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# The effects of inclination, gravity darkening and differential rotation on absorption profiles of fast rotators

## 1 Introduction

The information contained in line profiles of rotating stars has been studied since the recognition of spectral Doppler broadening itself. The multitude of different mechanisms influencing line profiles presents a confusing picture for the possibility of determining them. Approximations exist for rotational line broadening, (linear) limb darkening, differential rotation, turbulence, rotational flattening and gravity darkening, etc.. While distinguishing these interacting mechanisms is a delicate issue, in the case of slow rotators ($`v\mathrm{sin}i<50`$ km s-1) rotational flattening and gravity darkening can be neglected. Utilizing the Fourier transform technique Gray, (1973, 1976) also showed that turbulent velocities to some extent can be distinguished from rotation.

In fast rotators the situation becomes more complex, since centrifugal forces distort the spherical shape of the stellar surface and the line profiles depend on the inclination the star is observed under. Beyond the additional degree of freedom this would not be a major problem if temperature (and pressure) were not connected to gravity. With different regions on the stellar surface having significantly different temperatures and gas pressures, line profiles no longer can be approximated by convolution between a single intrinsic line profile and the rotational broadening function. For this reason, the effects of fast rotation on line profiles often were studied for specific absorption lines (e.g., Stoeckley, 1968; Hardorp & Strittmatter, 1968); Collins & Truax, (1995) come to the conclusion that the detection of secondary effects like limb darkening and differential rotation is improbable in line profiles of fast rotators.

Under what circumstances the approximation of various broadening mechanisms by convolutions breaks down, depends only on the sensitivity of the spectral line on temperature and gas pressure. Spectral quality in terms of signal-to-noise as well as in wavelength coverage has improved and makes possible analyses of weak absorption features. Observers are not restricted to the extremely temperature and pressure sensitive lines of the lightest elements H and He. Fast rotation is the rule in stars of spectral types as late as F5, and in the spectra of fast rotating A- and F-stars a large number of heavy ion lines exist where the approximation of rotational broadening by a convolution becomes valid again. Especially the deconvolution of an “overall” broadening function inherent in all lines by using the methods of Least Squares Deconvolution (LSD, e.g., Cameron, 2000) can provide reliable broadening profiles independent of line specific intrinsic mechanisms.

In this paper the effects of fast rotation are examined in detail focusing on geometric distortions and gravity darkening on stars observed under different inclination angles. These effects underly all spectral lines independent of their intrinsic shape and temperature or pressure dependencies. The modelled spectra assume no intrinsic temperature or pressure dependence; whether this can be applied to specific spectral lines or groups of lines has to be checked individually.

In Reiners & Schmitt, 2002a  the possibility of detecting differential rotation in line profiles was demonstrated. This paper also answers the question of whether the technique used there is applicable to fast rotators. It shows what can be learned about gravity darkening and inclination angle from the shape of stellar absorption line profiles.

## 2 Absorption profiles of fast rotators

### 2.1 Line-independent broadening

Absorption line profiles observed in fast rotating stars are affected by three mechanisms inherent in all lines: (a) the projected geometry of the star, (b) the flux distribution due to temperature variations (known as gravity darkening) on the rotating stellar surface, and (c) the rotation law. These three line-independent mechanisms will be discussed in the following.

Case (a) is well understood, fast rotation diminishes the gravitational potential at the equator and alters the star’s sphericity. As a consequence, lines of constant projected rotational velocities no longer lie on chords but are bent (cp., e.g., Collins & Truax, 1995). Although an analytical description of the surface velocity distribution is not then available, calculation by integrating over the stellar surface is unproblematic.

(b) Since the presence of gravity darkening was initially described by von Zeipel, (1924), many publications were written on the correct gravity dependence of surface temperature. In general, gravity darkening is described in terms of a parameter $`\beta `$ used in the equation

$$T_{\mathrm{eff}}g^\beta .$$
(1)
The “classical” value of $`\beta =0.25`$ found by von Zeipel, (1924) is valid only for conservative rotation laws in stars without convective envelopes. A value of $`\beta =0.08`$ is derived for stars with convective envelopes (Lucy, 1967). Tuominen, (1972) approximates a value of $`\beta 0.15`$ for differentially rotating stars, and for magnetic stars without convection zones, Smith, (1975) reports a slightly different value of $`\beta =0.275`$. The most comprehensive calculations were carried out by Claret, (1998), who provides tables of stellar parameters including $`\beta `$ for a series of stars at various evolutionary stages. The calculations are in general agreement with the cited works; stars of spectral types later than $``$A2 harboring convective envelopes have a value of $`\beta 0.08`$, for earlier-type stars, $`\beta =0.25`$ seems a good choice. These calculations are also consistent with measurements of $`\beta `$ in eclipsing binaries carried out by Rafert & Twigg, (1980), although a large scatter appears in the data (cp. Fig. 7 in Claret, 1998).

(c) Stellar rotation laws are poorly known. Our picture comes from observations of the Sun, where the angular velocity can be approximated as

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(l)=\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Equator}}(1\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2l),$$
(2)
with $`l`$ being the latitude and $`\alpha _{}0.2`$, i.e., the Equator rotating 20% faster than the Pole as derived from Sun spots. Differential rotation in stars other than the Sun was claimed for ten relatively slowly rotating F-type stars with values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i<50`$ km s-1 in Reiners & Schmitt, (2003) adopting Eq. 2 as the rotation law in analogy to the solar case. Assuming reasonable values of inclination angles $`i`$, the small projected rotational velocities of the stars in that sample give no reason to expect effects due to distortions of the gravitational potential, and differential rotation is thought to be the cause of the determined profile signatures. It is an open question, to what extent differential rotation can be detected in faster rotators, where deformation and gravity darkening become important.

### 2.2 Profile shape characteristics

Stellar line profiles are subject to a number of different mechanisms affecting their shape. Besides the mentioned effects of gravity darkening and rotation law, limb darkening, additional (turbulent) velocity fields and stellar surface structure like spots can significantly contribute to the line profiles’ shape. Utilizing the Fourier transform turns out to be of great advantage in disentangling the different effects. When approximating line broadening by convolutions, their interaction can be studied most easily using Fourier transforms, since the computationally complicated convolutions become multiplications in Fourier domain (cf, e.g., Gray, 1976).

Reiners & Schmitt, 2002a  utilized the zeros of the Fourier transformed line profiles to search for the subtle effects of differential rotation. They showed that the ratio of the first two zeros $`q_1`$ and $`q_2`$ is a direct indicator for solar-like – i.e., Equator faster that Pole – differential rotation ($`\alpha >0`$ in Eq. 2). The value of the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ is extremely sensitive to the profile’s shape, and is unaffected by the “standard” turbulent velocity fields like micro- and macroturbulence even for rotational velocities as low as 10 km s-1. Using a linear limb darkening law with a parameter $`ϵ`$, in a rigidly rotating star the value of $`q_2/q_1`$ can be approximated as

$$\frac{q_2}{q_1}=1.8310.108ϵ0.022ϵ^2+0.009ϵ^3+0.009ϵ^4$$
(3)
(Dravins et al., 1990). Thus for a rigid rotator the value of $`q_2/q_1`$ is always between 1.72 and 1.83 regardless of the limb darkening. Differential rotation significantly diminishes this ratio (cf Reiners & Schmitt, 2002a ), while polar spots lead to an increase (Reiners & Schmitt, 2002b ).

Since the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ turns out to be an easily accessible parameter characteristic for the line’s shape, I continue to use it for studying the influence of gravity darkening in rapidly rotating stars. For a more detailed discussion of the correlations between differential rotation $`\alpha `$, the inclination angle $`i`$ and $`q_2/q_1`$ see Reiners & Schmitt, 2002a ; Reiners & Schmitt, (2003).

## 3 Model

The approach of this paper is to study the effects of fast rotation universal for all absorption lines. Line specific dependencies on gas pressure, ionization stages, etc. are not taken into account. This approach is especially suited for studies incorporating different lines of similar (preferably heavy) ions, e.g., with LSD methods. For heavy ions pressure broadening is not expected to play a major role compared to the dominant rotational broadening. For light elements like H and He, this is not true and great care has to be take when applying the methods to them. Although the Lorentzian profiles induced by pressure broadening should not add additional zeros to the line profile Fourier transforms (cp. Heinzel, 1978), errors from approximating line broadening effects by convolutions may become significant in these cases.

The calculations were done using a modified version of the package developed and described by Townsend, (1997). Surface integration is carried out over 25 500 visible surface elements scaling the flux with temperature according to a Planck law. A Gaussian profile was used as the input function, since the large rotational velocities make the shape of the input function unimportant. For all cases the same input function was used regardless of gravity and temperature. To measure the zeros in Fourier transformed line profiles the accuracy must be higher for the faster rotators; 32 768 points were used in the transform algorithm for values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i100`$ km s-1, 65 536 points for values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ between 100 and 200 km s-1, and 131 072 points for $`v\mathrm{sin}i>200`$ km s-1. Thus the sampling error in $`q_2/q_1`$ does not exceed a value of 0.01 for all calculations.

Broadening profiles are calculated and the values of $`q_2/q_1`$ determined for four stellar models with polar effective temperature $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{Pole}}`$ and mass given in columns two and three in Tab. 1. A grid is computed in three values of $`\beta `$ (0.0, 0.08 and 0.25), five values of inclination angle $`i`$ (10, 30, 50, 70 and 90), and values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ between 50 and 300 km s-1 in steps of 25 km s-1 with the equatorial velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}<350`$ km s-1. Altogether more than 450 models are computed. The dependence of the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ on different parameter choices is analyzed and studied in the following.

## 4 Line shape variations

### 4.1 Monotonic dependence on rotational velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}`$

To show the dependence of $`q_2/q_1`$ on $`v_\mathrm{e}`$, in Fig. 1 $`q_2/q_1`$ is plotted vs. $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ for the F0 model with a gravity darkening parameter of $`\beta =0.08`$. The region in $`q_2/q_1`$ typical for a spherical surface and a linear limb darkening law with $`0.0<ϵ<1.0`$ is indicated with dotted lines (cp. Eq. 3). Values for stars seen under various inclination angles are distinguished by different symbols, all values are in good agreement with the marked polynomial indicating a smooth decline of $`q_2/q_1`$ for stars rotating faster than $`v_\mathrm{e}150`$ km s-1.

