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# Two-neutron separation energies, binding energies and phase transitions in the interacting boson model

## I Introduction

In the last few years, interest for the study of phase transitions and phase coexistence in atomic nuclei has been revived  in particular making use of the Interacting Boson Model (IBM) . In the chart of nuclei, three transitional regions can be distinguished where one observes rapid structural changes: (a) In the Nd-Sm-Gd region, one observes a change from spherical to well-deformed nuclei when moving from the lighter to the heavier isotopes; in the IBM language this is the $`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$ transitional region; (b) in the Ru-Pd region, one notices that the lighter isotopes are spherical while the heavier ones indicate a $`\gamma `$-unstable character, this is the $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$ region; (c) in the Os-Pt region, the lighter isotopes are well deformed while the heavier shown $`\gamma `$-unstable properties, this is the $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$ transitional region. Although these three transitional regions have been studied extensively in the framework of the IBM  (note that in this paper we use the simplest version of the model, IBM-1, therefore we do not consider the transitional regions using IBM-2 ), the discussion of phase transitions has not always been treated in a proper way. In particular one of the weak points is how to define an appropriate control parameter in a system such as the atomic nucleus where this parameter is fixed (for given $`N`$ and $`Z`$) and cannot be controlled externally . This problem has been recently considered in a study by Casten et al.  .

Binding energy (BE) serves as an appropriate “signature” for phase transitions in nuclei . The binding energy of the nucleus or, equivalently its mass, is one of the more important nuclear properties to be determined. In some cases this is the only knowledge about a nucleus when situated far from stability. In the last few years, the development of new experimental facilities has given access to very unstable nuclei and many new mass measurements have been obtained . In the light of the variety of nuclear properties (nuclear mass, nuclear moments, $`\mathrm{}`$) that have been obtained recently, a theoretical study concentrating on the nuclear binding energy and, related to that, possible phase transition is desirable.

Binding energies contain important information about nuclear structure. In IBM calculations, only spectra and electromagnetic transitions used to be analyzed and the description of the binding energy is in most of the cases excluded. In the present article we show that it is convenient to explore nuclear binding energies in order to obtain a consistent description, especially when one is dealing with chains of isotopes. It must be noted that the study of binding energies can help to discriminate between apparently equivalent descriptions of energy spectra and electromagnetic transitions rates for a given nucleus or, even for a chain of nuclei.

In section II we review the study of phase transitions in the IBM. In section III a new way of dealing with phase transitions in nuclei will be presented together with the study of two-neutron separation energies (S2n) in regions where phase transition might happen. In section IV we study some realistic cases and, finally, in section V, we present our conclusions.

## II Transitional regions and phase transitions in the IBM: a study of nuclear binding energies

The IBM is an algebraic model able to describe the low-lying collective states in even-even nuclei in terms of bosons which carry either angular momentum $`L=0`$ ($`s`$ bosons) or angular momentum $`L=2`$ ($`d`$ bosons) . The system of bosons, for which the number of bosons equals half the number of valence fermions, $`N=n/2`$, interacts through a Hamiltonian that typically includes up to two-body interactions, is number conserving and rotationally invariant. The original version of the model, the IBM-1, is used in the present article.

The IBM has been extensively used during the last decades for the study of medium and heavy nuclei . One of the main challenges for the model was the description of transitional regions, where the structure of the nuclei can change rapidly along a chain of isotopes. In particular, different transitional regions have been obtained where such changes in the nuclear structure appear: from spherical to well deformed nuclei (Nd, Sm, and Gd region), from well deformed to $`\gamma `$-unstable nuclei (Ru and Pd region) or from spherical to $`\gamma `$-unstable (Os and Pt region). In the IBM language a spherical nucleus is related to the $`U(5)`$ limit, a well deformed nucleus is related to the $`SU(3)`$ limit, while $`\gamma `$-unstable nuclei correspond to the $`O(6)`$ limit. A compact Hamiltonian for analyzing the three previous regions can be depicted as follows,

$$\widehat{H}=\kappa \left(N\frac{1\xi }{\xi }\widehat{n}_d\widehat{Q}\widehat{Q}\right)+\kappa ^{}\widehat{L}\widehat{L},$$
(1)
with $`0\xi 1`$. The coefficient of the one-body term can be rewritten as $`N(1\xi )/\xi =ϵ_d/\kappa `$, where $`ϵ_d`$ is the single-particle energy for the $`d`$ bosons. On the other hand, $`\widehat{n}_d`$ is the $`d`$ boson number operator and

$`\widehat{L}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{10}(d^{}\times \stackrel{~}{d})^{(1)},`$ (2)
$`\widehat{Q}`$ $`=`$ $`s^{}\stackrel{~}{d}+d^{}\stackrel{~}{s}+\chi (d^{}\times \stackrel{~}{d})^{(2)}.`$ (3)
The symbol $``$ represents the scalar product. In this work the scalar product of two operators with angular momentum $`L`$ is defined as $`\widehat{T}_L\widehat{T}_L=_M(1)^M\widehat{T}_{LM}\widehat{T}_{LM}`$ where $`\widehat{T}_{LM}`$ corresponds to the $`M`$ component of the operator $`\widehat{T}_L`$. The operator $`\stackrel{~}{\gamma }_\mathrm{}m=(1)^m\gamma _\mathrm{}m`$ (where $`\gamma `$ refers to $`s`$ and $`d`$ bosons) is introduced to ensure the tensorial character under spatial rotations. With this Hamiltonian one can explore the three transitional regions which correspond to the segments of the symmetry triangle .

One of the most striking facts that happen in the transitional regions is the possibility of observation of phase transitions. A phase transition can roughly be defined as a qualitative change in a given property of a system. In order to characterize the properties of the system one has to introduce an order parameter. Another important concept is the order of a transition which is the degree of the derivative for a given experimental observable which first experiences a discontinuity. In the atomic nucleus this experimental observable is the binding energy or, the related two-neutron separation energy (S2n). Although phase transitions are strictly well defined in macroscopic systems and the atomic nucleus is a finite system, a number of studies have shown that the concept of a phase transition retains its validity and usefulness in small systems too . A very useful tool in order to discuss phase transitions in finite system are the coherent states which, in the case of the IBM, are also known as intrinsic states . The intrinsic-state formalism provides a connection between the IBM and the Geometrical Collective Model . The key point for establishing this connection is to consider that the dynamical behavior of the system can be described, to a first approximation, as arising from independent bosons moving in an average field . The ground state of the system is a condensate, $`|c`$, of bosons that occupy the lowest-energy phonon state $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_c^{}`$,

$$|c=\frac{1}{\sqrt{N!}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_c^{})^N|0,$$
(4)
where

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_c^{}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+\beta ^2}}\left(s^{}+\beta \mathrm{cos}\gamma d_0^{}+\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\beta \mathrm{sin}\gamma (d_2^{}+d_2^{})\right).$$
(5)
Here, the variables $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$, that are obtained after minimization of the ground-state energy, are the order parameters of the system. A spherical nucleus will have as order parameters $`\beta =0`$ and an arbitrary value for $`\gamma `$; a deformed nucleus is characterized by a finite value of $`\beta `$ (in the $`SU(3)`$ limit for $`N\mathrm{}`$ one has $`\beta =\sqrt{2}`$) and $`\gamma =0`$ (prolate nucleus) or $`\gamma =\pi /3`$ (oblate nucleus); and a $`\gamma `$-unstable nucleus corresponds to $`\beta =1`$ (in the limit $`N\mathrm{}`$) and to an arbitrary value for $`\gamma `$. A phase transition will produce changes in the order parameter of the system. Using the intrinsic state we get “microscopic” information on the order parameter.

First, we analyze the behavior of the binding energy and two-neutron separation energy in the three transitional regions. In the three cases the results are independent of the value of $`\kappa ^{}`$ in eq. (1). For the $`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$ transition the value of $`\xi `$ varies from $`0`$ ($`U(5)`$) to $`1`$ ($`SU(3)`$) with $`\chi =\pm \sqrt{7}/2`$ ; in the $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$ transition the value of $`\xi `$ varies from $`0`$ ($`U(5)`$) to $`1`$ ($`O(6)`$) with $`\chi =0`$ ; finally in the transition $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$ the value of $`\chi `$ varies from $`\pm \sqrt{7}/2`$ ($`SU(3)`$) to $`0`$ ($`O(6)`$) with $`\xi =1`$ . In figures 1a, 1b, and 1c we present the binding energy in the laboratory system and in the intrinsic frame ($`BE/\kappa `$) while in figures 1a’, 1b’, and 1c’ we present the value of $`\beta `$ in the three transitional regions for a number of bosons $`N=10`$. First of all, it must be emphasized that the binding energy calculated in the intrinsic system is always below the exact value because it derives from a variational method. One can also realize that the intrinsic-state calculations show a sharp behavior in the phase transition regions while the diagonalization in the laboratory frame leads to smooth curves. In this sense the variational procedure mimics very well what happens in the thermodynamic limit. One of the characteristics of phase transitions in macroscopic systems is that they are very sharp, but in finite system the sharpness will depend on the number of particles.

In figure 1a, a first order transition shows up (discontinuity in the slope of the BE), and also a discontinuity in the value of the order parameter exits. In figure 1b, a phase transition also appears, but in this case it is a second-order transition (discontinuity in the curvature of the BE). One observes, more generally, that there exits a line of first order transitions for Hamiltonians with $`\chi 0`$ and just one point for a second-order transition in the case of $`\chi =0`$ . The parametrization of the Hamiltonian (1) is very appropriate because the phase transition appears approximately at the same value of the control parameter ($`\xi `$) for any value of $`N`$ . This critical point, $`\xi _c`$, can be obtained easily from the expression for the energy given in  as

$$\xi _c=\frac{N}{5N+\chi ^28}.$$
(6)
For $`\xi <\xi _c`$ the potential has a local minimum in $`\beta =0`$, while for $`\xi >\xi _c`$ this local minimum becomes a local maximum. It is clear from this expression that for a large number of bosons, $`\xi _c0.2`$. Finally, in figure 1c no phase transition appears and both calculations, exact diagonalization and intrinsic-state, lead to a smooth transitions.

