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# Space-geometric interpretation of standard model fermions

## 1. Introduction

There is a surprisingly large number of ocurrences of the number three in the standard model: Three colors, three fermion generations, $`2^3`$ fermions in each generation, $`2^3`$ components of a single Dirac fermion. The main idea of our approach is to associate these occurrences of three with the three spatial dimensions.

This idea is in obvious conflict with the relativistic unification of space and time into an indivisible four-dimensional spacetime manifold. But even in the context of general relativity the four-dimensional spacetime interpretation is not the only possible interpretation of the gravitational field. An alternative geometric interpretation of the gravitational field is known as ADM decomposition , sometimes also called geometrodynamics. It depends on a folitation of spacetime $`M^4M^3\times `$ defined by a time coordinate $`t`$. For a given foliation, the four-dimensional spacetime metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ decomposes into three three-dimensional objects: A positive-definite spatial metric, a three-dimensional vector field, and a positive scalar field. This decomposition is widely used in the canonical quantum gravity program. From point of view of the relativistic spacetime concept it is acknowledged only as an intermediate technical tool, which allows to define a Hamilton formalism for general relativity — a prerequisite of the canonical quantization program. The widely expressed hope is that after successful quantization the resulting theory no longer depends on this non-relativistic tool.

The author of this paper, instead, believes that this three-dimensional geometric interpretation is more fundamental than the spacetime interpretation. In this case, there should be a similar three-dimensional geometric interpretation for matter fields too. The general property of this type of interpretation is that all geometric objects are three-dimensional. For a given ADM decomposition $`M^4M^3\times `$ they should be objects on the spatial manifold $`M^3`$. The time $`t`$ is only a parameter of dynamics without any geometric interpretation. This type of geometric interpretation we will call here space-geometric.

Our space-geometric interpretation of standard model fermions is based on a space-geometric interpretation of a single fermion as a section of the exterior bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^3)`$. The four-dimensional Dirac equation becomes an evolution equation on this bundle. An equivalent interpretation has been independently found by Daviau . It is not the purpose of this paper to give an overview of the research for geometric interpretations of fermions, which can be found, for example, in . But it seems necessary to discuss the relation between standard spinors and space-geometric fermions in detail. We show that our space-geometric interpretation of fermions is equivalent to standard theory in the Minkowski case. But it gives a different connection between fermions and the gravitational field which is in principle observable in a graviational analogon of Bohm-Aharonov experiments.

Then we propose to interpret all standard model fermions as sections of the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(M^3)`$. Here we identify the three generations of fermions with a vector index and the octet of fermions of one generation with another factor $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$. This gives not only the correct number of eight fermions, but also a graduation $`(1,3,3,1)`$ by the degree of a differential form — as necessary to describe two leptons and two quark flavours with three colors for each quark. The actions of gauge fields on the octet are in a natural way associated with geometric operators.

## 2. Space-geometric representation of spinors

The classical Dirac algebra is defined by the operators $`\gamma ^i`$ with commutation relations $`\{\gamma ^i,\gamma ^j\}=\eta ^{ij}`$ — the Clifford algebra $`Cl(1,3)`$. But there are also some other operators which play an important role in the standard model: The complex structure, which is defined by the operator $`i`$, and a real structure defined by the operator $`C`$, which is necessary to define Majorana mass terms. The commutation relations of this “extended Dirac algebra” $`\{\gamma ^\mu ,i,C\}`$ are: $`\{\gamma ^\mu ,\gamma ^\nu \}=2\eta ^{\mu \nu }`$, $`[i,\gamma ^\mu ]=0`$, $`[C,\gamma ^\mu ]=0`$, $`\{C,i\}=0`$, $`C^2=1`$, $`i^2=1`$.

The three-dimensional or space-geometric representation of spinors is based on the following isomorphism:

###### Theorem 1.

The “extended Dirac algebra” $`\{\gamma ^\mu ,i,C\}`$ is isomorph to the Clifford algebra $`Cl(3,3)`$. The Clifford algebra generators are the $`\gamma ^i`$ for $`i>0`$ and the three operators $`\beta ^i`$ defined by

$`\beta ^1`$ $`=`$ $`C,`$
$`\beta ^2`$ $`=`$ $`Ci,`$
$`\beta ^3`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma ^5=i\gamma ^0\gamma ^1\gamma ^2\gamma ^3.`$
Proof: An explicit check proves that the operators $`\gamma ^i,\beta ^i`$ fulfil the properties required for the generators of $`Cl(3,3)`$ (they anticommute, $`(\beta ^i)^2=(\gamma ^i)^2=1`$). We have already expressed the generators of $`Cl(3,3)`$ in terms of the extended Dirac algebra $`\{\gamma ^\mu ,i,C\}`$. The reverse expressions can be easily found:

(1) $`C`$ $`=`$ $`\beta ^1`$
(2) $`i`$ $`=`$ $`\beta ^1\beta ^2`$
(3) $`\gamma ^0`$ $`=`$ $`\beta ^1\gamma ^1\beta ^2\gamma ^2\beta ^3\gamma ^3`$
It remains to prove that there are no other relations in $`\{\gamma ^\mu ,i,C\}`$. This can be done by an explicit computation of the dimension of the extended Dirac algebra. We have six generators $`\{\gamma ^\mu ,i,C\}`$, for each pair of generators we have one commutation resp. anticommutation rule, the square of all generators is $`\pm 1`$, and there are no other independent relations. Therefore an arbitrary monom may be transformed into a monom where every generator appears at most once. There are $`2^6`$ such monoms, which gives the dimension of $`Cl(3,3)`$. qed.

The Clifford algebra $`Cl(3,3)`$ acts in a natural way on the three-dimensional Clifford bundle $`Cl(^3)`$. This bundle is equivalent to the exterior bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$ which consists of inhomogeneous differential forms $`\phi =\phi _\kappa (x)(dx^1)^{\kappa _1}(dx^2)^{\kappa _2}(dx^3)^{\kappa _3}`$, $`\kappa =(\kappa _1,\kappa _2,\kappa _3)(_2)^3`$. The operators $`\gamma ^i`$ act as in standard Hodge theory and define the Hodge theory Dirac operator

(4)
$$D_3=i\gamma ^i_i$$

(see, for example, ). The action of the operators $`\beta ^i`$ follows from the following formula:

(5)
$$(\beta ^i\gamma ^i\phi )_\kappa (x)=(1)^{\kappa _i}\phi _\kappa (x)$$

It is not hard to see the following:

###### Theorem 2.

The representation of the extended Dirac algebra $`\{\gamma ^\mu ,i,C\}`$ on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$ defined by (4), (5) and theorem 1 is equivalent to the standard representation.

Theorem 1 gives now the following four-dimensional Dirac operator:

(6)
$$D_4=i\gamma ^0_0+D_3$$

The definition of the Lagrange formalism simplifies if we use the following variant of the Dirac operator:

(7)
$$D=i\gamma ^1\gamma ^2\gamma ^3D_4=\iota _t+\iota \alpha ^i_i$$

where $`\iota =\beta ^1\beta ^2\beta ^3`$, $`\iota ^2=1`$, $`\{\iota ,\gamma ^i\}=0`$, $`[\iota ,\alpha ^i]=0`$. The equivalence is obvious: $`D\phi =0`$ iff $`D_4\phi =0`$. Now we can use the standard Euclidean scalar product on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$ to define the Langrange formalism as

(8)
$$L=(\phi D\phi )$$

The Dirac operator considered here should not be mingled with the four-dimensional Dirac-Kähler operator defined on the spacetime bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^4)`$ which has real dimension 32. It defines an evolution equation on the spatial bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$ with real dimension 8. Time is only a parameter of dynamics and has no geometric interpretation. Manifest Lorentz invariance is lost. Only the equivalence theorem proves that Lorentz invariance will be recovered for observable effects.

This representation also violates manifest symmetry in space: The complex structure $`i=\beta ^1\beta ^2`$ as well as the operator $`\gamma ^5=\beta ^3`$ depend on a preferred direction in space. The introduction of three generations of fermions associated with the three spatial directions may be used to get rid of this asymmetry.

A similar ”space Clifford” representation of the Dirac equation has been considered by Daviau , see also .

### 2.1. Discussion of the differences between geometric fermions and standard spinors

In section 2 we have found the equivalence between the standard Dirac equation and our geometric representation of the Dirac equation as an evolution equation on the bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$. On the other hand, the action of the Lorentz group $`SO(1,3)`$ on fermions is completely different. Indeed, for the standard Dirac equation we have a spinor representation of the Lorentz group, defined by the generators

(9) $`\sigma _{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma ^i\gamma ^j`$
(10) $`\alpha ^i`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\iota ϵ_{ijk}\sigma _{jk}=\gamma ^0\gamma ^i.`$
Instead, any geometric interpretation uniquely defines a representation of $`SO(3)`$ which therefore cannot be a spinor representation. Any diffeomorphism of the underlying manifold uniquely defines the related transformation of any geometric (tensor) bundle. This holds also for the bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$ of our geometric interpretation. Indeed, the representation of the group of rotations $`SO(3)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$ is generated by

(11)
$$(\sigma ^{})_{ij}=\gamma ^i\gamma ^j\beta ^i\beta ^j$$

and gives a non-spinor representation of the group $`SO(3)`$. The extension to the Lorentz group $`SO(3,1)`$ can be obtained in analogy to (10):

(12)
$$(\alpha ^{})^i=\frac{1}{2}\iota ϵ_{ijk}(\sigma ^{})_{jk}.$$

There seems to be a contradiction: On one hand, the equivalence theorems 1, 2 seem to prove that there is no physical difference on the Minkowski background. On the other hand, we have different actions of the Lorentz group — and these actions are different already on the Minkowski background. It sounds strange that this difference should not have any physical consequences. Nonetheless, the following consideration shows that there is no contradiction:

First, it is important to remember that a complete, correct definition of a physical theory can be given in a single system of coordinates. Such a definition can have the form: “There exists such a system of coordinates $`X`$ so that $`\mathrm{}`$”. This particular system of coordinates allows to define everything — especially every observer. This holds for all physical theories — theories with preferred background or preferred frames as well as for covariant theories. For example, the Lorentz symmetry of the Maxwell equations has been found much later than the theory itself. Nonetheless, it would be nonsensical to claim that Maxwell’s definition of EM theory was incomplete. In a similar way, we do not need the Lorentz transformations to define Dirac theory completely.

What is, when, the role of Lorentz transformations? Such symmetry transformations allow us to prove that the system of coordinates used in this definition cannot be uniquely detected by observation. This is an interesting and important physical property, but in no way necessary for a correct definition of the theory. Now, if there are two versions of the action of the Lorentz group, above versions may be used to prove that the preferred frame remains unobservable. The result remains valid — the preferred frame unobservable — independent on metaphysical speculations which of the two versions defines the “true action” of the Lorentz group.

There is also another point which is worth to be discussed — the well-known spin-statistics theorem. According to this theorem, particles with half-integer spin should be quantized as fermions, particles with integer spin as bosons. Now, in standard theory particles with half-integer spin have spinor representations of the Lorentz group, and particles with integer spin have tensor representations. What about our geometric representation? Maybe because we have a tensor representation of the group of rotations, geometric fermions have to be quantized as bosons? In this case, geometric fermions would be ruled out. Fortunately, this does not happen. The properties used in the usual proofs of the spin-statistics theorem are operator properties, and these operator properties do not depend on the representation of the Lorentz group.

