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# Extremely Red Galaxies: age and dust degeneracy solved ?

## 1 Introduction

The extremely red galaxies (ERGs) discovered in deep near-infrared (IR) and optical surveys (e.g., McCarthy et al. 1992, Hu & Ridgway 1994) are among the most intriguing objects in the modern cosmology and their nature is still controversial. They are defined in terms of their very red optical/near-IR colours ($`RK>5`$ or $`IK>4`$), are very rare at bright K magnitudes while their density approaches 0.5 $`\pm `$ 0.1 arcmin-2 at K=20 (McCracken et al. 2000). Such very red colours can be explained by two mainly opposing scenarios: 1) ERGs can be starburst galaxies hidden by large amounts of dust, or 2) can be high redshift ($`z>1`$) old ellipticals with intrinsically red spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and large positive k-corrections. To know which population is dominant between the ERGs is a crucial test for the models of galaxy formation: the presence of a wide-spread population of high redshift old ellipticals would point towards a very early formation of massive galaxies in a “monolithic” scenario (Eggen, Lynden-Bell & Sandage 1962, Larson 1975), while the presence of numerous dusty starbursts at intermediate redshift is better fitted by the hierarchical scenarios of galaxy formation (White & Frenk 1991, Kauffmann, Charlot & White 1996). Both these populations would have a deep impact on the actual knowledge of the cosmic history of star formation.

The two populations can in principle be distinguished by several observations: 1) high signal-to-noise spectra can show the presence of emission lines, revealing ongoing star formation activity, or, on the contrary, sharp spectral breaks due to old stellar populations; 2) sub-mm observations can detect the far-IR emission from the hot dust heated by the starburst; 3) high resolution optical and near-IR images can reveal the morphology, which is expected to be regular and centrally peaked for old ellipticals and irregular, disturbed or even double for dusty starbursts. In practice these observations help only in a limited number of cases: 1) the faintness of these objects in the near-IR and especially in the optical (typical magnitudes are K=19 and R=25) makes the spectroscopic observations very difficult, and many Keck and VLT nights have produced redshifts for just few objects (see below); 2) the best current sub-mm instrument, SCUBA (Holland et al. 1999), can still detect the far-IR flux only from exceptionally bright objects (e.g., Cimatti et al. 1999), while the vast majority of the population remains below the detection threshold; 3) HST (WFPC2/NICMOS) images have been obtained only for a limited number of objects, and also in these cases a detail optical morphological study is hampered by the faintness of these galaxies. Therefore it would be useful to discover a classification tool applicable to large samples of ERGs.

A few ERGs were studied in great detail and can be used as benchmarks for a classification. As expected, both dusty and old galaxies contribute to the ERGs population: HR10 (Hu & Ridgway 1994), a colour–selected galaxy at z=1.44 (Graham & Dey 1996), shows a disturbed and elongated WFPC2 morphology (Dey et al. 1999) and was also detected by SCUBA in the sub-mm (Cimatti et al. 1998, Dey et al. 1999), making its classification as a dusty starburst very robust; 53W091 (Spinrad et al. 1997), a faint radio galaxy at z=1.55, whose spectrum shows a break due to a dominant stellar population of a few Gyr old (Heap et al. 1998); 6 galaxies in the core of the X-ray selected cluster RXJ0848.9+4452 (Rosati et al. 1999) at redshift 1.26 show absorption features typical of evolved ellipticals and 3 ERGs with $`K<20`$ (Cohen et al. 1998) are found to be absorption line galaxies at redshift $`1<z<1.23`$. Some ERGs still without redshift show no evidence for strong emission lines (Cimatti et al. 1999, Cohen et al. 1999), two of them have however SEDs that require strong dust reddening. Other ERGs can be classified by their HST optical morphology (Pozzetti et al. in preparation) and surface brightness profiles (Moriondo et al. 2000). Finally some faint sub-mm sources have been identified with ERGs (Smail et al. 1999).

All the ERGs with spectroscopic redshifts fall in the range $`1<z<2`$. Moreover, most of the other ERGs discovered by the current surveys are expected to fall in this redshift range because of their optical and near-IR colours and magnitudes. Indeed L objects at higher redshifts are expected to fall below the magnitude threshold of the current surveys ($`K<20`$), while objects at lower redshift tent to drop out of the colour selection for ERGs ($`RK>5`$ or $`IK>4`$) because of smaller k-corrections. For these reasons we have studied a photometric way to distinguish between the two populations in the redshift range 1$`<`$z$`<`$2. This recipe is based on optical/near-IR broad-band data only to be easily applied to large samples of ERGs; it is derived by using numerous stellar synthesis models and observed spectra. The prediction can be compared to the properties of observed ERGs for which we can assign a classification based on morphological, spectral or sub-mm information.

## 2 The I-K vs. J-K colour plane

While old stellar populations are characterized by sharp breaks, especially around 4000 Å, young dusty galaxies show shallower SEDs in the optical range because dust extinction does not produce sharp breaks. This is shown in Fig. 1 where the representative spectra of the two classes of objects are shown at $`z=1.5`$. This feature allows us to clearly separate the two classes of objects using a I-K vs. J-K diagram, where the former colour measures how red an object is, while the latter measures the steepness of its SED. Daddi (private communication) propose a similar classification scheme based on the J-K colour only.

In Fig. 2 we show the I-K vs. J-K plane when local galaxies are used as templates of high redshift objects: for the ellipticals we have used the average of 5 local ellipticals by Mannucci et al. (in preparation), while we have used M82 (see Silva et al. 1998) as a typical dusty starburst. When redshifted between $`z=1`$ and $`z=2`$, these observed spectra fall in different regions of the plane and for a given I-K they are separated by about 0.3 in J-K. In this diagram, as in the following ones, we use a Cousins’ I filter and Bessel & Brett (1988) J- and K- filters. In this figure we have also plotted some cold stars and brown dwarfs which are known to contaminate the ERGs samples selected by the optical-to-IR colour criterion, especially at faint flux levels when the morphological classification becomes weaker. When the J-K colours is considered, the two populations seem to clearly separate (see also Fig. 4), at least when the cold stars in the Pickles (1998) library and the brown dwarf in the Legget et al. (1998) are considered. Similar results are also obtained by using models and observations by D’Antona et al. (2000) and Burrows et al. (1997). The use of the J-K colour can therefore remove most of the foreground red stars from the ERGs samples.

In Fig. 3 we show that this separation is predicted by a large range of models of old elliptical and dusty starburst. We have explored this range by studying how the results depend on the particular spectral synthesis model used, the metallicity of the stellar population, the assumed history of star formation, the Initial Mass Function (IMF), the assumed redshift of formation and the properties and the distribution of dust.

The various panels of Fig. 3 show the results for 1$`<`$z$`<`$2. In all the cases the dashed line from Fig. 1 (see eq. 1) separates the two populations, ellipticals on the left and starbust on the right. We used a cosmology with $`H_0=50`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.1`$, but this choice is not critical for the results.

* Panel (a): The basic model.
The ellipticals are represented by simple stellar population (SSP) of the Bruzual & Charlot (1999) evolutionary model with solar metallicity (Z=0.02), Salpeter IMF between 0.1 and 125 M and three values of the redshift of formation, $`z_f=3,4,6`$. The starbursts are reproduced with constant star formation rate, $`z_f`$=2.5 and 6, and an extinction by dust with $`E(BV)`$=0.5 and 0.8, assuming the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) extinction law (Prévot et al. 1984), and a uniform screen external to the emitting region. These models reproduce the local ellipticals and starburst very well. Despite the spectra used for Fig. 2, these spectra take into account the evolution of the galaxies with look-back time.
* Panel (b): dust properties and distribution.
We explored the effect of different dust extinction laws and distributions in starbursts, in addition to the SMC law used in the other panels. Firstly we have used the Calzetti (1997) law derived using starburst galaxies, assuming, as for the SMC one, that dust is external of the emitting region. This may be not appropriate to reproduce starburst galaxies where dust in supposed to be very inhomogeneously distributed and mixed with the emitting gas. Therefore we also used the extinction laws by Silva et al. (1998), Ferrara et al. (1999) and Cimatti et al. (1997), based on a number of different assumptions for dust spatial distribution and optical depth, including both absorption and scattering by dust.
* Panel (c): metallicity effects
The same models of panel (a) are plotted but with two different metallicities, Z=0.004 ($`0.2`$ solar, bluer curves) and Z=0.05 (2.5 solar, redder curves). The predicted colours become bluer and redder respectively, but each class remains inside its region of the diagram.
* Panel (d): IMF effects
Here a Scalo IMF is used, which is steeper at high masses and shallower at low masses than the Salpeter IMF of panel (a). The resulting effect is a prediction of colours redder than in the basic model.
* Panel (e): Star formation histories
We also changed the history of star formation by assuming a small residual star formation for elliptical galaxies described by an exponentially declining SFR with a short e-fold time of 0.3 Gyr, and for dusty starburst an e-fold time of 0.1 Gyrs, at an age of 0.1 Gyr and for $`E(BV)=0.5,0.8`$.
* Panel (f): other models
Independently from cosmology we plot no-evolution models for elliptical (SSP at age=1, 5 and 15 Gyrs) and dusty starburst (constant SFR and age=0.1,1 and 15 Gyrs and E(B-V)=0.5,0.8). We also want to explore how the prediction change when different spectrophotometric models are used. We use Barbaro & Poggianti (1997) models (dotted lines), SSP for elliptical galaxies at age of 1, 15 Gyrs and constant star formation models at age=1, 15 Gyrs with an extinction of E(B-V)=0.5,0.8 for starbursts.

In conclusion, by changing the various parameters of the stellar synthesis models it is poSsible to obtain quite different spectra, but the separation between the two populations remains a valid prediction. Since some models fall near the separation line, some degree of contamination between the two class could be present near it.

## 3 ERGs of known nature

These predictions can be compared with the observed properties of ERGs with available I, J and K magnitudes and whose nature can be independently determined from spectra, morphology or the presence of a detectable sub-mm flux. In total we found 24 objects, 6 starbursts and 18 ellipticals, that can be placed on the I-K vs J-K diagram . The results are shown in Fig. 4 (see the caption for references). Although the number of objects is still small we found that all the objects fall in the part of the diagram predicted by the models. Some objects of both classes fall near the separation line: the classification in this range should be used with caution especially in a sample with poor photometry.

## 4 The selection criteria

The dashed line in Figures 2, 3 and 4 which separate the two populations for 1$`<`$z$`<`$2 in the I-K vs. J-K plane corresponds to:

$$(JK)=0.36(IK)+0.46\mathrm{and}IK>4$$
(1)
and is consistent with the redshifted spectra of local objects (Fig. 2), the predictions of the spectral synthesis models (Fig. 3) and the ERGs of known nature (Fig. 4).

