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# Transient Relativistically-Shifted Lines as a Probe of Black Hole Systems

## 1 Introduction

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are believed to be powered by accretion of material onto a black hole. UV photons from the disk are thought to be upscattered by relativistic electrons, providing the hard X-ray continuum. These hard X-rays illuminate the disk surface, undergoing photoelectric absorption or Compton scattering. High abundance and fluorescence yield make Fe K$`\alpha `$ the strongest line in the X-ray band-pass, emitted via fluorescence or recombination processes between 6.4 – 7.0 keV, depending on the ionization-state of the gas. This line is commonly observed in AGN (Nandra et al., 1997) with both narrow and broad components. The former has long been thought to be dominated by contributions from cool material at or beyond the optical broad-line-region while the latter is thought to originate close to the black hole. Lines emitted very close to the black hole will show shifted, broadened and skewed profiles due to the combination of Doppler and relativistic effects (see Fabian et al. 2000 and references therein). Infalling material which is not part of the disk structure will also suffer the effects of strong gravity, and may achieve velocities which are a significant fraction of the speed of light, causing significant displacement of emission lines from their rest energy. Many astrophysical sources show evidence for emission (SS 433, e.g. Marshall, Canizares & Schulz 2002) and absorption from material traveling at relativistic velocities (e.g. Broad Absorption Line Quasars; Weyman 1997).

Overlapping Chandra and XMM-Newton observations from 2001 November revealed unexpected narrow emission lines at $``$ 5.6 and 6.2 keV in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3516 (Turner et al., 2002). Narrow emission lines, redshifted relative to Fe K$`\alpha `$ had never before been seen in the X-ray spectrum of an AGN. The high-throughput of XMM and the excellent energy-resolution afforded by the Chandra HETG made possible the first unambiguous detection of these weak lines. With hindsight ASCA data show the appearance of narrow iron lines to be a frequently recurring phenomenon in NGC 3516 (Nandra et al., 1999) over a wide range in source luminosity. Turner et al. (2002) found variability in the flux of the new lines on timescales of a few tens of ksec. The apparent variability of the 5.6 keV component was most interesting as it could be attributed either to the line flux varying or the line energy shifting from 5.4 to 5.6 keV. A similar line at 5.86 keV has now been detected in NGC 7314 (Yaqoob et al., 2003) and at 5.7 keV in ESO 198-G24 (Guainazzi, 2003) – the phenomenon may be a characteristic of AGN. Here we present data from an XMM observation of Mrk 766 which shows characteristically similar redshifted emission to that observed in NGC 3516, offering new insight into the origin of these lines.

## 2 The case of Mrk 766

XMM has three CCD detectors (EPIC) operating in the $`0.310`$ keV band. The collecting area of the EPIC detector and telescope combination is approximately an order of magnitude higher than the CCDs flown on ASCA. The energy resolution is $`\mathrm{\Delta }E120`$ eV (FWHM) at 6.4 keV. This combination of capabilities has opened up a new regime of Fe K$`\alpha `$ profile studies. High S/N spectra can be accumulated in much shorter integration times than ever before, allowing significant progress in studying variable spectral features and in detection of detailed structure to Fe line profiles. We analyzed the archival XMM data for Mrk 766. Two XMM observations of Mrk 766 are available in the archives, from 2000 May 20 and 2001 May 20-21. EPIC pn data were screened using SAS v5.3 software to select only events with patterns in the range 0 - 4. We also applied energy cuts to discard data below 0.2 keV and above 15.0 keV. The pn data yielded a useful exposure of 130 ksec for the 2001 observation and 60 ksec for the 2000 data. The 2001 observation utilized the Small Window mode and there was no region for extraction of MOS2 background spectra, unfortunately this background level becomes significant at and above the Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission line. The 2001 MOS1 data were taken in timing mode, with the central chip off. In timing mode, spectra must be extracted based upon the histogram of counts versus RAWX coordinate. This allows the user to extract a spectrum for a given range of RAWX. While the histogram allows selection of source and background spectra, the source spectrum has to include some background dominated channels in the compressed spatial dimension. For weak sources such as Mrk 766 the resulting background-subtracted spectrum is somewhat inaccurate, especially at high energies. We extracted the timing-mode spectra for MOS1 and confirmed that those data were consistent with our PN results, but we do not present those data here.

In the 2000 observation pileup hardened the MOS spectra but did not affect the pn data. Thus the MOS data were not used from either observation. Source spectra were extracted from both epochs using circular extraction cells of $`45^{\prime \prime }`$ radii centered on Mrk 766. Background spectra were taken from an offset position close to the source. Source spectra were grouped to have at least 20 counts per spectral bin for fitting using the $`\chi ^2`$ statistic. Response matrices were generated for the source spectra using SASv5.3.

Figure 1 shows the light curve from 2001 May, as first presented by Pounds et al. (2003). We confirm the general findings of Pounds et al. (2003) regarding the mean spectrum, i.e. that the spectrum is steep $`\mathrm{\Gamma }2.2`$ and shows a broad component of Fe K$`\alpha `$ at rest-energy $`6.7`$ keV, with a narrower component at 6.4 keV. Our initial spectral fits parameterized the hard X-ray continuum in the 3-11.0 keV range using a powerlaw continuum form, but ignoring data in the 5-7 keV band where the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line resides. We assumed a redshift z=0.012929 for Mrk 766 (McMahon et al., 2002).

We also performed time-resolved spectroscopy, accumulating spectra before (high-state) and after (the dip) a drop in source flux (Fig. 1). We adopted the general model of a powerlaw with broad and narrow components to model the complex Fe K$`\alpha `$ line which is evident in the 6.4 – 7.0 keV band. In addition, we find a significant feature at 5.60 keV, not discussed by Pounds et al. (2003).

Figure 2 shows the data/model line ratios for the two sections of data. An emission line is detected at 5.60 keV in the high-state spectrum and at 5.75 keV in the dip-state. Both lines are detected at $`>99\%`$ confidence. The lines at 5.60 and 5.75 keV had photon fluxes $`n=0.50_{0.26}^{+0.26}\times 10^5`$ photons cm-2 s-1 and $`n=1.04_{0.42}^{+0.42}\times 10^5`$ photons cm-2 s-1, respectively (errors represent 90% confidence). Subdivision of the high-state data into six time-resolved spectra of equal duration and the low-state into two halves revealed no other significant changes in line energy within each flux-state.

We also compared the spectra of these two ‘states’ with that from an XMM observation 1 year earlier. Figure 3 shows the unfolded spectra from these three data sections. The apparent energy shift of the 5.60 keV feature is again evident by comparison of the top (green) and center (red triangles) lines. For comparison we include the 2000 May data (bottom line, black crosses), catching the source at a flux state similar to that denoted the “dip” in 2001 May data. Those earlier data do not show a significant feature in the range 5.60 - 5.75 keV. The 2000 May spectrum yields an upper limit on the flux of a line at 5.75 keV $`n<0.2\times 10^5`$ photons cm-2 s-1. Thus the source is inconsistent with the presence of the same line in both 2000 May and 2001 May spectra accumulated during the low flux-state.

To further investigate the narrow redshifted lines we examined the significance of features in the Fe K$`\alpha `$ regime. We slid a Gaussian model template across data between 3.0 - 11.0 keV, testing for an improvement to the fit at every resolution element, compared to a powerlaw model for the underlying continuum. The background spectrum was subtracted before the test, so features in Figure 4 are attributable to Mrk 766.

In the resulting fit-statistic, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$ of 9.21 represents a feature which is significant at 99% confidence. Fig. 4 illustrates the newly discovered lines and also traces out the stronger Fe lines reported by Pounds et al. (2003). The green line represents the 2001 high-state, the red line 2001 dip data and the black line the 2000 May observation. Fig. 4 provides supporting evidence that the peak of the emission shifts from 5.60 to 5.75 keV in the rest-frame, and that there is no significant feature in the 2000 May spectrum. Figure 5 shows the contours for the energy and intensity of this line in the high and dip states. An apparent shift in line energy is significant at 95% confidence (while the apparent change in line intensity turns out to be insignificant). Our analysis of a 90 ks Chandra HEG observation of Mrk 766 from another epoch did not show significant redshifted, narrow Fe lines.

## 3 Discussion

Several cases of narrow and redshifted lines have now been found in Seyfert galaxies and these features may be a characteristic of black hole systems, currently detectable only in the relatively bright Seyfert type AGN.

Spectra of Mrk 766 show a narrow, redshifted Fe line which changes from 5.60 to 5.75 keV within a few tens of kiloseconds. These data provide the first ever observation of a significant shift in energy for a line of this type. We dismiss the possibility that the observed change in energy is due to an increase in ionization-state of the emitter. In that picture an increase in line energy should be correlated with an increase, rather than a decrease in central luminosity.

Spallation, which is the breakdown of Fe atoms into lower Z metals by energetic protons, has been disfavored as an explanation of the lines in NGC 3516 (Turner et al., 2002) on the basis of line ratios and rapid line variability. The energy shift detected in the line from Mrk 766 seems inconsistent with the spallation scenario, pushing it further from favor.

