text:
# Spectral properties, generation order parameters and luminosities for spin-powered X-ray pulsars

## 1 Introduction

X-ray study of the spin-powered pulsars has increased substantially recently. In a long time, Crab pulsar was the just one radio pulsar detected at X-ray energies (Toor & Seward 1977). The first big step was taken by Einstein Observatory which discovered X-ray pulsations from two Crab-like pulsars PSR 0540-69 and 1509-58 (Seward & Wang 1988). Recently, X-ray observations like ROSAT, ASCA, RXTE and BeppoSAX have achieved an important progress in neutron star and pulsar astronomy (Becker & Trümper 1997, Strickman et al. 1999), including more pulsations detected, fluxes comfined and spectral properties (thermal and non-thermal components). At present, the advanced X-ray missions like Chandra and XMM-Newton provide us more detections specially of faint X-ray emitters and high resolution observations in the field of pulsar astronomy.

The X-ray radiation of spin-powered pulsars attributes to thermal and non-thermal emission processes including: non-thermal emission from relativistic particles accelerated in the magnetosphere (Michel 1991); photospheric emission from the hot surface of cooling neutron star (Kundt & Schaaf 1993); thermal emission from hot polar caps (Gil & Krawczyk 1996); extended radiation from synchrotron nebulae (Michel 1991); inverse Compton scattering of softer photons (Zhang & Harding 2000) and so on. In the present paper, we concentrate on the emission from relativistic particles accelerated in the pulsar magnetosphere, which is characterized by a power-law spectrum, described by a power-law photon index. Here, we find an interesting correlation between the photon index and spin-down rate of the pulsars.

There exist many magnetosphere emission models to explain the high energy radiation ($`\gamma `$ and X-rays) from spin-powered pulsars. A general scenario is proposed by outer gap models (Cheng, Ho & Ruderman 1986a, 1986b, Wang et al. 1998, Zhang & Cheng 2000) to produce the $`\gamma `$ and X-ray photons. In this model, an outer-gap accelerator send $`e^+/e^{}`$ pairs flowing inward and outward along open magnetic field lines. These particles radiate $`\gamma `$-ray by the curvature mechanism. When inward flowing particles approach the star surface, curvature emitting $`\gamma `$-ray photons greater than 100 MeV convert into secondary $`e^+/e^{}`$ in the inner magnetosphere where $`B\mathrm{sin}\varphi >2\times 10^{10}`$G, $`\varphi `$ is the angle between the photon and the magnetic field. The secondary $`e^+/e^{}`$ will radiate through synchrotron mechanism. We also introduce a concept of generation order parameter (GOP) which originally described the cascade processes of $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars (Zhao et al. 1989, Lu, Wei & Song 1994, Wei, Song & Lu 1997). GOPs are studied in the scenario of polar cap models (Ruderman & Sutherland 1975). And it is found that the GOPs are correlated with $`\gamma `$-ray spectral index of $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars (Lu et al. 1994, Wei et al. 1997). We use GOPs to study X-ray pulsars, and think that the different photon indexes could be characterized by the GOPs if their radiation is really described by the cascade processes in the same emission mechanism. Due to the scenario of GOPs, we also provide another method to estimate the X-ray luminosity of spin-powered pulsars (Zhao et al. 1994). We find that our GOP method based on poler-cap models could well predict the X-ray luminosity of Crab-like pulsars and millisecond pulsars.

This paper will be organized as follows. In Section 2, we will show our sample of spin-powered X-ray pulsars and their spectral properties. Generation order parameters are introduced in Section 3, and the relations between different GOPs and X-ray photon indexes are displayed. In Section 4, we calcalate X-ray luminosity of these spin-powered pulsars in our polar-cap model and compare them to the observational values. Summary and discussions are outlined in the final section.

## 2 X-ray pulsar sample and spectral properties

We are interested in the non-thermal components and spectral properties in the X-ray radiation of spin-powered pulsars. Then we just select 15 X-ray pulsars with the spectral measurements by high resolution detectors (see Table 1). The spectral feature is a power-law of the average photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ which varies from 1.5 (Crab) to 3.0 (PSR J0030+0451). In our sample, there are 7 gamma-ray pulsars (Crab, Vela, Geminga, PSR 1706-44, 1951+32, 2229+6114, 1055-52), where PSR 2227+6122 is the new discovered $`\gamma `$-ray and X-ray pulsar identified by ASCA and EGRET (Halpern et al. 2001a, 2001b), and three millisecond pulsars (PSR 1821-24, 0437-47, 0030+0451). In our X-ray pulsar sample, we have taken the latest observational results which help our following analysis. The recent observational results of Vela by RXTE are shown by Harding et al. (2002), the pulsed X-ray emission of PSR 1706-44 is detected by Chandra (Gotthelf et al. 2002). Chandra also reported the spectral and time observations of the nearest millisecond pulsar J0437-4715 (Zavlin et al. 2002). The observational data of PSR 1055-52 and 0030+0451 is provided by recent observations of XMM-Newton (Becker & Aschenbach 2002). The other pulsars’ observations are reported by both ROSAT and XMM-Newton (Becker & Trümper 1997, Becker & Aschenbach 2002). We’d like to emphasize that the observed X-ray luminosities of 15 pulsars in Table 1 include only the pulsed luminosities possibly coming from non-thermal components.

The power-law emission components of spin-powered X-ray pulsars come from relativistic particles accelerated in pulsar magnetosphere, whose energy originates from the pulsar’s rotational energy loss. Then the spectral properties may be closely related to the pulsar’s spin characteristics. Figure 1 shows the average power-law photon index for each X-ray pulsar as a function of the spin-down rate $`|\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}|=2\pi \dot{P}/P^2`$ which is proportional to the spin-down torque. We find an approximate correlation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`|\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}|`$ with a large dispersion. As shown in Figure 1, the spectra of spin-down X-ray pulsars become harder with the spin-down rate increasing. The similar relation has also been found in X-ray properties of anomalous X-ray pulsars and softer gamma-ray repeaters (Marsden & White 2001, Lu, Wang & Zhao 2003). It implies that the same mechanism might induce this common correlation.

