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# COVERING GROUPS OF NON-CONNECTED TOPOLOGICAL GROUPS REVISITED

## Introduction

All spaces are assumed to be locally path connected and semi-locally 1-connected. Let $`X`$ be a connected topological group with identity $`e`$, and let $`p:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ be the universal cover of the underlying space of $`X`$. It follows easily from classical properties of lifting maps to covering spaces that for any point $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ in $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ with $`p\stackrel{~}{e}=e`$ there is a unique structure of topological group on $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{e}`$ is the identity and $`p:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ is a morphism of groups. We say that the structure of topological group on $`X`$ lifts to $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$.

It is less generally appreciated that this result fails for the non-connected case. The set $`\pi _0X`$ of path components of $`X`$ forms a non-trivial group which acts on the abelian group $`\pi _1(X,e)`$ via conjugation in $`X`$. R.L. Taylor  showed that the topological group $`X`$ determines an obstruction class $`k_X`$ in $`H^3(\pi _0X,\pi _1(X,e))`$, and that the vanishing of $`k_X`$ is a necessary and sufficient condition for the lifting of the topological group structure on $`X`$ to a universal covering so that the projection is a morphism. Further, recent work, for example Huebschmann , shows there are geometric applications of the non-connected case.

The purpose of this paper is to prove generalisations of this result on coverings of topological groups using modern work on coverings of groupoids (see for example, Higgins , Brown ), via the following scheme. We first use the fact that covering spaces of space $`X`$ are equivalent to covering morphisms of the fundamental groupoid $`\pi _1X`$ (section 1). This extends easily to the group case: if $`X`$ is a topological group, then the fundamental groupoid inherits a group structure making it what is called a group-groupoid, i.e. a group object in the category of groupoids; then topological group coverings of $`X`$ are equivalent to group-groupoid coverings of $`\pi _1X`$ (Proposition 2.3).

The next input is the equivalence between group-groupoids, and crossed modules (Brown and Spencer ). Here a crossed module is a morphism $`\mu :MP`$ of groups together with an action of the group $`P`$ on the group $`M`$, with two axioms satisfied. It is easy to translate notions from covering morphisms of group-groupoids to corresponding notions for crossed modules (Proposition 4.2).

The existence of simply connected covering groups of a topological group now translates to the existence of extensions of groups of “the type of a given crossed module” (Definition 5.1). This generalisation of the classical extension theory is due to Taylor  and Dedecker . We formulate a corresponding notion of abstract kernels (Theorem 5.2), analogous to that due to Eilenberg-Mac Lane . This leads to our main result, Theorem 5.4, which determines when a morphism $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }\pi _0X`$ of groups is realised by a covering morphism $`p:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ of topological groups such that $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ is simply connected with $`\pi _0X`$ isomorphic to $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. We deduce that any topological group $`X`$ admits a simply connected covering group covering all the components of $`X`$ (Corollary 5.6). According to comments in , results of this type were known to Taylor.

Our proof of Theorem 5.2 uses methods of crossed complexes, as in Brown and Higgins . This seems the natural setting for these results, since crossed complexes contain information on resolutions and on crossed modules. The exposition is analogous to that of Berrick  for the ordinary theory of extensions, in that fibrations are used, but in the algebraic context of crossed complexes. A direct account of a special case of these results, in the context of Lie groupoids, is given by Mackenzie in , and this account could also be adapted to the general case.

Section 6 deals with coverings other than simply connected ones.

The results of this paper formed part of Part I of Mucuk .

## 1 Groupoids and coverings

The main tool is the equivalence between covering maps of a topological space $`X`$ and covering morphisms of the fundamental groupoid $`\pi _1X`$ of $`X`$. Our main reference for groupoids and this result is Brown  but we adopt the following notations and conventions.

A topological space $`X`$ is called simply connected if each loop in $`X`$ is contractible in $`X`$, and $`X`$ is called 1-connected if it is connected and simply connected. A map $`f:XY`$ is called $`\pi _0`$-proper if $`\pi _0(f)`$ is a bijection.

If $`X`$ is a topological space, the category $`TCov/X`$ of covering spaces of $`X`$ is the full subcategory of the slice category $`Top/X`$ of spaces over $`X`$ in which the objects are the covering maps. It is standard that if $`h:YZ`$ is a map in $`TCov/X`$, i.e. is a map over $`X`$, then $`h`$ is a covering map. Further, if $`f:YX`$ is a covering map such that $`Y`$ is simply connected, then for any other cover $`g:ZX`$, there is a covering map $`h:YZ`$ over $`X`$. This is summarised by saying that $`Y`$ covers any other cover of $`X`$, and a covering map with this property is called universal. A necessary and sufficient condition for this is that $`Y`$ be simply-connected.

For a groupoid $`G`$, we write $`O_G`$ for the set of objects of $`G`$, and $`G`$ for the set of arrows, or elements. We write $`s,t:GO_G`$ for the source and target maps. The product $`gh`$ is defined if and only if $`tg=sh`$. The identity at $`xO_G`$ is written $`1_x`$. The inverse of an element $`g`$ is written $`g^1`$.

The category of groupoids and morphisms of groupoids is written $`Gd`$.

For $`xO_G`$ we denote the star $`\{gGsg=x\}`$ of $`x`$ by $`G^x`$, and the costar $`\{gGtg=x\}`$ of $`x`$ by $`G_x`$, and write $`G_y^x`$ for $`G^xG_y`$. The object group at $`x`$ is $`G(x)=G_x^x`$. An element of some $`G_x^x`$ is called a loop of $`G`$.

We say $`G`$ is transitive (resp. 1-transitive, simply transitive) if for all $`x,yO_G`$, $`G(x,y)`$ is non-empty (resp. is a singleton, has not more than one element). The transitive component of an object $`x`$ of $`G`$ is the largest transitive subgroupoid of $`G`$ with $`x`$ as an object, and is written $`C(G,x)`$. The set of transitive components of $`G`$ is written $`\pi _0G`$. A morphism $`p`$ of groupoids is called $`\pi _0`$-proper if $`\pi _0(p)`$ is a bijection.

Covering morphisms and universal covering groupoids of a groupoid are defined in Brown  (see also Higgins , Brown ) as follows:

Let $`p:HG`$ be a morphism of groupoids. Then $`p`$ is called a covering morphism if for each $`xO_H`$, the restriction $`G^xG^{px}`$ of $`p`$ is bijective. The covering morphism $`p`$ is called regular if for all objects $`x`$ of $`G`$ and all $`gG(x)`$ the elements of $`p^1(g)`$ are all or none of them loops. This is equivalent to the condition that for all objects $`y`$ of $`H`$, the subgroup $`pH(y)`$ of $`G(py)`$ is a normal subgroup .

If $`G`$ is a groupoid, the category $`GdCov/G`$ of coverings of $`G`$ is the full subcategory of the slice category $`Gd/G`$ of groupoids over $`G`$ in which the objects are the covering morphisms.

A covering morphism $`p:HG`$ is called universal if $`H`$ covers every covering of $`G`$, i.e. if for every covering morphism $`a:AG`$ there is a morphism of groupoids $`a^{}:HA`$ such that $`aa^{}=p`$ (and hence $`a^{}`$ is also a covering morphism). It is common to consider universal covering morphisms which are $`\pi _0`$-proper.

We recall the following standard result (Brown , Chapter 9), which summarises the theory of covering spaces.

###### Proposition 1.1

For any space $`X`$, the fundamental groupoid functor defines an equivalence of categories

$$\pi _1:TCov/XGdCov/(\pi _1X).$$

One crucial step in the proof of this equivalence is the result (Brown , 9.5.5) that if $`q:H\pi _1X`$ is a covering morphism of groupoids, then there is a topology on $`O_H`$ such that $`O_q:O_HX`$ is a covering map, and there is an isomorphism $`\alpha :\pi _1O_HH`$ such that $`q\alpha =\pi _1(O_q)`$. This result, which translates the usual covering space theory into a more base-point free context, yields the inverse equivalence.

We also remark that the universal cover of $`X`$ at $`xX`$ is given by the target map $`(\pi _1X)^xX`$with the subspace topology from a topology on $`\pi _1X`$ .

Recall that an action of a groupoid $`G`$ on sets via $`w`$ consists of a function $`w:AO_G`$, where $`A`$ is a set, and an assignment to each $`gG(x,y)`$ of a function $`g_{\mathrm{}}:w^1(x)w^1(y)`$, written $`aag`$, satisfying the usual rules for an action, namely $`a1=a`$, $`a(gh)=(ag)h`$ when defined. A morphism $`f:(A,w)(A^{},w^{})`$ of such actions is a function $`f:AA^{}`$ such that $`w^{}f=w`$ and $`f(ag)=(fa)g`$ whenever $`ag`$ is defined. This gives a category $`Act(G)`$ of actions of $`G`$ on sets. For such an action, the action groupoid $`AG`$ is defined to have object set $`A`$, arrows the pairs $`(a,g)`$ such that $`w(a)=sg`$, source and target maps $`s(a,g)=a`$, $`t(a,g)=ag`$, and composition

$$(a,g)(b,h)=(a,gh)$$

whenever $`b=ag`$. The projection $`q:AGG`$, $`(a,g)g`$, is a covering morphism of groupoids, and the functor sending an action to this covering morphism gives an equivalence of categories $`Act(G)GdCov/G`$. (See for example Brown .)

Let $`x`$ be an object of the transitive groupoid $`G`$, and let $`N(x)`$ be a subgroup of the object group $`G(x)`$. Then $`G`$ acts on the set $`A`$ of cosets $`N(x)g`$ for $`gG^x`$, via the map $`N(x)gtg`$. So we can form the corresponding covering morphism $`p:HG`$, where $`H=AG`$, and the object $`\stackrel{~}{x}=N(x)`$ of $`H`$ satisfies $`p(H(\stackrel{~}{x}))=N(x)`$. This construction yields an equivalence of categories between the lattice $`G(x)`$ of subgroups of $`G(x)`$ and the category of pointed transitive coverings of $`G,x`$.

Suppose further that $`aG_y^x`$, $`N(y)=a^1N(x)a`$, and $`q:KG`$ is the covering of $`G`$ determined as above by $`N(y)`$, with $`\stackrel{~}{y}O_K`$ satisfying $`q[K(\stackrel{~}{y})]=N(y)`$. Then there is a unique isomorphism $`h:HK`$ such that $`qh=p`$ and $`h\stackrel{~}{z}=\stackrel{~}{y}`$. That is, conjugate subgroups of a transitive groupoid $`G`$ determine isomorphic coverings, and we obtain an equivalence of categories between the lattice of conjugacy classes of subgroups of $`G`$ and the isomorphism classes of transitive coverings of $`G`$.

If $`G`$ is not transitive then $`\pi _0`$-proper coverings may be constructed by working on each transitive component. We choose a transversal for the set $`I=\pi _0G`$ of components of $`G`$, i.e. an object $`\tau _i`$ for each component $`G_i`$ of $`G`$, choose a subgroup $`N(\tau _i)G(\tau _i)`$, and get a covering $`\stackrel{~}{G_i}G_i`$ for each component $`G_i`$ of $`G`$. The disjoint union of these coverings is a covering $`p:\stackrel{~}{G}G`$, which is universal if and only if all the $`N(\tau _i)`$ are trivial groups.

## 2 Group-groupoids and covering morphisms

The notion of group-groupoid, and the first parts of Propositions 2.1 and 2.3 below are taken from Brown-Spencer , although the term used there is $`𝒢`$-groupoid.

By a group-groupoid we mean a groupoid $`G`$ with a morphism of groupoids $`G\times GG`$, $`(g,h)gh`$, yielding a group structure internal to the category of groupoids. Since the multiplication is a morphism of groupoids, we obtain the interchange law, that $`(ag)(bh)=(ab)(gh)`$, for all $`g,h,a,bG`$ such that $`ag`$ and $`bh`$ are defined. If the identity for the group structure on $`O_G`$ is written $`e`$, then $`1_e`$ is the identity for the group structure on the arrows. The group inverse of an arrow $`g`$ is written $`\overline{g}`$. Then $`g\overline{g}`$ is a morphism $`GG`$ of groupoids.

