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# Evidence for gas accretion in galactic disks

## 1. Introduction

It has long been an important question how galaxies form and evolve into the great variety of morphologies we see in the nearby universe. The common view is that galaxies form hierarchically from small building blocks through a sequence of merger events. This view has been motivated by the cold dark matter (CDM) simulations which suggest that all galaxies form initially as discs (e.g. Baugh, Cole & Frenk 1996, Klypin et al. 1999, Moore et al. 1999, Steinmetz & Navarro 2002, Abadi et al. 2003). The signatures of the disks can subsequently be erased by multiple galaxy mergers (Barnes 1992).

In this paper we consider the formation of large disks through the accretion of small companions, the process often indicated as the nurture of galaxies. Evidence in support of the prediction of this scenario by cold dark matter simulations has come from several directions. Zaritsky (1995) and Zaritsky & Rix (1997) determined the star formation rate of several tens of galaxies from stellar population studies. They also determined the shapes of these galaxies from photometry and found that overall the galaxies with asymmetries in their shapes have the youngest stellar populations. They acsribed this to recent accretion events. Kinematic lopsidedness, observed in the 2-dimensional HI velocity fields of galaxies (Verheijen 1997, Swaters et al. 1999) has also been considered as a result of recent minor mergers. Finally there are at least some twenty examples of galaxies which in HI show either signs of interactions and/or have small companions (Sancisi 1999). This suggests that galaxies often are in an environment where material for accretion is available.

Even clearer evidence that accretion events play an important role has come from studies of the distribution and kinematics of stars in the Milky Way halo. The discovery of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Ibata et al. 1994) has been major proof that accretion is still taking place at the present time. Since such minor merger remnants retain information about their origin for a long time (Helmi & White 2000) studies of the distribution and kinematics of “stellar streams” can in principle be used to trace the merger history of the Milky Way (Helmi & de Zeeuw 2001). Such “stellar streams” are not only seen in the Milky Way, but have also been discovered in the Local Group galaxy M 31 (Ibata et al. 2001, Ferguson et al. 2002, McConnachie et al. 2003). The substructure in the halo of M 31 is another piece of clear evidence that minor mergers still take place.

The question now is how to trace such events in more distant galaxies, where we can not observe individual stars, but require other means of detecting the signature of accretion. The use of HI is very powerful as it can image interactions very effectively by studying the HI distributions and kinematics of nearby galaxies. Examples can be found in Sancisi (1999). The improved sensitivity of modern synthesis radio telescopes brings within reach the detection of faint HI signatures of accretion events and we expect that new observations of nearby galaxies will reveal these in the coming decade. To further illustrate this point we here present a few examples of such signatures: NGC 3359, NGC 4565 and NGC 6946.

## 2. The observations

All three galaxies have been observed recently with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) using the new front-end and correlator providing a much improved sensitivity. NGC 3359 and NGC 4565 were each observed for 12 hours providing a sensitivity of 0.85 mJy/beam for spatial and velocity resolutions of 30′′ and 10 km s-1. NGC 6946 was observed for 15 $`\times `$ 12 hours and reaches a sensitivity of 0.5 mJy/beam for spatial and velocity resolutions of 60′′ and 5 km s-1. We will discuss each case individually below.

### 2.1. NGC 3359

NGC 3359 is a nearby barred spiral galaxy (Hubble type SB(rs)c) which has been observed in HI by Broeils (1992) as part of a study of the mass distribution of a sample of nearby spiral galaxies. It has a total mass of $`1.2\times 10^{11}`$ M and an HI mass of $`7.5\times 10^9`$ M (Broeils & Rhee, 1997, adjusted for a Hubble constant of 72 km/s/Mpc). It has well developed spiral structure both in the optical and in HI. Kamphuis & Sancisi (1994, see also Sancisi 1999) pointed out the presence of an HI companion which appears distorted and may connect to the main HI disk of NGC 3359. This observation already suggested the possibility of witnessing accretion of gas by a large galaxy. Our new, more sensitive observations are shown in Figure 1 and convincingly display an HI connection between the distorted HI companion and the main galaxy. The mass of the HI companion is $`1.8\times 10^8`$ M or 2.4% of the HI mass of NGC 3359. Also shown in Figure 1 is a blow-up of the HI distribution of the companion which is clearly distorted and shows a tail pointing towards and connecting with the outer spiral structure of NGC 3359. No optical counterpart has yet been identified.

The velocity structure of the HI companion and the connecting HI fits in very well with the regular velocity field of NGC 3359. This is shown in Figure 2 where we display the emission in the individual channels superposed on the total HI image of NGC 3359. Contours of different shades of grey (low velocities are dark, high velocities are light) denote the outer edge of the HI emission in each of the velocity channels and thus display the basic kinematics of the HI without any further analysis of individual velocity profiles. The regularity of the velocities suggests that the process has been going on slowly for at least one rotational period which is of the order of 1.7 Gy.

