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# Optical Spectroscopy of IRAS 02091+6333Based on observations at the Innsbruck 60cm telescope and the Flemish Mercator telescope on Roque de los Muchachos, Spain

## 1 Introduction

When Zijlstra & Weinberger (ZW (2002)) discovered a massive dust shell around the AGB star IRAS 02091+6333 they could use only a single quick look spectrum and the original TYCHO $`B_\mathrm{T}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{T}`$ magnitudes (Perryman et al. tycho (1997)) to estimate the spectral type and the interstellar extinction towards the target. The spectroscopic investigation was lacking comparison spectra obtained with the same instrument setup. Furthermore the TYCHO instrument was close to its sensitivity limits. Thus we obtained spectra and photometry of this unique object for several years to derive an accurate spectral type and the foreground extinction. This allowed us to determine more precisely the distance of the target for the modelling of the dust shell found on Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) images. Zijlstra & Weinberger (ZW (2002)) outline such shells for various types of objects at late stages of their evolution. Their focus was especially on a swept up shell with a void in the interstellar matter (ISM) around the target. This is crucial for both, the ”Swiss cheese” like structure of the ISM and for the hydrodynamic evolution of the planetary nebula (PN) built after this evolutionary stage.

We thus investigated the spectroscopic and photometric properties of the central star to provide new input for the complete model of this unique object and its surroundings.

## 2 Data

The spectroscopic data were obtained with the Innsbruck 60 cm telescope (Kimeswenger 60cm (2001); Bacher et al. bacher01 (2001)) and an OptoMechanics 10C spectrograph. A CompuScope Kodak 0400 CCD camera was attached to the spectrograph. In the year 2000 a grating with 600 l/mm was used, resulting in a resolution of 1 Å/pixel. Later a grating with 240 l/mm (2.6 Å/pixel) was mounted to achieve a better S/N ratio. The complete log of the observations is given in Table 1. The exposure times varied with the wavelength region from 300 to 900 seconds. Each spectrum is a composite of individual takes covering about 800 Å with the high resolution grating and 2000 Å with the medium resolution mode. The wavelength shifts were selected to obtain appropriate overlaps of at least 25% of the wavelength range. In most of the nights several spectra were obtained to improve the S/N and eliminate cosmic ray events. The positions along the slit and the starting wavelengths varied to eliminate possible systematic errors in the setup. Flatfield, bias subtraction and wavelength calibration were carried out in a standard manner with the help of MIDAS routines. For comparison the late type standard stars HD 23475 (M2IIb), HD 39801 (M2I), HD 13325(M3III), HD 40239 (M3II), HD 44478 (M3III), HD 42995 (M3III) HD 5316 (M4III) and HD 12292 (M5III) were observed with the medium resolution setup. The spectra were not calibrated absolutely, but only corrected for exposure time and airmass (with the atmospheric extinction given by Tüg extinct (1980)).

The wide band direct imaging in Innsbruck was obtained with an AP7p SITe 502e CCD device (Kimeswenger et al. 2002a ; Lederle & Kimeswenger CI (2003)). 24 images were taken in the nights of 10th and 11th of December 2002 with $`B`$, $`V`$, $`R`$ and $`I_\mathrm{C}`$ filters. The exposure times were 30, 20, 10 and 10 seconds in $`B`$, $`V`$, $`R`$ and $`I_\mathrm{C}`$ respectively. After standard basic CCD reduction the source extraction was performed using SExtractor V2 (Bertin & Arnouts sex (1996)). The rms of the comparison standards in the field was $`<0\stackrel{m}{.}01`$ ($`\sigma _B=0\stackrel{m}{.}003`$, $`\sigma _V=0\stackrel{m}{.}009`$, $`\sigma _R=0\stackrel{m}{.}007`$ and $`\sigma _I=0\stackrel{m}{.}004`$). Absolute calibration was obtained in both nights using the standard stars HR 580 and HR 596. The rms variations of the zero-points were less than 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$03, resulting in an error of the mean zero-point of less than 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$015.

The long term monitoring of the target was done with the P7 photometer attached to the 1.2m Mercator telescope located at La Palma, using the 7 filters of the Geneva photometric system (Meylan & Hauck mercator (1981), Golay golay (1994)). The data was obtained and reduced within the framework of monitoring stars with constant airmass as described in Burki et al. (burki (1995)). The typical errors derived by the rms of the standard stars for the nights are below 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$01. The results are listed in Table 2.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Spectroscopy

First the spectra were investigated with respect to variability. We cannot detect spectral variability (except in the region of the telluric water vapor bands longwards to 8000Å– see Fig. 1). Also individual equivalent widths of metal lines of the IR Ca II triplet and of Mg lead us to the same conclusion. Thus a composite spectrum was derived for the classification. The classification criteria of Kirkpatrick et al. (KP (1991)) were applied in the same way as described in Kimeswenger et al. (iras (2003)). This results in a spectral class of M4 - M5. The scheme of TiO indices (Malyuto et al. SK1 (1997)) argues for an M4.2III star. Applying the extension by Schmidt-Kaler & Oestreicher (SK2 (1998)) we obtain an M4III star with $`M_{bol}2\stackrel{m}{.}65`$ ($`M_V0\stackrel{m}{.}5`$). The relation of the TiO to the NaD and Mgb indices propose luminosity class III.

The most reliable classification is the direct comparison with standards, using the identical instrument setup. For this purpose eight comparison stars were taken during February 2001 and January 2003 between the target exposures with the same setup. Especially the TiO features at 7200-7400 Å and 7700-8000 Å are extremely sensitive to the effective temperature of the stars in that domain. The latter was not covered by the spectrum used by Zijlstra & Weinberger (ZW (2002)). The classification using such bands is completely independent of the correction for the atmospheric and interstellar extinction. The results are shown in Fig. 2. The target superimposes nearly exactly the M4III star HD 5316. The overlay gives us an exact solution for the interstellar extinction of $`E_{BV}=0\stackrel{m}{.}43\pm 0\stackrel{m}{.}01`$.

We tried to use the line ratios of the IR CaII triplet of the comparison stars and those of the target - all taken with the same instrument setup. But not even for the comparison stars, having a much better S/N ratio than the target, the effective resolution (see Table 1) allow to derive useful separations between luminosity class III and II.

We favor a spectral type of M4III. The luminosity class remains somewhat uncertain, but is most likely III. This is supported also by the distance (see section 3.2 and discussion in Zijlstra & Weinberger ZW (2002)).

### 3.2 Photometry and Distance

We have searched literature and telescope archives for photometry, but found in the optical and in the MIR-FIR only those mentioned already in Zijlstra & Weinberger (ZW (2002)) – namely TYCHO in the optical, Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX, Egan et al. msx (1999)) and IRAS in the infrared. The results of our photometry, together with results from literature are collected in Table 3. For the flux to magnitude conversion for IRAS we used the results of Wainscoat et al. (SKY (1992)) and for MSX that of Cohen et al. (cohen (2000)). The calibration of IRAS by Hickman et al. (hickman (1995)) was not taken into account, as the MSX and the IRAS 12 $`\mu `$m fluxes gave differences of about 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$40 for all M type comparison stars here. For the TYCHO measurements we applied the color equations as given in the catalogue: $`V=V_\mathrm{T}0.090\times (B_\mathrm{T}V_\mathrm{T})`$ and $`BV=0.850\times (B_\mathrm{T}V_\mathrm{T})`$.

During the reviewing process of this work, the 2MASS NIR data was made public. Although we listed the values in Table 3, they were not useful, as the target was overexposed even in the short 53 ms preexposure of the survey. We thus didn’t include these values in our interpretation.

The first TYCHO catalogue (Perryman et al. tycho (1997)) and the reanalysis of the same data in TYCHO-2 (Høg et al. tycho2 (2000)) give completely different results for the $`B_\mathrm{T}`$ band. The $`V_\mathrm{T}`$ band differs considerably more than the error given in the catalogue. Thus we assume the error to be significantly higher. For further analysis we use the TYCHO-2 values.

The Mercator monitoring (Fig. 3) clearly shows an irregular variability with an amplitude below 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$1 in $`V`$.
On the other hand the variation between our measurements, those of the amateur observations reported in Zijlstra & Weinberger (ZW (2002)) and TYCHO-2 in the optical give an amplitude of some tenths of a magnitude. The ($`V_{\mathrm{T}min}`$ \- $`V_{\mathrm{T}max}`$) value (15% and 85% of the 228 photometric transits) given in TYCHO-2 is 1$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$71. But we assume the latter is mainly due to the limits of the experiment.
The MSX and IRAS measurements together with the spectroscopic stability lead us to the conclusion that the object seems to be very stable in the effective temperature. That fact limits the optical photometric amplitude to those found in the Mercator monitoring. Such small variations seem to be usual for late type stars around the tip of the first giant branch (Ita et al. ita (2002)).

The colors ($`V`$-$`R`$)0 = 1$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$15 and ($`V`$-$`I_\mathrm{C}`$)0 = 2$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$68 indicate a M4.5III MK class (Drilling & Landolt allen (2000)). Using our photometry and the color equations above we receive $`V_\mathrm{T}[8.3]=5\stackrel{m}{.}56`$. Cohen et al. (cohen (2000)) are announcing 5$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$21, 5$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$58 and 6$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$02 for M3, M4 and M5 respectively, which is also consistent with the classifications found above. The Mercator monitoring was not used for the colors, as this system is lacking investigations, absolute calibrations and color equations for very late type stars (Meylan & Hauck mercator (1981), Moro & Munari asiago (2000)).
We derived, again using TYCHO, MSX measurements and HIPPARCOS parallaxes, the spectral energy distributions (SED) for M3-5 giants from our spectroscopic sample and from those one of van Belle et al. (belle (1999)). The latter is a sample of stars investigated in detail with interferometers for the determination of accurate size and luminosity of late type stars. Two stars – namely HD 13325 (M3III) and HD 5316 (M4III) – overlap between their and our sample. One can clearly see in Fig. 4 the broad band mid-IR flux hardly varies between M3 and M4 stars. Only M5 stars have a significant different SED. We thus fit our target between the M4 stars of the sample. This provides us with (using all bands) a distance of 1020 pc. The HIPPARCOS errors for the bright comparison stars and the uncertainties from the photometry of the target results in a lower limit of 870 pc and an upper one of 1150 pc. The luminosity derived from the spectroscopy and the $`V`$ photometry give us 920 pc. According to van Belle et al. (belle (1999)) for $`K[12]>0\stackrel{m}{.}6`$ there is no correlation with the effective temperature anymore. Thus this band, lacking here, would deliver us no additional information.

### 3.3 Astrometry

The target was suspected to have a relatively high proper motion in the TYCHO catalogue, although the positional error given there is very high. We thus tried to derive a value for the proper motion in the same way as in Kimeswenger et al. (2002b ) by using the six sky survey plates of the region. But as the target is extremely overexposed and lies near the corner of the POSS-E (1952 and 1993) and of the Quick-VN (1983) plates, we cannot derive a proper solution. The accuracy is about the same as in the the TYCHO experiment. Kislyuk et al. (fonac (1999)) give similar numbers in their online version, using their plate from 1983 and the AC2000 catalogue position from 1905 (Urban et al. ac2000 (1997)). But forwarding the errors in both catalogues to the resulting proper motion we again end up with large error bars (12$`\pm 7`$ mas yr-1). The direction of the motion vector is co-lined with the TYCHO result, suggesting a genuine movement which leads to a motion of about 60 km s-1 relative to the surrounding stellar field after subtracting the galactic rotation for a distance of about 1 kpc (only about 1.5 mas yr-1). This is, although still possible, very high for galactic disk stars. The vector is almost opposite to the galactic rotation parallel to the galactic plane. Further investigations about the population membership are needed.

