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# Planetary Nebulae in the Scheme of Binary Evolution

## 1. Introduction

The rich variety of planetary nebula (PN) shapes have attracted attention for a long time. Different mechanisms were discussed to form the axisymmetrical structures of PNe. Magnetic fields, via different mechanisms, were, and continue to be, quite popular. The idea that the galactic magnetic field shapes PNe was raised several times (e.g., Grinin & Zvereva 1968), but was always ‘killed’, recently by Corradi, Aznar, & Mampaso (1998). Internal magnetic fields, via several different mechanisms, have been discussed for more than 40 years (e.g., Gurzadyan 1962; Woyk 1968 \[note his drawings!\]; Pascoli 1985, 1997; Chevalier & Luo 1994; García-Segura 1997; García-Segura et al. 1999; García-Segura, & López 2000; García-Segura, López, & Franco 2001; Matt et al. 2000; Blackman et al. 2001; Gardiner, & Frank 2001; see also review by García-Segura in these proceedings). These models assume that the magnetic field comes from the AGB progenitor, and attribute dynamical effects to the magnetic field, i.e., the magnetic pressure and/or tension become comparable to that of the thermal pressure. Some magnetic effects were criticized during these years (e.g., Menzel 1968; Soker & Zoabi 2002 and references therein). In other models, the magnetic field has a secondary role. In several papers (e.g., Soker 1998b, 2000, 2001b ; Soker, & Clayton 1999; Soker & Zoabi 2002) I propose that the large-scale stellar magnetic field is strong enough for the formation of magnetic cool spots on the AGB stellar surface. The spots may regulate dust formation, hence mass loss rate, leading to axisymmetric mass loss and the formation of elliptical PNe. Despite its role in forming cool spots, the large scale magnetic field is too weak to play a dynamic role and directly influence the wind from the AGB star, as required by the dynamic models.

A popular mechanism for shaping PNe is the so called interacting winds model (see review by Frank 1999). The basic model assumes mass concentration in the equatorial plane from the AGB phase. Later, the fast wind from the central star of the PN accelerates the nebula, with higher velocities and distances attended in the polar directions, forming elliptical or bipolar PNe. Ionization plays a significant role in the evolution (Mellema 1995; Mellema & Frank 1995). The idea of mass concentration in the equatorial plane is old; Khromov, & Kohoutek (1968) suggested that mass concentration in the equatorial plane can focus the ionization radiation to the poles. However, it became a popular idea with the seminal work of Balick (1987). Interaction of the fast and slow winds definitely occurs in PNe, and is successful in explaining some properties of PNe. However, it cannot explain all properties in many of the observed bipolar PNe, e.g., the high momentum and kinetic energy observed in several bipolar PNe and proto-PNe (Bujarrabal et al. 2001). Other problems are mention by Frank (2000; also Balick 2000).

Other, less popular, mechanisms were proposed in the literature, e.g., a circumstellar disk that survived from the pre-main sequence phase (e.g., Kastner et al. 1996).

My view (Soker & Harpaz 1992; Soker 1998b; Soker & Zoabi 2002) is that a stellar binary companion is required to spin up the AGB star in order for the later to have a strong magnetic field. The equatorial mass concentration required for the interacting wind model to form bipolar and extreme elliptical PNe also seems to require a stellar binary companion (e.g., Soker & Livio 1989; Iben & Livio 1993), e.g., as obtained in the simulations of Mastrodemos & Morris (1998, 1999). The companion, then, may cause other effects, e.g., accreting mass, forming an accretion disk (Mastrodemos & Morris 1999), and blowing jets (Morris 1987; Soker & Rappaport 2000).

Before further exploring binary models, I clarify some terms.

## 2. Claryfing Some Terms

Single stars. Some mechanisms may work for single stars, e.g., fast rotation (García-Segura et al. 1999; but not their claim for critical slow rotation; see Glatzel 1998). However, in these cases, I argue (Soker & Harpaz 1999; Soker 2001b ) the envelope posses more angular momentum than a single AGB star can maintain from its main sequence phase. Hence the envelope must be spun-up by a stellar companion. I would refer to these cases as binary evolution, rather than single star evolution, although the process itself involves only one star.
Magnetic field. There are some indications for magnetic fields around AGB stars and in PNe, mainly from maser emission (e.g., Miranda et al. 2001). This does not necessarily support models with dynamical effects of magnetic fields in the AGB progenitors. There can be other sources for the magnetic field. (1) The magnetic field can be localized in specific regions. This is predicted if there is a higher mass loss rate from active regions, e.g., higher mass loss rate from cool spots (e.g., Soker & Zoabi 2002). (2) An accreting companion, whether a WD or a main sequence star, will amplify the magnetic field. Hence the strong field may result from an accreting companion. (3) The magnetic field may result from a magnetically active main sequence companion. Accreting main sequence companions will be spun-up, and may become magnetically active (Jeffries & Stevens 1996; Soker & Kastner 2002).
Morphology. I will use the following 4 main axisymmetrical morphology classes. (i) Bipolar PNe: PNe having two lobes with and equatorial waist between them. (ii) Extreme elliptical PNe: PNe having a large equatorial concentration of mass, e.g., a ring, but no, or only small, lobes. They may possess jets. (iii) Moderate elliptical PNe: PNe having a large scale elliptical shape, with a shallow density variation from equator to poles. They may possess jets. (iv) Spherical PNe: PNe whose entire structure show a general circular shape. If there are even small parts which are axisymmetric rather than spherical, the PN is not spherical (I will not discuss these any more here; for some properties of spherical PNe see Soker \[2002a \]).

## 3. Binary systems and PN Structures

The idea that binary systems are behind the axisymmetrical structure of PNe is old, and was mentioned many times in the literature, more times than can be mentioned here; a few examples are Fabian & Hansen (1979), Phillips, & Reay (1983), Miranda (1995), Kolesnik & Pilyugin (1986), and Pollacco & Bell (1997). In particular, Morris (1981, 1987, 1990; Mastrodemos & Morris 1999) and Livio (1982, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000; Livio, Salzman, & Shaviv 1979; Iben & Livio 1993; Livio & Pringle 1996) were pushing the idea of binary interaction for a long time, proposing many ideas and models. In my research on the connection between binary systems and PNe, I benefited from their works, as well as from observational works by Corradi and Schwarz (e.g., Corradi 1995; Corradi & Schwarz 1995; Corradi et al. 1999, 2001; Schwarz et al. 1997), and Bond (e.g., Bond 2000). In their works, Corradi and Schwarz nailed down the similarity between symbiotic nebulae, which known to be formed by binary systems, and bipolar PNe (for other, some earlier, papers on this connection and binarity see Mammano & Ciatti 1975; Cohen et al. 1985; Morris 1990; Goodrich 1991; Lee & Park 1999).

Main supporting observations for the shaping of some PNe by binary systems is in Soker (1997; as well as different processes caused by a companion), and supporting observations for binary shaping of bipolar PNe are in Soker (1998a; see table 1 there), and references in these papers. I only list several of them here, in addition to new results (for the explanation of massive progenitor of bipolar PNe see $`\mathrm{\S }5`$). (i) 16 PNe with central binary systems, one of them bipolar and the rest extreme elliptical PNe, are known (Bond 2000). (ii) Other PNe and proto-PNe show strong indication for binarity (e.g., Rodríguez, Corradi, & Mampaso 2001; the 120 years side to side variation in M2-9, Doyle et al. 2000). (iii) The similar morphology of bipolar PNe and many symbiotic nebulae. (iv) Expansion velocities in many bipolar PNe proto-PNe are much higher than the escape velocity from AGB stars. (v) Statistically, binary systems which avoid common envelope can account for bipolar PNe (Soker & Rappaport 2000), as models requires (next section). Common envelope systems can account for a large fraction of elliptical PNe (Yungelson, Tutukov, & Livio 1993; Han, Podsiadlowski, & Eggleton 1995). However, it seems that binary stellar systems can’t account for all non spherical PNe; either single stars can form moderate elliptical, or planets are required.

## 4. Current Status of Binary Models

I summarize now my view on the role plaid by stellar companions, as appeared in several of my papers from the last 5 years. As is well known, accreting companions can blow jets (Livio 2000), or if not well collimated, termed collimated fast wind (CFW; Soker & Rappaport 2000). The CFW (or jets) can shape the nebula in several ways. If the CFW is strong, it will form two lobes (Morris 1987), and form bipolar PNe. A close companion can enhance the equatorial density by spining-up the AGB star (Soker & Rappaport 2000) and/or focusing the AGB wind (Mastrodemos & Morris 1999). Like in symbiotic nebulae, the companion should be outside the AGB envelope, at least during part of the evolution. I therefore argue (Soker 1998a), that most bipolar PNe are formed from companions outside the envelope; in a few cases (e.g., NGC 2346) the companion can enter the envelope at a late stage. The different routes that can lead to the rich variety of bipolar shapes is summarized in Soker (2002b ). Stellar companions at large orbital separations (tens of AU; see Soker 2001a ) may blow weak CFW, which will form extreme elliptical PNe, possibly with small lobes. Most extreme elliptical PNe are formed via common envelope evolution (e.g., Bond & Livio 1990).

Binary systems can lead to other effects. Examples are displacement from axisymmetry (Soker & Rappaport 2001; Soker & Hadar 2002), formation of a circumbinary disk (e.g., Van Winckel 1999; Jura, Chen & Plavchan 2002), and leading to backflowing material in the post-AGB phase (Soker 2001c ).

It is not clear, though, whether binary systems are behind the multiple-rings found by HST in several PNe and proto-PNe (e.g., Hrivnak, Kwok, & Su 2001), directly, by their gravity and orbital motion, or indirectly, by spining-up the AGB star (for different views, see Soker 2002c and Y. Simis in these proceedings).

Because stellar binary companions can’t account for all non-spherical PNe, either single stars can form moderate elliptical PNe, or, as I tend to think, planets are required to spin-up these AGB stars (Soker 2001b ). Whereas I am confident that binary companions shape bipolar and extreme elliptical PNe, whether a companion is required to shape moderate elliptical PNe, I consider an open question.

## 5. Massive Progenitors of Bipolar PNe

Although more than three years have past since I published my explanation for the observations that bipolar PNe are formed from more massive stars, annoyingly, this correlation is still, wrongly, used as contradictory to binary models. I presented the explanation of Soker (1998a; described below, but see Soker 1998a for detail) in my talk; despite that I got 2 questions after the talk regarding that same point. Because of that, I devote a section just for this observation.

