposax/software/cookbook/cross\_cal.html.. The spectral fitting and error computations were carried out using XSPEC 11.2 (Arnaud 1996).

The overall spectrum of 4U 1812–12 was investigated by simultaneously fitting data from all the BeppoSAX NFI. In X-rays, the spectrum of 4U 1812–12 is strongly absorbed. This was accounted for by using a photoelectric absorption model based on the cross sections of Morrison & McCammon (1983). 4U 1812–12 was clearly detected in the PDS up to $`100`$ keV. The hard X-ray tail was fitted with a Comptonization model. In the present paper, we used the Comptt model, whose description is given in Titarchuk (1994). Comptt is an analytical model which describes the Comptonization of soft photons in a hot plasma. The soft photon input spectrum is assumed to follow a Wien law. The soft photons experience inverse Compton scattering in an electron cloud whose temperature can range from a few keV up to 500 keV. This model includes relativistic effects and works for both the optically thin and thick regimes. Comptt has four parameters; the seed photon temperature for the assumed Wien spectrum (kTw), the electron temperature (kTe), the optical depth ($`\tau `$) and a parameter describing the geometry of the comptonizing cloud, either spherical or disk-like. In the following, a spherical geometry is assumed; however a disk-like geometry works equally well. The Comptt model works for spectra of intermediate electron temperature and optical depth, as is the case for 4U 1812–12.

Fitting the combined spectrum with an absorbed Comptt model reveals the presence of a soft excess below 5 keV. This soft excess can be fitted by either a blackbody or a multi-color disk blackbody. Similar two component models have been shown to describe the spectra of low luminosity LMXBs in their hard states (see Guainazzi et al. 1998; in ’t Zand et al. 1999; Barret et al. 2000; Natalucci 2001; Barret & Olive 2002). The best fit spectral parameters and errors for the two models are listed in Table 1. As can be seen, the two models are statistically equivalent. The unfolded spectrum of 4U 1812–12 together with its best fit is shown on Fig 2, in which the soft component is fitted with a blackbody. During the BeppoSAX observation, the absorption corrected 1-200 keV luminosity was $`2\times 10^{36}`$ ergs s-1 at 4 kpc.

As can be seen in Table 1, the electron temperature derived from Comptt has relatively large error bars. It is thus worth asking whether the high energy cutoff is statistically significant in the PDS spectrum. To test its significance, we have fitted the PDS data alone with both the Comptt model and a power law. For the Comptt model we have frozen the seed photon temperature to the value determined from the previous fit, because it cannot be determined from the PDS data alone. The power law fit is much worse with a $`\chi ^2`$ of 54.8 (45 d.o.f) as whereas it is only 43.7 (44 d.o.f) for the Comptt model. This is because the power law cannot account for the high energy cutoff. Very similar numbers are obtained if instead of the Comptt model, we used its approximation with a cutoff power law model. From an F-test, we conclude that the high energy cutoff is significant at more than a 99.8% confidence level.

We have carefully searched for emission lines around 6 keV, as such lines have been reported from similar systems (e.g. Barret et al. 2000). No emission lines were detected. A $`2\sigma `$ upper limit of $`50`$ eV was derived for the equivalent width of a 6.4 keV iron line of 0.2 keV width.

### 2.2 RXTE

4U 1812–12 was simultaneously observed with RXTE on April 20, 2000 between 18:56 and 22:49. The PCA instrument aboard RXTE consists of a set of five identical Xenon proportional counter units (PCUs) covering the 2-60 keV range with a total area of about 6500 cm2. The HEXTE instrument is made of two clusters (0 and 1) of four NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na) phoswich scintillation detectors (see Bradt et al. 1993, for a full description of RXTE).

We have analyzed the RXTE data using the latest version of HEASOFT (5.2) and the automated rex 0.3 script. During the observation, only PCU 0 and 2 were working nominally. Good time intervals were computed requesting these two PCUs to be ON, and using standard filtering criteria: earth elevation angle greater than 10 degrees, pointing offset less than 0.02 degrees, time since the peak of the last SAA passage greater than 30 minutes, and electron contamination less than 0.1. This corresponds to a net PCA exposure time of 6.8 kseconds. The PCA and HEXTE background subtracted light curves and spectra were then extracted. The source was detected with a steady count rate of $`35`$ counts s-1 in PCU0 between 2.5 and 30 keV, and at a rate of $`7`$ counts s-1 in HEXTE between 20 and 100 keV (cluster 0). No X-ray bursts were detected. We have checked that the combined PCA and HEXTE spectra could be fitted with the same models as the ones derived from the BeppoSAX data. However the spectral parameters are obviously much less constrained with the RXTE data, which lack statistics in the HEXTE range and spectral resolution in the PCA band pass.

The scope of the RXTE observation was rather to measure the rapid X-ray variability of the source during the BeppoSAX observation. Within the good time interval found above, we have analyzed the high time resolution data, recorded in the mode E\_125us\_64M\_0\_1s, meaning that events are time-stamped with a 125-microsecond resolution in 64 PHA channel bands starting at channel 0, one buffer being readout every 1 second. A power density spectrum was computed in the 0.015-2048 Hz range between 3 and 30 keV. The Poisson counting noise level was estimated above 1000 Hz and subtracted from the PDS. The PDS was rebinned using a logarithmic scheme, and expressed in terms of fractional RMS amplitude. It is shown in Fig 3.

The PDS shown in figure 3 is very similar to those observed from low state LMXBs. It has been shown that these PDS can be well represented as a superposition of up to 4 Lorentzians (see e.g. Olive et al. 1998; Belloni et al. 2002; van Straaten et al. 2002). These Lorentzians are either zero-centered to account for band limited noise (shot noise), or peaked to account for quasi-periodic oscillations. As stressed by Belloni et al. (2002), the multi-Lorentzian approach gives a simple and universal phenomenological description of the PDS of a wide variety of sources, including accreting black holes and neutron stars. Each Lorentzian is then described by its characteristic frequency, width (defined by the quality factor Q=$`\nu /\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$) and amplitude, usually expressed as a fractional RMS.

The PDS of 4U 1812–12 can be represented by the sum of four Lorentzians, analytically defined in Belloni et al. (2002) (see also van Straaten et al. 2002; Olive et al. 2002). Three of them are zero-centered (Q=0), associated with aperiodic noise components, and one has a Q value of 1 to account for the presence of a short-lived oscillation at a frequency $`\nu _{\mathrm{LF}}`$=0.7 Hz. The best fit parameters are given in Table 2, where each of the Lorentzians is named according to the definition given in Belloni et al. (2002). Note that the source displays strong rapid X-ray variability as the total RMS is about 35%, another common feature of low state LMXBs.

## 3 Discussion

We have presented here the first broad band energy spectrum of 4U 1812–12, and its first detection at 100 keV. Thus 4U 1812–12 joins the list of the $`20`$ X-ray bursters presently detected at $`100`$ keV (see the list in Di Salvo & Stella 2002). We have also reported on the first measurement of the power density spectrum of its rapid X-ray variability.

4U 1812–12 clearly belongs to the class of low luminosity LMXBs displaying persistent and weakly variable emission (other examples are SLX1735-269 and GS1826-234, see e.g. Barret et al. 2000). This is clearly illustrated by its long term ASM light curve (Fig. 1). At the time of the BeppoSAX and RXTE observations, the bolometric luminosity of 4U 1812–12 was about $`2\times 10^{36}`$ergs s-1 (1-200 keV), assuming the source distance of 4 kpc derived by Cocchi et al. (2000). This is very close to its mean luminosity. About half of this luminosity is radiated in X-rays between 1 and 20 keV. Its 1-20 and 20-200 keV luminosities fall at the bottom left of the so-called X-ray burster box (Barret et al. 2000; Di Salvo & Stella 2002).

The energy spectrum recorded by BeppoSAX resembles those observed from these systems in their low state (see Barret 2001; Di Salvo & Stella 2002, for a review). It consists of the sum of a dominant hard comptonized component and a comparatively weaker soft component. The hard component is commonly thought to arise from a hot inner flow developing between the neutron star surface and a truncated accretion disk (see e.g. Olive et al. 2002). The present data do not allow to tell whether the soft component is a single temperature blackbody or a multicolor disk blackbody, leaving two possible interpretations on its origin; either the neutron star surface or the truncated accretion disk. However, as it has been previously found in many other sources, the inner disk radius derived from a multicolor blackbody fit is very small, much smaller than any plausible neutron star radius (e.g. Gierliński & Done 2002). This has been interpreted as evidence against the disk origin for the soft component. So it more likely arises from the neutron star, where only a fraction of its surface can be seen through the comptonizing cloud. This is consistent with the small equivalent blackbody radius measured (e.g. Gierliński & Done 2002).

The X-ray variability of 4U 1812–12 measured by RXTE is also typical of low luminosity LMXBs. It shows several broad noise components, one of which extends above 200 Hz. The later feature is common to low state LMXBs and has been proposed as a way to distinguish black holes from neutron stars (Sunyaev & Revnivtsev 2000). It has been shown that the frequency of the first Lorentzian ($`\nu _b`$ in Table 2) accounting for the flat top of the power spectrum and the frequency of the peaked feature immediately after the break ($`\nu _{LF}`$ in Table 2) are nicely correlated among a wide sample of sources, including black holes and neutron stars (Wijnands & van der Klis 1999; Belloni et al. 2002). 4U 1812–12 is no exception and falls also on the correlation, close to the data points of the low luminosity X-ray bursters 1E1724-3045 and GS1826-24 (see Figure 11 in Belloni et al. 2002). Thus, our data points strengthen this correlation which strongly suggests that the flat top noise and the low-frequency QPO are caused by the same unknown physical mechanism in all these sources (Wijnands & van der Klis 1999).

