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# Winds in R Coronae Borealis Stars

## 1 Introduction

The RCB stars are a small group of hydrogen-deficient carbon-rich supergiants which undergo spectacular declines in brightness of up to 8 magnitudes at irregular intervals (Clayton 1996). RCB star atmospheres are extremely deficient in hydrogen but very rich in carbon. Dust is apparently forming within a couple of stellar radii of the stars, which have $`T_{eff}50007000`$ K. RCB stars are very rare. Only about 35 are known in the Galaxy (Clayton 1996). Their rarity may stem from the fact that they are in an extremely rapid phase of the evolution toward white dwarfs. Understanding the RCB stars is a key test for any theory that aims to explain hydrogen deficiency in post-Asymptotic Giant Branch stars. There are two major evolutionary models for the origin of RCB stars: the Double Degenerate and the Final Helium Shell Flash (Iben et al. 1996). The former involves the merger of two white dwarfs, and in the latter a white dwarf/evolved Planetary Nebula (PN) central star is blown up to supergiant size by a final helium flash. In the final flash model, there is a close relationship between RCB stars and PN. This connection has recently become stronger, since the central stars of three old PN’s (Sakurai’s Object, V605 Aql and FG Sge) have been observed to undergo final-flash outbursts which transformed them from hot evolved central stars into cool giants with the spectral properties of RCB stars (Kerber et al. 1999; Asplund et al. 1999; Clayton & De Marco 1997; Gonzalez et al. 1998). Two of these stars, FG Sge and Sakurai’s Object are in an RCB-like phase at present.

During a decline, a cloud of carbon-rich dust forms along the line of sight, eclipsing the photosphere, and revealing a rich emission-line spectrum made up primarily of neutral and singly ionized species. The emission lines suggest at least two temperature regimes; a cool ($``$5000 K) inner region likely to be the site of neutral and singly-ionized species producing a narrow-line spectrum, and a much hotter outer region indicated by the presence of broad emission lines such as C III $`\lambda `$1909, C IV $`\lambda `$1550 and He I $`\lambda `$10830111The He I $`\lambda `$10830 line is a triplet. The vacuum wavelengths of the triplet are 1.083206, 1.083322 and 1.083331 µm. Vacuum wavelengths are plotted in the figures. However, we will continue with tradition and refer to this as the He I $`\lambda `$10830 line. (Wing et al. 1972; Querci & Querci 1978; Zirin 1982; Clayton et al. 1992; Lawson et al. 1999). Other broad lines, such as Na I D and Ca II H & K, imply a cooler region. The possible detection of C IV $`\lambda `$1550 implies the presence of a transition region with an electron temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}10^5`$ K (Jordan & Linsky 1987). But RCB stars do not exhibit a normal chromospheric spectrum so the presence of high excitation lines in the cool RCB stars has been perplexing.

He I $`\lambda `$10830 was detected in R CrB thirty years ago, when it was just below maximum light (Wing et al. 1972; Querci & Querci 1978; Zirin 1982). The line showed a P-Cygni profile with a violet displacement of more than 200 km $`s^1`$. This line is similar to that measured for Sakurai’s Object in its RCB-phase (Eyres et al. 1999). Since 1978, the He I $`\lambda `$10830 line in R CrB has been observed only once. It was seen strongly in emission while R CrB was recovering from a deep decline in 1996 (Rao et al. 1999). No further observations of He I $`\lambda `$10830 in RCB stars exist in the literature.

## 2 Observations

Observations of He I $`\lambda `$10830 in ten RCB stars were obtained on 15 June 2001 at UKIRT using the grating spectrometer CGS4 with the echelle grating and a 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$9 slit. The two-pixel resolution, matching the slit width, was 0.5 Å (14 km s-1). The stars were ratioed with comparison stars to remove telluric features. The flux calibrations were done using standards with colors from Koornneef (1984). Wavelength calibration was achieved using telluric absorption lines observed in the comparison stars. A quadratic fit was made to a selection of these lines covering the entire spectral range. The 1-$`\sigma `$ wavelength uncertainty is 0.000005 – 0.000008 µm.

The observed sample is listed in Table 1. The spectra, slightly smoothed to a resolution of 0.65 Å (18 km s-1), are shown in Figure 1. The RCB stars range in effective temperature from 5000 to 7000 K. Their spectra have very different appearances depending on whether the RCB star is warm (Teff = 6000–8000 K) or cool (Teff $`<`$ 6000 K) (Asplund et al. 2000). In Figure 1, the warm star spectra are in the lefthand column and the cool star spectra in the righthand column. The warmer stars show mainly atomic absorptions of C I and singly ionized metals while the cooler stars, in addition, show strong C2 and CN absorption bands. See Figure 2. The line identifications are from Hirai (1974), and Hinkle, Wallace, & Livingston (1995).

## 3 Mass Outflow

He I $`\lambda `$10830 is present in the spectra of all of our sample stars. It varies significantly in strength and shape, from a fully developed P-Cygni profile (ES Aql) to blue-shifted asymmetric absorptions with small emission components, to even more complex structures. In all cases, the line indicates a mass outflow - with a range of intensity and velocity. Given the temperatures of the RCB stars, it might be expected that the photospheric component of He I $`\lambda `$10830 would be small. However, absorption features of He I $`\lambda `$5876 are present in several RCB stars at velocities consistent with a photospheric origin (Rao & Lambert 1996; Asplund et al. 2000). A photospheric component of the He I $`\lambda `$10830 line is not clearly present in any star in our sample.

The P-Cygni-type line profiles in our sample were modeled to obtain quantitative information on the mass loss and the outflow velocity. A detailed discussion of the individual objects is given below. The results are compiled in Table 1 and shown in Figures 3 and 4. Model profiles were computed with the SEI (“Sobolev plus Exact Integration”) code, orginally developed by Lamers, Cerruti-Sola, & Perinotto (1987) for wind lines of hot stars in the UV range, and subsequently extended to the analysis of H$`\alpha `$ lines (Bianchi et al. 1994). The code calculates the source function with the escape probability method and the exact solution of the transfer equation. We follow the notation used by Bianchi, Vassiliadas, & Dopita (1997) and Bianchi et al. (2000). The velocity of the outflow increases outwards - following a law characterized by the exponent $`\gamma `$ \- until a terminal velocity ($`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ ) is reached (eq. (1) of Bianchi et al. 2000). In all profiles analyzed, we found a rather steep acceleration, with $`\gamma `$ $``$ 2. Terminal velocities are a few hundred km s-1. In many cases, the profiles are complex and blend with other photospheric absorption lines particularly in the cooler RCB stars, making an accurate estimation of the parameters difficult. In Figure 3, we show an example of a profile that can be fit very successfully using the SEI method. We also show, in Figure 4, other profiles for which SEI is successful. In some cases, the He I absorption trough appears to be almost saturated, making the method insensitive to the measurement of the total optical depth. Several stars could not be fit successfully bacuse of saturated or complex absorption profiles. The optical depth values obtained from the SEI analysis indicate column densities of the He I outflow higher than 1013 cm-2 for all objects.

ES Aql is the only member of the observed sample presenting a classical P-Cygni profile. Its He I $`\lambda `$10830 spectral region is affected by photospheric absorptions but much less than any other star in the sample. Therefore, the location of the continuum and the fit of the He I line profile were rather accurate. The best fit profile is shown in Figure 3 and the corresponding parameters are given in Table 1. The uncertainties in the total optical depth and terminal velocity ($`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ ) were estimated by computing several profiles, varying the parameters’ around the best fit solution, and narrowing the range of acceptable solutions considering both the S/N of the observed profile and the uncertainty in the continuum location.

