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# Searching for non-Gaussianity in the VSA data

## 1 Introduction

The search for non-Gaussianity in the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is of major importance to modern cosmology. Different fundamental theories of structure formation predict markedly different non-Gaussian CMB signatures, making the quantification of any such signatures a powerful discriminator between these possibilities. Measurements of the CMB angular power spectrum have now ruled out the classic non-Gaussian example of topological defects as the primary method of generating CMB anisotropy, although the possibility of a sub-dominant contribution remains. Recent work on different varieties of the inflationary paradigm (e.g. Peebles, 1999; Wang & Kamionkowski, 2000; Bartolo & Liddle, 2002) has shown that different forms of inflation can also be distinguished by the characterisation of any non-Gaussianity present in the CMB.

There are other very good reasons to search for non-Gaussianity in the CMB. Much of CMB cosmology centres on the accurate determination of the angular power spectrum. If the CMB fluctuations form a Gaussian random field, then the power spectrum completely characterises its statistical properties. Therefore, the detection of any non-Gaussianity would indicate that there is further information to be gathered. It is also the case that, with one exception (Rocha et al., 2001), all power spectrum analyses of CMB data assume the data to be Gaussian. As with any assumption, this must be tested if we are to have confidence in the results.

There is also the consideration of contamination of CMB data sets. Extragalactic sources, Sunyaev-Z’eldovich decrements and the various Galactic foregrounds all play their part in contaminating the CMB. Moreover, they all introduce non-Gaussianity into the data, making non-Gaussianity testing an excellent way to identify their presence. Furthermore, data contamination can occur other than by the telescope seeing something unwanted in the sky. Systematic effects are invariably an issue. The detection of non-Gaussianity in the COBE data by Ferreira et al. (1998) was traced to such an effect (Banday et al., 2000) and, in general, non-Gaussianity testing can be extremely useful in identifying and removing systematics.

As a consequence of the many-fold importance of non-Gaussianity testing to CMB cosmology, many different techniques have been developed to investigate it (see e.g. Ferreira et al., 1997; Hobson et al., 1999; Rocha et al., 2001; Verde & Heavens, 2001; Hansen et al., 2002; Chiang et al., 2002; Aghanim et al., 2003). A number of techniques have also been applied to the data from various CMB instruments over the last few years (see e.g. Wu et al., 2001; Polenta et al., 2002; Chiang et al., 2003; Komatsu et al., 2003; Troia et al., 2003; Santos et al., 2003) These analyses have shown the practical application of non-Gaussianity testing, particularly the importance of robust Monte Carlo simulation for determining the significance level of any result.

In this paper we present the results of applying a selection of non-Gaussianity tests to the VSA data set first presented in its entirety in Grainge et al. (2003) (Paper V hereafter) and Slosar et al. (2003) (Paper VI hereafter). Results from the VSA in its compact configuration have already been presented in Watson et al. (2003), Taylor et al. (2003), Scott et al. (2003), and Rubiño-Martin et al. (2003), (hereafter Papers I - IV respectively).

## 2 Interferometric observations of the CMB

### 2.1 The VSA observations

The VSA is a 14-element interferometric telescope operating with a 1.5 GHz observing bandwidth, centred at 34 GHz for the data analysed in this paper. It has been used in two distinct configurations, the compact array (covering the multipole range $`\mathrm{}150`$$`900`$ with a 34 GHz primary beam FWHM of $`4.6^{}`$) and the extended array (extending to multipoles as high as $`\mathrm{}1400`$ with a 34 GHz primary beam FWHM of $`2.0^{}`$).

The VSA observing strategy has focussed so far on making deep observations on 3 relatively small patches of sky (named the VSA1, VSA2 and VSA3 mosaics). These cover a total of 101 square degrees of sky, with each region comprising the data from either five or six separate pointing centres (three extended array fields and either two or three compact array fields). These individual fields are coherently mosaiced to produce maps and power spectra.

Using a combination of a 15 GHz blind survey (Waldram et al., 2003) and regular monitoring observations made at 34 GHz by the VSA’s dedicated source subtraction interferometer, we have subtracted all sources with flux densities $`S_{34GHz}>20`$ mJy (or, in the case of the compact array fields, 80 mJy) from our data.

The data set analysed in this paper is described more fully in Paper V.

### 2.2 The VSA maps

Some of our chosen tests operate on CMB maps produced from our data. We use a maximum-entropy method (MEM) based on that of Maisinger et al. (1997) to produce mosaiced maps of the VSA data. Maisinger et al. show that this method produces more accurate reconstructions than the simpler Wiener filter approach. Furthermore, it has been shown (Maisinger et al., 1998) that this method accurately reconstructs non-Gaussian features in CMB maps, such as the prominent hot spots produced by cosmic strings. This is not true of Wiener filtering.

The MEM maps of the three VSA mosaics are shown in Fig. 1. Well outside the FWHM of the primary beams the data contain negligible useful information about the CMB structure. Therefore, the MEM maps show no features towards their edges. As these featureless regions contain no useful CMB information, we select only the central region of our maps for analysis. In all cases these regions are 128$`\times `$128 pixels, corresponding to $`7.36^{}\times 7.36^{}`$. An example of this is shown in Fig. 1 (bottom right). It can be seen that the region size corresponds approximately to the combined area within the FWHM of the primary beams.

It is noted that this choice of pixel size significantly oversamples the VSA data set considered here. For example, the compact array synthesised beam has a FWHM of approximately 30’. These maps therefore contain of order a few hundred independent elements each.

### 2.3 Particular issues in detecting non-Gaussianity in interferometer data

There are a number of characteristics of interferometer observations that require careful consideration when testing for non-Gaussianity.

First, an interferometer does not measure the brightness distribution of the sky directly. Rather, it samples (regions of) the visibility plane, which is the Fourier transform of the sky brightness distribution convolved with the aperture illumination function (itself the Fourier transform of the primary beam). It is therefore most natural to test for non-Gaussianity in the visibility plane, where receiver noise is Gaussian and uncorrelated between samples, and the signal is uncorrelated on scales larger than the aperture illumination function. The interferometer’s intrinsic sensitivity to specific Fourier modes can also be exploited, for example, in searching for a non-Gaussian signature dominant only on certain angular scales. Targeting these scales essentially eliminates the contribution from non-overlapping Gaussian CMB fluctuations on other scales, which would otherwise mask the non-Gaussian signature.

By contrast,images produced from interferometer data have a number of features which tend to complicate any statistical analysis performed on them.

* The noise contributions between the individual pixels of an interferometer map are correlated over a wide range of angular scales.
* Interferometers sample the Fourier plane incompletely. This leads to interferometer maps being convolved by a so-called ’dirty beam’, with its associated sidelobes. This effect is not very significant for the VSA, as it has good sampling coverage of the visibility plane. It is also noted that the MEM algorithm we employ attempts to deconvolve the maps it produces.
* The combination of data obtained using different primary beams and array configurations (as in the case of the VSA) leads to significant variation in temperature sensitivity and angular resolution across the map. This means that the effective probability density function (PDF) from which the map pixels are drawn will be non-stationary.

Nevertheless, all of these complications can be resolved by the use of appropriate Monte Carlo simulations.

## 3 Choice of non-Gaussianity test

There are an infinite number of ways for a PDF to be non-Gaussian but any given non-Gaussianity analysis is sensitive only to a subset of these. It is therefore prudent to apply a number of different analyses. In the following subsections, we describe the analyses employed in this paper.

For the sake of clarity, in this paper we adopt the following terminology. We employ four different non-Gaussianity analyses. Each of these analyses consists of a number of individual statistics, for which we assess significance levels. For the map plane analyses, we then form a number of different combined tests. Each test consists of a set of individual statistics. A test function is calculated from this set of statistics and used to assess a combined significance level.

### 3.1 Analysis in the visibility plane

We perform a Bayesian joint estimation of non-Gaussianity and the power spectrum of CMB anisotropies, before marginalising over the power spectrum to give an estimate of the non-Gaussianity of the data. We use the general form of the likelihood, derived from the eigenfunctions of a linear harmonic oscillator, as developed by Rocha et al. (2001). This distribution takes the form of a Gaussian multiplied by the square of a (finite) series of Hermite polynomials, where the coefficients $`\alpha _n`$ are used as non-Gaussian estimators. These amplitudes $`\alpha _n`$ can be written as series of cumulants (Contaldi et al., 1999). In particular, they can be set to zero independently without mathematical inconsistency. Furthermore, perturbatively (that is when the cumulants are “small” in a suitable sense), the amplitudes $`\alpha _n`$ are proportional to the $`n^{th}`$ order cumulant. We modify the standard Gaussian maximum likelihood method for analysing interferometer observations (Hobson & Maisinger, 2002) with our new distribution. Instead of assuming the simple Gaussian form for the probability distribution of each signal-to-noise eigenmode $`\xi _i`$ (Bond et al., 1998), we consider the more general situation in which all $`\alpha _n`$ are set to zero, except for the real part of one of them. To illustrate, we consider the $`\alpha _3`$ likelihood function

$$P(x)=\frac{e^{\frac{x^2}{2\sigma _0^2}}}{\sqrt{2\pi }\sigma _0}\left[\alpha _0+\frac{\alpha _3}{\sqrt{48}}H_3\left(\frac{x}{\sqrt{2}\sigma _0}\right)\right]^2,$$
(1)
with $`\alpha _0=\sqrt{1\alpha _3^2}`$ to ensure that $`P(x)`$ is normalised to unity.

We approximate the generalisation of this distribution to the multidimensional case, in the signal-to-noise basis, by simply taking the product of the individual one-dimensional distributions. Here the data are the signal-to-noise eigenmodes, $`\xi _i`$, which are uncorrelated and have a covariance matrix given by $`\xi _i\xi _j=(1+a_k\lambda _i)\delta _{ij}`$, where $`\lambda _i`$ is the eigenvalue corresponding to the eigenmode $`\xi _i`$ and $`a_k=\mathrm{}^2C_{\mathrm{}}/(2\pi )_k`$, i.e. $`a_k`$ is the average of value of $`\mathrm{}^2C_{\mathrm{}}/(2\pi )`$ in the $`k`$th spectral bin.

Thus, when considering the power spectrum in the $`k`$th spectral bin, we adopt the likelihood function

$$(\xi |a_k,\alpha _3)=\underset{i}{}\frac{e^{\frac{\xi _i^2}{2c_i}}}{\sqrt{2\pi c_i}}\left[\alpha _0+\frac{\alpha _3}{\sqrt{48}}H_3\left(\frac{\xi _i}{\sqrt{2(c_i)}}\right)\right]^2,$$
(2)
where $`c_i=1+a_k\lambda _i`$. The $`\alpha _3`$ could in principle depend on $`\mathrm{}`$, but for simplicity we have dropped this dependence. The cases of this test considered in this paper are for a single non-zero $`\alpha _n`$ with $`n=320`$. Some examples of such non-Gaussian PDFs are shown in Fig. 2.

It is important to note that this method does not ensure that the higher order moments are uncorrelated and so this approximation will be invalid in the strong non-Gaussian limit. Such a case, however, would be straightforward to detect using other methods and this is thus not a significant problem.

We note that the phase mapping technique of Chiang et al. (2002) is also well suited to analysing interferometer data. For our data set, however, the individual visibility points have small signal-to-noise ratios. For example, each point on the VSA power spectrum (see Paper V) is the result of a likelihood analysis of several thousand binned visibility points. Therefore, such a phase mapping technique would tend to measure information about the VSA’s noise properties rather than the CMB.

### 3.2 Analysis in the map plane

For analysis of possible non-Gaussianity in the map plane, we calculate three distinct sets of statistics.

Map cumulants. The higher-order ($`\kappa _3`$ and above) cumulants of a Gaussian distribution are all zero, (see e.g. Ferreira et al., 1997) therefore, the cumulants of a set of data can conveniently be used to determine whether that data set is drawn from a Gaussian distribution or not. We estimate the higher-order ($`\kappa _3\kappa _8`$) cumulants of the pixels in our maps.

Minkowski functionals. For a Euclidean 2-D image such as our maps, the three Minkowski functionals are the surface area, perimeter and Euler characteristic of an excursion region (see e.g. Hobson et al., 1999). This region is taken as the part of the map above a certain threshold temperature, $`T`$. The functionals are therefore functions of this variable. We calculate the 3 Minkowski functionals of our maps at 51 different value of $`T`$ between $`\pm 6\sigma `$ (where $`\sigma `$ is the rms of the map pixels). The individual statistics are therefore the functional values at each of these 51 values of $`T`$.

Wavelet cumulants. This analysis is not actually calculated in the map plane, but the map provides the starting point. Following the method of Hobson et al. (1999) we perform a wavelet transform on our map. We then estimate the skewness and kurtosis of subsets of the wavelet co-efficients using $`k`$-statistics. There are a total of 21 different subsets, corresponding to wavelets of given physical scales. This makes the wavelet test ideal for detecting a given non-Gaussian feature repeated many times in a map. The individual statistics are therefore the 21 separate skewness and 21 separate kurtosis values. These are repeated for each of the nine wavelet bases considered by Hobson et al, giving $`9\times 42`$ wavelet statistics in total.

### 3.3 Evaluation of individual confidence levels

The joint estimation analysis uses a Bayesian framework and so calculates a full marginalised posterior probability distribution of the non-Gaussian parameter for each statistic. For the map plane statistics, however, we adopt a frequentist approach and so must define the Gaussian confidence regions on our statistics in terms of appropriately simulated observations of Gaussian sky realisations. To do this, we simulate a large number (1000 for the results given in this paper) of equivalent Gaussian realisations (EGR), calculate the statistical values for each one, and use these values to define the Gaussian confidence regions on each individual statistic. This also allows us to account for the complications of analysing interferometer maps.

For the purposes of this paper, we produce our EGR as follows:

* The real and imaginary parts of each Fourier mode $`a_{lm}`$ are drawn independently from a Gaussian random distribution. The variance of this PDF is determined by an underlying power spectrum, given by a CDM model using the VSA best-fit parameters for this data set (see Paper VI).
* The modes are inverse Fourier transformed to produce a Gaussian CMB realisation.
* For each field in the simulated mosaic, the realisation is multiplied by the appropriate primary beam for that field, and Fourier transformed to produce the visibility planes for each field.
* The visibility planes are sampled using a real VSA observation as a template. Gaussian noise is then added to each sampled visibility, using the same rms as given in the VSA template file.
* A map is then made from this simulated mosaiced observation, using the same software pipeline that is used to produce the real maps.

The EGR are therefore simulated observations of a Gaussian sky with a realistic power spectrum, sampling the visibility plane correctly for a given observation and with correct noise contributions.

### 3.4 Evaluation of combined confidence levels

We have detailed methods of obtaining significance levels for all of the individual statistics we are considering. However, we can place stronger limits on non-Gaussianity by combining these statistics in varying ways. We note that this will not be attempted for the Bayesian joint estimation analysis, which assumes a different PDF model in each case, and also that the CMB power spectrum is divided into different band powers, making such a combination unsuitable. We therefore only combine the map plane statistics. The combinations used are listed in the first column of Table 1.

To produce an overall significance level for a given combination, we need to calculate the value of some test function of the individual statistics included. An obvious choice would be a chi-squared test. However, many of the statistics used in this paper are drawn from non-normal distributions (see e.g. Fig. 3), making a standard chi-squared test unsuitable. A non-normal version of the chi-squared has been derived (Ferreira et al., 1998) but as noted by Barreiro & Hobson (2001) for the wavelet statistics in particular, it is very hard to evaluate. We therefore follow the method of Mukherjee et al. (2000) and use a test function that is simply the number of individual statistics in the combination that show a 95% significant deviation from Gaussianity. The combined significance level is therefore the proportion of EGRs with test function values smaller than that obtained for the real data. It is noted that this method will not identify a single highly non-Gaussian statistic value. However, any such case will be self evident, and so this does not present a problem.

## 4 Analysis of simulated observations

In order to characterise the effectiveness of our chosen non-Gaussianity analyses in detecting various types of non-Gaussianity, we applied them to simulated VSA observations of a number of underlying simulated-skies. The simulated observations are produced in the same way as the EGR (see above), except that the underlying Fourier modes are provided by the Fourier transform of the simulated-sky. The simulated observations have the same relative pointing centres, visibility-plane sampling and rms noise levels as the six fields (three compact array and three extended array) comprising the VSA1 mosaic. Therefore, the simulations realistically sample the visibility plane and include realistic levels of Gaussian noise.

We considered the following simulated-skies (see Fig. 4):

Gaussian CMB realisation. A Gaussian realisation of the CMB with a power spectrum given by the VSA best-fit cosmological parameters for the CDM cosmological model (see Paper VI). This is included principally to ensure that our non-Gaussianity tests do not produce spurious detections.

Pure cosmic strings. A map containing cosmic strings networks (Bouchet et al., 1988). The map is scaled to have a pixel rms equal to that of the Gaussian CMB map. It is noted that we only use a single realisation here. While it is clearly preferable to run any analysis on many different realisations, the lack of a large set of strings simulations prevents this. The analyses of this map do not therefore contain the effect of sample variance.

Composite Gaussian/strings. The sum of the above Gaussian CMB and strings maps, rescaled to have the same rms as either individual map.

Bright point sources/CMB. A power law distribution of point sources defined by the extrapolation to 34 GHz of 15 GHz source counts made by the Ryle telescope (see Paper II for details).

Source subtracted. The same point source distribution plus CMB as above, but with all sources above a given flux density removed (to mimic the VSA source subtraction strategy). Subtraction levels of 20mJy, 10mJy and 5mJy are considered. The VSA data analysed in this paper has a nominal source subtraction level of 20mJy. See Paper II for a more detailed discussion.

### 4.1 Visibility plane simulations

We applied the Bayesian joint estimation analysis to each of the 6 field centres individually. Computing constraints mean we are unable to use Monte Carlo techniques to characterise the test fully (each analysis takes several hours). We therefore focus on unambiguous detections.

Simulated observations of the Gaussian CMB field produced no statistically significant detections. Moreover, this approach was found to be insensitive to the presence of cosmic string networks in both the composite and pure strings simulations. However, clear detections were obtained in the presence of bright point sources. The most significant detection occurred in one extended array field where three sources were present, two with fluxes of order 200 mJy, and one of order 100 mJy (see Fig. 5, solid line).

Analysis of the same simulated data where all point sources above a flux of 20 mJy (the level of subtraction applied to the real extended array data) were removed produced a marginal detection in the same extended array field.

It is noted that in the visibility plane, information about the sky (in the form of Fourier modes) has been convolved by the aperture illumination function. Any visibility is therefore a linear combination of several (possibly non-Gaussian) Fourier modes. This combination tends, because of the central limit theorem, to lessen the amount of non-Gaussianity present. We expect this effect to impair the ability of the joint estimation analysis to detect cosmological non-Gaussian structure. It is, however, ideally suited to detect non-Gaussianity in the visibility plane which, by a similar argument, would be poorly detected by map plane statistics. It is therefore important to analyse both planes.

### 4.2 Map plane simulations

We made 1000 simulated observations of each sky, each with a different noise realisation. By calculating individual statistics and combining them into test functions for all 1000 simulated observations, as well as for 1000 EGR, we produce distributions that show the power of any given statistic or test function to detect the presence of the simulated sky.

We applied the map plane analyses to mosaic maps of the simulated data. See Fig. 6 for examples of results of three of the tests, namely map cumulants, Minkowski functional: perimeter and the Daubechies-4 kurtosis wavelet test. We found that simulated observations of the Gaussian CMB field produced no statistically significant detections in any of our tests.

The pure cosmic strings were detected by all three tests. In particular, the Minkowski functionals and wavelet test are clearly highly sensitive to the presence of pure cosmic strings. In contrast, none of the tests were sensitive to the presence of the composite strings/Gaussian CMB simulated-sky.

All of the tests were highly sensitive to the presence of bright point sources, and were able to detect the presence of a source distribution up to 20 mJy. At 10 mJy, the wavelet test is still marginally sensitive to their presence, even though the other two tests are no longer sufficiently sensitive. At 5 mJy, all the tests are insensitive to the presence of sources.

## 5 Analysis of VSA observations

We applied all of our chosen non-Gaussianity tests to the VSA observations. The joint estimation test is applied separately to the data for each of the 17 individual fields. The map plane tests were applied separately to each of the 3 mosaiced fields.

### 5.1 Visibility plane results

For all 17 individual pointing centres, no statistically significant deviations from Gaussianity were detected.

