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# Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis

## 1 Introduction

The launch of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer FUSE has opened a new spectral window on the universe with a 905 – 1187 Å bandpass (Sahnow et al., 2000). Within this window spectra of continuum emitting objects almost universally exhibit absorption bands of molecular hydrogen, indicating this gas resides in the interstellar medium somewhere between the object and the observer. These bands arise from the photo-excitation of molecular hydrogen by the background continuum object, causing electrons in the ground electronic state $`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$, to be excited into either the higher $`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ (Lyman band), or $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$ (Werner band) states. The strength and density of the absorption lines are proportional to the distribution of molecular hydrogen column densities among the ground state rotational and vibrational ($`J^{\prime \prime }`$, $`v^{\prime \prime }`$) energy levels222When referring to the rotational and vibrational quantum numbers in a transition going from an upper electronic state (e.g. either $`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ or $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$) to the ground state ($`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$) it is traditional to designate the upper state numbers with a single prime (e.g. $`J^{}`$, $`v^{}`$) and the lower state with a double prime (e.g. $`J^{\prime \prime }`$, $`v^{\prime \prime }`$). peculiar to the line-of-sight.

For some observers the molecular hydrogen electron population distribution within the ro-vibrational states is a subject of direct interest. For others, molecular hydrogen absorption is a nuisance, potentially contaminating or even obscuring spectral features of interest. Fortunately there is a high degree of correlation between the absorption lines within different ro-vibrational bands ($`v^{}`$– 0) imposed by the uniformity of the energy level separations and the slow monotonic variation of oscillator strength as a function of upper vibrational state, a consequence of the Franck-Condon principle (Herzberg, 1950). This correlation greatly aids the identification of molecular hydrogen features and provides a means for their removal from blended features, provided they can be reliably modeled in an unobscured portion of the spectrum.

Here we will discuss the calculation and use of a simple set of optical depth templates from which observers can easily identify and model the molecular hydrogen features commonly observed in the FUSE spectral range. Each template contains all the Lyman and Werner absorption lines arising from the photo-excitation of electrons out of common ground state rotational $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ and vibrational $`v^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0 levels (usually) and into the $`v^{}`$ states of the upper bands ($`v^{}`$ $``$ 0), subject to the appropriate rotational state selection rules. A single column density $`N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ controls the line strength and the templates are scaleable with this quantity. The optical depth variation with wavelength for each line is calculated using a Voigt profile to allow for the proper variation of line shape with increasing column density, reproducing the shapes endemic to the linear, flat, and square root portions of the curve-of-growth as controlled through the specification of the doppler parameter ($`b`$). The templates are given as optical depths functions, as opposed to transmission functions, to facilitate the inclusion of various atomic and molecular species or multiple velocity structures, simply by adding additional optical depths to the template function at the appropriate wavelength position.

These templates can be used in conjunction with a variety of methods to determine the appropriate column densities and doppler parameters. One method is direct profile fitting, where the templates for various $`N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ and $`b`$ are used with a predetermined continuum to directly compare to the observed spectrum in a $`\chi ^2`$ calculation. Another method uses the curve-of-growth technique, where equivalent width measurements are used to determine the appropriate column and doppler parameter from which the absorption line transmission function can be quickly calculated. Once the columns, doppler parameters and continua are known in an unblended portion of the spectrum the degree to which they effect the other features, such as O VI or D I, maybe assessed.

The template calculations incorporate the Abgrall et al. (1993a,b) databases of transition lifetimes, wave-numbers, rotational and vibrational quantum numbers for Lyman and Werner band transitions. The templates are available for free access on-line through `http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~stephan/h2ools2.html`. Here we provide potential users with a ready reference to the calculation procedures, some examples of use, and discuss appropriate positional accuracy and column density limitations. We include formulae for the calculation of energy levels, population distributions, and line profiles in Appendices A and B.

## 2 Energy Levels, Population Distribution, and Selection Rules

The ground state rotational energy levels in the $`v^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0 vibrational state have temperature equivalent energies $`B_vhc/k`$ 0, 170, 510, 1014, 1680, 2500 K for $`J=05`$, while the vibrational energy levels are much more widely spaced with separations $`\mathrm{\Delta }G^{\prime \prime }hc/k(G(v^{\prime \prime }+1)G(v^{\prime \prime }))(hc/k)`$ 5983 K (see Appendix A). Boltzmann’s law shows that the first few rotational states are low enough to be populated at the relatively cold temperatures associated with molecular gas in the interstellar medium, while excitation of the upper vibrational levels requires a more energetic environment. Absorption from several rotational levels is the norm, although the early Copernicus observations showed the typical distribution of column density in the higher rotational states is larger than expected from a single temperature Boltzmann distribution (Aannestad & Field, 1973). The reasons for the deviations from a Boltzmann distribution are myriad and we refer to the reader to the comprehensive review by Shull & Beckwith (1982) who have discussed the various diagnostics for determining formation rates, collision rates and local radiation field intensity by using the rotational column density distribution of molecular hydrogen and the atomic hydrogen column. Absorption from excited vibrational states are rare. When present they indicate that the gas is affected by either a high temperature process such as shocks (McCandliss, 2001) or a nonthermal processes such as fluorescent pumping (Meyer et al., 2001).

Lyman bands have two branches R($`J^{\prime \prime }`$), with $`J^{}`$ = $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ \+ 1 and P($`J^{\prime \prime }`$), with $`J^{}`$ = $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ \- 1. The selection rule that requires $`\mathrm{\Delta }J`$ = $`\pm `$ 1 results from the zero change in electronic angular momentum between the $`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$ and $`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ states (Herzberg, 1950). The Werner bands have an additional branch Q($`J^{\prime \prime }`$) with $`\mathrm{\Delta }J`$ = 0, allowed because the change in electronic angular momentum between the $`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$ and $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$ states is one. In addition, the minimum $`J^{}`$ for the $`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$ state is 0, while the minimum $`J^{}`$ for the $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$ state is 1. This leads to an absence of P(0) in the Lyman bands and P(0), P(1) and Q(0) in the Werner bands.

There are 377 absorption line transitions from Lyman (0 $`v^{}20`$) and Werner (0 $`v^{}5`$) bands arising from rotational levels, 0 $`J^{\prime \prime }6`$ in the ground vibrational level ($`v^{\prime \prime }`$= 0) of the $`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$ electronic state longward of the Lyman edge. Many more are possible if $`v^{\prime \prime }`$ $`>`$ 0 becomes populated. Consequently the identification of the molecular hydrogen lines can be daunting. It is typically the first task in the post pipeline analysis of FUSE spectra. The identification process is eased considerably by locating the strongest Lyman lines usually R(0) for $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0 and P(1), R(1) for $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 1, and then proceeding to higher $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ until the lines merge with the noise. Our computation of templates containing only those lines originating from a single rotational state allows for a direct implementation of this method. It greatly facilitates the determination of the $`N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ distribution, and allows for assessing the degree of contamination in coincident alignments of molecular hydrogen absorptions with lines from other diagnostically useful atoms or molecules.

## 3 Optical Depth Template Calculation

A total optical depth function is constructed for the $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ rotational state of the $`v^{\prime \prime }`$=̃ 0 vibrational level from the sum of all the individual optical depth profiles ranging over all $`v^{}`$ states in the Lyman (0 $`v^{}`$ 18) and Werner (0 $`v^{}`$ 5) line database given as,

$$\tau _{J^{\prime \prime }}(\lambda )=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{v^{}=0}^{v_{max}}\tau _i(\lambda ).$$
(1)
The function $`\tau _{J^{\prime \prime }}(\lambda )`$ is established on a common wavelength grid spanning the region of interest (790 – 1490 Å in our case) with 0.01 Å spacing. This total optical depth function is used to accumulate individual optical depth profiles. Each line profile is calculated using the Voigt function formulae in Appendix B, covering a range of wavelengths spanning 50 Å to either side of the line center, so as to accommodate the broad Lorentzian wings that appear in the line profiles at high column density. The span of the common wavelength grid is arbitrary. It allows for the convenient inclusion of contributions from lines of absorbing species both inside and outside of the FUSE bandpass. An insertion point is determined to be the wavelength grid point closest to the line center and the individual optical depth profile is added to the total optical depth about that point and the process is repeated for all Lyman and Werner transitions arising from the same lower level rotational state.

For the $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0 states the template contains only the R(0) lines of the Lyman and Werner bands of ($`v^{}`$ $``$ 0). For $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ $`=`$ 1 there are R(1) and P(1) lines in the Lyman bands and R(1) and Q(1) lines in the Werner bands. Above $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ $`=`$ 1 there are R($`J^{\prime \prime }`$) and P($`J^{\prime \prime }`$) lines in the Lyman bands and R($`J^{\prime \prime }`$), Q($`J^{\prime \prime }`$) and P($`J^{\prime \prime }`$) lines in the Werner bands. A representative set of templates for 0 $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ 4 with a doppler parameter of 5 km s-1 with log columns of 21 and 20 for $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0,1, 19 to 18 for $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 2, 17 for $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 3, and 16 for $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 4. are displayed in Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis.

## 4 Line Position, Equivalent Width and Column Density Limits

The location of each line within the larger wavelength grid is accurate to within the grid step or 3 km s-1. This method of insertion is computationally expedient compared to the more accurate but much slower method of interpolating the centered profile onto the 0.01 Å grid. Our grid spacing is on the order of the largest differences between observed and calculated wave-numbers in the Abgrall et al. (1993a,b) databases ($``$ 1 cm-1). The resolution of the FUSE spectrograph is $`R`$ 20000 or 15 km s-1 (Sahnow et al., 2000), so the grid oversamples by a factor of 5.

The minimum grid step of 0.01 Å sets a lower limit on the useful doppler parameter range. The core of a line with a doppler parameter of 1 km s-1 is not sampled with sufficient resolution to yield an accurate measure of optical depth with increasing distance from the line core. Consequently, the numerically integrated equivalent width from the 1 km s-1 template is higher than the theoretical value in the linear portion of the curve-of-growth and lower in the flat portion of the curve-of-growth. Although available on the website, the 1 km s-1 templates should not be used for quantitative work. This problem is quantified in Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis where we show curves-of-growth (in red) for a range of $`Nf\lambda `$, and a descrete set of doppler parameters (b=1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 km s-1). Overplotted are the equivalent widths derived from direct numerical integration of the Lyman lines in the J=0 and J=1 templates over the same range of doppler parameters. The problem with the equivalent widths calculated from the lines contained in the b = 1 km s-1 template is evident. There is a slight ($`<`$ 7%) residual from the theoretical curves in b = 2 km s-1 derived equivalent widths.