In RY Sgr and R CrB, the He I absorption is much broader than the emission, unlike in a classical P-Cygni profile. The He I line profile fit is affected by two photospheric lines, Si I $`\lambda `$10830.1 and another line which may be a blend of S I $`\lambda `$10824.2 and Cr I $`\lambda `$10824.6 (See Figure 4). The emission is partially masked by photospheric absorption. The derived parameters are much more uncertain in this case than for the pure P-Cygni profile of ES Aql. Two acceptable fits are shown for RY Sgr in Figure 4 \- with widely varying exponents of the optical depth law. Therefore, the optical depth remains very uncertain.

WX CrA and V517 Oph have very similar He I line profiles. The flat bottoms of the absorptions indicate that the line is saturated and/or blended with other lines, both factors preventing an accurate measurement of its optical depth. The blue-shifted part of the absorptions and the extreme red wings of the emission are well fit by P-Cygni profiles, provided a turbulence of about 20 - 30 % of the terminal velocity is included (somewhat higher than the 10% value which is typical for radiation pressure winds of hot stars). For these cooler RCB stars, many additional absorptions due to CN are obviously present, partially masking the emission. We nonetheless attempted to fit the blue wings of the absorptions to obtain an estimate of the wind velocities. Although the line shapes are similar for these two stars, the velocity structures are different. The model profile adopted for WX CrA ($`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ $``$225 km s-1) also fits the blue wing of the V517 Oph ($`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ $``$300 km s-1) profile. However, the analysis indicates optical depths of $`\tau `$ $`>`$1, and velocities for the He I shells in the range found for other sample objects.

The line profiles of SV Sge and U Aqr are also similar to each other, but in the spectrum of U Aqr the absorption is narrower, implying a lower outflow velocity. The line has a smaller displacement blueward than the previous cases. U Aqr is located in the halo and has unusual abundances even for an RCB star (Bond, Luck, & Newman 1979). The weakest He I features are seen in V854 Cen, V CrA and V482 Cyg. See Figure 1. The P-Cygni profile is present in V CrA with the Si I line cutting through the middle of it. Also, V482 Cyg seems to have its absorption hiding in a broadened Si I line. Only V854 Cen shows little or no absorption, although there may be a weak broad absorption which is very blue-shifted.

## 4 Discussion

The lower state of the He I $`\lambda `$10830 transition is 20 eV above the ground state. This state is metastable as its transition probability is very small (A21=1.27 x 10-4 s-1) (Sasselov & Lester 1994). It can be populated by two mechanisms, photoionization/recombination or collisional excitation. He II $`\lambda `$1640 is not seen in RCB stars (Clayton 1996; Lawson et al. 1999). This indicates that the He I $`\lambda `$10830 line is not being formed by helium photoionization and recombination (Rossano et al. 1994). Rao et al. (1999) observed the He I lines in emission at 3889, 5876, 7065 and 10830 Å during the 1995-96 decline of R CrB. The 5876 Å line was much weaker than the 3889 and 7065 Å lines. This can be explained if the lines are optically thick and the electron density is high. We cannot calculate density since we only have data on the 10830 line but Rao et al. estimate T $``$ 20000 K and $`n_e`$ = 1011–1012 cm-3. In this regime, collisional excitation is important. It has been suggested that the He I $`\lambda `$10830 line seen in Sakurai’s object is the result of collisional excitation in shocked gas being dragged outward by the expanding dust cloud around the star (Eyres et al. 1999; Tyne et al. 2000). The dust formation and expansion by radiation pressure is thought to be quite similar in the RCB stars. In these fast-moving clouds, excitation might take place through atomic collisions or shocks (Feast 2001).

Blue-shifted high velocity absorption features (100-400 km s-1) have been seen from time to time in the broad-line emission spectra of RCB stars both early in declines and just before return to maximum light (Alexander et al. 1972; Cottrell, Lawson, & Buchhorn 1990; Clayton et al. 1992, 1993, 1994; Vanture & Wallerstein 1995; Rao & Lambert 1997; Goswami et al. 1997). The blue-shifted absorptions can be understood if the dust, once formed, is blown away from the star by radiation pressure, eventually dissipating and allowing the stellar photosphere to reappear. The gas is dragged along with the dust moving away from the star. The velocities seen in the P-Cygni profiles agree well with those measured for the blue-shifted absorption features.

There is a possible relationship between the lightcurve of an RCB star, which represents the mass-loss history of the star, and the He I $`\lambda `$10830 profile. The last column of Table 1 lists the state of each RCB star when the He I spectra were obtained. None of the stars were in a deep decline but half of the stars (V517 Oph, WX CrA, ES Aql, SV Sge and U Aqr)222These five stars also represent the cool RCB stars in our sample. By chance, these stars were all in decline while the warmer stars were not. There is no known relationship between dust formation activity and effective temperature. Future observations will determine if there is a dependence of the effective temperature of the star on the nature of the P-Cygni profiles. were below maximum light and in the late stages of a decline. All of these stars show strong P-Cygni or asymmetric blue-shifted profiles. In addition, both R CrB and RY Sgr, which show fairly strong profiles, had just recently returned to maximum light. Two stars, V CrA and V482 Cyg, show weaker profiles. These stars had been continuously at maximum light for 800 and 1400 days, respectively, at the time the spectra were taken. V482 Cyg, which had gone the longest without a decline, has the weakest He I feature in the sample.

An exception to this trend is V854 Cen. Its spectrum shows no sign of He I except possibly a weak broad absorption. Like R CrB and RY Sgr, V854 Cen was just out of a decline, so one might have predicted a strong profile. V854 Cen is an unusual RCB star. It is extremely active. Along with V CrA, which also has a weak He I line, V854 Cen is a member of the minority abundance group of the RCB stars, and has a relatively high hydrogen abundance (Asplund et al. 2000). However, helium is still the dominant element so it is not clear why the P-Cygni profile is so weak in these stars. V482 Cyg is not a member of this minority group.

Of the ten stars, only R CrB has been measured in the He I $`\lambda `$10830 line at more than one epoch. In addition to the June 2001 observation reported here, it was also observed in March and May 1972 (6 mag below maximum light), January 1978 (1 mag below maximum light), July 1978 (at maximum light for 100 days), and May 1996 (3.5 mag below maximum light) (Wing et al. 1972; Querci & Querci 1978, Zirin 1982, Rao et al. 1999). The He I $`\lambda `$10830 line is present at all four epochs. It is a P-Cygni profile in January 1978, a blue-shifted absorption in July 1978, a strong emission line in May 1996 and a P-Cygni profile in June 2001. The value of $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ seems to be fairly constant at $``$200-240 km s-1. The P-Cygni or asymmetric blue-shifted profile in R CrB, at least, seems to be present at all times, whether the star is at maximum light or in decline.

The He I $`\lambda `$10830 line is a key to understanding the evolution of RCB stars and the nature of their of mass-loss. The observed line profiles can help distinguish between the Final Flash and Double Degenerate models for the evolution of RCB stars. In the Double Degenerate scenario, an RCB star is unlikely to be a binary; thus the detection of a companion would favor the Final Flash scenario. Rao et al. (1999) have made the suggestion that RCB stars are binaries and that the higher temperature lines are formed in an accretion disk wind around a white dwarf companion. They suggest that the He I lines may arise from the inner regions of the accretion disk while lower excitation lines such as the Na I D lines would then arise in the outer parts of the disk. No evidence for binarity has ever been found in the RCB stars. If the RCB stars are single stars with mass-loss similar to Sakurai’s object, we expect to see P-Cygni-type profiles, while if we are viewing an accretion disk directly, we expect to see pure emission lines. A third possibility exists where the accretion disk is seen through the material being lost by a cool companion. In this case, the profile would vary with orbital phase.

