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# Inelastic light scattering and the excited states of many-electron quantum dots

## Abstract

A consistent calculation of resonant inelastic (Raman) scattering amplitudes for relatively large quantum dots, which takes account of valence-band mixing, discrete character of the spectrum in intermediate and final states, and interference effects, is presented. Raman peaks in charge and spin channels are compared with multipole strengths and with the density of energy levels in final states. A qualitative comparison with the available experimental results is given.

Quantum dots, Excited states, Raman scattering

The inelastic (Raman) scattering of light by a semiconductor quantum dot is an optical process which has proven to be very useful as a experimental technique to study excited states. Hawrylak ; Heitmann  The interpretation of a resonant Raman experiment requires, however, a big experimental and theoretical effort. The theoretical description is often so complicated that consistent calculations have been carried out only for the smallest dots. Eduardo ; rusos

In the present paper, we address the question about resonant Raman scattering in a relatively large quantum dot, aimed at reproducing the main features of the Raman phenomenology by means of a transparent and consistent computational scheme. Particularly, we focus on topics such as the character (single-particle or collective) of the Raman peaks, the role of interference effects, Raman peaks for spin-excited final states, the modifications of the spectrum as the background electron density is changed , or the evolution of the spectrum as the incident laser energy moves from close to the effective band gap to well above it. Results of calculations are presented for GaAs dots with AlGaAs barriers. A qualitative comparison with the available experimental results is also given.

Our starting point is the perturbation-theory expression

$$A_{fi}\underset{int}{}\frac{f|H_{er}^+|intint|H_{er}^{}|i}{h\nu _i(E_{int}E_i)+i\mathrm{\Gamma }_{int}},$$
(1)
for the amplitude of Raman scattering. texto  The kets $`|i`$ and $`|f`$ are written as: $`|i=|\psi _i|N_i`$, $`|f=|\psi _f|N_i1,1_f`$, where $`|\psi _i`$, and $`|\psi _f`$ are initial and final $`N`$-electron states, $`|N_i`$ is a state with $`N_i`$ photons of frequency $`\nu _i`$, and $`|N_i1,1_f`$ is a state with $`N_i1`$ photons of frequency $`\nu _i`$ and one photon of frequency $`\nu _f`$. On the other hand, the intermediate states are written as: $`|int=|\psi _{int}|N_i1`$, where $`|\psi _{int}`$ contains, besides the initial $`N`$ electrons, an additional electron-hole pair. $`H_{er}`$ is the electron-radiation interaction hamiltonian, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{int}=0.5`$ meV – a phenomenological broadening.

Eq. (1) shows the difficulties in computing $`A_{fi}`$ for a dot containing dozens of electrons. One should construct approximations to $`|\psi _f`$ in a 30 meV excitation energy interval, in which there could be hundreds of states, and approximations to $`|\psi _{int}`$ in a 30 meV energy interval above the band gap. In the latter situation, hole-band mixing should be taken into account in order to describe scattering to spin-excited final states. Notice that interference effects may come out from the sum over intermediate states. The 30 meV upper bound in final states is a typical threshold for phonon excitations.

Commonly, one avoids computing the intermediate states by approximating the whole expression for $`A_{fi}`$. In Ref. \[Lipparini, \], for example, Raman intensities are almost identified with strength functions (modulated multipole strengths), in accordance to the interpretation given by authors of paper \[Heitmann, \] of their results. This approximation to $`A_{fi}`$ neglects contributions from single-particle final states and interference effects from intermediate states. It is supposed to be valid for laser energies well above the effective band gap. A second common approximation to $`A_{fi}`$, which also neglects interference effects, is the so-called extreme resonance condition, in which $`h\nu _i`$ is very close to the band gap. In this case, Raman intensities are almost identified with excited-state luminescence peaks, i.e. with the peaks in the density of final-state energy levels. This interpretation was used by the authors of Ref. \[Hawrylak, \].

In our calculations, we start from the exact quantum-mechanical expression (1), and construct Random-Phase approximations to $`|\psi _f`$, and Tamm-Dankoff approximations to $`|\psi _{int}`$. nuclear  Explicit formulae, which should be particularised to the pure electronic system, may be found in \[nuestro, \]. As the number of electrons in the dot is supposed to be relatively high, we expect that the insertion of the mean field functions $`|\psi _{int}`$ and $`|\psi _f`$ into (1) would lead to a qualitatively correct picture for the positions and intensities of Raman peaks. The Hartree-Fock (HF) basis is used throughout. For holes, the HF equations include the electron mean field and the heavy-light hole mixing, treated by means of the Kohn-Luttinger hamiltonian. A typical calculation in a 42-electron dot involves around 60 many-particle final states (for a given multipolarity and spin), and around 2000 intermediate states.

We first consider the extreme resonance condition, in which the incident laser energy is very close the effective band gap. In Fig. 1(a), the calculated Raman intensities (squared amplitudes smeared out by means of Lorentzians of width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_f=0.5`$ meV) for charge monopolar final states are shown. The dot is assumed to have a disk geometry with a 25 nm width. The lateral confinement is parabolic, with $`\mathrm{}\omega _0=6`$ meV, reproducing the observed position of the Kohn mode in the dots studied in Ref. \[Heitmann, \]. The magnetic field, equal to 1 Tesla, is perpendicular to the dot plane. The final states considered in Fig. 1 have the same spin and angular momentum projection onto the magnetic field axis as the initial state values. The nominal band gap is taken as 1560 meV. This gap is renormalized by Coulomb interactions to, approximately, 1567 meV. Raman amplitudes are computed in backscattering geometry. The initial and final light polarization vectors are parallel. The laser energy is swept from 1562 to 1590 meV, that is from below the effective band gap to 20 meV above it. The position of the collective monopolar state, which carries more than 99 % of the energy-weighted sum rule, is signalized by a vertical line. In all of our calculations, the incident (and scattered) light form an angle of 30 degrees with the dot normal, which means that the maximum transferred momentum of light is $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_x0.8\times 10^5\mathrm{cm}^1`$. Under these circumstances, Raman spectra are dominated by the lowest multipolar final states.Heitmann

Let us notice that the collective monopolar state is seen as a distinct peak at any laser frequency. However, to final states carrying an almost zero fraction of the sum rule, for which reason we will call them single-particle excitations (SPE), are associated stronger, and wider, Raman peaks at energies below and above the collective state.

Figure 1(b) shows the Raman efficiency of two particular final states, that is their Raman intensities as a function of $`h\nu _i`$. In general, the intensity of a given Raman peak in Fig. 1(a) is the result of three factors: (1) the number of final states contributing to it, (2) the Raman efficiencies of these states, and (3) interference effects.

Raman intensities corresponding to the collective monopolar state and to a SPE with Raman shift of 8.8 meV are shown in Fig. 1(b). The first interesting remark, in qualitative accordance with the existing observations, is that SPE are enhanced when $`h\nu _i`$ is close to the band gap, whereas collective states are enhanced as $`h\nu _i`$ is raised. On the other hand, the contribution of each particular intermediate state at resonance, i.e. $`|f|H_{er}^+|intint|H_{er}^{}|i|^2/\mathrm{\Gamma }_{int}^2`$, to the Raman intensity of the SPE is also included in the figure (vertical lines) in order to evaluate interference effects. Peaks in the Raman efficiency are related to particular intermediate states giving strong contributions to the sum (1). In the figure, weak constructive or destructive interference in the neighborhood of these intermediate states can be appreciated.

The density of final state energy levels, computed from the Random Phase approximation to $`|\psi _f`$, is superposed to the Raman spectra in Fig. 2 in order to show its correlation with Raman peaks. The shape of the Raman spectrum depends on the frequency, but it is apparent that strong Raman peaks are associated to bunches of energy levels. These findings are in qualitative agreement with the experimental results of paper \[Hawrylak, \].

In Fig. 2, curves labelled by a $``$ symbol represent a situation in which the incident an scattered light polarization vectors are orthogonal. For charge excitation (CE) channels, in the upper panel, the Raman spectrum in the orthogonal-polarization case is similar to that one in the parallel-polarization geometry. In the lower panel, Raman intensities in spin-excitation (SE) dipolar final states, are shown. By SE we mean states in which the total electronic spin projection is different from the initial state value. The difference in magnitude of peaks related to CE and SE in the orthogonal polarization would mean that SE peaks will be, in general, washed out, and only the lowest-energy SE levels, which are shifted to the left of CE states, have a chance to be measured. Notice also that the collective SE dipolar state, carrying more than 95 % of the sum rule, and which position is represented also by a drop line, is observed only as a very small shoulder in the Raman spectrum.

Next, we consider the question about the effect of the density of the electronic cloud on the Raman spectra. In our 42-electron dot, we can control the density by varying the confinement strength: $`\rho N^{1/2}m_e\omega _0/\mathrm{}`$. Notice, for instance, that the density of larger dots with around 200 electrons, as those studied in Ref. Heitmann, , is similar to the density of our 42-electron dot when the parameter $`\mathrm{}\omega _0`$ is doubled from 6 to 12 meV. Calculations were done also for a smaller frequency, $`\mathrm{}\omega _0=3`$ meV, with the purpose of obtaining the whole picture. In our calculations, we fixed the Coulomb-to-oscillator ratio of characteristic energies, given by the parameter $`e^2m_e^{1/2}/(\kappa \mathrm{}^{3/2}\omega _0^{1/2})`$. Pade  It means that the relative strength of Coulomb interactions is kept constant when the density is varied.

The results are shown in Fig. 3. For each value of $`\mathrm{}\omega _0`$, Raman spectra are computed for laser energies 5 and 25 meV above the effective band gap. The curves can be qualitatively understood on simple grounds. An increase in $`\omega _0`$ leads to a scaling of energies. For example, in Fig. 3 (c), only the first SP and the first collective peaks are seen, the rest of the spectrum is moved to higher energies. In accordance to this scaling, the density of energy levels decreases both in intermediate and final states. Thus, the intensity of the Raman peaks should decrease by roughly a factor of 4 as $`\omega _0`$ is doubled. The relative intensity of peaks depends on the Raman efficiency, as mentioned above.

