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# The physical parameters, excitation and chemistry of the rim, jets and knots of the planetary nebula NGC 7009 1footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations obtained at the 2.5 m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) of the European Northern Observatory, and with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA for NASA under contract NAS5-26555.

## 1 Introduction

In addition to their large-scale structures, mainly identified in the forbidden \[OIII\] emission line, many planetary nebulae (PNe) have a number of smaller-scale structures which are instead more prominent in low-ionization lines, such as \[N ii\], \[O ii\] and \[S ii\]. In a previous paper (Gonçalves, Corradi, & Mampaso 2001), we have used the acronymous LISs to identify these low-ionization structures. LISs appear with different morphological and kinematical properties in the form of pairs of knots, filaments, jets, or isolated features moving with supersonic velocities through the large-scale components in which they are located, or instead as structures with the above morphologies but with low velocities that do not differ substantially from that of the main nebula222The fast, low-ionization emission regions, FLIERs (Balick et al. 1993) and bipolar, rotating, episodic jets, BRETs (López, Vázquez, & Rodríguez 1995) are particular types of LISs, i.e., high-velocity knots and jets.. LISs can be easily seen in the imaging catalogues of Balick (1987), Schwarz, Corradi, & Melnick (1992), Manchado et al. (1996), Corradi et al. (1996) and Górny et al. (1999). For a detailed study concerning the morphological and kinematical classification of LISs in PNe, see Gonçalves et al. (2001).

A very interesting class of LISs are jets. These are highly collimated outflows (with aspect ratios varing between 3 and 20; López 1997), which are directed radially outward from the central star, appear in opposite symmetrical pairs, and move with velocities substantially larger than those of the ambient gas that forms the main bodies of the nebulae. It should be noted in addition that jets are much more collimated than other bipolar outflows of PNe, i.e, more collimated than the lobes of a bipolar PN.

NGC 7009, the “Saturn Nebula”, is a well studied elliptical PN, which possesses a jet-like system as well as two pairs of low-ionization knots along its major axis. A number of previous studies showed that high-excitation lines dominate the inner regions along the minor axis, while the low-excitation ones are enhanced at the ends of the major axis. The ionization structure is further enriched by the fact that the low-excitation region present strong variations in excitation level and clumpiness. NGC 7009 was classified as an oxygen-rich PN (Hyung & Aller 1995), with an O/C ratio exceeding 1, and anomalous N, O, and C abundances (Baker 1983; Balick et al. 1994, Hyung & Aller 1995). Its central star is an H-rich O-type star, with effective temperature of 82 000 K (Méndez, Kudritzki, & Herrero 1992; Kingsburgh & Barlow 1992). The kinematics of NGC 7009 was studied by Reay & Atherton (1985) and Balick, Preston & Icke (1987). The distance determinations of NGC 7009 vary from 0.5 to 2.3 kpc from various indirect methods (Acker et al. 1992; Cahn, Kaler & Stanghellini 1992; Maciel 1995).

According to the theoretical models for the formation of jets and of the pairs of knots that are often found at their tips (Soker 1990; García-Segura 1997; García-Segura et al. 1999; García-Segura & López 2000; Steffen, López, & Lim 2001; Gardiner & Frank 2001; Blackman, Frank, & Welch 2001), a significant density contrast between the jet itself and the knots at its tip is expected. This is a quantity that can in principle be determined by optical spectroscopy.

In addition, previous observational work suggests that the LISs of NGC 7009 and other PNe have higher abundances of nitrogen than their main bodies (see Balick et al. 1994 and references therein). These authors proposed that such an overabundance might indicate that the knots of NGC 7009 were ejected at a different epoch than the main body of the nebula, when the stellar surface was enriched of these elements due to the drastic changes of nitrogen in AGB stars and some dredge-up episode, or that the knots come from chemically peculiar regions in the stellar surface or its interior.

In this paper, we test the above two issues by obtaining spectroscopic data for NGC 7009, deriving its physical and chemical properties, and finally showing that neither a density contrast between the jets and knots is found, nor are their abundances strongly enhanced compared to the rest of the nebula. In the following sections, we first describe the data, their reduction and the various morphological/kinematical structures of the nebulae (Sections 2 and 3). Then we proceed with the analysis of the PN spectra in terms of physical, excitation and chemical parameters (Section 4) and, finally, we discuss the implication of the present results for the formation of the LISs of NGC 7009 and give our conclusions, in Sections 5 and 6.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

Spectra of NGC 7009 (PN G037.7-34.5) were obtained on 2001 August 29 at the 2.5 m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (European Northern Observatory, La Palma, Spain), using the Intermediate Dispersion Spectrograph (IDS). The IDS was used with the 235 mm camera and the R300V grating, providing a spectral coverage from 3650 Å to 7000 Å with a spectral reciprocal dispersion of 3.3 Å pix-1. The spatial scale of the instrument was 0′′.70 pix-1 with the TEK5 CCD. Seeing varied from 0′′.9 to 1′′.1. The slit width and length were 1.5′′ and 4, respectively. The slit was positioned through the center of the nebula at P.A. = 79, and the exposure times were 3$`\times `$30 s, 3 $`\times `$ 120 s, and 3 $`\times `$ 600 s.

During the night, bias frames, twilight and tungsten flat-field exposures, wavelength calibrations and exposures of standard stars (BD+332642, Cyg OB2#9, HD19445, and BD+254655) were obtained. Spectra were reduced following the IRAF instructions for long-slit spectra, being bias-subtracted, flat-fielded, combined in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and eliminate cosmic rays, wavelength calibrated, and sky-subtracted. Finally, they were flux-calibrated using the above-mentioned standard stars and the mean atmospheric extinction curve for La Palma.

We also retrieved HST \[N ii\] and \[O iii\] archive images of NGC 7009 obtained on 1996 April 28, and on 2000 April 7, respectively, with the WFPC2 camera in the F658N and F502N filters, with total exposure times of 1200 s and 320 s.

## 3 The morphological and kinematical components of NGC 7009: previous works

The HST \[O iii\] and \[N ii\] images of NGC 7009 are shown in Figure 1. The nebula consists of several components. The brightest one is the elliptical inner shell (rim) roughly elongated in the EW direction, where it extends out to $`\pm 13^{\prime \prime }`$ from the center. The inner portions of the rim cut by our spectroscopic slit are indicated in Figure 1 (bottom) by the labels R1 and R2.

Surrounding the rim, a fainter elliptical outer shell (shell) that shares its main axis with the rim is also visible in the HST images. In \[O iii\], at fainter intensity levels the shell shows two “polar” bubbles. Inside these bubbles, collimated LISs are clearly seen in the \[N ii\] images. These are composed of a “pencil” of emission (the jetlike structures, labeled J1 and J2) that connects the inner rim with two outer knots (K1 and K4). The \[N ii\] image also shows another pair of microstructures, which appear as “compact groups of bright knots” that we call the inner knots (K2 and K3). The extension of all features is given in the caption of Figure 1.

The rim of NGC 7009 is likely to be formed by the interaction between the fast post-AGB and the slow AGB winds (Kwok, Purton, & Fitzgerald 1978; Frank & Mellema 1994; Mellema & Frank 1995; Zhang & Kwok 1998, Schönberner 2002). The cavity delimited by the rim is filled with a hot ($`T=1.8\times 10^6`$ K) gas emitting thermal X-rays and its size is in agreement with that of the optical rim (Guerrero, Gruendl, & Chu, 2002) providing a direct proof for the shocked fast stellar wind in the interacting winds scenario. The formation of the shell has been ascribed to the action of the photoionization front on the AGB matter not yet reached by the shock produced by the fast wind (e.g., Schönberner 2002).

The origin and nature of the LISs in NGC 7009 are rather unclear at present. The inner and outer pairs of knots have been studied by many authors (Reay & Atherton 1985; Balick et al. 1994; Hyung & Aller 1995; Lame & Pogge 1996; Balick et al. 1998), who often called them caps and ansae, respectively. Reay & Atherton (1985) have studied the kinematics of the inner and outer knots in the \[O i\] 6300 Å line using Fabry–Perot data. They derived an expansion velocity for the inner knots of $`\pm 38`$ km s-1 with an inclination with respect to the line of sight $`i51^{}`$, and a velocity of $`\pm 60`$ km s-1 with $`i84^{}`$ for the outer pair. Note that the determination of the deprojected velocities and inclination angles by Reay & Atherton (1985) is mainly based on the proper motion measurements of Liller (1965), as the velocity in the plane of the sky appears one order of magnitude larger than the Doppler shift. We have estimated the separation of the outer knots in the \[N iiHST image taken in 1996, finding $``$50.8 $`\pm `$ 0.5 arcsec, the uncertainty depending on the highly irregular morphology of these knots that makes it difficult to define a centroid. This is clearly not consistent with the extrapolation of Liller’s measurements (separation of 48 arcsec in 1965 and apparent expansion of 1.6 arcsec per century for each knot), making the velocity and inclination figures of Reay & Atherton (1985) quite uncertain. Their analysis also depends on the distance adopted, which is poorly known, as mentioned in the introduction.

No velocity information is available from the literature for the jetlike structures connecting the rim to the outer knots. If we assume a continuity between the velocity of the outer knots and these jetlike structures, then the latter might be real supersonic jets. A more detailed study of the kinematics of NGC 7009, and in particular of the faint “pencil” and large-scale structures surrounding it (shell and polar bubbles), is clearly needed to understand its nature better.

## 4 Data Analysis

Line intensities were mainly measured from the deep spectrum with 3$`\times `$600 s exposure time. The shorter-exposure spectra were used to measure the bright H$`\beta `$, \[O iii\], H$`\alpha `$, and \[N ii\] lines that are saturated in the deep spectra. Measurements are given in Table 1, which lists the wavelength of the line identification and the corresponding ion (column 1), the line fluxes measured for the different spatial regions selected (columns 2 to 9, as defined in Fig. 1 and Section 3), and the flux integrated along the slit for the whole nebula, labeled as NEB (column 10). All fluxes are normalized to $`I`$(H$`\beta `$) = 100 in each of the regions considered.

Errors in the fluxes were calculated taking into account the statistical error in the measurement of the fluxes, as well as systematic errors of the flux calibrations, background determination, and sky subtraction. Table 2 gives the estimated accuracy of the measured fluxes for a range of line fluxes (relative to H$`\beta `$) in each of the selected regions. Absolute H$`\beta `$ fluxes integrated along the slit in each region are also given in Table 2.

### 4.1 Extinction

Fluxes were extinction-corrected by using $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$=0.16$`\pm `$ 0.01 (the logarithmic ratio between observed and dereddened H$`\beta `$ fluxes), determined from the H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ ratio in the brightest regions of the nebula ($`\mathrm{R}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{R}_2`$). For the derivation of $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$, we assumed $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ = 104 K and $`n_\mathrm{e}`$ = 104 cm-3, appropriate for the values that we have computed in the rim (Section 4.2). Theoretical Balmer line ratios from Osterbrock (1989) and the reddening law of Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis (1989) were used. Our derived value is in fair agreement with the average value (0.15) reported by other authors: $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ = 0.08 $`\pm `$ 0.03 (Hyung & Aller 1995); $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ = 0.24 $`\pm `$ 0.04 (Lame & Pogge 1996); $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ = 0.20 (Liu et al. 1995); $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ = 0.10 (Rubin et al. 2002).