In these He I profiles, we can see the mass-loss from the RCB stars for the first time. It has long been suggested that when dust forms around an RCB star, radiation pressure accelerates the dust away from the star dragging the gas along with it. But until now, we have only been able to measure the dust. The He I $`\lambda `$10830 profiles measured here allow us to study the velocity structure and optical depth of the gas escaping from the star. We plan to monitor these stars to see how the column densities and velocities vary with time and how they are related to the dust formation episodes.

The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the U.K. Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. TRG’s research is supported by the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., on behalf of the international Gemini partnership. GCC appreciates the hospitality of the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Mount Stromlo and Siding Springs Observatories. LB acknowledges support from NASA grant NRA-99-01-LTSA-029. We thank Albert Jones for providing photometry of the RCB stars. We also thank the referee for useful suggestions.


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# Quantum fluctuations in thin superconducting wires of finite length

## Abstract

In one dimensional wires, fluctuations destroy superconducting long-range order and stiffness at finite temperatures; in an infinite wire, quasi-long range order and stiffness survive at zero temperature if the wire’s dimensionless admittance $`\mu `$ is large, $`\mu >2`$. We analyze the disappearance of this superconductor-insulator quantum phase transition in a finite wire and its resurrection due to the wire’s coupling to its environment characterized through the dimensionless conductance $`K`$. Integrating over phase slips, we determine the flow of couplings and establish the $`\mu `$$`K`$ phase diagram.

In systems with reduced dimensions (films and wires) fluctuations and disorder strongly influence on the superconducting transition temperature Larkin (1999), eventually driving a superconductor–insulator (SI) transition which has attracted a lot of attention recently Haviland et al. (1989); Bezryadin et al. (2000); Lau et al. (2001). In 1D wires, the fluctuations of Cooper pairs appearing below the mean-field transition at $`T_{c0}`$ define a finite resistance via nucleation of thermally activated phase slips Langer and Ambegaokar (1967); Newbower et al. (1972) and hence remove the finite temperature transition; superconductivity possibly survives only at zero temperature. The focus then is on the quantum nucleation of phase slips; their proliferation may trigger a zero temperature SI quantum phase transition Giordano (1994); Kashurnikov et al. (1996); Zaikin et al. (1997); Hekking and Glazman (1997). While first attempts to observe quantum phase slips Giordano (1994) are still debated due to the granular structure of the wires Renn (1996); Xiong et al. (1997), recent experiments on amorphous ultra-thin wires Bezryadin et al. (2000); Lau et al. (2001) carry the signatures of a SI transition in a homogeneous system. In this letter, we analyze the bosonic Cooper pair fluctuations in realistic wires of finite length which are naturally coupled to their environment through their boundaries; we demonstrate how the SI transition is quenched in the finite system and reappears through its coupling to the environment.

Previous studies of bosonic fluctuations in infinite wires Zaikin et al. (1997) have found a $`T=0`$ SI quantum phase transition at the critical value $`\mu =2`$ of the dimensionless admittance characterizing the wire’s superconducting properties. At $`T>0`$ the system exhibits a finite resistance; ignoring an additional dissipative channel due to excited quasi-particles, we call the non-superconducting state an insulating one. On the other hand, real experiments are carried out on wires of finite length, $`L0.52\mu `$m typically Bezryadin et al. (2000). The wire’s coupling to the environment through appropriate boundary conditions imposes a drastic change in the phase slip dynamics and modifies the wire’s low-energy physics. A generic description is obtained by embedding the wire in a voltage driven loop with impedances $`Z_\mathrm{p}(\omega )`$ and $`Z_\mathrm{s}(\omega )`$ placed in parallel and in series, see Fig. 1. Here, we are mainly interested in thermodynamic aspects (involving the static resistances $`R_\mathrm{p}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{s}`$); furthermore we concentrate on the current-driven limit with $`R_\mathrm{s}R_\mathrm{p}`$, then $`I=V/R_\mathrm{s}`$ is fixed. The voltage driven case with $`R_\mathrm{p}R_\mathrm{s}`$ and other mixed cases ($`R_\mathrm{s}`$ of order $`R_\mathrm{p}`$) are easily derived from the current-driven solution via Kirchhoff’s laws, see below.

The coupling to the environment changes the $`T=0`$ phase diagram of the infinite system, see Fig. 1: The SI transition at $`\mu =2`$ is turned into a crossover, while a new quantum phase transition appears at the critical value $`K=R_Q/R_\mathrm{p}=1`$ of the shunt’s conductance ($`R_Q=\pi \mathrm{}/2e^2`$ denotes the quantum resistance). A well conducting shunt with $`K>1`$ relaxes the strain on the wire and produces a superconducting response with an algebraic $`I`$$`V`$ characteristic, while a low conductance $`K<1`$ leads to the proliferation of phase slips and hence to an insulator. The characteristic response of the superconducting wire can be probed with a high conductance environment $`K\mu `$ at large drive above the current $`I_{\mathrm{dec}}`$ where confined phase-slip pairs are separated.

In thin superconducting wires the plasma mode acquires a linear dispersion Mooij and Schön (1985); Camarota et al. (2001) with sound velocity $`c_s`$ (this contrasts with the bulk case where the Coulomb interaction lifts the plasma mode to finite frequencies). The low frequency action describing the bosonic fluctuations of the Cooper pairs then takes the form Kashurnikov et al. (1996); Zaikin et al. (1997); Hekking and Glazman (1997)

$$\frac{𝒮_\mathrm{w}}{\mathrm{}}=\frac{\mu }{2\pi }_0^\mathrm{}\beta 𝑑\tau _{L/2}^{L/2}𝑑x\left[c_s\left(_x\varphi \right)^2+\frac{1}{c_s}\left(_\tau \varphi \right)^2\right];$$
(1)
the first (second) term accounts for the kinetic (compression) energy (we assume a high energy cutoff $`\mathrm{}/\kappa `$ limiting the validity of (1)). Within a mean-field description the dimensionless admittance $`\mu `$ and the sound velocity $`c_s`$ are related to the 1D superfluid density $`\rho _s=n_sS/2m^{}`$ and the Coulomb interaction between the Cooper pairs Zaikin et al. (1997); Mooij and Schön (1985), $`\mathrm{}\mu c_s/2\pi =\mathrm{}^2\rho _s/2`$ and $`\mathrm{}\mu /2\pi c_s=(\mathrm{}/2e)^2C/2`$ (here, $`S`$ is the wire’s cross section and $`C=ϵ/\mathrm{ln}(d^2/S)`$ is the capacitance per unit length, with $`ϵ`$ the dielectric constant of the surrounding media placed a distance $`d`$ away). With $`\lambda _L=(4\pi n_se^2/mc^2)^{1/2}`$ the London penetration length we obtain $`\mu 30\sqrt{CS}/\lambda _L`$ and $`c_s^2/c^20.1S/\lambda _L^2C`$. Going beyond the mean-field level, both fermionic and bosonic high-energy fluctuations play a critical role in the proper determination of the low-energy action Oreg and Finkel’stein (1999); here, we assume such effects to be included in our choice of effective phenomenological parameters $`\mu `$ and $`c_s`$.

