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# The Lyman-𝛼 Forest As A Cosmological Tool

## 1 Physics of the Forest

The 1990s saw four epochal advances in our understanding of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. Spectra of quasar pairs showed coherence over scales of a hundred kpc and more, implying large sizes and thus low densities for the absorbing structures Bechtold et al. (1994); Dinshaw et al. (1994, 1995); Crotts & Fang (1998). Keck HIRES spectra of unprecedented resolution and signal-to-noise demonstrated the ubiquity of weakly fluctuating Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption in the high redshift universe Hu et al. (1995), and they revealed the presence of metal lines associated with low column density hydrogen absorbers Songaila & Cowie (1996); Ellison et al. (1999). Finally, and most directly relevant to this review, a combination of numerical simulations and related analytic models led to a compelling new physical picture of Ly$`\alpha `$ forest absorption Bi (1993); Cen et al. (1994); Petitjean, Mücket, & Kates (1995); Zhang, Anninos, & Norman (1995); Hernquist et al. (1996); Bi & Davidsen (1997); Hui, Gnedin, & Zhang (1997); Theuns et al. (1998).

The basic numerical result is simple to summarize: given a cosmological scenario motivated by independent observations, 3-d simulations that incorporate gravity, gas dynamics, and photoionization by the UV background produce something very much like the observed Ly$`\alpha `$ forest, an outcome that requires no ad hoc adjustments to the model. The top three rows of Figure 1 illustrate this point, showing, respectively, the observed Ly$`\alpha `$ forest of the $`z=3.62`$ quasar Q1422+231, expanded views of four selected regions of this spectrum, and simulated spectra of the same length along four randomly selected lines of sight through a cosmological simulation. The simulation uses smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) with $`128^3`$ dark matter particles and $`128^3`$ gas particles in a periodic cube of comoving size $`11.111h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ ($`1422\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at $`z=3`$). It assumes a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model (inflationary cold dark matter with a cosmological constant), with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.4`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.6`$, $`h=0.65`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=0.02h^2=0.0473`$, inflationary spectral tilt $`n=0.95`$, and a power spectrum normalization that corresponds to $`\sigma _8=0.8`$ at $`z=0`$. Spectra are extracted from the $`z=3`$ simulation output using the methods of Hernquist et al. (1996).

Studies of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest have traditionally focused on “lines” identified by a decomposition procedure and the “clouds” or “absorbers” that produce them. Hydrodynamic simulations show that typical marginally saturated absorption features at $`z3`$ arise in filamentary structures, which are analogous to (but smaller in scale than) today’s galaxy superclusters. However, in the simulations there is no sharp distinction between the “lines” and the “background,” and one can also characterize the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest as “Gunn-Peterson” Gunn & Peterson (1965) absorption produced by a smoothly fluctuating intergalactic medium Hernquist et al. (1996); Croft et al. (1997); Rauch et al. (1997); Weinberg, Katz, & Hernquist (1998).

What makes the fluctuating IGM perspective especially powerful is the tight relation between the density and temperature of low density cosmic gas, $`TT_0(\rho /\overline{\rho })^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha 0.6`$, which emerges from the balance between photoionization heating and adiabatic cooling Hui & Gnedin (1997); Weinberg, Hernquist, & Katz (1997). The Ly$`\alpha `$ optical depth of photoionized gas is $`\tau n_{\mathrm{HI}}\rho ^2T^{0.7}\mathrm{\Gamma }^1`$, where $`T^{0.7}`$ accounts for the temperature dependence of the recombination rate and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the rate at which neutral atoms are ionized by the cosmic UV background. The temperature-density relation then leads to the “Fluctuating Gunn-Peterson Approximation” (FGPA), $`F\mathrm{exp}(\tau )=\mathrm{exp}[A(\rho /\overline{\rho })^\beta ]`$, which relates the continuum normalized flux $`F`$ to the local gas overdensity Croft et al. (1997, 1998); Rauch et al. (1997); Weinberg, Katz, & Hernquist (1998). The index $`\beta `$ lies in the range $`1.62`$ depending on the thermal history of the gas, and the proportionality constant $`A`$ is itself proportional to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b^2h^3T_0^{0.7}\mathrm{\Gamma }^1`$. Thus, one can think of a Ly$`\alpha `$ forest spectrum as providing a 1-dimensional, non-linear map of the gas overdensity $`\rho /\overline{\rho }`$ along the line of sight. The map is smoothed by thermal broadening and distorted by peculiar velocities, but these effects are small enough to leave a tight correlation between Ly$`\alpha `$ optical depth and local gas density even in redshift space Croft et al. (1997); Weinberg et al. (1999). Furthermore, pressure gradients in the diffuse, photoionized IGM are usually weak compared to gravitational forces, so the gas overdensity traces the dark matter overdensity fairly well.

The FGPA provides a valuable way of thinking about the information content of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest, and it can be a useful calculational tool if one has a way to produce realizations of cosmic density and velocity fields. The analytic models of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest by Bi (1993); Bi, Ge, & Fang (1995); Bi & Davidsen (1997); Hui, Gnedin, & Zhang (1997) essentially combine the FGPA with a log-normal or Zel’dovich approximation model for creating non-linear density and velocity fields. Alternatively, one can run an inexpensive, gravity-only N-body simulation and assume that the diffuse gas traces the dark matter (or add an approximate treatment of gas pressure Gnedin & Hui (1998); Zaldarriaga, Hui, & Tegmark (2001); Viel et al. (2002)). The dotted lines in the third row of Figure 1 show spectra extracted from a particle-mesh (PM) N-body simulation, run from the same initial conditions as the SPH simulation, illustrating both the effectiveness and the limitations of this approach. The two spectra trace each other over most of their length, with the largest breakdowns occurring in regions where shock heating has pushed the gas above the $`T\rho ^\alpha `$ temperature-density relation, which makes the optical depth in the SPH simulation lower than the FGPA predicts.

The N-body+FGPA technique offers a convenient way to investigate the response of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest to changes in cosmological parameters. Comparing the third and fourth rows of Figure 1 illustrates the effect of increasing the matter fluctuation amplitude by 20%, to $`\sigma _8(z=0)=1.0`$, with the same Fourier phases in the initial conditions. The increased clustering of the high amplitude model is evident in the greater incidence of saturated absorption and in the merging of multiple small scale features into single larger scale features. The bottom row shows spectra from a model with $`\sigma _8=0.8`$ and the same linear power spectrum but a lower matter density, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.2`$. The reduction in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ lowers the value of the Hubble parameter $`H(z)`$ at $`z=3`$, and as a result features are more densely packed in redshift space, producing “choppier” spectra. In fact, our $`11.111h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ simulation cube is only $`1024\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in length for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.2`$, and we have “padded” each spectrum to $`1422\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ by replicating the first $`400\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Reducing $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ also raises the fluctuation amplitude at $`z=3`$ (since $`\sigma _8`$ is held fixed at $`z=0`$ and there is less late time growth for lower $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$), but this effect is less important than the effect on the Hubble parameter.

The relative simplicity of the underlying physics and the existence of superb data at redshifts that are only sparsely probed by other observables make the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest a potentially powerful tool for testing cosmological models. Given independent estimates of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (e.g., from the quasar luminosity function or the proximity effect), one can use the mean opacity of the forest to obtain a lower limit to the cosmic baryon density Rauch et al. (1997); Weinberg et al. (1997). However, the observational constraints on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are loose, so for higher precision applications one must treat $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as a free parameter and adjust it to match a single observable, usually taken to be the mean opacity. This normalization also absorbs uncertainties in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$, $`T_0`$, and $`h`$. We have followed this practice for each of the simulations in Figure 1 and will adopt it in all of our subsequent analyses. After normalizing to the mean opacity, the variation about the mean — i.e., the structure of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest — is a prediction of the cosmological model, driven primarily by the structure in the underlying dark matter distribution. Ideally, one would like to calculate predictions for each cosmology using high resolution hydrodynamic simulations, but for some purposes other numerical or analytic approximations may be accurate enough. The adequacy of such approximations must be tested on a case-by-case basis, and the improving quality of the observational data places ever more stringent demands on the accuracy of the theoretical calculations.

## 2 Continuous Flux Statistics

Because of the tight predicted correlation between the local Ly$`\alpha `$ optical depth and the local gas density, the most natural statistics for characterizing the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest are those that treat each quasar spectrum as a continuous 1-dimensional field, rather than a collection of discrete “lines.” We have reviewed this approach elsewhere Weinberg, Katz, & Hernquist (1998); Weinberg et al. (1999), and here we provide a brief recap with different examples and emphasis.

Figure 2 shows the power spectrum of continuum normalized flux, converted from 1-d to 3-d as described by Croft et al. (1998), and multiplied by $`k^3`$ to yield the variance per ln$`k`$. The curves are noisy because they are based on a single $`11.111h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ comoving cube, but we use the same phases in each simulation, so the relative behavior should be minimally affected by noise. At scales $`k>0.03(\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)^1`$, the power spectra turn over because of the combined effects of non-linearity, peculiar velocities, and thermal broadening. The predictions in this regime are also affected by the finite resolution of the simulations. At larger scales, the SPH and N-body+FGPA methods give similar but not identical results for the same cosmological model, and the amplitude of the flux power spectrum increases with the amplitude of the matter power spectrum, as expected based on the FGPA and on Figure 1.

On large scales, the shape of the 3-d flux power spectrum is similar to that of the linear matter power spectrum $`P_m(k)`$ Croft et al. (1998, 2002). The close connection between the shape and amplitude of the flux power spectrum and the shape and amplitude of $`P_m(k)`$ is the basis of Croft et al.’s Croft et al. (1998) method for recovering $`P_m(k)`$ from Ly$`\alpha `$ forest data. Applying this method to a sample of 30 Keck HIRES spectra and 23 Keck LRIS spectra yields a matter power spectrum in remarkably (or, perhaps, disappointingly) good agreement with the “concordance” $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model favored by CMB, supernova, weak lensing, and low-$`z`$ large scale structure data (Croft et al. (2002); see Gnedin & Hamilton (2002) for an independent analysis of the same flux power spectrum and Tegmark & Zaldarriaga (2002) for an independent comparison to other cosmological constraints). McDonald et al. McDonald et al. (2000) reach similar conclusions from a “forward” comparison of hydrodynamic simulation predictions to the flux power spectrum measured from eight HIRES spectra. The Ly$`\alpha `$ forest power spectrum tests the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model in a previously unexplored regime of redshift and lengthscale. It confirms one of the scenario’s key predictions, a linear power spectrum that bends from the primeval $`k^n`$ towards $`k^{n4}`$ on small scales. The implied constraints on cosmological parameter combinations complement those from the CMB and other data. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has already obtained moderate resolution spectra of several thousand high redshift quasars, and these will soon provide measurements of the flux power spectrum with much greater precision on large scales.