It is a standard consequence of the interchange law that the groupoid composition in a group-groupoid can be recovered from the group law, as shown in the first part of the following proposition.

###### Proposition 2.1

Let G be a group-groupoid, and suppose $`ab`$ is defined in G , where $`aG(x,y)`$. Then $`ab=a\overline{1}_yb`$. If further $`gG(e)`$, then

$$a(1_yg)a^1=1_xg,$$

and

$$ag\overline{a}=1_xg\overline{1}_x.$$

Further, G(e) is abelian.

Proof Suppose $`ta=y`$. Then

$`ab`$ $`=((a\overline{1}_y)1_y)(1_eb)`$
$`=((a\overline{1}_y)1_e)(1_yb)`$
$`=a\overline{1}_yb.`$
Further

$`a(1_yg)a^1`$ $`=a((1_yg)(a^11_e))`$ $`=a((1_ya^1)(g1_e))`$
$`=a(a^1g)`$ $`=(a1_e)(a^1g)`$
$`=(aa^1)(1_eg)`$ $`=1_xg.`$
On the other hand
$`a(1_yg)a^1`$ $`=(a\overline{1}_y1_yg)a^1`$ $`=(ag)(1_y\overline{a}1_x)`$
$`=ag\overline{1}_y1_y\overline{a}1_x`$ $`=ag\overline{a}1_x.`$
Hence $`ag\overline{a}=1_xg\overline{1}_x`$. That $`ag=g=ga`$ for $`a,gG(e)`$ is immediate. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Corollary 2.2

Let $`N(e)`$ be a subgroup of $`G(e)`$, and let $`N`$ be the family of subsets $`N(x)=1_xN(e)`$ for all $`xO_G`$. Then $`N(x)`$ is a normal subgroupoid of $`G`$. In particular, all the object groups of $`G`$ are isomorphic, and are abelian.

Proof That $`N(x)`$ is a subgroup follows from

$$1_x(ba)=(1_x1_x)(ba)=(1_xb)(1_xa),$$

for $`b,aN(x)`$. The normality follows from the second formula of the Proposition, on taking $`gN(e)`$. It is immediate that all the object groups are isomorphic. $`\mathrm{}`$

This result implies that all coverings of a group-groupoid are regular. It also shows that a choice $`\tau `$ of transversal for the components of a group-groupoid $`G`$ induces an equivalence between the category $`G(e)`$ of subgroups of $`G(e)`$ under inclusion and the category of isomorphism classes of $`\pi _0`$-proper coverings of $`G`$.

We now consider coverings in the category of group-groupoids.

A morphism of group-groupoids is a morphism of the underlying groupoids which preserves the group structure. Then group-groupoids and morphisms of them form a category which we will denote by $`GpGd`$. Let $`G`$ be a group-groupoid. Then $`GpGdCov/G`$ denotes the full subcategory of the slice category $`GpGd/G`$ whose objects are group-groupoids $`p:HG`$ over $`G`$ such that $`p`$ is a covering morphism of the underlying groupoids.

We can now translate Proposition 1.1 to this situation.

###### Proposition 2.3

Let X be a topological group. Then the fundamental groupoid $`\pi _1X`$ is a group-groupoid with group structure induced by that of X . Further, the fundamental groupoid functor $`\pi _1`$ gives an equivalence from the category $`GpTCov/X`$ to the category $`GpGd/\pi _1X`$.

Proof We show that the inverse equivalence of Proposition 1.1 determines an inverse equivalence in this case also.

Suppose then that $`q:H\pi _1X`$ is a morphism of group-groupoids such that the underlying groupoid morphism is a covering morphism. Then there is a topology on $`\stackrel{~}{X}=O_H`$ and an isomorphism $`\alpha :\pi _1\stackrel{~}{X}H`$ such that $`p=O_q:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ is a covering map and $`q\alpha =\pi _1(p)`$. The group structure on $`H`$ transports via $`\alpha `$ to a morphism of groupoids

$$\stackrel{~}{m}:\pi _1\stackrel{~}{X}\times \pi _1\stackrel{~}{X}\pi _1\stackrel{~}{X}$$

such that $`\pi _1(p)\stackrel{~}{m}=m(\pi _1(p)\times \pi _1(p))`$, where $`m`$ is the group multiplication on $`X`$, and clearly $`\stackrel{~}{m}`$ is a group structure on $`\pi _1\stackrel{~}{X}`$. By 9.5.5 of Brown , $`\stackrel{~}{m}`$ induces a continuous map on $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$. This gives the multiplication on $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$. The fact that this is a group structure follows from the fact that $`\stackrel{~}{m}`$ is a group structure. $`\mathrm{}`$

## 3 Actions of group-groupoids on groups

In this section we relate group-groupoid covering morphisms to a notion of action of a group-groupoid on a group. The results are a special case of results of Section 1 of Brown and Mackenzie , and are included here for completeness.

Let $`G`$ be a group-groupoid. An action  of the group-groupoid $`G`$ on a group $`A`$ via $`w`$ consists of a morphism $`w:AG`$ from the group $`A`$ to the underlying group of $`O_G`$ and an action of the groupoid $`G`$ on the underlying set $`A`$ via $`w`$ such that the following interchange law holds:

$$(ag)(bh)=(ab)(gh)$$

whenever both sides are defined. A morphism $`f:(A,w)(A^{},w^{})`$ of such operations is a morphism $`f:AA^{}`$ of groups and of the underlying operations of $`G`$. This gives a category $`GpGdAct(G)`$. For an action of $`G`$ on the group $`A`$ via $`w`$, the action groupoid $`AG`$ is defined. It inherits a group structure by

$$(a,g)(c,k)=(ac,gk).$$

It is easily checked that $`AG`$ is then a group-groupoid, and the projection $`p:AGG`$ is an object of the category $`GpGd/G`$. By means of this construction, one obtains the following, which is a special case of Theorem 1.7 of Brown and Mackenzie  which considers the case of actions of Lie double groupoids.

###### Proposition 3.1

The categories GpGdCov/G and GpGdAct(G) are equivalent.

## 4 Group-groupoids and crossed modules

A crossed module $`(M,P,\mu )`$ is defined in Whitehead  to consist of two groups $`M`$ and $`P`$ together with a homomorphism $`\mu :MP`$, and an action of $`P`$ on $`M`$ on the right, written $`(m,p)m^p`$, such that the following conditions are satisfied:

CM1) $`\mu (mp)=p^1(\mu m)p`$

CM2) $`n^{\mu m}=m^1nm`$

for all $`m,nM`$ and $`pP`$.

Standard examples of crossed modules are:

1. the inclusion $`MP`$ of a normal subgroup,
2. the zero morphism $`MP`$ when $`M`$ is a P-module,
3. the inner automorphism map $`\chi _M:M\mathrm{Aut}rM`$ for any group $`M`$,
4. a morphism $`MP`$ of groups which is surjective and has central kernel,
5. the free crossed $`P`$-module $`C(w)P`$ arising from a function $`w:RP`$ (see Brown and Huebschmann ),
6. the induced morphism $`\pi _1(F,x)\pi _1(E,x)`$ of fundamental groups for any fibration of spaces $`FEB`$.

Standard consequences of the axioms (see for example ) are that $`\mu M`$ is a normal subgroup of $`P`$, that $`Ker\mu `$ is central in $`M`$, and that $`\mu M`$ acts trivially on $`Ker\mu `$ which thereby becomes a module over $`Coker\mu `$.

A morphism $`(f,g):(M,P,\mu )(N,Q,\nu )`$ of crossed modules consists of group morphisms $`f:MN`$ and $`g:PQ`$ such that $`g\mu =\nu f`$ and $`f`$ is an operator homomorphism, that is, $`f(m^p)=fm^{(gp)}`$ for $`mM`$ and $`pP`$. So crossed modules and morphisms of them, with the obvious composition of morphisms $`(f^{},g^{})(f,g)=(f^{}f,g^{}g)`$, form a category, which we write $`CrsM`$.

The following theorem was found by Verdier in 1965, but not published, and found independently by Brown and Spencer . We give a sketch of the proof, since we need some of its detail.

###### Theorem 4.1

The category $`GpGd`$ of group-groupoids is equivalent to the category $`CrsM`$ of crossed modules. If a group-groupoid G has associated crossed module $`(M,P,\mu )`$ then the underlying groupoid of G is transitive (resp. simply transitive, 1-transitive) if and only if $`\mu `$ is an epimorphism (resp. a monomorphism, isomorphism). Further, the group $`\pi _0G`$ is $`Coker\mu `$.

Sketch Proof: A functor $`\delta :GpGdCrsM`$ is defined as follows. For a group-groupoid $`G`$ we let $`\delta (G)`$ be the crossed module $`(M,P,\mu )`$ where $`P`$ is the group $`O_G`$ of objects of $`G`$; $`M`$ is the costar $`G_e`$ of $`G`$ at the identity $`e`$ of the group $`O_G`$; $`\mu :MP`$ is the restriction of the source map $`s`$ ; the group structures on $`M`$ and $`P`$ are induced by that on $`G`$ ; and $`P`$ acts on $`M`$ by $`m^p`$ =$`\overline{1}_pm1_p`$ for $`pP`$ and $`mM`$. The results on transitivity follow immediately.

Conversely define a functor $`\beta :CrsMGpGd`$ in the following way. For a crossed module $`(M,P,\mu )`$, $`\beta (M,P,\mu )`$ is the group-groupoid whose object set (group) is $`P`$ and whose group of arrows is the semi-direct product $`PM`$ with the standard group structure

$$(p,m)(q,n)=(pq,m^qn).$$

The source and target maps $`s,t`$ are defined to be $`s(p,m)=p`$ and $`t(p,m)=p(\mu m)`$, while the composition of arrows is given by

$$(p,m)(q,n)=(p,mn)$$

whenever $`p(\mu m)=q`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

If $`X`$ is a topological group with identity $`e`$, then the fundamental groupoid $`\pi _1X`$ becomes a group-groupoid, the associated crossed module is $`t:(\pi _1X)^eX`$ (Brown and Spencer ), and $`(\pi _1X)^e`$ has a topology making it the universal cover based at $`e`$ of the path component of $`e`$.

It is easy to obtain results for morphisms of group-groupoids corresponding to Theorem 4.1, as follows.

###### Proposition 4.2

Let $`f:HG`$ be a morphism of group-groupoids and let $`(f_1,f_2):(N,Q,\nu )(M,P,\mu )`$ be the morphism of crossed modules corresponding to $`f`$ as in Theorem 4.1. Then, on underlying groupoids, $`f`$ is a covering morphism if and only if $`f_1:NM`$ is an isomorphism. Further, $`f`$ is a universal covering morphism if and only if $`f_1`$ is an isomorphism, $`\nu `$ is a monomorphism, and the induced morphism $`Coker\nu Coker\mu `$ is an isomorphism.

We therefore define a morphism $`(f_1,f_2)`$ of crossed modules as in the proposition to be a covering morphism if $`f_1`$ is an isomorphism, and so obtain a category $`CrsMCov/(MP)`$ of coverings of $`MP`$ as a full category of the slice category $`CrsM/(MP)`$.

###### Corollary 4.3

The category $`GTCov/X`$ of topological group coverings of a topological group $`X`$ is equivalent to the category $`CrsMCov/((\pi _1X)^eX)`$ of crossed module coverings of $`(\pi _1X)^eX`$.

## 5 Extensions, crossed modules and <br>cohomology

We now recall the notion of an extension of groups of the type of a crossed module, due to Taylor  and Dedecker . See also .

