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# Vortex Correlation Functions in Maxwell-Chern-Simons Models

## 1 Introduction

Bosonization is an important tool to study interacting fermionic systems. Concerning the case of parity breaking models in $`(2+1)D`$, many efforts are being undertaken in order to improve this program. In particular, it is well established that the correlation functions of $`U(1)`$ fermionic currents correspond to correlation functions of topological currents in the dual bosonized theory . This feature holds for both $`(1+1)D`$ and $`(2+1)D`$ models and has a universal character , as stated by the following formula

$$K_F[\psi ]+I[j^F]K_B[\lambda ]+I[\epsilon \lambda ]$$
(1.1)
where $`K_F`$ stands for the free fermionic action and $`K_B`$ is the corresponding bosonized version. The term $`I[j^F]`$, with $`j_\mu ^F=\overline{\psi }\gamma _\mu \psi ,`$ represents a generic current interaction. The bosonizing field $`\lambda `$ is a scalar field $`\varphi `$ in $`(1+1)D`$, and a vector field $`A_\mu `$ in $`(2+1)D`$. Accordingly, $`\epsilon \lambda `$ has to be read as $`\epsilon _{\mu \nu }_\nu \varphi `$ or $`\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho }_\nu A_\rho `$, respectively. It is worth mentioning here that the mapping $`\left(\text{1.1}\right)`$ provides a unifying framework to derive universal transport properties of both one and two-dimensional interacting fermionic systems .

Similarly to the $`(1+1)D`$ case, where fermions can be associated to soliton configurations in the dual massive sine-Gordon theory , one would like to understand the elementary fermionic modes in $`(2+1)D`$ in terms of topological excitations in the bosonized dual theory. The latter is a gauge theory whose quadratic part is given by a nonlocal Maxwell-Chern-Simons (MCS) term . In particular, when a large mass expansion is performed, the dominant term reduces to the usual local MCS action, namely

$$S(A)=d^3x\left(\frac{1}{2m}_\mu ^2+\frac{i}{2\eta }A_\mu ^\mu \right)$$
(1.2)
where $`m`$ is proportional to the fermion mass and $`\eta `$ is the Chern-Simons coefficient in the fermionic effective action.

In $`(2+1)D`$, it is a common wisdom to believe that fermions should be related to vortices in the dual theory. The aim of this letter is to pursue this investigation. Combining ’t Hooft approach  to the quantization of extended objects in euclidean space-time with the Hennaux-Teitelbolm work  on instantons in MCS theory, we shall be able to show that vortices may appear as excitations with definite mass and spin in a generalized MCS model. The relationship among vortices in MCS and fermionic excitations will be analysed through Polyakov’s spin action for Bose-Fermi transmutation in $`(2+1)D`$ . ’t Hooft framework is particularly adapted whenever the Mandelstam operators are not known. As an example, it has been successfully used to obtain a covariant quantization for the soliton excitations of the Skyrme model . We also point out that the finite action requirement for vortex configurations is fulfilled by introducing a suitable nonlocal Maxwell term.

The present letter is organized as follows. In Sect.2 we study MCS vortex solutions in the presence of an instanton anti-instanton background. Sect.3 is devoted to the vortex quantization through the corresponding correlation functions and to the analysis of Polyakov’s term. In Sect.4, the nonlocal MCS case is discussed.

## 2 Vortices in Maxwell Chern-Simons

In recent works  the existence of vortex solutions in Maxwell-Chern-Simons (MCS) in the presence of singularities has been discussed. These singularities turn out to be related to the continuum limit of a compact lattice version of the theory. The resulting classical solution to the equations of motion displays the behavior of a vortex. Although this configuration could be interpreted as a kind of energy lump due to its fast decay given by the MCS topological mass, the corresponding total energy has a mild logarithmic divergence in the ultraviolet region . In addition, the vortex is pinned around the position of the singularity, which is introduced as an external fixed source. In order to promote this field configuration to a particle-like excitation we have to give translational degrees of freedom to the vortex and render its energy finite. Also, the vortex propagator should be well behaved, without unphysical modes.

Following ’t Hooft procedure, the vortex propagation in euclidean space is obtained by integrating over configurations where a vortex excitation is created out of the vacuum at a space-time point $`x_1`$ and after an intermediate propagation is annihilated at $`x_2`$. Before $`x_1`$ and after $`x_2`$ the topological charge vanishes, while it is nonvanishing in between due to the existence of the vortex. Therefore, suitable instanton anti-instanton singularities have to be introduced at $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$ in order to match these inequivalent topological configurations. In the present three-dimensional case these singularities can be seen as a monopole anti-monopole pair  for the dual field strength configuration $`_\mu =(1/2)\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho }F^{\nu \rho }`$, located at $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$, respectively. One possible action describing the coupling of this pair with the MCS field is given by

$$S(A,J)=d^3x\left(\frac{1}{2m}(_\mu +J_\mu )^2+\frac{i}{2\eta }A_\mu ^\mu \right),$$
(2.3)
with

$$J^\mu (x)=_\gamma 𝑑y^\mu \delta ^3(xy),$$
(2.4)
where $`\gamma `$ is an open smooth string running from $`x_1`$ to $`x_2`$

$$^\mu J_\mu =\delta ^3(xx_1)\delta ^3(xx_2).$$
(2.5)
The equations of motion are easily worked out and yield

$`_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}}`$ $`=`$ $`J_\mu +_\mu `$ (2.6)
$`_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m^2}{\eta ^2}}\delta _{\mu \alpha }i{\displaystyle \frac{m}{\eta }}\epsilon _{\mu \alpha \beta }^\beta \right){\displaystyle _\gamma }𝑑y^\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{e^{\frac{m}{\eta }\left|xy\right|}}{\left|xy\right|}}.`$
The term $`_\mu `$ in the above expression represents a vortex configuration propagating from $`x_1`$ to $`x_2,`$ having both magnetic and electric field. We observe that, due to the presence of the exponential factor in eq.$`\left(\text{2.6}\right)`$, $`_\mu `$ is localized around the curve $`\gamma `$, on a scale of the order of $`1/m.`$ We also note that the Bianchi identity $`^\mu _\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}}=0`$ implies that $`^\mu _\mu =\delta ^3(xx_1)\delta ^3(xx_2).`$ Therefore, the flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ of the nonsingular part $`^z`$ of the magnetic field, computed through any constant time plane $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ located between $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$, is

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=_\mathrm{\Sigma }d^2x^z=𝑑S_\mu ^\mu =1,$$
(2.7)
where the second equality follows by closing $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ with the addition of a surface at infinity giving no contribution due to the exponential decay of $`_\mu `$.

The static limit corresponds to a configuration where the vortex is created in the far past and annihilated in the far future, and it always sits at the same position, that is, the associated string $`\gamma `$ is an infinite straight line along the euclidean time-axis, identified with the $`z`$axis. In this case, eq.(2.6) reproduces the vortex profile discussed in ref.. In particular, for the magnetic field we get

$$_z^{\mathrm{cl}}=\delta ^{(2)}(x)+\frac{1}{2\pi }K_0(\frac{m}{\eta }\rho ),$$
(2.8)
with $`K_0`$ being the Bessel function and $`\rho `$ the radial coordinate in the $`(x,y)`$ plane. Also, the point-like singularity introduced in , where the vortex is pinned, is nothing but the intersection of the string with the constant time plane $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$.

## 3 Quantization of the MCS vortices

Following ’t Hooft prescription , in order to compute the vortex propagator we have to path integrate over all physical inequivalent configurations representing the creation, propagation and annihilation of the vortex. Therefore, we integrate over the gauge fields and all possible strings, and define the two-point vortex correlation function as

$$𝒢(x_1x_2)=D\gamma DAe^{S(A,J)}=D\gamma e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma },$$
(3.9)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma `$ represents the effective action obtained by integrating over all gauge configurations in a fixed string background. The presence of the measure $`D\gamma `$ is natural in a path integral approach , being in fact needed in order to ensure the string independence of $`𝒢(x_1x_2).`$ This prescription should guaranty the locality of the quantum vortex field operators whose expectation value has to be identified with $`𝒢(x_1x_2)`$, although, in general, a closed form for these operators is not known.

In the pure Maxwell case, corresponding to the limit $`m0`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma `$ turns out to be independent from the particular Dirac string joining the singularities

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma ^{\mathrm{Max}}\frac{1}{\left|x_1x_2\right|},$$
(3.10)
meaning that here the string is not observable. The integration over the paths is now trivial and results in a pure normalization factor. The path-independence of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma ^{\mathrm{Max}}`$ allows us to deform the original $`\gamma `$ into two strings $`\gamma _1,`$ $`\gamma _2`$, where $`\gamma _1`$ goes from $`x_1`$ to $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`\gamma _2`$ from $`\mathrm{}`$ to $`x_2`$. In this case, the vortex correlation function in eq.$`\left(\text{3.9}\right)`$ can be written in terms of Mandelstam variables $`\mu (\gamma _1)`$ , $`\overline{\mu }(\gamma _2)`$, according to

$`𝒢^{\mathrm{Max}}(x_1x_2)`$ $`=`$ $`𝒩{\displaystyle DA\mu (\gamma _1)\overline{\mu }(\gamma _2)e^{\frac{1}{2m}{\scriptscriptstyle d^3x^2}}},`$
$`\mu (\gamma _1)`$ $`=`$ $`e^{\frac{1}{m}_{\gamma _1}𝑑x^\mu _\mu },\overline{\mu }(\gamma _2)=e^{\frac{1}{m}_{\gamma _2}𝑑x^\mu _\mu }.`$ (3.11)
The string independence of the effective action $`\left(\text{3.10}\right)`$ corresponds to the well established locality properties of the Mandelstam operators, in models containing pure Maxwell terms . Coming back to the MCS case, it is easy to convince oneself that the effective action $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma `$ in eq.$`\left(\text{3.9}\right)`$ has a nontrivial dependence on $`\gamma .`$ Therefore, as the string is now observable, we have to integrate over all paths, according to the general definition $`\left(\text{3.9}\right).`$ On physical grounds, this amounts to take into account all possible intermediate processes representing the vortex propagation. We underline that in this case an explicit expression for the vortex operators is not available. However, the knowledge of the vortex propagator is sufficient to characterize the physical properties of the vortex at the quantum level.

