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# Stellar Coronal Spectroscopy with the Chandra HETGS

## 1. Introduction

X-ray emission is ubiquitous among late-type and pre-main sequence (PMS) stars, as has been amply demonstrated by imaging and low-resolution X-ray observatories (Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999). With the advent of the Chandra transmission-grating and the XMM-Newton reflection-grating spectrometers, we can now probe the nature of the X-ray emission in detail through high-resolution line and continuum diagnostics. Early Chandra results confirmed some of the abundance anomalies derived from low-resolution imaging spectra and also unambiguously confirmed that few-component temperature models are generally not adequate. Much effort is now being spent to survey and analyze stellar X-ray spectra for a range of intrinsic emission conditions provided by evolutionary state, rotational periods, and activity level. We can derive temperature distributions and elemental abundances from line-based emission measure analysis under assumptions regarding collisional ionization equilibrium, ionization balance, and uniformity of emitting plasma. Solutions are not unique even under these conditions, but they are a necessary starting point.

Here we present preliminary results for TV Crt (HD 98800), a WTT, and IM Pegasi (HD 216489, HR 8703), a long period RS CVn binary.

## 2. Pre-Main Sequence X-Ray Emission

The TW Hya Association (TWA) is an association of about 30 (Zuckerman et al., 2001) PMS stars at about 50 pc from the Sun (Kastner et al., 1997) and far from star forming clouds. The TWA has provided new insight into the process of star and planet formation (see for examples Jayawardhana et al., 1998; Jura et al., 1998; Holland et al., 1998).

We observed the WTT star system, TV Crt (HD 98800), a TWA member, to compare its X-ray spectrum with that of the actively accreting TW Hya. TV Crt is a hierarchical quadruple and is one of the best studied examples of a solar mass star-disk system (Soderblom et al., 1998). Two resolved sources, TV Crt-$`A`$ and -$`B`$, are visible in the Chandra zero-order image, with diskless component $`A`$ being about three times brighter than $`B`$ (Kastner et al., 2003). Component $`A`$ also flared during our observation. In the dispersed spectrum, we cannot separate the $`A\&B`$ due to their proximity ($`<1`$ arcsec), given the spectrograph’s astigmatism in the spatial dimension.

The first high-resolution X-ray spectrum of a low-mass CTT, TW Hya, showed dramatic differences from other stellar coronal spectra obtained to date: a very cool, sharply peaked temperature distribution, and line ratios indicative of high densities. Abundances were similar to coronae, but more extreme: very weak iron, and very strong neon. Optical and IR observations of TW Hya showed that its disk is nearly face-on (Krist et al., 2000; Muzerolle et al., 2000; Trilling et al., 2001). From this and the peculiar X-ray line properties, we attributed the X-ray emission to accretion rather than coronal emission from some form of rotational dynamo-driven magnetic activity. Kastner et al. (2002) described the results in detail.

The difference between TV Crt and TW Hya in the helium-like, density-sensitive, triplets of O vii and Ne ix is obvious even in a casual inspection of the spectra. Above a critical density, collisional excitation dominates recombination of the forbidden line ($`f`$) and increases the strength of the intercombination line ($`i`$). (The ratio can also be affected by ultraviolet photo-excitation which is significant in systems with O or B stars, but which we do not believe to be significant in TW Hya.) The $`f/i`$ ratios for TV Crt are at or near the low density limit, more like the typical coronal spectra of active binaries (presumably magnetic-dynamo driven). Figure 1 shows the Ne ix and O vii regions for each system.

Our preliminary emission measure modeling shows that TV Crt’s plasma is hotter than that of TW Hya (Figure 2). Both systems display a cool component at $`\mathrm{log}T=6.5`$, but the emission measure distribution of TV Crt is flatter and remains high until about 7.0 before declining. The abundance anomalies deduced from the TV Crt spectrum are not as extreme as in the case of TW Hya, in which Fe and Ne ratios to Solar were about 0.1 and 2.0; in TV Crt they are about 0.2 and 1.0, respectively. Further analysis requires iteration using the derived plasma model to define a physical continuum, then re-measuring lines, and re-deriving the emission measure and abundances until consistent.

## 3. Magnetically Active Binaries

Solar activity has long been used as a paradigm for the interpretation of activity in cool stars which are presumed to possess a magnetic dynamo based on determinations of magnetic fields and activity cycles (Saar, 1996; Baliunas et al., 1996). The existence of solar-like features such as spots and flares in addition to correlations between rotation rate and X-ray luminosity (Pallavicini, 1989) lends strong support to the notion of stellar dynamos, but details of solar and stellar dynamos remain obscure (see, e.g., Charbonneau & MacGregor, 1997, for a discussion of dynamo theory).

One goal of research on stellar activity is to determine the underlying coronal heating mechanism, which is not directly observable. Fundamental observable quantities must be derived for a range of stellar parameters in order to provide the basis for a theoretical understanding. Our immediate goals are to use the phased and total X-ray spectra of a long-period active binary to address several issues: determine the temperature distribution; determine abundances; probe the geometry via rotational modulation and density diagnostics; monitor for flares; and compare to other stars vs. evolutionary state and environment.

IM Pegasi, a 24d period, K2 iii RS CVn binary, is one of a very few RS CVn binaries to have shown rotational modulation in both lower and upper atmospheric emission (Huenemoerder, Ramsey & Buzasi, 1990). We monitored IM Peg with the HETGS during two rotations with eight observations of 25ks each. While there were slow flux modulations, they did not repeat with rotational phase. Hence, we presume they are signatures of long-duration flares, especially since the amplitude of variability, though small, was largest at short wavelengths. We are in the process of performing line-based, iterative emission measure analysis vs. flux level. A preliminary emission measure, integrated over the full 200ks is shown in Figure 2. The emission measure and abundance distributions for IM Peg are quite similar to those of the 2-day period RS CVn, AR Lac (Huenemoerder et al., 2003).

The hotter peak in the IM Peg distribution (near $`\mathrm{log}T=7.3`$) is probably due to flaring, since we have seen direct correlation of this peak with flares in other stars (e.g., Huenemoerder, Canizares & Schulz, 2001). Note the lack of such a peak in the TV Crt curve, and the cool, sharply peaked distribution of TW Hya.

## 4. Conclusions

The comparison of three spectra from an actively accreting system, a young but disk-free system, and a “traditional” magnetically active corona shows a suggestive progression from accretion to dynamo driven X-rays. The temperature and density may be clues to differences in X-ray origin. But there are also similarities requiring explanation: the elemental abundance trends, and the occurrence of flares. A good sample of high-resolution X-ray spectra of RS CVn binaries and flare stars exists, but many more PMS spectra are needed to help resolve these questions.

### Acknowledgments.

Support for this work was provided by NASA contract NAS8-01129, SAO SV1-61010 (CXC/MIT), and NASA-Chandra Award Number G02-3005A issued by the CXC, which is operated by SAO for and on behalf of NASA under contract NAS8-39073. We also thank the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for their support.


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# Statistical uncertainty in the re-analysis of polarization in GRB021206

## 1 Conclusion

While we are intrigued by the novel statistical technique presented in RF03 (and especially that the inferred polarization level is independent of instrumental response), we are led to the inevitable conclusion that there is a serious flaw in their statistical method. At most, RF03 can claim that their analysis is insensitive to polarization at any level, and therefore not inconsistent with the level of polarization presented in our original paper.

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to S.E.B. (boggs@ssl.berkeley.edu) or W.C. (wcoburn@ssl.berkeley.edu)


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# The liquid-crystalline smectic blue phases

## I Introduction

The discovery of new structures in liquid crystals turns out to be often associated with an increase of complexity. Smectic blue phases are the most recent example combining the properties of two types of frustrated mesophases: twist grain boundary (TGB) phases and blue phases (BP). Blue phases, which were the first reported liquid crystals reinitzer , show an unusual cubic symmetry in which the orientational order is periodic and long range in three dimensions BP . Thus blue phases are exemplary liquid crystals: BPs exhibit three-dimensional cubic faceted monodomains as in a crystal BP2 , but the order at the origin of the cubic symmetry is not a positional order, but an orientational one. The naming of these phases as blue is due to their Bragg reflections in the visible range (and therefore also in the blue wavelengths) indicating a spatially periodic structure with lattice parameters of several hundreds nm. Saupe was the first to suggest a chiral cubic structure from the BPs’ optical activity and their lack of birefringence ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$n=0) saupe . The BP’s structure involves a radial twist of the director called a double cylinder. However this double twisted structure cannot extend perfectly into three-dimensional space. Geometrical models of blue phases therefore consist of cubic networks of double twist cylinders separated by disclination lines (Fig. 1).

Twist grain boundary (TGB) phases represent a second example of a frustrated chiral system. TGB phases were predicted by Renn and Lubensky renn  and were experimentally observed by Goodby et al. in 1989 for TGBA goodby  and by Nguyen et al. in 1992 for TGBC thin1 . Since smectic layers cannot be continuously twisted, the TGB phases consist of blocks of pure smectic material (which can be either smectic-A for TGBA or smectic-C for TGBC) separated by parallel, regularly spaced grain boundaries, formed by a periodic array of screw dislocations (Fig. 2). Such a dislocation arrangement allows helical twist.

Thus, in TGB phases, as in blue phases, the frustration is relieved by the presence of defects.

In the last few years the Bordeaux group has synthesized new chiral liquid crystals exhibiting mesophases called smectic blue phases (BPSm), which appear in a very narrow temperature range (Fig. 3) with the following phase sequence: TGB - BPSm1 - BPSm2 - BPSm3 - Iso, without any intermediate cholesteric state between the BPSm and TGB phases li2 ; LiqCrystEric ; LiqCrystCristina . The evidence of a new phase sequence has stimulated further experimental studies by the Orsay group mainly based on optical techniques (polarizing microscopy and optical activity measurements) and on X-ray scattering from BPSm monodomains.

## II The discovery of new mesophases

### II.1 Optical experiments

One of the first experiments to characterize mesophases is to observe their texture under the polarizing microscope. The results of such an experiment are reported in Figs. 4 and 5 providing some important information on the BPSm structure.

When cooling from the isotropic phase, two smectic blue phases with detectable textures occur in a narrow temperature span (about 1 oC): BPSm2 and BPSm1. The third smectic blue phase (BPSm3) has, like the classical BP3 phase coll , an amorphous structure of the same macroscopic symmetry as the isotropic phase ASCpeter . As depicted in Fig. 4, a mosaic texture composed of gray platelets is observed for BPSm2. This texture looks on first view very similar to the one of classical blue phases ; however what is the origin of the lack of bright colors observed in smectic blue phases ? In BP’s, the mosaic texture comes from selective Bragg reflections at visible wavelengths from domains with different orientations. In BPSm2 the existence of modulation in colors from light gray to black is due to a completely different optical feature: the birefringence PRLEric . BPSm2 phase is thus optically anisotropic and the evidence of a non-cubic symmetry proves that smectic blue phases are really new mesophases, not merely “atypical” blue phases.