## 4 Conclusions

The precise spectroscopic classification of the central star IRAS 02091+6333 of the unique giant dust shell reported in Zijlstra & Weinberger (ZW (2002)) allowed us to derive a more accurate distance of the target. This leads us to a somewhat higher mass estimate of 5.2 M and a size of 1.8 $`\times `$ 1017 m (5.2 pc) and thus even enlarges the discrepancy in lifetime as discussed in section 3.3 of Zijlstra & Weinberger (ZW (2002)) and therefore clearly excludes the scenario of the mass originating mainly from the star itself. This result is strengthened by the fact of the lower luminosity we derived (40% below the one estimated there). The star lies in the evolutionary tracks (Girardi et al. 2000a ) nearby the red giant branch tip and rather far from the TP-AGB. The small irregular photometric variability fits well to this assumption (Ita et al. ita (2002)). So the model of the swept up ISM is strongly supported by our measurements. The fast movement, although uncertain, may shorten the timescales for the bubble. This may suggest a wind having a higher momentum. One can only speculate on the origin of this additional source of energy. There is no signature in the spectroscopy for a hot companion causing a symbiotic Mira. Also Schmeja & Kimeswenger (schmeja (2001)) have shown that those objects have clear signatures in their NIR and MIR bands.

IRAS 02091+6333 has a distance of $`D=1020_{150}^{+130}`$pc, a luminosity of $`L=920\pm 150`$L and, according to van Belle et al. (belle (1999)), an effective temperature of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=3350\pm 50`$K. Both the spectroscopy as well as the photometric consistency of the colors with the MK type from visual to IR bands suggest there is currently no dominant circumstellar shell material. Girardi et al. (2000b ) discussed inhomogeneities in the tracks and in the evolution due to different He-core burning phases. It affects slightly the luminosity (and thus the distance) but hardly the photometric colors (Girardi et al. 2000a ). This adds some uncertainties to the values derived for individual sources.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the colleagues of the institute for the unlimited access to the facilities of the new university observatory in Innsbruck. The staff of the ’Instituut voor Sterrenkunde’, KULeuven is acknowledged for the photometric monitoring at the Mercator facilities and the staff of the Geneva observatory is acknowledged for the photometric reduction


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# The Urysohn universal metric space is homeomorphic to a Hilbert space

## 1. Introduction

The Urysohn universal metric space $`U`$ is characterized up to isometry by the following properties: (1) $`U`$ is complete and separable; (2) $`U`$ contains an isometric copy of every separable metric space; (3) every isometry between two finite subsets of $`U`$ can be extended to an isometry of $`U`$ onto itself. (An isometry is a distance-preserving bijection; an isometric embedding is a distance-preserving injection.) The aim of the present paper is to show that the Urysohn space $`U`$ is homeomorphic to a Hilbert space (equivalently, to the countable power of the real line). This answers a question raised by Bogatyĭ, Pestov and Vershik.

There is another characterization of $`U`$. Let us say that a metric space $`M`$ is injective with respect to finite spaces, or finitely injective for short, if for every finite metric space $`L`$, every subspace $`KL`$ and every isometric embedding $`f:KM`$ there exists an isometric embedding $`\overline{f}:LM`$ which extends $`f`$. Define compactly injective metric spaces similarly, considering compact (rather than finite) spaces $`K`$ and $`L`$. If a metric space $`M`$ contains an isometric copy of every finite metric space and satisfies the condition (3) above, then $`M`$ is finitely injective. Indeed, given finite metric spaces $`KL`$ and an isometric embedding $`f:KM`$, we find an isometric embedding $`g:LM`$ and extend the isometry $`gf^1:f(K)g(K)`$ to an isometry $`h`$ of $`M`$ onto itself. Then $`h^1g:LM`$ is an isometric embedding of $`L`$ which extends $`f`$. Conversely, let $`M`$ be a finitely injective metric space. Then every countable metric space admits an isometric embedding into $`M`$ (use induction). If $`M`$ is also complete, it follows that $`M`$ contains an isometric copy of every separable metric space. Assume now that $`M`$ is also separable, and let $`f:KL`$ be an isometry between two finite subsets of $`M`$. Enumerating points of a dense countable subset of $`M`$ and using the back-and-forth method we can extend $`f`$ to an isometry between two dense countable subsets of $`M`$ and then to an isometry of $`M`$ onto itself. The same argument shows that any two complete separable finitely injective metric spaces are isometric. Thus the Urysohn space $`U`$ is the unique (up to isometry) metric space which is complete, separable and finitely injective.

The existence of $`U`$ was proved by Urysohn . An easier construction was found some 50 years later by Katětov , who also gave an example of a non-complete separable metric space satisfying the conditions (2) and (3) above, thus answering a question of Urysohn. Katětov’s construction was used in  to prove that the topological group $`\mathrm{Is}(U)`$ of all isometries of $`U`$ is universal, in the sense that it contains an isomorphic copy of every topological group with a countable base. A deep result concerning the group $`G=\mathrm{Is}(U)`$ was established by V.Pestov: the group $`G`$ is extremely amenable, i.e., every compact space with a continuous action of $`G`$ has a $`G`$-fixed point .

A.M.Vershik showed that the space $`U`$ can be obtained as the completion of a countable metric space equipped with a metric which is either“random” or generic in the sense of Baire category .

Bogatyĭ  proved that any isometry between two compact subsets of $`U`$ can be extended to an isomerty of $`U`$ onto itself. It follows by the same argument that we used above for finitely injective spaces that $`U`$ is compactly injective (and is the unique complete separable compactly injective metric space). Using this, we deduce our Main Theorem from Toruńczyk’s Criterion : a complete separable metric space $`M`$ is homeomorphic to the Hilbert space $`l_2`$ if and only if $`M`$ is AR (= absolute retract) and has the discrete approximation property (this notion is defined below). Recall that all infinite-dimensional separable Banach spaces are homeomorphic to each other and to the countable power of the real line.

Given an open cover $`𝒰`$ of a space $`X`$, two points $`x,yX`$ are said to be $`𝒰`$-close if there exists $`U𝒰`$ such that $`x,yU`$. A family of subsets of a space $`X`$ is discrete if every point in $`X`$ has a neighbourhood which meets at most one member of the family. A metric space $`M`$ has the discrete approximation property if for every sequence $`K_1,K_2,\mathrm{}`$ of compact subspaces of $`M`$ and every open cover $`𝒰`$ of $`M`$ there exists a sequence of maps $`f_i:K_iM`$ such that for every $`i`$ and every $`xK_i`$ the points $`x`$ and $`f_i(x)`$ are $`𝒰`$-close and the sequence $`(f_i(K_i))`$ is discrete. Equivalently , a metric space $`(M,d)`$ has the discrete approximation property if and only if for every sequence $`K_1,K_2,\mathrm{}`$ of compact subspaces of $`M`$ and every continuous function $`h`$ on $`M`$ with values $`>0`$ there exists a sequence of maps $`f_i:K_iM`$ such that $`d(x,f_i(x))h(x)`$ for every $`i`$ and every $`xK_i`$, and the sequence $`(f_i(K_i))`$ is discrete.

Let us reformulate Toruńczyk’s Criterion in the form that is convenient for our purposes. We say that a topological space $`X`$ is homotopically trivial if $`X`$ has trivial homotopy groups, that is, every map of the $`n`$-sphere $`S^n=B^{n+1}`$ to $`X`$ admits an extension over the $`(n+1)`$-ball $`B^{n+1}`$ ($`n=0,1,\mathrm{}`$). (The term weakly homotopically trivial might be more appropriate.) Every contractible space is homotopically trivial; the converse in general is not true. The empty space is homotopically trivial. If a metric space $`M`$ has a base $``$ such that for every non-empty finite subfamily $``$ the intersection $``$ is homotopically trivial, then $`M`$ is ANR \[4, Theorem 5.2.12\]. A metric space is AR if and only if it is homotopically trivial and ANR \[4, Theorem 5.2.15\]. Thus Toruńczyk’s Criterion can be reformulated as follows:

###### Theorem 1.1 (Toruńczyk’s Criterion).

A complete separable metric space $`M`$ is homeomorphic to a Hilbert space if and only if the following conditions hold:

1. there is a base $``$ for $`M`$ such that $`U,V`$ implies $`UV`$, and every $`U`$ is homotopically trivial;
2. $`M`$ is homotopically trivial;
3. $`M`$ has the discrete approximation property.

In the next section we show that the space $`U`$ satisfies the conditions of this criterion.

## 2. Proof of the main theorem

###### Theorem 2.1 (Main Theorem).

The Urysohn universal space $`U`$ is homeomorphic to a Hilbert space.

###### Proof.

We check the three conditions of Toruńczyk’s criterion.

(a) Let $``$ be the base for $`U`$ consisting of all open balls $`O(a,r)=\{xU:d(x,a)<r\}`$ and their finite intersections. We claim that every member $`V=_{i=1}^kO(a_i,r_i)`$ of $``$ is homotopically trivial. Let a map $`f:S^nV`$ be given. We must construct an extension $`\overline{f}:B^{n+1}V`$.

Every metric space admits an isometric embedding into a normed linear space. Thus we may consider $`U`$ as a subspace of a Banach space $`B`$. Let $`V^{}=_{i=1}^kO^{}(a_i,r_i)`$, where $`O^{}(a,r)`$ is the open ball centered at $`a`$ of radius $`r`$ in the space $`B`$. Then $`V=V^{}U`$. Being a convex subset of a normed linear space, the space $`V^{}`$ is contractible (in fact it is AR \[4, Theorem 1.4.13\]), so the map $`f:S^nV`$ can be extended to a map $`g:B^{n+1}V^{}`$. Let $`A=\{a_1,\mathrm{},a_k\}`$, $`K=f(S^n)A`$ and $`L=g(B^{n+1})A`$. Then $`K`$ and $`L`$ are compact, $`KLU`$. Since $`U`$ is compactly injective, the identity map of $`K`$ can be extended to an isometric embedding $`h:LU`$. Let $`\overline{f}=hg:B^{n+1}U`$. Then $`\overline{f}`$ extends $`f`$. The range of $`\overline{f}`$ is contained in $`V`$, since for every $`xB^{n+1}`$ and $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$ we have $`d(\overline{f}(x),a_i)=d(h(g(x)),h(a_i))=d(g(x),a_i)<r_i`$ (note that $`h(a_i)=a_i`$, since $`a_iK`$ and $`h`$ fixes all points in $`K`$).

(b) The space $`U`$ is homotopically trivial. The proof is the same as above but easier, since we do not have to care about points $`a_1,\mathrm{},a_k`$.

(c) We prove that $`U`$ has the discrete approximation property. Let $`K_1,\mathrm{},K_n,\mathrm{}`$ be a sequence of non-empty compact subsets of $`U`$, and let $`h`$ be a continuous function on $`U`$ with values $`>0`$. We must construct a discrete sequence $`(L_n)`$ of compact subsets of $`U`$ and a sequence of maps $`f_n:K_nL_n`$ such that $`d(f_n(x),x)h(x)`$ for every $`n1`$ and $`xK_n`$.

