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# Search for the Decay 𝐾_𝐿→𝜋⁰𝑒⁺𝑒⁻

## Abstract

We report on a search for the decay $`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$ carried out by the KTeV/E799 experiment at Fermilab. This decay is expected to have a significant $`CP`$ violating contribution and the measurement of its branching ratio could support the CKM mechanism for $`CP`$ violation or could point to new physics. Two events were observed in the 1997 data with an expected background of $`1.06\pm 0.41`$ events, and we set an upper limit $``$($`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$)$`<5.1\times 10^{10}`$ at the 90% confidence level.

A. Alavi-Harati12, I.F. Albuquerque10, T. Alexopoulos12, M. Arenton11, K. Arisaka2, S. Averitte10, A.R. Barker5, L. Bellantoni7,†, A. Bellavance9, J. Belz10, R. Ben-David7, D.R. Bergman10, E. Blucher4, G.J. Bock7, C. Bown4, S. Bright4, E. Cheu1, S. Childress7, R. Coleman7, M.D. Corcoran9, G. Corti11, B. Cox11, M.B. Crisler7, A.R. Erwin12, R. Ford7, P.M. Fordyce5, A. Glazov4, A. Golossanov11, G. Graham4, J. Graham4, K. Hagan11, E. Halkiadakis10, K. Hanagaki8, S. Hidaka8, Y.B. Hsiung7, V. Jejer11, J. Jennings2, D.A. Jensen7, R. Kessler4, H.G.E. Kobrak3, J. LaDue5, A. Lath10, A. Ledovskoy11, P.L. McBride7, A.P. McManus11, P. Mikelsons5, E. Monnier4,∗, T. Nakaya7, K.S. Nelson11, H. Nguyen7, V. O’Dell7, M. Pang7, R. Pordes7, V. Prasad4, C. Qiao4, B. Quinn4, E.J. Ramberg7, R.E. Ray7, A. Roodman4, M. Sadamoto8, S. Schnetzer10, K. Senyo8, P. Shanahan7, P.S. Shawhan4, W. Slater2, N. Solomey4, S.V. Somalwar10, R.L. Stone10, I. Suzuki8, E.C. Swallow4,6, R.A. Swanson3, S.A. Taegar1, R.J. Tesarek10, G.B. Thomson10, P.A. Toale5, A. Tripathi2, R. Tschirhart7, Y.W. Wah4, J. Wang1, H.B. White7, J. Whitmore7, B. Winstein4, R. Winston4, T. Yamanaka8, E.D. Zimmerman4

(The KTeV Collaboration)

1 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

2 University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095

3 University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093

4 The Enrico Fermi Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637

5 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309

6 Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL 60126

7 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL 60510

8 Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560 Japan

9 Rice University, Houston, TX 77005

10 Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855

11 The Department of Physics and Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22901

12 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706

On leave from C.P.P. Marseille/C.N.R.S., France

To whom correspondence should be addressed. bellanto@fnal.gov

The decay $`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$ is interesting for the study of $`CP`$ violation and can be used to search for new physics. Within the Standard Model there are three contributions  to this decay mode. The first is a directly $`CP`$ violating contribution from electroweak penguin and $`W^\pm `$ box diagrams; only loops with $`t`$ quarks, which have amplitudes proportional to $`\eta `$ in the Wolfenstein parameterization , ultimately contribute. The second contribution is an indirectly $`CP`$ violating contribution  due to the $`K_1`$ component of the $`K_L`$. Third, there is a $`CP`$ conserving contribution proceeding through $`\pi ^0\gamma ^{}\gamma ^{}`$ intermediate states , which can be estimated from measurements  of the decay $`K_L\pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$. The total branching ratio in the Standard Model is in the range $`(310)\times 10^{12}`$. Branching ratio predictions are higher in theories containing exotic particles that contribute to the penguin and box amplitudes. In supersymmetric extensions  to the Standard Model it is reasonable for $``$($`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$) to be as high as $`2\times 10^{11}`$, and possibly as high as $`10^{10}`$. The existing experimental branching ratio limit  is $`4.3\times 10^9`$ at the 90% confidence level. This Letter presents an improved limit based on data taken by KTeV in 1997.

The major components of the KTeV detector, described in detail in reference , were a magnetic spectrometer for charged particle tracking, an electromagnetic calorimeter, and several veto counters to detect particles leaving the fiducial volume. The pure CsI electromagnetic calorimeter had an energy resolution for photons of $`\sigma (E)/E=0.45\%2\%/\sqrt{E}`$, where $`E`$ is in\̇mbox{\\,GeV}, and a $`\pi ^0`$ mass resolution in $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0`$ of 1.31 MeV/c2. The calorimeter was also used to identify electrons by comparing the energy deposit to the track momentum as measured by the spectrometer, rejecting 99.5% of all charged pions. Additional $`\pi /e`$ separation was provided with eight transition radiation detectors (TRDs) located behind the spectrometer . Each TRD consisted of a polypropylene felt radiator followed by a two-plane multiwire proportional chamber using an 80/20% Xe/CO2 mixture. Pulse height readings from the planes were compared with pulse height spectra for pions from $`K_L\pi ^\pm e^{}\nu `$ decays that had been identified with kinematic and calorimeter requirements. Each pulse was assigned a confidence level for the hypothesis it came from a pion. The confidence levels for each of the planes where a hit was associated to a track were combined to yield an overall confidence level for the pion hypothesis. For this analysis, cuts giving a pion rejection factor of about 35:1 per pion track were used to maximize signal acceptance.

The trigger required hits in the trigger hodoscopes and in the drift chambers consistent with two coincident charged particles passing through the detector. The trigger system counted the number of isolated clusters of in-time energy in the calorimeter over $`1`$ GeV with a special processor ; at least four such clusters were required. The total energy deposited in the calorimeter was required to be over 28 GeV. Events with hadronic showers in the calorimeter were vetoed, as were events with activity in the photon veto system. Events that passed the hardware trigger requirements were reconstructed online and those that passed loose event topology and CsI electron identification cuts were recorded on tape.

The signature used to look for $`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$ in the detector was two tracks from oppositely charged particles with a common vertex that deposited all their energy in the calorimeter, plus two extra calorimeter clusters which, if interpreted as photons from the charged vertex, had $`m_{\gamma \gamma }=m_{\pi ^0}`$. The decay $`K_L\pi ^0\pi _D^0`$, where $`\pi _D^0`$ denotes a pion with a subsequent $`\pi ^0e^+e^{}\gamma `$ (Dalitz) decay, was used to verify the acceptance calculation and to measure the number of $`K_L`$ decays in the data sample. Its signature was similar to the signal mode’s, but with an additional photon satisfying $`m_{ee\gamma }`$$`=m_{\pi ^0}`$.

A detailed Monte Carlo simulation was used to determine the acceptances for the signal and normalization modes, allowing for detector geometry, trigger requirements, reconstruction efficiencies, and analysis cuts. It was also used to study background processes. The simulation generated kaon decays with the same energy and spatial distributions as the data and allowed for particle scattering and inelastic interactions with material in the beamline. At the highest kaon energies included in this analysis, a non-negligible $`K_S`$ component appeared in decay volume and contributed to the $`K_L\pi ^0\pi _D^0`$ sample; this was reproduced by the simulation and was taken into account in determining the number of $`K_L`$ decays.

Final event reconstruction was done after offline calibration of the detector. Recorded events were required to satisfy basic quality requirements: the electrons were required to not have struck the calorimeter near the beam holes and the track to cluster matching had to be unambiguous. The reconstructed vertex was required to lie within the neutral beam and well within the vacuum decay region. The reconstructed kaon momentum was required the be between 20.3 and 216  GeV/c. Signals used in the trigger were required to lie within ranges where the simulation modeled the data well. The tracks were required to be more than 1 cm apart at the first drift chamber and have an angle over 2.25 mrad in the lab frame. The calorimeter cluster associated with each electron had to have an energy within $`\pm 5`$% of the electron’s momentum as measured with the spectrometer. Events with four clusters (including the two associated to tracks) found by the trigger cluster counter were used to search for the signal; events with five such clusters were used to identify $`K_L\pi ^0\pi _D^0`$.

The $`K_L\pi ^0\pi _D^0`$ sample was selected with requirements on reconstructed mass and total squared momentum transverse to the $`K_L`$ flight direction ($`P_{}^2`$), and had background of $`(0.439\pm 0.044)`$%. Using the acceptance and branching ratio, we determined that there were $`(263.0\pm 1.5_{\mathrm{S}TAT}\pm 15.4_{\mathrm{S}YS}\pm 9.1_{\mathrm{B}R})\times 10^9`$$`K_L`$ decays between 90 and 160 m from the target with $`K_L`$ momentum between 20 and 220 GeV/c. The systematic uncertainty only includes effects not common to both signal and normalization mode, and the third uncertainty is due to uncertainties in $``$($`K_L\pi ^0\pi ^0`$) and $``$($`\pi ^0e^+e^{}\gamma `$) . The largest systematic uncertainty, $`\pm `$4.9%, was from the change in acceptance when Monte Carlo events were reweighted to match the occupancy in the beam region of the first drift chamber for the normalization mode, where tracks are typically close to each other. Additionally, we assigned a $`\pm `$3.1% uncertainty corresponding to reasonable variations in the selection criteria.

Understanding and suppressing backgrounds is essential for the signal mode search. The first background was $`K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0`$ where both $`\pi ^\pm `$ showered in the calorimeter; this was removed by requiring the reconstructed mass of the event, assuming that the tracks were created by pions, to be over 520 MeV/c2.

The second background was $`K_L\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ and $`K_L\pi ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ with subsequent $`\pi ^0e^+e^{}\gamma `$ decays. This was reduced by requiring the mass of the two electron system to be over 140  MeV/c2. There remained some events with two $`\pi _D^0`$ decays where only one $`e^+`$ and one $`e^{}`$ were reconstructed with a high mass. These events could also have accidentally coincident activity. We rejected events with $`m_{ee}`$ over 370 MeV/c2. To ensure that we observed all the $`K_L`$ decay products, we required that the $`P_{}^2`$ be less than 1000 (MeV/c)2.