###### Definition 5.1

Let $``$ denote the crossed module $`\mu :MP`$. An extension $`(i,p,\sigma )`$ of type $``$  of the group $`M`$ by the group $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is first an exact sequence of groups

so that $`E`$ operates on $`M`$ by conjugation, and $`i:ME`$ is hence a crossed module. Second, there is given a morphism of crossed modules

i.e. $`\sigma i=\mu `$ and $`m^e=m^{\sigma e}`$, for all $`mM`$, $`eE`$.

Two such extensions of type $``$

are said to be equivalent if there is a morphism of exact sequences

such that $`\sigma ^{}\varphi =\sigma `$. Of course in this case $`\varphi `$ is an isomorphism, by the 5-lemma, and hence equivalence of extensions is an equivalence relation. Denote by $`\mathrm{Ext}_{}(\mathrm{\Phi },M)`$ the set of equivalence classes of all extensions of type $``$ of $`M`$ by $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$.

An extension of $`M`$ by $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ of type $``$ determines a morphism $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }Q`$, where $`Q=Coker\mu `$, which is dependent only on the equivalence class of the extension, and $`\theta `$ is here called the abstract $``$-kernel of the extension. The set of extension classes with a given abstract $``$-kernel $`\theta `$ is written $`\mathrm{Ext}_{(,\theta )}(G,M)`$.

The usual theory of extensions of a group $`M`$ by a group $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ considers extensions of the type of the crossed module $`\chi _M:M\mathrm{Aut}M`$. The advantages of replacing this by a general crossed module are first that the group $`\mathrm{Aut}M`$ is not a functor of $`M`$, so that the relevant cohomology theory in terms of $`\chi _M`$ appears to have no coefficient morphisms, and second, that the more general case occurs geometrically, as in  and in this paper.

We now show there is an obstruction to realizability, analogous to the classical result of Eilenberg-Mac Lane (\[17, Ch.V, Prop.8.3\]). The cohomology groups $`H_\theta ^{}(\mathrm{\Phi },A)`$ referred to here are defined later.

###### Theorem 5.2

Let $``$ be the crossed module $`\mu :MP`$ with $`A=Ker\mu ,Q=Coker\mu `$. Let $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }Q`$ be an abstract $``$-kernel . Then there is an obstruction class $`k(,\theta )H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },A)`$ whose vanishing is necessary and sufficient for there to exist an extension of M by $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ of type $``$ with abstract $``$-kernel $`\theta `$. Further, if the obstruction class is zero, then the equivalence classes of such extensions are bijective with $`H_\theta ^2(\mathrm{\Phi },A)`$.

We give an exposition of a proof of this theorem using the methods of crossed complexes as given for example in Brown and Higgins  or . The point is that crossed complexes allow for methods analogous to those of chain complexes as in standard homological algebra, but including non-abelian information of the type given by crossed modules. The obstruction result arises from an exact sequence of a fibration of crossed complexes. This allows us to give a proof analogous to that given for the classical case using topological methods by Berrick in . A direct proof may also be given by extending the methods of Mackenzie  to more general crossed modules than $`M\mathrm{Aut}(M)`$

We assume the definition of crossed complex as given for example in Brown and Higgins  or , and in particular the notion of pointed morphism. Recall that a reduced crossed complex has a single vertex. A homotopy $`h:fg`$ of pointed morphisms $`f,g:CD`$ of crossed complexes is a family of functions $`h_i:C_iD_{i+1}`$ such that

i) $`h_1:C_1D_2`$ is a derivation over $`g_1`$, that is,

$$h_1(x+y)=h_1(x)^{gy}+h_1(y),$$

where $`g(y)=g_1(y)`$, for $`x,yC_1`$.

ii) For $`n2`$, $`h_n:C_nD_{n+1}`$ is an operator morphism over $`g_1`$, that is,

$$h_n(x^a+y)=(h_nx)^{ga}+h_n(y),$$

where $`ga=g_1a`$.

iii) If $`xC_1`$, then

$$gx=fx\delta h_1x.$$

iv) If $`n2`$ and $`cC_n`$, then

$$gx=fxh_{n1}\delta x\delta h_nx.$$

We will also use the morphism crossed complex $`CRS_{}(C,D)`$ defined in Brown and Higgins  whose elements in dimension 0 are the pointed morphisms $`CD`$, in dimension 1 are the homotopies, and in higher dimensions are the “higher homotopies”.

A crossed module $`\mu :MP`$ can also be extended by trivial groups to give a crossed complex

$$\mathrm{}1\mathrm{}11MP.$$

Denote this crossed complex again by $``$.

Let $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ be a group. We write $`C\mathrm{\Phi }`$ for the standard crossed resolution of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. This is defined in Huebschmann  and shown in Brown and Higgins  to be the fundamental crossed complex of the (Kan) simplicial set, $`Nerv(\mathrm{\Phi })`$, the nerve of the group $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$.

Write $`[C\mathrm{\Phi },]`$ for the set of pointed homotopy classes of morphisms $`C\mathrm{\Phi }M`$.

###### Theorem 5.3

There is a bijection

$$[C\mathrm{\Phi },]\mathrm{Ext}_{}(\mathrm{\Phi },M).$$

The proof is given in Brown and Higgins . The key point is that $`C_1\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the free group on elements $`[g]`$, $`g\mathrm{\Phi }`$, $`C_2\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the free crossed $`C_1\mathrm{\Phi }`$-module on $`\delta :\mathrm{\Phi }\times \mathrm{\Phi }C_1\mathrm{\Phi }`$, where $`\delta (g,h)=[g][h][gh]^1`$, and, for $`i3`$, $`C_i\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the free $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-module on $`[g_1,\mathrm{},g_i]`$, for $`g_1,\mathrm{},g_i\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Further because of the form of the boundary morphism $`\delta :C_3\mathrm{\Phi }C_2\mathrm{\Phi }`$, a morphism $`C\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is equivalent to a factor set (with values in $``$), and a homotopy of morphisms is essentially an equivalence of factor sets.

Recall that $``$ is the crossed module $`\mu :MP`$, and $`A=Ker\mu `$, $`Q=Coker\mu `$. Let $`\xi `$, $`\zeta `$ denote the crossed complexes in the following diagram of morphisms of crossed complexes

where $`q`$ is determined by the quotient morphism $`PQ`$. Since $`q`$ is an epimorphism in each dimension, it is also a fibration of crossed complexes and therefore, since $`C\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is free, the induced morphism of morphism complexes

$$q_{}:CRS_{}(C\mathrm{\Phi },\xi )CRS_{}(C\mathrm{\Phi },\zeta )$$

is also a fibration of crossed complexes (Brown and Higgins , Prop.6.2). Since $`C\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is free and $`\xi M`$ is acyclic, there is an identification

$$\pi _0CRS_{}(C\mathrm{\Phi },\xi )Hom(\mathrm{\Phi },Q).$$

Further, each morphism $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }Q`$ determines an action of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ on $`A`$ and so a cohomology group $`H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },A)`$. Then $`\pi _0CRS_{}(C\mathrm{\Phi },\zeta )`$ is the union of all these cohomology groups for all such $`\theta `$. The function $`\pi _0(q_{})`$ takes a morphism $`\theta `$ to a cohomology class

$$k(,\theta )H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },A),$$

called the obstruction class of $`(,\theta )`$. If $`k:C\mathrm{\Phi }\xi `$ is a realisation of $`\theta `$, then $`qk`$ represents $`k(,\theta )`$. If this class is 0, then there is a homotopy $`h:qkl`$, say, where $`l_1=qk_1`$, $`l_3=0`$. Hence $`k_3=h_2\delta `$. So there is a homotopy $`kk^{}`$ where $`k_{}^{}{}_{1}{}^{}=k_1`$, $`k_{}^{}{}_{2}{}^{}=k_2\delta h_2`$, $`k_{}^{}{}_{3}{}^{}=0`$.

Let $`F`$ be the fibre of $`q_{}`$ over $`l`$. Then $`\pi _0F`$ may be identified with the set $`[C\mathrm{\Phi },]`$ of homotopy classes of morphisms $`C\mathrm{\Phi }`$, and so with the classes of extensions of $`A`$ by $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ of type $``$. The exact sequence of the fibration $`q_{}`$ with fibre $`F`$ yields, given the above identifications, the exact sequence

$$0H_\theta ^2(\mathrm{\Phi },A)\mathrm{Ext}_{}(\mathrm{\Phi },M)Hom(\mathrm{\Phi },Q)H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },A)()$$

where the three right hand terms have base points the class of the split extension, the morphism $`\theta `$, and zero respectively. The obstruction part of Theorem 5.2 follows immediately. The standard theory of the exact sequence of a fibration of crossed complexes  also yields that the group $`H_\theta ^2(\mathrm{\Phi },A)`$ operates on $`\mathrm{Ext}_{}(\mathrm{\Phi },M)`$ so that the classes of extensions of type $``$ with abstract kernel $`\theta `$ are given by this group. This completes the proof of Theorem 5.2. $`\mathrm{}`$

We can translate Theorem 5.2 to the following.

###### Theorem 5.4

Let $`X`$ be a topological group. Let $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ be a group, and let $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }\pi _0X`$ be a morphism of groups. Then there is a covering morphism $`p:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ of topological groups and an isomorphism $`\alpha :\pi _0\stackrel{~}{X}\mathrm{\Phi }`$ such that $`\theta \alpha =\pi _0(p)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ is simply connected if and only if the obstruction class

$$k(,\theta )H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },\pi _1(X,e))$$

is zero, where $``$ is the associated crossed module $`(\pi _1X)^eX`$. Further, the isomorphism classes of such coverings are bijective with $`H_\theta ^2(\mathrm{\Phi },A)`$.

Proof We write $`\mu :MX`$ for $``$. If the obstruction class is zero then there is an extension $`1ME\mathrm{\Phi }1`$ of type $``$, and the crossed module $`ME`$ corresponds to a simply transitive group-groupoid $`\stackrel{~}{G}`$. The morphism from $`ME`$ to $``$ yields a covering morphism of group-groupoids $`\stackrel{~}{G}\pi _1X`$. Hence we obtain the required covering space $`\stackrel{~}{X}=Ob(\stackrel{~}{G})`$. The converse follows from Theorem 5.2, as does the classification of these coverings. $`\mathrm{}`$

If $``$ is an arbitrary crossed module with cokernel $`Q`$, and one takes $`\mathrm{\Phi }=Q`$ and $`\theta =\mathrm{id}`$ in 5.2, then the class $`k(,\mathrm{id})H^3(Q,A)`$, where the action of $`Q`$ on $`A`$ is the given one, is called the obstruction class $`k()`$ of the crossed module $``$. As a consequence of Theorem 5.4 we recover the result of Taylor .

###### Corollary 5.5

Let $`X`$ be a (possibly disconnected) topological group and let $`p:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ be a $`\pi _0`$-proper universal covering. Then the group structure of $`X`$ lifts to $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ is a topological group and $`p`$ is a morphism of topological groups if and only if the obstruction class $`k()H^3(\pi _0X,\pi _1(X,e))`$ is zero.

We remark that this obstruction class is shown in Brown and Spencer , to be the first $`k`$-invariant of the classifying space of the topological group $`X`$.

The following result is referred to in .

###### Corollary 5.6

Let $`X`$ be a (possibly disconnected) topological group. Then there exists a simply connected covering group $`p:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ of $`X`$ such that $`\pi _0p`$ is surjective.

Proof It is enough to choose an epimorphism $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }\pi _0X`$ such that the induced morphism on cohomology

$$\theta ^{}:H^3(\pi _0X,\pi _1(X,e))H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },\pi _1(X,e))$$

is trivial. This can be done with $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ a free group.

$`\mathrm{}`$

Of course, there is no uniqueness result for this simply connected cover.

In the next section, we generalise Theorem 5.4 to a wider class of coverings.

## 6 General coverings of topological groups

We now deal with other coverings than simply connected ones, as does Taylor in  for the proper case.

We first recall two basic constructions which will be used later. The first essentially gives the usual forward coefficient morphism in cohomology.