In a next step, we analyze the behavior of the two-neutron separation energy. The definition that will be used along this paper is,

$$S_{2n}(N)=BE(N)BE(N1).$$
(7)
In the calculation of S2n two different nuclei are involved, which makes necessary to impose an assumption in order to relate the Hamiltonians for the nuclei with $`N`$ and $`N1`$ bosons. Here, we consider the simplest (not unrealistic) case which implies the same Hamiltonian in both nuclei. In figure 2 we study the same transitions as in figure 1 and essentially the same remarks hold. Note in this case the crossing of intrinsic-state and laboratory calculations, which is allowed.

So, in this section we have reviewed the study of phase transitions in atomic nuclei, in particular using the IBM, and have shown it is straightforward and clear from a theoretical point of view. In this analysis, however, there is a weak point: the control parameter $`\xi `$ ($`\chi `$) is not a genuine one, because it cannot be modified externally. The control parameter only changes when one is moving along a chain of nuclei and also assumes a change in the number of bosons. These two problems have already been remarked and alternative solutions have been proposed . In the next sections, we propose a new strategy for attacking this problem.

## III How to identify phase transitions

### A The new diagrams “binding energy-number of bosons-control parameter”

A consistent treatment of phase transitions in nuclei must go beyond the study carried out in section II because one has to treat simultaneously the control parameter $`\xi `$ ($`\chi `$) and the number of bosons $`N`$. It must be emphasized that $`N`$ is not a control parameter because it is a discrete variable and it is fixed in each individual nucleus. Strictly speaking $`\xi `$ ($`\chi `$) is neither a genuine control parameter, because its value is also fixed in each given nucleus, nor can it be controlled externally. Only the appropriate interplay of $`N`$ with $`\xi `$ ($`\chi `$) can lead to a proper definition of an order parameter, although with discrete values.

The appropriate way for treating phase transitions and transitional regions is to plot in the same figure the value of the binding energy versus the control parameter and this for different values of $`N`$. In such a plot, a transition will develop through changes in the control parameter, but at the same time going through curves with a different number of bosons. In order to illustrate this new procedure, we discuss the transitional regions $`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$, $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$ and, $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$ in figures 3a, 3b, and 3c respectively. In these figures, only the laboratory results (IBM diagonalization) are presented. As an example, trajectories for real nuclei are also plotted in each figure. A procedure in order to obtain the value of the control parameter, for each nucleus, will be explained in section IV. The more interesting cases appear in figures 3a and 3b because there, phase transitions indeed happen. So, looking at these figures, one can easily see if a given nucleus is situated in the spherical region ($`\xi `$ near to $`0`$), in the deformed region ($`\xi `$ around 1) or at the critical point.

One might be tempted to consider similar plots for the two-neutron separation energies. In this case one must be very careful because the Hamiltonian for $`N`$ and $`N1`$ bosons are different. That means that S2n is not a function of a single control parameter, $`\xi `$ ($`\chi `$), anymore, but becomes a function of two control parameters, one for $`N`$ and another one for $`N1`$.

The essential difference between phase transitions in nuclei compared to macroscopic systems is the existence of a control parameter in the macroscopic case, such as temperature or pressure, that can be controlled externally. In the case of atomic nuclei, the only way for changing the value of the control parameter is to move along a chain of nuclei. It is clear that the variation of the control parameter is thereby fixed and cannot be modified externally.

### B Crossing the phase transition region: anomalies in the two-neutron separation energies

In previous sections we have studied the behavior of the binding energy as a function of the control parameter, i.e. as a function of the Hamiltonian, in the three transitional regions of the IBM. Due to the specific characteristics of phase transitions in atomic nuclei, it is not a priori clear how different observables will behave when crossing a critical value through a chain of isotopes. More particular, one can observe the two-neutron separation energies as a function of the nucleus in the chain that one considers. S2n is indeed a very appropriate observable to be analyzed because it contains important information about the nuclear structure, in particular on the ground state.

Before starting the present analysis we emphasize the fact that there exits an extra contribution to the binding energy not yet included when using the Hamiltonian of equation (1), i.e.

$$E^{}=E_0+AN+\frac{B}{2}N(N1)$$
(8)
Those extra terms, deriving from the linear and quadratic $`U(6)`$ Casimir invariant, take into account the bulk contribution of the nuclear interaction. Including those extra terms in S2n, one obtains a linear contribution to be added to the IBM calculation, resulting

$$S_{2n}(N)=(AB/2)+BN+BE_{IBM}(N)BE_{IBM}(N1).$$
(9)
When the linear dependence is excluded from S2n, we will refer to that result as S’2n. It must be noted that the specific nuclear structure IBM contribution in the three dynamical limits ($`U(5)`$, $`SU(3)`$, and $`O(6)`$) is also linear in the boson number  and in this context only a particular change in the internal structure of the nuclei, as happens during the phase transitions, can perturb this linear dependence.

In order to be sure one encounters a phase transition or passes through a specific transitional region, one has to establish the value of the control parameter for each nucleus. In the following we will concentrate on chains of isotopes (fixed number of protons), being the nuclei characterized by a given number of bosons $`N`$ or by the number of neutron pairs $`N_\nu `$. As a consequence one has to determine the functional relation $`\xi =\xi (N)`$ ($`\chi =\chi (N)`$) or, in terms of the number of neutron pairs, the relation $`\xi =\xi (N_\nu )`$ ($`\chi =\chi (N_\nu )`$). Although the latter functional relation must be determined from experimental data, one can use a simple function and see if it is possible to obtain some physical insight on the structure of S2n. For the present study we fix a chain of isotopes with $`5`$ protons pairs, $`N_\pi =5`$, and a variable number of neutrons pairs, ranging from $`N_\nu =0`$ to $`N_\nu =10`$. Two functional dependences will be used, firstly linear and secondly quadratic. Next, we show the different parametrizations for the different transition regions,

* $`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$ and $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$ transitional regions.

$`\xi `$ $`=`$ $`0.099N_\nu +0.01,`$ (10)
$`\xi `$ $`=`$ $`0.0099N_\nu ^2+0.01,`$ (11)
* $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$ transitional region.

$`\chi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{7}}{20}}N_\nu `$ (12)
$`\chi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{7}}{200}}N_\nu ^2.`$ (13)

Using parametrizations (10,11), $`\xi `$ ranges from $`0.01`$ to $`1`$. On the other hand, using parametrization (12,13), $`\chi `$ ranges from $`0`$ to $`\sqrt{7}/2`$. In order to establish a realistic parametrization, we start from the empirical observation that in the $`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$ transition, the system passes from the $`U(5)`$ to the $`SU(3)`$ limit when the number of bosons is increasing . Similarly, the transition $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$ implies that the system goes from $`U(5)`$ to $`O(6)`$ when the number of bosons is increasing. Finally, the transition $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$ implies the system passes from $`SU(3)`$ to $`O(6)`$ when the number of bosons is decreasing.

In figures 4a and 4b, S2n and S’2n are shown, respectively, for the $`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$ transitional region using for $`\xi `$ the parametrizations (10,11). The Hamiltonian (1) has been used with $`\chi =\sqrt{7}/2`$ . For convenience, a linear dependence equal to $`S_{2n}^{lin}/\kappa =20020N_\nu `$ has been chosen as a reference value in order to obtain a realistic behavior in S2n. In these figures, an anomaly in the linear dependence of S2n and S’2n, right at the place where the phase transition happens, can be appreciated. The phase transition point corresponds approximately to $`\xi 0.2`$ (see figure 1a and 1a’) and taking into account equations (10) and (11) results a value for $`N_\nu `$, $`N_\nu 2`$ and $`N_\nu 4`$ for the linear and quadratic dependence, respectively. We point out that in case a quadratic variation in $`N_\nu `$ for the control parameter is selected, the anomaly in S2n is more pronounced than for a linear variation. In figures 5a and 5b, S2n and S’2n are shown, respectively, for the $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$ transitional region using for $`\xi `$ the same parametrization as in the previous case. The Hamiltonian (1) has been used with $`\chi =0`$ . In this case a linear dependence equal to $`S_{2n}^{lin}/\kappa =20010N_\nu `$ has been used to determine the S2n values. Again, a non-linear behavior appears at the point of the phase transition. The phase transition point corresponds approximately to $`\xi 0.2`$ (see figure 1b and 1b’) and taking into account equations (12) and (13) results a value for $`N_\nu `$, $`N_\nu 2`$ and $`N_\nu 4`$ for the linear and quadratic dependence, respectively. In this case, a linear variation in the control parameter leads to an almost linear dependence in S2n and S’2n. Only a control parameter which depends quadratically on $`N_\nu `$ produces a kink in the two-neutron separation energy. Finally, in figures 6a and 6b, S2n and S’2n are represented, respectively, for the $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$ transitional region using for $`\chi `$ the parametrizations (12,13). The Hamiltonian (1) has been used with $`\xi =1`$ . In this case the following linear dependence $`S_{2n}^{lin}/\kappa =20020N_\nu `$ has been chosen as a reference when calculating S2n. In this transitional region no phase transition is observed and a smooth curvature result except when one is approaching the $`SU(3)`$ limit and is using a quadratic dependence in $`N_\nu `$ for $`\chi `$ (13).

Along this section we have learned to treat in a proper way binding energies (two-neutron separation energies) in transitional regions where phase transitions might appear. We have seen that in these regions one can get deviations from the linear tendency of S2n. Next step will be to find experimental examples where those anomalies appear and explain them using the IBM.

