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# Arc statistics with realistic cluster models

## 1. Introduction

Many factors determine the abundance of strong lensing events, i.e. gravitational arcs, in galaxy clusters. Very shortly, since the light deflection depends on the distances between observer, lens and source, gravitational lensing depends on the geometrical properties of the Universe. Moreover, gravitational arcs are rare events caused by a highly nonlinear effect in cluster cores, and are thus not only sensitive to the number density of galaxy clusters, but also to their internal structure.

Since all of these factors depend on cosmology, the statistical study of strong gravitational lensing events in galaxy clusters is a powerful cosmological tool. In particular, we expect that arc statistics is very sensitive to the values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Indeed, the expected number of giant arcs, usually defined as arcs with a length-to-width ratio exceeding ten and apparent $`B`$-magnitude less than $`22.5`$ (Wu & Hammer, 1993), changes by orders of magnitude between low- and high-density universes according to the numerical models described in Bartelmann et al. (1998).

In the next sections of this paper, we discuss the possible methods for constraining the cosmological parameters using arc statistics and we consider some extensions of the previous studies, modeling in as much detail as possible some of the effects that may influence or distort the conclusions drawn from the morphology and number of gravitationally lensed arcs.

## 2. Numerical vs. Analytic methods

Two approaches have been followed in arc statistics studies so far. The first is based on numerical methods: the ray-tracing technique is used for studying the lensing properties of clusters taken from N-body simulations. This allows the most realistic description of the cluster lenses because all effects which could play an important role in the lensing phenomena (like asymmetries, substructures in the mass distribution, etc.) are by construction taken into account. However, given the long computation times required for full numerical simulations of cluster lensing, it is currently not feasible to perform such simulations for sufficiently many combinations of the essential cosmological parameters, i.e. the matter density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and the cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

In a conceptually different approach, simple analytic, axially symmetric models have been used for describing the density profiles of cluster lenses. This method of investigation has the advantage that the computation of the probability for arcs satisfying a specified property is fast and can easily be performed for a continuous and wide range of cosmological parameters, because the lensing properties of these models are perfectly known and fully described by analytic formulae. However they give a less realistic description of cluster lenses.

The correspondence between analytic and numerical models remains unclear. While the analytic studies by Cooray et al. (1999) and Kaufmann & Straumann (2000) find similar results as the numerical simulations regarding the sensitivity of arc statistics to the cosmic density parameter, their results are almost insensitive to the cosmological constant, in marked contrast to the previously mentioned results by Bartelmann et al. (1998), who found order-of-magnitude changes in the expected number of giant arcs between low-density models with and without a cosmological constant.

In order to check the consistency of the analytic and numerical methods in arc statistics, we perform a comparative study of lensing cross sections of numerical cluster models and several their analytical approximations. We summarize here our main results referring the reader to the paper by Meneghetti, Bartelmann & Moscardini (2003a) for a more detailed discussion.

### 2.1. Axially symmetric models

Previous analytic studies of arc statistics commonly used the Singular Isothermal Sphere (SIS hereafter) model for describing cluster lenses. The density profile of this model is given by

$$\rho (r)=\frac{\sigma _v}{2\pi Gr^2},$$
(1)
where $`\sigma _v`$ is the velocity dispersion and $`r`$ is the distance from the sphere center.

This model is computationally convenient, but has an unrealistic density profile for clusters. Indeed, several observations, for example the occurrence of radial arcs in some galaxy clusters, indicate that cluster density profiles are far from isothermal. Navarro, Frenk & White (1997) (NFW hereafter) found that the density profile of dark matter halos numerically simulated in the framework of CDM cosmogony can be very well described by the radial function

$$\rho (r)=\frac{\rho _\mathrm{s}}{(r/r_\mathrm{s})(1+r/r_\mathrm{s})^2},$$
(2)
within the wide mass range $`3\times 10^{11}<\text{ }M_{\mathrm{vir}}/(h^1M_{})<\text{ }3\times 10^{15}`$. The logarithmic slope of this density profile changes from $`1`$ at the center to $`3`$ at large radii. Therefore, it is flatter than that of the SIS in the inner part of the halo, and steeper in the outer part. The two parameters $`r_\mathrm{s}`$ and $`\rho _\mathrm{s}`$ are the scale radius and the characteristic density of the halo. They are not independent and can thus be expressed in terms of the halo virial mass, which is in fact the only free parameter.

An important feature of this model is that it reflects the theoretically expected dependence of halo concentration, defined as the ratio of the virial and scale radius, $`c=r_{\mathrm{vir}}/r_\mathrm{s}`$, on cosmology. Halos are the more concentrated the earlier they form and this important property is reproduced by the NFW model.

Several different aspects of lensing by halos with NFW or generalized NFW profiles can be found in Bartelmann (1996), Wright & Brainerd (2000), Li & Ostriker (2002), Wyithe, Turner & Spergel (2001), Perrotta et al. (2001), Meneghetti et al. (2003a), Bartelmann et al. (2002a, 2002b). We refer the reader to those papers for more details.

### 2.2. Elliptical model

The construction of lens models with elliptical or pseudo-elliptical isodensity contours is generally quite complicated (Kassiola & Kovner, 1992; Kormann et al., 1994; Golse & Kneib, 2002). Obtaining the potential corresponding to these kinds of density distributions can become extremely complicated, even for quite simple lens models. It is simpler and often sufficient to model a lens by means of an elliptical effective lensing potential.

For any axially symmetric lensing potential in the form

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(x)=f(x)$$
(3)
we can obtain its elliptical generalization by substituting

$$xX=\sqrt{\frac{x_1^2}{(1e)}+x_2^2(1e)},$$
(4)
where $`e=1b/a`$ is the ellipticity and $`a`$ and $`b`$ are the major and minor axis of the ellipse. This ensures that the mass inside circles of fixed radius remains constant as the ellipticity changes.

### 2.3. Numerical models

We analyze the lensing properties of five numerically simulated cluster-sized dark-matter haloes, kindly made available by the GIF collaboration (Kaufmann et al., 1999). They were obtained from $`N`$-body simulations performed in the framework of three different cosmological models. These are an Einstein-de Sitter model (hereafter SCDM); a flat, low-density universe with a matter density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$ and a cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM); and an open, low-density model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ (OCDM). The virial masses of the clusters at redshift $`z=0`$ range between $`5\times 10^{14}M_{}/h`$ and $`2\times 10^{15}M_{}/h`$. For each of these clusters, we took several simulation snapshots at different epochs, between $`z=0`$ and $`z=1`$.

The lensing properties of these clusters are studied using a ray-shooting technique (Bartelmann et al., 1998, Meneghetti et al., 2000, Meneghetti et al., 2001, Meneghetti et al., 2003a). By projecting the numerically simulated clusters along the line of sight, we obtain surface density maps, which we use as lens planes in the lensing simulations. A bundle of $`2048\times 2048`$ light rays is then traced through the mass distributions and their deflection angles are computed by summing up the contribution from each mass element of the deflector. We finally reconstruct the images of a large number of background elliptical sources, placed at redshift $`z_\mathrm{s}=1`$. It results in a catalogue of simulated images which is subsequently analyzed statistically.

### 2.4. Lensing cross sections

The lens efficiency for producing arcs with a given property is quantified by the lensing cross section. By definition, it is the area on the source plane where a source must be placed in order to be imaged as an image with the specified property.

For axially symmetric lenses, the lensing cross section can be computed analytically or semi-analytically. For more complex lens models, like the numerically simulated clusters or the pseudo-elliptical NFW model, numerical techniques are required (e.g. see Meneghetti et al., 2003a).

We focus here on long and thin arcs, i.e. arcs with a length-to-width ratio $`L/W`$ larger than a minimal threshold. As anticipated earlier, we compare the lensing cross sections for this kind of arcs of the numerical and analytic models introduced in the previous sections. For clarity, we present here the results obtained for the most massive halo only. The behavior of the cross sections for the other numerical models is in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with that obtained for this cluster.

The results are illustrated in Fig. (1), where the dotted line refers to the fully numerically simulated cluster, while solid and dashed lines represent the cross sections of NFW and SIS lenses, respectively, having the same virial mass as the numerical cluster model. Finally, the shaded region in the same plot shows the cross sections obtained by elliptically distorting the NFW lensing potential with ellipticities $`e`$ in the range between $`e=0.2`$ and $`e=0.4`$ (lower and upper limits, respectively). Results are shown for $`L/W7.5`$ and they were obtained for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model. Consistent results were found in the other investigated cosmological models and for other minimal $`L/W`$ ratios.

The general trends in the lensing cross sections shown in Fig. (1) can be understood as follows. The strong-lensing efficiency of a mass distribution depends on several factors. First, for the light coming from the sources to be focused on the observer, the lens must be located at a suitable distance from both the observer and the sources. Second, the larger the (virial) mass of the lens is, the stronger are the lensing effects it produces close to its center. Finally, the more concentrated the lens is, the thinner are the long arcs expected to be. Since the lens mass grows with decreasing redshift because new material is accreted by the halo and deepens its potential well, the lensing cross sections are expected to grow as well. On the other hand, when the lens is too close to the observer, the cross section is geometrically suppressed, unless the lens surface density profile is sufficiently steep and scale-free, as for the SIS lenses. In fact, in this case the focusing by the lens is strong enough to allow observers to see strongly distorted images of background sources also in very near lenses, i.e. at relatively small redshifts.

The numerical models generally have much larger cross sections than the analytic models. In particular, the cross sections for axially symmetric NFW lenses are almost two orders of magnitude smaller. For SIS lenses, the discrepancy with the numerical models is only partially compensated by the unrealistically steep central density profile, but the estimated values of $`\sigma _{7.5}`$ remain too low. Introducing the elliptical distortion into the NFW lens model allows the cross section to increase by roughly an order of magnitude compared to the axially symmetric NFW model, but even then the analytic cross sections fail to reproduce the numerical cross sections unless unrealistically high values of $`e`$ are adopted.

Since the ellipticity of the mass distribution alone cannot fully explain the discrepancy between numerical and analytic models, the remaining difference must be attributed to some factors which are missing from the analytical models. The most important of those is certainly the presence of substructure in the lensing mass distribution.