###### Proposition 6.1

Let $`\mu :MP`$ be a crossed module with $`A=Ker\mu `$ and $`Q=Coker\mu `$. Let $`\varphi :AB`$ be a morphism of Q-modules. Then there is a crossed module $`\mu ^{}:M^{}P`$ and a morphism of exact sequences

such that $`(\varphi ^{},\mathrm{id})`$ is a morphism of crossed modules.

Proof The proof is easy on taking $`M^{}=(B\times M)/C`$, where $`C=(\varphi ,i)(A)`$, and defining $`\mu ^{}`$ by $`[b,m]\mu m`$, $`\varphi ^{}`$ by $`m[m,1]`$, where $`[b,m]`$ denotes the class of $`(b,m)`$ in $`M^{}`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Proposition 6.2

Let $``$ be the crossed module $`\mu :MP`$, let $`Q=Coker\mu `$, and let $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }Q`$ be an abstract kernel. Then

$$k(,\theta )=k(𝒩,\mathrm{id})$$

where $`𝒩`$ is the crossed module $`\nu :MP\times _Q\mathrm{\Phi }`$, $`m(m,1)`$. Further, there is a bijection

$$\mathrm{Ext}_{(,\theta )}(\mathrm{\Phi },M)\mathrm{Ext}_{(𝒩,\mathrm{id})}(\mathrm{\Phi },M).$$

Proof This follows from the morphism of exact sequences

$`\mathrm{}`$

Now we can give the following theorem.

###### Theorem 6.3

Let X be a topological group, let $`\theta :\mathrm{\Phi }\pi _0X`$ be a morphism of groups, and let N be a $`\pi _0X`$-invariant subgroup of $`\pi _1(X,e)`$. Then there is a covering morphism $`p:\stackrel{~}{X}X`$ of topological groups and an isomorphism $`\alpha :\pi _0\stackrel{~}{X}\mathrm{\Phi }`$ such that $`\theta \alpha =\pi _0(p)`$ and $`p(\pi _1(\stackrel{~}{X},\stackrel{~}{e}))=N`$ if and only if the obstruction class

$$k(,\theta )H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },\pi _1(X,e)),$$

where $``$ is the associated crossed module $`(\pi _1X)^eX`$, is mapped to zero by the morphism induced by the coefficient morphism

$$\pi _1(X,e)(\pi _1(X,e))/N.$$

Proof Write the crossed module $``$ as $`\mu :MP`$, and let $`Q=Coker\mu `$, $`A=Ker\mu `$. Suppose that there is such a covering morphism of topological groups and isomorphism $`\alpha `$ as given in the theorem. Let the crossed module $`𝒩`$ associated to $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ be written as $`\nu :\stackrel{~}{M}E`$, so that $`Ker\nu =N`$. Then $`𝒩`$ maps to $``$ as part of the following diagram

where $`N`$ is now a $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-module via $`\theta `$. Let $`^{}`$ and $`^{}`$ be the crossed module and morphism of crossed modules constructed from the quotient mapping $`AA/N`$ as in Proposition 6.1. Let $`k:C\mathrm{\Phi }\xi 𝒩`$ be a realisation of the identity morphism on $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$. Then the composite $`C\mathrm{\Phi }\xi 𝒩\zeta 𝒩`$ realises $`k(𝒩,\mathrm{id})`$. Clearly the composition

$$C\mathrm{\Phi }\xi 𝒩\zeta 𝒩\zeta \zeta ^{}$$

realises the zero class in $`H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },A/N)`$, as required.

Suppose conversely that $`k(,\theta )`$ maps to zero in $`H_\theta ^3(\mathrm{\Phi },A/N)`$. Again, let $`^{}`$ be the crossed module constructed in Proposition 6.1, with morphism $`\varphi ^{}:MM^{}`$. Then, by assumption, the obstruction class $`k(^{},\theta )`$ is zero, and so there is an extension of type $`^{}`$ and with abstract kernel $`\theta `$

It is easy to check that $`\nu =i^{}\varphi ^{}:ME`$ becomes a crossed module when $`E`$ acts on $`M`$ via $`\sigma `$, and that $`Ker\nu =Ker\varphi ^{}=N`$. Hence we have the following morphism of exact sequences

The morphism of crossed modules this includes can be realised by a covering morphism of group-groupoids and so of topological groups as required. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Example 6.4

We mention some nice examples of Taylor . He shows there are exactly three non-isomorphic topological group extensions of $`SO(2)`$ by $`𝐙_\mathrm{𝟐}`$, namely the direct sum of the two groups, the orthogonal group $`O(2)`$, and finally the multiplicative group of all quaternions $`a+bi+cj+dk`$, of norm 1, such that $`(a^2+b^2)(c^2+b^2)=0`$. Other examples of non-connected coverings of topological groups are given in section 8 of .

This completes our account of the theory of covering groups of topological groups.

Of course these theorems on spaces have analogues for group-groupoids which we leave the reader to state.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank: Kirill Mackenzie and Johannes Huebschmann for helpful comments and conversations, and a referee for many helpful comments. The second author would like to thank the Turkish Government for support during his studies at Bangor.


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# On the Stewart-Lyth inverse problem *footnote **footnote *Published in the Proceedings of III DGFM-SMF Workshop on Gravitation and Mathematical-Physics, León, México, 2000.

## I Introduction

During inflation, the inflaton and graviton fields undergo quantum fluctuations. These fluctuations generated the seeds for the large-scale structure of the Universe and left their imprints in the anisotropies currently observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) (for detailed explanation see Refs.  and ).

The Stewart and Lyth equations  are the state of the art for predicting the anisotropies for most inflationary models . Anticipating the near future launching of satellites able to measure the CMBR anisotropies with unprecedented accuracy, we would like to find out whether the inflationary potential can be obtained from the Stewart-Lyth equations by using as input observational information about the density perturbations and gravitational waves spectra.

## II The Stewart-Lyth equations

The theoretical frame for the Stewart-Lyth calculation is the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe containing a single scalar field equivalent to a perfect fluid with equations of motions given by

$`H^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{3}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\varphi }^2}{2}}+V(\varphi )\right),`$ (1)
$`\ddot{\varphi }`$ $`+`$ $`3H\dot{\varphi }=V^{}(\varphi ),`$ (2)
where $`\varphi `$ is the inflaton, $`V(\varphi )`$ is the inflationary potential, $`H=\dot{a}/a`$ is the Hubble parameter, $`a`$ is the scale factor, dot and prime mean the derivatives with respect to cosmic time and $`\varphi `$ respectively, $`\kappa =8\pi /m_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2`$ is the Einstein constant and $`m_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ is the Planck mass.

In this frame the first three slow-roll parameters are respectively defined as (we will write them here as in Ref.  but using $`\kappa `$):

$`ϵ(\varphi )`$ $``$ $`3{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\varphi }^2}{2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\varphi }^2}{2}}+V(\varphi )\right]^1={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\kappa }}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{H^{}}{H}}\right]^2,`$ (3)
$`\eta (\varphi )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{\varphi }}{H\dot{\varphi }}}=ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ^{}}{\sqrt{2\kappa ϵ}}},`$ (4)
$`\xi (\varphi )`$ $``$ $`\left[ϵ\eta \left({\displaystyle \frac{2}{\kappa }}ϵ\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\eta ^{}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}.`$ (5)
Power-law inflation  is a particular case of inflationary model where:

$`a(t)`$ $``$ $`t^p,`$ (6)
$`H(\varphi )`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left(\sqrt{\kappa /2p}\varphi \right),`$ (7)
$`V(\varphi )`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left(\sqrt{2\kappa /p}\varphi \right),`$ (8)
with $`p`$ a positive constant. It follows from Eqs. (3), (4) and (5) that in this case the slow-roll parameters are constant and equal each other.

Exact expressions for the asymptotic scalar (density perturbations) and tensorial (gravitational waves) power spectra for the case of power-law inflation was correspondingly derived by Lyth and Stewart  and Abbot and Wise . Assuming that the deviation of the higher slow-roll parameters from $`ϵ`$ is small (power-law approximation) and that $`ϵ`$ is small with respect to unity (slow-roll approximation), Stewart and Lyth  derived next-to-leading order expressions for both spectra. In terms of the spectral indexes, these expressions are

$`1n_s(k)`$ $``$ $`4ϵ2\eta +8(C+1)ϵ^2(10C+6)ϵ\eta +2C\xi ^2,`$ (9)
$`n_T(k)`$ $``$ $`2ϵ\left[1+(2C+3)ϵ2(C+1)\eta \right],`$ (10)
where the notation is that of Ref. , $`n_s(k)`$ and $`n_T(k)`$ are the scalar and tensorial spectral indices respectively, $`k`$ is the wave number of the comoving scale and $`C0.73`$ is a constant related to the Euler constant originating in the expansion of the Gamma function. The symbol $``$ is used to indicate that these equations were obtained using the power-law and slow-roll approximations. Hereafter we will use the equal sign in our calculations, but the mean of approximation should be added whenever it applies.

Giving an expression for the inflaton potential the definitions (3), (4) and (5) should be substituted in the Stewart-Lyth equations (9) and (10) to obtain the scale-dependent spectral indexes. We should note that the spectral indexes are directly related with the power spectra (for details see Ref. ).

## III The inverse problem

If we denote $`T\dot{\varphi }^2/2`$ and use the definitions (3), (4), (5) and the equations (1), (2) then we obtain in a straightforward fashion:

$`ϵ`$ $`=`$ $`3{\displaystyle \frac{T}{T+V}}={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa T}{H^2}},`$ (11)
$`\eta `$ $`=`$ $`\kappa {\displaystyle \frac{dT}{dH^2}},`$ (12)
$`\xi ^2`$ $`=`$ $`\kappa ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{dT}{dH^2}}+2\kappa ϵH^2{\displaystyle \frac{d^2T}{d(H^2)^2}}.`$ (13)
Denoting $`\tau \mathrm{ln}H^2`$, $`\delta (k)n_T(k)/2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(k)[n_s(k)1]/2`$, substituting expressions (11), (12) and (13) in equations (9) and (10), and rewriting the indexes equations in terms of the first slow-roll parameter $`ϵ`$ and its derivatives with respect to $`\tau `$ ($`\widehat{ϵ}dϵ/d\tau `$ and $`\widehat{\widehat{ϵ}}d^2ϵ/d\tau ^2`$ ) the equations (9) and (10) become:

$`2Cϵ\widehat{\widehat{ϵ}}(2C+3)ϵ\widehat{ϵ}\widehat{ϵ}+ϵ^2+ϵ+\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (14)
$`2(C+1)ϵ\widehat{ϵ}ϵ^2ϵ\delta `$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (15)
The Stewart-Lyth inverse problem consists of, giving expressions for the spectral indexes, to solve equations (14) and (15) for $`ϵ`$ and to find the corresponding inflaton potential.

The second order non-linear differential equation (14) was first introduced in Ref.  but their approach for the potential reconstruction is incomplete. First of all, they considered $`\mathrm{\Delta }(k)`$ as a constant. Moreover, in Ref.  authors did not take into account the equation for the tensorial spectral index (15).

