text:
# Shocked gas layers surrounding the WR nebula NGC 2359

## 1 Introduction

NGC 2359 is one of the archetypal wind-driven Wolf-Rayet (W-R) nebula (Chu et al. 1983). It is an optical nebula excited by the WN4 star HD 56925 ((RA, Dec.)2000 = ($`07^\mathrm{h}18^\mathrm{m}29\stackrel{s}{.}13,13\mathrm{°}13\mathrm{}01\stackrel{}{.}5`$)), which is catalogued as WR7 by van der Hucht (2001). NGC 2359 has an almost spherical morphology, and contains some N-enriched filaments inside (Esteban et al. 1990). The southern part of the nebula –which contains most of the associated molecular gas– has been observed in the recent years.

St-Louis et al. (1998) have detected the H2 1–0 S(1) emission in coincidence with H$`\alpha `$, but they could not disentangle the dominant excitation mechanism of the molecular hydrogen. Carbon monoxide was firstly detected by Schneps et al. (1981), and subsequently mapped in the J = $`10`$ and $`21`$ lines by Rizzo et al. (2001a, Paper I) and by Cappa et al. (2001). While Cappa et al. focussed in determining the total neutral mass and in the energetics, Paper I has concentrated on the interaction processes between the nebula and the surrounding molecular gas.

In Paper I, it was shown that the ambient molecular cloud, observed at a velocity in the Local Standard of Rest (VLSR) of 67 km s-1, was accelerated to VLSR = 53–54 km s-1 by the stellar wind from HD 56925. It was also established the presence of a rather hot region just coincident with the H2 vibrationally excited emission surrounding the southern optical nebula, as well as a high-opacity zone adjacent to the cold quiescent cloud. Observations of 13CO have revealed another striking feature: in the region of higher intensity, the 13CO J = $`10`$ line peaks at 54–55 km s-1, 1–2 km s-1 higher than the CO J = $`10`$ and the J = $`21`$ lines. It is worth mentioning that, at the same position, the metastable (1,1) and (2,2) lines of ammonia (NH3) were detected for the first time in a W-R nebula (Rizzo et al. 2001b). From the NH3 data, a rotational temperature of 30 K and a relatively high abundance of $`10^8`$ were determined.

These observational findings indicate the nature of the interaction with the ambient material during different evolutive stages from the hot star. The molecular cloud has been exposed to the UV radiation from the hot star and to the shocks produced by the stellar winds from the W-R star and the mass ejections from previous stages. According to the hydrodynamical models of García-Segura et al. (1996a, 1996b), several shocks are expected at a few pc from a massive evolved star, as a consequence of the time-dependent stellar winds of the post-main sequence evolution, mainly the red supergiant (RSG) and the luminous blue variable (LBV) phases. Hence, the molecular cloud surrounding NGC 2359 provides us with an excellent laboratory to study the interaction between the massive stars and their environment. W-R stars will disturb the circumstellar medium (CSM), generating an ionized nebula surrounded by a shocked region. In particular, the NH3 would be a good molecule to disentangle the effect of the radiative field and the shock in the environment of W-R stars. The relatively high abundance of NH3 strongly suggests a shock chemistry in the outer part of the cloud, since it would be released from the dust grain mantles by non-dissociative shocks (Flower & Pineau des Forêts 1994; Rizzo et al. 2001b).

A detailed knowledge of the spatial and kinematical distributions of the CO isotopes would allow us to know with more precision the physical conditions and the kinematical features in this scenario, together with an approach to the knowledge of the dominant mechanisms of excitation (UV fields or shocks). In order to satisfy these goals, we combine in this paper high angular resolution CO J = $`10`$, CO J = $`21`$ and 13CO J = $`10`$ maps with high sensitivity spectra of CO, 13CO and C18O taken at selected positions. This observational study reveals the presence of hot dense regions, warm regions and, more conclusively, the stratified distribution of different kinematical components, associated to several shockfronts which have been acting in the recent past of HD 56925.

## 2 Observations

We have used the IRAM 30-m radiotelescope at Pico Veleta (Spain), during two observing runs in June and August, 2001. We have performed two different observing modes, namely on-the-fly maps and single position observations.

The on-the-fly maps were obtained for the CO and 13CO J = $`10`$, and the CO J = $`21`$ lines simultaneously. We have mapped a $`240\mathrm{}\times 120\mathrm{}`$ area toward the southern part of NGC 2359. The scanning directions were orthogonal in the equatorial system, e.g., at constant right ascension and constant declination. Row spacing between scans were $`6\mathrm{}`$, and therefore all spectral lines maps are fully sampled. Individual maps were later combined using the GILDAS package. One receiver was tuned for each J = $`10`$ line, while the CO J = $`21`$ line was observed simultaneously by two different receivers. A 256-channels filter bank with 100 kHz of channel resolution and a 2048-channel autocorrelator were used as backends, providing velocity resolutions between 0.1 and 0.3 km s-1. Typical rms was 0.3 K for all the observed lines. All the temperatures throughout this paper are referred to an atmosphere corrected scale, e.g., T$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{\mathrm{A}}{}^{}`$.

The single position observations were performed along a strip of particular interest in position-switching mode. We observed the J = $`10`$ and J = $`21`$ lines of CO and 13CO simultaneously, with integration time between 15 and 40 minutes. As a byproduct, the C18O J = $`10`$ line was also observed with the same receiver than the 13CO J = $`10`$ line. We used the same backend as for the on-the-fly maps, and hence we had identical velocity resolutions. The achieved rms was better than 50 mK in all cases.

Calibration was performed during the observations and later checked up on standard sources (Mauersberger et al. 1989). The HPBW was $`22\mathrm{}`$ for the CO J = $`10`$ line, $`11\mathrm{}`$ for the CO J = $`21`$ line, $`24\mathrm{}`$ for the 13CO J = $`10`$ line and $`12\mathrm{}`$ for the 13CO J = $`21`$ line.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 On-the-fly maps

The southern part of the nebula was mapped in the CO J = $`10`$, J = $`21`$ and 13CO J = $`10`$ lines simultaneously. In Paper I, it has been shown that this region contains the most intense and interesting CO features, between 52 and 67 km s-1. The maps in Fig. 1 show the integrated emission of these lines from 50 to 56 km s-1. Figure 1a shows the whole CO J = $`21`$ emission from Paper I, superimpossed to an optical image of the nebula. The same figure also indicates the region mapped in this work. Figures 1b-1d show the results of these data in the three spectral lines already mentioned. We can see that the molecular cloud perfectly matchs the southern border of the optical nebula. The CO and 13CO emission are confined to layers which are less than $`70\mathrm{}`$ wide.

The overall emission maps depicted in Fig. 1 do not show significant differences among the observed spectral lines. However, a number of new features appear when the emission is analysed in smaller velocity bins. Figure 2 shows an overlay of the CO J = $`10`$ and J = $`21`$ emissions in two different channel at velocities of 55.2 km s-1 (grey contours) and 50.1 km s-1 (black contours). It is clearly noted a separation of more than 20″ between the emission at both velocities. Actually, the thinner layer located toward the inner part of the nebula, at a velocity of $`50`$ km s-1, is adjacent to the more extended emission. The width of this layer is of about $`1520\mathrm{}`$, as we can see in the CO J = $`21`$ map.

To better understand the velocity structure of the CO emission we have analyzed the data along several position-velocity strips. The most illustrative one is shown in Fig. 3. This strip crosses both the large and the thin molecular layers. It is clearly shown a sudden line broadening just at the position of the thin layer, around 50 km s-1. This behaviour clearly demonstrates that the feature noted in Fig. 2 is not merely due to a velocity gradient of a single component, but to the appearing of a second component only present at the interface between the molecular cloud and the optical nebula.

### 3.2 Individual positions

In order to have a complete picture of this striking feature, we performed high-sensitivity, individual observations at the positions shown as squares in Fig. 3a. These positions, labelled with letters from A to E, are spaced by $`20\mathrm{}`$. Observed spectral lines at these locations are the CO J = $`10`$, CO J = $`21`$, 13CO J = $`10`$13CO J = $`21`$, and C18O J = $`10`$ lines. The 13CO J = $`21`$ and C18O J = $`10`$ lines were detected for the first time in a W-R environment.

The resulting spectra are shown in Fig. 4. For all the observed lines, the peak velocity remains roughly constant from positions A to C, and the linewidth increases. Both CO lines at position C are stronger than at position B, while in both 13CO lines we note exactly the contrary. Toward position D all the line intensities are roughly reduced to one half and a strong assymetry and line broadening appear. There is significant emission at velocities as low as 47 km s-1. The broadening shown in the position–velocity strip (Fig. 3b) is coincident with this position. C18O is only detected in positions B and C, corresponding to the highest emission at the other isotopes.

Position E, although weak, shows a large CO J = $`21`$ broadening to velocities as low as 42 km s-1. This implies a total velocity interval emission of at least 14 km s-1. It is worth mentioning that this very broad emission at VLSR $`<50`$ km s-1 is not detected in the CO J = $`10`$ line. As mentioned above, we see in Fig. 3b a notable line broadening between positions C and D, where the lower levels are seen at 47 and 57 km s-1. Surprisingly, the high sensitivity individual positions reveals a third velocity component at position E, which could not be detected using the on-the-fly maps because of the sensitivity.

