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# Coarse-Grained Model of Entropic Allostery

## Abstract

Many signalling functions in molecular biology require proteins to bind to substrates such as DNA in response to environmental signals such as the simultaneous binding to a small molecule. Examples are repressor proteins which may transmit information via a conformational change in response to the ligand binding. An alternative entropic mechanism of “allostery” suggests that the inducer ligand changes the intramolecular vibrational entropy, not just the mean static structure. We present a quantitative, coarse-grained model of entropic allostery, which suggests design rules for internal cohesive potentials in proteins employing this effect. It also addresses the issue of how the signal information to bind or unbind is transmitted through the protein. The model may be applicable to a wide range of repressors and also to signalling in transmembrane proteins.

Introduction. It is becoming increasingly clear that dynamics, as well as static structure, are important in molecular biology. For example simulations of dynamical transitions in proteins Tournier and Smith (2003) suggest that collective global modes are correlated with protein function. This letter focuses on repressor proteins which bind to DNA to “turn off” genes when the cell does not require their expression. The binding is “allosteric”: it is activated depending on the presence of inducer ligands, small molecules which themselves bind to the protein. The “holorepressor” (“aporepressor”) is the protein with (without) a bound ligand. Frequently the ligand binding site on the protein is distant from that of the DNA. For this reason ligand binding has often been assumed to cause a conformational change within the repressor protein, decreasing its affinity for DNA in one state compared to the other state. However, this is evidence that dynamically induced entropic changes may contribute to allostery Bell and Lewis (2001); Jusuf et al. (2003); Cooper and Dryden (1984).

A classic example of a repressor system is the E-coli lac repressor Bruinsma (2002); Alberts (2002); Lewis et al. (1996); Bell and Lewis (2000); Lehninger et al. (2000). In this case the aporepressor binds to DNA, suppressing the genes for the metabolism of lactose. A second example is the E-coli trp repressor Otwinowski et al. (1988); Lawson and Carey (1993); Zhao et al. (1993) that, on binding, prevents the expression of the gene for tryptophan synthesis. But in contrast to the lac, trp-type holorepressor proteins bind to DNA and the aporepressors do not. There are many such repressor systems but the lac and the trp will act as representative cases for this Letter. Our challenge is to explore whether the Brownian fluctuations in protein structure may carry information between the two binding sites, thereby producing cooperative lac-type or trp-type behaviour. This mechanism of cooperativity is one of the key questions in understanding protein function Matthews (1996).

A coarse-grained model. In a coarse-grained representation we model a repressor protein dimer as two rigid plates of length $`l`$ and width $`w`$, representing the two protein monomers motivated by the common dimer motif (see Figure 1). We parameterise the relative motion of the plates by three relative translation displacements ($`x`$, $`y`$, $`z`$) and three rotation angles ($`\theta _x`$, $`\theta _y`$, $`\theta _z`$). The stabilising contact interaction between the two dimers is characterised by 5 quadratic (3D) potential wells. Figure 1 shows 5 of the effective springs that arise, $`\lambda _i^x`$ which are perpendicular to the plates. We find that a minimal model requires just 4 other springs in the plane of the plates (summations of diagonal springs between the plates), which we label as $`\lambda _{00}^y`$, $`\lambda _{01}^z`$, $`\lambda _{00}^z`$, $`\lambda _{01}^z`$, representing the resolved $`y`$ and $`z`$ relative displacements. These local interactions represent a minimal set of “sticky patches” which could arise from hydrophobic, side chain, or electrostatic forces. The corresponding spring constants $`\lambda _i`$ could be calculated in principle from the details of these interactions. We allow only local modifications of the contact interactions on binding. The springs local to the ligand binding site will be affected by the binding of an inducer or corepressor. (Lac actually binds two inducer ligands, which we simplify here with a single bound state.) Similarly springs local to the DNA binding site will be affected by binding to DNA. The other springs act as anchoring potentials.

We consider vibrations of the plates in 3 different planes: (i) in the $`x,y`$ plane (translational vibrations along the $`x`$-axis and rotations about the $`z`$-axis); (ii) in the $`x,z`$ plane (translation along the $`x`$-axis and rotation about the $`y`$-axis); and (iii) in the $`y,z`$ plane (translation along the $`z`$-axis and rotation about the $`x`$-axis).

The Tirion potential Tirion (1996) replaces the full MD potential with a simple pairwise quadratic potential of universal strength and this is found to be sufficient to describe the low frequency modes involving coherent motion of large groups of atoms. In our model we similarly look only at these low frequency modes and describe them by harmonic potentials between the protein domains, but allow the potentials between the protein monomers to acquire locally specific values.

As an example of detailed calculations we take the $`2\times 2`$ system of motions in the $`y,z`$ plane. We write $`z_{01}=z_{00}\frac{l\theta _x}{2}`$ and $`z_{01}=z_{00}+\frac{l\theta _x}{2}`$ (where $`\theta _x`$ is the angle of rotation about the $`x`$-axis) to obtain the Hamiltonian in terms of the mutual translational vibration coordinate $`z_{00}`$ and mutual rotational vibration coordinate $`\theta _x`$.

$$H=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{𝐩𝐌}^\mathrm{𝟏}𝐩+\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{𝐱𝐊𝐱}$$
(1)
where the interaction matrix for the $`y,z`$ plane

$`𝐊`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}(\lambda _{01}^z+\lambda _{01}^z+\lambda _{00}^z)& \frac{1}{2}(\lambda _{01}^z\lambda _{01}^z)\\ \frac{1}{2}(\lambda _{01}^z\lambda _{01}^z)& \frac{1}{4}(\lambda _{01}^z+\lambda _{01}^z)\end{array}\right),`$
the inertial matrix

$`𝐌`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}m& 0\\ 0& \frac{I}{l^2}\end{array}\right),\text{and}𝐱=\left(\begin{array}{c}z_{00}\\ l\theta _x\end{array}\right)`$
where $`m`$ is the reduced mass and $`I`$ is the reduced moment of inertia of the dimer pair. This leads to the partition function in the relevant classical limit

$$Z=\mathrm{}e^{\frac{H(x_{0_i},\theta _i)}{kT}}dx_{0_i}d\theta _i=\frac{2\pi kT}{(|𝐌^\mathrm{𝟏}||𝐊|)^{1/2}}.$$
(4)
Finally from (4) the entropy of the protein dimer for a single plane is

$$S=Nk(\mathrm{ln}2\pi kT\sqrt{mI}/l+11/2\mathrm{ln}(\lambda _1\lambda _1+\lambda _0(\lambda _1+\lambda _1)/4))$$
(5)
where $`\lambda _{0i}^z`$ has been abbreviated to $`\lambda _i`$ for convenience. We are interested in the difference between the change in entropy on binding at the DNA binding site of the two cases in which the protein is, and is not also bound to the inducer. We call this $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S=\mathrm{\Delta }S_{\mathrm{holo}}\mathrm{\Delta }S_{\mathrm{apo}}`$. A result with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S0`$ would signify cooperative behaviour i.e. the binding to DNA is affected by the binding to the inducer. We write $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ in terms of dimensionless spring constants $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}=\frac{\lambda _1}{\lambda _0}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}=\frac{\lambda _1}{\lambda _0}`$ and bound to unbound ratios $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1=\frac{\lambda _{1B}}{\lambda _1}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1=\frac{\lambda _{1B}}{\lambda _1}`$. This gives us

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S=\frac{1}{2}Nk\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{(4\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}}+\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}})(4\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}}+\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}})}{(4\mathrm{\Lambda }_1\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}}+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}})(4+\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}}+\frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}})}\right).$$
(6)
The other modes can be modelled in the same way to give additional contributions to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$. The 2-plate model generates a $`3\times 3`$ form of $`𝐌`$ and $`𝐊`$ for coupled rotations about $`y`$ and $`z`$ and translations along $`x`$ plus one simple $`y`$-translation.

We take $`N=2`$ for the lac since it is a tetramer of two dimers and similarly for the trp since it represses as a dimer of dimers so also has two dimers.

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S>0`$ gives the trp case whereby the affinity for the holorepressor binding to DNA is greater than the apo repressor. $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S<0`$ however gives the lac case since the apo lac repressor is the one with the higher affinity for DNA. Applying these inequalities to equation (6) gives the following rule determining which case arises.

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_1\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+1\left\{\begin{array}{c}>\\ <\end{array}\right\}\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\mathrm{\Lambda }_1\left\{\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{trp}\\ \mathrm{lac}\end{array}\right\}.$$
(7)
The trp case occurs when both spring constants increase ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1>1`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1>1`$) or decrease ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1<1`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1<1`$) on ligand binding. The lac case occurs when one spring constant increases and the other decreases ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1>1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1<1`$ or $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1<1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1>1`$).

Figure 2 plots the function $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S(\mathrm{\Lambda }_1,\mathrm{\Lambda }_1)`$ (equation 6). Biologically relevant values for the original spring constants were chosen using protein $`B`$-factor data (related to the rms positions of the atoms $`B=8\pi ^2<\overline{u^2}>`$ Rhodes (1993)) and steered simulations (see later) giving the case for a potential which is stronger at the inducer binding site ($`\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}>\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}`$). It can be seen that the negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ lac-type effect is maximised when the ligand binding at the inducer binding site decreases the spring constant $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}`$ but $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}`$ increases on DNA binding. The trp-type effect (positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$) is maximised when both spring constants decrease as much as possible on binding. This reduction will however be limited by the physical requirement for overall stability of the complex. Requiring that the RMS displacement of the monomers be less than the average separation of the atoms leads to the estimation that $`\lambda _i>0.1kT`$Å<sup>-2</sup>.

Physically, “entropic allostery” allows the lac inducer binding to communicate via the large amplitudes of the internal modes of the protein to the “read-head” binding regions near the DNA which as a result move too much to be inserted into the DNA.