The coupling between the superconducting wire and the environment involves the boundary fields $`\varphi _\pm (\tau )\varphi _\pm (x,\tau )|_{x=L/2}`$ where $`\varphi _\pm (x,\tau )=\varphi (x,\tau )\pm \varphi (x,\tau )`$: fluctuations in the phase difference $`\varphi _{}`$ generate a voltage $`V_\mathrm{w}`$ across the wire inducing currents in the parallel shunts, while fluctuations in $`\varphi _+`$ account for charge accumulation. Here, we concentrate on the current-driven setup (see Fig. 1) described by the low-energy action

$$\frac{𝒮_\mathrm{e}}{\mathrm{}}=\frac{K}{2\pi }\frac{d\omega }{4\pi }|\omega |\left|\varphi _{}\left(\omega \right)\right|^2+_0^\mathrm{}\beta 𝑑\tau \frac{I}{2e}\varphi _{},$$
(2)
with an ideal current source ($`R_\mathrm{s}R_\mathrm{p}`$) driving the system with the current $`I`$ and a parallel resistor with resistance $`R_\mathrm{p}`$ accounting for the dissipation ($`K=R_Q/R_\mathrm{p}`$ is the dimensionless conductance of the shunt). Protecting the system from the measurement setup using appropriate filtering Penttilä et al. (1999), we can neglect capacitive effects. The environment (2) does not account for an intrinsic, e.g., quasi-particle induced, dissipation in the superconducting wire; the latter contributes to the precise values of the parameters $`\mu `$, $`c_s`$, and $`\lambda `$ (the vortex fugacity, see below).

The statistical mechanics of the system ‘wire plus environment’ is determined by the partition function

$$𝒵=D[\varphi ]\mathrm{exp}\left[𝒮(\varphi )/\mathrm{}\right]$$
(3)
with $`𝒮=𝒮_\mathrm{w}+𝒮_\mathrm{e}`$. Its main contributions arise from the combination of Gaussian and topological fluctuations, so-called phase slips or instantons. Gaussian fluctuations destroy the superconducting long-range order as expressed by the logarithmically diverging phase correlator $`\left[\varphi (x,\tau )\varphi (x,\tau ^{})\right]^2K^1\mathrm{ln}|\tau \tau ^{}|`$; however, the surviving quasi-long range order is sufficient to allow for a finite phase stiffness, i.e., superconducting response. The latter is destroyed by the proliferation of phase slips, the process we are going to analyze in detail now.

Quantum phase slips are vortex-like solutions in $`x,\tau `$-space with finite winding ($`\nu =\pm 1`$) around a core region of size $`x_cc_s\kappa `$ and $`\tau _c\kappa `$ where the superconducting gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }(x,\tau )`$ drops to zero; outside this core region they satisfy the differential equation $`[c_s^2_x^2+_\tau ^2]\varphi (\tau ,x)=0`$ within the wire and respect the boundary conditions

$`K|\omega |\varphi _{}+\mu c_s[_x\varphi ]_{}=\pi I/e,[_x\varphi ]_+=0.`$ (4)
The first equation describes current conservation as given by Kirchhoff’s law, with the supercurrent $`I_\mathrm{w}=(e\mu c_s/\pi )`$ $`[_x\varphi ]_{}`$ through the wire and the dissipative current $`V_\mathrm{w}/R_\mathrm{p}`$ in the shunt adding up to the total external current $`I`$ (here, $`[_x\varphi ]_\pm (\tau )_x\varphi _\pm (x,\tau )|_{x=L/2}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{w}=\mathrm{}|\omega |\varphi _{}/2e`$ is the voltage over the wire). The second equation accounts for charge neutrality; we ignore additional capacitive contributions here. Note that Kirchhoff’s law maintains the form (4) when going over to the general situation with impedances both in series and in parallel, $`I_\mathrm{w}+V_\mathrm{w}/R_\mathrm{t}=V/R_\mathrm{s}`$ with $`R_\mathrm{t}^1=R_\mathrm{p}^1+R_\mathrm{s}^1`$ the total conductance and the total current $`I=V/R_\mathrm{s}`$ is expressed through the driving voltage $`V`$. Hence once we know the solution $`V_\mathrm{w}(I)R_Q\chi _I(I)`$ to the current-driven problem (with $`R_\mathrm{p}=R`$), the solution $`I_\mathrm{w}(V)\chi _V(V/R_Q)`$ to the voltage-driven situation (with $`R_\mathrm{s}=R`$) follows from the relation $`IK\chi _I(I)=\chi _V(I/K)`$, with $`K=R_Q/R`$.

The partition function (3) factorizes into Gaussian and topological parts, $`𝒵=𝒵_\mathrm{G}𝒵_{\mathrm{top}}`$, where the latter can be expanded in a series $`𝒵_{\mathrm{top}}=_{n=0}^{\mathrm{}}(\lambda ^n/n!)^2𝒵_n(G)`$ with

$$𝒵_n=\frac{_m^{2n}d\tau _mdx_m}{\left(c_s\kappa ^2\right)^{2n}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\underset{ij}{}\nu _iG(x_i,\tau _i,x_j,\tau _j)\nu _j\right]$$

describing a (neutral) gas of $`n`$ vortex–anti-vortex pairs, each contributing with a dimensionless action $`G=S_{\mathrm{pair}}/\mathrm{}`$ (we assume $`I=0`$); in addition, each vortex-pair is weighted with the fugacity $`\lambda ^2`$ accounting for the microscopic structure of the cores. Here, we assume that this factor is small, $`\lambda \mathrm{exp}(AR_QL/R_N\xi )1`$ with $`R_N`$ the normal resistance of a wire, $`\xi `$ the superconducting coherence length, and $`A`$ a factor of order unity Zaikin et al. (1997).

The interaction $`G`$ between vortex–anti-vortex pairs is the crucial quantity determining the system’s behavior — here we only quote the relevant results, see Ref. future  for details. For the infinite wire, the interaction between vortices $`\varphi _k=\pm \mathrm{arg}[(xx_k)+ic_s(\tau \tau _k)]`$, $`k=1,2`$, is logarithmic at all distances $`\overline{x}=x_1x_2`$, $`\overline{\tau }=\tau _1\tau _2`$,

$$G(\overline{x},\overline{\tau })=\mu \mathrm{ln}[(\overline{x}^2/c_s^2+\overline{\tau }^2)/\kappa ^2].$$
(5)
A standard Kosterlitz–Thouless (KT) scaling analysis provides the RG equations Kosterlitz (1974) $`_l\mu =4\pi ^2\mu ^2\lambda ^2`$ and $`_l\lambda =(2\mu )\lambda `$ ($`l`$ is the scaling parameter) and the system undergoes a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition Kosterlitz (1974) at $`\mu =2`$. For $`\mu >2`$, the number of free vortex–anti-vortex pairs is quenched and the wire is in the superconducting phase; for $`\mu <2`$ the vortex fugacity increases and free vortex–anti-vortex pairs proliferate — the system turns insulating.

