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# New constraints on space-time Planck scale fluctuations from established high energy astronomy observations

## 1 Introduction

Merging relativity and quantum mechanics is one of the greatest challenges of modern physics. It is a very difficult task because the models involved in it are hardly testable experimentally, if at all. Though, recently, various attemps to do so have appeared in the literature. This paper focuses on two particular approaches made in this respect, which both search for modifications of kinematics and photon propagation at high energy by adding an extra term to the dispersion relation. These two approaches differ in the nature of this term, and hence obtain different kinds of results. The first approach  searches for effects induced by Planck scale space-time fluctuations, therefore introducing a stochastic term in the dispersion relation, whereas the second one  introduces a constant term in the dispersion relation. Both approaches have succeeded in constraining the parameter they add to the dispersion relation using experimental data from high energy astronomy. Other kinds of observations also constrain these parameters even more strongly. In the framework of the first approach such constraints come from optical interferometry  but they are controversial . In the case of the second approach they come from atomic and nuclear physics experiments .

The aim of this paper is to show that the application to the first approach of one of the developments made in the framework of the second approach allows us to derive new constraints on the nature of space-time at Planck scale. In this respect, the parametrization of the dispersion relation modifying term will be generalized as being the sum of a constant and a stochastic term. In the following paragraphs the first approach will be introduced, and the modification of the dispersion relation due to Planck scale fluctuations will be explained. The implications of the latter concerning the nature of the laws of coordinate transformation between different inertial reference frames will be discussed. Then, one of the developments made in the framework of the second approach will be introduced, applied to the first approach and some details considered. The conclusion and a short discussion will then follow.

## 2 First approach: the effects of Planck scale space-time fluctuations on kinematics

Let us first introduce space-time Planck scale fluctuations naively. Using Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle one can find that virtual particles having the Planck energy can pop in and out of the vacuum within the Planck scale of time and space. The spatial extension of such particles would match the Schwarzschild radius associated to their mass, therefore their presence would curve the space-time continuum into something looking like a foam. This is where the concept of “space-time foam” comes from. This description is very naive, and quantum gravity models, of course, introduce the phenomenon differently. An interesting concept related to this topic is that of quanta of length and area . Meanwhile, space-time Planck scale fluctuations have not yet been observed. Following the work of , we will introduce stochastic fluctuations into the space-time metric.

If space-time is subject to stochastic fluctuations at the Planck scale, then each measurement of lengths and time intervals must be affected by fluctuating terms and one could write:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}ll\pm \sigma _l;\sigma _ll_P\\ tt\pm \sigma _t;\sigma _tt_P\end{array}$$
(1)
where $`l_P`$ and $`t_P`$ are the Planck length and time intervals respectively. As developed in , assuming that the de Broglie wavelengths of particles follow the fluctuations of space time (*assumption* *1*) leads to, using $`\mathrm{}`$=c=1,

$$\{\begin{array}{c}\delta Tt_P\delta E=\delta \left(\frac{1}{T}\right)E^2t_P=\frac{E^2}{E_P}\\ \delta \lambda l_P\delta p=\delta \left(\frac{1}{\lambda }\right)p^2l_P=\frac{p^2}{E_P}\end{array}$$
(2)
$`E_P`$ being the Planck energy. Assuming that the fluctuations on t and each component of l are uncorrelated (*assumption* *2*: rotational invariance) , one can write :

$$\{\begin{array}{c}E\overline{E}+\zeta \frac{\overline{E}^2}{E_P}\\ p\overline{p}+\xi \frac{\overline{p}^2}{E_P}\end{array}$$
(3)
with $`\zeta `$ and $`\xi `$ being distributed as a gaussian of mean value $`\mu =0`$ and variance $`\sigma =1`$.

A more general way of describing the space-time fluctuations at the Planck scale is to write $`\sigma _x/x=f(x_P/x)`$, where $`x`$ stands for $`l`$ or $`t`$, with $`f1`$ for $`xx_P`$ and $`f1`$ for $`xx_P`$. In this case, $`f(x)`$ can be approximated with the lower order term of its expansion in the range $`xx_P`$ in the following way :

$$\frac{\sigma _x}{x}a_0\left(\frac{x_P}{x}\right)^\alpha $$
(4)
where both $`\alpha `$ and $`a_0`$ are positive constants of order 1. The naive choice for $`\alpha `$ is 1, which is equivalent to eq.1 and is indeed the first order term given by quantum loop gravity (see ), but it is worth keeping in mind that some models of quantum space-time give other values like $`\alpha =1/2`$ (random-walk scenario) or $`\alpha =2/3`$ (holographic principle of Wheeler and Hawking). A discussion about this and citations of these models are given in  and references therein.

The choice of the reference frame in which to apply the above equations raises an important issue concerning special relativity: in which reference frames do the fluctuations have the Planck scale, if they exist? Consider the three following cases:

* case A: Planck scale space-time fluctuations do not exist.
* case B: If the fluctuations have the Planck scale in all reference frames, then the laws of coordinate transformations between different inertial reference frames would have to depart from pure Lorentz transformations to let this scale be invariant. This is the milestone of Doubly Special Relativity (DSR) theories, in which both the velocity of light and the Planck scale of length and mass are observer-independant scales .
* case C: Space-time fluctuations may have the Planck scale in one preferred reference frame only, and boosted values of this scale in other reference frames. Indeed, there is a preferred reference frame in the Universe: the one where the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) appears isotropic. This case has been considered in many phenomenological studies of the effects that a fluctuating space-time would have on kinematics , although it implies the abandonment of the relativity principle which stipulates that laws of physics should be the same for all inertial observers.

Expanding eq.3 at the first order in $`E/E_P`$ in the usual dispersion relation, in the energy range $`m^2E^2p^2E_P^2`$ and using assumption 2, one obtains:

$$m^2=E^2p^2+\eta \frac{E^3}{E_P}$$
(5)
where $`\eta `$ is distributed as a gaussian with $`\mu =0`$ and $`\sigma =2\sqrt{2}`$. This expression is obtained in  as well, although the value of $`\eta `$’s distribution width is only assumed to be of order unity in the latter. However the $`2\sqrt{2}`$ value used here can be retrieved in . One can notice that this expression is not invariant under ordinary Lorentz transformations: it is either valid in one reference frame only, or valid in all possible reference frames if the laws of coordinates transformation between different inertial reference frames were to depart from ordinary Lorentz transformations.

Using equation 4 instead of 3 as a starting point, one can derive a more general expression for the dispersion relation:

$$m^2=E^2p^2+\frac{\eta E^{\alpha +2}}{E_P^\alpha }$$
(6)
equation 5 being the case $`\alpha =1`$ of this equation.

Equations 5 and 6 express the fact that at each measurement, the measured values of E and p are different from their mean value. Consider interactions where the energy exchanged by the particles involved is $`E_P`$. The typical scales of length and time of these interactions are much larger that the Planck ones. Hence, one should stipulate independent fluctuations for each initial and final particle . It is worth noticing that the conservation of energy-momentum then still applies on the macroscopic scale for the mean values of E and p, but does not apply any more in individual interactions within the amplitude defined by the fluctuating term of equations 5 and 6.

## 3 Introduction of the second approach and demonstration

In the analysis performed in  and  $`\eta `$ is a stochastic variable which accounts for the space-time fluctuations specified in eq.1. On the other hand, it is introduced as a constant in the analysis performed in ,  and . In these approaches the modification of the dispersion relation does not come explicitly from space-time fluctuations. Instead, it comes from the introduction of a minimum length in  (see ) and , or from quantum field theory or theoretical approaches to quantum gravity in . In the latter approach, $`\eta `$ depends on the nature of the particle involved and does not have to be of order 1. The general form of the modified dispersion relation is then:

$$m_k^2=E_k^2p_k^2+\frac{\eta _kE_k^{\alpha +2}}{M_0^\alpha }$$
(7)
where $`M_0`$ is of the order of $`E_P`$, and the subscript $`k`$ stands for the nature of the particle involved.

A priori the dispersion relation could also be altered by both a constant term and a stochastic term due to Planck scale space-time fluctuations. Let’s write $`\eta =\eta _a+\eta _s`$, where $`\eta _a`$ is the constant term and $`\eta _s`$ the stochastic one. From now on, the constant and the stochastic $`\eta `$ approaches will be referred to as the $`\eta =\eta _a`$ and $`\eta =\eta _s`$ approaches respectively.

Many phenomenological studies of Lorentz violating kinematics have been made following either the $`\eta =\eta _a`$ or $`\eta =\eta _s`$ approach. Consider here the case where $`\eta =\eta _a+\eta _s`$. The key point of this paper is to show that conclusions can be obtained by using a study already done in the $`\eta =\eta _a`$ case and bringing it into the case of $`\eta =\eta _a+\eta _s`$. This study concerns the 1 vertex electromagnetic interactions involving an electron and a photon, which are forbidden in usual kinematics by the conservation laws of E and p but can be allowed if Planck scale space-time fluctuations are taken into account.

Equation 5 shows that in electromagnetic interactions involving electrons the fluctuating term becomes significant when $`EE_C=`$ $`\left(E_Pm^2\right)^{1/3}`$15 TeV, where $`m`$ is the mass of the electron. If we consider case C, this would hold in the CMB reference frame only and the TeV photons above 15 TeV such as those seen by CANGAROO  and HEGRA  would obey modified kinematics, as would the very high energy ( 100 TeV) electrons inferred from ASCA X-ray observations of the Crab nebula . On the other hand, if the Universe is in case B then space-time fluctuations have the same scale in all reference frames, hence one can choose the centre of mass of the interaction to determine $`E_C`$. Modified kinematics would then occur in interactions where particles have $`EE_C`$ in the centre of mass. In this case the Planck scale fluctuation term of eq.5 would be negligible in the above processes since the energy they involve in their centre of mass is $`E_C`$.

In  and , it has been shown that the above observations of very high energy photons and electrons rule out the possibility that $`\eta 1`$ in the case $`\eta =\eta _a`$ and $`\alpha =1`$, in the framework of case C. The demonstration is based on the following argument: if $`\eta <0`$ in case C, photons and electrons of energy above $`E_C`$ can undergo 1 vertex interactions. As a result the photons and electrons of energies above $`E_C`$ would respectively decay into $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs and radiate spontaneously, and hence would not be observed. On the other hand, the case $`\eta +1`$ is still allowed in the case $`\eta =\eta _a`$, because it does not allow the 1 vertex interactions to happen. These conclusions are the same for any value of $`\alpha 1`$.