Contrary to the gray color of the BPSm2 phase, the blue color of the BPSm1 phase shown in Fig. 5 originates from its optical activity; this can only be seen in absence of high birefringence MCLC . Moreover, in smectic blue phases the lattice parameter is in the near UV-range, and is therefore too small to generate selective reflections of visible light as in the BP’s articlePeter . The BPSm lattice parameter has been measured by studying the wavelength dependence of the optical activity in BPSm1. A divergence of the optical activity is expected close to the selective reflection, $`\lambda `$0, as has already been seen in the cholesteric phase and in the classical blue phases. The data for the “14BTMHC” compound are plotted in Fig. 6, showing a rise of the optical activity when the wavelength decreases. A fit allows an estimate of the BPSm lattice parameter: P=0.21 $`\mu m`$ with $`\lambda `$0=320 nm and n=1.5.

The value of the BPSm lattice parameter in the UV range prevents study by optical scattering of visible light (Kossel diagram technique), which has been used to determine the symmetry of classical blue phases kossel . Therefore, other ways had to be found to study the orientational symmetries of smectic blue phases, such as the growth of faceted crystallites.

The nucleation and growth of such single faceted crystals of BPSm phases represents a real experimental challenge. Using a low cooling rate (0.01 oC per 10 min) to produce large monodomains gives rise to the birefringent platelet texture (Fig. 4) that quickly fills the entire experimental cell. However, by using the metastability of the BPSm3 phase occurring in some compounds, we succeeded in producing large faceted crystallites of the BPSm2 phase PREfacet . This kind of experiment is difficult because it is performed out of equilibrium in a very narrow temperature range (0.15 oC). Different crystalline shapes have been listed, as reported in Figs. 7 to 10. These large monocrystals, between 100 and 150 $`\mu m`$ in size and with well-defined facets, have been observed floating in the bulk in coexistence with the isotropic supercooled BPSm3 phase. On each picture, the white cross represents the positions of the crossed polarizers needed to assure extinction of the birefringent domains, i.e., it represents the projection (or the normal direction) of the optical axis in the observation plane. The three-dimensional polyhedral habit of the BPSm2 monocrystals shown in Figs. 7 to 10 seems close to a rhombic dodecahedron, which has already been observed for classical cubic blue phase BP2 . Nevertheless, the experimental crystallites cannot reproduce a perfect rhombic dodecahedron because their birefringence is incompatible with a cubic structure.

Thus, the data of the birefringent faceted monodomains suggest that the crystal habit of the BPSm2 phase is formed by a dodecahedral structure made from an orthorhombic unit cell (Fig. 11). This interpretation of an orthorhombic symmetry is also consistent with the X-ray scattering experiments and especially with the epitaxial relation observed at the transition from BPSm2 to BPSm1 phases PREfacet ; MCLC .

### II.2 X-ray scattering experiments

The new phase sequence (TGB - BPSm \- Iso) has stimulated X-ray scattering studies, especially to investigate whether the smectic order existing in the TGB phases persists in smectic blue phases. The experiments show that the BPSm phases exhibit, contrary to BPs, quasi-long-range smectic order with a typical persistence length of about 60 nm. Information on the symmetry of these new phases has then been obtained in growing BPSm monodomains to explore the entire reciprocal space PRE ; PRLEric ; PREBPSmC1 . The scattering patterns obtained exhibit pairs of “Bragg peaks” indicating that the smectic order is not isotropic, but extends in given directions of the three-dimensional unit cell (Fig. 12). By combining these various profiles, the directions of smectic order enhancement i.e. those in which the different “Bragg peaks” are located, have been determined and the angles between these directions have been deduced, providing the symmetry of each BPSm phase.

It is important to note here that the Bragg scattering is not due to the periodicity of the orientational order, which is at the length scale of the unit cell (about 200 nm, the dimension of the lattice parameter) (Fig. 6) articlePeter . Only the smectic order has been probed, defined by a periodicity of 4 nm and a correlation length of about 60 nm, three times smaller than the size of the unit cell (Fig. 12). Therefore, these x-ray scattering experiments only provide indirect information on the symmetry of the orientational unit cell, contrary to the faceted monocrystals of the BPSm2 phase.

These results by X-ray scattering point to the main unsolved theoretical question dealing with smectic blue phases: why does the smectic order break the cubic symmetry of blue phases ?

## III  Geometrical models of smectic blue phases

The first theoretical approach for combining smectic order with three-dimensional orientational order was proposed by Kamien kamien  with a model of smectic double twist cylinders linking smectic A order and twist not only in one direction as in TGB phases, but in two spatial directions (Fig. 13). The smectic double twist cylinder is the counterpart in the smectic blue phases of the double twist cylinder in the BP’s.

Our experimental results can be interpreted in terms of this geometrical model by assuming that the regions where the smectic order easily extends, are the smectic double twist cylinders cores and correspond to the “Bragg peaks” in Fig. 12. A geometrical model of the structure of smectic blue phases can be sketched by packing these smectic double twist cylinders according to the observed symmetries PRE PRLEric . Thus some topological defects exist both in the smectic double twist cylinder for combining twist and smectic order, and between the cylinders as in blue phases.

Recently another geometrical model based on minimal surfaces has also been suggested kamien-new .

## IV Conclusion

In the same way as a classical blue phase can be seen as the three-dimensional counterpart of the cholesteric phase, a smectic blue phase can be regarded as the extension to 3D of the TGB phase. Indeed, contrary to the cholesteric and to the blue phases where the twist occurs at the “molecular level”, the twist occurs at the scale of the smectic slabs for both TGB and smectic blue phases. Thus smectic blue phases represent an original physical system of condensed matter exhibiting a double frustration: the extension of chirality in three spatial dimensions, and helical twist competing with smectic order.

###### Acknowledgements.

Peter J. Collings, Randall D. Kamien, Min-Hui Li, Huu Tinh Nguyen and Brigitte Pansu are acknowledged for their contributions to the research on the smectic blue phases.


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# Molecular Hydrogen Emission Lines in Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Observations of Mira BBased on observations made with the NASA-CNES-CSA Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. FUSE is operated for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University under NASA contract NAS5-32985.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Mira A (o Ceti, HD 14386) is the prototype for a class of pulsating giant stars on the asymptotic giant branch. The pulsations of Mira variables help drive very strong winds from the surfaces of these stars. Mass loss rate estimates for Mira A itself generally fall in the range $`4\times 10^8`$ to $`4\times 10^7`$ M yr-1 (Yamashita & Maehara, 1978; Knapp, 1985; Bowers & Knapp, 1988; Planesas et al., 1990; Knapp et al., 1998; Ryde & Schöier, 2001). Mira A has a companion star, Mira B, which is located $`0.6^{\prime \prime }`$ away (Karovska et al., 1997), corresponding to a projected distance of about 70 AU at its distance of $`128\pm 18`$ pc (Perryman et al., 1997). Mira A’s wind is being accreted by Mira B, forming an accretion disk. The Mira system is attractive for studying accretion processes since it is one of the few wind accretion systems in which the components of the system are resolvable.

Mira B’s accretion disk emits broad, high temperature emission lines of C IV $`\lambda `$1550, Si III\] $`\lambda `$1892, and Mg II $`\lambda `$2800, among others, which were first observed by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) (Reimers & Cassatella, 1985). The optical and UV continuum of Mira B appears to be dominated by the accretion based on its strong variability on many timescales, and based on accretion rate estimates of $`(830)\times 10^{10}`$ M yr-1 (Warner, 1972; Yamashita & Maehara, 1977; Jura & Helfand, 1984; Reimers & Cassatella, 1985). Because of the complexities involved with the wind accretion onto Mira B, it is uncertain whether the star is a white dwarf or a red dwarf.

The UV spectrum of Mira B was observed many times by IUE between 1979 and 1995 (Reimers & Cassatella, 1985), and also by the Faint Object Camera (FOC) instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) on 1995 December 11 (Karovska et al., 1997). The UV continuum and emission lines of Mira B show some modest variability within the 1979–1995 data, with fluxes varying by about a factor of 2. However, on 1999 August 2 the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) instrument on HST obtained a UV spectrum from Mira B that was radically different from any previous observation (Wood, Karovska, & Hack, 2001, hereafter Paper I). The fluxes of the continuum and high temperature emission lines (e.g., C IV $`\lambda `$1550, Si III\] $`\lambda `$1892, Mg II $`\lambda `$2800, etc.) were over an order of magnitude lower than ever observed before. Furthermore, the character of the spectrum below 1700 Å had changed dramatically, with the spectrum dominated by many narrow H2 lines rather than being dominated by the aforementioned broad, high temperature lines. These H2 lines are pumped by the strong H I Ly$`\alpha `$ line, a fluorescence mechanism that has been found to produce detectable H2 emission from the Sun and more recently from many other astrophysical sources (Jordan et al., 1977; Brown et al., 1981; McMurry, Jordan, & Carpenter, 1999; Valenti, Johns-Krull, & Linsky, 2000; Ardila et al., 2002a). The surprising STIS data raise many new questions about the accretion onto Mira B. Why did the UV fluxes fall so dramatically? Where are all these H2 lines coming from? Why were the H2 lines not observed by IUE?

Wood, Karovska, & Raymond (2002, hereafter Paper II) analyzed the H2 lines in detail. They found that the dominance of H2 emission in the 1999 HST/STIS data is due at least in part to an H I Ly$`\alpha `$ line that is not weaker than during the IUE era, unlike the continuum and every other non-H2 line in the spectrum. Therefore, the H2 lines pumped by Ly$`\alpha `$ appear much stronger relative to other UV emission lines than before, when the H2 lines were not even detectable by IUE. It was proposed in Papers I and II that the fundamental cause of the change in Mira B’s UV spectrum was an order of magnitude decrease in the accretion rate onto the star. This interpretation is supported by analysis of wind absorption in the Mg II h & k lines at 2803 and 2796 Å, respectively, which shows that the accretion-driven mass loss rate from Mira B at the time of the HST/STIS observations is lower by about an order of magnitude from what it was during the IUE era, consistent with the observed decrease in accretion luminosity. Exactly why the Ly$`\alpha `$ flux did not decrease with everything else in the spectrum remains somewhat of a mystery. In Paper II, we suggested that the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission may have indeed decreased, but the weaker wind opacity at the time of the HST/STIS observations allowed more Ly$`\alpha `$ emission to escape and compensated for this decrease.

As far as where the H2 lines are coming from, several arguments were presented in Paper II against the H2 emission being from the accretion disk. Instead, the H2 lines are most likely coming from H2 within Mira A’s wind, which is being heated and dissociated by H I Ly$`\alpha `$ as it approaches Mira B. The H2 emission line ratios and the amount of H2 absorption observed for the pumping transitions within Ly$`\alpha `$ are both consistent with an H2 layer with $`T3600`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N(H_2)17.3`$. This temperature is close to the dissociation temperature of H2, suggesting that the H2 could be from an H2 photodissociation front surrounding Mira B. A photodissociation front model presented in Paper II demonstrates that such a front can indeed reproduce the properties of the H2 emission, although it was suggested that the collision of the winds of Mira A and B could also play a role in heating the H2. The H2 photodissociation rate estimated from the data is roughly consistent with Mira B’s $`10^{10}`$ M yr-1 total accretion rate, meaning that the H2 we are seeing being fluoresced and dissociated by Ly$`\alpha `$ is probably on its way to being ultimately accreted onto Mira B. Molecular hydrogen is the dominant constituent of Mira A’s wind by mass, so the accretion processes relating to H2 are particularly important. The fluorescence, dissociation, and heating of the H2 by Ly$`\alpha `$, which is what the UV H2 lines are probing, is therefore an important step in the process of accretion onto Mira B.

