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# SYNCHROTRON MODEL FOR THE INFRARED, OPTICAL AND X-RAY EMISSION OF THE CRAB PULSAR

## 1 Introduction

The Crab pulsar has a continuous spectrum from the optical to X-rays and $`\gamma `$-rays with different power-laws (Lyne & Graham-Smith, 1990). The spectral index $`\alpha `$, defined as $`I_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$, varies from $`\alpha =1.1`$ in the $`\gamma `$-region via $`0.7`$ in the hard X-ray region to $`0.5`$ at soft X-rays (Toor & Seward, 1977) and zero at optical frequencies. In the far infrared region the spectrum is inverted $`\alpha =2`$ and cuts off sharply towards lower frequencies. This behaviour is not accompanied by dramatic pulse profile changes, as one would expect from saturation or self-absorption effects. Self-absorption should first influence the peak intensity. Although Penny (1982) claims to have measured about 20% peak-depression in the near infrared, the situation is ambiguous. Absorption outside the pulsar environment would not influence the pulse form, but the nature of such an absorber is not clear. The conventionally used optically thin synchrotron radiation theory yields rising spectra if the particle spectrum has a low-energy cutoff, with a spectral index of $`1/3`$, if the angle integrated single particle emissivity is used and $`2/3`$, if the angular dependence is retained, e.g., when the emission is spread over angles becoming comparable to the pulsar emission cone angle. The infrared spectrum measured by Middleditch, Pennypacker & Burns (1983) therefore is still awaiting an explanation. It is one of the purposes of this paper to show that the theory of optically thin synchrotron radiation at very small pitch angles gives a possible solution to this problem. Epstein & Petrosian (1973) applied small pitch angle synchrotron radiation to the Crab optical pulsations, but the detailed spectral features were only calculated for AGN.

## 2 Outer Gap Scenario and Particle Energy Spectrum

We suggest that the infrared, optical and ultraviolett emission (and also the X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray emission) can be explained in terms of an outer magnetospheric gap model (Cheng, Ho & Rudermann, 1986). Models for the Gamma ray emission from outer gaps have been published by Romani and Yadigaroglu (1995) and Chiang and Romani (1994). This idea is also supported by the different widths of pulse profiles in the radio (inner magnetosphere) and the higher frequency range. The magnetic field strength close to the velocity of light cylinder of Crab pulsar is $`B10^6\mathrm{G}`$.

In such a scenario particles are accelerated to high Lorentz factors $`\gamma _p10^7`$ by large potential drops along the magnetic field lines, usually thought to be limited by curvature radiation. The electric field strength in the gap of a pulsar rotating with angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }=2\pi /P`$ has been calculated by Cheng, Ho & Rudermann (1986) to be

$$E_0=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }Ba^2}{R_\mathrm{c}c}=6.3\times 10^3\left(\frac{a}{10^7\mathrm{cm}}\right)^2\left(\frac{R_\mathrm{c}}{10^8\mathrm{cm}}\right)^1\left(\frac{P}{33\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}}\right)^1\left(\frac{B}{10^6\mathrm{G}}\right)\mathrm{statvolt}/\mathrm{cm},$$
(1)
where $`R_c`$ is the curvature radius of the field lines in the gap region and $`a`$ is the dimension of the gap perpendicular to the magnetic field $`B`$. The rate at which particles gain energy in such an electric field is

$$P_{\mathrm{gain}}=ceE_0,$$
(2)
and the energy loss rate due to curvature radiation is

$$P_{\mathrm{cr}}=\frac{2}{3}\frac{e^2c}{R_\mathrm{c}^2}\gamma ^4=4.6\times 10^9R_\mathrm{c}^2\gamma ^4\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1.$$
(3)
We now consider a competing process, which can limit the acceleration of particles to high energies, namely synchrotron radiation. The energy loss rate of a single particle is then given as

$$P_{\mathrm{syn}}=1.6\times 10^{15}\gamma ^2B^2\mathrm{sin}^2\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1,$$
(4)
which is larger than the curvature radiation losses if the pitch angle is

$$\mathrm{\Psi }1.7\times 10^4\left(\frac{\gamma }{10^7}\right)\left(\frac{B}{10^6\mathrm{G}}\right)^1\left(\frac{R_\mathrm{c}}{10^8\mathrm{cm}}\right)^1,$$
(5)
where $`\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }`$ has been used.

Since we are interested in the acceleration process close to the light cylinder radius $`R_{\mathrm{lc}}`$, we now calculate the accelerating electric field there. Let $`r`$ and $`\theta `$ be the radial distance from the neutron star center and the angle between the magnetic moment and the radius vector to a point in the magnetosphere, respectively. The angle between the magnetic moment and the rotation axis is called $`\alpha `$. Let further be $`x=r/R_{\mathrm{ns}}`$, where $`R_{\mathrm{ns}}10^6`$ cm is the radius of the neutron star. The radius of the light cylinder $`R_{\mathrm{lc}}`$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Omega }R_{\mathrm{lc}}=c`$, so that

$$x_{\mathrm{lc}}=\frac{cP}{2\pi R_{\mathrm{ns}}}.$$
(6)
In a purely dipolar magnetic field the relation

$$\frac{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }{r}=\frac{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _0}{R_{\mathrm{ns}}}$$
(7)
holds for every field line, where $`\theta _0`$ defines its footpoint at the neutron star surface. The curvature radius of a magnetic field line is known to be

$$R_\mathrm{c}=\frac{R_{\mathrm{ns}}}{\mathrm{sin}\theta _0}x^{1/2}.$$
(8)
In an aligned rotator the last closed field line would be characterized by $`\theta =\pi /2`$ at the light cylinder radius, whereas in the non-aligned case it is given by $`\theta =\pi /2\alpha `$. It is then easily verified with eq. (7), that

$$\mathrm{sin}\theta _0=x_{\mathrm{lc}}^{1/2}\mathrm{cos}\alpha .$$
(9)
We therefore find for the curvature radius at the light cylinder

$$R_\mathrm{c}=\frac{R_{\mathrm{ns}}x_{\mathrm{lc}}}{\mathrm{cos}\alpha }=\frac{R_{\mathrm{lc}}}{\mathrm{cos}\alpha }.$$
(10)
The accelerating electric field near the light cylinder is then

$$E_0=\frac{a^2}{R_{\mathrm{lc}}^2}\mathrm{cos}\alpha B=\delta ^2\mathrm{cos}\alpha B,$$
(11)
which defines $`\delta `$ as the ratio of the gap thickness to the light cylinder radius, in the following assumed to be of order 0.1.

One can now estimate the equilibrium Lorentz factor for which energy gains and synchrotron losses are equal, as

$$\gamma _\mathrm{p}=9.5\times 10^6\mathrm{cos}^{1/2}\alpha \left(\frac{\delta }{0.1}\right)\left(\frac{B}{10^6\mathrm{G}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }}{10^3}\right)^1.$$
(12)
These particles are called primary in the following. By inverse Compton scattering they can produce $`\gamma `$-rays with energies up to 5 TeV. We use a pitch angle of order $`\mathrm{\Psi }10^3`$ which in the following sections is shown to be required to reproduce the infrared and optical spectrum, as well as the luminosity in this band.

Due to interactions of these $`\gamma `$-rays with photons a pair creation cascade is ignited, which can produce several generations of positrons and electrons of equal amount and a certain multiplicity $`M`$ compared to the Goldreich-Julian density. The initial momentum of the created pairs will be parallel to that of the primary particle, i.e. the pairs will also have a pitch angle $`\mathrm{\Psi }10^3`$. In typical cascade models the pair density exceeds the density of primaries by a factor of $`10^3\mathrm{}10^5`$ (Melrose, 1995). Numerical simulations of such a cascade showed that a power-law energy distribution $`N(\gamma )=N_0\gamma ^s`$ will be produced, with a typical index of $`s2`$. The first cascade considerations were performed by Daugherty & Harding (1982) for an inner gap scenario but if the cascade is possible in the outer gap (which is commonly assumed) the energy spectrum of the secondaries should not be too different. The spectrum cuts off below $`\gamma 10^2`$ due to the energy theshold of the interacting photons to produce a pair.

This particle energy spectrum can also be found by the following simple argument. Consider a primary particle with energy $`\gamma _\mathrm{p}m_ec^2`$ cascading into $`M(\gamma )`$ particles, each with an energy $`\gamma m_ec^2`$. If the cascade is very efficient, energy conservation leads to

$$M(\gamma )=\frac{\gamma _\mathrm{p}}{\gamma }\frac{10^7}{\gamma }.$$
(13)
Since $`M(\gamma )`$ is the number of particles around Lorentz factor $`\gamma `$, the differential number density, or energy spectrum is then

$$N(\gamma )\frac{M(\gamma )}{\gamma }\frac{1}{\gamma ^2}.$$
(14)
The initial momentum of the primary particle (parallel to the local magnetic field) defines also the momentum of the $`\gamma `$-rays emitted by inverse Compton scattering with ambient photons. The $`\gamma `$-rays eventually leave the gap because they are not influenced by the magnetic field and proceed to created pairs by photon-photon interactions. The subsequent generations of pairs are then no longer affected by the electric field of the gap. So it seems reasonable to assume that via creation all particles have the same pitch angle with a following evolution of the pitch angle distribution due to motion along the magnetic field lines and radiative losses. Of course the emisssion of photons will influence the particle energy spectrum, giving a steepening after a loss time scale $`t_{\mathrm{syn}}`$, affecting first the high energy part.

## 3 Synchrotron Emission at Very Small Pitch Angles

Since the relativistic particles of the pair cascade are created almost in the direction of the magnetic field lines one has to be careful to use the correct validity range of the approximations made in synchrotron radiation theory. In Epstein (1973) the synchrotron emission process by particles with very small pitch angles is discussed in detail. The emissivity at very low pitch angles ($`\mathrm{\Psi }1/\gamma `$) of a single particle is given by

$$ϵ_\nu (\theta ,\gamma )=\frac{\pi e^2\gamma \mathrm{\Psi }^2\nu ^3}{\nu _Bc}\left[1\frac{\nu }{\gamma \nu _B}+\frac{\nu ^2}{2\gamma ^2\nu _B^2}\right]\delta \left(\nu \frac{2\gamma \nu _B}{1+\theta ^2\gamma ^2}\right),$$
(15)
where $`\nu _B=eB/2\pi mc=2.80\times 10^{12}B_6\mathrm{Hz}`$ is the nonrelativistic gyro frequency and $`\theta `$ is the angle between the magnetic field $`B`$ ($`B_6`$: $`B`$ in units of $`10^6\mathrm{G}`$) and the direction of emission. Since we restrict our discussion to small pitch and emission angles we set $`\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and $`\mathrm{sin}\theta \theta `$. This formula has to be applied when angles $`\theta 1/\gamma `$ are resolved in the observations, i.e. in the case of a pulsar, when the pulse width $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ becomes comparable to the emission cone angle of the particles, $`1/\gamma 2\pi \mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$. Since the maximum of the emission is in the forward direction ($`\theta =0`$) the emission is dominated by the field lines that point towards the observer at each phase of the pulse. The degree of circular and linear polarization is given by

$$\rho _c=\mu \frac{1\theta ^4\gamma ^4}{1+\theta ^4\gamma ^4}$$
(16)
and

$$\rho _l=\frac{2\theta ^2\gamma ^2}{1+\theta ^4\gamma ^4}$$
(17)
where $`\mu =\pm 1`$ is the sign of the charge.