We’ll need the notion of union of two metric spaces with a subspace amalgamated. Suppose that $`M_1,M_2,A`$ are metric spaces, $`A\mathrm{}`$, and isometric embeddings $`f_i:AM_i`$, $`i=1,2`$, are given. The union $`M`$ of $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ with the subspace $`A`$ amalgamated is characterized by the following properties: there exist isometric embeddings $`h_i:M_iM`$ such that $`M=h_1(M_1)h_2(M_2)`$, $`h_1f_1=h_2f_2`$, and for every $`xM_1f_1(A)`$, $`yM_2f_2(A)`$

$$d(h_1(x),h_2(y))=inf\{d_1(x,f_1(z))+d_2(f_2(z),y):zA\},$$

where $`d,d_1,d_2`$ are the metrics on $`M,M_1,M_2`$, respectively. It is easy to see that such a space $`M`$ exists and in the obvious sense is unique.

Let $`N_iK_i\times 𝐑`$ be the union of $`K_i\times \{0\}`$ and the graph of the restriction of $`h`$ on $`K_i`$. Equip $`K_i\times 𝐑`$ with the metric $`\rho `$ defined by

$$\rho ((x,t),(y,s))=d(x,y)+|st|,$$

and consider the induced metric on $`N_i`$.

We now construct a sequence $`(L_n)`$ of compact subsets of $`U`$ by induction. Suppose the sets $`L_i`$ have been defined for $`i<n`$. We define $`L_n`$. Consider two compact metric spaces: $`K_n_{i<n}L_i`$ and $`N_n`$. Since $`K_n`$ lies in the first space and has a natural embedding into the second one (we mean the embedding $`x(x,0)`$), we can construct their union with the subspace $`K_n`$ amalgamated. Write this union as $`P=_{i<n}L_iK_n\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n=\{(x,h(x)):xK_n\}`$ is the graph of $`hK_n`$. Since $`U`$ is compactly injective, there exists an isometric embedding $`\varphi :PU`$ which is identity on each $`L_i`$ ($`i<n`$) and on $`K_n`$. Let $`L_n=\varphi (\mathrm{\Gamma }_n)`$. Let $`f_n:K_nL_n`$ be the composition of the map $`x(x,h(x))`$ from $`K_n`$ onto $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$ and $`\varphi `$. For every $`xK_n`$ the distance from $`(x,0)`$ to $`(x,h(x))`$ in $`N_n`$ is equal to $`h(x)`$, hence the distance from $`x`$ to $`(x,h(x))`$ in $`P`$ and the distance from $`x`$ to $`f_n(x)`$ in $`U`$ also are equal to $`h(x)`$. Thus $`f_n`$ moves every $`xK_n`$ by $`h(x)`$.

Note that for every $`xK_n`$ and $`y_{i<n}L_i`$ the distance from $`f_n(x)`$ to $`y`$ is $`h(x)`$. Indeed, by our construction this distance is equal to the distance from $`(x,h(x))\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$ to $`y`$ in $`P`$ and thus also to

$`inf\{d(y,z)+\rho ((z,0),(x,h(x))):zK_n\}`$ $`=inf\{d(y,z)+d(z,x)+h(x):zK_n\}`$
$`=d(y,x)+h(x)h(x).`$
To conclude the proof, we must show that the sequence $`(L_n)`$ is discrete. Assume the contrary. Since the sequence $`(L_n)`$ is disjoint, there exists an infinite set $`A`$ of positive integers and points $`y_iL_i`$ ($`iA`$) such that the sequence $`\{y_i:iA\}`$ converges to some $`pU`$. Write $`y_i=f_i(x_i)`$, where $`x_iK_i`$. The distance from $`y_n`$ to $`\{y_i:i<n,iA\}_{i<n}L_i`$ tends to zero as $`nA`$ tends to infinity. On the other hand, we saw in the preceding paragraph that this distance is $`h(x_n)`$. Therefore the sequence $`\{h(x_n):nA\}`$ tends to zero. Since $`d(x_n,y_n)=d(x_n,f_n(x_n))=h(x_n)0`$ and $`y_np`$, it follows that $`x_np`$. But this contradicts the continuity of $`h`$ at $`p`$: we have $`h(p)>0`$, $`x_np`$ and $`h(x_n)0`$. ∎


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# CHARM CONTENT OF A PROTON IN COLLINEAR PARTON MODEL AND IN limit-from{𝐾_𝑇}-FACTORIZATION APPROACH This work is supported by the RFBR under Grant 02-02-16253

## 1 Introduction

The result of a study for the internal structure of a proton in the process of the lepton deep inelastic scattering (DIS) can be presented in terms of a proton structure function (SF) $`F_2^p(x_B,Q^2)`$ as a function of $`Q^2=q^2`$ and $`x_B=Q^2/2(pq)`$, where $`q`$ is the exchange photon 4-momentum and $`p`$ is the proton 4-momentum. In a process of the charmed quark leptoproduction the charmed content of the proton structure function $`F_{2c}^p(x_B,Q^2)`$ is probed. The recent relevant measurings by the H1  and the ZEUS  Collaborations at the HERA ep-collider include the following kinematic region: $`1.8<Q^2<130`$ GeV2 and $`510^5<x_B<210^2`$.

The charmed quark SF has been studied in the framework of DGLAP  and BFKL  dynamics. Usually, the c-quark SF $`F_{2c}^p(x_B,Q^2)`$ is calculated via the amplitude which described by the quark box diagrams. This type of a calculation for the $`F_{2c}^p(x_B,Q^2)`$ is presented in the talk by A.Kotikov .

Here we use another method which is based on a direct calculation of the total $`c\overline{c}`$production cross section in the electron DIS. In a such way, we have obtained the c-quark distribution function $`C_p(x_B,Q^2)`$ which is connected with the c-quark SF as follows:

$$F_{2c}^p(x_B,Q^2)=2e_c^2x_BC_p(x_B,Q^2).$$
(1)
## 2 Electroproduction cross section

In the framework of the parton model and the one photon exchange approximation the charmed quark production cross section in the electron DIS can be presented as a convolution of the c-quark proton distribution function and the electron – c-quark partonic cross section:

$$d\sigma (epecX)=𝑑x_BC_p(x_B,Q^2)𝑑\widehat{\sigma }(ecec).$$
(2)
The doubly differential cross section can be presented as follows:

$$\frac{d\sigma }{dx_BdQ^2}(epecX)=C_p(x_B,Q^2)\frac{\overline{|M(ecec)|^2}}{16\pi (x_Bs)^2},$$
(3)
where $`s=(p_e+p)^2`$, $`p`$ is the proton 4-momentum, $`p_e`$ is the electron 4-momentum. The squared amplitude of an elastic $`ec`$scattering has the following form:

$$\overline{|M(ecec)|^2}=2\frac{e^4e_c^2}{Q^4}(x_Bs)^2\left(y^22y+2\frac{2m_c^2y^2}{Q^2}\right),$$
(4)
where $`y=Q^2/(x_Bs)`$. From (1), (3) and (4) we can obtain the master formula

$$F_{2c}^p(x_B,Q^2)=x_BQ^4\frac{d\sigma }{dx_BdQ^2}(epecX)/\left(\pi \alpha ^2(y^22y+2\frac{2m_c^2y^2}{Q^2})\right).$$
(5)
At the high energy the dominant mechanism of the c-quark electroproduction on a proton is the photon-gluon fusion. In the leading order approximation for the QCD running constant $`\alpha _s`$ the relevant subprocess is $`e+ge+c+\overline{c}`$.

In the conventional collinear parton model it is suggested that hadronic cross section, in our case $`\sigma (epecX,s)`$, and the relevant partonic cross section $`\widehat{\sigma }(egec\overline{c},\widehat{s})`$ are connected as follows:

$$\sigma ^{PM}(epecX,s)=𝑑xG(x,\mu ^2)\widehat{\sigma }(egec\overline{c},\widehat{s}),$$
(6)
where $`\widehat{s}=xs`$, $`G(x,\mu ^2)`$ is the collinear gluon distribution function in a proton, $`x`$ is the gluon fraction of a proton momentum, $`\mu ^2`$ is the typical scale of a hard process. The $`\mu ^2`$ evolution of the gluon distribution $`G(x,\mu ^2)`$ is described by DGLAP evolution equation . In the $`k_T`$-factorization approach hadronic and partonic cross sections are related by the following condition :

$`\sigma ^{KT}(epecX)={\displaystyle \frac{dx}{x}𝑑\stackrel{}{k}_T^2\frac{d\varphi }{2\pi }\mathrm{\Phi }(x,\stackrel{}{k}_T^2,\mu ^2)\widehat{\sigma }(eg^{}ec\overline{c},\widehat{s})}`$ (7)
where $`\widehat{\sigma }(eg^{}ec\overline{c},\widehat{s})`$ is the c-quark production cross section on the off mass-shell (”reggeized”) gluon, $`k^2=\stackrel{}{k}_T^2`$, $`\widehat{s}=xs\stackrel{}{k}_T^2`$, $`\varphi `$ is the azimuthal angle in the transverse $`XOY`$ plane between vectors $`\stackrel{}{k}_T`$ and the fixed $`OX`$ axis ($`\stackrel{}{p}_e\text{ and }\stackrel{}{p}_e^{}XOZ`$).

The unintegrated gluon distribution function $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x,\stackrel{}{k}_T^2,\mu ^2)`$ satisfies the
BFKL evolution equation . At the $`x1`$ the off mass-shell gluon has dominant longitudinal polarization along a proton momentum and the gluon polarization four-vector is written as follows  $`\epsilon ^\mu (k)=k_T^\mu /|\stackrel{}{k}_T|`$.

Our calculation in the parton model was done using the GRV  and the CTEQ5L  parameterizations for a collinear gluon distribution function $`G(x,\mu ^2)`$. In case of the $`k_T`$-factorization approach we use the following parameterizations for an unintegrated gluon distribution function $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x,\stackrel{}{k}_T^2,\mu ^2)`$: JB by Bluemlein , JS by Jung and Salam , KMR by Kimber, Martin and Ryskin . We compared these parameterizations directly in our recent paper .

Finally, in the $`k_T`$factorization formalism the doubly differential cross section for the process $`epecX`$ can be written as follows:

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{KT}}{dx_BdQ^2}=\frac{y}{x_B}𝑑p_{cT}𝑑\varphi _c𝑑\eta _c𝑑\stackrel{}{k}_T^2\frac{d\varphi }{2\pi }\frac{p_cp_{cT}}{E_c}\frac{\overline{|M(eg^{}ec\overline{c})|^2}}{256\pi ^4(ya_1)(xs)^2}\mathrm{\Phi }(x,\stackrel{}{k}_T^2,\mu ^2),$$
(8)
where $`p_c=(E_c,\stackrel{}{p}_c)`$ is the c-quark 4-momentum, $`\eta _c`$ is the c-quark pseudorapidity, $`\varphi _c`$ is the azimuthal angle between OX axis and vector $`\stackrel{}{p}_{cT}`$, $`a_1=2(pp_c)/s`$, $`b_1=2(p_ep_c)/s`$ and

$$x=(\stackrel{}{k}_T^2+Q^2+yb_1s+2(\stackrel{}{q}_T\stackrel{}{k}_T)2(\stackrel{}{p}_{cT}\stackrel{}{k}_T)2(\stackrel{}{q}_T\stackrel{}{p}_{cT}))/((ya_1)s).$$
(9)
We use the following approximations for gluon 4-momentum $`k^\mu =xp^\mu +k_T^\mu `$, where $`k_T^\mu =(0,\stackrel{}{k}_T,0)`$.

