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# Screw instability of the magnetic field connecting a rotating black hole with its surrounding disk

## 1 INTRODUCTION

It is well known that the magnetic field configurations with both poloidal and toroidal components can be screw instable (Kadomtsev 1966; Bateman 1978). According to the Kruskal-Shafranov criterion (Kadomtsev 1966), the screw instability will occur, if the toroidal magnetic field becomes so strong that the magnetic field line turns around itself about once. Recently some authors discussed the screw instability in black hole (BH) magnetosphere. Gruzinov (1999) argued that a Kerr BH, being connected with a disk by a bunch of closed field lines, can flare quasi-periodically, and this process can be regarded as a new mechanism for extracting rotational energy from the BH. Li (2000a) discussed the screw instability of the magnetic field in the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) process (Blandford & Znajek 1977), which results in a stringent upper bound to the BZ power. Tomimatsu et el. (2001) studied the condition of the screw instability in the framework of the variation principle, and argued that the field-line rotation has a stabilizing effect against the screw instability.

Recently much attention has been paid on the magnetic coupling (MC) process, where energy and angular momentum are extracted from a fast-rotating BH to its surrounding disk by virtue of closed magnetic field lines (Blandford 1999; Li 2000b, 2002a; Wang, Xiao & Lei 2002, hereafter WXL; Wang, Lei & Ma 2003, hereafter WLM). The MC process can be used to explain a very steep emissivity in the inner region of the disk, which is found by the recent XMM-Newton observation of the nearby bright Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15 (Wilms et al. 2001; Li 2002b; WLM). Compared with the BZ process, the disk load in the MC process is much better understood than the remote load. Very recently we discussed the condition for the coexistence of the BZ and MC processes (CEBZMC), and some electromagnetic quantities, such as electric field, magnetic field and electric current in the BH magnetosphere, are determined (Wang et al. 2003, hereafter WMLY).

The above works motivate us to discuss the screw instability in CEBZMC based on the Kruskal-Shafranov criterion and our calculations of the poloidal and toroidal components of the magnetic field. This paper is organized as follows. In §2 we give a brief description on our model of CEBZMC. In §3 the criterion of the screw instability is derived based on the Kruskal-Shafranov criterion and our calculations of the poloidal and toroidal components of the magnetic field on the disk. It turns out that the screw instability is related intimately to the two parameters, i.e., the BH spin and the power-law index for the variation of the magnetic field on the disk. In addition, the correlation of the screw instability with CEBZMC is discussed. It is shown that the state of CEBZMC always accompanies the screw instability, and the region of the screw instability can be determined by the criterion for the given values of the BH spin and the power-law index. In §4 we discuss the effect of the screw instability on magnetic extraction of energy from the rotating BH. It is shown that the screw instability contributes only a small fraction of magnetic extraction of energy from a rotating BH. Finally, in §5, we summarize our main results.

Throughout this paper the geometric units $`G=c=1`$ are used.

## 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL OF CEBZMC

Considering that the remote load in the BZ process and the load disk in the MC process are connected with a rotating BH by open and closed magnetic field lines, respectively, we studied a model of CEBZMC (WXL, WMLY). The poloidal configuration of the magnetic field is shown in Figure 1, where $`r_{in}`$ and $`r_{out}`$ are the radii of the inner and outer boundaries of the MC region, respectively. The angle $`\theta _M`$ indicates the angular boundary between the open and closed field lines on the horizon, and $`\theta _L`$ is the lower boundary angle for the closed field lines. The angles $`\theta _M`$ and $`\theta _L`$ are connected with $`r_{out}`$ and $`r_{in}`$ by the highest and the lowest closed field lines, respectively. Throughout this paper $`\theta _L=0.45\pi `$ is assumed in calculation. Following Blandford (1976), we assume that the poloidal magnetic field $`B_D^p`$ on the disk varies with the radial coordinate $`\xi `$ as a power law,

$$B_D^p\xi ^n,$$
(1)
Hereafter the subscript “$`D`$” is used to indicate the quantities on the disk. The parameter $`n`$ is the power-law index and $`\xi r\mathrm{/}r_{ms}`$ is the radial coordinate on the disk, which is defined in terms of the radius $`r_{ms}M\chi _{ms}^2`$ of the marginally stable orbit (Novikov & Thorne 1973).

An equivalent circuit for the BZ and MC processes is used as shown in Figure 2, in which the symbols have the same meanings as given in WXL.

A stationary, axisymmetric magnetosphere anchored in a Kerr BH and its surrounding disk can be described in Boyer-Lindquist coordinates, and the concerned metric parameters are given as follows (MacDonald and Thorne 1982, hereafter MT).

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{\Sigma }^2=\left(r^2+a^2\right)^2a^2\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{sin}^2\theta ,\text{ }\rho ^2=r^2+a^2\mathrm{cos}^2\theta ,\text{ }\hfill \\ \mathrm{\Delta }=r^2+a^22Mr,\text{ }\varpi =\left(\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{/}\rho \right)\mathrm{sin}\theta .\hfill \end{array}\},$$
(2)
where $`M`$ and $`aJ\mathrm{/}M`$ are the mass and the specific angular momentum of a Kerr BH, respectively. The current in each loop of the equivalent circuit for the BZ and MC processes is expressed by

$$I_i=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon _{Hi}+\mathrm{\Delta }\epsilon _{Li}}{\mathrm{\Delta }Z_{Hi}+\mathrm{\Delta }Z_{Li}}=\left(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Psi }_i\mathrm{/}2\pi \right)\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^H\mathrm{\Omega }_i^F}{\mathrm{\Delta }Z_{Hi}},$$
(3)
where the quantities in equation (3) have the same meaning as given in WXL. In WMLY we derived the poloidal currents on the horizon as follows.

$$I_{H,BZ}^p(a_{};\theta ,n)=I_0\frac{a_{}\left(1k\right)}{2\mathrm{csc}^2\theta \left(1q\right)},0<\theta <\theta _M,$$
(4)
$$I_{H,MC}^p(a_{};\theta ,n)=I_0\frac{a_{}\left(1\beta \right)}{2\mathrm{csc}^2\theta \left(1q\right)},\theta _M<\theta <\theta _L,$$
(5)
$$I_0B_H^pMB_4\left(M\mathrm{/}M_{}\right)\times 1.48\times 10^{10}A,$$
(6)
where the subscripts “BZ” and “MC” represent the quantities involving the BZ and MC processes, respectively, and $`B_4`$ is the strength of the magnetic field in units of $`10^4\text{ }G`$. In equations (4) and (5) the parameter $`a_{}a\mathrm{/}M`$ is the BH spin, and the parameter $`q`$ is defined as $`q=\sqrt{1a_{}^2}`$. The quantity $`B_H^p`$ is the poloidal component of the magnetic field on the horizon. Hereafter the subscript “$`H`$” is used to indicate the quantities on the horizon.

The parameters $`k`$ and $`\beta `$ are the ratios of the angular velocity of the open and closed magnetic field lines to that of the BH, respectively. Usually, $`k=0.5`$ is taken for the optimal BZ power, while $`\beta `$ depends on the BH spin $`a_{}`$ and $`\xi `$. Since the closed field lines are frozen in the disk, $`\beta `$ is expressed by

$$\beta \mathrm{\Omega }_D\mathrm{/}\mathrm{\Omega }_H=\frac{2\left(1+q\right)}{a_{}}\left[\left(\sqrt{\xi }\chi _{ms}\right)^3+a_{}\right]^1,$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_H`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ are the angular velocities of the BH and the disk, respectively.

The poloidal current flowing on the disk is equal to that flowing on the horizon in the same loop of Figure 2, i.e.,

$$I_{D,MC}^p(a_{};\xi ,n)=I_{H,MC}^p=I_0\frac{a_{}\left(1\beta \right)}{2\mathrm{csc}^2\theta \left(1q\right)},1<\xi <\xi _{out},$$
(8)
where $`\xi `$ is related to the angular coordinate $`\theta `$ on the horizon by the mapping relation given in WMLY,

$$\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta _L=_1^\xi \text{G}(a_{};\xi ,n)𝑑\xi ,$$
(9)
where

$$\text{G}(a_{};\xi ,n)=\frac{\xi ^{1n}\chi _{ms}^2\sqrt{1+a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^4\xi ^2+2a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^6\xi ^3}}{2\sqrt{\left(1+a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^4+2a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^6\right)\left(12\chi _{ms}^2\xi ^1+a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^4\xi ^2\right)}}.$$
(10)
The condition for CEBZMC is discussed in WMLY based on the following assumptions:

(1) The theory of a stationary, axisymmetric magnetosphere anchored in the BH and its surrounding disk formulated in MT is applicable not only to the BZ process but also to the MC process. The magnetosphere is assumed to be force-free outside the BH and the disk.

(2) The disk is both stable and perfectly conducting, and the closed magnetic field lines are frozen in the disk. The disk is thin and Keplerian, lies in the equatorial plane of the BH with the inner boundary being at the marginally stable orbit.

(3) The magnetic field is assumed to be constant on the horizon, and to vary as a power law with the radial coordinate of the disk as given by equation (1).

(4) The magnetic flux connecting a BH with its surrounding disk takes precedence over that connecting the BH with the remote load.

It is found that the state of CEBZMC will occur, provided that the BH spin $`a_{}`$ and the power-law index $`n`$ are greater than some critical values. In the following sections we adopt the above assumptions to discuss the screw instability.

## 3 CRITERIOR OF SCREW INSTABILITY IN CEBZMC

### 3.1 Derivation of Criterion

According to the the Kruskal-Shafranov criterion, the screw instability will occur, if the magnetic field line turns around itself about once, i.e.,

$$\left(2\pi \varpi _D\mathrm{/}L\right)B_D^p\mathrm{/}B_D^T<1,$$
(11)
where $`B_D^p`$ and $`B_D^T`$ are the poloidal and toroidal components of the magnetic field on the disk, respectively, and $`\varpi _D`$ is the cylindrical radius on the disk and reads

$$\varpi _D=\mathrm{\Sigma }_D/\rho _D=\xi M\chi _{ms}^2\sqrt{1+a_{}^2\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^4+2a_{}^2\xi ^3\chi _{ms}^6}.$$
(12)
In deriving equation (12) the Kerr metric parameters given in equation (2) are used. The quantity $`L`$ in equation (11) is the poloidal length of the closed field line connecting the BH with the disk. The criterion (11) can be rewritten as

$$B_D^p\mathrm{/}B_D^T=\left(B_D^p\mathrm{/}B_H^p\right)\left(B_H^p\mathrm{/}B_D^T\right)<L\mathrm{/}\left(2\pi \varpi _D\right).$$
(13)
Considering the continuum of magnetic flux between the two adjacent magnetic surfaces connecting the BH and the disk, we have

$$B_H^p2\pi \left(\varpi \rho \right)_{r=r_H}d\theta =B_D^p2\pi \left(\varpi \rho \mathrm{/}\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }}\right)_{\theta =\pi \mathrm{/}2}dr.$$
(14)
Incorporating equation (14) with the mapping relation in WMLY, we express the ratio $`B_D^p\mathrm{/}B_H^p`$ as

$$\frac{B_D^p}{B_H^p}=\frac{2\left(1+q\right)\sqrt{1+a_{}^2\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^42\xi ^1\chi _{ms}^2}}{\xi \chi _{ms}^4\sqrt{1+a_{}^2\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^4+2a_{}^2\xi ^3\chi _{ms}^6}}\text{G}(a_{};\xi ,n).$$
(15)
The ratio $`B_H^p\mathrm{/}B_D^T`$ can be calculated by using equation (8), and the radial current density flowing on the disk can be written as

$$j_D^p(a_{};\xi ,n)=I_{D,MC}^p(a_{};\xi ,n)\mathrm{/}\left(2\pi \varpi _D\right).$$
(16)
By using Ampere’s law the toroidal magnetic field $`\text{B}_D^T`$ on the disk is expressed by

$$\text{B}_D^T=4\pi \text{j}_D^p\times \text{n},$$
(17)
where n is the unit vector normal to the disk. Incorporating equations (8), (12), (16) and (17), we have

$$\frac{B_H^p}{B_D^T}=\frac{\xi \chi _{ms}^2\sqrt{1+a_{}^2\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^4+2a_{}^2\xi ^3\chi _{ms}^6}\left[2\mathrm{csc}^2\theta \left(1q\right)\right]}{2a_{}\left(1\beta \right)}.$$
(18)
Substituting equations (15) and (18) into the criterion (13), we have

$$\left(2\pi \varpi _D\mathrm{/}L\right)F(a_{};\xi ,n)<1,$$
(19)
where

$$F(a_{};\xi ,n)=\frac{\xi ^{1n}\left(1+q\right)\left[2\mathrm{csc}^2\theta \left(1q\right)\right]}{2a_{}\left(1\beta \right)}\sqrt{\frac{1+a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^4\xi ^2+2a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^6\xi ^3}{1+a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^4+2a_{}^2\chi _{ms}^6}}.$$
(20)
Since the poloidal length of the closed field line $`L`$ can be estimated approximately as half of the circumference with diameter $`D`$, we have

$$L=AD=A_{r_H}^r\left(g_{rr}\right)^{1/2}𝑑r,$$
(21)
where $`D`$ is the proper distance from the horizon to the place of disk where the closed field line penetrates, and $`A0.5\pi `$ is taken. The metric parameter $`g_{rr}`$ is expressed as

$$g_{rr}=\rho ^2\mathrm{/}\mathrm{\Delta }=\frac{r^2}{r^2+a^22Mr}=\frac{\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^4}{\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^4+a_{}^22\xi \chi _{ms}^2}.$$
(22)
Incorporating equations (12), (21) and (22), we have

$$L\mathrm{/}\left(2\pi \varpi _D\right)=\frac{A\mathrm{/}2\pi }{\xi \sqrt{1+a_{}^2\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^4+2a_{}^2\xi ^3\chi _{ms}^6}}_{\xi _H}^\xi \frac{d\xi }{\sqrt{1+a_{}^2\xi ^2\chi _{ms}^42\xi ^1\chi _{ms}^2}},$$
(23)
where $`\xi _Hr_H\mathrm{/}r_{ms}=\left(1+q\right)\mathrm{/}\chi _{ms}^2`$. Therefore equations (19), (20) and (23) consist of the criterion of the screw instability in our model.

Inspecting the criterion (11), we find that the screw instability may occur, if the ratio of $`B_D^p`$ to $`B_D^T`$ is small enough. We can give an analysis before calculation. In fact, we find that $`B_D^T`$ is proportional to $`\xi ^1`$ approximately by combining equations (6), (8), (16) and (17). Thus the ratio $`B_D^p\mathrm{/}B_D^T`$ should be proportional to $`\xi ^{1n}`$ by considering equation (1), and it is exactly the leading factor of the function $`F(a_{};\xi ,n)`$. In addition, from equations (8), (16) and (17) we find that the larger value of the BH spin results in the larger values of $`j_D^p`$ and $`B_D^T`$. Therefore we have the following conjectures on the screw instability.

(1) The screw instability would occur at some place far away from the inner edge of the disk.

(2) The screw instability would occur, provided that the BH spin $`a_{}`$ and the power-law index $`n`$ are greater than some critical values.

The above conjectures are verified by the calculations on the criterion (19) as shown in Figure 3.

In Figure 3a $`\left(2\pi \varpi _D\mathrm{/}L\right)F(a_{};\xi ,n)<1`$ holds for $`0.8903<a_{}<1`$ with $`n=4`$, and in Figure 3b it holds for $`n>3.34`$ with $`a_{}=0.998`$. These results imply that the screw instability occurs, if the BH spin and the power-law index are greater than some critical values.

### 3.2 Screw Instability and CEBZMC

In WMLY we argued that the state of CEBZMC will occur, if the parameters $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ are greater than some critical values. So it is tempting for us to discuss the correlation of the screw instability with CEBZMC. Based on WMLY and the criterion (19) we have the critical line for CEBZMC and the critical lines for the screw instability in the parameter space consisting of $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ as shown in Figure 4.

From Figure 4 we obtain the following results.

(1) There is very little difference among the critical lines for the screw instability with different values of the factor $`A`$, and these critical lines can not be distinguished in Figure 4a, and are very near to the critical line for CEBZMC (thick solid line) as shown in Figure 4b. Therefore, the screw instability is rather insensitive to the values of the factor $`A`$.

(2) It is shown in Figure 4b that the critical line for CEBZMC corresponds to the larger values of $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ than the critical lines for the screw instability. It implies that the state of CEBZMC always accompanies the screw instability.

### 3.3  Disk Region for Screw Instability

From the above discussion we conclude that the minimum radial coordinate $`\xi _{screw}`$ for the screw instability can be determined by the following equation,

$$\left(2\pi \varpi _D\mathrm{/}L\right)F(a_{};\xi _{screw},n)=1.$$
(24)
Equation (24) implies that the disk region for the screw instability is

$$\xi _{screw}<\xi <\mathrm{}.$$
(25)
By using the mapping relation (9) and equation (25), we obtain the corresponding angular region on the horizon as follows,

$$\theta _M<\theta <\theta _{screw}.$$
(26)
By using equations (19), (20) and (23) we have the contours of constant values of $`\xi _{screw}`$ for the screw instability in the parameter space consisting of $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ as shown in Figure 5.

From Figure 5 we find that the screw instability could even take place in the inner region of the disk with a small value of $`\xi _{screw}`$, provided that $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ are great enough. Since the large values of $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ in the MC process are supported by the recent XMM-Newton observation for producing a very steep emissivity in the inner region of the disk (WLM, WMLY), these values imply not only CEBZMC, but also the screw instability.

## 4  SCREW INSTABILITY AND ENERGY EXTRACTION FROM A ROTATING BH

Gruzinov (1999) argued that the screw instability can be regarded as a new mechanism of extracting rotational energy from a BH. His argument is based on a model with a bunch of closed magnetic field lines connecting a Kerr BH with a disk. Compared with Gruzinov’s model, the magnetic field in our model is axisymmetric, and the region of the screw instability is determined by equation (25) rather than is given at random.

Considering the energy released due to the screw instability, the total power of the magnetic extraction from the BH consists of the following three parts, i.e.,

$$P_{total}=P_{BZ}+P_{MC}+\overline{P}_{screw},$$
(27)
where $`P_{BZ}`$, $`P_{MC}`$ and $`\overline{P}_{screw}`$ are the BZ power, the MC power and the average power due to the screw instability, respectively. Incorporating the region for screw instability given by equation (26) with the expressions for the BZ and MC powers given in WXL, we have

$$P_{BZ}\mathrm{/}P_0=2a_{}^2_0^{\theta _M}\frac{k\left(1k\right)\mathrm{sin}^3\theta d\theta }{2\left(1q\right)\mathrm{sin}^2\theta },$$
(28)
$$P_{MC}\mathrm{/}P_0=2a_{}^2_{\theta _{screw}}^{\theta _L}\frac{\beta \left(1\beta \right)\mathrm{sin}^3\theta d\theta }{2\left(1q\right)\mathrm{sin}^2\theta },$$
(29)
and

$$\overline{P}_{screw}\mathrm{/}P_0=2a_{}^2_{\theta _M}^{\theta _{screw}}\frac{\beta \left(1\beta \right)\mathrm{sin}^3\theta d\theta }{2\left(1q\right)\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }.$$
(30)
where $`P_0=(B_H^p)^2M^2B_4^2(M/M_{})^2\times 6.59\times 10^{28}ergs^1.`$

By using equations (28)—(30) we obtain the curves of $`P_{BZ}\mathrm{/}P_0`$, $`P_{MC}\mathrm{/}P_0`$ and $`\overline{P}_{screw}\mathrm{/}P_0`$ varying with the parameters $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ as shown in Figures 6 and 7, respectively. Defining the ratio of $`\overline{P}_{screw}`$ to the total power $`P_{total}`$ as $`\eta _P\overline{P}_{screw}\mathrm{/}P_{total}`$, we have the curves of $`\eta _P`$ varying with $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ as shown in Figure 8. In the following calculation $`A=0.5\pi `$ is assumed.

From Figures 6, 7 and 8 we obtain the following results:

(1) For the given value of $`n`$, $`P_{BZ}`$, $`P_{MC}`$ and $`\overline{P}_{screw}`$ all vary non-monotonically with the BH spin $`a_{}`$, attaining the maxima as $`a_{}`$ approaching unity.

(2) For the given value of $`a_{}`$, $`P_{BZ}`$ increases monotonically, $`P_{MC}`$ decreases monotonically , while $`\overline{P}_{screw}`$ varies non-monotonically with the power-law index $`n`$.

(3) The average power $`\overline{P}_{screw}`$ is always less than $`P_{MC}`$, and it is less than $`P_{BZ}`$ in most cases, except that the power-law index is small as shown in Figure 7a.

(4) The ratio of power, $`\eta _P`$, increases monotonically with $`a_{}`$, while it varies non-monotonically with the power-law index $`n`$, attaining its maximum $`\eta _P0.084`$ at $`n5.25`$ with $`a_{}0.997`$.

Therefore we conclude that the screw instability contributes only a small fraction of magnetic extraction of energy from a rotating BH.

## 5  SUMMARY

In this paper the screw instability of the magnetic field connecting a rotating BH with its surrounding disk is discussed in the simplified model of CEBZMC. In our model the configuration of the poloidal component of the magnetic field is assumed, which remains constant on the horizon, and varies with the radial coordinate on the disk according to a power law. By using an equivalent circuit for CZBZMC, we can calculate the poloidal current on the horizon and the disk, and then the toroidal component of the magnetic field on the disk is derived by using Ampere’s law. Therefore, the criterion of the screw instability in our model is derived based on the Kruskal-Shafranov criterion.

Although the discussion is carried out under some simplified assumptions, several interesting results for the screw instability have been obtained.

(1) It is shown that the BH spin $`a_{}`$ and the power-law index $`n`$ are involved in the criterion, and the screw instability will occur if the two parameters are greater than some critical values. This result means that the screw instability is apt to take place for a disk containing a fast-spinning BH, and has the magnetic field concentrating in the inner region.

(2) We find that the disk region for the screw instability can be also determined by $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$ by virtue of the criterion, and the screw instability is apt to take place outside some critical radius on the disk.

(3) We prove that the state of CEBZMC always accompanies the screw instability as shown in the parameter space consisting of $`a_{}`$ and $`n`$.

(4) As an energy mechanism the effect of the screw instability on the magnetic extraction is discussed. It turns out that the contribution of the screw instability is not significant in our model of CEBZMC.

In this paper we fail to discuss the screw instability of the magnetic field in the BZ process, since we know very few about the remote astrophysical load. Considering stringent upper bound to the BZ power due to the screw instability in the BZ process (Li 2000a), we should give an overall evaluation on the effects of the screw instability on energy extraction from a rotating BH in the future work.

Acknowledgements: This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Numbers 10173004 and 10121503.


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# Strong Gravitational Lens Candidates in the GOODS ACS FieldsBased on observations taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under NASA contract NAS5–26555

## 1. Introduction

A great strength of gravitational lenses as astrophysical tools is that they provide direct measures of total mass, without the requirement that the mass be luminous or baryonic. At the most basic level, the image separation in lens systems provides a nearly model-independent measurement of the projected mass of the lensing galaxy (e.g., Kochanek, 1991; Wambsganss & Paczyński, 1994). The combination of additional observational constraints and more sophisticated modeling can provide data on the elongation and orientation of the mass distribution (e.g., Keeton, Kochanek, & Seljak, 1997), the radial mass profile of the lensing galaxy (e.g., Koopmans & Treu, 2003; Rusin et al., 2002; Kochanek et al., 2001; Wucknitz et al., 2003), and the possible existence of dark matter subhaloes (e.g., Mao & Schneider, 1998; Metcalf & Madau, 2001; Dalal & Kochanek, 2002; Bradač et al., 2002; Moustakas & Metcalf, 2003). Therefore, gravitational lenses provide a wealth of information about moderate redshift galaxies and can provide important insights into galaxy evolution (e.g., Keeton, Kochanek, & Seljak, 1998; Rusin et al., 2003). An increase in the number of known lenses benefits almost all these studies and thus motivates searches for new lenses. The data obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS; Giavalisco et al., 2003) offers an unprecedented combination of angular resolution, depth, and sky coverage. In this paper we report the results of a systematic search for lenses in the data obtained in the first three epochs of observations of the GOODS fields.

## 2. The target population

The search strategy that we used was focused on the likely lens galaxies rather than the likely background sources. This is in contrast to the searches conducted at radio wavelengths (e.g., Myers et al., 2003; Browne et al., 2003; Winn et al., 2000) and optical searches targeting known quasars (e.g., Bahcall et al., 1992). For this search, we selected the objects most likely to produce strong lenses, namely massive early-type galaxies at $`0.3<z<1.3`$. Theoretical studies indicate that these galaxies should dominate the lensing population, with only $``$10% or fewer of strong lenses produced by spiral galaxies (e.g., Turner, Ostriker, & Gott, 1984; Fukugita & Turner, 1991; Maoz & Rix, 1993). Similarly, a ray-tracing analysis conducted on the northern Hubble Deep Field data (HDF-N; Williams et al., 1996) indicated that nearly all the lensing cross-section was provided by massive ellipticals at $`z1`$ (Blandford, Surpi, & Kundić 2001). Thus, our target sample was chosen to maximize the chance of finding massive early-type galaxies in the desired redshift range.

All candidate selection was done using the ACS data obtained in the F435W, F606W, F775W, and F850LP filters (hereafter, $`B_{435}`$, $`V_{606}`$, $`i_{775}`$, and $`z_{850}`$). We consider only objects with isophotal magnitudes $`z_{850,iso}<23.0`$. Colors were measured in matched apertures, with the apertures defined by the $`z_{850}`$-band data111For complete details of the source extraction, photometry, and limiting magnitudes, see Giavalisco et al. (2003).. In a color-color plot of $`(B_{435}i_{775})`$ vs $`(i_{775}z_{850})`$, galaxies at $`z>0.3`$ with old stellar populations should lie in the upper part of the diagram (see Figure 1). We define our target region as $`(B_{435}i_{775})>2.0`$, which produces a sample of 1092 galaxies. Figure 1 also contains, as examples, no-evolution tracks for different types of galaxies, which show solely the effect of spectral features moving into different filter bands for galaxies at different redshifts. Although the track for elliptical galaxies in Figure 1 would suggest that our target region contains ellipticals in a wider redshift range than desired, the combination of the low volume probed at low redshifts, cosmological dimming at high redshifts, and evolution implies that the redshift range selected is closer to the desired $`0.3<z<1.3`$. Based on comparisons with both non-evolving and passive evolution models (Kinney et al., 1996), as well as spectroscopy of $`200`$ galaxies in the southern GOODS field, we find that the regions marked in the figure do contain the vast majority of the massive early-type galaxies in the relevant redshift interval. The target region also includes a large contamination ($`20`$%) from highly-obscured systems (particularly dusty bulge-dominated galaxies). Since our goal is to be as inclusive as possible, without needing to examine the full catalog in detail, this gives an adequate sample of target galaxies.

## 3. Lens-search techniques

### 3.1. Subtraction of galaxy models

Our primary technique for searching the target sample for gravitational lens candidates was to model the light distribution of the target galaxy and then subtract the model from the data. The residuals for each target were examined for indications of gravitational lensing. To increase the robustness of our results, we used two methods to subtract the galaxy emission for each target.

The first method used customized IDL scripts that provided an empirical description of the target galaxy emission. The galaxy centroid, ellipticity, and position angle were calculated from the light distribution. The input image was split into a series of concentric ellipses, each with the input ellipticity and position angle. The empirical description of the galaxy emission was then produced by boxcar-smoothing the distribution of flux as a function of semi-major axis. This simple approach provided acceptable representations of most of the target galaxies, and non-symmetric features were clearly visible in the residual images produced by subtracting the smoothed image from the input. To judge the effectiveness of the technique in subtracting smoothly-distributed galaxy light, we use as a figure of merit the ratio of the counts in the residual image to the counts in the original image, summed within a 3″-diameter aperture. For $``$75% of the targets, this ratio was less than 0.05, indicating a good fit to the galaxy emission. All targets producing higher ratios had either close neighbors or the kind of asymmetric structure that the routine was designed to find, e.g., knots of star formation, bars, dust lanes, possible lensed images, etc. Thus, this method is sensitive to compact lensed images and to tangentially stretched arcs. However, complete or nearly complete Einstein rings would be subtracted away by this method. Therefore, we used a second galaxy-subtraction method to complement the empirical technique.

The second technique involved fitting parametric models to all candidate lens galaxies. Experimentation with various combinations of parametric laws (using GALFIT; Peng et al., 2002) showed that a single Sersic fit did remarkably well for the majority of galaxies in our sample, with a median $`\chi _{fit}^2/\nu 0.9`$. In most of the cases, the residuals produced by the GALFIT subtraction did not differ qualitatively from those produced by the empirical method, and no believable lens candidates were found solely from an examination of the GALFIT residuals.

### 3.2. Selection Criteria

The residuals produced by the galaxy-subtraction methods were carefully examined, as were the unsubtracted true-color ($`B_{435}V_{606}i_{775}`$) images of the target galaxies. The latter provided invaluable color information about features in the target images, which was incorporated into the candidate selection process. The criteria used to select lens candidates were based on features commonly seen in HST images of strong gravitational lenses222The CfA-Arizona Space Telescope Lens Survey web site, at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/castles/ provides an excellent compilation of such images.. Any one of the following features seen in either the residual images or in the true-color images would cause a target to be flagged as a possible lens candidate: (1) two compact images on opposite sides of the target galaxy; (2) multiple (more than two) compact images arranged in a typical lensing morphology, (3) an arc, possibly with a faint counterimage, tangentially stretched relative to the target galaxy, especially if the arc is bluer than the galaxy, (4) a ring of possibly blue emission surrounding the target galaxy. Because gravitational lensing is an achromatic phenomenon, the alleged lensed images should have the same colors. However, some leeway was allowed to incorporate the possible effects of differential extinction (e.g., Blandford et al., 2001; Falco et al., 1999). Two of the authors independently examined all of the target galaxies. The list presented in Table 1 is the union of the two selections.

## 4. Discussion

The systematic search produced a list of 48 candidates of varying quality. The biggest difficulty in selecting candidates was to differentiate rings or arcs of star formation from lensing morphologies. Most of the candidates have morphologies consisting of arc- or point-like blue features near red galaxies, with no clear counterimages; these were accepted as candidates because the faint counterimages might be below the detection threshold. All of the authors voted on which of the 48 candidates were most likely to be lenses. We list our six top candidates in Table 2 and show them in Figure 2. Further followup is necessary to establish more definitively which of the systems are real gravitational lenses. Therefore, we present the full list of candidates and their coordinates in Table 1 so that interested readers can make their own selection of most promising lens candidates and target selected systems for additional observations333See also http://www.stsci.edu/science/goods/lensing/Lenscands/lenscands.html for images of the full list of candidates.. We note that the northern GOODS field includes the HDF-N area, which was searched extensively for gravitational lenses. The two best lens candidates found in those searches, J123652+621227 and J123656+621221 (Hogg et al., 1996; Zepf, Moustakas, & Davis, 1997), are detected in the GOODS data. The former is fainter than our magnitude cutoff at $`z_{850,iso}=23.7`$; the latter is in the target sample and was independently selected as lens candidate GDS J123657$`+`$621220 (Figure 2).

In this letter, we will provide only first-order estimates of the properties of our six best candidates. Systems for which later observations clearly establish the lensing nature will be treated more fully in forthcoming papers. A nearly model-independent quantity that may be derived from lens system data is the mass of the lensing galaxy within a cylinder of radius $`\theta _E`$, the Einstein ring radius. In cases with clear multiple images, a good estimate of $`\theta _E`$ is simply half the image separation. However, in most of the lens candidates presented in this letter, an arc is seen, but no counterimage is detected. Although this presents a difficulty, we note that in cases where an arc is highly magnified compared to the counterimage, the arc lies very close to the critical curve of the lens. Thus, in these cases the distance from the galaxy to the arc provides a reasonable estimator of $`\theta _E`$. We have used the $`V`$-band images to estimate $`\theta _E`$ for the candidates because both the blue and red objects are detected at high significance in these images. In Table 2 we provide estimated Einstein ring radii ($`\theta _{E,est}`$) as well as the target galaxy magnitudes in apertures with radii $`\theta =\theta _{E,est}`$. More extensive descriptions of the properties of the lens galaxies will become possible with spectroscopic data and more detailed modeling.

## 5. Summary and Future Work

In this paper we have presented the results of a systematic search for strong gravitational lens candidates in the GOODS ACS data. The search targeted massive early-type galaxies in the redshift range $`0.3<z<1.3`$, i.e., the sources most likely to produce strong lenses. We have presented a list of 48 lens candidates as well as images of our six most promising candidates. The search was conducted on images that are not yet at the full depth expected from the GOODS survey; however, we do not expect the $``$30% increase in sensitivity provided by the incorporation of the last two epochs of the GOODS observations to yield a significant increase in the number of lens candidates. The best candidates are being targeted for spectroscopic observations, in order to confirm or reject the lensing hypothesis. Based on these data, we will be able to measure accurate masses, mass-to-light ratios, and other parameters of the confirmed lens systems.

The GOODS project is very much a team effort, and we would like to thank all the members of the collaboration, and especially Anton Koekemoer for his help, patience, and goodwill. We are grateful to Lori Lubin and Chris Conselice for useful discussions and to Jeff Valenti for his IDL expertise. We thank the referee for comments that improved the paper. We are indebted to the shuttle astronauts who, as we have been so painfully reminded, risk their lives so that we can study the Universe. Support for this work was provided by NASA through grant GO09583.01-96A from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Support for this work, part of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) Legacy Science Program, was provided by NASA through contract number 1224666 issued by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under NASA contract 1407.


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# Apparent Deviations from Keplerian Acceleration for Stars Around the Supermassive Black Hole at the Galactic Center

## I Introduction

The latest infrared snapshots of the inner arcsecond of the Milky Way galaxy show bright stars orbiting around a common center of mass of $`4\times 10^6M_{}`$, providing unprecedented evidence for the existence of a supermassive black hole at the location of the radio/infrared source, SgrA\* . The inferred stellar orbits appear to be Keplerian to within the current measurement errors. Nevertheless, one would expect to see deviations from classical Keplerian orbits due to various general-relativistic effects, that can in turn be used to constrain the mass and spin of the black hole . Here we point out that the leading-order correction to the apparent orbit of a star involves a time transformation rather than a physical modification of the orbit, and is of order $`|𝐯/c|`$, where $`𝐯`$ is the star velocity and $`c`$ is the speed of light. Since some stars approach pericenter at a few percent of the speed of light, future observations reaching the percent level of sensitivity should detect this effect. As we show in §2, the naive Keplerian fit to the apparent orbit of the star in these future data sets should reveal an acceleration residual due to the time-dependent Doppler effect. Although this excess acceleration component averages to zero over a full closed orbit (during which the star returns to its original position and velocity), it could lead to systematic inconsistencies in estimates of the dynamical mass and position of the black hole that are based on partially sampled orbits.

## II Acceleration Residual Due to the Time-Dependent Doppler Effect

The standard Doppler transformation of infinitesimal time intervals between the reference frames of the observer ($`dt_{\mathrm{obs}}`$) and the star ($`dt`$) is given to leading-order in $`|𝐯/c|`$ by ,

$$dt_{\mathrm{obs}}=dt\left(1+\frac{v_{}}{c}\right),$$
(1)
where $`v_{}(t)`$ is the velocity of the star along the line-of-sight. The observed transverse velocity of the star is therefore different***The spatial line traced by the orbit remains unchanged in the two reference frames. We ignore the Lorentz transformation of the spatial coordinates since it corresponds to corrections of order $`(v/c)^2`$ or higher. from its actual transverse velocity, $`𝐯_{}=(d𝐱_{}/dt)`$,

$$\frac{d𝐱_{}}{dt_{\mathrm{obs}}}=\left(\frac{dt}{dt_{\mathrm{obs}}}\right)\frac{d𝐱_{}}{dt}\left(1\frac{v_{}}{c}\right)𝐯_{},$$
(2)
where the transverse position vector $`𝐱_{}`$ corresponds to angular coordinates on the sky times the distance to the Galactic center ($`8`$ kpc ). Throughout the paper, the terms parallel or transverse (perpendicular) are relative to the line-of-sight axis that starts at the observer and goes through the star.

Taking the $`t_{\mathrm{obs}}`$–derivative of both sides of equation (2) and keeping terms to leading-order, we get two Doppler components that contribute to the difference between the observed and Keplerian values of the transverse acceleration of the star on the sky,

$$𝐚_{,\mathrm{obs}}=𝐚_{}\frac{2v_{}}{c}𝐚_{}\frac{𝐯_{}}{c}a_{},$$
(3)
where $`𝐚_{\mathrm{obs}}(d^2𝐱/dt_{\mathrm{obs}}^2)`$ is the observed acceleration and $`𝐚(d^2𝐱/dt^2)`$ is the actual Keplerian acceleration of the star. These Doppler correction terms were not included in past analysis of SgrA\* data . The last term on the right-hand-side of equation (3) implies that the apparent transverse acceleration gets a contribution from the Keplerian acceleration along the line-of-sight, $`a_{}`$. The image of the star may therefore show apparent acceleration along its velocity vector on the plane of the sky even if its Keplerian transverse acceleration vanishes, $`𝐚_{}=0`$ (as long as $`𝐯_{}a_{}0`$). Note that $`𝐯_{}`$ is the transverse component of the net relative velocity between the star and the observer, including the transverse velocity of the Sun around the Galactic center.

A time-independent Doppler effect with $`a_{}=0`$, such as expected for a face-on orbit, gives $`𝐚_{,\mathrm{obs}}=(12v_{}/c)𝐚_{}`$, leading to a simple miscalibration of the black hole mass by a constant factor of $`(12v_{}/c)`$. But more generally, the additional effect of the last term in equation (3) cannot be compensated for by a simple fudge factor, as it depends on the particular parameters of the stellar orbit and on the orbital phase.

The two excess acceleration terms on the right-hand-side of equation (3) amount to a fractional correction amplitude of a few percent for the inferred value of $`𝐚_{}`$ near pericenter of the closest known stars to SgrA\*. These stars reach their pericentric distance of $`100\mathrm{AU}=1.5\times 10^{15}\mathrm{cm}`$ with $`(v/c)3\times 10^2`$. Omission of the above Doppler terms could lead to systematic offsets in estimates of the black hole mass and position that are based on partially sampled orbits.

Spectroscopic detection of the time-dependence of Doppler-shifted frequencies, $`\nu _{\mathrm{obs}}(1v_{}/c)`$, of spectral lines emitted from the atmosphere of the star (such as the Br $`\gamma `$ or He I features reported for the star SO-2 in ref. ) can be used to measure $`v_{}`$ as a function of $`t_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ and thus infer the Keplerian line-of-sight acceleration, $`a_{}=(1v_{}/c)(dv_{}/dt_{\mathrm{obs}})`$, as a function of intrinsic time, $`t=𝑑t_{\mathrm{obs}}(1v_{}/c)`$. This can, in turn, be used to check for consistency with the astrometric derivation of $`a_{}`$ from equation (3) using time-tagged snapshots of the orbit of the star. However, observers are likely to find it much more challenging to obtain the required spectroscopic data than to improve the precision on existing imaging techniques, for the purpose of recovering $`a_{}`$.

The leading-order Doppler effects in equation (3) can be easily incorporated into a computer program that searches for the best-fit Keplerian orbit under the constraints of a given data set. The Doppler–corrected Keplerian fit could provide direct constraints on the radial motion of the star based on its apparent motion on the sky. Such a fit would involve the same number of free parameters as in the standard Keplerian fit.

## III Discussion

The time-dependent Doppler effect adds two apparent acceleration terms to the Keplerian acceleration of a star on the sky in Equation (3). The last term on the right-hand-side of this equation implies that the observer may see the star accelerating along the projection of its velocity on the sky even if its Keplerian acceleration vanishes in this direction. The existence of this term would be particularly intriguing for a star on a highly eccentric (nearly radial) orbit along the line-of-sight. The transverse motion of the sun around the Galactic center with $`(𝐯_{}/c)7\times 10^4`$ would induce a minimum transverse acceleration of the stellar image of $`7\times 10^4a_{}`$ in this case.

Additional special-relativistic or general-relativistic effects are of the order of $`(v/c)^2`$ or $`\varphi /c^2`$, or smaller, where $`\varphi `$ is the local gravitational potential probed by the star ($`\varphi v^2`$). These corrections are at least an order of magnitude smaller than the Doppler effect discussed here, for orbits with pericentric distances of $`10^{15}`$ cm.

Deviations from apparent Keplerian orbits may also be caused by gravitational scattering off other stars or black hole companions to SgrA\* . The time dependence of the excess acceleration caused by such scattering events can be easily differentiated from that of the periodic and fully-deterministic Doppler effect.

### Acknowledgments.

The author thanks Andrea Ghez and Eric Pfahl for stimulating discussions. This work was supported in part by NASA grants NAG 5-13292, and by NSF grants AST-0071019, AST-0204514.


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# Instability of nuclear wobbling motion and tilted axis rotation

## I Introduction

The concept of the phase transition of the mean field is useful for describing structure changes in the atomic nucleus although it is a quantum system composed of finite number of Fermions. Typical example is that a spherical mean field becomes unstable as the quadrupole vibration excited on top of it softens with changing particle numbers, then an axially symmetric mean field substitutes. This can rotate about one of the axes perpendicular to the symmetry axis. Consecutively, the axial symmetric mean field can become unstable as the $`\gamma `$ vibration softens, then a triaxially deformed mean field substitutes. This can rotate about all the three principal axes. Usually, however, a rotation about one axis dominates because the rotation about the axis with the largest moment of inertia is energetically favorable. When some excitation energy is supplied, small rotations about other two axes become possible. Consequently this produces a kind of vibrational motion of the rotational axis, that is, the wobbling motion.

The small amplitude wobbling motion at high spins was first discussed by Bohr and Mottelson Bohr and Mottelson (1975) in terms of a macroscopic rotor model. Then it was studied microscopically by Janssen and Mikhailov Janssen and I. N. Mikhailov (1979) and Marshalek Marshalek (1979) in terms of the random phase approximation (RPA). Since the small amplitude wobbling mode has the same quantum number, parity $`\pi =+`$ and signature $`\alpha =1`$, as the odd-spin member of the $`\gamma `$ vibrational band, Mikhailov and Janssen I. N. Mikhailov and Janssen (1978) anticipated that it would appear as a high-spin continuation of the odd-spin $`\gamma `$ band. But it has not been clear in which nuclei, at what spins, and with what shapes it would appear. Using the RPA, Shimizu and Matsuyanagi Y. R. Shimizu and Matsuyanagi (1984) studied Er isotopes with small $`|\gamma |`$, Matsuzaki Matsuzaki (1990) and Shimizu and Matsuzaki Y. R. Shimizu and Matsuzaki (1995) studied 182Os with a rather large negative $`\gamma `$ but their correspondence to the experimental data was not very clear. In 2001, Ødegård et al. S. W. Ødegård et al. (2001) found an excited triaxial superdeformed band in 163Lu and identified it firmly as a wobbling band by comparing the observed and theoretical interband $`E2`$ transition rates. These data were investigated in terms of a particle-rotor model by Hamamoto Hamamoto (2002) and in terms of the RPA by Matsuzaki et al. Matsuzaki et al. (2002). In 2002, two-phonon wobbling excitations were also observed by Jensen et al. D. R. Jensen et al. (2002) and their excitation energies show some anharmonicity.

The one-dimensionally rotating triaxial mean field may become unstable as the wobbling mode softens with changing some parameters. One of the present authors (MM) pointed out its theoretical possibility in the preceding Rapid Communication Matsuzaki et al. (2002). The possibility of this phase transition was discussed in terms of the harmonic oscillator model by Cuypers Cuypers (1987) and Heiss and Nazmitdinov W. D. Heiss and R. G. Nazmitdinov (2002) but their conclusions are controversial. A theoretical framework to describe three-dimensional rotations, possibly with large amplitude, was first devised by Kerman and Onishi A. K. Kerman and Onishi (1981) within a time-dependent variational formalism. Onishi Onishi (1986) and Horibata and Onishi Horibata and Onishi (1996) applied it to 166Er and 182Os, respectively. See Ref. Oi and P. M. Walker (2003), for example, for recent applications. The three-dimensional cranking model was first used by Frisk and Bengtsson Frisk and Bengtsson (1987). The word, “tilted (axis) cranking (TAC)” was, to our knowledge, first used by Frauendorf Frauendorf (1993) and it was applied to a kind of two-dimensional rotation — the so-called shears band, observed for example in the $`A200`$ region R. M. Clark et al. (1992); Baldsiefen et al. (1992); T. F. Wang et al. (1992). Applications to multiquasiparticle high-$`K`$ bands were also extensively done; see Ref. Frauendorf (2000) and references cited therein. When the rotation becomes fully three-dimensional, the new concept, chirality, emerges V. I. Dimitrov et al. (2000); Starosta et al. (2001). The tilted axis cranking was also applied to this Olbratowski et al. . At finite temperature, the degree of freedom of spin orientation was studied macroscopically Alhassid and Bush (1990) and microscopically F. A. Dodaro and A. L. Goodman (1995). A relativistic formulation of the three-dimensional cranking was given by Kaneko et al. Kaneko et al. (1993) as an extension of the one-dimensional one given by the Munich group Koepf and Ring (1989). Madokoro et al. Madokoro et al. (2000) studied the shears band in 84Rb starting from the meson exchange interaction although the pairing field was neglected.

The purpose of the present paper is to elucidate the work in Ref. Matsuzaki et al. (2002) by comparing two types of theoretical calculations, the one-dimensional cranking model $`+`$ RPA and the three-dimensional (tilted axis) cranking model. The former gives the “mass parameters” for the motion of the angular momentum vector, that is, the moments of inertia, while the latter provides the surfaces on which the angular frequency vector moves around.

## II Model

We start from a one-body Hamiltonian in the rotating frame,

$$h^{}=hh_{\mathrm{cr}},$$
(1)
$$h=h_{\mathrm{Nil}}\mathrm{\Delta }_\tau (P_\tau ^{}+P_\tau )\lambda _\tau N_\tau ,$$
(2)
$$h_{\mathrm{Nil}}=\frac{𝐩^2}{2M}+\frac{1}{2}M(\omega _x^2x^2+\omega _y^2y^2+\omega _z^2z^2)$$

$$+v_{ls}𝐥𝐬+v_{ll}(𝐥^2𝐥^2_{N_{\mathrm{osc}}}).$$
(3)
($`h_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ is specified below.) In Eq.(2), $`\tau =1`$ and 2 stand for neutron and proton, respectively, and chemical potentials $`\lambda _\tau `$ are determined so as to give correct average particle numbers $`N_\tau `$. The oscillator frequencies in Eq.(3) are related to the quadrupole deformation parameters $`ϵ_2`$ and $`\gamma `$ in the usual way. (We adopt the so-called Lund convention.) They are treated as parameters as well as pairing gaps $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\tau `$. The orbital angular momentum $`𝐥`$ in Eq.(3) is defined in the singly-stretched coordinates $`x_k^{}=\sqrt{\frac{\omega _k}{\omega _0}}x_k`$, with $`k=`$ 1 – 3 denoting $`x`$$`z`$, and the corresponding momenta.

### II.1 One-dimensional cranking model $`+`$ random phase approximation

Equations (1) – (3) with

$$h_{\mathrm{cr}}=\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}J_x$$
(4)
generate the system rotating one-dimensionally. Then, since $`h^{}`$ conserves parity $`\pi `$ and signature $`\alpha `$, nuclear states can be labeled by them. Nuclear states with quasiparticle (QP) excitations are obtained by exchanging the QP energy and wave functions such as

$$(e_\mu ^{},𝐕_\mu ,𝐔_\mu )(e_{\overline{\mu }}^{},𝐔_{\overline{\mu }},𝐕_{\overline{\mu }}),$$
(5)
where $`\overline{\mu }`$ denotes the signature partner of $`\mu `$. We perform the RPA to the residual pairing plus doubly-stretched quadrupole-quadrupole ($`Q^{\prime \prime }Q^{\prime \prime }`$) interaction between QPs. Since we are interested in the wobbling motion that has a definite quantum number, $`\alpha =1`$, only two components out of five of the $`Q^{\prime \prime }Q^{\prime \prime }`$ interaction are relevant. They are given by

$$H_{\mathrm{int}}^{()}=\frac{1}{2}\underset{K=1,2}{}\kappa _K^{()}Q_K^{\prime \prime ()}Q_K^{\prime \prime ()},$$
(6)
where the doubly-stretched quadrupole operators are defined by

$$Q_K^{\prime \prime }=Q_K(x_kx_k^{\prime \prime }=\frac{\omega _k}{\omega _0}x_k),$$
(7)
and those with good signature are

$$Q_K^{(\pm )}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2(1+\delta _{K0})}}\left(Q_K\pm Q_K\right).$$
(8)
The residual pairing interaction does not contribute because $`P_\tau `$ is an operator with $`\alpha =0`$. The equation of motion,

$$[h^{}+H_{\mathrm{int}}^{()},X_n^{}]_{\mathrm{RPA}}=\mathrm{}\omega _nX_n^{},$$
(9)
for the eigenmode

$$X_n^{}=\underset{\mu <\nu }{\overset{(\alpha =\pm 1/2)}{}}\left(\psi _n(\mu \nu )a_\mu ^{}a_\nu ^{}+\phi _n(\mu \nu )a_\nu a_\mu \right)$$
(10)
leads to a pair of coupled equations for the transition amplitudes

$$T_{K,n}=[Q_K^{()},X_n^{}].$$
(11)
Then, by assuming $`\gamma 0`$, this can be cast Marshalek (1979) into the form

$$(\omega _n^2\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}^2)\left[\omega _n^2\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}^2\frac{\left(𝒥_x𝒥_y^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _n)\right)\left(𝒥_x𝒥_z^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _n)\right)}{𝒥_y^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _n)𝒥_z^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _n)}\right]$$

$$=0,$$
(12)
which is independent of $`\kappa _K^{()}`$s. This expression proves that the spurious mode ($`\omega _n=\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}`$; not a real intrinsic excitation but a rotation as a whole) given by the first factor and all normal modes given by the second are decoupled from each other. Here $`𝒥_x=J_x/\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}`$ as usual and the detailed expressions of $`𝒥_{y,z}^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _n)`$ are given in Refs. Marshalek (1979); Matsuzaki (1990); Y. R. Shimizu and Matsuzaki (1995). Among normal modes, one obtains

$$\omega _{\mathrm{wob}}=\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}\sqrt{\frac{\left(𝒥_x𝒥_y^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})\right)\left(𝒥_x𝒥_z^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})\right)}{𝒥_y^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})𝒥_z^{(\mathrm{eff})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})}},$$
(13)
by putting $`\omega _n=\omega _{\mathrm{wob}}`$. Note that this gives a real excitation only when the argument of the square root is positive and it is non-trivial whether a collective solution appears or not. Evidently this coincides with the form derived by Bohr and Mottelson in a rotor model Bohr and Mottelson (1975) and known in classical mechanics L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz (1960).

### II.2 Three-dimensional (tilted axis) cranking model

In this model the one-body Hamiltonian is given by Eqs.(1) – (3) with

$$h_{\mathrm{cr}}=\mathrm{}𝛀𝐉,$$
(14)
$$𝛀=\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}(\mathrm{cos}\theta ,\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\phi ,\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\phi ).$$
(15)
Pairing correlation is taken into the system by a simple BCS approximation with fixed gaps as in the case of the one-dimensional cranking. The expectation value $`𝐉`$ calculated at each $`(\omega _{\mathrm{rot}},\theta ,\phi )`$ has three non-zero components in general; the stationary state that minimizes the total routhian is obtained by requiring $`𝐉𝛀`$ (see Ref. Frauendorf (2000) for details). Obtained tilted solutions do not possess the signature symmetry and therefore describe $`\mathrm{\Delta }I=1`$ rotational bands. In the present work, given a set of mean-field parameters, $`N_\tau `$, $`ϵ_2`$, $`\gamma `$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\tau `$, a configuration is specified at $`\theta =0^{}`$ (principal axis cranking about the $`x`$ axis). Then by changing $`\theta `$ and $`\phi `$ step by step, the most overlapped state is chased. This procedure gives an energy (total routhian) surface for the angular frequency vector. Surfaces for QP excited configurations can also be calculated by adopting a procedure similar to Eq.(5).

## III Result and discussion

For this first comparative calculation, we choose the $`[(\nu h_{9/2},f_{7/2})^2(\pi h_{11/2})^2]_{16^+}`$ four quasiparticle configuration in 146Gd among this mass region in which many oblate isomers have been observed. This state is described by $`ϵ_2=0.19`$, $`\gamma =60^{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_n=0.8`$ MeV, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_p=0.6`$ MeV, and $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}=0.25`$ MeV. Calculations are performed in the model space of three major shells; $`N_{\mathrm{osc}}=`$ 4 – 6 for neutrons and 3 – 5 for protons. The strengths of the $`𝐥𝐬`$ and $`𝐥^2`$ potentials are taken from Ref. Bengtsson and Ragnarsson (1985).

In the present study we concentrate on the changes in the system with $`\gamma `$. Figure 1(a) reports the excitation energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{wob}}`$ in the rotating frame. That in the laboratory frame in the case of $`\gamma =60^{}`$ is given by $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{wob}}+\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}=`$ 0.198 MeV $`+`$ 0.25 MeV. The excitation energy decreases steeply as $`\gamma `$ decreases. In order to see its implication, we show in Fig. 1(b) the wobbling angles,

$$\theta _{\mathrm{wob}}=\mathrm{tan}^1\frac{\sqrt{|J_y^{(\mathrm{PA})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})|^2+|J_z^{(\mathrm{PA})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})|^2}}{J_x},$$
(16)
$$\phi _{\mathrm{wob}}=\mathrm{tan}^1\left|\frac{J_z^{(\mathrm{PA})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})}{J_y^{(\mathrm{PA})}(\omega _{\mathrm{wob}})}\right|,$$
(17)
with (PA) denoting the principal axis. $`\theta _{\mathrm{wob}}`$ clearly proves that the softening of the excitation energy is accompanied by a growth of the amplitude of the motion. $`\phi _{\mathrm{wob}}`$ indicates that the fluctuation to the $`y`$ direction grows. Corresponding to this, the three moments of inertia behave as in Fig. 1(c). Qualitatively, this behavior can be understood as an irrotational-like moments of inertia,

$$𝒥_k^{\mathrm{irr}}\mathrm{sin}^2(\gamma +\frac{2}{3}\pi k),$$
(18)
where $`k=`$ 1 – 3 denoting the $`x`$$`z`$ components, superimposed by the contribution from the alignment, $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝒥_x`$. Alternatively, it can also be viewed as that, at large $`\gamma `$, multiple alignments lead to a rigid-body-like inertia,

$$𝒥_k^{\mathrm{rig}}\left(1\sqrt{\frac{5}{4\pi }}\beta \mathrm{cos}(\gamma +\frac{2}{3}\pi k)\right),$$
(19)
with $`\beta `$ being a deformation parameter defined by the mass distribution.

Now we proceed to three-dimensional calculations; we calculate energy surfaces as functions of the tilting angle $`(\theta ,\phi )`$ of $`𝛀`$. Here we note that the $`(\theta ,\phi )`$ plane is represented as a rectangle although $`\phi `$ is meaningful for $`\theta 0^{}`$. Figure 2(a) shows the $`\gamma =60^{}`$ (symmetric about the $`x`$ axis) case. Until down to $`\gamma 40^{}`$, energy surfaces are qualitatively similar aside from becoming shallow gradually. But a further decrease of $`\gamma `$ leads to an instability of the motion to the $`\theta `$ direction with $`\phi =0^{}`$, that is, the direction of the $`y`$ axis. Together with the property that the surface is stable with respect to the direction of the $`z`$ axis, the situation corresponds excellently to Fig. 1. The behavior of $`\phi _{\mathrm{wob}}`$ in Fig. 1(b) can be interpreted as that, when the system can fluctuate to the direction of the $`y`$ axis without any energy cost, it does not fluctuate to the $`z`$ axis.

To look at the energy surface more closely we gather their cross sections at $`\phi =0^{}`$ (the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane) in Fig. 3. This figure clearly shows that a tilted axis minimum appears at around $`\gamma =30^{}`$ although it is shallow. The correspondence to Fig. 1 in which the instability occurs at $`\gamma =32^{}`$ is excellent. Note that the reason why the wobbling angle seen from Fig. 3 is larger than $`\theta _{\mathrm{wob}}`$ in Fig. 1(b) is that this is drawn for $`𝛀`$.

## IV Potential surface for the wobbling mode in 163Lu

The analyses above are purely theoretical. Then, is there any experimental signature of the softening of the wobbling motion? We think the answer is yes. Figure 4 shows the experimental D. R. Jensen et al. (2002) excitation energies (in the rotating frame) of the TSD3 (two-phonon wobbling) and the TSD2 (one-phonon wobbling) relative to the TSD1 (yrast 1QP TSD) in 163Lu, where TSD is the abbreviation for triaxial superdeformation. $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{2\mathrm{phonon}}^{}<2\times \mathrm{\Delta }E_{1\mathrm{phonon}}^{}`$ indicates a signature of softening of the energy surface. We obtained $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{wob}}=0.185`$ MeV, $`\theta _{\mathrm{wob}}=14.2^{}`$, and $`\phi _{\mathrm{wob}}=7.6^{}`$ for the one-phonon wobbling state in the RPA (see also Refs.Matsuzaki et al. (2002, 2004) for the RPA calculation). The small value of $`\phi _{\mathrm{wob}}`$ looks to indicate a softening to the $`y`$ direction. Calculated energy surface is shown in Fig. 5. Calculations were done in the model space of five major shells, $`N_{\mathrm{osc}}=`$ 3 – 7 for neutrons and 2 – 6 for protons, with $`ϵ_2=0.43`$, $`\gamma =20^{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_n=\mathrm{\Delta }_p=0.3`$ MeV, and $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{rot}}=0.5`$ MeV where the calculated $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{wob}}`$ approaches the experimental one. This figure shows again the surface softens to the direction of the $`y`$ axis.

In Refs.Matsuzaki et al. (2002, 2004), it was shown that the alignment of the $`\pi i_{13/2}`$ quasiparticle was essential for the appearance of the wobbling motion. In order to see this fact from the viewpoint of the potential surface, we calculated the 0QP (non-yrast TSD at high spins) configuration in 162Yb. Figure 6 clearly shows that a tilted axis minimum in the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane is realized when the wobbling motion does not occur due to the lack of $`\pi i_{13/2}`$ QPs that make $`𝒥_x`$ larger than $`𝒥_y^{(\mathrm{eff})}`$ Matsuzaki et al. (2002, 2004). This result proves that the low-$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ high-$`j`$ orbital favors the principal axis rotation on which the wobbling motion occurs.

For deeper understanding of the two-phonon states, application of more sophisticated many body theories such as the selfconsistent collective coordinate (SCC) method Marumori et al. (1980) is desirable.

## V Summary

To summarize, we have proved that a tilted axis rotation emerges when the wobbling mode becomes unstable as the triaxiality parameter changes in an oblate configuration in 146Gd. Its instability is caused by a growth of the fluctuation of the motion of the angular momentum or frequency vector to the direction of the $`y`$ axis. Having performed this theoretical calculation, we have argued that the signature of the softening of the wobbling motion can be seen in the observed spectra of the triaxial superdeformation in 163Lu and shown that a tilted axis minimum would appear if it were not for the $`\pi i_{13/2}`$ quasiparticle.

###### Acknowledgements.

The numerical calculations in this work were performed in part with the computer system of the Yukawa Institute Computer Facility, Kyoto University.


text:
# Light meson correlation functions near the deconfining transition on anisotropic lattices Poster presented by T. Umeda

## 1 Introduction

The theoretical expectation for properties of quarks and gluons in the deconfinement phase is strongly required for an interpretation of experimental results in the heavy ion collision experiments. Contrary to a naive quark gluon plasma (QGP) picture such as the gas of weakly interacting quarks and gluons, several model calculations inspired by QCD indicate nonperturbative features of QGP. For example, an NJL model calculation suggests that the hadronic excitations survive as soft modes even above the critical temperature .

The lattice QCD can in principle solve the problem in a model independent way, since the dynamical properties of excitation modes can be extracted from the Matsubara Green functions . Although in practice such studies are quite nontrivial even at qualitative level, recent technical development such as anisotropic lattices and computational progress have enabled us to study dynamical properties of hadrons at finite temperature . In addition, several procedures such as the maximum entropy method (MEM)  have been developed to analyze the spectral function with which we can directly probe the excitation modes of the plasma phase. These procedures have been applied to the charmonium systems and suggest that hadronic excitations survive even above the critical temperature .

In this work we apply the method which was adopted in Ref.  to systems with light quarks. In this report we focus on a check of reliability for applied analysis methods at finite temperature, as a preparation for future applications to the deconfinement phase.

## 2 Our approach

Here we briefly explain our analysis procedure and its criteria for a reliability, which were in detail described in Ref. .

In order to extract reliable information on the spectral function, we use MEM and $`\chi ^2`$ fit method in a complementary manner. After a rough estimation of spectral function by MEM, we evaluate properties of the mode such as mass and width more quantitatively by the $`\chi ^2`$ fit assuming several fitting forms based on MEM results. As more sophisticated form of the $`\chi ^2`$ fit we adopt the constrained curve fitting (CCF)  whose prior knowledge is also estimated with the MEM results.

To verify the reliability of our analysis, we require the following criteria for the extraction methods: (1) The stability of the spectral function against variations of input parameters or model functions. (2) The stability of the result for the correlators at $`T=0`$ under restriction of the degrees of freedom. For the latter, since the $`T=0`$ correlators are not ready at present, we instead analyze those below $`T_c`$ which should produce similar results as at $`T=0`$.

In the previous work for the charmonium, in order to satisfy the criteria we employ the smearing operators which enhance the low frequency part of the meson correlators. However the smeared operators may produce artificial peaks in the spectral function . In order to distinguish an artificial peak from the genuine physical one we apply several smearing functions and examine the stability of the results.

## 3 Numerical results

We use quenched lattices of the sizes $`20^3\times N_t`$, where $`N_t=160`$ and 32 which roughly correspond to $`T0`$ and 0.9$`T_c`$, respectively. The zero temperature lattice, and the setup of lattice parameters are the same as those used in Ref. . The gauge configurations are generated with the Wilson plaquette action at $`\beta =6.10`$ with the renormalized anisotropy $`\xi =a_\sigma /a_t=4`$. The spatial cutoff set by the hadronic radius $`r_0`$ is $`a_\sigma ^1=2.030(13)`$ GeV. $`N_t=28`$ is close to the phase transition. The quark action is the $`O(a)`$ improved Wilson action , with the hopping parameter roughly corresponding to the strange quark mass. We have 500 configurations at $`T=0`$ and 1000 configurations at $`T>0`$.

We measure the point correlators at $`T=0`$ and the smeared correlators at $`T0.9T_c`$. For the latter, the operators are spatially extended by Gaussian functions $`\varphi (\stackrel{}{x})\mathrm{exp}(a|\stackrel{}{x}|^2)`$ with $`a=0.16`$ and 0.037 which are referred as “smeared” and “half-smeared”, respectively.

First we present a result for the point operators. Using the correlators at $`T=0`$ we test the applicability to finite temperatures by varying the number of degrees of freedom. Figure 1 shows the $`t_{max}`$ dependence of the MEM results, where the fit ranges are restricted to $`t=1t_{max}`$. The result at $`t_{max}=16`$ can not reproduce even the position of the lowest peak, while $`t_{max}=16`$ corresponds to the similar situation we encounter at $`T0.9T_c`$. This is one of the reasons why we give up to use the point operators to explore finite temperatures.

The MEM result with the smeared PS correlator at $`T0.9T_c`$ are presented in Fig. 2. The lowest and next-lowest peaks are located at almost the same positions as at $`T=0`$ which is expected to have a similar result to that at $`T0.9T_c`$. This is encouraging for applications of the MEM to the systems at $`T>0`$. Since the results are sensitive to the default model function (as input parameters), it is difficult to obtain quantitative results only with MEM.

Based on the MEM results in Fig. 2, we assume multi-peak functions with the Breit-Wigner type forms,

$`A(\omega )={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{N_{term}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\omega ^2m_i\gamma _iR_i}{(\omega ^2m_i^2)^2+m_i^2\gamma _i^2}},`$ (1)
as fitting functions and estimate the prior knowledge of the CCF. In Fig. 3 the fit results for masses and widths of the lowest and next-lowest peaks are displayed, where the results for smeared and half-smeared correlators are plotted with different symbols. Although with a sufficiently large $`N_{term}`$ $`(4)`$ the results are stable, the differences between the values for the smeared and half-smeared correlators are larger than the statistical errors. Furthermore the results are rather sensitive to the prior knowledge. These results indicate that we need further investigations of CCF to obtain quantitative results with keeping systematic uncertainties under control at finite temperature.

Following our strategy, we have to perform these reliability checks with correlators at $`T=0`$ and to examine the $`t_{max}`$ dependence of the systematic uncertainties. We also need further examination of the smearing operators, because the suppression of high frequency part of the correlators may not be sufficient with the present smearing operators. This might be a reason that CCF does not work stably at $`T0.9T_c`$. These problems must be clarified for reliable analysis of the hadronic correlators at finite temperature, in particular in the plasma phase.

This study was performed on the SR8000 at KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research Organization) and the SX-5 at RCNP (Research Center for Nuclear Physics). T.U and H.M are supported by the JSPS Research Fellowships for Young Scientists.


text:
# Quasinormal modes prefer supersymmetry ?

## I Introduction

Loop quantum gravity (LQG) has in the past years been further developed and made great success in the study of the quantum theory of geometry (please see Rev  for recent review). One remarkable result is that with the power of spin networks the area and volume spectra can be derived and characterized by discrete valuesSN2 . Nevertheless, in loop quantum gravity there is an important parameter $`\gamma `$ called Immirzi parameter unfixedImmirzi , implying that given a two dimensional surface intersected by an edge with label $`J`$ of a spin network, the area of this surface can be determined only up to a freely adjustable parameter,

$$A(J)=8\pi \gamma l_p^2\sqrt{J(J+1)},$$
(1)
where $`l_p`$ is the Plank length (taking $`\sqrt{\mathrm{}}`$ in geometrical units) and $`J`$ takes positive half-integer. Consequently it is also due to the Immirzi parameter that the famous factor $`\frac{1}{4}`$ in Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula,

$$S_{BH}=\frac{A}{4l_p^2},$$
(2)
could not be uniquely determined when applying quantum geometry to derive the statistical entropy of black holesEBH . This has been viewed as the main unsatisfactory point of this approach for some years.

Recently, motivated by Hod’s work on the asymptotic quasinormal modes of black holesHod , Dreyer has proposed a novel way to fix the Immirzi parameter in loop quantum gravityDreyer . The basic idea and the main results can be summed as follows. Having studied the asymptotic behavior of the quasinormal modes of a Schwarzschild black hole with the mass $`M`$, Hod conjectured that the real part of the highly damped quasinormal mode frequencies $`\omega _{QNM}`$ asymptotically approaches to a fixed quantity Hod

$$\omega _{QNM}=\frac{\mathrm{ln}3}{8\pi M}.$$
(3)
This conjecture has recently been confirmed analytically by MotlMotl . Hod also proposed that, if we assume the Bohr’s correspondence principle is applicable to black holes, such an asymptotic frequency of the quasinormal modes should be consistent with the one of the quanta induced by the minimum change $`\mathrm{\Delta }A`$ in the quantized area of the event horizon Hod . Going further, Dreyer made a striking observation that the Immirzi parameter may be fixed by applying this idea to loop quantum gravity. As a consequence, it is shown in Dreyer  that

$$\gamma =\frac{\mathrm{ln}3}{2\sqrt{2}\pi }.$$
(4)
However, at the same time it also forces

$$J_{min}=1,$$
(5)
where $`J_{min}`$ denotes the lowest possible spin for the representation of the gauge group. This is not the answer as we expect based on the statistical principle. As in the case of quantum general relativity, the gauge group is $`SU(2)`$ and its representation is labelled by positive half-integer, we expect the minimum value $`J_{min}`$ should be $`\frac{1}{2}`$, rather than one. The above observation by Dreyer seemingly indicates that we have to either sacrifice $`SU(2)`$ as the gauge group and replace it with $`SO(3)`$, or find a mechanism to explain why the expected most important contribution from $`J=1/2`$ edges is suppressed. The former option is not quite physically natural or desirable. Thus some attempts to save $`SU(2)`$ as the relevant gauge group in loop quantum gravity have been made (for instance see Corichi ; Swain ), but there additional physical considerations or assumptions are needed.

In this paper we intend to present another quite simple but elegant scheme to fix the Immirzi parameter by considering the supersymmetric extension of loop quantum gravity, but more importantly, we find in this case $`J_{min}`$ is forced to take the minimum value of the representation of gauge group $`Osp(1|2)`$ which is perfectly consistent with the most probable value as we expect based on the statistical consideration.

## II Area spectrum in $`N=1`$ supergravity and black hole entropy

$`N=1`$ supergravity in Ashtekar-Sen variables was originally given by Jacobson in Jacobson  and its canonical quantization has been extensively studied inSUGRA ; LS . In this section we only recall the crucial results that we need here; for more details on this subject please seeSUGRA ; LS . Similar to the case in quantum general relativity, a generalized notion of supersymmetric spin networks can be introduced to construct the Hilbert space of canonical supergravity, while a key different ingredient from the ordinary one is that the edges in spin networks now are labelled by the representations of the supergroup $`Osp(1|2)`$ rather than $`SU(2)`$. Such a replacement gives rise to a different expression for the area spectrum at quantum mechanical level. More explicitly, if a surface is intersected by an edge of the network carrying the label $`J`$, then its area is given by LS

$$A(J)=8\pi \stackrel{~}{\gamma }l_p^2\sqrt{J(J+\frac{1}{2})},$$
(6)
where $`J`$ still takes half-integer but labels $`Osp(1|2)`$ representation and $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ denotes the Immirzi parameter in supergravity. If we simply set $`\gamma =\stackrel{~}{\gamma }`$ and compare it with the area spectrum (1) in ordinary loop quantum gravity, we find that the discrepancy is so tiny that it can be ignored for large $`J`$, while for small values of $`J`$ these two sorts of spectra in principle should be distinguishable and perhaps yield quite different physics. We will soon see it does so for the statistical entropy of black holes as discussed below.

The derivation of statistical entropy of black holes in loop quantum gravity has been thoroughly studied and we refer to EBH ; Smolin  for details. Here we simply argue that the strategy can be directly extended to consider the entropy of black holes (at least for Schwarzschild black holes) in the context of supergravity. The only thing that should be stressed is that the dimension of the Hilbert space associated to a puncture with spin $`J`$ on the event horizon now is LS

$$D(J)=4J+1.$$
(7)
Therefore, the area of its event horizon with $`N`$ punctures may be obtained as

$$A=N8\pi \stackrel{~}{\gamma }l_p^2\sqrt{J_{min}(J_{min}+\frac{1}{2})},$$
(8)
and the number of microscopic quantum states contributes the black hole an entropy with

$$S=N\mathrm{ln}(4J_{min}+1).$$
(9)
where we have used the fact that given a black hole with fixed horizon, the most probable distribution of spins associated to the punctures is the configuration in which all the punctures are labelled by the minimum value of spin, denoted as $`J_{min}`$. Combining Eq.(8) and Eq.(9), we find the black hole entropy is proportional to the area of the event horizon, i.e.

$$S=\frac{\mathrm{ln}(4J_{min}+1)}{8\pi \stackrel{~}{\gamma }l_p^2\sqrt{J_{min}(J_{min}+\frac{1}{2})}}A.$$
(10)
Furthermore, comparing this with Bekenstein-Hawking formula (2) yields the following relation between the Immirzi parameter and the minimum value of spin,

$$\frac{\mathrm{ln}(4J_{min}+1)}{8\pi \stackrel{~}{\gamma }\sqrt{J_{min}(J_{min}+\frac{1}{2})}}=\frac{1}{4}.$$
(11)
Next we follow the strategy advocated in Dreyer  to fix the Immirzi parameter by considering the asymptotic quasinormal modes of black holes, but present a more reasonable value of $`J_{min}`$.

## III Fixing the Immirzi parameter by quasinormal mode spectrum

It is argued in Hod ; Dreyer  that according to Bohr’s correspondence principle, the increase of the black hole mass should be ascribed to a quanta with the energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _{QNM}`$ absorbed by the black hole, i.e.

$$\mathrm{\Delta }M=\mathrm{}\omega _{QNM}.$$
(12)
On the other hand, since

$$A=16\pi M^2,$$
(13)
such an increase in the mass of the black hole induces a corresponding increase in the area of the event horizon

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A=32\pi M\mathrm{\Delta }M=4\mathrm{ln}3l_p^2.$$
(14)
At quantum mechanical level, this kind of increase in the area of the horizon corresponds to the appearance of another edge labelled with $`J_{min}`$ in the supersymmetric spin network, thus

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A=A(J_{min}).$$
(15)
Plugging it into Eq.(14) we have

$$\stackrel{~}{\gamma }=\frac{\mathrm{ln}3}{2\pi \sqrt{J_{min}(J_{min}+\frac{1}{2})}}.$$
(16)
Therefore, Eq.(16) together with Eq.(11) uniquely fixes the value of the Immirzi parameter to be

$$\stackrel{~}{\gamma }=\frac{\mathrm{ln}3}{\sqrt{2}\pi }.$$
(17)
At the same time it also determines

$$J_{min}=\frac{1}{2}.$$
(18)
This is a remarkable result because it is consistent with our argument based on statistical principle, stating that the most probable distribution should be the set of punctures on the horizon uniformly labelled by the fundamental representation of supergroup $`Osp(1|2)`$ which takes the minimum positive value of $`J`$. Here we do not need any other extra assumption or condition. It only seems implying that the supersymmetry might be a favorable nature of spacetime.

## IV Discussion

We conclude this paper by pointing out a very interesting relation between two area spectra respectively obtained in quantum general relativity and the simplest supergravity, namely Eq.(1) and Eq.(6). Note in quantum gravity, we do not have any reason to argue that those two Immirzi parameters should be related in any manner. Therefore these two spectra in principle have nothing to do with each other. One naive but natural choice is just setting two Immirzi parameters equal as we assumed in section two such that at each level labelled by the same $`J`$ the spectrum has only a small shift after the supersymmetry is concerned. In particular, such a shift is vanishing as $`J`$ approaches to infinity. However, this picture has greatly changed when the semi-classical limit of these two theories is concerned. The asymptotic quasinormal modes of black holes do provide us a strategy to fix the Immirzi parameter so that these two sorts of spectra are comparable. Quite strikingly, here we found our previous intuition is not quite correct. As a matter of fact, two Immirzi parameters are not equal but

$$\stackrel{~}{\gamma }=2\gamma .$$
(19)
Therefore, the area spectrum in canonical supergravity can be rewritten as

$$A^{sg}(J)=8\pi \gamma l_p^2\sqrt{2J(2J+1)}8\pi \gamma l_p^2\sqrt{J_{eff}(J_{eff}+1)}.$$
(20)
Now it’s evident that the area spectrum is the same expression as the one in quantum general relativity except that $`J_{eff}`$ here can only take integer! That is to say, all the area eigenvalues with half-integers in loop quantum gravity now are forbidden by the supersymmetry in $`N=1`$ supergravity.

Corichi and Swain have suggested to suppress the contribution from $`J=1/2`$ edges in loop quantum gravity by considering the coupling of fermions or Pauli exclusion principle respectively. From this point of view, we may also argue that we have presented a very elegant scheme to do so, but the reason is simply due to the supersymmetry. Interestingly enough, all these suggestions share one common point, namely the involvement of fermions. As a result, it’s quite desirable to investigate their relations and show more insight into this subject.

So far, we have only focused on Schwarzschild-like black holes. We expect the similar consideration will be applicable to more general black holes. At the same time, investigating the supersymmetric extension of loop quantum gravity with $`N>1`$ is also under progress.

## Acknowledgement

It’s our pleasure to thank Olaf Dreyer, Yongge Ma and Lee Smolin for correspondence and helpful discussions. Y. Ling is partly supported by NSFC (No.10205002) and K.C.Wong Education Foundation, Hong Kong.


text:
# Gamma-rays From Neutralino Annihilation in Milky Way Substructure: What Can We Learn?

## 1 Introduction

In the currently popular $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmological model, the Universe is composed of $`4`$% baryonic matter and $`26`$% cold, collisionless dark matter (CDM), and is made flat by a cosmological constant ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) . The growth of structure is seeded by a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of density fluctuations, supposedly generated during an early epoch of inflation. Within this framework, structure forms hierarchically, with small objects collapsing first and subsequently merging into larger structures over time. This paradigm for structure formation predicts the presence of a large number of self-bound subhalos within Milky Way-sized halos (e.g., ) and it is possible that the these substructures may give rise to a gamma-ray signal due to annihilations of dark matter particles in their dense inner regions . This is based on the assumption that the dark matter is a weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) that annihilates into photons. Such a WIMP candidate is provided by supersymmetry (SUSY). In the most popular SUSY models, R-parity conservation guarantees that the lightest SUSY particle (LSP) is stable. Additionally, a large region of SUSY parameter space provides an LSP with the requisite relic abundance to serve as the CDM. In the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension to the standard model (MSSM), this particle is typically the lightest neutralino, or lightest mass eigenstate formed from the two CP-even Higgsinos, the $`W^3`$ino and the Bino.

In this Proceeding, we explore the idea that neutralino annihilations in Milky Way (MW) substructure may teach us about SUSY and/or structure formation. In particular, we estimate the probability that the gamma-ray signal from neutralino annihilations in substructure will be detected by the upcoming GLAST and VERITAS experiments, assuming the the majority of the CDM is in the form of neutralinos. Further, we investigate the type of information that may be gleaned from such a gamma-ray detection, or lack thereof. The results that we summarize here are based on the work of Ref. , to which we refer the reader for details.

## 2 Milky Way Substructure

To begin with, we describe the matter density profiles of halos using the result of Navarro, Frenk, and White (NFW) : $`\rho (r)=\rho _\mathrm{s}(r/r_s)^1(1+r/r_s)^2`$. This description of CDM halos is supported by the most recent numerical studies . To estimate the properties of substructure in the MW, we adopt the simple, semi-analytic model described in Ref. . We first generate Monte Carlo realizations of the merger history of a Milky Way-sized host halo using the extended Press-Schechter formalism . We then track the orbit of the subhalo in the host potential in order to determine whether or not the subhalo is destroyed by tidal forces and to estimate its final position. This model produces substructure radial distributions, mass functions, and velocity functions that are in approximate agreement with the results of high-resolution N-body simulations. This method allows us to account approximately for known correlations between the density structure and collapse histories of subhalos, to model substructure in a simple way that is inherently free of resolution effects, and to generate statistically significant results for a variety of input parameters by examining a large number of realizations of MW-like host halos.

## 3 The Gamma-ray Signal From Substructure

We calculate the number of gamma-ray photons originating from neutralino annihilations in the central regions of subhalos by assuming the best-case-scenario for detection. We choose to fix the annihilation cross section into all intermediate states that subsequently decay and/or hadronize to yield photons to $`\sigma |v|_\mathrm{h}=5\times 10^{26}\mathrm{cm}^3\mathrm{s}^1`$ and the annihilation cross section into the 2-photon and $`Z^0`$-photon final states to be $`\sigma |v|_{\gamma \gamma ,\gamma Z^0}=10^{28}\mathrm{cm}^3\mathrm{s}^1`$. These values are representative of the maximum achievable cross sections within the context of the constrained MSSM. We include the contributions from the cosmic ray electron , hadron , and the diffuse gamma-ray backgrounds  in our calculation of competing backgrounds. We adopt a liberal definition of a detection at a significance of $`S>3`$ and note that due to detector specifications, the significance is a function of threshold energy and neutralino mass. In accord with our strategy of optimizing the likelihood for detecting the gamma-ray signal from substructure, we concentrate on observations at a threshold energy and neutralino mass where the significance is maximized. Using the specifications of the atmospheric Čerenkov telescope (ACT) VERITAS111http://veritas.sao.arizona.edu, we find that the significance is maximized at a neutralino mass of $`\mathrm{M}_\chi 500\mathrm{GeV}`$, with a threshold energy of $`E_{\mathrm{th}}50\mathrm{GeV}`$. We take GLAST222http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov as an example of a space-based detector. In this case, the significance is maximized at a neutralino mass just above experimental bounds, $`\mathrm{M}_\chi 40\mathrm{GeV}`$, and at a threshold $`E_{\mathrm{th}}4\mathrm{GeV}`$.

## 4 Results

Our first results deal with the likelihood of a detection by the VERITAS instrument. Figure 1 shows results for the most optimistic case for VERITAS, namely, $`M_\chi =500`$ GeV observed above a threshold of $`E_{\mathrm{th}}=50`$ GeV. We have assumed a generous exposure time of $`t_{\mathrm{exp}}=250`$ hours. In Fig. 1, we show the cumulative number of visible subhalos in the entire sky as a function of an adopted lower mass cut-off, $`M_{\mathrm{min}}`$. In practice, there is likely a cut-off in CDM substructure at some low mass, well beyond the regime where N-body simulations can probe. Our results indicate that reducing $`M_{\mathrm{min}}`$, adding more low-mass subhalos, does not necessarily lead to a dramatic increase in the number of visible subhalos. Our model suggests that the number of detectable subhalos per mass interval scales as $`\text{d}N_{\mathrm{total}}/\text{d}\mathrm{ln}MM^{0.02}`$ at low mass. We find that with $`M_{\mathrm{min}}=10^4`$ M, we expect $`N_{\mathrm{total}}17`$ detectable subhalos, with fewer than $`N_{\mathrm{total}}25`$ detectable at $`95\%`$. This means that, on average, an ACT like VERITAS will have to survey $`1/20`$ of the sky to find one subhalo. Considering the small field of view of VERITAS and the fact that ACTs can, on average, observe $`6`$ hours per night, the prospects for detection must rely heavily on serendipity, even in the best of circumstances. Note that for neutralino masses higher or lower than $`M_\chi 500`$ GeV, there are fewer detectable subhalos.

If we are to learn about SUSY and/or structure formation from such experiments, we must investigate the sensitivity of these results to cosmological parameters. In Figure 1, we show the results of a calculation based on a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}`$ model with a nonstandard power spectrum. We show a model with a running power law index, $`\text{d}n/\text{d}\mathrm{ln}k=0.03`$, as suggested by the recent analysis of the WMAP team. In this case, the mean number of visible subhalos is reduced by more than an order of magnitude. This can be explained by examining the effects of reduced small-scale power on the properties of substructure populations  and shows that predictions for the gamma-ray signal from WIMP annihilations in substructure are sensitive the power spectrum on sub-galactic scales.

We now turn our attention to the space-based GLAST detector. In Figure 1, we show the number of subhalos that would be detectable after a year long exposure with GLAST. The most optimistic number of detectable subhalos is $`N_{\mathrm{total}}14`$, corresponding to roughly two subhalos per GLAST field of view; however, one must be cautious. Consider the energy scales involved in this calculation. The optimum neutralino mass for a GLAST detection is at the lower limit of current experimental searches, $`M_\chi 40`$ GeV. Increasing the neutralino mass results in fewer visible halos due to the limited effective area of GLAST and a rapidly decreasing subhalo luminosity.

A key ingredient in this calculation is the matter distribution in the very central regions of subhalos. In the absence of any other effect, subhalos may exhibit a central, constant density core established by the competition between the rate of neutralino annihilations and the rate of infalling material. Due to the significant uncertainty in the mass densities achieved in the central regions of dark matter halos, we investigate the effect of the size of the core region on subhalo detectability. In Figure 2, we show how our results vary as a function of core radius, parameterized by $`\beta r_\mathrm{c}/r_{\mathrm{c},0}`$, where $`r_{\mathrm{c},0}`$ is the core radius assigned by equating the annihilation rate inside the core to the rate of material infall (see ), and $`r_\mathrm{c}`$ is a new core radius defined as a multiple of $`r_{\mathrm{c},0}`$. Clearly, the precise choice of the core radius affects our results only weakly over many orders of magnitude. Notably, making $`\beta <1`$ does not have a significant effect on $`N_{\mathrm{total}}`$. Eventually, when $`\beta \stackrel{>}{}5\times 10^7`$, the number of detectable subhalos decreases significantly as the angles subtended by typical subhalo cores become comparable to the detector resolution.

In general the luminosity and therefore detectability of a subhalo is given by integrating the square of the mass density of the subhalo along the line-of-sight to the subhalo. It is of interest to test the robustness of our results by investigating the change in $`N_{\mathrm{total}}`$ when different mass density profiles are assumed. For this purpose, we show in Figure 2 the number of detectable objects when the Moore et al. profile  (with $`\rho (r)r^{3/2}`$ at small radii) is assumed. As expected, the number of detectable subhalos increases dramatically (a factor of $`10`$).

## 5 Conclusions

We investigated the possible detection of the MW substructure via the detection of gamma-rays from neutralino annihilations in otherwise dark subhalos. We chose the most optimistic SUSY parameters in order to maximize the probability of detection. We also employed a realistic, yet still optimistic from the standpoint of predicting observable signals from substructure, model for the population of subhalos in the MW. Our main results were:

$``$ If the neutralino is relatively light ($`\mathrm{M}_\chi \stackrel{<}{}100\mathrm{GeV}`$), then GLAST and VERITAS, working in concert, may be able to detect the gamma-ray signal. In this case, GLAST with its large field of view can be used to identify sources in the sky and direct subsequent VERITAS observations, which can search for line-emission at $`E=M_\chi `$, the smoking gun of neutralino annhilations. For example, if $`M_\chi 75`$ GeV, then, in the case of optimal coupling to photons, there will be $`1`$ detectable subhalo per GLAST field of view, on average. In this case, subsequent, directed observations with VERITAS should be able to confirm the line-emission feature after an exposure time of $`t_{\mathrm{exp}}450`$ hr.

$``$ For neutralino masses in the range $`100\mathrm{GeV}\stackrel{<}{}M_\chi \stackrel{<}{}500`$ GeV, detection requires an instrument with a large effective area, like VERITAS; however, such a detection must rely on serendipity due to the small number of potentially detectable objects and VERITAS’ comparably small field of view.

$``$ For $`\mathrm{M}_\chi \stackrel{>}{}500\mathrm{GeV}`$ it seems unlikely that gamma-rays from neutralino annihilations in dark subhalos will be detectable with VERITAS or GLAST.

What can be learned by the lack of such a detection? The lack of such a detection certainly will not lead to a bonanza of constraints on the MSSM or SUSY in general. Even after choosing the optimal MSSM parameters for detection, the likelihood of a detection is small for most of the viable range of $`M_\chi `$. Moreover, the number of detectable objects depends upon the uncertain shape of density profiles in the innermost regions of dark matter halos. These uncertainties can significantly influence our predictions. Moreover, their are additional uncertainties that are not associated with our lack of knowledge of density profiles and subhalo populations. The predictions of the expected gamma-ray flux are strongly dependent upon poorly-constrained cosmological parameters. We showed in Fig. 1 that adopting the best-fitting power spectrum from the WMAP group reduces the probability of detection by more than an order of magnitude relative to a model with a standard, scale-invariant primordial power spectrum.

Of course, a detection would yield a great deal of information. First and foremost, it would be evidence for neutralino (or some other WIMP that annihilates into photons) dark matter, it would suggest the presence of dark subhalos within the MW, it would indicate that such subhalos do achieve extremely high densities in their central regions, and it may also yield information about the survival rates and accretion histories of dark matter subhalos. Nevertheless, it will be difficult to “measure” SUSY from such a detection. As we demonstrated above, cosmological parameters play a role in predicting the gamma-ray signal and, as we show in Fig. 2, adopting a “blue tilted” power spectrum with $`n=1.1`$, COBE-normalized to $`\sigma _81.2`$, can boost the expected number of detectable subhalos by a factor of $`3`$. Such uncertainties must be marginalized over and a model similar to the one we presented here may be able to play an important role in this regard. Further, the flux from a particular subhalo depends upon subhalo distance and there is no obvious way to determine reliably the distance to an otherwise dark subhalo. Our model attempts to take this uncertainty into account by calculating “likely” realizations of the substructure population of the MW.