For a further analysis, we let the photon index as a function of $`P`$ and $`\dot{P}`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(P,\dot{P})`$. We fit the relation in terms of a linear function $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\alpha \mathrm{log}P+\beta \mathrm{log}\dot{P}+\gamma `$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(P,\dot{P})`$ of 15 X-ray pulsars which is given as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(P,\dot{P})0.55(\pm 0.1)\mathrm{log}P+0.21(\pm 0.05)\mathrm{log}\dot{P}_{15}+0.42(\pm 0.3).$$
(1)
The right-hand side of the above equation has a similar term to the definition of generation order parameters in the following section. So there exits a possible relation between photon indexes and generation order parameters for spin-powered X-ray pulsars, which is discussed detailedly in Section 3.

## 3 Generation order parameters for X-ray pulsars

J The concept of generation is originally provided to describe the cascade processes in $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars (Zhao et al. 1989, Lu & Shi 1990). Based on Ruderman-Sutherland model (Ruderman & Sutherland 1975), passing through the polar gap, $`e^+/e^{}`$ are accelerated to a high energy with typical Lorentz factor $`\gamma _1=6.0\times 10^7P^{1/14}\dot{P}_{15}^{1/14}`$, where $`P`$ is the period of pulsar in units of second, $`\dot{P}_{15}`$ the derivative in units of $`10^{15}`$s s<sup>-1</sup>. These first generation particles will move along the curved magnetic field lines and emit high energy curvature radiation (the first generation photons) with photon energy typically concentrated at

$$E_c=\frac{3}{2}\frac{\mathrm{}c}{R_c}\gamma _1^33.2\times 10^{10}P^{2/7}\dot{P}_{15}^{3/14}\mathrm{eV},$$
(2)
where $`R_c1.8\times 10^7P^{1/2}`$cm is the curvature radius of field line here. According to Hardee (1977), the $`\gamma `$-ray photon energy higher than the critical energy

$$E_a=9.5\times 10^9P^{1/2}\dot{P}_{15}^{1/2}\mathrm{eV}$$
(3)
will be absorbed and transformed into $`e^+/e^{}`$. The Lorentz factor $`\gamma _2`$ of the second generation $`e^+/e^{}`$ will be $`E_1/2m_ec^2`$. These $`e^+/e^{}`$ can emit the second generation photons through synchrotron radiation with a characteristic energy $`E_2`$. If $`E_2>E_a`$, further $`e^+/e^{}`$ can be produced, then cascade processes occur.

Concerning this idea, Lu et al. (1994) introduced the generation order parameter (GOP) to characterize a pulsar. They considered the conversion of high energy photons into $`e^+/e^{}`$ pairs through electric fields, and defined the GOP as

$$\zeta _1=1+\frac{1(11/7)\mathrm{log}P+(4/7)\mathrm{log}\dot{P}_{15}}{3.56\mathrm{log}P\mathrm{log}\dot{P}_{15}}.$$
(4)
The GOPs are proved to be correlated with the $`\gamma `$-ray photon index and the mean photon energy: softer $`\gamma `$-ray photons with larger GOPs. This relation is consistant with the scheme of cascade processes.

Wei et al. (1997) took a different approximation from Lu’s scheme. Here, high energy photons are absorbed through the effect of both magnetic and electric fields. The second GOP is defined as follows,

$$\zeta _2=1+\frac{0.8(2/7)\mathrm{log}P+(2/7)\mathrm{log}\dot{P}_{15}}{1.3}.$$
(5)
The concept of generation was initially considered in the scheme that the $`\gamma `$-ray photons is absorbed and conversed into $`e^+/e^{}`$ through only magnetic fields (Zhao et al. 1989). Then we should define a new generation order parameter in this scheme. Since $`E_c=E_a20^n`$, we obtained

$$\zeta _3=1+n=1+\frac{0.6(11/14)\mathrm{log}P+(2/7)\mathrm{log}\dot{P}_{15}}{1.3}.$$
(6)
GOPs are used to describe cascade processes and characterize the spectral properties of pulsars. Then we plot the diagrams between the GOPs and photon index of 15 X-ray pulsars, and try finding the relation of $`\zeta \mathrm{\Gamma }`$ which is implied in Eq. 1. The photon index as the function of the GOPs $`\zeta _{1,2,3}`$ is displayed in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The figures all show a possible correlation between GOPs and photon indexes. In X-ray bands, the photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ becomes smaller with increasing the generation order parameter $`\zeta `$. This relation is different from the one derived in $`\gamma `$-ray bands (Lu et al. 1994, Wei et al. 1997). Three GOPs are all displayed here for a comparasion. One can find $`\zeta _3\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ shows the better correlation than the others. According to the different definitions of three GOPs, we draw a conclusion that in X-ray pulsars, magnetic field may have the most significant effect on the high energy photon absorption during cascade processes, which is also consistent with the conclusion of a theoretical work by Zheng, Zhang & Qiao (1998), in which they have shown that although Daugherty & Lerche’s unified formula (1975) for gamma-ray absorption involving both E and B is correct, the E field is not important at all for pair production in the pulsar magnetosphere. The main point is that the photon direction in the laboratory frame used by Daugherty & Lerche (1975) is wrong. Calculations of pure E case (Lu et al. 1994) and E+B case (Wei et al. 1997) are based on the wrong application of Daugherty & Lerche’s formula, and then only $`\zeta _3`$ (pure B case by Zhao et al.1989) is the appropriate parameter. Therefore, this may be the reason why there is a tighter relation between $`\zeta _3`$ and the photon index in Fig. 4.

## 4 X-ray luminosity of spin-powered pulsars

The theoretical models for X-ray radiation from spin-powered pulsars are still the open problems. In this paper, we concentrate on the non-thermal radiation from X-ray pulsars considering the emission from relativistic particles accelerated in pulsar magnetosphere. Generally, magnetospheric accelerators fall into two main classes: outer gap and polar cap models. In this section, we will emphasize our polar cap model according to the concept of generation order parameters.

### 4.1 Polar cap models and generation order parameters

Generation order parameters based on polar cap models (Ruderman & Sutherland 1975) have been used to estimate $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity of $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars (Zhao et al. 1989, Lu et al. 1994, Wei et al. 1997). Here, we propose that the concept of GOPs can also be used to calculate X-ray luminosity of spin-powered pulsars.