Finally, we want to discuss the situation in which the incident laser energy is well (around 50 meV) above the effective band gap. Heitmann ; Heitmann2  This regime is characterized by the following properties: (a) an overall decrease of Raman amplitudes, (b) a reinforcement of the peaks associated to collective states, and (c) a suppression of the SP peaks, except at the lower edge of SP excitations Sarma .

In this case, it seems useful to distinguish the resonant and off-resonance contribution to the sum (1). Only the latter can be evaluated within our computational scheme because, for excitation energies around 50 meV, the intermediate states are doubtfully described by a simple Tamm-Dankoff approximation, and a constant $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{int}`$ is not a reasonable approximation. Indeed, one expects, for example, an increasing $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{int}`$ as we move to intermediate states with higher excitation energies.

In Fig. 4, the off-resonance contribution to the Raman spectrum for laser energy 50 meV above the band gap is drawn, along with one spectrum, already shown in Fig. 3 (c), corresponding to an incident photon energy 25 meV above the band gap. The off-resonance curve is computed from a sum which includes, as before, intermediate states with excitation energies below 30 meV. The smaller amplitude of this curve is due to the big energy denominators. It is apparent, however, that the SP peak is stronger suppressed than the collective one.

In general, the amplitude of the resonant contribution to (1) shall decrease as $`h\nu _i`$ rises. The reason is that both $`f|H^+|int`$ and $`int|H^{}|i`$ decrease, while $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{int}`$ increases in this case. The reinforcement of collective states could be the effect of resonances in the intermediate states, but this is a question that requires a further work.

In conclusion, we presented calculations for the amplitudes of resonant Raman scattering in 42-electron GaAs quantum dots based on the exact perturbation-theory formula (1). To our knowledge, the largest previous calculation calc  considered a 12-electron dot, only one valence hole sub-band (the heavy hole), and assumed a spin unpolarized HF ground state.

Features related to SP (dominant) and collective final-state excitations are apparent when the incident laser energy is varied in a 20 meV energy interval above the effective band gap. These features may be correlated to bunches of final-state energy levels and to particular intermediate states giving strong contributions to the sum (1). Weak constructive or destructive interference effects can be appreciated in this regime. The intensity of spin-excitation peaks is shown to be one or two orders of magnitude weaker than the intensity of charge-excitation peaks for these laser energies. It means that only the lowest-energy spin excited states have a chance to be measured. On the other hand, for $`h\nu _i`$ well above the band gap, the off-resonance contribution to the Raman spectrum shows a strong suppression of SP peaks. These results are in qualitative agreement with the observations.

There are many interesting points still uncovered. For example, to clarify the properties of the intermediate states giving a strong contribution to (1). In quantum wells and for Raman shifts above 30 meV, peaks in the Raman efficiency of collective SE are shown to correspond to the absorption or emission of photons of particular frequencies, which are identified in PLE as a series of “excitonic” states Danan . These “resonances” in intermediate states could be the reason of strong enhancement of collective SE in quantum dots for $`h\nu _i`$ well above the band gap. Indeed, SE collective peaks were observed in this regime Heitmann . These, and other, uncovered aspects of Raman scattering in quantum dots indicate the need for more experimental and theoretical work on this subject.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors acknowledge useful discussions with A. Cabo, F. Comas, E. Menendez-Proupin, R. Perez, and C. Trallero-Giner.


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# Chapter 1 Search for TeV Emission at the Location of Milagro Sky Survey Hot Spot Using the Whipple Gamma-Ray Telescope

## Chapter 1 Search for TeV Emission at the Location of Milagro Sky Survey Hot Spot Using the Whipple Gamma-Ray Telescope

### Abstract

A recent report from the Milagro collaboration included an all-sky map created using one year of data from Milagro (peak sensitivity at 3-4 TeV for Crab-like spectra). This map included an unidentified excess that was brighter than the Crab and was the second brightest spot on the map. The hot spot was within the error box of the EGRET unidentified source 3EG J0520+2556. No strong and steady emission was detected by the Whipple telescope at, or in the vicinity of, either position. The 95% confidence level flux upper limits from Whipple observations at the locations of the Milagro hot spot and the EGRET UnID position are 0.09 Crabs and 0.14 Crabs, respectively.

### 1. Introduction

During recent years, the field of very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy has firmly established itself by detecting and studying a handful of sources at a high significance level . Several of these sources have been confirmed by independent instruments and detected during many different time periods. However, the number of known VHE sources is small. The low number of sources may be due to the transient nature of the sources and/or the intrinsically low flux of most emitters of VHE gamma rays. The paucity of known sources has led to many statistical limitations when attempts are made to interpret the data. For this reason, it is of utmost importance to discover new sources and expand the number of sources and the range of source types that can be studied.

The limited number of sources has driven researchers to pursue two primary methods of increasing the VHE source catalog. One technique has been to build instruments that can detect lower flux levels, such as HESS, MAGIC, VERITAS, and CANGAROO-III . Another approach has attempted to overcome the low duty cycle of imaging air Čerenkov telescopes (IACTs) by building upon extensive air shower array technology. Examples of instruments that have pursued the latter approach are Milagro  and the Tibet array . The disadvantage of this approach is that typical sensitivities are significantly less than those of the IACTs, while the advantage is that the entire overhead sky can be continuously monitored.

### 2. Milagro and EGRET Observations

The Milagro gamma-ray observatory, located near Los Alamos, New Mexico, is continuously scanning the entire overhead northern hemisphere. The Milagro collaboration has reported on a survey of the northern sky using one year of data, spanning 15 Dec 2000 to 15 Dec 2001 . To produce a sky map, these data were first binned into 0.1 x 0.1 bins, which is significantly smaller than the nominal angular resolution of the instrument ($``$0.75). These data were then summed into an optimal bin size of 2.1 degrees . The calculation of the number of independent bins on the Milagro sky map is not straightforward, and it has not been attempted here. The skymap that is produced from this data has three hot spots. The brightest spot is at the location of Mrk 421. The second brightest spot on the map (RA 79.6, Dec +25.9) was not identified with any known source, but it is within the error box of the EGRET UnID object 3EG J0520+2556. This ”hot spot” produced a 4.7$`\sigma `$ excess (pre-trials), and it was brighter than the Crab, which was detected at 3.8$`\sigma `$ in this data set .

The EGRET UnID object 3EG J0520+2556 (RA 80.14, Dec +25.75) was detected with a significance of 6.2$`\sigma `$ above 100 MeV by EGRET on board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, but it has no known association . The radius of the 95% confidence circle has been reported to be 0.86 degrees. The flux was measured as 15.7 +/- 2.7 x 10-8 photons cm-2 s-1, and a power law spectral index of 2.83 +/- 0.24 was measured.

### 3. Whipple Observations

Between Nov. 2002 and Jan 2003, the Whipple 10 meter gamma-ray observatory pointed at the location of the Milagro hot spot and the EGRET unidentified object using two standard modes. In both of these modes, the Crab is used to calibrate the response and the cuts of the instrument. The peak energy response of the current configuration to a Crab-like spectrum is estimated to be $``$390 GeV. The first analysis mode, referred to as TRACKING, observes only at the sky coordinates of the source and utilizes the alpha angle parameter (angle of shower image axis relative to the camera center) to perform background subtraction since gamma-ray events from the source will preferentially produce an image with a small alpha angle. While this method allows more data to be taken at the desired location, it requires an accurate calculation of the tracking ratio, which is the ratio of events with alpha angle between 20-65 to events with alpha angle between 0-15 degrees. By using 64 hours of OFF source data from this season, this ratio has been calculated and applied to this analysis. The second standard analysis mode, referred to as ON/OFF, requires that the 28 minute run that is pointed at the candidate source be followed by another 28 minute run that is offset in right ascension by 30 minutes such that it moves through a blank region of sky at the same elevation and azimuth range as the original source pointing. To perform a 2D analysis in a straightforward manner, ON/OFF data is required. For a more detailed description of the standard analysis and the use of various cuts, refer to Mohanty et al.  and Reynolds et al. .

At the location of the Milagro hot spot, Whipple took 17 runs in TRACKING mode and 8 ON/OFF pairs. Some data had to be discarded due to bad weather and instrumental problems, resulting in 305 minutes of TRACKING data and 139min/139min of ON/OFF data that are high quality. Whipple also pointed directly at the location of 3EG J0520+2556 and recorded high quality data for 166 minutes in TRACKING mode and 83min/83min in ON/OFF mode. Both pointings resulted in recorded rates that were consistent with no source at either location. The TRACKING data taken on the location of the Milagro hot spot led to a 95% flux upper limit of 0.09 times the flux of the Crab, using the method of Helene , and the TRACKING data from the location of the EGRET unidentified object led to a 95% flux upper limit of 0.14 Crabs.

Due to the errors on the positions of both the EGRET UnID and the Milagro hot spot, a 2D analysis was also performed on the Whipple data. The details of the two dimensional analysis are beyond the scope of this paper, however the technique is described elsewhere . No significant emission was found within the 2.6 degree field of view around either source. While there was an excess recorded near the edge of the field of view of the Milagro hot spot pointing, the post-trials significance was found to be consistent with chance. In order to be certain of this, Whipple pointed at this excess position and recorded two ON/OFF pairs that were used to deduce a 95% upper limit of 0.2 Crabs at this location.