Deviations of the projected mass distribution of a numerically simulated cluster from the predictions of circular or elliptical models can be quantified by means of a multipole expansion of its surface density field (see Meneghetti et al., 2003a). By integrating the power spectrum of this multipole expansion and by subtracting the contributions from the monopole and the quadrupole, we build up a quantity, $`\overline{P}_{\mathrm{int}}`$, which directly measures the amount of substructures and the degree of asymmetry in the mass distribution of the lens.

In Fig. (2) we show how the integrated power $`\overline{P}_{\mathrm{int}}`$ averaged within the virial radius of the cluster changes as a function of the cluster redshift for the lens whose cross section was plotted in Fig. (1). For better comparing the dependences on redshift of the integrated power and the lensing cross sections, we have rescaled $`\overline{P}_{\mathrm{int}}`$ with the effective lensing distance and with the virial cluster mass. A quick comparison of this curve to the lensing cross sections in Fig. (1) shows that the redshifts where the contributions of the dipole and the higher-order multipoles are largest correspond quite well to those where the numerical cross sections deviate most strongly from those of the elliptical models.

## 3. The arc statistics problem

In the previous section we showed that reliable predictions of arc cross sections require realistic cluster models, i.e. numerically simulated clusters. As anticipated earlier, by investigating the lensing properties of a sample of clusters obtained from N-body simulations in the framework of several cosmological models, Bartelmann et al. (1998) found orders of magnitude differences between the number of giant arcs which are expected to be seen on the whole sky in different cosmological models. In particular, they estimated that $`3000`$ giant arcs would be produced in a OCDM model, while one order of magnitude less arcs are expected in a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model.

Observations of the abundance of gravitational arcs in galaxy clusters seem to be consistent only with the predictions for an open universe (Luppino et al., 1999; Zaritsky et al., 2002, Gladders et al., 2003). This is in pronounced disagreement with other observational results, in particular those obtained from the recent experiments on the cosmic microwave background (de Bernardis et al., 2000; Bennett et al., 2003) and the observations of high-redshift type-Ia supernovae (Perlmutter et al., 1998), which all suggest instead that the cosmological model most favored by the data is spatially flat and dominated by a cosmological constant. This is known as the arc statistics problem.

Several extensions and improvements of the numerical simulations failed in finding a solution to this problem in the lensing simulations. For example, Meneghetti et al. (2000) studied the influence of individual cluster galaxies on the ability of clusters to form large gravitational arcs, finding that their effect is statistically negligible.

In the next sections we discuss whether the presence of a central cD galaxy or the occurrence of mergers in the lensing clusters can alter the conclusions of previous arc statistics studies and solve the arc statistics problem.

### 3.1. Effects of cD galaxies on arc statistics

The centers of massive galaxy clusters are generally dominated by very massive ($`10^{13}M_{}`$) cD galaxies, which could in principle noticeably affect the strong-lensing properties of their host clusters. In fact, due to their more concentrated dark matter halos, they may steepen the inner slope of the cluster density profile and push the cluster critical curves to larger distances from the center. Thus, the length of the critical curves may be increased, and thus the probability for long arcs to form. Moreover, cD galaxies may help their host clusters to reach the critical central surface density for producing critical curves and becoming efficient strong lenses.

For investigating the effects of cD galaxies on arc statistics, we study the lensing properties of the same sample of five numerically simulated galaxy clusters described in Sect. 2.3, restricting our analysis to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM and the OCDM cosmological models (Meneghetti, Bartelmann & Moscardini, 2003b). We measure their efficiency for producing tangential and radial arcs before and after the inclusion of a cD galaxy. The central galaxy is modeled using both the axially symmetric and elliptical models discussed in Sect. 2.1 and 2.2 and assuming a range of virial masses and possible orientations with respect to the mass distribution of the host cluster.

The inclusion of the cD galaxy in the cluster lens has been done as follows. Being linear function of mass, the total deflection angle of a ray passing through a mass distribution is the sum of the contributions from each mass element of the deflector. Therefore, in the case of a galaxy cluster, we can decompose the cluster lens into its smoothed dark matter component, plus the granular component contributed by its galaxy population (see also Meneghetti et al. 2000). For both the cluster and the galaxies, the main constituent is given by the dark matter which forms their halos. Our model of the cluster containing a cD galaxy can thus be fairly simple; we take the smoothed dark matter distribution obtained from the numerical simulations described above, and introduce a dark-matter halo resembling the galaxy. For each ray traced through the lens plane, we compute the deflection angle by summing the contributions from the cluster itself and the galaxy haloes.

We first apply two axially symmetric models, namely spheres with the NFW or the singular isothermal density profile. Second, we also apply the pseudo-elliptical NFW lens model in order to account for the possible elongation of the matter distribution of the cD galaxy. cD galaxies typically appear to be of elliptical shape, with isophotal axis ratios $`b/a0.8`$ (Porter et al., 1991). Moreover, the orientation of the brightest cluster ellipticals is usually not random, but correlates well with that of their host cluster. Asymmetries in the lensing matter distribution are known to improve the ability of the cluster to produce long and thin arcs. We also expect that the impact of a cD galaxy described by an elliptical model is largest when its orientation is aligned with the elongation direction of the host galaxy cluster. In the case of different orientations, the cD galaxy tends to circularize the mass distribution of the cluster in its central region. In order to quantify this effect, we carry out two sets of simulations; in the first, we randomly choose the orientation of the cD galaxy inside the cluster, while in the second the orientation is chosen such that the directions of the major and minor axes of the galaxy align with the major and minor eigenvalues of the cluster’s deflection angle field, respectively. The galaxy ellipticity is assumed to be $`e=0.2`$.

In Fig. 3, we show the relative change of the lensing cross sections for arcs with length-to-width ratio $`L/W7.5`$ as a function of the cluster virial mass for the simulations in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM and OCDM models. The lens redshift is $`z_\mathrm{L}=0.27`$, while sources are placed at $`z_\mathrm{S}=1`$. In each panel, we plot the results for all four models used to describe the cD galaxy. Both panels refer to simulations in which the virial mass of the cD galaxy is $`5\times 10^{13}h^1M_{}`$.

As expected, the largest variations of the cross sections are typically found if the cD galaxy is modeled as a pseudo-elliptical NFW model whose orientation is aligned with that the host cluster. On the other hand, cD galaxies with SIS profiles change the ability of the numerical clusters for producing long and thin arcs only by a very small amount.

In the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model, a cD galaxy with mass $`M_{\mathrm{cD}}=5\times 10^{13}h^1M_{}`$ changes the lensing cross section by a maximum amount between $`60\%`$ and $`200\%`$, depending on the total cluster mass. The impact of the cD is generally larger in the less massive clusters. Of course, less massive cD galaxies have smaller impact on the lensing cross sections: in more realistic cases of cD galaxies with mass $`M_{\mathrm{cD}}<\text{ }10^{13}h^1M_{}`$, tangential-arc cross sections are increased by not more than $`50\%`$.

A similar trend is found in the OCDM model, but the variations of the cross sections are smaller in this case. For example, in the simulations with the most massive cDs, the cross sections change by approximately $`40\%80\%`$ only. This behavior was expected because the clusters in the OCDM model are generally more compact compared than those in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model. Including the cD, the mass in the very central part of the clusters changes less compared to the clusters in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model. Cross sections for arcs with different minimal length-to-width ratios show similar variations.

We thus conclude from our conservative estimates of the impact of cD galaxies on strong-lensing cross sections by galaxy clusters that they may increase the arc-formation probability by perhaps up to $`50\%`$ in realistic situations, but certainly by far not enough for explaining the discrepancy between simulations in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models and the observed abundance of arcs.

### 3.2. The impact of mergers on arc statistics

We investigate an other possible effect which could not be properly considered in the previously mentioned numerical simulations of gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters. In those works, the lensing cross sections for giant arcs of each numerical model were evaluated at different redshifts, with a typical time separation between two consecutive simulation outputs of approximately $`\mathrm{\Delta }t1`$ Gyr. Therefore all the dynamical processes arising in the lenses on time scales smaller than $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ were not resolved.

N-body simulations show that dark matter haloes of different masses continuously fall onto rich clusters of galaxies (Tormen, 1997). The typical time scale for such events is $`1÷2`$ Gyr, which therefore might be too short for having been properly taken into account in the previous lensing simulations.

Given the strong impact of substructures on the lensing properties of galaxy clusters, it is reasonable to expect that during the passage of a massive mass concentration through or near the cluster center, the lensing efficiency might sensitively fluctuate. Indeed, when the substructure is approaching the main cluster clump, the intensity of the shear field and, consequently, the shape of the critical curves might substantially change. Moreover, while the infalling dark matter halo gets closer the cluster center, the projected surface density increases, making the cluster much more efficient for strong lensing.

We use the ray-tracing technique for studying the lensing properties of a numerically simulated galaxy clusters while a mass concentration orbit very close to the cluster center. In particular, we investigate an “optimal” projection of this cluster, where a substructure is seen to pass exactly through the center of main cluster clump.

The numerical model we study here is part of a set of 17 objects obtained using the technique of re-simulating at higher resolution a patch of a pre-existing cosmological simulation. The re-simulation method is described in Tormen et al. (1997). A detailed discussion of the dynamical properties of the whole sample of these simulated clusters is presented elsewhere (Tormen, Moscardini & Yoshida 2003, in preparation). A major merger occurs in this cluster between redshifts $`z=0.25`$ and $`z=0.15`$. At redshift $`z0.25`$, when their viral regions merge, the main cluster clump and the infalling substructure have virial masses of $`7\times 10^{14}h^1M_{}`$ and $`3\times 10^{14}h^1M_{}`$, respectively. In order to have a very good time resolution to resolve in detail all the merging phases, we decided to re-simulate the cluster between $`z=0.25`$ and $`z=0.15`$, obtaining 101 equispaced outputs which we use for our following lensing analysis.

As expected, the critical lines of the numerical lens evolve strongly during the merger event. We show the critical lines at some relevant redshifts in Fig. (4). At redshift $`z=0.230`$, the main cluster clump and the infalling substructure develop separate critical lines. The largest mass concentration also produces a small radial critical line (enclosed by the more extended tangential critical line). While the merger proceeds, the tangential critical lines are stretched towards each other. This is due to the increasing shear in the region between the mass concentrations. The critical lines merge approximately at redshift $`z=0.214`$. After that, there exists a single critical line, which, after a short phase of shrinking, expands isotropically while the two clumps overlap. The isotropic expansion is due to the increasing convergence due to the larger amount of matter concentrated at the cluster center. This happens at $`z0.203`$. When the substructure moves to the opposite side, the tangential critical line stretches again and reaches its maximum elongation at $`z0.190`$. Then, separate critical lines appear around each clump. Their size decreases for $`z0`$ because both the shear and the convergence between the two mass concentration decrease as their distance grows.