To proceed with the analysis of Eqs. (14) and (15) we note that in these equations $`ϵ`$ and its derivatives depend on $`\tau `$ while $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\delta `$ explicitly depend on $`k`$. So, we shall rewrite Eqs. (14) and (15) in terms of $`k`$. We choose $`k`$ because this is the parameter related to observations. Using the equation derived in Ref.  that relates the inflaton value with the corresponding scale,

$$\frac{d\mathrm{ln}k}{d\varphi }=\frac{\kappa }{2}\frac{H}{H^{}}\left(ϵ1\right),$$
(16)
after conversion we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{C(ϵ1)^2}{2ϵ}}\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{ϵ}}+{\displaystyle \frac{C(ϵ1)}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{ϵ}}{ϵ}}\right)^2\left[(2C+3)ϵ+1\right]{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ1}{2ϵ}}\stackrel{~}{ϵ}+ϵ^2+ϵ+\mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (17)
$`(C+1)(ϵ1)\stackrel{~}{ϵ}ϵ^2ϵ\delta `$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (18)
where $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}dϵ/d\mathrm{ln}k`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{ϵ}}d^2ϵ/d(\mathrm{ln}k)^2`$. Differentiating Eq. (18) with respect to $`\mathrm{ln}k`$ we can replace the expressions for $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{ϵ}}`$ obtained from this equation into Eq. (17). After that, we obtain the following algebraic equation for $`ϵ`$:

$$ϵ(k)^4+Pϵ(k)^3+Q(\stackrel{~}{\delta },\delta ,\mathrm{\Delta })ϵ(k)^2+R(\stackrel{~}{\delta },\delta )ϵ(k)+S(\delta )=0,$$
(19)
where

$`P`$ $`=`$ $`C+2,`$ (20)
$`Q(\stackrel{~}{\delta },\delta ,\mathrm{\Delta })`$ $`=`$ $`(C+1)\left[C\stackrel{~}{\delta }(2C+3)\delta +2(C+1)\mathrm{\Delta }1\right],`$ (21)
$`R(\stackrel{~}{\delta },\delta )`$ $`=`$ $`(C+1)C\stackrel{~}{\delta }+(2C+1)\delta ,`$ (22)
$`S(\delta )`$ $`=`$ $`C\delta ^2.`$ (23)
Using observational data of the spectra as input in Eq. (19) one can solve the Stewart-Lyth inverse problem. As an example, one can see that for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\delta `$ constants the unique solution is just power-law inflation, i.e., $`ϵ=\mathrm{constant}`$.

The roots of Eq. (19) can be readily calculated but they are very complicated expressions not necessary for further analysis. Instead, we can see that the roots will have the form:

$$ϵ_i=ϵ_i(\mathrm{\Delta },\delta ,\stackrel{~}{\delta }),$$
(24)
where $`i=1,\mathrm{},4`$. From set (24), those $`j`$ roots with $`0<ϵ1`$ (in, at least, a finite range of the scale) should be chosen. Then, $`ji`$.

Differentiating Eq. (24) with respect to $`\mathrm{ln}k`$ and substituting in Eq. (18) we will obtain equations of the form:

$$_j(\mathrm{\Delta },\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }},\delta ,\stackrel{~}{\delta },\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{\delta }})=0.$$
(25)
We can see that although Eqs. (25) can not be solved for both spectra, to obtain explicit expressions for $`ϵ_j`$ it is, in principle, sufficient to have information about $`\mathrm{\Delta }(k)`$ or $`\delta (k)`$, or a relationship between them. If a functional form for one of the spectra is proposed and the other one determined from Eq. (25), the corresponding inflaton potential can be determined uniquely. Having explicit expressions of $`ϵ_j`$ as functions of $`k`$ equations (3) and (16) can be used to obtain $`H_j(k)`$:

$$H_j(k)=H_{0j}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{ϵ_j(k)}{ϵ_j(k)1}d\mathrm{ln}k\right],$$
(26)
where $`H_{0j}`$ are integration constants. Then, using the equations of motion (1) and (2), and definition (11) the potential as a function of scale is obtained:

$$V_j(k)=\frac{H_j^2(k)}{\kappa }(3ϵ_j(k)).$$
(27)
On the other hand, using definitions (3) and (16) the scalar field as a function of the scale is given by ($`\varphi _{0j}`$ are integration constants):

$$\varphi _j(k)=\varphi _{0j}\sqrt{\frac{2}{\kappa }}\frac{\sqrt{ϵ_j(k)}}{ϵ_j(k)1}d\mathrm{ln}k.$$
(28)
Finally, the inflationary potential as function of the inflaton could be given parametrically

$$V_j(\varphi _j)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\varphi _j(k)\hfill & \\ V_j(k)\hfill & \end{array}$$
(29)
The above expression defines the set of functional forms for the inflationary potential that are consistent with the slow-roll and power-law approximations and the information used as input to solve Eq. (25).

## IV Summary and Outlook

In general, information about the functional form of only one of the spectra (or a relationship between them) is sufficient in order to find the inflaton potential. In principle, one can take the scalar spectrum derived from anisotropies measurements and try to solve the second order differential equation that remains for the tensorial spectral index. Nevertheless, being the tensorial modes currently difficult to measure, the simplest way of solving the Stewart-Lyth inverse problem seems to be to fix the spectrum of tensorial perturbations and solve an ordinary first order differential equation for the scalar index. Then, one can compare the analytic result with the observations.

If an expression for the first slow-roll parameter as a function of the scale could be obtained, the corresponding functional form for the inflaton potential could be found, at least parametrically. This expression for the potential will be constrained by the slow-roll and the power-law approximations and by the input information used to solve the above mentioned differential equation.

In forthcoming papers we will explore the feasibility of this approach by fixing the functional form of the gravitational waves spectrum with regards to the underlying physics and measurements.

## V Acknowledgments

This research is supported in part by the SNI and the CONACyT (México) under project 32138-E.


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# References

REDUCTIONS AND REAL FORMS OF HAMILTONIAN SYSTEMS RELATED TO $`N`$-WAVE TYPE EQUATIONS

V. S. Gerdjikov, G. G. Grahovski

Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72 Tsarigradsko chaussee blvd., 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract. Reductions of $`N`$-wave type equations related to simple Lie algebras and the hierarchy of their Hamiltonian structures are studied. The reduction group $`G_R`$ is realized as a subgroup of the Weyl group of the corresponding algebra. Some of the reduced equations are of physical interest.

1. Preliminary. The analysis and the classification of all reductions for the nonlinear evolution equations solvable by the inverse scattering method (ISM) is interesting and still open problem. We start with the well known form for the $`N`$-wave equations  :

$`i[J,Q_t]i[I,Q_x]+[[I,Q],[J,Q]]=0`$ (1)
which is solvable by the ISM applied to the generalized system of Zakharov-Shabat type:

$`L(\lambda )=id_x+[J,Q(x,t)]\lambda J,J𝔥.`$ (2)
The potential matrix

$`Q(x,t)={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_+}{}}\left(q_\alpha (x,t)E_\alpha +p_\alpha (x,t)E_\alpha \right)𝔤\backslash 𝔥`$ (3)
takes values in the simple Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ with Cartan subalgebra $`𝔥`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_+`$ is the set of positive roots of $`𝔤`$, and $`E_\alpha `$, $`E_\alpha `$ and $`H_k`$ form the Cartan-Weyl basis of $`𝔤`$. Indeed the $`N`$-wave equation (1) is the compatibility condition $`[L(\lambda ),M(\lambda )]=0`$, where

$`M(\lambda )=id_t+[I,Q(x,t)]\lambda I,I𝔥`$ (4)
2. The reduction group.  Our basic tool is the reduction group $`G_R`$ introduced by A. V. Mikhailov . $`G_R`$ is a finite group which preserves the Lax representation (3), i.e. it ensures that the reduction constraints are automatically compatible with the evolution. Therefore $`G_R`$ must have two realizations: 1) $`G_R\text{Aut}𝔤`$ and 2) $`G_R\text{Conf}`$. To each $`g_kG_R`$ we relate a reduction condition for the Lax pair as follows :

$`C_k(L(\mathrm{\Gamma }_k(\lambda )))=L(\lambda ),C_k(M(\mathrm{\Gamma }_k(\lambda )))=M(\lambda ),`$ (5)
where $`C_k\text{Aut}𝔤`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_k(\lambda )\text{Conf}`$ are the images of $`g_k`$ .

It is well known that $`\text{Aut}𝔤=𝔙\text{Aut}_0𝔤`$ where $`𝔙`$ is the group of outer automorphisms (the symmetry group of the Dynkin diagram) and $`\text{Aut}_0𝔤`$ is the group of inner automorphisms. We consider only those groups of inner automorphisms that preserve the form of $`L`$ and $`M`$; this means that $`G_R`$ must preserve the Cartan subalgebra. Then $`G_R𝔙\text{Ad}_HW(𝔤)`$ where $`\text{Ad}_H`$ is the group of similarity transformations with elements from the Cartan subgroup and $`W(𝔤)`$ is the Weyl group of $`𝔤`$. The reductions which lead to real forms of $`𝔤`$ may be realized by outer automorphisms of $`𝔤`$:

$`C_p(X)=A_p\theta _p(X)A_p^1,\mathrm{\Gamma }_p(\lambda )=\eta _p\lambda ^{},X𝔤,p=1,2,`$ (6)
where $`\theta _1(X)=X^{}`$, $`\theta _2(X)=X^{}`$, $`A_kG_R`$ and $`\eta _1=1`$, $`\eta _2=1`$. Of special interest is the possibility to embed $`G_R`$ in the Weyl group $`W(𝔤)`$ which can be done in a number of ways. Therefore it is important to distinguish between the nonequivalent reductions. In  the $`_2`$-reduced $`N`$-wave systems for low-rank simple Lie algebras ($`𝐀_2`$, $`𝐂_2`$, $`𝐆_2`$, $`𝐀_3`$, $`𝐁_3`$ and $`𝐂_3`$) are described.

3. Real forms as $`_2`$–reductions. It is well known that every real form $`𝔤^{}`$ can be extracted with an involutive Cartan automorphism $`\sigma `$ (see e.g. ) and $`\theta (X)=X^{}`$, $`X𝔤`$. The automorphism that extracts a real form of the algebra $`𝔤`$ may be viewed as a reduction (6) with $`C_p=\sigma \theta _p`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\lambda )=\eta _p\lambda ^{}`$. The compact real form $`\stackrel{~}{𝔤}^{}`$ of $`𝔤`$ corresponds $`\sigma =\text{Id}`$. The Cartan involution splits the root system of the real form $`𝔤^{}`$ into two subsystems of roots: 1) compact, if $`\sigma (E_\alpha )=E_\alpha `$; and 2) noncompact, if $`\sigma (E_\alpha )=E_\alpha .`$

Let $`\pi `$ be the system of simple roots of the algebra and $`\pi _0`$ be the set of compact simple roots. The Cartan involution which extracts the noncompact real form $`𝔤^{}`$ from the compact one is given by:

$`\sigma =\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \underset{\alpha _k\pi \backslash \pi _0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{2\pi i}{(\alpha _k,\alpha _k)}}H_{\omega _k}\right)\text{Ad}_H.`$ (7)
Here $`H_{\omega _k}`$ form basis in the Cartan subalgebra $`𝔥𝔤`$ dual to the fundamental weights $`\{\omega _k\}`$. In  one can find a number of examples for nontrivial reductions of the form (6) where $`A_k\text{Ad}_HW(𝔤)`$.

4. Hamiltonian structures. The interpretation of the ISM as a generalized Fourier transform allows one to prove that all $`N`$-wave type equations are Hamiltonian and possess a hierarchy of Hamiltonian structures  $`\{H^{(k)},\mathrm{\Omega }^{(k)}\}`$, $`k=0,\pm 1,\pm 2,\mathrm{}`$ The simplest Hamiltonian formulation of (1) is given by $`\{H^{(0)},\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}\}`$ where $`H^{(0)}=\kappa _{0,p}(H_0+H_{\mathrm{int}})`$ and:

$`H_0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2i}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑xQ,[I,Q_x],H_{\mathrm{int}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑x[J,Q],[Q,[I,Q]],`$ (8)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(k)}={\displaystyle \frac{i\kappa _{k,p}}{2}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑x[J,\delta Q(x,t)]\underset{^{}}{}\mathrm{\Lambda }^k\delta Q(x,t).`$ (9)
where $`\kappa _{k,1}/\kappa _{k,1}^{}=\eta _1^k`$, $`\kappa _{k,2}/\kappa _{k,2}^{}=(1)^k`$ and $`,`$ is the Killing form of $`𝔤`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the recursion operator, see . Then the reduction conditions (6) require that both the symplectic forms and the Hamiltonians in the hierarchies are real: $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(k)}=\left(\mathrm{\Omega }^{(k)}\right)^{}`$ and $`H^{(k)}=\left(H^{(k)}\right)^{}`$.

