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# High-redshift radio galaxies: at the crossroads

## 1 Introduction

Radio astronomers are approaching an important crossroads (Fig. 1). The sensitivity of surveys with next-generation instruments like LOFAR and the SKA will be such that, as illustrated in Fig. 2, the radio emission from a typical survey object will have its origin in star formation (SF) rather than black-hole-related processes. There will be a dramatic increase in the areal density of ‘radio galaxies’, and, with HI surveys with the SKA, direct access to 3D maps of the large-scale structure (LSS). Radio observations may eventually lead the way in areas of astrophysical research traditionally dominated by observations in other wavebands.

This paper has a simple purpose – to make the case that much work still needs to be done if we are to claim to understand the jetted-AGN that dominate existing, classical radio surveys, as well as other types of jetted-AGN that are likely to be common in future surveys. I will argue that, despite their perceived rare and exotic nature, jetted-AGN may have an important influence on the Universe, and must therefore be included in cosmological simulations. I will highlight some important, but as yet unresolved, questions concerning these seemingly well-studied objects.

## 2 The relevance of radio sources

Some astronomers have been heard to argue that extragalactic radio sources are irrelevant to the energy budget of the baryons in the Universe. Such arguments are commonly based on two misconceptions: (i) that radio luminosity gives a reliable measure of the ‘power’ required to generate radio emission; and (ii) that all power outputs associated with AGN couple with comparable efficiency to the baryons. The first misconception is typified by the use of a sharp drop in the spectral energy distribution (SED; the plot of $`\nu L_\nu `$ versus $`\nu `$) of AGN at radio wavebands to argue that radio emission is energetically unimportant. In fact, the bolometric radio luminosity of a radio source is typically $`\stackrel{<}{}1`$ per cent of the bulk kinetic power in its jets111 All statements in this paper concerning the jet powers of radio sources ignore the considerable uncertainties associated with issues such as jet composition (Willott et al., 1999). (Willott et al., 1999). If one could plot the SED of a radio source including both mechanical and radiative outputs, then the mechanical output might well dominate. The second misconception arises because radiative outputs tend to be far more obvious than mechanical outputs. However, the fact that we see QSO radiative output so easily, e.g. to very large cosmological distances, implies that radiative outputs are often rather inefficiently absorbed by the baryons in the Universe.

Having established that the mechanical output of radio sources must be considered, it is also worth emphasising that making any estimate of the heating effect of the radio source population is observationally difficult. The radio luminosity function (RLF) has a pronounced break, and the luminosity density, and hence the total heating effect of the population, is dominated by objects at or near that break. We see from Fig. 2 that it is only the most recent generation of radio source redshift surveys, like TOOT (Hill & Rawlings, 2003), that are sensitive to sources near the break in the younger high-$`z`$ Universe, where the heating effect probably peaked \[Fig. 3 of (Rawlings, 2000)\]. Such sources can be thought of as being ‘typical’ of powerful-jetted-AGN in the same, luminosity-weighted, sense that $`L^{}`$ galaxies are typical of the normal galaxy population.

Some astronomers have also been heard to argue that radio sources are irrelevant to galaxy formation. The basis of this argument, is that only a tiny fraction of galaxies are, at any cosmic epoch, powerful radio sources. The hole in this argument is that the low space density of radio-selected objects needs to be corrected for the finite and short ($`\stackrel{<}{}10^8\mathrm{yr}`$) lifetimes of radio outbursts. Accounting for this it seems likely that a large fraction, and possibly all, of the most massive ($`\stackrel{>}{}3L_{}`$) galaxies have developed powerful radio jets on one or more occasions during their history (Willott, Rawlings & Blundell, 2001).

So, my contention is that radio sources may be an important, and an as yet missing, ingredient in ‘semi-analytic’ models \[e.g. (Somerville & Primack, 1999)\] for galaxy formation. Powerful radio sources are ‘Eddington-tuned’ engines (Rawlings, 2000) with jet powers $`QfL_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$, with $`f0.1`$ (Willott et al., 1999), and TOOT is beginning to tell us (Hill & Rawlings, 2003; Rawlings, Hill & Willott, 2003a) that this is true for objects dominating the luminosity density, and hence the integrated heating effect, of the population at high redshift.

## 3 What problems might radio sources help solve?

One example of a problem potentially solved by considering radio sources is the rough calculation (Rawlings, 2000) that, although most of the thermal energy in cluster baryons came from gravitational collapse, powerful radio sources may have injected heat at the $`10`$ per cent level. This may go at least some way towards explaining the ‘excess’ entropy inferred in the central regions of clusters (Ponman, Cannon & Navarro, 1999).

Including radio sources in cosmological simulations may solve other problems. The tight relation between black hole mass and stellar luminosity, and/or stellar velocity dispersion (McLure, 2003), is nicely explained by AGN feedback (Silk & Rees, 1998; Fabian, 1999). According to feedback models, it is the coupling of the mechanical power of AGN to the baryonic component of the forming galaxy that explains the normalization and slope of these relations. In essence these models balance the mechanical power, delivered presumably by winds and/or jets at some unknown fraction $`f_{\mathrm{mech}}`$ of the Eddington luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$, with the power required to push out a shell of gas at a speed $`V_{\mathrm{shell}}`$. So,

$$f_{\mathrm{mech}}L_{\mathrm{Edd}}V_{\mathrm{shell}}(\rho V_{\mathrm{shell}}^2)4\pi r^2\frac{\sigma ^2}{Gr^2}r^2V_{\mathrm{shell}}^3,$$

where the proportionality follows from the assumption that the gas density $`\rho `$ follows the density profile of the dark matter, characterized by a velocity dispersion $`\sigma `$. If the shell is to be pushed away from the galaxy then $`V_{\mathrm{shell}}`$ must exceed $`\sigma `$, yielding a relation close to that seen in the data (McLure, 2003). Including rough estimates of the normalization, the relation can be written as

$$\left(\frac{f_{\mathrm{mech}}}{0.1}\right)\left(\frac{L_{\mathrm{Edd}}}{10^{40}\mathrm{W}}\right)k_1\left(\frac{\sigma }{1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^5,$$
(1)
or alternatively as

$$\left(\frac{f_{\mathrm{mech}}}{0.0001}\right)\left(\frac{L_{\mathrm{Edd}}}{10^{40}\mathrm{W}}\right)k_2\left(\frac{\sigma }{250\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^5,$$
(2)
where $`k_1`$ and $`k_2`$ are constants of order unity, accounting for the numerous uncertainties.

