text:
# Developments in General Relativity: Black Hole Singularity and Beyond

## 1 Introduction

The problems of the internal structure of black holes are a real great challenge. Inside a black hole the main sights are the singularity.

In this paper I will give a retrospective review and outline the recent achievements in our understanding of the nature of the singularity (and beyond) inside a realistic, rotating black hole.

I want to note that there is a strong believe that the interior of black holes is not visible for an external observer, and who cares for invisible things?

Natural question arises: Can one see from outside what happens inside a black hole? My presentation also addressed this question. An answer to this question is probably affirmative.

For systematic discussion of the problems of the internal structure of black holes see \[1-8\].

The problem of black holes interior was the subject of a very active investigation last decades. There is a great progress in these researches. We know some important properties of the realistic black hole’s interior, but some details and crucial problems are still the subject of much debate.

A very important point for understanding the problem of black hole’s interior is the fact that the path into the gravitational abyss of the interior of a black hole is a progression in time. We recall that inside a spherical black hole, for example, the radial coordinate is timelike. It means that the problem of the black hole interior is an evolutionary problem. In this sense it is completely different from a problem of an internal structure of other celestial bodies, stars for example, or planets.

In principle, if we know the conditions on the border of a black hole (on the event horizon), we can integrate the Einstein equations in time and learn the structure of the progressively deeper layers inside the black hole. Conceptually it looks simple, but there are two types of principal difficulties which prevent realizing this idea consistently.

The first difficulty is the following. Formally the internal structure of a generic rotating black hole even soon after its formation depends crucially on the conditions on the event horizon at very distant future of the external observer (formally at the infinite future). This happens because the light-like signal can propagate from the very distant future to those regions inside a black hole which are deep enough in the hole. The limiting light-like signals which propagate from (formally) infinite future of the external observer form a border inside a black hole which is called a Cauchy horizon.

Thus, the structure of the regions inside a black hole depends crucially on the fate of the black hole at infinite future of an external observer. For example, it depends on the final state of the black hole quantum evaporation (because of the Hawking radiation), on possible collisions of the black hole with other black holes, or another bodies, and it depends on the fate of the Universe itself. It is clear that theoreticians feel themselves uncomfortable under such circumstances.

However we will see that all these uncertainties are related with the structure of spacetime of a realistic black hole very close to the singularity inside it.These parts of spacetime are in the region with the curvature greater than the Planck value. Probably the Classical General Relativity is not applicable here (see below, section 6).

The second serious problem is related to the existence of a singularity inside a black hole. A number of rigorous theorems (see references in ) imply that singularities in the structure of spacetime develop inside black holes. Unfortunately these theorems tell us practically nothing about the locations and the nature of the singularities. It is widely believed today that in the singularity inside a realistic black hole the characteristics of the curvature of the spacetime tends to infinity. Close to the singularity, where the curvature of the spacetime approaches the Plank value, the Classical General Relativity is not applicable. We have no a final version of the quantum theory of gravity yet, thus any extension of the discussion of physics in this region would be highly speculative. Fortunately, as we shall see, these singular regions are deep enough in the black hole interior and they are in the future  with respect to overlying and preceding layers of the black hole where curvatures are not so high and which can be described by well-established theory.

The first attempts to investigate the interior of a Schwarzschild black hole have been made in the late 70’s . It has been demonstrated that in the absence of external perturbations at late times, those regions of the black hole interior which are located long after the black hole formation are virtually free of perturbations, and therefore it can be described by the Schwarzschild geometry for the region with radius less than the gravitational radius. This happens because the gravitational radiation from aspherical initial excitations becomes infinitely diluted as it reaches these regions. But this result is not valid in general case when the angular momentum or the electric charge does not vanish. The reason for that is related to the fact that the topology of the interior of a rotating or/and charged black hole differs drastically from the Schwarzschild one. The key point is that the interior of this black hole possesses a Cauchy horizon . This is a surface of infinite blueshift. Infalling gravitational radiation propagates inside the black hole along paths approaching the generators of the Cauchy horizon, and the energy density of this radiation will suffer an infinite blueshift as it approaches the Cauchy horizon.

This infinitely blueshifted radiation together with the radiation scattered on the curvature of spacetime inside a black hole leads to the formation of curvature singularity instead of the regular Cauchy horizon.

We will call this singularity Cauchy horizon singularity. A lot of papers were devoted to investigation of the nature of this singularity. In addition to the papers mentioned above see also \[11-26\]. Below we consider main processes which are responsible for the formation of the singularity.

## 2 Processes which are responsible for the formation of the Cauchy horizon singularity

This section discusses the nonlinear effects which trigger the formation of a singularity at the Cauchy horizon inside a black hole. In the Introduction we emphasized that the problem of the black hole interior is an evolutionary problem, and it depends on the initial conditions at the surface of the black hole for all momenta of time up to infinity. To specify the problem, we will consider an isolated black hole (in asymptotically flat spacetime) which was created as a result of a realistic collapse of a star without assumptions about special symmetries.

The initial data at the event horizon of an isolated black hole, which determine the internal evolution at fairly late periods of time, are known with precision because of the no hair property. Near the event horizon we have a Kerr-Newman geometry perturbed by a dying tail of gravitational waves. The fallout from this tail produces an inward energy flux decaying as an inverse power $`v^{2p}`$ of advanced time $`v`$, where $`p=2l+3`$ for multipole of order $`l`$ see \[27-30\]. See details in Section 3.

Now we should integrate the Einstein equations with the known boundary conditions to obtain the internal structure of the black hole. In general, the evolution with time into the black hole depths looks as follows. The gravitational radiation penetrating the black hole and partly backscattered by the spacetime curvature can be considered, roughly speaking, as two intersecting radial streams of infalling and outgoing gravitational radiation fluxes, the nonlinear interaction of which leads to the formation a non-trivial structure of the black hole interior. However in such a formulation it is a very difficult and still not solved completely mathematical problem. We will consider main achievements in solving it.

What are the processes responsible for formation of the Cauchy horizon singularity? The key factor producing its formation is the infinite concentration of energy density close to the Cauchy horizon as seen by a free falling observer. This infinite energy density is produced by the ingoing radiative “tail”.

The second important factor here is a tremendous growth of the black hole internal mass parameter, which was dubbed mass inflation .

We start by explaining the mechanism responsible for the mass inflation \[32-34\]. Consider a concentric pair of thin spherical shells in an empty spacetime without a black hole . One shell of mass $`m_{con}`$ contracts, while the other one of mass $`m_{exp}`$ expands. We assume that both shells are moving with the speed of light (for example, “are made of photons”). The contracting shell, which initially has a radius greater than the expanding one, does not create any gravitational effects inside it, so that the expanding shell does not feel the existence of the external shell. On the other hand, the contacting shell moves in the gravitational field on the expanding one. The mutual potential of the gravitational energy of the shells acts as a debit (binding energy) on the gravitational mass energy of the external contracting shell. Before the crossing of the shells, the total mass of both of them, measured by an observer outside both shells, is equal to $`m_{con}+m_{exp}`$ and is constant because the debit of the numerical increase of the negative potential energy is exactly balanced by the increase of the positive energies of photons blueshifted in the gravitational field of the internal sphere.

When shells cross one another, at radius $`r_0`$, the debit is transferred from the contracting shell to the expanding one, but the blueshift of the photons in the contraction shell survives. As a result, the masses of both spheres change. The increase of mass $`m_{con}`$ is called mass inflation. The exact calculation shows that the new mass $`m_{con}^{}`$ and $`m_{exp}^{}`$ are

$$m_{con}^{}=m_{con}+\frac{2m_{con}m_{exp}}{\epsilon },m_{exp}^{}=m_{exp}\frac{2m_{con}m_{exp}}{\epsilon }$$
(1)
where $`\epsilon (r_02m_{exp})`$, (in the paper we use the units $`G=1`$, $`c=1`$). The total mass-energy is, of course, conserved $`m_{con}^{}+m_{exp}^{}=m_{con}+m_{exp}`$. If $`\epsilon `$ is small (the encounter is just outside the horizon of $`m_{exp}`$), the inflation of mass of $`m_{con}`$ can become arbitrary large.

It is not difficult to extend this result to the shells crossing inside a black hole. For simplicity consider at the beginning a spherical charged black hole.

Ori  considered a continuous influx (imitating the “tail” of ingoing gravitational radiation) and the outflux as a thin shell (a very rough imitation of the outgoing gravitational radiation scattered by the spacetime curvature inside a black hole). He specified the mass $`m_{in}(v)`$ to imitate the Price power-law tail (see section 3) and found that the mass function diverges exponentially near the Cauchy horizon as a result of the ingoing flux with the outgoing crossing of the ingoing shell:

$$me^{k_0v_{}}(k_0v_{})^{2p},v_{}\mathrm{},$$
(2)
where $`v_{}`$ is the advanced time in the region lying to the past of the shell, $`k_0`$ is constant, the positive constant $`p`$ depends on perturbations under discussions. Expression (2) describes mass inflation. In this model, we have a scalar curvature singularity since the Weyl curvature invariant $`\mathrm{\Psi }_2`$. (Coulomb component) diverges at the Cauchy horizon. Ori  emphasizes that in spite of this singularity, there are coordinates in which the metric is finite at the Cauchy horizon. He also demonstrated that though the tidal force in the reference frame of a freely falling observer grows infinitely its action on the free falling observer is rather modest. According to  the rate of growth of the curvature is proportional to

$$\tau ^2\left|\mathrm{ln}|\tau |\right|^2,$$
(3)
where $`\tau `$ is the observer’s proper time, $`\tau =0`$ corresponds to the singularity. Tidal forces are proportional to the second time derivatives of the distances between various points of the object. By integrating the corresponding expression twice, one finds that as the singularity is approached $`(\tau =0)`$, the distortion remains finite.

There is one more effect caused by the outgoing flux. This is the contraction of the Cauchy horizon (which is singular now) with retarded time due to the focusing effect of the outgoing shell-like flux. This contraction continuous until the Cauchy horizon shrinks to $`r=0`$, and a stronger singularity occurs. Ori  has estimated the rate of approach to this strong singularity $`r=0`$.