One of the most efficient methods to analyze the Hamiltonian structures of the NLEE related to $`L`$ (2) is based on the classical $`r`$-matrix method . $`r(\lambda )`$ is defined by:

$`\{U(x,\lambda )\underset{^{}}{}U(y,\lambda )\}=[r(\lambda \mu ),U(x,\lambda )\text{1}\text{1}+\text{1}\text{1}U(y,\lambda )]\delta (xy),`$ (10)
where $`U(x,\lambda )=[J,Q(x)]\lambda J`$. If the Poisson brackets between the elements of $`U(x,\lambda )`$ are the ones determined by $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}`$ then from (10) we get $`r(\lambda )=(R_0+R_++R_{})/\lambda `$ where:

$`R_0={\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{r}{}}}H_jH_j^{},R_\pm ={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_+}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{E_{\pm \alpha }E_\alpha }{E_\alpha ,E_\alpha }},`$ (11)
and $`H_j,H_k^{}=\delta _{jk}`$. Next we integrate (10) taking special care of the zero boundary conditions for the potential $`Q(x)`$ in (2). Thus for the Poisson brackets between the matrix elements of $`T(\lambda )`$ – the scattering matrix of $`L`$ corresponding to $`U(x,\lambda )`$ we get:

$`\{T(\lambda )\underset{^{}}{}T(\mu )\}=r_+(\lambda \mu )T(\lambda )T(\mu )T(\lambda )T(\mu )r_{}(\lambda \mu ),`$
$`r_\pm (\lambda )={\displaystyle \frac{R_0}{\lambda }}i\pi \delta (\lambda )(R_+R_{}).`$ (12)
Note that $`R_0`$ and $`\pm (R_+\pm R_{})`$ are invariant with respect to $`G_R`$. As a result both (10) and (S0.Ex1) survive the reductions for which $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}`$ remains non-degenerate, such as e.g. reductions extracting the real forms of $`𝔤`$.

Degeneracies appear only in the case when the reduction automorphism of the algebra maps $`C(J)=J`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\lambda )=\lambda `$; note that no complex conjugation is involved here. Then both the canonical 2-form $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}`$ and the $`r`$-matrix become degenerate, so the corresponding $`N`$-wave equations do not allow Hamiltonian formulation with canonical Poison brackets; however they still possess a hierarchy of Hamiltonian structures $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(2k+1)}`$ being nondegenerate.

5. Example. The $`N`$–wave systems for $`𝐂_2sp(4)`$ algebra.

Figure 1: This is the wave-decay diagram for the $`sp(4)`$ algebra. To each positive root of the algebra $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{kn}}k\alpha _1+n\alpha _2`$ we put in correspondence a wave of type $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{kn}}`$. If the positive root $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{kn}}=\underset{¯}{\mathrm{k}^{}\mathrm{n}^{}}+\underset{¯}{\mathrm{k}^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{n}^{\prime \prime }}`$ can be represented as a sum of two other positive roots, we say that the wave $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{kn}}`$ decays into the waves $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{k}^{}\mathrm{n}^{}}`$ and $`\underset{¯}{\mathrm{k}^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{n}^{\prime \prime }}`$ as shown on the diagram to the left.

A) After a reduction of hermitian type (6) with $`A_1=\mathrm{diag}(s_1,s_2,1/s_2,1/s_1)`$ and $`\eta _1=\pm 1`$ we obtain $`a_i=\eta _1a_i^{}`$, $`b_i=\eta _1b_i^{}`$, and

$`p_{10}=\eta _1s_1/s_2q_{10}^{},p_1=\eta _1s_2^2q_1^{},p_{11}=\eta _1s_1s_2q_{11}^{},p_{21}=\eta _1s_1^2q_{21}^{}.`$ (13)
The corresponding $`4`$-wave system is described by the following interaction Hamiltonian:

$`H_{\mathrm{int}}=4\kappa {\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}\left(s_1s_2\left(q_{11}q_1^{}q_{10}^{}+\eta _1q_{11}^{}q_1q_{10}\right)s_1^2\left(q_{21}q_{11}^{}q_{10}^{}+\eta _1q_{21}^{}q_{11}q_{10}\right)\right).`$ (14)
where $`\kappa =a_1b_2a_2b_1`$. The case $`\eta _1=1`$ and $`s_1=s_2=1`$ leads to the (compact) real form $`sp(4,0)`$ of $`𝐂_2`$–algebra and it is equivalent to the $`4`$-wave interaction, see .

Physically we can assign to each root $`\alpha `$ an wave with wave number $`k_\alpha `$ and frequency $`\omega _\alpha `$. Each of the elementary decays $`\alpha _i=\alpha _j+\alpha _k`$ is possible if $`k_{\alpha _i}=k_{\alpha _j}+k_{\alpha _k}`$ and $`\omega (k_{\alpha _i})=\omega (k_{\alpha _j})+\omega (k_{\alpha _k})`$. This can also be written using so-called wave-decay diagrams ; an example of such diagrams is shown in fig.1.

B) For $`\eta =1`$ and $`s_1=s_2=1`$ if we identify $`q_{10}=Q`$, $`q_{11}=E_p`$, $`q_{21}=E_a`$ and $`q_1=E_s`$, where $`Q`$ is the normalized effective polarization of the medium and $`E_p`$, $`E_s`$ and $`E_a`$ are the normalized pump, Stockes and anti-Stockes wave amplitudes respectively, then we obtain the system of equations studied, e.g. in . This approach allowed us to derive a new Lax pair for (14).

6. Conclusions. The $`_2`$-reductions which act on $`\lambda `$ by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\lambda )=\lambda ^{}`$ may be viewed as Cartan involution and lead to restricting of the system to a specific real form of the algebra $`𝔤`$. They preserve the canonical symplectic form $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(0)}`$ and the classical $`r`$-matrix.

The results can be extended in several directions: i) for more general reduction groups $`G_R`$; ii) for NLEE with other dispersion laws. This would allow us to study the reductions of multicomponent NLS-type equations, two-dimensional Toda type systems etc.; iii) for Lax operators with more complicated $`\lambda `$– dependence. This would allow us to investigate also more complicated reduction groups as e.g. $`𝕋`$, $`𝕆`$ and the possibilities to imbed them as subgroups of the Weyl group of $`𝔤`$.

Acknowledgement. The authors thank Dr. N. A. Kostov for numerous useful discussions.


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# Neon abundances in normal late-B and mercury-manganese stars

## 1 Introduction

HgMn stars are a subclass of chemically peculiar star occupying the spectral region corresponding approximately to MK types B9–B6 (10 500–16 000 K). Due to low helium abundances, their spectral classes are generally placed by observers in the A0–B8 range. Observationally, they are characterized by extremely low rotational velocities, weak or non-detectable magnetic fields and photometric variability, and atmospheric deficiencies of light elements (e.g., He, Al, N) coupled with enhancements of the heavy elements (e.g., Hg, Mn, Pt, Sr, Ga). In addition, the heavy elements also have non-terrestrial isotopic abundances (Smith 1997; Bohlender, Dworetsky & Jomaron 1998). The currently favoured mechanism for explaining these anomalies is the radiative diffusion hypothesis (Michaud, 1970). This work has been advanced in the form of a parameter-free model (Michaud, 1986).

The quiescent atmospheres of these stars makes them one of the best natural laboratories for studying the competing processes of gravitational settling and radiative levitation (Vauclair & Vauclair, 1982). In the absence of disrupting mechanisms such as convection, rotationally-induced meridional currents, high microturbulence and magnetic fields, certain rare elements can reach a factor of 105 enhancement over their standard abundance. Because of the strength and sharpness of normally exotic spectroscopic lines, HgMn stars are also useful for constraining fundamental atomic data (Lanz, 1995).

Although there have been many studies of individual HgMn stars and of the abundances of many elements across a sample of HgMn stars, we have been unable to find any papers mentioning the abundance of Ne in HgMn stars, with the recent exception of a paper by Adelman & Pintado (2000), in which LTE calculations established that Ne i line strengths in $`\kappa `$ Cnc implied overabundance of 0.64 dex, while an underabundance was found in HR 7245. The He-wk star 3 Cen A also seemed to be overabundant in Ne relative to the Sun (we will look again at these results in Section 5). However, Ne is known to exhibit strong non-LTE effects in B stars, according to the original investigations by Auer & Mihalas (1973), who showed that Non-LTE (NLTE) methods yield Ne i lines that are nearly double the strength expected from LTE calculations at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 15 000 K. Thus the overabundances reported may well be due to neglect of NLTE considerations.

The lack of Ne observations in late B stars is slightly surprising, because Ne is an important and interesting element. Its standard abundance (Anders & Grevesse 1989; Grevesse, Noels & Sauval 1996), which was deduced from the solar wind, nebular spectroscopy, and stellar observations and analyses such as those of Auer & Mihalas, is comparable with that of C, N and O. It is interesting also because its atomic structure resembles that of He with very high first ionization potential (about 22 eV). Consequently, all its resonance lines and the ground state photoionization continuum are in the Lyman continuum where the stellar energy flux in the photosphere of late B stars is low. One would then expect that radiative acceleration on Ne may not be enough to balance gravity and Ne should sink. Indeed, theoretical calculations by Landstreet, Dolez & Vauclair (1998), who considered a nonturbulent mass loss or stellar wind in the stellar envelopes, predict that there will be: (1) neon underabundances if the mass loss rate is less than $`10^{14}M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1; (2) neon overabundances for mass loss in the range $`10^{14}10^{12}M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1; or (3) normal neon abundances for mass loss over $`10^{12}M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1. Also, our own calculations of radiative accelerations in the atmospheres (Budaj & Dworetsky, 2000) predict a pattern of general photospheric underabundances for Ne.

In this paper, we present an abundance analysis of visible Ne i lines based on a full NLTE treatment of the strength of $`\lambda `$6402. It is the strongest unblended line of Ne i in the visible spectrum. We also demonstrate that, to a close order of magnitude, several other Ne i lines tend to have similar NLTE enhancements and can be used if spectra showing $`\lambda `$6402 are not available. We find that for most HgMn stars, neon turns out to be underabundant, suggesting that the first scenario of Landstreet et al. (1998) is the most likely one.

## 2 Observations

Our stellar sample is based upon that of Smith & Dworetsky (1993), who analysed IUE data on the UV resonance lines of iron-peak elements in 26 HgMn, 4 superficially normal and 10 normal stars. We observed definite detections or determined upper limits for Ne i in 21 of the HgMn stars in the Smith & Dworetsky (1993) sample and 11 of the normal and superficially normal group. Some of the other stars in the two samples were lacking data in the red region or were cooler than 10 000 K and we did not expect to observe any Ne i lines. Physical parameters of the stars in this study are given in Table 1.

All observations were obtained with the Hamilton Échelle Spectrograph (HES; Vogt, 1987) at Lick Observatory, fed by the 0.6-m Coudé Auxilliary Telescope (CAT), during four runs in 1994–1997. Further details of the instrument can be found in Misch (1997). Shortly before our observations in 1994, some of the HES optical components were replaced, improving the resolution and instrumental profile, and making it possible to use the full field of the 2048 $`\times `$ 2048 CCDs to maximum advantage. We used both the unthinned phosphor-coated Orbit CCD (Dewar 13) and from July 1995 the thinned Ford CCD (Dewar 6), depending on availability as the latter was shared with the multi-object spectrograph on the 3-m telescope. The spectral range for the observations was 3800–9000 Å. Typical signal-to-noise (S/N) per pixel in the centres of orders ranged from 75 to 250. The Orbit CCD is cosmetically very clean, with very few bad pixels or columns, while the thinned Ford CCD contains several column defects but offers a much higher detector quantum efficiency in the blue. We used the Ford CCD whenever it was available. With the slit settings used, the combination of spectrographs and CCDs gave resolutions $`R\mathrm{46\hspace{0.17em}500}`$. Flat fields were made using the polar axis quartz lamp and wavelength calibrations were obtained with a Th–Ar comparison.