Finally, another correlation has been reported between $`\nu _{LF}`$ and $`\nu _l`$; $`\nu _l`$ is then interpreted as the frequency of a lower kHz QPO (Psaltis et al. 1999; Belloni et al. 2002). This correlation, which extends over $`3`$ decades of frequency was a firm prediction of the relativistic precession model (see e.g. Stella et al. 1999). In 4U 1812–12 $`\nu _l`$ is low compared to the values observed from similar systems (generally $`\nu _l10`$Hz in most sources). It is thus significantly lower than the value expected from the above correlation. Obviously, one cannot draw definite conclusions based on one single object, but it would be worth investigating other low luminosity systems to check whether the above correlation really breaks down at frequencies below $`10`$ Hz, as suggested by the present data. This would have important implications of the physical interpretation of these signals as relativistic timing features.

## 4 Conclusions

The BeppoSAX and RXTE observations presented here have shown that 4U 1812–12 has spectral and timing properties typical of low luminosity neutron star low mass X-ray binaries; displaying both a hard X-ray tail and intense rapid X-ray variability. 4U 1812–12 enlarges the list of twenty X-ray bursters presently detected at 100 keV. Its broad band energy spectrum can be fitted by the sum of a dominant hard Comptonized component (electron temperature of $`36`$ keV and optical depth $`3`$) and a weak soft component. The latter component which can be fitted with a blackbody of $`0.6`$ keV and equivalent radius of $`2`$ km is likely to originate from the neutron star surface. As expected for a low luminosity system, the power density spectrum measured by RXTE is characterized by the presence of a $`0.7`$ Hz low frequency quasi-periodic oscillation together with three broad noise components, one of which extends above $`200`$ Hz.

The location of the source in the galactic plane, its persistent intensity and hard spectrum mean that it will be repeteadly detected by the IBIS hard X-ray imaging instrument aboard INTEGRAL during its weekly scans (Lebrun et al. 2001). This will provide insights on the long term spectral evolution and timing properties of its hard X-ray tail.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to Matteo Guainazzi for stimulating discussions at the early stage of this project. The BeppoSAX satellite is a joint Italian-Dutch programme. We thank the BeppoSAX and RXTE planners; Donatella Ricci and Evan Smith for making the simultaneous observations of 4U 1812–12 possible. This research has made use of data obtained from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.


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# Rolling down to D-brane and tachyon matter

## 1 Introduction

Time dependent solutions of tachyon have been vigorously investigated recently. One of the purpose is to study the decay of an unstable D-brane. It was shown in  that unstable D-branes become the pressure-less gas with non-zero energy density at late time, which is called tachyon matter, if the tachyon rolls down to the bottom of the potential homogeneously. While the time dependent solution is described by the boundary state, effective field theory approaches give similar results. The Born-Infeld type effective field theory - reproduces the known results of the rolling tachyon . In , the spatially homogeneous decay was analyzed by using boundary string field theory (BSFT) . They gave the asymptotic solution $`\dot{T}\pm 1`$, which reproduces the property of the tachyon matter. Since the unstable D$`p`$-brane can decay into D$`(p1)`$-brane, it is interesting to consider the spatially inhomogeneous tachyon which represents the time evolution of the kink solution. In this paper, we study the behavior of the spatially inhomogeneous decay of an unstable D-brane in BSFT and give an asymptotic solution. As we will see later, this solution asymptotically approaches $`\dot{T}\mathrm{sgn}(x^0)`$($`\mathrm{sgn}()`$: sign-function), and the lower-dimensional D-brane appears with the tachyon matter.

This paper is organized as follows. In section 2, we consider the inhomogeneous decay of an unstable D-brane and construct the asymptotic solution which describes both the lower-dimensional D-brane and the tachyon matter. Then we briefly discuss how the energy concentrates to make the lower-dimensional D-brane in section 3. The final section is devoted to conclusion and discussion.

## 2 Inhomogeneous decay of the unstable D-brane

In this section, we consider the late time behavior of the decaying D-brane into the lower-dimensional D-brane in BSFT.333Inhomogeneous rolling tachyon has been discussed also in -. The action is given by444We set $`\alpha ^{}=2`$ for simplicity and the signature of the metric is taken to be $`\{,+,+,\mathrm{},+\}`$. This action is exact as long as $`_\mu _\nu T=0`$ and higher derivative corrections are difficult to examine in BSFT. Since some reliable results have been obtained in  and other papers, we neglect the higher derivative terms and proceed to investigate.

$$S=T_pd^{p+1}xe^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}(\eta ^{\mu \nu }_\mu T_\nu T),$$
(1)
where

$$(x)=\frac{x\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}^x\mathrm{\Gamma }(x)^2}{2\mathrm{\Gamma }(2x)},$$
(2)
and $`T_p`$ is the tension of a non-BPS D-brane. The energy-momentum tensor obtained from this action is

$$T_{\mu \nu }=T_pe^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}\left[\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}_\mu T_\nu T^{}\eta _{\mu \nu }\right].$$
(3)
Note that the energy-momentum conservation and the equation of motion are related as

$`_\mu T^{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`T_p^\nu T\left\{2_\mu (e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}^\mu T^{})+{\displaystyle \frac{T}{2}}e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}\right\}`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`^\nu T\left\{_\mu \left({\displaystyle \frac{}{(_\mu T)}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{}{T}}\right\}.`$
In order that the codimension one D-brane,555We take the codimension one D-brane to be localized transverse to $`x^1`$-direction. i.e. kink solution, will be developed finally, we set the initial condition at $`x^0=0`$ as

$$T>0(x^1>0),T(x^1)=T(x^1),\dot{T}=0,$$
(5)
and we also impose that the initial value of the tachyon field is very small, i.e. $`|T|1`$ at $`x^0=0`$. Having imposed the initial conditions, we expect that $`T\mathrm{}`$ for $`x^1>0`$ and $`T\mathrm{}`$ for $`x^1<0`$ at late time and the kink solution is dynamically generated. Due to the energy conservation, it is natural to expect that some non-zero energy density remains in the infinite region as well.666A possibility that the energy dissipates to infinity is excluded as will be shown in section 3.

Since we are interested in the inhomogeneity transverse to the codimension one D-brane, we put $`_iT=0`$ for $`i=2,\mathrm{},p`$. Then the action becomes

$$S=T_pd^{p+1}xe^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}(z),$$
(6)
where

$$z=\dot{T}^2+T^2(\dot{T}_0T,T^{}_1T).$$
(7)
The hamiltonian density is

$$=T^{00}=T_pe^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}\left((z)+2\dot{T}^2^{}(z)\right).$$
(8)
Let us investigate the equation of motion,

$$e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}\left(^\mu T_\mu z^{\prime \prime }(z)+^\mu _\mu T^{}(z)\frac{1}{2}Tz^{}(z)+\frac{1}{4}T(z)\right)=0.$$
(9)
We assume that $`z`$ does not cross the singularity at $`z=1`$ and restrict ourselves to $`z>1`$, where $``$ is analytic.

First, let us consider that $`z`$ goes to some finite value other than $`1`$, i.e. does not hit a singularity as $`x^0\mathrm{}`$. Since we treat the case where $`|T|\mathrm{}`$ as $`x^0\mathrm{}`$, the leading contribution to the equation of motion (9) leads to (cf. ref.)

$$D(z)=(z)2z^{}(z)=0.$$
(10)
This equation has no solutions for finite values of $`z`$ because $`D(z)`$ is positive in $`1<z0`$  and it is also positive for $`z>0`$ since it can be written in that region as

$$D(z)=2(z)_0^1\frac{t^{2z}}{(1+t)^2}𝑑t(z>0).$$
(11)
In the case of $`z\mathrm{}`$, we obtain the same equation as eq.(10) because the asymptotic forms of $`(y)`$ and $`^{}(y)`$ for the argument $`y`$ being large are given by

$$(y)=\sqrt{\pi y}+𝒪(y^{1/2}),^{}(y)=\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{y}}+𝒪(y^{3/2}).$$
(12)
And we see that $`z\mathrm{}`$ is a solution for eq.(10).