Nonetheless, there is a domain where the difference becomes important — gravity. The difference between the Minkowski case and a curved background is that in the Minkowski case we have no way to compare, by observation, an unrotated spinor field with a rotated one. Therefore we have no physical effects which depend on the action of the Lorentz group. Instead, let’s consider on a curved background an experiment of Bohm-Aharonov type. The connection defines a nontrivial element of $`SO(3,1)`$ for every a closed path. Then we have to use the representation of the Lorentz group to compute a related phase transformation for the inner space. This transformation gives nontrivial interference effects. Now, these observable interference effects already depend on the representation of the Lorentz group. Thus, a physical difference between spinor representations and geometric representations exists. But it becomes physical only on curved background, in the domain of semiclassical quantum gravity.

Possible ways to generalize the Dirac equation to curved background we consider below in sec. 4.

## 3. Geometric representation of the standard model fermions

Based on this equation for a single fermion we propose here a similar space-geometric interpretation for the whole fermionic part of the standard model: The bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$. Here the first vector index defines the generation, the second factor defines the eight fermions in a given generation, and the last factor defines the fermion itself.

In this interpretation we have not only left-handed but also right-handed neutrinos, in agreement with most modern versions of the standard model which handle massive neutrinos. The association of the exterior bundle with an octet seems quite natural: We have a nice identification of the colors of the quarks with directions in space. Electromagnetic charge may be associated with the degree of the related differential form, and the Hodge star operator connects pairs of fermions which are doublets of weak interaction.

### 3.1. Three generations allow an isotropic complex structure

The complex structure $`i=\beta ^1\beta ^2`$ on a single space-geometric fermion depends on a preferred direction in space. This holds as well for the whole octet $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$. But the introduction of a vector index for the three fermion generations allows to heal this asymmetry: It allows to define a direction-independent complex structure. The receipt is simple: On the fermion generation which is defined by spatial index $`i`$ we define the complex structure as $`i=\beta ^j\beta ^k`$, $`j=i+1\text{ mod }3,k=i+2\text{ mod }3`$.

Thus, if we introduce three generations of fermions, the complex structure becomes isotropic, we do not have to prefer a direction. The asymmetry in space for a single space-geometric fermion, initially a strong symmetry argument against space-geometric fermions, becomes now an advantage — it allows to explain the three generations of fermions which we observe in nature. Note that this symmetrization requires the association of the three fermion generation with directions in space — $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$ instead of $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })^3(^3)`$.

Of course, if we include mass terms into the considerations, isotropy in space has to be broken if we associate fermion generations with directions in space. But this seems unproblematic if we interpret, as usual, masses as a side effect of spontaneous symmetry breaking. A direction-dependent complex structure would be a much more serious, more fundamental violation of spatial symmetry.

### 3.2. Interaction terms with Standard Model gauge fields

Let’s consider now the question how the gauge field actions of the standard model may be defined in a natural way on the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(M^3)`$.

The Clifford algebra $`Cl(3,3)M_8()`$ acts on the “inner space” of degrees of freedom of a single bispinor as well as on the “octet space”. Let’s use the denotations $`\beta ^i,\gamma ^i`$ for the action on the inner space and $`\beta _i,\gamma _i`$ for the action on the octet space, and introduce the following special abbreviations: $`\gamma _0=\beta _1\gamma _1\beta _2\gamma _2\beta _3\gamma _3`$, $`\beta =\beta _1\beta _2\beta _3`$, $`\gamma =\gamma _1\gamma _2\gamma _3`$. Note that we already have defined the operators $`i=\beta ^1\beta ^2`$, $`\gamma ^5=\beta ^3`$ on the inner space. The resulting set of operators allows to define arbitrary gauge actions on the octet.

The interesting question is if the gauge actions which appear in the standard model are, in whatever sense, more natural than other possible types of gauge actions on the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$. In this case, our geometric model would have some explanatory power. Now, the standard model gauge actions are in very nice correspondence with natural actions on this bundle.

For example, for the actions of the photon $`\gamma _{EM}`$, the $`Y`$\- and the $`W`$-boson of electroweak theory such natural candidates are:

(13)
$$\gamma _{EM}=\frac{i}{6}\sigma \frac{i}{2}\gamma _0;Y=\frac{i}{6}\sigma \frac{i}{4}(1\gamma ^5)\gamma _0;$$

(14)
$$W_1=\frac{1}{2}(1+\gamma ^5)\beta ;W_2=\frac{i}{2}(1+\gamma ^5)\gamma ;W_3=\frac{i}{2}(1+\gamma ^5)\gamma _0.$$

with $`\sigma =\beta _1\gamma _1\beta _2\gamma _2+\beta _2\gamma _2\beta _3\gamma _3+\beta _3\gamma _3\beta _1\gamma _1`$. Electromagnetic charge would be associated with the degree of the form in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$. The operator $`\gamma `$ used to define $`W_2`$ is the well-known Hodge $``$ operator, $`\gamma _0`$ used to define $`W_3`$ defines the graduation in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(^3)`$. Strong interaction may be defined by the following rules:

* On the inner space, strong interaction is a vector gauge action;
* Strong interaction does not change the degree;
* All elements commute with $`\beta `$, $`\gamma `$ and $`\sigma `$.
* The center of the remaining algebra has to be excluded.

Note that because of the use of $`i`$ in these gauge actions they become spatially symmetric only if we consider all three generations, as discussed in sec 3.1.

Especially the subgroup $`SO(3)SU(3)`$ is associated with the group of rotations. This set of rules looks sufficiently simple. On the other hand, some properties remain unexplained, especially the chiral character of weak interaction.

## 4. Generalization to curved background

We have already noted that generalization to curved background gives different physical predictions for standard spinors (tetrad formalism) and geometric fermions, because of the different representations of the Lorentz group which are involved. Let’s consider now shortly some qualitative features of the generalization of the space-geometric interpretation to curved background.

To define an appropriate bundle which generalizes $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$ to curved background we need an ADM decomposition — a foliation of the spacetime manifold into space and time $`M^4M^3\times `$ defined by some global time coordinate $`t`$. This defines a decomposition of the four-dimensional spacetime metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ into three three-dimensional geometric objects — a positive scalar function $`\rho `$, a three-vector field $`v^i`$ and a positive definite three-metric $`\sigma ^{ij}`$ — in the following way:

$`g^{00}\sqrt{g}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho `$
(15) $`g^{0i}\sqrt{g}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho v^i`$
$`g^{ij}\sqrt{g}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho v^iv^j\sigma ^{ij}`$
On such a decomposition we have now a natural generalization of the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$ — the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(M^3)`$.

A more subtle question is if there exists a natural generalization of the Dirac operator on the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(M^3)`$. Here we may remember an idea proposed by Hestenes  — the identification of electroweak doublets with the pair of fermions described by the four-dimensional external bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^4)`$. This identification defines a natural Dirac-Kähler operator on these doublets. It remains to identify the exterior bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^4)`$ with the electroweak doublets which in our space-geometric interpretation are described as pairs of three-dimensional bundles $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^3)\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^3)`$ connected with each other via the Hodge star operator. In principle, the preferred time coordinate $`t`$ of the ADM decomposition allows to define a sufficiently natural decomposition $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^4)\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^3)\mathrm{\Lambda }(M^3)`$. The first subbundle may be defined as the image of exterior multiplication with $`dt`$, the second as its orthocomplement. Details have to be worked out by future research. It seems not unreasonable to guess that there may be other, more natural candidates for Dirac operators on the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(M^3)`$. But already now we can make some qualitative conclusions:

* We need an ADM decomposition as an additional structure to generalize the space-geometric interpretation to curved background;
* We do not need a tetrad or triad formalism;
* The generalization of the space-geometric interpretation to curved background leads to differences in the predictions in the domain of semiclassical quantum gravity in comparison with the classical tetrad approach. These differences are at least in principle observable.

## 5. Conclusion

We have proposed a geometric interpretation of standard model fermions as sections of the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$. This interpretation may be generalized to curved background in the context of an ADM decomposition $`M^4M^3\times `$ as the three-dimensional geometric bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(M^3)`$. Time appears only as a scalar parameter of dynamics, without geometric interpretation.

The interpretation associates the three colors as well as the three fermion generations with directions in space. As a consequence, we obtain different predictions in the domain of interaction with gravity — especially about phase factors in experiments of Bohm-Aharonov type with gravitational instead of electromagnetic fields.

We have defined the standard model gauge actions on the bundle $`(T\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda })(^3)`$. These actions are remarkably simple and natural — they depend on important geometric properties of and operators on the bundle, like the degree of a differential form, the Hodge $``$ operator, and the group of rotations.

The consideration of curved background suggests that we do not need a tetrad or triad formalism to describe fermions. This gives an interesting simplicity argument in favour of our interpretation. What we need is only a foliation of spacetime into space and time — a quite natural object in a world where space and time seem to be quite different.

## Appendix A Is the preferred frame hypothesis viable?

A space-geometric interpretation, almost by definition, depends on the choice of the frame or the time coordinate $`t`$. Even if there is no difference in the physical predictions, another choice of the frame leads to a different interpretation.

Thus, if the space-geometric interpretation describes some aspect of reality, there should be a preferred frame. In this context, it seems useful to discuss the viability of the preferred frame hypothesis. Nonetheless, two remarks are necessary: First, such a space-geometric representation may be useful as a technical tool even if there is no preferred frame in reality. Second, we should avoid circular thinking: The existence of a nice space-geometric interpretation of standard model fermions which we have presented here is a quite strong argument in favour of the preferred frame hypothesis, especially if there is no comparable spacetime interpretation. It would be nonsensical to reject the preferred frame hypothesis based on the old arguments, without taking this new interpretation into account, and then to reject this interpretation. Moreover, the interpretation presented here is new, and future research based on it can give additional support for the preferred frame hypothesis. This has to be taken into account if we start to compare here arguments in favour and against the preferred frame hypothesis.

The most powerful argument against a preferred frame seems to be the success of general relativity — a theory of gravity where many solutions do not allow a preferred frame. But in  the author has proposed an theory of gravity with preferred frame which generalizes the Lorentz ether. In this theory, the Einstein equivalence principle holds, and in some natural limit we obtain the Einstein equations of general relativity. Moreover, the EEP and the general Lagrangian of the theory are derived from sufficiently natural ether axioms. This removes empirical as well as important metaphysical arguments against a preferred frame.

On the other hand, there are important arguments in favour of a preferred frame. First, there is the violation of Bell’s inequality. It excludes Einstein-causal realistic hidden variable theories. Thus, or we have to give up realism, or we have to give up Einstein causality and to reintroduce a preferred frame for the realistic hidden variables. Then there is the well-known conflict with the principle of local conservation of energy and momentum in general relativity. Last not least, there are deep conflicts between relativity and quantum principles known as the “problem of time” and “information loss problem”.

