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# The Synthesis Telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory

## 1 Introduction

The Synthesis Telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) is a radio telescope with unique capabilities for Galactic interstellar medium (ISM) studies. Operating simultaneously at the frequency of the spin-flip spectral line of atomic hydrogen (the H i line near 1420 MHz), and in two continuum bands near 1420 MHz and 408 MHz, the telescope achieves arcminute angular resolution with exceptional sensitivity to extended structure over wide fields (3.12° at 1420 MHz and 9.63° at 408 MHz at the 10% level). These features allow it to map several major constituents of the ISM, namely the atomic gas (through the H i line), the ionized gas (thermal continuum emission detected in the continuum bands), and the relativistic component (which generates synchrotron emission, measured in the continuum bands) in a way which few other telescopes can match. Its principal project at the time of writing is the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (Taylor et al. (2000)); data from this survey are now entering the public domain. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint the scientific community with the characteristics of the telescope.

The telescope in its original form was described by Roger et al. (Roger73 (1973)), with the first astronomical results being published shortly thereafter (Costain et al. (1976); Roger & Costain 1976). Over the following two decades the capabilities of the telescope were enhanced through a series of modifications, including increasing the number of antennas from 2 to 4 and doubling the maximum baseline in 1982, adding a 408 MHz continuum channel in 1984, and adding a second receiver path to the 1420 MHz continuum system in 1986 to allow both hands of circular polarization (CP) to be measured.

An extensive rebuilding of the telescope began in 1992, to create a telescope optimized for studies of the Galactic ISM, concentrating on high angular resolution, wide-field studies of H i. Enhancements over the following 3 years included the addition of three antennas, a new 1420 MHz continuum correlator with double the reception bandwidth and polarimetry capabilities, and a new H i spectrometer with double the number of channels. The result is a substantially new telescope, built on the basic infrastructure of the old. In this paper we describe the telescope, with emphasis on its new components.

## 2 Array design

### 2.1 Basic design objectives

The telescope was conceived as a tool for the study of the Galactic H i, which is known to have structure on all angular scales at which observations have been attempted, from tens of degrees (Hartmann & Burton (1997)) to tens of milli-arcseconds (Faison et al. (1999)). An angular resolution of 1 arcmin was the target, an order of magnitude improvement over the resolution available with the largest single-antenna radiotelescopes, while retaining sensitivity to intermediate and larger structures. This required a finely sampled aperture plane and short interferometer baselines, which in turn dictated the use of small antennas. It was also clear at the outset that it would be necessary to incorporate single-antenna data into the Synthesis Telescope images (see §2.3) and to mosaic individual images together to extend the field of view.

A telescope which can successfully image H i emission will also be suitable for imaging Galactic continuum emission, which similarly displays a wide range of structural sizes. Continuum emission at decimetre wavelengths originates in the ionized and relativistic components of the ISM. The latter gives rise to a small percentage of linear polarization in the emission, and the ability to measure polarization was included in the telescope to give information on magnetic fields at the point of origin and on the magneto-ionic medium along the line of sight.

With only seven antennas, the number of instantaneous baselines is just 21; many more baselines are required to meet the desired imaging criteria. The chosen configuration was therefore an east-west aperture synthesis telescope with movable elements. Earth rotation varies the baseline vector during an observation, and the movable antennas are relocated until the required set of baselines has been completely sampled in consecutive observations. (The normal observing strategy for the telescope is described in §8).

### 2.2 Array configuration

The task of designing an array configuration to meet the above objectives was constrained by the existing four-antenna array, which had two movable antennas on 300 m of rail, along with two fixed antennas, one at the west end of the rail and one $`600`$ m to the east. With the possibility of adding only three additional antennas, the final configuration (Figure 1) was dictated by the needs of both continuum and H i-line imaging described above.

The diameter of the antennas used in the array is 8.5 m (for further details see §3). The baseline increment is $`L=4.286`$ m, about half an antenna diameter. This provides the necessary fine baseline sampling, and places the first grating response at an angular radius where the primary beam of the antennas is at a very low level, so that grating responses to objects within the usable field of view lie outside the field (although responses to strong sources outside the usable field can still appear within it). Antenna shadowing and the risk of mechanical interference limit the minimum usable baseline to $`3L12.86`$ m, which is sufficient to allow full representation in the images of structures as large as 40 arcmin at 1420 MHz and 2.3° at 408 MHz. A maximum baseline of $`144L617.1`$ m provides the desired 1-arcmin resolution limit at 1420 MHz (at 408 MHz a resolution of 3.4 arcmin is achieved). Table 1 lists the telescope specifications.

The three movable antennas are mounted on motorized platforms that ride on a precise, machined track that is dimensionally stable and accurately surveyed. Station markers along the track are used in positioning the antennas, with a one-station move taking about 5 minutes. The antennas are usually moved so that they are $`12L`$ apart, with the separation between antennas 1 and 2 ($`s`$ in Fig. 1) ranging from $`3L`$ to $`14L`$. By this means, complete coverage of baselines from $`3L`$ to $`141L`$ (plus $`144L`$) is obtained with 12 settings of the movable antennas. The time required to synthesize a complete aperture is therefore $`12\times 12`$ hours. The telescope is almost always used in this mode. An exception is solar imaging (Burke & Tapping Burke95 (1995)); for this purpose a set of spacings has been selected which allows the formation of a satisfactory image of the Sun (in the absence of rapid variation such as burst activity) in one 12-hour observation.

For H i imaging, only the 12 baselines between the four fixed and three movable antennas are used. H i-line images are typically of limited dynamic range, determined by the ratio of the maximum brightness temperature (rarely more than 120 K) to the expected noise level ($`3`$ K). However, antenna-based calibration parameters, determined from continuum measurements using all 21 baselines, are routinely applied to H i visibilities.

### 2.3 Complementary single-antenna data

The short baselines available on the Synthesis Telescope permit accurate imaging of quite large features, but it is still necessary to incorporate data from single-antenna radio telescopes into the images. The DRAO 26-m Telescope is usually used to provide the necessary information on the largest H i structures. Single-antenna continuum data at 1420 MHz are obtained from the Effelsberg surveys of Kallas & Reich (Kallas80 (1980)), Reich et al. (Reich90 (1990)), and Reich et al. (Reich97 (1997)) or from the Stockert surveys of Reich (Reich82 (1982)) and Reich & Reich (Reich86 (1986)). When a long-wavelength channel was planned for the Synthesis Telescope in the 1980s, the frequency of 408 MHz was chosen because of the existence of a complementary, well-calibrated, single-antenna survey of the whole sky at that frequency (Haslam et al. (1982)).

## 3 Antennas

The antennas used in the Synthesis Telescope have equatorially mounted, paraboloidal reflectors. There are two slightly different designs in use, the most significant difference being that two antennas (at the east and west extremes of the array) have diameter $`d=9.14`$ m and focal length $`f=3.81`$ m ($`f/d=0.42`$), while the remainder have $`d=8.53`$ m and $`f=3.66`$ m ($`f/d=0.43`$). The difference in antenna diameters leads to a mismatched weighting of u-v samples which is sufficiently large to affect imaging; Willis (Willis99 (1999)) has devised a means of compensating for this effect.

Signals are collected by a dual-frequency feed (Veidt et al. Veidt85 (1985); Trikha et al. Trikha91 (1991)) mounted at the prime focus. Circular polarization (CP) is received at both frequencies: continuum emission is expected to have a small fraction of linear polarization (from synchrotron radiation), and measurement of that component can be made most simply by using CP feeds.

At 1420 MHz a multi-mode feed, based on one of the designs of Sheffer (Scheffer75 (1975)), provides a flat-topped illumination pattern, yielding an aperture efficiency $`\eta _A=0.55`$, with an edge illumination of the reflector of $`16`$ dB. A “quarter-wave plate” in the waveguide (consisting of three reactive posts; Simmons (1952)) provides a 90° phase shift, and linear probes aligned at 45° to the plane of the quarter-wave plate collect left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) simultaneously.

The circularly polarized 408-MHz feed was added subsequently, and was designed to avoid any degradation of 1420-MHz performance. The outputs of four orthogonal monopoles, placed in the outer cavity of the 1420-MHz feed, are combined in a TEM-mode hybrid. A switch selects either LHCP or RHCP; normally RHCP is received (the use of a CP feed gives an accurate measurement of Stokes $`I`$ even in the presence of some linearly polarized emission). At 408 MHz the feed has the radiation characteristics of a circular waveguide of diameter $`0.7\lambda `$, illuminating the aperture very broadly. The aperture efficiency is $`\eta _A=0.6`$, but edge illumination is high ($`8`$ dB) and beam efficiency is low ($`\eta _B=0.70`$) because of the high spillover.

Antenna noise temperature at 1420 MHz varies from a high of 26.0 K on one antenna to a low of 17.8 K on another, because of slight differences in construction. Table 2 gives details of the noise budgets of the best and worst antennas. These data were derived by Anderson et al. (Anderson91 (1991)) based on two-dimensional mapping of the radiation pattern of one of the antennas. The feed-support struts of several antennas have been modified (Landecker et al. Landecker91 (1991)) to reduce the ground noise which the struts scatter into the aperture.

## 4 Receivers

### 4.1 The 1420-MHz receiver

Sensitivity at 1420 MHz is primarily determined by the low-noise HEMT amplifier, which has a noise temperature, $`T_R35`$ K (for 16 amplifiers built, 28 K $`<T_R<38`$ K and $`T_R=33.4`$ K). The uncooled 3-stage amplifier is an enhanced version of the amplifier described by Walker et al. (Walker88 (1988)). It uses source-inductance feedback to achieve a good input match (Weinreb et al. Weinreb82 (1982)).

After filtering to suppress the image band, the signal is converted to an intermediate frequency (IF) band of 12.5–47.5 MHz. IF signals are conveyed from each antenna to the central building by coaxial cables. No compensation is attempted for changes in IF phase due to cable-length changes with temperature; physical matching of cables provides adequate stability.

The Local Oscillator (LO) system (Landecker & Vaneldik Landecker82 (1982)) delivers signals of controlled frequency and phase to the mixers at each antenna. To control phase, the system uses the “round-trip” design, in which the electrical length of the cable connecting the central electronics to the antenna is measured by sending a signal out to the antenna and back. If the cable electrical length changes by $`ϵ`$, the returning signal changes its phase by the equivalent of $`2ϵ`$. Closing the feedback loop requires a division by 2; consequently there is an ambiguity of $`\pi `$ in the output phase. This difficulty is overcome by operating the round-trip system at half the frequency of the required LO signal. At the antenna, the output is doubled to produce the LO signal near 1390 MHz. The tuning range of the LO system is given in Table 1; it accommodates observations of H i in the Galaxy and in nearby extragalactic systems.