Figure 3 shows a different statistic, the probability distribution function (PDF) of the flux decrement $`D=1F=1e^\tau `$, for the same set of simulations. The measurements in the left hand panel are from simulated spectra smoothed with a Gaussian of $`\mathrm{FWHM}=8\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, comparable to the resolution of Keck HIRES or VLT UVES spectra. The SPH and N-body+FGPA predictions agree well for $`\sigma _8=0.8`$. Models with higher fluctuation amplitude have a broader distribution of densities $`\rho `$ and a correspondingly broader distribution of flux decrements $`D`$, with more saturated and low-opacity pixels and fewer pixels of intermediate opacity. The differences in the predicted PDFs for $`D0.30.7`$ are $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}P0.1`$ — not enormous, but readily measurable at high statistical significance with reasonable observational samples. The fraction of saturated pixels (defined here by $`D>0.96`$) increases from 7.2% to 8.3% to 9.1% as $`\sigma _8`$ goes from 0.6 to 0.8 to 1.0. There are larger differences in the number of nearly transparent pixels, but continuum fitting uncertainties make it difficult to measure the PDF accurately near $`D=0`$. One can investigate the scale dependence of matter clustering by smoothing the spectra (or by observing them at lower spectral resolution), analogous to studying galaxy counts in cells of increasing size. Figure 3 (right) shows results for $`100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ smoothing. The predicted PDFs are narrower, since smoothing drives pixel values towards the mean, but the dependence on $`\sigma _8`$ is similar. The saturated pixel fraction doubles, from 1.9% to 3.8%, as $`\sigma _8`$ rises from 0.6 to 1.

For cosmological models with Gaussian initial conditions, the shape of the flux PDF depends mainly on the amplitude of mass fluctuations, once one has chosen $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ to match the mean opacity, Cen (1997); Weinberg et al. (1999). The effective physical scale of this amplitude measurement is determined by the spectral smoothing or, for spectra that fully resolve the observed absorption features, by a combination of thermal broadening and gas pressure effects. Models with non-Gaussian initial conditions predict significantly different flux PDFs Weinberg et al. (1999). Observational tests to date show good agreement with models that have Gaussian initial conditions and a $`P_m(k)`$ amplitude compatible with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM predictions Rauch et al. (1997); Weinberg et al. (1999); McDonald et al. (2000). The uncertainties in these tests are comparable to the model differences in Figure 3. Reducing them requires careful attention to the effects of continuum fitting and noise and to the accuracy of the theoretical predictions, but it should be possible to obtain tight constraints on the normalization of the matter power spectrum, and some information on its shape by studying different smoothing scales. Consistency between results from the flux power spectrum and the flux PDF can be a sensitive diagnostic for primordial non-Gaussianity.

Figure 4 shows the threshold crossing frequency, the number of times per unit redshift that the absorption spectrum crosses a decrement threshold $`D`$. Following Miralda-Escudé et al. (1996), we plot $`dN_c/dz`$ as a function of filling factor, the fraction $`F(D)`$ of pixels with flux decrement less than $`D`$, which cleanly separates the information in $`dN_c/dz`$ from the information in the PDF and makes the model predictions nearly independent of the photoionization rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. As one would expect from Figure 1, the threshold crossing frequency increases as $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ decreases because a lower Hubble parameter $`H(z)`$ “squeezes” redshift separations relative to comoving distances. The threshold crossing frequency drops slightly as the amplitude of $`P_m(k)`$ increases and gravitationally driven merging “smooths” structure Weinberg et al. (1999), but the effect is small over the range $`\sigma _8=0.61`$. The crossing frequency also drops for redder matter power spectra, since these also lead to smoother structure Weinberg et al. (1999). For high spectral resolution, $`dN_c/dz`$ also depends on the gas temperature, which determines the level of thermal broadening.

The great promise of the threshold crossing statistic is its potential for constraining the Hubble parameter at high redshift. In spatially flat models with a cosmological constant, the ratio $`H(z)/H_0`$ is determined by $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$. Alternatively, if $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is known independently, the ratio $`H(z)/H_0`$ can constrain the equation of state of dark energy Kujat et al. (2002); Viel et al. (2002). Unfortunately, $`dN_c/dz`$ also depends on other cosmological and IGM parameters, and it is numerically difficult to predict with high accuracy even when the model is fully specified. The difference between the PM and SPH predictions in Figure 4 is comparable to the $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ effects themselves, and the SPH result is still affected by the finite numerical resolution. On the observational side, accurate measurement of $`dN_c/dz`$ requires high signal-to-noise spectra. Furthermore, while moderate resolution spectra can provide useful diagnostics for the shape and amplitude of the matter power spectrum Weinberg et al. (1999), the $`H(z)`$ application demands high spectral resolution, since smoothing over a scale that is fixed in redshift units erases the sensitivity to $`H(z)`$ (see Fig. 4, right). Exploiting $`dN_c/dz`$ as a probe of dark energy thus represents a theoretical and observational challenge.

## 3 The Galaxy Proximity Effect

One can also use the observable correlations between Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) and the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest to study the environments of high redshift galaxies. Several groups have investigated this issue theoretically using simulations McDonald, Miralda-Escudé, & Cen (2002); Croft et al. (2002); Kollmeier et al. (2002); Bruscoli et al. (2002), and Adelberger et al. have carried out an observational study using an LBG survey in fields probed by seven quasar lines of sight (Adelberger et al. (2002), hereafter ASSP). On large scales — cubes of comoving size $`13h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ — ASSP find a clear correlation of galaxy overdensity with Ly$`\alpha `$ flux decrement, the expected signature of galaxy formation in overdense environments McDonald, Miralda-Escudé, & Cen (2002); Kollmeier et al. (2002). However, the observed Ly$`\alpha `$ decrement decreases within $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r1h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ of LBGs (comoving, redshift-space separation), where the simulations predict that absorption should be strongest Croft et al. (2002); Kollmeier et al. (2002); Bruscoli et al. (2002).

Figure 5 illustrates this conflict. In the upper left panel, triangles show the predicted mean decrement in bins of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r`$, while filled circles show the ASSP data points. The predictions come from an SPH simulation of a $`22.222h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ cube, and we select the 40 galaxies with the highest star formation rates to approximate the magnitude limit of ASSP’s spectroscopic survey (see Kollmeier et al. (2002) for details). Plausible random errors in galaxy redshifts can reduce the discrepancy at $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r12h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$, but they cannot explain the results at the smallest scales, especially the innermost data point at $`\mathrm{\Delta }_r=00.5h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$, $`D=0.11`$ Croft et al. (2002); Kollmeier et al. (2002, 2002b). The right column of Figure 5 shows simulated spectra along 12 lines of sight that pass within $`0.5h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ of a target galaxy, centered on the galaxy redshift space position. All but one of these spectra have $`D0.6`$ at the galaxy redshift, and half have $`D0.9`$.

The obvious conclusion is that feedback from the observed galaxies reduces neutral hydrogen in their immediate surroundings. Local photoionization by the galaxies’ stars or active nuclei proves insufficient; this argument can be cast in general terms that seem difficult to escape Kollmeier et al. (2002). The natural alternative is some form of supernova or AGN-driven wind Adelberger et al. (2002); Croft et al. (2002); Bruscoli et al. (2002). Here (and in Kollmeier et al. (2002b)) we have investigated highly idealized “wind” models in which we simply eliminate all neutral hydrogen in a sphere of comoving radius $`R_w`$ around each target galaxy. Squares, pentagons, and hexagons in Figure 5 show results for $`R_w=0.75`$, 1.0, and $`1.5h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$. Stars show a model where we place winds around all 641 resolved galaxies in the simulation volume (instead of the top 40 that constitute the “observed” sample) and scale the wind volume in proportion to the galaxy baryon mass, with a normalization $`R_w=1h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ around the 40th-ranked galaxy. In the right column, dotted curves show spectra for the $`R_w=1.5h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ model.

The most important lesson from Figure 5 is that eliminating neutral gas to a real space distance $`R_w`$ does not eliminate absorption within a redshift space separation $`R_w`$ (e.g., to $`\mathrm{\Delta }V=\pm 200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the spectrum plots). Peculiar infall velocities allow gas at larger distances to produce absorption near the galaxy redshift, making the energetic requirements on any wind explanation of the observed Ly$`\alpha `$ deficit much more stringent. Only the mass-scaled and $`R_w=1.5h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ models come close to matching the ASSP data. Winds that fully ionize or perfectly entrain gas to such large distances are not a natural outcome of hydrodynamic simulations with stellar feedback Theuns et al. (2002); Bruscoli et al. (2002), and even reaching $`1.5h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ in $`1`$Gyr requires a sustained propagation speed $`600\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

Given the challenges facing the wind explanation, it is worth considering the alternative possibility that extended Ly$`\alpha `$ emission from the target galaxies is “filling in” the corresponding region of the absorption spectrum. Steidel et al. Steidel et al. (2000) observed two extended Ly$`\alpha `$ “blobs” apparently associated with LBGs, with angular extents $`15\mathrm{"}`$ and AB apparent magnitudes 21.02 and 21.14 in the Ly$`\alpha `$ band. Cooling radiation from gas settling into massive galaxies at $`z=3`$ naturally produces Ly$`\alpha `$ fluxes of this order Haiman, Spaans, & Quataert (2000); Fardal et al. (2001). The three quasars that contribute to ASSP’s innermost data point have $`G`$-band AB magnitudes of 20.1, 21.6, and 23.4, so if all of a target galaxy’s Ly$`\alpha `$ cooling radiation went down the slit it could potentially replace the quasar flux absorbed by the surrounding IGM. However, a $`1.4\mathrm{"}`$ slit at an angular separation $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta 1520\mathrm{"}`$ from a galaxy should intercept at most $`1.4/2\mathrm{\Delta }\theta 0.030.05`$ of the galaxy’s extended Ly$`\alpha `$ flux, at least on average, so this explanation seems to fail by $`12`$ orders of magnitude. Furthermore, a fourth pair involving the $`G=17.8`$ quasar Q0302-0019, shows no sign of absorption near the galaxy redshift, and in this case the quasar is clearly too bright for galaxy emission to compete with it. (This pair and two others are dropped from ASSP’s $`D`$ calculation because of possible Ly$`\beta `$ contamination.) At this point, the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission explanation seems unlikely; it can be conclusively ruled out by observing more close pairs involving bright quasars or by obtaining symmetrically placed spectra away from the observed quasars to search for galaxy emission.