Now, what happens to these conclusions if $`\eta =\eta _a+\eta _s`$, if we assume $`\left|\eta _a\right|1`$ (*assumption* *3*) ? In this case $`\eta `$ could take any sign, hence 1 vertex interactions would be made possible for any value of $`\alpha 1`$. Since such interactions have not been observed, it means that case C would be ruled out if the assumptions made so far are correct. This would imply that Planck scale space-time transformations don’t exist (case A) or that Lorentz transformations would have to be rewritten as it is aimed at in DSR theories (case B). If on the other hand one or more of the assumptions made so far was wrong, it would be a very important clue for the development of quantum gravity theories. Experimental results in atomic and nuclear physics have already set the constraint $`\left|\eta _a\right|1`$ in the case $`\alpha =1`$ , which confirms assumption 3. (High energy astronomy also provides constraints on $`\left|\eta _a\right|`$ , but they are not as stringent as those from .)

Let us consider in more detail how these assertions can be demonstrated by calculating the cosine of the angle $`\theta `$ between the two outgoing particles of the 1 vertex interactions in the case $`\alpha =1`$ . Let us assume here that the standard conservation of E and p still applies in the DSR framework. This is not the case according to the developments made in . However, the modification of this conservation law would not be a fluctuating term, but would come from the effects of the constant component of the modified dispersion relation which has been severely constrained by . Hence this assumption should not affect the result qualitatively.

Using the unmodified dispersion relations, one finds respectively, in the processes $`\gamma e^+e^{}`$and $`e^\pm e^\pm \gamma `$ :

$$\{\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{cos}\theta =1+\frac{m^2}{2E^2}\frac{1}{u^2(1u)^2}>1\\ \mathrm{cos}\theta =1+\frac{m^2}{2E^2}\frac{1}{(1u)^2}>1\end{array}$$
(8)
where $`E`$ is the energy of the initial particle and $`u`$ is the fraction of it taken by the positron in the first line and by the photon in the second line. In both cases the cosine is $`>1`$ and thus unphysical: the interactions are forbidden.

Now, if one uses the modified dispersion relation and a first order expansion in $`\left(m/E\right)^2`$$`E/E_P10^{15}`$, one obtains respectively:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{cos}\theta =1+\frac{m^2}{2E^2}\frac{1}{u^2(1u)^2}+\frac{E}{2E_P}\left[\eta _pu\left(1\frac{u}{1u}\right)+\eta _e(1u)\left(1\frac{1u}{u}\right)+\eta _{\gamma \gamma }\frac{1}{u(1u)}\right]\\ \mathrm{cos}\theta =1+\frac{m^2}{2E^2}\frac{1}{(1u)^2}+\frac{E}{2E_P}\left[\eta _i\frac{1}{u(1u)}\eta _f\left(1u+\frac{(1u)^2}{u}\right)\eta _{\gamma \gamma }\left(u+\frac{u^2}{1u}\right)\right]\end{array}$$
(9)
where in the first line $`\eta _{\gamma \gamma },\eta _e,\eta _p`$ apply respectively to the photon, the electron and the positron, and in the second line $`\eta _i,\eta _f,\eta _{\gamma \gamma }`$ apply respectively to the initial electron, the final electron and the photon.

Both cosines can be physical if, respectively:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}\eta _pu^3(1u)(12u)+\eta _eu(1u)^3(2u1)+\eta _{\gamma \gamma }u(1u)<\left(\frac{E_C}{E}\right)^3\\ \eta _i\frac{1u}{u}\eta _f\frac{(1u)^3}{u}\eta _{\gamma \gamma }u(1u)<\left(\frac{E_C}{E}\right)^3\end{array}$$
(10)
Since the various $`\eta `$ terms can take stochastic values, these conditions are allowed. In both relations the leading $`\eta `$ term is the one multiplied by the lowest power of $`u`$ or $`(1u)`$, which is the one associated with the initial particle. It is interesting to note that the second relation has an IR divergence, similar to its 2 vertex equivalent : if u is allowed to be $`1`$, this relation can be satisfied even when $`EE_C`$. This divergence doesn’t have to be treated here, since the study of the phenomenon is conclusive at high energy anyway.

## 4 Conclusion

The conclusion of this paper is that Planck scale space-time fluctuations described by an exponent $`\alpha 1`$ are consistent with the observations only if the Planck scale is observer-independent, in the framework of the assumptions made here. Concerned models are: the naive description of space-time, as described by eq.1  and implied by quantum loop gravity; the random walk scenario; and the holographic principle of Wheeler and Hawking (see ). As a result, there are two possibilites. The first one is that Planck scale space-time fluctuations don’t exist. The second one is that if they exist according to one of the above models the Planck scale has to be observer-independent, which implies that the laws of coordinate transformations between different inertial reference frames have to be changed. If both possibilites were ruled out by other means, one could show that at least one of the assumptions made here is wrong, or that $`\alpha >1`$. This would also be a significant clue concerning the development of quantum gravity theories.

*Remarks:* A similar conclusion has been reached very recently in , a paper which was released on the astro-ph web site two weeks before the submission of the present paper. Reference  is a recent study of Planck scale space-time fluctuations based on stellar interferometry. It is cited several times in this paper, regarding the developments made in its beginning. It concludes that space-time does not fluctuate at the Planck scale; however, the demonstration it uses is controversial . Laser interferometers which will be used in gravitational wave detectors like VIRGO and LIGO will also be able to detect Planck scale space-time fluctuations if they exist, or rule them out , giving one more independent insight on the nature of space-time at the Planck scale.

I wish to thank particularly P.M.Chadwick, J.McKenny and J.L.Osborne for their useful comments about the writing of this paper. The support of PPARC through the research grant PPA/G/S/2000/00033 is gratefully acknowledged.


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# Model for Gravitational Interaction between Dark Matter and Baryons

## Abstract

We propose a phenomenological model where the gravitational interaction between dark matter and baryons is suppressed on small, subgalactic scales. We describe the gravitational force by adding a Yukawa contribution to the standard Newtonian potential and show that this interaction scheme is effectively suggested by the available observations of the inner rotation curves of small mass galaxies. Besides helping in interpreting the cuspy profile of dark matter halos observed in N-body simulations, this potential regulates the quantity of baryons within halos of different masses.

preprint: HEP/123-qed

Lacking evidence of direct detection, the presence, nature and quantity of dark matter (DM) must be in general inferred from the kinematic and distribution properties of baryons. A model based on the growth of small fluctuations through gravitational instability in a universe dominated by cold dark matter (CDM) provides a satisfactory fit to a wide range of properties of visible structures on scales $`1`$ h-1Mpc PEA . Recently, however, some apparent inconsistencies in relating DM and baryon properties on subgalactic scales have been highlighted, prompting the investigation of radical models to explain the discrepancy.

Low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies are dominated by dark matter BLO  whose distribution can be traced by the rotation properties of a dynamically unimportant stellar component. Therefore, these galaxies provide the best laboratories where to test the consistency of the CDM scenario. Recent high-resolution studies of the inner ($``$ 5 kpc) rotation curves of LSB galaxies suggest that the dark matter is distributed in spherical halos with nearly constant density cores ($``$ 1 kpc) MCG ; BL2 ; MAR . These observations seem to collide with the predictions of CDM models which produce halos with compact density cusps and steep, universal mass-density profiles $`\rho r^\beta `$ with $`\beta `$ 1-1.5 (e.g. MOO ; NFW ). This disagreement must now be taken seriously since it is not easily interpreted in terms of observational uncertainties BBG  or artificial resolution effects in the CDM simulations GHI .

A parallel problem is that hierarchical clustering theories with scale-invariant primordial perturbations show significantly more virialized objects of dwarf-galaxy mass in a typical galactic halo than are observed around the Milky Way KWG . Possible solutions to this conflict range from non-standard models of inflation KAM  or models in which the Universe is dominated by warm, self-interacting or annihilating DM (e.g. SPE ), to hydrodynamical mechanisms that prevent accreting baryons to cool into stars (e.g. BAR ).

In the absence of an obvious astrophysical mechanism, the purpose of this note is to investigate if the various mismatches between observations and CDM predictions, which however appear to be characterized by a common physical length at subgalactic scales, reflect a more fundamental theoretical problem concerning the nature of the gravitational attraction between exotic (dark) and standard (visible) matter.

Occasionally, modifications of gravity have been proposed on scales larger than those investigated here in order to describe the flatness of the rotation curves without the need of dark matter FIN  (see SCO  for a review). The picture that we propose, on the contrary, aims to modify neither the successful DM paradigm nor the standard baryonic physics at any scale length. We speculate that, in the Newtonian limit of approximation (small curvatures and small velocities in Planck units), the gravitational interaction in the *mixed*, dark–visible sector (i.e. that between baryonic and non baryonic particles), is dampened on small ($``$ kpc) scales.

We parameterize a general small-scale modification of gravity in the mixed sector, by adding to the standard “$`1/r`$” potential a Yukawa contribution which is active only between visible and dark matter particles. This choice is motivated by the known short-range character of the Yukawa interaction and by its simple analytical properties in both position and momentum space.

Accordingly, we rewrite the total gravitational potential acting on the baryons as $`\varphi =\varphi _N+\alpha \varphi _Y`$, where $`\varphi _N`$ is the usual Newtonian potential,

$$^2\varphi _N=4\pi G(\rho _D+\rho _B),$$
(1)
and where, weighted by the strength parameter $`\alpha `$, $`\varphi _Y`$ is the Yukawa contribution:

$$(^2\lambda ^2)\varphi _Y=4\pi G\rho _D.$$
(2)
The parameter $`\lambda `$ is the typical length scale above which $`\varphi _Y`$ dies out exponentially. Note that the Yukawa contribution to the total gravitational potential “felt” by baryons is sourced by the DM energy density $`\rho _D`$ only.

By inverting eq. (2) the familiar exponential behavior of the Yukawa potential is recovered. Neglecting the contribution of the baryons in eq. (1), the gravitational potential $`\varphi (𝐱)`$ felt by a visible test particle in the presence of a distribution of DM $`\rho _D(𝐱^{})`$ amounts to

$$\varphi (𝐱)=Gd^3x^{}\rho _D(𝐱^{})\frac{1+\alpha e^{|𝐱𝐱^{}|/\lambda }}{|𝐱𝐱^{}|}.$$
(3)
For the critical value $`\alpha =1`$ the gravitational attraction between two point particles of different species does not diverge and is maximally suppressed in the small distance limit. We have tested our hypothesis of gravitational suppression by fitting the parameters of this Yukawa model using the rotation curves of LSB galaxies.

We perform the integration (3) in the case of a spherically symmetric distribution of DM and we find that the contribution of a spherical shell of radius $`r^{}`$ and thickness $`dr^{}`$ to the Yukawa part of the potential is given by

$$\frac{d\varphi _Y(r)}{2\pi G}=\frac{\lambda }{r}\left(e^{|rr^{}|/\lambda }e^{(r+r^{})/\lambda }\right)r^{}\rho _D(r^{})dr^{}.$$

Note that since Gauss theorem does not hold for $`\varphi _Y`$ (see eq. (2)) a spherical shell at $`r^{}`$ generally does contribute to the net force at some internal point $`r<r^{}`$.