The interferometer fringe rate is reduced to zero for each baseline by rotating the phase of the LO signal for each antenna relative to the reference antenna (Antenna 5 at the physical centre of the array – see Figure 1). Phase switching in a Walsh-function pattern (Granlund et al. Granlund78 (1978)) is also applied to the LO signal to reduce spurious correlation from crosstalk between receiver channels. The switching pattern has 16 steps of 5.6 s in the telescope visibility-averaging time of 90 s.

Compensating delays are inserted in the IF signal paths to equalize path lengths, from the incoming wavefront, through each antenna to the correlator. Stripline paths are used for short delays and coaxial cable for longer delays, selected by PIN diode switches. Cable delay sections are equalized for attenuation and dispersion. This is an enhancement of the earlier system described by Landecker (Landecker84 (1984)). The minimum delay step of 3.91 cm ($`0.13`$ ns) is determined by the specification that the delay error should produce a phase difference across the spectrometer band of less than 0.1°. Delay system specifications are given in Table 3.

Residual gain fluctuations due to imperfect delay-cable equalization or unequal switch losses are removed by an automatic gain control (AGC). The AGC measures signal levels at the delay-system input and output, and keeps the net gain of the delay system constant. A second gain monitor spans the entire signal path, from antenna feed to correlator output: small modulated noise signals ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T_A1`$ K) are injected into each antenna feed, and are demodulated from autocorrelation outputs (see §5.1) to give continuous measurements of system gain and system temperature.

Since this is a spectroscopic telescope, the reception frequency must be varied to account for diurnal and orbital motion of the Earth, as well as for the radial velocity of the source under observation. The total reception band, of width 35 MHz, is kept centred on the H i band selected for observation by continuously tuning the first LO. The continuum reception band is divided into four sub-bands distributed on either side of the spectroscopy band, as illustrated in Figure 2. In the course of an observation, continuum band centres vary as the LO is tuned, but the imaging software accounts for this slight change. The five reception bands are translated to fixed locations in the IF band.

The four continuum bands are defined by IF bandpass filters and are converted to baseband using fixed second LOs. A quadrature replica of each band is created using a phase-shifted second LO. The spectrometer band is converted to lower frequency in a single-sideband mixer. The overall bandwidth of the spectrometer is selectable with six options from $`B=0.125`$ MHz to $`B=4.0`$ MHz in multiples of 2. Before digitizing, the band is sharply defined by a six-pole elliptic-function bandpass filter spanning $`B`$ to $`2B`$. Use of this “quasi-baseband” allows better image rejection in the single-sideband mixer.

### 4.2 The 408-MHz receiver

The 408 MHz receiver is designed to use as much as possible of the band assigned to radio astronomy (406.1–410 MHz), while suppressing out-of-band communications signals. Several stages of filtering are distributed between gain stages in the receiver, and a total bandwidth of 3.5 MHz is achieved.

A single coaxial cable carries both LO and IF signals between the focus of each antenna and the central receiver building. The LO phase is controlled by a feedback system which keeps the phase of the 30 MHz IF signal arriving at the centre of the telescope completely independent of the length of the interconnecting cable (Veidt et al. Veidt85 (1985)). All subsequent signal processing is carried out in digital electronics or in software (see §5.3). A minor drawback of the LO-IF system is the generation of an unwanted fixed-frequency signal at the centre of the IF band; this is removed prior to correlation by a narrow bandstop filter.

## 5 Correlators

The three operating bands of the telescope, the 1420-MHz continuum band, the H i spectroscopy band, and the 408-MHz continuum band, use digital correlators of different designs, which we label the C21, S21, and C74 systems respectively. The three correlators were built at different times; their design differences are partly dictated by that history but are mostly driven by the significantly different requirements. Table 4 lists the specifications of the three correlators.

Digital representation of signals introduces quantization noise, some of which can be recovered by increasing the sampling rate (Bowers & Klingler Bowers74 (1974); Klingler Klingler74 (1974)). Figure 3 shows correlator efficiency for the two quantization schemes used in this telescope.

Sections 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 describe the three correlators in turn. Section 5.4 describes routines developed to correct the inherent correlator non-linearity. These corrections are currently applied to C21 and S21 data only.

### 5.1 The 1420-MHz continuum correlator

The C21 correlator (Karpa (1989)) uses fourteen-level representation of the input signals; with moderate over-sampling, it achieves an unusually high correlator efficiency ($`\eta _c=0.985`$; see Figure 3). The correlator was designed to provide products from all antenna pairs, and to form all four polarization products from the LHCP and RHCP inputs. However, the total continuum bandwidth is too wide to permit mapping of the entire field of view of the telescope without bandwidth smearing (decorrelation arising from differential delay of off-axis, wide-bandwidth signals; see Bridle & Schwab (1989)). The 30 MHz band is therefore divided into four 7.5 MHz sub-bands as illustrated in Figure 2. Each sub-band input is digitized to 14 levels and the products are formed in one of four identical correlators.

Input signals are digitized using four-bit monolithic flash converters (Analog Devices AD9688) with the sampling clock running at 20 MHz, slightly faster than the Nyquist rate for a 7.5-MHz bandwidth. Of the 16 possible A/D output levels, only 14 are used. The two extreme levels (outputs 0000 and 1111) are reserved for use as control signals embedded in the data stream.

Each correlator module uses a ROM look-up table where an 8-bit product is stored at the address specified by the two 4-bit inputs. The product is accumulated for 5.6 seconds. The occurrence of the code 0000 at either input of the multiplier causes accumulation to stop. The accumulator (a combination of synchronous and ripple counters) is allowed to settle, and is then read by the system microprocessor.

The occurrence of code 1111 on one of the multiplier inputs causes the multiplier to produce an 8-bit output corresponding to the square of the 4-bit number appearing on the other input. Extra correlator cards are used in this way as auto-correlators, and they generate outputs corresponding to the power in each input signal. Small noise signals are injected into each antenna (see §4.1), and the autocorrelation outputs are used to measure both system gain and noise in each channel. Additional correlator channels are used to compute the mean of each input signal (by multiplying the input signal by a fixed number), a measure of the error in each A/D converter. Similarly, “self-correlations” are formed between in-phase and quadrature signals from a given antenna to measure any deviation from orthogonality (which is corrected for in subsequent processing).

The flow of input signals from the A/D converters to the correlators, and the flow of output data from the correlators, is handled by the Control/Interface (CI) modules. These modules include a $`4096\times 4`$-bit RAM, located at the boundary between data acquisition and data processing, which serves two purposes. The RAM can store A/D converter outputs for later analysis (used in testing A/D converters). Alternatively, it can be loaded from the microprocessor with data which can be passed to the correlators in place of the normal input signals. In this way all correlator channels can be subjected to a test which uses realistic input signals while giving exactly known outputs. The entire correlator system undergoes self-test in this fashion at the start of every observation.

The correlator modules are arranged in a matrix. Signals move one step along the rows and diagonals of the matrix at each clock cycle and are re-timed at each correlation site. Since control signals are embedded in the data stream, timing is very simple, and the correlation matrix is (in principle) extendible to handle any number of antennas.

### 5.2 The H i correlation spectrometer

The S21 correlator forms only those baseline products needed for complete sampling of the u-v plane, the 12 combinations of fixed and movable antennas (Figure 1). For maximum sensitivity, two identical correlators form products from LHCP and RHCP signals. Cross-correlation between signals from the two hands of polarization is not currently available. This correlator design, in auto-correlator mode, is also used on the DRAO 26-m Telescope for observation of large-scale H i structure for combination with Synthesis Telescope images.

The S21 correlator uses many modules from the C21 system, including the A/D converter, the CI modules, the backplanes, and the microprocessors. Many functions from the C21 system are reproduced, including the autocorrelation circuits and the circuits used to compute means of input signals (see §5.1). The significant difference between the systems is the correlation module itself.

Data streams, which leave the A/D converters encoded to 14 levels, are used with 14-level precision for auto-correlation and other functions, but are converted to 3-level coding for processing by the correlation modules. The 14-level auto-correlators provide accurate measurement of input power levels, and this information is used to linearize the cross-correlation functions formed from 3-level data (see §5.4).

The correlator was designed around a CMOS application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) developed for this project (Hovey Hovey98 (1998)). The ASIC computes a four-point correlation function from input signals quantized to 3 levels, and 128 ASICs implement a 512-lag correlator (256 complex channels) for each baseline. The ASIC architecture is flexible, allowing both cross- and auto-correlation of data sampled at the Nyquist rate, $`f_N`$, or at $`2f_N`$. Sampling at $`2f_N`$ is used because it increases correlator efficiency from 0.81 to 0.88.

Figure 4 shows the organization of the ASIC. The $`x`$ and $`y`$ inputs are 3-level quantities, taking values $`(1,0,1)`$. The shift registers are arranged so that $`x`$ and $`y`$ streams flow in opposite directions. Correlation function values are formed by connecting a multiplier-accumulator across each shift-register output. The multiplier output is biased, so that only positive products $`(0,1,2)`$, are formed, allowing accumulation in a simple up-counter. Accumulation begins with a 2-bit adder, whose output synchronously clocks a 23-bit ripple counter. Adder outputs are clocked into this counter at a fixed rate so that the mean value of the accumulator is constant even though the sample rate is adjusted when the overall bandwidth is changed. The system microprocessor detects overflows of the most significant accumulator bit, and extends the accumulation interval to 5.6 s.

The cross-correlation function is under-sampled in the ASIC because the delay interval is $`2\tau `$, where $`\tau `$ is the period of the sampling clock. By adding a second ASIC with one input delayed by $`\tau `$, the correlation function can be fully sampled. Alternatively, if the input signals are sampled at $`2f_N`$, a fully sampled correlation function is obtained (this is the normal mode of operation). For auto-correlation, a correlation function with one point at zero lag can be created by delaying one input by one half-lag.

### 5.3 408-MHz continuum correlator

The C74 correlator was designed to carry out interferometer signal-processing operations in simple software procedures to the maximum extent feasible (Lo et al. Lo84 (1984)). Figure 5 is a diagram of the system, showing the distribution of signal-processing functions between hardware and software.

Incoming signals are sampled at 16 MHz and coarse delay is inserted in steps of one cycle of this clock (62.5 $`\mu `$s). A 16-point correlation function is generated. The in-phase visibility is retrieved from this function by interpolating to the exact geometrical delay. The quadrature visibility, which contains independent information, is also derived from this function. It is calculated by convolving the in-phase correlation function with the kernel function of a band-limited Hilbert transform. Since the in-phase and quadrature visibility outputs are required at only a single value of delay, the convolution degenerates to a simple dot product, requiring multiplication of each value of the correlation function by a matching coefficient from the kernel function. This is a simple and quick operation in the microprocessor (see Lo et al. Lo84 (1984) for details). A small error (of the order of 5%) arises in the derivation of the quadrature visibility because of truncation of the kernel. The error is mostly corrected by a multiplication factor. The residual error is much smaller than the decorrelation arising from bandwidth smearing.

