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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

A remarkable recent event in hadronic physics is the discovery of a $`S=+1`$ baryon (dubbed the $`Z^+`$ or $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$) with a mass of 1540 MeV and width less than 25 MeV . This discovery was promptly confirmed in . At present the spin, parity and magnetic moment of this state have not been determined; one group, the SAPHIR collaboration , found that the isospin of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ is zero. Because it appears as a resonance in the system $`K^+n`$, the minimal possibility for its quark content is $`uudd\overline{s}`$ which is manifestly exotic, i.e. it cannot be made out of three non-relativistic quarks. Early speculations on this kind of exotic baryons were made in . Remarkably, a state with these quantum numbers appears naturally  in the rigid rotator quantization of the three-flavor Skyrme model , and detailed predictions for its mass and width were made by Diakonov, Petrov and Polyakov . Their results provided motivation for the experimental searches that led to the discovery of $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ very close to the predicted parameters.111For other recent theoretical models of $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$, see, e.g. .

The rigid rotator quantization of the Skyrme model that was used in  relied on working directly with $`N=3`$ ($`N`$ is the number of colors). Then the model predicts the well-known $`\mathrm{𝟖}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ of $`SU(3)`$, followed by an exotic $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}}`$ multiplet whose $`S=+1`$ member is the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$. The approach of  began by postulating that the established $`N(1710)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1880)`$ states are members of the anti-decuplet. Then, using group theory techniques, and constraints from a rigid rotator treatment of chiral solitons, they estimated the mass and width of the other states in this multiplet. They predicted that the lowest member of the anti-decuplet has a mass of 1530 MeV and width of about 9 MeV. These results appear to be confirmed strikingly by experiment.222Note that the authors of  have argued that the experimental data actually indicate an even smaller width.

In this paper we will follow a somewhat different strategy, trying to develop a systematic $`1/N`$ expansion for $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$. In the two-flavor Skyrme model, the quantum numbers of the low-lying states do not depend on $`N`$, as long as it is odd: $`I=J=\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2},\mathrm{}`$ ($`I`$ is the isospin and and $`J`$ is the spin). These states are identified with the nucleon and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ . The three-flavor case is rather different, since even the lowest $`SU(3)`$ multiplets depend on $`N=2n+1`$ and become large as $`N\mathrm{}`$. The allowed multiplets must contain states of hypercharge $`N/3`$, i.e. of strangeness $`S=0`$. In the notation where $`SU(3)`$ multiplets are labeled by $`(p,q)`$, the lowest multiplets one finds are $`(1,n)`$ with $`J=\frac{1}{2}`$ and $`(3,n1)`$ with $`J=\frac{3}{2}`$ . These are the large $`N`$ analogues of the octet and the decuplet. The rigid rotator mass formula, valid in the limit of unbroken $`SU(3)`$, is

$$M^{(p,q)}=M_{cl}+\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Omega }}J(J+1)+\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Phi }}\left(C^{(p,q)}J(J+1)\frac{N^2}{12}\right),$$
(1.1)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are moments of inertia, which are of order $`N`$. Using the formula for the quadratic Casimir,

$$C^{(p,q)}=\frac{1}{3}[p^2+q^2+3(p+q)+pq],$$
(1.2)
one notes  that the lowest lying $`SU(3)`$ multiplets $`(2J,n+\frac{1}{2}J)`$, of spin $`J=\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2},\mathrm{}`$ obey the mass formula

$$M(J)=M_{cl}+\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }}+\frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Omega }}J(J+1).$$
(1.3)
Exactly the same multiplets appear when we construct baryon states out of $`N`$ quarks. The splittings among them are of order $`1/N`$, as is usual for soliton rotation excitations.

The large $`N`$ analogue of the exotic antidecuplet is $`(0,n+2)`$ with $`J=\frac{1}{2}`$. Its splitting from the lowest multiplets is $`\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }}+O(1/N)`$. The fact that it is of order $`N^0`$ raises questions about the validity of the rigid rotator approach to these states . Indeed, we will argue that a better approximation to these states is provided by the bound state approach . In the bound state approach one departs from the rigid rotator ansatz, and adopts more general kaon fluctuation profiles. This has $`O(N^0)`$ effect on energies of states even in the low-lying non-exotic multiplets, after $`SU(3)`$ breaking is turned on. In the limit $`m_K0`$ the bound state description of non-exotic baryons smoothly approaches the rigid rotator description, and the bound state wave function approaches the zero-mode $`\mathrm{sin}(F(r)/2)`$ , where $`F(r)`$ is the radial profile function of the skyrmion.

Our logic leads us to believe that, at least from the point of view of the large $`N`$ expansion, $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ should be described by a near-threshold kaon-skyrmion resonance or bound state of $`S=+1`$, rather than by a rotator state (a similar suggestion was made independently in ). This is akin to the bound state description of the $`S=1`$ baryons in  where a possibility of such a description of an exotic $`S=+1`$ state was mentioned as well. This leads us to a puzzle, however, since, in contrast with the situation for $`S=1`$, for $`S=+1`$ there is no fluctuation mode that in the $`m_K0`$ limit approaches the rigid rotator mode of energy $`\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ (this will be shown explicitly in section 3). An essential difficulty is that, for small $`m_K`$, this is not a near-threshold state; hence, it is not too surprising that it does not show up in the more general fluctuation analysis. Thus, for large $`N`$ and small $`m_K`$ the rigid rotator state with $`S=+1`$ appears to be an artifact of the rigid rotator approximation (we believe this to be a general statement that does not depend on the details of the chiral lagrangian).

Next we ask what happens as we increase $`m_K`$ keeping other parameters in the kaon-skyrmion Lagrangian fixed. For $`m_K=495MeV`$, and with the standard fit values of $`f_\pi `$ and $`e`$, neither bound states  nor resonances  exist for $`S=+1`$.333 Such states seem to appear in . However, in the normalization of the Wess-Zumino term, which is repulsive for $`S=+1`$ states, a large factor of $`e^230`$ was apparently omitted there (compare eq. (7) of  with ). When this factor is reinstated, both bound states and resonances disappear for standard parameter choices, as claimed in  and confirmed in this work. If, however, we increase $`m_K`$ to $`1GeV`$ then a near-threshold state appears. Thus, we reach a surprising conclusion that, at least for large $`N`$, the exotic $`S=+1`$ state exists only due to the $`SU(3)`$ breaking and disappears when the breaking is too weak. While this certainly contradicts the philosophy of , it is actually in line with some of the earlier literature (see, for example,  and the end of ). An intuitive way to see the necessity of the $`SU(3)`$ breaking for the existence of the exotic is that the breaking keeps it a near-threshold state.

One of the purposes of this paper is to examine how sensitive the existence of this state is to parameter choices. If we set $`m_K=495`$MeV, then minor adjustments of $`f_\pi `$ and $`e`$ do not make the $`S=+1`$ resonance appear. We will find, however, that if the strength of the Wess-Zumino term is reduced by roughly a factor of 0.4 compared to its $`SU(3)`$ value, then a near-threshold state corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ is indeed found. Although we do not have a good a priori explanation for this reduction, it could be caused by unexpectedly large $`SU(3)`$ breaking effects on this particular term. This issue clearly requires further investigation.

The structure of the paper is as follows. In the next section we will review the rigid rotator approach to Skyrme model at large $`N`$, and recall a method of large $`N`$ expansion introduced in , which involves expanding in rigid motions around the $`SU(2)`$ subgroup of $`SU(3)`$. In section 3 we proceed to the bound state approach that, by introducing extra degrees of freedom, has $`O(N^0)`$ effect on baryon spectra. In section 4 we review the status of $`S=1`$ baryons based on kaon-skyrmion bound states, and also study a near-threshold D-wave resonance  that, upon $`SU(2)`$ collective coordinate quantization, reproduces the observed states $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1520)`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1670)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1775)`$ with good accuracy. In section 5 we carry out the search for $`S=+1`$ kaon-skyrmion bound states and resonances. In section 6 we attempt a different fit with a non-zero pion mass. We offer some concluding remarks in section 7.

