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# Associative memory on a small-world neural network

## 1 Small-world neural networks

Artificial neural networks have been used as a model for associative memory since the 80’s, and a considerable amount of work has been made in the field amit ; peretto . Most of this work regards both the simulation and the theory of completely connected networks, as well as networks with a random dilution of the connectivity. It is known that particular prescriptions for the determination of the synaptic weights enable these systems to successfully retrieve a pattern out of a set of memorized ones. This behavior is observed in the system up to a certain value of the number of stored patterns, beyond which the network becomes unable to retrieve any of them. For reasons of simplicity of the models and their analytical tractability, complex architectures of the networks, more akin to those found in biological neural systems, have been largely left out of the theoretical analysis. Fortunately, since a few years ago, a class of models that has come to be known as “complex networks” began to be thoroughly studied. Complex networks seem more compatible with the geometrical properties of many biological and social phenomena than regular lattices, random networks, or completely connected systems watts1998 ; barabasi99 ; newman00 ; watts . Already in the seminal work of Watts and Strogatz watts1998 , whose small-world model combines properties of regular and random networks, it was observed that the neural system of the nematode C. elegans shares topological properties with this model networks.

In this paper we study a neural network built upon the Watts-Strogatz model for small worlds. The model interpolates between regular and random networks by means of a parameter $`p`$, which characterizes the disorder of the network. The construction, as formulated in Ref. watts1998 , begins with a one-dimensional regular lattice of $`N`$ nodes, each one linked to its $`K`$ nearest neighbors to the right and to the left, and with periodic boundary conditions. With probability $`p`$, each one of the right-pointing links, of every node, is rewired to a randomly chosen node in the network. Self connections and repeated connections are not allowed. The result is a disordered network, defined by the set $`N`$, $`K`$, $`p`$, that lies between a regular lattice ($`p=0`$) and a random graph ($`p=1`$). A wide range of these networks displays high local clusterization and short average distance between nodes, as many real complex networks. They can be defined by the connectivity matrix $`c_{ij}`$, where $`c_{ij}=1`$ if there is a link between nodes $`i`$ and $`j`$, and $`c_{ij}=0`$ otherwise. We use this matrix to establish the synaptic connections between neurons, at variance from the traditional Hopfield model, where the network is completely connected and the connectivity matrix is $`c_{ij}=1`$, $`i,j`$. At $`p=1`$ it coincides with the standard diluted disordered networks, that have also been considered in the literature, in which randomly chosen elements in the connectivity matrix are set to zero.

The biological neuron carries out an operation on the inputs provided by other neurons, and it produces an output. A transformation of this continuous output into a binary variable makes it possible to formulate a simplified model in which the neurons are logical elements (Ref. amit , chapter 2). In this binary representation, the state of each neuron is characterized by a single variable $`s_i`$. This variable can take two values representing the active and the inactive states,

$$s_i=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill 1& \text{ if the neuron is active},\hfill \\ \hfill 1& \text{ if the neuron is inactive}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(1)
The purpose of an associative memory model, is to retrieve some patterns that have been stored in the network by an unspecified learning process. The stored—or memorized—patterns are represented by network states $`\xi ^\mu `$, where $`\mu =1,\mathrm{},M`$ labels the different patterns and $`M`$ is their number. As usual, the patterns are generated at random, assigning with equal probability $`1/2`$ the values $`\xi _i^\mu =\pm 1`$. The patterns are uncorrelated and thus orthogonal in large networks:

$$\frac{1}{N}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\xi _i^\mu \xi _i^\nu =\delta _{\mu \nu }.$$
(2)
The state of the neurons is updated asynchronously, as in Glauber dynamics. At each simulation step, a neuron is chosen at random, and its new state is determined by the local field:

$$h_i=\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}\omega _{ij}s_j,$$
(3)
according to:

$$s_i=\text{sign}(h_i).$$
(4)
The synaptic weights $`\omega _{ij}`$ of the connections are given by Hebb’s rule, restricted to the synapsis actually present in the network, as given by the connectivity matrix:

$$w_{ij}=\frac{1}{N}\underset{\mu =1}{\overset{M}{}}c_{ij}\xi _i^\mu \xi _j^\mu $$
(5)
for $`i,j=1,\mathrm{},N`$. Note that as the network model does not allow self connections the diagonal matrix elements are null. By definition, the synaptic matrix is symmetric.

The dynamics prescribed by Eqs. (3) and (4) is deterministic, and the network is not subject to thermal fluctuations. We will only consider the effects of a small amount of additive noise to verify the robustness of our results. A full discussion of the effect of a finite temperature in the dynamics will be left for future work. The stochastic asynchronous update, though, prevents the system from having limit cycles, and the only attractors are fixed points. The stored patterns $`\xi ^\mu `$ are, by construction of the synaptic weights (5), fixed points of the dynamics due to the orthogonality condition. In the model, “memory” is the capacity of the network to retrieve one of the stored patterns from an arbitrary initial condition. As in traditional models, the reversed patterns $`(\xi _i)`$, as well as a wealth of symmetric and asymmetric mixtures of patterns, are also equilibria of the system and play a significant role in its behavior as a memory device.

## 2 Effect of the disordered topology

We have performed extensive numerical simulations of the system, starting from a random unbiased initial condition. After a transient, a fixed point is reached, whence no further changes occur to any neuron. In order to measure the efficacy of the network to recall a number $`M`$ of stored random patterns, we define an efficacy $`\phi `$ as the fraction of realizations in which one of the stored patterns is retrieved. In Fig. 1 we plot the order parameter $`\phi `$ as a function of the disorder parameter $`p`$. The different curves correspond to different numbers of stored patterns, $`M=1`$, $`2`$, $`5`$, $`10`$, and $`20`$. For this plot we have used $`N=5\times 10^3`$ and $`K=100`$. Averages have been taken over $`10^4`$ realizations. For each realization we use different patterns, as well as different initial conditions. Figure 1 shows that on highly ordered networks the system does not retrieve any stored pattern. Then there is a transition as the disorder parameter $`p`$ grows, and above some critical value of $`p`$, patterns are retrieved as fixed points yielding $`\phi >0`$. For $`M=1`$ and $`M=2`$, $`\phi 1`$ above $`p0.4`$. But for $`M>2`$ we find that $`\phi `$ does not grow monotonically with $`p`$. Instead, it decays as $`p`$ grows after reaching a maximum value. This surprising non monotonic behavior with the disorder parameter $`p`$ has been observed before in a problem of biased diffusion zanette02 , and in an Ising model sanchez2002 , both with asymmetric interactions.

In the inset of Fig. 1 we plot $`\phi `$ vs. $`M`$ for a disordered network with $`p=1`$. As the number of stored patterns $`M`$ grows, the network is not able to retrieve them. The curve also shows a non monotonic behavior with $`M`$. The transition as the number of stored patterns grows has already been studied in diluted disordered networks (Ref. amit , chapter 7). It is known that random dilution reduces capacity of a neural network in a way which is proportional to the fraction of available connections. For our system (which is very diluted) the transition, then, takes place at $`M_c0.15(K/N)N=15`$, as observed. Nevertheless, we are mostly interested in the behavior of the system regarding the different topologies characterized by $`p`$. The fact that the transition between the remembering and the non-remembering phases occurs at a finite value of the disorder parameter is very interesting, since a few dynamical systems based on small-world architectures show it kuperman2001 ; zanette2002 ; szabo2003 . This occurs in spite of the fact that the average distance between nodes, the main geometrical property of the Watts-Strogatz model, has a transition at $`p=0`$ barrat . Indeed, for several Ising-like systems, which bear some similarities with artificial neural networks, a phase transition occurs at $`p=0`$ barrat ; zhu03 ; herrero02 ; kim01 .

In order to understand the finite size effects in the system, and the behavior of the transition in the limit of an infinite system, we have made simulations on systems of different sizes. We have chosen to keep the connectivity parameter of the model constant through all the results we show, $`K=100`$. In this regard, our results correspond to a neural network characterized by certain properties at the local level, for example the average connectivity of each neuron ($`2K`$ in our systems). Our finite size analysis shows the behavior of these networks in systems of increasing size $`N`$ and in the limit $`N\mathrm{}`$.

The plot of $`\phi `$ vs. $`p`$ for different values of $`N`$ is shown in Fig. 2. For this curves we have set $`K=100`$ and $`M=5`$, averaging over $`10^4`$ independent realizations. As seen in the figure, all the curves seem to cross for the same value of the disorder parameter $`p=p_c0.333`$.

Based on numerical evidence, we find that the dependence of the efficacy on the system size can be built into a scaling function:

$$\phi (p,N)=\mathrm{\Phi }\left[(pp_c)N^\alpha \right].$$
(6)
At the point of crossing of the curves, $`\phi `$ becomes independent of $`N`$.

Since the order parameter is not singular at the transition, we can expand $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ as a Taylor series around the critical control parameter $`p_c`$:

$$\phi (p,N)=\mathrm{\Phi }(0)+\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(0)(pp_c)N^\alpha ,$$
(7)
to first order in $`(pp_c)`$. Defining $`\stackrel{~}{\phi }=\phi \phi (p_c)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{p}=pp_c`$ we can write:

$$\frac{\stackrel{~}{\phi }}{\stackrel{~}{p}}(N)|_{\stackrel{~}{p}=0}=\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(0)N^\alpha .$$
(8)
Plotting on a log-log scale the derivative $`\stackrel{~}{\phi }/\stackrel{~}{p}|_0`$ vs. $`N`$, we obtain the exponent $`\alpha `$ as the slope of the line. Using data from $`N=2\times 10^3`$ to $`N=10^5`$, we find $`\alpha =0.23\pm 0.04`$, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(0)=0.096\pm 0.016`$. In the inset of Fig. 2, we plot the re-scaled curves for different $`N`$. The best data collapse is obtained with $`\alpha =0.2`$, compatible with the above result. Observe that the data corresponding to $`N=10^3`$ (squares) fail to match the scaling curve, indicating a lower bound of what can be considered a “large” system for this model.