The third major background was $`K_L\pi ^\pm e^{}\nu `$ with a pion that showered in the calorimeter, accompanied by coincident activity and/or photons radiated from the electron. This background limited previous searches , but was suppressed here with the TRDs. Tracks with TRD data that fit the pion hypothesis with nominally 4% confidence level or less were considered electrons; the actual rejection factor, measured using a sample of $`K_L\pi ^\pm e^{}\nu `$ decays, was about 35:1 for each pion track. This requirement was applied to both tracks for both normalization mode and signal mode; in the normalization mode $`94.5\pm 2.2`$% of events passing all other selection criteria passed the TRD requirement.

Background from $`K_S\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$, assuming that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(K_S\pi ^0e^+e^{})\mathrm{\Gamma }(K^+\pi ^+e^+e^{})`$, is expected to be $`O`$($`10^3`$) events.

The limiting background was the radiative Dalitz decay $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ when $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$= $`m_{\pi ^0}`$. This background was predominantly internal bremsstrahlung events, but also includes $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma `$ where an electron radiated a photon while passing through the detector. Both components are treated; details are in reference . Figure 1 shows the distribution of reconstructed two photon mass, $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$, vs. reconstructed mass of the four particle system, $`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$, for data events passing all the selection criteria described above. $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$ was calculated assuming that the photons originated at the charged vertex. To the contrary, $`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$ was calculated using the $`\pi ^0`$ mass and measured photon energies to determine the decay point. Use of this “neutral vertex” improved the $`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$ resolution, permitting a tighter search requirement on this parameter. The diagonal swath in Fig. 1 is from $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ decays, where the photons were incorrectly assumed to have come from a $`\pi ^0`$.

Three regions are marked out in Fig. 1. To the left is the region $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$$`=135\pm 5`$ MeV/c2, $`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$$`<465`$ MeV/c2. Here the otherwise flat distribution of backgrounds from $`K_L\pi ^\pm e^{}\nu `$ and $`K_L\pi _D^0\pi _D^0`$ decays with accidental $`\pi ^0`$s and from $`K_L\pi ^0\pi _D^0\pi _D^0`$ decays is peaked due to the $`\pi ^0`$s in these backgrounds. This region was not used in estimating the background levels. The larger central box in Fig. 1 is the ”blind” region, ($`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$$`=135\pm 5`$ MeV/c2, $`485<`$ $`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$$`<510`$ MeV/c2), which was blanked out until the analysis procedure and cuts were finalized to avoid human bias. This region was also ignored in the background estimation procedure. The smaller central box is the signal region ($`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$$`=135.20\pm 2.65`$ MeV/c2, $`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$= $`497.67\pm 5.00\text{ MeV/c}\text{2}`$) the size of which is roughly a $`\pm 2\sigma `$ range in the signal Monte Carlo.

To estimate the background in the signal region, we fit the distribution of events to $`(B_0+B_\pi m_{\gamma \gamma }+B_Km_{ee\gamma \gamma }+B_1)`$, where $``$ is the distribution in the ($`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$,$`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$) plane of $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ as determined from simulation, and $`B_i`$ are the parameters of the fit. The estimated $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ background in the signal region of Fig. 1 is $`36.9\pm 2.0`$ events. The only available method for suppressing this background is to apply phase space fiducial cuts . The optimal cuts were found by minimizing the expected 90% C.L. limit on $``$($`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$). That expected branching ratio limit was calculated using a hypothetical large ensemble of identical experiments in which the only processes contributing to the observed number of events were the known backgrounds. The impact of the cuts on the signal efficiency, as determined from the simulation, was taken into account.

The most powerful variables for separating the signal from the background were $`|\mathrm{cos}(\theta _\pi )|`$, where $`\theta _\pi `$ is the angle between the photons and the kaon in the $`\pi ^0`$ rest frame, and $`\theta _{\mathrm{m}in}`$, the minimum angle between any photon and any electron in the kaon rest frame. The pion decay angle, which is also the energy imbalance of the two photons, is a good discriminator because the comparatively high energy of the photon in a Dalitz decay causes this angle to be sharply peaked at $`|\mathrm{cos}(\theta _\pi )|`$=1. In the signal mode, $`|\mathrm{cos}(\theta _\pi )|`$ is uniformly distributed because the pion is spinless. The minimum electron-photon angle is a good discriminator because radiated photons usually appear at a small angle to the electron from which they were emitted. In the signal, there is no particular relationship between the photons and the electrons and $`\theta _{\mathrm{m}in}`$ is nearly uniformly distributed. Another widely used variable is $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(\varphi )|`$, the angle between the plane of electrons and the photons. Again, this should be peaked near zero for $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ and uniformly distributed for $`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$. After optimization with $`|\mathrm{cos}(\theta _\pi )|`$ and $`\theta _{\mathrm{m}in}`$, no additional rejection was obtained by cutting on $`|\mathrm{\Delta }(\varphi )|`$.

The optimal requirements are $`|\mathrm{cos}(\theta _\pi )|`$$`<0.788`$ and $`\theta _{\mathrm{m}in}`$$`>0.349`$; with these cuts, the expected $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ background was reduced to $`0.91\pm 0.26`$ events with a $`24\%`$ signal loss. The signal acceptance was $`3.609\pm 0.017\pm 0.085`$%, where the first uncertainty is from simulation statistics and the second is from the measurement of TRD efficiency in $`K_L\pi ^0\pi _D^0`$. The total expected background was $`1.06\pm 0.41`$ events, corresponding (in the absence of signal) to an average expected branching ratio limit of $`3.3\times 10^{10}`$.

Several independent checks of the background were made. One important check was to verify that the distribution of the phase space variables in the diagonal swath of Fig. 1 matched expectations for $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ decay. The $`K_Le^+e^{}\gamma \gamma `$ branching ratio measured with this sample was consistent with experimental results  and theoretical expectations , and the spectra of $`m_{ee}`$, $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$, and other kinematic variables were well simulated.

Figure 2 shows $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$ vs. $`m_{ee\gamma \gamma }`$ for data, including events in the former ”blind” region, and the 1 and 2 $`\sigma `$ C.L. contours of the Monte Carlo signal simulation. Two events exist in the signal region for the data. Allowing for the background  and its uncertainty , we set a 90% C.L. limit of 4.85 events. With the above acceptance, dataset size, and background level, we set an upper limit $``$($`K_L\pi ^0e^+e^{}`$)$`<5.1\times 10^{10}`$ at the 90% C.L., which is one order of magnitude better than the previous result. This limit assumes a uniform three body phase space distribution for the signal mode. Alternatively, if the electron pair is the product of a single vector meson (as in the penguin and indirect $`CP`$ violating terms) and we model the hadronic vertex with a form factor from $`K_L\pi ^\pm e^{}\nu `$ decay ,

$$f_+(q^2)=f_+(0)\{1+[0.0300\pm 0.0016](q^2/m_\pi ^2)\},$$

the 90% C.L. limit is $`<5.8\times 10^{10}`$.

If $`r`$ is the fractional contribution to the branching ratio from direct $`CP`$ violation, $`|\eta |<4.4\sqrt{r}`$ at the 90% C.L. While not yet as sensitive in probing the CKM parameterization as B decays, where recent indirect global analyses  find $`\eta `$ to be below 1, measurements in the kaon system are a valuable test of whether the same parameterization is valid for both B and K decays. With substantially larger event samples, the use of analyses based on fitting the proper time, Dalitz variables, or decay asymmetries to observed events  may improve this limit.

We gratefully acknowledge the support and effort of the Fermilab staff and the technical staffs of the participating institutions for their vital contributions. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, The National Science Foundation and The Ministry of Education and Science of Japan.


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# Enhancement of the Higgs pair production at the LHC; the MSSM and extra dimension effects

## I Introduction

The standard model (SM) has been very successful in explaining experimental signals, including recent results from the CERN LEP-II collider . Nevertheless one of the most important ingredients of the SM, the Higgs mechanism, has not been experimentally probed yet; it is responsible for spontaneous electroweak symmetry breaking accompanying the mass generation of the $`W^\pm `$ and $`Z^0`$ gauge bosons as well as the SM fermions. Recently, ALEPH group of the LEP-II has reported the observation of an excess of 3$`\sigma `$ in the search of the SM Higgs boson, which corresponds to the Higgs mass about 114 GeV . As operations of the LEP-II have been completed, the decision, whether the observations are only the results of statistical fluctuations or the first signal of the Higgs boson production, is suspended until the Fermilab Tevatron II and/or the CERN LHC experiments running . Thus it is naturally anticipated that primary efforts of future collider experiments are to be directed toward the search for Higgs bosons .

In particular at hadron colliders, the pair production of Higgs bosons holds a distinctive position in understanding the Higgs mechanism . First, it may provide the experimental reconstruction of the Higgs potential, as the triple self-coupling of Higgs particles is involved. The establishment of the Higgs’ role in the electroweak symmetry breaking is crucially dependent on this measurement. Second, the signal-to-background ratio is significantly improved compared to that of a single Higgs boson production. The invariant mass scale of the $`single`$ Higgs production is fixed by the Higgs mass, of order $`100`$ GeV. Thus their detection through heavy quark decay modes suffers from large QCD backgrounds. Besides, one viable decay mode $`h\gamma \gamma `$ has a very small branching ratio of order $`10^3`$ . For the $`pair`$ production of the Higgs particles, the four $`b`$-jets in the final states are energetic, reducing the main background $`hb\overline{b}`$ with soft $`b`$-jets . Third, this is a rare process in the sense that the effects of physics beyond the SM can remarkably enhance the cross section with respect to that in the SM; the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM)  provides some parameter space for the large enhancement of the total cross section, which should accommodate the large Yukawa coupling of the $`b`$ quarks, the resonant decay of $`Hhh`$, and/or dominantly large contribution of the squark loops ; extra dimensional models provide tree level diagrams mediated by the Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravitons, leading to large total cross sections. In fact, these new theoretical approaches have drawn extensive attention as candidates for the solution of the gauge hierarchy problem, the existence and stability of the enormous hierarchy between the electroweak and Planck scales. Therefore, it is worth studying the production of a neutral Higgs pair with the effects of the MSSM and the extra dimensional models, and finding the characteristic distribution of each model. We shall restrict ourselves to the procedure at the LHC, which is scheduled to start operating in 2005. Despite the assurance of the detectibility of the lightest CP-even MSSM Higgs boson with $`\sqrt{s}>250`$ GeV and $`𝑑t>10`$ fb<sup>-1</sup> , the LHC takes a practical advantage over the future $`e^+e^{}`$ linear colliders which lack specific plans yet.

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. The next section details the neutral Higgs pair production at the LHC in the SM, the MSSM, the large extra dimensional (ADD) model , and the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model . In Sec. III, we discuss various distributions useful to discriminate effects of each model from others. The last section deals with a brief summary and conclusions.

## II Theoretical Discussions and Formulae

The production of a Higgs boson pair at a hadron collider proceeds through several modes; $`WW`$ fusion, bremsstrahlung of Higgs bosons off heavy quarks, and gluon-gluon fusion. At the LHC, the $`gg`$ fusion is expected to play a main role, since the gluon luminosity increases with beam energy. In this paper, we focus on the process $`gghh`$, where the $`h`$ is the lightest Higgs boson in each theory.

The invariant amplitude squared is generally written as, in terms of the helicity amplitude $`_{\lambda _1\lambda _2}`$ for the initial gluon helicities $`\lambda _{1(2)}`$ ,

$$\overline{\left|\right|^2}=2\frac{1}{4}\frac{1}{64}\frac{1}{2}\left[\left|_{++}\right|^2+\left|_+\right|^2+\left|_+\right|^2+\left|_{}\right|^2\right],$$
(1)
where the factor 2 refers the color factor $`[\mathrm{Tr}(T^aT^b)]^2=2`$, the factor 1/4 the initial gluon helicity average, the factor 1/64 the gluon color average, and the final factor 1/2 the symmetry factor for the two identical Higgs boson production. For the processes with CP conservation, the helicity amplitudes are related as $`_{++}=_{}`$ and $`_+=_+`$.

For the numerical analysis, we use the leading order MRST parton distribution functions (PDF) for a gluon in a proton . The QCD factorization and renormalization scales $`Q`$ are set to be the $`hh`$ invariant mass, i.e., $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$. The $`Q^2`$-dependence is expected to be small on the distribution shapes, which are of our main interest. The center-of-momentum (c.m.) energy at $`pp`$ collisions is $`\sqrt{s}=14`$ TeV. And we have employed the kinematic cuts of $`p__T25`$ GeV and $`|\eta |2.5`$ throughout the paper.

### A In the SM

In the SM, there are two types of Feynman diagrams as depicted in Fig. 1. One is the triangle diagram where a virtual Higgs boson, produced from $`gg`$ fusion through heavy quark triangles, decays into a pair of Higgs bosons. The other is the box diagram where the Higgs pair is produced through heavy quark boxes. It is to be noted that the triangle diagram incorporates the triple self-coupling of Higgs bosons. For analytic expressions of all the one-loop helicity amplitudes of the process $`gghh`$, we refer the reader to Refs. . Fig. 2 shows the total cross section of the SM Higgs pair production at the LHC, as a function of the Higgs mass $`m_h`$. At $`m_h100`$ GeV, the $`\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}`$ is of order 60 fb, which decreases rapidly with increasing $`m_h`$.

### B In the MSSM

The existence of a fundamental scalar particle in the SM causes the well-known gauge hierarchy problem. Traditional approaches are to introduce new symmetries, motivated by the chiral symmetry for light fermion masses and the gauge symmetries for gauge boson masses. Supersymmetry is one of the most popular candidates for this new symmetry.

The MSSM Higgs pair production undergoes distinctive contributions coming from the new Higgs and squark sectors, which provide the possibilities to greatly enhance the total cross section of the process. First, two doublets and thus two different vacuum expectation values of the Higgs fields allow the Yukawa coupling of the $`b`$ quark to be compatible with that of the top quark, which corresponds to the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ case. Much smaller mass of the $`b`$ quark may makes its loop contribution even larger than the top quark contribution . Second, two Higgs doublets imply the presence of a heavy CP-even neutral Higgs boson $`H`$, which can decay into two light Higgs bosons if kinematically allowed. This resonant contribution $`ggHhh`$ is shown to enhance the total cross section with respect to the SM case by about an order of magnitude. Third, the MSSM permits a parameter space where the $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{t}`$ loop contributions can exceed the SM quark loop contributions by more than two orders of magnitude . For the maximization of squark loop contributions which occurs through the $`\stackrel{~}{b}`$ loops, this parameter space should allow large value of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, considerably light $`\stackrel{~}{b}_1`$ mass, and large mass of $`A`$ and/or $`|\mu |`$. Since the third enhancement possibility has rather restrictive parameter space (for example, the squark loop contributions are practically negligible unless $`m_{\stackrel{~}{b}_1}<120`$ GeV), we consider only the quark loop contributions, as in Ref. . The corresponding Feynman diagrams are the same as the SM case, except for the different coupling strengths and the presence of the neutral heavy Higgs boson $`H`$ (see Fig. 1).

The MSSM total cross section as a function of the Higgs mass shows similar behavior to that of the SM, except for the overall enhancement, as shown in Ref. . As anticipated, the total cross sections in the large and small $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ cases are much increased compared to the SM case. In particular, the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ value with $`m_h100`$ GeV leads to an order of magnitude enhancement of the cross section.

### C In the ADD model

The gauge hierarchy problem has been approached without resort to any new symmetry by Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos, and Dvali (ADD) . One prerequisite of the hierarchy problem itself is removed; the Planck mass is not fundamental; the nature allows only one fundamental mass scale $`M_\mathrm{S}`$ which is at the electroweak scale. By introducing the $`N2`$ extra dimesional compact space, the observed huge Planck mass is attributed to the large volume of the extra space, since $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2M_S^{N+2}R^N`$ where the $`R`$ is the size of the extra dimension. The prohibition of the SM particles’ escaping into the extra space can be achieved by describing the matter fields as open strings of which the end-points are fixed to our four-dimensional world.

Of great interest and significance is that this idea is testable at colliders. The KK reduction from the whole $`(4+N)`$-dimensions to our four-dimensional world yields towers of massive KK-states in the four-dimensional effective theory. Even though the coupling of a KK-graviton to the ordinary matter fields is extremely suppressed by the Planck scale, tiny mass-splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{KK}}1/R`$ (which is about $`10^3`$ eV for the $`N=2`$ case) induces summation over all KK-states, which compensates for the Planck scale suppression. In addition to single graviton emission processes as missing energy events , the indirect effects of the massive graviton exchange on various collider experiments , and the possible Lorentz and CPT invariance violations through the change of the metric on the brane  have been extensively studied.

For the Higgs pair production through the gluon-gluon fusion, there exists a tree level Feynman diagram mediated by spin-2 KK-gravitons (see Fig. 3). Based on the effective four-dimensional Lagrangian , the helicity amplitudes are obtained as

$`_{++}`$ $`=`$ $`_{}=0,`$ (2)
$`_+`$ $`=`$ $`_+={\displaystyle \frac{16\lambda }{M_S^4}}(m_h^4\widehat{u}\widehat{t}),`$ (3)
which are to be added to those in the SM. The interference effects between the ADD and the SM are proportional to $`1/M_S^4`$, which are, at the energy scale below $`M_S`$, dominant over pure ADD effects.

There might be a concern with our ignorance of the parton mode $`q\overline{q}hh`$ mediated by the KK-gravitons. The concern appears reasonable: The characteristic parton energy scale $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$ of the process in extra dimensional models is of the order $`M_S`$ TeV, unlike a few hundred GeV scale in the SM and the MSSM; the dominant momentum fraction $`x`$ may not be so small as in the SM and the MSSM cases and the magnitude of the parton distribution functions of, in particular, the valence quarks becomes substantial. In the following, we have taken into account of the parton mode $`q\overline{q}hh`$, which has the scattering amplitude squared as

$$\overline{||^2}(q\overline{q}hh)=\frac{1}{9M_S^8}(\widehat{t}\widehat{u})^2(\widehat{t}\widehat{u}m_h^4).$$
(4)
According to our numerical analysis, the contribution of $`q\overline{q}hh`$ mode turns out to be at most a few percent to the total cross sections, because the amplitude squared itself is smaller than that of $`gghh`$ mode (by a factor of about 1/36) while, at TeV $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$, the PDF of a valence quark and a sea quark is of the same order with that of two gluons.

Note that in the parton c.m. frame, the nonzero helicity amplitude can be written as

$$_+|_{\mathrm{gg}\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}=\frac{16\lambda }{M_S^4}p_T^2\widehat{s},$$
(5)
where the $`p__T`$ is the transverse momentum of an outgoing Higgs particle. Unitarity is apparently violated at high energies, which is expected from the use of an effective Lagrangian. It is reasonable that we only consider the region where our perturbative calculations are reliable, which can be achieved by excluding the region with high invariant mass. In Ref. , the partial wave amplitudes of the elastic process $`\gamma \gamma \gamma \gamma `$ in the ADD model have been examined, yielding the bound on the ratio $`M_S/\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$, and a valid region is conservatively found to be $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}0.9M_S`$. In the following analyses, we impose an additional kinematic bound such as

$$M_{hh}<0.9M_S.$$

In Fig. 2, we present the total cross section as a function of $`m_h`$ with $`M_S=2.5`$ TeV. As expected from the presence of a tree level diagram in the ADD model, the total cross section is substantially increased with respect to the SM case. For a pair production of Higgs bosons with mass $`115`$ GeV, we have obtained

$$\frac{\sigma _{\mathrm{SM}+\mathrm{ADD}}(m_h=115\mathrm{GeV},M_S=2.5\mathrm{TeV})}{\sigma _{\mathrm{SM}}(m_h=115\mathrm{GeV})}1.72.$$
(6)
We note that the ADD effects lead to a gentle drop-off of the $`\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}`$ with respect to the Higgs boson mass, contrary to the rapid decrease in the SM. Thus, if the Higgs mass is large, the ADD model could still produce substantially large number of Higgs pairs at the LHC unlike in the SM case.

### D In the RS model

More recently, Randall and Sundrum (RS) have proposed another extra dimensional scenario where, without the $`large`$ volume of the extra dimensions, the hierarchy problem is solved by a geometrical exponential factor, called a warp factor . The spacetime in this model has a single $`S^1/Z_2`$ orbifold extra dimension with the metric

$$ds^2=e^{2kr_c|\varphi |}\eta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu +r_c^2d\varphi ^2,$$
(7)
where the $`\varphi `$ is confined to $`0|\varphi |\pi `$. The $`r_c`$ is the compactification radius which is to be stabilized by an appropriate mechanism . Two orbifold fixed points accommodate two three-branes, the hidden brane at $`\varphi =0`$ and our visible brane at $`|\varphi |=\pi `$ or vice versa. The allocation of our brane at $`|\varphi |=\pi `$ renders a fundamental scale $`m_0`$ to appear as the four-dimensional physical mass $`m=e^{kr_c\pi }m_0`$, which answers the hierarchy problem. And the effective Planck mass is

$$M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2=(M^3/k)(1e^{2kr_c\pi }),$$

where the $`M`$ is the five-dimensional Planck scale. Note that all of the $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$, $`k`$, and $`M`$ are of the Planck scale.

The compactification of the fifth dimension leads to the following interaction Lagrangian in the four-dimensional effective theory ,

$$=\frac{1}{M_{\mathrm{Pl}}}T^{\mu \nu }(x)h_{\mu \nu }^{(0)}(x)\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi }T^{\mu \nu }(x)\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}h_{\mu \nu }^{(n)}(x),$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi e^{kr_c\pi }M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$. Unlike almost continuous KK-graviton spectrum in the ADD model, we have one zero mode of the KK-gravitons with the coupling suppressed by the Planck scale, and the massive KK-graviton modes with the electroweak scale coupling $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$. The masses of the KK-gravitons are also at electroweak scale, given by ,

$$m_n=kx_ne^{kr_c\pi }=\frac{k}{M_{\mathrm{Pl}}}\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi x_n,$$
(9)
where the $`x_n`$’s are the $`n`$-th roots of the Bessel function of order one.

The scattering amplitudes of the KK-mediated diagrams in the narrow width approximation can be derived from the ADD ones with the following replacement in Eq. (2) :

$$\frac{\lambda }{M_S^4}\frac{1}{8\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi ^2}\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{\widehat{s}m_n^2+im_n\mathrm{\Gamma }_n},$$
(10)
where the total decay width of the $`n`$-th KK-graviton is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n=\rho m_nx_n^2(k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}})^2`$, and the $`\rho `$, fixed to be one, is a model-dependent parameter .

The observables based on the four-dimensional effective theory are determined by two parameters, $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi ,k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}})`$. The value of $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ may be theoretically constrained to be less than about 0.1 : The magnitude of the five-dimensional curvature, $`R_5=20k^2`$, is required to be smaller than $`M^2(M_{\mathrm{Pl}}^2)`$, so that the classical RS solution derived from the leading order term in the curvature remains reliable. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$ is expected to be below 10 TeV in order to explain the hierarchy problem. Unlike the $`M_S`$ in the ADD case, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$ does not play the role of a cut-off, relieving the concern of the unitarity violation. According to the phenomenological studies of the cross section of $`e^+e^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ in the RS model, only the case with large value of $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ hints the unitarity violation; even for $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}1`$, unitarity violation can occur at c.m. energy of several TeV ; the current LEP-II experiments and the Tevatron run-I have provided a lower bound of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$ to be about 1.5 TeV in the case of $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}=0.1`$.

In Fig. 2, we plot the total cross sections with respect to the Higgs mass within the RS model. We set $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi =3`$ TeV and $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}=0.1`$. For the equity in comparing with the ADD case, we have employed the upper bound of $`M_{hh}<0.9\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$. Though smaller than in the ADD case, the total cross section in the RS case is larger than that in the SM:

$$\frac{\sigma _{\mathrm{SM}+\mathrm{RS}}(m_h=115\mathrm{GeV},M_S=3\mathrm{TeV})}{\sigma _{\mathrm{SM}}(m_h=115\mathrm{GeV})}1.51.$$
(11)
The rate of the drop-off of $`\sigma _{tot}`$ against $`m_h`$ is similar to the SM case.

In order to demonstrate the dependence of $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$, Fig. 4 shows the total cross section within the RS model as a function of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$, considering three values of the ratio $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}=0.01`$, $`0.1`$ and $`0.3`$. The Higgs mass is set to be 100 GeV and the upper bound in $`M_{hh}`$ is not applied. As the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi `$ increases, the $`\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}`$ drops rapidly. And it can be seen that smaller value of the ratio $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ produces larger cross section. This is due to that the amplitude squared in the narrow width approximation is inversely proportional to $`(k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}})^4`$ at each resonance, which yields dominant contribution.

## III Numerical Discussions and Distributions

In the previous section, we have shown the possibilities that the Higgs pair production can be greatly enhanced at the LHC. In such a circumstance, it is worthwhile to search for appropriate distributions which enable us to distinguish the contributions of one model from others. In the numerical analysis of the distributions, we have employed the following parameters: The Higgs mass is set to be 100 GeV; in the MSSM, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =30`$, $`\mu =640`$ GeV, $`M_{\stackrel{~}{t}}=M_{\stackrel{~}{b}}=1000`$ GeV, and $`A_t=A_b=410`$ GeV; the $`M_S`$ in the ADD model is 2.5 TeV; in the RS model, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\pi =3`$ TeV and $`k/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}=0.1`$.

In Fig. 5, we present the $`p_T`$-distributions in the SM and the ADD cases. While the SM $`p__T`$-distribution peaks around 150 GeV and drops rapidly with increasing $`p_T`$, the ADD effects slowly draw the distribution up at high $`p_T`$ region. Note that the absence of the differential cross section at $`p_T>1`$ TeV is due the employment of the upper bound in the $`M_{hh}`$. Fig. 6 shows the $`p_T`$-distributions in the SM and the RS cases. The presence of the Kaluza-Klein gravitons in the RS model leaves a clear shape of resonance. We caution readers that the $`p_T`$-axis is plotted by log-scale: Even if the $`d\sigma ^{\mathrm{SM}+\mathrm{RS}}/dp_T`$ at $`p_T>300`$ GeV, which practically vanishes in the SM, is smaller than that at $`p_T<300`$ GeV by an order of magnitude, the extensive contribution at high $`p_T`$ region renders the total cross section substantially enhanced. In Fig. 7, we demonstrate the MSSM $`p_T`$-distribution for the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ case. It drops rapidly with increasing $`p_T`$ as in the SM case, while it peaks around 25 GeV, lower than the SM case. The magnitude of the differential cross section is shown about twenty times larger than that in the SM case.

Fig. 8 illustrates the invariant mass distributions of the Higgs pair in the SM and the ADD cases. The SM case, where the top quark loop contributions are dominant, peaks around the threshold $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}2m_t`$. The ADD effects gently raise the $`M_{hh}`$-distribution at high $`M_{hh}`$ region. It is expected that the blind application of the effective Lagrangian in Eq. (5) without any upper bound in $`M_{hh}`$ would yield continual increase in the $`M_{hh}`$-distributions, which would show an apparent violation of unitarity. We display the $`M_{hh}`$-distribution of the RS case in Fig. 9. The high resonance peak in addition to the SM distribution implies the first KK-state of gravitons with $`m_1750`$ GeV. While at the $`e^+e^{}\mu ^+\mu ^{}`$ process the KK-gravitons appear as almost regularly spaced peaks, the hadronic convolution of the parton level processes obscures successive and separated peaks as the classical KK-signature. Fig. 10 displays the $`M_{hh}`$-distribution of the MSSM case with large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, which undergoes dominant contributions from $`b`$ quarks. Thus a peak appears just above the kinematic threshold, $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}2m_h`$.

Finally, we illustrate the rapidity distributions in Fig. 11. It can be seen that the extra dimensional models produce a Higgs pair somewhat more centrally in rapidity than the SM and the MSSM do. More restrictive cut on $`\eta `$, such as $`\eta 1.0`$, would eliminate a substantial portion of the SM and the MSSM contributions.

## IV Conclusions

The pair production of neutral Higgs bosons from the gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC has been studied in the SM, the MSSM, the large extra dimensional model and the Randall-Sundrum model. We have shown that both the supersymmetric and extra-dimensional models can substantially enhance the total cross section of the Higgs pair production. In the MSSM case, the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ value makes possible the $`b`$-quark contribution dominant over the top quark contribution and the resonant decay of a heavy Higgs particle into two light Higgs particle. The extra dimensional models allow tree level Feynman diagrams mediated by the Kaluza-Klein gravitons, which significantly increase the total cross section. Since the ADD model has been shown to undergo the violation of partial wave unitarity at high energies, we have employed an upper bound in the invariant mass of two Higgs bosons, which is obtained from the analysis of the $`J`$-partial wave amplitudes of the elastic process $`\gamma \gamma \gamma \gamma `$. In addition, it was shown that the total cross section in the ADD case with the upper bound in $`M_{hh}`$ decreases gently with increasing Higgs mass, whereas those in the SM, the MSSM and the RS cases decrease rapidly.

If Higgs pairs are produced at hadron colliders much more than the SM prediction, the three non-standard models considered here are good candidates for the explanation. We have demonstrated the $`p__T`$, invariant mass and rapidity distributions of each case. The distribution shapes are shown to be different for each model, providing valuable criteria to distinguish the contribution of one model from others. The $`p__T`$-distribution in the SM peaks and drops rapidly; the MSSM one for the large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ case peaks just above the threshold of $`p_T`$ and also drops rapidly; the ADD effects induce a slow raising after the SM peak; the RS effects can be discovered by the presence of a resonance peak. The invariant mass distributions are similar to the $`p__T`$-distributions: The SM and the MSSM have peaks around a few hundred GeV; the ADD effects gently raise the $`M_{hh}`$-distribution at high energies; the RS contribution yields a series of resonant peaks. Therefore, restrictive cuts on the $`p_T`$ and $`M_{hh}`$ would eliminate the main contributions of the SM and the MSSM cases, which provides one of the most straightforward methods to signal the existence of low scale quantum gravity effects. Finally, the rapidity distributions in the ADD and the RS models show significantly narrow peaks around $`\eta =0`$, which implies the large contributions at high $`p__T`$ region.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank G. Cvetic and P. Zerwas for careful reading of the manuscript and valuable comments. The work of C.S.K. was supported in part by BK21 Program, SRC Program and Grant No. 2000-1-11100-003-1 of the KOSEF, and in part by the KRF Grants, Project No. 2000-015-DP0077. The research of J.S. was supported by the BK21 Program for the Seoul National University.


text:
# High Energy Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray Bursts

## 1 Introduction

The widely accepted interpretation of the phenomenology of GRBs, bursts of 0.1 MeV–1 MeV photons lasting for a few seconds , is that the observable effects are due to the dissipation of the kinetic energy of a relativistically expanding wind, a “fireball,” whose primal cause is not yet known (see  for review). During the past three years, delayed low energy emission (afterglow) of GRBs has been discovered in X-ray, optical, and radio wave bands (see  for review). Afterglow observations confirmed the cosmological origin of the bursts, through the redshift determination of several GRB host-galaxies, and confirmed standard model predictions of afterglows that result from the collision of an expanding fireball with its surrounding medium (see  for review).

The physical conditions in the fireball dissipation region allow Fermi shock acceleration of protons to energy $`>10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$ . The average rate at which energy is emitted as $`\gamma `$-rays by GRBs is comparable to the energy generation rate of $`>10^{19}`$ eV cosmic-rays in a model where such ultra-high energy cosmic-rays (UHECRs) are produced by a cosmological distribution of sources . These two facts suggest that GRBs and UHECRs have a common origin (see  for review).

Emission of high energy neutrinos is expected to accompany the observed GRB photons, due to photomeson interactions of high energy protons with fireball photons , and due to proton-neutron inelastic collisions . In this review, recent work on the production of high energy neutrinos by GRB fireballs is summarized, and the implications for planned $`1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}^3`$ neutrino telescopes (the ICECUBE extension of AMANDA, ANTARES, NESTOR; see  for review) are discussed. The fireball model is briefly described in §2. Proton acceleration in GRB fireballs is discussed in §3. High energy neutrino production in fireballs and its implications for future high energy neutrino detectors are discussed in §4.

## 2 The fireball model

In the fireball model of GRBs , a compact source, of linear scale $`r_010^7`$ cm, produces a wind characterized by an average luminosity $`L10^{52}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and mass loss rate $`\dot{M}=L/\eta c^2`$. At small radius, the wind bulk Lorentz factor, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, grows linearly with radius, until most of the wind energy is converted to kinetic energy and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ saturates at $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\eta 300`$. Variability of the source on time scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, resulting in fluctuations in the wind bulk Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ on similar time scale, then leads to internal shocks  in the expanding fireball at a radius $`r_i\mathrm{\Gamma }^2c\mathrm{\Delta }t`$. If the Lorentz factor variability within the wind is significant, internal shocks reconvert a substantial part of the kinetic energy to internal energy. It is assumed that this energy is then radiated as $`\gamma `$-rays by synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission of shock-accelerated electrons.

In this model, the observed $`\gamma `$-ray variability time, $`r_i/\mathrm{\Gamma }^2c\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, reflects the variability time of the underlying source, and the GRB duration, $`T10`$s, reflects the duration over which energy is emitted from the source. A large fraction of bursts detected by BATSE show variability on the shortest resolved time scale, $`10`$ ms , and some show variability on shorter time scales, $`1`$ ms . This sets the constraint on underlying source size, $`r_0<c\mathrm{\Delta }t10^7`$ cm. The wind must be expanding relativistically, with a Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }300`$, in order that the fireball pair-production optical depth be small for observed high energy, $`100`$ MeV, GRB photons .

As the fireball expands, it drives a relativistic shock (blast-wave) into the surrounding gas. At early time, $`tT`$, the fireball is little affected by this external interaction. At late time, $`tT`$, most of the fireball energy is transferred to the surrounding gas, and the flow approaches the Blandford-McKee self-similar flow . The shock driven into the ambient medium continuously heats fresh gas, and accelerates relativistic electrons which produce through synchrotron emission the delayed radiation, “afterglow,” observed on time scales of days to months. As the shock-wave decelerates, due to accumulation of ambient gas mass, the emission shifts with time to lower frequencies. For expansion into uniform density gas, the shock Lorentz factor decreases with time according to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}(t)t^{3/8}`$.

During the transition to self-similar expansion, which takes place on (observed) time scale comparable to $`T`$, reverse shocks propagate into the fireball ejecta and decelerate it. At this stage the shocked plasma expands with the self-similar Lorentz factor, which for expansion into uniform density gas is given by (e.g. )

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}(t=T)245\left(\frac{E_{53}}{n_0}\right)^{1/8}T_1^{3/8},$$
(1)
while the unshocked fireball ejecta propagate with the original expansion Lorentz factor, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\eta >\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}(t=T)`$. Here, $`E=10^{53}E_{53}`$ erg is the total fireball energy, $`T=10T_1`$ s, and $`n=1n_0\mathrm{cm}^3`$ is the ambient gas density. $`n_0=1`$ is typical to the interstellar medium.

Internal shocks are expected to be “mildly” relativistic in the fireball comoving frame, i.e. characterized by Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i11`$ in the wind rest frame, since adjacent shells within the wind are expected to expand with Lorentz factors which do not differ by more than an order of magnitude. Moreover, the reverse shocks are also expected to be mildly relativistic, since the ratio $`\eta /\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BM}(t=T)`$ is not far from unity.

## 3 UHECRs from GRB fireballs

### 3.1 Fermi acceleration in GRBs

In the fireball model, the observed GRB and afterglow radiation is produced by synchrotron emission of shock accelerated electrons. In the region where electrons are accelerated, protons are also expected to be shock accelerated. This is similar to what is thought to occur in supernovae remnant shocks . We consider below proton acceleration in internal and reverse fireball shocks. Since these shocks are mildly relativistic, we expect results related to particle acceleration in sub-relativistic shocks (see, e.g.,  for review) to be valid for the present scenario. In particular, the predicted energy distribution of accelerated protons is $`dN_p/dϵ_pϵ_p^2`$.

Two constraints must be satisfied by fireball wind parameters in order to allow proton acceleration to $`ϵ_p>10^{20}`$ eV in internal shocks :

$$\xi _B/\xi _e>0.02\mathrm{\Gamma }_{2.5}^2ϵ_{p,20}^2L_{\gamma ,52}^1,$$
(2)
and

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }>130ϵ_{p,20}^{3/4}\mathrm{\Delta }t_2^{1/4}.$$
(3)
Here, $`ϵ_p=10^{20}ϵ_{p,20}`$ eV, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=10^2\mathrm{\Delta }t_2`$ s, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=10^{2.5}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{2.5}`$ is the plasma expansion Lorentz factor, $`L_\gamma =10^{52}L_{\gamma ,52}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}`$ is the $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity, $`\xi _B`$ is the fraction of the wind energy density which is carried by magnetic field, $`4\pi r^2c\mathrm{\Gamma }^2(B^2/8\pi )=\xi _BL`$, and $`\xi _e`$ is the fraction of wind energy carried by shock accelerated electrons. To obtain the constraints for acceleration in reverse shocks, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ should be replaced by $`T`$. Since the electron energy is lost radiatively, $`L_\gamma \xi _eL`$. The first constraint must be satisfied in order for the proton acceleration time $`t_a`$ to be smaller than the wind expansion time. The second constraint must be satisfied in order for the synchrotron energy loss time of the proton to be larger than $`t_a`$.

The constraints that must be satisfied to allow acceleration of protons to energy $`>10^{20}`$ eV are remarkably similar to those inferred from $`\gamma `$-ray observations. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>100`$ is implied by observed $`\gamma `$-ray spectra, and magnetic field close to equipartition, $`\xi _B1`$, is required in order for electron synchrotron emission to account for the observed radiation.

We have assumed in the discussion so far that the fireball is spherically symmetric. However, since a jet-like fireball behaves as if it were a conical section of a spherical fireball as long as the jet opening angle is larger than $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^1`$, our results apply also for a jet-like fireball (we are interested only in processes that occur when the wind is ultra-relativistic, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }300`$, prior to significant fireball deceleration). For a jet-like wind, $`L`$ in our equations should be understood as the luminosity the fireball would have carried had it been spherically symmetric.

### 3.2 Energy generation rate

The observed GRB redshift distribution implies a typical GRB $`\gamma `$-ray energy of $`E10^{53}`$ erg, and a GRB rate of $`R_{\mathrm{GRB}}3/\mathrm{Gpc}^3\mathrm{yr}`$ at $`z1`$. The present, $`z=0`$, rate is less well constrained, since most observed GRBs originate at redshifts $`1z2.5`$ . Present data are consistent with both no evolution of GRB rate with redshift, and with strong evolution (following, e.g., star formation rate), in which $`R_{\mathrm{GRB}}(z=1)/R_{\mathrm{GRB}}(z=0)10`$ . The energy observed in $`\gamma `$-rays reflect the fireball energy in accelerated electrons. If accelerated electrons and protons carry similar energy (as indicated by afterglow observations ) then the GRB cosmic-ray production rate is

$$ϵ_p^2(d\dot{n}_p/dϵ_p)_{z=0}=10^{44}\zeta \mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{Mpc}^3\mathrm{yr},$$
(4)
with $`\zeta `$ in the range of $`10^{0.5}`$ to $`10^{0.5}`$. This result is consistent with more detailed analyses , where $`R_{\mathrm{GRB}}(z=0)\times E`$ in the range of 0.2 to 2 times $`10^{44}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{Mpc}^3\mathrm{yr}`$ is obtained (under the assumption that $`R_{\mathrm{GRB}}`$ is proportional to star formation rate) for different models of star formation rate evolution.

In Fig. 1 we compare the UHECR spectrum, reported by the Fly’s Eye , the Yakutsk , and the AGASA  experiments, with that predicted by the GRB model (assuming GRB rate follows star formation rate). The generation rate (4) of high energy protons is remarkably similar to that required to account for the flux of $`>10^{19}`$ eV cosmic-rays (The flux at lower energies is most likely dominated by heavy nuclei of Galactic origin , as indicated by the flattening of the spectrum at $`10^{19}`$ eV and by the evidence for a change in composition at this energy ).

The suppression of model flux above $`10^{19.7}`$ eV is due to energy loss of high energy protons in interaction with the microwave background, i.e. to the “GZK cutoff” . The available data do not allow to determine the existence (or absence) of the “cutoff” with high confidence. The AGASA results show an excess (at a $`2.5\sigma `$ confidence level) of events compared to model predictions above $`10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$. This excess is not confirmed, however, by the other experiments. Moreover, since the $`10^{20}\mathrm{eV}`$ flux is dominated by sources at distances $`<100\mathrm{Mpc}`$, over which the distribution of known astrophysical systems (e.g. galaxies, clusters of galaxies) is inhomogeneous, significant deviations from model predictions presented in Fig. 1 for a uniform source distribution are expected at this energy . Clustering of cosmic-ray sources leads to a standard deviation, $`\sigma `$, in the expected number, $`N`$, of events above $`10^{20}`$ eV, given by $`\sigma /N=0.9(d_0/10\mathrm{M}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c})^{0.9}`$ , where $`d_0`$ is the unknown scale length of the source correlation function and $`d_010`$ Mpc for field galaxies.

Although the rate of GRBs out to a distance of 100 Mpc from Earth, the maximum distance traveled by $`>10^{20}`$ eV protons, is in the range of $`10^2`$ to $`10^3\mathrm{yr}^1`$, the number of different GRBs contributing to the flux of $`>10^{20}`$ eV protons at any given time may be large. This is due to the dispersion $`\tau `$ in proton arrival time, which is expected due to deflection by inter-galactic magnetic fields and may be as large as $`10^5`$ yr, implying that the number of sources contributing to the flux at any given time may be as large as $`\tau \times 10^2\mathrm{yr}^1=10^3`$ .

## 4 High energy Neutrinos

### 4.1 Photomeson production

#### 4.1.1 Internal shocks neutrinos, $`10^{14}`$ eV

The decay of charged pions, $`\pi ^+\mu ^++\nu _\mu e^++\nu _e+\overline{\nu }_\mu +\nu _\mu `$, created in interactions between fireball photons and accelerated protons, results in the production of high energy neutrinos . The key relation is between the observed photon energy, $`ϵ_\gamma `$, and the accelerated proton’s energy, $`ϵ_p`$, at the photomeson threshold of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonance. In the observer frame,

$$ϵ_\gamma ϵ_p=0.2\mathrm{GeV}^2\mathrm{\Gamma }^2.$$
(5)
For $`\mathrm{\Gamma }300`$ and $`ϵ_\gamma =1`$ MeV, the typical observed energy of photons emitted in internal shocks, we see that characteristic proton energies $`10^{16}`$ eV are required to produce neutrinos from pion decay. Typically, the neutrinos receive $`5`$% of the proton energy, leading to neutrinos of $`10^{14}`$ eV.

The fraction $`f_\pi (ϵ_p)`$ of proton energy lost to pion production is given by the ratio of the wind expansion time, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ in the wind frame at the internal shock stage, and the proton photopion energy loss time. For observed GRB photon spectra, $`dN_\gamma /dϵ_\gamma ϵ_\gamma ^\beta `$ with $`\beta 1`$ for photon energies below the break energy $`ϵ_\gamma ^b1`$ MeV and $`\beta 2`$ for $`ϵ_\gamma >ϵ_\gamma ^b`$, $`f_\pi `$ is independent of energy for $`ϵ_p>0.2\mathrm{\Gamma }^2\mathrm{GeV}^2/ϵ_\gamma ^b10^{16}`$ eV,

$$f_\pi 0.2\frac{L_{\gamma ,52}}{(ϵ_\gamma ^b/1\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})\mathrm{\Gamma }_{2.5}^4\mathrm{\Delta }t_2},$$
(6)
and $`f_\pi ϵ_p`$ for $`ϵ_p<10^{16}`$ eV. For a typical burst, $`E10^{53}`$ erg at redshift $`z1`$, Eq. (6) implies a neutrino fluence of

$$ϵ_\nu ^2\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _x}10^3\left(\frac{f_\pi }{0.2}\right)\left(\frac{ϵ_\nu }{10^{14}\mathrm{eV}}\right)^\alpha \frac{\mathrm{GeV}}{\mathrm{cm}^2},$$
(7)
where $`\alpha =0`$ for $`ϵ_\nu >10^{14}\mathrm{eV}`$ and $`\alpha =1`$ for $`ϵ_\nu <10^{14}\mathrm{eV}`$, and $`\nu _x`$ stands for $`\nu _\mu `$, $`\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ and $`\nu _e`$.

The neutrino spectrum (7) is modified at high energy, where neutrinos are produced by the decay of muons and pions whose life time exceeds the characteristic time for energy loss due to adiabatic expansion and synchrotron emission . The synchrotron loss time is determined by the energy density of the magnetic field in the wind rest frame. For the characteristic parameters of a GRB wind, synchrotron losses are the dominant effect, leading to strong suppression of $`\nu `$ flux above $`10^{16}`$ eV.

#### 4.1.2 Afterglow neutrinos, $`10^{18}`$ eV

During the transition to self-similarity, protons and electrons are accelerated to high energy in the reverse shocks. High energy protons may interact with the 10 eV–1 keV photons radiated by the electrons, to produce through pion decay a burst of duration $`T`$ of ultra-high energy, $`10^{17}`$$`10^{19}`$ eV, neutrinos as indicated by Eq. (5) .

While afterglows have been detected in several cases, reverse shock emission has only been identified for GRB 990123 . Both the detections and the non-detections are consistent with shocks occurring with typical model parameters , suggesting that reverse shock emission may be common. The predicted neutrino emission depends, however, upon parameters of the surrounding medium that can only be estimated once more observations of the prompt optical afterglow emission are available.

If the density of gas surrounding the fireball is $`n1\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}^3`$, a value typical to the inter-stellar medium and consistent with GRB 990123 observations, then the synchrotron emission of reverse shock electrons is expected to peak in the X-ray band, $`ϵ_\gamma ^b1`$ keV, with luminosity $`L_X2\times 10^{50}\mathrm{erg}/\mathrm{s}`$ . Using these parameters in Eq. (6), replacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ with $`T10`$ s and recalling that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=250`$ at the reverse shock stage (see §2), we find $`f_\pi 0.01`$ for protons of energy $`10^{19}`$ eV. Thus, the expected neutrino fluence for a typical burst, $`E10^{53}`$ erg at $`z1`$, is

$$ϵ_\nu ^2\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _x}10^{4.5}\left(\frac{ϵ_\nu }{10^{17}\mathrm{eV}}\right)^\alpha \frac{\mathrm{GeV}}{\mathrm{cm}^2},$$
(8)
where $`\alpha =1/2`$ for $`ϵ_\nu >10^{17}\mathrm{eV}`$ and $`\alpha =1`$ for $`ϵ_\nu <10^{17}\mathrm{eV}`$. Here too, $`\nu _x`$ stands for $`\nu _\mu `$, $`\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ and $`\nu _e`$. The value of $`\alpha `$, $`\alpha =1/2`$ for $`ϵ_\nu >10^{17}\mathrm{eV}`$, corresponding to photomeson interactions of photons with energy below the break $`ϵ_\gamma ^b1`$ keV, differs from the value $`\alpha =0`$ in the case of internal shocks discussed in §4.1.1, since the low energy, $`ϵ_\gamma <ϵ_\gamma ^b`$, photon spectrum is different in the two cases: $`dN_\gamma /dϵ_\gamma ϵ_\gamma ^\beta `$ with $`\beta =1`$ for internal shocks, and $`\beta =3/2`$ for reverse shocks.

Some GRBs may result from the collapse of a massive star (e.g. ), in which case the fireball is expected to expand into a pre-existing wind. For typical wind parameters, the transition to self-similar behavior takes place at a radius where the wind density is $`n10^4\mathrm{cm}^31\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}^3`$. The higher density implies a lower Lorenz factor of the expanding plasma during the transition stage, and hence a larger fraction of proton energy lost to pion production. Protons of energy $`ϵ_p10^{18}`$ eV lose all their energy to pion production in this case, and a typical GRB at $`z1`$ is expected to produce a neutrino fluence

$$ϵ_\nu ^2\mathrm{\Phi }_{\nu _x}10^{2.5}\left(\frac{ϵ_\nu }{10^{17}\mathrm{eV}}\right)^\alpha \frac{\mathrm{GeV}}{\mathrm{cm}^2},$$
(9)
where $`\alpha =0`$ for $`ϵ_\nu >10^{17}\mathrm{eV}`$ and $`\alpha =1`$ for $`ϵ_\nu <10^{17}\mathrm{eV}`$.

The neutrino flux is expected to be strongly suppressed at energy $`>10^{19}`$ eV, since protons are not expected to be accelerated to energy $`10^{20}`$ eV.

### 4.2 Inelastic $`p`$-$`n`$ collisions

The acceleration, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }r`$, of fireball plasma emitted from the source of radius $`r_0`$ (see §2) is driven by radiation pressure. Fireball protons are accelerated through their coupling to the electrons, which are coupled to fireball photons. Fireball neutrons, which are expected to exist in most progenitor scenarios, are coupled to protons by nuclear scattering as long as the comoving $`p`$-$`n`$ scattering time is shorter than the comoving wind expansion time $`r/\mathrm{\Gamma }c=r_0/c`$. As the fireball plasma expands and accelerates, the proton density decreases, $`n_pr^2\mathrm{\Gamma }^1`$, and neutrons may become decoupled. For $`\eta >\eta _{pn}`$, where

$$\eta _{pn}400L_{52}^{1/4}r_{0,7}^{1/4}$$
(10)
and $`r_0=10^7r_{0,7}`$ cm, neutrons decouple from the accelerating plasma prior to saturation, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\eta `$, at $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\eta _{pn}^{4/3}\eta ^{1/3}`$ . In this case, relativistic relative velocities between protons and neutrons arise, which lead to pion production through inelastic nuclear collisions. Since decoupling occurs at a radius where the collision time is similar to wind expansion time, each $`n`$ leads on average to one pair of $`\nu \overline{\nu }`$. The typical comoving neutrino energy, $`50`$ MeV, implies an observed energy $`10`$ GeV. A typical burst, $`E=10^{53}`$ erg at $`z=1`$, with significant neutron to proton ratio and $`\eta >400`$ will therefore produce a fluence $`F(\nu _e+\overline{\nu }_e)0.5F(\nu _\mu +\overline{\nu }_\mu )10^4\mathrm{cm}^2`$ of $`10`$ GeV neutrinos.

Relativistic relative $`p`$-$`n`$ velocities, leading to neutrino production through inelastic collisions, may also result from diffusion of neutrons between regions of the fireball wind with large difference in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ . If, for example, plasma expanding with very high Lorentz factor, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>100`$, is confined to a narrow jet surrounded by a slower, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }10`$ wind, internal collisions within the slower wind can heat neutrons to relativistic temperature, leading to significant diffusion of neutrons from the slower wind into the faster jet. Such process may operate for winds with $`\eta <400`$ as well as for $`\eta >400`$, and may lead, for certain (reasonable) wind parameter values, to $`10`$ GeV neutrino flux similar to that due to $`p`$-$`n`$ decoupling in a $`\eta >400`$ wind.

### 4.3 Implications

The predicted fluence of $`10^{14}`$ eV neutrinos produced by photomeson interactions in internal fireball shocks, Eq. (7), implies a detection probability $`10^{1.5}`$ per burst in planned $`1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}^3`$ neutrino telescopes , corresponding to detection of several tens of muon induced neutrinos per year correlated in time and direction with GRBs, given the observed GRB rate of $`10^3\mathrm{yr}^1`$. The predicted fluence of $`10^{17}`$ eV neutrinos, produced by photomeson interactions during the onset of fireball interaction with its surrounding medium, Eqs. (8,9), implies a detection probability $`10^{4.5}`$ in the case of fireball expansion into typical inter-stellar medium gas, and $`10^{2.5}`$ in the case of fireball expansion into a pre-existing massive star wind. Several muon induced neutrinos per year in a $`1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}^3`$ detector are expected in the latter case.

Detection of high energy neutrinos will test the shock acceleration mechanism and the suggestion that GRBs are the sources of ultra-high energy protons, since $`10^{14}`$ eV ($`10^{18}`$ eV) neutrino production requires protons of energy $`10^{16}`$ eV ($`10^{19}`$ eV). The dependence of $`10^{14}`$ eV neutrino flux on wind Lorentz factor, Eq. (6), and the dependence of $`10^{17}`$ eV neutrino flux on fireball environment, imply that the detection of high energy neutrinos will also provide constraints on wind Lorentz factor , and on the GRB progenitor.

Inelastic $`p`$-$`n`$ collisions may produce $`10`$ GeV neutrinos with a fluence of $`10^4\mathrm{cm}^2`$ per burst, due to either $`p`$-$`n`$ decoupling in a wind with high neutron fraction and high, $`>400`$, Lorentz factor , or to neutron diffusion in a wind with, e.g., strong deviation from spherical symmetry . The predicted number of events in a $`1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}^3`$ neutrino telescope is $`10\mathrm{y}\mathrm{r}^1`$. Such events may be detectable in a suitably densely spaced detector. Detection of $`10`$ GeV neutrinos will constrain the fireball neutron fraction, and hence the GRB progenitor.

Detection of neutrinos from GRBs could be used to test the simultaneity of neutrino and photon arrival to an accuracy of $`1\mathrm{s}`$ ($`1\mathrm{ms}`$ for short bursts), checking the assumption of special relativity that photons and neutrinos have the same limiting speed. These observations would also test the weak equivalence principle, according to which photons and neutrinos should suffer the same time delay as they pass through a gravitational potential. With $`1\mathrm{s}`$ accuracy, a burst at $`100\mathrm{Mpc}`$ would reveal a fractional difference in limiting speed of $`10^{16}`$, and a fractional difference in gravitational time delay of order $`10^6`$ (considering the Galactic potential alone). Previous applications of these ideas to supernova 1987A (see  for review), where simultaneity could be checked only to an accuracy of order several hours, yielded much weaker upper limits: of order $`10^8`$ and $`10^2`$ for fractional differences in the limiting speed and time delay respectively.

The model discussed above predicts the production of high energy muon and electron neutrinos. However, if the atmospheric neutrino anomaly has the explanation it is usually given, oscillation to $`\nu _\tau `$’s with mass $`0.1\mathrm{eV}`$ , then one should detect equal numbers of $`\nu _\mu `$’s and $`\nu _\tau `$’s. Up-going $`\tau `$’s, rather than $`\mu `$’s, would be a distinctive signature of such oscillations. Since $`\nu _\tau `$’s are not expected to be produced in the fireball, looking for $`\tau `$’s would be an “appearance experiment.” To allow flavor change, the difference in squared neutrino masses, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$, should exceed a minimum value proportional to the ratio of source distance and neutrino energy . A burst at $`100\mathrm{Mpc}`$ producing $`10^{14}\mathrm{eV}`$ neutrinos can test for $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^210^{16}\mathrm{eV}^2`$, 5 orders of magnitude more sensitive than solar neutrinos.


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# Untitled Document

Viscosity Mechanisms in Accretion Disks

Kristen Menou1,2

The self-sustained turbulence which develops in magnetized accretion disks is suppressed in the weakly-ionized, quiescent disks of close binary stars. Because accretion still proceeds during quiescence, another viscosity mechanism operates in these systems. An anticorrelation of the recurrence times of SU UMa dwarf novae with their mass ratio supports spiral waves or shock-waves tidally induced by the companion star as the main process responsible for accretion in the quiescent disks. Other weakly-ionized gaseous disks in systems lacking a massive companion have to rely on yet another transport mechanism or they could be essentially passive.  1Princeton University, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton N.J. 08544, USA. 2Chandra Fellow

Accretion discs(1) are present in a variety of astrophysical objects, such as mass-transfer binaries, young stellar systems and active galactic nuclei(2). The main uncertainty on the structure of accretion disks is the nature and magnitude of their viscosity(3), the process by which the gas loses angular momentum to accrete onto the massive central object. Theoretical studies of magnetized accretion disks have shown that magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) turbulence provides the necessary outward angular momentum transport for accretion to proceed(4,5). The problem of identifying a viscosity mechanism can also be addressed empirically, by constraining the magnitude of viscosity in unsteady disks, where it directly relates to the observed variability(2). This is best done in transient close binaries, such as recurrent dwarf novae, with geometries, masses and mass accretion rates that are relatively well known(6).

The transient nature of accretion in the disks of close binaries is understood as a thermal-viscous limit cycle due to sudden changes of the disk opacity when hydrogen recombines(7). Global disk evolution models reproduce the main properties of observed outbursts, but only if the efficiency of transport and dissipation is less in quiescence than during outburst(8,9). This requirement is consistent with the low level of ionization predicted in quiescence. In terms of the magnetic Reynolds number

$$Re_\mathrm{M}C_sH/\eta ,$$

where $`C_s`$ is the sound speed, H the disk scale height and $`\eta `$ the resistivity (inversely proportional to the ionization fraction), local shearing-box MHD simulations(10,11) predict a reduced efficiency of angular momentum transport when $`Re_\mathrm{M}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}10}^4`$, a value comparable to what is expected in quiescent disks(12). It is unclear, however, whether MHD turbulence is still responsible for transport during this phase, at a reduced level, or is entirely suppressed.

This question is addressed here by using results from shearing-box simulations as an input for a global numerical model designed to study disk instabilities(13). The model provides reliable values for the temperature, density, and therefore $`Re_\mathrm{M}`$, throughout the disk (thermal ionization and resistive diffusion are the dominant processes in the disks considered here(12)). The viscosity parameter $`\alpha `$ used in the model (a measure of the disk viscosity in units of $`C_sH`$) is tabulated as a function of $`Re_\mathrm{M}`$ according to the most recent (zero net flux) MHD simulations that include resistive effects(11). The decay of $`\alpha `$ is locally limited to an e-folding time-scale corresponding to $`4`$ orbits, to allow for the finite time of field resistive diffusion. Other model parameters are chosen to represent the disk around the white dwarf of the prototypical dwarf nova SS Cyg(12): mass of the primary $`M_1=1.2M_{}`$, disk inner and outer radii $`R_{\mathrm{in}}=5\times 10^8`$ cm and $`R_{\mathrm{out}}=4\times 10^{10}`$ cm, and mass transfer rate of the companion $`\dot{M}_T=10^9M_{}`$ yr-1.

The evolution of a disk annulus as it goes into quiescence in a standard model is represented by triangles in Fig. 1. The evolution when physically-motivated values of $`\alpha `$ are used (circles) shows that the disk does not saturate at a low level of MHD turbulence, but suffers a runaway cooling as dissipation and $`Re_\mathrm{M}`$ become less and less important. Although the evolution was limited to a minimum value $`\alpha =10^4`$ and was stopped when $`Re_\mathrm{M}`$ reached $`100`$, the disk was still cooling down at that point. The outcome is independent of the value adopted for the field diffusion e-folding time-scale, as long as it is short compared to the viscous time-scales in the disk. Although the presence of a secondary viscosity mechanism could be responsible for a residual level of MHD turbulence, by maintaining the disk at a temperature ($`2000`$ K) sufficient for the field to remain coupled to the gas, the disappearance of self-sustained MHD turbulence is guaranteed.

This is a conservative result, because not using a minimum value of $`10^4`$ for $`\alpha `$ would have lead to stronger turbulence decay. Moreover, the enhanced reduction of transport and dissipation shown by higher resolution MHD simulations(10,11) further supports the case for turbulence decay. The runaway decay is found at other radii in the disk as well (the value of $`Re_\mathrm{M}`$ tends to be smaller at smaller radii because of the nearly flat profile of $`T_C`$ in quiescence and the scaling of $`Re_\mathrm{M}`$ with $`H`$), and additional models show that the same result holds for the disks of x-ray transients(14,15), around neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes.

Accretion is known to occur during quiescence in transient close binaries(6), so that another transport mechanism operates in the disks. The rapid disk expansion observed during the outbursts of several eclipsing dwarf novae(6) is consistent with MHD-driven accretion because it shows that disk internal stresses dominate transport during this phase. On the other hand, the same disks are observed to shrink between consecutive outbursts, which is a signature that transport is dominated by the tidal torque due to the companion star at least in the outer regions of the disk during quiescence.

The theory of tidally induced spiral waves or shock-waves predicts a reduced effective torque for smaller ratios of the companion mass to the accretor mass(16,17). Because the recurrence times of dwarf novae represent the time-scales for mass and angular momentum redistribution in the quiescent disks, an anticorrelation of the recurrence times with mass ratios is expected if tidal torques dominate transport in the quiescent disks(18). An anticorrelation exists for a sample of SU UMa dwarf novae3 SU UMa type dwarf novae show characteristic, long superoutbursts in addition to the more frequent normal outbursts of U Gem type dwarf novae. (Fig. 2). This sample represents all SU UMa stars with well known masses and recurrence times(19). The anticorrelation, which is significant for normal and super outbursts, supports tidal effects due to the mass-transferring star as the dominant transport mechanism during quiescence in transient close binaries. In the same six systems, no apparent correlation of $`t_{\mathrm{rec}}`$ or $`T_{\mathrm{rec}}`$ with the orbital period is found. For U Gem type dwarf novae, another subclass for which there are enough systems with well known masses and recurrence times to repeat the exercise, no correlation of the recurrence times with mass ratio or orbital period is found.

A possible reason why the relation is apparent only for SU UMa stars is that an anticorrelation of recurrence times with the mass ratio $`q`$ can easily be masked by differences in the rates at which mass is transferred by the companion, because these also influence the frequency of outbursts. SU UMa stars may constitute an ideal subsample of dwarf novae to test for such a relation because they mostly lie in a small range of orbital periods, below the period gap(6). Mass transfer is thought to be driven by gravitational radiation in these systems(20), which means that it should primarily depend on the geometry and masses of the system. The case of mass transfer driven by magnetic braking (when the binary orbital angular momentum is lost via the wind of the mass-transferring companion), which applies to most U Gem type dwarf novae above the period gap, may be more complex. The much wider range of orbital periods covered by U Gem stars may also contribute to the absence of a relation for these systems.

Differences in the mass transfer rates of SU UMa stars themselves could explain the relation (Fig. 2). However, in the limit $`q<<1`$ and under the assumption that the secondary star fills its Roche lobe, predictions for the mass transfer rate due to gravitational radiation give $`\dot{M}_Tq^2M_1^{8/3}`$, where $`M_1`$ is the accretor mass(21). There is no evidence for a dependence of the recurrence times with $`M_1`$ in the data set considered here, as expected if the primary reason for the anticorrelation is a reduced efficiency of transport for smaller values of $`q`$.

The anticorrelation is consistent with a more general, qualitative trend among transient close binaries for longer recurrence times in systems with smaller mass ratios (omitting possible complications due to evolutionary issues and differences in the mass transfer rates or the accretion flow structures). This is the case of WZ Sge type dwarf novae, which have longer recurrence times and lower mass ratios than the rest of the dwarf nova population(6). Similarly, soft x-ray transients containing accreting black holes, as a class, have longer recurrence times than similar systems containing less massive, accreting neutron stars(14).

Theoretically, it has been argued that the tidal perturbations due to the companion star probably do not lead to significant transport in the inner regions of the disks of close binaries because of their relatively large Mach numbers. This would be particularly true of the cold, quiescent disks considered here. However, no study to date has considered a realistic, steeply increasing profile of surface density with radius, as predicted for the quiescent disks by disk instability models(9). Because such a profile favors tidally-induced transport in the inner regions of the disk(22), this question remains open.

The concept of accretion driven by MHD turbulence during outburst and by tidal perturbations during quiescence has several interesting implications. It complicates the modeling of the disks of transient close binaries, because, in quiescence, $`\alpha `$ is plausibly non-uniform with radius, and becomes time-variable as the disk shrinks and couples less and less with time to the tidal perturbation (a minimum value for the disk outer radius is set by the specific angular momentum of the accreted gas). It also allows for an efficiency of transport in quiescent disks which differs from system to system because it depends on the binary star parameters.4 This could account for a value of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{cold}}`$ in the quiescent disk of the low $`q`$ dwarf nova WZ Sge which is orders of magnitude less than what is usually inferred for other dwarf novae(23) Finally, it implies that, in the absence of a massive companion, weakly-ionized disks must rely on yet another transport mechanism or they could be unable to accrete. Self-gravity is a plausible candidate for angular momentum transport in the disks of T-Tauri stars and active galactic nuclei, which are more massive than the disks considered here. However, in systems with disks similar to those of close binaries, such as supernova fallback disks or the disk which lead to the planetary system around the pulsar PSR 1257+12, the absence of a massive companion could result in essentially passive disks.

References

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2. J. Frank, A. R. King, D. J. Raine, Accretion Power in Astrophysics (Cambrigde University Press, Cambridge, ed. 2, 1992).

3. N. I. Shakura, R. A. Sunyaev, Astron. Astrophys. 24, 337 (1973).

4. S. A. Balbus, J. F. Hawley, Astrophys. J. 376, 214 (1991).

5. S. A. Balbus, J. F. Hawley, Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 1 (1998).

6. B. Warner, Cataclysmic variable stars, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995).

7. F. Meyer, E. Meyer-Hofmeister, Astron. Astrophys. 104, L10 (1981).

8. J. Smak, Acta Astron. 34, 161 (1984).

9. J. K. Cannizzo, in Accretion Disks in Compact Stellar Systems, Advanced Series in Astrophysics and Cosmology, vol. 9, J.C. Wheeler, Ed., p. 6 (1993).

10. J. F. Hawley, C. F. Gammie, S. A. Balbus, Astrophys. J. 464, 690 (1996).

11. T. P. Fleming, J. M. Stone, J. F. Hawley, Astrophys. J., 530, 464 (2000).

12. C. F. Gammie, K. Menou, Astrophys. J. 492, L75 (1998).

13. J.-M. Hameury, K. Menou, G. Dubus, J.-P. Lasota, J.-M. Huré, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 298, 1048 (1998).

14. W. H. G. Lewin, J. van Paradijs, E. P. J. van den Heuvel, X-ray binaries (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995).

15. K. Menou, J.-M. Hameury, J.-P. Lasota, R. Narayan, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 314, 498 (2000).

16. J. Papaloizou, J. E. Pringle, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 181, 441 (1977).

17. P. Goldreich, S. Tremaine, Astrophys. J. 241, 425 (1980).

18. M. Livio, H. Spruit, Astron. Astrophys. 252, 189 (1991).

19. H. Ritter, U. Kolb, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 129, 83 (1998) \[via the Vizier online catalogue\].

20. A. R. King, Quart. J. R. Astron. Soc. 29, 1 (1988).

21. A. R. King, U. Kolb, L. Burderi, Astrophys. J. 464, L127 (1996).

22. G. J. Savonije, J. C. B. Papaloizou, D. N. C. Lin, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 268, 13 (1994).

23. J. Smak, Acta Astron. 43, 101 (1993).

24. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The author is grateful to Steven Balbus, Charles Gammie, Jeremy Goodman, Brad Hansen and Ramesh Narayan for useful discussions. Support for this work was provided by NASA through Chandra Postdoctoral Fellowship grant number PF9-10006 awarded by the Chandra X-ray Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for NASA under contract NAS8-39073.

Fig. 1. The evolution into quiescence of a disk annulus located at $`2\times 10^{10}`$ cm from a central white dwarf is shown in a surface density ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) vs. central temperature ($`T_c`$) diagram. The solid line represents the disk thermal equilibria. The middle section, which corresponds to partially ionized gas, is unstable and forces the annulus to a cyclic behavior. The triangles represent the evolution of the annulus, from top to bottom, in a standard model with arbitrarily chosen values of the viscosity parameter $`\alpha `$ on the stable branches ($`\alpha _{\mathrm{hot}}=0.1`$, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{cold}}=0.01`$). The circles represent the evolution in a model where the value of $`\alpha `$ is consistently taken as a function of $`Re_\mathrm{M}`$ in the low ionization regime. In this case, the annulus experiences a runaway cooling, down to values of $`Re_\mathrm{M}<100`$. At such a low level of ionization, MHD turbulence dies away.

Fig. 2. The recurrence times of normal and super outbursts of a sample of well-studied SU UMa stars are shown as a function of their mass ratio. There is an indication for systems with longer recurrence times having lower mass ratios. From left to right, the six systems are OY Car, CU Vel, Z Cha, VW Hyi, WX Hyi and YZ Cnc, with white dwarf masses $`M_1/M_{}=`$0.68, 1.23, 0.84, 0.63, 0.9 and 0.82, respectively. The data are taken from the Ritter & Kolb catalogue(19). Masses are usually determined via time-resolved photometric and spectroscopic methods.