An examination of the current literature shows that very few lines-of-sight have been found with molecular hydrogen determined doppler parameters $`<`$ 2 km s-1. For example, in a study of the Large and Small Magellanic clouds Tumlinson et al. (2002) find only two lines-of-sight (out of 37 determinations) that have molecular hydrogen doppler velocities of $`<`$ 2 km s-1, although several have lower bounds that dip below b = 2 km s-1. Another study by Meyer et al. (2001) finds a b = 1.8 ($`\pm `$0.1) km s-1 for the highly excited molecular hydrogen in the line-of-sight toward HD 37903, the central star of the reflection nebula NGC 2023. These instances notwithstanding, the current set of templates should be adequate for most work. We note that lines-of-sight with b = 2 km s-1 will have instrumental line profiles, except where column densities are high enough to produce damping wings. The curve-of-growth technique will be prefered to line profile fitting for determining column densities and doppler parameters in these instances, as noted in the following section. The templates are not used in the curve-of-growth analysis except to represent the solution after it has been found. The regime where absorption lines will have instrumental profiles in the FUSE spectrographs is roughly identified in Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis as the region below the solid horizontal line drawn at $`\mathrm{log}W/\lambda `$ = 1/$`R`$.

Nevertheless there are many cases where small doppler velocities have been measured in species that correlate well with molecular hydrogen, as in the case of CH (e.g. Andersson, Wannier, & Crawford (2002) and Federman (1982)). In order to support such investigations in the future, templates will be developed with finer wavelength and doppler velocity grids for exploring the low b regime. Higher resolution grids will also find use in studies requiring closely spaced multiple velocity components with small doppler velocities. However, the current set of grids are large ($``$ 8Mbyte uncompressed for a single b up to $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 15) and the high resolution grids will be at least twice as large.

The column densities have no lower limits, they may be scaled to as low a column as required without loss of accuracy. An upper limit results from the finite wavelength span of $`\pm `$50 Å for the individual profile calculations. Above $`\mathrm{log}N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ = 21 (the fiducial column density for which each optical depth template is calculated) the individual line profiles suffer a progressively severe truncation of the Lorentz wings at $`\pm `$50 Å from line center, which manifests itself as a series of discontinuities in the summed optical depth grid. The $`\mathrm{log}N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ $``$ 21 is a “fuzzy limit” as the seriousness of the truncation depends upon the oscillator strength. This effect is independent of doppler parameter because at $`\mathrm{log}N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ $``$ 21 all lines are fully damped for b $`<`$ 20 km s-1.

The effect is illustrated in Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis with the lines of minimum and maximum oscillator strength in the R(0) transitions of the Lyman bands (0 – 0) and (7 – 0), where we show the half profiles of these two lines over a 50 Å span. We see that for a column density of $`\mathrm{log}N(0,0)`$ = 21 the line profile has returned from black at the line core to 0.9995 and 0.9990 at 50 Å from line center for (0 – 0) and (7 – 0), respectively. For a column density of $`\mathrm{log}N(0,0)`$ = 22 the lines only return to 0.995 and 0.990, while for $`\mathrm{log}N(0,0)`$ = 23 the return is 0.95 and 0.90, respectively. It is difficult to estimate quantitatively the combined effects of profile truncations since the error it generates is a function of wavelength. The general effect is to cause a progressive underestimation of the combined blackness of the rotational template for column densities $`\mathrm{log}N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ $``$ 21. Quantitative work at columns much greater than $`\mathrm{log}N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ $``$ 21 using these templates should be avoided. This should not be too much of a problem as few sight lines with $`\mathrm{log}N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$ $`>`$ 21 have been found. For instance, in an exploration of 23 sight lines with $`A_V`$ 1 Rachford et al. (2002) found only 1 case (HD 154368) where the formal value of $`\mathrm{log}N(J^{\prime \prime }=0)`$ was 21.04 $`\pm `$ 0.05.

## 5 Discussion and Examples

The templates are stored in files with names that encode the calculation parameters. For example, tauh2n21b2j0-15v0.dat, indicates a column density of $`\mathrm{log}N(cm^2)`$ = 21, a doppler width of 2 km s-1, a rotational state range of of 0 $`J^{\prime \prime }`$15, and a ground vibrational state of $`v^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0. The files contain 17 arrays of unformatted double precision numbers with 59000 elements. The first array is the wavelength variable. The next 16 arrays are the $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ =0, 1, $`\mathrm{}`$ 15 optical depth functions. Table 2 gives a schematic of how the data arrays are placed in the file. A simple IDL program is provided on the website to read in the data and form an example transmission function. There are extra empty elements longward of the FUSE long wavelength cutoff at 1189 Å in part because there are a few high rotational lines that exist beyond this cutoff. However, the main reason is to allow for the inclusion of spectra for ground state vibrational levels $`v^{\prime \prime }>`$ 0, for the purpose of investigating molecular hydrogen excitation processes in energetic astrophysical environments. Rotational templates for $`v^{\prime \prime }>`$ 0 states will be included on the H2ools website in the near future.

Absorption spectra (the transmission functions) are obtained by taking e$`^{\tau _\lambda }`$. All the optical depth templates are tabulated as negative numbers. The spectra for column densities other than 1021 particles cm-2 can be obtained by dividing the optical depth by 1021 and multiplying by the required column density value. For example, the absorption spectrum for 1018 is given by e$`^{\tau _\lambda /1000}`$. These spectra should be convolved with an instrumental line spread function to simulate instrumental broadening before comparing to an object spectrum. For use with FUSE spectra, convolution with a gaussian width with a FWHM on the order $`R`$ 15000 is typical. For high precision work it may be necessary to employ a wavelength dependent convolution kernel, as the resolution of the various spectral channels is wavelength dependent at the 10% level (Sahnow et al., 2000).

Once convolved, an overlay of the $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0 transmission function ( multiplied by an appropriate continuum) on an object spectrum will allow an assessment of the need for zero-point offsets to the wavelength registration. The $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ = 0 spectrum contains the bluest lines in any given Lyman band ($`v^{}`$ – 0), so it should line up with the blue side of the blended R(0) and R(1) lines. For the highly damped lines encountered at high column density it may be necessary to include higher $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ states to assess zero-point offsets. Adjust the column density of the absorption spectrum until a good fit is obtained. Once satisfied add the optical depth template from the next highest rotational state, take the exponent, adjust the columns and wavelength zero-point as necessary, and reassess the fit. Repeat until the inclusion of a higher level $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ no longer improves the fit. The process may be quantified by computing the $`\chi ^2`$ statistic over wavelength intervals selected to coincide with unblended absorption features in the object spectrum. Repeat for different column densities and doppler parameters and then find the minimum $`\chi ^2`$.

It it is often expedient to perform the initial fitting operation by eye. Interactive assessment can be used to determine the columns to within a few dex and the doppler parameters within a few km s-1, provided complicated velocity structures on the line of sight are absent and the column density is high enough. These approximate determinations can serve as the starting point for more precise work and minimize the time devoted to $`\chi ^2`$ minimization by providing good guesses. In Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis we show how the higher vibrational transitions can be used to define the column and the lower vibrational transitions the doppler parameter when the absorptions are making the transition from the flat portion of the curve-of-growth to the square root portion where the lines profiles become fully damped. At $`\mathrm{log}N(J^{\prime \prime }=0)`$ = 19 we see little difference in the higher vibrational line profiles for the two doppler parameters, while the lower vibrational lines do show a difference. At low doppler parameter the lines are still saturated, having box like profiles, while damping wings have developed in the higher doppler parameter line.

In the low column transition region ($`\mathrm{log}N(J^{\prime \prime }=0)`$ $``$ 15) between the linear and flat portion of the curve-of-growth, discerning the tradeoff in column and doppler parameter is less apparent to the eye. In this regime the lines are unresolved (by FUSE) and will have profiles close to the instrumental profile except for the highest doppler parameters. In these cases the curve-of-growth method for determination of column is generally more useful than profile fitting. In between these two regimes on the flat (slowly varying) portion of the curve-of-growth, it is relatively easy to determine the doppler parameter (b) from the box like profiles, but the column is ill-defined. Here profile fitting is the most accurate method for column determination.

In Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis we show a curve-of-growth example. The molecular hydrogen column densities and a doppler parameter have been derived from a curve-of-growth analysis of all the lines in the rotational states 0 $`J^{\prime \prime }`$ 5 between 1040 – 1098 Å. The bottom right panel for the (4–0) Lyman band fit shows an overplot of the transmission function computed by applying the derived column densities and doppler parameter. A curve-of-growth analysis was then applied to eight D I lines starting at Lyman-$`\gamma `$. An absorption line model containing lines from H I, D I, O I, and molecular hydrogen has been overplotted in each panel.

In Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis we show an example of a $`\chi ^2`$ fit to the (4–0) Lyman band in the lower panel, which was fine-tuned by taking into account the fit to the (0–0) Lyman band. The rotational templates were used with an appropriate continuum to calculate $`\chi ^2`$ for selected portions of the line profiles. In the upper panel of we illustrate how well the H2 model from the (4–0) band fit reproduces the H2 structures in the (5–0) band. The template model can be used to constrain the location and degree of blending with lines of O VI, C II, O I and Ar I. Several unidentified lines are also evident, some of which are higher rotational level H2 lines.

These are just two examples illustrating how the use of these templates can expedite the identification, computation and deblending of molecular hydrogen profiles from far-UV spectra. The use of a common 0.01 Å wavelength grid facilitates the inclusion of profiles from other atomic and molecular species. In addition, any number of multiple velocity components can easily be coadded and scaled, with the appropriate doppler dilatation or contraction applied through the interpolation of the optical depth template onto a shifted wavelength grid. Such interpolated optical depth templates can be employed to search for molecular hydrogen in intervening intergalactic absorption systems that appear in the spectra of quasars and galaxies at high redshift. The templates can find use in any study that requires an accounting for molecular hydrogen blending. Examples include studies seeking to determine the velocity distribution and abundance of O VI in the galaxy and halo, of D I in the local and nearby ISM, or of any other interstellar atomic and molecular species that may blend with molecular hydrogen features. The templates also provide a means to determine the excitation state of molecular hydrogen so as to directly test the predictions of various excitation mechanisms, such as fluoresence (radiative pumping), formation pumping, or shock excitation. These templates can easily be used with $`\chi ^2`$ minimization codes to assess the goodness-of-fit as functions of column density and doppler parameter. They provide a means for the user to concentrate on the fitting procedure without having to take on the computationally intensive task of calculating line profiles for a large number of absorbers. Such goodness-of-fit codes are under development and testing by many groups (c.f. Owens.f discussed in Lemoine et al. 2002 and Rachford et al. 2002), and some of these codes are available on-line333http://origins.colorado.edu/$``$tumlinso/h2/sw/sw.html. The author will entertain inquiries into the use of beta versions that he is developing as time allows.

I would like to acknowledge David Neufeld for the original suggestion to calculate templates for the individual rotational states and William Blair for organizing a series of tutorials on molecular hydrogen that provided the impetus for this work. I would also like to acknowledge Brian Wolven for providing an electronic version of the Abgrall et al. (1993a,b) databases and Ravi Sankrit for commenting on initial drafts of this paper. The calculations described here were performed in IDL on a unix workstation. Some users, working on non-unix machines, have reported problems with byte swapping when downloading the templates and I would like to thank Pat Romano for kindly providing a set of byte swapped templates that were developed for use on linux machines. Finally, simulating discussion provided by various members of the FUSE science and operations team is greatly appreciated. This work has been supported by NASA grants NAG5-5315, NAG5-10403, and NAG5-11456 to the Johns Hopkins University.