Next, we proceed to the case that $`z1`$ as $`x^0\mathrm{}`$. We may write $`|\dot{T}|=1𝒪(\delta )`$, $`|\delta |1`$ at late time, and assume $`T^{}=𝒪(\delta )`$. Then we see that $`z+1=𝒪(\delta )`$ and $`\dot{z}=𝒪(\delta )`$. Since $`(y)`$, $`^{}(y)`$ and $`^{\prime \prime }(y)`$ behave near $`y=1`$ as

$$(y)\frac{1}{2(y+1)},^{}(y)\frac{1}{2(y+1)^2},^{\prime \prime }(y)\frac{1}{(y+1)^3},$$
(13)
the leading contribution of eq.(9) in this case becomes

$$2\dot{T}\dot{z}^{\prime \prime }(z)Tz^{}(z)=0,$$
(14)
which leads to, due to eq.(13),

$$\frac{\dot{z}}{z+1}=\frac{Tz}{4\dot{T}}=\frac{T(\dot{T}^2+T_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})}{4\dot{T}}\frac{T\dot{T}}{4}.$$
(15)
Solving this equation, we obtain the leading term of $`z+1`$ as

$$z+1=g(x^1)e^{\frac{1}{8}T^2},$$
(16)
where $`g(x^1)`$ is a function of $`x^1`$.777 The $`g(x^1)=\mathrm{const}`$ case corresponds to the $`ϵ(x^0)`$ in . Note that eqs.(16) and (8) implies finite energy density at late time. We stress here that the equation of motion requires that $`z`$ goes to either $`1`$ or infinity as $`x^0\mathrm{}`$, which generally holds when we consider the rolling tachyon. The static solution which represents the codimension one D-brane is $`T=ux^1`$ ($`u\mathrm{}`$)  and the spatially homogeneous solution for the rolling tachyon is $`|\dot{T}|1`$ as $`x^0\mathrm{}`$ . Thus, considering the above analysis of the equation of motion, we require that the asymptotic solution satisfies

$`T=0,T^{}\mathrm{}(x^1=0),`$
$`\dot{T}\mathrm{sgn}(x^1),T^{}0(x^10).`$ (17)
Let us construct the solution describing the decay of an unstable D-brane into the lower-dimensional one. We expect the asymptotic solution for $`T`$ as

$$T=\sigma (x)\left(x^0ϵ(x)\right)\left(x=(x^0,x^1)\right),$$
(18)
where $`ϵ(x)`$ is a small perturbation and $`\sigma (x)`$ is a function which satisfies

$$\sigma (x)\mathrm{sgn}(x^1)(x^0\mathrm{}).$$
(19)
First, we consider the asymptotic behavior of the tachyon for $`x^10`$. In this region, $`|T|x^0`$ and hence $`z1`$. We have

$`z+1`$ $`=`$ $`1\left\{\sigma (1\dot{ϵ})+\dot{\sigma }(x^0ϵ)\right\}^2+\left\{\sigma ^{}(x^0ϵ)\sigma ϵ^{}\right\}^2`$ (20)
$``$ $`1\sigma ^2+2\dot{ϵ}2(\mathrm{sgn}(x^1)x^0)\dot{\sigma }`$
$``$ $`2(1|\sigma |)+2\dot{ϵ}2(\mathrm{sgn}(x^1)x^0)\dot{\sigma },`$
where use has been made of eq.(19) and we have assumed that $`\dot{\sigma }`$ and $`\sigma ^{}`$ are small. We also require, at late time,

$$|\dot{ϵ}||(1|\sigma |)|\text{and}|\dot{ϵ}|x^0|\dot{\sigma }|.$$
(21)
Thus, in order to satisfy eq.(16), or obtain the finite energy solution, $`ϵ(x)`$ is given by

$$ϵ(x)=f(x^1)_{\mathrm{}}^{x^0}𝑑ye^{\frac{1}{8}y^2}=\sqrt{2\pi }f(x^1)\mathrm{erfc}(x^0/\sqrt{8}),$$
(22)
where $`f(x^1)`$ is a function of $`x^1`$ and we assume that it does not vary so much. Then we have

$$e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}(z)0,e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}^{}(z)\frac{1}{8f^2}.$$
(23)
We shall proceed to $`\sigma (x)`$. From eqs.(16), (19) and (21), the difference, $`\sigma (x)\mathrm{sgn}(x^1)`$, should damp more rapidly than $`\mathrm{exp}((x^0)^2/8)`$ at late time. Thus we find that $`\sigma (x)`$ can be given by

$$\sigma (x)=\frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi }}_0^{c(x^0)^{1+\alpha }x^1}𝑑ye^{y^2}=\mathrm{erf}(c(x^0)^{1+\alpha }x^1),(\alpha >0)$$
(24)
where $`\alpha `$ is a positive constant and $`c`$ is a constant, which can be taken positive without lost of generality. Although we write the asymptotic form of $`T`$ as eq.(18), note that $`T`$ is correct up to $`o(e^{(x^0)^2/8})`$ except the infinitesimally small region around $`x^1=0`$.

Next, we consider the behavior of the tachyon at the remaining point, i.e. $`x^1=0`$ as $`x^0\mathrm{}`$ with the above $`ϵ(x)`$ (22) and $`\sigma (x)`$ (24). At this point we first notice $`T=0`$ due to eq.(24). Also we find that $`T^{}2c(x^0)^{2+\alpha }/\sqrt{\pi }\mathrm{}`$ while $`\dot{T}=0`$, and hence $`z\mathrm{}`$. The asymptotic forms of $`(y)`$ and $`^{}(y)`$ for the argument $`y`$ being large are given in eq.(12). Hence at exactly $`x^1=0`$, we find the following behavior for $`x^0\mathrm{}`$,

$$e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}(z)\mathrm{},e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}^{}(z)0.$$
(25)
Let us calculate more carefully. In the infinitesimally small region around $`x^1=0`$ for $`x^01`$, $`T`$ in eq.(18) and its derivatives are evaluated as

$$T\frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi }}c(x^0)^{2+\alpha }x^1,\dot{T}\frac{2(2+\alpha )}{\sqrt{\pi }}c(x^0)^{1+\alpha }x^1,T^{}\frac{2}{\sqrt{\pi }}c(x^0)^{2+\alpha }.$$
(26)
Of course, this satisfies leading contribution of eq.(10),888The leading term of the equation of motion is also satisfied at $`x^1=0`$. and eq.(12) leads to

$`e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}(z)`$ $``$ $`2c(x^0)^{2+\alpha }e^{\frac{c^2}{\pi }(x^0)^{2(2+\alpha )}(x^1)^2}2\pi \delta (x^1),`$
$`e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}\dot{T}^2^{}(z)`$ $``$ $`(2+\alpha )^2c(x^0)^\alpha (x^1)^2e^{\frac{c^2}{\pi }(x^0)^{2(2+\alpha )}(x^1)^2}0.`$ (27)
From eqs.(23) and (27), we find that the hamiltonian density asymptotically becomes

$$2\pi T_p\delta (x^1)+\frac{T_p}{4\{f(x^1)\}^2}s(x^1),$$
(28)
where

$$s(y)=\{\begin{array}{cc}1\hfill & (y0)\hfill \\ 0\hfill & (y=0).\hfill \end{array}$$
(29)
This shows the correct tension $`2\pi T_p(=T_{p1})`$ of the D$`(p1)`$-brane at $`x^1=0`$. The non-zero energy density remains and the pressure for $`x^0\mathrm{}`$ is given by plugging eqs.(17) and (23) into

$$p=T^{11}=T_pe^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}\left\{2(T^{})^2^{}\right\}.$$
(30)
It is easy to check that the pressure falls off exponentially at late time. Thus, this non-zero energy density turns out to be the tachyon matter.

## 3 Flow of energy

Having found the asymptotic solution, we consider the momentum density, or the flow of energy in this section. Eq.(3) leads to

$$T^{01}=2T_pe^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}\dot{T}T^{}^{}(z).$$
(31)
We see that $`T^{01}=0`$ at $`x^1=0`$. From eqs.(18), (22) and (24), $`\dot{T}`$ and $`T^{}`$ at late time except for $`x^1=0`$ are given by

$`\dot{T}`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{sgn}(x^1),`$ (32)
$`T^{}`$ $``$ $`\sqrt{2\pi }\mathrm{sgn}(x^1)f^{}(x^1)\mathrm{erfc}(x^0/\sqrt{8}).`$ (33)
The remaining factor of $`e^{T^2/4}^{}`$ at late time is given in the previous section, so that it is easy to see that the energy ceases to flow at $`x^0\mathrm{}`$, which is, of course, consistent with the energy-momentum conservation. Note that if $`f^{}(x^1)=0`$, or $`f`$ is constant, we cannot obtain explicit form of $`T^{}`$ since eqs.(18) and (22) is correct up to $`o(e^{(x^0)^2/8})`$. However, we see that $`T^{}`$ is smaller than $`ϵ(x)`$, which does not alter the above result at $`x^0\mathrm{}`$.

Although the flow of the energy at early time is not given, since we consider the time evolution of the kink, it is plausible that $`\dot{T}>0(x^1>0)`$, $`\dot{T}<0(x^1<0)`$ and $`T^{}>0`$ in some region around $`x^1=0`$ and hence the energy flows toward $`x^1=0`$ in some region around there after some finite time, which means that the energy does not dissipate to infinity. We note that the energy conservation implies $`f(x^1)1/2`$ if $`f^{}(x^1)`$ is small.

## 4 Conclusion and discussion

We have investigated the spatially inhomogeneous decay of an unstable D-brane in boundary string field theory. We have considered the equation of motion and shown that $`z`$ must become either $`1`$ or infinity as $`x^0\mathrm{}`$. We have also given the time dependent kink solution of tachyon eq.(18) with eqs.(22), (24) at late time. We found that the final state is the codimension one D-brane and the tachyon matter, the pressure-less gas with non-zero energy density. Furthermore, the energy (density) where the resultant codimension D-brane exists is $`2\pi T_p`$ which exactly corresponds to the tension of the codimension one D-brane, $`T_{p1}=2\pi T_p`$. Recently the inhomogeneous rolling tachyon of a different profile has been analyzed in CFT approach . It is interesting to study the relation to our analysis.