Estimating the spring constants. We evaluate our model in the real example of the lac repressor as an illustration. Firstly we simply calculated estimates for the spring constants from the x-ray crystal $`B`$-factors of the solved structures in the protein data bank. From the solved structure Lewis et al. (1996); Friedman et al. (1995); Bell and Lewis (2000) it is clear that $`\lambda _1`$ decreases on inducer binding since the headpiece domains are disrupted on lac binding. On DNA binding specific interactions are formed between the repressor headpiece domains and the base pairs in the DNA major groove which would increase the local binding potential and so increase $`\lambda _1`$. These observations therefore support our finding that the lac case has $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1<1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1>1`$.

We converted the protein data for the $`B`$-factors Lewis et al. (1996); Friedman et al. (1995); Bell and Lewis (2000) into RMS vibration values and estimated the spring constants $`\lambda _i`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_i`$ (in this case averaged over the vibrations in the different planes) from the expression $`\lambda 1/<\overline{u}^2>`$ giving $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}1.2`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\lambda _1}0.1`$ (estimated from Slijper et al. (1997)), $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_10.07`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_16.7`$. We now calculate an estimate of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ using equation (6). Including a factor of three due to the three planes of vibration, we obtain for our plate-dimer model a value of $`T\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S1.4kT`$. Since the experimental values for the change in binding energy between holo and aporepressor binding to DNA are $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }G6kT`$ Barkley and Bourgeois (1980); Horton et al. (1997); Levandoski et al. (1996) this indicates that the entropic contribution is likely to be significant since the crystal dynamics can only be a lower bound for the amplitudes of vibration.

To improve upon this rough estimate we calculated the interaction energy between the lac monomers in a fully atomistic computation using the software “cns” Brunger et al. (1998) and steering the relative positions of the two monomers. We used the xray crystal structure coordinates PDB ID 1LBI Lewis et al. (1996) for the aporepressor and 1TLF Friedman et al. (1995) for the holorepressor.

By relative translation along the 3 axes, and rotation about axes at the extremities of the protein dimer, and recalculating the total interaction energy at each increment, we were able to build up curves for the potential energy wells (see Figure 3). By curve fitting the bottom of these wells to a quadratic (to fit with our harmonic approximation) we were able to extract the curvature and therefore the spring constants for each global mode of both the holo and aporepressors. We then used these to calculate $`\mathrm{\Delta }S_{\mathrm{inducerbind}}`$ which is an estimate for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ in the case of large $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1`$. For the motion in the $`x,y`$ and $`x,z`$ planes (translation along $`x`$ and rotation about $`y`$ and $`z`$) this gave $`T\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S1.66kT`$, for the $`y,z`$ plane $`0.42kT`$ and for the relative translation along $`y`$ (which does not have rotation modes coupled to it) $`0.28kT`$. Interestingly the softest mode, contributing most to the allostery, is the one which shifts the DNA read heads (which point in the plane perpendicular to the core) away from the DNA perpendicular to it (the $`x,z`$ plane). Therefore in total we have an estimate for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S2.36kT`$.

To check how significant this entropy contribution is to the total $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }G6kT`$ we compared the probability of genes being repressed (bound by repressor) against lactose concentration with and without this entropic contribution (following Yildirim Yildirim and Mackey (2003))(see Figure 4). For $`95\%`$ activation (operators not bound) 18 lactose molecules are required with the entropic contribution but 50 would be required if there was no entropic contribution. Note there are only of order 100 repressors in the cell Bruinsma (2002). This would imply that the entropic contribution to allostery is significant in controlling the lactose level at which the gene expression is turned on.

Conclusions. We conclude that inducer binding affects the Brownian motion within the repressor protein and this entropic effect contributes to the allosteric mechanism in DNA binding proteins alongside static conformational changes. We can relate the communication of the signal across the protein to “design rules” for the potentials within it.

Several extensions of this approach suggest themselves. A discrete many-springs model naturally extends to the case of a continuous potential between the plates. Secondly, the case of multiple, sequential ligand binding will lead to additional structure. To make the model even more realistic we should also include bending modes of the protein monomers themselves. Significantly, addition of such bending modes must increase the predicted $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ value if the ligand binding changes the bending rigidity. For lac any such increase might give values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ that actually dominate the binding free energy.

We expect this model can be also applied to transmembrane proteins that transmit signals across membranes into cells and organelles Spiegel et al. (1991); Swint-Kruse et al. (2003). These systems are similar in that an inducer ligand (e.g. adrenaline) binds to the receptor transmembrane protein which in turn allows it to bind or unbind proteins on the interior of the membrane (e.g. to bind to a G-protein in the control cycle for glycogen). Within the restricted environment of the membrane we expect entropic allostery to play an important role in the transmission of the signal through the receptor protein.

The calculated values of the contribution to the free energy change from the change in intramolecular vibrational entropy of the protein easily reach the order of a few $`kT`$ per molecule, within the experimentally observed range for these systems.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the EPSRC for funding, and P. G. Stockley, S. E. V. Phillips, S. W. Homans and R. F. Bruinsma for stimulating discussions.


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# Low-energy Universality and the New Charmonium Resonance at 3870 MeV

## I Introduction

The discovery of the $`J/\psi `$ and other charmonium resonances in 1974 played a crucial role in the construction of the gauge theories of the strong and electroweak forces that constitute the Standard Model of particle physics. Subsequent studies of the spectroscopy, decays, and production of both charmonium and bottomonium resonances have played important roles in the development of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the gauge theory of the strong interactions. The recent unexpected discovery by the Belle collaboration of a narrow charmonium resonance near 3.87 GeV Choi:2003ue  has presented a new challenge to our understanding of QCD.

The new charmonium state $`X(3870)`$ was discovered in electron-positron collisions through the $`B`$-meson decay $`B^\pm K^\pm X`$ followed by the decay $`XJ/\psi \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$. Its mass was measured to be $`M_X=3872.0\pm 0.6\pm 0.5`$ MeV Choi:2003ue . It is narrow compared to other charmonium states above the threshold for decay into two charm mesons: the upper bound on the width is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_X<2.3`$ MeV. The discovery has been confirmed by the CDF collaboration who observed $`X`$ through $`J/\psi \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ events in proton-antiproton collisions and measured its mass to be $`M_X=3871.4\pm 0.7\pm 0.4`$ MeV CDF .

There have been several recent papers discussing the possible interpretations of the $`X(3870)`$ Tornqvist:2003na ; Close:2003sg ; Pakvasa:2003ea ; Voloshin:2003 ; YMW:2003 ; Wong:2003 . The most conventional interpretations are previously undiscovered states in the charmonium spectrum, such as one of the lowest D-wave states with spin/parity/charge-conjugation quantum numbers $`J^{PC}=2^{}`$ or $`2^+`$ or one of the first excited P-wave states with $`J^{PC}=1^{++}`$ or $`1^+`$. A more exotic possibility is a “hybrid charmonium” state in which a gluonic mode has been excited. Another possibility, a $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ molecule, is motivated by the fact that the $`X(3870)`$ is extremely close to the threshold $`3871.2\pm 0.7`$ MeV for decay into the charmed mesons $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$. The possibility of hadronic molecules formed from charm mesons was suggested long ago Voloshin:ap ; DeRujula:1976qd . The most favorable channels for forming a molecule from the pion-exchange interaction are the P-wave channel with $`J^{PC}=0^+`$ and the S-wave channel with $`J^{PC}=1^{++}`$ Tornqvist:2003na .

In this paper, we explore the consequences of identifying $`X(3870)`$ as an S-wave $`D^0\overline{D}^0/\overline{D}^0D^0`$ molecule. The tiny binding energy of the molecule implies that the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length $`a`$ is unnaturally large. The molecule therefore has properties that depend on $`a`$ but are insensitive to other details of the interactions of $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$, a phenomenon called “low-energy universality.” In Section II, we discuss the implications of low-energy universality for the wavefunction of $`X`$ and describe two possible mechanisms for generating the large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length. In Section III, we discuss the implications of low-energy universality for decays of $`X`$. One mechanism for generating the large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length, the fine-tuning of the energy of a P-wave charmonium state to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold, gives a particularly distinctive pattern of branching fractions. Low-energy universality gives highly nontrivial predictions for 3-body systems, such as $`D^0D^0\overline{D}^0`$. Unfortunately, as shown in Section IV, the spectacular possibility of shallow $`D^0D^0\overline{D}^0`$ molecules called Efimov states can be excluded. In Section V, we present a nonrelativistic effective field theory that illustrates the two mechanisms for generating a large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length. Our results are summarized in Section VI.

## II Low-energy Universality

We will assume that the closeness of $`M_X`$ to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold is no accident and that $`X(3870)`$ is indeed a hadronic molecule whose constituents are the charm mesons $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$ and $`D^0`$. What makes this molecule unique among all the hadrons that can be interpreted as 2-body bound states of other hadrons is its extremely small binding energy. If the low-energy interaction between two hadrons is mediated by pion exchange, the natural scale for the binding energy of a molecule composed of the two hadrons is $`m_\pi ^2/(2m_{\mathrm{red}})`$, where $`m_{\mathrm{red}}`$ is their reduced mass. The natural energy scale for a $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ molecule is about 10 MeV. The binding energy of the $`X(3870)`$ (which is positive by definition) has been measured to be $`B_2=0.5\pm 0.9`$ MeV. Thus it is likely to be less than 0.4 MeV, which is much smaller than the natural energy scale. The only other two-body bound state of hadrons whose binding energy is known to be small compared to the natural energy scale is the deuteron. Its binding energy is 2.4 MeV, which is small compared to the natural energy scale of 20 MeV for a $`pn`$ molecule.