## Appendix A Term Values and Thermal Population Distribution

Following Herzberg (1950), the ro-vibration energy levels (in wave-number units of cm-1) of an anharmonic oscillator is a sum of electronic, vibrational and rotational term values,

$$T(v,J)=T_e+G(v)+F(v,J)$$
(A1)
where $`T_e`$ is a constant for the given electronic state. $`G(v)`$ and $`F(v,J)`$ are given as expansions in $`(v+\frac{1}{2})`$ and $`J(J+1)`$ respectively with $`v=0,1\mathrm{}v_{max},J=J_{min},J_{min}+1\mathrm{}J_{max}`$,

$`G(v)`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _e(v+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})\omega _ex_e(v+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})^2+\omega _ey_e(v+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})^3+\mathrm{},`$ (A2)
$`F(v,J)`$ $`=`$ $`B_vJ(J+1)D_v(J(J+1))^2+\mathrm{},`$ (A3)
and $`B_v`$ and $`D_v`$ are also given as expansions in $`(v+\frac{1}{2})`$,

$`B_v`$ $`=`$ $`B_e\alpha _e(v+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})+\mathrm{},`$ (A4)
$`D_v`$ $`=`$ $`D_e+\beta _e(v+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})+\mathrm{}.`$ (A5)
We reproduce in Table 1 the most significant term value constants for the $`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$$`B^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_u^+`$, and $`C^1\mathrm{\Pi }_u`$ states collected by Huber & Herzberg (1979). They have also compiled a comprehensive list of the higher order constants of these expansions.

The $`X^1\mathrm{\Sigma }_g^+`$ energy levels may be used in Boltzmann’s law to determine the distribution of electrons among the ro-vibrational levels of the ground state under the assumption of thermal equilibrium. Following Draine & Bertoldi (1996) we write,

$$N(v,J)/g_J=Nexp[\frac{hcT(v,J)}{kt}]$$
(A6)
where $`N`$ is a renormalization factor determined by first calculating the matrix elements N(v,J) with N = 1 and then defining $`N=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{v=0J=0}^{v_{max}J_{max}}N(v,J)`$ for the renormalization. $`g_J`$ is the degeneracy of the states where for even $`J`$ (para-H2) $`g_J=2J+1`$ and for odd $`J`$ (ortho-H2) $`g_J=3(2J+1)`$ under the assumption that the ortho to para ratio is 3.

## Appendix B Absorption Profiles

The formulae reproduced here are quite general and may be used in the calculation of any absorption line profile, atomic or molecular. The shape and strength of an absorption line depends on 5 independent constants, the oscillator strength f$`_{v^{}v^{\prime \prime }J^{}J^{\prime \prime }}`$, the wavelength $`\lambda _{v^{}v^{\prime \prime }J^{}J^{\prime \prime }}`$, the total lifetime of the upper state $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{v^{}v^{\prime \prime }J^{}J^{\prime \prime }}`$, the doppler velocity $`b=\sqrt{(2kT/m_{H_2})^2+v_{turb}^2}`$, and the column density of the lower state $`N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })`$. The first 3 variables are set by quantum mechanics while the latter 2 are the quantities of interest along the line-of-sight. At first glance it would appear that we need to calculate separate templates for a grid of column densities and doppler parameters. However, this is not necessary because the cross-section profile is independent of column density so the optical depth scales linearly with column density. Consequently a series of optical depth templates, calculated with the same doppler velocity, can be directly scaled with column density, reducing our need for an optical depth series where the doppler parameter alone is varied.

Following Cartwright & Drapatz (1970), the normalized line profile as a function of wavelength ($`\lambda `$) for the absorbing transition of an electron in level $`v^{}J^{}v^{\prime \prime }J^{\prime \prime }`$ (which we will designate with an index $`i`$) maybe expressed as:

$`I_i(\lambda )`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}(\tau _i(\lambda )),`$ (B1)
$`\tau _i(\lambda )`$ $`=`$ $`N(v^{\prime \prime },J^{\prime \prime })\sigma _i(\lambda ),`$ (B2)
$`\sigma _i(\lambda )`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma _i(\lambda _i)H(a,u),`$ (B3)
$`\sigma _i(\lambda _i)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\pi }e^2}{m_ecb}}f_i\lambda _i,`$ (B4)
$`H(a,u)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{a}{\pi }}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{y^2}dy}{a^2+(uy)^2}}.`$ (B5)
Here $`H(a,u)`$ is the Voigt function, a convolution of the a Maxwellian velocity distribution with a Lorentz profile (Rybicki & Lightman, 1979). The dimensionless frequency is $`u=\frac{\nu \nu _i}{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _d}`$ and $`a=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_i}{4\pi \mathrm{\Delta }\nu _d}`$ is the damping parameter. The continuous, discrete and doppler frequencies are $`\nu =c/\lambda `$, $`\nu _i=c/\lambda _i`$, and $`\nu _d=(b/c)\nu _i`$ ($`c`$ is the speed of light, $`e`$ is the electron charge in esu, $`m_e`$ is the electron mass in grams, and b is defined above). The total lifetime of the upper state is a sum over all possible vibrational transitions out of the upper $`v^{}`$ state and into the lower states 0 $`v^{\prime \prime }`$ 14 such that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{v^{\prime \prime }=0}^{14}A_i`$ where $`A_i=\frac{2J^{\prime \prime }+1}{2J^{}+1}\frac{8\pi ^2e^2}{m_ec\lambda _i}f_i`$. The line core cross-section is $`\sigma _i(\lambda _i)`$ as the Voigt function has a value of $`H(0,0)=1`$ at line center (when $`a<<1`$ as is usually the case). $`\sigma _i(\lambda )`$ and $`\tau _i(\lambda )`$ are the cross-section and optical depth profiles, respectively.

In Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis the curves-of-growth shown in red result from the numeric integration of $`1\mathrm{exp}(\tau _i(\lambda ))`$ over the complete wavelength interval of the profile, for a range of column densities, and descrete set of doppler parameters. The (well known) formulae for the linear, flat, and square root portion of the curves are overplotted (in black) to directly show the regions of validity for the approximations.

$`{\displaystyle \frac{W_\lambda }{\lambda }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi e^2Nf\lambda }{m_ec^2}}`$ (B6)
$`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \frac{b}{c}}[\mathrm{ln}({\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\pi }e^2Nf\lambda }{m_ecb}})]^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ (B7)
$`=`$ $`[{\displaystyle \frac{e^2\gamma Nf\lambda ^2}{m_ec^3}}]^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ (B8)
These formulae are discussed in detail in (Spitzer, 1978). It can be seen in Figure Molecular Hydrogen Optical Depth Templates for FUSE Data Analysis that the formula for the flat portion of the curve-of-growth is low by approximately 6 – 8% with respect to the numeric calculation. An examination of (Münch, 1968) shows this descrepancy can be accounted for by keeping the second order term in the asymptotic expansion of $`\frac{W_\lambda }{\lambda }`$ for large $`\tau _0=(\frac{\sqrt{\pi }e^2Nf\lambda }{m_ecb})1`$. The correction factor to $`\frac{W_\lambda }{\lambda }`$ is then $`(1+.2886/\mathrm{ln}\tau _0)`$ and setting $`\tau _0`$ 50 yields a 7% correction.


format: text

text:
# Addendum to: Update on neutrino mixing in the early Universe

## I Introduction

In a previous paper  (see also ) we showed how the new CMB measurements of the baryon to photon ratio, $`\eta `$, are able to put stringent constraints on a large class of non standard BBN models where, together with a usual variation of the expansion rate due to the presence of extra degrees of freedom, distortions of the electron neutrino distribution are also present. This class of models can be described in terms of two parameters . A first one is the usual extra effective number of neutrinos, modifying the standard expansion rate, $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho =[_X(\rho _X/\rho _0)3]`$, where $`\rho _X`$ is the energy density of the $`X`$-particle species, including the three ordinary neutrinos plus possible new ones, and $`\rho _0=(7\pi ^2/120)T_\nu ^4`$ is the energy density of one standard neutrino species. The second one is the total extra effective number of neutrinos $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ defined, in terms of the primordial 4He abundance $`Y_p`$, as:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=\left[Y_p^{BBN}(\eta ,\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho ,\delta f_{\nu _e})Y_p^{SBBN}\right]/0.0137.$$
(1)
The difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ is a quantity that, in the class of models that we are considering, has to be entirely ascribed to the effect of deviations of the electron electron neutrino distribution from the standard Fermi-Dirac with zero chemical potential, $`\delta f_{\nu _e}=f_{\nu _e}f_{\nu _e}^0`$. If $`\delta f_{\nu _e}=0`$ then $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ and simply :

$$Y_p^{BBN}(\eta ,\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho ,\delta f_{\nu _e}=0)Y_p^{SBBN}(\eta )+\gamma (\eta )\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho $$
(2)
with $`\eta `$ the baryon to photon ratio in units of $`10^{10}`$. Using the expansion given in , we calculated that $`\gamma (\eta )0.0137`$ over the pertinent range $`\eta =3.510`$. The standard BBN prediction for $`Y_p`$ is described by the following expansion around $`\eta =5`$ :

$$Y_p^{SBBN}0.2466+0.01\mathrm{ln}\left(\eta /5\right)$$
(3)
The presence of non zero $`\delta f_{\nu _e}`$ affects mainly $`Y_p`$, while its effect can be safely neglected in the Deuterium abundance, $`(D/H)`$, also considering that we will be interested in small deviations. With this approximation the $`D/H`$ abundance is described by the expression :

$$(D/H)^{BBN}(\eta ,\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )\left[3.610^5\left(\eta /5\right)^\beta \right]\left(1+\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho \right)^{\frac{\beta }{2}}$$
(4)
with $`\beta 1.6`$ and $`\alpha =(7r_{\nu 0}^4/4g_{\rho 0}^{SBBN})0.135`$, where $`r_{\nu 0}`$ and $`g_{\rho 0}^{SM}`$ are, respectively, the standard neutrino to photon temperature ratio and the number of degrees of freedom at present. With these expressions a simultaneous measurement of $`(D/H)`$, $`Y_p`$ and $`\eta `$ can be easily translated into a ‘measurement’ of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$. We used in  both high  ***We indicate $`68\%`$ c.l. errors for all quantities unless differently indicated.

$$Y_p^{\mathrm{exp}}=0.244\pm 0.002$$
(5)
and low values $`Y_p^{\mathrm{exp}}=0.234\pm 0.003`$, while we used $`(D/H)^{\mathrm{exp}}=(3.0\pm 0.4)\times 10^5`$ . For $`\eta `$ we used the DASI and BOOMerANG result  $`\eta ^{CMB}=6.0_{0.8}^{+1.1}`$. From low values of Helium and assuming gaussian errors, we obtained $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=1.05\pm 0.25`$, while from high values of Helium we obtained $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=0.3\pm 0.2`$. Using the primordial Deuterium abundance measurement, from the expression (4), we could estimate $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ obtaining $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho =1\pm 4`$. These results were implying, at $`3\sigma `$ the bounds  $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}<0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho 13`$. In particular the bound on $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ was used to conclude that, for negligible neutrino asymmetries, all four neutrino mixing models are in disagreement with cosmology and thus ruled out. This has been then also confirmed by the improved solar and atmospheric neutrino data from the SNO  and SuperK  experiments . In the next section we will update these results in light, mainly, of the recent results from the WMAP experiment  and we will see how the data suggest possible deviations from a standard picture.