As noted by many surveys (e.g., Zuckerman & Gatley 1988), bipolar PNe are concentrated toward the Galactic plane. This and composition differences from elliptical PNe strongly suggest that progenitors of bipolar PNe are more massive than those of the other PNe (e.g., Greig 1972; Acker 1980; Kaler 1983; Torres-Peimbert & Peimbert 1997). As explained in Soker (1998a) the main differences between massive ($`M>2M_{}`$ on the main sequence) and low-mass progenitors are that the radii of the massive progenitors become much larger on the AGB than on the RGB, and their envelope mass is much larger than that of low-mass progenitors. Because of their large radius on the RGB, low mass stars interact with a companion, that could have form bipolar PN, already on their RGB track. Either they lose their envelope and never form a PN, because of their low mass envelope, or the companion spirals-in to collide with their core, after which the star evolves as rapidly rotating single star, hence forming an elliptical PNe.

Another, more simple, explanation is that more massive stars are more likely than low mass stars to harbor close massive companions that lead to the formation of bipolar PN. This was suggested for binary systems that go through a stable Roche lobe overflow (Soker & Livio 1994).

I end with a comment I made during a debate conducted at the Asymmetrical Planetary Nebulae II (APN II) meeting: There is a class of systems called massive X-ray binaries, with a neutron star and a massive companion. So all of them contain massive stars; does this mean that these binary systems are ‘single stars’?

## 6. Future Works and Predictions

Theory.  In order to reproduce bipolar morphologies, there is a need to perform 3D gasdynamical simulations where both stars blow wind simultaneously: The AGB blows a slow wind, either spherically symmetric or concentrated to the equatorial plane, while the compact companion, a WD or a main sequence star, blows a CFW (collimated fast wind, or jets). Since the binary are close, and the nebula is large, and the CFW is more than an order of magnitude faster than the slow wind, these are very demanding simulations.
Observations. The main issue is to detect binary companions. Some methods with a table of 16 PNe with known central binary systems are given by Bond (2000, and references therein). Careful spectroscopic analysis can lead to more detection, as was done recently by Rodríguez et al. (2001). X-ray observations can also lead to detection of companions. An accreting WD companion (Livio & Shaviv 1975) will be too faint to be distinguish from the bright central stars of PNe. However, spun-up main sequence stars can become magnetically active, and emit strongly in X-ray. This was suggested to be the case for the point-like X-ray emission in the PNe NGC 6543 and NGC 7293 (Guerrero et al. 2001). Some magnetically active stars exist around WDs (e.g., Jeffries & Stevens 1996; Bond et al. 2001). The main sequence companions were spun-up by accreting from the AGB progenitor, and then became magnetically active (Jeffries & Stevens 1996; Soker & Kastner 2002). Therefore, I think that X-ray observations may reveal the existence of main sequence companions to central stars of PNe (Soker & Kastner 2002).

Acknowledgments. I thank Guillermo García-Segura for stimulating my research by giving a good scientific fight back, with his high quality scientific work, and by bringing different arguments for single star models during our lively and friendly discussions.

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# Dark Matter Spikes and Annihilation Radiation from the Galactic Center

## Abstract

The annihilation rate of weakly interacting cold dark matter particles at the galactic center could be greatly enhanced by the growth of a density spike around the central supermassive black hole (SBH). Here we discuss the effects of hierarchical mergers on the central spike. Mergers between halos containing SBHs lead to the formation of SBH binaries which transfer energy to the dark matter particles, lowering their density. The predicted flux of annihiliation photons from the galactic center is several orders of magnitude smaller than in models that ignore the effects of SBHs and mergers. Measurement of the annihilation radiation could in principle be used to constrain the merger history of the galaxy.

The dark matter puzzle is one of the central challenges facing particle physics and cosmology Primack:01 . A popular candidate for non-baryonic cold dark matter (CDM) is the lightest supersymmetric particle, plausibly the neutralino $`\chi `$ PP:82 ; Goldberg:83 . The mass of the neutralino is constrained by accelerator searches and theoretical considerations of thermal freeze-out to lie in the range $`30\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}M_\chi \begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10\mathrm{T}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ Ellis:83 ; Jungman:96 . Neutralinos are generically found to decouple at a temperature that is roughly $`M_\chi /20`$, which means that they are nonrelativistic already at decoupling and hence behave like CDM.

Dark matter particles may be detected directly, via laboratory experiments Feng:00a , or indirectly, via their annihilation products Feng:01 . Indirect schemes are typically based on searches for gamma rays from neutralino annihilations in the dark matter halo of the Milky Way (MW) galaxy Urban:92 ; Berezinsky:94 ; Bergstrom:98 . Since the photon flux depends on the squared density of neutralinos integrated along the line of sight, the signal is greatly enhanced in directions where the dark matter is clumped. This includes the galactic center, where the density in a smooth halo would be maximum, as well as any lines of sight intersecting the centers of relic halos that orbit as subclumps in the MW halo Bergstrom:99 ; Calcaneo:00 . The signal from the galactic center is further enhanced if there is a CDM “spike” associated with the central supermassive black hole (SBH). Adiabatic growth of a SBH at the center of a pre-existing halo produces a power-law distribution of matter around the SBH, a “spike,” with density $`\rho r^\gamma `$, $`2.2\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}\gamma \begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}2.5`$, $`r\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}r_hGM_{}/\sigma ^2`$ Gondolo:99 ; $`M_{}`$ is the SBH mass and $`\sigma `$ is the 1D velocity dispersion of the dark matter particles. For the MW SBH, $`M_{}25\times 10^6M_{}`$ Ghez:98 ; Genzel:00 ; Eckart:02  and $`r_h1`$ pc. These spikes lead to predictions of higher-than-observed rates of $`\gamma `$-ray annihilation productsGandolo:00 .

One element missing from earlier discussions of dark matter spikes is the destructive effect of hierarchical mergers. A dark matter halo as massive as that of the MW, $`M10^{12}M_{}`$, has almost certainly experienced a significant merger event since a redshift of $`z2`$. Furthermore, SBHs with masses of $`10^9M_{}`$ were present in at least some halos already at redshifts of $`56`$ Fan:00 ; Fan:01 , and SBHs probably acquired most of their mass by a redshift of $`23`$, the epoch of peak quasar activityMF:01 . In the CDM paradigm, big halos grow through the buildup of smaller ones Press:74 ; if more than one of the progenitor halos carried a central SBH, a binary SBH will form following the merger Begelman:80 . Formation and decay of the SBH binary transfers energy to the background particles and lowers the density of matter in a region within a few $`\times r_h`$ around the binary Merritt:01 ; Milos:01 , roughly the scale of the spike, before the SBHs coalesce due to emission of gravitational radiation Peters:64 . In this paper we compute the dark matter density profiles of merging CDM halos containing SBHs and show that the net result of including the SBHs is to substantially lower the predicted flux of annhilation photons compared with halos lacking SBHs. Our results are relevant also to models that relate the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays to the decay of unstable superheavy relic particles in the galactic halo Berezinsky:97 .

We first calculated the probability that the MW halo has experienced a major merger event by generating multiple realizations of the merger history of a halo of $`10^{12}M_{}`$ using the algorithm described by Somerville and Kolatt Somerville:99 , as applied to the standard $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmological model ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0=0.7`$). This algorithm accurately reproduces the merger histories of halos seen in $`N`$-body simulations of structure formation Somerville:00  although at a value of the scale factor that may differ as much as $`20\%`$ from the true value Wechsler:02 . We recorded all merger events such that the mass of the smaller of the subclumps involved in the merger was above a given limit $`M_{\mathrm{lim}}`$. From $`600`$ of these realizations, we then computed the probability that a halo of $`10^{12}M_{}`$ at redshift $`z=0`$ had in its merger history at least one such event since a redshift of $`z=2`$. Fig. 1 shows this probability as a function of $`M_{\mathrm{lim}}`$. With $`68\%`$ confidence, a halo the size of the MW has experienced at least one merger since $`z=2`$ in which the mass of the smaller of the merging halos was above $`2\times 10^{11}M_{}`$, implying a mass ratio between subclumps of $`4:1`$ or less. Mergers with mass ratios of $`9:1`$ or less occurred with greater than $`90\%`$ probability.

To investigate the detailed effects of mergers on dark matter spikes, we used an $`N`$-body code to simulate interactions between CDM halos containing central SBHs. $`N`$-body models were generated from the spherical density law

$$\rho _{\mathrm{DM}}(x)=\rho _0x^{1.5}(1+x^{1.5})^1,xr/r_{\mathrm{DM}},$$
(1)
the “Moore profile” Moore:99 , one of a set of profiles found to accurately describe the halos generated in CDM structure formation simulations; $`r_{\mathrm{DM}}`$ defines the radius of transition between the inner cusp and the steeper outer falloff. Our choice of the Moore profile is conservative in the sense that other proposed fitting functions Navarro:97 ; Klypin:01a  have shallower central density cusps implying less prominent spikes. The Moore profile has a divergent mass; we truncated it spatially and generated velocities of the dark matter particles from a distribution function Merritt:85  which generates an isotropic velocity distribution near the center and increasingly circular orbits approaching the truncation radius. This procedure guarantees a state of detailed dynamical equilibrium in spite of the model’s hard edge. Since the dependence of the central densities of CDM halos on halo mass is not well determined, we investigated two values of the central density ratio $`\rho _1/\rho _2=\{1,1/3\}`$ for one of the unequal-mass mergers, where $`\rho `$ is defined as the asymptotic central density of the halos before growth of the SBH. A “black hole” was inserted into each $`N`$-body halo by slowly increasing the mass of a (Newtonian) central point particle from $`0`$ to $`M_{}`$ (see Ref. Merritt:98 ). We verified that the resulting density profile satisfied $`\rho _{\mathrm{DM}}r^{2.4}`$, $`r\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}r_h`$ as predicted by adiabatic theory (Gondolo:99 ; Fig. 2). Since the scale length of the MW halo is believed to be $`r_{\mathrm{DM}}20`$ kpc Klypin:01b , the dark matter density profile is essentially scale-free, $`\rho _{\mathrm{DM}}r^{1.5}`$, at all radii of interest and the mass chosen for the particle representing the MW SBH is fairly arbitrary. We tried two values, $`M_{}/M_{\mathrm{DM}}=\{0.01,0.03\}`$; the larger value was preferred since it resulted in a lower amplitude of Brownian motion of the SBH particle Dorband:01 . The same mass ratio was adopted for the SBH in the smaller halo. The parameters of the $`N`$-body runs are given in Table 1.