If we evaluate the seriousness of these conflicts between relativity and other physical principles we should be very careful if we want to avoid circular reasoning. Indeed, these other principles have been questioned and rejected because they are in conflict with the relativistic paradigm — a very powerful argument against a particular physical principle, but invalid circular reasoning in the context of this discussion. A detailed consideration would have to evaluate if there is independent evidence against these other principles. The existence of theories with preferred frame which are compatible with these other principles can prove that there is no such independent evidence.

Such theories exist: There are hidden variable theories with preferred frame like Bohmian mechanics and Nelson’s stochastics. And there is the ether theory of gravity  which gives well-defined local energy and momentum densities for the gravitational field. Given this situation, we conclude that the preferred frame hypothesis is not only viable, but there are sufficiently strong arguments in its favour.

The space-geometric interpretation of standard model fermions is a new, strong argument in favour of a preferred frame. Now, the existence of geometric interpretations for the observable physical fields become an argument in favour of the preferred frame hypothesis: There is no comparable spacetime-geometric interpretation of the standard model. This is an important point, because the geometric intepretation of the gravitational field was one of the most powerful arguments in favour of relativity.


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# Active Galaxies With Double-Peaked Emission Lines and What They Imply About the “Broad-Line Region”

## 1. Introduction: Properties of Double-Peaked Emitters and Implications

Active galaxies with double-peaked emission lines (hereafter double-peaked emitters) make up a small fraction of nearby ($`z<0.4`$) AGNs. They are found in about 20% of the radio-loud AGNs surveyed by Eracleous & Halpern (1994,2003) and in about 4% of (radio-loud and radio-quiet) objects from the SDSS studied by Strateva et al. (2003; see also Strateva et al., this volume). Double-peaked emitters share a number of spectroscopic properties that set them apart from the average AGN and suggest a close relation to LINERs. These properties include: (a) unusually-strong low-ionization emission lines from the narrow-line region, (b) a large contribution of starlight to the optical continuum, and (c) Balmer lines that are, on average, a few times broader than those of other AGNs. The connection to LINERs is bolstered by the fact that a number of double-peaked emitters have Oxygen line ratios that satisfy the LINER definition and by the fact that a number of previously known LINERs were recently found to host double-peaked Balmer lines. About 40-50% of double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ profiles can be described quite well by the relativistic, circular, Keplerian disk model of Chen, Halpern, & Filippenko (1989) and Chen & Halpern (1989); two examples are shown in Figure 1. The remaining profiles require more sophisticated models, in which the disk is not axisymmetric (e.g., elliptical disks or disks with bright spots or spiral arms).

The properties of double-peaked emitters can be interpreted in the context of the scenario of Chen & Halpern (1989) who suggested that the inner accretion disk has the form of an ion torus (Rees et al. 1982; known today as a radiatively inefficient accretion flow). Such a vertically-extended structure can illuminate the geometrically thin, outer disk and power the emission of double-peaked lines; external illumination is needed because the line luminosity is too high to be powered by local viscous dissipation. The same scenario can also explain the other spectroscopic properties of disk-like emitters, since the spectral energy distribution of an ion torus lacks the UV bump that is a trademark of emission from an optically thick inner disk (see discussion in Eracleous & Halpern 1994, 2003). It is noteworthy that several alternatives to accretion disk emission have been proposed and discussed in the literature. However, accretion disk emission is the interpretation favored by the data available today (see Eracleous & Halpern 2003 for a description of alternative scenarios and their comparison with observations).

## 2. UV Spectra of Double-Peaked Emitters and the Disk-Wind Relation

The UV spectra of double-peaked emitters obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a dramatic difference between the profiles of the Balmer and UV lines. A good example of this difference is provided by Arp 102B (Halpern et al. 1996). The profiles of some of the strong optical and UV lines of Arp 102B are compared in the left panel of Figure 2. The Balmer and Mg ii lines of Arp 102B are double-peaked with $`\mathrm{FWHM}16,000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, while the far-UV lines (e.g., Ly$`\alpha `$, C iii\], C iv) are single peaked with bell-shaped profiles that have $`\mathrm{FWHM}3,500\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Moreover, once a disk model is subtracted from the double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ profile, the residual resembles the profiles of the UV lines. Figure 2 includes two more examples of double-peaked emitters displaying similar behavior: PKS 0921–213 and NGC 1097 (a nearby LINER). The far-UV lines of PKS 0921–213 are single-peaked and quite strong relative to the Balmer lines, resembling those of typical Seyfert galaxies. On the other hand, the far-UV lines of NGC 1097 are fairly weak in comparison to the Balmer lines and they include associated absorption troughs, which are slightly blueshifted. These absorption lines are another manifestation of a dense wind and they are particularly prominent in objects where the single-peaked far-UV lines are relatively weak or absent (see the discussion and illustrations in Eracleous, Halpern, & Charlton 2003 and Eracleous 2002).

The UV spectra of double-peaked emitters lead to a number of interesting conclusions and general insights into AGN broad-line regions as follows. There seem to be at least two line-emitting regions in the same object, one producing the double-peaked Balmer and Mg ii lines, and another producing the single-peaked far-UV lines. These regions can be plausibly identified with an accretion disk consisting of dense, low-ionization gas and an outflowing wind of higher-ionization gas. This interpretation is based on the results of Collin-Souffrin & Dumont (1989) and Murray & Chiang (1997), which show that a weakly-ionized accretion disk is a very inefficient source of the far-UV lines; such lines should be emitted from a wind, whose velocity structure and radiative transfer properties lead to single-peaked line profiles. This interpretation also suggests a way of connecting double-peaked emitters to the greater AGN population: double-peaked emitters are the segment of the population in which the Eddington ratio (the accretion rate relative to the Eddington rate, $`\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{Edd}`$) is very low. In this extreme the inner accretion disk turns into an ion torus and the wind diminishes, perhaps due to a combination of a lower mass loss rate and the harder spectral energy distribution of the ion torus, which lacks a UV bump and makes radiative acceleration by far-UV photons less effective (e.g., Murray et al. 1995; Proga, Stone, & Kallman 2000). Thus, the disk proper is the predominant source of low-ionization lines. Seyfert galaxies and quasars probably represent the opposite extreme of a high Eddington ratio, where the inner disk is geometrically thin, and the wind is the primary source of all broad emission lines. This scenario is illustrated in Figure 3.

## 3. Long-Term Variability of the Line Profiles and Dynamical and Thermal Phenomena in the Disk

Since double-peaked emission lines afford us a rare view of AGN accretion disks, the long-term variability of their profiles can be exploited to investigate dynamical and thermal phenomena in these disks. However, such investigations require patience and persistence because of the long time scales involved. The relevant time scales can be cast as:

light-crossing time: $`\tau _\mathrm{}cr/c6M_8\xi _3\mathrm{days};`$
dynamical time: $`\tau _{dyn}(r^3/GM_{})^{1/2}6M_8\xi _3^{3/2}\mathrm{months};`$
thermal time: $`\tau _{th}\tau _{dyn}/\alpha 5(\alpha /0.1)^1M_8\xi _3^{3/2}\mathrm{years};`$
sound-crossing time: $`\tau _sr/c_s70M_8\xi _3T_5^{1/2}\mathrm{years}.`$
In the above expressions, $`M_8`$ is the black hole mass in units of $`10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$, $`\xi _3`$ is the radial distance in the disk in units of $`10^3GM_{}/c^2`$, $`T_5`$ is the temperature in units of $`10^5`$ K, and $`\alpha `$ is the viscosity parameter of Shakura & Sunyaev (1973).

One must distinguish between variability of the emission-line flux due to reverberation of a variable continuum and variations of the emission-line profiles caused by changes in the structure of the line-emitting region. The former type of variation occurs on the light-crossing time and is not accompanied by significant profile variations, as shown by reverberation mapping of Seyfert galaxies (e.g., Ulrich et al. 1991; Wanders & Peterson 1996; Kassebaum et al. 1997) and of the double-peaked emitters 3C 390.3 and Arp 102B (Dietrich et al. 1998; Sergeev et al. 2002; Shapovalova et al. 2000; Sergeev, Pronik, & Sergeeva 2000). Significant changes in the line profiles occur on much longer time scales (on the order of the dynamical time, or longer), as shown by long-term monitoring of some of the brighter double-peaked emitters, such as Arp 102B, 3C 390.3, and 3C 332 (e.g., Newman et al. 1997; Zheng, Veilleux, & Grandi 1991; Gilbert et al. 1999).

A number of scenarios have been suggested and explored as explanations of the observed long-term variations of double-peaked line profiles. These scenarios are inspired by theoretical models for waves and other instabilities in the disks, which can be tested using the long-term behavior of the line profiles. The candidate scenarios include bright spots orbiting in the disk, precessing eccentric disks, disks with spiral waves, and even a binary broad-line region associated with a binary black hole. At this time, the spiral wave scenario appears to be the most promising: it has been successfully applied to 3C 390.3 and 3C 332 by Gilbert et al. (1999) and to NGC 1097 by Storchi-Bergmann et al. (2003). In the case of NGC 1097 this scenario not only explains the variability trend, but it also leads to an estimate of the precession period that is consistent with the black hole mass inferred from stellar kinematics (see the detailed discussion in Storchi-Bergmann et al. 2003).

Our group has been carrying out a long-term monitoring program of many double-peaked emitters over the past decade. Examples of our most recent results are presented in the paper by Lewis et al. in this volume. Our observational goals are to characterize the variability patterns, find out if these patterns recur, and if so on what time scale. The most obvious trend that we observe is a modulation of the relative heights of the two peaks on time scales of order 5–10 years. Using our long-term variability data, we have been able to reject the binary broad-line scenario for the origin of the double-peaked lines, based on the absence of radial velocity variations in the two peaks (Eracleous et al. 1997). This does not mean that we disfavor binary black holes as such; in fact binary black holes may be important ingredients in some of the currently viable scenarios (e.g., the elliptical disk scenario).

In parallel to the observational effort, we have been developing parametric descriptions of dynamical models and comparing them with observations (see, for example, Storchi-Bergmann et al. 2003). We have found that a detailed comparison of model line profiles with the data allows us to select a favorite model on the basis of the variability pattern and with the help of additional constraints, such as the black hole mass, which sets the variability time scale in the model. Since candidate models are falsifiable, we hope to make use of our data to identify a universal scenario, or narrow down the possibilities at the very least. This would represent substantial progress and could lead to insights on the mechanisms of angular momentum transport in the outer accretion disks of AGNs and the poorly understood causes of AGN variability.

### Acknowledgments.

I am grateful to Jules Halpern and Karen Lewis for their critical reading of the manuscript and for helpful comments and suggestions. Karen Lewis also prepared the original version of the cartoon shown in Figure 3.