A general prediction of CDM models is that dark matter halos should have a steep central cusp, i.e. their density profiles have pure *power-law forms*. By introducing a rescaled dimensionless radius $`xr/\lambda `$, we thus focus on a density profile of the type $`\rho _D(x)=\rho _0x^\beta `$. In this relevant case the integral (3) can be solved analytically in terms of confluent hypergeometric functions of the first kind $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\alpha ;b;z)`$. The velocity curve, $`v^2=r|d\varphi /dr|`$, is given by

$$\frac{v^2(x)}{4\pi G\rho _0\lambda ^2}=\frac{x^{2\beta }}{3\beta }+\frac{\alpha }{2(2\beta )}\left[F(x,\beta )+F(x,\beta )\right],$$
(4)
where

$$F(x,\beta )=\left(1\frac{1}{x}\right)\left[|x|^{2\beta }\mathrm{\Phi }(1;3\beta ;x)\mathrm{\Gamma }(3\beta )e^x\right].$$

At large radii ($`x1,r\lambda `$), the velocity curve (4) flattens down to the standard Newtonian behavior, $`vx^{(2\beta )/2}`$. In the inner regions, however, the Yukawa contribution is efficient and the curve may be approximated by a different power-law; in this case the Newtonian exponent for the velocity gets a correction that we have estimated as $`\alpha [1+\beta (1\alpha )]/11`$. In the case of a NFW NFW  inner profile ($`\beta =1`$), eq. (4) reduces to

$$\frac{v^2(x)}{4\pi G\rho _0\lambda ^2}=\frac{x}{2}+\frac{\alpha }{x}[1e^x(1+x)],(\beta =1).$$

We have investigated the consistency and the universality of this gravitational paradigm, by fixing the model parameters by means of the observed (but theoretically unexplained) kinematics of low surface brightness galaxies. To this purpose we have used high spatial resolution Hα rotation curves measured and reduced by different authors BL2 ; BLA ; MAR ; BSL  according to independent observational strategies and technics (see fig. 1).

We have assumed that the LSB halo is the dominant mass component and we have not attempted to model and remove the contribution from the galactic disk to the rotation, which is taken to be negligible (minimal disk hypothesis, i.e. the mass-to-light (M/L) ratio of the material in the disk is M/L $`0`$, e.g. BSL ). Our results may be described as follow:
a) the parameter $`\alpha `$ is remarkably stable for all the objects considered. Moreover, its mean value $`\alpha =1\pm 0.1`$ physically suggests that, independently of the phenomenologically adopted Yukawa model, the effective force between baryons and DM tends to vanish on scales smaller than some characteristic length $`\lambda `$;
b) the best fitting value for $`\beta `$ ($`1.35\pm 0.05`$), the inner slope of the halo mass density universal profile, is in excellent agreement with the CDM calculations by NFW ; GHI . In other terms the observed kinematics of visible matter in dwarf galaxies is dynamically induced by the dark matter clumps predicted by numerical simulations. As it is well known, a pure Newtonian potential fails to reconcile observations with theoretical expectations. For example, observations would suggest bimodal DM profiles, i.e. deviations from the predicted single power law distribution in the core of the DM clumps (e.g. FLO ; BBG ). Even assuming that there are at least two distinct mass components (halo and disk) that are contributing to the Newtonian gravitational potential BSL , a single power law model may be recovered but at the cost of a significantly flatter slope ($`\beta 0.6`$) than predicted by simulations;
c) the scale below which our proposed modification of the Newtonian DM-baryon interaction becomes effective is less robustly constrained. While the data of MAR ; BL2  and BLA  seem to point, consistently, to a value $`\lambda =1.1\pm 0.08`$ kpc (assuming $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1), the rotation curve of NGC4605 (BSL ) favors a smaller value ($`\lambda 0.2\pm 0.02`$) kpc. Future velocity surveys of the inner regions of local dwarf galaxies will help in better constraining the range of variation of this fundamental length and in understanding if, as we assume here, NGC 4605 may be considered as non representative of the general kinematics of dwarf galaxies. Finally we note that above this kiloparsec scale, in the external halo regions, a standard Newtonian regime is recovered, and a NFW density well describe the observed flattening of the rotation curves.

We have also investigated how this proposed universal form for the coupling of the DM and baryons may help in interpreting some CDM results. Many authors (e.g WHI ) have argued that in order to match CDM models with observations, some mechanism must prevent a large number of dwarf galaxies from forming in low mass halos. Much attention has been focused on investigating astrophysical and hydrodynamical mechanisms that may suppress the efficiency of converting baryons into stars in small galactic systems (e.g. DEK ): in particular supernova-driven winds that expel a large fraction of the baryonic component from a dwarf galaxy (e.g. EFS , but see MCF ), and photoionization effects that prevent baryons to cool into stars (e.g. BEN ).

In our picture, the lack of a significant luminous component in small halos may be interpreted noting that, in addiction to local, baryonic physical processes, a cosmological mechanism contributes to regulate the quantity of baryons that falls into halos of different masses. The growing of the baryonic density contrast $`\delta _B=\delta \rho _B/\overline{\rho }_B`$ after decoupling is described in linear perturbation theory, neglecting radiation effects GNE ; PM2 , by the equation

$$\ddot{\delta }_B+2H\dot{\delta }_B=^2\delta \varphi ,$$
(5)
where a dot means differentiation with respect to the proper time $`t`$, $`H=\dot{a}/a`$ is the hubble parameter and $`\delta \varphi `$ is the perturbation of the gravitational potential. DM perturbations, approximately the only gravity sources, grow almost independently $`\delta _D\delta \rho _D/\overline{\rho }_D(a/a_{dec})\delta _D^{dec}`$ and create the potential wells where baryons fall in. In the standard scenario $`^2\delta \varphi 4\pi G\delta \rho _D`$, and the RHS term of (5) very efficiently drives the growth of baryonic perturbations of any length scale (the fraction $`\delta _B/\delta _D1a_{dec}/a`$, in fact, becomes of order unity already at redshift, say, $`z=100`$). By using (1) and (2), on the contrary, the driving term on the RHS of (5) becomes scale-dependent: $`^2\delta \varphi =4\pi G(1\lambda ^2^2)^1\delta \rho _D`$. We can gain some insight by noting that, as long as the proper size $`a/k`$ of a perturbation keeps small in units of $`\lambda `$ kpc, this source can be approximated as

$$^2\delta \varphi 4\pi G\frac{(a/k)^2}{\lambda ^2}\delta \rho _D.$$

A galaxy of mass $`10^9`$M, for instance, grew out from perturbations of length $`10^1`$ kpc at decoupling; in this case the relative driving term on the RHS of (5) is initially suppressed by a factor $`10^2`$. This dampening is of order $`10^4`$ for galaxies of $`10^6`$M. The full solution of (5) in our gravitational scenario is plotted in the upper panel of Fig. 2 in terms of the fraction $`\delta _B/\delta _D`$ and for different masses.

Using this result, it is straightforward to compute the baryon fraction $`f=(\rho _B/\rho _D)`$ inside shells reaching the turn-around. In doing this we use a $`n=1`$ power spectrum with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.25`$, $`h=0.7`$ and $`\sigma _8=0.84`$ and we implicitly assume that linear theory still holds at this epoch (at least for its predictions on the ratio $`\delta _B/\delta _D`$) and that the derived $`f`$ is a good estimate for the baryon fraction in the final collapsed object. From the lower panel in Fig. 2 one may see that the Yukawa-like potential acts in such a way to avoid that the universal gas fraction ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$) be locked up in low mass clumps at high redshift. For example, we predict $`f0.5\mathrm{\Omega }_B/\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ in galaxies having $`M=10^6M_{}`$. We note, however, that to fully exploit the simplicity of linearized equations, we have neglected the statistic of the halo hierarchical merging.

Our phenomenological assumption lacks an explanation in terms of fundamental physics. The large absolute value of $`\alpha `$ tends to rule out the interpretation of the Yukawa contribution in terms of a scalar field–mediated force. In a scalar-field scenario, in fact, the strength parameter evaluates $`\alpha =\alpha _B\alpha _D`$, where $`\alpha _B`$ and $`\alpha _D`$ are the couplings of the scalar to baryonic and dark matter respectively (see e.g. DPV2 ). Since the scalar-baryon coupling is constrained to be $`|\alpha _B|10^2`$ by very long baseline radio interferometry measurements (see e.g. EUB ), a dramatic short-range modification of gravity of the order of $`\alpha _D^210^4`$ in the pure dark matter sector could not be avoided, at least under the minimal assumption of a universal scalar-dark coupling $`\alpha _D`$.

In summary, we have argued that the coupling between DM and baryons vanishes in the small distance limit and it can be effectively described by adding a Yukawa-like contribution with universal parameters $`\alpha 1,\lambda 1`$ kpc to the standard gravitational potential. Our model does not affect the relation between dark and visible matter on *large* cosmological scales (i.e. the dynamics of large galaxies and clusters) but interestingly it successfully alleviates some inconsistencies between observations and CDM theoretical predictions on kpc scales. In particular:
a) the analysis of the Hα rotation curves of LSB galaxies shows that the central dark matter density distribution predicted under the assumption of a Yukawa potential well ($`\beta =1.35\pm 0.05`$) is in excellent agreement with the cuspy profile derived in collisionless CDM simulations. In particular, the $`\alpha `$ best fitting values suggest that, independently of the adopted Yukawa model, the gravitational interaction between these two classes of matter is totally suppressed in the small distance limit b) this potential offers an interesting cosmological mechanism to segregate the quantity of baryons that falls into primordial dark matter perturbations as a function of the fluctuation mass; this fact may be used to relax estimates of the efficiency of various feedback mechanisms proposed to suppress the overproduction of dwarf galaxies.

We acknowledge precious discussions with A. Bosma, B. Bassett, M. Bruni, R. Giovanelli and F. Vernizzi. FP thanks the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille for hospitality. CM acknowledges financial support from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Region PACA.


text:
# (submitted to Surf. Sci.) The Pd(100)-(√𝟓×√𝟓)𝑹𝟐𝟕^𝒐-O surface oxide revisited

## I Introduction

Due to their importance for catalysis and corrosion, oxidation processes at transition metal (TM) surfaces have long received significant attention both in fundamental and applied research. Roughly divided into pure on-surface (dissociative) adsorption, surface-oxide formation, and oxide film growth, particularly the second step in the oxidation sequence is poorly understood on a microscopic level. Not least, this is due to the fact that an atomic-scale investigation of TM surfaces on the verge of oxide formation still poses a significant challenge for the otherwise well-developed machinery of ultra-high vacuum (UHV) surface science: The rather high oxygen partial pressures and elevated temperatures required to initiate oxide nucleation, a low degree of order at the surface and highly complex, large unit-cell geometries name but a few of the problems encountered on the route towards a microscopic characterization of surface oxides.