Delay equalization is a continuous process, since the required path compensation is continuously changing as the Earth rotates. Precision of the compensation is high, limited only by the numerical precision of the interpolation arithmetic and the rate at which interpolation is performed. This confers an advantage over systems where delay is inserted in discrete steps. Such steps affect the phase of the correlator output, and must be corrected for, either before or after correlation.

### 5.4 Correlator linearity

Quantization of the baseband signals introduces non-linearities in the correlator output, which can lead to substantial artefacts in images (both H i-line and continuum) when bright Galactic objects lie in the field. Because of its sensitivity to extended structure, this telescope is more prone to this problem than other synthesis telescopes which resolve out most of the broad emission.

There are two approaches to the derivation of accurate visibilities using a digital correlator. In one approach, the signal level at the input to the A/D converter is held constant at the optimum level (see Figure 3). Under these circumstances, a 3-level correlator yields a value of correlation coefficient, $`\rho `$, linear within 1% up to values of $`\rho =0.38`$. However, to recover accurate visibility amplitudes requires accurate tracking of variations of system noise temperature. The alternative, which we have adopted, is to stabilize receiver gain through the system but to allow the signal level at the A/D converter input to vary (caused, for example, by variations of atmospheric emission and received ground radiation as a function of antenna elevation angle). This approach requires the development of algorithms to linearize correlator output. The algorithms convert the output of the correlators (separate algorithms have been developed for the 3-level and 14-level correlators) into an accurate measure of cross-power in the face of changes of system temperature of as much as 30%. The algorithms must be applicable to both auto- and cross-correlators, and must therefore be able to handle correlation coefficients as high as $`\rho =1.0`$. However, $`\rho `$ can also be high in the cross-correlator: when observing H i emission with the 12.86-m baseline, $`\rho `$ can rise to values as high as 0.7.

The algorithms proceed by first linearizing the autocorrelator response to derive an accurate measure of the variance of the input signal. Using this measurement, the cross-correlator response is linearized to obtain an accurate value of cross-power. The equations describing the correlator output in terms of its inputs cannot be directly inverted. Instead we use series approximations, following the ideas of Kulkarni & Heiles (Kulkarni80 (1980)) and D’Addario et al. (D'Addario84 (1984)). However, the correlator becomes increasingly non-linear as the input signal increases, spending a greater fraction of time above the highest quantizer decision level. The coefficients of the series inversion formula therefore must vary with input signal level. In our algorithm, these coefficients are themselves estimated by evaluating a series. Details of the linearization algorithms can be found in Hovey (Hovey98 (1998)). Their application reduces errors of as much as 30%, which occur in common observing conditions with this telescope, to less than 0.1%.

## 6 Software

The observing software comprises a combination of Unix-based tasks running on an IBM RS/6000, and a set of software tasks which run on Motorola-68000-based microprocessors (Figure 6). The RS/6000 system provides high-level synchronization, scheduling and data storage, while the true real-time work of data collection and sampling is done by the microprocessors. After data are collected, they are transferred via an ethernet connection to another IBM RS/6000 system, where the data are processed through automatic error-detection and flagging routines and inserted into a database awaiting final calibration and imaging, which is carried out once all the data required for a complete synthesis have been collected. (Twelve observations of 12 hours each are required to obtain all the data needed for imaging; see §8).

### 6.1 Telescope Control Software

The user interface to the observing system (Figure 6) is the program `SCHEDULER`, which allows the user to initiate observations of the program field and calibration observations, check on their progress, and abort them. A “template” consisting of a list of observations specified by field centre, duration, and starting time or hour angle may be entered, with individual sub-systems selectively chosen for each. `SCHEDULER` checks that the observations are possible within the antenna horizon limits, and the list is then placed in the observing queue.

Observing-system tasks communicate via serial polling over an IEEE 488 interface with microprocessors embedded in the various sub-systems of the telescope. These tasks read the sidereal clock, log messages generated by the observing system, and provide two-way communication with the microprocessors. Global synchronization between the sub-systems is performed by the program `SKY_` `CONTROL` using Unix IPC messaging via addresses assigned to each task.

`SKY_CONTROL` also processes the observing queue. It determines which sub-systems are needed, initializes control files, and signals sub-system tasks accordingly. It also creates a binary file containing all of the parameters and hardware settings needed for the observation. This file subsequently follows the data through post-observation processing software as a record of the state of the system when the data were acquired. Sub-system-specific ASCII parameter files are also generated, which are read by the controlling tasks and used to send start-up commands to the microprocessors.

Once an observation has begun, `SKY_CONTROL` goes into a wait mode, looking for either the end of the run, or an “ABORT” signal from `SCHEDULER`. At the end of an observation `SKY_CONTROL` checks the observing queue, and initializes the next observation, continuing until the queue is empty.

Observing-system timing is controlled by the sidereal clock. Its attached microprocessor sends the time, once per second, to a shared memory area which can be accessed by other tasks. The time is also directly distributed to the individual microprocessors.

### 6.2 Error Logging

All Unix tasks report errors to a central program, `LOGGER`, via an IPC message queue. `LOGGER` runs continuously and writes all messages to a terminal and into an ASCII output file. Upon completion of an observation, the file is closed, tagged to the observation, and a new file is started. This tagged file follows the observation data into the post-observation processing area, and is used as input to the flagging programs for initial editing of bad data.

### 6.3 Post-Observation Processing

When an observation is complete, `SKY_CONTROL` moves the data across an ethernet link to an off-line post-observation processing area on disk, and spawns sub-shells to run command procedures. These are typically Unix shell scripts which call a sequence of FORTRAN-based programs that each perform a specific operation on the data. Important information and statistics may be generated by these programs, and are written to a processing log file, which the user checks in order to verify the health of the system and the validity of the data.

Since Synthesis Telescope observing projects are typically spread over several days, a number of project-specific databases are maintained, into which each newly processed observation or calibration is inserted. Each entry is indexed with the date of observation and the interferometer configuration. At any stage of data gathering these databases may be examined. However, aside from some manual flagging of bad data in each observation, the data are not generally further processed until all 12 observations for the project are complete.

Once all the data are available, an operator uses a graphics-based visibility editor to flag (but not remove) any remaining bad data. Appropriate calibration parameters for amplitude, phase, cross-polarization, and spectrometer passband-flattening, derived from calibration observations, are extracted from global databases and stored in a project-specific table. The data and accompanying tables are then processed to remove bad data and apply calibration. The resulting databases are suitable for gridding and Fourier transforming into images.

Images from the Synthesis Telescope are generally analyzed using an extensive suite of locally written software, designed to provide optimal results from Synthesis Telescope data, taking into account known instrumental effects. A detailed description of this suite of software is given in Higgs, Hoffmann & Willis (1996) and Willis (Willis99 (1999)).

## 7 Polarimetry

As described above, the C21 correlator measures cross-correlations of all combinations of polarizations; 1420-MHz continuum polarimetry became available on the Synthesis Telescope in 1993 (see Smegal et al. Smegal97 (1997)).

The antennas of the Synthesis Telescope are equatorially mounted, with feeds that cannot be rotated relative to the reflector, so the beam pattern always has a fixed orientation on the sky. While this has many advantages, it does complicate separation of spurious instrumental polarization from source polarization. Corrections for instrumental polarization must be determined by observing sources with little or no intrinsic polarization. The method by which these corrections are determined is discussed in detail by Smegal et al. (Smegal97 (1997)); put briefly, in the absence of an actual polarized signal, the cross-polarization correlations provide information about the orthogonality of the nominal LHCP and RHCP signals on each antenna, also known as “leakage”. The leakage terms measured for the Synthesis Telescope using 3C 147 and 3C 295 amount to between 1 and 5% on most antennas, although one antenna has about 10% leakage. If left uncorrected, these errors produce spurious instrumental polarization at the field centre amounting to several percent of the total flux. After correction, the residual instrumental polarization at the field centre is reduced by about an order of magnitude to 0.25% of the total intensity.

To measure polarization angle it is necessary to measure the phase difference between RHCP and LHCP channels on one antenna, an arbitrarily chosen reference. This is achieved by observing 3C 286, a strongly polarized, compact source with a fractional polarization of 9.25% and polarization angle of 33° at 1420 MHz. Polarimeter accuracy is 5° in polarization angle, and 10% in polarized intensity. The precision of the polarization angle measurements is also limited by ionospheric Faraday rotation, which amounts to about 3° in polarization angle between day and night (at present no correction is applied).

The off-axis polarization properties of the instrument are very good, and useful results can be obtained up to $`90^{}`$ from the field centre. The residual instrumental terms rise approximately quadratically from the field centre, reaching about 10% of total flux at this radius. Empirical corrections, determined by observing 3C 147 and 3C 295 at various positions in the field and interpolating to intermediate positions, are applied to remove this increase. These corrections have been measured three times over a three-year period; they are very stable.

At present, deviations from circularity of the feeds are not accounted for. Since the data are processed as if the polarizations were purely circular, a small amount of any incident linear polarization is actually ascribed to circular polarization (Stokes $`V`$). This has little effect on linear polarimetry, but severely limits the ability of the telescope to detect and measure circular polarization. This has minimal impact on the astrophysical questions addressed by the telescope. For details see Smegal et al. (Smegal97 (1997)).

### 7.1 Rotation Measure

An important aspect of polarization studies is determining rotation measure to de-rotate observed polarization angles and recover the orientation of the intrinsic magnetic field. The sensitivity of the Synthesis Telescope to Faraday rotation is thus an important consideration. At 1420 MHz, a rotation measure of 4 rad m<sup>-2</sup> is required to produce a change in observed polarization angle of 10°, which is the limit of detectability with the present system.

In an image made from all 4 available bands, a rotation measure of approximately 330 rad m<sup>-2</sup> would cause 10% depolarization, with complete depolarization occurring for a rotation measure of $`1.2\times 10^3`$ rad m<sup>-2</sup>. In a single band these figures are over 5 times higher, $`1.7\times 10^3`$ rad m<sup>-2</sup> and $`6.6\times 10^3`$ rad m<sup>-2</sup>, respectively.

Since the 4 bands are available for separate processing, it is possible to use the frequency-dependent polarization angle to derive rotation measure. However, the relatively small span of frequency available imposes fairly high limits on the detectable rotation measures: 100 rad m<sup>-2</sup> is required to produce a change in angle of 10° between the centres of bands A and D (see Fig. 2).

## 8 Observing strategies

The east-west nature of the Synthesis Telescope requires that an object be tracked for 12 sidereal hours to obtain full hour-angle coverage. We describe this as an observation, although the total duration may sometimes be less than 12 hours. Twelve such observations produce a complete set of visibilities, fully sampling the available baselines; we describe such a set of data as an observation set.

