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# HI on large and small scales in starburst radio galaxies

## 1. Preamble: Starburst radio galaxies

What we will call starburst radio galaxies in this brief review are radio sources hosted by galaxies that spectroscopically show a young stellar population component in addition to the old component typical of elliptical galaxies. These objects are now known to represent a significant fraction of samples of radio galaxies (see below). Their relevance, and the motivation for our study, has to do with the more general and important question of what is the origin and evolution of radio galaxies.

From imaging studies of powerful radio galaxies (Heckman et al. 1986), there is clear morphological evidence that their host galaxies have undergone interactions and/or mergers. Because of this, it has been suggested that these phenomena are in fact responsible for the onset of the radio sources. In this scenario it is not too surprising that starformation is also triggered by the same merging event. The presence of a young stellar population has an other important implication: it could represent the origin of the UV excess found to be typical of radio galaxies compared to normal ellipticals (Lilly & Longair 1984) - as alternative to the anisotropic scattering model of the quasar radiation (see e.g. Tadhunter, Fosbury & di Serego Alighieri 1988).

Until not so long ago, only a handful of radio galaxies were known, from optical spectroscopy, to have a young stellar population in their nuclear regions (see e.g. 3C 321 Tadhunter et al. 1996, Hydra A Melnick et al. 1997). Given the importance of understanding how common this is, we have recently undergone systematic studies of the stellar population in radio galaxies (Tadhunter et al. 2002, Wills et al. 2002). Because in radio galaxies key absorption features (sensitive to the presence of young stellar population) are in most cases filled in by strong emission lines, the study of the stellar population is better done using the modelling of the entire continuum SED (see Tadhunter et al. 1996 for more details).

The results show that a young stellar population component is present in at least 30% of radio galaxies. The typical ages of the young stars is between 0.5 and 2 Gyr. Interestingly, the galaxies showing this component are also the most luminous in the far-IR, indicating a link between the optical starburst and the far-IR emission. This relatively large fraction is also consistent with the results obtained - using HST - from the UV morphology of powerful 3CR radio galaxies, where clear regions of starformation are often observed (Allen et al. 2003). These results support the idea of a merger origin for radio galaxies and suggest that, at least some of them, had an (ultra-) luminous far-IR galaxy as progenitor (Tadhunter et al. 2002, Wills et al. 2002). The results also indicate that the activity starts late after the merger event. The existence of galaxies where this young stellar component is not observed indicates that, if they are merger related, they are observed at a later stage and/or they originate from other type of mergers. In summary, the study of starburst radio galaxies provides important clues on the origin and evolution of radio galaxies.

As we will see below, the study of the neutral hydrogen in starburst radio galaxies gives complementary information to that provided by the optical stellar population. Neutral hydrogen has the main advantage that it traces the large-scale distribution of the gas as well as the ISM conditions in the nuclear regions near the AGN. Preliminary results show that in starburst radio galaxies the presence of H I \- mainly, but not only, detected in absorption against the central regions - is more common compared to other radio galaxies (Morganti et al. 2001) and this has motivated the studies that will be reviewed here.

## 2. Large-scale structures of neutral hydrogen

H I detected at large radii (tens of kpc) is a long-lived signature of a merger/interaction and therefore provides a key diagnostic of how a galaxy formed. Large-scale H I structures have been found in a growing number of nearby “normal” (i.e. radio quiet) early-type galaxies (see e.g. Oosterloo et al. 2002) and in many cases the likely origin is a major-merger event. What is (if any) the relation between these gas-rich systems and radio galaxies? If radio galaxies - and in particular starburst radio galaxies - indeed originate from (major) mergers, and the radio activity is just a short phase in the evolution of the host galaxy, fossil large-scale H I structures similar to those detected in “normal” early-type might be expected.

A systematic study of the occurrence of large H I structures in radio galaxies, and starburst radio galaxies (to be compared with the results for normal galaxies of similar type) is now in progress (Emonts et al. in prep). The results may also shed some light on the importance of the initial conditions and/or environment for the evolution of the galaxy. For example, it has been claimed that the capability of a merger to bring gas into the nuclear (pc) regions - and therefore produce an AGN - depends on the structure (e.g. the presence of a bulge) of the progenitor (Mihos & Hernquist 1994).

Although we do not have yet complete statistics, here we present the results for two interesting cases of starburst radio galaxies that we have recently studied. First, however, lets summarise briefly what has been found so far for ”normal” early-type galaxies.

### 2.1. Large-scale H Iin “normal” early-type galaxies: a brief summary

A recent systematic study of H I in all southern RC3 early-type galaxies detected by the HIPASS survey (see Oosterloo et al. 2003 for details), has brought to some surprising and interesting results. Among the detected galaxies (between 6 and 14 % depending on the optical classification) a wide range of H I morphologies is found, but a surprisingly large fraction shows huge structures (many tens of kpc and up to 200 kpc) in the form of regularly rotating disks containing a large amount of H I ($`>10^9`$ $`M_{}`$). Some examples are shown in Fig. 2. Similar structures previously observed in other early-type galaxies (Morganti et al. 1997, Oosterloo et al. 2002) were explained as originating from a major-merger event involving at least one gas-rich disk galaxy. Given that the H I appears often quite settled, the gas must have already completed at least few orbits ($`10^9`$ yr) and the merger must be relatively old. Actually, for the huge H I structures shown in Fig. 2, a few orbits in the outer regions of the disk already imply extremely long timescales (several times $`10^9`$ yr), that may not be always easy to reconcile with the merger hypothesis. From the observed parameters a “first-order” evolution sequence can be build to connect these objects (e.g. NGC 5266 Morganti et al. 1997) with well-known major mergers that are observed in an initial phase (e.g. NGC 7252 or the Antennae; Hibbard & van Gorkom 1996, Hibbard et al. 2001 respectively).

### 2.2. Starburst radio galaxies and large scale H I

There are only an handful of very nearby radio galaxies where large-scale H I structures have been detected so far: for example PKS B1718-649 (Véron-Cetty et al. 1995), Centaurus A (Schiminovich et al. 1994 and refs therein) and, at lower radio power, NGC 4278 (Raimond et al. 1981) and NGC 1052 (van Gorkom et al. 1986). In addition to these, Coma A was the first case where in a powerful radio galaxy a large H I structure was detected in absorption (Morganti et al. 2002a). It is interesting that in our study of H I in starburst radio galaxies we have found already two more interesting cases of extended H I \- one detected in emission and one in absorption.

In the nearby ($`z=0.041`$) starburst radio galaxy B2 0648+27, H I is detected - using the WSRT - both in emission and in absorption (Morganti et al. 2003a). In emission, we detect a large amount of H I ($`M_{\mathrm{HI}}=1.110^{10}`$ $`M_{}`$) distributed in a very extended disk, or ring-like structure, of about 160 kpc in size, as shown in Fig. 3. We also detect H I absorption against the central radio continuum component. The characteristics of the detected H I, and the similarities with some of the “normal” elliptical mentioned above, are explained as the result of a major merger. The structure of the H I and the asymmetric density distribution, however, suggest that the H I is not yet in a completely settled configuration. We can derive a rough indication of the age of the merger of at least few times $`10^8`$ yr and it may represent a merger in an intermediate stage (Morganti et al. 2003a): between major mergers in their early phase - like the Antennae - and galaxies with more settled H I structures like, e.g., NGC 5266 (Morganti et al. 1997). This is illustrated in Fig. 4. Interestingly, the radio source shows all the characteristics of being much younger (compact and steep spectrum, see O’Dea 1998 for a review), $`<<10^7`$ yrs old. This supports the idea that the radio source appears late after the merger but also that, under favourable conditions, the H I gas can stay around for very long time. Indeed, it is interesting to note that in B2 0648+27, as in the other systems mentioned above, the column density of the H I detected in emission is relatively low (only $`0.8`$ $`M_{}`$pc-2) as in the other gas-rich elliptical galaxies (see e.g. Oosterloo et al. 2002). Therefore, no significant star formation is, at present, occurring in the regions coincident with the H I. The galaxy can, therefore, remain gas rich for a very long period.

A different case appears to be 3C 433. Extended H I in absorption has been observed against the southern radio lobe of this starburst radio galaxy. The preliminary analysis of the data (Fig. 5) shows that $`5\times 10^8`$ $`M_{}`$ of (extended) H I is detected in absorption at about 60 kpc from the radio core. The gas shows a velocity gradient, but at the moment it is not clear whether the detected H I is part of an extended gas disk/tail or whether it corresponds to a region of interaction between the ISM and the radio lobe. Given the smaller amount of H I detected in this object, the origin of this galaxy might be different from the major-merger suggested for B2 0648+27. It is interesting to note that 3C 433 is part of a dumbbell system (Parma et al. 1991) and has a relatively young stellar population (0.1 Gyr, Wills et al. 2002).

At the moment information on large-scale H I is limited to only two objects, but our aim is to extend this study to many more radio galaxies and to be able to identify possible trends.

