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# Circular dichroism in angle-resolved photoemission spectra of under- and overdoped Pb-Bi2212.

## Abstract

We use angle-resolved photoemission with circularly polarized excitation to demonstrate that in the 5x1 superstructure-free Pb-Bi2212 material there are no signatures of time-reversal symmetry breaking in the sense of the criteria developed earlier (Kaminski et al. Nature 416, 610 (2002)). In addition to the existing technique, we suggest and apply an independent experimental approach to prove the absence of the effect in the studied compounds. The dichroic signal retains reflection antisymmetry as a function of temperature and doping and in all mirror planes, precisely defined by the experimental dispersion at low energies. The obtained results demonstrate that the signatures of time-reversal symmetry violation in pristine Bi2212, as determined by ARPES, are not a universal feature of all cuprate superconductors.

The variety of specific points, lines and regions in the ”normal state” part of the phase diagram of the high-temperature superconductors (HTSC) clearly demonstrates not only its complexity but also the absence of its detailed understanding PhaseDiagram . It is therefore important to realize which of them are really universal boundaries of particular phases and which just designate intermediate states with properties defined by the proximity to the well established phases such as, for instance, superconductivity. A recent angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) study Kaminski  found evidence of time-reversal symmetry breaking below the so called T\*-line, implying the existence of a well defined phase transition in underdoped cuprates. However, in the same set of experiments it was shown that the violation of the time-reversal symmetry is not peculiar only to the pseudogap regime but persists well in the superconducting state. This latter observation suggests that the detected symmetry breaking could, in principle, originate from the superconducting state and then be the primary cause of the effect in the pseudogap regime. This uncertainty calls for further experimental investigations and can be clarified if the superconducting state of the overdoped samples is studied in the same manner. Moreover, the importance of the issue appeals to the confirmation of already existing data since the observation of the effect is an extremely demanding experiment Kaminski ; Varma  in which a number of artifacts should be ruled out before one can state that exactly the time-reversal symmetry breaking is responsible for the non-vanishing dichroism in the mirror plane. It was already suggested Armitage  that the $`3\%`$ asymmetry effect observed in the underdoped samples can be explained by the changes of the well known incommensurate modulation (reported in Ref.Kaminski,  to be also of the order of $`3\%`$) as a function of temperature. Therefore, analogous experiments carried out on the systems with reduced interference of the temperature-sensitive structural modifications together with the developement of an improved experimental methodology aiming at more precise and reliable investigation of circular dichroism effects in low energy photoemission would be of special interest today.

In this Letter we present the results of the ARPES investigation of the (Pb,Bi)2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Pb-Bi2212) cuprates known to have no 5x1 superstructure. In addition to the temperature dependent analysis, we consider the symmetry of the dichroic signal (details of its momentum distribution) with respect to the momentum distribution of the total photocurrent, calculated as a sum of the spectra taken with right- and left-hand circularly polarized excitation and therefore equivalent to the photocurrent measured using unpolarized light. Application of the method to the Pb-Bi2212 compounds demonstrates that the reflection antisymmetry of the dichroic signal with respect to the mirror planes remains unsensitive to both temperature and doping level.

The experiments were performed at the 4.2R beamline ”Circular Polarization” of the ELETTRA storage ring using approximately 90$`\%`$ circularly polarized (CP) light from the elliptical wiggler-undulator. Spectra were collected in the angle-multiplexing mode of the SCIENTA SES-100 electron-energy analyzer. The overall average resolution in (k, $`\omega `$)-space was set to 0.01 Å-1 x 0.02 Å-1 x 40 meV. An essential advantage of this experimental setup is that no mechanical movement is involved in the process of switching the helicity of the incoming radiation. Only the direction of the current in the coils of the wiggler-undulator needs to be reversed which takes approximately 30 seconds. This enables the successive recording of the spectra using the light of both polarizations with the other experimental parameters remaining unchanged. Direct imaging of the beam spot (typical linear size $`300\mu `$m) on the sample surface using the transmission mode of the same electron-energy analyzer has demonstrated its perfect ($`<10\mu `$m) spatial stability with respect to multiple switching of the helicity spot . We note here that such experimental conditions are obviously more favorable for the dichroism studies than those reported in Ref.2, where not only the polarizer is rotated resulting in the residual beam movement but also the experimental chamber needs to be adjusted every time the helicity is changed.

High-quality single crystals of 5x1-superstructure-free, underdoped (Tc=77 K) and overdoped (Tc=70 K) Pb-Bi2212 were mounted on the three-axis stepper motor driven cryo-manipulator allowing a precise (0.1) positioning of the sample with respect to the analyzer’s entrance slit. Alignment of the crystals was done by recording characteristic spectra with pronounced k-dependence. The stability of the sample orientation was further controlled by a digital camera with a sensitivity to the relative movement of the sample of the order of 0.1. The excitation energy was chosen to be h$`\nu `$=50 eV for two reasons: (i) the emission from the antibonding band is strongly enhanced near the ($`\pi `$, 0)-point in comparison with that from the bonding band thus effectively reducing the number of features in the spectra KordPRL02 ; (ii) the (3$`\pi `$, 0)-point becomes accessible in normal incidence geometry at an emission angle of 45. Intensity variations of the synchrotron radiation were controlled by continuously monitoring the ring current. If jumps of more than 1$`\%`$ were observed during the data acquisition, measurements have been repeated. The data were collected at 300 K, 100 K and 30 K.

The basic idea of our approach is the same as was previously suggested and experimentally tested Kaminski ; Varma  but there are important differences which we discuss in the next paragraph. According to the proposed criterion one needs to control the value of the dichroic signal corresponding to the emission within a mirror plane. If this signal is zero, the time-reversal symmetry is preserved, if not - it is broken. At that, vectors of incidence, emission and normal to the sample surface should lie in this mirror plane. Such significant modification (an earlier proposal could be found in Ref. Varma\_old, ) of the criterion was required because of the strong dichroism observed in the case when the experimental geometry posesses a ”handedness”, i.e. when at least one of the three mentioned vectors is not in the mirror plane remark . Regardless of the origin of such an effect, though argued to be geometric in Ref. Varma, , it can be used to track down the temperature dependence of the intrinsic dichroism (if any). The geometric effect is odd with respect to the reflection in a given mirror plane and an intrinsic dichroism, expected to be even, should then result in an effective ”rotation” of this mirror plane upon entering the pseudogap regime of underdoped samples, as was observed for pure Bi2212 in Ref. Kaminski, , where the corresponding angle was estimated to be 2.3.

The essentials of our approach to test the time-reversal invariance of the electronic states in Pb-Bi2212 are depicted in Fig.1. As shown in Fig.1(a) we record the photoemission intensity simultaneously for k-vectors from the cuts crossing the mirror plane at a right angle (red arrows). Resulting Energy Distribution Maps (EDM) taken at room temperature using the right- ($`I^+`$) and left-hand ($`I^{}`$) CP light are shown in Fig.1(c) and (d) respectively. One easily notes an asymmetric character of both distributions with respect to the zero k-values representing the mirror plane. Panels (f) and (g) show normalized, $`(I^+I^{})/(I^++I^{})`$, and simple, $`I^+I^{}`$, differences of the EDMs shown above. Here one sees how the dichroic signal is distributed as a function of energy and momentum. Its essentially homogeneous character (Fig.1f) seems to be in agreement with its geometric origin. Fig.1h concludes the presentation of the dataset condensing it into the three curves which are the main basis of our data analysis - (i) momentum distribution curves (MDC) corresponding to the total photocurrent (one example is shown as a solid blue line), (ii) integrated normalized difference ($`𝐃_𝐍`$) and (iii) integrated simple difference (D). MDCs are needed to precisely determine the k-location of the mirror plane. The other two curves were obtained by integration within the energy interval of -450 to 100 meV of the corresponding distributions from the panels (f) and (g). This example clearly shows that the dichroic signal is zero in the mirror plane.