Finally we comment on the excitation of gauge fields. In , gauge fields in the rolling tachyon was studied. We can perform a similar analysis with the rolling tachyon studied here and we find that the excitations of the gauge field can exist only on the lower-dimensional D-brane, while there are no excitations on the remaining tachyon matter.

Acknowledgments: The work of SU is supported in part by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No.13135212.


text:
# X-ray Emission Processes in Extragalactic Jets, Lobes and Hot Spots

## 1 Introduction

X-ray emission from diffuse cosmic gases may result from thermal or non-thermal processes. An X-ray emitting thermal gas can be collisionally ionized, in which case the temperature needs to be $``$ 107-8K, or photoionized, when the temperature is much lower (several $`\times `$ 104K \- several $`\times `$ 105K). Chandra and XMM observations have shown that the latter type of gas is responsible for the X-ray emission of several bright Seyfert galaxies. For example, in NGC 1068 the widths of the radiative recombination continua reveal that the temperature is only a few $`\times `$ 104K, indicating the gas is photoionized (and photoexcited) with a range of ionization parameters (Kinkhabwala et al. 2002; Brinkman et al. 2002). The non-thermal processes are inverse Compton (IC) scattering and synchrotron radiation. The energies of the relativistic electrons tend to be low if the radiation results from IC emission (Section 2) and high if it results from synchrotron radiation ($`\gamma `$ = E/mc2 $``$ 107 \- 108 for radiation in the Chandra band and a canonical B = 10-4 gauss magnetic field strength).

Thermal X-ray emission has not, to my knowledge, been detected from any extragalactic jet. Detection of IC emission allows the magnetic field strength to be measured directly as long as the relevant photon density is known and there is no bulk relativistic motion. If the X-rays are synchrotron, we infer the presence of high energy electrons and/or positrons with synchrotron half lives or order years, in which case X-ray images highlight regions of current particle acceleration.

Bulk relativistic motion is described by the Doppler parameter $`\delta =[L(1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta )]^1`$, where $`L`$ is the Lorentz factor of the bulk flow, $`\beta `$ is the bulk velocity in units of the speed of light, and $`\theta `$ is the angle between the velocity vector and the line of sight. If S$`{}_{}{}^{^{}}{}_{\nu }{}^{}`$ $``$ $`\nu ^\alpha `$ is the flux density which would be observed in the absence of bulk motion and the “blob” emits isotropically in its own frame, the observed spectrum Sν $``$ $`\delta ^{3+\alpha }`$S$`{}_{}{}^{^{}}{}_{\nu }{}^{}`$ (e.g. Begelman et al. 1984). This dependence on $`\delta `$ is usually assumed for synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) emission. On the other hand, if the radiation being scattered is isotropic in the Hubble (or galaxy) frame (so called external Compton \[EC\] emission), then the principal dependence of the observed spectrum is Sν $``$ $`\delta ^{4+2\alpha }`$S$`{}_{}{}^{^{}}{}_{\nu }{}^{}`$ (Dermer 1995). The magnetic field derived from SSC or EC models is then a function of $`\delta `$, the function being different in the two cases (e.g. Tavecchio et al. 2000; Celotti et al. 2001).

## 2 Inverse Compton Scattering - Sources of Photons

A key feature of IC models is that the spectral index of the X-ray emission should be the same as that of the synchrotron emission from the same population of electrons. Thus measurement of the X-ray spectral index is vital for confirmation of IC models. However, the synchrotron emission may be at too low a frequency to be observable. Possible sources of photons in IC models include:

a) the synchrotron radiation itself - i.e. SSC emission.

b) the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). To scatter this radiation into the Chandra band requires $`\gamma `$ $``$ 103. Such electrons radiate synchrotron radiation at meter wavelengths. As pointed out by Schwartz (2002), the enhancement of the CMB energy density by a factor of (1 + z)4 compensates for the (1 + z)-4 decrease of surface brightness with increasing redshift, z, and X-ray emission from such relativistic jets pointed towards us should be seen to large distances in the universe.

c) the galaxy starlight. Scattering into the Chandra band would require very low energy ($`\gamma `$ $``$ 20) cosmic rays. Such electrons would radiate synchrotron radiation at $``$ 0.1 MHz for our canonical B = 10-4 gauss, too low a frequency to be observable.

d) radiation from the active nucleus, which may be “beamed” along the radio axis. The radiation density is probably dominated by infrared emission, so we require $`\gamma `$ $``$ 100 - 300, which would radiate synchrotron radiation at a few to tens of MHz.

In the following, I provide examples of each of the different radiation processes.

## 3 Inverse Compton Scattering

### 3.1 Synchrotron Self-Compton Emission

Chandra has detected all four of the radio hot spots (A, B, D and E) in Cygnus A and obtained spectra for the two brightest ones (A and D). Both are well described by a power law with spectral index $`\alpha `$ = 0.8 $`\pm `$ 0.2 absorbed by the Galactic column in the direction of Cygnus A (Wilson et al. 2000). Thermal X-ray models require too high gas densities and may be ruled out. The images and spectra strongly support SSC models of the X-ray emission, as proposed by Harris et al. (1994) on the basis of ROSAT imaging observations. Such models indicate that the magnetic field in each of the brighter hot spots is 1.5 $`\times `$ 10-4 gauss, with an uncertainty of a few tens of percent. This field strength is close to equipartition. A few other cases of SSC emission from hot spots are known (e.g. 3C 295 - Harris et al. 2000; 3C 123 - Hardcastle et al. 2001) and the number is likely to increase dramatically with further Chandra observations.

In order to check the predictions of the SSC model, P. L. Shopbell and I have observed the hot spots of Cygnus A with HST and found evidence for diffuse optical emission on the northern edge of hot spot D. The apparent displacement of the optical emission from the peak of the radio and X-ray emissions may result from astrometric uncertainties in the HST data. The strength of the optical emission is consistent with, though somewhat higher than, the predictions of the SSC model (Fig. 1). However, this optical emission needs to be confirmed by deeper HST observations.

### 3.2 IC Scattering of the CMB

The quasar PKS0637-752 was the first celestial target of Chandra. The observations revealed an X-ray jet coincident with the inner portion of the jet previously detected in the radio (Schwartz et al. 2000). Schwartz et al. (2000) noted that an SSC model implies extreme departures from the conventional minimum energy criterion. Tavecchio et al. (2000) and Celotti et al. (2001) showed that IC scattering of the CMB is consistent with equipartition for a Doppler factor $`\delta `$ $``$ 10. This process is plausible since VLBI observations reveal superluminal motion on pc scales, implying $`\theta `$ $`<`$ 6. This interpretation implies that the bulk motion of the jet is relativistic at nuclear distances up to several hundred kpc, a result consistent with systematic polarisation asymmetries in powerful radio galaxies and quasars (Laing 1988; Garrington et al. 1988).

We independently evaluated this process for the X-ray emission of the 100 kpc long jet of Pictor A (Wilson et al. 2001). There it was found that an equipartition model requires $`\theta `$ $``$ 8, which is too small for this lobe dominated radio galaxy. For more plausible values of $`\theta `$, the magnetic field would be below equipartition.

### 3.3 IC Scattering of Nuclear Photons

In the unified model of AGN, the nucleus is surrounded by a disk or torus of gas and dust. This structure collimates much of the radiation into two wide cones along and around the radio axis. Thus the lobes of radio galaxies are expected to be illuminated by intense radiation from a “hidden” quasar. Additionally, there may be a much narrower “blazar” beam emitted by a relativistic jet in the nucleus. Relativistic electrons with $`\gamma `$ $``$ 100 - 300 will IC scatter infrared photons from the quasar into the Chandra band. This process should dominate scattering of the CMB for sources whose axis is not close to the line of sight, for radio lobes/jets with only mild or non-relativistic bulk motion and for radio lobes/jets close to the nucleus.

Brunetti et al. (1997) have calculated the anisotropic IC scattered emission for this situation. Because of the angle dependence of the IC scattering, the more distant lobe is predicted to be somewhat brighter, depending on the value of $`\theta `$. Brunetti et al. (2001, 2002) have argued that diffuse X-ray emission from radio lobes in 3C 295 and 3C 207 is produced by this process.

## 4 Synchrotron radiation

The strongest case for synchrotron X-ray emission in an extragalactic jet is M87. In this jet, the X-ray spectra of all the individual knots are steeper than their radio or optical spectra (Marshall et al. 2002; Wilson & Yang 2002), which argues against IC models. Further, knot HST-1 is highly variable in X-rays, strongly favoring synchrotron radiation (Harris, these proceedings; Harris et al. 2003). A detailed analysis of the X-ray emission of the M87 jet is given by Perlman & Wilson (these proceedings and in preparation). Harris & Krawczynski (2002) present a list of other possible X-ray synchrotron sources.

## 5 Problems

### 5.1 Why do some hot spots show SSC and others synchrotron X-rays?

A promising suggestion has been made by Georganopoulos & Kazanas (this conference). They propose that all hot spots are essentially the same, with the X-ray and optical synchrotron emission being significantly relativistically beamed along the source axis. The flow within the hot spots is relativistic and decelerating. The highest energy electrons (X-ray and optical emitting) are located in the immediate post (jet) shock region, and their beaming pattern is narrow. Further downstream, the flow is slower with a wider beaming pattern and these electrons emit the radio synchrotron and X-ray SSC emission. It will be important to confirm that the SSC emitting hot spots tend to be in objects with axis close to the plane of the sky and that the one sided, synchrotron emitting hot spots are viewed more pole-on.