In normal use the telescope is scheduled in a 4-day cycle, during which 7 back-to-back 12-hour observations with interleaved calibrations are completed, leaving approximately 8 hours per cycle for moving antennas and maintenance. The cycle is repeated 12 times to gather data on all possible spacings for the 7 fields. Occasional equipment failure and additional maintenance can add an extra day per field; an observing rate of 46 to 52 fields per year can be achieved in this mode of operation.

### 8.1 Calibration

Amplitude calibration and phase referencing are achieved by observing a set of strong, compact calibration sources which are known not to be time variable. The derivation of calibration coefficients uses standard antenna-based algorithms, with the complication that, since the Synthesis Telescope has a very wide field-of-view, it is necessary to account for nearby extraneous sources, which would otherwise cause undesirable hour-angle (and possibly time) dependencies. To this end, visibility models of the region surrounding each calibrator have been derived from observations, and are used to remove the effects of the extraneous sources. These models are updated periodically to allow for possible source variability, and are used routinely in deriving the calibration coefficients.

The most commonly used calibrators are listed in Table 5. The flux densities used for these sources are internally consistent and referenced to 3C 286. The flux densities adopted for the calibrators, based on measurements made in 1994, are consistent with the scale of Ott et al. (1994). The same sources are used to determine polarization calibration parameters. The stability of telescope gain and phase is such that it is only necessary to observe a calibrator prior to and following each 12-hour observation. Variations on shorter time-scales are corrected using self-calibration techniques.

Calibration of the spectrometer is difficult because the narrow channel bandwidth leads to high noise levels in individual channels. Calibration is achieved in a two-step process, by using calibration coefficients measured in the continuum bands. At the point where IF signals enter the central telescope building, a broadband noise signal can be injected into all IF paths, at a level sufficient to produce a correlation coefficient of $`0.3`$, adequate to give an accurate measurement of gain and phase in each spectrometer channel in 15 minutes. The continuum calibration measures antenna-based gain and phase which vary relatively slowly with frequency, but may vary with time. The IF calibration measures mostly the channel-to-channel amplitude and phase differences, which arise largely in the filters which define the bandpass, just before the signals are digitized; these are quite stable with time. This IF calibration is performed once every 4 days.

In later stages of image processing, amplitude and phase corrections are determined for individual antennas from self-calibration of Stokes $`I`$ images. These corrections are also applied to polarimeter images. Under some circumstances it is beneficial to apply them to H i images (e.g. when there is a strong continuum source in the field).

### 8.2 Antenna tracking and pointing

The antennas are capable of tracking down to an elevation of 12°, so the observable sky from the observatory’s terrestrial latitude of 49° nominally extends from declination $`29`$° to +89° (the latter imposed by the telescope drive system). However, full hour-angle coverage is possible only for declinations north of +18°. Sources north of declination +54° are circumpolar, and there is an overlap in hour-angle coverage at lower culmination, making it possible to track a circumpolar source for 26 sidereal hours without interruption. Non-sidereal tracking rates are available for observing solar-system objects.

Since they are equatorially mounted, the antennas track only in hour angle, although pointing corrections are made in both hour angle and declination. A pointing model for each antenna accounts for zero offset and ellipticity of the position encoders, misalignment of the polar axis, and non-orthogonality of the declination and hour-angle axes. These parameters are empirically determined from “nodding” observations of selected calibrators at many hour angles and declinations. A “nod” consists of measurements on-source and at 4 off-source positions situated 1° north, south, east, and west of the source, to which two-dimensional gaussians are fitted to obtain errors in hour angle and declination. The r.m.s. pointing accuracy across the observable sky is $`2.4^{}`$ in R.A. and $`3.1^{}`$ in Dec.

For a given observation, the pointing corrections at the declination of interest are calculated from the pointing model for every 30 minutes of hour angle, and interpolated linearly to intermediate hour angles. The tracking accuracy is then determined by a feedback loop in the control system, which measures the deviation of the antenna position from the requested position; at present errors in antenna position exceeding $`3^{}`$ are corrected. Such corrections typically occur on timescales of 30 minutes.

## 9 Performance

### 9.1 Synthesized beams

The synthesized beam of the Synthesis Telescope depends on the taper applied in the u-v plane; details of synthesized beams are given in Table 6. A uniform weighting is always applied when making images from the telescope. The objectives of research with this telescope usually benefit more from better sensitivity and lower sidelobe levels than from high spatial resolution, so a Gaussian taper falling to 20% at $`144L`$ is typically applied to the u-v plane.

### 9.2 Field of view

The half-power beamwidth of the antennas is $`107.2^{}`$ at 1420 MHz and $`332.1^{}`$ at 408 MHz, but experience has shown that the usable field of view extends at least to the 10% level of the respective primary beams (diameters of $`187^{}`$ and $`578^{}`$, respectively). Empirical measurements show that these beams are well approximated by a function of the form $`\mathrm{cos}^6(q_\nu r)`$. If $`r`$ is the radius in degrees, $`q_{1420}=30.24`$, and $`q_{408}=9.762`$. Precise knowledge of the beam function is required for accurate mosaicing of images of individual fields.

### 9.3 Bandwidth and time-averaging effects

Wide-field imaging is an important aspect of the Synthesis Telescope, so off-axis effects must be carefully considered.

The continuum bands at 1420 MHz span 35 MHz, and, owing to differential delay effects, if the entire band were assumed to be at the nominal centre frequency there would be a reduction in point-source sensitivity of approximately 50% at a radius of $`90^{}`$. This would be accompanied by a radial smearing of a point source to approximately twice the nominal beamwidth; while this preserves total flux, it is clearly unacceptable for high-fidelity imaging.

By treating the four 7.5 MHz continuum bands separately during imaging, taking into account the actual centre frequency of each, the reduction in point source sensitivity at $`90^{}`$ is only 5%, with a comparable amount of source distortion (see Bridle & Schwab (1989)). The 3.5-MHz bandwidth at 408 MHz reduces the point-source sensitivity by about 10% at a radius of $`300^{}`$, again with a similar amount of source distortion.

Effects due to time averaging are also a factor. At the radii of $`90^{}`$ at 1420 MHz and $`300^{}`$ at 408 MHz, the visibility averaging period of 90 s reduces point-source sensitivity by about 8% in a 12-hour observation, with source distortion of similar magnitude in the azimuthal direction. The combined effect of bandwidth and time-averaging smearing is then a worst-case reduction of point-source sensitivity of about 13% at 1420 MHz and 17% at 408 MHz, with both radial and azimuthal distortions. Software written for analyzing Synthesis Telescope images takes these effects into account when determining, for example, point-source fluxes.

### 9.4 Noise in Images

The r.m.s. noise, $`\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ (W m<sup>-2</sup> Hz<sup>-1</sup>), in an image made by a synthesis telescope is (Crane & Napier (1989))

$$\mathrm{\Delta }S=\frac{W\sqrt{2}kT_S}{\eta _c\eta _AA\sqrt{N_bN_{\mathrm{IF}}\mathrm{\Delta }f\tau }}$$
$`(1)`$
where $`W`$ is a factor that depends on the weighting scheme applied to the visibilities during imaging, $`k`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`T_S`$ is the system temperature (K), $`\eta _c`$ is the correlator efficiency (defined in §5), $`\eta _A`$ is the aperture efficiency of the antennas, each with area $`A`$ (m<sup>2</sup>), $`N_b`$ is the number of baselines, $`N_{\mathrm{IF}}`$ is the number of IF channels, each of bandwidth $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ (Hz), and $`\tau `$ is the integration time (s). $`N_{\mathrm{IF}}=1`$ for a single polarization, and $`N_{\mathrm{IF}}=2`$ when two polarizations are received.

The brightness-temperature sensitivity in K is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }T=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }S\lambda ^2}{2k}$$
$`(2)`$
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the synthesized beam area and $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength.

The factor $`W`$ is unity for a naturally weighted image, but this weighting scheme is never used with this telescope. Two weighting schemes used are (a) uniform weighting, for which $`W=2`$, and (b) Gaussian tapering of uniformly weighted data, tapering to 20% at the longest spacing, for which $`W=1.33`$. The brightness temperature sensitivity is $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=0.25\mathrm{\Delta }S\mathrm{sin}\delta `$ K for case (a) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=0.18\mathrm{\Delta }S\mathrm{sin}\delta `$ K for case (b).

Table 7 shows the calculated sensitivities for each of the three telescope outputs, and compares these predictions with measured noise levels from images. At 408 MHz the thermal noise limit is not reached because of confusion.

The dynamic range achieved with the telescope varies with frequency and region observed. In the 1420 MHz continuum channel, dynamic ranges of $`10^4`$ are commonly achieved. The limits to this performance are, at the low end, system noise, and, at the high end, artefacts in the vicinity of strong sources. Artefacts, which are very difficult to remove by normal processing, rise above the thermal noise limit when telescope pointing is closer than 3° to Cas A or Cyg A. At 408 MHz, the dynamic range achieved is about $`5\times 10^3`$, for offsets greater than 5° from strong sources.

### 9.5 Imaging Performance

Owing to the thorough sampling of baselines in a $`12\times 12`$ hour observation set, the images produced by the Synthesis Telescope have very low sidelobe levels and excellent sensitivity to extended structure. This can be seen clearly in Figure 7, which shows part of the data from one 1420-MHz field from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey. The extended object which dominates Stokes $`I`$ images of this field is the H ii region W5 (IC 1848), in the Perseus arm of the Galaxy at a distance of $`2`$ kpc. The “raw” image (top left), is made from the calibrated visibilities after editing interference, but before application of any image processing routines. The large emission regions are surrounded by depressions, produced by the lack of data for baselines $`<3L`$. The final image, after incorporation of single-antenna data, is shown at upper right.

The raw Stokes $`U`$ image (lower left) shows structure on many scales, totally unrelated to that seen in the $`I`$ image. These polarization structures arise from Faraday rotation along the line of sight – they are not intrinsic features of the emission source. The large elliptical polarization structure is discussed briefly in §10.

The lower right panel shows one of the 256 spectral-line channels; the data have been edited and a continuum image, formed from spectrometer channels free of H i emission, has been subtracted, but no single-antenna data have been added.

## 10 Astronomical applications

We have described a synthesis telescope uniquely suited to observation of the Galactic ISM. While its resolution ($`1^{}`$) is modest compared to some synthesis telescopes (e.g. the VLA), its sensitivity to extended structure is superior, and it offers significantly different performance from single-antenna telescopes. In this section we discuss a few examples of results obtained with the telescope, chosen to illustrate its unique capabilities. A more detailed discussion will be found in Taylor et al. (2000).

At distances of 2 to 10 kpc, the $`1^{}`$ angular resolution of the telescope translates into a physical resolution of 0.6 to 3 pc, which has proved to be a good match to significant ISM structures. The interstellar H i shows extensive filamentary structure on these scales both within the Galactic plane (Normandeau et al. (1997)) and at high latitudes (Joncas et al. (1992)). While the origin of the fine structure in this emission is not completely understood, it seems very often to be related to interfaces between the atomic phase and some other constituent of the ISM, or to energy injection, as from stellar winds.