We will further assume that $`X(3870)`$ is an S-wave bound state of $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$, because this has particularly interesting implications. Since the constituents have $`J^P`$ quantum numbers $`0^{}`$ and $`1^{}`$, the $`J^{PC}`$ quantum numbers of the molecule must be $`1^{++}`$ or $`1^+`$. The interaction between $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ at energies less than $`m_\pi ^2/m_D10`$ MeV is dominated by the S-wave channel and can be described by a single parameter: the S-wave $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length $`a`$. A shallow S-wave bound state implies an S-wave scattering length that is large compared to the natural length scale $`1/m_\pi `$. The low-energy few-body observables for nonrelativistic particles with short-range interactions and a large scattering length have universal features that are insensitive to the details of the mechanism that generates the large scattering length. This phenomenon is called low-energy universality. If $`a>0`$, the simplest universal prediction is that there is a shallow 2-body bound state whose binding energy $`B_2`$ for sufficiently large $`a`$ approaches

$`B_2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m_{\mathrm{red}}a^2}},`$ (1)
where $`m_{\mathrm{red}}`$ is the reduced mass of the two constituents. If the binding energy of the $`X(3870)`$ were measured, the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length $`a`$ could be predicted using (1) with $`m_{\mathrm{red}}=m_{D^0}m_{D^0}/(m_{D^0}+m_{D^0})`$. For example, if the binding energy of $`X(3870)`$ were 0.5 MeV or 0.1 MeV, the scattering length would be 6.3 fm or 14.2 fm, respectively. These are both much larger than the natural length scale $`1/m_\pi =1.5`$ fm.

Low-energy universality has other implications for the interpretation of $`X(3870)`$ as a $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ molecule. There is a universal prediction for the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ wavefunction:

$`\psi (r)(2\pi a)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}(r/a)}{r}}.`$ (2)
Voloshin has exploited this universal wavefunction to calculate the momentum distributions for the decays $`XD^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^0`$ and $`XD^0\overline{D}^0\gamma `$ Voloshin:2003 . There are also components of the wavefunction that correspond to other hadronic states with the same $`J^{PC}`$ quantum numbers. If $`J^{PC}=1^{++}`$, they include the P-wave charmonium states $`\chi _{c1}(1P)`$ and $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$. If $`J^{PC}=1^+`$, they include the P-wave charmonium states $`h_c(1P)`$ and $`h_c(2P)`$. In either case, they also include $`D^+D^{}`$/$`D^{}D^+`$ states and $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ states. In an appropriate hadronic basis, the quantum state for $`X(3870)`$ can be written

$`|X`$ $`=`$ $`Z_{DD^{}}^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\stackrel{~}{\psi }(p)\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|D^0(𝐩)\overline{D}^0(𝐩)\pm |\overline{D}^0(𝐩)D^0(𝐩)\right)},`$ (3)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{H}{}}Z_H^{1/2}|H.`$
where $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }(p)`$ is the Fourier transform of the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ wavefunction and the sign $`\pm `$ is determined by the charge conjugation quantum number $`C=\pm 1`$. The other hadronic states $`H`$ can be discrete states, such as $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$, or continuum states, such as $`D^+(𝐩)D^{}(𝐩)`$. The probability factors $`Z_{DD^{}}`$ and $`Z_H`$ are real and positive, and they add up to 1. Low-energy universality implies that as the scattering length $`a`$ increases, the probabilities for states other than $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ decrease as $`1/a`$ and the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ wavefunction approaches (2). In the limit $`a\mathrm{}`$, the state becomes a pure $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ molecule.

A scattering length that is large compared to the natural length scale necessarily requires a fine-tuning. In the case of the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ molecule, the fine-tuning parameters can be identified with the up and down quark masses $`m_u`$ and $`m_d`$. The masses of $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ are sensitive to $`m_u`$, because these hadrons contain an up quark as a constituent. The $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ potential is sensitive to $`m_u`$ and $`m_d`$ through the pion mass. There are two distinct mechanisms for generating a large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length. The first mechanism is a fine-tuning of parameters that have a large effect on the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ channel without significantly affecting other channels. This could be a fine-tuning of the range and depth of the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ potential so that there is a bound state very close to threshold and thus a large scattering length. Equivalently, it could be a fine-tuning of the masses of the $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ to obtain a bound state very close to threshold in the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ potential. This mechanism requires the quantum numbers of $`X`$ to be $`J^{PC}=1^{++}`$, because this is the only S-wave channel for which the potential due to pion exchange is sufficiently attractive to produce a bound state Tornqvist:2003na . In the limit $`a\mathrm{}`$, the probabilities for components of the wavefunction other than $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ scale as $`1/a`$. This will be illustrated in Section V using an explicit field theory model. If the energy gap $`\nu _H`$ between the state $`H`$ in (3) and the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold is much greater than the natural energy scale $`m_\pi ^2/m_{\mathrm{red}}`$, a more complete estimate of the dimensionless suppression factor in $`Z_H`$ is $`m_\pi ^3/(m_{\mathrm{red}}^2\nu _H^2a)`$. For most channels, the energy gap $`\nu _H`$ is much larger than the natural energy scale. For example, the energy gap for $`\chi _{c1}(1P)`$ is $`\nu _H=360`$ MeV. If $`am_\pi 1`$, the suppression factor $`m_\pi ^3/(m_{\mathrm{red}}^2\nu _H^2a)`$ is 1/1600 for $`B_2=0.5`$ MeV and 1/3500 for $`B_2=0.1`$ MeV. If this is the correct mechanism for generating the large scattering length, we can probably neglect all components of the wavefunction other than $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ and set $`Z_{DD^{}}1`$.

A second mechanism for a large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length is an accidental fine-tuning of one of the P-wave charmonium states $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$ to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold. $`X(3870)`$ will have the same $`J^{PC}`$ quantum numbers as the charmonium state: $`1^{++}`$ in the case of $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ and $`1^+`$ in the case of $`h_c(2P)`$. This mechanism is analogous to the Feshbach resonances TVS93  that can be used to control the scattering lengths for atoms by adjusting the magnetic field Inouye98 ; Courteille98 ; Roberts98 . Feshbach resonances are currently being used to tune the scattering lengths for atoms to arbitrarily large values in order to study Bose-Einstein condensates of bosonic atoms and degenerate gases of fermionic atoms in the strongly-interacting regime. In the case of the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ molecule, the fine-tuning parameter can be identified as $`m_u`$, which can shift the $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ masses, thus changing the energy gap $`\nu `$ between the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$ and the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold. In potential models, which ignore the coupling of charmonium states to continuum channels such as $`D\overline{D}`$ and $`D\overline{D}^{}`$, the estimates of the energy gap for $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$ are both $`\nu 90`$ MeV Buchmuller:1980su ; Godfrey:xj . The predictions of these models for the mass of the 1D state $`\psi (3770)`$ with $`J^{PC}=1^{}`$ are too large by about 50 MeV, so they are also likely to overpredict the masses of the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ and $`h_c(2P)`$. The error presumably arises mostly from the neglect of coupled-channel effects, which are sensitive to the light quark masses. If the coupled-channel effects shift the 2P charmonium states down by about 90 MeV relative to the $`D\overline{D}^{}`$ threshold, they could fortuitously tune the energy gap $`\nu `$ for $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$ to be smaller than the natural low-energy scale $`m_\pi ^2/m_D10`$ MeV associated with pion exchange. In this case, a resonant interaction between the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$ and $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ states generates a large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length $`a`$ that increases as $`1/\nu `$. If $`a>0`$, there is a shallow bound state whose binding energy approaches (1) as $`\nu 0`$. In the expression (3) for the quantum state, the hadrons should be interpreted as those in the absence of the fine-tuning that generates the resonant interaction. In the limit $`a\mathrm{}`$, the probability $`Z_\chi `$ for $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`Z_h`$ for $`h_c(2P)`$ scales as $`1/a`$, as do the probabilities $`Z_H`$ for all other channels besides $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$. This will be illustrated in Section V using an explicit field theory model. The probability $`Z_\chi `$ or $`Z_h`$ includes a dimensionless suppression factor $`1/(am_\pi )`$, whose value is about 1/4.3 for $`B_2=0.5`$ MeV and 1/9.7 for $`B_2=0.1`$ MeV. There may also be further suppression from a small numerical coefficient associated with Zweig’s rule, because the processes $`\chi _{c1}(2P)D^0\overline{D}^0`$ and $`h_c(2P)D^0\overline{D}^0`$ require the creation of a light quark-antiquark pair. If this is the correct mechanism for generating the large scattering length, we can probably neglect all components of the wavefunction other than $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ and $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$. We can then set $`Z_{DD^{}}1Z_\chi `$ in the case $`J^{PC}=1^{++}`$ and $`Z_{DD^{}}1Z_h`$ in the case $`J^{PC}=1^+`$.

## III Decays

An important requirement for any interpretation of the $`X(3870)`$ is that it provide an explanation for its narrow width. The upper bound $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_X<2.3`$ MeV implies that the width of $`X`$ is more than an order of magnitude smaller than that of the D-wave state $`\psi (3770)`$. According to our interpretation, $`X`$ is below the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold and it therefore cannot decay into $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$. Its quantum numbers $`J^P=1^+`$ forbid a decay into $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`D^+D^{}`$. It can however decay into $`D^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^0`$ or $`D^0\overline{D}^0\gamma `$ by the decay of a constituent $`D^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$ of the molecule. It can also decay into a lighter charmonium state by a radiative or hadronic transition or into light hadrons via a process in which the charm quark and antiquark annihilate.