### 4. Discussion and Conclusions

Based upon the Whipple data, it is clear that there is no steady VHE gamma-ray source above the 0.1 Crab flux level at the position of 3EG J0520+2556 or at the location of the Milagro hot spot. For the Milagro excess to have been due to a steady source, rather than a statistical fluctuation or a transient source, the required flux would have been at, or in excess of, the level of the Crab. Furthermore, the existence of any particularly strong and steady VHE sources in the immediate vicinity of these two locations has been ruled out based upon a two dimensional analysis. However, this data can not completely dismiss the Milagro hot spot as a statistical fluctuation since it could have been a transient event from a previously undetected object such as a blazar in a high emission state or it could have been due to a source with an unusually hard spectrum. While the latter scenario seems more unlikely than the statistical fluctuation or the transient scenarios, it will be easy to explore with additional Milagro data that has already been taken . In any case, we are left with the firm conclusion that there is no steady emission (at $``$390 GeV assuming a Crab-like spectrum) above 0.23 Crabs from the region of either the EGRET UnID or the Milagro hot spot.

### 5. Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the technical assistance of E. Roache and J. Melnick. This research is supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, by Enterprise Ireland and by PPARC in the UK.

### 6. References

1. Holder J. et al. 2003, ApJL 583, L9

2. Catanese M., Weekes T. 1999, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 111, 1193

3. Weekes T. 2001, proc. of Gamma-Ray Astrophysics 2001: AIP conference proceedings 587, 942

4. Blaufuss E. et al. 2003, in preperation for Proc. of 2nd VERITAS Symposium on TeV Astrophysics of Extragalactic Sources

5. Amenomori M. et al. 1999, ApJL 525, L93

6. Sinnis C. 2002, proceedings of American Physical Society and High Energy Astrophysics of the AAS Mtg.

7. Hartman R. et al. 1999, ApJS 123, 79

8. Mohanty G. et al. 1998, Astroparticle Physics 9, 15

9. Reynolds P. et al. 1993, ApJ 404, 206

10. Helene O. 1983, NIM 212, 319

11. Lessard R. et al. 2001, Astroparticle Physics 15, 1

12. Sinnis, G. et al. 2003, these proceedings


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# You need not be afraid of phantom energy

## I Introduction

WMAP  has confirmed it with the highest accuracy: Nearly seventy percent of the energy in the universe is in the form of dark energy -possibly one of most astonishing discoveries ever made in science. Moreover, recent observations do not exclude, but actually suggest a value even smaller than -1 for the parameter of the equation of state, $`\omega `$, characterizing that dark energy . That means that for at least a perfect-fluid equation of state, the absolute value for negative pressure exceeds that for positive energy density, i.e. $`\rho +p<0`$, and hence it follows that the involved violation of the dominant-energy condition might allow the existence of astrophysical or cosmological wormholes. A most striking consequence from dark energy with $`\omega <1`$ has been however pointed out . It is that in a finite time the universe will undergo a catastrophic ”big rip”. Big rip is a term coined by Caldwell  that corresponds to a new cosmological model in which the scale factor blows up in a finite time because its cosmic acceleration is larger than that is induced by a cosmological constant, making in this way every component of the universe to go beyond the horizon of all other universe’s components in finite cosmic time. If dark energy is phantom energy, i.e. if dark energy is characterized by an equation of state with $`\omega =p/\rho <1`$, and hence there is a violation of the dominant-energy condition, $`\rho +p<0`$, then the phantom-energy density is still positive though it will first increase from a finite small initial value up to infinite in a finite time, thereafter steadily decreasing down to zero as time goes to infinity. A state with infinite energy density at finite cosmological time is certainly an unusual state in cosmology. To an observer on the Earth, this state coincides with the above-mentioned big rip where the universe dies after ripping successively apart all galaxies, our solar system, the Earth itself, and finally molecules, atoms, nuclei and nucleons . For a general cosmological model with phantom energy, the time at which that big rip would take place depends on both the initial size of the universe and the value of $`\omega `$ in such a way that, the larger the absolute value of these quantities, the nearer the big rip will occur. The behaviour of the universe after the big rip is in some respects even more bizarre than the big rip itself, as its size then steadily decreases from infinite down to zero at infinite time. In case that a generic perfect-fluid equation of state, $`p=\omega \rho `$, with $`\omega <1`$ is considered, the above new behaviours show themselves immediately. For flat geometry, the scale factor is then given by :

$$a(t)\left[e^{C_1(1+\omega )t}C_2e^{C_1(1+\omega )t}\right]^{2/[3(1+\omega )]},$$
(1)
with $`C_1>0`$ and $`0<C_2<1`$. We note that for $`\omega <1`$, in fact $`a\mathrm{}`$ as $`tt_{}=\mathrm{ln}C_2/[C_1(1+\omega )]`$. This marks the time at big rip and the onset of the contracting phase for $`t>t_{}`$.

This report aims at showing that the above-described emergence of a cosmic doomsday at which the big rip occurred and the subsequent unconventional evolution of the universe can both be avoided while keeping the phantom energy condition, $`\rho +p<0`$, $`\rho >0`$, $`\omega <1`$, on the dark energy if, instead of a quintessential description of dark energy based on an equation of state $`p=\omega \rho `$, with $`\omega <1`$, we consider a suitable generalization of the Chaplygin-gas model which, at sufficiently late times, does not show observable non-physical oscillations and exponential blowup in the matter density perturbations  that are present in current unstable Chaplygin-gas cosmic models . The latter models describe a single substance which is characterized by an equation of state  $`p=A\rho ^\alpha `$, where $`A`$ is a positive-definite constant and $`\alpha `$ is a parameter which may take on any real positive values. This equation of state has been shown to represent the stiff that simultaneously describes dark matter and dark energy, but gives rise to instabilities stemming from the unobserved existence of oscillations and exponential blowup in the perturbation power-spectrum which arise whenever the speed of sound in nonzero .

The paper can be outlined as follows. In Sec. II we generalize the cosmic Chaplygin-gas models in such a way that the resulting models can be made stable and free from unphysical behaviours even when the vacuum fluid satisfies the phantom energy condition. The Friedmann equations for models which show and do not show unphysical behaviours are solved in Sec. III, checking that in the latter case the phantom energy condition does not imply any emergence of a big rip in finite time. We finally conclude in Sec. IV.

## II Generalized cosmic Chaplygin-gas models

We introduce here some generalizations from cosmic Chaplygin-gas model that also contain an adjustable initial parameter $`\omega `$. In particular, we shall consider a generalized gas whose equation of state reduces to that of current Chaplygin unified models for dark matter and energy in the limit $`\omega 0`$ and satisfies the following conditions: (i) it becomes a de Sitter fluid at late time and when $`\omega =1`$, (ii) it reduces to $`p=\omega \rho `$ in the limit that the Chaplygin parameter $`A0`$, (iii) it also reduces to the equation of state of current Chaplygin unified dark matter models at high energy density, and (iv) the evolution of density perturbations derived from the chosen equation of state becomes free from the above-mentioned pathological behaviour of the matter power spectrum for physically reasonable values of the involved parameters, at late time. We shall see that these generalizations retain a big rip if they also show unphysical oscillations and exponential blowup leading to instability (i.e. if they do not satisfy condition (iv)), but if the latter effects are avoided then the evolution of the scale factor recovers a rather conventional pattern, without any big rip or contracting phase.

An equation of state that can be shown to satisfy all the above conditions (i) - (iv) is

$$p=\rho ^\alpha \left[C+\left(\rho ^{1+\alpha }C\right)^\omega \right],$$
(2)
where

$$C=\frac{A}{1+\omega }1,$$
(3)
with $`A`$ a constant which now can take on both positive and negative values, and $`0>\omega >\mathrm{}`$, $`\mathrm{}`$ being a positive definite constant which can take on values larger than unity. By integrating the cosmic conservation law for energy we get for the energy density

$$\rho (a)=\left[C+\left(1+\frac{B}{a^{3(1+\alpha )(1+\omega )}}\right)^{\frac{1}{1+\omega }}\right]^{\frac{1}{1+\alpha }},$$
(4)
where $`B`$ is a positive integration constant. Let us now define the effective expressions of the state equation parameter and speed of sound, which respectively are given by

$$\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}}=\frac{p}{\rho }=\frac{C+D(a)^1}{C+D(a)}$$
(5)
$`c_s^{\mathrm{eff2}}={\displaystyle \frac{p}{\rho }}=`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha C\left(D(a)^{1+\alpha }1\right)+(C+D(a))(\alpha +\omega (1+\alpha ))}{(C+D(a))D(a)^{1+\omega }}}`$ (6)
with

$$D(a)=\left(1+\frac{B}{a^{3(1+\alpha )(1+\omega )}}\right)^{\frac{1}{1+\omega }}.$$
(7)
One can then interpret the model by taking the limit of these parameters as $`a0`$ and $`a\mathrm{}`$, at which limits they respectively become $`\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}}0`$ and $`c_s^{\mathrm{eff2}}0`$ (that correspond to the pressureless CDM model), and $`\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}}1`$ and $`c_s^{\mathrm{eff2}}\alpha +\omega (1+\alpha )`$ (that correspond to a pure cosmological constant). Such as we have defined it so far, the present model does not satisfy condition (iv) above, as the evolution of density perturbations $`\delta _k`$ with wave vector $`k`$

$$\delta _k^{\prime \prime }+F(\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}},c_s^{\mathrm{eff}})\delta _k^{}G(\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}},c_s^{\mathrm{eff}},k)\delta _k=0,$$
(8)
where the prime denotes differentiation with respect to $`\mathrm{ln}a`$, and

$$F(\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}},c_s^{\mathrm{eff}})=2+\xi 3(2\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}}c_s^{\mathrm{eff2}})$$
(9)
$$G(\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}},c_s^{\mathrm{eff}},k)=\frac{3}{2}\left(16c_s^{\mathrm{eff2}}+8\omega ^{\mathrm{eff}}3\omega ^{\mathrm{eff2}}\right)\left(\frac{kc_s^{\mathrm{eff}}}{aH}\right)^2,$$
(10)
with $`H`$ the Hubble parameter,

$$\xi =\frac{2}{3}\left[1+\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Omega }_M}1\right)a^{3(1+\alpha )(1+\omega )}\right]^1$$

and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ the CDM density defined from Eq. (2.3) in the limit $`a0`$, shows oscillations and exponential blowup because $`c_s^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is generally nonzero.