In this paper, we report on new UV observations of Mira B from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). The FUSE satellite observes the $`9051187`$ Å wavelength range, which is almost entirely inaccessible to the HST. The Mira binary system has never been observed in this wavelength region, so the FUSE data allow us to search for new emission line diagnostics for Mira B.

## 2 FUSE OBSERVATIONS

The FUSE satellite observed Mira B on 2001 November 27 starting at UT 9:04:57. The observation consisted of 11 separate exposures through the low resolution (LWRS) aperture, with a combined exposure time of 29,183 s. The spectra were processed using version 2.0.5 of the CALFUSE pipeline software. Note that while Mira A and Mira B are both within the $`30^{\prime \prime }\times 30^{\prime \prime }`$ LWRS aperture, experience with IUE data demonstrates that Miras do not produce any detectable emission below 2000 Å (Wood & Karovska, 2000), so any emission detected by FUSE should be from Mira B.

In order to fully cover its 905–1187 Å spectral range, FUSE has a multi-channel design — two channels (LiF1 and LiF2) use Al+LiF coatings, two channels (SiC1 and SiC2) use SiC coatings, and there are two different detectors (A and B). For a full description of the instrument, see Moos et al. (2000). With this design FUSE acquires spectra in 8 segments covering different, overlapping wavelength ranges. We coadded the individual exposures to produce spectra for each segment. We experimented with cross-correlating the exposures before coaddition, but there are not many spectral features strong enough to cross-correlate against, so the simple straight coaddition proved more reliable. Coaddition of the various segments with each other can potentially lead to degradation of spectral resolution, but we decided to do this anyway to increase the low signal-to-noise (S/N) of our data. We inspected the individual segments carefully to ensure they were reasonably well aligned before coadding them.

Figure 1 shows two regions of the FUSE spectrum. The top panel is a coaddition of the SiC1B and SiC2A segments and the bottom panel is a combination of the LiF1B and LiF2A segments. We have rebinned the two spectra by factors of 15 and 5, respectively, to increase S/N. The FUSE data highly oversample the line spread function, so this rebinning does not severely degrade the spectral resolution even for the factor-of-15 rebinning. The bottom spectrum in Figure 1 has also been smoothed slightly, but only for purposes of display. No stellar emission is detected between 990 and 1115 Å, so that region of the FUSE spectrum is not shown.

The top panel of Figure 1 shows mostly only airglow lines of H I and O I. There is a broad emission feature at 976 Å that may be C III 977.02 Å emission from the star, but the feature is shifted from its expected location by a suspiciously large amount ($``$ 200 km s-1), making this identification tentative (see §5). The bottom panel shows numerous narrow lines that we identify as H2 emission, as will be described in detail below. Many of these lines are blended with the C III $`\lambda `$1175 multiplet, making it unclear whether C III is really contributing any flux to the blend at all. Both C III lines shown in Figure 1 are strong lines frequently seen in stellar spectra, and we expected to be able to detect these lines from the Mira B accretion disk. We will discuss them further in §5.

We have fitted Gaussians to all of the stellar emission features shown in Figure 1, using a chi-squared minimization routine to determine the best fit (e.g., Bevington & Robinson, 1992). The first three columns of Table 1 list the fit parameters and their 1$`\sigma `$ uncertainties. The parameters are the central wavelength ($`\lambda _{meas}`$), flux ($`f_{obs}`$, in units of $`10^{15}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1), and full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM). The uncertainties are estimated using a Monte Carlo technique whereby the fluxes in the spectrum are varied within the bounds suggested by the flux error vector, and a large number of fits are performed on the altered spectra to see how much fit parameters vary. Our quoted 1$`\sigma `$ uncertainties are the 1$`\sigma `$ variations of the Monte Carlo trials. Figure 2 shows the fit to the complicated blend at 1176 Å. The narrow lines are all H2 lines, and we assume the sum of the two broad components is representative of the C III emission. The parameters for both broad Gaussians are listed in Table 1 and tentatively identified as C III.

The line spread function of FUSE is not particularly well defined, so we have made no attempt to correct for instrumental broadening in our fits. The H2 lines observed by HST/STIS have an average width of $`FWHM=19.7\pm 0.4`$ km s-1, after correction for instrumental broadening (Paper II). The effective resolution of FUSE is $`20`$ km s-1, so we expect the FUSE H2 lines to have widths of $`28`$ km s-1. This agrees reasonably well with the measured line widths in Table 1, with blending perhaps being responsible for the broadening of a few H2 lines. The H2 lines have average redshifts of $`+62`$ km s-1 relative to their rest wavelengths. Considering the $`5`$ km s-1 uncertainty in the FUSE wavelength calibration, this is consistent with the $`+56.9\pm 0.2`$ km s-1 velocity found for the STIS H2 lines, which in turn is consistent with the Mira system’s radial velocity of $`56`$ km s-1 (Bowers & Knapp, 1988; Planesas et al., 1990; Josselin et al., 2000).

## 3 IDENTIFYING THE H2 LINES

Most of the H2 lines listed in Table 1 have never before been identified in any astrophysical spectrum. In Paper II, we found that all of the H2 lines observed by HST/STIS could be associated with Lyman band fluorescence sequences pumped by the strong H I Ly$`\alpha `$ line. The Ly$`\alpha `$ emission excites H2 from various rovibrational states within the ground electronic state ($`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$) to the excited $`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ state. Radiative deexcitation back to various levels of the ground electronic state yields the Lyman band fluorescence sequences observed by STIS. We conclusively identified H2 lines in the STIS spectrum by finding many lines in each fluorescence sequence, each having a Ly$`\alpha `$ pumping path, and noting that the line ratios are at least roughly consistent with the transition branching ratios. This is harder to do in our FUSE spectrum, because we have fewer lines to work with. The Lyman band sequences from Paper II only contribute to a couple of the H2 lines in Figure 1 (at 1143 Å and 1162 Å). The other narrow lines are from previously unidentified sequences.

We used the Lyman band line list of Abgrall et al. (1993a) to search for possible matches to our narrow FUSE lines, but we quickly found that most of these lines are clearly not Lyman band H2. However, we were much more successful when we searched the Werner band H2 line list of Abgrall et al. (1993b). Just as emission from Ly$`\alpha `$ can excite H2 to the $`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ state to produce Lyman band emission, Ly$`\alpha `$ can also excite H2 to the excited $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$ state to produce Werner band emission, most of which falls within the FUSE bandpass rather than the higher wavelength range of STIS.

The Werner band fluorescence is of a slightly different character than the Lyman band fluorescence. Quantum selection rules require Lyman band transitions to have $`\mathrm{\Delta }JJ^{\prime \prime }J^{}=\pm 1`$, where $`J^{}`$ and $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ are the upper and lower rotational quantum numbers, respectively. Transitions with $`\mathrm{\Delta }J=+1`$ are defined as P-branch lines and those with $`\mathrm{\Delta }J=1`$ are R-branch lines. The $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$ state is actually degenerate and consists of a $`C^+`$ state and a $`C^{}`$ state. The energy levels of the two states are practically identical, but Werner band transitions from $`C^+`$ must have $`\mathrm{\Delta }J=\pm 1`$ (i.e., P and R branch transitions), while transitions from $`C^{}`$ must have $`\mathrm{\Delta }J=0`$ (Q branch transitions). The Werner band is therefore different from the Lyman band in having a Q branch, but because the $`C^+`$ and $`C^{}`$ states are different the Q branch lines can only be pumped by Q branch transitions within Ly$`\alpha `$, and the P and R branch lines can only be pumped by P and R branch transitions.

Perusal of the Abgrall et al. (1993a, b) line lists leads to possible H2 identifications for all the narrow lines seen in the FUSE data, but conclusive identification is complicated due to most potential new fluorescence sequences having only 1 or 2 observed lines, and also due to many of the lines possibly being blends of more than one H2 line. In order to clarify the situation and provide support for the detection of some of the weaker H2 lines, we perform a forward modeling exercise using the results of Paper II. In Paper II, we used the STIS H2 lines to estimate the temperature and column density of the H2, and we also reconstructed the Ly$`\alpha `$ profile that the H2 must see in order to account for the observed H2 flux. Using these results, we create a synthetic H2 spectrum, considering all new Lyman and Werner band fluorescence sequences that may be contributing to the FUSE H2 lines. In Table 1, we list the line fluxes predicted by this forward modeling exercise ($`f_{mod}`$). In particular, Table 1 lists all lines that we believe contribute at least 10% of the flux of an observed FUSE H2 feature based on the $`f_{mod}`$ values. Note that there is a broad, weak emission feature at 1134–1138 Å that our forward modeling exercise suggests may be partially H2 emission. However, H2 lines cannot seem to account for most of the flux of the line, so we do not consider it a clearly detected H2 feature.

Another purpose of the forward modeling exercise, besides line identification, is to see if the reconstructed Ly$`\alpha `$ profile and H2 parameters from Paper II can reproduce the fluxes in our FUSE data. Table 1 shows that the predicted fluxes generally agree with the measured fluxes rather well, with a few exceptions. The Ly$`\alpha `$ profile must therefore be about the same at the time of the FUSE observation (2001 November 27) as it was at the time of the STIS observation (1999 August 2). This means that we can consider the FUSE and STIS H2 lines together to refine the H2 analysis presented in Paper II, which we will do in §4.

While trying to identify the FUSE H2 lines, we also revisited the STIS data and found one new STIS H2 fluorescence sequence, which is also listed in Table 1. The five detected lines in this sequence are individually rather weak, but collectively they amount to a convincing detection. This new sequence is important because it is fluoresced at a lower wavelength than any other Mira B H2 sequence, thereby providing a useful diagnostic for the H2-observed Ly$`\alpha `$ flux at shorter wavelengths (see §4). We note that this sequence was also detected in observations of the T Tauri star TW Hya (Herczeg et al., 2002, 2003).

We emphasize that only a few of the H2 lines listed in Table 1 have been identified in previous astrophysical spectra. While fluoresced Lyman band H2 lines have been observed and analyzed from a number of different sources (see §1), the list of Werner band detections is very short. Bartoe et al. (1979) noted a couple Werner lines in solar spectra, which are actually fluoresced by the O VI $`\lambda `$1032 line rather than Ly$`\alpha `$, and Wilkinson et al. (2002) report FUSE detections of a few Werner band H2 lines from the prototype young accreting star system, T Tauri. Planetary aurora produce abundant H2 emission in both the Lyman and Werner bands, but this is collisionally excited rather than fluoresced emission (e.g., Morrissey et al., 1997).

