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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

It has been known for some time that a black hole in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space can undergo a phase transition, “evaporating” at a critical temperature into a hot gas . This Hawking-Page phase transition has recently garnered new attention with the realization that it can be used to test the AdS/CFT correspondence by identifying a similar structure in a dual conformal field theory . A dual description may exist not only for this particular transition, but for a number of finer details of the phase structure of the asymptotically AdS black hole as well . The purpose of this paper is to show that this phase structure is not unique to the asymptotically AdS black hole, but occurs universally for suitably stabilized black holes in asymptotically flat and asymptotically de Sitter space.

A black hole in anti-de Sitter space can be thermodynamically stable. In asymptotically flat or de Sitter space, this is no longer the case: an isolated black hole radiates away its energy in the form of Hawking radiation. To understand equilibrium black hole thermodynamics, one must therefore work with ensembles that include not just the black hole, but also its environment . As self-gravitating systems are spatially inhomogeneous, any specification of such ensembles requires not just thermodynamic quantities of interest, but also the place at which they take the specified values. Having set up an appropriate thermodynamic ensemble, one can then proceed to ask interesting questions regarding stability and phase structure.

Such an analysis was done for the case of charged black holes in asymptotically flat space by Braden, Brown, Whiting, and York . Following a brief summary of their analysis, we will build on those results to study the phase structure of charged black holes. We will also apply a similar method to charged black holes in de Sitter space. This work grew out of an effort to understand the effect of varying “constants” on black hole thermodynamics , but it may have broader significance. In particular, the universality of the phase structure may have interesting implications for holography in asymptotically flat and de Sitter space.

The Euclidean action  for metric $`g`$ and electromagnetic field $`A_\mu `$ over a region $`M`$ with boundary $`M`$ takes the form

$$I=\frac{1}{16\pi }_Md^4x\sqrt{g}[(R2\mathrm{\Lambda })F^2]+\frac{1}{8\pi }_Md^3x\sqrt{\gamma }(KK_0),$$
(1.1)
where the cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is zero for flat space and positive for de Sitter space. The geometric and electromagnetic data specified at the boundary $`M`$ fixes for us the thermodynamic data for this gravitational system thought of as a statistical ensemble. We take a spherically symmetric ansatz for the metric of a black hole spacetime,

$$ds^2=f^2d\tau ^2+\alpha ^2dy^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2,$$
(1.2)
where $`f,\alpha `$ and $`r`$ are functions of the radial coordinate $`y[0,1]`$. The reduced action may be calculated from (1.1) provided certain conditions are taken into account:

1. The horizon of the black hole is located at $`y=0`$ (i.e. $`r(0)=r_+`$), and we restrict to the class of metrics that are “regular.” In other words, the geometry of the spacetime near the origin of the $`y`$-$`\tau `$ plane looks like the plane $`^2`$, so the horizon is nondegenerate.
2. The boundary at $`y=1`$ has a topology $`S^1\times S^2`$ with the two-sphere having an area $`4\pi r_B^2`$. Heat can flow in either direction through this boundary in such a manner as to keep the temperature $`\beta ^1`$ fixed. The inverse temperature is simply the proper length of the circle $`S^1`$ of the boundary: $`\beta =2\pi f(1)`$ (where we take $`\tau `$ to have period $`2\pi `$).

We also need to specify appropriate electromagnetic data at the boundary $`y=1`$. For the grand canonical ensemble, we specify the gauge potential $`A_\tau (1)`$ (more precisely the difference of potential between $`y=0`$ and $`y=1`$). For the canonical ensemble, we must add a boundary term to the usual Maxwell action and hold the electromagnetic field fixed at the boundary. This is equivalent to keeping the total charge inside the cavity fixed.

Using this analysis, we first demonstrate in section 2 that black holes in asymptotically flat space show evidence of a Hawking-Page phase transition to a thermal gas. While the transition temperature depends on the charge, the variation is surprisingly small. In the absence of a well-understood comparison action for a charged gas, conclusions from (fixed-charge) canonical ensemble are somewhat ambiguous; we therefore also check for this transition in the grand canonical ensemble, and confirm its existence.

We next investigate the unstable “supercooled” region of the phase diagram, and show that black holes in this region, like those in anti-de Sitter space , exhibit a first order phase transition: for a given (small) value of charge, the entropy of the system changes discontinuously as the temperature is varied. As the charge increases, the “height” of this discontinuity decreases, and the line of first order phase transitions terminates at a critical point. We show that this critical point is the location of a second order phase transition, and we calculate the critical exponents associated with it. Remarkably, the critical exponents are the same as those found by Chamblin et al.  for charged black holes in anti-de Sitter space, hinting that these two systems belong to the same universality class.

In section 3, we apply the reduced action technique to charged black holes in de Sitter space. We again find evidence for a Hawking-Page phase transition. For sufficiently small cosmological constant, the supercooled region again displays a line of first order phase transitions terminating at a critical point. This picture no longer remains valid as $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ increases. In particular, it seems that for large values of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, there is no second order transition: the location of the would-be transition is pushed beyond the allowed boundaries of the cavity.

The reduced action for the de Sitter case is more complicated, and we cannot find the critical exponents of the second order phase transition (when it exists) analytically. We can study two special cases: the uncharged black hole for any value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and the charged black hole for small $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. We again find the same structure, with critical exponents that are unchanged by the presence of a small cosmological constant.

Section 4 is devoted to discussion our results.

## 2 Charged black hole in asymptotically flat space

Following Brown et al. , we first insert the ansatz (1.2) into the action (1.1), and find that the Hamiltonian constraint can be solved, yielding

$$V(r)\left(\frac{r^{}}{\alpha }\right)^2=1\frac{C}{r}+\frac{e^2}{r^2}.$$
(2.1)
For a nondegenerate horizon, $`C=r_++e^2/r_+`$, with $`e^2<r_+^2`$. The reduced action for the canonical ensemble then takes the form

$$I_C=\beta r_B\left(1\sqrt{\left(1\frac{r_+}{r_B}\right)\left(1\frac{e^2}{r_+r_B}\right)}\right)\pi r_+^2.$$
(2.2)
Extremizing the action with respect to $`r_+`$ gives us

$$\beta =4\pi r_+\left(1\frac{e^2}{r_+^2}\right)^1\left(1\frac{r_+}{r_B}\right)^{1/2}\left(1\frac{e^2}{r_+r_B}\right)^{1/2},$$
(2.3)
which should be viewed as an equation for the unknown $`r_+`$ in terms of the fixed charge, boundary radius, and temperature of the canonical ensemble. Each extremum gives a saddle point contribution to the Euclidean path integral for the canonical partition function $`Z[\beta ]`$, with a Helmholtz free energy and entropy

$`F`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta }}\mathrm{ln}Z[\beta ]={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta }}I_C[\beta ,r_+(\beta )]`$
$`S`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\beta {\displaystyle \frac{}{\beta }}1\right)\mathrm{ln}Z[\beta ]=\pi r_+^2.`$ (2.4)
Equation (2.3) can be rewritten as the seventh order algebraic equation

$$x^5(x1)(xq^2)+b^2(x^2q^2)^2=0$$
(2.5)
with $`x=r_+/r_B,q=e/r_B`$ and $`b=\beta /4\pi r_B`$. We are interested only on those solutions that are real positive and satisfy $`q^2<x^2`$. Of these positive solutions, we initially choose the one that minimizes the free energy $`F[\beta ]`$, since this is the thermodynamically stable state in the canonical ensemble.

### 2.1 The Hawking-Page transition

The plot of free energy as a function of charge $`q`$ and inverse temperature $`\beta `$ is shown in Figure 1. For reference, we have also plotted the plane $`F=0`$. In the original paper of Hawking and Page , the phase transition to a hot gas of particles was determined by comparing the black hole free energy with that of a real thermal gas, but subsequent work (for example, ) has often used “hot empty AdS” as a reference. This alternative is not available for a charged black hole in the canonical ensemble, except at $`q=0`$, since there is no “hot empty charged space”; one cannot avoid the intricacies of a real charged gas.

Although there has been a bit of work on the thermodynamics of self-gravitating gases of particles , the subject remains rather poorly understood.

For low temperature, Refs.  confirm the natural guess that the free energy is approximately $`Nm`$, where $`N`$ is the number of gas particles of mass $`m`$ and charge $`q_0`$, while the charge is $`e=Nq_0`$.***For Newtonian results, see also . For real elementary particles, $`q_0m`$ in geometrized units—for an electron, for instance, $`q_0/m10^{21}`$—so $`Fe`$, even for a near-extremal black hole. An approximation $`F=0`$ for a thermal gas thus seems reasonable, and the intersection of the $`F=0`$ plane with the free energy in Figure 1 should give the rough location of a Hawking-Page-type phase transition. It is straightforward to check that above the transition temperature, the black hole is thermodynamically stable, i.e., $`C_V=b(S/b)`$ is positive everywhere. Figure 2, for example, plots the entropy against $`q`$ and $`\beta `$; the sign of $`C_V`$ is determined by the slope.

In the absence of a better understanding of the thermodynamics of hot self-gravitating gases, this argument is admittedly not completely convincing. The “competing” configurations are, after all, not just dilute gases, but stars. To check more carefully for a Hawking-Page transition, we have therefore followed the suggestion of Ref.  and looked at the grand canonical ensemble, in which the boundary potential $`\varphi `$ is fixed instead of the charge. This ensemble has the nice feature that it does allow a comparison with “hot empty space”: while an empty cavity cannot contain charge, its walls can be held at a constant potential.

Figure 3 shows the Gibbs free energy of the grand canonical ensemble, with the plane $`G=0`$ superimposed. The intersection shows the location of the Hawking-Page phase transition to hot empty space.The Gibbs free energy becomes positive again at very high temperatures. This occurs when the thermodynamically stable black hole becomes larger than the cavity radius $`r_B`$, leaving only an unstable (negative specific heat) configuration. The transition depends only weakly on the potential. There is one important difference between the charged and uncharged cases, however. For an uncharged black hole, there is a further critical temperature beyond which the action has no extremum, even with positive free energy. Thus even a “supercooled” black hole cannot exist below this temperature. For a charged black hole, no such temperature exists; a locally stable black hole can exist for any value of $`\beta `$, essentially because a near-extremal black hole can have an arbitrarily low temperature.

### 2.2 Supercooled black holes and critical exponents

Let us now return to the canonical ensemble, and consider the portion of Figure 1 for which the black hole free energy is positive. While a black hole in this region is globally unstable, it is locally stable—the specific heat is positive, as is evident from Figure 2. One can therefore produce a “supercooled” black hole in this region, and, indeed, the analysis of fluctuations for uncharged black holes suggests that such a state may have a very long lifetime . Figure 1 now suggests that there is a line of first order phase transitions in this region that terminates at a critical point in the $`(q,\beta )`$-plane. We will show that this critical point is the location of a second order phase transition.