We stress two important points here. We first determine the position of the mirror plane with the precision of 0.002 Å-1 from considering MDCs of the total distribution (Fig.1e) and then plot $`𝐃_𝐍`$ and D in these coordinates. In other words, we believe that the best accuracy in alignment could be achieved using ”internal” reference points, such as experimental dispersion derived from the MDCs maxima of the total spectral weight. It is worth to note, that these reference points are obtained in static conditions, i.e. without any movement of the sample or the analyzer, which is ruled out when using a smaller detector at lower photon energies as in Ref.2, where neither the procedure itself nor the accuracy of the momentum scale determination was reported.

The second point is that now, when we have recorded the signal in a relatively wide momentum interval, one easily notices the non-monotonic character of both $`𝐃_𝐍(𝐤)`$ and D(k)-dependencies (Fig.1 h). Locations of the extrema as well as their absolute intensities could be determined with a high precision using a fitting procedure and are symmetric with respect to the origin when the sample is properly aligned. We have systematically studied the line shape of $`𝐃_𝐍`$ and D as a function of misalignments of different types Boris . Both turned out to be extremely sensitive: not only the curves did not pass through the origin imitating the presence of the intrinsic dichroism, but at the same time their maxima and minima were no longer symmetric with respect to zero. This observation opens up an additional possibility to check the reflection invariance of the dichroic signal. For instance, if some sort of a misalignment resulting in a non-zero value in the mirror plane is compensated by the intrinsic dichroism expected as a result of the time-reversal symmetry violation, one can identify such unlikely case of ”accidental zero” watching the locations and absolute intensities of the extrema of $`𝐃_𝐍`$ and D-curves.

Another important advantage of recording the wide-range dichroic signal follows from the remarkable property of the $`D_N=(I^+I^{})/(I^++I^{})`$ function. Its lineshape is practically independent on the intensity ratio of the right- and left-hand circularly polarized photon flux which has defined the accuracy of the experiments in Ref. Kaminski, . Indeed, if $`\alpha `$ is a factor to account for the different flux of the photons of opposite helicities, for instance, due to the changes of the ring current, then

$$D_N^{}=\frac{I^+\alpha I^{}}{I^++\alpha I^{}}=\frac{D_N+1\alpha +\alpha D_N}{D_N+1+\alpha \alpha D_N}.$$
(1)
One can expand $`D_N^{}`$ as:

$$D_N^{}=\frac{1\alpha }{1+\alpha }+\frac{4\alpha }{(1+\alpha )^2}D_N+\frac{4\alpha (\alpha 1)}{(1+\alpha )^3}D_N^2+\mathrm{}$$
(2)
where, since $`D_N`$ is usually very small and $`\alpha `$ is of order of 1, only the two first terms are essential. It is easy to see that deviation of $`\alpha `$ from unity only rescales and shifts the $`D_N`$-function along the vertical axis leaving the opportunity to define k-locations of the extrema with the same precision. From this observation it follows that one can use the $`D_N`$ line shape alone to search for the intrinsic dichroism unless the expected effect is of the same magnitude and sign for all k-vectors along the studied cut which would contradict theoretical prediction anticipating a maximum at the ($`\pi `$, 0)-point Varma .

Now we apply our approach to check whether there is an effect in the superconducting state of the overdoped sample - the issue which was not addressed before. First we compare in Fig. 2 the total intensity distributions together with the $`𝐃_𝐍`$ and D curves measured at 100 and 30 K. In this case we observe antisymmetric behaviour of both $`𝐃_𝐍`$ and D, and it is not sensitive to the temperature (Fig. 2c). In the panel (d) we replot the data in more detailed momentum scale, comparable with the one used for the presentation of the data in Ref. Kaminski, . As is seen, the accuracy of our experiment is better and allows to make a conclusion about the absence of the effect of the mirror plane ”rotation” in the overdoped sample upon entering the superconducting state.

Fig.2 (e-g) illustrates that the additional condition described above is satisfied. Data are taken now along the cut closer to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-point which results in more clearly pronounced extrema of $`𝐃_𝐍`$, momentum location of which we determine by fitting these parts with gaussians. The left maximum resides at $`0.115\pm 0.003`$ Å-1 whereas the right minimum is at $`0.113\pm 0.001`$ Å-1.

The data recorded on underdoped gap  samples are presented in Fig. 3. The first row shows EDM’s of total intensity together with $`𝐃_𝐍`$-curves recorded perpendicular to the two mirror planes $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ \- ($`\pi `$, 0) and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ \- (0, $`\pi `$) in the pseudogap state. As seen from the panel (c) the dichroism in the mirror plane is negligible. At zero momentum linear fits cross the vertical axis at 0.16$`\%`$ and -0.41$`\%`$, respectively, which is within the error bars ($`<0.5\%`$). These values are even much smaller than the dichroism value of $`4\%`$ reported in Ref. Kaminski,  for the pseudogap regime. In panel (d) we compare dichroic signals recorded along the cut 3 (Fig.1, b) measured at 100 K and 30 K and again, as follows applying both criteria, there is no visible deviation from the zero. Panels (e) and (f) represent the data taken in normal incidence geometry. Due to the relatively large emission angle (45), reduced ”handedness” of the experiment (because of the coplanarity of three aforementioned vectors) and radial matrix element effects, the signal is weaker and more problematic for the application of the absolut intensity criterion. Linear fits in the vicinity of the zeroth momentum cross the vertical axis at -0.63$`\%`$ and 0.18$`\%`$ respectively which is slightly more than experimental uncertainty ($`0.5\%`$) for the room temperature curve. This is exactly the case when one can apply additionally the line shape criterion dicussed above. Fitting the extrema of the normal incidence curves measured at 300 and 100 K we find that the ”zero” is shifted by less than 0.009 Å-1 at room temperature and by less than 0.004 Å-1 in the pseudogap regime implying that the reason for the small dichroism in the mirror plane is the residual misalignments. Qualitatively similar picture was observed for other underdoped samples (results are not shown).

When discussing the time-reversal invariance it is instructive to control the dichroism behavior in the vicinity of all mirror planes of the crystal. The knowledge of the k-distribution of the dichroism in the whole Brillouin zone when time-reversal symmetry is broken can help to identify important characteristics of the phenomenon which causes such violation, for instance, particular pattern of the circulating currents. In Fig. 4 we show the results for the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ \- ($`\pi `$, $`\pi `$) mirror plane. As in the case of normal incidence, the dichroic signal is weak but the reason now is completely different. As one easily sees in the panels (c)-(e), the dichroism has opposite sign for bonding and antibonding bands. This observation is also in favor of our choice of the excitation energy for the near-($`\pi `$, 0) experiments - the total dichroism would be much weaker if we use, e.g., 22 eV photons resulting in a comparable contributions of bonding and antibonding bands to the total spectral weight KordPRL02 . We also point out that the alignment of the sample is quite a challenge here due to the specific momentum distribution along this cut (see Fig. 4 c, d). Nevertheless, as temperature dependent measurements show, there is no evidence for dramatic changes in the dichroism in under- and overdoped samples. We have also found no evidence for the breaking of the reflection symmetry in the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ \- ($`\pi `$, -$`\pi `$) plane (results are not shown) required by the pattern of currents suggested in Ref. Varma, .

The accuracy of our experiments could be estimated in two ways. We distinguish between the temperature dependent measurements where error bars are given by the size of the relative shift of the $`𝐃_𝐍`$-curve and measurements of a single $`𝐃_𝐍`$-curve at a given temperature where the accuracy is defined by the absolute k-value at which the dichroism is zero or by the absoulute dichroism value at k=0. In both cases typical values are of the order of $`\pm 0.004`$ Å-1, which in terms of the dichroism is $`\pm 0.3\%`$ or in terms of the degree of the mirror plane ”rotation” would be $`\pm 0.3^{}`$. Note, that our additional criterion allows to identify and account for the major source of the errors - misalignments. In some particular cases (e.g. Fig. 3 e, f) the quality of the gaussian fits defines the precision of the experiment ($`\pm 0.005`$ Å-1).