In the case of NGC 3516 Turner et al. (2002) discuss an origin from narrow radii which are sporadically illuminated on the surface of the accretion disk. The “Thundercloud” model may be applicable, where the accretion disk is illuminated in patches from magnetic reconnection events (Merloni & Fabian, 2001). If the redshifted lines observed in Mrk 766 are red horns of disklines then peak energies in the range 5.60-5.75 keV would occur from a radius $`R30`$ gravitational radii. For a disk inclined at 30 degrees to our line-of-sight there should be an associated blue horn at $`6.7`$ keV, which would be $`70\%`$ stronger than the red horn due to relativistic effects (Fabian et al. 1989, Laor 1991). This is true for both the Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics, which produce similar lines at such radii. If the disk is inclined at 60 degrees then the blue horn would be expected at 7.25 keV with twice the strength of the red horn. The data are inconsistent with the latter line. Without an independent constraint on disk inclination it is difficult to make a conclusive comment on the consistency of the data with a blue horn and thus with the disk model. For the case of a disk inclined close to face-on the blue horn would be lost in the broad line component noted by Pounds et al. (2003), or in the wings of the strong Fe K$`\alpha `$ component at 6.4 keV. A disk origin remains an interesting possibility. Shifts in line energy might be expected to be correlated with flux as new magnetic reconnections would likely light up different parts of the disk. Alternatively, the observation of a rapid energy shift for the emission line in Mrk 766 is suggestive of a decelerating blob of gas, and we now explore this possibility in detail.

### 3.1 Outflow?

That the line is redshifted could indicate either an origin in material expelled from the nucleus, in which case we are seeing material on the far side of the black hole, or material falling into the nucleus, where we are viewing gas on the near side of the black hole. The observation that the line is getting less redshifted with time is indicative of deceleration of the emitter. Deceleration might be expected as expelled material would be likely slowed by gravity. While there may exist deceleration mechanisms which can slow infalling material (e.g. magnetic field pressure or drag forces) the outflow scenario seems a likely model and so we restrict ourselves to a discussion of this possibility. NGC 3516 may show a similar deceleration, as there is some suggestion of a line which moves from 5.4 to 5.6 keV in a few tens of kiloseconds (Turner et al., 2002). Understanding gas inflow/outflow is to get insight into the accretion/expulsion processes, two of the most fundamental questions regarding black hole systems. Disk winds are a natural consequence of the accretion process, and so it is particularly compelling to look at these new observations in light of such models.

One can use the observed shift in line energy to constrain the parameters of gas ejected ballistically from the disk surface. Consider a blob of gas propelled outward just above the plane of the disk. The propulsion could be driven in an number of ways, magnetically, or by the pressure gradient which must exist in the radial direction. The material is expelled and then decelerates under gravity.

If the material is decelerating under gravity then $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/\mathrm{\Delta }t=GM/R^2`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the time under which the deceleration was observed, and $`R`$ is the radius at which the material is situated at that time. Assuming the line originates from neutral iron then the implied initial velocity of the emitting blob is $`38000`$ km/s for the line at 5.60 keV in Mrk 766. The observed change in velocity is $`\mathrm{\Delta }V7000`$ km/s in $`\mathrm{\Delta }t65000s`$.

Taking an estimate of the mass of the black hole to be $`10^7M_{}`$ for Mrk 766 (Wandel, 2002) yields an estimate of the radius to be $`R3.5\times 10^{14}`$ cm. The escape velocity at this radius is 28000 km/s, close to the (ejection) velocity observed. This ties in nicely with the suggested outflow picture as blobs would have to achieve the escape velocity in order to be ejected and blobs not achieving this velocity would fall back to the disk. Application of the same arguments to the tentative energy shift in NGC 3516 yields a velocity of 47000 km/s, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }V9400`$ km/s compared to an escape velocity of 41000 km/s at approximately the same radius (and central mass $`2.3\times 10^7M_{}`$ ).

Interestingly, King & Pounds (2003) note that the outflow velocity for the X-ray absorber in PG 1211$`+143`$ is close to the escape velocity for that inferred radius, suggesting these are related phenomena, where viewing angle determines whether one sees the ejected gas in emission or absorption. We also note evidence for outflow of gas with velocity $`50,000`$ km/s in PDS 456, where Reeves, O’Brien & Ward (2003) estimated a launch radius of $`40`$ gravitational radii for the absorbing gas, if the outflow velocity is approximately equal to the escape velocity.

The apparent link between the energy of the redshifted line, and the source flux-state during the 2001 observation is intriguing. However, the lack of a comparable feature in the earlier observation (2000 May) indicates there is no long-term relation between the line and source luminosity. One possible explanation is that the emitting cloud responds to luminosity changes on short timescales, but that blobs do not exist on long timescales. This conjures a slightly more complex picture than noted above. The blob may be driven outwards by radiation pressure and maintain a constant velocity so long as that pressure is balanced by gravity. When the radiation field drops to half the previous value we obtain $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/\mathrm{\Delta }t=GM/2R^2`$ yielding $`R1.75\times 10^{14}`$ cm, and an escape velocity of 40,000 km/s. In this picture the blob is initially traveling outwards at a constant velocity approximately equal to the escape velocity. The source flux then drops by a factor 2 and the blob decelerates, dropping below the escape velocity. The evolution of the blob then depends on how the central luminosity continues to vary. If the source does not brighten again, the blob will fall back onto the black hole. This picture is appealing, but does not explain why the flux changes within the high-state did not show significant line shifts, leaving it unclear whether this picture is indeed more compelling than the simpler case of a blob driven magnetically or by pressure gradients. It is clear from the above estimates that observations with a long baseline which allow us to monitor these lines across several large changes in central luminosity could allow us to distinguish between radiative and other mechanisms driving the ejecta.

While an ejection model might be expected to yield both blue and redshifted emission lines, assuming gas is symmetrically ejected towards and away from us, the blue lines will be harder to observe in available data. The blueshifted lines from a blob on the near-side of the black hole, traveling outward at the same velocity, would be observed at $`7.3`$ keV. Interestingly the data show a couple of high points at 7.3 keV (Figs. 2, 3) however there are no significant lines present (Fig. 4). Upper limits on the flux of a narrow line are $`n<9.0\times 10^7`$ photons cm-2 s-1 ($`EW<5`$ eV) and $`n<3.5\times 10^6`$ photons cm-2 s-1 ($`EW<28`$ eV) for the high and low states, respectively. The emitting gas is likely to have a column $`10^{24}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (George & Fabian, 1991) and hence will absorb much of the fluorescent line emitted on the illuminated side of the blobs on the near side of the hole, whereas we view the illuminated face of the receding blobs directly. This makes it difficult to rule out symmetric outflow. Interestingly, lines have been observed blueward of 6.4 keV in sources such as NGC 7314 (Yaqoob et al., 2003). In that case there was ambiguity as to whether the lines were redshifted H-like and He-like species of Fe or blueshifted lines from neutral Fe.

In Mrk 766 the line at $`5.60`$ keV has mean equivalent width $`15_5^{+6}`$ eV. The strongest component of Fe K$`\alpha `$, at 6.4 keV, likely has contributions from the optical broad line clouds with $`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi 0.050.3`$ in Mrk 766 (Netzer & Laor, 1993). Adding contributions from the narrow-line region and torus yields $`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi 0.4`$. The ratio of strengths of the components at 6.4 and 5.6 keV is $`2.5`$. Thus the redshifted line likely has covering fraction $`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi 0.15`$. Taking our derived radii and column densities, a mass $`10^4M_{}`$ is lost in the blob. The kinetic energy in the outflow is approximately $`10^{48}\mathrm{ergs}`$, a few percent of the gravitational potential energy available in the disk at these radii.

Pounds et al. (2003) found a similar covering factor for the variable warm absorber in Mrk 766, and suggested that gas could contribute to the He-like Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission. We prefer a neutral origin for our emission line (if the line originated in He-like Fe then we would expect some H-like Fe and so would expect a pair of redshifted lines). However, in general the Pounds et al. (2003) picture of flare ejecta is consistent with the new result presented here. The variable absorption may be seen in the component of gas on the near side of the flow, and emission is observed from the component on the far side.

Titarchuk, Kazanas & Becker (2003) discuss line photon propagation in bulk outflows from AGN where Thomson scattering in the divergent flow redshifts photons to produce the broad red wing observed on the line profile of most AGN. Similar arguments could be applied to produce the narrow redshifted lines observed in NGC 3516, Mrk 766 and other AGN, although in the latter case the rapid shift in line energy may require a more complex explanation than the decelerating emitter, suggested above.

## 4 Conclusions

Data from several Seyfert galaxies show narrow, redshifted emission most likely explained as Fe K$`\alpha `$ lines, shifted by relativistic effects. Mrk 766 provides the first detection of a significant shift in the energy of such a line. The timescale of the energy shift is a few tens of kiloseconds, indicating a possible origin in blobs of gas expelled from the nucleus and then gravitationally decelerated. The nature of the ejection mechanism is unknown at this time, but this may be a newly detectable signature of black hole systems.

## 5 Acknowledgments

We thank Ian George and the anonymous referee for useful comments which improved the paper. T.J. Turner acknowledges support from NASA grant NAG5-7538.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The most precise measurement of the low energy pion form factor in $`e^+e^{}`$–annihilation experiments is from the CMD-2 collaboration. The updated results for the process $`e^+e^{}\rho \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ have just been published . The update appeared necessary due to an overestimate of the integrated luminosity in previous analyses. The latter was published in 2002 . A more progressive error estimate (improving on radiative corrections, in particular) allowed a reduction of the systematic error from 1.4% to 0.6 % .