## 4 COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF THE H2 LINES OF MIRA B

Table 2 lists all the pumping transitions within Ly$`\alpha `$ that are responsible for the H2 lines observed by FUSE and STIS. Our analysis has expanded the list from the 13 Lyman band sequences analyzed in Paper II to 16 Lyman and 13 Werner sequences. This increase in H2 data is sufficient to justify a reanalysis of the H2 lines to see if conclusions from Paper II remain unchanged.

The ratios of H2 fluxes within each fluorescence sequence are inconsistent with the line branching ratios and are therefore clearly affected by opacity effects (see Paper II). The opacity of the H2 lines depends on the level populations of the H2 molecules being fluoresced, which in turn depends on the temperature, T, and total column density of the H2, $`N(H_2)`$. The line ratios are therefore a diagnostic for T and $`N(H_2)`$. In Paper II, we developed a plane parallel, Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to determine which T and $`N(H_2)`$ values best fit the line ratios. We repeat this analysis including the new H2 data presented here. For the blended lines in Table 1, we divide up the line flux according to the percent contributions to the line suggested by the $`f_{mod}`$ values.

For each transition, we need to know the absorption strength ($`f`$), and the energy ($`E_{low}`$) and statistical weight ($`g_{low}`$) of the lower level. The necessary atomic data are taken from Abgrall et al. (1993a, b) and Dabrowski (1984). Table 2 lists the $`f`$, $`E_{low}`$, and $`g_{low}`$ values of the Ly$`\alpha `$ pumping transitions. Another factor considered in the radiative transfer model is dissociation. Fluorescence to the $`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ and $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$ states can result in dissociation of the H2 molecule rather than radiative deexcitation back to the ground electronic state. The dissociation probabilities listed in Abgrall, Roueff, & Drira (2000) are considered in the model. The $`f_{dis}^{}`$ values in Table 2 indicate the fractional probability of dissociation for each excitation to the excited electronic state. The $`f_{dis}`$ values indicate the fraction of fluorescences within each sequence that ultimately lead to dissociation rather than the emergence of an H2 line photon, based on our best-fit radiative transfer model (see below). Line opacity can cause multiple photoexcitations before an H2 photon emerges or an H2 molecule is destroyed, so $`f_{dis}>f_{dis}^{}`$. In Paper II, the Abgrall et al. (2000) tables were read incorrectly, resulting in the dissociation fractions being significantly overestimated. The $`f_{dis}^{}`$ and $`f_{dis}`$ values in Table 2 of Paper II are therefore too large in general. Besides consideration of the new FUSE data, a secondary reason for reanalyzing the H2 lines is to revise our analysis to see if conclusions made in Paper II regarding the importance of dissociation still stand.

The only free parameters of the model and $`T`$ and $`N(H_2)`$, and Figure 3 shows $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ contours measuring how well the H2 line ratios are reproduced by models with different T and $`\mathrm{log}N(H_2)`$ values. The H2 line ratios are best explained by an H2 layer with a temperature and column density of $`T=3900`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N(H_2)=17.1`$, respectively, similar to the $`T=3600`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N(H_2)=17.3`$ results from Paper II. Thus, neither the new FUSE data nor the corrected treatment of dissociation change these values much.

The third column of Table 2 lists the total Ly$`\alpha `$ flux absorbed that emerges as H2 line flux, $`F_{obs}`$, not including the absorbed flux that leads to H2 dissociation. These $`F_{obs}`$ values include corrections for H2 lines in each sequence that are too weak to be detected, with the correction factors provided by the best-fit radiative transfer model. The $`F_{obs}`$ values in Table 2 are slightly higher than those from Paper II (for the 13 original Lyman band sequences) due to the lower dissociation fractions.

The $`F_{obs}`$ and $`f_{dis}`$ values in Table 2 can be used to compute the Ly$`\alpha `$ flux that must be overlying each H2 pumping transition within Ly$`\alpha `$, thereby allowing us to reconstruct the Ly$`\alpha `$ profile seen by the H2, $`f_0(\lambda )`$. Once again we refer the reader to Paper II for details of this computation, although here we assume our revised values of $`T=3900`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N(H_2)=17.1`$ in the calculations. Figure 4 shows the new reconstructed Ly$`\alpha `$ profile. The analysis assumes that the fluoresced H2 completely surrounds the star and that the H2 emission emerges isotropically. If these assumptions are inaccurate, the derived profile will be different from the actual profile by some geometric scaling factor, $`\eta `$, explaining why the y-axis of Figure 4 is labeled $`\eta f_0`$. The red and green boxes in Figure 4 show the inferred flux overlying Lyman and Werner band transitions, respectively, which pump observed fluorescence sequences. These data points collectively map out a self-consistent Ly$`\alpha `$ line profile, albeit with some scatter. The consistency of the Werner band data points, which are entirely from the FUSE data, and the Lyman band data points, which are mostly from the STIS data, provides further evidence that the Ly$`\alpha `$ profile is the same at the time of the FUSE and STIS observations.

Our best estimate for the reconstructed Ly$`\alpha `$ profile is indicated by the dashed line in Figure 4. This is not very different from the profile derived in Paper II (also shown in Fig. 4). The biggest difference between the two profiles is below 1215.5 Å, which is entirely due to the addition of the new 3–1 R(15) Lyman band sequence fluoresced at 1214.4648 Å. This is the only sequence fluoresced at wavelengths blueward of the stellar rest frame. Its existence demonstrates that the H2 sees at least some Ly$`\alpha `$ flux on the blue side of the line. As described in Paper II, the reason the observed and reconstructed Ly$`\alpha `$ lines are highly redshifted is because of absorption from Mira B’s wind on the blue side of the line. The upper limits in Figure 4 are from Lyman and Werner band transitions within Ly$`\alpha `$ that do not fluoresce enough H2 emission to be detectable. These upper limits are consistent with the Ly$`\alpha `$ profile derived from the detected fluorescence sequences.

Photodissociation rates were overestimated in Paper II due to the use of inaccurate dissociation fractions (see above). Thus, it is worthwhile to derive better estimates for H2 photodissociation rates using the revised analysis presented here. We computed these rates for the detected sequences listed in Table 2, using the $`F_{obs}`$ and $`f_{dis}`$ values in that table, and we found that some of the weaker sequences that are newly detected in our FUSE data \[e.g., 5–0 P(20)\] are surprisingly strong contributors to the total H2 dissociation rate. This suggests that undetected sequences might collectively contribute substantially to H2 dissociation via Ly$`\alpha `$ fluorescence. Therefore, the best way to accurately estimate the H2 photodissociation rate is to perform a forward modeling exercise computing contributions for all H2 transitions within Ly$`\alpha `$, not just the ones that yield detected H2 emission. The numerous upper limits in Figure 4 provide some idea for how many H2 transitions must be considered.

We perform this calculation using the Monte Carlo radiative transfer routine described above and in Paper II, assuming the Ly$`\alpha `$ profile derived in Figure 4, and assuming the $`T=3900`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N(H_2)=17.1`$ values from the line ratio analysis to compute the H2 level populations. Figure 5 shows a simulated UV H2 spectrum computed from this calculation. We estimate that the total Ly$`\alpha `$ flux absorbed and reemitted by H2 is $`1.06\times 10^{12}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1, about 31% higher than the flux one would estimate from the detected sequences alone. About 6.8% of the fluorescences lead to H2 dissociation rather than the emergence of an H2 line photon, suggesting a dissociation rate of $`8.6\times 10^{39}`$ s-1 (at Mira’s distance of 128 pc), or $`4.5\times 10^{10}`$ M yr-1. Surprisingly, this is a factor of 2.1 times higher than the value one would derive from the detected sequences alone. Although the undetected sequences absorb less Ly$`\alpha `$ flux, they tend to have higher dissociation fractions and therefore contribute significantly to the dissociation rate. Nevertheless, the largest contributor to H2 dissociation is the detected 4–0 P(19) Lyman band sequence, which accounts for 23.5% of the total dissociation rate.

Although the dissociation fractions assumed in Paper II were too high, this is mitigated by the legitimate increase in dissociation rate provided by consideration of undetected fluorescence sequences. Thus, the dissociation rate quoted above is only a factor of 2 lower than reported in Paper II. In Paper II, we proposed that the H2 emission is arising within a photodissociation front within Mira A’s wind as it approaches Mira B, and we constructed a model of this front consistent with the observations. We experiment with new photodissociation front models assuming our revised estimates for photodissociation rates, and we find that the factor of 2 change is not enough to significantly alter the model. Thus, the photodissociation front model remains a very viable interpretation for the H2 emission. As mentioned in §1, the implied H2 dissociation rate is comparable to Mira B’s total accretion rate, consistent with the idea that the UV H2 emission is showing us H2 in Mira A’s wind being fluoresced, heated, and dissociated by Ly$`\alpha `$ as it approaches and is ultimately accreted by Mira B.

We now discuss some of the limitations of our H2 modeling efforts, because our estimation of $`T`$ and $`N(H_2)`$ and our reconstruction of the Ly$`\alpha `$ profile in Figure 4 rely on several assumptions. For example, our plane-parallel modeling essentially assumes that Mira B is surrounded by an isothermal H2 layer of uniform $`N(H_2)`$ and that H2 level populations are precisely thermal. In reality, the H2 may have a distribution of temperatures (as the photodissociation front models actually predict), it may be distributed inhomogenously around the star, and the fluorescence process itself could lead to some level of nonthermality in the level populations. The limitations introduced by our simplifying assumptions are presumably responsible for the significant scatter of Ly$`\alpha `$ flux data points in Figure 4 about the best-fit dashed line Ly$`\alpha `$ profile, beyond the measurement uncertainties. Since the reconstructed profile imprecisely reproduces the data points in Figure 4, the H2 fluxes of the synthetic spectrum described above are naturally imprecise as well. For example, the synthetic spectrum predicts lines at 1130 Å and 1135 Å that are significantly stronger than observed and a line at 1162 Å significantly weaker than observed (see Fig. 5). Another source of uncertainty is line blending, which is not considered in our radiative transfer calculations. For example, there are 2 Lyman band data points at 1219 Å in Figure 4 that are too low, probably because these H2 pumping transitions are blended enough that they are partially shielding each other from the full Ly$`\alpha `$ flux present at that wavelength. Emission line blends could also lead to H2 photons shifting from one fluorescence sequence to another. All the effects and assumptions described above could lead to inaccuracies in our derived H2 properties.