## IV Realistic calculations

Within the framework of the IBM, the energy spectra and transition rates of many medium-mass and heavy nuclei have been analyzed very successfully. However, in most of these studies  the binding energies have been ignored. One of the reasons for such a neglect stems (partly) from the fact that the early IBM studies (carried out in the 80’s)  gave a rather good reproduction of the general trends of the nuclear binding energy in different mass regions. So, it was tacitly assumed that realistic IBM calculations would also reproduce (in a natural way) the binding energy values. In the mean time, with a large increase in the precision for the mass measurement , much improved data have been established . Moreover, it must be noted that, in order to carry out a proper comparison between calculated and experimental binding energies (or $`S_{2n}`$ data), one cannot concentrate on single or a few nuclei. Large chain of isotopes have to be considered and this complicates considerably performing consistent IBM calculations.

In this section we will determine the experimental relations between the control parameter $`\xi `$ ($`\chi `$) and the number of neutron pairs $`N_\nu `$ through explicit fits of energy spectra for selected nuclei in the three transitional regions. Starting from these relations we are able to represent a specific chain of isotopes on the diagrams shown in section III A. We subsequently show that the experimental binding energies (or two-neutron separation energies) are not always well reproduced although the spectra do. We analyze chains of isotopes in the transitional regions (i) first using the more standard set of parameters for the Hamiltonian  and (ii), secondly, we compare with an alternative parametrization (see discussion below). We do not aim a perfect fit of the experimental data, but we intend to emphasize the influence of choosing various parametrizations on the binding energies.

Next we study the three transitional regions:

* The $`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$ transitional region

There exit nuclei that exhibit a drastic change in the internal structure when one is passing their isotopes series, going from a vibrational into a rotational behavior. Typical examples are situated in the rare-earth region, such as the Nd, Sm, and Gd nuclei. The Sm nuclei have been extensively studied in Ref.  and a very good agreement with experimental data for S2n has been obtained. In figure 3a, we plot the position of the different Sm isotopes and one can clearly see how they cross the critical point, in particular 152Sm is situated almost exactly where the phase transition happens. The cases of Nd and Gd are very similar. Here, we will only focus to the case of Gd.

In this region we assume a value $`\chi =\sqrt{7}/2`$ because some Gd isotopes clearly exhibit the character of the $`SU(3)`$ dynamical symmetry . This assumption was very successful in describing the Sm nuclei, which form neighboring nuclei. With this ansatz we have carried out a fit to the energy spectra of the Gd isotopes (from 150Gd until 162Gd) using the Hamiltonian (1). In order to obtain the parameters, we tried to reproduce the rotational structure of the ground- and $`\gamma `$-band as well as possible. The 150Gd nucleus still shows a vibrational structure while 156-162Gd are considered as rather good $`SU(3)`$ examples. The parameters for 150Gd to 162Gd, respectively, are shown in table I (upper part). In figure 7a we compare the theoretical and the experimental energies for the low-lying levels using this set of parameters. Those values are used to position the Gd isotopes in the phase transition diagram of figure 3a, where 150Gd corresponds to $`N=9`$ while 156Gd corresponds to $`N=12`$. Note that 158-162Gd are not plotted; they also corresponds to $`\xi =1`$. From figure 3a one can observe a sudden transition in the Gd isotopes from a vibrational regime into the $`SU(3)`$ limit. Up to now, we have obtained a good description of the Gd energy spectra but we have to consider the experimental two-neutron separation energies too. This comparison is carried out in figure 8 (the present calculation corresponds to Theo.-a), using a linear contribution $`S_{2n}^{lin}=150.252N_\nu `$ (MeV) as a background. One observes a very bad agreement which points to the fact that the use of $`\chi =\sqrt{7}/2`$ is not appropriate. A different approach to fix the Hamiltonian is proposed in . There, it is assumed that in well deformed nuclei one can keep the value of $`\kappa `$ constant around $`\kappa =30`$ keV and smoothly change the values of $`\chi `$ and $`ϵ_d`$ along a series of isotopes. In the present case, the appropriate values for $`\chi `$ and $`\kappa `$ are $`\chi =0.6`$ and $`\kappa =19.2`$ keV. On the other hand the values of $`\xi `$ (using $`N(1\xi )/\xi =ϵ_d/\kappa `$, see equation (1)) are shown in table I (lower part) in going on 146Gd until 162Gd (note that in this case, a few extra isotopes are also considered). In figure 7b we again compare the theoretical and the experimental energies for the low-lying levels corresponding to the new Hamiltonian. Again, we compare the calculated S2n values with the data and, as can be seen in figure 8 (this calculation corresponds to Theo.-b), using a linear contribution $`S_{2n}^{lin}=16.750.607N_\nu `$ (MeV) as a background, a very good agreement is obtained. Note that the present results for $`\xi =\xi (N)`$ cannot be represented in figure 3a due to the new value of $`\chi `$, since figure 3a corresponds to $`\chi =\sqrt{7}/2`$. It is worth noting the strong similarities between figure 8 and figure 4b.
* The $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$ transitional region

Clear-cut examples of nuclei in which the structure changes from spherical to $`\gamma `$-unstable are obtained in the Ru and Pd region. Both series of isotopes have already been studied in , showing that the lighter isotopes exhibit a vibrational structure while the heavier ones present a $`\gamma `$-unstable behavior. In reference  the general trends have been analyzed but it was shown that difficulties appear when trying to obtain a consistent description for several observables at the same time. Due to the strong similarities between both nuclei, only the study of Pd nuclei will be presented here.

A first assumption will be to consider $`\chi =0`$, which is suggested in reference  too. Using the Hamiltonian (1) we fit the energy spectra of 100-112Pd. No other isotopes are fitted because only for those the energy ratio $`E(4_1^+)/E(2_1^+)`$ changes between $`2`$ ($`U(5)`$) and $`2.5`$ ($`O(6)`$). Note that this energy ratio will be the main observable to be reproduced during the fits. We have taken a fixed single particle energy at $`ϵ_d=65`$ keV and the parameters that we have obtained are shown in table II (upper part). Note that no rotational term is necessary. In figure 9a we compare the theoretical and the experimental low-lying levels for this set of parameters. Those values are used to position the Pd isotopes on figure 3b, where 100Pd corresponds to $`N=4`$ and 112Pd corresponds to $`N=10`$. One can clearly see that the Pd isotopes cover only half the range between the $`U(5)`$ and the $`O(6)`$ limit. In figure 10 one obtains a poor description when comparing S2n (this calculation corresponds to Theo.-a), with a linear contribution $`S_{2n}^{lin}=22.271.295N_\nu `$ (MeV) as background, while the energy spectra are well reproduced. Again, this suggests a change in the value of $`\chi `$. In the following, we will use $`\chi =0.3`$, a value that produces a realistic description of the energy spectra. In this case one can fix the single particle energy to $`ϵ_d=70`$ keV. The obtained values of $`(\kappa ,\xi )`$ from 100Pd until 114Pd are shown in table II (lower part). In figure 9b we compare again the theoretical and the experimental low-lying levels for the new Hamiltonian. Now, however, one obtains good agreement when comparing experimental and theoretical S2n values (this calculation corresponds to Theo.-b), with a linear contribution $`S_{2n}^{lin}=20.460.835N_\nu `$ (MeV) as a background, as can be seen in figure 10. The new results cannot be represented on figure 3b because $`\chi 0`$.
* The $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$ transitional region

The most clear-cut examples of nuclei situated in this transitional region are the Os and Pt nuclei. The lighter isotopes exhibit rotational structures while the heavier ones come very close to the $`\gamma `$-unstable limit. This region has already been studied in  in the framework of the IBM-1 but using a different parametrization for the Hamiltonian. Due to the similarities among both series of isotopes, only the analysis of the Pt nuclei will be presented here.

In order to make a global fit we take into account the fact that 196Pt is one of the best examples of a $`\gamma `$-unstable nucleus and, as a consequence, $`\chi =0`$ and $`\xi =0`$ . The obtained parameters $`(\kappa ,\chi ,\kappa ^{})`$ for 184Pt until 196Pt are shown in table III (upper part). In figure 11a we compare the theoretical and the experimental low-lying levels for these parameters. If one places these values in figure 3c, where 196Pt corresponds to $`N=6`$ while 184Pt corresponds to $`N=12`$, it is clear that the Pt isotopes always stay very close to the $`O(6)`$ limit. Finally, in figure 12, we compare the theoretical and experimental S2n values (this calculation corresponds to Theo.-a), with a linear contribution $`S_{2n}^{lin}=12.660.545N_\nu `$ (MeV) as a background. Again, we obtain a poor agreement in the description of the experimental values. In order to treat this mass region with a slightly different Hamiltonian, one can follow again Ref. . There, it is suggested to include a single-particle energy term. In the case of the Pt nuclei the more appropriate value is $`ϵ_d=25.7`$ keV. The value of $`\kappa `$ is also fixed to $`\kappa =33.5`$ keV and $`\kappa ^{}=15.2`$ keV. The different values of the parameters in the Hamiltonian for 184Pt until 196Pt are shown in table III (lower part). In figure 11b we know compare the theoretical and the experimental low-lying levels for the new Hamiltonian. Using this new parametrization, when comparing the S2n values (this calculation corresponds to Theo.-b), with a linear contribution $`S_{2n}^{lin}=11.850.649N_\nu `$ (MeV) as a background, a good agreement is obtained as can be seen in figure 12. These new results cannot be represented in figure 3c because now $`ϵ_d0`$.

