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# A CCD TIME-SERIES PHOTOMETER

## 1 Introduction

We have designed, and placed into operation, a CCD camera system optimized for high speed time-series measurements of oscillating white dwarf stars. Our experience indicates that CCD instruments designed for more general use will have characteristics that are unacceptable for rapid time-series measurements, or seriously compromise the data quality when used for this purpose. Until this instrument was available, we relied on time-series photometers using photomultiplier (PMT) detectors for these measurements (Nather & Warner 1971; Kleinman, Nather, & Phillips 1996).

We are now in a position to compare and contrast these two approaches to the same measurements, and to demonstrate where CCDs are superior for this work and where they are not.

One basic goal in the design of this instrument was to take advantage of the improved quantum efficiency that CCD detectors offer, so that we could obtain usable data on fainter stars than the PMT instruments could measure, and data of better quality on those they could. We also hoped to discover more variable white dwarf stars than were already known, to increase the limited number of objects available for asteroseismological study. A more long-term goal was to provide an instrument whose timing accuracy was high enough to allow a search for small deviations from the smooth secular change in pulsation frequency due to white dwarf cooling (e.g. Kepler et al. 2000), opening the possibility that such deviations, if found to be periodic, could demonstrate the presence of planet-sized objects in orbit around the white dwarf star (Winget et al. 2003; Mullally et al. 2003).

We have achieved our short-term goals in the 15 months the instrument has been in operation, and have established a list of target objects for the longer-term search for primordial planets. Our search for white dwarf variables has already more than doubled the number available for study (Mukadam et al. 2003a), due primarily to increased instrumental sensitivity. Our practical limit using the PMT photometers on the 82-in telescope at McDonald Observatory was about magnitude 17.0; we now obtain light curves of comparable quality at magnitude 19.4, a gain of about a factor of 9 in overall sensitivity. To obtain a similar gain with the PMT photometers they would have to be attached to a telescope 6 m in aperture.

## 2 HARDWARE

### 2.1 The CCD Camera

Our CCD time-series photometer, which we call Argos, is based on a commercial CCD camera made by Roper Scientific, the Princeton Micromax 512 BFT NTE-CCD 111http://www.roperscientific.com/micromax.html. Its specifications are shown in Table 1.

The CCD chip is back-illuminated to improve its blue sensitivity (most white dwarf stars are blue) and can transfer its 512$`\times `$512 pixel image to the on-chip buffer in 310 $`\mu `$ s. We have built a mount to support the camera at the prime focus of the 82-in telescope (F/3.9), and obtain there an image scale to match the 13 $`\mu \times 13\mu `$ pixel size: 3.05 pixels per arcsecond. The field of view for this image scale is 2.8 arcmin on a side, large enough so we have not had any trouble finding our targets, along with suitable comparison stars. Since the target can be placed almost anywhere in the chip, the usable area to search for comparison stars is about 25 square arcminutes.

The camera incorporates a thermoelectric cooling system that keeps the chip at -45 C, where the dark count of 1–2 ADU/s is smaller than the counts coming from the moonless sky (ca. 3–7 ADU/s). The readout noise of 8 electrons RMS is negligible for all except the shortest exposure times, where it is comparable to sky noise. The image readout time of 280 ms is comfortably shorter than our minimum exposure time of 1 s. The prime focus mount design (see Figure 1) includes a manual two-position filter slide, which can double as a dark slide when we want to take dark or bias frames. The camera came with an internal shutter for this purpose, but we removed it when it proved to be unreliable.

The CCD camera connects to the ST-133 controller (electronics box) via a 10 ft. analog cable, both of which are mounted at the prime focus of the 82-in telescope. The interface card housed in the camera control computer (see section 2.7) connects to the controller via a 75 ft. digital high speed communication cable. Frame transfer operation is started by a single synchronizing pulse from a timer card (see section 2.6) which serves to end one exposure and begin the next one; the pulse is sent to the camera via a 75 ft. co-axial cable.

We have also attached a smaller uncooled CCD camera (Electrim EDC2000n 222http://www.electrim.com) with a wide angle lens to capture regular images of the dome slit (see section 2.5).

### 2.2 Wavelength Response

While the CCD chip is more sensitive than the bi-alkali PMT detectors, its wavelength response is enough different so that combining CCD and PMT data on the same star may not be done directly. Our chief interest lies in blue pulsating DA white dwarfs, whose pulsation amplitudes are a function of wavelength (Robinson et al. 1995, Nitta et al. 1998, Nitta et al. 2000). Including photons redward of the PMT cutoff (ca. 650 nm), which are less modulated by the pulsation process, reduces the measured amplitude (Kanaan et al. 2000). We thought we might improve the signal–to–noise ratio in our light curves by inserting a blue filter (1mm Schott BG40), and indeed found the measured amplitudes are higher by about 15%. However, photon losses in the filter increased the measurement noise, and we find no significant improvement in the signal–to–noise ratio by using it.

### 2.3 The Prime Focus Mount

The camera mounting plate can be moved by x-y adjustment screws over a distance of half an inch to center the CCD chip on the optical axis of the telescope. The tip/tilt of the camera can be controlled by a push-pull arrangement of screws, to set the CCD chip perpendicular to the axis. The alignment procedure is adequate but awkward. When properly aligned, the corners of the chip are 2 arcmin from the optical axis, where aberration from coma due to the parabolic primary mirror is calculated to expand a point image to about 1 arcsecond in diameter. We rarely experience sub-arcsecond seeing at McDonald Observatory, so we have not been able to verify this calculation.

### 2.4 Baffling Argos

Scattered light was initially a significant problem. The first three nights of the commissioning run proved beyond doubt that the shiny aluminium surfaces of the mount had to be darkened; we chose hard black anodizing for the purpose, as it does not corrode easily.

The single crude baffle in the original design was replaced with a five-stage baffle system consisting of two thin plates very close to the camera, and three other baffles in the body of the mount. The two camera baffles and the mount baffle closest to the camera have square shaped apertures with rounded corners and are derived by projecting the light beam backwards from the CCD chip. These openings are a few percent larger than the converging light beam from the primary. The other two mount baffles have circular apertures, which are 5–7% bigger than the light beam. The edges of all the light baffles are at an angle of $`45^{}`$ with respect to the optic axis to reflect light away from the CCD camera.

The original flat-field images were very strange, but have now been improved so that people no longer laugh at them. Our current images are flat to within a few percent; the variation in the flat fields comes from structural non-uniformities in the CCD chip itself. This pattern is stable and can be removed, giving us residual variations less than one percent.

### 2.5 Collisional Danger to Argos

One significant problem remains: in its normal position at prime focus, the camera, and its mount, can collide with structures inside the dome. The dome slit has a heavy steel bridge spanning its width, and on each end of the bridge are hand-cranked pods (called pulpits) that can hold an observer; by moving the bridge and cranking a pulpit, an intrepid observer can reach the prime focus for visual guiding. This is clearly dangerous, and has not seen use since the prime focus (photographic plate) camera was retired about 35 years ago, but is still used to help balance the telescope and to support a crane that can handle the primary mirror for aluminizing. Since we can’t remove the bridge and pulpits we must learn to live with them.

