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# References

A class of compact dwarf galaxies from disruptive processes in galaxy clusters.

M. J. Drinkwater, M. D. Gregg, M. Hilker, K. Bekki§ W. J. Couch§ H. C. Ferguson J. B. Jones & S. Phillipps#

Published: 2003, Nature, 423, 519-521

Department of Physics, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072,Australia

Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, CA95616 and Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-413, Livermore, CA 94550, USA

Sternwarte der Universität Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany

§ School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia

Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, U.S.A.

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K.

# Astrophysics Group, Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, U.K.

Dwarf galaxies have attracted increased attention in recent years, because of their susceptibility to galaxy transformation processes within rich galaxy clusters1, 2, 3. Direct evidence for these processes, however, has been difficult to obtain, with a small number of diffuse light trails4 and intra-cluster stars5, 6 being the only signs of galaxy disruption. Furthermore, our current knowledge of dwarf galaxy populations may be very incomplete, since traditional galaxy surveys are insensitive to extremely diffuse or compact galaxies7. Aware of these concerns, we undertook a novel all-object survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster8. This revealed a new population of compact members9, 10, completely overlooked in previous conventional surveys. Here we demonstrate that these “ultra-compact” dwarf galaxies are structurally and dynamically distinct from both globular star clusters and known types of dwarf galaxy, and thus represent a new class of dwarf galaxy. Our data are consistent with the interpretation that these are the remnant nuclei of disrupted dwarf galaxies, making them an easily observed tracer of galaxy disruption.

We used the Two Degree Field (2dF) multi-object spectrograph on the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope to make the first ever large all-object spectroscopic survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster8. The 400-fibre multiplex advantage of the 2dF allowed us to include unresolved objects (normally ignored as “stars”). Among these “stars” we discovered9, 10 a population of objects in the cluster with luminosities of $`M_V11`$ mag, intermediate between typical globular star clusters ($`M_V8`$ mag) and normal dwarf galaxies ($`M_V`$ $``$11 to $``$16 mag). These “ultra-compact” dwarf (UCD) galaxies are unlike other dwarf galaxies of similar luminosity by virtue of their high central concentration and thus star-like morphology in typical 1 arcsecond resolution ground-based imaging. At the distance of the Fornax Cluster11 (20 Mpc; Hubble constant $`H_0=75`$ km$`\mathrm{s}^1`$ Mpc-1) this implies sizes of, at most, 100 pc. We proposed9 that the UCDs were either unusually large and isolated star clusters or a new type of compact galaxy perhaps formed by the disruption of nucleated dwarf galaxies. The UCDs are more luminous than Galactic globular star clusters, but they could be the extreme bright tail of the populous globular cluster system around the central galaxy of the Fornax Cluster NGC 139912. The UCD luminosities, however, also suggestively overlap the luminosity distribution of the nuclei of dwarf elliptical galaxies (which peaks at $`M_V10`$ mag13). A third possibility is that UCDs are simply ordinary nucleated dwarf ellipticals, but at one extreme of a continuous sequence of envelope luminosities, having envelopes too faint to be easily detected. The lack of extended halos around the UCDs in photographic images10 argued against this third hypothesis. In this letter we present new observations of the UCDs aimed at determining their nature. Our deep imaging of the Fornax Cluster confirms that UCDs are morphologically distinct from ordinary dwarf ellipticals while our high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy show that they are not globular star clusters, so they represent a new class of dwarf galaxy. Our interpretation is that the UCDs are the stripped nuclei of dwarf elliptical galaxies and as such are a new tracer of galaxy disruption processes in clusters.

That normal dwarf galaxies and UCDs are quite distinct, morphologically, is shown in Fig. 1 where we present an envelope surface brightness versus core luminosity plot. Nucleated dwarf elliptical (dE,N) galaxies show a correlation between the effective surface brightness of their envelopes and their core luminosities. In contrast, UCDs lie in a completely different region of this diagram: since they have no detectable outer envelope, only upper limits can be put on their surface brightness, all of which lie 3.5 magnitudes (a factor of 25) fainter than the dE,N galaxies with the same nuclear luminosity. Any intermediate objects would have easily been detected in our survey so UCDs are clearly not part of the normal distribution of dwarf elliptical galaxies. The UCDs are also more concentrated to the centre of the cluster than the dwarf galaxies9; the radial distribution of the 7 known UCDs differs from that of the 37 dE,N galaxies in our survey at the 99.7% confidence level. We therefore conclude that UCDs are not extreme examples of normal dwarf galaxies with very faint envelopes.

We obtained high-resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of the first five UCDs discovered. We also observed a normal nucleated dwarf elliptical (dE,N) galaxy for comparison. Further comparisons are provided by similar published observations of six dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo Cluster14. Our images are shown in Fig. 2. The UCDs are very compact, typically only a few times larger than the 0.05 arc second image resolution. The UCD profiles were well-fitted by both King models (normal for globular star clusters) and de Vaucouleurs R1/4 law profiles (normal for giant elliptical galaxies) but are not consistent with the exponential profiles typical of normal dwarf galaxies (excluded at the 99.9% confidence level). The effective radii (defined to contain half the light) of the UCDs range from 10 to 22 parsecs. In the case of the most luminous UCD, UCD3, the model profile required an additional, but still very small (60 pc scale length), exponential halo component for a good fit. As expected, the comparison nucleated dwarf, FCC 303, also required a two-component model of a core plus a larger (300 pc scale length) exponential halo. The UCD cores are all significantly larger than Galactic globular star clusters (typical effective radii of 3–5 pc) and are also larger than the 8 pc core of the nucleated dwarf, FCC 303. Conversely, the UCDs are all smaller than known dwarf galaxies. Even the halo we do detect around UCD3 is tiny for a dwarf elliptical; the most compact normal dwarf galaxies in the Virgo Cluster have scale lengths of 160 pc 15.

To study the internal dynamics and estimate the masses of the UCDs and FCC 303, we measured their internal velocity dispersions with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the W.M. Keck-II Telescope. The velocity dispersions range from 24 to 37 km$`\mathrm{s}^1`$, considerably higher than those of Galactic globular star clusters, but overlapping the values published for the most luminous globular star clusters in the spiral galaxy M 31 16. Assuming the UCDs are dynamically relaxed systems, we can use their sizes and velocity dispersions to estimate their masses. Using a King model mass estimator17 for our profile fits we obtain masses of 1–5$`\times 10^7\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (Solar masses) for the UCDs and 1.4$`\times 10^7\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for the dE,N galaxy nucleus, compared to around $`4\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ for the most massive globular star clusters16. We obtained similar masses using Plummer models18, although these profiles did not fit our data as well. Using the HST data to measure the total V-band luminosities of the UCDs, we derived their mass-to-light ratios. The mass-to-light ($`M/L`$) ratios range from 2 to 4 in Solar units, compared to around unity for typical globular star clusters. The largest globular star clusters in M 31 have $`M/L=`$1–2. In summary, the UCDs have luminosities, sizes and velocity dispersions similar to the cores of nucleated dwarf galaxies (in both the Fornax and Virgo14 clusters), but are larger and have higher mass-to-light ratios than even the largest globular star clusters.

The distinction between UCDs and other types of stellar system is made even clearer if we consider the dynamical correlations between the physical observables of luminosity and velocity dispersion shown in Fig. 3. The figure compares UCDs with globular clusters, nucleated dwarf elliptical galaxies and giant elliptical galaxies. We also include the large Milky Way globular cluster, $`\omega `$ Centauri, which is thought to have originated outside the Milky Way19. The UCDs lie well off the globular cluster $`L\sigma ^{1.7}`$ relation16, filling a previously unoccupied part of the diagram, but on an extrapolation of the elliptical galaxy $`L\sigma ^4`$ Faber-Jackson law20. The properties of the cores of the comparison dE,N galaxies are also shown: these are distributed between the globular clusters and the UCDs. The locations of the UCDs and the dwarf galaxy nuclei strongly support the “galaxy threshing” hypothesis: UCDs are nucleated dwarf galaxies whose outer envelopes have been tidally stripped by interactions with the central cluster galaxy3. Removing the halo of a normal dE,N galaxy reduces the total luminosity by a factor of $`100`$ (5 mag), but barely changes the central velocity dispersion and nuclear luminosity (the dynamical relaxation time of the remaining core can be as long as $`10^{11}`$ years). The predicted effect of threshing is shown as a dotted line in Fig. 3 connecting the positions of FCC303 and that of its nucleus alone. The case for tidal stripping is further supported by our detection of a small halo around the largest UCD. This object may be partially stripped, caught at an intermediate stage between UCDs and dE,N galaxies. As threshing will have been at least as important at earlier times in the life of the cluster, this implies a much larger population of UCDs than the 7 currently known, although if they have the same luminosity function as dwarf galaxy nuclei13, most will be fainter than the limit of our survey.