## 5 THE C III LINES AND MIRA B’S VARIABILITY

One goal of our FUSE observations was to try to detect broad, high temperature emission lines formed in the accretion disk of Mira B. We see no evidence of the O VI $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038 lines, which are typically very strong lines in coronal spectra. We estimate a 3$`\sigma `$ upper limit of $`9\times 10^{16}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 for these lines. The only possible accretion lines are the two C III lines shown in Figure 1. The widths of these two lines are roughly consistent with observations of high temperature lines from IUE (Reimers & Cassatella, 1985), but the identification with C III is still somewhat tentative. We identify the broad bump at 976.447 Å as C III $`\lambda `$977, but if it is C III it has a very large blueshift of $`232`$ km s-1, assuming a stellar velocity of $`+56`$ km s-1 (Bowers & Knapp, 1988; Planesas et al., 1990; Josselin et al., 2000). The scattered solar C III $`\lambda `$977 line is sometimes seen in FUSE spectra, but the observed feature is far too broad for that to be responsible. The spike seen on the red edge of the line could perhaps be the solar emission.

One possible explanation for the blueshift of the C III line is that we are seeing emission predominantly from the side of the accretion disk that is rotating towards us. There is no corresponding blueshift of the C III $`\lambda `$1175 line (see below), but the $`\lambda `$977 line is a high opacity resonance line, meaning intervening C III material could in principle scatter background $`\lambda `$977 emission, while the $`\lambda `$1175 lines are lower opacity intersystem lines, so the same process may not work for $`\lambda `$1175. Another possible explanation for the C III blueshift is absorption from overlying H2. The density of H2 transitions increases towards the shorter wavelengths accessible to FUSE. These transitions will have higher opacities than any of the observed H2 lines, since they will be originating from lower, more populated levels of the ground electronic state. Below about 1110 Å there are Lyman and Werner band transitions from the lowest levels that will be populated even at very cool temperatures. The column densities of H2 in these lowest levels could be much higher than for the $`T=3900`$ K population that we have detected via Ly$`\alpha `$ fluorescence. This is because most of the H2 within Mira A’s wind, in which Mira B is embedded, will be at low $`T100`$ K temperatures, and only the lowest energy levels will be populated in this cold H2. Because of the significant H2 opacity in the neighborhood of the C III $`\lambda `$977 line, the red side of the line might be absorbed, making the resulting C III profile appear as blueshifted as seen in our FUSE data. Despite these plausible explanations for the blueshift, the detection of the $`\lambda `$977 line will remain tentative until a more definitive explanation of the blueshift is available.

The C III $`\lambda `$1175 multiplet is blended with many H2 emission lines and it is therefore unclear that C III is actually contributing to the observed emission. At the end of §4 we described a forward modeling calculation designed to compute the total H2 photodissociation rate from Ly$`\alpha `$ fluorescence, including contributions from undetected fluorescence sequences. This calculation also provides us with the synthetic H2 emission spectrum shown in Figure 5. This figure compares the synthetic spectrum with the FUSE data, demonstrating a reasonably good fit to the observed H2 lines. The bottom panel focuses on the 1176 Å region. We subtract the H2 spectrum from the data to see if the H2 lines can account for all of the line flux. The residual flux shown below the lowest panel of Figure 5 suggests that there is flux remaining after this subtraction that we can associate with the C III $`\lambda `$1175 multiplet. The integrated flux remaining is $`1.4\times 10^{14}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1, in good agreement with the C III flux suggested by the two-Gaussian representation in Figure 2, providing support for this being a reasonably accurate C III flux measurement. The flux ratio of C III $`\lambda `$977 and C III $`\lambda `$1175 is often used as a density diagnostic, but in Mira B’s case the significant uncertainties involved in measuring both lines are too large to obtain a believable density measurement.

The 1176 Å emission feature is the only feature in our FUSE spectrum that is also detectable in the previous HST/STIS spectrum (see Fig. 2 in Paper I). The sensitivity of STIS drops dramatically below 1200 Å, so the S/N of the STIS spectrum at 1176 Å is very low. The data quality does not allow us to separate the H2 emission from the C III emission, so we can only report a total STIS flux of $`(2.7\pm 0.8)\times 10^{14}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 for the 1176 Å line. This agrees well with the integrated FUSE flux of $`(3.00\pm 0.13)\times 10^{14}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1. In §3 and §4, we demonstrated that the H I Ly$`\alpha `$ line had not changed between the times of the STIS and FUSE observations. The excellent flux agreement for the 1176 Å feature provides further evidence that the UV spectrum of Mira B is unchanged.

The C III $`\lambda `$1175 line has also been observed numerous times by IUE. We found 32 short-wavelength, low-resolution (SW-LO) observations of Mira B in the IUE archive. Only about half of them are long enough exposures with sufficient S/N to measure a C III flux. Note that while H2 may be contaminating the C III line in the HST/STIS and FUSE data, we do not believe that this is the case for the IUE data. In Paper I it was argued that unblended H2 features should have been seen in the IUE data if H2 were contributing flux to other emission features such as C III $`\lambda `$1175.

In Figure 6, we plot the C III fluxes as a function of time, where for purposes of this figure we have made no attempt to correct the STIS and FUSE fluxes for H2 contamination. The STIS and FUSE fluxes are about an order of magnitude lower than the IUE fluxes, consistent with the drop in flux seen in the continuum and many other emission lines (see Paper I). The drop in flux is presumably due to a substantial decrease in accretion rate, which also led to a similar decrease in mass loss rate for Mira B (see Paper II). The consistency of the 1999 STIS and 2001 FUSE data demonstrates that this decrease is an enduring phenomenon.

It is possible that similar changes in accretion rate have been detected from optical data. Mira B is difficult to observe from the ground due to its close proximity with the generally brighter Mira A, but during Mira A minimum it is possible to detect the presence of Mira B. Joy (1954) and Yamashita & Maehara (1977) report a possible periodic variation in Mira B’s optical light curve with a period of 14 years and with an intensity range of about a factor of 4. Considering that these optical intensities will be contaminated with Mira A emission even at Mira A minimum, these variations might be consistent with the factor of 20 variations seen in the UV.

However, if the period of these variations is 14 years, why did the long-lived IUE not see them? Yamashita & Maehara (1977) report a Mira B optical minimum in 1971, so in Figure 6 we display a 14-year period sine curve consistent with this phasing. All the IUE data points occur near predicted maxima, while the STIS and FUSE data points are near a predicted minimum. There is an unfortunate time gap in the IUE data from 1981–1990 that means the predicted Mira B minimum period was not covered by the IUE SW-LO data set. Thus, it is possible that the substantial drop in flux seen by STIS and FUSE is simply the UV manifestation of the 14-year optical cycle detected by Joy (1954) and Yamashita & Maehara (1977). One argument against this is that while there are no SW-LO IUE observations from 1981–1990, there are long-wavelength, low-resolution (LW-LO) spectra from 1983 July 9 and 1988 January 8. Although Mg II $`\lambda `$2800 and continuum fluxes are somewhat lower than average in these spectra, neither spectrum shows flux levels dramatically below those of other LW-LO observations in the IUE data set. This leaves only about a 5-year time gap in the IUE coverage during which Mira B fluxes could have dropped tremendously like they did in 1999–2001. Nevertheless, it would be worthwhile to observe Mira B again with FUSE and/or HST in 2004–2007 to see if high UV fluxes return as Figure 6 predicts.

## 6 SUMMARY

We have analyzed UV observations of the wind-accreting star Mira B, using new FUSE spectra combined with previous HST/STIS data. Our results are summarized as follows:

In the new FUSE data, we detect Ly$`\alpha `$-fluoresced H2 lines that are mostly Werner band lines rather than the Lyman band lines previously detected by HST. Most of the FUSE H2 lines have never before been identified in an astrophysical spectrum.

Using previously developed techniques, we analyze the Mira B H2 emission, combining the old HST/STIS and the new FUSE H2 data. We estimate a temperature and column density for the H2 layer responsible for the emission of $`T=3900`$ K and $`\mathrm{log}N(H_2)=17.1`$, respectively.

Our modeling efforts demonstrate that undetected H2 fluorescence sequences actually produce more H2 photodissociation from Ly$`\alpha `$ fluorescence than do the detected sequences. Considering both, we estimate a total photodissociation rate of $`4.5\times 10^{10}`$ M yr-1, comparable to the $`(830)\times 10^{10}`$ M yr-1 total accretion rate of Mira B. The FUSE and HST H2 emission may be coming from a photodissociation front, as first proposed in the analysis of the HST data (see Paper II).

The only stellar lines detected in our FUSE spectrum other than H2 are the broad C III $`\lambda `$977 and C III $`\lambda `$1175 lines, which originate from within Mira B’s accretion disk. The C III $`\lambda `$977 line is highly blueshifted from its expected location, which leads us to consider its identification as tentative. Overlying H2 absorption or particularly bright emission from one side of the accretion disk could in principle be responsible for the blueshift. The C III $`\lambda `$1175 line is heavily blended with numerous H2 emission lines, making an accurate flux measurement difficult.

Analysis of the H2 and C III $`\lambda `$1175 lines in the 1999 HST/STIS and 2001 FUSE data demonstrates that the UV spectrum of Mira B is roughly the same at these two times. The UV fluxes of both data sets are dramatically lower than ever observed by IUE in 1979–1995. The presence of the lower fluxes over at least two years (1999–2001) demonstrates that they are a persistent phenomenon.

We hypothesize that the drop in UV flux in 1999–2001 is associated with a previously identified 14-year periodic variation in optical emission from Mira B, and that IUE missed the variation due to most IUE observations falling near the two maxima of the cycle during the IUE era.

Support for this work was provided by NASA through grant NAG5-11950 to the University of Colorado. M. K. is a member of the Chandra Science Center, which is operated under contract NAS8-39073, and is partially supported by NASA.


text:
# Probing neutral top-pion via a flavor-changing process 𝛾𝛾→𝑡𝑐̄Π_𝑡⁰

## Abstract

In the framework of topcolor-assisted-technicolor model(TC2), we study a flavor-changing neutral top-pion production process $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$. The study shows that there exists a resonance effect which can enhance the cross section up to a few fb even tens fb. For a yearly luminosity 100 $`fb^1`$ at future linear colliders, there might be hundreds even thousands events to be produced. On the other hand, the background of such flavor-changing process is very clean due to the GIM mechanism in SM . With such sufficient events and clean background, neutral toppion could be detected at future linear colliders with high center of energy and luminosity. Our study provides a possible way to test TC2 model.

PACS number(s):12.60Nz, 14.80.Mz,.15.LK, 14.65.Ha

I. Introduction

In the standard electroweak model, the $`SU(2)_LU(1)_Y`$local gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken to $`U(1)_{em}`$ through the medium of assistant,elementary scalar fields known as Higgs bosons. The self-interaction of the Higgs scalars select a vaccum, or minimum energy state, which does not hold the full gauge symmetry of the Lagrangian. With this, they endow the gauge bosons and the elementary fermions of the theory with masses. In the minimal model, three of the four assistant scalars become the longitudinal components of $`W^+`$,$`W^{}`$ and $`Z^0`$. The fourth emerges as the physical Higgs boson, which has been the object of our attention in both theory and experiment. Though the phenomenological deduction of the standard model(SM) is very successful, the elementary scalar solution to the spontaneous symmetry breaking may be critized as arbitary, ambiguous ,or even theoretically inconsistant. There are so many free parameters associated with the Higgs potential and the Yukawa couplings that generate fermion masses. In addition, the Higgs boson has not been found yet. Therefore, it is fair to say that the true mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking(EWSB) in nature is still unknown. One hopes for a better, more restrictive solution, with greater predictive power.