Our attempts to study pure Bi2212 single crystals led us to the following conclusions. Because of the 5:1 superstructure present in Pb-free Bi2212 samples, the dichroic signal measured in the ($`\pi `$, 0)-point already at the room temperature is not equal to zero. According to our measurements it is $`3.7\%`$ and the $`𝐃_𝐍`$ line crosses the momentum axis away from the ($`\pi `$, 0)-point which is easy to understand since the additional dichroism related to the two diffraction replicas crossing the Fermi level along this cut is not compensated. This is because diffraction replicas originate from the different Brillouin zones where the corresponding photoemission signal is widely known to be different due to the matrix element effects. If one, however, starts to measure the evolution of the dichroism in the point where it is zero at room temperature, i.e. not in the ($`\pi `$, 0)-point, it is not surprising that at lower temperatures the dichroism can become non-zero. Moreover, this effect will be doping dependent since in the overdoped samples diffraction replicas are less important crossing the Fermi level further away from the ($`\pi `$, 0)-point than in underdoped samples.

The obtained results do not rigorously disprove the existance of the time-reversal symmetry breaking phase in the pseudogap part of the cuprates’ phase diagram. We simply find no experimental evidence for the specific Varma  pattern of circulating currents in the studied compounds according to the theoretical proposal and in contrast to the experimental observation of the effect in pristine Bi2212 Kaminski . One should notice, however, that the reason for non-observation of the effect can in our case be the domains of the size smaller than 300 $`\mu `$m. While the present results put strong constraints on the possible scenarios involving the circulating currents, in some particular cases the obtained information is not sufficient to make a conclusive statement. For instance, while antiferromagnetic pattern of currents required by the d-density wave instability Chakravarty  is invariant upon reflections in the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ \- ($`\pi `$, 0) plane, reflection in the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ \- ($`\pi `$, $`\pi `$) plane results in a pattern of currents which can be obtained shifting the initial one by one unit cell vector (i.e. this plane is a glide plane) and therefore cannot be distinguished from the mirror plane reflection in a photoemission experiment. In this case, perhaps, more detailed knowledge as for the energy and momentum distribution of the dichroic signal is required.

We are grateful to C. Varma for numerous stimulating discussions and to R. Hübel for technical support. We acknowledge the support of the European Community - Access to Research Infrastructure action of the Improving Human Potential Programme. HB is grateful to the Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique.


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# Untitled Document

Comments on “Scattering of bunched fractionally charged quasiparticles” by Chung, Heiblum and Umansky, cond-mat/0305325. Keshav N. Shrivastava School of Physics, University of Hyderabad,
Hyderabad 500046, India

In the experiments, the quantity measured is the product of the charge and the magnetic field from which the fractional charge is deduced. There is no objection to measuring the fractional charge as long as it is remembered that the product of the charge and the field has been measured. So if the fraction came from the field rather than from charge, the experiment will remain unaffected. There is no prescription about mass splitting so there is no way to combine two fractionally charged quasiparticles into one. Therefore, the fractional charge can be obtained by changing the state of the quasiparticle without splitting, then there is no bunching.

Corresponding author: keshav@mailaps.org
Fax: +91-40-2301 0145.Phone: 2301 0811.

We have recently noted a paper by Chung et al in which fractional charges are claimed to have been seen. This will create misleading impression on the theorists so that it is necessary to clarify the quantity being measured. It is reasonable to start with the paper of Laughlin where it was first thought that a wave function for a fractionally charged excitation has been found. The usage of the terminology “fractional charge” is perfectly justified but we should understand the quantity which is part of the problem. Laughlin found a wave function $`|\psi _m|^2`$, which describes a system uniformly expanded to a charge density of,

$$\rho =\frac{e}{m(2\pi a_o^2)}.$$
(1)
It minimizes the energy when $`\rho `$ equals the charge density generating the potential. When we substitute $`a_o`$=1 and m= odd number such as 3, then the charge density becomes $`\rho =\frac{e}{3}(\frac{1}{2\pi })`$ and we think that we are finding a charge of $`e/3`$. Since $`a_o`$=1 is a constant, at this time we can ignore it but we can keep in mind that the lengths must be constant or in other words, we have an “incompressible” system. Then with this restriction, we do have a fractional charge in an incompressible system. Now, when we relax the incompressibility, the factor of 3 can be absorbed in $`a_o`$ and hence the charge of e/3 again becomes $`e`$. The correct quantity  is $`e/a_o^2`$. Since flux is quantized,

$$Ba_o^2=n\varphi _o$$
(2)
or we can change the quantity $`e/a_o^2`$ to $`eB/n\varphi _o`$. Hence, the quantity is not the charge but it is $`eB`$. The unit flux is $`\varphi _o`$=hc/e so the charge density is,

$$\rho =\frac{eB}{m2\pi n\varphi _o}.$$
(3)
Therefore, instead of changing the charge, we can change some other quantity such as $`B`$. This problem has been discussed in another eprint. It is sufficient to say that the experimentalist measures the product of the charge and field but not the charge. The experimental work of Goldman, Su, de-Picciotto, Reznikov, Banin, Saminadayar, Glattli, Jin, Etienne, Comforti, Chung, Heiblum, Umansky, Mahalu, etc has been examined in another eprint in which the same conclusion is reached. Therefore, the experimentalists who claim to have measured the fractional charge have actually measured the product of the charge and the field but not charge alone.

Chung et al also use the composite fermion model, according to which “ even number of flux quanta” are attached to the electron. In this connection, it is found that many of the experimentally observed fractional charges are not in agreement with the CF model. A very extensive study shows that “even number of flux quanta” are not attached to the electron and hence CF model should be discarded.

The measurements were conducted by Chung et al by setting the magnetic field within the conductance plateau. This resulted into measurement of field multiplied by charge and not charge alone. The expression used for the shot noise, worked out in absence of field, but there is a field present is,

$$S=4k_BTg+2qI_Bt.\theta (T,V)$$
(4)
measures the product $`qI_B`$. There is a large field present in the system. Therefore, the above formula should be reworked out with field present. Since $`I_B`$ is equivalent to a field, the product of the current and field is measured and not the charge alone. Here, the high voltage transmission is $`t=g/g_Q`$, the ratio of conductivity to the quantized conductivity,

$$I_B=Vg_Q(1t),$$
(5)
and,

$$\theta (T,V)=coth(qV/2k_BT)2k_BT/qV.$$
(6)
In view of the approximations

$$S2qI_B$$
(7)
so that still charge is not alone. If a factor of 1/3 came, then we can not know whether it came from $`q`$ or from $`I_B`$. Chung et al convert the thermal noise power and conductance into temperature by using the relation $`S=4k_BTg`$ where $`g`$ is the conductance. They obtain, $`T9mK`$, for the back scattering potential strength and claim the voltage and temperature dependence of the differential conductance to be positive in agreement with Luttinger liquid. In the case of Luttinger liquid, the boson and fermions become indistinguishable. However, if we take the well known expressions for the boson and the fermion distributions, they never cross. Therefore, the claim of Chung et al to find agreement in a real laboratory experiment is not justified. Chung et al say that the shot noise is due to a charge $`q=e/3`$ at $`T=9mK`$. It depends on V, q, t and T. It can as well be that the factor of 1/3 is not associated with the charge. Chung et al use the CF model to say that second Landau level is involved with $`p=2`$ and $`e/3`$. Three quasiparticles of charge $`e/7`$ each make a quasiparticle of charge $`3e/7`$ and two quasiparticles of charge $`e/5`$ each make one quasiparticle of charge $`2e/5`$ at $`9mK`$. If this is correct, what makes the components attractive? Two quasiparticles of charge $`e/5`$ each are likely to be $`\mathrm{𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒}`$ so they will not bunch to make one of charge $`2e/5`$.