In the case of realistic rotating black hole both processes the infinite concentration of the energy density and mass inflation near the Cauchy horizon also play the key role for formation of the singularity.

## 3 Decay of physical fields along the event horizon of isolated black holes

Behavior of physical fields along the event horizon determines dynamics of these fields inside a black hole and has an impact on the nature of the singularity inside the black hole. We will consider here the behavior of perturbations in the gravitational field. The first guess about the decay of gravitational perturbations outside Schwarzschild black holes was given in , a detailed description was given by Price . References for subsequent work see in  and in the important work . According to , any radiative multipole mode $`l,m`$ of any initially compact linear perturbation dies off outside a black hole at late time as $`t^{2l3}`$. The mechanism which is responsible for this behavior is the scattering of the field off the curvature of spacetime asymptotically far from the black hole.

In the case of a rotating black hole the problem is more complicated due to the lack of spherical symmetry. This problem was investigated in many works. See analytical analyses, references and criticism in , numerical approach in . For individual harmonics there is a power-law decay which is similar to the Schwarzschild case except that at the event horizon the perturbation also oscillates in the Eddington coordinate $`v`$ along the horizon’s null generators proportional to

$$e^{im\mathrm{\Omega }_+v},$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_+`$ is the angular velocity of the black hole rotation, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_+=a/2Mr_+`$, $`M`$ and $`a`$ are mass and specific angular momentum of a black hole correspondingly, $`r_+=M+\sqrt{M^2a^2}`$. Another important difference from the Schwarzschild case is the following. In the case of the rotating black holes spherical-harmonic modes do not evolve independently. In the linearized theory there is a coupling between spherical harmonics multipole of different $`l`$, but with the same $`m`$. In the case fully nonlinear perturbations there is the guess that $`m`$ will not be conserved also. So in the case of arbitrary perturbation the modes with all $`l`$ which are consistent with the spin weight $`s`$ of the field will be exited. For the field with spin weight $`s`$ all modes with $`l|s|`$ will be exited. Accordingly, the late-time dynamics will be dominated by the mode with $`l=|s|`$. The falloff rate is then $`t^{(2|s|+3)}`$. In the case of the gravitational field it corresponds to $`|s|=2`$ and $`t^7`$.

## 4 Nature of the singularity of a rotating black hole

As we mentioned in Section 2, we can use the initial data at the event horizon which we discussed in the previous Section 3 to determine the nature of the singularity inside a black hole. Main processes which are responsible for formation of the singularity were discussed in Section2.

We start from the discussion of the singularity which arises at late time, long after the formation of an isolated black hole.

In general the evolution with time into the black hole deeps looks like the following. There is a weak flux of gravitational radiation into a black hole through the horizon because of small perturbations outside of it. When this radiation approaches the Cauchy horizon it suffers an infinite blueshift. The infinitely blueshift radiation together with the radiation scattered by the curvature of spacetime inside the black hole results in a tremendous growth of the black hole internal mass parameter (“mass inflation”, see Section 2) and finally leads to formation of the curvature singularity of the spacetime along the Cauchy horizon. The infinite tidal gravitational forces arise here. This result was confirmed by considering different models of the ingoing and outgoing fluxes in the interior of charged and rotating black holes(,).

In the case of a rotating black hole the growth of the curvature (and mass function) when we coming to the singularity is modulated by the infinite number of oscillations. This oscillatory behavior of the singularity is related to the dragging of the inertial frame due to rotation of a black hole. Ori  calculated the asymptotic of the curvature scalar $`KR_{iklm}R^{iklm}`$ near the Cauchy horizon singularity:

$$KA|\tau |^2\left[\mathrm{ln}(\tau /M)\right]^7\times \underset{m=1,2}{}C_m\mathrm{exp}\left\{im\left[a(M^2a^2)^{1/2}\mathrm{ln}(\tau /M)\right]\right\},$$
(5)
where $`\tau `$ is a proper time of a free falling observer, $`\tau =0`$ at the singularity, $`A`$ is a constant that depends on the geodesic’s constants of motion, $`C_m`$ are coefficients that depend on point at the singularity which is hit by the observer.

It was shown  that the singularity at the Cauchy horizon is quite weak. In particular, the integral of the tidal force in the freely falling reference frame over the proper time remains finite. It means that the infalling object would then experience the finite tidal deformations which (for typical parameters) are even negligible. While an infinite force is extended, it acts only for a very short time. This singularity exists in a black hole at late times from the point of view of an external observer, but the singularity which arises just after the gravitational collapse of a star is much stronger. According to the Tipler’s terminology  (see also generalization of the classification in ) this is a weak singularity. It seems likely that an observer falling into a black hole with the collapsing star encounters a crushing singularity (strong singularity in the Tipler’s classification). This is so called Belinsky-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz (BKL) space-like singularity . On the other hand an observer falling into an isolated black hole in a late times generally reaches a weak singularity described above.

The weak Cauchy horizon singularity arises first at very late time (formally infinite time) of the external observer and its null generators propagate deeper into black hole and closer to the event of the gravitational collapse. They are subject of the focusing effect under the action of the gravity of the outgoing scattered radiation (see Section 2). Eventually the weak null singularity shrinks to $`r=0`$, and strong BKL singularity occurs. This picture was considered in details in the case of a charged spherical black hole but I do not know the strict proof of it in the case of a rotating black hole

There is one more important question: how generic are considering singularities? The solution which describes a singularity is called general if it depends on the total number of arbitrary functions of three independent variables which corresponds to the inherent degrees of freedom (plus the number of unfixed gauge degrees of freedom). In the case of gravitational field in vacuum this inherent degrees of freedom are equal 4.

The authors of  have had demonstrated that BKL singularity is general. Ori and Flanagan  have demonstrated that weak Cauchy horizon singularity is general also. So on principle both of these types of singularity are stable and can arise inside black holes. But of course which singularity (or both) arises depends on concrete situation, and this problem should be analyzed.

## 5 Quantum effects

As we mentioned in Introduction quantum effects play crucial role in the very vicinity of the singularity. In addition to that the quantum processes probably are important also for the whole structure of a black hole. Indeed, in the previous discussion we emphasized that the internal structure of black holes is a problem of evolution in time starting from boundary conditions on the event horizon for all moments of time up to the infinite future of the external observer.

It is very important to know the boundary conditions up to infinity because we observed that the essential events - mass inflation and singularity formation - happened along the Cauchy horizon which brought information from the infinite future of the external spacetime. However, even an isolated black hole in an asymptotically flat spacetime cannot exist forever. It will evaporate by emitting Hawking quantum radiation. So far we discussed the problem without taking into account this ultimate fate of black holes. Even without going into details it is clear that quantum evaporation of the black holes is crucial for the whole problem.

What can we say about the general picture of the black hole’s interior accounting for quantum evaporation? To account for the latter process we have to change the boundary conditions on the event horizon as compared to the boundary conditions discussed above. Now they should include the flux of negative energy across the horizon, which is related to the quantum evaporation. The last stage of quantum evaporation, when the mass of the black hole becomes comparable to the Plank mass $`m_{Pl}=(\mathrm{}c/G)^{1/2}2.2\times 10^5g`$, is unknown. At this stage the spacetime curvature near the horizon reaches $`l_{Pl}^2`$, where $`l_{Pl}`$ is the Plank length:

$$l_{Pl}=\left(\frac{G\mathrm{}}{c^3}\right)^{1/2}1.6\times 10^{33}\text{cm}.$$
(6)
This means that from the point of view of semiclassical physics a singularity arises here. Probably at this stage the black hole has the characteristics of an extreme black hole, when the external event horizon and internal Cauchy horizon coincide.

As for the processes inside a true singularity in the black hole’s interior, they can be treated only in the framework of an unified quantum theory incorporating gravitation, which is unknown. Thus when we discuss any singularity inside a black hole, we should consider the regions with the spacetime curvature bigger than $`l_{pl}^2`$ as physical singularity from the point of view of semiclassical physics<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1Quantum effects may manifest themselves in the region with the spacetime curvature smaller than $`l_{pl}^2`$, see .. About different aspects of quantum effects in black holes see also .

## 6 Truly realistic black holes

So far we discussed the isolated black holes which were formed as the result of a realistic gravitational collapse without any assumptions about symmetry. Still they are not truly realistic black holes. For the truly realistic black holes we should account matter and radiation falling down through the event horizon at all times up to infinity (or up to the evaporation of a black hole).

The perturbations at the event horizon which arise as a result of the collapse of the non-symmetrical body have a compact support at some initial time. Subsequent perturbations, for example the perturbations which arise from the capture of photons which originate from the relic cosmic background radiation, have non-compact support.

We should account also the difference of the curvature of spacetime in the real Universe from the curvature in the ideal model asymptotically far from the black hole (the scattering of the field in these regions is responsible for the formation of the late-time power-law radiative tails). First steps in the investigation of the truly realistic black holes were done recently.

Burko  studied numerically the origin of the singularity in a simple toy model of a spherical charged black hole which was perturbed nonlinearly by a self-gravitating spherical scalar field. This field was specified in such a way that it had a non-compact support. Namely, it grows logarithmically with advanced time along an outgoing characteristic hypersurface. It was demonstrated that in this case the weak null Cauchy horizon singularity was formed. The null generators of the singularity contract with retarded time, and eventually the central spacelike strong singularity forms. Thus in this case the casual structure of the singularity is the same as in the case of the perturbations with a compact support at some initial time. Of course, this example is very far to be a realistic one.

In another work Burko  demonstrated numerically that the scalar field can be chosen along an outgoing characteristic hypersurface in such a way that only spacelike strong singularity forms. The scalar field has a non-compact support in this case.

It is an open question whether these results hold also for rotating black holes, and what would be a result in the case of a realistic source of perturbations for realistic black holes.