In polar cap region of a pulsar, the maximum surface electric potential is (Goldreich & Julian 1969)

$$\mathrm{\Delta }V_{\mathrm{max}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^2BR^3}{2c^2}.$$
(7)
Then the maximum flowing luminosity by the primary particles (the first generation) is given as (Ruderman & Sutherland 1975)

$$L_{\mathrm{max}}=\dot{N}_0e\mathrm{\Delta }V_{\mathrm{max}}6.1\times 10^{31}P^3\dot{P}_{15}R_6^6\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1,$$
(8)
where $`\dot{N}_0\mathrm{\Omega }^2B_pR^3/ec`$ is the maximum current through the accelerator, $`B_p2\times 10^{12}P^{1/2}\dot{P}_{15}^{1/2}`$G is the surface dipole field, $`R`$ is neutron star radius about $`10^6`$cm. Though Harding & Muslimov (2002) have argued that the above equation is not exact for young pulsars whose accelerator are limited by pairs which screen the parallel electric field at some attitude, we still think the formula is valuable for all pulsars in our calculations.

As discussed in Section 3, only the photons with the energy lower than $`E_a`$ can escape from pulsar magnetosphere. Assuming a power-law energy spectrum after the cascade processes from the pulsar (Zhao et al. 1994): $`f(E)=AE^s`$, where A is a constant for one pulsar. Here, we should note that from X-ray to $`\gamma `$-ray range, the observations have found many pulsars have the spectral breaks, but the average spectral index we defined here is still meaningful. The average spectral index would be correlated with generation order parameters in theories, and in addition, the index can help us to estimate the non-thermal X-ray luminosity of X-ray pulsars. So the total luminosity from a pulsar is

$$L_{\mathrm{max}}=_0^{E_a}f(E)𝑑E=\frac{A}{1+s}E_a^{1+s},$$
(9)
here we have assumed $`1+s>0`$. In the same way, we obtain the X-ray luminosity as

$$L_{\mathrm{X},\mathrm{GOP}}=_{E_1}^{E_2}f(E)𝑑E=\frac{A}{1+s}(E_2^{1+s}E_1^{1+s}),$$
(10)
where $`E_1,E_2`$ are lower and upper limits of X-ray bands (here, we take $`E_1=0.1`$ keV, and $`E_2=2.4`$ keV in our calculations, which is convenient to compare the prediction to observed value.). With Eqs. 9 and 10, we find the relation between X-ray luminosity and total luminosity for a spin-powered pulsar:

$$L_{\mathrm{X},\mathrm{GOP}}=L_{\mathrm{max}}\frac{E_2^{1+s}E_1^{1+s}}{E_a^{1+s}}.$$
(11)
From Eq. 11, we could calculate X-ray luminosity for a pulsar. Firstly, we should check the average high energy spectrum $`s`$ using the observed data of seven $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars in our sample. $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity in our scheme is given as

$$L_\gamma =_{E_3}^{E_a}f(E)𝑑E=\frac{A}{1+s}(E_a^{1+s}E_3^{1+s}),$$
(12)
$`E_3`$ is lower energy limit for $`\gamma `$-ray observation ($`E_3=100`$MeV for EGRET, and we take $`E_3=10`$keV for Crab pulsar). Then using Eqs. 10 and 12, we have

$$\frac{L_\gamma }{L_\mathrm{X}}=\frac{E_a^{1+s}E_3^{1+s}}{E_2^{1+s}E_1^{1+s}}.$$
(13)
We take the observed $`\gamma `$ and X-ray luminosities of 7 $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars into Eq. 13 to derive an average energy spectrum $`s`$ from $`\gamma `$-ray to X-ray bands, where $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity of Crab is taken from Buccheri (1981) and others from McLaughlin & Cordes (2000). Finally, we find $`s=0.6\pm 0.4`$ (refer to Fig. 5). So we let $`s=0.6`$ for all 15 pulsars and calculate X-ray luminosities of these pulsars.(Table 1). The observed and calculated values are also compared, the results are displayed in Fig. 6. The solid line represents the diagonal line $`L_{\mathrm{X},\mathrm{obs}}=L_{\mathrm{X},\mathrm{GOP}}`$, the dashed line is the best fitting line $`L_{\mathrm{X},\mathrm{obs}}=0.02L_{\mathrm{X},\mathrm{GOP}}^{1.02}`$. Our theoretical prediction is consistent with the observational value, but Vela pulsar can not be well explained in our scheme.

In theory, we expect the steeper average energy spectrum with larger generation order parameters. Then we derive each average high energy spectrum for 7 $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars, and plot them in Fig. 5 as the fuction of the generation order parameter $`\zeta _3`$. The dashed line denotes $`s=0.6`$. The data points show that the energy spectrum is nearly independent of $`\zeta _3`$, and $`s`$ value is really around the dashed line, which implies our consistancy of using $`s=0.6`$ in all pulsars. The $`s`$ value of Crab is smallest with the largest generation order parameter. If comparing Crab with other pulsars, a possible weak correlation between $`s`$ and $`\zeta _3`$ exists, softer energy spectra with increasing generation order parameters which is consistant with the interpretation of cascade processes.

Our GOP model based on the polar-cap scenario suggests that the primary energy source of X-ray emission is the pulsar’s rotational energy. Fig. 8 shows the X-ray luminosity of 15 pulsars in our sample estimated by our polar-cap model ($`s=0.6`$) as a function of their rotational energy loss $`L_{\mathrm{sd}}`$. Furthermore, we also plot the observed X-ray luminosity of pulsars in 0.1-2.4 keV range as the function of their spin-down energy in Fig. 7. The 14 pulsars’ rotational energy is taken from Becker & Trümper (1997) and Becker & Aschenbach (2002), and the observed parameters of PSR 2227+6122 is taken from Halpern et al. (2001). In Figs. 7 and 8, each solid line represents $`L_\mathrm{X}=10^3L_{\mathrm{sd}}`$, the correlation derived by the observed X-ray luminosity and the spin-down power in ROSAT energy band (Becker & Trümper 1997). For a comparison, we also plot the dashed line $`L_\mathrm{X}=10^{21}L_{\mathrm{sd}}^{3/2}`$ derived by ASCA in the figure. We find that the correlation between our theoretical X-ray luminosity and spin-down power is well consistent with the ROSAT relation. The strong correlation between the predicted luminosity and spin-down power comfirms the conclusion of the promary X-ray emission energy of a pulsar from the rotational energy. In addition, the small dispersion of the data points around the solid line shows that our polar-cap scheme can well explain the $`L_\mathrm{X}10^3L_{\mathrm{sd}}`$ feature.

### 4.2 Outer-gap or polar-cap dominated?

In this section, we have calculated X-ray luminosities of spin-powered pulsars in the context of polar cap model and compared them with observations. Our main results are displayed in Figures 5 , 6 and 8. In Fig. 6, we find the polar-cap scenario could explain luminosities of most X-ray pulsars in our sample except Vela.