The lensing cross sections for long and thin arcs change during the merger accordingly to the evolution of the critical lines. As an example, the cross section for arcs with $`L/W7.5`$ as function of redshift is shown in Fig. (5). The cross section grows by a factor of two between $`z0.240`$ and $`z0.220`$. Then, it further increases by a factor of five between $`z0.220`$ and $`z0.200`$, i.e. within $`0.2`$ Gyr. The curves have three peaks, located at redshifts $`z_1=0.214`$, $`z_2=0.203`$ and $`z_3=0.190`$. The peaks at $`z_1`$ and $`z_3`$ correspond to the maximum extent of critical curves along the merging direction before and after the moment when the merging clumps overlap; the peak at $`z_2`$ occurs when the distance of the infalling substructure from the merging clump is minimum. Two local minima arise between the three maxima at redshifts $`z_4=0.211`$ and $`z_5=0.199`$, where the cross sections are a factor of two smaller than at the peaks. At these redshifts, the critical lines have shrunk along the merging direction. The cross section reduces by more than one order of magnitude after $`z=0.190`$.

Therefore, during the merger, our simulated cluster becomes extremely more efficient to produce tangential arcs. The infalling substructure starts affecting the cross sections for long and thin arcs when its distance from the main cluster clump is approximately equivalent to the cluster virial radius ($`1.5h^1`$Mpc), and the largest effects are seen at three different times: 1) when the critical lines (and the corresponding caustics) merge, i.e. when the shear between the mass concentrations is sufficient to produce the largest elongation of the critical lines along the direction of merging. This happens $`100`$ Myr before and after the substructure crosses the cluster center; 2) when the two clumps overlap, i.e. when the projected surface density or convergence is maximal, producing the largest isotropic expansion of critical lines and caustics.

Therefore, our results show that cluster mergers could play an important role for arc statistics. In particular, since the lensing efficiency grows by one order of magnitude during mergers, they might be the solution of the arc statistics problem.

It is quite important to notice that mergers might have some other important observational implications to account for. In fact the largest sample of clusters used for arc statistics studies (Luppino et al, 1999) was selected in the X-ray band, where the luminosity is due to bremsstrahlung emission. This is very sensitive to the dynamical processes arising in the cluster, since it is proportional to the square gas density. Therefore, we expect that the cluster X-ray luminosity has large variations during a merging phase.

By using a code for simulating observations in the X-ray band by the Chandra satellite (Gardini et al., 2003, in preparation), we measure the observed X-ray luminosity of our numerical cluster at several times during the merging phase. In Fig. (6) we show the observed X-ray luminosity as function of redshift. The curve has a narrow and almost symmetric peak located at $`z0.200`$. The X-ray luminosity grows by more than a factor of four between $`z0.300`$ and $`z0.200`$, by roughly a factor of $`2.5`$ between $`z0.230`$ and $`z0.200`$ and by roughly a factor of $`1.55`$ between $`z0.210`$ and $`z0.200`$. The width at half maximum of the peak is approximately $`\mathrm{\Delta }z<0.05`$.

If a cluster sample is built by collecting all the objects with X-ray luminosity $`L_X`$ larger than a given minimum threshold, we expect that many merging clusters are present among them, since they are stronger X-ray emitters. Since these are all very efficient clusters for producing gravitational arcs, this could introduce a bias in the observationally determined frequency of giant arc, which could become so large with respect to what predicted by previous numerical lensing simulations in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model. However, it is quite difficult to make more robust conclusions here since only one cluster has been analyzed. Further investigations are needed on this subject. In any case, our results show that much caution must be used when selecting clusters for arc statistics studies through their X-ray emission.

## 4. Conclusions

In the first part of this paper, we discussed the analytic and numerical methods used in arc statistics studies. We showed that both axially symmetric and elliptical analytic models fail to reproduce the efficiency for producing long and thin arcs of numerically simulated galaxy clusters. The deviations of the numerical lensing cross sections from their analytical approximations can be attributed to substructures inside clusters and tidal fields contributed by the cluster surroundings, effects which cannot reasonably and reliably be mimicked in analytic models. On the basis of these results, we conclude that, in order to derive precise constraints on cosmology or cluster structure and evolution, realistic cluster lens models are required, for which numerical simulations seems to be the only reliable choice.

In the second part, we discussed two recent extensions of the numerical lensing simulations. First, we investigate the effects of cD galaxies on the cluster efficiency for long and thin arcs. We found that reasonably massive cD galaxies at the cluster center may increase the arc-formation probability by perhaps up to $`50\%`$. Second, we study the impact of major mergers on arc statistics. By measuring with high time resolution the cross sections for long and thin arcs of a numerical cluster model during a merger phase, we verified that the cluster ability of producing tangential arcs may grow by one order of magnitude while such events occur. This result is particularly important because it confirms that mergers in clusters might play a very important role in arc statistics. In particular they might be a possible solution to the well know arc statistics problem.

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# An Initial Survey of White Dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

## 1 Introduction

There are currently 2249 known white dwarfs (WDs) with spectroscopic confirmation in the McCook & Sion (1999) catalog. These have been found in a variety of ways, but primarily the hotter stars are found as UV-excess or blue objects in imaging surveys, while the cooler stars are found in proper motion surveys. Some fairly homogeneous surveys have been published of hotter blue stars, such as the Palomar Green survey (PG: Green, Schmidt & Liebert 1986), the Kiso survey (Darling & Wegner 1996), and the more recent Hamburg/EOS surveys (Homeier et al. 1998; Christlieb et al. 2001; Koester et al. 2001). In recent years the Luyten Half Second Catalog (LHS: Luyten 1979) has been a prime source of cooler objects. Although largely complete to magnitude and color limits over 10,000 square degrees at high Galactic latitudes, the PG found fewer than 400 hot WDs to a blue magnitude limit just fainter than $`B=16`$. Fleming, Liebert & Green (1986) analyzed the PG sample in a first comprehensive estimate of the formation rate and luminosity function of hot WDs. Other estimates, however, have suggested a somewhat higher space density of these objects, while recent estimates of the formation rate of planetary nebulae exceed the inferred formation rate of WDs (Pottasch 1996, and references therein).

Deeper imaging surveys are necessary to sample the disk scale height for WDs adequately. Boyle (1989) found a value of 275$`\pm `$50 pc, based on a sample of 41 stars to a magnitude limit of B=20.9. Much larger imaging surveys to fainter magnitudes than PG have been underway for several years, but only limited samples with spectroscopic confirmations have been published so far. Like the PG, the point sources in these surveys are measured with only coarse photographic magnitudes or grism spectra and cover only a few color bands.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS: York et al. 2000) is obtaining deep CCD images of 10,000 deg2 of the north Galactic cap, overlapping most of the PG but going much deeper, and in five photometric bands. The SDSS bands ($`u`$, $`g`$, $`r`$, $`i`$, and $`z`$) cover the entire optical range from the UV atmospheric cutoff (3200Å) to the detector’s red sensitivity cutoff ($``$10,000Å) — see Fukugita et al. (1996) for details of the photometric system.

It was apparent from the detailed simulations of Fan (1999) that the SDSS would be very efficient in finding WDs, especially the hot objects detectable by UV-excess. This study suggested that something like 30,000 WDs would be detected to $`r<19.5`$. Fan (1999) showed that hot WDs would be separable for the most part from quasars, compact emission-line galaxies, and other stars using their locations in the SDSS three-color (ugri) diagram. However, the WDs cooler than about 12,000 K generally would blend in with the colors of QSOs, and cooler than about 7000 K would blend with main-sequence stars. We note, however, that cool WDs with unusual spectra — energy distributions blanketed by unusually strong absorption lines or bands — could be expected to be found at different locations in the three-color diagram (Fig. 17 of Fan 1999).

In this paper we report on the WDs and other hot stars found in one region of sky (190 deg2, referred to below as the 41-plate sample), as well as some WDs of special interest found elsewhere. While this sampling is in no way complete, it is shown that the basic hot DA (hydrogen atmosphere) and non-DA (helium atmosphere) sequences are identifiable, that they are found in about the numbers predicted by the Fan (1999) simulations, and that rare kinds of cooler WDs are detected as well. In Section 2 we discuss in more detail the color selection. Spectra of several different types are presented in Section 3. The final section assesses what we have learned about the potential of the SDSS from this first examination of WD candidates.

## 2 Color selection

The colors of WDs and other objects in the SDSS photometric system have been predicted (Fan 1999; Lenz et al. 1998) by synthesizing their colors from model atmospheres and from observed spectra. Further information is available from observed colors (Krisciunus et al. 1998; Finlator et al. 2000). A conclusion from these studies is that the hot end of the WD sequence has colors separated in SDSS color space from almost all other objects except hot subdwarfs. At temperatures cooler than about 12000 K, the WD sequence begins overlapping the colors of low-redshift QSOs and emission-line galaxies.

Objects are selected for SDSS spectroscopic observation according to numerous criteria based on each object’s color and image morphology. High priority is given to QSO candidates chosen with colors outside the stellar locus (Richards et al. 2002), some of which turn out to be WDs. A small fraction of fibers remaining after galaxy, QSO, and calibration selections have been made are assigned to candidates for different types of stars. Present categories include (1) horizontal-branch stars, (2) very cool stars, (3) cool subdwarfs, (4) carbon stars, (5) WDs with unusual colors, (6) cataclysmic variables, and (7) other objects with unusual colors. Stars in the last three categories, plus some hot stars chosen for calibration, often prove to be WDs, and are the subject of this paper.

Sky coverage in the early SDSS imaging data (Gunn et al. 1998) included most of a stripe with $`1.25^\mathrm{o}<\mathrm{Dec}<1.25^\mathrm{o}`$ and outside of the Galactic plane. Early spectra have been taken covering parts of this stripe. The present paper examines a sample of stars in the region with $`9^h40<\mathrm{RA}<16^h40`$ at Galactic latitudes $`29^\mathrm{o}62^\mathrm{o}`$, imaged in March 1999. The spectra from 41 spectroscopic plates191919 These are Plates 266–269, 279–285, 291–293, 295–315, 342–346, and 348. Most are in the SDSS Early Data Release (EDR) described by Stoughton et al. 2002. have been searched for WDs and hot subdwarfs, including most of this section of the equatorial stripe (but with a few gaps) and covering 190 deg2 of sky. This sample is referred to in this paper as the 41-plate sample. A total of 264 WDs and 57 hot subdwarfs have been identified spectroscopically in this region. In addition, a number of unusual WDs found outside this region are also described here. These 41 plates also include six cataclysmic variables identified by Szkody et al. (2002) and not discussed further in this paper, as well as 18 objects with DA+M composite spectra identified by Raymond et al. (2003) and included in the following tables and figures.