I want to do the following remark. As I mentioned in Section 5, when inside a black hole we come to the singularity close enough, where the spacetime curvature reaches $`l_{pl}^2`$, we should consider this region as a singular one from the point of view of semiclassical physics. This means that any details of the classical spacetime structure in the singular quantum region make no sense. This means that if we are interested in the spacetime structure only outside the singular quantum region and want to investigate this structure in some definite region at the singularity we should take into account radiation coming to the event horizon during the restrict period of time $`t_0`$ only. All radiation which comes to the border of a black hole later will come to the region under consideration inside the quantum singular region and does not influence on the structure of the spacetime outside it at this place. It is rather easy to estimate this period $`t_0`$. It is

$$t_0310^6\text{sec}\left(\frac{M}{10^9M_{}}\right).$$
(7)
## 7 Can one see what happens inside a Black Hole?

Is it possible for a distant observer to receive information about the interior of a black hole? Strictly speaking, this is forbidden by the very definition of a black hole. What we have in mind in asking this question is the following. Suppose there exists a stationary or static black hole. Can we, by using some device, get information about the region lying inside the apparent horizon?

Certainly it is possible if one is allowed to violate the weak energy condition. For example, if one sends into a black hole some amount of “matter” of negative mass, the surface of black hole shrinks, and some of the rays which previously were trapped inside the black hole would be able to leave it. If the decrease of the black hole mass during this process is small, then only a very narrow region lying directly inside the horizon of the former black hole becomes visible.

In order to be able to get information from regions not close the apparent horizon but deep inside an original black hole, one needs to change drastically the parameters of the black hole or even completely destroy it. A formal solution corresponding to such a destruction can be obtained if one considers a spherically symmetric collapse of negative mass into a black hole. The black hole destruction occurs when the negative mass of the collapsing matter becomes equal to the original mass of the black hole. In such a case an external observer can see some region close to the singularity. But even in this case the four-dimensional region of the black hole interior which becomes visible has a four-dimensional spacetime volume of order $`M^4`$. It is much smaller than four-volume of the black hole interior, which remains invisible and which is of order $`M^3T`$, where $`T`$ is the time interval between the black hole formation and its destruction (we assume $`TM`$). The price paid for the possibility of seeing even this small part of the depths of the black hole is its complete destruction.

Does this mean that it is impossible to see what happens inside the apparent horizon without a destructive intervention? We show that such a possibility exists (Frolov and Novikov ). In particular, in these works we discuss a gedanken experiment which demonstrates that traversable wormholes (if only they exist) can be used to get information from the interior of a black hole practically without changing its gravitational field. Namely, we assume that there exist a traversable wormhole, and its mouths are freely falling into a black hole. If one of the mouths crosses the gravitational radius earlier than the other, then rays passing through the first mouth can escape from the region lying inside the gravitational radius. Such rays would go through the wormhole and enter the outside region through the second mouth, see details in .

Acknowledgments

This paper was supported in part by the Danish natural Science Research Council through grant No. 9701841 and also in part by Danmarks Grundforskningsfond through its support for establishment of the TAC.


format: text

text:
# Formation scenarios for the young stellar associations between galactic longitudes 𝑙=280°-360° Tables 1 to 4 are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html

## 1 Introduction

The Ophiuchus, Lupus and Chamaeleon molecular cloud complexes are prominent low-mass star-forming regions (SFRs) close to the Sun (100–200 pc), situated between galactic longitudes $`280\mathrm{°}`$ and $`364\mathrm{°}`$, and reaching relatively high galactic latitudes ($`+20\mathrm{°}`$ for $`\rho `$ Oph and $`15\mathrm{°}`$ for Chamaeleon). Their alignment, as can be seen in a projection on the Galactic plane (e.g., Dame et al. dame (1987)), suggest that they are part of an elongated structure that extends over more than 120 degrees in longitude, from the Aquila Rift to the Vela region. This structure also includes an association of massive stars, the Scorpius-Centaurus (Sco-Cen) OB association, with its subgroups Upper Scorpius (US), Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL), and Lower Centaurus Crux (LCC). The prominent molecular cloud complexes (Ophiuchus, Lupus, Chamaeleon) are connected by filaments to the Galactic plane, and there seems to be an extended thin layer of gas and dust parallel to the aligned structure at distances of about 100–150 pc from the Sun. This was discovered through studies of reddening as a function of distance of stars, which established the physical association between the Southern Coalsack and the Chamaeleon and Musca clouds (Corradi et al. corradi (1997)), and from a mapping of NaI absorption lines (Genova et al. genova (1997)).

Our purpose is to investigate the dynamics of the star-formation process in this extended region of the sky where possibly a dominant mechanism triggered the formation of all the stars. Many different scenarios have been proposed for the formation of this complex of stars and clouds, for instance the sequential star-formation process proposed by Blaauw (blaauw64 (1964), blaauw91 (1991)), the Gould Belt model of Olano & Poppel (olano87 (1987)), which considers that a large disturbance originated in the Taurus region and is propagating in the Galactic plane, or the direct impact of high velocity clouds on the disk proposed by Lépine & Duvert (lepine94 (1994)).

Useful stars to study the dynamics of the star-formation process are those that are younger than about 20 Myr. In such a short time, stars cannot move far from their birthplace, and their trajectories can be traced back based on their present space velocities. Furthermore, the age of groups of stars can be estimated from Hertzsprung-Russel diagrams. Two main classes of stars fall in this range of ages. Most massive stars have already reached the main sequence, or evolved away from it, and form the bright OB associations. On the other hand, most stars with mass less than a few Solar masses, in the same range of age of the early-type stars of the OB associations, have not yet reached the main sequence, and are considered as pre-main sequence (PMS) stars, and include T Tauri (TT) stars and Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) stars. A detailed analysis of the motion of the PMS stars and of the early-type stars members of OB associations is essential to derive constraints to the star-formation models. Different behavior of space velocities, velocity gradients and gradients of age of the stellar associations can be predicted from the above scenarios and other possible ones.

Usually the star formation history of these close SFRs and of the Sco-Cen OB association has been studied separately for each sub-region, and also separately for massive and low-mass stars. In this work, we compare the spatial distribution and kinematics of the PMS stars with those of the young early-type stars. We know that the group of PMS associated with the Ophiuchus SFR and the young early-type stars of the US OB association are situated in the same region of the sky. Several works have studied the PMS population of the US association, e.g., Walter et al. (walter (1994)), Martín (martin (1998)), Sciortino et al. (sciortino (1998)), Preibisch et al. (preib98 (1998)), Preibisch & Zinnecker (preib99 (1999)), and recently, Preibisch et al. (preib02 (2002)). The PMS group of the Lupus SFR and the UCL OB association are also situated in the same region of the sky (Mamajek et al. mamaj02 (2002)). Other works, e.g., the PDS survey (Gregorio-Hetem et al. gregorio (1992); Torres et al. torr95 (1995); Torres torr99 (1999)), Feigelson & Lawson (feigel97 (1997)), and recently, Mamajek et al. (mamaj02 (2002)), have shown that the LCC OB association also contains PMS stars. However, there is no well-known OB association in Chamaeleon. Therefore, in this work we verify the hypothesis that there also is an OB association in Chamaeleon and we verify its relation to the PMS stars. We also re-examine the age determination of the different stellar associations. Finally, we discuss the consistency of these data with the main star-formation scenarios.

## 2 The samples of young stars

### 2.1 Pre-main sequence stars

Sartori (sart00 (2000)) collected a list as exhaustive as possible of known TT and HAeBe stars clearly associated to the SFRs of Ophiuchus, Lupus, Centaurus and Chamaeleon, and also those that are situated in an extended region around the SFRs. The list contains 610 stars, discovered through X-ray surveys, infrared surveys, H$`\alpha `$ surveys, and other means, that had their nature confirmed by optical spectroscopy. Although most TT stars are not bright enough to have been observed by the Hipparcos mission, a few of them are found in the Hipparcos catalogue (Neuhäuser & Brandner neuhau (1998); Wichmann et al. wich98 (1998); Bertout et al. bertout (1999)). In the studied SFRs, 39 of the selected PMS stars are in the Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA esa (1997)). In Table 1 (only available in electronic form at the CDS) we present the 570 PMS stars that are not in the Hipparcos Catalogue and in Table 2 (only available at the CDS too) the 39 Hipparcos stars. In these tables, we present the names of the stars in Col. 1. In Table 2, we also present the Hipparcos numbers (Col. 2), the type of the stars (classical or weak-line TT, or HAeBe) in Col. 3 and the references of this classification in Col. 4.

### 2.2 Young early-type stars

The sample of young early-type stars is largely based on the work of de Zeeuw et al. (dezeeuw (1999), hereafter dZ99), who studied the young stars belonging to the subgroups of Sco-Cen OB association. In that work, the selection of stars members of the associations, based on Hipparcos parallaxes and proper motions, made use of a combination of the convergence point method and the “spaghetti” method of Hoogerwerf & Aguilar (hooger (1999)). In Table 3 (only available at the CDS), we list 521 stars selected by dZ99 as secure members. In this table, the Col. 1 lists the HD numbers and Col. 2 the Hipparcos numbers. The secure members selected by dZ99 are mostly B-, A-, and F-type stars (there are no O-type stars in this OB association), but they also selected some G-, K-, and even M-type stars. dZ99 point out that their kinematic selection method accepts some field stars as association members and they describe their method for estimating the expected number of these interlopers. Although few G- to M-type stars have been predicted as interlopers, they believe that the majority of the G- to M-type members probably do not belong to the associations. We discuss the membership of these late-type stars in Sect. 5.