From the detailed comparison in Fig. 6, we find that the predicted luminosities of most pulsars are consistent with the observed value. The special one is Vela pulsar which deviate much from the diagonal line. We further consider the outer-gap model (Cheng, Ho & Ruderman 1986a, 1986b, Wang et al. 1998) and their predicted X-ray lumonosity, the Vela-type pulsars (including Vela pulsar, PSR 1706-44 and 1951+32) can be well explained in the outer-gap accelerator sheme. Then we conclude that the Vela-type pulsars should be outer-gap dominated. The model of Cheng, Ho & Cheng (1986a, 1986b) could not well explain the X-ray luminosity of the Crab-like pulsars and millisecond pulsars. What’s more, there are the correlations between the photon index and generation order parameters in these pulsars, and the GOPs are defined here in the context of polar-cap accelerators. Thus, we think that the Crab-like pulsars and millisecond pulsars are polar-cap dominated, which is consistent with the result of Zavlin & Pavlov (1998). At last, we emphasize that we have not concluded that the outer-gap models can not explain the other pulsars well. Other outer-gap models ( revising the acceleration size of outer-gap region, e.g. Zhang & Cheng 2000, Hirotani & Shibata 2001, Hirotani, Harding & Shibata 2003) could do better at matching the observed X-ray luminosities of pulsars.

## 5 Summary and discussions

We have presented X-ray spectral properties of 15 spin-powered pulsars obsereved by ROSAT, ASCA, RXTE, Chandra and XMM-Newton. We are interested in the non-thermal emission components, and study the relation between the average power-law photon index and spin-down rate. Generation order parameters based on polar-cap models are introduced to describe the X-ray pulsars. And the relations of three GOPs from different definitions and the photon index are also displayed. Finally, according to the concept of generation order parameters in polar-cap scenario, X-ray luminosities of spin-powered pulsars are calculated and compared with the observed data. Our main results in this paper are summarized as follows:

1. We have found a correlation between the average power-law photon index and spin-down rate in 15 X-ray pulsars: harder X-ray spectrum with increasing spin-down rate.

2. Generation order parameters are firstly introduced to characterize spin-powered X-ray pulsars. Three different GOPs are defined according to the different effects of magnetic and electric field on photon absorption in cascade processes in the context of polar-cap magnetospheric accelerators. The relations of three GOPs and photon index of X-ray pulsars in our sample are displayed. We find the correlation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\zeta _3`$ is better than others, which suggests that in X-ray pulsars the conversion of high energy photons into $`e^+/e^{}`$ through magnetic fields is the dominated mechanism over electric field.

3. We provide a method based on the concept of GOPs in the polar-cap scenario to calculate X-ray luminosity of spin-powered pulsars. In the calculation, we assume an average high energy spectrum, and we also derive it from the observed X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity of 7 $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars in our sample. The theoretical luminosity versus the observed values is displayed in Fig. 6 with $`s=0.6`$. We find that the polar-cap model could well explain most X-ray pulsars except Vela pulsar. The expected relation between the average energy spectrum $`s`$ and GOP is also presented (though not obviously) by the observed data of 7 $`\gamma `$-ray pulsars (Fig. 5).

4. From our calculations and analysis, we think that the X-ray emission from three Vela-type pulsars should be out-gap dominated, while Crab-like pulsars and three millisecond pulsars in our sample are polar-cap dominated ones.

5. X-ray luminosity estimated by our mothod versus spin-down power of X-ray pulsars is displayed in Fig. 8. The strong correlation suggests that the primary energy of X-ray emission in spin-powered pulsars comes from the rotational energy loss. Our calculated results are also well consistent with the $`L_\mathrm{X}10^3L_{\mathrm{sd}}`$ feature derived by ROAST observations.

In the present paper, we display the correlation between the power-law photon index and spin-down rate for X-ray pulsars which might lies in a deeper physical interpretation. And to check this correlation, we introduce three generation order parameters according to the photon absorption in magnetic and electric fields, and show the relations of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\zeta _{1,2,3}`$ which may suggest that the correlation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }|\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}|`$ originates from the magnetosphere acceleration and cascade processes. In fact, the concept of GOPs has been further considered through the different physical mechanisms or in a different scenario. Zhang & Harding (2000) modified the cascade picture in the polar-cap model by including the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) effect. They took it as the “full cascade” scenario, and defined a new form of GOPs to describe the ICS cascade branches. X-ray luminosity based on their GOPs was estimated, and their results also reproduced the observed different dependances of high-energy luminosity on the pulsar spin-down power by ROSAT and ASCA. X-ray emission from millisecond pulsars in their scenario is dominated by thermal components from polar-cap heating, but three millisecond pulsars in our sample with the spectral measurements show the non-thermal components.

X-ray luminosity of spin-powered pulsars using GOPs in the context of polar-cap model can explain the most X-ray pulsar data well except Vela pulsar. We have found that the outer-gap models (e.g. Wang et al 1998) can match the observed data of the Vela-type pulsars, but the prediction is not well consistent with other pulsars yet. We have suggested that the Vela-type pulsars could be outer-gap dominated objects. Some researchers have argued that the improved outer-gap models could explain all the observed pulsar data (Hirotani & Shibata 2001, Hirotani et al. 2003). In the same time, the $`L_\mathrm{X}10^3L_{\mathrm{sd}}`$ feature could be interpreted by a revised outer-gap model (Cheng, Gil, Zhang 1998). The primary particle energy is determined by the size of outer gap region. They considered a thick outer gap scenario to calculate the non-thermal X-ray luminosity which could meet the observed data well. However, the observed luminosity they took included both thermal and non-thermal components, so Cheng & Zhang (1999) improved the model by incorporating thermal contributions, specially polar-cap thermal components. Therefore, if we provide that GOPs can describe all pulsars, the GOPs based on outer-gap models could be also defined assuming the primary particle (first generation particle) emissing curvature photons (first generation photons) is accelerated by outer-gap region. These GOPs describing cascade processes in the outer-gap scenario may characterize Vela-type pulsars properly.

X-ray luminosity of spin-powered pulsars concludes thermal and non-thermal components. What component dominated in pulsars and what mechanism responsible for the emission of different classes of pulsars are the interesting and important problems. The GOP concept discussed here can characterize the non-thermal emission of X-ray pulsars. For the resolution limit of the present missions, most pulsars have no spectral measurements, and pulsed and unpulsed luminosities cannot be resolved. So there are only 15 X-ray pulsars in our analysis. More comfirmative conclusion will require high resolution X-ray observations of non-thermal emission and spectral properties of spin-powered pulsars.