Since 1997 precise $`\tau `$–spectral functions became available  which, to the extent that flavor $`SU(2)_\mathrm{f}`$ in the light hadron sector is a symmetry, allows to obtain the iso–vector part of the $`e^+e^{}`$–cross section . In this way $`\tau `$ data may help to substantially improve our knowledge of $`|F_\pi |^2(s)`$, which is an important input for the evaluations of the hadronic vacuum polarization contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $`a_\mu `$ and of the effective fine structure constant $`\alpha _{\mathrm{em}}(M_Z)`$ an important input for LEP/SLC precision physics (see e.g. ). The idea to use the $`\tau `$ spectral data to improve the evaluation of the hadronic contributions $`a_\mu ^{\mathrm{had}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha ^{\mathrm{had}}`$ was pioneered in .

With increasing precision of the low energy data it more and more turned out that we are confronted with a serious obstacle to further progress: in the region just above the $`\omega `$–resonance, the isospin rotated $`\tau `$–data, corrected for the known isospin violating effects , do not agree with the $`e^+e^{}`$–data at the 10% level . Before the origin of this discrepancy is found it will be hard to make progress in pinning further down theoretical uncertainties in the predictions for $`a_\mu `$ and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{em}}(M_Z)`$.

In this context isospin breaking effects in the relationship between the $`\tau `$– and the $`e^+e^{}`$–data have been extensively investigated in . One point which in our opinion has not been satisfactorily clarified is the role of the isospin breaking effects in the charged vs. neutral $`\rho `$ line–shape, which must manifest themselves in $`m_{\rho ^\pm }m_{\rho ^0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^\pm }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^0}`$. Looking at the particle data tables , there is no established non-zero result as yet. Earlier statements about the problem in  adopted essentially the PDG estimate $`m_{\rho ^\pm }m_{\rho ^0}=0\pm 1\text{MeV}`$. There are theoretical arguments about why this mass difference is expected to be very small: the usual argument assumes $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\rho ^2\mathrm{\Delta }m_\pi ^2`$ via a sum rule, which then yields $`m_\rho ^{}m_{\rho ^0}\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }m_\pi ^2}{m_{\rho ^0}}0.014\text{MeV}!`$ This is based, however, on an assumption which need not be true for the mass definition adopted in recent $`\rho `$–line shape analyses111For a more detailed theoretical estimate see  and references therein (see also ). Mass and width of an unstable particle, and in particular of the $`\rho `$, depend on the precise definition. In that sense they are pseudo-observables which depend on theoretical input. What we need here is a consistent prescription to extract them from the experimental data ($`\rho `$–line shape) and make sure that we compare comparable quantities (with respect to the handling of vacuum polarization effects, final state radiation, energy dependence of width, background etc.).. If fact a more recent analysis of the CMD-2 (before the last update) and the ALEPH and CLEO data yielded $`m_{\rho ^\pm }m_{\rho ^0}=2.6\pm 0.8\text{MeV}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^\pm }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^0}=3.1\pm 1.7\text{MeV}`$  where the uncertainty is our estimate. The corresponding isospin corrections may still look too small to account fully for the observed discrepancy in the spectral functions but they clearly point towards a substantial reduction of the problem. Our strategy therefore here is a different one. Our hypothesis is that as a leading effect the discrepancy very likely is due to the isospin breaking by the charged vs. neutral $`\rho `$–meson parameters. A similar but subleading contribution is expected to come from possible isospin violations in the respective backgrounds (encoded usually by the $`\rho ^{},\rho ^{\prime \prime }`$ contributions). Since the fit formulae adopted, like the Gounaris-Sakurai formula , are far from being based on first principles we should not trust to much in the fitting procedures based on them. E.g., usually just a set of resonances $`\rho ,\omega ,\rho ^{},\rho ^{\prime \prime }`$ is included but we have no idea about the background (continuum) which also should be included somehow. We also would like to advocate that, as the level of accuracy of the present discussion advances, in future one should compile charged and neutral $`\rho `$ data separately.

Whether the observed discrepancy is an experimental problem, or just a so far underestimated isospin breaking effect will also be settled, hopefully, by new results for hadronic $`e^+e^{}`$ cross–sections which are under way from KLOE, BABAR and BELLE. These experiments, running at fixed energies, are able to perform measurements via the radiative return method . Results presented recently by KLOE seem to agree very well with the final CMD-2 $`e^+e^{}`$–data.

## 2 The $`\tau `$ vs. $`e^+e^{}`$ problem

The iso-vector part of $`\sigma (e^+e^{}\mathrm{hadrons})`$ may be calculated by an isospin rotation from $`\tau `$–decay spectra, to the extent that the so–called conserved vector current (CVC) would be really conserved (which it is not, see below). The relation may be derived by comparing the relevant lowest order diagrams which for the $`e^+e^{}`$ case translates into

$$\sigma _{\pi \pi }^{(0)}\sigma _0(e^+e^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{})=\frac{4\pi \alpha ^2}{s}v_0(s)$$
(1)
and for the $`\tau `$ case into

$$\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{ds}(\tau ^{}\pi ^{}\pi ^0\nu _\tau )=\frac{6\pi |V_{ud}|^2S_{EW}}{m_\tau ^2}\frac{B(\tau ^{}\nu _\tau e^{}\overline{\nu }_e)}{B(\tau ^{}\nu _\tau \pi ^{}\pi ^0)}\left(1\frac{s}{m_\tau ^2}\right)\left(1+\frac{2s}{m_\tau ^2}\right)v_{}(s)$$
(2)
where $`|V_{ud}|=0.9752\pm 0.0007`$  denotes the CKM weak mixing matrix element and $`S_{\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{new})}=1.0233\pm 0.0006`$ \[$`S_{\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{old})}=1.0194`$\] accounts for electroweak radiative corrections . The spectral functions are obtained from the corresponding invariant mass distributions. The $`B(i)`$’s are branching ratios. SU(2) symmetry (CVC) would imply

$$v_{}(s)=v_0(s).$$
(3)
The spectral functions $`v_i(s)`$ are related to the pion form factors $`F_\pi ^i(s)`$ by

$$v_i(s)=\frac{\beta _i^3(s)}{12\pi }|F_\pi ^i(s)|^2;(i=0,)$$
(4)
where $`\beta _i^3(s)`$ is the pion velocity. The difference in phase space of the pion pairs gives rise to the relative factor $`\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^0}^3/\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^+}^3`$ .

It is important to check what precisely the experimental data in each case represent. In CMD-2 $`e^+e^{}`$ measurements we exclude final state radiation (FSR) as well as vacuum polarization effects222Tab. 1 of  lists $`|F_\pi |^2`$, which includes VP but not FSR, as well as $`\sigma _{\pi \pi (\gamma )}^0`$ which includes FSR but not VP. VP and FSR are separately known quantities which we may add and subtract according to our needs. which are not included in the $`\tau `$ data in first place. FSR as far as included by the measurement (virtual and soft real radiation) has been subtracted together with the initial state photon radiation. Hard FSR photons were rejected to a large extent. In our analysis $`F_\pi (s)`$ obtained from CMD-2 is the undressed (from VP and FSR) pion form–factor (see e.g. ). The available $`\tau `$ decay spectra all include photon radiation (no subtractions were made), which hence has to be subtracted a posteriori (the correction factor $`G_{\mathrm{EM}}`$ below), while photon vacuum polarization effects play no role (i.e., are not included). This is because the $`\tau `$ decay as a charged current (CC) process proceeds by the heavy $`W`$ exchange, which makes it an effective four–fermion interaction with Fermi constant $`G_F`$ as a coupling in place of $`\alpha (s)`$. In contrast to $`\alpha `$ the Fermi coupling $`G_F`$ is not running up to LEP energy scales. Electroweak short distance corrections (hadronic relative to leptonic channel) give rise to the correction factor $`S_{\mathrm{EW}}=1+\delta _{\mathrm{EW}}`$, which is dominated by a leading large logarithm $`(1+(\alpha /\pi )\mathrm{ln}(M_Z/m_\tau ))`$ which should be resummed using the renormalization group . Note that the overall coupling drops out from the ratios in (2). This also makes it evident that the subtraction of the large and strongly energy dependent vacuum polarization effects (see e.g. Fig. 1 in ) necessary for the $`e^+e^{}`$–data, which seems to worsen the $`e^+e^{}`$ vs. $`\tau `$ problem, was properly treated in previous analyses.