The simplest way to see this is to rewrite (2.3) as

$$b(x,q)=\frac{x(1x)^{1/2}(1q^2/x)^{1/2}}{1q^2/x^2}.$$
(2.6)
In general, $`b(x,q)`$ has may have extrema (both maxima and minima) as a function of $`x`$, with locations

$$\frac{b}{x}=\frac{x(q^4(56x)+(23x)x^3+2q^2x(3+3x+x^2))}{2(q^2x^2)^2\sqrt{1x}\sqrt{1q^2/x}}=0.$$
(2.7)
The numerator is a polynomial in $`x`$ (with functions of $`q`$ as coefficients), with a discriminant

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(q)=\frac{6400}{243}q^4(1q^2)^4(118q^2+q^4).$$
(2.8)
This discriminant determines the condition for the maximum and the minimum to coincide: they do so for $`\mathrm{\Delta }(q)=0`$, i.e., for $`q_c=2+\sqrt{5}`$. The corresponding critical values for the horizon radius and temperature are $`x_c=52\sqrt{5}`$ and $`b_c=\frac{5}{2}(17+38/\sqrt{5})^{1/2}`$. Thus $`(x_c,b_c,q_c)(0.528,0.429,0.236)`$. Expanding in the neighborhood of the critical point, we obtain

$$bb_c=\frac{1}{8}(425+195\sqrt{5})^{1/2}(xx_c)^3+\mathrm{}3.644(xx_c)^3+\mathrm{}.$$
(2.9)
To see the dependence on $`x`$ near $`q_c`$, we rewrite (2.3) as

$$q(x,b)=\frac{(2b^2x^2x^5+x^6(1x)x^3\sqrt{4b^2+x^4})^{1/2}}{\sqrt{2}b}$$
(2.10)
and expand in the neighborhood of $`(x_c,b_c)`$:

$$qq_c=\frac{1}{40}(105+47\sqrt{5})(xx_c)^3+\mathrm{}5.252(xx_c)^3+\mathrm{}.$$
(2.11)
Inverting these relations and writing in terms of the entropy $`S`$, we find

$`SS_c`$ $`=`$ $`1.226(\tau \tau _c)^{1/3}+\mathrm{},`$ (2.12)
$`SS_c`$ $`=`$ $`41.908(qq_c)^{1/3}+\mathrm{},`$ (2.13)
where $`\tau =r_BkT,\tau _c=1/b_c`$ and $`S_c=\pi x_c^2`$. The specific heat $`C_v=T(S/T)=\tau (S/\tau )`$ is

$$C_v0.409(\tau \tau _c)^{2/3}$$
(2.14)
which means that the critical exponent $`\alpha `$ is $`2/3`$. Remarkably, this is also the critical behavior of the charged black hole in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space . There, as in the asymptotically flat case discussed here, a line of first order phase transitions in the “supercooled” region ends in a second order transition, and although the AdS partition function has a completely different functional form, the critical exponents are identical.

The case of uncharged black hole is even simpler. Equation (2.5) reduces to the cubic $`x^3x^2+b^2=0`$, with critical values $`(x_c,b_c)=(2/3,2/(3\sqrt{3}))`$. This critical point does not signal a second order phase transition : in contrast to the case of even arbitrarily small charge, the action for the uncharged black hole has no extremum beyond this point. As discussed at the end of section 2.1, this point instead describes a transition between even a supercooled black hole and a thermal gas. Near this point,

$$SS_c(\tau \tau _c)^{1/2}$$
(2.15)
indicating that the specific heat diverges like $`C_v(\tau \tau _c)^{1/2}`$. This is that same critical behavior seen in non-spinning $`D3`$-branes .

## 3 Charged black holes in de Sitter space

Conceptually, the method of analyzing the thermodynamic stability of black holes in de Sitter space is the same as in flat space. Lorentzian de Sitter space has infinite spatial extent, but in static coordinates there is a cosmological horizon. The corresponding Euclidean section of the metric has finite volume, with topology of a four-sphere with a radius equal to the cosmological horizon.

For a charged black hole in de Sitter space, the spacetime has, generically, three horizons: an inner and an outer horizon for the black hole, and the cosmological horizon. Any discussion of equilibrium black hole thermodynamics requires one to specify thermodynamic quantities at a boundary that is inside the cosmological horizon. In this case, the entropy of the equilibrium configuration depends on three parameters: temperature, charge, and the cosmological constant. Again using the spherically ansatz (1.2) in the action and solving the Hamiltonian constraint, we find

$$V(r)=\left(\frac{r^{}}{\alpha }\right)^2=1+\frac{e^2}{r^2}\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }r^2}{3}\frac{C}{r}.$$
(3.1)
The integration constant $`C`$ is often identified as the mass parameter $`2M`$.

Our first task is to determine the allowed values of the parameters. For the path integral to be well-defined, we need to restrict to those values of $`e,M,\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`r`$ for which $`V(r)`$ is nonnegative. Event horizons are located at those values of $`r`$ for which $`V(r)=0`$. To locate these, it is useful to define dimensionless quantities $`\rho r\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }},ge\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ and $`\mu M\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$, so

$$V=\frac{1}{3\rho ^2}Q(\rho ;\mu ,g^2)=\frac{1}{3\rho ^2}(\rho ^43\rho ^2+6\mu \rho 3g^2)$$
(3.2)
The quartic polynomial $`Q`$ has four real roots: one negative root, and three positive roots that we denote, in ascending order, $`\rho _{}(\mu ,g^2)`$, $`\rho _+(\mu ,g^2)`$, and $`\rho _c(\mu ,g^2)`$. The region outside the outer horizon of the black hole is thus $`\rho _+(\mu ,g^2)/\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}r\rho _c(\mu ,g^2)/\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$. The condition for two (or more) of these roots to coincide  is given by the vanishing of the discriminant of $`Q(\rho ,\mu ,g^2)`$:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(\mu ,g^2)=(14g^2)^3(1+12g^218\mu ^2)^2=0.$$
(3.3)
The the allowed values of mass and charge parameter in the $`(\mu ,g)`$-plane are thus given by the interior of the region bounded by the curves

$`\mu _{min}(g)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1+12g^2\sqrt{(14g^2)^3}}{18}}},`$ (3.4)
$`\mu _{max}(g)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1+12g^2+\sqrt{(14g^2)^3}}{18}}},`$ (3.5)
which intersect at the point $`(\mu ,g)=(\sqrt{2}/3,1/2)`$.

The curve $`\mu _{min}(g)`$ corresponds to $`r_{}=r_+`$, i.e., coincident inner and outer horizons, while the curve $`\mu _{max}(g)`$ corresponds to $`r_+=r_c`$. These two conditions can be combined into a simple form $`g^2=\rho ^2(1\rho ^2)`$.

The de Sitter black hole action is thus a function of four variables, $`\mu `$, $`g`$, $`b\beta \sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$, and the box size $`Rr_B\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$. To locate a saddle point, we must find the roots of $`V(r)=0`$, choose the middle positive root, substitute it into the action, and minimize it, subject to the condition that $`\mu `$ and $`g`$ lie in the interior of the region depicted in Fig. 4.

To analyze the stability of the black hole, it is convenient to revert to the variables $`r_+`$ and $`e`$ rather than their “normalized” versions $`\mu `$ and $`g`$. We will also stay away the extremal black holes corresponding to the curves $`\mu _{min}(g)`$ and $`\mu _{max}(g)`$, by requiring that $`g^2<\rho _+^2(1\rho _+^2)`$ and $`g^2<\rho _c^2(1\rho _c^2)`$. Requiring that the $`r`$-$`\tau `$ plane look like $`^2`$ near $`r=r_+`$ fixes $`C`$ to be $`r_++e^2/r_+\mathrm{\Lambda }r_+^3/3`$, which puts $`V(r)`$ in the form

$$V(r)=\left(1\frac{r_+}{r}\right)\left(1\frac{e^2/r_+}{r}\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}(r^2+rr_++r_+^2)\right).$$
(3.6)
Thermodynamic quantities are specified at a boundary $`r=r_B`$, and we require that $`r_B<r_c`$. For any given value of $`r_+`$ and $`e`$, the maximum allowed value of $`r_B`$ is given by the larger root of the equation $`g^2=\rho ^2(1\rho ^2)`$. To summarize, for any given value of $`x=r_+/r_B`$, the allowed values of charge $`q=e/r_B`$ are given by $`q^2<x^2(1R^2x^2)`$ and $`q^2<1R^2`$.

Subject to the above conditions, the reduced action can be shown to be

$`I_C`$ $`=`$ $`\beta r_B[1\sqrt{V(r_B)}]\pi r_+^2`$ (3.7)
$`=`$ $`\beta r_B\left[1\sqrt{\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{r_+}{r_B}}\right)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{e^2}{r_Br_+}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}}(r_B^2+r_Br_++r_+^2)\right)}\right]\pi r_+^2.`$ (3.8)
Extremizing that action with respect to $`x`$ and solving for $`b`$, we obtain

$$\beta =\frac{4\pi r_+\sqrt{(1\frac{r_+}{r_B})\left(1\frac{e^2}{r_+r_B}\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}(r_B^2+r_+r_B+r_+^2)\right)}}{1\frac{e^2}{r_+r_B}\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}(r_B^2+r_+r_B+r_+^2)+\left(1\frac{r_+}{r_B}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}(r_B^2+2r_+r_B)\frac{e^2}{r_+^2}\right)}.$$
(3.9)
This is a ninth order algebraic equation for $`r_+`$, which may be written as

$$x^5(1x)\left(xq^2\frac{R^2x(1+x+x^2)}{3}\right)b^2(q^2x^2+R^2x^4)^2=0.$$
(3.10)
Given values for $`b,q`$ and $`R`$, (3.10) can be solved numerically for $`x`$. In Figure 5, we plot the free energy as a function of charge $`q`$ and inverse temperature $`b`$ for two values of the cavity radius $`R`$. As before, we also show the $`F=0`$ plane, which should give an approximate locus for the Hawking-Page phase transition.

As in the asymptotically flat case, we have checked this behavior in the grand canonical ensemble. Figure 6 shows the Gibbs free energy and the $`G=0`$ plane, and confirms the existence of a phase transition. Note that a Hawking-Page phase transition occurs for all values of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. While the presence of a cosmological constant affects the transition temperature, it does not change the qualitative behavior.

For small values of $`R`$, it is clear that the charged black hole in de Sitter space behaves very much like the corresponding black hole in flat space. There is again a line of first order phase transitions in the supercooled region that ends at a critical point. For large values of $`R`$, the critical point disappears: the place at which it would occur is essentially pushed outside the cosmological horizon.

In general, we have been unable to find the nature of the phase transition at the critical point. We can, however, do so for for two important special cases: the uncharged black hole $`(e=0)`$ and the case of small cosmological constant. For $`e=0`$, the function $`b`$ takes the form

$$b(x,R)=\frac{x\sqrt{(1x)(1R^2(1+x+x^2)/3)}}{1R^2x^2}.$$
(3.11)
The positive root of the equation $`1\mathrm{\Lambda }(r^2+r_+r+r_+^2)/3=0`$ gives us the location of the cosmological horizon $`r_c`$. Requiring that $`r_+<r_c`$ tells us that $`r_+^2<1/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Similarly, $`r_+<r_B<r_c`$ implies that $`Rr_B\sqrt{\mathrm{\Lambda }}<1`$.

The free energy can be plotted as a function of $`b`$ and $`R`$ (Figure 7), and clearly shows that black holes do not exist above a critical value $`b_c`$ of $`b`$, for any fixed value of $`R`$. This critical value is analogous to the value discussed at the end of section 2.1: it is a limiting temperature beyond which not even a supercooled black hole can exist.