The implication is that Eddington-tuned outflows may be more than just ‘fireworks’ – they may be an integral part of galaxy formation. Despite at least one astronomer at the meeting saying they never wanted to see the phrase again, I stubbornly suggest we start thinking about powerful radio sources less as discrete objects and more as Eddington-tuned feedback events. Such events may be ubiquitous in the life histories of the most massive ellipticals and their associated clusters. Since nearly all clusters of galaxies contain one or more ultramassive ($`\stackrel{>}{}3L^{}`$) elliptical galaxy, it may be impossible to fully understand the properties of clusters, and the elliptical galaxies they contain, without understanding the effects of these dramatic, short-lived events.

## 4 Radio sources as Eddington-tuned feedback events

AGNs almost certainly drive more than one type of outflow. In fact theories predict at least two types: (i) the narrow-beam, relativistic radio jets we all know and love, for which the power source is often assumed to be rotational energy stored in the ergosphere of the black hole as the result of previous episodes of accretion (Cattaneo, 2003); and (ii) wider-beam, sub-relativistic winds driven off the accretion disk, for which the power source is more directly linked to the release of gravitational potential energy (Blandford & Begelman, 1999). These fundamentally different processes seem likely to have widely different values of $`f_{\mathrm{mech}}`$, with theories suggesting a significantly higher value in the case in which the outflow is a powerful, narrow jet.

Binary black hole merger becomes a possibility for the $`\stackrel{>}{}3L_{}`$ products of the mergers that are likely to form the most massive elliptical galaxies (Cattaneo, 2003). This provides an attractive mechanism both for heating the stellar core via orbital decay (Faber et al., 1997), and for the formation of a single spinning supermassive black hole (Wilson & Colbert, 1995). The subsequent emergence of a powerful jet would be expected to yield a step-increase in $`f_{\mathrm{mech}}`$. This could drive a dramatic feedback event in which the gas is expelled on the timescale of the radio source expansion, terminating black hole growth as well as star formation in the circum-nuclear regions. This would be in line with suggestions that powerful jet outflows come at the end of significant periods of black hole growth and associated star formation (Willott et al., 2002; Rawlings et al., 2003b; Jarvis et al., 2003). Massive elliptical galaxies probably underwent this formative phase in the young ($`z\stackrel{>}{}4`$) Universe when the gas could have been given more energy than its binding energy within the associated dark-matter halo (c.f. Equation 1). This gas, enriched by the short-lived, merger-driven burst of star formation, could be driven to large ($`\mathrm{Mpc}`$) radii, where it might form an intracluster medium. One interesting, but highly speculative, possibility is that the fast clear out of recently enriched material may be important in explaining the puzzling metal, i.e. \[Mg/Fe\], abundances of elliptical galaxies (Thomas, Marston & Bender, 2002).

This all sounds reasonable. Physical models suggest that $`\frac{1}{2}1`$ of the jet power of radio galaxies finds its way into the gaseous surroundings whether it is mediated by bubbles, at low $`Q`$ (Brüggen & Kaiser, 2002), or strong bow shocks, at high $`Q`$ (Blundell, Rawlings & Willott, 1999). Comparisons of $`Q`$ with the bolometric (radiative) luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{Bol}}`$ suggest that for powerful sources $`QL_{\mathrm{Bol}}0.1L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ (Willott et al., 1999), so given a roughly unit coupling efficiency to the gaseous environment, we get $`f_{\mathrm{mech}}0.1`$ for Eddington-tuned radio jets. Any shocks driven by the radio sources will have radiative luminosities much less than $`Q`$ because of the long cooling times of the low-density material passing through the shocks. From Equation 1, we see that Eddington-tuned jets from $`\stackrel{>}{}10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ black holes have sufficient power to expel all the gas from a proto-cluster-like potential.

There is much observational evidence in support of the notion that powerful radio sources should be viewed as Eddington-tuned feedback events, important in the history of some, arguably all, the most massive elliptical galaxies.

* Although subtle cosmic-evolution and black-hole-mass effects are present (Willott et al., 2003), the main message from the remarkably tight relation between stellar luminosity and redshift (the $`Kz`$ relation) for radio galaxies remains that a massive ($`\stackrel{>}{}3L_{}`$) elliptical galaxy seems a necessary prerequisite for powerful-jet production.
* Evidence for the importance of halo-halo mergers in the production of powerful jets is growing. There are now several clear examples \[e.g. (Simpson & Rawlings, 2002)\] of powerful outflows being triggered by interpenetrating collisions of galaxies, yielding accretion onto pairs of black holes; in other cases of AGN activity, these black holes may have already coalesced. There are hints that these collisions are orchestrated by the collapse of larger-scale structures which, on cluster scales, may be viewed as double, merging X-ray sources (Crawford et al., 2003) 222 At this meeting, Crawford argued that the latest X-ray data on the high-$`z`$ radio galaxy 3C294 support an inverse-Compton rather than thermal origin for its double X-ray structure. Simpson & Rawlings (2002) have already considered this possibility, and argued that confinement of the CMB-up-scattering electrons would still require an underlying double structure in the gas and dark-matter distributions.and which on supercluster scales may give rise to conspicuous aggregations of radio sources (Brand et al., 2003).
* Evidence that a powerful radio outbursts terminate star formation comes from anti-correlations between various quantities and the linear sizes of radio sources (Baker et al., 2002; Willott et al., 2002; van Ojik et al., 1997; Jarvis et al., 2003). Taking linear size to be related to the time since jet triggering, sub-mm luminosity (which traces heated dust), nuclear reddening (which traces all dust) UV absorption (which traces ionized gas) and HI absorption (which traces neutral gas) are only high in the most recently-triggered systems. Together, these results make a compelling case that radio source expansion is clearing the central regions of the gas and dust needed to fuel starbursts.
* Evidence for significant heat input by radio sources into their environments is also mounting. A bow shock is readily visible in the CHANDRA image of Cygnus A (Smith et al., 2002) but it is a minor contributor to the total X-ray luminosity. In higher-$`z`$ systems, the expectation is that bow shocks will radiate a greater fraction of the energy they receive, largely because the densities in collapsing systems will be higher \[by a factor $`(1+z)^3`$\], and the cooling times shorter. Such strongly radiative bow shocks, totalling $`\stackrel{>}{}10^{38}\mathrm{W}`$, may well have been detected at high redshift both directly as extended soft X-ray emission (Carilli, 2003) and indirectly as the source of photoionizing photons for low-density gas in and around the lobes of $`100`$-kpc-scale radio sources (Inskip et al., 2002).

## 5 Other types of Eddington-tuned feedback event?

Initial results from the TOOT survey (Rawlings, Hill & Willott, 2003a) suggest that typical high-redshift radio sources appear to be Eddington-tuned outburst events. However, not all Eddington-tuned events, for example ‘radio-quiet’ quasars, seem to produce powerful jets. This begs the question of whether jets are important only for a sub-class of galaxies, e.g. the most massive ($`\stackrel{>}{}3L_{}`$) ones. This question is linked to two old results: (i) that some sort of jet activity is common, possibly ubiquitous, in radio-quiet QSOs (Miller, Rawlings & Saunders, 1993); and (ii) that radio-quiet quasars are known to reside in both spiral and elliptical galaxies (McLure, 2003).