Figure 1 presents SDSS color-color diagrams of the region occupied by hot stars. The classifications from the SDSS spectra of the hot WDs and subdwarfs are indicated in the diagram. In addition, the colors and magnitudes of all point sources with $`15<r<20`$ in a smaller region of sky are shown. The two curves show the colors of WD model atmospheres (Bergeron et al. (1995)) with log $`g=7`$, 8, and 9, kindly calculated and made available to us by Bergeron. The colors of all objects have been dereddened by the full reddening estimated for each line of sight (Schlegel et al. 1998), although this procedure slightly overcorrects for reddening for nearby (brighter and cooler) WDs in this sample.

Fig. 1(a) is equivalent to the well-known diagrams for WDs using $`UBV`$ and $`uby`$ filters (e.g. Eggen & Greenstein 1965; Graham 1972; Wegner 1979), although rotated by 90 degrees here. The sequence of WDs and hot subdwarfs with different temperatures is visible, and its separation at the hot end from most contaminating stars and QSOs is clear. In particular, WDs hotter than 12000 K are essentially uncontaminated by everything except hot subdwarfs. Horizontal branch and blue straggler stars are well-separated from all WDs by having $`ug>0.8`$. The scatter of WDs away from the central locus near the log $`g=8`$ curve is larger here than has been seen in earlier studies. Probably the scatter seen here has significant contributions from random photometric errors for faint stars, from errors in the photometric calibrations, and from overcorrection for interstellar reddening for some stars (see next paragraph). The scatter of WDs in Fig. 1 is under study, pending improved reprocessing of SDSS photometry this year.

Data for the WDs and hot subdwarfs identified spectroscopically are given in Tables 1–3: DA and DB WDs in Table 1, WDs with less common spectral types in Table 2, and hot subdwarfs in Table 3. Positions at the epoch of observation (March 1999) are those from the SDSS Astrometric Pipeline (Pier et al. 2003). Magnitudes and colors are those from version 5.3 of the Photometric Pipeline (Lupton et al. 2003, in preparation) prepared for the initial Data Release 1. (Data are being reprocessed with version 5.4 of PHOTO, and ultimately will give slightly different results.) The photometric calibration is based on the SDSS standard-star system (Smith et al. 2002) tied to the Survey data with the Photometric Telescope (Hogg et al. 2001). The full interstellar absorption $`A_u`$ from Schlegel et al. (1998) is given for that line of sight. Typically, the hotter stars will be at distances of several hundred pc, and they will have approximately the listed absorption at these high galactic latitudes. However, only some fraction of that absorption will apply to nearby (bright, cooler) WDs. Reddening can be calculated using $`E(ug)=0.264A(u)`$, $`E(gr)=0.202A(u)`$, $`E(ri)=0.129A(u)`$, and $`E(iz)=0.119A(u)`$; for most stars at these high latitudes, the reddening is small whether or not the full absorption is correct. Proper motions are calculated using the USNO-A2.0 Catalog (Monet et al. 1999) for the first epoch position. For a few stars not in the USNO-A Catalog, usually because they are too faint to be detected on both the POSS-I blue and red plates, the first epoch position is taken from the USNO-B1.0 Catalog (Monet et al. 2003). The proper motions typically have errors of 6–8 mas yr-1 rms. Where the motion is less than 20 mas yr-1, it may not be real, and the position angle of the motion is omitted. Spectral types are from our classification of the SDSS spectra, as discussed in the following section.

## 3 White Dwarf Types

The spectra described in this section are taken with the two SDSS 2.5 m-telescope fiber spectrographs202020 See http://www.astro.princeton.edu/BBOOK/SPECTRO/spectro.html for a more complete description of this instrument.. Using fibers with a diameter of 3 arcsec, about 600 objects are observed each exposure with a resolution of about 1800. Exposures are typically 1 hr (four integrations of 15 min), depending on observing conditions to reach a target signal/noise. The spectra are extracted and calibrated automatically. Night-sky lines are not subtracted perfectly, and residuals are often seen at 5577, 5890/5896, and 6300 Åand at the near-IR end. The wavelength calibration (to heliocentric, vacuum wavelengths) is done. On rare occasions, a spurious jump remains in a spectrum at 5900 Å, where data from the blue and red detectors are combined. Spectra are corrected for terrestrial extinction, they are flux calibrated using spectrophotometric standards on each plate, and finally, they are corrected for the interstellar absorption listed in Tables 1–3.

### 3.1 DA, DB and DO Stars

For this preliminary analysis, spectral types are assigned on the Sion et al. (1983) system by comparison with the spectrophotometric atlas of Wesemael et al. (1993). For DA stars that appear to fall in the region (10–20,000 K) where DA Balmer line strengths are maximum, the $`ug`$ and $`gr`$ colors are also taken into account in assigning a classification. Figure 2 shows representative spectra of DA4 stars covering a range of magnitudes. In this and following figures, spectra are given in units of $`f_\nu `$, with the peak flux density normalized to one, and with each spectrum shifted by one unit. (The coordinates and plate–fiber number are shown at the right below each spectrum.) We believe that these spectra are generally accurate enough for WD/subdwarf discrimination, and for WD classification to $`\pm `$1 subtype, for stars with $`g<19.5`$. For the fainter stars the estimates are generally listed with a colon.

Figure 3 shows the sequence of DA types found in SDSS spectra. The sequence covers the range from DA1 to DA7, where the index is the conventional number corresponding to $`50,400/T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. The sequence extends to temperatures as cool as about 7000 K, whereupon the WD colors begin blending with colors of main-sequence stars so badly that WDs are no longer selected for obtaining spectra. More accurate temperature and surface gravity determinations require fitting of the Balmer line profiles (e.g. Bergeron, Saffer & Liebert 1992); this kind of fitting has begun (Raymond et al. 2003; Nitta et al. 2003), but a discussion is deferred until a larger and more complete sample is assembled.

The majority of the DA stars appear to have $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<25,000`$ K, with very few stars showing lines weak enough or colors blue enough to be hotter than 40,000 K. Conversely, few stars have been identified at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<10,000`$ K, a result of the color ranges chosen to identify QSO candidates for spectroscopic observation. The paucity of hotter stars is at least partly a consequence of the high Galactic latitude surveyed. It is expected that these WDs are primarily of the disk population, but the hotter WDs fainter than $``$17 mag must lie beyond the scale height of the disk.

Examples of spectra of non-DA stars are shown in Figure 4. The non-DA stars from the 41-plate sample in Table 1 include only one hot DO star, the top spectrum in Fig. 4 (=HE1314+0018; Christlieb et al. 2001). Another cooler DO star is shown (the second spectrum) and listed in Table 2. See Dreizler & Werner (1996) for a discussion of this type of star. The few hot non-DA stars found here are consistent with the temperature distribution of DAs, although three hot DQ stars are discussed below. The third and fourth spectra show DB2 stars. The DB gap, a temperature range 30000–45000 K with no known DB stars, lies between the DO and DB2 stars. Fitting the line profiles of the second, third, and fourth spectra in Fig. 4 (and other similar stars being found by SDSS) will determine if any of these stars encroach on the DB gap. However, most DB stars in this sample appear to be confined to $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<18,000`$ K, as they do not show particularly strong He I lines characteristic of the hotter stars. The line strengths are quite sensitive to temperature over this range. The relative weakness of the 4388Å line and absence of He II 4686Å distinguishes them from helium-rich subdwarfs. He I lines are no longer visible at this resolution at $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ below about 12,000 K.

### 3.2 Magnetic White Dwarfs

A first list of magnetic WDs in the SDSS was given by Gänsicke et al. (2002) based on the EDR. Table 2 expands that list by including 22 magnetic WDs, including some spectra obtained since the EDR. Additional candidates have been found and will be discussed in a separate paper (Schmidt et al., 2003). Table 2 includes eight stars discussed by Gänsicke et al.; the stars SDSSJ1222+0015 and SDSSJ2323$``$0046 are omitted here, however, pending confirmation of their magnetic nature and H/He type. Figures 5 and 6 show spectra of some of the magnetic DA and DB stars, respectively. The hydrogen stars are ordered top to bottom by increasing mean field strength as indicated by the degree of Zeeman splitting. The strength of the mean surface field observed in Fig. 5 ranges from about 1 MG for the top two spectra to about 20 MG for the tenth spectrum to roughly 120 MG and 300 MG for the last two spectra. The last spectrum (SDSSJ2247+1456) has features (particularly near 5800, 7000, and 8400Å) similar to those in Grw +708247, a WD with a field about 320 MG (Wickramasinghe & Ferrario 1988). Detailed modelling of the line profiles is necessary in order to determine the polar field strength, the viewed inclination angle, and the degree to which the indicated field geometry is that of a centered dipole. Time-resolved spectrophotometry and/or spectropolarimetry can show whether the object is rotating.

The first and second spectra of Figure 6 are two of the simplest, low field He I spectra of magnetic WDs yet to be obtained. The Zeeman triplets of He I at 4471, 4921, 5015, 5875, and 6678Å can be matched with component positions from Kemic (1974) for a mean surface field strength of 1.9 MG for SDSSJ0142+1315 and 4.4 MG for SDSSJ0017+0041. Neither star shows any evidence for hydrogen. The third spectrum (SDSSJ0333+0007) is SDSS’s recovery of the known WD HE 0330$``$0002 (Reimers et al. 1998; Schmidt et al. 2001). The latter authors demonstrated that the spectrum is circularly polarized, thus confirming the suggestion by the former authors that it is a magnetic WD. However, the overall energy distribution suggests a somewhat lower $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ of 6,000–7,000 K. Thus, while there is apparent near-coincidence with some He I features, the star is too cool for significant excitation of the required lower levels. Hence, the absorption features remain of unknown origin, but are likely due to trace elements in a He-rich atmosphere.