Assuming for now that winds are the correct explanation for the observed Ly$`\alpha `$ deficit, one can ask whether they completely spoil the picture painted in §§1 and 2. The lower left panel of Figure 5 shows the flux power spectrum for the various “wind” models. Eliminating neutral hydrogen to distances $`R_w=0.75`$ or $`1h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ around bright galaxies has only a small impact on the flux power spectrum, because the filling factor of the “bubbles” is small and absorption close to the galaxies remains nearly saturated in any case. However, these models also do not explain the ASSP results. In the two more extreme models, winds suppress the flux power spectrum on large scales by $`0.10.2`$ dex, comparable to the 0.1-dex $`1\sigma `$ uncertainty that Croft et al. (2002) quote for the normalization of the matter power spectrum. Thus, winds of this magnitude could have systematic effects on $`P_m(k)`$ determinations that are significant relative to the present observational uncertainties. The influence of winds on the flux PDF and threshold crossing frequency is smaller, as shown in Figure 6. Even the more extreme models have a negligible impact on $`dN_c/dz`$, and they only slightly alter the shape of the PDF. The most significant effect is on the fraction of saturated pixels for $`100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ smoothing, which drops from 2.5% for the no-wind case to 1.9% for $`R_w=1.5h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ and 1.3% for the mass-scaled model.

## 4 Prospects and Challenges

From the above discussion, it is clear that one immediate challenge is to better understand the galaxy proximity effect. Figures 5 and 6 show that winds can reach substantial distances from bright galaxies without having much impact on the global statistics of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest (see also Theuns et al. (2002); Bruscoli et al. (2002)), but even the more extreme wind models considered in §3 do not reproduce the ASSP results very well. Simulations with more realistic wind physics Croft et al. (2002); Theuns et al. (2002); Bruscoli et al. (2002) can shed further light on this problem, but major progress will have to await further observational studies, since current inferences rest crucially on a handful of galaxy-quasar pairs.

Studies with Keck HIRES and VLT UVES have provided a (still growing) trove of high quality data on the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest at $`z24`$. The fluctuating IGM perspective, furthermore, shows that large samples of moderate resolution spectra can be a powerful resource for studying structure on large scales, since continuous flux statistics do not require resolution of individual “lines.” Such samples can be assembled quickly with large telescopes, and the SDSS is producing an enormous sample at resolution $`R2000`$ in the course of its normal operations. One of the observational frontiers is the use of correlations across multiple lines of sight. Quasar pair studies provided the first decisive evidence for large coherence scales of absorbing structures Bechtold et al. (1994); Dinshaw et al. (1994, 1995); Crotts & Fang (1998), but larger samples allow more ambitious goals, such as using the Alcock-Pacyznski test Alcock & Paczyński (1979) to measure spacetime geometry Hui, Stebbins, & Burles (1999); McDonald & Miralda-Escudé (1999); McDonald (2001), improving measurements of the flux power spectrum with cross correlations Viel et al. (2002), and mapping large scale 3-dimensional structure at high redshift Liske et al. (2000); Rollinde et al. (2002).

Analyses of existing data have already led to an important cosmological conclusion, namely that models with matter clustering similar to that of “concordance” $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM at $`z3`$ are consistent with the observed Ly$`\alpha `$ forest while models with substantially different clustering amplitudes or suppression of small scale power are not Rauch et al. (1997); Croft et al. (1999); Theuns, Leonard, Schaye, & Efstathiou (1999); Weinberg et al. (1999); McDonald et al. (2000); Narayanan et al. (2000); Theuns, Schaye, & Haehnelt (2000); Meiksin, Bryan, & Machacek (2001); Zaldarriaga, Hui, & Tegmark (2001); Croft et al. (2002); Gnedin & Hamilton (2002). They have also provided constraints on the temperature of the diffuse IGM Ricotti, Gnedin, & Shull (2000); McDonald et al. (2000); Schaye et al. (2000) and indications of helium reionization at $`z3.2`$ Schaye et al. (2000); Theuns et al. (2002, 2002); Bernardi et al. (2003). However, to do justice to the quality and quantity of data and keep pace with the tightening observational constraints from other observables, we must play for higher stakes. It looks possible in principle to achieve precision of $`510\%`$ on quantities like the matter fluctuation amplitude and $`H(z)`$, but even without the potential complications of galaxy feedback, inferences at this level require more extensive theoretical modeling. Many effects that are unimportant at the 25% level — differences between approximate methods and full hydrodynamics, numerical resolution and box size limitations, spatial fluctuations in IGM temperature, details of continuum determination — may become critical at the $`510\%`$ level. Despite these challenges, the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest is the most promising tool we have for precision cosmological measurements at $`z24`$. These measurements might, in the end, simply confirm the cosmological model favored by other data, but complementary constraints have the potential to break parameter degeneracies and thereby reveal subtle quantitative discrepancies. These in turn could yield insight into the nature of dark energy, the mechanisms of inflation, or some other fundamental aspect of our universe.


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# Phase Transitions in the Two-Dimensional Random Gauge XY Model

## I Introduction

The XY gauge glass model huse  has attracted much interest in connection to the vortex glass phase of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors fisher . In three dimensions (3D) there is a general consensus that the XY gauge glass model exhibits a finite-temperature glass transition huse ; 3d ; noT0 ; simkin . However, in 2D there exist conflicting evidences: On the one hand, equilibrium studies of defect energy 3d ; simkin ; other:T0:studies ; FTY , Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the root-mean-square current reger , and resistance calculation hyman  have suggested that no finite-$`T`$ ordering exists. The glass order parameter has furthermore been analytically shown to vanish at any finite $`T`$ nishimori . On the other hand, the MC studies of the glass susceptibility choi , as well as dynamical simulations of the resistance li ; bjk  and non-equilibrium relaxation bjk1 , have indicated a possibility of a finite-$`T`$ transition. Also the MC simulations of the helicity modulus in Ref. jeon  were interpreted as being compatible with a finite-$`T`$ transition.

In this paper we study a generalization of the 2D XY gauge glass model—the random gauge XY model—where both the temperature $`T`$ and disorder strength $`r`$ can be varied. When $`r`$ has the maximum value 1, it corresponds to the usual XY gauge glass model, while in the opposite limit of $`r=0`$, the standard XY model without disorder is recovered jeon ; maucourt ; more . It has been proposed that there is a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) like transition at a finite temperature $`T_c`$ when the disorder strength is sufficiently small, and that as $`r`$ is increased $`T_c`$ becomes smaller until it vanishes as $`r`$ reaches the critical disorder strength $`r_c`$ ($`<1`$) and $`T_c=0`$ for $`r>r_c`$ maucourt ; more . However, even if the glass order parameter is zero and even if there is no finite-$`T`$ KT transition for $`r>r_c`$, the existence of a finite-$`T`$ transition with a different character cannot a priori be ruled out.

In the present paper we perform extensive MC simulations to study the phase transition of the random gauge $`XY`$ model. It is found that the system is superconducting at any $`r`$ and that the transition from normal to superconducting phase is consistent with a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) type at weak disorder and a non-KT type at strong disorder. In addition to this we suggest that there exist two different superconducting phases at sufficiently low temperatures separated by a non-KT phase transition (see Fig. 1). For the special case of $`r=1`$, which corresponds to the 2D XY gauge glass model, we also compute the root-mean-square current in the same way as in Ref. reger  and, in contrast to Ref. reger , again consistently find a finite-temperature transition.

## II Model and Simulations

The Hamiltonian of the 2D random gauge XY model on an $`L\times L`$ square lattice under the fluctuating twist boundary condition (FTBC) olsson  is given by

$$\widehat{H}=J\underset{ij}{}\mathrm{cos}\left(\varphi _{ij}\theta _i\theta _j\frac{1}{L}𝐫_{ij}𝚫A_{ij}\right),$$
(1)
where $`J`$ is the coupling strength (set to unity from now on), the sum is over nearest neighbor pairs, $`𝐫_{ij}\widehat{𝐱}`$ ($`\widehat{𝐲}`$) if $`j=i+\widehat{𝐱}(\widehat{𝐲})`$. The phase angle $`\theta _i`$ at the lattice point $`i`$ satisfies the periodicity $`\theta _{i+L\widehat{𝐱}}=\theta _{i+L\widehat{𝐲}}=\theta _i`$, and $`A_{ij}r[\pi ,\pi ]`$ is a uniform quenched random variable with the disorder strength $`0r1`$. The twist variable $`𝚫=(\mathrm{\Delta }_x,\mathrm{\Delta }_y)`$ corresponds to the global twist across the system, i.e., the summation of the gauge invariant phase difference $`\varphi _{ij}`$ along the $`x`$ ($`y`$) direction equals $`\mathrm{\Delta }_x`$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_y`$). For a given disorder realization, we first compute the distribution $`P(𝚫)`$, which is related to the free energy $`F`$ by $`F/𝚫=T(\mathrm{ln}P/𝚫)`$. The twist variable $`𝚫_0`$ which minimizes $`F`$ (or maximizes $`P`$) is determined from $`P`$ and then fixed when the helicity modulus $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}^2F/\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ and the 4th order modulus $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4^4F/\mathrm{\Delta }^4`$ are computed.

To ensure that the cooling is slow enough, we simultaneously cool two replicas ($`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$) of the system and measure $`𝚫_0^{\alpha ,\beta }`$. For the first cooling at a new temperature we use 120000 update sweeps (for spin and twist variables respectively). Then we check that

$$|\mathrm{\Delta }_{x,0}^\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_{x,0}^\beta |<\delta \text{ and }|\mathrm{\Delta }_{y,0}^\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_{y,0}^\beta |<\delta $$
(2)
where $`\delta `$ sets the precision of the cooling. The idea with the annealing condition Eq. (2) is to keep the system close to the lowest-energy state at a particular temperature (so the system does not freeze into a local minimum that bias $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ and $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$). Since the system moves more swiftly over the configuration space the higher the temperature is we can choose $`\delta `$ increasing with temperature. A choice that proves good in practice is

$$\delta =\{\begin{array}{cc}0.02\pi \hfill & \text{ for }T<0.3\hfill \\ 0.15\pi \hfill & \text{ for }0.3T<0.6\hfill \\ \mathrm{}\hfill & \text{ for }T0.6\hfill \end{array}$$
(3)
If the annealing condition Eq. (2) fail we repeat the cooling with three times as many update sweeps; if it fails again we increase the number of cooling sweeps a factor three again, and so on until the condition is fulfilled. When $`𝚫_0`$ is chosen, before cooling, we let the system run until Eq. (2) is fulfilled with $`𝚫_0`$ replaced by $`𝚫`$.