Except in the relatively narrow range of $`p`$ where $`\phi 1`$, the system fails to retrieve any stored pattern in a significant fraction of the realizations: almost always when the network is very ordered (down to $`p=0`$), and about 12% of the times when the network is very disordered (up to $`p=1`$). What happens in the phase space as the network architecture changes? What happens to the trajectories, and why are the patterns missed? It seems natural to expect that the energy landscape is different for $`p=0`$ than for $`p=1`$. To address this problem we turn our attention to the properties of the overlaps of the equilibrium state with the memorized patterns. Suppose that after a transient the network has reached a fixed point $`\zeta `$. We define the overlap of this fixed point with the patterns as

$$\theta ^\mu =\frac{1}{N}\left|\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\xi _i^\mu \zeta _i\right|.$$
(9)
Note that if the fixed point is a stored pattern, $`\zeta =\xi ^\nu `$, then $`\theta ^\nu =1`$. In order to determine the type of fixed points that are reached when the network misses the patterns, we measure the overlap $`\theta ^\mu `$ of the fixed point with the stored patterns $`\xi ^\mu `$. The probability distribution $`P(\theta )`$ of these overlaps gives information on the kind of mixture that the fixed point is. Figure 3 shows the overlap distributions for several levels of disorder in the network. In this plots, $`N=2\times 10^3`$, $`K=100`$, $`M=5`$ and $`10^6`$ realizations are used per curve. For the three higher values of $`p`$, the distributions have a high peak at $`\theta =1`$, which is not shown for reasons of scale. This peak corresponds to the realizations that end up in a pattern, which happens frequently whenever $`p>p_c`$, as seen in Fig. 2. The somewhat broader peak that these distributions have at low values of $`\theta `$ has the same origin, since the overlaps with the other $`M1`$ patterns have a low value whenever a pattern is reached. Indeed, the overlap of two uncorrelated states has a mean value $`\theta _0=0.022`$. In the intermediate range of $`\theta `$, the distribution presents a broad bump around $`\theta =1/2`$. This corresponds to symmetric mixtures of the patterns, although the width of this bump suggests that asymmetric mixtures are present as well. In particular, the smaller peak present around $`\theta 0.35`$ for the completely random network, corresponds to asymmetric mixtures. In contrast with these three cases—at and above the critical point—for ordered networks with $`p=0`$ the overlap distribution is broad and does not have peak at $`\theta =1`$. It has a maximum at $`\theta =0`$ and decays as $`\theta `$ grows, but large overlaps are observed in some realizations as the distribution shows. This is the only curve for which the complete distribution is shown. As the distribution suggests, the fixed points of these systems consist of very asymmetric mixtures.

The previous analysis unveiled the structure of the phase space and the difference between the low and the high $`p`$ regimes. Still, what is the reason for the catastrophic loss of memory below the critical value of disorder? We have found that, for low values of disorder, the fixed points retrieve scattered pieces of several stored patterns. These fixed points consist of localized regions that overlap with different patterns. Indeed, at $`p=0`$, the network is topologically very clusterized, and there exist local neighborhoods relatively isolated from each other. These neighborhoods begin to disappear by the action of the shortcuts provided by the random rewiring at higher values of $`p`$, until the whole system becomes essentially a single neighborhood. Then, at $`p=0`$, from an arbitrary initial condition, different regions of the network eventually align themselves with different patterns. The final result is a completely asymmetric mixture, impossible to classify due to the arbitrariness of its origin and nature. These are the states that the broad distribution of overlaps describes, in Fig. 3, for $`p=0`$. The existence of asymmetric mixtures as attractors in this kind of associative memory model have been observed before (see for example amit , chapter 4). But since they are very rare in the completely random or in the completely connected networks, they are very difficult to observe. In the present context, however, they play an essential role in the destruction of the ability of the system to retrieve the patterns.

In order to quantify this, we proceed to define a correlation measure that provides a clear picture of the situation. We introduce the difference of the fixed point $`\zeta `$ with a given pattern:

$$d_i^\mu =\xi _i^\mu \zeta _i=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill 1& \text{ if }\xi _i^\mu =\zeta _i,\hfill \\ \hfill 1& \text{ if }\xi _i^\mu \zeta _i.\hfill \end{array}$$
(10)
Then we define a local magnetization for the difference vector $`d^\mu `$, for every node $`i`$:

$$m_i^\mu =\frac{1}{1+k_i}\left|d_i^\mu +\underset{j𝒱_i}{}d_j^\mu \right|,$$
(11)
where $`𝒱_i`$ is the set of neighbors of node $`i`$. The local magnetization $`m_i^\mu `$ measures the local alignment with the $`\mu `$ pattern or its reversed companion. The maximum value $`m_i^\mu =1`$ arises when $`d_j^\mu =d_i^\mu `$ $`j𝒱_i`$. The presence of connected domains where the fixed point $`\zeta `$ overlaps with the $`\xi ^\mu `$ pattern should be detected as short range correlations between the local magnetizations. The correlation between the local magnetizations of the difference vector with the $`\mu `$ pattern are then defined as:

$$C^\mu =\frac{1}{N}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{1}{k_i}\underset{j𝒱_i}{}m_i^\mu m_j^\mu .$$
(12)
As we intend to capture the existence of correlations in the difference with patterns that appear in the mixture that makes up the fixed point $`\zeta `$, we define the maximum correlation

$$C=\underset{\mu }{\mathrm{max}}\left\{C^\mu \right\}.$$
(13)
Figure 4 presents the probability distribution $`P(C)`$ for different levels of network disorder. Each distribution is constructed over $`10^6`$ realizations of $`N=2\times 10^3`$ networks, with connectivity $`K=100`$. For $`p=0`$ we observe a broad peak centered around $`C0.3`$. This is a quantitative measure of the occurrence of correlations on ordered networks, as we pointed out. For the other values of $`p`$ considered in the figure, the distribution has a sharp peak at $`C=1`$ which we have not shown for reasons of scale, corresponding to the fixed points that coincide with a pattern, and consequently give the highest possible value of the correlation. Besides this peak, the most disordered systems show a narrow peak at $`C0.25`$, and the curve for $`p=1`$ also a smaller one at $`C0.15`$. These two peaks correspond to symmetric and asymmetric mixtures, respectively. For $`p=0.333`$, very close to the critical point, the distribution presents a very small bump at $`C0.3`$. It is easy to see, form the extended region of $`P(C)`$ in the curve for $`p=0`$, that the mixtures are characterized by higher local correlation in the ordered system than in the disordered ones.

## 3 Discussion

We have studied a model of associative memory based on neural networks with a complex topology. This kind of connectivity can be considered as more similar to the biological networks than the completely connected or randomly diluted networks. Many of the general features of these systems are preserved: the network is able to retrieve a memorized pattern, up to a saturation. Besides, we have found a critical dependence of the efficacy of retrieval on the disorder parameter of the network: a collapse of the memory capability takes place at a finite value of the disorder parameter. The optimal performance of the system occurs at an intermediate value of the disorder, just above the critical value. This enhanced performance occurs far away from the region of $`p=1`$, which is equivalent to the well known models of completely connected or randomly connected neural networks. We have characterized the different phases by the properties of the mixture states, that prevent the system to reach one of the memorized states.

We have understood the failure of the more ordered networks to retrieve a stored pattern due to the partition of the system into arbitrary neighborhoods aligned with more than one pattern. This is something that the disordered networks cannot do, and in fact the distributions of the overlaps and of the correlations quantify this effect. It does not escape us that we cannot, at this stage, provide an explanation of the enhanced performance of the intermediate region.

We have checked the robustness of our results with respect to a small amount of noise in the dynamics. This has been implemented by flipping, with probability $`ϵ`$, one neuron at random after each deterministic step. For values of $`ϵ`$ up to $`0.01`$, the results are indistinguishable from the noiseless system. For greater values of $`ϵ`$ the system becomes more and more ineffective to retrieve a pattern, but the general form of the curves $`\phi (p)`$ is preserved for the whole range of $`p`$. A systematic analysis of the problem of a truly noisy network, characterized by a temperature, remains to be done.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors acknowledge fruitful discussions with D. H. Zanette. G.A. thanks the Abdus Salam ICTP for its hospitality, and Fundación Antorchas for financial support.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In a recent paper , we suggested an inflationary scenario which builds on Guth’s old inflation . The basic idea is to start in a false vacuum as in old inflation, and construct our observed universe from a single bubble of false vacuum decay. This requires a brief period of inflation after bubble nucleation, and suitable mechanisms for reheating and production of density perturbations within the bubble. This cosmological sequence is similar in spirit to “New” inflation , but the way it is achieved in our scenario is dramatically different. The key difference is that the “clock” that controls the expansion of the bubble is not a local order parameter, i.e., the slowly rolling inflaton field. Instead, it is an averaged amplitude of a quickly oscillating scalar field, that locks the system in an inflationary state. Simple toy models which accomplish this aim were presented in . They involve a rolling scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ which stabilizes a second field $`\varphi `$ in its false vacuum.111The potentials studed in  are essentially identical to those which occur in hybrid inflation , though we only use the potential in a small-field region where slow-roll inflation would not occur. With different choices of parameters than we make, these potentials have also been studied in connection with parametric resonance in . The $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ field oscillations are redshifted away during inflation, and eventually $`\varphi `$ is destabilized and rolls to its true vacuum.

The idea of separating the inflationary “clock” from the velocity of the slowly rolling scalar field goes back to Linde’s “Hybrid Inflation” , in which (in some regimes) the inflation can be terminated almost instantly by triggering a phase transition in the second field. However, the clock that triggers this transition is still a local slowly-rolling field. In this respect our attitude is more radical, since in our case what changes slowly is not a local scalar field, but rather its averaged amplitude.

The chief merit of these models is that the required inflationary potentials are natural from the viewpoint of softly broken supersymmetry, and do not have to satisfy any restrictive slow-roll conditions. However some restrictive assumptions are required to design full models with appropriate reheating and density perturbations.

In particular, for the choices of scales which are natural in the models of , it is necessary to find a nonstandard way of generating the observed density perturbations – given the low scale of inflation and the absence of slow-roll in the minimal scenario, the perturbations generated by the inflaton are negligible. The decay-rate fluctuation mechanism of  is ideal for this purpose, and was suggested as an appropriate framework. In this note, we point out that in models of this sort, generic non-renormalizable couplings of the fluctuating modulus field $`\chi `$ of  to the rolling scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ which produces the bubble inflation can have striking observational consequences. They give the $`\chi `$ field an effective mass $`m_\chi >H_{}`$ during the early e-foldings of the bubble inflation, leading to an absence of perturbations on the largest scales! The perturbations turn on as the oscillation amplitude of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ decays away, and $`m_\chi `$ relaxes to $`m_\chi <<H_{}`$. This can have two interesting consequences:

1) For reasonable choices of the $`\mathrm{\Phi }\chi `$ coupling, one can design models where the perturbations become negligible at scales close to our present horizon size. CMB measurements at the largest scale are cosmic-variance limited, and so one would like to find other consequences/predictions of such a scenario.

2) In the same class of scenarios, one finds that the spectral index $`n(k)`$ has striking behavior at the wavelengths where the $`\chi `$ field mass is passing through $`H_{}`$. The form of $`n(k)`$ that one finds is unlike that which occurs in other inflationary models, and is in principle a testable prediction.

The organization of this note is as follows. In §2, we describe the scenario of . In §3, we show how the imprinting of density perturbations can be influenced by generic non-renormalizable couplings between the inflaton $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and the fluctuating modulus field $`\chi `$. In three brief appendices, we address several questions about the approximations that yield our inflationary scenario. We explain how the small numbers in our potentials come naturally from soft susy breaking scenarios, we show that tunneling to nonzero values of $`\varphi `$ or $`\dot{\varphi }`$ is highly unlikely (such paths are quickly drawn back to the one we considered in ), and we show that perturbative annihilation of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ quanta has a negligible influence on our scenario.