## 2 Three-flavor Skyrme model at large $`N`$

The Skyrme approach to baryons begins with the Lagrangian

$`L_{Skyrme}={\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi ^2}{16}}\mathrm{Tr}(_\mu U^{}^\mu U)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{32e^2}}\mathrm{Tr}([_\mu UU^{},_\nu UU^{}]^2)+\mathrm{Tr}(M(U+U^{}2)),`$ (2.1)
where $`U(x^\mu )`$ is a matrix in $`SU(3)`$ and $`M`$ is proportional to the matrix of quark masses. Later on, it will be convenient to choose units where $`ef_\pi =1`$. There is an additional term in the action, called the Wess-Zumino term:

$`S_{WZ}={\displaystyle \frac{iN}{240\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle d^5xϵ^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta \gamma }\mathrm{Tr}(_\mu UU^{}_\nu UU^{}_\alpha UU^{}_\beta UU^{}_\gamma UU^{})}.`$ (2.2)
In the limit of unbroken $`SU(3)`$ flavor symmetry, its normalization is fixed by anomaly considerations .

The Skyrme Lagrangian is a theory of mesons but it describes baryons as well. The simplest baryons in the Skyrme model are the nucleons. Classically, they have no strange quarks, so we may set the kaon fluctuations to zero and consider only the $`SU(2)`$-isospin subgroup of $`SU(3)`$. Skyrme showed that there are topologically stabilized static solutions of hedgehog form:

$`U_0=U_{\pi ,0}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}e^{i\tau \widehat{r}F(r)}& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$ (2.5)
in which the radial profile function $`F(r)`$ satisfies the boundary conditions $`F(0)=\pi ,F(\mathrm{})=0`$. By substituting the hedgehog ansatz (2.5) into the Skyrme Lagrangian (2.1), and considering the corresponding equations of motion one obtains an equation for $`F(r)`$ which is straightforward to solve numerically. The non-strange low-lying excitations of this soliton are given by rigid rotations of the pion field $`A(t)SU(2)`$:

$`U(x,t)=A(t)U_0A^1(t).`$ (2.6)
For such an ansatz the Wess-Zumino term does not contribute. By expanding the Lagrangian about $`U_0`$ and canonically quantizing the rotations, one finds that the Hamiltonian is

$`H=M_{cl}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Omega }}}J(J+1),`$ (2.7)
where $`J`$ is the spin and the c-numbers $`M_{cl}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ are complicated integrals of functions of the soliton profile. Numerically, for vanishing pion mass, one finds that

$`M_{cl}`$ $``$ $`36.5{\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi }{e}},`$ (2.8)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{107}{e^3f_\pi }}.`$ (2.9)
For $`N=2n+1`$, the low-lying quantum numbers are independent of the integer $`n`$. The lowest states, with $`I=J=\frac{1}{2}`$ and $`I=J=\frac{3}{2}`$, are identified with the nucleon and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ particles respectively. Since $`f_\pi \sqrt{N}`$, and $`e1/\sqrt{N}`$, the soliton mass is $`N`$, while the rotational splittings are $`1/N`$. Adkins, Nappi and Witten  found that they could fit the $`N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ masses with the parameter values $`e=5.45,f_\pi =129`$ MeV. In comparison, the physical value of $`f_\pi =186`$ MeV.

A generalization of this rigid rotator treatment that produces $`SU(3)`$ multiplets of baryons is obtained by making the collective coordinate $`A(t)`$ an element of $`SU(3)`$. Then the WZ term makes a crucial constraint on allowed multiplets . As discussed in the introduction, large $`N`$ treatment of this 3-flavor Skyrme model is more subtle than for its 2-flavor counterpart. When $`N=2n+1`$ is large, even the lowest lying $`(1,n)`$ $`SU(3)`$ multiplet contains $`(n+1)(n+3)`$ states with strangeness ranging from $`S=0`$ to $`S=n1`$ . When the strange quark mass is turned on, it will introduce a splitting of order $`N`$ between the lowest and highest strangeness baryons in the same multiplet. Thus, $`SU(3)`$ is badly broken in the large $`N`$ limit, no matter how small $`m_s`$ is . We will find it helpful to think in terms of $`SU(2)\times U(1)`$ flavor quantum numbers, which do have a smooth large $`N`$ limit. In other words, we focus on low strangeness members of these multiplets, whose $`I`$, $`J`$ quantum numbers do have a smooth large $`N`$ limit, and to try identify them with observable baryons.

Since the multiplets contain baryons with up to $`N`$ strange quarks, the wave functions of baryon with fixed strangeness deviate only an amount $`1/N`$ into the strange directions of the collective coordinate space. Thus, to describe them, one may expand the $`SU(3)`$ rigid rotator treatment around the $`SU(2)`$ collective coordinate. The small deviations from $`SU(2)`$ may be assembled into a complex $`SU(2)`$ doublet $`K(t)`$. This method of $`1/N`$ expansion was implemented in , and reviewed in .

From the point of view of the Skyrme model the ability to expand in small fluctuations is due to the Wess-Zumino term which acts as a large magnetic field of order $`N`$. The method works for arbitrary kaon mass, and has the correct limit as $`m_K0`$. To order $`O(N^0)`$ the Lagrangian has the form

$$L=4\mathrm{\Phi }\dot{K}^{}\dot{K}+i\frac{N}{2}(K^{}\dot{K}\dot{K}^{}K)\mathrm{\Gamma }K^{}K.$$
(2.10)
The Hamiltonian may be diagonalized:

$$H=\omega _{}a^{}a+\omega _+b^{}b+\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }},$$
(2.11)
where

$$\omega _\pm =\frac{N}{8\mathrm{\Phi }}\left(\sqrt{1+(m_K/M_0)^2}\pm 1\right),M_0^2=\frac{N^2}{16\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Gamma }}.$$
(2.12)
The strangeness operator is $`S=b^{}ba^{}a`$. All the non-exotic multiplets contain $`a^{}`$ excitations only. In the $`SU(3)`$ limit, $`\omega _{}0`$, but $`\omega _+\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }}N^0`$. Thus, the “exoticness” quantum number mentioned in  is simply $`E=b^{}b`$ here, and the splitting between multiplets of different “exoticness” is $`\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, in agreement with results found from the exact rigid rotator mass formula (1.1).

The rigid rotator prediction for $`O(N^0)`$ splittings are not exact, however, for reasons explained long ago  and reviewed in the introduction. Even for non-exotic states, as the soliton rotates into strange directions, it experiences deformation which grows with $`m_K`$. The bound state approach allows it to deform, which has a significant $`O(N^0)`$ effect on energy levels. We now turn to review the bound state approach.

## 3 Review of the Bound State Approach

Another approach to strange baryons, which proves to be quite successful in describing the light hyperons, is the so-called bound state method . The basic strategy involved is to expand the action to second order in kaon fluctuations about the classical hedgehog soliton. Then one can obtain a linear differential equation for the kaon field, incorporating the effect of the kaon mass, which one can solve exactly. The eigenenergies of the kaon field are then precisely the differences between the Skyrmion mass and the strange baryons. In order to implement this strategy, it is convenient to write $`U`$ in the form

$`U=\sqrt{U_\pi }U_K\sqrt{U_\pi },`$ (3.1)
where $`U_\pi =\mathrm{exp}[2i\lambda _j\pi ^j/f_\pi ]`$ and $`U_K=\mathrm{exp}[2i\lambda _aK^a/f_\pi ]`$ with $`j`$ running from 1 to 3 and $`a`$ running from 4 to 7.444There is actually a second coupling constant $`f_K`$ which replaces $`f_\pi `$ in the definition of $`U_K`$; experimentally, $`f_K1.22f_\pi `$. To incorporate the difference between these coupling constants, one simply replaces $`f_\pi `$ by $`f_K`$ when expanding in powers of the kaon field, but does not rescale the kinetic and kaon mass terms, which are required to have standard normalization. Then those terms that follow from the four-derivative term, the Wess-Zumino term, and the pion mass in the Skyrme Lagrangian change by a factor of $`(f_\pi /f_K)^2`$. The $`\lambda _a`$ are the standard $`SU(3)`$ Gell-Mann matrices. We will collect the $`K^a`$ into a complex isodoublet $`K`$:

$`K={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}\left(\begin{array}{c}K^4iK^5\\ K^6iK^7\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{c}K^+\\ K^0\end{array}\right).`$ (3.6)
Though the Wess-Zumino term can only be written as an action term, if we expand it to second order in $`K`$, we obtain an ordinary Lagrangian term:

$`L_{WZ}={\displaystyle \frac{iN}{f_\pi ^2}}B^\mu \left(K^{}D_\mu K(D_\mu K)^{}K\right)`$ (3.7)
where

$`D_\mu K=_\mu K+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(\sqrt{U_\pi ^{}}_\mu \sqrt{U_\pi }+\sqrt{U_\pi }_\mu \sqrt{U_\pi ^{}}\right)K,`$ (3.8)
and $`B_\mu `$ is the baryon number current. Now we decompose the kaon field into a set of partial waves. Because the background soliton field is invariant under combined spatial and isospin rotations $`𝐓=𝐈+𝐋`$, a good set of quantum numbers is $`T,L`$ and $`T_z`$, and so we write the kaon eigenmodes as

$`K=k(r,t)Y_{TLT_z}.`$ (3.9)
Substituting this expression into $`L_{Skyrme}+L_{WZ}`$ we obtain an effective Lagrangian for the radial kaon field $`k(r,t)`$:

$`L=4\pi {\displaystyle r^2𝑑r\left(f(r)\dot{k}^{}\dot{k}+i\lambda (r)(k^{}\dot{k}\dot{k}^{}k)h(r)\frac{d}{dr}k^{}\frac{d}{dr}kk^{}k(m_K^2+V_{eff}(r))\right)},`$
with $`\lambda (r)=\frac{Ne^2}{2\pi ^2r^2}F^{}\mathrm{sin}^2F`$, $`f(r)=1+2s(r)+d(r),h(r)=1+2s(r),d(r)=F^2,s(r)=(\mathrm{sin}F/r)^2,c(r)=\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{F}{2}`$, and

$`V_{eff}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(d+2s)2s(s+2d)+{\displaystyle \frac{1+d+s}{r^2}}(L(L+1)+2c^2+4c𝐈𝐋)`$ (3.10)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{6}{r^2}}\left(s(c^2+2c𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐋)+{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\left((c+𝐈𝐋)F^{}\mathrm{sin}F\right)\right){\displaystyle \frac{m_\pi ^2}{2}}(1\mathrm{cos}F).`$
The resulting equation of motion for $`k`$ is

$`f(r)\ddot{k}+2i\lambda (r)\dot{k}+𝒪k=0,`$ (3.11)
$`𝒪{\displaystyle \frac{1}{r^2}}_rh(r)r^2_rm_K^2V_{eff}(r).`$
Expanding $`k`$ in terms of its eigenmodes gives

$`k(r,t)={\displaystyle \underset{n>0}{}}(\stackrel{~}{k}_n(r)e^{i\stackrel{~}{\omega }_nt}b_n^{}+k_n(r)e^{i\omega _nt}a_n),`$ (3.12)
with $`\omega _n,\stackrel{~}{\omega }_n`$ positive. The eigenvalue equations are thus

$`(f(r)\omega _n^2+2\lambda (r)\omega _n+𝒪)k_n`$ $`=`$ $`0(S=1),`$
$`(f(r)\stackrel{~}{\omega }_n^22\lambda (r)\stackrel{~}{\omega }_n+𝒪)\stackrel{~}{k}_n`$ $`=`$ $`0(S=+1).`$ (3.13)
Crucially, the sign in front of $`\lambda `$, which is the contribution of the WZ term, depends on whether the relevant eigenmodes have positive or negative strangeness. The important result here is the set of equations (3.13) which we will now solve and whose solutions we will match with the spectrum of baryons.

It is possible to examine these equations analytically for $`m_K=0`$. The $`S=1`$ equation has an exact solution with $`\omega =0`$ and $`k(r)\mathrm{sin}(F(r)/2)`$. This is how the rigid rotator zero mode is recovered in the bound state treatment . As $`m_K`$ is turned on, this solution turns into an actual bound state . One the other hand, the $`S=+1`$ equation does not have a solution with $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }=\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ and $`k(r)\mathrm{sin}(F(r)/2)`$. This is why the exotic rigid rotator state is not reproduced by the more precise bound state approach to strangeness. In section 5 we further check that, for small $`m_K`$, there is no resonance that would turn into the rotator state of energy $`\frac{N}{4\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ in the $`SU(3)`$ limit.

## 4 Baryons with $`S=1`$

In this section we recall the description of $`S=1`$ baryons as antikaon–skyrmion bound states or resonances. We will set the kaon mass equal to its physical value, $`m_K=495`$ MeV, but set the pion mass equal to zero. If we wish to fit both the nucleon and delta masses to their physical values using the $`SU(2)`$ rotator approximation, then we must take $`e=5.45`$ and $`f_\pi =129`$ MeV; let us begin with these values as they are somewhat traditional in analyses based on the Skyrme model.

The lightest strange excitation is in the channel $`L`$=1, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$, and its mass is $`M_{cl}+0.218ef_\pi 1019`$ MeV. As the lightest state with $`S=1`$, it is natural to identify it with the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1115)`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1190)`$, and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1385)`$ states, where the additional splitting arises from $`SU(2)`$ rotator corrections. Let us compute these corrections. The relevant formula for $`S=1`$  is

$`M=M_{cl}+\omega _1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\mathrm{\Omega }}}\left[cJ(J+1)+(1c)I(I+1)+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}(c^2c)\right],`$ (4.1)
where $`\omega _1`$ is the kaon eigenenergy and $`c`$ is a number defined in terms of the bound state eigenfunction $`k_1`$ by

$`c_{l=1}=1\omega _1{\displaystyle \frac{𝑑rk_1^{}k_1\left(\frac{4}{3}fr^2\mathrm{cos}^2\frac{F}{2}2(\frac{d}{dr}(r^2F^{}\mathrm{sin}F)\frac{4}{3}\mathrm{sin}^2F\mathrm{cos}^2\frac{F}{2})\right)}{r^2𝑑rk_1^{}k_1(f\omega _1+\lambda )}}.`$ (4.2)
In this $`L=1`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$ channel, we find from numerical integration that $`c=0.617`$. The masses, including $`SU(2)`$ corrections, appear in columns (a) of Table 1. The two features to note here are that first, these states are all somewhat overbound, and second, the $`SU(2)`$ splittings match rather closely with experiment (one of the successes of the bound state approach ).

The next group of strange excitations is in the channel $`L=0`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$, and we have determined its mass before including rotator corrections to be $`M_{cl}+0.523ef_\pi 1233`$ MeV. In this channel the formula for $`c`$ is given by

$`c_{l=0}=1\omega _2{\displaystyle \frac{𝑑rk_2^{}k_2\left(\frac{4}{3}fr^2\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{F}{2}+2(\frac{d}{dr}(r^2F^{}\mathrm{sin}F)+\frac{4}{3}\mathrm{sin}^2F\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{F}{2})\right)}{r^2𝑑rk_2^{}k_2(f\omega _2+\lambda )}},`$ (4.3)
and for the relevant bound state this gives $`c0.806`$. The $`SU(2)`$ corrections (4.1) raise the mass of the lightest state in this channel to 1281 MeV. From the quantum numbers, it is natural to identify this state with the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ state, but as we see it is rather overbound.

We have seen that with the traditional values $`e=5.45`$ and $`f_\pi =129`$ MeV the Skyrme model successfully captures qualitative features of the baryon spectrum such as the presence of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ state, but that the bound states are all too light. It is possible that the zero-point energy of kaon fluctuations, which is hard to calculate explicitly, has to be added to all masses. Thus it is easiest to focus on mass splittings. Then from the $`SU(2)`$ rotator quantization, we would obtain only one constraint (2.9), from the nucleon-$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ splitting, and be able to adjust $`e`$ and $`f_\pi `$ to improve the fit to known masses. As we increase $`f_\pi `$, we find that the particle masses increase, improving agreement with experiment. For definiteness, let us try to set $`f_\pi `$ to its experimental value, $`f_\pi `$=186 MeV, which then requires $`e=4.82`$. We report the results for the masses in column (b) of Table 1.