The main observational findings are summarized in Table 1. For each position, this table shows the parameters of the five observed transitions, obtained from a gaussian fit to a single component: antenna temperature of the maximum (Tpk), LSR peak velocity (VLSR) and full width at half maximum ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$V). The single component assumption is obviously not valid in some cases due to the strong assymetries of the line profiles, and hence is only provided for comparison.

## 4 Physical parameters

### 4.1 Velocity components

The observational features shown in Sect. 3 (in particular Figs. 3 and 4, and Table 1) lead us to define three different velocity components. The first component corresponds to the most extended molecular gas and is the broad component, already studied in Paper I, at velocities from 52 to 57 km s-1. In the following, we shall refer to this component as the “low velocity component” (lvc). The higher spatial resolution of our maps allow us to disclose the presence of a second, less extended velocity component, seen as a thin layer ($`20\mathrm{}`$ width) in Fig. 2, in the velocity range 48–52 km s-1. We shall refer to this component as the “intermediate velocity component” (ivc). Finally, the high sensitivity of the individual spectra revealed the third component, hereafter referred to as the “high velocity component” (hvc), as a very compact one, clearly detected only in the CO J = $`21`$ line toward position E (Fig. 4), at velocities lower than 48 km s-1.

The extension in the sky corresponding to each component may be roughly inferred from Fig. 3(a): the lvc is sketched in the greyscale, the ivc is plotted in contours, and the hvc is only detected in position E. The lvc corresponds to most of the gas detected in Paper I. It is the most extended component, and bounds the whole optical nebula by its southern and eastern borders. The ivc is at the interface between NGC 2359 and the most intense emission of lvc. It seems to form a narrow layer between the lvc and the optical nebula. Finally, the position where the hvc was detected is projected onto the ionized gas and presumably has a compact morphology.

The stratified location of the three components with respect to the optical nebula NGC 2359 and the quiescent molecular gas at 67 km s-1, might be explained by succesive events associated to the evolution of a massive star. Therefore, different ages are expected for each component. The lvc is the most extended, uniform and massive one, its velocity is the closest to the quiescent gas and hence is thought as the oldest one. The ivc, however, is less extended than the lvc and closer to the W-R star. These kinematical and morphological features might be explained by an event faster and younger than that which formed the lvc. So far, the ivc may be the result of the encounter of two winds, in a manner suggested by García-Segura et al. (1996a, 1996b). Finally, the hvc may be recently shocked and would be the youngest component.

### 4.2 Overall features

Our on-the-fly CO and 13CO maps trace the distribution of the molecular gas both into and around the southern optical nebula, including the interesting molecular interface at its border. The different velocity components have probably been produced by violent energetic mechanisms usually linked to the massive star evolution. During the evolution of HD 56925, the stellar wind, eventual envelope ejections and the strong UV radiation fields could have produced shocked, ionized and photodissociated regions. The relative variations of different spectral lines should tell us about the physical conditions of the molecular gas.

We have analyzed the line ratios among the three observed spectral lines which covers the southern and eastern borders of NGC 2359. In the following, we shall refer to the line ratio of 12CO J = $`10`$ to 13CO J = $`10`$ as Risot, and to the line ratio of 12CO J = $`21`$ to 12CO J = $`10`$ as Rexc. Both Risot and Rexc were computed for different velocity ranges and for positions with line intensity greater than 3$`\sigma `$. Rexc was computed after convolving the CO J = $`21`$ map to the J = $`10`$ angular resolution. While Rexc is a good tracer of the excitation temperature, Risot might trace the combined effect of isotopic variations and changes in the CO opacity.

Figures 5a and 5b show the spatial distribution of Rexc for the velocity ranges (52, 55) and (48, 51) km s-1, roughly equivalent to the lvc and the ivc, respectively. For the lvc (Fig. 5a), Rexc does not significantly changes in the brightest zone, and it is probably greater toward the south. A mean value for Rexc of 0.9 and 1.2 is found to the eastern and southern part of the map, respectively. We have obtained similar results for the ivc (Fig. 5b), where a mean value of 1 is found. However, the 13CO emission is really striking when compared to the CO J = $`10`$ emission. Figure 6 sketches the distribution of Risot in the velocity interval (52, 55) km s-1 (roughly the lvc). It clearly changes sistematically from southeast to northwest, and varies in almost one order of magnitude. The sensitivity of our on-the-fly maps were not enough to detect the 13CO emission in the velocity range corresponding to the ivc, and Risot could not be computed.

### 4.3 Excitation conditions

From the overall information shown in Figs. 5 and 6, we see a rather uniform excitation conditions over the whole region. So far, in most of the observed area, the excitation temperature does not varies significantly. However, large variations in the CO opacity might be inferred. If we assume a constant 13CO/CO isotopic abundance, the CO lines will be optically thick in the eastern part of the cloud. This feature explains the velocity difference between both isotopes, as noted in Paper I.

We have estimated the physical conditions for the three velocity components, by modelling the emission of the observed lines for positions A to E, using the large velocity gradient method (LVG). The LVG method implements the Sobolev’s formulation developed by Castor (1970) and later extended by Jeffery (1995), among others. We have computed the parameters assuming kinetic temperatures (TK) from 10 to 100 K. For all components but the hvc, a minimum TK of 30 K is needed to match the observed lines. This lower limit for TK is in good agreement with the results of Rizzo et al. (2001b), based on the metastable NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) lines detected at position B. Furthermore, the results are not critically different for the temperature range 30–100 K. Both CO lines result to be optically thick in most cases, whereas both 13CO lines were optically thin in all cases. In consequence, we used the 13CO 2–1/1–0 line ratio (on a main-beam temperature scale) to estimate the H2 density, n(H2). For a given TK, the column densities of 13CO and C18O were determined from the derived n(H2) and the J = $`10`$ line intensity of each isotope. The CO column density was estimated by assuming a constant isotopic ratio of 60 between CO and 13CO (Wilson & Matteucci 1992)

The Table 2 shows the results of applying the LVG method to each component at each position, by assuming a TK of 30 K. By adopting this value for TK we are in the most conservative case, because TK may be higher in position E and probably in position D. Anyway, the column densities do not vary in more than 10 percent (significantly smaller than other sources of uncertainty) in this temperature range. The first and second columns indicate the position and velocity component. The third column provides the obtained n(H2). From fourth to sixth columns, column density of CO, 13CO and C18O are provided, respectively.

The results derived for hvc in position E need to be explained in detail. This velocity component was only detected in the CO J = $`21`$ line, and therefore has a minimum Rexc of 6. Such a high value could not be obtained having a TK of 30 K, even by considering that the emiting region is unresolved by the 12″ beam of the CO $`21`$ line. Therefore, it is neccesary larger values of TK and a higher density to match the observed ratio. We estimate that TK must be larger than 80 K for this component, as well as the density should be at least $`10^5`$ cm-3. The undetection of this component in the CO J = $`10`$ line strenghtens the idea of a small emiting volume, and a higher excitation temperature is also expected in this position (towards the inner part of the ionized nebula), as discussed in Paper I. Finally, it should be noted that the CO column density for this component has been estimated from the CO J = $`21`$ line.

## 5 Origin and evolution of the CSM around WR 7

### 5.1 Dynamics of the molecular gas around NGC 2359

The morphology and kinematics of each component, as well as their location with respect to NGC 2359 and the quiescent molecular gas have been discussed in previous sections. Some of the physical conditions have been summarized in Table 2. In this section, we will put them together in order to draw a picture of the region and its possible evolution.

In Fig. 7, we plot the variation of the gas density and 13CO column density as a function of the projected distance to the W-R star HD 56925, assumed at a distance of 5 kpc (Goudis et al. 1994). The plots correspond just to the lvc and the ivc and not to the hvc, because it is only detected at a single position. The stratification of these components are not only evident in the morphology and the kinematics. This progressive variation is also present in the maxium density (roughly 103 cm-3 at lvc, 104 cm-3 at ivc and at least 105 cm-3 at hvc) and in the total mass involved (regarding the column densities and the spatial extension of each component). If we take into account the observed low values of Risot, it is also expected a trend in the opacity, decreasing from lvc to hvc. The temperature is expected to increase toward the W-R star, and therefore in the sense lvcivchvc. For the hvc, both the density and the temperature must be higher than in the other two components. Although a careful chemical study of the region is needed, we can associate each component to different evolutive episodes previous to the actual W-R status of HD 56925.

In Paper I, we have discovered a quiescent molecular cloud, that was interpreted as the original gas, which was later shocked by the expansion of a wind previous to W-R. The presence of molecular gas close to a W-R star is indeed puzzling, because it is located at a projected distance of only $``$ 8 pc, and has been exposed to the very strong radiation and stellar winds during all the evolutive phases of HD 56925. Therefore, the three velocity components reported here are the result of such interaction and represent the disturbed molecular gas linked to some of those phases. In order to associate these features with the W-R phase or a previous one, we have made crude estimates of some global dynamical parameters for each component, which are provided in Table 3. The whole nebula and its surroundings was completely mapped in Paper I, and we considered that the mass obtained there includes both the lvc and the ivc. In this work, we roughly estimate that 80% of that mass are from the lvc, while the other 20% are from the ivc. The mass of the hvc was estimated from the CO J = $`21`$ spectra and assuming an angular extension of one beam. The computation of masses and projected distance were done by assuming a distance of 5 kpc (Goudis et al. 1994). The expanding velocities were derived by assuming a rest velocity of 67 km s-1 (Paper I). The dynamical time was computed according to Dyson (1989). Finally, Table 3 also includes estimates of kinetic energy and momentum of each component.