For any given value of $`R`$, the entropy of the system behaves as $`SS_c(R)(bb_c(R))^\alpha `$. By choosing various values of $`R`$, one can check that $`\alpha =1/2`$ and that $`C_v(\tau \tau _c)^{1/2}`$. The critical behavior thus is very much like that of the uncharged black hole in flat space discussed in section 2.2.

For the case of small $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, we can expand $`b`$ in powers of $`R^2`$ and look for critical points in the supercooled regime. Both $`b_c`$ and $`q_c`$ receive correction to order $`R^2`$, while $`x_c`$ remains the same to this order. The critical exponents also remain the same.

## 4 Discussion

The thermodynamics of black holes is interesting in its own right, and also because of its connections to holography and the AdS/CFT correspondence. Largely inspired by the latter connection, past investigations have found a rich phase structure for asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes.

Our main result is that this phase structure does not, in fact, require asymptotically anti-de Sitter boundary conditions, but appears as well for black holes in cavities in asymptotically flat and asymptotically de Sitter spaces. In particular, both Hawking-Page-like phase transitions and transitions between small and large black holes occur as we vary the charge and temperature. For “supercooled” black holes in flat space, and black holes in de Sitter space with small $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, we found a line of first order phase transitions ending at a second order transition, and we were able to identify the critical exponents at the second order point. Remarkably, these were the same as those for asymptotically anti-de Sitter black holes, despite a very different algebraic structure of the partition function.

For anti-de Sitter space, the phase structure of charged black holes has served as a valuable test of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We leave open the very interesting question of whether the corresponding results for asymptotically flat and asymptotically de Sitter black holes might cast light on proposals for finite-volume holography in this more general setting.

Acknowledgments This work is supported in part by DOE grant DE-FG03-91ER40674.


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# A New Implementation of the Region-of-Interest Strategy for the ATLAS Second Level Trigger

## I INTRODUCTION

ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) is one of the four detectors currently being built around the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC will collide protons at a centre-of-mass energy of 14TeV. ATLAS is a multipurpose detector designed to have a 4$`\pi `$ hermeticity around the interaction region. The physics goals of ATLAS are numerous: from Higgs searches, to Top physics, from SUSY searches to QCD physics, not forgetting $`B`$ physics as well as exotic searches. In addition, part of the excitement for reaching this energy frontier is the discovery potential associated with this unchartered territory. These physics requirements combined with a bunch crossing rate of 40 MHz in addition to an average of 25 inelastic proton-proton underlying interactions in each bunch crossing (at a design luminosity of $`10^{34}cm^2s^1`$) put very stringent constraints on the data acquisition and trigger system.

The overall architecture of the three-level ATLAS trigger system is shown in figure 1 TP . It is designed to reduce the nominal 40 MHz bunch crossing rate to a rate of about 200 Hz at which events, that will have a size of about 1.6 MB on average, will be written to mass storage. The first stage of the trigger, LVL1, is hardware-based and it reduces the rate to about 75KHz. Using the fast calorimeter and muon sub-detectors, it has a latency (time taken to form and distribute the LVL1 trigger decision) of about 2.5 $`\mu s`$. During that time, the data from all the sub-detectors (about $`10^8`$ electronic channels) are kept in pipeline memories. After the LVL1 decision, selected data fragments are transferred to the Readout Drivers (RODs) and then to the Readout Buffers (ROBs). It is foreseen that there will be a total of about 1700 ROBs. The second stage of the trigger system, LVL2, is software-based and it reduces the rate to about 2KHz. Making use of the so called Region-of-Interest mechanism the average latency is about 10ms. In order to achieve this goal, the main characteristic of this stage is a fast rejection achieved by optimized trigger algorithms. The last stage of the trigger system, the Event Filter, occurs after the event building process. At this stage, the average latency is about 1s. The goal of the Event Filter is both to reduce the rate to about 200Hz, necessary for mass storage, but also to classify the events. Hence full calibration and alignment information is available at this stage. The trigger algorithms used for this stage have much in common with the offline algorithms and massive reuse of those is foreseen. The LVL2 and the Event Filter stages are commonly referred to as the High Level Trigger (HLT).

### I.1 The Region-of-Interest Mechanism

An important piece of the strategy of the ATLAS trigger relies on the Region-of-Interest (RoI) mechanism for which the LVL2 trigger makes use of information provided by the LVL1 trigger in localized region of the calorimeter and muon sub-detectors. This process is shown schematically in figure 2. The information contained in the RoI typically include the position ($`\eta `$ and $`\varphi `$) and the $`p_T`$ of the candidate objects as well as energy sums. Candidate objects selected by the LVL1 can be high-$`p_T`$ muons, electrons or photons, hadrons or taus, and jets. The energy sums include the missing-$`E_T`$ vector and the scalar $`E_T`$ value. For all selected LVL1 events, the RoI information is sent to the LVL2 using a dedicated data path. Making use of this RoI information, the LVL2 algorithms only transfer the necessary ROBs in order to arrive quickly at a LVL2 decision. It is important to note that all the data from all the sub-detectors with full granularity is available for the LVL2 algorithms if necessary. However, typically only a small fraction of the detector, centred around the RoI information selected by the LVL1, is needed by the LVL2 algorithms. On average there are a few RoI per event and as a consequence to this mechanism only a few percent of the total event data is required at the LVL2 stage. On the other hand, even though the bandwidth requirements on the Data Acquisition system is much reduced, it makes for a more complex system.

### I.2 The Data Access

As discussed above, the Region-of-Interest mechanism allow for an optimized retrieve of the data necessary to perform the LVL2 decision. Figure 3 shows in more details the sequence associated with the data access. The data is stored in collections within the Transient Data Store (TDS) paolo . These collections are organized inside a ContainerWithInfrastructure for easy retrieval and sorting. The collections are identified uniquely via an offline identifier offlineid . We can see from the diagram that the HLT algorithm first ask the RegionSelector tool for the list of collection identifiers associated with a particular region, that could correspond for example to an $`\eta \varphi `$ region that would come from LVL1. With the list of collection identifiers in hand, the HLT algorithm request the associated data to the TDS. If the data is already cached within the TDS, the requested collections are returned. If the data is not cached, the TDS launches the ByteStreamConverter which goal is to fill the collections in the TDS using the data in ByteStream format. To get a hold of this data, the ByteStreamConverter must request specific ROBs to the ROBDataCollector. Finally, at LVL2 there is the possibility to do some data preparation from within the ByteStreamConverter, which leads to a faster execution of the LVL2 trigger algorithms. One consequence from this sequence is the fact that the RegionSelector tool plays a central role within the trigger chain, since every Trigger Algorithm that needs access to the data in a certain region will have access to this tool. Another remark that stems from this data access sequence is the need for an optimization of the collection granularity. There needs to be a trade off between a useful navigation for the trigger algorithms and a minimization of the data requests. Finally, we mentioned that the collection request was made using the offline identifiers, rather than the online identifiers. This choice comes primarily from two issues, one is the fact that the current design for the trigger architecture calls for the use of offline code in the online environment. That is to say, both the trigger algorithms and the architecture in which they run can be developed in an offline environment and be directly ported to the online environment. The benefits are numerous: this will facilitate the development of algorithms; this will allow the study of the boundary between LVL2 and Event Filter and it will lead to easy performance studies for physics analysis. The second issue related with the use of offline identifiers for the collection and the RegionSelector comes from the fact that a possible region for which a trigger algorithm could require data is the InnerDetector sub-detectors, for which there are no LVL1 online identifiers.

## II THE REGION SELECTOR TOOL

Having described the usefulness and environment surrounding the RegionSelector tool we now turn to its requirements and implementation.

### II.1 Requirements

As we have just seen, the RegionSelector tool is central to any LVL2 trigger algorithm, hence its foremost requirement is that it should be fast and use up only a fraction of the available latency at LVL2. Another requirement imposed on the RegionSelector is the fact that it should translate an arbitrary geometrical region into a list of collection identifiers. Such a region can be a simple cone that span the various sub-detectors. It can also be a more complex cone which accounts for the uncertainty in the $`z`$ position of the primary vertex, coming from the beam spread. In that case, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\eta `$ has a radial dependence. Finally, another geometrical region of interest is that of a helical road, which could correspond for example to a reconstructed track in need of confirmation by a more refined Event Filter algorithm which has access to calibration and alignment constants. In the current implementation of the RegionSelector tool the innermost sub-detectors take into account the $`z`$ direction spread while the outermost sub-detectors follow a cone.

### II.2 Implementation

In figure 4 we show the sequence diagram associated with the RegionSelector tool. We can distinguish two main parts, the top one represents the initialization phase, and the lower part shows the execution phase. At initialization two maps are filled for each layer of each sub-detector: a map between the $`\varphi `$ index and a set of identifiers, and a second map between an identifier and a vector of a range in $`\eta `$. Figure 5 shows schematically the concept of a set of identifiers corresponding to a value in $`\varphi `$ and a range in $`\eta `$. During the execution phase, the algorithm asks for the list of identifiers corresponding to a range in $`\varphi `$ and a range in $`\eta `$, for a specified sub-detector. There is an outer loop over the layers, then there is a loop over the $`\varphi `$ range to get the associated sets of identifiers. Following this step there is also a loop over the identifiers to check if the $`\eta `$ value is within the required range. The built identifier list is then returned to the algorithm. This procedure ensures that there are no duplicate identifier within the list. Care must be taken regarding the $`\varphi `$ compact boundary.

A key ingredient to the RegionSelector tool are mappings made by the sub-detector communities that tie together a range in $`\eta `$ and $`\varphi `$ and a collection identifier. Those mappings are then used to make the internal maps during the initialization period of the RegionSelector. As mentioned in section I.2, there needs to be an optimization performed for each sub-detector concerning the granularity of the collections. In the current implementation table 1 shows the current collection granularity for each sub-detector, as well as the total number of ROBs for this sub-detector. For the Pixel sub-detector a collection corresponds to a module, which is a single silicon wafer. For the silicon strip detector (SCT) the collection granularity corresponds to a side of a module which is a bonded pair of wafers whose strips are oriented in the same direction, either axial or stereo. For the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) sub-detector, the collection granularity corresponds to a radial straw layer in the barrel and to 1/32 in $`r\varphi `$ in the endcap wheels. For the Liquid Argon calorimeter the collection granularity is that of a Trigger Tower while for the barrel hadronic Tile calorimeter the collection granularity is a phi wedge. Finally for the muon spectrometer there are four technologies used. Two types of chambers are used for trigger purposes: the Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) and the Thin Gap Chambers (TGC); and two types of chambers are used for precision measurements: the Monitored Drift Tube chambers (MDT) and the Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC). For all of the muon spectrometer the collection granularity corresponds to a single chamber. For more information on each sub-detector see for example atlas .

## III TIMING MEASUREMENTS

As mentioned earlier, the main requirement for the RegionSelector tool is that it should only use up a small fraction of the available latency at LVL2. Preliminary timing measurements were performed on a 1GHz Pentium III machine using the TAU (Tuning and Analysis Utilities) TAU  timing tool. Table 2 shows the timing measurements for various sub-detectors for different ranges in $`\eta `$ and $`\varphi `$.