We repeat the above calculations for more than 500 different disorder realizations (the disorder average is denoted by $`[\mathrm{}]`$ throughout this paper).

For the case of $`r=1`$, we also use the periodic boundary condition PBC, corresponding to $`𝚫=0`$ in Eq. (1), and compute the root-mean-square current defined by reger

$$I_{\mathrm{rms}}\left[\frac{1}{L}\underset{ij_x}{}\mathrm{sin}\varphi _{ij}^2\right]^{1/2},$$
(4)
for comparisons with earlier works.

For $`I_{\mathrm{rms}}`$, for each disorder, we use 50000 update sweeps for thermalizations and 500000 sweeps for measurements where the actual measurement was performed every tenth sweep. We used this computer time saving strategy since we found that performing the measurement every sweep gave closely the same result.

## III Results from Simulations

We first investigate the standard 2D XY gauge glass model, corresponding to the fully disordered case ($`r=1`$), and show in Fig. 2(a) the helicity modulus $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ as a function of the system size $`L`$ for various temperatures. It is clearly shown that at high $`T`$, $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ goes to zero as the system size $`L`$ is increased. The crucial point is that, at low enough temperatures ($`T0.2`$), $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ changes its curvature in terms of $`L`$, and appears to saturate to a finite value as $`L`$ is increased. This behavior suggests a phase transition with a scale-invariant power law dependence at the critical temperature and a diverging characteristic length. Such a behavior can often be described by the finite-size scaling form

$$[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]=L^bf\left(L^{1/\nu }(TT_c)\right),$$
(5)
where $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]L^b`$ at the critical temperature $`T_c`$, and the critical exponent $`\nu `$ is related to the divergence of the coherence length. At $`T_c`$, the scaling function $`f`$ has the same value irrespective of $`L`$, implying that $`L^b[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ versus $`T`$ should have a unique crossing point at $`T_c`$ for various sizes. In Fig. 2(b), it is clearly shown that $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ has a scale-invariant behavior $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]L^{0.4}`$ at a unique $`T`$, signaling a phase transition. The inset of Fig. 2(b) furthermore confirms that this scaling behavior is consistent with the standard form (5) with $`\nu 1.1`$.

Simple dimensional analysis for the non-disordered case, $`r=0`$, gives for $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ the exponent $`b=0`$ and from such a dimensional analysis one would likewise conclude that $`b=0`$ also for the disordered case. Thus if $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ scales with $`b0`$ for the disordered case this is equivalent to the appearance of an anomalous dimension not accounted for by simple dimensional analysis. Our suggestion, based on the simulation results, is consequently that the disorder introduces such an anomalous dimension.

Figure 3 shows the root-mean-square current (4) for the PBC. We first note in Fig. 3(a) that the finite-size-scaling form for $`T_c=0`$ used in Ref. reger , $`I_{\mathrm{rms}}=L^{1/\nu }f(TL^{1/\nu })`$ with $`\nu =2.2`$, shows systematic deviations from the data collapse to a single scaling curve at lower temperatures, in contrast to what was concluded in Ref. reger , when more and better converged data are included. Furthermore a $`T_c=0`$-collapse cannot be achieved with any value of $`\nu `$. On the other hand if we, in analogy with the finding for $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ above, use the scaling form

$$I_{\mathrm{rms}}=L^bf\left(L^{1/\nu }(TT_c)\right),$$
(6)
which allows for the same anomalous dimension, one obtains the scaling plot in Fig. 3(b) with $`b0.5`$ and $`T_c0.2`$.note  From Figs. 2 and 3 we conclude that the 2D $`XY`$ gauge glass ($`r=1`$) exhibits a non-KT type superconducting to normal transition at $`T_c0.2`$ characterized by the existence of the anomalous dimension $`b0.5`$ and $`\nu 1.1`$.

Next we investigate the phase transition with decreasing $`r`$. For $`r=0.9,0.8,\mathrm{},0.5`$, we obtain the finite-size scaling plots of the same quality as in Fig. 2(b), and determine the phase boundary (the dashed line in Fig. 1). As $`r`$ is changed from $`0.5`$ to $`0.4`$ the exponents $`b`$ and $`\nu `$ exhibit quite rapid changes, $`b`$ from 0.27 to 0.06 and $`\nu `$ from 1.1 to 2.0. This, in our interpretation, reflects that near $`r=0.4`$ the nature of the superconducting-normal transition changes from a non-KT type to a KT type.

For $`r=0`$ the phase transition is of the KT nature and it has been suggested that this character should persist along the phase boundary up to some $`r_c<1`$ maucourt ; more . The KT transition is characterized by that $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ jumps from a finite value $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]=2T/\pi `$ to zero as the phase line is crossed from the small ($`T`$,$`r`$) region. For $`r=0`$ we find that the KT transition is also characterized by the increase of the 4th order modulus $`|[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]|L^c`$ at $`T_c`$ with a positive exponent $`c`$, and $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$ stays at a constant value below $`T_c`$ as $`L`$ is increased gang . Figure 4 (a) shows $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$ for $`T=0.6`$ as a function of $`r`$. The KT condition in the inset gives $`r0.4`$. This means that if the transition is of KT type then it would occur around $`r0.4`$. The onset of size dependence for $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$ in Fig. 4 (a) is consistent with a transition at around $`r0.4`$. Thus the transition is compatible with a KT-character, although a different character cannot be ruled out. The situation for $`T=0.1`$ in Fig. 4 (b) is quite different: the inset shows that the KT jump condition is not fulfilled and a KT transition can be ruled out. Yet there is a marked structure in $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ around $`r0.4`$. This structure corresponds to the onset of strong size dependence in $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$. We interpret this onset as the reflection of a true divergence in $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$ consistent with a phase transition. Thus we suggest that the whole boundary to the low-$`T`$ KT phase (solid line in Fig. 1) is reflected in a divergence of $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$ and that this line ends at ($`T=0`$,$`r_c0.4`$). A phase line which ends at ($`T=0`$, $`r_c0.4`$) has been found in many earlier investigations (see e.g. Ref. maucourt  and references therein)new . The difference with earlier work is that in our case such a phase line is for lower temperatures between the two different superconducting phases SI and SII (as demonstrated by our direct calculation of $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$), whereas earlier work have concluded that such a phases line does indeed exist but separates a superconducting phase from a normal phase all the way down to $`T=0`$. Our suggested phase diagram is thus consistent with earlier work as to the existence of a phase line ending at ($`T=0`$, $`r_c0.4`$). For temperatures larger than the merging with the second phase line (above dashed line in Fig. 1) the transition is consistent with a KT transition although a different character cannot be ruled out. However, below the merging with this second line the transition is not a KT transition. It may be that there still is a jump in $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}]`$ at this transition, but this is then between two non-vanishing values.

Based on the numerical evidences we suggest the structure of the phase diagram is sketched in Fig. 1. One striking feature is the finite-$`T`$ transition line between normal and superconducting phases, starting from the boundary of the low-$`T`$ KT-phase (solid line) and changing into the (dashed) line which ends at $`T_c0.2`$ at $`r=1`$. The latter line (dashed line) is characterized by the appearance of an anomalous dimension $`b`$. Since the KT transition does not have such an anomalous dimension it follows that, if the transition along the boundary to the low-$`T`$ KT phase boundary has KT character, then $`b`$ should approach $`b=0`$ when the two transition line merge. Thus the rapid drop from $`b0.27`$ to $`b0.06`$ as $`r`$ is changed from $`r=0.5`$ to 0.4 is consistent with a change over to a KT transition. Another interesting feature is that the phase line (solid line in Fig. 1), associated with the divergence of $`[\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_4]`$, continues even inside the superconducting region and ends at $`r0.4`$ for $`T=0`$. Although the transition separating the KT phase and the normal phase (SI and N, respectively, in Fig. 1), may well be of the true KT type, manifested by a universal jump in the helicity modulus, the phase line separating SI and SII in Fig. 1 is not a KT transition and the helicity modulus has a non-zero value on both sides.

It is interesting to note that earlier works have found evidences for only two phases separated by a  single phase line; either, in the more prevailing view, a phase line ending at a point $`T=0`$ for a finite $`r_c<1`$, or, in the less prevailing view, a phase line ending at a point $`T>0`$ for $`r=1`$. ¿From our numerical simulations we instead suggest three distinct phases separated by $`two`$ phase lines, which combines the two earlier proposed scenarios and provides a unified picture: On the one hand, in Ref. simkin , the end point of the phase boundary to the low-$`T`$ KT-phase has been obtained to be $`r_c0.37`$ and $`T=0`$, which is consistent with our cruder estimate $`r0.4`$. On the other hand, the phase transition point at $`T0.22`$ with $`\nu =1.1`$, found in Refs. choi  and bjk  for $`r=1`$, is in very good agreement with the end point of our finite-$`T`$ phase line ($`T0.2`$, $`\nu 1.1`$). However, the difference with the previous work simkin  is that according to our interpretation the phase line below $`T0.2`$ ending at $`T=0`$ and $`r_c0.4`$ separates two distinct superconducting phases, while the whole phase line in Ref. simkin  is for the superconducting to normal transition. A very hand-waving picture of the scenario of our phase diagram in terms of vortex motion is sketched in Fig. 1: In SI the vortex motion is suppressed by vortex pair binding, in N pair unbinding has occurred and free vortices exists which are not entirely pinned by the disorder, whereas in SII vortex pair unbinding has occurred but the vortices are pinned by the disorder.

## IV Summary

One main conclusion from this phase diagram is that the XY gauge glass model ($`r=1`$) has a finite-$`T`$ transition. How is this possible in view of earlier conflicting evidences? In Ref. reger  it was concluded, on the basis of an analysis of data for the root-mean-square current for standard periodic boundary conditions foot , that no finite-$`T`$ transition exists in 2D. We have found that, taking into account the possibility of an anomalous scaling dimension, $`I_{\mathrm{rms}}`$ displays a transition at a finite-temperature (see Fig. 3gang . Another puzzling evidence to the contrary is the $`T=0`$ calculations of the size scaling of the defect energy 3d ; simkin ; other:T0:studies ; FTY . However, as discussed in Refs. FTY  and holme , the local vorticity conservation must be properly taken into account when calculating the energy barriers. Thus the energy barrier for vortex dissipation increases with system size when taking the local vorticity conservation into accountholme . This growing of the energy barrier for vortex dissipation with system size supports the possibility of a finite-$`T`$ transition holme .

The appearance of a new superconducting phase for the XY random gauge model is intriguing. In particular, since it is neither a low $`T`$ KT phase nor a phase with a finite glass order parameter. The true nature of this phase and the existence of similar phases in other related models are open questions.

