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# The Classification of Rank 4 Locally Projective Polytopes and Their Quotients MSC (2000): 51M20, 52B15

## 1 Introduction

The classical study of polytopes concentrated on what are now called “spherical” polytopes. The modern “abstract” polytopes include tesselations of euclidian and hyperbolic space and other spaceforms, as well as objects are best described by their “local” topology, that is, the topology of their facets and vertex figures, or smaller sections. Good accounts of the classical theory and of the emergence of the theory of the abstract polytopes are to be found in  or .

Extensive study has been made by McMullen, Schulte and others of the so called “locally toroidal” polytopes, that is, polytopes whose minimal nonspherical sections are toroids. See for example Chapters 10 to 12 of , which bring together and update earlier work on the topic (such as ). Comparatively little has been done, until recently, on polytopes of other local topological types. The next three paragraphs summarise briefly the literature on locally projective polytopes.

There are two non-equivalent definitions used in the literature for a “locally $`X`$” polytope. The broader definition is that the minimal nonspherical sections of the polytope must be of topological type $`X`$ (see for example ). The narrower definition is that these minimal nonspherical sections must actually be the facets or vertex figures (or both) of the polytope (see for example ). For rank $`4`$ polytopes, both definitions are equivalent: there do not exist nonspherical polytopes of rank less than $`3`$, so the minimal nonspherical sections of a rank $`4`$ polytope must be of rank $`3`$, if they exist at all. The terminology “locally X” is normally restricted to regular polytopes, or at least to section regular polytopes. (A section regular polytope is one for which the isomorphism type of its sections $`F/G`$ depends only on the ranks of $`F`$ and $`G`$.)

In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Grünbaum and Coxeter independently discovered a self-dual polytope with 11 hemi-icosahedral facets (see  and ). During the same period, (see ), Coxeter discovered another self-dual polytope with 57 hemidodecahedral facets.

As the theory of abstract polytopes developed, these sporadic examples were joined by others that arose out of more general considerations. Schulte, in , noted some examples of locally projective polytopes of type $`\{4,3,4\}`$, that is, with hemicubes for facets, and octahedra or hemioctahedra for vertex figures. Some years later, in 1994, McMullen in  examined locally projective polytopes of type $`\{3^{k2},4,3,3,4,3^{nk3}\}`$ (that is, $`\{3,4,3^{n3}\}`$, $`\{3,3,4,3^{n4}\}`$, $`\{4,3,3,4,3^{n5}\}`$ respectively for $`k=0,1,2`$), where $`n5`$. This was the first paper to give an infinite family of locally projective polytopes. As was shown in , the theory developed by Schulte in  can be easily applied to produce another infinite family. However, Schulte had chosen a different focus for that paper.

The most recent work on the problem has been a series of articles by the author and others (see ,  and ) which focused on specific examples of locally projective polytopes and their quotients. That work almost completed the classification of locally projective rank $`4`$ polytopes and their quotients. This article serves mainly as a survey of the classification (see Section 4), but also (in Section 3) closes the one small gap that remains. Section 2 contains observations that show that the cases examined are indeed all that can occur.

The most remarkable feature of the classification is the fact that all such polytopes are finite. This is in contrast with the rank 5 case, where infinite locally projective polytopes exist (an example being $`\{\{4,3,3\},\{3,3,5\}/2\}`$ (see Theorem 5.2 of ).

## 2 The Form and Scope of the Classification.

The usual way to search for polytopes with given (regular) facets $`𝒦`$ and vertex figures $``$ is to find the universal such polytope $`𝒫=\{,𝒦\}`$, and then seek its quotients. The universal polytope is characterised by its automorphism group $`Aut(𝒫)=\mathrm{\Gamma }(𝒫)=[,𝒦]`$. By definition, all polytopes of the desired form will be quotients of $`𝒫`$. It is guaranteed that if any polytope exists with the desired facets and vertex figures, then the universal polytope $`𝒫`$ does (see Theorem 4A2 of  or Theorem 2.5 of ).

A locally projective section regular polytope of rank $`4`$ must have spherical or projective facets and vertex figures. Therefore, the most straightforward strategy for classifying these polytopes is as follows:

* Identify the projective and spherical rank $`3`$ polytopes.
* For each pair of spherical or projective $`𝒦`$ and $``$, not both sperical, identify the universal $`\{,𝒦\}`$, if it exists.
* Enumerate the quotients of each $`\{,𝒦\}`$, and identify those which are section regular.

Note for the second step, if $``$ is of type $`\{p,q\}`$ and $`𝒦`$ of type $`\{q^{},r\}`$, a simple necessary condition that $`\{,𝒦\}`$ exist is that $`q`$ must equal $`q^{}`$. Then $`\{,𝒦\}`$ will be of type $`\{p,q,r\}`$. As we shall see, this necessary condition is not sufficient. The case $`q=2`$ cannot yield locally projective polytopes, since the polytopes of type $`\{p,2\}`$ are “dihedra”, with p-gonal faces, and in particular are spherical (along with their duals). There do exist locally projective polytopes with $`p=2`$ or $`r=2`$. The only cases for $`r=2`$ are “ditopes” $`\{p,q,2\}`$ with projective facets of type $`\{p,q\}`$. Their enumeration is easy, and since the projective $`\{p,q\}`$ have no proper quotients, neither do the ditopes. If $`p=2`$ we obtain the duals of the ditopes. For most of the rest of this article, we shall ignore these degenerate cases and assume $`p,q,r3`$.

The spherical rank $`3`$ polytopes have been known since the time of the ancient Greeks. They are the tetrahedron $`\{3,3\}`$, the cube $`\{4,3\}`$, the octahedron or cross $`\{3,4\}`$, the dodecahedron $`\{5,3\}`$ and the icosahedron $`\{3,5\}`$. Except for the tetrahedron, the groups of each of these has a central inversion $`\omega `$. Taking the quotient of these polytopes by the group $`\omega `$ yields four projective polytopes: the hemicube $`\{4,3\}_3=\{4,3\}/2`$, its dual the hemicross, the hemidodecahedron $`\{5,3\}_5=\{5,3\}/2`$, and its dual the hemi-icosahedron. As noted in , these are the only proper quotients of the platonic solids, and therefore, the only rank $`3`$ section regular projective polytopes.

Ignoring duality leads to 22 cases that need to be analysed. These are listed in Table 1.

These cases have all been completely analysed, and the results reported in the literature, with the exception of cases 10 to 12, for which a small amount of additional work remains to be done.

## 3 The Unfinished Cases.

In this short section, we consider cases 10 and 11. Case 12 is dual to case 10, and therefore does not warrant separate consideration. As mentioned earlier, polytopes of these types exist (see ). Furthermore, the only polytopes with the given facets and vertex figures are in fact the universal polytopes, as was shown in . However, a full analysis of the quotients of these polytopes has not been done. It will be useful at this point to review the classification of the quotients of the cube (and therefore the cross), given in . Let the group of the cube be $`W^{}=s_0,s_1,s_2`$, and let $`x=s_0`$, $`y=s_1xs_1`$ and $`z=s_2ys_2`$. The semisparse subgroups of $`W^{}`$ are the trivial subgroup (leading to the cube itself), the group $`xy`$ and its conjugates $`yz`$ and $`xz`$ (leading to the digonal prism), the group $`xyz`$ (leading to the hemicube), and the group $`xy,yz`$ (leading to the polytope $`\{2,3\}`$).

In particular, note that the $`3`$-hemicube (and therefore the $`3`$-hemicross) has no proper quotients (this is not true in higher ranks). Since the vertex figures of $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,4\}/2\}`$ have no proper quotients, Theorem 2.7 of  may be applied to case 10, so that semisparse subgroups of $`W=s_0,s_1,s_2,s_3=[\{4,3\},\{3,4\}/2]`$ are characterised by the property that all their conjugates intersect $`s_0,s_1,s_2s_1,s_2,s_3`$ in a semisparse subgroup of $`W^{}`$. It is simple enough (although a little unsatisfying) to do a computer search of the subgroups of $`W`$ to find all those which satisfy the required property. This leads to the following theorem and corollary.

###### 3.1

Theorem The universal polytope $`𝒫=\{\{4,3\},\{3,4\}_3\}`$ has four quotients. These are $`𝒫`$ itself, $`\{\{4,3\}_3,\{3,4\}_3\}`$, $`\{\{2,3\},\{3,4\}_3\}`$, and a nonregular polytope whose facets are all digons.

Note that the four quotients of $`𝒫`$ correspond very naturally to the four quotients of the cube. Note also the following Corollary.

###### 3.2

Corollary The polytope $`𝒬=\{\{4,3\}_3,\{3,4\}_3\}`$ has no proper quotients.

The author notes that it would be a worthwhile endeavour to characterize the quotients of $`\{\{4,3^{n3}\},\{3^{n3},4\}/2\}`$ for general $`n4`$, but feels that such a characterization falls beyond the scope of this article.

## 4 The Classification.

This final section of the article will go through the cases of Table 1 one by one, giving a description of the universal polytope and its quotients, with references to the literature.