We can see from the results that the timing is mainly independent on the extent of the $`\eta `$ and $`\varphi `$ range. If one looks at the LAr calorimer timing and arbitrarily divide by 3 to account for a 4GHz machine, one gets a timing of the Region Selector of about 0.11ms. Since preliminary timing measurements of LVL2 calorimeter algorithms are of the order of 1ms on a 1GHz machine, we get a combined RegionSelector and algorithm timing of less than 0.5ms, extrapolated to a 4GHz machine. This number is well below the expected 10ms average latency allowed at LVL2. Note that the timing for the data access is not included in this number.

## IV CONCLUSION

We have shown an implementation of a tool used to translate a region into a list of collection identifiers. This tool is used by all algorithms that request data access in a given region of the ATLAS detector. Although this tool is of crucial importance at LVL2, specially when combined with the Region-of-Interest mechanism, it can also be of used in the Event Filter and in offline reconstruction whenever an algorithm is interested in a particular seed, be it a simple sub-detector region or an object spanning a sub-detector region. Already the timing budget of this tool is within the accepted latency, scaled to a representative machine speed for 2007. It is foreseen that continuous improvements will be achieved in the implementation and that more complex geometrical regions will be supported.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors wish to thank the ATLAS PESA core software group. The authors also wish to thank the various sub-detector communities for their assistance in providing the necessary mappings, central to the implementation of the RegionSelector tool: K. Assamagan, S. Goldfarb, G. Gorfine, F. Luehring, H. Ma, S. Sivoklokov, and S. Solodkov.


text:
# PAIRS OF BUBBLES IN PLANETARY NEBULAE AND CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Chandra X-ray observations of clusters of galaxies reveal the presence of X-ray-deficient bubbles in the inner regions of many clusters, e.g., Hydra A (McNamara et al. 2000), Abell 2052, (Blanton et al. 2001, 2003), A 2597 (McNamara et al. 2001), RBS797 (Schindler et al. 2001), Abell 496 (Dupke & White 2001), and Abell 4059 (Heinz et al. 2002). These bubbles are characterized by low X-ray emissivity implying low density (high quality images of some clusters, e.g., A 2597, Perseus A, and Hydra A, are on the Chandra home page: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/category/galaxyclusters.html). In most cases, the bubbles are sites of strong radio emission. In some cases a pair of radio jets connects the bubble with the active galactic nucleus (e.g., Hydra A: McNamara et al. 2000). The absence of evidence of shocks suggests that the bubbles are expanding and moving at subsonic or mildly transonic velocities (Fabian et al. 2000; McNamara et al. 2000; Blanton et al. 2001). The presence of bubbles which do not coincide with strong radio emission (known as ‘ghost bubbles’ or ‘ghost cavities’) located farther from the centers of the clusters in, e.g., Perseus (Fabian et al. 2000), and Abell 2597 (McNamara et al. 2001), suggests that the bubbles rise buoyantly.

The optical morphologies of some planetary nebulae (PNs) reveal pairs of bubbles (cavities), similar in morphology to the pairs of X-ray-deficient bubbles in clusters of galaxies. Examples are the Owl nebula (NGC 3587; PN G148.4+57.0: Guerrero et al. 2003), and Cn 3-1 (VV 171; PN G038.2+12.0; Sahai 2000), which display a pair of low emissivity bubbles along their symmetry axis. Note that in PNs the bubbles are optical-deficient, and not X-ray deficient. In PNs the optical deficient bubbles may actually be filled with X-ray emission, e.g., as in NGC 6543 (Chu et al. 2001). An interesting object is Hu 2-1 (PN G051.4+09.6), which possesses two prominent pairs of bubbles, one pair closer to the center and the other farther out, with inclination between the two symmetry axes (Miranda et al. 2001; the HST images of Cn 3-1 and Hu 2-1 can be found in the list compiled by Terzian & Hajian 2000: http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/gallery.html). This morphological structure is most similar to the two prominent pairs of X-ray-deficient bubbles in the Perseus cluster (Abell 426: Fabian et al. 2000, 2002). Many other PNs also possess pairs of low emissivity bubbles, although in most cases they are less prominent than the cases quoted above, e.g., NGC 2242 (PN G170.3+15.8: Manchado et al. 1996), and a pair of bubbles within bipolar lobes in M 2-46 (PN G024.8-02.7: Manchado et al. 1996). Some similar bubbles images of PNs and clusters are listed in Table 1.

The morphological similarity between X-ray-deficient bubbles in clusters of galaxies and optical-deficient bubbles in PNs hints at a similar formation process in these vastly different objects. In Section 2 I explore the common and different properties of bubbles in these two classes of objects. The goal is to learn about the formation process of bubbles in PNs from information available from clusters of galaxies. In particular, I argue in Section 3 that the commonly accepted model for the formation of bubble pairs in clusters of galaxies, where the energy is injected in two oppositely propagating jets, strongly hints that the same mechanism operates in PNs. This similarity further constrains the object blowing the jets in PNs to be a compact object, and to blow the jets during the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase of the progenitor or during the early post-AGB phase. I argue that the compact object must therefore be a companion. A short summary is in Section 4.

## 2 COMPARISON OF BUBBLE PROPERTIES

Some properties of bubbles in clusters of galaxies and in PNs are compared in Table 2. The properties of the bubbles are taken from the observational papers cited in the previous section and the theoretical studies cited in the next section. We note that although the general structure in PNs is observed in the optical, inner cavities, not necessarily in pairs of bubbles, may be observed in X-ray (e.g., in the PN NGC 7009; Guerrero, Gruendl, & Chu 2002). Those observations are used to estimate the temperature inside pairs of bubbles used in table 2. The several orders of magnitude difference in some quantities are obvious from table 2. The main qualitative differences between the two classes are: (1) The bubbles in clusters evolve inside the intracluster medium (ICM), which is in hydrostatic equilibrium; if global flow is present, it is highly subsonic. The bubbles in cluster moves outward because of buoyancy. In PNs the bubbles move outward as part of the global outflow of the wind. Gravity is negligible in PNs. (2) In clusters the inflated bubble $`PdV`$ work goes mainly to push material against the high pressure surroundings, while in PNs the $`PdV`$ work mainly goes to accelerate AGB wind material to higher velocities.

The relevant similarities between the two types of bubble pairs are as follows. (1) The most relevant similarity is in the morphological structure (see previous section and table 1 for references to high quality images). In particular, in many cases there is a dense region in the equatorial plane between the two bubbles, e.g., the cluster A 2597 (McNamara et al. 2001) and the Owl PN(NGC 3587: Guerrero et al. 2003). (2) In some cases more than one pair of bubbles are seen, e.g., in the Perseus cluster (Fabian et al. 2000, 2002) and in the PN Hu 2-1 (Miranda et al. 2001). (3) In both types of bubbles the density inside the bubble is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than that in the environment, with an opposite ratio in temperatures. (4) In both cases the typical lifetime of observed bubbles is estimated to be $`10`$ times the estimated duration of the main energy injection phase that forms the bubbles. This value is highly uncertain, and may vary a lot from one system to another. In many PNs the linear increase of outward velocity with distance along the symmetry axis hints that the ejection phase was indeed of short duration compared with the age. (5) In clusters the bubbles are moving subsonically, or mildly supersonically, through the ICM. In PNs the situation is more complicated. Before ionization by the central star or a companion, the sound speed in the AGB wind is $`1\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, while the bubbles expand through the AGB wind at a relative speed of $`1030\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, which is highly supersonic. After ionization, the flow is mildly supersonic or even subsonic. In any case, even during the supersonic phase, the AGB wind is shocked to a temperature much below the bubble’s temperature, i.e., the expansion velocity is much below the sound speed inside the bubble. Hence this does not change much the overall characteristic of the bubble flow. Namely, in both types of bubbles the flow speed is much below the sound speed inside the bubble.

## 3 POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONS OF MORPHOLOGICAL SIMILARITIES

In this section I postulate that the more or less spherical (fat) bubble formation mechanism in clusters of galaxies and in PNs is similar. In clusters there is more information available on the formation mechanism than in PNs. I will use these known and/or well accepted properties of clusters to project on the formation mechanism in PNs.

It is commonly accepted that pairs of bubbles in clusters are formed by axisymmetric energy injection by an AGN, where most of the energy is deposited by two jets at two opposite off-center locations (e.g., Brighenti & Mathews 2002; Brüggen 2003; Brüggen et al. 2002; Fabian et al. 2002; Nulsen et al. 2002; Quilis, Bower, & Balogh 2001; Soker, Blanton, & Sarazin 2002; Omma et al. 2003). An axisymmetrical density structure of the ambient medium is not needed to form the cluster’s bubbles (only very close to the AGN, on a scale much smaller than the bubble size, does the accretion disk influence the flow). This hints, according to the postulate made here, that the bubbles in PNs are also formed by jets. The idea that jets, or collimated fast winds (CFW), shape PNs is not new. Jet shaping was proposed by several authors to explain different morphological features, e.g., jets (or CFW) blown by a stellar companion (Morris 1987; Soker & Rappaport 2000) to explain bipolar PNs, and jets blown at the final AGB phase or early post-AGB phase to form dense blobs along the symmetry axis (Soker 1990; these blobs are termed ansae, or FLIERs for fast low ionization emission regions), or shape the PN (Sahai & Trauger 1998). Recently, more quantitative analyses of bubble inflation by jets in PNs were conducted analytically (Soker 2002), and numerically (Chin-Fei & Sahai 2003). However, unlike in clusters, this idea is controversial, with other models suggesting magnetic shaping or axisymmetrical AGB winds (see the debate of Bujarrabal et al. 2000). The latter two processes can work as well, in particular in parallel with jets shaping. Livio (2000) reviews properties of jets in PNs, and compares them with those of other systems known to blow jets. The postulate made here provides insight into the shaping mechanism.

There are other interesting similarities in the bubble morphology between some clusters and some PNs. The density in the jets and the ambient medium decrease with increasing distance from the center. If the jet in a PN is shocked, or shocks the ambient medium, i.e., the AGB wind, close to the center, the dense post-shock regions cool fast, and no bubble is formed. Only when the cooling time of the shocked gas is long a bubble is formed (Soker 2002). In PNs, bubles are typically expected to be formed by jets quite close to the center, at distances of $`z10^{16}\mathrm{cm}`$ from the center (eqs. 6 and 14 in Soker 2002). The two opposite bubbles expand to all directions, including the center, and when the PN emerges, it is not possible to observe the inner region where the jets expanded without forming a bubble; either this region was destroyed or it is not resolved. However, for slow, speeds of $`200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, and/or dense jets and winds, the post-shock gas will inflate bubbles only at large distances from the center, $`z10^{17}\mathrm{cm}`$ (eq. 6 in Soker 2002). The expanding bubbles will not destroy the large inner region, where the jets expand without forming bubbles. This inner region will be observed as a dense region with two low density cones (or cylinders), one in each opposite direction, along which the two opposite collimated jets expanded. According to this flow structure, the bubble will be connected to these cones (or cylinders) at their ends. Such a flow structure is clearly observed in the cluster Hydra A (McNamara et al. 2000), where two well collimated radio jets are abruptly shocked and form radio lobes. The X-ray intensity is high along the boarders of the radio lobes. In PNs no such nice jets, as the radio jets in Hydra A, are observed. However, in some PNs the optical morphology is very similar to the X-ray morphology of Hydra A, suggesting a similar flow structure. Again, the PN phase comes long after the jets ceased, unlike in Hydra A where the radio jet is still active, hence the narrow cones through which the jets expanded were broadened by the fast wind blown by the central star, and are difficult, or impossible, to identify . In any case, possible PNs in which the jets inflated bubbles at large distances from the center are M 1-59 (PN G023.9-02.3, image in Manchado et al. 1996), and NGC 7026 (PN G 089.0+00.3; H$`\alpha `$ image in Balick 1987; see also Terzian & Hajian 2000). In these two PN the inner region is bright, with a faint narrow cylinder along the symmetry axis. The two bubbles in each of these PNs seem to start from the outer boundary of these inner regions, rather than from the center. Yet, another interesting similarity is that the central engine, star(s) in PNs and an AGN in clusters, may not be exactly on the symmetry axis. Examples for the departure of the central engine from the symemtry axis are in the Perseus cluster and the Owl nebula (NGC 3587).