The mass is significantly different for each component, decreasing in the sense lvc-ivc-hvc, while the other parameters are of the same order of magnitude. All the components have dynamical ages of at most $`10^5`$ yr. This time represents an upper limit of the age of the shock which produced the actual kinematics. It is one order of magnitude lower than the main-sequence Hi shell (2.3 106, Paper I), and quite larger than the dynamical age of NGC 2359, 1.3 105, determined by Treffers & Chu (1982). However, it should be noted that this dynamical age for the optical nebula is indeed an upper limit, which is reflected by the 1.3–2.2 104 yr determined from Hipparcos proper motion for HD 56925 between the center of the nebula and its actual position. Due to the high symmetry of NGC 2359, we think that a few 104 yr represents a reasonable approach of the actual NGC 2359’s age. In consequence, the observed CO features have been produced at an epoch between the end of the main sequence (MS) and the beginning of the W-R phase.

According to the current models, a W-R is the descendant of an O-star of at least 30 M. Depending on its initial mass, the O-star may evolve to W-R through different evolutive paths, including a red supergiant (RSG) or a luminous blue variable (LBV) phase. Other intermediate stages may account, such as Of or different sub-classes of W-R (WNE, WNL, WC). Although the MS phase is indeed a long-lived one, characterized by a strong stellar wind and an enormous rate of UV-radiation, we could not simply relate the features observed in the molecular gas around NGC 2359 to this phase, untill the other phases were also considered. Moreover, a MS bubble around HD 56925 was found in Hi (Paper I), and it has a lineal size of 35-40 pc, closely similar to many other cases in the Galaxy, and in good agreement with the theory.

It is indeed possible that the interaction of the molecular cloud with the MS wind could not be strong enough and the stellar wind could ran through the molecular cloud. This is a reasonable argument owing to the relatively low density of the MS wind. We now consider the other evolutionary phases which may account for the observed features. The more likely mechanism is that the stellar wind has accelerated and heated the quiescent molecular cloud, and hence it is more relevant the instantaneous effect than the accumulated one along the whole phase. Therefore, the phase responsible of accelerating the gas should have a large momentum rate (Ṗ) and perhaps a large mechanical luminosity (Lmech). We also should pay attention to the density of the stellar wind, because it is an indicator of how large is, in comparison, the mass injected to the CSM at supersonic velocities.

### 5.2 Models of stellar evolution

Let us consider two different models of stellar evolution, which reproduce two standard evolutive paths: (1) the 35 M model of García-Segura et al. (1996b), with the path O$``$RSG$``$W-R; and (2) the 60 M model of Langer et al. (1994), with the path O$``$pre-LBV$``$LBV$``$W-R. We should note that some of these phases really includes several other, although no significant changes in the global stellar parameters are noted. So far, the W-R phase in both models can be divided in three sub-stages, such as a H-poor, a H-free and a WC stage. In model (2), the pre-LBV phase includes both the Of and the H-rich WN phase. The evolution of the CSM around both type of stars have been modelled by García-Segura et al. (1996a; 1996b).

The Table 4 provides mean representative values from each phase in each model, such as the time spent, mass loss rate (Ṁ), Lmech, Ṗ, kinetic energy Ek and total momentum (P) provided during the whole phase, and the wind density ($`\rho _{\mathrm{wind}}`$) at 5 pc from the star. The 35 M model is split in two cases, having a slow (15 km s-1) and a fast (75 km s-1) RSG wind.

### 5.3 Acummulative effects

In the three models, both the MS and the W-R stages provide the greatest fraction of the total energy injected to the environs (1050-51 erg). In the case of the MS stage, however, this is due to an accumulate effect, because the star spents some Myr in MS, one or two orders of magnitude larger than the other phases. In contrast, the W-R stage injects to the medium a similar amount of kinetic energy in some 105 yr, because its huge mass-loss rate. On the other hand, the total energy ouput associated to the RSG (fast wind) and LBV phases are two orders of magnitud (1048 erg) lower than the MS or the W-R stages. The amount of kinetic energy associated to the RSG (slow wind) phase is even lower by about 4 orders of magnitude (1046 erg).

A similar situation occurs when considering the total momentum provided in each phase, although the contrast is lower than in the energy.

### 5.4 Instantaneous effects

When we take into account the instantaneous effects (well described by Lmech, Ṗ and $`\rho _{\mathrm{wind}}`$), the situation changes dramatically. The intermediate stages RSG and LBV are characterized by an increase of Ṁ by at least one order of magnitude with respect to their previous phases, and a sudden decrease of the terminal velocity. As a result, Lmech remains almost constant, while both Ṗ and $`\rho _{\mathrm{wind}}`$ increases significantly.

During these short-lived phases, the circumstellar gas is filled with a large amount of material ($``$ 20 M) from the stellar interior. This gas is relatively dense even at a few pc from the star and is moving at low (although still supersonic) velocities. The RSG wind (slow wind) is the densest one, but the momentum rate is practically the same as in the MS case; so far, the effect onto the quiescent molecular cloud should not be different from that of the MS stage. The RSG wind (fast wind) is somewhat higher, but not too different from MS wind; a factor of 2 or 3 in these simplified estimates should not be seen as a significant one.

In contrast, the LBV wind is significantly different from the MS wind. The momentum rate is one order of magnitude greater than in any other evolutive stage, and the wind density is three orders of magnitude larger than the previous phases (MS and pre-LBV) and two orders of magnitude larger than the W-R stage.

### 5.5 Interpretation

If the progenitor of the W-R star HD 56925 has had a mass close to 35 M, the W-R wind is the unique source capable of disturbing the molecular cloud, because the RSG wind had not power enough to accelerate the original cloud. So far, the W-R wind had encountered an already stopped dense RSG wind in contact with the molecular cloud. Consequently, the W-R wind has been suddenly decelerated and produced the observed shocked molecular gas.

If, on the other hand, the progenitor of HD 56925 has had a higher mass, it is very probable that the star had developed a LBV phase, which is characterized by a rather dense wind and a high Ṗ. The LBV wind might produce what we are observing in CO. The values provided in Table 4 are mean values for each phase as a whole. This simplification is good enough for all phases but LBV, because the parameters does not significantly change during the whole phase. However, the LBV phase consists of several episodes of enlarged stellar winds (or mass ejections) produced by hydrodynamical instabilities in the stellar structure. It is thought that the mass-loss rate during these episodes reaches values as high as several $`10^3`$ M yr-1, increasing the mean values of Ṁ, Ṗ, Lmech and $`\rho _{\mathrm{wind}}`$ in Table 4 by a factor 10–20 during some $`10^3`$ yr. As in the 35 M case, the W-R wind may have found the RSG wind and produced the shock observed around the W-R nebula. The presence of several shockfronts (the three CO components and the ionized layers into the optical nebula) strenghten this idea. If only the W-R stage had produced the observed features, it should have similar episodes of increased mass loss.

The whole optical nebula would be associated to the W-R phase, and its hot material (more or less uniform) would be located inside a multiple-layers wind with an earlier origin. In this case, the bounding of the nebula can be atomic or molecular, depending on the previous presence of a molecular cloud close to the star. The morphology of the molecular gas in NGC 2359, as well as in NGC 6888 and the nebula around WR 134 (Rizzo et al. 2003a) are strongly suggestive in this sense.

In any case, it is clear the need of enlarge the sample, search for possible chemical differences which may confirm our hypothesis, observe and characterize the stellar winds of the well-known LBVs (P Cyg, $`\eta `$ Car, HR Car) and construct hydrodynamical models which take into account the different evolutive phases and the presence of a close molecular cloud.

## 6 Future perspectives

The history of a massive star is written by the impacts onto the surrounding gas, particularly in the molecular component. Therefore, we can increase our knowledge about massive stars evolution by observing the consequences in their environments. There are just a few observed cases of interaction between W-R stars and the surrounding molecular gas (Marston et al. 1999; Paper I; Cappa et al. 2001; Rizzo et al. 2003a). However, we think that NGC 2359 becames the best studied case, where a time evolution may be followed and where high-density gas has been detected. New observational efforts are neccesary in order to increase the sample and confirm some of the results obtained here and predicted by the theory.

The increasing detection of molecular gas around W-R nebulae opens questions which are not completely fulfilled by current models. In the future, new hydrodynamical simulations should address this aspect of the interplay between evolved massive stars and their environs. It is expected to know where and when the molecules can be formed or can survive around these hot massive stars.

On the other hand, the detection and chemical analysis of complex molecules in these ambients, at mm and sub-mm lines, would tell us about the chemical composition and the excitation conditions of the gas. In this sense, just a few detections have been reported (Marston 2001; Rizzo et al. 2001b, 2003b). This is a key subject, because we can learn not merely about the interplay of the massive star evolution with its surroundings, but also the ambient where a supernova takes place. So far, this field is also connected with the chemical evolution of the Galaxy and its energetic balance.

## 7 Conclusions

As shown in Paper I, the southeastern border of NGC 2359 contains the most clear sign of interaction of a W-R nebula with the molecular environment. The original molecular cloud was partially accelerated by at least 14 km s-1 (from 67 to 53 km s-1) during one of the early evolutive phases of HD 56925. In this work, we have used the on-the-fly tecnique to obtain detailed maps of the CO and 13CO emission of this disturbed molecular gas. The angular resolution and sensitivity achieved allowed us to distinguish three velocity components, clearly stratified with respect to the nebula and the quiescent gas.