When the typical angle of emission $`\theta `$ is small compared to the pulse width it is useful to integrate the emissivity over all angles to get the total emission spectrum of a single particle

$$\epsilon _\nu (\gamma )=2\pi ϵ_\nu \mathrm{sin}\theta d\theta =\frac{2\pi ^2e^2\mathrm{\Psi }^2}{c}\nu \left[1\frac{\nu }{\gamma \nu _B}+\frac{\nu ^2}{2\gamma ^2\nu _B^2}\right]$$
(18)
up to $`\nu 2\gamma \nu _B`$. The energy loss rate of a single particle is obtained by integrating the total emission over all frequencies

$$L_\mathrm{p}=\frac{dE}{dt}=_0^{\mathrm{}}\epsilon _\nu 𝑑\nu =\frac{8\pi ^2e^2\nu _B^2\gamma ^2\mathrm{\Psi }^2}{3c},$$
(19)
which is also the well known result at large pitch angles, used in eq. (4).

We now calculate the emission from a power law distribution of relativistic particles, $`N(\gamma )=N_0\gamma ^s`$, in the direction along the magnetic field $`\theta =0`$ according to

$`I_\nu {\displaystyle ϵ_\nu (0,\gamma )N(\gamma )𝑑\gamma }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi e^2\mathrm{\Psi }^2N_0\nu ^3}{2\nu _B^2c}}{\displaystyle \delta \left(\gamma \frac{\nu }{2\nu _B}\right)\gamma ^{1s}𝑑\gamma }`$ (20)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4N_0\pi e^2\mathrm{\Psi }^2\nu _B}{c}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\nu }{2\nu _B}}\right)^{4s}.`$ (21)
This result shows that the spectrum rises very steeply, in fact $`I_\nu \nu ^2`$ for $`s=2`$. Therefore the sharp rise in the spectrum of the Crab pulsar at infrared frequencies can be explained as synchrotron emission at very small pitch angles. The Lorentz factors in the case of the Crab then have to be of the order of $`\gamma 1/\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi 10^2`$ so that this description applies. This is consistent with the requirement that $`2\gamma \nu _B`$ lies in the infrared part of the spectrum.

In case of somewhat higher Lorentz factors the single particle beam angle becomes smaller than the phase angle of the pulse and the total (or angle averaged) power spectrum has to be applied. To find the spectrum from a power-law distribution the monochromatic approximation

$$\epsilon _\nu \frac{dE}{dt}\delta (\nu 2\gamma \nu _B)$$
(22)
is used for simplicity. This is a good approximation since the emission is sharply peaked at $`2\gamma \nu _B`$ and one may just put all the emission at this frequency. As a result we then find

$$I_\nu \epsilon _\nu N(\gamma )𝑑\gamma =\frac{4\pi ^2e^2N_0\nu _B^2\mathrm{\Psi }^2}{3c}\left(\frac{\nu }{2\nu _B}\right)^{2s}.$$
(23)
In the case of $`s=2`$ this gives the observed flat, $`\alpha 0`$, optical/UV spectrum of the Crab pulsar, with $`\gamma 10^210^3`$. Since the flat spectrum continues up to the far-ultraviolett (Lundqvist et al., 1999) the pitch angle involved has to be $`\mathrm{\Psi }10^3`$ so that the emission is still at very low pitch angles ($`\gamma \mathrm{\Psi }<1`$).

## 4 Crab Pulsar Spectrum from the Infrared to X-rays

We consider now the injection of a power law distribution of a relativistic electron-positron plasma $`N(\gamma )=N_0\gamma ^2`$, which is produced in the cascading process, along the magnetic field lines. We interpret the infrared and optical emission of the crab pulsar with its fast rise towards the optical as synchrotron emission from relativistic particles with very small pitch angles ($`\gamma 1/\mathrm{\Psi }`$). As shown in the previous section we expect a spectral index of $`\alpha =2`$ in the infrared part and $`\alpha =0`$ in the optical part, if the pitch angle is of order $`\mathrm{\Psi }10^3`$ for Lorentz factors $`10^2\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$.

Although the circular polarization will be at its maximum when looking along the field lines, in the cascade process an equal amount of electrons and positrons will be produced, giving a net zero circular polarization. On the other hand the linear polarization becomes maximal for $`\theta =1/\gamma `$ for both species and is zero for $`\theta =0`$. If the emission cone of the pulsar is not cut right through the center by the line of sight but slightly offset, then one expects a polarization angle swing.

The soft X-ray emission in this model comes from the particles with larger pitch angles ($`\mathrm{\Psi }1/\gamma `$), radiating at a typical frequency

$$\nu _c=\frac{3}{2}\nu _B\mathrm{\Psi }\gamma ^2$$
(24)
The spectrum in this large pitch angle limit is given by

$$I_\nu \nu ^{(s1)/2}$$
(25)
which yields the observed $`I_\nu \nu ^{0.5}`$ at soft X-rays for $`s=2`$. Therefore a single power-law distribution of relativistic electrons and positrons can produce the complete spectrum from infrared to X-ray frequencies.

## 5 Simple Luminosity Estimates for the Optical and X-ray Emission

We now estimate the energy radiated by the pulsar in the optical and in the X-ray band simply as the number of particles times the energy radiated by one particle. Thus we have

$$L=Mn_{\mathrm{GJ}}VP_{\mathrm{syn}}$$
(26)
with

$$P_{\mathrm{syn}}=1.6\times 10^{15}\mathrm{\Psi }^2\gamma ^2B^2\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1$$
(27)
being the energy radiated by a single particle. $`M`$ is the multiplicity of the relativistic particle density wihin the volume $`V`$ as compared to the Goldreich-Julian density

$$n_{\mathrm{GJ}}=6.9\times 10^2BP^1\mathrm{cm}^3,$$
(28)
where $`P`$ is the period of the pulsar in seconds, $`x=R/R_{\mathrm{ns}}`$ is the distance in units of the neutron star radius. The magnetic dipole field falls off as $`B=B_0/x^3`$, with $`B_0`$ being the field strength at the surface of the neutron star. Since we assume the radiation to occur close to the light cylinder we set

$$x=x_{\mathrm{lc}}=4774P.$$
(29)
The volume is estimated as a spherical shell within a fraction $`f`$ of the light cylinder radius

$$V=4\pi R_{\mathrm{lc}}^2fR_{\mathrm{lc}}=1.4\times 10^{30}fP^3\mathrm{cm}^3.$$
(30)
With $`M=\gamma _\mathrm{p}/\gamma `$ we then find that

$$L=1.5\times 10^{14}\gamma _\mathrm{p}\gamma f\mathrm{\Psi }^2B^3P^2\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1.$$
(31)
The frequency of the optical emission (at small pitch angles) is given by

$$\nu _{\mathrm{opt}}=2.8\times 10^6\gamma _{\mathrm{opt}}B\mathrm{Hz},$$
(32)
so that, by eliminating $`\gamma `$, we get

$`L_{\mathrm{opt}}=4\times 10^{31}\mathrm{cos}^{1/2}\alpha \left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{0.1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{f}{0.1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{p}}{10^3}}\right)^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{opt}}}{10^3}}\right)^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\nu _{\mathrm{opt}}}{10^{15}\mathrm{Hz}}}\right)`$
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{B_0}{10^{12.5}\mathrm{G}}}\right)^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{P}{33\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}}}\right)^{5/2}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1.`$ (33)
The parameter values chosen for the Crab pulsar are consistent with the considerations of the spectral shape and the cascading process, i.e. the particles with $`\gamma 10^210^3`$ have pitch angles $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{opt}}10^3`$. This crude estimate gives the right order of magnitude of the Crab pulsars optical luminosity.

In the X-ray regime where the large pitch angle approximation for the frequency applies

$$\nu _\mathrm{x}=2.8\times 10^6\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{x}\gamma _\mathrm{x}^2B\mathrm{Hz}$$
(34)
we then find

$`L_\mathrm{x}=6\times 10^{35}\mathrm{cos}^{1/2}\alpha \left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{0.1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{f}{0.1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{p}}{10^3}}\right)^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{x}}{10^1}}\right)^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\nu _\mathrm{x}}{10^{17}\mathrm{Hz}}}\right)^{1/2}`$
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{B_0}{10^{12.5}\mathrm{G}}}\right)^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{P}{33\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}}}\right)^4\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1.`$ (35)
In order to get the right X-ray luminosity a pitch angle of order $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{x}0.1`$ is required. To emit at soft X-ray frequencies again the Lorentz factors have to be in the range $`\gamma 10^210^3`$.

This result can now be compared with the spin-down luminosity of the Crab pulsar

$$L_{\mathrm{sd}}=3.2\times 10^{38}\left(\frac{B_0}{10^{12.5}\mathrm{G}}\right)^2\left(\frac{P}{33\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}}\right)^4\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1.$$
(36)
The luminosity radiated in X-rays by the synchrotron mechanism shows the same dependence on the magnetic field strength and the period as the rotational energy loss of the pulsar. We can therefore write

$$L_\mathrm{x}2\times 10^3\mathrm{cos}^{1/2}\alpha \left(\frac{\delta }{0.1}\right)\left(\frac{f}{0.1}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{p}}{10^3}\right)^1\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{x}}{10^1}\right)^{3/2}\left(\frac{\nu _\mathrm{x}}{10^{17}\mathrm{Hz}}\right)^{1/2}L_{\mathrm{sd}}.$$
(37)
In order to get the right X-ray luminosity a pitch angle of order $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{x}0.1`$ is required. To emit at soft X-ray frequencies again the Lorentz factors have to be in the range $`\gamma 10^210^3`$.

Since this relation is now independent of $`B_0`$ and $`P`$ it should apply to any pulsar, not only the Crab pulsar. The observations of X-ray selected pulsars by Becker & Trümper (1997) have revealed such a dependence in the form $`L_\mathrm{x}10^3L_{\mathrm{sd}}`$. The theoretically found proportionality between the X-ray luminosity and the spin-down luminosity strongly supports our assumption, that synchrotron emission is the dominant radiation process. On the basis of the model presented here, this observation implies that the parameter combination $`\mathrm{cos}^{1/2}\alpha \delta f\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{p}^1\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{x}^{3/2}`$ has about the same value for every pulsar in their list.