The similarity in several non-dimensional quantities found in the previous section suggests that if the initial flow structure is similar, then the bubble morphologies will be similar, as observed. This leads to the following. (1) The similar shapes strengthens the general idea that jets (or CFW) form and shape the bubbles in PNs, as well as other types of bipolar PNs. (2) The low density in the bubble implies that the jets are fast, with a speed of $`>100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Therefore, the object launching the jets must be compact, since the jets speed is of the order of the escape velocity (Livio 2000). (3) The presence of more than one pair of bubbles in the PN Hu 2-1 indicates, as in clusters, multiple episodic events. (4) In clusters the surrounding density increases as radius decreases down to the center. The similar bubble morphologies and the presence of dense material in the equatorial plane between the two bubbles (see previous section) suggests that a similar ambient medium exists in PNs when the jets are blown. Namely, the AGB dense wind is still active, or has ceased only recently, when the jets are blown in PNs. This is possible only if the jets are blown by a companion, or the central star moves extremely rapidly from the AGB to become a compact star that can blow fast jets. This rapid evolution is in contrast with stellar evolution studies, and is also unlikely to explain the multiple activity (point 3 above; Miranda et al. 2001 argue for a CFW that was blown by a binary system progenitor of Hu 2-1). One of the observational implications is that we should see evidence for fast jets in objects that are still unambiguous AGB stars. A good example is the system OH231.8+4.2 (Rotten Egg nebula), for which Kastner et al. (1998) detect the presence of a Mira inside this bipolar nebula which contains jets (Zijlstra et al. 2001). Zijlstra et al. (2001) present evidence for jets in some OH/IR early post-AGB stars. There are also resolved jets in some AGB stars, e.g., W43A (Imai et al. 2002, 2003) and V Hydrae (Sahai et al. 2003).

The first three points above, of fast jets, or CFW, shaping PNs, sometimes in multiple activity, were mentioned before; see the recent papers by Soker (2002) and Chin-Fei & Sahai (2003) for discussions of the arguments for CFW shaping. The comparison with clusters’ bubbles strengthens these points for PNs having pairs of well defined bubbles. Point 4 above, is new. It is unique in strongly hinting at CFW shaping occurring while the primary still blows its AGB wind. This implies that the CFW is blown by a companion.

## 4 SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to point to a similarity in the morphology and some non-dimensional quantities between pairs of bubbles in clusters of galaxies and in PNs (section 2). In the latter group I considered mainly PNs harboring a pair or more of well defined and closed bubbles (i.e., fat bubbles). Examples are given in section 1 and table 1. This similarity is interesting by itself, considering the huge differences in temperatures, size, mass, energy, etc., between the two groups. Secondly, I used this similarity to strengthen models for PN shaping by jets (or collimated fast winds: CFW), and to constraint the formation epoch of the CFW.

Arguments for shaping of PNs by jets and CFW were presented before (references in section 3). Other effects, though, e.g., enhanced equatorial mass loss rate, can also play a role in shaping PNs. It was also assumed that similar mechanisms, e.g., accretion disks, launch jets in AGN, which shape bubbles in clusters, and in PNs (Livio 2000). Here I further postulate similar bubble shaping in cluster of galaxies and in PNs. This allows projection from known properties and processes in clusters to PNs. My main conclusions based on the similarities are as follows (section 3). The similarity in morphology and some properties strongly supports jets or CFW models for the shaping of pair of bubbles in PNs. The ambient medium in PNs, which is the slow AGB wind, need not be axisymmetrical, and may be spherical. The presence of dense material in the equatorial plane constrains the jets and CFW activity to occur while the AGB star still blows its dense wind, or very shortly after. The requirement that the jets and CFW be fast and the presence of more than one pair of bubbles in, e.g., Hu 2-1, constrains the object that blows the jets and CFW to be a compact companion, i.e., a main sequence or a white dwarf star.

Although I considered here only PNs with well defined pairs of closed bubbles, the results are more general in strengthening the idea that bipolar and extreme elliptical PNs are shaped by jets or CFW blown by an accreting companion.

I thank Albert Zijlstra (the referee) and Joel Kastner for useful comments, and James Binney for encouraging comments. This research was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation.

A comment to table 1: Free access to images are at these sites:
 http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0210/0210054.pdf
 http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/images/rob22.jpg
 http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0007/0007456.pdf
 http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0303/0303056.pdf
 http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0107/0107221.pdf
 http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/images/vv171.jpg
 http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0010/0010450.pdf
 http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/images/he2\_104.jpg
 http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/hcg62/index.html
\[10a\] http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0009/0009396.pdf
also: \[10b\] http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/images/hu21\_ha.gif
 http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0001/0001402.pdf
 http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/images/ngc6537.jpg
 http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/ps/0109/0109488.f1.gif
\[14a\] http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/images/ngc7009.jpg
see also (Goncalves et al. 2003, fig. 1)
\[14b\] http://arxiv.org/PS\_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0307/0307265.pdf


text:
# Weights in Codes and Genus 2 Curves

## 1 Introduction

Let $`𝔽_q`$ be a finite field with $`q`$ elements. In this article, $`q`$ will be a power of $`2`$, say $`q=2^m`$, and $`\alpha `$ will be a generator for the multiplicative group $`𝔽_q^{}`$. Let $`m_i(x)`$ denote the minimal polynomial of $`\alpha ^i`$ over $`𝔽_2`$. Cyclic codes of length $`n`$ are ideals in $`𝔽_2[x]/(x^n1)`$. We use the natural basis $`1,x,x^2,\mathrm{},x^{n1}`$, and we sometimes identify a polynomial $`c_0+c_1x+\mathrm{}+c_{n1}x^{n1}`$ with the vector $`(c_0,c_1,\mathrm{},c_{n1})`$. We label the coordinates by the elements of $`𝔽_q^{}`$.

The cyclic code of length $`2^m1`$ generated by $`m_1(x)`$ is called the (binary) Hamming code. The cyclic code $`B=B_m`$ of length $`2^m1`$ generated by $`m_1(x)m_3(x)`$ is called the 2-error-correcting BCH code. The weights appearing in the dual code $`B_m^{}`$ were determined by Kasami . There are exactly three nonzero weights when $`m`$ is odd, and five weights when $`m`$ is even. The cyclic code $`M=M_m`$ of length $`2^m1`$ generated by $`m_1(x)m_1(x)`$ is known as the Melas code. The weights appearing in $`M_m^{}`$ were determined by Lachaud and Wolfmann  using results on elliptic curves. In contrast to $`B_m^{}`$, there are many weights in $`M_m^{}`$. Indeed, all even numbers between $`q/2\sqrt{q}+1/2`$ and $`q/2+\sqrt{q}+1/2`$ occur. A uniform treatment of these codes was given by Schoof . In his paper Schoof says “It would be very interesting to extend the methods of this paper to other families of cyclic codes. This seems difficult since it involves, in general, curves of genus larger than 1 …”

In this article we consider the cyclic code $`C=C_m=B_mM_m`$, which has length $`2^m1`$ and is generated by $`m_1(x)m_1(x)m_3(x)`$. We assume $`m>2`$ to ensure that the three factors of the generator polynomial of $`C`$ are distinct. We will discuss the minimum distance of $`C`$ in section 2, using algebraic geometry. In sections 3 and 4 we will determine the weights appearing in the dual code $`C^{}`$, by relating the weights to curves of genus $`2`$, realising the suggestion of Schoof in the above quote. For $`m`$ even we have a precise description of all the weights, but not for $`m`$ odd. The next step would be to compute the weight distributions of these codes but this appears to be quite difficult.

## 2 The Minimum Distance of the Codes $`C`$

In this section we investigate the minimum distance of $`C`$. We show below that $`B`$ has minimum distance 5, and it is not hard to show that $`M`$ has minimum distance $`5`$ when $`m`$ is odd, and distance 3 when $`m`$ is even. Since $`C=BM`$, one might hope that $`C`$ has distance $`7`$, at least when $`m`$ is odd. However, we will show that the minimum distance of $`C`$ is $`5`$ for $`m16`$.

The computer algebra package *Magma* shows that $`C`$ has minimum distance $`7`$ when $`m=6,7`$, but that $`d(C)=5`$ when $`m=5,8,9`$. We presume that $`d(C)=5`$ when $`10m15`$ but we have not checked this.

The roots of the generator polynomial of a cyclic code are called the *zeros* of the code. Determining the minimum distance of a cyclic code from its zeros is very difficult in general. One result on this problem is known as the BCH bound, see  for example. We use $`wt(c)`$ to denote the weight of a codeword $`c(x)`$.

###### Theorem 1

(BCH bound) Let $`f(x)`$ be a codeword in a binary cyclic code of length $`n=2^m1`$. If $`s`$ consecutive powers of $`\alpha `$ are roots of $`f`$, then $`wt(f)s+1`$.

It follows from the BCH bound that the 2-error-correcting BCH code $`B_m`$ has $`d5`$, since $`\alpha ,\alpha ^2,\alpha ^3,\alpha ^4`$ are roots of $`m_1(x)m_3(x)`$. Since $`CB`$, $`d(C)5`$.

A codeword of even weight in $`C`$ has amongst its roots $`\alpha ^j`$ for $`j=2,1`$, $`0,1,2`$, $`3,4`$. By the BCH bound this codeword has weight $`8`$. Thus there are no codewords of weight $`6`$ in $`C`$. We now study codewords of weight $`5`$.

We define the polynomials

$$f(x,y,z)=x+y+z+x^2+y^2+z^2+x^2y+x^2z+y^2x+y^2z+z^2x+z^2y$$

and

$$g(x,y,z)=x^2y+x^2z+y^2x+y^2z+z^2x+z^2y+xyz+xy+xz$$

$$+yz+x^2yz+xy^2z+xyz^2$$

over a field of characteristic $`2`$. Let $`K`$ be the algebraic closure of $`𝔽_2`$. We define an algebraic curve $`X`$ by

$$X=\{(x,y,z)K^3:f(x,y,z)=0\text{ and }g(x,y,z)=0\}$$

and define $`X_m`$ to be the set of points on $`X`$ that have coordinates in $`𝔽_{2^m}`$.

###### Lemma 2

The cyclic code $`C`$ of length $`2^m1`$ has minimum distance $`5`$ if and only if there are rational points $`(x,y,z)`$ on $`X_m`$ with the property that $`0,1,x,y,z,1+x+y+z`$ are pairwise distinct.