### 5.2 Synchrotron spectra

X-ray synchrotron emitting electrons have energy half lives of order years and must be continuously reaccelerated. In some cases, the X-ray spectrum is not a simple extension of the radio-optical spectrum with a monotonically increasing spectral index with increasing frequency, as would be expected for synchrotron or IC losses. Examples of this unexpected behavior include the W hot spot in Pic A and knots A, B (Fig. 2) and possibly D in the M87 jet.

Wilson & Yang (2002) discuss various explanations for this behavior, including the possibility that the X-rays come from a separate population of electrons from those responsible for the radio and optical emissions. One particular example of this type of model postulates that the volume within which the particles are accelerated is a function of the particle energy (cf. Perlman et al. 2001; Perlman & Wilson in preparation). The spectrum observed at Earth would also be affected if the degree of beaming is a function of particle energy (cf. Georganopoulos & Kazanas, these proceedings) and hence frequency. Lastly, Dermer & Atoyan (2002) have shown that, when IC cooling on the CMB in the Thomson regime exceeds synchrotron cooling, a hardening in the electron spectrum is formed at electron energies where Klein-Nishina effects become important. This effect results from the reduction in Compton losses in the Klein-Nishina regime compared to the dE/dt $``$ E2 losses of the Thomson regime. All of these processes may serve to modify the observed shape of the synchrotron spectrum.

This work was supported by NASA grants NAG 8-1027 and NAG 8-1755.


text:
# No X-ray Bright Type II Quasars Among the Lyman-𝛼 Emitters

## 1 Introduction

A large population of high redshift AGNs would have interesting implications both for the pace of black hole formation and growth in the universe and for cosmic background radiations from the gamma ray to the far infrared. Of particular interest is the possibility of a large population of type II quasars, i.e., systems whose broad line regions and soft x-rays are greatly attenuated by large column densities of gas and dust. Population synthesis models of active galactic nuclei that are built to explain soft and hard X-ray source counts and backgrounds predict that such objects comprise as much as 90% of the high redshift quasar population (e.g., Gilli, Salvati, & Hasinger 2001). The first X-ray selected type II quasars have recently been found (Norman et al 2002, Stern et al. 2002). These type II quasars show prominent, narrow Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emission lines, comparable in luminosity (2-18$`\times 10^{42}`$ ergs/s) to the LALA sample ($`>4\times 10^{42}`$ ergs/s).

The equivalent widths of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters selected using narrow-band surveys tend to be large (Malhotra & Rhoads 2002 - hereafter MR02, Kudritzki et al. 2000). The median equivalent width of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line is greater than 200 Å— in a sample of 160 Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters at z=4.5 and 18 at z=5.7 (MR02, RM01). Normal stellar populations can produce Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emission with equivalent width 240 Å or less (Charlot & Fall 1993), unless they have a top-heavy initial mass function (IMF), zero (or very low) metallicity, and/or extreme youth (age $`<10^7`$ years). The high equivalent widths could also be explained if active galactic nuclei (AGNs) were present in our Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitter sample. However, neither narrow-band imaging nor spectroscopy shows evidence of broad emission lines, which rules out classical quasars. Inspired by the recent discovery of type-II quasars, we use deep x-ray imaging to search for type II quasars among the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters.

## 2 Observations

## 3 Optical Data and Sample Selection

The LALA survey comprises two fields, located in Boötes (at 14:25:57 +35:32 J2000.0) and in Cetus (at 02:05:20 -04:55 J2000.0). Each field is $`36\times 36`$ arcminutes in size, corresponding to a single field of the 8192x8192 pixel Mosaic CCD cameras at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory’s 4 meter telescopes. The X-ray observations described in this Letter are in the Boötes field. In this field, we have LALA survey data in a total of eight narrowband filters. Five are partially overlapping narrow band filters covering $`4.37<z<4.57`$ for Lyman-$`\alpha `$. There are also two non-overlapping filters of similar width covering $`5.67<z<5.80`$ ($`\lambda _c8150`$ and $`8230`$Å). Imaging data reduction followed the methods described by Rhoads et al (2000), and Lyman-$`\alpha `$ candidates were selected using criteria descibed by RM01 This resulted in Boötes field samples of $`160`$ good candidates at $`z4.5`$ (see Rhoads et al 2000; MR02) and $`18`$ at $`z5.7`$ (Rhoads & Malhotra 2001). The Chandra field was placed to maximize the number of large equivalent width sources within the ACIS-I field of view.

### 3.1 Chandra imaging

A total of 178 kilo-second exposure, composed of two individual observations, was obtained using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) on the Chandra X-ray Observatory in very faint (VFAINT) mode. The first observation, with 120 ks exposure, was taken on 2002-04-16/17 (Chandra Obs ID 3130). The second observation, with 58 ks exposure, was taken on 2002-06-09 (Obs ID 3482). All four ACIS-I chips and ACIS-S2, ACIS-S3 chips were used, with the telescope aimpoint centered on the ACIS-I3 chip for each exposure. The aimpoint of Obs ID 3130 is 14:25:37.791 +35:36:00.20 (J2000.0), and the aimpoint of Obs ID 3482 is 14:25:37.564 +35:35:44.32, 16$`\mathrm{}`$ away from that of Obs ID 3130. Due to their large off-axis angle during the observations, the ACIS-S chips have poorer spatial resolution and effective area than the ACIS-I chips. In this paper, data from any ACIS-S CCD were then ignored.

Data reduction was done with the package CIAO 2.2.1 (see http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao). The level 1 data were reprocessed to clean the ACIS particle background for very faint (VFAINT) mode observations, and filtered to include only the standard event grades 0,2,3,4,6. All bad pixels and columns were also removed. We excluded high background time intervals from level 2 files, leaving a net exposure time of 172 ks (120 ks from Obs ID 3130, and 52 ks from Obs ID 3482). Three images were extracted from the combined event file: a soft image (0.5 – 2.0 keV), a hard image (2.0 – 7.0 keV) and a total image (0.5 – 7.0 keV). The hard and total bands were cut at 7 keV since the effective area of Chandra decreases above this energy, and the instrumental background rises, giving a very inefficient detection of sky and source photons. The average offset between X-ray and optical images was obtained by comparing the X-ray source positions and their optical counterparts (whenever found). Such offset (0.5$`\mathrm{}`$) has been corrected for all our analysis in this paper. We ran WAVDETECT (Dobrzychi et al. 1999, Freeman et al. 2002) on the soft, hard, and total band images. A probability threshold of 1 $`\times `$ 10-7 (corresponding to 0.5 false sources expected per image), and scales of 1,2,4,8,16 pixels were used. The detection is down to a limiting flux of 1.6 $`\times `$ 10-16 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ in 0.5 – 2.0 keV band, and 1.7 $`\times `$ 10-15 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ in 2.0 – 10.0 keV band. Given the uncertainty on the value of the total background, we find that $`>`$ 65% of the hard X-ray background is resolved to a flux limit of 1.7 $`\times `$ 10-15 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ in 2.0 – 10.0 keV band. The detailed results and detected X-ray sources will be published in a future paper (Wang et al. 2003).

### 3.2 Non-detection of individual sources

Forty nine of the Ly$`\alpha `$ sources were imaged by the $`Chandra`$ exposure with different effective exposure times. For every X-ray source and Ly$`\alpha `$ source, we defined a circular source region centered at the source position and with radius Rs set to the 95% encircled-energy radius of Chandra ACIS PSF at the position. Note that at larger off-axis angle, we have larger PSF size. Only one Ly$`\alpha `$ source overlaps any of the X-ray source regions. The 95% encircled-energy radius of $`Chandra`$ ACIS PSF at the overlapped position is 10.2$`\mathrm{}`$, and the corresponding X-ray source and Ly$`\alpha `$ source are 7.5$`\mathrm{}`$ apart; which is much larger than the 3$`\sigma `$ positional error derived from X-ray image (3.5$`\mathrm{}`$). The number of X-ray pixels encircled by all the X-ray detected source regions is around 80,000, so the probability that one of the 49 Ly$`\alpha `$ sources fell in an X-ray source region is $`8\times 10^4/5\times 10^6\times 49`$ 78%. Thus, the possible coincidence of one X-ray source with one Lyman-$`\alpha `$ source is not statistically significant.

We also performed X-ray photometry analysis of the 49 Ly$`\alpha `$ sources. We again used the 95% encircled-energy radius Rs (now centered on the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ coordinates) as the region to extract source photons, and extracted the background from an annulus with $`1.2R_s<R<2.4R_s`$ after masking out nearby sources. We also accounted for differences of exposure time between source regions and background regions (mainly due to CCD edge effects and bad columns). In soft band (0.5 – 2.0 keV), the counts in the source regions for all 49 sources are less than the 90% significance level upper limits of the expected background, with net counts all less than 2.6. In total band (0.5 – 7.0 keV), except for one source with net count of 7.8, all other sources have net counts $`<`$ 4, and confidence level $`<`$ 90%.