Before a precise comparison via (3) is possible all kind of isospin breaking effects have to be taken into account. As mentioned earlier, this has been investigated carefully in  for the most relevant $`\pi \pi `$ channel. Accordingly, we may write the corrected version of (3) (see  for details) in the form

$`\sigma _{\pi \pi }^{(0)}=\left[{\displaystyle \frac{K_\sigma (s)}{K_\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\pi \pi [\gamma ]}}{ds}}\times {\displaystyle \frac{R_{\mathrm{IB}}(s)}{S_{\mathrm{EW}}}}`$ (5)
with

$`K_\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)={\displaystyle \frac{G_F^2|V_{ud}|^2m_\tau ^3}{384\pi ^3}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{s}{m_\tau ^2}}\right)^2\left(1+2{\displaystyle \frac{s}{m_\tau ^2}}\right);K_\sigma (s)={\displaystyle \frac{\pi \alpha ^2}{3s}},`$ (6)
and the isospin breaking correction

$`R_{\mathrm{IB}}(s)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{G_{\mathrm{EM}}(s)}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^+}^3}{\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^0}^3}}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{F_V(s)}{f_+(s)}}\right|^2.`$ (7)
The factor $`G_{\mathrm{EM}}(s)`$, displayed in Fig. 1, includes the QED corrections to $`\tau ^{}\nu _\tau \pi ^{}\pi ^0`$ decay with virtual plus real soft and hard (integrated over all phase space) photon radiation calculated in scalar QED, except from the short distance term, which is calculated for the corresponding quark production process and included conventionally in $`S_{\mathrm{EW}}`$ as the leading logarithm, mentioned before. Originating from (4), $`\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^+}^3/\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^0}^3`$ (see Fig. 1) is a phase space correction due to the $`\pi ^\pm \pi ^0`$ mass difference. $`F_V(s)=F_\pi ^0(s)`$ is the NC vector current form factor, which exhibits besides the $`I=1`$ part an $`I=0`$ contribution. The latter $`\rho \omega `$ mixing term is due to the SU(2) breaking ($`m_dm_u`$ mass difference). Finally, $`f_+(s)=F_\pi ^{}`$ is the CC $`I=1`$ vector form factor. One of the leading isospin breaking effects is the $`\rho \omega `$ mixing correction included in $`|F_V(s)|^2`$. The transition $`|F_V(s)|^2|F_V^{(I=1)}(s)|^2|f_+(s)|^2`$ is illustrated in Fig. 2. The form–factor corrections, in principle, also should include the electromagnetic shifts in the masses and the widths of the $`\rho `$’s. Up to this last mentioned effect, which was considered to be small, all the corrections were applied in  but were not able to eliminate the observed discrepancy between $`v_{}(s)`$ and $`v_0(s)`$ (see  for details and Fig. 3 below).

In fact, possible isospin breaking corrections due to different electromagnetic shifts of masses and widths of the neutral and charged $`\rho `$–mesons (remember that for other quark bound states the $`\pi `$’s we have $`m_{\pi ^\pm }m_{\pi ^0}=4.5935\pm 0.0005\text{MeV}`$), respectively, have been mentioned or were very briefly discussed only in , and they might have been underestimated so far. Such isospin violating mass and width differences are not established experimentally, not even the sign. We therefore ask the question whether applying an isospin breaking correction which accounts for that could resolve the puzzle of the above mentioned discrepancy.

What we do is the following: we take the CMD-2 data and subtract off the VP and the $`\omega `$–contribution. The latter $`I=0`$ part enters via $`\rho \omega `$ mixing, which is a consequence of isospin violation due to the mass difference $`m_um_d`$ of the light quarks. To this end we may take the Gounaris–Sakurai kind parameterization (see  for details) (FSR not included; BW=Breit-Wigner; BWGS=Gounaris-Sakurai modified Breit-Wigner )

$$F_\pi (s)=\frac{\mathrm{BW}_{\rho (770)}^{\mathrm{GS}}(s)\left(1+\delta \frac{s}{M_\omega ^2}\mathrm{BW}_\omega (s)\right)+\beta \mathrm{BW}_{\rho (1450)}^{\mathrm{GS}}(s)+\gamma \mathrm{BW}_{\rho (1700)}^{\mathrm{GS}}(s)}{1+\beta +\gamma }$$
(8)
of the CMD-2 data and set the mixing parameter $`\delta =0`$. In this way we obtain the iso–vector part of the square of the pion form factor $`|F_\pi |_{(e^+e^{})}^{2I=1}(s)`$ displayed in Fig. 2. To the $`\tau `$ version of the pion form factor, following from (2) and (4), we perform the isospin breaking corrections

$$r_{\mathrm{IB}}(s)=\frac{1}{G_{\mathrm{EM}}(s)}\frac{\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^+}^3}{\beta _{\pi ^{}\pi ^0}^3}\frac{S_{\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{old})}}{S_{\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{new})}}$$
(9)
with $`G_{\mathrm{EM}}(s)`$ from . The factor $`S_{\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{old})}/S_{\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{new})}`$ corrects for some previously missing corrections . The such obtained corrected333The velocity factor correction of course only applies when, as frequently has been done, the wrong velocity was used in (4) in the extraction of the charged channel form factor. pion form factor $`|F_\pi |_{(\tau )}^{2I=1}(s)`$ is to be compared with $`|F_\pi |_{(e^+e^{})}^{2I=1}(s)`$. The ratio shows the unexpected large deviations from unity (see Fig. 3). While the ALEPH and CLEO data clearly exhibit the structure as expected from an increase of mass and width of the $`\rho `$ the OPAL data show a different form of the spectrum. The problem with the OPAL data originates from the fact that in the neighborhood of the $`\rho `$ peak the cross section apparently is too low. Since the distribution is normalized to the very precisely known total branching fraction, the tails of the resonance get enhanced, which leads to the structure actually seen (the apparent width gets enhanced). Of course the data points of the spectrum have imposed strong error correlations via the normalization to the integral rate. In the figure only the diagonal elements of the covariance matrix are visualized.

For a comparison of the $`e^+e^{}`$ with the $`\tau `$ data we have to perform fits in a common energy range. It is important to fix the “$`\rho `$–background” appropriately. The latter is represented in the GS–parametrization by the higher resonances $`\rho ^{^{}}`$ and $`\rho ^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ and in order to fit the corresponding parameters we have to extend the fit range towards higher energies. To this end we are including beyond the CMD-2 limit the available $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ data from other experiments up to 1.5 GeV above which the $`\tau `$ data get of low quality. We finally decided to adopt the PDG values for $`m_\rho ^{}=1465\pm 25,\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho ^{}=310\pm 60`$ and $`m_{\rho ^{\prime \prime }}=1700\pm 20,\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^{\prime \prime }}=240\pm 60`$ for the masses and widths and fit the complex admixing coefficients $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$. For $`|\beta |=0.12\pm 0.005`$, $`\phi _\beta =160\pm 5`$ and $`|\gamma |=0.023\pm 0.005`$, $`\phi _\gamma =0`$ we get reasonable fits for all data sets. In particular the widths depend substantially on the precise values of these parameters. Fortunately, the parameter shifts of interest turn out to be rather stable. In other words, while there are different possible parametrizations of comparable quality for the individual data sets the systematic shift between $`e^+e^{}`$ and $`\tau `$ data is there independently of how we parametrize the data.

We may fit now $`|F_\pi |_{(\tau )}^{2I=1}(s)`$ with the Gounaris–Sakurai formula (8) with no $`\omega `$ term, i.e., with $`\delta =0`$, in order to obtain $`m_{\rho ^\pm }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^\pm }`$. We would like to emphasize that it is important to “zoom–in the $`\rho `$” appropriately in determining $`m_{\rho ^\pm }m_{\rho ^0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^\pm }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^0}`$, i.e., we have to perform the fits at fixed background (i.e., besides $`m_\rho `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho `$ all other parameters in the GS-formula are held fixed) in the $`\rho `$ dominated region between 610.5 MeV and 961.5 MeV (CMD-2 range).

This simple leading effect analysis yields the results in Tab. 1444For the $`e^+e^{}`$ channel we fit the data after subtraction of the $`I=0`$ part. Including the $`\omega `$ in the fit yields practically the same result.. As can be seen the $`\tau `$ data give consistently larger values for both mass and width of the charged $`\rho `$. The evidence is far from impressive, between ALEPH and CMD-2 we have $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\rho =2.6\pm 0.8`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho =1.5\pm 1.0`$ MeV. The two–parameter fits are not of good quality and a more elaborate analysis would be needed to come to more precise conclusions. An analysis based on more recent preliminary ALEPH data, yields the slightly larger values $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_\rho =3.1\pm 0.9`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho =2.3\pm 1.6`$ MeV , which are consistent however with our findings.

Note that our values of $`m_{\rho ^0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^0}`$ differ substantially from the values $`775.65\pm 0.64\pm 0.5`$ and $`143.85\pm 1.33\pm 0.80`$, respectively, given by CMD-2. The latter have been obtained by fitting the physical $`\pi \pi `$ cross-section (before subtracting the VP) and including the $`\omega `$ and the $`\rho ^{}`$ with mixing parameters $`|\delta |=(1.57\pm 0.16)\times 10^3`$, $`\phi _\delta =13.3^{}\pm 3.7^{}`$ and $`|\beta |=0.0695\pm 0.0053`$, $`\phi _\beta =180^{}`$. A $`\rho ^{\prime \prime }`$ was not included. The parameters determined by CMD-2, cannot be directly compared with corresponding parameters obtained by fits of the $`\tau `$ data, because the latter do not include VP effects. In order to have a common basis we subtract the VP from the $`e^+e^{}`$ data (of course, alternatively, we could supplement the $`\tau `$ data with the VP \[by replacing $`\alpha `$ in $`K_\sigma `$ (6) by $`\alpha (s)`$\] in order to obtain dressed (physical) parameters which are the ones usually listed in the particle data tables). The subtraction of the VP lowers the mass by about 1 MeV and increases the width by about 1.3 MeV. The additional changes are due to the inclusion of the $`\rho ^{\prime \prime }`$ and the changes in the other “background parameters”. If we would utilize the CMD-2 background parameters as a common background parametrization we would not be able to get acceptably good fits for the $`\tau `$ data sets.

Now we assume that the systematic deviations seen in the $`\rho ^\pm `$ parameters include electromagnetic isospin breaking which we have to correct for. We now may ask two questions. The first is: how does the test–ratio of Fig. 3 look like if we replace $`m_{\rho ^\pm }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^\pm }`$ in the $`\tau `$–data fit by the more appropriate $`m_{\rho ^0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^0}`$ ? The second is: what mass and width do we get if we fit them in the $`\tau `$–data parameterization such that the test–ratio comes out to be unity within errors? Not too surprisingly we find them close to the ones given in Tab. 1 for CMD-2: It makes the central value of the ratio unity within 0.1 % ! Uncertainties may be obtained from the ones in the parametrizations. Of course keeping the background fixed the result looks pretty trivial. In fact fitting all parameters of the GS formula simultaneously in the much wider range of $`\tau `$ data, as has been performed in , yields results which look very similar to ours. The parameters obtained are very strongly correlated and all of them may be affected by some isospin breaking effects. A much more elaborate analysis would be necessary to actually establish tight experimental values for possible isospin breakings in these parameters.