Support from the Swedish Natural Research Council through Contract No. F 5102-659/2001 is gratefully acknowledged. B.J.K. was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation through Grant No. R14-2002-062-01000-0.


text:
# Unified Model, and Novel Reverse Recovery Nonlinearities, of the Driven Diode Resonator

## I Introduction

The nonlinear dynamics of the p-n junction has been a subject of intense interest since the dawn of chaos. Experimental work has focused on the damped driven nonlinear oscillator formed by a resistor, inductor, and varactor diode (RLD circuit) connected in series (see Fig. 1(a)). This is the simplest passive circuit that displays period doubling and chaos as a function of sinusoidal driving amplitude and frequency. The dynamics of this circuit can, in principle, be understood through the details of the hole and electron charge distributions in the vicinity of the p-n junction. However, many simplified models of p-n junction charge dynamics have been put forward in terms of nonlinear lumped-element approximations for the varactor (Fig. 1(b)). One reason for this approach was the interest in constructing low-dimensional maps to describe the ”universal” nonlinear dynamics experimentally observed in the circuit.

There are three general types of nonlinearity present in the driven RLD circuit. The first is the nonlinear current-voltage characteristic of the diode, thought by most researchers to be unimportant for chaos, because its absence from models results in only small changes in the calculated bifurcation diagrams. A second contribution comes from the large and exponentially nonlinear forward-bias capacitance associated with the junction diffusion capacitance. In this case, the diode is modeled as a parallel combination of a nonlinear resistor and nonlinear capacitor (Fig. 1 (b)). It has been proposed that period doubling will occur when the capacitance reaches approximately four times its zero bias value because the resonant frequency of the RLD circuit will drop to half its low-amplitude value. This is thought to be the first step in a period doubling cascade to chaos. A third contribution to nonlinearity comes from the finite time-scale diffusive dynamics of charge in the p-n junction and the associated ”memory” of previous forward-current maxima. After the diode has been forward-biased and switched off, it takes some time for the minority carriers to diffuse back across the junction, allowing the diode to conduct for a period known as the reverse-recovery time, $`\tau _{RR}`$. The ”memory” of previous forward bias currents built into this non-equilibrium charge distribution has been proposed as the main source of chaos in the driven RLD circuit.

Lumped element models of the driven RLD circuit fall into two distinct classes: those relying on the nonlinear capacitance and ignoring explicit history effects (Fig. 1(b) NLCR), and those explicitly based on history effects in the junction and ignoring the nonlinear capacitance (Fig. 1(b) Hunt). Both kinds of model attempt to identify the essential physics that is responsible for period doubling and chaos. It is remarkable that both classes of models reproduce intricate detail of the return maps and bifurcation diagrams of the driven RLD circuit. Historically, the two classes of models were assumed to be mutually exclusive and contradictory in their approach to describing chaotic dynamics in the driven RLD circuit. One purpose of this paper is to partially reconcile these two classes of models, and to show that they both include some essential physics of this rich nonlinear problem. We also demonstrate that both models lack important effects that have been ignored up to this point. These effects are measured here for the first time in the context of nonlinear dynamics, and are essential for a complete understanding of the behavior of this circuit.

In this paper we present new measurements and simulations of reverse-recovery times in a variety of diodes and resonant circuits. Section II discusses the many time scales of the driven RLD problem and illustrates the importance of the reverse recovery time in the nonlinear dynamics of the circuit. Section III demonstrates that the nonlinear capacitance models are endowed with a history-dependent reverse-recovery-like effect. Section IV is a summary of our experimental results of the nonlinear dependence of the reverse recovery time on circuit parameters, and ends with a dramatic illustration of how existing models fail to explain key data. Sections V and VI review our contributions to a deeper understanding of the RLD circuit and demonstrate that a simple nonlinear capacitor model shows all of the essential features of reverse-recovery-like behavior.

Experiments were carried out in a manner similar to that described in Ref. . The circuits were shielded inside a metallic box and excited through 50 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ transmission lines by either an HP 33120A synthesized source (up to 15 MHz) or an HP 83620B microwave synthesizer (above 10 MHz). The response of the circuits was measured with either a Tektronix TDS3052 oscilloscope, or a Tektronix 494P spectrum analyzer. Low capacitance and high impedance probes were used to measure voltages in the circuits. SPICE simulations showed that the probes had a minimal impact on the circuit waveforms, whereas it was found that low impedance capacitive probes strongly perturbed the circuits. Bifurcation diagrams were constructed by collecting single-shot traces from the oscilloscope and recording the data with a LabView program on a PC.

## II Time Scales

The history of research on the driven RLD circuit is long and varied. Most papers on this subject study only one diode and choose a circuit with a resonant frequency in a convenient range (typically at audio frequencies). The experiments have been carried out in widely disparate regions of the parameter space available for the circuit (the parameters include driving frequency, amplitude, and duty-cycle, R and L values, minority carrier lifetime, dc voltage bias, etc.). Only recently has effort been made to assemble a unifying picture of the origins and generality of period doubling and chaos in this important circuit. Our purpose in this section is to measure and model different diode circuits in a wide range of parameter space to identify the important and essential physics responsible for the nonlinear dynamics of the driven RLD circuit as a step in creating such a unified picture.

It is important to first understand the four major time/frequency scales involved in this problem, because the dynamics of the circuit depends critically on the relative values of these time scales. The first is the low-amplitude resonant frequency of the passive RLD circuit: f0 = 1/\[2$`\pi `$(LCj)1/2\], where Cj is the zero-bias junction capacitance of the varactor diode. It is well established that complex dynamics are most easily observed for driving frequencies f in the vicinity of this resonant frequency. Another important time scale in the diode is the reverse recovery time: $`\tau _{RR}`$. This is a measure of the time required for minority carriers injected across the junction in the diode to move back to the other side of the junction (or recombine) once the driving force has been removed. One effect of this finite time scale is ”reverse recovery” in which a forward-biased diode will not shut off immediately when the driving signal is reversed, but will continue to conduct for a time on the order of $`\tau _{RR}`$. Su, Rollins and Hunt proposed that the diode actually acts like a battery during this time. In addition, they proposed that $`\tau _{RR}`$ retained a memory of the two or three previous maximum forward current values through the diode.

There are several RC time constants in the problem, associated with the junction capacitance and the internal resistance of the diode, and between the junction capacitance and the external resistor, R (note that the parasitic resistance of the inductor is much less than R for the circuits considered here). These time scales are usually quite short ($``$ ns), but can be important when the capacitance is large. Finally, the L/R time scale is generally long and does not directly influence the diode dynamics. The interplay of these time scales, along with the period of the sinusoidal driving signal, yield a very rich parameteric landscape for nonlinear dynamics.

It should be mentioned that three of these time scales are strongly nonlinear. The resonant frequency f0 and the RC time constants are a nonlinear function of driving amplitude and DC voltage bias on the varactor junction, and we show for the first time below, the reverse recovery time is a nonlinear function of drive frequency, amplitude, duty-cycle, DC bias, and load resistance. Most of these nonlinearities have not been investigated in the past with respect to the resulting nonlinear dynamics. These nonlinearities greatly enrich the dynamics and challenge our understanding of the essential physics responsible for nonlinear dynamics in the simple driven RLD circuit.

To illustrate the interplay of time scales in this problem, consider the sinusoidally driven resonant RLD circuit shown in Fig. 1(a). The low-amplitude resonant frequency of the circuit is determined by the diode junction capacitance Cj as well as the lumped element inductor, L. The reverse recovery time $`\tau _{RR}`$ can be measured by methods discussed below. We studied four different diodes with very different values of Cj and $`\tau _{RR}`$. In all cases we find the following. First, when the low-amplitude resonant frequency of the circuit f0 is on the order of 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$, period doubling and chaos are found for a substantial driving frequency range f between about 0.2 f0 and 2 f0 (see Table I). Similar results are obtained when the inductance is changed to make the resonant frequency equal to about one tenth of 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$ (in agreement with Ref. ). However, when the inductance is changed to make f0 about ten times larger than 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$, there is a substantial change in the circuit behavior (Table I). One of the diode circuits shows only period doubling and no chaos, while another displays nothing but period-one behavior. The other diode circuits show period doubling and chaos, but over a more restricted range of amplitude and driving frequency parameter space. Finally, when the circuits are modified to have f0 $``$ 100/$`\tau _{RR}`$, we do not observe period doubling or chaos at all over the equivalent range of parameters.

When the diode is driven at frequencies much higher than the reverse recovery time, the charge carriers near the p-n junction do not have a chance to influence the circuit behavior or contribute additional nonlinear behavior. Clearly the reverse recovery time plays an important role in the nonlinear dynamics of this circuit. However, very little prior experimental work on RLD dynamics has explored the interplay of all the time scales in this problem.

## III The Storage ($`\tau _s`$) and Reverse Recovery ($`\tau _{RR}`$) Time Scales

Hunt and collaborators claimed that the reverse recovery time is the key feature that generates chaos in the driven RLD circuit because it is a function of the peak current flow in previous cycles, thus introducing a memory effect into the dynamics. In the paper by Rollins and Hunt  a simple model of reverse recovery was introduced for RLD dynamics, and turned into a 1D noninvertible map. Although this gave qualitative agreement with experiment, it was criticized for being inconsistent with the measured attractor. Later, Su, Rollins and Hunt  included three or more previous cycles of the forward bias current to determine their model $`\tau _{RR}`$. They also noted that the recovery time depends on the junction characteristics and the external series resistance. We show here that this model is a good starting point, but fails to include essential nonlinearities.

Figure 2 illustrates the reverse recovery effect in a diode. The circuit shown in the inset of Fig. 2(b) was employed to drive the diode with a single square pulse input. After the driving signal was removed, the diode continued to conduct for a time scale defined as the reverse recovery time, $`\tau _{RR}`$. This time consists of two contributions: the storage time $`\tau _s`$, and the transition time $`\tau _t`$, with $`\tau _{RR}`$ = $`\tau _s`$ \+ $`\tau _t`$. We shall present results below (all data in Figs. 3 \- 7 are taken with the circuit shown in Fig. 2(b)) mainly on the storage time because, in general, this time scale dominates the reverse recovery time and its nonlinear behavior.

Figure 3 illustrates the history dependence of the storage and reverse recovery times. In this case we compare single pulse recovery data like that shown in Fig. 2 to the same diode subjected to two consecutive pulses (Fig. 3(a)). The storage time is longer for the diode that has been subjected to two pulses, mainly because it was not finished recovering from the first pulse before the second arrives. This simple history dependence of the recovery time is the basis for the Hunt and Rollins treatment of complex RLD dynamics.