As the integration over the gauge fields in eq.$`\left(\text{3.9}\right)`$ is quadratic, we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma =S(A^{\mathrm{cl}},J)$$
(3.12)
where $`A^{\mathrm{cl}}`$ is a vector potential for the saddle point configuration $`^{\mathrm{cl}}`$ in eq.$`\left(\text{2.6}\right).`$ After performing the space-time integral, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma `$ can be cast in the form of a double-line integral over the curve $`\gamma `$, with a kernel which is found to be localized on a scale of the order of $`1/m`$ (see eq.$`\left(\text{4.22}\right)`$ in Sect.4). For well separated $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$, and smooth strings, the effective action $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma `$, up to order $`1/m`$, is

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma \lambda mL+\frac{\mathrm{const}}{m}_0^L𝑑s\frac{de^\alpha (s)}{ds}\frac{de^\alpha (s)}{ds},$$
(3.13)
where $`L`$ is the length of the curve $`\gamma ,`$ $`e^\alpha (s)`$ is the tangent vector $`dy^\alpha /ds`$ and the parameter $`s`$ is defined through the relation $`e^\alpha (s)e^\alpha (s)=1`$. The factor $`\lambda `$ is logarithmic divergent , and will be discussed in the next section.

Notice that the presence of the second term in $`\left(\text{3.13}\right)`$ is in fact already known  and takes into account velocity correlations at different points along $`\gamma `$. In order to obtain the vortex propagator $`𝒢(x_1x_2)`$ it remains to perform the integration over all possible paths $`\gamma `$ with fixed end-points. This integration can be found in , yielding as final result the Klein-Gordon propagator.

The spinless character of this excitation is due to the complete cancellation of all imaginary terms of the kind

$$S_\gamma =\frac{1}{4\pi }_\gamma 𝑑x^\alpha _\gamma 𝑑y^\beta \epsilon _{\mu \alpha \beta }_\mu ^x\frac{1}{|xy|},$$
(3.14)
arising from the presence of the Chern-Simons action. Observe that, for closed $`\gamma `$, this expression is known as the self-linking of the curve.

It is worth underlining that, depending on the coupling between the string and the MCS gauge potential, different kinds of correlation functions will be obtained, leading to different quantum numbers for the corresponding vortex excitations. For instance, if instead of $`\left(\text{2.3}\right)`$ one considers the more general coupling

$$S(A,J)=d^3x\left(\frac{1}{2m}(_\mu +J_\mu )^2+\frac{i}{2\eta }A_\mu ^\mu +i\vartheta A_\mu J^\mu \right),$$
(3.15)
for the leading terms of the effective action $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma `$ one gets

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\gamma \lambda mL+\frac{i}{2}\eta \vartheta ^2S_\gamma .$$
(3.16)
In particular, for $`\eta \vartheta ^2=2\pi ,`$ Polyakov’s Bose-Fermi transmutation occurs and the vortex propagator turns out to be that of a spin one-half fermionic excitation

$$d^3p\frac{1}{\sigma ^\mu p_\mu +\lambda m}e^{ip(x_1x_2)}$$
(3.17)
where $`\sigma _\mu `$ are the Pauli matrices. With respect to the spinor index structure of this propagator we refer the reader to the original work . In this regard, it is useful to point out that the functional integration in eq.$`\left(\text{3.9}\right)`$ should be equipped with appropriate fixed boundary conditions around the monopole anti-monopole singularities, carrying a representation of the rotation group. At the locations of these singularities vortices with given quantum numbers will be created and destroyed. This will lead to the correct index structure for the final expression of the propagator. This framework has been worked out in ref. in the case of skyrmions.

## 4 Vortices in nonlocal MCS models

So far, we have seen that vortex configurations are present in MCS theory when a nontrivial instanton anti-instanton background is introduced. Depending on the coupling with the string, the vortex quantum numbers may correspond to a bosonic or a fermionic excitation. However, as it has been already pointed out in , the energy of this configuration displays an ultraviolet logarithmic divergence. The aim of this section is to face this problem. One possibility in order to have a finite action configuration is that of introducing nonlocal terms in the action, whose effect is that of properly regularizing the ultraviolet region. For instance, this can be done by modifying the Maxwell term in $`\left(\text{3.15}\right)`$ according to

$$S(A,J)=d^3x\left(\frac{1}{2}(_\mu +J_\mu )\widehat{O}(^\mu +J^\mu )+\frac{i}{2\eta }A_\mu ^\mu +i\vartheta A_\mu J^\mu \right),$$
(4.18)
where $`\widehat{O}`$ is a nonlocal operator associated with a kernel $`O(xy)`$

$$\left[\widehat{O}\right](x)=d^3yO(xy)(y).$$

We also require that the Fourier transform

$$\stackrel{~}{O}(k)=d^3xe^{ikx}O(x)$$
(4.19)
is positive definite.

The local Maxwell term is recovered by taking $`O(xy)=(1/m)\delta ^{(3)}(xy)`$. We remark here that nonlocal MCS models appear in a natural way in the context of bosonization . Indeed, these terms arise from the evaluation of the massive fermionic determinant in a generic background. We also observe that the presence of a current-current interaction in the starting fermionic action will produce in the bosonized action an additional nonlocal Maxwell term, which follows from the universal bosonization rule $`\left(\text{1.1}\right)`$, namely

$$\frac{1}{2}d^3xd^3yj_\mu ^F(x)G(xy)j_\mu ^F(y)\frac{1}{2}d^3xd^3y_\mu (x)G(xy)^\mu (y).$$
(4.20)
Coming back to the nonlocal MCS action $`\left(\text{4.18}\right)`$, the corresponding classical vortex profile gets modified according to

$$_\mu ^{\mathrm{cl}}=J_\mu +\frac{(1\eta \vartheta )}{1\eta ^2\widehat{O}^2^2}\left(J_\mu +i\eta \widehat{O}\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho }_\nu J_\rho \right).$$
(4.21)
Upon substitution of this expression in eq.$`\left(\text{4.18}\right)`$ one obtains

$`S(A^{\mathrm{cl}},J)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\eta \vartheta ^2S_\gamma +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1\vartheta \eta )^2{\displaystyle d^3xJ_\mu \frac{\widehat{O}}{1\eta ^2\widehat{O}^2^2}J_\mu }`$ (4.22)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2\eta }}(1\vartheta \eta )^2{\displaystyle d^3xJ_\mu \frac{\widehat{O}^2}{1\eta ^2\widehat{O}^2^2}\epsilon _{\mu \nu \rho }_\nu J_\rho }`$
We note that the real part of the action is positive. Also, in the static limit in which $`\gamma `$ is an infinite straight line coinciding with the $`z`$axis, the action per unit length turns out to be

$$\frac{1}{2}(1\vartheta \eta )^2\frac{d^2k}{(2\pi )^2}\frac{\stackrel{~}{𝐎}}{1+\eta ^2\stackrel{~}{𝐎}^2𝐤^2},$$
(4.23)
where the quantities in boldface correspond to the two-dimensional projection $`k(𝐤,0)`$. In the local case ($`\stackrel{~}{O}=1/m`$) this expression contains a mild logarithmic ultraviolet divergence . However, in the case where $`\stackrel{~}{O}`$ behaves in the uv region as $`k^\alpha (\alpha >0),`$ the action per unit length is rendered finite, no matter how small $`\alpha `$ is.

## 5 Conclusions

Following ’t Hooft procedure, we have studied vortex correlation functions in MCS models considering different couplings between the gauge fields and the string associated with the instanton anti-instanton pair. This string arises in the continuum limit of a compact lattice version of the theory .

With the exception of the pure Maxwell type case, the string is observable. Therefore, we have defined vortex correlation functions by path integrating over both the gauge fields and the string. This corresponds to take into account the vortex translational degrees of freedom. It is the integration over the string which finally leads to a well behaved propagator, without unphysical poles.

Concerning the bosonization of $`(2+1)D`$ fermionic systems we remind that, for large $`m`$, the dominant term in the bosonized action corresponds to the local MCS . Furthermore, we have been able to see that the coupling in eq.$`\left(\text{3.15}\right)`$ leads to a vortex excitation with spin $`1/2`$, whenever the condition $`\eta \vartheta ^2=2\pi `$ is satisfied. Although a direct derivation of the bosonization formula for fermion propagators has not yet been obtained, this result gives a strong indication that the elementary fermionic excitations correspond indeed to vortices in the dual theory.

These vortex configurations have been generalized to the case in which a nonlocal Maxwell term is present. We have shown that this kind of term could improve the ultraviolet behavior so as to render the vortex energy finite.

On the other hand, for $`\eta \vartheta ^2=2\pi `$, the possibility of identifying vortex and fermionic correlation functions together with the universal bosonization rule $`\left(\text{4.20}\right)`$ could give a useful framework to analyse the spectrum of the excitations for interacting fermionic systems. While in the local MCS case the localization of the vortex on a scale of the order $`1/m`$ leads to the existence of a pole in the vortex propagator due to eq.$`\left(\text{3.16}\right)`$, in the nonlocal case, depending on the fermionic interaction kernel $`G(xy)`$ in eq.$`\left(\text{4.20}\right)`$, the vortex profile $`\left(\text{4.21}\right)`$ could spread out. This would imply the breaking of the validity of the long distance approximation $`\left(\text{3.16}\right)`$. This may result in the absence of the pole in the propagator, meaning that the quasiparticle picture could be destabilized by the interaction among fermions.

## 6 Acknowledgements

The Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico CNPq-Brazil, the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Faperj) and the SR2-UERJ are acknowledged for the financial support.


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# Light scattering by an elongated particle: spheroid versus infinite cylinder

## 1 Introduction

Rapid calculations of light scattering by non-spherical particles are very important in many scientific and engineering applications (see discussion in , ). The simplest model of non-spherical particles — an infinitely long circular cylinder is not physically reasonable. However, it looks attractive to find cases when this model could be useful because the calculations for infinite cylinders are very simple. Therefore, we compare the light scattering by elongated spheroids and infinite cylinders. Previously, such a comparison was made by Martin  and Voshchinnikov  for normal incidence of radiation (perpendicular to the rotation axis of a particle, $`\alpha =90^)`$).

Our consideration is based on the solution to the light scattering problem for spheroidal particles by the Separation of Variables Method (SVM) (see ,  for details). A new type of expansions of the prolate wave functions (Jaffé expansions ) opens a possibility to calculate the optical properties of very elongated (cigar-like) particles.