We conclude that the $`\tau `$ vs. $`e^+e^{}`$ discrepancy very likely is an isospin breaking effect which has not been accounted for correctly in previous analyses. This also would establish a significant difference for $`m_{\rho ^\pm }m_{\rho ^0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^\pm }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\rho ^0}`$. Of course, what it means is that the $`\tau `$ data cannot be utilized to calculate $`a_\mu ^{\mathrm{had}}`$ without reference to the $`e^+e^{}`$ data. Also, since now substantially correlated, the inclusion of the $`\tau `$–data is much less straightforward. The question is how much they still can contribute to reduce the uncertainties in the evaluation of $`a_\mu ^{\mathrm{had}}`$. This also makes it very likely that the $`e^+e^{}`$–data based evaluations are the more trustworthy ones. After the correction in the normalization of the CMD-2 data we get the leading hadronic contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. We now obtain

$$a_\mu ^{\mathrm{had}(1)}=(694.8\pm 8.6)\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}10}^{10}[e^+e^{}\mathrm{data}\mathrm{based}].$$
(10)
With this estimate we get

$$a_\mu ^{\mathrm{the}}=(\mathrm{11\hspace{0.25em}659\hspace{0.25em}179.4}\pm 8.6_{\mathrm{had}}\pm 3.5_{\mathrm{LBL}}\pm 0.4_{\mathrm{QED}+\mathrm{EW}})\times 10^{10}$$
(11)
which compares to the most recent experimental result

$$a_\mu ^{\mathrm{exp}}=(\mathrm{11\hspace{0.25em}659\hspace{0.25em}203}\pm 8)\times 10^{10}.$$
(12)
The “discrepancy” $`|a_\mu ^{\mathrm{the}}a_\mu ^{\mathrm{exp}}|=(23.6\pm 12.3)\times 10^{10}`$ corresponds to a deviation of about 1.9 $`\sigma `$. For other recent estimates we refer to .

## 3 Summary and Conclusion

Since recently we have in each case two reasonably consistent sets of data: the ALEPH and CLEO $`\tau `$–data sets on the one hand and the CMD-2 and KLOE (still preliminary) $`e^+e^{}`$–data sets on the other hand. The $`\tau `$–data samples are about 10% higher than the $`e^+e^{}`$ ones in the tail above the $`\rho `$. This can be clearly seen in Fig. 3. Assuming that the experiments are essentially correct we think that a 10% increase in a resonance tail can easily be attributed to a 0.5% increase in the energy scale. Since it is very unlikely a problem of energy calibration, the only explanation remains that the resonance parameters must be different in the charged and the neutral channel. Our estimated shifts in the $`\rho `$ parameters account for about 6.8% (or 8.1% with the estimates given in ) in the cross section (see Fig. 3). The remaining ”discrepancy” is likely due to corresponding shifts in the other GS fit–parameters.

Our analysis shows that to a large extent we may understand the $`e^+e^{}`$ vs. $`\tau `$ discrepancy as an isospin breaking effect coming from the fact that mass and width of charged and neutral $`\rho `$–mesons, as naively expected, are different and thus that the $`\tau `$–data must be mapped to the neutral channel parameters before they can be utilized for the evaluation of $`a_\mu ^{\mathrm{had}}`$ in addition to the $`e^+e^{}`$–data. We thus assume that a main part of the problem is due to additional isospin breaking effects and not primarily an experimental one. Of course there are also experimental difficulties which hopefully will be resolved by forthcoming experiments.

The fact that the $`\rho `$–mass difference is found to be of size comparable (maybe half of it) to the well–established pion mass difference $`m_{\pi ^\pm }m_{\pi ^0}4.6\text{MeV}`$ seems not so unlikely because the corresponding bound states, apart from the spin orientation, have the same quark content ($`\rho ^\pm `$ vs. $`\pi ^\pm `$ on the one hand and $`\rho ^0`$ vs. $`\pi ^0`$ on the other hand)555Remember that, for example, para- (spin $`s=0`$) and ortho- ($`s=1`$) positronium have almost the same binding energy. For the pion and the $`\rho `$ the average distance of the quarks is determined by the strong interactions, and in principle could be different. However, the charge radius of the $`\rho `$ is of similar size as the one of the pion and thus also the electromagnetic effects are expected to be of similar magnitude.. In the charged case the electric potential is repulsive while in the neutral case it is attractive and contributes to lower the mass, irrespective of the spin orientation of the constituents. We do not think that the Goldstone-boson nature of the pions, which derives from the properties of the strong interactions, the spontaneous breaking of the chiral symmetry, necessarily makes such a manifest isospin breaking effects completely different for the vector particles and the scalars.

Since we do not have an independent evaluation of the charged and neutral $`\rho `$–meson parameters, the isospin correction needed in order for the $`\tau `$–data to be useful for the evaluation of the hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment cannot be performed at sufficient precision at the moment. Nevertheless, the $`\tau `$–data still provide important cross checks and last but not least Ref.  triggered a discussion which forced all parties to check more carefully what they have done. One impact was that also the results in the $`e^+e^{}`$–channel had to be corrected.

The main point is that there must be such effects which were not correctly treated so far. Maybe the available data do not allow us to pin down a solid value for the mass and width differences (all GS parameters in fact must be subject to isospin breaking and the data may not suffice to come to a definite conclusion). We think the main point is that the derivatives of $`a_\mu `$ with respect to $`m_\rho `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho `$ are rather large and hence no stable result can be given if the isospin breaking in these parameters is not known with sufficient precision.

Note that in spite of the fact that the dominating $`\rho `$–peak is shifted downwards, due to the correction which we have to apply to the $`\tau `$–data, the $`s^2`$ weighted $`a_\mu `$–integral does not increase. It rather decreases, because the width also substantially decreases by the correction and actually over-compensates the effect of the shift in the mass.

Our conclusion: very likely we are back to one prediction for $`a_\mu `$ which is the $`e^+e^{}`$–based value at about $`2\sigma `$ below the experimental result! Unfortunately, at present, we do not have a precise enough understanding of the isospin violations to be able to utilize the $`\tau `$–data for the evaluation of the hadronic contribution to $`g2`$ of the muon.

Acknowledgments

It is a pleasure to thank H. Leutwyler, A. Stahl, K. Mönig and S. Eidelman for numerous fruitful discussions.


text:
# Are the quasars the missing “accretor isolated neutron stars”?

## 1 Introduction

There are many reasons to question the current explanations for the spectra of quasars. According to theory, to produce the Lyman lines in the redshift of quasars, atomic hydrogen is concentrated into bands or islands at many different redshifts; or conversely relativistic jets flow from the faces of quasars. Both hypothesis are flawed because they require clouds of hot atomic hydrogen, whose stability and/or velocity cannot be explained using conventional physical models.

To understand propagation of light in low pressure gases, one must take into account the “Coherent Raman Effect on time-Incoherent Light”(CREIL), which transfers energy by frequency shifts from shorter wavelengths to longer wavelengths without blurring or distorting the images or the spectra. The relative frequency shifts $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu /\nu `$ due to CREIL are nearly constant.

In a previous paper (Moret-Bailly ), we explained that the spectra can be obtained by assuming that a nearly homogeneous cloud of Lyman pumped atomic hydrogen is perturbed by a variable magnetic field: Where the field is low, there is virtually no redshift and the absorption (or emission) lines are written visibly into the spectrum. If the field is high, the redshift is simultaneous with the absorption (or emission), blurring the lines and making them invisible. The spectrum results not from a modulation of the absorption, but from the redshifting function of the gas. We also showed that the existence of a non-linearity is able to increase the contrast of the lines.

However our previous explanation requires an important variation of the magnetic field for each line, which in turn requires the existence of a large number of magnetised satellites. Another weakness in this argument is that the spectra show a pseudo-stochastic repartition of the redshifts of the lines, the difference of two redshifts being the product of a constant $`z_b=0.062`$ multiplied by an integer (Burbidge , Tifft , Burbidge & Hewitt , Bell , Bell & Comeau ). It seems very difficult to explain such a spectroscopic regularity of the “intrinsic redshift”by the presence of objects in the line of sight. The non-linearity we introduce in this letter provides a very simple solution.

Section 2 recounts the key spectroscopic properties which provide the “Coherent Raman Effect on time-Incoherent Light”(CREIL) able to explain the intrinsic redshifts.

Section 3 applies CREIL to a halo of atomic hydrogen; to obtain the required resonances, H must have a non- zero orbital quantum number. Lyman pumping is demonstrated to provide the necessary quantum state and non- linearity.

Section 4 explains the appearance of the periodic redshifts.

Section 5 explains the building of the spectrum of a quasar during the propagation of the light in the cloud of hydrogen which surrounds it.

## 2 The “Coherent Raman Effect on time-Incoherent Light”(CREIL)

The CREIL is very similar to the “Impulsive Stimulated Raman Scattering”(ISRS) discovered in 1968 (Giordmaine ) and commonly used to study radiation mechanics (Yan et al. , Weiner et al. , Dougherty et al. , Dhar et al. ).