Experience with the telescope has shown that there are significant ISM phenomena which extend over many degrees, but require arcminute angular resolution for their detection. An example is provided by the discovery of a Galactic chimney by Normandeau et al. (1996). This structure is a conduit for radiation and material from the disk to the halo, and it is outlined by a sharp interface between the H i exterior and the ionized interior. Its size is $`5`$°, equivalent to several hundred pc at the distance of the Perseus Arm ($`2`$ kpc) . It is nevertheless extremely difficult to detect in the survey data of Hartmann & Burton (1997): even though that survey has much higher nominal sensitivity than the Synthesis Telescope, its angular resolution is only $`36^{}`$.

Similar considerations apply to the detection of thermal and non-thermal continuum objects. The continuum sensitivity of the telescope (listed in Table 7) translates into sensitivity to thermal emission measure (at both frequencies) of $`27`$ cm<sup>-6</sup> pc and sensitivity to synchrotron emission of $`4\times 10^{23}`$ W m<sup>-2</sup> Hz<sup>-1</sup> sr<sup>-1</sup>, also at both frequencies. An example is provided by the detection of large supernova remnants (SNRs) of low surface brightness. For example, Landecker et al. (1990) discovered the SNR G65.1+0.6, whose size is $`90^{}\times 51^{}`$. The overall surface brightness of this object is about half of the nominal rms sensitivity quoted above, indicating the importance of filamentary structure in making such objects detectable.

Polarization imaging at 1420 MHz allows detailed analyses of discrete emitters of polarized radiation, particularly SNRs. For example, Leahy et al. (1997) have mapped the polarized emission from the full extent of the Cygnus Loop. However, only part of the SNR is strongly polarized, with some of the shell emission depolarized by strong Faraday rotation within a thermal electron component mixed in with the compressed fields and synchrotron emitting particles.

While SNRs are prominent objects in Stokes $`I`$ images, most are barely significant in images of Stokes $`Q`$ or $`U`$. The dominant feature in all polarization images made close to the Galactic Plane is widespread, low-level structure, seen most prominently in polarization angle. This structure is understood as the result of Faraday rotation in the magnetized ISM acting on polarized signals from the diffuse Galactic synchrotron radiation. It tells us less about the emitter than it does about the medium through which the polarized radiation has travelled.

The study of this phenomenon is providing a new window on the ISM, through its sensitivity to magnetic fields and low-density ionized material. The frequency of 1420 MHz seems ideal for such studies near the Galactic plane, where the properties of the Faraday screen lead to a change in polarization angle that is neither too small to produce measurable changes nor so large that it causes depolarization within the beam or the bandwidth of the telescope. The large elliptical feature seen in Figure 7 (lower left panel), for example, which is very uniform in structure in contrast to its chaotic surroundings, is understood as just such a manifestation of ionized material in the inter-arm region (Gray et al. (1998)). Other polarization results (Gray et al. (1999)) have led to the detection of an extended envelope of a large H ii region, and the measurement of the magnetic field in that envelope. In both cases, the H ii regions themselves produce depolarization due to the turbulent, high-density ionized material within them.

## Acknowledgements

The development and construction of the DRAO Synthesis Telescope has been the work of many people over many years. Notable for their skill and dedication have been Jean Bastien, Ron Casorso, Ed Danallanko, Jack Dawson, Ron McDougall, Harry Mielke, Diane Parchomchuk, Ev Sheehan and Rod Stuart. The work has also involved many students and others who have worked at DRAO for shorter periods. We are indebted to them all. The DRAO Synthesis Telescope is operated as a national facility by the National Research Council of Canada. Graduate students who have worked on the development of the telescope have been supported by grants to TLL, DR, and JFV from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council.


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# A unified formalism for the core mass-luminosity relations of shell-burning stars

## 1 Motivation of the work

It is well known that the quiescent luminosity of a shell-burning star with degenerate core is essentially determined by its core mass, without any dependence on the envelope mass, as extensively described in several works carried out in the past (e.g. Eggleton 1967; Paczyński 1970; Tuchman et al. 1983). This property is usually referred to as the core mass-luminosity ($`M_\mathrm{c}L`$) relation, although other structural parameters may affect the luminosity evolution, as indicated in the following.

Stellar evolutionary calculations actually confirm that $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relations are generally followed, for instance, by (i) low-mass stars during their ascent on the Red Giant Branch (RGB) up to the He-flash (e.g. Boothroyd & Sackmann 1988); (ii) low- and intermediate-mass stars during the quiescent inter-pulse periods of their Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) evolution (e.g. Iben & Truran 1978, Wood & Zarro 1981, Forestini & Charbonnel 1997), provided that hot-bottom burning is not operating (see Blöcker & Schönberner 1991); (iii) Planetary Nebula nuclei as long as the H-burning shell is active (e.g. Vassiliadis & Wood 1994); and (iv) Nova systems during their stationary nuclear burning phases (e.g. Tuchman & Truran 1998).

These relations are known to be quite different for RGB and TP-AGB stars, and also vary among stars in the same evolutionary stage but with different envelope chemical composition. In view of interpreting these differences as the effect of different physical conditions, it would be advisable to derive quantitatively the dependence of the quiescent luminosity of a giant (RGB and TP-AGB) star on basic quantities, namely: core mass $`M_\mathrm{c}`$, core radius $`R_\mathrm{c}`$, and chemical composition.

To this aim, we adopt the same formalism as fully described in Refsdal & Weigert (1970), which is based on the use of homology relations applied to the case of stars with high-density cores surrounded by nuclear burning shell(s). The authors demonstrated, for instance, that for low values of the core mass (i.e. $`M_\mathrm{c}0.45M_{}`$) and negligible radiation pressure (i.e. $`\beta 1`$) the luminosity is expected to depend on the envelope mean molecular weight as $`L\mu ^{78}`$. Such theoretical prediction is found to describe extremely well the significant composition dependence of the luminosity of low-mass stars evolving along the RGB, as shown by calculations of full stellar models (e.g. Boothroyd & Sackmann 1988; see also Sect. 3.1). However, the results of Refsdal & Weigert (1970) cannot be straightforwardly extended to the case of stars evolving through the AGB phase, since the condition $`\beta 1`$ is generally not fulfilled, due to the increasing importance of radiation pressure.

Therefore, our target is to generalize the formalism developed by Refsdal & Weigert (1970) for any value of $`\beta `$ in the range $`(0,1)`$. To do this, we follow the indications suggested by Kippenhahn (1981), who first pointed out that the quite different $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relations for RGB and AGB stars are indeed the expression of a unique relation modulated by the variation of $`\beta `$. However, as Kippenhahn (1981) explicitly derived the dependence of the luminosity only on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{c}`$, in this work we will extend the same kind of analysis to the composition dependence as a function of $`\beta `$. In this way, we can predict to which extent the chemical properties of AGB stars (with $`\beta <1`$) may affect their $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation (see Sects. 3.2, and 3.3).

Moreover, given the generality of the method, we can also investigate the sensitiveness of the $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation to the dominant nuclear energy source operating the H-burning shell, i.e. the degree of temperature dependence of the relevant reaction rates. This will turn out to be significant in view of interpreting the peculiar luminosity evolution of RGB stars with initial zero-metallicity, where the p-p chain (not the CNO cycle as is usually the case) provides most of the stellar energy (see Sect. 3.1).

Finally, we invite the reader to refer to the works by Refsdal & Weigert (1970) and Kippenhahn (1981) for a full understanding of the analytical derivation, since many details will be omitted here to avoid redundant repetitions and lengthy demonstrations. However, the basic steps will be indicated in the next sections.

## 2 The analytical method based on homology relations

We will describe in the following the analytical procedure adopted to derive the dependence of the luminosity on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$, $`R_\mathrm{c}`$, and chemical composition.

Concerning this latter it can be seen, from the basic stellar structure equations, that the effect of the composition enters the $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation via three parameters (Refsdal & Weigert 1970; Tuchman et al. 1983):

1. the mean molecular weight $`\mu `$;
2. the product of the abundances of the interacting nuclei involved in the nuclear burning of hydrogen, $`ϵ_0=X^2`$ (for the p-p chain; $`X`$ is the hydrogen abundance in mass fraction) or $`ϵ_0=XZ_{\mathrm{CNO}}`$ (for the CNO-cycle; $`Z_{\mathrm{CNO}}`$ is the total abundance of CNO elements);
3. a factor $`\kappa _0`$ expressing the composition dependence of the opacity $`\kappa `$.

The mean molecular weight $`\mu `$ explicitly appears only in the equation of state:

$$P=P_\mathrm{G}+P_\mathrm{R}\frac{\rho T}{\beta \mu }$$
(1)
assuming that the total pressure, $`P`$, is the sum of the contributions of the gas (supposed perfect), $`P_\mathrm{G}`$, and of the radiation, $`P_\mathrm{R}`$. The quantity $`\beta `$ is defined as the ratio $`P_\mathrm{G}/P`$. For a fully ionized gas $`\mu =4/(5X+3Z)`$.

The parameter $`ϵ_0`$ is related to the rate of energy generation by nuclear burning $`ϵ`$, which can be conveniently approximated as:

$$ϵ=ϵ_0\rho ^{n1}T^\nu $$
(2)
with $`n`$ and $`\nu `$ being determined by the rates of the nuclear reactions under consideration. Typical values are: ($`n=2`$, $`\nu 4`$) for the p-p chain, ($`n=2`$, $`\nu 14÷20`$) for the CNO-cycle, ($`n=3`$, $`\nu 22`$) for the triple $`\alpha `$-reaction.

The parameter $`\kappa _0`$ is related to the opacity, which can be expressed:

$$\kappa =\kappa _0P^aT^b$$
(3)
with the exponents $`a`$ and $`b`$ depending on the dominating opacity source. Note that in the case $`\kappa `$ is mostly due to the Thomson electron scattering ($`\kappa =0.2(1+X)`$ without any dependence on pressure and temperature), we get $`\kappa _0=1+X`$, and $`a=b=0`$.

Then, adopting the homology relations presented in Refsdal & Weigert (1970) we can express the luminosity as a power-law relation:

$$LM_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _1}R_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _2}\mu ^{\delta _3}\kappa _0^{\delta _4}ϵ_0^{\delta _5}$$
(4)
which, under the assumptions of a fully ionized gas, with electron scattering opacity, can be written:

$$LM_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _1}R_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _2}\left(\frac{4}{5X+3Z}\right)^{\delta _3}(1+X)^{\delta _4}(XZ_{\mathrm{cno}})^{\delta _5}$$
(5)
for dominanting CNO-cycle, or

$$LM_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _1}R_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _2}\left(\frac{4}{5X+3Z}\right)^{\delta _3}(1+X)^{\delta _4}(X^2)^{\delta _5}$$
(6)
for dominating p-p chain.