## III Avoiding the big rip

In case that $`\omega <1`$ for the large values of the scale factor for which dominance of the dark-phantom energy is expected, one can approximate the Friedmann equation that corresponds to the considered model as follows

$$\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\right)^2L^2a^3,$$
(11)
in which $`L^2=8\pi GB^{1/[(1+\alpha )(|\omega |1)]}`$. The solution to this equation is

$$a(t)\left(a_0^{3/2}\frac{3L(tt_0)}{2}\right)^{2/3},$$
(12)
where $`a_0`$ and $`t_0`$ are the initial values of the scale factor and time, respectively. It is easy to see that in the considered case the phantom energy condition always satisfies $`p+\rho <0`$ and there will be a big rip, taking place now at a time

$$t_{}\frac{2}{3a_0^{3/2}L},$$
(13)
followed as well by a contracting phase where the size of the universe vanishes as $`t\mathrm{}`$. Note that, as it was pointed out before, the time at which the big rip occurs turns out to depend on the initial size of the universe $`a_0`$, in such a way that the big rip becomes nearer as $`a_0`$ is made larger. Thus, the above model, which is actually excluded because it shares the same kind of instabilities as the original cosmic Chaplygin-gas model , shows a cosmological big rip.

In order to allow for both stability and compatibility with observations, we consider next a model in which $`c_s^{\mathrm{eff}}0`$ as $`t\mathrm{}`$ and the nonzero value of parameter $`B`$ is small enough. The first of these conditions can be achieved by simply imposing $`\alpha +\omega (1+\alpha )=0`$, i.e.

$$1+\alpha =\frac{1}{1+\omega }.$$
(14)
The equation of state and the expression for the energy density are then reduced to read:

$$p=\rho ^\alpha \left[C+\left(\rho ^{1+\alpha }C\right)^{\frac{\alpha }{1+\alpha }}\right],$$
(15)
$$\rho (a)=\left[C+\left(1+\frac{B}{a^3}\right)^{1+\alpha }\right]^{\frac{1}{1+\alpha }}.$$
(16)
This equation of state satisfies then all the condition (i) - (iv) imposed above.

According to condition (3.4) the phantom-dark energy with $`\omega <1`$ immediately implies that $`\alpha <1`$ too. In such a case we can check that $`p+\rho <0`$ for all values of the scale factor and, in order to ensure positiveness of the energy density, we must have $`A=|A|`$ and keep $`B>0`$. Then, for the large values of the scale factor for which phantom-dark energy is expected to dominate over matter, the energy density can be approximated to

$$\rho \left(\frac{|A|}{|\omega |1}\right)^{(|\omega |1)}\left(1+\frac{B}{|A|(|\omega |1)a^3}\right).$$
(17)
We can now write for the Friedmann equation

$$\left(\frac{\dot{a}}{a}\right)^2\stackrel{~}{A}\left(1+\frac{\stackrel{~}{B}}{a^3}\right),$$
(18)
where

$$\stackrel{~}{A}=\mathrm{}_p^2\left(\frac{|\omega |1}{|A|}\right)^{|\omega |1}>0$$
(19)
$$\stackrel{~}{B}=\frac{B}{(|\omega |1)|A|}>0,$$
(20)
with $`\mathrm{}_p^2=8\pi G/3`$. The solution to Eq. (3.8) is

$$a(t)D\left(C_0e^{\frac{3}{2}\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{A}}(tt_0)}e^{\frac{3}{2}\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{A}}(tt_0)}\right)^{\frac{2}{3}},$$
(21)
where

$$D=a_0\left(\frac{\mu }{4C_0}\right)^{1/3},$$
(22)
$$C_0=\frac{\sqrt{1+\mu }1}{\sqrt{1+\mu }+1}$$
(23)
and

$$\mu =\stackrel{~}{B}a_0^3.$$
(24)
We notice that $`aa_0`$ as $`tt_0`$ and $`a\mathrm{}`$ as $`t\mathrm{}`$, and hence there is not a big rip for this solution.

## IV Conclusion

It appears then that if we choose a general equation of state for dark energy which is reasonably free from instabilities and unphysical effects, then a phantom energy can be predicted which does not show any big rip at finite time. The key difference between the scale factor given by Eq. (3.11) and that given by Eq. (1.1) is in the sign of the overall exponent of the right-hand-side; while in Eq. (1.1) it is negative for $`\omega <1`$, in Eq. (3.11) it is positive for the same case. Thus, cosmology can co-exist with these phantoms in a quite safe manner.

###### Acknowledgements.

The author thanks Mariam Bouhmadi and Carmen L. Sigüenza for useful conversations. This work was supported by MCYT under Research Project No. BMF2002-03758.


text:
# The issue of aliasing in PSR B0943+10 I Limitations of the physical model

## 1 Introduction

The rotation powered radio pulsar PSR B0943$`+`$10 has a very narrow feature in the longitude resolved spectrum of intensity fluctuations; its $`Q`$, defined as its central frequency divided by its width, is relatively high (Taylor & Hueguenin 1971; Backer, Rankin & Campbell 1975; Sieber & Oster 1975). Recently Deshpande & Rankin (1999, 2001; henceforth DR1999 and DR2001) put its $`Q`$ at $`>>500`$, and also claim that this very narrow spectral feature, occurring at 0.465 cycles per pulsar period \[cpp\], is an alias of the actual value 0.535 \[cpp\]. Backer (1973) noted such a general possibility in radio pulsars and claimed, based on the phase information in the fluctuation spectrum, that PSR B2303+30 has an aliased spectral feature. This was contested by Sieber & Oster (1975), who state on their page 326 that “even a phase analysis, contrary to Backer’s statements (Backer 1973), is unable to decide between the two possibilities”, viz., whether the spectral feature is aliased or not. Indeed, in a later paper Backer did not repeat such a claim for PSR B0943$`+`$10, whose fluctuation spectrum is similar to that of PSR B2303+30 (Backer, Rankin & Campbell 1975); he quoted the the true value as 0.465 \[cpp\]. However, In the view of DR2001, Sieber & Oster (1975) “came to the wrong conclusion”.

Like earlier workers, DR2001 associate this high $`Q`$ spectral feature with the well known phenomenon of systematically drifting sub pulses in radio pulsars, and offer three arguments, involving signal processing of position modulated pulses, which are by themselves not sufficient to resolve the aliasing issue. They need to make the crucial assumption that the Ruderman & Sutherland (1975) model (henceforth RS1975) applies to the data of PSR B0943$`+`$10. Only then are they able to interpret the high $`Q`$ feature as arising on account of 20 uniformly spaced sparks on the polar cap, rotating very stably round the magnetic axis, once every $``$ 37.35 pulsar periods ($`41`$ s). Only after this are they are able to study the issue of aliasing and claim to have resolved it. For a brief and clear summary of the crucial argument of DR2001 regarding aliasing, see the second last para on page 739 of Edwards & Stappers (2002), and the corresponding footnote.

This is the first paper in the series that critically analyzes the DR1999 and DR2001 papers regarding the issue of aliasing. It argues that they are not justified in using this model as an essential input to resolve the issue of aliasing in PSR B0943$`+`$10; there are several factors within the framework of that model, that are capable of perturbing very steadily drifting sub pulses, thereby reducing the $`Q`$ of the corresponding spectral feature to values much smaller than 500. The above factors are not important for the canonical drifting pulsars, in which the $`Q`$ is not higher than $``$ 10. In this paper the RS1975 model also implies the subsequent modifications made to it by Ruderman and colleagues, while retaining its essential features (Cheng & Ruderman 1977, 1980; henceforth CR1977 and CR1980).

RS1975 derive the characteristic period $`P_3`$ for a sub pulse position to recur as

$$P_3=\frac{1}{N}\times \frac{2\pi R_s}{V_d}\times \frac{1}{P}\mathrm{periods},V_d=c\left|\frac{𝐄\times 𝐁}{|𝐁|^2}\right|,$$
(1)
where $`R_s`$ is the radial distance of the spark from the magnetic axis, $`N`$ is the number of sparks laid out uniformly on the circumference $`2\pi R_s`$, $`P`$ is the pulsar period, and $`V_d`$ is the tangential speed of the spark, due to drift in crossed electric $`𝐄`$ and magnetic $`𝐁`$ fields in the vacuum polar gap (fig. 1); $`c`$ is the speed of light. The frequency of the feature in the longitude resolved fluctuation spectrum is then $`1/P_3`$ \[cpp\]; this paper discusses the stability of this quantity.

Let the parameters $`R_s`$, $`V_d`$ and $`N`$ of eq. (1) vary independently with time, due to reasons described below, with standard deviations $`\sigma _{R_s}`$, $`\sigma _{V_d}`$, and $`\sigma _N`$, respectively. Then the expected $`Q`$ of the spectral feature is given by

$$Q\left[\left(\frac{\sigma _{R_s}}{R_s}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\sigma _{V_d}}{V_d}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\sigma _N}{N}\right)^2\right]^{1/2}$$
(2)
## 2 Radial drift of spark in RS1975

First, strict RS1975 scenario is assumed; i.e., the vacuum gap breaks down due pair production in the gap $`𝐁`$ field, and not due to pair production in the Coulomb $`𝐄`$ field of Fe ions (CR1977). Then the velocity of radial shift (or spread) of the spark is given by (CR1980)

$$V_s\frac{1}{2}\frac{ch}{S}$$
(3)
where $`h`$ is the height of the vacuum gap and $`S`$ is the radius of curvature of the $`𝐁`$ field lines.

For the required $`𝐁`$ field line curvature of $`S10^6`$ cm (RS1975, CR1977, CR1980), the time to cross the polar cap ($`10^4`$ cm) is $`100`$ micro seconds ($`\mu `$s); see CR1980 for details. Therefore in the duration of a spark, which RS1975 estimate to be 1 $`\mu `$s to 10 $`\mu `$s, which also tallies with the micro structure time scale expected in a pulsar with period 1.0977 s (PSR B0943$`+`$10), one can expect the spark to have traveled $``$ 1 meter (m) to 10 m. Thus one can expect $`\sigma _{R_s}`$ to be $`>>1`$ m due to this process.