Both effects are space-coherent, they do not blur the images. They are parametric, using matter as a ’catalyst’, leaving the molecules unchanged. They may be considered as a combination of two nearly simultaneous coherent Raman scatterings yielding virtually opposite transitions. The relaxation times of the matter used as a catalyst must be longer that the length of the light pulses; these relaxation times are the period of (at least) a quadrupole-allowed transition, and, in a gas, the collisional time.

The difference results from the use of ordinary time-incoherent light in the CREIL while the ISRS uses strong ultrashort laser pulses. In the ISRS, the strong laser flux has a qualitative effect: the Raman scattered amplitude which produces the frequency shifts (by interference with the exciting light beam), increases as a nearly quadratic function of the exciting flux amplitude. In the CREIL, at low power, all scatterings are linear: under the described conditions the coherently scattered amplitude is proportional to the exciting amplitude. This behavior, makes the frequency shift independant of the intensity.

The ISRS and the CREIL may be computed from the tensors of polarisability of the molecules. This is only slightly dependent on the exciting frequencies, so that, in a first approximation, the relative frequency shift $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu /\nu `$ does not depend on the exciting frequency; as the the redshifts produced by the CREIL do not depend on the intensities, the spectra are slightly distorted, but not blurred.

The length of the pulses of ordinary (thermal) incoherent light is of the order of 5 nanoseconds. To avoid an incoherent scattering, the mean molecular collision rate must be greater than 5 ns. This is only possible when the pressure is less than a few pascals. To produce a CREIL effect, the Raman resonance period must also be longer than 5 ns, that is a Raman resonance frequency in the MHz range (Moret-Bailly \[1998, 1998a, 2001\]). Both of these conditions increase the path length necessary for a measurable frequency shift. Because of these extremes, CREIL has never been measured in a laboratory. In space the pressure is generally low, and the light paths are long. The 2.7K background thermal radiation, provides a uniform low temperature exciting energy that is blueshifted (heated) during a CREIL event.

The other essential component in a CREIL event is a molecular catalyst with a low frequency quadrupolar resonance. Hydrogen is the most common element and exists in several allotropic states, mono-, di- and tri-atomic. Some polyatomic allotropes (H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$, H2D+, …) exhibit Raman hyperfine resonances close to 30 Mhz; although these molecules are not readily observed, they undoubtedly occur due to ultraviolet radiation and collisions. The reason they are not observed is very simple: these molecules are destroyed by the collisions with H2 so that their half-life is long only where the pressure is low enough to allow CREIL. A simultaneous absorption and CREIL makes absorption lines as wide as the redshift; therefore the lines of these molecules are so wide and weak that they cannot be seen. Atomic hydrogen also provides convenient transitions if it has been pumped by a Lyman transition so that hyperfine structures appear in non-zero quantum shells.

## 3 Propagation of light in atomic hydrogen.

Consider the propagation of light having a continuous spectrum (constant intensity, in particular in the Lyman region), in an homogeneous atmosphere of low pressure atomic hydrogen. In the fundamental state (principal quantum number n=1), the distance between the hyperfine levels (1420 MHz) is too large. In the other states, hyperfine transitions have convenient frequencies for the Raman allowed selection rule $`\mathrm{\Delta }F=1`$, for instance : 178 MHz in $`2s_{1/2}`$, 59 MHz in $`2p_{1/2}`$ and 24 MHz in $`2p_{3/2}`$.

Set $`\mathrm{\Delta }L`$ the length of path for which the redshift is equal to the linewidth $`\delta \nu `$ of the Lyman $`\alpha `$ line, and assume that the atoms which are active in CREIL are mostly pumped by the Lyman $`\alpha `$ transition.

Set $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ the redshift along the path $`\mathrm{\Delta }L`$, which would result from a complete Lyman $`\alpha `$ absorption of the intensity $`I`$ , and suppose that, in a first approximation, the whole redshift results from the Lyman $`\alpha `$ absorption.

\- case a: If $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ is larger than the Lyman $`\alpha `$ linewidth $`\delta \nu `$ , that is if $`I`$ is large enough, $`I`$ is not fully absorbed, only the constant intensity $`\mathrm{\Delta }I`$ which produces the redshift $`\delta \nu `$ is subtracted from $`I`$, that is from the spectrum while, by redshifting, the Lyman line crosses it. Thus, the contrast of lines which have been written into the spectrum is increased.

\- case b: If, on the contrary, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ is lower than $`\delta \nu `$, the first approximation fails, a part of the redshift must result from other Lyman absorptions or other active atoms. Assuming a low redshifting power for these effects, a long path $`\mathrm{\Delta }L`$ is necessary to get the redshift $`\delta \nu `$, so that the absorption of all lines is strong.

If the intensity $`I`$ is constant and high, except for a single absorption line, the redshift and the absorption are constant (case a), except at a coincidence of the line with a Lyman line; at this coincidence, the redshifting power decreases (strongly if case b is reached), so that the absorption of all lines of the gas is increased; similarly, a written emission line increases the redshifting power, so that the decrease of absorption appears as an emission; the coincidence by redshift of a line already written in the spectrum with a Lyman line writes the whole spectral pattern of the gas into the spectrum.

## 4 Building the periodic redshifts.

Suppose that a single Lyman pattern is written in the spectrum. The coincidence of the written, redshifted Lyman $`\beta `$ (resp. Lyman $`\gamma `$) line with the Lyman $`\alpha `$ line of the gas writes the Lyman pattern into the spectrum of the light. Both patterns differ by the shift of frequencies $`\nu _{(\beta \mathrm{resp}.\gamma )}\nu _\alpha `$ of the $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ (resp. $`\gamma `$) lines. As in the standard computations the lines are considered as Lyman $`\alpha `$, the frequency shift is relative to the Lyman $`\alpha `$ frequency:

$$\begin{array}{c}z_{(\beta \mathrm{resp}.\gamma ),\alpha }=\frac{\nu _{(\beta \mathrm{resp}.\gamma )}\nu _\alpha }{\nu _\alpha }\hfill \\ \frac{11/(3^2\mathrm{resp}\mathrm{.\hspace{0.17em}4}^2)(11/2^2)}{11/2^2}\hfill \end{array}$$
(1)
$$\begin{array}{c}z_{(\beta ,\alpha )}5/270.185230.0617;\hfill \\ z_{(\gamma ,\alpha )}=1/4=0.25=40.0625.\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
Similarly $`z_{(\gamma ,\beta )}7/1080.065.`$ The redshifts appear, with a good approximation as the products of $`z_b=0.062`$ by an integer $`q`$.

The intensities of the Lyman lines are decreasing functions of the final principal quantum number $`n`$, so that the inscription of a pattern is better for $`q=3`$ than for $`q=4`$ and a fortiori for $`q=1`$.

Iterating, the coincidences of the shifted line frequencies with the Lyman $`\beta `$ or $`\alpha `$ frequencies build a tree, final values of $`q`$ being sums of the basic values 4, 3 and 1. Each step being characterised by the value of q, a generation of successive lines is characterised by successive values of $`q:q_1,q_2\mathrm{}`$ As the final redshift is $`q_Fz_b=(q_1+q_2+\mathrm{})z_b`$, the addition $`q_F=q_1+q_2+\mathrm{}`$ is both a symbolic representation of the successive elementary processes, and the result of these processes.

The name “tree” is not very good because ’branches’ of the tree may be ’stacked’ by coincidences of frequencies. A remarkable coincidence happens for $`q=10`$, this number being obtained by the effective coincidences deduced from:

$$10=3+3+4=3+4+3=4+3+3=3+3+3+1=\mathrm{}$$
(3)
$`q=10`$ is so remarkable that $`z_f=10z_b=0.62`$ may seem experimentally a value of $`z`$ more fundamental than $`z_b`$.

In these computations, the levels for a value of the principal quantum number $`n`$ larger than 4 are neglected by assuming that the corresponding transitions are too weak.

## 5 The model of quasar.

The accretion of hydrogen produces a high energy, thus a high temperature at, and close to the surface of the quasar. As this region is not a black body, the intensities of the emission lines is larger than the background intensities.

Close to the quasar, the atomic hydrogen if fully ionised, it does not produce redshifts, metal lines may be relatively sharp.

The broad lines:

If the star emits a strong electromagnetic field (radio-loud quasars) the ions are accelerated, so that the temperature remains high over a large distance, the hydrogen remains ionised until a pressure of an order of magnitude of a Pascal increases the collisional time enough to break the heating and ionising process.

If the star is radio-quiet, some neutral hydrogen remains at pressures larger than a Pascal: Lyman emission, then absorption lines appear. These lines are saturated, thus broad; their intensity corresponds, in a large part of their width, to an equilibrium of the temperatures of the gas and of the light. The existence of excited neutral atoms induces the redshift process described previously.

The “proximity effect”:

Between the emission and absorption regions, the gas has approximately the temperature of the light, so that no lines are written; however some atoms are excited, so that there is a region without visible lines over a redshift of the order of z=0.5: it is the proximity effect (Rauch ).

The Lyman forest and the “dust”:

The Lyman forest corresponds to the process described in section 4. If the redshift of the emission lines is large, a lot of energy is transferred to the thermal radiation; it seems that this thermal radiation is produced by hot dust.

The high redshifts:

The “intrinsic redshift”produced by the cloud which surrounds the quasar is much larger than the remaining redshift for which Hubble’s law is valuable; thus the quasar is not very far, it may be simply a neutron star.