The idea of Miller, Rawlings & Saunders (1993) – that all radio-quiet QSOs have low-$`Q`$, but initially relativistic, jets – seemed attractive as QSOs with intermediate radio luminosity could be explained as the favourably aligned, Doppler-boosted cases. The case of the quasar $`1821+643`$, whose credentials as an intermediate-$`L_{151}`$ quasars are clear from Fig. 2, has shown that the real situation is more complicated. Deep radio observations of $`1821+643`$ (Blundell & Rawlings, 2001) reveal a radio structure akin to those of classical FRI radio galaxies, i.e. intrinsically weak non-Doppler-boosted jets. Blundell & Rawlings (2001) argue that similar low-radio-surface-brightness features may be present in a significant fraction of optically-selected QSOs, but they have not yet been properly looked for. Large-scale jets may be a far more common feature of QSO activity than is commonly recognised.

I believe, however, that a simple but powerful argument limits the power in such jets, and any associated winds, to a small fraction of the bolometric/Eddington luminosity of their associated highly accreting AGN. The radio source population can account nicely for the excess entropy seen in the cores of clusters (Rawlings, 2000). Radio sources dominate the heating budget (over ‘radio-quiet’ AGN) provided that they have typical ratios of jet power to bolometric luminosity that exceed the factor $`100`$ by which the (bolometric) luminosity density of the radio-quiet population exceeds that of the radio-loud population (Rawlings, 2000). This is in accord with the normal assumption (Miller, Rawlings & Saunders, 1993) that, to zeroth order, the bolometric output in jets scales with the total low-frequency radio luminosity. Reversing this argument, if the ‘radio-quiet’ population were postulated to have winds (or indeed jets) with similar $`f_{\mathrm{mech}}`$ to the radio-loud population, then the wind/jet input to the intracluster medium would be $`100`$-times greater than is observed in the form of the ‘excess’ entropy in clusters. I conclude that both jets and winds from Eddington-tuned radio-quiet quasars have $`f_{\mathrm{mech}}0.0001`$, and hence are intrinsically weak.

It is important to note, however, that weak jets and winds can have very important effects. There is already compelling evidence that fairly weak jets can limit the cooling of gas in present-day rich clusters (Brüggen & Kaiser, 2002), although in these cases the outflows are driven by AGN accreting at sub-Eddington rates. AGN-driven winds from highly accreting systems could lead to a different type of feedback event, tuned to a lower fraction of $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$, but still capable of removing gas from the central regions of the starburst/AGN, limiting black hole growth and star formation. From Equation 2, material can clearly be pushed out of the central regions of a galaxy even if it cannot reach the scales of the intracluster medium. This less-extreme mode of feedback may be ubiquitous during the formation of less massive ($`\stackrel{<}{}3L^{}`$) spheroids. Since more massive spheroids are likely to grow hierarchically, their progenitors probably underwent such events. The fact that the so-called ‘radio-loud’ BALQSOs (Becker et al., 2001) also inhabit the intermediate-$`L_{151}`$ zone (around $`1821+643`$ in Fig. 2) is very interesting in this regard. We (Grimes et al. in prep) are using sub-mm and radio observations to investigate the possibility that weak outflows are capable of disrupting star formation like their powerful-jet counterparts (Willott et al., 2002).

## 6 The hidden variable – black-hole spin?

I sketch in Fig. 3 some possible evolutionary tracks for the most massive (elliptical) galaxies after their formation. As black-hole mass is essentially a constant along these tracks, it is clear that variations in black-hole mass and/or accretion rate cannot determine the wide variation in jet and accretion properties. This is exemplified by the cases of M87 (a sub-Eddington accretor with weak jets), Cygnus A (a much-closer-to-Eddington accretor with powerful jets) and $`1821+643`$ (a close-to-Eddington accretor with weak jets). There must be a hidden variable, and this is normally ascribed to black-hole spin. Very crudely, this might work as follows. At some suitably high redshift (say $`z7`$), the first $`3L^{}`$ galaxies formed from galaxy-size halo mergers, and they were born with spinning supermassive black holes. Some, but not all, of this spin was removed during the first Eddington-tuned feedback event. Orchestrated perhaps by the collapse of larger-scale structures, subsequent galaxy-size halo mergers (say at $`z17`$), and further Eddington-tuned feedback events could have extracted more and more of spin. So, a $`\stackrel{>}{}3L^{}`$ galaxy that was born in a rare dark-matter fluctuation may well have had such a turbulent history that by present times its black hole has little spin remaining. Now, situated perhaps in the core of a very rich, relaxed cluster like $`1821+643`$ (Lacy, Rawlings & Hill, 1992), even when its black hole is strongly accreting, it has too little spin to power a powerful-jet outflow. On the other hand, a $`\stackrel{>}{}3L^{}`$ galaxy that was born within a less rare dark-matter fluctuation may well have lost little spin since its formation and its initial Eddington-tuned feedback event. Its large-scale environment might be dynamically young in the sense that it is part of a galaxy group which is only at present times falling into a massive relaxed cluster, such as appears to be the case for Cygnus A (Owen et al., 1997). Even moderate accretion onto such a black hole might stimulate a powerful radio jet.

This is certainly not the first time a plot such has Fig. 3 has been shown, and it just as certainly won’t be the last. My plea here is that we finally, collectively, make some observational progress on understanding it! The crude evolutionary scenario discussed above, and its potential relation to dark-matter fluctuations, is undoubtedly far too simplistic but it at least provides a framework which is testable via observations.