Now, DR1999 invoke 20 sparks, each of size $``$ 20 m, uniformly spaced apart from each other by $``$ 45 m, on a circumference of radius $``$ 145 m on the polar cap. Thus the spark might have moved radially in wards by a fraction $`1/20`$ of its size during its own development, leading to $`R_s/\sigma _{R_s}145`$, implying that the $`Q`$ of eq. (2) might be limited to the value $`145`$.

CR1977 discuss this issue and propose two solutions for dealing with it, which is a departure from the strict RS1975 model. Their proposals probably do not work for high $`Q`$ drifting as assumed in PSR B0943$`+`$10.

First they propose that the $`𝐁`$ field line geometry could be sufficiently complicated to stop such a radial shift; but this might also make the canonical tangential drift non-uniform, and once again decrease the $`Q`$ of the spectral feature due to drifting. CR1977 also discuss another fundamental problem with this scenario.

Second, they propose that the relativistic electrons that penetrate the surface of the neutron star might initiate a particle shower which might eventually lead to a high energy photon reentering the vacuum gap, to produce $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs. This allows the spark to be initiated on the original $`𝐁`$ field line in the vacuum gap, because one has now diluted the role of curvature radiation in the gap break down process. This might cause two problems for very stable (high $`Q`$) drifting: (a) unless this process is highly probable and occurs uniformly in space and time, it might cause erratic sparking in the vacuum gap, which might lead to a reduced $`Q`$ of the drifting spectral feature, due to, say, random variations in shape, size and position of sub pulses; for example, small variations in the angle of entry into the gap of these high energy photons may change the position of the centroid of the spark; (b) unless the curvature related pair production ceases completely, one can not avoid altogether the radial shifting of the spark. This may lead to an effective widening of the spark area along the radial direction, if not to an outright shifting of the spark, which may also reduce the $`Q`$.

CR1977 also propose an even more radical departure from the strict RS1975 model. They propose that alternatively (to the Erber process) the gap can break down by $`e^+e^{}`$ pair production in the Coulomb field of Fe ions, which are released into the gap by the hot polar cap surface, by thermal x-ray photons from the same hot polar cap. They call this the Lorentz boosted pair production. The relativistic electrons returning to the polar cap surface maintain it hot. In this scenario also there are two problems. First, it is not clear what will be the final space distribution of the charges making up the spark – it may be much wider than $`20`$ m, and its centroid may differ from spark to spark by more than 1 m in position. Second, even if a narrow spark was drifting, and it carried underneath it the local hot spot, the cooling time for the polar cap surface is fairly long, of the order of $`0.2`$ s to even 10 s (CR1980). Therefore the spark may not drift as one observes, but may merely widen in the tangential direction. The non-uniformity of this widening may once again causing problems for high $`Q`$ drifting spectral features.

## 3 Change in drift speed of spark

So far the drift speed $`V_d`$ was assumed to be unvarying. However in the strict RS1975 model, it may also depend upon the radial distance $`R_s`$ (see eq. (30) of RS1975 and the subsequent discussion). Thus a perturbation in $`R_s`$ could also lead to a perturbation in $`V_d`$, further reducing the observable $`Q`$ in eq. (2).

Apart from the above, there appear to be very few perturbations that directly affect the drift speed $`V_d`$, at least to the levels discussed here. However, the curvature drift plasma process might set an upper limit to the observable $`Q`$. This arises due to the motion of charges along a curved path. The corresponding drift speed (in the tangential direction) is then given by (Landau & Lifshitz 1975; Chen 1984)

$$V_c=\frac{\gamma }{S\omega _B}\left(v_{}^2+\frac{1}{2}v_{}^2\right)\left|\widehat{𝐒}\times \widehat{𝐁}\right|,$$
(4)
where $`\gamma =1/\sqrt{1v^2/c^2}`$, $`v_{}`$ and $`v_{}`$ are the speeds of the charges parallel and perpendicular to the $`𝐁`$ field, $`\omega _B=e|𝐁|/m_ec`$ is the cyclotron frequency, and $`\widehat{𝐒}`$ and $`\widehat{𝐁}`$ are unit vectors normal and parallel to the $`𝐁`$ field line, respectively. Setting $`v_{}c`$, $`v_{}0`$, $`\omega _B10^{19}`$ Hz, $`S10^6`$ cm, and $`\gamma 10^2`$ to $`10^3`$ (RS1975, CR1977, CR1980), one obtains $`V_c10^4`$ m/s to $`10^3`$ m/s. Comparing this with the $`V_d=2\pi R_s/4122`$ m/s speed of sparks required by DR1999, the perturbation to $`V_d`$ can be estimated to be $`\sigma _{V_d}/V_d`$ of $`>>0.5\times 10^5`$ to $`0.5\times 10^4`$. Currently the latter number would imply a $`Q`$ that is a comfortable factor of $`40`$ higher than the $`Q>>500`$ claimed by DR2001. So in principle it might appear that one can ignore this perturbation to $`Q`$ in eq. (2).

However, DR2001 claim that “longer fast Fourier transforms yield a progressively narrow feature” in their section 3; and they have used a data of length 816 periods only. Even then they claim that the spectral feature “is only partly resolved”. One should worry about the possibility that future (and longer) observations might bring the observed $`Q`$ of PSR B0943$`+`$10 uncomfortably close to the above upper limit. Of course, one should eventually do a full relativistic quantum calculation of eq. (4), and worry about the possibility that future theoretical inputs might also change the above upper limits.

Furthermore, the above drift is charge dependent, i.e., the spark might get charge separated. This may not only widen the spark as it develops, it may also have very important consequences for the simultaneous existence of several isolated and independent sparks on the polar cap, as required by DR1999.

## 4 Change in number of sparks

In eq. (2) a random change of number of sparks $`N`$ by even $`\pm 1`$ causes the $`Q`$ to be $`20`$, much less than the $`>>500`$ claimed by DR2001. Therefore any change in $`N`$ is not allowed in the scenario of DR1999; which is why they claim that in PSR B0943$`+`$10 “20 sub beams rotate almost rigidly, maintaining their number and spacing despite perturbations …”, and that “the 20-fold pattern is always maintained strongly as a stable configuration” (on the right side of page 1010 in their paper). Now, there are two important elements of the physics of pulsars that, together, might not allow the above requirement of DR1999.

First, the polar cap surface is supposed to be a good electrical conductor; this is a necessary requirement for the basic electrodynamics of the pulsar (Goldreich & Julian 1969). Even if the strong $`𝐁`$ field makes the transverse conductivity at the surface small, there must be a capacitive conductivity (i.e., conductivity with a time delay caused by, say, returning currents) near the polar cap surface, for the basic electrodynamics to hold true.

Second, the gap break down process is supposed to be an extremely sensitive one. RS1975 state in their section 5 that “the extreme sensitivity of the discharge growth to small variations in the gap thickness may be reflected in the erratic nature of pulsar sub pulses”. Later modifications to the RS1975 model dilute this sensitivity, since RS1975 assumed a gap potential difference that varies as $`h^2`$, while space charge limited flow in the gap makes it vary only as $`h`$ (eqs. (5) and (6) of CR1980). However, these later modifications also made the gap potential difference very sensitive to the thermionic emission from the polar cap surface, which depends exponentially upon the surface temperature, which in turn depends upon the return current heating the surface (CR1980). CR1980 state at the end of their section 3 that “This extreme sensitivity of the potential drop to the surface temperature makes the gap thermostatically regulating …”.

Given these two aspects of pulsar polar gap physics, the simultaneous existence of $`20`$ stable sparks on the polar cap surface may not be assured. The spark growing the fastest on the polar cap might reduce the overall gap potential difference, thereby inhibiting the growth of other sparks; at least one observational paper has claimed to have seen competition in intensity between drifting sub pulses (of PSR B0031$``$07; Vivekanand & Joshi 1999). Observations certainly allow for 2 or 3 simultaneous sparks on the polar cap (see the earlier references; also see Vivekanand & Joshi (1999)). However, to the best of the knowledge of this author, no one has seen as many as $`>>5`$ simultaneous sub pulses within a period.

In view of the above, the existence of $``$ 20 simultaneous sparks on the polar cap is highly suspect, at least within the current RS1975 framework.

## 5 Thermostatic regulation of gaps

CR1977 state in their abstract that “A potential drop above a polar cap may arise from (A) the inertia of freely released ions in a space-charge limited flow, or from (B) surface binding of ions leading to gap formation”. CR1980 develop this idea, and claim that the gap potential will be, in general, intermediate between the value for a true vacuum gap and the value for a space charge limited flow. Such a situation can easily break into oscillations – a perturbation leading to an increased surface temperature will cause higher ionic current from the polar cap, resulting in a higher space charge and therefore a lower gap potential. This would reduce the (return) heating current onto the polar cap, thus cooling it, and reducing the ionic current. And vice versa when the perturbation decreases the surface temperature. From eq. (14) of CR1980, one can estimate the (cooling) time for the polar cap temperature to decrease by a factor of 10 to be $`0.2`$ s; from their eq. (16) the (heating) time for the polar cap temperature to increase by a factor of 10 is $`0.008`$ s. However CR1980 state that the actual times may be larger due to the approximations made.

Therefore any spot on the polar cap, across which a spark has drifted, might have in general a quasi-periodic temperature variation, with a rise time of a few times $`0.008`$ s and a fall time of a few times $`0.2`$ s; the period of this variation will be the time for a spark to recur at the same spot, which is $`P_3`$ pulsar periods. How periodic or quasi-periodic will depend upon the actual period and the rise and fall time profiles, and their variation. The above time scales will change if the threshold is set not to increase or decrease of temperature by factor 10, but by some other factor.