We first consider the contribution to the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_X`$ from the decay of a constituent $`D^0`$ into $`D^0\pi ^0`$ or $`D^0\gamma `$. The width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[D^0D^0\pi ^0]`$ can be deduced from the measured width of the $`D^+`$, the branching fraction for $`D^+D^0\pi ^+`$ or $`D^+D^+\pi ^0`$, and isospin symmetry: $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[D^0D^0\pi ^0]=31\pm 7`$ keV. We have treated the difference between the branching fraction for $`D^+D^0\pi ^+`$ and twice the branching fraction for $`D^+D^+\pi ^0`$ as a systematic error associated with isospin symmetry breaking. The width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[D^0D^0\gamma ]`$ can then be deduced from the measured branching fractions for $`D^0D^0\pi ^0`$ and $`D^0D^0\gamma `$: $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[D^0D^0\gamma ]=19\pm 5`$ keV. The contributions to the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_X`$ from these decays are

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }[XD^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^0]`$ $`=`$ $`Z_{DD^{}}C_\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }[D^0D^0\pi ^0],`$ (4a)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }[XD^0\overline{D}^0\gamma ]`$ $`=`$ $`Z_{DD^{}}C_\gamma \mathrm{\Gamma }[D^0D^0\gamma ].`$ (4b)
The factors $`C_\pi `$ and $`C_\gamma `$ take into account interference between the decay of $`\overline{D}^0`$ from the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ component of the wavefunction and the decay of $`D^0`$ from the $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ component. If the charge conjugation quantum number of $`X`$ is $`C=+1`$, there is constructive interference in the decay $`XD^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^0`$ and destructive interference in the decay $`XD^0\overline{D}^0\gamma `$. If $`C=1`$, the pattern is reversed Voloshin:2003 . If $`C=+1`$ (or $`1`$), the coefficient $`C_\pi `$ ranges from about 1.5 (or 0.13) if the binding energy $`B_2`$ is 0.5 MeV to about 2.2 (or 0.56) if $`B_2=0.1`$ MeV and to 2 if $`B_2=0`$. The coefficient $`C_\gamma `$ ranges from about 0.58 (or 3.42) if $`B_2=0.5`$ MeV to about 1.36 (or 2.64) if $`B_2=0.1`$ MeV and to 2 if $`B_2=0`$ Voloshin:2003 . The probability factor $`Z_{DD^{}}`$ is close to 1. Thus the lower bound on the width provided by the sum of (4a) and (4b) ranges from $`56\pm 11`$ keV (or $`69\pm 16`$ keV) if $`B_2=0.5`$ MeV to $`92\pm 17`$ keV (or $`67\pm 13`$ keV) if $`B_2=0.1`$ MeV to $`99\pm 17`$ keV if $`B_2=0`$.

There can also be decays that proceed through the decay of a constituent $`D^+`$ or $`D^{}`$ from the $`D^{}D^+`$ or $`D^+D^{}`$ component of the wavefunction. The decays of $`X`$ into $`D^+D^{}\pi ^0`$, $`D^0D^{}\pi ^+`$, or $`D^+\overline{D}^0\pi ^{}`$ are forbidden by phase space. The decay $`XD^+D^{}\gamma `$ is allowed, but it is suppressed by the small decay rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[D^+D^+\gamma ]=1.5\pm 0.5`$ keV and also by the small probability for the $`D^{}D^+`$/$`D^+D^{}`$ component of the wavefunction. Thus the contribution to the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_X`$ from the $`D^{}D^+`$ /$`D^+D^{}`$ component of the wavefunction can be neglected.

The remaining decay channels of the $`X(3870)`$ are radiative transitions to lower charmonium states such as $`X\psi (2S)\gamma `$ or $`X\eta _c(2S)\gamma `$, hadronic transitions to lower charmonium states such as the discovery mode $`XJ/\psi \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, and annihilation decays into light hadrons such as $`Xp\overline{p}`$. These decays proceed through the short-distance part of the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ wavefunction or through other components of the wavefunction, such as $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$. All these contributions to the decay rate are suppressed by a factor of $`1/a`$ and go to 0 as the binding energy of $`X`$ goes to 0.

If the large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length arises from an accidental fine-tuning within the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ channel with $`J^{PC}=1^{++}`$, the probability $`Z_H`$ for a component of the wavefunction with a large energy gap $`|\nu _H|m_\pi ^2/m_{\mathrm{red}}`$ is suppressed by $`m_\pi ^3/(m_{\mathrm{red}}^2\nu _H^2a)`$. Thus the radiative transitions, hadronic transitions, and annihilation decays of $`X(3870)`$ are dominated by the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ component of the wavefunction. For example, the amplitudes for radiative and hadronic transitions to $`J/\psi `$ can be approximated by

$`𝒜[XJ/\psi +\gamma ]`$ $``$ $`Z_{DD^{}}^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\stackrel{~}{\psi }(p)\sqrt{2}𝒜[D^0(𝐩)\overline{D}^0(𝐩)J/\psi +\gamma ]},`$ (5a)
$`𝒜[XJ/\psi +h]`$ $``$ $`Z_{DD^{}}^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3p}{(2\pi )^3}\stackrel{~}{\psi }(p)\sqrt{2}𝒜[D^0(𝐩)\overline{D}^0(𝐩)J/\psi +h]},`$ (5b)
where $`h`$ consists of light hadrons. An example of a light hadronic state $`h`$ is the discovery channel $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$. The light hadronic state $`h`$ must be odd under charge conjugation. Since $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ have isospin $`\frac{1}{2}`$ and $`J/\psi `$ has isospin 0, $`h`$ can have isospin 0 or 1. For $`pm_\pi `$, the momentum space wavefunction $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }(p)`$ can be approximated by its universality limit:

$`\stackrel{~}{\psi }(p)(2\pi a)^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p^2+1/a^2}}.`$ (6)
The momentum integrals in (5) are cut off at large momentum by the $`p`$-dependence of the transition amplitude for $`D^0\overline{D}^0J/\psi +h`$. For this transition to occur, the heavy $`c`$ and $`\overline{c}`$ in the $`J/\psi `$ must be in the same momentum states as the $`c`$ and $`\overline{c}`$ in the $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$. Thus the transition amplitude includes a factor of the momentum space wavefunction $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }_{J/\psi }(p)`$ for the $`J/\psi `$. The momentum scale associated with this wavefunction is $`m_cv700`$ MeV, where $`v`$ is the typical velocity of the charm quark in charmonium. The amplitude on the right side of (5) therefore includes the overlap factor $`d^3p\stackrel{~}{\psi }(p)\stackrel{~}{\psi }_{J/\psi }(p)`$. The explicit factor of $`a^{1/2}`$ in the universal wavefunction in (2) combines with a factor of $`(m_cv)^{1/2}`$ from the integral to give a dimensionless suppression factor. Thus the decay rate scales as $`1/(am_cv)`$ as $`a\mathrm{}`$. If a phenomenological framework for calculating radiative and hadronic transitions of $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ to quarkonium were available, the rates for radiative and hadronic transitions of $`X`$ could be calculated using equations analogous to (5).

If the large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length arises from an accidental fine-tuning of the P-wave charmonium state $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold, the radiative and hadronic transitions and the annihilation decays of $`X(3870)`$ can also proceed through the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ component of the wavefunction. These contributions to the decay rate are suppressed by the probability factor $`Z_\chi `$, which scales as $`1/(am_\pi )`$. Although this suppression factor has the same power of $`a`$ as in the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ contribution, the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ contribution may be numerically larger because of a factor of $`m_cv/m_\pi `$ in the ratio of the suppression factors. Thus decays of $`X`$ into modes that are possible final states of the decay of $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ are likely to be dominated by the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ component of the wavefunction. The rate for these decays will be given by the rate for the corresponding decays of the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ in the absence of the fine-tuning multiplied by the probability factor $`Z_\chi `$. For example, the decay rates for radiative transitions to $`J/\psi `$ and for hadronic transitions to $`J/\psi `$ via the emission of a light hadronic state with total isospin 0 are

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }[XJ/\psi +\gamma ]`$ $``$ $`Z_\chi \mathrm{\Gamma }[\chi _{c1}(2P)J/\psi +\gamma ],`$ (7a)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }[XJ/\psi +h_{I=0}]`$ $``$ $`Z_\chi \mathrm{\Gamma }[\chi _{c1}(2P)J/\psi +h_{I=0}].`$ (7b)
The last factors in (7a) and (7b) are the decay rates for $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ assuming that it has mass $`m_X`$ but ignoring the resonant interaction with $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$. Hadronic transitions in which the light hadronic state $`h`$ has total isospin 1, such as $`XJ/\psi +\rho ^0`$, cannot proceed through the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ component of the wavefunction. They must therefore be dominated by the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ component. The amplitude for such a transition can be approximated by (5b). There are well-developed phenomenological frameworks for calculating the radiative and hadronic transition rates Kuang:1981se ; Godfrey:xj  for charmonium states such as $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$. If the rates for several radiative transitions or hadronic transitions with isospin 0 were measured and found to be all suppressed relative to the predictions for $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ decays by a common factor $`Z_\chi `$, it would be strong evidence in favor of this fine-tuning mechanism. The total width of $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ in the absence of the resonant interaction with $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ must be significantly larger than the width of $`\chi _{c1}(1P)`$, which is about 1 MeV, since $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ has more decay channels and the decays have larger phase space. However the suppression from the probability factor $`Z_\chi `$ could reduce this contribution to the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_X`$ so that it is comparable to or even smaller than the contribution from the decay of $`D^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$.

If the large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length arises from an accidental fine-tuning of the P-wave charmonium state $`h_c(2P)`$ to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold, the radiative and hadronic transitions and the annihilation decays of $`X`$ can also proceed through the $`h_c(2P)`$ component of the wavefunction. The decay rates for radiative transitions and for hadronic transitions with total isospin 0 would be given by the corresponding decay rates of $`h_c(2P)`$ multiplied by a probability factor $`Z_h`$.

The identification of $`X(3870)`$ as a shallow S-wave molecule also has implications for its production rate in high-energy collisions. As the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length $`a`$ increases, the production rate decreases as $`1/a`$. If the large value of $`a`$ arises from an accidental fine-tuning within the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ channel, the production will proceed primarily through the creation of $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ (or $`\overline{D}^0`$ and $`D^0`$) with small relative momentum of order $`1/a`$. In this case, the suppression factor of $`1/a`$ in the production rate comes from the factor $`a^{1/2}`$ in the universal wavefunction (2). If the large value of $`a`$ arises from an accidental fine-tuning of the P-wave charmonium state $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold, the production rate may be dominated by production of the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$. In this case, the suppression factor of $`1/a`$ comes from the probability $`Z_\chi `$ for the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ component of $`X`$. Similarly, if the large value of $`a`$ arises from an accidental fine-tuning of $`h_c(2P)`$ to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold, the production rate is suppressed by a factor of $`1/a`$ from the probability $`Z_h`$ for the $`h_c(2P)`$ component of $`X`$.