Note that we applied $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ = 0.16 for the fluxes of all the different zones under analysis, because of the highest S/N ratio of the rim, thus avoiding the larger errors in the measured Balmer line ratios of the fainter zones. This assumption of a constant extinction throughout the nebula is supported by the work of Bohigas, López, & Aguilar (1994), who reported that the $`c_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$ for the different structures of NGC 7009 are always lower than 0.28, implying small corrections to the observed fluxes.

### 4.2 Densities and Temperatures

As described above, eight different regions were selected in the spectrum of NGC 7009 (see also Figure 1). The extinction-corrected fluxes were then used in order to obtain the densities and temperatures for each of the regions that are plotted in Figure 2. These physical parameters were obtained using the nebular package of IRAF (Shaw & Dufour 1995), based on the five-level atom program (De Robertis, Dufour, & Hunt 1987) to derive the physical conditions in a low-density nebular gas, including diagnostics for a large number of ions and emission lines.

To estimate densities, we assumed an electron temperature of 104 K (see below). In most positions, we were able to measure the densities from both the \[S ii\] 6716 Å/6731 Å and \[Cl iii\] 5517 Å/5537 Å line ratios. These provide a simultaneous estimate of densities in low-ionization (\[S ii\]) and higher ionization (\[Cl iii\]) regions. In general, we found a good agreement between the results from these two density estimators for most of the structures (see Table 1 and Figure 2). Using the total flux integrated along the slit, we obtain $`N_e`$\[Cl iii\]/$`N_e`$\[S ii$``$ 1.13; the horizontal dashed-dashed line in Figure 2 indicates the $`N_e`$\[Cl iii\] overall value, while the continuous line shows the corresponding $`N_e`$\[S ii\] overall density.

Figure 2 clearly shows that the densities of the outermost knots are very similar to those of the jets connecting them to the edge of the inner rim, with $`N_e`$($`\mathrm{K}_1`$) = 1900 $`\pm `$ 500 cm-3 and $`N_e`$($`\mathrm{J}_1`$)= 1300$`\pm `$200 cm-3 and, on the opposite side, $`N_e`$($`\mathrm{K}_4`$) = 1300 $`\pm `$ 200 cm-3 and $`N_e`$($`\mathrm{J}_2`$) = 1300 $`\pm `$ 500 cm-3. On the other hand, the inner pair of knots have higher electron densities, namely $`N_e`$($`\mathrm{K}_2`$) = 4500 $`\pm `$ 400 cm-3 and $`N_e`$($`\mathrm{K}_3`$) = 5000 $`\pm `$ 500 cm-3, and similar to those of the rim ($`N_e`$($`\mathrm{R}_1`$)= 5500 $`\pm `$ 600 cm-3 and $`N_e`$($`\mathrm{R}_2`$) = 5900 $`\pm `$ 800 cm-3).

As for the densities, the temperature estimators used are appropriate for zones of low- and high-excitation. We used the following line ratios: $`I`$(4959 Å + 5007 Å)/$`I`$(4363 Å) for $`T_e`$\[O iii\]; $`I`$(6548 Å + 6583 Å)/$`I`$(5755 Å) for $`T_e`$\[N ii\]; and $`I`$(6716 Å/6731 Å)/$`I`$(4069 Å + 4076 Å) for $`T_e`$\[S ii\]. The general trend of temperatures (Figure 2, bottom) is that, within the errors, they are constant throughout the nebula, having an average value of $`T_e`$\[O iii\] = 10 200 K and $`T_e`$\[N ii\] = 11 100 K. In spite of a small discrepancy of $`T_e`$\[S ii\] at the position of $`\mathrm{R}_2`$, the temperature is remarkably constant across this nebula.

There are a number of papers that discuss the physical properties of NGC 7009 (Rubin et al. 2002; Hyung & Aller 1995; Bohigas et al. 1994; Balick et al. 1994). In general, there is good overall agreement between our temperature determinations and previous ones. A more detailed zone-by-zone comparison can be made with some of these papers. Balick et al. (1994) studied the west rim, cap, and ansae. They found $`T_e`$\[N ii\] and $`T_e`$\[O iii\] of 10 000 K and 9400 K, respectively, for the rim, 9600 K and 9600 K for the cap, and 8100 K and 11 500 K for the ansa. With the exception of $`T_e`$\[N ii\] of that ansa, these figures are very similar to ours (see Table 1). From the six regions of the PN studied by Bohigas et al. (1994), two coincide with ours (those of the W and E ansae), and they found, for both structures, an \[O iii\] temperature of 9800 K, again consistent, within the errors, with our measurements. The $`T_e`$\[O iii\] determined from the HST/WFPC2 data by Rubin et al. (2002) is also consistent with the values we derived, since they found 9000 K $``$ $`T_e`$\[O iii$``$ 11 000 K. Their STIS long-slit results for temperature are limited to the 13 central arcseconds along the major axis. The average $`T_e`$\[O iii\] for $`\mathrm{K}_2`$, $`\mathrm{R}_1`$, $`\mathrm{R}_2`$, and $`\mathrm{K}_3`$ are $``$10 300 K $``$10 700 K, $``$10 600 K, and $``$10 100 K, respectively, which are very similar to our figures in Table 1.

The above papers also report density estimates, whose agreement with our measurements is not, however, as good as for the electron temperatures. For instance, Balick et al. (1994) found Ne\[S ii\] = 4900 cm-3, 4100 cm-3, and 1000 cm-3 for the western rim, cap, and ansae, respectively. They also found a large difference between the $`N_e`$\[S ii\]/$`N_e`$\[Cl iii\] ratio at the position of the W rim and cap, which was measured to be $``$3 and $``$0.4, respectively, while ours is $``$1.0 and $``$0.8 (in line with $`N_e`$\[S ii$``$ $`N_e`$\[Cl iii\] found by Copetti & Writzl 2002 for a large sample of PNe). Lame & Pogge (1996) found that the rim plus inner knots of NGC 7009 have densities as high as 8000 cm-3, and that the rim without including $`\mathrm{K}_2`$ and $`\mathrm{K}_3`$ has a significantly lower density, $``$4000 cm-3. There is also only moderate agreement between our densities and those of Bohigas et al. (1994), who obtained 2300 $`\pm `$ 600 cm-3 and 4300 $`\pm `$ 2700 cm-3 for the W and E ansae, respectively. The reason of the discrepancies between different authors might be the S/N ratio of the relevant lines, and the seeing. Note that our observations are, in general, much deeper and were obtained during better seeing conditions than the above studies, allowing a more precise definition of the spatial regions.

### 4.3 Excitation Properties

Concerning the general excitation structure of NGC 7009, the low-ionization (\[O i\], \[N ii\], \[S ii\], \[O ii\]) line emission has local maxima at the position of the pairs of knots (K1-4). The higher (\[O iii\], \[Ne iii\]) ionization emission lines, however, are much more prominent within the rim of the nebula.

As the line ratio profiles might provide additional interesting information about the excitation conditions of a nebula, we show in Figure 3 the \[N ii\]/H$`\alpha `$, \[S ii\]/H$`\alpha `$, \[O ii\]/\[O iii\], and \[N ii\], \[O ii\] spatial profiles along the major axis of the nebula. The top panel clearly shows the inner and outer pairs of knots as prominent zones of low ionization. Moreover, the fact that \[N ii\]/H$`\alpha `$, \[S ii\]/H$`\alpha `$ and \[O ii\]/\[O iii\] ratios are very similar in shape suggests that their local maxima might not be due to the overabundance of a given element. These line ratios are rather low at the position of the jets and the rim implying that the excitation of the jets is quite different from that of the knots. The average values of \[N ii\]/H$`\alpha `$ in the outer knots are 1.00 ($`\mathrm{K}_1`$) and 0.96 ($`\mathrm{K}_4`$), much higher than those usually found for spherical and elliptical PNe (e.g., Aller & Liller 1968). The inner pair of knots, on the other hand, have less extreme \[N ii\]/H$`\alpha `$ line ratios, namely 0.13 and 0.14 for $`\mathrm{K}_2`$ and $`\mathrm{K}_3`$, respectively.

The lower two panels of Figure 3 show the \[N ii\] and \[O ii\] spatial profiles at the position of the inner (top) and outer (bottom) pairs of knots. The \[N ii\] and \[O ii\] profiles have been normalized in the nebular regions just ahead of the knots in order to see whether the variation of the \[N ii\] and \[O ii\] emission through the knots shows any effects related to collisional quenching of the emission lines. The critical density for collisional de-excitation is $`\mathrm{16\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ cm-3 and $`\mathrm{3\hspace{0.17em}100}`$ cm-3 for the \[O ii\] 3726 Å 3729 Å doublet, respectively, while it is $`\mathrm{86\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ cm-3 for the \[N ii\] 6583 Å line. Figure 3 shows that the \[N ii\] and \[O ii\] profiles are very similar in the outer, lower density (Ne $``$ 2000 cm-3) knots, whereas in both inner knots (Ne $``$ 5000 cm-3) on the contrary, the \[O ii\] profile is much flatter than the \[N ii\] one. This represents a direct proof that collisional quenching is indeed affecting the \[O ii\] doublet in regions of relatively high densities, and caution should be exercised when, for example, computing densities using the \[O ii\] doublet.

Peculiar line ratios from structures like the knots of NGC 7009 have been attributed to anomalous abundances and/or shock excitation (Balick et al. 1987; Miranda & Solf 1992). In order to test whether shock excitation plays a role in NGC 7009, we show in Figure 4 two relevant diagnostic diagrams (c.f. Cantó 1981; Phillips & Cuesta 1999). The behavior of the different components of NGC 7009 in the H$`\alpha `$/\[N ii\] (6548 + 6583) versus H$`\alpha `$/\[S ii\] (6716 + 6731) diagram is very interesting, revealing the eight regions to be neatly separated and ordered in pairs along the PN band. This is in line with the trends found in other PNe (see the case of M 2-9, Phillips & Cuesta 1999): the rim appears on the right of the diagram, whereas the outer zones of the nebula lie in the bottom left of the diagram. An interesting result from this diagram is that the jets and rim, which are high-excitation zones are on the right side, while both pairs of knots appear to be separated from the former in terms of degree of excitation.