The first component (called the lvc throughout the paper) is the most extended and the most massive one. The second component, the ivc, appears as a thin layer (less than 1 pc thickness) located at the interface between the lvc and the optical nebula. Specially striking is the third component, the hvc, which appears as a very compact component, only detected in the CO J = $`21`$ line towards the inner part of the optical nebula. The lvc has LSR velocities between 52 and 57 km s-1 (the nearest to the quiescent gas), the ivc appears at 48–52 km s-1, and the hvc emits at velocities between 42 and 48 km s-1. So far, the stratification of these components are both morphological and kinematical features.

By observing single positions with higher sensitivity along a strip –more or less radially with respect to WR 7–, some physical parameters (volume density, column density and opacity) have been inferred. The density increases in the sense lvcivchvc from 103 cm-3 to at least 105 cm-3, while the column density, total mass and opacity should decrease in the same sense. We have proposed a scenario where the three components are produced during different evolutive episodes of the predecessors of HD 56925. Each component would be the result of an encounter (likely shocks) of the expanding stellar winds (or mass ejections) with the material ejected during the previous phase or even with the ambient gas. This idea qualitatively fits some theoretical results (García-Segura et al. 1996a, 1996b), although some specific aspects should be analyzed in detail. Particularly, the possible presence of molecular gas at a few pc from the massive star should be considered in future theoretical works.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología of Spain (MCyT), by the grant AYA 2003-06473. JM-P acknowledges the financial support from the MCyT grants ESP 2002-01627 and AYA 2002-10113E. JRR acknowledges Dr. M. A. Gómez-Flechoso for very profitable talks about the theoretical models discussed in the paper. The authors are specially grateful with the referee comments, which helped to improve the paper.


format: text

text:
# Weak Turbulent Kolmogorov Spectrum for Surface Gravity Waves

## Abstract

We study the long-time evolution of surface gravity waves on deep water excited by a stochastic external force concentrated in moderately small wave numbers. We numerically implemented the primitive Euler equations for the potential flow of an ideal fluid with free surface written in Hamiltonian canonical variables, using the expansion of the Hamiltonian in powers of nonlinearity of up to terms of fourth order.

We show that due to nonlinear interaction processes a stationary Fourier-spectrum of a surface elevation close to $`<|\eta _k|^2>k^{7/2}`$ is formed. The observed spectrum can be interpreted as a weak-turbulent Kolmogorov spectrum for a direct cascade of energy.

Kolmogorov was born in 1903. Now, in the year of his centenary, his greatness is obvious not only for pure and applied mathematicians. All physicists appreciate his pioneering works on powerlike cascade spectra in turbulence of the incompressible fluid Kolmogorov-1941 . It is obvious now that cascade processes, similar to the Kolmogorov cascade of energy, play a very important role in many different fields of physics, such as nonlinear optics Dyachenko-1992 , plasma physics Galtier-2002 , hydrodynamics of superfluid $`\mathrm{He}^4`$, and so forth.

In all these cases the physical situations are similar. There is an ensemble of slowly decaying, weakly nonlinear waves in a medium with dispersion. Such systems have to be described statistically. However this is not traditional statistical mechanics, because the ensembles are very far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Nevertheless, one can develop a systematic approach for the statistical study of weakly nonlinear waves. This is the theory of weak (or wave) turbulence Springer-1992 . The main tools here are the kinetic equations for squared wave amplitudes. These equations describe the nonlinear resonant interaction processes taking place in the wave systems. Like in the turbulence in incompressible fluid, these processes lead to the cascades of some constants of motion (energy, wave action, momentum etc.) along the $`k`$space. In isotropic systems it might be either a direct cascade of energy from small to large wave numbers or an inverse cascade of wave action to small wave numbers Zakharov-PhD . In an anisotropic system the situation could be much more complicated Rossby-waves .

The brilliant conjecture of Kolmogorov still is a hypothesis, supported by ample experimental evidence. On the contrary, the existence of powerlike Kolmogorov spectra, describing cascades in weak turbulence, is a rigorous mathematical fact. These spectra are the exact solutions of the stationary homogeneous kinetic equation, completely different from the thermodynamic Rayleigh-Jeans solutions.

Nevertheless, the case is not closed. The weak turbulent theory itself is based on some assumptions, like phase stochasticity and the absence of coherent structures. This is the reason why justification of weak turbulent theory is an urgent and important problem.

This justification can be done by a direct numerical solution of the primitive dynamic equation describing the wave ensemble. In pioneering works by Majda, McLaughlin and Tabak MMT  it was done for the 1-D wave system. The results obtained by these authors are not easily interpreted. In some cases they demonstrate Kolmogorov-type spectra, in other cases — power spectra with essentially different exponents.

In article Dias-2001-1  deviation from weak turbulent theory was explained by the role of coherent structures (solitons, quasi-solitons and collapses). If a 1-D system is free from coherent structures, weak-turbulent spectra are observed with a good deal of evidence Vasiliev-2002 ; Dias-2001-2 ; Dysthe-2003 .

In spite of their heuristic value, the 1-D models so far developed have no direct physical application. Real physical systems, where wave turbulence is realized, are at least 2-dimensional. The most natural and important examples are capillary and gravity waves on deep water. A weak-turbulent theory of capillary waves was developed by Zakharov and Filonenko in 1967 Zakharov-1967 , who found that the correlation function of elevation $`\eta (\stackrel{}{r},t)`$ has to be $`<|\eta _\stackrel{}{k}|^2>k^{19/4}`$. This result was supported by laboratory experiments, performed independently by three groups (in UCLA UCLA , Niels Bohr Institute Niels-Bohr  and the Solid State Physics Institute in Chernogolovka, Russia Kolmakov-Lett ; Kolmakov ). The spectrum $`k^{19/4}`$ was obtained by a direct numerical simulation of Euler equation for incompressible fluid with free surface by Pushkarev and Zakharov Pushkarev-1996 ; Pushkarev-2000 ; Pushkarev-1999B .

The most interesting example of 2-D wave ensembles demonstrating weak-turbulent cascades is a system of gravity waves on the surface of deep water. We are sure that a weak-turbulent theory of these waves is key to understanding the processes in a wind-driven sea. However, we do not concentrate on this point in our article.

Our initial goal was to reproduce (and emulate), for gravity waves, the work which was done by Pushkarev and Zakharov Pushkarev-1996  for capillary waves. One has to expect that this is a more difficult problem, because the leading process in capillary waves is a three-wave interaction (dispersion of waves is of decay type), while for gravity waves the lowest order process is four-wave interaction (dispersion of waves is of non decay type).

Attempts to perform direct numerical simulations of potential flow in an ideal fluid with a free surface were made by several authors Tanaka-2001 . Only in one article authors did pay interest to Kolmogorov-type weak-turbulent spectra Onorato-2002 . Authors of this paper observed the formation of Kolmogorov tails during the time evolution of an artificially cut-off JONSWAP (Joint North Sea Wave Project, described in JONSWAP ) energy spectrum. The results of present article agree with the results of Onorato-2002  completely. However we would like to stress a difference.

In our work, in contrast to Onorato-2002 , we study a forced turbulence, excited by external sources, posed in moderately low wave numbers. We show that the growth of wave energy due to this forcing is arrested by nonlinear resonant four-wave processes, which leads to the formation of a powerlike Kolmogorov spectrum in the inertial interval. In this sense our article is a direct numerical confirmation of the weak-turbulent theory for surface gravity waves.

Theoretical Background —  We study the potential flow of an ideal inviscid incompressible fluid with the velocity potential $`\varphi =\varphi (x,y,z;t)`$

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =0,$$

in the infinitely deep domain occupied by the fluid. Equations for the boundary conditions at the surface are the following

$$\begin{array}{c}\left(\dot{\eta }+\varphi _x^{}\eta _x^{}+\varphi _y^{}\eta _y^{}\right)|_{z=\eta }=\varphi _z^{}|_{z=\eta },\\ \left(\dot{\varphi }+\frac{1}{2}\left|\varphi \right|^2\right)|_{z=\eta }+g\eta =0.\end{array}$$
(1)
Here $`\eta (x,y;t)`$ is the surface elevation with respect to still water, $`g`$ is the gravity acceleration. Equations (1) are Hamiltonian Zakharov-1968  with the canonical variables $`\eta (x,y;t)`$ and $`\psi (x,y;t)=\varphi (x,y,\eta (x,y;t);t)`$

$$\frac{\eta }{t}=\frac{\delta H}{\delta \psi },\frac{\psi }{t}=\frac{\delta H}{\delta \eta },$$
(2)
where $`H`$ is the Hamiltonian of the system

$$H=\frac{1}{2}_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}dxdy\left(g\eta ^2+_{\mathrm{}}^\eta |\varphi |^2dz\right),$$

Unfortunately $`H`$ cannot be written in the close form as a functional of $`\eta `$ and $`\psi `$. However one can limit Hamiltonian by first three terms of powers of $`\eta `$ and $`\psi `$

$$\begin{array}{c}H=H_0+H_1+H_2+\mathrm{},\hfill \\ H_0=\frac{1}{2}\left(g\eta ^2+\psi \widehat{k}\psi \right)dxdy,\hfill \\ H_1=\frac{1}{2}\eta \left[|\psi |^2(\widehat{k}\psi )^2\right]dxdy,\hfill \\ H_2=\frac{1}{2}\eta (\widehat{k}\psi )\left[\widehat{k}(\eta (\widehat{k}\psi ))+\eta \mathrm{\Delta }\psi \right]dxdy.\hfill \end{array}$$
(3)
Here $`\widehat{k}`$ is a linear integral operator $`\left(\widehat{k}=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }}\right)`$, such that in $`k`$-space it corresponds to multiplication of Fourier harmonics ($`\psi _\stackrel{}{k}=\frac{1}{2\pi }\psi _\stackrel{}{r}e^{i\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{r}}dxdy`$) by $`\sqrt{k_x^2+k_y^2}`$. For gravity waves this reduced Hamiltonian describes four-wave interaction. Then dynamical equations (2) acquire the form