The mass scaling of our models was fixed by the measured mass of the MW SBH Ghez:98 ; Genzel:00 ; Eckart:02 ; we assumed $`M_{}=3\times 10^6M_{}`$. The length scale was determined by assuming that the dark matter in the MW produces a circular rotation velocity of $`90`$ km s-1 at the solar circle, $`R_{}=8`$ kpc Dehnen:98  and that its density profile is $`\rho _{\mathrm{DM}}r^{1.5}`$ inward of $`R_{}`$.

Simulated mergers of the halo models were carried out using a new, general-purpose $`N`$-body algorithm Milos:02a  that combines the elements of a hashed tree code with a quadrupolar expansion of force moments for the bulk dynamics, and the highly accurate Hermite predictor-corrector scheme for near-neighbor and massive-particle interactions. The code implements individual block time steps, individual stepping and softening criteria, and full functional parallelization. Interactions between SBH and dark-matter particles were unsoftened. Calculations were carried out using 16 processors on the Rutgers Sun HPC-10000 computer. Integrations were terminated when the separation between the SBH particles was less than $`1`$ pc (see Table 1).

Fig. 2 shows the effect of mergers on the dark-matter density profiles. The steep, $`\rho r^{2.4}`$ density spikes are destroyed in each case by the transfer of kinetic energy from the binary SBH to the dark matter particles. (Mergers without central SBHs tend to preserve spike slopes Barnes:99 ; Milos:01 .) The energy transfer takes place in two stages Milos:01 : before the two SBHs form a binary system, dynamical friction acting on the individual SBHs causes their orbits to decay; and after formation of a bound pair, dark matter particles which pass the binary within a few times the binary’s semi-major axis are ejected by the gravitational slingshot. The result is a lowered density out to a “core” radius $`r_c`$ of $`10100`$ pc and a density profile that rises inward of $`r_c`$ as a weak power-law, $`\rho r^{0.5}`$. The amount of damage done to the pre-existing spike increases with the mass of the secondary SBH, consistent with the expectation that the mass ejected by the binary is of order a few times $`M_2`$ Quinlan:96 . Final mean dark-matter densities within $`100`$ pc are $`510M_{}`$ pc-3 for all of the runs, rising inward to $`\rho 10^2M_{}`$ pc-3 for the $`1:1`$ mergers and $`10^3M_{}`$ pc-3 for the $`10:1`$ merger.

The differential photon flux along a direction that makes an angle $`\psi `$ with respect to the galactic center is

$$\frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }_\gamma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}=\underset{i}{}N_\gamma ^i\frac{\sigma _iv}{4\pi M_\chi ^2}_\psi \rho ^2𝑑l,$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the solid angle, $`\rho `$ is the neutralino density, and $`\sigma v`$ is the annihilation cross section (independent of $`v`$ for nonrelativistic particles); the sum is over all annihilation channels. $`N_\gamma =2`$ for $`\chi \chi \gamma \gamma `$ and $`N_\gamma =1`$ for $`\chi \chi Z\gamma `$ Bergstrom:98 . We are principally concerned with the final line-of-sight integral, $`J(\psi )=_\psi \rho ^2𝑑l`$, which contains all of the information about the halo density profile. Following earlier authors Bergstrom:98 ; Feng:01 , we write $`J`$ in dimensionless form as

$$J(\psi )=\frac{1}{8.5\mathrm{kpc}}\left(\frac{1}{0.3\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{cm}^3}\right)^2_\psi \rho ^2𝑑l$$
(3)
where the normalizing factors for length and density are roughly the radius of the solar circle and the local density of dark matter respectively. Finally we average the flux over the field of view assuming a circular aperture of size $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }`$ centered at $`\psi =0`$:

$$J\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}_{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}J(\psi )𝑑\psi .$$
(4)
Fig. 3 plots $`J`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at the end of the $`N`$-body simulations. For a typical atmospheric Cherenkov telescope angular acceptance of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }=10^3`$ sr, $`J`$ ranges from $`10^{3.2}`$ for the $`1:1`$ merger, to $`10^{3.9}`$ for the $`3:1`$ mergers, compared with $`10^{4.2}`$ for the initial halo model without a SBH-induced spike (computed assuming an inner cutoff at the Schwarzschild radius of the SBH). Thus the addition of SBHs to CDM halos results in a net decrease in the annihilation flux compared with SBH-free models, if mergers are taken into account. The values of $`J`$ in Fig. 3 are nevertheless large enough to allow testing of large parts of the neutralino parameter space using instruments like GLAST Ullio:01a .

We note that the predicted flux is a strong function of the merger parameters when observed with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10^6`$ (Fig. 3), corresponding roughly to the sphere of influence of the MW SBH. This fact might allow the merger history of the MW to be inferred from measurements of the annihilation flux on different angular scales.

The addition of SBHs to CDM halos could result in even lower densities than shown in Fig. 2. Halos as massive as that of the MW are believed to have formed through a succession of mergers, and the damage done by binary SBHs would be to some extent cumulative, resulting in shallower central profiles than found here Milos:01 ; Milos:02b . In addition, binary SBHs may eventually coalesce due to emission of gravitational radiation Peters:64 . The radiation so emitted carries linear momentum leading to a recoil of the SBH at a velocity $`v_{\mathrm{recoil}}10^210^3`$ km/s Bekenstein:73 ; Fitchett:83 ; Eardley:83 , and possibly even higher if the SBHs were rapidly spinning prior to coalescence Redmount:89 . Recoil velocities of this order would eject the coalesced SBH from the nucleus and its subsequent infall would displace dark matter particles (e.g. Nakano:99 ; Ullio:01b ). Quantitative evaluation of this effect will require more accurate estimates of $`v_{\mathrm{recoil}}`$ based on fully general-relativistic calculations of black hole mergers.

We thank P. Ullio for useful discussions. D. M. was supported by NSF grant AST 00-71099 and NASA grants NAG5-6037 and NAG5-9046, and L. V. was supported in part by NASA grant NAG5-7154. We thank the Center for Advanced Information Processing at Rutgers University for their generous allocation of CPU time.


text:
# On measurements of the energy and polarization distributions of high energy 𝛾-beams

## 1  Introduction

High energy $`\gamma `$-beams using in physical experiments have rather broad energy spectra. The measurement of the energy spectrum is an important and primary problem in such experiments. Often the intensity of $`\gamma `$-beams may be very high, and because of this it is impossible to use the number of $`\gamma `$-quanta counting techniques. An excellent example of this situation is the $`\gamma `$-beams on future $`e\gamma `$ and $`\gamma \gamma `$-colliders. In these cases for the correct interpretation of experimental data it will be important to know the spectral luminosity and its polarization characteristics.

In this paper we discuss a possibility to measure the spectral and polarization distributions of high intensity $`\gamma `$-beams with energies of hundreds GeV.

## 2 Main principles of measurement

Let us consider a parallel beam of high energy $`\gamma `$-quanta with some (unknown) energy distribution. We assume that this distribution is not changed for the time of measurements. In particular, this situation will take place on future $`\gamma \gamma `$-colliders. Really, these $`\gamma \gamma `$-colliders are accelerators with the periodic action when parameters of beams are maintained the same in each cycle.

It is known that $`\gamma `$-quanta are detected by their interactions with various media. The process of $`e^\pm `$-pair production followed by the development of electromagnetic cascade is the main result of such interaction. In this paper we consider a possibility to measure the energy and polarization distributions of high energy $`\gamma `$-beams with the use of thin layer of some specific medium, in which the $`e^\pm `$-pair production cross section is known with a high precision.

It is well known that the cross sections of $`e^\pm `$-pair production for high energy $`\gamma `$-quanta in amorphous media are practically independent of their energy . However, there exist media, in which the cross sections of $`e^\pm `$-pair production are dependent on the energy and polarization of high energy $`\gamma `$-quanta. The monochromatic laser wave  and oriented single crystals  are examples of such media (see Fig.1).

First we consider the possibility of measurements of the energy spectrum with the use of monochromatic laser wave. In this case the cross section of the $`e^\pm `$-pair production has the following form :

$$\sigma _{\gamma \gamma }(z)=\sigma _0(z)+\sigma _c(z)P_2\xi _2+\sigma _l(z)(\xi _1P_1+\xi _3P_3),$$
(1)
where $`z=\frac{m^2c^4}{E_\gamma E_l}`$ is the invariant variable, $`E_\gamma `$ and $`E_ł`$ are the energies of $`\gamma `$-quantum and laser photon, $`m`$ is the electron mass, c is the speed of light, $`\xi _i`$ and $`P_i,(i=13)`$ are the Stokes parameters of $`\gamma `$-quantum and laser photon, respectively. Functions $`\sigma _0,\sigma _c,\sigma _l`$ one can find in . These three functions are different from zero at $`0<z1`$. It means that the pair production in field of the laser wave is a threshold process. Note that the variable $`z`$ is written for the counter motion of $`\gamma `$-quanta and laser wave. Generally, $`z=4m^2c^4/s`$, where $`s`$ is the total energy of the $`\gamma `$-quantum and the laser photon in their center-of-mass system.

In the general case of two colliding beams with corresponding densities (numbers of particles per volume unite) $`n_1`$ and $`n_2`$, and velocities $`𝐯_\mathrm{𝟏},𝐯_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ the number of interactions in volume $`dV`$ for a time dt is equal to :

$$d\nu =\sigma \sqrt{(𝐯_\mathrm{𝟏}𝐯_\mathrm{𝟐})^\mathrm{𝟐}[𝐯_\mathrm{𝟏},𝐯_\mathrm{𝟐}]^\mathrm{𝟐}}n_1n_2dVdt,$$
(2)
where $`\sigma `$ is the cross section of interaction. In the case when $`𝐯_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ and $`𝐯_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ are directed along the straight line this equation has the following form:

$$d\nu =\sigma |v_1v_2|n_1n_2dVdt$$
(3)
For $`\gamma \gamma `$-interactions these equations are simplified:

$$d\nu =(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )\sigma n_1n_2dVdt,$$
(4)
$$d\nu =2\sigma n_1n_2dVdt$$
(5)
where $`\theta `$ is the angle between directions of motion of these beams.