Several other ideas about producing features in the CMB at low $`l`$ have been proposed, see e.g.  and references therein. In particular in section IIIB of , similar potentials to ours are discussed in a different regime, in exploring a different idea about the same problem.

## 2 Scenario

The basic building block of our “locked” inflationary scenario is a system of two scalar fields $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\varphi `$ with an unsuppressed cross-coupling in the potential,

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^2\varphi ^2,$$
(1)
such that when either of the fields is large, the other one acquires a big mass and gets “nailed” to a zero value. This is a characteristic feature of the “hybrid” model , where this coupling traps one field in a false vacuum, while the other is slowly-rolling. The regime that we are exploring, however, does not rely on the slow-roll.

We assume that the self-interaction potentials $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ and $`V(\varphi )`$ are generated as a result of supersymmetry-breaking effects in the Kähler potential, and are such that the system has: 1) a false minimum at some $`\varphi =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0},\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }_{false}M_P`$, 2) a true minimum at $`\varphi =\varphi _{true},\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$, and 3) a saddle point at $`\varphi =\mathrm{\Phi }=0`$. Inflation starts in the false vacuum, where $`\varphi `$ has a mass $`M_P`$, and cannot affect the tunneling dynamics. So $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ tunnels towards the saddle point, and materializes at some initial value $`M_P`$ or so. Throughout this process, the $`\varphi `$ field is superheavy and is firmly fixed at zero value (since this has caused some confusion, see the appendix for elaboration on this point). After bubble nucleation, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ rolls towards the saddle point and oscillates about it. These oscillations induce an effective positive mass2 term for the $`\varphi `$ field, and prevent an instability in the $`\varphi `$-direction from developing. Hence the system is locked in a temporary false vacuum state, with energy density consisting of the constant false vacuum potential energy at the saddle point, plus the energy density of the oscillator, which redshifts as matter.

Eventually, the oscillator energy density becomes sub-dominant and the system inflates. Since $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is a very weakly self-coupled field, we shall ignore the non-linear part of its self-interactions after tunneling and will only keep the harmonic term in the potential. The potential then has the form

$$m_\mathrm{\Phi }^2\mathrm{\Phi }^2+\mathrm{\Phi }^2\varphi ^2+V(\varphi )$$
(2)
where $`V(\varphi )`$ is a self-coupling potential of $`\varphi `$, which has a maximum at $`\varphi =0`$ and a minimum at $`\varphi =\varphi _{true}`$.

Before discussing $`V(\varphi )`$, let us briefly discuss corrections to the potential of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Since inflation breaks supersymmetry (spontaneously), the perturbative corrections to the Kähler potential arising from $`\varphi `$-loops will correct the potential of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, even if all other corrections are absent . The resulting one-loop Coleman-Weinberg potential for $`\mathrm{\Phi }>>m_{soft}^2`$ behaves as

$$V_{oneloop}\frac{m_{soft}^2}{32\pi ^2}|\mathrm{\Phi }|^2\mathrm{ln}(|\mathrm{\Phi }|),$$
(3)
where $`m^2`$ is a soft mass of $`\varphi `$. The cancellation of the $`\mathrm{\Phi }^4`$ term among bosons and fermions is a general consequence of supersymmetry, which holds even though we evaluate corrections along the inflationary trajectory where SUSY is spontaneously broken . It is clear that in our case, these correction are so small that they are unimportant for the inflationary dynamics. However, as we shall see, similar corrections may play an important role in creating a non-trivial tilt in the spectrum of perturbations.

We shall assume that $`V(\varphi )`$ is a typical potential for a field which is a supersymmetric flat direction, whose potential comes entirely from the Kähler potential after supersymmetry-breaking. The corrections to the Kähler potential that induce the $`\varphi `$ VEV may come either from tree-level gravity-mediated susy-breaking or from perturbative renormalization due to matter loops. In the former case the VEV at the true minimum is typically $`\varphi _{true}M_P`$, whereas in the latter case we may have $`\varphi _{true}<<M_P`$. Both possibilities are considered in the appendix. Irrespective of the precise form of these corrections, for the flat direction fields whose potentials and preferred VEVs are generated as a result of soft supersymmetry breaking, the following is true in general. The curvature at $`\varphi =0`$ is $`m_{soft}^2`$, and the value of the false vacuum energy is

$$V(0)=m_{soft}^2(\frac{\varphi _{true}^p}{M_{P}^{}{}_{}{}^{p2}})$$
(4)
for some $`p`$. For instance for the model discussed in §2 of , one has $`p=4`$.

The inflationary Hubble parameter in such a model is given by $`H_{}m_{soft}(\frac{\varphi _{true}}{M_P})^{p/2}`$. The bubble size today is:

$$R_{today}c^{\frac{5p}{6}}\left(\frac{M_P}{H_{}}\right)^{\frac{7}{6}}\frac{1}{T_{today}}$$
(5)
where $`c=\varphi _{true}/M_P`$. This expression was derived as follows. The initial value of the $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ field inside the bubble is $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{in}M_P`$. Hence the initial energy density is $`m_{soft}^2M_P^2`$, and the initial Hubble $`Hm_{soft}`$, which also sets the size of most generic bubble to be $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/m_{soft}`$. If $`\varphi _{true}<<M_P`$, initially the energy of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-oscillations dominates and there is an interval of matter-dominated expansion until the energy of oscillations becomes sub-dominant to $`V(0)`$ (that is until the amplitude of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ becomes less than $`M_Pc^{p/2}`$). During the matter-dominated interval the bubble interior grows by a factor $`c^{\frac{p}{3}}`$, after which inflation begins and the universe begins to exponentially expand. The expansion factor during the subsequent phase of locked inflation is given by

$$e^N=\left(c^{p/21}\frac{\varphi _{true}}{m_{soft}}\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}.$$
(6)
Finally there is an additional expansion factor after reheating

$$\frac{T_R}{T_{today}}\frac{\sqrt{H_{}M_P}}{T_{today}}$$
(7)
Combining all the factors, we find equation (5).

## 3 Density perturbations

The density perturbations are generated through the “decay-rate-fluctuation” mechanism of references . The idea is that the decay rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of the field $`\varphi `$ (or some other field responsible for the reheating, as in §4.2 of ) is controlled by a fluctuating modulus field. This is reasonably motivated by string theory, where couplings of the low energy fields are set by the expectation values of moduli. Let $`\chi `$ be a modulus that controls the decay rate of $`\varphi `$. If the mass of $`\chi `$ is an order of magnitude smaller than $`H_{}`$, fluctuations will be imprinted in $`\chi `$ during inflation. These $`\chi `$ fluctuations will translate into density perturbations because they will lead to fluctuations in the $`\varphi `$ decay rate during reheating. The resulting density perturbations are given by

$$\frac{\delta \rho }{\rho }=\frac{2}{3}\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}$$
(8)
Because $`\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }\delta \chi `$, the spectrum of perturbations will be set by the spectrum of $`\chi `$ fluctuations.

Our main point is the following. In the presence of generic Planck scale suppressed interactions between $`\chi `$ and the oscillating inflaton field, the resulting spectrum is very peculiar and exhibits a sharp cut-off at large wavelengths, which is potentially observable. Imagine that $`\chi `$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ have the following generic coupling in the potential, arising from a coupling in the superpotential:

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }^n}{M_P^{n2}}\chi ^2$$
(9)
Then, the fluctuations in $`\chi `$ at the beginning of inflation will be strongly suppressed, due to its high effective mass

$$\mu _{eff}^2=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_{in}^n}{M_P^{n2}}e^{\frac{3}{2}nN}+\mu ^2,$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the amplitude of oscillations and $`N`$ is the number of e-foldings since the start of inflation. $`\mu `$ is the “bare” mass of $`\chi `$, which for us means the full contribution to the mass arising from the the Kähler potential (generally field-dependent). We assume it to be somewhat below $`H_{}`$. Fluctuations of $`\chi `$ then are governed by the following equation

$$\ddot{\delta \chi _k}+\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}H\dot{\delta \chi _k}+(\mu _{eff}^2+k^2/a^2)\delta \chi _k=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}$$
(11)
So $`\chi `$ can only start to fluctuate after its effective mass drops below $`\mu _cH_{}`$, which happens only some critical number $`N_c`$ of e-foldings after the onset of inflation. Hence, density perturbations should be cut-off at large scales.

To estimate $`N_c`$ recall that inflation begins when the amplitude of $`\mathrm{\Phi }M_Pc^{p/2}`$, and after this point it decays as $`\mathrm{\Phi }=M_Pc^{p/2}e^{\frac{3}{2}N}`$. Thus, we find

$$e^{N_c}\left(\frac{H_{}}{M_P}\right)^{\frac{4}{3n}}c^{\frac{p}{3}}$$
(12)
Correspondingly the maximal wavelength beyond which perturbations will be suppressed is given by

$$k_c^1c^{\frac{p}{3}}\left(\frac{M_P}{H_{}}\right)^{\frac{7}{6}\frac{4}{3n}}\frac{1}{T_{today}}$$
(13)
Taking $`c=1`$ and $`p=4`$ (as in ), with $`H_{}10^{12}`$ GeV (to allow TeV reheating), this is roughly the size of the present horizon ($`10^{28}`$ cm) for $`n=6`$. For the more generically expected $`n=4`$, one would have to choose smaller values for $`H_{}`$ and/or $`c`$ to accommodate a sufficiently small wavelength to be relevant to observations in our horizon.

It is well known that cosmic variance bounds make it difficult to improve our certainty about the significance of the observed low quadrupole and octupole in the CMB. However, the measurements of the spectral index $`n(k)`$ will improve in the future. With this in mind, let us now discuss the $`k`$-dependence of the cut-off. The perturbations generated at $`N<N_c`$ (that today have $`k<k_c`$) are suppressed as

$$\delta _{N<N_c}H_{}e^{\frac{2\pi \mu (t)}{H_{}}}=H_{}e^{2\pi e^{(NN_c)\frac{3n}{4}}}$$
(14)
This can be simply understood: de Sitter space has a Gibbons-Hawking temperature $`\frac{H_{}}{2\pi }`$ , and (14) is just a reflection of the Boltzmann-suppressed excitations of a massive field at this temperature. Hence today we should see a sharp cut-off in the perturbation amplitude at large scales with the following $`k`$-dependence

$$e^{2\pi \left(\frac{k_c}{k}\right)^{\frac{3n}{4}}}.$$
(15)
This is a very sharp cut-off even for the lowest possible choice of $`n=4`$, and implies an abrupt decline in the spectrum for $`k<k_c`$.

The fit of the observed data to a perturbation spectrum with a sharp cut-off was done in reference , according to which the best fit occurs for $`k_c^110^{28}`$cm. Although our cutoff is smoother than the one postulated by the authors of , from the existing analysis it seems difficult to distinguish between the two possibilities, and more precise studies are needed.