The filter R (Cousins) could also be used instead of I to separate the different ERGs populations at similar redshift. By arguments very similar to those used for Fig. 3 we predict a separation line given by:

$$(JK)=0.34(RK)+0.19\mathrm{and}RK>5.3$$
(2)
Not enough observational data are present in this colour-colour plane to test the prediction, in particular for dusty starburst galaxies; however cluster’s galaxies at z=1.26 (Rosati et al. 1999) and at z=1.27 (Stanford et al. 1997) with no emission line fall in elliptical part of R-K vs. J-K diagram, while 2 objects belonging to the same clusters but with \[OII\] emission fall in the starburst region. Indeed at this redshift R filter is sampling the rest-frame UV region of the spectra and is therefore more sensible than I to residual star formation that could affect the colour. I-K colour is less affected by this problem, only at higher $`z`$ ($`>`$1.8) ellipticals with small residual star formation could fall in the starburst region.

We stress the point that, since $`z>2`$ ellipticals could fall in the dusty region (Fig. 1), these colour selection criteria are valid only in $`K<2021`$ selected sample, where the density of $`z>2`$ ellipticals expected in the Pure Luminosity Evolution (PLE) models is extremely small (Pozzetti et al. 1996). Higher redshift ranges can be selected by using different filters; in particular in the J-K vs. H-K diagram we derive the criterion:

$$(JK)=0.33(HK)+0.20\mathrm{and}JK>2.5$$
(3)
to select old ($`z_f>3`$) passively evolving elliptical or dusty starbursts at $`2.0<z<2.5`$.

In conclusion, the classification of the ERGs using the colour-colour diagram I-K vs. J-K seems reliable because both model predictions and observed objects give the same results. By applying it to large complete samples it will be possible to remove most of the foreground stars from the ERGs samples and statistically separate ellipticals and starbursts, deriving important information to obtain their formation and evolution histories.

## Acknowledgments

We are grateful to G. Bruzual and to B. Poggianti to providing their spectral synthesis models. The authors have benefit from discussion with E. Daddi, A. Cimatti, G. Zamorani, T. Oliva, F. Basile and C. Vignali. L.P. was supported by Consorzio Nazionale per l’Astronomia e l’Astrofisica during the realization of this project.


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# Inner edge of neutron-star crust with SLy effective nucleon-nucleon interactions

## Abstract

The boundary between the solid crust, assumed to be in complete thermodynamic equilibrium (cold catalyzed matter), and the liquid core of a neutron star is studied using Skyrme SLy effective N-N interactions. An approximate value of the density at the inner edge of the crust is obtained from the threshold for the instability of homogeneous $`npe`$ matter with respect to small periodic density perturbations. Calculations of the bottom layer of the crust are performed within the Compressible Liquid Drop Model. Spherical nuclei are energetically preferred over exotic ones (cylinders, plates, tubes, bubbles), down to the inner edge of the crust, found at $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}=0.08\mathrm{fm}^3`$.

to be published in Physics Letters B

Key words: Dense matter. Neutron stars.

PACS numbers: 97.60.Jd, 21.65.+f, 95.30.Cq

The solid crust of a neutron star plays an important role in neutron star evolution and dynamics. It insulates thermally neutron star surface from its hot liquid interior, and therefore plays an essential role in neutron star cooling. It can build-up stresses, leading to instabilities responsible for the glitches in pulsar timing. Moreover, it can support non-axial deformations which, combined with rapid rotation, could make neutron star a source of continuous gravitational radiation.

The mass of the neutron-star crust depends sensitively on the density of its inner edge and on the neutron-star matter equation of state. Recent calculations of this quantity  give $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}0.080.10\mathrm{fm}^3`$, substantially lower than the estimate close to the normal nuclear density $`\rho _0=0.16\mathrm{fm}^3`$, derived in the classical paper of Baym et al. . Some theoretical calculations predict exotic distributions of nuclear matter (rods, plates, etc.) within the bottom layers of the crust . However, the presence of exotic nuclei depends on the effective nucleon-nucleon (N-N) force used; for some forces, spherical nuclei are present down to the inner edge of the crust . Presence of exotic nuclei would lead to different transport and elastic properties of the crust, compared to the standard case of a Coulomb crystal formed by spherical nuclei . This, in turn, would have important consequences for dynamics and evolution of neutron star.

In order to make calculations of the structure of the bottom layers of the neutron-star crust feasible, one has to use an effective N-N interaction. Frequently used in astrophysical applications SkM force was constructed to provide a consistent description of isovector properties of nuclei (giant dipole resonances) , and seems thus to be particularly suitable for the description of neutron rich nuclei. However, this as well as many other existing effective N-N interactions were fitted to the properties of laboratory atomic nuclei, with $`(NZ)/A<0.3`$, while in the bottom layers of neutron-star crust one expects $`(\rho _n\rho _p)/\rho >\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0.8}`$. In view of this, application of these effective N-N interactions to the bottom layers of a neutron-star crust involves a rather risky extrapolation to strongly asymmetric nucleon matter. In order to remove a part of this uncertainty, modifications of effective N-N forces, to make them consistent with microscopic calculations of neutron matter, have been applied. Such a procedure was used in seventies to obtain the Sk$`1^{}`$ force , via a rather ad hoc modification of the Sk1 force constructed originally by Vautherin and Brink  to describe terrestrial nuclei. In this way, it became consistent with energy per nucleon of neutron matter calculated by Siemens and Pandharipande . Later, generalized types of the Skyrme interaction, FPS  and FPS21 , with larger number of fitted parameters and more general density dependence, were derived by fitting the temperature and density dependent energies per baryon of nuclear and neutron matter obtained in microscopic calculations of Friedman and Pandharipande .

Recently, a new set of the Skyrme-type effective N-N interaction has been derived, based on an approach which may be more appropriate, as far as the applications to a very neutron rich matter are concerned . Relevant additional experimental items concerning neutron rich nuclei (isovector effective masses), constraints of spin stability, and requirement of consistency with the UV14+VIII equation of state (EOS) of dense neutron matter of Wiringa et al.  for $`\rho _0\rho 1.5\mathrm{fm}^3`$, were combined with general procedure of fitting the properties of doubly magic nuclei. This procedure led to a set of the SLy (Skyrme Lyon) models, which - due to the emphasis put on their neutron-excess dependence - seem to be particularly suitable for the calculations of the properties of neutron-star crust.

In the present Letter, we calculate the structure of the bottom layer of the neutron-star crust, and the density at its inner edge, $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}`$, using the SLy models of effective N-N interaction, and compare our results with those obtained using older Skyrme-type forces, SkM and Sk1. The parameters of the SLy forces used in the present calculations, together with those of the SkM and Sk1 models, are given in Table 1. The SLy4 interaction is a basic SLy force. The SLy7 model has been obtained following the most ambitious fitting procedure, in which spin-gradient terms and center of mass correction term were both included in the Skyrme energy functional .

Recent calculations show that neutron-star matter (both liquid and solid) close to the crust-liquid core interface contains only a few percent of protons. Therefore, an effective N-N interaction used for the calculation of the crust-liquid transition should, in the first place, yield a realistic description of pure neutron matter at subnuclear density. As we do not have a direct access to the EOS of pure neutron matter at subnuclear densities, results of precise numerical calculations of the ground state at $`\rho <\rho _0`$, carried out using modern many-body theories and the best bare N-N hamiltonians, are to be used as an ersatz of such experimental data .

The SLy forces have been constructed as to be consistent with the UV14+UVII model of Wiringa et al.  of neutron matter above $`\rho _0`$ . It is therefore of interest to see how well these effective N-N forces reproduce the UV14+UVII model of neutron matter at subnuclear densities.

In Fig. 1 we have plotted the energy per neutron, $`e`$, versus neutron density, $`\rho <\rho _0`$, for the SLy4 and SLy7 effective N-N interactions. The filled squares correspond to realistic UV14+UVII model of neutron matter, and were taken from Table III of Wiringa et al. . The agreement of the SLy4, SLy7 curves with the neutron matter EOS of the UV14+VII model of Wiringa et al.  is very good. This is not the case for older Skyrme forces, Sk$`1^{}`$ and SkM.

In what follows, a mixture of neutrons, protons, and electrons will be referred to as $`npe`$ matter. An electrically neutral $`npe`$ matter in beta equilibrium corresponds to neutron-star matter at $`\rho \rho _0`$. At a given $`\rho `$, the ground state of a homogeneous $`npe`$ matter corresponds to the minimum of the energy density $`E(\rho _n,\rho _p,\rho _e)=E_0`$, under the constraints of fixed baryon density and electric charge neutrality, $`\rho _p+\rho _n=\rho `$ and $`\rho _e=\rho _p`$, respectively. This implies beta equilibrium between the matter constituents and ensures vanishing of the first variation of $`E`$ due to small perturbations $`\delta \rho _j(𝐫)`$ (where $`j=n,p,e`$) of the equilibrium solution (under the constraints of constant total nucleon number, $`A=\rho V`$, and global charge neutrality within the volume $`V`$ of the system). However, this does not guarantee the stability of the spatially homogeneous state of the $`npe`$ matter, which requires that the second variation of $`E`$ (quadratic in $`\delta \rho _j`$) be positive.

Our expression for the energy functional of slightly inhomogeneous neutron-star matter has been calculated using the semi-classical Extended Thomas-Fermi (ETF) treatment of the kinetic and the spin-gradient terms in nucleon contribution to $`E`$ . Assuming that the spatial gradients are small, we keep only the quadratic gradient terms in the ETF expressions. Our approximation is justified by the fact that characteristic wavelengths of periodic perturbations turn out to be much larger than the internucleon distance. With these approximations, the change of the energy (per unit volume) implied by the density perturbations can be expressed, keeping only second order terms ,

$$EE_0=\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mathrm{d}𝐪}{(2\pi )^3}\underset{i,j}{}F_{ij}(𝐪)\delta \rho _i(𝐪)\delta \rho _j(𝐪)^{},$$
(1)
where we used the Fourier representation

$$\delta \rho _j(𝐫)=\frac{\mathrm{d}𝐪}{(2\pi )^3}\delta \rho _j(𝐪)\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{𝐪𝐫}}.$$
(2)
The hermitian $`F_{ij}(𝐪)`$ matrix determines the stability of the uniform state of equilibrium of the $`npe`$ matter with respect to the spatially periodic perturbations of wavevector $`𝐪`$. Due to the isotropy of the homogeneous equilibrium state of the $`npe`$ matter, $`F_{ij}`$ depends only on $`|𝐪|=q`$. In the case of Skyrme-type forces, the matrix elements $`F_{ij}`$ can be calculated analytically, as explicit functions of the equilibrium densities and $`q`$, and are composed of compression (local), curvature (gradient), and Coulomb components .