In the parton model one has $`\stackrel{}{k}_T=0`$ and

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma ^{PM}}{dx_BdQ^2}}={\displaystyle \frac{y}{x_B}}{\displaystyle 𝑑p_{cT}𝑑\varphi _c𝑑\eta _c\left(\frac{p_cp_{cT}}{E_c}\right)\frac{\overline{|M(egec\overline{c})|^2}}{256\pi ^4(ya_1)(xs)^2}xG(x,\mu ^2)},`$ (10)
where

$$x=(Q^2+yb_1s2(\stackrel{}{q}_T\stackrel{}{p}_{cT}))/((ya_1)s).$$
(11)
The obtained results (Fig. 1) demonstrate agreement between our predictions and the recent data for the $`F_{2c}^p(x_B,Q^2)`$ from HERA . However, we see that the difference between the c-quark proton SF’s calculated in the $`k_T`$-factorization approach using different unintegrated gluon distribution functions is the same order as than the difference between results obtained in the parton model and in the $`k_T`$-factorization approach.

The authors would like to thank B. Kniehl, A. Kotikov and H. Jung for discussion of the obtained results, L. Lipatov and V. Kim for kind hospitality during Workshop DIS-2003.


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# References

The Riemann Hypothesis is Unprovable

Craig Alan Feinstein

2712 Willow Glen Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21209
E-mail: cafeinst@msn.com, BS”D

Abstract: In this note, we give a simple proof that the Riemann Hypothesis is unprovable in any reasonable axiom system.

Disclaimer: This article was authored by Craig Alan Feinstein in his private capacity. No official support or endorsement by the U.S. Government is intended or should be inferred.

The Riemann-Zeta function $`\zeta (s)`$ is a complex function defined to be

$$\zeta (s)=\frac{s}{s1}s_1^{\mathrm{}}\frac{xx}{x^{s+1}}𝑑x$$

when the real part of the complex number $`s`$ is positive . The Riemann Hypothesis states that if $`\rho =\sigma +ti`$ is a complex root of $`\zeta (s)`$ and $`0<\sigma <1`$, then $`\sigma =1/2`$ . The Riemann-Siegel function is defined to be the real function

$$Z(t)=\zeta (\frac{1}{2}+ti)\mathrm{exp}(i\vartheta (t)),$$

where

$$\vartheta (t)=\mathrm{arg}[\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{2}it)]\frac{1}{2}t\mathrm{ln}\pi .$$

Notice that $`|Z(t)|=|\zeta (1/2+ti)|`$ for all real $`t`$, so the real roots $`t`$ of $`Z(t)`$ are the same as the real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+ti)`$ . In this note, we give a simple proof that the Riemann Hypothesis is unprovable in any reasonable axiom system:

The Riemann Hypothesis is equivalent to the assertion that for each $`T>0`$, the number of real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+it)`$ (counting multiplicities), where $`0<t<T`$, is equal to the number of complex roots $`s`$ of $`\zeta (s)`$ in $`\{s=\sigma +ti0<\sigma <1,\text{ }0<t<T\}`$ (counting multiplicities). Because the formula for the real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+it)`$ cannot be reduced to a formula that is simpler than the equation, $`\zeta (1/2+it)=0`$, the only way to determine the number of real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+it)`$ in which $`0<t<T`$ is to count the changes in sign of $`Z(t)`$, where $`0<t<T`$.

Suppose it were possible to prove that the number of real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+it)`$, where $`0<t<T`$, is equal to the number of complex roots $`s`$ of $`\zeta (s)`$ in $`\{s=\sigma +ti0<\sigma <1,\text{ }0<t<T\}`$ without counting the changes in sign of $`Z(t)`$, where $`0<t<T`$. Then it would be possible to determine the number of real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+it)`$, where $`0<t<T`$, by computing the number of complex roots $`s`$ of $`\zeta (s)`$ in $`\{s=\sigma +ti0<\sigma <1,\text{ }0<t<T\}`$ via the argument principle  without counting the changes in sign of $`Z(t)`$, where $`0<t<T`$. But this contradicts the last sentence in the paragraph above. Hence, in order to prove that the number of real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+it)`$, where $`0<t<T`$, is equal to the number of complex roots $`s`$ of $`\zeta (s)`$ in $`\{s=\sigma +ti0<\sigma <1,\text{ }0<t<T\}`$, it is necessary to count the changes in sign of $`Z(t)`$, where $`0<t<T`$.

As $`T`$ becomes arbitrarily large, the time that it takes to count the changes in sign of $`Z(t)`$, where $`0<t<T`$, approaches infinity; hence, an infinite amount of time is required to prove that for each $`T>0`$, the number of real roots $`t`$ of $`\zeta (1/2+it)`$, where $`0<t<T`$, is equal to the number of complex roots $`s`$ of $`\zeta (s)`$ in $`\{s=\sigma +ti0<\sigma <1,\text{ }0<t<T\}`$, so the Riemann Hypothesis is unprovable in any reasonable axiom system.


text:
# Bethe Ansatz solution of the stochastic process with nonuniform stationary state.

## References


text:
# Fast algorithm for detecting community structure in networks

## I Introduction

There has in recent years been a surge of interest within the physics community in the properties of networks of many kinds, including the Internet, the world wide web, citation networks, transportation networks, software call graphs, email networks, food webs, and social and biochemical networks Strogatz01 ; AB02 ; DM03b ; Newman03d . One property that has attracted particular attention is that of “community structure”: the vertices in networks are often found to cluster into tightly-knit groups with a high density of within-group edges and a lower density of between-group edges. Girvan and Newman GN02 ; NG04  proposed a computer algorithm based on the iterative removal of edges with high “betweenness” scores that appears to identify such structure with some sensitivity, and this algorithm has been employed by a number of authors in the study of such diverse systems as networks of email messages, social networks of animals, collaborations of jazz musicians, metabolic networks, and gene networks GN02 ; NG04 ; WH03 ; HHJ03 ; Guimera03 ; TWH03 ; GD04 . As pointed out by Newman and Girvan NG04 , the principle disadvantage of their algorithm is the high computational demands it makes. In its simplest and fastest form it runs in worst-case time $`\mathrm{O}(m^2n)`$ on a network with $`m`$ edges and $`n`$ vertices, or $`\mathrm{O}(n^3)`$ on a sparse graph (one for which $`m`$ scales with $`n`$ in the limit of large $`n`$, which covers essentially all networks of current scientific interest, with the possible exception of food webs). With typical computer resources available at the time of writing, this limits the algorithm’s use to networks of a few thousand vertices at most, and substantially less than this for interactive applications. Increasingly however, there is interest in the study of much larger networks; citation and collaboration networks can contain millions of vertices Redner98 ; Newman01a  for example, while the world wide web numbers in the billions KL01 .

In this paper, therefore, we propose a new algorithm for detecting community structure. The algorithm operates on different principles to that of Girvan and Newman (GN) but, as we will show, gives qualitatively similar results. The worst-case running time of the algorithm is $`\mathrm{O}((m+n)n)`$, or $`\mathrm{O}(n^2)`$ on a sparse graph. In practice, it runs to completion on current computers in reasonable times for networks of up to a million or so vertices, bringing within reach the study of communities in many systems that would previously have been considered intractable.

## II The algorithm

Our algorithm is based on the idea of modularity. Given any network, the GN community structure algorithm always produces *some* division of the vertices into communities, regardless of whether the network has any natural such division. To test whether a particular division is meaningful we define a quality function or “modularity” $`Q`$ as follows NG04 . Let $`e_{ij}`$ be the fraction of edges in the network that connect vertices in group $`i`$ to those in group $`j`$, and let $`a_i=_je_{ij}`$ 111As discussed in NG04 , each edge should contribute only to $`e_{ij}`$ once, either above or below the diagonal, but not both. Alternatively, and more elegantly, one can split the contribution of each edge half-and-half between $`e_{ij}`$ and $`e_{ji}`$, except for those edges that join a group to itself, whose contribution belongs entirely to the single diagonal element $`e_{ii}`$ for the group in question.. Then

$$Q=\underset{i}{}(e_{ii}a_i^2)$$
(1)
is the fraction of edges that fall within communities, minus the expected value of the same quantity if edges fall at random without regard for the community structure. If a particular division gives no more within-community edges than would be expected by random chance we will get $`Q=0`$. Values other than 0 indicate deviations from randomness, and in practice values greater than about $`0.3`$ appear to indicate significant community structure. A number of examples are given in Ref. NG04, .

But this now suggests an alternative approach to finding community structure. If a high value of $`Q`$ represents a good community division, why not simply optimize $`Q`$ over all possible divisions to find the best one? By doing this, we can avoid the iterative removal of edges and cut straight to the chase. The problem is that true optimization of $`Q`$ is very costly. The number of ways to divide $`n`$ vertices into $`g`$ non-empty groups is given by the Stirling number of the second kind $`S_n^{(g)}`$, and hence the number of distinct community divisions is $`_{g=1}^nS_n^{(g)}`$. This sum is not known in closed form, but we observe that $`S_n^{(1)}+S_n^{(2)}=2^{n1}`$ for all $`n>1`$, so that the sum must increase at least exponentially in $`n`$. To carry out an exhaustive search of all possible divisions for the optimal value of $`Q`$ would therefore take at least an exponential amount of time, and is in practice infeasible for systems larger than twenty or thirty vertices. Various approximate optimization methods are available: simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, and so forth. Here we consider a scheme based on a standard “greedy” optimization algorithm, which appears to perform well.

Our algorithm falls in the general category of agglomerative hierarchical clustering methods Everitt74 ; Scott00 . Starting with a state in which each vertex is the sole member of one of $`n`$ communities, we repeatedly join communities together in pairs, choosing at each step the join that results in the greatest increase (or smallest decrease) in $`Q`$. The progress of the algorithm can be represented as a “dendrogram,” a tree that shows the order of the joins (see Fig. 2, for an example). Cuts through this dendrogram at different levels give divisions of the network into larger or smaller numbers of communities and, as with the GN algorithm, we can select the best cut by looking for the maximal value of $`Q`$.

Since the joining of a pair of communities between which there are no edges at all can never result in an increase in $`Q`$, we need only consider those pairs between which there are edges, of which there will at any time be at most $`m`$, where $`m`$ is again the number of edges in the graph. The change in $`Q`$ upon joining two communities is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }Q=e_{ij}+e_{ji}2a_ia_j=2(e_{ij}a_ia_j)`$, which can clearly be calculated in constant time. Following a join, some of the matrix elements $`e_{ij}`$ must be updated by adding together the rows and columns corresponding to the joined communities, which takes worst-case time $`\mathrm{O}(n)`$. Thus each step of the algorithm takes worst-case time $`\mathrm{O}(m+n)`$. There are a maximum of $`n1`$ join operations necessary to construct the complete dendrogram and hence the entire algorithm runs in time $`\mathrm{O}((m+n)n)`$, or $`\mathrm{O}(n^2)`$ on a sparse graph. The algorithm has the added advantage of calculating the value of $`Q`$ as it goes along, making it especially simple to find the optimal community structure.

It is worth noting that our algorithm can be generalized trivially to weighted networks in which each edge has a numeric strength associated with it, by making the initial values of the matrix elements $`e_{ij}`$ equal to those strengths, rather than just zero or one; otherwise the algorithm is as above and has the same running time. The networks studied in this paper however are all unweighted.