In this section we have presented two different parameter sets obtained from fitting the energies of the low-lying states of different isotopes of Gd, Pd, and Pt. A very striking fact is, on one side, the good description of the energy spectra for both sets of parameters, and on the other side, the very different results obtained for the two-neutron separation energy using these different parametrizations. The results obtained here were totally unexpected because it was assumed tacitly that a good description of energy spectra would imply a good description for the binding energies too. In order to illustrate this problem, we consider the case of 148Sm which has been studied by different authors . Although in all the cases the description of the energy spectrum is satisfactory, when calculating the binding energy for the proposed Hamiltonians, one obtains the results $`0.939`$ MeV (Ref ), $`1.571`$ MeV (Ref ) and $`2.253`$ MeV (also in Ref ). All this suggests that a consistent study of atomic nuclei, within the IBM, requires the inclusion of an analysis of the binding energy.

## V Summary and conclusions

In the present article, we have analyzed transitional regions and phase transitions in the framework of the IBM. A new kind of diagram (see figure 3) for dealing with phase transitions has been presented. In this diagram we plot the binding energy of the system versus the control parameter (Hamiltonian) for a range in the number of bosons. This procedure turns out to be a particularly convenient method when working in finite systems without a true control parameter.

The main conclusions are twofold:

(i) We have shown that, although the crossing through the phase transition points produces a deviation in the S2n values from the overall linear background dependence, the way in which, in the given chain of isotopes, this critical point is crossed proves extremely important in deriving clear-cut results. If e.g. the relation between a control parameter and the isotope location (e.g. boson number) is linear, one does not observe dramatic changes in S2n in any of the three transitional regions ($`U(5)`$-$`SU(3)`$, $`U(5)`$-$`O(6)`$, and $`SU(3)`$-$`O(6)`$). On the contrary, for a quadratic relation, clear changes can appear in the S2n behavior at the crossing point.

(ii) We have observed that in a consistent study of long chains of isotopes, one has to treat the ground-state (through its binding energy) on equal level with the excited states (relative energy spectrum). It turns out that parameters producing very similar energy spectra can still result in important differences in the ground-state binding energy (order of $`1`$ MeV).

## VI Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to G. Bollen and co-workers, R.F. Casten, F. Iachello, J. Jolie, P. Van Isacker, and J. Wood for stimulating discussions. The authors like to thank the “FWO-Vlaanderen” for financial support.


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# Parsec-Scale Imaging of Hi Absorption in 1946+708

## References

Peck, A. B., Taylor, G. B., & Conway, J. E. 1999, ApJ, 521, 103

Stickel, M. & Kühr, H. 1993, A&AS, 101, 521


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# AN RXTE SURVEY OF LONG-TERM X-RAY VARIABILITY IN SEYFERT 1 GALAXIES

## 1  Introduction

X-ray observations can provide constraints on physical conditions in the innermost regions of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), as the X-rays are generally thought to originate very close to the central engines. On the basis of spectroscopic observations, the leading models of the X-ray continuum production are generally based on a hot, Comptonizing electron or electron-positron pair corona above the accretion disk which multiply-upscatters thermal soft photons from the disk to produce an X-ray power-law in the energy range 1-100 keV (e.g., Haardt, Maraschi & Ghisellini 1994). Furthermore, the disk, or some other cold, optically thick material, reprocesses the hard X-rays, as evidenced by the so-called ’Compton reflection humps’ above $``$10 keV in Seyfert 1 spectra, as well as strong iron fluorescent lines at $``$6.4 keV (Lightman & White 1988, Guilbert & Rees 1988, Pounds et al. 1990). AGN also exhibit rapid, aperiodic variability, for which no fully satisfying explanation has been advanced. However, at least on short time scales, the variability amplitude has long been known to correlate inversely with the source luminosity for normal Seyfert 1s (e.g., Barr & Mushotzky 1986, Lawrence & Papadakis 1993, Nandra et al. 1997).

Probably the best way to characterize AGN variability, if adequate data exist, is to measure the fluctuation power density spectra (PDS). On short time scales ($``$1 d), EXOSAT showed that AGN PDS are well-described as power-laws ($`Pf^s`$, where $`P`$ is the power at temporal frequency $`f`$), with index $`s=1`$ to $`2`$ (e.g., Green, McHardy & Letho 1993, Lawrence & Papadakis 1993). However, only the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), with its combination of flexible scheduling, relaxed pointing constraints, high throughput and rapid slew speed, has been able to monitor AGN variations over long time scales. Only one Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC 3516, has been subjected to a combination of even sampling on long, medium and short time scales needed to produce the first AGN PDS to span time scales of minutes to months. This PDS showed a flattening on a time scale of $``$1 month (Edelson & Nandra 1999). Unfortunately, the RXTE archives do not currently contain adequate data to measure such detailed PDS for other AGN, although it is expected that the current round of observations will make this feat possible within a few years.

However, the archived data can be used for a less detailed study of the long-term continuum variability properties of Seyfert 1s. This paper presents the first such study, a survey of homogeneously-sampled, $``$300 day light curves of nine Seyfert 1s observed by RXTE. The data reduction and sampling are described in § 2 and the analysis is described in § 3. As discussed in § 4, this has allowed significant insight into AGN variability, such as quantifying the relation between source luminosity and PDS cutoff frequency. Furthermore, the long-term spectral variability properties can be used to test spectral formation models. A short summary is given in § 5.

## 2  Data Collection and Reduction

RXTE observed $``$105 AGN for a total of $``$13 Msec during the first 3 years of its mission (calibration phase and Cycles 1-3). Almost all of these data had become public by the time that these analyses were performed (February 2000). This paper utilized these data as well as the authors’ proprietary observations of five Seyfert 1s observed during Cycle 4. Section 2.1 describes the reduction of the RXTE data set used in this paper.

The goal of this project was to obtain long time scale monitoring sampled as uniformly as possible for as large a number of objects as possible. Optimizing this tradeoff for the currently available archive yielded a sample of nine Seyfert 1s that were sampled an average of once every 5–13 days for a total period of 300 days, along with adequate short time scale ASCA data. The construction of this sample is described in $`\mathrm{\S }`$2.2. The ASCA data and analysis are discussed in $`\mathrm{\S }`$2.3.

### 2.1  RXTE Data

The RXTE’s Proportional Counter Array (PCA) consists of five identical proportional counter units (PCUs; see Swank 1998). For simplicity and uniformity, data were collected only from those PCUs that did not suffer from repeated breakdown during on-source time (PCUs 0 and 2 for the entire data set, plus PCU 1 for observations prior to 1998 December). All quoted count rates for this paper are normalized to 1 PCU. The data were reduced using standard extraction methods and FTOOLS v4.2 software. Data were rejected if they were gathered less than 10$`\mathrm{°}`$ from the Earth’s limb, if they were obtained within 30 min after the satellite’s passage through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), if ELECTRON0 $`>`$ 0.1, or if the satellite’s pointing offset was greater than 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$02.

As the PCA has no simultaneous background monitoring capability, background data were estimated by using pcabackest v2.1b to generate model files based on the particle-induced background, SAA activity, and the diffuse X-ray background. This background subtraction is the dominant source of systematic error in RXTE AGN monitoring data. The background models are best calibrated for the topmost PCU layer, so only counts extracted from this layer were used; restricting to the topmost layer also maximized the signal-to-noise ratio. All of the targets were faint ($`<`$ 40 ct s-1 PCU-1), so the applicable ’L7-240’ background models were used. Because the PCU gain settings changed three times since launch, the count rates were rescaled to a common gain epoch. Light curves binned to 16 s were generated for all targets over the 2-10 keV bandpass, where the PCA is most sensitive and the systematic errors and background are best quantified. Light curves were also generated for the 2-4 keV and 7-10 keV bands. The data were then binned on orbital time scales; orbits with less than 10 points were rejected. Errors on each point were obtained from the standard deviations of the data in each orbital bin. Further details of RXTE data reduction can be found in, e.g., Edelson & Nandra (1999).

### 2.2  Optimized Sampling and Source Selection

The main goal of this project was to understand the long-term X-ray variability properties of Seyfert 1s. This required producing a substantial sample of objects that were (to the greatest degree possible) uniformly monitored on long time scales for good comparison between sources. Furthermore, there was required to exist adequate short-term data for comparison of the two time scales. Objects were also required to contain at least 20 points in the final light curve. Sources with a weighted mean count rate significantly below 1 ct s-1 PCU-1 over the full 2-10 keV bandpass were rejected to minimize the risk of contamination from faint sources in the field-of-view and to ensure adequate signal-to-noise.

The sampling of the publically available Cycle 1-3 data was highly uneven in general, as observations were made with a wide variety of science goals. The resulting light curves featured a wide range of sampling patterns and durations. Targets with observations that spanned less than the optimum window of $``$300 d were rejected. Choosing a longer window would have resulted in too few sources in the final survey, and a shorter window would have been less appropriate for long-term variability analysis, as many sources had $``$2 month gaps of 1-year time scales due to satellite $`\beta `$-angle viewing constraints. Targets with gaps greater than 33$`\%`$ of the total duration were also rejected, as gaps reduce the statistical significance of parameters derived over the full duration. For each target, the most densely sampled 300 d that did not include significant gaps was selected for analysis.

To extract a data set that was as uniformly sampled as possible, it was necessary to resample at a common, optimized sampling rate. This was done with an algorithm that kept spaces between adjacent accepted points as close to 5 d as the original sampling pattern allowed. Resampling at a rate longer than 5 d would have resulted in too few points in the final light curves, while resampling significantly more frequently would have yielded light curves that were not sufficiently uniformly sampled a data set given the original range of sampling patterns.