### 2.2. NGC 4565

NGC 4565 is a large edge-on galaxy of Hubble type SAb which was first observed in HI by Sancisi (1976) in an early search for galaxies with warped HI disks. Rupen (1991) observed NGC 4565 with much higher resolution and presented a detailed study of the kinematics and the warp. NGC 4565 has a small optical companion 6 to the north of the center of NGC 4565, F378-0021557, which has $`7.4\times 10^7`$ M of HI compared to an HI mass of $`2.0\times 10^{10}`$ M for NGC 4565. Another companion, NGC 4562, somewhat larger in HI ($`2.5\times 10^8`$ M) and brighter optically can be found found 15 to the south-west of the center of NGC 4565. The HI distribution, superposed on the DSS is shown in Figure 3. The asymmetric warp is clearly visible. The warp sets in at the edge of the optical disk and does exhibit a bit of apparent thickening of the HI disk visible to the north-west and south-east of the disk, a result from projection effects along the line of sight.

Inspection of individual channel maps brings to light that in addition to the warp the HI distribution shows additional, low surface brightness emission to the north of the center, in the direction of the faint companion F378-0021557. This is best shown in Figure 4 where we show the outer contours of the HI emission in individual velocity channels superposed on the total HI distribution of NGC 4565. In this Figure one clearly sees that there is an additional extraplanar HI component pointing into the direction of F378-0021557, suggestive of a connection between the presence of F378-0021557 and disturbances in the HI disk of NGC 4565. Whether this is recently accreted material can not easily be verified, but it definitely shows that there is a component in the HI disk of NGC 4565 which can not be associated with the warp and is the kind of small (in terms of HI mass) asymmetry that could be the result of accretion.

### 2.3. NGC 6946

NGC 6946 is a bright, nearby spiral galaxy of Hubble type SAB(rs)cd which has been studied in HI numerous times (Rogstad et al. 1973, Tacconi & Young 1986, Kamphuis 1993). It was in this galaxy that Kamphuis and Sancisi (1993) found the first evidence for an anomalous velocity HI component which they associated with outflow of gas from the disk into the halo as a result of stellar winds and supernova events. Evidence for such a component is now evident in more galaxies as discussed by Fraternali et al. (2002, 2003, and also this volume). A much more detailed study of the anomalous HI and the structure in the HI disk is being carried out by Boomsma et al. (this volume, see also Fraternali et al. this volume) on the basis of very sensitive observations with the WSRT.

Here we concentrate on a low resolution (60′′) version of these data. Figure 5 shows a total HI image of NGC 6946 down to column density levels of $`1.3\times 10^{19}`$ cm-2. To the west two small companion galaxies can be seen. The most intruiging feature is the faint whisp to the north-west of the main HI disk of NGC 6946. This faint HI extension can only be brought out at this resolution and appears to form a faint HI filament which blends smoothly (also kinematically) with the HI disk of NGC 6946 at a position some 11 (or 19 kpc) south of the tip of the filament. There is no detectable connection with the two companion galaxies farther to the west. The spatial and velocity structure of the object are so regular, yet only connected to the main HI disk at one side that we prefer an explanation in terms of a tidally stretched, infalling HI object. So yet another example of accretion of small amount of gas onto a large HI disk.

Similar examples, though much more massive in HI, are perhaps the filament discovered in NGC 2403 (Fraternali et al. 2002, 2003 and also this volume), a long HI filament in M 33 (van der Hulst, unpublished) and the extraplanar filaments in the northern part of the HI halo of NGC 891 (Fraternali et al., this volume).

## 3. Concluding remarks

We have shown three cases with strong evidence for the accretion of small amounts of HI. These will not be unique. Such faint features can only be seen in sensitive HI observations as the HI masses involved are rather modest. We therefore expect that with the increased sensitivity of modern synthesis radio telescopes, more examples will be discovered in the coming decade. There probably is a range of HI masses for these accretion events as is already apparent from the six cases mentioned here: NGC 891, NGC 2403, NGC 3359, NGC 4565, NGC 6946 and M 33.

The next question to ask is what the effect of accretion will be on the disk of the main galaxy. There may very well be a connection with the star formation activity in galaxies such as NGC 6946 and NGC 2403 and the evidence for gas infall. This then in turn can cause the observed phenomenon of gas outflows from the active disks as seen in these galaxies (Boomsma et al. and Fraternali et al. this volume). It is quite clear that future sensitive and detailed studies of the HI in nearby galaxies will provide a more complete census of the phenomena discussed in this paper and enable us to address these issues further and obtain more definitive answers.

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# Tunable Fano Resonances in Transport through Microwave Billiards

## Abstract

We present a tunable microwave scattering device that allows the controlled variation of Fano line shape parameters in transmission through quantum billiards. Transport in this device is nearly fully coherent. By comparison with quantum calculations, employing the modular recursive Green’s-function method, the scattering wave function and the degree of residual decoherence can be determined. The parametric variation of Fano line shapes in terms of interacting resonances is analyzed.