The bottom panel of Figure 4, showing \[O iii\](4959 + 5007)/H$`\alpha `$ versus \[S ii\](6716 + 6731)/H$`\alpha `$, separates the zone of radiatively excited emission lines (the PN zone, adapted from Phillips & Cuesta 1999) from the zone mainly excited by shocks (from the predictions of the plane–parallel and bow-shock models of Hartigan, Raymond, & Hartmann 1987). It is clear that all eight structures in NGC 7009 are mainly radiatively excited by the PN central star. This is remarkable, since other PNe show, at least in some of their morphological components, indications of shock excitation, whereas in NGC 7009 not even the jet and outer knots approach the shock area in Figure 4. On the other hand, the fact that forbidden lines are radiatively excited in this nebula validates our calculations of physico-chemical parameters for the different regions.

### 4.4 Chemical Abundances

The chemical composition of a PN results from the mixing of the elements produced by the central star and dredged up to the surface with those present in the original gas from which the star was made. The abundances of O, Ne, Ar, and S are thought to represent the chemical composition of the interstellar medium when the progenitor star was born, since these elements are neither produced by the PN progenitor nor very much affected by nucleosynthesis (see Iben & Renzini 1983 and Stasińska 2002 for reviews). On the contrary, He, C, and N changes dramatically in the progenitor star enriching the stellar surface and, owing to the dredge-up episodes, enrich the PN envelopes.

Abundances of ionized nebulae are calculated based either on empirical methods or on model fitting (Stasińska 2002). In the former case, complete multiwavelength data would give the emission for all ions of a given element, and the total abundance is the sum of the ionic ones. Usually, however, only a few lines of some ions can be measured and one must correct for unseen ions using ionization correction factors.

Here, we have computed the ionic and total abundances (relative to hydrogen) for the different regions of NGC 7009, and also for the whole nebula via the ionization correction factors (icf) following the scheme in Kingsburgh & Barlow (1994), as done, for example, by Corradi et al. (1997). The uncertainties in this method have been discussed by Alexander & Balick (1997) and appear to be significant for the analysis of spatially resolved long-slit observations.

Table 3 lists the ionic and total abundances and the icf used. Total abundance profiles along the major axis of the nebula are shown in Figure 5. Errors in the ionic abundances are derived by taking into account both the errors in the line ratios and those in the adopted temperatures. Errors in the total abundances are obtained by propagating the errors in the ionic abundances as well as on the icf. Typical resulting errors (1$`\sigma `$) in the total abundances are less than 10$`\%`$ for He (for which no icf is applied), 10–20$`\%`$ for O, less than 35$`\%`$ for Ne, and 25–40$`\%`$ for N and S.

First of all note in Figure 5 that the abundances obtained for the regions $`\mathrm{J}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{J}_2`$ should be interpreted with great caution because these are indeed very faint regions in the nebula. In particular, the \[N ii$`\lambda `$5755 Å line could not be measured at the jet positions, and we could not determine $`T_e`$\[N ii\]. Instead, we have assumed $`T_e`$\[N ii\] = $`T_e`$\[O iii\] for $`\mathrm{J}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{J}_2`$, based on the fact that the $`T_e`$\[N ii\] to $`T_e`$\[O iii\] ratio of all the other regions ranges between 1.01 and 1.25. Therefore, although the adopted temperature for $`\mathrm{J}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{J}_2`$ seems reasonable, the ionic abundances of the low-ionization ions for these regions are probably more uncertain than the quoted errors.

Figure 5 shows that the abundance of Neon remains constant throughout the nebula. Oxygen and Sulfur abundances appear larger in $`\mathrm{K}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{K}_2`$ than in the other regions, but the variations are under the 2$`\sigma `$ level. The constancy of these elements is expected from stellar evolution theory and is consistent with previous results for most spatially resolved PNe studied so far (cf. Perinotto & Corradi 1998). Helium also remains practically constant, implying no or little enrichment in the nebular ejecta.

Figure 5 also shows evidence for an increase of the N abundance in the outer knots $`\mathrm{K}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{K}_4`$, as previously suggested by Balick et al. (1994). They reported a much higher overabundance, up to a factor of 5 for both $`\mathrm{K}_4`$ and $`\mathrm{K}_3`$ (their western ansa and cap), although they also warned that their uncertainties in the abundances could be as high as a factor of 2.

Our results can also be compared with those of other authors, who found “peculiar” abundances of N and O for certain zones of NGC 7009. An overabundance of N/H in the outer knots of a factor of 2 or more with respect to the other regions of the nebula was first derived by Czyzak & Aller (1979). Baker (1983), on the other hand, found that the N abundance does not vary substantially through the PN, but that O/H is marginally (by a factor of $`2`$) lower at the position of the outer knots. Note, however, that based on much better data and an analysis of four PNe containing ansae and including NGC 7009, Balick et al. (1994) concluded that only N/H increases at the ansae, by a factor between 2 and 5 as compared with the rim. Such behavior was interpreted as the result of the recent ejection of N-enriched high-velocity material by the PN central star.

A good test to investigate further this point is the inspection of the profile of the N+/O+ ionic abundance ratio (commonly taken as a measure of the total N/O abundance that does not depend on icf corrections). This is shown in the bottom right panel of Figure 5, and shows the same trend as the N/H ratio. N/O ratios deduced by Czyzak & Aller (1979) also show an apparent gradient from the rim to the ansae. Note, however, that Perinotto & Corradi (1998) and Hajian et al. (1997) did not find any evidence of peculiar N or O abundances in the 17 PNe studied, some of which possess ansae.

Finally, our total abundances of He, O, N, Ne, and S for the whole nebula (integrated over the entire slit, i.e. those labeled NEB in Table 3) are in a general agreement with those obtained by Baker (1983), Liu et al. (1995), and Hyung & Aller (1995). More accurate abundances were derived by Pottasch (2000) combining IUE and ISO/IRAS line fluxes with optical data from the literature, and are also listed in Table 3. These abundances have icf of order of unity and it is therefore relevant to compare them with our values. Percentual differences (from 4$`\%`$ for He to 30-40$`\%`$ for N and Ne) are similar to our estimated errors and indicate a fair level of agreement between the two sets.

We find that the sulfur abundance for the whole nebula is lower than the corresponding solar value, while the He, O and Ne ones are approximately solar (Grevesse & Anders 1989; Allende-Prieto et al. 2001); the N abundance appears similar or marginally higher than the solar value.

In conclusion, we find a homogeneous elemental abundance across the nebula, to within 9%, 17%, and 35% for He, O, Ne and S, respectively. Nitrogen seems to be enhanced in the outermost knots of NGC 7009 by a factor $`2`$, but this evidence is only marginal considering the errors and the enormous range in the derived icf. The uncertainties intrinsic to the method are also rather large (Alexander & Balick 1997), but the present data seem to discard variations at the level found by Balick et al. (1994).

## 5 Discussions

How the observed physico-chemical characteristics of the microstructures in NGC 7009 fit into current models for LIS formation and evolution? Let us first note that discrete knots such as $`\mathrm{K}_1`$ to $`\mathrm{K}_4`$ could form during the evolution of continuous jets: dense knots develop at the tips of jets as matter accumulates at the head of the jet, while knots in the main body of the jet can originate via several forms of instabilities (kink, Vishniac, Rayleigh–Taylor, and Kelvin–Helmholtz). Sometimes, both jets and knots are observed, whereas in other instances we observe only the latter. From a theoretical point of view, the cooling conditions on the post-shock gas and the stage of the jet’s evolution mainly determine whether or not both jets and knots are seen (see, for instance, Soker 1990; Frank, Balick & Livio 1996 and García-Segura 1997).

According to hydrodynamical (HD) and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) studies (García-Segura et al. 1999; García-Segura & López 2000; Steffen, López, & Lim 2001; Gardiner & Frank 2001; Blackman et al. 2001), the interplay between the stellar AGB and post-AGB winds (for single-star progenitors) or between stellar and disk winds (if the progenitor is a binary star) can form highly collimated jets in PNe. Jets that originate in this way are supersonic, highly collimated, two-sided, and roughly coeval with the main shell (single star) or younger (binaries). Another characteristic of some of the models is the linear increase of the jets’ expansion velocity with distance from the center (García-Segura et al. 1999; Steffen et al. 2001). The orientation of jets that result from these models depends on the alignment between the shell axis and the disk/rotation (or magnetic) axis (García-Segura & López 2000; Blackman et al. 2001), as well as on the presence of precession or wobbling (Cliffe et al. 1995; García-Segura 1997; Livio & Pringle 1997).

If the kinematical results of Reay & Atherton (1985) are correct (but see the discussion in Section 3), then, as we have shown in a previous paper (Gonçalves et al. 2001), the morphology and kinematics of the jet and knots of NCG 7009 can be qualitatively explained in the light of HD or MHD single-star interacting stellar wind model. However, as far as the comparison of our results with models in terms of physical parameters is concerned, the situation becomes worse. On the one hand, most of the above models do not show clear predictions for the densities and temperatures of jets and knots. On the other hand, those which do show such predictions are hardly in agreement with the physical parameters derived from the present observations, as we will show in the following.

The simple process of mass accumulation implies that knots at the jets’ tips are necessarily denser than the jets themselves. As we showed in Section 4 this is not the case in NGC 7009. An additional, very intriguing, property of the jets/knots of this PN is that we find no evidence for shock excitation from the optical lines (the line ratios of the jets and outer knots appear to be essentially radiatively excited, see Section 4.3).

Further insights can be gained by comparing our results with the following detailed models. Steffen et al. (2001) developed HD stagnation knot/jet 2-D models which are based on the slow AGB and fast post-AGB winds interaction with lack of momentum in the polar direction of the main shell. They show that this interaction gives rise to “microstructures” which first produce a slightly elongated knot attached to the rim, then a knot further elongated and detached to the rim, and finally a polar jet with a characteristic outward linear increase in velocity. The stagnation knot/jet model has transient lower density jets with higher density knots at the tips, but the opposite occurs with the more permanent jet structures. Therefore, the stagnation knot/jet models do not explain the outer knots and jets of NGC 7009, whose outer pair of knots and jets have very similar densities, contrary to the model predictions.

Recent 3D MHD models by García-Segura & López (2000) can also be qualitatively compared with our results. These models seem to be able to reproduce successfully the formation of large- and small-scale structures in PNe. These authors state that the mass-loss rate during the post-AGB is a key parameter in distinguishing between the formation of PNe with highly collimated jets and PNe with knots (ansae-like structures): $`\dot{M}10^7`$ $`M_{}`$ yr-1 leads to the formation of jets, while lower mass-loss rates ($`\dot{M}10^8`$ $`M_{}`$ yr-1) are only able to produce knots, instead of jets. Although the low resolution of these models precludes making quantitative predictions for the physical parameters of the knots and jets, their results suggest (their Figure 7) that jets and knots are indeed shock-dominated while our analysis indicates that the jets and the outer knots of NGC 7009 are mainly radiatively excited.