If three quasiparticles of charge $`e/3`$ each bunch then a quasiparticle of charge $`e`$ is made. Is this the correct method of making the electrons? Laughlin does not attach flux quanta to electrons but CF attach flux quanta to electrons. Luttinger mixes the bosons and fermion statistices. Chung et al are therefore using internally incompatible ideas and measurements of fractional charges, even if correct, are not based on “fractionalization of charge”.

If the mass of a quasiparticle is $`m/3`$ and charge $`e/3`$ then charge over mass ratio is $`e/m`$ and the factor of 1/3 disappears. If electron splits into three particles of mass $`m/3`$ each, then such a mass should appear in the formulas but there is no such expression. Then there are beautiful graphs showing e/3. The correct interpretation is that the quasiparticle of charge e/3 is seen in a magnetic field and then in a different event a quasiparticle of charge $`e`$ is seen but $`e`$ is not made by bunching three quasiparticles of charge $`e/3`$ each with no prescription for mass. Similarly, the charge $`2e/5`$ need not be made by bunching of two quasiparticles of charge $`1e/5`$ each. The number of particles in the quasiparticle of charge $`2/5`$ is only one. A single particle can change its charge by changing its state so there is no need of combining two particles.

It may be that the state changes by changing $`l`$ and $`s`$ and then the Lande’s splitting factor becomes 2 so that the magnetic moment becomes $`2\mu _B`$ which is equivalent to changing $`e`$ to $`2e`$, but the number of electrons is only one. Thus $`2e`$ can arise in one electron. Similarly, there may be other combinations of $`l`$ and $`s`$ which give various values of the fractional charges for only $`\mathrm{𝑜𝑛𝑒}`$ electron.

Chung et al have not found any prescription for mass splitting and hence the idea of bunching of two fractionally charged quasiparticles to form one quasiparticle is not supported by the theory. If quasiparticles of fractional charge have to bunch together to make a quasiparticle of double the charge, then there must be a process which splits one quasiparticle into two quasiparticles. It may be that there is always only one particle, the effective charge of which changes as it goes from one level to anther. So different charges can be observed without splitting or bunching. We have found that in the case of quantum Hall effect various fractional charges can be made by changing the state, such as $`l`$ and $`s`$, of a particle.

Conclusions.

In conclusion, we find that charge measurements are actually measurements of the product of charge and the magnetic field. The various amounts of effective charge can be acquired by one particle without bunching.

References

1. Y. C. Chung, M. Heiblum and V.Umansky, cond-mat/0305325.
2. R. B. Laughlin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 1395(1983).
3. K. N. Shrivastava, Cond-mat/0210238.
4. K. N. Shrivastava, Cond-mat/0302461.
5. Pan et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 016801 (2003).
6. K. N. Shrivastava, Cond-mat/0304269; cond-mat/0304014 and 0302610
7. K. N. Shrivastava, Cond-mat/0303309.
8. K. N. Shrivastava, Introduction to quantum Hall effect,
Nova Science Pub. Inc., N. Y. (2002).


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# Dynamical Formation of Close Binary Systems in Globular Clusters

## Abstract

We know from observations that globular clusters are very efficient catalysts in forming unusual short-period binary systems or their offspring, such as low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs; neutron stars accreting matter from low-mass stellar companions), cataclysmic variables (CVs; white dwarfs accreting matter from stellar companions), and millisecond pulsars (MSPs; rotating neutron stars with spin periods of a few ms). Although there has been little direct evidence, the overabundance of these objects in globular clusters has been attributed by numerous authors to the high densities in the cores, which leads to an increase in the formation rate of exotic binary systems through close stellar encounters. Many such close binary systems emit X-radiation at low luminosities ($`L_\mathrm{X}10^{34}\text{erg s}\text{-1}`$) and are being found in large numbers through observations with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Here we present conclusive observational evidence for a link between the number of close binaries observed in X-rays in a globular cluster and the stellar encounter rate of the cluster. We also make an estimate of the total number of LMXBs in globular clusters in our Galaxy.

globular clusters: general — binaries: close — X-rays: binaries  slugcomment: Submitted to The Astrophysical Journal

Since the first evidence from the Uhuru and OSO-7 satellites revealed a population of highly luminous ($`L_\mathrm{X}10^{36}\text{erg s}\text{-1}`$) LMXBs in globular clusters, it has been noted that the formation rate per unit mass of these objects is orders of magnitude higher in globular clusters than in the Galactic disk (Katz, 1975; Clark, 1975). This discovery stimulated a flurry of theoretical work into the formation of globular cluster LMXBs by the processes of two- and three-body encounters (Katz, 1975; Clark, 1975; Fabian, Pringle & Rees, 1975; Sutantyo, 1975; Hills, 1975; Heggie, 1975; Hills, 1976). These dynamical formation scenarios (as opposed to the independent evolution of primordial binaries) are a natural explanation for the high occurrence of LMXBs in globular clusters since the stellar densities, and hence encounter rates, are much higher in the cores of globulars than other regions of the Galaxy. Verbunt & Hut (1987) showed that the 11 bright LMXBs known at that time in globular clusters (currently, there are 13 known; White & Angelini 2001) were consistent with being formed dynamically through close encounters.

The population of close binaries in a globular cluster, in turn, exerts a great influence on the dynamical evolution of the cluster. Heggie’s law (Heggie, 1975) tells us that close binaries tend to become even closer, on average, through encounters with single stars or other less close binaries. While doing so, they increase their binding energy by transferring significant energy to other stars in their environment. Even a modest population of primordial binaries contains a potential reservoir of binding energy that easily exceeds the kinetic energy of all single stars in the cluster. One of the consequences is that primordial binaries can postpone deep core collapse (Goodman & Hut, 1989). For a general introduction and review, see Heggie & Hut (2003).

The interplay between stellar dynamics and stellar evolution, as external and internal factors modifying the binary properties, is highly complex, and many details of these processes are not well understood (Hut et al., 2003; Sills et al., 2003). The aim of this publication is to employ recent X-ray data to focus in a reasonably model-independent way on the gross environmental effects that clusters exert on their binary population, and in turn on the feedback of the binaries in changing their environments. Our approach is to study the close binary populations of clusters which differ greatly in their physical properties. This has only recently become feasible, due in large part to the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

As the Chandra observations of 47 Tuc (Grindlay et al., 2001a), $`\omega `$ Centauri (Rutledge et al., 2002), NGC 6397 (Grindlay et al., 2001b), NGC 6440 (Pooley et al., 2002b), NGC 6626 (Becker et al., 2003), and NGC 6752 (Pooley et al., 2002a) have shown, high spatial resolution X-ray images are one of the most effective methods of finding large numbers of close binaries in globular clusters since many of them (quiescent LMXBs, CVs, MSPs, and coronally active main-sequence binaries) are low-luminosity X-ray emitters. This population of low X-ray luminosity sources was first discovered by Hertz & Grindlay (1983a, b) using data from the first fully imaging X-ray satellite, the Einstein Observatory. Later observations with the X-ray imaging satellite ROSAT expanded the known population of these objects; in observations of 55 globular clusters with ROSAT, 57 low X-ray luminosity sources were discovered (Verbunt, 2000).

Because these systems are on average heavier than most other members of a globular cluster, they sink in the cluster’s gravitational potential to the crowded centre, thus requiring high spatial resolution telescopes to resolve them. The advantage of Chandra’s sub-arcsecond spatial resolution is clearly seen in the image of the globular cluster NGC 6266 (Fig. 1), one of the richest clusters observed to date. Fifty-one sources are detected within the cluster’s 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$23 half-mass radius. Approximately two or three are background sources (see below). Not only can Chandra resolve the sources, it also has the energy resolution to distinguish spectral differences among them. In the image, photons in the range 0.5–1.2 keV are shown in red, those in the range 1.2–2.5 keV are shown in green, and those in the range 2.5–6 keV are in blue.