The detection of the only source with 7.8 net counts in total band is right at 2-$`\sigma `$ level. Assuming a powerlaw spectrum with photon index of 1.4 (from the average spectrum of all sources in the field), this implies an X-ray flux of 6.3 $`\times `$ 10-16 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$in 0.5 – 10.0 keV. The source is detectable by WAVDETECT with a much lower threshold level (10-4), and the distance between the center of the detected X-ray source and the Ly$`\alpha `$ source is 1.5$`\mathrm{}`$, while the PSF value there is 9$`\mathrm{}`$. However, with a threshold level of 10-4, we expect 0.15 false X-ray source (per X-ray image from WAVDETECT) within 1.5$`\mathrm{}`$ of the 49 Ly$`\alpha `$ sources, so the statistical significance of the detection remains low. There is no optical continuum counterpart for the possible X-ray source in our broad band optical images. So if real, it should be the counterpart of a Ly$`\alpha `$ source with an rest-frame equivalent width of $`>`$500Å.

We conclude that except one possible detection at 2$`\sigma `$ level in total band, none of the Ly$`\alpha `$ sources are detected by the X-ray observations. Only upper limits of X-ray fluxes of the Ly$`\alpha `$ sources can be given. For the Ly$`\alpha `$ source nearest (1.8$`\mathrm{}`$) to the axis of X-ray observation, there are no photons within Rs. The 3$`\sigma `$ level upper limits of X-ray counts are 6.61 (Gehrels 1986), and the upper limits for X-ray fluxes (for powerlaw spectra with photon index of 1.4) are 1.7 $`\times `$ 10-16 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$for soft band, and 4.7 $`\times `$ 10-16 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$for total band (0.5 – 10.0 keV). If we use photon index of 2, instead, the above two fluxes will change to 1.9 $`\times `$ 10-16 and 3.3 $`\times `$ 10-16 respectively. Other sources have higher upper limits due to the lower effective areas and larger PSF sizes.

### 3.3 Cumulative X-rays from all the LALA sources

The X-ray imaging data at the positions of all the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources were stacked, yielding an effective exposure time of 6.5 Ms (75 days). No source was detected in the stacked image in any band (Figure 1). Since Ly$`\alpha `$ sources have different off-axis angles to the axis of Chandra observation, they have different PSF sizes at each position, making it hard to define a source region to do photometry. We just sum up the source counts extracted from each source region, and the expected background counts derived from each background region. In the soft band, we have 55 counts in total in the source regions, and the expected background is 54.2. In the total band, these two numbers are 164 and 163.1 respectively. It is clear that we did not detect the sources in X-ray even after stacking them. The 3$`\sigma `$ upper limits of soft and total band net counts are 26 and 42. Assuming a powerlaw spectrum with photon index of 1.4, we have $`3\sigma `$ upper limits of 1.8 $`\times `$ 10-17 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$in the 0.5 – 2.0 keV band, and 7.9 $`\times `$ 10-17 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$in the 0.5 – 10.0 keV band. For a photon index of 2, these limits translate to 1.9 $`\times `$ 10-17 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$and 5.5 $`\times `$ 10-17 $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$.

## 4 Discussion and conclusions

From the measurements of the X-ray background and from number counts of X-ray sources, one can argue that only a small fraction of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters can be X-ray bright type-II quasars. Suppose a fraction $`f`$ of our sources were type-II quasars, i.e., much like CDF-S202 source and distributed in redshift span $`\mathrm{\Delta }z`$. The known type-IIs are at z=3.3 and 3.7. If these sources and the LALA objects at $`z=4.5`$ and $`5.7`$ represent the same population, it would imply $`\mathrm{\Delta }z>2.4`$. The number counts of objects brighter than CDF-S202 and CXO52 in the hard band in one ACIS field is about 160, while there are $`49`$ Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources at $`z=4.47\pm 0.1`$ in the same solid angle. This implies immediately that not more than 27% of the LALA sources should be detectable in our X-ray survey. Even if we deem type II quasars irrelevant to this estimate, given the non-detection of LALA sources; Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources have been found at z=3.1 with number densities comparable to the LALA determinations ( Kudritzki et al. 2000) making $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=2.6`$.

Assuming we have a type II AGN at z=4.5, with intrinsic photon index of 2, but heavily absorbed, $`N_H=10^{24}\text{cm}^2`$, $`H_0=65\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1/3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\lambda =2/3`$. The best 3-$`\sigma `$ upper limits of 0.5 – 7.0 keV band net count at individual LALA locations correspond s to a type II AGN with 2.0 – 10.0 keV rest frame intrinsic luminosity of 1.5 $`\times 10^{44}`$ ergs s-1. And for stacked images, this number is 2.5 $`\times 10^{43}`$ ergs s-1. The rest frame intrinsic luminosity of CDFS-202 is 8.0 $`\times 10^{44}`$ ergs s-1 (Norman et al. 2002), and 4.2 $`\times 10^{44}`$ ergs s-1 for CXO52 (Stern et al. 2001). See Table 1 for corresponding luminosities with no extinction correction applied.

However, if we were to scale the X-ray fluxes with Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line flux, which in most cases is the only well measured property of the LALA sources, we find that about 44 out of 49 sources would have been detected had they been like CDF-S202. About 3 sources like CXO52 would have been detected by these observations. Figure 2a shows the comparison, where the ratio of X-ray 3$`\sigma `$ upper limits to Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line flux for LALA sources is shown as a histogram and the values of this ratio for the two known type-II quasars are marked. The spread in the histogram is due to variation in x-ray flux sensitivity and the variation in Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line strength. Also shown is this ratio for cumulative LALA source positions which is 4-24 times lower than either of the known QSO-IIs. The 3-$`\sigma `$ upper limit of average X-ray flux from each source is $`5.5\times 10^{17}`$ $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$in the 0.5–10 KeV band, compared to a few $`\times 10^{15}`$ $`\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$for the two known type-II quasars. Comparison with relatively lower luminosity, low redshift ($`z<1`$)Seyferts and quasars drawn from the samples of Kriss (1984, 1985) shows that while individually the LALA upper limits are higher than the X-ray/Lyman-$`\alpha `$ ratio for about half the low-z sample, the upper limits from the stacked LALA positions is lower than 90% of low-z sources (Figure 2b).

Assuming a power-law spectrum with photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ = 2.0, the $`3\sigma `$ upper limit of 0.5 – 2.0 keV flux on the average LALA sources corresponds to an X-ray luminosity of $`4.2\times 10^{42}`$ ergs s-1 at z=4.5 (for either 0.5 – 2.0 keV rest frame or 2.0 – 8.0 keV rest frame bandpass, H0=65 km s-1 Mpc-1, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$=1/3, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\lambda `$=2/3). The Lyman break galaxies at $`z3`$ have an average luminosity of $`6\times 10^{40}\text{erg}s^1`$ (after excluding the four known AGNs) which is consistent with their being starbursts with star-formation rates of about 60 $`M_{}\text{yr}^1`$ (Nandra et al 2002, Brandt et al. 2001). Clearly, our observations are not sensitive enough to detect starbursts (nor were they designed to be). Taking the difference in star-formation rates between Lyman-$`\alpha `$ selected galaxies and LBGs into account and adopting the LBG value for the ratio of star formation to X-ray emission, we should expect an average x-ray luminosity of $`6\times 10^{39}\text{erg}s^1`$.

Could some of the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources still be AGNs? We have demonstrated that X-ray bright quasars are at most a minority of the LALA objects. Our composite nondetection implies that even at the 3$`\sigma `$ level, only a few percent of LALA sources could resemble CDF-S202, and $`<25\%`$ could resemble CXO52. The most plausible way to have luminous AGN hiding in the LALA sample without violating this constraint is to suppose that they are Compton-thick, so that even relatively hard X-rays are obscured. Thermal emission from the obscuring dust would render these objects detectable in the infrared or submillimeter.

Another test relies on optical spectra. The Lyman-$`\alpha `$ line is found to be narrow ($`<500\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$) in all our spectroscopically confirmed Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters (e.g., Rhoads et al. 2000, Rhoads et al. 2002), which is narrower than the typical physical line widths of even type II quasars. For the larger fraction of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ sources which are photometrically selected using narrow-bands 80 Å wide, we can also rule out velocities $`>3700\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Steidel et al (2002) find at least one case of narrow-lined AGN in their Lyman-break galaxy sample with x-ray luminosity $`<5\times 10^{42}`$ ergs s-1. Their identification of this source as an AGN is based on the detection of narrow lines of NV, CIV, HeII and CIII in emission. None of the spectra of Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters shows these lines. In conclusion, we find no evidence for AGN among the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ emitters found in the LALA survey.

This work has benefitted from images provided by the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS; Jannuzi and Dey 1999), which is supported by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). NOAO is operated by AURA, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. We also thank the referee for a prompt and helpful report.


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# Energy and Scaling Laws in Human Travel Behaviour

## 1 Introduction

During the last decade, physicists have discovered the significance of many methods from statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics for the description of traffic flows , including master and Fokker-Planck equations , molecular dynamics and cellular automata , gas kinetics and fluid dynamics , instability and phase diagrams , complex pattern formation , Korteweg-de-Vries and Ginzburg-Landau equations , and invariants or universal constants of traffic flow . The observed instability mechanisms, jamming, segregation, breakdown and clustering phenomena are now viewed as a paradigm for similar phenomena in granular and colloidal physics , in biology (social insects), medicine (evacuation, coagulation), logistics (instability of supply chains), and economics (business cycles, optimal production) . The success of traffic theory is partly based on the fact that it has delivered the first quantitative theory of a system involving human behaviour.