Our new observations confirm that UCDs are qualitatively different to both nucleated dwarf galaxies and the most luminous globular star clusters. Even if UCDs were formed from dE,N galaxies, as proposed by the threshing hypothesis, they constitute a new and distinct type of galaxy, just as spirals stripped of their star forming abilities constitute the galaxy type S021, and merging disk galaxies are believed to form ellipticals. The discovery of these objects confirms the prediction7 that very compact galaxies exist which were previously misclassified as foreground stars. Although we have shown that UCDs are dynamically distinct from globular star clusters, the two can only be distinguished at the distance of the Fornax Cluster by high resolution imaging and spectroscopy. Any UCDs captured by the central elliptical may therefore be mistaken for ordinary globular star clusters in existing studies. The two populations could be separated, in principle, by observations similar to those we described here to place them in Fig. 3, but the requisite spectroscopy for fainter objects would be challenging with existing 8–10 m telescopes. Any dismantled dwarf elliptical galaxies captured by the central galaxy will also contribute ordinary globular star clusters to the mix. Together, these processes may explain the unusually high frequency of globular star clusters in the central elliptical galaxies of galaxy clusters22 because these dwarf galaxies also contain higher than average globular cluster populations23. Searches for UCDs in other rich environments, the populous Virgo Cluster as well as dense groups, will clarify the nature and origin of UCDs while also potentially exploring the role of tidal disruption processes in galaxy and cluster evolution.

Acknowledgements. This paper is based on observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, the W.M. Keck Telescope, and the Las Campanas Observatory 100-inch du Pont Telescope. This work is supported by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. MDG acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation and from the Space Telescope Science Institute and NASA which is operated by AURA, Inc. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to M.J.D. (e-mail: mjd@physics.uq.edu.au).

Figure 1. Comparison of the morphology of ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies with normal nucleated dwarf elliptical (dE,N) galaxies in the Fornax Cluster. The envelope effective surface brightness in V of the objects is plotted as a function of the V-band luminosity of their cores. The luminosity is in units of V-band absolute magnitude $`M_V=const2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}L`$, luminosity $`L`$ increasing left-to-right. The surface brightness of the UCDs are upper limits as no envelopes were detected on scales greater than the image resolution (2 arcseconds full-width half-maximum). The data are from deep images of 2.4 square degrees in the centre of the Fornax Cluster taken with the 100-inch du Pont telescope of the Las Campanas Observatory24. This region contains the original 5 UCDs as well as 18 nucleated dwarf elliptical galaxies25.

Figure 2. Comparison of Hubble Space Telescope images of the ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies with a normal nucleated dwarf galaxy (FCC 30325). The panel showing FCC 303 is at the same contrast as the other five; the inset in the upper left is at a lower contrast to show the nucleus. The extended halo of FCC 303 more than fills the 50 arc second field (4.9 kpc or $`1.5\times 10^{20}`$m at the Fornax Cluster). These images, shown in negative format, were obtained in the unfiltered mode of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The one-orbit (40 minute) exposures were made in the “clearpass” optical CCD imaging mode of STIS for maximum sensitivity. We measured the UCD sizes with the “ishape” program26, which iteratively convolves a chosen model profile with the STIS point spread function to match the galaxy profile by minimising a $`\chi ^2`$ difference statistic. We used a fitting radius of 0.8 arcsec (16 pixels) corresponding to the same physical radius of 75 pc as used in the Virgo study14 and obtained effective radii for the UCDs of 10–22 pc.

Figure 3. Comparison of the internal dynamics of the UCDs with normal galaxies and globular star clusters. The internal velocity dispersions ($`\sigma _0`$) of the different objects are plotted as a function of luminosity (in units of V-band absolute magnitude $`M_V=const2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}L`$, luminosity $`L`$ increasing left-to-right). The dashed lines show the Faber-Jackson relation20 for elliptical galaxies and the steeper relation16 followed by Galactic and M 31 globular clusters. The dotted lines show the path predicted by our “threshing” scenario for nucleated dwarfs being stripped to form UCDs. The small solid symbols show the locations of dwarf galaxy nuclei after model subtraction of their parent galaxies. All the data are taken from the literature (globular clusters16, $`\omega `$ Centauri27, ellipticals28, nucleated dwarf ellipticals14) except for our measurements of the UCDs and FCC 303. Note that the UCDs fill a previously empty region of the diagram between the globular clusters and galaxies. The velocity dispersions were obtained from high-resolution spectra using the Very Large Telescope UV Echelle Spectrograph and Keck Telescope Echelle Spectrograph and Imager. We measured velocity dispersions using standard cross-correlations of the object spectra with stellar template spectra to determine both a redshift and a correlation width. The correlation width was used to estimate the velocity dispersion by comparison with results from artificially broadening the template stars by convolution with Gaussian filters of known widths.


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# Current models for the evolution of AGB stars

## 1. Introduction

The final evolution of low and intermediate mass stars proceeds through the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), post-AGB phase and finally the white dwarf phase. The post-AGB phase can be sub-divided according to the evolutionary state of the circumstellar matter into the central star phase of proto-planetary nebulae and planetary nebulae (PNe).

By the early eighties of the last century the dominant aspects of the evolution of low and intermediate mass giant stars had been qualitatively recognized and summarized in the seminal review by Iben & Renzini (1983). These include the first and second dredge-up (DUP), thermal pulses (TP), the relation of core mass, luminosity, metalicity etc., the luminosity variation during a pulse cycle, the main nuclear reactions and element production, hot bottom burning (HBB, called more prosaic *envelope burning* at that time), pulsational properties, mass loss (including the necessity for some kind of *superwind*), the concept of synthetic AGB models, the AGB luminosity function as well as the large potential of pre-solar meteoritic material which originates in the cool outflows of AGB stars. In addition the general picture of the transition from the AGB to the post-AGB, the formation of PNe was established and so were the concept of post-AGB TPs and the nature of the PNe abundances as reflecting the heritage of the progenitor evolution. It was speculated on the role of overshooting from the bottom of the convective envelope and the need for rotationally induced mixing. And already at that time IRC 10+216 had received much attention.

Extensive grids of full stellar evolution models (see Sect. 2.) including the above mechanism in more detail were constructed over the following decade (Lattanzio, 1986; Boothroyd & Sackmann, 1988; Vassiliadis & Wood, 1993; Blöcker, 1995, and related papers by these authors). AGB stars were recognized as the production site for the $`s`$-process elements, but the dominance of the radiative burning of $`{}_{}{}^{13}\mathrm{C}`$ during the interpulse phase was only discovered later (Straniero et al., 1995; Gallino et al., 1998). In addition a deeper understanding of the third DUP in low mass AGB stars as required by the luminosities of carbon stars in the LMC (Richer, 1981) developed only fairly recently when the dependence on numerical details (Frost & Lattanzio, 1996) and the connection to the treatment of the convective boundaries of *both the bottom of the convective envelope and the bottom of the He-flash convection zone* was recognized (Herwig et al., 1997; Mowlavi, 1999; Herwig, 2000). The more recent efforts in modeling AGB stars were discussed by several authors during the IAU Symp. 191 in Montpellier, France in 1998 (e.g. Blöcker, 1999).

It turns out that we now know much more about the details of AGB stellar evolution, in particular with respect to the nucleosynthesis in these stars (e.g. Forestini & Charbonnel, 1997; Mowlavi & Meynet, 2000; Busso et al., 1999; Marigo, 2001). Degenerate TPs were described by Frost et al. (1998), and extensive computations have explored the evolution of the most massive AGB stars in the initial mass range of 9 to 11$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (Ritossa et al., 1999, and references therein). The swallowing of planets or brown dwarfs by AGB stars have been investigated by Siess & Livio (1999).

In this paper I will not repeat the basic properties of AGB stars, which are - as mentioned above - well documented in the literature. Instead, I describe in Sect. 2. the different methods currently in use for modeling the interior processes of AGB stars. In Sect. 3. I concentrate on the *various links between the different aspects of the advanced evolution* of low and intermediate mass stars and how these relations offer new diagnostic tools for investigating AGB stars.

## 2. Modeling AGB stars

### Full stellar models

In this approach the basic stellar structure equations are solved through the entire star for each time step. The change of abundances due to both mixing and nuclear processing is computed at each time step as well. Mixing is generally treated in some time dependent manner (e.g. by solving a diffusion-like equation for each chemical species), while nucleosynthesis is treated by solving the set of rate equations which describe nuclear production and destruction for each isotope. The evolution is followed consistently from the pre-main sequence through all evolutionary phases up to the TP-AGB, and sometimes continued into the white dwarf stage. Models have high spatial and time resolution. A thermal pulse cycle is resolved by of the order of 5000 models on about 2000 spatial grid points. In particular high resolution is needed in time during the DUP phase ($`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ weeks) and in space at the core-envelope interface ($`\mathrm{\Delta }m10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$). Recent computations of such models include those by Straniero et al. (1997), Wagenhuber & Groenewegen (1998) and Heriwg (2000).

While most models have been computed using the operator split method in which the treatment of structure, mixing and nucleosynthesis is separately and sequentially treated, there have been efforts to overcome this approximation. Pols & Tout (2002) have computed TP-AGB models with an updated version of the Eggleton code which solves the structure equations and those of composition changes simultaneously. Their results are good and bad news. The good news is that the model properties with this much more computationally demanding strategy is very similar to recent models by Mowlavi (1999) and Herwig (2000) in particular with respect to the amount of third DUP obtained in the models. The bad news is that results are still somewhat dependent on the detailed treatment of mixing at the convective boundary (see the paragraph on the third DUP in Sect. 3.).

Two other variations on the operator split theme have been played. Straniero et al. (1997) have combined the structure and the nuclear burning operator but the implications for the evolution of AGB stars are not immediately clear. More relevant for AGB and post-AGB stars is the combination of the mixing and the nucleosynthesis operator. Such a treatment is needed whenever a relevant nuclear time scale is similar or smaller than the convective turnover timescale, which applies to models of the lithium evolution in HBB stars, zero-metalicity AGB stars as well as the *very late* variant of the post-AGB TP.