In this paper, we study the optical properties of prolate homogeneous spheroids with large aspect ratios and compare them with those of infinite circular cylinders and of spheroids in quasistatic approximation.

## 2 Method

### 2.1 Prolate spheroid

Prolate spheroid is obtained by an ellipse rotation around its major axis. The shape of particle is characterized by the aspect ratio $`a/b`$ where $`a`$ and $`b`$ are the major and minor semiaxes. SVM’s solutions to the electromagnetic problem for spheroids published by Asano and Yamamoto  and Farafonov  (see also ) are fundamentally distinguished. In the former, the authors used the Debye potentials to present the electromagnetic fields. This approach is similar to the Mie solution for spheres. Farafonov chose special combinations of the Debye and Hertz potentials, i.e. the potentials used in the solutions for spheres and infinitely long cylinders, respectively. All the electromagnetic fields were divided into two parts: the axisymmetric part not depending on the azimuthal angle $`\phi `$, and the non-axisymmetric part when the integration over $`\phi `$ gives zero.

The computational efficiency of the Asano and Yamamoto’s and Farafonov’s solutions can be compared in the following way (see  for details). Let $`N`$ is the number of terms in sums which give the efficiency factors for extinction and scattering $`Q_{\mathrm{ext}},Q_{\mathrm{sca}}`$ with some accuracy in the Farafonov’s solution. Then, to obtain the results with the same accuracy, the solution of Asano and Yamamoto requires $`2N`$ and $`5N`$ terms if the aspect ratio $`a/b2`$ and $`a/b10`$, correspondingly. Because the computational time is proportional to $`N^3`$ in this case and $`tN^2`$ for the Farafonov’s solution, the advantage of the latter is evident, especially for large aspect ratios.

It should also be noted that the convergence of Farafonov’s solution for spheroids follows that of the Mie solution for spheres (see Table 2 in Voshchinnikov, ).

It must be emphasized that the previous calculations for spheroidal particles with the Asano and Yamamoto’s solution were restricted by the aspect ratios $`a/b5`$ (size parameter $`2\pi a/\lambda 30`$)  or $`a/b=10`$ ($`2\pi a/\lambda \begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}10`$) .

The particle size can also be specified by the parameters $`x_V=2\pi r_V/\lambda `$ ($`r_V`$ is the radius of a sphere of volume equal to that of spheroid, $`\lambda `$ the wavelength of incident radiation) or $`c=2\pi /\lambda d/2`$ ($`d`$ is the focal distance of a spheroid). The expressions relating different parameters have the form

$$\frac{2\pi a}{\lambda }=c\xi _0$$
(1)
$$x_V=\frac{2\pi r_V}{\lambda }=\frac{2\pi a}{\lambda }\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)^{2/3}$$
(2)
where $`r_V^3=ab^2`$. The parameter $`\xi _0`$ depends only on the aspect ratio $`a/b`$

$$\xi _0=\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)\left[\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)^21\right]^{1/2}.$$
(3)
All cross-sections $`C`$ (extinction, scattering etc) are connected with the corresponding efficiency factors $`Q`$ via the relation

$$C=GQ$$
(4)
where $`G`$ is the “viewing” geometrical cross-section of a particle (the area of the particle shadow). The factors $`Q`$ and geometrical cross-sections $`G`$ depend on the angle of incidence $`\alpha `$ (the angle between the direction of radiation incidence and the particle rotation axis, $`0^0\alpha 90^0`$). The geometrical cross-section of prolate spheroid is

$$G(\alpha )=\pi b\left(a^2\mathrm{sin}^2\alpha +b^2\mathrm{cos}^2\alpha \right)^{1/2}.$$
(5)
In the case of oblique radiation incidence ($`\alpha 0^0`$), the factors depend on the state of polarization of incident radiation: $`Q^{\mathrm{TM},\mathrm{TE}}`$. The superscript TM (TE) is related to the case when the electric vector $`\stackrel{}{E}`$ of the incident radiation is parallel (perpendicular) to the plane defined by the rotation axis of a spheroid and the wave vector. Expressions for the factors can be found in .

In order to compare the optical properties of the particles of different shapes it is convenient to consider the ratios of the cross-sections for spheroids to the geometrical cross-sections of the equal volume spheres, $`C/\pi r_V^2`$. They can be found as

$$\frac{C}{\pi r_V^2}=\frac{[(a/b)^2\mathrm{sin}^2\alpha +\mathrm{cos}^2\alpha ]^{1/2}}{(a/b)^{2/3}}Q.$$
(6)
### 2.2 Infinite cylinder

The extinction, scattering and absorption cross-sections of an infinite cylinder are, of course, infinite. In order to keep some physical sense the infinite cylinder is replaced by a very-very long finite cylinder and the cross-sections are calculated per unit length of an infinite cylinder (see , p. 203).

For the infinite circular cylinder, the efficiencies are usually defined as the corresponding cross-sections per unit length, $`c_{\mathrm{cyl}}`$, divided by $`2a_{\mathrm{cyl}}`$, the diameter of the cylinder .

For a finite cylinder of length $`2L`$ and radius $`a_{\mathrm{cyl}}`$, $`Q`$ is the ratio of the cross-section $`C_{\mathrm{cyl}}`$ to the normally projected geometric area of the cylinder, $`2a_{\mathrm{cyl}}2L`$.

The extinction efficiencies are considered for two cases of polarization of incident radiation: E case (TM mode) and H case (TE mode) ,

$$Q_{\mathrm{ext}}^E=\frac{c_{\mathrm{cyl}}^E}{2a_{\mathrm{cyl}}}=\frac{C_{\mathrm{cyl}}^E}{2a_{\mathrm{cyl}}2L}=\frac{2}{x_{\mathrm{cyl}}}\mathrm{Re}\left\{b_0^E+2\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}b_n^E\right\}$$
(7)
$$Q_{\mathrm{ext}}^H=\frac{c_{\mathrm{cyl}}^H}{2a_{\mathrm{cyl}}}=\frac{C_{\mathrm{cyl}}^H}{2a_{\mathrm{cyl}}2L}=\frac{2}{x_{\mathrm{cyl}}}\mathrm{Re}\left\{a_0^H+2\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_n^H\right\}$$
(8)
where $`x_{\mathrm{cyl}}=2\pi a_{\mathrm{cyl}}/\lambda `$. The coefficients $`a_n^H`$ and $`b_n^E`$ depend on the complex refractive index $`m=n+ki`$, size parameter $`x_{\mathrm{cyl}}`$ and the angle $`\alpha `$ ($`0^0<\alpha 90^0`$). The expressions for coefficients are given in .

Because of different definitions of geometrical cross-sections for spheroids and cylinders, the comparison of factors requires the normalization

$$Q_{\mathrm{sph}}^{\mathrm{TM},\mathrm{TE}}=\frac{Q_{\mathrm{cyl}}^{\mathrm{E},\mathrm{H}}}{\mathrm{sin}\alpha }$$
(9)
where $`\alpha 0^0`$.

## 3 Numerical results

In previous attempts to find the limits of applications of the model of infinite cylinders (, ), the particles of the same thickness were considered, i.e. spheroids and cylinders had the equal parameters $`2\pi b/\lambda =x_{\mathrm{cyl}}=2\pi a_{\mathrm{cyl}}/\lambda `$. Martin  notes that the extinction factors for spheroids become to resemble those for cylinders if $`a/b\begin{array}{c}>\\ \end{array}4`$ for the normal incidence of radiation ($`\alpha =90^0`$). But in order to align the peaks in extinction, the $`x`$ scale for cylinders was stretched by a factor 1.13.

We suggest another way for comparison of the efficiency factors: to put equal the volume and the aspect ratio of a spheroid and a very long cylinder, respectively, i.e.

$$V_{\mathrm{sph}}=V_{\mathrm{cyl}},\frac{a}{b}=\frac{L}{a_{\mathrm{cyl}}}.$$
(10)
From equation (10), we obtain the relation between the size parameters for infinite cylinder and prolate spheroid

$$\frac{2\pi a_{\mathrm{cyl}}}{\lambda }=\frac{2\pi b}{\lambda }\left(\frac{2}{3}\right)^{1/3}.$$
(11)
Note that the scaling factor arising in equation (11) \[$`(3/2)^{1/3}1.145`$\] is close to that found empirically in .

### 3.1 Normal and oblique incidence of radiation

The extinction efficiency factors for spheroids and infinite cylinders are plotted in figure 1 for the case of normal incidence of radiation (perpendicular to the rotation axis, $`\alpha =90^{}`$). There is a similarity of the behaviour of the efficiency factors: both TM and TE modes converge to some limiting values which are close to those of infinite cylinders but do not coincide with them.

This occurs if the size parameter is defined by the relation (11) and the aspect ratio $`a/b\begin{array}{c}>\\ \end{array}5`$ (a noticeable difference in factors for $`a/b=2`$ it is seen in lower panels of Figs. 1, 2).

If we reduce the angle $`\alpha `$ (figure 2, upper and middle panels), the similarity in behaviour of factors remains although the ripple-like structure changes. The likeness disappears if we approach the grazing case: the first peak for cylinders occurs at smaller size parameters than for spheroids (see also figure 5). For refractive index $`m=1.5+0.0i`$, it takes place if the angle $`\alpha `$ becomes smaller than $`30^0`$. Because the ripples reduce with the decrease of the real part of refractive index $`n`$ or the increase of its imaginary part $`k`$, in these cases the infinite cylinders can be used instead of elongated spheroids at smaller values of $`\alpha `$. However, the difference becomes very large for $`\alpha \begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}15^0`$. If $`1.2\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}n\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}2.0`$ and $`k\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}0.1`$, the linear relation between the angle of incidence $`\alpha (\mathrm{in}\mathrm{degrees})`$ and the particle refractive index $`m=n+ki`$ takes the place: $`\alpha \begin{array}{c}>\\ \end{array}50|m1|+5`$. Then the relative discrepancy between factors for infinite cylinders and elongated spheroids ($`a/b\begin{array}{c}>\\ \end{array}5`$) does not exceed 20 % near the first maximum.

Anyway, we can expect the resemblance of the extinction properties of very elongated particles (spheroids and cylinders) in the case of radiation incidence close to normal if the size parameters are recalculated according to equation (11).