Additional likely magnetic WDs with carbon and heavy element features, respectively, are discussed in Sections 3.3 and 3.4 below.

### 3.3 DQ and Peculiar DQ “Carbon” White Dwarfs

The majority of cool WDs are blackbody-like, showing weak or no spectral features, and are difficult to identify because they blend in with the normal stellar locus in two-color diagrams. Exceptions include WDs showing strong trace abundances of carbon, believed to be dredged-up from the underlying core (Wegner & Yackovich 1984; Pelletier et al. 1986). Note that stellar evolutionary models of asymptotic giant branch and pre-WDs indicate that the outer part of the carbon-oxygen core should be essentially devoid of oxygen, so that we would expect only carbon to be dredged up via its upward-diffusing tail (Salaris et al. 1997). Collectively, the WDs showing atomic and/or molecular carbon features have been classified “DQ.”

Warmer DQ WDs at 12000–14000 K exhibit C I and even C II lines (see, for example, the review of WD spectra by Wesemael et al. 1993). Near 10,000 K the stars with highest C/He abundance show both atomic C I lines and C2 “Swan” bands in their optical spectra. Lower temperature stars show only the molecular features, with five principal bandheads at 4383, 4737, 5165, 5636, and 6191Å , corresponding to the (2,0), (1,0), (0,0), (0,1), and (0,2) transitions, respectively. Each band has a sharp red edge to the absorption, degrading gradually to shorter wavelengths. Until recently, these stars have been found to temperatures as low as about 6,300 K (Bergeron, Leggett, & Ruiz 2001). Because of the low continuous opacity exhibited by neutral helium (primarily He-), only a little carbon is required to be detected in WDs with He-dominated atmospheres. A C/He abundance ratio of order 10-2 can produce C2 bands for stars with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}10,000`$ K, and the required abundance decreases with decreasing temperature, so that a ratio of 10-3 may suffice at 6,000 K. This opacity acts to depress the SDSS $`g`$ flux (and, to a lesser extent, the $`r`$ flux), thus reddening the $`gr`$ color. It also acts to redden the $`BV`$ color (Schmidt et al. 1999), and can have a dramatic effect on broadband colors.

Figure 7 shows the sequence for DQ stars with relatively weak carbon features. The spectra are arranged in order of $`ui`$, a color that offers both a wide wavelength baseline and two bands relatively unaffected by carbon absorption, so that this ordering might approximate that by (decreasing) $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. The top three stars in Fig. 7 show only atomic CI features; the top star is the known DQAB star WD1728+560 (G227-5). The detected CI lines are marked at the top of the figure. The fourth star (SDSSJ1148$``$0126) shows both CI and molecular C2 bands, and the spectrum is nearly identical to the well-known WD0856+331 (G47-18). The remaining stars show only weak C2 bands. Their $`ui`$ colors range from 0.0 to 0.9. Comparison with the colors of pure-He models of Bergeron et al. (1995) suggests that these stars have $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$9500–6600 K. (We emphasize, however, that the use of pure-He models to fit the slopes of the energy distributions is not likely to be accurate, since important opacities are missing. Comparison of the models with observed colors may help us define at least a relative $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ scale.)

Figure 8 shows another sequence of stars with relatively strong C2 Swan bands. Again, they are arranged in order of $`ui`$ color, covering a range 0.1–1.6. With three exceptions (the third, fifth, and seventh stars) the bands look fairly normal. Their colors overlap with the weak-band stars in Fig. 7: over the range of 0.2–0.9 in $`ui`$, corresponding to temperatures $``$8600–6600 K, stars are found with both weak and strong bands indicating a range of C/He abundances. The colors of the last two stars are noticeably redder than the others, and are redder than other normal DQ stars known until recently. They imply temperatures of 5500–6000 K, although pure-He models cannot be relied upon to give an accurate estimate. The ninth star (SDSSJ0935+0024) has a spectrum nearly identical to GSC2U J131147.2+292348 (Carollo et al. 2002; Carollo et al. 2003), including two of the ultraviolet band sequence of C2 at 3852 and 4102Å; Carollo et al. (2003) derive a temperature of 5120 K for that star. The eighth star (SDSSJ0808+4640) has somewhat weaker Swan bands, but with more rounded bandheads, and does not show the ultraviolet sequence of bands. However, despite their cool temperatures, none of these two SDSS stars nor the GSC2 star appear to be the “peculiar” DQ stars discussed next.

The fifth star (SDSSJ2232$``$0744) in Fig. 8 appears somewhat different in having bands that are more rounded and displaced toward the blue. It may be a hybrid between the normal DQ stars and the class called “peculiar DQ” out of considerable ignorance. The latter begin appearing at temperatures below about 6300 K, with rounded, nearly symmetrical absorption bands centered at wavelengths near 4280, 4575, 5000, 5400, and 5900Å (Schmidt, Bergeron and Fegley 1995; Schmidt et al. 1999). The former authors argue that these analogous but apparently displaced bands (relative to those of C2) are likely due to a different but related molecule. A detailed chemical equilibrium analysis of H/He/C mixtures under the physical conditions encountered in the atmospheres of these peculiar objects suggests that C2H is a molecule preferentially formed — provided a trace abundance of hydrogen is present. To be sure, no calculations or measurements exist for molecular transitions of the C2H molecule. The properties of SDSSJ2232$``$0744, with a color-based $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ estimate near 6,500 K (i.e. not far from the hypothesized boundary for peculiar-DQ formation) fits nicely into this picture. However, the existence of three stars in Fig. 8 (as well as the GSC2 star mentioned above) that are redder, but have apparently normal C2 bands, would require a significant range of H/He/C abundances in these stars.

The third star (SDSSJ1113+0146) and seventh star (SDSSJ1333+0016) both exhibit distorted spectra, both have counterparts in the literature with similar spectra, and both show significant circular polarization in data taken at the MMT. SDSSJ1113+0146 appears similar to LP 790-29, a star with a temperature 7,500 K exhibiting distorted and displaced carbon bands and strong polarization (Liebert et al. 1978; Wickramasinghe & Bessell 1979; Schmidt et al. 1999). Bues (1999) modeled that star with a field strength of 50 MG. SDSSJ1333+0016 has a spectrum with strong, scalloped carbon bands almost identical to the spectrum of LHS 2229 (Schmidt et al. 1999). These authors make the case that the displaced, rounded band features are more likely associated with those due to the hypothesized C2H bands. Indeed, the energy distribution of LHS 2229 suggests that its $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is lower than 6300 K.

In summary, the new DQ stars found here show a transition from stars with atomic carbon to stars with molecular carbon that is correlated with color (and presumably temperature) as we would expect. However, the redder, cooler DQ stars have a wide range of C2 band strength at a given color, and the two reddest stars are probably as cool as any DQ stars, but appear to have “normal” C2 bands. The interpretation is complicated by two good candidates for highly magnetic, polarized WDs showing distorted bands. No new detections of stars with CH features were made.

### 3.4 Metallic-lined DZ Stars

The occurrence of heavy elements — calcium, and sometimes also magnesium, iron, and other species — in cool helium WD atmospheres can result in quite strong spectral blanketing at primarily ultraviolet wavelengths. The origin of this additional opacity in a small fraction of cool non-DA WDs is believed to be interstellar or circumstellar accretion. When the absorption is sufficiently strong, the reddening of the $`ur`$ color can pull these stars out of the normal helium WD locus. For this class of WD, some of the stars found so far by SDSS substantially enrich the variety of spectra that are known.

Most DZ stars found in SDSS spectra exhibit only the Ca II H&K resonance doublet. There are five found in the 41-plate sample and listed in Table 2, although one (SDSSJ0944$``$0039) is hot enough to have He lines too and is classified as DBZ. Their spectra are shown in Figure 9, together with the brightest of the DC stars (with no detected features) from the 41-plate sample. That they are degenerate dwarfs and not subdwarfs is virtually guaranteed by the nondetections of such features as the Ca I 4227Å line, the 4300Å CH band, H$`\beta `$, the Mg I 5175Å triplet, and the Na I 5892Å resonance doublet. The energy distributions (flat $`gi`$ colors) suggest that these objects are warm; a Bergeron pure-He model of 9500 K has zero color. However, the pure-He models may overestimate the temperatures of DZ stars (Wolff et al. 2002). The wide range of Ca line strengths among these stars with similar colors is obvious. Although SDSSJ1610+0046 has weak Ca lines, it is classified DC: as the reddening is relatively high and the lines may be interstellar.

In Figure 10, ten spectra of DZ stars are shown that feature a detection of metallic lines other than calcium. Most of them show lines of Mg I at 3829, 3832, 3838, 5167, 5173, and 5184 Å, and several show the NaD lines at 5890 and 5896 Å. The Ca II lines at 3933 and 3968 Å are generally strong, and the CaI lines at 4226, 4335, and 4455 Å are often present. The CaII infrared triplet at 8498, 8542, and 8662 Å is clearly present in most of the warmer stars, although the noise in the spectra left after sky subtraction prevents seeing the lines in the fainter stars. The spectra are plotted in order of $`rz`$ color that is probably close to their order of temperature. The first three stars are the warmest, with temperatures 10000–12000 K, as indicated by their colors compared to the Bergeron models with pure He atmospheres. The next four spectra are redder, show generally stronger Mg lines (including lines of MgI at 4352, 4703, and 5528 Å, and perhaps of MgII at 4481 Å), and all show numerous lines of FeI — we return to them below. The third and fifth spectra (SDSSJ0939+5550 and SDSSJ0956+5912) also show Balmer lines and are DZA, an unusual type examplified by Ross 640 (Liebert 1977).

The last three spectra in Fig. 10 have unusual (and uncertain) classifications. The eighth (SDSSJ0157+0033) is noisy, but has a a strong turnover of the blue spectrum, suggesting strong Ca (and perhaps Fe) absorption, as well as apparent complex structure of the probable Mg I detection. This structure is reminiscent of the spectrum of the only previously known magnetic DZ star, LHS 2534 (Reid et al. 2001). The spectrum of that star was most noteworthy for its strong, Zeeman-split Na I absorption, but the weaker Mg I lines were also split into several components. While the S/N ratio of the spectrum of SDSSJ0157+0033 is too modest for a detailed comparison, the most likely interpretation is that this star is also magnetic. The lack of distinct features at bluer wavelengths might also be explained by the magnetic hypothesis. Probable Ca I 4227Å appears unshifted in the spectrum, as it does in LHS 2534. A more distinct Ca II absorption appears in the LHS object, but both spectra turn over sharply below 4500Å.

