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# Metal-insulator transition in Ca1-xLixPd3O4

## I Introduction

A metal-insulator transition is one of the most important topics in solid-state physics mott . In case of a conventional semiconductor, donors (acceptors) supply electrons (holes) in a band insulator. A metal-insulator transition takes place at a critical carrier density, where the average carrier-carrier distance is comparable with the effective Bohr radius of the doped impurity atom. The critical carrier density has been quantitatively discussed for various semiconductors belitz .

Metal-insulator transitions in strongly correlated systems are completely different from that in a band insulator tokura . The most remarkable example is that in high-temperature superconductors, where the metallic state is accompanied by high temperature superconductivity. As the second example, the colossal magnetoresistive manganites exhibit a peculiar transition where the metallic state is stabilized by ferromagnetism. Actually, there are many types of insulating state (Mott insulator, charge ordering, and stripes) for strongly correlated systems, and accordingly there are so many ways how these insulating states collapse upon doping, pressure, temperature, and external field.

Since transition-metal oxides are often insulating due to the strong correlation, they can be a good playground for studies of metal-insulator transitions. In this sense, we have paid special attention to CaPd3O4. Figure 1 shows the crystal structure of CaPd3O4 known as a NaPt3O4-type structure. The divalent Pd2+ of (4$`d`$)8 is surrounded with four O2- anions, and the PdO4 clusters stack one another to form a column. Because of the cubic symmetry, the PdO4 column runs along the $`x`$, $`y`$, $`z`$ directions to make a thee-dimensional network.

The first interesting point is that CaPd3O4 shows a metal-insulator transition by substitution of Na for Ca, as was found by Itoh et al itoh ; itoh2 . Secondly, the ground state of CaPd3O4 might be exotic. Hase and Nishihra hase  claimed that CaPd3O4 was a possible candidate for an excitonic insulator, in which electrons and holes bounded as excitons exhibit a Bose-Einstein condensation at low temperatures. Thirdly, a Pd ion is more stable as Pd2+ and Pd4+ than Pd3+. Such a kind of ion is called “valence skipper”. Thus the doped holes are most likely to exist as Pd4+, where two holes are on the same Pd site. Varma varma  predicted that doped carriers in the valence skipper form on-site pairs to exhibit a possible high-temperature superconductivity.

In this paper we report on measurement and analysis of the transport properties of Li doped CaPd3O4. We have found that CaPd3O4 is essentially a degenerate semiconductor of low carrier concentration (1019 cm-3). With increasing Li content, the resistivity, the Seebeck coefficient, and the Hall coefficient systematically change, from which the carrier concentration and the effective mass are reasonably evaluated.

## II Experimental

Polycrystalline samples of Ca1-xLixPd3O4 ($`x`$=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6) were prepared by a solid-state reaction aided with NaCl addition. Stoichiometric amount of PdO, CaCO3, and LiCO3 of 99.9% purity were thoroughly mixed. NaCl was then added with the mixture in a mass ratio of 2:1, thoroughly mixed again, and fired at 1073 K for 24 h in air. The product was finely ground, and NaCl was rinsed out in hot distilled water. The dried powder was then pressed into pellets, and was sintered in air at 1223 K for 48 h for $`x`$=0, and at 1103 K for 12 h for $`x>0`$ .

We think that NaCl acts as a kind of flux. At an early stage of this study, 20% of metal Pd appeared as an impurity phase in the powder sintered above 1173 K without NaCl, suggesting that the sintering temperature was too high to keep Pd oxidized. We then decreased the sintering temperature, but found that the prepared samples were loosely sintered, too fragile to handle. Added NaCl was effective to decrease the sintering temperature without reducing PdO.

The samples were characterized through the x-ray diffraction (XRD) with Fe Kα as an x-ray source in a $`\theta 2\theta `$ scan mode. The resistivity was measured by a four-terminal method from 4.2 to 300 K in a liquid He cryostat, and from 300 to 700 K in a cylinder furnace in air. The Seebeck coefficient was measured using a steady-state technique with a typical temperature gradient of 1.0 K/cm from 4.2 to 300 K in a liquid He cryostat, and from 300 to 500 K in a cylinder furnace in air. The Seebeck coefficient of the voltage leads was carefully subtracted. The Hall coefficient was measured in a closed refrigerator from 10 to 150 K. A cernox resistive thermometer was placed at 45 cm above the magnet core, which successfully suppressed the magnetoresistance of the thermometer to keep the accuracy of the measured temperature within 0.01% at 7 T. An ac-bridge nano-ohmmeter was used to measure the resistivity by sweeping magnetic field from -7 to 7 T in 20 minutes at constant temperatures. An unwanted signal occurring from a misalignment of the voltage pads was carefully removed by subtracting negative-field data from positive-field data. The Hall voltage was linear in magnetic field, and the Hall coefficient was determined by the data at $`\pm `$7 T.

## III Results and discussion

Figure 2 shows typical XRD patterns of the prepared samples. For $`x=0`$, all the reflection peaks are indexed as a NaPt3O4-type structure with an a-axis length $`a_0`$ of 5.74 Åwnuk . As is shown in the inset, $`a_0`$ decreases systematically with $`x`$, which clearly indicates that Li+ (0.76Å) and Ca2+ (1.00Å) make a solid solution. For $`x=0.3`$, however, a tiny (5%) trace of reduced Pd is observed near $`2\theta =`$51 deg. The amount of the reduced Pd gradually increases with $`x`$ for $`x>0.3`$, and exceeds 10% for $`x>0.6`$.

Figure 3(a) shows the temperature dependence of the resistivity ($`\rho `$) of the prepared samples. The resistivity changes systematically with $`x`$, whose magnitude at 4.2 K decreases by four orders of magnitude from $`x=0`$ to 0.6. This clearly indicates that the substituted Li supplies carriers into the sample. Towards 0 K, $`\rho `$ for $`x=0`$ divergingly increases while $`\rho `$ for $`x=0.1`$ remains a finite value. This means the metal-insulator transition takes place between $`x=0`$ and 0.1.

Figure 3(b) shows the temperature dependence of the Seebeck coefficient ($`S`$) of the prepared samples. All the Seebeck coefficients are positive, indicating that the majority carrier is a hole in this system. $`S`$ for $`x=0`$ is roughly proportional to temperature below 100 K, which is a hallmark of a conventional metal. In the sense that a finite carrier concentration remains as $`T`$ 0, CaPd3O4 is essentially a metal. Considering the large thermopower, it would be more appropreate to regard CaPd3O4 as a degenerate semiconductor rather than a metal. With increasing $`x`$, $`S`$ systematically decreases, which indicates that the substituted Li supplies holes to Ca1-xLixPd3O4. The doped samples also show a similar $`T`$-linear Seebeck coefficient at low temperatures to the $`x=0`$ sample. At high temperatures for smaller $`x`$, the Seebeck coefficient takes a maximum and decreases with increasing temperature. This means that the minority carriers (electrons in this case) are thermally excited, and also means that the band gap of CaPd3O4 is smaller than hundreds of K.

Figure 4 shows the temperature dependence of the Hall coefficient ($`R_H`$) of the prepared samples. As is similar to the Seebeck coefficient, the sign of the Hall coefficient is positive for all the samples, indicating the majority carriers are holes. The magnitude systematically decreases with increasing $`x`$, and $`R_H`$’s for $`x=0.1`$ and 0.2 are essentially independent of temperature. These results are what is expected in a conventional metal, magnitude of which is inversely proportional to the carrier concentration.

We should note that $`R_H`$ for $`x=0`$ saturates as $`T0`$. This clearly indicates that CaPd3O4 is essentially a degenerate semiconductor with a low carrier concentration of 1019 cm-3, which is consistent with the $`T`$-linear $`S`$. Contrary to the theoretical prediction by Hase and Nishihara hase , CaPd3O4 is unlikely to be an excitonic insulator having the charge gap of the order of an exciton binding energy at low temperatures. Thus we conclude that the nonmetallic $`\rho `$ for $`x=0`$ is due to localization effects. $`R_H`$ for $`x=0`$ exhibits remarkable temperature dependence, which implies the existence of the additional carriers activated thermally. This further suggests that the activation energy is smaller than a few tens of K, because $`R_H`$ is clearly dependent on temperature down to 10 K. The small activation energy can also explain the 170-K peak in $`S`$ for $`x=0`$, where the thermally activated electrons dominates at high temperatures. It is not surprising that $`R_H`$ and $`S`$ show different temperature dependences. According to a two-band model consisting of electrons and holes, $`R_H`$ and $`S`$ are averaged with different weights of electron ($`\sigma _e`$) and hole ($`\sigma _h`$) conductivities. A more quantitive analysis would be difficult, unless $`\sigma _e`$ and $`\sigma _h`$ were experimentally determined.

A possible candidate for the small activation energy is the band gap of CaPd3O4. According to the intuitive explanation by Doublet et al. doublet , the valence band of CaPd3O4 consists of Pd 4$`d_{z^2}`$, while the conduction band consists of Pd 4$`d_{x^2y^2}`$ hybridized strongly with O 2$`p`$. Owing to the large dispersion of the Pd 4$`d_{z^2}`$ band, the energy gap between the valence and conduction bands is expected to be small. In fact, the band calculation hase  showed that CaPd3O4 was a semi-metal with zero band-gap.

Now we will make a quantitative discussion on the metal-insulator transition in CaPd3O4. As already mentioned, Li substitution supplies holes in CaPd3O4, and the doped holes seem “normal”, in the sense that they give the $`T`$-linear Seebeck coefficients and the $`T`$-independent Hall coefficients at low temperature. Thus we employ the simplest formula of $`R_H=1/ne`$, where $`n`$ is the hole concentration. Then $`R_H`$’s for $`x=0.1`$ (7.7$`\times `$10-2 cm3/C) and $`x=0.2`$ (3.7$`\times `$10-2 cm3/C) correspond to 0.08 and 0.16 holes per unit formula, respectively. In spite of the rough estimation, the hole concentration obtained from $`R_H`$ is in good agreement with $`x`$, and we can roughly assume that the Li content $`x`$ supplies $`x`$ holes per Li cation.

In the lowest order approximation, the Seebeck coefficient of a conventional metal is expressed as

$$S=\frac{\pi ^2k_B^2}{2eE_F}T$$

where $`E_F`$ is the Fermi energy. Then $`E_F`$ can be experimentally determined from the $`T`$-linear part of the Seebeck coefficient as $`E_F=\pi ^2k_B^2T/2e^2S`$ \[eV\]. Figure 5(a) shows $`\pi ^2k_B^2T/2e^2S`$ for the prepared samples. All the data are roughly independent of temperature at 80 K, from which we evaluate $`E_F`$ for each sample. We think that $`T/S`$ at low temperatures is less reliable, owing to the small magnitude of $`S`$ and low sensitivity of the copper-constantan thermocouple below 10 K.

Figure 5(b) shows the evaluated $`E_F`$ plotted as a function of $`x`$. We further assume a nearly free hole with an effective mass of $`m^{}`$, the Fermi energy is written as

$$E_F=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m^{}}\left(3\pi ^2n\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}=\frac{\mathrm{}^2}{2m}\left(3\pi ^2\frac{2x}{a_0^3}\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}\frac{m}{m^{}}.$$

where $`m`$ is the bare mass of an electron (Note that a unit cell includes two unit formulae). The dotted and solid curves show the calculated $`E_F`$ with $`m^{}/m=`$4 and 6, respectively, between which the evaluated $`E_F`$ lies. This means that the effective mass of Ca1-xLixPd3O4 is nearly independent of $`x`$, and is moderately (4-6 times) enhanced from the bare mass, possibly owing to the 4d nature.

Finally we will make brief comments on remaining issues. (i) Ca1-xLixPd3O4 is a possible candidate for a p-type thermoelectric oxide mahan . A thermoelectric material is a material that converts heat into electric power, and electric power into heat, through the thermoelectric phenomena in solids. The thermoelectric power factor $`S^2/\rho `$ is 1.6 $`\mu `$W/cm K2 for $`x=0.4`$ at 300 K, which is comparable to the value for the polycrystalline NaCo2O4 known as a promising candidate for a thermoelectric oxide terra . (ii) At present, we have no direct evidence that the doped holes form on-site pairs like Pd4+. The charge transport observed in the present paper is quantitatively explained in terms of nearly free holes with the enhanced mass. In other words, this system is highly robust against charge disproportionaltion and/or charge density wave. The orthogonally entangled PdO4 columns may play an important role, as was suggested by Doublet et al.doublet  Another reason would be that the carrier concentration was too low to observe the “valence skipper” effects. In the case of Bi oxides, the valence skipper effects are most remarkable in BaBiO3, where the charge ordered state of Bi3+ and Bi5+ are stabilized. With doping, the Bi3+-Bi5+ state collapses and the band picture gradually recovers. In the present study, the Pd4+ content is less than 10 %, and this corresponds to BaPb1-xBixO3 ($`x<0.2`$) which can be explained by the band picture uchida . Thus it would be more tempting to synthesize a Pd oxide consisting of (formally) Pd3+ to search for the valence skipper effects. (iii) The small band gap implies that electrons can be doped in the conduction band. Preliminarily we succeeded in electron doping by substitution of a trivalent ion (La3+, Y3+, and Bi3+) for Ca2+. (iv) The present results are quite different from $`\rho `$ and $`S`$ for Ca1-xNaxPd3O4 by Itoh et al.itoh ; itoh2  We prepared Na substituted samples, but found that $`\rho `$ and $`S`$ were essentially the same as those for Ca1-xLixPd3O4. We employed “NaCl flux” technique to suppress reduction of PdO, but Itoh et al. used conventional solid state reaction. Thus the different preparation method might give different samples.

## IV Summary

The resistivity, the Seebeck coefficient, and the Hall coefficient for Ca1-xLixPd3O4 ($`x`$=0-0.6) have been measured and analyzed. Since the parent material CaPd3O4 is a degenerate semiconductor with a finite carrier concentration of 1019 cm-3, it is unlikely to be an excitonic insulator as suggested by Hase and Nishihara hase . The metal-insulator transition in this system is thus basically driven by localization effects. The carrier concentration dependence of the Hall and Seebeck coefficients is consistently explained in terms of a simple one-band picture, where a hole with a moderately enhanced mass ($`m^{}/m`$4-6) is itinerant three-dimensionally.

The authors would like to thank T. Fujii, R. Kitawaki, W.Kobayashi, and K. Kurihara for useful comments. They also appreciate T. Sugaya for technical support.


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# The ϵ Chamaeleontis young stellar group and the characterization of sparse stellar clusters

## 1 Introduction

While much star formation research has concentrated on the origins of rich stellar clusters and of isolated individual stars, it is likely that a significant fraction of stars also form in groups of $`N10100`$ stars which represent an intermediate scale in the hierarchical structure of star formation regions (Clarke, Bonnell, & Hillenbrand, 2000; Elmegreen et al., 2000; Adams & Myers, 2001; Kroupa & Boily, 2002). If their stellar population is drawn from a standard initial mass function (IMF), these stellar groups will typically be dominated by a few $`330`$ M stars. These groups may emerge from relatively small molecular clouds, such as found in the Taurus-Auriga cloud complex, or in parts of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) which also produce the rich OB associations. In the latter case, some plausibly will appear dispersed around OB associations, propelled by motions inherited from the natal turbulent molecular material (Feigelson, 1996).

Such young stellar groups are often difficult to find as they are often dynamically unbound, dispersing into the Galactic field within a few million years (Bonnell & Clarke, 1999). Study of small stellar groups is thus largely confined to the pre-main sequence (PMS) phase. Searches have been pursued in two ways. First, excess stellar densities in the neighborhoods of nearby Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) stars – intermediate-mass PMS stars readily identified by their infrared-luminous disks and active accretion – are sought using optical and near-infrared imagery (Aspin & Barsony, 1994; Hillenbrand et al., 1995; Testi et al., 1997; Testi, Palla, & Natta, 1999; Weinberger et al., 2000). They are often surrounded by small groups of $`540`$ lower mass stars, as expected from the IMF.

Second, sparse stellar groups kinematically convergent with the nearest OB association, the Oph-Sco-Cen Association (OSCA; this nomenclature is adopted from Blaauw, 1991), have been identified (Mamajek, Lawson, & Feigelson, 2000; Ortega et al., 2002). These include one compact group – the $`\eta `$ Cha cluster dominated by a B8 star and three A stars (Mamajek, Lawson, & Feigelson, 1999; Lawson et al., 2001) – and two dispersed groups – the $`\beta `$ Pic moving group dominated by five A stars (Zuckerman et al., 2001) and the TW Hya Association with a single A star (HR 4796; Song, Bessell & Zuckerman 2002 and references therein). The locations of these groups in relation to the OSCA are illustrated in Figure 1. Membership of OSCA outlier groups are principally based on a combination of kinematical criteria and elevated X-ray emission, which is a ubiquitous characteristic throughout PMS evolution from Class I protostars through post-T Tauri stars (Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999).

In addition to clustering on $`0.110`$ pc scales, intermediate-mass stars may be accompanied by bound companions on $`1000`$ AU scales. The stellar multiplicity of older low-mass stars is established to be 57:38:4:1 singles:binaries:triples:quartets for every 100 stars (Duquennoy & Mayor, 1991). A few higher multiplicity field systems are known such as Castor, a sextet of three close binaries dominated by two early A stars. The situation is more confusing for PMS systems. The crowded and rich Orion Nebula Cluster simultaneously shows very high multiplicities around its massive OB stars, main sequence levels of close lower-mass binaries, and a deficiency of wide binaries (Preibisch et al., 1999; Simon, Close, & Beck, 1999). The distribution of binary separations may depend on the local density of neighbors even within a single cluster (Brandner & Koehler, 1998). In less crowded environments like the Taurus-Auriga clouds, binarity is nearly a factor of 2 higher among lower-mass PMS systems than in main sequence stars such that virtually all stars appear to be born in multiple systems (Mathieu, 1994). Binary fractions among HAeBe stars are also elevated above main sequence levels and a few triple systems are known (§7.2).

The study of multiplicity in young stars is of critical importance (Zinnecker & Mathieu, 2001). It first addresses primordial conditions of star formation, such as the fragmentation of molecular material and redistribution of angular momentum during gravitational collapse (Klessen, 2001; Boss, 2002; Larson, 2002, and the review by Bodenheimer et al. 2000). But it also reveals subsequent dynamical evolutionary effects, such as the dissipation of molecular material, close stellar encounters, stellar evaporation, and the survival of protoplanetary disks (reviews by Bonnell 2000 and Kroupa 2000).

We report here an effort that combines the two observatioal approaches outlined above. We seek young low-mass PMS stars with elevated X-ray emission around intermediate-mass PMS HAeBe stars that are kinematically associated with the OSCA. This is a small study based on only five X-ray snapshots designed to test the efficacy of the method. Despite the exploratory nature of our effort, one new young OSCA outlying stellar group is found associated with the closely spaced B/A stars $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237, including a remarkably high multiplicity of HD 104237 itself. Section 5 details our X-ray, optical/infrared photometric and spectroscopic characterization of the $`ϵ`$ Cha group111Following the practice of Mamajek, Lawson, & Feigelson (1999) in naming the $`\eta `$ Chamaeleontis star cluster, we name the new $`ϵ`$ Chamaeleontis group of PMS stars after the highest mass member. Components HD 104237 B-E are names in order of proximity to the primary HD 104237A.. We also find new companions within $`200`$ AU of two of the other observed HAeBe stars, HD 141569 and HD 150193 (§6). A variety of theoretical issues are discussed in §7.

## 2 Our strategy for locating young stellar systems

Figure 1 shows $`1/4`$ of the celestial sphere featuring stars associated with the OSCA. The dashed lines outline the boundaries of the rich Upper Sco (US), Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL) and Lower Centaurus Crux (LCC) subgroups of the OSCA defined by de Zeeuw et al. (1999) in their detailed study of Hipparcos  motions. The brighter members, complete to $`V7`$ and consisting mainly of intermediate-mass BAF stars, identified by them are plotted as small dots. The three thick arrows show subgroup average proper motions during the next 1 Myr without correction for solar reflex motion. Hipparcos  parallaxes of these bright members establish the subgroup distances to be 145 pc (US), 140 pc (UCL) and 118 pc (LCC).

Several samples of fainter OSCA members within the traditional boundaries have been constructed based on various combinations of kinematical, spectroscopic and X-ray selection criteria (Preibisch et al., 2002; Mamajek, Meyer, & Liebert, 2002), but these constitute only a few percent of the full population of the subgroups, estimated to be $`6000`$ stars with $`M>0.1`$ M assuming a standard initial mass function and some stellar evaporation (de Geus, 1992). The late-type members of these samples are particularly valuable in establishing ages from their positions on the PMS tracks in the HR diagram. The ages for Oph, US, UCL and LCC OSCA subgroups are found to be $`05`$, 5, 16 and 17 Myr respectively. This progression of ages led Blaauw (1964, 1991) to suggest that a sequence of distinct star forming events occurred in the ancestral giant molecular cloud where later events are triggered by the shocks and ionization fronts produced by the OB stars of previous events (Elmegreen & Lada, 1977). The ages of the outlying OSCA groups are similarly established to be $`9`$, $`12`$, and $`10`$ Myr for the $`\eta `$ Cha, $`\beta `$ Pic and TW Hya groups respectively (Lawson & Feigelson, 2001; Zuckerman et al., 2001; Webb et al., 1999).

In this preliminary study, we chose five HAeBe stars with present-day space positions in or near the OSCA, and with space motions consistent with an origin in the SCA giant molecular cloud (Table 1). The first five columns of the table give the star identifiers, Hipparcos distances, and estimated masses and ages. See table notes for details.

The ninth column of Table 1 indicates that two of the stars are closely associated with small molecular clouds. HD 100546 is likely associated with the bright-rimmed dark cloud DC296.2-7.9 located 0.4 away (Vieira, Pogodin, & Franco, 1999; Mizuno et al., 2001). HD 104237, and its comoving non-emission line B9Vn companion $`ϵ`$ Cha 2′ away, lie among several small molecular clumps with $`M_{gas}<1`$ M within $``$10′ (Knee & Prusti, 1996). Knee & Prusti plausibly argue that these are dissipating remnants of the molecular cloud from which these two intermediate-mass stars formed. Indeed, the entire Chamaeleon-Musca region south of the OSCA has many widely dispersed small molecular clouds and filaments, some closely associated with relatively isolated PMS stars (Mizuno et al., 1998, 2001). These authors (see also Mamajek et al. 2000) discuss the possibility that this molecular material remains after the passage of the interstellar supershells attributed to the OB winds and supernova remnants of the OSCA (de Geus, 1992).

Figure 1 qualitatively shows that the five targets have $`Hipparcos`$ proper motions similar to those of the principal OSCA subgroups. Quantitative assessment of an origin in the same molecular cloud complex, which is now largely dispersed, requires accurate radial velocities which are generally not available. We adopt here the approximate method described by Mamajek, Lawson, & Feigelson (2000) (see also Mamajek & Feigelson 2001) where we evaluate the closest approach in three dimensions between a star and OSCA subgroups, $`D_{OSCA}`$, assuming linear motion and arbitrary radial velocities. This calculation of closest approach includes correction for solar reflex motion, and is similar to the measurement of proximity of ‘spaghetti’ in 6-dimensional phase space described by Hoogerwerf & Aguilar (1999) and used by de Zeeuw et al. (1999) to establish OSCA memberships. The resulting $`D_{OSCA}`$ distances for the target stars to OSCA subgroup centers over the past 10 Myr are given in the last column of Table 1. In the two cases where radial velocity measurements are available (HD 141569 and 152404, Barbier-Brossat & Figon 2000), our method correctly gives the closest approach to OSCA subgroups for the measured value compared to other hypothetical values.

From this measure of past proximity, available kinematical data for three of the target stars (HD 100546, 104237 and 150193) are fully consistent with OSCA subgroup membership ($`D_{OSCA}<10`$ pc), while for two stars (HD 141569 and 152404) SCA membership is less certain ($`D_{OSCA}30`$ pc). For the three stars lying within the SCA boundaries (Figure 1), these results agree with those obtained by de Zeeuw et al. (1999) who assign HD 100546 and 150193 as high probability OSCA members and HD 152404 as a lower probability member.

Finally, we note that for three targets $``$ HD 100546, HD 141569 and HD 150193 $``$ searches for close low-mass companions to the bright HAeBe primary have been made at optical or near-infrared bands (§6). This provides us opportunity to compare the effectiveness of finding companions through X-ray activity versus  photospheric emission.

## 3 $`Chandra`$ observations and analysis

Table 2 gives the log of X-ray observations. We used the $`16\mathrm{}\times 16\mathrm{}`$ Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer Imaging (ACIS-I) array on board the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The satellite and instrument are described by Weisskopf et al. (2002). The first stages of data reduction are described in the Appendix of Townsley et al. (2003). Briefly, we start with the Level 1 events from the satellite telemetry, correct event energies for charge transfer inefficiency, and apply a variety of data selection operations such as ASCA event grades and energies in the range $`0.58`$ keV. A small (typically $`1`$″) correction to the image boresight is made so the X-ray bright Herbig Ae/Be stellar position agrees with the $`Hipparcos`$ position.

Candidate sources were located using a wavelet-based detection algorithm (Freeman et al., 2002). We applied a low threshold ($`P=1\times 10^5`$) so that some spurious sources are found which we exclude later. The image was visually examined for additional sources such as close companions to the bright HAeBe star. Events for each candidate source were extracted using the acis\_extract222 Description and code for acis\_extract are available at
http://www.astro.psu.edu/xray/docs/TARA/ae\_users\_guide.html. procedures which take into account the position-dependent point spread function. Background is negligible for sources of interest in these short exposures and was not subtracted. Candidate sources with $`<`$3 extracted counts are now rejected.

The valid sources are cross-correlated with the USNO-B1.0 star catalog derived from all-sky Schmidt survey photographic plates (Monet et al., 2003). Sources with counterparts brighter than 16.0 magnitude in the $`B`$, $`V`$ or $`R`$ band are considered to be prime candidate young stars. This criterion eliminates virtually all X-ray sources which are extragalactic. The X-ray sources with stellar counterparts are listed in Tables 3 and 4.

Table 5 provide results from subsequent analysis of the X-ray properties of the sources most likely associated with PMS stars. The following software packages were used: CIAO 2.3 and $`acis\mathrm{\_}extract`$ for photon extraction, XRONOS 5.19 for variability, and XSPEC 11.2 for spectral modeling. $`C_{extr}`$ events were extracted in the $`0.58`$ keV band from a circular region of radius $`R_{extr}`$ (in arcsec). $`f_{PSF}`$ gives the fraction of a point spread function lying within that radius at the source’s location in the ACIS field333These values are derived from the memo ‘An analysis of the ACIS-HRMA point response function’ by A. Ware and B. R. McNamara (1999) available at http://cxc.harvard.edu/cal/Acis/Cal\_prods/psf/Memo/abstract.html and its associated data products. The subarcsecond on-axis values were derived from calibration run H-IAI-CR-1.001 and are not very certain because the point spread function under in-flight conditions may differ slightly from that seen during ground calibration..

The distribution of photon energies were modeled as emission from a thermal plasma with energy $`kT`$ based on MEKAL emissivities (Kaastra & Mewe, 2000). For two of the stronger sources, a two-temperature plasma model was needed. For the weaker sources with $`C_{extr}30`$ counts, the derived $`kT`$ values are unreliable and are provided only to indicate how broadband luminosities were derived. With one exception (HD 104237 E), successful fits were found without intervening absorption by interstellar or circumstellar material. While the derived plasma energies are often imprecise, broad-band fluxes integrated over the best-fit model are insensitive to spectral fitting uncertainties and have roughly $`1/\sqrt{C_{extr}}`$ errors. X-ray luminosities, $`L_s`$ in the soft $`0.52`$ keV band and $`L_t`$ in the total $`0.58`$ keV band, are obtained from these fluxes by multiplying by $`4\pi d^2`$ using the distances in Table 1 and dividing by $`f_{PSF}`$.

Variability information is limited by our short exposures. No source exhibited significant variations within an observation, as measured with a Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test. Virtually all stellar sources observed in the two widely separate exposures of the $`ϵ`$ Cha/HD 104237 field showed long-term variability. Table 5 gives these luminosities separately assuming no variations in spectral shape.

## 4 Optical observations

### 4.1 Color-magnitude photometric study of the $`ϵ`$ Cha/HD 104237 field

Optical color-magnitude diagrams are a powerful tool aiding the discovery and characterization of PMS stellar populations (Walter et al., 2000; Lawson et al., 2001). For nearby compact, coeval and codistant groups, PMS stars form an isochrone that is elevated in magnitude above the vast majority of field stars owing to a combination of youth, proximity and (for groups dispersed from their parent molecular cloud) the absence of significant reddening. For X-ray discovered groups of PMS stars such as the $`\eta `$ Cha cluster (Mamajek, Lawson, & Feigelson, 1999) and the $`ϵ`$ Cha group announced here, optical photometric study also permits an independent evaluation of completeness within the X-ray field (except for low-mass stars located very close to the bright A and B stars). X-ray-faint stars with similar photometric properties to X-ray selected cluster members can be identified and subsequently observed using spectroscopy for confirmation of membership; e.g. for the $`\eta `$ Cha cluster, we identified two X-ray faint late-type members residing within the $`ROSAT`$ High-Resolution Imager discovery field including the strongest disk source in the cluster (Lawson et al., 2002; Lyo et al., 2003a).

We made a map covering most of the Chandra  $`ϵ`$ Cha/HD 104237 field in the Cousins VI  photometric bands using the 1.0-m telescope and SITe CCD detector at the Sutherland field station of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) during 2002 January. Some later VRI  observations were made in 2002 April and 2003 April to complete coverage of the field. A total field of $`300`$ square arcmin centered on HD 104237 was surveyed under photometric conditions in $``$ 1.5″ seeing, with the observations transformed to the standard system using observations of southern photometric standard stars. Exposure times in the VRI  bands of 90 s, 60 s and 30 s, respectively, permits detection – for $`10`$ Myr-old PMS stars at $`100`$ pc distance – down to M6 spectral type cluster members with $`V18`$ and ($`VI`$) $`4.5`$. For the central regions of the Chandra  field, we also obtained exposures of shorter duration ($`130`$ s) to minimize saturation effects from the bright $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237 on photometry of several spatially proximate late-type stars. Finally, we obtained deeper exposures (VRI  exposures of 900s, 600s and 300s) to characterize the optical counterparts of the faintest Chandra  sources.

Figure 2 shows the placement of X-ray selected stars from the Chandra  field (Table 3) in the ($`VI`$) $`vs.`$ $`V`$ color-mag diagram (open and filled circles) along with several hundred X-ray-faint field stars representative of background sources in the shallow VI  survey. The symbols used for these and other stars reflect the outcomes of photometric and spectroscopic studies that we detail in the following sections. We compare the location of these stars to isochrones from the PMS evolutionary models of Siess, Dufour, & Forestini (2000) scaled to a distance of 114 pc; the mean of Hipparcos  distances to $`ϵ`$ Cha ($`112\pm 7`$ pc) and HD 140237 ($`116\pm 8`$ pc). The location of the Chandra  stellar counterparts in the color-mag diagram is our first evidence for stellar youth in the X-ray bright stars located nearby $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 140237, with many of these sources (open and filled circles in Figure 2) located between the 2- and 20-Myr isochrones. This is consistent with an independently estimated age for HD 104237 itself, of around $`23`$ Myr (Table 1).

From Figure 2, we identify two groups of stars for follow-up spectroscopic characterization for signs of stellar youth such as Li 6707 absorption and enhanced optical activity: (i) the X-ray-selected stars; and (ii) field stars with photometry broadly consistent with that of the Chandra  counterparts (defined as stars with $`V`$ mags within $`1`$ magnitude, for a given color, of the sequence of Chandra  sources proximate to $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237). These latter stars are indicated by the open and filled squares in Figure 2.

### 4.2 Spectroscopic confirmation

Optical spectroscopy of most of the Chandra  stellar counterparts and optical photometric candidates were obtained during 2002 March and 2003 April using the 2.3-m telescope and dual-beam spectrograph (DBS) at Mount Stromlo & Siding Spring Observatories (MSSSO). Using the 1200 line mm-1 grating in the red beam resulted in spectra with coverage from $`63257240`$ Å at a 2-pixel resolution of 1.1 Å, with the slit projecting 2″ on the sky. For the late-type stars, exposure times of $`6003000`$ s yielded continuum signal-to-noise ratios of $`20100`$ near H$`\alpha `$. The spectra were reduced using dome flats, bias and Fe-Ar arc frames, making use of standard IRAF routines such as ccdproc.

Analysis of the spectra showed four of the Chandra-selected stars were active, lithium-rich late-type objects (Figure 3). An additional T Tauri star not detected by Chandra  was identified from the list of photometric candidates. The two optically-bright Chandra  sources in the field with proper motions discordant with $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237, CPD $`77^\mathrm{o}`$773 and CPD $`77^\mathrm{o}`$775, lack detectable Li 6707 (equivalent widths $`EW<0.05`$ Å), as do the several field stars observed with the DBS that were either detected by Chandra  or have photometric properties similar to the $`ϵ`$ Cha/HD104237 group stars. We did not obtain spectroscopy of three very faint Chandra  counterparts following the analysis of optical colors showing them not to be late-type stars.

The resulting H$`\alpha `$ and Li-region normalized spectra for $`ϵ`$ Cha, HD 104237 and the five T Tauri stars located within the Chandra  field are shown in Figure 3, with H$`\alpha `$ and Li $`EW`$’s listed in Table 3. Surprisingly, for HD 104237 itself we detect Li I 6707 and nearby lines such as Ca I 6718 that are indicative of a late-type star; we discuss these spectra further in §5.1.

### 4.3 Rotation and variability studies

For several the candidate stars identified by Chandra  and confirmed to be PMS in our early ground-based studies, we obtained multi-epoch differential photometry using the 1.0-m telescope at SAAO during 2002 April and May. Observations were made in the Cousins VRI  bands for the central regions of the HD 104237 field, and two distant fields containing late-type sources. For each field, $`15`$ epochs were obtained over 10 nights in $`1.53`$″ conditions. The differential magnitudes for each of the T Tauri stars were determined with respect to $`46`$ local ‘standard stars’ within each CCD field which were found to remain constant to $`<0.01`$ mag. A few of the nightly datasets were also transformed to the standard system via the observation of southern photometric standard stars. Results from this study are presented in 5.1.

## 5 The $`ϵ`$ Cha young stellar group

We describe here individual stars in the $`ϵ`$ Cha field found by these X-ray and/or optical methods. The running star number, positions, names and optical properties are given in Table 3. The ‘ID Type’ in column 2 summarizes whether a given star is selected as a PMS group member by virtue of its X-ray emission, its location on the PMS photometric isochrone (Figure 2), the presence of H$`\alpha `$ or Li 6707 spectroscopic indicators (Figure 3), and/or Hipparcos  astrometric association with $`ϵ`$ Cha/HD 104237 and the OSCA. The ‘Class’ in the final column of Table 3 gives our assessment distinguishing accreting classical T Tauri (CTT) stars from non-accreting stars weak-lined T Tauri (WTT) stars based on the strength and width of the H$`\alpha `$ emission line.

Figure 4 shows the large-scale optical field, and Figure 5 shows the X-ray sources in the immediate vicinity of $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237. X-ray spectra, variability and luminosities are given in Table 5. We give rough mass estimates based on the correlation between X-ray luminosity and mass seen in the large sample of Orion Nebula Cluster stars (see Figure 4 of Feigelson et al. 2003). Stars probably associated with $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237 (confirmed members) and non-members are listed in separate sections of Table 3 and are described below.

### 5.1 Confirmed members

#1: CXOU 115908.2-781232 Located $``$ 2′ WNW of HD 104237 A, red beam DBS spectroscopy shows the star is of M5 spectral type (with an uncertainty of $`0.51`$ subtype) with $`EW=6.2`$ Å H$`\alpha `$ emission and very prominent Li 6707 absorption. Its photometric colors ($`VR`$) = 1.42 and ($`VI`$) = 3.16 are consistent with this spectral type without reddening, and its low X-ray luminosity around $`\mathrm{log}L_t28.5`$ erg s-1 is typical for M-type PMS stars. The soft X-ray spectrum with most of the counts below 1 keV is reminiscent of the ultrasoft spectrum of the TW Hya brown dwarf TWA 5B (Tsuboi et al., 2003). Multi-epoch differential $`VRI`$ photometry obtained at SAAO during 2002 April was inconclusive; the $`V`$-band data was found to be variable at the 2$`\sigma `$ level compared to stars of similar brightness within the CCD field (1$`\sigma =0.015`$ mag at $`V17`$).

#2: $`ϵ`$ Cha AB The star shows strong H$`\alpha `$ absorption ($`EW=+13`$ Å) and has photometry consistent with the established spectral type of B9V given in the SIMBAD database. The star is a cataloged binary consisting of components with visual magnitudes of 5.4 (A) and 6.1 (B) with separation variously reported between 0.45″ and 1.9″ (ESA, 1997; Worley & Douglass, 1997; Dommanget & Nys, 2002). Assuming $`ϵ`$ Cha A is spectral type B9 without significant reddening, then $`ϵ`$ Cha B is an early-A star (and we adopt here A1). The projected separation of $`50200`$ AU implies a many century-long period. However, the star is a radial velocity variable on far shorter timescales, inferring a higher order of multiplicity. Buscombe (1962) lists four velocities obtained over 120 days that vary between $`9`$ and $`+16`$ km s-1, and an older measurement of $`+22`$ km s-1. As further evidence of multiplicity, HR diagram placement of $`ϵ`$ Cha A (Figure 6) suggests the star is over-luminous compared to other group members (see §5.3). The absence of any X-ray emission gives a very low limit of $`\mathrm{log}L_t<27.7`$ erg s-1 ($`<3`$ ACIS counts). This strongly suggests the $`ϵ`$ Cha system contains no late-type PMS companions above mid-M. This conclusion is supported by inspection of the DBS red spectrum; no late-type stellar features are evident in the H$`\alpha `$ region. With its over-luminosity and absence of late-type companion, we suggest that $`ϵ`$ Cha A is an unresolved binary between two BA-type stars, and thus the $`ϵ`$ Cha system in its entirety may have three BA-type stars.

#3: HD 104237 C This and the following $`Chandra`$ source lie within 5″ of HD 104237 A and could not be seen with the acquisition camera of the MSSSO 2.3-m in grey conditions in $`2`$″ seeing. They are also not listed in either the USNO-B1.0 or 2MASS catalogs. We therefore provide here no optical information for these sources. Component C, lying 5″ to the NW, was variable in X-rays: all 6 of its events appeared during the second epoch exposure. Its low X-ray luminosity is consistent with a PMS M-type star or brown dwarf.

#4: HD 104237 B Component B lies in the wings on the W side of HD 104237 A’s point spread function. Its X-ray luminosity of $`\mathrm{log}L_t=29.1`$ erg s-1 is typical of a late-K or early-M star. This star may be the origin of the K-type spectral features seen in HD 104237 A (see below). An additional X-ray component may also be present; a weak source to the North of components A and B residing within A’s point spread function. In this particular case, we can not be confident of its existence or properties and do not assign it a component letter. A longer $`Chandra`$ exposure giving sufficient signal for subarcsecond deconvolution (see, for example, the procedures in Tsuboi et al. 2003) might clearly resolve this close component.

#5: HD 104237 A Spectroscopy of the HD 104237 primary shows H$`\alpha `$ in emission as expected for an HAeBe star, with $`EW=20`$ Å. van den Ancker et al. (1997) finds $`A_V=0.71`$ mag for the star. Given the lack of absorption in most of the other $`ϵ`$ Cha members described here, we suggest this absorption arises in the immediate environment (e.g., inflow, outflow or disk) of this star. Surprisingly, we also detect cool star features indicative of a K-type T Tauri star: Li I 6707 and Ca I 6718 are clearly detected in the expanded spectrum of Figure 3. Assuming a typical Ca I equivalent width for K-type stars of $`0.20.3`$ Å, we find a similar $`EW`$ for the Li I 6707 line. The DBS spectrum was obtained along Position Angle (PA) = 182 with a slit projection on the sky of 2″. It seems likely that we have detected component B (or possibly a closer component). We tentatively associate a ‘K:’ spectral type to component B for this reason in Table 3.

#6: HD 104237 D This star, 10″ ESE of the HAeBe star, is also invisible in on-line Digital Sky Surveys, but was clearly distinguished with the acquisition cameras of the 1.0-m telescope at SAAO and the 2.3-m telescope at MSSSO. DBS spectroscopy indicates a spectral type of M3 with weak H$`\alpha `$ emission and strong Li I 6707 absorption. SAAO colors are ($`VR`$) = 1.19 and ($`VI`$) = 2.66 with uncertainties of $`\pm 0.05`$ mag because of the strongly variable background from HD 104237 A. The 2MASS $`JHK`$ photometry for this star carries confusion flags due to the proximity of HD 104237 A, and is therefore not listed in Table 3. Within the uncertainty in the spectral type and the photometry, reddening is negligible for HD 104237 D. Multi-epoch $`VRI`$ photometry from SAAO during 2002 April provides little information on the variability of the star; the nearby bright HAeBe star spoiled most of the photometric observations which typically suffered $`2`$″ seeing. However, several epochs obtained in $`<2`$″ conditions suggested low photometric variability over the 10 day time interval of the observations. The X-ray emission also did not change between our two widely-spaced observations. Its luminosity of $`\mathrm{log}L_t29.3`$ erg s-1 is consistent with that expected from an early-M PMS star, and its spectrum (as with member #1) appears unusually soft.

#7: HD 104237 E The star is clearly resolved from HD 104237 A in POSS-2 scans of the field. Spectroscopy obtained with the MSSSO 2.3-m telescope and both the red ($`R6000`$ at H$`\alpha `$; see Figure 3) and blue beams ($`R2000`$ at 4500 Å) of the DBS spectrograph show the star is an early K-type star. We adopt here a spectral type of K3. The red beam spectrum shows strong Li I 6707 absorption with $`EW=0.5`$ Å and weak but broad H$`\alpha `$ with strong self-absorption. The H$`\alpha `$ $`EW=4.5`$ Å, and is $`6`$ Å if we ‘correct’ for the self-absorption signature. While the unabsorbed H$`\alpha `$ $`EW`$ is below the historical 10 Å separator WTT and CTT stars, it lies above the $`EW>3`$ Å boundary suggested by White & Basri (2003) for accreting K-type stars. The velocity width is $`500`$ km s-1 at the level 10 percent above the surrounding continuum, strongly suggestive of on-going accretion from a circumstellar disk.

Photometry obtained at SAAO shows the star is highly variable on a 2.45 day period with VRI  values at maximum light of $`V=12.08`$, ($`VR`$) = 0.83 and ($`VI`$) = 1.80. Adopting intrinsic colors (for main sequence stars) from Kenyon & Hartmann (1995) and the extinction corrections of Bessell & Brett (1988), we find $`A_V=1.8\pm 0.3`$ mag. (We plot the measured colours of the star in Figure 2, and the de-reddened luminosity in Figure 6.) In this respect, HD 104237 E is distinct from all the other T Tauri stars associated with $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237 A which show little or no optical reddening, including the very nearby HD 104237 D. Similarly, the X-ray spectrum of HD 104237 E uniquely shows significant soft X-ray absorption (Table 5). The best fit gives $`\mathrm{log}N_H=22.4`$ cm-2, equivalent to $`A_V=16`$. The star was also highly variable in X-rays with an 8-fold difference between the first to second epochs. At its peak and corrected for absorption, its X-ray luminosity exceeded that of the HAeBe primary HD 104237 A.

The optical reddening and X-ray absorption for this star suggests that we are viewing the surface of HD 104237 E through local intervening material. While it could be associated with patchy interstellar cloud material (dust emitting weakly at 100$`\mu `$ is seen with $`IRAS`$ within 10′ of HD 104237; Knee & Prusti 1996), we suspect it arises from material within the stellar system. The 2MASS photometry for this star has either upper limits or confusion flags, and is not listed in Table 3. A future study will detail the variability and nature of this star.

#8: USNO-B 120144.7-781926 The star was outside the original photometric field surveyed at SAAO during 2002 January, but was found during 2002 April in a field centered on nearby CXOU 120152.8-781840.9. The star resides near the edge of the Chandra  field, but was undetected in X-rays, indicating log $`L_t<28.0`$ erg s-1. It was observed spectroscopically because it has photometric properties similar to several of the Chandra-selected late-type members. DBS spectroscopy obtained in 2003 April confirms the star is an active M5 spectral type PMS star with optical classical T Tauri star characteristics such as strong H$`\alpha `$ ($`EW=23`$ Å) and He I emission at 6678 Å. Lithium is present as levels typical for T Tauri stars ($`EW=0.6`$ Å). Analysis of the optical and 2MASS photometry suggests no significant $`K`$-band excess. Multi-epoch photometry obtained in 2002 April indicates the star is highly variable with amplitude of $`0.2`$ mag but with no detected periodicity probably due to undersampling of the light curve.

#9: CXOU 120152.8-781840 DBS spectroscopy shows the star is of M5 spectral type with moderately strong H$`\alpha `$ emission and Li I 6707 absorption. VRI  photometry indicates ($`VR`$) = 1.49 and ($`VI`$) = 3.26, consistent with the spectral type estimate. Our multi-epoch photometric observations indicate no significant level of variability compared to field stars of similar magnitude. The X-ray emission was low, typical for PMS M stars, but probably variable with 14 of 21 events arriving in the first epoch.

### 5.2 Non-members

CPD -77o773 The H$`\alpha `$ line is seen weakly in absorption and Li I 6707 is undetected, indicating this star is not PMS. Our DBS spectroscopy and SAAO photometric color ($`VI`$ = 1.34) is consistent with the star being a early K-type giant. The SIMBAD lists a spectral type of K0.

CPD -77o775 The H$`\alpha `$ line is strongly in absorption and Li I 6707 is undetected, again indicating the star is older than PMS. Our spectroscopy and color ($`VI`$ = 0.49) indicates the star is a (possibly mildly reddened) early F-type dwarf, supporting the SIMBAD spectral type of F0.

CXOU 120118.2-780252 Located near the North edge of the Chandra  field, the star is a weak but highly variable X-ray source; all 17 of its photons arrived during the second Chandra  snapshot. DBS spectroscopy shows the star is a late K-type star, with weak H$`\alpha `$ emission ($`EW=1.5`$ Å) and no detection of lithium. For its spectral type, the star is $`4`$ mag too faint to be associated with the $`ϵ`$ Cha PMS stellar group. If the star is main-sequence, it lies at a distance of $`250`$ pc.

Three faint Chandra  counterparts Optical CCD study of the faint counterparts associated with CXOU 115942.2-781836, CXOU 120101.4-780618 and CXOU 120135.3-780427 shows none have photometric properties consistent with late-M stars or brown dwarfs associated with $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237. VRI  photometry obtained for these objects at SAAO during 2003 April indicate colours consistent with early K-type dwarfs. None of these objects were observed with the DBS spectrograph. If main-sequence K stars, they must lie at distances of $`24`$ kpc inferring unrealistically high log $`L_t>30`$ erg s-1. If instead these objects are active galaxies, they are unresolved at the $``$ 1.5″ resolution of the SAAO CCD images.

Three additional photometric candidates The final three stars in Table 3 have $`V`$ magnitudes that, for their ($`VI`$) colour, fell within $`1`$ mag (fainter) of the sequence of Chandra-detected late-type stars in the $`ϵ`$ Cha/HD 104237 field. We observed them with the DBS spectrograph and found two early K and one early M star. None were active, lithium-rich objects; all are likely field giants.

### 5.3 An HR diagram for the $`ϵ`$ Cha group

Based on these photometric and spectroscopic characterizations of the PMS stars associated with $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237, we produce in Figure 6 an HR diagram of group members. The spectral type-$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and bolometric correction sequences for main-sequence stars given by Kenyon & Hartmann (1995) are used. Locations of the $`ϵ`$ Cha group stars are compared to the PMS evolutionary grids of Siess, Dufour, & Forestini (2000) from which several isochrone and isomass lines are shown.

We find that the HAeBe star HD 104237 A and $`ϵ`$ Cha B lie near the 3 Myr isochrone, and the two well-characterised companions to HD 104237 A, HD 104237 D and E, lie near the 5 Myr isochrone. Since Chandra  imaging and DBS optical spectroscopy for HD 104237 A shows evidence for one (or maybe two) very nearby late-type companions, its position in the HR diagram is likely slightly elevated. It is also dependent on the quality of the reddening estimate ($`A_V=0.71`$ mag) given by van den Ancker et al. (1997) which we have applied to HD 104237 A444 Our $`35`$ Myr estimate for $`ϵ`$ Cha B and the HD 104237 A-E system using Siess, Dufour, & Forestini (2000) tracks can be compared to the 2 Myr estimate given by van den Ancker et al. (1997) for HD 104237A using Palla & Stahler (1993) tracks. Along with the observational considerations discussed above, the age difference is also likely model dependent. Comparing several sets of PMS evolutionary grids to the HR diagram location of members of the $`9`$ Myr-old $`\eta `$ Cha cluster, Lawson & Feigelson (2001) found the more-recent Palla & Stahler (1999) models gave factor of $`2`$ younger inferred ages for early-type stars compared to the Siess, Dufour, & Forestini (2000) models..

In Figure 6, we show $`ϵ`$ Cha AB as an B9+A1 system with a 0.7 mag brightness difference. As noted in §5.1, $`ϵ`$ Cha A appears to be elevated in luminosity (and therefore appears younger) compared to the isochronal locus of $`ϵ`$ Cha B, HD 104237 A, HD 104237 D and HD104237 E. The discrepant position of $`ϵ`$ Cha A may be grid dependent or, as discussed in §5.1, that it is a close binary itself with detected radial velocity variations. We thus suspect that $`ϵ`$ Cha A consists of two components which fall near the $`35`$ Myr isochrones.

The three active, lithium-rich M5 stars (CXOU 115908.2-781232, USNO-B 120144.7-781926 and CXOU 120152.8-781840) appear systematically older than the stars of earlier spectral type. Their HR diagram placement implies an age of $`10`$ Myr. In considering the ages of these stars compared to other group members, we discuss two possibilities:

1. The star-grid comparison may be flawed for late-M stars. Here comparison with the $`9`$ Myr-old $`\eta `$ Cha cluster stars is valuable. Lawson & Feigelson (2001) found the grids of Siess, Dufour, & Forestini (2000) best achieved coevality across the then-known $`\eta `$ Cha cluster population ranging from spectral types B8–M3. Since then, on-going study of the cluster stellar population has discovered several M4–M5 stars residing $`<20`$′ of the cluster center that appear older than earlier-type cluster members when compared to Siess, Dufour, & Forestini (2000) tracks (Lyo et al., 2003b). In the $`\eta `$ Cha cluster, the age discrepancy appears rapidly for stars with ($`VI`$) $`>3`$; i.e. for stars later than $``$ M3 (or $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<3400`$ K). The same phenomenon appears in the late-type $`ϵ`$ Cha stars. We suggest a variety of possible causes: a deficient temperature calibration, either in the models or in the application of the Kenyon & Hartmann (1995) main-sequence temperature calibration to PMS stars; an incorrect treatment of the stellar luminosities perhaps due to the large bolometric corrections required to transform the observations; or theoretical errors in the treatment of opacities in the M star models.
2. It is likely that the rich $`15`$ Myr old OSCA subgroups have evaporated members into the Chamaeleon vicinity (Blaauw, 1991; de Geus, 1992). If we make the hypothetical and optimistic assumption that half of subgroup members have dispersed into a halo across the region of the sky shown in Figure 1, then a typical Chandra  ACIS observation will contain on average only $`0.04`$ OSCA PMS stars. This explanation is clearly inadequate to explain three M stars in the $`ϵ`$ Cha/HD 104237 ACIS field. We conclude that these three stars are probably $`ϵ`$ Cha group members and thus coeval with the higher mass members.

In summary, the $`ϵ`$ Cha PMS stellar group currently consists of: $`ϵ`$ Cha with two confirmed, and quite possibly a third, late-B/early-A stars within $`200`$ AU; HD 104237 with an A stars and four confirmed (and possibly a fifth) late-type companions within $`1500`$ AU; and three mid-M stars distributed over $`0.5`$ pc. Our best estimate for the group age is $`35`$ Myr.

## 6 PMS stars around the other Herbig Ae/Be stars

Figure 7 and Table 5 summarize the X-ray results within 1000 AU of the four other HAeBe targets, and Table 4 gives X-ray sources likely associated with stars in the full ACIS fields. We have not made any optical study of these fields.

Table 4 shows that three of the four HAeBe stars each have several likely stellar X-ray sources dispersed in the ACIS fields; i.e. with projected distances $`>1000`$ AU and $`<0.3`$ pc of the targeted HAeBe star. HD 141569 is the exception with no additional stellar X-ray sources. This is easily interpretable by reference to their global positions with respect to the OSCA shown in Figure 1: HD 100546, HD 150193 and HD 152404 lie within the traditional boundaries of the rich OSCA subgroups while HD 141569 does not. These new X-ray stars are thus likely members of the OSCA, and we suspect they are not dynamically linked to the HAeBe stars.

Details on these proposed OSCA X-ray stars are given Table 4 and its notes. They include: several unstudied late-type stars with $`K11`$ around HD 100546 in LCC subgroup; the CTT star CXOU 163945.5-240202 = IRAS 16367-2356 in the Ophiuchi cloud complex; the late-type star CXOU 164031.3-234915 and its (probably) intermediate-mass companion also in the Ophiuchi cloud complex; CXOU 165430.7-364924 = HD 152368 (B9V) and a probable late-type companion in the UCL subgroup.

Stars in the immediate vicinity of the HAeBe targets are as follows. Recall that we have made $`1`$″ alignments of the $`Chandra`$ images assuming the brightest source is coincident with the primary, which may not always be correct.

HD 100546 The $`Chandra`$ image shows a single source with modest emission around $`2\times 10^{29}`$ erg s-1 typical of PMS K stars (Feigelson et al., 2003). The photon distribution appears slightly extended from the usual point spread function, but any multiplicity must lie within 1″ of the primary555The disk of HD 100546 is seen in scattered light out to 4″ and in millimeter emission out to $`30`$″, extended in the SE-NW direction (Clampin et al., 2003; Henning et al., 1998).. Several non-X-ray-emitting stars lies within 10″ of the primary, but these are most likely background stars unrelated to the HAeBe star (Grady et al., 2001).

HD 141569 This system is clearly resolved into two components separated by 1.5″ along PA = 300 where the secondary to the NW is only slightly fainter than the primary666There is a hint of a third component 0.7″ from the primary along P.A. 90 with around 10 photons, but it can not be clearly discriminated from the wings of the primary point spread function.. The projected separation is 150 AU. We call this component ‘D’ because two other companions ‘B’ and ‘C’, established to share the primary’s proper motion, have been found in optical images (Weinberger et al., 2000). From their HR diagram locations, the estimated masses of components B and C are 0.45 M and 0.22 M respectively with age of 3 Myr. The high X-ray luminosity of HD 141569 D, $`\mathrm{log}L_t29.9`$ erg s-1, suggests a mass around $`1`$ $`M_{}`$. The absence of components B and C from the Chandra  image is not surprising, as a large fraction of the Orion Nebula M-type stars fall below the $`\mathrm{log}L_x28.0`$ erg s-1 sensitivity limit of the brief exposure available here (Feigelson et al., 2003).

HD 150193 This source is also double with a component ‘C’ lying 1.5″ from the primary along PA = 55. The projected separation is 220 AU. Although its X-ray emission is $`510`$ times fainter than that of the primary, the luminosity is still consistent with a $`1`$ M PMS star. The Chandra  image does not show component ‘B’ (unknown spectral type) 1.1″ to the SW of the primary reported from K-band imagery (Pirzkal, Spillar, & Dyck, 1997).

HD 152404 This source is weak and unresolved in the $`Chandra`$ image. It is a double-lined spectroscopic binary with period 13.6 days and eccentricity 0.47 (Andersen et al., 1989). The spectral type is F5 IVe and the components have equal masses around 1.5 M.

## 7 Discussion and Concluding Remarks

### 7.1 The multiplicity and X-ray emission of Herbig Ae/Be stars

Chandra  imagery is clearly a useful complement to high-resolution optical and near-infrared imagery and spectroscopy in the study of the multiplicity (i.e. companions within $`1000`$ AU) of intermediate-mass PMS stars. In the X-ray band, the primary is not orders of magnitude brighter than the companions so that coronographic methods are not necessary. Combining the results of §$`56`$ with optical-infrared studies, we find a quintet (or possibly sextet) in HD 104237, a quartet in HD 141569, a triple in HD 150193, a double in HD 100546, and a single in HD 152404. Half of these companions were discovered in the Chandra  images. If the primary’s X-ray emission arises from an unresolved lower mass companion (see below), then the multiplicity of each star is increased by at least one. $`Chandra`$ imagery is limited in two respects: it detects only a fraction of PMS M-type and brown dwarfs (though it should be nearly complete for higher mass stars if sensitivities reach $`\mathrm{log}L_t28.0`$ erg s-1; Feigelson et al. 2003); and it can not resolve companions closer than $`1`$″ from the primary.

The X-ray emission from intermediate-mass HAeBe stars, and AB stars in general, has been a long-standing puzzle as stars without outer convection zones should not have a magnetic dynamo of the type known in lower mass stars. Recent $`Chandra`$ images of nearby main sequence B stars have confirmed that, in at least 4 of 5 cases, that the emission arises from late-type companions (Stelzer et al., 2003). For HAeBe stars, it has been debated whether the X-rays are from companions or are produced by the primary through star-disk magnetic interaction (Zinnecker & Preibisch, 1994; Skinner & Yamauchi, 1996).

Our results do not clearly solve this puzzle. The five primary HAeBe stars observed here have X-ray luminosities in the range $`29.1<\mathrm{log}L_x<30.7`$ erg s-1 in the $`0.58`$ keV band with plasma energies in the range $`0.4<kT<5`$ keV. These properties are consistent with intermediate-mass Orion Nebula Cluster A- and B-type stars, most of which are probably not actively accreting, as well as solar-mass PMS stars (Feigelson et al., 2002). Our $`Chandra`$ images show that some of the X-rays attributed to HAeBe stars from low resolution $`ROSAT`$ and $`ASCA`$ studies are produced by resolved stellar companions, but most of the emission still arises from within 1″ of the primary. This could be either a close unresolved companion or the accreting primary itself. In the former case, the companion must have roughly $`1`$ M because substantially lower mass stars are fainter with X-ray luminosites in the $`\mathrm{log}L_x<28`$ to $`29`$ erg s-1 range (Feigelson et al., 2003). In the latter case, the mechanism of HAeBe X-ray production must give X-ray properties essentially indistinguishable from those of solar-mass PMS stars.

### 7.2 HD 104237 as a bound high multiplicity stellar system

At least a quintet, HD 104237 is the highest multiplicity HAeBe star known. The majority of HAeBe stars lie in binaries (Leinert, Richichi, & Haas, 1997; Pirzkal, Spillar, & Dyck, 1997; Corporon & Lagrange, 1999) and a few are in triple systems (TY CrA, Casey et al. 1995; NX Pup, Brandner et al. 1995). Several quartet of lower-mass PMS stars have been found including GG Tau, UZ Tau, UX Tau, V773 Tau, HD 98800 and BD +26718B. It is very unlikely that any of the companions HD 104237 B-E seen in the $`Chandra`$ image appears projected so close to the primary by chance: $`P1`$% for a randomly located PMS star or (for components B and C without optical spectroscopic confirmation) $`P0.1`$% for a randomly located extragalactic X-ray source.

The system must be bound. If the stars were formed independently with the $`0.5`$ km s-1 velocity dispersion characteristic of small molecular clouds (Efremov & Elmegreen, 1998), it would disperse within a few thousand years. Unlike many other multiple systems (like HD 98800, GG Tau and Castor), the HD 104237 components do not exhibit a hierarchical orbital structure of two or three close binary pairs. Due to the fragility of its orbits, we can infer that the HD 104237 system as a whole has not been ejected from some larger stellar aggregate but rather was born in a dynamically quiescent environment (Kroupa, 1998).

Perhaps of greatest interest, the HD 104237 quintet has apparently not suffered from serious internal dynamical instabilities during the $`10^210^3`$ orbits of its $`35`$ Myr lifetime. Instabilities leading to ejection of some members are thought to be common in multiple PMS systems (e.g. Sterzik & Durisen 1995, 1998; Reipurth 2000). In their dynamical calculations of stellar systems with realistic mass distributions, Sterzik & Durisen (1998) find that 98% of quintiple systems with an intermediate-mass primary will eject two or more members within 300 orbits. Also, the disks of at least two of its constituent stars – HD 104237 A and E – have not been destroyed as expected from close dynamical encounters (Armitage & Clarke, 1997). HD 104237 thus appears to be an unusually stable high multiplicity system, probably born under quiescent conditions in the low density environment of a small molecular cloud.

### 7.3 Large-scale environment of the $`ϵ`$ Cha group

On a $`10^{}`$ scale, the interstellar environment is relatively free of molecular material between the Cha I and Cha II clouds, which have 1000 M and 1900 M of molecular gas and lie at distances of 160 pc and 180 pc respectively (Mizuno et al., 2001). The $`ϵ`$ Cha group lies in front of a dusty screen that covers the entire Chamaeleon/Musca region at a distance of 150 pc (Franco, 1991; Knude & Hog, 1998). On a smaller (10′) scale, three small clumps of CO and far-infrared emission are found between and west of $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237 (Knee & Prusti, 1996). These cloudlets are probably translucent with masses below 0.5 M.

Recent studies report young stars on large-scales that may be associated with the compact $`ϵ`$ Cha group discussed here. Sartori, Lépine, & Dias (2003) place $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237 on the near edge of a proposed new Chamaeleon OB association with 21 identified B- and A-type stars spread over $`1020^{}`$ ($`50100`$ pc). This new grouping appears as a nearly continuous extension of the well-known US-UCL-LCC OSCA subgroups. Mamajek (2003) criticizes this finding on the grounds that there is no overdensity of B stars in this region and the derived velocity dispersion is consistent with random field stars. Blaauw (1991) had earlier suggested an extension of the LCC subgroup B stars into the Carina-Volans region next to Chamaeleon. From an extensive spectroscopic survey of later-type southern stars, Quast et al. (2003) define a stellar association called “$`ϵ`$ Cha A” with at least 15 K-type members spanning $`1015^{}`$ in Chamaeleon. These stars are Li-rich with ages around 10 Myr. Here again, it is difficult to distinguish between members of the proposed new grouping and an extended or evaporating LCC subgroup. Frink et al. (1998) previously reported 7 comoving T Tauri stars over a subregion of this association around $`ϵ`$ Cha, but with different kinematic properties.

We do not derive a clear view of the large-scale young stellar environment of $`ϵ`$ Cha from these confusing reports. Many young stars are present, but it is difficult or impossible to distinguish distinct clusters from the profusion of outlying and evaporated stars likely to surround the rich Oph-US-UCL-LCC OSCA concentrations. For the brighter B- and A-type stars, it is also difficult to distinguish $`520`$ Myr stars physically associated with the OSCA from somewhat older field stars unless late-type companions can be found and characterized.

### 7.4 Origin of the $`ϵ`$ Cha group

The link between the brightest members $`ϵ`$ Cha and HD 104237 as comoving, likely coeval PMS stars has been repeatedly discussed in the past (Hu et al., 1991; Knee & Prusti, 1996; Shen & Hu, 1999; Mamajek, Lawson, & Feigelson, 2000). But there has been debate regarding their origin. Writing before Hipparcos  parallactic measurement of 114 pc was available for the group, Knee & Prusti (1996) suggested the system lies around 140 pc away and the nearby interstellar cloudlets were part of the Cha II star forming region. Writing after the release of $`Hipparcos`$ measurements, Eggen (1998) showed that the system is more likely a member of the Local Association (which includes the OSCA), though he does not list it as a OSCA member. We establish (Mamajek et al. 2000 and Table 1) that the extrapolated motions of HD 104237 and $`ϵ`$ Cha lie within 10 pc of (within measurement errors, consistent with exact coincidence with) the centroid of OSCA subgroups in the past $`10`$ Myr.

We believe that this kinematic link between the $`ϵ`$ Cha group and the OSCA is reasonably convincing evidence that they originated in the same giant molecular cloud. The question then arises why HD 104237 is judged from its HR diagram location to have an age far younger than the nearest OSCA subgroup: based on isochrones in the HR diagram, we find an age of $`35`$ Myr for the $`ϵ`$ Cha group (§5.3) while the UCL subgroup has age of 17 Myr (Mamajek, Meyer, & Liebert, 2002). The same question can be raised about the $`\eta `$ Cha cluster which, with age no older than 9 Myr (Lawson et al., 2001; Lawson & Feigelson, 2001), is younger than the nearest OSCA subgroup, the LCC with age of 16 Myr.

Such age discrepancies can be explained within the dispersal scenario outlined by Feigelson (1996). The scenario is based on the dispersion of different portions of a giant molecular cloud along velocity vectors established by turbulence processes. Some portions of the cloud complex form rich stellar clusters relatively early and dissipate their molecular material soon afterwards (Kroupa, 2000). Other portions of the complex remain as gaseous clouds as they disperse, forming stars at different times and far from the OB-rich environments of the larger clusters. This corresponds to the supervirial cloudlet regime, where $`Q=\mathrm{Kinetic}\mathrm{energy}/\mathrm{Gravitational}\mathrm{energy}`$ $`>1`$ and cloudlets fly apart without collisions, in the recent hydrodynamical study by Gittins, Clarke, & Bate (2003). Thus relatively young sparse groups, like those around $`\eta `$ Cha and $`ϵ`$ Cha, may be found in the vicinity of older clusters like the OSCA subgroups. Some of these dispersed groups may be compact (like the $`\eta `$ Cha and $`ϵ`$ Cha groups) due to smaller local values of $`Q`$, while other groups with higher $`Q`$ may themselves appear widely dispersed (like the TW Hya Association and $`\beta `$ Pic moving group; see §2 and Figure 1). However, all of these systems would share space motions converging onto the same ancestral giant molecular cloud.

### 7.5 Comparison of the $`\eta `$ Cha and $`ϵ`$ Cha groups

We have now made considerable progress in characterizing the populations of two nearby sparse PMS stellar clusters dominated by intermediate-mass stars and lying on the outskirts of a large and rich OB association:

1. The $`\eta `$ Cha cluster has three intermediate-mass systems: the B8 star $`\eta `$ Cha probably (due to its ROSAT  X-ray detection) with a low mass companion; RS Cha, a A7+A8 hard binary with a likely lower mass companion; and the single A1 star HD 75505 (Mamajek, Lawson, & Feigelson, 2000). These three systems have projected separations $`0.25`$ pc. They are accompanied by 14 late-type primaries of which several are binaries (Lyo et al., 2003b). Disks are prevasive in the cluster: two of the intermediate-mass systems ($`\eta `$ Cha and HD 75505) have weak $`L`$-band excesses; $`4`$ of the late-type members have both IR excesses and optical signatures of active accretion; and $`3`$ additional late-type members have weak $`L`$-band excesses (Lawson et al., 2002; Lyo et al., 2003a).
2. The $`ϵ`$ Cha group has two intermediate-mass systems: $`ϵ`$ Cha with two or three $``$A0 stars, and HD 104237 with at least 4 lower-mass companions. Due to the absence of X-ray emission, we infer that $`ϵ`$ Cha does not have any lower-mass companions above $`M0.3`$ M. These high-multiplicity systems have a projected separation of 0.07 pc. The group also has three M5 stars distributed over 0.5 pc. Three members – HD 104237 A, HD 104237 E and USNO-B 120144.4-782936 – have CTT-type optical emission lines indicating active accretion. This group has not been surveyed in the $`L`$ band like $`\eta `$ Cha, so the apparent lower disk fraction may not be real.

These stellar systems are quite similar, and together paint a portrait of $`N10100`$ member groups several million years after their formation. In each group, the total stellar mass is about $`1520`$ M and the size is $`r0.5`$ pc, giving an escape velocity of $`0.5`$ km s-1. As this is about the expected velocity dispersion inherited from the molecular material (§7.2), the outlying members of the groups could be unbound. It is likely that the original census was considerably higher and many members of the original clusters have already escaped into the stellar field. The survival of so many high-multiplicity systems and disks in these sparse groups implies that little or no close dynamical interactions have occurred among the stars.

Acknowledgements: We thank A-R. Lyo (UNSW@ADFA) for her very capable assistance with the optical spectroscopy, and L. Crause (Cape Town) for her expert reduction of the optical photometry. J. Skuljan (Canterbury) and E. Mamajek (Arizona) provided helpful assistance with kinematical calculations, and P. Broos and L. Townsley (Penn State) developed critical Chandra  data analysis tools. E. Mamajek (Arizona), C. Torres (LNA Brazil) and an anonymous referee suggested helpful improvements to the manuscript. We thank the SAAO and MSSSO Telescope Allocation Committees for observing time, and EDF appreciates the University of New South Wales and Australian Defence Force Academy for hospitality during much of this work. We greatly benefitted from the SIMBAD, 2MASS and USNO databases. This study was supported by NASA contract NAS-8-38252 (GPG, PI) and UNSW@ADFA URSP, FRG and SRG research grants (WAL, PI).


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# Search for 𝐵⁰→ℓ⁺ℓ⁻ at Belle

on leave from \]Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510 on leave from \]Nova Gorica Polytechnic, Nova Gorica The Belle Collaboration

## Abstract

We report the results of a search for the decay $`B^0e^+e^{}`$, $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ and $`e^\pm \mu ^{}`$ based on an analysis of 78 $`\mathrm{fb}^1`$ of data collected by the Belle detector at KEKB. No candidate events have been found. Upper limits on the branching fractions are calculated at the 90% confidence level: $``$($`B^0`$ $``$ $`e^+`$ $`e^{}`$) $`<`$ 1.9 $`\times `$ $`10^7`$, $``$($`B^0`$ $``$ $`\mu ^+`$ $`\mu ^{}`$) $`<`$ 1.6 $`\times `$ $`10^7`$, and $``$($`B^0`$ $``$ $`e^\pm `$ $`\mu ^{}`$) $`<`$ 1.7 $`\times `$ $`10^7`$. A limit on the Pati-Salam leptoquark mass $`M_{\mathrm{LQ}}`$ $`>`$ 46 TeV/$`c^2`$ is obtained at the 90% confidence level.

preprint:   BELLE-PREPRINT-2003-12 KEK-PREPRINT-2003-44

The $`B`$ meson decays $`B^0e^+e^{}`$ and $`B^0\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ can proceed at a low rate through the Flavor-Changing Neutral Current (FCNC) process. The Standard Model (SM) predictions for the branching fractions are $`(2.34\pm 0.33)\times 10^{15}`$ and $`(1.00\pm 0.14)\times 10^{10}`$ for $`B^0e^+e^{}`$ and $`B^0\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ decays, respectively buras . These branching fractions could be two orders of magnitude larger in models with two Higgs doublets and $`Z`$-mediated FCNC theorist . The decays $`B^0`$ $``$ $`e^\pm `$ $`\mu ^{}`$ are essentially forbidden in the SM by lepton number conservation, apart from a vanishingly small probability permitted by neutrino oscillation. They can occur, however, in the Pati-Salam Model pati  or supersymmetric (SUSY) models susy . The charge conjugate modes are implicitly included throughout this letter.

In this letter we report the results of a search for the decays $`B^0e^+e^{}`$, $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ and $`e^\pm \mu ^{}`$ (collectively denoted as $`B^0\mathrm{}^+\mathrm{}^{}`$) using 78 $`\mathrm{fb}^1`$ of data, corresponding to 85 million $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs, collected with the Belle detector at KEKB KEKB , an asymmetric $`e^+`$$`e^{}`$ collider operating at the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ resonance. The Belle detector is a large-solid-angle magnetic spectrometer that consists of a three-layer silicon vertex detector (SVD), a 50-layer central drift chamber (CDC), an array of aerogel threshold Cherenkov counters (ACC), time-of-flight scintillation counters (TOF), and an array of CsI(Tl) crystals (ECL) located inside a superconducting solenoid coil that provides a 1.5 T magnetic field. An iron flux-return located outside of the coil is instrumented to detect $`K_L^0`$ mesons and to identify muons (KLM). The detector is described in detail elsewhere Belle .

For each primary charged track, the impact parameter relative to the run-by-run interaction point is required to be within 2 cm along the $`z`$ axis (aligned with the positron beam) and within 0.08 cm in the plane transverse to this axis, and the transverse momentum must exceed 100 MeV/$`c`$. At least five charged tracks including non-primary tracks are required. For each event the visible energy in the detector is required to be greater than 0.6 GeV. Monte Carlo (MC) studies show that the radiative Bhabha events (100%), as well as two-photon (94%) and $`\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ (85%) events, are rejected by these criteria. The two-photon MC studies use the generator AAFH CPC , which includes all tree-level diagrams to fourth order in $`\alpha _{\mathrm{QED}}`$.

Electron tracks are distinguished from hadron tracks by examining the amount of energy and the transverse shower profile of the associated ECL cluster as well as light yield in the ACC. The $`dE/dx`$ measurements in the CDC is also taken into account. Muon tracks are distinguished from hadron tracks by their range and transverse scattering in the KLM. We select electrons and muons by requiring that the normalized likelihood nim-eid ; nim-muid  that the track is a lepton rather than a hadron exceeds 0.9. The electron and the muon detection efficiencies are 88% and 89% which are studied via $`J/\psi e^+e^{}`$ and $`J/\psi \mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ in the same track momentum range, 1.5 GeV/$`c`$ \- 4.5 GeV/$`c`$. The corresponding misidentification rates from kaon tracks and pion tracks are 1.7% ($`K\mu `$), 1.0% ($`\pi \mu `$), $`<`$ 0.005% ($`Ke`$), and $`<`$ 0.1% ($`\pi e`$) which are studied using kaons and pions from the decay chain $`D^{}D^0\pi ^{}(K^{}\pi ^+)\pi ^{}`$ in the same track momentum range, 1.5 GeV/$`c`$ \- 4.5 GeV/$`c`$.

$`B`$ meson candidates are formed from pairs of oppositely charged leptons, not necessarily of the same flavor, and selected using two kinematic variables defined in the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ center-of-mass (CM) frame: the beam-energy constrained mass, $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}=`$ $`\sqrt{E_{\mathrm{beam}}^2p_B^2}`$, and the energy difference, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=`$ $`E_BE_{\mathrm{beam}}`$, where $`p_B`$ and $`E_B`$ are the momentum and energy, respectively, of the $`B`$ candidate and $`E_{\mathrm{beam}}`$ is the beam energy. The signal region is defined as 5.27 GeV/$`c^2`$ $`<`$ $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ $`<`$ 5.29 GeV/$`c^2`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|`$ $`<`$ 0.05 GeV for all channels. The sideband region, used for the background determination, is defined as 5.20 GeV/$`c^2`$ $`<`$ $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ $`<`$ 5.26 GeV/$`c^2`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|`$ $`<`$ 0.30 GeV.

The decays $`B^0K^+\pi ^{}`$ and $`B^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ do not contribute measurably to the background because of their small branching fractions, the small lepton fake rates, and, for the $`K^+\pi ^{}`$ mode, the shift of the $`B`$ candidate out of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ signal region due to the use of lepton masses for the tracks. Background from other $`B`$ decays is also found to be negligible. Backgrounds from continuum $`e^+e^{}q\overline{q}`$ ($`q=u,d,s,c`$) production are suppressed using seven variables that characterize the event topology: five modified Fox-Wolfram moments sfw , $`S_{}`$ sperp , and the cosine of the polar angle $`\theta _{\mathrm{thr}}`$ of the $`B`$ candidate’s thrust axis fisher . Events $`e^+e^{}c\overline{c}`$ with two semileptonic charm decays produce $`B^0\mathrm{}^+\mathrm{}^{}`$ candidates which are not suppressed by lepton identification cuts; without special treatment, these events would be the dominant source of background. We use four additional variables to suppress these events: the missing energy $`E_{\mathrm{miss}}`$ and momentum $`p_{\mathrm{miss}}`$, the cosine of the angle $`\theta _{\mathrm{pl}}`$ between the missing momentum and the $`B`$ candidate’s thrust axis, the cosine of the angle $`\theta _{\mathrm{pb}}`$ between the missing momentum and the thrust axis of the remaining particles in the event. All eleven variables are combined into a Fisher discriminant fisher . We obtain probability density functions (PDFs) for the signal and for continuum background as functions of this Fisher discriminant ($`F`$) and of the cosine of the polar angle ($`\mathrm{cos}\theta _B`$) of the $`B`$ candidate’s flight direction. We then obtain signal and background likelihoods, $`_S`$ and $`_B`$, from the product of the PDFs for $`F`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _B`$, and demand that $`=_S/(_S+_B)`$ exceeds 0.9. This criterion was chosen to optimize the performance of the signal significance ($`N_S/\sqrt{N_S+N_B}`$) using both MC and data samples, where $`N_S`$ and $`N_B`$ are predicted signal yields and predicted background yields, respectively. Assuming the branching fractions of $`B^0\mathrm{}^+\mathrm{}^{}`$ are 10-7 $``$ 10-15, we then obtain the signal yields from the product of the total number of $`B\overline{B}`$ events, the signal efficiency from MC and the assumed branching fractions. The predicted background yields are obtained by fitting the distribution of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ from the sideband data projection in the signal region. The backgrounds in the on-resonance sideband region are compared to MC and to data taken 50-60 MeV below the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ resonance. The results are summarized in Table 1. Distributions of $`E_{\mathrm{miss}}`$, $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _B`$, $`F`$ and $``$ are shown in Fig. 1.

The signal efficiency for each mode, after application of all selection criteria, is determined by MC simulation and itemized in Table 2. The systematic error of this efficiency arises from tracking efficiency (1% per track), electron and muon identification efficiencies (4% and 2% per lepton, respectively, determined from a study of $`J/\psi `$ decays), the charged-track-count criterion (10%, measured from the uncertainty in the efficiency using a $`B^0K^+\pi ^{}`$ control sample), and the likelihood ratio cut (4%, based on a study of $`B^{}D^0\pi ^{}(K^{}\pi ^+)\pi ^{}`$). The total systematic uncertainty is obtained by first summing the correlated errors linearly and then adding the non-correlated errors in quadrature.

Since no signal events are found for any mode, we determine 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions by an extension of the Feldman-Cousins method, which takes systematic uncertainties into account fc1 . The $`q\overline{q}`$ events are the main background after all the event selections. In order to estimate the number of expected background events in the signal box, a $`q\overline{q}`$ MC sample (corresponding to an integrated luminosity 1.6 times greater than that of the data) is used to fit the shape of the background distribution in $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ in the sideband region. These distributions are scaled to the number of observed data events in the sideband region; the number of expected background events is then obtained from the signal-to-sideband ratio. The dominant systematic uncertainty on the background estimation comes from the statistical error of the number of sideband data events. The results are listed in Table 2.

These upper limits can be used to constrain certain extensions of the Standard Model. For example, the Pati-Salam model LQ2  predicts the existence of leptoquarks—heavy spin-1 gauge bosons that carry both color and lepton quantum number—that mediate the decays $`B^0e^\pm \mu ^{}`$ LQ1 ; LQ2 . The branching ratio is related to the leptoquark mass $`M_{\mathrm{LQ}}`$ by LQ2

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(B^0e^\pm \mu ^{})=\pi \alpha _s^2(M_{LQ})\frac{1}{M_{LQ}^4}F_{B^0}^2m_{B^0}^3R^2,$$

where

$$R=\frac{m_{B^0}}{m_b}\left(\frac{\alpha _s(M_{LQ})}{\alpha _s(m_t)}\right)^{4/7}\left(\frac{\alpha _s(m_t)}{\alpha _s(m_b)}\right)^{12/23}.$$

We follow the method in Refs. pub3 ; pub4  and use $`F_B`$ = 175 $`\pm `$ 30 MeV for the $`B^0`$ decay constant, $`m_{B^0}`$ = 5279.3 $`\pm `$ 0.7 MeV/$`c^2`$ pub6  for the $`B^0`$ meson mass, $`m_b`$ = 4.3 $`\pm `$ 0.2 GeV/$`c^2`$ pub3  for the $`b`$-quark mass and $`m_t`$ = 176.0 $`\pm `$ 6.5 GeV/$`c^2`$ pub6  for the $`t`$-quark mass. We use $`\alpha _s`$ ($`M_Z`$) = 0.117 pub6  which is evolved to $`M_{\mathrm{LQ}}`$ using the Marciano approximation LQ5 , assuming no other colored particles exist between $`m_t`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{LQ}}`$. We obtain a limit of $`M_{\mathrm{LQ}}>46\mathrm{TeV}/c^2`$ on the mass of the Pati-Salam leptoquark at the 90% confidence level. This bound holds in the case where the $`\tau `$ lepton is associated with the strange and charm quarks within the Pati-Salam theory. Previous lower limits for this case from $`B^+\mathrm{}^+\nu `$ LQ1 ; LQ3  and $`B^0\mu e`$ pub4 ; pub3  are weaker than the bound presented here; the limit from lepton universality in $`\pi ^+\mathrm{}^+\nu `$ is stronger LQ1 ; LQ2 .

In conclusion, we find no evidence for $`B^0e^+e^{}`$, $`\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$, and $`e^\pm \mu ^{}`$ decays in 85 million $`B\overline{B}`$ events, and set upper limits on the branching fractions of $`1.9\times 10^7`$, $`1.6\times 10^7`$, and $`1.7\times 10^7`$, respectively, at the 90% confidence level. We use the latter upper limit to set a lower bound on the mass of the Pati-Salam leptoquark of 46 TeV/$`c^2`$.

We wish to thank the KEKB accelerator group for the excellent operation of the KEKB accelerator. We acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Australian Research Council and the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training; the National Science Foundation of China under contract No. 10175071; the Department of Science and Technology of India; the BK21 program of the Ministry of Education of Korea and the CHEP SRC program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation; the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research under contract No. 2P03B 01324; the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation; the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia; the National Science Council and the Ministry of Education of Taiwan; and the U.S. Department of Energy.


text:
# Some notes about matrices, 4

As usual, we let $`𝐑`$ denote the real numbers, $`𝐂`$ the complex numbers, $`𝐑^m`$ the space of $`m`$-tuples of real numbers, and $`𝐂^n`$ the space of $`n`$-tuples of real numbers. Also, $`𝐙`$ denotes the integers, and $`𝐙^m`$ the standard integer lattice in $`𝐑^m`$. We write $`𝐙[i]`$ for the *Gaussian integers*, which are the complex numbers of the form $`a+ib`$ with $`a,b𝐙`$, and $`(𝐙[i])^n`$ for the standard integer lattice in $`𝐂^n`$.

It will be convenient to write $`(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$ for the space of real-linear mappings from $`𝐑^m`$ to $`𝐂^n`$. The complex structure on $`𝐂^n`$ is still relevant for this space, in that $`(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$ is naturally a complex vector space. This is because one can multiply elements of $`(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$ by $`i`$, and these linear transformations can be described by $`m\times n`$ matrices of complex numbers in the usual manner, using the standard bases for $`𝐑^m`$ and $`𝐂^n`$.

Let us write $`^{}(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$ for the subset of $`(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$ consisting of linear transformations whose kernels are trivial, at least when $`m2n`$, so that this is possible. Using the usual Euclidean topology for $`(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$, $`^{}(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$ is an open set. When $`m=2n`$, $`^{}(𝐑^m,𝐂^n)`$ consists of the invertible real-linear transformations from $`𝐑^m`$ onto $`𝐂^n`$.

We can define a *lattice* in $`𝐂^n`$ to be the image of $`𝐙^{2n}`$ under an element of $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$. For such a lattice $`L`$, we get a quotient $`𝐂^n/L`$ in the usual manner, which is both an abelian group under addition and a complex manifold, in fact a complex affine manifold. In other words, there are nice complex affine local coordinates for the quotient space coming from those of $`𝐂^n`$.

Of course the standard lattice $`(𝐙[i])^n`$ is a lattice in $`𝐂^n`$ in this sense. For the moment let us restrict our attention to lattices $`L`$ in $`𝐂^n`$ which are of the form $`A((𝐙[i])^n)`$ for some invertible complex-linear mapping $`A`$ on $`𝐂^n`$. This is a special case, in the same way that invertible complex-linear mappings on $`𝐂^n`$ are a special case of elements of $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$.

Let us write $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ for the group of invertible complex-linear transformations on $`𝐂^n`$, and $`SL(𝐂^n)`$ for the subgroup of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ consisting of linear transformations with determinant equal to $`1`$. Also, we write $`U(𝐂^n)`$ for the group of *unitary* linear transformations on $`𝐂^n`$, which are the invertible linear transformations which preserve the standard Hermitian inner product on $`𝐂^n`$, which is the same as saying that the inverse of the linear transformation is equal to its adjoint. The subgroup $`SU(𝐂^n)`$ of $`U(𝐂^n)`$ consists of the unitary linear transformations on $`𝐂^n`$ which also have determinant equal to $`1`$.

For the moment we are considering lattices in $`𝐂^n`$ of the form $`A((𝐙[i])^n)`$, $`AGL(𝐂^n)`$. It is natural to look at these lattices up to unitary equivalence, which is to say that two lattices $`L_1`$, $`L_2`$ are equivalent if there is a unitary linear transformation $`T`$ on $`𝐂^n`$ such that $`T(L_1)=L_2`$. This leads to an equivalence relation on $`GL(𝐂^n)`$, in which two invertible linear transformations $`A_1`$, $`A_2`$ on $`𝐂^n`$ are considered to be equivalent if there is a unitary linear transformation $`T`$ on $`𝐂^n`$ such that $`A_2=TA_1`$.

The quotient of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ by this equivalence relation is denoted

(1)
$$U(𝐂^n)\backslash GL(𝐂^n).$$

This quotient space can be identified with the space of self-adjoint linear transformations on $`𝐂^n`$ which are positive definite, through the mapping

(2)
$$AGL(𝐂^n)A^{}A.$$

That is, for each element $`A`$ of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$, the product $`A^{}A`$ is a self-adjoint linear transformation on $`𝐂^n`$ which is positive-definite,

(3)
$$A_1^{}A_1=A_2^{}A_2$$

for two elements $`A_1`$, $`A_2`$ of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ if and only if $`A_2=TA_1`$ for some unitary linear transformation $`T`$ on $`𝐂^n`$, and every self-adjoint linear transformation on $`𝐂^n`$ can be expressed as $`A^{}A`$ for some invertible linear transformation $`A`$ on $`𝐂^n`$, and in fact has a unique self-adjoint positive-definite square root.

Similarly, one can consider two elements $`B_1`$, $`B_2`$ of $`SL(𝐂^n)`$ to be equivalent when there is a linear transformation $`U`$ in the special unitary group $`SU(𝐂^n)`$ such that $`A_2=UA_1`$. The quotient $`SU(𝐂^n)\backslash SL(𝐂^n)`$ can be identified with the space of self-adjoint linear transformations on $`𝐂^n`$ which are positive-definite and have determinant $`1`$, through the same mapping as before. Also, it will be convenient to restrict our attention for the moment to lattices $`L`$ of the form $`B((𝐙[i])^n)`$ for some $`BSL(𝐂^n)`$, which is just a modest additional normalization.

Let us write $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐂^n)`$ for the subgroup of $`SL(𝐂^n)`$ of linear transformations whose associated $`n\times n`$ matrices, with respect to the standard basis for $`𝐂^n`$, have integer entries, which implies that the matrices associated to their inverses also have integer entries. Thus $`B((𝐙[i])^n)=(𝐙[i])^n`$ when $`B\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐑^n)`$, and conversely $`BSL(𝐂^n)`$ and $`B((𝐙[i])^n)=(𝐙[i])^n`$ implies that $`B\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐂^n)`$. The quotient $`SL(𝐂^n)/\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐂^n)`$ represents the space of lattices that we are considering at the moment, the double quotient $`SU(𝐂^n)\backslash SL(𝐂^n)/\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐂^n)`$ represents the space of these lattices modulo equivalence under special unitary transformations, and this double quotient can also be identified with the quotient of the space of self-adjoint positive-definite linear transformations on $`𝐂^n`$ with determinant $`1`$ by the action of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐂^n)`$ defined by $`PB^{}PB`$, $`B\mathrm{\Sigma }(𝐂^n)`$.

Now let us look at general lattices in $`𝐂^n`$, under the equivalence relation in which two lattices $`L_1`$, $`L_2`$ are considered to be equivalent if there is an invertible complex-linear transformation $`A`$ on $`𝐂^n`$ such that $`A(L_1)=L_2`$. This leads to an equivalence relation on $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$, in which two elements of $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ are considered to be equivalent if one can be written as the composition of an invertible complex-linear transformation on $`𝐂^n`$ with the other element of $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$. In other words, we look at the action of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ on $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ by post-composition.

Actually, it is more convenient to consider $`_1^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$, which we define to be the subset of $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ consisting of invertible real-linear transformations from $`𝐑^{2n}`$ to $`𝐂^n`$ such that the image of the first $`n`$ standard basis vectors in $`𝐑^{2n}`$ are linearly-independent over the complex numbers as $`n`$ vectors in $`𝐂^n`$. This restriction is not too serious, and indeed we can describe the lattices in $`𝐂^n`$ as images of $`𝐙^{2n}`$ under mappings in $`_1^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$. In other words, if we start with a lattice $`L`$ given as the image of $`𝐙^{2n}`$ under an element of $`^{}(𝐑^n,𝐂^n)`$, we can rewrite it as the image of $`𝐙^{2n}`$ under a linear transformation in $`_1^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ by pre-composing the initial linear transformation from $`𝐑^{2n}`$ to $`𝐂^n`$ with an invertible linear transformation on $`𝐑^{2n}`$ which permutes the standard basis vectors in a suitable way.

To deal with the action of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ by post-composition, we can restrict ourselves to $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$, which we define to be the space of invertible real-linear transformations from $`𝐑^{2n}`$ to $`𝐂^n`$ such that the images of the first $`n`$ standard basis vectors in $`𝐑^{2n}`$ are the $`n`$ standard basis vectors in $`𝐂^n`$, and in the same order. In other words, if we identify $`𝐑^{2n}`$ with the Cartesian product $`𝐑^n\times 𝐑^n`$, then these are the invertible real-linear transformations from $`𝐑^n\times 𝐑^n`$ onto $`𝐂^n`$ with the property that on $`𝐑^n\times \{0\}`$ they coincide with the standard embedding of $`𝐑^n`$ into $`𝐂^n`$. This exactly compensates for the action of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ by post-composition, since for any collection $`v_1,\mathrm{},v_n`$ of linearly-independent vectors in $`𝐂^n`$ there is a unique $`AGL(𝐂^n)`$ such that $`A(v_1),\mathrm{},A(v_n)`$ are the standard basis vectors in $`𝐂^n`$, in order.

We can identify $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ with an open subset of $`(𝐑^n,𝐂^n)`$. That is, elements of $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ can be identified with linear transformations from $`𝐑^n\times 𝐑^n`$ into $`𝐂^n`$, and these linear transformations are determined by what they do on $`\{0\}\times 𝐑^n`$, since their behavior on $`𝐑^n\times \{0\}`$ is fixed by definition. We can think of elements of $`(𝐑^n,𝐂^n)`$ as being written as $`A+iB`$, where $`A`$, $`B`$ are linear transformations on $`𝐑^n`$, and one can check that the elements of $`^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ correspond exactly to elements of $`(𝐑^n,𝐂^n)`$ of the form $`A+iB`$, where $`A`$, $`B`$ are linear transformations on $`𝐑^n`$ and $`B`$ is invertible.

To be more precise, it is helpful to think in terms of real-linear mappings on $`𝐂^n`$, which can be written as

(4)
$$T(x+iy)=E_1(x)+E_2(y)+i(E_3(x)+E_4(y)),$$

where $`x,y𝐑^n`$. The passage to $`_1^{}(𝐑^{2n},𝐂^n)`$ can be expressed in these terms as the restriction to invertible real-linear transformations $`T`$ on $`𝐂^n`$ of the form

(5)
$$T(x+iy)=x+A(y)+iB(y),$$

where $`A`$, $`B`$ are linear transformations on $`𝐑^n`$. The condition of invertibility of $`T`$ is equivalent to the invertibility of $`B`$ on $`𝐂^n`$.

Another way to look at real-linear mappings on $`𝐂^n`$ is as mappings of the form

(6)
$$T(z)=M(z)+\overline{N(z)},$$

where $`z𝐂^n`$, $`M`$ and $`N`$ are complex-linear mappings on $`𝐂^n`$, and for $`w𝐂^n`$, $`\overline{w}`$ is the element of $`𝐂^n`$ whose coordinates are the complex-conjugates of the coordinates of $`w`$.

Invertibility of $`T`$ is a bit tricky, and as an important special case, it is natural to restrict our attention to mappings $`T`$ as above for which $`M`$ majorizes $`N`$ in the sense that

(7)
$$|N(z)|<|M(z)|$$

for $`z𝐂^n`$, $`z0`$, where $`|w|`$ denotes the standard Euclidean norm of $`w𝐂^n`$. To factor out the action of $`GL(𝐂^n)`$ by post-composition, we can restrict our attention to real-linear transformations $`T`$ of the form

(8)
$$T(z)=z+\overline{E(z)},$$

where $`E`$ is a complex-linear transformation on $`𝐂^n`$ with operator norm strictly less than $`1`$, which is equivalent to saying that $`E^{}E<I`$. This has nice features when we think of the image of the standard integer lattice $`(𝐙[i])^n`$ under $`T`$, with points in the image being reasonably-close to their counterparts in the original lattice.

The $`n=1`$ case is quite instructive. We can write a real-linear transformation $`T`$ on $`𝐂`$ as

(9)
$$T(x+iy)=ax+iby$$

for $`x,y𝐑`$, where $`a`$, $`b`$ are complex numbers, and when $`T`$ is invertible we can rewrite this as

(10)
$$T(x+iy)=a(x+icy),$$

where $`a`$, $`c`$ are complex numbers with $`a0`$ and $`c`$ having nonzero imaginary part. Alternatively, we can write a real-linear transformation $`T`$ on $`𝐂`$ as $`T(z)=\alpha z+\beta \overline{z}`$ with $`\alpha ,\beta 𝐂`$, and where $`T`$ is invertible if and only if $`|\alpha ||\beta |`$, and when $`|\alpha |>|\beta |`$ this can be rewritten as

(11)
$$T(z)=\theta (z+\mu \overline{z}),$$

where $`\theta `$ is a nonzero complex number and $`\mu `$ is a complex number such that $`|\mu |<1`$.