## II Updated reference values and results

The WMAP collaboration finds $`\mathrm{\Omega }_bh^2=0.0224\pm 0.0009`$  corresponding to:

$$\eta ^{CMB}=6.15\pm 0.25$$
(6)
This measurement is so precise that now, when estimating $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$, the experimental error on $`Y_p`$ is dominant compared to that one on $`\eta `$. Using high values of $`Y_p^{\mathrm{exp}}`$ we find at 1 $`\sigma `$: $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=0.35\pm 0.15`$. This means that now a 3 $`\sigma `$ range is given by

$$0.8<\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}<0.1,$$
(7)
implying a quite more stringent upper bound compared to the pre-WMAP value. Even using the range of values

$$Y_p^{\mathrm{exp}}=0.238\pm 0.002\pm 0.005,$$
(8)
that is a compromise between low and high values and takes into account the discrepancy as a sistematic uncertainty , we find

$$\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=0.8\pm 0.4,$$
(9)
implying a 3$`\sigma `$ range

$$2.0<\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}<0.4.$$
(10)
Both results confirm our previous conclusion for which $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ as high as $`1`$ is highly disfavoured, thus ruling out all four neutrino mixing models in the case of negligible neutrino asymmetries . However now both results seem to point out, at $`2\sigma `$, to a negative value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$, suggesting the presence of non standard BBN effects. We can also update the estimation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ using the new $`\eta `$ measurement from CMB and a new primordial Deuterium abundance measurement , $`(D/H)^{\mathrm{exp}}=(2.78_{0.38}^{+0.44})\times 10^5`$, finding $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{BBN}=0.7\pm 2.1`$. As already anticipated in , the error has been highly reduced by the great improvement in the $`\eta `$ determination from CMB and it is now dominated by the error on $`D/H`$. However, differently from the determination of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ from $`Y_p^{\mathrm{exp}}`$, better future determinations of $`\eta `$ (for example from new WMAP data or from Planck) can still further reduce the error on $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{\mathrm{BBN}}`$ from the current $`2.1`$ down to $`1.5`$. It is interesting to note that the value from BBN is comparable to the direct determination from CMB. In , combining the WMAP data with the 2dF redshift survey and using the value on the Hubble constant from the HST Key Project, $`h=0.72\pm 0.08`$ , the authors find $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{CMB}=0.5_{0.9}^{+1.8}`$. Assuming that, between the nucleosynthesis and the recombination time, the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ does not change See  and  for discussions and examples in which $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{CMB}(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{BBN}`$. and thus that $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{BBN}=(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{CMB}`$, one can then combine the two values. We will still assume gaussian errors for a qualitative estimation From the likelihood distribution given in , this does not seem to be a very good approximation at values larger than the central one, while it is reasonably good for smaller values. and in this way we find a CMB-Deuterium combined value

$$(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{CMB+D/H}0.6_{0.8}^{+1.4}.$$
(11)
In this way we get a much more stringent $`2\sigma `$ (3$`\sigma `$) range:

$$(1.8)\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1.0}(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{CMB+D/H}3.4(4.8).$$
(12)
## III Possible scenarios

These new results show that deviations from Standard BBN, if they exist, are small. This means that Standard BBN is in any case, in first approximation, a very good description of all data. This result is mainly due to the fact that the Deuterium abundance is in very good agreement with the CMB prediction. At the same time the measured primordial Helium abundance, $`Y_p`$, suggests the possible presence of small deviations whose detection is now possible mainly to the great precision of CMB in measuring the baryon asymmetry. However, for an assessment of such a hint, it will be necessary to reduce the large sistematic uncertainties on $`Y_p`$ and it will be also necessary to investigate even more accurately on the robustness of the $`\eta `$ determination from CMB. In the following we will assume that such a hint is suggestive of non standard BBN effects and we will discuss some possible scenarios that could explain these deviations. An important role in our discussion is given by the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }=\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$. From (11) and (9) we can estimate:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }1.4_{1.4}^{+0.9}$$
(13)
### A Low expansion rate

A minimal possible way to interpret the data is to assume that there is no effect due to electron neutrino distribution distortions and thus $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }=0`$ or equivalently $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$. In this case one can combine the result (9) from $`Y_p`$ and the result (11) from Deuterium plus CMB, getting $`(\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho )^{CMB+D/H+Y_p}=0.6_{0.35}^{+0.40}`$. This result would suggest a negative value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$, mainly due to the low value of $`Y_p`$, implying a highly non standard modification of the expansion rate during the BBN time, more precisely a lower expansion rate. Usually the presence of new particle species would lead to a higher expansion rate and therefore such a possibility should rely on some drastic change of the radiation dominated picture during the BBN period. However note that, from the Eq. (13), the measurements mildly favour a value $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }0`$ and so this scenario is mildly disfavoured from the data (at almost 90% c.l.).

### B Degenerate BBN

A well known modification of the Standard BBN is to introduce neutrino chemical potentials in the thermal distributions , corresponding to have pre-existing neutrino asymmetries or generated at temperatures $`T10\mathrm{MeV}`$ by some unspecified mechanism. An electron neutrino chemical potential ($`\xi _e=\mu _e/T`$) would yield $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}16\xi _e`$. The observed $`Y_p`$ (cf. (8)) would then be explained by having

$$\xi _e=0.05\pm 0.025.$$
(14)
It has been shown in , extending the results of , that the existing information on neutrino mixing makes possible to conclude that before the onset of BBN arbitrary initial neutrino chemical potentials would be almost equilibrated in a way that $`\xi _\nu \xi _\tau \xi _e`$. The presence of chemical potentials would thus correspond to

$$\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho 3\left[\frac{30}{7}\left(\frac{\xi _e}{\pi }\right)^2+\frac{15}{7}\left(\frac{\xi _e}{\pi }\right)^4\right]3\times 10^3\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}$$
(15)
Therefore in this scenario the expansion rate would be practically standard and the deviations would entirely arise from non standard electron neutrino distribution.

### C Active sterile neutrino oscillations

Let us assume now that at temperature $`T10\mathrm{MeV}`$ all neutrino asymmetries are negligible, for example of the order of the baryon asymmetry. It has been shown in many papers  that a small mixing betwen active neutrinos and new light sterile neutrinos can generate ordinary neutrino asymmetries and thus negative values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }`$ together with $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho 0`$. In a simplified two neutrino mixing the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }`$ is highly dependent on the value of the parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{is}^2=m_s^2m_i^2`$. Usually the possibility to introduce active-sterile neutrino oscillations was motivated by the LSND anomaly . However an explanation of the LSND anomaly in terms of active-sterile neutrino oscillations, compatible with the solar and atmospheric neutrino data would yield, as already mentioned, $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}=\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho 1`$  (see also ). At the same time the new WMAP bound on the neutrino masses, $`m_i0.23\mathrm{eV}`$ , is now also incompatible with such an explanation of the LSND anomaly , except for one constrained exception . The possibility to generate a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ requires a negative value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2=m_s^2m_i^2`$ and very small mixing angles ($`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta 10^4`$ ). Values of $`m_i0.23\mathrm{eV}`$ imply thus $`|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{is}^2|5\times 10^2\mathrm{eV}^2`$. In  it was shown how such maximum value, together with very small mixing angles, would produce $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }0.3`$. For an inverted full hierarchical case the corresponding $`|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{is}^2|10^2\mathrm{eV}^2`$ and in this case $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }0.13`$. These values have to be considered as maximal because in the reality one should consider a full multi-flavour mixing and, though full calculations are still missing, one can expect that part of electron neutrino asymmetry is actually shared with the other two flavours. This means that the small effect could reconcile the observed $`\eta _B`$ from CMB only with high values of $`Y_p`$ (cf. (5)). In a two neutrino mixing small positive values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ are also possible, for larger mixing angles, but this would go at expenses of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }|`$, making it even smaller . Having more than one sterile neutrino flavour would make possible to have $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{f_\nu }0.3`$ and positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ but in this case the total $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ would be larger than $`0.3`$. This possibility is however interesting, since it would be a way to distinguish active-sterile neutrino oscillations from a degenerate BBN scenario. Another way would be the detection of the effects of a possible formation of neutrino domains , like inhomeogeneities in the primordial Deuterium abundance  that would give rise to gravitational waves .

### D Degenerate BBN and class A 3+1 models

This is an intriguing variation of the pure degenerate BBN scenario. Suppose there are both large chemical potentials and also a mixing of new sterile neutrino flavors with the ordinary ones. If the chemical potentials are of the order given by the Eq. (14), then, even for maximal mixing, the sterile neutrino production prior the onset of BBN would be suppressed  and consequently the final value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ would be the same as in the degenerate BBN scenario, while $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ can be in principle slightly higher because of a initial sterile neutrino highly diluted abundance. In this way it is very interesting that, as already noted in , the cosmological bound on four neutrino mixing models can be evaded. Moreover this same conclusion applies also to the (current WMAP or any future one) bound on the sum of neutrino masses applied to so called ‘class A 3+1’ four neutrino mixing models. They are such that the highest mass eigenstate is almost coinciding with a new sterile neutrino flavour and separated from the three lighter ones, almost coinciding with the ordinary ones (see  for references and details), by the LSND gap. In this case the sterile neutrino contribution to the fraction $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu /\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ would be negligible and the bound on the sum of neutrino masses would apply only to the three active mass eigenstates whose total mass is the same as in ordinary three neutrino models. Note also that among four neutrino mixing models these are the only ones to be still marginally consistent with neutrino mixing experiments .