Treves and Colpi  predicted the existence of a number of observable accretor isolated neutron stars which were never observed (Popov et al ). They are probably observed, but named quasars.

## 6 Conclusion.

The present computation is a quantitative explanation of the frequencies observed in the spectra of the quasars. Showing that the distance of the quasars is not extremely large, the quasars may be the missing accretor isolated neutron stars. The computation requires only elementary physics, no unknown matter. It should be improved by an evaluation of the intensities.

The CREIL appears as a key in the study of the quasars. It should probably be helpful for other studies: for instance, some astrophysicists think that the dark matter needed to get the gravitational stability could be simply molecular hydrogen; with this hypothesis, it exists, by UV ionisation, some H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$ which, by collisions with H2, generates H3 and H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{3}{}^{}`$; the hyperfine structures of H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$, H$`{}_{2}{}^{}D_{}^{+}`$ and H$`{}_{2}{}^{}D`$, the Rydberg levels of H3 provide quadrupolar resonances in the megahertz range, therefore a contribution of the CREIL not only to the “intrinsic”redshifts, but to the “cosmological”redshifts. A convenient, constant density of excited hydrogen in the intergalactic space gives Hubble’s law, without expansion of the Universe.

## 7 acknowledgements.

I thank very much Jerry Jensen who improved and corrected the manuscript, and Iain. R. McNab for a discussion on the allotropes of hydrogen.


text:
# RR Lyrae variables in globular clusters and nearby galaxies

## 1. Introduction

Unmistakably old, with ages comparable to the age of the Universe, RR Lyrae (RRL) stars are an easily identified type of variable star which were clearly “eyewitnesses” of the formation of their parent galaxy. Therefore, they may provide precious information about the processes that led to the formation of galaxies in general, and of our own Milky Way and its system of satellite galaxies in particular. In this review, I discuss how the RRL star properties may constrain the possibility that the Galactic halo may have been built up from protogalactic fragments similar to the Galaxy’s dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellites. The RRL star period-luminosity (PL) relation is also presented, and open problems in the area are briefly discussed.

## 2. RR Lyrae stars and the formation of the Galaxy

Unavane, Wyse, & Gilmore (1996) have attempted to place strong constraints on the number of dSph galaxies that may have contributed to the formation of the Galactic halo by studying its well-defined turnoff color. Finding very few stars bluer than the turnoff point in the halo field, but plenty in dSphs (see also Aparicio, these proceedings), they concluded that only a small fraction of the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dSph-like protogalactic fragments.

However, this argument is limited in its scope: the young blue stars we see today were not present when the bulk of the halo formed. Accordingly, their argument only provides us with information about the relatively recent history of the halo. To put meaningful constraints on the extent to which the bulk of the halo may have formed by the accretion of “protogalactic fragments” or “building blocks” resembling the present-day dSphs (Searle & Zinn 1978; Zinn 1993), we should really “summon” the right witnesses, i.e. those stars which saw it all happen, and survived to this day to tell us the whole truth about the matter.

RRL stars are ideal for this purpose. If the Galactic halo was built up from dSph-like fragments, the halo RRL stars must logically reflect the properties of the dSph RRL stars. In what follows, I shall try to provide hints on whether this is the case or not by tackling globular cluster (GC) and field RRL stars in turn.

One of the most interesting properties of RRL stars in Galactic GCs is the so-called Oosterhoff dichotomy (Oosterhoff 1939). In Fig. 1 (left), I show the distribution of the mean periods of ab-type RRL stars, for GCs containing at least 10 RRL stars. As has long been known, Galactic GCs tend to clump around two main regions in this diagram, one with $`0.52<P_{\mathrm{ab}}(\mathrm{d})<0.58`$ and $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]>1.65`$ (OoI group), and the other with $`0.62<P_{\mathrm{ab}}(\mathrm{d})<0.66`$ and $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]<1.6`$ (OoII group). The period range in between 0.58 d and 0.62 d, the “Oosterhoff gap,” is avoided by Galactic GCs.111 The two GCs that are found inside the “gap,” M75 and Ruprecht 106, are both peculiar in their own right: M75 has a trimodal horizontal branch (HB) (Corwin et al. 2003), whereas Rup 106 is a “young” red HB GC with $`[\alpha /\mathrm{Fe}]0`$. Rup 106’s RRL stars all clump around the instability strip red edge (Kaluzny, Krzeminski, & Mazur 1995), so that its long $`P_{\mathrm{ab}}`$ is clearly due to a peculiar distribution of RRL star temperatures. This is supported by the fact that all its 13 known RRL stars are RRab stars.

As indicated, a third Oosterhoff group has recently been identified (Pritzl et al. 2000), with even longer $`P_{\mathrm{ab}}`$ than OoII GCs, but even more metal-rich than OoI GCs. Due to the predominance of red HB stars in OoIII GCs, their specific frequency of RRL stars is probably systematically lower than in groups OoI or OoII. In this sense, possible OoIII GCs may also include Terzan 5 (Edmonds et al. 2001), 47 Tucanae (Carney, Storm, & Williams 1993), and (less likely) NGC 6304 (Valenti, Bellazzini, & Cacciari 2003), with a single (long-$`P`$) RRab star each, which however all have consistently longer periods than field RRL stars with similar \[Fe/H\].

While the existence of the Oosterhoff dichotomy among Galactic GCs has been generally appreciated, the same cannot be said with respect to its occurrence among field stars, which was demonstrated by Suntzeff, Kinman, & Kraft (1991, SKK91). Fig. 1 (right) is based on SKK91’s Fig. 8b, clearly showing that the two Oosterhoff groups can be identified among individual field halo stars, over the galactocentric distance range 4 $`<R_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ (kpc) $`<`$ 30. (The smaller dots in this diagram refer to RRL stars with variable or ill-determined amplitudes.)

Galaxies in the immediate vicinity of the Milky Way show a very different picture. LMC GCs are well known to preferentially occupy the Oosterhoff gap region shown in Fig. 1 (Bono, Caputo, & Stellingwerf 1994). This immediately rules out the possibility that any building blocks of the Milky Way may have resembled the LMC some 12 Gyr ago (or else the Oosterhoff dichotomy would not exist). Mackey & Gilmore (2003) have recently argued that the Fornax dSph GCs too are Oosterhoff-intermediate. Cacciari, Bellazzini, & Colucci (2002) have found that M54 (in the Sagittarius dSph) is Oosterhoff-intermediate as well. (In terms of Fig. 1, which does not use any of their data, M54 is one of the GCs barely intersecting the Oosterhoff-gap band at $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]1.6`$.) Other Sagittarius dSph GCs may include Arp 2, Terzan 7, Terzan 8 (Da Costa & Armandroff 1995), Palomar 12 (Dinescu et al. 2000), and NGC 5634 (Bellazzini, Ferraro, & Ibata 2002), none of which have a sufficient number of known RRL stars for an Oosterhoff type determination. An (unbound) star cluster has been suggested to be present in the Ursa Minor dSph (Kleyna et al. 2003), though I am personally unaware of any attempt to specifically study any RRL stars that may be associated with this structure.

The Oosterhoff status of dSphs is summarized in Table 1, which provides an update over Mateo (1996) and Pritzl et al. (2002a), based on work by Cseresnjes (2001), Clementini (these proceedings), Dall’Ora et al. (2003), Kinemuchi & Smith (private communication), and Siegel & Majewski (2000). Clearly, Galactic dSphs are predominantly Oosterhoff-intermediate (as is And VI in M31; Pritzl et al. 2002a). However, it is important that the Oosterhoff type of a dSph be firmly based on the properties of their individual RRL stars, using diagrams similar to Fig. 1 (right), and not solely on $`P_{\mathrm{ab}}`$ (Mateo, Fischer, & Krzeminski 1995; Siegel & Majewski 2000; Pritzl et al. 2002a). The reason why this is important is that a mix of OoI and OoII populations could easily lead to a $`P_{\mathrm{ab}}`$ value in the Oosterhoff-intermediate range. For instance, taking all the Galactic GCs, one finds $`P_{\mathrm{ab}}=0.585`$ d (Clement et al. 2001), which would make the Galaxy an Oosterhoff-intermediate entity – which it obviously is not! Still, the current evidence, for the dSphs for which adequate data for individual RRL stars is available, does seem to support their Oosterhoff-intermediate classification.

This, then, would seem to leave little room for identifying the present-day dSph galaxies as Searle-Zinn “building blocks.” While we do see evidence of ongoing mergers between some dSphs and the Galaxy (e.g., Ibata, Gilmore, & Irwin 1995; Majewski et al. 2000; Palma et al. 2003), the Oosterhoff argument suggests that these must not have provided a major contribution to the stellar content of the halo. A similar conclusion follows from a comparison between the detailed abundance ratios in metal-poor dSph and halo stars (e.g., Shetrone et al. 2003).

To close, we note that Vivas & Zinn (2002) have recently claimed, based on preliminary quest results, that the Oosterhoff dichotomy is not present among halo field stars, in sharp contrast with SKK91. The reason for the discrepancy between the two studies is unclear at present.

## 3. The RR Lyrae Period-Luminosity relation

While the existence of an RRL PL relation in $`K`$ has long been recognized (Longmore, Fernley, & Jameson 1986), a systematic analysis of RRL PL relations in other bandpasses has not been carried out to date. Using bandpasses in which the HB is not quite “horizontal” at the RRL level, one expects that a PL relation should be present. This is the case, in particular, in $`I`$, $`J`$, $`H`$, $`K`$. The predicted existence of a PL relation in $`I`$ is particularly interesting, in view of the wider availability and ease of $`I`$-band observations.