The ninth spectrum in Fig. 10 (SDSSJ0135+1302) probably has very strong Ca absorption and weak, barely detected Mg absorption. It may have broad H$`\alpha `$ absorption, although that apparent feature may be an artifact of incorrect flux calibration. The tenth spectrum (SDSSJ1330+6435) appears to have extreme absorption by NaI (and possibly by Ca, but there is insufficient flux to tell). It appears to be very similar to that of the star 2356$``$2054 found in the proper-motion survey of Oppenheimer et al. (2001). We find SDSSJ1330+6435 also to have a non-zero proper motion, ruling out its interpretation as a broad absorption line QSO.

Returning now to the fourth to seventh spectra from Fig. 10, an expanded plot of the blue end of the spectra is shown in Figure 11, showing details not previously seen in DZ WDs. Detected lines of Ca, Mg, and Na are marked by open circles at the top of Fig. 11 (and their wavelengths are listed in the text above), and some detected lines of FeI are marked by small filled circles. These FeI lines come from multiplet numbers 4, 15, 41, 42, 43, 45, but more lines from other multiplets are probably present as well. It is useful to compare these four spectra to lend confidence that many weak features are real. Many are also present in the strongly blanketed DZ star G 165-7. The FeI lines are barely resolved (FWHM $``$4Å in unsmoothed spectra), and Ca I 4227Å is also prominent and only slightly broader (FWHM $``$7Å). MgI presents itself in a variety of strengths, indicating for SDSSJ0956+5912 and SDSSJ0937+5228 a remarkably strong MgI strength relative to the apparent Ca II strength. The asymmetry in the strong Mg I lines due to the extended blue wings has been seen before in G 165-7 (Hintzen & Strittmatter 1974). Wehrse & Liebert (1980) argued that the asymmetry is explained by fitting a model profile assuming a static theory, rather than the usual impact approximation, for the van der Waals broadening in a neutral helium-dominated atmosphere. Traving (1968) has demonstrated such an asymmetry in laboratory measurements.

In contrast to the fairly sharp lines of FeI and CaI in Fig. 11, the Fe I features in previous spectra of WDs are broader, and often hopelessly blended. They contribute to the reddening of the spectrum below 4500Å in the strong-DZ stars vMa 2 (Greenstein 1960) and G 165-7. To what can we attribute the contrast between the sharp metallic lines in Fig. 11 and the previous objects? A temperature difference is one possibility. G 165-7 has an inferred $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ of 7,500 K (Wehrse & Liebert 1980), while several crude estimates suggest a temperature for vMa 2 near 6,000 K. Cool WDs have higher-pressure atmospheres and greater line broadening, and the SDSS objects could be somewhat warmer. It has previously been suggested that cool WDs with hydrogen-dominated atmospheres could indeed show narrow metallic lines (Hintzen & Strittmatter 1975). SDSSJ0956+5912 does show up to three Balmer lines. The presence of hydrogen in the atmosphere may greatly increase the opacity while decreasing the pressures where lines are formed in the atmosphere. Only a detailed analysis of these spectra can show what the temperatures and abundances are. The breadth of the Ca II lines and the asymmetric Mg I profiles leave little doubt that they are degenerate dwarfs, rather than some kind of peculiar subdwarfs.

### 3.5 Hot subdwarfs

There are at least two spectral classes of these stars with lower gravity than WDs (but not as low as horizontal branch stars or main-sequence F stars), called subdwarf B (sdB) and subdwarf O (sdO). The former show primarily hydrogen lines, generally with helium weak or absent (and sub-solar in abundance due to diffusion). The generally accepted interpretation of these stars is that they are core helium-burning stars which have somehow been stripped of virtually all of the overlying hydrogen-rich envelope. They are field analogs to extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars found in old, especially metal-poor globular clusters. One might therefore expect a temperature sequence of sdB/EHB stars to link to the blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars which occupy a well-defined, unique position in Sloan color-color diagrams (Yanny et al. 2000). However, there is a known class of helium-rich stars similar in temperature to the sdB stars called He-sdB stars.

The 38 sdB and 18 sdO stars found in the 41-plate sample are listed in Table 3. They do not lie on a well-defined sequence of colors (Fig. 1), but scatter throughout and around the colors of the hot WDs. The spectra of the brightest eleven stars are shown in Figure 12. Some exhibit strong helium lines in the spectra, and are likely related to the hotter sdO or helium-rich He-sdB stars. For a few stars here, the quality of the spectrum is too poor to classify the object at all. This heterogeneous group includes objects evolved beyond the core helium-burning phase. It is too early for a systematic assessment of sdB, sdO, and other hot, lower gravity stars in SDSS. However, the substantial number listed in Table 3 shows that the survey will ultimately allow an extensive classification and discussion of these stars.

## 4 Discussion

Some comparison can be made between this paper and WDs discovered previously. A cross-check with the NLTT Catalogue (Luyten 1979) shows reasonable consistency. There are eight stars in Tables 1–3 that have a proper motion $`>`$180 mas yr-1 and are bright enough ($`g<19`$) that they are likely to be included in the NLTT. All but one (the DA4 star SDSSJ1258+0007) are in the NLTT with a proper motion close to the motion found here.

The McCook & Sion (1999) catalog lists 38 WDs in the region of the 41-plate sample. Six additional WDs in our 41-plate sample in Tables 1 and 2 have been identified in the Hamburg/ESO Survey (Koester et al. 2001; Christlieb et al. 2001) or in the Hamburg Quasar Survey (Homeier et al. 1998; Homeier 2002, private communication) and are noted in the tables. Of these 44 WDs, 14 have spectra taken here, and the spectral types agree very well. (The star WD1352+004 was classified DB4, but here is found to have Balmer absorption and is called DBA4.) Most of the remaining stars can be identified in the imaging data, but did not get spectroscopic fibers assigned. Our spectroscopic identification of 269 WDs in this region is an increase by a factor of more than six over the WDs known previously, and gives some indication of the returns that can be expected from the complete survey. Our “complete” region has 10 square degrees of overlap with the 15-hour field of Evans (1992). Evans finds 12 WDs in this overlap region from his reduced proper motions. We have spectra taken of five (3 DB, 1 DA, 1 DA+M), and we have spectra of an additional 12 WDs that Evans did not find — 10 with their proper motions below his lower limit and 2 apparently too faint. Again, SDSS is yielding greater returns in the WDs identified.

With the WDs and hot subdwarfs in Tables 1–3 inside the 41-plate area (omitting the stars in Table 2 outside this area), we can look at the density on the sky of these hot stars. Let us consider two subsamples: hot stars with $`(ug)_0<0.0`$ and $`(gr)_0<0.2`$, and medium-hot stars with $`0.0<(ug)_0<0.6`$ and $`(gr)_0<0.2`$. These subsamples need to be considered separately because a higher priority is given for fiber assignment to the “HOT\_STANDARD” stars with the bluer colors. These two groups contain DA WDs with roughly $`T>22000`$ and $`12000<T<22000`$ K, respectively. Taking stars with $`15<g<20`$, and applying the full reddening corrections (which is not correct for some of the brightest and reddest nearby WDs, but which will not affect the conclusions), a summary is given in Tables 4 and 5. In these tables, columns 2 and 3 give the number of stars with observed spectra, and columns 4 and 5 give the corresponding density on the sky. However, SDSS only targets some fraction of all hot stars for spectroscopic observations; the fraction can be estimated by counting objects in the SDSS imaging catalogs with stellar image profiles and with the same magnitude and color limits as above. The blue stars without spectra are assumed to have the same DA/DB/sdB distributions found from the stars with spectra in each color subsample at each magnitude. Then the densities in columns 4 and 5 can be adjusted to give the total sky densities. The last columns in Tables 4 and 5 give these results for the total density on the sky of blue stars with $`15<g<20`$ adjusted for incomplete selection for obtaining spectra. The tables show that for brighter, hot stars ($`g<19`$ and $`(ug)_0<0.0`$), most stars have SDSS spectra. For fainter stars and for the medium-hot subsample, the fraction with spectra is roughly one-third.

The density of WDs found here is consistent with simulations (Fan 1999) of 5 deg-1 for WDs of all temperatures with $`15<g<20`$ at b=60. The hot sdB/sdO stars outnumber hot WDs at bright magnitudes, as was also found in the PG Survey Green et al. (1986). The numbers reverse at fainter magnitudes, however, as the space density of sdB stars drops at large distances from the Galactic plane. The reversal can be seen in Table 5, where the numbers of WDs and hot subdwarfs are shown from the hot-star subsample with $`(ug)_0<0.0`$ and $`(gr)_0<0.2`$. The star densities in Tables 4 and 5 will vary with Galactic latitude — the latitude dependence will be explored when larger SDSS samples are available.

At cooler temperatures (6000–10000 K), WDs are still separated in color from main-sequence stars, and many can be identified using a combination of color and proper-motion selection. For yet-cooler temperatures (4000–6000 K), proper motion will be essential to isolate WDs, and even then contamination from metal-poor halo subdwarf stars will be a severe difficulty. Finally, WDs at temperatures below 4000 K have their red-IR flux depressed by molecular hydrogen absorption (collision induced absorption). Their SDSS colors then become so distorted that they are easily identified. Stars SDSSJ1337+0001 and LHS3250 (Harris et al. 2001) are seen to be prominant outliers in Fig. 1b and Table 2 — they are still the only stars of this type discovered or recovered in the SDSS. Future papers will discuss these rare stars further as more are found.

Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, and the Max Planck Society. The SDSS is a joint project of The University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, University of Pittsburgh, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington. We are grateful to P. Bergeron for calculating SDSS colors of WD models, and D. Homeier for providing lists of WDs from the Hamburg Survey in advance of publication. SLH, NMS, and PS acknowledge support from NSF grant AST 0205875. Studies of strongly magnetic stars and stellar systems at Steward Observatory are supported by NSF grant AST 97-30792 to GS.