All other models of RLD dynamics do not consider an explicit history dependence of the junction dynamics of the diode. They are based on the nonlinear behavior of the capacitor used to approximate the reactive electrical behavior of the diode (Fig. 1(b), NLCR). As we shall show here, in fact all of these other models do indeed have a history-dependence of a reverse-recovery-like time that naturally comes from the charge storage on the capacitor part of the varactor diode model.

### A Piece-wise Linear Capacitor (PLC) Model

To illustrate our point, we shall choose the simplest model of the nonlinear capacitance in the varactor. In this case, one can use a piece-wise linear approximation for the capacitance of the varactor, with just two linear pieces. This model for the varactor capacitance was considered by several groups and shown to produce period doubling and chaos when part of an R-L-PLC series circuit driven by a sinusoidal signal. The inset to Fig. 3(b) shows that the PLC switches at potential E0 from a large value C1 for higher bias, to a small value C2 for lower bias. We use this model to illustrate that it has implicitly included a history-dependent storage time. Fig. 2(a) shows a SPICE simulation of the diode current (dashed line) using the PLC model for the varactor in the circuit shown in the inset of Fig. 2(b), where the diode is replaced with the PLC. It clearly displays a ”storage time” and a ”transition time”, just like a real diode. The ”storage time” ($`\tau _s`$) in this case corresponds to the RC time constant of the capacitor discharging into the external resistance of the circuit while it has a large capacitance C1. The ”transition” part of the signal occurs when the device switches to its smaller capacitance value C2, producing a much shorter RC time constant that discharges the capacitor very quickly. Thus the discharge behavior of the capacitor mimics the effects of minority charge carrier diffusion across the junction. As we shall see, the details of this discharge behavior are remarkably similar to the diffusive dynamics of the minority charges in real diodes.

We have found that a variety of models based on nonlinear capacitance of the diode show a history dependence of the RC storage and ”reverse recovery” times. Fig. 3(b) illustrates the history-dependence of the RC discharge time in the PLC model. All models of RLD dynamics that we have investigated have a history-dependent reverse recovery effect coming from the nonlinear capacitance. Our conclusion is that a finite reverse recovery time is indeed an important concept for understanding chaos in this circuit. Besides making this point in this paper, we also wish to explore the nonlinear and history-dependent behavior of this recovery time and how it influences the generic behavior of the driven RLD circuit.

## IV Nonlinear Behavior of the Storage Time

The storage time and its history dependence are clearly important ingredients in any model of nonlinear dynamics of the driven RLD circuit. However, it is not widely appreciated that the storage time is itself a strongly nonlinear function of many parameters in the problem. These parameters include the amplitude of the forward bias current, the circuit resistance R, the driving frequency, the duty cycle of the drive, and the DC voltage bias on the junction. The purpose of this section is to present experimental evidence and models of these nonlinearities and to discuss their significance for the occurrence of period doubling and chaos in the parameter space of these circuits.

First is the forward current amplitude dependence of the storage time $`\tau _s`$. Hunt and Rollins pointed out that the reverse recovery time of a diode increases as the amplitude of the forward bias current through the diode increases. The approximate expression used to describe this effect was;

$$\tau _{RR}=\tau _m(1exp(|I_{max}|/I_c)),$$
(1)
where Imax is the most recent maximum forward current, $`\tau _m`$ and Ic are lifetime and current scales particular to each diode. A more exact expression for the storage time $`\tau _s`$ can be derived from analysis of charge dynamics in the p-n junction;

$$erf(\sqrt{\frac{\tau _s}{\tau _m}})=\frac{1}{1+I_R/I_{max}},$$
(2)
that can be approximated as;

$$\tau _s\tau _mln(1+\frac{I_{max}}{I_R}),$$
(3)
where IR is the reverse current through the diode during the storage phase. All of these forms basically say that the storage and reverse recovery times will increase as the amplitude of the forward current increases. This is because more minority charge will be pushed across the junction by the larger current and, because of the diffusive dynamics of the carriers, there will be a longer delay in getting back to the equilibrium charge configuration.

Data and PSpice simulations for the forward current dependence of the storage time in two different diodes is shown in Fig. 4. (Note that PSpice simulations use standardized semi-empirical models of the diode behavior, while our SPICE simulations of the PLC use the model shown in the inset of Fig. 3(b) with parameters given in the caption of Fig. 2.) The circuit in the inset of Fig. 2(b) was used to perform these measurements and simulations. For the data in Figs. 4 and 5 the driving signal is a periodic square wave with an equal time spent at the positive and negative amplitude voltage values (50% duty cycle). The storage time was measured as a function of the driving signal amplitude, proportional to the forward current through the diode. The data and simulations all show an increase of the storage time with increased forward bias current. In some cases the storage time saturates, consistent with the approximate expression Eq. (1), and in other cases it continues to rise slowly, consistent with the more sophisticated treatment in Eqs. (2) and (3).

It has also been noted that the value of the resistance R in the circuit of Fig. 2(b) (and therefore Fig. 1(a)) will also influence the storage and reverse recovery times. This is illustrated in Fig. 4. When the load resistance R is changed from 25 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ to 1 k$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, the storage time increases for both diodes (NTE610 and 1N4007) in both experiment and simulation. This is expected because the reverse recovery process involves charge transport across the junction and through the rest of the circuit. A larger external resistance in the circuit will imply a smaller reverse recovery current, thus extending the time for the minority charge to re-establish its equilibrium configuration. Note that a similar effect will occur in models of nonlinear capacitance. In that case the discharge time of the capacitor is an RC time constant, which clearly grows with external resistance R.

The nonlinearities of the storage time dependence on forward bias current and resistance have been noticed in the past. However, we are not aware of any group noting the following nonlinearity in the reverse recovery time. When the circuit in the inset of Fig. 2(b) is used with a repetitive square wave pulse sequence, one finds a strong dependence of the reverse recovery time on the pulse frequency. We consider the case where the pulses remain sufficiently far apart that the diode appears to fully recover from the previous pulse before the next arrives. As the rate of pulsing increases, the recovery time dramatically decreases. The effect is illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. Fig. 6(b) shows recovery traces from an NTE610 diode at two pulse frequencies. With a pulse repetition rate of 200 kHz, the storage time is about 40 ns, while at a repetition rate of 3 MHz it has decreased to less than 20 ns. Figs. 5 and 6 show that in general the storage time is constant at low frequencies, and then begins to fall roughly like f-1/2 with increasing frequency. This behavior is seen in both experiment and PSpice simulation of the 1N4002, NTE610, and Linsay model diodes.

From examination of charge dynamics in the p-n junction it is known that the diffusion capacitance CD is a function of frequency $`\omega `$ for sinusoidal driving signals;

$$C_D=\{\begin{array}{cc}\tau _mg/2,\hfill & \omega \tau _m\text{ 1}\hfill \\ g\sqrt{\frac{\tau _m}{2\omega }},\hfill & \omega \tau _m\text{ 1}\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
where g is the differential conductance of the diode g = dI/dV. The f-1/2 frequency dependence of the capacitance comes from the diffusive nature of charge transport in the junction region. The diffusion capacitance diminishes with increasing frequency beyond f $``$ 1/2$`\pi \tau _m`$, resulting in less charge stored in the p-n junction for a given forward bias current. This in turn implies that less minority carrier charge must be moved across the junction at high frequencies, resulting in a shorter storage and reverse recovery time. This is consistent with the results presented in Figures 5 and 6 for two rather different diodes (1N4007 and NTE610).

One possible consequence of the frequency-dependent storage time is the persistence of period doubling behavior to unexpectedly high frequencies in the driven RLD circuit. As the driving frequency increases, the diffusion capacitance and storage time decrease, effectively increasing both the resonant frequency f0 and 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$. This nonlinearity essentially helps to maintain the condition f $``$ f0 $``$ 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$ (where period doubling and chaos is most easily observed) over an extended range of driving frequencies. Thus period doubling and chaotic behavior should be more robust in the driven RLD circuit than one might naively expect.

Fig. 6(a) illustrates the duty-cycle dependence of the storage time and its frequency dependence. The duty cycle is defined as the ratio of the time spent at the positive amplitude voltage value to the total period of the periodic square pulse signal. As the duty cycle increases, there is greater overlap between adjacent pulses, causing the enhancement of the reverse recovery time, as originally noted by Hunt and collaborators and summarized in Eqs. (1)-(3). Again we see very consistent behavior in both experiment and PSpice simulations.

Finally, we have noted a strong DC voltage bias dependence of the storage time. The data and simulations on two different diodes is shown in Fig. 7. For forward bias the storage time increases dramatically, while for negative bias it decreases. The range of storage time variation is more than a factor of 10 for a 2 volt swing in DC bias voltage. A forward-biased diode will have a broader region of minority charge distribution, forcing the carriers to travel greater distances. This in turn increases the recovery time of the diode. Similarly, a reverse biased diode is able to sweep the minority carriers across the junction more quickly with the additional driving force provided by the reverse DC bias. This strong nonlinearity of the recovery time has not been discussed in the nonlinear dynamics literature, to our knowledge.

The DC bias nonlinearity can have a significant effect on the bifurcation diagram of the driven RLD circuit. As a DC bias is applied, the storage time and differential capacitance change, and the relationship between f0, 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$, and the driving frequency f will change. As discussed above, this can influence whether or not chaos is observed in the circuit. Here we present an example of the complex dynamics that can result. Figure 8 shows a case where the driving frequency f is larger than 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$ and about two to three times the RLD circuit resonant frequency f0 at zero DC bias. In this bifurcation diagram we see only period-1 behavior for driving signal power up to +15 dBm for both zero and positive DC bias. However, for negative bias, we see period doubling set in at about +14 dBm for a -0.4 V bias and about +11 dBm for a -0.6 V bias. The prevailing NLC models cannot explain this observation because a negative bias moves the diode away from the nonlinear part of the C(V) curve. In this case we believe that the increase in 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$ and increase in f0 due to VDC create a situation where f $``$ f0 $``$ 1/$`\tau _{RR}`$, and the circuit displays period doubling at frequencies where ordinarily it only shows linear response.

It should be noted that period doubling and chaos can be observed in models of the driven RLD circuit even in the apparent absence of reverse recovery. However, it is not clear to what extent these models may have discharge-time effects that mimic the behavior of reverse recovery in diodes.