To this end we have added Cyclops, a small uncooled CCD camera with a wide-angle lens ($`150^{}`$ FOV) to the Argos camera, looking out past the dome slit at the night sky beyond. With suitable exposure times it can see the moonless sky as significantly brighter than the inside of the dome, and can thus define the position of the prime focus mount with respect to the slit as well as the bridge and pulpit structure (Figure 2). The circle shows the size and location of the 82-in telescope beam. The edge of the lower windscreen, just above the bridge/pulpit structure, appears at the lower left in the image.

The camera’s dynamic range is large enough to define the prime focus mount position in the daytime as well, when the dome is closed and illuminated from the inside. We use a dedicated PC to run the camera whenever Argos is mounted on the telescope. Suitable software to warn of impending disaster, and perhaps prevent it, is now under development. The images by themselves are already useful, telling the observer when it is time to move the dome. Cyclops has detected raindrops as well.

### 2.6 The Timing System

A time-series photometer must know precisely when an exposure is started, and precisely how long it took. These are two different requirements, involving both a time epoch and an interval. The Argos timing system is based on a GPS clock designed primarily for precision timekeeping, although position information is also available. It consists of an oven-controlled crystal oscillator disciplined by signals obtained from a GPS receiver333http://www.trimble.com/thunderbolt.html. The time epoch is claimed to have an error of about 50 ns, considerably more precise than we need, but comforting.

We have assembled a simple count-down register on a small circuit card that can accept the 1 Hz timing pulses from the GPS clock, and can provide an output pulse to initiate frame transfer in the CCD camera. The exposure intervals are thus contiguous, and determined directly from the clocking hardware. The timer card plugs into the parallel port on the camera control PC, so the countdown value (i.e. the exposure time) can be set into it from software. Thereafter it operates independently, initiating frame transfer operations at the established timing intervals. Exposure times can be set to any integral number of seconds from 1 to 30.

Immediately following a 1 Hz timing pulse, the GPS clock provides information from which the precise epoch of the pulse can be determined. The information arrives encoded in packet form at the serial port of the PC at 9600 baud, where it can be read and unencoded by the software control program. The PC serial port is buffered so that the epoch (the time and date) for each pulse can be determined even if a second packet arrives before the first one is read by the program.

A second clock, somewhat less accurate, is available if the camera control PC is running the Network Time Protocol (NTP444http://www.ntp.org) software, which obtains timing information over the internet by periodically contacting time servers and adjusting the PC system clock accordingly. It allows for internet time delays as well as it can, and averages the best readings it finds to keep the system clock in proper synchronization. The Argos control program relies primarily on the GPS clock for timing, but can use the NTP-disciplined system clock if the GPS time signals are not available. For observer assurance, it compares the time ticks from the two clocks, and displays their time difference in a status display window. After both clocks have been running for a few hours, the time difference is usually within a few milliseconds.

### 2.7 The Camera Control Computer

The PC that controls the camera has fairly modest requirements by modern standards: it must have a PCI bus to accept the camera control card, a parallel port (for the timer card), a serial port (for the GPS packet information), enough memory to run the Linux operating system comfortably (256 MB is enough, but more is always better) and enough disk space to hold the images as they arrive (527 Kb each). Our current camera control PC runs a Pentium III at 1 GHz and is not pushed for time. The software prefers a display resolution of 1280x1024 so the various windows do not overlap each other. A 17-in LCD works fine. The PC also needs an ethernet card to connect to the internet, so the NTP software can discipline the system clock, and to receive pointing information from the computer that controls the 82-in telescope. This connection is also used to transfer image data to our Argos data archive in Austin (slowly), and to allow a remote login to run the camera for testing purposes (even more slowly).

We usually operate a second PC as well, with access to the disk on the camera control computer, so arriving image data can be examined by software not concerned with the data acquisition and recording process. We also make a more durable copy of the data on CD-ROM. Someday, when the DVD format wars are over, we may move to that medium to minimize the number of disks required.

## 3 SOFTWARE

### 3.1 The User’s View

#### 3.1.1 Program Requirements

The control program is called Quilt 11 (q11), the most recent in a series of programs designed to control time-series photometers. The name was originally chosen because the first of the series, Quilt 1, started as a patchwork of software routines. It was written in 1970, and has undergone 10 complete rewrites, in different languages for different computers, since that time. The basic operations haven’t really changed much.

Once the camera has been set to operate in frame transfer mode, images arrive via direct memory access (DMA) at the end of each exposure and appear magically in memory. The program must first associate each image with its epoch (start time and date) before it is written to disk. This is not quite as straightforward as it sounds: a new exposure starts when a frame transfer operation finishes, so the epoch is available right away, but obviously the image is not — it’s still being exposed. It only shows up after the next timing pulse (and its epoch) arrives, and then only after the readout process has finished. The program must keep all this straight so the proper epoch is associated with the appropriate image.

The data images are recorded in FITS 555http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits\_intro.html format, with the epoch and other operating parameters in the header. Each image has its own file, so the file name must be generated automatically and the names must be sequential so they can be kept in proper time order.

#### 3.1.2 Controlling q11

Figure 3 shows what the computer “desktop” looks like with the program in operation. The window labeled “Commands” accepts simple typed keyboard commands (go, stop, abort, etc.) to control the camera, as well as commands to edit entries in the window labeled “Setmode” which provides the q11 program with information and parameters that it cannot determine for itself. The user may then mark the target and comparison stars on the image (small, labelled circles appear in response to mouse clicks) to enable on-line extraction and display of plotted light curves.

In our design the images arrive whenever a frame transfer pulse is generated by the clock – that is, all the time. These images are shown on the display screen by a program called DS9, written by William Joy and his colleagues at SAO and made available as Open Source Software. Plotted light curves are displayed by the DS9 plotting widget.

Once data recording starts (in response to the “go” command), the observer must act as an aide to the program to do things it cannot do for itself: keep the star images on the chip, keep the dome out of the light path, and be prepared to shut things down if it rains. In addition to plotting the light curve, the program also prints columns of numbers on the terminal used to start the program: the image number, the elapsed time, and the extracted brightness for each of the marked stars with sky removed. The last column shows the average sky value that was subtracted from the target star.

#### 3.1.3 Simulation

The program can also be run in simulation mode, without a telescope, camera or GPS timing system. Previously recorded data images are read from disk into the same buffer used by the camera, and the timing is simulated from the system clock ticks. Users can use this mode to review data previously recorded, and to learn how the program works. The same code is used in both modes, with very few exceptions. If the program is started with a command-line pathname to a data run, simulation mode is assumed; without one, it assumes it must run the camera for real. Simulation mode goes through all of the motions involved in a real run but does not write anything to disk.