## 3. HI in the nuclear regions of starburst radio galaxies

H I at small radii ($``$ kpc, i.e. nuclear scales) has been detected in absorption against the strong radio continuum in many radio galaxies in a number of studies (e.g. Vermeulen et al. 2003, Morganti et al. 2001 and refs therein for previous studies). This neutral hydrogen has been often associated with gas distributed in a nuclear disk or torus. However, recent observations indicate that such an interpretation cannot always be applied and the situation can be much more complex (Morganti 2002b and refs therein).

In this respect, our initial results on H I in the central region of starburst radio galaxies are interesting. In particular, the combined study of the ionized and the neutral gas has revealed to be crucial for the understanding of the physical conditions of the ISM in the central regions of radio galaxies. A clear example is the southern, starburst radio galaxy PKS 1549-79. In this object, two redshift systems of ionized gas were found (Tadhunter et al. 2001). The H I absorption has the same redshift as the low ionisation gas, while the high ionisation gas appears blueshifted respect to it. The H I absorption is associated with a cocoon of material surrounding the tiny ($`200`$ pc in size) radio source. The material is believed to be left over from the event that triggered the radio source. The highly ionized material is instead associated with a nuclear outflows.

### 3.1. Fast H I outflows

Even more intriguing is the discovery, in at least two starburst radio galaxies, that the presence of fast outflows is associated not only with ionized gas but also with neutral gas. This finding gives new and important insights on the physical conditions of the gaseous medium around an AGN.

A good example is the young, starburst radio galaxy, 4C 12.50. The fast H I outflow was detected using the broad band (20 MHz) system now available at the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). Due to the much stronger radio continuum of this radio galaxy, detection of gas at very low optical depth is possible. 4C 12.50 is a particularly interesting object as it is a prime candidate for the link between ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs, Sanders & Mirabel 1996) and radio galaxies (Evans et al. 1999). The radio source is confined to a region $`<0.1`$ arcsec ($`240`$ pc) and has all the characteristics of young radio sources ($`<<10^7`$ yr). The ISM of this radio galaxy is extremely rich: it is the most far-IR bright radio galaxy and has a high molecular gas mass (Evans et al. 1999). A “stratified” fast outflow of the highly ionized gas, that is quite similar to that detected in PKS 1549$``$79, has been detected by Holt et al. (2003). In Fig. 6a is presented the H I absorption detected with the WSRT. The absorption appears clearly complex and extremely broad. The full range of velocities covered by the H I absorption is $`2000`$ km s-1, the broadest detected so far in H I. The peak optical depth of the broad component is only $`\tau 0.002`$ and the column density of the full system of shallow H I absorption (assuming a covering factor is 1) is $`1.7\times 10^{20}T_{\mathrm{spin}}/100K`$ cm-2.

A similar situation (fast outflow of both ionized and neutral gas) is also seen in the starburst radio galaxy 3C 293 that, although it is not classified as young, is nevertheless believed to have recently experienced a restarting radio activity (see also Emonts et al. these Proceedings). Again using the new broad band (20 MHz) system available at the WSRT, broad, mainly blueshifted, H I absorption has been detected (see Morganti et al. 2003b and Emonts et al. these proceedings for details). The absorption profile is shown in Fig. 6b. The broad H I absorption has a full-width at zero intensity (FWZI) of $`1400`$ km s-1. It is very shallow, with a typical optical depth of only $`0.0015`$, and, assuming a covering factor is 1, a column density of the H I is $`2\times 10^{20}T_{\mathrm{spin}}/100`$ K cm-2. As in the case of 4C 12.50, this gives a lower limit to the true column density as the $`T_{\mathrm{spin}}`$ associated with such a fast outflow can be as large as a few 1000 K (instead of 100 K which is more typical of the cold, quiescent H I in galaxy disks).

These two galaxies are the first examples of radio galaxies where a fast H I outflow is observed, but more candidates exist among starburst radio galaxies. This result shows that, despite the extremely energetic phenomena occurring near an AGN - including the powerful radio jet - some of the outflowing gas remains, or becomes again, neutral.

### 3.2. What produces the H I outflows?

Outflows of ionized gas appear to be a relatively common characteristic in AGN and starburst galaxies (as also illustrated by a number of talks in this conference). Fast gas outflows are now detected (in optical, UV and X-ray observations) in a wide range of AGNs, from Seyfert galaxies to quasars (see e.g. Crenshaw et al. 2001; Turnshek 1986; Krongold et al. 2003 and refs therein). These outflows can be produced by different and highly energetic phenomena, such as interaction of the radio plasma with the ISM as well as nuclear and/or starburst winds. It is interesting to see that H I outflows have been also detected in H I, but so far are only found in starburst radio galaxies. This might be due to the presence of a particularly rich ISM that characterises radio galaxies in this stage of their evolution, with the rich ISM possibly resulting from a recent merger.

The central question is how neutral gas can be associated with such fast outflows. A possible model is that the radio plasma jet hits a (molecular) cloud in the ISM. As a consequence of this interaction, the kinematics of the gas is disturbed by the shock and perhaps part of the gas is also ionized by it. Once the shock has passed, part of the gas may have the chance to recombine and become neutral, while it is moving at high velocities (see Fig. 7). In the model proposed by Mellema et al. (2002), as the shock runs over a cloud, a compression phase starts because the cloud gets embedded in an overpressured cocoon. The shock waves start travelling into the cloud and the cloud fragments with the fragments moving at high velocities. The cooling times for the dense fragments are very short (few times $`10^2`$ years) compared to the lifetime of the radio source and that the excess of energy is quickly radiated away. This results in the formation of dense, cool and fragmented structures at high velocities.

As indirect support to this hypothesis, it is worth mentioning that in the only other case of broad blueshifted H I absorption (of 700 km s-1 FWZI) studied in detail so far, the Seyfert galaxy IC 5063 (Oosterloo et al. 2000), the H I absorption is coincident with the brighter radio lobe where also the most kinematically disturbed ionized gas is observed. This supports the idea of jet/cloud interaction as most likely mechanism in this Seyfert galaxy. Another possible example is the Seyfert galaxy Mrk 1 (Omar et al. 2002). However, it is not yet clear whether with the mechanism proposed above it is really possible to accelerate the clouds to the high velocities observed. Therefore, other possibilities should be considered:

i) Starburst: Given the presence of a young stellar population in these galaxies, a starburst wind capable to accelerate the gas should be considered to explain the H I outflow. This mechanism is indeed known to produce fast outflow at least of ionized gas (see e.g. Heckman, Armus & Miley 1990, and Veilleux these proceedings). However, in the case of starburst radio galaxies the age of the young stellar population component has been estimated between 0.4 and 2.5 Gyr. Thus, the neutral outflow would have to be a “fossil” starburst-driven wind from the strong starburst that may have occurred of the order of 1 Gyr ago. Given this condition, it is not clear whether the starburst-driven outflow would survive to the present day and, more important, whether it would be still seen against the central regions.

ii) Radiation pressure from the AGN: Dopita et al. (2002) have explored the possibility that the narrow-line regions in active galaxies are actually dusty and that the radiation pressure acting over the dust could produce the extreme kinematics observed in the ionized gas. In their model they consider a dusty (radiation pressure-dominated) region surrounding a (photoevaporating) molecular cloud. In this scenario, the dust is estimated to survive as the average gas temperature does not exceed $`10^4`$ – unlike the case of fast shocks – and it will not destroy the grains in the short time during the passage through the high-emissivity region. While for 4C 12.50 the strong AGN suggest that this mechanism could be considered as an option, in 3C 293, the very low ionisation and faint emission lines suggest that the UV radiation from the AGN is not that strong and therefore unlikely to provide the necessary pressure to produce the outflow.

iii) A further possibility is that the H I outflow is associated to the adiabatically expanded broad emission line clouds (BELCs) as suggested by Elvis et al. (2002). Following their work, if the broad emission line region is outflowing, then the BELCs will expand and cool adiabatically, and will reach 1000 K at $``$ few pc. They will then form dust and also neutral hydrogen but in this case the H I outflow has to be located very close to the nucleus.

In summary, in order to identify which mechanism is the more likely to accelerate the gas, the exact location of the broad H I absorption is needed and VLBI follow-up observations are now in progress.

## 4. Final remarks

In this review we have shown that the group of starburst radio galaxies is a particularly interesting one in order to understand the origin and evolution of radio galaxies. The study of neutral hydrogen in this group of objects is also giving us important clues about these open questions. H I appears to be relatively common in starburst radio galaxies (at least compared to other radio galaxies). We interpret this as an indication that large amount of gas is still around from the merger that triggers the radio source.

We have presented two cases in which extended H I has been detected. The case of B2 0648+27 represents one of the largest H I disks known ($`160`$ kpc) around a radio galaxy with more than $`10^{10}`$$`M_{}`$ of H I. It shows that at least some radio galaxies are likely the results of major mergers and that the AGN activity appears late after the merger.

Even more surprising is the finding of fast H I outflows in at least two starburst radio galaxies. This result shows that, despite the extremely energetic phenomena occurring near an AGN - including the powerful radio jet - some of the outflowing gas remains, or becomes again, neutral. This can give new and important insights on the physical conditions of the gaseous medium around an AGN.

Following these results, a tantalising connection can be made with the high-$`z`$ radio galaxies. As in the starburst radio galaxies presented here, there is clear evidence for the presence of large amounts of cold gas and, in general, for the presence of a rich gaseous environment in radio galaxies at high redshift (see e.g. van Breugel 2000 for a review). Particularly relevant is the finding (Villar-Martiń et al. 2002) of a low surface brightness Ly$`\alpha `$ halo with quiescent kinematics in the case of the high-$`z`$ radio galaxy USS 0828+193. One possible way suggested to explain this structure is that the low surface brightness Ly$`\alpha `$ halo is the progenitor of the H I discs as found in the case of B2 0648+27 and others discussed above. If this is the case, the wealth of details that we can learn at low-$`z`$ may be crucial for understanding the structures at high-$`z`$. Moreover, strong interactions between the radio plasma and the medium are expected to be very important in high-$`z`$ objects. Outflow phenomena have been detected in many high-redshift radio galaxies. In many cases, asymmetric Ly$`\alpha `$ profiles suggest the presence of blueshifted absorbing gas (likely neutral hydrogen; see van Ojik et al. 1997, de Breuck et al. 1999). Additionally, complex gas kinematics is also observed in a large fraction of high-$`z`$ radio galaxies (van Ojik et al. 1997). Thus, similar processes as observed in 4C 12.50 and 3C 293 are likely to be even more common in these high-$`z`$ systems. Understanding the physics of fast gas outflows and the conditions for which part of the outflowing gas is neutral, can be also relevant for understanding high-$`z`$ objects.

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# The equation of state for two flavor QCD at finite density Presented by S. Ejiri. This work is supported by BMBF under grant No.06BI102, DFG under grant FOR 339/2-1 and PPARC grant PPA/a/s/1999/00026.

## 1 Introduction

In the last few years, remarkable progress has been made in the theoretical study of QCD thermodynamics with small but non-zero quark chemical potential $`\mu _q`$. In particular, numerical studies of the phase structure in the $`(T,\mu _q)`$ plane  provide important information for heavy-ion collision experiments. One of the most interesting investigations is finding the critical endpoint, at which the crossover phase transition line becomes first order. It might be possible to detect the endpoint experimentally via event-by-event fluctuations, since the number density fluctuation should be large around the endpoint . The fluctuation should be in proportion to the susceptibility of the quark number density, hence the study of the equation state at non-zero baryon number density is very important .

The quark number susceptibility is given by the second derivative of pressure with respect to $`\mu _q`$. Several studies of the quark number susceptibility have been performed at $`\mu _q=0`$ , and measurements of pressure and energy density at $`\mu _q0`$ were done by  using the reweighting method, which allow us to investigate thermodynamic properties at $`\mu _q0`$. This approach, however, does not work for large $`\mu _q`$ and large lattice size due to the sign problem. Here, we adopt the following strategy. We compute the derivatives of thermodynamic quantities such as pressure, quark number susceptibility etc., with respect to $`\mu _q`$ at $`\mu _q=0`$, and determine the Taylor expansion coefficients in $`\mu _q`$ , in which the sign problem does not arise.

We discussed last year the relation between the line of constant pressure (energy density) and the phase transition line calculating the second derivative of pressure . In this study , we proceed to fourth order derivatives. Then, we can for the first time investigate the $`\mu _q`$-dependence of the quark number susceptibility near $`\mu _q=0`$. (Because the pressure is an even function of $`\mu _q`$, the $`\mu _q^2`$-term is leading and $`\mu _q^4`$-term is the next to leading, and in fact only these two terms are non-zero in the high temperature limit.) By estimating the change of the susceptibility, we discuss the possibility of the existence of the critical end point in the phase diagram of $`T`$ and $`\mu _q`$.

## 2 Taylor expansion in $`\mu _q`$

Pressure is given in terms of the grand partition function $`𝒵(T,V,\mu _q)`$ by $`p/T^4=(1/VT^3)\mathrm{ln}𝒵.`$ However, the direct calculation of $`\mathrm{ln}𝒵`$ is difficult, hence most of the work done at $`\mu _q=0`$ for the calculation of pressure is done by using the integral method , where the first derivative of pressure is computed by simulations, and the pressure is obtained by integration along a suitable integral path. For $`\mu _q0`$, direct Monte Carlo simulation is not applicable; in this case we proceed by computing higher order derivatives of pressure with respect to $`\mu _q/T`$ at $`\mu _q=0`$, and then estimate $`p(\mu _q)`$ using a Taylor expansion,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{p}{T^4}}|_{T,\mu _q}={\displaystyle \frac{p}{T^4}}|_{T,0}+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}c_n(T)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mu _q}{T}}\right)^n,`$ (1)
where $`c_n=(1/n!)^n(p/T^4)/(\mu _q/T)^n|_{\mu _q=0}`$. These derivatives can be computed by the random noise method, which saves CPU time, and also it can be proved that the odd terms are exactly zero. Furthermore, we do not need simulations at $`(T,\mu _q)=(0,0)`$ for subtraction term of $`p`$ to normalize the value of $`p`$, since the derivatives of $`p|_{T=0,\mu _q=0}`$ with respect to $`\mu _q`$ are, of course, zero. This also reduces CPU time.

The quark number density $`n_q`$ and quark number susceptibility $`\chi _q`$ are obtained by the derivatives of pressure;

$`{\displaystyle \frac{n_q}{T^3}}={\displaystyle \frac{(p/T^4)}{(\mu _q/T)}},{\displaystyle \frac{\chi _q}{T^2}}={\displaystyle \frac{^2(p/T^4)}{(\mu _q/T)^2}}.`$ (2)
We compute the pressure up to $`\mu _q^4`$-term using 2 flavors of p4-improved staggered fermions  at $`ma=0.1`$ on a $`16^3\times 4`$ lattice. Then the quark number density and quark number susceptibility are obtained up to $`O(\mu _q^3)`$ and $`O(\mu _q^2)`$, respectively. The details of the simulations are given in . In Fig. 1, we plot the data for $`c_2`$ (upper) and $`c_4`$ (lower). Both of them are very small at low temperature and approach the Stefan-Boltzmann (SB) limit in the high temperature limit, as we expected. The remarkable point is a strong peak of $`c_4`$ around $`T_c`$.

We can understand this peak by the following two issues. One is a prediction from the hadron resonance gas model , which is an effective model of the free hadron gas in the low temperature phase. The model study predicts $`c_4/c_2=0.75`$ and our results are consistent with this prediction for $`T<T_c`$; in fact, as $`T`$ increases $`c_4/c_2`$ remains constant until $`TT_c`$, whereupon it approaches the SB limit.

The other point is from a discussion of the convergence radius of the Taylor expansion. We expect that the crossover transition at $`\mu _q=0`$ changes to first order transition at a point $`\mu _q/T_cO(1)`$ . Then, the analysis by the Taylor expansion must break down in that regime, i.e. the convergence radius may be smaller than the critical endpoint. We define estimates for the convergence radius by $`\rho _n\sqrt{|c_n/c_{n+2}|}`$. We compute $`\rho _0`$ and $`\rho _2`$ from $`p/T^4(0)`$, $`c_2`$ and $`c_4`$. It is found that both $`\rho _0`$ and $`\rho _2`$ are quite large at high temperature as expected from SB limit, $`\rho _2^{SB}2.01,\rho _4^{SB}4.44.`$ On the other hand, around $`T_c`$, these are $`O(1)`$, since $`c_2`$ and $`c_4`$ are of the same order, so that our results around $`T_c`$ suggest a singular point in the neighborhood of $`\mu _q/T_c=1`$.

## 3 Equation of state at $`\mu _q0`$

Next, we calculate pressure and quark number susceptibility in a range of $`0\mu _q/T1`$ which is within the radius of convergence discussed above, using the data of $`c_2`$ and $`c_4`$; $`\mathrm{\Delta }(p/T^4)=p(T,\mu _q)/T^4p(T,0)/T^4=c_2(\mu _q/T)^2+c_4(\mu _q/T)^4+O(\mu _q^6)`$, and $`\chi _q/T^2=2c_2+12c_4(\mu _q/T)^2+O(\mu _q^4)`$.

We draw $`\mathrm{\Delta }(p/T^4)`$ for each fixed $`\mu _q/T`$ in Fig. 2 and find that the difference from $`p|_{\mu _q=0}`$ is very small in the interesting regime for heavy-ion collisions, $`\mu _q/T0.1`$ (RHIC) and $`\mu _q/T0.5`$ (SPS), in comparison with the value at $`\mu _q=0`$, e.g. SB value for 2 flavor QCD at $`\mu _q=0`$: $`p^{SB}/T^44.06`$. The finite density effect of pressure at $`\mu _q/T=0.1`$ is only $`1\%`$. This conclusion is consistent with that inferred from just the $`O(\mu _q^2)`$ term . Also, the result is qualitatively consistent with that of  obtained by the reweighting method.