* Cases 1 to 5: The results of , where polytopes of “finite type” were studied (that is, polytopes with the same Schläfli symbols as the classical spherical polytopes) show that there are no locally projective polytopes of types $`\{3,3,4\}`$, $`\{3,3,5\}`$ or $`\{3,4,3\}`$. This likewise eliminates cases 9 and 16, as is noted below.
* Case 6: There is no polytope with icosahedral facets and hemidodecahedral vertex figures. See the dual Case 8 for an explanation.
* Case 7 is Coxeter and Grünbaum’s 11-cell (see  or ). The polytope has a group of order 660, isomorphic to the projective special linear group $`L_2(11)`$. It was noted in  that this polytope has no proper quotients.
* Case 8: There is no polytope with hemiicosahedral facets and dodecahedral vertex figures. If such a polytope existed, it could be constructed (in principle) by arranging hemiicosahedra face to face, with three around each edge, either until the polytope closed up, or ad infinitum. However, an attempt to perform this construction results in the 11-cell of Case 7, as noted in .
* Case 9 is dual to case 1, thus yields no polytopes.
* Case 10: The universal polytope $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,4\}_3\}`$ appeared in . A simple proof that the universal polytope is the only polytope of type $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,4\}_3\}`$ appeared in . The polytope may be constructed from its vertex figures via the “twisting” operation developed by Schulte and McMullen and described in Chapter 9 of . Here, $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,4\}_3\}`$ is $`2^{}`$, where $`=\{3,4\}_3`$ is the hemicross. Its group is the semidirect product $`2^3S_4`$, with $`S_4`$ (the group of $``$) acting by conjugation on the generators of $`2^3`$ in the same way that it acts on the vertices of the hemicross. The quotients of this polytope were described in Theorem 3.1.
* Case 11: The universal polytope $`\{\{4,3\}_3,\{3,4\}_3\}`$ is a quotient of $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,4\}_3\}`$ and has itself no proper quotients. This was shown in Theorem 3.2, but could easily have been noted from the results of . Its group is the quotient of $`2^3S_4`$ by the (normal) subgroup generated by the product of the three generators of $`2^3`$.
* Case 12 is dual to case 10.
* Case 13 was studied in depth in , where it was shown that the universal $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,5\}_5\}`$ exists and is finite. Its existance and finiteness are also noted in Section 8E of . It appears there as $`2^{}`$, where $``$ is the hemi-icosahedron (whose group is $`A_5`$). Its group is therefore $`2^6A_5`$, with $`A_5`$ acting by conjugation on the generators of $`2^6`$ in the same way that it acts on the vertices of $``$. The universal polytope therefore has 80 cubes as facets, and 64 vertices. In  it was shown, via a computer search, that the polytope has 70 quotients. Of these, three are regular, these being $`\{\{2,3\},\{3,5\}_5\}`$, the universal polytope, and a quotient of the universal polytope by a group of order $`2`$. Besides the latter two, there are another nine which are nonregular polytopes of type $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,5\}_5\}`$, and besides these another eight of type $`\{4,3,5\}`$. The latter eight each have, as facets, some cubes and some hemicubes, hence they are not section regular. For more details on the quotients of this polytope, the reader is referred to .
* Cases 14 and 15: It was shown in Theorem 3.6 of  that a polytope with hemicubes for facets cannot be of type $`\{4,3,\mathrm{},3,p\}`$ for odd $`p`$. Thus cases 14 and 15 do not yield examples of locally projective polytopes.
* Case 16 is dual to case 2.
* Cases 17, 18 and 19 are dual to cases 15, 14 and 13 respectively.
* Case 20 was examined in . The polytope $`\{\{5,3\},\{3,5\}_5\}`$ exists and is finite, with group $`J_1\times L_2(19)`$ of order 600415200. It therefore has 10006920 vertices and half that many facets. Here, $`L_2(19)`$ is a projective special linear group of order 3420, and $`J_1`$ is the first Janko group, of order 175560. The quotients of this polytope are 145 in number, including as regular quotients Coxeter’s 57-cell $`\{\{5,3\}_5,\{3,5\}_5\}`$ (see below), and a polytope of type $`\{\{5,3\},\{3,5\}_5\}`$ with group $`J_1`$. There are also 67 nonregular quotients of this type. The remaining 75 proper quotients (all of type $`\{5,3,5\}`$) each have, as facets, some dodecahedra and some hemidodecahedra. For more details, see .
* Case 21 was discovered by Coxeter in . The universal polytope has 57 facets, and its group is $`L_2(19)`$ of order 3420. It was shown in  that it has no proper quotients. It is itself a quotient of the universal polytope of case 20.
* Case 22 is dual to case 20, and therefore does not warrant separate discussion.

To summarize, there are nine nondegenerate universal locally projective regular polytopes of rank $`4`$, namely $`\{\{3,5\}_5,\{5,3\}_5\}`$, $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,4\}_3\}`$ and its dual, $`\{\{4,3\}_3,\{3,4\}_3\}`$, $`\{\{4,3\},\{3,5\}_5\}`$ and its dual, $`\{\{5,3\}_5,\{3,5\}_5\}`$ and $`\{\{5,3\},\{3,5\}_5\}`$ and its dual. There are 13 regular polytopes of these types, since each of those with hemi-icosahedral vertex figures (or hemidodecahedral facets) has a proper regular quotient of the same type.

These universal polytopes have a total of $`437`$ quotients, 17 regular, and 169 section regular. The extra four regular quotients are the quotients $`\{\{2,3\},𝒦\}`$ of locally projective $`\{\{4,3\},𝒦\}`$ and their duals. These are also counted amongst the section regular quotients. The 152 nonregular section regular quotients (or their duals) all have hemi-icosahedral vertex figures and spherical (cubic or dodecahderal) facets. Besides these, there are a further four degenerate locally projective polytopes, namely $`\{\{2,4\},\{4,3\}_3\}`$ and $`\{\{2,5\},\{5,3\}_5\}`$ and their duals. These four are not quotients of any nondegenerate locally projective polytopes.

The most remarkable feature of the classification is the following result.

###### 4.1

Theorem All locally projective rank 4 polytopes are finite.

The author would like to acknowledge and thank Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made, for the encouragement and motivation to complete this article.


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# Spin flip from dark to bright states in InP quantum dots

## Abstract

We report measurements of the time for spin flip from dark (non-light emitting) exciton states in quantum dots to bright (light emitting) exciton states in InP quantum dots. Dark excitons are created by two-photon excitation by an ultrafast laser. The time for spin flip between dark and bright states is found to be approximately 200 ps, independent of density and temperature below 70 K. This is much shorter than observed in other quantum dot systems. The rate of decay of the luminescence intensity, approximately 300 ps, is not simply equal to the radiative decay rate from the bright states, because the rate of decay is limited by the rate of conversion from dark excitons into bright excitons. The dependence of the luminescence decay time on the spin flip time is a general effect that applies to many experiments.

There has been increasing interest in the spin flip properties of quantum dots, especially relating to the study of “spintronics.” Quantum dots have also been proposed as elements of quantum computers. One of the appeals of this system for quantum computing applications is the observation of very long spin flip time for carriers in quantum dots. Electron spin flip times are found to be of the order of microseconds in InGaAs dots , while exciton spin flip times, which include hole spin flip, have been found to be at least several nanoseconds in InAs dots . Measurements of the dephasing rate, which are sensitive to the total rate of all scattering processes, including spin flip, have found dephasing times for excitons in quantum dots of hundreds of picoseconds .

It is tempting to view the long spin flip times observed in these sytems as an intrinsic property of quantum dots. In quantum wells and bulk semiconductors, spin flip can occur in conjunction with scattering between different k-states, because the valence band at finite k mixes different spin states. This mechanism, known as the Elliot-Yafet mechanism , was found to be the dominant spin flip mechanism in exciton spin flip in GaAs quantum wells . In quantum dots, however, this effect cannot occur at low temperature, because the carriers are confined to the lowest quantized state in the well. Scattering between different states can occur only along with jumps in energy which are large compared to $`k_BT`$. One therefore expects spin flip to be greatly suppressed in quantum dots.

Measurements reported here, however, as well as recent measurements by other means , imply a much shorter spin flip time for excitons in InP quantum dots, much less than a nanosecond. This result is not related to coupling between the dots, since they are known to be well isolated, but may be related to the geometry of the dots.

Experimental Method. As is well known, not all states in semiconductors couple directly to the optical field. In bulk semiconductors and quantum wells, there are many examples of “dark” states for which light emission is forbidden in first order due to symmetry, in contrast to “bright” states which have a dipole-allowed optical matrix element. To convert from a dark state to a bright state involves a spin flip, because the angular momentum of the two states is different.

In previous work , the spin flip time from dark to bright excitons in GaAs quantum wells was measured by exciting the dark states by two-photon absorption and detecting the single-photon luminescence from bright excitons. Because the bright excitons were not excited directly by two-photon excitation, the rise time of the luminescence from the bright excitons gave a direct measurement of the spin flip time for the conversion process.

In this work we apply the same procedure to quantum dots of another III-V material, InP. A priori, it is not obvious that dark states exist in the dots, because the change in symmetry properties may mean that all the confined states have dipole coupling to the light field. If they do exist, we should observe a rise time of the luminescence following the laser pulse which creates the dark excitons, just as in the case of dark states in quantum wells. Having proven the existence of dark states in this way, we can then determine the spin flip time for conversion from dark to bright states.

The quantum dots used for these experiments were a single layer of 3.0 ML InP quantum dots, with a nominal height of 3.8 nm and diameter 15.7 nm and dot density $`3.2\times 10^{10}`$ cm-2. The gap energy of the InP is nominally 1.42 eV at low temperature. The dots are enclosed by Ga0.52In0.48P barriers, which have band gap of 1.91 eV. As shown in earlier experiments , the luminescence from the confined states of the dots occurs at photon energy of 1.805 eV, with a full width at half maximum of 0.041 eV due to the distribution of the dot size.

The symmetry properties of the quantum dots are related to those of quantum wells of the same material. Quantum wells of III-V semiconductors belong to the $`D_{2d}`$ symmetry group. The topmost valence band, or heavy hole band, has $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_7`$ symmetry in this group. The lowest energy excitons, created from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_6`$ conduction electrons and heavy holes, are split into an optically-active $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_5`$ doublet and two optically inactive “dark” exciton states with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_4`$ symmetry, i.e. basis states $`|j=2,m=2\pm i|j=2,m=2`$. Previous work  has shown that these dark states are split from the bright states by energies on the order of 100 $`\mu `$eV in III-V semiconductor quantum wells.

The symmetry of the quantum well is further lowered in the quantum dots, so that all of these states will become nondegenerate. Nevertheless, the quantum states in the dot will have character similar to the states of the quantum well of the same material. Single-dot spectroscopy in magnetic field has shown that the states are split into two pairs at with bright and dark character, with state splitting of a few hundred $`\mu `$eV for dots made of a wide range of III-V and II-VI materials, including GaAs , InAs , CdSe , and CdTe . The splitting of the degenerate bright states can also be of the order of a hundred $`\mu `$eV . The splitting of the dark and bright states in InP dots similar to ours has recently been estimated at less than 30 $`\mu `$eV .

The dots were excited by means of two-photon absorption using a Ti:Sapphire-pumped OPO with photon energy of 0.9 eV, or 1375 nm. We used a microscope objective to focus the laser to a spot size of approximately 6 $`\mu `$m, and a laser pulse energy of around 1.3 nJ (100 mW at 80 MHz repetition rate) in order to obtain a good signal too noise ratio. The luminescence was recorded using a Hamamatsu streak camera with a S-1 cathode and a temporal resolution of about 10 ps.

The greatest challenge in studying the transient optical signal from the dots on the GaAs substrate is ensuring that the signal arises from direct laser excitation of the dots and not from carriers excited in the substrate which find their way to the dots. This latter process can certainly occur, as we have established by the observation that luminescence from the dots occurs even when the two-photon excitation energy is well below the lowest excited state of the dots. Substrate carriers can enter the dots by a two-step process. First, two-photon absorption can occur in the substrate, leading to free carriers, and these carriers can be excited by absorption of a third photon to energies well above the barrier height of the quantum dots. Evidence for this comes from the strong luminescence signal from the GaAs substrate which includes a tail to very high energy at early times, during the laser pulse. Some fraction of these hot carriers can then excite the quantum dots. This can occur either if hot carriers diffuse across the barriers, or if luminescence photons from the hot carriers are reabsorbed by the dots.

If this process is the dominant source of the signal, then we can not say anything about dark states in the quantum dots, because the spin of the carriers will presumably be randomized during the migration process into the dots. The rise time of the luminescence signal will give us information only about the relaxation processes which lead to this indirect excitation process.

One way to distinguish between an effect like this and true two-photon excitation of the quantum dots uses the fact that the two-photon excitation process has a resonance at the energy of the quantum confined states, while the hot-carrier process of exciting the dots is relatively insensitive to the wavelength of the exciting light. Fig. 1 shows the total intensity of the luminescence from the dots on a logarithmic scale as a function of the laser wavelength. The increase towards 1345 nm corresponds to photons with energy one half the energy of the quantum dot luminescence. As seen in this figure, well below the dot resonance, the luminescence signal from the hot carrier effect is approximately constant. We can assume that the excess signal near the resonance arises from direct two-photon excitation.