Proof: A parity check matrix for $`C`$ is

$$\left[\begin{array}{ccccccc}1& \alpha & \alpha ^2& \mathrm{}& \alpha ^i& \mathrm{}& \alpha ^{2^m2}\\ 1& \alpha ^3& \alpha ^6& \mathrm{}& \alpha ^{3i}& \mathrm{}& \alpha ^{3(2^m2)}\\ 1& \alpha ^1& \alpha ^2& \mathrm{}& \alpha ^i& \mathrm{}& \alpha ^{(2^m2)}\end{array}\right]$$

and it follows that codewords of weight $`5`$ with a 1 in position 1 are in one-to-one correspondence with field elements $`x,y,z,w𝔽_{2^m}`$ such that

$`1+x+y+z+w`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (1)
$`1+x^3+y^3+z^3+w^3`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (2)
$`1+x^1+y^1+z^1+w^1`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (3)
and $`0,1,x,y,z,w`$ are pairwise distinct.

Substituting $`1+x+y+z`$ for $`w`$ in equation (2) gives

$$1+x^3+y^3+z^3+(1+x+y+z)^3=0$$

or

$$x+y+z+x^2+y^2+z^2+x^2y+x^2z+y^2x+y^2z+z^2x+z^2y=0$$

which leads to the definition of $`f`$.

Multiplying (3) by $`xyzw`$ gives

$$xyzw+yzw+xzw+xyw+xyz=0$$

and substituting for $`w`$ now gives

$$(1+x+y+z)(xyz+yz+xz+xy)+xyz=0.$$

Expanding this out leads to

$$x^2y+x^2z+y^2x+y^2z+z^2x+z^2y+xyz+xy+xz+yz+x^2yz+xy^2z+xyz^2=0$$

which is where we obtain the definition of $`g`$.

The proof is complete when we observe that the steps in deriving $`f`$ and $`g`$ are reversible; given a point on $`X_m`$ with $`0,1,x,y,z,1+x+y+z`$ distinct, one can recover a codeword of weight 5 with a 1 in position 1. Since $`C`$ is cyclic, any weight 5 codeword has a cyclic shift with a 1 in position 1. $`\mathrm{}`$

We will apply Weil’s theorem to $`X`$. Normally Weil’s theorem is applied to nonsingular curves, but a straightforward check via the Jacobian matrix shows that $`X`$ has exactly four singular points. However, the nonsingularity hypothesis in Weil’s theorem can be replaced by absolute irreducibility, and we show next that this indeed holds for our curve $`X`$.

###### Lemma 3

The curve $`X`$ is absolutely irreducible.

Proof: Define

$$a(x,y)=1+x+y,c(x,y)=xy+x+y,$$

and

$$h(x,y)=(y^2+y+1)x^3+(y^3+1)x^2+(y^3+y)x+(y^3+y^2).$$

With $`f`$ and $`g`$ as above, we verify that $`ag+cf=h`$, which is independent of $`z`$. It is straightforward to check that $`h`$ is absolutely irreducible. (This can be done by hand or using a computer package such as *Magma*. Since $`h`$ is of degree 3 in $`x`$ it is enough to check irreducibility over $`𝔽_8`$. *Magma* also shows that $`h=0`$ has genus 3.)

Let $`Y`$ be the plane curve $`h=0`$. Since $`f=az^2+a^2z+b`$ and $`g=cz^2+acz+d`$ for some polynomials $`b(x,y)`$ and $`d(x,y)`$, projection on the $`x,y`$ plane gives a map from $`X`$ to $`Y`$, which is of degree 2. Since we already know that $`Y`$ is absolutely irreducible, we get that either $`X`$ is also absolutely irreducible or it has two components.

Let $`w`$ be a primitive 3rd root of $`1`$ in $`GF(4)`$. Then $`h(w,w^2)=0`$ while $`h_x(w,w^2)=w`$ and $`h_y(w,w^2)=w^2`$. So the point $`(w,w^2)`$ is a smooth point of $`Y`$ with tangent $`y=w^2x+w`$.

In the equation $`f=0`$ make the substitution $`v=z/a`$, and the equation becomes $`v^2+v=b/a^3`$.

Consider $`b/a^3`$ as a function on $`Y`$, and consider its behaviour near the point $`(w,w^2)`$. Note that $`a`$ vanishes at $`(w,w^2)`$ but since $`a=0`$ is not the tangent to $`Y`$ at $`(w,w^2)`$, the function $`a`$ has a simple zero at $`(w,w^2)`$. On the other hand $`b(w,w^2)=1`$, so $`b/a^3`$ has a triple pole at $`(w,w^2)`$. However, if $`v^2+v`$ has a pole at a point $`P`$ then the pole must have even order (the order is $`2t`$, where $`t`$ is the order of $`v`$ at $`P`$). Thus there cannot be a function $`v`$ on $`Y`$ with $`v^2+v=b/a^3`$. This means that the polynomial $`v^2+v+b/a^3`$ is irreducible over the function field of $`Y`$, which entails that $`X`$ is absolutely irreducible. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Theorem 4

The cyclic code $`C`$ of length $`2^m1`$ has minimum distance $`5`$ for all $`m16`$.

Proof: By Lemma 2 we must show that $`X_m`$ has points $`(x,y,z)`$ with $`0,1,x,y,z,1+x+y+z`$ distinct, for all $`m`$ sufficiently large. By Lemma 3 we know that $`X_m`$ is absolutely irreducible. Let $`N_m=|X_m|`$. By Weil’s theorem,

$$|N_m(2^m+1)|2g\sqrt{2^m}+C$$

where $`g`$ is the genus of (a smooth model of) $`X`$ and $`C`$ is a constant independent of $`m`$ which can be given in terms of the degree of $`X`$.

The number of points on $`X_m`$ such that $`0,1,x,y,z,1+x+y+z`$ are not distinct is 4. This is straightforward to check using such factorizations as $`f(0,y,z)=(y+1)(z+1)(y+z)`$, and we omit the details (the four points are $`(0,0,0)`$, $`(1,0,0)`$, $`(0,1,0)`$, and $`(0,0,1)`$).

It follows from the previous two paragraphs that there are points on $`X_m`$ with $`0,1,x,y,z,1+x+y+z`$ distinct for all $`m`$ sufficiently large.

Using a refined version of Weil’s theorem from , we obtain $`|N_m(2^m+1)|220\sqrt{2^m}`$. It follows from this inequality that $`N_m>4`$ once $`m16`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

It can be easily shown that the genus of $`X`$ is between $`11`$ and $`13`$, but we have not computed its exact value.

## 3 The Weights in the Dual Codes $`C^{}`$, $`m`$ even

Let $`q=2^m`$. By Delsarte’s theorem (see  or ),

$$C^{}=\{(Tr(a/x+bx+cx^3))_{x𝔽_q^{}}:a,b,c𝔽_q\}.$$

Knowing the weights in $`C^{}`$ is equivalent to knowing how many $`0`$’s are in a typical codeword. By Hilbert’s Theorem 90, we want to know how many solutions there are to

$$y^2+y=\frac{a}{x}+bx+cx^3$$
(4)
over $`𝔽_{2^m}`$. If we denote by $`N`$ the number of rational points in a complete smooth model of the above curve then the weight of the vector whose entries are $`Tr(a/x+bx+cx^3)`$ as we vary $`x𝔽_q^{}`$, is $`q1(N2)/2=qN/2`$.

Recall that every curve has an abelian variety associated to it called its Jacobian. An abelian variety $`A`$ over a field of characteristic $`p>0`$ is said to have $`p`$-rank $`s`$ if the subgroup of points of order $`p`$ of $`A`$ (over an algebraically closed field of definition) has cardinality $`p^s`$. By the two-rank of a curve we mean the two-rank of its Jacobian.

###### Lemma 5

Curves of the form $`(\text{4})`$ can be characterised as curves defined over $`𝔽_{2^m}`$ of genus $`2`$, two-rank $`1`$, whose number of rational points is divisible by $`4`$.

Proof: From , it follows that a curve of genus 2 and two-rank 1 has an equation $`y^2+y=a/x+bx+cx^3+d`$. Let us now show that we may take $`d=0`$ when $`N0mod4`$. As the number of points is zero modulo $`4`$, $`_{x𝔽_q^{}}Tr(a/x+bx+cx^3+d)=0`$. But $`_{x𝔽_q^{}}1/x=_{x𝔽_q^{}}x=_{x𝔽_q^{}}x^3=0`$, if $`q>4`$ so we get $`Tr(d)=0`$ and $`d=e^2+e`$ for some $`e`$ and a change of variable $`yy+e`$ puts the equation in the form stated with $`d=0`$. Conversely, if $`d=0`$ then $`N0(mod4)`$ as $`_{x𝔽_q^{}}Tr(a/x+bx+cx^3)=0`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

An abelian variety is called simple if is not isogenous to a product of abelian varieties of smaller dimension. Maisner and Nart classified which isogeny classes of simple abelian surfaces of $`p`$-rank one contain Jacobians.

###### Theorem 6

(Maisner-Nart, ) Let $`q=2^m`$. There exists a curve of the form $`(\text{4})`$ with $`N=q+1+a_1`$ points over $`𝔽_{2^m}`$ and simple Jacobian if and only if

1. $`a_1`$ is odd
2. $`|a_1|4\sqrt{q}`$
3. there exists an integer $`a_2`$ such that

1. $`2|a_1|\sqrt{q}2qa_2a_1^2/4+2q`$
    2. $`a_2`$ is divisible by $`2^{m/2}`$
    3. $`\mathrm{\Delta }=a_1^24a_2+8q`$ is not a square in $``$
    4. $`\delta =(a_2+2q)^24qa_1^2`$ is not a square in $`_2`$.

This statement combines Lemma 2.1, Theorem 2.9 part (M) and Corollary 2.17 of , and our Lemma 5.

###### Lemma 7

Let $`q=2^m`$ where $`m`$ is even. Then each even number in the interval $`[q/22\sqrt{q}+q^{\frac{1}{4}}1/2,q/2+2\sqrt{q}q^{\frac{1}{4}}1/2]`$ occurs as a weight in $`C^{}`$, and these weights arise from curves of type $`(\text{4})`$ whose Jacobian is simple.

Proof: Assume that $`m`$ is even. If $`a_1,a_2`$ satisfy the conditions of theorem 6 then $`|a_1|4\sqrt{q}2q^{1/4}`$. Indeed, if $`a_2=2|a_1|\sqrt{q}2q`$ then $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(|a_1|+4\sqrt{q})^2`$ is a square, so it is ruled out. Thus $`2|a_1|\sqrt{q}2q+\sqrt{q}a_2a_1^2/4+2q`$, which leads to the stated inequality.

Conversely, if $`a_1`$ satisfies the inequality $`|a_1|4\sqrt{q}2q^{1/4}`$, let $`a_2=2|a_1|\sqrt{q}2q+\sqrt{q}`$. We must check that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\delta `$ are not squares in $``$ and $`_2`$ respectively.