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Chen, K. & Halpern, J. P. 1989, ApJ, 344, 115

Chen, K., Halpern, J. P., & Filippenko, A. V. 1989, ApJ, 339, 742

Collin-Souffrin, S., & Dumont, A. M. 1989, A&A, 213, 39

Eracleous, M. 2002, in Mass Outflow from Active Galactic Nuclei, New Perspectives, ASP Conf. Ser., 255, eds. D. M. Crenshaw et al. (San Francisco: ASP), 131

Eracleous, M. & Halpern, J. P. 1994, ApJS, 90, 1

Eracleous, M. et al. 1997, ApJ, 485, 570

Eracleous, M. & Halpern, J. P. 2003, ApJ, 599, in press (astro-ph/0309149)

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Gilbert, A. M. et al. 1999, in Structure and Kinematics of Quasar Broad Line Regions, ASP Conf. Ser., 175, eds. C. M. Gaskell, et al. (San Fransisco: ASP), 189

Halpern, J. P., et al. 1996, ApJ, 467, 704

Kassebaum, T. M., et al. 1997, ApJ, 475, 106

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Shakura, N. I., & Sunyaev, R. S. 1973. A&A, 24, 337

Shapovalova, A. I., et al. 2001, A&A, 376, 775

Storchi-Bergmann, T., et al. 2003, ApJ, 598, in press (astro-ph/0308327)

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Wanders, I. et al. 1995, ApJ, 453, L87

Zheng, W., Veilleux, S., & Grandi, S. A. 1991, ApJ, 381, 418


text:
# Imprints of neutron stars in the interstellar medium

## 1. Introduction and Observations

Several X-ray point sources with no radio counterpart, generically called CCOs, have recently been detected near the center of SNRs. In most cases, these sources are claimed to be the neutron stars (NSs) left behind after the supernova explosions. One of them, 1E 1207.4-5209, was found to lie at the center of an H i depression (Giacani et al. 2000), raising the question of whether the hot atmosphere of the NS is capable of heating up the neighboring gas and producing the observed depression. We present the results of a search for similar traces in the interstellar gas towards a sample of CCOs in southern SNRs.

The environs of the CCOs RX J0822–4300 in Puppis A, 1E 161348–5055 in RCW 103, CXOU J08521.4–461753 in Vela Jr and 1 WGA J1713.4–3949 in G347.3–0.5 were observed in the $`\lambda 21`$ cm H i line and in continuum using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The data were combined with single dish data from the Parkes telescope (McClure-Griffiths et al. 2001).

## 2. Results and Discussion

RX J0822–4300, the CCO in Puppis A, was found to lie between two opposite lobe-like H i minima (Reynoso et al. 2003a). The lobes are aligned with the proper motion of the CCO, assuming that the explosion site of the supernova is given by the optical expansion center measured by Winkler et al. (1988). The lobes are centered at the same systemic velocity previously measured for Puppis A, +16 km s-1. Reynoso et al. (2003a) propose that this H i structure is created by the ejection of two opposite jets from the CCO. More X-ray observations towards RX J0822–4300 are needed to search for jets (like in Vela or the Crab pulsar) and measure the CCO’s proper motion.

At +3 km s-1, the H i shows another depression coincident with RX J0822–4300, but in this case the morphology and size are similar to the minimum found by Giacani et al. (2000) around the CCO associated with G296.5+10.0. RCW 103 represents the third case in which the associated CCO has created an H i depression (Reynoso et al. 2003b). In all three cases, these H i features have sizes of 1 to 3 pc, the CCOs are off-centered by $`0.3`$ pc, and the missing masses are estimated to be 0.1 to 0.3 $`M_{}`$. It is very unlikely that these depressions are due to self-absorption, since the involved temperatures should be $`100`$ K, too low for a SNR interior. Most probably, the CCOs swept up the surrounding gas (Reynoso et al. 2003b). In all cases, the measured H i column densities favor blackbody rather than power law fits to the X-ray spectra.

For G347.3–0.5, a preliminary analysis of our data did not allow us to find any feature suggestive of being associated with the CCO down to a limit of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=5`$ K (3$`\sigma `$). At a velocity compatible with the distance proposed to this SNR, there appears a tiny depression, marginally enclosing the CCO, but it does not look different than many other spots in the image.

Finally, the radio continuum data towards the SNR Vela Jr reveal an elongated nebula, approximately $`30^{}`$ in length and $`14^{}`$ in width, centered at the position of the CCO. In addition, a compact source is found at the location of the CCO. The flux of this compact source is 7.2 mJy beam-1, and its size, $`85^{\prime \prime }\times 27^{\prime \prime }`$. Polarization and spectral index studies will provide information to confirm if this emission arises from the pulsar wind nebula created by CXOU J085201.4–461753. Such observations are proposed early in 2004.

## References

Giacani, E. B., Dubner, G. M., Green, A. J., Goss, W. M., Gaensler, B. M., 2000, AJ, 119, 281

McClure–Griffiths, N. M., Green, A. J., Dickey, J., M., Gaensler, B. M., Haynes, R. F., Wieringa, M. H., 2001, ApJ, 551, 394

Reynoso, E. M., Green, A. J., Johnston, S., Dubner, G. M., Giacani, E. B., Goss, W. M., 2003a, MNRAS, 345, 671

Reynoso, E. M., Green, A. J., Johnston, S., Goss, W. M., Dubner, G. M., Giacani, E. B., 2003b, PASA, In Press (astro-ph/0310100)

Winkler, P. F., Turtle, J. H., Kirshner, R. P., 1988, in Supernova Remnants and the Interstellar Medium, Cambridge University Press, p65


text:
# Grain Size Distributions and Photo-Electric Heating in Ionized Regions

## 1. Introduction

This paper focuses on the grain model in Cloudy, which has undergone a major upgrade in the last couple of years. The first grain model was introduced to Cloudy in 1990 to facilitate more accurate modeling of the Orion nebula (for a detailed description see Baldwin et al. 1991). In subsequent years, this model has undergone some revisions and extensions, but remained largely the same. Recently, our knowledge of grains has been greatly advanced by the results from the ISO mission. In view of these rapid developments we have undertaken a major upgrade of the grain model in Cloudy. The two main aims were to make the code more flexible and versatile, and to make the modeling results more realistic. These are the main improvements:

* We have included a Mie code for spherical particles. The necessary optical constants needed to run the code are read from a separate file.
* A mixing law has been introduced to the code. This allows the user to define grains which are mixtures of different materials.
* The absorption and scattering opacities can be calculated for completely arbitrary grain size distributions (including single-sized grains).
* The size distribution can be resolved in many small bins (the user can choose how many), and all physical quantities are calculated for each bin separately. This allows non-equilibrium heating to be treated correctly for the smallest grains in the size distribution, and more realistic grain emission spectra to be calculated. It will also improve modeling of the photo-electric effect which also depends strongly on grain size.
* The code for non-equilibrium treatment of PAH’s has been extensively rewritten for the new grain model. It now works automatically and efficiently with all grain types and sizes, under all conditions.
* We have updated the grain physics following the discussion in Weingartner & Draine (2001). This includes an improved treatment of the photo-electric effect and the electron sticking probability. The code now also uses discrete charge states for the grains, but our treatment deviates somewhat from Weingartner & Draine (2001) in that we use the hybrid grain charge model (van Hoof et al., 2001), instead of a fully resolved non-equilibrium charge distribution. We have shown that the hybrid grain charge model is sufficiently accurate for all realistic astronomical applications.

The new grain model is currently being distributed as part of the beta release of Cloudy 96. Cloudy can be obtained from the Cloudy website222http://www.nublado.org/. The Cloudy 96 beta release can currently be found under “Other versions”.

## 2. Photo-electric Heating and Grain Size Distributions

It is well known that photo-electric heating by grains in a photo-ionized region has an important effect on the emitted spectrum (e.g., Volk 2001; Dopita & Sutherland 2000). It is however not well known that the size distribution of the grains plays a very important role in determining the magnitude of this effect. In order to test this, we have constructed a set of models with Cloudy 96 beta 5 based on the standard Paris H ii region and planetary nebula (PN) models (Péquignot, 1986). The Paris H ii region model would be roughly valid for a low-excitation PN as well, while the Paris PN model is valid for a high-excitation PN. The base models contain no dust, and will be used as a point of reference. We constructed 6 models out of each base model by simply adding a dust component. We stress that in all six models the chemical composition and the dust-to-gas mass ratio of the dust is the same, and the only difference is the size distribution. Two models were using single sized grains of 1.0 and 0.1 $`\mu `$m, while the other 4 were using more or less realistic size distributions taken from the literature (as indicated underneath the plots). We also point out that the models are ionization bounded, so the outer radius varies, depending on the total opacity of the grains (which also depends strongly on the size distribution). For the Paris H ii region model we added a mixture of graphite and silicates, while for the Paris PN models we made separate models for graphite and silicates since these grain types are not expected to co-exist. In Figs. 1, 2, and 3 we show the results of these calculation. In the top-left panel we show the strength of selected infrared fine-structure lines. These are expected to be mostly insensitive to electron temperature and therefore show the difference in the overall ionization structure. In the top-right panel we show optical/UV forbidden lines of the same species, clearly showing that the enhancement for these lines is usually much stronger, especially for highly excited lines which are only populated in the inner regions of the nebula. This clearly shows the excess collisional excitation caused by the photo-electric effect. In the bottom panel of each plot this is further illustrated by showing the electron temperature at the inner edge, as well as averaged over the ionized region, and the fraction of the total gas heating that is due to the photo-electric effect.

All these plots clearly illustrate that the size distribution alone has a dramatic effect on the emitted spectrum, and is therefore an important parameter in the modeling of spectra from H ii regions and PN.

## 3. Conclusions

In this paper we studied the effect that the distribution of grain sizes has on the amount of photo-electric heating. We have shown that this effect is nothing short of dramatic, making the grain size distribution an important parameter in modeling of photo-ionized regions such as H ii regions and planetary nebulae. Only few studies of grain size distributions exist, and they mainly concentrate on the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) in order to explain extinction curves. Further study of grain size distributions will be needed in order to enable more accurate modeling of photo-ionized regions. This is especially the case for planetary nebulae since it is not clear whether ISM size distributions are valid for these objects.

## References

Baldwin, J. A., Ferland, G. J., Martin, P. G., Corbin, M. R., Cota, S. A., Peterson, B. M., & Slettebak, A., 1991, ApJ, 374, 580

Dopita, M. A., & Sutherland, R. S., 2000, ApJ 539, 742

Péquignot, D., 1986, in Péquignot, D., ed., Model Nebulae, Publications de l’Observatoire de Paris, (Paris: Observatoire de Paris-Meudon)

van Hoof, P. A. M., Weingartner, J. C., Martin, P. G., Volk, K., & Ferland, G. J., 2001, in Ferland, G. J., Savin, D. W., eds., The Challenge of High Resolution X-ray and IR Spectroscopy, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 247, (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific), p. 363

Volk, K., 2001, in Ferland, G. J., Savin, D. W., eds., The Challenge of High Resolution X-ray and IR Spectroscopy, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 247, (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific), p. 379

Weingartner, J. C., & Draine, B. T., 2001, ApJS, 134, 263


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Killing-Yano (KY) tensors introduced by Yano  play an important role in the Dirac theory on the curved spacetimes . A new supersymmetry corresponding to (KY) tensor was found in black-hole solutions of the Kerr-Newman type . (KY) tensors are crucial in supersymmetric extension of charged point particle’s motion in investigation of the symmetries of gravitational and electromagnetic fields . (KY) tensors of order three are special cases of Lax tensors introduced by Rosquist . A (KY) tensor of order two generates a Killing tensor and, in some cases, it produces new constants of motion on a curved manifold . In the last yers a huge effort was devoted for analyzing the importance of (KY) tensors  in several areas but there are relatively few manifolds of physical interest admitting these tensors. This drawback is mainly because (KY) tensors are antisymmetric and their equations impose restrictions on the manifold structure . Despite of this fact there were some attempts to find new geometries admitting (KY) tensors of order two or three. For example, the three- particle open Toda lattice was geometrized by a suitable canonical transformation and it was realized as the geodesic system of a certain Riemannian geometry . Adding a time-like dimension a four-dimensional space-times admitting two Killing vector fields were found .