## 7 Concluding Remarks

* Let’s finish the job of understanding the Eddington-tuned outburst events that are observationally manifested as powerful radio galaxies. I have argued here that, when viewed at high redshift, these events may well be the terminal phase in the formation of $`\stackrel{>}{}3L^{}`$ elliptical galaxies. The triggering of powerful jets may well introduce a step-function change in $`f_{\mathrm{mech}}`$ which delivers sufficient power to the environment that it influences the gas content, and hence star-formation history, of entire clusters (Equation 1). The fantastic results presented at this meeting identifying high-$`z`$ radio galaxies with forming proto-clusters (Venemans et al., 2003) is obviously in line with this sort of picture.
* Let’s finish the job of understanding the weaker jets, noting that we need urgently to determine why these are sometimes associated with sub-Eddington accretors (classical FRI radio galaxies) and sometimes with highly-accreting objects (‘radio-quiet’ quasars like $`1821+643`$). This is vital because recent results suggest that even weak outflows can have important influences on the Universe, such as regulating cooling flows in galaxy clusters. Weak, but relativistic (i.e. jet-like) outflows may be just part of a second type of Eddington-tuned outburst event that may be the terminating feedback process during the formation of less massive ($`\stackrel{<}{}3L^{}`$) spheroids. If there are associated wide-beam, sub-relativistic (i.e. wind-like) outflows, I have argued that they must carry at least a factor $`100`$-times less mechanical power per unit bolometric power than the powerful radio jets. This is still sufficient to remove gas from the central regions (Equation 2). We also need to understand how such outflows are linked to potential observational manifestations like the BALQSO phenomenon.
* Let’s devise methods for finally hunting down the ‘hidden’ variable in physical models for AGN which is normally, without much observational evidence, ascribed to black hole spin. Clues to this may come from studying the exact link between AGN triggering, star formation and the collapse of dark-matter fluctuations.
* Jetted-AGN, be they powerful-jetted-AGN like known high-redshift radio galaxies or weak-jetted AGN, may have much more cosmological importance than is typically recognised. They should not, therefore, be treated as just a nuisance for future surveys with LOFAR and the SKA.

## Acknowledgements

I thank all my collaborators and the organizers of what proved to be a great meeting. Special thanks to Matt Jarvis and the artist, my mum, responsible for Fig. 1.


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# A New Method to Resolve X-Ray Halos around Point Sources with Chandra Data and Its Application to Cygnus X-1

## 1 Introduction

Small-angle scatterings between X-rays and dust grains in the interstellar medium (ISM) form halos, the diffuse emission around X-ray point sources. The spectrum and the intensity distribution of an X-ray halo depend on the properties of the ISM along the line-of-sight, i.e., the density distribution of the dust, the grain size of the dust and the chemical composition of the grains (Overbeck 1965; Hayakawa 1970; Martin & Sciama 1970; Mathis, Rumpl & Nordsieck 1977; Predehl & Klose 1996). Because of the ISM absorption and scattering, the X-ray energy band provides advantages over other wave bands in studying the interstellar dusts.

The existence of the dust scattering X-ray halos was first discussed by Overbeck (1965) and was first observationally confirmed by Rolf (1983) using the data of GX339-4 with IPC/Einstein. Using HRI/Einstein, Catura (1983) and Bode et al. (1985) also confirmed the existence of X-ray scattering halos around point sources GX 3+1, GX 9+1, GX 13+1, GX 17+2 and Cygnus X-1. The recent main results on X-ray halo studies were reported by Predehl & Schmitt (1995) by systematically examining 25 point sources and 4 supernova remnants with ROSAT observations.

In all these investigations, the analyses were performed by subtracting the point source surface brightness predicted by the point source flux and the point spread function (PSF) of the instrument from the observed surface brightness, then comparing the inferred fractional halo intensity (FHI) as a function of the off-axis angle to those predicted by different halo models in order to deduce the halo properties. However, because the differences between halo profiles from different spatial distributions and dust models are significant only in the core of the halo (Mathis & Lee 1991), the limited angular resolutions of previous instruments (1 for IPC/Einstein and 25′′ for PSPC/ROSAT) prevent the previous works from probing regions close to the point sources, and make it difficult to study the properties of the dust grains and to distinguish between various dust models observationally (Predehl & Klose 1996).

The Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory, with its excellent angular resolution (0.5′′ FWHM in PSF), broad energy band ($`0.210.0`$ keV) and reasonably good energy resolution ($`E/\mathrm{\Delta }E=1060`$), is the most promising instrument to date in the X-ray halo study. However, the timed exposure (TE) mode of ACIS 111For the Chandra instruments (ACIS, HETG etc.) and observation mode (CC mode, TE mode etc.), please refer to http://cxc.harvard.edu/proposer/POG., which is the mode with two-dimensional (2-D) image, often suffers from severe pile-up because of the long exposure time (0.2 to 10 seconds) per frame (pile-up is caused by two or more photons impacting one pixel or several adjacent pixels in a single frame); a bright X-ray point source will “burn” a hole at the source position because most photons from the source are lost. It is difficult to estimate the source flux and the halo profile near the point source (see, e.g., Smith, Edgar & Shafer 2002) in this case. Because only bright sources can generate significant X-ray scattering halos, and observations of bright sources with ACIS/Chandra TE mode always suffer from severe pile-up, the excellent spatial resolution of Chandra has not brought the anticipated breakthrough to X-ray halo study.

The pile-up can be avoided or lessened via reducing the number of photons impacting one pixel or several adjacent pixels in a single frame time. The Continuous Clocking (CC) mode uses a very short frame time, and the transmission grating spreads photons in different energies to different pixels; they can provide us with pile-up free or less piled-up data. However, the CC mode data only provide one-dimensional (1-D) intensity distribution. The grating data, though provide 2-D information, are already dispersed by the grating instruments. In this letter, we propose a new method to reconstruct the X-ray scattering halos associated with X-ray point sources from the CC mode data and/or the transmission grating data. This method enables us to probe the halo intensity distribution in a broad energy band as close as 1′′ to the point source. After testing it with the MARX simulation, we applied this method to Cygnus X-1 observed with the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS, or ACIS with HETG) in CC mode.

## 2 METHOD AND SIMULATION

After reflected by the Chandra mirror, X-rays will be diffracted by the transmission grating (in one dimension) by an angle $`\beta `$ according to the grating equation,

$$p\mathrm{sin}\beta =m\lambda ,$$
(1)
where $`p`$ is the spatial period of the grating lines, $`\beta `$ is the dispersion angle, $`m`$ is the grating order ($`0,\pm 1,\pm 2,\mathrm{}`$), and $`\lambda `$ is the photon wavelength. The zeroth order image ($`m=0`$) is the same as the direct image except for a smaller flux, because some photons are diffracted to higher orders. For a mono-energy source, Chandra transmission grating will detect exactly the same intensity distribution in its higher order images as in its zeroth order image, as long as the source size is not too large (less than 3), as shown in Fig. 1. If we project the secondary and higher order photons to a line perpendicular to the grating arm, the projected 1-D image will be the same as the projection of the zeroth order image, except for some broadening caused by “mis-aligned” grating facets of the HETG in the cross-dispersion direction (see following discussion). Because the grating only diffracts photons along the direction of the grating arm, the above projection is also valid for sources with continuum spectra. Usually the non-zeroth order grating images and the CC mode data have no or much less pile-up; either of them can be used to reconstruct the original image.