In their work, dZ99 found a considerable overlap of the secure members with the stars they call as classical members (stars traditionally considered as members of the Sco-Cen OB association). However, they found also significant differences: the vector point diagram of the secure members is more concentrated than that of the classical members, and the parallax distribution is narrower. They attribute these results to a reduced contamination of field stars. Comparing the dZ99 selection with the list of early-type stars previously considered as belonging to the Sco-Cen OB association by de Geus et al. (degeus (1989), hereafter dG89), we verified that several of these classical members have been indeed excluded by the method of dZ99. We believe, based on the comparison with the PMS star proper motions and on the H-R diagrams later discussed (Sects. 4 and 5), that the selection of dZ99 is too restrictive, and that many of the stars excluded by these authors are actually members of the associations. We decided to also consider in this work these sample of classical members excluded by dZ99. We selected in the list of dG89 the stars having Hipparcos parallax measurements of good quality, for which the derived distances are closer than 250 pc. In this way, we added 35 stars in US, 41 in UCL, and 12 in LCC. The list of these stars is presented in Table 4 (only available at the CDS – Col. 1 lists the HD numbers and Col. 2 the Hipparcos numbers).

### 2.3 Chamaeleon OB association

In the Chamaeleon region there was no previously well-known OB association, although Eggen (eggen (1998)) mentioned the existence of an association that could be an extension of the Sco-Cen one. We searched in the Hipparcos Catalogue for B- and A-type stars situated in the whole region of the sky where Chamaeleon PMS stars are found. We selected 21 stars that have distance values in the range of distances of the PMS stars (between 120 and 220 pc). These stars are presented in Table 5, where Col. 1 lists their HD numbers and Col. 2 the Hipparcos numbers, Cols. 3–4 give their galactic coordinates and Col. 5 gives the distance of each selected star.

We also analyzed the space motions of these stars. Adopting the Hipparcos proper motions (Cols 9–10 of Table 5) and radial velocities of the literature (values in Col. 11 and references in Col. 12), we computed the U, V, W velocity components. These velocity components, corrected for the Solar motion (see Sect. 4) are presented in Cols. 13–14 of Table 5. The dispersion of the space velocity distribution of these stars (see values in Table 6) suggest that they probably belong to a single group. We propose that this group of B- and A-type stars form an association, not previously catalogued, in the Chamaeleon region. We can note (see the values given in Tables 2 and 5) that the space velocities of these stars are similar to those of the PMS stars, which reinforces the argument that the two populations are related (see discussions in Sect. 4).

The $`\eta `$ Cha open cluster investigated by Mamajek et al. (mamaj00 (2000)) is contained in a field of 40$`\mathrm{}`$, which is small compared to the 15$`\mathrm{°}`$ size of the association that we are discussing here. The stars of the $`\eta `$ Cha cluster are situated at about 90 pc, closer than the average of the stars of our list, and the only B-type star of the cluster is $`\eta `$ Cha itself (spectral type B8). Probably this cluster is also part of the Sco-Cen OB association, since the space velocities are similar.

## 3 Spatial distribution

We present in Fig. 1 the distribution in galactic coordinates of both samples (PMS stars and young early-type stars). The galactic coordinates of all stars are listed in Cols. 2–3 of Table 1, Cols. 5–6 of Table 2, Cols. 3–4 of Tables 3, 4 and 5. In Table 1, Col. 4 also lists the references for the PMS stars coordinates. All coordinates for the other stars are from the Hipparcos Catalogue. It can be seen that the young stars, both PMS and young early-type, present a relatively continuous distribution. Some regions near molecular clouds, like $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi, Lupus or Chamaeleon, seem to have a larger fraction of low-mass stars, but nevertheless, some PMS stars can be found far from these regions that are usually considered as the main SFRs.

The range of distance of the objects of interest extends to about 250 pc, but most of the young stars and molecular clouds are situated at distances between 100 and 200 pc. If we compare the mean distances of the molecular clouds (see values in Sect. 5) with the mean distances of the subgroups of the Sco-Cen OB association (dZ99), we may think that the PMS stars do not occupy the same region of space of the young early-type stars. However, when we analyze the individual distances of these young stars we verify that that they are spread over a large range of distances. Sartori et al. (sart01 (2001)) noted that their distribution extends to distances as small as 60 pc, because there are at least 10 PMS stars and several young early-type stars that have distances less than 100 pc. The individual distance values and the errors derived from the parallax errors are listed in Cols. 9–11 of Table 2 and Cols. 5–7 of Tables 3 and 4. In Table 2 we also give the parallax values and respective errors (Cols. 7–8) in order to show that Hipparcos did not obtain reliable parallaxes to some PMS stars (9 stars in the studied SFRS) and therefore, their distances could not be estimated.

Then, we calculated the positions in the Galactic system (X, Y, Z) based on these distances derived from the Hipparcos parallaxes. The positions in the Galactic system are listed in Cols. 12–14 of Table 2, Cols. 8–10 of Tables 3 and 4, and Cols. 6–8 of Table 5. The distribution in 3 dimensions of these positions is shown in Fig. 2. In this diagram, as only the stars that have reliable Hipparcos parallax are represented, not more than 30 PMS stars are shown. However, it can be clearly seen that the young early-type stars and the PMS stars follow a similar spatial distribution. There is no separation between the PMS and the young early-type stars.

It is not usual in the literature to consider that the Chamaeleon SFR is related in some way to the Ophiuchus and Lupus SFRs. We consider that they are part of the same complex because there are in the region between Ophiuchus and Chamaeleon other young stars, like the PMS stars in Centaurus, and also molecular clouds, like the Musca clouds, the Coalsack, etc. (all at about the same distance).

We show in Fig. 3 the projected positions of the young stars on the XY plane. Interestingly, in the XY distribution of stars we can distinguish three denser groups, separated by gaps of lower stellar density. These groups are the US, UCL and LCC associations. The elongated shapes of these groups in the direction opposite to the Sun is largely an effect of the errors of measurements on distances. In Fig. 4 we present the error bars in position in the X and Y directions, derived from the Hipparcos errors on parallaxes. Probably most of the stars that seem to be at distances larger than 200 pc are, in reality, closer than that, considering that the errors increase quickly with the distance to the Sun. The errors are expected to produce an excess density of star in the direction that connects the Sun to the main concentrations of stars, as observed. The separation between the three groups seems to be real, and not an effect of extinction due to molecular clouds, since the denser parts of the known clouds do not coincide with the gaps. The apparent geometry of the distribution of stars in the XZ plane (Fig. 5), in which the distance of the stars to the Galactic plane increases with their distance to the Sun, is probably due to the combined effect of the errors in distance (that tends to produce elongated structures) and of a larger extinction in the Galactic plane. The well-known fact that the Sun is about 20 pc above the Galactic plane can also be noticed in the diagram of Fig. 5.

## 4 Kinematics

### 4.1 Proper motions

We collected in the literature all the available proper motions of the young stars in the studied region. The Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA esa (1997)) provides accurate measurements of proper motions for all the 521 young early-type stars of the Sco-Cen OB association (dZ99) and also for the 88 early-type stars from dG89 that we selected to analyze in this work. We adopted the Hipparcos proper motions for the 39 PMS that also are in the catalogue. For the other PMS stars, we mainly adopted the proper motions determined by Teixeira et al. (teixeira (2000); data for 160 stars). The work by Teixeira et al. and some others (Preibisch et al. preib98 (1998); Frink et al. frink (1998); Terranegra et al. terranegra (1999)) were done before the Tycho-2 Catalogue (Hog et al. hog (2000)) became available. However, as the determination of proper motions done by these works were specifically for PMS stars, there are proper motions for several stars exclusively determined by them. Our list of stars with known proper motions was completed with 9 stars from the Tycho-2 Catalogue and 6 from Terranegra et al. (terranegra (1999)). The proper motions in galactic coordinates are listed in Cols. 5–6 of Table 1 (references are in Col. 7), in Cols. 15–16 of Table 2, in Cols. 11–12 of Tables 3 and 4, and in Cols. 9–10 of Table 5. We present in Fig. 6 the vector proper motion diagrams (VPDs) in galactic coordinates of the early-type stars of the three OB associations, US, UCL and LCC, and of the Chamaeleon association (represented by circles), and of the PMS stars of Ophiuchus, Lupus and Chamaeleon SFRs.

When comparing the proper motions of the young early-type and the PMS stars samples, it is important to discuss an interesting selection effect in the OB sample. The proper motions of the early-type stars selected by dZ99 are much more ordered (all similar) than those of the PMS stars. However, this is largely due to the fact that dZ99 only considered stars that were in a very narrow range of proper motion components, on both axes, as members of the Sco-Cen OB association. On the other hand, we have analyzed all the PMS stars with known proper motions, i.e., they were not selected by their kinematic properties. In Fig. 6, we show separately the proper motion of the dG89 stars that were selected for comparison. Obviously, these stars present a larger scatter of their proper motions than those selected by dZ99. However, they are at the same average distance and have the same ages (as later discussed in Sect. 5) of the stars considered as members by dZ99. If we consider the total sample of young early-type stars (the stars selected by dZ99 plus the re-inserted ones), then the scattering of proper motions of the young early-type stars are similar to that of the PMS stars. The VPD of the Chamaeleon region (Fig. 6.d) shows that the B-type and the PMS stars have also very similar proper motion distributions. The whole sample of young stars exhibit a common direction of motion, as can be seen in Fig. 7.

We note that some stars selected by dZ99 were previously classified as PMS stars in other studies: HD 145718 and HD 81624 in US (Gregorio-Hetem et al. gregorio (1992); Thé et al. the (1994)), HD 138009, HD 141277, and HD 143677 in UCL (Brandner et al. brandner (1996); Krautter et al. krautter (1997)), and HD 100546 in LCC (Torres torr99 (1999)). This means that the kinematics of at least a few PMS stars is exactly the same of the Sco-Cen OB associations members selected by dZ99. Considering that only a small number of PMS stars belongs to the source of data used by dZ99, the Hipparcos Catalogue, we believe that it is not a coincidence, i.e., those PMS stars are not interlopers. On the contrary, it reinforces the idea that the PMS and the early-type stars show a very similar kinematics.