Another way to distinguish between the different processes is to note that they will have different power laws. The intensity of the signal from two-photon excitation should be proportional to the square of the laser power, while the intensity of the signal from indirect pumping of the dots hot carriers in the substrate has a much stronger intensity dependence. Fig. 2 shows a comparison of the total luminescence intensity from the dots in the case of excitation at two different wavelengths. In the case of excitation at the dot resonance, the intensity dependence fits a power law of $`I^{2.45}`$, approximately equal to the expected power law of $`I^2`$. In the case of excitation well below the resonance, the power law fits a dependence of $`I^{5.5}`$, which is much stronger. A power law of $`I^3`$ would be expected for a straightforward three-photon process in which carriers created in the substrate absorption by two-photon absorption were excited into the dots by absorption of a third photon. The stronger power dependence reflects the fact that at high densities, the “hot phonon” effect strongly reduces carrier cooling in the substrate. This hot phonon effect was studied in detail several years ago: carrier cooling at high carrier densities is reduced since the optical phonons preferentially emitted at high carrier energy have finite lifetime. A nonthermal optical phonon occupation is built up very fast and these hot phonons strongly reabsorbed at high densities leading to a reduction of the net energy flow from the carrier into the lattice system . This is verified by the fact that the high energy tail of the substrate luminescence becomes much stronger at high excitation density, and at the highest excitation density a substantial fraction of the substrate luminescence additionally overlaps the luminescence spectrum of the dots immediately after the laser pulse. The fact that the exponent in the case of resonant excitation is 2.45 instead of exactly 2 is likely due to the fact that the signal in this case is a sum of both the direct two-photon excitation signal and the signal from carriers indirectly excited from the substrate.

The difference in the power laws allows us to pick an excitation regime in which the signal from direct two-photon excitation is much stronger than that from indirect transfer of carriers from the substrate. As seen in Fig. 2, at 60 mW average power, the signal from the direct two-photon excitation process is more than a factor of ten greater than the signal from excitation of the substrate. We therefore excite the sample with laser power in this regime, instead of the highest possible laser power, in order to maximize the signal from direct two-photon excitation.

Results. Our observations indicate that there is a clear rise time of the luminescence following the nearly resonant excitation by the laser pulse. The risetime is consistent with the expected behavior for conversion of dark to bright excitons, which confirms the existence of dark states in the quantum dots. Fig. 3 shows the total luminescence intensity from the dots as a function of time, at $`T=10`$ K, for laser power 60 mW which, as discussed in the previous section, is low enough that the effects from hot carriers in the GaAs substrate should be negligible.

The fit to the data of Fig. 3 is a solution of a simple set of rate equations,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{n_1}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n_1}{\tau _{12}}}+{\displaystyle \frac{n_2}{\tau _{21}}}{\displaystyle \frac{n_1}{\tau _0}}`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{n_2}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n_1}{\tau _{12}}}{\displaystyle \frac{n_2}{\tau _{21}}},`$ (2)
where $`n_1`$ and $`n_2`$ are the number of bright and dark excitons, respectively. The decay time $`\tau _0`$ is the radiative lifetime of the excitons in the bright state, while $`\tau _{12}`$ and $`\tau _{21}`$ are times for conversion from bright states to dark and from dark to bright, respectively. Since both the bright and dark states are doublets, we assume equal degeneracy for both states. In principle, $`\tau _{12}`$ and $`\tau _{21}`$ can be different, as found for quantum wells at low temperature , but if the energy splitting between the states is small compared to $`k_BT`$, then these rates will be nearly the same. In the present experiments, the temperature ranged from 10 K to 75 K. Assuming that the splitting of the dark and bright states is of the order of 100 $`\mu `$eV or less, as discussed above, the splitting is much less than $`k_BT`$, and therefore we can set $`\tau _{12}=\tau _{21}=\tau `$. In this case, the solution of the equations (2) for the initial condition $`n_1(0)=0,n_2(0)=1`$, is

$`n_1(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _0}{\sqrt{\tau ^2+4\tau _0^2}}}\left(e^{t\left(\tau +2\tau _0\sqrt{\tau ^2+4\tau _0^2}\right)/2\tau \tau _0}e^{t\left(\tau +2\tau _0+\sqrt{\tau ^2+4\tau _0^2}\right)/2\tau \tau _0}\right)`$ (3)
$``$ $`C\left(e^{t/\tau _d}e^{t/\tau _r}\right)`$ (4)
Surprisingly, this solution implies that the minimum ratio of the decay time $`\tau _d`$ to the rise time $`\tau _r`$ is $`5.85=(2+\sqrt{2})/(2\sqrt{2})`$, for the case $`\tau =2\tau _0`$. For all other choices of the time constants, the ratio of the decay time to the rise time is larger than this. This shows that it is improper to interpret the rise time of the luminescence as the spin flip time and the decay time as the radiative lifetime. Because of the interconversion between the states, both time scales depend on both $`\tau `$ and $`\tau _0`$. Within the experimental uncertainty, our data at low $`T`$ give this ratio, which implies that $`\tau 2\tau _0`$, and in general, that $`\tau `$ is longer than $`\tau _0`$.

When the ratio deviates from this minimum value, there are two possible solutions for $`\tau `$ and $`\tau _0`$ given the experimental values of $`\tau _r`$ and $`\tau _d`$, as follows:

$`\tau _0={\displaystyle \frac{\tau _d+\tau _r\sqrt{\tau _d^26\tau _d\tau _r+\tau _r^2}}{4}}`$ , $`\tau ={\displaystyle \frac{\tau _d+\tau _r+\sqrt{\tau _d^26\tau _d\tau _r+\tau _r^2}}{2}}`$ (5)
or (6)
$`\tau _0={\displaystyle \frac{\tau _d+\tau _r+\sqrt{\tau _d^26\tau _d\tau _r+\tau _r^2}}{4}}`$ , $`\tau ={\displaystyle \frac{\tau _d+\tau _r\sqrt{\tau _d^26\tau _d\tau _r+\tau _r^2}}{2}}.`$ (7)
We take the former solution here, which is consistent with the radiative recombination time $`\tau _0`$ essentially independent of the temperature, as expected, and the spin flip time $`\tau `$ longer than $`\tau _0`$ in all cases. Table 1 gives the temperature dependence of the values deduced from these fits. As seen in this table, the conversion time from dark to bright states remains approximately 200 ps at low temperature. If the alternate solution (7) is taken, then the implied spin flip time drops to tens of picoseconds while the radiative recombination time becomes significantly longer at $`T=75`$ K.

We want to stress that the model presented here implies that even in the case of resonant single-photon excitation, the decay of the dot luminescence is dominated by the interconversion of the dark and bright states. Long after the laser pulse, the luminescence decay time for single-photon excitation will be the same as that given in Equation (3) for two-photon excitation. According to this equation, the decay time $`\tau _d`$ of the photoluminescence will be equal to $`2\tau _0`$ in the limit that the spin flip time is much shorter than the radiative lifetime; in the limit of long spin flip time, the decay time $`\tau _d`$ will be essentially equal to the spin flip time $`\tau `$, not $`\tau _0`$. This effect of interconversion of bright and dark excitons, although discussed in detail for the case of quantum wells , has been neglected in several previous publications; for example, in Refs.  the photoluminescence decay time was taken simply as the radiative decay time while as seen here, the decay rate even at late times is in general a function of the spin flip time from dark states.

The radiative decay rates found here are consistent with the strong localization of the carriers which entends the recombination time. Typical intrinsic decay times for quantum wells are a few tens of picoseconds , while the recombination time found for the dots in these experiments is around 70 ps, which corresponds to a total radiative decay time of 140 ps in the limit of fast spin flip.

We find no power dependence of the spin flip time $`\tau `$. This is not surprising, since the excitation density is so low that it is unlikely that there is more than one electron per dot. In this case, each dot relaxes individually.

The most likely reason for the variation in the time constants at $`T=75`$K is that at high temperature, carriers are excited into higher quantized states, which lie approximately 10 meV above the lowest state  so that our simple two-state model breaks down. At low temperature, the time constants are essentially independent of temperature.

The short spin flip time is surprising, because as discussed above, previous studies have found a dramatically slower rate for spin flip in quantum dots at low temperature. As mentioned above, however, another study of InP dots  has found a very short time constant for depolarization of the luminescence from the dots following excitation with circular polarized light. This short lifetime was interpreted by the authors of  as due to interference of the light emitted from the ensemble of quantum dots with large inhomogeneous broadening. That explanation does not apply to the experiments reported here, however, because our method of measuring the time scale for spin flip from dark to bright excitons is insensitive to the inhomogeneous broadening of the ensemble. A possible explanation for the large range of spin flip times may come from the differences in geometry of the dots. Woods, Reinecke, and Lyanda-Geller  have calculated the rate of spin flip in dots as a function of the dot geometry, for two possible mechanisms, acoustic phonon emission and interface ripples, analogous to surface acoustic waves on the interface between the dots and the barriers. They found a very strong size dependence; in particular, the height of our quantum dots of 3.8 nm lies in the range at which they found a strongly increasing rate of spin flip with decreasing size.

Dark states play an important role in the relaxation of bright excitons in quantum dots, controlling the observed luminescence decay rate. We find a nearly constant rate of conversion from bright to dark excitons in InP quantum dots at low temperature, approximately 200 ps. The results from InP show that it cannot be generally assumed that spin flip times are always long in quantum dots.


text:
# Charge density distributions and related form factors in neutron-rich light exotic nuclei

## 1 Introduction

It has been shown (see, e.g. the review ) that the study of exotic nuclei is likely to reveal new aspects of nuclear structure. Since the first experiments with radioactive nuclear beams (RNB) took place (e.g. ) it has been found from analyses of the total interaction cross sections that weakly-bound nuclei have increased sizes that deviate substantially from the $`RA^{1/3}`$ rule. It became clear (e.g. ) that such new phenomena are due to the weak binding of the last few nucleons which form a diffuse nuclear cloud due to quantum-mechanical penetration (the so called nuclear halo). Another effect is that the nucleons can form a neutron skin  when the neutrons are on average less bound than the protons. Most of the neutron haloes have been studied for the lightest elements, such as He, Li, Be, B and other isotopes.

Direct reactions are a well-known tool to provide information on nuclear structure. Most exotic nuclei are so shortlived that they cannot be used as targets. Instead, direct reactions with RNB can be done in inverse kinematics where the role of beam and target are interchanged. For example, the proton elastic-scattering angular distributions were measured for several incident energies, namely 25.1$`A`$ MeV , 41.6$`A`$ MeV  and 71$`A`$ MeV  for 6He, 26.25$`A`$ MeV (the preliminary data obtained in Dubna ), 32$`A`$ MeV , 66$`A`$ MeV  and 73$`A`$ MeV  for 8He, as well as for energies less than 100$`A`$ MeV  in the cases of 6Li, 11Li and others. In some of the theoretical analyses (e.g. ) the eikonal approach using neutron and proton density distributions as well as parametrized nucleon-nucleon total cross sections have been used. The real part of the optical potential for calculations of 6He+$`p`$, 6He+4He ($`E_{lab}`$=151 MeV)  and 6He+$`p`$, 8He+$`p`$ ($`E_{inc}<100`$$`A`$ MeV)  elastic scattering angular distributions was obtained microscopically using the realistic M3Y-Paris effective interaction  as well as the Tanihata neutron and proton densities of helium isotopes  in  and the densities derived from the cluster-orbital shell model approximation (COSMA)  in . It was shown that elastic scattering is a good tool to distinguish between different density distributions . The results of  were compared also with those from the alpha-core approach with the complex and fully non-local effective interaction  and the no-core model based on the large space shell-model calculations (LSSM)( and refs. therein). For larger energies($`>500`$ MeV/nucleon) it is accepted that the Glauber approximation is a suitable method to study charge and matter distributions from proton elastic scattering data .