An alternative possibility for the formation of polar knots/jets in elliptical PNe is the model proposed by Frank et al. (1996). They suggest that jets and ansae can be formed during the “momentum-conserving” proto-PN stage, i.e., before the beginning of the fast wind. The key ingredients of this model are the gradual change from a slow to a fast wind, as well as an appreciable equator-to-pole density contrast in the slow wind. The accelerated wind would flow preferentially parallel to the shock, and the gas would follow the shocks’ prolate boundary toward the polar axis. The final result is that the gas flows converge at the polar axis where they collide, form a new shock that redirects the flow into a jet, and moves outward along the main axis of the bubble. Jets/ansae formed this way can be accelerated up to 70 km s-1 and have densities $`>10^6`$ cm-3, before being ionized by the UV photons of the post-AGB star.

In fact the jet/ansae of NGC 7009 look like a continuity of its elliptical rim (remembering that rim and jet are very similar in excitation degree), which is very much in the line of the “converging polar flows” model for the formation of jets and ansae. However, such flows do not tend to converge into stable “microstructures”, since the fast/slow wind interaction could destroy these structures (Frank et al. 1996; Dwarkadas & Balick 1998; López 2002).

Finally, if the nitrogen overabundance of the outer pair of knots is taken as real (but see the discussion in Section 4.4), the formation of $`\mathrm{K}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{K}_4`$ might be related to recent high-velocity ejections of enriched material from the central star. Such a conclusion requires that the high-velocity nature of the structures is effectively confirmed by more robust kinematical data (especially concerning the proper motions).

Another issue to be further investigated is the relation between the thin jet and the “fat” polar bubbles of the nebular shell. The jet seems to be located along the polar axis of the bubbles, and the outer knots lie exactly at the edge of the bubbles. It is then conceivable that the outer knots are the results of the interaction of the jet with the walls of the bubbles. However, would such interaction enhance the low-ionization emission without developing a significant density contrast, as observed?

The formation of the inner system of knots is also uncertain. Morphologically, the knots seem to be located in the shell, and might well share its expansion velocity, as found in other PNe, such as IC 2553 and NGC 5882 (Corradi et al. 2000). If so, they could well be the results of in situ instabilities, or survivors of pre-existing condensations in the AGB wind. Our suggestions for the formation of the outer and inner pair of knots can readily be tested with adequate kinematical modeling of the different structures in NGC 7009.

## 6 Conclusions

A physico-chemical investigation of the symmetrical pairs of structures – rim, inner and outer knots, and jetlike systems connecting the latter – in NGC 7009 is presented. This study, the most extensive (eight individual regions along the major axis), better resolved (1 arcsec spatial resolution within the central 1 arcmin) and complete to date (including all diagnosis from available optical lines), has revealed a clear and coherent pattern of physical, excitation, and chemical characteristics through the nebula: 1) the electron temperature, both for low- and high- excitation species, is remarkably constant; 2) electron densities are similar for both the jetlike structures and the outer knots, but they are roughly one-third of those found in the pair of inner knots and the rim; 3) no sign of shock excitation is found for any of the microstructures or the rim; and 4) a notable chemical uniformity is found for the eight regions studied, with the exception of a marginal, moderate ($`\times `$ 2) enhancement of nitrogen at the outernmost knots.

The origin of the system of microstructures in NGC 7009 is discussed in the light of its physico-chemical parameters and the available theoretical models, but none of these appears able to account for both the lack of a strong density contrast between the outer knots and jetlike structures, and the absence of shocks in them. More than 200 years after its discovery by Herschel, the Saturn Nebula is still challenging our comprehension.

## 7 Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the referee, Letizia Stanghellini, for several useful comments and suggestions that had help us to improve the paper. We are grateful to F. Sabbadin for detecting a misidentification (now corrected) of features in Fig. 1 of the preprint. The work of DRG, RLMC and AM is partially supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (AYA 2001-1646).


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# A Section-Based Queueing-Theoretical Traffic Model for Congestion and Travel Time Analysis in Networks

## References


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# Comment on the new 𝐷_𝑠^limit-from(∗)+𝜋⁰ resonances

## Abstract

We propose an explanation of the new resonances observed in $`D_s^{()+}\pi ^0`$ decays. We suggest that the data can be explained by the mixing of conventional p-wave excited $`D_s^+`$ mesons with 4-quark states. The narrow states observed in $`D_s^+\pi ^0`$ and $`D_s^+\pi ^0`$ are primarily p-wave $`D_{sJ}^{}`$ states, while the predominantly 4-quark states are shifted above $`D^{()}K`$ threshold and should be broad. Ranges for the mixing parameter and mass of the 4-quark state in this scenario are given. Other experimental consequences are discussed.

Meson spectroscopy is an important laboratory for understanding quark confinement. Mesons containing one heavy quark can provide invaluable information about the structure of the QCD Lagrangian, as spectroscopic considerations simplify significantly in the limit of infinitely heavy quark. In this limit the heavy quark spin $`S_Q`$ decouples, so the total angular momentum of the light degrees of freedom $`J_l^p`$ becomes a “good” quantum number. This leads to an important prediction of heavy quark symmetry: the appearance of heavy meson states in the form of degenerate parity doublets classified by the total angular momentum of the light degrees of freedom. This mass degeneracy is lifted with the inclusion of subleading $`1/m_Q`$ corrections. This useful picture is built into many quark-model descriptions of heavy meson spectra. The resulting models have been very successful in explaining the spectrum of negative-parity scalar and vector $`J_l^p=1/2^{}`$ and positive-parity vector and tensor $`J_l^p=3/2^+`$ states.

A narrow resonance in $`D_s^+\pi ^0`$ was recently reported by BaBar dspi0\_babar  and confirmed by the CLEO dspi0\_cleo  and Belle dspi0\_belle  collaborations. Its decay patterns suggest a quark-model $`0^+`$ classification, which would identify it with the positive-parity $`J_l^p=1/2^+`$ $`p`$-wave state. As in the $`D`$ meson system, $`p`$-wave states for the $`D_s^+`$ system are expected, and two narrow states, $`D_{s1}(2536)`$ and $`D_{s2}(2573)`$ were discovered by ARGUS and CLEO, respectively PDG . In analogy to the $`D`$ system, two broad states are also expected.

The mass of the new state $`2317.6\pm 1.3`$ MeV appears surprisingly low for quark model practitioners. In fact, this state appears below $`DK`$ threshold, closing off the most natural decay channel for this state. This forces it to decay mainly via an isospin-violating transition into the $`D_s^+\pi ^0`$ final state and makes its width quite narrow. Its mass disagrees with most existing predictions of quark models godfrey\_isgur ; eichten ; Gupta:1994mw ; Zeng:1994vj ; Kalashnikova:2001ig ; Ebert:1997nk . For example, a mass of $`2487`$ MeV is obtained in the recent potential model calculation by Eichten and Di Pierro eichten . Quenched lattice calculations also seem to favor larger values of the mass of this state Lewis:2000sv  (see, however, lattice ). This led to a lively discussion of the possible non-$`q\overline{q}`$ nature of this state barnes\_lipkin ; cheng\_hou ; szcz ; cahn\_jackson . In addition, a second narrow state is observed in $`D_s^+\pi ^0`$ at a mass near 2460 MeV dspi0\_cleo ; dspi0\_belle . This state would naturally be identified as a spin 1 positive parity $`p`$-wave meson. However, its mass also appears too low for the potential model expectations (e.g. 2605 MeV eichten ).

The observed low values of the masses for these states, however, do not signal a breakdown of quark-model descriptions of the heavy meson spectrum, as it is difficult to assess the accuracy of these predictions, especially in the charm sector. Many authors make use of the non-relativistic nature of the charm quark, taking into account $`1/m_c`$ corrections only. For the $`0^+`$ state, quark model predictions range from the values of $`23872395`$ MeV Gupta:1994mw ; Kalashnikova:2001ig  (still above the $`DK`$ threshold) on the low end of the spectrum to $`2508`$ MeV Ebert:1997nk  on the high end. Since the described phenomena are highly non-perturbative, one should be careful before making a judgment on the nature of a given state based solely on the prediction of a given quark model. For example, as discussed above, in the $`m_c\mathrm{}`$ limit the $`0^+`$ and $`1^+`$ states are expected to become degenerate in mass, $`m_{0^+},m_{1^+}M`$. This can be emulated in quark models by neglecting heavy-quark symmetry-violating $`1/m_c`$ corrections. Yet, different quark models predict very different behavior in this ”heavy-quark limit”: for instance, one potential model Gupta:1994mw  predicts that the mass $`M`$ of the $`(0^+,1^+)`$ multiplet will decrease to approximately $`2382`$ MeV (which is less than the mass of the $`0^+`$ state predicted in this model with the full potential), while in a QCD string model Kalashnikova:2001ig  it is expected to increase up to $`2500`$ MeV (which is much greater than the mass of the $`0^+`$ state predicted in this model with the full potential). In addition, quark models, modified to include chiral symmetry constraints, generally predicted lower values of mass splitting between $`(0^{},1^{})`$ and $`(0^+,1^+)`$ multiplets, of the order of $`200300`$ MeV chiral . Nevertheless, the fact that the new state appears below $`DK`$ threshold and is almost degenerate with a non-strange $`0^+`$ $`p`$-wave $`D`$ state ddst\_belle  is curious and deserves an investigation.

It has been shown that the proper description of the low lying scalar mesons requires the inclusion of the coupling of the scalar $`q\overline{q}`$ states to the s-wave meson-meson channel, and this coupling is very important beveren . By an extension of this argument, we would expect the scalar $`0^+`$ $`c\overline{s}`$ state to mix with the $`DK`$ $`s`$-wave state near threshold. This mixing can occur quite naturally if the states have the same quantum numbers (for instance, via the common intermediate states, see Fig. 1) and could shift the mass of the $`c\overline{s}`$ state.

Alternatively, the possibility of 4-quark states with quark content $`c\overline{s}q\overline{q}`$ has been discussed in the past lipkin\_1 ; suzuki . Here we consider the possibility that there is a 4-quark state that mixes with the $`c\overline{s}`$ state and shifts its mass below $`DK`$ threshold.

We briefly review two-state mixing for the case of two nearby hadronic states. Let $`m_0`$ be the unshifted mass of the $`q\overline{q}`$ state and $`\stackrel{~}{m_0}`$ be the unshifted mass of the 4-quark state. The strong interaction can mix these states by introducing non-diagonal matrix elements $`\delta `$ in the mass matrix of $`qq\overline{qq}`$ and $`q\overline{q}`$ states, which has to be diagonalized. The masses of the two mixed (mass eigen)states, $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$ will then be given by

$`m_1={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{\Sigma }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }^2+4\delta ^2}`$ (1)
$`m_2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{\Sigma }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }^2+4\delta ^2}`$ (2)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=m_0+\stackrel{~}{m_0}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }=m_0\stackrel{~}{m_0}`$. The mixing angle that defines the composition of resulting mass eigenstates in terms of the original $`qq\overline{qq}`$ and $`q\overline{q}`$ states is given by $`\mathrm{tan}(2\theta )=2\delta /\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

Let us be more specific. For example, take $`\stackrel{~}{m_0}`$ the bare mass of the 4-quark state to be just above $`DK`$ threshold at 2.37 GeV and $`m_0`$ at the value 2.48 GeV as given by the potential model; then for a mixing parameter $`\delta `$ of 0.092 GeV, we find two mixed states with masses $`m_2=2.3194`$ GeV and $`m_1=2.5375`$ GeV. The corresponding mixing angle is $`28.8^0`$. The lower state, which is dominantly a p-wave $`D_s`$ meson, is below $`DK`$ threshold, 2.358 GeV, but above $`D\pi `$ threshold, 2.103 GeV. Conversely, the higher state, which is dominantly a 4-quark system, is above $`DK`$ threshold and is broad. There is a large set of parameters for the bare 4 quark mass and mixing that can shift the mass of the $`D_{sJ}^{}`$ to the observed value of $`2317`$ GeV. This is illustrated in Figure 2. If $`\stackrel{~}{m_0}`$ is too high, it is difficult to shift the $`D_{sJ}^{}`$ state, with a reasonable amount of mixing.