This reduction yielded a sample of fifteen AGN, including two Seyfert 2s (NGC 4258 and NGC 5506) and four blazars (3C 273, 3C 279, 3C 454.3 and PKS 1510-089) that will not be considered further in this paper. Excluding those objects yielded a sample of nine Seyfert 1s (3C 120, Ark 120, Fairall 9, MCG–6-30-15, NGC 3516, NGC 3783, NGC 4051, NGC 4151, and NGC 5548). Figure 1 shows the full 2-10 keV light curves for these Seyfert 1s, ranked by source luminosity. Figure 2 shows the light curves after applying the $``$300 d window and resampling. Table 1 summarizes the source observation and sampling parameters for the survey targets over the 2-10 keV bandpass. All source fluxes were calculated using HEASARC’s online W3PIMMS v3.0 Flux Converter assuming an intrinsic power-law with a photon index obtained from the online Tartarus archive of ASCA AGN observations (http://tartarus.gsfc.nasa.gov; e.g. Nandra et al. 1997, Turner et al. 1999). Luminosities were calculated assuming $`H_o`$ = 75 km s-1 Mpc-1 and $`q_o`$ = 0.5.

### 2.3  ASCA Data

Short-term 2-10 keV light curves were also obtained from the Tartarus database. The count rates in the light curves provided had been combined and averaged between ASCA’s two Solid-state Imaging Spectrometers (SIS; Burke et al. 1994, Gendreau 1995) and binned to 16 s. For each target, the observation with the longest duration available in the archive was selected, and only the first 1 day (maximum duration of 86.4 ks) was used for these analyses. The light curves were rebinned on orbital time scales with the same algorithm used for the RXTE data to yield light curves that were generally 10-15 consecutive orbital bins. Background light curves were similarly binned and subtracted to produce net count rate light curves. Table 2 lists the source observation and sampling parameters for the ASCA data.

## 3  Analysis

### 3.1  Excess Variance

The normalized excess variance, $`\sigma _{RMS}^2`$, was utilized to quantify the amplitude of variability in each light curve (e.g., Nandra et al. 1997):

$$\sigma _{RMS}^2=\frac{1}{\mathrm{N}\mu ^2}\underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{N}}{}}[(X_i\mu )^2\sigma _i^2]$$

where the count rates for the N points in each light curve are $`X_i`$, with errors $`\sigma _i`$, and $`\mu `$ is the unweighted arithmetic mean. Table 3 lists the excess variances for each target over the 2-4 keV band, 7-10 keV band, and full 2-10 keV bandpass for the RXTE data, the ratio of the 300 d 2-4 keV to 7-10 keV variances, and excess variances over the full 2-10 keV bandpass for the ASCA data,. ($`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d},\mathrm{soft}}^2`$, $`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d},\mathrm{hard}}^2`$, $`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d}}^2`$, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{soft}}^2`$$`/`$$`\sigma _{\mathrm{hard}}^2`$, and $`\sigma _{1\mathrm{d}}^2`$, respectively).

### 3.2  Construction of Correlation Diagrams

Figure 3 displays the excess variance for both the long (300 day) and short (1 day) time scale data plotted against source luminosity over the 2-10 keV bandpass. For all sources, the long-term excess variances are greater than the short-term excess variances. Both data sets conform well to a power-law of the form $`\sigma _{RMS}^2`$ $``$ $`L_x^a`$, an anticorrelation observed before in AGN (e.g. Green, McHardy, & Lehto 1993, Nandra et al. 1997, Turner et al. 1999). The nine short-term data points were fitted by a logarithmic slope $`a`$ = 0.861 $`\pm `$ 0.070. The long-term data are described by a power-law with a much shallower slope, $`a`$ = 0.277 $`\pm `$ 0.009. The correlation is much stronger for the long-term data (with a correlation coefficient of r = $``$0.972) than for the short-term data (where r = $``$0.839).

The zero-lag correlation between $`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d},\mathrm{soft}}^2`$ and $`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d},\mathrm{hard}}^2`$ is shown in Figure 4. All of the sources exhibit stronger variability in the relatively softer X-rays than in the harder X-rays, as the slope of the best-fit line is 0.724 $`\pm `$ 0.041, indicating that the soft X-rays make an increasingly dominant contribution to the overall variability for the more variable sources.

Another test of spectral variability is to plot the 7-10 keV count rates against the 2-4 keV count rates for individual sources (see Figure 5). The resulting spectral variability slopes, listed in Table 3, range from 1.14 to 1.81, again indicating that the relatively soft band is more strongly variable.

Figure 6 plots this spectral variability slope against source luminosity and $`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d}}^2`$. There is weak evidence for an anticorrelation between the spectral variability slope and source luminosity in the sense that less luminous sources exhibit more variability in the soft band. There is weak evidence for a positive correlation between between the spectral variability slope and 2-10 keV $`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d}}^2`$.

Table 4 summarizes the correlations discussed in this section.

## 4  Discussion

On long time scales, the anticorrelation between source luminosity and variability is stronger (higher correlation coefficient), yet shallower in power-law slope, compared to short time scales. The shallower slope on long time scales can be viewed as the highest luminosity sources showing the greatest increase in long-term variability amplitude. As discussed below, this trend can be explained by a simple scaling of PDS turnover frequency with luminosity. Furthermore, all of the targets exhibit stronger variability at relatively softer X-ray energies (2–4 keV) than at harder X-ray energies (7–10 keV), which allows tests of simple X-ray reprocessing models.

### 4.1  Variability-Luminosity Relationship and PDS Movement

As mentioned in the introduction, only one AGN (NGC 3516) currently has adequate data to clearly measure a cutoff in the PDS (at a time scale of $``$1 month; Edelson & Nandra 1999). A toy model can be constrained assuming that all AGN PDS have a universal shape, with the location of the break (in both amplitude and time scale) changing with luminosity. The observed anticorrelation between source luminosity and variability amplitude observed on short time scales (e.g., Lawrence & Papadakis 1993; Nandra et al. 1997) could then be due either to a positive correlation between luminosity and cutoff time scale or to an inverse correlation between luminosity and the overall variability amplitude. This is illustrated in Figure 7, with the first case of changing time scale shown on the left (e.g., less luminous sources vary more rapidly) and the second case of changing amplitude on the right (e.g., less luminous sources vary more strongly). It is also illustrated in Figure 8, except in $`fP_ff`$ space instead of $`P_ff`$ space.

Within this model, it is possible to use the current data to discriminate between these two pictures. If the amplitude scales with luminosity but is independent of time scale, then the ratio of short- to long-term variances, $`\sigma _{1\mathrm{d}}^2/\sigma _{300\mathrm{d}}^2`$, will remain independent of luminosity. However, if the time scale changes with luminosity, then $`\sigma _{1\mathrm{d}}^2/\sigma _{300\mathrm{d}}^2`$ will be larger for more luminous sources. Figure 9 is such a plot of $`\sigma _{1\mathrm{d}}^2/\sigma _{300\mathrm{d}}^2`$ as a function of luminosity, with the solid line derived by scaling the measured PDS of NGC 3516 (with a high-frequency slope of $``$1.76 and turnover frequency of 4 $`\times `$ 10-7 Hz) linearly with luminosity in $`P_ff`$ space. The short-term variances were obtained by integrating between temporal freqencies of 1 d-1 and 15 d-1 (one satellite orbit). The long-term variances were calculated using the frequency range 0.003 d-1 to 15 d-1. No arbitrary scaling was done. This result is roughly consistent with the idea that the variability time scale (the duration required for the source to achieve a given level of r.m.s. variability) is in proportion to the size of the emitting region in AGN and hence black hole mass, which in turn determines luminosity.

Finally, Figure 3 also shows that the long-term correlation is much stronger (more highly correlated) than the short-term correlation. This could be due to the a simple data effect: the long-term variability is stronger the short-term, and RXTE gets higher signal-to-noise ratios than ASCA. This would result in a higher variability-to-noise ratio for the long-term data, and therefore a stronger correlation.

### 4.2  Spectral Variability results

Figures 4 and 5 demonstrate that all sources in the sample show stronger variability in the 2-4 keV band compared to the 7-10 keV band. This trend has been observed previously in Seyfert 1s, e.g., by Turner, George, & Nandra (1998). Green, McHardy, & Lehto (1993) model such spectral softening as the result of a constant reflection component superimposed on a variable soft component. However, this model is not consistent with the data reported in this paper. For the spectral model pexrav in XSPEC v11.00, consisting of an absorbed power-law plus Compton reflection component (Magdziarz & Zdziarski, 1995), the reflected component accounts for at most $``$8$`\%`$ of the total 7-10 keV flux. Assuming this maximum effect, a constant reflection component can reduce $`\sigma _{300\mathrm{d},\mathrm{hard}}^2`$ by as much as $``$18$`\%`$. However, for all objects in the present sample, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{soft}}^2`$/$`\sigma _{\mathrm{hard}}^2`$ is still larger than 1.18; as seen in Table 3, these values range from 1.30 to 3.85. This result suggests that the observed spectral variability may instead be due to changes in the intrinsic spectral slope $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

Haardt, Maraschi, & Ghisellini (1997) discuss a model for Comptonizing coronae in which optical depth variations in a fixed-geometry, plane-parallel, pair-dominated, optically thin (0.1 $``$ $`\tau `$ $``$ 1.0) corona drive spectral changes in the Comptonized emission in that spectral steepening and a decrease in corona temperature accompany increases in optical depth. The model predicts that a steepening of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ by 0.2 over the 2-10 keV bandpass corresponds to an increase in 2-10 keV flux by a factor of 10 (valid for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ $``$ 2.0). Assuming that the Comptonized power-law pivots at an energy of 10 keV, the 2-4 keV flux is therefore expected to increase by 25$`\%`$ more than the 7-10 keV flux increases. However, this model also is inconsistent with the data. The average increase of 2-10 keV flux for all targets in the present sample from the lowest to highest flux states is a factor of $``$4; scaling the model’s prediction accordingly implies $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ = +0.12, and hence the 2-4 keV flux should increase by 14$`\%`$ relative to the 7-10 keV flux. For the present sample, however, the average increase is 53$`\%`$ (see Figure 5). There is more spectral variability and less total (2-10 keV) flux variability than the model predicts. Reasons for this discrepancy include the possibility that pairs may not dominate in coronae. However, Haardt, Maraschi, & Ghisellini (1997) also find that for a pair-dominated corona in which variations of the scale size of the corona are important and intrinsic flux variations are negligible, significant spectral variations could be expected without large variations in the 2-10 keV flux. This situation, which could arise from a corona composed of many active regions instead of a single homogeneous region, is more consistent with the present observations.