A new strong dynamics theory, technicolor(TC) model introduced by Weinberg and Susskind, offers a new insight into possible mechanisms of electroweak symmetry breaking. This kind of strong dynamical models of EWSB have evolved in the past dozens of years. As late as 1990s, we arrived at viable models in which a new dynamic, topcolor, can coexist and the top quark acquirs a dynamical mass through topcolor. Such model, called topcolor assisted technicolor model(TC2), predicts a rich phenomenology that may be accessible to the colliders.

In TC2 model, the EWSB is driven mainly by technicolor interactions, the extended technicolor gives contributions to all ordinary quark and lepton masses including a very small portion of the top quark mass: $`m_t^{^{}}=\epsilon m_t`$ $`(0.03\epsilon 0.1)`$. The topcolor interaction also makes small contributions to the EWSB and gives rise to the main part of the top quark mass: $`(1\epsilon )m_t`$ . One of the most general predictions of TC2 model is the existence of three Pseudo-Goldstone Boson, so called top-pions: $`\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$,$`\mathrm{\Pi }_t^\pm `$, which masses are in the range of hundreds of GeV. The physical top-pions can be regarded as the typical feature of TC2 model. Thus, the study of the possible signature of top-pion and top-pion contributions to some processes at the high energy colliders is a good manner to test TC2 model. There have been many papers concerned with this subject . Another feather of the TC2 model is that topcolor violates the GIM symmetry by treating the interaction of third family differently from those of first and second. This non-universal interaction results in a significant flavor mixing of top and charm quarks and the neutral top-pion can couple to top and charm when one writes the interactions in the quark mass eigen-basis. So, the study of some processes involving $`\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0t\overline{c}`$ vertex can provide information on flavor-changing neutral current. On the other hand, such processes can provide a good way to probe neutral top-pion at high energy colliders. Recently, we have studied a flavor-changing neutral top-pion production process $`e^+e^{}t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$. We find that the resonance effect can enhance the cross section significantly when top-pion mass is small. Ref has studied a top-charm associated production process at LHC to probe top-pion. The above studies provide the feasible ways to detect top-pion events and test TC2 model.

The future $`e^+e^{}`$ colliders can also operate in the $`e\gamma `$ or $`\gamma \gamma `$ modes. High energy photons for $`\gamma \gamma ,e\gamma `$ collisions can be obtained using compton backscattering of laser light off the high energy electrons. In this case, the energy and luminosity of the photon beam would be the same order of magnitude of the original electron beam and the set of final states at a photon collider is much richer than that in the $`e^+e^{}`$ mode. Furthermore, one can vary polarizations of photon beams relatively easily, which is advantageous for experiments. So, the future high energy and luminosity photons collides can provide us another way to test the new physics. In Ref., we studied the neutral top-pion production processes $`e\gamma e\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ and $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{t}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ at photon colliders. The results show that, with favorable parameters, the cross section can reach the level of a few fb for the process $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{t}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ and several tens fb for the process $`e^{}\gamma e^{}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$. $`\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0t\overline{c}`$ is the most ideal channel to detect neutral top-pion due to the clean SM background. On the other hand, we can easily distinguish the neutral top-pion from other neutral Higgs bosons in SM and MSSM via the process $`e^{}\gamma e^{}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$. In this paper, we study another flavor-changing neutral top-pion production process $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ at photon colliders. The study shows that the cross section of the process can reach the level of a few fb even tens fb. It is possible to detect the neutral top-pion at future high energy and luminosity linear colliders(such as: TESLA).

II The calculation of the production cross section

As it is known, the couplings of top-pions to the three family fermions are non-universal and the top-pions have large Yukawa couplings to the third generation. The relevant flavor-changing vertices including the large top-charm transition can be written as

$`i{\displaystyle \frac{m_t\mathrm{tan}\beta }{v_\omega }}K_{UR}^{tc}K_{UL}^{tt^{}}\overline{t_L}c_R\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0+h_.c_.`$
where $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =\sqrt{(\frac{v_\omega }{v_t})^21}`$, $`v_\omega =246`$ GeV is the EWSB scale and $`v_t60100`$ GeV is the top-pion decay constant. $`K_{UL}^{tt}`$is the matrix element of the unitary matrix $`K_{UL}`$ which the CKM matrix can be derived as $`V=K_{UL}^1K_{DL}`$ and $`K_{UR}^{ij}`$ are the matrix elements of the right-handed rotation matrix $`K_{UR}`$. Their values can be written as:

$$K_{UL}^{tt^{}}=1K_{UR}^{tt}=1\epsilon $$

$$K_{UR}^{tc}\sqrt{1(K_{UR}^{tt})^2}\sqrt{2\epsilon \epsilon ^2}$$

With the flavor-changing coupling $`\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0t\overline{c}`$, the neutral top-pion can be produced associated with a single top quark at $`\gamma \gamma `$ colliders. The Feynman diagrams of the process is shown in Fig.1 in which the cross diagrams with the interchange of the two incoming photons are not shown.

The amplitudes for the process are given by

$`M^{(a)}`$ $`=`$ $`CG(p_3+p_5,m_c)G(p_2p_4,m_c)`$
$`\overline{u}_t(p_3)R(\text{ /}p_3+\text{ /}p_5+m_c)\text{ /}e(e_1)(\text{ /}p_2\text{ /}p_4+m_c)\text{ /}e(e_2)v_c(p_4)`$
$`M^{(b)}`$ $`=`$ $`CG(p_3p_1,m_t)G(p_2p_4,m_c)`$
$`\overline{u}_t(p_3)\text{ /}e(e_1)(\text{ /}p_3\text{ /}p_1+m_t)R(\text{ /}p_2\text{ /}p_4+m_c)\text{ /}e(e_2)v_c(p_4)`$
$`M^{(c)}`$ $`=`$ $`CG(p_3p_1,m_t)G(p_4+p_5,m_t)`$
$`\overline{u}_t(p_3)\text{ /}e(e_1)(\text{ /}p_3\text{ /}p_1+m_t)\text{ /}e(e_2)(\text{ /}p_4+\text{ /}p_5m_t)Rv_c(p_4)`$
The amplitudes of the diagrams with the interchange of the two incoming photons can be directly obtained by interchanging $`p_1,p_2`$ and $`\text{ /}e(e_1),\text{ /}e(e_2)`$ in above amplitudes.
Where

$`C={\displaystyle \frac{16\sqrt{2}}{9}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_ttan\beta }{v_w}}M_Z^2G_Fc_w^2s_w^2K_{UR}^{tc}K_{UL}^{tt^{}}`$
and $`G(p,m)=\frac{1}{p^2m^2}`$ is the propagator of the particle, $`L=\frac{1}{2}(1\gamma _5)`$, $`R=\frac{1}{2}(1+\gamma _5)`$, $`s_w^2=sin^2\theta _w,c_w^2=cos^2\theta _w`$ ($`\theta _w`$ is the Weinberg angle)

Using above amplitude, we can directly obtain the cross section $`\widehat{\sigma }(\widehat{s})`$ for the subprocess $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$, the total cross section at the $`e^+e^{}`$ linear collider can be obtained by folding $`\widehat{\sigma }(\widehat{s})`$ with the photon distribution function which is given in Ref

$`\sigma _{tot}(s)={\displaystyle _{x_{min}}^{x_{max}}}𝑑x_1{\displaystyle _{x_{min}x_{max}/x_1}^{x_{max}}}𝑑x_2F(x_1)F(x_2)\widehat{\sigma }(\widehat{s})`$
where $`s`$ is the c.m. energy squared for $`e^+e^{}`$ and the subprocess occurs effectively at $`\widehat{s}=x_1x_2s`$, and $`x_i`$ are the fraction of the electrons energies carried by the photons. The explicit form of the photon distribution function $`F(x)`$ is

$`F(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{D(\xi )}}\left[1x+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1x}}{\displaystyle \frac{4x}{\xi (1x)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{4x^2}{\xi ^2(1x)^2}}\right],`$
with

$`D(\xi )`$ $`=`$ $`\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{4}{\xi }}{\displaystyle \frac{8}{\xi ^2}}\right)\mathrm{ln}(1+\xi )+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{8}{\xi }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(1+\xi )^2}},`$
$`x_{max}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\xi }{1+\xi }},\xi ={\displaystyle \frac{4E_0\omega _0}{m_e^2}}.`$
where $`E_0`$ and $`\omega _0`$ are the incident electron and laser light energies. To avoid unwanted $`e^+e^{}`$ pair production from the collision between the incident and back-scattered photons, we should not choose too large $`\omega _0`$. This constrains the maximum value for $`\xi =2(1+\sqrt{2})`$. We obtain

$`x_{max}=0.83,D(\xi )=1.8`$
The minimum value for x is then determined by the production threshold,

$`x_{min}={\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{s}_{min}}{x_{max}s}},\widehat{s}_{min}=(m_t+m_c+M_\mathrm{\Pi })^2`$
III The results and conclusions

In the calculations, we take $`m_t=174`$ GeV, $`m_c=1.5`$ GeV,$`v_t=60`$ Gev, $`M_Z=91.187`$ GeV, $`s_w^2=0.23`$. For $`K_{UR}^{tc}`$, we take its maximum value, i.e., $`K_{UR}^{tc}=\sqrt{2\epsilon \epsilon ^2}`$. There are three free parameters involved in the production amplitudes, i.e., $`\epsilon ,M_\mathrm{\Pi }`$ and the center-of-mass energy $`\sqrt{s}`$. To find the effect of these parameters on the production cross section, we take the mass of top-pion $`M_\mathrm{\Pi }`$ to vary in certain ranges 150 GeV$`M_\mathrm{\Pi }`$ 350 GeV and $`\epsilon =0.03,0.06,0.1`$. Considering the planned $`e^+e^{}`$ linear colliders (for example: TESLA), we should take $`\sqrt{s}`$=500 GeV, 800 GeV, 1600 GeV . When $`M_\mathrm{\Pi }>200`$ GeV, $`\sqrt{s}=`$500 GeV is near to the production shreshold of $`t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$, the cross section is very small, we do not calculate the result for $`\sqrt{s}`$=500 GeV. The results for $`\sqrt{s}`$=800,1600 GeV are summarized in Fig.2-4.