In a finite wire the solution has to respect the boundary condition (4). At low frequencies and vanishing drive these reduce to the Neumann boundary conditions, $`_x\varphi _\mathrm{N}(\pm L/2,\tau )=0`$, i.e., the currents induced by phase slips cannot leave the wire. The solution $`\varphi _\mathrm{N}(x,\tau )`$ derives from the $`2L`$-periodic solution $`\varphi _{2L\mathrm{p}}`$ using mirror vortices, $`\varphi _\mathrm{N}(x,\tau )=\varphi _{2L\mathrm{p}}(x,\tau )+\varphi _{2L\mathrm{p}}(Lx,\tau )`$; in turn, the instanton solution with periodic boundary conditions $`\varphi _{2L\mathrm{p}}(x,\tau )=\varphi _{2L\mathrm{p}}(x+2L,\tau )`$ derives from the solution in the infinite wire via conformal transformation. Fig. 2 illustrates the geometry of the phase slips; most remarkably, at large distances the mutual screening of the defect-pair is replaced by the screening via image charges. Hence the wire’s contribution $`G_\mathrm{w}`$ to the action saturates at inter-vortex separations $`\overline{\tau }|\tau _2\tau _1|>L/\pi c_s`$, resulting in asymptotically free vortices. Furthermore, their action can be minimized by moving them to the boundary such that $`G_\mathrm{w}=0`$.

In this situation the pair interaction is determined by the environment alone. Inserting the boundary field $`\varphi _\mathrm{N}(\tau )`$ describing two opposite kinks of shape $`\pm 2\mathrm{arctan}\{\mathrm{sinh}[(\pi c_s/L)(\tau \tau _k)]/\mathrm{cos}(\pi x_k/L)\}`$, $`k=1,2`$, into the action (2) we obtain the contribution

$$G_\mathrm{e}(x_1,x_2,\overline{\tau })K\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{\mathrm{cos}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}\frac{\pi }{2L}(x_1+x_2)+\left(\frac{\pi c_s}{2L}\overline{\tau }\right)^2}{\mathrm{cos}\frac{\pi }{L}x_1\mathrm{cos}\frac{\pi }{L}x_2}\right]$$
(6)
which diverges logarithmically at long time scales, but with a weight determined by the dimensionless conductance $`K`$ of the parallel shunt. In the end, the largest contribution to the partition function arises from vortices nucleated at the boundary with an interaction $`GG_\mathrm{e}=K\mathrm{ln}(\overline{\tau }^2/\kappa ^2)`$ and the problem maps to a system of charged particles in 1D with fugacity $`\lambda `$. The corresponding RG equations Bulgadaev (1984) take the form $`_lK=0`$ and $`_l\lambda =(1K)\lambda `$; in contrast to the infinite wire, the prefactor $`K`$ of the logarithm is invariant under the RG flow and we obtain a transition at $`K=1`$ Schmid (1983), with a superconducting phase for $`K>1`$, while for $`K<1`$ the vortices nucleated at the boundary drive the system insulating.

In the analysis above we have determined the shape of the vortex–anti-vortex pair assuming Neumann boundary conditions, i.e., no currents can leave the wire. Inserting this approximate solution back into (2) then has provided us with the pair-interaction $`GG_\mathrm{e}=2K\mathrm{ln}(\overline{\tau }/\kappa )`$. In order to check the consistency of this approximation we determine the correction $`\delta 𝒮`$ due to the finite current $`K|\omega |\varphi _{}`$ flowing through the shunt (cf. (4)),

$$\frac{\delta 𝒮}{\mathrm{}}=\frac{K}{4\pi }\frac{d\omega }{2\pi }\frac{|\omega |\left|\varphi _\mathrm{N}\right|^2}{1+(\mu /K)\left|\mathrm{coth}(\omega L/2c_s)\right|},$$
(7)
with $`\varphi _\mathrm{N}(4\pi /\omega )\mathrm{sin}(\omega \overline{\tau }/2)`$; performing the integral in (7) shows that the corrections are indeed small at low frequencies. For a setup with a poorly conducting shunt ($`K\mu `$) the corrections remain small at higher energies when $`\overline{\tau }<L/\pi c_s`$, $`\delta S\mu (K/\mu )^2\mathrm{ln}(\overline{\tau }/\kappa )`$.

However, in the opposite case $`K\mu `$ where a highly conducting shunt protects the superconductor the corrections are large: in the intermediate regime $`L/\pi c_s<\overline{\tau }<\tau _\mathrm{B}KL/\pi \mu c_s`$, we find $`\delta S2K\mathrm{ln}(\overline{\tau }/\kappa )+2\pi \mu c_s\overline{\tau }/L`$. The first term cancels the logarithmic interaction with the environment, while the second term describes linearly confined pairs. It is then appropriate to change strategy: for $`K\mu `$ and high frequencies the boundary condition (4) reduces to $`\varphi _{}=0`$ and $`[_x\varphi ]_+=0`$ for $`I=0`$ and the phase-field for the pair is given by the $`L`$-periodic solution $`\varphi _{L\mathrm{p}}`$, producing an interaction between the vortices

$$G_\mathrm{p}(x,\tau )=\mu \mathrm{ln}[\left(\frac{L}{\pi c_s\kappa }\right)^2\left(\mathrm{sinh}^2\frac{\pi c_s\overline{\tau }}{L}+\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\pi \overline{x}}{L}\right)]$$

describing defect pairs linearly confined along the $`\tau `$-axis for distances $`\overline{\tau }>L/\pi c_s`$, cf. Fig. 2. At the same time, no voltage appears over the shunt and the contribution from the environment vanishes, thus $`GG_\mathrm{p}`$. Hence, for a highly conducting shunt $`K\mu `$ the interaction starts with a logarithm $`G(\overline{\tau }<L/\pi c_s)\mu \mathrm{ln}[(\overline{\tau }^2+\overline{x}^2)/\kappa ^2]`$, goes over into confinement $`G(L/\pi c_s<\overline{\tau }<\tau \mathrm{B})2\pi \mu c_s\overline{\tau }/L`$, and ends with the low-frequency behavior $`G(\tau \mathrm{B}<\overline{\tau })K\mathrm{ln}(\overline{\tau }^2/\kappa ^2)`$ determined by the environment.

In the end, we find that for all values of $`K`$ the low-energy physics of the system is determined by the environment. On the other hand, the renormalization down to low energies depends on the ratio $`\mu /K`$: for $`K\mu `$ the interaction is entirely determined by the environment, while for $`K\mu `$ the phase-slip pairs go through an intermediate regime of linear confinement inducing an exponential drop of the phase-slip fugacity, $`\lambda (\tau _\mathrm{B})\lambda (L/\pi c_s)\mathrm{exp}[G_\mathrm{p}(\tau _\mathrm{B})]=\lambda (L/\pi c_s)\mathrm{exp}(K)`$; this drop in $`\lambda `$ manifests itself in the $`I_\mathrm{w}`$$`V_\mathrm{w}`$-characteristic.

The above analysis results in a $`T=0`$ phase diagram as sketched in Fig. 1: The transition at $`K=1`$ separates a superfluid phase for $`K>1`$ from an insulating one at $`K<1`$. In addition, we distinguish between two different superconducting regimes at $`K>1`$: for $`\mu <2`$ the fugacity for the nucleation of small ($`\overline{\tau }<L/\pi c_s`$) vortex–anti-vortex pairs is strongly increased as compared to the regime $`\mu >2`$, a leftover from the SI transition in the infinite wire which is relevant at temperatures $`T>\mathrm{}\pi c_s/L`$ and drives $`I>2e\mu c_s/L`$ probing these small scales.

With the interaction between defect pairs turning logarithmic on large scales $`\overline{\tau }>\tau _\mathrm{K}\mathrm{max}(\kappa ,\tau _\mathrm{B})`$, we find that the low-energy physics of the wire reduces to that of a Josephson junction with a parallel shunt $`R`$; the partition function is equivalent to that of a particle in a periodic potential with damping $`\eta =K/2\pi `$ Schmid (1983). The $`I`$$`V`$-characteristic of such Josephson junctions has been studied in detail Schmid (1983); Schön and Zaikin (1990); below, we review the main results. The restricted validity of the effective action $`𝒮=𝒮_\mathrm{w}+𝒮_\mathrm{e}`$ to low energy scales limits this analysis to low temperatures $`T<\mathrm{}/\tau _\mathrm{K}`$ and low currents $`I<2eK/\pi \tau _\mathrm{K}`$.