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\dot{\eta }\hfill & =& \widehat{k}\psi ((\eta \psi ))\widehat{k}[\eta \widehat{k}\psi ]+\hfill \\ & & +\widehat{k}(\eta \widehat{k}[\eta \widehat{k}\psi ])+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Delta }[\eta ^2\widehat{k}\psi ]+\frac{1}{2}\widehat{k}[\eta ^2\mathrm{\Delta }\psi ],\hfill \\ \dot{\psi }\hfill & =& g\eta \frac{1}{2}\left[(\psi )^2(\widehat{k}\psi )^2\right]\hfill \\ & & [\widehat{k}\psi ]\widehat{k}[\eta \widehat{k}\psi ][\eta \widehat{k}\psi ]\mathrm{\Delta }\psi +D_\stackrel{}{r}+F_\stackrel{}{r}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
Here $`D_\stackrel{}{r}`$ is a dissipation term, which consists of hyperviscosity on small scales and ”artificial” damping on large scales. $`F_\stackrel{}{r}`$ is the driving term which simulates pumping on large scales (for example, due to wind). In the $`k`$-space supports of $`D_\stackrel{}{k}`$ and $`F_\stackrel{}{k}`$ are separated by the inertial interval, where the Kolmogorov-type solution can be recognized.

Another approach based on boundary integral approximation has been studied by Clamond and Grue in Grue-2001 .

We study numerically the quasi stationary solution of equations (4). According to the theory of weak turbulence, the Fourier spectrum of the surface elevation averaged by ensemble (corresponding to the flux of energy from large scales to small scales) is

$$<|\eta _k|^2>=\frac{Cg^{1/2}P^{1/3}}{k^{7/2}}.$$
(5)
Here $`P`$ is the energy flux, and $`C`$ is a dimensionless Kolmogorov constant. This spectrum is a stationary solution of the wave kinetic equation Zakharov-1967 .

It is worth to say that an alternative spectrum was proposed earlier by Phillips Phillips-1958 . In contrast to weak turbulent theory Phillips power-like spectrum can be formed due to a wave breaking mechanism and leads to a surface elevation spectrum $`<|\eta _k|^2>k^4`$. It can be realized for higher level of turbulence, which is far beyond the weak turbulent theory.

Numerical Simulation —  For numerical integration of (4) we used the following pumping and dissipation terms which are defined in Fourier space as

$$\begin{array}{c}F_k=f_ke^{iR_\stackrel{}{k}(t)},\hfill \\ f_k=\{\begin{array}{cc}4F_0\frac{(kk_{p1})(k_{p2}k)}{(k_{p2}k_{p1})^2},if(k_{p1}<k<k_{p2});\hfill & \\ f_k=0otherwise;\hfill & \end{array}\hfill \\ D_\stackrel{}{k}=\gamma _k\psi _\stackrel{}{k},\hfill \\ \gamma _k=\{\begin{array}{cc}\gamma _1,kk_{p1},\hfill & \\ 0,k_{p1}<k<k_{p2},\hfill & \\ \gamma _2(kk_d)^2,k>k_d.\hfill & \end{array}\hfill \end{array}$$
(6)
Here $`R_\stackrel{}{k}(t)`$ is a uniformly distributed random number in the interval $`(0,2\pi )`$ for each $`\stackrel{}{k}`$. We have applied an implicit difference scheme that keeps the main property of this system — conservation of Hamiltonian in the absence of pumping and damping.

The equations (4) were numerically simulated in the periodic domain $`2\pi \times 2\pi `$. The size of the grid was $`512\times 512`$ points. Gravity acceleration $`g`$ was equal to one. Parameters of the damping and pumping in (6) were the following: $`k_{p1}=5,k_{p2}=10,k_d=100`$. Thus the inertial interval is equal to a decade.

In the simulations we paid special attention to the problems which could ”damage” the calculations. First of all, it is the ”bottle neck” phenomenon which was studied in the paper Falkovich . The effect consists in accumulation of energy in $`k`$-space ahead of the dissipation region, if the dissipation is too large. This effect is very fast, but can be effectively suppressed by a proper choice of damping value $`\gamma _2`$ in dissipation (6) in the case of moderate pumping values $`F_0`$. On the other hand the $`F_0`$ value should not be too small to secure wave cascade on the discrete grid. For the case of capillary waves it was examined in detail in Capillary-2003 . The second problem is the accumulation of ”condensate” in low wave numbers due to inverse cascade. Buildup of condensate can be overcome by simple adaptive damping in the small wave numbers.

After some time the system reaches the stationary state, where the balance between pumping and damping takes place. In this state an important parameter is the ratio of nonlinear energy to the linear one $`(H_1+H_2)/H_0`$.

For example, for the external force $`F_0=2\times 10^4,\gamma _1=1\times 10^3,\gamma _2=665`$ the level of nonlinearity was equal to $`(H_1+H_2)/H_03\times 10^3`$. The Hamiltonian as a function of time is shown in Fig. 1.

The averaged spectrum of surface elevation $`<|\eta _k|^2>`$ appears to be power-like in the essential part of inertial interval, where the influence of pumping and damping was small. This spectrum is shown in Fig. 2.

One can estimate the exponent of the spectrum. Compensated spectra (e.g. multiplied by $`k^z`$, to get horizontal line) are shown in Fig. 3. This figure seems to be the evidence that the Kolmogorov spectrum predicted by weak turbulence theory fits better the results of the numerical experiment.

The quality of the result (closeness to the $`<|\eta _k|^2>k^{7/2}`$) crucially depends on the width of the inertial interval. In our previous work Gravity-2003  similar simulations were performed on the grid $`256\times 256`$. Weak turbulent spectrum is clearly seen on the grid $`512\times 512`$, can be hinted at the grid $`256\times 256`$, and is almost invisible on the grid $`128\times 128`$. This difference is demonstrated in Fig. 4.

In the end we would like to mention that for the different pumping level surface elevation spectra differ only due to the different energy flux value $`P`$ in (5), as clearly seen in Fig. 5.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by ONR grant N00014-03-1-0648, RFBR grant 03-01-00289, INTAS grant 00-292, the Programme “Nonlinear dynamics and solitons” from the RAS Presidium and “Leading Scientific Schools of Russia” grant, also by US Army Corps of Engineers Grant DACW 42-03-C-0019 and by NSF Grant NDMS0072803. Also authors want to thank the creators of the open-source fast Fourier transform library FFTW FFTW  for this fast, portable and completely free piece of software.


text:
# Tachyon Vortex *

thanks:
\*Supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 19875016 and Foundation of Shanghai Development for Science and Technology under Grant No. 01JC14035.

## Abstract

The property and gravitational field of global string of tachyon matter are investigated in a four dimentional approximately cylindrically-symmetric spacetime with a deficit angle. Especially, we give an exact solution of the tachyon field in the flat spacetime background and we also find the solution of the metric in the linearized approximation of gravity.

Various topological defects such as domain wall, string(vortex) and monopole could be formed by the symmetry-breaking phase transitions in the early universe and their existence has important implications in cosmologyKibble ; vilenkin . The symmetry breaking model of ordinary scalar fieldChen  can be prototypically written as

$$\text{L}=\frac{1}{2}_\mu \varphi ^a^\mu \varphi ^aV(f)$$
(1)
where $`\varphi ^a`$ is a set of scalar fields, $`a=1,\mathrm{},N`$, $`f=(\varphi ^a\varphi ^a)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$. The model has O(N) symmetry and admits domain wall, string and monopole solutions for $`N=1,2`$ and $`3`$, respectively. Usually, the potential $`V(f)`$ has a minimum at a finite non-zero value of $`f`$. On the other hand, in Ref.Cho1 ; Cho2 , Cho and Vilenkin investigated the defects in models where $`V(f)`$ has a local maximum at $`f=0`$ but no minima; instead, it monotonically decrease to zero at $`f\mathrm{}`$. And they called this kind of defects ”vacuumless defects”. The main gravitational property of all the defects mentioned above is the divergent mass (or mass density), which leads to an effect of deficit angle and negative mass (or mass density)Shi ; Li1 .

Recently, pioneered by Sen Sen1 , the study of non-BPS objects such as non-BPS branes, brane-antibrane configurations or space-like branes Strominger  has been attracting physical interests in string theory. Sen showed that classical decay of unstable D-brane in string theories produces pressureless gas with non-zero energy density. The basic idea is that the usual open string vacuum is unstable but there exists a stable vacuum with zero energy density. There is evidence that this state is associated with the condensation of electric flux tubes of closed string Sen2 . These flux tubes described successfully using an effective Born-Infeld action Sen3 . The tachyon rolling towards its minimum at infinity as a dark matter candidate was also proposed by SenSen2 . Gibbons took into account coupling to gravitational field by adding an Einstein-Hilbert term to the effective action of the tachyon on a brane, and initiated a study of ”tachyon cosmology” Gibbons . Several authors have investigated the process of rolling of the tachyon in the cosmological backgroundLi4 ; Li5 .

Especially, in the case of merging $`D`$-$`\overline{D}`$ branes, the tachyon field is complex and the potential has a phase symmetry $`V(T)=V(Te^{i\alpha })`$, the cosmic strings would be produced after the annihilation of the branes Sen .

It is therefore of importance to investigate the property and the gravity of the topological defects of tachyon field in the stationary spacetime background. In this paper, we first present the rolling tachyon dynamics in the stationary spacetime, and then discuss the property of global string of the tachyon field in the flat spacetime and in the curved spacetime respectively.

A general static, cylindrically-symmetric metric can be represented as

$$ds^2=B(r)(dt^2dz^2)dr^2r^2A(r)d\theta ^2.$$
(2)
And the Lagrangian density of rolling tachyon with potential $`V(\varphi )`$, which couples to the Einstein gravity, can be written as the following Born-Infeld form:

$`L`$ $`=`$ $`L_R+L_T`$ (3)
$`=`$ $`\sqrt{g}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{R}{2\kappa }}V(|T|)\sqrt{1g^{\mu \nu }_\mu T_\nu T^{}}\right]`$
where $`T`$ is a complex tachyon field, and $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ is the metric. The field configuration describing a string(vortex) is given by

$$T=f(r)e^{i\theta },T^{}=f(r)e^{i\theta }.$$
(4)
Using Eqs.(2)-(4), we can obtain the following Euler-Lagrange equation:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{V}}{\displaystyle \frac{dV}{df}}+{\displaystyle \frac{f}{Ar^2}}`$ $`=`$ $`f^{\prime \prime }+({\displaystyle \frac{B^{}}{B}}+{\displaystyle \frac{A^{}}{2A}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{r}})f^{}`$ (5)
$``$ $`f^{}{\displaystyle \frac{f^{}f^{\prime \prime }+\frac{f^{}f}{Ar^2}\frac{f^2A^{}}{2Ar^2}\frac{f^2}{Ar^3}}{1+f^2+\frac{f^2}{Ar^2}}}`$
where the prime denotes the derivative with respect to $`r`$ and the Einstein equations reads:

$$\frac{1B^{\prime \prime }}{2B}\frac{B^{}}{2rB}\frac{B^{}A^{}}{4BA}\frac{A^{}}{rA}+\frac{B^2}{4B^2}\frac{A^{\prime \prime }}{2A}=\kappa T_0^0$$
(6)
$$\frac{B^{}}{rB}\frac{A^{}B^{}}{2AB}\frac{B^2}{4B^2}=\kappa T_1^1$$
(7)
$$\frac{B^2}{4B^2}\frac{B^{\prime \prime }}{B}=\kappa T_2^2$$
(8)
where the energy-momentum tensor $`T_\nu ^\mu `$ of the system are given by

$$T_0^0=T_3^3=V(f)\sqrt{1+f^2+\frac{f^2}{Ar^2}}$$
(9)
$$T_1^1=\frac{V(f)(1+\frac{f^2}{Ar^2})}{\sqrt{1+f^2+\frac{f^2}{Ar^2}}}$$
(10)
$$T_2^2=\frac{V(f)(1+f^2)}{\sqrt{1+f^2+\frac{f^2}{Ar^2}}}$$
(11)
and the rest is zero. Obviously, the configuration of the system depends on the tachyon potential $`V(T)`$. According to Sen Sen2 , the potential should have an unstable maximum at $`T=0`$ and decay exponentially to zero when $`T\mathrm{}`$. There are lots of functional forms that satisfy the above two requirements. In the following sections, we choose the tachyon potential as follows:

$$V(f)=M^4(1+4\lambda f^4)^{1/4}\mathrm{exp}(\lambda f^4)$$
(12)
where $`M`$ and $`\lambda `$ are two constants and both are greater than zero. It is not difficult to find that the potential satisfies the two requirement proposed by Sen.

In the flat spacetime, the Euler-Lagrange equation (5) can be reduced to the following equation:

$$\frac{1}{V}\frac{dV}{df}+\frac{f}{r^2}=f^{\prime \prime }+\frac{f^{}}{r}f^{}\frac{f^{}f^{\prime \prime }+\frac{f}{r^2}(f^{}\frac{f}{r})}{1+f^2+\frac{f^2}{r^2}},$$
(13)
and the energy density of the system $`\epsilon `$ is given by

$$T_0^0=V(f)\sqrt{1+f^2+\frac{f^2}{r^2}}.$$
(14)
For the potential (12), the equation (13) has a simple exact solution

$$f(r)=\lambda ^{\frac{1}{4}}\left(\frac{r}{\delta }\right)^1,$$
(15)
where $`\delta =(4\lambda )^{1/4}`$ is the size of the string core, and the corresponding energy density can be written as

$$T_0^0=M^4\left[1+4\left(\frac{\delta }{r}\right)^4\right]^{3/4}\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{\delta }{r}\right)^4\right].$$
(16)
The energy per unit length of string at $`r\delta `$ is

$$\mu (R)=2\pi _0^RT_0^0r𝑑r\pi M^4(R^2\frac{1}{2\lambda R^2})$$
(17)
where the cutoff radius $`R`$ has the meaning of a distance to the nearest string (or the loop radius in the case of a closed loop). We find easily from Eq.(17) that tachyon strings are very diffuse objects with most of the energy distributed at large distances from the string core, and we expect their spacetime to be substantially distinct from the ordinary case. They are much more diffuse than ordinary global strings which have $`\mu (R)\mathrm{ln}R`$, so that most of the energy is concentrated near the core. Furthermore, they are similar to the vacuumless strings which have $`\mu (R)(R/\delta )^{4/(n+2)}`$, so that most of the energy is also diffused at large distance Cho1 . By analogy with vacuumless strings and ordinary strings, one can anticipate that tachyon strings will eventually reach a scaling regime in which the typical distance between the strings is comparable to the horizon, $`Rt`$ Cho1 . Let us now briefly discuss the cosmological evolution of tachyon strings. The mass per unit length of string is given by Eq.(17) where $`t`$ is substituted for $`R`$. The relative contribution of strings to the energy density of the universe is given by

$$\rho _s/\rho \mu (t)/M_p^2\pi (\frac{M^2}{M_p})^2(t^2\frac{1}{2\lambda t^2})$$
(18)
where $`M_p`$ is the Planck mass. It is easy to find the fraction of energy in strings monotonically grows with time, and the universe becomes dominated by the strings when $`f\frac{\pi M^4}{2\lambda M_p^2}`$. The observed isotropy of the cosmic microwave background implies $`\mu (t_0)/M_p^210^5`$, where $`\mu (t_0)`$ is the present value of energy per unit length. Therefore, we have a corresponding constraint on $`M`$ is $`M1MeV`$ as the explanation of structure formation. The characteristic scale of the observed large scale structure crossed the horizon at $`tt_{eq}10^6t_0`$. The density fluctuations due to tachyon strings on that scale are of the order $`\delta \rho _s/\rho _s\mu (t_{eq})/M_p^210^{17}`$.

In this paper, the spacetime of tachyon strings will be investigated using the linearized gravity approximation. We shall first consider the Newtonian approximation. The Newtonian potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ can be found for the equation

$$^2\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{\kappa }{2}(T_0^0T_i^i).$$
(19)
For the tachyon string, $`f(r)`$ is given by Eq.(15) and

$$T_0^0T_i^i2M^4$$
(20)
at $`r>>\delta `$. The solution of Eq. (19) is then

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(r)\frac{M^4}{8\lambda M_p^2f^2}.$$
(21)
The linearized approximation applies as long as $`|\mathrm{\Phi }(r)|<<1`$, which is equivalent to $`f>>\frac{M^2}{\sqrt{8\lambda }M_p}`$. Therefore, we should take the parameters $`\lambda `$ and $`M`$ satisfy

$$(4\lambda )^{1/4}<<R<<\frac{2M_p}{M^2}$$
(22)
where $`R`$ is the distance of string separation (or the loop radius in the case of closed loop). Next, we express the metric functions $`A(r)`$ and $`B(r)`$ as

$$A(r)=1+\alpha (r),B(r)=1+\beta (r).$$
(23)
Linearizing in $`\alpha (r)`$ and $`\beta (r)`$, and using the flat space expression (15) for $`f(r)`$, Eqs. (6)-(8) can be written as follows

$$\alpha ^{\prime \prime }+\frac{2\alpha ^{}}{r}=\frac{\kappa M^4}{4(r/\delta )^4}\left[1+4\left(\frac{\delta }{r}\right)^4\right]^{1/4}\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{\delta }{r}\right)^4\right],$$
(24)
and

$$\beta ^{\prime \prime }+\frac{\beta ^{}}{r}=2\kappa M^4\left[1+2\left(\frac{\delta }{r}\right)^4\right]\left[1+4\left(\frac{\delta }{r}\right)^4\right]^{1/4}\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{\delta }{r}\right)^4\right].$$
(25)
The solution of external metric is easily found

$$ds^2=(1\frac{\kappa M^4}{2}r^2)(dt^2dz^2)dr^2r^2(1\frac{\kappa M^4}{\lambda r^2})d\theta ^2.$$
(26)
The metric (26) can be expressed by the form of Newtonian potential

$$ds^2=(1+2\mathrm{\Phi })(dt^2dz^2)dr^2r^2\left[1+\left(\frac{2\delta }{r}\right)^4\mathrm{\Phi }\right]d\theta ^2.$$
(27)
Here, we note two qualitative differences between the metrics of tachyon and ordinary gauge string: (i) for a tachyon string, the gravitational field is strongly repulsive and the spacetime becomes singular at a finite distance from the string core; (ii) the effective deficit angle for a tachyon string

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(r)\pi \kappa M^4(r^2\frac{1}{2\lambda r^2})+\frac{\pi }{8}\kappa ^2M^8r^2(r^2\frac{\kappa M^4}{\lambda }),$$
(28)
increases with distance from the core, while the ordinary gauge string deficit angle remains constant.

In this paper, we have studied the property and gravitational field of global string of tachyon matter(tachyon vortex) in a four dimensional approximately cylindrically-symmetric spacetime. We give an exact solution of the tachyon field in the flat spacetime background and in particular, using the linearized approximation of gravity, we find a solution of the metric, which denotes a spacetime with an increasing deficit angle. Contrast to the ordinary string, the tachyon strings are very diffuse objects with most of the energy distributed at large distances from the string core, and their spacetime is substantially distinct from that of the ordinary string. In this respect, they are more similar to the vacuumless stringsCho1 ; Cho2 . In the $`D\overline{D}`$ branes theory, tachyon field is complex and the potential has a phase symmetry $`V(T)=V(e^{i\alpha }T)`$Sen . In this model one would expect formation of the cosmic strings after annihilation of brane. It is worth noting that although we used the potential (12) in our discussion, all the conclusions will be preserved qualitatively if we use the potentials which are discussed by SenSen2 .


text:
# Optical detection of fractional particle number in an atomic Fermi-Dirac gas

## Abstract

We study theoretically a Fermi-Dirac atomic gas in a one-dimensional optical lattice coupled to a coherent electromagnetic field with a topologically nontrivial soliton phase profile. We argue that the resulting fractional eigenvalues of the particle number operator can be detected via light scattering. This could be a truly quantum mechanical measurement of the particle number fractionalization in a dilute atomic gas.

It has been known for a while that, in the presence of a topologically nontrivial bosonic background field, fermionic particles may carry a fractional part of an elementary quantum number JAC76 ; NIE86 . In the condensed matter regime this phenomenon was introduced SU79  to describe conjugated polymers. The existence of fractionally charged excitations in the polymers is typically demonstrated indirectly by detecting the reversed spin-charge relation HEE88 . The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) can also be explained by invoking quasiparticles, each with a fraction of an electron’s charge laughlin . The fluctuations of the tunneling current in low-temperature FQHE regime have been measured DEP97 . Interpreting the current shot noise according to the Johnson-Nyquist formula duly suggests that the current is carried by the fractional Laughlin quasiparticles. Analogous experiments have determined the fractional expectation value of the charge in FQHE in the Coulomb blockade regime GOL95 .

We have earlier proposed a system of Fermi-Dirac (FD) atoms in an optical lattice that should display fractional atom numbers RUO02 . In the present Letter we argue that usual optical methods such as phase contrast imaging and measurements of the intensity of light scattered by the atoms extract information about the fractional fermion number. The technical challenges are severe, but in principle both the expectation value and the fluctuations of the atom number are accessible to experiments.

Briefly, we consider a FD atom OLS98  with a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ scheme for two active states (say, Zeeman states in different hyperfine levels) that can be coupled by one or two-photon electromagnetic (em) transitions RUO02 . The atoms reside in a 1D optical lattice lattices  that holds the two states at alternating sites $`\lambda /4`$ apart, where $`\lambda `$ denotes the wavelength of lattice light. By making use of the em transitions, we assume, it is possible to make the atoms hop between the adjacent sites so that they at the same time change their internal state. The lattice Hamiltonian is

$$\frac{H}{\mathrm{}}=\underset{k}{}\left[\delta _kc_k^{}c_k+\kappa _k(c_{k+1}^{}c_k+c_k^{}c_{k+1})\right].$$
(1)
Here $`c_k`$ is the annihilation operator for the fermionic atoms at site $`k`$, $`\mathrm{}\delta _k`$ is the energy of the atoms at $`k`$, and $`\kappa _k`$ are the are hopping matrix elements tailored to suit our purposes. The literature is replete with studies of similar systems BEL83 ; KIV ; GW , but our treatment is unusual in that we never resort to the continuum limit.

It is easy to see that the matrix $`U_{kp}`$ whose columns are the orthonormal eigenvectors of the eigenvalue problem

$$(\delta _k\omega )a_k+\kappa _ka_{k+1}+\kappa _{k1}a_{k1}=0$$
(2)
may be employed to diagonalize the Hamiltonian (1). In terms of the new fermion operators $`\gamma _p_kU_{kp}c_k`$, we have $`H/\mathrm{}=_p\omega _p\gamma _p^{}\gamma _p`$ . Without a loss of generality, the couplings $`\kappa _k`$ are assumed real, and so we take $`U`$ real and orthogonal; $`U_{kp}^1=U_{pk}`$. In this paper all calculations are done directly numerically.

Even though the optical lattice may be part of a larger trap and the wider trap could generate interesting physics in its own right, we simplify by putting $`\delta _k=0`$. The fractional charge arises from certain types of defects in the couplings $`\kappa _k`$. We illustrate by assuming a dimerized lattice generated by the coupling matrix element that alternates from site to site between two values $`a+\mu `$ and $`a\mu `$, except that at the center of the lattice there is a defect such that the same coupling matrix element appears twice. We take the number of lattice sites to be $`N_s2N_h+14n+1`$, where $`n`$ is an integer itself, and number the sites with integers ranging from $`N_h`$ to $`N_h`$. For illustration, pick $`n=2`$, use an x to denote a lattice site, and $`\pm `$ the couplings $`a\pm \mu `$, then our lattice with the couplings reads

$$\mathrm{x}+\mathrm{x}\mathrm{x}+\mathrm{x}\mathrm{x}\mathrm{x}+\mathrm{x}\mathrm{x}+\mathrm{x}$$
(3)
It is then easy to see from the structure of Eq. (2) that if $`\omega `$ is an eigenvalue, then so is $`\omega `$; and the eigenvectors transform into one another by inverting the sign of every second component. We will label the eigenvectors as $`N_h\mathrm{}N_h`$ in ascending order of frequency, and assign the labels $`\pm p`$ to such $`\pm `$ pair of states. Correspondingly, the transformation matrix $`U`$ satisfies $`|U_{kp}|=|U_{k,p}|`$.

But under our assumptions, the number of eigenvalues and eigenstates is odd. The $`\pm `$ symmetry implies that an odd number of the eigenvalues must equal zero. Except for special values of the couplings $`a`$ and $`\mu `$, there is one zero eigenvalue. We call the corresponding eigenstate the zero state. Provided $`a`$ and $`\mu `$ have the same sign and $`|a|>|\mu |`$, all odd components in the zero state equal zero and the even components are of the form

$$x_k=x_0\left(\frac{a\mu }{a+\mu }\right)^{|k|/2}.$$
(4)
The zero state becomes the narrower, the closer in absolute value $`a`$ and $`\mu `$ are.

The dimerized optical lattice resulting from the alternating pattern of the hopping matrix elements causes the single-particle density of states to acquire an energy gap, which in the limit $`N_s\mathrm{}`$ equals $`4\mathrm{}|\mu |`$ . The zero state is located at the center of the gap. The resulting excitations at half the gap energy could be detected by resonance spectroscopy. This provides indirect evidence of fractionalization, as in the polymer systems HEE88 . Because in our scheme RUO02  the gap is proportional to the amplitude of the em field inducing the hopping, the size of the energy gap can be controlled experimentally. The effective zero temperature limit, $`|\mu |k_BT/\mathrm{}`$, might then be reached under a variety of experimental conditions.

Suppose next that the system is at zero temperature, and contains $`N_f=N_h+1`$ fermions. The exact eigenstates $`p`$ are then filled up to zero state and empty at higher energies, with occupation numbers $`n_p`$ = 0 or 1. The number operator for the fermions at site $`k`$ correspondingly reads $`c_k^{}c_k=_{pq}U_{kp}U_{kq}\gamma _p^{}\gamma _q`$, so the expectation value of the fermion number at the site $`k`$ is

$`c_k^{}c_k`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{p=N_h}{\overset{0}{}}}|U_{kp}|^2=\frac{1}{2}{\displaystyle \underset{p=N_h}{\overset{N_h}{}}}|U_{kp}|^2+\frac{1}{2}|U_{k0}|^2`$ (5)
$`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{2}|U_{k0}|^2.`$
The second equality is based on the symmetry $`|U_{kp}|=|U_{k,p}|`$, and the third on the orthogonality of the matrix $`U`$. By virtue of the same orthogonality, localized with the zero state there is a lump with $`\frac{1}{2}_k|U_{k0}|^2=\frac{1}{2}`$ fermions on top of a uniform background of half a fermion per site. This lump is the celebrated half of a fermion. So far we only deal with the expectation values of the atom numbers, but we will demonstrate shortly that the fluctuations in atom number can be small as well.

Fractionilization is a more robust phenomenon than our discussion may let on. Something akin to a localized zero state occurs as soon as the regular alternation of the couplings between adjacent states gets out of rhythm around a defect. In particular, the defect does not have to be confined to one lattice site, which might make the experiments easier. The half-fermion is localized, so it does not critically depend on the number or parity of sites, and not even on the exact number of the fermions. We will enumerate such variations of the theme elsewhere.

We next turn to the optical detection of the FD gas. We assume that far off-resonant light excites the atoms, whereupon the 1D optical lattice may be considered optically thin. We take the sources residing at each site to be much smaller than the wavelength of light. Then the (positive frequency part of the) field operator for scattered light is JAV95  $`\widehat{E}^+=C_k\alpha _kc_k^{}c_k`$, where $`C`$ is a constant containing the overall intensity scale of the driving light. Henceforth we scale so that $`C=1`$. The factors $`\alpha _k`$ include aspects such as intensity and phase profile of the driving light, effects of the spin state at each site $`k`$ on the light-atom coupling, and propagation phases of light from the lattice site to the point of observation.

In forward scattering and variations thereof such as phase contrast imaging, the scattered and the incoming light interfere. The ultimate measurement of the intensity in effect records the expectation value of the electric field $`E=\widehat{E}^+`$. The observable at the detector is

$$E=\underset{k}{}\alpha _kc_k^{}c_k=\underset{kp}{}\alpha _kU_{kp}^2n_p.$$
(6)
This is a linear combination of the expectation values of the numbers of fermions at each lattice site with the coefficients $`\alpha _k`$, which are to some extent under the control of the experimenter. In the absence of interference with the incoming light, the simplest observable is light intensity $`I=\widehat{E}^{}\widehat{E}^+`$. The detector then probes the quantity characteristic of the FD statistic

$`I`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{kl}{}}\alpha _k^{}\alpha _lc_k^{}c_kc_l^{}c_l=|E|^2+\mathrm{\Delta }I;`$ (7)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }I`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{klpq}{}}\alpha _k^{}\alpha _lU_{kp}U_{kq}U_{lp}U_{lq}n_p(1n_q).`$ (8)
We now construct a numerical example about the use of forward scattering to detect the fractional particle. We make use of the fact that the fermion species at the alternating lattice sites are likely to be different. We assume that a given driving light is far above resonance with the fluorescing transition in one species and far below resonance in the other, and that the matrix elements for dipole transitions are comparable. It is then possible to find a tuning of the laser such that the intensity of scattered light is the same for both species. Moreover, the light scattered by the two species are out of phase by $`\pi `$, and out of phase with the incident light by $`\pi /2`$. With the usual tricks of phase contrast imaging, the relative phase of incident and scattered light is then adjusted so that that in interference light from one species directly adds to the incident light, and light from the other species subtracts.

The second element of the argument is a rudimentary model for an imaging system with a finite aperture. Let us assume the geometry has been arranged in such a way that all Fourier components of light in the plane of the aperture up to the absolute value $`K`$ are passed, the rest blocked. The effect on imaging from the object plane to image plane can be analyzed by taking the Fourier transform of the object, filtering with the multiplier $`\theta (K|𝐤_{}|)`$, and transforming back. The filtered image of the lattice filtered is then proportional to

$$E(𝐫)=\underset{k}{}(1)^kc_k^{}c_k\frac{2J_1(K|𝐫𝐫_k|)}{K|𝐫𝐫_k|}.$$
(9)
We choose the parameters $`\mu =0.1a`$, and the numbers of sites and fermions $`N_s=129`$ and $`N_f=65`$. We take the numerical aperture $`F=1`$ for the imaging system, and the corresponding maximum possible cutoff wave number $`K=2\pi /(\sqrt{5}\lambda )`$. In Fig. 1 we plot the optically imaged fermion lattice along the line of the atoms (dashed line), and the number of fermionic atoms in excess of the average occupation number $`\frac{1}{2}`$ for the even-numbered sites that carry the zero state (solid line), as obtained from Eq. (5). The curves are normalized so that the maxima overlap. The imaging system picks up a resolution rounded version the half-fermion hump.

In fact, phase contrast imaging has been used for nondestructive monitoring of a Bose-Einstein condensate AND96 , and the absorption of a single trapped ion has been detected experimentally ION80 . While a lot of assumptions went into our specific example, an experiment along these lines should be feasible with the technology available today.

With illumination of the optical lattice by a focused light beam and detection of scattered intensity in a direction of constructive interference, it is in principle also possible to realize a situation in which the weights approximately make a Gaussian distribution around the zero state, $`\alpha _k=e^{(k/w)^2}`$. In such a case the observable $`\widehat{N}=\widehat{E}^+`$ is just a linear combination of the occupation numbers of the lattice sites, the quantity $`E`$ is the expectation value thereof, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }I`$ is nothing but the squared fluctuations of $`\widehat{N}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }I=(\mathrm{\Delta }N)^2=\widehat{N}^2\widehat{N}^2`$.

To illustrate, we take a lattice with $`N_s=1025`$ sites, pick the parameters $`\mu =0.1a`$, put in $`N_f=513`$ fermions so that the zero state is the last filled stated, and find the rms fluctuation of the fermion number $`\mathrm{\Delta }N`$ as a function of the width of the weight function $`w`$. The result is shown in Fig. 2 on a log-log plot. The notch around $`w=1`$ indicates that at this point the weight factors $`\alpha _k`$ start to cover several lattice sites. Another break in the curve is seen at about $`w=10`$, when the weight function covers the whole zero state. Thereafter the fluctuations behave as $`\mathrm{\Delta }Nw^{1/2}`$. The fermion number $`\widehat{N}`$ under the weight function becomes more sharply defined as the region for averaging grows broader. Finally, at $`w`$ of a few hundred, the weights $`\alpha _k`$ effectively cover the entire lattice. The fluctuations then decrease even faster with increasing $`w`$, as is appropriate for the fixed fermion number in the lattice as a whole.

In the standard half-integer fermion number arguments one subtracts a neutralizing background of precisely $`\frac{1}{2}`$ charge per lattice site, whereupon $`\widehat{N}\frac{1}{2}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }N0`$ with an increasing width $`w`$. The intermediate regime that occurs once the zero state is covered is the crux of the matter. Not only does the expectation value of fermion number equal $`\frac{1}{2}`$, but fluctuations are also small. After the subtraction, the fermion number has the eigenvalue $`\frac{1}{2}`$. From the quantum optics viewpoint, this is something of a conjuror’s trick. Correlated fluctuations in fermion number between adjacent sites create an impression of a sharp eigenvalue in a smoothly weighted sum of the occupation number operators for the lattice sites.

The scattered light carries signature of the fluctuations in the scattered intensity. We demonstrate by plotting in Fig. 3 separately the contribution $`|E|^2`$, as if the fermion numbers were precisely fixed, and the fluctuation terms $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N)^2`$. We also show the quantity $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N)_i^2`$ that remains from the fluctuation term if we only keep the contributions with $`k=l`$ in Eq. (8), as if the fermion number fluctuations at adjacent sites were uncorrelated. These are given as functions of the width of the focus $`w`$ of the laser beam. Here $`N_s=129`$, $`N_f=65`$, and we choose $`\mu =0.9a`$ to make a sharply localized zero state.

Even with a very narrow focus of the laser, $`w=4`$ or about one wavelength, the contribution from the fluctuations is two orders of magnitude below the coherent intensity, whereas the fluctuations from uncorrelated fermion numbers would make a contribution an order magnitude smaller than the coherent intensity. As our detection light was assumed to be far-off resonance, the photon number fluctuations are Poissonian. Under otherwise ideal conditions, the detection of about a hundred photons could therefore reveal the difference between correlated and uncorrelated fermion numbers at adjacent site, whereas a quantitative study of the actual correlated fermion numbers requires the detection of about 10,000 photons. Unfortunately, a large number of scattered photons means a large number of recoil kicks on the fermions. Currently available optical lattices likely cannot absorb the assault of hundreds of photon recoils without developing some form of a dynamics that complicates the phenomena we are analyzing. In the coherent detection of the fermion number, however, the photon recoils could be suppressed by tuning the energy gap to be much larger than the photon recoil energy.

It is instructive to note that, at the level we have discussed (amplitude or intensity measurements), optical detection of the anomalously small fermion number fluctuations responsible for fractionilization has to be coherent and rely on interference of light scattered from different lattice sites. If a too broad angular average or other such cause wipes out the interferences \[$`\alpha _k^{}\alpha _l\delta _{kl}\alpha _k^{}\alpha _k`$\], we are back to adding fermion number fluctuations from different lattice sites as if they were independent.

Although we, of course, do not aim at a specific experimental design, a few variations to potentially overcome the technical limitations we have noted bear a mention. First, we have implicitly assumed that the lattice light and the detection light have the same wavelengths. By angling the beams used to make the optical lattice, or possibly by using microlens arrays DUM02 , the optical lattice can be stretched. The resolution limit imposed by the wavelength of the detection light could be circumvented. Second, so far we have dealt with what in essence is spontaneous Bragg scattering. Recently, induced Bragg scattering has been introduced as a method to study the condensates in detail STA99 . How induced scattering works in the case of a 1D lattice under inhomogeneous illumination is not clear at the moment, but conceivably the Bragg pulses could be made so short that the harmful effects of photon recoil do not have time to build up during the measurement.

We have discussed optical detection of the half-fermion that can arise from a topological defect in an optical lattice holding a FD gas. Even though both the average fermion number and its fluctuations are in principle amenable to optical measurements, experiments will evidently have to await further development of technology. In the interim, the most valuable outcome of the kind of an analysis we have presented would probably be the insights it brings into the phenomenon of a fractional fermion number and its prospective applications.

We acknowledge financial support from the EPSRC, NSF, and NASA.