The condition for the $`F_{ij}`$ matrix to be positive definite is equivalent to the requirement that the determinant of the $`F_{ij}`$ matrix be positive . At each density $`\rho `$, one has thus to check the condition $`\mathrm{det}[F_{ij}(q)]>0`$. Let us start with some $`\rho `$, at which $`\mathrm{det}[F_{ij}(q)]>0`$ for any $`q`$. By decreasing $`\rho `$, we find eventually a wavenumber $`Q`$ at which stability condition is violated for the first time; this happens at some density $`\rho _Q`$. For $`\rho <\rho _Q`$ the homogeneous state is no longer the ground state of the $`npe`$ matter since it is unstable with respect to small periodic density modulations.

We get $`\rho _Q=0.079\mathrm{fm}^3`$ for both SLy4 and SLy7 forces, to be compared with $`0.075\mathrm{fm}^3`$ and $`0.101\mathrm{fm}^3`$ for the SkM and Sk$`1^{}`$ forces, respectively. The instability at $`\rho _Q`$ signals a phase transition with a loss of translational symmetry of the $`npe`$ matter, and appearance of nuclear structures. Calculations performed previously with Skyrme forces indicate that $`\rho _Q\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}`$ . The differences between the values of $`\rho _Q`$ between four forces are correlated with differences in the density behavior of nucleon chemical potentials, whose density dervatives enter the stability matrix $`F_{ij}`$ . In Fig.2 we plot the values of $`\mu _n`$ and $`\mu _p`$ for all four Skyrme forces considered, versus nucleon density $`\rho `$, for the $`npe`$ matter in beta equilibrium. In the relevant density region, $`\rho \frac{1}{2}\rho _0`$, one notices very good agreement between the values of $`\mu _p`$. The relative differences in the values of $`\mu _n`$, and in particular in the slopes of the $`\mu _n(\rho )`$ curves are much larger. The slope of $`\mu _n(\rho )`$ for the SkM force is the highest, and that for the Sk1 force the lowest, at $`\rho \frac{1}{2}\rho _0`$. Notice that the slope of $`\mu _n`$ for the Sk1 is quite similar to those obtained in  for the FPS and FPS21 forces (see Fig.5 of ). Qualitatively, the higher the slope of $`\mu _n`$, the lower the value of $`\rho _Q`$ (c.f., ).

Nuclear structures in bottom layers of neutron-star crust were described using the Compressible Liquid Drop Model (CLDM) of nuclei . Within the CLDM, one is able to separate bulk, surface, and Coulomb contributions to total energy density, $`E`$. Electrons are assumed to form an uniform Fermi gas, and yield the rest and kinetic energy contribution, denoted by $`E_e`$. Within CLDM, total energy density of the inner neutron-star crust is given by

$$E=E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{bulk}}+E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{surf}}+E_{\mathrm{Coul}}+E_e.$$
(3)
Here, $`E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{bulk}}`$ is the bulk contribution of nucleons, which does not depend on the shape of nuclear structures. However, both $`E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{surf}}`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{Coul}}`$ do depend on the shape of nuclear structures, formed by denser nuclear matter and the less dense neutron gas (detailed description of the calculation of $`E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{surf}}`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{Coul}}`$ for the SLy forces was presented in ; our results for the nuclear surface and curvature properties for SLy forces will be described in detail elsewhere ). We restricted ourselves to three shapes of the nuclear matter - neutron gas interface: spherical, cylindrical, and plane. Consequently, we considered five types of nuclear structures: spheres of nuclear matter in neutron gas, cylinders of nuclear matter in neutron gas (rods), plane slabs of nuclear matter in neutron gas, cylindrical holes in nuclear matter filled by neutron gas (tubes), and spherical holes in nuclear matter filled by neutron gas (bubbles). In view of a significant neutron excess, the interface includes neutron skin, formed by neutrons adsorbed onto the nuclear matter surface. In view of a finite thickness of nuclear surface, the definition of its spatial location is a matter of convention. Here, we defined it by the radius of the equivalent constant density proton distribution, $`R_p`$, which determines thus the radius of spheres, bubbles, cylinders and tubes, and the half-thickness of plane nuclear matter slabs. The neutron radius, $`R_n`$, was defined by the condition that it yields a squared-off neutron density ditribution with constant neutron densities, which are equal to the real ones far from the nuclear matter – neutron gas interface, reproduces actual numbers of neutrons. The thickness of the neutron skin is then defined as $`R_nR_p`$, $`R_p`$ being defined in a similar manner as $`R_n`$ . The nuclear surface energy term, $`E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{surf}}`$, gives the contribution of the interface between neutron gas and nuclear matter; it includes contribution of neutron skin . In the case of spherical and cylindrical interface, $`E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{surf}}`$ includes curvature correction; the curvature correction vanishes for slabs.

In order to calculate $`E_{\mathrm{Coul}}`$, we used the Wigner-Seitz approximation. In the case of spheres, bubbles, rods, and tubes, Wigner-Seitz cells were approximated by spheres, and cylinders, of radius $`R_{\mathrm{cell}}`$. In the case of slabs, Wigner-Seitz cells were bounded by planes, with $`R_{\mathrm{cell}}`$ being defined as the half-distance between plane boundaries of the cell. At given average nucleon density, $`\rho `$, and for an assumed shape of nuclear structures, the energy density was minimized with respect to thermodynamic variables, under the condition of an average charge neutrality . Our results for $`E(\rho )`$ for the SLy4 force, together with the energy density of the uniform $`npe`$ matter, are displayed in Fig. 3. For the sake of convenience, energy densities has been shown after subtracting the value of the energy density of the bulk nuclear matter - neutron gas system (charge neutral and in beta equilibrium), $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(\rho )E(\rho )E_{\mathrm{bulk}}(\rho )`$. Spherical nuclei turn out to be energetically preferred over other nuclear shapes, and also over homogeneous $`npe`$ matter, down to $`\rho _{\mathrm{crit}}=0.077\mathrm{fm}^3`$. Therefore, within our set of possible nuclear shapes, the ground state of neutron-star crust contains spherical nuclei, down to its bottom edge.

As was already noticed in , exotic nuclei will be present only if the filling fraction, $`u`$, is large enough. For a given neutron excess, introducing finite size (Coulomb and surface) effects increases the value of $`u`$. This increase of $`u`$ is larger when the surface tension is larger, the finite-size effect being roughly propotional to it. Therefore, the larger the surface tension, the more likely the exotic nuclei are to appear. For all Skyrme forces we have studied so far, our results are in agreement with this qualitative rule. In particular, at the proton fraction $`58`$% the surface tension for the SkM and SLy forces, for which exotic nuclei do not appear, is much smaller than for the Sk1 model, for which exotic nuclei do appear.

Actually, under conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium, transition from the crust to the uniform liquid takes place at a constant pressure, and is accompanied by a density jump (first order phase transition). Using Maxwell construction, we find that the edge of the crust has density $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}=0.076\mathrm{fm}^3`$, and coexists there with uniform $`npe`$ matter of the density higher by $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho /\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}=1.4\%`$. Therefore, crust-liquid core transition is a very weak first-order phase transition; it takes place at $`P_{\mathrm{edge}}=0.34\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{fm}^3`$.

Geometrical parameters characterizing the bottom layers of the crust are shown in Fig. 4. Here, $`R_p`$ is the proton radius corresponding to the equivalent squared proton distribution within nuclei, $`R_{\mathrm{cell}}`$ is the radius of the Wigner-Seitz cell, and $`u`$ is the fraction of volume occupied by nuclear matter (equal to that occupied by protons). The crust-liquid core transition takes place not because nuclei grow in size, but rather because they become closer and closer. The filling fraction $`u`$ grows rapidly for $`\rho `$ approaching $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}`$, from only 5 % at $`\rho =0.04\mathrm{fm}^3`$ to nearly 30 % at $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}`$. Still, less than 30% of the volume is filled by nuclear matter at the crust-liquid core transition point. Our maximum filling factor is significantly larger than the limiting value of 0.2 for spherical nuclei phase, derived by Oyamatsu et al.  using general considerations involving surface and Coulomb energy. This is due to the curvature corrections, included in our formula for $`E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{surf}}`$ and absent in the model of Oyamatsu et al. . Curvature tension is particularly important near the crust-liquid transition point, where the surface tension is very small. If we neglect the curvature term in surface energy, we find maximum $`u`$ for nuclei of about 0.2, consistent with Oyamatsu et al. . Finally, let us mention that no proton drip occurs in the ground state of the crust.

More detailed information on neutron-rich nuclei, present in the ground state of the bottom layers of neutron-star crust with $`\rho >\frac{1}{3}\rho _0`$, can be found in Fig. 5. Number of nucleons in a nucleus, $`A`$, grows monotonically, and reaches about 600 at the edge of the crust. However, the number of protons changes rather weakly, from $`Z40`$ near neutron drip, to $`Z50`$ near the edge of the crust. Our results for $`Z`$ of spherical nuclei are similar to those obtained in , but are somewhat higher than those obtained using a relativistic mean-field model in . An interesting quantity is the number of neutrons forming neutron skin, $`N_{\mathrm{n},\mathrm{surf}}`$. For $`\rho >\frac{1}{3}\rho _0`$, we find that $`N_{\mathrm{n},\mathrm{surf}}`$ decreases with increasing $`\rho `$, despite an increase of nuclear radius. This behavior is due to the fact, that neutron densities outside and inside nuclei become more an more alike, while thickness of neutron skin decreases, with increasing $`\rho `$, for $`\rho >\frac{1}{3}\rho _0`$.

Near the bottom of the crust, spherical nuclei are very heavy, $`A300500`$, and doubts concerning their stability with respect to deformation and fission arise. An approximate condition for fission in dense neutron-star matter is $`R_p/R_{\mathrm{cell}}>\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1}/2`$ ; this condition is fulfilled near the edge of the crust, Fig. 4. However, curvature terms in $`E_{\mathrm{N},\mathrm{surf}}`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{Coul}}`$, which were not included in generalized Bohr-Wheeler condition of , as well as shell correction to $`E`$ , stabilize large spherical nuclei. Clearly, the problem of stability of spherical nuclei near the bottom of neutron-star crust deserves further investigation. In any case, however, forming rod-like nuclei in the ground state of neutron-star crust seems to be excluded by the energetical arguments, Fig. 3.