Because our cut-off is so sharp for $`k<k_c`$, it would be difficult to distinguish this mechanism from others which produce a sharp cutoff based on that feature alone. However, we also have a very different prediction for the behavior of the spectral index $`n(k)`$ on scales $`k>k_c`$. In particular, the way the tilt is imprinted in the spectral index is very different from the standard inflationary case. In slow roll inflation, the primary source for the tilt is the fact that the Hubble parameter inevitably changes during the last $`60`$ or so e-foldings, resulting in a subsequent change of the perturbation amplitude (this is the reason that in standard inflationary models, having $`n=1`$ is unnatural). For a thorough discussion of the perturbations in standard inflation, see e.g. . In our scenario, the Hubble parameter is essentially constant throughout the inflationary period and its evolution cannot result in a tilt. A tilt is nevertheless generated during the evolution of $`\chi `$-fluctuations on superhorizon scales, due to the simple fact that different wavelengths spent different amounts of time before finally being translated into density perturbations by reheating.

After a given wavelength of $`\chi `$ crosses outside the inflationary horizon (or more precisely, after $`k/a<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/\mu `$), the $`k^2`$-term in equation (11) becomes subdominant and the mode is almost frozen, apart from the fact that the small “bare” mass term $`\mu ^2`$ very slowly pushes it down. As stated above, this mass term comes from the Kähler potential, and is assumed to be somewhat below $`H_{}`$. Because $`\chi `$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are most likely coupled through the Kähler potential, $`\mu `$ is not in general a constant throughout the inflation, but rather undergoes some change itself.

For $`\mu ^2(t)<<H_{}^2`$, the $`\ddot{\delta \chi _k}`$ term in equation (11) is subdominant, and the evolution of the fluctuations on superhorizon scales is given by the following equation:

$$\delta \chi _k\mathrm{e}^{_0^t\frac{\mu ^2(\tau )}{3H_{}}𝑑\tau }$$
(16)
Remembering that $`k\mathrm{e}^{H_{}t}`$, this can be recast as

$$\delta \chi _kk^{\frac{1}{t}_0^t\frac{\mu ^2(\tau )}{3H_{}^2}𝑑\tau }$$
(17)
This implies that the spectral index is given by

$$n\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}=\frac{1}{t}_0^t\frac{\mu ^2(\tau )}{3H_{}^2}𝑑\tau $$
(18)
and for the running we have

$$\frac{dn}{d\mathrm{ln}k}=\frac{1}{(\mathrm{ln}k)^2}_0^t\frac{\mu ^2(\tau )}{3H_{}}𝑑\tau +\frac{1}{\mathrm{ln}k}\frac{\mu ^2(t)}{3H_{}^2}$$
(19)
For the particular case of a constant $`\mu ^2`$ we would immediately get

$$n\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}=\frac{\mu ^2}{3H_{}^2}$$
(20)
However, in general $`\mu (t)`$ won’t be constant, even after the contribution from the cross couplings in the superpotential become negligible. This is because of the cross couplings between $`\chi `$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ in the Kähler potential. It follows from the standard rules for supersymmetric Lagrangians that these couplings are universally suppressed by the soft supersymmetry breaking scale (the Kähler potential couplings can only contribute in the scalar potential if the auxiliary $`F`$-component of at least one of the chiral superfields is non-zero, see the appendix for a detailed discussion). In our case the susy breaking scale is $`H_{}^2`$, and so the corrections to $`\mu ^2`$ coming from the Kähler potential can generically be parameterized as

$$\mu ^2=H_{}^2\left(\alpha _0+\alpha _1\mathrm{ln}(|\mathrm{\Phi }|)+\alpha _2(\mathrm{ln}(|\mathrm{\Phi }|))^2+\mathrm{}+(|\mathrm{\Phi }|/M_P)^n+\mathrm{}\right)$$
(21)
where we have explicitly separated the $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-independent ($`\alpha _0`$-term) and the different types of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-dependent contributions. The $`\alpha `$-coefficients parameterize their strength relative to the tree-level soft supersymmetry breaking measured by $`H_{}`$.

Because the amplitude of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ decreases exponentially quickly, the power-law terms very quickly diminish after the onset of inflation, and cannot produce any observable effect. The log-terms in contrast change very slowly, and have a potentially observable late time effect. So we shall now focus on these terms. Their origin is the perturbative renormalization of the Kähler potential. Because, unlike the superpotential, the Kähler metric is not protected by any non-renormalization theorem, it is unnatural to assume any strong suppression of the $`\alpha `$-coefficients. We shall take their typical value to be roughly a one or two-loop factor times a number of order one. Taking into account the explicit time-dependence of the $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-amplitude, and using equations (18) and (19), we arrive at the following expressions for the tilt

$$n\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}=\frac{\alpha _0}{3}+\frac{\alpha _1}{4}\mathrm{ln}\frac{k}{k_0}+\frac{\alpha _2}{4}\mathrm{ln}^2\frac{k}{k_0}$$
(22)
and the running

$$\frac{dn}{d\mathrm{ln}k}=\frac{\alpha _1}{4}+\frac{\alpha _2}{2}\mathrm{ln}\frac{k}{k_0}$$
(23)
The $`k`$-dependence of the above cosmological parameters is rather striking and different from the known inflationary models. The precise values of the $`\alpha `$-coefficients are model dependent, but their natural values are consistent with the present WMAP data and are potentially detectable in the future. According to this data , for instance, for $`k_0=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.002}`$ Mpc-1, the central value of our $`\frac{\alpha _1}{2}`$ is around $`0.077`$. This is certainly consistent with the natural assumption that $`\alpha _1`$ is a one-loop factor.

## Appendix A Appendix

### A.1 Moduli potentials

Let us briefly discuss the origin of $`V(\varphi )`$. According to our assumption, $`\varphi `$ is some supersymmetric flat direction field, and thus $`V(\varphi )`$ should vanish in an exact susy limit. Supersymmetry breaking effects transmitted through the Kähler potential induce a non-zero $`V(\varphi )`$ with a minimum at $`\varphi =\varphi _{true}`$. We shall distinguish two possibilities. The first is when the relevant Kähler terms come from tree-level gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking. In such a case the Kähler metric can be taken to be

$$K=\mathrm{\Theta }^+\mathrm{\Theta }+\mathrm{\Theta }^+\mathrm{\Theta }f\left(\frac{\varphi }{M_P}\right)+\mathrm{}$$
(24)
Here $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the “spurion” superfield whose $`F`$-term breaks supersymmetry $`\mathrm{\Theta }_F=M^2`$, and $`f`$ is some generic polynomial function

$$f=\lambda _1\frac{\varphi ^2}{M_P^2}+\lambda _2\frac{\varphi ^4}{M_P^4}+\mathrm{}$$
(25)
with $`\lambda _i1`$. After substituting the value of this $`F`$-term into (24), we generate the following effective potential for $`\varphi `$, at the leading order in the expansion in powers of $`f`$

$$V(\varphi )M^4f\left(\frac{\varphi }{M_P}\right)$$
(26)
Note the over-all minus sign in the potential relative to the Kähler potential. If $`\lambda _1>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$, the potential has a maximum at $`\varphi =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$, as we need in our inflationary scenario. Since the higher order terms only become significant for $`\varphi M_P`$, the minimum of the potential will be established only at some large value $`\varphi _{true}M_P`$.

If, however, $`\varphi `$ has some unsuppressed interactions with other gauge or chiral superfields, the minimum can be established at values much smaller than $`M_P`$. The reason is that the perturbative renormalization of the Kähler potential can dominate over the gravity-mediated higher corrections. The classic example of spontaneous symmetry breaking due to perturbative Kähler renormalization is Witten’s “inverse hierarchy” mechanism . Another simple example is the flip of the sign of the gravity-mediated soft mass for $`\varphi `$ due to perturbative running. The effective potential for $`\varphi `$ then can be approximated as

$$V(\varphi )=m_{soft}^2\varphi ^2(1+\alpha \mathrm{ln}(\varphi /M_P))+M_P\mathrm{suppressed}\mathrm{corrections}$$
(27)
where $`\alpha `$ is the renormalization loop factor, and $`m_{soft}^2=\lambda _1M^4/M_P^2`$ is the leading term in the gravity mediated contribution in (26). Choosing $`\lambda _1<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$, the minimum at $`\varphi =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$ will only get destabilized after renormalization effects are included. For $`\alpha <<1`$ the minimum then will be developed at

$$\varphi _{true}e^{\frac{2}{\alpha }}M_P$$
(28)
This gives us a natural mechanism for designing models that have $`c<1`$.

### A.2 Off-trail tunneling

We are assuming that for the generic bubble the initial condition of the system after tunneling is $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }_{in},\varphi =0`$. This is well justified for the following reason. When the system sits in the false vacuum state $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{\Phi }_{false}M_P,\varphi =0`$, the curvature of the potential in the $`\varphi `$ direction is $`M_P^2`$, and in the $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ direction it is only $`H^2`$. The energetically most favorable trajectory goes through the barrier, which is the maximum of the self-interaction potential of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. In the generic bubble, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ cannot tunnel all the way to $`\mathrm{\Phi }=0`$, but instead will be materialized at some $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{in}M_P`$ on the other side of the barrier. In the language of tunneling, this is because the relevant instanton is the Hawking-Moss instanton  which tunnels to the top of the barrier, not the true vacuum. In the language of stochastic inflation , this is because one fluctuates to the top of the hill and then rolls down, instead of fluctuating directly to the true vacuum.

Hence everywhere around the tunneling trajectory of interest $`\varphi `$ has a Planck scale mass. Since the energy scales involved in the tunneling dynamics are much smaller, it is obvious that $`\varphi `$ can be integrated out and cannot influence the tunneling dynamics. However, let us try to keep the track of $`\varphi `$ explicitly, and see what happens if the system instead tunnels to some point $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{in}M_P,\varphi _{in}0`$. Since $`\varphi `$ has a Planckian mass, tunneling to such a point would be equivalent to exciting a condensate of $`\varphi `$ particles with an occupation number $`N_\varphi M_P\varphi _{in}^2`$, and an energy density

$$\rho _\varphi M_P^2\varphi _{in}^2.$$
(29)
Unless $`\varphi _{in}<H_{}`$, the resulting energy density is bigger than the inflationary energy density, and nucleation of such a bubble will be suppressed by an additional exponential factor $`\frac{\varphi _{in}}{H_{}}`$. On the other hand if $`\varphi _{in}<H_{}`$, the system will very quickly be pulled back to the point $`\varphi =\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}`$ due to an almost instant decay of the $`\varphi `$-condensate. Indeed, the decay rate of such a condensate into $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-particles is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }m_\varphi M_P`$ (given the Planckian expectation value of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$). This is much faster than one inverse oscillation time in the $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-direction (and also much faster than the expansion rate of the Universe $`H_{}`$). So $`\varphi _{in}`$ will decay to $`\varphi =0`$ well before the system has any chance to reach the saddle point. Similar remarks obviously apply to tunneling to a configuration with $`\dot{\varphi }0`$.