### E Decaying sterile neutrino

CP symmetrical decays of a sterile neutrino with a mass $`m_{\mathrm{st}}m_i`$ into electron neutrino plus, for example, some unknown scalar, with a lifetime $`\tau `$, could yield a positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ and at the same time a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ analogously to the decaying $`\mathrm{MeV}\nu _\tau `$ mechanism of Hansen and Villante , but with some important differences. A sterile neutrino abundance produced before the quark-hadron phase transition, at temperatures $`T100\mathrm{MeV}`$, is necessarily highly diluted compared to that of ordinary neutrinos. This can be re-generated at a lower temperature $`15\mathrm{MeV}(m_{\mathrm{st}}/\mathrm{eV})^{1/3}`$, implying $`m_{\mathrm{st}}1\mathrm{KeV}`$, by a possible neutrino mixing with ordinary states (see  for details and references). If the decaying temperature $`T(t=\tau )`$ is approximately comprised in a window $`(0.55)\mathrm{MeV}`$, elastic scatterings can partially or totally kinetically equilibrate the excess of produced electron neutrino and anti-neutrinos but its total number cannot be totally destroyed by the partially or completely frozen annihilations before the freezing of neutron to proton ratio. This symmetric excess of electron neutrinos and antineutrinos would yield a negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ that can agree with the value (9). Note that since the decaying neutrinos are sterile, their decays would anyway occur out-of-equilibrium even though in the ultrarelativistic regime. An interesting possibility is the case that the sterile neutrino is the LSND neutrino of class A 3+1 models, with $`m_{\mathrm{st}}\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }m_{LSND}^2}`$, like for the degenerate BBN scenario in III D. Now however $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho 1`$, because the decays can only partly destroy what generated by the mixing. This scenario clearly suffers from fine tuning between the lifetime of sterile neutrinos and the time window between freezing of $`\nu _e`$ annihilations and of the neutron to proton ratio. A way to circumvent this problem is to allow decays to be CP asymmetrical in a way to realize a sort of Fukugita-Yanagida leptogenesis at low temperatures. In this case it is enough that the life time is shorter than the $`n/p`$ freezing time ($`10\mathrm{sec}`$). This case would be very similar to the scenario IIID but with $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho 1`$, the exact value depending on the mixing and on the life time. Note that like in IIID the cosmological bound on the sum of neutrino masses would be also evaded, as pointed out in .

## IV Conclusions

In future years a better understanding of sistematic uncertainties in the measured $`Y_p`$ could strengthen or disprove the hint of non standard BBN effects. At the same time improved data from CMB experiments should both be able to measure $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ with a precision of $`0.1`$  and make even more robust and precise the determination of $`\eta _B`$. If the primordial Helium anomaly will be confirmed, implying negative $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}<0`$, then a key quantity in discriminating among different explanations is the difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$. If this will prove to be not zero and negative, then low expansion rate scenarios will be ruled out, as already mildly suggested from current data, and a scenario with large chemical potentials would be a possible explanation if at the same time $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho 𝒪(10^310^2)`$ (maybe detectable in a very optimistic case ). In the case that $`|\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}|<0.3`$, then active-sterile neutrino mixing can be a viable explanation too and if this is also accompanied by a positive value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$, then it will be actually favoured, since degenerate BBN would be ruled out. We also pointed out that the degenerate BBN scenario could receive support from neutrino mixing experiments. This because large neutrino asymmetries would make ‘class A 3+1’ four neutrino mixing models a viable cosmological solution without any limitation from the bound on the sum of the neutrino masses. In this case one should receive a confirmation of LSND from MiniBoone  that would realize a nice consistency between current cosmological data (but we need a better understanding of primordial Helium measurements) and neutrino mixing experiments. We would be left with the tough theoretical problem to understand the origin of large neutrino asymmetries. Current knowledge excludes the nice possibility of active-sterile neutrino oscillations themselves, but maybe a further investigation could change such a conclusion, in particular considering that full multi flavor active-sterile neutrino mixing calculations are still missing and that the role of phases in three neutrino mixing has never been studied . One possibility is that the sterile neutrino decays generate the needed electron neutrino distortions. This case could explain the current central values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ (cf. (9) ) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_\nu ^\rho `$ (cf. (11)) but only future more accurate determination will allow to distinguish among the different scenarios first of all between the standard scenario and possible non standard ones.

Acknowledgements. P.D.B. is supported by the EU network “Supersymmetry and the Early Universe” (HPRN-CT-2000-00152). He wishes to thank F. Borzumati, E. Masso, A. Pomarol and M. Quiros for their questions that stimulated the content of III D and the anonymous referee whose comments stimulated III E. While editing the paper, the second version of  appeared with independent similar conclusions about the possible role of large neutrino asymmetries.


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# Non-binding of Flavor-Singlet Hadrons to Nuclei

## 1 Introduction

The spectrum of QCD may include a state of six quarks which is simultaneously a singlet in color, flavor and spin, namely the H dibaryon, with a quark content $`uuddss`$. It is a scalar with charge 0 and strangeness -2, and is an isospin singlet and a flavor singlet: $`I(J^P)=0(0^+)`$. In 1977, Jaffe predicted using the bag model that the H would have a mass below $`2M_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ jaffe  and thus be strong-interaction stable. Since then, there have been many theoretical efforts to determine the mass and production cross section of the H and, on the experimental side, many inconclusive or unsuccessful attempts to produce and detect it; see for example Hdibaryon . An underlying assumption has generally been that the H is not deeply bound.

In our work we examine the possibility that the H is lighter than two nucleons, $`m_H<2m_N`$. The motivation comes from phenomenological and theoretical analyses of QCD, as is detailed in f:StableH . Briefly, the phenomenological argument springs from the proposal that the puzzling properties of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1520)`$ are explained by their being hybrid baryons consisting of a gluon bound to $`uds`$ quarks in a flavor singlet-color octet state, to make an overall color singletkittel:Lam1405 . If the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1520)`$ are hybrids and the glueball mass is $`1.5`$ GeV, a naive constituent quark model estimate leads to an H mass in the range $`1.31.5`$ GeVf:StableH . The other approach is direct calculation using instanton liquid or color-flavor locking arguments, which are known to imply strong attraction in the diquark channel. Indeed, ref. kochelev:H  states that an instanton liquid calculation leads to $`m_H=1780`$ MeV.

A tightly bound state generally is small in size. In the instanton liquid model this explains why $`r_\pi <\frac{1}{2}r_N`$. Both instanton liquid and lattice calculations indicate that the glueball is even more compact, so the H $``$ glueball analogy suggests $`r_Hr_G\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/4r_N`$.

In this and companion papers we explore the phenomenological constraints on a stable H with mass in the range $`1.3\stackrel{<}{}m_H\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}m_p`$ and with radius $`r_H(1/61/4)r_N`$. Elsewhere we show that such an H can be consistent with the stability of nuclei and with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decays in doubly-strange hypernuclei fz:NucStab . Here we investigate the binding of the H, or more generally of any flavor singlet, to nuclei. We determine the strength of coupling between the H and the $`\sigma `$ meson or glueball which would be required for the H to bind, and conclude that the H would not bind to nuclei if it is as compact as hypothesized. Thus the strong constraints on the abundance of exotic isotopes do not exclude the existence of a stable H. If the H is stable and produced at the appropriate level in the early Universe, it would be a good dark matter candidatef:StableH . A mechanism which provides the correct dark matter abundance will be described in fz:HDM .

In section 2 we summarize the relevant experimental constraints on exotic nuclei. In section 3, we summarize the theory of nuclear binding, to set the framework for and to make clear the limitations of our computation. In section 4 we analyze the binding of a flavor singlet scalar to nuclei, and calculate the minimum values of coupling constants needed for binding. Corresponding limits on nucleon-H scattering are given in section 5. Other flavor-singlets are also considered, in section 6 and elsewhere. We summarize the results and give conclusions in section 7.

## 2 Experimental constraints on the H binding

If the H binds to nuclei, experiments searching for anomalous mass isotopes could be sensitive to its existence. Accelerator mass spectroscopy (AMS) experiments generally have high sensitivity to anomalous isotopes, limiting the fraction of anomalous isotopes to $`10^{18}`$ depending on the element. We discuss binding of the H to heavy and to light isotopes separately.

The H will bind more readily to heavy nuclei than to light ones because their potential well is wider. However, searches for exotic particles bound to heavy nuclei are limited to the search for charged particles in Fe Feneg  and to the experiment by Javorsek et al. javorsek  on Fe and Au. The experiment by Javorsek searched for anomalous Au and Fe nuclei with $`M_X`$ in the range 200 to 350 atomic mass units u. Since the mass of Au is 197 u, this experiment is sensitive to the detection of an exotic particle with mass $`M_X3`$ u and is not sensitive to the H with a mass $`M_H2`$ u.

A summary of limits from various experiments on the concentrations of exotic isotopes of light nuclei is given in hemmick . Only the measurements on hydrogen hydrogen  and helium helium  nuclei are of interest here because they are sensitive to the presence of a light exotic particle with a mass of $`M_X1`$ GeV. It is very improbable that the H binds to hydrogen, since the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ does not bind to hydrogen in spite of having attractive contributions to the potential not shared by the H, e.g., from the $`\eta `$ and $`\eta ^{}`$. Thus we consider only the limit on helium. The limit on the concentration ratio of exotic to non-exotic isotopes for helium comes from the measurements of Klein, Middleton and Stevens who quote an upper limit of $`\frac{He_X}{He}<2\times 10^{14}`$ and $`\frac{He_X}{He}<2\times 10^{12}`$ for primordial He plaga .

## 3 Nuclear binding-general

QCD theory has not yet progressed enough to predict the two nucleon interaction ab initio. Models for nuclear binding are, therefore, constructed semi-phenomenologically and relay closely on experimental input.

The long range part of the nucleon-nucleon interaction (for distances $`r1.5`$ fm) is well explained by the exchange of pions, and it is given by the one pion exchange potential (OPEP). The complete interaction potential $`v_{ij}`$ is given by $`v_{ij}^\pi +v_{ij}^R`$, where $`v_{ij}^R`$ contains all the other (heavy meson, multiple meson and quark exchange) parts. In the one boson exchange (OBE) models the potential $`v_{ij}^R`$ arises from the following contributions:

* In the intermediate region (at distances around $`r1`$ fm) the repulsive vector meson ($`\rho ,\omega `$) exchanges are important. A scalar meson denoted $`\sigma `$ was introduced to provide an attractive potential needed to cancel the repulsion coming from the dominant vector $`\omega `$ meson exchange in this region. Moreover, a spin-orbit part to the potential from both $`\sigma `$ and $`\omega `$ exchange is necessary to account for the splitting of the $`P^3`$ phase shifts in NN scattering.
* At shorter scales ($`r\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ fm), the potential is dominated by the repulsive vector meson ($`\rho ,\omega `$) exchanges.
* For $`r\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.5}`$ fm a phenomenological hard core repulsion is introduced.

However, many of these OBE models required unrealistic values for the meson-nucleon coupling constants and meson masses. With this limitation the OBE theory predicts the properties of the deuteron and of two-nucleon scattering, although, it cannot reproduce the data with high accuracy.

A much better fit to the data is obtained by using phenomenological potentials. In the early 1990’s the Nijmegen group nij90  extracted data on elastic NN scattering and showed that all NN scattering phase shifts and mixing parameters could be determined quite accurately. NN interaction models which fit the Nijmegen database with a $`\chi ^2/N_{data}1`$ are called ’modern’. They include Nijmegen models nijmod , the Argonne $`v_{18}`$ argonmod  and CD-Bonn cdbonnmod  potentials. These potentials have several tens of adjustable parameters, and give precision fits to a wide range of nucleon scattering data.