Motivated by the above results we decided to construct integrable geometries admitting (KY) and Killing tensors by adding a surface term ,  to a known free Lagrangian.

The main aim of this paper is to add, using suitable Lagrangian multipliers, the components of the angular momenta to a free Lagrangian in two or three dimensions and to study the hidden symmetries of the induced manifolds.

The plan of the paper is as follows:

In Sec.2 generic and non-generic symmetries of the extended Lagrangians are investigated. Sec.3 deals with symmetries of new geometries induced by the motion on a sphere. Our conclusions are given in Sec. 4.

## 2 Extended Lagrangians and their
corresponding geometries

Let us assume that a given free Lagrangian $`L(\dot{q}^i,q^i)`$ admits a set of constants of motion denoted by $`L_i,i=1,\mathrm{}3`$. If we add the components of the angular momentum corresponding to L, the extended Lagrangian $`L^{^{}}=L+\dot{\lambda }^iL_i,i=1,\mathrm{}3`$ can be rewritten as $`L^{^{}}=\frac{1}{2}a_{ij}\dot{q}^i\dot{q}^j`$. Since $`a_{ij}`$ is symmetric by construction, the issue is to find a way to construct induced manifolds. In other words we are looking to find whether $`a_{ij}`$ is singular or not. If the matrix $`a_{ij}`$ is singular $`L^{^{}}`$ corresponds to a singular system . Assuming that $`a_{ij}`$ is a singular nxn matrix of rank n-1 we obtain non-singular symmetric matrices of order (n-1)x(n-1), where n will be 3,5 and 6. The final step is to consider the obtained matrices as metrics on the extended space and to investigate their generic and non-generic symmetries.

### 2.1 The nonsingular case

2.1.1. As a starting point let us consider the following Lagrangian

$$L^{^{}}=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{x}^2+\dot{y}^2)+\dot{\lambda _3}(x\dot{y}y\dot{x})$$
(1)
From (1) we obtain $`L^{^{}}=\frac{1}{2}a_{ij}\dot{q}^i\dot{q}^j`$, where $`a_{ij}`$ is given by

$$a_{ij}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& y\\ 0& 1& x\\ y& x& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(2)
The corresponding Killing vector is V=(y, -x, 0).
A (KY) is an antisymmetric tensor define as

$$D_\lambda f_{\mu \nu }+D_\mu f_{\lambda \nu }=0.$$
(3)
Solving (3) corresponding to (2) we obtained the following (KY) tensor

$$f_{13}=0,f_{23}=Cx\sqrt{x^2+y^2},f_{13}=Cy\sqrt{x^2+y^2},$$
(4)
where C is a constant.

If a (KY) tensor exists, then a Killing tensor of order is generated as

$$K_{\mu \nu }=f_{\mu \lambda }f_\nu ^\lambda .$$
(5)
Using (4) and (5) a Killing tensor is constructed as

$$K_{ij}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}y^2& xy& y(y^2+x^2)\\ xy& x^2& x(x^2+y^2)\\ y(y^2+x^2)& x(x^2+y^2)& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(6)
Another method to obtain a Killing tensor is to solve the corresponding equations

$$D_\mu k_{\nu \lambda }+D_\nu k_{\lambda \mu }+D_\lambda k_{\mu \nu }=0,$$
(7)
where $`k_{\mu \nu }`$ is a symmetric tensor. Solving (7) corresponding to (2) we obtain a class of solutions given by

$$\begin{array}{cc}k_{11}=\frac{1}{2}y^2(C_2z+C_3)+C_1,k_{12}=\frac{1}{2}xy(C_2z+C_3)& \\ k_{13}=\frac{y}{4}[(x^2+y^2)(C_2\mathrm{arctan}(\frac{x}{y})4C_4)+4C_1],k_{22}=\frac{1}{2}x^2(zC_2+C_3)+C_1& \\ k_{23}=\frac{x}{4}[(x^2+y^2)(C_2\mathrm{arctan}(\frac{x}{y})4C_4)+4C_1],k_{33}=0.& \end{array}$$
(8)
We observed that if $`C_2=C_1=0,C_3=\frac{1}{2}`$ we reobtain the solution from (6). Choosing the appropriate values of the constants $`C_i,i=1,\mathrm{}4`$, we obtain a set of non-singular Killing tensors. These Killing tensors can be considered as manifolds and we have so called geometric duality (for more details see Refs. ). If $`C_2=0`$ the dual metrics have the following forms

$$\begin{array}{c}k_{11}^1=\frac{x^2}{(x^2+y^2)C_1},k_{12}^1=\frac{xy}{(x^2+y^2)C_1},k_{13}^1=\frac{y}{(x^2+y^2)[C_4(x^2+y^2)C_1]},k_{22}^1=\frac{x^2}{(y^2+y^2)C_1},\\ k_{23}^1=\frac{x}{(x^2+y^2)[C_4(x^2+y^2)C_1]},k_{33}^1=\frac{1}{2}\frac{(x^2+y^2)C_3+2C_1}{(x^2+y^2)(C_1C_4(x^2+y^2))^2},\end{array}$$
(9)
and the scalar curvatures corresponding to (9) are

$$R=\frac{2C_1C_4[5C_4(x^2+y^2)+2C_1]}{[C_1+C_4(x^2+y^2)]^2}.$$
(10)
2.1.2 Let us add two components of the angular momentum at a free, three-dimensional Lagrangian. The extended Lagrangian becomes

$$L^{^{}}=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{x^2}+\dot{y^2}+\dot{z^2})+\dot{\lambda _1}(y\dot{z}z\dot{y})+\dot{\lambda _2}(z\dot{x}x\dot{z})$$
(11)
and (11) we identify $`a_{ij}`$ as the following non-singular matrix

$$a_{ij}=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}1& 0& 0& 0& z\\ 0& 1& 0& z& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& y& x\\ 0& z& y& 0& 0\\ z& 0& x& 0& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(12)
The metric (12) admits three Killing vectors

$$V_1=(y,x,0,0,0),V_2=(0,z,y,0,0),V_3=(z,0,x,0,0).$$
(13)
In this case (KY) tensors components are given by

$$\begin{array}{c}f_{15}=Gxy,f_{14}=G(z^2+y^2),f_{24}=Gxy,f_{34}=Gxz,\\ f_{25}=G(x^2+z^2),f_{35}=\frac{Gxzy}{x},f_{12}=Cz,f_{13}=Cy,\end{array}$$
(14)
others zero. Here C and G are constants. The corresponding Killing tensor has the following form

$$K=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}G(2C+G)(z^2+y^2)& GDxy& GDzx& 0& G^2r^2z\\ GDxy& GD(x^2+z^2)& GDzy& r^2zG^2& 0\\ GDzx& GDzy& GD(y^2+x^2)& G^2r^2y& G^2r^2x\\ 0& G^2zr^2& G^2yr^2& 0& 0\\ G^2zr^2& 0& G^2xr^2& 0& 0\end{array}\right),$$
(15)
where D =2C+G and $`r^2=x^2+y^2+z^2`$.

### 2.2 The singular case

2.2.1. The final step is to add all angular momentum components at the Lagrangian of the free particle in three-dimensions. In this case $`L^{^{}}`$ is given by

$$L^{^{}}=\frac{1}{2}(\dot{x^2}+\dot{y^2}+\dot{z^2})+\dot{\lambda _1}(y\dot{z}z\dot{y})+\dot{\lambda _2}(z\dot{x}x\dot{z})+\dot{\lambda _3}(x\dot{y}y\dot{x})$$
(16)
In compact form (16) is written as $`L^{^{}}=\frac{1}{2}a_{ij}\dot{q}^i\dot{q}^j`$, where $`a_{ij}`$ is singular having the form

$$a_{ij}=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}1& 0& 0& 0& z& y\\ 0& 1& 0& z& 0& x\\ 0& 0& 1& y& x& 0\\ 0& z& y& 0& 0& 0\\ z& 0& x& 0& 0& 0\\ y& x& 0& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(17)
Since the rank of (17) is 5 we obtained three non-singular symmetric matrices corresponding to three non-zero minors. The first one is given by (12) and the other two are as follows

$$b_{\mu \nu }^{(2)}=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}1& 0& 0& 0& y\\ 0& 1& 0& z& x\\ 0& 0& 1& y& 0\\ 0& z& y& 0& 0\\ y& x& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(18)
and

$$b_{\mu \nu }^{(3)}=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}1& 0& 0& z& y\\ 0& 1& 0& 0& x\\ 0& 0& 1& x& 0\\ z& 0& x& 0& 0\\ y& x& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(19)
By direct calculations we observed that (18) and (19) admit three Killing vectors given by (13) and a (KY) tensor having the following non-zero components

$$f_{12}=z,f_{13}=y,f_{23}=x.$$
(20)
## 3 The motion on a sphere and its induced
geometries

It was proved in  that the motion on a sphere admits four constants of motion, the Hamiltonian and three components of the angular momentum. In the following using the surface term we will generate four -dimensional manifolds. In this case the Lagrangian is given by

$`L^{^{}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1+{\displaystyle \frac{x^2}{u}})\dot{x}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1+{\displaystyle \frac{y^2}{u}})\dot{y}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{xy}{u}}\dot{x}\dot{y}{\displaystyle \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}}\dot{\lambda _1}\dot{x}+({\displaystyle \frac{x^2}{\sqrt{u}}}+\sqrt{u})\dot{\lambda _2}\dot{x}`$ (21)
$``$ $`({\displaystyle \frac{y^2}{\sqrt{u}}}+\sqrt{u})\dot{\lambda _1}\dot{y}+{\displaystyle \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}}\dot{\lambda _2}\dot{y}+x\dot{\lambda _3}\dot{y}y\dot{\lambda _3}\dot{x},`$ (22)
where $`u=1x^2y^2`$. From (23)we identify the singular matrix $`a_{ij}`$ as

$$a_{ij}=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}1+\frac{x^2}{u}& \frac{xy}{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& \frac{x^2}{\sqrt{u}}+\sqrt{u}& y\\ \frac{xy}{u}& 1+\frac{y^2}{u}& \frac{y^2}{\sqrt{u}}\sqrt{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& x\\ \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& \frac{y^2}{\sqrt{u}}\sqrt{u}& 0& 0& 0\\ \frac{x^2}{\sqrt{u}}+\sqrt{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& 0& 0& 0\\ y& x& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(23)
Because (23) is a singular matrix of rank 4 we identify three symmetric minors of order four. If we treat these minors as a metric we observed that they are not conformaly flat but their scalar curvatures are zero.

The first metric is given by

$$g_{\mu \nu }^{(1)}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1+\frac{x^2}{u}& \frac{xy}{u}& \sqrt{u}+\frac{x^2}{\sqrt{u}}& y\\ \frac{xy}{u}& 1+\frac{y^2}{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& x\\ \sqrt{u}+\frac{x^2}{\sqrt{u}}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& 0& 0\\ y& x& 0& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(24)
The Killing vectors of (24) has the following components

$$\begin{array}{cc}V_1=(y,x,0,0),V_2=(\sqrt{1x^2y^2}+\frac{x^2}{1x^2y^2},\frac{xy}{1x^2y^2},0,0)& \\ V_3=(\frac{xy}{1x^2y^2},\sqrt{1x^2y^2}\frac{y^2}{1x^2y^2},0,0)& \end{array}.$$
(25)
The next step is to investigate its (KY) tensors. Solving (3) we obtain the following set of solutions:

a.One-solution is $`f_{21}=\frac{C_1}{\sqrt{1x^2y^2}}`$, others zero.
b.Two-by-two solution has the form: $`f_{31}=f_{42}=C`$,
c. Three by three solution is $`f_{21}=\frac{C_1}{\sqrt{1+x^2+y^2}}`$ and $`f_{31}=f_{42}=C`$, where C and $`C_1`$ are constants.

From (23) another two metrics can be identified as

$$g_{\mu \nu }^{(2)}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1+\frac{x^2}{u}& \frac{xy}{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& y\\ \frac{xy}{u}& 1+\frac{y^2}{u}& \sqrt{u}\frac{y^2}{\sqrt{u}}& x\\ \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& \sqrt{u}\frac{y^2}{\sqrt{u}}& 0& 0\\ y& x& 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(26)
and

$$g_{\mu \rho }^{(3)}=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1+\frac{x^2}{u}& \frac{xy}{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& \frac{x^2}{\sqrt{u}}+\sqrt{u}\\ \frac{xy}{u}& 1+\frac{y^2}{u}& \frac{y^2}{\sqrt{u}}\sqrt{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}\\ \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& \frac{y^2}{\sqrt{u}}\sqrt{u}& 0& 0\\ \frac{x^2}{\sqrt{u}}+\sqrt{u}& \frac{xy}{\sqrt{u}}& 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(27)
respectively. By direct calculations we obtained that (26) and (27) admit the same Killing vector as in (25). Solving (3) corresponding to (26) and (27) we find one non-zero component of (KY) tensor as

$$f_{21}=\frac{C_1}{\sqrt{1x^2y^2}}.$$
(28)
## 4 Conclusions

Integrable geometries were reported by adding a surface term involving the components of the angular momentum to a given free Lagrangian. The existence of Killing vectors, (KY) and Killing tensors is investigated and in all cases a solution is presented.

The first step was to add ,to a free two-dimensional Lagrangian, a surface term involving the third component of the angular momentum. In this case a three -dimensional metric was induced. This metric is conformaly flat but its duals are not.

Increasing the number of dimensions to three and adding a surface term involving two components of the angular momentum we obtained geometries, in four and five dimensions. The obtained induced manifolds are not conformaly flat but all of them have Ricci scalar zero.

If we add a surface term involving all components of the angular momentum to a three dimensional free Lagrangian we observed that a singular matrix $`a_{ij}`$ arises. We identify three symmetric minors of this metric and we investigated the existence of Killing vectors , (KY) and Killing tensors corresponding to those induced manifolds. We observed that the obtained manifolds admit the same Killing vectors but different (KY) solutions.

Finally, the geometries induced by the motion on a sphere are investigated and a four dimensional induced manifolds were obtained. As in the previous case the manifolds admit the same Killing vectors but different (KY) tensors.

## 5 Acknowledgments

One of the authors (D. B.) would like to thank M. Henneaux, B. Edgar and M. Montesinos for their helpful discussions. This work is partially supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey.


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# The Question Whether an Energy Gap Does Exist in Helium II or Not

## I Introduction

In the present time, it is considered the complete understanding has been attained of the microscopic pattern of superfluidity in Helium II. The up-to-date state of the theory of Helium II can be learned by perusing study bib-1 .

Nonetheless, it seems to be useful to search for new superfluidity mechanisms, particularly, in the cases when a simple method is proposed to experimentally verify the assumptions put forward. Even if the experiment does not substantiate these assumptions, its performance may lead to the uncovering of novel effects that are of interest for research workers.

The present communication describes a version of the introduction of an energy parameter in the superfluidity theory. An experiment will also be suggested on measuring a temperature dependence of a ”superfluidity gap” thus formed.

## II MODEL OF ONE-PARTICLE ENERGY SPECTRUM

At present, it hardly makes sense to specify the process of accounting for the interatomic interaction occurring in Helium II. We simply assume that in the course of this process one-particle energy of the main orbital has torn off from the remaining, excited orbitals with the formation of an energy gap. Formally, this may be described by introducing a one-particle energy spectrum $`E_p`$ of the following type

$`E_p=p^2/2M,`$ (1)
at $`p>0`$, and

$`E_0=\mathrm{\Delta }\left(T\right),`$ (2)
where $`M`$ and $`p`$ are the mass and momentum of $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ atom respectively, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(T\right)`$ is the energy gap depending on temperature. It is assumed that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(T\right)`$ vanishes at the $`\lambda `$-point. Moreover, we assume the Galilean symmetry in the Hamiltonian of interatomic interaction. Accordingly, the Galilean asymmetry of the energy spectrum $`E_p`$ is due only to the configuration of the occupation numbers of the ground state of the system, and the presence of a gap in the one-particle spectrum will not prevent a liquid flow from arising in it.

In the suggested scheme of energy levels, the temperature dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(T\right)`$ is experimentally determined in the following way. Assume that we have succeeded in inducing in Helium II an electric field with a large spatial gradient; for example, in a space between two sharply ground needle tips. Such a field will affect $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ atoms via dipole moments induced in them. If the electric field frequency coincides with the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\left(T\right)/2`$, atoms start to be excited, which will be conducive to the appearance of an absorption edge of electromagnetic wave energy.

## III CONCLUSION

I am well aware of the fact that the scheme of levels as proposed in Eqs. (1-2) is so far of a hypothetical character. If the experiment confirms the existence of a ”superfluidity gap”, then one hardly will perceive a deficiency in the models of interatomic interaction, leading to a clarification of the effect. On the other hand, the performance of the suggested experiment may reveal other unobvious effects in the superfluid system.


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# Galaxy Scaling Relations as a Result of Secular Evolution

## 1. Disk Galaxy Scaling Relations

A typical galaxy remains in a quasi-equilibrium configuration during the secular evolution process. From the Virial theorem relation $`V^2=GM_{dyn}/R`$, where $`M_{dyn}`$ is the dynamical mass of the galaxy. and the definition of average surface brightness $`SB=L/R^2`$, where L is the luminosity, it follows that $`LV^4\frac{1}{SB}\frac{1}{(M_{dyn}/L)^2},`$ In order to have a tight Tully-Fisher relation $`LV^4`$ (Tully & Fisher 1977), we must have $`SB(M_{dyn}/L)^2constant`$. The secular evolution process maintains the scaling relations by a decrease in galaxy’s dynamical-mass-to-light ratio as the surface brightness of the galaxy increases during its Hubble type transformation (Zhang 2003b).

The fundamental plane relation for spirals can likewise be derived from the Virial theorem, resulting in $`10\mathrm{log}V=(1+2\beta )M_tSB+constant,`$ where $`M_t`$ is the absolute magnitude and $`SB`$ is the average surface brightness in magnitude/arcsec2, and where $`M_{dyn}`$/L $`L^\beta `$. Pharasyn et al. (1997) found that fitting I band and K band data of a sample of spiral galaxies to this relation resulted in $`\beta 0.15`$.

## 2. Elliptical Galaxy Fundamental Plane Relations

One of the many forms of the elliptical galaxy fundamental plane relation can be expressed as $`LV_e^{3.45}SB^{0.86},`$ or $`M(R_e)=8.62(\mathrm{log}V+0.1SB)+constant`$ (Djorgovski & Davis 1987), where $`M(R_e)`$ refers to the absolute magnitude inside effective radius $`R_e`$. A slight rearrangement of the terms in this equation leads to $`10\mathrm{log}V=1.25M(R_e)SB+constant.`$ We see that apart from the constant term, the only difference between the spiral and elliptical fundamental plane relations is in the different signs of the mass-to-light ratio exponent $`\beta `$: $`\beta =0.15`$ for spirals and $`\beta =0.13`$ for ellipticals and bulges. As the secular evolution proceeds (which generally leads to an increase in L), the dynamical mass-to-light ratio of a spiral galaxy decreases because a larger fraction of the baryonic dark matter becomes luminous. On the other hand, elliptical galaxies are in more advanced stages of evolution and will experience greater degree of dimming, which is reflected in the increase of dynamical mass-to-light ratio with L.

## 3. The Evolution Trend Revealed by the Three Types of Scaling Relations

From the above three types of scaling relations, we can easily derive the following variations of the dependence of Mdyn/L on mass and on light, and the inter-dependence of Mdyn and L:

(1). The dependence of mass on luminosity: $`M_{dyn}L^{0.5}`$ from spiral Tully-Fisher relation, $`M_{dyn}L^{0.85}`$ from spiral fundamental plane relation, $`M_{dyn}L^{1.12}`$ from elliptical fundamental plane relation.

(2). The dependence of Mdyn/L on luminosity: $`M_{dyn}/LL^{0.5}`$ from spiral Tully-Fisher relation, $`M_{dyn}/LL^{0.15}`$ from spiral fundamental plane relation, $`M_{dyn}/LL^{0.13}`$ from elliptical fundamental plane relation.

(3). The dependence of M/L on dynamical mass: $`M_{dyn}/LM_{dyn}^1`$ from spiral Tully-Fisher relation, $`M_{dyn}/LM_{dyn}^{0.18}`$ from spiral fundamental plane relation, $`M_{dyn}/LM_{dyn}^{0.1}`$ from elliptical fundamental plane relation.

A gradual evolution trend of galaxy properties is thus implied in the three types of scaling relations. The fact that the Mdyn/L ratio obtained from the spiral galaxy fundamental plane relation lies intermediate between that given by the spiral galaxy Tully-Fisher relation and the elliptical galaxy fundamental plane relation is apparently due to the fact that within the spiral fundamental plane relation there is the additional surface brightness parameter. The spiral fundamental plane effectively samples disk galaxy properties further inward, compared to the Tully-Fisher relation which samples characteristics averaged over the whole disk. More detailed discussion of the relation of the secular evolution process to the generation of galaxy structural properties and scaling relations can be found in Zhang (2003b).


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# Acceleration and Dissipation in Relativistic Winds

## 1. Introduction

Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) provide our nearest at hand examples of relativistic outflows from compact objects. They also form incontrovertible examples of electromagnetically driven flows. Thus their physics is of interest, both in its own right and as purveyors of insight into more remote systems known to have relativistic outflow dynamics, such as AGN and GRB jets, and suspected of being electromagnetically driven.

