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# A high relative precision color-magnitude diagram of M67

## 1 Introduction

Color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of stellar clusters have long been used as tests of stellar evolution because of the way they constrain the evolution of the luminosity and surface temperature of individual stars. A number of difficulties have to be overcome to ensure the best quality comparisons with theoretical models, and one of these is obtaining a sufficient number of measurements of stellar fluxes in different filter bands. With small numbers of observations, measurement scatter is often the most important issue since the position of a star in the CMD will not simply be dependent on its mass, chemical composition, and evolutionary state. In a cluster of stars, the ensemble of measured stars must then be used to infer where a single star would fall in the diagram. However, with a large enough number of independent observations of a group of stars, the photometric scatter can be reduced to the point where it is no longer a significant contributor to uncertainty in the position of the cluster’s fiducial line. At that point, scatter introduced by unresolved binaries, variable stars, and nonmembers become the main contributors to the scatter.

With a high-precision photometric database, calibration to a standard system can require relatively little additional effort: a few nights of observations under photometric conditions with fairly large numbers of cluster star observations interspersed with standard star observations covering the color range of the cluster stars to be calibrated and covering the airmass range of the cluster observations. Of course, the standard calibration can also be improved with additional data as long as the standard system is well determined.

There are numerous benefits to high precision CMD studies. First, the shapes of the fiducial lines often reveal inadequacies in our understanding of the stellar physics involved in modeling the stars. An example is the turnoff region of open clusters, where observations have shown that a small amount of convective overshooting in the convective cores of stars is necessary to explain the morphology of the fiducial line. High precision measurements can also reveal the presence of peculiar stars. Two examples are the poorly understood “sub-subgiant branch” stars S1063 and S1113 in M67 (Mathieu et al. 2003; identifications starting with “S” are from Sanders 1977). Both stars are high-probability cluster members, but fall in a region of the CMD where it is very difficult to explain their photometric properties.

High-precision photometry can also open up the possibility of spectroscopic studies of the surface properties and abundances by identifying samples of probable single stars. While proper motion studies can identify cluster members, eliminating unresolved binaries from the sample generally requires large investments of time for radial velocity studies. Even so, wide binaries and binaries with extreme mass ratios are unlikely to be identified except with the help of precise photometry. Field star contamination of cluster CMDs can often make the selection of cluster members difficult if proper motion studies have not been carried out. Even when they have been, the first epoch observations were most frequently taken using photographic techniques, which most often means that faint main sequence stars are unlikely to have been included.

These issues are particularly pressing in the case of open clusters like M67. M67 is probably the most thoroughly studied old open cluster in the Galaxy, thanks to its small distance from us. Typically quoted values for the cluster’s age ($`4\pm 0.5`$ Gyr; Dinescu et al. 1995) place it between the majority of known open clusters and the much older globular clusters. There have also been a number of proper motion membership studies of the cluster (Sanders, 1977; Girard et al., 1989; Zhao et al., 1993) and radial velocity studies (Mathieu et al., 1986, 1990) that can be used to help “clean” the CMD of nonmembers and binary stars in order to make the single-star sequence more apparent. A number of authors have commented on the seemingly large binary star fraction in the cluster (Montgomery et al., 1993; Fan et al., 1996), which probably indicates a high degree of mass segregation and may also indicate that the cluster is in the late stages of its dynamical life during which it is being tidally disrupted.

Recent attention on clusters has come from variability studies, and in some cases a by-product of such a study can be a large number of observations of non-varying stars. The dataset we describe below is a result of studies of two particularly difficult eclipsing variables in M67: the blue straggler S1082 ($`P=`$ 1.0677978 d for the eclipsing binary), and the totally-eclipsing variable S986 ($`P=`$ 10.33813 d). We gathered thousands of frames of observations of M67 in $`V`$ band, hundreds of observations in $`I`$, and tens in $`B`$. We will focus our attention on the $`VI`$ CMD because of its high precision. Fan et al. (1996) has also presented wide-field photometry of M67 in nine filters. Their photometry in at least three of those filters (with bandpasses centered at 3890, 6075, and 9190 Å) certainly qualifies as high precision. However, because their photometry was taken in a non-standard filter system, the comparison of their data with theoretical values is more complicated than ours. However, we will use their data in conjunction with ours to attempt to identify the stars that have the highest probability of being single stars.

We briefly describe our photometry and its reduction and calibration in §2. In §3, we present our identification of the single star sequence and determination of the fiducial line. In §4, we compare the fiducial line with theoretical isochrones.

## 2 Photometric Observations and Reductions

All of the photometry for this study was taken at the 1 m telescope at the Mt. Laguna Observatory using a $`2048\times 2048`$ CCD on nights between December 2000 and April 2003. The nights of observations are given in Table 1. Typical exposure times ranged between 10 and 60 s to optimize the counts for our eclipsing binary targets near the cluster turnoff.

Most of the details of the reduction are presented in other papers (Sandquist et al. 2003a, Sandquist & Shetrone 2003b), so we only briefly describe the reduction here. The object frames were reduced in usual fashion, using overscan subtraction, bias frames, and flat fields. We conducted aperture photometry using the IRAF111IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility) is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation. tasks DAOFIND and PHOT from the APPHOT package. In order to improve the accuracy of the relative photometry for the light curves, we used an ensemble photometry method similar to that described by Honeycutt (1992), iterating toward a consistent solution for photometric zeropoints for all frames and median magnitudes for all stars. One major difference with other ensemble photometry techniques involved the use of position-dependent corrections to stellar magnitudes to account for variations in the point-spread function across the frame and for changes in frame centre. Because frames typically had more than 300 measurable stars, the formal errors in the zero points ranged from around 0.003 to 0.007 mag, even with respect to night-to-night variations. Because of the often large number of observations of individual stars, typical errors in star magnitudes were a few millimag to a fraction of a millimag. (Because we relied on robust median magnitudes, these errors were derived in the following way. We first created a list of individual observations of a given star in a given bandpass and found the median. We then took the square-root of the number of observations of the star in the bandpass, and looked up the observations of the star that number of entries away from the median entry in the list ordered by magnitude. The error was taken to be one half of the difference between those observations.)

### 2.1 Photometric Calibration

We have completed a calibration of our photometric dataset to attempt to ensure accurate placement of our photometry on the standard system. The large numbers of measurements in our studies of M67 has meant that the main sequence scatter is smaller than in either Montgomery et al. (1993) or the more recent Richer et al. (1998), which both used standard Johnson-Cousins filters. Our calibration was taken from a night of photometric data taken at Mount Laguna Observatory on January 27/28, 2000. Observations of the Landolt standard fields SA 95, 97, 98, 101, and 107 were interspersed with observations of M67 through the $`B`$, $`V`$, and $`I`$ filters (at least 20 images in each band). We used Stetson (2000) standard values for stars when available, and Landolt (1992) values for the remainder of the standards.

Aperture photometry was performed on both standard and cluster frames using DAOPHOT II (Stetson 1987) using multiple synthetic apertures. Growth curves were used to extrapolate measurements to a (large) common aperture size using the program DAOGROW (Stetson 1990). The photometric transformation equations used in the calibration were

$$b=B+a_0+a_1(BV)+a_2(X1.25)$$

$$v=V+b_0+b_1(VI)+b_2(X1.25)$$

$$i=I+c_0+c_1(VI)+c_2(X1.25)+c_3(VI)^2$$

$$+c_4(VI)^3$$

where $`b`$, $`v`$, and $`i`$ are the observed aperture photometry magnitudes, $`B`$, $`V`$, and $`I`$ are the standard system magnitudes, and $`X`$ is airmass. The transformation coefficients were determined using the program CCDSTD (e.g. Stetson 1992), and with the exception of the $`I`$-band data, the data were well fitted by linear color terms.

We selected 197 stars in the central part of the cluster to be our secondary standards. These stars were generally on the lower RGB, subgiant branch, upper MS, or blue stragglers, and covered most of the range of colors for the cluster stars observed ($`0(VI)1.5`$). We noticed that the secondary standard observations, once corrected to the standard system, had significant trends with airmass. Since the M67 stars were observed over a wider range of airmasses than the primary standards, we used these trends to derive corrected airmass terms for the transformation equations. The corrected values removed the airmass trends, and did not noticeably affect the quality of the fits to the primary standards, so we adopted the corrected airmass terms for the transformations. The residual plots for the primary standard fits are shown in Fig. 1, and the transformation coefficients are given in Table 2. The calibrated secondary standard values were then used to calibrate our ensemble photometry. We present the transformation coefficients in Table 2. Because physically different filters were used on the night of calibration and during the ensemble photometry, there are significant color terms and there is a significant second-order term present in the $`I`$-band residuals. The results of the calibration are shown in Fig. 2. We must emphasize that we can only be confident of the calibration within the range of colors of our secondary standards, and that this is not the entire range of colors covered by our ensemble photometry, so that there may be systematic errors in the absolute calibration of the lower main sequence. For the purposes of the distance modulus determination, our photometry appears to be accurately calibrated to the standard system.

We made comparisons between our dataset and those of Joner & Taylor (1990) and Chevalier & Ilovaisky (1991) (both studies made detailed attempts to tie their photometry to the Landolt standard system), and to Montgomery et al. (1993), which is the most frequently cited source of M67 photometry. We find good agreement between our photometry and values from Joner & Taylor (1990) and Chevalier & Ilovaisky (1991) as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. One exception is the slight zero-point difference in $`I`$ between our photometry and that of Chevalier & Ilovaisky (1991). We find more substantial differences between our photometry and that of Montgomery et al. (1993), however. In the color range covered by the photometry of Joner & Taylor (1990) (which Montgomery et al. used in calibrating their photometry), the agreement is fairly good (although there are significant zero-point offsets). However, outside of that range, the color-dependent residuals become noticeable, and there is a clear color-dependent trend in the $`(VI)`$ residuals. Because both our primary and secondary standards covered colors up to $`(VI)1.5`$, we believe our photometry should be more reliable.

## 3 The Single-Star Sequence and Fiducial Line

For the best possible comparison with theoretical isochrones, we would ideally like to identify a sample of unambiguous single-star cluster members that have been able to evolve without having undergone strong interactions with their neighbors. We will refer to the locus of the positions of these stars in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) as the single-star sequence (SSS). To define such a sequence, contaminants in the CMD have to be removed. For a relatively sparse cluster like M67, this task is particularly important, so we describe our selection criteria in detail below.