We are very grateful to the referee for the helpful suggestions that enable us to improve the manuscript significantly, and to Jian Sang and Ye Lu for the help and discussions. We also thank Dr. Z. Zheng and B. Zhang for the fruitful comments. This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 10273011.


format: text

text:
# Chapter 1 Hourly Spectral Variability of Mrk 421

## Chapter 1 Hourly Spectral Variability of Mrk 421

### Abstract

Mrk 421 is the first TeV blazar found to exhibit significant spectral variability during strong flaring activity, showing hardening of the TeV spectrum in high emission states. Mrk 421 is also known to exhibit flux variability on time scales as short as 15 minutes. In this paper we present studies of hourly spectral variability of Mrk 421 in 2001 using data from the Whipple Observatory 10 m gamma-ray telescope.

### 1. Introduction

The AGN phenomenon is generally associated with strongly varying fluxes at all wavelengths on time scales of hours to several months and years. At TeV gamma-ray energies, flux variability as short as 15 minutes have been observed for Mrk 421 (Gaidos et al., 1996). Flux variations are useful information providing the grounds for dynamical tests for particle acceleration and/or emission models, e.g., constraining cooling time scales and physical parameters of the source such as the magnetic field and size of the emission region.

To further the understanding of non-thermal emission from AGN jets, multiwavelength observations are pursued by measuring the spectrum over many orders of magnitude in energy and its variations. Correlations between X-ray and TeV emission were found in various flaring episodes for Mrk 421 (Buckley et al. 1996; Maraschi et al. 1999; Jordan et al. 2001). A next step in testing jet models can be provided by measurements of the spectral variations of an X-ray (Fossati et al. 2000) and contemporaneous TeV gamma-ray flare. Results of spectral variability of Mrk 421 were shown previously (Aharonian et al. 2002; Krennrich et al. 2002) by the HEGRA and VERITAS collaborations. In this paper we discuss spectral variability of flares occuring on two nights in March 2001.

### 2. Results:

Unusually intense and lasting flaring activity of Mrk 421 in 2001 gave excellent statistics and detailed features of its energy spectrum have been derived: Mrk 421 exhibits a curved spectrum that can be described by a power law with an exponential cutoff around 4 TeV (Krennrich et al. 2001; Aharonian et al. 2002).

The energy spectral index varies as a function of flux when averaging over several months of data, but no evidence for variability in the cutoff energy was found when analyzing the entire 2001 data set. Therefore, in the following analysis of spectral variability on hourly time scales, since it is based on spectra from small subsets of the 2001 data with less statistics, we fit the data using a power law with a fixed exponential cutoff energy of 4.3 TeV (see also Krennrich et al. 2002).

Figure 1 shows the gamma-ray lightcurve for Mrk 421 on March 19 2001 (Jordan et al. 2001; Buckley 2001) for which the TeV observations provide almost complete sampling of the rise and decay of a flare. The gamma-ray rate ranges from a moderate level ($``$ 1 Crab) up to an eight fold flux increase in less than 4.5 hours. The lower part of figure 1 shows the spectral index measured at various times during the flare. The hypothesis that the spectral index is constant during the flare has a chance probability of $`3.1\times 10^4`$, suggesting spectral variability during this outburst of gamma-ray emission with a significance of $`3.6\sigma `$.

When dividing the spectral index measurements into three different episodes, preflare, rising flare and postflare, the hardest spectral index coincides with the rise of the flare, whereas during the preflare and the postflare the spectrum appears to be softer. A similar correlation between hardening/softening of the energy spectrum and flux for Mrk 421 has been reported by the HEGRA collaboration (Aharonian et al. 2002) for the nights of March 21/22 and 22/23 2001.

However, observations of flaring activity during other nights suggest that the relation between spectral index and flux variability is more complex than suggested by data from March 19, 21/22 and 22/23 2001. Representative of the complexity of spectral characteristics during flares of other nights is a flare on March 25 2001 measured with the Whipple 10 m telescope. Figure 2 shows its lightcurve with significant flux variations and a flux increase by a factor of 2.5 within $`2`$ hours.

The spectral index during this flare is exceptionally hard ($`\alpha =\mathrm{\hspace{0.25em}1.82}\pm 0.04`$) without any indications of spectral variability (hypothesis of constant spectral index has a probability of 78.5%.). Although substantial flux variations occured no significant spectral variations are detected, despite good statistics. It is noteworthy that the data from this flare do not include a preflare episode with fluxes of the level of 1 Crab and do not include the postflare era. This may indicate the spectral variations on hourly time scales may be dependent on the absolute flux.

### 3. Conclusions

In this paper we present two lightcurves for hourly flaring activity of Mrk 421 together with spectral index variations. During a flare on March 19 2001 significant spectral variability is suggested by the data showing a soft spectral index in the preflare and postflare phase and a hard spectral index during the rising phase of the flare. In contrast no spectral variations are observed for the night of March 25 despite significant flux variations.

One-component models that describe gamma-ray flares solely by an increase in the maximum energy of the radiating particle distribution are ruled out by this observation. A more comprehensive analysis involving a large number of flares is beyond the scope of this paper but will be presented at the conference.

### 4. 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, the Enterprise Ireland and by PPARC in the UK.

### 5. References

Aharonian, F.A., et al. 1999, A&A, 351, 330

Aharonian, F.A., et al. 2002, A&A, 384, L23

Buckley, J.H., et al. 1996, ApJ, 472, L9

Buckley, J.H. 2001, AIP Conf. Proceedings 587, Gamma 2001, ed. S. Ritz, N. Gehrels, C.R. Shrader, p 235

Fossati, G., et al. 2000, ApJ, 541, 166

Gaidos, J.A., et al. 1996, Nature, 383, 319

Jordan, M., et al. 2001, in Proc. 27th ICRC (Hamburg), OG2.3, 2691

Krennrich, F., et al. 2001, ApJ, 560, L45

Krennrich, F., et al. 2002, ApJ, 575, L9

Maraschi, L., et al. 1999, ApJ, 526, L81


text:
# Self-describing sequences and the Catalan family tree

## Prefix ordered sequences and rooted labelled trees

The following connection between prefix ordered sequences and rooted labelled trees is well known and we briefly mention only the instance which is useful for our considerations.