Asymmetric Fano line shapes are an ubiquitous feature of resonance scattering when (at least) two different pathways connecting the entrance with the exit channel exist. Fano resonances have been observed in a wide array of different subfields of physics starting with photoabsorption in atoms beut ; fano35 ; fano61 , electron and neutron scattering adair ; simpa63 , Raman scattering cer73 , photoabsorption in quantum well structures feist97 , scanning tunnel microscopy mad98 , and ballistic transport through quantum dots (“artificial atoms”) goeres00 ; noeckel94 ; rotter2 ; koba . Interest in observing and analyzing Fano profiles is driven by their high sensitivity to the details of the scattering process. For example, since Fano parameters reveal the presence and the nature of different (non) resonant pathways, they can be used to determine the degree of coherence in the scattering device. This is due to the fact that decoherence converts Fano resonances into the more familiar limiting case of a Breit-Wigner resonance. Furthermore, they provide detailed information on the interaction between nearby resonances leading to “avoided crossings” in the complex plane heiss91 ; burg95 , and to stabilization of discrete states in the continuum (“resonance trapping” ro ; rott ).
Exploiting the equivalence of the scalar Helmholtz equation for electromagnetic radiation in cavities with conducting walls and the Schrödinger equation subject to hard-wall boundary conditions stock , we have designed a scattering device (Fig. 1) that allows the controlled tuning of Fano resonances for transport through quantum billiards. The evolution of the Fano parameters as a function of the tuning parameter, in the present case the degree of opening of the leads, can be traced in unprecedented detail, since decoherence due to dissipation is kept at a low level. By comparison with calculations employing the modular recursive Green’s function (MRGM) rotter2 ; rotter , the parametric variation of Fano resonances on the degree of decoherence can be quantitatively accounted for. Furthermore the relevant pathways can be unambiguously identified in terms of wave functions representing the contributing scattering channels. Due to the equivalence between microwave transport and single-electron motion in two dimensions, our device also simulates ballistic electron scattering through a quantum dot. In contrast to recent investigations of mesoscopic dots and single-electron transistors goeres00 ; koba ; brems , where comparison between theory and experiment has remained on a mostly qualitative level, our model system allows for a detailed quantitative analysis of all features of tunable resonances.
Our microwave scattering device consists of two commercially available waveguides (height $`h`$=7.8 mm, width $`d`$=15.8 mm, length $`l`$=200 mm) which were attached both to the entrance and the exit side of a rectangular resonator (height $`H`$=7.8 mm, width $`D`$ = 39 mm, length $`L`$ = 176 mm). At the junctions to the cavity metallic diaphragms of different openings were inserted (Fig. 1). The microwaves with frequencies between 12.3 and 18.0 GHz, where two even transverse modes are excited in the cavity and one transverse mode in each of the leads, are coupled into the waveguide via an adaptor to ensure strong coupling.
The experimental results are compared with the predictions of the MRGM. We solve the $`S`$ matrix for the single particle Schrödinger equation for this ”quantum dot” by assuming a constant potential set equal to zero inside and infinitely high outside of a hard-wall boundary. At asymptotic distances, scattering boundary conditions are imposed in the leads. The coupling of the leads to the cavity of length $`L`$ can be varied by two diaphragms which are placed symmetrically at the two lead openings. The lead width $`d`$ and the width of the rectangular cavity $`D`$ determine how many flux-carrying modes are open at a certain energy $`\epsilon `$ in each of the three scattering regions (lead-cavity-lead). We consider in the following the range of wavenumbers where one flux-carrying mode is open in each of the leads, while the first and second even transverse modes are open inside the cavity, thus providing two alternative pathways of quantum transport. In order to further characterize the interfering paths, we decompose the transport across the cavity into a multiple scattering series involving three pieces wirt03 , each of which is characterized by a mode-to-mode transmission (reflection) amplitude or a propagator: (1) the transmission of the incoming flux from the left into the cavity, $`t^{(L)}`$, or reflection back into the lead, $`r^{(L)}`$, (2) the propagation inside the cavity from the left to the right, $`G^{(LR)}`$, or from the right to the left, $`G^{(RL)}`$, and (3) the transmission from the interior of the cavity to the right, $`t^{(R)}`$, or internal reflection at each of the two vertical cavity walls with amplitude $`r^{(R)}`$. For the Green’s functions (i.e. propagators) $`G^{(LR)}(x_R,x_L)`$ and $`G^{(RL)}(x_L,x_R)`$ we choose a mixed representation which is local in $`x`$, and employs a spectral sum over transverse modes, $`G^{(LR)}(x_R,x_L)=G^{(RL)}(x_L,x_R)=_n|n\mathrm{exp}(ik_n|x_Rx_L|)n|`$, where $`x_{R,L}`$ are the $`x`$-coordinates of the right (left) lead junction with $`|x_Rx_L|=L`$. The longitudinal momentum for each channel $`n`$ in the cavity is given by $`k_n=\sqrt{k^2(k_n^c)^2}`$, with the momentum $`k=\sqrt{2\epsilon }`$ and the threshold $`k`$-values $`k_n^c=n\pi /D`$. Decoherence due to dissipation of the microwave power in the cavity walls can be easily incorporated by analytically continuing $`k_n`$ into the complex plane, $`k_n=\sqrt{k^2(k_n^c)^2}+i\kappa `$. The quantitative analysis of Fano resonances for these systems can be used to accurately determine the degree of dissipation present. The multiple scattering expansion of the transmission amplitude $`T`$ is then given by

$`T(k)`$ $`=t^{(L)}G^{(LR)}\left\{{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}[r^{(R)}G^{(RL)}r^{(L)}G^{(LR)}]^n\right\}t^{(R)}=`$
$`=t^{(L)}G^{(LR)}\left[1r^{(R)}G^{(RL)}r^{(L)}G^{(LR)}\right]^1t^{(R)}.`$ (1)
The identification of the resonant and non-resonant pathways with help of Eq. (Tunable Fano Resonances in Transport through Microwave Billiards) is straightforward: due to the absence of inter-channel mixing in the rectangular (i.e. non-chaotic) cavity, the non-resonant contribution corresponds to the $`n=0`$ term of the sum describing direct transmission while the resonant contribution is made up by all multiple-bounce contributions $`(n1)`$. The various amplitudes entering Eq. (Tunable Fano Resonances in Transport through Microwave Billiards) can be parameterized in terms of four phases and two moduli kim01 : the modulus, $`s`$, of the reflection amplitude of the wave incoming in mode 1 and reflected into mode 1 at the left diaphragm,

$$r_{11}^{(L)}=se^{i\varphi _r},$$
(2)
and the modulus, $`p`$, of the partial injection amplitude of the incoming wave into the lowest mode of the cavity, corrected for the partially reflected flux,

$$t_{11}^{(L)}=t_{11}^{(R)}=p\sqrt{1s^2}e^{i\varphi _t^{(1)}}.$$
(3)
Because of the symmetry of the scattering device, the injection (ejection) amplitude at the left (right) side are equal. Accordingly, the injection amplitude into the second even mode of the cavity is given by

$$t_{12}^{(L)}=t_{21}^{(R)}=\sqrt{(1p^2)(1s^2)}e^{i\varphi _t^{(2)}}.$$
(4)
Analogous expressions can be deduced kim01  for the other partial amplitudes entering Eq. (Tunable Fano Resonances in Transport through Microwave Billiards). We omit a detailed analysis of the phases in Eqs. (2,3,4) since they do not explicitly enter our analysis in the following. The key observation in the present context is that the square module $`s^2`$ is monotonically decreasing in between the limiting values $`s^2=1`$ for zero diaphragm opening ($`w=0`$) and $`s^20`$ for fully open diaphragms ($`w=d`$). Inserting Eqs. (2,3,4) into Eq. (Tunable Fano Resonances in Transport through Microwave Billiards), a closed yet complicated expression for the transmission probability $`|T(\epsilon ,s)|`$ as a function of the energy $`\epsilon `$ and the opening parameter $`s`$ can be derived. Close to a given resonance $`\epsilon _i^R`$ this expression can be approximated by the Fano form fano61 ; kim01 ,