The exponents ($`\delta _i`$, $`i=1,5`$) are the unknown quantities to be determined, as a function of $`\beta `$, of the opacity parameters ($`a,b`$), and of the energy parameters ($`n,\nu `$).

The composition dependence is the first being considered here, for its particular relevance to the applications discussed in the second part of this work (Sect. 3). For the sake of completeness, the results for the dependences on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{c}`$ are then briefly presented (Sect. 2.3).

### 2.1 The dependence on $`\mu `$

The dependence on $`\mu `$ can be derived treating it as an independent parameter to express the homology relations:

$`\rho (r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{\alpha _3}`$
$`T(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{\beta _3}`$
$`P(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{\gamma _3}`$ (7)
$`L(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{\delta _3}`$
Such expressions imply the assumption that $`\mu /\mu ^{}=`$ const. at each corresponding point (i.e. $`r/R_\mathrm{c}=r^{}/R_\mathrm{c}^{}`$) of models with different core radii (i.e. $`R_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{c}^{}`$). Here $`r`$ denotes the radial coordinate of any point inside the region extending from the bottom of the burning shell, $`r=R_\mathrm{c}`$, up to a point, $`r=r_0`$, where the variables $`\rho `$, $`P`$, and $`T`$ have already significantly decreased, and where $`L_r=L`$. Moreover, it is assumed that the other quantities (i.e. $`\rho `$, $`T`$, $`P`$, $`L`$, $`ϵ_0`$, and $`\kappa _0`$) do not vary among models at corresponding points.

The exponents $`\alpha _3`$, $`\beta _3`$, $`\gamma _3`$, and $`\delta _3`$ are the unknown parameters to be singled out. To this aim, we need to integrate the equations of hydrostatic equilibrium, radiative transport, and energy generation, basing on the proportionality relations given in Eqs. (7), and using the expressions of Eqs. (2) and (3) for the rate of nuclear energy generation and opacity, respectively. We then derive:

$`P(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{\alpha _3}`$
$`T^{4b}(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{\alpha _3+a\gamma _3+\delta _3}`$ (8)
$`L(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{n\alpha _3+\nu \beta _3}`$
Since there are four unknown quantities, one more relation is needed in order to close the system of Eqs. (8). This is given by the equation of state (Eq. (1)), which should be expressed in a more suitable form fully expliciting its dependence on $`\beta `$. For this purpose, we must consider that $`\beta `$ is a function of density, temperature, and molecular weight. We can then derive the three dependences as follows. As indicated by Kippenhahn (1981) the logarithmic derivatives of $`\beta `$ with respect to the density and temperature are:

$$\left(\frac{\mathrm{ln}\beta }{\mathrm{ln}\rho }\right)_{T,\mu }=1\beta ,\left(\frac{\mathrm{ln}\beta }{\mathrm{ln}T}\right)_{\rho ,\mu }=3(1\beta )$$
(9)
Similarly, we can make a step ahead and derive also the logarithmic derivative of $`\beta `$ with respect to the mean molecular weight:

$$\left(\frac{\mathrm{ln}\beta }{\mathrm{ln}\mu }\right)_{T,\rho }=\beta 1$$
(10)
Hence, the equation of state can be re-written:

$$P\mu ^\beta \rho ^\beta T^{43\beta }$$
(11)
Note that in the limiting cases $`\beta =1`$ and $`\beta =0`$, we obtain the right thermodynamical dependence of the total pressure when due to the sole contribution of gas and radiation, respectively. It should also be remarked that Eq. (11) is expected to apply for all $`r/R_\mathrm{c}`$. However, since pressure changes by several order of magnitudes throughout the shell and radiative buffer above, it is far from obvious that Eq. (11) does apply throughout the region. In fact it does, for two reasons: (1) in RGB stars because $`\beta 1`$, and (2) in AGB stars because $`\beta `$ is constant throughout the shell and sub-convective layers (“radiative zero” condition).

At this point, all the necessary information is available. Comparing the exponents of Eqs. (7), (8), (11), we can solve the system of 4 algebraic equations in the unknowns $`\alpha _3`$, $`\beta _3`$, $`\gamma _3`$, and $`\delta _3`$, yielding:

$$\alpha _3=\frac{\beta (\nu +b4)}{(\nu +b4)(1\beta )+(1+a+n)(43\beta )}$$
(12)
$$\beta _3=\frac{\beta (1+a+n)}{(\nu +b4)(1\beta )+(1+a+n)(43\beta )}$$
(13)
$$\gamma _3=\alpha _3$$
(14)
$$\delta _3=\frac{\beta [\nu (1+a+n)n(\nu +b4)]}{(\nu +b4)(1\beta )+(1+a+n)(43\beta )}$$
(15)
It is worth noticing that for $`\beta =1`$ we get exactly the same results as given by Refsdal & Weigert (1970) (see their Eqs. (27) and Sect. II d)), as expected.

More generally, Eq. (15) allows us to investigate the $`\mu `$-dependence of the luminosity in the whole range $`0\beta 1`$, so that it is possible to set quantitative predictions both for RGB stars (with $`\beta 1`$) and AGB stars (with $`\beta <1`$). The results are displayed in Fig. 1, assuming $`a=b=0`$, and characteristic values of the the parameters ($`n`$, $`\nu `$) corresponding to relevant kinds of energy sources, as already indicated in Sect. 2.

From the inspection of the bottom-left panel of Fig. 1 the following features should be noticed:

* In the case $`\beta =1`$ and dominant CNO cycle, the exponent $`\delta _37`$, which well reproduces the $`\mu `$-dependence of the luminosity for RGB stars as indicated by calculations of stellar models (Boothroyd & Sackmann 1988);
* In the case $`\beta =1`$ and dominant p-p chain, we get $`\delta _34`$, i.e. a weaker $`\mu `$-dependence;
* In any case, for $`\beta 0`$ the $`\mu `$-dependence vanishes as expected when the gas pressure goes to zero;
* In the case $`\beta 0.5`$$`0.8`$, which are typical values found in low-mass AGB stars, and dominating CNO-cycle, the $`\mu `$-dependence is not at all negligible. Specifically, it results $`\delta _31÷3`$, a range which is consistent with the finding by Boothroyd & Sackmann (1988) (i.e. $`L\mu ^3`$) in their analysis of low-mass (hence with larger $`\beta `$) AGB stars.

### 2.2 The dependence on $`ϵ_0`$ and $`\kappa _0`$

In an analogous way as described in the previous section, we aim now at deriving the dependence of the luminosity on both $`ϵ_0`$ and $`\kappa _0`$, already defined in Sect. 2. We first write the homology relations:

$`\rho (r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\kappa _0^{\alpha _4}ϵ_0^{\alpha _5}`$
$`T(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\kappa _0^{\beta _4}ϵ_0^{\beta _5}`$
$`P(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\kappa _0^{\gamma _4}ϵ_0^{\gamma _5}`$ (16)
$`L(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ $``$ $`\kappa _0^{\delta _4}ϵ_0^{\delta _5}`$
assuming that the functions $`\kappa _0(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ and $`ϵ_0(r/R_\mathrm{c})`$ scale up by a constant factor at corresponding points of models with different core radii.

Then, integrating the basic stellar equations, expressing the total pressure $`P`$ as in Eq. (11), comparing the exponents relative to the four variables $`\rho `$, $`T`$, $`P`$ and $`L`$, and solving the system of 8 algebraic equations, we finally derive the 8 parameters:

$`\alpha _4`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(43\beta )}{(4b\nu )(1\beta )(1+a+n)(43\beta )}}`$ (17)
$`\alpha _5`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _4=\gamma _5=\alpha _4`$ (18)
$`\beta _4`$ $`=`$ $`\beta _5={\displaystyle \frac{(1\beta )}{(4b\nu )(1\beta )(1+a+n)(43\beta )}}`$ (19)
$`\delta _4`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n(43\beta )+\nu (1\beta )}{(4b\nu )(1\beta )(1+a+n)(43\beta )}}`$ (20)
$`\delta _5`$ $`=`$ $`1+{\displaystyle \frac{n(43\beta )+\nu (1\beta )}{(4b\nu )(1\beta )(1+a+n)(43\beta )}}`$ (21)
Again, for $`\beta =1`$ the above equations yield the same results as in Refsdal & Weigert (1970), but now accounting for any possible value of $`\beta `$.

Concerning the exponents related to the luminosity, $`\delta _4`$ and $`\delta _5`$, their predicted trends are illustrated in the bottom-right panel of Fig. 1. We can notice that:

* their effect on the luminosity is usually much weaker than that produced by $`\mu `$, except for values of $`\beta `$ very close to zero;
* in the relevant range of $`\beta `$ for AGB stars, the predicted values for $`\delta _5`$ are in a rather good agreement with the results by Boothroyd & Sackmann (1988), who quoted $`LZ_{\mathrm{cno}}^{0.04}`$ basing on their evolutionary calculations of AGB models;
* in the case $`\beta 0`$ and $`a=b=0`$ we get $`\delta _41`$ and $`\delta _50`$;
* both $`\delta _4`$ and $`\delta _5`$ do not vary significantly adopting different values of the parameters $`a`$, $`b`$, $`\nu `$, and $`n`$, within a reasonable range.

### 2.3 The dependences on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{c}`$

In a similar fashion, we can also derive the dependences of the luminosity on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{c}`$

$$LM_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _1}R_\mathrm{c}^{\delta _2}.$$
(22)
For the sake of conciseness, we report here only the results for $`\delta _1`$, and $`\delta _2`$ (see also Fig. 1, top-left and top-right panels, respectively):

$$\delta _1=\frac{na(43\beta )n(4b)\nu (1+a\beta )}{(4b\nu )(1\beta )(1+a+n)(43\beta )},$$
(23)
and

$$\delta _2=\frac{\beta (3n+3b+\nu 3)(3+n)[b+a(43\beta )]}{(4b\nu )(1\beta )(1+a+n)(43\beta )}$$
(24)
omitting the formulas for ($`\alpha _i`$, $`\beta _i`$, $`\gamma _i`$; $`i=1,2`$). The above equations for $`\delta _1`$ and $`\delta _2`$ recover exactly those presented by Kippenhahn (1981) setting $`a=b=0`$, and those derived by Refsdal & Weigert (1970) with $`\beta =1`$.