Scientists have also tried to apply physical laws to other areas of transportation. For example, they have transfered the gravity law to fit migration rates and origin-destination matrices of streams of persons or goods . Moreover, in order to derive more appropriate mathematical relations for these, they have applied entropy principles . In fact, some of the most common decision models such as the so-called multinomial logit model  can be derived from entropy principles . Presently, the discussion on regularities in travel times is dominated by the idea of a constant travel time budget , which is not compatible with entropy-based decision laws. It states that, on average, humans use to travel about 75 minutes per day since many decades (or even centuries). This conjecture is the basis of most studies on induced traffic.

We will show that the concept of a constant travel time budget is only consistent with empirical data, if different modes of transport are not distinguised. It will turn out to be a special case of a more general law of a constant travel energy budget, which is proposed in this paper. This energy-based travel time concept is also consistent with entropy-based decision theories. In our study, we will first investigate the average travel times over many years separately for different modes of transport (see Sec. 2). We will find large differences between the mode-specific travel times, but (considering the small sampling size) they are relatively stable over 25 to 30 years, i.e. typical planning periods. Interestingly, the proportions of the mode-specific average travel times are inversely proportional to the typical energy consumption rates by the body during the related travel activities. This is a first support of the idea that energy concepts may help to understand human travel behaviour. In Section 3, we will then scale the mode-specific travel time distributions by the average travel times. Within the statistical variation, the resulting distributions appear to be universal. Therefore, the universal scaled travel time distribution can be considered as a law of human travel behaviour. Apart from significant deviations for short trips, the curves are well consistent with a canonical distribution, which can be derived from energy and entropy concepts. The deviations for short trips are related to the Simonson effect in ergonomics and can be explained by energy considerations as well (see Sec. 4). After relating our energy law for human travel behaviour with previous approaches in Sec. 5, we suggest in our outlook, how it could be further tested in the future.

## 2 Constant travel time vs. constant energy budgets

In our study, we have investigated the electronically available statistical data of the UK National Travel Surveys during the years 1972–1998, which were carried out by the Social Survey Division of the Office of Population Census and Surveys . The data were gathered on a nation-wide scale. We have used the data records of the so-called 7th day (which does not necessarily mean a weekend day). On this day, short trips were recorded as well (in contrast to the other six days). Until 1986, about 25.000 travellers have been evaluated, later on about 8.000 persons. For this reason, we are facing a worse statistics than in experimental physics, where the sampling sizes are normally much larger. Nevertheless, certain features of the data become visible.

We have investigated the overall daily journey times. Short and long walks were grouped together, and the use of London and other stage busses was summed up. Moreover, we have focussed on the days on which, apart from walking, only one mode of transport $`i`$ has been used. (This is the case in 80% of all daily travel.) When we distinguished the different daily modes of transport, we found that the average modal travel time $`\overline{t}_i`$ per day and person remained almost constant over the 27 years of observation (see Fig. 1). More specifically, the average travel times $`\overline{t}_i`$ were $`40`$ min during a day with walking ($`i=\text{w}`$), without any usage of other means of transport, $`42`$ min for cyclists ($`i=\text{c}`$), $`67`$ min for stage bus users ($`i=\text{b}`$), $`75`$ min for car drivers ($`i=\text{d}`$), $`59`$ min for car passengers ($`i=\text{p}`$), and $`153`$ min for train passengers ($`i=\text{t}`$). The 95%-confidence intervals $`C_i`$ for the slopes $`b_i`$ of the regression curves were $`C_\mathrm{w}=[0.26;0.16]`$, $`C_\mathrm{c}=[0.09;0.63]`$, $`C_\mathrm{b}=[0.45;0.02]`$, $`C_\mathrm{d}=[0.576;0.17]`$, $`C_\mathrm{p}=[0.32;0.28]`$, and $`C_\mathrm{t}=[1.27;1.96]`$, i.e. the hypothesis of constant average travel times corresponding to slopes $`b_i=0`$ was predominantly compatible with the data for most modes over more than 25 years, i.e. typical transport and urban planning horizons. From the analysis below, it will become evident why the car-related values seem to decrease slightly. We should, therefore, underline that the analysis in Sec. 3 can be also applied in situations where the average travel times (apart from statistical variations) change over the years in a systematic way.

Note that the average travel times vary by a factor 3.8 between different modes of transport. This questions the commonly believed hypothesis of a constant average travel time budget of about 75 minutes a day . Instead, each mode of transport has its own constant average travel time budget, which calls for a new unifying law of human travel behaviour. Such a law exists, and it is the average energy consumed by travel activity which is more or less a mode-independent constant. We are talking about the energy consumption of the human body, here, not about the energy consumption by the car, bus, or train.

To support this idea, let us study values of the energy consumption $`p_i`$ per unit time for certain activities obtained by ergonomic measurements of the related O2-consumption  (see Table 1). The data suggest that the average daily travel times $`\overline{t}_i`$ are inversely proportional to the energy consumption rates $`p_i`$, i.e.

$$p_i\frac{\overline{E}}{\overline{t}_i}.$$
(1)
With an estimated average daily travel energy budget of $`\overline{E}615`$ kJ, the energy consumption per unit time should amount to $`p_\mathrm{w}=15.4`$ kJ/min for walking, $`p_\mathrm{c}=14.6`$ kJ/min for cycling, $`p_\mathrm{b}=9.2`$ kJ/min for bus users, $`p_\mathrm{d}=8.2`$ kJ/min for car drivers, $`p_\mathrm{p}=10.4`$ kJ/min for car passengers, and $`p_\mathrm{t}=4.0`$ kJ/min for train passengers.

Comparing this with Table 1, the energy consumption of 15.4 kJ/min for walking corresponds to a realistic speed of 1.2 m/s (on an even path and without carrying weight), the 14.6 kJ/min are in harmony with a cycling speed of 12 km/h, the 8.2 kJ/min for car drivers fit the 8.0 kJ/min of test drive data. The elasticity of the energy consumption during driving at roads (with 4.2 kJ/min) and driving in rush hour (with 13.4 kJ/min) can explain the apparent slight decrease in average travel time. As traffic conditions have obviously become heavier during the last decade, driving under these conditions is also more stressful, and with that increases the energy expenditure. Hence, under the hypothesis of a constant energy expenditure, the travel times are expected to decrease. Similar interpretations can account for small changes in average travel times for other means of transport.

Finally, the energy consumption of bus, train and car passengers can be understood as weighted averages of the energy consumption by walking to and fro the bus stop, train station or meeting point (15.4 kJ/min) and the energy consumption between restless standing with 6.7 kJ/min and sitting on a chair with 1.5 kJ/min. Here, one should keep in mind that the actual values for standing and sitting in a moving means of transport are probably higher, as the body has to perform an additional balancing activity.

## 3 Derivation of a universal travel time distribution

When we scaled the $`t`$-axis of the modal travel-time distributions $`P_i(t)dt`$ by the average travel times $`\overline{t}_i`$, we discovered that, within the statistical variation, the resulting distributions collapsed onto one single curve

$$P^{}(\tau _i)d\tau _iN^{}\mathrm{exp}(\alpha /\tau _i\tau _i/\beta )d\tau _i$$
(2)
with $`\tau _i=t/\overline{t}_i`$, only two fit parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, and the normalisation constant $`N=N(\alpha ,\beta )`$ (see Fig. 2). This implies a universal law  of human travel behaviour which quantitatively reflects both, variations of individual travel times and variations between individuals. Defining $`E_i=p_it=\overline{E}\tau _i`$, this corresponds to a universal travel energy distribution

$$P(E_i)dE_iN\mathrm{exp}[\alpha \overline{E}/E_iE_i/(\beta \overline{E})]dE_i$$
(3)
with $`N=N^{}/\overline{E}`$. If $`\alpha `$ was zero, this would correspond to the canonical distribution, and $`\beta `$ were 1 in order to guarantee not only the normalization condition

$$\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}P(E_i)𝑑E_i=1,$$
(4)
but also meet the definition

$$\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}E_iP(E_i)𝑑E_i=\overline{E}$$
(5)
of the average energy. Because of condition (5), $`\beta `$ has values different from one, when $`\alpha `$ is not zero. However, in the semi-logarithmic representation

$$\mathrm{ln}P(E_i)=\mathrm{ln}N\alpha \overline{E}/E_iE_i/(\beta \overline{E}),$$
(6)
the term $`\alpha \overline{E}/E_i`$ is relevant only up to $`E_i/\overline{E}0.5`$, while the linear relationship $`\mathrm{ln}P(E_i)=\mathrm{ln}NE_i/(\beta \overline{E})`$ dominates clearly over a wide range of the travel energies $`E_i`$ (see Fig. 2). Although the different modes of transport could, of course, be fitted by separate parameter values, the hypothesis of identical values is supported by statistical tests. For example, the 95%-confidence intervals for the values of $`\beta `$ are $`\beta _\mathrm{w}=[0.30;0.74]`$, $`\beta _\mathrm{b}=[0.34;0.95]`$, $`\beta _\mathrm{c}=[0.38;0.71]`$, $`\beta _\mathrm{p}=[0.32;0.71]`$, and $`\beta _\mathrm{b}=[0.56;1.10]`$, when we fit $`E_i/\overline{E}`$ over $`\mathrm{ln}P(E_i)`$ in the range $`1E_i/\overline{E}6`$.