The vast structural parameter space connected with surface oxides is often prohibitive for an analysis based on one technique alone, in particular for the exhaustive searches required in diffraction-based structure determination techniques like low energy electron diffraction (LEED). Fortunately, over the last 10 years it became clear that the joint effort of experimental works and theory (in particular when using first-principles methods) is synergetic and most valueable, if not crucial, and allows a convincing identification and characterization of complex, novel structures at surfaces schmalz91 ; burchhardt95 ; stampfl96 ; lee00 ; lundgren02 . Such a multi-method approach is also adopted in the present work, where high-resolution core-level spectroscopy (HRCLS), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and density-functional theory (DFT) are employed addressing the Pd(100)-$`(\sqrt{5}\times \sqrt{5})R27^o`$-O surface oxide phase (coined $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase in the following for brevity), which for $`T>400`$ K concludes the series of ordered phases observed on Pd(100) before three-dimensional cluster growth sets in zheng02 .

A previous tensor LEED analysis suggested the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase to correspond essentially to a rumpled PdO(001) plane on top of Pd(100) vu94 ; saidy01 . In the following we will show that this assignment can not be reconciled with either HRCLS, STM, or DFT, the methods employed in the present study. Instead, we propose a new model, consisting of a strained PdO(101) layer on Pd(100). This is in agreement with all experimental data and energetically more stable than the previous model. Moreover, we performed preliminary LEED calculations to show that this new arrangement can also be reconciled with the previous experimental LEED data of Saidy et al. saidy01 . Interestingly, the (101) orientation does not correspond to a preferred growth direction mcbride91  or a low-energy surface of crystalline PdO, suggesting that the film-substrate interaction may stabilize higher energy crystal faces. We argue that the atypical orientation and the resulting chemical properties of such thin oxide layers may be of interest in future applications.

## II Experimental and computational details

The STM measurements were performed in a UHV chamber with a base pressure below $`1\times 10^{10}`$ mbar. The Pd(100) surface was cleaned by cycles of Ar+ sputtering, annealing and oxygen treatments keeping the sample at 900 K in an oxygen pressure of $`2\times 10^8`$ mbar followed by flashes to 1400 K. The cleanliness of the Pd(100) surface was checked by Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES); no contaminants such as C and O could be observed within the detection limits. The $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase was thereafter formed by exposing the Pd(100) surface to an oxygen pressure of $`5\times 10^6`$ mbar for 300 seconds at $`T=600`$ K.

The HRCLS measurements were conducted at the beam line I311 nyholm01 at MAXII in Lund, Sweden. The cleaning procedure and preparation of the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase was identical to that described above. The HRCL spectra were recorded at liquid nitrogen temperatures and at normal emission angle. The cleanliness of the Pd(100) surface was checked by monitoring the Pd $`3d_{5/2}`$, O $`1s`$, and C $`1s`$ core-levels, as well as the valence band region; again, no contaminants could be detected.

The DFT calculations were performed within the Full-Potential Linear Augmented Plane Wave (FP-LAPW) scheme blaha99 ; kohler96 ; petersen00  using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) perdew96  for the exchange-correlation functional. The $`\sqrt{5}`$ surface oxide was modeled in a supercell geometry, employing a symmetric slab consisting of five layers Pd(100) in the middle plus the various PdO layers described below on both sides. A vacuum region of $``$ 15 Å ensures the decoupling of the surfaces of consecutive slabs. All atomic positions within the PdO and the outermost substrate layer were fully relaxed.

The FP-LAPW basis set parameters are as follows: $`R_{\mathrm{MT}}^{\mathrm{Pd}}=`$1.8 bohr, $`R_{\mathrm{MT}}^\mathrm{O}=`$1.3 bohr, wave function expansion inside the muffin tins up to $`l_{\mathrm{max}}^{\mathrm{wf}}=12`$, potential expansion up to $`l_{\mathrm{max}}^{\mathrm{pot}}=4`$, and a $`(4\times 4\times 1)`$ Monkhorst-Pack grid with 8 k-points in the irreducible part of the Brillouin zone (28 k-points in the full zone). The energy cutoff for the plane wave representation in the interstitial region between the muffin tin spheres was $`E_{\mathrm{wf}}^{\mathrm{max}}`$ = 20 Ry for the wave functions and $`E_{\mathrm{pot}}^{\mathrm{max}}`$ = 169 Ry for the potential. With this basis set very good agreement is obtained with the results of the structure determination for the $`p(2\times 2)`$ phase on Pd(100) reported by a previous LEED study kolthoff96 , and we find the relative energetic stabilities of the various tested overlayer models converged to within $`\pm 50`$ meV per O atom.

This does, however, not comprise the uncertainty in the absolute binding energies, $`E_B`$. DFT, even within the GGA, is known to poorly describe gas phase oxygen and gives in particular the binding energy for molecular O2 wrong by about 0.5 eV per O atom pirovano99 . As this directly effects the obtained absolute binding energies for the various surface oxide phases, a possible workaround would be to determine the total energy of molecular oxygen, $`E_{\mathrm{O}_2}^{\mathrm{tot}}`$, not via gas phase calculations, but via li03

$$1/2E_{\mathrm{O}_2}^{\mathrm{tot}}E_{\mathrm{PdO},\mathrm{bulk}}^{\mathrm{tot}}E_{\mathrm{Pd},\mathrm{bulk}}^{\mathrm{tot}}+\mathrm{\Delta }H_f(300\mathrm{K},1\mathrm{a}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{m})$$

i.e. employing an approximate equation for the PdO heat of formation, $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_f`$, into which only the total energies of bulk PdO and Pd bulk, $`E_{\mathrm{PdO},\mathrm{bulk}}^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{Pd},\mathrm{bulk}}^{\mathrm{tot}}`$, enter. Using the experimental $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_f(300\mathrm{K},1\mathrm{a}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{m})`$ one can thus arrive at $`E_{\mathrm{O}_2}^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ without having to resort to atomic calculations, though at the expense of discarding a completely first-principles type description.

In the present work we will only compare the stability of various structural models all including the same number of oxygen atoms. Then, the difference between the standard computation of binding energies, i.e. utilizing gas-phase computed $`E_{\mathrm{O}_2}^{\mathrm{tot}}`$, and the aforedescribed procedure amounts only to a constant shift in the calculated binding energies. Employing $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_f^{\mathrm{exp}}(300\mathrm{K},1\mathrm{a}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{m})=0.88`$ eV CRC95 , this shift amounts to 0.43 eV per O atom with a lower stability of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }H_f`$-derived binding energies and not including zero-point vibrations. This indicates the sizable uncertainty in the absolute binding energy values and correspondingly dictates a cautious judgement on the endo- or exothermicity of a structure. In the following, we will always indicate binding energies obtained with gas-phase computed $`E_{\mathrm{O}_2}^{\mathrm{tot}}`$ (not including zero-point vibrations), which according to the above argument are likely to represent an upper limit to the real stability. Our main conclusion, the rebuttal of the prevalent $`\sqrt{5}`$-model, will, however, rather be based on relative energetic differences, which are fortunately enough much better defined.

The surface core-level shift (SCLS), $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mathrm{SCLS}}`$, is defined as the difference in energy which is needed to remove a core electron either from a surface or a bulk atom spanjaard85 . In the initial-state approximation the SCLS arises simply from the variation of the computed orbital eigenenergies before the excitation of the core electron. In final-state calculations, on the other hand, the SCLS involves an additional component due to the screening contribution from the valence electrons in response to the created core hole, obtained approximately via the Slater-Janak transition state approach of evaluating total energy differences using impurity type calculations as explained in detail in ref. lizzit01, . In case of the Pd $`3d`$ SCLSs the bulk level position can be employed as a well defined reference level to align theoretical and experimental spectra. For the O $`1s`$ levels however, we note that it is not very practical to also use the Pd $`3d`$ bulk-level position to align the O $`1s`$ data, as both types of orbital eigenenergies exhibit different convergence behavior with respect to the employed basis set. Also the Fermi-level position as another reference level present in both experimental and theoretical spectra is not very practical: Particularly for experiments on systems with high oxygen loads like surface oxides band bending can not be excluded.

Fortunately, we only need to rely on the existence (or non-existence) of a split O $`1s`$ spectrum in the present work. This difference in relative O $`1s`$ level positions of various atoms within the same geometry is well defined and independent of the reference zero used. Just in order to present the theoretical and experimental data in the same plot (Fig. 2) we will therefore employ the simplest possible alignment approach given by equating the position of the lowest theoretical and experimental O $`1s`$ core-level position. We stress that this crude procedure does not enter our physical argument and is solely used for graphical purposes.

## III Results and discussion

### III.0.1 Shortcomings of the prevalent $`\sqrt{5}`$-LEED model

Fig. 1 shows the development of the experimental HRCL spectra from the O $`1s`$ and Pd $`3d_{5/2}`$ levels for the sequence of ordered structures that form on the Pd(100) surface with increasing oxygen coverage. After the two known adsorption phases, $`p(2\times 2)`$ at $`\theta =0.25`$ ML and $`c(2\times 2)`$ at $`\theta =0.50`$ ML kolthoff96 ; orent82 ; stuve84 ; chang88a ; chang88b , at first an intermediate $`(5\times 5)`$ surface oxide forms, before finally the $`\sqrt{5}`$ is obtained, on which we concentrate in this work. Focusing first on the O $`1s`$ spectrum of this $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase, its most surprising feature is the existence of two sharp peaks in contrast to the single peak observed at all lower coverage structures. As is apparent from Fig. 1, a definite assignment of these peaks is hampered by the energetically very close lying Pd $`3p`$ levels. Still, we attribute these two peaks to emission from O $`1s`$ levels as no similar features are observed at the low binding-energy side of the Pd $`3d`$ spectrum. Changing the incident photon energy to vary the escape depth of the photoelectrons leads us to conclude that they originate from oxygen atoms close to the surface and at roughly the same depth.

To arrive at a rough estimate of the relative coverages, we approximately remove the contribution from the Pd $`3p`$ levels by subtracting the Pd $`3p`$ spectrum recorded from the clean surface. The corresponding HRCL spectra for the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase are shown in Fig. 2, now recorded at higher photon energies of 900 eV and 650 eV for the O $`1s`$ and Pd $`3d`$ levels, respectively. At the expense of a decreased resolution, these somewhat high energies are employed to avoid diffraction effects and thus permit a rough estimate of the relative coverages giving rise to the two peaks. We note that despite the decreased resolution, the two peaks are still clearly distinguishable in the original (not shown) and subtracted (Fig. 2) data. In both cases we obtain a considerable binding energy shift of $`0.75`$ eV between both peaks and a ratio of about 1:1 for the two components. On the basis of this analysis of the experimental O $`1s`$ spectrum we would therefore anticipate at least two oxygen species at or close to the surface of the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase in close to equal amounts.