## IV Absence of Efimov states

The most remarkable predictions of low-energy universality, which were discovered by Efimov Efimov70 , occur in the 3-body sector. At sufficiently low energies, the effective interaction between three nonrelativistic particles with short-range forces can be described by an effective potential $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}(R)`$ that depends only on the hyperspherical radius $`R`$, which is a weighted average of the separations of the three particles NFJG01 . If the scattering length is large compared to the range $`\mathrm{}`$ of the force, the effective potential in the region $`\mathrm{}R|a|`$ is scale-invariant. In the case of identical particles of mass $`m`$, the hyperspherical radius is just the root-mean-square separation of the three pairs of particles and the scale-invariant potential is

$`V_{\mathrm{eff}}(R){\displaystyle \frac{4\lambda _0}{2mR^2}},`$ (8)
where $`\lambda _0`$ is the minimum of the nontrivial solutions to

$`\sqrt{3}\lambda ^{1/2}\mathrm{cos}(\pi \lambda ^{1/2}/2)=8\mathrm{sin}(\pi \lambda ^{1/2}/6).`$ (9)
The minimum solution is $`\lambda _0=s_0^2`$, where $`s_01.00624`$. In the resonant limit $`a\mathrm{}`$ in which the scattering length is tuned to be infinitely large, the 2-body bound state has zero binding energy and there are infinitely many arbitrarily-shallow 3-body bound states called Efimov states. If the particles are identical bosons, the ratio of the binding energies of adjacent states approaches a universal constant $`e^{2\pi /s_0}515.03`$. The 3-body spectrum in the resonant limit has an asymptotic discrete scaling symmetry with discrete scaling factor $`e^{\pi /s_0}22.7`$. This symmetry is related to an infrared renormalization group limit cycle Braaten:2003eu . A limit that is more relevant to a physical problem with a large but finite scattering length is the scaling limit defined by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{}`$ with $`a`$ fixed, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the natural momentum scale set by the inverse of the range of the interaction. In the scaling limit, the binding energies $`B_3`$ and $`B_3^{}`$ of the shallowest and next-to-shallowest Efimov states for identical bosons are in the intervals $`B_2<B_3<6.75B_2`$ and $`6.75B_2<B_3^{}<1406B_2`$, where $`B_2=1/(ma^2)`$ is the 2-body binding energy Braaten:2002jv . If these binding energies are smaller than the natural energy scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/m`$, these Efimov states should appear as real states in the spectrum. Thus, there should be at least one Efimov state if $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/m>6.75B_2`$ and at least two if $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/m>1406B_2`$. As an illustration, we consider helium atoms, which have a large scattering length Braaten:2002jv . The helium dimer is very shallow: its binding energy $`B_21.3`$ mK is smaller than the natural low-energy scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/m400`$ mK by about a factor of 300. Thus we would expect either one or two Efimov states. There are in fact two helium trimers: a ground state and an excited state with binding energies $`B_3^{}130`$ mK and $`B_32`$ mK. Both can be interpreted as Efimov states Braaten:2002jv .

The large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length raises the exciting possibility of shallow $`D^0D^0\overline{D}^0`$ molecules within 10 MeV of the $`D^0D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold generated by the Efimov effect. Unfortunately, this possibility can be excluded. The $`D^0D^0\overline{D}^0`$ sector involves only two identical bosons and only two of the three pairs of particles have a resonant interaction with a large scattering length. Furthermore a $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ pair can fluctuate into a $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ pair, and the other $`D^0`$ has no resonant interaction with this component of the wavefunction. Low-energy interactions in the 3-body sector can again be described by an effective potential which in the region $`m_\pi ^1R|a|`$ has the scale-invariant form (8). The form of the potential can be derived from results given in Ref. NFJG01 . If we ignore the 8% mass difference between the $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$, the only difference is that the equation for $`\lambda _0`$ is

$`\sqrt{3}\lambda ^{1/2}\mathrm{cos}(\pi \lambda ^{1/2}/2)=2\mathrm{sin}(\pi \lambda ^{1/2}/6).`$ (10)
Of the factor of 4 difference with (9), one factor of 2 comes from there being only two identical bosons instead of three and the other factor of 2 comes from the 3-body system being a superposition of a $`D^0D^0\overline{D}^0`$ molecule and a $`D^0\overline{D}^0D^0`$ molecule. The minimum nontrivial solution to (10) is $`\lambda _00.3533`$. Since this is positive, the Efimov effect does not arise and there are no shallow 3-body bound states.

## V A Field Theory Model

If we consider only momenta small compared to the natural momentum scale $`m_\pi `$, hadrons such as $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$ can be treated as point particles with pointlike interactions and can therefore be described by a local nonrelativistic field theory. In Section II, we discussed two fine-tuning mechanisms that can generate a large scattering length for $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$. Only one of these mechanism is capable of producing a large scattering length in the $`1^+`$ channel, but either one is capable of producing a large scattering length in the $`1^{++}`$ channel. We will therefore focus on the possibility $`J^{PC}=1^{++}`$ for the quantum numbers of $`X(3870)`$. A model that can describe either of the two fine-tuning mechanisms is a nonrelativistic field theory with local fields $`D`$, $`\overline{D}`$, $`𝐃`$ , $`\overline{𝐃}`$, and $`𝝌`$ for the $`D^0`$, $`\overline{D}^0`$, $`D^0`$, $`\overline{D}^0`$, and $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$. The hamiltonian density is the sum of mass terms, kinetic terms, and interaction terms:

$`_{\mathrm{mass}}`$ $`=`$ $`m_{D^0}\left(D^{}D+\overline{D}^{}\overline{D}\right)+m_{D^0}\left(𝐃^{}𝐃+\overline{𝐃}^{}\overline{𝐃}\right)`$ (11a)
$`+(m_{D^0}+m_{D^0}+\nu _0)𝝌^{}𝝌`$
$`_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}m_{D^0}^1\left(D^{}^2D+\overline{D}^{}^2\overline{D}\right)\frac{1}{2}m_{D^0}^1\left(𝐃^{}^2𝐃+\overline{𝐃}^{}^2\overline{𝐃}\right)`$ (11b)
$`\frac{1}{2}(m_{D^0}+m_{D^0})^1𝝌^{}^2𝝌,`$
$`_{\mathrm{int}}`$ $`=`$ $`\lambda _0\left(D\overline{𝐃}+\overline{D}𝐃\right)^{}\left(D\overline{𝐃}+\overline{D}𝐃\right)`$ (11c)
$`+g_0\left[𝝌^{}(D\overline{𝐃}+\overline{D}𝐃)+(D\overline{𝐃}+\overline{D}𝐃)^{}𝝌\right],`$
where $`\lambda _0`$, $`g_0`$, and $`\nu _0`$ are bare parameters that require renormalization. A similar field theory has been used to describe the behavior of cold atoms near a Feshbach resonance KMCWH02 . If we impose an ultraviolet cutoff $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ on loop momenta and drop terms that decrease as inverse powers of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the cutoff dependence can be removed by eliminating $`\lambda _0`$, $`g_0`$, and $`\nu _0`$ in favor of renormalized parameters $`\lambda `$, $`g`$, and $`\nu `$ defined by

$`\lambda `$ $`=`$ $`Z_\lambda ^1\lambda _0,`$ (12a)
$`g`$ $`=`$ $`Z_\lambda ^1g_0,`$ (12b)
$`\nu `$ $`=`$ $`\nu _0+[Z_\lambda ^11]g_0^2/\lambda _0,`$ (12c)
where the renormalization constant $`Z_\lambda `$ is

$$Z_\lambda =1+\frac{2}{\pi ^2}m_{\mathrm{red}}\lambda _0\mathrm{\Lambda }$$
(13)
and $`m_{\mathrm{red}}=m_{D^0}m_{D^0}/(m_{D^0}+m_{D^0})`$ is the reduced mass. Note that the combinations $`g_0/\lambda _0=g/\lambda `$ and $`\nu _0g_0^2/\lambda _0=\nu g^2/\lambda `$ are renormalization invariants.

The natural scale for the ultraviolet momentum cutoff is $`\mathrm{\Lambda }m_\pi `$. The natural magnitude for the bare coupling constant $`\lambda _0`$ can be deduced by dimensional analysis: $`|\lambda _0|1/(m_{\mathrm{red}}m_\pi )`$. This can be made evident by writing the renormalization condition (12a) in the form

$$\frac{1}{\lambda }=\frac{1}{\lambda _0}+\frac{2}{\pi ^2}m_{\mathrm{red}}\mathrm{\Lambda }.$$
(14)
If the renormalized coupling constant $`\lambda `$ is fixed and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is sufficiently large, $`\lambda _0`$ must scale like $`(m_{\mathrm{red}}\mathrm{\Lambda })^1`$ to compensate for the effect of the ultraviolet cutoff. The natural magnitude for $`g_0`$ is $`\zeta m_\pi ^{1/2}/m_{\mathrm{red}}`$, where the factor of $`m_\pi ^{1/2}/m_{\mathrm{red}}`$ comes from dimensional analysis and $`\zeta `$ is a numerical suppression factor associated with the violation of Zweig’s rule by the process $`\chi _{c1}(2P)D^0\overline{D}^0`$, which requires the creation of a light quark-antiquark pair. The renormalization condition (12b) implies that the numerical suppression factor $`\zeta `$ is stable under renormalization and does not require fine-tuning. There is no natural magnitude for the bare parameter $`\nu _0`$: it is completely adjustable. In the absence of fine-tuning, the renormalization constant $`Z_\lambda `$ in (13) is comparable to 1. The renormalization conditions (12a), (12b), and (12c) then imply that the natural magnitudes of the renormalized coupling constants are $`|\lambda |(m_{\mathrm{red}}m_\pi )^1`$, $`|g|\zeta m_\pi ^{1/2}/m_{\mathrm{red}}`$, and $`|\nu |\mathrm{max}(|\nu _0|,\zeta ^2m_\pi ^2/m_{\mathrm{red}})`$.

The 2-body scattering amplitude in this model can be calculated analytically. The scattering length is

$`a`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{red}}}{\pi }}\left(\lambda {\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{\nu }}\right).`$ (15)
The natural magnitude for $`|a|`$ is $`1/m_\pi `$. The scattering length can be made unnaturally large either by making $`\lambda `$ sufficiently large, which corresponds to tuning the potential between $`D^0`$ and $`\overline{D}^0`$, or by making $`\nu `$ sufficiently small, which corresponds to tuning the energy gap between the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ and the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold. In either case, low-energy universality implies that as $`a`$ increases, the binding energy of the molecule approaches (1) and the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ wavefunction approaches (2).