### 3.2 Parallel incidence of radiation

Figure 3 shows the extinction efficiency factors for very long spheroids in the case of the incidence of radiation along the rotation axis of the particles. The behaviour of the factors is rather regular, and their values smoothly reduce with the size parameter.

There are 25 maxima on the interval $`2\pi a/\lambda =0300`$ that is totally distinct from the extinction by spherical particles (cf. figure 4). The positions of the maxima for large particles are determined by the path of light inside the spheroids (the phase shift of the central ray). Note that the “equivolume” size of particles $`x_V`$ considered on figure 3 is moderate: from equation (2) follows that $`x_V13.92`$ if $`2\pi a/\lambda =300`$ and $`a/b=100`$. But the path of rays inside spheroidal particle is in $`300/13.9221.5`$ times longer in comparison with spherical particle.

The values of factors on figure 3 are very large. This is the result of normalization by geometrical cross-section which is small in this case and is equal to $`G(0^0)=\pi b^2`$ (see equation (5)). Indicate that the limiting value of extinction factors for particles of any shape must be equal to 2 (“extinction paradox”) but as it is seen from the insertion on figure 3, this condition is far to be satisfied although the tendency for reduction of $`Q_{\mathrm{ext}}`$ is observed.

Figure 4 shows the normalized extinction cross-sections for spheres and prolate spheroids at parallel incidence of radiation ($`\alpha =0^0`$). As follows from figure 4 spheres of the same volume scatter more radiation than spheroids but the situation changes in the case of another orientation of spheroids.

Note also on the absence of ripple-like structure on curves plotted for spheroids.

The ripple-like structure disappear on the extinction curves for cylinders as well in the case of nearly grazing incidence of radiation (figure 5). From figure 5, it is seen that the similarity between elongated spheroids and infinite cylinders is absent. For tangentially incident radiation, the positions and strengths of maxima for infinite cylinders do not coincide with those for spheroids at $`\alpha =0^0`$.

### 3.3 Quasistatic approximation

The optical properties of extremely prolate and oblate particles may be approximately calculated using the quasistatic approximation. This is a generalization of the Rayleigh and Rayleigh-Gans approximations when the electromagnetic field inside a particle is replaced by the incident radiation field (as in the Rayleigh-Gans approximation), taking into account the polarizability of the particle (as in the Rayleigh approximation). The expressions for the efficiency factors and amplitude matrices were obtained in . The range of validity of the quasistatic approximation is discussed in .

Figures 6 and 7 show the extinction efficiency factors for spheroids calculated with the exact solution and the quasistatic approximation in the case of normal ($`\alpha =90^0`$) and parallel ($`\alpha =0^0`$) incident radiation. As we consider non-absorbing particles, the extinction efficiencies coincide with the scattering ones which are in the quasistatic approximation:

$$Q_{\mathrm{sca}}^{\mathrm{TM}}(0^0)=\frac{c^4\xi _0^2(\xi _0^21)}{9\pi }|\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_1|^2_0^{2\pi }_0^\pi (\mathrm{sin}^2\phi +\mathrm{cos}^2\theta \mathrm{cos}^2\phi )G^2(u)\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{d}\theta \mathrm{d}\phi $$
(12)
$$Q_{\mathrm{sca}}^{\mathrm{TM}}(90^0)=\frac{c^4\xi _0^2(\xi _0^21)}{9\pi }|\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_3|^2_0^{2\pi }_0^\pi G^2(u)\mathrm{sin}^3\theta \mathrm{d}\theta \mathrm{d}\phi $$
(13)
where $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_1`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_3`$ are the polarizabilities,

$$G(u)=\frac{3}{u^3}(\mathrm{sin}uu\mathrm{cos}u)$$
(14)
and

$$u=c\xi _0\sqrt{(\mathrm{cos}\theta 1)^2+\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta }$$
(15)
if $`\alpha =0^0`$ and

$$u=c\xi _0\sqrt{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\left(\frac{a}{b}\right)^2(\mathrm{sin}^2\theta +12\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\phi )}$$
(16)
if $`\alpha =90^0`$.

Figure 6 shows the enlarged part of figure 2 (lower panel) for small size parameters. Here, the results for quasistatic approximation are also plotted. It is seen that this approximation describes rather well the behaviour of efficiencies for relatively large size parameters (the value $`2\pi a_{\mathrm{cyl}}/\lambda =1`$ corresponds to $`2\pi a/\lambda =5.725`$ for $`a/b=5`$ and $`2\pi a/\lambda =11.45`$ for $`a/b=10`$).

The extinction efficiencies for optically soft particles are drawn in figure 7. The results given here show the light scattering by a spheroidal cavity ($`m_{\mathrm{cavity}}=1.49+0.0i`$) in glass ($`m_{\mathrm{medium}}=1.48+0.0i`$). As follows from figure 7, the quasistatic approximation allows to calculate the optical properties with the relative error smaller than $`25\%`$ in a wide range of particle sizes.

The range of validity of the quasistatic approximation is discussed in . It was found that a maximum parameter $`x_V`$ for which the quasistatic approximation and exact theory yielded the results coinciding within 1%, can be described by the following approximate formulae:

$$x_V\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}\frac{0.02\mathrm{ln}(a/b)+0.13}{(n1)^{0.30}}$$
(17)
for prolate spheroids and $`\alpha =0^{}`$,

$$x_V\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}\frac{0.10}{(n1)^{0.13\mathrm{ln}(a/b)+0.29}}$$
(18)
for prolate spheroids and $`\alpha =90^{}`$,

$$x_V\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}\frac{0.11}{(n1)^{0.09\mathrm{ln}(a/b)+0.26}}$$
(19)
for oblate spheroids and $`\alpha =0^{}`$,

$$x_V\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}\frac{0.06\mathrm{ln}(a/b)+0.12}{(n1)^{0.23}}$$
(20)
for oblate spheroids and $`\alpha =90^{}`$.

## 4 Conclusions

We applied a new method of calculations of the spheroidal wave functions to the study of the optical properties of very elongated (cigar-like) spheroids. New approach allowed to compare light scattering by prolate spheroids and infinitely long circular cylinders and investigate the applicability of the quasistatic approximation for very elongated spheroids.

It is found that the efficiency factors for spheroids and cylinders have quite similar behaviour for the normal and oblique incidence of radiation, if the aspect ratio of spheroids $`a/b\begin{array}{c}>\\ \end{array}5`$. The resemblance of factors arises provided spheroids and very long cylinders of the same volume and aspect ratio are considered. The following approximate relation between the angle of incidence $`\alpha (\mathrm{in}\mathrm{degrees})`$ and the particle refractive index $`m=n+ki`$ takes the place: $`\alpha \begin{array}{c}>\\ \end{array}50|m1|+5`$ where $`1.2\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}n\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}2.0`$ and $`k\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}0.1`$. In this case, the relative discrepancy between factors for infinite cylinders and elongated spheroids ($`a/b\begin{array}{c}>\\ \end{array}5`$) does not exceed 20 % near the first maximum.

It is shown that the quasistatic approximation rather well describes the extinction by very elongated optically soft spheroids of large sizes.

The authors are thankful to Vladimir Il’in for useful comments. The work was partly supported by the INTAS grant 99/652, grant for scientific school on theoretical astrophysics, and the program “Astronomy” of the Russian Federal Government.

## References


text:
# Bose-Einstein condensation in dense matter and the third family of compact stars

## References


text:
# Theorem 0.1.

A short proof of a formula of Brasselet, Lê and Seade
for the Euler obstruction

Jörg Schürmann

Westf. Wilhelms-Universität, SFB 478

”Geometrische Strukturen in der Mathematik”

Hittorfstr. 27, 48149 Münster, Germany

E-mail: jschuerm@math.uni-muenster.de

Using the index theorem of Dubson, Lê, Ginsburg and Sabbah for the vanishing cycle functor (which is a special case of \[Sch2\]), we give a short proof of a generalization of the following theorem \[BLS, thm.3.1\]:

###### Theorem 0.1.

Let $`(X,0)`$ be a germ of an equidimensional complex space (of positive dimension) in $`^N`$. Let $`V_i,i=1,\mathrm{},k`$, be the (connected) strata of a Whitney stratification of a small representative $`X`$ of $`(X,0)`$. Then there is an open dense Zariski subset $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in the space of complex linear forms $`𝕃`$ on $`^N`$, such that for every $`l\mathrm{\Omega }`$, there is $`ϵ_0`$, such that for any $`ϵ`$, $`ϵ_0>ϵ>0`$ and $`t_0`$ sufficiently small, we have the following formula for the Euler obstruction of $`(X,0)`$:

$$Eu(X,0)=\underset{1}{\overset{k}{}}\chi \left(V_i𝔹_ϵl^1(t_0)\right)Eu_{V_i}(X),$$

where $`\chi `$ denotes the Euler-Poincaré characteristic and $`Eu_{V_i}(X)`$ is the value of the Euler obstruction of $`X`$ at any point of $`V_i,i=1,\mathrm{},k`$.

Here $`𝔹_ϵ`$ is the corresponding closed ball in $`^N`$, and $`\chi `$ is the usual Euler characteristic

$$\chi (Y):=\chi \left(H^{}(Y,)\right)$$

of a topological space $`Y`$ with finite dimensional cohomology $`H^{}(Y,)`$. Similarly, let us denote by $`\chi _c(Y)`$ the Euler characteristic of $`H_c^{}(Y,)`$ for locally compact $`Y`$ (if defined).

###### Remark 0.1.

This result goes already back to an old preprint \[Du\] of Dubson (compare with \[Du, thm.V.1.1,p.69\] (Réduction à la section hyperplane) and \[Du, thm.IV.4.1.2,p.67\] (Lemme de Hopf singulier)), which was not mentioned in \[BLS\].