A valid question is whether the common proper motion can be simply the reflex motion due to Solar velocity with respect to the local standards of rest, as the stars are in a relatively narrow range of distances. Since the effect of Solar motion on the star proper motion depends on its distance, and we know the distance of few PMS stars, we show in the diagrams of Fig. 6 the values of the reflex Solar motion as a function of distance, from 50 to 200 pc. We assumed the basic Solar motion, with components: U = 10.0 km s<sup>-1</sup> (radially towards the Galactic center), V = 5.25 km s<sup>-1</sup> and W = 7.17 km s<sup>-1</sup> (Dehnen & Binney dehnen (1998)). The reflex of Solar motion depends also on the direction of the stars, and since the regions studied here have sizes of several degrees, we present it for two extreme directions and for the mean direction of each field. It can be seen that the reflex Solar motion for distances less than 150 pc represents a significant fraction of the observed proper motions of these stars. The corrected proper motion vectors of the young stars with known distances are shown in Fig. 8. Note that, although the values of the corrected proper motions are much smaller than the observed ones, a common direction of motion persists.

### 4.2 Radial velocities

We performed a systematic search in the literature for radial velocities of the Hipparcos stars. The $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ values and their references are listed in Cols. 17–18 of Table 2, Cols. 13–14 of Tables 3 and 4, and Cols. 11–12 of Table 5. In Fig. 9 we show the histograms of the $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ of the early-type stars of each studied OB associations in comparison with the $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ of the PMS stars of the related SFRs. It can be remarked that the average $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ vary with longitude, as expected from the projection of the Solar motion, as discussed in more detail in next sub-section. Although the sample of PMS stars with measured $`v_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ is small, no difference can be noticed between the velocities of PMS and young early-type stars.

### 4.3 Space velocities

We combined the proper motions and radial velocities of the stars with the distances derived from Hipparcos parallaxes, to calculate the U, V, W components of the space velocities in the Galactic frame. We corrected the space velocities for the velocity of the Sun with respect to the local standard of rest (LSR). Note that the effect of the LSR correction is to produce a shift in the space velocities; it does not affect the aspect of the velocity distributions. The U, V and W components with respect to the LSR are listed in Cols. 19–21 of Table 2 for the Hipparcos PMS stars and in Cols. 15–17 of Tables 3 and 4, and in Cols. 13–15 of Table 5, for the early-type stars.

In Table 6 we present the mean values and the standard deviations ($`\sigma `$), resulting from a Gaussian model, for each OB association. It can be seen that the velocity differences between the 4 associations are not significant, being smaller than 1 $`\sigma `$ of the individual distributions (of about 5 km s<sup>-1</sup>). For each SFR the space velocities of the Hipparcos PMS stars are compatible with the mean values of the OB associations.

The average V component in the LSR is about -12 km s<sup>-1</sup>, which is significant and contrary to the velocity expected from Galactic differential rotation. If the rotation curve is relatively flat, stars situated at a Galactic radius smaller than the Solar radius R must complete a rotation in a shorter time than the period associated with the LSR, and should appear to us with a positive velocity in the direction of rotation.

Figure 10 shows the resultant velocities in the LSR of individual stars in the XY plane. As expected from the combination of the V component already discussed and of the small U component on the average, the young stars are moving away from the Sun.

## 5 H-R diagrams and age determination

We estimated the values of effective temperature for the early-type and PMS stars from the spectral types and luminosity classes given in the literature, using the relationship between spectral type and effective temperature given by de Jager & Nieuwenhuijzen (dejager (1987)), who present a complete grid of spectral types and luminosity classes. In the cases where no luminosity class was given, we adopted the luminosity class V. The spectral types and luminosity classes and their references are listed in Cols. 11–12 of Table 1, 25–26 of Table 2 and 20 of Tables 3 and 4 (for the early-type stars, the spectral types were adopted exclusively from the Hipparcos Catalogue). The log$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ values are listed in Cols. 13 of Table 1, 27 of Table 2, and 21 of Tables 3 and 4.

We calculated the visual extinction $`A_V`$ towards the individual stars using their observed ($`V`$-$`I_c`$) color index and the intrinsic color index from Bessel et al. (bessel (1998); their Tables 1, 2 and 3) and the relations of $`A_V`$ and E($`V`$-$`I_c`$) of Schultz & Wiemer (schultz (1975)). Bessel et al. (bessel (1998)) give intrinsic colors as a function of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and log $`g`$. In order to get the intrinsic colors for each star, we adopted the log $`g`$ derived from its spectral type and luminosity class as given by Table VII of Straižys & Kuriliene (straizys (1981)) (the adopted log $`g`$ values are listed in Cols. 14 of Table 1, 28 of Table 2, and 22 of Tables 3 and 4). The observed and intrinsic ($`V`$-$`I_c`$) color index and the $`A_V`$ values are listed in Cols. 9, 15 and 16 of Table 1, 23 and 29 of Table 2 (we do not give the intrinsic colors for the Hipparcos PMS stars), and 19, 23 and 24 of Tables 3 and 4. The ($`V`$-$`I_c`$) references for the PMS stars are listed in Col. 10 of Table 1 and for the Hipparcos PMS stars, in Col. 24 of Table 2. For the early-type stars, the observed ($`V`$-$`I_c`$) were also extracted exclusively from the Hipparcos Catalogue.

Then, bolometric luminosities were calculated through the $`V`$ magnitude corrected for interstellar extinction, the visual bolometric correction BC<sub>V</sub>, also given by Bessel et al. (bessel (1998)), and the distances of each star, when available, or, otherwise, the mean distance of the SFR. We adopted the measured parallaxes to derive the distances of the PMS and early-type stars that are in the Hipparcos Catalogue. The SFR adopted mean distances, also derived from Hipparcos, were 168 pc for Cha I, 147 pc for Lupus, 128 pc for $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi (Bertout et al. bertout (1999)), 178 pc for Cha II (Whittet et al. whittet (1997)) and 140 pc for US (dZ99). The $`V`$ magnitudes, the BC<sub>V</sub> and the log($`L`$/$`L_{}`$) values are listed in Cols. 8, 19 and 20 of Table 1 for 240 PMS stars, in Cols. 22 and 30 of Table 2 for 28 Hipparcos PMS stars (we do not give the BC<sub>V</sub> values for the Hipparcos PMS stars), and in Cols. 18, 25 and 26 of Tables 3 (485 early-type stars) and 4 (87 other early-type stars). The references for the $`V`$ magnitudes are the same for the ($`V`$-$`I_c`$) color indexes.

The H-R diagrams are presented in Figs. 11 to 14, separately for each of the main SFRs. The error bars in luminosity correspond to the errors in the Hipparcos parallaxes. The theoretical isochrones of Siess et al. (siess (2000)) for the PMS phase, and of Bertelli et al. (bertelli (1994)) for the evolution after the main sequence, are shown in these figures. We adopt the isochrones of Siess et al. (siess (2000)) because they are computed for stars in the mass range 0.1 to 7.0 $`M_{}`$, which is essential to represent not only the PMS phase of the TT stars but also of the HAeBe stars. Sartori (sart00 (2000)) compared this set of evolutionary tracks with others usually adopted in the literature (Palla & Stahler palla (1993); D’Antona & Mazzitelli dantona (1994); Baraffe et al. baraffe (1998)), and concluded that the grids of PMS tracks of Siess et al. (siess (2000)) are adequate for the purposes of this work. The ages of the PMS isochrones shown in Figs. 11 to 14 are between 0.1 and 20 Myr (the numbers at the bottom of the curves correspond to the ages, in units of Myr). The zero age main sequence (ZAMS) curve computed by Siess et al. (siess (2000)) is also shown. The isochrones of Bertelli et al. (bertelli (1994)) are derived from stellar models computed from the ZAMS to the central carbon ignition for massive stars or to the beginning of the thermally pulsing regime of the asymptotic giant branch phase for low and intermediate mass stars. In these figures, the ages of the isochrones of Bertelli et al. (bertelli (1994)) range from 8 to 25 Myr (the numbers at the end of the curves correspond to the ages, in units of Myr).

Both sets of theoretical isochrones adopted are computed for the Solar composition. Although there are very few measurements of the PMS stars abundances (e.g. Padgett padgett (1996)) that could confirm this assumption, the Solar composition is usually adopted for all close SFRs. Sartori (sart00 (2000)) investigated the abundance measurements for the Sco-Cen OB association members, and concluded that there is not enough data to assert that the metallicity of these young stars is different from the Solar metallicity.

The main conclusions that we draw from the H-R diagrams are the following:

1. In each SFR the PMS stars span a wide range of ages, from 1 to 20 Myr. Although Preibisch & Zinnecker (preib99 (1999)) and Preibisch et al. (preib02 (2002)), analyzing the PMS stars in the US region, concluded that they have an age of 5 Myr, without a significant spread, we can observe in their H-R diagram many objects above the 1 Myr isochrone, and many objects close to the 10 Myr isochrone. It seems that their conclusions are different from ours because they are based on a different interpretation of the H-R diagrams.
2. For the OB associations, the ages that we obtain from a comparison of the positions of the early-type stars on the diagrams with the isochrones are 8–10 Myr for US, 16–20 Myr for UCL and for LCC. For the Chamaeleon B association, due to the absence of sufficiently massive stars, it is not possible to determine its age. These ages are different from those determined by dG89 (5–6 Myr for US, 14–15 Myr for UCL, 11–12 Myr for LCC). The discrepancies are explained by the fact that we use Hipparcos distances, more recent isochrones, and our effective temperatures are derived from the spectral type (in the work of dG89 the luminosity determination is based exclusively on photometric measurements). It is important to emphasize that in our method as well as in that of dG89, the age determination depends on a few stars situated in the upper part of the H-R diagram, so that the uncertainties are large. Our results do not confirm that UCL is older than the LCC association, as found by dG89.
3. The stars considered as members of the associations by dG89, but excluded by dZ99, as discussed in Sect. 2.2, are indeed members, if we consider their position on the H-R diagrams (they are all in the main sequence – see Figs. 11 to 13).
4. On the other hand, the G- to M-type stars selected as members are actually interlopers, since they are old stars already in the red giant branch. One exception is $`\alpha `$ Sco, situated in the upper part of the H-R diagram of US, which is a member. Although in principle stars of spectral types G to M and classified as luminosity class III could be PMS stars, these stars of the dZ99 samples are not PMS because they are too bright to be unknown TT stars.