In principle, we also expect the same type of mixing to occur for the $`1^+`$ state. For instance, a molecular-type bound-state of $`D^{}K`$ of the kind suggested by Lipkin lipkin\_1 ; barnes\_lipkin  and others, can mix with the $`c\overline{s}`$ $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ state and shift the $`1^+`$ states as well. To calculate the allowed range of mixing in this case is more complicated since there is mixing between the two $`1^+`$ states in addition to the mixing between the lower $`1^+`$ state and the relevant 4 quark state, and we do not attempt a detailed fit.

The properties and decay modes of the lower mixed states should be very similar to those expected for $`p`$-wave $`D_s`$ mesons. Like the broad $`D^{}`$ states perhaps some of the additional states may be identified in exclusive $`B`$ decays such as $`BD^{()0}\overline{D}^0K`$ with enough statistics. The observation of these extra states could lend extra support for the existence of the multiquark and/or molecular states.

The 4 quark states can also give rise to very distinctive final states that are doubly charged lipkin\_1 ; suzuki . For example, there may be $`I=1`$ states including a doubly charged state and a neutral state with decay modes into $`D^+K^+`$, etc. In the scenario described here, these exotic final states are above $`DK`$ threshold and are therefore quite broad, experimentally difficult to find or even may be non-existent as ”real” bound states. Note that we do not expect narrow doubly charged $`D_s^+\pi ^+`$ or $`D_s^+\pi ^{}`$ states in the scenarios described above.

It has also been suggested barnes\_lipkin ; Godfrey:2003kg  that radiative transitions of the type $`D_{sJ}^{}(2317)D_s^{}\gamma `$ could be used to test the nature of these states. In particular, it was suggested that a very small branching ratio for the radiative decays would be an indication of a non-$`q\overline{q}`$ nature of these states. In the scheme described above this test will be useful only for very small or very large (about $`\pi /2`$) values of the mixing angle between $`c\overline{s}`$ and $`c\overline{s}q\overline{q}`$ states, as the contribution of $`c\overline{s}q\overline{q}D_s^{}\gamma `$ transition is suppressed by $`\mathrm{sin}\theta `$. This is not so for moderate values of the mixing angle OurRadProject .

In conclusion, we propose that the new states observed in $`D_s^+\pi ^0`$ and $`D_s^+\pi ^0`$ are shifted by mixing with 4-quark states. We expect that the observed states will have properties similar to those expected for $`p`$-wave $`D_s`$ mesons except for their masses. The additional states responsible for the mixing and mass shifts will be above $`D^{()}K`$ threshold and have large widths.

We thank M. Suzuki for useful discussions. We acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy under grants DE-FG03-94ER40833, DE-FG02-96ER41005.


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# 1 General Questions on Quantum Gravity

## 1 General Questions on Quantum Gravity

It is not clear at all what is the problem in quantum gravity (cf.  or  for general reviews, written in the same spirit as the present one). The answers to the following questions are not known, and I believe it can do no harm to think about them before embarking in a more technical discussion.

Actually, some people proposed that gravity should not be quantized, owing to its special properties as determining the background on which all other fields propagate. There is a whole line of thought on the possibility that gravity is not a fundamental theory, and this is certainly an alternative one has to bear in mind. Indeed, even the holographic principle of G. ’t Hooft, to be discussed later, can be interpreted in this sense.

Granting that, the next question is whether it does make any sense to consider gravitons propagating in some background; that is, whether there is some useful approximation in which there is a particle physics approach to the physics of gravitons as quanta of the gravitational field. A related question is whether semiclassical gravity, i.e., the approximation in which the source of the classical Einstein equations is replaced by the expectation value of the energy momentum tensor of some quantum theory has some physical () validity in some limit.

At any rate, even if it is possible at all, the at first sight easy problem of graviton interactions in an otherwise flat background has withstood analysis of several generations of physicists. The reason is that the coupling constant has mass dimension $`1`$, so that the structure of the perturbative counterterms involve higher and higher orders in the curvature invariants (powers of the Riemann tensor in all possible independent contractions), schematically,

$$S=\frac{1}{2\kappa _R^2}R+R^2+\kappa _R^2R^4+\mathrm{}$$
(1)
Nobody knows how to make sense of this approach, except in one case, to be mentioned later on.

It could be possible, sensu stricto to stop here. But if we believe that quantum gravity should give answers to such questions as to the fate of the initial cosmological singularity, its is almost unavoidable to speak of the wave function of the universe. This brings its own set of problems, such as to whether it is possible to do quantum mechanics without classical observers or whether the wave function of the Universe has a probablilistic interpretation. Paraphrasing C. Isham , one would not known when to qualify a probabilistic prediction on the whole Universe as a successful one.

The aim of the present paper is to discuss in some detail established results on the field. In some strong sense, the review could be finished at once, because there are none. There are, nevertheless, some interesting attempts, which look promising from certain points of view. Perhaps the two approaches that have attracted more attention have been the loop approach, on the one hand and strings on the other. We shall try to critically assess prospects in both. Interesting related papers are .

## 2 The issue of background independence

One of the main differences between both attacks to the quantum gravity problem is the issue of background independence, by which it is understood that no particular background should enter into the definition of the theory itself. Any other approach is purportedly at variance with diffeomorphism invariance.

Work in particle physics in the second half of last century led to some understanding of ordinary gauge theories. Can we draw some lessons from there?

Gauge theories can be formulated in the bakground field approach, as introduced by B. de Witt and others (cf. ). In this approach, the quantum field theory depends on a background field, but not on any one in particular, and the theory enjoys background gauge invariance.

Is it enough to have quantum gravity formulated in such a way? This was, incidentally, the way G. Hooft and M. Veltman did the first complete one-loop calculation ().

It can be argued that the only vacuum expectation value consistent with diffeomorphisms invariance is

$$<0|g_{\alpha \beta }|0>=0$$
(2)
in which case the answer to the above question ought to be in the negative, because this is a singular background and curvature invariants do not make sense. It all boils down as to whether the ground state of the theory is diffeomorphisms invariant or not. There is an example, namely three-dimensional gravity in which invariant quantization can be performed . In this case at least, the ensuing theory is almost topological.

In all attempts of a canonical quantization of the gravitational field, one always ends up with an (constraint) equation corresponding physically to the fact that the total hamiltonian of a parametrization invariant theory should vanish. When expressed in the Schrödinger picture, this equation is often dubbed the Wheeler-de Witt equation. This equation is plagued by operator ordering and all other sorts of ambiguities. It is curious to notice that in ordinary quantum field theory there also exists a Schrödinger representation, which came recently to be controlled well enough as to be able to perform lattice computations ().

Gauge theories can be expressed in terms of gauge invariant operators, such as Wilson loops . They obey a complicated set of equations, the loop equations, which close in the large $`N`$ limit as has been shown by Makeenko and Migdal (). These equations can be properly regularized, e.g. in the lattice. Their explicit solution is one of the outstanding challenges in theoretical physics. Although many conjectures have been advanced in this direction, no definitive result is available.

## 3  Loops

The whole philosophy of this approach is canonical, i.e., an analysis of the evolution of variables defined classically through a foliation of spacetime by a family of spacelike three-surfaces $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_t`$. The standard choice in this case (cf. for example ) is the three-dimensional metric, $`g_{ij}`$, and its canonical conjugate, related to the extrinsic curvature. Due to the fact that the system is reparametrization invariant, the total hamiltonian vanishes, and this hamiltonian constraint is usually called the Wheeler- de Witt equation.

Here, as in any canonical approach the way one chooses the canonical variables is fundamental.

Ashtekar’s clever insight started from the definition of an original set of variables () stemming from the Einstein-Hilbert lagrangian written in the form 222Boundary terms have to be considered as well. We refer to the references for details.

$$S=e^ae^bR^{cd}ϵ_{abcd}$$
(3)
where $`e^a`$ are the one-forms associated to the tetrad,

$$e^ae_\mu ^adx^\mu .$$
(4)
Tetrads are defined up to a local Lorentz transformation

$$(e^a)^{}L_b^a(x)e^b$$
(5)
The associated $`SO(1,3)`$ connection one-form $`\omega _b^a`$ is usually called the spin connection. Its field strength is the curvature expressed as a two form:

$$R_b^ad\omega _b^a+\omega _c^a\omega _b^c.$$
(6)
Ashtekar’s variables are actually based on the $`SU(2)`$ self-dual connection

$$A=\omega i\omega $$
(7)
Its field strength is

$$FdA+AA$$
(8)
The dynamical variables are then $`(A_i,E^iF^{0i})`$. The main virtue of these variables is that constraints are then linearized. One of them is exactly analogous to Gauss’law:

$$D_iE^i=0.$$
(9)
There is another one related to three-dimensional diffeomorphisms invariance,

$$trF_{ij}E^i=0$$
(10)
and, finally, there is the Hamiltonian constraint,

$$trF_{ij}E^iE^j=0$$
(11)
On a purely mathematical basis, there is no doubt that Astekhar’s variables are of a great ingenuity. As a physical tool to describe the metric of space, they are not real in general. This forces a reality condition to be imposed, which is akward. For this reason it is usually prefered to use the Barbero-Immirzi () formalism in which the connexion depends on a free parameter, $`\gamma `$,

$$A_a^i=\omega _a^i+\gamma K_a^i$$
(12)
$`\omega `$ being the spin connection and $`K`$ the extrinsic curvature. When $`\gamma =i`$ Astekhar’s formalism is recovered; for other values of $`\gamma `$ the explicit form of the constraints is more complicated. Thiemann () has proposed a form for the Hamiltonian constraint which seems promising, although it is not clear whether the quantum constraint algebra is isomorphic to the classical algebra (cf.). A comprehensive reference is

Some states which satisfy the Astekhar constraints are given by the loop representation, which can be introduced from the construct (depending both on the gauge field $`A`$ and on a parametrized loop $`\gamma `$)

$$W(\gamma ,A)trPe^{_\gamma A}$$
(13)
and a functional transform mapping functionals of the gauge field $`\psi (A)`$ into functionals of loops, $`\psi (\gamma )`$:

$$\psi (\gamma )𝒟AW(\gamma ,A)\psi (A)$$
(14)
When one divides by diffeomorphisms, it is found that functions of knot classes (diffeomorphisms classes of smooth, non self-intersecting loops) satisfy all the constraints.

Some particular states sought to reproduce smooth spaces at coarse graining are the Weaves. It is not clear to what extent they also approach the conjugate variables ( that is, the extrinsic curvature) as well.

In the presence of a cosmological constant the hamiltonian constraint reads:

$$ϵ_{ijk}E^{ai}E^{bj}(F_{ab}^k+\frac{\lambda }{3}ϵ_{abc}E^{ck})=0$$
(15)
A particular class of solutions of the constraint  are self-dual solutions of the form

$$F_{ab}^i=\frac{\lambda }{3}ϵ_{abc}E^{ci}$$
(16)
Kodama ( has shown that the Chern-Simons state

$$\psi _{CS}(A)e^{\frac{3}{2\lambda }S_{CS}(A)}$$
(17)
is a solution of the hamiltonian constraint. He even suggested that the sign of the coarse grained, classical cosmological constant was always positive, irrespectively of the sign of the quantum parameter $`\lambda `$, but it is not clear whether this result is general enough. There is some concern that this state as such is not normalizable with the usual norm. It has been argued that this is only natural, because the physical relevant norm must be very different from the naïve one (cf. ) and indeed normalizability of the Kodama state has been suggested as a criterion for the correctness of the physical scalar product.

Loop states in general (suitable symmetrized) can be represented as spin network () states: colored lines (carrying some $`SU(2)`$ representation) meeting at nodes where intertwining $`SU(2)`$ operators act. A beautiful graphical representation of the group theory has been succesfully adapted for this purpose. There is a clear relationship between this representation and the Turaev-Viro  invariants Many of these ideas have been foresighted by Penrose (cf. ).

There is also a path integral representation, known as spin foam (cf.), a topological theory of colored surfaces representing the evolution of a spin network. These are closely related to topological BF theories, and indeed, independent generalizations have been proposed. Spin foams can also be considered as an independent approach to the quantization of the gravitational field.()

In addition to its specific problems, this approach shares with all canonical approaches to covariant systems the problem of time. It is not clear its definition, at least in the absence of matter. Dynamics remains somewhat mysterious; the hamiltonian constraint does not say in what sense (with respect to what) the three-dimensional dynamics evolve.

### 3.1 Big results

One of the main successes of the loop approach is that the area (as well as the volume) operator is discrete. This allows, assuming that a black hole has been formed (which is a process that no one knows how to represent in this setting), to explain the formula for the black hole entropy . The result is expressed in terms of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter (). The physical meaning of this dependence is not well understood.

It has been pointed out  that there is a potential drawback in all theories in which the area (or mass) spectrum is discrete with eigenvalues $`A_n`$ if the level spacing between eigenvalues $`\delta A_n`$ is uniform because of the predicted thermal character of Hawking’s radiation. The explicit computations in the present setting, however, lead to an space between (dimensionless) eigenvalues

$$\delta A_ne^{\sqrt{A_n}},$$
(18)
which seemingly avoids this set of problems.

It has also been pointed out that  not only the spin foam, but almost all other theories of gravity can be expressed as topological BF theories with constraints. While this is undoubtely an intesting and potentially useful remark, it is important to remember that the difference between the linear sigma model (a free field theory) and the nonlinear sigma models is just a matter of constraints. This is enough to produce a mass gap and asymptotic freedom in appropiate circumstances.

## 4 Strings

It should be clear by now that we probably still do not know what is exactly the problem to which string theories are the answer. At any rate, the starting point is that all elementary particles are viewed as quantized excitations of a one dimensional object, the string, which can be either open (free ends) or closed (a loop). Excellent books are avaliable, such as .

String theories enjoy a convoluted history. Their origin can be traced to the Veneziano model of strong interactions. A crucial step was the reinterpretation by Scherk and Schwarz () of the massless spin two state in the closed sector (previously thought to be related to the Pomeron) as the graviton and consequently of the whole string theory as a potential theory of quantum gravity, and potential unified theories of all interactions. Now the wheel has made a complete turn, and we are perhaps back through the Maldacena conjecture () to a closer relationship than previously thought with ordinary gauge theories.

From a certain point of view, their dymamics is determined by a two-dimensional non-linear sigma model, which geometrically is a theory of imbeddings of a two-dimensional surface (the world sheet of the string) to a (usually ten-dimensional) target space:

$$x^\mu (\xi ):\mathrm{\Sigma }_2M_n$$
(19)
There are two types of interactions to consider. Sigma model interactions (in a given two-dimensional surface) are defined as an expansion in powers of momentum, where a new dimensionful parameter, $`\alpha ^{}l_s^2`$ sets the scale. This scale is a priori believed to be of the order of the Planck length. The first terms in the action always include a coupling to the massless backgrounds: the spacetime metric, the two-index Maxwell like field known as the Kalb-Ramond or $`b`$-field, and the dilaton. To be specific,

$$S=\frac{1}{l_s^2}_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_2}g_{\mu \nu }(x(\xi ))_ax^\mu (\xi )_bx^\nu (\xi )\gamma ^{ab}(\xi )+\mathrm{}$$
(20)
There are also string interactions, (changing the two-dimensional surface) proportional to the string coupling constant, $`g_s`$, whose variations are related to the logarithmic variations of the dilaton field. Open strings (which have gluons in their spectrum) always contain closed strings (which have gravitons in their spectrum) as intermediate states in higher string order ($`g_s`$) corrections. This interplay open/closed is one of the most fascinating aspects of the whole string theory.

It has been discovered by Friedan (cf. ) that in order for the quantum theory to be consistent with all classical symmetries (diffeomorphisms and conformal invariance), the beta function of the generalized couplings 333There are corrections coming from both dilaton and Kalb-Ramond fields. The quoted result is the first term in an expansion in derivatives, with expansion parameter $`\alpha ^{}l_s^2`$. must vanish:

$$\beta (g_{\mu \nu })=R_{\mu \nu }=0$$
(21)
This result remains until now as one of the most important ones in string theory, hinting at a deep relationship between Einstein’s equations and the renormalization group.

Polyakov () introduced the so called non-critical strings which have in general a two-dimensional cosmological constant (forbidden otherwise by Weyl invariance). The dynamics of the conformal mode (often called Liouville in this context) is, however, poorly understood.

### 4.1 General setup

Fundamental strings live in D=10 spacetime dimensions, and so a Kaluza-Klein mecanism of sorts must be at work in order to explain why we only see four non-compact dimensions at low energies. Strings have in general tachyons in their spectrum, and the only way to construct seemingly consistent string theories (cf. ) is to project out those states, which leads to supersymmetry. This means in turn that all low energy predictions heavily depend on the supersymmetry breaking mechanisms.

String perturbation theory is probably well defined although a full proof is not available.

Several stringy symmetries are believed to be exact: T-duality, relating large and small compactification volumes, and $`S`$-duality, relating the strong coupling regime with the weak coupling one. Besides, extended configurations (D branes); topological defects in which open strings can end are known to be important . They couple to Maxwell-like fields which are p-forms called Ramond-Ramond (RR) fields. These dualities  relate all five string theories (namely, Heterotic $`E(8)\times E(8)`$ Heterotic $`SO(32)`$, Tipe $`I`$, $`IIA`$ and $`IIB`$) and it is conjectured that there is an unified eleven -dimensional theory, dubbed $`M`$-theory of which $`𝒩=1`$ supergravity in $`d=11`$ dimensions is the low energy limit.

### 4.2 Big results

Perhaps the main result is that graviton physics in flat space is well defined for the first time, and this is no minor accomplishment.

Besides, there is evidence that at least some geometric singularities are harmless in the sense that strings do not feel them. Topology change amplitudes do not vanish in string theory.

The other Big Result  is that one can correctly count states of extremal black holes as a function of charges. This is at the same time astonishing and disappointing. It clearly depends strongly on the objets being BPS states (that is, on supersymmetry), and the result has not been extended to non-supersymmetric configurations. On the other hand, as we have said, it exactly reproduces the entropy as a function of a sometimes large number of charges, without any adjustable parameter.

### 4.3 The Maldacena conjecture

Maldacena  proposed as a conjecture that $`IIB`$ string theories in a background $`AdS_5\times S_5`$ with radius $`ll_s(g_sN)^{1/4}`$ and N units of RR flux is equivalent to a four dimensional ordinary gauge theory in flat four-dimensional Minkowski space, namely $`𝒩=4`$ super Yang-Mills with gauge group $`SU(N)`$ and coupling constant $`g=g_s^{1/2}`$.

Although there is much supersymmetry in the problem and the kinematics largely determine correlators, (in particular, the symmetry group $`SO(2,4)\times SO(6)`$ is realized as an isometry group on the gravity side and as an $`R`$-symmetry group as well as conformal invariance on the gauge theory side) this is not fully so 444The only correlators that are completely determined through symmetry are the two and three-point functions. and the conjecture has passed many tests in the semiclassical approximation to string theory.

This is the first time that a precise holographic description of spacetime in terms of a (boundary) gauge theory is proposed and, as such it is of enormous potential interest. It has been conjectured by ’t Hooft  and further developed by Susskind  that there should be much fewer degrees of freedom in quantum gravity than previously thought. The conjecture claims that it should be enough with one degree of freedom per unit Planck surface in the two-timensional boundary of the three-dimensional volume under study. The reason for that stems from an analysis of the Bekenstein-Hawking  entropy associated to a black hole, given in terms of the two-dimensional area $`A`$ 555The area of the horizon for a Schwarzschild black hole is given by:
$$A=\frac{8\pi G^2}{c^4}M^2$$
(22)  of the horizon by

$$S=\frac{c^3}{4G\mathrm{}}A.$$
(23)
This is a deep result indeed, still not fully understood.

It is true on the other hand that the Maldacena conjecture has only been checked for the time being in some corners of parameter space, namely when strings can be approximated by supergravity in the appropiate background. The way it works  is that the supergravity action corresponding to fields with prescribed boundary values is related to gauge theory correlators of certain gauge invariant operators corresponding to the particular field studied:

$$e^{S_{sugra}[\mathrm{\Phi }_i]}|_{\mathrm{\Phi }_i|_{AdS}=\varphi _i}=<e^{{\scriptscriptstyle 𝒪_i\varphi _i}}>_{CFT}$$
(24)
## 5 Observational prospects

In the long term, advances in the field, as in any other branch of physics will be determined by experiment. The prospects here are quite dim. It has been advertised  that as a consequence of loop quantum gravity 666In string theory, with a string scale of the order of the Planck mass, there is effectively a minimal length, namely the self dual radius but then the corrections are of the type
$$E^2=(\stackrel{}{p})^2+m^2+m^2\underset{n=1}{}c_n(\frac{m}{m_P})^n$$
(25) much more difficult to observe experimentally anomalous dispersion relations of the form

$$E^2=(\stackrel{}{p})^2+m^2+E^2\underset{n=1}{}c_n(\frac{E}{m_P})^n$$
(26)
could explain some strange facts on the cosmic ray spectrum. Although this is an interesting suggestion (cf.) it is not specific to loop quantum gravity; noncommutative models make similar predictions as indeed does any theory with a fundamental scale. In spite of some optimism, it is not easy to perform specific experiments which could discriminate between different quantum gravity alternatives. This should not by any means be taken as an indication that the experiments themselves are not interesting. Nothing could be most exciting that to discover deviations from the suposedly exact symmetries of Nature, and it is amazing that present observations already seemingly exclude some alternatives .