First, substitution gives $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(4\sqrt{q}|a_1|)^24\sqrt{q}`$. Suppose $`\mathrm{\Delta }=t^2`$ where $`t`$ is a positive integer. Then $`(4\sqrt{q}|a_1|t)(4\sqrt{q}|a_1|+t)=4\sqrt{q}`$. By unique factorization in $``$, we conclude $`4\sqrt{q}|a_1|t=2^k`$ and $`4\sqrt{q}|a_1|+t=2^{\mathrm{}}`$ for some positive integers $`k`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$ with $`k+\mathrm{}=2+m/2`$. Adding gives $`2(4\sqrt{q}|a_1|)=2^k+2^{\mathrm{}}`$. Since $`a_1`$ is odd, one of $`k`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$ must be 1. If $`\mathrm{}=1`$, then $`4\sqrt{q}|a_1|+t=2`$, so $`4\sqrt{q}|a_1|=t=1`$, a contradiction. Suppose now that $`k=1`$ (so $`\mathrm{}=1+m/2`$). It follows that $`t=4\sqrt{q}|a_1|2`$. Substituting this value for $`t`$ into $`4\sqrt{q}|a_1|+t=2^{\mathrm{}}`$ yields $`|a_1|=3\sqrt{q}1`$. Thus, if $`|a_1|3\sqrt{q}1`$ we have shown that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is not a square.

If $`|a_1|=3\sqrt{q}1`$ then choose $`a_2=2|a_1|\sqrt{q}2q+2\sqrt{q}`$. A similar argument as above leads to a contradiction.

Next, substituting for $`a_2`$ gives

$$\delta =(a_2+2q)^24qa_1=(2|a_1|\sqrt{q}+\sqrt{q})^24qa_1^2=q(1+4|a_1|).$$

It is well known (see  ch. II for example) that an element $`2^ru`$ (where $`u`$ is a unit) of $`_2`$ is a square if and only if $`r`$ is even and $`u1(mod8)`$. Since $`a_1`$ is odd it follows that $`\delta `$ is not a square. A similar argument works in the case $`a_2=2|a_1|\sqrt{q}2q+2\sqrt{q}`$.

$`\mathrm{}`$

We still need to analyse which weights come from curves whose Jacobian is non-simple. We do this in the proof of theorem 8. We note that by  corollary 2.17 the field of definition does not matter to determine simplicity.

###### Theorem 8

Let $`q=2^m`$ where $`m`$ is even, let $`I=[q/22\sqrt{q},q/2+2\sqrt{q}1]`$ and $`J=[q/22\sqrt{q}+q^{\frac{1}{4}}\frac{1}{2},q/2+2\sqrt{q}q^{\frac{1}{4}}\frac{1}{2}]`$. Then all weights in $`C^{}`$ are even integers in $`I`$. All even integers in $`J`$ do occur as weights, and an even integer in $`IJ`$ occurs as a weight if and only if it has the form $`q/2+(\pm 2\sqrt{q}+a+1)/2`$ where $`a3(mod4)`$ and $`\pm 2\sqrt{q}a`$ is not squarefree.

Proof: We continue the notation from before. The weights are the numbers $`qN/2`$, where $`N=q+1+a_1`$ ranges over the number of points on curves of type (4). From theorem 6 $`a_1`$ is odd and $`|a_1|4\sqrt{q}`$. Thus $`4\sqrt{q}+1a_14\sqrt{q}1`$, and this is equivalent to saying that the weights lie in $`I`$. All weights in $`C^{}`$ are even since $`1`$ is a zero of the code. (This entails $`N0(mod4)`$, which means $`a_13(mod4)`$.)

By Lemma 7 all weights in $`J`$ do occur as weights.

We now study curves of type (4) whose Jacobian is not simple. In this case the Jacobian must be isogenous to $`E^{}\times E`$, where $`E^{}`$ is an elliptic curve of two-rank 0 (a supersingular elliptic curve) and $`E`$ is an elliptic curve of two-rank 1 (an ordinary elliptic curve). It is known (see  for example) that a supersingular elliptic curve $`E^{}`$ has $`q+1a^{}`$ points, where $`a^{}\{0,\pm \sqrt{q},\pm 2\sqrt{q}\}`$ (as $`m`$ is even). It is also known by results of Honda and Tate that an ordinary elliptic curve $`E`$ exists with $`q+1a`$ points whenever $`a`$ is odd and $`|a|2\sqrt{q}`$. We will investigate when we can construct a curve of genus $`2`$ having $`N=q+1a^{}a`$ points over $`𝔽_q`$ whose Jacobian is isogenous to $`E^{}\times E`$. To do this we apply the construction of , section 1. There it is proved that such a curve exists if and only if, for some odd prime $`p`$, there is an isomorphism of Galois modules between $`E^{}[p]`$ and $`E[p]`$ reversing the Weil pairing.

We will restrict ourselves to the case that $`E^{}`$ has $`q+1\pm 2\sqrt{q}`$ points. In the other cases the construction can be done whenever $`aa^{}\pm 1`$ but it leads to weights in the interval $`J`$, which are therefore not interesting for our purposes. Returning to the case in question, the action of Frobenius on $`E^{}[p]`$ is multiplication by a scalar $`k=\pm \sqrt{q}`$. We need to have the same be true of $`E[p]`$, and then any isomorphism of groups between $`E^{}[p]`$ and $`E[p]`$ reversing the Weil pairing will automatically preserve Galois action and we will be done.

To have Frobenius on $`E[p]`$ be multiplication by $`k`$ we must have $`k^2ak+q0modp^2`$. Indeed, $`k^2ak+q`$ is the number of points in the kernel of $`\pi k`$ on $`E`$, where $`\pi `$ denotes the Frobenius automorphism on $`E`$. Conversely, if $`k^2ak+q0modp^2`$, we will show that either Frobenius on $`E[p]`$ is multiplication by $`k`$ or there is an elliptic curve isogenous to $`E`$ with this property. The congruence implies that the characteristic polynomial of $`\pi `$ on $`E[p]`$ is $`(xk)^2`$. Assume now that Frobenius on $`E[p]`$ is not multiplication by $`k`$. Then $`\pi k`$ has a kernel $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ on $`E[p]`$ which is also the image of $`\pi k`$ on $`E[p]`$. Thus $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is invariant under $`\pi `$ and hence $`\overline{E}=E/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is defined over $`𝔽_q`$ and is isogenous to $`E`$. Now $`\pi k=0`$ on $`E[p]/\mathrm{\Gamma }\overline{E}[p]`$ and by the same argument as above (since the congruence holds modulo $`p^2`$) $`\pi k=0`$ on a cyclic subgroup of $`E[p^2]`$ which projects to a different subgroup of $`\overline{E}[p]`$, thus $`\pi k=0`$ on $`\overline{E}[p]`$. To summarize, we can construct the curve of genus two if $`a^{}amodp^2`$ for some prime $`p`$, when $`a^{}=\pm 2\sqrt{q}`$.

Therefore a value of $`a_1=\pm 2\sqrt{q}+a`$ is realisable from this construction if and only if $`\pm 2\sqrt{q}a`$ is not squarefree. $`\mathrm{}`$

Here are the lists of weights in a few cases.

| $`q`$ | $`2^6`$ | $`2^8`$ | $`2^{10}`$ | $`2^{12}`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`I`$ | $`[16,47]`$ | $`[96,159]`$ | $`[448,575]`$ | $`[1920,2175]`$ |
| $`J`$ | $`[19,44]`$ | $`[100,155]`$ | $`[454,569]`$ | $`[1928,2167]`$ |
| weights in $`IJ`$ | none | none | 452 | 1924 |

We point out that the weights are not necessarily all the even numbers in an interval, as illustrated by the $`q=2^{12}`$ case.

## 4 The Weights in the Dual Codes $`C^{}`$, $`m`$ odd

Let us consider now the case $`m`$ odd.

###### Theorem 9

Let $`q=2^m`$ where $`m`$ is odd, let $`I=[q/22\sqrt{q},q/2+2\sqrt{q}1]`$ and $`J=[q/22\sqrt{q}+(8q)^{\frac{1}{4}}\frac{1}{2},q/2+2\sqrt{q}(8q)^{\frac{1}{4}}\frac{1}{2}]`$. Then all weights in $`C^{}`$ are even integers in $`I`$, and all even integers in $`J`$ do occur as weights.

Proof: We need only to consider the values of $`a_1`$ afforded by Theorem 6, since the curves with split Jacobian will have number of points of the form $`q+1+a,q+1\pm \sqrt{2q}+a`$, for some $`a`$ satisfying $`|a|2\sqrt{q}`$ which will lead to weights in $`J`$. Note also that we can improve the inequality on $`a_1`$ to $`|a_1|22\sqrt{q}`$, as noted in . This leads to interval $`I`$ and the first statement of the Theorem.

Let $`q^{}=2^{(m+1)/2}`$. Let $`a_1`$ be an odd integer and let $`a_2`$ be any integer divisible by $`q^{}`$, and put $`\delta =(a_2+2q)^24qa_1^2`$. We will show that $`\delta `$ is not a square in $`_2`$. Consider first the case where $`a_2=q^{}u`$, $`u`$ odd. Recall that $`(q^{})^2=2q`$. Then $`\delta /2qu^22a_1^2mod8`$. As $`u^2=a_1^21mod8`$ we get $`\delta /2q7mod8`$ and $`\delta `$ is not a square in $`_2`$. If $`a_2=2q^{}u`$, $`u`$ odd, then $`\delta /4q=2u^2a_1^2`$ is odd. Again $`\delta `$ is not a square in $`_2`$ as $`\delta =2^ru`$ where $`r`$ is odd and $`u`$ is a unit. Finally, if $`a_2/q^{}0mod4`$ then $`\delta /2q2a_1^22mod8`$, so $`\delta `$ is again not a square in $`_2`$.

If, now we assume further that $`a_1J`$ then there exists an integer $`a_2`$ such that $`a_2,a_2+q^{}`$ satisfy conditions (a) and (b) of Theorem 6. By the above argument they also satisfy condition (d). We will show that at least one of them satisfies condition (c).

Suppose neither of them satisfies condition (c). Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }(b)=a_1^24b+8q`$. If $`\mathrm{\Delta }(a_2)=u^2,\mathrm{\Delta }(a_2+q^{})=v^2`$ for positive integers $`u,v`$ then $`u^2v^2=4q^{}`$. It follows that $`uv=2^r,u+v=2^s`$ for some integers $`r,s`$, where $`r+s=(m+5)/2`$. So $`v=2^{s1}2^{r1}`$. However, since $`a_1`$ is odd, it follows that $`v^2=\mathrm{\Delta }(a_2+q^{})`$ is also odd, so $`v`$ is odd and thus $`r=1`$ and $`s=(m+3)/2`$ which implies that $`u=q^{}+1`$ and so $`a_1^2\mathrm{\Delta }(a_2)=u^21mod2q^{}`$. Since $`a_13mod4`$ it follows that $`a_11modq^{}`$. On the other hand $`|a_1|4\sqrt{q}=2\sqrt{2}q^{}`$, and we conclude that $`a_1=1+nq^{}`$, where $`n\{0,\pm 1,\pm 2\}`$. We can then conclude that there exists a possibly different integer $`a_2`$ such that $`a_2,a_2+q^{},a_2+2q^{}`$ satisfy conditions (a) and (b) of Theorem 6. By the above argument they also satisfy condition (d). We proceed to show that at least one of them also satisfy condition (c). If none of them satisfies condition (c) then we can apply the above argument to both pairs $`a_2,a_2+q^{}`$ and $`a_2+q^{},a_2+2q^{}`$, but $`u,v`$ were uniquely determined in terms of $`q^{}`$ above so we cannot have two such pairs. The Theorem now follows from Theorem 6. $`\mathrm{}`$

Here are the lists of weights in a few cases. Again we note that the weights are not necessarily all the even numbers in an interval, as illustrated by the $`q=2^{11}`$ case.

| $`q`$ | $`2^7`$ | $`2^9`$ | $`2^{11}`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`I`$ | $`[42,85]`$ | $`[211,300]`$ | $`[934,1113]`$ |
| $`J`$ | $`[47,80]`$ | $`[219,292]`$ | $`[945,1102]`$ |
| weights in $`IJ`$ | 46, | 216,218, | 938,942,944, |
|  | 82,84 | 294,296 | 1104,1106 |

We do not have a precise description of the weights in $`IJ`$, unlike the $`m`$ even case. The entries in the table for $`IJ`$ were determined by computer.


text:
# Examples of centralizers in the Artin braid groups

## 1 Introduction

In the first version of the preprint \[F-GM\], N. Franco and J. González-Meneses made the following conjecture (discussed also in the second version \[F-GM\]):

The normalizer of an element of the Artin braid group $`B_n`$ on $`n`$ strings is generated by no more than $`n1`$ elements.