Let $`𝒜`$ be the set of finite integer sequences $`a=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{})`$ with the property that $`0a_ii`$, for all indices. We order the sequences in $`𝒜`$ by the *prefix* relation, i.e.,

$$(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)(b_0,b_1,\mathrm{},b_m)$$

if $`nm`$ and $`a_i=b_i`$, for $`i=0,\mathrm{},n`$. The sequences in $`𝒜`$ can be organized in a rooted labelled tree $`𝒯`$ which reflects the prefix order relation. The root of the tree $`𝒯`$ is labelled by $`0`$. Every vertex that is at distance $`n`$ from the root has $`n+2`$ children labelled by $`0,1,\mathrm{},n,n+1`$ (see Figure 1).

The vertices whose distance to the root is $`n`$ form the $`n`$-th *level* of the tree $`𝒯`$, which is also called the $`n`$-th *generation*. For every vertex $`v`$ at the level $`n`$ in the tree $`𝒯`$ there exist a unique path of length $`n`$ from the root to $`v`$. The labels of the vertices on this path form a unique sequence $`(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ in $`𝒜`$ that corresponds to the vertex $`v`$ and this sequence is called the *full name* of $`v`$. The correspondence

$$v\text{the full name of }v$$

provides a bijection between the vertices in $`𝒯`$ and the sequences in $`𝒜`$. Under this bijection, the vertices from the $`n`$-th generation in $`𝒯`$ correspond to the sequences of length $`n+1`$ in $`𝒜`$. The set of vertices in the $`n`$-th generation is denoted by $`𝒯_n`$ and the corresponding set of sequences by $`𝒜_n`$.

The sequence $`a=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ is a prefix of the sequence $`b=(b_0,b_1,\mathrm{},b_m)`$ if and only if the vertex $`v_a`$ with full name $`a`$ is on the unique path between the root and the vertex $`v_b`$ with full name $`b`$, i.e., if and only if the vertex $`v_a`$ is an ancestor of the vertex $`v_b`$. Consider a graph endomorphism $`\alpha `$ of $`𝒯`$ that fixes the root (and therefore also preserves the levels). Such an endomorphism corresponds to a transformation of sequences $`\alpha :𝒜𝒜`$ that preserves the length of the sequences and also their prefix order, i.e.,

$$ab\text{implies}\alpha a\alpha b,$$

for all sequences $`a`$ and $`b`$ in $`𝒜`$.

In the sequel, we often deliberately blur the distinction between the vertices in $`𝒯`$ and the corresponding sequences in $`𝒜`$. Similarly, we do not distinguish tree endomorphisms of $`𝒯`$ fixing the root from sequence transformations that preserve the length and the prefix order. This mistake actually improves our presentation.

Let $`\alpha `$ be an endomorphism of $`𝒯`$. Since every generation in $`𝒯`$ is finite, the $`\alpha `$ *orbit*

$$\alpha ^{}u=\{\alpha ^iu|i0\}$$

of every vertex $`u`$ of $`𝒯`$ is finite. Thus, starting from any vertex, repeated applications of $`\alpha `$ produce *periodic points*, i.e., points $`a`$ for which $`\alpha ^ka=a`$ for some $`k>0`$. The *period* of the periodic point $`a`$ is the smallest $`k`$ for which $`\alpha ^ka=a`$. The points of period 1 are *fixed points* and the points of period dividing $`2`$ are *double points*. Obviously, if $`u`$ and $`v`$ are periodic points of $`\alpha `$ and $`u`$ is a prefix of $`v`$ then the period of $`u`$ divides the period of $`v`$.

It is easy sometimes to estimate how long it takes before a periodic point is reached. We make use of the *lexicographic ordering* $``$ of the sequences in $`𝒜_n`$ (note the difference with the prefix ordering $``$). Namely, for $`a=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ and $`b=(b_0,b_1,\mathrm{},b_n)`$, set $`a<b`$ if $`a_i<b_i`$ at the first index where $`a`$ and $`b`$ differ.

###### Theorem 1.

Let $`\alpha `$ be an endomorphism of the tree $`𝒯`$ and assume that, for some $`n1`$, there exists $`k1`$ such that, for every vertex $`u`$ in generation $`n`$, either

$$u\alpha ^ku\alpha ^{2k}u$$

or

$$u\alpha ^ku\alpha ^{2k}u\mathrm{}.$$

Then, starting from any point in generation $`n`$, repeated applications of $`\alpha `$ lead to a periodic point of period dividing $`k`$ in $`O(n^2)`$ steps.

###### Proof.

We show that $`\beta =\alpha ^k`$ reaches a fixed point in no more than

$$1+2+\mathrm{}+n=n(n+1)/2$$

steps.

Start with any vertex $`u`$ in generation $`n`$. Without loss of generality we may assume

$$u\beta u\beta ^2u\mathrm{}.$$

After the first application of $`\beta `$ the initial segment up to index 1 of $`\beta u`$ is fixed under $`\beta `$. After the next two steps the entry at index 2 will be fixed. Proceeding in the same fashion we see that the initial segment of $`\beta ^{1+2+\mathrm{}+i}u`$ up to index $`i`$ is fixed under $`\beta `$. Indeed, once the initial segment up to index $`i1`$ is fixed the entry at index $`i`$ can go up no more than $`i`$ times (from $`0`$ to $`i`$) before it stabilizes. Thus, $`\beta ^{1+2+\mathrm{}+n}u`$ is fixed under $`\beta `$. ∎

## Self-describing sequences

We define an endomorphism $`\delta :𝒜𝒜`$ transforming sequences in $`𝒜`$ by

$$(\delta a)_i=\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<i,a_j<a_i\}.$$

Thus, for each term $`t`$ in the sequence $`a`$, $`(\delta a)_i`$ counts the number of previous terms that are smaller than $`t`$. The transformation $`\delta `$ makes perfect sense even for sequences out of $`𝒜`$, but the image is in $`𝒜`$ and it stays there under further iterations. A sequence that is fixed under $`\delta `$ is called a *self-describing sequence*. Therefore, the sequence $`a=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{})`$ is self-describing if

$$\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<i,a_j<a_i\}=a_i,$$

for all indices, i.e., every term $`t`$ is equal to the number of previous terms that are smaller than $`t`$.