We suggest the following interpretation: The dominating term

$$P(E_i)dE_i\mathrm{exp}[E_i/(\beta \overline{E})]dE_i$$
(7)
corresponds to the canonical energy distribution, while the term $`\mathrm{exp}(\alpha \overline{E}/E_i)`$ reflects the Simonson effect . It describes the suppression of short trips, a surprising effect, which will have to be explained in Sec. 4.

Based on entropy maximisation, the canonical distribution may be interpreted as the most likely distribution, given that the average energy consumption $`\overline{E}`$ per day by an ensemble of travellers is fixed for the area of investigation . For the sake of completeness, we shortly repeat the derivation of this well-known result for a general readership. We have to maximise the entropy function

$$𝑑E_iP(E_i)\mathrm{ln}P(E_i)$$
(8)
under the constraints (4) and (5). This is equivalent to maximising

$`{\displaystyle 𝑑E_iP(E_i)\mathrm{ln}P(E_i)}`$ $`+`$ $`\lambda \left[1{\displaystyle 𝑑E_iP(E_i)}\right]`$ (9)
$`+`$ $`\mu \left[\overline{E}{\displaystyle 𝑑E_iE_iP(E_i)}\right]`$
and determining the Lagrange multiplyers $`\lambda `$, $`\mu `$ so that (4) and (5) are fulfilled. Functional differentiation of (9) leads to the condition

$$\mathrm{ln}P(E_i)1\lambda \mu E_i=0\text{or}P(E_i)=\text{e}^{1\lambda \mu E_i}.$$
(10)
The parameters $`\lambda `$ and $`\mu `$ are now specified in such a way that the constraints (4) and (5) are satisfied. The result for $`P(E_i)`$ corresponds to the canoncial distribution. It agrees well with the investigated data if only $`E_i/\overline{E}=t/\overline{t_i}>0.5`$.

## 4 Explanation of the Simonson effect for short trips

Let us now explain the prefactor $`\mathrm{exp}(\alpha \overline{E}/E_i)`$. It reflects that short trips are less likely to be undertaken, because it is not worth to spend an additional amount of energy of the order $`\alpha \overline{E}`$ for the preparation of the trip. The quotient between the average energy spent for the preparation of the trip and the trip itself is $`\alpha 0.2`$. This value agrees, by the way, well with the threshold value of accepted detours in route choice behaviour .

We should note that the amount of data does not allow us to decide between this fit function and very similar ones such as

$$P(E_i)dE_iN_{}[1\mathrm{exp}(\gamma E_i/\overline{E})]\mathrm{exp}[E_i/(\beta \overline{E})]dE_i,$$
(11)
where $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$ are two fit parameters and $`N_{}(\gamma ,\beta )`$ a normalization constant (see Fig. 3). This function is not so suitable for semi-logarithmic fitting, but it can be theoretically derived. For this, let us assume that the preparation of a trip requires an additional amount of energy $`E_0`$. For similar reasons as outlined in Sec. 3, the most likely distribution of preparation energy is

$$P^{\prime \prime }(E_0)dE_0=N^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{exp}[E_0/\overline{E_0}]dE_0,$$
(12)
where $`\overline{E_0}`$ denotes the average energy required for trip preparation. The trip will not be started, if this energy exceeds a certain proportion $`ϵ`$ of the energy $`E_i`$ required for the trip itself. The probability to start a trip requiring energy $`E_i`$ is, then, given by

$$\underset{0}{\overset{ϵE_i}{}}N^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{exp}[E_0/\overline{E_0}]𝑑E_0=1\mathrm{exp}(ϵE_i/\overline{E_0}).$$
(13)
Comparing this with Eq. (11) establishes the relation $`ϵ/\overline{E_0}=\gamma /\overline{E}`$.

We underline that the interpretation of the approach (11) basically agrees with the one behind the simpler formula (3).

## 5 Comparison with previous trip distribution models

In this study, we have shown that empirical travel time data suggest the concept of a constant daily travel energy budget rather than a travel time budget. Not only are the mode-dependent average travel times inversely proportional to the energy consumption related to the respective physical activities. Scaling to energy variables also leads to a universal travel energy distribution, which can be theoretically supported. The distribution basically corresponds to a canonical one, which can be derived from entropy principles. However, we found less trips with small travel energies than expected according to the canonical distribution. This could be explained as effect of the additional energy required to prepare a trip. If the latter exceeds a certain percentage of the energy required for the trip itself, the trip is unlikely to be undertaken. In such cases, another means of transportation is possibly selected, or the trip may be combined with another trip.

Note that the canonical distribution is analogous to the multinomial logit model $`P_i^{}\mathrm{exp}(U_i)`$ developed to describe the trip distribution as a function of some utility function $`U_i`$ . Therefore, the above theory cannot only give an alternative, physical explanation for the applicability of the multinomial logit model. It also allows to extend and improve previous trip distribution models, which have focussed on variables such as distances and travel costs . For this purpose, the mode-dependent energy consumption $`E_i`$, which our study showed to be an essential variable of human travel behaviour, is to be taken into account as a (negative) cost term entering the utility function $`U_i`$.

Besides, the travel energy concept allows one to understand why it is difficult to establish an explanatory principle for all modes of transport based on distance. As travelled distance in transport is mode dependent, it cannot be regarded as an invariant measure. Travel costs, on the other hand, can be assumed to be a determinant for modal choice. In qualitative terms, this means for the above approach, that a clear distinction can be given between trip distribution and modal choice, where the former determines the physical boundary conditions of daily trip making in which the latter takes place. As a consequence, both aspects of travel behaviour can be combined in a stringent and complementary way.

## 6 Summary and outlook

In our opinion, the significant progress by this study is the identification of a simple and universal law of human daily travel behaviour after many decades of fit models with multiple fit parameters. In contrast to utility functions of classical decision models, which are typically based on preferences, our model contains only physical variables such as travel times and energies, which are well measurable. It was, therefore, possible to critically evaluate our travel distribution model, which resulted in a canonical travel energy distribution with a correction term for short trips. In contrast, decision models like the multinomial logit model or other trip distribution models are usually presupposed and used to determine unknown utilities, which are normally not measurable in an independent way. These models could, therefore, not be verified or falsified in a strict sense. Furthermore, it was very surprising to find that physical variables determine human travel behaviour in a fundamental way and that laws from equilibrium thermodynamics apply. Once again, this underlines the importance of physical concepts for the understanding of traffic and transport.

The main advantage and practical relevance of the behavioural law (3) is its expected long-term validity under changing conditions. It will, therefore, proof to be important for urban, transport, and production planning: Previous trip distribution models had to separately determine various parameter values for each mode of transport, which was related with large errors in the calibration of the model parameters and did not allow a theoretical interpretation of travel behaviour. Compared to this, the discovered scaling law facilitates improved conclusions about trip distributions, modal splits, and induced traffic  after the more reliable determination of fewer parameters, which are (apart from statistical variations) constant or systematically changing over typical planning horizons. The new concept also contributes to understanding interactions between the temporal evolution of settlement patterns and transport systems. Furthermore, it helps to assess the increase in the acceptability of public transport, when the comfort of travel is improved, to predict the usage of new modes of transport, and to estimate potential market penetrations of new travel-related products.

The authors are aware of the problems related with the empirical data, which were characterized by a large scattering and were affected by errors in estimating trips and related travel times. For example, travellers tended to round travel times to full 5 or 10 minute units (so that these intervals were overrepresented in the data). However, presently there are no better data available. In some sense, the current situation in socio-physics is comparable with the early days of classical physics, where the data situation was also much poorer than today. But empircally justified principles such as the proposed travel energy laws will certainly stimulate further research. If only a small fraction of money spent for experiments in elementary particle physics was invested into measuring human behaviour, one could certainly make a fast progress. We do now carry out similar studies for travel time data of other countries, but there are similar problems with the quality of the data. So, basically, one would have to spend considerably more money for measuring the data.

In order to further test the proposed travel energy laws, the authors suggest the following supplementary investigations: First, one could study the travel energy distribution of combined trips, i.e. trips using different means of transport. The total travel energies

$$E=\underset{i}{}p_it_i,$$
(14)
where $`t_i`$ denotes the travel time spent with mode $`i`$, should be distributed according to the law (3) as well, if the combined trip does not require additional energy for its preparation compared to a one-mode trip (or require long additional waiting times). Second, we are confident that the concept of a travel energy budget can be generalized to a human energy concept. For example, we expect that hard-working blue collars tend to attribute a smaller share of energy to travelling than white collars. We also predict that elderly people make shorter trips on average, because travelling is more exhausting for them. This could be investigated by distinguishing different groups (subpopulations) of travellers. These questions shall be addressed by future publications.

### Acknowledgments

R.K. would like to thank Mike McDonald, Hermann Knoflacher, Robin Stinchombe, Denis Pollney, David K. Anthony and Mark Brackstone for their support and/or inspiring discussions. D.H. is grateful for comments by Tamas Vicsek, for the warm hospitality at the Collegium Budapest.