The luminosity estimates also contain the correct spectral dependencies, because $`I_\nu L_{\mathrm{opt}}/\nu const.`$ for the optical and $`I_\nu L_\mathrm{x}/\nu \nu ^{1/2}`$ for the X-ray emission.

## 6 Discussion and Conclusions

The high frequency emission of the Crab pulsar is a challenge for the theoretical description. Earlier investigations put the location of the infrared and optical pulses close to the light cylinder radius (Smith et al., 1988) and led us to the idea that these distant regions of the magnetosphere may be responsible for the emission up to the X-ray and gamma ray range. First we were able to show that within an outer gap description and a standard cascade model we expect a particle energy distribution $`N(\gamma )\gamma ^2`$, being the basis for the investigations of the radiative properties of the Crab pulsar. The energy of the primary particles accelerated in the electric field of the gap is shown to be limited by synchrotron radiation and not curvature radiation to $`10^7m_\mathrm{e}c^2`$. This holds for pitch angles $`\mathrm{\Psi }10^4`$.

A detailed inspection of an anisotropic synchrotron model led to the result that the emission of particles with small pitch angles with this single energy distribution reproduces the key properties of the spectrum and luminosity from the infrared up to soft X-rays. This model explains all relevant features, including the long-standing problem of the increase of the infrared spectrum $`I_\nu \nu ^2`$, the flat spectrum $`I_\nu \nu ^0`$ in the optical and UV range and the X-ray spectrum $`I_\nu \nu ^{0.5}`$. The only difference concerns the pitch angle of the emitting particles and the (energy dependent) multiplicity $`M=M(\gamma )`$. The infrared/optical/UV part of the spectrum is emitted by particles with Lorentz factors $`\gamma 10^210^3`$ and pitch angle $`\mathrm{\Psi }10^3`$, corresponding to the pitch angle of the primary particles accelerated in the electric field of the gap. The X-rays are radiated by particles in the same energy range but with a pitch angle $`\mathrm{\Psi }0.1`$. It is not clear what the fundamental physical scenario is, which gives the required values for the pitch angle.

The X-ray emission from particles with the smaller pitch angles, involving higher energy particles, which are smaller in number, would not be seen due to the smaller power radiated. It is dominated by particles with the larger pitch angle. On the other hand for pulsars with smaller magnetic field strength at the light cylinder, the emission at larger pitch angles might be seen in the optical band. In that case the $`\nu ^{1/2}`$-spectrum is also expected there, then accompanied by a luminosity relation similar to that for the X-rays.

From simple luminosity arguments we find that this model is able to yield the desired energy output in the optical as well as in the X-ray part of the spectrum. We also find that the observed proportionality of the X-ray flux and the spin-down luminosity is a consequence of the synchrotron radiation model for any pulsar that developes an efficient pair cascade.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft with the grant LE 1039/6 (C.-W.).


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# Discovery of An Extremely Metal–Poor Galaxy: Optical Spectroscopy of UGCA 292

## 1 Introduction

In standard galaxy evolution models, the relative abundances of the elements increase as a function of time, as stars convert pristine (primordial) material into enriched material (e.g., Tinsley & Larson, 1978; Chiappini, Matteucci, & Gratton, 1997; Samland, Hensler, & Theis, 1997). It is thus of interest to identify extremely low metallicity galaxies at both high– and low–redshift, since these galaxies may be “young,” i.e., galaxies which have not processed much of their gas (e.g., Searle & Sargent, 1972; Izotov & Thuan, 1999; Kunth & Östlin, 1999, and references therein). In addition, low metallicity galaxies provide a unique opportunity to determine the relative abundances of elements in pristine, unevolved, gas, and thus provide critical constraints on big bang nucleosynthesis (e.g., Pagel et al., 1992; Mathews, Boyd, & Fuller, 1993; Olive, Steigman, & Skillman, 1997; Izotov et al., 1999). However, despite concerted efforts over the last three decades to find nearby galaxies with metallicities similar to I Zw 18 (1/52th of solar111Adopting a solar oxygen abundance of 12 + log(O/H) = 8.93 (Anders & Grevesse 1989)., Searle & Sargent, 1972; Skillman & Kennicutt, 1993), only three other extremely low metallicity star–forming galaxies have been found with 12 + log(O/H) $`<`$ 7.35: SBS 033-052 (1/44th of solar, Izotov et al., 1990; Melnick, Heydari–Malayeri, & Leisy, 1992), Leo A (1/38th of solar, Skillman, Kennicutt, & Hodge, 1989; van Zee, Skillman, & Haynes, 2000), and HS 0822+3542 (1/38th of solar, Kniazev et al., 2000). This Letter reports the identification of another nearby metal–poor dwarf irregular galaxy, UGCA 292 (CVn I dwA).

UGCA 292 was observed as part of an on–going survey of elemental abundances in nearby dwarf irregular galaxies (van Zee & Haynes,, in prep). Many surveys for low metallicity galaxies target high surface brightness, “star bursting,” dwarf galaxies, in part because their bright H II regions make them easier to identify (e.g., Kunth & Sargent, 1983; Terlevich et al., 1991; Masegosa, Moles, & Campos–Aguilar, 1994; Thuan et al., 1995). An alternative approach, and the one adopted here, is to focus on extremely low luminosity galaxies, regardless of their current star formation rate (e.g., Skillman et al., 1988; Skillman, Kennicutt, & Hodge, 1989; Skillman, Terlevich, & Melnick, 1989). The drawback of this approach is that the H II regions tend to be fainter, and thus require significantly longer integration times (or larger aperture telescopes) to reach an acceptable signal–to–noise ratio in the weaker lines. Since the H II regions tend to be faint, H$`\alpha `$ imaging observations are a necessary precursor to spectroscopic observations so that the slit can be positioned appropriately. Thus, the present survey for low metallicity galaxies focusses on a subset of the isolated dwarf galaxy sample described in van Zee (2000a), since deep H$`\alpha `$ images were readily available. As one of the lowest luminosity galaxies in the imaging sample, UGCA 292 was an obvious target for spectroscopic observations.

UGCA 292 was first discovered by Lo & Sargent (1979) during a search for intergalactic H I clouds in nearby groups of galaxies. UGCA 292 has an extremely low central surface brightness of 27.44 mag arcsec-2 (Makarova et al., 1998) and is only marginally visible on the POSS plates. It is a member of the Canes Venatici cloud, and a distance of 3.1 Mpc has been derived from photometry of its brightest blue stars (Makarova et al., 1998). It has an apparent blue magnitude of 16.10 (MB = –11.43) and is extremely blue, with a luminosity weighted B V of 0.08 (Makarova et al., 1998). UGCA 292 has a current star formation rate of 0.0019 M yr-1, which is typical of the dwarf irregular class (van Zee, 2000b). With an integrated H I flux of 17.60 Jy km s-1, corresponding to a neutral hydrogen mass of 4 $`\times 10^7`$ M (Young, van Zee, & Lo, 2000), UGCA 292 is gas–rich. If UGCA 292 continued to form stars at the present rate, it would take approximately 20 Gyr to deplete the current gas supply. In addition, the derived MHI/LB of 6.9 is unusually high for a dwarf galaxy, and is comparable to DDO 154 (Hoffman et al., 1993) and H I 1225+01 (Salzer et al., 1991).

Given its low luminosity, blue colors, and relative gas–richness, UGCA 292 was one of the best candidates in the H$`\alpha `$ imaging sample to be a low metallicity galaxy. The results of optical spectroscopy of two H II regions in this low luminosity galaxy are presented in this Letter.

## 2 Spectroscopic Observations

Optical spectroscopy of two brightest H II regions in UGCA 292 were obtained with the Double Spectrograph on the 5m Palomar222Observations at the Palomar Observatory were made as part of a continuing cooperative agreement between Cornell University and the California Institute of Technology. telescope on 2000 January 31; the observations consisted of three 1200 second exposures centered on each H II region (Figure 1). Since the H II regions were not visible on the guider camera, the long slit (2′) was centered on a nearby star and then moved to the H II region. To minimize the effects of atmospheric differential refraction, the observations were conducted near transit and the 2″ wide slit was oriented East–West to match the parallactic angle. The observations of UGCA 292–1 began shortly before transit; the airmass was 1.00 during all three exposures. UGCA 292–2 was observed post–transit when the parallactic angle was 83°; the airmass increased from 1.01 to 1.07 during the observations.

Complete spectral coverage from 3600–7600 Å was obtained by using a 5500 Å dichroic to split the light into two beams (blue and red). The blue camera was equipped with a 600 l/mm diffraction grating while the red camera was equipped with a 316 l/mm grating. Both sides of the spectrograph were equipped with thinned 1024 $`\times `$ 1024 Tek CCDs, with gains of 2.0 e-/ADU and read noises of 8.6 e- (blue) and 7.5 e- (red). The effective spectral resolutions were well matched between the two sides, with a resolution of 5.0 Å (1.72 Å/pix) on the blue side and 7.9 Å (2.47 Å/pix) on the red side. The spatial scale of the long slit was 0.62″/pix on the blue and 0.48″/pix on the red side.

The spectra were reduced and analyzed with the IRAF333IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories. package. The spectral reduction included bias subtraction, scattered light corrections, and flat fielding with both twilight and dome flats. The 2–dimensional images were rectified based on the arc lamp observations and the trace of stars at different positions along the slit. One dimensional spectra of the H II regions were extracted from the rectified images using a 3″ extraction region (slightly larger than the seeing disk at the time of the observation). Relative flux calibration was obtained by observations of standard stars from the list of Oke (1990). Since the night was non–photometric, only the standard stars observed contiguous to the UGCA 292 observations were used to generate the sensitivity function. The optical spectra are shown in Figure 2.

## 3 Results

Derivation of oxygen and nitrogen abundances for the H II regions followed the methods described in van Zee et al. (1998). The reddening along the line of sight to each H II was derived from the observed line strengths of the Balmer emission lines. Since the derived reddening correction is formally zero, the emission line ratios tabulated in Table Discovery of An Extremely Metal–Poor Galaxy:  Optical Spectroscopy of UGCA 292 are the observed line ratios; however, the quoted errors in the emission line ratios include the uncertainty associated with the reddening correction. In addition, while the line ratios for the higher order Balmer lines indicate that there may be as much as 2 Å EW of underlying stellar absorption in UGCA 292–2, the tabulated values do not include a correction for stellar absorption; application of such a correction has only a minor effect on the derived oxygen and nitrogen abundances.