## 5  Conclusions

This paper reports the first X-ray variability survey with highly uniform and consistent sampling to probe long time scales ($``$300 d) in a reasonably large sample of Seyfert 1 galaxies. The variability amplitudes were found to be greater on long time scales than on short time scales, with the largest increases seen in the most luminous sources. This resulted in the slope of the anticorrelation between excess variance and luminosity being shallower on long time scales. This trend can be explained if the time scale for a variability mechanism increases for more luminous sources, as would be the case if all Seyfert 1s radiate at approximately the same ratio of L$`/`$LEdd. Consequently, a PDS corresponding to a higher luminosity object will be displaced towards lower temporal frequencies relative to that of a lower luminosity object.

All of the Seyfert 1s exhibited stronger variability in the relatively soft 2-4 keV band than in the harder 7-10 keV band, too strong to be explained by a simple model based on the dilution of the power-law continuum in the 7-10 keV band by a constant Compton reflection component. The data are also inconsistent with a simple model of a static, pair-dominated, plane-parallel Comptonizing corona.

Recently, systematic monitoring with RXTE has been started for several Seyfert 1s, with even sampling over a wide range of time scales in the same pattern as the NGC 3516 campaign. When these campaigns are completed in 2002, it should be possible to measure the PDS over four decades of temporal frequency, hopefully allowing direct measurement of the turnover and determination of how PDS shape evolves with luminosity, as predicted in this paper.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors would like to thank Tess Jaffe and Simon Vaughan for help with data analysis. This work has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the TARTARUS database, which is supported by Jane Turner and Kirpal Nandra under NASA grants NAG 5-7385 and NAG 5-7067, and the NASA$`/`$IPAC Extragalactic Database which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The authors acknowledge financial support from NASA grants NAG 5-7315 and NAG 5-9023.


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# Perturbative Pions in Deuteron Compton Scattering and Three Body Physics11footnote 1Abstract of a talk held at the Workshop Chiral Dynamics 2000: Theory and Experiment, TJNL (Newport News, USA) 17th – 22nd July 2000; to be published in the Proceedings; preprint numbers nucl-th/0009060, TUM-T39-00-17.

The Effective Field Theory (EFT) of two and three nucleon systems lead in the last three years to a systematic, rigorous and model independent description of strongly interacting particles. An introduction was given in the plenary talk by M.J. Savage. The talks by van Kolck, Mehen, Meißner, Hammer, Fabbiani, Chen and Beane highlight other aspects. For details, I refer to the papers with J.-W. Chen, R.P. Springer and M.J. Savage, and with P.F. Bedaque.

Kaplan, Savage and Wise assume that at leading order, the nucleons interact only via a two-nucleon contact interaction without derivatives. Pion exchange appears as perturbation first at NLO, and the more complicated pion contributions are at each order given by a finite number of diagrams.

In this formulation, the elastic deuteron Compton scattering cross section to NLO is blablameter-free with an accuracy of $`10\%`$. Contributions at NLO include the pion graphs that dominate the electric polarisability of the nucleon from their $`\frac{1}{m_\pi }`$ behaviour in the chiral limit. The comparison with experiment in Fig. 1 shows good agreement and therefore confirms the HB$`\chi `$PT value for $`\alpha _E`$. The deuteron scalar and tensor electric and magnetic polarisabilities are also easily extracted. For an equally successful treatment using non-perturbative pions, see Beane’s talk.

In the three body sector, the absence of Coulomb interactions in the $`nd`$ system ensures that only properties of the strong interactions are probed. In the quartet channel, the Pauli principle forbids three body forces in the first few orders. A comparative study between the theory with explicit, perturbative pions and the one with pions integrated out was performed in the spin quartet $`\mathrm{S}`$ wave for momenta of up to $`300\mathrm{MeV}`$ ($`E_{cm}70\mathrm{MeV}`$). The calculation with/without explicit, perturbative pions was carried out to NLO/NNLO, showing convergence. The NNLO calculation is inside the error ascertained to the NLO calculation and carries itself an uncertainty of $`4\%`$. Pionic corrections – although formally NLO – are indeed much weaker. The difference to the theory in which pions are integrated out should appear for momenta of the order of $`m_\pi `$ and higher because of non-analytical contributions of the pion cut, but those seem to be very moderate for momenta of up to $`300\mathrm{MeV}`$ in the centre-of-mass frame ($`E_{\mathrm{cm}}70\mathrm{MeV}`$), see Fig. 2. As available, the calculation agrees with both experimental data and more complex potential model calculations, but extends to a higher, so far untested momentum régime above the deuteron breakup point.


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# The origin of the HH 7–11 outflowBased on observations carried out with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).

## 1 Introduction

HH 7–11 is one of the most conspicuous chains of Herbig-Haro (HH) objects. It lies $`6\mathrm{}`$ South from NGC1333, in a region crowded of young stellar objects (YSOs) and low-mass star-formation signspots (bright and dark nebulosities, jets, OH and water masers, etc.). The region is at only $``$300 pc from the Sun (Herbig & Jones 1983, Cernis 1992). Overall views in the optical and the infrared have been reported by Aspin et al. (1994), Hodapp & Ladd (1995) and Bally et al. (1996).

HH 7–11 is the optically visible part of an energetic high-velocity bipolar outflow which has bright emission in CO (Snell & Edwards 1981, Bachiller & Cernicharo 1990, Masson et al. 1990, Knee & Sandell 2000), H2 (Hoddap & Ladd 1995), HI (Lizano et al. 1988, Rodríguez et al. 1990), and SiO (Lefloch et al. 1998, Codella et al. 1999). In spite of so many detailed studies, the HH 7–11 area is so rich in YSOs that identifying the outflow driving source is not an easy task. For as long as 20 years the infrared star SVS 13 (Strom et al. 1976), which is approximately aligned with the HH 7–11 string, was believed to be its exciting source. However, recent radio observations (Rodríguez et al. 1997, 1999) have revealed new radio sources close to SVS 13 and have casted doubts about which is the source actually driving the outflow. Rodríguez et al. (1997) favored VLA 3, a source placed 6″ SW from SVS 13 and also well aligned with the HH 7–11 chain, as the most likely exciting source of the outflow. The region is made even more complex by the presence of two other nearby sources, the radio source VLA 20 (Rodríguez et al. 1999) and the Class 0 protostar SVS 13B (Bachiller et al. 1998). The latter is known to drive a highly collimated SiO jet (Bachiller et al. 1998). In this Letter we report interferometric CO $`J`$=2–1 observations showing unambiguously that the actual driving source of the HH 7–11 flow is SVS 13. Our observations also provide important information on the structure of this prototypical outflow.

## 2 Observations

The observations were carried out in March 1998 with the IRAM 5-antenna interferometer at Plateau de Bure. Three configurations of the array were used, with baselines extending up to 176 m. The dual-channel receivers were tuned to the CO $`J`$=2–1 and SiO $`J`$=2–1 frequencies. The SiO and continuum observations have been presented by Bachiller et al. (1998). Typical SSB system temperature was 300 K at the CO frequency. The correlator was configured to give a resolution of 3.3 km s-1 in a $``$400 km s-1 wide interval. Phase calibration was achieved by observing 3C84, which is close in the sky to HH 7–11. Typical rms phase noise on the longest baselines was 30. To correct for decorrelation due to the phase noise, the amplitude was also calibrated through the observations of 3C84, whose flux density was 2.6 Jy at 230.5 GHz. A mosaic of 10 fields was observed in order to cover the central region of the HH 7–11 outflow. Interferometric images were produced using natural weighting and cleaned with the GILDAS software. The clean beam is 2.4$`\times `$1.8″ at the CO frequency. The continuum emission (see Bachiller et al. 1998) has been subtracted from the line maps.

## 3 Results

The interferometric CO $`J`$=2–1 images of the HH 7–11 vicinity are complex, reflecting the source crowding in the area. In order to summarize our results, we have divided the high-velocity emission into a limited number of velocity intervals. The most extreme velocities are presented in Fig. 1. Following Bachiller & Cernicharo (1990) we will refer to this component as the “extremely high velocity” (EHV) component, whereas the “standard high velocity” (SHV) component will designate the emission at lower velocities shown in Fig. 2. There is some emission at intermediate velocities exhibiting an intermediate behavior as compared to the maps discussed here.

### 3.1 EHV emission: the origin of HH 7–11

The EHV emission (Fig. 1) reveals an extended blueshifted structure, $``$25″ long in the southeast direction from SVS 13, in good agreement with previous lower resolution maps (Bachiller & Cernicharo 1990, Masson et al. 1990). This jet-like feature consists of three well aligned clumps (“molecular bullets”) and emanates exactly from the position of SVS 13. As can be seen in the right panel of Fig. 1, the EHV redshifted emission reveals a small clump (marked “R” in the figure), $``$15″ to the northwest from SVS 13. This bullet is well aligned with the blueshifted jet and is therefore likely to trace the redshifted, weaker lobe. The lower resolution maps already showed that the EHV redshifted emission is relatively weak in this area. There is however a strong peak $``$45″ northwest from SVS 13, well beyond the area we imaged.