Turning to the Pd $`3d_{5/2}`$ spectra in Fig. 2, at least three oxygen-induced components are experimentally resolved, at -0.32 eV, +0.38 eV and +1.30 eV, where a positive SCLS indicates a higher binding energy with respect to the reference Pd bulk component. Using simple initial-state arguments, we expect an increased oxygen coordination to yield a positive SCLS for the Pd $`3d_{5/2}`$ level. Thus, the component shifted by +1.30 eV could be due to highly oxygen coordinated Pd atoms, agreeing with previous results from the intermediate oxide structure on Pd(111) lundgren02 , in which a very similarly shifted component was found and assigned to Pd atoms fourfold coordinated to oxygen. The component shifted by +0.38 eV could correspondingly be due to Pd atoms coordinated to less oxygen atoms (possibly two or three), whereas the component shifted by -0.32 eV likely originates from Pd atoms at the interface between the Pd(100) substrate and the thin oxidic film.

Trying to analyze the compatibility of the present HRCLS data with the prevalent structural model of the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase suggested on the basis of the tensor LEED analysis (henceforth abreviated with “LEED model”) vu94 ; saidy01 , cf. Fig. 3a, we used the published atomic positions of the LEED model as input to our DFT computations. Obtaining SCLS that did not resemble the experimental data at all, we initially proceeded by subjecting the LEED model to a complete structural relaxation. The resulting final-state SCLS after relaxation are shown in Fig. 2 and are still difficult to reconcile with the experimental data: The large splitting of the O $`1s`$ spectrum is not reproduced and almost identical O $`1s`$ positions are obtained for all O atoms in the structure. Recalling that the LEED model essentially corresponds to a PdO(001) overlayer on Pd(100), in which all oxygen atoms are in principle equivalent, cf. Fig. 3a, this result is not surprising. The agreement in case of the Pd $`3d`$ SCLSs is not much better, obtaining computed shifts that are split into two distinct groups in contrast to the four component structure seen experimentally.

Geometrically, the structural relaxation in DFT almost completely removes most of the strong rumpling introduced in the LEED study to fit the experimental $`I(E)`$-curves, and the substrate/oxide interface smoothes out at a large interface distance indicating a very weak coupling. In the end, the absolute binding energy per O atom, $`E_B`$, of the LEED model was (with the caveat given in Section II) still found to be slightly endothermic with respect to molecular oxygen ($`E_B=0.12`$ eV/ O atom), adding to our doubts of this prevalent structural model of the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase.

Finally, we also performed STM measurements of the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase, a corresponding image of which is shown in Fig. 3a. As may directly be seen from the image, neighboring bright rows are shifted by half a nearest neighbor distance with respect to each other, in contrast to what would be expected from the PdO(001) geometry depicted in Fig. 3a. This finding (STM) together with the absence of a split in the calculated O $`1s`$ spectrum (HRCLS) and the low energetic stability (DFT) led us to conclude that the prevalent LEED $`\sqrt{5}`$-model is incompatible with the three methods employed in the present study.

### III.0.2 Searching for a new model

To identify an alternative geometry of the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase, we first further analyze our experimental STM data in order to reduce the vast phase space of possible structural models. The bottom right half of the STM image shown in Fig. 4a exhibits a domain of the coexisting $`p(2\times 2)`$ on-surface adsorption phase, in which the oxygen overlayer simply occupies fourfold hollow sites of the underlying Pd(100) substrate kolthoff96 ; orent82 ; stuve84 ; chang88a ; chang88b . Based on this known geometry and the frequent finding that oxygen would appear as dark spots in the STM image, we construct the Pd(100) lattice and superimpose it on the experimental image, as shown in Fig. 4b. It then follows that the dark spots in the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase are directly situated on top of the fourfold hollow sites of the Pd(100) lattice.

Assuming that the bright protrusions in the STM image correspond to the geometric position of Pd atoms, we may further draw the Pd sublattice of the suspected surface oxide layer into the STM image as done in Fig. 4b. This way, a total of three Pd atoms per $`\sqrt{5}`$ unit-cell are found, forming a rather open interlaced ring-like layer, the structure of which doesn’t resemble a bulk-like PdO planar nearest-neighbor environment at all. The latter would instead be obtained, if Pd atoms would also be present at the position of the large dark spots, yielding then a more compact layer with a total of four Pd atoms per $`\sqrt{5}`$ unit-cell. As the dark spots are directly situated on top of the hollow substrate sites, a straightforward explanation why these latter Pd atoms do not show up in the STM images would e.g. be a large corrugation within the surface oxide overlayer, in which all Pd atoms over Pd(100) hollow sites are strongly relaxed inwards.

While we may thus tentatively determine the positions of the Pd atoms on the basis of the STM images, the latter do not lead to any conclusions about the position and number of oxygen atoms in the $`\sqrt{5}`$ unit-cell. Concerning the O coverage, we can however resort to the HRCLS measurements. Calibrating the spectra, cf. Fig. 1, with the $`p(2\times 2)`$ (0.25 ML) and $`c(2\times 2)`$ (0.50 ML) adsorbate structures known from the previous LEED work kolthoff96 ; orent82 ; stuve84 ; chang88a ; chang88b , a rough estimate of $`\theta 0.8`$ ML is obtained, which would correspond to four O atoms per $`\sqrt{5}`$ unit-cell.

Using these experimental observations, we proceed to set up structural models that are compatible with the data discussed so far. Assuming the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase to be some form of surface oxide on Pd(100), PdO-like overlayers seem a most appealing choice for a model. A systematic look at all possible low-index PdO planes turns up two orientations which exhibit Pd positions whose lateral arrangement would agree with that deduced from STM: PdO(100) and PdO(101), cf. Fig. 3b and 3c respectively. In contrast, the earlier LEED model consists essentially of a PdO(001) plane on Pd(100), which is not equivalent to PdO(100) due to the tetragonal unit-cell of PdO rogers71 . Hence, the LEED model features an orientation, which does not fit the STM data, as seen when comparing Fig. 3a with Fig. 4.

### III.0.3 PdO(101)/Pd(100) as the new model

Having filtered out PdO(100) and PdO(101) as two possible candidates for a new structural model, we note that the two differ only in the vertical position of the oxygen atoms. Each structure contains four oxygen and four Pd atoms per $`\sqrt{5}`$ unit-cell, which nicely fits the experimental coverage estimate described in Section III.2 . Yet, PdO(100) has all four O atoms above the Pd layer, while PdO(101) has two up and two down, as can be seen in Figs. 3b and 3c respectively. To discern between the two orientations, we subjected both to a full structure optimization in our DFT calculations. Interestingly, this yields a significantly increased stability for both overlayer models: in both cases, the binding energy is more than 1 eV per O atom higher than that of the previous LEED model, thus providing the final evidence for the incorrectness of the latter. More precisely, we find the PdO(101)/Pd(100) $`\sqrt{5}`$-geometry to be the most stable of the three structural models depicted in Fig. 3 with a binding energy of $`E_B=+1.35`$ eV / O atom (compared to $`E_B`$ = $`0.12`$ eV / O atom for the LEED model and $`E_B`$ = +0.90 eV / O atom for the PdO(100) overlayer).

Further checking on PdO(101)/Pd(100) as our new structural model, we also calculated a number of geometries keeping the positions of the Pd atoms in the overlayer, but testing different lateral positions for the O atoms. In particular, this involved geometries, where some oxygen atoms were located in bridge sites between the overlayer Pd atoms to produce differently coordinated O atoms at the surface that could then possibly also generate a split O $`1s`$ core-level spectrum. Yet, in all such combinatorial cases with O in hollow and bridge sites we obtained binding energies more than 0.2 eV lower than for our PdO(101)/Pd(100) model. As second test series, we tried different registries of the PdO(101) overlayer on Pd(100), i.e. we laterally shifted the PdO overlayer around on the substrate. Again, this always resulted in a lower stability with respect to the structure shown in Fig. 3c. Finally, the dark holes seen in the STM image suggested that one of the four overlayer Pd atoms could be absent, namely the one over the fourfold hollow site, PdH in Fig. 5. With bulk Pd as reservoir for the removed Pd atom, we also find such a model to be less stable. In conclusion, the DFT calculations therefore strongly favor the PdO(101)/Pd(100) structure for the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase.

To see whether this new model is also compatible with the presented experimental HRCLS data, we show its computed final-state SCLS in Fig. 2 and list all its Pd $`3d`$ shifts in Table I. Comparing with the shifts obtained for the LEED model and for PdO(100)/Pd(100), cf. Figs. 3a and 3b, PdO(101) is the only model that exhibits an appreciably split O$`1s`$ core-level spectrum, due to the presence of both on- and sub-surface O in the geometry, cf. Fig. 2. The obtained Pd $`3d`$ shifts of +0.9 eV and +0.4 eV due to fourfold and twofold oxygen coordinated Pd atoms in the PdO(101) overlayer, PdBr/H and PdBr/PdH in Fig. 5, compare reasonably with the two experimental peaks that had already been assigned to differently coordinated Pd atoms on the basis of initial-state arguments. The remaining experimentally resolved peak with a small negative shift had similarly been attributed to the top Pd substrate atoms at the interface, which in the calculations exhibit almost vanishing SCLSs (Pd1 in Fig. 5).

Of course, the very structure of the PdO(101) overlayer with an equal amount of on- and sub-surface oxygen atoms renders the measured splitted O $`1s`$ spectrum immediately plausible. In fact, the significant rumpling together with the different sub-surface O coordination to the underlying substrate, cf. Fig. 5, yield even slightly different shifts for the two atoms of each oxygen species present in the $`\sqrt{5}`$ unit-cell, cf. Fig. 2. Averaging the contributions within each group, we obtain a computed initial (final) state shift of 0.55 eV (0.49 eV) between the O $`1s`$ peaks due to on- and sub-surface oxygen atoms, in reasonable agreement with the measured value of 0.75 eV.