The temperature sensitive line \[OIII\] $`\lambda `$4363 was detected in both H II regions, so the electron temperature could be determined directly using the emissivity coefficients from a version of the FIVEL program (De Robertis, Dufour, & Hunt, 1987). The derived electron temperatures are high, but are similar to those found in other low metallicity galaxies (e.g., Skillman & Kennicutt, 1993; Skillman et al., 1994; Thuan et al., 1995). The derived oxygen and nitrogen abundances for the H II regions are listed in Table Discovery of An Extremely Metal–Poor Galaxy:  Optical Spectroscopy of UGCA 292. The derived oxygen abundances are similar for both H II regions, indicating that the overall oxygen abundance in UGCA 292 is 7.30 $`\pm `$ 0.05, or 1/42 of solar. That is, UGCA 292 has an oxygen abundance which is comparable to those of SBS 0335-052 (Izotov & Thuan, 1999) and Leo A (Skillman, Kennicutt, & Hodge, 1989; van Zee, Skillman, & Haynes, 2000), and only slightly higher than that of I Zw 18 (Skillman & Kennicutt, 1993). In contrast to SBS 0335-052 and I Zw 18, both UGCA 292 and Leo A are relatively nearby galaxies with only moderate star formation rates.

As one of the two nearest low metallicity galaxies, UGCA 292 provides a unique opportunity to investigate the evolutionary status of gas–rich, metal–poor galaxies in the local universe. A fundamental issue is whether these galaxies represent a population of “young” galaxies, which are undergoing their first episode of star formation at the present epoch. Based on the relative enrichment of oxygen and nitrogen, Izotov & Thuan (1999) argue that metal–poor galaxies are extremely young, with absolute ages less than 40 Myr. However, it is also possible that metal–poor galaxies have faint old stellar populations, but appear to be relatively unevolved because their previous star formation rates were extremely low (e.g., Legrand et al., 2000). Clearly, detailed star formation histories of metal–poor galaxies are necessary to resolve this issue, but most of the starbursting galaxies are too distant to make such an analysis feasible. However, the H II regions in UGCA 292 have similar N/O abundances \[log(N/O) = –1.46 $`\pm `$ 0.10\] as the star bursting dwarf galaxies in Izotov & Thuan (1999), and UGCA 292 is close enough to us that its stellar population should be well resolved by the Hubble Space Telescope. Thus, future resolved stellar photometry of UGCA 292 will provide an important test of the hypothesis that all low metallicity galaxies are young.

An additional concern may be whether the observed elemental abundances in metal–poor galaxies are representative of the chemical evolution which has taken place. For instance, an extremely low mass galaxy may not retain its enriched materials if supernovae ejecta have sufficient kinetic energy to escape the shallow gravitational potential well (e.g., Dekel & Silk, 1986; Mori et al., 1997; Silich & Tenorio–Tagle, 1998; Mac Low & Ferrara, 1999). In particular, mass loss of enriched material through supernovae “blow–out” may be important for starbursting galaxies, where multiple supernovae can significantly disrupt the interstellar medium (e.g., Martin, 1998; D’Ercole & Brighenti, 1999). On the other hand, for galaxies with more moderate star formation activity, such as UGCA 292, mass loss is less likely to occur.

To determine if enriched gas outflow has occurred in UGCA 292, the expected metallicity for a simple closed–box approximation was calculated from the observed luminosity and gas content:

$$Z=y\mathrm{ln}(\frac{1}{\mu }),$$
(1)
where $`y`$ is the elemental yield and $`\mu `$ is the gas mass fraction, derived from the total baryonic mass. Adopting a stellar mass–to–light ratio of 0.35 and an oxygen yield of 2/3 solar, appropriate for a Salpeter IMF, the predicted closed–box abundance is 12 + log(O/H) = 7.28, in remarkable agreement with the observed abundance. Thus, it appears that UGCA 292 has not lost a significant fraction of its enriched material, and that the low oxygen abundance is representative of the chemical evolution of the galaxy.

## 4 Discussion

Of a total sample of 25 low luminosity galaxies (van Zee et al., 1996; van Zee, Haynes, & Salzer, 1997; van Zee & Haynes,, in prep), UGCA 292 was the only extremely low metallicity galaxy that was not previously identified as such. Other surveys of starbursting dwarf galaxies have shown how difficult it is to find metal–poor galaxies (e.g., Terlevich et al., 1991), so the low success rate of this survey was not unexpected. Nonetheless, it is discouraging to note that galaxies of lower luminosity than UGCA 292 were included in the sample, yet no other extremely metal–poor galaxies were found. In particular, if the luminosity–metallicity relation is valid on all mass scales (as indicated by Skillman, Kennicutt, & Hodge, 1989; Zaritsky, Kennicutt, & Huchra, 1994; Richer & McCall, 1995), low luminosity galaxies should have been ideal metal–poor candidates. While a certain amount of scatter may be introduced into the luminosity–metallicity relation as a result of poorly determined distances, it is interesting to note that, with the exception of UGCA 292, all of the extreme low luminosity galaxies observed for this project are relatively gas–poor, and their observed metallicities are higher than predicted from the luminosity–metallicity relation of Skillman, Kennicutt, & Hodge (1989). This suggests that the apparent luminosity–metallicity relation may be a result of selection effects. Most of the galaxies which have measured oxygen abundances are gas–rich, and are actively forming stars (i.e., H II regions exist). That is, aside from their luminosity (mass), their other physical parameters (gas mass fraction, surface brightness, etc.) are very similar. Galaxies which are gas–poor at the present time, i.e., galaxies which have processed a large fraction of their materials, are usually excluded from emission–line metallicity studies since it is very difficult to obtain an accurate oxygen abundance for galaxies with faint (or non–existent) H II regions. With the exception of UGCA 292, the other low luminosity galaxies observed for this project appear to have processed a large fraction of their baryonic material, and thus may have enriched their interstellar medium beyond that predicted by the gas–rich luminosity–metallicity relation.

Thus, an ideal survey for low metallicity galaxies should not only target low luminosity galaxies, but should also require that the galaxies be gas–rich, in order to increase the probability that they are relatively unevolved. While it is unlikely that there are many more nearby previously identified galaxies which are metal–poor (like UGCA 292), a viable approach may be to identify new gas–rich galaxies from H I surveys of the local universe. There are several blind H I surveys currently underway that should yield interesting targets for future spectroscopic observations (e.g., Zwaan et al., 1997; Spitzak & Schneider, 1998; Banks et al., 1999; Webster et al., 1999). The fact that UGCA 292 was first discovered in such a survey is also suggestive that this may be an efficient means to identify additional metal–poor galaxies.

## 5 Conclusions

The results presented here, and those from other surveys, indicate that there are a few galaxies in the local universe which have very low, almost primordial, oxygen abundances. The observed oxygen abundance in UGCA 292 is the third lowest of known star forming galaxies and is consistent with a simple closed–box chemical evolution model. The observed N/O ratio is similar to those found in other low metallicity galaxies, and is consistent with a primary origin for nitrogen in extreme low metallicity galaxies. The identification of another metal–poor galaxy in the nearby universe suggests that there may be several relatively unevolved galaxies at the present epoch. However, the question of whether some dwarf galaxies are “young,” undergoing their first episodes of star formation, is still open. A conclusive answer to this question may be obtained from future observations of the resolved stellar population in UGCA 292.

Martha Haynes is gratefully acknowledged for providing access to the Palomar 5m for these and other abundance measurements. Elizabeth Barton, Evan Skillman, and Martha Haynes provided helpful comments on early versions of this paper.


text:
# Symmetry Violation in Heavy Nuclei

## 1 Introduction

For a long time heavy nuclei were considered for the study of symmetry violations mostly due to enhancement factors related to the complex nuclear structure. Classical examples are experiments that measure parity violating correlations in nuclear decays and in nuclear reactions. It is well known that due to nuclear enhancements the parity violating effects in nuclei could be as large as $`10^1`$ in comparison to its ”natural” scale $`10^7`$ for the simplest few nucleon systems. This feature of heavy nuclei has been explored for the gathering of unique information about statistical properties of nuclei and for further development of the understanding of nuclear structure (see, for example ref.). However, it is practically impossible to obtain information about weak interactions using these precisely measured nuclear $`P`$-violating effects. The main reason for that is the extremely complicated structure of nuclear wave functions of the excited states of heavy nuclei. Therefore, $`P`$-violating effects in heavy nuclei could be treated by using mainly statistical approaches.

Time Reversal Invariance ($`TRI`$) is another example of a fundamental symmetry that could be enhanced in heavy nuclei. Since the origin of the possible $`TRI`$ violation is not yet understood, and even a proof of the $`TRI`$ violation ($`T`$-violation) does not exist, it is very important to search for $`T`$-violation using all opportunities. To avoid a possible misunderstanding, we clarify the meaning of the proof of $`T`$-violation.

From the point of view of a local Lorentz invariant field theory with ordinary relations between spin and statistics, $`T`$-violation can be related through the $`CPT`$ theorem to $`CP`$-violation which was discovered experimentally in the $`K^0`$-meson decays. This kind of $`T`$-violating interaction violates parity, too. In this framework there is another possibility for $`T`$-violation due to $`T`$-violating $`P`$-conserving ($`C`$-odd and $`P`$-even) interactions (see, for example ref.). However, an extension of the theory beyond the locality of the interactions or with violation of Lorentz invariance and/or the spin-statistics relations might violate the $`CPT`$ theorem. Therefore, the $`CPLEAR`$ experimental result could be considered as evidence of $`T`$-violation in $`K^0`$-meson decays under the assumption of the $`CPT`$ invariance.

It should be noted that in $`K^0`$-meson decays the $`CP`$-violating interactions belong to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$ sector. However, some models (for example, Minimal Super Symmetry Model) predict large $`CP`$-violating effects for the $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ sector and a suppression of $`CP`$ violation with a change of strangeness $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=1`$. From this point of view a low energy physics ($`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$) is very interesting because it can give independent additional information about $`CP`$ violation.

## 2 $`T`$-violation and neutron reactions

Taking into account the above arguments one can see the importance of the search for $`T`$-violation in low energy physics. It equally applies to both nuclear reactions and measurements of neutron and atomic dipole moments. However, there are some specific features, both theoretical and experimental, which distinguish neutron induced reactions from a wide class of low energy experiments. Let us consider some of them.