In the CLDM approximation with SLy4 force, uniform $`npe`$ matter is present in the ground state of the neutron-star interior at the density exceeding $`\rho _{\mathrm{liq}}=0.077\mathrm{fm}^3`$. Comparing the value of $`\rho _{\mathrm{liq}}`$ with $`\rho _Q`$, we have an independent test of precision of our CLDM calculations. The relative difference between these two quantities is less than 3%, which is of the order-of-magnitude of the relative density jump in the crust - liquid core transition, obtained within the CLDM. For the SLy4 force, the crust - liquid core transition takes thus place at half of the normal nuclear density, and very similar value is obtained for the SLy7 force.

The structure of the ground state of neutron-star interior at subnuclear densities, determined in this Letter for the SLy4 force, implies that the bottom layer of the neutron star crust is a three-dimensional Coulomb crystal, with spherical nuclei in the lattice sites, the edge of the crystal being located at $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}0.08\mathrm{fm}^3`$.

We combined the SLy4 EOS of the inner crust with that of the liquid core, getting in this way a physically consistent, unified description of the neutron star interior beyond neutron drip. As for the outer crust, we have chosen the EOS of Haensel and Pichon , in which maximum use of recent experimental information on neutron rich nuclei was made. For neutron star with canonical mass of $`1.4\mathrm{M}_{}`$, the crust contains $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{crust}}/M=1.2\%`$ of the total stellar mass, and its relative contribution to the total moment of inertia is $`\mathrm{\Delta }I_{\mathrm{crust}}/I=2.6\%`$. The corresponding values for the FPS neutron star model are some 30% lower, despite larger value of $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}(\mathrm{FPS})=0.10\mathrm{fm}^3`$. It turns out, however, that $`P_{\mathrm{edge}}(\mathrm{FPS})P_{\mathrm{edge}}(\mathrm{SLy4})`$, because the FPS EOS near $`\rho _{\mathrm{edge}}`$ is significantly softer than the SLy4 one. The difference in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{crust}}/M`$ for both models can thus be explained by the difference in the $`R^4(12GM/Rc^2)`$ factor appearing in an approximate expression for $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{crust}}`$ ; the FPS neutron star of $`1.4\mathrm{M}_{}`$ is more compact than the SLy4 one. Similar arguments can be used to explain the difference between the $`\mathrm{\Delta }I_{\mathrm{crust}}/I`$ values for the SLy4 and FPS forces (see  for the approximate formula to be used). However, the most important difference between the SLy4 and the FPS crusts is that in our case the whole crust, down to its bottom edge, is a Coulomb crystal, while in the FPS case the bottom layer, constituting about half of the crust mass, contains nonstandard nuclear shapes (rods, plates, tubes, bubbles), and therefore has elastic and transport properties very different from those of a three-dimensional Coulomb crystal . Finally, presence of a Coulomb crystal is also relevant for the crust - liquid core boundary condition in rotating neutron stars.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to G. Chabrier and J. Meyer for a critical reading of the preliminary version of the manuscript and for helpful remarks. P.H. acknowledges the hospitality of ENS de Lyon during his stay with the theoretical astrophysics group of CRAL. This work was supported in part by the KBN grant No. 2 P03D 014 13 and by the French CNRS/MAE program Jumelage Astronomie France-Pologne. During his visits at DARC, P.Haensel was supported by the PAST professorship of French MENRT.

| Table 1 | | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Parameter values of the Skyrme forces | | | | |
| force | SLy4 | SLy7 | SkM | Sk1 |
| $`t_0`$ $`(\mathrm{MeV}\mathrm{fm}^3)`$ | -2488.91 | -2482.41 | -2645.0 | -1057.3 |
| $`t_1`$ $`(\mathrm{MeV}\mathrm{fm}^5)`$ | 486.82 | 457.97 | 410.0 | 235.9 |
| $`t_2`$ $`(\mathrm{MeV}\mathrm{fm}^5)`$ | -546.39 | -419.85 | -135.0 | -100.00 |
| $`t_3`$ $`(\mathrm{MeV}\mathrm{fm}^{3+3\sigma })`$ | 13777.0 | 13677.0 | 15595.0 | 14463.5 |
| $`\sigma `$ | $`\frac{1}{6}`$ | $`\frac{1}{6}`$ | $`\frac{1}{6}`$ | 1 |
| $`x_0`$ | 0.834 | 0.846 | 0.09 | 0.2885 |
| $`x_1`$ | -0.344 | -0.511 | 0 | 0 |
| $`x_2`$ | -1.000 | -1.000 | 0 | 0 |
| $`x_3`$ | 1.354 | 1.391 | 0 | 0.2257 |
| $`W_0`$ $`(\mathrm{MeV}\mathrm{fm}^5)`$ | 123.0 | 126.0 | 130.0 | 120.0 |


text:
# Time and the laws of Nature

## Abstract

What is time? Why does it ”flow” and why are we sure that it flows from past towards future? Why is there such a gigantic distinction between the Past of our world, which we believe to be fixed, and the Future, which we consider undetermined? And this is in spite of the fact that almost all physical laws are time-symmetric! Why does previously undetermined ”Future” acquire its steadiness as it passes the moment called ”the Present”? Perhaps, these questions are partially answered in the considerations below.

Let us retract from our particular Universe and think about what kind of laws can in principle govern the development of universes. As a universe, we will understand any world, even an imaginary one, that can have different states and has laws of transition from one state to another as ”time” passes by. Generally speaking, such laws can be probabilistic, i.e. they set the probabilities of transition from one particular state to another.

Let us group these laws in categories on the basis of their respect to time.

The first, and the most widespread in our world, category is the category of bilaterally deterministic laws. ”Bilaterally” means that these laws determine unambiguously what was the precursor and what will be the successor to a given state. (For the sake of simplicity, we will assume time discrete.)

The second possible type of law embraces bilaterally undeterministic (probabilistic) laws. In other words, starting from a given present state, we can arrive, with a certain probability, to a number of different states. The present state, in its turn, can be the result of evolution of several possible states in past, again with certain probabilities. (The case of complete chaos falls precisely into this category.)

Laws of the third type, which we intend to discuss in detail, are unilaterally deterministic laws. This means that such a law will uniquely prescribe what a given state will evolve into. However, the present state itself can originate from different states in past.

At the first glance, one could think of laws of the fourth category, i.e. laws that fix the ancestor to a given state but is probabilistic in respect to its successors. However, since the direction of time axis is subjective, this category is identical to the third one, which will be discussed later in more detail.

An example of the universe evolving in compliance with the third type of laws is given by the famous Conway’s Game of Life. Let me briefly describe it. A 2D square grid is populated by a colony of tips, each tip living in one cell. If a tip has two or three neighbors, it survives and proceeds to the next generation. Tips with zero or one neighbor die of ”loneliness”, while those with more than three neighbors die of ”overcrowding”. New tips are born in cells contiguous to exactly three living tips. The laws of evolution in this world are more than simple, with every next generation being unambiguously determined by the previous one; the development of colonies can turn out very interesting.

However, it is plain to see that it is far from an easy task to restore the previous state of a given one. Moreover, there can be a multitude of them. Now think of a researcher who watches how these states turn into one another but he watches this backward in time. He is trying to determine the laws this evolution follows but at best he can deduce only probabilistic distributions to obtain this or that state from a given one.

What does it look similar to?

Now I proceed to my principal statement: the laws of our world are of unilaterally deterministic nature, if we choose ”from future to past” as the correct direction of the time axis.

Apparently, the combination of unilaterally and bilaterally deterministic laws results in the unilaterally deterministic world, therefore the majority of the known laws does not determine the general nature of our universe. Moreover, the majority of laws are known to be CP-even and thus can be classified as laws of the first or second category. (As a matter of fact, I am deeply convinced that there are no laws of the second kind in our universe. Otherwise, if there were several alternatives to past, how could we remember the only one of them, known as ”the Past”?) The only exclusion I am aware of (I apologize for my possible ignorance) is the weak interaction. Evidently, it is the weak interaction that possesses the unilaterally deterministic nature and, in absence of the competitors, determines the unilateral nature of our universe. This explains the enormous difference between the past and the future, which is clearly apparent to any of us. We do remember our past, because it is uniquely determined by the present. We know that millions of years ago the Earth was inhabited by dinosaurs but no one has even a slightest idea who will occupy the Earth million years from now. We can ”remember” and accumulate information because the past is strictly determined. Almost entire (see below more on ”almost”) information about the past is contained in the present. But not the information on the future. If the laws of nature were bilaterally deterministic, there would be no chance of any slightest development (in our understanding of this word). Time would be simply another dimension of the space, though quite a peculiar one.

Now - several speculative remarks on why our Universe is what it is and what conclusions can be drawn from the above discussion.

1. Of course, one might seem quite naive to tackle this ”why” question, but nonetheless I suggest doing this on the basis of assumption that the world is designed in such a way that it ensures the existence of OBSERVERS. In other worlds, even if they exist, there is nobody to ask this question. So, starting from universal CPT conservation, one can conclude that in the world built of antimatter time will flow in the opposite direction. I.e. in this world the future is fixed, while the past can have alternatives. So, the well known problem ”how to determine by means of radiowave communication whether you are talking to a creature built of matter or antimatter” no longer arises. Indeed, such a contact is just impossible, since the same signal will be considered emitted by both parties (by an antenna - at the one end, by synchronously distinct atoms towards the antenna - at the other). The information exchange is simply impossible. But nevermind, there seem to be no problems with antimatter creatures in our world by the virtue of almost absolute absence of the antimatter itself. But since the antimatter has ”time-opposite” nature, it introduces indeterminacy into our past. Obviously, it is matter-to-antimatter relation that dictates the relation between indeterminacy in past and future. These two forms of disproportion - between matter and antimatter content of our universe, and between determinacy in past and future - are not only connected, but also necessitate one another.

2. One should undertake a search for some relatively simple laws that the weak interaction follows in the ”backward time”.

3. If there exist only finite number of states of universe, there must also exist special states, called ”Gardens of Eden”, that have (in the backward time) successors but do not have any precursor (if some states have more than one precursors, then there are no precursors left for some of the other). For the usual direction of the time axis it means that there is NO SINGLE state that our present state can evolve into. That is, ”Garden of Eden” for us is the apocalypse in its direct and literal meaning. In the Game of Life such ”Gardens of Eden” have been found. This problem is however removed in the case of infinite number of states. (An example: a universe, whose states are real numbers from 0 to 1. The evolution law: take the infinite decimal fraction that represents this number and erase the first decimal digit. The resulting number represents the next state of the universe. It is clear that every state of this universe has ten precursors.)