The construction of ’modern’ potentials can be illustrated with the Nijmegen potential. That is an OBE model based on Regge pole theory, with additional contributions to the potential from the exchange of a Pomeron and f, f’ and $`A_2`$ trajectories. These new contributions give an appreciable repulsion in the central region, playing a role analogous to the soft or hard core repulsion needed in semi-phenomenological and OBE models.

Much less data exists on hyperon-nucleon interactions than on NN interactions, and therefore those models are less constrained. For example the extension of the Nijmegen potential to the hyper-nuclear (YN) sectornijYN  leads to under-binding for heavier systems. The extension to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }N`$ channels cannot be done without the introduction of extra free parameters, and there are no scattering data at present for their determination.

The brief review above shows that the description of baryon binding is a difficult and subtle problem in QCD. Detailed experimental data were needed in order to construct models which can describe observed binding. In the absence of such input data for the H analysis, we must use a simple model based on scalar meson exchange described by the Yukawa potential, neglecting spin effects in the nucleon vertex in the first approximation. We know from the inadequacy of this approach in the NN system that it can only be used as a crude guide. However since the strength of couplings which would be needed for the H to bind to light nuclei are very large, compared to their expected values, we conclude that binding is unlikely. Thus limits on exotic nuclei cannot be used to exclude the existence of an H or other compact flavor singlet scalar or spin-1/2 hadron.

## 4 Binding of a flavor singlet to nuclei

The H cannot bind through one pion exchange because of parity and also flavor conservation. The absorption of a pion by the H would lead to an isospin $`I=1`$ state with parity $`(1)^{J+1}`$, which could be $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ or heavier $`\mathrm{\Xi }p`$ composite states. These states have mass $`\stackrel{>}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.7}`$ GeV higher than the mass of the H, which introduces a strong suppression in $`2^{nd}`$ order perturbation theory. Moreover, the baryons in the intermediate state must have relative angular momentum $`\mathrm{L}=1`$, in order to have odd parity as required; this introduces an additional suppression. Finally, production of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ or $`\mathrm{\Xi }N`$ states is further suppressed due to the small size of the H, as explained in fz:NucStab . Due to all these effects, we conclude that the contribution of one or two pion exchange to H binding is negligible.

The first order process can proceed only through the exchange of a flavor singlet scalar meson and a glueball. The lightest scalar meson is f(400-1100) (also called $`\sigma `$). The mass of the glueball is considered to be around $`1.5`$ GeV. In Born approximation, the Yukawa interaction leads to an attractive Yukawa potential between nucleons

$$V(r)=\frac{gg^{}}{4\pi }\frac{1}{r}e^{\mu r}$$
(1)
where $`\mu `$ is the mass of the exchanged singlet boson s ($`\sigma `$ or glueball) and $`gg^{}`$ is the product of the s-H and s-nucleon coupling constants, respectively. The potential of the interaction of H at a position $`\stackrel{}{r}`$ with a nucleus, assuming a uniform distribution of nucleon $`\rho =\frac{A}{\mathrm{V}}`$ inside a nuclear radius R, is then

$$V=\frac{gg^{}}{4\pi }\frac{A}{\mathrm{V}}\frac{e^{\mu |\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{r^{}}|}}{|\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{r^{}}|}d^3\stackrel{}{r^{}}$$
(2)
where A is the number of nucleons, $`\mathrm{V}`$ is the volume of the nucleus and $`\stackrel{}{r}`$ is the position vector of the H. After integration over the angles the potential is

$$V=\frac{3}{2}\frac{gg^{}}{4\pi }\frac{1}{(1.35\mathrm{fm}\mu )^3}f(r)$$
(3)
where we used $`R=1.35A^{1/3}`$ fm;

$$f(r)=\{\begin{array}{cc}2\mu \left[1(1+\mu R)e^{\mu R}\frac{\mathrm{sinh}[\mu r]}{\mu r}\right]\hfill & rR\hfill \\ 2\mu \left[\mu R\mathrm{cosh}[\mu R]\mathrm{sinh}[\mu R]\right]\frac{e^{\mu r}}{\mu r}\hfill & rR.\hfill \end{array}$$

Throughout, we use $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$ when convenient.

Figure 1 shows the potential the nucleus presents to the H for A=50, taking the mass of the exchanged boson to be $`\mu =`$0.6 and 1.5 GeV. The depth of the potential is practically independent of the number of nucleons and becomes shallower with increasing scalar boson mass $`\mu `$.

Note that Born approximation is applicable at low energies and for small coupling constants; it may not be valid for H binding. Born approximation is valid when

$$\frac{m}{\mu }\frac{gg^{}}{4\pi }<<1,$$
(4)
where $`m`$ is the reduced mass and $`\mu `$ the mass of the exchanged particle. As we shall see, this condition is actually not satisfied for values of $`gg^{}`$ which assure binding for the H-mass range of interest. This underlines the fact that no good first principle approach to nuclear binding is available at present.

We can now calculate the value of $`c_{}=\left(\frac{gg^{}}{4\pi }\right)_{}`$ for which the potential is equal to the minimum value needed for binding; in square well approximation this is given by

$$V_{min}=\frac{\pi ^2}{8R^2m}.$$
(5)
Figure 2 shows the dependence of $`c_{}`$ on the mass of the exchanged particle, $`\mu `$. The maximum value of $`c_{}`$ for which the H does not bind decreases with increasing H mass, and it gets higher with increasing mass of the exchanged particle, $`\mu `$.

The H does not bind to light nuclei with $`A4`$, as long as the product of couplings $`c_{}[0.27,0.73,1.65]`$, for $`\mu =[0.6,1,1.5]`$ GeV, where $`c=g_{NN\sigma }g_{HH\sigma }/(4\pi )`$ or $`g_{NNG}g_{HHG}/(4\pi )`$. The H will not bind to heavier nuclei if $`c_{}[0.019,0.054,0.12]`$, for $`\mu =[0.6,1,1.5]`$ GeV. In the next sections we will compare these values to expectations and limits.

It should also be noted that binding requires the product of coupling constants, $`gg^{}`$ to be positive and this may not be the case. Even in the case of hyperons, experimental information was necessary to decide whether the $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ has a relative positive coupling dover .

## 5 Limits on cm from Nucleon H scattering

The nucleon-H elastic scattering cross section is expected to be very small, due to the compact size of the H and the suppression of color fluctuations on scales $`\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}\mathrm{GeV}^1`$ in the nucleon. Ref. f:StableH  estimates $`\sigma _{HN}\stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$ mb. This can be translated to an estimated upper limit on the product $`cm`$ which determines the potential presented to the H by a nucleus, as follows. In the one boson exchange model, the elastic H-N cross section due to the $`\sigma `$\- or glueball-mediated Yukawa interaction is given by

$$\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}=(2mc)^2\frac{1}{(2p^2(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )+\mu ^2)^2}.$$
(6)
In the low energy limit

$$\sigma _{HN}=(2mc)^2\frac{4\pi }{\mu ^4}.$$
(7)
Writing $`\sigma _{HN}=\sigma _310^3`$ mb and $`\mu =\mu _{\mathrm{GeV}}`$ 1 GeV, this gives

$$cm=0.007\sqrt{\sigma _3}\mu _{\mathrm{GeV}}^2\mathrm{GeV}.$$
(8)
Comparing to the values of $`c^{}`$ needed to bind, we see that for $`m_H<2m_p`$ this is too small for the H to bind, even to heavy nuclei111We have summarized the net effect of possibly more than one exchange boson (e.g., $`\sigma `$ and glueball) by a single effective boson represented by a $`c_{}^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`\mu _{\mathrm{eff}}`$..

If dark matter consists of relic H’s, we can demonstrate that H’s do not bind to nuclei without relying on the theoretical estimate above for $`\sigma _{HN}`$. It was shown in wandelt  that the XQC experiment excludes a dark matter-nucleon cross section $`\sigma _{XN}`$ larger than about 0.03 mb for $`m_X1.5`$ GeV. Thus if dark matter consists of a stable H it would require $`\sigma _{XN}0.03`$ mb, implying $`c[0.01,0.03,0.06]`$ for $`\mu =[0.6,1.0,1.5]`$ GeV and the H would not bind even to heavy nuclei.

A generic new scalar flavor singlet hadron X which might appear in an extention of the standard model, might not have a small size and correspondingly small value of $`\sigma _{XN}`$, and it might not be dark matter and subject to the XQC limit. In that case, it is more useful to turn the argument here around to give the maximum $`\sigma _{XN}^{}`$ above which the X would bind to nuclei in the OBE approximation. From eqn (3),(5) and $`f(0)=2\mu `$ we have

$$c_{}=\frac{\pi ^2(1.35\mathrm{fm})\mu ^2}{24A^{2/3}m}.$$
(9)
Then eqn (7) leads to

$$\sigma _{XN}^{}155A^{4/3}\mathrm{mb}.$$
(10)
That is, for instance, if it is required that the X not bind to He then it must have a cross section on nucleons lower than 25 mb.

## 6 Flavor singlet fermion

The analysis of the previous sections can be extended to the case of a flavor singlet fermion such as the glueballino – the supersymmetric partner of the glueball which appears in theories with a light gluinof:lightgluino . In this case the possible exchanged bosons includes, in addition to the $`\sigma `$ and the glueball, the flavor-singlet component of the pseudoscalar meson $`\eta ^{}`$ ($`m_\eta ^{}=958`$ MeV). However the size of the $`R_0`$ should be comparable to the size of the glueball, which was the basis for estimating the size of the H. That is, we expect $`r_{R_0}r_Gr_H`$ and thus $`\sigma _{R_0N}\sigma _{HN}`$f:StableH . Then arguments of the previous section go through directly and show the $`R_0`$ is unlikely to bind to light nuclei222Nussinovnussinov:R0  considered that the $`R_0`$ would bind to nuclei, by assuming that the depth of the potential presented by the nucleus to the $`R_0`$ is at least 2-4 MeV for $`16A56`$. However the discussion of the previous sections, with $`\sigma _{R_0N}=10^3\sigma _3`$ mb, gives a potential depth of 0.07 MeV $`\sqrt{\sigma _3}/(m_{R_0}/\mathrm{GeV})`$..

## 7 Summary and Conclusions

As discussed in section 2, experimental constraints on the binding of a stable H or other flavor singlet scalar hadron to nuclei are most restrictive for helium. We reviewed the theory of nuclear binding and emphasized that even for ordinary nucleons and hyperons there is not a satisfactory first-principles treatment of nuclear binding. We showed that exchange of any pseudoscalar meson, or of two pseudoscalar octet mesons, or any member of the vector meson octet, makes a negligible contribution to the binding of an H or other flavor singlet scalar hadron to a nucleon. The dominant attractive force comes from exchange of a glueball or a $`\sigma `$ (also known as the f(400-1100) meson), which we treated with a simple one boson exchange model. The couplings of $`\sigma `$ and glueball to the $`H`$ are strongly constrained by limits on $`\sigma _{HN}`$, to such low values that the H cannot be expected to bind, even to heavy nuclei.