As mentioned in , however, an accurate determination of charge distributions of exotic nuclei can be obtained from electron-nucleus scattering in inverse kinematics using a colliding electron-exotic nucleus storage ring.

The aim of the present paper is to calculate the charge form factors of exotic nuclei such as 6He, 8He, 11Li, 17B, 19B and 14Be on the basis of charge density distributions calculated by using various theoretical models. This work can serve as a challenge for future experimental works on measurements of the charge form factors and thus for accurate determination of the charge distributions in these nuclei. The latter can be a test of the different theoretical models used for obtaining charge distributions. Second, this work can throw light on the question about the effect of the neutron halo or skin on the proton distributions in the helium, litium, boron and beryllium isotopes.

A brief representation of the theoretical scheme is given in Sec. II. The results and discussion are presented in Sec. III.

## 2 The theoretical scheme

The charge form factor $`F_{ch}(𝐪)`$ is the Fourier transform of the charge density distribution $`\rho _{ch}(𝐫)`$:

$$F_{ch}(𝐪)=𝑑𝐫\rho _{ch}(𝐫)e^{i\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}}\frac{1}{\rho _{ch}(𝐫)𝑑𝐫}.$$
(1)
Let us firstly consider $`\rho _{ch}(𝐫)`$ obtained from a total nuclear wave function in which the positions $`𝐫`$ of the nucleons are defined with respect to the centre-of-mass of the nucleons in the nucleus (c.m.). If the charge density is spherically symmetrical and normalized to unity, then:

$$F_{ch}(𝐪)=4\pi \rho _{ch}(r)j_0(qr)r^2𝑑r,$$
(2)
where $`j_0(qr)`$ is the zero-order spherical Bessel function. Neglecting the charge neutron form factor, the charge density $`\rho _{ch}(𝐫)`$ is represented by the density distribution of point-like protons in the nucleus $`\rho _{point}(𝐫)`$ folded with the charge distribution of the proton $`\rho _{pr}(𝐫)`$:

$$\rho _{ch}(𝐫)=\rho _{point}(𝐫𝐫^{})\rho _{pr}(𝐫^{})𝑑𝐫^{}.$$
(3)
Then the charge form factor (2) can be obtained in the form:

$$F_{ch}(𝐪)=F_{point}(𝐪)F_{pr}(𝐪),$$
(4)
where $`F_{point}(𝐪)`$ and $`F_{pr}(𝐪)`$ are the form factors which correspond to the densities $`\rho _{point}(𝐫)`$ and $`\rho _{pr}(𝐫)`$ (in formulae such as Eq. (2)), respectively. Secondly, in some calculations the wave functions which lead to the density distributions are often translationally non-invariant and the positions of the nucleons are determined with respect to the centre of the potential related to the laboratory system (lab.) but not to the centre-of-mass of the nucleons in the nucleus. These wave functions admit a motion of the centre-of-mass which has to be switched off in the calculations. It is shown (e.g. in ) that the relationship between the form factor calculated by means of harmonic-oscillator wave functions (with all the nucleons in the $`1s`$ state) $`F_{point,lab}(𝐪)`$ and the form factor calculated by actual wave functions (with positions of the nucleons determined in the c.m. system) $`F_{point,c.m.}(𝐪)`$ contains a correction factor:

$$F_{point,c.m.}(𝐪)=e^{(qb)^2/4A}F_{point,lab}(𝐪),$$
(5)
where $`b`$ is the harmonic-oscillator parameter, or

$$F_{point,c.m.}(𝐪)=e^{(qR)^2/6A}F_{point,lab}(𝐪),$$
(6)
$`R`$ being the root-mean-square (rms) radius of the nucleus. For shell-model potentials different from the harmonic-oscillator one the Eqs. (5) and (6) are approximate. Thus in this case the expression for the form factor which can be compared with the experimental form factor can be written in the form :

$$F_{ch}(𝐪)=e^{(qR)^2/6A}F_{point,lab}(𝐪)F_{pr}(𝐪).$$
(7)
In the Eqs. (1), (2), (4) and (7) all form factors are equal to unity at $`𝐪`$=0.

## 3 Results and discussion

In this Section we calculate $`F_{point}(𝐪)`$ using the point charge density $`\rho _{point}(𝐫)`$ in Eq. (2) and $`F_{ch}(𝐪)`$ using Eq. (4) for the exotic nuclei 6,8He, 11Li, 14Be and 17,19B. For comparison we present also the charge form factors of the ”non-exotic” 4He and 6Li nuclei.

Various charge distributions of the proton $`\rho _{pr}(𝐫)`$ can be used in order to obtain the form factor $`F_{pr}(𝐪)`$. We use the Gaussian form normalized to unity:

$$\rho _{pr}(r)=\frac{1}{(\pi \alpha ^2)^{3/2}}\mathrm{exp}(r^2/\alpha ^2)$$
(8)
which leads to the proton form factor

$$F_{pr}(𝐪)=e^{q^2\alpha ^2/4}.$$
(9)
For the value of the parameter $`\alpha `$ we choose $`\alpha =0.6532`$ fm which corresponds to the proton rms radius $`R_p=0.80`$ fm .

### 3.1 Density distributions of 4,6,8He

We use firstly the following point nucleon densities $`\rho _{point}(r)`$ for 4,6,8He deduced by Tanihata et al.  which determine $`F_{point}(𝐪)`$ in Eq. (4):

$$\rho _{point}^X(r)=\frac{2}{\pi ^{3/2}}\left\{\frac{1}{a^3}\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{r}{a}\right)^2\right]+\frac{1}{b^3}\frac{X2}{3}\left(\frac{r}{b}\right)^2\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{r}{b}\right)^2\right]\right\},$$
(10)
where $`X=Z,N`$. These densities were obtained by fitting the measured total reaction cross sections of 4,6,8He at 800$`A`$ MeV incident on the C target using the optical limit of the Glauber model . The parameter values $`a`$ and $`b`$ are determined from:

$$a^2=a^2\left(1\frac{1}{A}\right),b^2=b^2\left(1\frac{1}{A}\right),$$
(11)
where $`a^{}=1.53`$ fm for all 4,6,8He isotopes, $`b^{}=2.24`$ fm for 6He and $`b^{}=2.06`$ fm for 8He . Hence, $`a=1.40`$ fm and $`b=2.04`$ fm for 6He, $`a=1.43`$ fm and $`b=1.93`$ fm for 8He and $`a=1.325`$ fm for 4He. Thus, the rms radii of the point-proton density distributions are 1.62 fm, 1.72 fm and 1.76 fm for 4He, 6He and 8He, respectively.

We use secondly the COSMA point nucleon densities  of 6,8He which have the same analytical form (10) and are based on the assumption of the $`1p_{3/2}`$ state for the relative motion of the alpha-core and each of the valence neutrons. The parameter values are  $`a=1.55`$ fm, $`b=2.24`$ fm for 6He and $`a=1.38`$ fm, $`b=1.99`$ fm for 8He. The rms radii of the point-proton density distributions are 1.89 fm and 1.69 fm for 6He and 8He, respectively. Here we would like to note the different trend in the behavior of the rms radii of the point-proton density distributions in the Tanihata density  and COSMA density . While in the former the rms radius increases from 4He to 6He and 8He, in the latter it decreases from 6He to 8He. Thus both densities contain opposite effects of the additional neutrons on the charge distributions in the helium isotopes. We note also that both Tanihata and COSMA densities have a Gaussian asymptotic behavior which is supposed not to be a realistic one for these nuclei at high $`q`$. Both densities had been used to fit mainly the total reaction cross sections and the rms radii. That is why it is necessary to consider also other more realistic theoretical predictions for the densities of the helium isotopes. We use also the proton densities of 4,6,8He obtained within the LSSM calculations in a complete 4$`\mathrm{}\omega `$ shell-model space . In them Woods-Saxon single-particle (s.p.) wave functions have been used for 6He and 8He and harmonic-oscillator ones for 4He. We use also the experimental charge density for 4He  with charge rms radius equal to 1.696(14) fm.

### 3.2 Density distributions of 6Li and 11Li

The COSMA point nucleon densities used in our calculations for 6Li and 11Li can be written in the following form :

$$\rho _{point}^X(r)=N_{cX}\frac{\mathrm{exp}(r^2/a^2)}{\pi ^{3/2}a^3}+N_{\nu X}\frac{2\mathrm{exp}(r^2/b^2)}{3\pi ^{3/2}b^5}\left[Ar^2+\frac{B}{b^2}\left(r^2\frac{3}{2}b^2\right)^2\right],X=Z,N.$$
(12)
For 6Li (in the $`\alpha `$+2$`N`$ model): $`A`$=1, $`B`$=0, $`N_{cZ}=N_{cN}=2`$, $`N_{\nu N}=N_{\nu Z}=1`$, $`a`$=1.55 fm and $`b`$=2.07 fm . For 11Li (in the 9Li+2$`N`$ model): $`A`$=0.81, $`B`$=0.19, $`N_{cZ}=3`$, $`N_{cN}=6`$, $`N_{\nu Z}=0`$, $`N_{\nu N}=2`$, $`a`$=1.89 fm and $`b`$=3.68 fm . The rms radii of protons are 2.44 fm and 2.31 fm for 6Li and 11Li, respectively. Similarly to the case of the helium isotopes, the COSMA density predicts a decrease of the proton rms radius from 6Li to 11Li when the number of neutrons increases. Secondly, we use the proton density of 6Li obtained within a LSSM in a complete 4$`\mathrm{}\omega `$ shell-model space and of 11Li in a complete 2$`\mathrm{}\omega `$ shell-model calculations . For 11Li Woods-Saxon s.p. wave functions have been used and harmonic-oscillator ones for 6Li. Third, for 6Li we use as well the density distribution of point-like protons  which leads to the experimental charge distribution with rms radius equal to 2.57 fm .