On the string side, perhaps some effects related to specific stringy states, such as the winding states could be experimentally verified ( cf. for example some suggestions in ). It has also been proposed that the string scale could be lowered, from the Planck scale down to the TeV regime . It is difficult to really pinpoint what is exactly stringy about those models, and in particular, all string predictions are difficult to disentangle from supersymmetric model predictions and rely heavily on the mechanisms of supersymmetry breaking.

## 6 Summary: the state of the art in quantum gravity

In the loop approach one is working with nice candidates for a quantum theory. The theories are interesting, probably related to topological field theories () and background independence as well as diffeomorphism invariance are clearly implemented. On the other hand, it is not clear that their low energy limit is related to Einstein gravity.

Strings start from a perturbative approach more familiar to a particle physicist. However, they carry all the burden of supersymmetry and Kaluza-Klein. It has proved to be very difficult to study nontrivial non-supersymmetric dynamics.

Finally, and this applies to all approaches, the holographic ideas seem intriguing; there are many indications of a deep relationship between gravity and gauge theories.

We would like to conclude by insisting on the fact that although there is not much we know for sure on quantum effects on the gravitational field, even the few things we know are a big feat, given the difficulty to do physics without experiments.

## Acknowledgments

I wish like to thank Norma Mankoc-Borstnik and Holger Bech Nielsen for the oportunity to participate in a wonderful meeting in the pleasant atmosphere of Portoroz. I have benefited from discussions with J. Alfaro, J. Barrett, C. Gómez, W. Kummer and E. Verdaguer. This work has been partially supported by the European Commission (HPRN-CT-200-00148) and CICYT (Spain).


text:
# On the Investigation of the Proton Structure Using QED Compton Events in ep Scattering

## 1 Introduction

Measurements of deep-inelastic lepton-proton scattering (DIS) provide information that is crucial to our understanding of proton structure. Since the fixed target experiments have discovered scaling violations , much progress has been made in extending the kinematic regime covered in terms of the Bjorken variable $`x`$ and the four-momentum transfer $`Q^2`$. This holds especially for the HERA $`ep`$ scattering experiments which, with their wealth of data, have shown that the $`Q^2`$ evolution of the proton structure function $`F_2(x,Q^2)`$ is well described by perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) throughout a wide range in $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$. However, at small $`Q^2`$ deviations from pQCD predictions are observed , indicating the transition into a regime where non-perturbative effects dominate and the data can only be described by phenomenological models such as those derived from the Regge approach .

In order to study this non-perturbative regime, the structure function $`F_2`$ has been measured at very low values of $`Q^2`$ and $`x`$, which are accessible at HERA via special devices mounted close to the outgoing electron beam direction  thus facilitating measurements of the scattered electron at very low angles. These devices, however, do not cover the transition region at $`Q^2`$ $`1`$GeV2, which up to now has only been investigated using “shifted vertex” data . In this paper the possibility to extend the kinematic domain of HERA into this region using QED Compton (QEDC) events, i.e. $`ep`$ events with wide angle hard photon radiation, is discussed.

The present studies are based on a modified version  of the COMPTON event generator  with a complete description of the low mass hadronic final states based on the SOPHIA model , as described in section 2. Apart from studying the potential of QEDC events to access the low $`Q^2`$ region this new version of the COMPTON program thus also allows investigating the possibility to measure in the fixed target region at higher $`x`$, because the result of such a measurement crucially depends on the accurate description of the hadronic final state at low masses $`W`$.

The possibility to measure the proton structure function $`F_2`$ at low $`Q^2`$ using QEDC events was first discussed by Blümlein et al. . In the framework of the equivalent photon approximation the authors introduced the concept of a photon density of the proton333Sometimes also denoted as $`f_{\gamma |p}`$ or $`D_{\gamma |p}`$., $`\gamma `$, to be valid at very low virtualities $`Q^2`$. This function has been computed by de Rújula and Vogelsang  when proposing an extraction method for $`\gamma `$ from HERA QEDC data. The validity of this approach is discussed in the second part of the paper, where it is shown that the collinear approximation does not provide a sufficient description of inelastic QEDC scattering and that measurements of the QEDC cross section with reasonable precision can thus not be interpreted in terms of the photon density function.

## 2 QEDC Monte Carlo Simulation

Radiative processes in $`ep`$ scattering, as depicted in Fig. 1, may be split into three different classes  with (i) the bremsstrahlung or Bethe-Heitler process corresponding to small masses of both the virtual electron and the virtual photon, (ii) the QED Compton process with a low virtual photon and a large virtual electron mass and finally (iii) the radiative DIS process where the photon is collinear either with the incoming (Initial State Radiation, ISR) or the outgoing (Final State Radiation, FSR) electron. All three classes correspond to distinct experimental signatures. For the QEDC scattering process the final state topology is given by an azimuthal back-to-back configuration of the outgoing electron and photon detected under rather large scattering angles. In this configuration their transverse momenta balance such that very low values of the exchanged photon virtuality $`Q^2`$ are experimentally accessible.

To correctly describe the process $`epe\gamma X`$ the standard kinematic variables $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$, used to describe inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (DIS), have to be redefined in order to account for the additional photon in the final state

$$Q^2=q^2=(ll^{}k)^2,x=\frac{Q^2}{2P(ll^{}k)}.$$
(1)
Here $`l`$ and $`P`$ are the four-momenta of the incoming electron and the incoming proton, and $`l^{}`$ and $`k`$ represent the momenta of the scattered electron and the radiated photon, respectively (Fig. 1). Three further independent variables are needed for a full description of the differential QEDC scattering cross section. In the formalism presented in  the Lorentz invariant scale variable $`x_\gamma =ql/Pl`$ and the scattering solid angle $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{}`$ defined in the centre-of-mass frame of the virtual Compton process and encapsulating two degrees of freedom are employed. The cross section is then given by

$$\frac{d^4\sigma ^{epe\gamma X}}{dxdx_\gamma dQ^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}}=f_{\gamma ^{}/p}^T(x,x_\gamma ,Q^2)\left[\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}}\right]^T+f_{\gamma ^{}/p}^L(x,x_\gamma ,Q^2)\left[\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}}\right]^L,$$
(2)
where $`[d\sigma /d\mathrm{\Omega }^{}]^{T,L}`$ are the differential cross sections of the process $`e\gamma ^{}e\gamma `$ for transverse and longitudinal polarised photons, fully calculable in the framework of QED , and $`f_{\gamma ^{}/p}^{T,L}`$ represent the corresponding virtual photon spectra, which may be expressed in terms of the photo-absorption cross sections $`\sigma _{\gamma ^{}p}^{T,L}`$. In order to specify $`\sigma _{\gamma ^{}p}^{T,L}`$ one has to consider three separate contributions depending on the value of the invariant mass $`W`$ of the outgoing hadronic final state:

1. Elastic scattering, for which the proton stays intact ($`W=m_p`$). This channel is well measured, and the cross section is given by the electric and magnetic form factors $`G_E`$ and $`G_M`$;
2. Resonance production, where the total mass of the hadronic final state $`X`$ lies in the range $`m_p+m_\pi W2`$ GeV;
3. Continuum inelastic scattering at $`W2`$ GeV. In this region the $`\gamma ^{}p`$ cross section is defined through the proton structure functions $`F_2`$ and $`F_L`$.

The above cross section expression (2) is implemented in the COMPTON event generator . However, as this generator was primarily written for an application in analyses of elastic QEDC events, in the original version a rather crude approach has been employed to describe the resonance region and only simple scale invariant $`F_2`$ parameterisations are used to model the continuum inelastic domain. Furthermore, no hadronisation of the final state $`X`$ is performed.

As this paper aims at the investigation of inelastic QEDC events a new version of the COMPTON generator was developed  which includes detailed parameterisations for the resonance  and the continuum  regions. In addition, several packages for a complete simulation of the hadronic final state have been implemented into the program. For the present studies the SOPHIA package  is used in the range of low $`Q^2`$ and low masses, $`W`$, of the hadronic final state while the Quark Parton Model with subsequent Lund string fragmentation  is employed at high $`W`$ and high $`Q^2`$.

## 3 On the Measurement of $`F_2`$ Using QEDC Scattering

The presented studies are based on a Monte Carlo sample which was generated using the new version of the COMPTON program and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 30 pb-1; the incident beam energies used are $`E_e=27.6`$ GeV for the electron and $`E_p=820`$ GeV for the proton beam. In order to obtain a realistic simulation of the experimental conditions at the HERA $`ep`$ detectors, the generated events were subject to the GEANT-based simulation of the H1 detector . Hence, the selection criteria are adapted to the resolution and acceptance limits of the detector components relevant for this analysis. The most important ones are the backward calorimeter444The $`z`$ axis of the right-handed coordinate system used by H1 is defined to lie along the direction of the incident proton beam and the origin to be at the nominal $`ep`$ interaction vertex; the backward direction is thus defined through $`z<0`$. SpaCal , the liquid-argon (LAr) calorimeter and the tracking and vertex detectors .

The analysis strategy is based on the detection of the outgoing photon and the outgoing electron observed almost back-to-back in azimuth. Thus, the main experimental requirement is the existence of two electromagnetic energy depositions (clusters) with $`E_\gamma ,E_e>4`$ GeV in the backward calorimeter; an additional limit is imposed on the total $`e\gamma `$ energy $`E_e+E_\gamma >20`$ GeV to reduce radiative corrections. In order to separate QED Compton scattering from the FSR process and still obtain inelastic QEDC events the azimuthal acoplanarity angle $`A=180^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ is required to be below $`45^{}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ represents the angle between the transverse momenta of the electron and the photon; this cut also matches a corresponding requirement in the COMPTON event generator . Inelastic QEDC events are selected demanding at least one LAr cluster with energy above $`E>0.5`$ GeV; as the acceptance of the LAr calorimeter is limited to $`\theta 4^{}`$ this cut — apart from rejecting elastic events — substantially reduces the inelastic contribution at very low masses $`W`$. After applying these criteria, background contributions from standard DIS events only appear for large angles of the hadronic final state particles where one hadron fakes a photon signal in the backward calorimeter and the current jet is observed in the backward region of the detector. This contribution is reduced by requiring no additional energy deposition apart from the two clusters to be found above $`\theta _{\mathrm{max}}=90^{}`$ (see Fig. 2). Finally, only events with a reconstructed vertex are considered, in order to guarantee a correct determination of all kinematic variables. However, as the final state hadrons are generally scattered under very small angles the corresponding tracks do not provide sufficient resolution for an accurate vertex measurement. Vertices are thus reconstructed using the electron track detected in one of the tracking detectors. A brief summary of all selection criteria is given in Tab. 1.