In brief, we can outline the following:

* $`\delta _1`$ and $`\delta _2`$ show opposite trends with $`\beta `$. However, it should be recalled that, though $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{c}`$ are formally treated as independent parameters, an $`M_\mathrm{c}R_\mathrm{c}`$ relation is expected to exist for highly condensed cores which may be assimilated to white dwarf structures (Chandrasekhar 1939; Refsdal & Weigert 1970; Tuchman et al. 1983). Considering the homology dependences of the luminosity only on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`R_\mathrm{c}`$, we get the differential equation (see Eq. 15 in Kippenhahn 1981):

$$\frac{d\mathrm{ln}L}{d\mathrm{ln}M_\mathrm{c}}=\delta _1+\delta _2\times \frac{d\mathrm{ln}R_\mathrm{c}}{d\mathrm{ln}M_\mathrm{c}}$$
(25)
where $`d\mathrm{ln}R_\mathrm{c}/d\mathrm{ln}M_\mathrm{c}`$ is the slope of the $`M_\mathrm{c}R_\mathrm{c}`$ relation. In other words, the quantity $`\delta _2\times d\mathrm{ln}R_\mathrm{c}/d\mathrm{ln}M_\mathrm{c}`$ represents the dependence on the core mass via $`R_\mathrm{c}(M_\mathrm{c})`$. This can be estimated from Eq. (25), e.g. taking the right-hand side from the results of stellar models, and evaluating $`\delta _1`$ and $`\delta _2`$ from the homology relations.
* As for $`\mu `$, the dependence on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ grows at increasing $`\beta `$. For $`\beta 1`$, we get typical relations $`LM_\mathrm{c}^7`$ for dominant CNO-cycle, and $`LM_\mathrm{c}^4`$ for dominant p-p chain. Again, the former prediction very well agrees with the results of evolutionary stellar calculations of RGB stars (Boothroyd & Sackmann 1988). The effect of a weaker $`M_\mathrm{c}`$-dependence predicted in the latter case will be investigated in Sect. 3.1. In both cases ($`\delta _17`$ and $`\delta _24`$), the luminosity should be just moderately affected by changes in the core radius, i.e. the product $`|\delta _2\times d\mathrm{ln}R_\mathrm{c}/d\mathrm{ln}M_\mathrm{c}|`$ (calculated with Eq. (25)) is typically less than unity for $`\beta 1`$.
* At decreasing $`\beta `$ the dependence on $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ quickly approaches a linear one ($`\delta _1=1`$ for $`\beta =0`$), whereas the dependence on $`R_\mathrm{c}`$ tends to vanish ($`\delta _2=0`$ for $`\beta =0`$). This result is consistent with the typical flatter slopes ($`12`$) of the fitting $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relations derived from evolutionary calculations of AGB stars.

## 3 Some applications

### 3.1 The $`M_\mathrm{c}`$$`L`$ relation on the RGB: the zero-metallicity case

Evolutionary calculations of low-mass models (see Figs. 2 and 3) indicate that

1. towards lower metallicities and for given stellar mass the luminosity at the tip of the RGB decreases, whereas the core mass increases;
2. at decreasing metallicity the luminosity on the RGB is lower for given core mass; and
3. the slope of the $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation on the RGB is flatter for $`Z=0`$ models than for $`Z0`$ models.

The first point clearly confirms that the luminosity is not solely a function of the core mass. To better interpret the above trends we can make use of the analytical relations obtained in the previous sections.

Let us consider the $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation presented by Boothroyd & Sackmann (1988)

$$L=(11.6M_\mathrm{c}\mu )^7Z_{\mathrm{cno}}^{1/12}$$
(26)
which is a fitting formula of evolutionary calculations for RGB stars with different metallicities (masses and luminosities are in solar units).

The check the reliability of homology predictions, we first compute the exponents $`\delta _1`$ and $`\delta _3`$ with the aid of Eqs. (23) and (15), and compare them with those given in Eq. (26). To do this, $`\beta `$, the opacity parameters, and the energy parameters should be specified. We set $`\beta =1`$ – which is proved to be a good approximation for all RGB models here considered –, and $`a=b=0`$ – for the sake of simplicity. The adoption of more proper values for $`a`$ and $`b`$ would result in very small corrections, as pointed out by Refsdal & Weigert (1970).

The choice of the energy parameters requires some comments. It turns out that the bulk of energy produced in the H-burning shell is provided by the CNO-cycle for both $`1M_{}`$ RGB models with $`Z=0.019`$ and $`Z=0.0004`$, whereas energy production is dominated by the p-p chain in the $`1M_{}`$ RGB model with $`Z=0`$. It follows that typical values ($`n=2`$, $`\nu =1416`$) and ($`n=2`$, $`\nu =46`$) should be adopted in the two cases, yielding $`\delta _1\delta _378`$ and $`\delta _1\delta _34.04.7`$ for RGB models in which the CNO cycle and p-p chain dominates, respectively.

The predictions for the former case (CNO dominated) are in excellent agreement with Eq. (26), thus reproducing the results of complete stellar calculations of RGB stars with dominating CNO cycle. Moreover, it is worth remarking that points (1) and (2) – mentioned at the beginning of this section – are explained as the effect of differences in the mean molecular weight, i.e. for given $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ and lower $`\mu `$, $`L`$ is lower.

The predictions for the latter case (p-p dominated) fully explain point (3). In fact, the weaker temperature dependence of p-p reactions results in a flatter slope of the $`\mathrm{log}M_\mathrm{c}\mathrm{log}L`$ relation followed by the 1 $`M_{}`$ model with initial zero metallicity. A good fit is obtained adopting

$$L=(11.6M_\mathrm{c}\mu )^{4.55}$$
(27)
with $`L`$ and $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ in solar units. This power-law relation has the same base as in Eq. (26), but a different exponent, derived under the assumption of dominating p-p reactions with energy parameters ($`n=2`$, $`\nu 5.6`$). Taking for $`\mu `$ the value after the first dredge-up as indicated by the calculations by Girardi et al. (2000), and letting $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ vary over the relevant range, we finally obtain the relation shown in Fig. 3, which remarkably well matches the evolutionary results at initial zero metallicity.

To summarise the conclusions, we can notice that, for $`\beta 1`$, the mean molecular weight determines the luminosity level of the $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation (i.e. the intercept in logarithmic plot) for RGB models with similar energy properties, whereas the kind of nuclear energy source affects the rate of the geometric increment of the luminosity with the core mass (i.e. the slope of the $`\mathrm{log}M_\mathrm{c}\mathrm{log}L`$ relation). The latter point explains the fact that the $`\mathrm{log}M_\mathrm{c}\mathrm{log}L`$ relations of the $`1M_{}`$ models with $`Z=0.019`$ and $`Z=0.0004`$ are almost parallel, whereas the relation for $`Z=0`$ runs flatter.

### 3.2 The composition dependence of $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation on the TP-AGB phase

Let us now apply the relations derived in Sects. 2.1 and 2.2 to TP-AGB stars, in order to estimate the degree of dependence of the quiescent luminosity on envelope composition.

First of all, we need to know how $`\beta `$ varies during the TP-AGB evolution of a stellar model, so that we can directly obtain $`\delta _3`$ from Eq. (15). To this aim, we make use of the definition of radiative gradient:

$$_\mathrm{r}=\frac{3}{16\pi acG}\kappa \frac{L_r}{M_r}\frac{P_r}{T_r^4}$$
(28)
with usual meaning of the quantities. In the context of the present study, the radial coordinate $`r`$ refers to the top of the H-burning shell or, equivalently, to some point near the bottom of the radiative inert region (extending up to the base of the convective envelope). Here $`L_r/M_r`$ is nearly constant and equal to $`L/M_\mathrm{c}`$, the opacity is dominated by Thomson electron scattering, i.e. $`\kappa =0.2(X+1)`$, and the radiative gradient, $`_\mathrm{r}`$, approaches the “radiative zero” value of 0.25 (see, for instance, Scalo et al. 1975). Under these conditions, and reminding that $`P_r/T_r^4(1\beta )^1`$, we can express $`\beta `$ as a function of the core mass $`M_\mathrm{c}`$, surface luminosity $`L`$ and hydrogen abundance $`X`$ in the envelope:

$$\beta =17.956\times 10^6(1+X)\frac{L/L_{}}{M_\mathrm{c}/M_{}}.$$
(29)
Figure 4 illustrates the results of synthetic calculations for three TP-AGB models with original solar composition. The evolution of the quiescent luminosity (top-left panel) is computed according to the prescription presented by Wagenhuber & Groenewegen (1998). This gives an accurate fit to the results of extensive full evolutionary calculations of the TP-AGB phase (Wagenhuber 1996), expressing the quiescent luminosity as a function of the core mass, from the first thermal pulse.

Then, once $`\beta `$ is evaluated with the aid of Eq. (29) for current values of $`L`$ and $`M_\mathrm{c}`$ (top-left panel), the composition parameters $`\delta _3`$ (Eq. 15), $`\delta _4`$ (Eq. 20), and $`\delta _5`$ (Eq. 21) can be calculated (right panels). In other words, we are able to predict the current composition dependence of the quiescent luminosity as the star evolves on the TP-AGB.

These simple synthetic calculations are meant to be indicative examples, showing the expected sensitiveness of the luminosity to possible changes in the surface chemical composition during the evolution caused, for instance, by convective dredge-up episodes. For the sake of simplicity, these events are assumed not to occur in the cases under consideration, to avoid the complication due to feed-back effects. We will discuss this point below in this section.

An interesting point to be noticed in Fig. 4 is that the composition dependence is quite strong during the initial (and fainter) part of the TP-AGB phase (e.g. $`\delta _356`$ in the first stages of the model with the lowest core mass), then becoming weaker as the full-amplitude regime is attained. This trend simply reflects the rate of increase of the radiation pressure (i.e. $`\beta `$ decreases) during the evolution (bottom-left panel of Fig. 4). Therefore, we would expect that, if an efficient dredge-up occurs quite early during the TP-AGB evolution, the increase of the mean molecular weight could alter the asymptotic approach towards the full amplitude regime, as otherwise expected for unchanged chemical composition. As already suggested by Marigo et al. (1999), this prediction, in combination with additional effects, may concur to explain the recent results by Herwig et al. (1998), who find a steeper increase of the luminosity in stellar models with extremely efficient dredge-up (with $`\lambda 1`$ and larger) already from the first thermal pulses.

Another point to be remarked is that any change in the envelope composition is expected to produce a certain feed-back on the luminosity, in addition to the direct effect already discussed. In fact, a variation $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu >0`$ produces $`\mathrm{\Delta }L>0`$, since $`\delta _3`$ is always positive (we do not consider here the extreme case $`\beta =0`$ for which $`\delta _3=0`$). At the same time, we get $`\delta T>0`$ and $`\delta P<0`$ (as $`\beta _3>0`$ and $`\gamma _3<0`$), both causing $`\delta \beta <0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }L<0`$. In other words, the effective increase of $`L`$ due to an increment of $`\mu `$ is somewhat reduced with respect to that directly predicted by Eq. (15). Similar effects are produced by variations of the other two composition parameters, $`ϵ_0`$, and $`\kappa _0`$ (see also Sect. II g) in Refsdal & Weigert 1970).