## V Discussion

To make further comparisons between the nonlinear capacitor (NLC) and reverse-recovery time models of RLD dynamics, we wish to further consider the simplified PLC model of the NLC. The PLC model contains the essential physics of all NLC models, and is very easy to implement and understand. Figure 2(a) (dashed line) shows that the PLC model of the diode (Fig. 3(b), inset) clearly shows an effective delay in ”turning off” after a large forward current has been applied to the device. This delay is a combination of two RC time constants. The first, or ”storage” part of the response is associated with the RC discharge of the PLC during its high-capacitance phase. As the voltage drop on the PLC decreases, it reaches the point (V = E0) where the capacitance switches to its smaller value, resulting in a much more rapid discharge, resembling the transition phase of reverse recovery. The simulation in Fig. 2(a) (dashed line) for the PLC qualitatively resembles the data on the 1N4007 diode. (Note that this simulation is not intended to fit the precise behavior of the 1N4007 diode, but to simply reproduce the essential behavior.)

The history dependence of the discharge time for the PLC model is illustrated in Fig. 3(b) (all simulations of the PLC model are done in SPICE). The discharge time is clearly enhanced after the second pulse of a two pulse sequence, compared to just a single pulse. This result is similar to that in Ref.  and Fig. 3(a) on real diodes. There is also strong frequency dependence to the discharge time of the PLC model, as illustrated in Fig. 5(b). The PLC capacitor model alone shows a discharge time that varies as 1/f. When a linear resistor is added in parallel with the PLC, the discharge time drops more slowly with frequency (PLC +R in Fig. 5(b)). Finally, when a nonlinear resistor (NLR) is added in parallel to the PLC, using the ideal diode IV curve of Linsay , the discharge time shows behavior remarkably similar to the reverse recovery time of a real diode.

In summary, the discharge behavior of the simple PLC model (when implemented in the circuits of interest) is remarkably similar to the reverse recovery behavior of real diodes. We find that SPICE simulations of other more sophisticated NLC models give very similar results. We conclude that all NLC models will show a reverse-recovery-like effect. It appears that the discharge of the NLC/PLC model is essentially the same as the diffusion of charge carriers out of the p-n junction. Hence this important ingredient of nonlinear physics is common to the two major models of nonlinear dynamics of the driven nonlinear resonator. However, our results demonstrate that all of these models lack key additional nonlinear properties of the reverse-recovery time.

## VI Conclusions

We maintain that reverse recovery is a key effect producing chaos in the sinusoidally driven RLD circuit. All nonlinear capacitor models of this circuit have a behavior that mimics reverse recovery. Both the reverse-recovery and nonlinear capacitor models have memory built into them through a charge storage mechanism. The details of these models are different, but the results for circuit dynamics are basically the same. We find that it is not useful to make the distinction that either the nonlinear capacitance or the reverse recovery on minority carriers is the cause of chaos, because they can have similar effects on the circuit dynamics. Finally, the reverse recovery time in real diodes is a strongly nonlinear function of forward bias current, driving frequency and DC bias. A detailed understanding of chaos in the RLD circuit must include the reverse recovery effect and all of its nonlinearities.

## VII Acknowledgements

This work was supported by STIC through the STEP Program, and by the Department of Defense MURI Program under AFSOR Grant F496 200 110 374. R. M. de Moraes was also supported by CAPES-Brazil. We acknowledge helpful discussions with Tom Carroll, and early work on the circuit was done by Sang-Ho Bok.


text:
# NEAR-EARTH OBSERVATIONS BY SPREAD TELESCOPES

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The investigations of sky background that basically consists of zodiacal light are difficult to conduct on the ground because of sufficient contribution of the light of other sources and zodiacal light itself (Bernstein et al, 2002) scattered in the atmosphere. The translucent high-latitude cirruses found by IRAS were observed in the visual by Cawson et al (1986). Since the scattered light is sufficiently polarized, these features are better to search for on the polarization sky maps. The space experiment with polarization sky survey using wide-angle telescopes and CCD-arrays would allow to investigate the distribution and properties of interplanetary dust, the size, shape and orientation of dust particles.

Another problem related with prolonged polarization background mapping is the possibility of supernova echoes discovering and investigation. The polarized spots with several years variability should be observable (Maslov, 2000) around the locations of supernovas that were observed several centuries ago. Observations of these spots would give the information about interstellar medium of our Galaxy. Search for these objects for nonpolarized light was conducted by Van den Bergh (1966) with photographic plates and brought the negative result, but using the modern technique and image processing methods allows to move forward in this question.

Radar stations of space control are regularly watching for several thousands spacecrafts and their fragments with sizes more than 20 cm. The smallest size particles were registrated by the collisions with film screens (LDEF satellite) and spacecratfs surfaces. But experimental data about most dangerous for spacecrafts medium-sized (about 1 cm) particles practically are absent.

## 2 EXPERIMENT DESCRIPTION

The choose of International Space Station (ISS) for this experiment is made by three reasons:

* Near-Earth medium watching near the ISS orbit allows to estimate the statistical parameters and to watch for the bodies dangerous for the station without additional assumptions about their space distribution;
* The size of the ISS allows to spread the telescopes for triangulational;
* Installation of the devices on often-visited station simplifies the changes of the data processing program.

The main three goals of the experiment are:

* Investigations of distribution and properties of dust in the Solar System and Galaxy;
* Obtaining the data about space debris and meteoroid particles of centimetre size near the ISS orbit;
* Discovering and observations of asteroids, comets and variable stars.

The idea of the experiment follows. Four small telescopes with $`8^{}`$ field of view installed on ISS, watching at the same direction and observed the sky by using the continuous station rotation with the angular velocity about $`4^{}`$/min. The information processing of CCD-images is being done by on-board computers in real-time mode.

The light sources coordinates comparison with stars catalogue allows to determine the exact telescopes orientation, to find unknown sources and to measure their position. The difference of these positions measured on different telescopes allows to determine the distance to the object.

The reasons to use four telescopes are following:

* using of two or more telescopes spread by several meters give the possibility to determine the distance to the particle;
* the registration of the track of fast-moving object by two telescopes with opposite CCD regimes (”exposition” on the first and ”reading” on the second and vice versa) allows to determine the angular velocity of the object;
* using the different axes direction of the polarizing filters of the telescopes, we can measure the linear polarization both point and extended sources;
* the work failure of one telescope does not bring sufficient change for the worse of the quality of the information remaining the experiment conduction possible;
* the measurements exactness is better, the probability of space debris or meteoroid discovering or unusual event (short-time burst, for example) observation increases;
* the extension of observable sky area is possible.

The telescopes are installing in pairs on two platforms with vertical (relatively Earth) axis of rotation. The telescopes are watching at one direction by the angle about $`3060^{}`$ to the zenith. The distance between platforms should be not less than 5 m. The platforms are turning the telescopes to the required sky region not emitted by the Sun.

## 3 APPARATUS DESCRIPTION

The apparatus complex consists of two same devices. The mass of each one is not more than 40 kg, the size is $`940\times 550\times 550`$ mm3, that makes their transfer and installation on the International Space Station possible.

The telescopes are developed in Space Research Institute basing on Star Sensor (Ziman, 1994) that is successfully working now on geostationary communication satellite ”Yamal 100”. The basic parameters of the telescopes are shown in the Table 1. The telescopes are able to work at angles down to $`30^{}`$ from the Sun and from the Earth horizon. Adding to the video information, they supply the parameters of each image orientation, that is simplify the further information processing.

The Information Processing and Saving Device is the special board computer being developed in Space Research Institute. It is consisted of:

* two processors of Intel-486 type with the frequency 66 MHz;
* energy-independent flash memory not less than 8 GBit;
* special modules based on programmed logical matrixes for fast image processing.

One such device can process information from two telescopes. If we use second device for two telescopes, it will be reserve one or we will have the possibility of processing programs debugging and comparison. The basic way to pass the information to Earth and programs edition is their copying using the ISS server and changeable information holders.

## 4 ALGORYTHMS AND PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION PROCESSING

The input information flux is the sky images made by four telescopes each second. This flux fulfils the memory of computers at several minutes, that’s why the information compression is necessary. It is better to do it in order to have the complete astronomical data (such as maps, catalogues, lightcurves etc.) at the output. The sources in the images can be classified:

* by the extension:

+ point sources: the stars and star-like objects (for $`1^{}`$-resolution);
    + tracks: the trace as a straight line made by moving object;
    + extended sources: the source with angular size from $`1^{}`$ to several degrees;
    + background: the source with angular size more than visible area.
* by the time averaging:

+ model: given initially, with parameters correction while the experiment if necessary;
    + momentary: present just in one image;
    + current: present on the map obtained by the images addition at the single sky survey near the source;
    + seasonal: present on the map obtained by the images addition during several months of work (until the data passing to Earth).

The tracks and point sources information will be saved in the catalogs and the extended sources and background - in the $`2^{}`$-resolution sky maps.

Finally, we will obtain the following information:

* last 200 sky images;
* point momentary sources catalogue;
* point current sources catalogue with variability data;
* current sky map;
* tracks catalogue;
* seasonal sky map;
* current maps of some sky regions;
* some sky images.

The apparatus model is given by ”dark image”, ”flat field image” and point spread function (PSF) of point source depending on the orbital declination where the survey was made.

The computer memory is holding the background sky map and stars catalogue that are the sky model for given spectral region. The deflections from this model are recording during the survey, that makes the search for new and variable sources easier. The model image is the sum of background map and point sources with account of PSF.

We suggest the following processing sequence:

* correction of output sky images by ”dark image” and ”flat field image”;
* subtraction of model image with the model point sources brightness correction;
* photometric calibration by the model stars in the visible area;
* the search for tracks and new point sources in images with subtracted model and their include to the tracks and point momentary sources catalogues;
* the creation of current sky map with the size about $`10^{}\times 10^{}`$ using the images with subtracted tracks and point momentary sources;
* the search for weak tracks, stars and extended sources in the current map;
* the information about brightness of sky regions out of current map is including to the seasonal map.

The seasonal map of the whole sky with $`2^{}`$-resolution requires about 200-300 MBytes of memory for each telescope, if not to take the compression into account. The apparatus parameters and sky model are being corrected during the time of experiment and changing after passing the data to Earth. Polarimetric and parallactic measurements are made basing on the maps and catalogues obtained by different telescopes.

## 5 EXPECTED RESULTS

The exactness of single position measurement of an object relatively the stars is $`1^{}`$. Since the stationary and slowly moving objects are being recorded about 100 times at one crossing of visible area, the average-squared exactness can reach $`6^{\prime \prime }`$. The same exactness can be reached for track position measurement perpendicular its direction, since this estimation is made by about 500 pixels.

The sensitivity of the telescopes (by S/N level equal to 1) will be about $`10^m`$ for point objects. The exactness of photometric measurements for bright star-like objects will be about 10 percents. The magnitude of the object present in all images obtained during 2-minute survey, and magnitude of the track can be estimated with exactness $`0.010.02^m`$.