If the flux of a point source plus its X-ray halo is isotropically distributed and centered at the point source as $`F(r)`$, and the projection process described above can be represented by a matrix operator $`M(r,d)`$, then the projected flux distribution $`P(d)`$ is

$$P(d)=F(r)\times M(r,d),$$
(2)
where $`r`$ is the distance from the centroid source position and $`d`$ is the distance from the projection center (refer to Fig. 1). The inverse matrix of the operator $`M(r,d)`$ exists, and the original distribution can be easily resolved. We used numerical integration to approach the above projection process and built a matrix to approximate the integration and calculate $`M(r,d)^1`$.

To test our method, we produced with MARX 3.0 simulator222http://space.mit.edu/ASC/MARX a point source plus two disk sources to mimic a point source with its X-ray halo observed with Chandra/HETGS in TE mode. Using the intrinsic CCD energy resolution, we extracted the photons in the energy range 1.0–1.5 keV and performed the test in this energy band. We projected the zeroth order photons along an arbitrary direction to mimic the CC mode, projected the MEG photons along the MEG grating arm, and then multiplied these projected flux distribution with $`M(r,d)^1`$ to resolve the flux distributions of the point source plus its halo. The PSF for the grating data was obtained with the same procedure, from a simulated point source. It is worth noting that MARX simulator takes into account the alignment blurs due to “mis-aligned” grating facets, so the broadening effects mentioned before will not affect the reconstruction results. For the CC mode data, the simulated point source is used directly as the PSF. The halo flux was obtained by subtracting the corresponding PSFs from the flux of source plus halo. The reconstructed halo surface brightness distribution is consistent with the simulation input, as shown in Fig. 2, so is the FHI, with the input value of 27.7% and the recovered value of 25.5%. We therefore conclude that the proposed method is feasible to resolve the intensity distribution of X-ray halos associated with point sources.

## 3 APPLICATION TO CYGNUS X-1

Cygnus X-1, the first dynamically determined X-ray binary system to harbor a black hole, had been observed seven times with Chandra by 2003 February 14. It is so bright that during each of the total four observations with TE mode, there was significant piled-up not only in the zeroth order image but also in the dispersed grating images. The only short-frame observation (1999 October 19, ObsID 107) was almost pile-up free in the grating image, but the statistical quality of the data was poor. The other three observations used CC mode. We applied our method to the one with the highest statistical quality, which was observed on 2000 January 12 (ObsID 1511) with effective exposure of 12.7 ks.

We used the zeroth order data within 2 from the source position. For energies above 3.0 keV, the grating arms extend into the 2 region; therefore we must exclude the photons resolved as grating (non-zeroth order) events, which inevitably include some mis-identified halo photons and leave a gap in the halo intensity distribution. We interpolated across the gaps with an exponential function. To estimated the pile-up in the zeroth order data, we calculated the source flux from the grating arm and input it to PIMMS333http://cxc.harvard.edu/toolkit/pimms.jsp and obtained about 23% pile-up. To estimate the point source flux more accurately, we compared the grating data of the short-frame observation on 1999 October 19 with the grating data of this CC mode observation, then used the read-out streak of the short-frame to infer the point source flux at different energy bands (with width 0.5 keV). We also input the grating spectrum of this observation to MARX (scaling up the frame time by three orders of magnitude and scaling down the source flux accordingly to mimic the CC mode) to obtain the piled-up PSFs for different energy bands.

The reconstructed flux distributions in two energy bands are shown in Fig. 3. Even though there is pile-up in the core region, the halo can be clearly resolved down to 1′′ from the point source in the 0.5–1.0 keV band. We also fitted the reconstructed image with the simulated piled-up PSF and then estimated the halo flux. The results of these two methods agree with each other. The total FHI within 2 as a function of photon energy is shown in Fig. 4(a); the fraction drops from about 15% around 1 keV to about 5% around 6 keV. We define the half-flux radius $`R_{0.5}`$ of the halo as the radius which encloses half of the halo photons in the 2 region. The half-flux radius $`R_{0.5}`$ as a function of energy is shown in Fig. 4(b); clearly 50% of the halo photons are concentrated within 40′′. We also investigated how the halo contaminated the point source spectrum in Cygnus X-1 (see Fig. 4(c) and Fig. 4(d)). The halo spectrum is softer than the point source spectrum, especially in the low energy band (below 3 keV). Contributing only $``$ 10% to the total brightness, the X-ray halo in Cygnus X-1 does not distort the original point source spectrum significantly.

The accurate Chandra PSF is important in evaluating FHI. We use MARX simulator instead of the CIAO tool $`mkpsf`$ to generate the PSFs, because the PSF library grids, from which $`mkpsf`$ interpolates to get a PSF for a certain off-axis angle and a certain energy, are very coarse. More realistic PSFs444http://cxc.harvard.edu/chart/index.html could be generated by producing PSFs of the mirror with the SAOSAC ray-tracing code and then projecting the simulated rays onto the detector in MARX. The MARX HRMA model is a simplified version of SAOSAC and is proved sufficient for this study.

We used two previous Chandra observations to make consistency check of the PSF generated by the MARX simulator; one is the the calibration observation of Her X-1 on 2002 July 1, the other is the long-frame Chandra/HETGS observation of Cygnus X-1 on 1999 October 19. Her X-1 is a “real” point source and almost halo free. We did a quick analysis of the Her X-1 data and found that beyond 15′′ pile-up is negligible. The energy dependent radial flux of Her X-1 is used it as the PSFs at off-axis angle 15′′ to 120′′; it gave the same results as the simulated PSFs. For the core region of the PSF, we projected the read-out streak of the Cygnus X-1 data and reconstructed a radial profile at $``$arcsec region, which agrees with the simulated PSF in the core region very well.

The same Cygnus X-1 data were used to double check the inferred FHI. Assume the half-flux radius $`R_{0.5}`$ does not change between observations, we calculated the halo photon intensity from photons between the half-flux radius $`R_{0.5}`$ and 2. The source count rate was obtained from the read-out streak. The derived FHI is plotted in panel (a) of Fig. 4. It agrees well with the result given previously in this section (shown in the same plot).

## 4 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

In this letter, we propose a new method to reconstruct the image of an X-ray point source with its associated X-ray scattering halo from the CC mode data and/or grating data, which is then used to resolve the X-ray halo. With this method and the high angular resolution of the Chandra Observatory we are able to probe the intensity distribution of the X-ray halos as close as 1′′ to their associated point sources. This method is tested with the MARX simulation and applied to Cygnus X-1.