#### 3.1.4 Software Design

The q11 program is written in the C language, and consists of 5 separate executable processes in simultaneous execution. It is designed to run on a PC under the Linux operating system and to tolerate the presence of other programs running at the same time on the same CPU. Both incoming time and image data are buffered to maintain proper real-time operation. Details of its architecture and the on-line extraction algorithms are presented in Appendix A.

#### 3.1.5 Display

The data acquisition and on-line extraction process runs in a thread separate from the display process because of timing considerations: the display routines (DS9 and its plotting widget) are written in Tcl/Tk, an interpreted language, and are therefore slow. At the shortest exposure times the acquisition process can easily keep up but the display routines cannot. Arranged as separate threads of execution, they run in parallel, so acquisition gets its needed amount of CPU time even if display falls behind. Should this happen, the user still sees the printed luminosity values appear right away, but the plotted values appear in clumps, rather than one at a time, whenever the plot widget gets updated. No data points are lost. Display of some of the incoming images may be skipped, but the DS9 window always shows the most recent one when it is updated. The q11 program can run under any window manager, but users notice how much more slowly the display windows are updated using Gnome or KDE, compared with WindowMaker, which is much smaller and faster.

## 4 COMPARING: CCD vs PMT

### 4.1 Good Things

#### 4.1.1 Digital Image Preservation

The most notable improvement offered by the Argos instrument is the ability to record individual images for each integration for later inspection and analysis. This is very much like the historical transition that took place as photographic observations replaced visual ones. Extracting the measured brightness of the target, comparison star and sky is done directly with the 3-channel PMT photometer, in the equivalent of three large pixels, through fixed apertures that isolate them from the rest of the stars in the field. What they see is what you get, with no going back.

The digital images arriving from the CCD are recorded as individual disk files and can be replayed without loss in the same time sequence as they were taken, with their time intervals the same as the original exposure times for simulation, or faster for analysis and reduction. Different extraction techniques can be applied for comparison, and the light curves with the highest signal-to-noise ratio chosen for further analysis. When a data point appears that does not fit well with those surrounding it, the corresponding image can be examined, and often reveals the cause (“Oh. I guess that’s where I dropped my flashlight.”) We find far more satellite tracks through the images than we ever expected.

#### 4.1.2 Greater sensitivity

The higher quantum efficiency of the CCD coupled to the greater bandwidth gives higher photon counts from the same target stars, compared to the PMT photometers. Argos is designed such that light from the primary mirror forms an image of the star field directly on the CCD, so it has fewer optical surfaces than the PMT photometers. Figure 4 shows the light curves of the same white dwarf pulsator G 117–B15A taken with the two different instruments, 5 weeks apart, on the 82-in telescope with 5 s exposures. Observing conditions were excellent for the PMT run, but only average for the CCD; even so, the CCD data are less noisy.

The ability to measure fainter stars is illustrated in Figure 5. The target star, a new DA variable WD0815+4437 (Mukadam et al. 2003a), has a B magnitude comparable to 19.3, and clearly shows the pulsations; the FT shows two significant peaks (probably unresolved in this short run) and hints at more. Smoothing the light curve with a running average of 3 data points (to suppress noise at higher frequencies) shows the variations more clearly.

#### 4.1.3 Marginal Photometric Conditions

The PMT photometers separate the target and comparison star fields optically, and do this before the image of the field is formed at the focal plane. This works, but introduces a vignetting property which the users must be aware of, and avoid. This means the comparison star must always be at least 3 arcminutes away. Changing transparency from thin cloud does not always act on the target and comparison stars at the same time, so removing the effects of cloud by dividing the target light curve with that of the comparison star does not always work very well.

This technique of cloud removal works far better on the CCD images. In Figure 6 we show our data on the new DA variable WD0949-0000 (Mukadam et al. 2003a, 2003b) taken through light cloud with 10 s exposures on 2 April, 2003. The top panel shows the sum of 2 comparison stars, collectively brighter than the target by a factor of 150. The center panel shows the faint (B$``$18.8) target star. The cloud-induced variations disappear when the target is divided by the comparison light curve.

#### 4.1.4 The Human Factor

The PMT photometers require considerable skill and experience on the observer’s part to get everything set up properly, and to tend the observations continually during a run. Failing to align the two stars properly in their apertures, or to guide often enough but not too often, takes some time to learn. Inexperienced observers can (and do) take data of poor quality until they have made most of the common mistakes and learned from them. The Argos photometer demands far less skill and experience; once the CCD instrument is set up properly, far less is demanded of an observer, and inexperienced observers can (and do) take good quality data on their first observing run with the instrument. Target starfields are much easier to locate and verify, and, unlike the PMT photometers, faint targets are as easy to find as bright ones.

### 4.2 Bad Things

#### 4.2.1 Read noise

A photomultiplier detector amplifies individual photoelectrons until they can be readily detected as individual events; a CCD does not. In a CCD each pixel well collects unamplified photoelectrons until they are read out, amplified en masse, and sent to an analog-to-digital converter (A/D) over a 10 ft. cable. The cable and its connectors are by far the weakest link in the instrument and can cause real grief if not properly maintained. In the Argos instrument the default amplifier gain is set so that two electrons yield one ADU, and has a noise equivalent of 8 electrons. This means that 64 or more electrons must be collected before their stochastic noise and the amplifier noise are equal. We try to keep pixel counts below 40,000 to avoid the onset of nonlinear behavior; the PMT instruments have a somewhat wider dynamic range. These are not major problems, but can hardly be considered assets.

#### 4.2.2 Short Exposure Times

PMT detectors can count individual photon events, and these events can be placed into accurate time bins as short as desired. The CCD detector must accumulate many photon events before they can be measured, so the minimum time bins must be much longer. The PMT instruments work well in measuring lunar occultations where 1–2 millisecond time bins are required, and for optical pulsar measurements where the time bins as short as 1 microsecond have been used (Sanwal, Robinson, & Stiening 1998). The smallest time bin available in the Argos instrument, 1s, is short enough for measuring pulsating white dwarf stars, but not short enough for these other measurements.

#### 4.2.3 Proprietary Secrets

Roper Scientific, the corporate owners of Princeton Instruments who made the CCD camera, have a policy of not revealing technical details of either their hardware or their control software; users are given access to the camera’s operation by a series of calls to a software library they provide. The user must therefore treat the camera and its controlling software as a black box, and can infer or measure details of its operation (e.g. timings) only by doing experiments. This makes trouble-shooting and time-critical program development both slow and difficult. The Argos instrument, and its software, are unlikely to evolve into more effective operation so long as this policy is in place.