## III Applications

As a first example of the working of our algorithm, we have generated using a computer a large number of random graphs with known community structure, which we then run through the algorithm to quantify its performance. Each graph consists of $`n=128`$ vertices divided into four groups of $`32`$. Each vertex has on average $`z_{\mathrm{in}}`$ edges connecting it to members of the same group and $`z_{\mathrm{out}}`$ edges to members of other groups, with $`z_{\mathrm{in}}`$ and $`z_{\mathrm{out}}`$ chosen such that the total expected degree $`z_{\mathrm{in}}+z_{\mathrm{out}}=16`$, in this case. As $`z_{\mathrm{out}}`$ is increased from small values, the resulting graphs pose greater and greater challenges to the community-finding algorithm. In Fig. 1 we show the fraction of vertices correctly assigned to the four communities by the algorithm as a function of $`z_{\mathrm{out}}`$. As the figure shows, the algorithm performs well, correctly identifying more than 90% of vertices for values of $`z_{\mathrm{out}}6`$. Only when $`z_{\mathrm{out}}`$ approaches the value 8 at which the number of within- and between-community edges per vertex is the same does the algorithm begin to fail. On the same plot we also show the performance of the GN algorithm and, as we can see, that algorithm performs slightly but measurably better for smaller values of $`z_{\mathrm{out}}`$. For example, for $`z_{\mathrm{out}}=5`$ our new algorithm correctly identifies an average of $`97.4(2)\%`$ of vertices, while the older algorithm correctly identifies $`98.9(1)\%`$. Both, however, clearly perform well.

Interestingly for higher values of $`z_{\mathrm{out}}`$ our new algorithm performs better than the older one, and we have come across a few real-world networks in which this is the case also. Normally, however, the GN algorithm seems to have the edge, and this should come as no great surprise. Our new algorithm bases its decisions on purely local information about individual communities, while the GN algorithm uses non-local information about the entire network—information derived from betweenness scores. Since community structure is itself fundamentally a non-local quantity, it seems reasonable that one can do a better job of finding that structure if one has non-local information at one’s disposal.

For systems small enough that the GN algorithm is computationally tractable, therefore, we see no reason not to continue using it—it appears to give the best results. For systems too large to make use of this approach, however, our new algorithm gives useful community structure information with comparatively little effort.

We have applied our algorithm to a variety of real-world networks also. We have looked, for example, at the “karate club” network studied in GN02 , which represents friendships between 34 members of a club at a US university, as recorded over a two-year period by Zachary Zachary77 . During the course of the study, the club split into two groups as a result of a dispute within the organization, and the members of one group left to start their own club. In Fig. 2 we show the dendrogram derived by feeding the friendship network into our algorithm. The peak modularity is $`Q=0.381`$ and corresponds to a split into two groups of 17, as shown in the figure. The shapes of the vertices represent the alignments of the club members following the split and, as we can see, the division found by the algorithm corresponds almost perfectly to these alignments; only one vertex, number 10, is classified wrongly. The GN algorithm performs similarly on this task, but not better—it also finds the split but classifies one vertex wrongly (although a different one, vertex 3). In other tests, we find that our algorithm also successfully detects the main two-way division of the dolphin social network of Lusseau NG04 ; Lusseau03b , and the division between black and white musicians in the jazz network of Gleiser and Danon GD04 .

As a demonstration of how our algorithm can sometimes miss some of the structure in a network, we take another example from Ref. GN02, , a network representing the schedule of games between American college football teams in a single season. Because the teams are divided into groups or “conferences,” with intra-conference games being more frequent than inter-conference games, we have a reasonable idea ahead of time about what communities our algorithm should find. The dendrogram generated by the algorithm is shown in Fig. 3, and has an optimal modularity of $`Q=0.546`$, which is a little shy of the value $`0.601`$ for the best split reported in GN02 . As the dendrogram reveals, the algorithm finds six communities. Some of them correspond to single conferences, but most correspond to two or more. The GN algorithm, by contrast, finds all eleven conferences, as well as accurately identifying independent teams that belong to no conference. Nonetheless, it is clear that the new algorithm is quite capable of picking out useful community structure from the network, and of course it is much the faster algorithm. On the author’s personal computer the algorithm ran to completion in an unmeasureably small time—less than a hundredth of a second. The algorithm of Girvan and Newman took a little over a second.

A time difference of this magnitude will not present a big problem in most practical situations, but performance rapidly becomes an issue when we look at larger networks; we expect the ratio of running times to increase with the number of vertices. Thus, for example, in applying our algorithm to the 1275-node network of jazz musician collaborations mentioned above, we found that it runs to completion in about one second of CPU time. The GN algorithm by contrast takes more than three hours to reach very similar results.

As an example of an analysis made possible by the speed of the new algorithm, we have looked at a network of collaborations between physicists as documented by papers posted on the widely-used Physics E-print Archive at arxiv.org. The network is an updated version of the one described in Ref. Newman01a, , in which scientists are considered connected if they have coauthored one or more papers posted on the archive. We analyze only the largest component of the network, which contains $`n=\mathrm{56\hspace{0.17em}276}`$ scientists in all branches of physics covered by the archive. Since two vertices that are unconnected by any path are never put in the same community by our algorithm, the small fraction of vertices that are not part of the largest component can safely be assumed to be in separate communities in the sense of our algorithm. Our algorithm takes 42 minutes to find the full community structure. Our best estimates indicate that the GN algorithm would take somewhere between three and five years to complete its version of the same calculation.

The analysis reveals that the network in question consists of about 600 communities, with a high peak modularity of $`Q=0.713`$, indicating strong community structure in the physics world. Four of the communities found are large, containing between them 77% of all the vertices, while the others are small—see Fig. 4, left panel. The four large communities correspond closely to subject subareas: one to astrophysics, one to high-energy physics, and two to condensed matter physics. Thus there appears to be a strong correlation between the structure found by our algorithm and the community divisions perceived by human observers. It is precisely correlation of this kind that makes community structure analysis a useful tool in understanding the behavior of networked systems.

We can repeat the analysis with any of the subcommunities to observe how they break up. For example, feeding the smaller of the two condensed-matter groups through the algorithm again, we find an even stronger peak modularity of $`Q=0.807`$—the strongest we have yet observed in any network—corresponding to a split into about a hundred communities of all sizes (Fig. 4, center panel). The sizes appear roughly to have a power-law distribution with exponent about $`2`$ 222This power law is of a different kind to the one observed in an email network by Guimerà et al. Guimera03 . They studied the histogram of community sizes over all levels of the dendrogram; we are looking only at the single level corresponding to the maximum value of $`Q`$.. Narrowing our focus still further to the particular one of these communities that contains the present author, we find the structure shown in the right panel of Fig. 4. Feeding this one last time through the algorithm, it breaks apart into communities that correspond closely to individual institutional research groups, the author’s group appearing in the corner of the figure, highlighted by the dashed box. One could pursue this line of analysis further, identifying individual groups, iteratively breaking them down, and looking for example at the patterns of collaboration between them, but we leave this for later studies.

## IV Conclusions

In this paper we have described a new algorithm for extracting community structure from networks, which has a considerable speed advantage over previous algorithms, running to completion in time that scales as the square of the network size. This allows us to study much larger systems than has previously been possible. Among other examples, we have applied the algorithm to a network of collaborations between more than fifty thousand physicists, and found that the resulting community structure corresponds closely to the traditional divisions between specialties and research groups in the field.

We believe that our method will not only allow for the extension of community structure analysis to some of the very large networks that are now being studied for the first time, but also provides a useful tool for visualizing and understand the structure of these networks, whose daunting size has hitherto made many of their structural properties obscure.

###### Acknowledgements.

The author thanks Leon Danon, Pablo Gleiser, David Lusseau, and Douglas White for providing network data used in the examples. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant number DMS–0234188.


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# Supernova Neutrino-Nucleus Astrophysics

## I Open Questions for Neutrino Interactions in Core-collapse Supernovae

We do not as yet understand how supernovae explode or even whether explosion is a common outcome of a core collapse event. The current “nuclear physicist’s paradigm” (that is, leaving out rotation and magnetic fields) for explosions is as follows: a massive star evolves on a timescale of millions of years and forms a Chandrasekhar mass core composed of iron peak nuclei. The weak interaction dominates the evolution of an object like this and neutrino emission from core carbon/oxygen burning onward efficiently removes entropy from the star, ultimately causing the iron core to have a very low entropy per baryon. As a result, the core is supported by relativistically degenerate electrons and this fact has immediate implications: the core will go dynamically unstable and will collapse at a near free fall rate on a very low adiabat until the nuclei and nucleons merge at nuclear density. A shock wave is generated at this point, essentially at the edge of an inner homologous core which is a sort of instantaneous Chandrasekhar mass. During the collapse, the electron Fermi energy rises as the volume of the core decreases. This drives copious electron capture on protons, lowering the fraction of electrons per baryon, $`Y_e`$, and, hence, lowering the instantaneous Chandrasekhar mass. The protons which are the targets for electron capture are mostly inside large nuclei on account of the low entropy. The physics of this process is discussed in detail in Ref. .

At issue is the fate of this “bounce” shock (see e.g. Ref. ). The mere fact that nucleons are bound in nuclei by some 8 MeV on average implies that this initial shock will be “dead on arrival.” As the shock transits material beyond the inner core, most of it’s kinetic energy is dissipated in the photo-dissociation of nuclei. The shock quickly ($`100\mathrm{milliseconds}`$) evolves to become a standing accretion shock.

This process has to happen for two reasons: (1) a strong shock will have a large (by nuclear physics standards) jump in entropy across it ($``$ factor of ten in this case); and (2) the temperature is high enough that all the material is in nuclear statistical equilibrium. All nuclei will be “melted” if the entropy is increased by more than three or four units of Boltzmann’s constant per baryon.

During the collapse of the core, the infall epoch, electrons are captured on protons which for the most part, reside in nuclei. The electron neutrinos produced in this process freely escape from the core at first, but later become trapped at densities exceeding one percent of nuclear matter density. Subsequently, the electron neutrinos scatter and exchange energy and approach beta equilibrium. However, the manner in which the neutrinos approach equilibrium may depend on neutrino-nucleus interaction rates. These include processes in which nuclear excitation energy is changed into neutrino energy and processes in which neutrinos give up energy to nuclei . For example, it could be that the de-excitation of hot nuclei into neutrino-antineutrino pairs is the dominant source of low-energy neutrinos and the principal means by which the low-energy neutrinos are driven into equilibrium during the infall epoch. This needs to be investigated further.

The gravitational binding energy release in the collapse to nuclear density, some one percent of the core rest mass promptly and, ultimately, ten percent of the rest mass, is radiated as neutrinos of all flavors. It is believed that some of this neutrino energy is transferred to thermal energy behind the otherwise stalled shock on a timescale of some 100’s of milliseconds post bounce. How the neutrino energy can be transported to and pumped into this region in and around the shock is still very much an open question. Neutrino-nucleus interactions are expected to play an important role.

Electron neutrino captures on neutrons (making protons) and electron antineutrino captures on protons (making neutrons) will proceed apace in this region. This is likely the dominant way in which energy can be transferred to the shock from the neutron star directly via neutrinos. (Convection through the neutrinosphere can be regarded as an effective increase in neutrino luminosity. Convection between the neutrinosphere and the shock is different, and may be quite important for obtaining an explosion, and will be ignored here.) If the core (proto neutron star) is highly relativistic, then neutrino-antineutrino annihilation may play a significant role in energy deposition as well. These charged current captures on free nucleons also determine the neutron to proton ratio in the material above the neutron star. The neutron excess of the neutron star is “transmitted” to the overlaying material via neutrinos and these charged current capture processes.