Models as described in this category are now outfitted with a description of the effects of stellar rotation. The pilot study by Langer et al. (1999) showed considerable effect both on the structural and the abundance evolution. In particular strong shear mixing induced by a steep angular velocity gradient at the core-envelope interface after the onset of the third DUP is potentially instrumental for the $`{}_{}{}^{13}\mathrm{C}`$ neutron source of the $`s`$-process.

### Synthetic models

The detailed computation of full TP-AGB stellar models has been for a long time too tedious a task to compute complete sets of models for a wide range of mass, metalicity, mass loss and extra mixing prescription, with a sufficiently small spacing in all these parameters and with many isotopic species needed for detailed comparisons with observations. An alternative are synthetic models, which summarize the results of full stellar models through simple analytical relations. This procedure has been initially applied by Iben & Truran (1978) and Renzini & Voli (1981). Such models are useful for other than the AGB evolutionary stages as well (Hurley et al., 2000). Modern synthetic models with a focus on AGB stars have been presented by Groenewegen & de Jong (1993) and Marigo et al. (1996) and subsequent improvements. Most recent models feature a full envelope integration which allows for a mass and metalicity dependent parameterization of the third dredge-up and for a reliable treatment of the HBB burning in massive AGB stars (Marigo, 1998; Mariga et al., 1999). Because it is possible to cover a large parameter space, extensive tables of stellar yields have been computed (van den Hoek & Groenewegen, 1997; Marigo, 2001). These tables also include predictions on the PN composition. In principle, it should be simple to consider the effect of an oxygen enriched intershell, as studied in detail by Herwig (2000).

### Post-processing and parametric nucleosynthesis models

Most modern stellar evolution codes consider a sufficient number of isotopes in a nuclear network in order to follow the main nuclear processes in some detail. For AGB stellar models these include hydrogen-burning by the CNO cycle, and triple-$`\alpha `$ and $`{}_{}{}^{12}\mathrm{C}(\alpha ,\gamma )^{16}\mathrm{O}`$ for He-burning. However, AGB stars are interesting because of their large potential of interesting nucleosynthesis. Because of the time consuming nature of computing stellar structure model sequences of AGB stars, the method of post-processing can be employed in order to create detailed nucleosynthesis models of AGB stars with large networks. A post-processing code uses structure output of full stellar evolution models (see above). For a given initial composition (typically the abundance profile of the first post-processed structure model) the abundance changes are computed model by model according to the sequence of stellar structure models. Such a method may be confined only to a particularly interesting section of a star, like the layer including the two burning shells and the intershell in AGB stars. The post-processing method is, for example, routinely used in the combination of the Australian *MSSSP/MOSN* codes (Lattanzio et al., 1996). Gallino et al. (1998) and Goriely & Mowlavi (2000) presented post-processing models for the $`s`$-process in AGB stars. Here this method is useful because the decisive nucleosynthesis happens only in a tiny mass layer in the star, to which modeling can be confined. In addition small artificial changes can be introduced, which help to overcome certain incapabilities of mixing in full models. Finally, Herwig et al. (2002) used this method in a high resolution variant to study the $`s`$-process in rotating AGB stars. Since mixing plays an important role in the considered nuclear production site, their fully implicit code also solves for mixing processes according to the input stellar structure models.

## 3. Making the connection: Concepts across the final stages of evolution

Several concepts and properties of AGB and post-AGB stars and their relations are displayed in Fig. 1. In this

section we will discuss the displayed aspects.

How to obtain the third DUP in TP-AGB models has been discussed intensely in recent years. Many models still do not show DUP at low core masses (e.g. Wagenhuber & Groenewegen, 1998). The models by Straniero etal. (1997) feature DUP by using no extra mixing, but they generate carbon stars too luminous to be compatible with the C-star luminosity function (CLF). It is clear now that envelope overshooting improves the models ability to reproduce efficient DUP at low core masses (Mowlavi, 1999), and also the operator split issue plays a role (see Sect. 2.). Nevertheless, also for these models the DUP is probably not compatible with the CLF (although this has not been checked quantitatively), and the same is true for the investigations of the dredge-up law by Karakas etal. (these proceedings; Lattanzio, priv. com.). DUP can however be enhanced beyond the level achieved in the above mentioned models by overshoot from the He-flash convection zone (intershell overshoot, Herwig, 2000). The set of model calculations presented by Herwig et al. (2000) contain carbon stars with the lowest luminosities obtained from full stellar models. However, a quantitative comparison with the CLF has not yet been carried out. Current models of rotating AGB stars (Lanter et al., 1999) do not show enhanced DUP efficiency. The influence of rotation on the $`s`$-process in AGB stars has been addressed by Herwig, Langer & Lugaro (these proceedings).

The above mentioned intershell overshoot has two side effects which appear to contradict each other. Intershell overshoot increases the temperature at the bottom of the He-flash convection zone and thereby leads to $`{}_{}{}^{96}\mathrm{Zr}/^{94}\mathrm{Zr}`$-ratios incompatible with measurements of mainstream pre-solar SiC grains (Lugaro & Herwig, 2001). In addition intershell overshoot significantly increases the oxygen abundance in that layer. It can not be stressed enough that this is indeed a very desirable feature if one is concerned with the origin of H-deficient post-AGB stars of PG1159 and \[WC\]-type which are known for some time now to have surface oxygen mass fractions in the range $`5\mathrm{}15\%`$ (e.g. Hamann, these proceedings). It has been shown by Herwig et al. (1999) that this observed O-abundance can only be reproduced by evolution models of H-deficient post-AGB stars, if the intershell has been pre-enriched with oxygen already on the AGB. So, we are faced here with an interesting *case* in which pre-solar meteoritic grains, the $`s`$-process, mixing, stellar structure, expanding atmosphere models and spectroscopy are all somehow involved. A systematic study of the implications of a significant oxygen abundance in the intershell remains to be done. It is clear that various aspects of AGB and post-AGB evolution are closely related. Iron-deficiency has now been established in a number of H-deficient post-AGB stars (e.g. Werner, these proceedings) and this may be another example in which the progenitor AGB evolution needs to be carefully included into the interpretation (Herwig, Lugaro, Werner, these proceedings).

H-deficient PN central stars can form as a result of a post-AGB He-flash and in some cases this flash involves convective nucleosynthesis processes where mixing and burning are closely coupled. This has to be reflected by the numerical treatment of this phase (Herwig, 2001). Such a coupled algorithm has of course applications elsewhere, e.g. for the well known Li-production in HBB AGB models (Mazzitelli et al., 1999; Ventura et al., 2000; Blöcker et al., 2000). Unfortunately, galactic chemical evolution models for lithium seem to arrive at antipodal conclusions with respect to the importance of AGB lithium production site (Travaglio et al., 2001; Romano et al., 2001). This may very likely be related to the different treatment of mass loss, in particular during the final tip-AGB evolution (Lattanzio, priv. com.).

The mass loss law for AGB stars is still not sufficiently well understood, despite intense theoretical and observational efforts. In particular dynamic wind models which consider in great detail the properties of dust have resulted in theoretical mass loss formulae ready to use in stellar models of carbon stars (Arndt et al., 1997). However, if such a mass loss formula is applied to the AGB evolution sequence of Herwig (2000) when the star has become a carbon star due to DUP the absolute mass loss rate is at that time equivalent to a Reimer’s law parameter of $`\eta =0.5`$, indicating that many more thermal pulses will occur before the tip of the AGB is reached. In fact, even after about 20 more thermal pulses of the now carbon rich stellar model the mass loss does not pick up very much. Synthetic models (see above) on the other hand have constrained the mass loss parameter $`\eta `$ (together with the DUP parameter $`\lambda `$ and the minimum core mass for the onset of DUP) by matching observations of Galactic disk and MC AGB stars. In this way van den Hoek & Groenewegen (1997) find $`\eta =4`$. For a lower mass loss rate carbon stars become too luminous as the core mass increases from TP to TP over many thermal pulses. We can not expect these two values for $`\eta `$ from these totally different approaches to be identical (e.g. because of different temperature dependency of the mass loss laws). The large difference however is indicative that the confrontation of any new mass loss law with the carbon star luminosity function of the clouds within full stellar models with dredge-up is a critical test.

The abundance evolution of AGB models depends critically on mixing processes like overshoot and rotation. The PN abundances are those of the AGB surface during the final tip AGB evolution. The usefulness of synthetic AGB models for predicting abundances has already been emphasized. It should however be noted that these models only contain those effects which have been considered in the underlying full stellar models. From H-deficient models of post-AGB stars it is now known that AGB progenitor models without intershell overshoot (i.e. without intershell oxygen enhancement) are not compatible with observations. An obvious inconsistency would be to compare the oxygen abundance in a PN with a \[WC\]-type central star to current synthetic AGB models.

Finally, peculiar TPs with ingestion of protons into the underlying He-intershell have been found in zero-metalicity AGB models by Cassisi et al. (1996) and were rediscovered by Chieffi et al. (2001) in zero-metalicity stars. These H-flashes were confirmed by Siess et al.(2002) and by my own computations. However, Marigo et al. (2001) do not mention these convective episodes of the H-shell. As shown by Straka & Tscharnuter (2001) numerical methods for convective nucleosynthesis may have to be applied for Z=0 stellar models, but the importance of this effects remains to be quantified.

### Acknowledgments:

I would like to thank D.A. VandenBerg for support through his Operating Grant from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. I have also enjoyed very useful discussions with John Lattanzio.

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# Local density of states in a 𝑑-wave superconductor with stripe-like modulations and a strong impurity

## Abstract

Using an effective Hamiltonian with $`d`$-wave superconductivity (dSC) and competing antiferromagnetic (AF) interactions, we show that weak and one-dimensionally modulated dSC, spin density wave (SDW) and charge density wave (CDW) could coexist in the ground state configuration. With proper parameters, the SDW order exhibits a period of 8a, while for dSC and CDW orders the period is 4a. The local density of states (LDOS), which probing the behavior of quasiparticle excitations, is found to have the identical stripe-like structure as those in dSC and CDW orders. The LDOS as a function of the bias voltage are showing two small bumps within the superconducting coherence peaks, a signature of the presence of stripes. When a strong impurity like Zn is placed in such a system, the LDOS at its nearest neighboring sites are suppressed at the zero bias by the local AF order and show a double-peak structure.

Many of the anomalous properties of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors (HTS) are believed to be related to the competition between the $`d`$-wave superconductivity (dSC) and the hidden antiferromagnetic (AF) order, particularly in the underdoped HTS . Inelastic neutron scattering (INS) studies of the magnetic fluctuations in some of the HTS samples have provided important clues to the nature of the electronic correlations within the doped CuO2 planes.yamada98 ; tranquada95 ; mook00 . In additon, the existence of one-dimensional charge density wave (CDW) and spin density wave (SDW) has also been reported on La1.6-xNd0.4SrxCuO4 tranquada97  and YBa2Cu3O6.35 mook02 .

The elastic neutron scattering measurements on La2-xSrxCuO4 with $`x=0.10`$ sample by Lake $`etal.`$ lake415  found that the signal got enhanced at $`(\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2}+\delta )(\frac{2\pi }{a})`$ at low temperature, indicating the presence of static AF order at least in some parts of the sample. The coexistence of the CDW and dSC in HTS in the absence of a magnetic field has attracted a lot of theoretical works salkola77 ; martin14 ; ychen66 ; ichioka02 ; podolsky67 . Recent progress in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) on the surface of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (BSCCO) has given us a high resolution probe of its electronic correlations. The STM imaging by Hoffman $`etal.`$ hoffman02  in the presence of a magnetic field revealed the quasiparticle states around the vortex cores in slightly overdoped BSCCO to exhibit a CDW of ”checkerboard” pattern with $`4a`$ periodicity. Howald $`etal.`$ howald0201 ; howald0208  reported that the four unit-lattice periodic charge modulation survives even at zero magnetic field and is energy independent. And it has been attributed to the superposition of stripe phases howald0201 ; kivelson0210  oriented along $`x`$\- and $`y`$\- directions in the sample. This issue has also been examined by several theoretical articles in the presence of a magnetic field ychen66 ; yzhang66 ; zhu89 ; hdchen89 ; polkovnikov65  and in the absence of a magnetic field podolsky67 .

In case a stripe phase indeed exists in some of the HTS samples close to optimal doping as reported in the experiments howald0201 ; howald0208 , it should have important impact on the physics of HTS. We need to understand the origin of the stripe-like modulation observed in the local density of states (LDOS) and to examine its consequence on other experimentally measurable quantities, such as the LDOS near a unitary impurity in the absence of a magnetic field. In view of neutron scattering experiments mentioned above, we assume that the stripe phase observed in the STM experiments is originated in the competing AF interaction. In this paper and based upon a model Hamiltonian, we first construct a superconducting phase for a nearly optimal-doped or slightly underdoed HTS sample in which the dSC coexists with the SDW, and CDW orders. The parameters will be chosen in such a way that the dSC and CDW will have a weak one-dimension-like modulation with period 4a while the period for the SDW is 8a. The superposition of the $`x`$\- and $`y`$\- oriented CDW stripes should yield the experimentally observed checkerboard patterns howald0201 ; howald0208 . Then we calculate the LDOS of the stripes and compare it with the pure $`d`$-wave case. On the other hand, the low temperature STM experiment pan403  observed a sharp resonance peak near the zero bias at a nonmagnetic unitary impurity site, consistent with prediction balatsky51  for a pure dSC. In the presence of the stripe phase, we found that the LDOS is strongly suppressed by the AF order at the zero bias and a double-peak shows up. Hopefully, the obtained result could be used to compare with future STM experiments for samples with magnetic originated stripes.

Based on a square lattice with lattice constant a(=1),we start from the effective mean-field Hamiltonian with $`g`$ as the nearest neighbor attractive $`d`$-wave pairing potential, and $`U`$ as the on-site Coulomb interaction representing the competing AF order.

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣},\sigma }{}}t_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}c_{𝐢\sigma }^{}c_{𝐣\sigma }+{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}{}}(\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}c_𝐢^{}c_𝐣^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^{}c_𝐣c_𝐢)`$ (1)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{𝐢}{}}(m_{𝐢\sigma }\mu +V_𝐢)c_{𝐢\sigma }^{}c_{𝐢\sigma }`$
where $`t_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}`$ is the hopping integral, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}=\frac{g}{2}c_𝐢c_𝐣c_𝐢c_𝐣`$ is the spin-singlet $`d`$-wave bond order parameter, $`m_{𝐢\sigma }=Un_{𝐢\sigma }`$ is the AF order parameter, $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential. In addition there is also a nonmagnetic impurity with $`V_𝐢=V_0\delta _{0𝐢}`$ as the single-site scattering potential at site $`(0,0)`$. We shall diagonalize the above Hamiltonian by using Bogoliubov transformation, $`c_{𝐢\sigma }=_n^N[u_{𝐢\sigma }^n\gamma _{n\sigma }\sigma v_{𝐢\sigma }^n\gamma _{n\overline{\sigma }}^{}]`$, and the equations of motion for $`c_{𝐢\sigma }`$ and $`c_{𝐢\overline{\sigma }}^{}`$ will lead to usual Bogoliubov-de Gennes’ equations (BdG),

$`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐣}{\overset{N}{}}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}\sigma }& \mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}\\ \mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^{}& _{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}\overline{\sigma }}^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}u_{𝐣\sigma }^n\\ v_{𝐣\overline{\sigma }}^n\end{array}\right)=E_n\left(\begin{array}{c}u_{𝐢\sigma }^n\\ v_{𝐢\overline{\sigma }}^n\end{array}\right),`$ (8)
where $`_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}\sigma }=t\delta _{𝐢+\widehat{𝐞},𝐣}+(m_{𝐢\overline{\sigma }}\mu )\delta _{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}+V_\mathrm{𝟎}\delta _{\mathrm{𝟎}𝐣}`$. The subscript $`\widehat{𝐞}`$ are the vectors $`\widehat{x}`$, $`\widehat{y}`$ and $`\widehat{x}+\widehat{y}`$ toward the nearest neighbor (NN) and next-nearest neighbor (NNN) sites, respectively. To self-consistently solve BdG equations we could get the $`N`$ positive eigenvalues $`E_n`$ $`(n=1\mathrm{}N)`$ and the $`N`$ negative eigenvalues $`\overline{E}_n`$ with corresponding eigenvectors $`(u_𝐢^n,v_𝐢^n)`$ and $`(v_𝐢^n,u_𝐢^n)`$, respectively. Using the following convenient notation $`\overline{u}_𝐢^n=(v_𝐢^n,u_𝐢^n)`$ and $`\overline{v}_𝐢^n=(u_𝐢^n,v_𝐢^n)`$, the self-consistent conditions become,

$`n_𝐢`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{2N}{}}}\left|\overline{u}_𝐢^n\right|^2f(E_n),n_𝐢={\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{2N}{}}}\left|\overline{v}_𝐢^n\right|^2[1f(E_n)]`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{2N}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{g}{4}}(\overline{u}_𝐢^n\overline{v}_𝐣^n+\overline{v}_𝐢^n\overline{u}_𝐣^n)\mathrm{tanh}({\displaystyle \frac{\beta E_n}{2}}),`$ (9)
where $`f(E)=1/(e^{\beta E}+1)`$ is Fermi distribution function.

Since the calculation will be performed near the optimal-doped or slightly underdoped regime, we choose the filling factor, which is defined as $`n_f=_{𝐢\sigma }c_{𝐢\sigma }^{}c_{𝐢\sigma }/N_xN_y`$ with the summation over one unit cell, is fixed to be 0.85 (i.e. the hole doping $`x_h=0.15`$), where $`N_x`$, $`N_y`$ are the linear dimension of the unit cell under consideration. The chemical potential $`\mu `$, therefore, needs to be adjusted each time when the on-site repulsion $`U`$ is varied. The NNN hopping integral is chosen to be $`t^{}=0.2`$, as relevant to the hole-doped cuprate, to fit the hole-like Fermi surface. Through out this paper, we are going to use the same value of $`U`$, $`g`$, $`t^{}`$, and $`n_f`$.