Now the gap potential is exponentially sensitive to this polar cap surface temperature variation (CR1980). So one may expect to see a corresponding quasi-periodic intensity modulation of the drifting sub pulse. In the spectrum of intensity fluctuations, this will be evident as side bands beating with the drifting spectral feature; their width and spacing will depend upon $`P_3`$ and $`Q`$ of the modulating signal. Indeed, DR1999 claim that in PSR B0943$`+`$10 the drifting feature at period $`P_31.87`$ periods is amplitude modulated by a secondary periodicity of period $`37.35`$ pulsar periods ($``$ 41.0 s). However, this amplitude modulating signal also appears to have a very high $`Q`$, of the order of 500 to 1000. Whatever be the physical reason for such amplitude modulation, one should ensure theoretically that such an observation is possible; i.e., the quasi-periodic temperature variation discussed above, which must be surely operative in the scenario of CR1980, must have a very high $`Q`$, at least higher than 500 to 1000. If not, then a low $`Q`$ quasi-periodic temperature variation will broaden any narrow drifting feature in the fluctuation spectrum.

From the theoretical viewpoint, a problem that the scenario of DR1999 might pose, is that any spot on the circumference $`2\pi R_s`$ is heated 20 times faster than anticipated earlier, i.e., once every 1.87 pulsar periods. This might keep the average polar cap temperature hotter than earlier anticipated; please note that the heating plus cooling timescale may be comparable to this periodicity. Then one might expect to see a significant amount of pulse nulling in the 816 periods of PSR B0943$`+`$10, whereas not even one pulse is observed to be nulled (DR2001).

## 6 Conclusion

This paper examined the issue within the frame work of the RS1975 model, along with modifications made by CR1977 and CR1980. However, It is well known that the circular symmetry for the polar gap assumed in RS1975 is an idealization. A realistic pulsar, having mis aligned rotation and the magnetic axis, has a north-south electric field on the polar cap (Michel 1991). This causes the sub pulse drift to be mainly in the east-west direction on the polar cap, instead of being circular (fig. 2b of Ruderman 1976). This may modify significantly the conclusions of DR1999, where some sort of circular symmetry is essential.

This paper is not a criticism of the RS1975 model. It merely disagrees with its use, given its limitations, as an essential input to resolving the issue of aliasing of the high $`Q`$ spectral feature in PSR B0943$`+`$10, even if that can actually be associated with the drifting sub pulse phenomenon. If such an association is actually invalid, then as to what actually is this spectral feature is a speculation beyond the scope of this work.

Acknowledgments: This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Bibliographic Services.


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# 1 Philosophical Introduction

## 1 Philosophical Introduction

In general the problem of causality is closely connected with basic philosophical problems.

The main philosophical problem concerns a relation between matter and spirit. There are two extreme points of view on this problem:

1. matter is primary and spirit is secondary;
2. spirit is primary and matter is secondary.

In connection with this topic we should remember the discussion between Einstein and Tagore . In this discussion Einstein upheld a materialistic view (1.) and Tagore upheld an idealistic one (2.).

I think that in some sense these extremes can meet or some medium point of view is possible. But at first I determine some characteristic features of these extreme views as I understand them:

1. a materialistic view

1. there is a common or physical or objective time and space (space-time),
    2. there is a unified (physical) law,
    3. there are a theoretical predictability for space-time events and a world order,
    4. a person (human) is a part of material world, he has no a free will;
2. an idealistic view

1. an individual spirit is free from time and space,
    2. any spaces and laws can be formed by consciousness (or consensus),
    3. an individual spirit is unpredictable,
    4. a person (human) is an incarnation of an individual spirit which has a free will.

A materialistic view (1.) is confirmed by advances of natural science. An idealistic view (2.) can be confirmed by demonstrations of parapsychology phenomena.

My opinion is that there are space-time with a unified law and the world order. Being “normal” an individual acts in the framework of the world order but may be he (his spirit) can also escape (in a certain sense, sometimes or often) from the material world and space-time. Thus I think that intermediate states also are possible.

In any case a knowledge of a unified law gives significant advantages for the civilization, in creation of new technical devices.

Thus the object of my present investigation is a unified law of matter. The quantum mechanics description can not pretend to this role because it gives probabilistic predictions in principle. (In the known expression by Einstein “God does not play dice” just a unified law is considered as God.)

In this connection I consider a unified local field theory.

## 2 Concept of Unified Local Field Theory of Matter

The whole history of pre-quantum physics naturally led to the idea of unified field theory for description of matter. All particles of matter and its apparent mutual influence must be represented by some solution of an appropriate field model which must be nonlinear. Also this model must be local, i.e. it is represented by some purely differential system of equations. This is an essence of the ideas which was inspiring for many scientists in their working. Let us mention just a few: A. Einstein, L. de Broglie, H. Weil, A. Eddington, G. Mie, E. Schrödinger, M. Born, L. Infeld, J. Plebansky, etc.

But on the other hand the impressive success of quantum mechanics has eclipsed the idea of unified field theory which was in the air. The quantum mechanics is essentially a linear theory which is much more simple for investigation than nonlinear one. But the quantum mechanics gives the probabilistic predictions only.

Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen in their famous article  had advanced the arguments for the standpoint that quantum mechanical description of reality is incomplete. Bohm and Aharonov  had proposed an example (see also my article ) for demonstration the EPR paradox in which two spin particles scatter in opposite directions. According to the quantum mechanical description for this experiment, a spin states of the individual particles are indeterminate until a measurement event. But as soon as we have measured a spin state for one particle then a spin state for another particle becomes determinate immediately. This resulting situation is connected with the conservation law of full angular momentum for the system of two particles.

This situation looks as though there was an instantaneous interaction between space separate particles. It contradicts with the thesis for locality of interactions. Thus quantum mechanics predicts nonlocal correlations between the events. Well known Aspect experiment  for testing of also well known Bell inequalities  determines that there are the nonlocal correlations.

At first glance the existence of this nonlocal correlations rejects a possibility for description of matter by an unified local field theory. However, actually, this is not the fact. In the following I show that nonlocal correlations between events must exist in the framework of a unified local field theory of matter.

## 3 Concept of Material World and its Nonlocality

Actually the concept of unified local field theory for the material world is similar to the concept of ether, if we understand it in the broad sense but not a narrow mechanical one. This concept supposes only two basic properties: continuity and locality. Mathematically these properties are expressed in the fact that we consider some purely differential field model or some system of equations with partial derivatives. To describe naturally the interactions between material objects, this system of equations must be nonlinear. We believe also that there is a model solution which is determinate in space-time. Thus, according to this concept, we can consider some Cauchy problem or the problem with initial condition for obtaining the world evolution.

Within the framework of such theory a single elementary particle is represented by some space-localized solution. Moreover, because, as we know, elementary particles have wave properties, this solution must have an appropriate wave part. The wave part is considered here in the sense of time Fourier expansion for the solution in own coordinate system of the particle, where this part has the form of a standing wave.

There is a simplest example for such standing wave even for the customary linear wave equation. These well known solutions of the wave equation in a spherical coordinate system include spherical harmonics. For the spherically symmetric case we have the standing wave

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}(\underset{¯}{\omega }r)}{\underset{¯}{\omega }r}}\mathrm{sin}(\underset{¯}{\omega }x^0)`$ (1)
which is formed by the sum of divergent and convergent spherical waves. With the help of Lorentz transformation we can obtain the appropriate solution in the form of moving nondeliquescent wave packet. Then own frequency $`\underset{¯}{\omega }`$ transforms to wave vector $`k_\mu `$ such that

$`|k_\mu k^\mu |=\underset{¯}{\omega }^2.`$ (2)
Using the linear relation between the wave vector and a vector of momentum $`p_\mu =\mathrm{}k_\mu `$ we obtain

$`|p_\mu p^\mu |=m^2.`$ (3)
A single elementary particle solution of a nonlinear field model may be called also as solitron. This term has a similar sense that “solitary wave” or “soliton”. But usually the term “soliton” is used in mathematical context for some special solutions.

It is significant, the concept of unified field theory supposes that all variety and evolution of the material world are represented by some space-time field configuration which is an exact solution of the nonlinear field model. It is evident that this solution is very very complicated but it is determinate on space-time by the field model with initial and boundary conditions. In the vicinity of a separate elementary particle this world solution is close to the appropriate single elementary particle solution, but each elementary particle behaves as the part of the world solution. Thus the behavior of each elementary particle is connected with the whole space-time field configuration of the world solution.

For certain conditions it is possible to consider the world solution part connecting with a separate elementary particle as the appropriate solitron solution with slowly variable velocity. (For the case of nonlinear electrodynamics see, for example, my article .) This level for investigation of the world solution relates to the classical (not quantum) physics.

It is evident that although the model is local, the world solution is nonlocal in character because it is determined on a whole space-time applicable domain. This means, in particular, that there are undoubtedly nonlocal correlations between space separate parts of the common world solution. This sentence may be explained with the help of the following simplest example.

Let us consider a customary plane wave travelling on axis $`x^1`$ with a fixed wave-length $`\lambda `$ (see Fig. 1) such that

$`f`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sin}[(2\pi /\lambda )(x^0x^1)].`$ (4)
This wave is the solution of the customary linear wave equation. At the points $`O`$, $`P`$, and $`Q`$ the field evolution has the forms

$`O:f=\mathrm{sin}[(2\pi /\lambda )x^0],`$
$`P:f=\mathrm{sin}[(2\pi /\lambda )x^0],`$
$`Q:f=\mathrm{sin}[(2\pi /\lambda )(x^0q)].`$
Thus here there are the nonlocal correlations between the field evolution at the points $`O`$, $`Q`$, and $`P`$. Totality of such nonlocal correlations is, in fact, the solution in space-time for the local field model. The possible world solution (which is extremely more complicated than a plane wave) is also the continuous set of nonlocal correlations for the field evolution at the points of three-dimensional space.