The parameter determining the value of $`q_2/q_1`$ in a given stellar model obviously is $`v_\mathrm{e}`$, independent of the inclination angle (and thus $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$). This means, that under the assumption of rigid rotation, and with assumed values of $`\beta `$, in fast rotators one can in principle obtain the value of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ from the value of $`q_2/q_1`$, and thus, with the known value of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$, the inclination angle $`i`$. I will return to this point in Sect. 4.3.

### 4.2 Gravity darkening and spectral class

In the four panels of Fig. 2 the derived values of $`q_2/q_1`$ are plotted vs. $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ for the models of spectral types B0, A0, F0 and G0 as specified in Tab. 1. In each panel calculations for three different values of $`\beta `$ are shown, the different choices of $`\beta `$ (0.0, 0.08 and 0.25) are plotted using different symbols. The slope of $`q_2/q_1`$ is well described by a second order polynomial for all cases. The ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ is diminished in rapid rotators with larger deviations from the standard value of $`q_2/q_1=1.75`$ the larger the value of $`\beta `$. In the A0, F0 and G0 models, $`q_2/q_1`$ becomes less than 1.72 for very fast rotators depending on the value of $`\beta `$, i.e., deviations from standard line profiles are significant and in principle observable in these stars.

The behavior of $`q_2/q_1`$ with different values of the gravity darkening parameter $`\beta `$ can be studied in the four panels of Fig. 2. In the B0 model no value of $`q_2/q_1<1.72`$ appears, but the influence of $`\beta `$ on the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ grows with later spectral type. In all cases $`q_2/q_1`$ depends monotonically on the rotational velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ with diminished $`q_2/q_1`$ for larger rotational velocities. The result that the line profiles depend more strongly on the value of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ for stars of later spectral types, reflects the fact that the relative temperature contrast $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T`$ on the stellar surface is larger for cooler stars, since $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ is comparable for similar values of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$. Furthermore, for all models no significant variation of $`q_2/q_1`$ appears for $`\beta =0`$, i.e., without gravity darkening the geometrical deformation does not suffice to significantly change the shape of the line profiles.

In a larger sample of stars of similar spectral types these results could make it feasible to determine the value of gravity darkening in terms of the parameter $`\beta `$ when plotting $`q_2/q_1`$ vs. $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$. While for many stars in such a plot the values should fall below an upper envelope expected from the $`q_2/q_1`$$`v_\mathrm{e}`$ relation (the real values of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ are larger than the measured values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$), a clear threshold should mark the upper envelope indicating the correct value of $`\beta `$. Using a larger sample of fast rotators of similar spectral types the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ could thus be used to determine the values of $`\beta `$ from measurements of single stars.

### 4.3 Determination of $`i`$

The ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ depends monotonically on equatorial velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ and is independent of the inclination angle $`i`$. Assuming a value of $`\beta `$ for a fast rotator of known spectral class, the equatorial velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ can thus be determined from a measurement of $`q_2/q_1`$. The functions $`q_2/q_1(v_\mathrm{e})`$ shown in Fig. 2 are approximated by the second order polynomial

$$q_2/q_1=1.75+av_\mathrm{e}+bv_\mathrm{e}^2.$$
(4)
The parameters $`a`$ and $`b`$ for the four models using the most probable values of the parameter $`\beta `$ according to Claret, (1998) are given in Tab. 1. With Eq. 4 it is possible to derive the inclination angle $`i`$ from a standard measurement of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ and the value of $`q_2/q_1`$.

In each panel of Fig. 3 the values of $`i`$ are plotted vs. the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ for four different values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$. As in Fig. 2 each panel represents a stellar model from Tab. 1. Functions for values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i=50,100,200`$ and $`300`$ km s-1 are plotted as examples; for calculating intermediate values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$, Eq. 4 can be used with values of $`a`$ and $`b`$ as given in columns five and six of Tab. 1. For example, a value of $`q_2/q_1=1.70`$ measured in a profile of an A0-type star with $`v\mathrm{sin}i=100`$ km s-1 can indicate that a rigidly rotating star is observed under an inclination of $`i=20^{}`$ and thus $`v_\mathrm{e}290`$ km s-1.

### 4.4 Differential rotation in fast rotators

Solar-like differential rotation with the Equator faster than the Pole diminishes the value of $`q_2/q_1`$ as shown in Reiners & Schmitt, 2002a ; a measurement yielding $`q_2/q_1<1.72`$ can be due to a solar-like rotation law with the Equator faster than the Pole. Whether very fast rotators are subject to strong differential rotation will not be discussed here. In Fig. 2 $`q_2/q_1`$ appears to be larger than 1.72 for all stars with $`v_\mathrm{e}<200`$ km s-1 and values of gravity darkening according to Claret, (1998) (cp. Tab. 1). This means that a measurement of differential rotation by determining the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ is not affected by gravity darkening if $`v_\mathrm{e}200`$ km s-1. Interpreting gravity darkening as the reason for a measured value of $`q_2/q_1<1.72`$, the rotational velocity ($`v_\mathrm{e}>200`$km s-1) and inclination angle of the star can be determined. Consistency of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ with breakup velocity can be checked. For $`v_\mathrm{e}<v_{\mathrm{crit}}`$, differential rotation and very fast rotation remain indistinguishable without further information. An example is given in Sect. 6.

## 5 Real and measured values of $`𝐯`$ sin$`𝐢`$

To what accuracy a measurement of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ is possible was discussed in a number of publications (e.g., Stoeckley, 1968; Collins & Truax, 1995). It is known that measured values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ underestimate the real values especially for very fast rotators regardless of the data quality. To what extent a measured value is too low, depends on the gravity darkening law and on the stellar inclination. In the four panels of Fig. 4 the differences between real and measured values for the B0, A0, F0 and G0-type stars are shown using the most probable values of gravity darkening as done above. The measured values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ have been derived using the first zeros of the Fourier transform. Values for different inclination angles are differentiated and shown with different symbols, those derived for identical values of $`i`$ are connected by solid lines. Dashed lines mark the identity of real and measured values. As expected, the measured values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ may underestimate the real ones but will never indicate too high a projected rotational velocity. This reflects the fact that the (equatorial) surface regions with the largest projected rotational velocities become cooler due to gravity darkening, and thus less flux is observed from them.

The extent, to which a measured value of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ is systematically underestimated, depends strongly and in a well-defined manner on the inclination angle. For constant inclination angles, the measured value of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ is a smooth function of the real one (cp. to Fig. 6 in Collins & Truax, 1995). Underestimation of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ is stronger for smaller inclination angles in all models. The deviation naturally is higher for large values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ (and thus also of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$). Thus, measured values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ in very rapid rotators can be corrected by determining the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ and calculating the inclination angle $`i`$ as shown in Sect. 4.3.

It should be noted that – in contrast to Fig. 12 in Collins & Truax, (1995) – inclination has a strong effect on the zeros of Fourier transformed line profiles of rapid rotators; the case shown there only holds for zero projected rotational velocity.

## 6 Example: Differential or fast rotation?

As an observational example the ten stars for which differential rotation was claimed in Reiners & Schmitt, (2003) are given in Tab. 2 with their determined values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ and $`q_2/q_1`$. According to the present calculations, these values of $`q_2/q_1<1.72`$ could also be interpreted as fast rotation seen under small inclination angles $`i`$. The requested values of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ and $`i`$ for this interpretation are calculated and given in columns five and six in Tab. 2. With one exception all values of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ are larger than break-up velocity and thus can be excluded (it is furthermore very unlikely to find inclination angles below 6° in ten out of the 32 objects used in that sample). Thus differential rotation remains the most probable explanation for the peculiar shapes of these profiles.

## 7 Summary

Line independent effects of fast stellar rotation on line profiles were presented. Neglecting line specific variations in shape and line depth, the effects of geometrical deformation and the role of the gravity darkening parameter $`\beta `$ have been outlined. Grid calculations in gravity darkening $`\beta `$, inclination angle $`i`$, rotational velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ and spectral type with the parameter $`q_2/q_1`$ classifying the profiles’ shapes were carried out. The results summarized below can be applied especially to high quality data covering large wavelength regions where line-independent broadening profiles may be obtained using the methods of LSD. Applicability must be proved for each case individually, but especially for lines of heavier ions in stars of later spectral types, intrinsic variations of line profiles are sufficiently small and the results of this study can directly be applied. The results can be summarized as follows:

1. In very fast rotators ($`v\mathrm{sin}i>150`$ km s-1) and for constant values of $`\beta `$ and similar spectral types, the value of $`q_2/q_1`$ shows monotonic dependence on equatorial velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ with $`q_2/q_1`$ diminishing significantly with larger values of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$. Variations with inclination $`i`$ are marginal.
2. The coupling of $`q_2/q_1`$ on $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ depends on the value of the gravity darkening parameter $`\beta `$ and of spectral type. Larger values of $`\beta `$ lead to lower values of $`q_2/q_1`$ with stronger slopes for later spectral types. Estimating the physical values of $`\beta `$ according to Claret, (1998), the parameter $`q_2/q_1`$ becomes significantly diminished in fast rotating ($`v_\mathrm{e}200`$ km s-1) A-, F- and G-type stars. Independent of the inclination angle $`i`$, the equatorial velocity $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ can be estimated by measuring $`q_2/q_1`$, and thus measuring $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ and $`v_\mathrm{e}(q_2/q_1)`$ determines the inclination angle $`i`$.
3. For stars with rotational velocities of $`v_\mathrm{e}200`$ km s-1 the value of the ratio $`q_2/q_1`$ does not significantly change and is larger than 1.72 for all choices of $`\beta `$ and for all spectral types.
4. For fixed values of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ the zeros of Fourier transformed rotational broadening profiles do depend on inclination angle $`i`$. A smaller value of $`i`$ results in a larger difference between the value of $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ as measured from the first zero of the Fourier transform and its real value. Measured projected rotational velocities are never overestimated. Deviations are as large as 20% depending on the value of $`i`$. Using the parameter $`q_2/q_1`$ this effect can be corrected for.

As for differential rotation, it turned out that its measurement is not affected by gravity darkening in stars rotating slower than $`v_\mathrm{e}200`$ km s-1. For faster rotators, small values of $`q_2/q_1`$ can principally be due to three reasons; (i) strong differential rotation, (ii) very fast rigid rotation (perhaps seen under a small inclination angle), and (iii) both. The constraints on a value of $`v_\mathrm{e}(q_2/q_1)`$ can help to clarify the situation, e.g., if a value of $`v_\mathrm{e}`$ larger than breakup velocity is needed to rule out differential rotation.

###### Acknowledgements.

A.R. acknowledges financial support from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG-SCHM 1032/10-1.


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# Reply to Comment on Conservative Force Fields in Nonextensive Kinetic Theory

## Abstract

It is shown that the comment by Costa and Meneses did not point any technical or conceptual flaw in our paper titled “Conservative Force Fields in Nonextensive Kinetic Theory” (Physica A 316, 289 (2002)). In particular, the application of the nonextensive distribution to the historical problem of the unbounded isothermal atmosphere under constant gravity is theoretically correct. It should be stressed that our solution is somewhat connected with a similar solution to a problem appearing in the astrophysical domain, namely, the so-called singular isothermal sphere. Actually, both problems are solved by a stationary Tsallis q-distribution with a “thermal cut-off” in the allowed values of the energy.

In a recent comment, da Costa and de Meneses raised some objections concerning the application of the nonextensive kinetic distribution to the problem of the isothermal atmosphere under constant gravity as worked out by Lima et al.. Ab initio, we notice that the leitmotiv of our paper was to investigate how the molecular motion as predicted by the nonextensive kinetic theory (based on Tsallis statistics), is modified by an external force field. Since this part of the paper (the largest and most important one) has not been contested in the comment, it is very hard to understand the logic behind the objection to the most elementary application - which has been considered mainly to exemplify the usefulness our approach. In spite of that, we will try to expose more pedagogically our viewpoint concerning the modified barometric formula which is a direct consequence of equation (20) in our paper. Hopefully, the comments below may clarify the basic results of our paper, as well as their physical interest.

The problem of the isothermal atmosphere under constant gravity has kinetically been described with basis on the Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) distribution, the main prediction of which is the so-called barometric formula

$$\rho (z)=\rho _0\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{mgz}{k_BT}\right].$$
(1)
The first interesting conclusion from the above expression is that the ideal isothermal atmosphere in the MB approach extends to an infinite distance. In their comment, the authors stressed that $`g`$ and $`T`$ are constant as $`z`$ take values on the interval \[$`0,\mathrm{}`$\]. They forgot, however, that the infinite variation of $`z`$ has been established a posteriori, that is, after the complete solution of the problem. Indeed, this uncomfortable result was discussed long ago by Lord Rayleigh, who attempted to solve it by replacing the isothermal equilibrium by an adiabatic condition, thereby getting a finite length to the atmosphere under constant gravity. In this connection, we notice that whether the isothermal MB approach describes or not, the observed earth’s atmosphere is not the important point here since the earth’s atmosphere is a very complex system. Its gravitational field is not constant and the earth’s curvature also needs to be taken into account in order to have a more realistic description. Probably, more important still, it is a system very far from equilibrium since turbulence is usually present in many relevant scales.

In this way, the main aspect to reflect in our paper is that the standard Maxwell-Boltzmann kinetic theory in the presence of gravity routinely lead to distributions with infinite scales of length and mass, as happens to the case of the singular isothermal sphere in the astrophysical domain\[5-8\]. In the MB approach, such distributions need to be somewhat truncated in order to furnish a more reasonable (finite) description, as in the case of stellar systems. Therefore, although considering that discussions of the barometric formula are available in any textbook for undergraduate students (as pointed out by da Costa and de Meneses), we believe with basis on the above comments that they did not catch the important points we are talking about. More precisely, MB distribution in the presence of gravity usually predicts unbounded systems like the singular isothermal sphere (where $`\stackrel{}{g}`$ is not constant) because the particles moving in the “hot tail” of the distribution always escape from the majority of the physical potentials satisfying simultaneously the Vlasov and Poisson equations\[4-8\]. This explains the interest for the q-nonextensive class of distributions with a “thermal cut-off” since the velocity of the particles (or more generally the total energy) has an upper limit.

Therefore, unlike the claims of da Costa and de Meneses, our rediscussion of the barometric formula seems to be relevant to the enlarged nonextensive framework. They also remarked that any discussion related to the isothermal atmosphere under constant gravity must start from the relevant scale of the problem, namely $`\xi =k_BT/mg`$. At this point it is interesting to see how such scale appears in our treatment.

By separating the variables in the Vlasov equation we have shown that the potential energy term can rigorously be introduced in the q-nonextensive velocity distribution. The main result is (see Eq.(20) in )

$$f(𝐫,v)=B_q\left[1(1q)\left(\frac{m𝐯^2}{2k_BT}+\frac{U(𝐫)}{k_BT}\right)\right]^{1/(1q)}$$
(2)
Now, for a constant gravitational field, $`U(z)=mgz`$, one has

$$f(𝐫,v)=B_q\left[1(1q)\left(\frac{m𝐯^2}{2k_BT}+\frac{mgz}{k_BT}\right)\right]^{1/(1q)},$$
(3)
and by integrating in the velocity space we have the modified barometric formula:

$$\rho (z)=\rho _0\left[1(1q)\frac{mgz}{k_BT}\right]^{(53q)/2(1q)}.$$
(4)
Note the presence of the required length scale $`\xi `$. However, for a given value of $`q<1`$, a new relevant macroscopic scale is introduced by the “thermal cut-off” of the distribution function (note that this does not happen for $`q1`$). In fact, it is also a function of $`\xi `$, however, it determines the extension of the atmosphere to be

$$z_{max}=\frac{k_BT}{mg(1q)}.$$
(5)
As remarked before, the above equation is a trivial consequence of equation (20) in our paper, and therefore, of the q-nonextensive approach which has not been questioned by the authors.

Concerning the estimates presented in Table 1 of our paper (based in the above formula), the authors suggest that we would consider gases more abundant in the atmosphere ($`N_2,CO_2`$..etc.) and perhaps more appropriate values of the nonextensive parameter in order to have better results (to be true, at this point the focus of the criticism seems to have somewhat shifted). Nevertheless, we have avoided to consider a long list of gases and many different values of $`q`$ because we focus just on the basic result, that is, the fact that the isothermal atmosphere becomes finite for $`q<1`$. Therefore, apart the misprint (the length of the atmosphere in the oxygen case is 38.7 Km instead of 33.7 Km), the results presented in table 1 are significant in order to understand the combined effects of the $`q`$ parameter and the mass of the particles.

Finally, we stress that the discussion of any gravitational system with basis on the stationary power law nonextensive distribution is quite interesting nowadays. Actually, we believe that the introduction of finite results either for the isothermal atmosphere under constant gravity, or more generally for globular clusters and elliptical galaxies, do not represent only a nice coincidence. Unlike the claims of da Costa and de Meneses, such results are signalizing that nonextensive effects are relevant in the astrophysical domain, and, presumably, this kind of research will be intensified in the near future.

Acknowledgments: This work was supported by Pronex/FINEP (No. 41.96.0908.00), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq and CAPES (Brazilian Research Agencies).


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# MAGNETIC FIELDS IN COSMOLOGY

## 1 Introduction

It is known from observations, mostly from Faraday effect, that there are magnetic fields in galaxies with magnitude of a few micro-Gauss and coherence length of the order of galactic size, $`l_{gal}`$ ( a few) kpc, The energy density of such fields is close to the energy density of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR):

$`\rho _B=B^2/8\pi \rho _\gamma 10^4\rho _m310^{34}\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (1)
where $`\rho _\gamma `$ is the energy density of CMBR and $`\rho _m1.5`$ keV/cm3 is the total cosmological mass/energy density. Though the magnitude of such fields is small in comparison with the fields of stars or even planets (see below) it is very difficult to understand their huge coherence length. Even more puzzling is a possible existence of intergalactic magnetic fields which are 3 orders of magnitude weaker but coherent at a Megaparsec scale, for a review see ref..

For comparison, magnetic field of the earth is $`B_{}=0.5`$ G, magnetic fields of solar type stars can be as large as $`10^3`$ G, magnetic fields of white dwarfs may reach $`10^9`$ G, and absolute champions are neutron stars with magnetic fields at the level of $`10^{13}`$ G.

Possible creation mechanisms of large scale galactic or intergalactic fields can be roughly separated into four classes (for reviews see ref.):

1. Conventional (astrophysical) mechanism based on stellar ejecta of magnetic fields with subsequent magnetic lines reconnection (from different stars) to create a homogenous on large scale field component. This mechanism was reviewed recently in ref.
2. Processes in the early universe which invoke inflation to stretch the characteristic scale of the field up to galactic or even larger scales. A comprehensive list of references on different versions of these mechanisms can be found in the recent paper.
3. Phase transitions in the early universe during which strong magnetic fields could be created but at a very small scale.
4. Relaxation of previously created inhomogeneities. In this process turbulent or laminar flow of primeval plasma with non-zero vorticity could be generated and due to different mobilities of charge carriers vortical electric currents producing magnetic fields would be created. Such mechanism may operate either in the early or relatively late universe.

All these mechanisms either generate magnetic fields at very small scales or of insufficiently large amplitude. In the first case ”Brownian” type reconnection of magnetic field lines is necessary for creation of coherent magnetic fields at large distances. The amplitude of the field in the course of reconnection decreases as $`(l_{in}/l_{fin})^{3/2}`$ where $`l_{in}`$ and $`l_{fin}`$ are the initial and final coherence lengths. Inflationary stretched fields are usually rather weak, though may have a very large coherence length. In both cases galactic dynamo should amplify the seed magnetic fields up to the necessary magnitude.

## 2 A comment on astrophysical mechanism

The total energy of galactic magnetic field in a large galaxy, e.g. in the Milky Way, is equal to:

$`_{gal}^B={\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}\pi R_{gal}^3\rho _B10M_{}`$ (2)
where $`M_{}`$ is the solar mass. Magnetic energy of a neutron star with radius $`R_{ns}=10^6`$cm is equal to $`_{ns}^B10^{11}M_{}(B/10^{13}G)^2`$. Magnetic energy of white dwarfs with $`R_{wd}=10^9`$cm is $`_{wd}^B10^{10}M_{}(B/10^9G)^2`$. Thus about $`10^{11}`$ white dwarfs with magnetic field $`B=10^{10}`$G or $`10^{12}`$ neutron stars with $`B=10^{13}`$G should be in the Galaxy to feed galactic magnetic field if the energy of the field were not lost in the process of line reconnection. Since the total number of stars in the Galaxy is about $`210^{11}`$ it is hardly possible to meet this requirement. Of course this estimate is quite rough and more accurate considerations may be not so negative but still it shows that efficiency of stellar creation of galactic magnetic field should be very high to satisfy energy constraints.

## 3 Generation of seed magnetic fields in the early universe

It is well known that during inflation very long gravitational waves and large scale scalar field perturbations are generated. A natural question is: ”why not electromagnetic fields?” The answer is that scalars and tensor fields are not conformally invariant even in the zero mass case, while photons are. Conformal invariance means that rescaling metric with an arbitrary factor $`b(t,𝐫)`$ and the fields by the same factor to a power depending on the spin of the field we arrive to formally the same action written in terms of new variables. According to the Parker theorem conformally invariant fields are not generated in conformally flat space-time. Indeed it is known that cosmological Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) background is conformally flat, i.e. after the proper coordinate choice the metric can be written in the form

$`ds^2=a(\tau ,𝐱)^2\left(d\tau ^2d𝐱^2\right),`$ (3)
Thus after conformal transformation with the factor $`b=a(\tau ,𝐱)`$ to a proper power we can exclude FRW-gravity for conformally invariant fields. Fortunately, as it has been already mentioned, this cannot be done for scalar (in particular, inflaton) fields. Otherwise cosmological density perturbations would not be generated and we would not be here.

Several possible ways to break conformal invariance of electrodynamics and to create seed magnetic fields have been discussed in the literature:

1. New non-minimal interaction of electromagnetic field with gravity, possibly not gauge invariant :

$`=C_1RA_\mu A^\mu +C_2R_{\mu \nu }A^\mu A^\nu +C_3R_{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }F^{\mu \nu }F^{\alpha \beta }+\mathrm{}`$ (4)
where $`A_\mu `$ is the electromagnetic vector-potential, $`F^{\mu \nu }`$ is the Maxwell tensor, $`R_{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }`$ is the Riemann tensor, $`R_{\mu \nu }`$ is the Ricci tensor, and $`R`$ is the curvature scalar.
2. Interaction with a new hypothetical field, dilaton, $`\theta `$:

$`=(1/4)e^\theta F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }`$ (5)
3. Quantum conformal anomaly due to famous triangle diagram which leads to non-zero trace of the energy-momentum tensor of electromagnetic field and breaks in this way conformal invariance of electrodynamics:

$`T_\mu ^\mu =\kappa F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }`$ (6)
where the constant coefficient $`\kappa `$ depends upon the rank of the gauge group and the number of charged fermions. For $`SU(N)`$ with $`N_f`$ number of charged fermions it is: $`\kappa =(\alpha /\pi )(11N/32N_f/3)`$.

In all these models electromagnetic waves could be generated at inflationary stage and sufficiently large magnetic fields at very large scales would be created to serve as seeds for galactic fields, if one takes appropriate values of of coupling constants in the Lagrangians or sufficiently large number of charge particles in the third case. Unsatisfactory features of this approach are introduction of new fields or interactions, though the second case looks quite natural in string inspired theories, while the third one looks good in grand unification models especially keeping in mind that the fine structure coupling constant $`\alpha `$ becomes quite large, about 1/40, at the unification scale. The latter makes the mechanism much more efficient.

## 4 Generation of vorticity perturbations by cosmological inhomogeneities

There are several mechanisms which might create inhomogeneities in the primeval plasma whose relaxation could lead to generation of primordial magnetic fields:

1. First order phase transitions creating bubbles of one phase inside another. Though the magnitude of magnetic fields produced on the boundaries between the phases could be very large, the characteristic scale is extremely small and it is difficult to stretch it up to galactic size.
2. Creation of stochastic inhomogeneities in cosmological charge asymmetry, either electric, or e.g. leptonic at large scales which produce turbulent electric currents and, in turn, magnetic fields. The first of these models could be quite efficient but it demands rather unusual physics. For realization of the second model only one rather innocent assumption is necessary, namely, an existence of sterile neutrino, $`\nu _s`$, very weakly mixed with active ones, $`\nu _{e,\mu ,\tau }`$. If $`\nu _s`$ is lighter than $`\nu _a`$ and the mass difference is sufficiently large then the MSW-resonance transition between $`\nu _s`$ and active neutrinos would take place giving rise to a large, about 0.1, and strongly fluctuating lepton asymmetry in the active neutrino sector. When the wave length of the domain with a large lepton (or anti-lepton) number crossed horizon, the neutrino or antineutrino flux from this domain would induce electric current by scattering on electrons or positrons because of different $`\nu e^{}`$\- and $`\nu e^+`$-cross-sections. In this process hydrodynamical flows with large Reynolds numbers would be generated and turbulent vortical currents could be produced. The characteristic wave length of the generated magnetic field is about 100 pc and chaotic line reconnection and large but not unreasonable dynamo amplification are necessary for explanation of the observed galactic fields.
3. Generation of seed magnetic fields slightly before hydrogen recombination epoch through relaxation of the usual density perturbations which are known from observations to exist. This model does not demand any new physics and predicts quite promising amplitude of seed fields at galactic scales. Since the work is new, not yet published, we will discuss it in the next section in some detail.

## 5 Generation of large scale magnetic fields at recombination epoch

We will consider the period when the universe was already quite old and cool with temperature about 1-100 eV, i.e. somewhat before hydrogen recombination. The usual cosmological density perturbations are known to exist at that time, with rather small amplitude, $`\delta \rho /\rho 10^4`$. The motion of the cosmological plasma, or better to say fluid, under pressure forces is governed by the hydrodynamical equation (see e.g. the book):

$`\rho \left(_tv_i+v_k_kv_i\right)=_ip+_k\left[\eta \left(_kv_i+_iv_k{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}\delta _{ik}_jv_j\right)+_i\left(\zeta _jv_j\right)\right]`$ (7)
where $`v`$ is the velocity of the fluid element, $`\rho `$ and $`p`$ are respectively the energy and pressure densities of the fluid, and $`\eta `$ and $`\zeta `$ are the first and second viscosity coefficients. In the case of constant viscosity coefficients this equation is reduced to the well known Navier-Stokes equation. The coefficient $`\eta `$ is related to the mean free path of particles in fluid as

$`\eta /\rho \nu =l_f`$ (8)
In what follows we disregard the second viscosity $`\zeta `$.

The behavior of the solution to eq. (7) crucially depends upon the value of the Reynolds number

$`R_\lambda ={\displaystyle \frac{v\lambda }{\nu }}`$ (9)
where $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of the velocity perturbations. If $`R1`$, then the fluid motion would become turbulent and non-zero vorticity would be created by spontaneously generated turbulent eddies. In the opposite case of low $`R`$ the motion is smooth and and no vorticity could be generated in the first order in $`\delta \rho `$. One would expect that in the case of scalar perturbations vorticity remains zero in any order in $`\delta \rho `$. However, this is not the case, as we will argue in what follows.

Let us first estimate the Reynolds number of the fluid motion created by the pressure gradient in eq. (7). To this end we assume that the liquid is quasi incompressible and homogeneous, so that the second term in the r.h.s. of this equation can be neglected. This is approximately correct and the obtained magnitude of the fluid velocity is sufficiently accurate. In this approximation eq. (7) reduces to a much simpler one:

$`_t𝐯+\left(𝐯\right)𝐯\nu \mathrm{\Delta }𝐯={\displaystyle \frac{p}{\rho }}`$ (10)
A comment worth making at this stage. The complete system of equations includes also continuity equation which connects the time variation of energy density with the hydrodynamical flux (see below eq. (19)) and the Poisson equation for gravitational potential induced by density inhomogeneities. We will however neglect the gravitational force and the back reaction of the fluid motion on the density perturbation. This approximation would give a reasonable estimate of the fluid velocity for the time intervals when acoustic oscillations are not yet developed, i.e. for $`t<\lambda /v_s`$, where $`\lambda `$ is the wave length of the perturbation and $`v_s`$ is the speed of sound (in the case under consideration $`v_s^2=1/3`$). In fact the wave length should be larger than the photon mean free path, to avoid diffusion damping, and the characteristic time interval, as we see below, should be somewhat larger than $`\lambda `$. So we may hope that our estimates of the velocity are reasonable enough. Neglecting gravitational forces, especially those induced by dark matter would result in a smaller magnitude of the fluid velocity, so the real effect should be somewhat larger.

For small velocities (or sufficiently small wavelengths) we may neglect the second term in the l.h.s. with respect to the third one. In this approximation the equation becomes linear and can be easily solved for the Fourier transformed quantities. Assuming that the parameters are time-independent (though it is not necessary) we obtain:

$`𝐯_𝐤={\displaystyle \frac{i𝐤}{3k^2\nu }}\delta _k\left[1\mathrm{exp}(\nu k^2t)\right]`$ (11)
where $`\delta _k=(\delta \rho /\rho )_k`$ is the Fourier transform of relative density perturbations, $`\delta \rho /\rho `$; its natural value is $`10^4`$, though it might be much larger at small scales. The coefficient $`1/3`$ comes from equation of state of relativistic gas, $`p=\rho /3`$.

Therefore, for the Reynolds number we obtain:

$`R_k={\displaystyle \frac{\delta _k}{3\left(k\nu \right)^2}}\left[1\mathrm{exp}\left(\nu k^2t\right)\right].`$ (12)
If $`\delta _k`$ is weakly dependent on $`k`$, then $`R_k`$ is a monotonically rising function of the wavelength $`\lambda =2\pi /k`$. For $`t\lambda ^2/\nu `$ it takes the value

$`R_k={\displaystyle \frac{t}{3\nu }}\delta _k1,`$ (13)
so the hydrodynamical flow remains laminar and vorticity is not spontaneously generated. Dynamical generation of vorticity is governed by the equation:

$`_t𝛀\nu \mathrm{\Delta }𝛀=\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{p}{\rho }}\right)`$ (14)
where $`𝛀=\times 𝐯`$ and we assume that velocity is small so that the term quadratic in $`v`$ was neglected. If the r.h.s. is non-vanishing, then $`𝛀`$ would be non-zero too. However usually pressure density is proportional to the energy density, $`p=w\rho `$, with a constant coefficient $`w`$ and hence $`\times \left(p/\rho \right)=0`$.We can see that this is not so because cosmic plasma consist of different components whose motion is somewhat different. Let us assume that plasma is in local thermal equilibrium with common temperature $`T(𝐱)`$. This assumption is justified by a large interaction rate between radiation and charged particles. If $`T`$ would be the only parameter which determines the state of the medium, then vorticity would not be generated because we would have in our disposal only $`T`$ and it is impossible to construct non-vanishing $`\times 𝐯`$ from the gradient of only one scalar function. However, distributions of charged particles depend upon one more function, their chemical potential:

$`f=\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{E}{T(𝐱)}}+\xi (𝐱)\right]`$ (15)
where the dimensionless chemical potential $`\xi `$ can be readily expressed through particle number density $`n_en_B=\beta (x)n_\gamma `$ with $`\beta (x)=610^{10}+\delta \beta (x)`$:

$`\xi (x)=\mathrm{ln}\beta (x)+\mathrm{const}`$ (16)
Hence we will find that the source term in the vorticity equation (14) is equal to:

$`S_kϵ_{ijk}_j\left({\displaystyle \frac{_ip}{\rho }}\right)=ϵ_{ijk}{\displaystyle \frac{_i\rho _\gamma }{3\rho _{\mathrm{tot}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{_j\beta }{\beta }}{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _b}{\rho _{\mathrm{tot}}}}`$ (17)
An essential feature here is that the spatial distribution of charged particles does not repeat the distribution of photons and hence the vectors $`\rho _\gamma `$ and $`\beta `$ are not collinear. This could occur if, for the wave length corresponding to subgalactic scales, there exist baryon isocurvature fluctuations and thus $`\rho (x)`$ and $`\beta (x)`$ have different profiles. As we have mentioned above, different mean free paths of photons and charged particles would maintain such non-collinearity of the order of unity at the scales $`\lambda l_\gamma `$. Moreover, even in the case of adiabatic perturbations a shift in the distribution of photons and charged particles could also be created because of acoustic oscillations that proceeded with different phases of radiation and matter densities. At the scales $`\lambda l_\gamma `$ perturbations in the the plasma temperature would be erased by the diffusion damping, while for $`\lambda l_\gamma `$ the diffusion processes are not efficient and one would expect self-similar perturbation leading to collinearity of $`\rho _\gamma `$ and $`\beta `$. On the other hand, when $`\lambda `$ entered under horizon acoustic oscillations begun which destroyed the self-similarity. Thus the expected wavelengths of vorticity perturbations should be between $`l_\gamma <\lambda <H^1`$.

Surprisingly vorticity can be also generated (and in the case under consideration even a larger one) if perturbations in plasma are determined by a single scalar function, for example, by $`T(t,𝐱)`$ because it might be proportional to the product $`_iT(t,𝐱)_jT(t^{},𝐱)`$. These two gradients generally are not collinear if taken at different time moments $`t`$ and $`t^{}`$. To see that, let us start from the Boltzmann equation for the distribution function $`f(t,𝐱,E,𝐩)`$ of photons:

$$\left(\frac{}{t}+𝐕H𝐩\frac{}{𝐩}+𝐅\frac{}{𝐩}\right)f(t,𝐱,E,𝐩)=I_{\mathrm{coll}}[f_a,f_b,\mathrm{}],$$
(18)
where $`𝐕=𝐩/E`$ is the particle velocity (not to be confused with the velocity $`𝐯`$ of macroscopic motion of the medium, for photons $`V=1`$, while $`v1`$), $`E`$ and $`𝐩`$ are respectively the particle energy and spatial momentum, $`H`$ is the universe expansion rate, $`𝐅`$ is an external force acting on particles in question (the latter is assumed to be absent), and $`I[f_a,f_b,\mathrm{}]`$ is the collision integral depending on the distributions $`f_a`$ of all participating particles.

At temperatures in eV-range only the Thomson scattering of photons on electrons is essential, so the collision integral is dominated by the elastic term. Integrating both parts of eq. (18) over $`d^3p/(2\pi )^3`$ we arrive to the continuity equation:

$`\dot{n}(𝐱)+𝐉=0`$ (19)
where $`𝐉`$ is the photon flux given by

$`𝐉𝐯n={\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\frac{𝐩}{E}f}`$ (20)
and $`𝐯`$ is the average macroscopic velocity of the photon plasma. Using the standard arguments one can derive from eq. (19) the diffusion equation:

$`\dot{n}=D\mathrm{\Delta }n`$ (21)
where $`Dl_\gamma /3`$ is the diffusion coefficient. We will use this equation below to determine time evolution of the photon temperature $`T`$.

If the elastic reaction rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{el}}=\sigma _{\mathrm{Th}}n_eX_e=1/l_\gamma `$ is sufficiently large, local thermal equilibrium would be established and the photon distribution would be approximately given by

$`ff_0=\mathrm{exp}\left(E/T+\xi \right)`$ (22)
where the temperature and effective chemical potential could be functions of time and space coordinates: $`T=T(t,𝐱)`$ and $`\xi =\xi (t,𝐱)`$, and the photon mean free path is given by $`l_\gamma =30\mathrm{pc}/X_e(T)T_{eV}^3`$, where $`T_{eV}`$ is the plasma temperature in eV and $`X_e`$ is a fraction of the free electrons: $`X_e(z)`$ is practically 1 for $`z>1500`$, and sharply decreases for smaller $`z`$’s, reaching values $`10^5`$ at $`z<1000`$.

Evidently $`f_0`$ annihilates the collision integral. We can find correction to this distribution, $`f=f_0+f_1`$, substituting this expression into kinetic equation (18) and approximating the collision integral in the usual way as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{el}}f_1`$:

$`\left(K+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{el}}\right)f_1=Kf_0`$ (23)
where $`K`$ is the differential operator, $`K=_t+\left(𝐕\right)`$. The solution of this equation is straightforward:

$`f_1(t,𝐱,E,𝐕)={\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑\tau _1\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle _0^{\tau _1}}𝑑\tau _2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{el}(t\tau _2,𝐱𝐕\tau _2)\right]`$
$`Kf_0(t\tau _1,𝐱𝐕\tau _1)`$ (24)
Using this result we can calculate the average macroscopic velocity of the plasma. The calculations are especially simple if elastic scattering rate is high and the integrals are dominated by small values of $`\tau _1`$. In this case we obtain:

$`v_j(t,𝐱)={\displaystyle \frac{d^3pV_jf_1(t,𝐱,E,𝐕)}{d^3pf_0(t,𝐱,E)}}`$ (25)
and the vorticity, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_i=ϵ_{ijk}_jv_k`$ is:

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_i6ϵ_{ijl}l_\gamma ^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{_jT}{T}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{_l_tT}{T}}\right)`$ (26)
To estimate time derivatives of the temperature we will use the diffusion equation (21), from which we find $`_tT=D\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ and finally obtain for vorticity with the wave vector $`k=2\pi /\lambda `$:

$`|𝛀|_\lambda 2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta T}{T}}\right)_\lambda ^2l_\gamma ^3k^4310^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta T}{T}}\right)_\lambda ^2{\displaystyle \frac{l_\gamma ^3}{\lambda ^4}}`$ (27)
Since the photon diffusion erases temperature fluctuations at the scales $`\lambda <l_\gamma `$ the vorticity reaches maximum value near $`\lambda l_\gamma `$. This magnitude of vorticity is considerably larger than found previously with the source term (17) and we will rely on it in the estimates of magnetic field presented below.

Since the conductivity of cosmic plasma is very high,

$`\kappa =(3/2\alpha )(n_e/n_\gamma )(m_e^2T),`$ (28)
the generation of magnetic field by the source currents, created by the cosmological inhomogeneities, is governed by the well know equation of magnetic hydrodynamics:

$`_t𝐁=\times \left(𝐯\times 𝐁\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\kappa }}\times 𝐉`$ (29)
The electric current $`J`$ induced by the relaxation of the density inhomogeneities would contain two components: electronic and protonic. However the first one is surely dominant because it is much easier to drift electrons than heavier protons. This is why a non-zero current can be induced in electrically neutral medium. Of course the motion of electrons would not produce any excess of electric charge because the current could be realized by the flow of the dominant homogeneous part of electron distribution.

The solution of eq. (29) can be roughly written as

$`B{\displaystyle _0^t}𝑑t_1\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\pi J}{\lambda \kappa }}\right)e^{2\pi vt_1/\lambda }`$ (30)
An estimate of magnetic field without pregalactic dynamo enhancement can be easily done if the helical source current is known, $`\times 𝐉=en_e𝛀`$. With $`𝛀`$ given by eq. (27) and $`B`$ by eq. (30) we obtain:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{B_0}{T^2}}=0.2410^3\left(4\pi \alpha \right)^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{t}{\lambda }}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{l_\gamma }{\lambda }}\right)^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{m_e}}\right)^210^8T_{\mathrm{eV}}^3`$ (31)
where we took the wavelength equal to the photon mean free path, $`\lambda =l_\gamma `$.

If we take into account that linear compression of pregalactic medium in the process of galaxy formation is approximately $`r10^2`$, the seed field in a galaxy after its formation would be $`r^2B_0`$, i.e. 4 orders of magnitude larger than that given by eq. (31) and, for $`T=1`$ eV, a relatively mild galactic dynamo, about $`10^4`$, is necessary to obtain the observed galactic magnetic field of a few micro-Gauss at the scale $`l_B(100/r)`$ kpc $`=1`$ kpc. The seed magnetic fields formed earlier (at higher $`T`$) would have larger magnitude ($`T^3`$) but their characteristic scale would be smaller by factor $`1/T^2`$. Chaotic line reconnection could create magnetic field at larger, galactic scale $`l_{gal}`$, but the magnitude of this field would be suppressed by Brownian motion law - it would drop by the factor $`(l_B/l_{gal})^{3/2}`$. It is interesting that according to these results all scales give comparable contributions at $`l_{gal}`$. This effect may lead to an enhancement of the field but it is difficult to evaluate the latter. Let us also note that magnetic fields generated by the discussed mechanism at the cluster scale, 10 Mpc, should be not larger than $`10^8`$ $`\mu `$G if no additional amplification took place.

Larger density perturbations could be helpful for generation of larger magnetic field for which dynamo might be unnecessary. Though much bigger $`\delta T`$ is not formally excluded at the scale about 100 kpc, but to have them at the level $`(\delta T/T)^210^4`$ seems to be too much. A natural idea is to turn to a later stage, to onset of structure formation when $`\delta \rho /\rho `$ becomes larger than $`10^2`$. With such density perturbations strong enough magnetic fields might be generated without dynamo amplification. However after recombination the number density of charge carriers drops roughly by 5 orders of magnitude. Correspondingly $`l_\gamma `$ rises by the same amount and the strength of the seed field would be 5 orders of magnitude smaller if density perturbations and the temperature of formation remained the same. However both became very much different. Density perturbations rose as scale-factor, $`(\delta \rho /\rho )^2(T_{eq}/T)^2`$, where $`T_{eq}1`$ eV is the temperature when radiation domination changed into matter domination and density perturbations started to rise. Since, $`B/T^2T^3`$, according to eq. (31), the net effect of going to smaller $`T`$ is a decrease of $`B/T^2`$ which would be difficult to cure even by later reionization. Still, as argued in ref., magnetic field generation, driven by anisotropic and inhomogeneous radiation pressure (and in this sense similar to our mechanism) at the epoch of reionization, could end up with the field of about $`810^6\mu \mathrm{G}`$. This result is 8 orders of magnitude larger than that found in the earlier papers and quite close to ours (31), though these two mechanisms operated during very different cosmological epochs and were based on different physical phenomena.

Generation of magnetic field at recombination was also considered in ref. where a much weaker result was found. This difference can be possibly attributed to the following effects. We considered above an earlier period when the photon mean free path was much smaller than the horizon. It gives a factor about $`10^3`$ in fluid velocity, eq.(11). Moreover, since in our case the electrons are tightly bound to photons the electron-photon fluid moves as a whole (while protons and ions are at rest) and the electric current induced by macroscopic motion/oscillations of plasma is noticeably larger.

## 6 Conclusion

Despite many suggested models, the origin of galactic magnetic fields and, especially, intergalactic, if existence of the latter is confirmed, remains mysterious. One class of models is based on known physics and do not invoke any ad hoc assumptions for the explanation of the phenomenon. The explanation based on stellar ejecta possibly encounters serious difficulties because of energy constraints. The mechanism of field generation just before hydrogen recombination looks reasonably good but probably it cannot explain both galactic and intergalactic fields within the frameworks of the standard cosmology with flat spectrum of density perturbations.

Another class of models is based on physical phenomena in the early universe and its different members are spread between inflationary stage to relatively late MeV-epoch. These models manipulate with unknown physics (except possibly the MeV one) and because of that are much less restricted in their possibilities. It is a difficult task to understand what mechanism is indeed responsible for creation of the observed magnetic fields. A critical test would be a possibility of simultaneous explanation of galactic and intergalactic fields. To this end a confirmation of a possible existence of the latter is of primary importance.

## 7 Acknowledgements

The hospitality of the Research Center for the Early Universe of the University of Tokyo, where this contribution was prepared for publication, is gratefully acknowledged.


text:
# POOL File Catalog, Collection and Metadata Components

## I Introduction

The POOL projectpool  is the common persistency framework for the LHC experiments to store petabytes of experiment data and metadata in a distributed and grid enabled way. The POOL is a hybrid event store combining C++ object streaming technology such as Root I/O root  for the bulk data with a transactionally safe Relational Database store such as MySQL for file catalog, collection and metadata.

This paper describes the design of POOL components which are not part of the data streaming layerstream  and outlines how POOL aims to provide transparent and efficient data access for a wide range of environments and use cases - ranging from a large production site down to single disconnected laptops.

The POOL file catalog is the central POOL component translating logical data references to physical data files in a grid environment. POOL collections with their associated metadata add another more abstract way of accessing experiment data via their logical grouping into sets of related data objects. Ad hoc queries on the collections provide physicist with an efficient way to extract useful data.

## II File catalog component

### II.1 Purpose

In a file based persistency mechanism such as POOL, the storage components need to operate on the contents of the file. One should be able to navigate from one object to the other even if they are not stored in the same file. Using an external file catalog to keep track of the physical location of the file is more flexible than hard-coding the location information in the file itself. It allows the file to be moved or replicated.

In the grid environment, high level applications view only logical files. A logical file does not exist physically. A physical file and all its copies can be viewed as the same logical file. In another word, physical files are representations of the logical file. To operate on the contents of a logical file, a service is needed to map the logical file to one of its physical representations and this physical file can then be opened.

The physical location of a file can be represented by its Physical File Name(PFN) while the logical file can be represented by a unique logical identifier. In POOL, this identifier is called the file ID and is generated via the GUID (Global Unique Identifier) mechanism.

The file catalog component in POOL is responsible for maintaining a list of physical locations of accessible files together with their unique and immutable IDs and translating the logical file reference into its physical representation. It is a basic component for object navigation and grid integration.

### II.2 Design and implementation

The basic content of the catalog is the one-to-many mapping of the file ID and the PFNs. This mapping is sufficient for object lookup and navigation. Optionally, the file catalog can store logical file names(LFNs). In contrast to the file ID, which is not easy for the user to read and to remember, the LFNs may contain human readable and memorisable strings. LFN can be seen as the alias of the file ID. One file ID may have many LFNs. In addition to PFN and LFN, a set of user defined file metadata can also be associated with a file ID. Metadata-fileID mapping is one-to-one which means one file can be associated with one set of well defined metadata. The purpose of the file metadata support is to help selecting a fragment of the catalog when necessary. Figure 1 shows the logical view of the content of the catalog: the PFN-fileID mapping, which is essential for the object lookup and optionally, the LFN-fileID and the metadata-fileID mapping.

File registration and lookup are two fundamental functionalities of the component. To register a file is to insert a file ID and PFN pair in the catalog while to lookup a file is to resolve a file ID into a PFN or vice versa. Similar functions are provided also for the file ID and LFN mapping. Besides, one can extract a subset of files from one concrete catalog and cross populate them into another catalog. Specific metadata can be associated to the file and queries on the metadata can be used to select the catalog fragments. In the cross catalog operations the source and the destination catalogs need not to have the same backend implementation.

The component provides both C++ API and command-line tools. The C++ API is used by the storage components in POOL and the experiment framework to register and lookup a file inside the application process while command-line tools can be used outside the application process for catalog management operations.

Three concrete catalog: XML, MySQL and EDG-RLS based implementations are provided under single abstract interface. Concrete catalogs are loaded dynamically at run time. To take advantage of the relational database technology, transactions are supported by the component. In the transaction the user can commit or rollback the changes to the catalog.

The three implementations are described in more detail as follows:

* XML catalog

The XML catalog is useful when the user wants to run the application disconnected from the network and the number of entries in the catalog is not too large. Running applications connected to a local XML catalog do not rely on any central service. The XML catalog can also be used in data migration. For example, when one migrates the data in a MySQL backend into a, say, Oracle backend, the XML catalog can be used as the intermediate format.
* MySQL catalog

The MySQL catalog is connected to the MySQL database server. The database based catalog can handle concurrent accesses and larger data volume than the XML catalog. The MySQL catalog can be used in larger scale applications such as in a production farm.
* EDG catalog

A Grid based catalog can be used by the entire Virtual Organisation (VO). The EDG project edg  will provide the Replica Management Service, which controls files that belong to a VO. In particular, the Replica Location Service(RLS) componentrls  maintains information about the physical location of files, while the Replica Metadata Catalog(RMC) componentrmc  provides the information on the logical file names and metadata. The file catalog component in POOL provides an interface to the EDG-RLS and EDG-RMC. In another word, POOL applications connected to the EDG catalog are on the Grid.

The file catalog component provides a Graphic User Interface for browsing the content of the catalog. A first prototype of the browser has been developed in Python scripting language.

### II.3 Example use cases

* Read/Write files in POOL applications

When the POOL persistency manager writes in a file, it requests the ID of the file of given PFN from the file catalog component. The PFN may or may not already be registered in the catalog. If the file is already registered, the file catalog component returns the file ID to the persistency manager, otherwise the file catalog component generates a new file ID, registers it in the catalog and returns it to the persistency manager.

When the persistency manager opens a file for reading, it requests the PFN of the file of a given file ID from the file catalog component. The file catalog component looks up the PFN in the catalog and returns it to the persistency manager. If more than one PFNs are found, in the case of a Grid based catalog, the optimal PFN will be returned, in an off-the-Grid case, the PFN of the master copy of the file will be returned.
* Manage a production in a local farm

The user extracts a catalog fragment needed by the job for reading from a central catalog(EDG or MySQL based) into a local XML catalog. User runs the job disconnected from the network. During the running of the job, the local input XML catalog is used when retrieving objects; the output files are registered into another local XML catalog. After n job runs, n output XML catalogs are produced. User cleans the entries in the catalogs produced by unsuccessful jobs and publishes the local catalog fragments to the central catalog making the produced data files available to a group of users or the entire production site.

In this setup, when jobs are running they do not depend on any central services.

### II.4  Preliminary performance tests

Performance tests have been set up to compare the behavior of different catalog implementations.

For the XML catalog, tests were run on a single Pentium III-1.2GHz computer with about 200MB free memory. The maximum number of entries have been tested in a single XML catalog is 50,000. The major time spent for the XML catalog is on the XML DOM parser initialization. It takes about 10ms to initialize a new catalog and about 6s to start a catalog with 20K entries. The PFN registration operation takes about 0.3 ms/entry on average.

For the MySQL catalog, tests were run on 10 client nodes and a MySQL server node on the LAN. The maximum number of entries have been tested in a single MySQL catalog is 1 million. In the case of 300 concurrent client processes from the 10 client nodes querying the MySQL server and committing every 100 entries, the PFN registration operation takes about 1.5 ms/entry on average.

Similar tests have been performed against the EDG-RLS server which is web service on top of relational database. The PFN registration time is in the range from about 30ms/entry to 6ms/entry for multithreaded applications depending on the combination and the setup of the web service and the backend database.

In all tests, a single PFN entry is about 200 characters long and the file ID size is 36 characters.

This is the first performance test of the POOL file catalog, no systematic performance test and tuning have been attempted so far.

## III Collection and Metadata component

### III.1 Overview

The purpose of the POOL collection component is to provide the tools needed to manage potentially large ensembles of objects stored by means of POOL’s persistence services. The collection component provides the infrastructure to support definition, creation, population, and use of such ensembles, including query, selection, and iteration services, and higher- level utilities. Collections provide an entry point for physicists, a locus for recording the navigational information necessary to allow later iteration through a list of data objects that may be physically dispersed across a very large persistent store. A collection of events that are of interest to a particular physics working group because they share certain physics characteristics is a motivating example.

To support selection of specific subsets of interest from very large collections, it is useful to provide a means to query attributes of those objects without retrieving the objects themselves. The metadata component in POOL provides the machinery to define and manage object- and collection-level metadata.

Named collections populated by explicit calls to insertion operators are called “explicit collections” in POOL. POOL also supports “implicit collections”–collections of objects grouped by physical containment. The set of all objects of type T in a given container or file is an example of an implicit collection. An object persistified by writing its state into a file is implicitly an element of the collection of all such objects in the file, but the same object may also be registered in one or more explicit collections.

Explicit and implicit collections are read via the same abstract interface, so client code does not in any way depend upon whether an input collection is explicit or implicit.

The first implementation of explicit collections is in MySQL. The intent is to allow the possibility of server-side selection of objects of interest from queryable collections by means of database-provided SQL services, so that the list of qualifying objects, and, by extension, the list of data files needed, may be determined at a stage prior to job scheduling and grid resource brokering, without the need to first retrieve the data files and navigate into application-specific data.

POOL also supports hierarchical collections, tree-like structures that accept other (sub)collections as their elements. The design allows complex selection based upon both collection- and object-level metadata.

### III.2 Example use cases

* Create/Write explicit collections

User first defines the attribute lists of collections will be produced by the process. Then she processes the event and gathers attribute data. For each event, the attribute data and a reference, which contains enough information to retrieve the persistent object, is added to the corresponding collection. At the end of process, several collections with different names are created and persisted.
* Read explicit collections

During analysis, the user specifies a number of collections and provides a query to select only the objects of interest. Then she iterates through the returned persistent object references, retrieve the objects and process them in the analysis.

## IV Summary

File catalog, Collection and Metadata components are part of the so-called relational layer of the hybrid event store POOL. Such a relational layer takes advantage of the underlying relational database technology, e.g. the transaction, concurrency and queries, to achieve efficient management of files and object metadata.

The file catalog is one of the basic components which provide transparent object navigation in the event store. The design of the component can accommodate wide ranges of use cases. It is grid-aware but also preserves grid-decoupled modes.

The collection and metadata components provide physicists with higher level access to and efficient selection on the experiment data in the event store.


text:
# Hiding relativistic degrees of freedom in the early universe

## I Introduction

If the three known neutrinos ($`\nu _e`$, $`\nu _\mu `$, $`\nu _\tau `$) mix only with each other, all active neutrino degeneracies will equilibrate to close to the electron neutrino degeneracy via neutrino oscillations before BBN begins equilibrate . There are no caveats to this statement within the standard cosmological model for the oscillation parameters relevant to atmospheric neutrino data and the Large Mixing Angle (LMA) solution to the solar neutrino problem (which has recently been confirmed by the KamLAND experiment kamland ). Thus, the magnitude of the electron neutrino degeneracy allowed by BBN is of special interest to any determination of, or constraints on, a lepton asymmetry in the universe.

The authors of Ref. equilibrate  emphasized that the degenerate BBN scenario, in which a small $`\nu _e`$ asymmetry111For a neutrino flavor $`\alpha `$, an asymmetry $`L_\alpha `$ between the numbers of $`\nu _\alpha `$ and $`\overline{\nu }_\alpha `$ (“neutrino degeneracy”) can be described by the neutrino chemical potential $`\mu _\alpha `$ or by the dimensionless degeneracy parameter $`\xi _\alpha \mu _\alpha /T`$:
$$L_\alpha \frac{n_{\nu _\alpha }n_{\overline{\nu }_\alpha }}{n_\gamma }=\frac{\pi ^2}{12\zeta (3)}\left(\xi _\alpha +\frac{\xi _\alpha ^3}{\pi ^2}\right).$$
(1) Note that $`L_\alpha 0.684\xi _\alpha `$ for $`\xi _\alpha 1`$. $`\xi _e0.2`$ (which strongly affects the neutron to proton ratio and, as a result, the primordial 4He abundance) is compensated by a much larger $`\nu _\mu `$ or $`\nu _\tau `$ asymmetry $`|\xi _{\mu ,\tau }|23`$ (which affects the expansion rate) is excluded by this equilibration, leading to a limit $`|\xi _i|<0.1`$ on all of the asymmetries.

However, larger asymmetries may still be allowed if the effect of $`\xi _e`$ on BBN is compensated by a new source of energy density other than that from the asymmetries themselves222The faster expansion rate due to the new energy density could in principle also affect when or whether the equilibration occurs. However, the considerations in this paper are independent of equilibration.. In particular, if there are additional degrees of freedom which do not mix with the three active neutrinos, but which do contribute to the relativistic energy density at the BBN epoch, their presence can be hidden by an electron neutrino degeneracy. In this paper we quantify and explore the extent to which this statement is true.

As an example, light Dirac neutrinos involve three additional $`SU(2)`$-singlet neutrinos $`\nu _R`$, the right-handed partners of the active states. Within the standard model (extended to include the right-handed neutrinos) these states have no interactions other than those associated with neutrino mass, i.e., they can only be produced by mass effects of amplitude $`m_\nu /E`$ or the associated tiny Yukawa couplings. These are too small to yield significant number densities at the BBN epoch for masses in the sub-eV range. However, light Dirac neutrinos are especially motivated in models involving new gauge interactions beyond the standard model (which may forbid the traditional seesaw mechanism) sbtalk . In that case they need not be sterile with respect to the new interactions, and may be efficiently produced prior to BBN OSS . This was recently studied in detail for a class of models with $`Z^{}`$ couplings motivated by $`E_6`$ bll . The production and decoupling of the right-handed neutrinos, and the subsequent dilution of their number density by annihilation of decoupled heavy particles and color confinement following the quark-hadron phase transition was calculated. The results are dependent on the specific $`Z^{}`$ couplings and mass but, typically, the energy density at BBN associated with the $`\nu _R`$ could be equivalent to that carried by 3, 2, or 1 active neutrinos for a $`Z^{}`$ mass of 500 GeV, 1 TeV, or 2 TeV, respectively, with the constraints becoming weak or disappearing for the specific couplings for which the $`Z^{}`$ decouples from the $`\nu _R`$.

If sterile neutrinos that mix with the active ones exist, whether or not flavor equilibration occurs is not known. We shall only consider this case in the context of the LSND lsnd  neutrino for which a large electron neutrino degeneracy suppresses its mixing with the active neutrinos volkas . There has been considerable interest in sterile neutrinos as a way to account for the antimuon neutrino to antielectron neutrino oscillation signal observed in the LSND experiment corresponding to a neutrino mass-squared difference scale of about $`0.11`$ eV2 lsndkarmen . With three neutrinos there are only two independent mass-squared difference scales, that are fixed by the observed atmospheric and solar oscillations to be about $`2.5\times 10^3`$ eV2 atm  and $`7\times 10^5`$ eV2 kam , respectively. Consequently, oscillations to a sterile neutrino have been invoked to explain the higher mass-squared difference scale of the LSND effect. The MiniBooNE experiment miniboone  now running at Fermilab is designed to confirm or refute the LSND effect. Analyses with four neutrinos do not provide a good global fit to the data valle , but the possibility exists that the inclusion of certain small parameters, hitherto neglected in the analysis, may improve the fit weiler .

We account for additional relativistic (at BBN) degrees of freedom “$`X`$” by normalizing their contribution to the energy density to that of an equivalent, non-degenerate, neutrino flavor ssg ,

$$\rho _X\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu \rho _\nu =\frac{7}{8}\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu \rho _\gamma .$$
(2)
The effective number of neutrinos is $`N_\nu 3+\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$.

Throughout this work the following primordial values are adopted for the 4He mass fraction Y and for the deuterium abundance $`y_\mathrm{D}`$ $`10^5`$(D/H):

$$\mathrm{Y}=0.238\pm 0.005,y_\mathrm{D}=2.6\pm 0.4.$$
(3)
For a detailed discussion of these choices, see Ref. pap .

## II The role of $`\xi _e`$ in BBN

The baryon-to-photon ratio $`\eta `$ provides a dimensionless measure of the universal baryon asymmetry which is very small ($`\eta n_\mathrm{B}/n_\gamma \stackrel{<}{}10^9`$)333We define $`\eta _{10}10^{10}\eta `$, to facilitate the use of numbers of order unity.. By charge neutrality the asymmetry in the charged leptons must also be of this order. However, there are no observational constraints, save those to be discussed here (see ks ; kssw  and further references therein), on the magnitude of any asymmetry among the neutral leptons (neutrinos). A relatively small asymmetry between electron type neutrinos and antineutrinos ($`|\xi _e|\stackrel{>}{}10^2`$), but large compared to the baryon asymmetry, can have a significant impact on the early universe ratio of neutrons to protons, thereby affecting the yields of the light nuclides formed during BBN. The strongest effect is on the 4He abundance, which, during BBN, is neutron limited. For $`\xi _e>0`$, there is an excess of neutrinos ($`\nu _e`$) over antineutrinos ($`\overline{\nu }_e`$), and the two body reactions regulating the neutron to proton ratio ($`n+\nu _ep+e^{}`$, $`p+\overline{\nu }_en+e^+`$), drive down the neutron abundance; vice-versa for $`\xi _e<0`$. The effect of a non-zero $`\nu _e`$ asymmetry on the relic abundances of the other light nuclides is much weaker. This is illustrated in Fig. 1, which shows the D and 4He isoabundance curves in the $`\xi _e\eta _{10}`$ plane for $`N_\nu `$ = 3. The nearly horizontal curves reflect the weak dependence of Y on the baryon density, along with its significant dependence on the neutrino asymmetry. In contrast, the nearly vertical curves reveal the strong dependence of $`y_\mathrm{D}`$ on the baryon density and its weak dependence on any neutrino asymmetry. This complementarity between $`y_\mathrm{D}`$ and Y permits the pair {$`\eta ,\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$} or the pair {$`\eta ,\xi _e`$} to be determined once the primordial abundances of D and 4He are inferred from the appropriate observational data.

## III Analysis

In the “standard” case of $`N_\nu `$ = 3, the observed abundances of D and 4He may be used to identify the allowed region in the $`\eta \xi _e`$ plane. In addition, the cosmic background radiation (CBR) data from WMAP map , provide complimentary information for the $`\eta `$ distribution (for different $`N_\nu `$ pap ), which will further restrict the allowed $`\eta `$ range. In Fig. 2 are shown the $`1\sigma `$ and $`2\sigma `$ contours in the $`\eta _{10}\xi _e`$ plane for $`N_\nu `$ = 3 from a joint CBR (WMAP) – BBN fit using the adopted D and 4He abundances. Although very large when compared to the baryon asymmetry, the allowed values of $`\xi _e`$ are sufficiently small ($`|\xi _e|<0.1`$) that the “extra” energy density contained in such neutrinos is negligible 444$`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu (\xi )=_i\left[\frac{30}{7}(\frac{\xi _i}{\pi })^2+\frac{15}{7}(\frac{\xi _i}{\pi })^4\right]\stackrel{<}{}0.013`$; see, e.g.ks ., justifying the claim that these results do, in fact, represent $`N_\nu `$ = 3.

### III.1 The LSND neutrino

If the LSND results lsnd  are to be accounted for by the mixing of a “sterile” neutrino with one of the active neutrinos, it is of importance to consider whether the LSND neutrino will be populated, through mixing with the active neutrinos, sufficiently early in the evolution of the universe that it contributes $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$= 1 to the relativistic energy density prior to BBN. Given the parameters required by LSND, in the absence of any significant asymmetry among the active neutrinos the LSND neutrino would, indeed, have come into thermal equilibrium sufficiently early volkas . In this case the new “standard” model would have $`N_\nu `$ = 4. However, in the absence of a significant neutrino degeneracy, $`N_\nu `$ = 4 is strongly excluded pap .

In contrast, as the asymmetry in the active neutrinos increases, the sterile-active mixing is delayed volkas . For $`\xi _e\stackrel{>}{}0.010.1`$, mixing occurs after the active neutrinos have decoupled from the $`e^\pm `$$`\gamma `$ plasma. In this case, although the sterile neutrino does still mix with the active ones, the energy is shared among all the neutrinos and $`N_\nu `$ remains equal to 3. It is interesting, even amusing, that the range of $`\xi _e`$ required by BBN for $`N_\nu `$ = 3 is, in fact, in excellent agreement with that required to delay the thermalization of the LSND neutrino ($`\xi _e>0.01`$ – 0.1), thereby keeping $`N_\nu `$ $`3`$. Thus, the same values of $`\xi _e`$ that reconcile the low value of Y with the BBN prediction (for $`N_\nu `$ = 3) also reconcile the LSND sterile neutrino with BBN by delaying its mixing with the active neutrinos.

### III.2 Arbitrary $`N_\nu `$

Let us set aside the LSND neutrino, assume that $`N_\nu `$ = 4, and ask if BBN and the adopted primordial abundances can be reconciled (along with the CBR) through the appropriate choice of a nonzero asymmetry in the active neutrinos.

From BBN with fixed abundances of D and 4He, as $`N_\nu `$ increases, so too will the best fit values of $`\eta `$ and $`\xi _e`$. It is straightforward to understand this effect. As $`N_\nu `$ increases, the early universe expands more rapidly, leaving less time to burn D. As a result, for a fixed baryon to photon ratio, $`y_\mathrm{D}`$ increases with increasing $`N_\nu `$ 555This effect on the primordial deuterium abundance is often, but not always cfo ; pap , ignored. However, for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu |\stackrel{>}{}1`$, it is not negligible.. To reduce $`y_\mathrm{D}`$ back towards its observed value requires increasing the baryon density. The combination of an increased baryon density and $`N_\nu `$ = 4, raises the predicted primordial abundance of 4He, requiring a larger $`\xi _e`$ to reconcile the BBN predictions with the data. Indeed, it is clear from Fig. 1 of Kneller et al. kssw  that for any (reasonable) choice of $`N_\nu `$ there is a pair of $`\{\eta _{10}^{},\xi _e^{}\}`$ values for which perfect agreement with the observed D and 4He abundances can be obtained ($`\chi _{\mathrm{BBN}}^2=0`$). An approximation to this $`\xi _e`$$`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$relation bbnped  is shown in Fig. 3 for $`y_\mathrm{D}`$ = 2.6 and Y = 0.238; the numerical values along the curve are the corresponding values of $`\eta _{10}`$. However, this correlation of increasing $`\eta `$ with increasing $`N_\nu `$ is broken by the inclusion of WMAP data through the CBR-imposed constraint on the $`\eta `$$`N_\nu `$ relation pap . As a result, while for $`N_\nu `$ = 4 the allowed values of $`\xi _e`$ increase from that for $`N_\nu `$ = 3, the shift in $`\eta `$ is much more limited. In Fig. 4 is shown the analogue of Fig. 2 (the confidence contours in the $`\eta _{10}\xi _e`$ plane) for $`N_\nu `$ = 4.

It is clear that from BBN alone, reconciling the primordial D and 4He abundances with the BBN predictions for large $`N_\nu `$ would require too large a baryon to photon ratio to be consistent with the $`\eta `$$`N_\nu `$ constraints from WMAP. The parameter pair {$`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ,\xi _e`$} can therefore be constrained using the {$`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ,\eta `$} likelihood distribution obtained pap  from the WMAP data map  along with the {$`\xi _e,\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ,\eta `$} likelihood distribution from our BBN analysis, by forming the joint likelihood and marginalizing over $`\eta `$ with the prior $`\pi (\eta )`$. Adopting a flat p.d.f. for $`\pi (\eta )`$ the {$`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ,\xi _e`$} constraints are derived after calculating (up to a multiplicative constant),

$$L(\xi _e,\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu )=L_{\mathrm{BBN}}(\xi _e,\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ,\eta )\times L_{\mathrm{WMAP}}(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ,\eta )𝑑\eta .$$
(4)
This analysis results in the allowed regions in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$$`\xi _e`$ plane shown in Fig. 5, providing limits on the values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$that can be accommodated by non-zero $`\xi _e`$ without conflicting with the $`\eta `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$values allowed by WMAP.

## IV Conclusions

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis places strong constraints on any new source of relativistic energy density present during the BBN epoch. Examples include the energy density associated with large asymmetries $`|\xi _{\mu ,\tau }|`$ between $`\mu `$ or $`\tau `$ neutrinos and their antineutrinos, with the right-handed components $`\nu _R`$ of light Dirac neutrinos if they can be efficiently produced by new interactions, or with sterile neutrinos which mix with active neutrinos, as suggested by the LSND experiment. In the absence of a significant neutrino asymmetry the data constrain the equivalent number of new neutrino flavors $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$to $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu <0.10.3`$ (assuming that $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu 0`$pap .

BBN also constrains the electron neutrino asymmetry, $`\xi _e`$, which directly affects the neutron to proton ratio and therefore the 4He abundance. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu =0`$ we find $`\xi _e<0.1`$, as shown in Fig. 2. However, there remains the possibility of compensation between the effects of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$ and $`\xi _e`$, which can relax the constraints on both. The expanded ranges, consistent with WMAP and BBN, are shown in Fig. 5. For $`\xi _e`$ in the range $`0.1\stackrel{<}{}\xi _e\stackrel{<}{}0.3`$, values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$in the range $`2\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu \stackrel{<}{}5`$ are permitted. After marginalizing over $`\xi _e`$, the $`2\sigma `$ range for $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$(obtained by identifying those values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$for which the likelihood is above $`L_{max}/e^2`$) is $`1.7\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu \stackrel{<}{}4.1`$.

The possibility of compensation between a small $`\xi _e`$ and a large $`|\xi _{\mu ,\tau }|`$ is now excluded given the oscillation parameters inferred for the atmospheric neutrinos and for the LMA solution for the solar neutrinos because of the equilibration of the three $`\xi _i`$ equilibrate . However, compensation between $`\xi _e`$ and other types of relativistic energy density, such as neutrinos which do not mix with active ones, remains a possibility. We have explored this possibility in detail in this paper finding, for example, that $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu =1`$ is consistent with the BBN and the adopted primordial abundances provided that $`\xi _e0.1`$, as shown in Fig. 4. Another consequence of our analysis is that even three, light, Dirac neutrinos ($`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu =3`$) can be accomodated provided that $`\xi _e0.2`$; see Fig. 5.

Mixing between sterile and active neutrinos must be considered separately, because $`\xi _e`$ can shift the time/temperature at which the sterile neutrinos are produced volkas . Values of $`\xi _e`$ in the range $`0.010.1`$ (which are allowed for $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu 0`$; see Fig. 2), are sufficient to keep $`N_\nu `$ = 3 and thus reconcile the LSND neutrino with BBN.

The compensation between $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$and $`\xi _e`$ explored here is, perhaps, fine-tuned. It should not be dismissed, however, because of the significance of these constraints for particle physics (in particular, for models of neutrino mass and mixing), and also because of the importance of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu `$ for the subsequent evolution of structure in the universe, as probed by the CMB and large scale structure surveys. Also, a large $`\xi _e`$ of the magnitude relevant for BBN (e.g.$`\xi _e\mathrm{few}\times 10^1`$) is huge compared to the baryon asymmetry, so even if it is unlikely, a value in this range would be of profound significance for particle physics and cosmology. While in many models of leptogenesis the asymmetry among the neutral leptons is tied to that in the charged leptons and, hence, is very small ($`\xi _e\eta 10^9`$), there are mechanisms for generating the large asymmetry required here largeasym .

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank K. Abazajian, G. Fuller and Y. Wong for enlightening discussions. This research was supported by the U.S. DOE under Grants No. DE-FG02-95ER40896, No. DE-FG02-91ER40676, No. DE-FG02-91ER40690, DE-FG02-02ER41216, and No. DOE-EY-76-02-3071, by the NSF under Grant No. PHY99-07949, and by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. VB, PL, DM and GS thank the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara for its support and hospitality.