Figure 3 is the result of $`\chi _q/T^2`$ for fixed $`\mu _q/T`$. We find a pronounced peak for $`m_q/T>0.5`$, whereas $`\chi _q`$ does not have a peak for $`\mu _q=0`$. This suggests the presence of a critical endpoint in the $`(T,\mu _q)`$ plane.

This discussion can be easily extended to the charge fluctuation $`\chi _C`$. The spike of $`\chi _C`$ at $`T_c`$ is weaker than that of $`\chi _q`$, which means the increase of the charge fluctuation is smaller than that of the number fluctuation as $`\mu _q`$ increases .


text:
# A lower bound for periods of matrices

## 1. Introduction

Let $`A`$ be a $`d\times d`$ nonsingular integer matrix, and $`N1`$ an integer. The order, or period, of $`A`$ modulo $`N`$ is defined as the least integer $`k1`$ such that $`A^k=ImodN`$, where $`I`$ denotes the identity matrix. If $`A`$ is not invertible modulo $`N`$ then we set $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)=\mathrm{}`$ . In this note we study the minimal growth of $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)`$ as $`N\mathrm{}`$.

If $`A`$ is of finite order (globally), that is $`A^r=I`$ for some $`r1`$, then clearly $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)r`$ is bounded. If $`A`$ is of infinite order, then $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)\mathrm{}`$ as $`N\mathrm{}`$. Moreover, in this case it is easy to see that $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)`$ grows at least logarithmically with $`N`$, in fact if no eigenvalue of $`A`$ is a root of unity then:

$$\mathrm{ord}(A,N)\frac{d}{\eta _A}\mathrm{log}N+O(1)$$

where $`\eta _A:=_{|\lambda _j|>1}\mathrm{log}|\lambda _j|`$, the sum over all eigenvalues $`\{\lambda _j\}`$ of $`A`$ which lie outside the unit circle ($`\eta _A`$ is the entropy of the endomorphism of the torus $`^d/^d`$ induced by $`A`$, or the logarithmic Mahler measure of the characteristic polynomial of $`A`$, and the condition that no eigenvalue of $`A`$ is a root of unity is equivalent to ergodicity of the toral endomorphism).

There are cases when the growth of $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)`$ is indeed no faster than logarithmic. For instance if we take $`d=1`$, and $`A=(a)`$ where $`a>1`$ is an integer, and $`N_k=a^k1`$ then

$$\mathrm{ord}(A,N_k)=k\frac{\mathrm{log}N_k}{\mathrm{log}a}$$

and so

(1)
$$lim\; inf\frac{\mathrm{ord}(A,N)}{\mathrm{log}N}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{log}a}<\mathrm{}$$

in this case.

The same behaviour occurs in the case of $`2\times 2`$ unimodular matrices $`A\mathrm{SL}_2()`$ which are hyperbolic, that is $`A`$ has a pair of distinct real eigenvalues $`\lambda >1>\lambda ^1`$. Then

(2)
$$lim\; inf\frac{\mathrm{ord}(A,N)}{\mathrm{log}N}=\frac{2}{\mathrm{log}\lambda }=\frac{2}{\eta _A}$$

See e.g. \[KR2\] 111 a special case of this appeared as a problem in the 54-th W.L. Putnam Mathematical Competition, 1994, see \[An, pages 82, 242\])..

These cases turn out to be subsumed by the following definition: We say that $`A`$ is exceptional if it is of finite order or if it is diagonalizable and a power $`A^r`$ of $`A`$ satisfies one of the following:

1. The eigenvalues of $`A^r`$ are all a power of a single rational integer $`a>1`$;
2. The eigenvalues of $`A^r`$ are all a power of a single unit $`\lambda \pm 1`$ of a real quadratic field.

We will see that if $`A`$ is exceptional, then there is some $`c>0`$ and arbitrarily large integers $`N`$ for which $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)<c\mathrm{log}N`$.

Our main finding in this note is

###### Theorem 1.

If $`A\mathrm{Mat}_d()`$ is not exceptional then

$$\frac{\mathrm{ord}(A,N)}{\mathrm{log}N}\mathrm{}$$

as $`N\mathrm{}`$.

A special case is that of diagonal matrices, e.g. $`A=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& 0\\ 0& b\end{array}\right)`$. In that case Theorem 1 says that $`\mathrm{ord}(a,b;N)/\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{}`$ if $`a,b`$ are multiplicatively independent, in contrast with (1).

Theorem 1 is in fact equivalent to a subexponential bound on the greatest common divisor $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)`$ of the matrix entries of $`A^nI`$. We shall derive it from

###### Theorem 2.

If $`A\mathrm{Mat}_d()`$ is not exceptional then for all $`ϵ>0`$

$$\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)<\mathrm{exp}(ϵn)$$

if $`n`$ is sufficiently large.

In the special case of a diagonal matrix such as $`A=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& 0\\ 0& b\end{array}\right)`$, we have $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)=\mathrm{gcd}(a^n1,b^n1)`$. In \[BCZ\] it is shown that if $`a,b`$ are multiplicatively independent then for all $`ϵ>0`$,

(3)
$$\mathrm{gcd}(a^n1,b^n1)<\mathrm{exp}(ϵn)$$

for $`n`$ sufficiently large, giving Theorem 2 in that case. To prove Theorem 2 in general, we will use a version of (3) for $`S`$-units in a general number field \[CZ\] .

We note that Theorem 2 establishes upper bounds on $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)`$. As for lower bounds, it is conjectured in \[AR\] that if $`A`$ has a pair of multiplicatively independent eigenvalues then $`lim\; inf\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)<\mathrm{}`$.

Motivation: A natural object of study for number theorists, the periods of toral automorphisms were also investigated by a number of physicists and mathematicians interested in classical and quantum dynamics, see e.g. \[HB, K, DF\]. One reason for our own interest also lies in the quantum dynamics of toral automorphisms: It has recently been shown that any ergodic automorphism $`A\mathrm{SL}_2()`$ of the $`2`$-torus admits “quantum limits” different from Lebesgue measure \[FNB\], if one does not take into account the hidden symmetries (“Hecke operators”) found in \[KR1\]. The key behind the constructions of these measures is the existence of values of $`N`$ satisfying (2), that is $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)2\mathrm{log}N/\eta _A`$. A higher-dimensional version of this would involve taking ergodic symplectic automorphisms $`A\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}()`$ of the $`2g`$-dimensional torus. Theorem 1 gives one obstruction to extending the construction of \[FNB\] to the higher-dimensional case.

## 2. Proof of Theorem 2

Assume that for a certain positive $`ϵ`$ and all integers $`n`$ in a certain infinite sequence $`𝒩`$ we have

(4)
$$\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)>\mathrm{exp}(ϵn).$$

We shall prove that $`A`$ is “exceptional”, in the sense of the above definition.

We let $`k\overline{}`$ be the splitting field for the characteristic polynomial of $`A`$, so we may put $`A`$ in Jordan form over $`k`$, namely, we may write

$$A=PBP^1,$$

where $`P`$ is an invertible $`d\times d`$ matrix over $`k`$ and $`B`$ is in Jordan canonical form.

For later reference we introduce a little notation related to the field $`k`$.

We let $`M`$ (resp. $`M_0`$) denote the set of (resp. finite) places of $`k`$. We shall normalize all the absolute values with respect to $`k`$, i.e. in such a way that the product formula $`_{\mu M}|x|_\mu =1`$ holds for $`xk^{}`$, and the absolute logarithmic Weil height reads $`h(x)=_\mu \mathrm{log}\mathrm{max}\{1,|x|_\mu \}`$. We also let $`S`$ be a finite set of places of $`k`$ including the archimedean ones and we denote by $`𝒪_S^{}`$ the group of $`S`$-units in $`k^{}`$, namely those elements $`xk`$ such that $`|x|_\mu =1`$ for all $`\mu S`$.

Note that $`B^nI=P^1(A^nI)P`$; since the entries of $`P`$ and its inverse are fixed independently of $`n`$, hence have bounded denominators as $`n`$ varies, this formula shows that the entries of $`B^nI`$ have a “big” g.c.d., in the sense of ideals of $`k`$, for $`n𝒩`$. Since the entries of $`B^nI`$ are algebraic integers, not necessarily rational, to express their g.c.d. we shall use the formula-definition

$$\mathrm{log}\mathrm{gcd}(B^nI):=\underset{\mu M_0}{}\mathrm{log}^{}\underset{ij}{\mathrm{max}}|(B^nI)_{ij}|_\mu ,$$

where $`\mathrm{log}^{}(x):=\mathrm{min}(0,\mathrm{log}x)`$; this is a nonincreasing nonnegative function of $`x>0`$.