In Fig.2, taking $`\sqrt{s}`$=800 GeV and $`\epsilon =0.03,0.06,0.1`$ respectively, we show the total cross section of $`t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ production as a function of $`M_\mathrm{\Pi }`$. We can see that the cross section increase sharply when $`M_\mathrm{\Pi }`$ become small, the reason is that there exists a resonance when $`M_\mathrm{\Pi }<m_tm_c`$ which can enhance the cross section significantly. For small $`M_\mathrm{\Pi }`$, the cross section can reach the level of several fb even tens fb. With the yearly integrated luminosity of $`L100`$ fb<sup>-1</sup> expected at future linear colliders, hundreds even thousands events can be produced via the process $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$. Since the neutral top-pion with mass less than $`2m_t`$ decay mainly into $`t\overline{c}`$ or $`\overline{t}c`$, the final state should be $`t\overline{t}c\overline{c}`$ or $`tt\overline{c}\overline{c}`$. The final state $`t\overline{t}c\overline{c}`$ is not a flavor changing in SM and may be produced so much in SM. Such background analysis is difficult, which is out of scope in our paper. But the final state $`tt\overline{c}\overline{c}`$ is a flavor changing in SM, and the background of $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0tt\overline{c}\overline{c}`$ should be very clean. So, it is a better way to probe the neutral top-pion via $`tt\overline{c}\overline{c}`$ signals. With large cross section and clean background of signal $`tt\overline{c}\overline{c}`$, the neutral top-pion should be detected at future linear colliders, specially, in case of light $`\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$. In Fig.2, it is also shown that the cross section increases with $`\epsilon `$. To see the influence of $`\sqrt{s}`$ on the cross section, we give the numerical results for $`\sqrt{s}=1600`$ GeV in Fig.3. The results show that the high center-of-mass energy can enhance the cross section.

Due to the resonance effect for light toppion, there should be a peak near $`m_tm_c`$ in the toppion-charm invariant mass distribution. To show the above results, we plot, in Fig.4, the toppion-charm invariant mass distribution with $`\sqrt{s}`$=800 GeV, $`M_\mathrm{\Pi }=`$160 GeV, $`\epsilon =0.03`$. This resonance peak can possibly be observable. So, the study of the invariant mass distribution may provide another good way to detect signal of toppion.

Comparing numerical results of the process: $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ with that of $`e^+e^{}t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ studied in Ref., we find that the cross section of $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ is much larger than that of $`e^+e^{}t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ for the same parameters, so, photon collision can provide us a better way to search for neutral top-pion.

In summary, we study a neutral top-pion production process $`\gamma \gamma t\overline{c}\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$. The study shows that cross section of such flavor-changing process can reach the level of a few fb even tens fb. For light $`\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$, the $`c\mathrm{\Pi }_t^0`$ channel resonance effect in Fig.1(c) can enhance the cross section significantly. There is a peak near $`m_tm_c`$ in the toppion-charm invariant mass distribution. With such large cross section and clean background, it is possible to detect the neutral top-pion experimentally at future photon collider.


text:
# The nature of branon dark matter

## I Introduction

Cold dark matter (CDM) is a fundamental ingredient of the current cosmological standard model. An enormous variety of observations at very large scales ($`>1`$ Mpc), from cosmic microwave background anisotropies, galaxy surveys, cluster abundances or Ly-$`\alpha `$ forest are successfully explained within this framework. However, to achieve these goals, the dark matter component is required to behave as a collisionless non-relativistic particle fluid. This poses an important problem from the particle physics point of view. Indeed, no candidate with the assumed properties exists within the known particles, and therefore, physics beyond the Standard Model appears as the only feasible solution. Among the proposed candidates, we find, on one hand, the axion which is the Goldstone boson associated to the spontaneous breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry postulated to solve the strong CP problem of QCD. The production of axions in the early universe mainly takes place through the so called misalignment mechanism in which the $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ angle is initially displaced from its equilibrium value $`\mathrm{\Theta }=0`$ and oscillates coherently. Such oscillations can be intrepreted as a zero-momentum Bose-Einstein condensate which essentially behaves as a non-relativistic matter fluid. Despite the fact that axions are light particles, this non-thermal mechanism produces cosmologically important energy densities. On the other hand we have the thermal relics, produced by the well-known freeze-out mechanism in an expanding universe. They are typically weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) such as the neutralino in supersymmetric theories kam  (for a recent review see also carlos ). In addition to their weak interactions with SM particles, these candidates usually also have very weak self-interactions (collisionless).

Despite the success of CDM at large scales, the model exhibits certain difficulties at sub-galactic scales. In particular, high resolution N-body simulations of dark halos show cuspy density profiles NFW ; Moore  which contradict observations from low surface brightness galaxies deBlok  and dwarfs Moorea ; Flores  that suggest flat density profiles. In addition, CDM also predicts too many small subhalos within simulated larger systems Klypin ; Moorec , in contradiction with observations of the number of satellite galaxies in the Local Group. Solutions which aim to reduce the power at small scales, but keeping the good properties of CDM at large scales, have been proposed at both the astrophysical and a more fundamental level. They include modifications of the primordial power spectrum at small scales liddle , or of the collapse histories of CDM and baryons bullock , but also modifications in the nature of the dark matter. There are two main proposals along the latter lines, namely, warm dark matter (WDM) dolgov  and self-interacting dark matter (SDM) spergel . In the WDM scenario the particle dark matter is still collisionless, but much lighter with $`M<1`$ keV. Free-streaming exponentially suppresses the power spectrum below the scale $`\lambda _{FS}0.2(\mathrm{\Omega }_{Br}h^2)^{1/3}(\text{keV}/M)^{4/3}\text{Mpc}`$. This suppression solves the sub-halo problem provided $`M1`$ keV hogan , however the central cusp problem requires a much lighter particle $`M<300`$ eV hogan . In addition, the Ly-$`\alpha `$ forest in quasar spectra observations puts a severe lower bound on the mass of the WDM candidate, namely, $`M>750`$ eV, which makes the simplest models unfeasible narayanan . A second possibility is to take into account dark matter self-interactions. Thus, if the mean free path of dark matter particles is of the order of $`1`$ kpc, but still keeping small annihilation cross sections, then heat can be transported out of the center of the halo smoothing out the central cusp, which now would become a more spherical core. In order for this mechanism to work, the total elastic dark matter cross section should be in the range dave :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma }{M}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.5}5\text{cm}\text{2}\text{ g}\text{-1}`$ (1)
which is comparable to a nucleon-nucleon interaction.

However, the SDM model is also very strongly constrained by different observations. Thus, in order to avoid evaporation of halos on a Hubble timescale, the cross section should be sufficiently small $`\sigma /M<0.31`$ cm2 g-1 gnedin . In addition Chandra observations of the mass density profile of a certain cluster imposes a very strong limit $`\sigma /M<0.1`$ cm2 g-1 yoshida . Finally, the elliptical shape of a particular cluster determined by lensing data leads to a even stronger limit $`\sigma /M<0.02`$ cm2 g-1 miralda , otherwise self-interactions would erase ellipticity. The interpretation of these results together with other direct constraints can be found in markevitch . It is also interesting to point out that the combination of both scenarios, i.e. self-interacting warm dark matter, could alleviate their individual problems Hannestad . Apart from SDM and WDM, an interesting proposal in Lin  shows that non-thermal WIMP production could also help resolving the mentioned discrepancies.

The new requirements imposed by these models on the dark matter particles makes it even more difficult to find appropriate candidates in the mentioned SM extensions. For that reason it is worth analysing the potential of branon dark matter CDM  as an alternative to the more common neutralino or axion cases. In this paper we study the different possibilities in terms of the brane-world parameters. We will consider the case in which branons and SM particles are the only relevant degrees of freedom at low energies. This happens whenever the brane tension scale $`f`$ is much smaller than the fundamental scale of gravity in $`D=4+N`$ dimensions $`M_D`$ bando .

The paper is organized as follows: after introducing branon dark matter and its interactions, we study its collisional (collisionless) nature essentially in terms of $`M_D`$ and $`f`$. Then we analyse the possibility of producing branons non-thermally, in a similar way to the misalignment mechanism, where now the brane coherently oscillates along the extra dimensions. We end with some conclusions.

## II Branon interactions

In the case in which traslational invariance is an exact symmetry in the extra dimensions, the presence of the brane can break it spontaneously, and branons can be identified with the corresponding Goldstone bosons sundrum ; doma . For the sake of definiteness, we will consider a particular model with three compact extra dimensions, although we expect that the results will depend only on the different energy scales involved in the problem and not on the details of the model. We will choose an extra space $`B=S^3`$, so that its isometry group $`G(B)=SU(2)\times SU(2)`$ is spontaneously broken down to $`SU(2)`$. Therefore, the coset space is $`K=SU(2)\times SU(2)/SU(2)=SU(2)S^3=B`$. We thus have three branons, and the coset space metric is nothing but the 3-sphere metric: $`h_{\alpha \beta }(\pi )=\delta _{\alpha \beta }+\pi ^\alpha \pi ^\beta /(v^2\pi ^2)`$, where $`v=f^2R_B`$ with $`R_B=M_D^1(M_P/M_D)^{2/N}`$ the size of the extra space $`B`$ and $`M_P`$ the usual Planck mass. Therefore, $`v`$ is the spontaneous symmetry breaking scale which sets the size of the coset space $`K`$.

As shown in doma , the low-energy branon dynamics is given, to lowest order in derivatives, by the non-linear sigma model corresponding to that symmetry breaking pattern, i.e.:

$`_{Br}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g^{\mu \nu }h_{\alpha \beta }(\pi )_\mu \pi ^\alpha _\nu \pi ^\beta +𝒪(p^4)`$ (2)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \pi ^\alpha _\nu \pi ^\alpha +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2v^2}}g^{\mu \nu }\pi ^\alpha \pi ^\beta _\mu \pi ^\alpha _\nu \pi ^\beta `$
$`+`$ $`𝒪(\pi ^6)+𝒪(p^4)`$
We see that $`v`$ sets the strength of branon self-interactions to lowest order in derivatives. Notice however that the $`𝒪(p^4)`$ terms are not suppressed by the $`v`$ scale, but by the $`f`$ scale doma .

So far we have only considered massless branons, however, traslational invariance in the extra dimensions can be explicitly broken, and branons can acquire mass. In such a case, we should include in the Lagrangian the corresponding breaking terms. As shown in sky ; collider , such terms will include an arbitrary number of even powers of branon fields, i.e.:

$`_{break}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{2}}\pi ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{4!}}{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{v^2}}\pi ^4+𝒪(\pi ^6)`$ (3)
Since branons are pseudoscalar particles, parity on the brane forbids terms with an odd number of fields cosmo . Notice that here we are assuming for simplicity that the branons are degenerate, with a mass $`M`$ which is small compared to $`v`$. Therefore the explicit breaking terms can be also organized in powers of the branon mass, which is considered to be of the same order as a derivative in the power counting. Accordingly, we expect the parameter $`\lambda `$, which depends on the specific breaking mechanism, to be of order one. This is completely analogous to the pion dynamics in Chiral Perturbation Theory libro , in which $`v`$ would play the role of the pion decay constant and the expression in (3) with $`\lambda =1`$ corresponds to the expansion in $`\pi `$ fields of the lowest order mass term.