Thus we conclude that the strong experimental limits on the existence of exotic isotopes of He and other nuclei do not exclude a stable H. More generally, our result can be applied to any new flavor singlet scalar particle X, another example being the $`S^0`$ supersymmetric hybrid baryon ($`uds\stackrel{~}{g}`$) discussed in f:lightgluino . If $`\sigma _{XN}25\mathrm{mb}\mathrm{GeV}/m_X`$, the X particle will not bind to light nuclei and is “safe”. Conversely, if $`\sigma _{XN}>>25\mathrm{mb}\mathrm{GeV}/m_X`$, the X particle could bind to light nuclei and is therefore excluded unless it there is some mechanism suppressing its abundance on Earth, or it could be shown to have an intrinsically repulsive interaction with nucleons. This means the self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) particle postulated by Spergel and Steinhardtspergel:SIDM  to ameliorate some difficulties with Cold Dark Matter, probably cannot be a hadron. SIDM requires $`\sigma _{XX}/M_X0.11`$ b/GeV; if X were a hadron with such a large cross section, then on geometric grounds one would expect $`\sigma _{XN}1/4\sigma _{XX}`$ which would imply the $`X`$ binds to nuclei and would therefore be excluded by experimental limits discussed above.

Acknowledgements The research of GRF was supported in part by NSF-PHY-0101738. GZ would like to thank Emiliano Sefusatti for useful discussions.


text:
# CO Emission from 𝑧>3 Radio Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

High redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs; $`z>2`$) are often argued to be identified with massive forming ellipticals undergoing a major starburst. There are several arguments for ongoing star formation in HzRGs, including (i) the detection of stellar photospheric absorption lines seen in deep optical spectroscopy (Dey et al. 1997; De Breuck et al., in prep.) and (ii) their strong thermal emission at sub-mm wavelengths, especially at $`z>3`$ (Archibald et al. 2001; Reuland et al., these proceedings). This thermal dust emission can be heated by massive star formation, but direct heating by the AGN is also likely to contribute (e.g. Sanders & Mirabel 1996; Omont et al. 2001). One possibility to distinguish between both mechanisms is to search for CO emission tracing the massive gas reservoir needed to feed the massive starbursts. Such spatially resolved CO emission has indeed been detected around a HzRG (Papadopoulos et al. 2000) and quasars up to $`z=4.7`$ (Omont et al. 1996).

Despite intensive search campaigns (Evans et al. 1996; van Ojik et al. 1997b), the CO lines in HzRGs have long defied detection. The pre-selection of objects with strong thermal dust emission detected with SCUBA at 850 $`\mu `$m, and the use of the sensitive IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer have lead to the first detections of the CO (4$``$3) line in two $`z>3`$ radio galaxies (Papadopoulos et al. 2000). These detections are expected, given the presence of large quantities of ionized and neutral hydrogen around many HzRGs. The ionized gas is seen in the giant Ly$`\alpha `$ halos (see the contributions by van Breugel and Villar-Martín), while the surrounding neutral gas often causes associated HI absorption in the Ly$`\alpha `$ lines of HzRGs (e.g. van Ojik et al. 1997a; Jarvis et al. 2003). However, no direct relationship between these different gas components has yet been found. In this paper, we report on the detection of CO(4$``$3) in two additional HzRGs, which are coincident with the associated HI absorption in the Ly$`\alpha `$ lines.

## 2 A Search for CO in HzRGs using IRAM Plateau de Bure

During the past decade, CO lines have been detected in more than a dozen high redshift objects, primarily quasars out to $`z=4.7`$ (see Cox, Omont & Bertoldi 2002 for a recent review). Most of these detections have been made with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI), which is currently the most sensitive instrument at mm wavelengths. We have started a renewed search for CO lines in HzRGs with the PdBI to complement the quasar observations, which do not allow a detailed comparison with the optical properties due to the dominating AGN emission.

Our targets are selected from the SCUBA survey of $`z>3`$ radio galaxies (Reuland, these proceedings), retaining only sources with $`S_{850\mu \mathrm{m}}>5`$ mJy and a $`>5\sigma `$ detection. In order to pick up spatially extended emission, we use the most compact array configuration. The total bandwidth is 560 MHz, which, given the high accuracy of the optical redshifts determined from the non-resonant HeII $`\lambda `$1640Å line, should be sufficient to pick up the often broad ($`>`$500 km s-1) CO(4$``$3) lines. However, after an initial analysis of the first data, we often found an offset between the optical and CO redshifts (see Table 1), and shifted the central frequency to better cover the entire line width. We return to this difference in the next section. For further details on the observations, see De Breuck et al. (2003).

The first results from our survey have been very promising: we successfully detected the CO(4$``$3) line in B3 J2330+3927 (De Breuck et al. 2003) and TN J0121+1320. Figure 1 shows the integrated CO emission, overlaid on Keck/NIRC $`K`$band images, and Table 1 lists the observational parameters. In TN J0121+1320, the emission appears unresolved, but in B3 J2330+3927, the emission appears spatially extended towards a nearby object in the $`K`$band image. Additional observations are be needed to confirm this extent.

## 3 Comparison of CO and Ly$`\alpha `$ velocity profiles

Table 1 indicates that, despite uncertainties due to the low S/N of the CO detections, there is often a significant offset between the redshift of the optical narrow emission lines and the CO lines. Such offsets are also seen in high S/N CO detections of several high redshift quasars (Guilloteau et al. 1999; Cox et al. 2002a).

Figure 2 compares the velocity profiles of the Ly$`\alpha `$ lines with the full velocity width of the CO lines from Papadopoulos et al. (2000) and our observations. In both B3 J2330+3927 and TN J0121+1320, the CO lines correspond very closely in velocity space to the associated HI absorbers. 6C J1908+7220 is a rare HzRG with broad absorption lines (BAL) and an asymmetrical Ly$`\alpha `$ profile, both spatially and in velocity (Dey 1999). Because the BAL absorption occurs very near the AGN (e.g. Weymann 1991), there is no ’background Ly$`\alpha `$ source’ against which we could detect large-scale associated HI absorption. The spectrum of 4C 60.07 has very low resolution and S/N and does not provide reliable information on the velocity profile. We conclude that in at least half of the HzRGs, the CO emission appears coincident with associated HI absorption. This strongly suggests that both the CO (which traces the H2) and HI originate from the same gas reservoir surrounding the host galaxy.

High resolution spectroscopy of the Ly$`\alpha `$ and CIV $`\lambda `$1549Å lines in two HzRGs (Binette et al. 2000; Jarvis et al. 2003; Wilman, these proceedings) has shown that the absorbers cannot be co-spatial with the emitting gas, but should be located in a surrounding shell. The spatially resolved CO emission may thus be originating from such shells. The presence of CO emission implies that these reservoirs cannot be primordial, which is consistent with the super-solar metalicity seen in the absorber of 0200+015 (Jarvis et al. 2003). Baker et al. (2002) argue that dust is mixed with the CIV-absorbing gas in radio-loud quasars, also suggesting that these reservoirs consist of enriched material. This material may have been deposited by previous mergers or starburst-driven superwinds (e.g. Taniguchi et al. 2001, Furlanetto & Loeb 2003).

## 4 Mass estimates

It is of interest to compare the mass estimates from the CO emission, and the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission and absorption. Such estimates are very uncertain because we need to make a large number assumptions on the physical state and geometrical distribution of the gas (see De Breuck et al. 2003 for a discussion). Nevertheless, in the case of B3 J2330+3927, it is clear that the CO traces a 100 to 1000 larger mass of H2 than the HI and HII derived from Ly$`\alpha `$. If both the CO and Ly$`\alpha `$ originate from the same gas reservoir, as suggested by the velocity profiles in Fig. 2, this implies that CO is a much better tracer of the gas mass than Ly$`\alpha `$. High resolution CO maps of HzRGs will therefore provide a more complete picture of the formation stages of massive galaxies. However, to pick up all components, one needs to be sure to cover the entire velocity width of the CO emission, which can be offset from the optical emission lines by $`>`$500 km s-1 (see e.g. Fig. 1 of Papadopoulos et al. 2000). This presently requires multiple setups with the PdBI, but it will be straightforward with the new 4 GHz wide receivers, scheduled to be commissioned in 2004.

Acknowledgments:

IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain). This work was supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship of the European Community programme ’Improving Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base’ under contract number HPMF-CT-2000-00721.


text:
# Production Asymmetry of 𝐷_𝑠 from 600 GeV/c Σ⁻ and 𝜋⁻ beam

## 1 Introduction

Perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics calculations in leading or next-to-leading order predict very small or no asymmetry in the $`x_F`$ or $`p_t`$ distributions for charm and anticharm production. However, fixed target data show some asymmetry between the production of some charm and anticharm hadrons in hadron-hadron interactions. SELEX has shown strong, beam-dependent asymmetries in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_c^+`$ production. This experiment finds that $`D_s^\pm `$ production from a $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ beam (but not a $`\pi ^{}`$ beam) also has a large production asymmetry. This asymmetry could be due to the fact that the beam hadron shares a quark with one of the charge states (hence leading particle) and not with the other charge state (non-leading). This is sometimes called “the leading particle effect.”

For a $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$($`sdd`$) beam the $`D_s^{}`$($`\overline{c}s`$) shares an $`s`$ quark with the beam hadron and is a leading particle, whereas $`D_s^+(c\overline{s})`$ is not. For a $`\pi ^{}`$($`\overline{u}d`$) beam, neither $`D_s^{}`$ nor $`D_s^+`$ is leading. Several theoretical models have been proposed to explain charm hadroproduction in the framework of non-perturbative hadronization. Among the proposed models are the color-drag string model, which is pronounced at high $`x_F`$ and is independent of $`p_t`$, and the intrinsic charm model, which manifests itself at low $`p_t`$ and larger $`x_F`$.

## 2 Apparatus

Data were taken during the 1996-97 fixed target run at Fermilab. The 600 GeV/c negative hadron beam used in this measurement was composed of approximately 50% $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ and 50% $`\pi ^{}`$. Beam particles were tagged with a transition radiation detector system located upstream of the charm production target.

A segmented target consisting of two copper sheets and three diamond sheets, each spaced by 1.5 cm, was used to produce charm particles. The total target thickness was $`4.2\%`$ of an interaction length for protons.

The SELEX experiment used a three-stage spectrometer designed for large acceptance at $`x_F>0.1`$ and for detecting the decay of charm particles. Each stage included a bending magnet and a detector system.