During the early stages of the reduction of the compact array fields, this technique detected significant non-Gaussianity in the data from 3 fields. Further investigation showed that these detections were caused by a small number of high amplitude visibilities in the data (no more than 5 in each case, and as few as a single point). In all cases, they were unambiguously traced to residual spurious signal (see Paper I) and removed. Fig. 7 shows an example of the likelihood functions obtained before and after the removal of a single contaminated point.

While the basic VSA data reduction procedure has been demonstrated to deal more than adequately with the spurious signal, this technique has served as an excellent additional diagnostic of the VSA data, saving considerable time and effort during data reduction. It is now used as a standard part of the VSA data reduction process.

### 5.2 Map plane results

The combined test function values and significance levels are given in Table 1. The highest significance obtained was 96.7% , in the VSA1 mosaic, from the combined wavelet kurtosis statistics, using the Daubechies-4 basis. The highest significances in the VSA2 and VSA3 mosaics were 87.3% and 74.8%, using the area Minkowski functional and the Daubechies-4 kurtosis wavelet test, respectively. Figs. 10, 10 and 10 show example EGR test functions for the VSA1, VSA2 and VSA3 mosaics. In each case, these functions are determined from the 1000 EGR calculated for each data set. The value of the test function obtained for the real data is shown as the solid vertical line.

While the 96.7% detection in the VSA1 mosaic hints at the presence of a source of non-Gaussianity, the significance level is not high enough to rule out Gaussianity. Moreover, it is noteworthy that simulations showed the Daubechies-4 kurtosis wavelet test in particular to be sensitive to realistic point source distributions below the VSA’s source subtraction level. Therefore, this detection may be the result of slight point source contamination. Another point of note is that the VSA1 mosaic is predicted to have almost double the Galactic foreground contamination of the other two mosaics ($`5.5\mu K`$, as opposed to $`2.7\mu K`$ in the VSA3 mosaic; see Paper II for details). Whilst this is not a major contaminant, the Daubechies-4 kurtosis wavelet test may be sensitive enough to detect it. The addition of further extended array data to this data set will significantly improve our sensitivity to non-Gaussianity and may enable us to either identify the source of the non-Gaussianity in the VSA1 mosaic, or rule it out as a chance statistical fluctuation.

That significant non-Gaussianity detections are not found in all three mosaics confirms the success of our source surveying and subtraction strategy. Simulations show that if the power law distribution of radio sources predicted from our source surveying observations continues below 20 mJy, we would expect a detection in approximately one field in three using the Daubechies-4 kurtosis wavelet test - as indeed we find. Note that the VSA power spectrum (see Paper V) includes a statistical correction for this predicted residual point source contamination.

## 6 Conclusions

We have analysed the VSA data sets presented in Papers V and VI for the presence of non-Gaussianity. We have found the following:

* The VSA2 and VSA3 mosaics are consistent with Gaussianity.
* In the VSA1 mosaic, a 96.7% detection of non-Gaussianity was found with the kurtosis wavelet test (using the Daubechies-4 wavelet basis). We conclude that while this may hint at a source of non-Gaussianity, the level is consistent with that expected for the known residual point source contamination in the VSA data. It is therefore unlikely to be cosmological in origin.
* Non-Gaussianity testing in the visibility plane has proven an invaluable tool for locating systematic effects in data. It is therefore vitally important to test interferometric observations of the CMB for non-Gaussianity in both the visibility and map planes.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the staff of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Teide Observatory for invaluable assistance in the commissioning and operation of the VSA. The VSA is supported by PPARC and the IAC. Partial financial support was provided by Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology project AYA2001-1657. R. Savage, K. Lancaster and N. Rajguru acknowledge support by PPARC studentships. Pedro Carreira, K. Cleary and J. A. Rubiño-Martin acknowledge Marie Curie Fellowships of the European Community programme EARASTARGAL, “The Evolution of Stars and Galaxies”, under contract HPMT-CT-2000-00132. K. Maisinger acknowledges support from an EU Marie Curie Fellowship. A. Slosar acknowledges the support of St. Johns College, Cambridge. G.Rocha acknowledges support from a Leverhulme fellowship. We thank Professor Jasper Wall for assistance and advice throughout the project, and Anthony Challinor for useful comments.


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# Heavy flavour production with leptons and hadrons

## 1 Introduction

Measurements of the production of heavy quarks provide a wealth of information on high energy particle collisions. The mechanism for production of heavy quarks is governed by the strong force of nature which is described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Not only is QCD essential for understanding one of the four fundamental forces of nature, but many signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) are dependent on precise knowledge of the rate of QCD processes, which are expected to form the most significant background.

The importance of a precise understanding of QCD is apparent when considering current and future accelerators. Many of these accelerators will use protons and photons as the colliding particles, both of which have a hadronic structure and hence are described by QCD. Figure 1(a) shows a generic representation of the production of heavy quarks in a hadron-hadron collision. Knowledge accumulated at HERA, LEP and the Tevatron will directly benefit future programmes such as the LHC and a future linear collider where heavy quarks will be produced by the same mechanism. The produced partons then fragment into final-state hadrons which are measured in the detector as depicted in Figure 1(b). The fragmentation procedure is usually described by non-perturbative models and is again an uncertainty common to all experiments.

Theoretically, heavy quarks provide ideal tools for probing QCD due to their relatively large mass, $`m_Q>>\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$, which entails a fast convergence of the perturbative expansion of the cross section. The production of heavy quarks is also directly sensitive to the gluon density in the colliding hadron (see Figure 1(a)). The gluon density is usually determined in the DGLAP-evolution fits to measurements of structure functions in inclusive deep-inelastic scattering. Direct measurements of the gluon density provide an important check of these methods and the factorisation of the cross section.

In these proceedings, results of open charm and beauty production from HERA, the Tevatron and $`\gamma \gamma `$ collisions at LEP are discussed. After a brief overview of theoretical and experimental aspects, emphasis is given to understanding hadronic structure and the dynamics of the hard scatter. Results on quarkonia and top production and measurements of $`B`$ fragmentation functions are discussed elsewhere .

## 2 Perturbative QCD

For the generic collision, shown in Figure 1, of two hadrons producing heavy quarks, $`H_a+H_bQ\overline{Q}+X`$, the cross section can be written as a convolution of the parton densities, $`f_i^{H_a}`$ and $`f_j^{H_b}`$, of the two hadrons and the short-distance cross section, $`\sigma _{ij}`$:

$$\sigma (S)=\underset{i,j}{}𝑑x_1𝑑x_2\widehat{\sigma }_{ij}(x_1x_2S,m^2,\mu ^2)f_i^{H_a}(x_1,\mu )f_j^{H_b}(x_2,\mu )$$
(1)
where $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$ are the hadron’s momentum fraction carried by the interacting parton and $`\mu `$ represents the renormalisation and factorisation scales. The short-distance cross section is a perturbative expansion in powers of $`\alpha _s`$ and the inverse mass of the heavy quark which implies faster convergence for larger masses. Two different schemes and their combination are used for predictions of heavy-quark production. In the “massive” scheme, there are no heavy quarks in the colliding hadron and the predictions should be more accurate for transverse momenta $`p_Tm`$. In contrast, heavy quarks in the “massless” scheme are active in the colliding hadrons and the predictions should be more accurate for $`p_T>m`$. The two schemes have recently been combined  such that predictions should be appropriate for all $`p_T`$.

## 3 Experimental techniques

The reconstruction of heavy quark mesons is similar in all experiments. Signals for charm hadrons are generally observed by forming the invariant mass of the tracks identified with a specific decay channel, e.g. $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$. If sufficiently accurate, a vertex detector can also be used to detect vertices displaced from the primary interaction point. An example of reconstructed $`D^0`$ mesons which uses both these techniques is shown in Figure 2(a) from the CDF experiment . To detect beauty quarks, the invariant mass of the decay products is also formed for a specific decay channel such as $`B^+J/\psi K^+`$. As the decay length of beauty is longer than that for charm quarks, a vertex detector is a powerful tool for distinguishing beauty from the lighter quarks. The transverse momentum of an electron or muon relative to the direction of the parent quark, $`p_T^{\mathrm{rel}}`$ also provides a clear signature. Due to its larger mass, $`b`$ quarks populate high values of $`p_T^{\mathrm{rel}}`$ as shown in Figure 2(b) .

Due to limitations of the experimental apparatus, measurements are performed in a restricted kinematic region, usually defined by some momentum and angular restriction of the reconstructed heavy quark meson. Measurements performed in a restricted kinematic region are often extrapolated to the full phase space using either a next-to-leading order (NLO) calculation or Monte Carlo (MC) model. These extrapolations provide “measurements” of total cross sections or structure functions which are more intuitive and easy to compare between different experiments. They should, however, be treated with caution. The extrapolation is often performed to completely unmeasured regions, with factors as high as 20 and an uncertainty which is difficult to determine.

## 4 Latest results

Measurements of the beauty cross section using Tevatron Run I data , shown in Figure 3, provoked much of the current interest in the production rate of heavy quarks. Several decay channels were analysed. These results were then extrapolated to a cross section for some minimum transverse momentum of the $`b`$ quark, $`p_T^{\mathrm{min}}`$; the measurements are shown in Figure 3(a) compared with an NLO prediction . The NLO prediction lies significantly below the data by a factor of 2–3 and is, therefore, one of the most significant failures of pQCD to describe high energy phenomena of the strong interaction.

In order to remove unknowns associated with the extrapolation procedure, measurements of $`B`$ mesons, which are directly reconstructed in the detector, were performed and compared with NLO QCD. As with the cross sections for the $`b`$ quark, the NLO prediction was significantly below the data. With the extra information provided by measuring the meson cross section, significant theoretical development was made  to try and describe these data. The improved theoretical calculations include the resummation of large logarithms in $`p_T`$ at the next-to-leading level (NLL) and their merging with the fixed order (FO) calculation which correctly accounts for mass effects. This new “FONLL” calculation also uses a new extraction of the fragmentation function of $`b`$ quarks to $`B`$ mesons as measured in an $`e^+e^{}`$ experiment . The result of this new calculation is shown compared to the data in Figure 3(b), where the difference between data and theory is reduced from a factor of 2.9 to 1.7 and consistency within the uncertainties is observed.