4. The model of unilaterally deterministic universe removes the contradiction between ”God does not play dice” and the freedom of will, obviously given to a human being. If one wishes, one can think that God has created a finite (finite for us) state of the universe and the laws of universe evolution in the ”backward time”. And now He is surprised to find people who think that everything is evolving in the opposite time.

5. The choice of time axis direction is subjective.
If we introduce another axis, arrange all states of the universe along it, and undertake an unbiased analysis, we will find the following. At each moment of time $`t`$ creatures dwelling in the Universe are convinced that the moment of time $`t1`$ was in past. What is the ground for this belief? Only the fact that creatures possess significantly richer information about this moment than about moment $`t+1`$. And at the moment $`t+1`$ they ”remember” that ”some time ago”, at moment $`t`$, they have just learn about this moment $`t`$. This tempts them to think that time is directed from past to future. But I think that as far as the physical laws are concerned, the correct choice of time axis direction should be exactly opposite.


text:
# Estimating 𝜎-meson couplings from 𝐷→3𝜋 decays

## I Introduction

We know that QCD is the right theory for the strong interactions at high energies  and also it is well accepted as the fundamental underlying theory at low energies. However, due to infrared slavery, it is very difficult to apply this theory in the hadronic realm because the resulting large coupling constant at those lower energies makes it impossible to use perturbation theory. Besides ab initio calculations, like lattice techniques, one has to resort to an effective theory (chiral perturbation theory, ChPT) or sensible models which describe the relevant degrees of freedom restricted by the symmetries of the low energy domain. An example of the latter is the sigma model, which correctly describes $`\pi \pi `$ scattering near threshold, to leading order in a momentum expansion (and which coincides with ChPT at that order). However, when one increases the center-of-mass energy, the cross section starts to increase until resonances are reached. There is a long standing controversy in the literature about the existence of an isospin zero, broad scalar resonance in $`\pi \pi `$ scattering, the so-called sigma meson resonance . Recently, a whole conference was devoted to the study of the possible existence of the sigma resonance . The controversy basically stems from the large width of the resonance, which makes it difficult to discern if the shape of the spectrum is actually due to a pole in the amplitude or to a result of other effects in the $`s`$ and $`t`$ channels. Several experimental results can be explained with the existence of such a resonance. If it exists, it is a relevant degree of freedom and must be incorporated into the analysis, together with the conditions imposed by unitarity, chiral symmetry, etc. It also must show up in systems other than the $`\pi \pi `$ system. For instance, it was pointed out ten years ago that the sigma meson can have an important role in explaining the $`\mathrm{\Delta }I=1/2`$ enhancement in $`K\pi \pi `$ decays . Recently it has been found strong experimental evidence that the sigma meson is very important in the D-meson system, in the singly Cabibbo-suppressed decay $`D^+\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$, being responsible for approximately half of the decays through the resonant sequence: $`D^+\pi ^+\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$. A best fit to the Dalitz plot of this decay results in $`m_\sigma =483\pm 31`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma =338\pm 48`$ MeV, where statistical and systematic errors have been added in quadrature. We want to explore the consequences of this experimental result in the context of the well known theories of light mesons and weak decays. While we were preparing this work, another study appeared on the effect of the $`\sigma `$ in different weak processes. They conclude that the new result of E791, with a smaller value of the non-resonant contribution to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(D3\pi )`$ is in better agreement with the well measured $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(D2\pi )`$, to which they relate via PCAC. One should notice however, that PCAC must be used with care, since it is valid only when the pion is soft, and not in the entire kinematic range of these decays. Recently, the $`D\sigma \pi `$ process was also studied in the context of a constituent quark-meson model . Here we study the specific consequences of a sigma particle and its couplings related to the $`D3\pi `$ process, invoking two formulations: chiral symmetry as expressed in the linear sigma model to relate the $`\sigma \pi \pi `$ coupling to other observables and the QCD-inspired phenomenological model of Bauer, Stech and Wirbel to treat the non-leptonic $`D`$ decay.

This paper is organized as follows. In section II we extract the effective couplings involved in this $`D`$ decay from the experimental data. In section III we explore the consistency of this sigma meson within the models for spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking of strong interactions. In section IV we address the problem of estimating the weak process $`D\sigma \pi `$ in the standard model of weak interactions and within the treatment of Bauer, Stech and Wirbel for $`D`$ decays. Our conclusions are presented in section V.

## II The couplings in the decay $`D\sigma \pi 3\pi `$

From the experimental result that a fraction $`f=(44\pm 10)`$% of the $`D^+\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ goes through the resonant channel, one can estimate the amplitude of the weak process $`D^+\pi ^+\sigma `$. By resonant decay in this process one understands $`D\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+`$, i.e. a $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ pair in the final state appears through the formation of an intermediate $`\sigma `$ (sigma) resonance. The coupling $`D\sigma \pi `$ in this resonant process is, in general, a function of the $`q^2`$ of the virtual sigma (i.e. the invariant mass of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ pair). This issue would not be a problem if the sigma were narrow, because then the amplitude would be strongly dominated at $`q^2=m_\sigma ^2`$, fixing the couplings to a constant value on the mass shell of the intermediate particle. As a leading approximation, we assume that the coupling is not a strongly varying function of $`q^2`$ and fix it on the mass shell of the sigma. A more precise estimate would require a model for the D decay into three pions via a sigma. Assuming constant couplings $`g_{D\sigma \pi }`$ and $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }`$ we have for the resonant three-body decay width:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+)=\frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{2m_D}g_{D\sigma \pi }^2`$ $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }^2`$ $`{\displaystyle _{4m_\pi ^2}^{(m_Dm_\pi )^2}}\frac{dq^2}{2\pi }\frac{1}{8\pi }\lambda ^{1/2}(1,\frac{q^2}{m_D^2},\frac{m_\pi ^2}{m_D^2})`$ (2)
$`\times \frac{1}{8\pi }\lambda ^{1/2}(1,\frac{m_\pi ^2}{q^2},\frac{m_\pi ^2}{q^2})\frac{1}{(q^2m_\sigma ^2)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma (q^2)^2m_\sigma ^2},`$
where we use the standard notation $`\lambda (a,b,c)a^2+b^2+c^22ab2ac2bc`$, and where each factor $`1/(8\pi )\times \lambda ^{1/2}`$ is the phase space integral of the corresponding two-body decay subprocess. The factor $`\frac{1}{2}`$ in front is due to the symmetry of the two $`\pi ^+`$ in the final state, which the integral consider as distinguishable. Also $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma (q^2)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^0\times \left(m_\sigma /q\right)\left(p^{}(q^2)/p^{}(m_\sigma ^2)\right)`$ is the co-moving resonance width; here $`p^{}(q^2)=\sqrt{q^2/4m_\pi ^2}`$. A value for the strong coupling $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }`$ can be obtained from the sigma width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^0`$ by considering that the $`\sigma `$ meson decays 100% into $`\pi \pi `$, two thirds of the time into charged pions. Using the general expression for the decay of a J=0 into two J=0 particles in terms of the coupling constant , we have

$$\frac{2}{3}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^0=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^{})=g_{\sigma \pi \pi }^2\frac{1}{8\pi m_\sigma ^2}p^{},$$
(3)
where $`p^{}=\frac{1}{2}\lambda ^{1/2}(m_\sigma ^2,m_\pi ^2,m_\pi ^2)`$ is the magnitude of the 3-momentum of either of the final particles in the CM frame.

For our numerical results we will use the data $`m_D=1869`$ MeV, $`m_\pi ^+=139.6`$ MeV and the experimentally extracted values of the $`\sigma `$ resonance (mass and width) $`m_\sigma =483\pm 31`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^0=(338\pm 48)`$ MeV. The value for the $`g_{\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^{}}`$ coupling thus found is:

$$g_{\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^{}}=(2.59\pm 0.19)\text{GeV}.$$
(4)
This result, together with the numerical value of the integral shown in Eq. 2, which is $`(2.55\pm 0.55)\times 10^3\text{GeV}^2`$ for all the appropriate values of the parameters, allows us to get an estimate for the weak $`D\sigma \pi `$ coupling:

$$g_{D\sigma \pi }=654\pm 120\text{eV}.$$
(5)
We have thus extracted this coupling using the same prescription for the resonance that gave the experimental values of the sigma mass and width cited above, and also assuming that the coupling is independent of the virtuality of the intermediate $`\sigma `$ state. The validity of our estimate is thus conditioned to the assumption that the coupling for $`q^2`$ values away from the resonant peak does not differ by much from its value at the peak and that the shape of the resonance away from the peak is as prescribed in Eq. 2. Both approximations are clearly related and constitute the old issue of the background underlying the resonance.

To make a more crude estimate that does not deal with the background issue, one could use a narrow width approximation to estimate the coupling. Although this is a priori not a very good approximation since the $`\sigma `$ resonance is not narrow, the estimate is rather robust because it hides the width of the resonance and only deals explicitly with its branching ratio. Within this approximation the resonant $`D`$ decay width is:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{})_{res}\frac{1}{2}\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\sigma \pi ^+)\times Br(\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^{}),$$
(6)
where again there is a symmetry factor $`1/2`$ due to the two identical $`\pi ^+`$. Now, $`Br(\sigma \pi ^+\pi ^{})=2/3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{})_{res}=f\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{})`$, according to the experimental analysis. Using the established data $`Br(D^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+)=(3.6\pm 0.4)\times 10^3`$ and $`\tau _{D^+}=(1.06\pm 0.02)\times 10^{12}`$s , one thus obtains the estimate for the decay $`D^+\sigma \pi ^+`$ in this approximation:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\sigma \pi ^+)=3\times f\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^+)=(2.94\pm 0.75)\times 10^{12}\text{MeV}.$$
(7)
From this rate we can again extract the $`g_{D\sigma \pi }`$ coupling using the general expression for the decay of a J=0 into two J=0 particles:

$$g_{D\sigma \pi }^2=\frac{8\pi m_D^2}{p^{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(D^+\sigma \pi ^+),$$
(8)
where $`p^{}=1/2\times \lambda ^{1/2}(m_D^2,m_\sigma ^2,m_\pi ^2)`$ is again the 3-momentum of either of the final particles in the CM frame. We thus obtain

$$g_{D\sigma \pi }548\pm 70\text{eV}.$$
(9)
One can notice that the central value of this estimate is only 16% smaller than our more elaborate estimate of Eq. 5. In this sense, however crude the narrow width approximation could be considered a priori, it is indeed quite robust, since the result for $`g_{D\sigma \pi }`$ thus obtained does not differ much from our more elaborate estimate, in which the full resonance shape is taken into account.