## The Catalan family tree

We describe now a rooted labelled subtree of $`𝒯`$, denoted by $`𝒞`$ and called *the Catalan family tree* or just the *Catalan family*. The root vertex $`0`$ belongs to $`𝒞`$. It has two children named $`0`$ and $`1`$ and we consider $`0`$ the older sibling. The oldest sibling in this family always has 2 children, the second oldest 3, the third oldest 4, and so on. The oldest child of a member of the family $`x`$ gets named after the oldest sibling of $`x`$, the second oldest child after the second oldest sibling, and so on, until $`x`$ uses its own name for its second to last child and $`n`$ for the youngest one, where $`n`$ is the generation number of the children (the level in the tree). The diagram in Figure 2 depicts the family members of $`𝒞`$ up to the third generation.

## The connection

We establish now a connection between the self-describing sequences and the Catalan family tree.

###### Theorem 2.

The full names of the members of the Catalan family are precisely the self-describing sequences. In other words, they are the fixed points of the endomorphism $`\delta `$.

Moreover, repeated applications of $`\delta `$ to any sequence in $`𝒜`$ eventually produce a member of the Catalan family, i.e. a fixed point of $`\delta `$. The number of applications needed to reach such a point is $`O(n^2)`$.

All statements of the theorem are implied by Theorem 1 and the following lemma.

###### Lemma 1.

If $`a`$ is a member of the Catalan family then $`a=\delta a`$. Otherwise, $`a<\delta a`$.

###### Proof.

The proof is by induction on the generation number $`n`$. The statement is true for $`n=0`$ and $`n=1`$. Assume that the statement is true for all vertices up to the $`n`$-th generation.

Let

$$a=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n,x)$$

be a $`(n+1)`$-st generation member of the Catalan family. We consider two cases.

If $`x=n+1`$ then

$$\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n+1,a_j<x\}=\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n+1,a_j<n+1\}=n+1=x,$$

and $`a`$ is a fixed point of $`\delta `$.

If $`xn+1`$, then $`a_nx`$ and there exists an $`n`$-th generation member of the Catalan family whose full name is

$$a^{}=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_{n1},x),$$

namely the one after whom $`a`$ was named. We have

$$\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n+1,a_j<x\}=\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n,a_j<x\}=x,$$

where the first equality comes from the fact that $`a_nx`$ and the second from the inductive hypothesis, since $`\delta a^{}=a^{}`$.

Thus all members of the Catalan family are fixed under $`\delta `$.

Now, let

$$a=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n,x)$$

be a full name of a vertex in $`𝒯`$ in the $`n`$-th generation that is not a member of the Catalan family $`𝒞`$. If any proper prefix of $`a`$ is not in $`𝒞`$ we obtain the claim directly from the inductive hypothesis. Thus we may assume that

$$a^{\prime \prime }=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)$$

is a member of the Catalan family. Since $`a`$ is not in $`𝒞`$ we have $`a_nx`$ and $`n+1x`$. We consider two cases.

If $`a_n>x`$ then $`a^{}=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_{n1},x)`$ is not in $`𝒞`$ and

$$\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n+1,a_j<x\}=\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n,a_j<x\}>x,$$

where the equality comes from the fact that $`a_n>x`$ and the inequality from the inductive hypothesis.

If $`a_n<x<n+1`$ then

$$\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n+1,a_j<x\}=\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<n,a_j<x\}+1x+1,$$

where the equality comes from the fact that $`a_n<x`$ and the inequality from the inductive hypothesis. The equality in the last case is possible only when $`a^{}=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_{n1},x)`$ is in $`𝒞`$. ∎

We proceed by counting the self-describing sequences with fixed length. In addition, we obtain a result on the distribution of names in $`𝒞`$. Recall that the $`n`$-th Catalan number is equal to

$$c_n=\frac{1}{n+1}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2n}{n}\right).$$

A recursive definition of the Catalan numbers is given by

$$c_0=1,$$

$$c_{n+1}=c_0c_n+c_1c_{n1}+\mathrm{}+c_nc_0.$$

###### Theorem 3.

The number of self-describing sequences in $`𝒜_n`$, i.e., the number of $`n`$-th generation members of the Catalan family is the $`(n+1)th`$ Catalan number $`c_{n+1}`$.

Moreover, for $`r=0,\mathrm{},n`$, the number of $`n`$-th generation members of the Catalan family whose name is $`r`$ is equal to $`c_rc_{nr}`$.

###### Proof.

Denote by $`z_n`$ the number of $`n`$-th generation members of the Catalan family whose name is $`0`$. More generally, for $`r=0,\mathrm{},n`$ denote by $`f_{n,r}`$ the number of $`n`$-th generation members of the Catalan family whose name is $`r`$. Finally, denote by $`g_n`$ the number of $`n`$-th generation members of the Catalan family.

Since the oldest child of every member of the Catalan family is named $`0`$, we have, for all $`n`$,

$$z_{n+1}=g_n.$$

Since the youngest sibling in the $`r`$-th generation is always named $`r`$ and the oldest $`0`$ we also have, for all $`r`$,

$$f_{r,r}=f_{r,0}=z_r.$$

For some fixed $`r`$, consider the set of $`f_{r,r}`$ $`r`$-th generation members named $`r`$ together with all their descendants in $`𝒞`$ whose names are greater or equal to $`r`$. This forest of $`f_{r,r}`$ identical subtrees of $`𝒞`$ contains all members of $`𝒞`$ whose name is $`r`$. Moreover, each tree in this forest looks exactly like the Catalan family tree, except that all labels are increased by $`r`$. Indeed, each $`r`$-th generation member of $`𝒞`$ named $`r`$ has two children, named $`r`$ and $`r+1`$, the oldest sibling always has two children, the second oldest three, etc. Thus, for any $`n`$ and $`r=0,\mathrm{},n`$, the number $`f_{n,r}`$ of $`n`$-th generation members of $`𝒞`$ named $`r`$ is $`f_{r,r}`$ times larger than the number of $`(nr)`$-th generation members of $`𝒞`$ named $`0`$, i.e.,

$$f_{n,r}=f_{r,r}f_{nr,0}=z_rz_{nr}.$$

Since $`z_0=1`$ and

$`z_{n+1}`$ $`=g_n=f_{n,0}+f_{n,1}+\mathrm{}+f_{n,n}`$
$`=z_0z_n+z_1z_{n1}+\mathrm{}+z_nz_0`$
we conclude that, for all $`n`$, $`z_n`$ is the $`nth`$ Catalan number. The statements of the theorem follow now easily from the relations $`g_n=z_{n+1}`$ and $`f_{n,r}=z_rz_{nr}`$. ∎

## Connection to other Catalan trees and objects

It is well known that the Catalan numbers appear naturally under many circumstances. The exercises on Catalan numbers in \[Sta99\] provide a trove of examples, along with references, in which Catalan numbers count the number of objects of particular type and size. The self-describing sequences provide yet another example that we now relate to some other objects counted by the Catalan numbers.

