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# Ultra Compact Objects in the Fornax Cluster of Galaxies: Globular clusters or dwarf galaxies?

## 1 Introduction

### 1.1 Magnitude - surface brightness relation of early type dwarf galaxies

The faint end of the galaxy luminosity function is mainly populated by dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) and dwarf spheroidals (dSphs, the faintest dEs in the Local Group). These galaxies are the most numerous type of galaxies in the nearby universe, having absolute magnitudes fainter than $`M_V`$ $``$ $``$17 mag. They follow a tight magnitude-surface brightness relation in the sense that central surface brightness increases with increasing luminosity (Ferguson & Sandage FergSan88 (1988), FergSan89 (1989)). The validity of this relation has been a subject of lively debate over the last decade. A number of authors have argued against the existence of a magnitude-surface brightness relation for dEs (Davies et al. Davies88 (1988), Phillipps et al. Philli88 (1988), Irwin et al. Irwin90 (1990)) and questioned the cluster membership assignement to dEs based on morphology.
Recently, spectroscopic membership confirmation has shed light into this matter. Drinkwater et al. (2001a ) do confirm the brightness - surface brightness relation for Fornax dwarfs based on the data of their Fornax Cluster Spectroscopic Survey (FCSS). They obtain spectra for all objects in the central 2 degrees of the Fornax cluster down to a limiting magnitude of $`M_V12.5`$ mag and find that the magnitude surface brightness relation for dEs is well defined. Under this scheme, galaxies whose total luminosity and/or surface brightness lie significantly outside this relation are hard to classify. Two of the few examples for such peculiar objects that have been known for a long time are the high surface brightness compact dwarf elliptical (cdE) M32 and the very extended low surface brightness spiral Malin 1 (Bothun et al. Bothun87 (1987), Impey et al. Impey88 (1988), Bothun et al. Bothun91 (1991)).

### 1.2 New Ultra Compact Objects

Most recently, in the course of the FCSS, Drinkwater et al. (2000a ) detected five ultra compact objects (UCOs, UCDs in their papers) within 30 projected distance from the Fornax cluster’s central galaxy, NGC 1399111Two of them had already been detected by Hilker et al. (Hilker99 (1999)). Although as bright as average size dEs, they are by far more compact. Four of the five UCOs have absolute magnitudes of about $`M_V=12`$ mag, one is significantly brighter with $`M_V=13.3`$ mag. On HST-STIS images, the four fainter UCOs have King profile effective radii between 10 and 17 pc, while the brightest one has about 50 pc (Drinkwater et al. 2001b ). In Table 1, the properties of the UCOs are summarized. All of them are significantly brighter than the brightest galactic globular cluster ($`\omega `$ Centauri has $`M_V=10.2`$ mag) but significantly fainter than M 32 ($`M_V=16`$ mag). Neither Hilker et al. (Hilker99 (1999)), Drinkwater et al. (2000a , 2001b ) nor Phillipps et al. (Philli01 (2001)) could draw definite conclusions about the nature of the UCOs.

One possibility is that UCOs are bright globular clusters. NGC 1399 has a very rich globular cluster system with about 6000 GCs within 10 (about 40 kpc at Fornax distance) from its center (Kohle et al. Kohle96 (1996), Forbes et al. Forbes98 (1998)) which may contain GCs as bright as the UCOs. Another possibility is that UCOs are the nuclei of stripped dwarf galaxies. Threshing dE,Ns in the cluster potential has been shown to work (Bekki et al. Bekki01 (2001)). Lotz et al. (Lotz01 (2001)) find that the luminosity function of 27 Fornax and Virgo dwarf nuclei peaks at $`V=21.7`$ mag ($`M_V=9.6`$ mag) with a dispersion of $`\sigma =1.2`$ mag, whereas the Globular Cluster Luminosity Function (GCLF) peaks at about $`M_V=7.4`$ mag. So, nuclei are on average more than 2 mag brighter than GCs and might mix up with the bright tail of the GCLF. Or do the UCOs represent a new group of ultra compact dwarf galaxies, extreme cases of M 32? No discriminating statement could be made until now.
It would be very interesting to know whether the UCOs had an origin different from the population of globular clusters of NGC 1399.
The UCOs have magnitudes roughly equal to the completeness magnitude limit of the FCSS ($`V=19`$ mag or $`M_V=11.7`$ mag). This is about 4.5 magnitudes brighter than the turnover of the globular cluster luminosity function (Kohle et al. Kohle96 (1996)). In Fig. 1, the three relevant luminosity functions are shown in one plot: the LF of all observed sources in Drinkwater et al.’s FCSS (to indicate its completeness limit); the LF of the UCOs; and the bright end of NGC 1399’s GCLF, respresented by a Gaussian with $`V_{\mathrm{to}}=23.9`$ mag and $`\sigma =1.2`$ mag, as taken from Kohle et al.’s GCLF. A total number of 8100 GCs was adopted, which is the number contained within 20 from NGC 1399 (see Sect. 5.1.1).

### 1.3 Aim of this paper

As one can see in Fig. 1, the magnitude range between the UCOs and the bright globular clusters must be probed more thoroughly, both to know whether UCOs extend to fainter magnitudes and to determine the bright end of the GCLF. A gap in magnitude space between both populations would imply that the UCOs are very compact dEs or nuclei of stripped dwarfs rather than globular clusters.
In this paper, we describe and analyse a survey of compact objects in the central region of the Fornax cluster of galaxies that closes the magnitude gap between the FCSS and the globular cluster regime.
In Sect. 2 we describe the selection of candidates for the survey. In Sect. 3 the observations and data reduction are described. Sect. 4 shows the radial velocity measurement. In Sect. 5 the results are analyzed, the question whether or not the UCOs are a distinct population is discussed and metallicities of a number of Fornax dE,Ns are measured. These results are discussed in Sect. 6. Finally, in Sect. 7 a summary and conclusions are presented.

## 2 Selection of candidates

To choose candidates for our spectroscopic survey, we analyzed existing wide field images of the Fornax cluster. Those had been obtained over four nights in December of 1999 with the 2.5m Du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. Their field of view was 25 $`\times `$ 25; 14 fields were observed. These fields map a circular region of 2 degrees diameter around the central giant elliptical galaxy, NGC 1399. The seeing ranged from 1.5′′ to 2′′, which corresponds to a spatial resolution of $``$ 120 - 160 pc at the distance of the Fornax cluster, assumed to be 18 Mpc (Kohle et al. 1996). The pixel scale was 0.774′′/pixel. Images in $`V`$ and $`I`$ bandpasses were obtained for all fields. One of the central fields was also observed in $`B`$. Details of the photometry and of the calibrations will be presented in an accompanying paper (Hilker et al. Hilker02 (2002), in prep). All object magnitudes mentioned in this work are taken from that paper.

### 2.1 Unresolved objects

In turn, we describe the compact objects selection criteria for spectroscopy. These criteria are based on object brightness, colour and morphology.
The faint magnitude limit was set by analyzing the GCLF of NGC 1399, as determined by Kohle et al. (Kohle96 (1996)). They adopt a Gaussian distribution for the GCLF and estimate a turn over magnitude of $`V_{\mathrm{to}}`$=23.9 mag ($`M_V=7.4`$ mag) and a dispersion of $`\sigma `$=1.2 mag. Since one of our goals was to include bright globular clusters (GCs), we defined $`V_{\mathrm{faint}}`$=21 mag as the faint magnitude limit for our observations, which is 2.4 $`\sigma `$ brighter than the turn over. This means that about 0.8% of all globular clusters around NGC 1399 would be accessible to our survey. Adopting 6000 as the total number (Kohle et al. Kohle96 (1996)), then about 50 GCs would enter in our survey. The bright magnitude limit is given by the FCSS, which covers basically all objects down to $`V`$ $``$ 19 mag.
Apart from pure brightness limits, other restrictions had to be made. Four of the five UCOs are unresolved on our CCD images due to their small diameter of about 0.2′′ or 15 pc at Fornax distance (Drinkwater et al. 2001b ). We did therefore not expect compact Fornax members in the magnitude regime fainter than the UCOs to be resolved on our images. Thus, unresolved sources were interesting in the first place. A source on our images was defined as unresolved, when SExtractors star-classifier value (0 for a “perfect” galaxy, 1 for a “perfect” star, see Bertin & Arnouts Bertin96 (1996)) was larger than 0.45 in both $`V`$ and $`I`$. It was defined as resolved when this was not the case.
Of the unresolved objects in the mentioned magnitude regime, only those which had $`(VI)<1.5`$ mag were accepted as candidates. The value 1.5 comes from the following consideration: we wanted to include all possible kinds of galactic nuclei or bright globular cluster type objects, but exclude background galaxies at high redshift or very red giants in the foreground. According to Worthey’s (Worthe94 (1994)) stellar population models, for a very old population of 15 Gyrs with $`[\frac{Fe}{H}]=0`$ one gets $`(VI)`$=1.33 mag. Taking into account model uncertainties, photometric errors - which were smaller than 0.05 mag - and reddening by dust (Schlegel et al. (Schleg98 (1998)) found E(B-V) = 0.013 towards Fornax), $`(VI)`$=1.5 mag was chosen as the red colour limit. To avoid missing very young star forming nuclei, no blue limit was applied.
Fig. 2 shows a colour magnitude diagram for one of the selected fields, with the selected candidates for the survey and the objects marked.
The only UCO included in our survey is UCO 2. The other ones lie outside the fields we covered (see Sect. 5).

### 2.2 Resolved objects

The only UCO resolved on our images (UCO 3) is about 1 mag brighter than the magnitude completeness limit of the FCSS. Yet, it cannot be ruled out a priori that there are compact, but resolved Fornax members fainter than the completeness limit of the FCSS. Therefore we selected in addition to the unresolved objects the smallest resolved sources in the same magnitude colour range like the unresolved objects. They were given lower priorities in the mask creation process than the unresolved ones.
Apart from compact objects, we included the dE,Ns cataloged in Fergusons’s Fornax Cluster Catalog (FCC) (Ferguson Fergus89 (1989)) that were bright enough and in the field we wanted to observe. This made it possible to compare the spectral properties of these nucleus-dominated spectra with those of the UCOs.

## 3 Observations and data reduction

The observations were performed in the three nights of 2000/12/30 to 2001/01/01 at the 2.5m Du Pont at Las Campanas. The instrument was the Wide Field CCD (WFCCD) camera, which reimages a 25 field onto a Tek$`\mathrm{\#}`$5-Detector of 2048x2048 pixel with a pixel scale of 0.774′′/ pixel. Multi-slit masks and the H & K grism, which has a good transmission between 3500 and 6300 Å and a resolution of about 1.3 Å per pixel, were used. As the slit width in our observation was $``$ 1.5′′ (= 2 pixel), the effective resolution was in the order of 2.5 - 3 Å, corresponding to 200 km/s at 4000 Å. Four fields were observed, with integration times of roughly 3 hrs each. In total we obtained spectra of 160 objects (40 per field), of which about 100 were unresolved on our images.
All the data reduction was performed with the IRAF-packages IMRED and TWODSPEC. After bias subtraction, the cosmic rays were removed. The combined dome-flats were normalized to unity and the sky-flats were divided by the normalized dome-flats. The remaining illumination change along the slit was measured on these sky-flats. The single object exposures were then flat-field divided and corrected for the remaining illumination change. The object exposures were corrected for the tilting caused by the optics of the WFCCD camera and then combined. After these reduction steps, the spectra were extracted.