### 4.1 Structure functions

In deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at HERA, photons act as a pointlike probe of the proton and hence provides the unique opportunity to study the charm contribution, $`F_2^{c\overline{c}}`$, to the proton structure, $`F_2`$. Measurements of charm in DIS are directly sensitive to the gluon distribution in the proton and are therefore complementary to extractions of the gluon distribution in QCD fits. The largest sample of events for charm in DIS in both H1 and ZEUS  is tagged using the “golden” $`D^{}`$ decay channel. Due to experimental limitations, the $`D^{}`$ meson is restricted in to the central region of the detector with transverse momentum larger than 1.5 GeV. Cross sections are measured differentially in $`Q^2`$ and $`x`$ and compared with NLO QCD. The NLO QCD is then used to extract $`F_2^{c\overline{c}}`$:

$$F_{2,\mathrm{meas}}^{c\overline{c}}=\frac{\sigma (x,Q^2)_{\mathrm{meas}}}{\sigma (x,Q^2)_{\mathrm{theo}}}F_{2,theo}^{c\overline{c}}$$
(2)
The extrapolation factors to the full $`D^{}`$ phase space vary between 4.7 at low $`Q^2`$ and 1.5 at high $`Q^2`$. The extracted $`F_2^{c\overline{c}}`$ values are shown compared with an NLO QCD prediction in Figure 4.

The data show a steep rise to low $`x`$ indicative of a large gluon density in the proton. The NLO QCD prediction is derived from fits  to measurements of $`F_2`$ and is largely independent of the data shown here. The data are well described by the NLO prediction demonstrating the consistency of the the gluon density extracted in PDF fits and “measured” more directly here. At low $`Q^2`$, the data, specifically the double differential cross sections, $`\sigma (x,Q^2)_{\mathrm{meas}}`$, measured within the acceptance of the detector, have reached sufficient precision such that the can be used to further constrain the gluon density in the proton.

In an analogous way, measurements of $`D^{}`$ production in $`e\gamma `$ collisions at LEP allow extractions of the charm contribution, $`F_{2,c}^\gamma `$, to the photon structure function. The extraction of $`F_{2,c}^\gamma `$ is done as in Equation 2 except that the extrapolation of the $`D^{}`$ to the full phase space is performed using MC models rather than a NLO calculation. Figure 5(a) shows the total charm cross section and the extracted $`F_{2,c}^\gamma `$ compared with predictions from NLO QCD. The measurements at high $`x`$, which are well described by NLO, are indicative of the scattering of two pointlike photons. At low $`x`$, the data is somewhat above the prediction in a region where it is expected that one of the photons exhibits some hadronic structure .

Jet photoproduction at HERA is a complementary way of studying the structure of the photon. A recent measurement  of the dijet scattering angle, $`\theta ^{}`$, in $`D^{}`$ production is shown in Figure 5(b). The distribution is sensitive to the propagator in the hard scatter and thereby sensitive to the nature of the sub-process. The tagged $`D^{}`$ meson is associated with one of the jets and the scattering angle of this jet defined with respect to the proton direction. The angular distribution, enriched in direct photon processes ($`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{obs}}>0.75`$), exhibits a symmetric distribution with a shallow rise to high values of $`\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}`$. This is indicative of the exchange of a quark in the hard sub-process with the charm produced via the boson-gluon fusion process. At low $`x_\gamma ^{\mathrm{obs}}`$, where the sample is enriched in resolved photon processes, the data are asymmetric, exhibiting a rapid rise to negative $`\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}`$. This demonstrates that the charm comes from the photon and exchanges a gluon in the hard process. The prediction of NLO in which charm is produced in the hard sub-process and is not an active flavour in the structure function, lies below the data. The description of the data could be improved by including a charm component in a NLO fit of the photon PDF.

### 4.2 Measurements of charm cross sections

Cross sections measured within the acceptance of the detector, such as the angular distributions just discussed, do not rely on any model assumptions and provides “safe” data with which to compare any theoretical prediction. Measurements of $`D^{}`$ cross sections are available in $`\gamma \gamma `$ processes at LEP, from the Tevatron and in both DIS and photoproduction at HERA. These have been compared with NLO calculations at fixed order, or with NLL calculations or the two “matched”. These produce $`c\overline{c}`$ partons in the final state and incorporate a model of the fragmentation into $`D^{}`$ mesons.

Measurements have been performed and compared at LEP by three collaborations, ALEPH, L3 and OPAL. As a function of $`p_T(D^{})`$, the data are compatible with each other and with FO and NLL calculations. The data is not sufficiently precise to distinguish between the different calculations.

The HERA data which was used to extract $`F_2^{c\overline{c}}`$ in the previous section are shown in Figure 6. The data are shown for the same variable, $`\eta (D^{})`$, in a similar kinematic range compared to the calculation, Hvqdis . The NLO calculation lies below the H1 data for large positive $`\eta (D^{})`$, whereas for the ZEUS data, the NLO calculation gives a good description. It should be noted that the ZEUS data is compared with the recent ZEUS NLO QCD fit as the proton PDF in the NLO calculation. This gives a a somewhat larger cross section at positive $`\eta (D^{})`$ and somewhat smaller cross section at negative $`\eta (D^{})`$. Whether the difference in conclusion arises from differences in data or differences in theory is not clear at present. The data are, however, consistent when extrapolated to measure $`F_2^{c\overline{c}}`$ as shown in Figure 4. A comparison of the cross sections in the same kinematic range should be made.

Due to its larger cross section, charm photoproduction measurements are the most accurate from HERA. Theoretically, however, photoproduction has the additional uncertainty associated with the possibility of the photon resolving into a source of hadrons and the interactions behaving as a hadron-hadron collision (see Figure 1(a)). Example data are shown in Figure 7 compared with NLO QCD  and FONLL  predictions (and NLL  predictions not shown); none give a satisfactory representation of the data. Indeed the FONLL calculation which is meant to be more reliable at high $`p_T(D^{})`$ than the NLO QCD calculation gives a poorer description of the data. The precision of the calculations is also poor, with uncertainties as a functions of $`\eta (D^{})`$ between 30% and 80%, whilst the data has a precision of generally better than 10%. The precision of the data will improve in time with more data; it is hoped that higher precision for the predictions can also be achieved.

Using their upgraded (vertex) detector and Run II data from the Tevatron, the CDF collaboration have recently made measurements of charm meson cross sections . The data are shown in Figure 8 compared with FONLL and NLL calculations. The FONLL calculation employs the same techniques as for the calculation of $`B`$ meson cross sections described previously. The comparison between data and prediction shown in Figure 8 is similar to the comparison for $`B`$ production shown in Figure 3(b). The data sample used here corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 6 pb<sup>-1</sup> which represents a very small fraction of what CDF hope to collect during Run II. With the increased precision and greatly extended kinematic range expected, these measurements will provide detailed comparisons with predictions and a deeper understanding of the dynamics of charm production.

In general, predictions of NLO QCD are below measurements of charm production, but compatible within the uncertainties. As the measured cross sections are a complicated convolution of (PDF $``$ hard scatter $``$ fragmentation) each with parameters which have associated uncertainties, e.g. scale, charm mass, etc., it is unclear how to improve the description of the data. Trying to minimise specific effects and uncertainties will help to qualify the situation. Examples of this are: measurements at high $`p_T`$ where the scale uncertainties are reduced; measurements of jet cross sections which are less sensitive to uncertainties in the fragmentation and independent measurements of the fragmentation in a hadron-hadron environment rather than using the parametrisations of LEP data.

### 4.3 Measurements of beauty cross sections

As with $`D^{}`$ cross sections, beauty cross sections have been measured at HERA, LEP and the Tevatron. The measurements are, however, a complicated mix of different definitions both extrapolated and within the acceptance of the detectors.

Figure 9 shows the measurements of beauty (and charm) cross sections in $`\gamma \gamma `$ collisions at LEP .

All three beauty measurements lie above the prediction by about a factor of 3, whereas all the charm measurements are well described by the theory. The beauty results are similar to the first Tevatron results shown in Figure 3(a). It should be noted that the LEP data have large extrapolation factors to get from the cross section measured within the acceptance of the detector to the total cross section shown. As said earlier, whilst providing easy comparison between different experiments, extrapolations to completely unmeasured angular and $`p_T`$ regions should be treated with caution. In such cases, a cross section in a measured kinematic region should always be given and exact details of the extrapolation.

Measurements made at HERA  have also been a mixture of different styles of results. The latest and “purest” measurements made within the acceptance of the detector are shown compared to NLO QCD in Figure 10. In Figure 10(a) results from both experiments are shown and are consistent with each other. Predictions from NLO QCD are below the data, but not by a significant factor. This is in contrast to results which are extrapolated to the full phase space to all jet angles and momenta .

A similar measurement in DIS is shown compared with NLO QCD predictions in Figure 10(b). The prediction is again below the data, but consistent within the uncertainties.

Understanding in the field of beauty production is progressing quickly and is currently one of the most interesting challenges in collider physics. Since the Physics in Collision conference, the results from H1 presented in Figure 10 are new and have shown consistency between experiments and highlighted problems in extrapolations. Further progress from all colliders is to expected soon. The LEP experiments should publish their measurements. The HERA experiments should finalise the HERA I data and should receive significantly more data from HERA II in the near future. The Tevatron experiments also have a wealth of data from Run II to analyse. All of these future measurements and publications should be careful to clearly define the cross section to be measured. Extrapolations to the full phase-space are not intrinsically incorrect, but the initial measured cross section should always be quoted and the exact method of extrapolation detailed.

## 5 Conclusions

The understanding of heavy-quark production is currently one of the most important challenges in QCD. In these proceedings, new results have been discussed both in terms of their quality and physics message. There are many technical and procedural issues involved in measuring heavy quarks which have to be mastered before the real physics can be seen. Most recent results, which provide sound measurements, show that although NLO QCD does a fair job in describing the data, it fails in the details which are now seen by the precision measurements being made. A deeper understanding of heavy-quark production is necessary for a more complete picture of QCD. It is also desirable, if not necessary, for future experiments such as those at the LHC where knowledge of the QCD background to a high precision is essential before physics beyond the SM can be seen. In the next few years, a combination of better data and improved theory should allow a detailed understanding of the production of heavy quarks to be achieved.