Electron neutrino and antineutrino captures on heavy nuclei ahead of the shock may be important. If enough energy can be transferred to these nuclei from these processes to melt a fraction of the nuclei then the shock dynamics can be altered. This “pre-heating” of the material ahead of the shock (a misnomer as the material has a large specific heat on account of the heavy nuclei and the temperature does not rise much) could help the shock by partially dissociating nuclei; and, it could hurt the shock by melting nuclei, giving a higher number density of particles and therefore producing a higher pressure. The Mach number of the shock goes roughly like the pressure ratio across the shock front and it is obvious that melting the nuclei ahead of the shock goes in the direction of evening up the pressure on both sides. Which of these effects wins is not at all clear at present. To predict the outcome with confidence we need a better handle on neutrino-nucleus interaction cross sections, among other things.

In general, the cross sections per nucleon for these processes are small compared to those for free nucleons. However, collectivity in the electron neutrino charged current channel (for nuclei with a neutron excess) and in the (all neutrino flavors) neutral current channel can result in significant cross sections that may be important. To this end one needs neutral- and charged-current neutrino-nucleus inclusive cross section for neutrino energies ranging from 10’s of MeV to 100 MeV or so, principally for the iron peak nuclei.

Another way in which these processes can be interesting is in the freeze-out nucleosynthesis that may result from this shock re-heating epoch. Again, the neutron to proton ratio will be set by the charged current captures on free nucleons, but neutrino-nucleus reactions can be important.

For example, electron neutrino capture on a neutron rich target nucleus will tend to leave the daughter nucleus in a highly excited state. The Gamow-Teller strength distribution centroid will tend to lie in the vicinity of or above the excitation energy of the first isobaric analog state in the daughter. In Figure 1 we summarize the systematics of the nuclear physics of neutrino capture on a neutron rich target nucleus. The essential point of physics is this: the Coulomb energy sets the scale for daughter nucleus excitation energy. This can be $`30\mathrm{MeV}`$ or more for a target (parent) like 208Pb. Note that such a highly excited (massive) daughter nucleus could decay by emission of one or more neutrons, or even by fission. The decay of such neutrino capture-produced nuclei needs to be better understood, especially as regards the branching ratio into one or more neutrons and the distribution of fission fragments with mass. This in turn may shed light on, for example, where the light p-process nuclei, like 96Mo, come from.

If there is an explosion and the material overlying the neutron star is ejected, or if we had a non-explosive accretion-driven collapse event, then we could be left with conditions conducive to the formation of a neutrino-driven wind. Intense neutrino fluxes from the neutron star can deposit energy (as outlined above) in the tenuous medium above the neutron star, heating it to high entropy and driving a wind. The entropy per baryon here might be some hundreds of units of Boltzmann’s constant per baryon, which is indeed high from the standpoint of nuclear physics, as nuclei beyond alpha particles would be greatly disfavored in conditions of nuclear statistical equilibrium.

In any case, it is revealing to consider the gross energetics of the neutrino-driven wind, at least insofar as the ejection of baryonic material is concerned. The gravitational binding energy of a nucleon near the neutron star surface will be $`100\mathrm{MeV}`$. To be ejected into interstellar space, this baryon will have to acquire an equivalent amount of energy from heating processes, either transferred directly via weak interactions (neutrino captures or neutrino-antineutrino annihilation) or via hydrodynamic or convective transport of neutrino energy from the core (see the Mezzacappa contribution in this volume). If the energy for ejection is deposited by neutrino capture, and since average neutrino energies are some $`10\mathrm{MeV}`$, we would require a flux of electron neutrinos and antineutrinos sufficient that each baryon ejected interact on average some 10 times with neutrinos. Given the strength of the weak interaction, it is a truly prodigious flux of neutrinos which is required.

In Figure 2 we show a cartoon of the outflow and nucleosynthesis history of a “slow expansion” neutrino-driven wind. Overall, the bulk of this “wind” is really a near hydrostatic (subsonic material transport speeds), near constant specific entropy envelope with a small total mass ($`10^4\mathrm{M}_{}`$). With the approximation that the entropy is mostly carried by relativistic particles (photons and electron/positron pairs), we can relate the temperature in billions of Kelvins to the radius in units of $`10^6\mathrm{cm}`$ and the entropy in units of $`100`$ Boltzmann’s constant per baryon, $`r_6\frac{22.5}{T_9s_{100}}`$, implying that the overall mass density falls as the inverse cube of the radius. Neutrino driven wind models, where the outflow is homologous (i.e. fluid velocity is proportional to the distance) are characterized by two parameters: entropy per baryon and the expansion timescale, $`\tau `$ (i.e. $`r=r_0e^{t/\tau }`$, where the expansion rate of the baryonic material is $`\lambda _{\mathrm{exp}}1/\tau `$).

Conventional slow expansion wind models are characterized by the establishment of steady state weak equilibrium and by several alpha particle formation-related problems in the production of the r-process nuclides (see below). However, if there was a way around these alpha particle issues, then the slow expansion wind could in principle produce an r-process (though absent active-sterile matter-enhanced neutrino flavor conversion this is difficult).

By contrast, rapid outflow, perhaps occasioned by a very compact proton neutron star with consequent large general relativistic effects  can circumvent the the various alpha particle/neutrino flux related problems with the r-process, but perhaps at the cost of producing either not enough r-process material or a distribution of r-process abundances which look nothing like the ones we observe in the solar system or in ultra metal-poor halo stars.

Close in to the neutron star surface, neutrino capture reactions on free nucleons transfer energy and heat the medium to high entropy. The competition between electron antineutrino capture on protons and electron neutrino capture on neutrons sets the neutron to proton ratio. The Weak Freeze Out position (WFO) occurs where the rates of these isospin changing reactions falls below the expansion rate of the baryonic flow (roughly $`T_910`$). Further out where it is cooler, the bulk of charged nuclear reactions become slow compared to the expansion rate, which we can term NSE freeze out (the crude equivalent of the alpha particle formation epoch in BBN). Still further out, neutrons can capture on the relatively few seed iron nuclei produced near NSE freeze out.

The nucleosynthesis in the freeze-out of this ejected material might closely resemble Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), albeit with a neutron excess instead of the proton excess which obtains in the early universe! However, unlike BBN, this near isospin mirror of BBN could produce rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis. Neutrons could capture on iron peak seed nuclei and yield heavy nuclei, like uranium.

All of this neutron capture will be proceeding in an environment with large fluxes of neutrinos. As we discuss below, the formation of the alpha particles in a region where the neutrino fluxes are still high can lead to a fatal problem for this scenario for the r-process. In any case, neutrino flavor transformation at the atmospheric neutrino mass-squared difference scale will likely produce an energetic spectrum of electron neutrinos. Recently, it has been shown that the electron neutrino capture-induced fission cross sections for heavy nuclei can be very large (e.g., approaching $`10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for the actinides) . Again, neutrino capture in this channel tends to leave the daughter nucleus in a highly excited state which, in a heavy nucleus, may be well above the fission barrier. One needs to know the branching ratios into multiple neutron emission and into fission, and if the excited daughter nucleus fissions, then we need to know the typical number of neutrons that come off.

One needs to ascertain whether or not the fission rate stemming from electron neutrino captures can be big enough to drive fission cycling in the r-process flow. This seems unlikely, however, given the large numbers of neutrons per fission fragment that would be required to build these fragments back to massive nuclei. To this end, we would like to know what the branch into fission for heavy nuclei and the distribution of fission fragment masses are. Capture on nuclei in the mass 195 peak, followed by fission, will likely give fragments with masses near or in the 130 peak. This may tie the abundances in these peaks together. The astronomical observations of ultra metal-poor halo stars suggests that there is a physical connection between these mass regions and the processes which produce them .

## II Implications of Neutrino Mixing in Supernovae

Matter-enhanced neutrino flavor transformations, in both the active-active and active-sterile channels, can have a significant effect on the dynamics, nucleosynthesis, and the neutrino signal associated with core-collapse supernova events. Here we emphasize the active-sterile channel because that is most likely to have a dramatic effect on the outcome of the stellar collapse. We ignore the rich physics that can be explored by the terrestarial detection of these neutrinos . Experimental and observational evidence for a new neutrino mass-squared difference ($`\delta m^2`$) scale, different from the atmospheric neutrino scale ($`\delta m^23\times 10^3\mathrm{eV}^2`$) and the solar neutrino value ($`\delta m^27\times 10^5\mathrm{eV}^2`$) would likely provide the smoking gun for the existence of sterile neutrinos. For example, the $`\delta m^2`$ range being explored currently by the mini-BooNE experiment covers an important range in the $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }\nu _e`$ channel, that bears on the question of whether light sterile neutrinos exist. It has recently been shown that matter-enhancement of $`\nu _e\nu _s`$, $`\overline{\nu _e}\overline{\nu _s}`$ in the supernova can provide an ideal environment for rapid neutron capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis and solve a fundamental problem in the slow outflow scenario r-process alluded to above.

The importance that experiments like mini-BooNE have flow from the increase in reliability and precision in the identification and measurement of neutrino oscillation phenomena in atmospheric neutrinos  and solar neutrinos at Sudbury Neutrino Observatory , SuperKamiokande , Chlorine , and Gallium  experiments. These experiments are so restrictive in their definition of the allowed neutrino mixing parameter space that there is “no room” for mixing at an additional $`\delta m^2`$ scale. This result is confirmed by many independent analyses  which also take into account the recent data from the KamLAND reactor neutrino experiment . The Los Alamos Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detection (LSND) experiment has reported an excess of $`\overline{\nu }_e`$-induced events above known backgrounds in a $`\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ beam with a statistical significance of $`3`$ to $`4`$ $`\sigma `$ . If this result is confirmed by mini-BooNE it represents just such evidence for vacuum neutrino oscillation at a new $`\delta m^2`$ scale. Discovery of such mixing would imply either CPT-violation in the neutrino sector, or the existence of a light singlet “sterile” neutrino which mixes with active species. The latter explanation may signal the presence of a large and unexpected net lepton number in the universe and the existence of a light singlet complicates the extraction of a neutrino mass limit from Large Scale Structure data. Either explanation could alter our models for core collapse supernova explosions and the origin of heavy elements in neutrino-heated supernova ejecta. Indeed, r-process abundance observations and calculations by themselves hint that the mass-squared difference range $`0.1\mathrm{eV}^2<\delta m^2<100\mathrm{eV}^2`$ in the channel $`\nu _{\mu ,\tau }\nu _e`$ is worthy of experimental exploration.

R-process nucleosynthesis constrained to reproduce something like the solar system abundance pattern (which the ultra metal-poor, or UMP, halo star data indicates may be universal) requires a neutron-rich environment, i.e., the ratio of electrons to baryons, $`Y_e`$, should be less than one half. Arguments based on meteoritic data and the systematics of abundances in UMP’s suggests that one possible site for r-process nucleosynthesis is the neutron rich material associated with core-collapse supernovae . In outflow models, freeze-out from nuclear statistical equilibrium leads to the r-process nucleosynthesis. The outcome of the freeze-out process in turn is determined by the neutron to seed ratio. The neutron to seed ratio is controlled by three quantities: i) The expansion rate; ii) The neutron to proton ratio (or equivalently the electron fraction, $`Y_e`$); iii) The entropy per baryon. Of these three the neutron to proton ratio is completely determined by the neutrino-nucleon and neutrino-nucleus interactions.