Consider the sequences in $`𝒜`$ with the property that $`a_{i+1}a_i+1`$, for all indices (see the Exercise 6.19.u in \[Sta99\]). Such sequences are called *sequences with unit increase*. The rooted labelled tree that corresponds to the set of sequences with unit increase looks the same as the Catalan family tree, just with a different labelling and we obtain an easy bijective correspondence between the self-describing sequences and the sequences with unit increase. We could use this bijective connection to show that the Catalan numbers count the number of self-describing sequences. Instead, we provided a direct proof of Theorem 3 and the reason is that there is an important difference in the distribution of labels in the Catalan family tree and the tree of the sequences with unit increase.

###### Theorem 4.

For $`r=0,\mathrm{},n`$, the number of $`n`$-th generation vertices in the tree of sequences with unit increase labelled by $`r`$ is

$$\frac{r+1}{n+1}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{2nr}{n}\right).$$

###### Proof.

Let $`a=(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ be a sequence with unit increase. Following Exercise 6.19.u in \[Sta99\], we define, for $`i=0,\mathrm{},n1`$,

$$b_i=a_ia_{i+1}+1.$$

Construct a sequence of $`n`$ $`1`$’s and $`na_n`$ negative $`1`$’s by replacing each $`b_i`$, $`i=0,\mathrm{},n1`$ by one $`1`$ followed by $`b_i`$ negative $`1`$’s. The newly obtained sequence has non-negative partial sums. The correspondence between the sequences in $`𝒜_n`$ with unit increase that end by $`r`$ and the sequences of $`n`$ $`1`$’s and $`nr`$ negative $`1`$’s with non-negative partial sums is bijective. It is shown in \[Bai96\] that the number of sequences with non-negative partial sums that consist of $`n`$ $`1`$’s and $`k`$ negative $`1`$’s is equal to

$$\frac{n+1k}{n+1}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n+k}{n}\right)$$

and this implies our claim. ∎

In passing, we make a slightly more general remark. Namely, for a fixed positive integer $`m`$, consider the sequences with the property that $`a_0=0`$ and $`0a_{i+1}a_i+m`$, for all indices. Such sequences are called *sequences with $`m`$-increase*. We can easily construct the rooted labelled tree that corresponds to such sequences. For a sequence $`(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ with $`m`$-increase, define, for $`i=0,\mathrm{},n1`$,

$$b_i=a_ia_{i+1}+m.$$

Following the same approach as before, construct a sequence of $`n`$ $`m`$’s and $`na_n`$ negative $`1`$’s by replacing each $`b_i`$, $`i=0,\mathrm{},n1`$ by one $`m`$ followed by $`b_i`$ negative $`1`$’s. The newly obtained sequence has non-negative partial sums and the correspondence between the sequences $`(a_0,a_1,\mathrm{},a_n)`$ with $`m`$-increase that end by $`r`$ and the sequences of $`n`$ $`1`$’s and $`mnr`$ negative $`1`$’s with non-negative partial sums is bijective. Such sequences are discussed in \[FS01\], where simple recursive formulae for their number is provided. Unfortunately, closed formulae are not provided yet, but we note that the number of $`n`$-th generation sequences with $`m`$-increase is given by $`c_m(n+1)`$ where

$$c_m(n)=\frac{1}{mn+1}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{(m+1)n}{n}\right).$$

The last displayed number is the generalization of the Catalan numbers which counts, for example, the number of rooted $`(m+1)`$-ary trees with $`n`$ interior vertices.

It is worth nothing that Julian West \[Wes95\] recursively constructs a rooted labelled tree whose root is labelled by $`2`$ and each vertex labelled by $`x`$ has $`x`$ children labelled by $`2,3,\mathrm{},x+1`$. This tree, which West calls a Catalan tree, looks again exactly like the Catalan family tree, but with different labels. In fact, the tree of the sequences with unit increase can be obtained from the Catalan tree constructed by Julian West by decreasing all labels by 2.

Similarly, in the spirit of the Julian West construction, for any positive integer $`m`$, construct a rooted labelled tree whose root is labelled by $`m+1`$ and each vertex labelled by $`x`$ has $`x`$ children labelled by $`m+1,m+2,\mathrm{},m+x`$. The tree of sequences with $`m`$-increase can be obtained from this tree by decreasing all labels by $`m+1`$.

## Mirror symmetry and mutually describing sequences

We introduce another endomorphism $`\gamma :𝒜𝒜`$ transforming sequences in $`𝒜`$ by

$$(\gamma a)_i=\mathrm{\#}\{j|j<i,a_ja_i\}.$$

Clearly $`\gamma =\mu \delta `$ where $`\mu `$ is the *mirror involution* of $`𝒜`$ given by

$$(\mu a)_i=ia_i.$$

We call $`\mu `$ the mirror involution of $`𝒜`$ since $`\mu `$ mirrors the tree $`𝒯`$ through its vertical axis of symmetry.

The endomorphism $`\gamma `$ is studied in \[Šun02\]. Clearly, $`\gamma `$ has no fixed points other than the sequence $`(0)`$. However, $`\gamma `$ has a lot of double points. If $`a`$ is a double point of $`\gamma `$ then so is $`b=\gamma a`$. Moreover, then $`\gamma b=a`$ and the sequences $`a`$ and $`b`$ mutually describe each other.

###### Theorem 5 (\[Šun02\]).

Repeated applications of $`\gamma `$ to any sequence in $`𝒜`$ eventually produce a double point of $`\gamma `$. The number of application needed to reach a double point in $`𝒜_n`$ is $`O(n^2)`$ and there are more than $`2^n`$ such points.

The sequence that counts the number of double points of $`\gamma `$ in the $`n`$-th generation starts as follows

$$1,2,4,10,26,70,216,\mathrm{}$$

This sequence does not appear in the Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences \[SP95\] nor in the online version \[Slo\] as of January 2002. It is interesting that we have such a good understanding of the fixed points of $`\delta `$, via the Catalan family tree, but we are still not able to count the number of double points of the mirror related endomorphism $`\gamma =\mu \delta `$.

Some other endomorphisms leading to fixed or double points are studied in \[Šun02\]. For one of them, the set of double points of length $`n`$ is in bijective correspondence with the Young tableaux of size $`n`$.

## Acknowledgements

Thanks to Richard Stanley and Louis Shapiro for their interest and input.