To explore the relationship between a cluster’s physical properties and its close binary population, we used published results and available data for the 12 clusters so far observed with Chandra. We searched each cluster for sources to a limiting luminosity of about $`4\times 10^{30}`$ erg s-1 (in the 0.5–6 keV range) using a wavelet-based algorithm available from the Chandra X-ray Center. (Two of the clusters — NGC 6093 and NGC 6440 — were not observed long enough to reach this luminosity limit.) To estimate the number of sources associated with the cluster, we count all sources detected within the half-mass radius of the cluster and subtract the estimated number of background sources based on the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}S`$ relationship of Giacconi et al. (2001) The uncertainty in the number of sources in a cluster in Fig. 2 is due to the uncertainty in the estimates for the number of background objects.

Following Verbunt & Hut (1987), we estimate the encounter rate per unit volume ($`R`$) of a cluster as $`R\frac{\rho ^2}{v}`$, where $`\rho `$ is density and $`v`$ is velocity dispersion. For each cluster, we perform a volume integral of this quantity from the centre to the half-mass radius to obtain our estimate for the encounter rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. The forms of $`\rho `$ and $`v`$ as functions of radius are easily obtained from the models developed by King (1966), which can be specified by the parameters tabulated by Harris (1996) in the 2003 February version of his catalog. The normalizations are set by the central values $`\rho _o`$ and $`v_o`$ (this differs from the analysis of Verbunt & Hut, who estimated $`v_o`$ by the viral theorem), which we obtained from the Harris catalogue and the catalogue of Pryor & Meylan (1993), respectively.

We have searched for correlations (using the Spearman $`\rho `$ correlation coefficient) between the number of X-ray sources in a cluster ($`N`$) and physical parameters which we expect to be important in determining $`N`$, such as encounter rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, cluster mass $`M`$, central density $`\rho _o`$, core radius $`r_c`$, and half-mass relaxation time $`t_h`$. In most cases, we find correlations, but the best is between $`N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (Table 1). The next best correlation we find is with $`M`$. Higher $`M`$ on average corresponds to larger $`N`$, but most of that variation stems from the fact that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`M`$ are naturally correlated: keeping cluster size and concentration parameter constant while increasing $`M`$ will increase $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. If encounters were not to play a role in the formation of X-ray sources, one would expect a tight (in first approximation linear) correlation between $`N`$ and $`M`$ and a more loose correlation between $`N`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, contrary to what we find. As an additional check, we estimated $`N`$ for two clusters not observed deeply enough, NGC 6093 and NGC 6440, by extrapolating their observed luminosity functions, and we find that these estimates improve the correlation with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ but worsen the correlation with $`M`$.

We plot $`N`$ versus $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (in normalized units described below) in Fig. 2. Clusters not observed deeply enough to reach our luminosity limit are indicated by arrows. Each point is identified by the cluster’s NGC designation or other name. A power law fit (not including the lower limits) indicates that $`N\mathrm{\Gamma }^{0.74}`$, with errors on the power-law index of $`\pm `$0.36. This correlation offers the first quantitative, empirical link between the encounter rate (over a range of almost three orders of magnitude) and the number of exotic close binaries in a globular cluster and suggests that most of these systems are formed dynamically through some sort of encounter.

Note that there is one cluster, NGC 6397, that falls significantly outside the otherwise good fit in Fig. 2. Interestingly, this cluster has a high central density and a tidal radius that is far smaller than would be expected for its current location relative to the Galactic centre, suggesting that it describes a highly eccentric orbit around the Galactic centre, which has caused large tidal stripping during each perigalacticon passage. The combination of a high central density as a good place to make X-ray sources, together with significant tidal mass loss, would create an efficient distillation process whereby the binaries remain in the core and many single stars are stripped from the outer regions of the cluster, leading to a ‘high grade’ cluster enriched in X-ray sources, which is exactly what is observed.

The relationship in Fig. 2 deals with a mixture of (at least) four different kinds of sources (quiescent LMXBs, CVs, MSPs, main sequence binaries), all of which are expected theoretically to be primarily formed through encounters in globular clusters. These expectations are now confirmed by the evidence presented in Fig. 2 and Table 1. Note that there are many remaining uncertainties concerning precise theoretical predictions of formation rates of LMXBs, CVs, and MSPs. For each separate category there are several different formation channels, such as tidal capture, exchange reactions involving encounters between single stars and binaries, or between binaries and binaries. The only good way to get a quantitative handle on the whole mix is to do detailed simulations for individual clusters (Baumgardt et al., 2003a, b).

Bypassing these complexities, the simple encounter frequency adopted here, density squared divided by velocity, describes how often a cluster member comes close to another, taking into account gravitational focusing. First of all, it does not discriminate between different objects (MS stars, giants, WDs, NSs, and binaries of all types); and secondly it neglects possible velocity dependencies in 3-body and 4-body interactions. If there were no correlations between the abundances of objects involved in encounters with, say, total mass of a cluster, then we would expect encounters between two single stars to be proportional to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, hence $`N`$ would be linearly proportional to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. The result $`N\mathrm{\Gamma }^{0.74\pm 0.36}`$ is consistent with the simplest prediction, a slope of unity.

The next important step is to examine this relationship for each individual class of objects, but this requires identifying each of the $``$200 sources represented in Fig. 2, which is an ongoing and very time-consuming process, for which the X-ray data alone are not sufficient. Only three clusters so far — 47 Tuc (Grindlay et al., 2001a), NGC 6397 (Grindlay et al., 2001b), and NGC 6752 (Pooley et al., 2002a) — have had the X-ray (Chandra), optical (Hubble Space Telescope), and radio data necessary to identify a substantial number of sources. About 50% of the sources in 47 Tuc, 75% of those in NGC 6397, and 80% of those in NGC 6752 have been identified to date.

However, it has become clear that Chandra data alone are sufficient to identify the quiescent LMXBs in a cluster as distinct from the other three source types based on their luminosities and broad-band spectral properties. In a globular cluster, only LMXBs and CVs are more luminous than $`10^{32}`$ erg s-1, and quiescent LMXBs have a much softer spectrum than CVs so that a ratio of the number of photons detected in a soft band (0.5–1.5 keV) to the number detected in a hard band (1.5–6 keV) suffices to distinguish the two. We have tested these selection criteria on the securely identified quiescent LMXB in NGC 6440 (Pooley et al., 2002b) as well as known quiescent LMXBs not located in globular clusters: Aql X-1, Cen X-4, MXB 1659$``$298, KS 1731$``$260, and 4U 2129$`+`$47. Using archival Chandra data, we find that the criteria successfully identify all of them.

We apply these selection criteria to the twelve clusters observed with Chandra and use the results of XMM-Newton observations of NGC 6205 (Gendre, Barret, & Webb, 2003) and NGC 6656 (Webb, Gendre, & Barret, 2002) to determine the LMXB content of 14 globular clusters. A total of 19–22 LMXBs have been found in these clusters, with some having multiple LMXBs and some having none. A picture is emerging which appears to confirm the idea of Verbunt & Hut (1987) that the number of LMXBs is proportional to the encounter frequency ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$) of the cluster. A power-law fit similar to that in Fig. 2 was done for the globular clusters containing multiple LMXBs, and we find that the best-fit power-law index is 0.97, indicating a nearly linear relationship. The errors on the power-law index are rather large ($`\pm `$0.5) because of the small number of LMXBs (15) involved in the fit. A similar correlation was reported by Gendre, Barret, & Webb (2003), who assumed a linear relationship a priori. The (nonparametric) Spearman $`\rho `$ correlation coefficient between the number of LMXBs and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is 1.0, and the Pearson $`r`$ linear correlation coefficient is 0.85, indicating a high degree of linear correlation. We take the relationship to be linear for the following discussion.