### III.0.4 Compatibility with existing LEED data

So far, we have shown that our new model is superior to the model of Saidy et al. vu94 ; saidy01  with respect to all three techniques employed in the present work (HRCLS, STM, DFT). On the other hand, the model of Saidy et al. has strong backing from quantitative LEED. Hence, a final verification of our model would be to establish its viability also by this method. To accomplish this goal, we performed a rather restricted set of LEED $`I(E)`$ calculations for our structural model, comparing them to the very set of experimental LEED data published by Saidy et al. saidy01  (scanned and digitized from their Fig. 2). From this we may judge whether or not our geometry can yield LEED $`I(E)`$ spectra on par or superior to those of Saidy et al. Our quantitative LEED calculations utilized the TensErLEED program package Blu01 , employing 10 fully relativistic phase shifts and a first-principles, energy-dependent real part of the inner potential, both generated for the surface geometry of Fig. 5 using Rundgren’s phase shift program package Run01 . Where the Tensor LEED method Rou86 ; Rou92  was employed, care was taken to ensure the full-dynamic reproducibility of the results in the final step of the calculation. All non-structural parameters of the calculation were kept fixed at the values chosen by Saidy et al.

As a first step, we simply used the exact optimized geometry of the DFT-GGA calculations as input to the full-dynamic part of the TensErLEED code. Already this produced $`I(E)`$ curves in reassuring visual agreement with the scanned experimental spectra – i.e., all major spectral features could be reproduced. Still, shifts between individual peaks and overall shape difference only allowed for an average Pendry R-factor Pen80  $`R_\mathrm{P}`$ = 0.51 between calculated and scanned $`I(E)`$. Hence, in a second step, we used the Tensor LEED method to relax all vertical positions in the PdO(101) layer, as well as the topmost two Pd(100) substrate layers below. The result of this is a clear drop of the best-fit Pendry R-factor to $`R_\mathrm{P}`$ = 0.28, shared by both integer ($`R_{\mathrm{int}}`$ = 0.29) and fractional ($`R_{\mathrm{frac}}`$ = 0.28) beams on average. The improvement is mainly due to overall slightly expanded distances between the individual layers compared to the DFT-GGA result. Moreover, a significant buckling is found in the second substrate layer, which was not relaxed in DFT. Of course, some differences of this kind must be expected already because no lateral or non-structural degrees of freedom were adjusted in the LEED fit. While the latter parameters may well account also for the remaining discrepancies between calculated and experimental $`I(E)`$ curves, the main goal of our LEED calculations has clearly been achieved: Already a very limited structural refinement of PdO(101)/Pd(100) produces experiment-theory agreement at a level which is even slightly improved compared to that presented by Saidy et al. ($`R_\mathrm{P}`$ = 0.306)saidy01  in their analysis. The consistency of our model with all available experimental data is thus established.

### III.0.5 Strained PdO(101)/Pd(100)

The new structural model for the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase is essentially a strained and rumpled PdO(101) film on top of Pd(100). The PdO(101) in-plane lattice constant is almost equal to that of a $`\sqrt{5}`$ unit-cell on Pd(100), with the unit surface area of the commensurable film found here smaller by only 1.4% than for unstrained PdO(101). On the other hand, we compute a rather strong coupling of 100 meV/Å2 of the laterally compressed PdO overlayer to the underlying Pd(100) substrate, rationalizing the formation of a commensurable surface oxide structure. This strong coupling also helps to stabilize the particular PdO(101) orientation, which is experimentally not found to be a preferred growth direction of PdO crystallites mcbride91 . Our calculations show that the stoichiometric termination of bulk PdO(101)-($`1\times 1`$) suggested in the $`\sqrt{5}`$-film, i.e. the one terminated by O atoms as shown in Fig. 5, is in fact considerably more stable than the two other ways of truncating PdO in (101) direction, 57 meV/Å2 compared to 134 meV/Å2 (also O terminated) and 128 meV/Å2 (Pd terminated) rogal02 . Interestingly, the bulk PdO(100) orientation shown in Fig. 3b exhibits even a significantly lower surface energy (33 meV/Å2), while this orientation is in the commensurable thin film geometry discussed here energetically not as favorable as the PdO(101) $`\sqrt{5}`$-model. Evidently, the presence of oxygen at the oxide/metal interface yields a stronger coupling to the underlying substrate and is ultimately responsible for the higher stability of the PdO(101)/Pd(100) surface oxide geometry.

This example of the stabilisation of a higher energy crystal face in thin oxide films due to strong interfacial coupling to the substrate adds another interesting aspect to the new physics found recently in studies concerning oxide formation at TM surfaces. Among other findings, the formation of incommensurable domains of low energy oxide faces has been reported for ruthenium single crystals over00 ; kim01 , delineating the opposite case to the results reported here, i.e. when the oxide orientation is more important than a good coupling to the underlying substrate. Apparently, the lower thermal stability of palladium oxides compared to RuO2 increases the importance of the oxide/metal interface. This is further supported by the surface oxide structure just found on Pd(111), which does not resemble any PdO bulk orientation at all lundgren02 .

Experimentally, oxide thicknesses below about 20 Å have been found in all of these cases, indicating either a slow growth kinetics once the thin films have formed or a thermodynamic hindrance to form thick bulk oxides. This could be of interest in oxidation catalysis, where such oxide patches forming on TM surfaces in the reactive environment are now discussed as the actually active material over00 ; hendriksen02 ; stampfl02 ; reuter03 . If a continued growth of these oxide films is not possible, so that their structure always remains significantly affected by the interfacial coupling, they may exhibit catalytic behavior which is non-scalable from corresponding bulk oxide crystallites - in other words, truly nano-catalytic properties. Even when the oxide growth is not limited, the structure of the initially formed oxide film will be crucial, setting the stage for the ensuing oxidation process. For thicker films, interfacial coupling will be progressively less influential, so that an initially stabilized higher energy oxide orientation as found in the present work should eventually become liable to faceting. The corresponding three-dimensional cluster growth has indeed been observed for the continued oxidation of both Pd(100) and Pd(111) zheng02 ; zheng00 .

## IV Summary

In conclusion, we have shown that the prevalent structural model for the Pd(100)-$`(\sqrt{5}\times \sqrt{5})R27^o`$-O surface oxide can not be reconciled with neither the experimental nor the theoretical methods employed in the present study: Its surface symmetry does not fit to the one observed by STM, and the calculated HRCLS for this structure do not show the appreciable splitting of the O $`1s`$ spectrum observed experimentally. In addition DFT calculations give only a very low energetic stability and a relaxed geometry that does no longer exhibit the significant rumpling originally introduced to match the measured LEED $`I(E)`$ curves.

Based on the present experimental data we reanalyze the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase and suggest an alternative structural model: a strained PdO(101) layer on Pd(100). This arrangement is energetically much more stable in our DFT calculations. Its computed final-state SCLSs agree well with all HRCLS measurements, linking the large splitting of the O $`1s`$ spectrum to the presence of oxygen both at the surface and at the oxide/metal interface. Already a very restricted set of LEED intensity calculations establishes the compatibility of this structure also with the previously published LEED intensity data.

The PdO(101) orientation, which is experimentally not found to be a preferred PdO growth direction, is stabilized by the strong coupling to the underlying substrate in the present thin film limit. In comparison to the ensuing three-dimensional cluster growth during continued oxidation, the $`\sqrt{5}`$-phase is therefore likely to display different physico-chemical properties, which might be of interest or relevance to high-pressure applications like catalysis.

## V Acknowledgements

We are thankful for partial support by the DFG priority program ”Realkatalyse”. The support from the MAXLAB staff and financial support from the Swedish Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. Stimulating discussions with Georg Kresse are also gratefully acknowledged.


text:
# Uniformity of foreground Galactic neutral Hydrogen over cooling flow clusters

## 1 Introduction

Data from Chandra and XMM-Newton have caused radical revisions to the X-ray view of cooling flows in clusters of galaxies (Fabian, 1994). Where data from X-ray missions such as ROSAT and ASCA were interpreted as showing that substantially more than $`100\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ of cooled gas is being deposited in the central regions of many clusters (White, Jones & Fabian 1997; Peres et al. 1998; Allen et al. 2001), Chandra and XMM-Newton data are inconsistent with such high cooling rates (e.g. David et al., 2001), and show little spectroscopic evidence for gas cooling below temperatures of about 1 keV (e.g. Peterson et al., 2001; Tamura et al., 2001).

The cooling time of the gas at the centre of a cooling flow cluster is typically only a few times $`10^8\mathrm{yr}`$, so that substantial heat input is required to prevent large amounts of gas from cooling below 1 keV. The rapidly growing list of cavities found in the X-ray emitting gas associated with radio lobes emanating from the nucleus of the central galaxy (e.g. McNamara et al., 2000; Fabian et al., 2000; Blanton et al., 2001) suggests strongly that radio outbursts from the active nucleus of the central galaxy provide the required heating (Churazov et al., 2002; Nulsen et al., 2002).

Many issues remain to be settled in the emerging picture of cluster cooling flows (e.g. Fabian et al., 2001). In particular, the presence of cool gas in a wide variety of forms (e.g. Crawford et al., 1999; Donahue et al., 2000; Edge, 2001; Edge et al., 2002) and star formation (e.g. Johnstone, Fabian & Nulsen 1987; McNamara & O’Connell 1992; Crawford et al. 1999; Mittaz et al. 2001) in many of these systems indicates that some of the X-ray emitting intracluster gas does cool to low temperatures. This is supported by the detection of some X-ray emitting gas below 1 keV in at least one system (Kaastra et al., 2001). However, it is yet to be determined how the cooled gas arises. It might be deposited in brief episodes every few times $`10^8\mathrm{yr}`$, as the central gas radiates the last of its thermal energy, cools to low temperatures and triggers a nuclear outburst that chokes off further cooling. Alternatively, it may be deposited as a continuous thermally unstable trickle (e.g. Oegerle et al., 2001). It has also been proposed that at least some of the cool gas did not originate as intracluster gas, but was brought to the cluster centre with infalling galaxies (McNamara, 1997). As well, the state of the bulk of the cool gas at the centres of cooling flows is disputed (Ferland, Fabian & Johnstone 1994; Voit & Donahue 1995).

In this paper we discuss maps of Galactic foreground Hi emission over cooling flow clusters. This work was originally prompted by measurements of large excess photoelectric absorption in cooling flow clusters (White et al., 1991; Allen & Fabian, 1997; Allen, 2000), implying very large reservoirs of cooled gas within them. The aim was to determine if arcminute scale fluctuations in foreground Hi column density could account for the excess absorption (David, Jones & Forman 1996 proposed that variations in foreground dust column density could have this effect). However, Chandra and XMM-Newton observations now suggest that the excess photoelectric absorption was largely an artifact of models in which large quantities of gas were assumed to cool from the ambient temperature of the intracluster medium to well below 1 keV. Nevertheless, photoelectric absorption by the cool gas remains an important channel for information about its quantity and state, and for this purpose it is important to be able separate the effects of foreground absorption.