### 3.1 Selection Criteria

The primary source of contamination in the CMD on the lower main sequence is from field stars. We have used proper motion membership probabilities from Sanders (1977) and Girard et al. (1989) for guidance where possible. Both studies had a faint limit of $`V16`$. although we believe that the membership probabilities for the fainter stars in the Sanders sample may be systematically underestimated, as we found that an abnormally large number of stars with excellent $`VI`$ data clearly falling on the main sequence (as delineated by other higher probability members) had low membership probabilities (see Fig. 6). In particular, there are a large number of low-probability members that fall near the main sequence having $`15.2<V<16`$. This seems to be the case for the Girard et al. dataset to a similar degree, so we will not rely entirely on the proper motions for faint stars except when both studies agree that a star is a member.

Due to the high binary content of M67 (Montgomery et al., 1993; Fan et al., 1996), attention has to be paid to contamination of the CMD by multiple star systems. We conducted a literature search for confirmed star systems among the cluster members, and found that the elimination of these systems from the CMD clarifies the position of the SSS near the cluster turnoff (TO), subgiant branch (SGB), and lower red giant branch (RGB). Known multiple star systems are identified in Table 3 along with the most recent orbit information available and photometry from this study, Montgomery et al. (1993) (for S1040, S1113, S1195, and S1250), or Stassun et al. (2002) (for S1508).

Elimination of known binaries will of course not eliminate all such systems due to observational limitations (particularly for the radial velocity surveys) and to selection effects (like those against binaries with low mass ratios or long periods). Thus, it is necessary to fall back on CMD position selection. Because of the high relative precision of the photometry for most stars in our study, we are able to eliminate from consideration stars that are likely to be unresolved binaries. However, as these cuts may not be restrictive enough in removing unresolved binaries with the lowest mass ratios, we have also used the data of Fan et al. (1996) for an additional cut. Since faint secondary stars can have significant effects on the color of a system in spite of faintness, we have examined the position of our selected stars in the CMD using several color indices. A significant shift in position relative to other stars near the SSS is an indication of an unresolved secondary star. This method works best if measurement scatter is small, which is happily the case for a subset of the filter bands used in the Fan et al. (1996) study (specifically, the filters centered at 3890, 6075, and 9190 Å).

In different portions of the CMD, slightly different criteria were used to select the stars that were most likely to be part of the SSS. These criteria were based on the direction a single star is likely to be displaced in the CMD if another single star was placed in an unresolved binary with it. Fig. 7 shows examples of this for various places on the $`VI`$ fiducial line. To create this plot, we combine the $`V`$ and $`I`$ fluxes of a given fiducial point with that of each fainter fiducial point in order to determine where unresolved binaries would fall. The indication is that for all points up to the bottom of the turnoff gap ($`12.9<V<13.3`$) a “bluest member” selection criterion is appropriate since there is no possibility of an unresolved binary falling exactly on the SSS. For all but the bluest portion of the subgiant branch, a “faintest member” criterion is appropriate. For the red giant branch, a “reddest member” criterion works except on the lower RGB where it is possible to have a very slight red increment added if a secondary star is among the brightest main sequence stars redder than the giant primary. (We have found at least one example of this in our dataset; see §3.3.3) So, it is only the bluest portion of the subgiant branch where there is likely to be significant contamination from unresolved blends with main sequence stars.

It is also possible that white dwarfs might be present in binary stars, which would result in a displacement of the system’s properties to the blue of the main sequence as shown in Fig. 8. The white dwarf photometry values were taken from the $`\mathrm{log}g=8`$ pure hydrogen atmosphere models of Bergeron, Wesemael, & Beauchamp (1995) for $`T_{\text{eff}}10^5`$ K. The displacement only begins to become important for main sequence stars fainter than the turnoff. Blends with white dwarfs should have negligible effects on the determined position of the lower main sequence as they would most likely be rejected as apparent field stars on the basis of their CMD position. If they are common enough in binaries with stars on the upper main sequence, they would produce systems in the CMD that appear to be slightly ($`0.01`$ mag in color) to the blue of the main sequence. This is one good reason for retaining some skepticism about using a “bluest member” selection criterion here.

Strong interactions between stars can produce systems that do not follow blend sequences. Blue stragglers are a notable example of a group of stars that can fall between the SSS and the zero-age main sequence because the hydrogen content in the stellar core is larger than expected for an isolated single star of near-turnoff mass. The current leading explanations for blue stragglers are earlier episodes of binary mass transfer or stellar collisions. Blue stragglers that fall near the turnoff in the CMD can be difficult to remove. In some cases a second star will be present that still contributes enough to the system flux (whether a leftover donor star or a star that was captured into a bound orbit during a multiple star interaction) that the star will be clearly separated from the single-star sequence. In other cases, radial velocity studies (Mathieu et al., 1986) can eliminate some systems even if the secondary is undetectable on its own.

Three examples of interacting W UMa variable stars fall near the M67 turnoff, but it is unlikely that stars of this type will be a significant contaminant because they are usually easily identified from photometric studies like the ones carried out by Stassun et al. (2002) and Sandquist & Shetrone (2003b) unless the system has a low inclination. Such systems generally will not have system photometry that moves them bluer than the single-star sequence (Rucinski & Duerbeck, 1997) unless one of the stars was already a blue straggler when strong interactions began. However, we do have to be aware that there is a small probability that a blue straggler or interacting star could fall near the SSS.

In a small number of cases we have also eliminated stars that appear to be low amplitude variable stars. With a large number of observations, it should in principle be possible to determine an accurate median magnitude for stars that vary on fairly short time-scales ($`P10`$ d). In some cases variability will be related to binary interactions or to rotational modulation of star spots. In either case, the variability can introduce enough uncertainty that it could affect the position of the star in the CMD. We have used our time-series photometry and the study of Stassun et al. (2002) to identify and remove these stars. We confirm low amplitude variability of the stars S974 and S1093 detected by Stassun et al., and in addition find that S1042 also appears to be variable (although Sanders 1977 gives it a 0% membership probability). In addition, although S1112 made it through our other cuts, it was shown in van den Berg et al. (2002) to be a low-amplitude variable, and so was eliminated.

### 3.2 Other Means of Broadening the SSS

In using the above criteria to select single stars, we may introduce some bias into our sample because other factors can lead to a broadening of the region of the CMD containing single stars. Factors include differences in age, chemical composition, and angular momentum. We will briefly discuss these below.

For a cluster as old as M67, differences in age due to variations in the time of formation result in relatively small differences in CMD position. The effects are maximized for the most evolved stars in the cluster. Our selection criteria would tend to bias us toward selecting the oldest stars in the cluster on the upper main sequence, SGB, and RGB. Age spreads in young open clusters are typically found to be less than 10 Myr (e.g. Belikov et al. 2000; Soderblom et al. 1999; Baume, Vázquez, & Feinstein 1999). From isochrones (Yi et al. 2001), we find that such an age difference would cause a color shift of only about 0.001 in $`VI`$ at the turnoff, and about 0.004 mag in $`V`$ on the subgiant branch. On this basis, we neglect further discussion of age spreads.

Composition differences can also create differences in properties among stars of the same age and mass. There are no large spectroscopic studies of M67 to give us an accurate measure of how much of an intrinsic scatter in \[Fe/H\] there might be in the cluster. Indications from 4 stars observed by Shetrone & Sandquist (2000) are that the scatter among main sequence stars is less than 0.10 dex. Observations of 16 dwarfs in the Pleiades by Wilden et al. (2002) indicated deviations from the mean of less than 0.03 dex. At the turnoff, a 0.1 dex difference in \[Fe/H\] would result in a small change in the shape of the sequence, a change in turnoff color by a little over 0.01, and a change in $`V`$ by almost 0.1 mag. The slope of the SGB is also affected, resulting in the largest differences at the red end of around 0.2 mag in $`V`$. Our selection criteria would tend to be biased toward the stars with the lowest metallicity values on the main sequence, but the highest metallicity stars on the SGB and RGB. Although this bias could potentially affect the shape of single star sequence, we will not discuss this further because there is as yet no evidence of significant metallicity scatter. We will discuss the possibility of evolution-driven composition effects in §3.3.3.

Star-to-star angular momentum differences are believed to affect main sequence Li abundances (e.g. Jones, Fischer, & Soderblom 1999), although the most abundant chemical species are not significantly affected. Changes in CMD position on the main sequence are thus not likely to result from the composition changes. Observations of $`v_{rot}\mathrm{sin}i`$ for M67 stars show values of less than 8 km s-1 (Melo et al. 2001). These low rotation rates are not likely to affect the stellar structure enough to move the star significantly in the CMD. As a result, we will drop further discussion of angular momentum effects.

### 3.3 Selected Stars and the SSS

We determined main sequence fiducial points using our calibrated ensemble photometry. In places (particularly on the subgiant branch and above), individual stars were used to define the SSS if we deemed that there was sufficient evidence to support this. In places where there were more than one star clumped together in the CMD, calculated fiducial points were weighted averages of photometric values for the group. Our fiducial points are presented in Table 4, including the number of stars $`N`$ used to compute each point.

We truncate our tabulated sequence at $`V17.8`$ because this corresponds to a color at the red end of the range covered by our calibrating secondary standards. However, we are able to identify additional stars that form an extension of the main sequence. Our selected stars are presented in Table 5. Columns 1 – 3 contain identification numbers from Sanders (1977), Montgomery et al. (1993), and Fan et al. (1996), columns 4 – 9 contain the photometry and numbers of observations in each filter band, and columns 10 and 11 contain proper motion membership probabilities from Sanders (1977) and Girard et al. (1989). (Note that we tabulate magnitudes and colors to fractions of millimag because in many cases the relative accuracies justify this. The possibility of calibration errors means that these could deviate from the true photometry values on an absolute scale.) A subset of stars had questionable values resulting from small numbers of measurements, contamination due to light from nearby stars, or instrumental problems. If the star falls near the apparent position of the SSS we include it in the table for possible future use, and note it with an “$`a`$”. We are confident in our choices for the SSS based on the degree to which stars in our data and that of Fan et al. (1996) fall in the same regions of the CMD, as can be seen in Figs. 9, 10, and 12 below.

In addition we identify an alternate sequence of main sequence stars that fall at the blue end of the color distribution at each magnitude level. If our magnitudes are mostly free of systematic errors and our error estimates reflect the real uncertainty in measurements relative to other stars, then these stars would most accurately delineate the SSS. The stars in this sequence are notated with a “$`b`$” in Table 5. In most cases, the difference in color between this bluer sequence and the average sequence is no more than 0.02 in $`VI`$.

Finally, in Table 10, we identify stars that are worthy of further study. We have identified several stars on the RGB that are likely to be part of binary systems, several new blue straggler star (BSS) candidates, and possible triple systems.

#### 3.3.1 The Upper Red Giant Branch (RGB)

The observations made by us and by Fan et al. were generally long enough that stars on the upper giant branch were saturated on the CCD, and so were not measured by either study. However, Janes & Smith (1984) studied the upper giant branch to try and sort first-ascent giant stars from stars in later evolutionary phases and star in binaries. Montgomery et al. (1993) tabulate photometry for the brightest stars taken from other studies. Because there are likely to be systematic errors resulting from differences in calibration, we do not include these stars in Table 5. However, the stars that are most likely to be on the SSS (in order from RGB tip faintward) are S1553 (61%), S488 (51%), S1135 (19%), S978 (99%; 95%), S364 (82%), S1557 (77%), and S1016 (98%; 93%). The percentages quoted are proper motion membership probabilities from Sanders (1977) and Girard et al. (1989) if available. All of these stars are high probability proper motion and radial velocity members (Mathieu et al., 1986) with the exception of S1135, which is a high-probability radial velocity member.

#### 3.3.2 The Red Giant Clump

We were able to photometer 4 stars falling in the red giant clump (see Table 5), and identify 3 others (S1316, S1479, and S1592) from the Montgomery et al. (1993) listing of bright stars. All are high probability proper motion and radial velocity members of M67.

#### 3.3.3 The Lower Giant Branch

We selected giant branch members based on whether they seemed to be closest to a lower envelope of stars leading up the RGB. In many cases, cluster members fall near, but not on the giant branch. While some of these are to the blue of the giant branch (and thus are very likely to be binary stars), there are several stars to the red of the giant branch. Among the bluer stars are known binaries like S1040, S1182, S1195, S1221, and S1237. We also identify S721, S1054, S1254, and S1288 as probable binaries based on their colors from our data and Fan et al. (1996) data. We also reject S1293 as too blue in our data, although it appears to lie on the giant branch in the Fan et al. data. CMDs are shown in Fig. 9.

As mentioned earlier, systems can be created with colors redward of the giant branch if a main sequence secondary star with a color redder than the giant star is present. S1001 is one example that appears redward of the giant branch by a small but noticeable amount in all of the colors we examined, so that it was not included in the SSS. The fainter the giant star is, the larger the red deviation caused by a main sequence companion can be. S794 is an example of this near the base of the red giant branch. S1463 is another high probability cluster member nearby in the CMD that deviates by an amount that cannot be explained by a single main sequence companion.

One can also question whether surface composition changes driven by evolutionary changes at first dredge-up on the RGB might significantly affect the CMD position of stars in this section. This is only likely to be a significant worry if different M67 giants undergo the dredge-up event at substantially different positions on the RGB or if there is scatter in the amount of material dredged up. Brown (1987) examined C and N abundances along the giant branch, and found a fairly abrupt change in $`12.2<V<13`$. Gilroy & Brown (1991) examined 12C / 13C ratios, and found them varying in the same range. This is partly because there are few stars in this portion of the CMD (see Fig. 9). In fact, we rejected only three stars in this range: S794, S1001, and S1463. S794 was observed by Gilroy & Brown though, and seems to have abundances consistent with not yet having undergone dredge-up. S1463 was also observed, but its values were inconclusive. However, Balachandran (1995) detected Li in the star, which is unusual because none of the other stars in similar evolutionary stages have detectable Li. We believe this spectroscopic evidence strongly supports the exclusion of S794 and S1463 from the SSS. S1001 remains a marginal case.

#### 3.3.4 The Subgiant Branch (SGB)

We define this region to be between the base of RGB (the local minimum in luminosity) and the top of the main sequence (the local maximum). A close examination of the ($`m_{3890},m_{3890}m_{9190}`$) CMD from Fan et al. (1996) reveals a well-defined string of stars delineating the SGB. In the ($`m_{6075},m_{3890}m_{6075}`$) CMD, there are clearly a small number of stars that are fainter than the rest. There is one known binary (S1242) that could be mistaken for a normal SGB star in the ($`m_{3890},m_{3890}m_{9190}`$) CMD, but falls among the more numerous and brighter subset of stars in ($`m_{6075},m_{3890}m_{6075}`$) CMD. Since blends only fall above the SGB in this portion of either CMD, we select the fainter subset as the likely SSS. The neater appearance of the SGB in ($`m_{3890},m_{3890}m_{9190}`$) is due to the large wavelength separation of the passbands used in the color, which can hide small deviations from the SSS. This should serve as a reminder of the importance of multi-band imaging. The difference between the bright and faint subsets is a few hundredths of a magnitude in $`m_{6075}`$.

An implication of this is that the majority of the stars seen near the cluster SGB may be binary stars: S591, S781, S961, S1069, S1239, S1438, and S1487. We have looked at the radial velocities tabulated by Mathieu et al. (1986) for most of our selected stars and these presumed binaries. There were three stars originally in our presumed single group (S1060, S1323, and S2207) and two stars (S961 and S1239) having radial velocity dispersions labelled “hi” ($`\sigma 1.0`$ km s-1) by Girard et al. (1989). However, only S2207 has a large number of measurements and $`\sigma >2`$ km s-1. We have opted to retain the other two “single” stars in our sample to flesh out the SGB, but this fact should be kept in mind.

At the blue end of the SGB (the local maximum in luminosity of the SSS), it becomes impossible to unambiguously distinguish binaries from single stars based on photometry alone because blends with faint main sequence stars move the system parallel to the SSS. There are a number of stars in this portion of the diagram that could be single stars, so we resort to simply tabulating all of these and averaging the photometry so that we are not too far off in magnitude.

As for strange stars, Mathieu et al. (2003) have recently discussed the two “sub-subgiant” branch stars S1063 and S1113. Both are known binaries with period of several days, and both are high-probability proper motion members. There is not currently an accepted explanation for the positions of these two stars in the CMD.

#### 3.3.5 The Upper Turnoff

We define this region to be the portion of the SSS between the gap and the local luminosity maximum ($`12.65<V<12.85`$). The number of known binaries falling in this portion of the diagram again indicates that contamination by unresolved blends of stars may be a serious problem. Fig. 10 shows an exploded view of this part of the CMD.

We can get a degree of reassurance from the fact that a number of these systems (specifically S926, S995, S1310, S1589, and S1639) do have multiple radial velocity observations that are consistent both with the cluster mean and with no variation. Once again, we decided to be conservative in our selection in this region, retaining stars and averaging their photometry so that the fiducial could not be far off the SSS. For comparison, we plot corresponding regions of the ($`V,VI`$) CMD for the Montgomery et al. (1993) dataset in Fig. 11. This figure shows the improvement in the photometric scatter near the turnoff, and illustrates the systematic differences stemming from the calibration to the standard system.

#### 3.3.6 The Turnoff Gap

Many previous investigators have drawn attention to the gap at the turnoff between $`12.85<V<13.05`$. The gap is the result of short evolutionary time-scales for single stars in this portion of the diagram. We will discuss the phase of single star evolution that is likely to produce this gap in §4.2.2 below. However, we note that there are a number of proper motion members that do fall in this range of magnitudes. There is a possibility that these stars could be single stars, although we believe it is more likely that they should be classified as blue stragglers. Only one cluster member (S1271) fell in the fields we observed, but an examination of the Fan et al. data reveals an additional six (S489, S602, S610, S615, S1503, S1575), none of which has published radial velocity observations.

#### 3.3.7 The Lower Turnoff

For the lower portion of the turnoff region ($`13.05<V<13.6`$), it is once again possible to start to apply a “bluest star” criterion for determining the position of the SSS since the blend sequences no longer intersect the SSS except near the very reddest portion. We still need to be aware of the possibility that some blue stragglers may have to be eliminated. Unfortunately the faint limit of the Mathieu et al. (1986) radial velocity study falls in this range of magnitudes also, so that binaries can now only be eliminated based on photometric variations or on CMD position.

The first apparent feature is formed by four stars (S731, S998, S1230, and S1302) that form a nearly linear feature in all of the CMDs we have examined. All four are high probability cluster members and show no signs of photometric variability (this work; S998, S1230, S1302 in Stassun et al. 2002; S998 in Gilliland et al. 1991), but unfortunately only S998 has been observed spectroscopically. S998 was observed by Melo et al. (2001), who found a radial velocity consistent with the cluster mean, and a low rotational velocity ($`v\mathrm{sin}i=6.3\pm 0.6`$ km s-1) consistent with those observed for other turnoff stars. Li has also been detected at the surface of S998 by Hobbs & Pilachowski (1986) at a level consistent with other stars at the turnoff. (To date, there have not been any confirmed detections of lithium in M67 blue stragglers.) While there is no reason to doubt cluster membership and no evidence of variability or of companion stars, the small number of stars involved means that this should tested further. For example, the bluest star S1230 can be questioned based on its slight fainter $`m_{6075}`$ magnitude in the Fan et al. CMD. We will discuss these stars more in §4.2.2.

While our color resolution of the turnoff region is somewhat limited, there is clear evidence that stars in this range of magnitudes have evolved to cooler surface temperatures. In this range of magnitudes we begin to tabulate two separate sequences: one based on the bluest reliable cluster member, and one based on weighted averages of groups of stars near the blue edge of the star distribution. In both cases a redward turn is noticeable. Several stars in our $`VI`$ CMD can be tentatively classified as blue stragglers based on their CMD positions bluer than the faint portion of the turnoff and fainter than the bright portion of the hook. S856 and S927 were only observed by Fan et al. (1996), but have high membership probabilities. S1220, S1226, and S2219 were observed by us and all have high membership probabilities (see Table 10). However, in the Fan et al. dataset, these stars fall closer to the presumed SSS, although on the blue side of the distribution of colors. The weakest candidate is S1220, which had the largest scatter in measurements and the fewest measurements overall. Other blue stragglers have been discussed elsewhere (e.g., Sandquist & Shetrone 2003b)

Finally, we have looked for cluster members that fall to the red of the two-star blend sequence since stars might be present in this portion of the CMD if they are part of a triple system. We find 4 candidates in our photometry (S773, S816, S1011, and S1292), although these fall within the two-star blend sequence in the Fan et al. ($`m_{6075},m_{3860}m_{6075}`$) CMD. This may be the result of much lower surface temperature for the companion star or stars, since the color in the Fan et al. data more closely resembles $`BV`$. We call attention to these stars to encourage further examination.

#### 3.3.8 The Upper Main Sequence

As mentioned in the previous subsection, the SSS for the main sequence can be most cleanly identified using the best measured blue stars at a given magnitude level. We can use proper motion information on the upper main sequence to eliminate potential confusion from the small numbers of field stars that fall very close to the main sequence in the CMD. However, as we have also mentioned, it is apparent that the proper motion membership information becomes less trustworthy for the faintest stars in the samples of Sanders (1977) and Girard et al. (1989).

For $`V15.2`$, we allow stars with low proper motion membership probabilities into the sample if they clearly fell near other proper motion members on the main sequence. The faintest star selected for the SSS that has high membership probabilities according to both Sanders (1977) and Girard et al. (1989) is S1291 at $`V=15.29`$, so that fainter stars that we retained had low membership probabilities according to either Sanders (1977) or Girard et al. (1989). The faintest star with high probability in just one of the two studies is S769 at $`V=15.61`$. At this point the proper motion surveys begin to be seriously incomplete. We do not believe these difficulties bias our measured position for the SSS because the main sequence can be clearly traced throughout.

The star S1209 has a 96% membership probability according to Sanders (1977), but is much too blue to be a main sequence star or a blend with a white dwarf star. If this star is indeed a cluster member, we do not have a good explanation for its photometry. We also note that there are several additional stars that fall significantly to the red of the blend sequence in this portion of the color magnitude diagram: S787 and S1249 according to our photometry, and S475, S1492, S1601, and S1608 from Fan et al. (1996). Unfortunately, the proper motion information disagrees on membership for all of these stars except S1249 and S1608. We note that the binary star S1019 (van den Berg et al., 2002) also falls in this portion of the diagram. S1019 is a known X-ray source containing a short-period binary, which makes it possible that another star is present on a much larger orbit. Other systems found to the red of the blend sequence have proper motions that indicate they are nonmembers.

#### 3.3.9 The Lower Main Sequence

For the faintest portions of the main sequence that we studied, CMD position is the only criterion we can use to select stars. Another well-known gap is present on the main sequence at $`15.9V16.2`$, although there is no obvious explanation for this. As can be seen from Fig. 12, the Fan et al. dataset is no longer useful for selecting stars for the SSS below the gap due to large photometric scatter as the faint limit of the 3890 Åobservations is approached at $`m_{3890}20`$. We terminated our tabulation of the fiducial line at $`V17.9`$, because the color terms in the photometric transformations cannot be reliably extrapolated beyond the end of the color range of our calibrating stars $`(VI)1.6`$. We have, however, tabulated approximate magnitudes and colors for fainter stars that fall on an extension of the main sequence.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Distance Modulus

Percival, Salaris, & Kilkenny (2003) have recently published a sample of local G and K dwarfs with accurate Hipparcos parallaxes in a metallicity range appropriate for open cluster main sequence fitting. Percival et al. also describe a method of correcting the dwarf colors for metallicity differences with the cluster that does not require theoretical isochrones. With our new photometric calibration and determination of the cluster’s fiducial line, it is worthwhile to attempt to update the distance modulus for the cluster.

In doing the fits to our fiducial points, we eliminated local dwarfs having $`(VI)<0.83`$ from the sample in order to remove any possible effects that stellar evolution might have. \[The choice of color cutoff was based on the isochrones of Girardi et al. (2000).\] A total of 27 dwarfs with $`(VI)<1.16`$ were used in the fit. We assumed \[Fe/H\] $`=0.02\pm 0.06`$ (Gratton 2000) and E$`(BV)=0.04\pm 0.01`$ (corresponding to E$`(VI)=0.050\pm 0.013`$). We find $`(mM)_0=9.60\pm 0.03`$ \[$`(mM)_V=9.72\pm 0.05`$\], where the uncertainty includes uncertainty in the fit and in the reddening. The best fit to our fiducial line is shown in Fig. 13. Our derived distance modulus is significantly lower (0.12 mag) than the value given by Montgomery et al. (1993) for an isochrone fit to their $`VI`$ dataset ($`(mM)_V=9.85`$, or $`(mM)_0=9.72`$), but in good agreement with a recent isochrone fit to the $`BV`$ data of Montgomery et al. (1993) by Sarajedini et al. (1999), giving $`(mM)_V=9.69\pm 0.11`$. The difference in the distance moduli derived from the $`VI`$ datasets stems from the calibration to the standard system, as can be seen in Fig. 11.

### 4.2 Comparison with Theoretical Isochrones

A careful comparison between our best measured highest-probability single stars and theoretical isochrones reveals a number of areas of significant disagreement. We focus on recent sets of models by Girardi et al. (2000; hereafter, referred to as Padova isochrones), Yi et al. (2001; hereafter, the Yonsei-Yale or Y2 isochrones — we use version 2 of these isochrones), and Baraffe et al. (1998; hereafter BCAH).

#### 4.2.1 Absolute and Relative Colors of the Upper Main Sequence and Lower Giant Branch

Predicted colors depend critically on the choice of $`T_{\text{eff}}`$-to-color transformation. The color transformations used in the Padova isochrones are described in Girardi et al. (2002). For most of the area of the CMD we consider, the theoretical colors are based on ATLAS9 synthetic stellar atmospheres (Kurucz 1993) recalculated by Castelli, Gratton, & Kurucz (1997). The Y2 isochrones employ transformation tables from two different sources: Lejeune, Cuisinier, & Buser (1998; hereafter LCB) and Green, Demarque, & King al. (1987; hereafter GDK). GDK made use of older Kurucz (1979) atmosphere models to predict colors. LCB used empirical solar-abundance color-temperature relations to make corrections to their library spectra (Kurucz 1993) so that the spectra produce color-temperature relations in agreement with empirical solar-abundance relations. Corrected theoretical spectra can then be used to extended the relations to other abundances in a differential sense (Lejeune, Cuisinier, & Buser 1997). Their computed solar-abundance relations generally agree with the empirical ones to better than 0.1 mag. Since M67 is very close to solar abundance, this means that the use of LCB tables should almost be equivalent to using empirical color-temperature relations.

In a direct comparison between the models and observations, there are differences in the color positions of the unevolved model main sequences. Some error in absolute color is to be expected because the line lists and line parameters used in the theoretical atmosphere models do not accurately reproduce high-resolution spectra (see, for example, the discussion in §3.1.2 of Girardi et al. (2002)), but generally the hope is that these errors average out, particularly when wide bandpasses are used. However, the Padova isochrones are noticeably redder than the Y2 isochrones with LCB tables at all magnitude levels, in spite of the use of the same set of stellar atmospheres. The smallest color difference occurs near where the solar calibration requires better agreement. Thus, the differences in absolute colors seem to be the result of the corrections made to the synthetic photometry.

In the following discussion, we allow for small shifts in color to accommodate the possibility of zero-point errors in the synthetic colors or photometric calibration. The most robust comparison between observations and theory appears to be using a color difference between main sequence stars below the turnoff (where convective overshooting plays a substantial role) and the warmest giants (at the base of the giant branch). If we shift all of the isochrones so that they match M67 stars at the absolute magnitude of the Sun (Fig. 14), we find that only the Y2 isochrones using the LCB transformation tables roughly reproduce the giant branch color: the Padova isochrones predict giants that are too red by about 0.03 mag, and the Y2 isochrones with GDK tables give giants that are too blue by about 0.06 mag. This is not too surprising because of the empirical color-temperature relations used to correct the spectra used to produce the LCB tables. More surprising is the way that the Y2-LCB isochrones deviate more strongly from the observed main sequence than the Y2-GDK and Padova isochrones. In particular, LCB found that uncorrected theoretical giant spectra deviated more strongly from empirical relations (although mostly higher on the giant branch) than did theoretical dwarf spectra. However, when the GDK tables are used, the theoretical main sequence better matches the observations. In Fig. 2 of Yi et al. (2001) comparing the GDK and LCB color transformations, there is also a feature centered near $`\mathrm{log}T_{\text{eff}}=3.67`$ that does not appear in any of the other color transformations. We will discuss this further in §4.2.3 below.

#### 4.2.2 The Shape of the Turnoff

The largest effect on the shape of the turnoff region in M67 is the algorithm used to model convective overshooting in the cores of turnoff-mass stars. Overshooting can be described in terms of the distance (in units of the pressure scale height $`H_P`$) a convective element goes beyond the classical boundary defined by the Schwarzschild criterion. In examining the Montgomery et al. (1993) dataset for M67, Dinescu et al. (1995) find that earlier models with overshoot of at most $`0.1H_P`$ seem to reproduce the observations best although they did not discuss the details of their comparison.

The Padova group isochrones and version 2 of the Y2 isochrones use similar algorithms to describe the overshooting: no overshooting for low masses ($`M<1.0M_{}`$ for Padova), constant overshoot for higher mass stars ($`0.2H_P`$ for Y2, and approximately $`0.25H_P`$ for $`M1.5M_{}`$ for Padova). Between these two extremes, the amount of overshoot is ramped linearly. The overshooting parameter in the Girardi et al. models ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$) is described in Bressan, Chiosi, & Bertelli (1991; labelled there as $`\lambda `$), and describes overshooting convective elements moving from inside the convective zone, across the classical boundary, and into a radiative region. This is not easily converted to the more typically quoted extent of overshooting beyond the classical edge of the convection zone because it involves the integration of a differential equation for the velocity of a convective element. However, because the acceleration of a convective element becomes negative at the classical convection zone boundary, the overshoot beyond the boundary must be less than one-half the mixing length (Maeder 1975). In the Girardi et al. (2000) models, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c`$ varies as $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c=(M/M_{})1.0`$ between 1.0 and $`1.5M_{}`$. Stars near the turnoff mass in M67 have $`M`$1.25$`M_{}`$, so that the amount of overshoot beyond the zone boundary is less than about $`0.13H_P`$. Girardi et al. (2000) provide isochrones calculated without convective overshooting, and version 1 of the Y2 isochrones did not use overshooting for ages similar to that of M67. In Fig. 15, we compare these four sets of isochrones to our observed data for M67. Note that the amount of overshooting given in the figure is for the higher mass range — for stars at the turnoff, the overshooting will be less.

The age of M67 makes it a particularly tricky test of the core convection because M67 is at a stage in which the morphology of the turnoff star evolutionary tracks changes rapidly as the extent of the convective core decreases with decreasing mass. In addition, the pressure scale height $`H_P\mathrm{}`$ as $`r0`$, so that the use of an algorithm forcing overshooting of a constant fraction of $`H_P`$ is likely to break down in this regime. Roxburgh (1992) and Woo & Demarque (2001) have discussed ways of constraining the amount of overshooting for stars with small convective zones. In the majority of well-studied clusters this is not an important issue, since an age more than a Gyr different than M67’s age is sufficient to make the typical overshoot treatment adequate or to eliminate core convection from cluster stars (e.g. Aparicio et al. 1990). In M67, this issue appears to be critical.

The morphology of the turnoff is the most easily used indicator of the amount of overshooting in the current data. The major changes in morphology from the overshooting are a more noticeable “hook” to the red then blue prior to the SGB, and a change from a more vertical (luminosity change) isochrone to a more horizontal (temperature change) isochrone at the beginning of the SGB (the global $`T_{\text{eff}}`$ maximum). Woo et al. (2003) also discuss the color difference between the turnoff and red giant branch as an indicator of the amount of convective core overshoot. However, based on the results of §4.2.1, current uncertainties in color transformation render this method somewhat questionable at present, particularly because it relies on the relative accuracy of dwarf and giant atmosphere models.

The theoretical interpretation of the features is that the reddest extent of the “hook” corresponds to the beginning of a rapid phase of shrinkage of the extent of convection in the core of the star. At the same time the core hydrogen content is quickly approaching exhaustion, which occurs at the bluest point on the isochrone. Following this, a hydrogen fusion shell source is established around the core. Overshooting significantly affects evolutionary time-scales, most notably lengthening the star’s main sequence life. It also affects the length of the beginning of the subgiant phase by allowing more of the hydrogen near the centre to be consumed, which requires a more substantial and rapid adjustment of structure when the core hydrogen is exhausted. Thus, the distribution of stars in the vicinity of the turnoff on a CMD carries information about the amount of overshooting, although this can be difficult to extract in the case of a relatively star-poor cluster like M67.

There are other difficulties in interpreting M67’s CMD, however. In terms of the observational morphology of the turnoff, we are faced with a “hook” that appears to require some overshooting, but with an extent less than seen in either of the theoretical isochrones with overshooting. The redward-pointing portion of the hook is well-populated and clearly at odds with all of the theoretical isochrones without overshooting. If the four stars we identified in §3.3.7 are truly single stars that are part of the blueward-pointing portion of the “hook”, this also can only be explained with small amounts of overshooting. For example, fig. 5 of Woo et al. (2003) presents synthetic CMDs incorporating different amounts of overshooting for a somewhat younger cluster. Only the models with overshooting of $`0.1H_P`$ have a significant number of single stars on the red half of the blueward-pointing part of the hook and on the bluest parts of the SGB. In addition, higher amounts of overshooting cause the red portion of the hook to overlap the cluster’s blend sequence, something which is not seen in M67. However, the bluest portion of the subgiant branch appears to most closely resemble the no-overshoot models, particularly those of the Padova group.

The manner of our star selection makes it impractical to do a detailed analysis of the numbers of stars in the CMD to examine issues of evolutionary time-scales. However, the mere presence of the gap is interesting. Typically turnoff gaps seen in clusters like M67 have been associated with the shrinkage of the convective core prior to hydrogen exhaustion. However, models indicate that one of the most noticeable differences when overshooting is introduced is the drastic decrease in the amount of time spent on the bluest parts of the SGB immediately after hydrogen exhaustion (see Fig. 16). If the four stars are indeed on the blueward-pointing portion of the hook, they give the impression that the evolutionary tracks should evolve more in luminosity than in surface temperature at the beginning of the SGB, and that the models should be evolving more quickly at the beginning of the SGB to explain the gap. This is crudely consistent with presence of some overshooting, although the exact morphology of the isochrone is still puzzling. Helium diffusion could play an interesting role for M67 turnoff stars by helping to bring additional hydrogen fuel toward the core. The models of the Padova group do not include helium diffusion, while those of the Y2 group do.

Our best interpretation of the turnoff morphology is that a fairly small convective core including some amount of convective overshoot is necessary, but that the extent of the mixed core at hydrogen is small. Because the evolutionary time-scale for the stars increases dramatically once the hydrogen fusion regions reach hydrogen rich gas outside of the regions earlier occupied by a convective core, the presence of a gap puts a lower limit on the extent of the core. If the convective core in a turnoff star is never particularly large, then after core hydrogen exhaustion the situation is similar to that of a lower mass star. If there is not a large region of hydrogen-exhausted gas near the core, then the star does not need to adjust its structure much to find a new, stable configuration. In this sense, the gap in an old cluster like M67 can be said to be the last remnant of the Hertzsprung gap seen in much younger open clusters: when core hydrogen is exhausted in turnoff stars in those clusters, a greater degree of structural readjustment is necessary.

Our interpretation of these features does depend on a small number of stars, some of which could be blue stragglers or unresolved binaries. If all or most of them are single stars though (as we believe), the morphology of the turnoff deserves a more detailed look because it can tightly constrain the behavior of gas in small convective cores.

The exact amount of overshoot has only a small effect on the age inferred from M67’s turnoff. However, 4 Gyr isochrones reproduce most aspects of the upper main sequence and subgiant branch well, so we regard this as the preferred age, and estimate that the uncertainty is less than about 0.5 Gyr. This is in agreement with the value derived by Dinescu et al. (1995), although they used an earlier set of models and different photometry.

#### 4.2.3 The Shape of the Main Sequence

Using $`VI`$ color, the Y2-GDK and Padova isochrones agree with each other and satisfactorily match the shape of the main sequence nearly to $`V=16`$. The Y2-LCB isochrone diverges rather substantially from the M67 SSS by $`V=15.5`$. In all three cases though, the main sequence models become far too blue. We find that the solar-metallicity models of BCAH provide a much better fit to the shape of the main sequence down to the limit of our calibration at $`V=17.8`$. In $`BV`$ color, the Padova and Y2-GDK isochrones still agree, but the Y2-LCB isochrones is a much closer fit to the actual data to $`V16.75`$ (see Fig. 14). This is a clear indication that the color-$`T_{\text{eff}}`$ relations are responsible for much of the disagreement when it comes to fitting the main sequence.

One of the reasons the main sequence color calibration is so difficult is the lack of a good, independently-determined $`T_{\text{eff}}`$ scale for faint dwarfs. Houdashelt, Bell, & Sweigart (2000) examined data for cool (4000 K $`T_{\text{eff}}`$ 6500 K) field stars and found indications that the color-$`T_{\text{eff}}`$ relations for dwarfs and giants diverge for $`T_{\text{eff}}<5000`$ K in $`(VR)_C`$ and $`(VI)_C`$ colors. According to their data, the dwarf stars become redder than the giants at a given $`T_{\text{eff}}`$, which is in the correct direction to explain the discrepancies between models and observations of M67. This could be the result of gravity-sensitive molecular features like TiO and CN that fall in $`V`$, $`R`$, and $`I`$ bands (Houdashelt et al. 2000). The empirical color-$`T_{\text{eff}}`$ relations used to correct the models of LCB (Bessell 1979, 1995) are systematically bluer than the Houdashelt et al. field dwarf values (see their fig. 12), and Bessell (1979) actually used field giant data to set the relation for cool dwarfs, assuming the two are equivalent. But as Houdashelt et al. state, systematic errors in $`T_{\text{eff}}`$ measurements for the coolest dwarfs could also be responsible for the differences between field dwarf and field giant color-$`T_{\text{eff}}`$ relations.

According to empirical relations, $`T_{\text{eff}}=5000K`$ corresponds to $`(VI)_0=0.93`$. In our M67 data, this roughly corresponds to the color at which the Padova and Y2-GDK isochrones begin diverging from the bluest stars on the M67 main sequence. The Y2-LCB models diverge closer to $`(VI)=0.85`$, which appears to be due to a lack of empirical data to calibrate the $`(VI)T_{\text{eff}}`$ relation (P. Westera, private communication).

The primary differences in input physics between the best-fitting models of BCAH and those of the Y2 and Padova groups are in the equation of state and in the surface boundary conditions. BCAH use recent non-grey stellar atmosphere models as boundary conditions for their stellar models and the equation of state of Saumon, Chabrier, & Van Horn (1995; hereafter SCVH). The Padova isochrones make use of the MHD equation of state (Mihalas et al., 1990) and opacities from Alexander & Ferguson (1994) for surface layers. The Y2 isochrones also use Alexander & Ferguson (1994) opacities at the stellar surface. For the equation of state they use the OPAL (Rogers et al., 1996) tables at temperatures down to $`\mathrm{log}T=3.7`$, and then revert to a Saha equation of state with Debye-Hückel correction for Coulomb interactions.

SCVH have shown that significant differences exist between their equation of state and others, and that the MHD or OPAL equations of state are the most accurate for stars of solar mass or above while the SCVH equation of state is preferred for low mass stars due to its inclusion of non-ideal effects and molecule formation. However, Chabrier & Baraffe (1997) indicate that comparisons of models calculated using the SCVH and MHD equations of state show agreement to better than 1.3% in $`T_{\text{eff}}`$ and $`L`$ for stars with $`M0.4M_{}`$. The Y2 models used a simpler equation of state at low temperatures ($`\mathrm{log}T<3.7`$). The Y2 models reach this threshold in the surface layers for stars with mass near $`0.81M_{}`$ ($`M_V6.3`$), which appears to be at a point on the main sequence that is too faint to explain the deviations. So, our feeling is that current equation of state differences are not likely to be of high importance in the range of star masses we have observed.

At low $`T_{\text{eff}}`$, studies (e.g. Chabrier & Baraffe 1997) have forcefully shown the importance of the surface boundary condition in determining the luminosity and spectral type of the star. For fully convective stars, the temperature gradient is forced to be very close to the adiabatic temperature gradient, so that the surface conditions (where the adiabaticity breaks down) essentially set the entire interior structure of the star. Unfortunately, stellar atmospheres at low $`T_{\text{eff}}`$ are strongly non-grey (e.g. Chabrier & Baraffe 1997), so that to adequately determine the interior structure, detailed stellar atmospheres have to be used as surface boundary conditions. While the BCAH models diverge from deep photometry of open clusters for $`T_{\text{eff}}<3700`$ K (Chabrier & Baraffe, 1997), this limit is fainter on the main sequence than either the Padova or Y2 have been tested. In addition, BCAH use color transformation tables derived in a self-consistent way from their model atmospheres while the Padova and Y2 isochrones use tables derived from atmospheres that are not applied as surface boundary conditions. These are the primary reasons behind the different CMD positions of the BCAH main sequence and those of the Padova and Y2 groups.

Differences between the isochrones due to the assumed equation of state, color-temperature transformations, and surface boundary conditions get severe the fainter on the main sequence the models go (e.g. von Hippel et al. 2002). As yet, the Y2 and Padova isochrones have not been rigorously tested in this regime (see Yi et al. 2001), so it is not entirely fair to expect agreement as yet. However, when the models are shifted to match up with the observed data at the magnitude level of the Sun (thereby differentially removing small effects of the differences in age and composition, and the larger effects of differences in color zero points) all of the models except those of BCAH are clearly too blue. von Hippel et al. (2002) found a similar discrepancy extending to fainter levels for the cluster M35. However, M67 has a composition that is closer to that of the Sun, and so should closely match the solar neighborhood stars used to calibrate color-$`T_{\text{eff}}`$ relations.

## 5 Conclusions

We have used the extensive database of observations we have gathered in our variability studies to produce a high-precision CMD for the old solar-abundance open cluster M67. The age of M67 has created turnoff stars that are showing the effects of overshooting in their small convective cores. M67 thereby provides a severe test of algorithms used to model stars with masses $`1.1M/M_{}1.3`$.

If M67 data is calibrated to fainter magnitudes in the future, it will be possible to more strongly test the physics involved in the computation of the stellar atmospheres of main sequence dwarfs. Because of the solar abundance of the cluster, M67 can be extremely valuable in constraining color transformations for main sequence stars of solar abundance. Because solar abundance stars often provide the basis for determining the transformations at lower abundances, the data for M67 has wide application.

The accurate determination of the lower main sequence fiducial line would also open the possibility of predicting the properties of both stars in unresolved binaries having mass ratios with $`q0.7`$. In this range, a binary system can be uniquely deconvolved into its components under the assumption that there are just two non-interacting stars. Our photometry does not go deep enough down the main sequence to allow us to make this deconvolution without additional data. With just the addition of a reasonably good theoretical main sequence line, it would be possible to determine a photometric mass ratio distribution for a fairly large sample of stars in this cluster. Because M67 appears to be a cluster that is quite relaxed dynamically, this would give us the opportunity of directly seeing how the cluster dynamics have affected the binary stars.

## Acknowledgments

E.L.S. would like to thank the director of Mount Laguna Observatory (P. Etzel) for generous allocations of telescope time that made this study possible, M. Shetrone for many useful conversations, M. van den Berg for very useful conversations and for thorough comments on the manuscript, P. Westera for insight into $`T_{\text{eff}}`$-color relations, and the anonymous referee for valuable comments about mechanisms broadening a single star sequence that resulted in §3.2. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France, and was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-0098696.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In recent years there has been renewed interest in the degeneracies exhibited by the integrable six-vertex model and the associated XXZ quantum spin-chain,

$$H=\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\sigma _m^+\sigma _{m+1}^{}+\sigma _m^{}\sigma _{m+1}^++\frac{q+q^1}{4}\sigma _m^z\sigma _{m+1}^z,\sigma _{M+1}^\pm \sigma _1^\pm ,\sigma _{M+1}^z\sigma _1^z,$$
(1)
when the anisotropy parameter is evaluated at roots of unity $`q^N=1`$. In  Deguchi, Fabricius and McCoy showed for the commensurate sectors $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$ (with $`S^z`$ being the total spin) that the model with periodic boundary conditions exhibits an $`\stackrel{~}{sl}_2=sl_2[t,t^1]`$ loop algebra symmetry. Outside these commensurate sectors the algebraic structure of the symmetry algebra has so far not been established except for the case of the XX model, i.e. vanishing anisotropy parameter, and a numerical construction for $`N=3,`$ see  for details.

In two recent works  the twisted XXZ chain at roots of unity has been investigated,

$$H^\lambda =\underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}\sigma _m^+\sigma _{m+1}^{}+\sigma _m^{}\sigma _{m+1}^++\frac{q+q^1}{4}\sigma _m^z\sigma _{m+1}^z,\sigma _{M+1}^\pm \lambda ^{\pm 1}\sigma _1^\pm ,\sigma _{M+1}^z\sigma _1^z.$$
(2)
In  various operators have been constructed which (anti)commute with the twisted XXZ Hamiltonian and the associated transfer matrix. Except for the cases $`\lambda =1`$ the algebraic structure underlying these operators has not been identified. Similar as for the periodic case the $`\stackrel{~}{sl}_2`$ symmetry algebra for $`\lambda =1`$ has been restricted to certain commensurate spin-sectors. The discussion in  has also been extended to include the case of the inhomogeneous chain.

In the second work  the construction of operators creating complete strings for the periodic homogeneous chain carried out in  has been generalised to cover also the twisted and inhomogeneous case. The construction of the symmetry algebra underlying the degeneracies in the spectra of the Hamiltonian and the transfer matrix has not been investigated.

In this letter it is shown that when the twist parameter is chosen to depend on the total spin, i.e. $`\lambda =q^{\pm 2S^z}`$, the quantum spin chain Hamiltonian and the associated twisted six-vertex transfer matrix exhibit infinite-dimensional non-abelian symmetries and their algebraic structure is identified with the lower respectively upper Borel subalgebra $`U(b_{})U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ in *all* spin sectors. In the sectors $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$ one obviously recovers the periodic chain and the symmetry is enhanced to the full loop algebra $`U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ reproducing the aforementioned result of . However, also for the periodic case we give a novel proof of the symmetry which only uses the framework of the algebraic Bethe ansatz  and quantum group theory . In particular, it avoids having first to prove translation invariance, cf. . The extension to the inhomogeneous case is also discussed.

## 2 The twisted six-vertex model

Starting point of our discussion is the six-vertex $`R`$-matrix which is given by

$$R(z,q)=\frac{a+b}{2}11+\frac{ab}{2}\sigma ^z\sigma ^z+c\sigma ^+\sigma ^{}+c^{}\sigma ^{}\sigma ^+$$
(3)
where we choose the following parametrization of the Boltzmann weights

$$a=1,b=\frac{1z}{1zq^2}q,c=\frac{1q^2}{1zq^2},c^{}=cz.$$
(4)
Here $`z`$ denotes the (multiplicative) spectral parameter and $`q`$ is the deformation parameter appearing in the spin-chain Hamiltonians (1) and (2). Central to our discussion will be the properties of the (inhomogeneous) six-vertex monodromy matrix which one usually decomposes over the two-dimensional auxiliary space,

$$R_{0M}(z/\zeta _M)\mathrm{}R_{01}(z/\zeta _1)=\sigma ^+\sigma ^{}A+\sigma ^+B+\sigma ^{}C+\sigma ^{}\sigma ^+D.$$
(5)
The explicit dependence on the spectral parameter and the inhomogeneity parameters $`\zeta =(\zeta _1,\mathrm{},\zeta _M)`$ will be often suppressed in the notation in order to unburden the formulas. The twisted six-vertex transfer matrix is now defined as the trace

$$T^\lambda (z)=\underset{0}{\mathrm{T}r}\lambda ^{\frac{\sigma ^z\mathrm{𝟏}}{2}}R_{0M}(z/\zeta _M)\mathrm{}R_{01}(z/\zeta _1)=\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}A(z)+\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}D(z).$$
(6)
For the homogeneous chain $`\zeta _1=\mathrm{}=\zeta _M=1`$ we obtain up to an additive constant the spin-chain Hamiltonian (2) as the following logarithmic derivative

$$H^\lambda =(qq^1)T^\lambda (z)^1z\frac{d}{dz}T^\lambda (z)|_{z=1}+M\frac{q+q^1}{2}.$$
(7)
Obviously, the twist does not alter the algebraic relations of the Yang-Baxter algebra defined in terms of $`\{A,B,C,D\}`$ in (5). In order to discuss the symmetries of (2) and (6) when the deformation parameter $`q`$ is a root of unity we first establish a number of relations between the Chevalley-Serre basis of the quantum group $`U_q(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ and the matrix elements of the monodromy matrix (5) for generic $`q`$ and $`\lambda `$.

## 3 The Chevalley-Serre basis of $`U_q(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$

It is well known that the underlying algebraic structure of the six-vertex model is the quantum loop algebra $`U_q(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$. Its algebraic definition  in terms of the Chevalley-Serre basis is

$$k_ie_jk_i^1=q^{𝒜_{ij}}e_j,k_if_jk_i^1=q^{𝒜_{ij}}f_j,k_ik_j=k_jk_i,i,j=0,1$$
(8)
where the Cartan matrix reads

$$𝒜=\left(\begin{array}{cc}2& 2\\ 2& 2\end{array}\right).$$

In addition one has to impose for $`ij`$ the Chevalley-Serre relations,

$`e_i^3e_j[3]_qe_i^2e_je_i+[3]_qe_ie_je_i^2e_je_i^3`$ $`=`$ $`0`$
$`f_i^3f_j[3]_qf_i^2f_jf_i+[3]_qf_if_jf_i^2f_jf_i^3`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (9)
The quantum algebra can be made into a Hopf algebra upon defining a coproduct which we choose to be

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(e_i)=1e_i+k_ie_i,\mathrm{\Delta }(f_i)=f_ik_i^1+1f_i,\mathrm{\Delta }(k_i)=k_ik_i,i=0,1.$$
(10)
The opposite coproduct $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{\text{op}}`$ is obtained by permuting the two factors. The six-vertex $`R`$-matrix intertwines the two coproduct structures in the case of the spin $`1/2`$ representation, i.e.

$$R(z/\zeta )(\pi _z\pi _\zeta )\mathrm{\Delta }(x)=(\pi _z\pi _\zeta )\mathrm{\Delta }^{\text{op}}(x)R(z/\zeta )$$
(11)
with the representation $`\pi _z:U_q(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)\mathrm{E}nd^2`$ given in terms of Pauli matrices by

$`\pi _z(e_0)`$ $`=`$ $`z\sigma ^{},\pi _z(f_0)=z^1\sigma ^+,\pi _z(k_0)=q^{\sigma ^z}`$
$`\pi _z(e_1)`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma ^+,\pi _z(f_1)=\sigma ^{},\pi _z(k_1)=q^{\sigma ^z}.`$ (12)
From the fusion relation $`(1\mathrm{\Delta })R=R_{13}R_{12}`$ an analogous intertwining relation follows for the monodromy matrix (5) with regard to the quantum group generators on the quantum spin-chain $`\pi _{\zeta _1}\mathrm{}\pi _{\zeta _M}`$,

$`K_i`$ $`=`$ $`q^{\epsilon _i\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}q^{\epsilon _i\sigma ^z}=q^{\epsilon _i2S^z}`$
$`E_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}}\zeta _m^{\delta _{i0}}q^{\epsilon _i\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}q^{\epsilon _i\sigma ^z}\underset{m^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{\epsilon _i}}1\mathrm{}1`$
$`F_i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{M}{}}}\zeta _m^{\delta _{i0}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}\mathrm{}1\underset{m^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{\epsilon _i}}q^{\epsilon _i\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}q^{\epsilon _i\sigma ^z},\epsilon _i:=(1)^{i+1}.`$ (13)
Here $`i=0,1`$ as before***Notice that we have chosen to work in the homogeneous gradation in (12) in accordance with the parametrization (4) of the Boltzmann weights. Equally well, we could have used the principal gradation in which the six-vertex R-matrix (3) is symmetric. Then all Chevalley-Serre generators in (12) would acquire a spectral parameter dependence and the generators (13) would correspond to those discussed in equation (50) of . The choice of the gradation does not alter the algebraic structure.. From the intertwining property of the monodromy matrix one then obtains the commutators

$$[A,K_1]=[D,K_1]=0,K_1BK_1^1=q^2B,K_1CK_1^1=q^2C$$
(14)
and

$`[E_1,A]_q`$ $`=`$ $`K_1C,[E_1,B]_{q^1}=AK_1D,[E_1,C]_q=0,[E_1,D]_{q^1}=C`$
$`[A,F_1]_{q^1}`$ $`=`$ $`BK_1^1,[B,F_1]_{q^1}=0,[C,F_1]_q=ADK_1^1,[D,F_1]_q=B.`$ (15)
Here $`[x,y]_q=xyqyx`$. The commutation relations for the affine generators $`\{E_0,F_0,K_0\}`$ are obtained by the simultaneous replacement

$$(A,B,C,D)(D,z^1C,zB,A)\text{and }(E_1,F_1,K_1)(E_0,F_0,K_0).$$
(16)
Note that for the homogeneous case $`\zeta _1=\mathrm{}=\zeta _M=1`$ the above algebra automorphism is implemented by the spin-reversal operator $`=\sigma ^x\mathrm{}\sigma ^x`$,

$$E_i=E_{i+1},F_i=F_{i+1},K_i=K_{i+1},i_2.$$
(17)
Instead of the spin $`1/2`$ representation (12) one might of course equally well use evaluation representations of higher spin in the definition of the spin-chain generators (13), similar as it has been done in . As long as the auxiliary space is not altered the form of the commutation relations (14) and (15) is unchanged. From (15) one now deduces by a straightforward computation the following relations for the twisted six-vertex transfer matrix

$`E_1^nT^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`(q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}A+q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}D)E_1^n+\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}[n]_q(1\lambda K_1)CE_1^{n1},`$
$`E_0^nT^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`(q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}A+q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}D)E_0^n+\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}z[n]_q(1\lambda ^1K_0)BE_0^{n1}`$ (18)
and

$`F_1^nT^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`(q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}A+q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}D)F_1^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}[n]_qq^n(1\lambda K_1^1)F_1^{n1}B,`$
$`F_0^nT^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`(q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}A+q^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}D)F_0^n\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}z^1[n]_qq^n(1\lambda ^1K_0^1)F_0^{n1}C.`$ (19)
We are now in the position to discuss the symmetry algebras of the twisted six-vertex transfer matrix at roots of unity.

## 4 Infinite non-abelian symmetries at $`q^N=1`$

Henceforth we set the deformation parameter $`q`$ to be a primitive root of unity of order $`N3`$. This entails significant changes in the algebraic structure of the quantum loop algebra $`U_q(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$. There now exist two versions of the algebra, one of them, which we keep denoting by $`U_q(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2),`$ has an enlarged centre compared to generic $`q`$. Its representation theory has been discussed to some extent in . The other version from which we will obtain the symmetry generators is the restricted quantum algebra $`U_q^{\text{res}}(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$. It can be realised as automorphisms over $`U_q(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$. Details on its representation theory can be found in . For the present purposes it will be important that for evaluation representations of the form (12) used in the definition of the quantum spin-chain one can write down explicit formulas for the generators of $`U_q^{\text{res}}(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2):`$ for some $`\stackrel{~}{q}`$ with $`\stackrel{~}{q}^N1`$ and $`n`$ we set

$$\begin{array}{c}E_1^{(n)}=\underset{\stackrel{~}{q}q}{lim}E_1^n(\stackrel{~}{q})/[n]_{\stackrel{~}{q}}!=\hfill \\ \hfill _{m_i}q^{n\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}\underset{m_1^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^+}q^{(n1)\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}\underset{m_2^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^+}q^{(n2)\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}q^{\sigma ^z}\underset{m_n^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^+}1\mathrm{}1\end{array}$$

$$\begin{array}{c}E_0^{(n)}=\underset{\stackrel{~}{q}q}{lim}E_0^n(\stackrel{~}{q})/[n]_{\stackrel{~}{q}}!=\hfill \\ \hfill _{m_i}\zeta _{m_1}\mathrm{}\zeta _{m_n}q^{n\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}\underset{m_1^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{}}q^{(1n)\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}\underset{m_2^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{}}q^{(2n)\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}q^{\sigma ^z}\underset{m_n^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{}}1\mathrm{}1\end{array}$$

and

$$\begin{array}{c}F_1^{(n)}=\underset{\stackrel{~}{q}q}{lim}F_1^n(\stackrel{~}{q})/[n]_{\stackrel{~}{q}}!=\hfill \\ \hfill _{m_i}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}\mathrm{}1\underset{m_1^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{}}q^{\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}\underset{m_2^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{}}q^{2\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}q^{(n1)\sigma ^z}\underset{m_n^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^{}}\mathrm{}q^{n\sigma ^z}\end{array}$$

$$\begin{array}{c}F_0^{(n)}=\underset{\stackrel{~}{q}q}{lim}F_0^n(\stackrel{~}{q})/[n]_{\stackrel{~}{q}}!=\hfill \\ \hfill _{m_i}\zeta _{m_1}^1\mathrm{}\zeta _{m_n}^1\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}\mathrm{}1\underset{m_1^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^+}q^{\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}\underset{m_2^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^+}q^{2\sigma ^z}\mathrm{}q^{(n1)\sigma ^z}\underset{m_n^{\text{th}}}{\sigma ^+}\mathrm{}q^{n\sigma ^z}\end{array}$$

Here the sums are restricted to the $`n`$-tuples $`(m_1,\mathrm{},m_n)`$ with $`1m_1<\mathrm{}<m_nM`$. Remarkably, the subalgebra generated by the above operators with powers equal to

$$n=N^{}:=\{\begin{array}{cc}N,& N\text{odd}\\ N/2,& N\text{even}\end{array}$$

is isomorphic to the “classical” loop algebra $`U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ . The projection $`U_q^{\text{res}}(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ is referred to as the quantum Frobenius homomorphism . In order to stress that this is an infinite-dimensional algebra we rewrite $`U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ in terms of its mode basis

$$h_{m+n}=[x_m^+,x_n^{}],[h_m,x_n^\pm ]=\pm 2x_{m+n}^\pm ,[h_m,h_n]=0,[x_{m+1}^\pm ,x_n^\pm ]=[x_m^\pm ,x_{n+1}^\pm ].$$
(20)
The generators $`\{x_m^\pm ,h_m\}_m`$ can be successively obtained from the Chevalley-Serre basis via the correspondence

$$E_1^{(N^{})}x_0^+,F_1^{(N^{})}x_0^{},E_0^{(N^{})}x_1^{},F_0^{(N^{})}x_1^+,2S^z/N^{}h_0.$$
(21)
For later purposes let us identify the upper and lower Borel subalgebras $`U(b_\pm )U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$. In terms of the Chevalley-Serre basis they are generated by $`\{E_0^{(N^{})},E_1^{(N^{})},2S^z/N^{}\}`$ and $`\{F_0^{(N^{})},F_1^{(N^{})},2S^z/N^{}\}`$, respectively. In the mode basis they simply correspond to the algebras associated with the positive and negative integers,

$$U(b_+)=\{x_m^\pm ,h_m\}_{m_{>0}}\{x_0^+,h_0\}\text{and }U(b_{})=\{x_m^\pm ,h_m\}_{m_{<0}}\{x_0^{},h_0\}.$$
(22)
We are now in the position to discuss the various symmetries of the twisted six-vertex model at roots of unity. Taking the root-of-unity limit in (18) and (19) we obtain the relations

$`E_1^{(N^{})}T^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`q^N^{}T^\lambda E_1^{(N^{})}+\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}(1\lambda K_1)CE_1^{(N^{}1)}`$
$`E_0^{(N^{})}T^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`q^N^{}T^\lambda E_0^{(N^{})}+\lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}z(1\lambda ^1K_0)BE_0^{(N^{}1)}`$ (23)
and

$`F_1^{(N^{})}T^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`F_1^{(N^{})}q^N^{}T^\lambda \lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}q^N^{}(1\lambda K_1^1)F_1^{(N^{}1)}B`$
$`F_0^{(N^{})}T^\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`F_0^{(N^{})}q^N^{}T^\lambda \lambda ^{\frac{1}{2}}z^1q^N^{}(1\lambda ^1K_0^1)F_0^{(N^{}1)}C.`$ (24)
Thus, upon inserting $`K_1=K_0^1=q^{2S^z}`$ we now infer immediately that whenever the terms in the brackets vanish we obtain a symmetry algebra. For periodic boundary conditions, $`\lambda =1`$, we recover the previously obtained loop algebra symmetry $`U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ in the commensurate sectors $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$ . For twisted boundary conditions with $`\lambda =q^n,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0}<n<N,`$ we apparently only obtain “half” the symmetry algebra, namely $`U(b_\pm )`$, in the spin sectors $`2S^z=\pm n\mathrm{m}odN`$. This is due to the fact that the Cartan generators $`K_i`$ appear with inverse powers in (24) compared to the ones in (23). Obviously, we again recover the full loop algebra as a symmetry for even roots of unity and $`n=N^{}`$, i.e. the case of antiperiodic boundary conditions $`\lambda =q^N^{}=1`$ discussed in .

So far all discussed symmetries have only been established for certain commensurate spin-sectors. If we choose, however, the twist parameter to depend on the total spin the infinite-dimensional non-abelian algebras (22) extend to a symmetry for *all* spin sectors. Namely, we now consider the transfer matrices

$$T^\pm (z)=\underset{0}{\mathrm{T}r}q^{\pm \sigma ^zS^z}R_{0M}(z/\zeta _M)\mathrm{}R_{01}(z/\zeta _1)=q^{\pm S^z}A(z)+q^{S^z}D(z).$$
(25)
At first sight one might be worried that the twist parameter is now an operator instead of a mere constant. But according to (14) we have $`[A,q^{S^z}]=[D,q^{S^z}]=0`$ whence upon employing the standard relations of the six-vertex Yang-Baxter algebra the integrability of the model is ensured, i.e.

$$[T^\pm (z),T^\pm (w)]=[A(z),D(w)]+[D(z),A(w)]=0.$$
(26)
Thus, all results generalise in a straightforward manner to this case. The only difference is that in the commutation relations (18) and (19) we now collect additional factors $`\stackrel{~}{q}^{\pm n}`$ on the left hand side of the equations as we have to “pull” $`\stackrel{~}{q}^{\pm S^z}`$ past the generators $`E_i^n,F_i^n`$,

$`E_1^n(\stackrel{~}{q}^{nS^z}A+\stackrel{~}{q}^{n+S^z}D)`$ $`=`$ $`(\stackrel{~}{q}^{nS^z}A+\stackrel{~}{q}^{n+S^z}D)E_1^n`$
$`F_1^n(\stackrel{~}{q}^{n+S^z}A+\stackrel{~}{q}^{nS^z}D)`$ $`=`$ $`(\stackrel{~}{q}^{n+S^z}A+\stackrel{~}{q}^{nS^z}D)F_1^n.`$ (27)
The relations for the affine step operators follow from (16). As a consequence the transfer matrices $`T^\pm `$ now always commute with the generators of (22) in the root of unity limit $`\stackrel{~}{q}q`$ (instead of anticommuting for even roots of unity cf. equations (23) and (24)),

$$[T^+(z),U(b_{})]=0\text{and }[T^{}(z),U(b_+)]=0.$$
(28)
These symmetries hold for all spin sectors and are the main result of this letter. Note that the case of periodic boundary conditions  is contained in these models for the sectors $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$, where both transfer matrices coincide and the symmetry is enhanced to the full loop algebra.

## 5 Conclusions

Let us summarize the established symmetry algebras for the twisted inhomogeneous six-vertex model and their corresponding commensurate sectors in the following table,

| twist | symmetry | spin-sector |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $`\lambda =1`$ | $`U(\stackrel{~}{sl}_2)`$ | $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$ |
| $`\lambda =q^n`$ | $`U(b_\pm )`$ | $`2S^z=n\mathrm{m}odN`$ |
| $`\lambda =q^{2S^z}`$ | $`U(b_\pm )`$ | all sectors |

Table 1. The various symmetry algebras for the twisted six-vertex model at a primitive root of unity $`q^N=1`$ and the spin-sectors in which they have been constructed explicitly.

Note that the above findings do not exclude the possibility that the symmetries found  for the boundary conditions $`\lambda q^{\pm 2S^z}`$ can be extended to all spin-sectors as well. For periodic boundary conditions $`\lambda =1`$ it has been argued in  that one might have to use projection operators to obtain the symmetry algebra in the incommensurate sectors. As mentioned in the introduction this has been explicitly demonstrated at the free fermion point, i.e. the XX model ($`N/2=N^{}=2`$). For $`N^{}2`$ it has been proven that operators of the type $`E_1^nE_0^n,E_1^{N^{}n}E_0^{N^{}n}`$ etc. commute with the transfer matrix when $`\lambda =1`$ and $`2S^z=2n\mathrm{m}odN`$, cf. equation (3.42) and Section 3.5, Appendix A.5 in . In equation (3.43) of the same work eight operators are stated which should (anti)commute with the transfer matrix in the incommensurate sector $`2S^z=2n\mathrm{m}odN`$ and a numerical procedure is described how the loop algebra relations have been verified for $`N^{}=3`$.

For the transfer matrices (25) we obviously do not need any projection operators to extend the symmetry to all spin-sectors which indicates that these models possess a higher level of degeneracies in their spectrum compared to the other boundary conditions. That this is indeed the case has been numerically verified in the spin-sectors $`S^z=2,1`$ of the $`M=6`$ spin-chain when $`q^3=1`$; see Graph 1 and Graph 2. Furthermore, our results for the twisted case when $`\lambda q^{\pm 2S^z}`$ suggest that in the incommensurate sectors one might also encounter a smaller symmetry algebra as the spin-sector $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$ is clearly distinguished.

We emphasize again that in comparison with previously established non-abelian symmetries, e.g. the *finite* quantum group symmetry $`U_q(sl_2)`$ for the chain with open boundary conditions , the symmetries established here involve *infinite*-dimensional algebras which impose more powerful restrictions. The next step in this context is to relate the representation theory of these algebras to the Bethe ansatz.

For periodic boundary conditions $`\lambda =1`$ this has already partially been done in . In  creation operators involving complete strings have been constructed which involve two polynomials depending on the Bethe roots. Based on numerical results one of these polynomials has been conjectured  to coincide with the classical limit ($`q1`$) of the Drinfeld polynomial  which describes the irreducible representations of the loop algebra  in the sectors $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$. The previously formulated conjecture  that the regular XXZ Bethe vectors correspond to the highest weight vectors of the loop algebra has been investigated in  by means of the algebraic Bethe ansatz. Also here the results have been limited to the commensurate sectors $`2S^z=0\mathrm{m}odN`$ where the algebraic structure of the symmetry generators has been identified. In  the degeneracies of the periodic six-vertex model have been investigated from a different point of view by applying representation theory to construct analogues of Baxter’s $`Q`$-operator. In  the classical Drinfeld polynomial has been identified in the spectrum of these $`Q`$-operators for several explicit examples when $`N=3`$.

Clearly, the advantage of imposing the quasi-periodic boundary conditions $`\lambda =q^{\pm 2S^z}`$ is that the symmetry algebra is now known for all spin-sectors while at the same time leaving the algebraic structure of the Bethe ansatz largely unchanged. This makes the twisted model (25) an ideal candidate for representation theoretic investigations and one can expect to find similar results as for the periodic case. Of particular interest in this context is also the study of finite-size effects in the thermodynamic limit, similar to those done in existing numerical investigations of the twisted XXZ chain e.g. . These issues will be addressed in a forthcoming paper .

Finally, it needs to be pointed out that the proof of the infinite-dimensional symmetries given in this article has only made use of the intertwining property of the monodromy matrix. This property is common to a large class of integrable vertex models associated with trigonometric solutions to the Yang-Baxter equation and quantum affine (super)algebras. Despite the obvious modifications in the algebraic structure of the Yang-Baxter algebra we expect that the results found here can be extended to these models similar as the periodic case has been generalised to other models in  and  (albeit with different methods).

Acknowledgments. Part of this work has been done during a research stay at Bergische Universität Wuppertal and the author would like to thank the group of Andreas Klümper for their hospitality, in particular Frank Göhmann for his kind invitation. The author is also grateful to Harry Braden, Tetsuo Deguchi and Barry McCoy for comments on a draft version of this letter. This work has been financially supported by the EPSRC Grant GR/R93773/01.

Graph 1. The eigenvalues for the periodic XXZ Hamiltonian (1) with $`M=6`$ as a function of the deformation parameter $`q=\mathrm{exp}2\pi ix/3`$. The eigenvalues for the spin sector $`S^z=2`$ are shown in red colour. The eigenvalues corresponding to the two inner lines are each doubly degenerate. The eigenvalues corresponding to the spin $`S^z=1`$ sector are shown in black colour, also here some of them are doubly degenerate. At the root-of-unity points $`x=1/2,1`$ we see that additional degeneracies occur between eigenvalues from the two different spin sectors. Note that these are incommensurate sectors. The distinguished points $`x=3/4,3/2`$ correspond to the XX model and the case when $`q=1`$.

Graph 2. The eigenvalues for the twisted XXZ Hamiltonian (2) with the twist depending on the spin $`\lambda =q^{2S^z}`$. As in the periodic case the eigenvalues in the spin-sector $`S^z=2`$ and $`S^z=1`$ are displayed in red and black, respectively. Unlike in the periodic case the degeneracies of the Hamiltonian within the respective spin sectors are lifted. In addition, we see that at the root-of-unity values $`x=1/2,1`$ now all six eigenvalues of the $`S^z=2`$ sector become degenerate with eigenvalues in the $`S^z=1`$ sector. These degeneracies indicate the discussed $`U\left(b_\pm \right)`$ symmetries.