Note that this definition agrees with the usual notion in case $`B`$ has rational integer entries. From (4) and the above formula $`B^nI=P^1(A^nI)P`$ we immediately deduce that

(5)
$$\underset{\mu M_0}{}\mathrm{log}^{}\underset{ij}{\mathrm{max}}|(B^nI)_{ij}|_\mu >\frac{ϵ}{2}n,\text{for large }n𝒩.$$

In fact, each entry of $`B^nI`$ is a linear combination of entries of $`A^nI`$ with coefficients having bounded denominators, whence $`|(B^nI)_{ij}|_\mu c_\mu \mathrm{max}_{rs}|(A^nI)_{rs}|_\mu `$, where $`c_\mu `$ are positive numbers independent of $`n`$ such that $`c_\mu =1`$ for all but finitely many $`\mu M`$. This proves (5).

We start by showing that $`B`$ must be necessarily diagonal. In fact, if not some block of $`B`$ would contain on the diagonal a $`2\times 2`$ matrix of the form

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}\lambda & 1\\ 0& \lambda \end{array}\right)$$

where $`\lambda `$ is an (algebraic integer) eigenvalue of $`A`$. Hence $`B^nI`$ would contain among its entries the numbers $`\lambda ^n1`$ and $`\lambda ^{n1}n`$. Then, for every $`\mu M_0`$, we would have

$$\underset{ij}{\mathrm{max}}|(B^nI)_{ij}|_\mu \mathrm{max}(|\lambda ^n1|_\mu ,|\lambda ^{n1}n|_\mu )|n|_\mu ,$$

whence $`\mathrm{log}^{}\mathrm{max}_{ij}|(B^nI)_{ij}|_\mu \mathrm{log}^{}|n|_\mu =\mathrm{log}|n|_\mu `$. In conclusion,

$$\underset{\mu M_0}{}\mathrm{log}^{}\underset{ij}{\mathrm{max}}|(B^nI)_{ij}|_\mu \underset{\mu M_0}{}\mathrm{log}|n|_\mu =\mathrm{log}n$$

the last equality holding because of the product formula. However this contradicts (5) for all large $`n𝒩`$ and this contradiction proves that $`B`$ is diagonal.

Therefore from now on we assume that $`B`$ is a diagonal matrix formed with the eigenvalues $`\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _d`$ of $`A`$, each counted with the suitable multiplicity.

Another case now occurs when there exist two multiplicatively independent eigenvalues, denoted $`\alpha ,\beta `$. Now, from (5) we get, for large $`n𝒩`$,

(6)
$$\underset{\mu M_0}{}\mathrm{log}^{}\mathrm{max}(|\alpha ^n1|_\mu ,|\beta ^n1|_\mu )\underset{\mu M_0}{}\mathrm{log}^{}\underset{ij}{\mathrm{max}}|(B^nI)_{ij}|_\mu >\frac{ϵ}{2}n.$$

We are then in position to apply (after a little change of notation) the following fact from \[CZ\], stated as Proposition 2 therein:

###### Proposition 3 (Proposition 2 of \[CZ\]).

Let $`\delta >0`$. All but finitely many solutions $`(u,v)(𝒪_S^{})^2`$ to the inequality

$$\underset{\mu M_0}{}\mathrm{log}^{}\mathrm{max}\{|u1|_\mu ,|v1|_\mu \}>\delta \mathrm{max}\{h(u),h(v)\}$$

satisfy one of finitely many relations $`u^av^b=1`$, where $`a,b`$ are not both zero.

Actually, Prop. 2 in \[CZ\] is a little stronger, since the summation is over all $`\mu M`$ rather than the finite $`\mu M_0`$ and since it also asserts that the relevant pairs $`(a,b)`$ may be computed in terms of $`\delta `$.

We apply this fact with $`u=\alpha ^n`$, $`v=\beta ^n`$ and $`S`$ containing the finite set of places of $`k`$ which are nontrivial on $`\alpha `$ or $`\beta `$; note that (6) implies the inequality of the proposition, with $`\delta =ϵ/(2\mathrm{max}(h(\alpha ),h(\beta )))`$. We conclude that, for an infinity of $`n𝒩`$, a same nontrivial relation $`\alpha ^{an}\beta ^{bn}=1`$ holds, contradicting the multiplicative independence of $`\alpha ,\beta `$.

Therefore we are left with the case when all pairs of eigenvalues are multiplicatively dependent. This means that they generate in $`k^{}`$ a subgroup $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of rank $`1`$.

If the rank is zero all the eigenvalues $`\lambda _i`$ are roots of unity, so the matrix $`A`$ has finite order and thus it is exceptional. Hence let us assume from now on that the rank is $`1`$. Let then $`\lambda \mathrm{\Gamma }`$ be a generator of the free part of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (it exists by basic theory). Then, for suitable roots of unity $`\zeta _1,\mathrm{},\zeta _d`$ and rational integers $`a_1,\mathrm{},a_d`$ we may write

(7)
$$\lambda _i=\zeta _i\lambda ^{a_i},i=1,\mathrm{},d.$$

Necessarily the $`\zeta _i`$ lie in $`k`$.

Let $`\sigma `$ be an automorphism of $`k`$. Then $`\sigma `$ fixes the set of eigenvalues, since $`A`$ is a matrix defined over $``$; hence $`\sigma `$ fixes the above group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Let $`r`$ be the order of the torsion in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, so the subgroup $`[r]\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of $`r`$-th powers in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is cyclic, generated by $`\lambda ^r`$. (Note that automatically $`\zeta _i^r=1`$ in (7)). Then $`\sigma `$ must send $`\lambda ^r`$ to another generator of $`[r]\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, whence

$$\sigma (\lambda )^r=\lambda ^{\pm r}.$$

Therefore in particular $`\lambda ^r`$ is at most quadratic over $``$ (in fact, recall that $`k/`$ is normal).

Let us first assume that $`\lambda ^r`$ is rational. Raising the equations (7) to the power $`2r`$, we see that the eigenvalues $`\lambda _i^{2r}`$ of the matrix $`A^{2r}`$ are positive rationals; since they are algebraic integers, they are therefore positive rational integers. Since they are pairwise multiplicatively dependent they are powers of a same positive integer (which can be taken $`\lambda ^{\pm 2r}`$). We thus fall in another of the exceptional situations.

The last case occurs when $`\lambda ^r`$ is a quadratic irrational. Then some automorphism $`\sigma `$ must send it to its inverse $`\lambda ^r`$. As before, we may raise equations (7) to the $`r`$-th power to find $`\lambda _i^r=\lambda ^{ra_i}`$. Therefore $`\sigma (\lambda _i^r)=\lambda _i^r`$. Since the $`\lambda _i`$ are algebraic integers, the same is true for the $`\lambda _i^{\pm r}`$, and hence we find that all the eigenvalues of $`A^r`$ are units (some of them possibly equal to $`\pm 1`$) in a same quadratic field.

This concludes the proof.

## 3. Proof of Theorem 1

The following Lemma shows that Theorems 1 and 2 are in fact equivalent:

###### Lemma 4.

Let $`A`$ be a nonsingular integer matrix of infinite order. Then the following are equivalent:

1. For all $`ϵ>0`$, we have $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)<\mathrm{exp}(ϵn)`$ if $`n`$ is sufficiently large;
2. $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)/\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{}`$.

###### Proof.

Assume that $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)<\mathrm{exp}(ϵn)`$ for all $`ϵ>0`$. Fix $`ϵ>0`$. Take $`n=\mathrm{ord}(A,N)`$ and note that $`N`$ divides all the matrix entries of $`A^{\mathrm{ord}(A,N)}I`$. Since $`A`$ does not have finite order and thus $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)\mathrm{}`$ as $`N\mathrm{}`$, we have for $`N`$ sufficiently large that

$$N\mathrm{gcd}(A^{\mathrm{ord}(A,N)}I)<\mathrm{exp}(ϵ\mathrm{ord}(A,N))$$

Thus

$$\mathrm{log}N<ϵ\mathrm{ord}(A,N).$$

Since this holds for all $`ϵ>0`$ we find $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)/\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{}`$.

Conversely, suppose that there is some $`\rho >0`$ and an infinite sequence of integers $`𝒩`$ so that $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)>\mathrm{exp}(\rho n)`$ for all $`n𝒩`$. Then for the sequence $`N_n:=\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)`$, $`n𝒩`$ (which is infinite since $`N_n>\mathrm{exp}(\rho n)`$) we have

$$\mathrm{ord}(A,N_n)n<\mathrm{log}\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)/\rho =\mathrm{log}N_n/\rho $$

and thus $`lim\; inf\mathrm{ord}(A,N)/\mathrm{log}N<\mathrm{}`$. ∎

## 4. Comments

It is readily seen that exceptional cases do in fact occur, and that they give rise to powers $`A^n`$ such that $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^nI)`$ is exponentially large, and hence to arbitrarily large integers $`N`$ for which $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N)`$ is logarithmically small. The last case of the eigenvalues in a quadratic field of course requires that the irrational ones occur in conjugate pairs, since $`A`$ is defined over $``$, and that the determinant of $`A`$ is $`\pm 1`$. Examples of such integer matrices can be produced from the action of a fixed such $`2\times 2`$ hyperbolic matrix $`A_0SL_2()`$ on tensor powers, or from $`A_0\sigma `$ where $`\sigma `$ is a permutation matrix.