A number of authors have reported extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray excesses in clusters of galaxies (e.g. Lieu et al. 1996; Kaastra et al. 1999; Bowyer, Berghöfer & Korpela 1999; Bonamente, Lieu & Mittaz 2001; but see Berghöfer & Bowyer 2002). Such an excess could be due to inverse Compton scattering of the microwave background by a non-thermal particle population, but then the minimum particle pressure required in the cluster Sersic 159-03 would exceed the thermal pressure of the hot gas (Bonamente et al., 2001). In order to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium, that would imply at least doubling the cluster mass. Alternatively, the soft excess in Sersic 159-03 may be due to gas that is cooler than the hot intracluster medium, but then the total mass of cool gas would be comparable to that of the hot gas (Bonamente et al., 2001). This presents the problem that the huge mass of cool gas cannot be stably supported by hydrostatic pressure. Measurements of EUV and soft X-ray emission from extragalactic sources are sensitive to correction for foreground photoelectric absorption. Arabadjis & Bregman (1999) have argued on this basis that the evidence for soft emission from a number of clusters is weak. Krick, Arabadjis & Bregman (2000) have argued further that arcminute scale holes in the foreground absorption might account for at least part of the soft excess. So, the uniformity of foreground Hi emission is also of interest for clusters showing EUV and soft X-ray excesses.

In section 2 we describe the observations and data reduction. Our main result is that there is no evidence for arcmin scale structure in the foreground Hi emitting gas. In section 3 we discuss the limits we can place on variation of foreground Hi for each case. For the purpose of obtaining scales, we assume a flat $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology, with $`H_0=70\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=0.3`$ throughout the paper.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

We selected the cooling flow clusters A3581, A2597 and Sersic 159-03 because they have shown photoelectric absorption well in excess of that expected due to foreground gas (Allen & Fabian 1997; Johnstone, Fabian & Taylor 1998). As already noted, Sersic 159-03 is also reported as having the greatest known soft X-ray excess (Bonamente et al., 2001). Pertinent details of the clusters are given in Table 1.

To image the Galactic foreground Hi which might be screening the cooling flows at the centres of the clusters, we have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in two moderately compact configurations: 375 and 750A. The ATCA is an unfilled-aperture, rotation synthesis interferometer, and as such measures only a finite set of spatial (angular) components of the source distribution. In particular, the minimum baseline within the array sets the size of the largest well-imaged structure, which for the configurations used is $`10`$ arcmin. Features (ie. emission, absorption) in the source distribution larger than this are largely invisible to the telescope. To a good approximation then, our observations will produce images of the “fine structure” in the foreground Hi, that is, the modulation in the Hi above some pedestal value which varies slowly across the sky and can only be measured by a filled-aperture (ie. single-dish) radio telescope.

Observations were acquired using the 375 configuration on 1996 December 4 and 7, and the 750A configuration on 1998 May 9, 10 and 12. Observations of A3581 were made only with the 750A configuration. The half-power beam width of an ATCA antenna at wavelength 21 cm is 33 arcmin, and this sets the size of the field imaged by a single pointing of the array; beyond $`16`$ arcmin from the field centre the sensitivity falls off rapidly. The image resolution within the 33 arcmin field is determined by the maximum antenna–antenna baseline within the array, which for all fields was 735 m, corresponding to a theoretical resolution of $`60`$ arcsec in the R.A. direction. Because the ATCA is an East-West array and uses the Earth’s rotation to synthesize a planar interferometer, the resolution in the Dec direction is elongated by a factor $`\left|\mathrm{sin}^1\delta \right|`$ for observations at Dec $`\delta `$; this effect is particularly severe for A2597 at $`\delta =12^{}06^{}`$.

To image Galactic gas, the ATCA receiver chain and correlator were programmed to record XX and YY correlations between all telescope pairings over a bandwidth of 8 MHz, centred on 1420 MHz. The band was divided into 1024 raw channels, yielding redshifted spectral channels of width $`1.65`$ km s-1 extending from $`760`$ to $`+930`$ km s-1 in the frame of the observations.444Note that the velocity resolution is $`1.21`$ times the channel width. The primary calibrator 1934$``$638 was observed for absolute flux calibration (Reynolds, 1994) at the start of each observing period, and (weaker) secondary calibrators were observed regularly during each observation to enable the determination of time-dependent bandpass calibration solutions.

The data were edited, calibrated and imaged in the radio interferometry data reduction package miriad. Some editing of the visibility data for the program sources was necessary where on-line flagging had not been aggressive enough, and where transient interference and/or system faults were evident. Any continuum emission present in the visibility data was removed by fitting and subtracting a first-order polynomial from every visibility spectrum; the fit was made to the outer channels in the band to avoid contamination by Galactic Hi line emission. Radio continuum images at 1420 MHz were made using the continuum fit data, and yielded three sources with peak flux exceeding $`10`$ mJy in the A2597 and Sersic 159-03 fields, and four in the A3581 field. The clusters themselves were detected at the following peak fluxes: A3581: $`0.40\pm 0.02`$ Jy; Sersic 159-03: $`0.21\pm 0.02`$ Jy; and A2597: $`1.74\pm 0.05`$ Jy.

Images were produced by gridding and Fourier-inverting the continuum-subtracted visibility data, averaging two raw channels at a time and eliminating the (noisier) band edges, to produce images having 200 planes (channels) of width $`3.31`$ km s-1, occupying the radial velocity domain $`331<V_{\mathrm{LSRK}}<+331`$ km s-1 measured in the local standard of rest (kinematic) frame. Image pixel sizes were selected to sub-sample the synthesized beam by a factor of $`3`$ in each direction. We used two standard schemes to weight the visiblity data during the inversion: uniform weighting which assigns equal weight to all visibilities and produces images of high angular resolution at the cost of increased noise; and natural weighting, which favours visibility data from the shorter baselines and produces images of lower angular resolution but significantly lower noise. The total effective integration time, image beam dimensions and image noise levels for the observed fields are given in Table 1. The image noise levels are close to theoretical. The spatial correlation scale in the images is well described by a two-dimensional Gaussian having the dimensions listed in Table 1 (i.e. the synthesized beam, typically three pixels across). Along the spectral axis, the images are $`90`$ per cent uncorrelated.

Table 1 lists image noise values for regions of each image which are free of obvious Hi emission sources. To assess any variation in image noise across the field, we produced maps of the RMS pixel value along each sky pixel in the non-primary-beam-corrected image cubes. Towards each cluster, the RMS varied by less than 10 per cent from the value listed in Table 1 over the sky. To assess any varation in image noise through the frequency space of the observations, we produced a spectrum of the RMS pixel variation per channel; the RMS noise spectra are reproduced in Figures 13 for the naturally-weighted images. The spectra again show very little variation throughout the frequency domain, except for a few features which we now discuss.

### A3581.

The features at $`10`$ and $`+90`$ km s-1 in the RMS spectrum towards A3581 (Figure 1) are due to sidelobes of strong, narrow linewidth and point-like sources well outside the primary beam of the telescope. Careful inspection of the calibrator spectra rules out the chance that these are artefacts introduced by Galactic absorption towards the secondary calibrator source, and consequently we believe them to be real “hot spots” in the Galactic Hi column. These features are similar to the signature this project aims to find, but are well away ($`>40`$ arcmin) from the line-of-sight to the cluster, and are simply bright enough to be detected in the sidelobes of the telescope. The features at $`220`$ and $`290`$ km s-1 are channels having genuinely increased noise due to narrowband interference, some of which has been flagged. Apart from these features, the noise in this field is steady at $`2.2`$ mJy beam-1.

### Sersic 159-03.

This field exhibits slightly elevated noise near 0 km s-1, where a grating pattern is evident in the channel maps. This is either due to interference (probably internal to the system) which is too weak to identify and flag in the raw visibility data, or to a strong, narrow source passing through a distant sidelobe of the telescope. It is certainly not characteristic of local emission (or absorption) along the line of sight to the cluster. It only marginally affects our ability to detect a foreground excess of the magnitude required (see below). The noise in this field is generally less than $`2.9`$ mJy beam-1.

### A2597.

The Hi emission in the A2597 field is complex and difficult to interpret. Figure 3 shows substantial “pollution” extending from $`30`$ to $`0`$ km s-1, of an otherwise flat noise profile. In Figure 4 we present individual channel maps covering this velocity range, selected from the naturally-weighted image. In these uncleaned maps, sources are convolved with the synthesized beam and so even a simple source distribution on the sky could produce the bulk of the observed pattern; elliptical sidelobes are particularly evident in the bottom-left and top-right panels of Figure 4. However there are also fainter grating patterns, most obvious in the second and third panels, but possibly extant in all the maps. Grating patterns are generally the result of a fixed interference source present for some or all of the observations and despite our efforts, it has not been possible to find and eliminate the offending data in this case.

In Figure 5, we show the result of iteratively deconvolving the channel maps of Figure 4 and restoring the images with a Gaussian beam fitted to the synthesized beam, using the miriad tasks clean and restor. The resultant maps, aside from the genuine hot-spot in the top-right panel, and possibly those in the bottom-left panel (none of which are aligned with the cluster cooling flow), appear to contain a semi-regular array of sources. It seems far more likely that these are artefacts where multiple grating patterns reinforce, and reanalysis confirms this: by producing images with a different selection of antenna pairings and/or weighting schemes, the synthesized beam sidelobe structure can in principle be modified such that an array of sources on the sky would produce a less degenerate raw map, but such a combination of antennae was not found. Forthwith, for our analysis we simply consider the A2597 data to comprise a base noise level of $`2.9`$ ($`4.4`$) mJy beam-1 and an elevated noise level of $`10`$ ($`15`$) mJy beam-1 in the regime $`30`$ to $`0`$ km s-1 for naturally (uniformly) weighted images.

## 3 Results and discussion

We calculate upper limits to arcmin scale variations in the foreground neutral hydrogen column density towards the cooling flows in three different ways. The results are listed in Table 2. Columns headed “summed” present the $`5\sigma `$ image noise per channel (as given in Table 1) multiplied by the number of channels in which foreground emission is evident in Hi Parkes All Sky Survey spectra111111We use HIPASS spectra to estimate the likely spectral extent of the foreground column, as it is a single-dish survey which sees emission at (nearly) all angular scales on the sky. (HIPASS, Barnes et al., 2001), and converted to a column density in the standard way, ie.

$$\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{HI}}=1.36\left(1.823\times 10^{18}\right)\frac{\lambda ^2}{\theta _a\theta _b}\mathrm{S}_{\mathrm{int}},$$
(1)
where the factor $`1.36`$ incorporates the sensitivity of the ATCA, $`\lambda `$ is the observing wavelength (cm), $`\theta _{a,b}`$ are the major and minor widths of the synthesized observing beam (arcsec, listed in Table 1), $`\mathrm{S}_{\mathrm{int}}`$ is the summed flux (Jy beam-1 m s-1), and the result is in atoms cm-2. Summed limits on beam-to-beam fluctuations in column density are given for both the natural and uniform weight maps in Table 2, illustrating the practical trade off between spatial resolution and noise level.