## III The $`\sigma `$ meson in the linear sigma model

Having estimated the couplings directly from the experimental data, let us see the consequences of these results within the theory. First, consider the $`\sigma \pi \pi `$ coupling. We are here in the low energy regime of strong interactions. Consider then the linear sigma model as the framework, with the $`\sigma `$ meson as the scalar ($`J^{PC}=0^{++}`$) that remains from the breakdown of chiral symmetry. It is sufficient to consider QCD with the lightest quarks $`u`$ and $`d`$ only, so that the chiral symmetry in question is $`SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R`$ broken down to $`SU(2)_V`$ or isospin. The meson sector comprises the massive $`\sigma `$ scalar and the three pions (pseudoscalars) $`\pi ^a`$, $`a=1,2,3`$, which play the role of Goldstone bosons. Using the notation of ref.  the quartic coupling of the potential, $`\lambda `$, and the vacuum expectation value of the field, $`v`$, determine all the physical parameters, like the mass of the sigma as $`m_\sigma ^2=2\lambda v^2`$, the $`\sigma \pi \pi `$ coupling as $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }=2\lambda v`$ and the (charged) pion decay constant as $`f_\pi =\sqrt{2}v`$. The linear sigma model thus predicts the $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }`$ coupling in terms of the mass of the $`\sigma `$ particle and the pion decay constant:

$$g_{\sigma \pi \pi }=\frac{\sqrt{2}m_\sigma ^2}{f_\pi }=(2.54\pm 0.01)\text{GeV},$$
(10)
which is surprisingly close to the value deduced from the data on resonant $`D`$ decay. Therefore, there is an apparent consistency of the linear sigma model description for the $`\pi \pi `$ resonance in $`D`$ decays. However, a word of caution is due here: the validity of a perturbative calculation within a linear sigma model treated as a quantum theory is questionable if the mass of the scalar $`\sigma `$ is large (i.e. if $`m_\sigma f_\pi `$), which is precisely the case in the real world. A perturbative calculation could be trusted if the expansion parameter is much smaller than unity. In the sigma model, the expansion parameter is $`\lambda `$, or more precisely $`6\lambda /(16\pi ^2)`$. From the data on $`m_\sigma `$ and $`f_\pi `$ it is easy to see that the value for the expansion parameter is:

$$\frac{6\lambda }{16\pi ^2}0.5,$$
(11)
which is uncomfortably close to unity. This is precisely the reason why one would prefer to use a non-linear version of the model as a perturbative theory, where the heavy sigma is integrated out and only the light particles (the pions) are considered. The effective interaction among the pions is then explicitly weak at low momenta, vanishing at threshold (a feature which is evidence that chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken at low energies and that the pions are the corresponding Goldstone bosons). Here we used the linear sigma model with the sole purpose of exhibiting the sigma particle in the theory.

## IV The $`D^+\sigma \pi ^+`$ form factor in the BSW Model

The coupling $`g_{D\sigma \pi }`$ found in Eq. 5, which has dimensions of mass, is an effective result due to an underlying weak interaction process. In this section we want to examine this coupling at that fundamental level. We therefore estimate the relevant matrix elements of weak interactions that contribute the $`D^+\sigma \pi ^+`$ decay. However, because of the effect of strong interactions, the asymptotic states are not the elementary quarks but composite hadrons, meaning that the analysis cannot be done purely at the level of fundamental interactions treated perturbatively. Only the weak interaction can be considered at leading order, but to take into account strong interactions we require of a sensible model. We thus study the problem within the well accepted model of Bauer, Stech and Wirbel (BSW) for non-leptonic D decays. For our purposes, the $`\sigma `$ particle will be a $`J^{PC}=0^{++}`$ isoscalar with quark content $`(\overline{u}u+\overline{d}d)`$. In order to tackle non-leptonic decays, one has to use the operator product expansion to construct an effective weak hamiltonian containing local four-quark operators with Wilson coefficients $`c_i(\mu )`$ that can be computed perturbatively at the appropriate energy scale $`\mu `$. In our case, the relevant effective hamiltonian is:

$$H_w=\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}V_{cd}^{}V_{ud}\left\{c_1(\mu )(\overline{d}c)_{(VA)}(\overline{u}d)_{(VA)}+c_2(\mu )(\overline{u}c)_{(VA)}(\overline{d}d)_{(VA)}\right\},$$
(12)
where $`(\overline{q}q^{})_{(VA)}=\overline{q}\gamma _\mu \left(1\gamma _5\right)q^{}`$. In the BSW approach,the effective weak hamiltonian density is built in terms of products of hadron currents which mimic the underlying quark currents of the weak interactions:

$$H_{eff}=\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}V_{cd}^{}V_{ud}\left\{a_1J_\mu ^{(\overline{d}c)}J^{\mu (\overline{u}d)}+a_2J_\mu ^{(\overline{u}c)}J^{\mu (\overline{d}d)}\right\}.$$
(13)
The coefficients $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ that accompany the products of currents are now phenomenological constants of the model that must be fitted from experiment. In this approach, the decay amplitude factorizes into a product of two current matrix elements. We will use this effective hamiltonian to study the $`D^+\sigma \pi ^+`$ decay process.

The factor proportional to $`a_1`$ in the matrix element $`\sigma \pi ^+|H_{eff}|D^+`$ involves two terms. One of them is $`\sigma \pi ^+|J_A^{\mu (\overline{u}d)}|00|J_{A,\mu }^{(\overline{d}c)}|D^+`$, so-called “annihilation” term, which we neglect within the model as it is prescribed, because it involves form factors of the light mesons at high momentum ($`q^2=m_D^2`$). We should emphasize here that we are not neglecting the so-called quark annihilation diagrams that play a role in explaining $`D`$ meson lifetime differences and other controversial issues, but we are only following a consistent prescription of the model. Indeed, in the BSW model the coefficients $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ are only phenomenological parameters and do not exactly correspond to the Wilson coefficients $`c_1(\mu )`$ and $`c_2(\mu )`$ obtained in perturbative QCD and associated with the quark amplitudes. The other term, which is the only relevant term here, corresponds to $`\sigma (p^{})|J_A^{\mu (\overline{d}c)}|D^+(p)\pi ^+(q)|J_{A,\mu }^{\mu (\overline{u}d)}|0`$. After this factorization, one needs the matrix element of the current (notice that only the axial currents $`J_A`$ contribute, because of the parity of the hadrons involved):

$$\sigma (p^{})|J_A^{\mu (\overline{d}c)}|D^+(p)=F_1^{(D\sigma )}(q^2)\left((p+p^{})^\mu \frac{(m_D^2m_\sigma ^2)}{q^2}q^\mu \right)+F_0^{(D\sigma )}(q^2)\frac{(m_D^2m_\sigma ^2)}{q^2}q^\mu ,$$
(14)
with $`F_1(0)=F_0(0)`$ in order to avoid a spurious singularity at $`q^2=0`$. The two form factors $`F_1`$ and $`F_0`$ correspond to transverse and longitudinal components of the current, respectively. If these form factors are dominated by poles, those of $`F_1`$ should be at axial vector meson masses and those of $`F_0`$ at pseudoscalar meson masses, all of $`c\overline{d}`$ flavor content. However, only $`F_0`$ enters in our case, because $`\pi ^+(q)|J_A^\mu |0=if_\pi q^\mu `$ is purely longitudinal.

The factor of $`a_2`$ in the matrix element $`\sigma \pi ^+|H_{eff}|D^+`$ vanishes, because it involves $`\sigma |J^\mu |0`$ which is identically zero due to conservation of the vector current. Therefore, from all of the above, the $`D`$-$`\sigma `$-$`\pi `$ coupling is:

$$\sigma \pi ^+|H_{eff}|D^+g_{D\sigma \pi }=\frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}V_{cd}^{}V_{ud}a_1F_0^{(D\sigma )}(m_\pi ^2)\times (m_D^2m_\sigma ^2)f_\pi .$$
(15)
Using $`V_{cd}^{}V_{ud}=0.21`$, the model value $`a_1=1.10\pm 0.05`$ fitted for D decays and our value for the coupling $`g_{D\sigma \pi }`$ in Eq. 5, we get an estimate for the axial form factor

$$F_0^{(D\sigma )}(m_\pi ^2)=0.79\pm 0.15.$$
(16)
We can safely extrapolate from $`q^2=m_\pi ^2`$ to $`q^2=0`$, since we do not expect poles at light masses for a charmed current:

$$F_0(0)=F_1(0)0.8\pm 0.2,$$
(17)
which agrees within errors with the form factor of Ref.  for $`D\pi `$ and is within the range of most of the other $`D`$ decays (0.6 to 0.8). A remarkable fact of this result is that the form factors in Ref.  are calculated assuming the mesons are bound states of the corresponding valence quarks, while in our case one would hardly treat a priori such a short living resonance like the sigma as a bound state, let alone using a wave function for it. As expected, strong phases do not play a role in the $`D^+\sigma \pi ^+`$ decay since the final state has only one definite value of isospin , $`I=1`$. Strong phases in the $`(3\pi )`$ final state have already been taken into account by the introduction of resonances in the fitting procedure to the Dalitz plot.

## V Conclusion

We have used the new experimental evidence for the $`\sigma `$ meson in the non-leptonic $`D^+\pi ^+\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ decay to estimate the effective $`g_{D\sigma \pi }`$ and $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }`$ couplings from the data and the resonance shape. We then studied the consequences of the values of these couplings within the accepted theoretical framework and found consistency of the latter with the experimental data.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ignacio Bediaga for the suggestion of and useful comments on this work and to Jon Rosner for reading the manuscript. One of us (R.R.) would like to thank the hospitality of the Departamento de Física of the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Valparaiso, Chile, where this work was carried out. This work was supported in part by CNPq, Pronex (Brazil) and FAPESP (São Paulo) and by Fondecyt, Chile, grant No. 1980150.


text:
# Canonical Description of Strangeness Enhancement from p-A to Pb-Pb Collisions

## 1 Introduction

Various experiments at CERN SPS reported an enhancement of strange particle production when going from p-p, p-A to A-A collisions . In particular the recent analysis of Pb-Pb reaction by the WA97 collaboration has shown, by comparing p-Be, p-Pb with Pb-Pb, a strong enhancement in the pertinent strange and antistrange baryon yields . In addition this enhancement was found to increase with strangeness content of the particle.

In this letter we show that the observed features of the data can be well described by the thermal model for particle production using canonical formulation of strangeness conservation.

The statistical models formulated in the grand canonical (GC) ensemble, with respect to conservation laws, were shown to give a satisfactory description of particle production in heavy ion collisions at SPS and AGS energies . However, when applying this model to the low energy heavy ion , or high energy hadron-hadron or $`e^+e^{}`$ reactions one necessarily needs to treat the conservation laws exactly . The exact conservation of quantum numbers, that is the canonical (C) approach, is known to reduce the phase space available for particle production due to additional constraints appearing through requirements of local quantum number conservation . Thus, the immediate question is to what extend the canonical suppression can account for the observed effect in the WA97 experiment.

The concept of canonical suppression as an origin of strangeness enhancement has been already addressed in the literature  and also tested in the context of the SPS data . Indeed, it was shown  that the increase of $`K_S^0/h^{}`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }+K)/\pi `$ ratios from p-p to A-A collisions can be possibly explained by the canonical effect. In view of the new data from the WA97 collaboration we will test further this idea and show that the suppression of strange particles phase space when going from GC to C formulation of strangeness conservation can quantitatively explain the reported data.

In the following section we present the main aspects of the statistical model formulated in canonical ensemble and then we compare the model with the experimental data.

## 2 Canonical Formulation of Strangeness Conservation

We consider a gas composed of all particles and resonances with mass up to $`m2.4`$GeV. Conservation of baryon number is introduced in GC ensemble, thus it is controlled by baryochemical potential. Strangeness conservation, however, is introduced on the canonical level. Having in mind the application of the model to particle production in heavy ion collisions we also require that the overall strangeness of the system is zero. Using the general procedure for the canonical strangeness conservation  the partition function of a gas of particles with strangeness $`0,\pm 1,\pm 2,\pm 3`$ can be written as follows:

$$Z_0=\frac{1}{2\pi }_\pi ^\pi 𝑑\varphi \mathrm{exp}(\underset{s=3}{\overset{3}{}}S_se^{is\varphi }),$$
(1)
where $`S_s=V_0_iZ_i`$ and the sum is taken over all particles and resonances carrying strangeness $`s`$. For particle of mass $`m_i`$, degeneracy factor $`d_i`$, baryon number $`B_i`$, and assuming Boltzmann statistics we have:

$$Z_i=\frac{d_i}{2\pi ^2}m_i^2TK_2(m_i/T)\mathrm{exp}(B_i\mu /T).$$
(2)
With the particular form of the partition function given by Eq. (1) the density $`n_s`$ of particle $`i`$ with strangeness $`s`$ in volume $`V`$ is obtained by the replacement $`Z_i\lambda _iZ_i`$ in Eq. (1) and then taking an appropriate derivative :

$`n_{\pm s}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N_{\pm s}}{V}}{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _i}{V_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}Z_0}{\lambda _i}}|_{\lambda _i=1}Z_{\pm s}{\displaystyle \frac{(S_{\pm 1})^s}{(S_{+1}S_1)^{s/2}}}`$ (3)
$`\{I_s(x_1)I_0(x_2)+{\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}I_m(x_2)[I_{2m+|s|}(x_1)A^{m/2}+I_{2m|s|}(x_1)A^{m/2}]\}/Z_0`$
where

$$x_k2\sqrt{S_kS_k},A\frac{S_1^2S_2}{S_1^2S_2},$$
(4)
and the partition function

$$Z_0I_0(x_1)I_0(x_2)+\underset{m=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}I_{2m}(x_1)I_m(x_2)[A^{m/2}+A^{m/2}].$$
(5)
In the derivation of Eq. (3) we have neglected, after differentiation over particle fugacity, the term $`S_{\pm 3}`$. This approximation, however, due to small value of $`S_{\pm 3}`$ coefficients in comparison with $`S_{\pm 1}\mathrm{and}S_{\pm 2}`$ is quite satisfactory. The complete expression for the partition function without any approximation can be found in reference .

Due to the locality of strangeness conservation, we have introduced two volume parameters, $`V`$ and $`V_0`$ in Eq. (3) . The parameter $`V`$ describes the volume of the system at freeze out, thus $`V`$ is also the overall normalization factor which fixes the particle multiplicity from the corresponding density. The volume $`V_0`$ is interpreted as a correlation volume where particles are created to fulfill the requirement of local conservation of quantum numbers. It was shown  that in the canonical description of particle production in low energy heavy ion collisions $`VV_0`$ is required to reproduce both the particle multiplicity ratios and the particle yields. The volume parameter $`V`$ scales with the total number of participants, $`VA_{part}`$, whereas $`V_0=4\pi R_0^3/3`$ where $`R_0(1.15\pm 0.05)A_p^{1/3}`$ with $`A_p`$ being the number of the projectile participants.

Comparing the result of Eq. (3) with the standard expression for the particle density in GC ensemble, one can see that the term multiplying $`Z_{\pm s}`$ in Eq. (3) plays the role of the strangeness fugacity . Indeed taking the limit for large $`x_i`$, in Eq. (3), that is the limit of high temperature and/or large $`V_0`$, the GC result for the particle density is recovered. In the opposite limit the C ensemble leads to a strong suppression of strange particle densities.

In Fig.1 we show the dependence of the density of strange particles on $`V_0`$ for fixed $`T=168`$ MeV and $`\mu =266`$ MeV. In order to illustrate the enhancement with increasing volume and strangeness content of the particle we show in Fig.1 the density of $`\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ baryons normalized to its value calculated in the volume $`V_0=\overline{V_0}=7.4`$ fm3, as a function of $`V_0/\overline{V_0}`$. It is clear from Fig.1 that the particle densities are increasing with the size of the system. For sufficiently large $`V_0`$ the densities are saturating which indicates that the GC limit is reached. The enhancement is seen to increase with the strangeness content of the particle and obviously depends on the choice of $`\overline{V_0}`$. Keeping the value of baryon chemical potential and/or temperature as being $`V_0`$ independent, the enhancement of antibaryons is similar to the one seen in Fig.1 for baryons. Thus, the possible asymmetry in enhancement for strange baryons and antibaryons when going from small to large system requires $`\mu `$ and/or $`T`$ to be $`V_0`$ dependent.

In the following section we will discuss to what extend the above model can be used to understand strangeness enhancement versus centrality for baryon and antibaryons reported by the WA97 collaboration.

## 3 Comparison with the Experimental Data

It is seen in Fig.1 that the model reproduce the main features of centrality dependence of strangeness enhancement in the WA97 data. The quantitative comparison of the model with the experimental data require, however, a particular choice of the parameters, that is: the temperature $`T`$, the volume $`V_0`$ and the baryon chemical potential $`\mu `$. We have used for Pb-Pb collisions: $`T=168`$ MeV and $`\mu =266`$ MeV, the values which have been shown  to give a good description of all data on particle multiplicity ratios measured by the NA49 and WA97 experiments. In general temperature and chemical potential could vary with $`V_0`$ that is also with $`A_p`$. From previous analysis we know  that for the same collision energy the temperature variations with $`A_{part}`$ is small. Thus, we keep $`T`$ to be the same for both, p-Be and Pb-Pb systems. The chemical potential, however, as discussed in the previous section, has to be taken as $`A_{part}`$ dependent since the data are showing larger enhancement for strange than for antistrange baryons. This indicates lower value of $`\mu `$ in p-Be than in Pb-Pb system. We use $`\overline{\mu }`$ in p-Be as a free parameter which is chosen to reproduce the enhancement asymmetry between $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}^+`$ or simply the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}/\overline{\mathrm{\Xi }}^+`$ ratio measured in p-Be collisions.

Following the interpretation of $`V_0`$, described in the previous section, we chose $`R_01.2`$ fm in p-Be that is $`V_0=\overline{V}_0`$. To make a quantitative comparison of the model with the experimental data we are left with only one parameter, the effective chemical potential $`\overline{\mu }`$ in p-Be which was taken to be 150 MeV. This value is required in comparison with $`\mu =266`$ MeV in Pb-Pb in order to obtain the correct splitting between baryons and antibaryons of the enhancement factors without affecting the average enhancement factors.

In Fig.2 we show the densities calculated in C ensemble for large $`V_0`$ normalized to its value at $`\overline{V}_0`$ in to p-Be system. This corresponds to the experimental comparison of yield/participant of Pb-Pb to p-Be system. The full lines in Fig.2 are calculated from Eq.(3) by varying $`V_0`$ and keeping $`\mu =266`$ MeV. The change of $`V_0`$ with centrality in Pb-Pb collisions is included relating $`V_0=4\pi R_0^3/3`$ with $`A_{part}`$ through, $`R_01.2(A_{part}/2)^{1/3}`$, which determines approximately the number of projectile participants.

The actual path from grand canonical to canonical result for the particle densities would required an additional knowledge of $`A_{part}`$ dependence of chemical potential which is effectively changing from 266 MeV in Pb-Pb to 150 MeV in p-Be system. Formulating, in addition to strangeness, also baryon number conservation canonically, the path from GC to C result as a function of $`V_0`$ can be established . In the simplified model, presented here, where baryon number conservation was introduced effectively trough chemical potential we can only study the relative enhancement of strange baryon densities from small p-Be to large Pb-Pb system.

The result presented in Fig.2 shows that the relative enhancement of strange baryon and antibaryon yield/participant from p-Be to Pb-Pb, found experimentally, can be well described by the effect of canonical suppression and the change of $`\mu `$ from 266 MeV in Pb-Pb to 150 MeV in p-Be collisions. The enhancement appears in the model to be almost saturated for $`A_{part}100`$ which indicates that the system is close to its GC limit. The enhancement pattern for different strange baryons and antibaryons densities is also understood within the model as a consequence of different dependence on $`V_0`$. In the large system like Pb-Pb, and for large collision energy required to maintain high $`T`$, the density $`n_s`$ of particle carrying strangeness $`s`$, is $`V_0`$ independent. In the opposite limit, however, this dependence is changed to $`n_sV_0^s`$ which can be verified from Eq. (3). For small $`x_i`$ we have approximately:

$$n_{\pm s}Z_{\pm s}\frac{(S_{\pm 1})^s}{(S_{+1}S_1)^{s/2}}\frac{I_s(x_1)}{I_0(x_1)}.$$
(6)
Expanding the Bessel functions $`I_n(x)x^n`$ in Eq. (6) we see that $`n_sV_0^s`$.