The phase space covered by a QEDC sample selected by the cuts described is shown in Fig. 3 for an integrated luminosity of 30 pb-1. Compared to the kinematic range accessed at HERA via standard deep-inelastic scattering, the QEDC events clearly extend to lower $`Q^2`$. For inclusive DIS the outgoing electron is not detected for such low values of $`Q^2`$ as it is scattered at small angles escaping through the beam pipe unseen; QEDC events, however, with the electron and photon in the final state balancing in transverse momentum, reach into the transition region below $`Q^2<1.5`$ GeV2, which otherwise is only accessed through data taken in the shifted vertex runs  or with dedicated devices for tagging events at very low $`Q^2`$ like the ZEUS BPT . But, due to acceptance limitations in the high $`x`$ domain, these latter data cannot extend the low $`Q^2`$ $`F_2`$-measurements to such high $`x`$ as QEDC events. It is therefore the range of medium to high $`x`$ which is of special interest when analysing QEDC scattering. As higher $`x`$ correspond to low masses $`W`$, special emphasis had to be put into the correct modelling of the hadronic final state.

An accurate description of the hadronic final state is especially important as, for the kinematic range in question, the reconstruction of the Bjorken-variable $`x`$ cannot be performed using the kinematics of the outgoing electron and photon; the $`x`$-resolution of this method deteriorates with $`1/y=xs/Q^2`$ thus becoming inapplicable at low values of the inelasticity $`y`$. For a double differential measurement of the structure function $`F_2(x,Q^2)`$ at $`Q^21`$ GeV and $`x10^4`$ the variable $`x`$ has thus to be reconstructed from the final state hadrons. This is done using the so-called Sigma method , which is based on the measurement of $`_i(Ep_z)_i`$ summing over all objects $`i`$ of the hadronic final state. To suppress the influence of calorimeter noise substantially contributing at low masses $`W`$, we use a simple approach in which only clusters with energies above the noise level of $`0.5`$ GeV are considered when reconstructing $`x`$. Fig. 4 shows the correlation between the generated and reconstructed values of $`Q^2`$ and $`x`$. It demonstrates the possibility to reconstruct the QEDC event kinematics using the hadronic final state throughout the relevant phase space region, i.e. for $`0.1Q^210`$ GeV2 and $`10^4x10^1`$.

The expected statistical significance of an $`F_2`$ measurement based on the same COMPTON event sample with $`30`$ pb-1 total integrated luminosity is presented in Fig. 5. In order to extract the structure function $`F_2`$ in terms of $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$ the selected Monte Carlo data are divided into subsamples corresponding to a grid in $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$. The bin sizes are adapted to the resolution in the measured kinematic quantities such that purity and stability in all bins shown are greater than 30%; here, the purity (stability) is defined as the ratio of the number of simulated events originating from and reconstructed in a specific bin to the number of reconstructed (generated) events in the same bin. As the proton structure function $`F_2`$ is then obtainted by a bin-by-bin unfolding method using the same Monte Carlo sample, the extracted $`F_2`$ values trivially lie on the curve representing the ALLM97 $`F_2`$ parameterisation used as input to the Monte Carlo generator. Clearly, the systematic uncertainties remain to be studied in order to judge on the overall precision of the measurement.

The results demonstrate that an analysis of QEDC scattering data at HERA would add information in the low $`Q^2`$ and medium to high $`x`$ region not yet covered by the HERA $`ep`$ experiments. Such an analysis would extend the present HERA measurements into the region previously covered only by fixed target data.

## 4 On the Photon Content of the Proton

In contrast to the exact treatment of the QEDC scattering process, the concept of the photon content in the proton based on the collinear or equivalent photon (Weizäcker-Williams) approximation  provides a much simpler approach to QEDC scattering and is believed to reveal basic features of photon-induced reactions involving proton beams. In this “parton model” approach the transverse component of the exchanged photon momentum is neglected and the emitted photon is assumed to be on-shell and collinear with the incident proton. This simplifies the expression for the QEDC cross section to

$$\frac{d^2\sigma ^{\mathrm{ep}\mathrm{e}\gamma \mathrm{X}}}{dx_ldQ_l^2}=\frac{2\pi \alpha ^2}{x_ls}\frac{1+(1y_l)^2}{1y_l}\gamma (x_l,Q_l^2),$$
(3)
where the “structure” function $`\gamma (x_l,Q_l^2)`$ parameterises the photon-parton content of the proton depending only on two degrees of freedom, the leptonic variables $`Q_l^2=ll^{}`$ and $`x_l=\frac{Q_l^2}{2Pq_l}`$; at fixed centre-of-mass energy $`\sqrt{s}`$ the inelasticity $`y_l`$ is also defined through these two variables via the relation $`y_l=Q_l^2/x_ls`$.

According to the above expression, an experimental determination of the double differential QED Compton scattering cross section $`d^2\sigma /dx_ldQ_l^2`$ can be interpreted as a measurement of the photon-parton density function $`\gamma (x_l,Q_l^2)`$. This $`\gamma `$ function can then be applied for the computation of other $`ep`$ and $`pp`$ cross sections where the underlying process is mediated by a quasi-real photon exchange . The possibility to measure the structure function $`\gamma (x_l,Q_l^2)`$ using QEDC events was discussed in several publications . We consider here the latest work by De Rújula and Vogelsang  where they proposed to compare the $`Q_l^2`$ dependence of $`\gamma `$ at fixed $`x_l`$ with its gluon counterpart $`g(x,Q^2)`$.

In order to judge on the feasibility of measuring $`\gamma `$ a dedicated study of the accuracy of the collinear approximation is performed. Fig. 6 shows the transverse momentum ($`p_{t,\gamma ^{}}`$) distribution of the exchanged photon in elastic and inelastic QEDC events as predicted by the COMPTON event generator. While for elastic events $`p_{t,\gamma ^{}}`$ is rather small, much larger values are reached when selecting inelastic scattering processes. Thus, as in the collinear approximation one assumes $`p_{t,\gamma ^{}}`$ to vanish, one can expect significant deviations when calculating event kinematics. The effect is further enhanced due to the acceptance constraints, which demand that both outgoing particles, electron and photon, are measured under finite polar angles. For the presented studies the QEDC selection criteria listed in Table 1 are applied on generated quantities; in addition the detector acceptance is approximately reproduced by demanding $`0.06<\theta _e,\theta _\gamma <\pi 0.06`$. These criteria are close to those proposed in .

A comparison between the exact calculation and the predictions from the collinear approximation is given in Fig. 7, which shows the total, i.e. the sum of the elastic and inelastic QEDC cross section as a function of $`Q_l^2`$ in bins of $`x_l`$. Significant discrepancies are observed in several bins. The exact cross sections were derived from a sample of COMPTON events generated without radiative correction. For the collinear approximation predictions have been computed analytically by Vogelsang  using the same set of cuts; the corresponding uncertainty of this calculation was estimated to be approximately 2%. Furthermore the elastic scattering cross sections generated by the COMPTON program and computed in the Weizsäcker-Williams approximation were compared. Very good agreement was obtained showing that the collinear approximation provides, indeed, a good description of the elastic process.

It has been checked that the difference between the $`F_2`$ parameterisations employed in the COMPTON generator and in the calculations by De Rújula and Vogelsang, cannot account for the observed discrepancies: the different predictions for $`\gamma `$ calculated according to the relations given in  agree within 4% 555As the phenomenological $`F_2`$ parameterisations used in the COMPTON program have, contrary to the pQCD based PDFs employed in , no artificial lower $`Q^2`$ limit, we also tested different start scales $`Q_0^2`$ for the integration over $`F_2`$, as specified in  and Eq. (1) of . The differences in $`\gamma `$ are in any case of the order of a few percent.. The inelastic QEDC cross sections, however, deviate by up to a factor of 2 from each other. This shows, that apparently the equivalent photon approximation does not provide a sufficient degree of accuracy in the inelastic region and that the factorisation of the cross section given by Eq. (3) in terms of only two kinematic variables is a too rough approximation of the QEDC scattering process.

In order to ensure the validity of the collinear approximation, additional selection cuts were proposed in :

$$\widehat{t},\widehat{s}>1\mathrm{GeV}^2\mathrm{and}p_{t,e},p_{t,\gamma }>1\mathrm{GeV},$$
(4)
where the momentum scales $`\widehat{t}`$ and $`\widehat{s}`$ represent the virtualities of the exchanged lepton in the Feynman diagrams shown in Fig. 1. Here, the cuts applied on the transverse momenta $`p_{t,e}`$ and $`p_{t,\gamma }`$, actually, have a much stronger effect on the distributions of COMPTON events than those imposed on $`\widehat{t}`$ and $`\widehat{s}`$. After applying all of the four additional cuts the COMPTON QEDC cross section is again compared to the corresponding analytical calculations provided by Vogelsang. As shown in Fig. 8 there are, as before, significant discrepancies observed.

Fig. 8 illustrates the difficulties of the collinear approximation. For $`Q_l^2<5`$ GeV2 and $`5.610^5<x_l<1.810^3`$ the cross sections predictions from the COMPTON program drop significantly when applying the additional cuts on $`\widehat{t}`$, $`\widehat{s}`$ and $`p_{t,e}`$, $`p_{t,\gamma }`$. This is not the case for the equivalent photon approximation where the cross sections remain unchanged due to an incorrect calculation of the event kinematics arising from the asumption $`p_{t,\gamma ^{}}=0`$.

It is not ruled out that some carefully chosen cuts on the transverse momenta, polar angles and other event quantities may limit the phase space such that the equivalent photon approximation becomes applicable also for inelastic QEDC scattering. However, with such limitations it is questionable whether the $`\gamma `$-function describes a characteristic and universal property of the proton relevant for precision measurements.

## 5 Concluding Remarks

The presented analysis shows that QEDC scattering data at HERA provide the potential to measure the proton structure function $`F_2`$ at low $`Q^2`$ and medium to high $`x`$, extending the kinematic range covered so far into the fixed target regime. As such a measurement requires a good understanding of the hadronic final state at low invariant masses, an improved version of the COMPTON generator was developed which allows for a better event modelling. With this generator the accuracy of calculations using the equivalent photon approximation is studied. It is revealed that this approximation is not able to describe the inelastic QEDC cross section with sufficient precision. A measurement of the photon density of the proton from QEDC events would, thus, not provide any decisive insight into the proton structure.

## 6 Acknowledgements

We would like to thank W. Vogelsang for the fruitful cooperation in the study of the collinear approximation. We are grateful to the H1 collaboration for providing the H1 simulation and reconstruction programs. This work was supported by the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology, FRG, under contract number 05 H1 1PEA/6.