The important questions to address in the search for the $`T`$-violation effects are: how well can the effect be calculated, and how well do we know existing restrictions on the $`T`$-violating coupling constants? These questions are very important for the interpretation of a positive experimental result. However, they are much more important for estimating the upper limit on the unknown $`T`$-violating constants in case the experiment will give only an upper bound on the value of the effect. In that relation, one recalls a history of calculations of the electric dipole moment ($`EDM`$) for a simple system like the neutron. We can see that even for rather well defined mechanisms of $`CP`$ violation, such as the standard Kobayashi-Maskawa model and Weinberg model of spontaneous $`CP`$-violation in Higgs sector, the precisely estimated value had changed over time by many orders of magnitude. The reason for that is a discovery from time to time of different contributions from strong interactions (such a strange quark chromoelectric dipole moment or multi gluon $`CP`$-odd operator) which change drastically the estimated values of the neutron $`EDM`$. The situation could be much worse for more complicated systems. One of the recent examples of possibly similar difficulties is the discrepancy (by about $`2.5\sigma `$) between the most precise measurement of $`P`$ violation in the atom of $`{}_{}{}^{133}Cs`$ and its accurate theoretical calculations. This situation rises questions about a possible discovery of ”new physics” or, probably, about simply an overestimation of the calculated accuracy.

Is it possible to avoid such difficulties in the search for an unknown phenomena like $`T`$ violation? Fortunately, for some cases of neutron induced reactions the answer is yes. The reasons for that are structural similarities between interactions with different symmetries and the possibility to measure different effects corresponding to a violation of these symmetries simultaneously. To illustrate the general idea, let us consider different types of interactions in the matrix momentum representation. Then, $`P`$\- and $`T`$-conserving strong interactions can be represented by an orthogonal (real symmetric) matrix:

$$𝐕_{\mathrm{𝐬𝐭𝐫}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}v_{00}& 0& \mathrm{}& v_{ik}& \mathrm{}\\ 0& v_{11}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& v_{ki}& \mathrm{}& v_{ii}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\end{array}\right),$$

with $`v_{ik}=0`$ for angular momenta $`i`$ and $`k`$ with different parities.

In the same representation, parity violating interactions look like

$$𝐕_𝐏=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& v_{01}& \mathrm{}& v_{ik}& \mathrm{}\\ v_{10}& 0& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& v_{ki}& \mathrm{}& 0& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\end{array}\right),$$

with $`v_{ik}=0`$ for angular momenta $`i`$ and $`k`$ with the same parities. In this representation $`T`$-violating interactions bring anti-symmetric imaginary parts to all matrix elements. Therefore, $`T`$-violating $`P`$-conserving interactions are

$$𝐕_𝐓=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& 0& \mathrm{}& +iw_{ik}& \mathrm{}\\ 0& 0& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& iw_{ki}& \mathrm{}& 0& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\end{array}\right),$$

and $`T`$-violating $`P`$-violating interactions are

$$𝐕_{\mathrm{𝐏𝐓}}=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& +iw_{01}& \mathrm{}& +iw_{ik}& \mathrm{}\\ iw_{10}& 0& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& iw_{ki}& \mathrm{}& 0& \mathrm{}\\ \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\end{array}\right).$$

One can see the similarity in the structure of the interactions with the same parity properties and different Time Reversal symmetries: $`T`$-violation brings only an asymmetric phase. However, the parity violation changes structure of the interactions dramatically. Therefore, we can avoid the influence of nuclear structure on the measurable parameter by choosing it as an appropriate ratio of $`T`$-violating and $`T`$-conserving effects. The example for one of the possible choices will be considered in next section.

Prior to that, let us recall a general experimental advantage of neutron reactions – extremely high energy resolution. This property gives us the opportunity to resolve very narrow resonances and to profit from the resonance enhancement factor in the search for $`T`$ violation. The typical neutron energy for the resonance reactions is about $`1eV100eV`$. When neutron is captured by nucleus, the compound nuclear excitation energy is about $`6MeV`$. Then, without any effort the energy resolution is about $`210^7`$. It could be even much better in real experiments (by about $`10^{11}`$). Taking into account the high experimentally achieved level of neutron polarization and the high flux with good time structure at the Spallation Neutron Source, one can conclude that neutron reactions are very promising for precise measurements of $`T`$ violation.

## 3 $`P`$\- and $`T`$\- violating effects in neutron scattering

To illustrate the advantage of the search for $`T`$-violation in heavy nuclei with neutrons, we consider the case of simultaneous Parity and Time Reversal ($`PT`$) violation. One of the effects related to $`PT`$ violation is the difference of total cross sections $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{PT}`$ in the transmission of polarized neutrons through a polarized target for opposite neutron spin orientations. (For some other mechanisms of $`T`$ violation and other effects, see the paper and references therein. The experimental proposal to search for $`PT`$ violation in a different geometry is discussed in the paper.) This effect is proportional to the $`T`$-odd correlation $`(\stackrel{}{\sigma }[\stackrel{}{k}\times \stackrel{}{I}])`$ between spin $`\stackrel{}{\sigma }`$ and momentum $`\stackrel{}{k}`$ of neutron and nuclear spin $`\stackrel{}{I}`$. Let us also consider the corresponding $`P`$-violating $`T`$-conserving difference of total cross sections $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _P`$ in the transmission of polarized neutrons through unpolarized target which is proportional to the correlation $`(\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{k})`$. Using the optical theorem, one can represent these differences of total cross sections in terms of differences of zero angle scattering elastic amplitudes for opposite neutron spin orientations along axis $`[\stackrel{}{k}\times \stackrel{}{I}]`$ for $`PT`$-odd effect and along $`\stackrel{}{k}`$ for $`P`$-odd effect :

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{PT}=\frac{4\pi }{k}\mathrm{𝐼𝑚}(f_{}f_{})$$
(1)
and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _P=\frac{4\pi }{k}\mathrm{𝐼𝑚}(f_{}f_+).$$
(2)
One can calculate both these parameters using distorted wave Born approximation in the first power of parity and time reversal violating interactions (see, for example ref.). Then the symmetry violating amplitudes can be written as

$$t_{P,PT}^{fi}=<\mathrm{\Psi }_f^{}|V_{P,PT}|\mathrm{\Psi }_i^+>,$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{i,f}^\pm `$ are the eigenfunctions of the nuclear T-invariant Hamiltonian with the appropriate boundary conditions:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_{i,f}^\pm =\underset{k}{}a_{k(i,f)}^\pm (E)\varphi _k+\underset{m}{}b_{m(i,f)}^\pm (E,E^{})\chi _m^\pm (E^{})𝑑E^{}.$$
(4)
Here $`\varphi _k`$ is the wave function of the $`k^{th}`$ compound-resonance and $`\chi _m^\pm (E)`$ is the potential scattering wave function in the channel $`m`$. The coefficient

$$a_{k(i,f)}^\pm (E)=\frac{\mathrm{exp}(\pm i\delta _{i,f})}{(2\pi )^{\frac{1}{2}}}\frac{(\mathrm{\Gamma }_k^{i,f})^{\frac{1}{2}}}{EE_k\pm \frac{i}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_k}$$
(5)
describes compound nuclear resonances reactions and the coefficient $`b_{m(i,f)}^\pm (E,E^{})`$ describes potential scattering and interactions between the continuous spectrum and compound resonances. (Here $`E_k`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_k`$, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_k^i`$ are the energy, the total width, and the partial width in the channel $`i`$ of the $`k`$-th nuclear compound resonance, $`E`$ is the neutron energy, and $`\delta _i`$ is the potential scattering phase in the channel $`i`$; $`(\mathrm{\Gamma }_k^i)^{\frac{1}{2}}=(2\pi )^{\frac{1}{2}}<\chi _i(E)|V|\varphi _k>`$, where $`V`$ is a residual interaction operator.)

Therefore, in general, there are many mechanisms that violate the symmetries in nuclei and theoretical descriptions of symmetry violating effects could be rather complicated. However, it was shown (and confirmed by many experiments) that for the bulk of heavy nuclei the dominant mechanism for parity (and $`PT`$) violation is the mechanism of symmetry mixing on the compound nuclear stage. This mechanism could be described by the first term in Eq. (4). For our illustrative purposes we consider the simplest case of a two resonance approximation. This approximation is reasonably good for many heavy nuclei in the low neutron energy region $`E1eV10eV`$, since the characteristic energy difference between compound neutron resonances with the same spin and parity is usually about $`10eV100eV`$. Assuming that main effects could be described by mixing of the nearest $`s`$-wave and $`p`$-wave resonances, one derives the symmetry violating amplitudes as:

$$<p|t|s>=\frac{1}{2\pi }\frac{(v+iw)(\mathrm{\Gamma }_s^n\mathrm{\Gamma }_p^f)^{\frac{1}{2}}}{(EE_s+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_s/2)(EE_p+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_p/2)}e^{i(\delta _s^n+\delta _p^n)},$$
(6)
and

$$<s|t|p>=\frac{1}{2\pi }\frac{(viw)(\mathrm{\Gamma }_p^n\mathrm{\Gamma }_s^n)^{\frac{1}{2}}}{(EE_s+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_s/2)(EE_p+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_p/2)}e^{i(\delta _p^n+\delta _s^n)}.$$
(7)
The matrix elements $`v`$ and $`w`$ are real and correspond to the real and imaginary parts of the mixing matrix element between $`s`$\- and $`p`$-wave compound resonances for the sum of $`P`$\- and $`PT`$-violating operators $`V_P`$ and $`V_{PT}`$

$$v+iw=<\varphi _p|V_P+V_{PT}|\varphi _s>.$$
(8)
The matrix element $`v`$ violates parity but preserves Time Reversal Invariance. The matrix element $`w`$ violates both $`P`$\- and $`T`$-invariance. It contributes to the total mixing matrix element Eq. (8) as an imaginary anti-symmetric part which results in its opposite sign for the amplitudes in Eq. (6) and Eq. (7).

It is important that these amplitudes describe both $`P`$-violating and $`PT`$-violating processes. Moreover, matrix elements $`v`$ and $`w`$ in these amplitudes are matrix elements calculated using exactly the same wave functions.

Another remarkable fact is that the difference of amplitudes $`(f_{}f_+)`$ for $`P`$-violating effect in Eq. (2) is proportional to the sum of the symmetry violating amplitudes (Eq. (6) and Eq. (7)) but the difference of amplitudes $`(f_{}f_{})`$ for $`PT`$-violating effect in Eq. (1) is proportional to the difference of the same amplitudes (Eq. (6) and Eq. (7)). This results in the same energy dependencies for both $`P`$\- and $`PT`$-violating effects. Indeed, taking into account all numerical factors one gets:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{PT}=\frac{2\pi G_J}{k^2}\frac{w(\mathrm{\Gamma }_s^n\mathrm{\Gamma }_p^n(S))^{\frac{1}{2}}}{[s][p]}[(EE_s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_p+(EE_p)\mathrm{\Gamma }_s],$$
(9)
and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _P=\frac{2\pi G_0}{k^2}\frac{w(\mathrm{\Gamma }_s^n\mathrm{\Gamma }_p^n)^{\frac{1}{2}}}{[s][p]}[(EE_s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_p+(EE_p)\mathrm{\Gamma }_s],$$
(10)
where $`[s,p]=(EE_{s,p})^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{s,p}^2/4`$, $`G_J`$ and $`G_0`$ are spin factors; $`J`$ and $`S`$ are compound nuclei and channel spins (see details in ref.). Due to the similarity in these two parameters it is obvious that the $`PT`$-violating effect has the same resonance enhancement as the $`P`$-violating one. Also, they have similar dynamic enhancement factors. Therefore, one can conclude that the $`PT`$-violating effect has about the same nuclear enhancement factors ($`10^6`$) as the $`P`$-violating one (see, for details ref.).