To see that the exceptional cases lead to exponentially large $`\mathrm{gcd}`$, consider first the case that a power of $`A`$ has all eigenvalues a power of a single integer $`a>1`$. As we have seen in the course of proof of Theorem 2, replacing a matrix by a conjugate (over $`\overline{}`$) does not change the asymptotic behaviour. Thus we may assume that $`A^r`$ is diagonal with eigenvalues $`a^{m_1},\mathrm{},a^{m_d}`$. Then clearly $`\mathrm{ord}(A^r,N)\mathrm{ord}(a,N)`$ and taking $`N_n:=a^n1`$ gives $`\mathrm{ord}(a,N_n)=n\mathrm{log}N_n/a`$. Thus we find $`\mathrm{ord}(A,N_n)r\mathrm{log}N_n/a`$.

Now assume that a power $`A^r`$ of $`A`$ has all its eigenvalues a power of a single unit $`\lambda >1`$ in a real quadratic field $`K`$. Then for some matrix $`P`$ with entries in $`K`$, we have $`A^r=PBP^1`$ with $`B`$ diagonal with eigenvalues $`\lambda ^{a_1},\mathrm{},\lambda ^{a_d}`$, where $`a_i`$ are integers which sum to zero.

Since $`P`$ is only determined up to a scalar multiple, we may, after multiplying $`P`$ by an algebraic integer of $`K`$, assume that $`P`$ has entries in the ring of integers $`𝒪_K`$ of $`K`$, and then $`P^1=\frac{1}{det(P)}P^{ad}`$ where $`P^{ad}`$ also has entries in $`𝒪_K`$.

The entries of $`A^{rk}I`$ are thus $`𝒪_K`$-linear combinations of $`(\lambda ^{a_ik}1)/det(P)`$. We now note that

$$\lambda ^k1=\lambda ^k(\lambda ^k1)$$

and thus the entries of $`A^{rk}I`$ are all $`𝒪_K`$-linear combinations of $`(\lambda ^{|a_i|k}1)/det(P)`$, which are in turn $`𝒪_K`$-multiples of $`(\lambda ^k1)/det(P)`$. In particular, $`\mathrm{gcd}(A^{rk}I)`$, which is a $``$-linear combination of the entries of $`A^{rk}I`$, can be written as

$$\mathrm{gcd}(A^{rk}I)=\frac{\lambda ^k1}{det(P)}\gamma _k$$

with $`\gamma _k𝒪_K`$.

Now taking norms from $`K`$ to $``$ we see

$$|\mathrm{gcd}(A^{rk}I)|^2=\frac{|𝐍_{K/}(\lambda ^k1)|}{|𝐍_{K/}(detP)|}|𝐍_{K/}(\gamma _k)|.$$

Since $`\gamma _k0`$, we have $`|𝐍_{K/}(\gamma _k)|1`$ and thus

$$|\mathrm{gcd}(A^{rk}I)|^2\frac{|𝐍_{K/}(\lambda ^k1)|}{|𝐍_{K/}(detP)|}\lambda ^k$$

which gives $`|\mathrm{gcd}(A^{rk}I)|\lambda ^{k/2}`$, namely exponential growth.


text:
# Measurement of 𝛼_𝑠 and the 𝛽 function with the DELPHI detector at LEP

## 1 Introduction

Neglecting quark masses, $`\alpha _s`$ is the only free parameter of QCD, the theory of strong interaction. Thus its measurement is a task of fundamental importance. Additionally, the scale dependence of the strong coupling, as governed by the $`\beta `$ function, is among the important predictions of QCD.

This note presents both, a measurements of $`\alpha _s`$ at different LEP2 energies, and a test of the scale dependence of the strong interaction. In both cases several techniques are applied.

From the event shapes Thrust, C parameter, heavy jet mass, wide and total jet broadening, $`\alpha _s`$ is extracted with four different methods: The differential distributions at each energy are compared to predictions in $`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$), pure NLLA and matched $`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$)+NLLA, folded with fragmentation models. Furthermore, $`\alpha _s`$ is extracted from the mean values using an analytical power correction ansatz. These measurements, together with the results from other LEP2 energies and about $`m_Z`$, are finally combined into one $`\alpha _s`$ measurement for each method.

The $`\beta `$ function is extracted with two different techniques: From the $`\alpha _s`$ values directly, and from the energy evolution of mean values of event shapes. The last method is based on the renormalisation group invariant (RGI) perturbation theory .

These analyses and the theoretical background are described in more detail in  and the references therein.

## 2 Data and background

The analysis is based on data taken with the DELPHI detector in the years from 1997 to 2000 at centre of mass energies between 183 and 207 GeV. Details on the DELPHI detector and the event selection can be found in  and the references therein. In total a number of $``$10.000 hadronic events have been analyses. This is less than 1% of the statistics gathered at $`\sqrt{s}=m_Z`$. But not only the cross section at LEP2 is much smaller than at LEP1. Additionally one has to deal with significant background processes. Most important are radiative (ISR) events and the production of W pairs (four fermion events). For details we refer again to .

## 3 Determination of $`𝜶_𝒔`$ from event shape distributions

From the differential distributions of 1-T, C parameter, $`M_\mathrm{h}^2/E_{\mathrm{vis}}^2`$, $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`B_{\mathrm{sum}}`$, $`\alpha _s`$ is determined by fitting an $`\alpha _s`$ dependent QCD prediction folded with a hadronisation correction to the data. As QCD predictions $`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$), pure NLLA, and the combined $`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$)+NLLA in $`\mathrm{log}R`$-scheme are employed.

In  it has been shown that fixing the renormalisation scale to $`\mu ^2=E_{\mathrm{c}m}^2`$ results in a marginal description of the data. Therefore, the experimentally optimised scales from  are used for the $`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$) fits. For the NLLA and the combined NLLA+$`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$) fits, $`\mu `$ is set equal to $`E_{\mathrm{c}m}`$.

### 3.1 Theoretical uncertainties

All perturbative QCD predictions introduce uncertainties due to missing higher orders. The conventional method for its estimation is to consider the effect of a renormalisation scale variation. This method however has at least two drawbacks: Since the scale error is positively correlated with $`\alpha _s`$, this definition produces a bias towards small $`\alpha _s`$ values. Secondly there are indications, that observables calculated from one hemisphere only (like the heavy jet mass or $`B_{\mathrm{max}}`$) yield less reliable results in the resummation of leading logarithms . This should be reflected in their theoretical errors. In contrary the scale variation yields the smallest uncertainty for the heavy jet mass and especially $`B_{\mathrm{m}ax}`$. For this reason a new definition of the theoretical uncertainty for the logR prediction was developed. It is based on the additional ambiguity which enters the resumed prediction from the phase space restriction. These calculations are forced to vanish at the kinematic limit $`y_{max}`$ using the replacement:

$`L=\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{y}}L=\mathrm{ln}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{Xy}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{Xy_{max}}}+1\right]`$ (1)
Usually $`X=1`$ is chosen, although different values for this $`X`$ scale introduce formally only subdominant contributions . The theoretical error is now defined as half of the difference when $`X`$ is varied between $`2/3`$ and $`3/2`$. The same definition of the theoretical uncertainty has been adopted for the pure NLLA prediction.

For the $`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$) calculation the error from the variation around the experimentally optimized scales is still used, as in previous publications .

In order to avoid the above mentioned bias, the corresponding scale variations are calculated from theory distributions with a fixed value of $`\alpha _s`$.

### 3.2 Combination of the results

For a combination of the $`\alpha _s`$ results from different observables at the same energy a proper treatment of the correlation is mandatory. An average value $`\overline{y}`$ for correlated measurements $`y_i`$ is:

$`\overline{y}={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}}w_iy_i\text{with:}w_i={\displaystyle \frac{_j(V^1)_{ij}}{_{k,l}(V^1)_{kl}}}`$
The covariance matrix $`V`$ has an additive structure for each source of uncertainty:

$$V=V^{\mathrm{stat}}+V^{\mathrm{sys}.\mathrm{exp}.}+V^{\mathrm{had}}+V^{\mathrm{scale}}$$

The statistical component was estimated with Monte Carlo simulation, while the correlation of systematic errors is modeled by the minimum overlap assumption:

$`V_{ij}=\mathrm{min}(\mathrm{\Delta }_i^2,\mathrm{\Delta }_j^2)`$ (2)
Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }_i`$ denotes the corresponding error of the observable $`i`$.

## 4 Determination of $`𝜶_𝒔`$ from mean values with power corrections

The analytical power ansatz is used to determine $`\alpha _s`$ from mean event shapes. This ansatz provides an additive term to the perturbative $`𝒪`$($`\alpha _s^2`$) QCD prediction .

$$f=\frac{1}{\sigma _{\mathrm{t}ot}}f\frac{df}{d\sigma }𝑑\sigma =f_{\mathrm{p}ert}+f_{\mathrm{p}ow}$$
(3)
Here an additional non–perturbative parameter $`\alpha _0`$ enters for the contributions to the event shape below an infrared matching scale $`\mu _I`$. In order to measure $`\alpha _s`$ from individual high energy data the parameter $`\alpha _0`$ has to be determined by a global fit of $`\alpha _s`$ and $`\alpha _0`$ to a large set of measurements at different energies.

## 5 Combination of all DELPHI $`𝜶_𝒔`$ measurements

Assuming the validity of the QCD predicted energy dependence of $`\alpha _s`$, all results can be evolved to a reference energy, e.g. $`M_Z`$, and combined to a single $`\alpha _s`$$`(M_Z)`$ measurement. We include also the LEP2 results at 133, 161 and 172 GeV from . For $`\alpha _s`$ at and around $`M_Z`$ we have reanalyzed the distributions from  for our five observables and combined the results using the same treatment of correlation as described in section 3.2. For $`\alpha _s`$ from mean values the measurements of events with reduced centre–of–mass energy between 44 and 76 GeV  have been included as well. In combining the $`\alpha _s`$ results one faces again the problem of correlation. Although the measurements at different energies are obviously statistically independent, the systematic and theoretical errors are not. Again this part of the covariance matrix was modeled assuming minimum overlap. The only difference to the method described in section 3.2 is, that the error of ISR and four fermion background correlates only those measurements which have this source of uncertainty in common.

The result of these combinations are given in Table 1. As an example the Figures 1 and 2 display the combination and energy evolution of the $`\alpha _s`$ values from the $`𝒪(\alpha _s^2)`$ fit to distributions and from mean values with power corrections respectively.

As can be seen from Table 1 the total errors are dominated by the theoretical uncertainty.

## 6 The running of $`𝜶_𝒔`$

In the previous section we have assumed the validity of QCD in order to combine the measurements at different energies. Now we will turn around the perspective and use the determination of $`\alpha _s`$ at different energies to test the predicted scale dependence of the coupling. The logarithmic energy slope of the inverse coupling is (in second order) given by:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\alpha _s^1}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{ln}Q}}=2b_0+2b_1\alpha _s=\{\begin{array}{cc}1.27\hfill & \text{(QCD)}\hfill \\ 0.89\hfill & \text{(QCD+gluinos)}\hfill \end{array}`$
Table 2 gives the slopes when fitting the function $`1/(b\mathrm{log}\sqrt{s}+c)`$ to the $`\alpha _s`$ values. Figure 2 displays the fit result for the $`\alpha _s`$ values from mean values with power corrections as an example. The results are in good agreement with the QCD expectation. The unweighted mean of the different measurements yields $`1.28\pm 0.12`$(RMS). In this fit the correlation between the measurements is taken into account by including the full covariance matrix into the definition of the $`\chi ^2`$ function. The correlation is modeled similarly as described in section 3.2. The only differences here are that the statistical errors are uncorrelated, and that the errors from ISR and four fermion background correlate only those data which have these sources of uncertainty in common.

## 7 The RGI method

The $`\beta `$ functions governs not only the scale dependence of $`\alpha _s`$, but directly the energy evolution of e.g. event shapes. In the renormalisation group invariant (RGI) perturbation theory  the energy evolution of fully inclusive quantities $``$, like mean values of event shape distributions, can be used to measure the $`\beta `$ function directly:

$$Q\frac{dR^1}{dQ}=\frac{\beta _0}{2}+\frac{\beta _1}{4}R+\mathrm{}=\{\begin{array}{cc}4.14\hfill & \text{(QCD)}\hfill \\ 2.76\hfill & \text{(QCD+gluinos)}\hfill \end{array}$$

Here $`R`$ is $`/A`$, with $`A`$ the first order coefficient when expanding $``$ in powers of $`\alpha _s/\pi `$. In  it was shown, that this approach yields consistent results for various observables. However, the highest accuracy can be achieved for the observable $`=1T`$ , since here the most low energy data is available. Our measurement yields:

$$Q\frac{dR^1}{dQ}=4.21\pm 0.18$$

The fit result is displayed in Figure 3. This is in good agreement with the QCD expectation and allows to exclude the existence of light gluinos in the mass range of $``$30 GeV.


text:
# HMXB, ULX and star formation

## 1 INTRODUCTION

An unusual class of compact sources – ultraluminous X-ray sources, has been discovered in nearby galaxies more than a decade ago . Although bright, $`L_X>10^{39}`$ erg/s, point-like sources are found both in young star forming galaxies and in old stellar population of elliptical galaxies, the most luminous and exotic objects are associated with actively starforming galaxies. Their nature and relation to more ordinary X-ray binaries is still a matter of a significant debate. Based on a simple Eddington luminosity argument, they appear to be powered by accretion onto an intermediate mass object – a black hole with the mass in the hundreds-thousands solar masses range. However, a number of alternative models have been considered as well – from collimated radiation to $``$stellar mass black holes, representing the high mass tail of the standard stellar evolution sequence and accreting in the near- or slightly super-Eddington regime.

Sub-arcsec angular resolution of Chandra observatory opened a new era in studying population of compact sources in nearby galaxies. For the first time an opportunity was presented to observe compact sources in a nearly confusion free regime and to investigate their relation to fundamental parameters of the host galaxy, such as its stellar mass and star formation rate. Depending on the mass of the optical companion, X-ray binaries are subdivided in to two classes – low and high mass X-ray binaries, having significantly different evolutionary time scale, $`10^{67}`$ and $`10^{910}`$ years respectively . The prompt emission from HMXBs makes them a potentially good tracer of the very recent star formation activity in the host galaxy . The LMXBs, on the other hand, have no relation to the present star formation, but, rather, are related to the stellar content of the host galaxy . Chandra observations of the nearby galaxies present a possibility to verify this simple picture and to calibrate the relation between the HMXB population and the current value of SFR. This opens a new way to determine the star formation rate in relatively closeby galaxies as well as in young and very distant ones. Detailed study of the population of the compact sources in star forming galaxies can also shed the light on the mistery of the ULXs.

## 2 “UNIVERSAL” LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OF HMXBs

In order to study the HMXB population and its relation to star formation we selected a number of nearby late type galaxies observed by Chandra, based primarily on two criteria. (i) The galaxy can be spatially resolved by Chandra, so that the contribution of a central AGN can be discriminated and the luminosity functions of the compact sources can be constructed without severe confusion effects. (ii) The galaxy has sufficiently high SFR/mass ratio, to ensure that the population of X-ray binaries is dominated by HMXBs and the LMXB contribution of can be safely ignored . For the Milky Way we explicitly selected HMXBs, based on results of . For each galaxy, the star formation rate was determined combining the results from conventional SFR indicators,  (FIR, UV, Hα and radio). The SFR values in the sample range from $`0.15`$ to $`7`$ M/yr. Further details and references to the X-ray data are given in .

The Fig.1 (left panel) shows observed luminosity functions. They are characterized by a large spread in the number of sources and in the luminosity of the brightest source. However, after being rescaled to the same value of the star formation rate, they appear to match each other both in the slope of the distribution and the normalization (right panel in Fig.1). Although a finite dispersion might still exist, especially at the high luminosity end, the rescaled luminsity functions occupy a rather narrow band in the $`NL_X`$ plane, despite of large dynamical range of the star formation rates, a factor of $`50`$. We further combine the data for five nearby starburst galaxies with the best known luminosity functions, having cumulative star fromation rate of $`16`$ M/yr, and compare them with the luminosity distributions of two low SFR galaxies, the Milky Way and SMC (Fig.2). As previously, a good agreement both in the slope and normalization of luminosity distributions is obvious. The fit to combined data with a power law distribution gives the slope of $`\alpha 1.6`$, a cut-off at $`L_{\mathrm{cut}}(23)10^{40}`$ erg/s and the normalization proportional to the star formation rate:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dN}{dL}}=(3.3_{0.8}^{+1.1})SFRL_{38}^{1.61\pm 0.12}`$ (1)
where SFR is formation rate for massive stars, $`M>5M_{}`$. Within the accuracy of the present analysis, this can be regarded as a “universal” luminosity function of high mass X-ray binaries in nearby star forming galaxies. The Fig.2 shows the average differential luminosity function of HMXBs obtained using the data of all galaxies from our Chandra sample.

## 3 HIGH MASS X-RAY BINARIES AS A STAR FORMATION INDICATOR

As the population of high mass X-ray binaries (i.e. the normalization of the luminosity function and the number of sources) is proportional to SFR, eq.(1), they can be exploited to measure star formation rate in the host galaxy. Such a method, based on the X-ray emission of a galaxy, might circumvent one the main sources of uncertainty of conventional SFR indicators – absorption by dust and gas . Indeed, galaxies are mostly transparent to X-rays above $`2`$ keV, except for the densest parts of the most massive molecular clouds.

For nearby, spatially resolved galaxies, the star formation rate can be determined via a direct fitting of the luminosity distribution of the compact sources or counting the number of sources above a given luminosity threshold. For distant, unresolved galaxies one can use the total luminosity of the galaxy.

There are, however, two main complicating factors in using the X-ray luminosity of a galaxy as a SFR indicator: (i) X-ray emission from the central supermassive black hole, which even in the case of a low luminosity AGN can easily out-shine X-ray binaries. This does not present a problem in nearby ($`D<2030`$ Mpc) galaxies as the Chandra resolution is sufficient to separate contribution of the central source, but might become an important source of contamination in spatially unresolved galaxies. (ii) Contribution of low mass X-ray binaries. This equally affects nearby and distant galaxies, as LMXBs can not be easily separated from HMXBs using the X-ray data in the Chandra bandpass, and the optical identifications are (potentially) available for the most nearby galaxies only. However, as the LMXB population scales linearly with the stellar mass of the host galaxy , their contribution can be estimated and, potentially, corrected for. Obviously, at sufficiently high values of SFR/$`M_{}`$ it can be safely neglected, .

To further calibrate the $`L_X`$SFR relation and verify its applicability to distant galaxies, we extended our sample to include the spatially unresolved galaxies observed by ASCA and BeppoSAX and distant star forming galaxies detected by Chandra in the Hubble Deep Field North  (see  for details and references). As for the galaxies from our spatially resolved Chandra sample, star formation rates were determined by the conventional, non X-ray methods. The combined data are shown in the $`L_X`$SFR plane in Fig.3.

### 3.1 Effects of statistics and $`𝑳_𝑿\mathbf{}`$SFR relation

A seemingly obvious expression for the total luminosity can be obtained integrating the luminosity distribution (1):

$`L_{\mathrm{tot}}={\displaystyle _{L_{\mathrm{min}}}^{L_{\mathrm{cut}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dN}{dL}}L𝑑LSFR`$ (2)
implying, that the total luminosity is proportional to the star formation rate. We note, however, that the quantity of interest is a sum of the luminosities of discrete sources:

$`L_{\mathrm{tot}}={\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}L_k`$ (3)
with $`L_k`$ obeying a power law probability distribution given by eq.(1). For a sufficiently flat slope, $`\alpha <2`$, the total luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ will be defined by the brightest sources, corresponding to the high luminosity end of the power law distribution eq.(1). Their actual number in a galaxy will obey the Poisson distribution $`P(n,\mu )=\mu ^ne^\mu /n!`$ (with $`\mu `$SFR), which for small values of $`\mu `$ is significantly asymmetric. As a consequence, for a galaxy with small SFR, the probability distribution $`p(L_{\mathrm{tot}})`$ will be also strongly asymmetric, as illustrated by the left panel in Fig.3. Because of its skewness, the mode of the $`p(L_{\mathrm{tot}})`$ distribution – the value of $`L_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ that would be most likely measured in an arbitrarily chosen galaxy, is not equal to the expectation mean defined by eq.(2). Only in the large SFR limit, when there are sufficiently many sources with luminosities $`LL_{\mathrm{cut}}`$, these two quantities become close to each other.111Obviously in the case of e.g. flat ($`dN/dL=`$const) or Gaussian flux distribution the most probable value of $`L_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ always equals to the expectation mean defined by eq.(2).

The difference between these two quantities is further illustrated in the right panel in Fig.3, showing the predicted $`L_X`$–SFR relation, calculated using the parameters of the “universal” HMXB luminosity function, eq.(1). The solid line in the figure shows the SFR–dependence of the mode of the probability distribution $`p(L_{\mathrm{tot}})`$ and predicts the most probable value of the X-ray luminosity of a randomly chosen galaxy. If observations of many (different) galaxies with close values of SFR are performed, the obtained values of $`L_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ will obey the probability distribution depicted in the left panel of Fig.3. The average of the measured values of $`L_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ will be equal to the expectation mean given by eq.(2) and shown by the dashed straight lines in the left and right panels of Fig.3. Due to the properties of the probability distribution $`p(L_{\mathrm{tot}})`$ these two quantities are not identical in the low SFR limit, when the total luminosity is defined by a small number of the most luminous sources.

### 3.2 $`𝑳_𝑿\mathbf{}`$SFR relation: predicted vs. observed

The right panel in Fig.3 compares the data with the predicted $`L_X`$SFR relation. Good agreement, both in the non-linear low SFR regime and at high SFR values is apparent. The relations between total X-ray luminosity of a galaxy due to HMXBs and the star formation rate are:

$$\mathrm{SFR}[\mathrm{M}_{}/\mathrm{yr}]\frac{L_{210\mathrm{keV}}}{6.710^{39}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}}$$
(4)
in the linear regime and

$$\mathrm{SFR}[\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1]\left(\frac{L_{210\mathrm{keV}}}{2.610^{39}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}}\right)^{0.6}$$
(5)
in the non-linear regime, corresponding to SFR$`<4.1`$ M yr-1 ($`L_{210\mathrm{keV}}<2.810^{40}`$ erg s-1) The former, linear, regime of the $`L_X`$–SFR relation was studied independently by  based on ASCA and BeppoSAX data. Note that their equation (12) agrees with our eq.(4) within $`30`$ per cent.

Due to skewness of the probability distribution $`p(L_{\mathrm{tot}})`$, large and asymmetric dispersion around the solid curve in Fig.3 is expected in the non-linear low SFR regime. This asymmetry is already seen from the distribution of the points in Fig.3 – at low SFR values there are more points above the solid curve, than below. Moreover, the galaxies lying significantly above the solid and dashed curves in Fig.3 should be expected at low SFR and will inevitably appear as the plot is populated with more objects. Such behavior differs from a typical astrophysical situation and should not be ignored when analyzing and fitting the $`L_X`$–SFR relation in the low SFR regime. In particular, the standard data analysis techniques – least square and $`\chi ^2`$ fitting become inadequate.

## 4 DISCUSSION

### 4.1 High luminosity cut-off in the HMXB luminosity function

The existence of the linear regime in the $`L_X`$–SFR relation is a direct consequence of the cut-off in the luminosity function. The position of the break between non-linear and linear parts of the $`L_X`$–SFR relation depends on the slope of the luminosity function and the value of the cut-off luminosity (Fig.4): $`\mathrm{SFR}_{\mathrm{break}}L_{\mathrm{cut}}^{\alpha 1}`$. This allows one to constrain parameters of the luminosity distribution of compact sources using the data of spatially unresolved galaxies.

Agreement of the predicted $`L_X`$SFR relation with the data both in high and low SFR regimes gives an independent confirmation of the existence of a cut-off in the luminosity function of HMXBs at $`L_{\mathrm{cut}}\mathrm{several}\times 10^{40}`$ erg/s (Fig.3,4). It also confirms that $`L_X`$SFR data, including the high redshift galaxies from Hubble Deep Field North, are consistent with the HMXB luminosity function parameters, derived from significantly fewer galaxies, than plotted in Figs.3,4.

### 4.2 Ultraluminous X-ray sources

One of the surprising results of this study is a smooth, single slope power law shape of the average luminosity function of compact sources in star forming galaxies, without any significant steps and features in a broad luminosity range, $`\mathrm{lg}(L_X)3640.5`$ (Fig.2). The high luminosity end, $`\mathrm{lg}(L_X)>39`$, of this distribution corresponds to ultraluminous X-ray sources. Its low luminosity end, on the other hand, is composed of ordinary X-ray binaries, powered by accretion onto a $``$stellar mass compact objects. This result constrains the range of possible models for ULXs. Their frequency and luminosity distributions should be a smooth extension towards higher luminosities of that of “ordinary” $``$stellar mass systems, emerging from the standard stellar evolution sequence. Although some of the ULXs might be indeed rare and exotic objects, it appears that majority of them cannot be a completely different type of the source population, but, rather, represent the high mass, high $`\dot{M}`$ tail of the HMXB population.

The luminosity of ULXs in the nearby galaxies has a maximum value of the order of $`\mathrm{lg}(L_X)40.5`$. The fact that the galaxies from the Hubble Deep Field North obey the same $`L_X`$SFR relation (Fig.4), implies, that the ULXs at the redshift of $`z0.21.3`$ were not significantly more luminous, that those observed in the nearby galaxies.

### 4.3 Intermediate mass black holes

The hypothetical intermediate mass black holes, probably reaching masses of $`10^{25}M_{}`$, might be produced, e.g. via black hole merges in the dense stellar clusters, and can be associated with extremely high star formation rates. To accrete efficiently, they should form close binary systems with normal stars or be located in dense molecular clouds. It is natural to expect, that such objects are significantly less frequent than $``$stellar mass black holes. The transition from the $``$stellar mass BH HMXB to intermediate mass BHs should manifest itself as a step in the luminosity distribution of compact sources (Fig.5, left panel). If the cut-off in the HMXB luminosity function, observed at $`\mathrm{lg}(L_{\mathrm{cut}})40.5`$ corresponds to the maximum possible luminosity of $``$stellar mass black holes and if at $`L>L_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ a population of hypothetical intermediate mass BHs emerges, it should lead to a drastic change in the slope of the $`L_X`$–SFR relation at extreme values of SFR  (Fig.5, right panel). Therefore, observations of distant star forming galaxies with very high SFR might be an easy way to probe the population of intermediate mass black holes.