### 3.3 Density distributions of 17,19B and 14Be

The point nucleon distributions in 17,19B and 14Be were determined in  from analyses of the interaction cross sections of light radioactive nuclei close to the neutron drip line measured at around 800$`A`$ MeV using the optical limit to Glauber type calculations by employing a harmonic-oscillator type densities including the contribution from the $`sd`$-shell:

$$\rho _{point}^Z(r)=\frac{2}{\pi ^{3/2}\lambda ^3}\frac{1}{\left(1\frac{1}{A}\right)^{3/2}}\mathrm{exp}(x^2)\left[1+\frac{(Z2)}{3}x^2\right],$$
(13)
$$\rho _{point}^N(r)=\frac{4}{\pi ^{3/2}\lambda ^3}\frac{1}{\left(1\frac{1}{A}\right)^{3/2}}\frac{N}{(N+8)}\mathrm{exp}(x^2)\left[1+2x^2+\frac{(N8)}{15}x^4\right],$$
(14)
where

$$x^2=\left(\frac{r}{\lambda }\right)^2\frac{A}{A1}$$
(15)
and $`\lambda `$ is the width parameter. Its values are determined by a fit to the experimental interaction cross sections . In our work we use the values of $`\lambda `$ which correspond to the values of the effective rms radii of the point nucleon distributions obtained in . They are 1.9366 fm, 2.0365 fm and 2.0218 fm for 17B, 19B and 14Be, respectively. The rms radii of the proton distributions are correspondingly 2.722 fm, 2.872 fm and 2.755 fm for 17B, 19B and 14Be. Similarly to the case of the Tanihata densities of the helium isotopes the proton rms radius increases from 17B to 19B.

### 3.4 Results of calculations

In this subsection we present and compare the charge form factors $`F_{ch}(q)`$ for different nuclei calculated using Eq. (4) (which accounts for the proton size and in which the positions of the protons are determined from the centre-of-mass of the nucleons in the nucleus) and also make a comparison in one case with a form factor for point-like protons.

In Fig. 1 are compared the charge form factors $`F_{ch}(q)`$ (4) of 6He and 8He calculated using the Tanihata  and the COSMA  densities. For comparison are given the charge form factors for 4He calculated using the experimental charge distribution from  and the Tanihata density . In Fig. 2 the charge form factors for 4,6,8He calculated using the LSSM densities  are compared with those for 4He calculated with the experimental $`\rho _{ch}(r)`$  and with the Tanihata density . In Fig. 3 the charge form factors from (4) for 6Li and 11Li calculated using the COSMA densities  are given together with those from calculations using the LSSM proton densities . For comparison are given the charge form factors for 6Li calculated using the experimental charge distribution from  as well as the point-proton form factor for 11Li calculated with the COSMA density distribution. The charge form factors of 17B and 19B are compared in Fig. 4 with that of 14Be using Eq. (4) and the point-proton densities from . The charge rms radii and the diffuseness parameters of the charge densities are given in Table 1. The diffuseness parameter is defined as the distance over which the value of $`\rho _{ch}(r)`$ decreases from 90% to 10% of the value of the density in the centre of the nucleus $`\rho _{ch}(r=0)`$ divided by 4.4.

### 3.5 Discussion and conclusions

The main features of the obtained charge form factors can be summarized as follows:

Although the number of the protons within a given group of isotopes is the same, the charge form factors are quite different from each other. This concerns 4,6,8He nuclei (using the Tanihata, the COSMA and the LSSM densities), 6Li and 11Li (using the COSMA and the LSSM densities), as well as 17B and 19B isotopes (using the Suzuki densities). These differences reflect the differences in the phenomenologically obtained proton density distributions (which have been fitted to the empirical data for the total reaction cross sections) and in the corresponding radii. Thus the charge form factors can show the effects of the different number of neutrons and their distribution in the nucleus on the charge distribution in a given group of isotopes. Indeed, e.g. 4He is a strongly bound $`\alpha `$-cluster, while 6He is a loosely bound $`\alpha `$+$`n`$+$`n`$ system. 6Li is predominantly an $`\alpha `$+$`d`$ formation while 11Li is supposed to be a 9Li+$`n`$+$`n`$ system. We should emphasize, however, the different trend of the behavior of the charge form factors for 6He and 8He when using the Tanihata, the COSMA and the LSSM densities. This follows, as can be expected, the changes of the proton rms radii (i.e. the changes of the neutron effect on the charge distributions) within a given theoretical approach. While in the case of the Tanihata density the proton rms increases from 1.72 fm for 6He to 1.76 fm for 8He, in the COSMA and LSSM cases it decreases from 1.89 fm to 1.69 fm (in COSMA) and from 1.95 fm to 1.92 fm (in LSSM) for 6He and 8He.

We should mention that the Tanihata, COSMA and Suzuki densities used in our work have Gaussian asymptotic behavior which is supposed not to be a realistic one for the nuclei considered at high $`q`$. This imposes the usage of other more realistic theoretical densities that may become available. We used the LSSM ones for 4,6,8He and 6,11Li nuclei. For 6He, 8He and 11Li Woods-Saxon s.p. wave functions have been used in the LSSM calculations.

We note also the important effect of the proton size accounted for in the calculations of the charge form factors.

In summary, various existing models of charge densities for light exotic nuclei differ very much in their form factor predictions. They even predict opposite effects of the neutron excess on the charge distribution that could be tested by measuring charge form factors. Therefore, it would be most desirable to compare the form factors obtained here with the future experimental data on electron-exotic nuclei scattering. Our numerical results for the charge form factors are available upon demand.

## 4 Acknowledgments

One of the authors (A.N.A.) thanks the Royal Society of London and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for support during his visit to the University of Oxford. He is also grateful for warm hospitality to the Faculty of Physics of the Complutense University of Madrid and for support during his stay there to the State Secretariat of Education and Universities of Spain (N/Ref. SAB2001 - 0030). Three of the authors (A.N.A., M.K.G. and D.N.K.) are grateful to the Bulgarian National Science Foundation for partial support under the Contract No. $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$–905.

Table 1: Charge radii (in fm) and diffuseness (in fm) of the charge densities.

| Nuclei |  | Charge rms | Diffuseness | Densities |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 4He |  | 1.68 | 0.30 | Exp.  |
|  |  | 1.81 | 0.41 | Tanihata  |
|  |  | 2.03 | 0.44 | LSSM  |
| 6He |  | 1.89 | 0.42 | Tanihata  |
|  |  | 2.06 | 0.45 | COSMA  |
|  |  | 2.08 | 0.49 | LSSM  |
| 8He |  | 1.93 | 0.43 | Tanihata  |
|  |  | 1.87 | 0.41 | COSMA  |
|  |  | 2.04 | 0.45 | LSSM  |
| 6Li |  | 2.57 | 0.54 | Exp.  |
|  |  | 2.57 | 0.52 | COSMA  |
|  |  | 2.63 | 0.55 | LSSM  |
| 11Li |  | 2.45 | 0.54 | COSMA  |
|  |  | 2.51 | 0.57 | LSSM  |
| 14Be |  | 2.87 | 0.64 | Suzuki  |
| 17B |  | 2.84 | 0.60 | Suzuki  |
| 19B |  | 2.98 | 0.63 | Suzuki  |


text:
# The Sizes and Kinematic Structure of Absorption Systems Towards the Lensed Quasar APM08279+5255Based on Hubble Space Telescope data from program 8626.

## 1 Introduction

The study of high redshift absorption line systems in the lines of sight (LOS) to lensed and multiple QSOs can yield information on the sizes of intervening galaxies and the structure of the intergalactic medium (IGM). Statistical analyses of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest in multiple LOS have established that the coherence length of Ly$`\alpha `$ absorbers ranges from a few pc to hundreds of kpc (e.g. Crotts 1989; Smette et al 1995; Petry, Impey & Foltz 1998; Petitjean et al. 1998; Lopez, Hagen & Reimers 2000; Rauch et al. 2001b). A significant fraction of Ly$`\alpha `$ forest clouds with neutral hydrogen column densities greater than $`\mathrm{log}N`$(H I)$`>14`$ (where $`N`$(H I) is measured in cm-2) have associated metals detected primarily via highly ionized species such as C IV, even out to very high redshifts (Ellison et al 2000; Songaila 2001; Pettini et al. 2003). From studies of small scale variations using lensed QSOs, these high ionization metal systems have been found to exhibit little structure on transverse scales of a few pc (Rauch, Sargent & Barlow 1999). However, on kpc scales variations can be seen between in some absorption components (e.g. Smette et al 1995; Rauch, Sargent & Barlow 2001a); recently Tzanavaris & Carswell (2003) have inferred sizes of $`0.58`$$`h_{70}^1`$ kpc for individual C IV clouds 111As usual $`h_{70}`$ is the Hubble constant in units of 70 km s-1 Mpc-1. Observations of multiple QSOs extend this type of analysis to larger scales and indicate that coherence (i.e. coincidence) between C IV systems still exists over dimensions of $``$ 100 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc (e.g. Petitjean et al 1998; Lopez, Hagen & Reimers 2000). A complementary study of C IV absorbers in the vicinity of Lyman break galaxies has shown that the regions where metals are dispersed into the IGM probably extend over hundreds of kpc (Adelberger et al. 2003).

Compared with the results of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest and high ionization absorbers, the structural properties of the galactic halos probed by low ionization metal line systems are relatively few. This is mainly due to the fact that low ionization absorbers have a lower incidence per unit redshift than Ly$`\alpha `$ or C IV systems. Rauch et al. (2002) probed four pairs of low ionization systems and found significant spatial and column density differences for individual components on scales of a few hundred pc, although in every case the absorber covered both LOS indicating that low ionization halos have overall dimensions larger than $`0.5`$ kpc. Kobayashi et al. (2002) studied the probable damped Ly$`\alpha `$ system (DLA) at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.974`$ towards APM08279+5255 and again found structural differences in the Mg II lines over scales of $`0.3`$ kpc222The HI profile of the DLA has only been studied in a ground-based, spatially unresolved spectrum (Petitjean et al. 2000). In these data, the N(HI) is poorly constrained and the actual column density may fall slightly below the canonical limit of 2$`\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, although we will continue to refer to it herein as a DLA. Since the STIS data do not cover the Ly$`\alpha `$ of this absorber, we have no information on the N(HI) for the separate LOS.. Using a spatially unresolved HIRES spectrum of APM08279+5255 Petitjean et al. (2000) inferred sub-kpc sizes for some Mg II systems based on partial coverage arguments. Churchill et al (2003) found evidence for minor structural differences on even smaller scales, although these are not reflected in discernable chemical abundance variations over distances of $`0.135`$ kpc in a DLA at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.3911`$. Indirect determinations of the size of Mg II systems, based on impact parameters and number density per unit redshift, indicate dimensions $``$ 50 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc (Steidel 1995; Bergeron and Boissé 1991). Such large sizes have been claimed even for relatively weak absorbers (Churchill & LeBrun 1998; Churchill et al 1999).

Taken together, these observations indicate that the coherence length of C IV systems is much larger than that of Mg II systems. This is qualitatively consistent with the simple picture—drawn more than a decade ago from the incidence of these absorbers per unit redshift—of clumpy, low ionization, gas embedded in larger, more homogeneous, and more highly ionized outer halos (e.g. Steidel 1993). However, the number of multiple QSOs in which the transverse spatial dimensions of metal lines (particularly low ionization systems) have been determined is still relatively small. Moreover, the range of linear scales probed is somewhat limited, largely because ground-based spectroscopy requires image separations typically greater than 0.8 arcsec.