Of course, if we make some excitation for field at the point $`O`$ then a propagation of this excitation from this point will have a finite speed. But in the scope of the world solution we do not be able to make this excitation or to modify arbitrarily this world solution. Any excitations of the field at the point $`O`$ belong to the world solution which is a single whole. That is, in this case we must consider also all excitations coming to this point and we will have some standing wave near it. Thus the world solution is rather a very complicated system of standing waves than progressing ones. The initial condition is a common cause of all field excitations and after a long evolution the different correlations may exist, even the strange ones. It can only be said quite positively that the world solution can be represented by Fourier integral (or series) on orthogonal space-time harmonics which are essentially nonlocal. (Here we must remember how a dominant role is played by orthogonal functions in quantum approach.)

The key to understanding the appearance of momentary distant interaction in the experiment, which is considered in section 2, is contained in a concept of chance choice. Within the framework of the world solution a chance choice is absent, but both experimenter and experimental apparatus are a part of this world solution. That is the orientation of particle spin detectors in the experiment under consideration is predetermined by the world solution. We speak about a chance choice because we do not know the world solution.

As experimentalists, we think that we establish the initial conditions for the process under investigation but may be this is too conceitedly and the veritable initial condition was established earlier. But as theorists, we can already calculate many correlations between space-time events.

Thus we can suppose that the quantum mechanical description is the level for investigation of the world solution. This level take into consideration, in particular, the global or nonlocal aspects of this solution.

Nonlocality was founded in quantum mechanics from the outset. In Schrödinger’s picture a free elementary particle (which have a determinate momentum) is related with a plane wave having a constant amplitude on the whole space. In this case the quantum mechanical description does not determine a position of the particle. That is we have the representation of a free elementary particle by a non space-localized wave that accentuates just nonlocal aspect of matter.

As we see, there is nonlocality also in the framework of unified local field theory. But such theory supposes a solitron model for free elementary particle that is intuitively more preferable. Furthermore according to this concept there is a deterministic description of matter.

Thus having a unified mathematical model for matter we must also take into consideration the whole of the material world evolution from a start point when the initial condition was determined. And we can say that there is the global causality in the space-time universe.

As we see the unified field theory approach can give a strong determinancy of events in material world. But my opinion is that we must also take into consideration some things which are outside from the space-time framework of the physical world. Suppose here by definition that these things include spirits. Because a spirit is outside from the material world or a world solution, he may have an influence on initial and boundary conditions. Suppose that a spirit can partially modify the world solution, which is possible with the help of some dynamical boundary conditions. But these modifications must be again nonlocal in general. Thus the world solution is determinate in general and a possible intervention of spirit must be unexpected and unusual in character. This spirit intervention also realizes a global space-time causality in a sense, but this causality is not explained by physical laws. I think that this is a reasonable way for introduction a concept of will to the picture of material world stated above. Thus I believe that in the material world we have a partial nonlocal determinancy which however agree with a unified local field theory of matter.

In connection with the fact that I touch on philosophical problems in this article, I would like also refer to Schrödinger’s book  including considerations which I accept in general.

## 4 Possible Applications of the Unified Local Field Theory

At present we consider a single atom and even a single electron as objects of technology. There is a concept of a single electron transistor  and we can seriously consider prospects for building an Avogadro-scale computer acting on $`10^{23}`$ bits . In such computer using the nuclear magnetic resonance one nuclear spin must store one bit of information.

Traditional computation can do many useful things and this ability can become very much stronger with the possible Avogadro-scale technology. But the traditional computation needs a determinate controlling. Such controlling is possible if we have a unified field theory of matter in the sense that was stated above.

This is one of the possible applications of the approach under review. But, of course, a realization for the paradigm of unified field theory will discover abilities which we do not know at the present time.

In connection with the approach of unified field theory I propose to consider the nonlinear electrodynamics model of Born-Infeld type with singularities . In particular, in the framework of this model the two fundamental long-range interactions (electromagnetism and gravitation) may be unified (see my articles).


text:
# Strange Quark Matter in Neutron Stars? – New Results from Chandra and XMM

## I Introduction

Neutron stars provide an unique possibility to study matter at “low” temperature and ultra-high density. The density in the interior of a neutron star could exceed a few times nuclear density, maybe up to about ten times at the center. Hence one might expect new forms of matter, such as hyperonic matter, pion or kaon condensates, or in particular deconfined quark matter.

The measurement of the mass $`M`$ and the radius $`R`$ of neutron stars puts stringent constraints on the equation of state (EOS) of the matter inside of the star. Since most, if not all, neutron stars have a mass of about $`M=1.4M_{}`$***At least, all binary neutron stars, for which the mass can be determined accurately, have masses close to $`1.4M_{}`$. There are indications for larger masses from X-ray observations, which, however, suffer from a large uncertainty or are model dependent ., it is especially important to determine the radius accurately. The observed radius $`R_{\mathrm{}}`$ is related to the actual radius $`R`$ by

$$R_{\mathrm{}}=R/\sqrt{12GM/Rc^2}.$$
(1)
A radius $`R<10`$ km corresponding to $`R_{\mathrm{}}<13`$ km ($`M=1.4M_{}`$) cannot be explained with a conventional hadronic EOS. Hence it would be a strong indication for a phase transition to a new form of matter in the interior, since a phase transition leads to a softening of the EOS, allowing therefore for smaller radii.

Recently, Chandra and XMM have measured X-ray spectra of isolated neutron stars which had been discovered with ROSAT. These spectra give the surface temperature $`T`$ related to the observed temperature by $`T_{\mathrm{}}=T\sqrt{12GM/Rc^2}`$. Assuming black-body radiation and measuring the distance $`d`$, the radius follows from

$$R_{\mathrm{}}=d\sqrt{f_{\mathrm{}}/\sigma T_{\mathrm{}}^4},$$
(2)
where $`f_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the integrated flux (observed at a large distance from the star) corresponding to the temperature of the black-body.

In the case of the isolated neutron star RXJ1856, $`R<6`$ km has been obtained in this way , suggesting that this isolated neutron star is either a strange quark star or a hybrid star, as we will discuss below. Other signatures for quark matter in neutron stars are e.g. the cooling rate  or the rotation frequency . In this talk we will concentrate on the implications of radius measurements using X-ray spectra. We will show that the results from Chandra and XMM combined with optical data actually do not require RXJ1856 to be a quark matter star.

## II Quark Matter in Neutron Stars (Theory)

The idea of the presence of quark matter in compact stars was proposed a long time ago . It turned out that a Fermi gas of up-, down-, and strange quarks is the energetically most favorable state of quark matter at high densities. Such a system could be realized in two possible ways:

1. Strange quark matter could be absolutely stable, i.e. more strongly bound than the ground state of normal nuclear matter, i.e. iron . Then strange quark stars could exist as self-bound systems without any hadronic matter around it, although a thin hadronic crust is conceivable .

2. Quark matter is not absolutely stable but exists at high densities in the interior of a neutron star, where at a certain density the transition from hadronic to quark matter takes place. Such an object containing a quark matter core surrounded by a hadronic mantle is called a hybrid star .

Now we want to ask: What do quark star models predict for the radius of the star? Using the EOS of the model within the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation gives a characteristic mass-radius relation of the star model. Different quark matter EOS have been studied. First only the MIT bag model without  and with perturbative corrections  have been applied. Recently, a number of other models, such as the Effective Mass Bag Model , the NJL Model , the non-perturbative Dyson-Schwinger equation , a quasiparticle model using input from lattice QCD , the Hard-Dense-Loop approach , and color superconductivity , have been adopted.

As an example, we want to discuss the Effective Mass Bag Model, in which medium effects in quark matter at zero temperature $`T=0`$ but finite baryon density, i.e. finite quark chemical potential $`\mu 0`$, have been taken into account. One of the most important medium effects considered in many fields of physics are effective masses generated by the interaction of the particles, e.g. within a mean-field approach or a quasiparticle Fermi gas. Here we consider effective quark masses following from the interaction of the quarks in quark matter by gluon exchange. The effective quark mass is defined here as the zero momentum limit of the quark dispersion relation. To lowest order perturbation theory, which should hold at ultra-high densities according to asymptotic freedom, the dispersion relation follows from the one-loop quark self-energy in the Hard-Dense-Loop limit  as

$$m_q^{}=\frac{m_q}{2}+\left(\frac{m_q^2}{4}+\frac{g^2\mu ^2}{6\pi ^2}\right)^{1/2},$$
(3)
where the bare (current) up- and down-quark masses can be neglected, i.e. $`m_u=m_d0`$, compared to typical values of the quark chemical potential $`\mu =300`$ \- 400 MeV. The bare strange quark mass, on the other hand, which is of the order of $`m_s150`$ MeV, has to be taken into account. In the Effective Mass Bag Model the strong coupling constant $`g`$ is considered as a free quantity, which parametrizes the medium effect. We consider coupling constants from $`g=0`$, corresponding to no medium effect, up to $`g=4`$, giving the maximum medium effect in our model. Assuming that the most important effects of the interactions are included in the effective masses and the bag constant, we use these effective masses within the bag model.

In this model the density per flavor is given by

$$\rho _q(\mu )=\frac{1}{\pi ^2}[\mu ^2m_{q}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}(\mu )]^{3/2}.$$
(4)
From the thermodynamic relations one finds the pressure and energy density

$$\rho _q(\mu )=\frac{dp_q(\mu )}{d\mu },ϵ_q(\mu )+p_q(\mu )=\mu \rho _q(\mu )$$
(5)
The energy density and pressure of strange quark matter reads

$`ϵ_{SQM}`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ_u+ϵ_d+ϵ_s+ϵ_e+B,`$ (6)
$`p_{SQM}`$ $`=`$ $`p_u+p_d+p_s+p_eB,`$ (7)
where also the electron energy density ($`ϵ_e`$) and pressure ($`p_e`$) have been considered.

We have restricted ourselves to bag constants between $`B^{1/4}=165`$ and 200 MeV. For lower values the phase transition to quark matter takes place already at sub-nuclear density. In particular, absolutely stable strange quark matter is excluded in our model as it requires $`B^{1/4}<155`$ MeV. For $`B^{1/4}>200`$ MeV we find no quark matter in our star models. It should be noted that the effect of the effective quark mass cannot be reproduced by altering $`B`$, $`m_s`$ or introducing $`\alpha _s`$-corrections.