Let $`n_\gamma `$ and $`n_l`$ are the densities of high energy $`\gamma `$-beam and laser beam, correspondingly. In this case it would appear reasonable that $`n_l>>n_\gamma `$. It means that we can neglect the variations of $`n_l`$-value in the considered process. Now we can find the total number of interactions in the thin volume $`V`$ of laser bunch

$$n_i(E_l,P_1,P_2,P_3)=2n_l\delta x_{E_{\gamma ,min}}^{E_{\gamma ,max}}N_\gamma (E_\gamma )\sigma _{\gamma \gamma }(E_\gamma ,E_l)𝑑E_\gamma ,$$
(6)
where $`N_\gamma `$ is the energy distribution of $`\gamma `$-beam, $`E_{\gamma ,min}`$ and $`E_{\gamma ,max}`$ are the minimum and maximum energies of $`\gamma `$-quanta, $`\delta x`$ is the thickness of the laser bunch ($`\delta xn_l\sigma _{\gamma \gamma }<<1`$). It can be assumed that the photon energy in Eq. (6) is variable. It means that the laser frequency is changed for each or some cycles of $`\gamma \gamma `$-collider. Besides, we propose that the number $`n_i`$ can be measured with the help of some detector and it can be a scintillation counter. The number of photons creating from passing relativistic particles through the counter in a time of some picoseconds are proportional to the number of these particles. It may be another type of detector, for example, a current transformer, etc.

However, the cross section $`\sigma _{\gamma \gamma }`$ depends on the Stokes parameters of the $`\gamma `$-beam and laser wave. Because of this, one can duplicate the total number of measurements of $`n_i`$-value. One-half of measurements must be done with the circular polarization of laser wave $`P_2=1`$ and the remaining part - with the $`P_2=1`$. Thus we can get the following equations:

$`n_0(E_l)=(n_i(E_l,0,1,0)+n_i(E_l,0,1,0))/2=`$ (7)
$`=2n_l\delta x{\displaystyle _{E_{\gamma ,min}}^{E_{\gamma ,max}}}N_\gamma (E_\gamma )\sigma _0(E_\gamma ,E_l)𝑑E_\gamma ,`$
$`n_c(E_l)=(n_i(E_l,0,1,0)n_i(E_l,0,1,0))/2=`$ (8)
$`=2n_l\delta x{\displaystyle _{E_{\gamma ,min}}^{E_{\gamma ,max}}}N_\gamma (E_\gamma )<\xi _2(E_\gamma )>\sigma _c(E_\gamma ,E_l)𝑑E_\gamma ,`$
where $`<\xi _2(E_\gamma )>`$ is the circular polarization everaged over set of $`\gamma `$-quanta with the energy equal to $`E_\gamma `$ . Eqs. (7)-(8) represent the system of two linear integral equations relative to functions $`N_\gamma (E_\gamma )`$ and $`N_\gamma (E_\gamma )<\xi _2(E_\gamma )>`$. From these equations one can find the energy and circular polarization distributions of $`\gamma `$-beam, if the dependencies $`n_0`$ and $`n_c`$ are known. Obviously, similar equations may be written for $`<\xi _1>`$ and $`<\xi _3>`$ Stokes parameters of $`\gamma `$-beam. It should be noted that Eqs. (4)-(5) are valid when the intensity of laser wave is not very high (see ).

The pair production process in single crystals  may also be used for the determination of the energy spectrum and linear polarization of $`\gamma `$-beams. Generally, this process depends on the two angles of orientation relative to direction of $`\gamma `$-quanta propagation. When $`\gamma `$-beam move near strong crystallographic plane and far from axes, the process is described with the help of the one orientation angle $`\theta _c`$ with respect to the plane. Fig.1c illustrates the pair production cross sections for unpolarized $`\gamma `$-quanta propagating in a silicon single crystal near (110) plane. One can see that the cross sections are changed very strongly at variations of the orientation angle in the range 0.2 - 1 mrad. Unlikely, the cross section of pair production in single crystals depends on the linear polarization and is independent of the circular polarization  (nevertheless, see ). It means that only $`<\xi _1>`$ and $`<\xi _3>`$ Stokes parameters may be determined with the help of the single crystals.

However, the circular polarization of $`\gamma `$-beam can be transformed into a linear one with the help of laser bunch , and thereafter can be analyzed by a single crystal. Note that this transformation take a place without intensity losses of $`\gamma `$-beam (if $`E_{\gamma ,max}<m^2c^4/E_l`$).

Eq. (6) can be rewritten in the following differential form:

$$\frac{dn_i}{dE_e}(E_e,E_p)=n_2\delta x_{E_{\gamma ,min}}^{E_{\gamma ,max}}N_\gamma (E_\gamma )\frac{d\sigma _{\gamma \gamma }}{dE_e}(E_\gamma ,E_e,E_p)𝑑E_\gamma ,$$
(9)
where $`\frac{d\sigma \gamma \gamma }{dE_e}`$ is the differential cross section for production $`e^\pm `$ pair when one of the particles has energy equal to $`E_e`$, $`E_p`$ is a possible parameter such as an orientation angle, laser photon energy, etc. This equation is written for the fixed target $`(v_2=0)`$. In principle, one can measure the $`dn_i/dE_e`$-value with the use of the magnetic analysis. Then Eq. (9) is a linear integral equation and its solution is the energy distribution of $`\gamma `$-beam. It is obvious, the measurement of the energy distribution of $`e^\pm `$-pairs allows one to use various media, for example, amorphous ones. Note, equations similar to Eqs. (7)-(8) one can write in differential form too.

Real $`\gamma `$-beams have some angular divergence. The constancy of the cross section $`\sigma _{\gamma \gamma }`$ in the limits of the divergence is necessary for using Eqs. (6)-(9). One can see from Eq. (4) that this condition are true for the laser medium, if the divergence less then tens mrad. In the case of the usage of silicon single crystals oriented near (110) plane the divergence $`\delta \varphi `$ of the $`\gamma `$-beam must satisfy (only in one direction) the following condition: $`\delta \varphi /\theta _c0.02`$.

## 3 Simulation

In this section we present some calculations, which can help to feel the problems of realization of energy and polarization measurements on the future $`\gamma \gamma `$-colliders. For our calculations we select $`E_{\gamma ,max}=400`$ GeV. This energy corresponds to the electron beam energy about $`500`$ GeV.

For a parallel and pointlike electron beam the number of scattered photons with the energy in the range from $`E_\gamma `$ to $`E_\gamma +dE_\gamma `$  is

$$\stackrel{~}{dN_\gamma }=N_e\frac{k}{\sigma _{ce}}\frac{d\sigma _{ce}}{dE_\gamma }dE_\gamma $$
(10)
where $`N_e`$ is the number of electrons, $`k`$ is the conversion coefficient, $`\sigma _{ce}`$ is the cross section of the Compton effect. For simulations we select $`\gamma `$-beam energy distribution in the form: $`d\sigma _{ce}/dE_\gamma `$. The form of the energy and polarization distributions depends on the helicities $`\lambda ,P_c`$ of electron and laser beams . Fig.2 illustrates these distributions for two cases: 1)$`2\lambda =1,P_c=1`$ ; 2)$`2\lambda =1,P_c=1`$.

We calculate the $`n_0`$ and $`n_c`$-values (see Eqs. (7-8)) for the above-mentioned the energy and polarization distributions of $`\gamma `$-beam. Fig.3 illustrates these calculations in the laser wave and silicon single crystal. Note that $`n_c`$ is equal to zero for single crystals. One can see that these functions are simple enough and have smooth shapes.

Knowing $`n_0`$ and $`n_c`$-functions one can make an attempt to find the energy and polarization distributions of $`\gamma `$-beam for the above-mentioned cases. The simplest way to do it is to represent of the unknown distributions in the form of polynomials

$$N_\gamma =\underset{k=0}{\overset{N}{}}a_kE_\gamma ^k,$$
(11)
$$N_\gamma <\xi _2>=\underset{k=0}{\overset{N}{}}b_kE_\gamma ^k,$$
(12)
where $`a_k`$ and $`b_k`$ are the constant coefficients. Substitution of Eqs. (11)-(12) in Eqs. (7)-(8) allows to obtain the two systems of linear algebraic equations for different $`E_l`$-values. The solutions of these equations are $`a_k`$ and $`b_k`$-coefficients.

We select N=7 for calculations . We also select the 8 various $`E_l`$-values in the follows manner: $`E_l=E_{l,min}+\delta E_lk,(k=07)`$. Here $`E_{l,min}`$ and $`\delta E_l`$ are the minimal energy and step of energy variation for the laser photon. Some series of calculations were done, in which $`E_{l,min},\delta E_l`$, are varied from 0.8 and 0.25 eV to 1.5 and 1 eV, correspondingly. The obtained in such a manner approximate polynomials are described good enough as the whole energy and polarization distribution for two cases. Fig.2 illustrates the typical description with the help of polynomials when $`E_{l,min}=1`$ eV and $`\delta E_l=0.25eV`$. One can see that the narrow range near the end of energy and polarization distributions (from 390 to 400 GeV) are described incorrectly for the second case. However, if we select $`E_{l,min}=0.7`$ eV and $`\delta E_l=0.05`$ eV, then the polynomial description in a range from 300 to 400 GeV becomes good. Note, it is impossible to describe properly the origin of all distributions because of the threshold in $`\gamma `$-beam and laser photon interactions (see Fig.1). The agreement on fig.2 between the polynomial and true distributions at small energies one can explain by the simple forms of curves or by randomness. Similar calculations were also done with the use of the cross section in silicon single crystals (see Fig.2c) at variations of the orientation angle from 0.2 to 1 mrad. These calculations show good agreement between the computed and initial energy distributions.

We suppose that there is no problem to solve the integral equations numerically, if the $`n_0`$ and $`n_c`$-functions are known with a high precision. However, these functions will be obtained as result of measurements. Because of this, it is important to understand the influence on the reconstruction of the energy and polarization distributions such factors as fluctuations and systematic errors. Our estimations on the base of the polynomial model show that solutions of Eqs. (7)-(8) are stable enough relatively to small uniformly-distributed shifts of $`n_0,n_c`$-values (of about 1% to their absolute values). On the other hand, small (about 0.01%-0.001%) fluctuations of the above pointed values do not allow one to describe satisfactory the energy and polarization distributions with the help of polynomials at N=7. However, this result is obvious: fluctuations distort the true distributions and more high degree of polynomials or another class of approximation functions are required for their description. We think that for the discount of fluctuations it will be properly to correct the measured $`n_0`$ and $`n_c`$-values, for example, by the method of least squares.