Consider a Whitney stratification of a germ of a complex space $`(X,0)`$ of positive dimension in $`^N`$ as above, but this time whe don’t assume $`(X,0)`$ is equidimensional. Let us refine the stratification by adding the point stratum $`V_0:=\{0\}`$, and then assume $`0V_i`$ for $`i>0`$. Take a linear form $`l𝕃`$, such that $`dl_0`$ is a nondegenerate covector in the sense of stratified Morse theory (i.e. it does not vanish on any generalized tangent space $`lim_{x_n0}T_{x_n}V_i`$ at $`0`$, with $`x_n`$ a sequence in $`V_i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$). This condition defines a Zariski open dense subset $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of $`𝕃`$. Then

$$V(i,ϵ,t_0):=V_i𝔹_ϵl^1(t_0)$$

is for $`i>0`$ a smooth manifold with boundary for $`0<|t_0|<<ϵ_0<<1`$ (this is also true for any $`l𝕃`$, since one can refine our stratification to an $`a_f`$-stratification). By Poincaré-duality we get

$$\chi (V(i,ϵ,t_0))=(1)^{2(dim_C(V_i)1)}\chi _c(V^{}(i,ϵ,t_0))=\chi _c(V^{}(i,ϵ,t_0)),$$
(1)
with $`V^{}(i,ϵ,t_0):=V_i𝔹_ϵ^{}l^1(t_0)`$, and $`𝔹_ϵ^{}`$ the corresponding open ball.

Consider now a function $`\alpha :X`$, which is constructible with respect to the refined Whitney stratification (i.e. is constant on the strata). Let $`i_0:\{0\}X\{l=0\}`$ and $`i:X\{l=0\}X`$ be the inclusions. Then we have for $`0<|t_0|<<ϵ_0<<1`$:

$$i_0^!\left(\psi _l(\alpha )\right)(0)=\underset{1}{\overset{k}{}}\chi _c(V^{}(i,ϵ,t_0))\alpha _i,$$
(2)
with $`\alpha _i`$ the value of $`\alpha `$ on $`V_i`$, and $`\psi _l`$ the nearby cycle functor with respect to $`l`$ on the level of constructible functions (and similarly for $`i_0^!`$). This can be defined by two different (but equivalent) approaches:

* One can use the sophisticated language of analytically constructible complexes of sheaves:
Choose a bounded complex $``$ of sheaves of $``$-vector spaces on $`X`$, which is constructible with respect to our refined Whitney stratification, such that all stalk complexes $`_x`$ have finite dimensional cohomology with $`\chi \left(H^{}(_x)\right)=\alpha (x)`$ for all $`xX`$. Then

$$i_0^!\left(\psi _l(\alpha )\right)(0):=\chi \left(H^{}(i_0^!\psi _l())\right).$$
(3)
This is well defined by \[Sch, Part II.3, Part VI\], and equation (2) follows from \[Sch, Part V, lem.3.4\].
* By linearity one can assume $`\alpha =1_Z`$, with $`Z`$ a closed union of strata and then one uses a direct geometric definition in terms of a corresponding local Milnor fibration:

$$i_0^!\left(\psi _l(1_Z)\right)(0)=\chi _c(M^{}(l|Z))=\underset{V_iZ}{}\chi _c(V^{}(i,ϵ,t_0)),$$
(4)
with $`M^{}(l|Z):=Z𝔹_ϵ^{}l^1(t_0)`$ (for $`0<|t_0|<<ϵ_0<<1`$) the open local Milnor fiber of $`l|Z`$ at $`0`$.

But by \[Sch, Part VI, ex.2.3\] we have

$$i_0^!\left(\psi _l(\alpha )\right)(0)=i_0^{}\left(\psi _l(\alpha )\right)(0).$$
(5)
In our situation this formula can also be explained more geometrically in the following way: Choose a Whitney stratification adapted to $`\alpha `$ and $`\{l=0\}`$ (e.g. $`\{l=0\}`$ is a union of strata), which is also an $`a_f`$-stratification. Then the corresponding local Milnor fibrations are ”locally constant” along the strata of $`\{l=0\}`$ so that $`\psi _l(\alpha )`$ is constructible with respect to the induced stratification of $`\{l=0\}`$. So by linearity it is again enough to show

$$i_0^!\left(1_Z\right)(0)=i_0^{}\left(1_Z\right)(0)$$
(6)
for $`Z`$ a closed union of strata of $`\{l=0\}`$. But $`i_0^{}\left(1_Z\right)(0)i_0^!\left(1_Z\right)(0)`$ is by the locally conic structure of $`Z`$ just the Euler characteristic of the link $`Z\{|z|=ϵ\}`$ of $`Z`$ in $`0`$ (for $`0<ϵ<<1`$), which vanishes by a classical result of Sullivan (compare \[BV, Su\] and also \[KS, Ex.IX.12, p.409\]).

From the definition of the vanishing cycle functor, we get the equality

$$\alpha (0)=i_0^{}i^{}(\alpha )(0)=i_0^{}\left(\psi _l(\alpha )\right)(0),$$
(7)
if $`\chi \left(H^{}(i_0^{}\varphi _l())\right)=0`$. Or more directly in terms of constructible functions:

$$i_0^{}\left(\varphi _l(\alpha )\right)(0):=i_0^{}\left(\psi _l(\alpha )\right)(0)i_0^{}i^{}(\alpha )(0).$$

But this follows from the index theorem of Dubson, Lê, Ginsburg and Sabbah \[Du2, Lê, Lê2, Gi, Sa\] for the vanishing cycle functor, if the graph of $`dl`$ doesn’t intersect the support $`|CC()|=|CC(\alpha )|`$ of the characteristic cycle of $``$ or $`\alpha `$ in $`T^{}^N`$ over an open neighborhood $`U`$ of $`0`$. More precisely, this index formula implies (\[Sa, thm.4.5,rem.4.6\]):

$$i_0^{}\left(\varphi _l(\alpha )\right)(0)=\chi \left(H^{}(i_0^{}\varphi _l())\right)=\mathrm{}\left(dl(U)CC()\right),$$
(8)
if $`dl(U)|CC()|\{(0,dl_0)\}`$.

###### Remark 0.2.

For another purely real proof of this intersection formula compare with \[Sch2\] (which is also closely related to \[KS, thm.9.5.6\]).

Let $`Eu(cl(V_i),)`$ be the Euler obstruction of the closure of the stratum $`V_i`$ ($`i>0`$). This function is constructible with respect to our refined Whitney stratification (compare \[Sch, part VI\] or \[CEP, exp.6, cor.10.2, p.125\]), with

$$|CC(Eu(cl(V_i),))|=cl\left(T_{V_i}^{}^N\right).$$

But the condition $`(0,dl_0)cl\left(T_{V_i}^{}^N\right)`$ is equivalent to the fact, that $`dl_0`$ does not vanish on any generalized tangent space $`lim_{x_n0}T_{x_n}V_i`$ at $`0`$, with $`x_n`$ a sequence in $`V_i`$ ($`i\{1,\mathrm{},k\}`$).

Altogether we get the following generalization of theorem 0.1 of Brasselet, Lê and Seade:

###### Theorem 0.2.

Let $`(X,0)`$ be a germ of a complex space (of positive dimension) in $`^N`$. Let $`V_i,i=1,\mathrm{},k`$, be the (connected) strata of a Whitney stratification of a small representative $`X`$ of $`(X,0)`$. Refine the stratification by adding the point stratum $`V_0:=\{0\}`$, and then assume $`0V_i`$ for $`i>0`$. Fix a (constructble) function $`\alpha `$, which is a linear combination of $`Eu(cl(V_i),)`$ (for some $`iI\{1,\mathrm{},k\}`$). Consider a complex linearform $`l𝕃`$, with $`dl_0`$ not vanishing on any generalized tangent space $`lim_{x_n0}T_{x_n}V_i`$ at $`0`$, with $`x_n`$ a sequence in $`V_i`$ ($`iI`$). Then there is an $`ϵ_0>0`$ with

$$\alpha (0)=\underset{1}{\overset{k}{}}\chi _c\left(V^{}(i,ϵ,t_0)\right)\alpha _i=\underset{1}{\overset{k}{}}\chi \left(V_i𝔹_ϵl^1(t_0)\right)\alpha _i,$$

for $`0<|t_0|<<ϵ<ϵ_0`$.

###### Remark 0.3.

The same result is true with the same proof, if the stratification satisfies suitable weaker regularity conditions than Whitney b-regularity, e.g. the stratification is (locally) C-regular in the sense of Bekka \[Be\] (compare with \[Sch, Part VI\], even for a more general class of stratifications). Moreover, this formula is more generally true (with the same proof) for any holomorphic function germ $`l:(^N,0)(,0)`$, with $`dl_0`$ as before.


text:
# [CII] at 158 𝜇m as a star formation tracer in late-type galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Galaxies have transformed their primordial gas, mostly atomic hydrogen, into stars at a rate which can be variable with time. During merging with nearby companions, which were probably frequent in the high density environments of the early Universe, most of the gas might have been efficiently transformed into stars on short timescales ($``$ 108 yr), forming elliptical galaxies. In spiral galaxies in the local Universe, the activity of star formation seems to be governed by the gas surface density, possibly modulated by galactic differential rotation (Kennicutt 1998a). The resulting star formation history of these objects should have been thus monotonic, governed by some of the physical properties of the original protogalaxy such as its angular momentum (Sandage 1986) or total mass (Boselli et al. 2001).
In order to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies, it is thus necessary to study the activity of star formation in objects of different types at different epochs. Quantifing the rate of star formation of normal, late-type galaxies in the local Universe is quite straightforward using H$`\alpha `$ and UV data together with stellar population synthesis models (Kennicutt 1998a,b), once a correction for dust attenuation is made. This is not so easy for galaxies at higher redshift. Deep optical observations will provide UV rest-frame photometry, but the H$`\alpha `$ line is shifted outside the optical domain for $`z`$$``$0.5, while remaining in principle accessible in the near-IR up to $`z`$ $``$ 6. However the wide-field spectroscopic facilities suitable for statistical analysis which will be available in the near future, such as VIRMOS on the VLT, will be limited to $`\lambda `$ $``$ 1.8 $`\mu `$m, thus to $`z`$ $``$ 1.7.
Another problem is that a large fraction of galaxies are expected to form stars in violent starbursts at $`z`$ $``$ 1 (Steidel et al. 1999). The starburst regions are characterized by a high extinction, so that UV and Balmer lines cannot be reliably used: other indicators such as the far-IR luminosity should then be used (Kennicutt 1998a, b).
Given the low spatial resolution of available far-IR/submm data ($``$ 1 arcmin for IRAS and ISO at 100 $`\mu `$m, $``$ 15 arcsec for SCUBA), confusion is important at high redshifts. Mid-IR (MIR) surveys such as those performed with ISOCAM provide data with a higher spatial resolution ($``$ 6 arcsec), but the relation between MIR luminosity and star formation is still uncertain (Boselli et al. 1997a; 1998; Roussel et al. 2001).
Some far-IR forbidden lines, in particular the \[CII\] 158 $`\mu `$m one, are potentially better indicators of star formation in distant galaxies (Stacey et al. 1991a). The \[CII\] line is one of the main coolants of the interstellar gas. Heating of the interstellar gas is mainly due to photo–electrons emitted by dust grains and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) submitted to ultraviolet radiation from stars (Bakes & Tielens 1994), both in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) (Wolfire et al. 1995) and in Photodissociation Regions (PDRs), at the interfaces between molecular clouds and HII regions (Tielens & Hollenbach 1985; Bakes & Tielens 1998). The photoelectric effect is due essentially to photons with $`6\mathrm{h}\nu <13.6\mathrm{eV}`$. In the field of a galaxy, this radiation is dominated by B3 to B0 stars with $`5\mathrm{M}20\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ (e.g. Xu et al. 1994) but of course hotter, more massive stars can also contribute locally. However we cannot expect the intensity of the \[CII\] line from a galaxy to be simply proportional to the star formation rate (SFR) and to the intensity of the H$`\alpha `$ line. This is due not only to the variety of \[CII\] line sources with their different physical conditions, which will be discussed further in the appendix, but also to the fact that the excitation of the upper fine-structure level of \[CII\] saturates at high temperatures and at high densities, as discussed e.g. by Kaufman et al. (1999; see their Fig. 2 and 3). Fortunately the \[CII\] line is only affected by extinction in extreme starbursts (Luhman et al. 1998; Helou 2000) or in edge-on galaxies (Heiles 1994), being not very optically thick ($`\tau `$ 1 in the Orion PDR: Stacey et al. 1991b, Boreiko & Betz 1996).
To summarize, the \[CII\] line cannot be a quantitatively accurate indicator of star formation in any galactic or extragalactic environment. However it is very strong, and next generation far-IR and submillimeter facilities such as FIRST-Herschel or ALMA will provide \[CII\] line intensities for large samples of galaxies at different redshifts (Stark 1997). In particular, the high angular resolution of ALMA will overcome the problem of confusion at high redshifts. It is thus useful to examine empirically to which extent the \[CII\] line can be used as a star formation indicator, and to calibrate it in terms of SFR in the local Universe using other tracers.
This is the aim of the present paper, which does not attempt to discuss in detail the physics of the emission in the \[CII\] line. We compare ISO-LWS \[CII\] to H$`\alpha `$ data for a sample of 26 nearby galaxies (Sect. 2). Available complementary data are then used to empirically calibrate a relation between the \[CII\] luminosity and the SFR (Sect. 3). We emphasize that this calibration is limited to relatively quiescent galaxies. Sect. 4 contains a short dicussion and the conclusions. The relations between the far-IR emission of different components of the interstellar matter and their \[CII\] line emission are summarized in the Appendix.

## 2 The sample

An empirical calibration of the \[CII\] line as a star formation tracer can be obtained by comparing H$`\alpha `$ and \[CII\] luminosities measured in the same aperture. For this reason we consider a sample of 18 Virgo galaxies observed with ISO-LWS.

The \[CII\] data are taken from Leech et al. (1999) and Smith & Madden (1997), while H$`\alpha `$+\[NII\] images are available from Boselli & Gavazzi (2002), Gavazzi et al. (2002) and Boselli et al. (2002). To increase the statistics, we add M82, which was imaged in the H$`\alpha `$+\[NII\] line by Boselli & Gavazzi (2002), NGC1569, whose $`\mathrm{H}\alpha `$ data are kindly made available to us by D. Bomans, and 6 objects (VCC 89, VCC 491 and VCC 1516, NGC 7469 and 7714, IC 4662) whose $`\mathrm{H}\alpha `$ data come from aperture photometry but whose optical disc, given their small angular size, has been covered to more than 40 % by the \[CII\] ISO-LWS beam.
The final sample, which comprises the 26 galaxies listed in Table 1, is not complete in any sense.
Far-IR surveys at high redshifts will preferentially detect FIR-luminous galaxies, whose physical properties might significantly differ from those of the normal, late-type nearby galaxies analysed here. In our sample only two objects are luminous in the far-IR, M82 ($`\mathrm{log}L_{FIR}`$ $`=`$ 10.51 L) and NGC 7469 ($`\mathrm{log}L_{FIR}`$ $`=`$ 11.37 L), the latter being an active galaxy which should be considered with caution. We decided to add these two objects to test whether the present results can be extended to far-IR luminosities higher than $`L_{FIR}`$ $``$ 1010.5 L.
The far-IR quiescent galaxies analysed here have 108 $``$ $`L_{FIR}`$ $``$ 1010.5 L. Unless specified, all the results presented in this work are only valid for galaxies in this range of far-IR luminosity.

### 2.1 The data

The available data for the galaxies analyzed here are listed in Table 1, arranged as follow:

* Column 1: VCC denomination for the Virgo cluster galaxies (Binggeli et al. 1985), Messier, NGC or IC name for the other objects.
* Column 2: morphological type, from the VCC for Virgo galaxies, from NED for the other objects.
* Column 3: distance \[Mpc\], from Gavazzi et al. (1999) for Virgo, from the catalogue of Tully (1988) for the other galaxies, or from the redshift assuming $`H_o`$ = 75 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$.
* Column 4: absolute B magnitude, as determined from our own photometry for the Virgo galaxies, from NED for the other objects.
* Column 5: H band luminosity, in solar units, defined as $`\mathrm{log}L_H=11.360.4\times H_T+2\times \mathrm{log}(D)`$, where $`H_T`$ is the total H band magnitude and $`D`$ the distance in Mpc. For the Virgo galaxies, total extrapolated near-IR magnitudes have been determined as described in Gavazzi et al. (2000) using the compilation of Boselli et al. (1997b; 2000) and Gavazzi et al. (1996a). K band magnitudes have been transformed into H magnitudes adopting a constant $`HK^{}`$=0.25 (independent of type; see Gavazzi et al. 2000) when the colour index is not available. For the other galaxies H magnitudes are from 2MASS or from aperture photometry assuming an H band growth curve similar to the B band one.
* Column 6, 7 and 8: (H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[NII\])$`E.W.`$ \[Å\], flux (- log, in $`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$) extracted in the same circular apertures as LWS (i.e. 80 arcsec), and reference; the fluxes and equivalent widths from Kennicutt & Kent (1983) have been increased by 16 % as specified in Kennicutt et al. (1994) (also Kennicutt, private communication); when the equivalent widths are not given, we estimate the underlying continuum from R band photometry using the relation: $`R`$ = 0.0 mag = 1.74 $`\times `$ 10-9 erg cm-2s-1Å-1.
* Column 9, 10 and 11: \[CII\] line flux, (- log, in $`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$), equivalent width (\[$`\mu `$m\]) and reference. Fluxes and equivalent widths are all in the 80 arcsec circular apertures of LWS aboard ISO.
* Column 12: logarithm of the FIR luminosity, in solar units (L = 3.83 $`\times `$ 1026 W), $`L_{FIR}`$ = 4$`\pi `$$`D^2`$$`\times `$1.4$`\times `$$`S_{FIR}`$, where $`S_{FIR}`$ is the far-IR flux in W m-2 between 42.5 and 122.5 $`\mu `$m, $`S_{FIR}`$ = 1.26 $`\times `$ 10-14 $`\times `$ (2.58 $`\times `$ $`f_{60}`$ $`+`$ $`f_{100}`$), where $`f_{60}`$ and $`f_{100}`$ are the IRAS fluxes at 60 and 100 $`\mu `$m respectively \[Jy\] (Helou et al. 1985). Far-IR data have been taken from different compilations for the Virgo galaxies (Thuan & Sauvage 1992; Soifer et al. 1989, Rush et al. 1993, and references therein), and from NED for the other galaxies.
* Column 13: comments on individual objects, from NED: 1= starburst, 2= LINER, 3= AGN.

The H band luminosity is a good tracer of the total dynamical mass of a galaxy (Gavazzi et al. 1996b): the mass to near-IR light ratio was found to be independent of mass for galaxies spanning the whole range in morphological type from Sa to Im and BCD. By normalizing the \[CII\] luminosity to the near-IR luminosity (within the same circular aperture) we remove the well known luminosity-luminosity or luminosity-mass scaling relations in a better way than by using optical luminosities.
However, since the aim of the present work is to establish a star formation tracer directely comparable to those which will be available for high-redshift galaxies from far-IR/submillimeter facilities, we will also use as a normalizer the continuum underlying the \[CII\] line. This leads to the determination of \[CII\] equivalent widths (\[CII\]$`E.W.`$, in $`\mu `$m). An advantage of using the continuum as a normalizer is that it is obtained in the same aperture of the \[CII\] line. A disadvantage is that this continuum is poorly determined, at least in the ISO-LWS observations (see Hunter et al. 2001).

H$`\alpha `$ luminosities can be estimated from H$`\alpha `$+\[NII\] fluxes after correcting for contamination by the \[NII\] lines and for extinction. Given the good correlation observed between the \[NII\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios and $`L_H`$ observed by Gavazzi et al. (in prep.), we use the statistical correction: log (\[NII\]/H$`\alpha `$) = 0.35 $`\times \mathrm{log}L_H3.85`$.
We use the same extinction correction as proposed by Boselli et al. (2001), namely $`A(\mathrm{H}\alpha )`$=1.1 magnitudes for Sa$``$Scd and Pec galaxies, and $`A(\mathrm{H}\alpha )`$=0.6 mag for the other objects, with the exception of M82 for which we take $`A(\mathrm{H}\alpha )`$=3 mag (Gavazzi et al., 2002, in preparation).

## 3 Analysis

In the following we use the formalism of Boselli et al. (2001).
The H$`\alpha `$ luminosity gives a direct measure of the global photoionization rate of the interstellar medium due to high mass ($`m`$ $`>`$ 10 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$), young ($``$ 107 years) O-B stars (Kennicutt 1983; 1998a; Kennicutt et al. 1994). The total SFR can be determined by extrapolating the high-mass SFR to lower mass stars using an initial mass function (IMF) with a given slope $`\alpha `$ and upper and lower mass cutoffs $`M_{up}`$ and $`M_{low}`$ respectively. Assuming that $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$ is proportional to the SFR, then we have:

$$SFR_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1)=K_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\alpha ,M_{up},M_{low})\times L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }$$
(1)
where $`K_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\alpha ,M_{up},M_{low})`$ is a proportionality constant between the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$ (in erg s-1) and the $`SFR_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$ (in M yr-1). The value of $`K_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\alpha ,M_{up},M_{low})`$, as a function of the slope $`\alpha `$ and of the upper and lower mass cutoffs $`M_{up}`$ and $`M_{low}`$ of the IMF, can be determined from stellar population synthesis models.
We plot the relationship between the \[CII\] line flux normalized to the H band (Fig. 1a) or the \[CII\]$`E.W.`$ (Fig. 1b), and the (H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[NII\])$`E.W.`$. Normalized entities are used here to remove the first order dependence on luminosity; H magnitudes used in the normalization and H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[NII\] parameters are determined within apertures comparable to the beam of the \[CII\] observations. H magnitudes ($`Hmag`$) are transformed into fluxes using the relationship: $`I(H)`$ = 1.03 $`\times `$ 106$`\times `$10-Hmag/2.5 (mJy) (the resulting ratio $`I([CII])`$/$`I(H)`$ plotted in Fig. 1 is in units of $`\mu `$m).

Both figures show a strong correlation between the normalized \[CII\] line and the (H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[NII\])$`E.W.`$ The relationship is shared by quiescent galaxies as well as by far-IR luminous objects, and is valid in the range 0 $``$ (H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[NII\])$`E.W.`$ $``$ 200 Å, which encompasses the whole normal, late-type galaxies population in the local Universe. This result confrims the expectations of Pierini et al. (1999).
Figure 1c shows the relationship between the luminosities in the \[CII\] and H$`\alpha `$ lines, the latter being corrected for extinction and \[NII\] contamination as described in Sect. 2.1.

This correlation is dominated by the scaling effect (bigger galaxies have more of everything). The correlation observed for the normalized entities shown in Fig. 1a and b, however, confirm that the excitation of the \[CII\] line is physically associated with the process of star formation, or more directly with the number of ionizing photons. This justifies the use of the \[CII\] line as a tracer of star formation.The best fit to the data for normalized entities are given in Table 2.
Figure 1c can be used to obtain the SFR from the \[CII\] luminosity. The best fit to the data gives:

$$\mathrm{log}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }=8.875(\pm 0.326)+0.788(\pm 0.098)\times \mathrm{log}L_{[CII]}$$
(2)
as determined on the 22 detected objects with a $`R^2`$=0.76.

The dispersion in the relation is high at low luminosities. We also remark that 20 out of the 22 galaxies used to estimate this relation are quiescent in the far-IR, i.e. $`\mathrm{log}L_{FIR}`$ $``$ 10.50 L.
Inserting $`K_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\alpha ,M_{up},M_{low})`$ for different IMFs in eq. (1), \[CII\] luminosities can be used to derive SFRs in M yr-1 using eq. (2). For a Salpeter IMF ($`\alpha `$=2.35) in the mass range between 0.1 and 100 M, the population synthesis models of Kennicutt (1998b) give $`K_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\alpha ,M_{up},M_{low})`$ = 1/1.26 1041 (M yr-1/erg s-1), thus:

$$SFR=\mathrm{5.952\; 10}^{33}\times 10^{0.788\times \mathrm{log}L_{[CII]}}\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1$$
(3)
from eq.(2), where $`L_{[\mathrm{CII}]}`$ is in erg s-1. Values of $`K_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\alpha ,M_{up},M_{low})`$ for different IMFs can be found in Boselli et al. (2001).
In order to characterize the properties of the selected sample, thus to understand how universal this calibration is, we study the relation between the \[CII\] line emission and two parameters representative of the general properties of the target galaxies, the H band luminosity (as a tracer of the total mass) and the morphological type (Fig. 2).

Figure 2 shows that massive, early type spirals have in general a lower normalized \[CII\] emission than late-type, low mass ones, in agreement with Leech et al. (1999). This behaviour is identical to that observed for the star formation rate in the nearby Universe, as discussed in Boselli et al. (2001): massive galaxies form less stars per unit mass than low-mass objects.
We do not observe any particular relationship between two pure far-IR indices which will be easily observable in deep, far-IR surveys of the Universe, the \[CII\] $`E.W.`$ and the FIR luminosity, apart for a weak trend suggesting that far-IR luminous galaxies might have a somewhat higher \[CII\]$`E.W.`$. We remind that the proposed calibration in SFR of the \[CII\] line luminosity is valid for galaxies spanning the range in far-IR luminosity 8.0 $``$ $`\mathrm{log}L_{FIR}`$ $``$ 10.50 L and 0.2 $``$ \[CII\]$`E.W.`$ $``$ 3.0 $`\mu `$m. It is thus difficult to predict whether the present calibration can be applied to galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}L_{FIR}`$ $``$ 10.50 L.

## 4 Discussion and conclusion

The analysis carried out in the previous section has shown that the \[CII\] line luminosity can be taken as a star formation indicator in normal, late-type galaxies. It is however clear that this result cannot be extended to far-IR ultraluminous galaxies (ULIRG), where the ratio of the \[CII\] line over the continuum is a factor of $``$ 10 lower than in normal late-type galaxies (Luhman et al. 1998).
The dispersion in the $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$ vs. $`L_{[\mathrm{CII}]}`$ relation is a factor of $``$ 3 (1 $`\sigma `$). The uncertainty on the determination of the SFR of galaxies using relations 3 is however larger. As shown in Charlot & Longhetti (2001), the uncertainty on the determination of SFR from H$`\alpha `$ data using stellar population synthesis models is already a factor of $``$ 3 when the data are properly corrected for dust extinction and \[NII\] contamination. If we take into account all the possible sources of error in the present determination of the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity, and the uncertainty that can be introduced by the large dispersion observed in Fig. 1c, we can imagine that the resulting uncertainty in the determination of the SFR from \[CII\] line measurement is as high as a factor of $``$ 10 statistically.
While the calibration of the H$`\alpha `$ line luminosity in terms of SFR is limited by the accuracy of photoionisation and stellar population synthesis codes, and by the assumption that the initial mass function (IMF) is universal, the uncertainty introduced by the empirical calibration between $`L_{[\mathrm{CII}]}`$ and $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$ should be significantly reduced once larger samples of galaxies with \[CII\] line data and H$`\alpha `$ imaging are available. Part of this uncertainty may be due to the different mix of the contributions from different sources of the \[CII\] line emission within an individual galaxy and among galaxies of different Hubble types. We discuss this aspect in the Appendix.

###### Acknowledgements.

We want to thank T. Onaka for providing us with unpublished LWS continuum data for all galaxies listed in Negishi et al. (2001), and D. Bomans for providing us with H$`\alpha `$ data of NGC 1569. A.B. thanks S. Madden and A. Contursi for interesting discussions. We also thanks the referee, Gordon Stacey, for his insight and suggestions. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Appendix

In this Appendix we give a summary of our empirical knowledge of the relations between the \[CII\] line emission and the dust emission in the far-IR in various parts of the interstellar medium, and we discuss how the corresponding ratios compare with what is observed globally in galaxies. This subject is a rather complex one and the results are liable to changes when the data from ISO will be more fully analyzed. Thus this discussion is only provisional.

There are several possible sources for the interstellar far-IR forbidden lines, as discussed e.g. by Malhotra et al. (2001). Let us consider in particular the principal cooling lines of the neutral gas, \[OI\] 63$`\mu `$m and \[CII\] 158$`\mu `$m. While the \[OI\] line is nearly entirely emitted by dense photodissociation regions (PDRs), the \[CII\] line is emitted not only by these regions, but also by the diffuse neutral gas and by the ionized gas. The far-IR continuum emission at wavelengths larger than about 100 $`\mu `$m is due to big dust grains in thermal equilibrium, while at shorter wavelengths there is a contribution from smaller grains heated out of equilibrium by absorption of individual photons.

Let us now discuss briefly our knowledge of the \[CII\]/FIR ratios and, when available, of the \[CII\]$`E.W.`$, for different components of the interstellar medium. The results are summarized in Table 3.

A.1: Diffuse interstellar medium

Here the published observations concern essentially the local diffuse medium in the Solar neighbourhood, as observed at high galactic latitudes in particular by COBE. From the correlation of the \[CII\] line intensity $`I([CII])`$ with the column density of HI, Bennett et al. (1994) find a \[CII\] emission per H atom of the diffuse interstellar medium:

$$I_{\mathrm{HI}}([CII])/4\pi =(2.65\pm 0.15)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{26}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{H}\mathrm{atom}^1.$$
(4)
Together with a column density of HI of 3.3 1020 csc $`|b|`$ atom cm-2 (Lockman et al. 1986), this yields the following cosecant law for the intensity of the \[CII\] line emitted by the neutral diffuse medium:

$$I_{\mathrm{HI}}([CII])=(6.96\pm 0.39)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^7\mathrm{csc}|b|\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{sr}^1.$$
(5)
From measurements of the H$`\alpha `$ brightness at high galactic latitudes, Reynolds (1992) predicts an emission by the diffuse warm ionized medium (WIM) of:

$$I_{\mathrm{WIM}}([CII])=\mathrm{3.6\hspace{0.17em}10}^7\mathrm{csc}|b|\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{sr}^1,$$
(6)
in agreement with the upper limit $`I_{\mathrm{WIM}}([CII])<\mathrm{6\hspace{0.17em}10}^7`$ erg cm-2 s-1 sr-1 given by Bennett et al. (1994) at the galactic poles. Reynolds (1992) also predicts for the intensity $`I([NII]_{205})`$ of the \[NII\] 205$`\mu `$m line from the WIM:

$$I_{\mathrm{WIM}}([NII]_{205})=\mathrm{2.4\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{csc}|b|\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{sr}^1,$$
(7)
and a ratio between the intensities $`I([NII]_{205})`$ and $`I([NII]_{122})`$ of the \[NII\] 205$`\mu `$m and 122$`\mu `$m lines, respectively:

$$\frac{I_{\mathrm{WIM}}([NII]_{205})}{I_{\mathrm{WIM}}([NII]_{122})}=1.4,$$
(8)
at the low-density limit. Bennett et al. (1994) observe $`I([NII]_{205})=(4\pm 1)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^8\mathrm{csc}|b|\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{sr}^1`$ and $`I([NII]_{205})/I([NII]_{122})0.7`$. The comparison with the predicted numbers, given the uncertainties on the gaseous abundances of N and C and on the observed intensities, leaves little doubt on the fact that the \[NII\] lines at high galactic latitudes come from the WIM, and that the predicted value of $`I_{\mathrm{WIM}}([CII])`$ is correct. The sum of $`I_{\mathrm{HI}}([CII])`$ and $`I_{\mathrm{WIM}}([CII])`$ is however smaller than the total observed intensity of the \[CII\] line, $`I([CII])=(1.43\pm 0.12)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^6\mathrm{csc}|b|\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{sr}^1`$, but the difference might not be significant given the uncertainties. To summarize, 2/3 of the \[CII\] line emission from the local diffuse medium comes from the neutral medium, and 1/3 comes from the warm ionized medium. Lagache et al. (2000) show that the FIR/submillimeter emissivity of dust associated with the two media is approximately the same, respectively $`\tau /N(\mathrm{HI})=\mathrm{8.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^{26}(\lambda /250\mu \mathrm{m})^2`$ and $`\tau /N(\mathrm{H}^+)=\mathrm{1.1\hspace{0.17em}10}^{25}(\lambda /250\mu \mathrm{m})^2`$, with similar temperatures $`T`$ = 17.2 K. The corresponding continuum brightness of the local diffuse medium at 158 $`\mu `$m is 4.94 csc$`|b|`$ MJy sr-1, or 5.95 10-7 csc$`|b|`$ erg cm-2 s-1 $`\mu `$m-1 sr-1. This allows one to calculate the equivalent width of the \[CII\] line from the local diffuse medium, as 1.8 $`\mu `$m if we use for the \[CII\] line intensity the observed contribution of the HI medium plus the estimated contribution of the WIM, or 2.4 $`\mu `$m if we use the line intensity observed directly by Bennett et al. (1994). The ratio of the \[CII\] line intensity to the far-IR intensity (defined as $`I`$(FIR) = 1.26 10-14\[2.58 $`I`$(60$`\mu `$m)/(1 Jy/sr) + $`I`$(100$`\mu `$m)/(1 Jy/sr)\] W m-2 sr-1) is comprised between 0.034 and 0.045; we used for this determination the spectral energy distribution of the cirrus emission given by Fig. 3 of Boulanger et al. (2000).

We can simply estimate the variations of the \[CII\] line E.W. and of $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) with the the UV radiation field $`G_0`$ using the following simplifying assumptions: $`I`$(\[CII\]) is proportional to $`G_0`$ (in units of the Habing field, 1.6 $`\times `$ 10-3 erg cm-2s-1, $`G_01`$ near the Sun); the temperature of the big dust grains is $`T_d=G_0^{1/6}\times 17.2`$ K, and their emissivity is proportional to $`\lambda ^2`$ (see above); the emission of the small dust grains giving an excess radiation at 60 $`\mu `$m is proportional to $`G_0`$, calibrated near the Sun using the cirrus spectral energy distribution of Fig. 3 of Boulanger et al. (2000). We find that $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) decreases with increasing $`G_0`$ in the range $`1<G_0<100`$ (by a factor 2 at $`G_0`$ = 10 and a factor 3 at $`G_0`$ = 100), while \[CII\]$`E.W.`$ increases by factors 1.8 and 5.4 respectively when $`G_0`$ increases from 1 to 10 and to 100. The reason why the line to continuum ratio gets smaller with increasing $`G_0`$, while the the equivalent width gets larger, is that the dust is getting warmer, shifting the far-IR continum to shorter wavelengths. More exact calculations can be made using the models of Li & Draine (2001) or of Dale et al. (2001), but the results are not expected to be substantially different.
No good observational information exists on the \[CII\]/FIR ratio in the diffuse medium of low-metallicity galaxies. However a comparison of the \[CII\] map of the Large Magellanic Cloud of Mochizuki et al. (1994) with the far-IR maps of Schwering (1989) suggests $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) $``$ 0.010 $`\pm `$ 0.005 for the LMC.

A.2: Weak PDRs

Habart et al. (2001) give results from measurements with ISO on the PDR associated with the molecular cloud L 1721, illuminated by a B2 star, with $`G_0`$ = 5 - 10. The $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) ratio is of the order of 0.012 and the equivalent width of the \[CII\] line is about 6 $`\mu `$m. This is not very different from what we just predicted above for $`G_0`$ = 10 (respectively 0.02 and 4 $`\mu `$m). This small discrepancy may be understood if the density is lower than the critical density for the \[CII\] line.

The southern molecular cloud N 159S in the LMC is probably exposed to a similar far-IR intensity. Israel et al. (1996) give $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) $``$ 0.025 for this cloud, somewhat higher than for L 1721. This is the highest value they quote for the LMC.

For the Orion giant molecular cloud at a one-degree scale, as described in Stacey et al. (1993) (their one-degree scan), the $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) ratio is of the order of 0.003, with $`G_0`$ 25 (see their Sect. 4.2.3). This might be considered as typical for giant molecular clouds from which OB stars have recently formed.

A.3: Strong PDRs

Individual galactic strong and dense PDRs have values of $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) of the order of 5 10-4 (Stacey et al. 1991b). These very low values are a consequence of the saturation of the upper level of the 158 $`\mu `$m transition at high densities and radiation fields. An example is the 4′$`\times `$ 4′ “interface” region near the Orion nebula, as defined and discussed by Stacey et al. (1993). Strong PDRs in the Magellanic Clouds have considerably higher values of $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR), of the order of 0.015 (Israel et al. 1996). As discussed by these authors, this exceptionally high value is associated with the low abundances of heavy elements in these galaxies. The effect of the low metal abundances is both direct (less far-IR emission from dust) and indirect (deeper penetration of UV light inside the PDRs) (see also Pak et al. 1998). However, due to the relatively poor linear resolution of the relevant observations, some contribution for an associated giant molecular cloud heated by a relatively weak UV radiation field might be included in the observing beam, raising the $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) ratio as discussed previously for the Orion region.

A.4: Quiescent molecular clouds

In a quiescent (i.e. with no or little star formation activity) molecular cloud, the \[CII\] line emission originates at the cloud surface while the far-IR emission comes also from the cloud interior. In our Galaxy, supposedly quiescent clouds are observed by Stacey et al. (1991b) to have $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) $``$ 1.1 10-3. They are not ordinary molecular clouds, however, but they are expected to be bounded by relatively strong PDRs because they are in fact immersed in a rather strong UV radiation field. Their higher $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) ratio compared to that of strong PDRs simply suggests that the upper level of the CII transition is less saturated, probably due to a combination of lower density and UV field. We have no information on the really quiescent molecular clouds, but it is clear that in some circumstances molecular clouds heated mainly by the visible and near-IR emission of relatively old stars can emit in the far-IR without any emission in the \[CII\] line. This may be the case for molecular clouds in the bulge of M 31 (there is no direct evidence for the star formation suggested by Schmidtobreick et al. (2000) to be present inside some molecular clouds in this bulge). Similarly, regions of large molecular complexes heated by the far-IR radiation of the surrounding star-forming clouds (Falgarone & Puget 1985) are expected to emit in the far-IR but not in the \[CII\] line.

A.5: HII regions

Some fractions of the \[CII\] and far-IR global emissions may originate from within HII regions. However, these contributions are negligible with respect to those from other components of the ISM, on a galaxy scale. This conclusion is suggested by the comparison of the observed intensities of the \[OIII\], \[NII\], \[CII\] and \[OI\] lines with those predicted by photoionization models appropriate for HII regions, such as those of Stasińska (1990). It is then easy to see that the contribution of HII regions to the \[CII\], \[NII\] and \[OI\] lines is negligible at the scale of a galaxy. Similarly, the contribution of the dust inside the HII regions to the overall far-IR flux is negligible.

A.6: Comparison with galaxies

On average, the values of $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) and \[CII\]$`E.W.`$ observed for our galaxies are of the order of 3 10-3 and of 0.7 $`\mu `$m respectively, but the dispersion is large. These values are smaller than the corresponding values for the diffuse gas alone. For the irregular galaxies of Hunter et al. (2001), $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) = 2 - 6 10-3. For the LMC as a whole, $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) = 0.01 (Israel et al. 1996). No conclusion can be reached on the respective contributions of the different interstellar components for the \[CII\] emission of the LMC, because the $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) ratios are similar within the (large) errors for PDRs and for the diffuse matter (but see the discussion above on the strong PDRs in the Magellanic clouds). For spiral galaxies, it is clear that the contributions of the PDRs to the emission of the \[CII\] line should be added to those of the diffuse neutral and ionized media. However we have seen that in these galaxies the strong PDRs exhibit values of $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) of about 5 10-4. As a consequence, strong PDRs cannot be the only contributors to the \[CII\] and far-IR emissions in normal spiral galaxies: weak PDRs with $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) of 0.003 to 0.015, and the diffuse medium with $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) $`0.04`$, must also contribute to explain the average ratio of 0.003. It is however possible to account for the properties of galaxies by a simple one-component analysis using single values of the density and UV radiation field, as those of Hunter et al. (2001), Malhotra et al. (2001) and Negishi et al. (2001). In such a model, about 30,000 giant molecular clouds similar to the 1-degree Orion cloud of Stacey et al. (1993), each one with a \[CII\] line luminosity of 1.5 10-3 L, would explain the both the luminosity of the \[CII\] line and the $`I`$(\[CII\])/$`I`$(FIR) ratio of our Galaxy. Such simple models might well be justified for active star-forming galaxies, in which dense PDRs dominate by far the emission of the \[CII\] line. In more normal galaxies, however, all the components we have described are likely to contribute to some extent and these simple models have to be considered with caution. In some galaxies, the contribution of low-density neutral gas to the \[CII\] line can reach as much as 50% of the total, as shown by Pierini et al. (2001). Unfortunately, it does not yet seem possible to disantangle the contributions of the various intestellar components to the emission of the \[CII\] line and of the FIR continuum.

A multi-component analysis is probably not feasible at present due to the lack of analyzed data, but it might become possible in the near future considering not only the emission in the fine-structure lines and the dust infrared continuum, but also the emission in the CO lines. This does not prevent the use of the \[CII\] line as an indicator of star formation, but shows that for the moment this indicator can only be calibrated empirically as we are doing here.