More dramatic increases in the particle masses may be obtained by distinguishing between the pion decay constant $`f_\pi `$ and the kaon decay constant $`f_K`$, as shown by Rho, Riska and Scoccola , who worked in a modified Skyrme model with explicit vector mesons . For $`f_K=1.22f_\pi `$ they were able to essentially eliminate the over-binding problem for the $`L=1`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$ states, though they still found the analogue of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ state to be overbound by about 100 MeV. We should add that the natural appearance of this $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ with negative parity is a major success of the bound state approach . In quark or bag models such a baryon is described by a $`p`$-wave quark excitation, which typically turns out to be too heavy (for a discussion, see the introduction of ).

A third way to raise the masses of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ states is to modify the Wess-Zumino term. For the $`S=1`$ states, the WZ term results in an attractive force between the Skyrmion and the kaon, so if we reduce this term by hand, the hyperons will become less tightly bound and their masses should increase.555Note that for unbroken $`SU(3)`$ the WZ term is quantized and cannot be changed by hand. However, $`SU(3)`$ breaking is likely to change the WZ term. We will address this approach in the next section, and we will see that such a reduction helps to produce an $`S=+1`$ near-threshold state. However, too great a reduction of the WZ term will spoil the hyperfine splittings governed by the parameter $`c`$.

Finally, let us note that the philosophy of the bound state approach can be applied successfully to states above threshold. Such states will appear as resonances in kaon-nucleon scattering, which we may identify by the standard procedure of solving the appropriate kaon wave equation and studying the phase shifts of the corresponding solutions as a function of the kaon energy. In the $`L=2`$, $`T=\frac{3}{2}`$ channel there is a resonance at $`M_{cl}+0.7484ef_\pi `$=1392 MeV (see Figure 1)666The existence of this resonance was noted long ago in a vector-meson stabilized Skyrme model .. In this channel, the $`SU(2)`$ splitting parameter $`c`$ is given by the formula

$`c_{l=2}=1\omega _3{\displaystyle \frac{𝑑rk_3^{}k_3\left(\frac{2}{3}(1+\frac{4}{5}\mathrm{cos}^2\frac{F}{2})fr^2\frac{4}{5}(\frac{d}{dr}(r^2F^{}\mathrm{sin}F)+\frac{4}{3}\mathrm{sin}^2F\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{F}{2})\right)}{r^2𝑑rk_3^{}k_3(f\omega _3+\lambda )}}.`$
Numerically, we evaluate this coefficient by cutting off the radial integral around the point where $`k(r)`$ begins to oscillate. We find $`c0.23`$. The states are split into the channels with $`(I,J)`$ given by $`(0,\frac{3}{2})`$, $`(1,\frac{3}{2})`$, $`(1,\frac{5}{2})`$ , with masses 1462 MeV, 1613 MeV, and 1723 MeV respectively (see Table 2). We see that these correspond nicely to the known negative parity resonances $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1520)`$ (which is $`D_{03}`$ in standard notation), $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1670)`$ (which is $`D_{13}`$) and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1775)`$ (which is $`D_{15}`$) . As with the bound states, we find that the resonances are somewhat overbound (the overbinding of all states is presumably related to the necessity of adding an overall zero-point energy of kaon fluctuations), but that the mass splittings within this multiplet are accurate to within a few percent. In fact, we find that the ratio

$`{\displaystyle \frac{M(1,\frac{5}{2})M(0,\frac{3}{2})}{M(1,\frac{3}{2})M(0,\frac{3}{2})}}1.73,`$ (4.4)
while its empirical value is $`1.70`$.

This very good agreement with the states observed above the $`KN`$ threshold is an additional success of the kaon fluctuation approach to strange baryons.

## 5 A Baryon with S=+1?

For states with positive strangeness, the eigenvalue equation for the kaon field is the same except for a change of sign in the contribution of the WZ term. This sign change makes the WZ term repulsive for states with $`\overline{s}`$ quarks and introduces a splitting between ordinary and exotic baryons . In fact, with standard values of the parameters (such as those in the previous section) the repulsion is strong enough to remove all bound states and resonances with $`S=1`$, including the newly-observed $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$. It is natural to ask how much we must modify the Skyrme model to accommodate the pentaquark. The simplest modification we can make is to introduce a coefficient $`a`$ multiplying the WZ term. Qualitatively, we expect that reducing the WZ term will make the $`S=+1`$ baryons more bound, while the opposite should happen to the ordinary baryons. Another modification we will attempt is to vary the mass of the kaon; we will find that for sufficiently large kaon mass the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ becomes stable. In all cases, we have found empirically that raising $`f_K`$ relative to $`f_\pi `$ makes the pentaquark less bound, so for this section we will take $`f_K=f_\pi `$.

The most likely channel in which we might find an exotic has the quantum numbers $`L=1`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$, as in this case the effective potential is least repulsive near the origin. For $`f_\pi `$= 129, 186, and 225 MeV, with $`e^3f_\pi `$ fixed, we have studied the effect of lowering the WZ term by hand. Interestingly, in all three cases we have to set $`a0.39`$ to have a bound state at threshold. If we raise $`a`$ slightly, this bound state moves above the threshold, but does not survive far above threshold; it ceases to be a sharp state for $`a0.46`$. We have plotted phase shifts for various values of $`a`$ in Figure 2.777When the state is above the threshold, we do not find a full $`\pi `$ variation of the phase. Furthermore, the variation and slope of the phase shift decrease rapidly as the state moves higher, so it gets too broad to be identifiable. So, the state can only exist as a bound state or a near-threshold state.  With $`a=0.39`$ and $`f_\pi =129`$ MeV, this state (with mass essentially at threshold) has $`SU(2)`$ splitting parameter $`c0.48`$. The $`SU(2)`$ collective coordinate quantization of the state proceeds analogously to that of the $`S=1`$ bound states, and the mass formula is again of the form (4.1). Thus the lightest $`S=+1`$ state we find has $`I=0`$, $`J=\frac{1}{2}`$ and positive parity, i.e. it is an $`S=+1`$ counterpart of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. This is our candidate $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ state. Its first $`SU(2)`$ rotator excitations have $`I=1`$, $`J^P=\frac{3}{2}^+`$ and $`I=1`$, $`J^P=\frac{1}{2}^+`$ (a relation of these states to $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ also follows from general large $`N`$ relations among baryons ). The counterparts of these $`J^P=\frac{1}{2}^+,\frac{3}{2}^+`$ states in the rigid rotator quantization lie in the 27-plets of $`SU(3)`$. These states were recently discussed in .

From the mass formula (4.1) we deduce that

$$M(1,\frac{1}{2})M(0,\frac{1}{2})=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }}(1c),M(1,\frac{3}{2})M(0,\frac{1}{2})=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\left(1+\frac{c}{2}\right).$$
(5.5)
Since $`c<0`$, the $`J=\frac{3}{2}`$ state is lighter than $`J=\frac{1}{2}`$. Using $`c0.48`$, we find that the $`I=1`$, $`J^P=\frac{3}{2}^+`$ state is $`148`$ MeV heavier than the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$,888This value is close to those predicted in  but is significantly higher than the $`55`$ MeV reported in . For a comparison of these possibilities with available data, see . while the $`I=1`$, $`J^P=\frac{1}{2}^+`$ state is $`289`$ MeV heavier than the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$.