Bullet R is well detected over the noise level: its CO spectrum is a feature of $``$10 km s-1 linewidth, centered at VLSR =147 km s-1. The LSR velocities of the three blueshifted CO bullets are $``$70, $``$110, and $``$150 km s-1, when moving from SVS 13 to the southeast. An analysis of the extreme velocity SiO $`J`$=2–1 emission (not shown in Bachiller et al. 1998) shows that the first CO bullet also presents weak SiO emission in the same velocity range (i.e. up to $``$80 km s-1). The SiO emission is compact ($`<4`$″) and has an integrated intensity of 1.8 Jy km s-1. The CO and SiO emission peaks are coincident within 0.5″, and the CO/SiO integrated intensity ratio is $``$25. Unfortunately, because of backend limitations, the velocity coverage was insufficient to observe in SiO the two CO bullets more distant from SVS 13.

The typical sizes of the blueshifted CO bullets are $``$5″, or 1500 AU at the assumed distance of 300 pc. The distance between successive CO peaks is $``$10″ ($``$3000 AU). By assuming that the outflow is inclined by about 45 to the plane of the sky, we find that the time elapsed between successive ejection events is $``$100 yr. In this context, it is worth noting that SVS 13 itself also displays a high variability (Eisloffel et al. 1991), so it is tempting to suggest that the eruptions of the outflow are related to outbursts in the driving source.

The high spatial coincidence of the EHV jet extremity with SVS 13 (seen in both CO and SiO emission), and the lack of significant high-velocity CO emission from VLA3 and VLA20, strongly indicate that SVS 13 is the actual driving source of the HH 7–11 outflow.

### 3.2 SHV shell-like outflow

The SHV maps provide interesting information on the SVS 13B and SVS 13 outflows. The red map uncovers the northern lobe from SVS 13B, which is observed to be remarkably well aligned with the southern blueshifted one (marked with an arrow in the figures; see Bachiller et al. 1998) and exhibits a similar high collimation. A SiO clump in this redshifted jet was reported by Bachiller et al. (1998), and coincides with the closest CO peak from SVS 13B.

Around HH 7–11, the SHV blueshifted emission forms a well developed arc, strongly suggesting it traces the southern flank of a shell surrounding the HH objects, with the apex at SVS 13. This SHV shell is coincident with the nebula seen in the optical and near-IR images (e.g. Hodapp & Ladd 1995), corresponding well to the cavity where the HH objects are formed. This is illustrated in Fig. 3 where the SHV emission is overlaped on the K image of Hodapp (1994). The shell structure is not smooth, but appears broken in irregular clumps, which could be created as a result of the interaction with a strongly inhomogeneous medium, or by some instability process. Interestingly, there is a bow-shaped SHV structure near HH 7, probably indicating that this object marks an extremity of the cavity.

### 3.3 Changes in the direction of the outflow axis

The blueshifted EHV jet lies at P.A. 155, i.e. on a different direction from that defined by the HH objets and the SHV shell (P.A. $``$130). Since the EHV jet has probably been created by the most recent ejection phenomena (as indicated by its shorter kinematical timescale), we conclude that the outflow axis has moved by about $``$25 toward the South from the period in which the SHV shell was created to the most recent ejection events. This change of the outflow axis could be due to precession in the ejection or to deflection of the outflow along its path. Recent observations of the H2 shocks show that the proper motion vectors near HH 11 and HH 10 (the closest HH objects to SVS 13) have higher P.A. than those near HH 7 and HH 8 (Chrysostomou et al. 2000, their Fig. 1). The proper motions of HH 10–11 are very well aligned with the CO EHV jet and point to SVS 13. However, the proper motion vectors of HH 7–8 are better aligned with the SHV shell, and point to a position $``$20″ south from SVS 13. Since a precession effect should preserve the vectors pointing towards SVS 13, the observed changes in the flow direction are probably due to the action of a force lateral to the outflow (e.g. dynamical or magnetic pressure, or collisions with ambient dense clumps).

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Evolutionary status of the HH 7–11/SVS 13 system

The data presented here provide important information on the structure of the HH 7–11 molecular outflow, and direct evidence on the identity of its driving source (SVS 13). It thus appears interesting to connect the characteristics of this well studied YSO with the properties of its outflow.

SVS 13 is a strong infrared source (Strom et al. 1976) of 85 L (based on Molinari et al. 1993, scaled to the distance assumed here) which experienced outbursts between 1988 and 1990 (Eisloffel et al. 1991) becoming even optically visible (Mauron & Thouvenot 1991). The source is associated with a cm-wave source (named VLA4, Rodríguez et al. 1999) and it is embedded in a dusty disk or elongated envelope, of $``$1 M, which is roughly perpendicular to the HH 7–11 chain (Bachiller et al. 1998). Briefly speaking, the characteristics of SVS 13 are those of a Class I object undergoing eruptions.

The HH 7–11 shell structure is similar to shells observed in both outflows from Class I sources (e.g. L 1551/IRS 5, Moriarty-Schieven et al. 1987) and outflows from Class 0 sources (e.g. L1527 IRS: Tamura et al. 1996; L1448: Bachiller et al. 1995). The L 1551 outflow is, however, spatially much more extended than HH 7–11, indicating that L 1551 is more evolved. Which is most notable in the case of SVS 13 -in principle a Class I object- is the presence of an EHV jet. Up to now such jets were believed to be characteristics of Class 0 sources such as L 1448-mm or IRAS 03282+3035 (Bachiller 1996, and references therein). In the HH 7–11 case, the chain of HH objects is more or less coincident with the axis of the SHV shell, in agreement with the idea that such Herbig Haro objects are tracing shocks in the central jet/wind.

The presence of strong SiO emission is also thought to be a property of very young outflows. The strongest component of SiO emission in the HH 7–11 vicinity arises from low velocity material, and seems therefore to be related to ambient gas rather than outflowing material (Bachiller et al. 1998, Lefloch et al. 1998, Codella et al. 1999). But as discussed in Section 3.1, there is also EHV SiO emission arising from at least one of the bullets in the jet. This SiO emission is quite weak compared to most Class 0 objects, which explains why it remained undetected in lower resolution observations, but it is significant.

In summary, although SVS 13 is a Class I object (based on its spectral energy distribution), its outflow presents some features of outflows from Class 0 sources. Furthermore, it is also remarkable that the nearby object SVS 13B, which is at a distance of only 4300 AU from SVS 13, is a bona-fide Class 0 object (Bachiller et al. 1998). At the view of these observational facts, we therefore suggest that SVS 13 is at the beginning of the Class I stage, and thus keeps some characteristics of the previous evolutionary stage. Another possibility is that SVS 13 is a relatively evolved Class 0 object which has already become optically visible due to a favourable viewing angle. We note that SVS 13 is about an order of magnitude more luminous than typical Class 0 sources, which hints at a more massive object. The persistence of Class 0 features in the outflow from the early Class I \- or “mature” Class 0- source SVS 13 could therefore result from the faster evolution of the central star.

### 4.2 The nature of the VLA sources

The nature of the sources VLA 3 and VLA 20 remains uncertain. Although they are well detected at cm wavelengths (Rodríguez et al. 1997, 1999), their continuum mm-wave emission -if existent at all- is very low (Bachiller et al. 1998). The probability of finding two extragalactic sources so close to SVS 13 is negligible, and we should conclude that these objects are associated to the molecular cloud. The spectral index calculated from the cm to the mm range is consistent with a flat spectrum, so one possibility could be that they are ionized knots in the outflows from other sources. However, both VLA 3 and VLA 20 are relatively well aligned with SVS 13 and SVS 13B on a line which is more or less perpendicular to the direction of the main outflows in the region (those from SVS 13 and SVS 13B), making this interpretation unlikely.

The upperlimit to the $`\lambda `$ 1.3 mm flux of VLA 3 and VLA 20 is $``$15 mJy which, under the assumptions used by Bachiller et al. (1998), indicates that a possible dusty circumstellar envelope or disk around these objects would have less than 0.05 M of mass. So, if they are young stars, their small amount of circumstellar mass would in principle indicate that they are relatively evolved. Moreover, in such a case, they should have very low luminosities, since -in spite of their low circumstellar extinction- they are not seen in the near-infrared. More observations are needed to unveal the nature of these enigmatic VLA sources. In case they were confirmed to be stellar objects associated to the molecular cloud, it will be extremely interesting to estimate their masses and to study their evolutionary status.

###### Acknowledgements.

We remain obliged to the IRAM staff at Plateau de Bure for help with the observations, and in particular to those staff members who lost their lives in two tragic accidents in 1999. RB and MT acknowledge support from Spanish DGES grant PB96-104.


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# Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov description of sizes and shapes of 𝐴=20 isobars

## 1 Introduction

Sizes, shapes and binding energies are fundamental characteristics of nuclei and reflect the basic properties of effective nuclear forces. The description of the generalized moments of the nuclear density distributions provides an important test for nuclear structure models. In particular, a description of ground-state properties of an isobaric sequence of nuclei tests the isovector channel of the effective nuclear force. The correct parameterization of this channel is essential for the description of structure phenomena in exotic nuclei far from $`\beta `$-stability. In the present study we analyze the sequence of $`A=20`$ nuclei: 20N, 20O, 20F, 20Ne, 20Na, 20Mg. Experimental data on nuclear matter radii derived from the measured interaction cross section of these nuclei have been reported in Ref. . Evidence has been found for the existence of a proton skin for 20Mg and of a neutron skin for 20N. The largest difference in radii ($`0.2`$ fm) has been reported for the mirror nuclei 20O and 20Mg. This last result has prompted several theoretical investigations, but the extremely small value for the matter radius of 20O has not been reproduced in calculations which include the microscopic three-cluster model , the Hartree-Fock model with Skyrme interactions , a single particle potential model , and the shell-model . The experimental data on interaction cross sections of $`A=20`$ isobars were also reviewed in Ref.  by using a variety of phenomenological and semi-microscopic models.