The first mechanism for generating a large scattering length is to make $`\lambda `$ unnaturally large: $`|\lambda ||\lambda _0|`$. This can be accomplished by tuning $`\lambda _0`$ towards the critical value $`\pi ^2/(2m_{\mathrm{red}}\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, so that there is a near cancellation between the two terms on the right side of (14). This fine-tuning makes the renormalization constant $`Z_\lambda `$ much less than 1. The renormalization condition (12b) implies that this fine-tuning also increases the strength of the effective coupling constant between $`𝝌`$ and $`D\overline{𝐃}`$: $`|g||g_0|`$. This is also evident from the fact that $`g/\lambda =g_0/\lambda _0`$ is a renormalization invariant. There is a limit to how large the scattering length can be made using this mechanism. When $`Z_\lambda `$ becomes smaller than $`g_0^2/|\lambda _0\nu _0|`$, the $`g_0^2/\lambda _0`$ term in (12c) begins to dominate over the $`\nu _0`$ term. In this case, both terms in the scattering length (15) become large and they tend to cancel each other. Thus, with this mechanism, the maximum magnitude of the scattering length is of order $`(\lambda _0/g_0)^2m_{\mathrm{red}}|\nu _0|`$ which is of order $`\zeta ^2m_{\mathrm{red}}|\nu _0|/m_\pi ^3`$.

The second mechanism for generating a large scattering length is to make $`\nu `$ sufficiently small. This can be accomplished by tuning $`\nu _0`$ towards the critical value $`[Z_\lambda ^11]g_0^2/\lambda _0`$ for which there is a near cancellation between the two terms on the right side of (12c). The scattering length can be made arbitrarily large using this mechanism.

The calculation of the binding energy $`B_2`$ of $`X`$ and of the probability $`Z_\chi `$ for the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ component of the wavefunction can both be reduced to the solution of a cubic polynomial. The binding momentum $`\kappa `$ defined by $`B_2=\kappa ^2/(2m_{\mathrm{red}})`$ satisfies the cubic equation

$$\kappa ^2+2m_{\mathrm{red}}\nu =\frac{m_{\mathrm{red}}}{\pi }\lambda \kappa \left[\kappa ^2+2m_{\mathrm{red}}\left(\nu g^2/\lambda \right)\right].$$
(16)
In either of the two limits $`\lambda \mathrm{}`$ or $`\nu 0`$, one of the three roots of this polynomial has the limiting behavior $`\kappa 1/a`$. If $`a>0`$, the probability $`Z_\chi `$ for the $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ component of the wavefunction is

$$Z_\chi =\frac{1}{2\pi }\left(\frac{g^2/\lambda ^2}{[\kappa ^2+2m_{\mathrm{red}}(\nu g^2/\lambda )]^2}+\frac{1}{4\pi \kappa }\right)^1\frac{\kappa \pi /(m_{\mathrm{red}}\lambda )}{\kappa ^2+2m_{\mathrm{red}}(\nu g^2/\lambda )}.$$
(17)
After expressing the observables $`B_2`$ and $`Z_\chi `$ as functions of $`a`$ and the renormalization invariants $`g/\lambda `$ and $`\nu g^2/\lambda `$, they can be expanded in powers of $`1/a`$:

$`B_2`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m_{\mathrm{red}}a^2}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\pi (g/\lambda )^2}{m_{\mathrm{red}}^2(\nu g^2/\lambda )^2a}}+\mathrm{}\right),`$ (18a)
$`Z_\chi `$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi (g/\lambda )^2}{m_{\mathrm{red}}^2(\nu g^2/\lambda )^2a}}+\mathrm{}.`$ (18b)
For any fine-tuning that produces a large scattering length, the bare coupling constants approach definite limiting values and therefore the renormalization invariants $`g/\lambda `$ and $`\nu g^2/\lambda `$ approach definite limiting values. Thus the probability $`Z_\chi `$ decreases like $`1/a`$. This illustrates our assertion that with the probability for states other than $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ scales as $`1/a`$.

We proceed to discuss how the decays of $`X(3870)`$ could be described within this effective field theory. In the decay $`XD^0\overline{D}^0\pi ^0`$, which is dominated by the decay of a constituent $`D^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$, the typical momentum of the final $`D^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$ is 40 MeV, which is much smaller than the natural momentum scale $`m_\pi `$. Thus this decay can be described within the effective theory by introducing a $`\pi ^0`$ field into the lagrangian with an interaction term that allows the decay $`\overline{D}^0D^0\pi ^0`$. In the decay $`XD^0\overline{D}^0\gamma `$, which is also dominated by the decay of a constituent $`D^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$, the typical momentum of the recoiling $`D^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0`$ is 140 MeV, which is comparable to the natural momentum scale $`m_\pi `$. Thus this decay need not be described accurately within an effective theory in which hadrons are treated as point particles with pointlike interactions.

The radiative and hadronic transitions and the annihilation decays of $`X(3870)`$ produce particles with momenta larger than the $`m_\pi `$. They therefore cannot be described explicitly within an effective theory in which hadrons are treated as point particles with pointlike interactions. The inclusive effects of these decays can however be taken into account implicitly through local terms in the hamiltonian density. The inclusive effects of transitions of $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ to charmonium states and of their annihilation into light hadrons can be taken into account through an imaginary part of the bare coupling constant $`\lambda _0`$. The inclusive effects of transitions of $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ to other charmonium states and of its decays into light hadrons can be taken into account through an imaginary part of the bare parameter $`\nu _0`$: $`\mathrm{Im}\nu _0=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\chi _{c1}(2P)}`$. The imaginary part of $`g_0`$ can take into account interference effects associated with transitions of $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ and $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ to the same final states. If the parameters $`\lambda _0`$, $`g_0`$, and $`\nu _0`$ have small imaginary parts, the scattering length (15) is complex-valued with a small imaginary part. If a fine-tuning makes the real part of $`a`$ large, the binding energy of $`X`$ is given by the real part of the expression (1). Its imaginary part should be interpreted as $`\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_X`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_X`$ is the contribution to the width from the decays whose effects are taken into account through Im$`\lambda _0`$, Im$`g_0`$, and Im$`\nu _0`$. At first order in the imaginary parts of $`\lambda _0`$, $`g_0`$, and $`\nu _0`$, the contribution to the width is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_X=\frac{2}{\pi a^3}\left[(12a\mathrm{\Lambda }/\pi )^2(\mathrm{Im}\lambda _0)+2\frac{g}{\nu }(12a\mathrm{\Lambda }/\pi )\mathrm{Im}g_0+\frac{g^2}{\nu ^2}(\mathrm{Im}\nu _0)\right].$$
(19)
If we express $`g/\nu `$ in terms of $`a`$ and the renormalization invariants, we see that it increases linearly with $`a`$: $`g/\nu =a(g/\lambda )/(\nu g^2/\lambda )`$. Thus all three terms in (19) scale as $`1/a`$ in the limit $`a\mathrm{}`$. This scaling behavior is in agreement with that deduced in Section III.

## VI Summary

We have explored the implications of low-energy universality for the identification of $`X(3870)`$ as an S-wave $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ molecule. Its shallow binding energy requires some fine-tuning mechanism to generate a large $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ scattering length $`a`$. Two possible mechanisms are an accidental fine-tuning of parameters associated with the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ sector and an accidental fine-tuning of a P-wave charmonium state to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold. A field theory model that illustrates both of these mechanisms was presented. With either mechanism, the probabilities for components of the wavefunction other than $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ or $`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ are suppressed by a factor of $`1/a`$. The decay rates into modes other than those associated with decay of a constituent $`\overline{D}^0`$ or $`D^0`$ are also suppressed by a factor of $`1/a`$. The assumption that the large scattering length arises from the fine-tuning of $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$ to the $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$ threshold is particularly predictive. The decay rates for radiative transitions and for hadronic transitions via emission of light hadrons with total isospin 0 should differ from the corresponding decay rates of $`\chi _{c1}(2P)`$ or $`h_c(2P)`$ in the absence of the fine-tuning by a common suppression factor. Low-energy universality also has nontrivial predictions for 3-body systems, such as $`D^0D^0\overline{D}^0`$, although the spectacular possibility of Efimov states can be excluded. In conclusion, if the $`X(3870)`$ is indeed an S-wave $`D^0\overline{D}^0`$/$`\overline{D}^0D^0`$ molecule, it will provide a beautiful example of the remarkable phenomenon of low-energy universality.

This research was supported in part by the Department of Energy under grant DE-FG02-91-ER4069.


text:
# Chandra ACIS and Newton EPIC Observations of the X-ray Luminous SN1978K in NGC 1313

## 1 Introduction

X-ray emission may emerge at two stages in the evolution of a supernova: near the time of the shock breakout and via circumstellar interaction at a later date. Three different processes generate X-rays: from the prompt thermal burst; via Compton-scattered $`\gamma `$-rays from the synthesized matter’s radioactive decay (from which X-rays are emitted while the debris is optically thick to $`\gamma `$-rays); and from the interaction of the shock with circumstellar material in the vicinity of the progenitor. Only SN1987A has been seen to emit X-rays definitely attributed to Compton-scattered $`\gamma `$-rays (Dotani et al. 1987, Nature, 330, 230).

Two mechanisms exist for the circumstellar production of X-rays: X-rays from the outgoing shock or from the reverse shock (Fransson et al., 1996). Below 10 keV, the reverse shock should be the dominant emitter because the density behind the shock is higher, by a factor of $``$4, than the swept-up circumstellar density behind the forward shock. If a cool shell forms because the reverse shock is radiative, that shell absorbs X-rays below 10 keV and the observed 1-10 keV emission must be from the forward shock as discussed for SN1993J (Fransson et al., 1996).