We have normalized $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in Fig. 2 such that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }/100`$ is roughly the number of LMXBs in the cluster. The interpretation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in clusters with low encounter rate is then the percent probability that the cluster will host an LMXB. For example, for every cluster like NGC 7099 (with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }20`$) which hosts an LMXB, there should be, on average, four similar clusters which do not. It is therefore not surprising to see a few LMXBs in clusters with low encounter frequencies.

To estimate the total number of LMXBs expected in the 140 known Galactic globular clusters, we simply need to add the encounter rates of all clusters. However, our method for estimating $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is applicable to only about one-third of the clusters since $`v_o`$ is known for only that many. We therefore use the estimate for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ described by Verbunt (2002), in which the volume integral of $`R`$ is taken only out to the core radius, over which the density and velocity dispersion are roughly constant. Then, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\frac{\rho _{o}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}r_{c}^{}{}_{}{}^{3}}{v_o}`$. The virial theorem relates $`v_o`$, $`\rho _o`$, and $`r_c`$ via $`v_o\sqrt{\rho _o}r_c`$. Therefore, we can estimate the encounter rate for each cluster by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\rho _{o}^{}{}_{}{}^{1.5}r_{c}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$.

We again use the catalog of Harris (1996) for these parameters, with the updates for Terzan 5 by Heinke et al. (2003) From adding the encounter rates of all clusters ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{tot}}`$), we estimate that roughly 100 LMXBs reside in our Galaxy’s globular clusters. Of these 100 expected LMXBs, there are 13 persistently or transiently bright globular cluster LMXBs, most of which have been known for almost 20 years. With the 19–22 quiescent LMXBs discovered by Chandra and XMM-Newton in the past few years, the known population is about one-third of the expected total. We can check for consistency in the following way. The encounter rates of the four clusters whose 15 LMXBs were used in the power-law fit mentioned above add up to 15% of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{tot}}`$, by definition. The summed encounter rate of the other 10 clusters which have been observed deeply enough to determine their entire LMXB content is 5% of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{tot}}`$. These clusters host between 4 and 7 LMXBs, in good agreement with our predictions. Efforts are underway to uncover the rest of the expected LMXB population in globular clusters. These numbers will prove extremely useful in testing models of cluster evolution and LMXB formation.

DP and WHGL gratefully acknowledge support from NASA.


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# Unstable cold dark matter and the cuspy halo problem in dwarf galaxies

## 1 Introduction

The hierarchical clustering cold dark matter (CDM) scenario for structure formation has been very successful in reproducing most properties of the local and high-redshift Universe. However, some few perceived problems of such models, particularly at small scales, remain open. Numerical studies of collisionless CDM with different initial density fluctuation spectra predict dark halos with steep cusps of the form $`\rho (r)\rho _0(r/r_\mathrm{s})^\alpha (1+r/r_\mathrm{s})^{\alpha 3}`$, with $`\alpha =1`$$`1.5`$, after Navarro, Frenk & White (1996) (NFW profile, hereafter), whereas most of the rotation curves of dwarf galaxies and low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies suggest that their halos have constant density cores (see de Blok, Bosma & McGaugh 2003, and references therein). A possibly related problem is the apparent overprediction of the number of satellites with circular velocities $`v_\mathrm{c}10`$$`30`$ km s-1 within the virialized dark halos of the Milky Way and M31 (Klypin et al. 1999; Moore et al. 1999).

Many astrophysical mechanisms have been suggested to explain these discrepancies. If winds driven by vigorous star formation, bars in forming galaxies and the merger of black holes prove to be inefficient at altering a primordial dark matter cusp (see Gnedin & Zhao 2002, Sellwood 2003 and Read & Gilmore 2003, respectively), one should invoke modifications of the standard CDM scenario. A reduction of the small-scale power by substituting warm dark matter for CDM or by appealing to a model of inflation with broken scale invariance is strongly discouraged by the recent WMAP observations (Bennett et al. 2003; Spergel et al. 2003).

Other alternatives involve altering the fundamental nature of the dark matter itself (Spergel & Steinhardt 2000; Kaplinghat, Knox & Turner 2000; Cen 2001a; Giraud 2001; Arbey et al. 2003, and references therein). All these models have free parameters tunable to fit the observations. For instance, the self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) scenario with a general velocity dependent cross-section per unit mass $`\sigma _\mathrm{D}/m_\mathrm{D}=\sigma _0\left(v_{100}/v\right)^a`$, where $`v_{100}=100`$ km s-1, satisfied all the astrophysical requirements for a very narrow range of parameters $`\sigma _0=0.5`$$`1`$ cm2 g-1 and $`a=0.5`$$`1`$ (Hennewai & Ostriker 2002; Colín et al. 2002, and references therein). This huge cross-section has made SIDM unappealing to most WIMP and axion theorists.

There are some empirical evidence against SIDM. The central densities of dark matter in mass models with dark matter cores for the elliptical galaxy NGC 4636 are higher than expected in the SIDM scenario with $`a1`$ (Loewenstein & Mushotzky 2002). In addition, the halo eccentricity derived for NGC 720 is in good agreement with collisionless dark matter (Buote et al. 2002). Moreover, a significant reduction of the central condensation of satellite subhalos by dark matter collisions, assisted by tidal stripping, would be difficult to reconcile with the large stellar velocity dispersions observed in the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (Stoehr et al. 2002; D’Onghia & Burkert 2003).

The problems discussed above are also faced by other models whose mechanisms to produce a core are based on interactions, either elastic or inelastic, between dark matter particles. The case of annihilating dark matter is an example. This Letter is aimed at investigating a new variant of unstable dark matter, which corresponds to a modification of the proposal by Cen (2001a), to find out whether it is possible to overcome the difficulties associated with previous scenarios but retaining the desired phenomena.

## 2 Unstable Cold Dark Matter and Implications

Although fits to the rotation curves of LSB galaxies favor halos with cores, a fraction of them is acceptably reproduced by divergent NFW profiles as long as they are much less concentrated than typical halos in standard CDM. Cen (2001a) reconsiders the decaying dark matter scenario (e.g., Davis et al. 1981; Turner, Steigman & Krauss 1984; Turner 1985; Dicus & Teplitz 1986; Dekel & Piran 1987; Sciama 1990), and suggests that the concentration of dark matter halos lowers if one-half of the CDM particles decay to relativistic (but nonradiative) particles by redshift $`z=0`$. The decaying CDM scenario (DCDM, hereafter) would provide also an explanation for the formation of dwarf spheroidal galaxies with low velocity dispersions (Cen 2001b).

Unfortunately, there are some concerns associated with the DCDM model. First, not all the galaxies can be fitted with a NFW profile varying the concentration parameter, especially dwarf galaxies (e.g., Blais-Ouellette, Amram & Carignan 2001). Secondly, there are empirical evidence to believe that the density of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way at $`z=2`$ agrees with the present day halo within $`50`$ kpc (e.g., Zhao 2002, and references therein). The spatial distribution and dynamics of globular clusters give support to this fact. On the other hand, a reduction in the central density of clusters of galaxies and ellipticals by a factor $`2^4`$, as suggested in the DCDM scenario, might be in disagreement with observations (e.g., Arabadjis et al. 2002; Loewenstein & Mushotzky 2002), and could spoil the good agreement found in standard CDM simulations of halo substructure (Stoehr et al. 2002). However, we point out here that the excessive reduction of central dark matter densities in the halos of galaxies and clusters of galaxies can be alleviated if a fraction $`f`$ of the CDM particles decays to relativistic and nonradiative light particles plus a stable massive particle with a recoiling velocity in the center of mass of the parent particle of, say $`30`$$`60`$ km s-1. If the unstable parent particles are denoted by $`D`$ and the stable massive particles by $`D^{}`$, the decay is given by $`DD^{}+\mathrm{light}\mathrm{particles}`$. We will refer to this model as the unstable CDM model (UCDM). Initially, dark halos are made up of a ‘primordial’ mixture of particles $`D`$ and $`D^{}`$. Except for dark matter particles in the outer halo where the escape velocities are smaller than the recoiling velocity, $`v_{\mathrm{rc}}`$, the particles $`D^{}`$ created by decay, will remain bound to the galactic halos. Only the light particles that are relativistic will escape from the host halo. Therefore the total mass in a Milky Way halo within $`50`$ kpc would remain approximately constant (see Eq. 2-192 of Binney & Tremaine 1987), consistent with observations. If $`m_D`$ and $`m_D^{}`$ are the particle mass of $`D`$ and $`D^{}`$, respectively, a recoiling velocity of a few tens km s-1 implies $`(m_Dm_D^{})/m_D1`$$`2\times 10^4`$. The consequences of UCDM will be discussed in the remainder of this Letter.