Although we estimated ages in the range 1–20 Myr for the PMS stars of US, and ages in the range of 8–10 Myr for the US OB association, we cannot say that there is indeed a difference in the age of the two populations. Note that Preibisch et al. (preib02 (2002)) estimated an age of 5 Myr for the early-type stars of US, similar to the age of the PMS stars. In our analyses, we could not see any clear evidence that in the process of star formation, massive stars form first.

Finally, in all the diagrams we observe a number of stars situated on the left of or below the ZAMS. Several types of errors could contribute to this; for instance the distance or spectral type could be incorrect, some stars could be binaries, others could be interlopers with low metallicity.

## 6 Discussion

The spatial distribution analysis of the studied young stellar associations has shown that they form an almost continuous structure. Sartori et al. (sart01 (2001)) noted that possibly other close groups of young stars could also be part of this large structure.

There is a clear kinship between the PMS and the young early-type stars in each subgroup of the Sco-Cen OB association and in the Chamaeleon region. It is remarkable that the two populations of young stars in this extended region do not show differences in terms of spatial distribution, space velocity distribution and age distribution. At least, in the US and UCL associations, for which we have more data, the young early-type stars and the PMS stars occupy approximately the same volume of space, have the same average space velocities and the same age, so that we must conclude that the two types of stars were born in the same event. The fact that the two types of stars are a single population has not always been recognized, probably for two reasons: 1) the TT stars are difficult to detect in distant associations, and the term “OB association” seems to exclude the presence of stars of later spectral types; 2) since low-mass stars take a longer time to reach the main-sequence than high-mass stars, they give the impression that they are a younger population.

It is interesting to note that a direct comparison of data in the literature could lead us to the incorrect conclusion that the dispersion of proper motions in the studied cluster is larger for the PMS stars than for the young early-type stars. This is the result of a selection effect, since the kinematic criterion used by dZ99 to decide if an early-type star belongs to an OB association is very restrictive.

The Sco-Cen OB associations have slightly distinct properties, in term of ages and kinematics, that justify the division in three associations. Despite their differences in age and kinematics, these stellar associations bear sufficiently similar characteristics to suggest that they belong to a same large ensemble. Even after removal of the effect of the Solar motion, the OB subgroups show very ordered velocities in the plane of the sky. The differences between the space velocities are well inside the internal dispersion values of each association (see Table 6).

We next discuss the gallery of models that have been put forward to explain at least some of the observed properties of the studied SFRs and the Sco-Cen OB association.

### 6.1 The sequential star-formation model

The sequential star-formation model was mainly formulated by Blaauw (blaauw64 (1964), blaauw91 (1991)), who considered that the US, UCL, and LCC associations were the prototype of such a mechanism. In this model, the star formation begins at one extremity of a giant molecular cloud, and propagates like a fire in a forest. The wind produced by the first group of stars compresses the gas of the cloud and induces the formation of a new group of stars, next to it. The star-formation history of the Sco-Cen OB association proposed by Preibisch & Zinnecker (preib99 (1999)) is a variation of the sequential star-formation idea.

Blaauw (blaauw64 (1964), blaauw91 (1991)) did not make any prediction concerning proper motions, however we might expect to see the stars diverging with respect to the successive centers of star formation. The very ordered proper motion observed in the studied region does not seem to confirm this model. In addition, the absence of an age gradient, as has been shown in Sect. 5, excludes the existence of bursts of star formation at successive positions. The large spread of ages at any given position along the extended structure conflicts with the idea that the star-formation process propagated along it. Note that if we are convinced that sequential star formation was not the dominant star-formation mechanism in the region that was considered as the best example of it, we can doubt its effectiveness in general.

### 6.2 The Gould Belt model

The expanding Gould Belt model was proposed by Lindblad et al. (lindblad (1973)), Frogel & Stothers (frogel (1977)), and Olano (olano (1982)), among others; a recent review was presented by Pöppel (poppel (2001)). The model supposes that a violent event took place about 30–60 Myr ago near the Cas-Tau group of young stars, giving rise to an expanding ring of gas. Olano (olano (1982)) predicts the orientation of the ring, the distance to the Sun and velocity of the gas associated with it as a function of time. The Sco-Cen OB association would be a segment of that ring. For the best model, the distance (166 pc) of the portion of the ring situated in the third Galactic quadrant is in agreement with that of the Sco-Cen OB association. The model does not attempt to fit the space velocities of the young stars, but only the radial velocity of the HI gas. Anyway, from the model, we would expect gas and stellar motions with a component towards increasing longitudes, and not the contrary, as we observe. The range of ages of the stars that we observe is a large fraction of the time elapsed since the starting event, according to Olano’s model. As the star-forming ring expanded, we would expect to see young stars filling a large fraction of the volume inside the ring. There are, indeed, young stars associated with the Taurus molecular cloud, but there is clearly a gap without young stars between the “center” and the “ring”. In fact, the distribution of young stars does not confirm the existence of a ring. As later discussed, we consider that a segment a spiral arm is a better explanation than a segment of ring.

### 6.3 Star formation by impact of high-velocity clouds

Lépine & Duvert (lepine94 (1994)) proposed star formation by impact of high velocity clouds (HVC) on the Galactic disk as a mechanism to explain the morphology of molecular clouds and age gradients of young stars; in particular, they presented a detailed model of the $`\rho `$ Oph cloud and Sco-Cen OB association. According to that model, the stars of the Sco-Cen OB association should have proper motions directed towards decreasing longitudes, reflecting the initial direction of the HVC, that can be inferred from the morphology of $`\rho `$ Oph and from the filaments of gas connecting the cloud to the Galactic plane. The model predicts a gradient of age in the same direction of space velocities. Although the model is able to explain the well-ordered proper motions, because the stars are expected to have similar initial velocities, a more detailed analysis, after correction of space velocities for the motion of the Sun, shows some difficulties. In particular, the model predicts a gradient of velocities (the first stars formed would have larger velocities and would be situated at a larger distance from the initial point of impact) and a gradient of age, that are not observed.

### 6.4 Transient Cloud Cores

Feigelson (feigel96 (1996)) analyzed the possibility of star formation in small transient cloud cores, that could be condensations in a turbulent giant molecular cloud. The author recognizes that there is an enormous flexibility in the range of parameters of the model. In general, the stars would be seen to diverge from local centers, and the younger TT stars would appear to be concentrated in clumps 1–2$`\mathrm{°}`$ in size. This model would not explain the ordered motion of the OB subgroups in Sco-Cen association. This model does not tell us what is the mechanism of molecular cloud formation or what drives the turbulence (in the two models previously discussed, the existence of molecular clouds is due to the compression of the interstellar medium by well-described shocks); the model could be complementary to a more global one, as described in the next section.

### 6.5 Purely random process

We analyzed in some detail the possibility of purely random star formation. Let us imagine that star-formation bursts occur at random places and random times in the Galactic disk; they could be triggered for instance by the infall of high velocity clouds or any other process. We performed simple numerical experiments in order to estimate the probability of obtaining by chance three stellar clusters close together in a short interval of time, so that they woeld seem to be the result of a non-random mechanism. The experiments consisted of drawing circles at random positions inside an area, with the correct scale to represent clusters in the Galactic plane. The typical diameter of recently formed clusters is of the order of 50 pc, as suggested for instance by Fig. 4. In a region of 1 kpc x 1 kpc around the Sun, in the Galactic disk, about 10 clusters are formed in 10 Myr. This time interval is such that if some of these clusters happen to be close together, they would not appear to present any strong age gradient. The amount of clusters that we consider to be born in this time interval is about what we observe around the Sun, and is not inconsistent with the star formation rate usually estimated for the Galactic disk (about 1 to 10 stars/year, e.g., Güsten & Mezger gusten (1982)). The probability of obtaining three clusters close enough so that they form an elongated structure of length about 150 pc, even without any restriction concerning the direction of the alignment, is smaller than 10%. This points towards the need for a non-random triggering mechanism like a spiral arm, as described in the next section, to produce an alignment of stellar clusters. Of course, if in addition, we considered the probability of obtaining aligned space velocities, the probability of obtaining such a structure would be much less.

### 6.6 The spiral arm interpretation

Finally, we must consider the possibility that what we are observing is a spiral arm that passes close to the Sun. Spiral arms are known to contain molecular clouds and OB stars, like the complex extending from Ophiuchus to Chamaeleon. The narrow alignment of molecular clouds in the Galactic plane revealed by CO (Dame et al. dame (1987)) has precisely the inclination with respect to the Solar circle (about 15$`\mathrm{°}`$) that we would expect from the global spiral structure (e.g., Lépine & Leroy lepine00 (2000)). Furthermore, the IRAS brightness profile of the Galaxy at 60 $`\mu `$m and at 100 $`\mu `$m as a function of longitude in the Galactic plane shows maxima in the directions $`l+82\mathrm{°}`$ and $`l92\mathrm{°}`$ (Amores & Lépine amores (2003)); these can be interpreted as tangential directions to an arm that passes close to the Sun. These peaks are similar to the other peaks associated with well-known tangential directions of spiral arms, like the features at $`l=30\mathrm{°}`$, $`l=56\mathrm{°}`$, etc. Note that a spiral arm at a Galactic radius larger than the Solar radius R does not produce tangential directions; the directions of the observed peaks correspond to a spiral arm passing at a radius slightly less than R. Finally, the global distribution of HII regions in the Galactic plane also indicates the presence of this very close spiral arm inside the Solar radius, that produces concentrations of HII regions in the directions $`l=85\mathrm{°}`$ and $`l=95\mathrm{°}`$; this is discussed in detail by Lépine et al. (lepine01 (2001)).

The question, then, is: what are the expected space velocities of young stars and molecular clouds recently formed in a spiral arm? Let us first comment briefly on motions in the direction perpendicular to the Galactic plane. A spiral arm is the site of gas shocks, and it would not be surprising if in such shocks, due to the increase in gas pressure, some gas were ejected to distances from the plane that are larger than the normal scale-height of the gas. This could explain the relatively high galactic latitudes of $`\rho `$ Oph and Chamaeleon clouds. Smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamic simulations of gas cloud collisions show this effect of expansion of the gas in directions perpendicular to that of the collision (Marinho & Lépine marinho (2000)).