### A.3 Decay rate of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$

One might worry that perturbative annihilation of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ particles to $`\varphi `$ particles could lead to an earlier end of the locked inflation than the naive estimate suggests. Here we argue that in fact, these decays are negligible.

The naive perturbative decay rate $`\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }\varphi \varphi `$ is

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{2\mathrm{\Phi }2\varphi }m_\mathrm{\Phi }$$
(30)
(the dimensionless coupling is set to one). This is only applicable, however, for small oscillation amplitudes. It does not take into account the non-perturbative effect of the $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ condensate on the $`\varphi `$ mass, which blocks the process. This can be understood as follows. During most of the oscillation time $`\varphi `$ is much heavier than $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, and annihilation is blocked. The process is allowed in a very narrow time interval (per each oscillation), during which $`\varphi `$ is lighter than $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. The corresponding fraction of time per oscillation when the annihilation is allowed is $`\frac{m_\mathrm{\Phi }}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$. Therefore to first approximation, we can model the system by saying that the annihilation rate will be suppressed to roughly

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{2\mathrm{\Phi }2\varphi }\frac{m_\mathrm{\Phi }^2}{\mathrm{\Phi }}$$
(31)
This is negligible compared to the expansion rate of the Universe $`H_{}`$, and is highly inefficient.

Acknowledgements

We thank J. Cline, S. Dimopoulos, G. Gabadadze, A. Gruzinov, A. Linde, J. Maldacena, V. Mukhanov, R. Scoccimarro, S. Shenker, A. Toporensky, D. Wands, E. Witten and M. Zaldarriaga for helpful discussions. The research of G.D. is suported in part by a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, and by NSF grant PHY-0070787. The research of S.K. is supported in part by a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, NSF grant PHY-0097915, and the DOE under contract DE-AC03-76SF00515.


text:
# The effective neutrino charge radius

## 1  Introduction

It is a well-known fact that in non-Abelian gauge theories off-shell Green’s functions depend explicitly on the gauge-fixing parameter. Therefore, the definition of quantities familiar from QED, such as effective charges and form-factors, is in general problematic. Such has been the case with the neutrino electromagnetic form-factor and the corresponding NCR. The calculational fact that, within the Standard Model, the (off-shell) one-loop $`\gamma ^{}\nu \nu `$ vertex (and the NCR obtained from it) is a gauge-dependent quantity has been established beyond any doubt in the seventies Bardeen:1972vi . Based on this observation, it was concluded that “the NCR”, which is the derivative at $`q^2=0`$ of the electromagnetic form-factor $`F(q^2)`$ extracted form this vertex, is not a physical quantity. Of course, if something is gauge-dependent it is not physical. But the fact that the off-shell vertex is gauge-dependent only means that it just does not serve as a reasonable definition of the NCR, it does not mean that an effective NCR cannot be encountered which satisfies all necessary physical properties, gauge-independence being one of them. Indeed, since then, several papers in the literature have attempted to find a modified vertex-like amplitude, leading to a consistent definition of the electromagnetic NCR (see Bernabeu:2000hf  for an extended list of references). The common underlying idea in all such papers is to rearrange the Feynman graphs contributing to the scattering amplitude of neutrinos with charged particles, in an attempt to find a vertex-like combination that would satisfy all desirable properties. Of course, in doing so, a plethora of non-trivial physical constraints need to be satisfied. For example, one should not enforce gauge-independence at the expense of introducing target-dependence. Therefore, a definite guiding-principle is needed, allowing for the construction of physical sub-amplitudes with definite kinematic structure (i.e. self-ener- gies, vertices, boxes).

## 2 The pinch technique effective vertex

What has been accomplished recently in Bernabeu:2002nw  (and some of the literature cited therein) is the proof that there exists a well-defined and finite effective three-point (vertex) Green’s function, which has the following properties: (i) it is independent of the gauge-fixing parameter ($`\xi `$); (ii) it is ultra-violet finite; (iii) it satisfies a QED-like Ward-identity; (iv) it captures all that is coupled to a genuine $`(1/q^2)`$ photon propagator; (v) it couples electromagnetically to the target; (vi) it does not depend on the $`SU(2)\times U(1)`$ quantum numbers of the target-particles used; (vii) it has a non-trivial dependence on the mass $`m_i`$ of the charged isospin partner $`f_i`$ of the neutrino in question; (viii) it contains only physical thresholds; (ix) it satisfies unitarity and analiticity; (x) it can be extracted from experiments.

The theoretical methodology allowing this physically meaningful definition is that of the pinch technique (PT) Cornwall:1982zr . The PT is a diagrammatic method which exploits the underlying symmetries encoded in a physical amplitude such as an $`S`$-matrix element, in order to construct effective Green’s functions with special properties. In the context of the NCR, the basic observation, already put forth in Bernabeu:2000hf , is that the gauge-dependent parts of the conventional $`\gamma ^{}(q)\nu \nu `$, (to which the gauge-dependent $`\mathrm{NCR}`$ is associated) communicate and eventually cancel algebraically against analogous contributions concealed inside the $`Z^{}(q)\nu \nu `$ vertex, the self-energy graphs, and the box-diagrams (if there are boxes in the process), before any integration over the virtual momenta is carried out. For example, due to rearrangement produced by the systematic triggering of elementary Ward identities the gauge-dependent contributions coming from boxes are not box-like, but propagator or vertex-like. To understand how the topological modifications, which allow the communication between initially different graphs, come about, notice that, at one-loop level, all virtual longitudinal momenta ($`k`$) originating from tree-level gauge-boson propagators inside Feynman graphs trigger two elementary Ward identities, which furnish inverse propagators. The first reads

$`\overline{)}kP_L`$ $`=`$ $`(\overline{)}k+\overline{)}p)P_LP_R\overline{)}p`$ (1)
$`=`$ $`S_f^{}^1(\overline{)}k+\overline{)}p)P_LP_RS_f^1(\overline{)}p)`$
$`+`$ $`m_f^{}P_Lm_fP_R,`$
where $`P_{R(L)}=[1+()\gamma _5]/2`$ is the chirality projection operator and $`S_f`$ is the tree-level propagator of the fermion $`f`$; $`f^{}`$ is the isodoublet-partner of the external fermion $`f`$. The second relevant Ward identity reads

$$(k+q)^\nu \mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \mu \nu }(q,k,kq)=t_{\alpha \mu }(q)t_{\alpha \mu }(k),$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \mu \nu }`$ is the bare triple-gauge-boson vertex, and $`t_{\mu \nu }(q)=q^2g_{\mu \nu }q_\mu q_\nu `$. We emphasize that all gauge-dependent parts cancel exactly at the end of the pinching procedure, even in the presence of non-vanishing fermion masses $`m_f`$ and $`m_f^{}`$, contrary to recent claims Fujikawa:2003tz .

The new one-loop proper three-point function $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{A\nu _i\overline{\nu }_i}^\mu `$ satisfies the properties listed before. In particular, properties from (iv) to (vi) ensure that it is a photon vertex, uniquely defined in the sense that it is independent of using either weak isoscalar sources (coupled to the $`B`$-field) or weak isovector sources (coupled to $`W^0`$), or any charged combination. The NCR, to be denoted by $`<r_{\nu _i}^2>`$, is then defined as $`<r_{\nu _i}^2>=6(d\widehat{F}_{\nu _i}/dq^2)_{q^2=0}`$; a straightforward calculation yields

$$<r_{\nu _i}^2>=\frac{G_F}{4\sqrt{2}\pi ^2}\left[32\mathrm{log}\left(\frac{m_i^2}{M_W^2}\right)\right],$$
(3)
where $`i=e,\mu ,\tau `$, the $`m_i`$ denotes the mass of the charged iso-doublet partner of the neutrino under consideration, and $`G_F`$ is the Fermi constant.

## 3 Measuring the effective NCR

After arriving at a physically meaningful definition for the NCR, the next crucial question is whether the NCR so defined constitutes a genuine physical observable. In the rest of this section we will briefly discuss the method proposed in Bernabeu:2002nw  for the extraction of the NCR from experiment.

It is important to emphasize that measuring the entire process $`f^\pm \nu f^\pm \nu `$ does not constitute a measurement of the NCR, because by changing the target fermions $`f^\pm `$ one will generally change the answer, thus introducing a target-dependence into a quantity which (supposedly) constitutes an intrinsic property of the neutrino. Instead, what we want to measure is the target-independent Standard Model NCR only, stripped of any contributions depending on the specific properties of the target (mass, spin, weak hypercharge), except its electric charge. Specifically, as mentioned above, the PT rearrangement of the $`S`$-matrix makes possible the definition of distinct, physically meaningful sub-amplitudes, one of which, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{A\nu _i\overline{\nu _i}}^\mu `$, is finite and directly related to the NCR. However, the remaining sub-amplitudes, such as self-energy, vertex- and box-corrections, even though they do not enter into the definition of the NCR, still contribute numerically to the entire $`S`$-matrix; in fact, some of them combine to form additional physical observables of interest, most notably the effective (running) electroweak charge and mixing angle. Thus, in order to isolate the NCR, one must conceive of a combination of experiments and kinematical conditions, such that all contributions not related to the NCR will be eliminated.

Consider the elastic processes $`f(k_1)\nu (p_1)f(k_2)\nu (p_2)`$ and $`f(k_1)\overline{\nu }(p_1)f(k_2)\overline{\nu }(p_2)`$, where $`f`$ denotes an electrically charged fermion belonging to a different iso-doublet than the neutrino $`\nu `$, in order to eliminate the diagrams mediated by a charged $`W`$-boson. The Mandelstam variables are defined as $`s=(k_1+p_1)^2=(k_2+p_2)^2`$, $`t=q^2=(p_1p_2)^2=(k_1k_2)^2`$, $`u=(k_1p_2)^2=(k_2p_1)^2`$, and $`s+t+u=0`$. In what follows we will restrict ourselves to the limit $`t=q^20`$ of the above amplitudes, assuming that all external (on-shell) fermions are massless. As a result of this special kinematic situation we have the following relations: $`p_1^2=p_2^2=k_1^2=k_2^2=p_1p_2=k_1k_2=0`$ and $`p_1k_1=p_1k_2=p_2k_1=p_2k_2=s/2`$. In the center-of-mass system we have that $`t=2E_\nu E_\nu ^{}(1x)0`$, where $`E_\nu `$ and $`E_\nu ^{}`$ are the energies of the neutrino before and after the scattering, respectively, and $`x\mathrm{cos}\theta _{cm}`$, where $`\theta _{cm}`$ is the scattering angle. Clearly, the condition $`t=0`$ corresponds to the exactly forward amplitude, with $`\theta _{cm}=0`$, $`x=1`$.

At tree-level the amplitude $`f\nu f\nu `$ is mediated by an off-shell $`Z`$-boson, coupled to the fermions by means of the bare vertex $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{Zf\overline{f}}^\mu =i(g_w/c_w)\gamma ^\mu [v_f+a_f\gamma _5]`$ with $`v_f=s_w^2Q_f\frac{1}{2}T_z^f`$ and $`a_f=\frac{1}{2}T_z^f`$.