Once the self-consistent solution is obtained, we calculate the staggered magnetization and the electron density defined as $`M_s=(1)^𝐢n_𝐢n_𝐢`$ and $`n_𝐢=n_𝐢+n_𝐢`$, respectively. Furthermore, the LDOS of the energy $`E`$ at the positon $`𝐢`$ can be written as

$`\rho _𝐢(E)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{M_xM_y}}{\displaystyle \underset{n,𝐤}{\overset{2N}{}}}\left|\overline{u}_𝐢^{n,𝐤}\right|^2f^{}(E_{n,𝐤}E)`$ (10)
$`+\left|\overline{v}_𝐢^{n,𝐤}\right|^2f^{}(E_{n,𝐤}+E),`$
where $`\rho _𝐢(E)`$ is proportional to the local differential tunneling conductance as measured by STM experiment, and the summation is averaged over a $`M_x\times M_y`$ wavevectors in first Brillouin Zone. In addition, the LDOS spatial maps observed in STM experiment at a fixed bias voltage $`E`$ could be obtained by calculating $`\rho _𝐢(E)`$ at each site of the lattice.

In the absence of the magnetic field, $`t_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}=t`$ and $`t^{}`$ are the NN and NNN hopping integrals, respectively. Since the strength of the onsite repulsion, $`U`$, required to generate AF order has to be fine tuned to study the interplay of the two competing orders. The non-zero AF order appears only for certain range of $`U`$ and $`g`$, and larger $`U/g`$ is able to produce stronger antiferromagnetism. With our chosen parameters $`U=2.05`$ and $`g=0.71`$, weak stripe modulations can be generated in the dSC order parameter, the staggered magnetization and electron density. Here we set $`t=1`$.

In Figure 1(a), our numerical result for the spatial distribution of the dSC order, which is defined as $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐢=[\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝐢+\widehat{x}}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝐢\widehat{x}}\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝐢+\widehat{y}}\mathrm{\Delta }_{𝐢\widehat{y}}]/4,`$ exhibits the stripe behavior along $`y`$-direction with the period $`4a`$. The staggered magnetization (Fig. 1(b)) shows stripe like SDW along $`y`$-direction. Its period is $`8a`$ and its amplitude is less than $`0.1`$. The electron density (Fig. 1(c)) has one-dimensional CDW modulation with $`4a`$ as its period and a very weak amplitude (less than $`0.001`$). The origin of such static stripes could be understood in terms of the existence of a nesting wave vector $`q_A0.25\pi /a`$ connecting the upper and lower pieces of the Fermi surface near $`(\pi ,0)`$ along $`k_y`$-direction \[See Fig. 1 in Refs. 24\]. For proper values of $`U`$ and doping, this wave vector would modulate the staggered magnetization with SDW stripes along $`x`$-direction with period $`2\pi /q_A=8a`$. Accompanying the SDW stripes we have the charge stripes with period $`4a`$. If we choose a larger $`U(>2.05)`$ here, the effect is to enhance the amplitudes of the SDW/CDW stripes, not to change its period. For smaller $`U(=2.0)`$, only dSC without stripes is obtained. The stripe configurations discussed above are associated with the ground state of the system. What have been observed by STM experiments are related to quasiparticle excitations. In Fig. 1(d) we present the spatial map of the LDOS at energy $`E=0.04`$, and it exhibits the same stripe like modulation with period $`4a`$ as that appeared in CDW shown in Fig 1(c). We have checked the LDOS at several different bias energies, and found that the same stripe like structure still prevails and the modulation period or wavevector is energy independent. This result can be regarded as a necessary condition for existing a static-stripe CDW order in the sample. Since the $`y`$\- and $`x`$\- oriented stripes are degenerated in energy. The observed checkerboard pattern in the STM experiments howald0201 ; howald0208  could be understood by a superposition of these two perpendicularly oriented LDOS maps ychen66 . Part of the modulation wavevectors observed in the experiments hoffman297  are also dispersive or energy dependent, this behavior should be related to the scattering of quasiparticles from defects including the randomly distributed stripes which break the translational invariance qwang67 ; dzhang67 . Here we would like to emphasize that our quasiparticles are excitations from the SDW/CDW (stripes) + dSC ground state. The information of the stripes is nonpertubatively included in wave functions of the quasiparticles. After the Hamiltonian is diagolized, there exists no extra term which couples the quasiparticle with the stripes. It should also be interesting to calculate the energy-dependent LDOS in the presence of stripes and to see its difference as compared with the case for a pure dSC. In Fig. 2, we show the energy dependence of the LDOS at one of the hole (electron) accumulated stripes, namely at one of the minima (maxima) in Fig. 1(c). It appears that there exist two small bumps within the superconducting coherence peaks, a signature of the presence of weak SDW and CDW orders. At the different sites, the LDOS also can be shown to have the similar features.

Next let us introduce a nonmagnetic strong impurity like Zn into our system at site $`(0,0)`$ and investigate its effect. Here the on-site impurity potential is taken to be $`V_0=100`$. From Fig. 3(a), one can easily see that the dSC order is suppressed and recovers to its bulk value at a length scale of $`\xi _0`$, the superconducting coherence length ($`5a`$), away from the impurity. Beyond this range, the weak stripe-modulation in the dSC order parameter still remains. In Fig. 3(b) we show that the impurity induced staggered-moment of the SDW is zero at the impurity site and reach the maximum value at its four NN sites. The net induced local moment by the impurity corresponds to a local spin with $`S_z`$=1/2 when $`U`$ becomes stronger zwang89 . From Fig. 3(b), the SDW is clearly pinned at the impurity site with one of its ridges. The spatial profile of the electron density change is presented in Fig.3(c), and it exhibits a Freidel-like oscillation around the impurity. It is easy to see that the electron number reaches to zero or $`\delta n_i=0.85`$ at the impurity site, which is much larger than the amplitude ( 0.001) of the CDW stripes. This is the reason why the stripes in Fig. 1(c) are too faint to see in Fig.3(c). Fig. 3(d) displays the LDOS map at energy $`E=0.04`$. The intensity is zero at the impurity site and there are four peaks appear on the four NN sites around the impurity. The intensities of the two peaks at the site $`(0,\pm 1)`$ are less than those at the site $`(\pm 1,0)`$. The stripe structure in Fig. 1(d) still prevails, but it is again too weak to see here.

It is well known that a sharp single resonance peak at zero bias balatsky51  in the LDOS at the NN sites of a unitary impurity appears for a pure dSC. In the presence of weak stripes, the LDOS as a function of energy at the NN site, $`(0,1)`$ and $`(1,0)`$ around the impurity are respectively displaced in Fig. 4(a) and (b). The zero bias peak previously obtained for $`U=0`$ is dramatically depressed by $`U0`$ and splits into two distinct peaks. This is because stronger local AF order is induced near the strong impurity site and a larger SDW gap opens up locally that suppresses the LDOS close to the impurity. This makes the LDOS in the present case very different from that of a pure d-wave (or $`U=0`$) case. The oscillation in the LDOS at negative bias below the left peak is originated from the energy-dependent modulations induced by the impurity, and the large amplitude seems to come from the size effect. When $`U/g`$ is not large enough to generate extended SDW, the weak and local AF order induced by the impurity may force the resonance peak just to split a little zwang89 ; tsuchiura64 . The shapes of split peaks at site $`(0,1)`$ and $`(1,0)`$ are slightly different. This indicates that the fourfold symmetry for a pure dSC changes to twofold symmetry when the stripe phase is in presence. If the experimentally observed howald0201 ; howald0208  stripe structure is of magnetic origin, we predict that the LDOS should exhibit a double-peak feature near the zero bias.

In conclusion, we have studied a cuprate superconductor with weak stripe-like modulations in the dSC, SDW and CDW order parameters without and with a strong nonmagnetic impurity. In the absence of the impurity, the LDOS exhibits two small bumps within the superconducting coherence peaks, a signature of the presence of the competing AF order. The LDOS maps displays the same stripe modulation as the CDW along $`y`$-direction with periodicity $`4a`$ which is nondispersive or energy independent. The components of the modulation wavevectors observed by the experiments which are energy dependent or dispersive should be attributed to the effect due to scatterings of quasiparticles from defects qwang67 ; dzhang67 . In the presence of a strong impurity, we predict that the LDOS at the NN sites of the impurity are strongly suppressed by the AF order and reveal a double peak structure. Hopefully our theoretical results could be useful to future STM experiments performed on samples with weak stripe-like structures.

$`\mathrm{𝐀𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬}`$: We thank Profs. S.H. Pan and N. C. Yeh for the useful discussions. This work is supported by The Texas Center for Superconductivity at University of Houston and by a grant Robert A. Welch Foundation.


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# Strange Particles from NEXUS 3

## 1 Problems with the String Model Approach

How are string models realized? One may present the particle production from strings via chains of quark lines  as shown in fig. 1.

It turns out that the two string picture is not enough to explain for example the large multiplicity fluctuations in proton-proton scattering at collider energies: more strings are needed, one adds therefore one or more pairs of quark-antiquark strings, as shown in fig. 2.

The variables $`x_i`$ refer to the longitudinal momentum fractions given to the string ends. Energy-momentum conservation implies $`x_i=1.`$

What are the probabilities for different string numbers? Here, Gribov-Regge theory comes at help, which tells us that the probability for a configuration with $`n`$ elementary interactions is proportional to $`\chi ^n/n!`$, where $`\chi `$ is a function of energy and impact parameter. Here, a dashed vertical line represents an elementary interaction (referred to as Pomeron).

Now one identifies the elementary interactions (Pomerons) from Gribov-Regge theory with the pairs of strings (chains) in the string model, and one uses the above-mentioned probability for $`n`$ Pomerons to be the probability for configurations with $`n`$ string pairs. Unfortunately this is not at all consistent, for two reasons:

1. Whereas in the string picture the first and the subsequent pairs are of different nature, in the Gribov-Regge model all the Pomerons are identical.
2. Whereas in the string (chain) model the energy is properly shared among the strings, in the Grivov-Regge approach does not consider energy sharing at all (the $`\chi `$ is a function of the total energy only)

These problems have to be solved in order to make reliable predictions.

## 2 NEXUS

NEXUS is a self-consistent multiple scattering approach to proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus scattering at high energies. The basic feature is the fact that several elementary interaction, referred to as Pomerons, may happen in parallel. We use the language of Gribov-Regge theory to calculate probabilities of collision configurations (characterized by the number of Pomerons involved, and their energy) and the language of strings to treat particle production. We treat both aspects, probability calculations and particle production, in a consistent fashion: *In both cases energy sharing is considered in a rigorous way**, and in both cases all Pomerons are identical.* This is one new feature of our approach. Another new aspect is the necessity to introduce remnants: The spectators of each baryon form a remnant. They will play an important role on particle production in the fragmentation region and at low energies ($`E_{Lab}=`$40-200 GeV). In the following we discuss the details of our approach.

We first consider inelastic proton-proton scattering. We imagine an arbitrary number of elementary interactions to happen in parallel, where an interaction may be elastic or inelastic, see fig. 3. The inelastic amplitude is the sum of all such contributions in with at least one inelastic elementary interaction is involved.

To calculate cross sections, we need to square the amplitude, which leads to many interference terms, as the one shown in fig. 4(a), which represents interference between the first and the second diagram of fig. 3. We use the usual convention to plot an amplitude to the left, and the complex conjugate of an amplitude to the right of some imaginary “cut line” (dashed vertical line). The left part of the diagram is a cut elementary diagram, conveniently plotted as a dashed line, see fig. 4(b). The amplitude squared is now the sum over many such terms represented by solid and dashed lines.

Summing appropriate classes of interference terms, we obtain probabilities of having $`m`$ inelastic interactions with light cone momenta $`x_1^+`$..$`x_{2m}^+`$,$`x_1^{}`$$`x_{2m}^{}`$ at a given impact parameter. Integrating over impact parameter provides the corresponding cross section. By this we obtain a probability distribution for the number of elementary interactions (number of Pomerons) and the momenta of these Pomerons.

How to form strings from Pomerons? No matter whether single-Pomeron or multiple-Pomeron exchange happens in a proton-proton scattering, all Pomerons are treated identically. Each Pomeron is identified with two strings.

The string ends are quarks and antiquarks from the sea. This differs from traditional string models, where all the string ends are valence quarks. Due to the large number of Pomerons this is impossible in our approach. The valence quarks stay in remnants. Being formed from see quarks, string ends from cut Pomerons have complete flavor symmetry and produce particles and antiparticles in equal amounts.

Remnants are new objects, compared to other string models, see fig.5.

A remnant contains three valence quarks and the corresponding antiparticles of the partons representing the string ends. We parametrize the mass distribution of the remnant mass as $`P(m^2)(m^2)^\alpha `$, where $`m`$ is taken within the interval $`[m_{\mathrm{min}}^2,x^+s]`$, with $`s`$ being the squared total energy in the center of mass system, $`m_{\mathrm{min}}`$ being the minimum mass of hadrons to be made from the remnant’s quarks and antiquarks, and $`x^+`$ being the light-cone momentum fraction of the remnant. Through fitting the data at 158 GeV, we determine the parameter $`\alpha =2.25`$. Remnants decay into hadrons according to n-body phase space.

The most simple and most frequent collision configuration has two remnants and only one cut Pomeron, represented by two $`\mathrm{q}\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ strings as in Fig.6(a). Besides the three valence quarks, each remnant has in addition a quark and an antiquark to compensate the flavor.

We assume that an antiquark $`\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ from a string end may be replaced by a diquark $`\mathrm{qq}`$, with a small probability $`P_{qq}`$. In this way, we get quark-diquark ($`\mathrm{q}\mathrm{qq}`$) strings from cut Pomerons. The qqq Pomeron end (the sum of the two corresponding string ends) has to be compensated by the three corresponding antiquarks in the remnant, as in Fig.6(b). The (3q3$`\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$) remnant decays according to phase space mainly into three mesons (3M), and only with a very small probability into a baryon and an anti-baryon (B+$`\overline{\mathrm{B}}`$). For symmetry reasons, the q string end is replaced by an antidiquark $`\overline{\mathrm{q}}\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ with the same probability $`P_{\mathrm{qq}}`$. This yields a $`\overline{\mathrm{q}}\overline{\mathrm{q}}\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ string and a (6q) remnant, as shown in Fig.6(c). The (6q) remnant decays into two baryons. Since q-qq strings and $`\overline{\mathrm{q}}\overline{\mathrm{q}}\overline{\mathrm{q}}`$ strings have the same probability to appear from cut Pomerons, baryons and antibaryons are produced in the string fragmentation with the same probability. However, from remnant decay, baryon production is favored due to the initial valence quarks.

With decreasing energy the relative importance for the particle production from the strings as compared to the remnants decreases, because the energy of the strings is lowered as well. If the mass of a string is lower than the cutoff, it will be discarded. However, the fact that an interaction has taken place is taken into account by the excitation of the remnant, which follows still the above mentioned distribution.

## 3 Results

Fig. 7 shows the rapidity spectra of strange (and non-strange) hadrons for pp at 158 GeV. We included the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$, $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ , $`\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}`$ spectra, which have been published earlier .

Where data from the NA49 collaboration are available, we have included them in the plot. The yield gives the calculated average multiplicity of the particle species in 4$`\pi `$. We see that the experimental data are reasonable described. The non strange baryons as well as those which contain one strange quark show a double hump structure, the others are peaked at mid rapidity. This is a consequence of the three source structure (two remnants and Pomerons) in our approach. The leading baryon has still the quantum number of the incoming baryon but is moderately excited. Therefore it may disintegrate into baryons whose quantum numbers differ not too much.

We observe in particular more $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ than $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$, as seen in experiment . This is a consequence of the modification of NEXUS 3, explained in , as compared to the original NEXUS 2 version  (and many other string models), which yields more $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ than $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ due to the string topology. We also observe more $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ than $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ at RHIC energies, however, the ratio is close to one, since the string contributions dominate over remnants at high energies. We find for proton-proton scattering at 200 GeV (cms) the ratios shown in table 1., together with data from STAR .


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# Chapter 1 Propagation of Light Elements in the Galaxy

## Chapter 1 Propagation of Light Elements in the Galaxy

LANL Report \# LA-UR-03-3406

### Abstract

The origin and evolution of isotopes of the lightest elements H2, He3, Li, Be, B in the universe is a key problem in such fields as astrophysics of CR, Galactic evolution, non-thermal nucleosynthesis, and cosmological studies. One of the major sources of these species is spallation by CR nuclei in the interstellar medium. On the other hand, it is the B/C ratio in CR and Be10 abundance which are used to fix the propagation parameters and thus the spallation rate. We study the production and Galactic propagation of isotopes of elements $`Z5`$ using the numerical propagation code GALPROP and updated production cross sections.

### 1. Introduction

It has been shown recently  that accurate measurements of the antiproton flux made during the last solar minimum  pose a challenge to conventional CR propagation models. A solution has been proposed  that the observed CR may contain a fresh, local, “unprocessed” component at low energies (LE), perhaps associated with the Local Bubble (LB). This component reduces the production of B at LE allowing to fit the B/C ratio and antiproton flux simultaneously. For more discussion see .

Isotopes of the lightest elements H2, He3, Li, Be, B in CR are almost all secondary, being produced in spallations of heavier nuclei on interstellar gas Galaxy-wide. Their abundances and isotopic composition, therefore, might help to distinguish between the propagation models. In this study we calculate abundances and isotopic composition of H, He, Li, Be, B in two models, a conventional reacceleration model , and a model with a local component .

### 2. The Model

In our calculations we use the propagation model GALPROP (2D option) as described elsewhere . The nucleon injection spectrum of the Galactic CR is taken as a modified power law in rigidity , for the injected particle density. The LB spectrum is taken as a power law in rigidity with exponential cut off. The Galactic halo size is fixed at 4 kpc. To reduce possible errors due to the cross sections we use our own fits to the data on reactions $`p+\mathrm{He},\mathrm{C},\mathrm{N},\mathrm{O}\mathrm{H}^2,\mathrm{He}^{3,4}`$ and $`p+\mathrm{C},\mathrm{N},\mathrm{O}\mathrm{Li},\mathrm{Be},\mathrm{B}`$ that produce most of these elements . The heliospheric modulation is treated using the force-field approximation; here we use $`\mathrm{\Phi }=500`$ MV for all plots.

In the case of a conventional reacceleration model (model $`𝒜`$) we use our standard methodologies: the propagation parameters were derived from the fit to the B/C ratio, while source abundances were tuned to ACE data  and HEAO-3 data  at high energies (HE). No special tuning was done for antiprotons.

In the case of the model with a local component (model $``$) we use the following procedure. The HE part of the B/C ratio *plus* antiproton flux measurements are used to restrict the value of the diffusion coefficient and its energy dependence, while the LE part of the B/C ratio is used to fix the reacceleration level and define the parameters of the LB component. In this way the model provides the best fit to all data at the cost of extra free parameters.

Model parameters are given in Table 1; model $`𝒜`$ is similar to models DR/DRB as defined in , and model $``$ is similar to model DR II as defined in . To better match the He spectrum (Fig. 1), a major contributor to H2 and He3 production, in both models we introduced a break (at 14 GV in $`𝒜`$, and at 10 GV in $``$) in He4 (only) power-law injection spectrum.

### 3. Results

Fig. 2 shows the H2/He4 ratio. The measured ratio  is a factor of $``$1.8 larger than expected. While there are important hints that this may be caused by systematic effects, the analysis is still in progress (D. Vasilas private comm.).

Fig. 3 shows other ratios. Both models are consistent with data on isotopic ratios of Li, Be, and B given the large error bars. He3/He4 ratio is more sensitive. Both models agree well with the data, however to match the He3/He4 ratio *and* He spectrum, model $``$ requires a factor of $``$2 larger LB abundance of He4. The HE CR source abundance in both models He/Si $`100`$, while the LB abundance in model $``$ is 220 (cf. solar system value 2400). Taking into account that He and Si are abundant elements a factor of 2 difference is significant. Contributions of C12 and O16 to He3 and He4 production appear to be non-negligible.

The smaller proportion of He compared to heavier elements in Galactic CR sources supports the idea that HE CR are accelerated in shocks from fresh SN ejecta. The higher proportion of He compared to heavier elements in model $``$ at LE implies that the material was diluted before acceleration. This is in line with the view described in  that the LB component may be accelerated by an ensemble of weak shock waves out of the interstellar medium. If the model $``$ is correct it may indicate that the LE part of the He and proton Galactic spectra is flatter than thought with corresponding consequences for the diffuse Galactic $`\gamma `$-ray emission and Galactic chemical evolution.

This work was supported in part by a NASA Astrophysics Theory Program grant and by the US Department of Energy.

### 4. References

1. Connell J.J. 1998, ApJ 501, L59

2. de Nolfo G.A. et al. 2000, in Proc. ACE-2000 Symp., ed. Mewaldt R.A. et al. (AIP: NY), AIP 528, 425

3. de Nolfo G.A. et al. 2001, in Proc. 27th ICRC (Hamburg), 1667

4. Engelmann J.J. et al. 1990, A&A 233, 96

5. Göbel H. et al. 2001, in Proc. 27th ICRC (Hamburg), 1663

6. Jones F.C., Lukasiak A., Ptuskin V., Webber W. 2001, ApJ 546, 264

7. Lukasiak A., McDonald F.B., Webber W.R. 1999, in Proc. 26th ICRC (Salt Lake City), 3, 41

8. Moskalenko I.V., Mashnik S.G. 2003, these Proc.

9. Moskalenko I.V., Strong A.W., Ormes J.F., Potgieter M.S. 2002, ApJ 565, 280

10. Moskalenko I.V., Strong A.W., Mashnik S.G., Ormes J.F. 2003, ApJ 586, 1050

11. Moskalenko I.V., Strong A.W., Mashnik S.G., Ormes J.F. 2003, these Proc.

12. Orito S. et al. 2000, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1078

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15. Wiedenbeck M.E. et al. 2001, Spa. Sci. Rev. 99, 15


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# Untwisting the Tornado: X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy of G357.7–0.1

## 1. Introduction

The bright radio source G357.7–0.1 is extended, has high levels of polarization and shows a non-thermal spectrum, properties which at first led to its classification as a supernova remnant (SNR). However, high-resolution images revealed a bizarre axial “head-tail” structure (Shaver et al. (1985); Helfand & Becker (1985); top panel of Fig 1), for which this source was nicknamed “the Tornado”. The morphology of the Tornado is very different from the approximately circular morphologies seen in other SNRs. This has led to various claims that the Tornado is an exotic SNR expanding into an unusual environment, is a nebula powered by a high velocity pulsar, or results from precessing jets from an X-ray binary (e.g. Manchester (1987); Shull, Fesen, & Saken (1989); Stewart et al. (1994)).

Recent observations have provided some new clues. Frail et al. (1996) detected a 1720-MHz OH maser from the “head” of the Tornado. The 1720 MHz emission, when seen without the other OH maser lines, is produced by shocks propagating into molecular clouds; further evidence for an interaction with molecular material is provided by the presence of emission from 13CO 1–0 and shock-excited 2.12-$`\mu `$m H2 at this same position and velocity (Lazendic et al. (2003)). The maser velocity, also now confirmed by H i absorption measurements (Brogan & Goss (2003)), implies a distance to the Tornado of 12 kpc.

Despite these new data, the Tornado still defies classification. Most problematic has been the failure to detect emission in other wavebands. We consequently examined archival ASCA data of this region, and identified a weak ($`3\sigma `$) X-ray source coincident with the Tornado’s head; this marginal detection was also briefly noted by Yusef-Zadeh et al. (2003). We here present an observation of the Tornado with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, aimed at confirming this source of X-rays, and studying its morphology and spectrum.

## 2. Observations and Results

The Tornado was observed with Chandra on 2002 May 07. We used the ACIS-I detector, consisting of an array of four front-illuminated CCDs and giving a field of view approximately $`17^{}\times 17^{}`$. The aimpoint, located near the center of the array, corresponded to coordinates RA (J2000) $`17^\mathrm{h}40^\mathrm{m}15\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}33`$, Decl. (J2000) $`30^{}57^{}59\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$. The effective exposure time was 20 723 seconds, and was free of background flares.

### 2.1. Imaging

Data were analyzed using CIAO v2.3. We used the level-1 events supplied by the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC), and then corrected them for charge-transfer inefficiency using standard CXC routines. An image was then formed using events in the energy range 0.3 to 10 keV; point sources in this image were identified using the wavdetect algorithm within CIAO. To highlight diffuse emission, we applied the adaptive smoothing algorithm csmooth. We corrected for off-axis vignetting and for the variable exposure produced by chip gaps and bad pixels by forming an exposure map, which we then smoothed with the same kernel as was applied to the image. Applying the smoothed exposure map to the smoothed image resulted in a flux-calibrated image of diffuse emission. The resulting X-ray image is shown in the lower panel of Figure 1, demonstrating that faint emission is detected from three distinct regions coincident with the Tornado, which we label A, B and C.

The brightest X-rays are from region A, lying near the “head” of the Tornado, and comprising a $`2^{}\times 1^{}`$ elliptical region elongated along a position angle $`150^{}`$ (north through east). Comparison with radio data shows that these X-rays are wholly contained within the head region, occupying the western half of the head’s interior. While region A is brighter and more concentrated at its south-eastern tip, no unresolved source is identified in this region by wavdetect, nor is apparent by visual inspection of the unsmoothed image.

Regions B and C represent two other possible sources of extended X-rays from the Tornado, located $`2^{}`$ east of the head region. Region B is a very faint circular clump of extent $`30^{\prime \prime }`$, while region C is a brighter and more elongated feature of extent $`1^{}`$. Given the faintness of regions B and C, we simply note their existence, and defer detailed studies of these regions until deeper observations have been performed. The wavdetect algorithm identifies two X-ray point sources lying within the radio boundaries of the Tornado, as marked in Fig 1. Both sources are of marginal significance, each containing only 5–6 counts.

### 2.2. Spectroscopy

Of the three extended regions of X-ray emission identified in §2.1, only region A is bright enough from which to obtain a useful spectrum. Events were extracted from an elliptical extraction region of dimensions $`150^{\prime \prime }\times 120^{\prime \prime }`$ centered on this emission, and the data (source plus background) were then regrouped so that there were at least 50 counts in each energy bin. The effective area for this source spectrum was determined by weighting by the brightness of the source over the extraction region using the CIAO task mkwarf. The local background was determined by extracting a spectrum from an adjacent emission-free region of the CCD immediately to the southwest of region A.

The corresponding spectrum contains $`162\pm 37`$ background-subtracted counts, which fall into 12 bins spread over the energy range 0.3–10 keV. We fit two simple models to this spectrum: a power law, and a Raymond-Smith plasma in collisionally ionized equilibrium,111More complicated thermal models including non-equilibrium ionization give near identical best-fit parameters. both modified by foreground photoelectric absorption. Both models give good fits to the data, the parameters for which are listed in Table 1. However, the implied photon index for the best power law fit is unusually steep, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>4.5`$ at 90% confidence. In Table 1 we also present power law fits for fixed photon indices $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=3.5`$ (representing extreme value for observed sources; see §§3.2 & 3.3), which give comparatively poor fits to the data.

## 3. Discussion

We have clearly identified X-ray emission from the head of the Tornado; the observed count-rate is consistent (to within $`50`$%) with the level of emission suggested from archival ASCA data. Although we detect relatively few X-ray photons from the Tornado, these data provide new constraints on the nature of this complicated source.

### 3.1. Outflows from an X-ray binary?

Stewart et al. (1994) propose that the Tornado is powered by twin outflows from a central X-ray binary, presumably located in the center of and along the symmetry axis of the overall radio nebula, and which generate opposed precessing jets as is seen for SS 433 in the SNR W50 (e.g. Margon (1984)). We argue in §3.3 below that region A has a thermal spectrum. In the context of the situation proposed by Stewart et al. (1994), these thermal X-rays might represent the working surface where a collimated outflow from the central source collides and interacts with surrounding gas, as is seen at the termination of the eastern lobe of W50 (Brinkmann, Aschenbach, & Kawai (1996); Safi-Harb & Ögelman (1997)).

Of immediate concern for such a model is that no bright unresolved X-ray emission, corresponding to a central powering source, is seen along the axis of the Tornado. The $`3\sigma `$ upper limit on the count-rate from any such source is $`5\times 10^4`$ cts s-1 in the energy range 0.3–10 keV. Assuming a foreground absorbing column density of $`N_H1\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2 (see §3.3 below) and a power-law spectrum with photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$, we infer an unabsorbed flux (0.5–10 keV) for such a source $`f_X6\times 10^{14}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1, which implies an upper limit on the X-ray luminosity (0.5–10 keV) $`L_X1\times 10^{33}`$ ergs s-1 at a distance of 12 kpc.

From this non-detection an exact analogy with SS 433 can immediately be ruled out: even when not in outburst, such a source would have an X-ray luminosity $`L_X10^{36}`$ ergs s-1 and a 1.4-GHz flux density $`100`$ mJy (see Margon (1984) and references therein), which would have been easily detected in Chandra and VLA observations of the Tornado, respectively. However, we below note two other X-ray binaries known to generate outflows, which if embedded in the Tornado might not be directly detectable.

The recently discovered high-mass X-ray binary LS 5039 generates steady jets of velocity $`0.2c`$ and kinetic luminosity $`10^{37}`$ ergs s-1 (Paredes et al. (2000)), which is consistent with the rate of energy input required to power the radio emission seen from the Tornado (Helfand & Becker (1985)). The X-ray luminosity of LS 5039 possibly varies as a function of orbital phase, but at its minimum is only slightly higher than the upper limit determined for any point source in the Tornado (Reig et al. (2003)). At a distance of 12 kpc, the 1.4-GHz flux density of this source would only be 1–3 mJy (Martí, Paredes, & Ribó (1998)), too faint to be seen in existing VLA radio images of this region.

The low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1755-338 is currently in a quiescent state with $`L_X<4\times 10^{31}`$ ergs s-1, but previously underwent an active phase lasting several decades, in which it generated X-ray jets $``$4 pc in extent (Angelini & White (2003)). The Tornado could similarly have been powered by a period of prolonged activity, but is now quiescent. Jets of the surface brightness seen for 4U 1755-338 would be too faint to be detected here.

We note that an alternative X-ray binary model has been proposed by Helfand & Becker (1985), who argue that the Tornado is powered by source at the very western edge of the head, and that the high velocity of the binary then gives the Tornado its unusual appearance. The arguments invoked above can explain the failure to detect X-ray emission from the binary itself. However, in this model the energetic interaction between the outflow and its surroundings should occur only at the very western edge of the Tornado. In such a situation, there is no simple explanation for the presence of extended X-ray emission from region A, since this should be neither a region of active particle acceleration nor an area in which shock-heated gas is produced. We therefore think this possibility unlikely.

### 3.2. A pulsar powered nebula?

Shull et al. (1989) have argued that the Tornado is a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) powered by a high-velocity pulsar. In such a situation, the pulsar is presumed to be inside of or to the west of the head of the Tornado. We can consequently expect to see extended synchrotron X-ray emission from a surrounding PWN, plus possibly unresolved magnetospheric X-ray emission from the pulsar itself.

Region A clearly corresponds to X-ray emission in the expected location for this interpretation, and its spectrum can be well-fitted by a power law characteristic of synchrotron emission. However, all known PWNe show power law X-ray spectra with photon indices in the range $`1.3\mathrm{\Gamma }2.3`$ (Gotthelf (2003)); Table 1 shows that a photon index even at the upper limit of this range, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.3`$, gives a comparatively poor fit, which we can exclude at the $`2.3\sigma `$ level. While more data are needed to confirm whether this source indeed has an anomalously steep spectrum, this measurement suggests that the properties of region A are not consistent with those expected for a pulsar-powered nebula. We note that while we detect no point source embedded in region A, the corresponding upper limit $`L_X1\times 10^{33}`$ ergs s-1 (see §3.1 above) is above the X-ray luminosities of many young pulsars (Possenti et al. (2002)).

### 3.3. A supernova remnant

The Tornado shows bright, polarized, limb-brightened radio emission with a non-thermal spectrum, properties which resulted in its original classification as a SNR. However, one must then explain its bizarre and unique morphology.

In a dense ambient medium a supernova progenitor’s space velocity can take it near the edge of, or even outside of, its circumstellar bubble before the star explodes. The SNR resulting from such a system will have a highly elongated axial morphology (Różyczka et al. (1993); Brighenti & D’Ercole (1994)), resembling that seen for the Tornado. The OH maser identified towards this source by Frail et al. (1996), along with the recent detection of shock-excited 2.12-$`\mu `$m H2 emission and surrounding 13CO emission by Lazendic et al. (2003), all argue that indeed the Tornado is expanding into a dense environment.

For a SNR interpretation there are several different possibilities for the X-ray emission expected. We might see limb-brightened synchrotron emission from shock-accelerated electrons (e.g. G347.3–0.5; Slane et al. (1999)), limb-brightened thermal emission from shock-heated ambient gas (e.g. 1E 0102.2–7219; Hughes, Rakowski, & Decourchelle (2000)), or centrally-filled thermal emission from hot gas in the interior, corresponding to a so-called “mixed morphology” or ”thermal composite” SNR (e.g. W44; Rho et al. (1994)).

The X-ray photon index for synchrotron-emitting SNRs is in the range $`2.5\mathrm{\Gamma }3.5`$ (see Petre (2001) for a review) which, as for the case of a PWN in §3.2, is distinctly flatter than the best-fit power law observed. On the other hand, the temperature of $`kT0.6`$ keV implied by thermal models is quite reasonable for thermally emitting SNRs, as is the corresponding unabsorbed X-ray luminosity (0.5–10 keV) of $`L_X10^{36}`$ erg s-1 for a distance of 12 kpc. The foreground column $`N_H10^{23}`$ cm-2 is high, but is well below the total integrated column in this direction of $`N_H1.5\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2 (Dickey & Lockman (1990)).

If we identify the head of the Tornado as a limb-brightened radio SNR, then the emission seen with Chandra originates wholly from the SNR interior, and we correspondingly can tentatively classify the Tornado as a mixed morphology SNR (as had been earlier speculated by Yusef-Zadeh et al. 2003 from the possible presence of ASCA emission). Whether such centrally-filled thermal X-rays are produced by evaporation of dense clouds overrun by the shock, through thermal conduction in the interior, or via some other process is currently controversial (Rho & Petre (1998)). However, regardless of the mechanism invoked, there have been repeated arguments that such a SNR is the result of an interaction with a dense molecular cloud (Green et al. (1997); Rho & Petre (1998); Yusef-Zadeh et al. (2003)). The OH maser, 2.12-$`\mu `$m H2 and 13CO emission seen here all support this interpretation.

Wardle (1999) has pointed out that the soft X-ray emission produced by a mixed morphology SNR can produce the ionizing flux $`\zeta 10^{16}`$ s-1 needed to disassociate H2O and produce the OH seen in maser emission. At a distance of 12 kpc, the maser produced by the Tornado is $`3.5`$ pc from the source of X-rays, implying a flux as seen by the OH maser $`f_X6\times 10^4`$ ergs cm-2 s-1. The consequent ionizing flux is $`\zeta =N_e\sigma f_X3\times 10^{15}`$ s-1, where $`N_e30`$ keV-1 is the number of electrons produced per keV of ionization and $`\sigma 2.6\times 10^{22}`$ is the photoabsorption cross-section of hydrogen at 1 keV (Wardle (1999)). This rate of ionization is more than sufficient to convert water into OH molecules.

## 4. Conclusions

A short observation of G357.7–0.1 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory has confirmed the presence of X-ray emission from this remarkable object. The brightest region of X-rays from this source is clearly extended, seems to sit within the shell of emission defined by the “head” of the radio source, and has a highly absorbed spectrum consistent with being either an extremely steep power law or a collisionally ionized plasma at a temperature $`0.6`$ keV.

We have considered the possibility of the Tornado being powered by jets from an X-ray binary, of corresponding to the synchrotron nebula powered by an energetic rotation-powered pulsar, or of representing an unusually-shaped supernova remnant. While the available data do not allow us to definitively rule out any of these alternatives, the spectrum and morphology of the X-ray emission seen by Chandra, when combined with evidence at other wavebands for the interaction of a shock with a molecular cloud, all suggest that the head of the Tornado is a “mixed morphology” supernova remnant, producing thermal X-rays from the interior of a limb-brightened radio shell, and expanding into a dense and possibly complicated distribution of ambient gas.

This argument provides a reasonably simple interpretation for the “head” of the Tornado, but the bizarre morphology of the “tail” remains unexplained. We speculate that the Tornado might result from expansion of a SNR into a highly elongated progenitor wind bubble, but explanations involving pre-existing helical magnetic fields, or high-speed outflows from a still unseen central source, can also not be discounted. Deep X-ray observations with Chandra and XMM are needed to better determine the morphology and spectrum of X-rays from the head, and to study the possible X-ray emission from the tail.

We thank Dan Harris, Jasmina Lazendic and Fred Seward for useful discussions, and Crystal Brogan for supplying us with her radio images of the Tornado. This work was supported by NASA through SAO grant GO2-3041X (BMG) and by the NSF (JMM).