The derived FHI is energy dependent, but does not seem to follow the $`E^2`$ law, which was observed by Predehl & Schmitt (1995) and Smith et al. (2002). The discrepancy may be due to the limited region we used (within 2), because of the following two reasons: (1) the scattering optical depth $`\tau _{sca}E^2`$ was derived by integrating over all solid angles (Mathis & Lee 1991), instead of the 2 region we used; and (2) for single-scattering the mean scattering angle is related to energy as $`E^1`$ (Mathis & Lee 1991), which means we under-estimated low energy photons more than we did for high energy photons. In the low energy band, the FHI we obtained are reasonably consistent with the value reported by Predehl et al. (1995) (11% at the ROSAT energy range 0.1–2.4 keV).

The existence of the halo around a point source might distort the spectrum of the point source. Because the cross-section of the scattering process in the ISM is energy dependent, the halo spectrum is different from the point source spectrum (see Fig. 4(c) and 4(d)). Therefore if the instrument is unable to resolve the point source from the halo, it will obtain contaminated source spectrum; this is the case for X-ray instruments prior to Chandra. Many of the previous measurements of the continuum X-ray spectra of galactic X-ray sources with significant X-ray scattering halo may suffer from this problem. Despite that in Cygnus X-1 system, the X-ray scattering halo only contributes about 10% to the total brightness and does not distort the original spectrum significantly, systematic studies of the X-ray halo distribution in the broad band should be carried out for other X-ray sources with significant X-ray scattering halos, before we can draw any conclusion on the significance of the halo induced distortion to their X-ray continuum spectra.

The spatial distribution of the dust grains is very important in interpreting the physical properties of the grains. For single scattering, numerical calculations show that the core region of an X-ray halo is sensitive to the spatial distribution of the scattering dust along the line-of-sight; grains near the observer generate halos with flatter profile near the core region, whereas grains close to the source create a peak toward the central source; the wings, on the other hand, are not sensitive to the dust distributions (Predehl & Klose 1996; Mathis & Lee 1991). Because we can resolve the X-ray halos as close as 1′′ to the point sources, it is possible to determine the grain spatial distributions. Even though the grain size distribution and multiple-scatterings (especially for the low energy photons) may reduce the differences between halo profiles from various spatial distributions, this degeneracy can be easily resolved by drawing the diagnostic diagram proposed by Mathis & Lee (1991, Fig. 8). The energy dependencies of the scattering optical depth $`\tau _{sca}E^2`$ and the mean scattering angle $`E^1`$, also make the broad band energy-dependent FHI a good diagnostic of the dust grains (Mathis & Lee 1991).

In this letter, we did not fit the energy dependent behavior of the halo with any halo model to constrain the physical properties of the dust grains. However with our technique, different grain spatial distributions and different gain models can be well distinguished with further studies of ACIS/Chandra data. We will address these issues in our next work.

Y. Yao thanks Allyn Tennant for useful discussions and insightful suggestions, also thanks Daniel Dewey, Bruce Draine and the anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions. This work was supported in part by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center under contract NCC8-200 and by NASA Long Term Space Astrophysics Program under grants NAG5-7927 and NAG5-8523.


text:
# On Einsteinian orbits of celestial bodies

## Abstract.

It can be demonstrated that no motion of masses can generate gravitational waves. Accordingly: *i*) the time decrease of the orbital period of the famous binary PSR1913+16 cannot yield an experimental proof of the emission of gravitational waves; *ii*) measurements of the propagation of the quasar J0842+1835 radio-signals past Jupiter cannot reveal the propagation of gravitational waves sent forth by the planet in its motion around the Sun: indeed, this motion does not generate any gravitational radiation; *iii*) the binary RX J0806.3+1527 has the shortest known revolution period (only 321 s): however, it cannot be a candidate for the detection of gravitational waves because no kind of motion of a mass can give origin to a gravitational wave.

to be published on Spacetime & Substance
Introduction

Innumerable papers have been written on the Einsteinian orbits of the celestial bodies. For clear reasons, the overwhelming majority of them are of a perturbative character. In the present Note I consider the above orbits only so far as the hypothesized emission of gravitational waves is concerned. Now, we shall see that from this standpoint it is possible to develop some very simple and general considerations from which one can conclude that *no motion of the celestial bodies gives origin to a gravitational radiation*.

1.Theory

Several arguments prove that no motion of masses can generate gravitational waves . An essential demonstration may be resumed in the following way.

Consider a *continuous medium* characterized by whatever mass tensor $`T_{jk}(x)`$, $`(j,k=0,1,2,3)`$, and let $`g_{jk}(x)`$ be the solution of the Einstein field equations corresponding to a generic motion with respect to a given reference system $`x(x^0,x^1,x^2,x^3)`$. Suppose to follow ideally the motion of a given *mass element* describing a world line $`L`$, and suppose that at a given time this element begins to emit a gravitational wave. Now, if we refer its motion to some Riemann-Fermi coordinates $`z(z^0,z^1,z^2,z^3)`$ , the components $`h_{jk}(z)`$ of the metric tensor will be equal to some *constants* for *all* points of $`L`$. This means that the gravitational field *on*$`L`$ can be obliterated: consequently, no gravitational wave can be actually sent forth by the considered mass element. But line $`L`$ is quite generic, and therefore no motion of the medium gives origin to a gravitational radiation.

It is implicit in the above reasoning that no gravitational damping force has influenced the motion of our mass element.

2.On the binary PSR1913+16

According to many authors, an indirect experimental proof of the physical existence of the gravitational waves is given by the time decrease of the orbital period $`P_b`$ of the binary radiopulsar PSR1913+16 . The measured value of $`\text{d}P_b/\text{d}t`$ is $`(2.30\pm 0.22)10^{12}`$, while the quadrupole formula of the linearized relativity gives a $`\text{d}P_t/\text{d}t`$ due to a hypothesized emission of gravitational radiation equal to $`2.410^{12}`$. An excellent agreement with the observational data has been also obtained by computations at third order of the gravitational constant and fifth order in $`v/c`$. However, this agreement is rather suspect owing to the unreliability of the adopted perturbative treatments (cf.).

As a matter of fact, we know from the theoretical proof of sect.1 that no motion of the stars of the above binary system can generate gravitational waves. Accordingly, it would be necessary to re-examine carefully the influence on $`\text{d}P_b/\text{d}t`$ of those realistic effects that Damour and Taylor have discarded as scarcely significant .

On the other hand, the computations of Taylor *et alii* are based on the assumption that the two stars of the system PSR1913+16 can be treated as *point* masses so far as their motions are concerned: now, point masses interacting only gravitationally describe *geodesic* lines (cf. the first paper cited in ), i.e. their motions are ”free”, ”inertial” motions *with* *no* *radiation damping*.

The conclusion is obvious: the binary PSR1913+16 gives no experimental proof of the real existence of the gravity waves.

3.On the motion of Jupiter

As is well known, as a consequence of the quadrupole formula of the linearized relativity, the power of the gravitational radiation sent out by Jupiter in its motion around the Sun is $`450`$ watt. (The power of the solar *electromagnetic* radiation is about $`10^{24}`$ times greater). From the standpoint of the *exact* theory, this result is a pure nonsense because – cf. sect.1 – no motion of a body generates gravitational waves. However, the present astrophysical community gives an excessive credit to the linearized version of general relativity and to perturbative computations starting from it. Thus, in recent times we have seen a proclamation according to which an indirect experimental detection of the gravitational waves emitted by Jupiter in its motion would be quite possible, see Kopeikin and Fomalont . These authors declare that, owing to a rare alignment of Jupiter’s motion against the quasar J0842+1835, measurements of the propagation of the quasar radio-signals past Jupiter must be sensitive to the propagation of the gravitational radiation emitted by the planet. However, Asada  and subsequently Will , by means of more reasonable perturbative treatments, have proved the non-existence of the Kopeikin-Fomalont effect.

Of course, this result is obvious from the rigorous point of view of the exact formulation of general relativity.

4.\- On the binary RX J0806.3+1527

This binary system is composed of two white dwarfs revolving around each other at a distance of only $`810^4`$ km. The speed of the orbital motion is over $`10^3`$km/s, the orbital period amounts to 321 s: it is the shortest known revolution period, see Israel *et alii* . These authors believe that the above binary is an excellent candidate for the detection of the gravitational waves, owing to the shortness of its period. According to them, the space experiment LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), that will be launched within 2020, will be able to reveal the gravitational waves emitted by RX J0806.3+1527. Of course, this is a pure wishful thinking, see sect.1.

In conclusion, I desire also to emphasize that the astrophysical community ”ignores” that the so-called gravitational waves are mere mathematical undulations devoid of a real energy and a real momentum .

*Sir, I have found you an argument:*

*I am not obliged to find you*

*an understanding.”*

*Samuel Johnson*


text:
# 𝑍𝑍_𝑛-Graded Topological Generalizations of Supersymmetry and Orthofermion Algebra

## 1 Introduction

The advent of supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SQM) in the 1980s  and its remarkable applications  have since motivated many researchers to seek for generalizations of SQM. Most of these generalizations are algebraic in nature in the sense that they are defined in terms of an operator algebra involving a central element called the Hamiltonian $`H`$ and a number of noncentral operators $`𝒬_a`$ and $`𝒬_a^{}`$ called the symmetry generators such that this operator algebra generalizes the algebra of SQM, namely

$$𝒬_a^2=𝒬_a^2=0,[𝒬_a,H]_{}=0,[𝒬_a,𝒬_b^{}]_+=2\delta _{ab}H,$$
(1)
where $`[A,B]_\pm :=AB\pm BA`$ and $`a,b=1,2,\mathrm{},𝒩`$ for some $`𝒩ZZ^+`$. This is known as the algebra of type $`N=2𝒩`$ supersymmetry (SUSY). In what follows we shall only consider the case $`𝒩=1`$ and drop the label $`a=1`$. The general case ($`𝒩>1`$) may be treated similarly.

An algebraic generalization of the $`N=2`$ SUSY corresponds to an associate operator algebra involving $`H`$, $`𝒬`$, $`𝒬^{}`$, and a set of more general defining relations. Typical examples are Parasupersymmetry (PSUSY), fractional supersymmetry (FSUSY), and orthosupersymmetry (OSUSY). Note that in ordinary unitary quantum mechanics, one demands $`H`$ to be Hermitian. Therefore, one considers unitary ($``$-representations) of the underlying operator algebra in a Hilbert space.

An alternative approach to generalize SQM is to adopt the grading and the topological properties of SQM as the guiding principle . This leads to a set of generalizations of SQM, called the $`ZZ_n`$-graded topological symmetries (TS), for which one can define certain integer-valued topological invariants that generalize the Witten index of SUSY .

The aim of this article is to provide a brief review of the origins of the above mentioned generalizations of SQM and their relationships.

## 2 SUSY Algebra and Its Statistical Generalizations

Consider the Hamiltonian of the Bose-Fermi oscillator

$$H:=N_++N_{},$$
(2)
where $`N_\pm :=a_\pm ^{}a_\pm `$ is the number operator for a bosonic or fermionic degree of freedom depending on whether its subscript is $`+`$ or $``$ respectively, and $`a_\pm `$ is the corresponding annihilation operator. Then one can check that $`H`$ together with $`𝒬:=\sqrt{2}a_+^{}a_{}`$ satisfies the $`N=2`$ SUSY algebra (1). Here one uses the algebraic identities of Bose and Fermi statistics. If one identifies the subscript $``$ with a parafermion  of order $`p`$ and assumes relative bosonic statistics , then $`H`$ and $`𝒬:=a_+^{}a_{}`$ satisfy the algebra of PSUSY of order $`p`$, ,

$$𝒬^{p+1}=0,[𝒬,H]_{}=0,\underset{k=0}{\overset{p}{}}𝒬^{pk}𝒬^{}𝒬^k=2p𝒬^{p1}H.$$
(3)
Similarly if $`a_\alpha `$, with $`\alpha =1,2,\mathrm{},p`$, denote the annihilation operators associated with an orthofermion of order $`p`$, $`H`$ and $`𝒬_\alpha :=a_+^{}a_\alpha `$ satisfy the algebra of OSUSY of order $`p`$, ,

$$𝒬_\alpha 𝒬_\beta =0,[𝒬_\alpha ,H]_{}=0,𝒬_\alpha 𝒬_\beta ^{}+\delta _{\alpha \beta }\underset{\gamma =1}{\overset{p}{}}𝒬_\gamma ^{}𝒬_\gamma =2\delta _{\alpha \beta }H.$$
(4)
Note that both (3) and (4) reduce to the $`N=2`$ SUSY algebra for $`p=1`$. Therefore, PSUSY and OSUSY are generalizations of SUSY. Next consider the operator algebra for the FSUSY of order $`F=2,3,\mathrm{}`$, namely $`𝒬^F=H`$, . Again if we set $`F=2`$ we obtain the algebra of $`N=1`$ SUSY for which $`𝒬=𝒬^{}`$. Therefore FSUSY is also an algebraic generalization of SUSY.

## 3 Topological Properties of SUSY and PSUSY of Order 2

Given a supersymmetric quantum system, one can show that the difference of the number of zero-energy bosonic and fermionic states, which is called the Witten index, remains invariant under arbitrary SUSY-preserving continuous deformations of the system . This observation serves as the basis of the supersymmetric proofs of the celebrated Atiyah-Singer index theorem, . The fact that SUSY has a rich topological content raises the natural question whether its generalizations share similar properties.

In order to define the Witten index for a general supersymmetric system, one uses the double ($`ZZ_2`$) grading of its Hilbert space. The Hilbert space $``$ always admits a grading operator $`\tau `$ fulfilling $`\tau =\tau ^{}=\tau ^1`$ and $`[\tau ,𝒬]_+=0`$. This operator splits $``$ into the direct sum of its two eigenspaces $`_\pm `$. The elements of $`_+`$ and $`_{}`$ are respectively called ‘bosonic’ and ‘fermionic’ state vectors. We shall instead use the term: ‘vectors with definite grade $`+`$ or $``$’. Another important ingredient that one uses to establish topological invariance of the Witten index is the particular spectral degeneracy structure (SDS) of supersymmetric systems: the energy spectrum is nonnegative, and positive-energy eigenstates come in degenerate pairs with opposite grade. The proof of the fact that every supersymmetric system has this particular SDS is equivalent to the problem of finding unitary irreducible representation (irrep) of the SUSY algebra (1). It turns out that there are only two types of irreps namely the trivial 1-dim. irrep in which $`H=𝒬=0`$ and the 2-dim. irreps labeled by $`EIR^+`$ in which $`H=EI`$, $`I`$ is the $`2\times 2`$ identity matrix, $`\tau =\sigma _3`$, $`𝒬=\sqrt{E/2}(\sigma _1i\sigma _2)`$, and $`\sigma _i`$ are Pauli matrices.

In  the authors explored the topological invariants of the extended and generalized SUSY. These are essentially SUSYs with more than one grading operator. The first study of the topological properties of a genuine generalization of SUSY is  where the question of defining an analog of the Witten index for PSUSY of order 2 was addressed. Again this question may be reduced to finding unitary irreps of the algebra of PSUSY of order 2. It turns out that there are three types of irreps: the trivial 1-dim. irreps labeled by $`EIR`$ in which $`𝒬=0`$ and $`H=E`$, the 2-dim. irreps that coincide with those of the SUSY algebra, and the 3-dim. irreps labeled by $`EIR^+`$ and $`t[1,1]`$ in which $`H=EI`$, $`I`$ is the $`3\times 3`$ identity matrix, and

$$\tau =\sqrt{E}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right),𝒬=\sqrt{E}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& i(1+t)\\ 0& 0& \sqrt{1t^2}\\ i(1t)& \sqrt{1t^2}& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(5)
One can use the above results on the representation theory of the PSUSY algebra of order 2 to infer that only for a special type of PSUSY of order 2 one can define a topological invariant. These correspond to the systems with nonnegative spectrum whose positive energy eigenvalues are all triply degenerate. These systems have been studied and classified in . The extension of the results of  to PSUSY of order $`p>2`$ has not been possible mainly due to difficulties associated with the representation theory of the algebra (3) for $`p>2`$.

## 4 Topological Generalizations of SUSY

The study of the topological properties of SUSY and PSUSY of order 2 reveals the fact that the basic ingredients responsible for these properties are their grading and degeneracy structures. This leads to the point of view that one should define a set of generalizations of SUSY by requiring that they possess appropriate grading and degeneracy structures. By definition these symmetries involve a set of integer-valued topological invariants and include SUSY as a special case. They are consequently called topological symmetries (TS). TSs were initially defined for systems with a $`ZZ_2`$-graded Hilbert space in . Their $`ZZ_n`$-graded generalization was subsequently considered in .

$`ZZ_n`$-graded TSs are described by $`n`$ positive integers $`m_1,\mathrm{},m_n`$ as follows: 1. The Hilbert space $``$ is $`ZZ_n`$-graded, i.e., there are (nonzero) subspaces $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ such that $`=_1\mathrm{}_n`$. The elements of $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ is said to have (definite) grade $`\mathrm{}`$; 2. The Hamiltonian maps $`_{\mathrm{}}`$ to $`_{\mathrm{}}`$; 3. The energy spectrum is nonnegative; 4. For every positive energy eigenvalue $`E`$, there is a $`\lambda _EZZ^+`$ such that the eigenspace of $`E`$ is spanned by $`\lambda _Em_1`$ vectors of grade $`1`$, $`\lambda _Em_2`$ vectors of grade $`2`$, $`\mathrm{}`$, and $`\lambda _Em_n`$ vectors of grade $`n`$. Given this definition one can easily show that the integers $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}:=m_in_j^{(0)}m_jn_i^{(0)}`$, with $`n_{\mathrm{}}^{(0)}`$ denoting the number of zero-energy states of grade $`\mathrm{}`$, are topological invariants.

It is quite remarkable that the rather general definition of TS is indeed sufficient to determine the underlying operator algebra. It turns out that the algebras of SUSY, PSUSY of order 2, and FSUSY of arbitrary order are among the algebras supporting TSs. In particular, for $`n=2`$ and $`m_1=m_2=1`$ one derives a unique operator algebra that is identical with the SUSY algebra (1) with $`N=2`$. Similarly, for $`n=m_1=2`$ and $`m_2=1`$ one obtains the PSUSY algebra (3) with $`p=2`$. Finally, for arbitrary $`n`$ and $`m_1=m_2=\mathrm{}=m_{\mathrm{}}=1`$ one obtains an algebra defined by the FSUSY relation $`H=𝒬^{n+1}`$ together with a couple of additional relations, .

## 5 Orthofermion Algebra and Topological Symmetries

In , it has been shown that the orthofermion algebra of order $`p`$,

$$a_\alpha a_\beta =0,a_\alpha a_\beta ^{}+\delta _{\alpha \beta }\underset{\gamma =1}{\overset{p}{}}a_\gamma ^{}a_\gamma =\delta _{\alpha \beta },$$
(6)
has a unique nontrivial unitary irrep which has dimension $`p+1`$, that in this representation $`a_\alpha `$ is represented by a matrix with entries $`[a_\alpha ]_{ij}=\delta _{i,1}\delta _{j,\alpha +1}`$, $`i,j=1,\mathrm{},p+1`$, and that every representation of (6) is completely reducible to copies of the above irrep and the trivial irrep. Furthermore, one can check that the operators $`L:=a_1+_{\alpha =2}^pa_{\alpha 1}^{}a_\alpha `$ and $`J:=L+a_p^{}`$ respectively satisfy $`L^{p+1}=0`$, $`_{k=0}^pL^{pk}L^{}L^k=pL^{p1}`$, and $`J^{p+1}=1`$. This in turn implies that every system with an OSUSY of order $`p`$ has a $`ZZ_n`$-graded TS, a PSUSY of order $`p`$, and a FSUSY of order $`p+1`$, .

For the case $`p=3`$, one can actually find a realization of this type of TS using Fredholm (possibly differential) operators acting in an inner product (Hilbert) space. This realization has been studied and the relation between the topological invariants $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}`$ and the analytic indices of the associated operators has been discussed in .

## References