## 5 SUMMARY: RESULTS TO DATE

The Argos instrument was placed into regular operation (with a less capable version of the software) in February 2002. Until this writing (April 2003) it has achieved the following results:

* Its increased sensitivity has allowed the identification of 36 variable white dwarf stars previously unknown (Mukadam et al. 2003a), more than doubling the total number of these objects available for study.
* The improved data quality, and the resulting improvement in measuring the time of arrival of pulses from the DAV white dwarf G 117-B15A, has yielded the first measured $`\dot{P}`$ (Kepler et al. 2003) for the rate of change of the 215 s principle period (previous measurements had only set limits). This is the first such measurement for a star this cool (and this old), and opens the way to calibrating by measurement, rather than by theory, the ages of the oldest stars in our galaxy (e.g. Winget et al. 1987; Hansen et al. 2002).
* The control software and a second CCD camera was used successfully at Siding Spring Observatory on the 1m telescope in support of a Whole Earth Telescope run in May, 2002. The F/8 Cassegrain focal position gave about the same plate scale, and the same size images, as the prime focus position on the 82-in (F/3.9) telescope.

The success of the instrument, despite its limitations, can best be judged by its use: the PMT photometers have not been used on the 82-in telescope since Argos was placed into regular operation.

We thank Dr. Frank Bash, Director of McDonald Observatory, for providing the funds to purchase the CCD cameras, and the Texas Advanced Research Program for operating funds under grant ARP-0543. We thank Gary Hansen for designing the timer card, Gordon Wesley and David Boyd for the mount design, and Phillip McQueen for advice on the baffle design. We also thank Antonio Kanaan for the use of his CCD data reduction routines, and Darragh O’Donoghue for showing us that off-axis coma would not be a problem. We thank Denis Sullivan for his help in the commissioning runs for both the CCD cameras, Argos and Cyclops.

## Appendix A APPENDIX

### A.1 The Software Structure

The ideal environment for a real-time program is to have a CPU dedicated to its task, and to have complete control over all of its operations. In an earlier era (before operating systems became common) this was practical, but it meant the program had to include many of the functions we now expect an operating system to perform. Simple operating systems that supported only one user and one task (e.g. MS-DOS) could be used despite some loss of control. Multiuser, multitasking operating systems represent a more significant challenge to a real-time program, but also offer system capabilities that can help do the job, within limits. The Quilt 11 program is designed to function in this less predictable environment, and seems to be successful at it.

A single CPU can only keep one process at a time in execution, but it can be switched rapidly between several so they appear to be running in parallel. The Linux kernel does this to support and schedule many processes, most of which are dormant until needed for the function they perform. The q11 program consists of five such processes, three of them dormant most of the time. Figure 7 shows this software architecture as a flow chart.

### A.2 Star Image Identification

Before on-line extraction can begin, the user must first tell the program which star image in a field is the target star, and which other images it should use as comparison stars. When the “mark” command is detected the current image is copied to a separate image buffer, and the display process is directed there. New images will still arrive, but will not be shown until marking has been completed.

The process by which stars on a new image are identified with those initially marked is based on a simple assumption: that a star image may move around on the CCD chip, but its location with respect to other stars in the same field will not change (much). The identification algorithm therefore needs to remember a pattern of star images found in one image, so it can identify elements of the same pattern in a new one. Pattern recognition is a famously difficult programming problem, but we are fortunate here on two counts: first, our patterns are very simple, and can be reduced to a small list of x,y locations of points in a plane; second, we are really interested in pattern re-recognition, which is a far easier problem to solve.

To make this work, the program must first isolate the individual stars in an image (described in the next section), and make a position list (plist) for each one, recording its x,y location along with other useful values. The position is taken to be the pixel with the highest count in it. From this position list, the marking process can first identify which image the user indicates with the mouse click, and can then make a reference list (rlist) of distance and position angle (dpa) to other stars in the field for later comparison.

The identification algorithm finds a known star in a new image by first deriving a set of dpa’s for it (from the plist of image locations) and then comparing them with the rlists saved from the marked stars. In effect, it is asking of each star in a new field, “Are you on my list?” Most often the answer is no – the distances and position angles to other field stars do not fit one of the saved patterns, except by accident. An rlist can have up to 12 entries, and an accidental match to more than 1 or 2 of them just doesn’t happen, even in a crowded field. Agreement with all of the rlist entries is common when a true match is found, but not required: the majority wins.

One source of potential position error can arise if the rlist values are taken from a single image and remain unchanged during a run. An onset of bad seeing can cause fewer reference stars to be recognized, and changing atmospheric refraction can affect the dpa values in a systematic way. To avoid these problems, the dpa values from each new image are saved (they were calculated to effect the comparisons) and a new rlist is made for each marked star that is identified. The rlist that participates in the comparison process is actually a running average of the last 20 rlists encountered, explaining the cryptic entry (“co-add dpa’s”) in the flow chart. To avoid contaminating the running average in case of clouds, the rlist is not added in if the sky transparency becomes poor.

Even though the identification algorithm must examine every star in a new image, it doesn’t spend much time doing it. The richest field we have encountered has about 230 stars detected in it, but the identification process needs less than 100 milliseconds to do its job. It uses correspondingly less time if the field is less crowded.

### A.3 On-Line Luminosity Extraction

The arrival of a new image triggers a flurry of activity that results in a new data point in the light curves of any marked stars. First, though, the star images must be isolated and located on the chip before they can be identified. The process of extracting the luminosity is melded in with the isolating procedure.

By analogy, we can think of the star images as luminosity mountains rising as peaks above the plane of the sky. If we flood the plane, and consider only the peaks that rise above flood level, then they are nicely isolated and can be treated individually.

We first approximate the sky level by finding the mean of all of the pixel values in the image, avl, and then setting a cut level (flood level) enough above that mean to avoid finding false peaks due to sky noise:

$$cut=avl+2.5\times \sqrt{avl}$$
(A1)
We can now scan the image one pixel at a time, and determine for each one if it is above the cut level, and therefore a part of some star image, or below it, and part of the sky level. In the process we look for successive pixels above the cut level, and contiguous with those on previous scan lines, to define a luminosity “clump”. We consider a clump as complete (and therefore isolated) when a scan in x finds no more pixels to include. The plist entry for this peak then contains the location of the maximum (in x and y), its total luminosity above the cut level, and the number of pixels summed.

This procedure works well for peaks that are not too broad, but can sometimes yield small false peaks near a large one when the seeing is bad or the images are a bit out of focus. Akin to foothills in our analogy, these “skirt peaks” may confuse the identification procedure. To avoid this, when the scan is complete, the plist is examined by a routine that identifies small peaks too close to big ones and merges them in. The resulting plist is then sorted by luminosity so the brightest ones appear first; identification can now proceed.

Once a peak has been identified with a user-marked star, its total luminosity (plus a small correction for the fraction of its luminosity below the cut level) becomes the next data point on its light curve, after a global sky value has been subtracted. This global sky value, found during the isolation scan, is the mean level of all the pixels below the cut level, and is really composed of sky photons, dark count, and a bias value set by the electronics to ensure only positive quantities are presented to the A/D converter.

The on-line extraction process was devised to provide the user with light curves in real time, the same as with the PMT instrument, to allow the data quality to be assessed. It was not intended to be a final data reduction procedure. However, cut-level extraction proves to work far better than originally expected, and may evolve into a procedure that can rival the virtual aperture extraction technique (O’Donoghue et al. 2000); alternatively, that procedure could be incorporated into the q11 program as a user-selected alternative.


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# Absorbing Phase Transitions with Coupling to a Static Field and a Conservation Law

## Abstract

The coupling of branching-annihilating random walks to a static field with a local conservation law is shown to change the scaling properties of their phase transitions to absorbing states. In particular, we find that directed-percolation-class transitions give rise to a new universality class distinct from that characterizing the depinning of the so-called linear interface model.

Among the many works aiming at an understanding of universality in out-of-equilibrium critical phenomena, those on transitions to absorbing states play a leading role because these phase transitions have no equilibrium counterparts and even occur in one-dimensional (1D) systems HH-REVIEW ; ODOR-REVIEW . In the simple and general case of the reaction and diffusion of identical particles $`A`$ without site occupation restriction, recent numerical progress (awaiting analytical confirmation) has led to a global picture involving four basic universality classes BARW . Consider reactions of the type \[$`mA(m+k)A`$, $`nA(nl)A`$\] where $`m`$, $`n`$, $`k`$, and $`l`$ are positive integers. Outside the prominent directed percolation (DP) class, whose simplest representatives are given by single-particle reactions ($`m,n=1`$), the PCPD and TCPD classes (for “pair/triplet contact process with diffusion” —a vocable largely used for historical reasons) are respectively characterized by reactions involving two ($`m,n=2`$) and three ($`m,n=3`$) particles ODOR-BJP . The fourth class has been considered to be defined by the conservation of the parity of the number of particles, hence its usual name PC (for “parity-conserving”) HH-REVIEW , but it is now clear that this is not its defining feature NOTE . Nevertheless, the relevance of conservation laws is ascertained at equilibrium, and it remains important to explore it within absorbing phase transitions (APT), since conserved quantities abound in physical situations.

As a matter of fact, it was argued that DP-class problems where the order parameter is coupled to an auxiliary (diffusive) field with conservation generally show non-DP critical properties WOH . The particular case where the auxiliary field is static was conjectured recently to lead to yet another class of APT ROSSI ; PSV2000 . (Note that the corresponding models then possess infinitely-many non-connected absorbing states and strong memory effects.) Numerical simulations confirmed only partially the above ideas. The situation, in our view, remains unsatisfactory for the static case: while in 1D no definite conclusions could be reached FES , in 2D and 3D the numerically-estimated critical exponents, when self-consistent, were found to roughly coincide with those of the depinning transition of the so-called linear interface model (LIM) LUEBECK . A significant departure from DP-scaling was thus found, but the existence of a separate universality class remains in question. Meanwhile, no rigorous result is available, although a heuristic mapping on the dynamics of LIM was advocated in AM2002 .

In this Letter, we investigate the relevance of conservation laws to APT within the more general framework of four “basic” universality classes briefly recalled above, but restricting ourselves to the coupling to a static auxiliary field: now the creation of active, diffusive particles $`A`$ is conditioned to the presence of passive, static particles $`B`$ in such a way that the total number of particles is locally conserved. We thus study the reactions \[$`mA+kB(m+k)A`$, $`nA(nl)A+lB`$\], and find evidence for the existence of new universality classes. We revisit some of the models studied in ROSSI ; PSV2000 ; FES , but we mostly deal with two-species reaction-diffusion models derived from those introduced in BARW . We show the existence of a specific “C-DP” (“DP with conservation”) class distinct from both DP and LIM in space dimensions 1 to 3, and point at a crucial difference with the LIM which was overlooked in AM2002 . We also show that a specific C-PCPD class exists, while no significant departure from TCPD and PC scaling could be observed in the presence of the coupling to a static field with conservation.

Extending the notation introduced in BARW , we encode the rules by the order of the branching and annihilation reactions using letters s, p, t (standing for singleton, pair, triplet) for $`m,n=1,2,3`$, followed by integers $`k`$ and $`l`$. For instance, reactions \[$`2A+B3A`$, $`2A2B`$\] are coded as “conserved PCPD rule” C-pp12. Our two-species bosonic models are updated in two parallel sub-steps: $`A`$ particles move to one of their nearest neighbors (strong diffusion), then on-site reactions take place, involving the $`n_A`$ and $`n_B`$ particles present locally.

We first present our results on the implementation of the C-ss11 rule studied in PSV2000 . In this case, the branching reaction $`A+B2A`$ is performed for each of the $`n_A`$ particles present with probability $`p(n_B)=11/2^{n_B}`$, while the annihilation reaction $`AB`$ is performed every $`A`$ particle with probability $`q`$. Note that since $`p(0)=0`$, branching is indeed conditioned to the presence of $`B`$ particles. Unlike in PSV2000 , where the total density of particles is used as a control parameter, here we vary $`q`$, which allows to start from perfectly homogeneous initial conditions (typically one $`A`$ particle on each site). At large $`q`$, annihilation dominates and a static configuration of $`B`$ particles is quickly reached, while at small $`q`$ frequent branching ensures a stationary density of $`A`$ particles.

Our numerical methodology is standard: monitoring various order parameters (e.g. $`\rho _A`$ the density of $`A`$ particles), we first determine the critical point $`q_\mathrm{c}`$ separating decay to an absorbing state from sustained activity, expecting then an algebraic law ($`\rho _At^\delta `$) with $`\delta =\beta /\nu _{}`$. We record also, during these runs, the mean squared local gradient $`(h)^2`$ of the interface $`h(x,t)`$, where $`h(x,t)`$ is the time integral of the local activity at site $`x`$ until time $`t`$ ($`hh+1`$ whenever $`n_A>0`$, with $`h=0`$ initially). First introduced in DM2000  for DP-class models, this fictitious interface was shown to have “anomalous scaling” in the form of local gradients diverging algebraically at the critical point: $`(h)^2t^{2\kappa }`$. (Note that it is also the interface conjectured to behave like in the LIM by Alava and Muñoz for C-DP critical points AM2002 .) After this first series of runs, we estimate the decay of the (stationary) order parameter with the distance to the previously-estimated threshold, yielding an estimate of exponent $`\beta `$. Finally, exponent $`z`$ is estimated via the finite-size scaling of the lifetime of activity at threshold.

Table 1 summarizes our findings for the C-ss11 rule defined above in space dimensions 1 to 3. Since it is impossible, here, to present all the data which led to this table, we only show the most significant results, while a full report will appear elsewhere TBP . Two conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, we confirm that the coupling to the static particles $`B`$ together with the conservation law does break the DP class. Our estimates in 2D and 3D are consistent with those published earlier ROSSI ; PSV2000 ; LUEBECK , while in 1D (Fig. 1), our data exhibit more than 3 decades of scaling, leading to our estimate $`\delta _{1\mathrm{D}}^{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{DP}}=0.14(1)\delta _{1\mathrm{D}}^{\mathrm{DP}}=0.1596`$ (runs showing an effective decay exponent close to the DP value eventually become clearly subcritical). Secondly, our results also lead to ruling out LIM-class scaling: our estimates of exponents $`\delta `$, $`\beta `$ and $`z`$ for this C-ss11 rule cannot fully rule out LIM values (Table 1): no discrepancy could be registered in 2D, while in 1D and 3D we record significant but small differences (insets of Figs. 1 and 2). On the other hand, it is clear from our results on the “roughness exponent” $`\kappa `$ that there are fundamental differences between a LIM interface and the fictitious interface constructed at the C-ss11 critical points: in 1D, the LIM interface shows anomalous scaling, but $`\kappa `$ is more than twice smaller than for the C-ss11 rule (Fig. 1b). In higher dimensions, LIM interfaces are not locally rough ($`\kappa =0`$), i.e. there is surface tension (Fig. 2). Meanwhile, we observe, to numerical accuracy, $`2\kappa =1\delta 0`$ for the C-ss11 critical points, as observed for ordinary APT KAPPA .

In order to assess the robustness of the above results, we also studied a number of other rules whose “uncoupled” version have APT in the DP-class, implemented in the spirit of BARW . Consider for instance rule C-sp12, encoding reactions ($`A+B2A`$, $`2A2B`$). For each of the $`n_A/2`$ pairs of active particles present locally, either the branching or the annihilating reaction takes place with probability $`p`$ or $`q=1p`$. Here $`p`$ is independent of $`n_B`$, but the branching reaction is further subjected to the presence of enough $`B`$ particles among those present initially. Finally, if $`n_A=1`$, only the branching reaction can occur (with probability $`p`$ and if $`n_B>0`$).

Rule C-ss11, implemented as above, was investigated in 1, 2, and 3 dimensions, yielding exponent values equal, to numerical accuracy, to those reported in Table 1. Rules C-ss21, C-sp12, and C-ps11 were also studied thoroughly in 1D with, again, exponent values fully compatible with those found for rules C-ss11 (Fig. 3). All these results give credence to the existence of specific C-DP universality class, distinct from both the DP and the LIM classes.

We now report on our results on conserved PCPD, TCPD, and PC systems, which we only investigated in 1D. For rules C-pp12 and C-pp22, our estimates of critical exponents reveal an identical departure from the PCPD class which we interpret as testifying to the existence of a C-PCPD class. In particular, the critical decay experiments allow to clearly rule out the PCPD value of the $`\delta `$ exponent (Fig. 4). We find, for both rules studied: $`\delta =0.17(1)`$, $`\beta =0.32(2)`$ and $`z=1.55(5)`$, whereas our estimates for the PCPD class are $`\delta =0.20(1)`$, $`\beta =0.37(1)`$ and $`z=1.70(5)`$. The careful study of rules C-tt12 and C-tt22 did not reveal any significant departure from TCPD scaling for these C-TCPD rules. Similarly, we found only small influence of the coupling to a static field for generalized voter (PC) rules C-mp22 and C-mp42 TBP . We have, at present, no reason to believe that the C-PC and C-TCPD classes “do not exist”.

Before our main conclusions, we come back to the suggested equivalence between the LIM and C-DP classes which is contradicted by our numerical results. In the Leschhorn automaton LESCHHORN , used here for our estimates of LIM class exponents, an integer-height interface evolves in parallel according to:

$$h_ih_i+1\mathrm{iff}^2h_i+f_i>0$$
(1)
where $`i`$ is a lattice index and $`^2h_i`$ is the discrete Laplacian calculated with the nearest-neighbors of $`i`$. A key ingredient is the quenched bimodal random “force” $`f_i`$ ($`f_i=\pm 1`$ with probability $`p`$ and $`1p`$) which is redrawn every time the interface advances.

The evolution of the fictitious interfaces from which exponent $`\kappa `$ is estimated in C-DP models can be cast into an equation very similar to (1) AM2002 . This is perhaps best seen when considering the Manna or “fixed energy” sandpile, a much-studied model of the C-DP type which, unfortunately, suffers from severe corrections to scaling FES ; DICK-XXX ; TBP . There, if the number $`z_i`$ of “sand grains” present at lattice site $`i`$ is equal to or exceeds a a threshold $`z_\mathrm{c}`$ usually taken to be 2, then $`z_\mathrm{c}`$ grains independently hop to a randomly-chosen nearest-neighbor. This defines active and passive sites, corresponding to the above $`A`$ and $`B`$ particles, and the local conservation law is obviously that of the sand particles. The fictitious interface thus simply encodes the number of times a site has discharged its grains since $`t=0`$: $`h_ih_i+1`$ when $`z_iz_\mathrm{c}`$. This local discharge condition can be expressed in terms of $`z_i^{\mathrm{in}}`$ and $`z_i^{\mathrm{out}}`$, the cumulated number of particles received from and distributed to the neighbors. Consider, for simplicity, the 1D case with $`z_\mathrm{c}=2`$. Clearly, $`z_i^{\mathrm{out}}=2h_i`$, whereas $`z_i^{\mathrm{in}}`$ can be written as the sum of a mean flux $`(h_{i+1}+h_{i1})`$ and a fluctuating part $`\tau _i(h_i)`$ AL2001 ; AM2002 . The discharge condition is then expressed

$$h_{i+1}+h_{i1}2h_i1+z_i(0)+\tau _i(h_i)>0$$

where $`z_i(0)`$ is the initial number of particles on site $`i`$. In the general case, the fictitious interface thus obeys

$$h_ih_i+1\mathrm{iff}^2h_i1+z_i(0)+\tau _i(h_i)>0$$
(2)
which is, up to the presumably irrelevant “columnar noise” $`z_i(0)1`$, formally equivalent to Eq.(1). There exists, however, a fundamental difference between the two equations: whereas $`f_i`$ is a delta-correlated noise, $`\tau _i`$ is a sum of random variables and its amplitude diverges as $`t\mathrm{}`$. As a matter of fact, since $`z_i`$ is bounded, both $`(^2h)^2`$ and $`\tau (h)^2`$ must diverge in the same way. We have checked numerically that it is the case, and found moreover that $`(^2h)^2t^{2\kappa }`$. On the other hand, for the Leschhorn automaton interfaces, the amplitudes of both the noise and the Laplacian remain bounded, indicating that it constitutes a reasonable physical interface model, even though $`(h)^2`$ diverges in 1D.