### 2.1 Formation of Cores in Low-Mass Galaxies

This section is sought to outline how the profile of dark halos would evolve when CDM particles decay and to elucidate whether a central density core is expected. For simplicity we will assume pure CDM halos and ignore the contribution of the baryonic component. This is a good approximation for galaxies dominated by the dark matter. The implications of the inclusion of the baryonic component is discussed in §2.2. As long as a certain dark halo formed at high redshift and the mean lifetime of dark particles is long enough, the initial halo made up of a mixture of particles $`D`$ and $`D^{}`$, should follow a NFW profile with an inner slope $`\alpha 1`$$`1.5`$ and a concentration, $`c_\mathrm{i}`$, as predicted in cosmological simulations (Navarro et al. 1996, 1997; Power et al. 2003). If $`f_D`$ is the ‘primordial’ fraction of particles $`D`$ and $`f_{DD^{}}(t)`$ is the fraction of particles of type $`D`$ that have decayed at time $`t`$, then the fraction of decayed particles is $`f(t)=f_Df_{DD^{}}(t)`$. Note that we do not need to employ a fine-tuning between the mean lifetime of $`D`$ particles, $`\tau `$, and the present Hubble time $`t_\mathrm{H}`$; the case $`\tau `$ much shorter than $`t_\mathrm{H}`$ just implies that all particles $`D`$ have already decayed at the present Hubble time, i.e. $`f(t_\mathrm{H})=f_\mathrm{D}`$.

The kinetic energy of the daughter particles $`D^{}`$ just after decay depends on the angle between the velocity of the parent particle and the recoiling velocity; some of them can even lose energy if, for instance, the recoiling velocity is opposite to the direction of the orbital velocity of the parent particle (except when $`v_{\mathrm{rc}}\sigma _\mathrm{t}`$, where $`\sigma _\mathrm{t}`$ denotes the typical one-dimensional velocity dispersion of halo particles). However, the kinetic energy of the daughter particle, just after decay, averaged over all the possible angles of decay of a parent particle with velocity $`𝒗_\mathrm{D}`$ is $`E=m_\mathrm{D}^{}v_\mathrm{D}^2/2+m_\mathrm{D}^{}v_{\mathrm{rc}}^2/2`$. Therefore, the net increase of energy is $`m_\mathrm{D}^{}v_{\mathrm{rc}}^2/2`$, which is independent, on average, of the initial velocity $`v_\mathrm{D}^2`$.

The dark matter decay will result in a gradual expansion of the halos. The typical variation in the size of halos comes from virial arguments as follows. A halo with a virial radius $`R_{\mathrm{vir},\mathrm{i}}`$ will expand after the decay of dark particles to a virial radius $`R_{\mathrm{vir},\mathrm{f}}`$ of order of $`R_{\mathrm{vir},\mathrm{f}}/R_{\mathrm{vir},\mathrm{i}}(1fx^2/3)^1`$, where $`xv_{\mathrm{rc}}/\sigma _\mathrm{t}`$. For $`x`$ small, as occurs in clusters of galaxies (typically $`x0.04`$) and giant ellipticals, the effect is negligible, $`R_{\mathrm{vir},\mathrm{f}}R_{\mathrm{vir},\mathrm{i}}[1+𝒪(x^2)]`$, even if $`f=1`$. Accordingly, the profiles of massive galaxies and galaxy clusters should not deviate significantly from the predictions of standard collisionless dark matter in the UCDM hypothesis. However, for objects with low $`\sigma _\mathrm{t}`$, as occurs in dwarf galaxies, the inclusion of dark matter decay may have important consequences.

The detailed evolution of the density profile of a certain halo will depend on the distribution function of its particles. The least favorable case for core formation occurs when the halo particles are assumed to be initially on circular orbits because this situation minimizes the kinetic energy in the inner halo. By contrast, in a halo dominated by radial orbits, the circularization of orbits by the decay could partly remove the cusp. In order to quantify the effect of different internal kinematics of the CDM particles, we explore first the case in which most of the dark particles are on nearly circular orbits, followed by an isotropic model.

To illustrate how cores are produced, let us assume that the inner circular velocity $`v_\mathrm{c}(R,t)`$ of the initial configuration of the halo, when almost no particle has decayed yet, is given approximately by the power law $`v_\mathrm{c}(R,0)=v_0\left(R/R_0\right)^{1/2\beta }`$, with $`\beta >0`$ and $`v_0`$ the circular velocity at a galactocentric radius $`R_0`$. In the NFW profile, the exponent $`1/(2\beta )1/2`$, whereas for a more shallow rotation curve, as the rigid-solid rotation, $`1/(2\beta )1`$. Suppose that between $`t=0`$ and $`t=dt`$ a small fraction of particles decays ($`f1`$). The daughter particles ‘gain’ an amount of energy of $`\mathrm{\Delta }Em_\mathrm{D}^{}v_{\mathrm{rc}}^2/2`$, as said before. If we define the mean radius for non-circular orbits as the radius of a circular orbit with the same energy, it is straightforward to show that the mean radius of the daughter particle, $`R_\mathrm{D}^{}`$, is:

$$R_\mathrm{D}^{}=\left(R_\mathrm{D}^{1/\beta }+\frac{1}{2\beta +1}\left(\frac{v_{\mathrm{rc}}}{v_0}\right)^2R_0^{1/\beta }\right)^\beta ,$$
(1)
where $`R_\mathrm{D}`$ is the mean radius of its parent particle. A measure of the expansion of the halo, when the initial orbits are approximately circular, is given by the relative variation in the radius of the particles:

$$\frac{R_\mathrm{D}^{}R_\mathrm{D}}{R_\mathrm{D}}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(\begin{array}{c}\beta \\ i\end{array}\right)\left(\frac{1}{2\beta +1}\right)^i\left(\frac{v_{\mathrm{rc}}}{v_0}\right)^{2i}\left(\frac{R_0}{R_\mathrm{D}}\right)^{i/\beta },$$
(2)
which goes as $`R_\mathrm{D}^{1/\beta }`$ in the particular case that $`v_{\mathrm{rc}}v_0`$ and $`R_\mathrm{D}R_0`$, keeping only the leading term. This result suggests that the rotation curve becomes more shallow, once the fraction of mass that decays is not longer negligible at say $`t=\delta t`$ 111In the DCDM scenario proposed by Cen (2001a), the byproducts of the decay were assumed to be relativistic. This assumption immediately implies that the adiabatic evolution of the halo is self-similar and hence no core is formed. By contrast, the inclusion of a recoiling velocity breaks down the self-similarity in the evolution.. Simultaneously, the halo will undergo an adiabatic expansion as a response to the new mass configuration, decreasing the velocity dispersion of the halo particles. This expansion also contributes to the formation of a shallow profile. Inserting the new values of $`\beta `$ and $`v_0`$ at $`t=\delta t`$ in Eq. (2), we see that $`1/(2\beta )`$ always increases in time, concluding that the formation of a core should be a natural consequence in this model. For a more realistic, isotropic orbital distribution, the formation of a core should be even more favorable.