In conclusion, as already suggested by Kippenhahn (1981) and confirmed by stellar evolutionary calculations (see, for instance Boothroyd & Sackmann 1988), we quantitatively demonstrate that the composition dependence of the luminosity of TP-AGB stars is weaker than for RGB stars (due to the increasing importance of the radiation pressure). However, non-negligible effects on the luminosity can be driven by significant variations of the mean molecular weight, either related to originally different chemical compositions, or caused by the third dredge-up. The occurrence of the latter process already since the first thermal pulses could significantly affect the luminosity evolution, in particular, of low-mass TP-AGB stars (with large $`\beta `$). Finally, we remark that the relations presented in Sects. 2.1 and 2.2 can be usefully employed to improve the analytical description of the luminosity evolution in synthetic AGB models.

### 3.3 The case of zero-metallicity AGB stars

The last application refers to the TP-AGB phase of stars with initial zero metallicity. In Fig. 5 we show the time evolution of the surface properties ($`L`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$) and of the contributions of the nuclear energy sources (He- and H-burning shells) for two AGB models of different masses (2.5 $`M_{}`$, and 5.0 $`M_{}`$), taken from Marigo et al. (2000, in preparation).

As we can see from Fig. 5, the 2.5 $`M_{}`$ experiences weak luminosity fluctuations instead of “normal” thermal pulses, whereas the 5 $`M_{}`$ model shows the occurrence of rather strong He-shell flashes. Actually, it has already been pointed out by Sujimoto et al. (1984; see also Chieffi & Tornambè 1984, and Domìnguez et al. 1999) that the occurrence of thermal pulses in zero-metallicity AGB stars is critically dependent on the core mass and abundance of CNO elements in the envelope. To this respect, a detailed discussion of our zero-metallicity models is given in Marigo et al. (2000, in preparation) and will not be repeated here.

What we simply aim to do in this work is to test whether the homology predictions presented in Sect. 2 are able to account for the quite different trends in the surface properties of the two AGB models here considered. In fact, as we can notice from the top panels of Fig. 5, the 5 $`M_{}`$ model is climbing the AGB at increasing luminosities (and decreasing effective temperatures), whereas the 2.5 $`M_{}`$ model is clearly evolving downward on its Hayashi track. Moreover, in both cases the p-p chain is negligibly contributing to the nuclear energy generated within the H-shell ($`L_{\mathrm{pp}}/L_\mathrm{H}10^4`$), i.e. the CNO-cycle is the dominant energy source. We also report that the third dredge-up is never found to occur in these models up to the moment at which the calculations were stopped.

Once $`\beta `$ is estimated with the aid of Eq. (29), the exponents $`\delta _3`$, $`\delta _4`$, and $`\delta _5`$ can be calculated assuming $`a=b=0`$, and ($`n=2`$, $`\nu =14`$), the latter being suitable for dominant CNO cycle. The luminosity is then derived from Eq. (5), taking the values of the core mass and composition factors ($`\mu `$, $`X`$, and $`Z_{\mathrm{CNO}}`$) from selected models of the 2.5 $`M_{}`$ and 5 $`M_{}`$ stars (see Figs. 6 and 7). It turns out that in both cases the trend in the luminosity evolution predicted by stellar evolutionary calculations is satisfactorily reproduced by homology relations.

In particular, the oscillating behaviour in the surface luminosity of the 2.5 $`M_{}`$ model shows up in correspondence with that of $`\beta `$, which presents a mirror-like trend. The average increase of $`\beta `$ actually determines the long-term decrease of the luminosity, despite of the progressive increment of the core mass. Moreover, it is interesting to notice that, in the regime of oscillating luminosity, the total abundance of CNO elements – at the point of maximum nuclear energy efficiency in the H-burning shell – also presents clear fluctuations, reflecting a similar trend in the temperature at the same mesh-point. To this regard, it should be remarked that although for this model the CNO abundance in the envelope is zero (as it is not changed by any dredge-up episode), the CNO catalysts in the H-burning shell are self-produced, starting from the synthesis of primary <sup>12</sup>C via the triple $`\alpha `$-reaction, operating at typical shell temperatures.

The increase with time of the pre-flash maximum luminosity in the 5 $`M_{}`$ model is also well reproduced by homology predictions, being essentially determined by the rate of increase of the core mass. Finally, we can notice that, contrary to the 2.5 $`M_{}`$ model, in this case $`\beta `$ is decreasing.

## 4 Concluding remarks

A general formalism based on homology relations is presented to derive the structural dependences of the quiescent luminosity of shell-burning stars in different evolutionary phases (RGB and AGB), with different chemical compositions, and different nuclear energy sources.

The reliability of this formalism is tested through several consistency checks. First, we are able to get exactly the same formulas as in earlier similar works for specific choices of the parameters, e.g. Refsdal & Weigert (1970) for $`\beta =1`$. Second, our predictions are found to be in good agreement with some basic results of complete stellar calculations. In particular, as far as the composition dependence of the $`M_\mathrm{c}L`$ relation is concerned, we recover the finding of evolutionary calculations that $`L\mu ^7`$ for RGB stars with $`Z_{\mathrm{cno}}>0`$, and $`L\mu ^3`$ for AGB stars with $`0.5M_{}M_\mathrm{c}0.7M_{}`$ (e.g. Boothroyd & Sackmann 1988). Moreover, according to our results, the effect on the luminosity of TP-AGB stars produced by significant composition changes should be larger in the case of low-mass stars that experience the third dredge-up after the first thermal pulses.

The case of zero-metallicity giant stars is also investigated. We show that the particular luminosity evolution of RGB stars with $`Z=0`$ can be very well explained by considering not only the dependence on the mean molecular weight, but also the kind of dominant nuclear energy source (i.e. the p-p reactions). Moreover, a good reproduction of the luminosity trend of AGB models with initial zero metallicity is obtained.

Finally, it is worth remarking that the analytical prescriptions presented in this work could be usefully employed in synthetic evolution models to improve them in accuracy, and to test the effects of different physical conditions, i.e. dominant nuclear reaction rates, opacity source, relative contributions of gas/radiation to the total pressure, and chemical composition.

###### Acknowledgements.

I like to thank L. Girardi for his careful reading of the manuscript and useful comments, and the anonymous referee for important remarks on this work.


text:
# Josephson Plasma Mode in Fields Parallel to Layers of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ

## Abstract

Josephson plasma resonance measurements under magnetic fields parallel to the CuO2 layers as functions of magnetic field, temperature, and microwave frequency have been performed in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals with doping range being from optimal to under-doped side. The feature of the resonance is quite unique and cannot be explained by the conventional understandings of the Josephson plasma for $`Hc`$, that requires a new theory including coupling effect between Josephson vortex lattice and Josephson plasma.

Recent studies of Josephson plasma resonance (JPR) in fields perpendicular to CuO2 $`ab`$ plane of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ have revealed a plenty of intriguing phenomena in vortex states of high-$`T_c`$ superconductors in these several years. Though the features of JPR in the vortex states in $`Hc`$ have almost been comprehended, JPR in fields parallel to the $`ab`$ plane is quite controversial both theoretically and experimentally . As is known, Josephson vortices are created inside block layers in this orientation, and their oscillation mode is expected to couple strongly with the Josephson plasma mode . In the present work, we have performed systematic JPR measurements in $`Hab`$ at various microwave frequencies in optimum and under-doped crystals. The results cannot be interpreted by the theory of JPR used for $`Hc`$, and imply a coupled mode with the oscillation of the Josephson vortex lattice.

We have used three under-doped (U1, U2, and U3) and a optimally-doped (OP) Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals, which are grown by the modified TSFZ method and annealed in proper atmospheres. The superconducting transition temperatures ($`T_c`$) obtained by magnetization measurements are 70, 72, 78, and 91 K for U1, U2, U3, OP, respectively. JPR measurements were performed at five frequencies of 18.9, 25.5, 34.3, 44.2, and 52.3 GHz by a reflective type of bridge balance circuit with $`TE_{102}`$ mode rectangular cavity resonators. Samples were placed inside the cavity so that the microwave electric field was parallel to the $`c`$ axis, in which configuration only the longitudinal Josephson plasma mode is excited . The resonance curves were obtained by sweeping temperature at a fixed magnetic field. The external field was applied by a split-pair of superconducting magnet and the direction was varied with rotating the microwave setup including the cavity with respect to the magnet by a high-precision goniometer. The direction of the $`ab`$ plane was determined by looking at the symmetry of angular dependence of JPR lines.

Figure 1 represents resonance curves obtained at 18.9 and 44.2 GHz in sample U1. At 18.9 GHz (Fig. 1(a)), two kinds of resonance lines are observed: one is observed in higher temperature and lower field region and the other is observed in lower temperature and higher field region. We call them HTB (higher temperature branch) and LTB (lower temperature branch) for the former and the latter, respectively. HTB is observed at almost zero field as a quite sharp and symmetric line at 68 K, is broadened as the parallel field increases, and finally disappears above 1000 Oe. The resonance temperature slightly shifts lower temperature at low fields, and changes little above 600 Oe. LTB begins to appear at 500 Oe with a broad line from lower temperature and shift to higher temperature as the external field increases. Above 1500 Oe, the line becomes clearer and the resonance temperature tends to decrease. As the microwave frequency increases, both branches shift to lower temperatures, and only HTB with relatively broader line-shape is observed at 44.2 GHz as shown in Fig. 1(b). The resonance temperature shows significant non-monotonic field dependence: as the field increases, the resonance temperature once decreases then increases above 1000 Oe, and finally exceeds the resonance temperature at zero-field. Such splitting of the resonance mode is observed also in U2 and U3 at 34.2 GHz, and in OP at 44.2 GHz, although the features depend upon anisotropies of crystals and the microwave frequencies.

HTB and LTB observed in sample U1 are plotted for various microwave frequencies in Fig. 2(a). In order to clarify the in-plane field contribution for the plasma mode, plasma frequency $`\omega _p`$ of U1 is plotted as a function of the external field $`H_{ab}`$ for various temperatures in Fig. 2(b). At all temperatures, $`\omega _p`$ of HTB make minimum around 1000 Oe and has finite value at $`H_{ab}=0`$ corresponding to the Josephson plasma frequency at zero field. From this reason, HTB is interpreted as the Josephson plasma mode strongly modified with Josephson vortices. On the other hand, LTB has a maximum at finite fields depending upon temperatures. It seems to be $`\omega _p0`$ at $`H_{ab}0`$. Such a distinct difference of the field dependence between two modes indicates that LTB has a different origin from HTB. The behavior of LTB at $`H_{ab}0`$ implies that LTB is strongly related to the oscillation mode of Josephson vortex lattice. To determine the origin of LTB, measurements in lower frequency region are required.

In summary, we have observed two split Josephson plasma modes in magnetic field orientations being parallel to the $`ab`$ plane. From the in-plane field dependence of the plasma frequency, we argue that these two modes come from different origins: one named HTB originates from the intrinsic Josephson plasma mode for $`Hab`$, and the other named LTB may come from a coupled oscillation mode with the Josephson vortex lattice.