At one-loop, the relevant contributions are determined through the PT rearrangement of the amplitude, giving rise to gauge-independent sub-amplitudes. In particular, the one-loop $`AZ`$ self-energy $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{AZ}^{\mu \nu }(q^2)`$ obtained is transverse, for both the fermionic and the bosonic contributions, i.e. $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{AZ}^{\mu \nu }(q^2)=(q^2g^{\mu \nu }q^\mu q^\nu )\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{AZ}(q^2)`$. Since the external currents are conserved, from the $`ZZ`$ self-energy $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{ZZ}^{\mu \nu }(q^2)`$ we keep only the part proportional to $`g^{\mu \nu }`$, whose dimension-full cofactor will be denoted by $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{ZZ}(q^2)`$. Furthermore, the one-loop vertex $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{ZF\overline{F}}^\mu (q,p_1,p_2)`$, with $`F=f`$ or $`F=\nu `$, satisfies a QED-like Ward identity, relating it to the one-loop inverse fermion propagators $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_F`$, i.e. $`q_\mu \widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{ZF\overline{F}}^\mu (q,p_1,p_2)=\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_F(p_1)\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_F(p_2)`$. It is then easy to show that, in the limit of $`q^20`$, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{ZF\overline{F}}^\mu q^2\gamma ^\mu (c_1+c_2\gamma _5)`$; since it is multiplied by a massive $`Z`$ boson propagator $`(q^2M_Z)^1`$, its contribution to the amplitude vanishes when $`q^20`$. This is to be contrasted with the $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{A\nu _i\overline{\nu }_i}^\mu `$, which is accompanied by a $`(1/q^2)`$ photon-propagator, thus giving rise to a contact interaction between the target-fermion and the neutrino, described by the NCR.

We next eliminate the box-contributions, by means of the “neutrino–anti-neutrino” method. The basic observation is that the tree-level amplitudes $`_{\nu f}^{(0)}`$ as well as the part of the one-loop amplitude $`_{\nu f}^{(B)}`$ consisting of the propagator and vertex corrections (namely the “Born-improved” amplitude), are proportional to $`[\overline{u}_f(k_2)\gamma _\mu (v_f+a_f\gamma _5)u_f(k_1)][\overline{v}(p_1)\gamma _\mu P_Lv(p_2)]`$, and therefore transform differently than the boxes under the replacement Sarantakos:1983bp  $`\nu \overline{\nu }`$, since 111 Eq.(4) appears in Ref.Bernabeu:2002nw  with an inconsequential sign error in the intermediate step.

$$\overline{u}(p_2)\gamma _\mu P_Lu(p_1)\overline{v}(p_1)\gamma _\mu P_Lv(p_2)=\overline{u}(p_2)\gamma _\mu P_Ru(p_1).$$
(4)
Thus, under the above transformation, $`_{\nu f}^{(0)}+_{\nu f}^{(B)}`$ reverse sign once, whereas the box contributions reverse sign twice. These distinct transformation properties allow for the isolation of the box contributions when the forward differential cross-sections $`(d\sigma _{\nu f}/dx)_{x=1}`$ and $`(d\sigma _{\overline{\nu }f}/dx)_{x=1}`$ are appropriately combined. In particular, the combination $`\sigma _{\nu f}^{(+)}(d\sigma _{\nu f}/dx)_{x=1}+(d\sigma _{\overline{\nu }f}/dx)_{x=1}`$ does not contain boxes, whereas the conjugate combination of cross-sections, $`\sigma _{\nu f}^{()}(d\sigma _{\nu f}/dx)_{x=1}(d\sigma _{\overline{\nu }f}/dx)_{x=1}`$, isolates the contribution of the boxes.

Finally, a detailed analysis shows that in the kinematic limit we consider, the Bremsstrahlung contribution vanishes, due to a completely destructive interference between the two relevant diagrams corresponding to the processes $`fA\nu (\overline{\nu })f\nu (\overline{\nu })`$ and $`f\nu (\overline{\nu })fA\nu (\overline{\nu })`$. The absence of such corrections is consistent with the fact that there are no infrared divergent contributions from the (vanishing) vertex $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{ZF\overline{F}}^\mu `$, to be canceled against.

$`\sigma _{\nu f}^{(+)}`$ receives contributions from the tree-level exchange of a $`Z`$-boson, the one-loop contributions from the ultraviolet divergent quantities $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{ZZ}(0)`$ and $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}^{AZ}(0)`$, and the (finite) NCR, coming from the proper vertex $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{A\nu _i\overline{\nu }_i}^\mu `$. The first three contributions are universal, i.e. common to all neutrino species, whereas that of the proper vertex $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{A\nu _i\overline{\nu }_i}^\mu `$ is flavor-dependent.

To proceed, the renormalization of $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{ZZ}(0)`$ and $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{AZ}(0)`$ must be carried out. It turns out that, by virtue of the Abelian-like Ward-identities enforced after the pinch technique rearrangement Cornwall:1982zr , the resulting expressions combine in such a way as to form manifestly renormalization-group invariant combinations Hagiwara:1994pw . In particular, after carrying out the standard re-diagonalization, two such quantities may be constructed:

$`\overline{R}_Z(q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _w}{c_w^2}}\left[q^2M_Z^2+\mathrm{}e\{\widehat{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{ZZ}(q^2)\}\right]^1`$
$`\overline{s}_w^2(q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`s_w^2\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{c_w}{s_w}}\mathrm{}e\{\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{AZ}(q^2)\}\right),`$ (5)
where $`\alpha _w=g_w^2/4\pi `$, and $`\mathrm{}e\{\mathrm{}\}`$ denotes the real part.

In addition to being renormalization-group invariant, both quantities defined in Eq.(5) are process-independent; $`\overline{R}_Z(q^2)`$ corresponds to the $`Z`$-boson effective charge, while $`\overline{s}_w^2(q^2)`$ corresponds to an effective mixing angle. We emphasize that the renormalized $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{AZ}(0)`$ cannot form part of the NCR, because it fails to form a renormalization-group invariant quantity on its own. Instead, $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Pi }}_{AZ}(0)`$ must be combined with the appropriate tree-level contribution (which evidently does not enter into the definition of the NCR, since it is $`Z`$-mediated) in order to form the effective $`\overline{s}_w^2(q^2)`$ acting on the electron vertex, whereas the finite NCR will be determined from the proper neutrino vertex only.

After casting $`\sigma _{\nu f}^{(+)}`$ in terms of renormalization-group invariant blocks, one may fix $`\nu =\nu _\mu `$, and then consider three different choices for $`f`$: (i) right-handed electrons, $`e_R`$; (ii) left-handed electrons, $`e_L`$, and (iii) neutrinos, $`\nu _i`$ other than $`\nu _\mu `$, i.e. $`i=e,\tau `$. Thus, we arrive at the system

$`\sigma _{\nu _\mu \nu _i}^{(+)}`$ $`=`$ $`s\pi \overline{R}^2(0)`$
$`\sigma _{\nu _\mu e_R}^{(+)}`$ $`=`$ $`s\pi \overline{R}^2(0)\overline{s}_w^4(0)2\lambda s_w^2<r_{\nu _\mu }^2>`$
$`\sigma _{\nu _\mu e_L}^{(+)}`$ $`=`$ $`s\pi \overline{R}^2(0)\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\overline{s}_w^2(0)\right)^2`$ (6)
$`+\lambda (12s_w^2)<r_{\nu _\mu }^2>`$
where $`\lambda (2\sqrt{2}/3)s\alpha G_F`$, $`\alpha =e^2/4\pi `$. $`\overline{R}^2(0)`$, $`\overline{s}_w^2(0)`$, and $`<r_{\nu _\mu }^2>`$ are treated as three unknown quantities, to be determined from the above equations.

To extract the experimental values of the quantities $`\overline{R}^2(0)`$, $`\overline{s}_w^2(0)`$, and $`<r_{\nu _\mu }^2>`$, one must substitute in the above equations the experimentally measured values for the differential cross-sections $`\sigma _{\nu _\mu e_R}^{(+)}`$, $`\sigma _{\nu _\mu e_L}^{(+)}`$, and $`\sigma _{\nu _\mu \nu _i}^{(+)}`$. Thus, one would have to carry out three different pairs of experiments.

Acknowledgments: This work has been supported by the Spanish MCyT under the grant FPA2002-00612.


text:
# Distance Scale, Variable Stars and Stellar Populations in Local Group Galaxies

## 1. Introduction

Pulsating variable stars play a fundamental role in establishing the astronomical distance scale, tracing different stellar populations, and studying radial trends, star formation history and formation mechanisms of the host galaxy. In recent years we have assembled a database on the short period variable stars (P$`<`$ 4 days) in a number of Local Group galaxies. Important assets of our study were (1) the collection of both photometric and spectroscopic data with wide field imagers and large aperture telescopes (e.g. the Wide Field Imager $``$ WFI $``$ of the ESO/MPI 2.2-m and the ESO Very Large Telescopes $``$ VLTs) (2) the use of DAOPHOT and ALLFRAME (Stetson 1994) reduction packages, and (3) the detection of the variable stars with the Image Subtraction method (ISIS2.1, Alard 2000). Here we briefly present results for 4 of the galaxies in our sample, namely: the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Leo I, NGC 6822 and Fornax. A global description of the project can be found in Clementini (2003).

## 2. The LMC: the zeropoint of the astronomical distance scale

Being the galaxy much closer to the Milky Way, the LMC is the first step of the extragalactic distance scale. Due to its complex stellar population several distance indicators of both Population I and II are present in this galaxy, thus allowing a direct comparison of the distance scales they provide.

Our LMC variable star sample includes 125 RR Lyrae stars (RRLs), 4 Anomalous Cepheids (ACs), 11 Cepheids, 11 binaries, and 1 $`\delta `$ Scuti star located close to the LMC bar. We have obtained $`BVI`$ photometry accurate to 0.02 mag (at the luminosity level of the LMC RRLs) for the full sample, and individual spectroscopic metallicities (with FORS1 at the VLT) for about 80% of the variables (Gratton et al. 2003, in preparation). The metallicity distribution of the RRLs is shown in the left panel of Fig. 1. Our data allowed (i) a very accurate definition of the average apparent magnitude of the LMC RRLs: $`V_0(\mathrm{RR})`$=19.064$`\pm `$0.064, (ii) the estimate of the local reddening from the pulsational properties of these variables: $`<E(BV)>`$=0.10$`\pm 0.02`$, and (iii) the definition of the slope of the RRLs luminosity-metallicity relation: $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_V(\mathrm{RR})`$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$\[Fe/H\]=0.214$`\pm `$0.047. The corresponding distance modulus of the LMC from the average of several independent Population I and II distance indicators is: $`\mu _{\mathrm{LMC}}`$= 18.515 $`\pm `$ 0.085 mag, (Clementini et al. 2003a). An independent estimate of the LMC distance was also obtained by fitting the observed RRL light curves with the theoretical pulsational models by Bono et al. (2003). An example of this theoretical modelling is shown in the right panel of Fig. 1. The distance modulus derived for this star is 18.58$`\pm `$0.10 (Marconi & Clementini 2003, in preparation).

## 3. Leo I and NGC 6822: radial trends and star formation history

RRLs, ACs and Classical Cepheids allow the unambiguous tracing of the old ($`t>`$ 10 Gyr), intermediate age ($`t`$ 1-5 Gyr) and young ($`t<`$ 100 Myr) stellar populations across the central regions of the parent galaxies.

We have mapped the Leo I dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) with the 8 CCDs of the WFI mosaic. We discovered a conspicuous population of RRLs extending all the way to the centre of the galaxy (Held et al. 2001), and about 40 candidate ACs more concentrated in the inner regions of Leo I (see Figure 1 of Baldacci et al. 2003a, Clementini et al. 2004, in preparation). Our finding confirms that a first burst of stellar formation involving the whole galaxy occurred in Leo I about 10-13 Gyr ago, while the subsequent star formation episodes that generate the candidate ACs were more confined toward the galaxy centre.

Time series photometry of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822 was obtained with FORS2 at the VLT. We discovered about 450 candidate variables among which 17 RRLs and 20 brighter short-period, small amplitude variables, that we named Low Luminosity (LL) Cepheids (Clementini et al. 2003b, Baldacci et al., these proceedings). The classical instability strip in the color-magnitude diagram of NGC 6822 appears to be uniformly filled from the RRLs up to the Classical Cepheids (Baldacci et al. 2003b, Held et al. 2004, in preparation), thus reflecting the extended star formation occuring in this galaxy.

## 4. Fornax: galaxy formation mechanisms

In merging scenarios the Galactic halo was assembled by accreted protogalactic fragments resembling the present-day dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way (MW). A number of the Galactic globular clusters (GGCs) may originate from these disrupted dSphs and should keep imprinted the characteristics of their “ancestors”. A marked feature of the GGCs is their division into two sharply distinct Oosterhoff groups (Oosterhoff 1939), however no division in Oosterhoff types is observed in the present-day dSphs (see Catelan, these proceedings). Besides Sagittarius, Fornax is the only LG dSph known to host globular clusters. We observed a WFI area of the galaxy that hosts the globular cluster Fornax 3. A sample of 108 RRLs (among which 20 double-mode candidates), 19 ACs and 25 Dwarf Cepheids (DCs) were identified in the chip of the WFI mosaic that contains cluster #3. Respectively 27, 8 and 2 of these variables belong to the cluster. The left panel of Fig. 2 shows the colour-magnitude diagram of Fornax from data in this chip. The classical instability strip is filled from the DCs up to the ACs. The right panel shows light curves of variables in Fornax 3 (Greco 2003). The average period of the $`ab`$-type RRLs is 0.595 d for the field variables, and 0.612 d in Fornax 3. This $`<P_{ab}>`$ value places Fornax 3 at the lower edge of the distribution of the Oosterhoff type II GGCs.

## References

Alard, C. 2000, A&AS, 144, 363

Baldacci, L., Matonti, F., Clementini, G., Rizzi, L., Held, E. V., Di Fabrizio, L., Momany, Y., Saviane, I. 2003a, in Stars in Galaxies, ed. M. Bellazzini, A. Buzzoni & S. Cassisi, Mem.S.A.It., in press (astro-ph/0305506)

Baldacci, L., Clementini, G., Held, E.V., Rizzi, L. 2003b, in Variability with wide-field imagers, ed. G. Bono, M. Castellani & D. Trevese, Mem.S.A.It., Vol. 74, p. 860 (astro-ph/0303094)

Bono, G., Caputo, F., Castellani, V., Marconi, M., Storm, J., Degl’Innocenti, S. 2003, MNRAS, 344, 1097

Clementini, G. 2003, in Variability with wide-field imagers, ed. G. Bono, M. Castellani & D. Trevese, Mem.S.A.It., Vol. 74, p. 878 (astro-ph/0303067)

Clementini, G., Gratton, R. G., Bragaglia, A., Carretta, E., Di Fabrizio, L., Maio, M. 2003a, AJ, 125, 1309

Clementini, G. Held, E. V., Baldacci, L., & Rizzi, L. 2003b, ApJ, 588, L85

Greco, C. 2003, Master of Science Thesis, Univ. of Bologna

Held, E. V., Clementini, G., Rizzi, L., Momany, Y., Saviane, I., Di Fabrizio, L. 2001, ApJ, 562, L39

Oosterhoff, P. Th. 1939, Observatory, 62, 104

Stetson, P. B. 1994, PASP, 196, 250


text:
# Evaluating GAIA performances on eclipsing binaries.

## 1 Introduction

The Cornerstone mission GAIA, approved by ESA for launch between 2010 and 2012, will provide an astrometric, photometric and spectroscopic all-sky survey with completeness limits for astrometry and photometry set to $`V=20`$ mag (about 1 billion stars) and to $`V=17.5`$ mag for spectroscopy. The limits for meaningful epoch data will be proportionally brighter. The astrophysical and technical guidelines of the mission are described in the ESA’s Concept and Technology Study Report (ESA SP-2000-4) and by Gilmore et al. (1998) and Perryman et al. (2001), and in the proceedings of recent conferences devoted to GAIA, edited by Straižys (1999), Bienaymé and Turon (2002), Vansevićius et al. (2002) and Munari (2003).

GAIA is expected to discover $`410^5`$ eclipsing binaries, $`110^5`$ of which should be double-lined spectroscopic binaries. This series of papers aims to ($`a`$) evaluate the GAIA performance on eclipsing binaries, to the aim of providing inputs for finer tuning of instrument focal plane assembly and data reduction pipeline, and ($`b`$) to determine reasonable orbital and stellar parameters for a number of double-lined eclipsing binaries unknown or poorly studied in literature. The strategy we adopted to simulate GAIA observations (both photometric and spectroscopic) is described in details in Papers I and II (Munari et al. 2001, Zwitter et al. 2003). We briefly recall here that Hipparcos/Tycho photometry is used as an approximation of GAIA photometry, while ground-based spectroscopic observations (obtained with the Asiago 1.82m + Echelle + CCD over the 8480-8740 Å GAIA range) are arranged to closely resemble GAIA spectral data.

Hipparcos scanning law and number of observations per object are pretty close to GAIA ones, the latter however observing in more photometric bands ($``$10 compared to 3). The $``$10 GAIA bands (the exact number and characteristics are still subject to optimization, cf. Jordi et al. 2003) will however observe near-simultaneously during each of the $``$100 passages over a given star (cf. Katz 2003) during the 5 yr mission lifetime. Therefore, they will not augment the number of points defining the lightcurve, which will be mapped by the same $``$100 points as for Hipparcos. The accuracy of the photometric solution of an eclipsing binary rests less on the number of bands and more on the number of points mapping the eclipses as well as the other orbital phases. Thus the Hipparcos data, even if limited to only the $`H_P`$ band, still well represent the GAIA potential to asses the stellar fundamental parameters from eclipsing binaries.

In Paper I we selected three stars for which Tycho $`B_T`$ and $`V_T`$ light curves provided useful constraints, while for the three stars in Paper II their contribution to the analysis was marginal. With present Paper III we push a little bit more in this direction and consider three stars for which Tycho $`B_T`$ and $`V_T`$ light curves are useless in modeling the eclipsing binaries, the whole analysis resting on the $`H_P`$ data alone. For the program stars of this paper, only Tycho ($`B_TV_T`$) mean colors are retained and used to constrain the temperatures.

The resolving power baselined for GAIA spectrograph is $`R`$=11 500 (Katz 2003), close to middle of the range 20 000 – 5 000 open for evaluation by ESA at the time this series of papers was initiated. Here we adopt a resolving power $`R`$=20 000, to balance a lower number of observations per star (typically 30-35 vs the 100 expected from GAIA) with a better resolution.

## 2 Target selection

For this third paper we selected three detached eclipsing binaries poorly studied in literature, all missing a proper combined photometric + spectroscopic solution. Their basic properties are reported in Table 1. For the first time we were faced with the problem of determining from spectroscopy both period and epoch of minimum, as one of the target stars (V432 Aur) was a high amplitude variable unsolved by Hipparcos. Table 2 summarize the number of photometric and spectroscopic data available and their r.m.s. errors.

UW LMi. It is a well detached eclipsing binary discovered by Hipparcos ($`P`$ $``$ $`3.875`$ days). It was classified as G0 V from objective prism spectra (Upgren & Staron 1970). Griffin (2001) obtained a spectroscopic solution, while Clausen et al. (2001) reported Stromgren uvby light curves, but did not derive a photometric solution.

V432 Aur. It was recognized as a large amplitude, unsolved variable star by Hipparcos ($`H_{\mathrm{P},\mathrm{min}}H_{\mathrm{P},\mathrm{max}}`$ $``$ $`0.38`$ mag), while its eclipsing binary nature was discovered by Dallaporta et al. (2002, hereafter D02), who derived a period of 3.08175 days. They also discovered intrinsic variability of the secondary star (maximum amplitude of $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ $``$ $`0.05`$ mag), which is not detectable in the less precise, less numerous Hipparcos data.

CN Lyn. It is a detached eclipsing binary discovered by Hipparcos ($`P`$ $``$ $`1.9554`$ days). It was reported by Grenier et al. (1999) among the stars which show a discrepancy between the luminosity class given by visual classification and by Hipparcos parallax. Our GAIA-like spectra reveal the system to be triple, with nearly equal luminosity components (cf. Fig. 1).

## 3 GAIA-like radial velocities and Hipparcos photometry

The same set up as in the previous papers of this series is maintained here. The spectra were obtained with the Echelle+CCD spectrograph on the 1.82 m telescope operated by Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova atop Mt. Ekar (Asiago). The spectral range covered was $`\lambda \lambda `$ 8480$``$8740 Å, obtained in a single Echelle order without gaps. As mentioned in the previous papers the actual observations cover a wider wavelength region ($`\lambda \lambda `$ 4550-9600 Å), which will be exploited elsewhere together with ground-based, multi-band, dedicated photometry. The dispersion was 0.25 Å/pix which, with a slit width of 2.0 arcsec, leads to a resolution of 0.42 Å or equivalently to a resolving power of $`R`$ = 20 000.

The spectra were extracted and calibrated in a standard fashion using the IRAF software package running on a PC under Linux operating system. The high stability of the wavelength scale of the Asiago Echelle spectrograph has been discussed in Paper I.

The radial velocity measurements along with their Heliocentric Julian Date are given in Table 3. It is worth noticing that the smallest errors on the radial velocities are obtained for UW LMi which shows lines of equal intensity for both components. Larger errors affect V432 Aur where one component has spectral lines much weaker than the other, while the largest errors affect CN Lyn. The poorer S/N and the triple nature of the latter increase the blending and decrease the line contrast against the continuum, as the sample spectra displayed in Fig. 1 show.

Hipparcos epoch photometry was obtained from CDS. UW LMi and CN Lyn have reliable epoch photometry (they are classified as “class A” in the Hipparcos Catalogue), while V432 Aur has less reliable epoch photometry (class C). Details on the number of observations and their accuracy are given in Table 2.

## 4 Modeling and Results

The modeling was performed with the Wilson-Devinney code (Wilson 1998) with modified stellar atmospheres (Milone et al. 1992) and with the newest limb darkening coefficients (Van Hamme and Wilson 2003). Interstellar reddening is taken to be negligible in accord with available extinction maps (Neckel & Klare 1980, Perry & Johnston 1982, Burstein & Heiles 1982).

Table 4 provides the derived system parameters along with their formal errors, while Table 5 compares the derived distances with the astrometric parallaxes from Hipparcos. Observational data and curves from the model solutions are shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4.

For all the three objects, as quoted above and as can be seen from Figs. 2, 3 and 4, the Tycho photometric measurements are too scattered to be used in deriving a solution. In addition, given the detached nature of the target stars, the limited amount of points making up the $`H_\mathrm{P}`$ light curves do not properly cover both eclipses. Our solutions rely only on $`H_\mathrm{P}`$ light curves and radial velocity curves. The usual approach to binary star modeling is to use relative photometry obtained in each filter. The difference of eclipse depths gives the difference of stellar temperatures, while constraints on the absolute temperature scale can be obtained from simultaneous solutions in different filters (a different approach is outlined in Zwitter et al. 2003). The availability of a single light curve does not allow us to adjust the primary temperature (i.e. obtain the absolute temperature scale). We relied on median Tycho$``$2 colors and on their transformation to Johnson colors to derive it. The transformation between Tycho and Johnson systems is the same used in the previous papers, namely $`V_\mathrm{J}`$ = $`V_\mathrm{T}`$ $``$ $`0.090`$ $`\times `$ $`(BV)_\mathrm{T}`$, and $`(BV)_\mathrm{J}`$ = 0.85 $`\times `$ $`(BV)_\mathrm{T}`$ (from the Hipparcos Catalogue). The temperatures were not adjusted during the modeling. The temperature errors were evaluated to be $``$250 K. This could appear as an overestimate, but we think it is a fair approximation as it includes uncertainties in $`B_T`$ and $`V_T`$ measurements, their transformation to Johnson system, color calibration of spectral types and effective temperature calibrations of spectral types. Uncertainties in the adopted temperatures and the poorness of phase coverage of the light curve reflect mainly on the derived radii and luminosities and thus distances of the target stars.

None of the target stars shows the signature of an eccentric orbit. The circularity of the orbits was confirmed by initial modeling runs during which eccentricity was allowed to vary and remained consistent with zero. After a few of such trials $`e`$ was set to zero.

### 4.1 UW LMi

For UW LMi it has been necessary to adjust epoch and period and make the photometric and spectroscopic ephemerids agree, because original Hipparcos ephemeris was not working. The primary star as defined by Hipparcos is our more massive star so we decided to retain it as primary, even if both Griffin (2001) and Clausen et al. (2001) adopted the reverse convention. The strategy to obtain the primary temperature was described above. Tycho$``$2 data provide $`(BV)_\mathrm{T}`$ = 0.625, which, transformed to the Johnson system, leads to $`(BV)_\mathrm{J}`$ = 0.53. An inspection of the spectra and of the radial velocity curve tells us the two stars are not much different. Supposing both stars have equal temperatures, the color suggests (according to Fitzgerald 1970 and Popper 1980 conversion tables) that they are somewhat hotter (F8) than the reported G0 spectral type. The secondary eclipse is not well mapped in Hipparcos data and this prevented us from adjusting even the temperature difference. Using the calibrations from Straižys & Kuriliene (1981), an F8 spectral type implies an effective temperature of 6150 K, while a G0 type gives $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 5950 K. The spectrum in Fig. 1 however shows an appreciable Paschen 14 line which intensity relative to the CaII triplet supports a somewhat higher 6500 K temperature (cf. synthetic spectral atlas of Munari and Castelli 2000). We thus tried four different model solutions:

(a$`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ = $`T_{\mathrm{eff},2}`$ = 6500 K,

(b$`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ = $`T_{\mathrm{eff},2}`$ = 6150 K,

(c$`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ = 6150 K and $`T_{\mathrm{eff},2}`$ = 5950 K

(d$`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ = $`T_{\mathrm{eff},2}`$ = 5950 K.

Model a gave a better convergence and thus $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 6500 was adopted for both stars. The relative intensity of Paschen 14 and CaII lines in the spectrum of Fig. 1 strongly support such a temperature when compared with the synthetic spectral atlas of Munari and Castelli (2000). The derived masses and radii ($`M_1`$ = 1.06 $`M_{}`$, $`M_2`$ = 1.04 $`M_{}`$, $`R_1`$ = 1.23 $`R_{}`$, $`R_2`$ = 1.21 $`R_{}`$) are consistent with those of nearly equal stars slightly hotter and heavier than the Sun and still within the main sequence band even if slightly away from the ZAMS locus. Griffin (2001) suggested that both components of the system are more luminous than MS stars. The derived mass ratio ($`q`$ = 0.982$`\pm `$ 0.009) is completely consistent with that obtained by Griffin (2001) whose $`q`$ = 1.017 transforms to $`q`$ = 0.983 when stars are labeled according to our scheme.

### 4.2 V432 Aur

V432 Aur revealed itself as the most challenging of the targets. As quoted above, D02 derived precise a period and epoch of minimum for V432 Aur. With the aim to rely on Hipparcos photometry and GAIA-like radial velocities only, we neglected the D02 results and recovered the ephemeris from these data alone. We were able to obtain initial values for period and epoch from spectroscopy, using a Deeming-Fourier analysis that provided a clean and fast detection of the orbital period as shown in Fig. 5. Successively, we refined the ephemeris combining spectroscopic observations with Hipparcos $`H_P`$ photometry. The secondary eclipse is virtually not mapped by Hipparcos (cf. Fig. 3), so it is highly uncertain to determine which star is the primary and to constrain the temperature difference. As GAIA will obtain photometry in 11 photometric bands, and its spectra will be analyzed with synthetic spectral techniques, such uncertainty will not be typical of GAIA observations of an eclipsing system like V432 Aur, and we thus accepted to insert just one external information, from D02, e.g. the color difference between the two eclipses. Tycho$``$2 color $`(BV)_\mathrm{T}`$ = 0.590 transforms to $`(BV)_\mathrm{J}`$ = 0.50 which, supposing both stars have equal temperatures, supports an F7$``$F8 spectral type, somewhat hotter than the G0 type listed in SIMBAD. The primary star is our less massive star and using $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)_\mathrm{J}`$ = 0.05 mag at primary eclipse from D02 we obtain $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $``$ 200$``$500 K. Again we tried different models with 6000 K $``$ $`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ $``$ 6300 K, exploring the range 200$`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}T_{\mathrm{eff},2}`$500 K. The final adopted temperatures are $`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ = 6100 and $`T_{\mathrm{eff},2}`$ = 5900, corresponding to F8 and G0 spectral types (Straižys & Kuriliene 1981), in agreement with appearance of the spectrum in Fig. 1. The spectra helped us to have an initial value for the luminosity of the stars. An inspection of them reveals that the hotter and less massive primary star is the less luminous, because the difference in the Ca II lines intensities cannot be ascribed to the small temperature difference (cf. the GAIA spectral atlases by Munari & Tomasella 1999, and Munari & Castelli 2000). The adopted temperatures together with the derived masses and radii ($`M_1`$ = 0.98 $`M_{}`$, $`M_2`$ = 1.06 $`M_{}`$, $`R_1`$ = 1.39 $`R_{}`$, $`R_2`$ = 2.13 $`R_{}`$) imply that the secondary component is more massive, more luminous and cooler than the primary, suggesting it has evolved farther away from the MS than the primary component.

### 4.3 CN Lyn

This triple system is the most intriguing of the three program stars. Its GAIA-like spectra show that the three components are quite similar in temperature, gravity and luminosity (cf. Fig. 1). Tycho-2 photometry $`(BV)_\mathrm{T}`$ = 0.463 transforms to $`(BV)_\mathrm{J}`$ = 0.39 and, supposing all three components have equal temperatures, it suggests F3$``$F4 spectral types, in good agreement with the F4$``$F5 type reported in SIMBAD and the spectral appearance in Fig. 1. The adopted $`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ was 6500 K. Eclipses are quite well mapped by $`H_\mathrm{P}`$ photometry and the secondary temperature was thus adjusted. The contribution of the third body to the light curve was taken into account by adding a constant third light, $`l_3`$ = 29($`\pm `$6)% of the total flux. The derived temperatures ($`T_{\mathrm{eff},1}`$ = 6500 K, $`T_{\mathrm{eff},2}`$ = 6455 K), masses ($`M_1`$ = $`M_2`$ = 1.04 $`M_{}`$) and radii ($`R_1`$ = 1.80 $`R_{}`$, $`R_2`$ = 1.84 $`R_{}`$) show that the components of the close binary are virtually identical (within the quoted formal errors) and marginally evolved away from the MS.

The third body mean radial velocity ($`13\pm 1`$ km/sec) is consistent with the systemic velocity of the close pair (Vγ = $`15.6\pm 0.5`$ km/sec). A period search has failed to reveal a clear periodicity in the radial velocities of the third body, which limited range of radial velocities displayed in our spectra (21 km/sec) can be caused by an orbital period much longer than the time spanned by our observations (3.2 yr) and/or a low orbital inclination.

## 5 Conclusions

The three targets were chosen without restrictions on peculiarities or variability and faint enough so that Tycho 2 photometry is useful only in providing mean colors and not epoch data. Only $`H_P`$ data were therefore available to map the lightcurve, which compromised the accuracy of derived effective temperatures of the components (both the absolute scale and the difference).

Even under such limitations (aiming to simulate GAIA observations of targets more difficult that those explored in Paper I and II of this series) reasonable solutions have been achieved for all the three targets, with the distance implied by the orbital modeling within the uncertainty bar of the Hipparcos parallax for all the three stars, including the equal masses triple system. This reassuring external and independent check reinforces the expectation of a high impact of GAIA observations for the derivation of fundamental stellar properties from observations of eclipsing binaries, and the direct use of GAIA observations of eclipsing binaries as a valuable measure of distances in itself.

###### Acknowledgements.

Generous allocation of observing time with the Asiago telescopes has been vital to this project. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database of the Centre de Données de Strasbourg. The financial support from the Slovenian Ministry for Education, Science and Sports (to TZ), from the Polish KBN Grant (No. 5 P03D 003 20, to TT), from the Canadian NSERC (to EFM) and from the Italian Space Agency (contract ASI-I-R-117/01 to UM) are kindly acknowledged.