## 2. Observations of PWNe Relevant to Relativistic Wind Physics

Observations and models of young PWNe allow us to diagnose the properties of the relativistic winds conveying the underlying compact objects’ rotational energy to their nebulae. 1D flow models applied to the Crab Nebula 20 years ago by Kennel and Coroniti (1984a,b) led to the conclusion that the equatorial relativistic wind from the Crab pulsar just upstream of the wind’s termination shock has some surprising properties: a terminal Lorentz factor $`\gamma _110^6`$ and a terminal magnetization $`\sigma _1=B_1^2/4\pi \gamma _1\rho _1c^23\times 10^31`$. Such models also lead to a measurement of the $`e^\pm `$ injection rate ($`\dot{N}_\pm 10^{38.5}`$ s-1 for the Crab) which is in reasonable accord with previous inferences from applications of elementary synchrotron theory to nebular X-ray emission. Similar inferences have been drawn for other PWNe (Gaensler et al. 2002; but see Reynolds 2003). Modeling (Spitkovsky & Arons 2003) of the time dependent structure observed in the shock termination layer (Hester et al. 2002) comes up with very similar values for $`\gamma _1`$, $`\sigma _1`$ and $`\dot{N}_\pm `$. Such models make the additional suggestion that the equatorial wind has a high energy ion component with energy per particle $`E_iq_i\mathrm{\Phi }/m_{eff}c^2`$, where $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the rotational voltage of the pulsar. The inferred ion injection rate $`\dot{N}_i`$ is about equal to the electric current per unit charge expected from electrodynamic theories of magnetized compact object spindown (the Goldreich-Julian current). Here $`m_{eff}=m_i+2\kappa _\pm m_\pm `$ is the rest mass per particle of the plasma in the relativistic wind, with $`\kappa _\pm `$ the number of pairs per Goldreich-Julian current carrier expelled from the underlying star. Under pulsar conditions, $`m_i=m_p`$ or $`m_{He}`$ and $`m_{eff}=(510)m_p`$. Such models fail to account for the higher average particle flux required to explain the Crab Nebula’s radio emission; see Arons (1998) and Gallant et al. (2002) for discussions of this issue.

## 3. Wind Acceleration Theory

The high wind 4-velocity $`\gamma _1`$ and the low magnetization $`\sigma _1`$ generate problems for the basic physics of relativistic MHD wind flow; the $`\dot{N}_\pm `$ problem may point to troubles with the theory of the plasma source. The existing theory of MHD wind flow (Michel 1969, Goldreich and Julian 1970, Beskin et al 1998), applied to rotators with split monopole poloidal magnetic field geometry, suggest that the wind 4-velocity at “infinity” is $`\gamma _{\mathrm{}}\sigma _0^{1/3}`$, where $`\sigma _0B_L^2/4\pi \rho _Lc^2e\mathrm{\Phi }/2m_{eff}c^2`$. Contopoulos et al. (1999) show that at least for the aligned rotator, the asymptotic wind structure ($`r>`$ a few $`R_L=c/\mathrm{\Omega }`$) is reasonably well approximated by outflow in (split) monopole magnetic geometry, which is almost radial, and Bogovalov’s (1999) generalization of split monopole outflow to oblique rotator geometry suggests that almost radial outflow has general applicability. Ideal MHD wind theory applied to more general asymptotic flow structures also suggests almost radial flow outside the light cylinder (Begelman and Li 1994, Beskin et al 1998), in which case $`\sigma _{wind}=\sigma _0/\gamma _{wind}1`$ so long as $`\gamma _{wind}\sigma _0`$. The traditional MHD solutions in monopole geometry with $`\gamma _{wind}(r)<\sigma _0^{1/3}`$ thus imply $`\sigma _{wind}(r)>\sigma _0^{2/3}`$. Everything that has appeared on pulsar magnetosphere theory suggests $`\sigma _01`$ \- for the Crab, pair creation models (either polar cap or outer gap) suggest $`\sigma _010^4`$. Thus standard theory says the wind should be “high sigma”, all the way to the termination shock, in flagrant contradiction of the inferred magnetization.

The origin of this theoretical prediction is interesting. Magnetic pressure, in the form of a wound up magnetic “spring”, provides the driving force underlying outflows driven by large scale electromagentic fields. The magnetic spring can be an effective accelerator only so long as the magnetic field remains dynamically coupled to the underlying rotator - by Newton’s third law, the magnetic field has to push in against a heavy weight (the compact object), in order to exert an outward push on the wind’s plasma. Such coupling requires the field at large radii to be able to communicate with the field’s roots in the star, which means that acceleration persists only so long as the plasma velocity is less than the magnetosonic speed.

Non-relativistically, such good contact translates into the requirement $`\rho v^2<B^2/4\pi `$, where $`\rho `$ is the rest mass density, or $`v<v_{ms}=B/\sqrt{4\pi \rho }`$ = nonrelativistic magnetosonic speed. Naively, one might expect that the relativistic version of this constraint would be $`\rho \gamma _{wind}c^2<B^2/4\pi `$, or $`v_{ms}B/\sqrt{4\pi \gamma _{wind}\rho }`$ in the relativistic case. With $`B1/r`$ and $`\rho 1/r^2`$, one would then get acceleration until $`\gamma _{wind}\sigma _0`$ and $`\sigma (r)1`$.

This expectation is not correct. Acceleration continues until the wind speed reaches the magnetosonic speed. The acceleration is parallel to the poloidal field and the poloidal velocity. The rate of change of the poloidal speed is expressed by

$$\rho \frac{d(\gamma v_p)}{dt}=\rho c^2\beta _p\frac{}{r}\frac{\beta _p}{\sqrt{1\beta _p^2}}=\rho c^2\gamma ^3\beta _p\frac{\beta _p}{r}\frac{\rho c^2\gamma ^3\beta _p^2}{r}$$

\- that is, the accelerating magnetic force must oversome the longitudinal inertial mass/volume $`\rho \gamma ^3`$ of the plasma, since the force is parallel to the outflow velocity. Therefore, acceleration ceases once $`\gamma `$ rises to $`(B^2/4\pi \rho c^2)^{1/3}=\sigma _0^{1/3}`$, not to $`\sigma _0`$. This magnetosonic speed based on the longitudinal mass $`v_{ms}=B/\sqrt{4\pi \rho \gamma ^3}`$ has appeared in all the formal discussions of relativistic wind outflow, always without physical explanation. Since this physics is generic to all outflow geometries, all ideal MHD relativistic winds should have asymptotic 4-velocity limited to111In magnetic geometries with field lines focused toward the magnetic axis, weak logarithmic acceleration can occur beyond the radius where the velocity reaches $`v_{ms}`$ (Begelman and Li 1994), but this effect of hoop stress does not have much practical significance. $`\gamma _{\mathrm{}}\sigma _0^{1/3}`$.

The location of the magnetosonic radius, located where $`v(R_{ms})=v_{ms}(R_{ms})`$, is sensitive to magnetic geometry. In the 1D flow models (Michel 1969, Goldreich & Julian 1970), $`R_{ms}=\mathrm{}`$ in cold flows. In multi-dimensional models, the inner regions of the flow are force free, with $`\gamma r/R_L`$, (Buckley 1977, Beskin et al. 1998, Contopoulos and Kazanas 2002, Arons, in preparation). Such “surf-riding”, with particles stuck to accelerating field lines, persists until $`v=v_{ms}`$, which, in monopole geometry, occurs at $`R_{ms}\sigma _0^{1/3}R_L`$; at larger radii, the wind coasts, with222Contopoulos and Kazanas (2002) and Arons (2003a,b) suggested that acceleration in the force free fields continues until equipartition, $`\gamma \sigma _0`$. This is wrong. $`\gamma \sigma _0^{1/3}`$. One can readily show that in magnetic geometries with poloidal field lines flaring more rapidly than those of a monopole even for a limited range of radii beyond the light cylinder that $`R_{ms}`$ moves in to be close to the light cylinder (Arons, in preparation).

Thus ideal MHD wind theory leaves both high asymptotic $`\gamma `$ and low asymptotic $`\sigma `$ quite unexplained, and will always be an inadequate theory to understand the most elementary interpretation of the observations.

## 4. Dissipation

Arguments such as these suggest that dissipation of magnetic energy in the asymptotic wind zone $`R_Lr<R_{shock}`$ must occur, in order to understand the observed high $`\gamma _1`$ and low $`\sigma _1`$.

The restriction of the observed low $`\sigma `$, high $`\gamma `$ flow to the rotational equator is an important clue. The equatorial zone is the likely location of a current sheet separating opposite magnetic polarities in opposite hemispheres. Current sheets are almost always sites of magnetic dissipation. In oblique rotators, this sheet should be wrinkled, taking the form of a frozen in wave in a sector around the rotational equator (Bogovalov 1999). Possible dissipation mechanisms include some form of reconnection (Kirk and Skjæraasen 2003), dissipation of the wrinkles at the termination shock (Lyubarsky 2003), if they survive all the way to the shock, and instability of he current sheet with respect to the emission of strong electromagnetic waves which propagate with respect to the wind (Arons 2003a, b), which rapidly dissipate (Melatos 1998). While all such mechanisms suggest substantial photon emission, relativistic beaming means that unless the observer lies within the restricted rotational latitude range filled by the dissipative sheet ($`|\lambda |<10^{}`$ in the Crab), the photon signature of the dissipation would be missed. Finding a high voltage pulsar observed from close to the equatorial plane would greatly improve our ability to model these phenomena.

## 5. Acknowledgments

I acknowledge assistance from NASA grants NAG5-12031 and HST-AR-09548.01-A, the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science and the taxpayers of California.

## 6. References

Arons, J. 1998, Mem. Soc. Ast. It., 69, 989
Arons, J. 2003a, Ap.J., 589, 871
Arons, J. 2003b, Adv. in Space. Res., in press
Begelman, M.C., and Li, Z.-Y. 1994, Ap.J., 426, 269
Beskin, V., Kuznetsova, I., and Rafikov, R. 1998, MNRAS, 299, 341
Bogovalov, S. 1999, A&A, 349, 1017
Buckley, R. 1977, Nature, 266, 37
Contopoulos, J., Kazanas, D. and Fendt, C. 1999, Ap.J., 511, 351
Contopoulos, J., and Kazanas, D. 2002, Ap.J., 566, 336
Gallant, Y.A., van der Swaluw, E., Kirk, J.G., & Achterberg, A. 2002, in
‘Neutron Stars and Supernova Remnants’, P.O. Slane and
B.M. Gaensler, eds. (San Francisco: ASP), 99
Gaensler, B., Arons, J., Kaspi, V. et al. 2002, Ap.J., 569, 878
Goldreich, P., & Julian, W. 1970, Ap.J., 160, 971
Hester, J.J., Mori, K., Burrows, D., et al. 2002, Ap.J., 577, L49
Kennel, C.F., and Coroniti, F.C. 1984a, 283, 694; 1984b, 283, 710
Kirk, J.G., and Skjæraasen, O. 2003, Ap.J., 591, 366
Lyubarsky, Y.E. 2003, MNRAS, 345, 153
Melatos, A. 1998, Mem. Soc. Ast. It., 69, 1009
Michel, F.C. 1969, Ap.J., 158, 727
Michel, F.C. 1971, Comm. Ap., 3, 80
Reynolds, S. 2003, in Proceedings of IAU Colloquium 192,
10 Years of SN1993J (San Francisco: ASP), in press (astro-ph/0308483)
Spitkovsky, A. & Arons, J. 2003, Ap.J., in press


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# Current suppression in a double-island single-electron transistor for detection of degenerate charge configurations of a floating double-dot

## Abstract

We have investigated a double-island single-electron transistor (DISET) coupled to a floating metal double-dot (DD). Low-temperature transport measurements were used to map out the charge configurations of both the DISET and the DD. A suppression of the current through the DISET was observed whenever the charge configurations of the DISET and the DD were energetically co-degenerate. This effect was used to distinguish between degenerate and non-degenerate charge configurations of the double-dot. We also show that this detection scheme reduces the susceptibility of the DISET to interference from random charge noise.