Other than SN1987A, few supernova have been followed in the X-ray band. The total current pool consists of $`<`$20 objects; of those, only four supernovae have data sets consisting of more than four observations (SN1978K, SN1993J, SN1998S, SN1999em; Schlegel 1995; Immler & Lewin 2002). SN1978K is one of a small number of extremely luminous, X-ray emitting supernovae (Schlegel, 1995; Immler & Lewin, 2002). As X-ray observations are difficult to obtain, each bright supernova contributes valuable knowledge to our understanding of the X-ray emission from supernovae.

The X-ray emission of SN1978K was first uncovered in an observation obtained with the ROSAT PSPC in 1992 (Ryder et al., 1993) (hereafter, R93). It had been detected optically during a spectrophotometric survey of H II regions two years earlier and reported as a nova (Dopita & Ryder, 1990) at that time. It had also been detected as a powerful radio source in 1982 but never followed up (R93). As part of the investigation spurred by the X-ray detection, examination of archival optical plates uncovered a light curve that while crude was sufficient to assign an explosion date near 1 June 1978 (R93).

To further study SN19798K, observations were obtained during the mid- and late-1990s with ASCA, Hubble Space Telescope, ROSAT (High Resolution Imager), Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) covering the X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, and radio bands (Schlegel et al., 1999) (hereafter, S99). An early ASCA spectrum and ROSAT light curve were reported in Petre et al. (1994) and Schlegel, Petre, & Colbert (1996), respectively. The ATCA radio light curve showed behavior typical of a circumstellar interaction, with a rapid turn-on followed by a slow decline at all radio wavelengths (e.g., Weiler et al. 1996; S99). Optically, the AAO spectra of SN1978K showed strong emission lines of the Balmer series as well as He I, \[O III\], \[Ne III\], and \[Fe II\] (R93). In the ultraviolet, the Mg II doublet and \[Ne IV\] lines were detected using the HST Faint Object Spectrograph (S99). The X-ray light curve was consistent with no decline throughout the decade (S99). The ASCA spectra were best-fit with absorbed, single-component continuum models; no evidence for line emission existed in the data (Petre et al. 1994, S99).

SN1978K is important because it is among the first known X-ray emitting supernovae with luminosities above 1039 erg s-1. It is also a nearby object and may be studied in greater detail than more distant supernovae.

In this paper, we present the Chandra ACIS spectrum of SN1978K and contrast it with the recent XMM-Newton and earlier ASCA spectra. Throughout we adopt a distance to NGC 1313 of 4.13$`\pm `$0.11 Mpc as determined by Méndez et al. (2002).

## 2 Data

Chandra observed NGC 1313 and its X-ray emitting sources on 2002 October 13 for 20592 sec with the ACIS detector (Garmire et al., 2003). The aimpoint of the detector fell on the back-illuminated S3 CCD. We extracted a light curve of the background, masking out all bright sources detectable by eye, to search for any signatures of flaring events known to affect back-illuminated CCDs (Chandra Proposers’ Guide, 2002). No strong flares were detected but a few high points were eliminated, reducing the good exposure time to 19902 sec.

We extracted the events at the location of SN1978K, about 5.88 off-axis, in an aperture of radius 12′′ which encloses $`>`$98% of the point spread function (Chandra Proposers’ Guide, 2002). The background was obtained from an annulus surrounding the source. The net count rate was $``$0.149$`\pm `$0.003 counts s-1.

A response matrix was constructed specific to the off-axis angle of SN1978K. The matrix was corrected for the time-dependent absorption using the fitted functional form which depends upon a single parameter, the time from launch; for this observation, the time from launch was 1179 days (Plucinsky et al., 2003).

## 3 Analysis: Chandra ACIS

Given the sharp point spread function of the Chandra mirrors, we must be concerned with possible event pileup even though the large off-axis angle mitigates the effects of pileup considerably. The spectral analysis was undertaken using a pileup model (Davis, 2001). The resulting fit indicated low or zero pileup. Given the broader point spread function of the XMM-Newton mirrors, there is no pileup of the EPIC-pn or MOS spectra from that instrument. The results of the fits to the Chandra and XMM-Newton spectra, to be described below, are very similar, as one expects for observations separated by $``$2 years of a slowly-evolving object. The similarity supports the conclusion of low or zero pileup. We further fit the spectra with both XSPEC (Arnaud, 1996) and the Sherpa fitting engine (Freeman, Doe, Siemiginowska, 2001) and obtained identical results.

We first used the best-fit models derived from the ROSAT PSPC and ASCA SIS/GIS observations of SN1978K which consisted of absorbed, single-component continuum models (R93, Petre et al. 1994, S99). We fixed the model parameters at the previously-determined values, but it was immediately evident that the models no longer provided a good fit, instead yielding a $`\chi ^2/\nu `$ $``$3. We then allowed the model parameters to vary; the resulting model fits remained poor. Figure 1 shows the fit using a single absorbed Raymond-Smith model. Clearly a single-component model is inadequate as it can not simultaneously fit the emission in the 0.7-1.2 keV region as well as the apparent hard component at energies above $``$2-3 keV. That the ROSAT PSPC models do not provide a good fit is not especially surprising given the softer response of that detector. That the ASCA spectra do not provide a good fit may be explained as either an increase in flux above 2 keV by a factor of $``$4 since 1995 or by the difficulty in carrying out background subtraction for the ASCA spectra stemming from the large ($``$1.5) point spread function. Indeed, the fit to the ASCA spectra suggests the presence of a harder component that was not statistically significant. We believe a factor of 4 is too large to be ascribed to difficulties with background subtraction.

We then explored a variety of models. We do not include a long discussion of those models that failed, but instead focus on the more successful ones. Most of the models failed by missing flux in the 0.8-1.0 keV band, a region known to contain the potential for considerable line emission. Table 1 includes a listing of the models ranked by increasing $`\chi ^2/\nu `$. The ‘dual brems’ and ‘brems+multi-gauss’ models yield adequate fits but leave systematic residuals. The non-equilibrium ionization model (in ‘xspec’ lingo, ‘nei’; Borkowski, Lyerly, & Reynolds 2001 and references therein), the plane-parallel shock model (‘pshock’; Borkowski, Lyerly, & Reynolds 2001) as well as other shock models also provided adequate fits, but did not achieve the lowest $`\chi ^2`$ values. The ionization equilibrium collisional plasma model (‘equilib’) yielded a very poor fit. The single component power law, bremsstrahlung, and Raymond-Smith models were included for direct comparison with the historical results from ROSAT and ASCA (e.g., S99, Petre et al. 1994).

The best-fit model was an absorbed, two-temperature, optically thin thermal plasma model (the variable Mekal model ‘vmekal’ in xspec lingo that uses the line calculations of Mewe, Gronenschild, & van den Oord (1985), Mewe, Lemen, & van den Oord (1986), and Kaastra (1992) plus the Fe L enhancements of Liedahl, Osterheld, & Goldstein (1995)). Figure 2 shows the fitted spectrum. The best-fit temperatures are 0.61$`{}_{0.05}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.04}`$ and 3.16$`{}_{0.42}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.44}`$ keV and are shown as the upper set of contour plots in Figure 3 (the lower set of contours in each figure will be discussed shortly). The model-derived fluxes are listed in Table 2 and generally fall in the range of 4–7$`\times `$10-13 erg s-1 cm-2 in the 0.5-2 keV band and $``$3–4$`\times `$10-13 erg s-1 cm-2 in the 2-10 keV band with the low numbers corresponding to the absorbed flux and the high to the unabsorbed. These fluxes correspond to a 0.5-2 keV luminosity of $``$7.5–14$`\times `$1038 erg s-1 and a 2-10 keV luminosity of $``$6–7.5$`\times `$1038 erg s-1.

The best-fit column, $``$2.3$`\times `$1021 cm-2 and shown in Figure 3, lies about a factor of 8–10 above the measured column in the direction of NGC 1313, $``$3.7$`\times `$1020 cm-2 (Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis, 1998). However, it does correspond to within 30% with the EB-V value of 0.31 measured from optical spectra (Ryder et al., 1993) and using the NH-EB-V conversion of Predehl & Schmitt (1995): NH $``$5.3$`\times `$1021 EB-V.

The vmekal model permits varying the abundances of astrophysically-important elements. We varied the abundances of each element in turn but forced the corresponding abundances of the soft and hard components to vary simultaneously but independently. This approach ensured the most robust detection of specific line features as well as differences between the soft and hard components. The only abundance inconsistent with solar is that of Si for the soft component. Figure 4 shows the uncertainty contours for the abundance of Si. The soft component abundance is 3.20 which is significantly different from solar at the 90% confidence level. The Si abundance for the hard component is consistent with solar. The fluxes for each component are listed separately in Table 2.

## 4 Analysis: XMM-Newton, ASCA, & ROSAT

We also extracted spectra from the XMM-Newton observation of 2000 October 17. The observation lasted for 42416 sec but high background significantly constrained the extracted spectra to shorter times. The EPIC pn spectrum totaled 15940 s with an average rate of 0.263 counts s-1; the MOS-1 and MOS-2 spectra totaled 23838 and 24124 sec, respectively, at an average count rate of 0.088 and 0.089 counts s-1. Just under 50% of the total extracted counts formed the pn spectrum.

We fit the pn and MOS spectra using the best-fit Chandra model, namely the dual variable Mekal model. Table 3 lists the resulting model parameters. The fitted spectrum is shown in Figure 5. The best-fit temperatures are 0.67 and 2.87 keV. Rather than plot the parameter contours separately, we included them on the Chandra ACIS plots of Figure 3; the XMM-Newton contours are the lower set of contours in each figure. Note that the temperatures measured from the two instruments are essentially identical within the errors; the contours differ only in NH by a factor of $``$1.65. One possible explanation is an increasing column density as the material cools and recombines.

The inferred luminosity in the soft band depends very sensitively on the adopted value for NH; because of that sensitivity, we adopt for NH a value determined from the measured EB-V for the ROSAT HRI and PSPC spectra as well as the ASCA spectra. This approach assigns a reasonable value to NH for the HRI data points for which no spectral information would otherwise be available. In addition, adoption of an EB-V-determined value for NH removes the artificially high value determined from fits to the ASCA spectra for which the calibration below $``$0.7 keV is uncertain (Sambruna et al., 2000). We use the Chandra\- and XMM-Newton-determined values of NH to probe the sensitivity of the unabsorbed fluxes to the adopted values.