Next we have solved the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equation numerically, where the EOS enters only through the pressure as a function of the energy density, $`p=p(ϵ)`$. In this way we obtained the mass-radius relation shown in Fig.1. Note the different qualitative behavior of strange quark stars and hybrid stars in this plot, where the latter behave similar as hadronic stars.

In the case of strange quark stars, which are located at radii $`R<9`$ km, we observe that medium effects are negligible . In the case of hybrid stars, on the other hand, medium effects play a crucial role. Small medium effects, corresponding to $`g<2`$, imply a quark core in the center of the star whereas larger values allow at most a mixed phase in the center. This is caused by the fact that a large effective quark mass enhances the energy density of quark matter making its presence in the star less likely, as shown in Fig.2.

We have used the quark matter EOS for the quark core and for the quark component of the mixed phase, which builds a substantial part of the star, and a hadronic EOS for the hadronic component of the mixed phase and for the hadronic mantle. In order to test the sensitivity of our results to the hadronic EOS, we employed four different types of relativistic mean-field models including hyperons. It turns out that, independently of the hadronic model used, a neutron star with a quark matter core is typically 20 - 30% smaller than a pure hadronic star. A pure hadronic star has a radius larger than 13 km (for $`M=1.4M_{}`$), while hybrid stars with a quark matter core have radii between 9 and 11 km.

The mass-radius relation of strange quark stars, using the MIT bag model without effective quark masses, and of hadronic stars, using different hadronic EOS, was also considered in Ref.. It was also found that the strange quark stars are typically smaller than hadronic stars, although some overlap between the radii of those stars is possible depending on the mass of the star and the choice of the strange quark matter parameters, in particular if a soft hadronic EOS is used. However, in recent investigations of perturbative  and Hard-Dense-Loop corrections  to the Bag Model, it has been shown that the presence of ultraviolet divergences leads to a strong dependence of the mass-radius relations of strange quark and hybrid stars on the renormalization scale, which had to be introduced to remove the divergences. For example, in Ref. the choice of the renormalization constant of $`2\mu `$ gives a maximum radius of about 6 km with a maximum mass of about 1 $`M_{}`$, while the choice $`3\mu `$ yields a maximum radius of more than 12 km and a maximum mass of about 2 $`M_{}`$.

Using the NJL model for the quark matter EOS, neither a strange quark star nor a hybrid star with a quark matter core exists. Only a mixed phase in center is possible for certain parameter choices , similar as in the Effective Mass Bag Model in the case of large values of the strong coupling constant.

Finally, recent studies of neutron stars, based on a hadronic model with strongly interacting (attractive) hyperons  and with a kaon condensate  showed a radius possibly as small as about 8 km for a 1.4 $`M_{}`$ star which is comparable to hybrid and even to strange quark stars.

From the various results discussed above, we conclude that there is a large theoretical uncertainty for extracting useful constraints on the EOS from the mass-radius relation. Hence it would be desirable to have a reliable EOS for quark as well as hadronic matter within a single approach. In principle such a possibility could be provided by lattice QCD simulations, which, however, so far are not possible at finite density and zero temperature, although some progress has been made recently .

## III Chandra and XMM Observations

Neutron stars are X-rays sources. The X-rays are emitted either from the hot surface ($`T10^6`$ K) or are due to a nonthermal radiation from the co-rotating magnetosphere in the case of a pulsar. These radiation modes are distinguishable by their spectra, namely a black-body or a power law spectrum, respectively. So far seven isolated neutron stars with a thermal X-ray spectrum have been discovered with ROSAT. RXJ1856 is the brightest of these objects. It shows no indications of pulsation . It is important that RXJ1856 has also been detected by the Hubble space telescope at a magnitude of $`V26`$ mag . From optical measurements of the parallax the distance has been determined as $`d=117\pm 12`$ pc .

Chandra and XMM have measured high-resolution X-ray spectra of RX1856. These spectra agree perfectly with black-body spectra and show no indication of lines which are predicted by existing photospheric models . In Fig.3 the measured counts and the spectra, corrected for the acceptance of the detectors, are shown. In the left panels these quantities are compared to a solar-mixture model containing 0.2% of heavy elements given by the solid line. The right panels, on the other hand, show the comparison with a black-body spectrum. Whereas the latter agrees perfectly with the data, the solar-mixture model is clearly ruled out. Also a broad-band spectral feature, e.g. caused by a fast rotation are unlikely. However, a strong magnetic field may lead to a splitting and smearing of the lines by field variations across the surface, which could result in a featureless spectrum similar to a black-body.

Assuming black-body radiation in the X-ray regime, a temperature of $`kT_{\mathrm{}}^X=63\pm 0.5`$ eV is inferred from these measurements. Together with the known distance an amazingly small radius of

$$R_{\mathrm{}}^X=4.3\pm 0.2\mathrm{km}(d/120\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c})$$
(8)
is found. From this radius it was concluded that RXJ1856 has to be a strange quark star without a hadronic crust explaining also the absence of lines .

However, this interpretation does not explain the optical data (see Fig.4). Extrapolating the X-ray spectrum to the optical regime, one observes that the optical flux exceeds the extrapolated one by a factor of about 7. A possible explanation would be that there are two different sources of the optical and the X-ray emission: the X-ray spectrum is produced by a hot spot on the surface, while the optical data come from the entire surface. Then using the constraint that the soft component should not distort the X-ray spectrum of the hard component, a surface temperature of $`T_{\mathrm{}}^{opt}<33.6`$ eV follows, which results in a radius of $`R_{\mathrm{}}^{opt}>16.3`$ km ($`d`$/120 pc) . This solution is shown in the left panel of Fig.4, where the optical black-body spectrum is constructed in way that the extrapolation to the X-ray regime falls below the measured data. The difference between the X-ray data and the extrapolation of these data to the optical regime (dotted grey curve) arises by taking interstellar absorption into account.

However, the two-temperature explanation is questionable since an upper limit of 1.5% for periodic variations in the X-ray data has been found by XMM. This puts a severe constraint on the relative alignment of the rotational axis and the line of sight. Hence, a more reasonable explanation may be based on the assumption of a uniform surface temperature distribution together with a suppressed X-ray emission in the X-ray band . As discussed above, a suppression of the X-ray flux by a factor 0.15 is needed for explaining the optical data. However, the shape of the observed black-body spectrum should not be changed. Such a spectrum corresponds to a “grey-body” spectrum. Fitting the optical spectrum, assumed to be a black-body spectrum, to the X-ray spectrum taking into account the suppression factor is shown in the right panel of Fig.4.

A suppression of the black-body radiation is expected if there were a condensed matter surface consisting of iron or hydrogen . Such a surface is expected to form at low temperatures and strong magnetic fields. For RXJ1856 this could occur at magnetic fields above about $`10^{12}`$ G . Unfortunately, the magnetic field of RXJ1856 is not known. However, even stronger magnetic fields of neutron stars have been observed.

The electron plasma frequency in a condensed matter surface is estimated to be $`\mathrm{}\omega _{pl}0.66B_{12}^{3/5}`$ keV ($`B=B_{12}\times 10^{12}`$ G), which is much larger than the typical photon energy $`kTE_\gamma `$. Hence, photons cannot be excited easily within the metallic surface , resulting in a high reflectivity of the surface. Then the spectrum can be described by a black-body spectrum times an energy dependent absorption factor, $`J(E_\gamma )=\alpha _X(E_\gamma )J_{BB}(E_\gamma )`$. The best fit, corresponding to a surface temperature $`kT_{\mathrm{}}=54`$ eV, yields an even better fit than a pure black-body. This leads to an observed radius of $`R_{\mathrm{}}13.3`$ km . (The equal sign holds if there is no suppression of the emission in the optical regime.). For a $`1.4M_{}`$ star an actual radius of $`R>10.3`$ km follows which is consistent with the assumption of a normal neutron star. Similar models and conclusions have been discussed by Walter in  and by Zane, Turolla and Drake in .

We conclude that there is no need for exotic matter in the interior of neutron stars for explaining the observations so far. Either a two-temperature model, a strong magnetic field, or a grey-body X-ray emission are capable of explaining the observed data in accordance with a conventional hadronic EOS. In addition, the various theoretical predictions of the mass-radius relation suffer from a large uncertainty, which does not allow one to distinguish between quark matter and hadronic matter if the radius is not clearly below 8 km. Hence a better understanding of the EOS would be desirable. Also, it appears to be equally important to understand the surface properties of neutron stars better.

After presenting this talk, new evidence appeared that smearing of the spectrum by a strong magnetic field is the most likely explanation. First, a strong overall suppression of the blackbody spectrum by a factor of 7 appears to be difficult to explain. New investigations show only a suppression by a factor 2 to 3 . Second, an iron condensate surface, as discussed by Lai , is not supported by other investigations . At least, models describing an iron condensate surface are still quite crude . A hydrogen condensate, however, requires a probably unrealistically high magnetic field ($`B>5\times 10^{13}`$ G). A strong magnetic field (up to $`10^{13}`$ G), on the other hand, as it might exist at RXJ1856 leads to a splitting of the atomic levels in the X-ray regime into numerous Landau levels. A field variation between the pole and the equator of the star by a factor of two, as expected in the case of a dipole field, results in a smearing of the dense lines such that the lines cannot be resolved anymore. In this way a X-ray spectrum arises in accordance with the one measured by Chandra and XMM. A strong magnetic field has also been discussed recently as the most likely interpretation of the observed spectra of the isolated neutron stars RXJ1308  and RXJ0720 . Combining such a X-ray spectrum with the optical spectrum, one finds a black-body radius $`R_{\mathrm{}}>17`$ km, indicating a stiff equation of state, which would exclude a strange quark matter star or even hybrid star. This is a rather conservative lower limit for the radius since a black-body emitter is the most efficient radiator.