Taking the ratio of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{PT}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _P`$ parameters from the same experiment at the same neutron energy one can extract the ratio of $`PT`$\- and $`P`$-violating matrix elements $`<\lambda >=w/v`$ eliminating nuclear reaction uncertainties and experimental uncertainties related to the absolute normalization:

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{CP}}{\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _P}=\kappa (J)\frac{w}{v},$$
(11)
where $`\kappa (J)`$ is the calculable spin dependent coefficient.

Now it is worthwhile to recall that the extracted ratio $`<\lambda >=w/v`$ is not the ratio of independent matrix elements of complicated compound nuclear states, but rather the ratio of matrix elements with exactly the same wave functions and very similar operators. This ratio might be calculated for each particular nucleus with quite good accuracy. In the simplest case one can do it using one particle $`P`$-violating and $`PT`$-violating potentials

$$V_P=\frac{G}{8^{1/2}M}\{(\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{p}),\rho (\stackrel{}{r})\}_+,$$
(12)
$$V_{PT}=\frac{iG\lambda }{8^{1/2}M}\{(\stackrel{}{\sigma }\stackrel{}{p}),\rho (\stackrel{}{r})\}_{}$$
(13)
where $`G`$ is the weak interaction Fermi constant, $`M`$ is the proton mass, $`\rho (\stackrel{}{r})`$ is the nucleon density, $`\stackrel{}{p}`$ is the momentum of the valence nucleon, and $`\lambda =g_{PT}/g_P`$ is the ratio of $`PT`$-violating to $`P`$-violating nucleon - nucleon coupling constants. Then one obtains

$$<\lambda >=\frac{\lambda }{1+2\xi },$$
(14)
where $`\xi (17)`$ (for detailed discussions see papers).

Now we come to the result that the simultaneous measurement of $`PT`$\- and $`P`$-violating effects affords the opportunity to extract the ratio of $`PT`$\- and $`P`$-violating nucleon coupling constants, $`\lambda =g_{PT}/g_P`$, eliminating nuclear uncertainties and some experimental uncertainties.

Let us compare the accuracy for the parameter $`\lambda _{exp}10^4`$ which could be achieved at the Spallation Neutron Source with theoretical expectations for the ratio $`\lambda =g_{PT}/g_P`$. To do this we assume that $`PT`$ violation is related to the $`CP`$ violation under the $`CPT`$-theorem. (All existing calculations for the parameter $`\lambda `$ have been done for the $`CPT`$-invariant models.) The estimated values of the parameter $`\lambda `$ for some models of $`CP`$ violation are given in Table 1. The last two rows in Table 1 correspond to limits on the parameter $`\lambda `$ obtained from the experimental results of measurements of neutron and atomic electric dipole moments. The parameter $`\lambda `$ of neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) has been calculated using phenomenological $`\pi `$-meson one loop mechanism. The parameter $`\lambda `$ of atomic EDM ($`{}_{}{}^{199}Hg`$)  is addopted from the paper.

It should be noted that due to model uncertainties and low energy $`QCD`$ corrections, the reasonable accuracy of the above estimations is usually about one order of magnitude. Therefore, the comparison of the $`\lambda _{exp}`$ and $`\lambda `$ presented in Table 1 leads to the observation that the possible experiment for the search for $`T`$ violation at the SNS has reasonably good sensitivity to test many models of $`CP`$ violation.

For the completeness of our discussion, it is necessarily to mention that a real experimental setup for these types of experiments should be quite complicated in order to eliminate the Final State Interactions (FSI) and to control them during the experiment. It is well known that a $`T`$-odd correlations have no relations to the Time Reversal Invariance (TRI) in general. This is different from the case of Parity Invariance. The reason for this difference is the fact that the Time Reversal operator, unlike the Parity operator, has no eigenstates nor eigenvalues. Therefore, it leads not to restrictions on the reaction amplitude but to a relation between amplitudes for two different processes.

However, under special circumstances TRI could be related to $`T`$-odd correlations with some restrictions. The well known example is the $`T`$-odd correlations in nuclear (particle) decays when the decay can be described in the first Born approximation. In that case the unitarity condition of the scattering matrix leads to its hermicity, which is an additional condition on the amplitude resulting in the similarity between $`T`$-odd and $`P`$-odd operators and, as a consequence, in the connection of $`T`$-odd correlations to the $`T`$-violating interactions. When the other Born terms of higher order (usually called the FSI) become significant, the hermicity condition breaks down and the $`T`$-odd correlations could be produced without $`T`$-violating interactions.

In our case the neutron transmission is an elastic scattering at the zero angle. Then, the initial and final states in this process coincide. It gives us the additional condition on the scattering amplitude without any reference to the intensity of the interactions. Therefore, $`T`$-odd correlations in the elastic scattering always are related to $`T`$-violating interactions.

In the experiment there is a possibility of neutron depolarization due to the neutron spin precession in magnetic fields, strong spin-spin interactions, and weak interactions. All these effects could destroy the elasticity of the process. Fortunately, it has been shown that these interference effects can be decreased or compensated with a given accuracy, and after that, could be kept under control during the experiment. For detailed discussions of these problems see papers and references therein.

## 4 Summary

To summarize, the considered advantages of the search for $`T`$-violating effects in neutron reactions on heavy nuclei at the SNS, we emphases again that the unambiguous experimental results are guaranteed by the comparing the proper symmetry violating effects in the same experimental setup. It does not only give us the possibility to decrease the experimental uncertainties, but, what is much more important, it allows us to measure relative parameters which are almost free from usually unavoidable theoretical uncertainties. This feature, in the combination with the large nuclear enhancement ($`10^6`$), and the possibility to get rid of final state interactions at any desirable level, gives us a unique opportunity to search for $`T`$ violation at the SNS. The $`T`$-violating effects in neutron reactions are a pure test of the $`T`$ violation with no reference to the $`CPT`$ theorem. It is also important because low energy processes test $`\mathrm{\Delta }S=0`$ sector of the $`CP`$ interactions which is out of reach for high energy experiments.


text:
# Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest

## 1 Introduction

There is an apparent deficit in the total density of baryons at moderate and low redshift, $`z`$, which has come to be called the “missing baryon” problem (see, e.g., Fukugita, Hogan & Peebles, 1998; Cen & Ostriker, 1999). Observations of the hydrogen and helium absorption lines in the Lyman alpha forest give a baryon density at high redshift (z $``$ 3) of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b0.017h^2`$ (Rauch et al., 1998), which is consistent with the value $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=0.019h^2`$ derived from standard big bang nucleosynthesis (Burles & Tytler, 1998, a Hubble constant of $`H_0=100h`$ km $`\mathrm{s}^1`$ $`\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ is used throughout the paper). However, in the local universe the baryon budget is far below this number. Summing over all the baryons inside stars, neutral atomic gas and molecular gas gives $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b0.003h^1`$ .

There is a growing consensus that these “missing baryons” reside in a hot ($`10^6`$ K), ionized plasma associated with groups of galaxies. This is effectively attributing to the universe a mix of components similar to that observed in richer groups and galaxy clusters (Fukugita et al. 1998; Cen & Ostriker, 1999). It is plausible that this medium can be enriched in heavy elements. These heavy elememts would not be fully ionized at the temperatures of interest, as is the cluster gas (Renzini, 1997).

Resonant absorption by a hot, enriched medium would introduce features in the X-ray spectrum of a distant quasar. The features would be narrow lines or broad troughs depending on the velocity structure of the absorber. The associated absorption edges would also be present but are generally much weaker (Markevitch, 1999). Early work by Shapiro & Bahcall (1980) discusses the X-ray absorption spectrum introduced by a uniformly distributed, hot IGM with an admixture of metal atoms via X-ray “Gunn-Peterson” effect. Using the same method but with a photoionized model of the IGM, Aldcroft et al. (1994) constrain the density and temperature of the IGM with ROSAT PSPC spectra of $`z3`$ quasars. Basko, Komberg & Moskalenko (1981) discusses the detectability of X-ray resonance absorption lines in quasar spectra produced by hot plasma in an intervening galaxy cluster. More detailed and accurate calculations of cluster absorption were performed by Gil’fanov, Syunyaev & Churazov (1987); Krolik & Raymond (1988); Sarazin (1989).

Like the Lyman alpha forest system in the optical band, the spatial distribution of the galaxy groups and clusters can also produce an “X-ray forest” along the line of sight in the X-ray spectrum of a background quasar. The concept of an “X-ray forest” was first suggested by Hellsten, Gnedin & Miralda-Escudé (1998): X-ray absorption lines are produced by hot intergalactic medium in the form of “filamentary and sheet-like structures connected to galaxy clusters and groups, as well as colder gas left out in voids.” A similar concept was explored by Perna & Loeb (1998) using the expected spectrum of mass concentrations for a universe dominated by cold dark matter. The effect of differing cosmologies on the number and evolution of X-ray absorption lines is related to the effect on the number density of clusters (Bahcall & Fan, 1998; Eke et al., 1998). This means that X-ray absorption line studies might eventually provide independent constraints on cosmological parameters.

Here we build on and extend the approach of (Perna & Loeb, 1998) to explore the X-ray forest for various cosmologies and to assess its detectability. Detecting it is not easy. Most of the absorption lines will have equivalent widths $`1`$ eV, and none of the previous X-ray missions (Einstein, ASCA, ROSAT) had sufficient sensitivity to detect such features in a quasar spectrum. However, current and future missions give order-of-magnitude advances in sensitivity for the X-ray forest. For example, Chandra grating spectrometers have resolving powers of 1,000 around 1 keV (ASC Science Center, 1997) with sufficient collecting area to detect an absorption line from an ion column density of approximately $`10^{16}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ in a plausible quasar spectrum. Assuming a moderate metal abundance, this column density implies a hydrogen column density of a modest galaxy cluster (Canizares & Fang, 1998). XMM and Constellation-X achieve comparable or better energy resolutions with larger effective area. In this paper we use simulations to assess the ability of these missions to detect features in the X-ray forest.