The magnitude of space debris or meteoroid with albedo about 0.1 and the size $`D`$, flying at the distance $`r`$ with tangential velocity $`v_t`$ can be estimated by using Bagrov and Vygon’s (1998) formula:

$$m_{}=31.1+2.5\mathrm{lg}\left(\frac{r^2}{D^2}\frac{v_t}{r}\frac{1}{\beta }\right)\text{,}$$
(1)
where $`\beta `$ is the angular size of one image pixel which is equal to about $`3\times 10^4`$. Corresponding to this formula, fragment with size equal to 1 cm, flying at 20 km from ISS with velocity 40 km/s will be recorded by the telescopes as a $`10^m`$-track, i.e. with S/N ratio equal to 1. With the velocity or the distance decrease the S/N ratio will rise back proportional to these parameters.

If we increase the distance between the telescopes to 5-6 meters, than the parallax of the fragment at the distance equal to 20 km will reach $`1^{}`$ and it will be possible to measure it with 10-percent uncertainty.

The angular velocity of slow moving (from 0.001 to $`1^{}`$/sec) fragments can be measured by the displacement of the object in different images. Having measured the angle between the tracks recorded by CCD-matrixes of two telescopes (in ”exposition” and ”reading” regimes) we can determine the angular velocity of fast moving (from $`0.1`$ to $`8000^{}`$/sec) fragments. The velocity of meteoroid equal to 40 km/s can be measured from the distance 300 meters!

Thus, the apparatus will be able to find and measure the brightness, angular velocity and distance and estimate the size of all space debris and meteoroids larger than 1 cm, flying at the distances from 1 to 20 km. If the flux of such fragments is dangerous by possible collisions with the station one time per 10 years, than they will be revealed by this apparatus complex several times per day.

Polarimetric observations will be conducted by the comparison of object brightness at four telescopes with different polaroid axes. For extended objects with size more than $`1^{}`$ it is possible to measure polarized light with the intensity equal to $`10^4`$ from the background (Sholomitskii et al, 1999), using the large number of pixels. Sky mapping prolonged for the several years would decrease this value for one more order and to investigate the detailed features of Galactic background and zodiacal light variations.

## 6 CONCLUSION

The experiment would allow to obtain:

* distribution and scattering parameters of interplanetary and interstellar dust by the prolonged regular polarimetric sky mapping;
* statistical estimations of concentration, velocities and sizes of space debris and meteoroids near to International Space Station orbit;
* data about Novas at early stages before the registration by ground-based observatories (especially at low angular distances from the Sun) and statistical characteristics of bursting and variable stars.

### Acknowledgements

The work is supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant 00-02-16396.


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# Chapter 1 Multi-Wavelength Observations of 1ES1959+650 in a Flaring State

## Chapter 1 Multi-Wavelength Observations of 1ES1959+650 in a Flaring State

### Abstract

In May 2002, the BL Lacertae object (BL Lac), 1ES1959+650, was detected in the Very High Energy (VHE) regime by the VERITAS collaboration using the Whipple $`\gamma `$-ray observatory. During the following two months, the VERITAS collaboration observed episodes of flaring; at times, the nightly average VHE signal was three times as bright as the Crab Nebula, the standard candle in VHE astronomy. 1ES1959+650 was also monitored in the optical and X-ray bands. The X-ray light curve showed periodic behavior and correlation with the VHE and the optical bands.

### 1. Introduction

The BL Lac object, 1ES1959+650, redshift 0.047, is an active galaxy powered by a super massive black hole. It was discovered in 1993 by comparing the X-ray/radio/optical fluxes of objects in the Einstein IPC Slew Survey (Schachter et. al. 1993). 1ES1959+650 was first detected at VHE energies by the Utah Seven Telescope Array collaboration (Nishiyama et. al. 1999) in mid-1998. It was seen in a flaring state in the VHE energy regime, this Spring for the first time by the Whipple Observatory (Dowdall et. al. 2002). Following the initial detection, the object was intensely monitored by the VERITAS collaboration during the next two months (Holder et. al. 2002a and Holder et. al. 2002b). Overlapping with the VHE observations were R-band photometry, optical spectroscopy, and X-ray observations. The study of the cross-correlation of these energy bands is an important tool in restricting the possible emission and absorption processes of VHE photons.

### 2. Observations and Data Reduction

#### 2.1. VHE observations

The Whipple Observatory 10 m reflector images Cerenkov light flashes from air showers initiated by VHE photons in the atmosphere. The telescope is located on Mt. Hopkins near Tucson, Arizona. It consists of 238 mirror facets arranged on a spherical support structure of Davis-Cotton design, with focal length 7.3 m. The camera consists of 490 ultraviolet-sensitive photomultiplier tubes, giving a 3.8  field of view. Only the inner PMTs covering 2.6  are used in this analysis. Observations on 1ES1959+650 were taken from 16 May 2002 through 8 July 2002 (UT) for a total of 36 hrs. ON source and 6.4 hrs. OFF source. The detection significance for ON/OFF paired observations is 8 $`\sigma `$ with an average photon rate of $`1.5\pm 0.2`$ $`\gamma `$/min. Standard analysis of the data was done by moment fitting (Hillas 1985) of the events followed by a set of cuts optimized on Crab Nebula observations to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio. The light curve Fig was calculated from ON source data, i.e. tracking analysis, with background estimated from OFF source data. The rate was then corrected empirically for elevation and throughput (LeBohec and Holder 2002) based on observations of the Crab Nebula, the standard candle at VHE energies, taken from February to April 2002. Strictly, this is only valid if the sources have the same spectral index $`\gamma `$; $`\gamma _{Crab}=2.5`$.

#### 2.2.  X-ray observations

X-ray measurements were taken by the ASM detector on board the RXTE satellite. The ASM quick-look results were provided by the ASM/RXTE team. They calculated the 24-hour average flux from five to ten 90-second dwells. The ASM detects photons in the energy range from 1.5 keV to 12 keV, with peak sensitivity at 5 keV.

#### 2.3. Optical observations

The R-band (650 nm) photometry was taken with the 70 cm telescope at the Abastumani Observatory in Georgia from 19 May to 11 June 2002. The frames were reduced using DAOPHOT II. The apparent magnitude of 1ES1959+650 was determined by comparison with 3 standard stars in the field of view (Villata et. al.1998). Optical spectra were taken using the newly refurbished 6.5 m telescope at the MMT. The spectra were taken while 1ES1959+650 was active at VHE energies and one week later when the flux was not detectable. The first of the two spectra was measured on 5 June 2002 with a 300 lines/mm grating and 45 min exposure, the second spectrum was taken on 13 June 2002 with a 500 lines/mm grating and 10 min exposure. Not all cosmic ray contaminants were removed from the spectra.

### 3. Light curve correlations

#### 3.1. Quasi-periodic X-ray flaring

The X-ray light curve, Fig , shows a series of flares spaced roughly 40 days apart. Also shown is the associated Fourier transform, Fig. It shows that there is weak evidence for a 40 day period of X-ray flaring. A similar pattern of flaring activity was possibly found for Mkn 501 (Kranich et. al. 1999).

#### 3.2. VHE and X-ray correlation

The X-ray - VHE linear correlation coefficient (LCC) as a function of the time delay between the bands is shown in Fig. Simultaneous keV-VHE measurements are correlated with a LCC = 0.45. Here, simultaneous means $`\pm 12`$ hours. To determine the significance of this correlation, the keV and VHE flux measurements were randomized 100 times with respect to one another and the LCC was calculated for each random set. This resulted in a mean LCC = 0.1 $`\pm `$ 0.1, so we deduce that the correlation between X-ray and VHE flux is significant at the level of 3.5 $`\sigma `$. Assuming the LCC distribution to be Gaussian, the probability of at least one 3.5 $`\sigma `$ deviation in 61 independent samples is 0.03. This is an approximation as neither the LCC distribution is Gaussian nor the 61 time intervals are completely independent samples. On the other hand, when the X-ray flux is time delayed by 25 days following the VHE flux, we find an anti-correlation of the X-ray and VHE flux. The LCC factor is 0.42, the probability for this to happen by chance is 0.15. So, there is weak evidence for both a 40 day periodicity of the X-ray flux and simultaneous correlation with VHE photon emission around the time of observation. A simultaneous correlation of X-ray and VHE flux has also been found during flares of Mrk 421 in 1995 and Mrk 501 in 1997 (Buckley 1999).

#### 3.3. Optical and X-ray correlation

In the optical, 1ES1959+650 was very dim compared to the light curves from 1996-97 (Villata et. al. 2000) and 1997-99 (Kurtanidze et. al. 1999). During those times the magnitude varied from 15.05 to 14.55. Thus, during our VHE detection the source was optically fainter and not as variable as during previous observations. The X-ray and optical (R-band) emission appear to be correlated, although with the latter delayed or lagging by 5 days. The LCC is 0.78, 5 $`\sigma `$ away from a Gaussian random distribution. The probability for this to occur randomly in 16 independent samples is $`9\times 10^6`$. Delayed correlation between R-band and X-ray emission has also been seen in a flare of Mrk421 in 1996 (Buckley 1999).

### 4.  Optical spectra

Typical of a BL Lac object, the optical spectrum of 1ES1959+650 was nearly featureless. The spectra were neither flux calibrated nor corrected for atmospheric extinction. The relative change in spectral features was calculated by first normalizing to the smoothed continuum and then subtracting the two normalized spectra from one another. The smoothed continuum was calculated by first applying a 3 pixel wide boxcar average to the 300 lines/mm spectrum and a 5 pixel average to the 500 lines/mm spectrum to minimize any effects the different gratings had. Then, the continuum was calculated as a 100 pixel (200Å) boxcar average. The relative change in the optical spectrum between states of high VHE emission and low VHE emission was measured after applying a 3-pixel box smoothing to reduce the sensitivity to noise and possible mismatched wavelength calibration. The intensity of the following lines showed a decrease from 5 June to 13 June: $`H_\alpha `$ (gfwhm = 9 Å) 3%, $`Mg`$ (gfwhm = 9 Å) 2.5% , and $`CaFe`$ (gfwhm = 11 Å) 2 %. Unfortunately, the precision of the measurement for the $`H_\alpha `$ is uncertain because it is located in a region of strong night-sky absorption lines.

### 5. Summary

The BL Lac object, 1ES1959+650, was detected in Spring 2002 with the Whipple 10m Cherenkov Imaging Telescope. The 24-hour average VHE photon flux was measured to vary by as much as 3 Crab units. The VHE and X-ray flux showed a slight simultaneous correlation. There is evidence for a roughly 40 day period in the X-ray light curve. A strong correlation between the 5-day delayed optical R-band brightness and the X-ray flux was also observed. The R-band brightness was fainter than during previous observations and optical spectra were without any prominent features or variability.

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