The échelle spectra were extracted and calibrated using standard iraf extraction packages (Churchill, 1995; Valdes, 1990), running on UCL’s Starlink node. Previous measurements (Allen, 1998) showed that there were no measurable effects of parasitic light (residual scattered light) in the line profiles provided that general scattered light in the adjacent interorder spaces was taken as the subtracted background. In practice the residual scattered light was less than approximately 1 percent; we have therefore made no corrections for it. Allen’s method is based on a direct comparison of the solar spectrum (as reflected from the roof of the CAT coelostat) observed with the HES, with the Kitt Peak Solar Flux Atlas (Kurucz et al., 1984). As the latter was obtained using a Fourier Transform Spectrometer, it has no measurable parasitic light. The Kitt Peak spectrum is convolved with a suitable instrumental profile to match the HES data; both spectra must be normalized at the same points for a valid comparison. The ratio of summed equivalent widths of various features with good adjacent continuum points, in many different spectral orders, provides the measure of the amount of parasitic light.

## 3 Abundance determination

### 3.1 Stellar parameters and stellar atmospheres

Effective temperatures and surface gravities of programme stars are summarized in Table 1. In general, the parameters adopted follow our previous work (Smith & Dworetsky, 1993; Dworetsky, Jomaron & Smith, 1998; Jomaron, Dworetsky & Allen, 1999). Seven stars are noted as double-lined spectroscopic binaries in Table 3; one of these (HR 1800) is better described as a close visual binary in which we can see evidence of the secondary spectrum as rotationally-broadened features. The parameters and light ratios quoted in all seven cases are those adopted for the primary star. Suitable light ratios for other wavelength regions were found by the use of Kurucz (1993) model atmosphere fluxes. The light ratio estimated this way for $`\lambda `$6402 is given in Table 2, where it is representative of the values throughout the range $`\lambda \lambda `$5800-6700. The adopted light ratio for the visual binary HR 1800 ($`\rho =0.243`$ arcsec) is 2.45, based on $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_p=0.96`$ mag from The Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA, 1997). Another star, 33 Gem, is suspected of being double-lined but there is not yet any information on the orbit or light ratio (Hubrig & Launhardt, 1993); we treat it as a single star or ‘average component.’ We note that Adelman, Philip & Adelman (1996) also treated 33 Gem as a single star, noting that the question of binarity could not be conclusively resolved with their data.

### 3.2 Atomic data for the LTE approximation

As all the Ne lines in the stars observed are either weak or, except for the hottest stars such as $`\tau `$ Her, not strongly saturated, the main atomic parameter of critical importance for LTE calculations is the oscillator strength, given as $`\mathrm{log}gf`$ in Table 3. We take our oscillator strengths from the calculations of Seaton (1998), who showed that his calculations were in excellent agreement (within 10 per cent) with other recent theoretical and laboratory data such as that of Hartmetz & Schmoranzer (1984) for the 3s-3p transitions of interest in this work, and also in excellent agreement with the critically evaluated $`gf`$-values as given by Auer & Mihalas (1973).

For the radiative damping, we assumed the classical damping constant $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{R}=2.223\times 10^7/\lambda ^2`$ s-1 \[$`\lambda `$ in $`\mu `$m\]. This is a good approximation (within a factor of 2) for these lines as the typical lifetime of the upper levels is about 20 ns, and the abundances are not sensitive to the adopted values in any event. Van der Waals contributions to line broadening are also expected to be very small; a suitable approximation by Warner (1967) was used. For Stark broadening, we adopted the recent experimental results of del Val, Aparicio & Mar (1999), and used an estimate of the temperature scaling factor proportional to $`T^{0.4}`$ to convert their $`w_m`$ at 18 000 K to values at 12 000 K, by multiplying by an average factor of 0.85 (Griem, 1974). One line, $`\lambda `$5852, was not included in their list and we adopted the simple approximation given in CD23 data (Kurucz 1990). In general, the measured values which we used are about 3 times the values in CD23 for lines in common. We carried out worst-case sensitivity tests by varying the del Val et al. Stark broadening by a factor of 2 for the strongest lines in $`\tau `$ Her; the largest effect on derived abundances was less than 0.01 dex.

### 3.3 Equivalent widths and LTE results

Estimated abundances for several identified Ne i lines were determined using the exact curve-of-growth technique in the LTE approximation. We measured the equivalent widths, $`W_\lambda `$, of Ne absorption lines in the programme spectra by numerical integration in the dipso v3.5 package (Howarth et al., 1998) and compared them to the calculated values for each line, which were generated by our spectrum-synthesis code uclsyn (Smith & Dworetsky, 1988; Smith, 1992). The necessary atmospheric parameters given in Table 1$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, $`\mathrm{log}g`$, and microturbulence ($`\xi `$) – were taken from Smith & Dworetsky (1993), except for 112 Her where we used the values given by Ryabchikova, Zakhorova & Adelman (1996). In the cases of the seven binaries with double spectra, we adopted the light ratios cited in Section 3.1 in order to correct for dilution effects. The equivalent widths (corrected for binarity where necessary) and LTE abundances for several lines are given in Table 3. We used the 2 km s-1 grid of Kurucz (1993) models, interpolating to produce a model at the chosen $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}g`$ of each star.

We searched a list of Ne i lines from Wiese, Smith & Glennon (1966) in the range $`\lambda \lambda 58006800`$ and narrowed the list to include only those which were fairly strong, without evident blending problems, and not situated at the ends of échelle orders where the spectra are noisiest. In a few cases the quality of the spectra justify quoting equivalent widths to the nearest 0.1 mÅ. For each star a mean LTE abundance, weighted by equivalent width, was calculated on the scale $`\mathrm{log}N(\mathrm{H})=12.00`$. To investigate the consistency of the results from the selected lines, the deviations of each line from the mean of all the lines, $`\mathrm{log}(A/A_{})`$, were calculated for each star where a meaningful average could be computed. These are summarized in Table 3 where the values of $`\overline{\mathrm{log}(A/A_{})}`$ represent the mean deviations from the overall LTE abundance for each line. The small mean deviations imply that the results for each line are broadly consistent with one another and the relative $`gf`$-values of Seaton (1998). However, one line ($`\lambda `$6402) is considerably stronger than all the others, and is well-suited for abundance determinations in the largest number of stars, especially those at the low-$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ end of the sequence and with abundances apparently below the standard value. In the remainder of this paper, we shall consider only this line, although future investigators may wish to consider some of the other lines further.

### 3.4 A weak blending line?

Although we have chosen our list of Ne lines to be as blend-free as possible, there is a predicted weak blending feature in the CD23 list (Kurucz, 1990) adjacent to the important line Ne i $`\lambda `$6402.246: Fe ii at $`\lambda `$6402.397. In programme stars (Table 1) with approximately standard or lower Fe abundances, this line would have a typical strength of about 0.5 mÅ, too small to affect our results in any significant way. However, in the few stars with enhanced Fe abundances such as 112 Her (Smith & Dworetsky, 1993, $`\mathrm{log}A(\mathrm{Fe})=8.40`$), the strongest iron-rich case, the possible blending effect would have raised the apparent abundance of Ne by 0.3 dex. It should be noted that for sharp-lined stars, the displacement of the blend is enough to make its existence apparent. The existence of this line with the $`gf`$-value listed remains to be confirmed; future work directed at refining the neon analysis should address the question of its actual strength with better observations.

## 4 NLTE calculations and abundances

### 4.1 Calculations and Ne i model atom

The first full NLTE calculations of neon line strengths for Ne i were made by Auer & Mihalas (1973) using NLTE model atmospheres. Unfortunately for our purposes, their analysis was restricted to the hotter stars with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}>15000`$ K. Recently, their calculations were revisited and extended to cooler temperatures by Sigut (1999). Sigut used the $`T\tau `$ relations, particle densities, and electron number densities from Kurucz LTE line-blanketed models and solved the restricted NLTE problem, i.e. only the equations of radiative tranfer and statistical equlibrium for Ne. His grid of equivalent widths also has rather large steps for our purposes: 2000 K, 0.5 dex, 0.5 dex in temperature, gravity and Ne abundance, respectively.

In this section we examine in detail the temperature, gravity and Ne-abundance region where all our HgMn stars are found, solve the full NLTE problem using NLTE model atmospheres, and find a convenient way to represent the NLTE effects in the Ne i $`\lambda `$6402 line so that straightforward interpolation via LTE models can be done. For the calculation of NLTE atmosphere models and level populations we used the tlusty195 code described in more detail in Hubeny (1988), and in Hubeny & Lanz (1992, 1995). Here H i and Ne i were treated as explicit ions, which means that their level populations were calculated in NLTE and their opacity was considered. Other elements like He, C, N, and O were allowed to contribute to the particle and electron number density in LTE. Synthetic spectra and equivalent widths were then calculated with the synspec42 code (Hubeny, Lanz & Jeffery, 1995). In the following, if not stated otherwise, ‘in LTE’ means ‘in LTE considering the NLTE model of the atmosphere’.

It is not possible to list here all the input parameters entering the NLTE calculations and above mentioned codes. We will mention only those which are most crucial for this particular problem or are different from those which could be generated interactively, e.g. by the very useful interface tool modion (Varosi et al., 1995), part of the tlusty package for creating the model of the atom from the TOPbase data. We provide a copy of our input model for tlusty, which can be downloaded by anyone who wishes to repeat the calculations (Dworetsky & Budaj 2000).

The spectrum of Ne i is that of an inert gas where the LS-coupling breaks down and terms and multiplets do not provide an appropriate description of the atom, so that at least the lower terms and multiplets must be split into individual levels and transitions. We considered explicitly the first 31 levels of Ne i as Auer & Mihalas (1973), plus continuum, with each of the levels treated separately (Table 4). Paschen designations and experimental energies for the levels were taken from Moore (1949). Photoionization cross-sections for the terms were taken from the TOPbase data base (Cunto et al., 1993), as calculated by Hibbert & Scott (1994). We fit individual photoionization cross-sections to about 10-15 points using the modion code. It was assumed that the photoionization cross-section is the same for the term as for the level but it was scaled to the particular level threshold. We used the calculated oscillator strengths of Seaton (1998) as before. For collisional excitation rates we used the van Regemorter formula as in Auer & Mihalas (1973). For collisional ionization we used equation (5.79) of Mihalas (1978) with $`\overline{g}_i=0.1`$. With this input data we calculated the Ne i $`\lambda `$6402 equivalent width for the same abundance ($`10^4`$), $`f`$-value (0.431), microturbulence $`\xi `$ (4 km s-1) and similar H-He NLTE models ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=15000,20000,\mathrm{log}g=4`$) as Auer & Mihalas to check and compare our calculations. (For the hotter model, two terms of Ne ii plus continuum were also considered explicitly.) The results are listed in Table 5 and are in very close agreement. To compare our results with those by Sigut (1999), and to check the calculations for lower temperatures, we solved the similar restricted NLTE problem using Kurucz (1993) CD13 LTE line blanketed models (computed with $`\xi =2`$ km s-1) with our Ne i atom model plus Hubeny’s H i atom model (9 explicit levels plus continuum) and the same Ne abundance ($`1.12\times 10^4`$), $`f`$-value (0.428), and $`\xi `$ (5 km s-1) as Sigut. The results are compared in Table 6 and are also in very good agreement.

We found that although microturbulence can affect the equivalent widths due to desaturation effects, for the observed stars ($`0\xi 2.5`$) it has negligible effect on the atmosphere model, Ne i level populations, and LTE/NLTE equivalent width ratio, $`R=W_{\lambda (\mathrm{LTE})}/W_{\lambda (\mathrm{NLTE})}`$. For this reason, our task can be considerably simplified as one can calculate a grid of models and LTE/NLTE ratios for only one $`\xi =0`$. Also, the NLTE effect of varying the Ne abundance is quite small. While decreasing the Ne abundance from the standard value (8.08) by 1.0 dex reduces the equivalent width considerably, it raises the corresponding LTE/NLTE ratio $`R`$ by only $`0.03\pm 0.01`$. Consequently, the main results can be gathered into Table 7 listing $`R(T_{\mathrm{eff}},\mathrm{log}g)`$ for standard Ne abundance and zero microturbulence. The ratio $`R`$ ranges from around $`0.60.7`$ at the high $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ end of the HgMn domain to nearly 1.0 at the cool end of the sequence (where the lines of neon disappear and can no longer be studied). Dworetsky & Budaj (2000) provide a short Fortran77 code to interpolate in the grid (including the small effects of abundance) for anyone who wishes to undertake their own interpolations for $`R`$.

Hubeny (1981) pointed out that apart from hydrogen, C i and Si i are the other most important ions to be included explicitly in the NLTE calculations in early A stars. We have checked that for this particular problem, including these elements along with He may again slightly affect the equivalent width, but it does not affect $`R`$ significantly. The line strength results were somewhat sensitive to the collisional excitation. A more detailed analysis of the current precision of neon NLTE calculations can be found in Sigut (1999).

### 4.2 Neon abundances from Non-LTE calculations

One may obtain a ‘corrected’ LTE equivalent width from $`RW_\lambda (\mathrm{obs})`$ and analyse the corrected width by using a standard LTE approach including the appropriate microturbulence in a fully line-blanketed case. We used uclsyn to calculate the abundance of Ne from equivalent widths given in Table 3 after scaling by $`R`$ from Table 7. The microturbulence parameters $`\xi `$ were taken from Table 1. The results are shown in Table 8 and plotted as a function of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ in Figure 1.

Our results yield for normal and superficially-normal stars a mean abundance $`\mathrm{log}A(\mathrm{Ne})=8.10\pm 0.03`$ relative to 12.00 for H. This is in excellent agreement with the standard abundance of Ne, 8.08, given by Grevesse et al. (1996), which is essentially identical to the value (8.09) in the earlier compilation of Anders & Grevesse (1989). The standard abundance is partly based on local galactic values (stars and nebulae), and on application of a well-determined correction to solar wind and solar energetic particle values, as well as spectroscopy of solar prominences. We take this agreement as confirmation that our ratio method for LTE/NLTE equivalent width scaling works well in the $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ range of HgMn stars.

The HgMn stars are, with only one exception ($`\kappa `$ Cnc), deficient in Ne, although the deficits in a few cases are only marginal ($`0.10.2`$ dex). In many cases we are able only to establish upper limits for Ne abundances. The most extreme case is $`\upsilon `$ Her, for which we have particularly good spectra and were able to establish an upper limit 1.5 dex below the solar abundance. There is no case in our sample where Ne has an abundance greater than the standard value. The results of Adelman & Pintado (2000) can also be analysed using our method.

## 5 Discussion

The error found for the average abundance for the normal stars is based on the scatter in the results. For comparison, following procedures adopted in previous papers in this series on HgMn stars (e.g., Smith & Dworetsky 1993; Jomaron et al. 1999) we propagate uncertainties in adopted estimates of the errors on each parameter as follows: $`\pm `$0.25 dex in $`\mathrm{log}g`$, $`\pm `$250 K in $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, $`\pm `$0.5 km s-1 in the microturbulence ($`\xi `$), and $`\pm `$5 percent in $`W_\lambda `$. Propagating these errors through the ‘corrected’ LTE analysis used above for the Ne i$`\lambda `$6402 line, using a model atmosphere at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 13 000 K, $`\mathrm{log}g`$ = 4.0, $`\xi `$=1, leads to the following representative errors in the derived Ne abundances: $`\pm `$0.10 dex ($`\mathrm{log}g`$); $`\pm `$0.08 dex ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$); $`\pm `$0.01 dex ($`\xi `$); $`\pm `$0.04 dex ($`W_\lambda `$) at standard abundance ($`W_\lambda =27`$ mÅ), and $`\pm `$0.10 dex ($`\mathrm{log}g`$); $`\pm `$0.07 dex ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$); $`\pm `$0.01 dex ($`\xi `$); $`\pm `$0.03 dex ($`W_\lambda `$) with neon underabundant by 0.5 dex ($`W_\lambda =13`$ mÅ). These are very similar ranges; the combined expected error for one measurement is $`\pm 0.13`$ dex. The s.d. for the normal stars is $`\pm 0.08`$ dex. This difference may reflect overestimates in some of the above factors (especially $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}g`$) that comprise the estimated errors, but the two estimates are not in serious disagreement.

We have implicitly conducted all our analyses under the assumption of a homogeneous depth distribution of neon in the photospheres of the HgMn stars. It now seems well-founded to conclude that in many HgMn stars the neon atoms may not be distributed with a constant fraction vs. optical depth, due to gravitational settling, but our results offer no method of distinguishing clearly between a uniform depletion in the line forming region and an inhomogeneous distribution in which the total number of absorbers is about the same. Given the scatter in abundance from star to star, line strengths alone will be inadequate to prove the point one way or the other.

One should consider the question of whether or not we may lump together the normal and superficially normal stars. The ‘superficially normal’ stars listed in Tables 13 and 8 were originally described as such by Cowley (1980), owing to their relatively sharp lines, but subsequent investigations by Smith & Dworetsky (1990, 1993) and Smith (1993, 1994, 1996, 1997) have shown that HR 7338, HR 7878, and 21 Peg have abundances which are not distinguishable from normal stars for C, N, Cr$``$Ni, Mg, Al, Si, Cu, Zn, Ga and Hg. Cowley thought that HR 7878 and HR 7338 were normal stars with no trace of peculiarity, although he suspected that 21 Peg might be related to early Am stars due to a weaker than expected Sc ii line, and Sadakane (1980) found that both 21 Peg and HR 7338 may have ‘hot Am’ characteristics, such as mild Ba and Y enhancements. One of these, 21 Peg, is listed as Hg peculiar class by Renson et al. (1991) without a reference cited, but Smith’s (1997) study of Hg ii lines showed that the Hg abundance is effectively indistinguishable from that found in normal stars. Landstreet (1998) also describes it as a normal star. In what follows we assume that 21 Peg is a normal B9.5 V star and that HR 7338 is also normal. In this work we therefore feel justified in including these three stars with the normal stars in Table 8 and Fig. 1.

The equivalent width measures of Adelman & Pintado (2000) for 3 Cen A, $`\kappa `$ Cnc, and HR 7245 can be used with the results of Section 4 to derive approximate NLTE abundances for neon. For the first two of these stars, those authors give only the equivalent width of $`\lambda `$5852.49 (although their table headings say 5842.49, which is evidently a misprint). We assume, based on the discussion of Section 3.3, that the correction factor $`R`$ may be taken to be about the same as for $`\lambda `$6402, and we further assume that we can extrapolate the correction factor to $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 17 500 for 3 Cen A, for which we assume $`R=0.59`$. This well-known peculiar He-weak star has some characteristics similar to HgMn stars. We find a near-standard Ne abundance of 8.17, while $`\kappa `$ Cnc has a slight overabundance (8.32), and the HgMn star HR 7245, which has a measured equivalent width of 8 mÅ, has a low abundance (7.32) similar to that of 112 Her. Given that our assumptions above could be subject to some uncertainty, at this stage we would not wish to conclude much more than that the abundance of neon seems consistent with the standard value in 3 Cen A and $`\kappa `$ Cnc, but in the case of HR 7245 we are probably on firm ground in assigning a very low abundance of neon.

We explored briefly the question of whether the Ne abundances in HgMn stars depend on atmospheric parameters. It seems that largest anomalies (underabundances) are generally observed in the middle of the temperature range of HgMn stars ($`11500<T_{\mathrm{eff}}<13000`$ K; see Figure 1). No apparent correlation with the surface gravity can be seen in Table 8. It is not possible to draw any conclusions about dependences on rotational velocity as we have chosen to work with a selected sample of HgMn stars with fairly small $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$ in order to ensure accurate abundance determinations.

## 6 Conclusions

We have measured the equivalent widths (or upper limits) of several Ne i lines in the spectra of 11 normal late B stars and 21 HgMn stars in the same $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ range. These lines were selected after a search for lines which were well placed in échelle orders in the HES and which appeared not to have any significant blending features in the sample of stars studied. When analysed using LTE methods in fully line-blanketed atmospheres, there is a steady increase with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ in the apparent abundance above the standard value of $`\mathrm{log}A(\mathrm{Ne})=8.08`$. It is apparent from previous studies that this is due to NLTE effects. We note that the strongest line of Ne in the red region, $`\lambda `$6402, and the 6 other lines studied, generally give concordant LTE abundances, suggesting that they are affected by NLTE effects by roughly the same amount. These lines may be of use in future investigations, provided further observations and NLTE calculations are made.

We undertook a detailed NLTE analysis of $`\lambda `$6402 by use of a full analysis including NLTE for H i and Ne i. We confirm earlier studies by obtaining very similar results when similar inputs are used, and find that the ratio of the NLTE and LTE equivalent widths calculated for a given NLTE model atmosphere is a slowly varying function of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and surface gravity. This ratio only slightly depends on the actual abundance of Ne, and is also very insensitive to the microturbulence, so it becomes possible to interpolate, in a table of the ratio $`R`$, the ‘correction factor’ by which an observed equivalent width must be scaled in order to produce the NLTE abundance from a much easier LTE analysis.

The normal stars in our sample yield a mean logarithmic Ne abundance of 8.10, well within our formal mean error of $`\pm 0.03`$ of the standard value, 8.08, given by Grevesse et al. (1996). This gives us additional confidence that our models, and the ratio method of using LTE calculations as an interpolation device, work satisfactorally for late B stars. The smallness of the scatter (s.d. $`\pm 0.08`$) for the individual stars suggests that the error budget in Section 5 is rather conservative.

It is clear from our results for the HgMn stars that the abundances of Ne range from standard abundance or slightly below, to extreme deficiencies of an order of magnitude or more. In several cases we have obtained only upper limits, and additional observations of very high quality would be needed in order to attempt to detect the weak Ne lines in these stars. There is a tendency for the Ne abundance to be smallest in the middle of the HgMn effective temperature range, but there is no dependence on surface gravity. There is not a single confirmed case in which Ne has an enhanced abundance, which is strong evidence for the absence in HgMn stars of nonturbulent stellar winds (i.e. hydrogen mass loss rate must be $`<10^{14}M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1) that might compete with radiative atomic diffusion and produce accumulations of light elements in the photosphere, as suggested by Landstreet et al. (1998). That such winds might exist was studied by Babel & Michaud (1991), Babel (1992) and Krtička & Kubát (2000).

## 7 Acknowledgements

J. Budaj gratefully acknowledges the support of The Royal Society for a Royal Society/NATO Fellowship (ref 98B) and further support from VEGA Grant No. 7107 from the Slovak Academy of Sciences. MMD is grateful to the Director of the University of California Observatories, Prof. J.S. Miller, for allocating time for his Guest Observer programme. We gratefully acknowledge the work of C. M. Jomaron and Mr. Christopher Jones for their assistance in this work. Thanks also to the technical and service staff at Lick Observatory, and especially to Tony Misch, for their efforts on our behalf. NSO/Kitt Peak FTS data used for the measurement of parasitic light were produced by NSF/NOAO. We are grateful to I. Hubeny and J. Krtička for numerous discussions. Research on chemically peculiar stars at UCL is supported by PPARC grant GR/K58500. C. Jones was supported by an Undergraduate Research Bursary from the Nuffield Foundation (NUB-URB98). This work was also supported by the PPARC PATT Rolling Grant GR/K60107 to UCL, for travel to telescopes.