## 4 Discussion

In this paper we have considered the possibility to measure the energy and polarization distributions of high energy $`\gamma `$-beam with intensity which does not allow to counter every $`\gamma `$-quantum. This situation is expected on future $`e\gamma `$ and $`\gamma \gamma `$-colliders. One of main parameters of these colliders is the luminosity. The relations for spectral luminosity one can find in . In the general case, the knowledge of the energy and polarization distributions does not determinate completely the spectral luminosity and such important characteristics as the everaged $`<\xi _i\xi _j>,(i,j=13)`$ Stokes parameters. However, we think that measurements of the above pointed distributions will be very useful for determination of the luminosity but further investigations in this field are required. Besides, in specific cases (but important for practice) the spectral luminosity is factored, and the energy and polarization distributions of both the $`\gamma `$-beams are multipliers in the product of some values. The spectral luminosity of $`e\gamma `$ and $`\gamma \gamma `$-colliders will be determined by the use of the various calibration processes . Contrary to this practice the solution of the above pointed problem allows one to carry out the measurements for some hundreds cycles.

## 5 Conclusion

A new possibility for the measurements of the energy and polarization distributions of $`\gamma `$-beams in hundreds GeV is proposed. This possibility may be useful for practical applications on future $`e\gamma `$ and $`\gamma \gamma `$-colliders. However, further development of this possibility is required. In particular, it is necessary to find solutions of the following problems:

i) the choice of optimal algorithm for solution of Eqs. (7)-(9);

ii) the reconstruction of spectral luminosity on the base of measurements of energy distributions of $`\gamma `$-beams;

iii) the choice of the detector type for registration of $`e^\pm `$-pairs;

iv) the estimation of the background and its minimization.

At the present time the considered method may be investigated experimentally on $`\gamma `$-beams of electron accelerators .

We believe that another important problem may be solved on the base of our consideration. This is the problem of experimental determination of the equivalent photon spectrum in peripheral collisions of relativistic ions .

The author would like to thank V.G. Vasilchenko for useful discussion.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

One of the most exciting aspects of modern astrophysics is the possible existence of a new family of compact stars, which are made entirely of deconfined u,d,s quark matter (strange quark matter (SQM)). These strange quark matter stars are called in the scientific literature strange stars (SS). They differ from neutron stars, where quarks are confined within neutrons, protons, and eventually within other hadrons (hadronic matter stars). The possible existence of SS is a direct consequence of the so called strange matter hypothesis . According to this hypothesis, SQM (in equilibrium with respect to the weak interactions) could be the true ground state of matter. In other words, one assumes the energy per baryon of SQM (at the baryon density where the pressure is equal to zero) to be less than the lowest energy per baryon found in nuclei, which is about 930 MeV for 56Fe. According to the strange matter hypothesis, the ordinary state of matter, in which quarks are confined within hadrons, is a metastable state . The strange matter hypothesis does not conflict with the existence of atomic nuclei as conglomerates of nucleons, or with the stability of ordinary matter .

From a basic point of view the equation of state for SQM should be calculated solving QCD at finite density. As we know, such a fundamental approach is presently not doable. Therefore one has to rely on phenomenological models. In this work, we use two simple phenomenological models for the equation of state (EOS) of strange quark matter. One is a model  which is related to the MIT bag model for hadrons. The other is a model proposed by Dey et al. .

## 2 The mass–radius relation for compact stars

To distinguish whether a compact star is a neutron star or a strange star, one has to find a clear observational signature. There is a striking qualitative difference in the mass–radius (MR) relation of SS with respect to that of neutron stars (see Fig. 1). For SS with “small” ($`M<<M_{max}`$) gravitational mass, $`M`$ is proportional to $`R^3`$. In contrast, neutron stars have radii that decrease with increasing mass. This is a consequence of the underlying interaction between the stellar constituents which makes “low” mass SS self-bound objects (see e.g. ref.) contrary to the case of neutron stars which are bound by gravity. As we know, there is a minimum mass for a neutron star ($`M_{min}0.1M_{}`$). In the case of a strange star, there is essentially no minimum mass. As the central density $`\rho _c\rho _s`$ (surface density), a strange star (or better a strangelet for very low baryon number) is a self–bound system, until the baryon number becomes so low that finite size effects destabilize it.

The transient X-ray burst source SAX J1808.4-3658 was discovered in September 1996 by the BeppoSAX satellite. Two bright type-I X-ray bursts were detected, each lasting less than 30 seconds. Analysis of the bursts in SAX J1808.4-3658 indicates that it is 4 kpc distant and has a peak X-ray luminosity of $`6\times 10^{36}`$erg/s in its bright state, and a X-ray luminosity lower than $`10^{35}`$erg/s in quiescence . Coherent pulsations at a period of 2.49 milliseconds were discovered . The binary nature of SAX J1808.4-3658 was firmly established with the detection of a 2 hour orbital period  as well as with the optical identification of the companion star. SAX J1808.4-3658 is the first pulsar to show both coherent pulsations in its persistent emission and X-ray bursts.

A mass–radius (MR) relation for the compact star in SAX J1808.4-3658 has been obtained by Li et al.  using the following two requirements. (i) Detection of X-ray pulsations requires that the inner radius $`R_0`$ of the accretion flow should be larger than the stellar radius $`R`$. In other words, the stellar magnetic field must be strong enough to disrupt the disk flow above the stellar surface. (ii) The radius $`R_0`$ must be less than the so-called co-rotation radius $`R_\mathrm{c}`$, i.e. the stellar magnetic field must be weak enough that accretion is not centrifugally inhibited: $`R_0\stackrel{<}{}R_\mathrm{c}=[GMP^2/(4\pi ^2)]^{1/3}`$. Here $`G`$ is the gravitation constant, $`M`$ is the mass of the star, and $`P`$ is the pulse period. The inner disk radius $`R_0`$ is generally evaluated in terms of the Alfvén radius $`R_\mathrm{A}`$, at which the magnetic and material stresses balance : $`R_0=\xi R_\mathrm{A}=\xi [B^2R^6/\dot{M}(2GM)^{1/2}]^{2/7}`$, where $`B`$ and $`\dot{M}`$ are respectively the surface magnetic field and the mass accretion rate of the pulsar, and $`\xi `$ is a parameter of order of unity almost independent  of $`\dot{M}`$. Since X-ray pulsations in SAX J1808.4-3658 were detected over a wide range of mass accretion rate (say, from $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{min}}`$ to $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{max}}`$), the two conditions (i) and (ii) give $`R\stackrel{<}{}R_0(\dot{M}_{\mathrm{max}})<R_0(\dot{M}_{\mathrm{min}})\stackrel{<}{}R_\mathrm{c}`$. Next, we assume that the mass accretion rate $`\dot{M}`$ is proportional to the X-ray flux $`F`$ observed with RXTE. This is guaranteed by the fact that the X-ray spectrum of SAX J1808.4-3658 was remarkably stable and there was only slight increase in the pulse amplitude when the X-ray luminosity varied by a factor of $`100`$ during the 1998 April/May outburst . Therefore, Li et al.  get the following upper limit of the stellar radius: $`R<(F_{min}/F_{max})^{2/7}R_\mathrm{c}`$, or

$$R<27.5\left(\frac{F_{min}}{F_{max}}\right)^{2/7}\left(\frac{P}{2.49\mathrm{ms}}\right)^{2/3}\left(\frac{M}{M_{}}\right)^{1/3}\mathrm{km},$$
(1)
where $`F_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{min}}`$ denote the X-ray fluxes measured during X-ray high- and low-state, respectively, $`M_{}`$ is the solar mass. Note that in writing inequality (1) it is assumed that the pulsar’s magnetic field is basically dipolar 111 see ref. for arguments to support this hypothesis. See also ref. for a study of the influence on the MR relation for SAX J1808.4-3658 of a quadrupole magnetic moment, and of a non-standard disk–magnetosphere interaction model..

Given the range of X-ray flux at which coherent pulsations were detected, inequality (1) defines a limiting curve in the MR plane for SAX J1808.4-3658, as plotted in the dashed curve in Fig. 1. The authors of ref. adopted the flux ratio $`F_{\mathrm{max}}/F_{\mathrm{min}}100`$ from the measured X-ray fluxes with the RXTE during the 1998 April/May outburst . The dashed line $`R=R_\mathrm{s}2GM/c^2`$ represents the Schwartzschild radius - the lower limit of the stellar radius to prevent the star collapsing into a black hole. Thus the allowed range of the mass and radius of SAX J1808.4-3658 is the region confined by these two dashed curves in Fig. 1.

In the same figure, we report the theoretical MR relations (solid curves) for neutron stars given by some recent realistic models for the EOS of dense matter (see ref. for references to the EOS models). Models BBB1 and BBB2 are relative to “conventional” neutron stars (i.e. the core of the star is assumed to be composed by an uncharged mixture of neutrons, protons, electrons and muons in equilibrium with respect to the weak interaction). The curve labeled Hyp depicts the MR relation for a neutron star in which hyperons are considered in addition to nucleons as hadronic constituents. The MR curve labeled $`K^{}`$ is relative to neutron stars with a Bose-Einstein condensate of negative kaons in their cores. It is clearly seen in Fig. 1 that none of the neutron star MR curves is consistent with SAX J1808.4-3658. Including rotational effects will shift the $`MR`$ curves to up-right in Fig. 1 , and does not help improve the consistency between the theoretical neutron star models and observations of SAX J1808.4-3658. Therefore SAX J1808.4-3658 is not well described by a neutron star model. The curve B90 in Fig. 1 gives the MR relation for SS described by the schematic EOS of ref.  for massless non-interacting quarks with B = 90 MeV/fm3. The two curves SS1 and SS2 give the MR relation for SS calculated with the EOS of Dey et al. for two parameterizations which give absolutely stable SQM according to the strange matter hypothesis. Clearly a strange star model is more compatible with SAX J1808.4-3658 than a neutron star one.

Stringent constraints on the MR relation have been also obtained for the compact star in the X-ray source 4U 1728-34 ($`M<1.0M_{}`$ and $`R<9\mathrm{km}`$) , for the isolated compact star RX J1856-37 ($`M=0.9\pm 0.2M_{}`$ and $`R=6_1^{+2}\mathrm{km}`$)  (see also ) and for the X-ray pulsar Her X-1 ($`M=1.1`$$`1.8M_{}`$ and $`R=6.0`$$`7.7\mathrm{km}`$) . Clearly it is very difficult to model the MR relation for these compact objects (see e.g. Fig. 1) using any realistic EOS for neutron star matter.

## 3 Astrophysical implications and final remarks

If the strange matter hypothesis is true, then a neutron star could “decay” to a strange star (NS$``$SS conversion) once a “seed” of SQM forms in the neutron star’s core or it comes from the galactic space . The conversion of the whole star occurs in a very short time , in the range 1 ms – 1 s, and liberates a total energy  of a few $`10^{53}`$ erg. The NS$``$SS conversion has been proposed  as a possible energy source to power $`\gamma `$-ray bursts at cosmological (redshift $`z`$ 1 – 3) distances .

Strange stars are the natural site for a color superconducting state of quark matter . Particularly, there could be a region inside a strange star where quark matter is in a crystalline (“LOFF”) superconducting phase . This raises the possibility to successfully model pulsar glitches with strange stars .

A very unpleasant consequence of the strange matter hypothesis could be the possible formation of stable negatively charged strangelets during heavy ion collisions at RHIC or at LHC. In fact, it has been pointed out  that these “dangerous” negatively charged strangelets may trigger the disruption of our planet. Luckily, there are various theoretical as well as experimental arguments  to rule out this “Disaster Scenario”.

The main result of the present work (i.e. the likely existence of strange stars) is based on the analysis of observational data for the X-ray sources SAX J1808.4-3658. The interpretation of these data is done using standard models for the accretion mechanism, which is responsible for the observed phenomena. The present uncertainties in our knowledge of the accretion mechanism, and the disk–magnetosphere interaction, do not allow us to definitely rule out the possibility of a neutron star for this X-ray source. For example, making a priori the conservative assumption that the compact object in SAX J1808.4-3658 is a neutron star, and using a MR relation similar to our eq.(1), Psaltis and Chakrabarty  try to constrain disk–magnetosphere interaction models or to infer the presence of a quadrupole magnetic moment in the compact star.

SAX J1808.4-3658, 4U 1728-34, RX J1856-37, and Her X-1 are not the only X-ray sources which could harbour a strange star. Recent studies have shown that the compact objects associated with the X-ray burster 4U 1820-30  and the bursting X-ray pulsar GRO J1744-28  are likely strange star candidates. For each of these X-ray sources (strange star candidates) the conservative assumption of a neutron star as the central accretor would require some particular (possibly ad hoc) assumption about the nature of the plasma accretion flow and/or the structure of the stellar magnetic field. On the other hand, the possibility of a strange star gives a simple and unifying picture for all the systems mentioned above.


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# Elastic to plastic crossover below the peak effect in the vortex solid of YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals

Present address: \]Physics Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.

(July 5, 2001)

## Abstract

We report on transport and ac susceptibility studies below the peak effect in twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals. We find that disorder generated at the peak effect can be partially inhibited by forcing vortices to move with an ac driving current. The vortex system can be additionally ordered below a well-defined temperature where elastic interactions between vortices overcome pinning-generated stress and a plastic to elastic crossover seems to occur. The combined effect of these two processes results in vortex structures with different mobilities that give place to history effects.

The complexity of vortex dynamics in type II superconductors arises from the competing roles of vortex-vortex interactions promoting order in the vortex structure (VS) and random defects in the sample promoting disorder. Complex dynamical behavior of vortices has been usually accompanied by the phenomenon known as the “peak effect” (PE), which refers to a peak feature in the critical current density, $`J_c`$, as a function of temperature or magnetic field.sorbo ; pippard ; lo ; kes ; shobo ; ling1 ; zies ; larkin ; hend  The PE has been observed below the upper critical field, $`H_{c2}`$(T), in conventional superconductorssorbo ; kes ; shobo ; hend  and just below the melting temperature,larkin  $`T_m`$, in high $`T_c`$ materials such as YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals.ling1 ; zies  A qualitative explanation of the PE was proposed forty years ago by Pippardpippard  who argued that $`J_c`$ increases anomalously if the rigidity of the vortex lattice decreases faster than the pinning interaction as the normal state is approached. This idea was further developed by Larkin and Ovchinnikov.lo  Nevertheless, there are still fundamental questions regarding the underlying physics of this phenomenon, especially in relation with the appearance of topological defects in the VS at the PE and its connection with its dynamic response.

In this paper, we report on history effects in twinned YBa2Cu3O7 crystals in the vicinity of the PE as observed in ac transport and ac susceptibility measurements. Vortex states with different degrees of mobility have been observed in both low,kes ; shobo ; hend ; kupf  and high $`T_c`$ materials.zies ; ishida ; sov1 ; sov2  It has been frequently argued that the difference in the mobility reflects distinct degrees of topological order in the VS as it is driven through the random pinning potentials: in a disordered and defective VS the interaction with pinning centers would be more efficient than in a more ordered lattice because of a reduction of the effective shear modulus or of the correlation volume of the lattice.kes ; hend ; sov1 ; sov2  In fact, changes in the degree of order of the VS have been directly observed with neutron scattering experiments when the VS is shaken with oscillating currents (or fields).thor

Having these results in mind, our experimental observations suggest that ac currents flowing during the cooling of the sample through the PE (either injected in a transport experiment or induced in an ac susceptibility measurement) partially inhibit the disordering of the VS that normally occurs at the PE. As disorder heals, the VS is trapped in a more mobile state.

An additional contribution to the vortex lattice healing arises at low temperatures far from the PE where our results suggest that a plastic to elastic crossover occurs.kosh  As the sample is cooled, the vortex lattice rigidity increases and, below a certain threshold temperature, the vortex-vortex interactions become more relevant relative to the pinning potentials. This further contributes in ordering the VS, which is in a more mobile state on warming and thereby hysteretical behavior is observed.

We will first refer to our transport data and next to our ac susceptibility results from which identical conclusions can be derived. Resistance measurements in crystal AcrystalA  employed the standard four probe technique with contacts made with silver epoxy over evaporated gold pads (contact resistance below 1 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$). The sample (dimensions 0.7 mm $`\times `$ 0.3 mm $`\times `$ 10 $`\mu `$m) has a sharp resistive zero field transition at 93.2 K and a transition width of 500 mK (10%-90% criterion). Twin boundaries (TB) observed with polarized light microscopy are distributed as indicated in the inset of Fig.1.

A sinusoidal ac current $`I_{ac}`$ (peak) = 30 mA of frequency $`f=37`$ Hz was applied in the $`ab`$ plane of the sample, $`45^{}`$ away from the TB planes. The voltage signal was preamplified with a low noise transformer and its in phase value, $`V(T)`$, was measured with a lock-in amplifier as a function of temperature. We found that Joule dissipation at the current contacts drove the sample 1.4 K above the measured temperature. The temperature shift (assumed constant for our temperature window) occurs almost immediately after the measuring current is applied (i.e, at time scales well below our amplifier integrating time constant). This shift is straightforwardly determined by matching the linear normal state resistivity curves, $`R(T)`$, for $`I_{ac}`$ = 30 mA with the $`R(T)`$ curves obtained with a much lower applied current for which heating is negligible. We have therefore added 1.4 K to our thermometer readings to plot our data as a function of the temperature of the sample.

In Fig. 1, left inset, we show the zero field transition in dotted line as compared to the transition in applied dc field shown in full line. The magnetic field $`H_{dc}=3`$ kOe was applied at an angle $`\theta =20^{}`$ from the crystallographic $`c`$ axis, and its direction was chosen so that $`H_{dc}`$ pointed out of all the twin planes to avoid the Bose-glass phasesov1 ; nelson ; boris  (see inset in Fig 1). The main panel of Fig. 1 is an enlarged area of the transition shown in the upper inset, and it presents transport measurements that correspond to different thermomagnetic histories of the sample. Our measurements were performed by varying $`T`$ in the direction indicated by the arrows at a rate of $`\pm `$ 0.3 K/min. Full symbols were obtained in a field and current cooling procedure ($`I_{ac}`$C C), i.e. the dc magnetic field and the ac current were applied in the normal state and the sample was then cooled. Empty symbols represent the warming curve ($`I_{ac}`$C W) obtained immediately after measuring the $`I_{ac}`$C C curve (full symbols).

When the temperature is increased, the resistance first increases, then starts decreasing and finally increases again. Since the resistance is related to the average vortex velocity, the dip in the resistance indicates a less mobile VS. This behavior signals an enhancement of pinning, and the dip in the resistance is accompanied by a peak in $`J_c`$ identified as the PE.ling1 ; hend  The temperature where it happens, $`T_p`$, is indicated with an arrow. Above the PE, the critical current reduces to zero at the melting line.boris ; hugo  The main results in Fig. 1 are that, below $`T_p`$, we find a hysteretic behavior that is limited to a temperature interval around the peak in the resistance and that the response becomes reversible below a well defined temperature $`T^{}84.2`$ K.

It has been shown that history effects observed in ac susceptibility in YBa2Cu3O7 can be understood in terms of a dynamical reordering of the VS caused by the induced ac currents that shake the vortex system.sov1 ; sov2  Moreover, the ac response changes in an approximately logarithmic way with the number of ac cycles.sov2  In transport experiments, it is the applied ac current that forces vortices to move inside the sample and a dynamical reordering occurs. Non-saturated ordering as a possible explanation for the different vortex mobilities in the cooling and warming curves of Fig. 1 is discarded by the observation of reversible partial temperature cycles performed as indicated by dotted arrows in Fig. 1.com1  This result shows that the hysteretical behavior is related to a change in the character of the vortex lattice motion at $`T^{}`$. This change, we believe, is determined by the relation between the pinning induced shear stress and the plastic limit of vortex motion associated with the vortex lattice shear modulus $`c_{66}`$ (see for example Ref. kosh, ). At low temperatures, well below the PE, the VS becomes more rigid and it enters an elastic regime where elastic interactions of the VS dominate over pinning. The enhanced elastic interaction enables the VS to be in a more mobile state on warming. Notice that at high temperatures, where elastic constants have dropped, the $`I_{ac}`$C C and $`I_{ac}`$C W cases coincide.

Following these results, there are two processes that may lead to the increase in the order and mobility of the VS: one process is related to the increase of the elastic constants over pinning at low temperatures whereas the second one is due to the vortex motion induced by the driving current (at all temperatures). Between $`T^{}`$ and $`T_p`$, the VS can contain a certain density of defects that the ac current appears not to be able to heal in our experimental time scales.

A question that arises is what consequences has cooling the sample through the PE without rearranging the VS (with a driving current). To answer this question, the sample was cooled from the normal state with applied dc field and with zero applied current down to a certain starting temperature, $`T_s`$, and then the warming curve was measured. This Z$`I_{ac}`$C W procedure was repeated reaching each time a different $`T_s`$. The results are plotted in full symbols in Fig. 2. For comparison, we also plot the $`I_{ac}`$C W results of Fig. 1 in open symbols. These are revealing results. The measured resistance follows different paths as a function of temperature if $`T_s`$ is above a certain crossover value ($`84.2`$ K). It should be noted that the sample has in fact been cooled 1.4 K below the temperature at which each Z$`I_{ac}`$C W curve in Fig. 2 seems to start (because of heating). For measurements that begin above the crossover temperature, the VS has less mobility and the highest measured Z$`I_{ac}`$C W dissipation level that corresponds to the lower starting temperature ($`<70`$ K) is not reached. As the starting temperature increases towards the PE temperature, $`T_p`$, this becomes more evident. At high enough $`T_s`$’s, the ac current is unable to move the lattice at levels that are comparable with, for example, those obtained through the $`I_{ac}`$C W procedure. In contrast, at temperatures below the crossover, the highest measured Z$`I_{ac}`$C W dissipation level is reached after a rapid transient. This transient is due to a dynamical reordering that occurs after the measuring ac current is applied and leads to a more mobile state.sov1

It is important to note that dissipation in the Z$`I_{ac}`$C W case is lower than in the $`I_{ac}`$C W one at low temperatures. This implies that an overall more ordered VS is obtained when cooling the sample in the presence of the ac current. As predicted in Ref. sov1, , we suspect that this is due to the inhomogeneous flow of the current that leads, in the Z$`I_{ac}`$C W case, to the reordering of the VS only close to the border of the sample where the highest currents flow. Another possible explanation is that the current inhibits the formation of a multiple domain (polycrystalline) VS when crossing the PE.

We turn now to our ac susceptibility results. We performed measurements in sample BcrystalB  (dimensions 1 mm $`\times `$ 0.5 mm $`\times `$ 30 $`\mu `$m) using a conventional mutual inductance susceptometer at a frequency $`f`$ = 10.22 kHz and ac magnetic field amplitude $`h_{ac}=2`$ Oe applied in the $`c`$ direction. This ac field is superimposed to a constant magnetic field $`H_{dc}=3`$ kOe oriented as described above. The distribution of TB ’s in crystal B is similar to that in crystal A (see inset in Fig. 1). The sample has a sharp zero field superconducting transition at 92 K and a transition width of 300 mK (10%-90% criterion) as determined with $`h_{ac}=1`$ Oe.

Fig. 3 shows the real component of the ac susceptibility as a function of temperature, $`\chi `$’(T). Temperature was varied as indicated by the arrows. The upper inset shows the superconducting zero field transition in dotted line and the $`H_{dc}=3`$ kOe transition in full line. The dc field transition is enlarged in the main panel, where hysteretic response in observed. The lower curve corresponds to a field cool procedure. The dc and ac magnetic fields were applied in the normal state before cooling the sample. We refer to this case as $`F_{ac}`$C C. The curve $`F_{ac}`$C W was measured on warming immediately after measuring the $`F_{ac}`$C C curve. In the last case, the sample clearly presents lower shielding capability, $`|\chi ^{}|`$, at intermediate temperatures, in accordance with the higher mobility that corresponds to a more ordered VS (compare with Fig. 1). The ac currents induced by the applied ac field seem to have the same effect on the VS as the ac transport currents, namely, they enable the vortex system to access to more mobile states. The PE is also observed with this technique, where the shielding capability increases anomalously with temperature and a dip in $`\chi `$’ appears before the VS melts.

In Fig. 4 we present ac susceptibility data that match our transport data of Fig. 2. In open symbols, we have plotted the $`F_{ac}`$C W data (of Fig. 3) as a reference. Solid symbols represent the warming curves that were measured immediately after cooling the sample down to different temperatures in zero applied ac field (Z$`F_{ac}`$C W). Note that the shielding capability in these warming curves is always larger than in the $`F_{ac}`$C C or $`F_{ac}`$C W procedures. As the system is cooled to different temperatures with no applied ac field, different responses are observed. At low temperatures, after a short transient behavior, a response independent of the starting temperature is reached. As the starting temperature rises and approaches $`T_p`$, the VS remains less mobile, the sample presents stronger shielding capability and the transient behavior does not lead to a common response. It is worth pointing out that performing equivalent analyses, we have drawn identical conclusions from the transport and ac susceptibility measurements.

To summarize, we have presented ac transport and ac susceptibility measurements in YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals. We showed that the VS orders assisted by the motion induced by ac currents. The increase of elastic interactions against pinning at low temperatures leads to a crossover in the nature of the vortex motion that favors this reordering. This crossover from a plastic regime (which defines the characteristic motion of vortices at temperatures close to the peak effect) to an elastic regime at low temperatures would be responsible for the observed hysteresis between $`T^{}`$ and $`T_p`$.

The authors acknowledge F. de la Cruz and A. Silhanek for fruitful discussions. S.O.V. thanks L. Civale for his assistance in Centro Atómico Bariloche. E.O. and V.B. are members of CONICET. This research was partially supported by UBACyT TX-90, CONICET PID No 4634.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The purpose of this talk is to review the work reported in . Unlike other talks which report on well understood results, this talk should be viewed more as a research proposal. We will try to motivate a line of research and to suggest a certain conjecture.

The recent exciting advances in string theory were limited to strings in time independent backgrounds. We know very little about backgrounds which depend on time. More specifically, our understanding is limited to backgrounds which admit in asymptotic spatial infinity a global timelike Killing vector. This condition rules out interesting backgrounds like those which are important in cosmology.

Understanding cosmological solutions and especially cosmological singularities in the context of string theory is interesting both from a conceptual and from a pragmatic point of view. We can hope that through cosmology the much desired connection between string theory and experiment can materialize.

When cosmological singularities are considered two situations immediately come to mind:

* Big bang singularity. Here the Universe starts from a point and expands from it. A commonly held point of view is that it is meaningless to ask “What happened before the big bang?” because the big bang is the beginning of time. According to this point of view we should understand the initial conditions of the Universe or its wave function at the time of the big bang. Another point of view, which appears for example in the work on pre-big bang scenarios , holds that the Universe had an interesting history before the big bang. Here we will follow this point of view, but our pre-big bang history differs significantly from that in .
* Big crunch singularity. Here the Universe collapses to a point. This is simply the time reversal process of the big bang singularity, and therefore if the big bang is the beginning of time, the big crunch is the end of time. In this case special final conditions for the Universe or its final wave function at the time of the big crunch have to be specified. Having a specific final condition independent of the details of the system might lead to violations of causality – no matter what the state of the Universe is at a given time, it always ends at the same state. Therefore, it is perhaps more intuitive to expect that there is future beyond the big crunch. If this is the case, then, by time reversal, there must also be past before the big bang.

## 2 Singularity in our Past

In this section we will review the well known argument showing that if the Universe expands today, it always expanded and must have started at a singularity (our discussion is similar to that in ). In other words, it is impossible for a flat Universe like ours to undergo a period of contraction and then a period of expansion.

Using Weyl rescaling, the Einstein term in the four dimensional Lagrangian can be made canonical and all the terms in the Lagrangian with at most two derivatives are

$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}G_{IJ}(\varphi )\varphi ^I\varphi ^JV(\varphi )`$ (2.1)
(for simplicity we neglect gauge fields). For homogeneous and isotropic configurations the energy density and the pressure are

$`\rho =T_{00}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}G_{IJ}(\varphi )\dot{\varphi }^I\dot{\varphi }^J+V(\varphi )`$ (2.2)
$`p={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}g^{ij}T_{ij}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}G_{IJ}(\varphi )\dot{\varphi }^I\dot{\varphi }^JV(\varphi )`$ (2.3)
From these we derive that in unitary theories, where the scalar field kinetic term is non-negative

$`p+\rho =G_{IJ}(\varphi )\dot{\varphi }^I\dot{\varphi }^J0`$ (2.4)
This is known as the null energy condition.

For metrics of the form

$`ds^2=dt^2+a(t)^2{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}(dx^i)^2`$ (2.5)
with zero spatial curvature and $`H\frac{\dot{a}}{a}`$ the gravity equations of motion lead to

$`\dot{H}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(p+\rho )0`$ (2.6)
Therefore, reversal from contraction ($`H<0`$) to expansion ($`H>0`$) is impossible. (Here we assume that the time coordinate $`t`$ covers the whole space.) We note that this statement is similar to the proof of the $`c`$ theorem in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. There it is also shown that $`c`$ is monotonic.

## 3 Look for a Loophole

In this section we will look for a possible loophole in the previous discussion. We will show that if the system goes through a singularity perhaps it is possible to reverse from contraction to expansion; i.e. from a big crunch to a big bang.

We simplify the Lagrangian (2.1) to a single scalar field $`\varphi `$. Then we can define $`\varphi `$ such that the kinetic term is canonical. For simplicity we ignore the potential and then the Lagrangian is

$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\varphi \varphi `$ (3.1)
We will consider the theory based on this Lagrangian in $`d`$ spacetime dimensions.

In the minisuperspace description there are three degrees of freedom $`a(\eta )`$, $`N(\eta )`$ and $`\varphi (\eta )`$ defined through

$`ds^2=a^2(\eta )[N^2(\eta )d\eta ^2+{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}(dx^i)^2]\varphi =\varphi (\eta )`$ (3.2)
It is convenient to define the combinations

$`a_\pm =a^{\frac{d2}{2}}e^{\gamma \varphi }={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(a_0\pm a_1)\gamma =\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{d2}{8(d1)}}}`$ (3.3)
which are constrained to satisfy $`a_0>|a_1|`$. In terms of these variables the Lagrangian (3.1) becomes

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{N(\eta )}}\left[\left({\displaystyle \frac{da_0}{d\eta }}\right)^2+\left({\displaystyle \frac{da_1}{d\eta }}\right)^2\right]`$ (3.4)
This theory is invariant under reparametrization of the time $`\eta `$ with an appropriate transformation of $`N(\eta )`$. We can choose a gauge $`N(\eta )=1`$ and impose the equation of motion of $`N`$; i.e. $`\left(\frac{da_0}{d\eta }\right)^2=\left(\frac{da_1}{d\eta }\right)^2`$ as a constraint. This constraint eliminates the negative mode associated with $`a_0`$. (This negative mode is common in gravity and is familiar in the worldsheet description of string theory.) The coordinates $`a_0`$ and $`a_1`$ are free except that they are bounded: $`a_0>|a_1|`$.

The solutions of the equations of motion and the constraint up to shifts of $`\eta `$ are

$`a(\eta )=a(1)|\eta |^{\frac{1}{d2}}\varphi (\eta )=\varphi (1)\pm {\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\gamma }}\mathrm{log}|\eta |`$ (3.5)
$`a(1)`$ and $`\varphi (1)`$ are two integration constants. We will focus on the solutions with the plus sign. One solution exists only for negative $`\eta `$ and the other only for positive $`\eta `$. The solution with negative $`\eta `$ represents contraction to a singularity with $`a=0`$ and $`\varphi =\mathrm{}`$ which happens at $`\eta =0`$. The other solution which exists for positive $`\eta `$ represents expansion from a singularity with $`a=0`$ and $`\varphi =\mathrm{}`$ which takes place at $`\eta =0`$. In terms of the coordinates $`a_0`$ and $`a_1`$ the motion is free; i.e. linear in $`\eta `$. These variables are finite at $`\eta =0`$, where they reach their bound $`a_0=a_1`$.

It is natural to conjecture that the two solutions can be connected at the singularity at $`\eta =0`$. Then the free classical motion of $`a_0`$ and $`a_1`$ simply bounces off the bound $`a_0=a_1`$, such that both for $`\eta `$ negative and for $`\eta `$ positive $`a_0>a_1`$. We thus conjecture that our system contracts for negative $`\eta `$ and then expands for positive $`\eta `$.

It is important to stress that this assumption does not violate the no-go theorem about the impossibility of such reversal because the system goes through a singularity. At that point the simple description of the dynamics in terms of the Lagrangian (3.1) breaks down and the no-go theorem does not apply.

In order to determine whether such reversal is possible we must go beyond the Lagrangian (3.1) and understand better its microscopic origin.

## 4 Higher Dimensional Perspective

In this section we will present a higher dimensional field theoretic extension of the theory (3.1) which leads to a geometric picture of the reversal from contraction to expansion.

It is instructive to change variables to

$`\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }=e^{\frac{4}{d2}\gamma \varphi }g_{\mu \nu }\psi =e^{\gamma \varphi }`$ (4.1)
In terms of these variables the action of the Lagrangian (3.1) is

$`S={\displaystyle d^dx\sqrt{\overline{g}}\psi ^2(\overline{g})}`$ (4.2)
Up to rescaling of the coordinates the classical solution (3.5) is

$`\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }=\eta _{\mu \nu }\psi =\psi (1)\sqrt{|\eta |}`$ (4.3)
We see that the metric $`\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }`$ is independent of $`\eta `$. In particular, it is smooth at the transition point $`\eta =0`$, it is nonsingular and does not exhibit reversal from contraction to expansion. The solution of $`\psi `$ is singular at $`\eta =0`$ and since $`\psi (0)=0`$, the Planck scale goes to zero there. In these variables the singularity does not appear as a short distance singularity (because $`\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }`$ is finite) but as a strong coupling singularity.

We again see the need for better knowledge of the microscopic theory at the singularity.

This theory can originate from the compactification of a $`d+1`$ dimensional theory on a circle or an interval. Then $`\varphi `$ (or $`\psi `$) represents the radion – the size of the compact direction. More explicitly, let the metric of the $`d+1`$ dimensional theory be

$`ds^2=g_{\alpha \beta }^{(d+1)}dx^\alpha dx^\beta =\psi ^4dw^2+\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu ww+1`$ (4.4)
We neglect the gauge field arising from the off diagonal components of the compactification and the higher Kaluza-Klein modes ($`w`$ dependence in $`\psi `$ and $`\overline{g}_{\mu \nu }`$). Then, the action (4.2) is simply the standard Hilbert-Einstein action in $`d+1`$ dimensions of the metric $`g_{\alpha \beta }^{(d+1)}`$ of (4.4)

$`S={\displaystyle d^dx𝑑w\sqrt{g^{(d+1)}}(g^{(d+1)})}`$ (4.5)
In terms of the metric $`g^{(d+1)}`$ up to rescaling the coordinates our classical solution is

$`ds^2=A^2t^2dw^2+\eta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu t=x^0`$ (4.6)
with a constant $`A`$. We see here a flat $`d1`$ dimensional space times a two dimensional space $`^2`$.

The metric of $`^2`$ is

$`ds^2=dt^2+A^2t^2dw^2=dx^+dx^{}x^\pm =\pm te^{\pm Aw}`$ (4.7)
The expression in terms of $`x^\pm `$ shows that the space is locally flat. But the identification $`ww+1`$ identified $`x^\pm e^{\pm A}x^\pm `$; i.e. the identification is by a boost. Without the identification this is Milne Universe which gives a description of a quadrant of two dimensional Minkowski space (a quadrant of the whole $`x^\pm `$ space). With the identification by a boost the space $`^2`$ is more subtle. It has already been discussed by Horowitz and Steif .

One can take various points of view about the singularity of this space:

* Only the past cone with an end of time or only the future cone with a beginning of time should be kept. In terms of the classical solutions (3.5) this corresponds to taking one of the solutions without assuming our conjecture.
* We can view the space as the quotient of two dimensional Minkowski space by the boost. This space is not Hausdorff. Furthermore, it has closed timelike loops. It is not clear whether string theory on such an orbifold is consistent.
* Our conjecture amounts to keeping only the past cone, the future cone and the singularity that connects them. In other words, our space is characterized by the metric (4.7) with $`\mathrm{}<t<\mathrm{}`$; i.e. time flows from minus infinity to plus infinity, and the singularity is a bridge from a big crunch to a big bang.

## 5 Embedding in M Theory/String Theory

Before embedding our geometry in string theory, we would like to make some general comments about singularities in string theory.

For most of the singularities which have been studied in string theory the analysis starts by taking the Planck scale to infinity. By doing that, gravity decouples from the dynamics at the singularity and the remaining interactions are described by a local quantum field theory (or noncommutative field theory or little string theory). All such singularities are characterized by being at a finite distance in moduli space.

The singularity we are interested in here is quite different. First, we cannot take the Planck scale to infinity, and therefore gravity cannot be ignored. This singularity takes place at an infinite distance in moduli space ($`\varphi \mathrm{}`$), but the motion to the singularity involves a change in the scale factor $`a`$, and hence it takes only a finite time.

It is common in string theory that singularities in its General Relativity approximation become less singular when the stringy corrections are taken into account. Also, it is often the case that distinct classical spaces are connected in string theory at a point which appears singular in the General Relativity approximation. The flop transition  and the conifold transition  are well known examples of these phenomena. It is therefore possible that the past cone and the future cone are also connected in a smooth way in string theory.

The conjectured two cone geometry $`^2`$ can be embedded in string theory in many ways. Let us mention a few of them:

* M theory on $`R^9\times ^2`$. This background is flat except at $`t=0`$. Therefore it is an interesting candidate to be a solution of the equations of motion. Since spacetime supersymmetry is broken, it is not obvious that $`R^9\times ^2`$ is an exact solution of the full equations of motion of M theory. However, for large $`|t|`$ the background is approximately flat $`R^{10,1}`$ compactified on a large circle. Since the circle is large, the equations of motion of eleven dimensional supergravity give a good approximation of the full equations of motion, and they are obviously satisfied. Therefore, at least for large $`|t|`$ this background is an approximate solution of the equations.

We can view this background as a time dependent background for type IIA string theory on $`R^9\times R`$ where $`R`$ is the time coordinate in $`^2`$. This description is weakly coupled and has small curvature for a certain range of $`t`$ near $`t0`$ (but not too close to zero) and for an appropriate range of the parameter $`A`$. There it is straightforward to see that the leading order equations of motion of type IIA string theory are satisfied.
* M theory on $`R^9\times ^2/Z_2`$. This is a $`Z_2`$ orbifold of the previous example. It shares all the features we mentioned there. The two branes at the end of the interval move toward each other at negative $`t`$, collide at $`t=0`$ and bounce off each other at positive $`t`$. The entire process looks like two banging cymbals.
* M theory on $`R^8\times S^1\times ^2`$. This is an $`S^1`$ compactification of the first example and can be interpreted as type IIA string theory on $`R^8\times ^2`$. Here the type IIA background is flat except at $`t=0`$, where the curvature is infinite. This suggests that it could be a solution (though not a supersymmetric one) of the classical equations of motion of string theory. Since the string coupling can be made arbitrarily small, the string loop corrections are small, and perhaps can be under control.

## 6 Conclusions

In conclusion, we conjecture a transition through a spacelike singularity from a big crunch to a big bang. Only a detailed stringy analysis can prove or disprove the conjecture.

If our conjecture is correct, in these models time has no beginning or end. In a sense this is the most conservative assumption about the evolution of such systems; i.e. they are subject to standard quantum evolution without special initial or final conditions.

This idea (perhaps not quite this model) opens the door to the possibility that the big bang singularity is preceded by a period of contraction ending in a big crunch. As in the pre-big bang models , if the Universe existed for a long time before the big bang, many questions in cosmology can have new solutions and have to be revisited.

The original ekpyrotic model  has a problem of reversal from contraction to expansion . Perhaps our banging cymbals can be incorporated into the ideas of this model and make a viable model of early cosmology.

Acknowledgments: We would like to congratulate Marc Henneaux for well deserved recognition, and to praise the Francqui Foundation for the good choice. We thank them for the invitation to the Francqui Colloquium, 2001, “Strings and Gravity: Tying the Forces Together,” in Brussels and for organizing an extremely stimulating meeting. We would also like to thank J. Khoury, J. Maldacena, J. Polchinski, B. A. Ovrut, P. J. Steinhardt and N. Turok for many useful discussions. This work was supported in part by grant #DE-FG02-90ER40542.