For direct comparison of the Chandra and Newton results with the previously-described ASCA spectra (Petre et al. 1994, S99), we re-fit the ASCA spectra using the dual variable Mekal model as well as a single variable Mekal model. We included a single variable Mekal model to test whether the dual model is statistically required to fit the SIS spectra. Necessarily, the lower count rate yields larger error bars for each parameter of the dual Mekal model. We restrict our attention solely to the SIS spectra to ensure the best sensitivity to line emission. The fitted parameters values are listed in Table 3 while the fluxes are listed in Table 2. From the $`\chi ^2/\nu `$ values, the dual variable model provides a statistically better fit.

For the ROSAT PSPC and HRI fluxes, we re-extracted and re-fit the PSPC spectra using a single variable Mekal model. A dual model is not statistically required to provide a good fit largely because of the narrow bandpass. All of the abundance values were consistent with solar, within the errors, so we froze all at solar values. Unabsorbed fluxes were calculated in the 0.5-2 keV band. As HRI does not possess spectral resolution, we must adopt a fixed spectral model. We used a ‘best fit’ model of a single variable Mekal spectrum at kT = 0.6 keV and NH = 1.8$`\times `$1021 cm-2. This spectrum is essentially an average of the PSPC spectra and adopting the EB-V-determined NH value. Only the model normalization was adjusted for each HRI point. Unabsorbed fluxes in the 0.5-2 keV band were then calculated. As a check, we converted count rates using the PIMMS111PIMMS=Portable, Interactive Multi-Mission Software; Mukai (1993). code; all of the converted values were within the errors of the calculated unabsorbed fluxes. We expect the fluxes are accurate within 25-30%.

## 5 Light Curves

From the collected set of unabsorbed fluxes, we constructed a light curve of the X-ray emission of SN1978K including an upper limit from the Einstein IPC reported in Ryder et al. (1993); Schlegel, Petre, & Colbert (1996) in the soft (0.5-2 keV) and hard (2-10 keV) bands.

The soft band light curve (Figure 6) shows immediately that the behavior in the 0.5-2 keV band is completely determined by the adopted value for the column density. Formally, we see a $``$20% decline from the ASCA epochs but within the errors, the light curve may still be interpreted as constant.

The hard band light curve (Figure 7) shows a decline of about a factor of 1.5 (mean ASCA values $``$6.5$`\times `$10-13 erg s-1 cm-2 vs. XMM/Chandra values of $``$4$`\times `$10-13 erg s-1 cm-2). If the factor 1.5 decline is indicative of a future trend, then the peak occurred approximately 6000 days post-maximum, or near October 1994. For both the soft and hard light curves, the ‘peak’ is broad.

The XMM-Newton and Chandra points may be samples from a ‘hesitation’ on the decline. Such behavior, while completely speculative without additional observations, nevertheless is not without precedent - SN1979C (Montes et al., 2000) and SN2001ig (Ryder et al., 2003) both showed hesitations or outright increases during the decline phase of the radio light curves. The corresponding X-ray behavior is wholly unknown.

The behavior of the X-ray light curves is in contrast to the radio light curves all of which peaked considerably earlier. The fitted times of radio maximum differ because the radio light curve behavior is a function of frequency. However, the band with the latest peak, L at 1.38 GHz, reached a maximum near age 2000 days, or approximately November 1983 (S99), or about 11 years earlier.

## 6 Discussion

The apparent decline in the hard band vs. the soft band coupled with the potential emergence of a Si emission line signal the increasing transparency of the circumstellar medium surrounding SN1978K. If the X-ray transparency is increasing, then SN1978K has started its decline toward its remnant stage. Future observations will reveal the trend more concretely. We expect increasing line emission in the coming years.

However, we must be more cautious as the possibility exists that the column density is increasing as the material behind the shock recombines. A conclusion that the column density is increasing is at this point premature, resting as it would on two data points (the Chandra and XMM spectra). The ASCA spectra insufficiently constrained the column density to provide measurements of the trend over a longer time base. A future observation with Chandra or Newton would, with similar statistics per spectral channel, establish the nature of any trend that may exist.

The power law indices (n, s) of the density profile of the ejecta ($`\rho _{\mathrm{ejecta}}`$ $``$ r-n) and circumstellar matter distribution ($`\rho _{\mathrm{cs}}`$ $``$ r-s) are important parameters of interaction models. They may be calculated from the light curve and from the ratio of the temperatures of the forward and reverse shocks (e.g., Fransson et al. 1996).

We interpret the temperatures of the two components as the temperatures of the forward and reverse shock emission. Fransson et al. (1996) show that the temperature ratio depends upon the circumstellar and supernova ejecta density distributions as $`T_\mathrm{r}/T_\mathrm{f}=(3s)^2/(n3)^2,`$ where s = circumstellar density distribution exponent, usually 2 for a constant and homogeneous stellar wind, and n = SN ejecta density distribution exponent. The ratio of the temperatures of the two model fits to the Chandra spectrum is 0.61/3.2 = 0.19; solving for n yields an index of 5.25$`\pm `$0.25. Repeating the same arithmetic for the XMM-Newton spectrum yields an index of 5.07$`\pm `$0.10. An index of $``$5 is lower than usually adopted for the ejecta distribution; for example, Chevalier & Fransson (1994) derive results covering the index range of 7-12.

We argue, however, that n $``$5 is reasonable. Recently, Zimmermann & Aschenbach (2003) described an XMM-Newton observation of SN1993J in M81 and obtained a best-fit spectrum using the dual variable Mekal model. They inferred n = 8.9 from the fitted temperatures after fitting the light curve to obtain s $``$ 1.65.

However, Fransson & Björnsson (1998) showed that for SN1993J the circumstellar matter density was not s $``$ 1.65 as they first estimated from the radio light curve (Fransson et al., 1996), but was s = 2 because their initial analysis failed to include synchrotron self-absorption. Their correction implies that circumstellar matter distributions really are deposited with s = 2. We therefore recalculate the index value for SN1993J.

From their best-fit model, Zimmermann & Aschenbach (2003) obtained temperatures of 0.34$`\pm `$0.04 and 6.54$`\pm `$4 keV for the XMM-Newton spectrum. Adopting s = 2, we obtain a value of n of $``$7.4$`{}_{1.8}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+1.5}`$, where the large error range, driven by the large error on the high-temperature component, just overlaps the s $``$1.65 value. The ejecta distribution index of SN1993J is slightly larger than the value for SN1978K, but the error range reaches nearly to the SN1978K value of n = 5.

Having established that an index of $``$5 is not substantially different from the the index of SN1993J, we briefly examine whether the difference is in fact sensible. From Chevalier & Fransson (1994), lower values for the index lead to smaller density contrasts between the forward and reverse shocks, and adiabatic shocks at early times. SN1978K was essentially constant for at least 3 years near the peak (from $``$day 5500 to day $``$6500; S99) while SN1993J declined essentially from the time of the explosion Swartz et al. (2003). The increase in flux of SN1978K from the Einstein upper limit suggests that absorption was critical at very early times. This behavior is consistent with the adopted model for Type IIn supernovae, namely, an object with a dense circumstellar medium resulting from a dense wind. Furthermore, Fransson et al. (1996) showed that the cooling time increases for smaller values of n. The different behavior of SN1993J (fading from start) and SN1978K (rises, then constant) fit within the context of the circumstellar model. The surprise is the apparent extreme sensitivity across a small difference in n.

We caution the reader to consider these numbers skeptically. As pointed out by, for example, Swartz et al. (2003), extrapolation of the self-similar interaction model to phases beyond a few months to years is “inappropriate” to adopt their description. In particular, the forward shock rapidly moves into prior phases of mass loss from the progenitor which need not be distributed in a smooth $`r^2`$ profile as usually assumed. Numerical calculations become necessary, including radiative losses, particularly for the reverse shock. We note the presentation of Nymark & Fransson (2003) demonstrating that multiple temperatures exist in the shocked gas in contrast to the considerably simpler models adopted for the present analysis.

## 7 Conclusions

We conclude that the Chandra and XMM-Newton observations detected the first hints of increasing transparency of the matter surrounding SN1978K. The increasing transparency signals the start of its decline in the X-ray band.

The low-temperature spectral components remain essentially unchanged from the ASCA epochs except for the addition of the detected Si. Within the errors, the high-temperature components have also not changed; if we restrict our attention solely to the XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of 2000 and 2002, then we see a decline of a factor of $``$1.5, consistent with an interpretation of increasing transparency. Additional X-ray observations will confirm or refute our interpretation.

If X-ray line emission is becoming increasingly visible, line emission in other bands may be expected to change depending upon the atomic cascades. An observation with the HST STI Spectrograph is clearly warranted; such an observation would also aid in sorting out the emission region and clarifying the nature of the line emission uncovered with the FOS observation (S99).

Additional X-ray observations over the coming years are important to investigate possible variations in the wind as well as detecting the expected developing line emission. If our interpretation is correct, then the decline phase commenced just within the past few years and provides an opportunity to observe the decline. Comparison with SN1987A will reveal differences likely attributable to the differing densities of the circumstellar media.

At least two radio-emitting supernovae have shown hesitations and increases on the decline, interpreted as enhanced mass loss during the late stages of stellar evolution prior to the progenitor’s explosion (e.g., SN2001ig, Ryder et al. (2003); SN1993J, Zimmermann & Aschenbach (2003); SN1979C, Montes et al. (2000) and references therein). With the shock moving at about 103 times the wind velocity, continued X-ray and radio observations are expected to provide in a human lifetime an extended view of several thousand years of late wind and mass loss behavior of a massive star.

The research of EMS was supported by contract number NAS8-39073 to SAO. PK acknowledges partial support from NASA grant NAG5-7405 and Chandra grant GO2-3102X.

## 8 Figures