The summed calculation gives a very conservative upper limit to the beam-to-beam fluctuations in $`\mathrm{N}_\mathrm{H}`$. These limits apply even if the fluctuation in every channel is in the same sense. However, as noted above, there is little or no correlation from channel to channel in the image slices, so that the contributions of the channels to the noise are largely independent. In this case, the noise in the summed image will be the RMS value for the combined channels. If the channels also contribute equally to the noise, the RMS noise equals the summed noise divided by the square root of the number of channels. Upper limits on foreground column density calculated in this way are given in Table 2 under the heading “averaged.”

Finally, in the columns headed “measured” of Table 2, we list a third set of upper limits to the foreground neutral column density. For each field, we collapse the channel maps by summing those channels for which HIPASS spectra show emission to be present (ie. we generate a zeroth-order moment map) and then calculate the RMS fluctuations in the image plane of the moment map. Importantly, this technique takes into account the channel-to-channel image noise variation, shown in Figures 13. In all cases, these “measured” column density limits lie between the “average” and “summed” values, and we believe them to be the most appropriate limits to use in further analysis.

For comparison with our results, in columns 2 and 3 of Table 2 we list the foreground Hi column interpolated from Stark et al. (1992) and Hartmann & Burton (1997) (where available); these data are averaged over beams of area $`4.5`$ and $`0.4`$ square degrees respectively. Our adopted $`5\sigma `$ limits (bold) on the fluctuations in the foreground column are considerably less than the wide-area averaged column itself for the natural weight images (beam areas $`2`$–7 square arcmin), but are on the order of the Stark et al. (1992) column for our uniform weight images (beam areas $`1`$–2 square arcmin). Therefore, our key result is that the foreground Hi emission is structureless over the range of scales probed by our natural weighted observations for all three clusters. This outcome is consistent with the extrapolation of the Hi power spectra measured at larger angular scales by Green (1993), and with the agreement in Hi column measured by the Stark et al. (1992) and Hartmann & Burton (1997) surveys whose beams differ by an order of magnitude in area. Comments on the individual clusters follow.

Abell 3581 is a moderately poor cluster (Postman & Geller, 1992) and, perhaps, the least well studied of our objects. Its central galaxy, IC 4374, is a cD galaxy hosting the radio source PKS 1404$``$267. Based on ASCA and ROSAT data, Johnstone et al. (1998) found a mass deposition rate of $`80\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, and an absorbing column density of $`2\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, well in excess of the foreground value (Table 2). Using a redshift of 0.0222 (corresponding to the recession velocity of $`6567\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$; Johnstone et al., 1998), the scale is $`0.45\mathrm{kpc}\mathrm{arcsec}^1`$, so that our naturally weighted beam size is $`62\times 23`$ kpc at the cluster. This is well inside the cooling flow region, which is about 100 kpc in radius (Johnstone et al., 1998). An excess column density of $`2\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ would violate our $`5\sigma `$ limit if it covered a disc exceeding 5 kpc in radius projected onto the cluster. It is very unlikely that foreground Galactic gas could account for the excess absorption in this object. Our $`5\sigma `$ limit on fluctuations in foreground Hi column density from beam-to-beam is about 14 per cent. This constrains the properties of any holes in the foreground gas, as discussed below.

Sersic 159-03, or Abell S1101, has been observed with XMM-Newton (Kaastra et al., 2001) and the results show that very little gas cools below $`1`$ keV. This undermines earlier claims of excess photoelectric absorption in this cluster (Allen & Fabian, 1997). At the redshift of the cD galaxy, $`z=0.0564`$ (Maia et al., 1987), the cluster scale is $`1.1\mathrm{kpc}\mathrm{arcsec}^1`$, so that our naturally weighted beam size is $`110\times 84`$ kpc. The $`5\sigma `$ limit on fluctuations per beam in the foreground Hi column density is 43 per cent for this cluster. Note that, as discussed in the Introduction, Sersic 159-03 is the cluster with the greatest reported soft X-ray excess (Bonamente et al., 2001).

Abell 2597 has been observed extensively at a wide range of wavelengths. It shares many of the noteworthy properties of cooling flow clusters, including a central radio source, PKS 2322$``$122 (Sarazin et al., 1995), optical emission lines (Voit & Donahue, 1997), recent star formation (Koekemoer et al., 1999) and spatially extended cool gas (Donahue et al., 2000; Edge et al., 2002). Allen et al. (2001) found significant excess photoelectric absorption, but Chandra observations show cavities (“ghost” cavities that do not surround the currently detectable radio lobes; McNamara et al., 2000), and that the bulk of the gas does not cool below $`1`$ keV. However, FUSE data do show evidence of some gas cooling to lower temperatures (Oegerle et al., 2001). At a redshift of 0.0821 (Voit & Donahue, 1997), the cluster scale is $`1.6\mathrm{kpc}\mathrm{arcsec}^1`$, making our naturally weighted beam size $`610\times 91`$ kpc. Our $`5\sigma `$ limit on the foreground Hi fluctuation per beam is 17 per cent for this source.

It is clear that foreground Hi emitting gas has little to do with excess photoelectric absorption in any of the three cooling flow clusters considered here. The lack of structure on arcminute scales in any of these clusters tells us that such structure is uncommon at best, at least for sources that are well clear of the Galactic plane.

In the light of the EUV and soft X-ray excesses, for the remainder of this section we focus on placing constraints on holes in the foreground gas (Krick et al., 2000). Our data only place useful constraints on the properties of holes that are comparable in size to the radio beam. For the purpose of discussion, we consider a simple model, with the sky divided into small areas, $`a`$, typical of the size of a hole, and smaller than the area $`A`$ of the radio beam. These areas are covered at random with column density $`N_0`$ or $`N_1<N_0`$, with the smaller column density to represent holes. If the fraction of the sky covered by holes is $`f`$, then the average column density will be $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{HI}}=N_0f(N_0N_1)`$. The number of hole areas falling within the radio beam has a binomial distribution, and the RMS fluctuation in the measured column density is $`\sigma _N=(N_0N_1)\sqrt{f(1f)a/A}`$. The fractional fluctuation in column density from beam-to-beam is then

$$\delta =\frac{\sigma _N}{\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{HI}}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\sqrt{f(1f)a/A}}{1f\mathrm{\Delta }},$$

where $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(N_0N_1)/N_0`$.

If holes in the foreground Hi distribution are to account for EUV and soft X-ray excesses, then the column density in the holes must be significantly lower than average, i.e. we need $`\mathrm{\Delta }1`$, so we will take this to be exact. The limits on fluctuations in Hi column density from Table 2 may then be regarded as constraining the size of the of any holes, i.e.

$$\sqrt{\frac{a}{A}}<\delta \sqrt{\frac{1f}{f}},$$

where $`\delta `$ is now the observed limit on the fractional fluctuation in $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{HI}}`$. For example, if the covering fraction of the holes is 1/2, then the constraint is $`\sqrt{a/A}<\delta `$, giving upper limits to the angular diameter of any holes of $`14`$, $`46`$ and $`32`$ arcsec for Abell 3581, Sersic 159-03 and Abell 2597, respectively, in order to comply with the limits in Table 2. It is unfortunate that our weakest constraint applies to Sersic 159-03, the cluster with the greatest reported soft X-ray excess (Bonamente et al., 2001).

It is interesting to consider what is required of the distribution of the Hi gas in order to produce a significant covering fraction of holes. Here, the phrase “low density gas” is used loosely to refer to gas which, if spread along a line of sight, would appear as a significant hole in the foreground Hi screen.

The average fraction of a random line of sight that lies in low density gas is equal to the filling factor of that gas. In order to appear as a hole, the bulk of the line of sight must pass through low density gas. Thus, if the covering fraction of holes is substantial, the filling factor of the low density gas needs to be close to unity. The most plausible distribution of Hi gas that could appear smooth down to arcmin scales, yet still produce a substantial covering fraction of holes is one where the gas is highly clumped on small scales. The clumps must be significantly smaller than one arcmin in order for the 21 cm emission to appear smooth on that scale. At distances comparable to the gas scale height, $`100`$ pc, a 1 arcmin clump would be $`0.03`$ pc in size. On the other hand, in order to produce appreciable small-scale fluctuations in $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{HI}}`$ a typical line of sight can only encounter a small number of clumps. This means that the column density of one clump must be comparable to the mean value of $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{HI}}`$. For small, roughly spherical clumps this requires very high gas densities, $`n10^3\mathrm{cm}^3`$, almost certainly exceeding the limits on the gas pressure. This constraint is relaxed somewhat if the clumps are really filaments, or folds in sheets (Dickey & Lockman, 1990).

Some studies have found variations in foreground Hi column density on scales as small as 10 milliarcsec (e.g. Deshpande, Dwarakanath & Goss 2000; Faison & Goss 2001). However, these variations are seen only in the coldest Hi component, and are by no means normal: Faison & Goss (2001) report that only two of seven background continuum sources illuminate opacity gradients in the foreground column. Deshpande (2000) offers a compelling argument that the overall impact on the Hi column along different lines of sight from physically allowable clouds of cold Hi is likely to be very small, and this is again consistent with the studies of the Hi power spectrum on larger angular scales (e.g. Green, 1993).

## 4 Conclusions

Radio maps of the 21 cm emission from foreground Galactic neutral hydrogen over 3 cooling flow clusters show that the gas is uniform on scales from $`1`$ to 10 arcmin. Our $`5\sigma `$ limits on beam-to-beam fluctuations in 21 cm emission, expressed in terms of limits on the fluctuations in Hi column density, are $`6.2\times 10^{19}`$, $`7.8\times 10^{19}`$ and $`4.3\times 10^{19}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for the clusters Abell 3581, Sersic 159-03 and Abell 2597, respectively, on scales of the order of 1 arcmin (see Table 2). Variations in the column density of neutral hydrogen in the Galaxy do not account for the claimed excess photoelectric absorption in these clusters.

In the light of recent detections of significant excess soft X-ray emission from some clusters, we have also considered whether “holes” in the distribution of foreground neutral hydrogen could cover a significant fraction of the sky, and can confidently rule out a high covering fraction of holes at scales $`1`$ arcmin.

## Acknowledgments

The Australia Telescope is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by the CSIRO. We thank Shane Isley, Mirjam Jonkman and Vincent McIntyre for their help in obtaining the ATCA data. We gratefully acknowledge Lister Staveley-Smith for his advice on reducing the data. We thank Rachel Webster and Martin Meyer for comments on the manuscript. We thank the referee for a thorough and constructive report.