The normalizer of an element of a group is defined as the subgroup of all elements commuting with it; this subgroup is often also called the centralizer of the given element. In the second version \[F-GM\] the authors switched to the latter terminology, and we will also use the term “centralizer”.

The conjecture was supported by a new algorithm for finding generators of a centralizer, suggested in \[F-GM\], and by extensive computations based on this algorithm.

The goal of this paper is to present simple examples of elements of $`B_n`$ for which the centralizer cannot be generated by a less than quadratic in $`n`$ number of generators. In particular, the above conjecture is disproved. The key insight is that the centralizer may be closer to a pure braid group than to a braid group (as one may think initially), and that a pure braid group requires the number of generators quadratic in the number of strings.

Our methods are based on Thurston’s theory of the surface diffeomorphisms and on the well known relation between the Artin braid groups and mapping class groups, in contrast with the purely algebraic methods of \[F-GM\]. In fact, the effectiveness of Thurston’s theory for studying the centralizers in the context of the mapping class groups was established long ago by J. McCarthy \[M\] and the author \[I1\], \[I2\]. Centralizers, considered from the point of view of Thurston’s theory, also play a key role in the recent work \[IIM\] about braid groups of surfaces of higher genus of E. Irmak, J. McCarthy and the author.

One should also mention a nearly forgotten paper of G. Burde \[B\] in which he gave, in particular, a description of the centralizers of the elements of the pure braid group in the whole Artin braid group. The methods of Burde are fairly geometrical; Thurston’s theory clarifies the picture further. It would be interesting to compare in detail the methods of Burde and the methods based on Thurston’s theory.

The present work was reported in the author’s talk \[I3\]. After learning about these results, J. González-Meneses jointly with B. Wiest \[GM-W\] applied Thurston’s theory to give a rather complete description of the centralizers in the Artin braid group and found a conjecturally exact upper bound for the minimal number of generators of a centralizer. This bound is exact for the examples discussed in the present paper.

J. González-Meneses and B. Wiest \[GM-W\], while using Thurston’s theory, present many of their arguments in the framework of braids. In contrast, in the present note we work entirely in the framework of the mapping class groups. One may hope that this point of view may clarify some of the more obscure parts of \[GM-W\] (the authors themselves point out that some proofs seem to be more complicated than necessary).

## 2 Preliminaries

Let $`B_n`$ be the Artin braid group on $`n`$ strings. The group $`B_n`$ can be realized as the group of isotopy classes of diffeomorphisms of the disc $`D^2`$ pointwise fixed on the boundary $`D^2`$ and preserving a set of $`n`$ distinguished points in $`\mathrm{int}D^2`$, called punctures. This result is, essentially, due to Artin himself \[Art\]. It is usually assumed that $`D^2`$ is the standard unit disc in $`𝐑^2`$ and the punctures are lying on the real line; this allows a canonical identification of the group $`B_n`$ defined in terms of Artin generators and relations with the above group of isotopy classes.

If we remove the condition that the diffeomorphisms of $`D^2`$ are pointwise fixed on the boundary, the resulting group of isotopy classes is known as the mapping class group of the disc with $`n`$ punctures and will be denoted by $`M_n`$. Obviously, there is a canonical forgetting homomorphism

$$B_nM_n,$$

where $`B_n`$ is realized, as above, as the group of isotopy classes. The following facts are well known. First, this homomorphism is surjective. Its kernel is equal to the center of $`B_n`$ and is an infinite cyclic group generated by the Dehn twist about the boundary $`D^2`$.

This relation between $`B_n`$ and $`M_n`$ shows that in order to find elements with the centralizers generated by, say, no less than a quadratic in $`n`$ number of elements it is sufficient to find elements with the same property in $`M_n`$.

One may also the consider the pure braid group $`PB_n`$ and the corresponding mapping class group $`PM_n`$; in order to define them in terms of the isotopy classes, one needs only to add the condition that the considered diffeomorphisms preserve each puncture individually. Similarly to the above, there is a surjective homomorphism $`PB_nPM_n`$ having central kernel isomorphic to $`𝐙`$. A crucial fact about pure braid groups is the following theorem of V. I. Arnold \[Arn\].

The first homology group $`H_1(PB_n,𝐑)`$ is isomorphic to $`𝐑^{n(n1)/2}`$.

This theorem immediately implies that the group $`PB_n`$ cannot be generated by less than $`n(n1)/2`$ elements, and its quotient group $`PM_n`$ by less than $`\frac{n(n1)}{2}1`$ elements.

## 3 Examples

Let us assume for simplicity that $`n`$ is divisible by $`3`$, say $`n=3m`$. Let $`D_1,\mathrm{},D_m`$ be $`m`$ disjoint discs in the interior of $`D^2`$ such that every disc $`D_i`$, $`1im`$, contains exactly $`3`$ punctures in its interior. Pick up for each $`i`$, $`1im`$, a pseudo-Anosov isotopy class $`f_i`$ of diffeomorphisms $`D_iD_i`$. We can choose such $`f_i`$’s that the dilatation coefficients (assumed to be $`>1`$ of all these pseudo-Anosov classes are different. Represent each of these pseudo-Anosov classes by a diffeomorphism $`D_iD_i`$ pointwise fixed on the boundary $`D^2`$, and extend these diffeomorphisms by the identity to a diffeomorphism $`F`$ of $`D^2`$. Let $`f`$ be the isotopy class of $`F`$.

The Thurston’s normal form of $`f`$ is obvious: $`f`$ is reducible; boundaries $`D_i`$ form the canonical reduction system of $`f`$; the isotopy classes $`f_i`$ and the identity class on the complement of the interiors of discs $`D_i`$ are the canonical “pieces” of $`f`$.

If $`gM_n`$, then the Thurston’s normal form of $`gfg^1`$ results from applying (a representative of) $`g`$ to the Thurston’s normal form of $`f`$. In particular, if $`g`$ belongs to the centralizer of $`f`$, i. e., if $`gfg^1=f`$, then $`g`$ preserves the (isotopy class of) the union of the boundaries $`D_i`$. Moreover, since the pseudo-Anosov classes $`f_i`$ have different dilatation coefficients, $`g`$ must preserve every boundary $`D_i`$ and every disc $`D_i`$ individually. The structure of the centralizer is now clear: it consists of isotopy classes of diffeomorphisms $`G`$ preserving discs $`D_i`$ and subject only to the condition that the isotopy classes of the restrictions on discs $`D_i`$ commute with the classes $`f_i`$. This condition means that these restrictions belong to the centralizers of $`f_i`$’s, and one can use the results of J. McCarthy \[M\] to describe these centralizers.

More important for us is the fact that there is no condition at all on the action of $`G`$ on the complement of the interiors of $`D_i`$’s, except that all boundary components are preserved. By restricting $`G`$ to this complement and collapsing boundaries $`D_i`$ to punctures, we get a surjective homomorphism of the centralizer of $`f`$ to the group $`PM_m`$ of the isotopy classes of diffeomorphisms of a disc fixing each of $`m`$ punctures in the interior.

Using the above mentioned corollary of the Arnold’s theorem, we see that $`PM_m`$ cannot be generated by less than $`\frac{m(m1)}{2}1`$ elements. Since there is a surjective homomorphism from the centralizer of $`f`$ to $`PM_m`$, this centralizer also cannot be generated by less than $`\frac{m(m1)}{2}1`$ elements. In fact, an easy argument shows that for any lift of $`f`$ to $`PB_n`$ its centralizer admits a surjective homomorphism to $`PB_m`$, and hence cannot be generated by less than $`m(m1)/2`$ elements.

In any case, since $`n=3m`$, our elements $`f`$ require a quadratic in $`n`$ number of elements to generate its centralizer. This, clearly, disproves the conjecture stated in Introduction.

## 4 Remarks

### 1.

Notice that the free abelian group generated by $`m`$ Dehn twists about boundaries $`D_i`$ is obviously contained in the center of the centralizers of our examples $`f`$. This implies that the centralizer of a lift of $`f`$ to $`PB_n`$ cannot be generated by less than $`\frac{m(m1)}{2}+m=\frac{m(m+1)}{2}`$ elements.

### 2.

The above examples admit a lot of variations. H. Hamidi-Tehrani suggested (right after the talk \[I3\]) a modification of these examples: instead of pseudo-Anosov classes with different dilatations one can use different powers of Dehn twists about the boundaries $`D_i`$. After this, it is only natural to notice that there is no need to have $`3`$ punctures inside the discs ($`3`$ punctures were needed to have pseudo-Anosov classes on $`D_i`$’s), and therefore one can have exactly $`2`$ punctures inside every $`D_i`$. Also, one may leave (exactly) one puncture outside all these discs, if the number $`n`$ of punctures is odd. This leads to examples of elements requiring at least $`\frac{m(m1)}{2}+m=\frac{m(m+1)}{2}`$ elements to generate their centralizer for $`n=2m`$ and $`\frac{m(m+1)}{2}+m=\frac{m(m+3)}{2}`$ elements for $`n=2m+1`$. According to \[GM-W\], the first specific examples of this type (with $`2`$ punctures inside the discs) were suggested by S. J. Lee. It is proved in \[GM-W\] that such examples are the worst possible in terms of the required number of generators of the centralizer.

### 3.

Another illustration of the power of the geometric approach to this circle of questions is provided by some specific elements of Artin braid groups for which a computation of the centralizers was done by methods of the combinatorial group theory by G. G. Gurzo \[Gu1\], \[Gu2\]. The proofs are based on long and difficult computations. All elements considered by G. G. Gurzo have simple images in $`M_n`$, and Thurston’s theory very easily leads to a description of their centralizers. We leave this as an exercise for an interested reader. Many of the specific elements treated by Gurzo can be treated also by the methods of G. Burde \[B\]; strangely enough, Burde’s work is cited by Gurzo, but is not used.

Michigan State University
Department of Mathematics
Wells Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027

E-mail: ivanov@math.msu.edu