We may further consider $`I=2`$ rotator excitations which have $`J^P=\frac{3}{2}^+,\frac{5}{2}^+`$. Such states are allowed for $`N=3`$ (in the quark language the charge $`+3`$ state, for example, is given by $`uuuu\overline{s}`$). The counterparts of these $`J^P=\frac{3}{2}^+,\frac{5}{2}^+`$ states in the rigid rotator quantization lie in the 35-plets of $`SU(3)`$ . From the mass formula (4.1) we deduce that

$`M(2,{\displaystyle \frac{5}{2}})M(0,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }}}(3+c)494\mathrm{MeV},`$ (5.6)
$`M(2,{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}})M(0,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})={\displaystyle \frac{3}{\mathrm{\Omega }}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{c}{2}}\right)729\mathrm{MeV}.`$
While the value of $`c`$ certainly depends on the details of the chiral lagrangian, we may form certain combinations of masses of the exotics from which it cancels. In this way we find “model-independent relations” which rely only the existence of the $`SU(2)`$ collective coordinate:

$`2M(1,{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}})+M(1,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})3M(0,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})`$ $`=`$ $`2(M_\mathrm{\Delta }M_N)=586\mathrm{MeV},`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}M(2,{\displaystyle \frac{5}{2}})+M(2,{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}){\displaystyle \frac{5}{2}}M(0,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})`$ $`=`$ $`5(M_\mathrm{\Delta }M_N)=1465\mathrm{MeV},`$ (5.7)
$`M(2,{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}})M(2,{\displaystyle \frac{5}{2}})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}\left(M(1,{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})M(1,{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}})\right),`$
where we used $`M_\mathrm{\Delta }M_N=\frac{3}{2\mathrm{\Omega }}`$. These relations are analogous to the sum rule

$`2M_\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}+M_\mathrm{\Sigma }3M_\mathrm{\Lambda }=2(M_\mathrm{\Delta }M_N),`$ (5.8)
which is obeyed with good accuracy. If the $`I=1,2`$ exotic baryons are discovered, it will be very interesting to compare the relations (5) with experiment.

Suppose we tried to require the existence of a pentaquark state by setting $`a`$=0.4. How would this change affect the spectrum of negative strangeness baryons? The results are somewhat mixed. Let us take $`f_\pi `$=129 MeV as an example. In the $`L=1,T=\frac{1}{2}`$ channel, the bound state has a mass of 1209 MeV before including $`SU(2)`$ rotator corrections. The parameter $`c`$ which characterizes the $`SU(2)`$ splittings falls to $`c0.14`$. Including the splittings we find the masses given in column (c) of Table 1. Notice that the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is far above its experimental mass of 1190 MeV, signaling drastic disagreement with the Gell-Mann-Okubo relations, as we would expect for this small value of $`c`$. In the $`L=0,T=\frac{1}{2}`$ channel the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ resonance is at 1366 MeV (including rotator corrections), still somewhat overbound.

As another probe of the parameter space of our Skyrme model, let us vary the mass of the kaon and see how this affects the pentaquark. As observed in Section 3, in the limit of infinitesimal kaon mass, there is no resonance in the $`S=+1,L=1,T=\frac{1}{2}`$ channel. We find that to obtain a bound state in this channel, we must raise $`m_K`$ to about 1100 MeV.999Since both $`D`$ and $`B`$ mesons are much heavier than this, we may infer following  that there exist exotic bound state baryons which, in the quark model language, are pentaquarks containing an anti-charm or an anti-bottom quark (provided that the associated meson decay constants $`f_D`$ and $`f_B`$ are not too large). This prediction is rather insensitive to the details of the chiral lagrangian . See also  for a more careful analysis of these exotics that incorporates heavy quark symmetry. Plots of the phase shift vs. energy for different values of $`m_K`$ are presented in Figure 3. This figure clearly shows that increasing $`SU(3)`$ breaking leads to increasing variation of the scattering phase.

## 6 Fits with Massive Pion

One interesting way to extend the model is to include the mass of the pion, as first explored by Adkins and Nappi . We find that this actually improves matters for the pentaquark. The basic procedure is simply to take $`m_\pi =138`$ MeV; there will be a modification in the kaon effective potential and also a change in the variational equation for the Skyrmion profile function $`F(r)`$. As a result, the constraints on $`e`$ and $`f_\pi `$ change:

$`M_{cl}`$ $``$ $`38.7{\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi }{e}},`$ (6.9)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{62.9}{e^3f_\pi }}.`$ (6.10)
Adkins and Nappi found that the best fit to the nucleon and delta masses was given by $`e=4.84`$ and $`f_\pi =108`$ MeV. In dimensionless units, $`m_\pi =.263`$.

For the $`S=1`$ baryons, we find a bound state in the $`L=1`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$ channel with mass 1012 MeV. The $`SU(2)`$ rotator parameter is $`c_{l=1}0.51`$, giving a mass spectrum of 1031, 1126, and 1276 MeV. In the $`L=0`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$ sector there is a bound state with mass 1204 MeV which is increased by rotator corrections ($`c0.82`$) to give a state with mass 1253 MeV corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$. Furthermore, in the $`L=2`$, $`T=\frac{3}{2}`$ channel there is a bound state slightly below the threshold  (in the massless pion fit this state was a resonance slightly above the threshold). While these states are all overbound, one can presumably improve the fit by adjusting parameters as in the previous sections.

Let us first note that with the massive pion fit, the pentaquark appears with a smaller adjustment in parameters. In the $`L=1`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$, $`S=+1`$ channel, there is a bound state for $`a0.69`$. Let us study the effect of setting $`a=0.75`$ on the bound states. With this change, the bound state energies for negative strangeness baryons rise. In the $`L=1`$, $`T=\frac{1}{2}`$ channel, the mass is 1114 MeV, and $`c_{l=1}0.35`$, giving masses of 1050, 1177 and 1279 MeV for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ states. $`c_{l=1}`$ is smaller than its experimental value of 0.62 but is not disastrously small, and the overall masses have increased towards their experimental values. In the $`L=0,T=\frac{1}{2}`$ channel, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ state also increases to 1283 MeV (including rotator corrections.)

One further interesting result is that the pentaquark seems more sensitive to the mass of the kaon with $`m_\pi =138`$ MeV; the pentaquark actually becomes bound for $`m_K=700`$ MeV.

It is also possible to vary the pion mass; for masses around 200 MeV the bound state can appear for $`S`$=1 with $`a0.8`$.

## 7 Discussion

There are several implications of the analysis carried out in the preceding sections. First of all, we have to admit that the bound state approach to the Skyrme model could not have been used to predict the existence of an exotic $`S=+1`$ baryon. Indeed, for typical parameter choices we find neither kaon-Skyrmion bound states nor resonances with $`S=+1`$, confirming earlier results from the 80’s . At the time these results appeared consistent with the apparent absence of such exotic resonances in kaon scattering data.101010In fact, the experimental situation is still somewhat confused (see  for discussions of remaining puzzles).

We have found, however, that by a relatively large adjustment of parameters in the minimal bound state lagrangian, such as reduction of the WZ term to $`0.4`$ of its $`SU(3)`$ value, the near-threshold $`S=+1`$ kaon state can be made to appear. In this case, however, the agreement of the model with the conventional strange baryons is worsened somewhat. A better strategy may be to vary more parameters in the Lagrangian, and perhaps to include other terms; then there is hope that properties of both exotic and conventional baryons will be reproduced nicely. This would be a good project for the future.

Finally, our work sheds new light on connections between the bound state and the rigid rotator approaches to strange baryons. These connections were explored in the 80’s, and it was shown that the bound state approach matches nicely to 3-flavor rigid rotator quantization carried out for large $`N`$ . The key observation is that, in both approaches, the deviations into strange directions become small in the large $`N`$ limit due to the WZ term acting as a large magnetic field. Thus, for baryons whose strangeness is of order $`1`$, the harmonic approximation is good for any value of $`m_K`$. The $`S=1`$ bound state mode smoothly turns into the rotator zero-mode in the limit $`m_K0`$, which shows explicitly that rotator modes can be found in the small fluctuation analysis around the $`SU(2)`$ skyrmion. However, for small $`m_K`$ there is no fluctuation mode corresponding to exotic $`S=+1`$ rigid rotator excitations. In our opinion, this confirms the seriousness of questions raised about such rotator states for large $`N`$ .

If the large $`N`$ expansion is valid, then we conclude that the exotic baryon appears in the spectrum only for sufficiently large $`SU(3)`$ breaking. The simplest way to parametrize this breaking is to increase $`m_K`$ while keeping coefficients of all other terms fixed at their $`SU(3)`$ values. Then we find that the resonance appears at a value of $`m_K1GeV`$. However in reality $`SU(3)`$ breaking will also affect other coefficients, in particular it may reduce somewhat the strength of the WZ term, thus helping the formation of the resonance. In principle the coefficients in the chiral lagrangian should be fitted from experiment, and also higher derivative terms may need to be included.