Single-electron transistors (SETs), the operation of which is governed by Coulomb blockade effects, are highly sensitive electrometers Grabert and Devoret (1992). Their capability to amplify small charge signals on fast time scales Schoelkopf et al. (1998) has made them interesting detectors for a variety of applications. In particular, some alternative concepts to conventional computers - namely quantum dot cellular automata (QCA) Lent et al. (1993) and solid-state quantum computers (e.g. Refs. \[Shnirman et al., 1997; Kane, 1998; Vrijen et al., 2000\]) - rely on detection of small charge signals to read out a computational result. The charge signals arise from different, spatial charge distributions on two sites (such as metal islands, quantum dots or donor atoms) that are separated by a tunnel barrier.

In this letter, we present work on a double-island SET (DISET, or single-electron pump) Pothier et al. (1992) capacitively coupled to a floating double-dot (DD). We show that the DISET can sense electrostatically degenerate charge configurations of the DD. This capability arises from current suppression due to dynamic charge correlations between the DISET and the DD, which was first described in work related to QCA Orlov et al. (1998); Toth et al. (1999). We suggest using this ability of the DISET for detecting the propensity for charge motion between other spatially localised sites, such as quantum dots and donor atoms. Uses for such a detector could be in monitoring spin-charge conversion in solid-state quantum computers, e.g. the models proposed by Kane Kane (1998) and Vrijen et al. Vrijen et al. (2000).

The high charge sensitivity of SETs leads to high susceptibility to random charge noise in the environment, which can result in spurious signals. The operating conditions for the DISET are different from those for conventional SET electrometers: whereas the SET is generally biased to a point of maximum transconductance, we operate the DISET at zero transconductance, which greatly reduces the effects of background charge noise.

The devices were fabricated on a silicon substrate using standard shadow-mask evaporation of aluminium with in-situ oxidation to form Al/Al2O3/Al tunnel junctions Fulton and Dolan (1987). Fig. 1a shows a SEM image of a typical device and Fig. 1b a simplified schematic. The devices consist of a DISET, a capacitively coupled DD and four control gates. The physical gap between the DISET and the DD was engineered to be $`<25\mathrm{nm}`$ in order to maximise capacitive coupling. Electrical measurements were carried out in a dilution refrigerator at base temperature $`T20\mathrm{mK}`$, and a magnetic field of $`B=1\mathrm{T}`$ was applied to suppress superconductivity. Standard, ac lock-in measurement techniques were used, with a source-drain biase of $`V_{\mathrm{DS}}=300\mu \mathrm{V}`$ (charging energy for our DISETs $`E_\mathrm{C}0.8\mathrm{m}e\mathrm{V}`$).

In order to map the charge configurations of the DISET, we recorded the source-drain current $`I_{\mathrm{DS}}`$ as a function of gate voltages $`V_{\mathrm{G1}}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{G2}}`$ (Fig. 2a). Due to Coulomb blockade effects, the peaks in $`I_{\mathrm{DS}}`$ define a honeycomb pattern (grey lines), the shape of which depends on gate capacitances as well as the inter-island coupling Grabert and Devoret (1992). Each hexagon corresponds to an energetically stable charge configuration $`(n,m)`$ of the DISET, where $`n`$ and $`m`$ are the number of excess electrons on islands I1 and I2, respectively. For temperatures $`TE_\mathrm{C}/k_\mathrm{B}`$ and source-drain biases $`V_{\mathrm{DS}}E_\mathrm{C}/e`$, a current from source to drain can only be observed where three charge configurations are energy-degenerate (i.e. the system has equal electrostatic energy for all three configurations). Such points in the charge configuration map are termed *triple-points*. Current peaks are broadened at increased $`T`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{DS}}`$. Even at the relatively high $`V_{\mathrm{DS}}`$ used in our experiments, Coulomb blockade effects are well resolved. Since the A-gates also capacitively couple to the DISET, a similar plot is obtained when sweeping $`V_{\mathrm{A1}}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{A2}}`$ (not shown), allowing control of the charge configurations of the DD as well as the DISET.

We now turn to study the passage of electrons from source to drain via the DISET islands when the charge configurations of both the DISET and the DD are electrostatically degenerate. In general, the mechanism behind electron transport on two coupled double-dots - irrespective of whether they are connected to source and drain leads or not - applies to arbitrary charge configurations of the system. However, the concept becomes clearer if one considers a special case, where two floating double-dots are coupled in a square arrangement with one excess electron per DD. When the charge configurations of both double-dots are co-degenerate (i.e. an electron has equal probability of being on either dot of a DD), electrostatic repulsion energetically favours charge configurations where the two electrons are diagonally opposite each other. For symmetry reasons, the two possible configurations are energetically degenerate, and tunnelling between the two configurations can occur. This tunnelling primarily takes one of two forms: energetically favourable, simultaneous tunnelling of both electrons (co-tunnelling) Averin et al. (1991), and correlated tunnelling Toth et al. (1999). The latter involves sequential tunnelling of one electron via an excited state, followed by tunnelling of the other electron to restore a diagonal charge configuration. In both cases, the tunnel rate is reduced compared to the single-electron tunnelling rate ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }=k_\mathrm{B}T/e^2R_\mathrm{t}`$, where $`R_\mathrm{t}`$ is the tunnel junction resistance) Toth et al. (1999); Averin et al. (1991). This reduced tunnelling rate can be observed by replacing one of the double-dots with a DISET biased to a triple-point. Current flow through the DISET requires the tunnelling of single electrons between the two DISET islands. If the charge configurations of the DISET and the DD are co-degenerate, there is a reduction of the measured source-drain current (compared to when the charge configurations of the DD are *non*-degenerate).

Experimental investigation of this current suppression is best achieved by keeping the total charge of the combined system constant, while measuring the source-drain current for different charge configurations. The arrow in Fig. 2a marks a trajectory for G-gate biases $`V_{\mathrm{G2}}=\gamma V_{\mathrm{G1}}`$ across a triple-point, which keeps the total charge of the DISET constant. This trajectory defines an effective, combined G-gate bias $`V_\mathrm{G}=V_{\mathrm{G1}}\sqrt{1+\gamma ^2}`$. A similar procedure was used to determine an effective A-gate bias $`V_\mathrm{A}=V_{\mathrm{A1}}\sqrt{1+\alpha ^2}`$, along which the total charge of the DISET remains constant. Fig. 2b shows a greyscale plot of $`I_{\mathrm{DS}}`$ as a function of $`V_\mathrm{A}`$ and $`V_\mathrm{G}`$. In this plot the total charge of the combined DISET/DD system is kept constant. The upper and lower sets of numbers denote the charge configurations of the DISET and the DD, respectively, and define hexangular charge configuration domains. As we are only interested in relative changes in electron occupancy, we arbitrarily define one of the configurations as $`(0,1)(0,0)`$. Due to the island-dot coupling, the trajectories of maximum current (black) exhibit kinks each time the charge configurations of the DISET and the DD are co-degenerate.

To study the effect degenerate charge configurations of the DD have on the source-drain current of the DISET in more detail, traces were taken with a constant $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ and varying $`V_\mathrm{A}`$. $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ was chosen such that varying $`V_\mathrm{A}`$ would include a point of co-degeneracy, and two points where the DISET but not the DD is degenerate (arrow in Fig. 2b). Fig. 3a shows the average and standard deviation obtained from 62 individual traces. The shape of the traces depends on temperature, source-drain bias and the trajectory taken through gate voltage space. In this letter, however, we focus on the absolute values of the maximum and minimum observed source-drain current. A maximum current of $`I_{\mathrm{DS}}=181\mathrm{pA}`$ is observable at the left and right edge of the graph, where the DD adopts well-defined charge configurations, and predominantly sequential single-electron tunnelling through the DISET occurs. In the centre of the graph, the charge configurations of the DISET and the DD are co-degenerate. At this point, we observe a current suppression of $`\mathrm{\Delta }I_{\mathrm{DS}}=7.5\mathrm{pA}`$ (well above the average noise level of $`\delta I_{\mathrm{DS}}0.90\mathrm{pA}`$), which we attribute to the reduced tunnelling rates. This behaviour suggests that a DISET, biased to a triple-point, may be used as a detector for degenerate charge configurations of a floating double-dot.

We now briefly investigate the charge noise sensitivity of this detector. SETs are known to be susceptible to random charge noise, and it is important to discriminate such random telegraph signals (RTSs) from signals originating from the DD. We investigated the effect of weakly coupled charge traps, which lead to small fluctuations of the electrostatic environment, and more strongly coupled traps, which may induce spurious signals. To have maximum charge sensitivity, SETs are conventionally biased to a point of maximum transconductance $`I_{\mathrm{DS}}/V_\mathrm{G}`$, which is accompanied by increased charge noise susceptibility. The largest signal-to-noise ratios for our device, however, were observed when biasing the DISET to triple-points, i.e. $`I_{\mathrm{DS}}/V_\mathrm{G}=0`$, where the effect of charge noise due to small fluctuations is minimised. To investigate the influence of more strongly coupled charge traps, we repeatedly monitored the same current suppression feature (that shown in Fig. 3a) with one minute per trace followed by a fast reset (Fig. 3b). At time $`t6\mathrm{min}`$, a large random charging event was observed, leaving a characteristic signature: the DISET was suddenly moved off the triple-point and the current dropped abruptly to a lower level, where it remained for many minutes. Empirically, RTSs that induced signals well above the average noise level did not seem to switch back for times much longer than typical measurement times ($`1\mathrm{min}`$). This qualitative behaviour can be used to identify and therefore reject such spurious signals.

So far, we have performed our experiments at low frequencies below $`500\mathrm{Hz}`$. Fast operation, however, opens up the possibility of investigating processes that otherwise would be inaccessible due to fast decay or relaxation processes. In the DISET, fast operation at radio-frequencies should be possible by inclusion in a $`LCR`$ tank circuit, as has been achieved for conventional SETs Schoelkopf et al. (1998) and twin-SET architectures Buehler et al. (2003).

In conclusion, we have observed current suppression due to correlated electron transport in a DISET and a coupled, floating DD, thereby detecting degenerate and non-degenerate charge configurations of the DD. The maximum signal-to-noise ratio was observed when biasing the DISET to a triple-point of its charge configuration map. Furthermore, these biasing conditions also provide a means for rejection of spurious charge noise.

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council, the Australian government and by the US National Security Agency (NSA), Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) and the Army Research Office (ARO) under contract number DAAD19-01-1-0653. The authors would like to thank D.J. Reilly and A.J. Ferguson for helpful discussions, and D. Barber for technical support.