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# The Data Acquisition System Based on PMC Bus

## I Introduction

The data acquisition (DAQ) system of the next generation experiments proposed in KEK/Japan must operate with trigger rates significantly higher than the currently on-going experiments. Numbers of experiments are planned at a high intensity 50 GeV proton accelerator project (J-PARCj-parc ). The KEKB B-factory also plans to upgrade to a luminosity ten times higher $`=10^{35}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$(Super KEKBsuperb ). The trigger rate of these experiments are estimated as 1 kHz $``$ 10 kHz for the J-PARC experiment and $``$10 kHz for upgraded the KEKB experiment. In the above ranges, conventional DAQ systems based on CAMAC, Fastbus, or VME are not appropriate for our needs: CAMAC does not allow high density channels because of its small board size; Fastbus is commercially dying out; and VME does not supply adequate power for analog signals. Because there is no suitable (de-facto) standard system capable of working at such a trigger rate, we developed a DAQ platform which may have a wide range of uses. The first application is the DAQ system for experiments at J-PARC and the Super KEKB experiment.

## II Design overview

We design the DAQ platform with the following features:

* Front-end Buffering:
Signals from detectors are buffered in the front-end while awaiting a trigger decision and the timing signals for data transfer are uniformly distributed to the back-end. This is effective at reducing the dead-time.
* Trigger/busy handshake:
The Trigger/busy handshake works at a trigger rate of up to 10 kHz.
* Front-end data reduction:
Large amounts of data generated by Flash ADC(FADC), can be reduced on the board.
* Data transporting by data link:
Data are transferred downstream to the DAQ system via a standard data link such as a Fast Ethernet.
* Modular system:
The system is composed of modules for maximum flexibility, allowing choice of digitization scheme, processor and data link. Being modular also makes it easier to upgrade, for example, the processor or data links.
* Wide scalability:
The same DAQ system can be used not just for small-scale tests but also for large-scale experiments such as the Super KEKB experiment
* Cost effectiveness

We developed a 9U-size power crate with a 9U-size main board and a 6U-size rear board as the base elements. The power crate has a standard VME32 bus and an extension connector for the power supply. The main board is equipped with a PCI mezzanine card (PMC) bus so that the fastest processor available can be used. The main board has three PMC slots and four front-end daughter card slots. Each of the PMC slots and each of the daughter card slots have a FIFO buffer for efficient data handling. The PMC buses run from the main board to the rear board. The rear board has two PMC slots and a special slot for the trigger distribution card. The front-end function, such as FADC or pipeline TDC, can be installed as front-end daughter cards similar in size to PMC cards. The event signals digitized by the front-end cards are buffered in FIFOs, transferred to the processor via the PMC bus, reduced by the processor, and then sent to the event-builder system through the data transfer interface via the PMC bus.

The trigger information is received by the trigger card on the rear board and distributed to each front-end card. Figure 1 shows the crate and a read-out module used for the test.

Details of the DAQ platform components are described in the following sections.

## III KEK-VME crate, an extension of standard VME

We chose a 9U Euro card with a VME32 bus as the base of our system because these are widely used and are cost effective. However, the default VME system cannot provide sufficient current needed for digitization analog devices. Moreover, the standard VME power supply is too noisy for delicate handling of the analog signals. Therefore, we added a dedicated connector as J0 for the power supply, to avoid any concern and to simplify the power treatment. Supplied voltages via the J0 connector are -5.0 V and $`\pm `$3.3 V. Maximum currents delivered by J0 connector are 100A for -5.0 V, 320 A for +3.3 V and 200 A for -3.3 V. KEK-VME J0 connector is used as same as VME64x J0 connector. The definition of pins are shown in Table 1. Eight pairs of the differential-signal bus line for the 100-Mbps LVDS are assigned as S1$`\pm `$, S2$`\pm `$, S3$`\pm `$, S4$`\pm `$, S5$`\pm `$, S6$`\pm `$, S7$`\pm `$ and S8$`\pm `$ in the J0. Its line impedance of the differential-signal bus line is 100 Ohm.

Moreover, we are also developing a low noise and cost-effective power supply.

## IV Read-out module

FADC and pipeline TDC generate large amounts of data. To reduce the data at an early stage, a pipeline buffer and a processor were installed on the board.

The read-out module meets the following requirements:

* A upgradeable processor: because processors are evolving rapidly.
* A changeable data transfer interface: because this technology is also evolving rapidly and experimental setups call for different requirements.

To satisfy these requirements, we have developed a new DAQ system equipped with a PMC for the digital part of the read-out module.

The system consists of four components: two types of base boards, a front-end mezzanine card, and a PMC . One of the base boards is named COPPER (COmmon Pipelined Platform for Electronics Readout). This has four slots for the front-end mezzanine cards on half of the front side, a PMC slot for the processor, and two universal PMC slots on half of the back side. The other is a rear board named SPIGOT (Sequencing Pipeline Interface with Global Oversight and Timing), which has two universal PMC slots and a slot for a trigger module. A front-end mezzanine card named FINESSE (Front-end INstrumentation Entity for Sub-detector Specific Electronics) is a daughter card with A/D converting function. Various types of FINESSE have been made, such as multiple TDC and FADC.

### IV.1 PMC(PCI Mezzanine Card)

The PMC, defined by IEEE1386.1pmc , separates the processor unit and the read-out module. Its functions and electrical characteristics are the same as a PCI, but it measures only 74 mm x 149 mm. It can be used with VME, VME64, VME64x, Compact PCI, etc. Several modules are available at reasonable prices, as the technology involved is the same as that for PCIs used in common PCs.

### IV.2 Base board

One of the base boards is a 9U-size main base board designated COPPER (COmmon Pipelined Platform for Electronics Readout). The other is a 6U-size rear base board designated SPIGOT (Sequencing Pipeline Interface with Global Oversight and Timing). The boards are shown in Figure 4.

The front half of the COPPER is for signal digitizing and the back half is for data processing. The front has four slots for front-end mezzanine cards, which are described below. The back has a PMC slot for the processor and two universal PMC slots. A bus bridge, using PLX technology incorporated in the PCI 9054pci9054 , connects the front local bus and the back PMC bus.

Eight 256KB FIFOs receive data from the mezzanine cards which are passed to the memory on the processor board by a sequencer on the local bus and the PLX PCI-9054.

The SPIGOT is at the back and is connected to the COPPER via a PCI bus and trigger information lines. The SPIGOT has a trigger information module and a PMC card for a data transfer interface such as Ethernet or a serial link(IEEE1394, etc).

### IV.3 Processor PMC

As the processor PMC card, we use a Radisys EPC-6315epc6315 .
The specification of the processor are:.

* 800 MHz Pentium III-M Processor
* up to 512 MB PC-133 compliant SD-RAM with ECC
* 10/100 BaseT Ethernet port
* On-board CompactFlash socket
* 32-bit 33/66 MHz PCI bus interface

We chose PC architecture for front-end data processing, because PC architecture has the following merits:

* It is familiar to many people because it has the same architecture as the common PC.
* PCs can run operating systems rich in function. Therefore we can develop applications easily and drive many complex devices (such as Ethernet TCP/IP).
* PC are common throughout the world, and fast, yet cheap, processors are readily available.
* A large amount of knowledge is openly available.

Processor PMC card EPC-6315 shown in Figure 5.

We use Linux 2.4 on a on-board processor. Linux is a most popular development environments in high energy physics experiments.

### IV.4 FINESSE, Front-end daughter card

The FINESSE (Front-end INstrumentation Entity for Sub-detector Specific Electronics) front-end daughter card for testing the system was developed first, instead of a real FADC or pipeline TDC. It is called a FINESSE-jig and has FIFO logic and trigger/busy handshaking logic integrated on it. It generates the simulated data, and stores it into local FIFO and exports it to the other FIFO on the base board upon receiving a trigger. FINESSE-jig is shown in Figure 6.

FINESSE is being further developed. A recently developed FINESSE is the FINESSE AMT2 which is a TMC (time memory cell)tmc  based pipeline TDC card, has an AMT2 chip. The AMT2(ATLAS Muon TDC 2)amt2  chip is the latest TMC chip developed for ATLAS muon chamber. Its specifications are shown in Table 2

FINESSE AMT2 is shown in Figure 7

Another recently developed FINESSE is the FINESSE FADC which uses for four FADC chips, Analog Devices incorporated AD9235-20. Its specifications are shown in Table 3

## V Performance and stability

We have tested the on-board PCI bus and local bus system for data transfer speed, stability over long periods of continuous use, and thermal stability.

We measured the speed of data transfer from the FINESSE to the processor main memory in DMA mode, using the FINESSE- jig. The measured transfer speed without overhead was 125 MB/sec. This result shows that it works with 95% of the 32bit 33MHz PCI bus performance. We also measured the transfer speed including the overhead of the sequencer on the local bus. The speed was 80 MB/sec when the event size was 200 bytes.

To test for module reliability, we ran the system for 77 hours continuously. To check for error, all the transferred data were compared with data generated by FINESSE-jig.

To test the thermal stability, we placed the read-out module in a thermostatted oven and changed the temperature as shown in Figure 9.

Data generated by FINESSE-jig were read by FINESSE FIFO, transferred by the PLX PCI-9054 DMA via a local bus and a PCI bus to the processor main memory, and then sent using a LAN card via a 100 BaseT network to another computer outside the oven. In order to simulate actual use, we made the setup as shown in Figure 8. Data generated by FINESSE-jig were stored into FINESSE FIFO, transferred by the PLX PCI-9054 DMA via a local bus and a PCI bus to the processor main memory, and then sent to another computer outside the oven through a LAN card. The test was performed at average trigger frequency 10 Hz.

No error occurred in the test. The complete system worked correctly.

## VI Summary

We have developed a widely usable high-density DAQ system equipped with a PMC bus as the internal bus. It has data buffers just behind the digitizers to reduce DAQ dead-time. On-board data are reduced by a common PC architecture. The system is modular and so the processor and the data transfer interface are upgradeable. The system is flexible and scalable and may be applied to a wide range of experiments because of its modular structure and data link interface for data transfer.

The performance of data transfer from FIFOs to processor main memory is 125 MB/sec without errors.

We are developing a refined version of the system with digitizing front-end daughter cards, and a trigger handling and distribution system.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported in Japan by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture. We would like to express their gratitude to all the members of Belle collaboration and all members involved in the J-PARC Project. The authors thank S. Yamada, S. Iwata, F. Takasaki, M. Kobayashi and K.Nakamura.


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# Implications of the WMAP Age Measurement for Stellar Evolution and Dark Energy

## 1 Introduction

The recent results reported from the WMAP CMB probe have provided a wealth of new precision data for cosmology and astrophysics. While some of the results have been anticipated by earlier ground-based anisotropy measurements (de Bernardis et al (2000)), several new and surprising claims have been made on the basis of the first year WMAP data (Spergel et al (2003)). Particular attention has been paid to the facts that the power spectrum at low l (large angle) seems to differ somewhat from that predicted by a single power-law inflationary spectrum, and the fact that the epoch of reionization, presumably associated with the first period of star formation is at a surprisingly high redshift, corresponding to an age of approximately 200 Myr.

At the same time, the WMAP collaboration reported a tight measurement of the age of the Universe, of $`13.7\pm 0.2`$ Gyr (Spergel et al (2003)), by combining their data with earlier CMB and large scale structure data, supporting earlier CMB-derived age estimates (Knox et al (2001); Goldstein et al (2002)) (Note that all parameters we quote here are extracted from this ”best-fit” analysis from WMAP).

While the former two observations may force revisions in our thinking about the early Universe, the latter measurement, combined with constraints on the age of globular clusters can provide new information on the formation of large scale structure, star formation, and the formation history of the Milky Way. In addition, one can put a new independent lower bound on the equation of state parameter, $`w=(p/\rho )`$, for the dark energy that appears to dominate the Universe. (Krauss (2003)).

## 2 The WMAP age and the formation history of the Milky Way

Conventional wisdom, supported by estimates of relative ages of halo vs disk clusters, suggest that halo globular clusters formed during the earliest stages of the formation of our galaxy, before the primordial gas cloud dissipated energy and collapsed to form a disk. Thus, determination of the age of the oldest globular clusters in the halo lead to a robust lower limit on the age of the Universe (i.e. see Krauss and Chaboyer (2003)).

While globular cluster ages have thus presented a good lower bound on cosmic ages, they are less successful at providing an upper limit. This is simply because there has been no easy way to directly determine what the maximum period between the Big Bang and the formation of our own galaxy actually is. Measurements of cosmic structure formation have suggested that galaxy formation began in earnest at redshifts less than about 7, but a minimum redshift at which it is highly likely that galaxies such as our will have formed is far less certain because no direct measurement of such a redshift has been possible. Estimates in the range of $`z12`$ are not unreasonable, and in a cosmological constant-dominated universe this could correspond to a cosmic age of 4-5 Gyr.

By comparing WMAP observations with previous estimates of globular cluster ages, one can derive provide important new handles to probe the likely formation of the milky way galaxy, and in a broader sense the formation of large scale cosmic structures. The two key WMAP observations in this regard are the estimate of cosmic age ($`13.7\pm 0.2`$ Gyr), and the redshift of reionization, at $`z17`$ (Spergel et al (2003)).

A recent comprehensive Monte Carlo analysis of the age of the oldest globular clusters that attempts to incorporate existing systematic uncertainties yields a 68$`\%`$ lower confidence limit age of 11.2 Gyr (Krauss and Chaboyer (2003)). Comparing this with the 68$`\%`$ upper limit on the age of the Universe from WMAP of $`13.9`$ Gyr suggests an $`90\%`$ upper limit $`2.7`$ Gyr as the time after the Big Bang that globular clusters in our galaxy first formed from the primordial halo of gas that ultimately collapsed to form the Milky Way. At the $`95\%`$ confidence level the limit becomes approximately 3 Gyr. This not only improves upon previous estimates, it is the first direct constraint on this quantity.

Of somewhat more interest is a determination of the most probable time after the Big Bang at which our globular clusters formed. Now that WMAP has determined a surprisingly early, if somewhat broad range of redshifts near $`z=17`$ where the Universe reionized, corresponding to an age of about 200 Myr after the Big Bang, it is interesting to know whether this corresponds to an early period of star formation, and whether structures as large as globular clusters of stars also formed this early. Note that Jimenez et al (Jimenez et al (2003)) have recently assumed this to be the case.

A variety of different methods have been used to determine the age of globular clusters in our galaxy. The Monte Carlo analysis referred to above involves dating these clusters using main-sequence turnoff luminosity, and yields an age estimate for the oldest clusters at the 95$`\%`$ confidence level of $`12.6\pm _{2.2}^{3.4}`$ Gyr. The most likely age for these globular clusters is thus $``$ 800 Myr younger than the WMAP lower limit on the age of the Universe. However, because the distribution is broad, the possibility that globular clusters formed before the period of cosmic reionization determined by WMAP to occur $``$ 200 Myr after the Big Bang is certainly still viable (Jimenez et al (2003)). Nevertheless, examining the probability distribution in Krauss and Chaboyer (2003), as fit analytically in Jimenez et al (2003), one finds a 75$`\%`$ likelihood that the oldest globular clusters are in fact less than 13.5 Gyr old.

While not compelling, the possibility that globular clusters in our galaxy may have formed well after reionization could shed light on a number of issues, including whether reionization is due to a very early generation of massive stars and whether such systems formed before (and if so, how much before) larger structures such as globular clusters. This could probe the nature of possible hierarchical clustering. The likelihood of this possibility is increased when one recognizes that several other methods for determining the age of globular clusters, including using luminosity functions (Jimenez and Padoan (1998)), white dwarf cooling (Hansen et al (2002)) and eclipsing binaries (Chaboyer and Krauss (2002)) favor globular cluster ages in the range of 11-13 Gyr.

The existing uncertainty in globular cluster dating techniques is at present too large to do more than hint that there may be a gap in time between reionization in the Universe and the formation of larger scale structures. However, this hint strongly motivates efforts to further reduce the absolute uncertainty in globular dating techniques. In particular, the possible use of the age-mass relation suggested by Paczynski (Paczyński (1996)) by observing eclipsing binaries in a number of different clusters holds great promise for reducing the absolute age uncertainty down to well below 1 Gyr, which would be required in order to firmly resolve this question. Ultimately, direct parallax distance measures to globular clusters will allow main sequence turnoff dating uncertainties to also fall below this level.

## 3 A lower bound on $`w`$

Determination of the distance-redshift relation made using distant Type 1a supernovae (Perlmutter et al (1999); Schmidt et al (1998)), combined with independent estimates for both the mass density in the Universe today, and the geometry of the universe from CMB measurements (de Bernardis et al (2000); Hanany et al (2002)) have definitively established the need for a dominant component to the energy budget that involves a negative pressure.

An obvious candidate for this dark energy is a cosmological constant, with $`w=1`$, but since we do not have any underlying theory for the dark energy one must allow for the possibility that $`w<1`$ (Caldwell (2002)). Lagrangian models that have an equation of state of this form will be extremely exotic, implying for example, a negative kinetic term. In such models energy density of the dark energy will increase with time! As a result, the Hubble constant itself will continue to increase with time.

Age estimates can in principle give strong constraints on values of $`w`$ less than -1, since the age of the Universe is a strongly varying function of $`w`$ for values of $`w>5`$ (Krauss (2003)). In the approximation of constant $`w`$, which is a good approximation if $`w`$ is close to -1, the age relation for a flat universe is given by:

$`H_0t_0=`$
$`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dz}{(1+z)[(\mathrm{\Omega }_m)(1+z)^3+(\mathrm{\Omega }_X)(1+z)^{3(1+w)}]^{1/2}}}`$
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is the fraction of the closure density in matter today, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_X`$ is the fraction of the closure density in material with an equation of state parameter $`w`$.

We display in Figs. 1 and 2, the predicted age of the Universe for various values of $`w<1`$ as a function of the Hubble constant in comparison to the $`2\sigma `$ upper limit on the cosmic age from WMAP, for two different values of the assumed matter density today(corresponding to midpoint of the WMAP allowed range for matter density, and the $`2\sigma `$ upper limit). As is clear from these figures, for a flat universe the inferred bound on $`w`$ from the WMAP cosmic age limit depends sensitively on the assumed total matter density today.

It is important to realize however that one is not free to independently vary $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ and $`H`$ in deriving bounds using the WMAP data. These two quantities are themselves highly anti-correlated in the WMAP fit (Spergel et al (2003)). As can be seen from the WMAP fits, as $`w`$ is decreased (for $`w>1`$), the allowed range of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ decreases linearly, while the allowed range of Hubble constant increases linearly. If we assume this behavior extrapolates to values of $`w<1`$, then we can use this relation to derive a conservative lower bound on $`w`$. The most conservative bound on $`w`$ comes from assuming the largest allowed value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ for any value of H. We fit this value using the anti-correlation described above, and fitting to the WMAP plots to derive $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{max}h^2=0.3090.243h`$ within the allowed range of H . When we include this relation explicitly for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ in the cosmic age relation , we derive limits on the age of the Universe shown in Fig. 3.

We use Fig. 3 to derive a bound on $`w`$. To do this we also note that that lower bound on H derived from WMAP is correlated with the inferred value of $`w`$. If we extrapolate the allowed range of H to values of $`w<1`$, we find a lower bound on H as a function of $`w`$ shown by the thick solid line in this figure. If we use this lower bound on H, and compare the predicted age as a function of $`w`$ with the WMAP upper limit, we derive a bound $`w>1.22`$. If we were instead to allow the full HST range for H in deriving this limit, the lower bound would decrease slightly to $`w>1.27`$.

We emphasize that the bound we have derived here is conservative. A tighter bound would no doubt be possible if a truly global analysis of all the WMAP data were carried out allowing $`w<1`$, including possible correlations between the inferred WMAP age and other cosmic parameters. We hope the WMAP team will perform such an analysis.

For the moment, however, if one combines the result here with the WMAP-derived upper bound on $`w`$, one thus finds an allowed region $`1.22<w<.78`$. Since the value $`w=1`$ is apparently favored within the limited range considered by the WMAP team, it seems reasonable to combine our result with the WMAP result to quote a best-fit range $`w=1\pm 0.22`$. It is interesting, but perhaps not surprising that the uncertainty is symmetric about the best fit value.

It thus appears that $`w`$ is quickly becoming constrained to lie very close to the value it would have if the dark energy is provided by a fundamental cosmological constant, or else some scalar field whose energy density is stuck in a metastable state. Thus, as for the case of a comparison between globular cluster ages and the CMB age described earlier, progress will require reducing existing uncertainties if we are to distinguish between interesting cosmological alternatives. The challenge for future observations that are sensitive to the value of $`w`$ will be to reduce the uncertainty significantly if we are ever to be able to distinguish between a possible cosmological constant from some other exotic forms of dark energy.

The author acknowledges support from the DOE and useful conversations with John Ruhl and David Spergel.