The variation of $`V_0`$ with the number of projectile participants and the assumption that $`VV_0`$ is also justified by the data. Indeed the recent data of the WA97 collaboration show that strange particle yield/$`A_{part}`$ is independent on $`A_{part}`$ in p-A collisions. This is well reproduced by canonical treatment since $`V_0`$ is the same for all A in p-A collisions. If one could, however, take $`V=V_0`$ then, since $`VA_{part}`$, a strong variation with $`A_{part}`$ of strange particle densities should be observed in p-A collisions when changing A. In addition this variation would depends on the strangeness content of the particle which is not experimentally observed in p-A. Thus from the point of view of the considered canonical model, p-Be and p-Pb are the same system with the only difference being contained in slightly larger $`\overline{\mu }`$ in p-Pb then p-Be. We found that the chemical potential in p-Pb increases by about 10$`\%`$ with respect to p-Be. This explains similar excess of particle yield/$`A_{part}`$ in Pb-Pb relative to p-Be and p-Pb collisions.

Until now we have assumed that p-A as well as Pb-Pb system can be described by the statistical model in chemical equilibrium. For Pb-Pb collisions chemical equilibrium assumption has been found to give a good agreement of the model with the experimental data . In p-A collisions, however, due to small time scale, deviations from strangeness chemical saturation cannot be excluded. In a previous analysis  of particle production in $`\mathrm{p}\mathrm{p}`$, $`\mathrm{p}\overline{\mathrm{p}}`$ and $`e^+e^{}`$ collisions in terms of C ensemble strangeness under saturation was accounted for by introducing an additional parameter $`\gamma `$ which measures deviation of strangeness from full equilibrium . Also in this approach $`V_0`$ was assumed to coincide with $`V`$. In the following we discuss how the possible out of chemical equilibrium together with the $`V=V_0A_{part}`$ assumption will modify our results and conclusions.

To introduce non-equilibrium effects via $`\gamma `$ parameter is quite straightforward . It amounts to the replacement $`S_{\pm s}\gamma ^sS_{\pm s}`$ in Eq. (3). First we observe that applying the limit $`x_i0`$ in Eq. (6) the density $`n_s`$ of particle with strangeness $`s`$, scales as $`(\gamma ^2V)^s`$. For larger $`x_i`$ we found that, in the parameter range relevant for p-A system, this dependence is changed approximately to $`n_s(\gamma ^{2.7}V)^s`$. Thus, keeping $`\gamma ^{2.7}V=\overline{V}_0`$, the value used in equilibrium model, we can as well reproduce the experimental data shown in Fig.2 in non-equilibrium formulation. In this approach, however, in order to reproduce experimentally observed linear dependence of strange particle yields with $`A_{part}`$ in p-A collisions , one needs, for each value of $`A_{part}`$, to adjust $`\gamma `$ such that $`\gamma ^{2.7}A_{part}=const`$. Obviously, this requires a decreasing $`\gamma `$ with $`A_{part}`$. In general, one would rather expect the opposite behavior. In order to ovoid, however, the possible ambiguity with respect to strangeness undersaturation factor $`\gamma `$ one needs to perform an additional detailed analysis in proton induced collisions for different targets and collision energies. This analysis could possibly settle to what extend there is a need for genuine global strangeness enhancement related with the change in $`\gamma `$ between p-A and A-B collisions.

## 4 Summary

We have used the comprehensive set of the recent results of the WA97 collaboration on the production of strange and multistrange hadrons in p-A and Pb-Pb collisions in order to check the validity of statistical model description of strangeness enhancement centrality dependence. The statistical model was verified to give a good agreement with all experimental data in A-A collisions at SPS energies. From the point of view of statistical mechanics the application of the model for smaller system like p-A requires obvious modifications. In the large system strangeness is conserved on the average, thus it is controlled by strange chemical potential in the grand canonical ensemble. In the small system, however, strangeness conservation laws must strictly be obeyed in each single collision which requires canonical ensemble. We have shown that the required passage from grand canonical to canonical ensemble reproduces the basic features of strangeness suppression from Pb-Pb to p-Be or p-Pb collisions reported by WA97 collaboration. The observed asymmetry in the enhancement of strange baryons and antibaryons requires additional assumption on $`A_{part}`$ dependence of baryon chemical potential $`\mu `$. We have shown that with the particular choice of $`\mu `$ asymmetry in p-A and Pb-Pb systems the model provides good quantitative description of the data.

Deviation from chemical equilibrium has been included in our discussion only in p- A system. Recently an interesting non-equilibrium model for the description of particle production in A-B collisions has been proposed . The interpretation of centrality dependence of strangeness enhancement in a consistent non-equilibrium picture would require additional analysis not presented in this paper.

### Acknowledgment

We acknowledge stimulating discussions with Rolf Hagedorn and Ulrich Heinz. One of us (K.R) also acknowleges interesting comments by E. Suhonen and the partial support of LPTHE, Université Paris 6 and 7, Unité Mixte de Recherche du CNRS, UMR 7589, and of Committee for Scientific Research (KBN-2P03B 03018).


text:
# Answer to the Comment about the Letter entitled “Scalar fields as dark matter in spiral galaxies”

The comment about reference  starts with false arguments and therefore the conclusions of the comment are wrong. Nevertheless, the arguments used by the author are often motive of confusions and it is worth to publish this answer in order to avoid misunderstandings in the future.

It is well known that there are no non-singular asymptotically flat, static solutions to the coupled Einstein Scalar Field theory. However, as it is discussed in , the space-time of a galaxy cannot be asymptotically flat, otherwise, the rotation curves of the galaxy would decay. Observations show that rotation curves in galaxies grow up for larger radii or remain flat, but in general they do not decay. The “source” of the scalar field should therefore provoke a non-asymptotically flat space-time as well. The space-time of the paper  is singular only for $`r=0`$, but as it is specified in it, it pretends to be only the metric of the dark matter dominated region. The study of the center of the galaxy is much more complicated because we do not have any direct observation of it. If we follow the hypothesis of the scalar dark matter, we cannot expect that the center of a galaxy is made of “ordinary” matter, we expect that it contains baryons, self-interacting scalar fields, etc. There the density contrast of baryonic matter and scalar dark matter is the same (see ) and their states are in extreme conditions. As long as we know, there are no existence-uniqueness theorems for non-asymptotically flat, axial symmetric space-times under these conditions.

Furthermore, the energy conditions are no longer valid in nature, as it is shown by cosmological observations on the dark energy. Why should the energy conditions be valid in a so extreme state of matter like it is observed in the center of galaxies? If dark matter is of scalar nature, why should it fulfill the energy conditions in such extreme situation? As long as we know, there is no uniqueness theorem in the presence of matter like in this situation either.

The second objection of the author is related with the geodesics of the metric. In fact, this point is not clear enough in the paper , but its statement is not new, it was discussed in  and maybe it could be the reason to publish the comment. In  we found that if the dark matter is scalar, either the scalar potential vanishes or the velocities of the stars are luminal. This is equivalent to the statement of the author of the comment. However, even when the luminous matter only represents about 5-10% of the whole matter of the galaxy, it is crucial for its stability. The geodesic equations of the metric (21) of reference (representing only the dark matter component) in the equatorial plane read

$$\frac{d^2D}{d\tau ^2}D\left(\frac{d\varphi }{d\tau }\right)^2+f_0^2c^2D\left(\frac{dt}{d\tau }\right)^2=0,\frac{d\varphi }{d\tau }=\frac{B}{D^2f_0},\frac{dt}{d\tau }=\frac{A}{c^2D^2f_0}$$
(1)
where $`\tau `$ is the proper time of the test particle and $`D=𝑑s=\sqrt{(r^2+b^2)/f_0}`$ is the proper distance of the test particle at the equator from the galactic center (we set $`a=0,`$ and $`r_0=1`$). Observe that for a circular trajectory it follows

$$\frac{d\varphi }{dt}=f_0c=c^2\frac{B}{A}$$
(2)
Moreover $`B=f_0cD`$ along the whole galaxy. The first of equations (1) is the second Newton’s law for particles travelling onto the scalar field background. We can interpret

$$\frac{d^2D}{d\tau ^2}=D\left(\frac{d\varphi }{d\tau }\right)^2f_0^2c^2D\left(\frac{dt}{d\tau }\right)^2=\frac{B^2}{D^3f_0^2}\frac{A^2}{c^2D^3}=\frac{c^2}{D}\frac{A^2}{c^2D^3}$$
(3)
as the force due to the scalar field background, i.e. $`F_\mathrm{\Phi }=c^2/DA^2/\left(c^2D^3\right)`$. Using the expression for $`A`$ given in equation (16) of , we can write this force in terms of $`v`$

$$F_\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{v^2}{D\left(f_0^2D^2v^2/c^2\right)}$$

which corresponding potential is

$$V_\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{1}{2}c^2\mathrm{ln}\left(f_0^2\frac{1}{D^2}\frac{v^2}{c^2}\right)$$
(4)
Of course, as the author of the comment pointed out, this potential corresponds to non stable trayectories. Nevertheless, $`v^2/c^210^6`$, and $`f_00.01`$ $`kpc^1`$, this means that potential $`V_\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is almost constant for $`D0.3`$ $`kpc`$, which corresponds to the region where the solution is valid. At the other hand, we know that the luminous matter is completely Newtonian. The Newtonian force due to the luminous matter is given by $`F_L=GM(D)/D^2=v_L^2/D=B_L^2/D^3`$, where $`v_L`$ is the circular velocity of the test particle due to the contribution of the luminous matter, given by equation (23) in  and $`B_L=B_L(D)`$ is its corresponding angular momentum per unit of mass, given by equation (24) in . The total force acting on the test particle is then $`F=F_L+F_\mathrm{\Phi }.`$ For circular trajectories $`d^2D/d\tau ^2=F=0`$, then

$$F=\frac{B_L^2}{D^3}\frac{A^2}{c^2D^3}+\frac{c^2}{D}=0$$
(5)
which is just equation (18) of reference . The corresponding potential is then $`V=V_L+V_\mathrm{\Phi }`$, but for the regions where $`D0.3`$ $`kpc`$, potential $`V`$ is dominated by the behavior of $`V_L`$, which contains stable circular trayectories, like in a galaxy. Therefore the argument of the author of the comment is false, he is not considering the luminous matter in his analysis. Of course, without luminous matter (without a galaxy) the system is unstable.
For regions with $`D0.3`$ $`kpc`$ the solution in not valid any more due to the approximations we have carried out.

Therefore the last conclusion of the comment is completely wrong, the hypothesis of the scalar dark matter is well justified at galactic level (see also ) and at the cosmological level too . But at this moment it is only that, a hypothesis which is worth to be investigated.