SELEX used an online trigger to identify charm particles. The hardware trigger required at least 4 charged hadrons in the forward 150 mrad cone and 2 hits from positive track candidates in a hodoscope after second magnet (M2). The software trigger made a full vertex reconstruction of the beam track and all tracks in the M2 spectrometer. Trigger conditions were also included in the simulation.

The RICH detector, located after the second spectrometer system, was filled with neon gas at room temperature and 1.05 atm pressure. It identified charged hadrons whose trajectories went through the fiducial volume, typically requiring $`p>`$ 23 GeV/c. Full reconstruction of the secondary vertex was provided by linking RICH-identified tracks back through the second stage magnetic spectrometer to the vertex silicon detector and associating them at a common decay vertex downstream of the primary interaction vertex.

## 3 Data Analysis

Initial data selection required two kaons to be identified by the RICH (ratio of the likelihoods: $`(K)/(\pi )1`$) and the primary vertex to be in a target sheet.

The criteria used to select $`D_s`$ candidates included the following cuts:

i) Secondary vertex separation significance $`L/\sigma >9`$ where $`L`$ is the longitudinal separation between primary and secondary vertex and $`\sigma `$ is the error on $`L`$.

ii) Secondary vertex was at least 100 microns outside of the target material.

iii) Each secondary track was extrapolated back to primary vertex $`z`$-position to evaluate the transverse miss distance $`b`$. The second largest miss distance had to have $`(b/\sigma _b)^2>8`$, where $`\sigma _b`$ is the error on $`b`$.

These cuts were chosen to reject as many background events as possible without losing too much signal. They were optimized using real background and simulated signal events by maximizing the so-called significance: $`S/\sqrt{N_s+N_b}`$ where $`S`$ was the yield from a Monte Carlo data set. The numbers of signal ($`N_s`$) and background ($`N_b`$) events inside the square root were taken from data (all the events within the mass interval of 50 MeV/$`c^2`$ centered at $`D_s`$ mass value). The cuts are identical for the charge conjugate modes. None of the results presented here is sensitive to this optimization procedure.

Since the RICH detector does not separate particles with absolute certainty, we expect some small amount of misidentification between pion and kaon that causes a reflection of $`D^\pm `$ under the $`D_s^\pm `$ peak (Detailed work on the contamination has been reported in Ref  measurement of $`D_s`$ lifetime). Only resonant ( $`\varphi \pi `$, $`K^{}K`$) channels were considered for this analysis to reduce the contribution of these reflections significantly. $`D_s^\pm `$ charm meson decays to $`\varphi \pi ^\pm `$ were selected by starting with candidate $`\varphi K^{}K^+`$ decays. The invariant mass for two well-reconstructed oppositely charged tracks, identified as kaons by RICH, was calculated. $`\varphi `$ candidates were those pairs whose invariant mass was within $`\pm `$10 MeV/c2 of the $`\varphi `$ mass (1020 MeV/c2). Similarly, those $`KK\pi `$ combinations that include a $`K\pi `$ pair with an invariant mass value within $`\pm `$35 MeV/c2 of $`K^0`$ mass (892 MeV/c2) were selected as $`D_s^\pm K^0(892)K^\pm `$ decays. We have obtained 172$`\pm `$14 $`D_s^{}`$ and 54$`\pm `$8 $`D_s^+`$ in $`\varphi \pi `$ channel and 174$`\pm `$14 $`D_s^{}`$ and 71$`\pm `$12 $`D_s^+`$ in $`K^{}K`$ channel for $`x_F>`$0.15 with the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ beam.

With the above cuts the $`D_s^\pm `$ peaks are clearly evident in the invariant mass spectra of $`KK\pi ^{}`$ and $`KK\pi ^+`$ (Figure 1). This figure also shows Cabbibo-suppressed $`D^\pm `$ peaks. There is a clear excess of $`D_s^{}`$ over $`D_s^+`$ as seen in the figure.

## 4 Production Asymmetry and $`x_F`$ Analysis

Determining the yields through fitting the mass histograms for a specific $`x_F`$ value by a Monte-Carlo generated shape is often inaccurate for small statistics and fluctuating backgrounds. In SELEX the yield at a specific $`x_F`$ value was estimated using a sideband subtraction method assuming a linear background. The mass ranges of the sideband background windows were \[1.900 GeV/$`c^2`$, 1.940 GeV/$`c^2`$\] and \[2.060 GeV/$`c^2`$, 2.140 GeV/$`c^2`$\]. We defined asymmetric sidebands to avoid the influence of $`D^\pm K^+K^{}\pi ^\pm `$ and to exclude the D\*(2010) mass region.

The yields after sideband subtraction were corrected for the acceptance (reconstruction efficiency and geometrical acceptance) of the detector. To estimate the acceptance, $`D_s`$ events were generated by a Monte Carlo program with a flat distribution in $`x_F`$ and a Gaussian-distributed transverse momentum with mean $`p_t`$=0.8 GeV/c. In a given simulation data set the $`\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{s}`$ decays only into the $`K^{}K`$ or $`\varphi \pi `$ mode. Decay tracks were digitized after smearing with detector resolution and multiple Coulomb scattering effects. The detector hits were OR’ed into the hit banks of interaction data. The new hit banks were passed through the SELEX off-line software. The acceptance was measured using the ratio of the reconstructed events to the embedded events. The set of cuts that was used to extract the signal was applied in this case as well. The most important issue for the asymmetry measurement was the relative efficiency of $`D_s^{}`$ and $`D_s^+`$.

As indicated in Figure 2, the average difference in acceptance between $`D_s^{}`$ and $`D_s^+`$ is very small over all $`x_F`$ range compared to the statistical uncertainty. This shows that the spectrometer is charge independent for $`D_s`$ decay events. In figure only the acceptance for $`\varphi \pi `$ channel is shown. The acceptance for $`K^{}K`$ channel is slightly lower. The acceptance in $`x_F`$ is independent of $`p_T`$.

## 5 Results

After all the cuts and acceptance corrections, the resulting $`D_s`$ yields as functions of $`x_F`$ are shown in Figure 3 and listed in Table 1. Resulting data points are fit to a functional form $`(1x_F)^n`$. The values of $`n`$ obtained from the fits are shown on the figure.

Since the beam flux was the same for $`D_s^\pm `$, the two distributions compare the relative production differential cross-sections for these states. Figure 3 shows that, for the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ beam used in this measurement, $`D_s^{}`$ production is favored over $`D_s^+`$ at all $`x_F`$, and the difference increases at large $`x_F`$.

We can discuss this difference in terms of an asymmetry parameter $`A`$, defined as

$`A{\displaystyle \frac{N_{D_s^{}}N_{D_s^+}}{N_{D_s^{}}+N_{D_s^+}}},`$ (1)
where $`N_{D_s^{}}`$ and $`N_{D_s^+}`$ are the corrected yields for $`D_s^{}`$ and $`D_s^+`$, respectively. The asymmetry was calculated for five equally divided bins over an $`x_F`$ range of 0.15 to 0.40 and for three equally divided bins over an $`x_F`$ range of 0.40 to 0.70. Figure 4 displays the acceptance-corrected asymmetry as a function of $`x_F`$ for the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ beam. It shows that there is a significant asymmetry in favor of $`D_s^{}`$ and that the asymmetry increases gradually as $`x_F`$ increases. The asymmetry values are included in Table 1.

Figure 5 displays the asymmetry as a function of $`p_t^2`$. These asymmetry values are also corrected for acceptance. One can see that the asymmetry is flat within the observed range (up to $`p_t^2<5GeV/c`$)

In order to further explore the leading particle effect, the analysis was repeated with data from the $`\pi ^{}`$ beam, obtained under the same conditions as with the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ beam. Because pion beam statistics are much lower, we compare only integrated asymmetry results for all $`KK\pi `$ events with $`x_F>0.15`$. For the $`\pi ^{}`$ beam, which has no leading particle, the integrated asymmetry is consistent with zero ($`A`$ $`=`$ 0.06$`\pm `$0.11). On the other hand, analysis of the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ beam data in the same way results in a large asymmetry in favor of $`D_s^{}`$ ($`A`$ $`=`$ 0.53$`\pm `$0.06).

## 6 Systematic Study

Studies of possible systematic errors due to the side-band subtraction method were done by varying the size and position of the side bands. Effects of changing $`x_F`$ bin sizes on the results were also investigated. Systematics of the acceptance calculations have been checked with meson asymmetries and polarizations, all of which should be zero and are. The false asymmetry due to our hardware trigger was also studied. Even when combined together, these effects are all considerably smaller than the statistical uncertainty and are neglected. The contribution of the misidentification of $`\pi ^{}`$ beam particles as $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ is estimated to be a few percent. The resulting dilution in the asymmetry is negligible.

As mentioned before, background including the $`D^\pm `$ contamination under the $`D_s^\pm `$ peak is highly reduced by limiting data to the resonant states. Effects of the remaining background were studied by comparing the integrated asymmetries obtained from the two resonant states. In the $`\varphi \pi `$ case all backgrounds, including $`D^\pm `$ contamination, are negligible and cannot affect the asymmetry. The $`\varphi \pi `$ integrated asymmetry is 0.52$`\pm `$0.06. For the $`K^{}K`$ channel it is 0.42$`\pm `$0.08. The effect of the contamination reported in ref  would reduce a real $`K^{}K`$ asymmetry of 0.52 to an observed value of 0.48, statistically compatible with observation. The overall dilution effect is much smaller than the statistical uncertainties in individual bins and is not included in the final results (Table I and Figure 4).

## 7 Conclusion

To summarize: the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}(dds)`$ beam data show a strong production asymmetry favoring $`D_s^{}(\overline{c}s)`$ production. This is consistent with leading particle effects. However, the integrated asymmetry from $`\pi ^{}`$ beam at $`x_F>`$0.15 for $`D_s^\pm `$ meson is 0.06$`\pm `$0.11, which is consistent with zero asymmetry as expected since neither $`D_s^+`$ nor $`D_s^{}`$ is a leading particle. Our $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ results are consistent with the previous measurement done by WA89 experiment at CERN with 340 GeV/c $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ beam.

The SELEX pion result of negligible integrated asymmetry agrees with the higher-statistics differential distribution for a 500 GeV $`\pi ^{}`$ beam reported by E791. Their integrated asymmetry in the $`x_F`$ range 0.1 to 0.5 is 0.032$`\pm `$0.022. Our results also favor the color drag model over the intrinsic charm model, since the color drag model predicts a large asymmetry at large $`x_F`$ independent of $`p_t`$.

## 8 Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the staff of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and for invaluable technical support from the staffs of collaborating institutions. This project was supported in part by Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fondo de Apoyo a la Investigación (UASLP), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), the Israel Science Foundation founded by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the International Science Foundation (ISF), the National Science Foundation (Phy #9602178), NATO (grant CR6.941058-1360/94), the Russian Academy of Science, the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology, the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Board (TÜBİTAK), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE grant DE-FG02-91ER40664 and DOE contract number DE-AC02-76CHO3000), and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF).