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# Testing the Cosmological Constant as a Candidate for Dark Energy

## I Introduction

The observed present acceleration of the expansion of the universe supernova ; Bond ; Spergel:2003cb  is commonly attributed to the presence of dark energy throughout the universe and gives rise to the question of what this dark energy actually is. There exist many different models of dark energy. Some of them are based on a particular choice of the scalar field potential Banks ; Linde1986 ; dark , whereas some other models are based on certain modifications of general relativity, see e.g. Mukohyama:2003nw  and references therein. Many of these models can have very similar observational consequences for certain choices of their parameters. Therefore it would be extremely hard to determine exactly which model, if any, is correct. This has led some authors to express a rather pessimistic attitude towards the observational investigation of dark energy Maor:2001ku .

However, one can look at this issue from a different perspective. Instead of trying to find which model of dark energy is correct, one can try to find which models can be ruled out by the existing and planned observations. This goal is quite realistic, and it can bring us extremely important information about the fundamental physics.

One particular case is especially interesting: the theory of dark energy based on general relativity with a constant vacuum energy $`\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$ (positive cosmological constant). First of all, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model is by far the simplest dark energy model. In this model the dark energy remains constant, with the equation of state, or pressure to density ratio, $`wp/\rho =1`$. Moreover, at present this is the only known dark energy model related to M/string theory Kachru:2003aw . Whereas it is quite possible that M/string theory can describe quintessence with a time-dependent equation of state, all existing models of this type have problems describing stable compactifications of internal dimensions; see a discussion of this issue in Kallosh:2002gf ; Kachru:2003aw ; Gutperle:2003kc .

An independent argument in favor of the simple cosmological constant model is obtained if one tries to find an explanation of the anomalous smallness of the dark energy density $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (the cosmological constant problem). A possible solution to this problem can be found in the context of the theory of eternal inflation if one replaces the cosmological constant by the theory of dark energy with a flat potential and uses the anthropic principle Linde1986 ; Weinberg:2000yb ; Garriga:1999bf ; Linde:2002gj . However, in the simplest versions of this scenario the slope of the potential is expected to be so small that all observational consequences of this theory should be indistinguishable from the theory with a constant vacuum energy density Garriga:2002tq .

An additional reason to be interested in the possible time evolution of dark energy is related to inflationary cosmology. Acceleration of the universe with time-independent vacuum energy density is similar to the old inflation in the false vacuum state, whereas acceleration in the universe with the time dependent vacuum energy is similar to the standard slow-roll inflation. If we find that the universe experiences a stage of slow-roll inflation right now, this would make the slow-roll inflation in the early universe even more plausible.

On the other hand, if we do not find any observable deviations from the predictions of the simplest $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model, this will make all models of the dynamically changing dark energy much less attractive.

Therefore in this paper, instead of studying dark energy models in general, we will concentrate on a single well defined issue: What kind of observations could rule out the simple $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model? An answer to this question may help us in planning future experiments which would be specifically optimized for testing the simplest cosmological constant model.

The leading edge for dark energy exploration, ever since the current accelerating expansion of the universe was discovered supernova , have been Type Ia supernovae observations, and they will acquire a new state-of-the-art instrument in the form of the Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP) satellite snap . SNAP will not only perform a distance-redshift measurement of some 2000 supernovae (SNAP \[SN\]), but also conduct a wide field weak gravitational lensing survey (SNAP \[WL\]) refregier , providing a complementary data set, as will at some point the ground-based LSST survey lsst . Additional measurements of the CMB, provided by the Planck Surveyor cosmic microwave background satellite planck , will help tighten the constraints obtained by SNAP.

In this paper, we will investigate a possibility to tighten the constraints on the parameters of dark energy and to test/rule out the simplest $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model using the results of these experiments. Our approach will be based on the methods developed in our previous paper Kallosh:2003bq .

## II  Excluding the Cosmological Constant

The process of excluding the cosmological constant (or any other model) as a candidate for dark energy is achieved by mapping out the expansion history of the universe, i.e. the time-evolution of the scale factor $`a(t)`$. This is accomplished, for instance, by measuring the distance-redshift relation of Type Ia supernovae, which serve as “standard candles” in cosmology, having a known intrinsic luminosity normalizable through one parameter based on the width of their lightcurves, or flux vs. time relation. The proposed dedicated dark energy satellite mission SNAP, the Supernova/Acceleration Probe, will measure the precise luminosity distances to approximately 2000 such Type Ia supernovae within 2 years of its launch. The redshift range of these observed supernovae will span from $`z=0.1`$ out to $`z=1.7`$. In our calculations below, we bin the future data into 17 equally spaced redshift bins, and also include the expected $``$300 supernovae from the presently running Nearby Supernovae Factory snf  in the bin with lowest redshift.

Complemented by the Planck mission, a satellite to observe the CMB at $`z=1089`$ and thus measure various cosmological parameters and breaking degeneracies in the SNAP observations, respectable constraints can be obtained on the equation of state of dark energy and its evolution with time.

SNAP’s wide-field camera is not limited to studying supernovae, however. It will also be able to make use of the new, rapidly emerging observational method of weak gravitational lensing (SNAP \[WL\]) in mapping out the time evolution of the scale factor of the universe $`a(t)`$, including through the growth factor of large scale structure. Lensing will provide an independent measurement of the evolution history and through complementarity allow even tighter constraints.

Determining the equation of state is the crucial observational clue for the nature of dark energy. Commonly one defines the equation of state function $`w(z)`$ by

$$p=w(z)\rho .$$
(1)
In general, it is a function that can vary with time or redshift $`z`$. For pure vacuum energy, $`w=1`$ independent of redshift.

To link observational data sets to existing physical models, it is useful to use a fitting function for $`w(z)`$ that contains only a few fitting parameters. The fewer parameters, the better their value can be constrained by a given observational data set, but—depending on the data—the less the resulting function might fit the actual data.

A widely applicable fit, combining the virtues of having only two fit parameters ($`w_0`$ and $`w_a`$), yet fitting many theoretically conceivable scalar field potentials, especially in the slow roll regime, has been in use in cosmology for some time now, ever since its introduction in linwa :

$$w(z)=w_0+w_a\frac{z}{1+z}.$$
(2)
In particular it fits well small recent deviations from vacuum energy with $`w=1`$. Most models of dark energy, except for some with heavily oscillating behavior like some PNGB models (cf. e.g. Weller:2001gf ) approach the limit of being barely distinguishable from the cosmological constant in a manner compatible with Linder’s fit (2). For example, the linear potential treated in Kallosh:2003bq  shows a deviation from $`w=1`$ to slightly higher values of $`w`$ only for $`z\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}1`$. Of course, eventually in the future, once people have obtained the actual measurement data set, they will be able to compare it to the cosmological constant model directly, not having to revert to a fit first.

We take the SNAP baseline mission, as described in klmm , including statistical and systematic errors amounting to a distance uncertainty of 1% at the depth $`z=1.7`$ of the survey. We marginalize over the absolute magnitude parameter $``$, which includes the Hubble constant $`H_0`$, and over the dark energy density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$, where we assume the preferred value to be centered at $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D=0.72`$, as favored by current observations (e.g. Spergel:2003cb ). Complementary data from Planck, or from SNAP\[WL\], make it unnecessary to impose a prior on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$. The degeneracies are broken well enough to determine $`\mathrm{\Omega }_D`$ with a precision comparable to a prior of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Omega }_D}=0.01`$ fhlt .

The constraints from the data on the dark energy fit parameters $`w_0`$ and $`w_a`$ are analyzed within the Fisher matrix method tegfish ; tth , providing probability ellipses at selected levels of confidence. Throughout this paper, we have chosen the 95% (or 2$`\sigma `$) confidence level. A much more detailed account on specifics of SNAP, its observational properties, errors and statistics, as well as a practical guide for reproduction of the Fisher matrix method used here, is given in Kallosh:2003bq  and references therein.

Fig. 1 depicts the 95% confidence level contour as obtained from SNAP \[SN\] and Planck, beyond which the cosmological constant can be excluded from being responsible for the dark energy density. If the SNAP supernovae measurements and the CMB results from the Planck mission select a point in this parameter space as being the most likely that lies outside of this contour, then the dark energy density causing the present acceleration of the expansion of the universe originates from something different than vacuum energy.

Notice that all the ellipses in Fig. 1 exactly touch the cosmological constant point ($`w_0=1`$, $`w_a=0`$), the criterion for obtaining the contour. It is clear from the construction that the figure requires pointwise interpretation: as the Fisher ellipse is supposed to be centered around the actual (future) measurement point, not all the ellipses in the figure can be valid at the same time. Only one will be eventually, after the measurements will have been made, and in fact likely not even one that is drawn. What the graph tells us is that any point outside the contour, if the one most favored by the measurements, will have an associated ellipse not encompassing the cosmological constant point ($`w_0=1`$, $`w_a=0`$), thus enabling us to exclude the cosmological constant, at the 95% confidence level, as a possible cause of dark energy. Conversely, if the future measurement point will happen to lie inside the contour, we will be unable to rule out the cosmological constant, because the ellipse will encompass the point (-1, 0).

To clarify our methodology, let us note that instead of drawing many ellipses touching the point $`w_0=1`$, $`w_a=0`$, and then connecting their central points, one could draw, as usual, one ellipse corresponding to the 2$`\sigma `$ deviation from this point. This would give an ellipse somewhat similar to the contour discussed above. However, this ellipse would be slightly different, and it would have a different interpretation. It would show us the points in the parameter space ($`w_0`$, $`w_a`$) excluded at the 2$`\sigma `$ level by the observations favoring the simple cosmological constant model. This is not what we study in our paper.

Another comment should clarify the way we are using the parametrization $`w_0`$, $`w_a`$, related to the fit (2). This fit allows one to describe a broad class of the models of dark energy (including the simplest cosmological constant), but there might exist some exotic models for which this fit is inadequate. It is important to understand that when we will have the real data from SNAP and Planck, we will not need to use any fit anyway, as we may directly compare the data with the predictions of the simplest $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model. However, the use of the broadly applicable fit (2) allows one to obtain a very good idea of the results that can be obtained by various experiments.

In particular, SNAP will also carry out a wide field weak gravitational lensing survey. Measurements of the distortion of distant source shapes by intervening gravitational potentials probe the cosmology through both geometric effects on distances and the growth of large scale structure. Fig. 2 adds the expected constraints from this weak lensing information (see Appendix for more details) to the supernova and cosmic microwave background data.

Due to complementarity in the parameter dependencies, addition of weak lensing data can significantly improve constraints and narrow the region compatible with the cosmological constant. Fig. 2 shows the 95% confidence level contour defined in Fig. 1 (outer, blue curve) by the ensemble of possible measurement realizations and also the corresponding (inner, red) curve when supplemented with weak lensing information. The phase space consistent with the cosmological constant is reduced by a factor of two. These data should be available within the next 10 years. Even tighter constraints may be possible by including other future cosmological observations, such as LSST’s nearly full sky weak lensing survey a few years later LSST-disc .

A new, innovative method that has recently been explored in the context of constraining $`w(z)`$ Garriga:2003nm , is cross-correlating CMB anisotropies with the matter power spectrum. However, as pointed out in Garriga:2003nm , the corresponding error bars today are still far too big. It is not obvious whether cosmic variance does not spoil the results obtained by this method irrecoverably Afshordi-privcom . This will require further investigation.

## III Conclusions

In a time when theoretical attempts at explaining the value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ have so far been of limited success, apart from anthropic arguments Linde1986 ; Weinberg:2000yb ; Garriga:1999bf ; Linde:2002gj , it is more important than ever to take the observational clues we will have at our disposal to discriminate whether vacuum energy poses the dominant contribution to the dark energy, or whether different physics resides at its core.

It is an overzealous ambition to expect from present and future observational data that they will direct us unambiguously towards a unique dark energy model. Yet, we can test each of the models and rule out many of them. As we have shown in this paper, within a decade, we shall gain the possibility to test and maybe even rule out the most traditional of all dark energy models, the cosmological constant model.

This model is by far the simplest of all models of dark energy. Moreover, even though in the future we may learn how various dark energy models could be related to string theory and M-theory, at present the cosmological constant model remains the only one for which this possibility was actually demonstrated Kachru:2003aw . Therefore measurements ruling out the cosmological constant would have profound implications for particle physics.

Meanwhile, measurements consistent with a cosmological constant model will not resolve the mystery of the underlying physics—whether it is a pure vacuum energy or a more complex extension of physics merely possessing parameter values close to the cosmological constant. But at least in some of these cases (as shown in Kallosh:2003bq ) we will have a grace period of tens of billions of years to resolve the issue.

As a program for the future, for the planning of observations exploring the nature of dark energy, we would like to stress that it is most important to realize the benefit obtained from the interplay of *various different* observation missions and techniques. Degeneracies inherent in individual observation methods are broken efficiently by considering several different ones. If one takes, for instance, SNAP supernovae alone (contours not depicted in this paper, but see Kallosh:2003bq  for ellipses for that data set alone), the constraints are informative, yet they gain a tremendous improvement from including the Planck data coming from the measurements of the CMB, which will be available around the same time as SNAP. Quite a further impressive improvement is achieved if weak lensing from SNAP—obtained by the same mission, but with a different technique—is added. And another, equally impressive improvement, although some years later than the above, is expected to come from including LSST, a ground-based, nearly full sky weak lensing survey.

As we see, a lot of work to be done lies ahead, and only the joint effort of a diversity of space- and ground-based observations, combined with an innovative use and analysis of the data gathered by these instruments, will provide us with the best possible information on the nature of dark energy, fundamental cosmological physics, and thereby with knowledge about the future evolution and ultimate fate of our universe.

It is a pleasure to thank Niayesh Afshordi, Gary Bernstein, JoAnne Hewett, and Anthony Tyson for useful discussions. The work by J.K. was supported by the Stanford Graduate Fellowship and the Sunburst Fund of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Zurich and EPFL). The work by A.L. was supported by NSF grant PHY-0244728. The work by M.S. was supported by DOE grant DE-AC03-76SF00515. The work by E.L. was supported in part by the Director, Office of Science, DOE under DE-AC03-76SF00098 at LBL.

## IV Appendix

### IV.1 Weak Lensing with SNAP

Gravitational lensing involves the deflection of light rays from distant sources by the intervening gravitational potentials of, e.g., large scale structures of matter. One can relate the power spectrum of matter density fluctuations to the distribution of image distortions (shear) and size magnifications (convergence), weighted by distance dependent strength or focusing factors. Weak lensing refers to the regime where these effects are small and observed statistically rather than through more obvious multiple imaging, for example. Thus measurements of weak lensing probe the dark energy through the expansion history, both its effect on distances and the suppression of growth of matter structure as dark energy dominates and the expansion accelerates.

Numerous methods involving weak lensing are actively being investigated to develop an optimal probe of the nature of dark energy. The situation is still uncertain: only recently have computations included a time variation such as $`w_a`$ and systematic effects are not well identified. Here we take a greatly simplified version of the most promising method for reducing the dominant systematic error—cross-correlation cosmography Bernstein-Jain ; Jain-Taylor .

This involves studying background sources at different redshifts relative to the same foreground mass screen, allowing cancellation of many issues such as spurious distortion due to the instrumental point spread function and ignorance of the exact lensing mass distribution. This method comes close to providing a pure geometric test of the ratio between comoving distances to the various source redshifts. While the true situation is more complex, for the calculation in this paper we take SNAP wide field data to provide determination of the ratio

$$R\frac{r_{s1}r_l}{r_{s2}r_l},$$
(3)
where $`r_l`$ is the comoving distance to the lens and $`r_{si}`$ is the comoving distance to the $`i`$th source plane, to 0.2% at three lens redshifts $`z_l=0.3`$, 0.6, 0.9. Furthermore we fix the sources to lie in planes at $`z_{s2}=2z_{s1}=4z_l`$. This is clearly a toy model but it succeeds in reproducing the more sophisticated parameter estimation contours in Fig. 2 of Bernstein-Jain . Thus this approach provides a readily calculable first step toward including forthcoming weak lensing data.


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# The nuclear reaction waiting points, ²²"Mg", ²⁶"Si", ³⁰"S", and ³⁴"Ar", and bolometrically double peaked type I X-ray bursts

## 1 Introduction

A type I X-ray burst results when a thermal instability in the electron degenerate atmosphere of a neutron star causes a thermonuclear runaway in the accreted matter. The sudden release of nuclear energy heats the atmosphere rapidly, increasing the luminosity a few orders of magnitude above the persistent luminosity within a few seconds, after which the luminosity decreases exponentially as the atmosphere cools again. While most of these bursts show a single peak in the luminosity, some burst observations have shown a double peaked structure in the bolometric light curve (Sztajno et al. (1985); van Paradijs et al. (1986); Penninx et al. (1989); Seon & Min (2000) and Smale (2001)). Several theories have been proposed to explain such double peaks: Heat transport impedance in a two-zone model (Regev & Livio, 1984), interactions with the accretion disc (Melia & Zylstra (1992)), a result of a H flash developing into a combined H/He flash (Hanawa & Fujimoto, 1984), shear instabilities (Fujimoto et al., 1988) or increased proton capture on heavier nuclei (Ayasli & Joss, 1982).

In this letter we propose that an interaction between the helium flash shell and a waiting point impedance in the $`rp`$-process of the shells above it explains burst shape structure spanning over a time-scale of a few seconds. Since a self-consistent one-dimensional model attains a limit cycle equilibrium with repeated self-similar bursts, comparisson with observations will also place restrictions on the accretion rate.

## 2 The first burst peak: A helium flash

Observationally burst light curves differ greatly in shape but their understanding are theoretically divided into three cases, depending on whether the ignition and subsequent runaway occurs in a hydrogen rich shell, a helium rich shell, or in a mixed H/He shell (Fujimoto et al., 1981). Burst sources are situated in low mass binary systems and generally accrete a mixture of hydrogen and helium. Since the atmosphere of the neutron star has a temperature of $`T_90.10.2`$, the $`\beta `$-limited hot-CNO cycle (Wallace & Woosley, 1981) converts the hydrogen into helium.

For a constant accreting rate111The Eddington critical accretion rate equals $`1.110^{18}\text{g}/\text{s}`$ ($`1.710^8M_{}/\text{yr}`$) and assumes temperature independent Thompson scattering in an atmosphere with a solar composition. of $`\dot{M}=0.045\dot{M}_{Ed.}`$ it requires about half a day before the continuous accretion process has pressed the matter down to a depth, where the helium which has now been formed in significant quantities becomes thermally unstable. The accumulated helium at the base burns completely within tenths of a second and establishes a temperature gradient which is sufficiently large to allow a highly efficient convective heat transport to the surface. Observationally this results in a rise time of the surface luminosity which is less than a second (Wallace et al., 1982) and it is the cause of the first peak.

## 3 The second burst peak: A nuclear waiting point impedance

The helium burning region radiates and convects heat upwards so that hydrogen which has not yet had the time to be fully converted into helium ignites as well and burns via the $`rp`$-process (Wallace & Woosley, 1981; van Wormer et al., 1994; Schatz et al., 1998). Following the breakout of the hot-CNO cycle the reaction flow in the $`sd`$-shell up to $`{}_{}{}^{40}\text{Ca}`$ is determined by a competition between the $`(\alpha ,p)`$ process (Wallace & Woosley, 1981), which is very temperature dependent, because of the strong Coloumb-barrier against alpha-capture, and the $`rp`$-process. The latter is only temperature dependent in the sense that the temperature determines the ratio of the proton-rich isotopes within an isotone chain and thus which isotopes $`\beta ^+`$-decay and move the flow between the isotone chains (Rembges et al., 1997). It is the detailed behavior of this flow which determines the burst behavior following the first peak. If the reaction flow is stopped at a “waiting-point” isotope, the nuclear energy release rate decreases and causes a dip in the surface luminosity. The surface luminosity rises again, when the nuclear energy release rate – following the waiting – increases again.

The $`\beta ^+`$-unstable even-even $`T_z=1`$ isotopes, $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{26}\text{Si}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}`$, and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}`$, are potential waiting points, which are important, because most of the reaction flow passes through them. The reason is that increasing temperatures shift the flow towards the proton dripline, whence only two possible flow paths circumventing them need consideration (see fig. 1). The first path depends on branching between the $`\beta ^+`$-decay ($`T_{1/2}\text{few seconds}`$) of the even-$`N`$-odd-$`Z`$ $`T_z=(NZ)/2=1/2`$ isotope and the proton-capture going to the potential waiting point isotope, but because of the high temperature the proton-capture rate is very much larger, which makes the decay insignificant in comparisson. The second path would depend on double $`\beta ^+`$-decays of very proton-rich isotopes between successive odd-Z isotones. These decays proceed through the even-$`Z`$ isotones where the $`(p,\gamma )`$-$`(\gamma ,p)`$ reactions generally shift the equilibrium towards the waiting points.

Since $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}`$, and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}`$ have low $`(p,\gamma )`$ $`Q`$-values (colored red on fig. 1) they will enter $`(p,\gamma )`$-$`(\gamma ,p)`$ equilibrium with $`{}_{}{}^{23}\text{Al}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{27}\text{P}`$, $`{}_{}{}^{31}\text{S}`$, and $`{}_{}{}^{35}\text{K}`$ respectively (Thielemann et al., 1994), whence the ratio of the target and the compound isotope is only determined by a Boltzmann factor, $`\mathrm{exp}(k_BT/Q)`$, along with a spin statistics factor. For $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}`$ ($`Q=126\text{ keV}`$), $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}`$ ($`Q=296\text{ keV}`$), and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}`$ ($`Q=78\text{ keV}`$) the $`Q`$-values are sufficiently low to shift the ratio towards the for photo-disintegration to prevent a significant flow through the proton-capture compound isotope. This is not the case for $`{}_{}{}^{26}\text{Si}`$ ($`Q=859\text{keV}`$) where the equilibrium balance is shifted towards $`{}_{}{}^{27}\text{P}`$, so unless the $`Q`$-value has been overestimated, $`{}_{}{}^{26}\text{Si}`$ is not a waiting point, because it is destroyed via the $`\beta ^+`$-decay of $`{}_{}{}^{27}\text{P}`$.

In addition to the $`(p,\gamma )`$-$`(\gamma ,p)`$ equilibrium and the $`\beta ^+`$-decay a third branching of the flow from these isotopes originates in the $`(\alpha ,p)`$-process which commences on $`{}_{}{}^{14}\text{O}`$ and proceeds via $`{}_{}{}^{14}\text{O}(a,p)(p,\gamma )`$ $`{}_{}{}^{18}\text{Ne}(a,p)(p,\gamma )`$ $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}(a,p)(p,\gamma )`$ $`{}_{}{}^{26}\text{Si}(a,p)(p,\gamma )`$ $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}(a,p)(p,\gamma )`$ $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}(a,p)(p,\gamma )`$ $`{}_{}{}^{38}\text{K}`$.

An isotope is a potential waiting points if the $`(\alpha ,p)`$-reaction is so weak that the major part of flow must await $`\beta ^+`$-decay. Fig. 2 shows a plot of the condition

$$\lambda _{\beta ^+}=N_AY_\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }(T)<\sigma v>_{(\alpha ,p)},$$
(1)
which demarcates the $`(\rho ,T)`$-space between a dominant $`\beta ^+`$-decay (below the line) and a dominant proton capture (above the line) assuming that $`Y_\alpha =0.5/4=0.125`$. The plot ignores the $`(p,\gamma )`$-reaction leak which would move the line downwards. The temperature dependent function $`\mathrm{\Delta }(T)`$ accounts for the uncertainty in the reaction rate which in this paper is set to be constant for the sake of simplicity. Plotting eq.  with $`\mathrm{\Delta }(T)=10^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(T)=10^2`$ gives an estimate of the effect of the uncertainty of the reaction rate.

From fig. 2 it is seen that $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{25}\text{Al}`$ dominates $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}(\beta ^+){}_{}{}^{22}\text{Na}`$ even if $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{25}\text{Al}`$ had been underestimated by a factor 100. It is therefore unlikely that $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}`$ is a waiting point. However, both $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{33}\text{Cl}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{37}\text{K}`$ block the flow during the burst conditions, because the temperature never rises sufficiently to break the Coulomb barrier.

Therefore the destruction rate (see e.g. van Wormer et al. (1994)) of the waiting point isotopes depends on the interplay between three rates whose exact details depend on nuclear data and the density and temperature through the interaction with the hydrodynamics.

## 4 Computational results and conclusion

The combined effect of the two peaks has been computed using a new self-consistent one-dimensional model. It is based on modified version of `AGILE` (Liebendörfer et al., 2002) with added turbulent mixing using a diffusion equation and convective heat transport based on Mixing Length Theory. The code tracks energy transport to a high precision and realistically considers the heat transport between the atmosphere and the core. The reaction network, which includes proton-, neutron-, and alpha-induced reactions and accounts for neutrino losses, comprises 298 isotopes extending up to Tellurium. Further technical details will be described in an upcoming paper (Fisker et al., in preparation).

Having eliminated $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{26}\text{Si}`$, we investigate $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}`$ by assuming a local rest mass accretion rate of $`\dot{M}=510^{16}\text{g}/\text{s}`$ and computing the bolometric luminosity curves for the current reaction-rates which are based on the code `NON-SMOKER` (Rauscher & Thielemann, 2001). In addition luminosity curves were computed assuming that the $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{33}\text{Cl}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{37}\text{K}`$-reaction rates have been underestimated by a factor 100 i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }(T)=100`$. This implicitly tests any uncertainty in the $`\beta +`$-decay half lives. The luminosity curves are shown in fig. 3, while a trace of the temperature and density is shown in fig. 2 using the unaltered reaction rates.

Fig. 3 shows that if the $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{33}\text{Cl}`$-reaction were faster then the dip in the luminosity would decreased or possibly be eliminated. Increasing the $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}(\alpha ,p){}_{}{}^{37}\text{K}`$-reaction decreases the dip slightly indicating that the $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}`$-waiting point plays a smaller role in creating the full dip in the unaltered model. In both cases increasing the rate of either $`(\alpha ,p)`$-reaction increases the luminosity of the second peak indicating that a combination would increase further.

Convective heat transport defines the rise of the first burst peak, whence a time dependent model of the turbulent part of the kinetic energy could change the shape or magnitude of the first burst peak. In addition a more effective convective heat would increase the temperature in the upper regions which would make the $`(\alpha ,p)`$-reaction flow stronger despite the resulting drop in density from the temperature increase and vice versa.

In conclusion the most uncertain factors for the impedance driven double peak is the model of convection, the accretion rate, the restriction to a spherically symmetric model and the uncertainty in the theoretical $`(\alpha ,p)`$ rates $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}`$. However, even if the effect may not be decidedly observable in the light curve, the waiting point impedance of $`{}_{}{}^{30}\text{S}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{34}\text{Ar}`$ and possibly $`{}_{}{}^{22}\text{Mg}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{26}\text{Si}`$ is inherent to the system and an experimental confirmation of the theoretical rates would help to determine the limits of the fast flow through the $`sd`$-shell isotopes, whereas improved hydrodynamics is important to affirm the $`(\rho ,T)`$-parameter space of the $`(\alpha ,p)`$-reactions.

JLF and FKT acknowledge support from the Swiss NSF grant 2000-061822.


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# Spatially Resolved STIS Spectroscopy of Betelgeuse’s Outer Atmosphere

## 1. STIS Observations

STIS spectra of the red supergiant $`\alpha `$ Ori have been observed for GO 9369 in HST Cycle 11; A direct Test for Dust-driven Wind Physics. This program investigates the detailed acceleration mechanisms of wind outflow in the outer atmospheres (chromosphere and dust envelope) of cool stars. Using the exceptional capabilities of HST-STIS we observe the near-UV spectrum with $`\lambda `$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`\lambda `$$``$33,000 between 2275 Å and 3180 Å with spatially resolved scans across the chromospheric disk at 0, 200, 400, 600, & 1000 mas (Visit 1), at 0 & 2000 mas (Visit 2), and at 0 & 3000 mas (Visit 3). We presently discuss the spectra observed in fall 2002 of Visit 1. The spectra of Visits 2 & 3 of spring 2003 will be presented elsewhere. Exposure times range from 500 s at 200 mas to 7200 s at 1′′, yielding good S/N$``$20. The spectra are calibrated with CALSTIS v2.12 using the most recently updated calibration reference files. Wavelength calibration accuracies are better than $``$1 detector pixel or 1.3 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

## 2. Si i $`\lambda `$2516 line profile changes

In previous work we modeled the detailed shape of the Si i $`\lambda `$2516 resonance emission line (Lobel & Dupree 2001). The line has previously been observed by scanning over the inner chromosphere at 0, 25, 50, and 75 mas, using a slit size of 100 $`\times `$ 30 mas (Fig. 1, panel left). The figure at cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ep/
pressrel/alobelimg.html shows the line profiles of Fe ii $`\lambda `$2869 for the respective slit positions compared to the near-UV continuum flux observed with HST-FOC. The double-peaked line profiles are observed across the inner chromosphere. The central (self-) absorption core results from scattering opacity in the chromosphere. The asymmetry of the emission component intensities probes the chromospheric flow dynamics in our line of sight. The spectra of GO 9369 are observed across the outer chromosphere using a slitsize of 200 $`\times `$ 63 mas (Fig. 1). The profiles beyond 200 mas appear red-shifted with a rather weak short-wavelength emission component. It signals substantial wind outflow opacity in the upper chromoshere, which fastly accelerates beyond a radius of $``$8 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$.

## 3. Mg ii $`k`$ & $`h`$ line profile changes

Figure 2 shows the detailed profiles of the Mg ii $`h`$ & $`k`$ lines observed up to 1000 mas. The emission line intensities decrease by a factor of $``$700 from chromospheric disk center (TP 0) to 1′′. These optically thick chromospheric lines show remarkable changes of their detailed shapes when scanning off-limb. The full width across both emission components at half intensity maximum decreases by $``$20%, while the broad and saturated central absorption core narrows by more than 50%. Beyond 600 mas the central core assumes a constant width which results from absorption contributions by the local interstellar medium ($`d_{}`$$``$132 pc). We observe a strong increase of the (relative) intensity of the long-wavelength emission component in both lines beyond 200 mas. It signals fast wind acceleration beyond this radius. Note that the short-wavelength emission components of the $`k`$ and $`h`$ lines are blended with chomospheric Mn i lines (decreasing the $`k`$\- and increasing the $`h`$-component), but that become much weaker in the outer chromosphere.

## 4. Wind Acceleration in the Upper Chromosphere

Figure 1 compares the profiles of the Si i $`\lambda `$2516 and $`\lambda `$2507 resonance lines (vertical dotted lines are drawn at stellar rest velocity). Both lines share a common upper energy level and their intensities are influenced by pumping through a fluoresced Fe ii line. The self-absorption cores of the Si i lines are therefore observed far out, into the upper chromosphere. The shape of these unsaturated emission lines is strongly opacity sensitive to the local chromospheric velocity field. As for the Mg ii lines, the outward decreasing intensity of the short-wavelength emission component signals fast acceleration of chromospheric outflow in the upper chromosphere. We also observe this decrease for the resonance line of Mg i $`\lambda `$2852 (not shown). Our previous radiative transfer modeling work based on Si i revealed that $`\alpha `$ Ori’s inner chromosphere oscillates non-radially, with simultaneous up- and downflows in Sept. 1998. Radiative transfer modeling to determine the detailed wind structure in the outer chromosphere is underway.

## 5. Ion lines in the Upper Chromosphere

We also observe ion lines of Fe ii, Al ii, and C ii out to 1′′ in the upper chromosphere. Figure 3 shows (scaled) emission lines of Fe ii $`\lambda `$2716 (UV 62), Al ii \] $`\lambda `$2669 (UV 1), and C ii $`\lambda `$2327 (UV 1). The Fe i $`\lambda `$2823 (UV 44) line is also shown for comparison (top panels). The lines at the inner chromosphere are observed in April 1998 (thin drawn lines) with R$``$114,000 at TPs 0, 63, and 126 mas, while the lines of the outer chromosphere are observed with medium resolution in fall 2002 (boldly drawn lines). Both raster scans are however observed with the same slitsize of 200 $`\times `$ 63 mas so that the line intensity changes can be compared. For this purpose we select unblended lines without central self-absorption cores that become sufficiently optically thin in the outer chromosphere, and that are significantly observed against the local background noise level.

## 6. Radial Intensity Distribution of Ion Lines

We wavelength integrate the selected chromospheric emission lines and the Mg ii lines beyond the line wings. Their radial intensity distributions I(r) are compared in Fig. 4. The intensity errorbars are derived from the STIS pipeline flux calibration errors, while the radius errorbars are derived from the projected slitwidth. We observe that the I(r) of optically thin emission from neutral and ion lines are very similar across the chromosphere. Neutral emission lines are generally observed farther out with larger S/N compared to the ion lines, but their I(r) do not differ significantly within the errors. We find a best fit for I(r)$``$const $`\times `$ $`\mathrm{r}^2`$. The I(r) of the optically thick and self-absorbed Mg ii lines differs significantly with I(r)$``$const $`\times `$ $`\mathrm{r}^{2.7}`$. The steeper intensity distribution signals important radiative transfer effects for the shapes of the stronger Mg ii lines (see Sect. 3).

## 7. Radial Non-LTE Iron Ionization Balance

In the upper panel of Fig. 5 we compute the iron ionization fraction from the I(r) of the Fe i and Fe ii lines. The intersection of the curves (at dots) provides the excitation temperature corresponding to the observed line intensity ratios for spontaneous emission. We compute iron ionization fractions between 99.3% and 99.7% for kinetic gas temperatures between 2600 K and 5800 K, using local gas densities $`10^{17}`$$``$$`\rho `$$``$$`10^{15}`$ $`\mathrm{gr}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (lower panel). This temperature range corresponds to partial NLTE iron ionization due to a diluted radiation field with $`T_{\mathrm{rad}}`$$``$3000 K (full drawn lines), typical for the outer chromosphere. The graphs are computed with volume filling factors $`\varphi `$ for warm plasma of 5% (solid dots) and 30% (solid triangles). Hydrogen is almost neutral for these conditions in the upper chromosphere. In Fig. 6 we model the circumstellar dust envelope (CDE) with radiative transfer in spherical geometry using DUSTY. A best fit to the IRAS silicate dust emission feature at 9.7 $`\mu `$m yields a dust condensation radius of $`R_c`$$``$573 mas, where $`\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}`$$``$5 $`\times `$ $`10^{16}`$ $`\mathrm{gr}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ for the cool ambient gas, with temperatures below $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$$``$600 K (lower panels). The upper panel shows the temperature structure for warm chromospheric plasma computed at this $`\rho _{\mathrm{gas}}`$ with $`\varphi `$= 1% and 100% (bold solid lines). The inner chromosphere is computed with radiative transfer fits to H$`\alpha `$ (Lobel & Dupree 2000). We find that the temperature of warm chromospheric plasma cannot decrease to below 2600 K in the CDE. Hence warm chromospheric plasma must co-exisit with cool gas of $`T`$$``$600 K beyond 600 mas.

## 8. Conclusions

Spatially resolved spectra of Betelgeuse’s outer chromosphere signal that it accelerates outwards, based on asymmetries observed in Mg ii $`h`$ & $`k`$, and other emission lines. They also reveal warm chromospheric plasma out to 40 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$. The chromospheric gas must co-exist with cool gas of the circumstellar dust envelope.

### Acknowledgments.

This reseach is based on data obtained with the NASA/ ESA Hubble Space Telescope, collected at the STScI, operated by AURA Inc., under contract NAS5-26555. Financial support is provided by STScI grant HST-GO-09369.01 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

## References

Lobel, A., & Dupree, A.K. 2000, ApJ, 545, 454

Lobel, A., & Dupree, A.K. 2001, ApJ, 558, 815

Hebden, J. C., Eckart, A., & Hege, E. K. 1987, ApJ, 314, 690


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# The Stellar Halo in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Mass, Luminosity, and Microlensing Predictions

## 1  Introduction

The first strong evidence for the existence of a kinematically hot and metal-poor stellar population in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has recently been obtained at the European Southern Obervatory’s Very Large Telescope (Minniti et al. 2003). The radial velocities derived from the spectra of 43 RR Lyrae stars imply a velocity dispersion of 53 $`\pm `$ 10 km s-1, which is larger than that of any other population in the LMC (e.g., Hughes et al. 1991). For comparison, the radial velocities of carbon stars, which represent the bulk population of the LMC disk, have a dispersion of $`20.5\pm 0.5`$ km s-1 (van der Marel et al. 2002). Simple equilibrium models of the carbon-star radial velocities suggest that the LMC disk is thick like the Galactic thick disk and flared. Therefore, the LMC is a disk galaxy that has a halo, but not a bulge, and in this regard it is like M33 (van den Bergh 1991).

It is not known how stellar halos form, or how they relate to the other spheroidal components of galaxies (e.g., Wyse & Gilmore 1988). Stellar halos are minor constituents of disk galaxies, and thus they can be difficult to detect. The proximity of the LMC therefore affords a unique opportunity to study an extragalactic stellar halo. How does the LMC’s stellar halo compare to the Milky Way’s stellar halo? This question illustrates the point that the LMC is a benchmark for understanding galaxy formation and structure, and hence also why measuring the basic parameters of the LMC’s stellar halo is important. An accurate model of the LMC’s stellar halo also provides a basis for interpreting microlensing results. In fact the stellar halo is a new population unknown in detail to any prior discussion of LMC microlensing, although its possible existence has been considered (e.g., Alcock et al. 2000).

Measurements of the surface density of RR Lyrae stars in the LMC have a venerable history of being used to study the LMC’s stellar halo (Kinman et al. 1991). RR Lyrae stars are also used to map the structure of the Galactic stellar halo (e.g., Wetterer & McGraw 1996), and thus their distribution in the LMC can be compared directly to these Galactic data. The starting point for the present work is Fig. 12 of Alcock et al. (2000b) where the radial profile of RR Lyrae star counts in the LMC based on data from 16 MACHO survey fields was presented. There are several reasons why that analysis should be revisited. First, the primary conclusion of Alcock et al. (2000b) regarding the star-count data was the good fit of an exponential disk model; halo models were not thoroughly compared. In addition, new and more accurate catalogs of RR Lyrae stars in 30 MACHO survey fields have since been compiled (inclusive of the 16 noted above), and artificial star tests have now also yielded statistical completeness corrections. Last, a new catalog of RR Lyrae stars from the OGLE II survey is available (Soszyński et al. 2003), and these data can be analyzed together with the MACHO data. The results of this analysis are used to estimate the total mass and mass-to-light ratio of the LMC, and to make predictions about LMC microlensing.

## 2  Properties of the LMC Spheroid

One way to describe the LMC stellar halo is with King’s (1962) model for an isothermal system of particles modified by an external tidal field. The approximate formula for fits to surface brightness data is:

$$S(R)=S_0\left[\left(1+\left(R/a\right)^2\right)^{1/2}\left(1+\left(R_t/a\right)^2\right)^{1/2}\right]^2$$
(1)
where $`R`$ is the projected radius, and the parameters are the central normalization ($`S_0`$), the core radius ($`a`$), and the tidal radius ($`R_t`$). For $`R_t>>a`$, Eqn. (1) simplifies to the “Hubble-Reynolds” profile. A good approximation for the density profile of a King model is the “modified Hubble” function:

$$\rho (r)=\rho _0\left[1+\left(r/a\right)^2\right]^{3/2}$$
(2)
where $`r`$ is the spherical radial coordinate. The projection of the modified Hubble function is exactly the Hubble-Reynolds profile, and thus $`S_0=2\rho _0a`$ for $`R_t>>a`$. The central density ($`\rho _0`$) in mass units is related to the velocity dispersion ($`\sigma `$) by $`\rho _0=9\sigma ^2/4\pi Ga^2`$ (Rood et al. 1972).

The catalog of RR Lyrae stars used by Alcock et al. (2000b) is known to have serious systematic errors in the number of stars in some fields (e.g., Alcock et al. 2003). The most accurate catalog of RR Lyrae stars in the MACHO database has not yet been published, but was provided by K. Cook (private communication) for the present investigation. Cook’s summary111Data available by request to the author. refers only to stars that pulsate in the fundamental mode (type RR0 or RRab). These are the easiest to detect due to their large pulsation amplitudes, and they are traditionally used to study the stellar halos. The completeness of the MACHO database is now also better understood because of artificial star tests that were part of the microlensing detection efficiency calculation (Alcock et al. 2001). Unpublished plots of the fraction of artificial stars recovered in the MACHO database as a function of input magnitude were constructed by T. Vandehei (private communication) for 6 example “chunks” of MACHO image data222In fact the results of these tests are not reflected in the luminosity functions published by Alcock et al. (2001), but the results of that work are not affected by the omission.. The completeness fraction of interest has been read off of Vandehei’s diagram at $`V`$ = 19.4 mag, which represents a typical LMC RR Lyrae star. As expected, the fraction of recovered $`V`$=19.4 stars ($`f`$) is correlated with the density of detected objects in each example sub-field (Alcock et al. 2001). The result of a linear fit is $`f`$ = 1.37$``$N/N = $`1.00.00073O`$, where $`O`$ is detected objects per arcmin2 (Alcock et al. 2001, see their Table 2), N is the number of RR0 stars, and N is the estimated total number of all types of RR Lyrae stars. This approximate correction has an uncertainty of 7% based on the standard deviation of the fit to the artificial data.

A new catalog of LMC RR Lyrae stars has also recently been published by the OGLE II survey (Soszyński et al. 2003). This catalog includes RR Lyrae stars in all pulsation modes, not just the RR0 stars. Soszyński et al. (2003) suggest that the completeness of their catalog is 95%, but this is not consistent with the calibration obtained below as a free parameter in the profile fit. In order to incorporate these data, the type RR0 stars from OGLE II fields 3–9 are binned into 55 equal-area (96.8 arcmin2) regions that blanket the central bar.

I adopt a ratio of 1.37 for the total number of RR Lyrae stars to the number of RR0 stars in stellar halos from Kinman et al. (1991). This factor is included in the completeness correction formula above. Note, however, that the Soszyński et al. (2003) catalog implies a ratio of 1.30 for the LMC. The estimate by Kinman et al. (1991) is preferred because it is based on Galactic data, which may be more accurate. In particular, the lowest-amplitude RR Lyrae stars are mostly not of type RR0, and thus it is possible that relatively fewer of these have been detected in the LMC, which would tend to lower the LMC ratio. In any case, the main conclusions of this work are not significantly affected by this assumption.

The King-model fits are performed on the MACHO and OGLE II surface brightness data ($`V_0`$ mag/arcsec2) presented in Fig. 1. It is assumed that every RR Lyrae star represents a luminosity of 6730 $`L_{V,}`$ in halo stars (Kinman et al. 1991). I adopt a standard distance modulus of 18.5 mag (50.1 kpc), and a tidal radius of $`R_t`$ = 15 kpc (van der Marel et al. 2002). The adopted value of $`R_t`$ does not significantly affect the derived parameters (see §2.1). In all there are 85 nearly independent measurements and 5 parameters to fit. The free parameters are the center of the halo, $`\alpha `$ and $`\delta `$ (J2000), $`a`$ and $`S_0`$ from Eqn. (1), and the fractional incompleteness of the OGLE II data. Inspection of Fig. 1 shows that the majority of MACHO and OGLE II data points are on different lines-of-sight, and are thus independent. The analysis is simplified by assuming that all of the points are independent. An additional 7% error associated with the completeness corrections is added in quadrature with the $`\sqrt{N}`$ errors, and these are the error bars shown in the main panel of Fig. 1. The best fit has $`\chi ^2`$/dof = 1.19 (dof=79) and parameters: $`\alpha =5^\mathrm{h}21.1\pm 0.8^\mathrm{m}`$, $`\delta =69^{}45\pm 6\mathrm{}`$, $`a=1.42\pm 0.12`$ kpc, and $`S_0=23.13\pm 0.07`$ mag/arcsec2. This model is the solid line. The $`\chi ^2`$/dof obtained lends strong support to the accuracy of the derived and adopted parameters. Note that the definition $`S_0`$ in Eqn. 1 is not the same as the maximum central surface brightness of the halo, which reaches only 23.35 mag/arcsec2. The “incompleteness parameter” used in the fit is a way to scale the OGLE II data to best match the profile of the completeness-corrected MACHO data, and on this basis the OGLE II data employed are only about 80% complete. Finally, inspection of a map of the fit residuals (not shown) reveals no indication of ellipticity. A main result of this calculation is the estimate of the core radius.

The center of the distribution of RR Lyrae stars agrees well with the infrared and optical centers of the LMC bar: $`\alpha `$ = $`5^\mathrm{h}25.0\pm 0.1^\mathrm{m}`$, $`\delta `$ = $`69^{}47\pm 1\mathrm{}`$ (van der Marel 2001), and $`\alpha `$ = $`5^\mathrm{h}23.6^\mathrm{m}`$, $`\delta `$ = $`69^{}44\mathrm{}`$ (de Vaucouleurs & Freeman 1973), respectively. For comparison, Soszyński et al. (2003) report $`\alpha `$ = $`5^\mathrm{h}22.9^\mathrm{m}`$, $`\delta `$ = $`69^{}39\mathrm{}`$ for the center of the RR Lyrae distribution in the OGLE II catalog. Overall, these estimates suggest that the LMC center is known to an accuracy of about 10$`\mathrm{}`$. Note that the RR Lyrae center is grossly inconsistent the kinematic center of the H I gas, but it is consistent with the kinematic center of the carbon stars (van der Marel et al. 2002).

### 2.1 Tidal Radius

Before microlensing surveys existed, surface density measurements of LMC RR Lyrae stars were made by blinking photographic plate images. These data, although obtained by primitive methods, provide a direct test of the accuracy of the halo model derived above. In addition, the fields surveyed with photographic plates are located farther from the center of the LMC than the now available microlensing survey data, and thus they should be useful to constrain the tidal radius, and to test if the halo is spherical at these radii. Of course the situation might not be so simple. For example, the possible existence of extra-tidal stars near the LMC’s periphery could complicate the interpretation of the tidal radius.

The photographic RR0 star-count data summarized by Kinman et al. (1991) are reproduced in Table 1, which lists the field name (associated with a globular cluster in each field), the radial distance from LMC center, the area surveyed, and the observed number of RR0 stars. The numbers of RR0 stars expected according to the spherical halo model are listed for easy comparison. These data are also compared in the inset panel of Fig. 1. Significant discrepancies are obvious. The worst case is the NGC 1783 field where the observed number of RR0 stars is probably only about 50% complete. However, the agreement is fair in the two outermost fields (Reticulum & NGC 1841). Inspection of the images of these fields underlines the fact that they are very empty, and thus confusion is not an issue, and that the RR0 stars are detected with reasonably high signal-to-noise. Therefore, the photographic data should be interpreted with caution, but perhaps not dismissed entirely. Finally, however, an attempt to fit Eqn. (1) to these photographic data yields no better constraint on the tidal radius than the current best kinematic estimate of $`15\pm 4.5`$ kpc (van der Marel et al. 2002).

## 3 Implications for the Dark Halo

The new model of the LMC stellar halo yields information about the total mass of the LMC complementary to what is already known from the rotation curve. The most accurate estimate of the maximum circular velocity of the LMC disk is based on carbon stars (van der Marel et al. 2002): $`V_C=65\pm 16`$ km s-1 at the last measured radius of 8.9 kpc. Extrapolating out to the tidal radius implies a total mass of $`1.47\pm 0.85\times 10^{10}M_{}`$. The estimated total $`V`$-band luminosity of the LMC is $`3.0\times 10^9L_V`$ in Solar units, and hence the global mass-to-light ratio is $`M/L_V=4.9\pm 2.8`$ (van der Marel et al. 2002; see also Alves & Nelson 2000).

If the stars in the core of the LMC’s stellar halo have a Maxwellian velocity distribution, then the expected velocity dispersion is $`\sigma =V_C/\sqrt{2}=46\pm 11`$ km s-1. This is in good agreement with $`\sigma =53\pm 10`$ km s-1 measured by Minniti et al. (2003). Adopting the measured estimates of $`\sigma `$ and $`a`$, King’s core-fitting method yields a central mass density $`\rho _0=2.3\pm 1.0\times 10^8M_{}`$ kpc-3. The assumptions of King’s method are that mass follows light, that the orbits of the RR Lyrae stars are isotropic, and that the LMC is in equilibrium. The central surface brightness of the LMC is 20.56 mag/arcsec2 (Bothun & Thompson 1988), which therefore implies $`M/L_V=5.3\pm 2.1`$ for $`S_0=2\rho _0a`$. For the total $`V`$-band luminosity given above, the predicted total mass of the LMC is $`1.6\pm 0.6\times 10^{10}M_{}`$. The error bars on the estimated mass-to-light ratio and total mass are dominated by the uncertainty of $`\sigma `$.

## 4 The Stellar Halo Resembles the Disk

Instead of a spherical halo model, an exponential disk model fit to the data in §2 yields a radial scale length of $`\lambda =1.47\pm 0.08`$ kpc, a maximum central surface brightness of $`23.15\pm 0.07`$ mag/arcsec2, and $`\chi ^2`$/dof = 1.19 (dof=82). This model is the dotted line in Fig. 1, and it is statistically indistinguishable from the best-fit halo model. (The center and incompleteness of the OGLE II data are fixed to the values found above, but the results are the same if this assumption is relaxed.) An exponential is known to usually provide a good fit to the core of an isothermal, as found here.

Although the LMC’s halo and disk are kinematically different, the shape of the surface density profile of the RR Lyrae stars is remarkably similar to that of the young disk. For example, the best-fit exponential scale length for the RR Lyrae stars is very close to the scale length of the LMC’s blue light: 1.46 kpc (Bothun & Thompson 1988). For comparison, the Milky Way’s stellar halo as traced by RR Lyrae stars does not look like an exponential disk; it has a power-law density profile $`\rho (r)r^{3.024}`$ (Wetterer & McGraw 1996) from 0.6 to 80 kpc, which projects to a surface density profile that is obviously different from exponential models that best represent the Milky Way’s disk.

## 5 Implications for Microlensing

The basic parameters of the LMC’s stellar halo were unknown to any prior discussion of LMC microlensing (e.g., Salati et al. 1999; Gyuk et al. 2000). The following approximate calculation is the first to use a modified Hubble density model. The optical depth for a thin inclined disk embedded in a distribution of lenses is given by (Gould 1993; Guidice, Mollerach & Roulet 1994):

$$\tau =\underset{0}{\overset{D_{OS}}{}}\frac{4\pi G\rho (r)}{c^2}\mathrm{}\left(1\frac{\mathrm{}}{D_{OS}}\right)𝑑\mathrm{}\frac{4\pi G\rho _{}a^3}{c^2}\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}_{max}}{}}\frac{\mathrm{}d\mathrm{}}{\left[\mathrm{}^2+k_1\mathrm{}+k_2\right]^{3/2}}$$
(3)
where $`r`$ is the spherical radial coordinate, $`\rho (r)`$ is the density of lenses, $`D_{OS}`$ is the distance between the observer and source stars, $`\mathrm{}`$ is the line of sight, and the density $`\rho (r)`$ is from Eqn. (2). The approximation is to drop the term $`\mathrm{}/D_{OS}`$ because the LMC’s tidal radius is a factor of a few smaller than the LMC’s distance. The constants in the denominator are: $`k_1=2b\mathrm{cos}\varphi \mathrm{tan}i`$ and $`k_2=b^2\mathrm{cos}^2\varphi \mathrm{tan}^2i+a^2+b^2`$, where $`\varphi `$ is position angle relative to the far minor axis of the disk, the impact parameter is $`b`$, and the disk has an inclination angle $`i`$. The integration limit is $`\mathrm{}_{max}=b\mathrm{cos}\varphi \mathrm{tan}i+\left(R_t^2b^2\right)^{1/2}`$. Dwight (1961) solves the integral (see Eqn. 380.013), and thus:

$$\tau \frac{4\pi G\rho _{}a^3}{c^2}\left[\frac{\left(R_t^2b^2\right)^{1/2}}{\left(R_t^2+a^2\right)^{1/2}}\frac{\left(b\mathrm{cos}\varphi \mathrm{tan}i\right)}{\left(a^2+b^2\right)}+\frac{\left(a^2+b^2+b^2\mathrm{cos}^2\varphi \mathrm{tan}^2i\right)^{1/2}}{\left(a^2+b^2\right)}\frac{1}{\left(R_t^2+a^2\right)^{1/2}}\right]$$
(4)
The first term in Eqn. (4) is an odd power of $`\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$, which yields the highest values on the far side of the inclined disk.

The LMC disk is generally known to contain interstellar dust, and this opacity will tend to suppress the rate of disk-on-halo lensing relative to halo-on-disk lensing. Therefore, the existence of the LMC stellar halo implies a new local maximum in the LMC optical depth map whose location depends in part on the parameters of the halo as given by Eqn. (4). A ratio of $`M/L_V`$ = 1.6 is typical of stellar halos (Kinman et al. 1991), and this implies $`\rho _0=6.3\times 10^6M_{}`$ kpc-3 for the LMC stellar halo following §2. Adopting a disk inclination of 34.7 and a line-of-nodes at position angle $``$130 measured East of North (van der Marel et al. 2002), Eqn. (4) predicts a maximum of $`\tau =9\times 10^9`$ at a distance of 0.95 degrees from center at position angle $``$220. This is nearest to microlensing events 4, 5, 22, and 23 from Alcock et al. (2000; their Table 8). Excluding event 5, which is caused by a lens in the Galaxy, and event 22, which is a peculiar supernova, events 4 and 23 account for an optical depth of $`1.2\times 10^8`$. Therefore, based on location and approximate contribution to the observed optical depth, it is possible that MACHO events LMC-4 and LMC-23 are halo-on-disk stellar self-lensing. The remaining events in the MACHO sample (excluding 5, 22, and the self-lensing event LMC-14; Alcock et al. 2001b) account for an optical depth of $`8.2\times 10^8`$, which is not explained by stellar lenses in the LMC or Galaxy.

## 6 Conclusion

A King model fit to RR Lyrae star-count data in the LMC yields the center of their distribution at $`\alpha `$ = $`5^\mathrm{h}21.1\pm 0.8^\mathrm{m}`$, $`\delta `$ = $`69^{}45\pm 6\mathrm{}`$ (J2000) and a core radius of $`1.42\pm 0.12`$ kpc. As a check, the predicted numbers of halo RR Lyrae stars near the LMC periphery are compared with counts based on photographic plates. However, these data require a cautious interpretation. King’s core-fitting method implies a mass-to-light ratio $`M/L_V=5.3\pm 2.1`$ and total LMC mass $`1.6\pm 0.6\times 10^{10}M_{}`$. It is noted that the shape of the surface density profile of the LMC’s halo is very similar to that of its young disk, which is not the case for the Galactic disk and halo system. Finally, the stellar halo is predicted to cause a local maximum of microlensing optical depth large enough to possibly explain MACHO events LMC-4 and LMC-23, but not all of the observed events. Further observations of RR Lyrae stars that might test the spherical LMC halo model include more surface-density data near the tidal radius, more kinematic data, and accurate distances on multiple lines of sight.

I thank Ted Baltz, Sergei Nikolaev, Kem Cook, and Dante Minniti for their many helpful discussions about early drafts of this paper, and Scott Gaudi for his thoughtful referee reports. This paper utilizes data obtained by the MACHO Project, jointly funded by the US Department of Energy through the University of California (UC), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48, by the National Science Foundation through the UC Center for Particle Astrophysics under agreement AST-8809616, and by the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatory, part of the Australian National University.


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# GRBlog: A Database for Gamma-Ray Bursts

## 1 Motivation

The GRB Coordinates Network (GCN), created by Scott BarthelmyBarthelmy (2003), has proven to be an invaluable tool for the rapid dissemination of gamma-ray burst observations, and vital to the success of afterglow studies. The Notices portion of the GCN conveys burst locations and types automatically, in a format easily parsed at robotic observatories. The details of any ensuing observations are then sent out to the GRB community via the GCN Circulars. Although the Circulars are automatically distributed, the free format nature of these messages can make it difficult for the community to sort through all the information and find the data they need to address their research questions.

The first important step to organize the GCN Circulars was made by Jochen Greiner, who created a web site with the Circulars sorted by bursts and maintains a master table listing key observational data for each burstGreiner (2003). We have taken the further step of inserting all the data from the GCN Circulars into a relational database with a web interface called GRBlog111See http://grad40.as.utexas.edu/grblog.php. In this format, the data can easily be retrieved by the entire community. Users of GRBlog can freely download observational data compiled from a number of Circulars in a tabular format, or produce plots of afterglow light curves.

## 2 The Database

We have implemented GRBlog using a PostgreSQL database, with a PHP web interface. To insert a new Circular into the database, we first download the ASCII file from the GCN archives. We then mark up that text with a custom formatting language, similar to Latex. For example, we would convert the passage “R = 18.5 mag” to “$`\backslash `$filter{R} = $`\backslash `$mag{18.5} mag”. The marked up message is then passed through a PHP interpreter which converts it to HTML, and saves the marked up data to various tables (e.g. a table for optical observations). There are some common patterns as to how one might express a given observation in the GCN Circulars. We have identified several of these and have in place some routines to automatically mark up the Circulars. We then manually check the messages and make adjustments as necessary.

Once the messages have been marked up and their data appropriately stored in the database, PHP routines sort through the data and create HTML web pages on the fly.

### 2.1 Message View

The Message View is used to display the actual text of a Circular. The GRBlog default home page for example displays the 20 most recent messages. When more than one message is selected, only the first few lines of the text are displayed with a link to the full message. Each message begins with a title bar giving both the Circular subject line, and a link to the original Circular in the GCN archive. Data collected during the markup process is used to automatically classify the message, and a message category icon (e.g. eye glasses for an optical observation report) is shown on the right. Some of the marked up data will be converted to a link to another page. For example, the burst name GRB030329 will serve as a link to the 030329 burst page.

When a single message is selected, it will begin with a formated version of the Circular header followed by the list of authors (each name is a link to a list of messages the author is credited with). The message text will follow with embedded links to bursts, message references, and websites. Any tables will be presented as an in-line HTML table. At the end of the message text, the number of citations to the current message will be shown with a link to a list of those messages. Below the citation count are tables summarizing any observational data presented in the message.

### 2.2 Burst View

The Burst View is used to quickly convey all the available observational data for a given burst, or list of bursts. Shown in a table for each burst are the fluence, RA and DEC, number of optical observations, etc., as available. For HETE bursts, the trigger number will be determined on the fly by looking for messages reporting both the HETE trigger number and the GRB name, and a link will be provided to the appropriate HETE Burst PageVanderspek (2003). When afterglow observations are available, detection of the transient is given as “yes” or “no” which serves as a link to the full light curve (it will be “yes” only if a message in the GRBlog database gives a magnitude for the OT which is not an upper limit).

When a single burst is selected, all of the messages related to that burst are displayed below the data summary table. An example of the burst table is shown in Fig. 1.

### 2.3 Data View

Data can be extracted from a collection of messages and displayed either in a table, or as a plot. The source for each data point is given in the tables, and can be viewed from plots by clicking on a given data point. As an example, to view the optical light curve for GRB030723, first go to the burst page, then click on “yes” in the table next to “OT?” (Fig. 1). The data will be plotted using the magnitudes and observation times given in the Circulars (see Fig. 2); they will not be converted to the same reference system. To see what reference system a given observation employs, look for the “refsys” column in the data table. Light curves can also be made from radio or X-ray observations. GRB data for collections of bursts can also be displayed using the search form.

## 3 Searching

The web site includes a search form to allow users to find messages, bursts, or data which meet specific criteria. One can search for all messages that contain the word “ROTSE” for example, or to find all bursts with afterglows discovered within one hour of the burst. The search form has fields to limit the search to specific burst names, author names, fluence ranges, durations, optical magnitudes, spectra, etc., and all of the fields can be combined to produce complex searches.

## 4 Future

We will soon have all of the GCN Circulars entered into our database, and we will continue to add new Circulars as they become available. Once the database is complete with respect to the GCNs, we will consider expanding the database to include IAU Circulars, and possibly papers from astro-ph.

Although difficult to implement, using a markup language to convert prose into a machine readable format has proven quite successful. We note here that in the Swift era when the volume of GCN Circulars increases significantly, it may be important to agree on a common format for presenting observations to the community. If the GCNs reports were marked up to clearly identify data in a manner similar to that used by GRBlog, then authors would continue to have great freedom in how they express their results, but the results would be easier for the community to parse.

We thank Bradley E. Schaefer, J. Craig Wheeler, Pawan Kumar, Peter Höflich, Chris Gerardy, and Alin Panaitescu for valuable suggestions on the layout and functionality of the GRBlog website. This work is supported in part by NSF AST 0098644.


text:
# References

Conditional Unitary Transformation on biphotons

G. Brida1, M.V. Chekhova2, M. Genovese1, M. Gramegna1, L.A. Krivitsky2, S.P.Kulik2

1 Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris,

Strada delle Cacce 91, 10135 Torino, Italy

2 Physics Department, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

A conditional unitary transformation ($`90^o`$ polarization rotation) is performed at single-photon level. The transformation is realized by rotating polarization for one of the photons of a polarization-entangled biphoton state (signal photon) by means of a Pockel cell triggered by the detection of the other (idler) photon after polarization selection. As a result, the state of the signal photon is losslessly changed from being completely unpolarized to being partially polarized, so that the final polarization degree is given by the idler detector quantum efficiency. This experiment can be used for developing a novel method of absolute quantum efficiency calibration.

PACS 03.67.-a; 03.65.Ta

The possibility of performing a unitary transformation on a qubit conditionally on the result of the measurement on another one is a fundamental tool for quantum information nc . For example, in teleportation protocols teleth , teleportation is performed by Bob doing an opportune unitary transformation on his sub-part of an entangled system after having received classical information on the result of the Bell measurement performed by Alice on her sub-part of the entangled system and the unknown state to be teleported. Similarly, in entanglement swapping protocols a joint measurement performed on two members of two distinct entangled pairs allows, by means of a conditional unitary transformation, to create a desired entangled state between the two surviving members. In most of experiments realized up to now with single photons both for teleportation tele  and swapping swex , this part of the protocol was not accomplished, and only correlation measurements with a fixed polarization selection were obtained. The only exception is deMartini , where a Pockel cell was used for conditional transformations in an active teleportation protocol. Conditional transformations were also performed in experiments where one of the photons of an entangled pair triggered polarization rotation on the other one, to increase the efficiency of the parity check pitt1  and to produce signal photons on ’pseudodemand’, i.e., in a given time interval after the trigger detection event pitt2 . Single-photon light was observed through the anti-bunching effect in Rarity  as well, following a proposal of Klyshko  where it was suggested to prepare pure single-photon state by gating (using a shutter) the signal photon of an entangled pair as soon as the idler photon is detected. Finally, for the sake of completeness, it can still be acknowledged that, somewhat later, it was proposed to produce sub-Poissonian light by means of conditional transformations on twin beams yamamoto . Conditional preparation of sub-Poissonian light from twin beams was carried out in experiments using active control (feedforward) fabre1  and passive measurement technique fabre2 .

The idea of the present work is to perform conditional unitary transformations on the polarization state of a photon belonging to a polarization-entangled pair. This experiment is the first demonstration of ’purifying’ the polarization state of a photon that is initially prepared in a mixed polarization state (initial degree of polarization is equal to zero). As a result of transformations, the degree of polarization increases; its final value is given by the quantum efficiency of the ’trigger’ detector. Due to this fact, one can notice another important advantage of our experiment: it can be used for the absolute calibration of photodetectors (absolute measurement of quantum efficiency).

In our experiment, biphotons are generated via spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) by pumping a BBO crystal (5x5x5 mm) with an argon laser radiating at 351 nm. The crystal is cut for type-II non-collinear frequency-degenerate phase matching providing generation of polarization-wavevector entangled state zei . In this regime, signal and idler photons are emitted in different directions and each of them is not polarized; at the same time, their polarization states are always orthogonal. The state at the output of the crystal has the form

$$|\psi =\frac{|H|V+\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\varphi }|\mathrm{V}|\mathrm{H}}{\sqrt{2}},$$
(1)
where $`H,V`$ denote horizontal and vertical polarization, respectively, and the first and the second positions correspond to the two spatial modes (two directions). The phase $`\varphi `$ can be varied by small tilts of the crystal and by additionally introduced optic elements.

The state (1) is a pure entangled state. Strictly speaking, in order to obtain this state, it is necessary that the group delay between vertically and horizontally polarized photons is compensated after the crystal comp . As a compensator, one can use a BBO crystal of length twice less than for the one where photon pairs are generated, or any other crystal of equivalent length. Without this compensation, the phase $`\varphi `$ in Eq. (1) has classical random fluctuations or, in other words, the state produced at the output is a mixed entangled state, described by the density matrix

$$\rho =\frac{|HVHV|+|VHVH|}{2}.$$
(2)
In our experiment, no compensator was used, and hence, a mixed entangled state (2) was generated. Note that each of the photons forming the entangled pair is in a mixed polarization state, no matter whether the two-photon state is pure (Eq.(1)) or mixed (Eq.(2)). The effect of ’purification’ observed in the present work for the polarization state of the signal photon does not require the purity of the two-photon state. Some additional features should be observed in the case where the two-photon state is pure, but this is not the subject of the present paper and will be considered elsewhere.

After the BBO crystal, the pump was absorbed by a beam trap. One of the correlated photons (the idler photon) was sent to a single-photon counter (Perkin-Elmer SPCM-AQ) preceded by a red-glass cutoff filter and a pinhole (realizing a rough spectral and spatial selection) and then to a polarizer cube selecting vertically polarized photons. The output of this detector was sent to a counter and, as a trigger, to a pulse generator used to control a KDP Pockel cell placed on the path of the conjugated (signal) photon. The Pockel cell was operating as a halfwave plate oriented at 45 to the vertical axis (thus providing polarization rotation by 90) if supplied by the 5.2 kV peak voltage from the pulse generator. The high-voltage pulse had a sharp front, not longer than 2 ns, a flat part of duration 100 ns, and a ’tail’ 2$`\mu \text{s}`$ long. To ensure that the flat part of the high-voltage pulse arrived at the Pockel cell simultaneously with the signal photon, signal photons were delayed by means of 50 m of polarization-maintaining (PM) fibre. For additional adjustment, a variable delay between the idler detector output pulse and the high-voltage pulse could be introduced electronically. This way, each detection of an idler photon with vertical polarisation led to a unitary operation (polarisation rotation by 90) on the corresponding signal photon. Then, after an interference filter with 4 nm FWHM centered at 702 nm and a Glan-Thompson polarizer, the signal photon was detected by a single-photon counter (Perkin-Elmer SPCM-AQ).

When the Pockel cell is not active, the reduced polarization density matrix of the signal photon corresponds to a completely unpolarized case. In fact, the observed dependence of the signal beam intensity on the setting of the Glan-Thompson polarizer was flat (see Fig.2).

On the other hand, when the Pockel cell is active, the system realizes a unitary transformation (rotation by $`90^o`$) on the polarization of the signal photon conditioned to the registration of a vertically polarized idler photon. The polarization density matrix of the signal photon corresponds therefore to a perfectly vertically polarized state (if the idler detector has perfect quantum efficiency and the Pockel cell operates in 100% cases): the initially perfectly mixed state of the signal photon $`1/2(|VV|+|HH|)`$ is purified to the state $`|VV|`$. In a real situation, the quantum efficiency $`\eta `$ of the first detector is smaller than unity, which means that only a fraction of the incident photons will be observed and produce an effect on the Pockel cell. Thus, the final density matrix for the second photon is

$$\rho =1/2((1+\eta )|VV|+(1\eta )|HH|)$$
(3)
It is important that the transformation performed on the signal photon, in principle, is lossless, since the only sources of losses are reflection and absorption in the optical elements, which can be made as small as possible.

This effect can be also described in terms of the Stokes parameters, which are initially $`S_0=N`$, $`S_1=S_2=S_3=0`$, where $`N`$ is the photon number, but become, as a result of transformation, $`S_0=N`$, $`S_1=\eta N`$, $`S_2=S_3=0`$. From the Stokes parameters, one can find the polarization degree, which is standardly defined as

$$P=\sqrt{\frac{S_1^2+S_2^2+S_3^2}{S_0^2}}.$$
(4)
We see that without the transformation, $`P=0`$ and in the presence of the transformation, $`P=\eta `$. Since the degree of polarization depends on $`\eta `$ this scheme could also be used for an absolute calibration of detectors (a detailed description of this technique will appear in Ref. nos ).

The results of our measurements are shown in Figs.2, 3. As expected, in the absence of the Pockel cell action, the measured flux on the signal detector does not depend on the polarization selection. On the other hand, when the cell is active the measured signal has a $`(1+\eta cos(2\theta ))`$ behaviour as a function of the polarizer setting $`\theta `$, with a $`30\%`$ visibility (Fig.2). Subtracting the noise background of the signal detector and correcting for Pockel cell system inefficiency, we discover that the visibility becomes $`0.441\pm 0.045`$, which is close to the result $`\eta =0.476\pm 0.002`$ obtained by means of a standard biphoton calibration scheme bp1 ; bp2 . The dependence of coincidence counting rate on the position of the polarizer in the signal channel is shown in Fig.3. In contrast to the single-photon counting rate, this dependence should not be sensitive to the idler detector quantum efficiency. The effect of the Pockel cell manifests itself in the $`90^{}`$ phase shift of the dependence. A small decrease in the visibility (from $`95\%`$ to $`90\%`$) can be explained only by ’failures’ of the Pockel cell caused by the effect of its dead time (2 $`\mu `$s).

To demonstrate that the effect occurs only in cases where the polarization transformation on the signal photon is triggered by its conjugated idler photon, we studied the dependence of the effect on the trigger pulse delay $`T`$ introduced electronically. To obtain this dependence, the electronic delay was scanned from 0 to 200 ns while the polarizer in the signal channel was fixed in the positions $`\theta =0^{}`$ and $`\theta =90^{}`$ (Fig.4). The dependence shows that at zero electronic delay, the effect is observed but at delays larger than $`100`$ ns, the effect disappears. To explain this dependence, we have to mention that the electronic part of the setup has a constant uncontrollable delay $`T_0`$ introduced by the pulse generator. At zero additional delay $`T`$, the effect is present because the delay $`T_f`$ introduced by the fibre ($`248`$ ns, according to our measurement) is small enough compared to the delay $`T_0`$ plus the duration of the high-voltage pulse. Disappearance of the effect at $`T>100`$ ns occurs because in this case $`T+T_0`$ starts to exceed the delay $`T_f`$ introduced by the fibre. By taking a longer fibre we could observe no effect at small $`T`$ and at larger $`T`$, the initial part of the dependence would show the ’tail’ of the high-voltage pulse; however, this tail is more than one microsecond long and the PM fibre does not maintain polarization well enough at lengths larger than several hundreds of meters.

In conclusion, we have performed a conditional unitary transformation at single-photon level. The state of the signal photon, which was initially mixed, became partly purified due to this transformation. In terms of polarization properties, light became partly polarized (polarization degree became equal to the quantum efficiency of the trigger detector) while initially, it was completely non-polarized (polarization degree was zero). Note that the transformation is lossless with respect to the signal photon. It is worth mentioning that variation of the polarization degree, which we observe in our experiment, is impossible by means of only linear lossless optical methods pd . However, in the present experiment, the transformation performed over the signal photon is essentially nonlinear since it is triggered by the detection of the idler photon entangled to this photon.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge support of INTAS, grant #01-2122. One of us (L.K.) acknowledges support from INTAS-YS fellowship grant (Num. 03-55-1971). The Turin group acknowledges the support of: MIUR (FIRB RBAU01L5AZ-002; Cofinanziamento 2001) and Regione Piemonte. The Moscow group acknowledges support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant#02-02-16664, and the Russian program of scientific school support (#166.2003.02).

Figure Captions

Fig.1. The experimental set-up. An argon laser generating at 351 nm pumps a type-II BBO crystal cut for frequency-degenerate non-collinear polarization-entangled phase matching. One of the correlated photons, after a spatial selection by means of an aperture A, a spectral selection by means of a red-glass cutoff filter RG, and a polarization selection by means of a polarizing cube PBS, is addressed to the photon counter D1, which drives, through a fast high-voltage switch S, a Pockel cell PC placed in the optical path of the other photon. The delay between a photocount of D1 and the corresponding high-voltage pulse on the Pockel cell can be varied electronically. The second photon of an entangled pair is retarded, before the Pockel cell, by means of a 50 m PM fibre F. This realizes the conditioned unitary operation. The second photon is registered by photon counter D2 preceded by a Glan prism G and an interference filter IF. The measurement includes registration of the D2 single-photon counting rate and the rate of coincidences between D1 and D2.

Fig.2. Counting rate of detector D2 as a function of the angle of the polarizer preceding it. When the Pockel cell is not activated no dependence on the polarizer angle appears (squares). When a $`90^{}`$ rotation of polarization is realized by the Pockel cell conditioned to the measurement of a vertically polarized photon in the conjugated branch, the data (triangles) show a clear dependence on the polarizer setting corresponding to a vertically polarized state, with a $`30\%`$ visibility subtraction .

Fig.3. Coincidences between D1 and D2 as a function of the polarizer orientation. The data when the Pockel cell is activated show a $`90\%`$ visibility. The reduction of visibility can be attributed to a non-perfect efficiency of the Pockel cell apparatus.

Fig.4. Dependence of the D2 counting rate at $`\theta =0^o`$ (Horizontally polarized photons, triangles) and $`\theta =90^o`$ (Vertically polarized photons, squares) on the delay $`T`$ introduced electronically between the trigger pulses from D1 detector and the corresponding high-voltage pulses driving the Pockel’s cell. The effect of counting rate decreasing for horizontally polarized photons is observed for $`T<100ns`$ and not observed for $`T>100ns`$.


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# Configuration interaction calculation for the isotope shift in Mg I.

## I  Introduction

The motivation for this work comes from recent studies of quasar absorption spectra that reveal a possible change in $`\alpha `$ since the early universe murphy1 . One of the possible major sources of systematic effects in these studies is that the isotopic abundance ratios in gas clouds in the early universe could be very different to those on Earth. A “conspiracy” of several isotopic abundances may provide an alternative explanation for the observed variation in spectra murphy2 . In order to test this possibility it is necessary to have accurate values for the isotope shift (IS) for the relevant atomic transitions. Experimental data is available for only a very few of them; therefore, accurate calculations are needed to make the most comprehensive analysis possible.

Previously we have calculated isotope shift in atoms with one valence electron berengut . This work represents a first step in developing a method for the calculation of isotope shift in atoms with more than one valence electron. The method used here is similar to our previous calculations of the $`\alpha `$-dependence of transition frequences for ions with several valence electrons DFKM . It includes Dirac-Fock calculation of the core and configuration interaction (CI) for the valence electrons in combination with the finite-field method for the perturbation. Magnesium is one of the simplest and well studied two-electron atoms. Because of that it is often used as a test ground for different methods of atomic calculations. In this paper we show that we can calculate the isotope shift of some magnesium transitions for which experimental values are available.

## II  Method

The isotope shifts of atomic transition frequencies come from two sources: the finite size of the nuclear charge distribution (the “volume” or “field” shift), and the finite mass of the nucleus (see, e.g. sobelman ). The energy shift due to recoil of the nucleus is $`(1/2M)𝒑_N^2=(1/2M)(\mathrm{\Sigma }𝒑_i)^2`$. Furthermore this “mass shift” is traditionally divided into the normal mass shift (NMS) and the specific mass shift (SMS). The normal mass shift is given by the operator $`(1/2M)\mathrm{\Sigma }𝒑_i^2`$, which is easily calculated from the transition frequency. The SMS operator is $`(1/M)\mathrm{\Sigma }_{i<j}(𝒑_i𝒑_j)`$ which is difficult to evaluate accurately.

The shift in energy of any transition in an isotope with mass number $`A^{}`$ with respect to an isotope with mass number $`A`$ can be expressed as

$$\delta \nu ^{A^{},A}=\left(k_{\mathrm{NMS}}+k_{\mathrm{SMS}}\right)\left(\frac{1}{A^{}}\frac{1}{A}\right)+F\delta r^2^{A^{},A},$$
(1)
where the normal mass shift constant is

$$k_{\mathrm{NMS}}=\frac{\nu }{1823}$$
(2)
and $`r^2`$ is the mean square nuclear radius. The value 1823 refers to the ratio of the atomic mass unit to the electron mass.

In this paper we develop a method for calculating the specific mass shift $`k_{\mathrm{SMS}}`$ for atoms with several valence electrons. It is worth noting that in this paper we use the convention $`\delta \nu ^{A^{},A}=\nu ^A^{}\nu ^A`$.

Following our previous work on single valence electron atoms (Ref. berengut ) we are looking for an “all order” method of calculation. Again we have found that the finite-field scaling method is very useful in this respect. The rescaled SMS operator is added to the many-particle Hamiltonian

$`H_\lambda =H_0+\lambda H_{\mathrm{SMS}}=H_0+\lambda {\displaystyle \underset{i<j}{}}𝒑_i𝒑_j.`$ (3)
The eigenvalue problem for the new Hamiltonian is solved for various $`\lambda `$, and then we recover the specific mass shift constant as

$$k_{\mathrm{SMS}}=\underset{\lambda 0}{lim}\frac{dE}{d\lambda }.$$
(4)
The operator (3) has the same symmetry and structure as the initial Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ (see the Appendix, Ref. berengut ).

In this work we restrict ourselves to the frozen-core approximation. We first solve the Dirac-Fock equations for the core and valence electrons. Then we generate a basis set that includes the core and valence orbitals and a number of virtual orbitals. Finally we do the full configuration interaction calculation.

The SMS operator for the valence electrons in the frozen core approximation can be divided into the core, one-electron and two-electron parts:

$$H_{\mathrm{SMS}}=H_{\mathrm{SMS}}^{(0)}+H_{\mathrm{SMS}}^{(1)}+H_{\mathrm{SMS}}^{(2)}$$
(5)
The first term in Eq. (5) corresponds to the change of the core potential. It accounts for the change of the core orbitals when the Dirac-Fock equations are solved for the operator $`H_\lambda `$. The term $`H_{\mathrm{SMS}}^{(1)}`$ accounts for the exchange interaction of the valence electrons with the core:

$$i|H_{\mathrm{SMS}}^{(1)}|k=\underset{j=1}{\overset{N_{\text{core}}}{}}i,j|𝒑_1𝒑_2|j,k.$$
(6)
The last term corresponds to the specific mass shift between the two valence electrons, $`𝒑_1𝒑_2`$.

## III Calculation and results

We are using the Dirac-Fock code BDT77 , which was modified for the Hamiltonian (3). The CI calculations are made with the help of the modification dzuba96  of the code KT87 . In order to study the role of the valence correlations we made three different calculations:

1. The basic one-configurational calculation for the ground state $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}[3s^2]`$ and for the $`{}_{}{}^{1,3}P_{J}^{}[3s3p]`$ states. All core orbitals and orbitals $`3s`$ and $`3p`$ are formed in the $`V^{N2}`$ approximation (i.e. by solving Dirac-Fock equations for the core).
2. Full two-electron CI for the medium size basis set $`[8sp5d]`$, which includes the orbitals $`18s_{1/2}`$, $`28p_j`$ and $`35d_j`$. The $`3s`$, $`3p`$ and $`3d`$ orbitals are solutions of the $`V^{N2}`$ Dirac-Fock potential. The remaining virtual orbitals are constructed by multiplying the previous orbital of the same partial wave by the simple radial function and orthogonalizing with the other orbitals Bv83 .
3. Full two-electron CI for the basis set $`[12spd9f]`$. This basis set is formed by diagonalizing the Dirac-Fock operator on the basis set of $`B`$-splines and excluding orbitals with high energy (for a description of this method as applied in atomic physics, see e.g. Ref. johnson ).

Below we refer to these calculations as small, medium, and large. The large calculation is already very close to the saturation of the valence CI. Here the difference between the theoretical spectrum and experiment is mostly caused by the neglect of the core-valence correlations. The latter were studied, for example, in Ref. PKRD . For Mg I the typical corrections to the valence energies and transition frequencies were found to be of the order of a few percent.

Table 1 presents the resulting SMS level shift constants, $`k_{\mathrm{SMS}}`$ of Eq. (1), in different approximations. The contributions of individual terms in Eq. (5) are given, as well as their sum. It is interesting to note that all of the terms are large in comparison to the total SMS. There is a large cancellation between contributions within levels, and also between different levels. This shows that very high accuracy is required in order to preserve the remaining SMS in transitions.

Comparison of the different approximations shows a strong dependence on the size of the basis sets. We see that it is very important to saturate the basis as completely as possible. In some cases the SMS changes drastically even between the medium and the large basis sets. In particular, the difference between large and medium SMS calculation for the level $`{}_{}{}^{3}D_{1}^{}(3s3d)`$ is 39%. That is mostly due to the $`f`$-wave contribution, which is absent in the medium basis set. Note that the SMS operator can only mix orbitals with $`\mathrm{\Delta }l=1`$. That is why the $`f`$-wave contribution is more important for the levels of the configuration $`3s3d`$. On the other hand, for the same reason, the contribution of the higher partial waves to the considered levels is suppressed.

Analysis of Table 1 shows that valence correlations tend to decrease the contributions of the first two terms of the SMS operator. The third (two-particle) term of the SMS operator is generally not screened. On the contrary, for some levels the two particle contribution grows with the size of the basis set. Note that the final value of the two-particle contribution to the ground state SMS is of the same order as the other contributions, as it is for most other states, while in the one-configurational approximation it is zero.

In Table 2 we compare the results of our calculation with experiment for SMS in transitions between $`{}_{}{}^{26}\mathrm{Mg}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{24}\mathrm{Mg}`$. Also presented for comparison are the results of Veseth (Ref. veseth ). That paper used non-relativistic many-body perturbation theory within the algebraic approximation to calculate the isotope shift to third order for some transitions.

We have also applied the finite-field scaling method to calculate the field shift in Mg. By following the definitions for field shift given in Ref. berengut , and using the same approximations for the CI calculation, we found that it was less than 2% of the normal mass shift for all relevant transitions. The field shift is smaller than omissions in the mass shift calculation, notably the core-valence correlations; thus for simplicity we have neglected the field shift from our analysis in this paper.

Core-valence correlations have been studied for the one-electron atoms in Ref. berengut ; js01  and shown to be quite noticeable. They can explain the difference between our calculations and the experiment in Table 2. Core-valence correlations are usually more important for the ground state than for excited states. That may be the reason why the largest discrepancy with the experiment is for the transitions from the ground state.

## IV Conclusion

We have presented a method for the calculation of the isotope-shift in many-electron atoms using the CI for the valence electrons in combination with the finite-field method, and tested the method in magnesium. The agreement was found to be quite good for all transitions. Even for the transitions from the ground state $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{}`$ to the $`J=1`$ levels of the configuration $`3s3p`$, where the error is largest, it constitutes about 20% of the total IS. In particular, for the purposes of resolving systematic errors in the search for $`\alpha `$-variation (Ref. murphy1 ; murphy2 ), such accuracy is high enough.

Further work on magnesium could include core-correlations, using the extensions to CI outlined in Ref. dzuba96 . We have decided not to do this, however, because we wanted a general method for calculating IS in many electron atoms. The method of including core-valence correlations in the valence CI with the help of the effective Hamiltonian has proven to be very effective for atoms with two or three valence electrons, but becomes less reliable for atoms with more than three valence electrons. Unfortunately, most of the ions of astrophysical interest have many electrons in the open shells. For such ions valence correlations are the most important ones and we plan to use this technique to calculate isotope shift for the transitions that were used to detect variation of $`\alpha `$. That will provide stringent limits on the size of the systematic error due to variation in isotope abundance.

## V Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Australian Research Council, Gordon Godfrey fund, and Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant No. 02-0216387. V.F. is grateful to the Institute for Advanced Study and Monell foundation for hospitality and support. M.K. is grateful to Queen’s University of Belfast for hospitality.