Let us now consider the motion in the plane. The post-shock velocity of the gas, that is responsible for the initial velocity of the young stars, depends on the position of the arm relative to the corotation radius. We assume that the corotation radius lies beyond R, or very close to R (Amaral & Lépine amaral (1997); Mishurov & Zenina mishurov (1999)). For radii smaller than the corotation radius, the stars and the gas rotate at velocities larger than that of the spiral pattern, so that the HI gas clouds orbiting in the Galactic plane reach the spiral arms on their concave side, and suffer a shock that strongly brakes and compresses the gas, leading to the formation of short-lived molecular clouds (seen as dust lanes in galaxies) and triggering star formation. The initial velocity of the formed stars is the same as their parent molecular clouds; since the clouds have just been braked, the young stars have a rotation velocity smaller than the normal circular velocity at that radius. As a consequence, the gravity force from the central parts of the Galaxy is no longer balanced by the centrifugal force; the young stars start an infall motion towards the Galactic center. The combination of this initial infall with the rotation velocity smaller than the normal rotation velocity is responsible for an initial trajectory that lies precisely along the spiral arm. This was already noticed by Bash (bash (1981)) who calculated the ballistic orbits of HII regions and measured their infall. Outside the corotation radius, the contrary is expected: the gas is expected to be accelerated in the direction of circular motion by the shock.

So, inside the corotation radius, the youngest stars produced in spiral arms should present velocities in the direction of the Galactic rotation, along the arms, but with a velocity modulus smaller than that of normal rotation. Since we are measuring the space velocities with respect to the LSR, a frame that rotates with the normal rotation velocity, we should see the young stars going in the direction contrary to Galactic rotation, that is, in the direction of decreasing longitudes, for objects in the third Galactic quadrant. This is precisely what we observe.

The spiral arm interpretation explains naturally why the velocity distribution is uniform over an extended region, as well as the absence of a gradient of age. It is not surprising to find stars covering a large range of ages, since the arms are long lived structures, and due to their trajectories, recently formed stars are maintained in the arms for a relatively long time.

## 7 Conclusions

* In the Chamaeleon region, there is an OB association, not previously catalogued, formed by at least 21 B- and A-type stars.
* The extended group of young stellar associations, which includes US, UCL, LCC and Chamaeleon, form an almost continuous structure with a total length of at least 150 pc, with more uniform properties than previously believed. The young early-type stars of the OB associations and the PMS stars of the SFRs follow a similar spatial distribution, i.e., there is no separation between the low and the high-mass young stars. There are no differences in the kinematics or in the ages of the PMS stars and of the young early-type stars.
* The average space velocities of the studied young stars are uniform, directed contrary to Galactic rotation, towards decreasing galactic longitude.
* There is no measurable age gradient, all the sub-regions containing stars in the range of 1–20 Myr. Our results do not confirm that the UCL association is older than the LCC association. The absence of an age gradient excludes a star-formation process that propagates along the structure, like the traditional sequential star-formation process.
* We argue that the hypothesis that the Sco-Cen OB association is part of a spiral arm that passes close to the Sun explains most of the features of the space velocities and age distribution of the young stars.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors wish to thank Dr. R. de la Reza and Dr. C. A. O. Torres for helpful comments, and Dr. F. Adams for suggesting include a brief discussion about random star formation. Special thanks are also extended to Dr. B. V. Castilho and Dr. J. I. B. Camargo. MJS acknowledges the CAPES PhD fellowship, and FAPESP (No. 00/06954-6) and CNPq (No. 300758/01-4) postdoc fellowships. WSD acknowledges the FAPESP PhD fellowship No. 99/11781-4. This work has been partially supported by PRONEX/Finep. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France.


text:
# Improved Measurement of the Partial-Rate 𝑪𝑷 Asymmetry in 𝑩⁺→𝑲^𝟎𝝅⁺ and 𝑩⁻→𝑲̄{^𝟎}𝝅⁻ Decays

on leave from \]Nova Gorica Polytechnic, Nova Gorica The Belle Collaboration

## Abstract

We report an improved measurement of the partial-rate $`CP`$ asymmetry in $`B^\pm K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm }`$ decays. The analysis is based on a data sample of $`85`$ million $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs collected at the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB $`e^+e^{}`$ storage ring. We measure $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })=0.07_{0.08}^{+0.09}{}_{0.03}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.01}`$, where the first and second errors are statistical and systematic, respectively; the corresponding 90% confidence-level interval is $`0.10<𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })<0.22`$.

preprint:  KEK preprint 2003-7preprint:  Belle preprint 2003-4

In the Kobayashi-Maskawa (KM) model km , $`CP`$ violation arises from a complex phase in the quark-mixing matrix of the weak interaction. This idea is strongly supported by the observation of mixing-induced $`CP`$ violation at the $`B`$-factories phi1 . Direct $`CP`$ violation (DCPV) is also expected in the KM scheme and has been observed in the $`K`$ meson system dcpv\_k . However, DCPV has not yet been observed in the $`B`$ meson system.

Charmless hadronic $`B`$ decays can provide opportunities to observe DCPV dcpv\_b\_theory ; dcpv\_b\_belle ; hh\_prd ; dcpv\_b\_cleo ; dcpv\_b\_babar . Many of these decays include contributions from both $`bu`$ tree and $`bs`$ penguin diagrams and the interference between these two processes can produce a partial-rate $`CP`$ asymmetry:

$`𝒜_{CP}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{B}\overline{f})\mathrm{\Gamma }(Bf)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{B}\overline{f})+\mathrm{\Gamma }(Bf)}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2|A_T||A_P|\mathrm{sin}\delta \mathrm{sin}\varphi }{|A_T|^2+|A_P|^2+2|A_T||A_P|\mathrm{cos}\delta \mathrm{cos}\varphi }}.`$
Here $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(Bf)`$ denotes the partial width of either a $`B_d^0`$ or $`B^+`$ meson decaying into a flavor-specific final state $`f`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{B}\overline{f})`$ represents that of the charge conjugate decay; $`A_T`$ and $`A_P`$ represent the tree and penguin amplitudes; and $`\delta `$ and $`\varphi `$ stand for the $`CP`$-conserving and $`CP`$-violating relative phases, respectively, between $`A_T`$ and $`A_P`$. In order to have a sizable $`𝒜_{CP}`$, both phase differences have to be non-zero, i.e. $`\delta 0`$ and $`\varphi 0`$, and the tree and penguin amplitudes should be of comparable size ($`|A_T||A_P|`$).

The decay $`B^\pm K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm }`$ is almost a pure $`bs`$ penguin process and, thus, no sizable asymmetry is expected in the context of the Standard Model (SM) factorization ; pqcd . However, our previously published result, based on an analysis of a 29 fb-1 data sample, was $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })=0.46\pm 0.15\pm 0.02`$ hh\_prd . An asymmetry of this magnitude cannot be explained in the SM, even with the inclusion of interference of the basic penguin amplitude with a large $`B^\pm (K^\pm \pi ^0)_{\mathrm{tree}}K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm }`$ re-scattering process rescattering , and would be an indication of a new physics contribution in the penguin loop newphysics . It is important to verify whether the central value persists with improved precision.

In this paper, we report an updated measurement of the partial-rate $`CP`$ asymmetry in $`B^\pm K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm }`$ decays based on a 78 fb-1 data sample collected at the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$(4S) resonance, corresponding to $`85.0\pm 0.5`$ million $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs, with the Belle detector belle  at the KEKB $`e^+e^{}`$ storage ring kekb . This is approximately three times as much data as the sample that was used for the previous measurement and significantly improves the statistical precision. Throughout this paper, the partial-rate $`CP`$ asymmetry $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ is defined as

$$𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })\frac{N(K_S^0\pi ^{})N(K_S^0\pi ^+)}{N(K_S^0\pi ^{})+N(K_S^0\pi ^+)},$$

where $`N(K_S^0\pi ^{})`$ denotes the yield of $`B^{}K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ decay and $`N(K_S^0\pi ^+)`$ represents that of the charge conjugate mode.

The Belle detector is a large-solid-angle spectrometer that consists of a three-layer silicon vertex detector (SVD), a 50-layer central drift chamber (CDC), an array of threshold Čerenkov counters with silica aerogel radiators (ACC), time-of-flight scintillation counters (TOF), and an electromagnetic calorimeter comprised of CsI(Tl) crystals (ECL) located inside a superconducting solenoid coil that provides a 1.5 T magnetic field. An iron flux-return located outside of the coil is instrumented to detect $`K_L^0`$ mesons and to identify muons (KLM). A detailed description of the Belle detector can be found elsewhere belle .

The analysis procedure is the same as described in Ref. hh\_prd . Candidate $`B^\pm `$ mesons are reconstructed using high momentum $`\pi ^\pm `$ and $`K_S^0`$ mesons. For candidate $`\pi ^\pm `$ mesons, charged tracks are required to originate from the interaction region based on their impact parameters.

In Belle, high momentum $`\pi ^\pm `$ and $`K^\pm `$ mesons are distinguished by their associated Čerenkov light yield ($`N_{\mathrm{p}.\mathrm{e}.}`$) in the ACC and the ionization energy loss ($`dE/dx`$) in the CDC. These quantities are used to form a particle identification (PID) likelihood ratio $`_\pi =_\pi /(_\pi +_K)`$, where $`_\pi `$ denotes the product of the individual likelihoods of $`N_{\mathrm{p}.\mathrm{e}.}`$ and $`dE/dx`$ for $`\pi ^\pm `$ mesons; $`_K`$ is the product for $`K^\pm `$ mesons. For the $`_\pi `$ requirement used in this analysis, $`\pi ^\pm `$ mesons are identified with an efficiency of $`91`$% and there is a $`10`$% $`K^\pm `$ misidentification rate. The efficiency and fake rate are estimated by comparing the $`D`$(—)0 yields in a sample of $`D^\pm `$-tagged $`D\text{(—)}\text{0}K^{}\pi ^\pm `$ decays before and after the application of the high momentum PID requirements. A similar likelihood ratio that also includes the energy deposit in the ECL is used to identify electrons; positively identified electrons are rejected. Candidate $`K_S^0`$ mesons are reconstructed using pairs of oppositely charged tracks that have an invariant mass ($`m_{\pi \pi }`$) in the range $`480<m_{\pi \pi }<516`$ MeV/$`c^2`$. A candidate must have a displaced vertex and flight direction consistent with a $`K_S^0`$ originating from the IP.