Crudely, the electron fraction in the nucleosynthesis region is given approximately by

$$Y_e\frac{1}{1+\lambda _{\overline{\nu }_ep}/\lambda _{\nu _en}}\frac{1}{1+T_{\overline{\nu }_e}/T_{\nu _e}},$$
(1)
where $`\lambda _{\nu _en}`$, etc. are the capture rates and various neutrino temperatures are indicated by $`T`$. This expression ignores the possibility that the luminosities of neutrinos of different flavors are different and it ignores weak magnetism corrections, for example. Note that weak magnetism corrections in this case go in the direction of decreasing neutron excess and therefore increasing the difficulty of obtaining a viable r-process . Hence if $`T_{\overline{\nu }_e}>T_{\nu _e}`$, then the medium is neutron rich. Without matter-enhanced neutrino oscillations, the neutrino temperatures in some models satisfy the inequality $`T_{\nu _\tau }>T_{\overline{\nu }_e}>T_{\nu _e}`$. But matter effects via the MSW mechanism , by heating $`\nu _e`$ and cooling $`\nu _\tau `$, can reverse the direction of inequality, making the medium proton rich instead. Hence the existence of neutrino mass and mixings puts an interesting twist on the production of heavy-elements in supernovae. These connections are investigated in Refs.  and . One should also point out that in stochastic media (i.e. media with large density fluctuations) neutrino flavors would depolarize . Although recent solar neutrino experiments rule out such effects for the Sun , they may be important in supernovae. .

It could also be (and this seems increasingly likely) that neutrino opacity sources not previously taken into account essentially wipe out the hierarchical average neutrino energy picture described above. If this is true, then all neutrino species would possess roughly the same energy spectrum. If the luminosities of the different neutrino flavors are the same, then we can draw two conclusions for this case: (1) the conditions are not neutron rich (in fact the neutron to proton ratio would be close to unity) in a slow outflow; and (2) active-active matter-enhanced neutrino flavor conversion would have essentially no effect. This clearly would exacerbate the other problems with obtaining a solar system-like abundance pattern in a slow out flow neutrino-driven wind.

These other problems include, for example, the so called “alpha effect.” To understand this, note that there are two kinds of neutrino reactions that can destroy the r-process scenario outlined above: i) neutrino neutral current spallation of alpha particles ; ii) formation of too many alpha particles in the presence of a strong electron neutrino flux, known as the alpha effect . The alpha effect comes at the epoch of alpha-particle formation: protons produced by $`\nu _e`$ capture on neutrons will, in turn, capture more neutrons to bind into alpha particles, reducing the number of free neutrons available to the r-process and pushing $`Y_e`$ towards $`0.5`$. Reducing the $`\nu _e`$ flux will resolve this problem, but we can only do so at a relatively large radius so that effective neutrino heating already can have occurred. One way to achieve this is transforming active electron neutrinos into sterile neutrinos .

For active-sterile neutrino mixing in the channels $`\nu _e\nu _s`$ and $`\overline{\nu }_e\overline{\nu }_s`$, and for $`Y_e>1/3`$, only electron neutrinos, and for $`Y_e<1/3`$ only electron antineutrinos can undergo an MSW resonance . If both electron neutrino and antineutrino fluxes go through a region where the isospin is in steady state weak equilibrium (i.e. the reactions $`\nu _e+np+e^{}`$ and $`\overline{\nu }_e+pn+e^+`$ are in steady state equilibrium with the $`\nu _e`$ and $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ fluxes), then no matter what the initial $`Y_e`$ is one may expect that the system will evolve to a fixed point with $`Y_e=1/3`$ ensuring a neutron rich medium . Realistic calculations of the supernova wind models  do not bear out this assessment; although the electron antineutrinos are converted into sterile species, they are regenerated before the electron fraction and the isospin in the wind freeze out of steady state equilibrium.

In Refs.  and  we followed the neutrino flavor evolution equations in the wind in a manner which was self consistent with the neutrino capture reactions which set the neutron to proton ratio and, hence, $`Y_e`$. Additionally, we tracked the thermodynamic and nuclear statistical equilibrium evolution of outflowing mass elements and updated the isospin of these at each time step directly from the weak capture rates. This coupling of the neutrino evolution and self-consistent determination of the abundances is essential to accurately determine the number of neutrons available for the r-process. The results are illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 for expansion timescales of $`\tau =0.3`$ and $`\tau =0.9`$ seconds respectively. It can be concluded from these figures that there is a wide range of neutrino mass/mixing parameters (some even consistent with the LSND parameters when we take account of the dependence of the results on the uncertain entropy of the neutrino-driven wind) which vitiates the alpha effect and can greatly enhance the neutron-to-seed ratio to produce favorable conditions for r-process nucleosynthesis. We note that values of the effective two-by-two active-sterile mixing angle up to an order of magnitude smaller than those probed by LSND (i.e., smaller than those probe by mini-BooNE) still give efficient flavor conversion in the hot bubble wind environment of the supernova.

In fact, the electron fractions produced in these scenarios involving matter-enhanced active-sterile neutrino flavor transformation can be extremely small, perhaps with $`Y_e<0.1`$. This is intriguing. With neutron excesses this large it is easy to get a viable r-process. Furthermore, a large enough neutron excess could cause fission-cycling in the r-process flow, where neutron-rich nuclides capture enough neutrons to become unstable against fission, and where, subsequently, the fission fragments so produced themselves quickly capture enough neutrons to build back to the nuclear mass where fission likely sets in, so that a steady state flow results. Whether or not neutrino captures or neutral current interactions could influence this flow remains unclear at present but is a focus of ongoing investigation. If the fissioning nuclides are at or above the mass $`A=195`$ peak in the r-process, then the fission fragments could be expected to be in the mass range of the $`A=130`$ peak. This might help explain an as yet poorly understood feature of the UMP halo star r-process data: the fact that the total abundances in these different nuclear mass peaks are about the same.

In any case, the connection between the physics of supernova dynamics and heavy element nucleosynthesis on the one hand, and the physics of neutrino mass and mixing on the other, remains a promising venue for research.

We thank M. Patel for Figure 2, G. McLaughlin and J. Fetter for Figures 3 and 4, A. Garcia for useful discussions. This work was supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation Grant No. PHY-0244384 at the University of Wisconsin and the U.S. National Science Foundation Grant No. PHY-0099499 and DOE/SCIDAC Supernova Initiative at UCSD, and in part by the University of Wisconsin Research Committee with funds granted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.


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# Stereo-selective swelling of imprinted cholesteric networks

## Abstract

Molecular chirality, and the chiral symmetry breaking of resulting macroscopic phases, can be topologically imprinted and manipulated by crosslinking and swelling of polymer networks. We present a new experimental approach to stereo-specific separation of chiral isomers by using a cholesteric elastomer in which a helical director distribution has been topological imprinted by crosslinking. This makes the material unusual in that is has a strong phase chirality, but no molecular chirality at all; we study the nature and parameters controlling the twist-untwist transition. Adding a racemic mixture to the imprinted network results in selective swelling by only the component of “correct” handedness. We investigate the capacity of demixing in a racemic environment, which depends on network parameters and the underlying nematic order.

Due to the lack of inversion symmetry, chiral molecular objects are non-superimposable with their mirror image. A pair of opposite, left- and right-handed, isomers differs in shape only in a very subtle way, which results in small corrections to higher-order molecular polarizability. Although chirality was known as a phenomenon since the middle of the 19-century, the quantitative characterization of such a delicate physical property has been only achieved in the last decade Osipov et al. (1995); Harris et al. (1999). It is now understood that handedness is not an absolute concept but depends on the property being observed; different scalar parameters describing chirality can have differing signs and can vanish at different points as an object is continuously deformed into its mirror image.

Chirality is a ubiquitous feature of the biological world. Many, if not most functions of fundamental living components rely upon their chirality. Thus the synthesis of a single enantiomer of a compound, or its separation from a 50/50 racemic mixture, is crucial for many practical applications – from pharmaceutical, to food and cosmetics. This stereo-selection is always a difficult task, because the molecular interactions that are sensitive to its handedness are always very small. One of the main techniques in this field is column chromatography, in which a racemic mixture diffuses through a silica gel coated with a molecular layer of specific chirality: the two enantiomers of the mixture diffuse at slightly different rates due to the weak (higher order) van der Waals attraction to the gel coating.

Microscopic chiral constituents have a profound effect on the macroscopic structures they form, striking examples of which are common in liquid crystals de Gennes and Prost (1994). The simplest liquid crystalline phase is the nematic, characterized by a long-range uniaxial orientational order of rod-like anisotropic molecules along a common director $`𝒏`$. Adding chiral molecules results in a cholesteric phase, with the director twisting in space in a periodic helical fashion, with the pitch inversely proportional to the concentration of chiral dopant. Analogous states with macroscopic “phase chirality” are found in blue phases and a variety of smectic liquid crystals. The coherent arrangement of molecular units on a macroscopic scale, such as the cholesteric helix, greatly enhances physical manifestations of chirality. For instance, the optical rotation (Faraday effect) of a solution of chiral molecules can be enhanced by up to $`10^4`$ in a cholesteric phase generated by the same amount of chiral doping. It is attractive to utilize this macroscopic enhancement of normally weak chiral interactions.

In this Letter, we demonstrate the effect of stereo-selection between left- and right-handed molecules of a racemic mixture, achieved in a polymer gel network in which cholesteric order has been topologically imprinted by crosslinking. Cholesteric polymers and their networks have been known for a long time Finkelmann et al. (1981); Freidzon et al. (1986); Zentel et al. (1987); Meier and Finkelmann (1990), however, the topological imprinting of phase chirality is a completely different concept. The network crosslinked in the cholesteric phase induced by a chiral dopant would retain a memory of chirality even when the dopant is completely removed, leaving an internally stored helical twist in a material with no chemical (microscopic) chirality. de Gennes was the first to suggest that chiral order can be induced by crosslinking a conventional polymer in a chiral liquid crystal phase de Gennes (1969). Experimentally, elements of chiral imprinting have been demonstrated in different polymer systems Tsutsui and Tanaka (1981); Hasson et al. (1998). A continuum theory for chiral imprinting in nematic elastomers formed in a chiral environment has been developed by Mao and Warner (MW) Mao and Warner (2000), followed by their theoretical suggestion about stereo-selective swelling and chiral separation Mao and Warner (2001). Qualitatively, the concept is simple: chiral dopant molecules leave a specific “trace”, frozen-in by chemical crosslinking of polymer chains; on bringing in a racemic solvent, the component of “correct” handedness recognizes the trace and thus has a preference in swelling the network. However, the real problem is highly non-trivial and influenced by several competing factors. Our task here is to test the basic theoretical model and explore stereo-selective interactions according to the handedness of the imprinted network.