What does our work imply about the status of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ baryon in the real world? As usual, this is the most difficult question. If $`N=3`$ is large enough for the semiclassical approach to skyrmions to be valid, then we believe that our picture of $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ as a kaon-skyrmion near-threshold state is a good one. It is possible, however, that the rigid rotator approach carried out directly for $`N=3`$, as in , is a better approximation to the real world, as suggested by its successful prediction of the pentaquark. It is also possible that quark model approaches, such as those in , or lattice calculations , will eventually prove to be more successful. Clearly, further work, both experimental and theoretical, is needed to resolve these issues.

## Acknowledgments

We are grateful to C. Callan, D. Diakonov, G. Farrar, C.Nappi, V. Petrov and E. Witten for useful discussions. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Grants No. PHY-0243680 and PHY-0140311. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.


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# Evolutionary properties of intermediate-mass stars

## 1. Introduction

In the last decade, thanks to the large advances in the computation of opacity, equation of state (EOS) and nuclear reaction rates in stellar conditions, numerical stellar modeling has been able to greatly improve our understanding of the star evolution throughout the H-R diagram. Strong confirmation of the reliability of evolution theory has come from the wonderful agreement between the predicted positions of stars in the Color-Magnitude Diagram (CMD) and observations. The pulsational behaviour of Cepheids and other radially oscillating stars has further confirmed the accuracy of stellar modeling for specific classes of stars. A detailed confirmation of some of the physics of stellar models has also been provided by the excellent agreement between the oscillation spectrum predicted by the standard solar model and helioseismological measurements.

This notwithstanding, many aspects of stellar evolution theory have not been observationally confirmed, and thus deserve further investigations. In this respect, the evolutionary and structural properties of intermediate mass stars play a central role; as an example, it is commonly believed that existing uncertainties in the theory of turbulent convection still greatly affect our understanding of the internal structure of these stars.

The plan of this paper is as follows: in the next section we briefly discuss the reasons why stellar models for intermediate mass stars appear - in principle - more reliable that models for low-mass stars, and outline the still-existing questions concerning their evolution. To this aim, we will consider observations of the pulsational properties of Cepheid stars. Specific attention will be devoted to highlight the ‘sensitivity’ of the stellar model properties to the underlying physical assumptions. Conclusions follow.

## 2. The physics of intermediate-mass stars

The recent literature for intermediate-mass stars is quite rich (see Bono et al. 2000 and references therein), and a detailed discussion of the main evolutionary and structural properties of these stars can be easily found elsewhere. Here we wish to shed light on the questions one has to face when trying to model this class of stars.

As stated in the previous section, the theoretical investigation of low-mass stars appears well supported by the results of helioseismology, but this is not the case for intermediate-mass stars. The reason is not due to the difficulty in describing the microscopic physics at work in this kind of stars. In fact, contrary to less massive objects, the evaluation of their thermodinamical properties is relatively simple, due to the fact that intermediate mass stars are not affected, all along their major evolutionary phases, by electron degeneracy and other non-ideal effects such as Coulomb interaction The same applies to the computation of the radiative opacity, that is not affected by the significant uncertainties existing in the higher density and lower temperature regime.

The evolutionary properties of intermediate-mass stars are strongly influenced by two open problems: 1) the extension of the convective core during the H-burning phase; 2) the - almost - unpredictable nature of the loop(s) in the CMD during the He central burning phase. These two problems are closely connected and have large implications for the pulsational properties of intermediate mass stars when they cross the Cepheid instability strip.

## 3. The treatment of convection during the H-burning phase

Owing to the lack of a conclusive test for the adequacy of the current theory of convection, one can find a variety of different approaches to the inclusion of convection in stellar models. The instability against turbulent convection is classically handled by means of the Schwarzschild criterion for a chemically homogeneous fluid. This well known criterion is based on the comparison between the expected temperature gradient produced by the radiative transport of energy, and the adiabatic one. It is worth noticing that the proper estimate of the size of the convective region is then primarily dependent on the accuracy of the input physics. Any improvement of the adopted physics may produce a change in the estimated temperature gradient and, in turn modify the location of the boundaries of the convective regions.

A second important point concerns the possibility that the motion of the convective fluid elements is not drastically stopped at the stable region located just outside the formal convective core. Although outside the Schwarzschild boundary a moving fluid element is subject to a strong deceleration, it might be possible that a nonzero velocity is mantained along a certain length. This mechanical overshoot may induce a significant amount of mixing in the region stable against convection. Another important aspect which has to be taken into account is that a sizeable increase in the internal mixing and, hence a larger core could be also achieved as a consequence of rotationally induced mixing (Meynet & Maeder 2000).

There are therefore at least three different reasons why the temperature gradient and, in turn the size of the convective cores can be really different that the one predicted by a ‘canonical’ model111When referring to a canonical model, we mean a stellar structure computed by neglecting rotation, mechanical overshoot and accounting for the best physics currently available.. The question is: is the size of the convective core, as determined by the (classical) Schwarschild criterion able to properly match the observations, or it has to be ‘artificially’ increased?

This long standing problem has always been interpreted in terms of overshooting, i.e. a proof of the existence or not existence of a specific phenomenon where the convective cells cross the classical border of the convective core222The extension of this non-canonical mixed region is usually defined in terms of a parameter $`\lambda `$ which sets the length - expressed as a fraction of the local pressure scale height - which is crossed by the convective cells in the convectively stable region surrounding the convective core.. However, when accounting for the various processes which, in principle, can produce the same effect, this interpretation appears meaningless. In our belief, it is better to denote with ”overshooting” an unspecified mechanism(s) able to increase the convective core size beyond the classical Schwarzschild boundary.

The case for a significant amount of overshooting has been presented many times both theoretically and observationally, but the result so far have been contradictory, even also those based on the analysis of stellar counts in young populous clusters (Testa et al. 1999; Barmina, Girardi & Chiosi 2002; Brocato et al. 2003). The facts that are unarguably known concern only the basic theory: during the core H-burning phase the star has a larger He core, a brighter luminosity and a longer lifetime than in case of no overshooting. During the core He-burning phase, the luminosity is brighter, the lifetime is shorter and the blue loops are less extended than in the absence of overshooting. Theory therefore predicts that the mass-luminosity (M-L) relationship for stars crossing the Cepheid instability strip is largely affected by the amount of overshooting accounted for in the stellar evolution computations. The comparison of the theoretical M-L relationship with empirical data could, in principle, put tight constraints on the efficiency of this process. In the following, we will show that this is a feasible approach, but the results have to be cautiously treated.

### 3.1. The mass-luminosity relationship for Bump Cepheid stars

Keller & Wood (2002, hereinafter KW) have used ”bump” Cepheids in order to probe the stellar M-L relationship for intermediate mass stars. By fitting empirical lightcurves for 20 bump Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Clouds with their own pulsational models, they estimated the intrinsic luminosity and mass of these variables. This allowed them to obtain a semi-empirical M-L relation. The comparison between their data and theoretical results from the Padua group and from our own models is shown in figure 1. It is evident that semi-empirical data are systematically brighter than canonical models, or alternatively, KW results support a mass $`1520`$% lower than predicted by classical models, at a fixed luminosity. The location of the data with respect to theoretical M-L relationships based on models accounting for overshooting seems to suggest the need for a degree of convective core overshooting with $`\lambda _C0.5`$.

Although, in our belief, the uncertainties in the M and L values as estimated by KW appear too small, their result seems to provide a plain support to the occurrence of a significant amount of core convective overshoot in intermediate-mass stars. However, this result has not to be uncritically accepted. In fact, one has to take into account that by increasing the overshoot efficiency to the value requested by KW results obtained by the blue loop excursion (see figure 1, right panel) is strongly reduced. One has therefore to check if models accounting for this overshoot efficiency are still able to cross the Cepheid instability strip.

In figure 2 (left panel), we plot the minimum and maximum effective temperature reached during the blue loop by an intermediate mass stellar model, as a function of the core overshoot efficiency parameter $`\lambda _C`$; we also display the $`T_{eff}`$ value at which the star spends more time during the blue loop, as a function of $`\lambda _C`$. The red and blue edges of the Cepheid instability strip are also shown. It is worth noticing that for a core overshoot efficiency larger than $`0.3`$ the model does not cross the strip any longer. This suggests that it is not possible to claim, on the basis of the M-L relation alone, the need for a sizeable amount of core overshoot, without checking if that amount of core overshoot still allows the model to cross the instability strip. We will come back to this point in the next section; here we conclude by stating that if, as suggested by the KW analysis, a significant amount of core overshoot is really needed, one has to invoke some additional mechanism(s) in order to force the structure to cross the instability strip.

Before closing this section, it is worthwhile to notice that a suggested possible resolution of the discrepancy between evolutionary and pulsation mass for canonical models, is to consider the occurrence of a quite efficient mass loss (Bono, Castellani & Marconi 2002). However, this does not appear the right route for solving the problem at least for two reasons: 1) the requested amount of mass loss for solving the discrepancy is at odds with empirical estimates (Deasy 1988); 2) if the mass loss efficiency in these stars is really larger than currently expected, the effect on the blue loops of an high efficiency mass loss is to decrease both the $`T_{eff}`$ excursion and the mean luminosity.

## 4. ”To loop or not to loop”

For a long time, the physical reasons for the existence of blue loops challenged our understanding of stellar evolution. In this last decade, a big effort has been devoted to this subject; thanks mainly to the pivotal work made by Renzini et al. (1992, hereinafter R92) and Renzini & Ritossa (1994), we know better the physical reasons for the occurrence of blue loop(s) during the He burning phase. This notwithstanding, it is not yet possible to easily predict the behavior of an intermediate mass star model during this phase when changing some physical inputs and/or the physical assumptions adopted in the evolutionary computations. This is in contrast with what occurs for low-mass stars, for which the changes in their H-R location induced by any variation of the input physics can be easily predicted. The reason is that in intermediate mass stars the contribution to the stellar energy budget provided by the H-burning shell is significantly larger than in low-mass stars, and in addition the relative energy contribution of the He- and H-burning (see figure 2, right panel) changes significantly during the core He-burning phase. As a consequence, any variation of physical inputs able to modify the H-burning efficiency may either trigger or inhibit the loop.

An accurate analysis of the role of several factors known to affect the blue loops has been performed by R92 and we refer the interested reader to the quoted reference. In the following we address only the problem of the dependence of blue loops on convective envelope overshooting and semiconvection.

### 4.1. The consequence of convective envelope overshooting

The role played by convective envelope overshooting has been investigated by several authors, e.g. Alongi et al. (1991), Stothers & Chin (1991) and R92. Nevertheless, its effect still appears somewhat intricate. Evolutionary computations seem to suggest that a blue loop is apparently favoured by a sharper H profile in the envelope chemical stratification, as a consequence of the drastic change in the H-shell burning efficiency (Cassisi & Salaris 1997); this means that envelope overshooting, being able to produce this kind of sharper discontinuity during the first dredge up, may be able to trigger a loop that otherwise would not occur. However, as shown by R92, the general picture is more complicated, depending also on when the H-shell burning encounters this discontinuity - if this occurs after the central He ignition, envelope overshooting has no effect at all on the development of the blue loop.

We have previously shown that the comparison between the semi-empirical M-L relationship for bump Cepheids and theoretical stellar evolution models does seem to indicate the need of accounting for a core overshooting of the order of $`\lambda _C0.5`$; however, models accounting for this large overshoot efficiency are not able to cross the instability strip. If core overshooting really occurs, it is reasonable to consider also the occurrence of envelope overshooting, whose efficiency promotes the occurrence of blue loops. In figure 3 (left panel) we show the shape of the blue loops for a selected intermediate mass model computed under several assumptions about both core and envelope overshooting, and their location with respect to the boundaries of the instability strip. For a core overshooting efficiency of the order of $`\lambda _C=0.4`$, an envelope overshooting efficiency of the order of $`\lambda _{ENV}=0.1`$ is enough to push the model inside the instability strip. Nevertheless, for $`\lambda _C=0.5`$ (see previous section) theoretical evidences show that an envelope overshooting efficiency $`\lambda _{ENV}>0.2`$ is requested.

We can now ask if observational data can help constraining the efficiency of envelope overshooting. The answer is positive, and this can be done accounting for the brightness of the Red Giant luminosity function bump (see Salaris, Cassisi & Weiss 2002) in galactic globular clusters: the comparison between observational data and evolutionary models clearly suggests that if envelope overshooting is really useful for improving the match between theory and observations, then its efficiency has to be lower than $`\lambda _{ENV}=0.2`$. It is therefore evident that the amount of envelope overshooting needed by intermediate mass stars is in marginal agreement - if not ruled out - by evolutionary evidences for low-mass Red Giant stars. Of course, one has to bear in mind that the efficiency of envelope overshooting - if any - can depend on the stellar mass, and in principle the amount of overshooting in intermediate mass stars could be different than that in low-mass stars. However, in our belief, the constraint provided by low-mass stars has to be properly accounted for. If this is the case, one has to invoke some different physical mechanism(s) able to favour the occurrence of extended blue loops in intermediate mass models accounting for huge amounts of core overshooting.

### 4.2. The role of semiconvection

On the basis of preliminary numerical experiments R92 suggested that the presence of a semiconvective region at the edge of the He-burning convective core, by changing the rate at which He is mixed into the core, could have significant effects on the occurrence of the blue loops. More specifically, the larger is the semiconvective region, the lower is the chance for the occurrence of blue loops. In order to explore this scenario, we computed selected models for intermediate mass stars by alternatively accounting for or neglecting semiconvection. In figure 3 (right panel) we show the comparison between these models. One can easily notice that, at variance with previous indications, the effect of semiconvection on the morphology of the blue loops is quite negligible. This occurrence being due to the fact that the semiconvective region in these stars is only a small fraction of the whole convective core ($`10`$% for a $`4M_{}`$ model and $`1`$% for a $`7M_{}`$ one).

## 5. Conclusions

Even if the analysis of the evolutionary and structural properties of intermediate-mass stars has been the subject of many investigations during last years, there remain many aspects of their evolution which have to be still fully understood. In this respect, the study of the efficiency of turbulent convection at the ‘canonical’ boundaries of both convective core and envelope has to be reanalized by properly accounting also for the constraints coming from low-mass stars in globular clusters, as well as asteroseismological measurements (Guenther 2002), whose impact will increase in the near future thanks to various planned space missions. As far as this last point is concerned, it is worthwhile remembering that the accurate analysis of pulsational spectra of field white dwarfs (Metcalfe, Salaris & Winget 2002) is starting to provide a powerful tool for investigating the efficiency of mixing in the He core of their intermediate-mass progenitor. One can also predict an improved understanding of the evolution of intermediate-mass stars when both observations of pulsational properties and theory will be analized together.

#### Acknowledgments.

I warmly thank M. Salaris for the interesting discussions on these topics as well as for an accurate reading of the manuscript. I wish also to thank A. Pietrinferni for all the help provided. It is also a pleasure to thank G. Bono for his valuable suggestions and constant encouragement.

## References

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Barmina, R, Girardi, L. & Chiosi, C. 2002, A&A, 385, 847

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text:
# Democritus as Taoist

## Abstract

They identify the full or solid with ”what is,” and the void or rare with ”what is not” (hence they hold that ”what is not” is no less real than ”what is”) \[Arist. Metaphys. A 4 985b4\]

J. Needham joined explicitly with Berthelot in remarking the atomism does not appear anywhere in the alchemical treatises, neither in the East nor in the West. Which was puzzling, especially because western alchemists claimed to follow Democritus. In general it was noticed that other Western philosophical schools can be mirrored in the East, but atomism seems to be absent.

Perhaps it is time to note that atomism, i.e. the theory of atoms and molecules in finite size and multiple integer proportions111We should call ”neoatomism” to the one culminating in John Dalton, but the damage is already done, does not appear in Democritus himself. Thus it is not so surprising if the followers did not use it after all.

On the contrary, the people who labels themselves as ”Democritians” relies heavily in the use of principles of duality, as the one quoted above in the abstract. The ancients thought that atomism was a fusioned theory, were Leucippus was a disciple of Zeno while Democritus was disciple of the (mid-)eastern Ostanes. They probably felt this conclusion was supported in the fact that theological dualism was also an eastern product, from Zoroaster.

The dual scheme of Democritus appears more clearly in the greek wording. For the first phrase in the abstract above we can transliterate plêres kai stereon to on, to de kenon to mê on. In this language ”void” is expressed with the word kenon, in a cunning play to stress the equivalence with ”not being”, mê on. Aristotle repeats this sentence when doing a fast review in \[Physics I 5, 188a\], so we are pretty sure it is a basic piece of atomism. As sure the Hellenistic alchemists were; they understood the duality of cinnabar as other instance of the same kind of reasonment. Meanwhile, in the East, alchemists had a much better explicit option: Yin/Yang222The TTC itself, being an early book, uses Ying and Yang only once, chapter 42.

Was there a window of opportunity for mutual influence? The answer seems affirmative to me. Since the conquest of Bactria by the disciple of Aristotle, Alexander, there was open a direct line of contact between Chinese and Greek philosophy. Before this, the Persian empire interposed, the way was only an indirect one, but here we can rely again on the suggestions of Persian influences on Democritus, in the age of Xerxes.

From a broad chronology, the composition of the Tao Te Ching (DaoDe Jing) is contemporary to the development of atomic theory. According the ”Warring States Project”, the chapters of the TTC we have interested on are to be considered in the most primitive core, Ch 14-15 being approx 340. Of course Guodian text gives us an upper limit circa 300 bce. On the contrary side, David H. Li333who informed us that he refers to Democritus in the introduction to a bilingual DDJ he translated recently dates the TTC almost one century before Democritus. Someones even are eager to accept the date of Lao Zi quitting westwards, 484bce. This is right in the centre of target: Xerxes became king in 486, and atacked Greece in 480444One wonders if the 484 date for Lao Zi could be indeed based on the Persian events.

Continuing with \[Metaphys A 4 985\], while writing  I asked a friend, versed on presocratic greeks, to try to get the ”holographic” text that Aristotle is suspected to be copying into these paragraphs. With great effort, my friend followed the analysis of the three properties distinctive of atoms and she concluded that Aristotle was weaving a (linguistic or logic) map from some unmapped description, according the following table:

| (WITHOUT MAP) |  | (WITH MAP) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Where they look at, or turn towards | = | Arist. point of view, placement, position, situation |
| How they sound or how they are measured | = | Arist. how they rest, shape, role |
| Whom they touch to, or contact with | = | Arist. relation in a ordered series, order, place, site |

Then, after some time, we found the unmapped terrain accurately enunciated in the TTC, chapter 14:

> ”We look for it, but we do not see it: we name it the Equable.
>
> We listen for it, but we do not hear it: we name it the Rarefied.
>
> We feel for it, but we do not get hold of it: we name it the Subtle
>
> These three we cannot examine. Thus they are One, indistinguishable”.

That the body or substrate is One and Same, it is told to us by Aristotle in a posterior remark, \[Metaphys VIII 2, 1042b\]: ”Democritus apparently assumes three differences in substance; for he says that the underlying body is one and the same in material, but differs in figure, i.e. shape; or inclination, i.e. position; or intercontact, i.e. arrangement” 555to men gar hupokeimenon sôma, tên hulên, hen kai tauton, diapherein de ê rhusmôi, ho esti schêma, ê tropêi, ho esti thesis, ê diathigêi, ho esti taxis. Online, see perseus.org or directly  for the greek texts.

To my mind, it is very subtle to decide if the order in the greek is ”listen, look, feel” or ”look, listen, feel”. It should be said that my friend affirms she had never seen this quote, nor any other piece of the Lao Tze book. But even if there was an inconsciently forgotten influence, it is remarkable.

Now on this light, one could immerse in modern taoist writings and find out pieces of some atomic flavour (e.g. from the USENET):

> The space between things waxes and wanes, depending upon the things. Does the space itself actually change? Does emptiness really exist, on its own? ”two different names for one and the same…”

but we will refrain here. This is no news at all, if we notice that even the attribute of indivisibility is sometimes used when discussing the Tao. Huang Yuan-Chi (XIXth century) has been translated as saying ”Emptiness and the Tao are indivisible (…) but formless emptiness is of no use to those who cultivate the Tao”. This sentence is not in the line of the theory of atoms, but it is close. Even the word infinitesimal comes easily in this state of mind, so lets turn face towards it and some other relationships coming from mathematics.

Here we should notice in advance that modern scholars have given no use to the new evidence about Democritus brought alive by Heiberg from the Archimedes Palimpsest: Democritus did a non rigorous calculus for the volume of cone and pyramid. This is surely the work which Crysippos objects to, in a preserved quote of the stoics.

Lets conjecture that the non rigorous mathematical entities that Democritus used for this calculus were his a/tomes. It is not a far fetched conjecture; before us Cavalieri, without knowing Archimedes attribution, did it… and he called to his non-rigorous entities in/dividua.

We know that the problem of the volume of the pyramid was solved in China by members of the taoist school. The analysis in  shows that the proof of Liu Hui uses a taoist vocabulary of the technical points about evanescent quantities. For instance, Liu Hui argues:

> ”The smaller they are halved, the finer \[xi\] are the remaining \[dimensions\]. The extreme of fineness is called subtle \[wei\]. That which is subtle is without form \[xing\]. When it is explained in this way, why concern oneself with the remainder? \[Jiuzhang, 168\]

And the Heshang Gong, Chap. 14, underscores ”That which is without form \[xing\] is called subtle \[wei\]”, and then it elaborates his commentary on TTC 14 using a very similar vocabulary.

A clue of the use of atoms in the context of a calculation of area can be got from TTC 11:

> ”Thirty spokes will converge In the hub of a wheel;
>
> But the use of the cart Will depend on the part
>
> Of the hub that is void”

Here Lao Tse uses explicitly the expression ”not-being” for the void space between radius!. Be can safely assume that these radius correspond to ”being”. A calculation of the weight of a wheel could be done by understanding that radius are always in relationship with the area between. In Democritus, the ”being” holds some properties (rhismos, diathige, trope), and we could conjecture the ”non-being” holds others, perhaps spatial separation or distances. The whole setup should be very close to modern duality between differential forms and vector fields.

In geometry the atomists surely felt themselves authorised to keep this duality all the way to infinite atoms/infinitesimal areas. But in physical evolution, with time as an independent variable, Zeno paradoxes refrained them… A digression here: Newton bypassed this issue by mapping Time to a preserved area (prop. 1 in the Principia) and then taking its limit to zero. Amazingly this mathematically correct procedure showed to be, three centuries later, physically false. It is still an open question if the existence of Plank constant and four elementary fermions relates to some logical obstruction in the build up of the limit.

And this is all until now. For the moment we have not gathered more clues nor solid evidence. Anecdotically, I wonder if it could be possible to locate actual crossed quotes, assuming some kind of name translation. But, if Leucippus and Democritus were to be quoted in Chinese, which names should we expect? If Lao Dan were quoted in Greek, which letters should we expect? Worse, should the translation cross via a Persian script or dialect? One is afraid that some regrettable coincidences in initials could happen, adding to confusion: even Aristotle shortens sometimes to ”L. & D.” when referring to the atomist forefathers.

As for other possible lines of parallelism, Chinese versions of Zeno paradoxes are named from time to time666Zhou (Miller Jew) was kind to forward me towards \[1, pg. 72 and 32-33\], where the arrow paradox is discussed -but context remains undetermined-, as well as some variants of Achilles. In general I must thank the people of alt.philosophy.taoism for some pointers during a discussion Jan-Feb 2002, esp Zhou and Kamerm but its relationship with taoism is uncertain, to me. Also, bosonic fields appear in Democritus, eidola, but I have not heard of them in Chinese texts (They are a requisite for interaction if you want to keep always a vacuum between atoms).

Finally, the reader could object that Taoism has been read into a lot of religions and philosophical systems, due both to underlying ideas and to simple technical coincidences, because the word Tao can also be translated as greek ”logos”.. Against this we can argue the chronological parallels, the parallels in the posterior development (alchemy and mathematics) and the textual parallelism.