Signal candidates are identified using the beam-energy constrained mass $`m_{bc}=\sqrt{E_{\mathrm{beam}}^2p_B^2}`$ and the energy difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=E_B^{}E_{\mathrm{beam}}`$, where $`E_{\mathrm{beam}}=5.29`$ GeV and $`p_B^{}`$ and $`E_B^{}`$ are the momentum and energy of the reconstructed $`B`$ meson in the $`e^+e^{}`$ center-of-mass frame.

The dominant background comes from the $`e^+e^{}q\overline{q}`$ ($`q=u`$, $`d`$, $`s`$, $`c`$) continuum process; backgrounds from $`bc`$ decays are negligible because the momenta of the decay products are smaller than those of the signal $`K_S^0`$ and $`\pi ^\pm `$. We discriminate the signal from the $`q\overline{q}`$ background by the event topology. This is quantified by the Super-Fox-Wolfram ($`SFW`$) variable hh\_prd ; fw , which is formed from modified Fox-Wolfram moments that are combined using a Fisher discriminant fisher  into a single variable. The angle of the $`B`$-meson’s flight direction with respect to the beam axis ($`\theta _B`$) provides additional discrimination. A likelihood ratio $`_s=_s/(_s+_{q\overline{q}})`$ is calculated, where $`_s`$ ($`_{q\overline{q}}`$) denotes the product of the individual $`SFW`$ and $`\theta _B`$ likelihoods for signal ($`q\overline{q}`$ background). The probability density functions (PDFs) are derived from GEANT-based Monte Carlo (MC) simulations geant  for the signal and $`m_{bc}`$ sideband ($`5.2<m_{bc}<5.26`$ GeV/$`c^2`$) data for the $`q\overline{q}`$ background. We make a requirement on $`_s`$ that eliminates 88% of the $`q\overline{q}`$ background while retaining 73% of the signal.

Signal yields are extracted from the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distributions of events in the $`m_{bc}`$ signal region ($`5.271<m_{bc}<5.287`$ GeV/$`c^2`$), separately for the $`K_S^0\pi ^+`$ and $`K_S^0\pi ^{}`$ final states. The signal reconstruction efficiency sig\_eff  is estimated to be 12% based on the MC. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distributions are fitted using a binned maximum likelihood fit with three components: the signal, $`q\overline{q}`$ background, and other charmless $`B`$ decays, as shown in Fig. 1. The signal PDF is modeled with a Gaussian distribution taken from the signal MC and calibrated using a $`B^\pm D\text{(—)}\text{0}(K^\pm \pi ^{})\pi ^\pm `$ sample where a similar reconstruction procedure is applied. For the $`q\overline{q}`$ background, the PDF is modeled with a second-order polynomial with a shape that is determined from the $`m_{bc}`$ sideband data. For other charmless $`B`$ decays, the PDF is taken from a smoothed histogram of a large MC sample. (The enhancement in the lower $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ region is due to charmless $`B`$ decay modes with an additional $`\pi `$ meson.) Except for the signal peak positions, the same PDF shape parameters are used for both $`B^+`$ and $`B^{}`$ samples. The signal peak positions are determined separately for the $`B^+`$ and $`B^{}`$ samples since a small systematic difference between the two samples is observed. (This is discussed below.) In the fit procedure, all of the PDF shape parameters are fixed and all the normalizations are free parameters. The signal yields are found to be $`N(K_S^0\pi ^+)=104.4_{12.5}^{+13.2}`$ and $`N(K_S^0\pi ^{})=119.1_{13.1}^{+13.8}`$, and the partial-rate $`CP`$ asymmetry is determined to be $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })=0.07_{0.08}^{+0.09}`$.

The stability of $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ as a function of the the selection requirements is tested by varying the $`q\overline{q}`$ suppression requirement. As shown in Fig. 2, the value of $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ is stable when this requirement is changed.

Detector-based biases in $`K_S^0\pi ^\pm `$ reconstruction are investigated using a sample of inclusive, high momentum continuum $`D^\pm K_S^0\pi ^\pm `$ decays, where the daughter particles are required to satisfy the same kinematic requirements and reconstruction criteria as used for the signal. Separate fits to the $`D^\pm `$ mass distributions, shown in Fig. 3, indicate that the signal mass resolutions for the $`B^+`$ and $`B^{}`$ samples are consistent, but there is a $`1.0\pm 0.1`$ MeV/$`c^2`$ difference in the mass peak positions. This difference in the peak positions is caused by a difference between the momentum measurement for high momentum negative and positive tracks that is attributed to a residual detector misalignment. After accounting for this difference in peak positions, $`𝒜_{CP}(D^\pm K_S^0\pi ^\pm )`$ is determined and listed in Table 1. Here the sign convention in the definition of $`𝒜_{CP}(D^\pm K_S^0\pi ^\pm )`$ follows that of $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$. The observed $`(2.0\pm 0.8)\%`$ asymmetry is treated as a possible bias, and $`2.8\%`$ is assigned as a systematic error in the $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ measurement.

Possible biases in the $`B`$ reconstruction are examined using a sample of $`B^\pm D\text{(—)}\text{0}(K^\pm \pi ^{})\pi ^\pm `$ decays where the entire reconstruction procedure, except for the $`K_S^0`$ reconstruction, is applied. Fits to the separate $`B^+`$ and $`B^{}`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distributions, shown in Fig. 4, confirm that the resolutions are consistent between the two samples, while a $`3.2\pm 0.5`$ MeV difference in peak positions, due to the same effect that was found in the $`D^\pm K_S^0\pi ^\pm `$ sample, is observed. After accounting for the difference in $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ peak positions, $`𝒜_{CP}(B^\pm D\text{(—)}\text{0}\pi ^\pm )`$ is determined and listed in Table 1. The absence of an asymmetry indicates there is no bias. Biases in the high momentum PID and $`q\overline{q}`$ suppression are also examined by removing each of them in the $`𝒜_{CP}(B^\pm D\text{(—)}\text{0}\pi ^\pm )`$ measurement. The results are given in Table 1. No biases are observed.

Possible asymmetries in the detector response and reconstruction for the $`q\overline{q}`$ background are checked using events in the $`m_{bc}`$ sideband region. The application of the entire reconstruction procedure confirms that the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ shapes of the $`B^+`$ and $`B^{}`$ samples are consistent, and no bias is observed, as indicated in Table 1. The absence of $`_\pi `$\- and $`_s`$-related biases are confirmed in the same manner as for the $`B^\pm D\text{(—)}\text{0}(K^\pm \pi ^{})\pi ^\pm `$ sample.

In order to study the sensitivity to the signal and $`q\overline{q}`$ background PDF shapes, each shape parameter is independently varied by its 1$`\sigma `$ error. In addition, the signal shape parameters are also estimated from the actual $`B^\pm K_S^0\pi ^\pm `$ samples by allowing them to be free parameters in the fits. The uncertainty in the contribution from other charmless $`B`$ decays is estimated from the change in the asymmetry by fitting the region of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E>0.1`$ GeV without those decays. The resulting relative changes in asymmetries are added in quadrature giving the fitting systematics of $`+0.014`$ and $`0.006`$.

Because of the difference between the results presented here and the sizable asymmetry in our previous measurement, the asymmetries of different data sub-samples are examined. Figure 5 shows $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ for each data sub-sample together with $`𝒜_{CP}(D^\pm K_S^0\pi ^\pm )`$ as a reference. The variation of $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ is independent of that in $`𝒜_{CP}(D^\pm K_S^0\pi ^\pm )`$ and is consistent with statistical fluctuations.

The total systematic error in the $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ is evaluated from the quadratic sum of the $`K_S^0\pi ^\pm `$ reconstruction bias and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ fitting systematics. Finally, the asymmetry

$$𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })=0.07_{0.08}^{+0.09}{}_{0.03}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.01}$$

is obtained and a 90% confidence level interval

$$0.10<𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })<0.22,$$

is set, where Gaussian statistics are assumed and the systematic error is added linearly.

In conclusion, we have measured the partial-rate $`CP`$ asymmetry in $`B^\pm K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm }`$ with $`85`$ million $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs collected on the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$(4S) resonance at the Belle experiment. The resulting $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })=0.07_{0.08}^{+0.09}{}_{0.03}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.01}`$ is consistent with zero at the current level of statistical precision. The 90% confidence level interval $`0.10<𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })<0.22`$ is set, which is consistent with other measurements dcpv\_b\_cleo ; dcpv\_b\_babar . This result has a statistical precision below 10% and supersedes our previous measurement hh\_prd . We do not observe a significant partial-rate $`CP`$ asymmetry in $`B^\pm K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm }`$ and attribute the sizable $`𝒜_{CP}(K\text{(—)}{}_{}{}^{0}\pi _{}^{\pm })`$ found previously in a much smaller data sample to a statistical fluctuation.

We are grateful to Y. Okada for useful discussions and comments. We wish to thank the KEKB accelerator group for the excellent operation of the KEKB accelerator. We acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Australian Research Council and the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources; the National Science Foundation of China under contract No. 10175071; the Department of Science and Technology of India; the BK21 program of the Ministry of Education of Korea and the CHEP SRC program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation; the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research under contract No. 2P03B 17017; the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation; the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia; the National Science Council and the Ministry of Education of Taiwan; and the U.S. Department of Energy.