Locally cholesterics are an amorphous uniaxial medium, described by the local nematic order parameter $`Q_{ij}=Q(T,\varphi )(n_in_j\frac{1}{3}\delta _{ij})`$, with the director $`𝒏`$ a periodic modulated function of coordinates, in the ideal state rotating along a single axis $`z`$: $`n_x=\mathrm{cos}\theta ,n_y=\mathrm{sin}\theta ,n_z=0`$. In the ideal cholesteric the azimuthal angle is $`\theta =q_0z`$, with the corresponding helical pitch $`p_0=\pi /q_0`$, Fig. 1. This spontaneously twisted director distribution can be due to the presence of chiral molecules in the nematic polymer network during its crosslinking. If, after crosslinking, the chiral dopant is removed from this network (or replaced by an achiral solvent), two competing processes occur: The Frank energy penalty for the director twist, $`\frac{1}{2}K_2(𝒏curl𝒏)^2`$, demands the cholesteric helix to unwind. The local anchoring of the director to the rubbery network, measured by the relative-rotation coupling constant $`D_1`$ de Gennes (1980), resists any director rotations, thus acting to preserve the imprinted helix. $`D_1`$ is proportional to the rubber modulus of the network and, through it, to the crosslinking density Warner and Terentjev (2003). The free density energy is then:

$$F=\frac{1}{2}\left[K_2(\frac{d}{dz}\theta q)^2+D_1\mathrm{sin}^2(\theta q_0z)\right]𝑑z$$
(1)
with $`q`$ the helical wave number that the current concentration of chiral solvent $`\varphi `$ would induce, $`q=4\pi \beta \varphi `$, where $`\beta `$ is the microscopic twisting power of the solute de Gennes and Prost (1994). With its complete removal, $`\varphi =0`$ and $`q=0`$, while the concentration at crosslinking is taken as $`\varphi _0`$, with $`q=q_0`$. MW have quantified the balance between these two physical trends by introducing a chiral order parameter $`\alpha `$:

$$\alpha =\xi [q_0q(\varphi )],\mathrm{with}\xi =\sqrt{K_2/D_1}$$
(2)
the nematic rubber penetration length. Note that both $`K_2`$ and $`D_1`$ are proportional to the square of local nematic parameter $`Q`$, and so the length $`\xi `$const. The resulting classical problem of elliptical functions predicts that the helix coarsens and its period increases, as soon as $`\alpha `$ increases past the threshold value of $`\pi /2`$.

Fig. 2 illustrates the model results by plotting the ratio $`q/q_0`$, which is the relative number of remaining cholesteric phase inversions (helix periods). After crosslinking at $`\varphi =\varphi _0,q=q_0`$, on removing the chiral dopant the network initially is not affected, until a critical value $`4\pi \beta \varphi ^{}=q_02/(\pi \xi )`$ is reached. This critical point may or may not be accessed on de-swelling, depending on the values of $`\xi `$ and $`q_0`$. The value of $`q`$ still remaining at $`\varphi =0`$ is the amount of topological imprinting by the network. Very low crosslink density leads to low $`D_1`$, high $`\xi `$ and the nearly complete unwinding of helices (loss of imprinting). A highly crosslinked network, leads to low $`\xi `$ and, if $`\varphi ^{}0`$, the complete retention of the original helix.

It appears that the average pitch wave number $`q`$ is the pertinent variable. The theoretical model have its strong and weak points, but the underlying physical effect is clear and universal. Our first task is to experimentally study the process of topological imprinting of chirality. Its measurement is possible due to the remarkable optical property of cholesterics: their giant optical rotation. The eigensolutions for electromagnetic waves propagating along $`z`$ are superpositions of two circularly polarized plane waves of opposite signs de Vries (1951). Their phase difference gives the optical rotation $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ in the medium, the rate of which can be related to the average pitch wave number $`q`$ by the de Vries equation:

$$\frac{d\mathrm{\Psi }}{dz}=qa^2\left[4\left(\frac{q\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\pi \sqrt{\overline{\epsilon }}}\right)^2\left(1\left(\frac{q\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\pi \sqrt{\overline{\epsilon }}}\right)^2\right)\right]^1,$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the wave length of the incident light (He-Ne laser, $`633\text{nm}`$), $`a=(n_e^2n_o^2)/(n_e^2+n_o^2)`$ is the dielectric anisotropy parameter (where in our material the extraordinary and ordinary refractive indices are, respectively, $`n_e=1.75`$ and $`n_o=1.6`$) and in zero-order approximation $`\overline{\epsilon }=\frac{1}{2}(n_e^2+n_o^2)`$ is the mean dielectric constant. For $`q=\pi \sqrt{\overline{\epsilon }}/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ a dispersion anomaly appears in the form of Bragg-like reflection de Vries (1951). In our case this anomaly would occur at $`q/\pi (381\text{nm})^1`$. In practice, we obtain the initial wave number of cholesteric state $`q_0/\pi (496\text{nm})^1`$, which means that our range of measurements is always on the longer wavelength side of the point of divergence in Eq. (3).

Experimentally, the optical rotation $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ can be determined using a dynamical method based on measuring the phase difference between the split parts of linearly polarized laser beam, one passing through the sample and the rotating analyzer, the other through the chopper (providing the reference signal to lock on). The phase between the two beams is measured by an integer number of periods and corresponds directly to the optical rotation $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$, from which the parameter $`q`$ is then calculated.

From the theory, we have seen that the robustness of chiral imprinting depends on the nematic penetration depth $`\xi =\sqrt{K_2/D_1}`$, which can be controlled by varying the density of crosslinks in the network (affecting $`D_1`$). The preparation of imprinted polysiloxane cholesteric elastomers follows the pioneering work of Kim and Finkelmann Kim and Finkelmann (2001), which obtains monodomain cholesteric elastomers by uniaxial de-swelling during crosslinking. (Monodomain textures, with the cholesteric pitch uniformly aligned along the optical path, are essential for the study of giant optical rotation). The mesogenic group (4’-methoxyphenyl 4-(buteneoxy)benzoate, MBB) and the crosslinker (1,4-di(11-undeceneoxy)benzene, di-11UB), both synthesized in-house, with the molar ratios of 9.2:0.8, 9:1, 8.5:1.5 and 8:2, doped with a fixed concentration (27% of total weight) of chiral compound (4-(2-methylbutyl)-4’-cyanobiphenyl, CB15), from Merck, were reacted with polymethylsiloxane chains in toluene, Fig. 3. After evaporation of the solvent and completion of crosslinking, cholesteric elastomers were obtained – with the same helical pitch $`\pi /q_0`$, irrespective of the crosslinking density. In order to remove the chiral dopant CB15, the material is placed in a large volume of non-chiral solvent (acetone) leading to a diffusion of CB15 from the network in response to a concentration gradient. The release of the chiral dopant is then determined by measuring the rotation of the polarization plane $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}`$ of the bulk solvent with a differential detection: $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}=\mathrm{arcsin}(\frac{E_xE_y}{E\sqrt{2}})`$ where $`E_{x,y}`$ is the signal amplitude for the two perpendicular polarizations. Figure 4(a) shows the evolution of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}`$ for elastomers with different crosslink density “washed” in a non-chiral solvent. For all materials, the value of $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}`$ increases and saturates for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}=1.5`$ deg (for this ordinary isotropic Faraday effect $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}=\phi d\beta `$, where $`\phi `$ is the solute concentration, $`d`$ the optical path and $`\beta `$ the twisting power of CB15). The characteristic time of dopant release is approximately the same for all elastomers and is $`\tau 20`$min, at room temperature, showing perhaps a slight increase with crosslink density.

After drying, does the resulting elastomer still retain a residual macroscopic (phase) chirality with only centrosymmetric molecules left in the network? Figure 4(b) is the case for the network with 10% crosslinking, which shows that the average wave number remains non-zero after the “wash”, $`q/\pi (505\text{nm})^1`$, although lower than the initial value in the presence of chiral dopant. Repeated flushes with acetone evidently do not have any further effect. We find the same initial wave number $`q_0/\pi (496\text{nm})^1`$ for all elastomers, but the amount of retained phase chirality is a function of the crosslink density, see Fig. 5. As theory predicts, the remaining fractional wave number $`q/q_0`$ increases as the parameter $`\xi q_0`$ decreases and the director $`𝒏`$ is more strongly anchored to the network.

Now if the imprinted elastomer is brought in contact with a racemic mixture (a 50/50 proportion of left- and right-handed small molecules, 2-Bromopentane, from ACROS), its natural wave number $`q_0`$ can be restored by selective absorption of chiral molecules which agree with the imprinted handedness of the network, and rejecting the molecules with wrong handedness. The experiment is straightforward: the imprinted network is swollen in the racemic solvent, and then allowed to dry again. With a stereo-neutral solvent, nothing happens with the network, as the repeated cycles in Fig. 4(b) indicate. Figure 5 shows that densely crosslinked networks (15 and 20%) are able to retain a sufficient amount of left-handed (S) component of the mixture to return their average cholesteric pitch to nearly the same level as they had before the CB15 removal: $`496.9`$ and $`496.6\text{nm}`$, respectively. Networks with lower crosslinking density show less stereo-selectivity. Elastomers with weaker crosslinking retain much less of the racemic solvent, returning their pitch to $`499`$ for 10% and to $`512\text{nm}`$ for 8% network. Note that in both 10 and 8%-crosslinked elastomers one also finds great instability and high amplitude of alternating pitch as the network becomes increasingly weaker. This effect is not experimental noise, but rather reproducible oscillations with amplitude decreasing and period increasing with time, cf. two different curves in Fig. 5(b). In fact, we observe similar oscillations in many situations of de-swelling liquid crystalline elastomers. Although no full theoretical explanation exists, we attribute this effect to non-uniform distribution (in space and time) of coupled solvent density and local nematic order.

The physical trend is clear: at low crosslinking density, the selectivity is weak; highly crosslinked networks simply cannot swell very much. How can we quantify these measurements, which unambiguously demonstrate the stereo-selectivity of imprinted cholesteric networks? Directly applying the model Mao and Warner (2001) is impossible because even a small proportion of non-mesogenic dopant reduces the local order parameter and thus affects practically all model parameters. An extension of theory is necessary to incorporate these effects, which is a part of a forthcoming publication, also presenting a number of experimental details (such as the variation of order parameter $`Q(T,\varphi )`$, swelling kinetics and inhomogeneous network deformations on swelling/drying). Here we simply quote the measurements of the total weight intake of the solvent. Assuming that only the left-handed component of the solvent is retained (nothing to stop the molecules with “wrong” chirality to evaporate), the figures give an idea of the stereo-separation efficiency. The 20%-crosslinked imprinted network retains 5.7 wt% of 2(S)-Bromopentane; the 15% network – 5.3 wt%, the 10% – 4.7 wt% and the 8% network – 4 wt%, Fig. 6.

In Summary, we have experimentally demonstrated the topological imprinting of phase chirality in liquid crystalline polymer networks. The imprinting efficiency depends on the chiral order parameter $`\alpha =\xi q_0`$, a function of elastic constants $`K_2`$ and $`D_1`$. A spectacular property of imprinted networks is their capacity to preferentially absorb and retain right- or left- molecules from a racemic solvent. The subsequent release of the chiral solvent component is easily achieved by bringing the cholesteric elastomer into the isotropic phase, when no phase chirality remains to provide the bias, or alternatively – by stretching the rubber, which results in the helix unwinding. We did not demonstrate this explicitly in this short Letter (although Fig. 4(b) gives an indication of reversibility). It should suffice to reassure the reader that all stereo-selectivity results were completely reproducible and reversible, after a sample was annealed into the isotropic phase. This makes the described phenomenon a practical possibility for many applications.

We thank Y. Mao and M. Warner for helpful discussions and acknowledge financial support from EPSRC.