In the present analysis of the $`A=20`$ isobaric sequence we employ the Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov (RHB) theory. Based on the relativistic mean-field theory and on the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov framework, the RHB theory provides a unified description of mean-field and pairing correlations. It has been successfully applied in the description of nuclear structure phenomena, not only in nuclei along the valley of $`\beta `$-stability, but also of exotic nuclei close to the particle drip lines. In particular, applications relevant to the present study include: the halo phenomenon in light nuclei , properties of light nuclei near the neutron-drip , reduction of the spin-orbit potential in nuclei with extreme isospin values , the deformation and shape coexistence phenomena that result from the suppression of the spherical N=28 shell gap in neutron-rich nuclei , properties of proton-rich nuclei and the phenomenon of ground-state proton radioactivity .

The relativistic mean field theory is based on simple concepts : nucleons are described as point particles, the theory is fully Lorentz invariant, the nucleons move independently in mean fields which originate from the nucleon-nucleon interaction. Conditions of causality and Lorentz invariance impose that the interaction is mediated by the exchange of point-like effective mesons, which couple to the nucleons at local vertices. The single-nucleon dynamics is described by the Dirac equation

$$\left\{i𝜶\mathbf{}+\beta (m+g_\sigma \sigma )+g_\omega \omega ^0+g_\rho \tau _3\rho _3^0+e\frac{(1\tau _3)}{2}A^0\right\}\psi _i=\epsilon _i\psi _i.$$
(1)
$`\sigma `$, $`\omega `$, and $`\rho `$ are the meson fields, and $`A`$ denotes the electromagnetic potential. $`g_\sigma `$ $`g_\omega `$, and $`g_\rho `$ are the corresponding coupling constants for the mesons to the nucleon. The lowest order of the quantum field theory is the mean-field approximation: the meson field operators are replaced by their expectation values. The sources of the meson fields are defined by the nucleon densities and currents. The ground state of a nucleus is described by the stationary self-consistent solution of the coupled system of Dirac and Klein-Gordon equations.

In addition to the self-consistent mean-field potential, pairing correlations have to be included in order to describe ground-state properties of open-shell nuclei. In the framework of the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov model, the ground state of a nucleus $`|\mathrm{\Phi }>`$ is represented by the product of independent single-quasiparticle states. These states are eigenvectors of the generalized single-nucleon Hamiltonian which contains two average potentials: the self-consistent mean-field $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ which encloses all the long range particle-hole (ph) correlations, and a pairing field $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ which sums up the particle-particle (pp) correlations. In the Hartree approximation for the self-consistent mean field, the relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov equations read

$`\left(\begin{array}{cc}\widehat{h}_Dm\lambda & \widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}\\ \widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}^{}& \widehat{h}_D+m+\lambda \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}U_k(𝐫)\\ V_k(𝐫)\end{array}\right)=E_k\left(\begin{array}{c}U_k(𝐫)\\ V_k(𝐫)\end{array}\right).`$ (2)
where $`\widehat{h}_D`$ is the single-nucleon Dirac Hamiltonian (1), and $`m`$ is the nucleon mass. The chemical potential $`\lambda `$ has to be determined by the particle number subsidiary condition in order that the expectation value of the particle number operator in the ground state equals the number of nucleons. $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ is the pairing field. The column vectors denote the quasi-particle spinors and $`E_k`$ are the quasi-particle energies. The RHB equations are solved self-consistently, with potentials determined in the mean-field approximation from solutions of Klein-Gordon equations for the sigma meson, omega meson, rho meson and photon field, respectively.

## 2 Ground-state properties of A=20 isobars

The details of the ground-state properties of the $`A=20`$ isobaric sequence will depend on the choice of the effective nuclear interaction. In the last few years several new and more accurate parameter sets of meson masses and meson-nucleon coupling constants for the effective mean-field Lagrangian have been derived. Due to large uncertainties in the experimental data, older effective interactions were not specifically designed to describe ground-state isovector properties. Only more recently have isovector properties been included in the set of data on which the effective interactions are adjusted. In the relativistic mean-field model, perhaps the most accurate set of meson masses and meson nucleon coupling constants is NL3 . In most recent applications of the RHB theory we have used the NL3 effective interaction for the mean-field Lagrangian, and the pairing field has been described by the pairing part of the Gogny interaction with the D1S parameter set . This force has been very carefully adjusted to the pairing properties of finite nuclei all over the periodic table. In particular, the basic advantage of the Gogny force is the finite range, which automatically guarantees a proper cut-off in momentum space.

The RHB equations are solved self-consistently, with potentials determined in the mean-field approximation from solutions of Klein-Gordon equations for the meson fields. The Dirac-Hartree-Bogoliubov equations and the equations for the meson fields are solved by expanding the nucleon spinors $`U_k(𝐫)`$ and $`V_k(𝐫)`$, and the meson fields in terms of the eigenfunctions of a deformed axially symmetric oscillator potential. The calculations for the present analysis have been performed by an expansion in 12 oscillator shells for the fermion fields, and 20 shells for the boson fields. A simple blocking procedure is used in the calculation of odd-proton and/or odd-neutron systems. The blocking calculations are performed without breaking the time-reversal symmetry. A detailed description of the Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov model for deformed nuclei can be found in Ref. .

In Fig. 1 we compare the RHB NL3+D1S binding energies of the $`A=20`$ nuclei (20N, 20O, 20F, 20Ne, 20Na, 20Mg) with experimental data . The agreement between theory and experiment is very good. The self-consistent RHB neutron and proton ground-state density distributions for the $`A=20`$ isobaric sequence are shown in Fig. 2. We will eventually compare the calculated radii with experimental values, but here we notice the trend: a pronounced proton skin is observed in 20Mg, it slowly disappears and the proton and neutron density distributions are almost identical in 20Ne, the neutron skin develops and is very pronounced in 20N. This trend is in complete agreement with experimental evidence for the existence of a proton skin for 20Mg and of a neutron skin for 20.

The calculated ground-state quadrupole deformations of $`A=20`$ isobars are shown in Fig. 3 as function of the isospin projection $`T_z`$. Except for 20Ne and 20Na, the $`A=20`$ nuclei are essentially spherical. 20Ne is strongly prolate deformed ($`\beta _2=0.365`$), and an oblate ground-state is calculated for 20Na ($`\beta _2=0.153`$). The surface thickness and diffuseness parameters of the proton and neutron density distributions (Fig. 1) are displayed in Fig. 4. The surface thickness $`s`$ is defined to be the change in radius required to reduce $`\rho (r)/\rho _0`$ from 0.9 to 0.1 ($`\rho _0`$ is the density in the center of the nucleus). The diffuseness parameter $`\alpha `$ is determined by fitting the neutron density profiles to the Fermi distribution

$$\rho (r)=\rho _0\left(1+exp(\frac{rR_0}{\alpha })\right)^1,$$
(3)
where $`R_0`$ is the half-density radius. The surface thickness and diffuseness parameters quantify the proton and neutron skins: for 20Mg $`s(p)=1.81`$ fm, $`s(n)=1.50`$ fm, and the corresponding diffuseness parameters $`\alpha (p)=0.42`$ fm, $`\alpha (n)=0.35`$ fm; for 20N $`s(p)=1.60`$ fm, $`s(n)=1.94`$ fm, $`\alpha (p)=0.38`$ fm, $`\alpha (n)=0.46`$ fm. For 20Ne the surface thickness and diffuseness parameters of the proton and neutron distributions are identical.

The calculated radii are compared with experimental data  in Figs. 5 and 6. In Fig. 5 we display the nuclear matter radii (left panel), and the differences between proton and neutron radii (right panel) of the $`A=20`$ nuclei as functions of the isospin projection $`T_z`$. The theoretical values are in very good agreement with experimental data. The calculated matter radii reproduce the observed staggering between even and odd values of $`T_z`$. The only serious discrepancy is 20O: the calculated matter radius is 2.79 fm and the experimental value is 2.69(3) . However, as we have already mentioned in the introduction, several theoretical models have failed to reproduce this extremely small value for the matter radius of 20, and it was also suggested that the reported experimental value should be reconsidered . All theoretical calculations predict the matter radius in the interval between 2.77 fm and 2.83 fm, in agreement with the result of the present analysis. In fact, since most models predict over-binding for the O isotopes (26O, and even 28O, are bound nuclei in most model calculations), one would expect the theoretical value for the matter radius in 20O to be smaller than the experimental one. With the exception of 20O, also the calculated differences between proton and neutron radii (right panel) are in very good agreement with experimental data. In particular, the theoretical values agree with the large differences found in nuclei with a large excess of neutrons (20N, $`0.33\pm 0.15`$ fm) or protons (20Mg, $`0.50\pm 0.28`$ fm).

Finally, in Fig. 6 theoretical and experimental values are compared for the proton radii as function of the isospin projection $`T_z`$ (left panel), and for the matter radii as function of the binding energy. We notice a very good agreement for all the proton radii. The RHB model also reproduces, with the above discussed exception of 20O, the functional dependence of the matter radii on the binding energy of the $`A=20`$ nuclei.

## 3 Summary

In this study we have applied the Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in an analysis of ground-state properties of nuclei that belong to the $`A=20`$ isobaric sequence. The NL3 effective interaction has been used for the mean-field Lagrangian, and pairing correlations have been described by the pairing part of the finite range Gogny interaction D1S. This particular combination of effective forces in the $`ph`$ and $`pp`$ channels has been used in most of our recent applications of the RHB theory. Theoretical predictions for binding energies, neutron and proton ground-state density distributions, quadrupole deformations, nuclear matter radii, proton radii and differences between proton and neutron radii for 20N, 20O, 20F, 20Ne, 20Na, and 20Mg have been analyzed and compared with available experimental data. It has been shown that the NL3 effective force provides a very good description of the observed ground-state properties as function of the isospin projection $`T_z`$. The results of the present analysis confirm that the isovector channel of the NL3 interaction is correctly parameterized and that this effective force can be used to describe properties of nuclei far from $`\beta `$-stability.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work has been supported in part by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung under project 06 TM 979, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and by the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) Darmstadt.