The procedure outlined above allows us to calculate numerically the evolution of a dark halo starting with a NFW profile ($`\alpha =1`$) and for different values of $`v_{\mathrm{rc}}`$ (see Fig. 1). For the isotropic models, we have taken advantage of the analytical fit to the distribution function given by Widrow (2002). The initial halo density profile is defined by the concentration parameter $`c`$ and the rotation velocity $`V_{200}`$ at radius $`R_{200}`$, that is the radius inside which the average overdensity is $`200`$ times the critical density of the Universe. The resulting rotation curves should be regarded as lower limits since the orbits of the daughter particles were assumed to be circular. However, the maximum increment of the rotation velocity by including an isotropic orbital distribution for these particles can be estimated from the differential energy distribution (e.g., Binney & Tremaine 1987) and it is marked with error bars in Fig. 1.

In order to quantify the relevance of the UCDM model, we have recovered the concentration parameter before CDM decay, $`c_i`$, for three extreme galaxies: IC 2574, NGC 3274 and Draco. IC 2574 is the prototype dwarf LSB with a conspicuous core (e.g., Blais-Ouellette et al. 2002) whereas NGC 3274 is a LSB galaxy with one of the smallest core-radius, which can be fitted with a NFW profile (de Blok & Bosma 2002). On the other hand, Draco is a dwarf spheroidal (dSph) and presents central dark matter densities (within a radius of $`1`$ kpc) as high as those predicted by standard collisionless CDM models (Kleyna et al. 2001; Lokas 2002; Stoehr et al. 2002; Hayashi et al. 2003). Therefore, these galaxies should bracket the concentration parameters for low-mass galaxies. If the initial concentration parameters for these extreme galaxies, $`c_i`$, lie within 1$`\sigma `$ scatter of the predictions of standard CDM simulations, it would imply that our model is fully consistent with the observed distribution of concentrations. For the reference values $`f=0.5`$ and $`v_{\mathrm{rc}}=40`$ km s-1, the observed rotation curves are reproduced well in the isotropic model, starting with a NFW halo with $`c_i13,26,20`$ and $`V_{200,i}60,55,60`$ km s-1 for IC 2574, NGC 3274 and Draco, respectively. Although cosmological N-body simulations must be done for a fully description of the profile of UCDM halos, these results are promising if one considers that expected values of $`c_\mathrm{i}`$ in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology have $`\sigma (\mathrm{log}c_\mathrm{i})=0.18`$ and a $`2\sigma `$ range from $`5`$ to $`25`$, with an average of around $`10`$ to $`15`$ (NFW; Eke et al. 2001). Since the effects of UCDM are smaller for more massive halos, the present mechanism for core formation is fully consistent with the fact that the best-fitting models of high surface brightness galaxies favor cores with small sizes (Jiménez, Verde & Oh 2003).

### 2.2 The Case of Dwarf Spheroidals

Baryonic effects on the dark matter distribution could affect our estimate of $`c_i`$. In particular, if the progenitors of dSph were much more massive than presently, the enhancement of the velocity dispersion of CDM particles by adiabatic compression would have effectively reduced the evacuation of dark matter particles. In the following we will analyze how massive the dSph progenitors should have been to suppress significantly the effect of CDM decay. For simplicity, the baryons are assumed to dominate the total mass (dark matter plus baryons) within the optical radius of the galaxy during the phase of CDM decay. The corresponding density profile in this phase is taken to be $`\rho R^\xi `$, with $`\xi 1.8`$$`2`$, for consistency with other studies (e.g., Hennawi & Ostriker 2002). The flat circular velocity associated with this configuration will be denoted by $`v_\mathrm{c}`$. Under the approximation that the CDM particles are on circular orbits, a CDM particle initially at a orbital radius $`R`$ will shrink to a radius $`R^{}=(M/M^{})R`$, where $`M`$ is the initial mass within $`R`$ and $`M^{}`$ is the final mass within $`R^{}`$, during the dissipative collapse of baryons. After decay, the daughter particle will acquire a mean circular radius $`R(M/M^{})\mathrm{exp}\left(v_{\mathrm{rc}}^2/2v_\mathrm{c}^2\right)`$. Later on, most of the baryonic mass will be ejected probably by supernova explosions or stripped by ram pressure. This mass loss will expand the orbit of the daughter particle to a final radius of $`R\mathrm{exp}\left(v_{\mathrm{rc}}^2/2v_\mathrm{c}^2\right)`$, still assuming that the process evolves adiabatically. The net effect is a self-similar expansion $`R\lambda R`$, with $`\lambda \mathrm{exp}\left(v_{\mathrm{rc}}^2/2v_\mathrm{c}^2\right)`$ and, therefore, the initial inner velocity profile $`v(R)R^{1/2}`$, associated with a NFW profile $`\rho _\mathrm{D}R^1`$, is transformed into $`v^{}(R)=\nu v(R)`$ with $`\nu ^2=1f+f/\lambda ^2`$. We will employ a variation of $`\nu 0.8`$, which is compatible with observational uncertainties ($`>25\%`$) in the mass determination of dSph (e.g., Kleyna et al. 2001; Lokas 2002), and the fact that, in our model, the mass loss of CDM particles induced by Galactic tidal forces would be significantly suppressed if the progenitor was more compact in the past. For $`f=0.5`$, $`v_{\mathrm{rc}}=40`$ km s-1 and $`\nu =0.8`$, a value $`v_\mathrm{c}35`$ km s-1 is required. In terms of the baryonic mass, this implies a mass of gas $`2.5\times 10^8`$ M for the progenitor of the dSph Fornax with a typical radius of $`0.8`$ kpc, and $`0.4\times 10^8`$ M for the progenitor of Draco with radial size of $`0.15`$ kpc. As we have assumed circular orbits, these estimates are clearly lower limits. For progenitors with these masses, the decay of UCDM could not have observable effects in their halos. The inferred masses are large, especially for Draco, but are not unreasonable; they are in accordance with different lines of research that point out masses of $`10^9`$$`10^{10}`$ M for the progenitors of those dwarf spheroidals with a long period of star formation like Draco and Fornax (Kitayama et al. 2001; Ikuta & Arimoto 2002). In a much more speculative scenario, if the gas mass of dSph is never larger than $`10^7`$ M, dSph could preserve their initial dark halos intact under the assumption that CDM only decays by interactions with baryons/nucleons with a certain cross-section $`\sigma _{\mathrm{DN}}`$.

## 3 Discussion

The possibility that dark matter decays is being a topic of active work. Theoretical predictions for lifetime of heavy sterile neutrinos and Ultra Heavy particles, as WIMPZILLAs, cover a large range of values, from $`10^2`$ to $`10^{11}`$ Gyr. We have assumed that UCDM and its byproducts are weakly interacting particles. The possibility that relativistic light particles of the decay are the source of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays or responsible for the reionization of the Universe is still open. Even if Ultra Heavy particles were to decay to Standard Model particles, they are not ruled out by present observations (e.g., Ziaeepour 2000).

Besides the formation of density cores, other interesting phenomena associated with UCDM arise. UCDM enhances substructure destruction within galactic halos, and the evacuation of part of the central mass of dark matter in dwarf ellipticals and dwarf spheroidals would lead to an adiabatic expansion of their globular cluster systems, and would partly compensate the drag of dynamical friction, alleviating the problem of the survival of the globular clusters (Lotz et al. 2001, and references therein). Moreover, assuming that UCDM particles are self-interacting with the cross-section found by Hennawi & Ostriker (2002), $`\sigma _{DD}/m_D0.02`$ cm2 g-1, it is feasible to incorporate the growth of supermassive black holes in our model, as suggested by Ostriker (2000). The decay of particles can contribute to feed up the central black hole if they are scattered into the loss-cone, but this contribution is much smaller than the Bondi accretion.

I thank V. Avila-Reese and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.


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# Optimal Paths in Disordered Complex Networks

## Acknowledgments

We thank A.-L. Barabási and S. Sreenivasan for helpful discussions, and ONR and Israel Science Foundation for financial support.