## 4 Radial velocity measurement

Radial velocities were determined by performing Fourier cross correlation between object and template spectra with the IRAF-task FXCOR.

### 4.1 Templates

As templates for the radial velocity measurement we used two of our standard star spectra (HD 54810 and HD 22879) and one synthetic spectrum taken from Quintana et al. (Quinta96 (1996)). These three templates showed the highest correlation peaks when cross correlating them with the four brightest Fornax dE,Ns included in our survey. When measuring the radial velocities with these templates, we accept the result as correct if the confidence level $`R`$ (the $`r`$-ratio of Tonry & Davis Tonry79 (1979), defined as the relative height of the cross-correlation peak with respect to the neighbouring peaks) of the cross correlation peak between the template and the object spectrum is larger than 3.5 for all three templates. This corresponds to a S/N of about 4 between 4500 and 5000 Å.

### 4.2 Results

In total we obtained 164 spectra in four fields. For 40 of those, the S/N was too low to reliably determine radial velocities. We successfully determined radial velocities for 66 foreground stars, 18 Fornax members and 40 background galaxies. Besides five dE,N candidates and UCO 2, 12 unresolved objects turned out to have a radial velocity between 600 and 2500 km/s, so they are probable Fornax members. We regard the unresolved objects as GC candidates (GCCs) from now on, since they are fainter than the UCOs. They are all within 20 projected distance from NGC 1399. Eight of them have not been measured spectroscopically before, they are newly discovered members of the Fornax cluster. Two of the remaining four objects were known to be cluster members from Hilker (NTT 1998, private communication); the other two from Kissler-Patig et al. (Kissle99 (1999)). The five dE,Ns and UCO 2 can be confirmed as cluster members. The parameters of all Fornax members included in our survey are given in Table 2. The names of the dE,Ns are from the Fornax Cluster Catalogue (FCC) of Ferguson (Fergus89 (1989)). The names of our GC candidates are “FCOS Field Number$``$Object number”. “FCOS” stands for “Fornax Compact Object Survey”. The field number is: 1 for the south-east field, 2 for the south-west field and 4 for the north-west field, as shown in Fig. 3c). The object number is taken from the mask-creation file. The radial velocities, their errors and the confidence level $`R`$ were computed by averaging the values given from FXCOR for each of the three templates. A list of all foreground and background sources is given in the Appendix. They are available electronically at http://www.XXX. As the highest object number is 105 (FCOS 2-105, a foreground star), one leading zero is used for originally two-digit numbers and two leading zeroes for originally one-digit numbers, such that all object numbers consist of three digits.

For three of the 12 GC candidates, namely FCOS 1-064, 2-095 and 2-073, the membership assignment is not definite. For objects 1-064 and 2-095, the confidence level $`R`$ is lower than 3.5 for one of the templates, but larger for the other two. Cross correlation with all three templates yields the same (Fornax-) velocity within the error range. 2-073 has two cross correlation peaks at 1300 km/s and 280 km/s, both with $`R`$ larger than 3.5 for all templates. The peak at 1300 km/s is 20% more pronounced than the peak at 280 km/s. Object 2-095 is one of the four objects that were known as Fornax members from before (Kissler-Patig et al. Kissle99 (1999)). This indicates that our limits for $`R`$ may be too strict. We therefore include all 12 GC candidates in our analysis.

## 5 Analysis

In this section a detailed analysis of the objects discovered is presented. From the total number of GCs associated with NGC 1399 (Dirsch et al. Dirsch01 (2001), Forbes et al. Forbes98 (1998), Kohle et al. Kohle96 (1996)), the form of its GCLF (Kohle et al. Kohle96 (1996)) and the completeness of our survey we will calculate how many GCs should be included in our survey and compare that with the number we found. This will enable us to restrict the form of NGC 1399’s GCLF at the bright end. We also determine whether there is a statistically signifcant gap in magnitude between the UCOs and our GC candidates. Lick line-indices are calculated for UCO 2 (see Table 2) and the dE,Ns included in our survey.
In Fig. 3a–d a colour magnitude diagram, a map of the loci of all successfully observed point sources, a colour velocity and a magnitude velocity diagram are shown. Note that in field 6, which is more than 1 degree away from the central galaxy NGC 1399, no GC candidates were found. In Fig. 4 the luminosity function for all our detections and for the GC candidates is given, including the 3 UCOs within 20 from NGC 1399. The 2 UCOs outside 20 that were included in Fig. 1 have been omitted in Fig. 4, because our area coverage outside 20 is basically zero.
The mean radial velocity of the GC candidates is 1300 $`\pm `$ 109 km/s with a standard deviation of $`\sigma `$=377 km/s. Richtler et al. (2001, private communication), who obtained spectroscopy of about 350 GCs around NGC 1399, get 1447 $`\pm `$ 16 km/s as the mean radial velocity. This is more than 1 $`\sigma `$ away from our result. However, we can rule out a systematic shift in our velocity values with respect to the measurements of other authors (see Table 2). For the ten objects with known radial velocities, the median of the difference between literature value and our value is -20 km/s $`\pm `$ 35 km/s. With smaller samples biased to brighter GCs also other authors get smaller mean values: Minniti et al. (Minnit98 (1998)) found for a sample of 18 GCs around NGC 1399 a mean of 1353 $`\pm `$ 79 km/s with $`\sigma `$=338 km/s. Kissler-Patig et al. (Kissle99 (1999)) suggest with a larger sample of 74 GCs, that the velocity distribution of GCs around 1399 may even be bimodal with two peaks at 1200 and 1900 km/s, respectively.
The colour magnitude diagram in Fig. 3a shows that the GC candidates have colours typical for GCs. Having a mean colour of $`(VI)=1.11`$ with a standard deviation of 0.11, they are only slightly redder than the average $`(VI)1`$ for GCs around NGC 1399.
Comparing the luminosity function of all unresolved objects in our survey with the GC candidates (see Fig. 4) shows that the latter ones are concentrated towards the faint end of our magnitude regime. Only one of the 12 GC candidates is brighter than $`V=20`$ mag, although we cover the whole magnitude range between $`19<V<21`$ mag ($`10.3<M_V<12.3`$ mag). This drop in frequency towards brighter magnitudes should be expected if all of the candidates are GCs. We are probing the regime 3 - 5 magnitudes brighter than the GCLF turnover magnitude ($`V_{\mathrm{to}}7.4`$ mag) in which GC number counts should decrease towards brighter magnitudes. This is of course only a qualitative statement. To draw more quantitative conclusions, two questions need to be answered: can the number of our GC candidates be explained only by bright GCs belonging to NGC 1399’s GCS? and, is there a significant magnitude gap between both populations? The next two subsections deal with these questions.

### 5.1 The expected number of globular clusters

How does the number of our GC candidates compare with the number expected from Kohle et al.’s (Kohle96 (1996)) GCLF? To find that out, three steps are necessary: First, the total number of GCs associated with NGC 1399 is calculated (Sect. 5.1.1). Second, the completeness of our survey is determined (Sections 5.1.2 and 5.1.3). Then the total number is multiplied with the completeness and the fraction of GCs brighter than our survey limit (Sect. 5.1.4). As the GC surface density and the completeness vary with radius, the calculations are performed separately for the three rings as shown in Fig. 3b.

#### 5.1.1 Total number of globular clusters associated with NGC 1399

Our detections reach out as far as almost 20 projected distance. Previous photometric studies of 1399’s GCS, like those of Forbes et al. (Forbes98 (1998)) or Kohle et al. (Kohle96 (1996)), reached only 10. To cover the zone between 10-20, the latest results of Dirsch et al. (Dirsch01 (2001)) were used. Their data was obtained with the CTIO’s MOSAIC camera and map the GCS of NGC 1399 out to a radius of 20. At 20 they still find a GC surface density 2-3 times higher than in a comparison field 3.5 degrees away from the cluster center. Dirsch et al. subdivide the region around NGC 1399 into three rings with limits 0–2.5, 2.5–8 and 8–20. In Fig. 3b we adopted the ring limits equal to theirs (except for the innermost ring). There is a different slope in the radial density profile in all three rings. It holds in units of arcmin-2:

$`rϵ[0;2.5]^{}:\rho (r)=10^{1.28}`$ (1)
$`rϵ[2.5;8]^{}:\rho (r)=10^{0.98}r^{0.77}+10^{1.42}r^{1.46}`$ (2)
$`rϵ[8;20]^{}:\rho (r)=10^{1.46}r^{1.41}+10^{1.27}r^{1.50}`$ (3)
The numbers of Dirsch et al. (Dirsch01 (2001)) are not corrected for incompleteness. In order to estimate the fraction of objects missing, we integrated their number counts within 10, yielding 1545 $`\pm `$ 150 GCs, and divided this by the total number of GCs within that region derived from previous surveys. We adopted the mean of the two values of Kohle et al. (Kohle96 (1996)) and Forbes et al. (Forbes98 (1998)), who get 5940 $`\pm `$ 570 and 5700 $`\pm `$ 500, respectively. The ratio is then 0.27 $`\pm `$ 0.03.
With that information at hand, the number of GCs within each of the three rings, as plotted in Fig. 3b, is calculated by integrating the surface density law within the rings and dividing the numbers by 0.27. The GC candidate closest to NGC 1399 is only 2 away, so we integrated Dirsch et al.’s values from 2 to 8 instead of 2.5 to 8. The results are: 3800 $`\pm `$ 460 for ring 1 (2–8), 2340 $`\pm `$ 280 for ring 2 (8–14) and 1960 $`\pm `$ 230 for ring 3 (14–20).

#### 5.1.2 Photometric completeness

To determine the incompleteness involved in the source extraction on the photometric images, artificial star experiments were performed. With the IRAF task MKOBJECTS in the ARTDATA package 5000 artificial stars with Gaussian profiles were put into the $`V`$ and $`I`$ images of the three fields where the new members were found. Their magnitude ranged between $`21.5>V>19`$ mag and their colour indices between $`2>(VI)>0`$ mag. Poisson noise was negligible compared to the stars’ signal and was therefore not included. Magnitudes, colours and positions in the frame were randomly created using a C code.
To gain a statistically significant result without altering the crowding properties in our images, we added 50 times 100 artificial stars to our observed images. Then SExtractor was run on each of them, using the same parameters as on the original extraction. The photometric selection criteria for point sources as defined in Sect. 2 were then applied to the SExtractor output catalog.
The ratio between the number of artificial stars that match the selection criteria and the number of input artificial stars in that magnitude-colour-range defines the completeness in the photometric detection. For the objects in the magnitude-colour range of the selected candidates ($`19.5<V<21`$ mag and $`0.4<(VI)<1.5`$ mag, see Fig. 2) the result is 0.79 $`\pm `$ 0.07. There is no significant magnitude dependence of the photometric completeness in the given magnitude regime. The differences between input and output magnitudes were on average smaller than 0.07 mag, with a standard deviation of $``$ 0.1 mag. For all object magnitudes mentioned in this paper, the internal error is therefore on the order of 0.05 mag and for the colours it is about 0.07 mag.

#### 5.1.3 Geometric completeness

The geometric completeness is obtained by dividing the surface density $`n_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ of successfully222Here we implicitly treat the objects observed with too low S/N like the ones rejected for geometric reasons observed point objects by the surface density $`n_{\mathrm{sel}}`$ of point objects that satisfy our selection criteria and were not included in the FCSS:
Geometric completeness = $`n_{\mathrm{obs}}/n_{\mathrm{sel}}`$.
$`n_{\mathrm{sel}}`$ is distance independent. It was determined by counting the number $`N_{\mathrm{sel}}`$ of objects satisfying our selection criteria and not included in the FCSS in the central 20 of the CCD frames of field 1, 2 and 4. The area covered is $`\pi 10^2=314.2`$ arcmin2, and therefore the resulting surface density is $`n_{\mathrm{sel}}=\frac{N_{\mathrm{sel}}}{314.2^2}`$. The numbers for both $`N_{\mathrm{sel}}`$ and $`n_{\mathrm{sel}}`$ are given in Table 3. The mean of $`n_{\mathrm{sel}}`$ is 0.197 $`\pm `$ 0.022 arcmin-2.

To get $`n_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ for the three rings, we counted the number $`N_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ of point sources within each one and divided this value by the respective area: $`n_{\mathrm{obs}}=\frac{N_{\mathrm{obs}}}{Area}`$. These numbers, together with the magnitude independent geometric completeness $`\frac{n_{\mathrm{obs}}}{n_{\mathrm{sel}}}`$, are given in Table 4. Multiplying photometric and magnitude independent geometric completeness yields the total magnitude independent completeness $`C_0`$ of our survey, ranging between 12 and 33%. The exact values for the three rings are summarized in Table 4.
Up to now, the magnitude dependence of the geometric completeness has not been considered; bright selected objects get higher priorities in the mask creation than faint ones, and the faint sources more likely have too low S/N. To take this into account, we subdivide the magnitude regime $`19<V<21`$ in two bins of 1 mag width. For $`19<V<20`$ mag the geometric completeness is 1.18$`C_0`$, for $`20<V<21`$ mag it is 0.92$`C_0`$.

#### 5.1.4 Observed number of Globular Clusters

As result of our radial velocity measurements we found 6 GC candidates inside ring 1, 5 in ring 2, and 1 in ring 3. If they are all GCs, the expected number of observed GCs should be close to these values for each ring.
In the last three subsections, the existing number of GCs in each of the three rings around NGC 1399, the photometric and the geometric completeness were calculated. The number of expected GCs is the number of existing ones multiplied by 0.8$`\%`$ (the bright end of the LF) and the total completeness. As only one of the 12 GC candidates is brighter than $`V=20`$ mag, 0.92$`C_0`$ is adopted as the completeness (see Sect. 5.1.3). The results of these calculations are given in Table 5.

As one can see, the expected number of GCs matches well the number of GC candidates in all three rings. $`N_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ is always lower than $`N_{\mathrm{exp}}`$, but the error ranges overlap. In other words, the radial distribution of our GC candidates agrees within the errors with the distribution of the whole GCS. Summing the values up, the total number of expected globulars is between 11 and 19 assuming a Gaussian LF with $`V_{\mathrm{to}}`$=23.9 mag and $`\sigma `$=1.2, when we observe 12. This is a good agreement, too. It implies that the bright tail of the GCLF is well described by a Gaussian and that the great majority of GC candidates really are GCs.
There are of course other representation for the GCLF. Kohle et al. (Kohle96 (1996)) fit a $`t_5`$-function to their data and find that the best value for $`\sigma `$ is 1.1 $`\pm `$ 0.1 mag, with the same turnover than for the Gaussian. Hilker et al. (Hilker99 (1999)) made estimates of the number of existing GCs in the bright manitude regime where they find 2 of the new UCOs ($`V`$=18.0 and $`V`$=19.1 mag, respectively). They adopt both a Gaussian and a $`t_5`$-function and find that GCs as bright as the brightest UCO can statistically only exist if the bright LF wings are described by a $`t_5`$-function. The fraction of GCs brighter than $`V`$=21 mag, when adopting the $`t_5`$-function as in Kohle et al. becomes 2.3% (1.7% for $`\sigma `$=1.0 mag). This is almost three times higher than for the Gaussian. The expected number of observed GCs in our survey would become 44 $`\pm `$ 8, by far higher than our result, even when including the UCOs as possible GCs.
In Fig. 5a, the Gaussian ($`\sigma `$=1.2 mag) and the $`t_5`$ functions ($`\sigma `$=1.1 and $`\sigma `$=1.0 mag) are plotted together with the two luminosity functions. For the total number of GCs we adopt 8100, which is the sum of the values calculated for the three rings around NGC 1399 (see Sect. 5.1.1). The LF of our GC candidates is multiplied by the total completeness as determined in Sect. 5.1.3. Apparently, the LF is fit better by the adopted Gaussian than by the $`t_5`$ functions, which significantly overestimate the number of bright GCs. The existence of GCs as bright as $`V=18`$ mag is therefore very unlikely.

### 5.2 A gap between the UCOs and our GC candidates?

From Fig. 5 one can see that the binning independent representation of the joint LF of GCs and UCOs is very well fit by the Gaussian. In the magnitude regime between $`19.2`$ and $`20.2`$ mag there is no evidence for a pronounced difference between the Gaussian and the data. We can therefore not confirm a significant gap in magnitude space between our newly found GC candidates and the 2 UCOs. There seems to be a smooth transition between both populations. This is consistent with the faint UCOs and the GC candidates belonging to the same group of objects, namely the brightest GCs of NGC 1399. However, the smooth transition observed by us is only a necessary and not a sufficient condition to link UCOs and GCs. Our data are consistent with a slight enhancement of number counts between $`V=19`$ and $`V=20`$ mag due to the presence of a small number of stripped nuclei, too (for further discussion, cf. Sect. 6).

### 5.3 Line indices and metallicities

#### 5.3.1 Line indices

One of the UCOs (UCO 2) was included in our survey. In this section its line indices are compared with the observed Fornax dE,Ns and the brightest GC candidate (object FCOS 1-021). The S/N of the other GC candidates is too low (4 - 6) to reliably measure line indices. In order to estimate metallicities and ages, we measured 8 line indices as defined by Faber and Burstein (Faber73 (1973)) and Brodie and Hanes (Brodie86 (1986)).
Brodie & Huchra (Brodie90 (1990)) determine a linear metallicity calibration for 7 of the 8 indices we used (not for Fe53), based on the Zinn & West (Zinn84 (1984)) scale for Galactic Globular Cluster metallicities: \[$`\frac{Fe}{H}`$\]=$`aI+b`$. Here, $`I`$ is the line index, $`a`$ and $`b`$ are the coefficients of the linear calibration.
To measure the line indices and their error for each of the confirmed Fornax members we followed closely the reduction procedure of Brodie & Huchra (1990). The object spectra were flux calibrated and all bandpasses where shifted according to the objects’ radial velocity. The statistical error was determined from the original, not flux calibrated spectra.
In Fig. 6, the equivalent widths of H$`\beta `$ (lower panel) and $`<Fe>`$ (=(Fe52+Fe53)/2) (upper panel) are plotted vs. Mg2. The values for UCO 3 as determined by Hilker et al. (Hilker99 (1999)) are plotted as well. The red cutoff of object FCOS 1-021’s spectrum is at about 5200 Å, therefore the measurement of Mg2 and $`<Fe>`$ is not possible for this object. For comparison, evolutionary tracks for different ages, taken from Worthey (Worthe94 (1994)) are overplotted. The metallicity range is $``$2 $`<[\frac{Fe}{H}]<`$ 0.5 dex for 17 and 8 Gyr and $``$1.7 $`<[\frac{Fe}{H}]<`$ 0.5 dex for 3 and 1.5 Gyr.
Of the 6 plotted objects, only FCC 207 and FCC 211 (both dE,Ns), have sufficiently high S/N to make a reliable age estimation. They appear to be quite old (age $``$ 12 Gyr) with metallicities between $``$1.0 and $``$1.5 dex according to Worthey’s values. One can see that UCO 2 shows a high metallicity in comparison to the other objects (about $``$0.5 in dex), but appears to be old as well, although error bars are large. The metallicity is calculated more accurately in the next section. UCO 3 (the brightest UCO, value from Hilker et al. Hilker99 (1999)) appears very old, too. It is even more metal rich than UCO 2.
In the $`<Fe>`$ vs. Mg2 plot, five of our six objects and UCO 3 fall nicely into Worthey’s evolutionary tracks, only FCC 222 apparently has a very high Fe abundance compared to the other objects.

#### 5.3.2 Metallicities derived from line indices

We calculated the metallicity for each index (except Fe53) using the coefficients defined by Brodie and Huchra (Brodie90 (1990)) and then determined the weighted average $`[\frac{Fe}{H}]_\mathrm{W}`$ of the six different values.
The results for the seven Fornax members are given in Table 6. Only for UCO 2, FCC 207 and FCC 211 and FCC B1241 the weighted means have errors smaller than 0.5 dex. The metallicities of FCC 207 and FCC 211 lie well in the range of metallicities derived spectroscopically for bright Fornax dEs. Examples are Held & Mould (1994) ($``$0.75 to $``$1.45), Brodie & Huchra (Brodie91 (1991)) ($``$1.11 $`\pm `$ 0.22) or the most recent study from Rakos et al. (Rakos01 (2001)) ($``$0.4 to $``$1.6), the latter one based on Strömgren photometry. Held & Mould get $`[\frac{Fe}{H}]`$=$``$1.19 $`\pm `$ 0.05 for FCC 207, Rakos et al. get $``$1.50 for both FCC 207 and FCC 211 and obtain $`[\frac{Fe}{H}]`$=$``$0.9 for FCC 222. Thus, our values are consistent with the findings of other groups.

UCO 2 is metal rich compared to average dE,Ns. For NGC 1399, the average GC metallicity is about $``$1.0 $`\pm `$ 0.2 dex (Brodie & Huchra Brodie91 (1991), Kissler-Patig et al. Kissle98 (1998)), but the metallicity distribution is bimodal with peaks at about $``$1.5 and $``$0.5 dex (Kissler-Patig et al. Kissle98 (1998)). Thus, UCO 2 is more metal rich than the mean, but could belong to the metal rich GC population. Hilker et al. (Hilker99 (1999)) find that UCO 3 is with $`[\frac{Fe}{H}]`$ $``$ 0 significantly metal richer than the dE,Ns, while UCO 4 shows similar line index values like the dE,Ns, however with very large errors.
The most compact known dE M 32 is known to have a metallicity close to the solar one (e.g. del Burgo et al. delBur01 (2001)). Thus, the relatively high metallicities of UCO 2 and 3 may not be too surprising, if it is an intrinsic property of these very compact objects. The nucleus dominated spectrum of FCC 222 shows a high metallicity (with large error) as well, so UCO 2 and 3 could be nuclei of entirely stripped dE,Ns like FCC 222, too.

## 6 Discussion

What can we learn about the nature of the UCOs from our data?
The statistical arguments presented in Sect. 5.1 suggest that all our GC candidates can be accounted for by GCs and that there is no significant gap between our GC candidates and the fainter UCOs: the expected number of GCs detected in our survey (15 $`\pm `$ 4) is very close to the number of our GC candidates (12) when assuming a Gaussian LF for the GCS around NGC 1399. Adopting a LF with more extended wings like a $`t_5`$-function overestimates the number of bright globulars by far (44 $`\pm `$ 8). We therefore conclude that the luminosity function at the bright end is significantly better fit by a Gaussian than a $`t_5`$. This makes the existence of bright GCs with magnitudes like the brightest UCO ($`M_V=13.2`$ mag) very unlikely.
The fainter UCOs ($`M_V12`$ mag) do not appear as special as they were thought to be, considering the shape of the LF as shown in Fig. 5c. It is remarkable in this context that Minniti et al. (Minnit98 (1998)) already found two GC candidates with $`V=19.6`$ and $`V=19.8`$ mag ($`M_V`$=$``$11.7 and $``$11.5 mag) about 5 away from NGC 1399 in a region not covered by us in this survey. This supports our conclusions that there exists no significant gap between GCs and faint UCOs and that our incompleteness corrections are in the right order. Including the 2 UCOs outside 20 we have confirmed Fornax members at $`V`$ magnitudes of 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.5, 19.6, 19.7, 19.8, 20.2 and fainter. The distinction between both groups of objects based only on their different brightnesses might not be appropiate. The FCSS (Drinkwater 2000a ) was not deep enough to detect the extention of the UCOs to fainter magnitudes. Therefore the detected UCOs seemed to be a separate group of objects. Now we can state that the GCS of NGC 1399 is so rich that it probably contains GCs as bright as the four fainter UCOs. However, this does not exclude that some of them are isolated nuclei of dissolved dE,Ns.
To link the UCOs to GCs, they not only have to share the same magnitude space, but need to have a mean radial velocity and spatial distribution consistent with the GCS of NGC 1399. Both properties can only be determined very unprecisely for a sample of five objects. Nevertheless we remark that the UCOs’ mean radial velocity of 1530 $`\pm `$ 110 km/s (Drinkwater et al. 2000a ) is consistent with that of the whole GCS (1447 $`\pm `$ 16 km/s, Richtler et al. 2001 private communication). Drinkwater et al. (2000a ) find that the UCOs are significantly more concentrated towards the cluster center than the Fornax dE,Ns, but have a shallower distribution than the GCS as derived from previous surveys (Grillmair et al. Grillm94 (1994), Forbes et al. Forbes98 (1998)). However, the latest results by Dirsch et al. (Dirsch01 (2001)) show that the GCS of NGC 1399 does extend to well beyond 20 projected distance from the galaxy’s center. The distribution of our 12 GC candidates is consistent with that (cf. Section 5.1.4). Therefore even the furthest UCO at 28.3 projected distance can still be a member of the GCS.
In the FCSS, Drinkwater et al. (2000a ) found that for all the UCOs, cross correlation yielded higher confidence levels when using K-type stars as templates than younger F-type stars. We can confirm this result in so far as that cross correlation with HD 54810, a K star, gives higher $`R`$ values than for HD 22879, an F star. For the nucleated dEs included in our survey it is vice versa. Thus, the integrated stellar type of UCO 2 appears to be more similar to those of GCs than to those of dE,Ns.
If nuclei of entirely stripped dwarf galaxies exist they would be expected to mix up with the bright GCs, because on average they are more than 2 mag brighter than GCs (cf. Introduction). The results obtained by us do not speak against the existence of these ”naked” dwarf elliptical nuclei. Depending on the frequency of stripping, a certain fraction of the UCOs and the GC candidates observed by us, could be accounted for by stripped nuclei. We could be observing the sum of the bright tail of the GCLF and the nucleus-LF. Without thorough theoretical treatment of the frequency of entire stripping, this is very hard to quantify, although the nuclei are certainly less frequent than GCs. The number of dE,Ns in the central Fornax region is only in the order of a few dozen (as well in Virgo, see Lotz et al. Lotz01 (2001)). The timescale for a total stripping is in the order of several Gyr (Bekki et al. Bekki01 (2001)). So the number of stripped nuclei should be much smaller than the number of GCs, but due to their higher average brightness might become significant at bright magnitudes. A possible effect of the ”naked nuclei” would be that the number counts at the very bright end ($`V19.5`$ mag) are enhanced with respect to the extrapolation of the GCLF from the magnitude range between $`V=20`$ and $`V=21`$ mag to fainter magnitudes. With our limited statistical sample this cannot be traced. We have only probed about 25% of the area within 20 from NGC 1399. A much better coverage of the inner 20 and extension to a distance of 30 (where the remaining two UCOs at $`V19.4`$ mag are found) is needed to make more definite statements. Although our results together with Minniti et al.’s (Minnit98 (1998)) detections are indicative for an extension of NGC 1399’s GCS to about $`M_V=12`$ mag, they have to be confirmed on a more profound statistical basis. Observing time to substantially increase the area coverage of our survey has been approved.
The brightest UCO (UCO 3) clearly stands out from the others. It is more than 1 mag brighter than the rest and based on our results it cannot be explained by the GCS. UCO 3 thus probably is galaxian, either the compact remnant of a once extended dE,N (”naked nucleus”) or a cdE which was already ”born” as compact as it is now, or a non nucleated dE changed by some tidal process to a more compact shape.
From the metallicity and morphology of the UCOs no conclusive statement can be made: our metallicity value for UCO 2 is quite high (about $``$0.55 in dex), implying a metallicity higher than the majority of Fornax dE,Ns. Still, dE,Ns with similar metallicities have been found (Rakos et al. Rakos01 (2001)). Of special interest is that M 32 – the most similar dwarf galaxy to the UCOs – has a very high metallicity, about solar (Burgos et al. 2001). As well, UCO 2 could belong to the metal rich GC population of NGC 1399 (Kissler-Patig et al. Kissle98 (1998)). No discriminating statement can be made from metallicity, and due to the still too low S/N of the spectrum, a reliable age determination is not possible.
In our images, UCO 3 is the only one which is not classified as a stellar-like object according to the selection criteria given in Sect. 2. Its FWHM is 2.3′′, when the seeing was 1.85′′. This corresponds to a diameter of about 170 pc, by far larger than any GC found so far. But, the other UCOs are all unresolved, they have effective radii of about 15 pc (HST-STIS data published in Drinkwater et al. 2001b ). None of the UCOs shows low surface brightness features in the outer part away from the central peak, although we can detect features down to $``$ 26.5 mag/arcsec2 in $`V`$ (Hilker et al. Hilker02 (2002), in prep.). If the UCOs are remnants of dE,Ns, the stripping has been extremely efficient.

## 7 Summary and conclusions

In this paper, we presented a spectroscopic survey on compact objects in the central region of the Fornax cluster. The aim was to survey the magnitude regime framed by the newly discovered ultra compact objects (UCOs) in Fornax (Drinkwater et al. 2000a , Hilker et al. Hilker99 (1999)) and the brightest GCs around NGC 1399. In the FCSS, performed by Drinkwater et al., the UCOs are at the faint magnitude limit of their survey. We wanted to know whether these detections constitute the bright tail of a continous luminosity distribution with a smooth transition into the GC regime or whether they are a separate population.
The velocity measurements (cf. Sect. 4) resulted in the discovery of 12 GC candidates in the magnitude range between $`19.70<V<20.95`$ mag ($`11.6<M_V<10.35`$), located all within 20 from NGC 1399. For four of them, cluster membership was known before. Their mean colour is $`<VI>`$ = 1.11 $`\pm `$ 0.11 mag and their mean radial velocity 1300 $`\pm `$ 109 km/s with $`\sigma `$=377 km/s.
In the subsequent analysis of the discoveries (cf. Sect. 5), the following results were obtained:
1. The expected number of observed GCs originating from NGC 1399’s GCS is 15 $`\pm `$ 4, in good agreement with the 12 objects found. To calculate the expected number we assumed a Gaussian LF with $`V_{\mathrm{to}}`$ = 23.9 mag and $`\sigma `$ = 1.2 mag taken from Kohle et al. (Kohle96 (1996)), used the GC surface density from Dirsch et al. (Dirsch01 (2001)) and took into account photometric and geometric incompleteness.
2. Assuming a more extended $`t_5`$ distribution for the LF as adopted by Kohle et al. (Kohle96 (1996)), the expected number of observed GCs rises to 44 $`\pm `$ 8, which is more than three $`\sigma `$ higher than the number of observed objects. This implies that the LF has no extended bright wings. Hilker et al. (Hilker99 (1999)) found that only by assuming such an extended LF the brightest UCO can be explained as a GC.
3. There is no significant gap in magnitude space between our GC candidates and the four fainter UCOs within 20 of NGC 1399. The GCS of NGC 1399 appears to extent to $`M_V12`$ mag.
4. The only UCO included in our survey is slightly better fit by early stellar types, in contrast to the dE,Ns.
5. The only UCO included in our survey has a relatively high metallicity compared to the dE,Ns, but is in the range of metal rich GCs or very compact dwarfs with almost solar metallicity like M 32.
Considering only point 5, we can neither rule out nor confirm that the UCOs are bright GCs. From points 1 to 4 we conclude: the four UCOs fainter than $`V=19.1`$ mag ($`M_V=12.2`$ mag) can be well explained by the bright tail of the GCLF of NGC 1399. However, the apparent overlap of the two LFs is not sufficient to exclude the existence of stripped nuclei of formerly extended dE,Ns mixing up with the bright GCs. The faint UCOs are probably no extremely faint examples of cdEs, but are the brightest members of their object class (GCs or stripped nuclei). UCO 3, however, is so bright and large, that it probably is not a GC. It remains the most puzzling object.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank our referee Michael Drinkwater for his useful comments which helped to improve the paper. SM acknowledges support by the Heinrich-Hertz-Stiftung of the Ministerium für Bildung und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. MH and LI acknowlegde support through “Proyecto FONDECYT 3980032” and “8970009”, respectively. LI thanks Proyecto Puente PUC, CONICYT and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile for partial funding.
## Appendix A Tables of all foreground stars and background galaxies

Table 7 contains the parameters of all foreground stars and Table 8 of all background galaxies for which a radial velocity was determined.
The name given in the first column consists of the acronym FCOS (Fornax Cluster Compact Survey) followed by a sequence number of the field and the object reference number used in the mask creation process. An asterix  means that the object’s radial velocity could be determined only by identification of emission lines, because cross correlation yielded unreliable results. These were objects that show $`one`$ strong emission line on top of a faint continuum. In all cases with stronger continuum and clearly identifiable absorption lines present (H&K), this emission line proved to be the redshifted OII line at restframe 3727.3 Å. Therefore, whenever the continuum was faint, we looked for absorption features close to the emission line and calculated their restframe wavelength assuming that the emission line was OII. If the wavelenght were equal to important absorption lines around 3727 Å such as H8, H9 and H10, we accepted the assumption that the emission line was OII and determined the corresponding redshift. When no reliable identification was possible, no redshift determination was done.
The second and third column are the right ascension and declination for epoch 2000.
In the fourth column, the radial velocity with its error is given. Both values were computed by averaging the values given from FXCOR for each of the three templates used for cross correlation. In case of emission line objects with very faint continuum, the error was derived from the uncertainty of the emission line position. For the four quasars discovered, redshift instead of radial velocity is given.
In the fifth and sixth column, apparent magnitude $`V`$ and colour $`(VI)`$ are given. Both values are from Hilker et al. (Hilker02 (2002), in prep.).
Table 8 contains an additional comments-column. Here, ELO stands for “Emission Line Object”. Quasars were identified by their extremely broad emission line features.


text:
# Detecting planets in protoplanetary disks: A prospective study

## 1 Introduction

Based on studies of the evolution of protoplanets in protoplanetary disks, it has been established that - depending on the hydrodynamic properties of the planet and the disk - giant protoplanets may open a gap and cause spiral density waves in the disk (see, e.g., Kley 1999, Kley et al. 2001). The gap may extend up to several AU in width. Thus, the question arises if one can find such a gap as an indicator for the presence of a protoplanet with present-day or near-future techniques. In order to study this possibility, we use hydrodynamical simulations of a protoplanetary disk with an embedded planet (§ 2) and compute the expected brightness distributions, with a 3D radiative transfer code (§ 3). The resulting images are presented in § 4. Finally, we show that ALMA will provide the necessary basis to detect gaps in circumstellar disks in the mm/submm wavelength range (§ 5).

## 2 The disk model

The density structure of the protoplanetary disk – on which the subsequent radiative transfer (RT) simulations and discussions are based on – results from hydrodynamical simulations in which the disk is assumed to be flat and non-self-gravitating. The mutual gravitational interaction between the planet and the central star, and the gravitational torques of the disk acting on planet and star are included. The 3D density structure is Gaussian in the vertical direction where for the scale height H(r) we assume a constant ratio H/r=0.05. The radial density profile of the disk is shown in Fig. 1\[A\].

The mass of the star is assumed to be 1 $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$, the mass of the planet is 1 Jupiter mass, and the mass of the disk is $`0.05\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$. For the dust-to-gas mass ratio we take the classical value of 1:100. The diameter of the disk is 104 AU which is comparable to the size of the disks seen in silhouette against the Orion Nebula (McCaughrean & O’Dell 1996). The planet is located at a distance of 5.2 AU from the star. The structure of the spirals and the gap reaches an equilibrium after about 150 orbits ($`1800\mathrm{yrs}`$). The specifics of the models and the results, in particular the width and internal structure of the gap, are described in detail in Kley (1999) and Kley et al. (2001).

## 3 Radiative transfer simulations

We used the results from the hydrodynamical simulations to calculate the dust continuum emission. The RT has been performed with a 3D continuum code which is based on the Monte Carlo method. The RT is simulated self-consistently, taking into account both the initial temperature of the dust due to viscous heating and the additional energy input of the central star. The dust density and temperature structure are defined on a grid which is chosen to be identical with that of the hydrodynamical simulations. Thus, any additional discretization error resulting from the “transfer” of the density/temperature structure to the RT code is avoided. For further information concerning the RT code, we refer to Wolf et al. (1999) and Wolf & Henning (2000).

In addition to the results from the hydrodynamical simulations, we introduce the following RT parameters: spherical dust grains consisting of “astronomical” silicates (optical data from Draine & Lee 1984, radius 0.12 $`\mu `$m); star: effective temperature $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=5500`$ K, luminosity $`L=1\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{}}`$; wavelength range for the simulation of the radiative transfer: $`0.03\mathrm{}2000\mu `$m. We should note that the resulting temperature structure of the disk is in good agreement with the temperature distribution resulting from 2D hydrodynamical disk models with the same geometry.

## 4 Images

In Figure 2, the images of the inner region (diameter 28 AU) of the disk, seen under different inclination angles $`i`$ ($`i=0^\mathrm{o}`$ \- face-on, $`30^\mathrm{o}`$, and $`60^\mathrm{o}`$), at $`\lambda `$=700 $`\mu `$m are shown. Assuming a distance of 140 pc of the object (which is the distance to the nearby star-forming region in Taurus), the pixel scale is 2 mas/pixel. The gap can be clearly seen – even in the case of large inclinations of the disk. The spiral density waves – which are also caused by the motion of the planet – are difficult to trace.

Due to the huge intensity peak caused by warm/hot dust located very close to the star (1$`\mathrm{}`$2 AU), the outer regions of the disk remain dark at near/mid-infrared wavelengths. The gap located at 5 AU can be hardly seen. In contrast to this, in the sub-millimetre/millimetre wavelength range the brightness distribution is much smoother. This can be explained by the behaviour of the Planck function $`B_\lambda (T)`$. The ratio $`B_\lambda (T_1)/B_\lambda (T_2)`$ ($`T_1>T_2`$) strongly decreases with increasing wavelength. Thus, the flux ratio and the brightness contrast between regions characterized by different dust temperatures ($`T_1`$ and $`T_2`$) decreases with increasing wavelength $`\lambda `$.

## 5 Simulations of observations with MIDI (VLTI) and ALMA

In Figure 3 visibility curves at $`\lambda `$=10 $`\mu `$m for two different inclinations of the disk are shown (with/without gap). The goal of these simulations is to check whether MIDI at the VLTI can be used to detect gaps. In order to avoid sampling problems in the image plane which could affect the calculation of the visibilities, the resolution of the images had to be increased by a factor of 4 along each coordinate axis (compared to Figure 2). It was found that the visibilities at a given baseline differ by less than 5%. This is due to the fact that the density distribution in the innermost region – which dominates the 10 $`\mu `$m flux – is only negligibly affected by the presence of the planet at a distance of 5.2 AU. Taking into account uncertainties of “real” measurements (e.g. with MIDI - the mid-infrared interferometric instrument for the VLTI), a distinction between different disk models (with/without gap) based on significant differences between the visibility profiles is not possible even by a beam combination of the most distant telescopes of the VLTI. To demonstrate the influence of the particular density profile of the disk, in Fig. 4 the visibilities of a disk, with the same parameters as described in § 2 but without accretion onto the central star, are shown (see Fig. 1\[B\] for the radial density profile). While again the presence of a gap has almost no influence on the visibility, the visibility profile is flatter compared to the visibilities shown in Fig. 3. Thus, one could clearly distinguish a disk with accretion from a disk without.

In contrast to a two-beam interferometer such as MIDI at the VLTI, ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) will combine signals of 64 antennas with an aspired maximum baseline of 12 to 14 km. It will cover the submm/mm wavelength range ($`\nu `$=30$`\mathrm{}`$900 GHz). Due to the large number of receivers and the resulting broad distribution of baselines, a sufficient u-v plane coverage can be achieved after a few hours of observation and image reconstruction will be possible. In addition, and in contrast to the first instruments at the VLTI, the visibility phase can be easily measured in the millimetre wavelength range. In Figure 5 a reconstructed image of the disk based on a simulation of ALMA observations is shown (disk seen face-on, $`\lambda `$=700 $`\mu `$m). Even under consideration of the thermal noise caused by a system temperature of $`T_{\mathrm{sys}}`$=500 K, the gap is clearly visible.

## 6 Conclusions

Based on hydrodynamical simulations and subsequent 3D continuum RT calculations we generated millimetre images of a circumstellar disk with an embedded planet surrounding a solar-type star. The gap can be seen very clearly in the simulated images but an extremely high angular resolution is required ($``$ 10 mas). Because of the extreme brightness contrast in the innermost region of the disk in the near to mid-infrared, the gap can hardly be detected in this wavelength range with imaging/interferometric observations.

We found that it will be possible to distinguish between a disk with or without accretion onto the central star with MIDI, but the visibility at 10 $`\mu `$m is almost insensitive to the presence of a gap. In contrast to this, the millimetre interferometer ALMA which will become available in the near future will achieve this goal: it will provide the basis for the reconstruction of an image of a gap. Thus, the search for massive protoplanets in circumstellar disks can be based on the indication of a gap. For this purpose, the longest possible baselines are required.

This research was supported by the DFG grant Kl 650/1-1. We appreciate the suggestions given by G. Bryden who was the referee of this article.


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# Untitled Document

Title: Remarks on the correspondence of the relativity and causality principles

Author: Alexander L. Kholmetskii

Comments: 4 pages

Subj-class: General Physics

Journal-ref: Apeiron 8, No 1, (2001)

A particular problem about special kind of two light pulses propagation has been considered in cases of inertial motion, constant homogeneous gravitation field and progressive non-inertial motion with constant acceleration. A contradiction between the causality principle and relativity theory has been revealed.

1. Introduction

It is well-known that two Einstein’s postulates form a basis of special theory of relativity (STR):

1. All inertial reference frames are equivalent to each other.

2. A light velocity in vacuum does not depend on a velocity of emitter.

At present time one can see some restrictions on application of these postulates. For example, the second postulate formally is not valid in arbitrary co-ordinates. In order to overcome the restrictions, ref.  proposes a relativistic postulate in the following short form: a geometry of empty physical space-time is pseudo-Euclidean. Indeed, such a postulate allows to operate with any arbi-trary co-ordinates of inertial reference frames and additionally includes into STR a case of non-inertial motion. The latter statement follows from the obvious fact that any arbitrary motion does not influence on a properties of geometry of physical space-time, it continues to be pseudo-Euclidean. (From a formal point of view it means that the curvature tensor is equal to zero in both inertial and non-inertial frames). According to the author’s opinion, such a formulation of relativistic postulate allows to deeper understand a physical essence of relativity theory. For example, it allows to advance a problem about correspondence of STR to the causality principle. At the first sight, this problem seems to be trivial due to a finiteness of light velocity in STR. Nevertheless, the present paper finds some additional questions in this topic in the following particular physical problem.

2. A special case of two light pulses propagation: in inertial reference frame, in constant homogeneous gravitation field, and in rigid non-inertial frame

2.1. Case of inertial motion

Let us consider the following problem in Cartezian inertial reference frame.

Let a short light pulse be emitted from the point $`x=0`$ along the axis $`x`$. Let a number of re-emitters of light RLm be located along the $`x`$-axis in some points $`x_m`$ (RL0 is located in the point $`x=0`$ and, for simplicity, all $`\mathrm{\Delta }x_m=x_{m+1}x_m`$ are equal to each other). When a light pulse arrives at each re-emitter, it is absorbed by it, and after a fixed interval of its own time $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _{0\text{ }}`$is emitted by RL along the $`x`$-axis again.

Further, let the second light pulse be emitted from the point $`x=0`$ at such moment of time (taken as $`t=0`$), when the first light pulse has a coordinate

$`0<\mathrm{\Delta }xx_{1\text{.}}`$ (1)

One requires to find the times $`t_1`$ and $`t_2`$, where $`t_1`$ is the moment of time when the first (right) light pulse is emitted by RLn, while $`t_2`$ is the moment of time when the second (left) pulse is reaching RLn, and $`n`$ is some number.

Due to the condition (1), the most general expression for $`t_1`$ can be written as

$`t_1=t_{x_1\mathrm{\Delta }x}+_{m=1}^{n1}t_m+_{m=1}^n\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$, (2)

where $`t_{x_1\mathrm{\Delta }x}`$ is the propagation time of the first (right) light pulse from the point $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ to point $`x_1`$, $`t_m`$ is the propagation time of the right pulse from RLm to RLm+1, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$ is the time interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0`$ for RLm, remitting the right pulse. The general expression for $`t_2`$ is:

$`t_2=t_{x_10}^{}+_{m=1}^{n1}t_m^{}+_{m=0}^{n1}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}`$, (3)

where $`t_{x_10}^{}`$ is the propagation time of the second (left) light pulse from the point $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ to point $`x_1`$, $`t_m^{}`$ is the propagation time of the left pulse from the RLm to RLm+1, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}`$ is the time interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0`$ for RLm, emitting the left pulse. From (3) and (2)

$`t_2t_1=\mathrm{\Delta }t+\underset{m=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\left(t_m^{}t_m\right)+\left(\underset{m=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}\underset{m=1}{\overset{n}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m\right)`$, (4)

where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=t_{x_10}^{}t_{x_1\mathrm{\Delta }x}`$.

Now let us ask the question: is it possible to implement the equality $`t_2t_1=0`$? It is obvious, such an equality would mean an absolute event: a meeting of both light pulses considered in the spatial point $`x_m`$.

This problem has a trivial solution in inertial reference frame. Here $`t_m=t_m^{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m=\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}`$, and all $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$ are equal to each other for any $`m`$. Hence, $`t_2t_1=\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, and the equality of $`t_1`$ and $`t_2`$ is impossible. This result means that at the moment of time when the second (left) pulse is reaching RLn in $`x_n`$ point, the first (right) pulse already has a space coordinate $`x_n+\mathrm{\Delta }x`$.

2.2. Case of constant homogeneous gravitation field

In this case

$`t_m=t_m^{}\left(1+\frac{\phi _m}{c^2}\right)`$ (5)

due to independence of metric tensor on time co-ordinate, and

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$ (6)

in the approximation of weak gravitation field. Here $`c`$ is the light velocity in vacuum, and $`\phi `$ is gravitation potential. (Further we take $`\phi _0=0`$).

One follows from (6) that all values $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}`$ are equal to each other, and

$`\underset{m=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}`$.$`\underset{m=1}{\overset{n}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m=\mathrm{\Delta }t_0^{}+\underset{m=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}\underset{m=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m\mathrm{\Delta }t_n=\mathrm{\Delta }t_0\mathrm{\Delta }t_n=`$

=$`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\left(\phi _n/c^2\right)}{1+\left(\phi _n/c^2\right)}\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\frac{\phi _n}{c^2}`$ (7)

in this approximation. Substituting (7) and (5) into (4), one gets:

$`t_2t_1=\mathrm{\Delta }t+\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\frac{\phi _n}{c^2}`$. (8)

Hence, the equality of $`t_1`$ and $`t_2`$ is implemented under the condition

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t=\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\frac{\phi _n}{c^2}`$. (9)

Thus, we conclude that for appropriate choice of the parameters in (9), we are able to observe the absolute event: a meeting of two short light pulses in the spatial point $`x_n`$.

2.3. Case of rigid non-inertial frame

In this Section we will consider the problem in rigid non-inertial frame moving along the axis $`x`$ at constant (in relativistic meaning) acceleration $`a`$, and we will perform the exact calculations due to importance of the results obtained.

By definition, in a rigid frame the proper distance between two spatial points (measured by means of a scale being at rest in this frame) does not de-pend on time. Let us define such a rigid frame by the relationships

$`x^\alpha =x^\alpha ;t^{}=0;t=\tau `$, (10)

where the primer space and time coordinates belong to successive instantane-ously co-moving inertial reference frames, while $`\tau `$ stands for the proper time at the origin of coordinates. In such definition, for the case of constant (in instanta-neously co-moving inertial frames) acceleration $`a`$ along the axis $`x`$, a relationship between space-time coordinates in a fixed inertial reference frame ($`T,X,Y,Z`$) and ($`t,x,y,z`$) takes the form :

$`dT=dt\left(1+\frac{ax}{c^2}\right)\mathrm{cosh}\frac{at}{c}+\frac{dx}{c}\mathrm{sinh}\frac{at}{c}`$, (11)

$`dX=cdt\left(1+\frac{ax}{c^2}\right)\mathrm{sinh}\frac{at}{c}+dx\mathrm{cosh}\frac{at}{c}`$. (12)

The metrics of space-time determined by (11), (12), is the following:

$`ds^2=c^2dt^2\left(1+\frac{ax}{c^2}\right)^2dx^2dy^2dz^2`$. (13)

The corresponding components of the metric tensor are:

$`g_{00}=\left(1+\frac{ax}{c^2}\right);g_{0\alpha }=0;g_{11}=g_{22}=g_{33}=1`$, all others $`g_{\alpha \beta }=0`$. (14)

($`\alpha ,\beta =1\mathrm{}3`$). The physical values are defined as

$`dx_{ph0}=\sqrt{g_{00}}dx^0+\frac{g_{0\alpha }dx^\alpha }{\sqrt{g_{00}}}`$,

$`dx_{ph\alpha }^2=\left(g_{\alpha \beta }+\frac{g_{0\alpha }g_{0\beta }}{g_{00}}\right)dx^\alpha dx^\beta `$(15)

Substituting the components of metric tensor from (14) to (15), we obtain

$`dx_{ph}=dx,dy_{ph}=dy,dz_{ph}=dz`$; (16)

$`dt_{ph}=dt\left(1+\frac{ax}{c^2}\right)`$. (17)

Due to independence of the metric tensor on time, we again get the equality (5), from there

$`\underset{m=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\left(t_m^{}t_m\right)=0`$. (18)

The intervals of physical time at different points are determined by (17). Hence, the physical values

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0=_0^{\mathrm{\Delta }t_m}𝑑t\left(x_m\right)=\mathrm{\Delta }t_m\left(1+\frac{ax_m}{c^2}\right)`$, (19)

and

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0}{1+ax_m/c^2}`$. (20)

Therefore, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$ are equal to each other, and the third term in (4) is equal to

$`\underset{m=0}{\overset{n1}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m\underset{m=1}{\overset{n}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m=\left(\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0+\underset{m=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m\right)\left(\underset{m=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\mathrm{\Delta }t_m+\mathrm{\Delta }t_n\right)=`$

$`=\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\mathrm{\Delta }t_n=\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\frac{ax_n}{c^2}\left(\frac{1}{1+ax_n/c^2}\right)`$. (21)

Substituting the obtained values (19), (21) into (4), one gets:

$`t_2t_1=\mathrm{\Delta }t+\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0\frac{ax_n}{c^2}\left(\frac{1}{1+ax_n/c^2}\right)`$. (22)

Hence, the left and right light pulses will meet in the point

$`x_n=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }tc^2}{a\left(\mathrm{\Delta }\tau _0+\mathrm{\Delta }t\right)}`$. (23)

Thus, an observer in an accelerated frame will detect the absolute event: the left and right light pulses will meet in the point defined by (23) (under negative sign of the acceleration $`a`$). This conclusion is in agreement with the result of Section 2.2 and the equivalence principle. However, here we meet a quite difficult problem: for observer in external inertial frame both light pulses will never intersect.

Indeed, let the process of light pulses propagation in the accelerated frame be observed from some inertial reference frame. Furthermore, let us choose for observing the light pulses propagation process an inertial frame K, such that at the time moment when an observer sees the appearance of the left light pulse in the point $`x=0`$, he simultaneously sees an arriving right pulse to RL1 (such a choice is always possible due to (1)). For this time moment, let us introduce into consideration the second inertial frame Ks shifted along the axis $`x`$ at such a distance (with respect to K) which is equal to the distance between RL0 and RL1. (The relative velocity of K and Ks is equal to zero). Due to the space homogeneity in inertial frames, such a shift is equivalent to re-numeration of the re-emitters in Ks: the RLm (in K) be RLm-1 (in Ks). Hence, the propagation time from RL0 to RLn-1 for the left pulse is exactly equal to the propagation time from RL1 to RLn for the right pulse in both K and Ks frames (since the RL1, RLn in K are the RL0, RLn-1 in Ks). Hence, at the moment of time (in K) when the right pulse is emitted by RLn, the left one is emitted by RLn-1 for any n. Therefore, the light pulses considered will never meet in the inertial frame K, that means a contradiction with the causality principle.

Conclusions

Thus, a consistent relativistic consideration of the problem about special kind of two light pulses propagation in a non-inertial reference frame contradicts with the causality principle. One can show that a resolution of this contradiction is possible only under supposition that a geometry of empty space-time is not pseudo-Euclidean . However, it is in a deep disagreement with the relativity theory. It seems that a full resolution of this contradiction within the scope of relativity theory is impossible.

Bibliography

 Logunov, A.A. (1997) - Lectures on the Theory of Relativity and Gravi-tation (modern analysis of the problem). Nauka. Moscow (in Russian).

 Kholmetskii, A.L. (1997) – On “General kinematics” in an empty space. Physica Scripta. 55, 18.

 Moller, C. (1972) - Theory of Relativity. Clarendon Press. Oxford.

 Kholmetskii, A.L. (1997) – Extended General kinematics of an empty space. Physica Scripta. 56, 539.


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# Wavefront depinning transition in discrete one-dimensional reaction-diffusion systems

## Abstract

Pinning and depinning of wavefronts are ubiquitous features of spatially discrete systems describing a host of phenomena in physics, biology, etc. A large class of discrete systems is described by overdamped chains of nonlinear oscillators with nearest-neighbor coupling and controlled by constant external forces. A theory of the depinning transition for these systems, including scaling laws and asymptotics of wavefronts, is presented and confirmed by numerical calculations.

82.40.-g; 05.45.-a

Spatially discrete systems describe physical reality in many different fields: propagation of nerve impulses along mielinated fibers , pulse propagation through cardiac cells , calcium release waves in living cells , sliding of charge density waves , superconductor Josephson array junctions , motion of dislocations in crystals , atoms adsorbed on a periodic substrate , arrays of coupled diode resonators , and weakly coupled semiconductor superlattices . A distinctive feature of discrete systems (not shared by continuous ones) is the phenomenon of wavefront pinning: for values of a control parameter in a certain interval, wavefronts joining two different constant states fail to propagate . When the control parameter surpasses a threshold, the wavefront depins and starts moving . The existence of such thresholds is thought to be an intrinsecally discrete fact, which is lost in continuum aproximations. The characterization of propagation failure and front depinning in discrete systems is thus an important problem, which is still poorly understood despite the numerous inroads made in the literature .

In this Letter, we study front depinning for infinite one-dimensional nonlinear spatially discrete reaction-diffusion (RD) systems. The nature of the depinning transition depends on the nonlinearity of the model, and is best understood as propagation failure of the traveling front. Usually, but not always, the wavefront profiles become less smooth as a parameter $`F`$ (external field) decreases. They become discontinuous at a critical value $`F_c`$. Below $`F_c`$, the front is pinned at discrete positions corresponding to a stable steady state. Fig. 1 shows wavefront profiles near the critical field. Individual points undergo abrupt jumps at particular times, which gives the misleading impression that the motion of the discrete fronts proceeds by successive jumps. Wavefront velocity scales with the field as $`|FF_c|^{\frac{1}{2}}`$. For exceptional nonlinearities, the wavefront does not lose continuity as the field decreases. In this case, there is a continuous transition between wavefronts moving to the left for $`F>0`$ and moving to the right for $`F<0`$: as for continuous systems, front pinning occurs only at a single field $`F=0`$. Wavefront velocity scales then linearly with the field. We discuss the characterization of the critical field (including analytical formulas in the strongly discrete limit), describe depinning anomalies (discrete systems having zero critical field), and give a precise characterization of stationary and moving fronts near depinning (including front velocity) by singular perturbation methods. Our approximations show excellent agreement with numerical calculations.

We consider chains of diffusively coupled overdamped oscillators in a potential $`V`$, subject to a constant external force $`F`$:

$$\frac{du_n}{dt}=u_{n+1}2u_n+u_{n1}+FAg(u_n).$$
(1)
Here $`g(u)=V^{}(u)`$ presents a ‘cubic’ nonlinearity, such that $`Ag(u)F`$ has three zeros, $`U_1<U_2<U_3`$ in a certain force interval ($`g^{}(U_i(F/A))>0`$ for $`i=1,3`$, $`g^{}(U_2(F/A))<0`$). Provided $`g(u)`$ is odd with respect to $`U_2(0)`$, there is a symmetric interval $`|F|F_c`$ where the wavefronts joining the stable zeros $`U_1(F/A)`$ and $`U_3(F/A)`$ are pinned. For $`|F|>F_c`$, there are smooth traveling wavefronts, $`u_n(t)=u(nct)`$, with $`u(\mathrm{})=U_1`$ and $`u(\mathrm{})=U_3`$ . The velocity $`c(A,F)`$ depends on $`A`$ and $`F`$ and it satisfies $`cF<0`$ and $`c0`$ as $`|F|F_c`$ . Examples are the overdamped Frenkel-Kontorova (FK) model ($`g=\mathrm{sin}u`$)  and the quartic double well potential ($`V=(u^21)^2/4`$). Less symmetric nonlinearities yield a non-symmetric pinning interval and our analysis applies to them with trivial modifications.

Critical field. Stationary and traveling wavefronts cannot coexist for the same value of $`F`$ . This follows from a comparison principle for (1) . Pinning can be proved using stationary sub and supersolutions, which can be constructed provided the stationary solution is linearly stable. The largest eigenvalue of the linearization of (1) about a stationary profile $`u_n(A,F)`$, $`u_n(t)=u_n(A,F)+v_ne^{\lambda t}`$, is given by

$`\lambda (A,F)=\text{Min}{\displaystyle \frac{(v_{n+1}v_n)^2+Ag^{}(u_n(A,F))v_n^2}{v_n^2}},`$ (2)
over a set of functions $`v_n`$ which decay exponentially as $`n\pm \mathrm{}`$. The critical field is uniquely characterized by $`\lambda (A,F_c)=0`$ and $`\lambda (A,F)<0`$ for $`|F|<F_c`$. Thus two facts distinguish the depinning transition: (i) one eigenvalue becomes zero, and (ii) stationary and moving wavefronts cannot coexist for the same values of the field.

Equation (2) shows that the critical field is positive for large $`A`$ and typical nonlinearities. In fact, consider the FK potential. For $`F=0`$ there are two stationary solutions which are symmetric with respect to $`U_2`$, one taking on the value $`U_2`$ (unstable dislocation), and the other one having $`u_nU_2`$ (stable dislocation) . For large $`A`$, the stable dislocation has $`g^{}(u_n)>0`$ for all $`n`$, and (2) gives $`\lambda (A,0)<0`$. Since $`\lambda (A,F_c)=0`$, this implies that the critical field is nonzero. (A different proof can be obtained using the comparison principle ). As $`A>0`$ decreases, several $`u_n`$ may enter the region of negative slope $`g^{}(u)`$: the number of points with $`g^{}(u_n)<0`$ increases as $`A`$ decreases. It is then possible to have $`\lambda (A,0)=0`$, i.e. $`F_c=0`$, for a discrete system! Examples of this pinning anomaly will be given below.

If $`F>0`$, the stable dislocation is no longer symmetric with respect to $`U_2`$. If $`F`$ is not too large, all $`u_n(A,F)`$ avoid the region of negative slope $`g^{}(u)<0`$. For large $`A`$ and $`F`$ and the generic potentials above mentioned, we have observed numerically that $`g^{}<0`$ for a single point, labelled $`u_0(A,F)`$. This property persists until $`F_c`$ is reached. How does $`F_c`$ depend on $`A`$? For $`g=\mathrm{sin}u`$, it is well known that $`F_c`$ vanishes exponentially fast as $`A`$ goes to zero (the continuum limit). This was conjectured by Indenbom  on the basis of a continuum approximation, and numerically checked by Hobart  in the context of the Peierls stress and energy for dislocations. More recently, Kladko et al  derived the formula $`F_c=C\mathrm{exp}(\pi ^2/\sqrt{AA^2/12})`$ by means of a variational argument. This argument can be used for other potentials and it suggests that $`F_cCe^{\eta /\sqrt{A}}`$ as $`A0+`$ (with positive $`C`$ and $`\eta `$ independent of $`A`$) holds for a large class of nonlinearities . King and Chapman have obtained an analogous result  using exponential asymptotics for the FK potential, $`F_cCe^{\pi ^2/\sqrt{A}}`$ and the wavefront velocity after depinning, $`cD\sqrt{(F^2F_c^2)/A}`$. This later result agrees with the scaling law $`c|FF_c|^{\frac{1}{2}}`$, found in a large class of discrete RD equations .

Anomalies of pinning. Despite widespread belief, it is not true that $`F_c>0`$ for all discrete systems. Using the characterization $`\lambda (A,F_c)=0`$, it is possible to see that having a zero critical field is equivalent to having a one-parameter family of continuous increasing stationary profiles $`u_n=u(n+\alpha )`$ satisfying $`u(x+1)+u(x1)2u(x)=Ag(u(x))`$, with $`u(\mathrm{})=U_1`$, $`u(\mathrm{})=U_3`$. In this case, a standard perturbation argument yields a wavefront speed having the same scaling as the continuum approximation to the discrete system, $`cCF`$ as $`F0`$. An example of nonlinearity presenting this anomalous pinning  can be obtained from $`u(x)=\mathrm{tanh}x`$: it obeys the above equation with $`A=1`$, $`U_1=1`$, $`U_3=1`$ and $`g(u)=2\mathrm{tanh}^2(1)u(1u^2)/[1\mathrm{tanh}^2(1)u^2]`$. Furthermore the wavefront velocity after depinning obeys the relation, $`c3F/2`$ as $`F0`$. Thus nonlinearities presenting anomalous depinning belong to a different universality class: the wavefront velocity has a critical exponent 1 (and $`F_c=0`$) instead of 1/2, which is the usual case for discrete RD systems (having $`F_c>0`$).

Asymptotic theory of wavefront depinning. We shall study the depinning transition in the strongly discrete limit $`A1`$, in which the structure of the wavefront is particularly simple. Firstly, consider the symmetric stationary profile with $`u_nU_2`$ for $`F=0`$. The front profile consists of two tails with points very close to $`U_1`$ and $`U_3`$, plus two symmetric points $`u_0`$, $`u_1`$ in the gap region between $`U_1`$ and $`U_3`$. As $`F>0`$ increases, this profile changes slightly: the two tails are still very close to $`U_1(F/A)`$ and $`U_3(F/A)`$. As for the two middle points, $`u_1`$ gets closer and closer to $`U_3`$ whereas $`u_0`$ moves away from $`U_1`$. This structure is preserved by the traveling fronts above the critical field: there is only one active point most of the time, which we can adopt as our $`u_0`$. Then we can approximate $`u_1U_1`$, $`u_1U_3`$ in (1), thereby obtaining

$$\frac{du_0}{dt}U_1\left(\frac{F}{A}\right)+U_3\left(\frac{F}{A}\right)2u_0Ag(u_0)+F.$$
(3)
This equation has three stationary solutions for $`F<F_c`$, two stable and one unstable, and only one stable stationary solution for $`F>F_c`$. The critical field $`F_c`$ is such that the expansion of the right hand side of (3) about the two coalescing stationary solutions has zero linear term, $`2+Ag^{}(u_0)=0`$, and

$$2u_0+Ag(u_0)U_1\left(\frac{F_c}{A}\right)+U_3\left(\frac{F_c}{A}\right)+F_c.$$
(4)
These equations for $`F_c`$ and $`u_0(A,F_c)`$ have been solved for the FK potential, for which $`u_0=\mathrm{cos}^1(2/A)`$ and $`U_1+U_3=2\mathrm{sin}^1(F_c/A)+2\pi `$. The results are depicted in Fig. 2, and show excellent agreement with the numerical solution of (1) for $`A>10`$. Our approximation performs less well for smaller $`A`$, and it breaks down at $`A=2`$ with the prediction $`F_c=0`$. Notice that $`F_c(A)A`$ as $`A`$ increases. In practice, only steady solutions are observed for very large $`A`$.

Let us now construct the profile of the traveling wavefronts after depinning, for $`F`$ sligthly above $`F_c`$. Then $`u_0(t)=u_0(A,F_c)+v_0(t)`$ obeys the following equation:

$$\frac{dv_0}{dt}(FF_c)+A|g^{\prime \prime }(u_0)|\frac{v_0^2}{2},$$
(5)
where we have used $`2+Ag^{}(u_0)=0`$, (4) and ignored terms of order $`(FF_c)/A`$ and higher. This equation has the (outer) solution

$$v_0(t)\sqrt{\frac{2(FF_c)}{A|g^{\prime \prime }(u_0)|}}\mathrm{tan}\left(\sqrt{\frac{A|g^{\prime \prime }(u_0)|(FF_c)}{2}}(tt_0)\right),$$
(6)
which is very small most of the time, but it blows up when the argument of the tangent function approaches $`\pm \pi /2`$. Thus the outer approximation holds over a time interval $`(tt_0)\pi \sqrt{2}/\sqrt{A|g^{\prime \prime }(u_0)|(FF_c)}`$, which equals $`\pi \sqrt{2}(A^24)^{\frac{1}{4}}(FF_c)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ for the FK potential. The reciprocal of this time interval yields an approximation for the wavefront velocity,

$$|c(A,F)|\sqrt{\frac{A|g^{\prime \prime }(u_0)|(FF_c)}{2\pi ^2}},$$
(7)
or $`|c|(A^24)^{\frac{1}{4}}(FF_c)^{\frac{1}{2}}/(\pi \sqrt{2})`$ for a FK potential. In Fig. 3 we compare this approximation with the numerically computed velocity for $`A=100`$ and $`A=10`$.

When the solution begins to blow up, the outer solution (6) is no longer a good approximation, for $`u_0(t)`$ departs from the stationary value $`u_0(A,F_c)`$. We must go back to (3) and obtain an inner approximation to this equation. As $`F`$ is close to $`F_c`$ and $`u_0(t)u_0(A,F_c)`$ is of order 1, we solve numerically (3) at $`F=F_c`$ with the matching condition that $`u_0(t)u_0(A,F_c)2/[\pi \sqrt{\frac{1}{2}A|g^{\prime \prime }(u_0)|/(FF_c)}A|g^{\prime \prime }(u_0)|(tt_0)]`$, as $`(tt_0)\mathrm{}`$. This inner solution describes the jump of $`u_0`$ to values close to $`U_3`$. During this jump, the motion of $`u_0`$ forces the other points to move. Thus, $`u_1(t)`$ can be calculated by using the inner solution in (1) for $`u_0`$, with $`F=F_c`$ and $`u_2U_1`$. A composite expansion  constructed with these inner and outer solutions is compared to the numerical solution of (1) in Fig. 4.

Notice that (5) is the normal form associated with a saddle-node bifurcation in a one dimensional phase space. The wavefront depinning transition is a global bifurcation with generic features: each individual point $`u_n(t)`$ spends a long time, which scales as $`|FF_c|^{\frac{1}{2}}`$, near discrete values $`u_n(A,F_c)`$, and then jumps to the next discrete value on a time scale of order 1. The traveling wave ceases to exist for $`FF_c`$. For these field values, discrete stationary profiles $`u_n(A,F)`$ are found. The above calculations give a normal form of the type $`d^2v_0/dt^2=\alpha (FF_c)+\beta v_0^2`$ instead of (5) for conservative discrete systems (two time derivatives instead of one in (1)). The solution of this equation blows up in finite time as $`(FF_c)^{\frac{1}{4}}`$, which gives a critical exponent of 1/4 for the wavefront velocity near the critical field.

The approximations to $`F_c(A)`$ and the wavefront speed provided by the previous asymptotic theory break down for small $`A`$. In particular, for the FK potential and $`A<2`$, no double zeroes of $`2x+A\mathrm{sin}(x)(F+U_1+U_3)`$ are found for $`F=F_c`$. What happens is that we need more than one point to approximate wavefront motion. Depinning is then described by a reduced system of more than one degree of freedom corresponding to active points. There is a saddle-node bifurcation in this reduced system whose normal form is of the same type as (5). The jump of the active points after blow up is found by solving the reduced system with a matching condition . As we approach the continuum limit, more and more points enter the reduced system of equations and exponential asymptotic methods become a viable alternative to our methods.

In conclusion, we have studied depinning of wavefronts in discrete RD equations. The normal depinning transition can be viewed as a loss of continuity of traveling front profiles as the critical field is approached: below the critical field, the fronts become pinned stationary profiles with discontinuous jumps at discrete values $`u_n`$. In the strongly discrete limit, the critical field and these fronts can be approximated by singular perturbation methods which show excellent agreement with numerical solutions. The leading order approximation to the wavefront velocity is then correctly given (scaling and prefactor) near the critical field. Depinning transitions for discrete RD equations apparently belong to two different universality classes. In the normal class, the wavefront velocity has a critical exponent 1/2. For certain nonlinearities, the stationary fronts are continuous functions of the discrete index at zero field. Then the critical field is zero, the depinning transition between stationary and moving fronts is continuous, with a critical exponent 1. This situation is the same as for continuous RD equations and we have called it anomalous pinning.

AC thanks S. Hastings and J.B. McLeod for fruifful discussions.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

In 1969, Feynman proposed his parton model for hadrons moving with speed close to that of light . He observed that the hadron appears as a collection of infinite number of partons. Since the partons appear to have properties quite different from those of the quarks, one of the most pressing puzzles in high-energy physics has been whether the partons are quarks, or whether the quark model and the parton model are two different manifestations of one covariant formalism.

In 1970, at the April meeting of the American Physical Society held in Washington, DC (U.S.A.), Feynman gave an invited talk on a model of hadrons. His talk was published in a paper by Feynman, Kislinger and Ravndal in 1971 . There, the authors attempted to construct a covariant model for hadrons consisting of quarks joined together by an oscillator force. They indeed formulated a Lorentz-invariant oscillator equation. They also worked out the degeneracies of the oscillator states which are consistent with observed mesonic and baryonic mass spectra. However, their wave functions are not normalizable in the space-time coordinate system. They never considered the question of covariance.

In his 1972 book on statistical mechanics , Feynman says When we solve a quantum-mechanical problem, what we really do is divide the universe into two parts - the system in which we are interested and the rest of the universe. We then usually act as if the system in which we are interested comprised the entire universe. To motivate the use of density matrices, let us see what happens when we include the part of the universe outside the system. Feynman’s rest of the universe has been studied in detail in terms of two coupled oscillators .

In this report, we combine these three components of Feynman’s research efforts to show that the quark and parton models are indeed two different manifestations of the same covariant entity. In order to achieve this purpose, we fix up first the mathematical deficiencies of the paper of Feynman et al. . The idea is to construct a harmonic oscillator wave function which can be Lorentz-boosted. We can first see whether the wave function is applicable to the quark model when the hadron is slow, and then see whether the same wave function describes the parton model when the hadron is boosted to an infinite-momentum frame. The 1971 paper by Feynman et al.  contains very serious mathematical flaws, but they have been all cleaned up within the framework of Wigner’s little groups which dictate the internal space-time symmetries relativistic particles .

This covariant formulation solves the covariance problem. However, since we live in the three-dimensional world, it is possible that we miss something in the four-dimensional world. The time-separation variable between the quarks is a case in point. In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, the Bohr radius is spacial separation between the quarks (or proton and electron). According to Einstein, there must be a time separation between the quarks, since otherwise the world will not be covariant.

Since we are not dealing with this time-separation variable in the present form of quantum mechanics, the failure to measure it leads to an increase in entropy . In this report, we show that this entropy allows us to define the phase transition between the confined phase of the quark model and the plasma phase of the parton model.

In Sec. 2, we introduce the covariant harmonic oscillator formalism with normalizable wave functions which can be Lorentz boosted. In Sec. 3, we use the oscillator wave function to solve the quark-parton puzzle. In Sec. 4, we deal with the problems arising from measuring of four-dimensional physics in the three-dimensional world. The entropy plays a major role.

## 2 Covariant Harmonic Oscillators

Let us consider a hadron consisting of two quarks. Then there is a Bohr-like radius measuring the space-like separation between the quarks. There is also a time-like separation between the quarks, and this variable becomes mixed with the longitudinal spatial separation as the hadron moves with a relativistic speed. While there are no quantum excitations along the time-like direction, there is the time-energy uncertainty relation which allows quantum transitions. It is possible to accommodate these aspects within the framework of the present form of quantum mechanics. The uncertainty relation between the time and energy variables is the c-number relation , which does not allow excitations along the time-like coordinate, as illustrated in Fig. 1

For a hadron consisting of two quarks, we can consider their space-time positions $`x_a`$ and $`x_b`$, and use the variables

$$X=(x_a+x_b)/2,x=(x_ax_b)/2\sqrt{2}.$$
(1)
The four-vector $`X`$ specifies where the hadron is located in space and time, while the variable $`x`$ measures the space-time separation between the quarks.

Since the three-dimensional oscillator differential equation is separable in both spherical and Cartesian coordinate systems, the wave function consists of Hermite polynomials of $`x,y`$, and $`z`$. If the Lorentz boost is made along the $`z`$ direction, the $`x`$ and $`y`$ coordinates are not affected, and can be temporarily dropped from the wave function. Along the space-like longitudinal direction, there are excitations. On the other hand, along the time-like direction, there is an uncertainty relation even though there are no excitations. The covariant harmonic oscillator formalism accommodates this space-time asymmetry .

However, since we are interested here only in Lorentz-boost properties of the wave function, we restrict ourselves to the ground-state wave function. The wave function then can be written as

$$\psi (z,t)=\left(\frac{1}{\pi }\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{1}{2}\left(z^2+t^2\right)\right\},$$
(2)
which accommodates the uncertainty relations along the longitudinal and time-like directions.

The expression given in Eq.(2) is not Lorentz-invariant. It is covariant. This wave function describes the present form of quantum mechanics if the time-separation variable is factored out, integrated out, or ignored. However, the time-separation variable is absolutely needed when we consider Lorentz covariance. The question is whether the above wave function can describe the parton model when it is boosted to an infinite-momentum limit.

It is convenient to use the light-cone variables to describe Lorentz boosts. The light-cone coordinate variables are

$$u=(z+t)/\sqrt{2},v=(zt)/\sqrt{2}.$$
(3)
In terms of these variables, the Lorentz boost along the $`z`$ direction,

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}z^{}\\ t^{}\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{cosh}\eta & \mathrm{sinh}\eta \\ \mathrm{sinh}\eta & \mathrm{cosh}\eta \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}z\\ t\end{array}\right),$$
(4)
takes the simple form

$$u^{}=e^\eta u,v^{}=e^\eta v,$$
(5)
where $`\eta `$ is the boost parameter and is $`\mathrm{tanh}^1(v/c)`$. Indeed, the $`u`$ variable becomes expanded while the $`v`$ variable becomes contracted. This is the squeeze mechanism illustrated discussed extensively in the literature . This squeeze transformation is also illustrated in Fig. 2.

Thus, one way to combine quantum mechanics with relativity is to incorporate Fig. 1 into Fig. 2, and produce the elliptic deformation illustrated in Fig. 3. If the system is boosted, the wave function becomes

$$\psi _\eta (z,t)=\left(\frac{1}{\pi }\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{1}{2}\left(e^{2\eta }u^2+e^{2\eta }v^2\right)\right\}.$$
(6)
We note here that the transition from Eq.(2) to Eq.(6) is a squeeze transformation. The wave function of Eq.(2) is distributed within a circular region in the $`uv`$ plane, and thus in the $`zt`$ plane. On the other hand, the wave function of Eq.(6) is distributed in an elliptic region. This ellipse is a “squeezed” circle with the same area as the circle, as is illustrated in Fig. 3.

## 3 Feynman’s Parton Picture

In 1969  Feynman made the following systematic observations on hadrons moving with speed close to that of light.

* The picture is valid only for hadrons moving with velocity close to that of light.
* The interaction time between the quarks becomes dilated, and partons behave as free independent particles.
* The momentum distribution of partons becomes widespread as the hadron moves very fast.
* The number of partons seems to be infinite and much larger than that of quarks.

These observations constitute Feynman’s parton picture. Because the hadron is believed to be a bound state of two or three quarks, each of the above phenomena appears as a paradox, particularly b) and c) together.

If the quarks have the four-momenta $`p_a`$ and $`p_b`$, we can construct two independent four-momentum variables

$$P=p_a+p_b,q=\sqrt{2}(p_ap_b).$$
(7)
The four-momentum $`P`$ is the total four-momentum and is thus the hadronic four-momentum. $`q`$ measures the four-momentum separation between the quarks.

Since we are using here the harmonic oscillator, the mathematical form ‘of the above momentum-energy wave function is identical to that of the space-time wave function, and its transformation properties are the same. The Lorentz squeeze properties of these wave functions are also the same, as are indicated in Fig. 4. When the hadron is at rest with $`\eta =0`$, both wave functions behave like those for the static bound state of quarks. As $`\eta `$ increases, the wave functions become continuously squeezed until they become concentrated along their respective positive light-cone axes. Indeed, this figure provides the answer to the quark-parton puzzle .

The question then is whether the elliptic deformations given in Fig. 4 produce any quantitative results which can be compared with what we measure in laboratories. Indeed, according to Hussar’s calculation , the Lorentz-boosted oscillator wave function produces a reasonably accurate parton distribution, as indicated in Fig. 5

## 4 Entropy Problems

The covariant harmonic oscillator formalism presented in Sec. 2 produces the Lorentz squeeze property summarized in Fig. 4. This figure tells us that the quark model and the parton model are two different manifestations of one covariant formulation. In this figure, the time-separation variable plays the essential role. However, we are not able to deal with this variable in the present form of quantum mechanics.

If there is a physical which we cannot measure, the variable certainly belongs to Feynman’s rest of the universe . Then there is a well-defined procedure to deal with this problem: construct a density matrix from the wave function and integrate over the variable which we do not observe. In the present case, the variable we do not observe is the time-separation variable. This process leads to an increase in entropy . It is straight-forward to calculate this entropy , and the result is

$$S=2\left\{(\mathrm{cosh}^2\eta )\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{cosh}\eta )(\mathrm{sinh}^2\eta )\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{sinh}\eta )\right\}.$$
(8)
This form is identical to the entropy caused by thermally excited harmonic oscillators, if we write

$$\mathrm{tanh}^2(\eta )=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\omega }{kT}\right).$$
(9)
The entropy of Eq.(8) takes the form

$$S=\frac{\mathrm{}\omega /kT}{\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{}\omega /kT)1}\mathrm{ln}\left[1\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\omega }{kT}\right)\right].$$
(10)
Let us go back to Eq.(9). The $`(velocity)^2`$ is plotted against the temperature in Fig. 6. Its behavior makes a sudden change as the temperature rises. If the hadronic velocity is low, the temperature is relatively insensitive to the velocity, but for high velocities, it is in the other way around. We can use this behavior to tell the difference between the confinement phase of the quarks and the plasma phase of the partons.