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# The kinematics of the most oxygen-poor planetary nebula PN G 135.9+55.9

## 1 Introduction

PN G 135.9+55.9 is a recently-discovered planetary nebula in the Galactic halo (Tovmassian et al. tovmassianetal2001 (2001); initially known as SBS 1150+599A). Its spectrum is quite unusual for a planetary nebula, presenting only the Balmer lines of hydrogen, He ii$`\lambda \lambda `$4686,5411, and very weak \[O iii\]$`\lambda `$5007 ($`3\%`$ of H$`\beta `$) in the 4000-7000Å interval. A photoionization model analysis showed that such a spectrum implies a strongly density bounded and extremely oxygen-poor nebula ionized by a very hot star. Subsequent spectroscopy and imaging confirmed the weakness of the collisionally-excited metal lines, the high excitation, and the low oxygen abundance, around 1/500 of the solar value (Richer et al. richeretal2002 (2002)). These data also showed that the object is a point source in the continuum emission, but extended in emission lines, and suffers little reddening. Very puzzlingly, these data revealed the possibility that the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha /\mathrm{H}\beta `$ ratio is variable. Additional imaging and spectroscopic observations by Jacoby et al.(jacobyetal2002 (2002)) generally confirmed these results, though they found \[Ne iii\]$`\lambda `$3869 and \[Ne v\]$`\lambda \lambda `$3346,3426 lines stronger by an order of magnitude.

PN G 135.9+55.9 is such an important object because it has, by an order of magnitude, the lowest oxygen abundance known among planetary nebulae and will directly affect our understanding of several issues. Its study will have important implications for the understanding of the synthesis and mixing of chemical elements in metal-poor stars. PN G 135.9+55.9 may also have important implications for the early evolution of the Milky Way halo. Once this object is well-understood, it should also provide an important limit upon the pre-galactic helium abundance. The evolutionary history of PN G 135.9+55.9, particularly once a reliable distance becomes available, would provide a useful constraint upon the late stages of evolution for metal-poor stars, e.g., the time scale during pre-white dwarf evolution. More generally, kinematic studies of planetary nebulae are important for understanding the production of planetary nebulae from stellar populations (e.g., Stasińska & Tylenda stasinskatylenda1994 (1994); Richer et al. richeretal1997 (1997); Stasińska et al. stasinskaetal1998 (1998); Stanghellini & Renzini stanghellinirenzini2000 (2000); Gesicki & Zijlstra gesickizijlstra2000 (2000)). A better understanding of the production of planetary nebulae impacts a wide range of other processes, including stellar death rates, white dwarf birth rates, the mass of interstellar gas in galaxies without star formation, and the chemical enrichment of galaxies in helium, carbon, nitrogen, and s-process elements, among others. While PN G 135.9+55.9 will not be determinant for these latter studies, it will serve as a useful probe of a poorly populated region of parameter space.

Given the limited morphological information available for PN G 135.9+55.9 (Richer et al. richeretal2002 (2002); Jacoby et al. jacobyetal2002 (2002)), a study of its kinematics has the more immediate use of helping to establish its nature and structure. We report the first high spectral resolution observations that we use to study the kinematics of PN G 135.9+55.9. In Sect. 2 we describe the observations we have undertaken. In Sect. 3 we present the results and their interpretation. We find that PN G 135.9+55.9 is best explained as an expanding elliptical envelope. In Sect. 4 we discuss how these results affect our understanding of PN G 135.9+55.9.

## 2 Observations and Reductions

High spectral resolution observations of PN G 135.9+55.9 were obtained at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico (SPM) with two different spectrometers at the f/7.9 Cassegrain focus of the 2.1m telescope. The positions observed are shown in the lower right panel of Fig. 1.

First, PN G 135.9+55.9 was observed on 8 and 10 January 2002 and 14 May 2002 using the Manchester echelle spectrometer (MES; Meaburn et al. meaburnetal1984 (1984)). The MES is a long slit, echelle spectrometer that has no cross-dispersion. Instead, a narrow-band filter was used to isolate the 87th order containing the H$`\alpha `$ nebular emission line. A 150 $`\mu `$m wide slit was used for the observations. Coupled with a SITe $`1024\times 1024`$ CCD with 24 $`\mu `$m pixels binned $`2\times 2`$, the resulting spectral and spatial resolutions are 0.1 Å/pix (equivalent to 11 km/s for 2.5 pix FWHM) and $`1\stackrel{}{.}9`$, respectively. The spectra were calibrated to $`\pm 1.0`$ km/s accuracy using exposures of a ThAr lamp taken immediately after every object exposure. For the January 2002 observations, the slit was oriented north-south and positioned at the positions 1-3 indicated in the lower right panel of Fig. 1. Four 30 minute exposures were obtained, one each at slit positions 1 and 3 and two at slit position 2 (Fig. 1). For the May 2002 observations, six 30 minute exposures were obtained with the slit oriented at a position angle of 75. Four of these exposures were at slit position 5 and single exposures were obtained at slit positions 4 and 6 (Fig. 1). All of these MES spectra were bias-subtracted, then extracted to one-dimensional spectra, calibrated in wavelength, corrected to heliocentric velocities, and finally co-added for the observations of slits 2 and 5.

Second, PN G 135.9+55.9 was observed on 19 January 2002 using the SPM REOSC echelle spectrometer. This is a conventional, cross-dispersed echelle spectrometer. Coupled with the same SITe CCD as the detector, the resulting spectral resolution was 0.16 Å/pix at He ii$`\lambda `$4686 (equivalent to a velocity resolution of 26 km/s), but substantially worse at H$`\alpha `$ due to camera de-focus (see Table 1). The $`2\mathrm{}\times 13\mathrm{}`$ slit was oriented east-west, as shown in Fig. 1. Two 30 minute exposures of PN G 135.9+55.9 were obtained. The spectra were bias-subtracted, co-added, extracted to one-dimensional spectra, calibrated in wavelength, and finally corrected to heliocentric velocity.

For all of the spectra, the radial velocities and line widths were measured using a locally-implemented software package (McCall et al. mccalletal1985 (1985)). This software fits the line profiles with sampled gaussian profiles, fitting the systemic velocity, the line intensities, and the line widths automatically. In almost all of the slit positions, a single gaussian was unable to reproduce the line profiles satisfactorily due to the profile asymmetry, so profiles composed of two gaussian components were adopted. To determine the optimal line separation, the line profiles were fit with emission components whose separation was varied iteratively until the standard deviation of the residuals about the fitted profile reached a minimum. In no case was there any clear evidence for more than two velocity components in the line profiles. In Fig. 1, the H$`\alpha `$ line profiles are shown with the fitted profile and residuals superposed. The two velocity components were constrained to have the same width. For slits 3 and 6, it was possible to fit the line profile acceptably with a single, broad gaussian component, though these fits had larger residuals than the two component fits given in Table 1. Furthermore, the two component fits for slits 3 and 6 are otherwise very similar to those found at all other slit positions, which suggests that they are a reasonable interpretation of the line profiles.

The decomposition of the line profiles as the sum of two gaussians was initially motivated by simplicity. However, we note that we can fit line profiles in different positions within the nebula where the profile shapes are different (Fig. 1) using the sum of two gaussians and that the properties of these two components vary continuously and coherently as a function of position. For these reasons, we interpret these two components as representing the expansion of the two sides of the object. However, spectroscopy with higher resolution, both spatially and spectrally, will be required to determine whether there are indeed two distinct gaussian components.

## 3 Results

In Table 1, we list the results of our line profile analyses. These results include the radial velocity of the blue velocity component, the separation of the blue and red velocity components, the width of two components, and the ratio of the intensities of the two components. The radial velocity of the blue component is given relative to the heliocentric systemic velocity of PN G 135.9+55.9. We adopted the average of the intensity-weighted mean velocities for slits 2 and 5 as the systemic velocity. The intensity-weighted mean velocities for slits 2 and 5 were computed as the average velocity of the blue- and red-shifted components, weighted according to their respective intensities. The resulting heliocentric systemic velocity for PN G 135.9+55.9 was found to be $`193.3\pm 1.3`$ km/s. The width of the velocity components tabulated in column 4 of Table 1 is the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the individual velocity components (both components having been constrained to have the same width). The tabulated uncertainties are those derived from the fit to the line profiles, except in the case of the uncertainty in the line separation, which is taken to be 1.5 times the step size used to search for the minimum in the standard deviation of the fit.

As is evident from the line profiles (Fig. 1), the sequences of slit positions 1-3 and 4-6 are sequences in which the intensity of the blue velocity component decreases relative to the red component. The relative intensity of the red component increases towards the east and south. Given that these slit positions include a significant fraction of the object, the variation of the relative intensities of the blue- and red-shifted components could be more pronounced than Table 1 implies.

Likewise, the sequences of slit positions 1-3 and 4-6 are sequences in which the velocity of the blue component, $`V_{\mathrm{blue}}`$, also increases in the last position. The largest velocities of approach of the blue component are found for slits 3 and 6, in the east and south-east, respectively.

From Table 1, it is clear that the separation of the two velocity components is approximately constant at 39-44 km/s. It is also noteworthy that the separation of the velocity components is the same in H$`\alpha `$ and He ii$`\lambda `$4686. The entire nebular envelope is therefore characterized by an average apparent expansion velocity of 20-22 km/s.

Finally, we note that the widths of the two velocity components at all of the slit positions are substantially wider than those expected for a plasma at the expected temperature of 30,000 K (Richer et al. richeretal2002 (2002)). At this temperature, the line widths are expected to be 37 km/s and 19 km/s at H$`\alpha `$ and He ii$`\lambda `$4686, respectively (equation 2-243 from Lang lang1986 (1986)). Instead, line widths of approximately 55 km/s are found. (We ignore the H$`\alpha `$ line width in slit 7 due to the spectrometer de-focussing.) The large observed width of the lines could arise from several causes. Given that the slit width covers a large fraction of the object, it is likely that it includes considerable kinematic structure, which would broaden the lines.

## 4 Discussion

Here, we develop a spatiokinematic model that explains the kinematics observed in PN G 135.9+55.9. Given the relatively low spatial resolution of both our high-resolution spectroscopy and extant imaging (Richer et al. richeretal2002 (2002); Jacoby et al. jacobyetal2002 (2002)), our model will certainly not be definitive, but it should be sufficient to establish the large-scale features. A definitive model will have to await the availability of high-resolution imaging.

We have used the modeling code SHAPE (Steffen et al. steffenetal1996 (1996)) to investigate the basic structure of PN G 135.9+55.9. SHAPE produces long slit spectra from a simple mathematical model of the emissivity and velocity field of three dimensional objects. These can be constructed as an arbitrary combination of individual model structures. The objects are placed at any orientation in a cubic volume, which is divided into elementary cells of uniform emissivity. The image and spectrum is calculated for each object and combined with the results of the others, taking obscuration into account, if necessary. The emission is integrated along different lines of sight in order to produce an image. The long slit spectra are produced by selecting those cells that are situated along the lines of sight covered by the slit. The emission is then mapped in position along the slit and in velocity. The result is then convolved in space and velocity according to the corresponding angular and spectral resolution. Thermal broadening is approximated by decreasing the velocity resolution appropriately. One-dimensional line profiles may then be obtained by integrating the position-velocity maps along the spatial direction. As an example application of SHAPE, see López et al. (lopezetal1997 (1997)).

Given the modest spatial resolution of the current observations, very detailed structural models are not warranted. However, available imaging, particularly that of Jacoby et al. (jacobyetal2002 (2002)), indicates that the structure is not spherically symmetric, but rather elliptical. We calculated spectra for three different structures of increasing complexity. First, we constructed a spherically-symmetric model with isotropic (radial) gaussian emissivity and velocity field that is radial and uniform (Model 1). Second, as a generalization of the isotropic model, we constructed a prolate elliptical model (“cigar”-shaped), with a gaussian emissivity distribution, where the FWHM towards the poles is roughly twice as long as that in the equatorial plane (Model 2). The velocity in Model 2 is still radial, but its value in each direction is proportional to the FWHM of the emissivity distribution. Additionally, the brightness of one side of this model can be reduced arbitrarily compared to the other. Finally, we have considered a slow or static, isotropic, faint halo combined with Model 2 (Model 3), which seems to be distinguished from the elongated structure in the image by Jacoby et al. jacobyetal2002 (2002).

We have evaluated slit positions 1, 2 and 3 (see Fig. 1). The best results were found for the prolate elliptical Model 2 with the following parameters: FWHM of volume emissivity in (x, y, z) is (3.7, 3.7, 7.5) arc seconds, velocity field is radial with ($`V_x`$, $`V_y`$, $`V_z`$) of (30, 30, 70) km/s on the axes, with the position angle of z-axis at 290 degrees in the plane of the sky and inclined with respect to the line of sight by 65 degrees. In the model presented in Fig. 2, the red-shifted emission has only 20% of the intensity of the blue-shifted emission. These parameters should be considered indicative only, as a more extensive search of parameter space would likely uncover additional models that fit the data within the uncertainties. An isotropic emissivity distribution (Model 1) does not fit the data. The addition of an isotropic, faint halo (Model 3) does not significantly improve upon the agreement found between observations and Model 2. Particularly in the case of slit 2, the agreement between observations and Model 2 is excellent.

We therefore adopt 30 km/s as the expansion velocity for the bulk of the matter in PN G 135.9+55.9. Note that this is significantly different from the apparent expansion velocity determined by fitting two gaussians to the line profile (Sect. 2), since the fit from Model 2 takes into account projection effects.

Our modelling experiments clearly indicate that the matter distribution is asymmetric. In Fig. 2, we present the integrated line profiles for slit positions 1-3 from Model 2. In this figure, we also compare the position-velocity diagrams observed and predicted by Model 2 for slit position 2. For Model 2, we found consistency with the data only using asymmetric structures, with the red-shifted emission considerably weaker than the blue-shifted emission, reflecting the intensity ratios given in Table 1. The most plausible physical mechanisms for this emissivity asymmetry are internal reddening and an asymmetric matter distribution. Since the reddening of both the nebula and central star are low (Tovmassian et al. tovmassianetal2003 (2003)), internal reddening does not appear to be a viable explanation for the asymmetry of the emission. It is therefore likely that the matter distribution is asymmetric and that the red-shifted emission is intrinsically weaker than the blue-shifted emission. It is also likely that high-resolution imaging will find a more complex matter distribution than the simple one adopted in Model 2, something that could be easily incorporated in future work. Indeed, even at the resolution of the H$`\alpha `$ image presented by Jacoby et al. (jacobyetal2002 (2002)), PN G 135.9+55.9 shows substructure.

It is clear from the preceding modelling experiments that kinematic structure within the projected area of the slit significantly affects the interpretation of the line profiles. This kinematic structure appears to account for the breadth of the two components we measure from the profiles. The large range of velocities included by the slit broadens the line profiles well beyond the thermal widths.

There are relatively few halo planetary nebulae known, and the kinematics of only a fraction of these have been studied. With the exception of NGC 4361, halo planetary nebulae appear to have expansion velocities in the 10-30 km/s range (H4-1 and BB1: Sabbadin et al. sabbadinetal1986 (1986); IC 4997: Miranda et al. mirandaetal1996 (1996); PN G009.8-07.5: Jacoby et al jacobyetal1998 (1998)). NGC 4361 has a more complex, bi-polar kinematics (Vázquez et al. vazquezetal1999 (1999)). Compared to other halo planetary nebulae, the kinematics we find for PN G 135.9+55.9 does not appear to be particularly atypical.

Considering the similar kinematics and line widths in both H$`\alpha `$ and He ii$`\lambda `$4686, it is evident that both H+ and He2+ should occupy very similar nebular volumes. This result agrees with the null detections of He i$`\lambda `$5876 in low resolution spectra and confirms that the nebular envelope is very optically thin (Richer et al. richeretal2002 (2002); Jacoby et al. jacobyetal2002 (2002)). The same mechanism should then be responsible for the similar line widths of both H$`\alpha `$ and He ii$`\lambda `$4686.

One of the goals of the deep spectrum obtained at slit position 5 was to investigate the possible existence of broad H$`\alpha `$ emission, $`>\mathrm{few}\times 100`$ km/s. No such broad component was found, in agreement with the results of Tovmassian et al. (tovmassianetal2001 (2001)). This result rules out the possibility that PN G 135.9+55.9 contains an accretion disk that emits a significant fraction of the H$`\alpha `$ flux, even for the case of a face-on disk (e.g., Horne & Marsh hornemarsh1986 (1986)). Consequently, we can discard the possibility that PN G 135.9+55.9 contains a close interacting binary with an accretion disk that could introduce a distinct $`\mathrm{H}\beta /\mathrm{H}\alpha `$ ratio or any sort of variability.

To summarize, the kinematics of PN G 135.9+55.9 allow us to impose important constraints upon the structure of this most oxygen-poor planetary nebula. Globally, the kinematics can be interpreted as an expanding elliptical envelope. Our modelling experiments indicate that the matter distribution is asymmetric, a prolate ellipsoid fitting best, with the blue-shifted emission several times stronger than the red-shifted emission. The apparent line widths we find are substantially larger than the thermal widths, though this appears to be due to the kinematic structure projected within the area of the slit. There is no indication of the presence of an accretion disk or a binary companion. Finally, given the extreme nature of its spectrum, that the kinematics of PN G 135.9+55.9 are similar to those of other halo planetary nebulae is additional evidence in favour of it in fact being a planetary nebula.

###### Acknowledgements.

MGR, JAL, and GT thank G. García, G. Melgoza, S. Monrroy, and H. Riesgo for their able assistance with the observations at SPM. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from CONACyT projects 32214-3 (JAL), 34521-E (GT), and 37214-E (MGR, GS) and DGAPA projects IN100799 (MGR), IN114199 (JAL), and IN118999 (JE, GT).


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# Ultrafast Optical Spectroscopy of Micelle-Suspended Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

## 1 Introduction

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) provide a variety of new opportunities for the exploration of one-dimensional (1-D) quantum physics as well as novel device applications. Although their mechanical and electrical properties have been extensively studied during the past decade, there has been only limited success in exploring their optical, magnetic, and magneto-optical properties. In addition to what is commonly expected for excitons in 1-D systems Loudon59AJP ; ElliotLoudon59JPCS ; OgawaTakagahara91PRBRC , SWNTs are expected to show a new class of optical phenomena that arise from their unique tubular structure with varying diameters and chiral angles. Linear and nonlinear optical coefficients are expected to be diameter- and chirality-dependent, and an external magnetic field is expected to induce drastic modifications on their band structure via the Aharonov-Bohm phase AjikiAndo93JPSJ ; AjikiAndo93BJPSJ ; TianDatta94PRB ; Lu95PRL . Furthermore, nonlinear harmonic generation is expected to be highly selective for creating certain orders of high harmonics AlonetAl00PRL .

However, these predicted optical phenomena and properties have not been probed experimentally. This is because in standard production methods SWNTs appear in the form of bundles (or ‘ropes’) due to their strong van der Waals forces. This ‘roping’ results in significant broadening of electronic states, smearing out any chirality-dependent features in optical spectra Katauraetal99SM ; Ichidaetal99JPSJ ; Kazaouietal99PRB ; Ugawaetal99PRB ; Kazaouietal00PRB ; Hwangetal00PRB ; Saitoetal01Book . Very recently, a new technique for producing individually suspended SWNTs has been reported oconnelletal02Science . These samples revealed, for the first time, a number of clearly observable peaks in linear absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra, corresponding to interband transitions in different types of tubes. A subsequent PL excitation (PLE) spectroscopy study successfully provided detailed peak assignments BachiloetAl02Science ; WeismanBachilo03NL . These seminal studies have provided opportunities to systematically study other predicted, unique optical properties of SWNTs.

Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is one of the best methods for measuring carrier distribution functions and relaxation mechanisms. Using a wide variety of techniques employing femtosecond pulses, one can directly examine dynamical processes after creation of electron-hole pairs across the band gap, i.e., carrier dephasing processes, carrier-carrier scattering, carrier-phonon scattering, exciton formation, and radiative and non-radiative recombination dynamics. There have been several ultrafast optical studies of SWNTs HertelMoos00PRL ; ChenetAl02APL ; HanetAl02APL ; LauretetAl03PRL . Hertel and Moos HertelMoos00PRL  used ultrafast photoemission spectroscopy to determine thermalization times in metallic SWNTs to be $``$200 fs. Three groups ChenetAl02APL ; HanetAl02APL ; LauretetAl03PRL  independently observed subpicosecond to a ps lifetimes for semiconducting SWNTs in pump-probe spectroscopy. Although such ultrashort lifetimes can be expected for intraband relaxation towards the band edge, the microscopic origin of the fast interband decay (which is likely to be non-radiative) is still unclear. One important issue is that these studies were performed on bundled SWNTs, which did not show any PL. It is thus desired to carry out ultrafast spectroscopy on SWNT samples that show chirality-assigned absorption and PL peaks.

In this article, we report results of a femtosecond pump-probe study of chirality-assigned SWNTs. The linear absorption and PL spectra of such micelle-suspended SWNT samples show a number of chirality-dependent peaks, and as a result, the pump-probe data sensitively depends on the wavelength used. In the wavelength range corresponding to the second van Hove singularities (VHSs), we observe ultrafast (sub-picosecond) decays, as has been reported previously ChenetAl02APL ; HanetAl02APL ; LauretetAl03PRL . We ascribe these ultrafast decays to intraband carrier relaxation. On the other hand, in the wavelength range corresponding to the first VHSs, we observe two distinct regimes in ultrafast carrier relaxation: fast (0.3-1.2 ps) and slow (5-20 ps). The slow component has not been observed previously, is resonantly enhanced when the pump photon energy matches an absorption peak, and is attributed to radiative carrier recombination. The slow component is also strongly dependent on the pH of the solution, especially in large diameter tubes.

## 2 Samples Studied

The SWNTs studied in the present work were dispersed in aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant, sonicated, and centrifuged, which left micelle-suspended nanotube solutions. Details of the sample preparation method were described previously oconnelletal02Science .

Typical linear absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra for such micelle-suspended SWNTs are shown in Fig. 1(b), together with a schematic density of states versus energy of semiconducting SWCNTs in Fig. 1(a). The PL peaks occur in the near-infrared ($``$0.9-1.4 eV) and are due to transitions involving the first conduction (E1) and valence (H1) subbands. The absorption spectrum shows peaks from the near-infrared to the visible range, consisting of three overlapping bands: E1H1 transitions in semiconducting tubes (0.78-1.55 eV), E2H2 transitions in semiconducting tubes (1.38-2.26 eV), and transitions in metallic tubes (2.07-3.11 eV). Detailed analyses and interpretations of these linear absorption/emission features are described in BachiloetAl02Science ; WeismanBachilo03NL .

## 3 Experimental Setup

We performed wavelength-dependent, degenerate pump-probe measurements using $``$150 fs pulses from an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) pumped by a chirped pulse amplifier (Clark-MXR CPA2010). We used a low pulse-repetition rate (1 kHz) for minimizing the average power and reducing any thermal effects while keeping the fluence high. To detect small photoinduced changes in probe transmission, we synchronously chopped the pump beam at 500 Hz and measured the transmission with ($`T`$) and without ($`T_0`$) the pump using two different gates of a box-car integrator. The smallest detectable differential transmission \[$`(TT_0)/T_0\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$\] was $``$10-4. We used a noncollinear geometry with a pump beam diameter of $``$220 $`\mu `$m in the overlap area. We tuned the OPA throughout the range of first subband transitions (i.e., E1H1 transitions; see Fig. 1) with photon energies $`h\nu `$ = 0.8 eV to 1.13 eV (wavelengths $`\lambda `$ = 1.1 $`\mu `$m to 1.55 $`\mu `$m). In addition, by directly using the CPA beam ($`h\nu `$ = 1.60 eV, $`\lambda `$ = 775 nm), we probed a region of second subband transitions (E2H2).

## 4 Experimental Results

### 4.1 First vs. Second Subband Excitations

Figure 2 shows typical differential transmission ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$) data as a function of time delay. Two traces are shown, taken at 0.89 eV (1393 nm) and 1.60 eV (775 nm), corresponding to E1H1 and E2H2 ranges, respectively (refer to Fig. 1). Both show a positive change (or an increase) in transmission, i.e., photoinduced bleaching, which is consistent with band filling. An exponential fit reveals a fast, single decay time of 770 fs for the E2H2 transition, which is consistent with earlier reports and can be explained by the very fast intraband carrier relaxation towards the band edge LauretetAl03PRL . On the contrary, data in the range of E1H1 transitions exhibit multiple exponential decays. The major decay of the photoinduced signal happens in the first picosecond (with decay time $`\tau _1`$), which is followed by a much slower relaxation process. For the particular data shown in Fig. 2, we obtained an exponential decay time of $`\tau _2`$ $``$ 10 ps. This long decay time has not been reported previously for either metallic HertelMoos00PRL  or semiconducting SWNTs ChenetAl02APL ; HanetAl02APL ; LauretetAl03PRL .

### 4.2 Pump Fluence Dependence

For both first and second subband transitions, the pump fluence dependence of the maximum value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$ reveals clear saturation at high fluences, as shown in Fig. 3. This implies that, in the saturation regime, most of the carrier states are filled up and thus the sample absorption is nearly completely quenched. A careful analysis of the differential transmission decays for the $`h\nu `$ = 0.89 eV case showed that relaxation dynamics are not dependent on the pump fluence, including the saturation regime. As an example, in Fig. 4 we show pump-probe data at a wavelength of 1402 nm for four different pump fluences. This precludes the possibility of any nonlinear recombination process such as the Auger recombination.

### 4.3 Resonant vs. Non-resonant Excitations

To study any differences between resonant and non-resonant excitations in carrier relaxation as well as any diameter- and/or chirality-dependent phenomena, we scanned the photon energy from 0.8 eV to 1.1 eV, corresponding to the E1H1 transitions of 0.82-1.29 nm diameter tubes BachiloetAl02Science . For all the photon energies, the pump fluence was kept constant at 1 mJ/cm2, which is below the saturation regime \[see Fig. 3\]. Figure 5(a) shows the linear absorption spectrum in the E1H1 transition range. The photon energies at which we performed pump-probe measurements are labeled 1 $``$ 16, covering both peaks and valleys in absorption. Figure 5(b) shows the maximum value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$ as a function of photon energy; it loosely follows the absorption curve in (a). Also shown in Fig. 5(b) (right vertical axis) is the ratio of the slow component (defined as $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$ at 5 ps) to the fast component (defined as $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$ at 0 ps) as a function of photon energy; it also follows the absorption curve in (a), indicating that the slow component is resonantly enhanced at absorption peaks.

To demonstrate this more directly, eight traces of differential transmission dynamics taken at different photon energies are shown in Figs. 6(a)-6(h). The chosen photon energies correspond to the peaks and valleys in the linear absorbtion data in Fig. 5(a), marked as 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 13. For the photon energies corresponding to peaks in linear absorption \[(a), (c), (e), and (g)\], the chirality indices ($`n`$,$`m`$), assigned through PL excitation spectroscopy BachiloetAl02Science ; WeismanBachilo03NL , are (a): (10,2), (c): (12,1) and (8,6), (e): (10,3) and (10,5), and (g): (11,4). The slow component is clearly observable for the photon energies corresponding to absorption peaks \[(a), (c), (e) and (g)\] while the traces corresponding to valleys \[(b), (d), (f) and (h)\] show only the initial, fast decay.

### 4.4 pH Dependence

By adjusting the pH of the solution via adding NaOH or HCl, we found that pump-probe dynamics are strongly dependent on the pH and the dependence is stronger at longer wavelengths (or larger tube diameters). Specifically, we observed that the slow component drastically diminishes as the pH is reduced. Examples are shown in Fig. 7. As previously reported StranoetAl03JPCB , adding hydrogen ions, H+, to the solution (or, equivalently, decreasing the pH value) diminishes, and finally collapses, linear absorption and PL peaks. This effect starts from the longer wavelength side, i.e., from larger diameter tubes. The corresponding reduction and disappearance of the slow component shows exactly the same trend, as shown in Fig. 7. For example, at $`h\nu `$ = 1.118 eV (or 1.11 $`\mu `$m), there is almost no change in pump-probe dynamics from pH = 5.5 to pH = 4.5 \[see Fig. 7(a)\]. However, as the photon energy is decreased to 0.906 eV \[(b)\], 0.879 eV \[(c)\], and 0.853 eV \[(d)\], the disappearance of the slow component becomes increasingly more drastic. Figures 8(a), 8(b), and 8(c) show, respectively, the pH-dependence of (a) near-infrared absorbance spectra in the E1H1 energy range, (b) the maximum value of the differential transmission, and (c) the ratio of the slow component ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$ at 3 ps) to the fast component ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T_0`$ at 0 ps) as functions of photon energy. It is clearly seen that all the three quantities decrease with decreasing pH, and the decrease is more significant at longer wavelengths (or wider-diameter tubes).

## 5 Discussion

As we presented in the last section, our wavelength-dependent single-color pump-probe spectroscopy data on micelle-suspended SWNTs revealed two different decay components, suggesting two different carrier relaxation processes. One component is fast (0.3-1.2 ps) and the other is slow (5-20 ps). In the following we discuss possible origins of these two dynamical processes as well as the intriguing pH dependence of the pump-probe data we obtained.

Both the positive sign of the differential transmission and the initial ultrafast (¡ 1 ps) relaxation agree with the recent reports for semiconducting SWNTs ChenetAl02APL ; HanetAl02APL ; LauretetAl03PRL . The positive sign can be interpreted as state filling as the cause of the photo-bleaching signal and is consistent with the saturation at high fluences (Fig. 3). Namely, the pump-induced carriers fill states and reduce the probe absorption. We believe that the ultrafast decay mechanism is non-radiative (i.e., phonon and/or impurity-mediated) and intraband. It is likely to be non-radiative because this signal exists even for samples that do not luminesce ChenetAl02APL ; HanetAl02APL ; LauretetAl03PRL . It is likely to be intraband relaxation (as opposed to interband relaxation) since it exists both in resonant and non-resonant cases. Note that even when the photon energy is resonant with the E1H1 absorption peak of a particular tube type, it creates non-resonant carriers in other types of tubes whose band gaps are smaller than that of the resonant tube. Note also that we are not seeing any pump-power-dependent decay times, as shown in Fig. 4, which precludes carrier-density-dependent non-radiative processes such as Auger recombination as the origin of the fast decay component. In addition, it is likely that there is some coherent contribution to the pump-probe signal in this ultrashort time scale. However, since we have not observed any four-wave mixing signal, we do not have an estimate on the dephasing time and thus will not discuss how large this contribution is.

On the other hand, the slow decay signal, which was resonantly enhanced when the photon energy coincided with an interband absorption peak, has not been reported previously. We interpret this slow component as interband carrier recombination. Note that in bundled samples band edges are not well defined for individual tubes due to electronic coupling, and thus photo-created carriers cannot show clear interband dynamics in pump-probe measurements. In other words, there is no clear distinction between inter-tube dynamics and intraband dynamics in bundled tubes because van Hove singularities of different tube types form a van Hove absorption band. We further argue that the slow component we observed is probably related to radiative recombination. An important fact for supporting this claim is that in the previous work no PL was observed whereas our sample exhibits PL peaks at the same energies as E1H1 absorption peaks (see Fig. 1). In addition, reducing the pH of the solution destroys PL and absorption peaks while at the same time the slow decay also vanishes (see Fig. 7), indicating an intimate relationship between PL and the slow decay signal. The actual value of the radiative recombination lifetime $`\tau _r`$ depends on the value of the radiative efficiency (or quantum yield) $`\eta `$ = $`\tau _r^1/(\tau _r^1+\tau _{nr}^1)`$, where $`\tau _{nr}`$ is the nonradiative lifetime, since what we measure experimentally is the total decay rate, $`\tau ^1=\tau _r^1+\tau _{nr}^1`$. Direct measurements of $`\tau _r`$ through time-resolved PL are in progress.

Finally, we propose possible scenarios for the drastic pH dependence we observed. Decreasing the pH leads to an increase in the density of H+. First, adsorbed H+ ions on the nanotube surface could add a relaxation channel by the creation of ultrafast carrier trapping centers (defects). This should make the fast non-radiative recombination dominant over the slower radiative recombination if the density of such trapping centers is high. In addition, as previously noted, H+ ions effectively act as acceptors in SWNTs, and thus the Fermi energy ($`E_F`$) depends on the H+ density. When the density is so high that $`E_F`$ lies inside the valence band, interband absorption peaks disappear, irrespective of whether the peaks are due to excitons or van Hove singularities. This can be viewed as a 1-D manifestation of the well-known Burstein-Moss effect Burstein54PR ; Moss54PPS . Larger-diameter tubes are expected to have smaller acceptor binding energies due to their smaller effective masses, and thus should be more susceptible to pH changes. In a heavy doping regime, there is a degenerate hole gas in the valence band, which can completely quench excitonic processes.

## 6 Summary

In summary, we have carried out an ultrafast optical study of micelle-suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes. We have observed two relaxation regimes in the dynamics of micelle-suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes under resonant excitations. We interpret the previously observed shorter decay time $`\tau `$1 as nonradiative intraband relaxation and the previously unobserved larger decay time $`\tau `$2 as related to radiative interband recombination. The relaxation of photoexcited carriers can be made faster by increasing the density of H+ ions in the solution while simply increasing the number of photoexcited carriers does not change the dynamics. The sensitive pH dependence provides a novel means to chemically control carrier states and dynamics in nanotubes.

## 7 Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Robert A. Welch Foundation (Grant No. C-1509), the Texas Advanced Technology Program (Project No. 003604-0001-2001), and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (Grant No. DMR-0134058).


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# How light can the Higgs be?

## 1 INTRODUCTION

It is generally accepted that the Higgs sector of the Standard Model is trivial. A quantum field theory is defined by a set of bare parameters and a regulator with some cut-off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Renormalized quantities are calculated in terms of the bare parameters, then the cut-off is sent to infinity. In a trivial theory, the renormalized couplings vanish as $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{}`$ for any choice of bare parameters. To have a non-trivial interacting theory, the cut-off must remain finite. Hence, the Higgs sector is an effective theory which is only valid at energy scales below the cut-off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

Fig. 1 shows the current phenomenological upper and lower bounds for $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the threshold of new physics . For a given cut-off, the upper bound is the largest $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ that can be generated by any choice of bare parameters. Lattice simulations without Top dynamics have found that $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}650\mathrm{GeV}`$ when the bare Higgs coupling $`\lambda \mathrm{}`$ and the momentum cut-off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\pi /a`$ is a few TeV , where $`a`$ is the lattice spacing. For the cut-off effects to be acceptably small, we require the correlation length $`\xi /a=1/(m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}a)2`$ so that e.g. violation of rotational symmetry in particle scattering is less than a few % .

The phenomenological lower bound for $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ is based on the belief that, for a given Top quark mass, the Higgs mass cannot be too small, otherwise the Higgs field effective potential $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}(\varphi )`$ is unstable. The one-loop contributions to the renormalized effective potential from Higgs and Top loops are of the form $`\lambda _\mathrm{R}^2\varphi _\mathrm{R}^4\mathrm{ln}(\varphi _\mathrm{R}/v_\mathrm{R})`$ and $`y_\mathrm{R}^4\varphi _\mathrm{R}^4\mathrm{ln}(\varphi _\mathrm{R}/v_\mathrm{R})`$ respectively, where $`v_\mathrm{R}`$ is the renormalized vacuum expectation value of $`\varphi _\mathrm{R}`$, and $`\lambda _\mathrm{R}`$ and $`y_\mathrm{R}`$ are the renormalized Higgs and Yukawa couplings. If $`y_\mathrm{R}^2\lambda _\mathrm{R}`$, the negative Top contribution dominates, $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}\mathrm{}`$ as $`\varphi _\mathrm{R}\mathrm{}`$ and the potential no longer has its absolute minimum at $`v_\mathrm{R}`$. For a given $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ and $`m_{\mathrm{Top}}`$ (i.e. $`\lambda _\mathrm{R}`$ and $`y_\mathrm{R}`$), renormalized perturbation theory is valid only if the vacuum is stable, defining an energy scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ where new physics must occur.

The state-of-the-art calculation of the lower bound from vacuum instability gives $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}86\mathrm{GeV}`$ for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=10\mathrm{TeV}`$ and $`m_{\mathrm{Top}}=175\mathrm{GeV}`$, with an uncertainty of less than $`5\mathrm{GeV}`$ . As the current experimental limit is $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}114.3\mathrm{GeV}`$, this is a very relevant and important statement for the validity of the Standard Model. However, we claim that there is no vacuum instability in the theory, making the validity of the current lower bound uncertain.

## 2 THERE IS NO INSTABILITY

It was first shown in  how to measure the constraint effective potential $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ non-perturbatively via lattice simulations. In particular, we examine a model of a single component real scalar field coupled to two copies of staggered fermions, corresponding to 8 degenerate continuum fermion flavors. The bare parameters are the Higgs mass $`m`$ and the Higgs and Yukawa couplings $`\lambda `$ and $`y`$. The scalar field is coupled locally to the fermions. We use the leapfrog Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm with step-size $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=0.01`$ and trajectory length $`N_t\mathrm{\Delta }t1`$. Our statistics are $`10^4`$ trajectories, with a separate simulation required at every value of the scalar field to measure $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. Further details will be presented in .

Fig. 2 shows results for the derivative of the constraint effective potential $`dV_{\mathrm{eff}}(\varphi )/d\varphi `$ for a particular choice of bare parameters with $`y^2\lambda `$. There is no sign of any instability at large values of the scalar field. One-loop bare perturbation theory is in excellent agreement with the non-perturbative simulations, and when $`\varphi `$ is large, even tree-level perturbation theory is very close to the full result.

Renormalized perturbation theory also agrees with the non-perturbative determination of $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ when $`\varphi `$ is small. However, when $`\varphi `$ is large, the renormalization method breaks down because the cut-off terms $`𝒪(\varphi ^2/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2)`$ are not small. The effective potential appears unstable in renormalized perturbation theory because these large positive cut-off effects are neglected. The effective potential is always stable, as shown by numerical simulations and cut-off-dependent bare perturbation theory. This picture is confirmed in a calculation of the effective potential using a Pauli-Villars regulator, in the limit of a large number of fermion flavors .

## 3 CORRECT LOWER BOUND

In the same model of a single component real scalar field coupled to staggered fermions, we show how to compute the correct $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ lower bound (see  for some previous studies of Higgs–Top systems). We choose the bare parameters $`\lambda ,y`$ and $`m`$ to be in the Higgs phase of the theory, close to the critical surface which separates the Higgs and the symmetric phases. For a particular choice of bare parameters, we measure $`v_\mathrm{R}a`$, the renormalized vev in lattice spacing units, using $`v_\mathrm{R}=246\mathrm{GeV}`$ to convert the momentum cut-off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\pi /a`$ into physical units.

We measure $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ and the wave-function renormalization factor $`Z_\varphi `$ from the scalar field propagator in momentum space $`G_\varphi (p^2)`$

$$G_\varphi ^1(p^2)=(m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}^2+\widehat{p}^2)/Z_\varphi ,$$
(1)
where $`\widehat{p}^2=_\mu 4\mathrm{sin}^2(p_\mu /2)`$. We measure $`m_{\mathrm{Top}}`$ from the zero momentum piece of the fermion propagator. All simulations were performed in $`8^3\times 16`$ volumes, again using the HMC algorithm, varying the step-size $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ to achieve acceptance rates of more than $`90\%`$. Our statistics are $`10^4`$ trajectories for each choice of bare parameters. In Fig. 3, we show a typical measurement of $`G_\varphi ^1(p^2)`$ giving $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}a=0.310(3)`$ and $`Z_\varphi =0.971(2)`$.

In Fig. 4, we plot a summary of the simulations. The solid lines are measurements with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ fixed in physical units, varying the bare parameters to stay at a fixed distance from the critical surface. For a given $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`m_{\mathrm{Top}}`$, the smallest Higgs mass is generated when $`\lambda 0`$. This is completely analogous to the upper bound, where $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ is largest when $`\lambda \mathrm{}`$. To keep the cut-off effects acceptably small, we require both the scalar and fermion correlations lengths $`\xi /a2`$. The dashed line in Fig. 4 corresponds to $`\xi /a=2`$, to the left of the dashed line is the allowed region of small cut-off effects. From this, we can extract the lower bound. For example, in this model of 8 degenerate fermions, the smallest Higgs mass that can be generated for $`m_{\mathrm{Top}}=175\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=2\mathrm{TeV}`$ is $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}230\mathrm{GeV}`$.

## 4 SUMMARY

The apparent instability of the Higgs vacuum when coupled to a heavy Top quark is due to the breakdown of renormalized perturbation theory when the cut-off effects are large. This places the current phenomenological $`m_{\mathrm{Higgs}}`$ lower bound in doubt. The correct lower bound in a particular cut-off scheme can be found by measuring the smallest Higgs mass that can be generated while simultaneously keeping the cut-off effects acceptably small. A similar calculation for a realistic Higgs–Top system is a very timely and important project for the lattice community.