Branons also interact with the SM particles through their energy momentum tensor. Again the lowest order term in derivatives was obtained in doma ; collider :

$`_{BrSM}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8f^4}}(4_\mu \pi ^\alpha _\nu \pi ^\alpha M^2\pi ^\alpha \pi ^\alpha g_{\mu \nu }+\mathrm{})T_{SM}^{\mu \nu }`$
where the dots stand for higher order terms in $`\pi `$ fields. We see that the branon-SM interactions are controlled by the brane tension scale $`f`$. What is important from the viewpoint of the dark matter problem is that branon self interactions are controlled by a completely different energy scale from branon-SM interactions. This means that it is possible to have strong self-interactions and simultaneously small annihilation cross sections into SM particles, so that the branon relic abundance can be important. In addition, since branons always interact by pairs this implies that they are stable particles and therefore they fulfill all the requirements of a dark matter candidate.

## III Collisional vs. collisionless branons

Branons were in thermal equilibrium with the rest of SM particles when the temperature of the universe was above their decoupling temperature, which depends on $`f`$ and $`M`$ through the corresponding annihilation cross section. Assuming that the evolution of the universe was standard up to a temperature of the order of the brane tension scale, and that decoupling occured below such temperature, which is indeed the case (see CDM ), then the above effective Lagrangians can be used to compute the branon thermal relic abundances generated by the standard freeze-out mechanism. The calculation of the abundances CDM ; cosmo  show that there are two regimes in which the corresponding energy density could be compatible with the measurements of the cosmological dark matter, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{Br}h^2<0.129`$ and also with LEP-II bounds collider . On one hand we have a region in which $`M>100`$ GeV and $`f<M`$, which corresponds to cold relics, and on the other, a region with $`M<180`$ eV and $`f>`$ 200 GeV in which branons behave as hot or warm dark matter.

In this section we explore these two regimes and calculate the branon self-interactions in terms of the number of branon fields $`N`$ and the fundamental scale $`M_D`$. With that purpose we will obtain that branon-branon elastic cross section.

Since particles in the halo collide with very low relative velocities $`v_{rel}10^3`$, the scattering amplitudes can be obtained from the above effective Lagrangian and they are given, for $`\lambda =1`$, by the well-known Weinberg’s low-energy theorem libro :

$`A(s,t,u)={\displaystyle \frac{sM^2}{v^2}}`$ (5)
Assuming that the explicit breaking terms respect the remaining $`SU(2)`$ symmetry, branons transform as an $`SU(2)`$ triplet and it is possible to construct isospin $`I=0,1,2`$ amplitudes as:

$`T_0(s,t,u)`$ $`=`$ $`3A(s,t,u)+A(t,s,u)+A(u,t,s)`$
$`T_1(s,t,u)`$ $`=`$ $`A(t,s,u)A(u,t,s)`$
$`T_2(s,t,u)`$ $`=`$ $`A(t,s,u)+A(u,t,s)`$ (6)
and also define the corresponding partial wave amplitudes with definite angular momentum $`J`$:

$`t_{IJ}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{32\pi }}{\displaystyle _1^1}d(\mathrm{cos}\theta )P_J(\mathrm{cos}\theta )T_I(s,t,u)`$ (7)
From the amplitude, the corresponding total elastic scattering cross section summed over final isospin states and averaged over initial ones in the non-relativistic limit reads:

$`\sigma _{tot}={\displaystyle \frac{23M^2}{384\pi v^4}}+𝒪(v_{rel}^2)`$ (8)
Apparently this cross section grows unboundedly with $`M`$, this is due to the fact that we are working with an effective theory, and tree-level unitarity violations are expected for sufficiently high values of $`s4M^2`$. In order to estimate the range of validity of the above result, we will use the well-known unitarity limit:

$`\text{Re}t_{IJ}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\rho }}`$ (9)
where $`\rho =(14M^2/s)^{1/2}`$. From the dominant $`t_{00}`$ wave, we get in the mentioned limit:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{v^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{16\pi }{7v_{rel}}}`$ (10)
which is compatible with the general result derived in Hui . For typical values of $`v_{rel}`$, we find $`M/v<𝒪(10^2)`$. Substituting back in (8), we find a limit for the cross section:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _{tot}}{M}}<{\displaystyle \frac{410^6}{M^3}}`$ (11)
In order for this kind of branons to be strongly self-interacting they should satisfy $`\sigma _{tot}/M>0.5`$ cm2 g-1= $`2.310^3`$ GeV-3, which implies $`M<12`$ GeV, in agreement with the general bound Hui . This inmediately excludes cold branons as possible SDM candidates, according to the LEP-II limits mentioned before. Notice that, in any case, this is only a unitarity limit on the model, for larger masses, branons interactions could be sufficiently strong, but they will not be described by our effective theory.

Nevertheless, self-interacting warm branons with masses in the region $`M<180`$ eV are not a priori excluded by the previous bound. In principle, such a light particle would conflict with Ly-$`\alpha `$ forest observations, as commented before. However, such limits were derived assuming collisionless WDM. In the collisional case free-streaming is suppressed and the relevant cut-off scale for structure formation is the standard Jeans length $`\lambda _J`$, which can be substantially smaller than $`\lambda _{FS}`$ hogan . In any case a detailed calculation of the matter power spectrum would be needed for each particular model Hannestad .

In Fig. 1 we have plotted the different regions in the $`fM_D`$ plane for a branon mass $`M100`$ eV. The curves are not very sensitive to the branon mass, since they scale as $`M^{1/8}`$. We see that for a given $`f`$, models become self-interacting at sufficiently high $`M_D`$. Notice that the plotted regions are consistent with the assumption of low-tension brane $`fM_D`$.

## IV Thermal vs. non-thermal branons

So far we have considered branons as WIMPs which were produced thermally in the early universe. However, if the evolution of the universe was not standard before branon decoupling or the reheat temperature $`T_{RH}`$ was sufficiently low, branons were never in thermal equilibrium with radiation. However, still they could be produced non-thermally very much in the same way as axions axions . Thus, if the maximum temperature reached in the universe was smaller than the freeze-out temperature $`T_{RH}T_f`$, but larger compared to the explicit symmetry breaking scale $`T_{RH}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=(Mv)^{1/2}`$, then brane fluctuations were initially essentially massless and decoupled from the rest of matter fields. In this case, there is no reason to expect that the position in the extra dimension $`Y_0`$ at which the brane is created should coincide with the minimum of the branon potential ($`Y=0`$). In general we expect $`Y_0𝒪(R_B)`$, i.e. $`\pi _0v`$ within a region of size $`H^1`$ axions . The evolution of the branon field is then simply that of a scalar field in an expanding universe. Thus, while $`HM`$, the field remains frozen in its initial position $`\pi =\pi _0`$. Below the temperature $`T_i`$ for which $`3H(T_i)M`$, the branon field oscillates around the minimum. These oscillations correspond to a zero-momentum branon condensate, its energy density behaving like non-relativistic matter.

For the sake of simplicity we will consider the case of branons which are lighter than all the SM particles masses, i.e. we will assume that $`M1`$ MeV and that neutrinos are massless. In such a case the branon condensate cannot decay by particle production into massive SM particles, but still branons could annihilate through $`22`$ processes into massless gauge bosons or neutrinos. Since the expectation value of $`\pi `$ varies on horizon scales, the typical momentum of branons can be estimated as $`|\stackrel{}{p}|H`$, i.e. $`|\stackrel{}{p}|M`$ at the beginning of oscillations (if there was a previous period of inflation then the typical momentum would be much smaller). It is possible to estimate the annihilation rate from the results in cosmo  as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}M^7v^2/f^8`$ at the first stages of oscillations. In the regions in which we will be interested, we find $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{22}M`$. In addition, those processes in which four zero-momentum branons are transformed into two branons with energies $`E=2M`$ were already considered in the first reference in axions . In this case Bose enhancement effects are important. The results, obtained for axions, can be inmediately translated into the branons case, simply identifying $`v`$ with the Peccei-Quinn scale. It was shown that in the initial stages of oscillations, which corresponds to $`\pi v`$, the decay rate was $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{4\pi 2\pi }M`$. Again, this rate would be smaller if there was a period of inflation. Therefore the necessary condition to avoid the energy depletion of the branon condensate is $`H(T_{RH})>M`$. Making use of the Friedmann equation in a radiation dominated universe, this implies $`T_{RH}>(MM_P)^{1/2}`$, which automatically ensures $`T_{RH}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Since $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ decreases very fast due to the universe expansion, then it will never become comparable to $`H`$. Accordingly, the branon condensate energy density essentially is not reduced by particle production, but only diluted by the Hubble expansion. We see that the reheating temperature should satisfy the condition $`T_i(MM_P)^{1/2}<T_{RH}<T_f`$ in order for the condensate to form and survive until present. Therefore if $`T_i>T_f`$ the above interval disappears and only thermal relics can be present. In the opposite case, $`T_i<T_f`$, we can also have non-thermal production. In the case of light branons, a good estimation for the freeze-out temperature was obtained in CDM ; cosmo : $`\mathrm{log}(T_f/\text{GeV})(8/7)\mathrm{log}(f/\text{GeV})3.2`$. In Fig. 2 the $`T_i=T_f`$ curve which separates the thermal and non-thermal regions is plotted as a dashed line. We see that for sufficiently light or weakly coupled branons the non-thermal production is possible.

Following the same steps as in the axionic case, we can calculate the energy density which is stored today in the form of branon oscillations. Assuming that $`M`$ does not depend on the temperature, it is given by axions :

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{Br}h^2{\displaystyle \frac{2.5Nv^2MT_0^3}{M_PT_i\rho _0}}{\displaystyle \frac{6.510^{20}N}{\text{GeV}^{5/2}}}f^4R_B^2M^{1/2}`$
where $`T_0`$ and $`\rho _0`$ are the photon temperature and critical density today respectively.

In particular it can be seen that within certain parameters regions, the above energy density can be cosmologically important. Thus in Fig. 2 we plot the $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{Br}h^2=0.1`$ curves, corresponding to the current observational values, for different values of $`R_B`$ in the $`fM`$ plane. Thus the region above each curve would be excluded by non-thermal branon overproduction. This is another manifestation of the cosmological moduli problem. Notice that in the allowed non-thermal regions of the figure the condition $`fM_D`$ is also satisfied.

In the case in which the branon masses are larger than some SM particle mass, then the corresponding annihilation channel would open up and a detailed analysis of the energy loss rate would be necessary. In any case, the possibility of having heavier non-thermal branons is not a priori excluded.

## V Conclusions

We have explored the different possibilities of branon dark matter in terms of the brane-world parameters $`(N,M_D,f,M)`$. We have shown that apart from the standard scenario CDM  in which branons behave as collisionless thermal relics, the large parameter space of these models allows for branons to behave also as collisional or non-thermal dark matter candidates. In the collisional case, this opens an interesting possibility since the existing proposals for SDM candidates in the literature are very limited Qballs ; Hannestad . Nevertheless, the allowed parameters region reduces only to warm collisional branons and therefore a detailed analysis of the actual effect on structure formation is needed.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank J.A.R. Cembranos, A. Dobado and J.R. Peláez for useful comments and discussions, and also Alberto L. del Amo for additional motivation. This work has been partially supported by the DGICYT (Spain) under the project numbers FPA 2000-0956 and BFM2002-01003.