$$|T(\epsilon ,s)|^2\frac{|\epsilon \epsilon _i^R(s)+q_i(s)\mathrm{\Gamma }_i(s)/2|^2}{\left[\epsilon \epsilon _i^R(s)\right]^2+\left[\mathrm{\Gamma }_i(s)/2\right]^2},$$
(5)
where $`\epsilon _i^R(s)`$ is the position of the $`i`$-th resonance, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i(s)`$ its width, and $`q_i(s)`$ the complex Fano asymmetry parameter, all of which depend on $`s`$. Window resonances appear in the limit $`q0`$ while the Breit-Wigner limit is reached for $`|q|1`$. It should be noted that, in general, $`q`$ cannot be simply identified with the ratio of resonant to non-resonant coupling strength eich03 ; fried . Fig. 2 presents both the experimental and theoretical dependence of the transmission probability $`|T|^2`$ on $`k`$ (or $`\epsilon `$). In the measurement, the diaphragms were successively closed in steps of 1 mm. The data sets of Fig. 2 (a,b,c) represent the transmission probability for three different values of the opening of the diaphragms $`w=5.8,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}8.8},`$ and 15.8 mm, respectively. Note the remarkable degree of agreement between the measured and the calculated data without any adjustable parameter. In Fig. 2a where $`w/d0.37`$, transport is suppressed and mediated only by resonance scattering with narrow Breit-Wigner shapes centered at the eigenenergies of the closed billiard as indicated by the ticmarks. With increasing diaphragm opening (Fig. 2b) transport acquires a significant non-resonant contribution, leading to the widening and the overlap of resonances. Finally, for fully open leads (Fig. 2c), $`w/d=1`$ (or $`s0`$) resonances appear as narrow window resonances in a non-resonant continuum. The trajectory of the resonance parameter as a function of $`s`$ can be both experimentally and theoretically mapped out in considerable detail. Different types of resonances can be identified by their characteristically different resonance parameters. The evolution of the Fano parameter as a function of $`w/d`$ (or $`s`$) for one resonance is highlighted in Fig. 3. The transition from a narrow Breit-Wigner resonance via a somewhat wider asymmetric Fano profile to a window resonance is clearly observable. The good agreement with theory allows to accurately determine the degree of decoherence present in the experiment. As the Fano profile, in particular near its minimum, is very sensitive to any non-interfering incoherent background, we can determine an upper bound for the damping by comparison between experiment and theory to be $`\kappa 10^4`$. As illustrated in Fig. 3, even a slightly larger value of $`\kappa =10^3`$ would drastically deteriorate the agreement between experiment and theory. In line with the value $`\kappa =10^4`$, we obtain an imaginary part of the complex Fano parameter for systems without time-reversal symmetry brems  out of our fitting procedure as $`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{q}0.1`$. We note that by using superconducting cavities $`\kappa `$ could still be further reduced rich , however with little influence on the result, since we have already nearly reached the fully coherent limit.
Following the parametric evolution of a large number of resonances we find a characteristic pattern of Fano resonance parameters (Fig. 4). As example we show the evolution of the $`q`$-parameter as a function of the opening $`w/d`$. Obviously, two distinct subsets of resonances appear in the rectangular billiards: one set is characterized by a large and only weakly dependent asymmetry parameter $`q`$. A second set of resonances features a strongly varying $`q`$ (on the log-scale!) from large values near the Breit-Wigner limit to values close to $`q0`$ for wide opening, yielding a window resonance. At the same time, the width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ first increases with $`w/d`$ increasing from close to 0, then reaches a local maximum and finally decreases slightly when $`w/d1`$ (not shown). A similar non-monotonic behavior of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ was recently observed in a single-electron transistor experiment goeres00 . Such features can be understood in terms of avoided crossings in the complex plane heiss91 ; burg95  between interacting resonances. While the von Neumann-Wigner theorem neu29  for bound states predicts avoided crossings between states of the same symmetry and thus a non-monotonic variation of the eigenenergy, interacting resonances can also display avoided crossings on the imaginary axis heiss91 ; burg95 , i.e. exchange of the width of resonances and thus leading to a non-monotonic behavior of one of the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ involved. The two resonance poles approach each other in the complex energy plane and go through an avoided crossing as a function of the coupling parameter $`s`$. As a result of this “resonance trapping” effect, the larger resonance gets even larger for increasing $`s`$ and will form a background, on top of which the narrow resonance is situated ro .
For the present system, the interacting resonances can be completely characterized in terms of scattering wave functions that can be unambiguously determined theoretically (see inset Fig. 4). Resonances that undergo a complete evolution from Breit-Wigner resonances to a window resonance are all associated with the second even excited state in the cavity, while resonances that maintain their Breit-Wigner shape are connected to transport through the transverse ground state of the cavity. This mapping is controlled by the amplitude $`p`$ for transmission through the first transverse mode \[see Eqs. (3,4)\]. In the case that $`p^2>1/2`$ all resonances associated with the first mode are broader than the resonances associated with the excited state and vice versa for $`p^2<1/2`$. For geometric reasons the scattering device studied here (Fig. 1) always favors transport through the first cavity mode and therefore $`p^2>1/2`$. In this way we arrive at the remarkably simple result that all resonances associated with a first mode feature a weakly varying $`q`$, while all resonances associated with the second mode undergo the complete evolution from the Breit-Wigner to the window limit. This one-to-one mapping is supported by the data of Fig. 2, where only second-mode resonances (indicated by the long ticmarks) “survive” the transition of $`w/d1`$, while all first-mode resonances (short ticmarks) vanish in the background of the transmission spectrum. The present observation has far-reaching implications for other systems. By tracing the evolution of a given resonance as a function of a control parameter the nature of the resonant channel can be uniquely determined.
In summary, the rectangular microwave cavity attached to two leads allows to study the interplay between resonant and non-resonant transport in unprecedent detail. By controlled change of the opening, tuning a Fano resonance from the Breit-Wigner limit to the window resonance limit has become possible. Fano resonances can be used to accurately determine the degree of decoherence present in a scattering device. Non-monotonic behavior of resonance parameters can be related to avoided crossings between interacting resonances, which can be unambiguously associated with different resonant modes of the cavity. The latter feature is a consequence of the separability of the wave function in the closed cavity. Future investigations along these lines for non-separable chaotic cavities promise new insights into the resonance dynamics of open chaotic systems.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank D.-H. Kim, C. Müller, E. Persson, I. Rotter, C. Stampfer, and L. Wirtz for helpful discussions. Support by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF-SFB016) is gratefully acknowledged.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

It is well established that black holes behave like thermodynamical systems. In particular, at equilibrium, the various thermodynamical quantities, such as temperature and entropy, are determined in terms of mass, charge and angular momentum of the black hole. However, a direct derivation of these properties from first principles requires a detailed knowledge of the microscopic theory of black holes which is still poorly understood.

This is in contrast to finite temperature field theory which is a well studied and conceptually well defined problem (e.g. ). For a small perturbation, the process of thermalisation is described by linear response theory . The relaxation process is then completely determined by the poles, in the momentum space representation, of the retarded correlation function of the perturbation.

It turns out that these seemingly different phenomena in black hole physics and finite temperature quantum field theory may, in fact well be related to each other at a fundamental level. The idea that quantum field theory might provide a microscopic definition of quantum gravity is not new and has been explored, for instance in induced gravity and composite gravity models. However, the most concrete realisation of this idea is found in string theory which realises a very specific correspondence between gravity in anti- de Sitter space and quantum field theory in flat space,  (see  for a review). In this correspondence certain field theory correlators can be equivalently described by solving Green function equations in a dual gravitational background. This suggests that gravity may be interpreted as a masterfield for certain correlation functions in quantum field theory.

If we accept that this correspondence between gravity and quantum field theory also holds at finite temperature, this provides an effective tool to relate thermal properties of black holes and finite temperature quantum field theory. Although, in general, neither the field theory correlators, nor the Green functions in the corresponding gravity background are known explicitly, non-trivial information about thermalisation in quantum field theory can nevertheless be be obtained by studying small perturbations of a black hole away form equilibrium. Such perturbations are described by quasinormal modes . These oscillations are similar to normal modes of a closed system. However, since the perturbation can fall into the black hole or radiate to infinity the corresponding frequencies are complex. In the linear regime a given perturbation can be expressed in terms of a free field of mass $`m`$ and spin $`s`$ propagating in the black hole background. For instance in asymptotically flat space, a scalar perturbation $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ of mass $`m`$ satisfies the equation of motion

$$\left(^2m^2\right)\mathrm{\Phi }=0,$$
(1)
with ingoing and outgoing boundary conditions at the horizon and infinity respectively,

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=\{\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Phi }^{in}\hfill & r=r_S\hfill \\ \mathrm{\Phi }^{out}\hfill & r=\mathrm{}\hfill \\ .\hfill & \end{array}$$
(2)
In general there are no closed solutions to (1) but for the general discussion in this section the qualitative behaviour of the solutions will be sufficient. For asymptotically flat four dimensional geometries the time dependence of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is of the form

$$\mathrm{\Phi }\left(t\right)\{\begin{array}{cc}e^{i\omega t}\hfill & \text{small }t\hfill \\ t^\alpha \hfill & \text{large }t\hfill \\ ,\hfill & \end{array}$$
(3)
where $`\alpha =2l+3`$ depends on the angular momentum. The power law tail describes the scattering off the asymptotic $`1/r`$ potential while the exponential describes the ’quasinormal ringing’. The quasinormal frequencies $`\omega =\omega _R+i\omega _I`$ have a negative imaginary part proportional to the temperature of the black hole. In particular, in asymptotically flat space-time $`\omega _I`$ is independent of the perturbation thus encoding information about the black hole only.

For black holes in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space time the situation is different. The cosmological constant leads to a growing potential in the asymptotic region effectively acting as a confining box. On the other hand, perturbations can still fall into the black hole and correspondingly the oscillations are still damped. The corresponding frequencies can be determined by a variety of analytical and numerical methods111See  for further references . Via the gravity/quantum field theory correspondence described above quasinormal modes should have an interpretation in the corresponding quantum field theory. It has been suggested in  that the quasinormal frequencies provide the time scale for thermalisation of perturbations in the corresponding finite temperature field theory. As explained above, in quantum field theory this process is described by linear response theory. The precise connection has now been established for the case of anti-de Sitter black holes and will be described in section 2. In section 3 we then discuss the relation of quasinormal modes with the problem of unitarity.

## 2 Quasi normal modes and linear response theory

With the formulation of the AdS/CFT between (super) gravity on $`\left(d+1\right)`$-dimensional anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theory in $`d`$ dimensions the prospect of a quantitative interpretation of quasinormal modes of black holes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space became a reality. The boundary conditions for the quasinormal wave equation have to be such that the perturbation cannot escape to infinity. In particular, the power law tail is absent in anti-de Sitter space. Another modification with respect to the asymptotically flat space is the existence of an extra scale, the curvature radius $`\mathrm{}`$ of AdS space. However, for very massive black holes, $`r_S>>\mathrm{}`$, it is not hard to see  that the quasinormal frequencies are proportional to the temperature, $`T_H`$, of the black hole. The first few quasi normal frequencies where computed numerically in  for scalar perturbations of AdS-Schwarzschild black holes in four-, five- and seven dimensions (see also ) for further results and references). According to the AdS/CFT correspondence, the imaginary part of $`\omega `$ should have an interpretation as the time scale for the thermalisation of small perturbations in the dual conformal field theory. In quantum field theory this process is described using linear response theory : For a perturbation $`H_{pert}=J\left(x\right)𝒪\left(x\right)`$, the deviation of the expectation value $`𝒪`$ is then expressed in terms of the retarded correlation function $`G_R(tt^{},\underset{¯}{x}\underset{¯}{x}^{})`$ as

$$\delta 𝒪=𝑑t^{}d^{d1}x^{}G_R(tt^{},\underset{¯}{x}\underset{¯}{x}^{})J(t^{},\underset{¯}{x}^{}).$$
(4)
For simplicity we consider an instantaneous and homogenous perturbation $`J(x,t)=\delta \left(t\right)`$. One then finds

$$\delta 𝒪(x,t)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{d\omega }{2\pi }e^{i\omega t}\stackrel{~}{G}_R(\omega ,0)=i\underset{\omega _i:poles}{}\text{Res}\left(\stackrel{~}{G}_R\right)|_{\omega _i}e^{i\omega _it}.$$
(5)
Thus the quasinormal modes should correspond to the poles of the retarded Green function in the dual conformal field theory. That this should be so can also be seen directly from the AdS/CFT correspondence. Indeed, Keski-Vakkuri222See also .  argued that in Fourier space the retarded CFT two-point correlator for the operator $`𝒪`$ dual to a scalar field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ propagating in AdS is given by

$$\stackrel{~}{G}_R(\omega ,0)=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\left(\omega \right)}{\mathrm{\Phi }^+\left(\omega \right)},$$
(6)
with boundary conditions such that $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is ingoing at the horizon and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^\pm `$ are the asymptotically divergent and vanishing part of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ at infinity respectively. With this definition it is then clear that the poles of $`\stackrel{~}{G}_R`$ are given by the points $`\omega `$ for which $`\mathrm{\Phi }^+`$ vanishes. This, in turn is just the quasinormal mode boundary conditions333The precise boundary condition is that the current has to vanish at infinity  and thus the quasinormal frequencies are just the poles of the retarded correlation function of the dual operator. This correspondence can be tested explicitly in AdS3 since in this case the both, the quasi normal modes as well as the poles of the dual correlator can be calculated and compared explicitly. Since in the dual $`2`$-dimensional conformal field theory the left and right moving degrees of freedom decouple we expect that each sector has its own sequence of quasinormal modes. This is indeed the case and the two sets of quasinormal frequencies are given by

$`\omega _L`$ $`=`$ $`k4\pi iT_L\left(n+h_L\right),`$
$`\omega _R`$ $`=`$ $`k4\pi iT_R\left(n+h_R\right).`$ (7)
Here $`n=0,1,2,\mathrm{}`$ takes integer values, $`T_{L/R}`$ are the temperatures of the left and right moving sectors related to the Hawking temperature via $`\frac{1}{T_L}+\frac{1}{T_R}=\frac{1}{T_H}`$. Finally, $`h_{L/R}`$ are the conformal weights of the perturbation operators in the conformal field theory. These are related to the mass and spin of the perturbation of the AdS3-black hole by the usual relation  $`h_R+h_L=\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`h_Rh_L=\pm s`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=1+\sqrt{1+m^2}`$. This set of poles characterises the decay of the perturbation on the CFT side, and coincides precisely with the quasinormal frequencies of the BTZ black hole for perturbations of various mass and spin .

In dimensions bigger than two the conformal Ward-identities are not enough to determine the thermal $`2`$-point correlators exactly. However, the quasinormal modes can still be determined numerically thus allowing to extract non perturbative information about the resonances in strongly coupled, large $`N`$ conformal field theory at finite temperature. In particular, Núñez and Starinets  found that the quasinormal frequencies for scalar perturbations of AdS5-Schwarzschild black holes can be written in the form444This also holds for massless vector perturbations with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\mathrm{\Delta }_{}`$ and for massless gravitons .

$$\omega 2\pi T\left(n+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}\frac{1}{2}\right)\left(1i\right),n=0,1,2,\mathrm{}$$
(8)
which the provides a prediction for the poles of the retarded correlators of the dual operators in strongly coupled conformal field theory. It is interesting to compare this set of poles with the retarded $`2`$-point function of a free massless scalar field ($`\mathrm{\Delta }=1`$) in four dimensions. The poles of this correlator are located at $`\omega =2\pi iTn`$ which agrees with the imaginary part in (8). In particular the shift by $`\frac{1}{2}`$ in (8) is required by the periodicity of the finite temperature correlation function. The temperature dependent real part of the quasinormal frequencies on the other hand is a novel effect which should be interpreted as a feature of strongly coupled conformal field theory.