These results indicate that the connection between C-DP and LIM via the fictitious interfaces is only formal and bears no reality. Thus, the numerical values of exponents $`\delta `$, $`z`$ and $`\beta `$ are probably coincidentally very close to each other in both classes, and C-DP critical scaling defines a universality class distinct from that of the LIM.

To sum up, we have found evidence that the coupling of usual reaction-diffusion systems to a static field with a local conservation law changes the scaling laws of their transitions to absorbing states, giving rise to bona fide universality classes distinct from previously known ones. Naturally, these results call for rigorous analytical confirmation which will probably only happen when the classification of simple APT (DP, PCPD, etc.) is itself given some solid theoretical basis.

Reaching a global understanding of absorbing phase transitions with coupling to an auxiliary field requires, from our viewpoint, to study the respective importance of the static or diffusive character of this field and of the presence of a conservation law. In particular, the sole coupling to a static field (without conservation) is usually believed to be irrelevant from existing work on simple fermionic models such as the pair contact process PCP . This should now be tested against the general framework put forward here. Similarly, the case of a diffusive field with conservation should be extended beyond the DP-class. Both directions are currently being investigated.

We thank M.A. Muñoz and F. van Wijland for many fruitful discussions.


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# Rapidity and Centrality Dependence of Proton and Anti-proton Production from 197Au+197Au Collisions at √𝑠__NN=130 GeV

## Abstract

We report on the rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and anti-proton transverse mass distributions from 197Au+197Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}}=130`$ GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Our results are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of $`|y|<0.5`$ and 0.35 $`<p_t<`$1.00 GeV/$`c`$. For both protons and anti-protons, transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions demonstrating characteristics of collective expansion. The measured rapidity distributions and the mean transverse momenta versus rapidity are flat within $`|y|<0.5`$. Comparisons of our data with results from model calculations indicate that in order to obtain a consistent picture of the proton(anti-proton) yields and transverse mass distributions the possibility of pre-hadronic collective expansion may have to be taken into account.

High energy nuclear collisions provide a unique opportunity to study matter under extreme conditions for which one expects the formation of a system dominated by deconfined quarks and gluons qm01 . In the search for this deconfined state, baryons play an important role. Incoming beam baryons provide the energy for particle production and development of collective motion. It has systematically been observed that the net-baryon number determines the chemical properties pbm02 . In addition, baryon transport and baryon production during the collision are particularly interesting because of their dynamical nature buza88 ; hansen95 ; e814proton ; e866pbarp ; na44proton ; na49netproton . However, these are difficult processes due to their non-perturbative features date85 ; kapusta01 . At the RHIC energy $`\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}}`$ =130 GeV, anti-proton to proton ratios and yields at mid-rapidity have been reported by several experiments starpbarp ; phenixpikap ; bramhs02 ; phobos\_ratio . In the region of $`p_t`$ 2-3 GeV/$`c`$, the yield of protons approaches that of pions phenixpikap  in central collisions. The exact origin of this behavior is not clear and systematic measurements of baryon distributions are important.

In this Letter, we present a systematic measurement of proton and anti-proton production in Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}=130`$ GeV in the rapidity range $`0.5<y<0.5`$ and for transverse momenta $`0.35<p_t<1.00`$ GeV/c. In particular, we report the first RHIC measurements of the rapidity dependence of the proton and anti-proton yields, essential for exploring the existence of a boost-invariant region in the system. We also study the centrality dependence of the yields and mean transverse momenta for protons and anti-protons. These results allow for a detailed comparison to model predictions of proton and anti-proton production at RHIC.

Two independent 197Au beams with an energy of 65 GeV per nucleon were provided by the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. These beams collided around the geometric center of the Solenoid Tracker at RHIC (STAR). Charged particles stemming from these collisions were measured in a large volume Time Projection Chamber (TPC) tpc . A large solenoidal magnet of 0.25 T field strength provided momentum dispersion in the direction transverse to the beam line.

For this analysis, we used 320k events with a minimum bias trigger and 154k events with a trigger selecting the 10% most central events starpbarp . Events with a primary vertex within $`\pm 30`$ cm of the geometric center of the TPC along the beam axis were accepted. Tracks were required to have at least 23 out of 45 maximum possible space points in the TPC and to extrapolate back to the primary vertex within 2 cm (distance of closest approach, $`dca`$). To define the collision centrality, the measured raw multiplicity distribution of charged particles within the pseudorapidity range $`|\eta |<0.75`$ was divided into eight bins. The highest centrality bin corresponds to 6% of the measured cross section for 197Au+197Au collisions star\_v2 . Protons and anti-protons were identified by correlating their energy loss $`dE/dx`$ due to ionization in the TPC gas with the measured momentum. This method has already been presented in starpbarp .

The track reconstruction efficiency was determined by embedding simulated tracks into real events at the raw data level and subsequently applying the full reconstruction algorithm to those events. The propagation of single tracks was performed using the GEANT Monte Carlo code with a detailed model of the STAR geometry and a realistic simulation of the TPC response. The resulting track reconstruction efficiency is $`>70`$% at $`p_t>`$ 0.5 GeV/$`c`$ for all centralities. By varying the track cuts, the overall systematic uncertainty in the track reconstruction efficiency is estimated to be less than 10%. Further, the relative resolution in transverse momentum was derived to be $`4\%`$ at $`p_t`$ = 0.5 GeV/$`c`$.

Secondary interactions of particles with the detector material generated background protons. Due to their different geometric origin, these background protons appear as a rather flat tail in the $`dca`$-distribution which extends into the peak region of primary protons at small $`dca`$. In order to correct for background protons, the proton $`dca`$–distribution was fitted by the scaled anti-proton $`dca`$–distribution (which is background free) plus the results on the proton background from Monte Carlo calculations. Raw yields were extracted for protons and anti-protons with $`dca<2.0`$ cm, optimizing the signal to background ratio for protons. The raw yields were then corrected for track reconstruction efficiency, proton background and in the case of anti-protons, for absorption in the detector material. The detector acceptance for protons(anti-protons) from the decay of lambdas(anti-lambdas) or other hyperons(anti-hyperons) is estimated to be larger than 95%. Corrections for feeddown from decays of hyperons(anti-hyperons) were not applied.

The mid-rapidity ($`|y|0.5`$) proton and anti-proton transverse mass distributions for all 8 centrality bins are shown in Fig. 1. Here, the transverse mass $`m_t`$ is given by $`m_t=\sqrt{p_t^2+m_p^2}`$, with $`m_p`$ the rest mass of the proton. The uncorrelated bin-to-bin systematic errors are estimated to be less than 7%. It is evident that both proton (left panel) and anti-proton (right panel) distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions indicating an increase in transverse radial flow. In order to extract $`p_t`$-integrated yields, $`dN/dy`$ and mean transverse momenta $`p_t`$, hydrodynamically motivated fits uli93  were applied, assuming a thermal source plus transverse radial flow. The fit parameters are the temperature $`T_{fo}`$ at kinetic freeze-out and the transverse radial flow velocity $`\beta _s`$ at the system surface. A velocity profile $`\beta _t(r)=\beta _s(r/R)^{0.5}`$ was used, where $`R`$ is the radius of the source. These fits simultaneously describe experimental spectra of charged pions starpion , kaons starkaon , protons and anti-protons. The fit-results are shown as dashed lines in Fig. 1. The description of the experimental data is remarkably good. When strong collective flow develops, the transverse mass distributions for heavy mass particles will not have the simple exponential shape at low transverse mass. Therefore, the hydrodynamically motivated two parameter fits become necessary na44flow . The increase of $`p_t`$ with centrality is indeed reflected in the values of the collective velocity parameter $`\beta _t`$, which increase from about (0.42$`\pm `$0.10)$`c`$ to (0.56$`\pm `$0.05)$`c`$ from the most peripheral to the most central collisions, respectively.

Note that in starpbarp , the anti-proton transverse momentum distributions were fitted with a Gaussian function in $`p_t`$. The difference between the model fit results and Gaussian fits in $`p_t`$ are $`<6`$% and $`<10`$% for $`p_t`$ and integrated yields $`dN/dy`$, respectively. Using other functions, i.e. exponential in $`m_t`$ and a Boltzmann function, the systematic uncertainty in $`dN/dy`$ due to extrapolation is estimated to be less than 20%. Similarly, the systematic uncertainty in $`p_t`$ is less than 6%. The total systematic uncertainty in $`dN/dy`$ is less than 22%, adding the contributions due to extrapolation (20%) and the track reconstruction efficiency (10%) in quadrature.

The proton and anti-proton rapidity distributions are shown in Fig. 2 (a) and (b) for different collision centralities. In the $`p_t`$-range not covered by this experiment, the yield was extracted from the thermal model fit. The results are shown in Table I, which indicates that about 50% of the integrated yield was measured within the STAR TPC acceptance. The bin-to-bin systematic errors, due to background subtraction and PID contamination, are included in the plot. Since the shapes of the transverse mass distributions of protons and anti-protons do not differ within statistical errors, the extracted values of $`p_t`$ shown in Fig. 2(c) are the average of the two. Within $`|y|<0.5`$, both values of $`p_t`$ and $`dN/dy`$ are found to be uniform as a function of rapidity indicating that at RHIC – for the first time in heavy ion collisions – a boost invariant region of at least one unit of rapidity for all centrality bins has developed. An analysis of charged particle ratios BRAHMS\_03  has demonstrated that at RHIC energies a boost invariant region does not exist at $`|y|>1.5`$. It will be of interest to study the rapidity distributions of different mass hadrons at RHIC.

The top panels of Figure 3 show the $`p_t`$ within $`|y|0.5`$ for protons (left) and anti-protons (right). The corresponding yields, $`dN/dy`$ are shown in the bottom panels. The open symbols represent fiducial yields and filled ones show the integrated yields. The shaded bands indicate the systematic uncertainties in extracting $`p_t`$ and $`dN/dy`$. Both values of $`p_t`$ and $`dN/dy`$ are in good agreement with results from PHENIX phenixpikap . Experimental results on the lambda(anti-lambda) yields starlambda , show that the contribution of feeddown from hyperon decays to the proton(anti-proton) yields is $``$40%. The increase of $`p_t`$ vs. centrality in the figure indicates the development of stronger collective expansion in more central collisions. Results from calculations with RQMD sorge95 , RQMD with re-scattering switched off (w/o) and HIJING hijingpr ; vance99  are represented by solid, dashed, and dashed-dotted lines, respectively. In the RQMD model sorge95 ; d1  hadronic re-scattering has been implemented. This leads to the agreement with measurements in the mean transverse momentum. On the other hand, without the re-scattering, the HIJING model under-predicts the proton and anti-proton $`p_t`$, especially for central collisions. Overall, the model calculations fail to predict the experimental yields consistently throughout the whole centrality range. Discrepancies between measured $`\overline{p}/p`$ ratios and predictions from RQMD and HIJING have been reported by other experiments bramhs02 ; phobos\_ratio .

The bottom panels of Fig. 3 show that the observed mid-rapidity ($`|y|0.5`$) proton and anti-proton yields, $`dN/dy`$ are proportional to the number of charged hadrons. RQMD fails to predict the centrality dependence of the anti-proton yield due to the strong annihilation in hadronic re-scattering, especially in central collisions. Because of the annihilation, RQMD predicts a change in the $`\overline{p}/p`$ ratio of almost a factor of two from peripheral to central collisions, which is not consistent with observations starpbarp .

The results from RQMD reflect that within that model there is strong annihilation among baryons, and that large values of $`p_t`$ are built up from late hadronic rescatterings. Based on RQMD, the annihilation of anti-protons created initially is expected to increase from 20% for perpiheral collisions, to 50% for the most central collisions. This is not consistent with the trend in Fig. 3, which indicates the measured proton and anti-proton yields increase approximately linearly with the number of negatively charged hadrons. This raises an important question. If, on the one hand the increase in annihilation with centrality predicted by RQMD is correct, then the centrality dependence of the initial baryon production must be much stronger than the linear dependence observed in Fig. 3, and the rough agreement between RQMD and the data for anti-protons is fortuitous. If, on the other hand, the agreement between RQMD and the linear dependence observed in Fig. 3 for anti-protons is correct, a possible explanation is that the anti-proton loss due to annihilation is smaller in central collisions than in peripheral collisions. This suggests the anti-protons may decouple from the surrounding matter early, and that the large experimental values of $`p_t`$ which are observed must arise from collective flow in the early stage cgc ; starflow ; starbb . In order to distinguish this possibility from other possible scenarios rapp  and study possible early-stage partonic collectivity at RHIC, systematic measurements of multi-strange baryons, charmed mesons, and particle correlations are necessary.

In summary, we have reported on the centrality dependence of proton and anti-proton transverse mass and rapidity distributions from 197Au+197Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}}=130`$ GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The results reported here are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of $`|y|<0.5`$ and 0.35$`<p_t<`$1.00 GeV/$`c`$. For both protons and anti-protons, the transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions indicating the enhancement of collective expansion in more central collisions. The rapidity distributions and $`p_t`$ versus rapidity are found to be flat within $`|y|<0.5`$ suggesting a boost invariant region around mid-rapidity. The comparison of our data to results from microscopic transport models suggests that the observed collective expansion might have been dominantly developed at the early stage of the collision.

We thank Drs. W. Busza, M. Gyulassy and V. Topor-Pop for exciting discussions. We wish to thank the RHIC Operations Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory for their tremendous support and for providing collisions for the experiment. This work was supported by the Division of Nuclear Physics and the Division of High Energy Physics of the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States National Science Foundation, the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung of Germany, the Institut National de la Physique Nucleaire et de la Physique des Particules of France, the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.