Within the superconducting phase $`K>1`$, the $`IV`$ characteristic at low drives $`I`$ is calculated perturbatively in the vortex fugacity $`\lambda `$ (with $`\lambda (\tau _\mathrm{K})\lambda `$ the renormalized fugacity at $`\tau _\mathrm{K}`$). At finite temperatures the two energy scales $`T`$ and $`\mathrm{}\pi I/2eK`$ define two regimes in the response, $`V_{\mathrm{ps}}(\pi I/2eKT/\mathrm{})\lambda ^2R_QI[T\tau _\mathrm{K}/\mathrm{}]^{2K2}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{ps}}(T/\mathrm{}\pi I/2eK)(\mathrm{}\lambda ^2/e\tau _\mathrm{K})[I\tau _\mathrm{K}/e]^{2K1}`$; the algebraic characteristic at $`T=0`$ turns into a linear response at finite $`T`$ and small drives $`I`$. We conclude, that in 1D wires superconductivity survives only at $`T=0`$ and under the condition of a good protection by a high conductance shunt with $`K>1`$. In addition, if $`K\mu `$, the linear confinement in the regime $`c_s/L<\overline{\tau }<\tau _\mathrm{B}`$ produces a sharp voltage step $`V_{\mathrm{dec}}(\mathrm{}\lambda ^2/e\kappa )(L/c_s\kappa )[\pi \kappa c_s/L]^{2\mu 2}`$ at the deconfinement current $`I_{\mathrm{dec}}=2e\mu c_s/L`$. At high drives $`I>I_{\mathrm{dec}}`$ (and at temperatures $`T>\mathrm{}\pi c_s/L`$) we start probing the wire (i.e., intervortex distances $`\overline{\tau }<\pi c_s/L`$) and the $`I`$-$`V_\mathrm{w}`$ characteristic is given by the result for the infinite system Zaikin et al. (1997), $`V_{\mathrm{ps}}(\pi c_s/L<\pi I/2\mu eT/\mathrm{})(\lambda ^2R_QI)(L/c_s\kappa )[T\kappa /\mathrm{}]^{2\mu 3}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{ps}}(\pi c_s/L<T/\mathrm{}\pi I/2\mu e)(\mathrm{}\lambda ^2/e\kappa )(L/c_s\kappa )[I\kappa /e\mu ]^{2\mu 2}`$. The wire’s $`I_\mathrm{w}V_\mathrm{w}`$-characteristic derives from solution of the implicit equation $`V_\mathrm{w}(I_\mathrm{w})=V_{\mathrm{ps}}(I=I_\mathrm{w}+V_\mathrm{w}/R_\mathrm{p})`$.

In the insulating phase $`K<1`$ the phase slips describe tunneling of the phase difference $`\varphi _{}`$ to neighboring states $`\varphi _{}\pm 2\pi `$. In the limit $`K0`$ this tunneling between periodic minima is coherent and leads to the formation of a Bloch band $`\epsilon (q)`$ of width $`W_0=\mathrm{}\lambda /\kappa `$, with $`q`$ the quasi-momentum associated to $`\varphi _{}`$. Applying a small current $`I`$, a voltage $`2eV_\mathrm{w}=\mathrm{}\dot{\varphi }_{}=_q\epsilon (q)`$ is set up across the wire and all the current flows over the parallel shunt Schön and Zaikin (1990); the system exhibits a linear response $`V_\mathrm{w}=RI`$. This behavior remains valid for finite $`K<1`$, but with a renormalized band width Schön and Zaikin (1990); Ingold and Grabert (1999); Penttilä et al. (1999) $`WW_0[W_0\tau _\mathrm{K}/\mathrm{}]^{K/(1K)}`$, defining a linear response regime for small voltages $`2eV_\mathrm{w}<2eV_c=\mathrm{max}(_q\epsilon )W`$. At higher drives, the voltage $`V_\mathrm{w}`$ decreases as the phase slips no longer block the wire and the current flows across both channels.

The SI quantum phase transition in the finite wire is different from the one in the infinite system; it is of the type inherent to finite systems coupled to a dissipative environment, e.g., the resistively shunted Josephson junction Schmid (1983) or the dissipative two-state system Leggett et al. (1987). The environment determines the wire’s thermodynamic state and hence the overall shape of the $`I_\mathrm{w}`$$`V_\mathrm{w}`$-characteristic, see Fig. 1; the wire’s parameters $`\mu `$ and $`\lambda `$ make their appearance (through the voltage jump at $`I_{\mathrm{dec}}`$ and the wire-dominated characteristic at large currents $`I>I_{\mathrm{dec}}`$) only in the superconducting phase $`K>1`$ and for the case $`K\mu `$ where a highly conducting shunt is protecting the wire. The insulating phase is established at small values $`K<1`$; phase-slips drive the current over the parallel shunt, resulting in an ohmic characteristic, until leakage through the wire sets in at $`V_c`$. Here, we have assumed a small vortex fugacity $`\lambda `$ and hence the observation (and consistent interpretation) of the characteristic voltage-peak requires a sensitive probe as $`V_c\lambda ^{1/(1K)}`$.


text:
# Declination dependence of the cosmic-ray flux at extreme energies

## 1 Introduction

The physics of the highest-energy cosmic rays continues to attract significant interest of both particle physicists and astrophysicists. Experimental data allow to determine energies and arrival directions of the cosmic particles and may give some hints about their nature. At energies of order $`10^{19}`$ eV, spectra measured by different experiments are in a good agreement modulo overall normalization. Contrary, two major experiments disagree about the observed flux and shape of the spectrum at highest energies, $`E10^{20}`$ eV: the data from the HiRes experiment exhibit the suppression of the flux, the so-called GZK feature , while the AGASA experiment does not see the suppression. Arrival directions of the cosmic rays with energies $`E10^{19}`$ eV are distributed isotropically over the sky (see, for instance, Ref. ) and clustered at small angles . In this note, we focus on the highest energy region, $`E10^{20}`$ eV, and demonstrate that the current data exhibit a trend to non-uniform distribution of the arrival directions. Namely, there is a deficit of events from a large region around the celestial North pole.

For the most energetic cosmic rays observed by AGASA, the absence of particles coming from the North has been pointed out in Refs. . However, the distribution of the arrival directions of these AGASA events is consistent with isotropy , given the non-uniform exposure. To test the conjecture of anisotropy (and also to improve statistics, still very poor), we include the results from other Northern hemisphere experiments in our analysis. We do observe a non-uniform distribution of events with probability of this anisotropy to occur as a result of a chance fluctuation about one percent; this would correspond to two standard deviations for the Gaussian distribution. If confirmed by better statistics, this observation might mean that at highest energies, a new component appears in the cosmic ray flux. Indeed, it is widely believed now that at $`410^{19}\mathrm{eV}E10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$, the dominant part of the cosmic rays are protons  from active galactic nuclei (in particular, BL Lac type objects suggested recently as the source candidates ). Due to the GZK effect, this component cannot explain even the most conservative HiRes flux at $`E10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$ (see Refs.  for a quantitative analysis). We will see that indeed, the anisotropy becomes significant at energies $`E10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$.

In the rest of the paper, we discuss in detail the datasets used, analyze the declination distribution of the highest-energy events detected by Northern-hemisphere experiments, present the results of the Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the chance probability of the observed anisotropy and study at what energies the anisotropic component becomes significant. We discuss possible ways to explain the effect and demonstrate its irrelevance to the AGASA/HiRes discrepancy. We emphasize that the number of events is too small to make a definite conclusion about the anisotropy and briefly discuss prospects for larger statistics.

## 2 The cosmic-ray sample

Our basic data set (hereafter, Set I) consists of the cosmic rays with energies higher than $`10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$ observed by all experiments in the Northern hemisphere. The choice of the $`10^{20}`$ eV cut is determined by the availability of data from fluorescent detectors at $`E>10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$ only. However, it is roughly consistent with the expected energy at which the super-GZK component could start to dominate. Alternatively, we consider a set of cosmic rays with $`E>410^{19}\mathrm{eV}`$ observed by Volcano Ranch, Yakutsk and AGASA (Set II; arrival directions of events with $`E<10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$ are unpublished for other Northern-hemisphere experiments). The latter set is useful in determination of the ”critical” energy at which the new, anisotropically distributed, component becomes important. As it will be demonstrated below, this analysis points to $`E10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$ as the critical energy.

When comparing data from different experiments, one should be careful about energy normalization. It is widely believed that at $`E10^{19}\mathrm{eV}`$, where the shapes of the spectra measured by different experiments agree quite well, the difference in overall normalization is due to systematic errors in the energy determination. One possibility is to introduce correcting factors for energy values in such a way that the total flux measured at $`E=10^{19}\mathrm{eV}`$ by different experiments would coincide, within one standard deviation, with the flux measured by a given (no matter which one) reference detector (in our study, we normalize all fluxes to HiRes data because otherwise the HiRes dataset is not complete). The study of the dependence on the choice of the reference detector is completely equivalent to the study of the dependence on the ”critical” energy performed in section 4. Quantitatively, this rescaling depends crucially on the assumed spectral index. We checked, however, that the effect discussed in this paper is insensitive to this choice: different normalizations (for spectral indices between two and four) do not change the result – absence of events with high declinations – compared to the case of no rescaling. For completeness, we report here (see Table 2) both the results obtained without energy normalization and with renormalizaton assuming spectral index three. In the latter case, the corrected energy $`E^{}=\eta E`$, where $`E`$ is the reported energy of an event and $`\eta =(J_{\mathrm{ref}}/J)^{1/2}`$ (see, for instance, Ref. ). Here, $`J_{\mathrm{ref}}`$ and $`JdN/dE`$ are the cosmic ray fluxes measured by the reference detector and the detector under consideration, respectively. The fluxes $`J`$ at $`E10^{19}\mathrm{eV}`$ and normalization factors $`\eta `$ are listed in Table 1 together with the information required to calculate and compare exposures of the experiments and with references.

For the data sample, we took the most recent publicly available data and impose zenith angle cuts of 45 for ground array experiments and 60 for fluorescent experiments.

Three experiments (Haverah Park, Yakutsk and HiRes II in the monocular mode) have considerable exposure at the ultra-high energies but contributed no events to the Set I (though their exposure was taken into account).

Energies of the Haverah Park events published in the Catalog  were reconsidered twice, in Refs.  and . According to the most recent publication , the energy of the highest event is $`E8.310^{19}`$ eV. Revised event-by-event data were not published.

The Yakutsk event with the energy $`E1.210^{20}`$ eV has zenith angle $`>45^{}`$ and thus it is not included in Set I (note that its declination  is $`\delta 45^{}`$, so its account would only support our conclusions).

Coordinates of the Volcano Ranch events, both of the only shower with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV and of showers with lower energies (Set II) were taken from Ref. .

For the Set I, we use the most recent AGASA data from the experiment’s web page . From eleven events, eight are left after rescaling from $`E`$ to $`E^{}`$. The lower energy data for the Set II are available for a shorter period of operation, Ref. . This is the reason for smaller exposure used for the lower-energy data, as indicated in Table 1.

For fluorescent detectors, the data are published for the highest energy events only. The single Fly’s Eye event contributing to Set I is described in detail in Ref. . For the HiRes detector in the monocular mode, we take the working period reported in Ref. . The arrival direction of the single event with $`E>10^{20}`$ eV registered during that period and passed all cuts is taken from Ref. . For the HiRes stereo experiment, we use the data reported in Refs. 111According to Ref. , about 80% of the stereo events are not included in the HiRes I monocular data set because of different trigger requirements and quality cuts, so we consider the exposure of the stereoscopic observations as one of an independent experiment..

## 3 Declination-dependent exposure

Different parts of the sky are seen by various experiments with different exposures. In this paper, we use two different approaches: firstly, we model the dependence of the exposure on declination theoretically; secondly, we use the actual distribution of the lower-energy events to compare with one of the highest-energy events.

For a theoretical model of exposure of a ground array, we use the geometrical differential exposure. A small plaquette of area $`d\sigma `$ \[sr\] on the celestial sphere at the zenith angle $`\theta `$ is effectively seen by the area $`dA=A_0\mathrm{cos}\theta d\sigma `$ of a ground array, where $`A_0`$ is the maximal aperture. The total exposure for a plaquette $`d\sigma `$ can be found by integration over the working time of the detector. The explicit formulae which result from this integration for a continuously operating ground array are given in Ref. . The exposure does not depend on the right ascension $`\alpha `$ in this case. At energies $`E10^{19}\mathrm{eV}`$ these expressions are in rather good agreement with the observed data (see Fig. 1(b)). To obtain the normalization factor $`A_0`$, important for any analysis which involves data of different experiments, one has to integrate $`dA/d\sigma `$ over $`d\sigma `$ and to compare the resulting total exposure $`A`$ with the published value listed in Table 1.

For the fluorescent detectors, this simple geometrical estimate does not work. A monocular fluorescent detector accepts, at each particular moment, the cosmic rays uniformly in azimuth and in zenith angle up to about $`50^{}`$, with a relatively sharp drop at larger zenith angles . In stereoscopic mode, acceptance depends also on the azimuthal angle. In all cases, fluorescent detectors work on clear moonless nights only. The information about typical weather and dark sky availability may be encoded in the dependence of acceptance on sidereal time . For the HiRes experiment, we use the zenith angle dependence of acceptance from Refs.  (monocular detector with parameters of HiRes) and  (stereo HiRes detector), the azimuth angle dependence for the stereo mode from Ref.  and the sidereal time dependence from Ref. . Though one could expect different zenith angle dependences of the exposure for different energies, the one we use agrees quite well with the actual distribution of the HiRes I high-energy events . We are not aware about any published estimate of the coordinate-dependent exposure for the Fly’s Eye experiment in the monocular mode and (loosely) use the HiRes exposure for it. We present the results both with and without account of the Fly’s Eye event in Table 2.

## 4 Declination distribution of the cosmic rays

### 4.1 Illustration

We are ready to analyze the global distribution of the arrival directions. To illustrate the anisotropy, we divided the observed part of the sky into five bands in declination with equal areas, and integrated the exposure over these bands. These exposures were compared then to the number of observed events, band per band. The results for the Set I of cosmic rays are shown in Figure 1(a).

The left (red) bar in each pair corresponds to the exposure per band, normalized to the total number of events in the sample. It represents the number of events expected from isotropy. The right (blue) bar corresponds to the actual number of observed events in the sample. The deficit of events in the Northern bin is clearly seen. To estimate this effect quantitatively, we perform Monte Carlo simulations of the arrival directions of cosmic rays.

### 4.2 Monte-Carlo simulations

Let us determine the exposure function

$$a(\delta )=𝒩\underset{i}{}\frac{dA_i}{d\delta },$$

where the sum is taken over all relevant experiments, each one’s total exposure reflected in $`A_{0i}`$, and $`𝒩`$ is the constant such that $`\underset{\delta }{\mathrm{max}}a(\delta )=1`$. The code generates a value of declination $`\delta `$ in such a way that the resulting cosmic rays cover the sky uniformly; then it either accepts (with the probability $`a(\delta )`$) or rejects this event and proceeds to the next one until the total number of accepted events reaches the number of events in the real dataset 222For calculations without energy rescaling, one cannot sum the exposures of different experiments. Instead, we generate the actual number of observed events for each experiment in turn; in this way, we do not account the experiments which observed no events.. In this way, a sufficient number of mock sets is produced. The number of sets with no events in the Northern bin, divided by the total number of sets, determines the probability to observe the anisotropy by chance. The results are presented in Table 2.

To study the stability of our results, we calculated the probabilities to observe the actual number of events in the Northern bin, $`\delta >\delta _0`$, for different values of $`\delta _0`$ (see Figure 2).

The position of the broad minimum determines the size of the Northern “zone of avoidance”.

To understand, at which energy the anisotropically distributed component becomes important, we use the Set II. In Figure 3,

based on subsets of the Set II, we present the probability of the actual number of events to fall in the Northern bin as a result of a random fluctuation of the isotropic distribution for different cuts on the lower energy of the cosmic rays in the set. The result is consistent with our expectations: at lower energies, we confirm the well-known statement about isotropic distribution; at higher energies, $`E>10^{20}`$ eV, protons (from active galactic nuclei) are no longer dominant in the cosmic ray flux because of the GZK effect, and the new component is responsible for the observed events, distributed anisotropically.

Several comments are in order. First, the chance probabilities at $`E^{}>E_c=10^{20}`$ eV presented in Figure 2 (Northern bin corresponds to $`\delta _048.6^{}`$) and in Figure 3 are of the same order, but do not coincide exactly. The reason is that the sets of experimental data (Set I and Set II) used in the analysis are different.

Second, because of experimental uncertainties in the determination of the energies and arrival directions of the cosmic rays, it is not well-grounded to consider lowest values of probability P plotted in Figures 2 and 3 as exact numbers: some averaging over the uncertainty intervals in $`\delta `$ and $`E_c`$ should be performed to get more reliable numbers. The resulting probabilities will be higher, but still the isotropy is excluded at the level of about 2$`\sigma `$ for Gaussian distribution.

Third, the lowest probability in Figure 3 corresponds to the critical energy $`E_c0.810^{20}`$ eV. With the available data it is impossible to conclude whether this is the exact energy scale where the anisotropic component of ultra–high-energy cosmic rays becomes dominant. Indeed, apart from experimental uncertainties in energy determination, a systematic error is caused by an arbitrary choice of the reference detector necessary for a joint analysis of the data from different experiments (for instance, normalization to one of the ground arrays instead of HiRes would shift the minimum in Fig. 3 to $`10^{20}`$ eV). Our choice of the $`10^{20}`$ eV cut in Set I and of HiRes as the reference detector was a priory determined by availability of data and hence was not adjusted to obtain better results (in fact, Fig. 3 suggests that the best results could be achieved with another choice). We thus do not introduce statistical penalty associated with this cut but consider our quantitative results only as an estimate.

## 5 Conclusions

Clearly, the number of events in our sample is insufficient to make a definite conclusion about anisotropy of the arrival directions. However, the current dataset gives a strong hint that the deficit of events with energies higher than $`10^{20}`$ eV and coming from the region $`\delta 50^{}`$ is significant. If confirmed by future experiments, this fact might suggest that a new component emerges in the cosmic ray flux at extreme energies. The physics which could result in the observed distribution of declinations will be discussed elsewhere; we just mention here possible ways of explanation. One possibility is that the Northern region of the sky coincides with the direction to some large-scale cosmic structure which affects propagation of the cosmic rays at very high energies or causes inhomogeneous distribution of their sources (at $`10^{20}`$ eV this effect is not smeared out by the galactic magnetic field). Another option is that the primaries of the cosmic rays with $`E10^{20}`$ eV interact with the geomagnetic field and produce showers in different ways at high and low latitudes. This may lead to a relative systematic error in the determination of energy between the particles arriving from different directions. One example of this effect was discussed in Ref. : if the primary particle is a photon, then an electromagnetic cascade develops in the geomagnetic field before the particle reaches the top of the atmosphere. The observed superposition of several atmospheric showers mimics a single shower of the same energy as the primary particle but developed higher, so that its energy may be underestimated by a ground array. The current bounds on the chemical composition of UHECRs  do not constrain strongly the fraction of photonic primaries at $`E10^{20}`$ eV; to conclude that the primaries are protons on the base of the shower profiles and muon counting, one needs much better statistics than available. However, the data give some indications to the hadronic nature of primary particles. Primary protons do not produce pre-atmospheric cascades. Still, the development of proton-induced showers is affected by the geomagnetic field: for instance, the separation of muons and anti-muons is important for modelling  and energy estimation  of inclined showers. The effects of the geomagnetic field would affect also the distribution of the arrival directions in azimuth, which will be considered elsewhere.

Future experiments with larger statistics will be able to support or disfavour the conjecture of anisotropy discussed here. The effects of the geomagnetic field could be studied with the Southern site of the Pierre Auger observatory. Clearly, to confirm or reject the option of a “favourite direction” occasionally coinciding with the North, large detectors in the Northern hemisphere (such as the second Auger site, the Telescope Array or the EAS-1000 experiment) or full-sky cosmic observatories (EUSO, OWL, TUS) would be required.

We stress that the use of currently unpublished data from Haverah Park, Fly’s Eye and HiRes at $`E<10^{20}`$ eV, as well as of the AGASA events with zenith angles larger than $`45^{}`$, would immediately enlarge the statistics without awaiting for the future experiments.

Finally, we comment on a recent proposal  that the discrepancy between the AGASA and HiRes fluxes at highest energies might be explained by different fields of view. Indeed, the HiRes’ differential exposure peaks in the Northern region while one of AGASA has a maximum at $`\delta 36^{}`$, the AGASA detector’s latitude. The “zone of avoidance” in the North affects the results of the flux measurements which usually assume the isotropic distribution of arrival directions. We estimate this effect by a rough assumption that the cosmic rays with $`E10^{20}`$ eV are distributed uniformly at $`\delta <50^{}`$ but are absent at $`\delta 50^{}`$. With this assumption, a flux measured by HiRes would be about $`40\%`$ smaller than one averaged over all sky, while a flux measured by AGASA decreases by about $`20\%`$. Clearly, this effect cannot eliminate the conflict between the two experiments.

The authors are indebted to S. Dubovsky, M. Fairbairn, O. Kalashev, V. Kuzmin, M. Libanov, V. Rubakov, D. Semikoz, M. Teshima, P. Tinyakov and I. Tkachev for numerous helpful discussions. This work was supported in part by RFBR grant 02-02-17398, by the grants of the President of the Russian Federation NS-2184.2003.2, MK-2788.2003.02 (D.G.), MK-1084.2003.02 (S.T.) and by the program SCOPES of the Swiss National Science Foundation, project No. 7SUPJ062239. The work of S.T. is supported in part by INTAS grant YSF 2001/2-129 and by a fellowship of the ”Dynasty” foundation (awarded by the Scientific Council of ICFPM).