Here we present new spatially resolved observations of the triply imaged QSO $`z_{\mathrm{em}}=3.911`$ APM08279+5255 obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The unique triple nature of this system has been recently confirmed by Lewis et al. (2002b) using a subset of these STIS data and can be explained as lensing by a naked cusp, probably associated with a highly inclined disk (Lewis et al. 2002a). In Figure 1 we reproduce a NICMOS image of APM08279+5255 obtained by Ibata et al. (1999), illustrating the configuration of the lensed images. APM08279+5255 is a particularly powerful case for probing the transverse dimensions of QSO absorbers for two reasons. First, its triple nature provides us with three times as many baselines as the more common QSO pairs. Second, its absorption spectrum is particularly rich in intervening (as well as associated) systems (Ellison et al 1999a,b), including a DLA at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.974`$ (Petitjean et al. 2000). The number of cases in which DLAs have been probed with multiple LOS is still relatively small (see Smette et al. 1995; Zuo et al 1997; Boissé et al. 1998; Lopez et al. 1999; Gregg et al. 2000; Churchill et al. 2003; Wucknitz et al. 2003).

In this paper we adopt a $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 cosmology throughout, unless otherwise stated. In calculating the transverse distances corresponding to the angular separations of the lensed images of APM08279+5255, we adopt a redshift $`z_{\mathrm{lens}}=1.062`$ for the lensing galaxy which has so far remained undetected. This is the redshift of a strong, low ionization, absorption system revealed by the HIRES spectrum of the QSO (Petitjean et al. 2000).

## 2 Observations

Observations with STIS on HST were obtained over the period November 2001–November 2002. Over a total of 25 orbits, we used five different settings of the G750M grating to obtain complete coverage over the wavelength region $`60008600`$ Å. With the 0.2 arcsec wide slit the dispersion is 0.55 Å pixel-1 and the spectral resolution 1.6 Å FWHM (80 – 55 km s-1). Table 1 summarises the observations. The acquisition was achieved by aligning the slit along the bright components A and B and then off-setting perpendicularly by 0.02 arcsec to centre on the faint, spatially intermediate image C. Between each exposure the targets were stepped along the slit by 1 arcsec.

In this paper, we also make use of the ground-based echelle spectrum of APM08279+5255 obtained with HIRES on the Keck I telescope (obtained in April and May 1998). A detailed description of those observations (and associated data reduction) can be found in Ellison et al. (1999a). In brief, we obtained a total of 8.75 hours of spectroscopy for APM08279+5255 with complete wavelength coverage between 4400 and 9250 Å. The spectral resolution of the data is 6 km s-1 and the typical signal-to-noise ratio is S/N $`100`$ per pixel. The three QSO images are spatially unresolved in these spectra. The data are publicly available via an ftp server at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge (ftp://ftp.ast.cam.ac.uk/pub/papers/APM08279).

## 3 Data Reduction

The STIS data were reduced as described by Lewis et al. (2002b). Despite the fact that the HIRES and STIS spectra were all mapped to a common vacuum heliocentric wavelength scale, we found that there remained some systematic velocity differences, internally between each of the three STIS spectra (for the three lines of sight), and also between the STIS and HIRES spectra. We suspect that this is caused by the slight offset from the centre of the slit of images A and B. The small shifts ($`<20`$ km s-1) were corrected by performing a cross correlation between each STIS spectrum and the HIRES spectrum and applying the corresponding velocity adjustment. Note that this procedure, which corrects for the overall systematic offsets in the wavelength scales, should not affect the relative velocity shear of individual absorption systems.

Each STIS spectrum was normalised by fitting a cubic spline through a smoothed spectrum and using the HIRES spectrum as a guide to the continuum regions. This was particularly important in STIS settings where absorption lines are abundant, for example the $`\lambda 6252`$ setting. Equivalent widths for each absorption system were measured and errors estimated for counting statistics and continuum placement.

The final (un-normalised) extracted spectra are shown in Figure 2. The differences in broad emission line strengths have been previously pointed out by Lewis et al. (2002b) and are probably due to microlensing effects. Tick marks indicate the main absorption systems, and Table 2 identifies the species and redshifts. A total of 40 transitions identified from the HIRES spectrum were detected in the STIS data, including 10 Mg II systems (three of which are also detected in Fe II) and 16 C IV systems (five of which also exhibit Si IV absorption). We also detect Fe II and Al II in the DLA at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.974`$ and Ca II at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.062`$ in what is likely to be the lensing galaxy (Petitjean et al. 2000). There remain several unidentified lines in the HIRES spectrum (also present in the STIS data).

## 4 Equivalent Width Analysis

Due to the comparatively low resolution of the STIS spectra (FWHM $`5580`$ km s-1), it is not possible to determine column densities directly by Voigt profile fitting of the absorption lines; thus we generally work here with the line equivalent widths.

We first examine the consistency between the STIS and HIRES measurements of equivalent width (EW). The fractional contribution to the total flux for the three components has been measured from NICMOS images to be 0.51$`\pm 0.02`$, 0.40$`\pm 0.02`$ and 0.09$`\pm 0.03`$ for A, B and C respectively (Ibata et al. 1999—see Figure 1). The corresponding fractional contributions to the EWs in the spatially unresolved HIRES spectrum can therefore be written as

$$EW_{HIRES}=0.51EW_A+0.40EW_B+0.09EW_C$$
(1)
Figure 3 shows the consistency check using equation (1). All of the lines are found to be in very good agreement, with the exception of two Mg II systems. System number 40 apparently shows some discrepancy between the ground-based and HST data. However, the HIRES spectrum is strongly affected by sky lines in this wavelength region and the system lies at the very limit of the STIS spectral coverage. The EW determinations consequently have unusually large errors (see Figure 2 and Table 2) and are actually only deviant at about the 1$`\sigma `$ level. The other anomaly is the case of Mg II $`\lambda 2796`$ at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.813`$ (number 37) which has similar values of EW in A and B, but is much weaker in C. In principle, such EW inconsistencies between the spatially resolved STIS spectra and the unresolved HIRES data may arise from a combination of QSO variability (Lewis, Robb & Ibata 1999) and time delays between the different LOS. However, there is no sign of EW variations between different epoch STIS data (taken a year apart), which is probably not surprising given the microlensing timescale is $``$ 40 years. Furthermore, other absorbers that do not fully cover all three sources do not show such deviations from the HIRES values. Since the other member of the Mg II doublet, $`\lambda 2803`$, and two Fe II transitions in the same absorption system (Fe II $`\lambda 2600`$ and $`\lambda 1608`$) all agree with the HIRES data, it is most likely that we have simply underestimated the measurement error for the stronger Mg II$`\lambda `$2796 line. Thus, overall, there is excellent agreement between the new data presented here and the earlier measurements by Ellison et al. (1999b).

A straightforward conversion between equivalent width and column density is possible for unsaturated absorption systems located on the linear part of the curve of growth (i.e. for lines which are optically thin). Although we have the HIRES spectrum as a guide to which systems may be saturated, partial coverage effects may make strong lines appear unsaturated if they are only present in one or two of the LOS (or if they vary significantly between the LOS). In Figure 4 we plot the rest frame EWs of doublet components in the STIS data, multiplying the weaker component by 2 (to account for the lower value of the oscillator strength). For lines above $``$ 0.2 Å, we note the onset of a deviation from a one-to-one relation in some systems, indicative of possible saturation. Therefore, we adopt the conservative approach of only estimating column densities for absorbers with EW $`<`$ 0.2 Å. This method is vindicated by the very good agreement ($`<<0.1`$ dex) between the flux-weighted column densities from the STIS data (analogous to Figure 3 and Eqn. 1) and the Voigt profile fitted column densities of the HIRES data (e.g. Ellison et al. 2000).

## 5 Equivalent Width and Column Density Variations Between Sightlines

We now take advantage of the high spatial resolution of the STIS/HST combination to examine equivalent width differences between the sight-lines to the three images of APM08279+5255. We distinguish between high (e.g. C IV, Si IV) and low (e.g. Mg II, Fe II) ionization systems, since there is evidence that the characteristic scales of these absorbers are different (e.g. Rauch et al. 1999, 2002). Thus, in the plots that follow we use throughout solid symbols for low ionization systems and open symbols for high ionization systems. It is important to realise that, since the rest-frame wavelengths of the transitions of the high ions are generally lower than those of the low ions, the two sets of absorption lines probe quite different redshifts (and therefore transverse spatial scales) in the data analysed here. We also note that there are a number of high ionization transitions at redshifts $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}z_{\mathrm{em}}`$ (e.g. absorber numbers 21, 23, 24 and 32–36 in Tables 2 and 3). In the following analysis we have not included absorption systems within 5000 km s-1 of the QSO emission redshift because their locations along the lines of sight cannot be deduced if their redshifts are not cosmological. For absolute variations, we consider only systems with EW $`<0.2`$ Å in the stronger member of the doublet, so that we can convert to column density ($`N`$, measured in atoms cm-2) assuming that the lines are on the linear part of the curve of growth, where

$$N=1.13\times 10^{20}\frac{EW(\mathrm{\AA })}{\lambda _0^2f}$$
(2)
where $`f`$ is the oscillator strength and $`\lambda _0`$ is the rest wavelength of the transition in Å.

### 5.1 High Ionization Systems

We identify a total of 16 high ionization systems with LOS separations 0.028–0.340 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc. This is an excellent complement at small scales to the study of high ionization systems by Rauch et al. (2001a) who probed scales up to 5 kpc but with only a few systems at separations less than 0.1 kpc. 333Rauch et al. adopted a $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$, $`H_0=50`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 cosmology, while we use today’s ‘consensus’ values of these parameters, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1. However, the LOS separations as a function of redshift differ by less than 10% between the two cosmologies (at the redshifts considered here) and we have therefore not applied any correction to the values reported by Rauch et al. (2001a) quoted in the text.

In Figures 5 and 6 we compare the equivalent widths between LOS A–B (largest separation) and A–C (smallest separation) respectively. In all cases the equivalent widths of high ionization systems show only mild differences between the different LOS, indicating that the structures which give rise to them are relatively uniform over scales of a few hundred pc. C IV equivalent width differences between sight-lines generally amount to less than 50 mÅ, which corresponds to column densities $`\mathrm{log}N`$(C IV)$`<13.1`$, see Figure 7. Figure 8 shows the fractional EW variation between sightlines as a function of LOS separation (all three A–B, B–C and A–C pairs are included). Typically the fractional equivalent width difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }EW=\frac{EW_1EW_2}{max(EW_1,EW_2)}`$ is less than 30%, although the errors can be large. There is no clear trend between variation and LOS separation on all scales below $`0.4`$ kpc. Presumably the suggestion of a possible decrease in $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ EW for LOS $`<0.1`$ kpc in the data by Rauch et al. (2001a) was an artifact of small number statistics, since we see no evidence of it in the more extensive set of measurements presented here (although see below and Figure 11).

So far we have considered only whole absorption systems, without reference to their multi-component structure. While we do see hints of variations on a component-by-component basis even with our (limited) spectral resolution (one example is system 12—see Figure 2), we will investigate such differences in more detail in a future paper by reconstructing the high resolution line profiles (Aracil et al., in preparation).

### 5.2 Low Ionization Systems

We identify a total of 17 low ionization systems (mostly Mg II and Fe II) with LOS separations 0.41–3.09 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc. This list includes Fe II $`\lambda 1608`$ and Al II $`\lambda 1670`$ associated with the DLA at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.974`$ previously studied by Petitjean et al. (2000). As can be appreciated from inspection of Figures 5 and 6, there can be significant LOS differences in the absorption lines from low ionization gas, with several instances where absorption is detected in only one or two of the three sight-lines 444Four out of five of the non-detections in LOS B compared with LOS A involve one absorption system at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.55`$ (line numbers 15, 16, 28 and 29 in Table 3). .

In Figures 9 and 10 we show the absolute and fractional variations between sightlines as a function of LOS separation. This is the first time that the sizes of low ionization systems have been studied in relatively large numbers, due to the particularly rich spectrum and the triple nature of APM08279+5255. We find that the low ionization systems can have much larger fractional variations than the high ionization systems for LOS separations $`>0.5`$$`h_{70}^1`$ kpc, with several cases where $`\mathrm{\Delta }EW>80`$%. However, some systems exhibit little variation, even over 1 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc or more. Since Rauch et al. (2002) found that individual low ionization clouds can rarely be traced over more than a few hundred pc, this is likely an effect of the combined variation of several clouds. Again, our inversion analysis which will be presented in Aracil et al. will investigate this in more detail.

Kobayashi et al (2002) have detected structural LOS differences in the Mg II line of the $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}`$=2.974 DLA from ground based IR spectra taken in good seeing conditions. This structure is also apparent in our lower resolution spectra; the Al II $`\lambda `$1670 transition is narrower in LOS B than A and C (although the Fe II absorption is too weak to discern such differences). However, the absolute difference in EW between the LOS is small, and consistent with those seen in other (non-damped) low ionization systems at small separations.

In Figure 11 we summarise the fractional variations (based either on column density or EW, as published) in high and low ionization systems by combining measurements made here with those available in the literature (Lopez et al. 2000; Rauch et al. 2001a; Rauch et al. 2002; Churchill et al. 2003). All the literature values have been converted to the cosmology adopted in the present paper. We plot the mean fractional variation for each separation and the scatter (standard deviation) for that bin. The upper limits obtained from APM08279+5255 (e.g. Figure 10) have been treated as detections, with the effect that the scatter is slightly reduced. However, literature upper limits could only be included when a detection limit was quoted. It can be seen that for the low ionization systems the mean variation is the same for all separations within the large scatter. This is probably due to the fact that individual components cannot be traced over more than a few hundred pc. The high ionization systems, however, show a clear trend for larger variations with increasing LOS separation. The scatter is relatively small compared with the low ionization systems, except for the 0.5 – 1.0 kpc bin which only contains two data points.

## 6 Coherence Scales of Absorption Systems

### 6.1 High Ionization Systems

Since all of the high ionization systems detected in the present dataset are common to all three LOS, we can only place a lower limit on the size of the absorbers of $``$ 0.3 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc (this being the largest beam separation in Table 2). This limit is not very instructive given that observations of wider QSO pairs have established much larger coherence lengths for C IV systems (e.g. Petitjean et al. 1998; Lopez et al. 2000). More recently, Tzanavaris & Carswell (2003) concluded that that the most probable size for individual components of C IV complexes is $`3h_{70}^1`$ kpc, if the ‘clouds’ have a spherical geometry.555In their analysis, Tzanavaris & Carswell (2003) adopted the lensing formalism of Young et al. (1981) to calculate proper separations. However, as pointed out by Smette et al. (1992), there is an error in the equations used by Young et al. (1981) which means that the LOS separations calculated by Tzanavaris & Carswell (2003) are too large by a factor of $`2`$. We have corrected for this effect here.

### 6.2 Low Ionization Systems

Since we have a modest number of low ionization systems, several of which are only seen in 1 or 2 of the LOS, we can employ a maximum likelihood analysis to estimate the coherence scale of the structures producing them based on LOS coincidences and anti-coincidences. This analysis relies on at least one anti-coincidence, otherwise the likelihood function is a monotonically increasing function of cloud radius. Similar analyses have been performed previously for Ly$`\alpha `$ forest clouds and C IV systems, but this is the first such determination for low ionization gas halos.

We adopt the formalism of McGill (1990) with the modification by Dinshaw et al. (1997). One ingredient in this analysis is the assumed geometry of the absorber, uniform spheres or flattened, randomly inclined, disks being the two usual approximations. There is evidence that rotation in the plane of the stellar disk of Mg II galaxies is reflected in the absorption gas kinematics in at least some cases (Steidel et al. 2002), although absorption and emission kinematics are not always well correlated (Lanzetta et al. 1997; Ellison, Mallen-Ornelas & Sawicki 2003). More generally, the success of a simple Holmberg relation in describing the incidence of Mg II absorption shows that a spherical gas distribution is a good approximation (Steidel 1995), and this is the model we adopt here. For pairs of LOS intersecting spherical clouds, the probability that a halo is intersected by the second LOS, given that it is seen in the first, is given by

$$\varphi (X)=\frac{2}{\pi }\left\{\mathrm{arccos}\left[X(z)\right]X(z)\sqrt{1X(z)^2}\right\}$$
(3)
for $`0X(z)1`$ and zero otherwise. Here, $`X(z)=S(z)/2R`$ where $`S(z)`$ is the LOS separation and $`R`$ is the absorber coherence radius. This of course assumes that all absorbers are of the same size and that there is no column density variation within a ‘cloud’. In order to make maximum use of the information available we actually want to calculate the probability that both LOS are intersected, if $`either`$ LOS shows absorption. That is, we consider anti-coincidences in any combination of A, B and C. This probability is given by

$$\psi =\frac{\varphi }{2\varphi }$$
(4)
And the likelihood function as a function of coherence radius is given by

$$(R)=\underset{i}{}\psi \left[X(z_i)\right]\underset{j}{}\left\{1\psi \left[X(z_j)\right]\right\},$$
(5)
where $`i`$ and $`j`$ denote the number of coincidences and anti-coincidences. We note that although the original formulism of McGill (1990) was designed for pairs of sightlines, we can still use combinations of A, B and C to investigate the coherence scale of Mg II absorption, rather than the sizes of individual components. Figure 12 shows the results of our maximum likelihood analysis. For the whole sample of Mg II systems in APM08279+5255 (16 pairs of LOS coincidences and 13 anti-coincidences), we find that the most probable value for the absorber coherence scale is $`R=3.0h_{70}^1`$ kpc, with 95% confidence limits of 2.1 and 6.2 kpc. Similarly small sizes for Mg II systems have been previously inferred from partial coverage arguments by Petitjean et al. (2000). This coherence scale contrasts with the much smaller sizes inferred for individual components (Churchill et al. 2003; Rauch et al. 2002). However, the value $`R=3.0h_{70}^1`$ kpc is about one order of magnitude smaller than the dimensions of Mg II absorbing halos deduced from (a) the number density of absorbers per unit redshift and (b) the impact parameters from the QSO of the galaxies producing the absorption, in cases where they have been identified (Bergeron & Boissé 1991; Steidel 1993; Steidel, Dickinson, & Persson 1994). Previous analyses of Mg II absorbers in lensed sightlines have also inferred scales of several tens of kpc (Smette et al 1995).

The answer to this apparent discrepancy may lie in the fact that most statistical samples of Mg II absorbers have considered strong lines, with rest-frame equivalent widths greater than 0.3 Å, whereas many of the systems analysed here are ‘weak’ absorbers (Churchill et al 1999; Rigby, Charlton & Churchill 2002). If we consider separately the strong systems (all LOS exhibiting EW$`0.3`$ Å), the maximum likelihood analysis does not converge because there are no anti-coincidences in our sample, so that we can only infer a lower limit to the radius/coherence scale, $`R>1.4h_{70}^1`$ kpc (from the largest LOS separations sampled here). This is also consistent with the larger sizes of strong Mg II systems inferred by Smette et al (1995). For the remainder of the ‘weak’ systems666We have, however, excluded system 11 from the analysis due to insufficient S/N to detect a coincidence in LOS C at the level of the absorption seen in LOS B. the maximum likelihood analysis (with 8 coincidences and 13 anti-coincidences) yields a most probable radius of $`2.0h_{70}^1`$ kpc with 95% confidence limits of 1.5 and 4.4 kpc (see Figure 12). If the adopted lens redshift is in fact $`z_{lens}<1.062`$ this would imply even smaller beam separations (e.g. by $``$50% for $`z_{lens}=0.6`$), so our conclusion that weak absorbers have small sizes would remain unchanged.

For the DLA at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.974`$, where all absorption lines are seen in all three sight-lines, we similarly deduce a lower limit to the size of 0.34 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc. This is in agreement with the size deduced by Petitjean et al. (2000) based on the absence of partial coverage in the Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption line.

## 7 Velocity Shear

Velocity shear between sightlines was calculated by cross-correlating the absorption line profiles for each LOS combination using the task fxcor in IRAF. Errors within this package are calculated using the formalism of Tonry & Davis (1979). An independent error check can be carried out using the fact that shifts between each LOS combination form a closed system. That is, the difference in the calculated shifts between A–B and A–C should equal the shift between C–B. We plot the results of this consistency check in Figure 13. It can be seen that in most cases the agreement is very good, and well within the formal error bars.

### 7.1 High Ionization Systems

In Figure 14 we present the shear velocities as a function of LOS separation for high ionization systems. We find that the shear is generally less than 20 km s-1 for separations up to $``$0.35 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc. Again, this complements the results by Rauch et al (2001a) who had few points below 0.2 kpc. With these additional points at small separations, it can now be seen that shear velocities in high ionization systems are generally less than 15–20 km s-1 at separations smaller than 0.5 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc, with evidence for an increase in shear at larger separations (Rauch et al. 2001a).

### 7.2 Low Ionization Systems

The velocity shear for low ionization systems is shown in Figure 15. We do not find any evidence for the significant increase in shear on scales greater than 1 kpc seen in C IV systems by Rauch et al. (2001a). The observed shear between the metal lines of the DLA is also small, less than 10 km s-1, consistent with the those of the other, weaker, low ionization absorbers. However, our analysis is limited by the fact that we have insufficient spectral resolution to perform a column density weighted calculation (c.f. Rauch et al. 2002; Churchill et al. 2003). This is particularly important for the low ionization systems where the scale of individual components is much smaller than our proper beam separation. This is highlighted by the Mg II system at $`z=1.813`$ where the absorption lines are of of similar strengths in LOS A and B, but are much weaker in the spatially intermediate LOS C. Our cross-correlation velocity shear therefore traces the shift between the strongest components in each LOS.

## 8 Chemical Uniformity

In cases where two ions are observed in more than one LOS (and the lines have EW$`<`$0.2 Å so as to permit a column density determination), we can test for transverse variations in the ratio of their column densities. Such variations may result from differences between the sightlines in chemical composition, dust depletion and ionization conditions, or any combination of these. However, since we typically only observe two elements in each absorption system, we do not have sufficient information to disentangle these effects.

There are two high ionization systems for which we can study transverse abundance differences through the C IV/Si IV ratio. Table 4 summarises these results; relative column densities for weak high ionization systems agree to within 0.1 dex over a few hundred pc. Since we have found that high ionization systems vary little between LOS, it is not surprising that their column density ratios are in good agreement too. Unfortunately, we can not investigate differences in the low ionization systems (apart from the DLA) since all the Mg II systems which have associated Fe II are too strong to determine accurate column densities.

For the DLA (or possible sub-DLA), we have available low ionization lines of Al II and Fe II. Although Al II $`\lambda `$1670 is usually saturated in DLAs, we see no evidence for this in the HIRES spectrum and the lack of flat-bottomed profiles argues against de-saturation by partial coverage. This is not unexpected given the relatively low $`N`$(HI) of this DLA (Petitjean et al 2000). Since Al II and Fe II represent the major ionisation stages of these elements in DLAs (and ionisation corrections are relatively small even for sub-DLAs, see Dessauges-Zavadsky et al. 2003), we can use the EWs in Table 3 to deduce abundance ratios \[Al/Fe\] $`=+0.15_{0.12}^{+0.09}`$, $`0.04_{0.13}^{+0.09}`$, $`+0.05_{0.22}^{+0.15}`$ in A, B and C respectively777Using the conventional notation \[X/Y\] = log \[$`N`$(X)/$`N`$(Y)\]DLA $``$ log \[$`N`$(X)/$`N`$(Y)\].. Although these values may suggest mild variations of the \[Al/Fe\] ratio between the three sight-lines, they are actually all consistent with the solar value within the errors 888Adopted solar abundances are meteoritic values taken from Grevesse & Sauval (1998). Chemical uniformity in absorbers has been previously pointed out both along (Prochaska 2003) and across (Churchill et al. 2003) quasar lines of sight. Our observations concur with these findings, with little detected variation over $``$ 350 pc.

## 9 Discussion

In the Milky Way, the warm, highly ionized gas component is relatively smoothly distributed with little or no change in column density over several degrees on the sky; SiIV and CIV absorptions in particular are generally well matched (Savage, Sembach & Lu 1997). In contrast, very small-scale variations (on the order of a few AUs) have been observed in the cold ($``$ 100 K) neutral gas component (traced by Na I) of the interstellar medium (e.g. Andrews, Meyer & Lauroesch 2001; Lauroesch, Meyer & Blades 2000). The singly ionized species of Fe II and Mg II studied here are intermediate between these two phases and most likely occur in a warm neutral medium. These species trace each other well in terms of velocity structure, as well as showing a close kinematic relation to Ca II which is more often studied in the local ISM (e.g. Welty, Morton & Hobbs 1996; Redfield & Linsky 2002). Such low ionization species do exhibit some variation on scales of a few tens to tens of thousands of AU, but the LOS differences are less marked than in the cold phase traced by Na I (e.g. Meyer & Roth 1991; Meyer & Blades 1996; Lauroesch et al 1998; Price, Crawford & Howarth 2001). Variation in Ca II and other low ions can be seen both in terms of velocity structure and column density, although such variation is by no means ubiquitous (e.g. Rauch et al. 2002). The presence of these small scale variations can be explained by density contrast within a diffuse cloud where the bulk of the low ionization gas is concentrated in the highest density peaks (Lauroesch & Meyer 2003). The variation of different species between lines of sight (or temporally in a single Galactic sightline) is therefore dependent not only on the size of the ‘cloud’ itself, but also on the local physical conditions that maintain the ionization balance.

Qualitatively similar trends have been observed in high redshift absorbers. On scales of a few pc the high ionization gas is effectively featureless (Rauch et al. 1999), with variations typically $`<`$30% for transverse separations of 50 pc – 5 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc (Rauch et al. 2001a; this work). However, the location of this high ionization gas remains uncertain. The ubiquity of C IV absorption associated with the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest, even at low H I column densities (e.g. Ellison et al. 2001), and coherence lengths of more than 100 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc (Petitjean et al 1998; Lopez, Hagen & Reimers 2000) suggest an intergalactic origin. However, Adelberger et al. (2003) find a strong correlation between Lyman break galaxies and C IV absorption out to impact parameters of hundreds of kpc, indicating a link between galaxy winds and metal enriched gas. A similar conclusion was reached by Rauch et al. (2001a) based on the small internal turbulence of C IV systems.

Similar to the situation in Galactic sightlines, high redshift absorbers exhibit much stronger variation in the low ionization species. Given the pervasive small-scale structure observed in the Milky Way, it is not surprising that individual Mg II components cannot be traced between sight-lines separated by a few tens to a few hundred pc (Rauch et al. 1999, 2002) and that large fractional EW differences are common in these systems (this work). However, coincidences of absorption between LOS indicate that there is coherence in the absorption structure on somewhat larger scales. This can be compared with the ‘clumpy but coherent’ structure seen in Mg II and other low ions in the local ISM out to at least 100 pc (Redfield & Linksy 2002). Based on a maximum likelihood analysis, we have been able to infer the likely coherence length of weak Mg II systems (as opposed to the size of individual components) $`R2`$ $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc. This coherence scale must be understood in context with the overall galaxy sizes inferred for strong Mg II systems (e.g. Steidel 1995) which show absorption out to several tens of kpc from the absorbing galaxies.

One possibility is that the weak absorbers represent a distinct population whose actual sizes are a few kpc, comparable to those of present-day dwarf galaxies. Compared with strong Mg II absorbers, the weak systems in our sample have relatively simple kinematic structure and are spread over narrow velocity ranges. In generic cold dark matter models of galaxy formation (e.g. Mo & Miralda-Escude 1996) there is a steep correlation between circular velocity and halo dimension which agrees with the small sizes derived from our maximum likelihood analysis. However, the small sizes inferred here contradict the suggestion by Churchill & Le Brun (1998) that weak Mg II absorbers are ‘giant’ LSB systems, although low luminosities remain highly feasible.

Alternatively, the weak Mg II systems may occur in sightlines through large galaxies, but in regions where interstellar clouds have lower filling factors leading to smaller inferred coherence lengths. Indeed, Rigby et al. (2002) suggest that although single cloud weak Mg II systems (see below) may arise from a distinct population, the multi-component systems are likely have the same origin as the strong clouds. In this picture, the absorbing clouds are made up of pc-scale components with a total covering factor of about unity (Srianand & Khare 1994; Rauch et al 2002) in the central few tens of kpc of the galaxy. Further out, the filling factor is smaller, so that anti-coincidences may be observed indicating smaller sizes. Inferred scales of $`2R`$ 4 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc compared to $``$ 40 kpc (Steidel 1995) would imply filling factors that are an order of magnitude smaller for the weak Mg II systems. Smaller filling factors would also explain the tendency towards fewer components in low EW systems. The above scenario is qualitatively born out by an observed anti-correlation between Mg II column density and galaxy impact parameter (Churchill et al. 2000). Indeed, Churchill et al. (2000) find that all high impact parameter intersections have small EW Mg II absorbers. This scenario could be tested with an imaging and spectroscopic campaign to identify the galaxies responsible for absorption.

Finally, we comment on the observation that two thirds of weak Mg II absorbers have been previously found to be single cloud systems (Rigby et al. 2002). The HIRES spectra of APM08279+5255 (Ellison et al. 1999b) show this not to be the case here; all of the eight weak Mg II systems we have identified exhibit multiple velocity components when observed with HIRES. Bearing in mind that the HIRES observations do not resolve the three images, this multicomponent structure is probably a reflection of the small scale variations seen by Rauch et al. (2002). Moreover, the exceptional S/N of the HIRES spectrum of APM08279+5255 reveals components that would not normally be identified in most spectra. The Mg II system at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}`$=1.291, which has an unresolved main component and a weaker, broader feature $``$ 25 km s-1 away (Ellison et al. 1999b), would have been classified by Rigby et al. (2002) as a single cloud weak absorber in a lower S/N spectrum. Using ionization models, Rigby et al. found the sizes of single cloud absorbers with Fe II to be $`10`$ pc. The models for weak Mg II systems without Fe II are less well constrained, allowing for cloud sizes which vary between a few pc and several tens of kpc. Since the system at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}`$=1.291 would have been classified as an (albeit, Fe II free) weak single cloud absorber in spectra of S/N typical of the data used by Rigby et al., we can now significantly improve upon the size estimate of this type of absorber with the STIS data. Given that absorption is detected in both LOS A and B (in C the S/N is insufficient to provide useful information) we deduce a minimum size of 2.4 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc, more than 20 times larger than the value estimated (indirectly) for the Fe-rich systems.

## 10 Conclusions

In this paper, we have presented moderate resolution STIS spectra of the tripled imaged QSO APM08279+5255, and focussed our analysis on an investigation of the sizes and coarse structure of intervening metal absorption systems. By capitalising upon the unusually absorption-rich lines of sight offered by the triply imaged QSO APM08279+5255, we have significantly increased the number of high ionization systems (primarily C IV) probed at small ($`<0.1`$$`h_{70}^1`$ kpc) separations. This study is also the most comprehensive to date of the variation of low ionization (e.g. Mg II) systems. Our principal conclusions are as follows.

1. High ionization systems generally show small EW variations on scales of a few tens to a few hundreds of pc, although we find evidence in at least one system for small component differences across the LOS. This complements the work of Rauch et al. (2001a) whose observations probed mostly larger separations for C IV systems in three pairs of lensed QSOs. Taken together, all of these data indicate a steady increase in fractional variation with increasing LOS separation, although rarely exceeding 40%. All the high ionization systems occur in all three lines-of-sight to APM08279+5255, implying sizes of $`>3`$$`h_{70}^1`$ kpc.
2. In contrast to the high ionization systems, low ionization complexes exhibit significant variation ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ EW $`>80`$%) on scales greater than a few hundred pc, although we lack the spectral resolution to trace individual clouds between sightlines. There is no trend of fractional variation as a function of LOS separation, which can be explained by the small sizes ($`<`$ few hundred pc) of individual components. For strong (EW$`>`$ 0.3 Å) Mg II systems we can only infer a minimum radius of $``$ 3 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc, although the actual size is likely to be significantly larger (Steidel 1995; Smette et al 1995). For weaker systems (EW$`<`$ 0.3 Å), we apply a maximum likelihood method and infer a most probable coherence scale of 2.0 $`h_{70}^1`$ kpc with 95% confidence limits of 1.5 and 4.4 kpc. Therefore, we suggest that these are either a population distinct from strong Mg II systems, perhaps associated with dwarf galaxies, or that they occur in the outer regions of large, luminous galaxies where their filling factor is lower.
3. The velocity shear for both high and low ionization systems is small, typically less than 20 km s-1. However, since we can not trace individual low ionization components, the shear velocities for these systems reflects mainly the shift in the location of the strongest component(s).
4. For two of the high ionization systems where the lines are opticall thin and the EWs can be converted to column densities, we find consistent ratios of $`N`$(C IV)/$`N`$(Si IV) between LOS. The abundance ratio of \[Al/Fe\] in the DLA (or possible sub-DLA) also exhibits only mild variation ($`<0.1`$ dex) and is approximately solar in the three LOS.
5. We note a deficit of single cloud weak Mg II absorbers in the HIRES spectrum of APM08279+5255 and speculate that this may be due to the superposition of sightlines in the spatially unresolved ground-based data. This and other issues will be addressed in a future paper (Aracil et al, in preparation) that uses an inversion analysis to produce high spectral resolution for each LOS by combining information from the STIS and HIRES spectra.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to our $`HST`$ program coordinator, Beth Perriello at STScI, for continued support through the observations, and to Steven Smartt at the UK HST user support facility which was based at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. This work benefitted from comments and suggestions from Bob Carswell and Alain Smette.