## 3 Finite Size Effects and Unitarity

So far we have assumed that the conformal field theory, dual to the AdS-black hole background lives in infinite volume. However, if the volume is finite we expect the thermalisation process to be qualitatively different on the field theory side. The question is then how this can be matched in the gravitational description. For concreteness let us consider the BTZ black hole which is locally AdS3 with curvature radius $`\mathrm{}`$. According to the AdS/CFT correspondence this background is dual to the world volume theory of a system of $`k=\frac{\mathrm{}}{8G_N}`$ parallel $`D1`$ and $`D5`$ branes. This theory can be interpreted as a gas of strings that wind around a circle of length $`L`$ with target space $`T^4`$. The individual strings can be simply or multiply wound such that the total winding number is $`k`$. In the large $`k`$ limit this theory undergoes a first order phase transition  at $`\beta _c=L`$. The low temperature phase consists of $`k`$ simply would strings while the high temperature phase is described by a single string wound $`k`$ times. This transition is mimicked on the gravity side by the Hawking-Page transition  between AdS-black hole at large temperature and thermal AdS at low temperature. Since the effective volume of the field theory is finite in the low temperature phase the energy spectrum is discrete and consequently the real time two point correlation function has poles on the real line in momentum space (e.g. ) corresponding to a (quasi) periodic function in real time. This is just a manifestation of the well known Poincaré recurrences which are in turn a consequence of the finite volume in phase space. On the gravity side, the poles on the real line are in $`11`$ correspondence with normal modes in thermal AdS

$`\omega =\pm {\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{L}}\left(n+h\right).`$ (9)
The Hawking-Page transition is thus a transition between oscillatory behaviour (normal modes) at low temperature and exponentially decaying behaviour (quasinormal modes) at high temperature.

The question is then what happens a finite $`k`$? One possibility is to approximate the full retarded correlator by the sum of the two dominant contributions at large $`k`$

$$𝒪(w,\overline{w})𝒪(w^{},\overline{w}^{})=e^{S_{\mathrm{BTZ}}}𝒪𝒪^{}_{\mathrm{BTZ}}+e^{S_{\mathrm{AdS}}}𝒪𝒪^{}_{\mathrm{AdS}},$$
(10)
up to a global normalisation. This implies a lower bound on the correlation which is required by unitarity. However, from the field theory point of view the volume of the field theory at finite $`k`$ is always finite since even multiply wrapped strings have finite length. One thus expects an oscillatory (quasi-periodic) behaviour for any temperature. This in turn is not compatible with the existence quasinormal modes which clearly imply an exponential decay of the retarded correlator. We can go some way to resolve this puzzle by recalling that at finite $`k`$ there cannot be a phase transition in any two dimensional conformal field theory. Consequently the field theory will always be in the low temperature phase no matter what temperature. On the CFT side the free energy can be determined exactly for any $`k`$  and one sees explicitly how the discontinuity arises at $`k=\mathrm{}`$. In the classical gravity approximation on the other hand one finds a Hawking-Page transition for any $`k`$. Thus, if the the AdS/CFT correspondence holds for any $`k`$, then the string corrections to the metric must remove the horizon. Ways to implement such corrections have been analysed for instance in555See also E. Rabnovic’s talk at this conference. .

## 4 Discussion

We have seen that quasinormal modes provide an effective and quantitative tool to explore thermalisation in large $`N`$ conformal field theory. In particular, the imaginary part of the quasinormal frequencies correspond to the poles of the retarded thermal correlation function of various field theory observables. On the other hand, for finite the strict $`N`$ quasinormal modes are in conflict with unitarity on the field theory side suggesting that black boles should be interpreted as as duals of strongly coupled CFT’s only in the strict $`N\mathrm{}`$ limit. An interesting question is whether the large $`N`$ approximation can still be used to obtain some quantitative information about the finite $`N`$ system for instance along the lines explored in .

Recently it has been suggested that the real part of the quasinormal frequencies may also have a quantitative interpretation in terms of the micro states of the quantised black hole, at least in asymptotically flat space. Concretely, for Schwarzschild black holes the asymptotic form of real part of $`\omega _n`$ approaches $`T_H\mathrm{ln}\left(3\right)`$, for $`n\mathrm{}`$. Using Bohr’s correspondence principle, Hod  suggested that energy levels of the quantised black hole should be given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=\frac{\mathrm{}}{8\pi M}\mathrm{ln}\left(3\right)`$ which mean that the area should be quantised as $`\mathrm{\Delta }A=4\mathrm{}_p^2\mathrm{ln}\left(3\right)`$. Comparing this quantitative relation with the loop quantum gravity prediction fixes the otherwise undetermined Immirzi parameter .

Acknowledgement I would like to thank D. Birmingham and S. Solodukhin for collaboration on some of the work reviewed in this talk as well as S. Theisen and V. Suneeta for helpful discussions. I would also like to extend my thanks to the organisers of the Ahrenshoop meeting for creating a productive and enjoyable environment.