This paper is organized as follows: section II gives a semi-analytic calculation of the X-ray forest distribution function, based on Press-Schechter formalism. Section III is devoted to the numerical simulation of the distribution function. In section IV we discuss the detectability of the X-ray forest. Section V presents the conclusions and discussion.

## 2 X-ray Forest Distribution Function

### 2.1 Press-Schechter Formalism

Galaxies, galaxy clusters and other large scale structures grow from the initial small scale density fluctuation via gravitional instability. The small scale fluctuation first grows linearly, until it reaches a critical density. Then it decouples from the Hubble expansion, starts collapsing and finally condenses out as a virialized, gravitational bound halo. Given a random Gaussian distribution, the comoving number density of virialized halos can be described by the Press-Schechter function :

$$\frac{dn}{dM_{vir}}=\left(\frac{2}{\pi }\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\frac{\overline{\rho }}{M_{vir}^2}\frac{\delta _c}{\sigma (z,M_{vir})}\left|\frac{d\mathrm{ln}\sigma }{d\mathrm{ln}M_{vir}}\right|exp\left(\frac{\delta _c^2}{2\sigma (z,M_{vir})^2}\right)$$
(1)
Here $`M_{vir}`$ is the mass of the virialized halo; $`\overline{\rho }3\mathrm{\Omega }_0H_0^2/8\pi G`$ is the comoving mean density of the universe which is constant during matter domination; $`\delta _c`$ denotes the linearly extroplated overdensity at which an object virializes; and $`\sigma (z,M_{vir})`$ is the rms density fluctuation inside halos containing a mean mass of $`M_{vir}`$. Press & Schechter (1974) first gave this function with a very simple and intuitive model : large scale virialized objects form from the nonlinear interaction of small scale objects through a self-similar condensation process. However, the original theory suffers the so-called “cloud-in-cloud” problem of miscounting the underdense regions properly. Bond et al. (1991) and Lacey & Cole (1993) extended this model by counting the overdense regions one-by-one and gave the correct normalization of the mass function. Although no direct observational evidence shows that the Press-Schechter function is the right way to describe the cluster abundance, this function fits N-body simulations extremely well (Lacey & Cole, 1994; Eke, Cole & Frenk, 1996; Tormen, 1998; Frenk et al., 1999).

Formally one would expect $`\delta _c`$ to depend on the cosmological model and the geometry of the collapsing object. Since most of the rich clusters are fairly round it would be a good assumption that the collapse is close to spherical. In a flat universe spherical collapse gives $`\delta _c=1.686`$ (Lacey & Cole, 1993). However, the value of $`\delta _c`$ changes by $`5\%`$ as one goes from an Einstein-de Sitter universe to an $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.1`$ universe (Eke, Cole & Frenk, 1996). So we adopt the value of 1.686 throughout the paper.

The rms mass variance at redshift $`z`$ can be expressed by the present rms mass variance and the linear growth factor $`D(z)`$ through

$$\sigma (z,M)=\sigma (z=0,M)\frac{D(z)}{D(z=0)}$$
(2)
From observations of cluster density in the local universe, several papers give the normalization of the power spectrum at $`8h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ scale (Eke, Cole & Frenk, 1996; Viana & Liddle, 1996; Pen, 1998; Viana & Liddle, 1999). Here we adopt the value from Eke, Cole & Frenk (1996). The present rms mass fluctuation $`\sigma (z=0,M)`$ can be calculated by the normalized power spectrum. A functional fit to $`D(z)`$ is given by Lahav et al. (1991)

To apply the Press-Schechter formalism we need to determine the virial mass of clusters ($`M_{vir}`$) precisely. However, measuring the virial mass of clusters is difficult, especially at high redshift. Observationally the X-ray temperature ($`T_X`$) of galaxy clusters can be measured more accurately. Numerical simulations and observations of X-ray clusters show that there exists a very tight relationship between $`T_X`$ and $`M_{vir}`$ (Hjorth, Oukbir & Kampen, 1998; Bryan & Norman, 1998). To simply we assume a singular isothermal sphere model of the cluster mass density distribution. The mass-temperature relationship is given by Eke, Cole & Frenk (1996)

$$kT_X=\frac{1.39}{\beta }\left(\frac{M_{vir}}{10^{15}h^1M_{}}\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}(1+z)\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_c\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\mathrm{\Omega }(z)}\right)^{\frac{1}{3}}\mathrm{keV}$$
(3)
Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }_c`$ is the ratio of the mean cluster density to the critical density at that redshift, $`\beta `$ is the ratio of the specific kinetic energy to thermal energy, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }(z)`$ are the cosmology density parameter at present and redshift of $`z`$, respectively.

Recently various authors show that equation (3) is accurately obeyed in N-body hydrodynamic simulations with value of $`\beta 1`$ (Navarro, Frenk & White, 1995; Evrard, Metzler & Navarro, 1996; Bryan & Norman, 1998). Although all of them suggest a slightly higher $`\beta `$-value, it might be due to the incomplete thermalization of the intracluster gas, or the gas density dropping faster than $`r^2`$ around the virial radius in the numerical simulations. Here we use $`\beta =1`$, which means that the specific galaxy kinetic energy equals the specific gas thermal energy within the virial radius. A Recent analysis on Abell 401 shows the cluster mass given by the best-fit model is approximately by a factor of 1.7 lower than the value predicted by equation (3) (Nevalainen, Markevitch & Forman, 1999). The difference is attributed to the fact that the simulated clusters have steeper gas density and shallower temperature profiles than observed.

### 2.2 Gas Column Density Profile within Galaxy Clusters

Assuming a “$`\beta `$ model” of the cluster gas density distribution (Sarazin, 1988), the column density of gas particles at an impact distance of $`b`$ is (Perna & Loeb, 1998)

$$N_{gas}(b)=\frac{f_{gas}kT_X}{2Gr_c(\mu m_p)^2}\left[1+\left(\frac{b}{r_c}\right)^2\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}$$
(4)
Here $`b`$ is the projected distance from the center of the galaxy cluster; $`r_c`$ is the core radius of the galaxy cluster and we select a constant value of 250 kpc throughout the paper; $`f_{gas}`$ is the baryonic gas fraction; $`\mu =0.59`$ is the mean atomic weight and $`k`$ is the Boltzmann constant.

We are interested in the metal ion column density which would produced absorption features in the X-ray spectrum of a background quasar. The ionization sources of intracluster gas can be either photoionization from the X-ray background radiation or collisional ionization. However the X-ray background is in general too weak to be the main source of ionization so we only consider collisional ionization here. Since generally the collisional time scale is much shorter than Hubble time, the gas is in collisional ionization equilibrium. If we denote $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(X^i)N(X^i)/N(X)`$ as the fraction of ion $`X^i`$, $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$ would be only a function of temperature, i.e., $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}=\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(T)`$ under collisional equilibrium (Sarazin & Bahcall, 1977). Assuming a uniform metallicity $`Z(X)N(X)/N(H)`$ the ion $`X^i`$ column density distribution is

$$N(X^i)=0.46Z(X)\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(T)\frac{f_{gas}kT_X}{2Gr_c(\mu m_p)^2}\left[1+\left(\frac{b}{r_c}\right)^2\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}$$
(5)
Here 0.46 is the fraction of hydrogen atoms by number.

The baryonic gas fraction within galaxy clusters has recently received attention (White et al., 1993; White & Fabian, 1995). Almost all the observations give large values of baryon density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ than expected from the theory of the big bang nucleosynthesis if $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$, which is taken as an indication of a low density universe. Both local and high redshift observations (Rines et al., 1999; Ettori & Fabian, 1999) suggest $`f_{gas}`$ scatters between $`0.1`$ and $`0.3`$. To simplify, we use $`f_{gas}=0.2`$ throughout the paper.

### 2.3 Distribution Function

In analogy to the Lyman-$`\alpha `$ forest system, we define $`^2P/N^iz`$ as the number of absorption systems along the line of sight with a column density between $`N^i`$ and $`N^i+dN^i`$ per unit redshift. Here $`N^i=N(X^i)`$ is the column density of ion $`X^i`$. If we define $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ as the cross section of a galaxy group or cluster, the distribution function is then

$$\frac{^2P}{N^iz}=_{T_X}𝑑T_X\frac{dn}{dT_X}\frac{d\mathrm{\Sigma }}{dN^i}\frac{d\mathrm{}}{dz}$$
(6)
Here $`dn/dT_X`$ is the cluster number density distribution at different cluster temperatures, which can be obtained by the Press-Schechter function and the cluster mass-to-temperature relationship. $`\mathrm{}`$ is the path length. We refer to Perna & Loeb (1998) for detailed calculations.

## 3 Computed Distribution

### 3.1 the X-ray Forest in Different Cosmological Models

Given different cosmological models, the X-ray forest distribution $`^2P/N^iz`$ is determined through equation (6) via the Press-Schechter function (equation (1)). Here we compare the X-ray forest distribution under three cosmological models: a standard cold dark matter model (SCDM); a low-density open CDM model (OCDM) and a low-density $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-dominated CDM model. Table 1 shows all the model parameters.

Observationally resonance absorption lines will be produced by transitions with the ions of the most abundant elements with the largest oscillator strength. For specificity we choose the ions O VIII, Si XIV and Fe XXV. Table 2 gives all the parameters. Mushotzky et al. (1996) measured the metal abundances in four rich clusters with ASCA. We adopt their metallicity because we concentrate only on high column densities produced by rich clusters. The redshift evolution of cluster metallicities can also play an important role here, for simplicity we treat them as constants. We adopt the solar abundances from Anders & Grevesse (1989). The atomic data are from Verner, Verner & Ferland (1996). Figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest shows the ionization fractions (Mazzotta et al., 1998), in which O VIII, Si XIV and Fe XXV show three different peak temperatures around $`2\times 10^6`$, $`10^7`$ and $`5\times 10^7`$, respectively. These temperatures roughly correspond to the galaxy cluster mass around $`10^{12}M_{}`$, $`10^{13}M_{}`$ and $`10^{14}M_{}`$, according to the mass-temperature relationship (3).

To compute the Press-Schechter function we use the codes based on Eisenstein & Hu (1998) for the calculation of power spectrum and mass variance $`\sigma (M)`$. However, their codes are normalized by COBE data, which is on a scale larger than the size of galaxy clusters, so we renormalize the power spectrum based on the observations of the cluster abundance in the local universe.

Figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest through figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest give the distribution of three elements: Fe XXV, Si XIV and O VIII under three cosmological models at different redshifts. The most striking feature is that in all three ions, the standard cold dark model shows a more rapid evolution than the two other low-density models. This trend in general agrees with the evolutionary scenarios predicted by different cosmological models. In the SCDM model, the density perturbation grows as $`(1+z)^1`$, most clusters are formed recently and the cluster number density declines very quickly as we move to high redshift. On the other hand, low-density models predict slower evolution. Figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest shows the comoving cluster abundances as a function of X-ray temperature at different redshift predicted by the Press-Schechter distribution. Although LCDM also shows some decline of cluster abundances at high temperature, SCDM show the strongest evolution of number density at temperatures $`5\times 10^6\mathrm{K}`$. Among all three ions, the distribution of Fe XXV shows the biggest decline (over three decades between $`z=0`$ and $`z=3`$). The reason is that Fe XXV has the highest peak temperature ($`5\times 10^7`$K) in figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest, which corresponds to the biggest decline in the cluster abundances (figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest).

The second feature is that all three distributions show a rapid cutoff between $`10^{16}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. This is mainly because the maximum ion column density can not exceed the central column density of the galaxy clusters. The central ion column density is given by equation (5). For instance, the peak temperature of O VIII is around $`2.4\times 10^6`$K (figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest), which roughly corresponds to a central O VIII column density of $`6\times 10^{16}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. This explains why figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest shows a sharp cutoff around this column density.

The third feature is that for all three ions, the SCDM model predicts more absorbers along the line-of-sight than OCDM and LCDM. This is because the spatial density of clusters is very sensitive to the present matter density - $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ (equation (1)). $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ represents the overall amplitude of the density fluctuation and changing of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ will dramatically change the spatial density of virialized objects, the clusters of galaxies. This can be a method to determine $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ in the future from observations of the X-ray forest.

### 3.2 Monte Carlo Simulations

To obtain statistics on the distribution of X-ray absorption lines, we carry out a series of Monte Carlo simulations. Assuming both absorber column density and redshift are independent random variables (M$`ø`$ller & Jakobsen, 1990), we define the Probability Density Functions (PDF) for each variable,

$`f(z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{A}}{\displaystyle _{N_{\mathrm{min}}^i}^{N_{\mathrm{max}}^i}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2P}{N^iz}}𝑑N^i`$ (7)
$`g(N^i)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{A}}{\displaystyle _{z_{\mathrm{min}}}^{z_{\mathrm{max}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2P}{N^iz}}𝑑z`$
Here $`A`$ is the total absorber number, given by the integration of the distribution function over both redshift and ion column density. We set a range for each variable as $`N^i[10^{12},10^{17}]\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`z[0,3]`$. Using these PDFs we obtain column densities and redshifts for 10,000 randomly selected lines-of-sight. Figures Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest and Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest show the average cumulative distribution of the absorption line numbers vs. column density and redshift, respectively. Although Fe XXV is too scarce to give any statistical information, both figures do reflect the three features of the X-ray forest we noted before. In figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest we include only the absorption lines with column density higher than $`10^{15}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ because this is the lowest column density which is detectable by Constellation X (see the next section). In this figure we see that, compared to the LCDM and OCDM models, SCDM presents a larger number of absorption lines. For instance, SCDM shows that on average ten O VIII absorption lines up to $`z=1`$, where OCDM and LCDM give only four and three lines, respectively.

Assuming a velocity dispersion of $`b300\mathrm{km}\mathrm{sec}^1`$, the line optical depth is obtained by $`\tau (\nu )=N^i\sigma (\nu )`$. Here $`\sigma (\nu )`$ is the absorption cross section at frequency $`\nu `$ (Spitzer, 1978). The line-of-sight transmission is defined as $`De^\tau `$. Figures Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest to Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest show the transmission of Fe XXV, Si XIX and O VIII under the three cosmological models, to $`z=3`$.

## 4 Detectability

Generally most X-ray absorption lines we discuss here are narrow, unresolved lines. For a weak absorption line, the equivalent width $`W_{eq}`$ is given by (Spitzer, 1978)

$$\frac{W_{eq}}{E}=\frac{b}{c}_{\mathrm{}}^+\mathrm{}\left\{1\mathrm{exp}\left(\tau _0e^{x^2}\right)\right\}𝑑x$$
(8)
Where $`E`$ is the line energy, $`b`$ and $`c`$ are velocity dispersion and light speed. Here $`\tau _0`$ is the optical depth at line center, $`\tau _0Ns\lambda /\pi ^{1/2}b`$, where $`N`$ is ion column density, $`\lambda `$ is wavelength and $`s`$ is the Einstein absorption coefficient.

The detectability of the X-ray forest is limited by the spectral resolving power and effective area of the spectrometer. A weak, unresolved resonance line has $`W_{eq}\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ is the bin width, determined by the instrument resolving power R ($`RE/\mathrm{\Delta }E`$). Suppose we use an instrument with resolving power $`R`$ to observe an resonance line around energy E (keV). The source spectrum has a continuum intensity of $`F_X`$ (in units of photons $`\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{keV}^1`$) around E. Given an observing time T, the minimum detectable equivalent width for an unresolved absorption line is

$$W_{eq}\left(S/N\right)\left(\frac{E}{A_{eff}RF_XT}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}$$
(9)
Here $`\left(S/N\right)`$ is the signal-to-noise ratio and $`A_{eff}`$ is the effective area, and we assume negligible background.

For illustration we choose a typical spectrum of an X-ray bright quasar with photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.5`$ and flux $`1.0\times 10^{11}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{sec}^1`$ between 0.1 and 2.4 keV. The Galactic column density is $`5.0\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Given this representative spectrum we calculate the minimum detectable equivalent width and column density of some ion species for a particular observation time. In Table 3, we list three instruments: Chandra LETG/HETG, XMM RGS and Constellation-X Calorimeter/Gratings. Assuming the absorption ions are located at $`z=0.5`$, the equivalent width is calculated based on a S/N of 3 and an integration time of 100 ksec. Comparing this table with figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest and Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest, we find that O VIII ion is the best candidate for all three instruments. Using XSPEC 10, we simulate this “representative” spectrum plus O VIII absorption lines from one realization of the LCDM model (Figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest) on XMM RGS. Several tens of quasars with $`z1`$ have such spectrum or are even brighter, so we put the redshift of this quasar at $`z=1`$. The LCDM simulations give three absorption lines with $`z1`$ and $`N10^{16}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Table 4 lists the simulated line properties. Then we fit the simulated spectrum with a model only containing Galactic absorption and a single power law. The $`\chi ^2`$ plot of figure Probing Cosmology with the X-ray Forest clearly shows three absorption lines. Notice here line 2 and line 3 are only separated by approximately $`3.7`$ eV.

## 5 Summary

In this paper we use a semi-analytic method to investigate the X-ray forest. Following previous work (Perna & Loeb, 1998) we calculate the X-ray distribution function of O VIII, Si XIV and Fe XXV under the Standard cold dark matter model and two low-density models. Fe XXV shows the more rapid evolution of SCDM, compared to OCDM and LCDM; These trends are milder for Si XIV and O VIII. Using Monte-Carlo simulation, we investigate the average distribution of the X-ray forest. We find SCDM model presents more absorption lines than OCDM and LCDM, which eventually might yield a method of determining $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$. We also select a typical spectrum of an X-ray bright, distant quasar to explore the detectability of the X-ray forest. We find for all three telescopes, there are at least several O VIII absorption lines detectable by Chandra, XMM and Constellation-X. This result is consistent with Perna & Loeb (1998) and Hellsten et al. (1998).

The X-ray forest distribution function depends on the Press-Schechter distribution of galaxy clusters, the cluster mass-temperature relationship and the gas distribution inside galaxy clusters (equation (6)). In the following we discuss several important factors which can affect the result.

The key element of the Press-Schechter function is the mass variance, $`\sigma (M)`$. The present mass variance $`\sigma (z=0,M)`$ is calculated from the present power spectrum filtered through a top-hat window, and normalized by the the mass variance at $`8h^1`$ Mpc, $`\sigma _8`$. The estimation of $`\sigma _8`$ involves fitting the Press-Schechter function with the observed spatial number density of local clusters Henry & Arnaud (1991); White et al. (1993); Viana & Liddle (1996, 1999). In this evaluation a crucial relationship is the mass-temperature relationship of equation (3). Although there are both numerical and observational evidences for this relationship, it has a well-known problem of the “recent-formation approximation”: the clusters observed today formed just before we observe them. To resolve this problem two different methods (Lacey & Cole, 1993; Sasaki, 1994) were proposed to substitute the Press-Schechter function, both of which gave nearly the same result (Viana & Liddle, 1996). Based on the mergering-halo formalism of Lacey & Cole (1993), Voit & Donahue (1998) derived a new $`M_{vir}T_X`$ relation and claimed that equation (3) overestimated temperature evolution and so the numbers of high-z clusters. Their conclusion would affect the X-ray forest distribution function of Fe XXV discussed here, but not O VIII. The reason is that the exponential term of Press-Schechter function will only become crucial at high temperature ($`>10^7`$K), well above the temperature of the ionization peak of O VIII at $`2\times 10^6`$K. However it would be important to investigate this effect because it would largely decrease the possibility of detecting the highly-ionized heavy metal absorptions lines, such as Fe XXV.

Another important uncertainty which can affect the X-ray distribution function is the metal abundance inside clusters. Using ASCA, Mushotzky et al. (1996) shows the mean abundances of O, Si and Fe of four galaxy clusters are 0.48, 0.65 and 0.32 respectively, which are close to the values used in this paper. However, there are a few factors which can affect the metal distribution. First, the metal abundances can depend on the mass of the cluster or group. Recent observations by Hwang et al. (1999) show at temperature above 1 keV, the metal abundances are roughly $`0.3M_{}`$, with little variance, while at temperature below 1 keV, the metal abundances drop very fast (Renzini, 1997; Davis, Mulchaey & Mushotsky, 1999, and references there in). If it is real, this effect can dramatically drop the possibility of observing Oxygen absorption lines because of its low peak temperature of ionization. Another factor is the assumption in this paper of constant metal abundances upto redshift as high as $`z3`$, although this is important only for the richest systems which have significant column density. No direct evidence shows a constant metal abundances beyond $`z0.3`$ (Mushotzky & Loewenstein, 1997).

Further progress in this subject relies on both numerical simulations and observations. Large-scale simulations on the X-ray clusters would provide us more accurate information on the X-ray forest distribution. On the observation side, with the launch of Chandra and XMM, we would expect a few O VII or O VIII absorption lines by observing low and moderate redshift quasars. In the future, Constellation-X will provide us superior spectrum of the X-ray forest, with the pioneer of probing the number and distribution of objects in the universe.

We are grateful to Greg Bryan for many useful discussions and helpful suggestion on calculating the power spectrum. We thank Rasalba Perna for kindly discussions on her paper. The code for calculating power spectrum is provided by Daniel Eisenstein and Wayne Hu. We would also like to thank MIT/CXC team for help on using X-ray softwares. We also thank the suggestions from the referee. This work is supported in part by NASA contract NAS 8-38249.