In Fig. 2, I show theoretically calibrated PL relations in $`I`$, $`J`$, $`H`$, $`K`$, with individual rows showing the run of zero point (left panels) and slope (right panels) of the $`M_X=f(\mathrm{log}P)`$ relation for each of these filters as a function of HB type, as given by the Lee-Zinn parameter ($`B`$$`R`$)/($`B`$+$`V`$+$`R`$). Synthetic HBs were used in order to take into account evolutionary effects. Each data point represents the average over 100 HB simulations with 500 stars each, slopes and zero points having been obtained from the Isobe et al. (1990) “OLS bisector” technique. The synthetic HBs were computed as in Catelan (2004), with the addition of bolometric corrections for $`J`$, $`H`$, $`K`$ from Girardi et al. (2002). As the plots show, all bands present some dependence on both metallicity and HB type, though some of the effects are more prominent in $`I`$ and $`J`$. For the $`I`$ band, the relations can be well fit by third-order polynomials, as follows:

$$M_I=a+b\mathrm{log}P,\mathrm{with}a=\underset{i=0}{\overset{3}{}}a_i\left(\frac{BR}{B+V+R}\right)^i,b=\underset{i=0}{\overset{3}{}}b_i\left(\frac{BR}{B+V+R}\right)^i.$$

The $`a_i`$, $`b_i`$ coefficients are provided in Table 2. Full details, along with an analysis of systematic effects, will be provided elsewhere (Catelan, Pritzl, & Smith, in preparation).

The comparison between these model predictions and the observations is limited by the lack of extensive datasets for GCs in the redder passbands. However, in Fig. 3 I show the PL relations in $`I`$ for a metal-poor (M92, data from Kopacki 2001) and a metal-intermediate GC (IC 4499, data from Walker & Nemec 1996). The RRc and candidate RRe (i.e., second-overtone) stars were “fundamentalized” in the same way, by adding 0.128 to their log-periods. The linear regressions were carried out using the Isobe et al. (1990) OLS bisector method. In the case of IC 4499, two RRc outliers (one of which is off scale) were not considered in the fits. There is good agreement between the empirical slopes and the theoretical calibration in Fig. 2. Note also that the candidate RRe stars fall nicely along the locus defined by the RRab and RRcd stars in these plots, even though the procedure to fundamentalize their periods is strictly applicable only to the RRc stars. This may point to the possibility that they may simply be the short-period tail of the RRc class.

## 4. Fourier decomposition woes?

Fourier decomposition of RRL light curves may directly provide some of their physical parameters. In particular, calibrations for $`M`$ and $`L`$ based on hydrodynamic models for first-overtone pulsators (Simon & Clement 1993) have been widely employed in the recent literature. These read as follows:

$`\mathrm{log}L=1.04\mathrm{log}P0.058\varphi _{31}+2.41`$,

$`\mathrm{log}M=0.52\mathrm{log}P0.11\varphi _{31}+0.39`$,

where $`\varphi _{31}=\varphi _33\varphi _1`$. Combining the two equations and rearranging, one finds:

$`\mathrm{log}P=2.877+1.305\mathrm{log}L0.688\mathrm{log}M`$.

Clearly, there is a serious problem with this relation: it lacks a temperature term, which we know, from the period–mean density relation, should be present. The solution to this conundrum is unclear, but I suggest that the above relations for $`L`$ and $`M`$ cannot (both) be (simultaneously) valid.

## 5. Epilogue: some important open problems

Important open problems in the study of RRL stars that should be kept in mind when analyzing the RRL data for GCs and nearby galaxies include the following:

* How universal are local calibrations of the $`M_V^{\mathrm{RR}}[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ relation? Since we know, through Ritter’s relation, that the $`M_V^{\mathrm{RR}}[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ relation is reflected upon the periods of RRL stars, one should make sure to check that the same $`P[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ progression (e.g., Fig. 1) as in the calibrating sample is present in populations to which the relation is applied, which may easily not be the case if the underlying HB type–\[Fe/H\] trend is different. In addition, are “second parameters” at play in other galaxies (having, for instance, a different chemical enrichment history, or formed from faster rotating clouds of gas) that may directly change the HB luminosity with respect to the calibrating samples?
* What causes the “peaked” period distribution in M3 and other GCs (Rood & Crocker 1989; Catelan 2004)? Does HB evolution “slow down” when RRL stars are about to change pulsation mode? Does the Blazhko effect play a role?
* What is the evolutionary status of RRL stars in OoII GCs? We still seem unable to account for the observed number of RRL stars in these GCs if they are evolved away from a position on the blue zero-age HB (Pritzl et al. 2002b).
* Why do OoIII GC RRL stars have such dramatically long periods for their parent cluster metallicities, in sharp contrast with field RRL stars of similar \[Fe/H\]?
* Why have $`\omega `$ Cen, NGC 6388, and NGC 6441 succeeded in producing several long-period RRc stars ($`P_\mathrm{c}>0.45`$ d), while similar stars are entirely lacking in other GCs (with the exception of V70 in M3)?222 The intriguingly large number of long-period RRc stars in Fornax dSph GCs 1 and 3 is likely to be an artifact of the poor phase coverage in the Mackey & Gilmore (2003) HST study. Support for this conclusion is provided by the fact that long-period RRc stars were not found in more extensive ground-based variability surveys (Maio et al. 2003; Clementini, private communication). The fact that M3–V70 is peculiarly bright (Corwin & Carney 2001) suggests that the above three clusters all have peculiarly bright HBs, which is also consistent with the location of long-period RRc stars in the theoretical period-amplitude diagrams (Bono et al. 1997).

### Acknowledgments.

I thank H.A. Smith, B.J. Pritzl, G. Clementini, A.V. Sweigart, J. Borissova, T.M. Corwin, N.B. Suntzeff, and R.T. Rood for their comments and for interesting discussions over the course of the past several years. This work was supported by Proyecto FONDECYT Regular No. 1030954.

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## Discussion

Dambis: Does the period-luminosity relation depend on population in the same way as the metallicity-$`M_V`$ relation?

Catelan: If you compare the results that I showed for IC 4499, NGC 6441, M68, and M92, you are led to conclude that, from an empirical perspective, the population dependence is relatively small. The detailed effect depends on the bandpass though.

Comment by G. Bono: The $`K`$-band PL relation when compared with the $`I`$-band PL relation presents 3 main advantages: 1) smaller dependence on reddening corrections; 2) smaller dependence on evolutionary effects; 3) smaller dependence on metal content.

Catelan: Indeed, I did not mean to imply that the PL relation in $`K`$ is not good; rather, I wanted to emphasize that we do not necessarily need to go to $`K`$ to have a PL relation which is also good. It is often the case that $`I`$-band data are more readily available to the observers, which I encourage to be used with our proposed PL relation in $`I`$. Another disadvantage of the $`I`$-band relation, compared to the $`K`$-band relation, is the former’s stronger dependence on reddening effects.

McNamara: In NGC 6388 I find that the RR Lyrae stars are fainter than RR Lyrae stars in clusters that contain Oosterhoff II RR Lyrae stars, contrary to your conclusions.

Catelan: I believe that your result is based on a single SX Phoenicis star that we found in the cluster, so that small-number statistics may be at play. Also, given the long mean periods that we find for this cluster’s RR Lyrae stars, low luminosities would imply unrealistically low masses. Last, but not least, the Fourier decomposition parameters for RRab stars give luminosities comparable to those in OoII systems.

Jurcsik: What would you say is the cause of the Oosterhoff dichotomy?

Catelan: Let me first say what the traditional answer to this question has been. It is believed that there is a region of the instability strip where the RR Lyrae stars may pulsate either in the fundamental or in the first overtone mode – the so-called “either-or” zone. Back in 1973, van Albada & Baker suggested that the actual pulsation mode, in this area, is defined by a star’s evolutionary history. Hence it was suggested that in OoII globulars, where HB stars may cross the instability strip while on their final redward excursion to the AGB, the “either-or” region will be populated by RRc stars. In OoI globulars, in turn, blueward-evolving RR Lyrae stars will also be present, at an earlier (i.e., slower) evolutionary stage – so that the “either-or” zone will be primarily populated by RRab stars. The lack of globulars in between the two groups, as suggested by Castellani and by Renzini in the early-80s, would simply be due to the fact that, in the relevant metallicity range, Galactic globulars somehow develop exclusively blue HBs, without RR Lyrae variables being present in significant numbers. There are a few problems with this global scenario: i) A large overlap in color between RRc and RRab pulsators is expected in OoI globulars, but none is observed, at least in M3; ii) It is difficult to produce redward-evolving RR Lyrae stars in significant numbers in OoII GCs; iii) Sharp peaks in the period distributions, not predicted by the evolutionary or pulsation models, may be responsible, at least in part, for the Oosterhoff types. Until we are able to explain these open problems, I would say we do not completely understand the Oosterhoff dichotomy.

Cassisi: Since the evolutionary rates of HB models strongly depend on the efficiency of mixing processes in the convective core, have you performed any tests in order to verify the effects of different assumptions for mixing efficiency on period distributions predicted by HB models?

Catelan: No, I have not, but I strongly encourage people computing HB evolutionary tracks to perform such tests. This may be particularly important in connection with the failure of canonical models to produce enough RR Lyrae stars evolved away from a position on the blue ZAHB for OoII globular clusters such as M68 and M15.