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# On the magnetic accretor GK Persei in outburst

## 1 Introduction

The dwarf-nova outbursts of cataclysmic variables are thought to be caused by accretion-disc instabilities (e.g. Osaki 1996; Lasota 2001). In principle, such outbursts can still occur when the inner disc is truncated by the magnetic field of the white dwarf, as in the intermediate polar subclass (e.g. Angelini & Verbunt 1989). GK Per is an exemplar of this: its long, 2-d orbit and short, 351-s, white-dwarf spin period lead to a large disc surrounding a relatively small magnetosphere. Its outbursts, which last for $``$50 d and recur every $``$3 y (Simon 2002), can thus be modelled using a disc-instability code with the inner disc missing (Kim, Wheeler & Mineshige 1992; Yi et al. 1992).

Outbursts in some other intermediate polars may also be the result of disc instabilities, for example in XY Ari (Hellier, Mukai & Beardmore 1997), YY Dra (Szkody et al. 2002), HT Cam (Ishioka et al. 2002), and possibly EX Hya (Hellier et al. 2000). It is likely, though, that short-lived, low-amplitude ‘flares’ seen in TV Col and V1223 Sgr are caused by something else, such as mass-transfer events (Hellier & Buckley 1993).

Of the above systems, X-ray observations in outburst have been obtained for GK Per, XY Ari, YY Dra and EX Hya. Outburst observations of GK Per include EXOSAT coverage of its 1983 outburst (Watson, King & Osborne 1985), Ginga coverage of its 1989 outburst (Ishida et al. 1992), RXTE coverage of its 1996 outburst, and, most recently, Chandra, XMM-Newton and RXTE coverage of the 2002 outburst (Mauche 2003).

We report here on the RXTE observations of the 1996 outburst. In particular we address the issue of why the 351-s pulsation is strong and single-peaked in outburst (Watson et al. 1985) but much weaker and double-peaked in quiescence (Norton, Watson & King 1988; Ishida et al. 1992).

## 2 Observations and results

RXTE made five observations of the 1996 outburst of GK Per, lasting $``$ 9 h each, spaced over 41 d (see Fig. 1). We make use of the PCA data extracted from the top xenon layer of PCUs 0, 1 & 2 in the energy range 2–15 keV, and with the background estimated using pcabackest v2.1e.

The mean 2–15-keV flux in the 5 observations was 50 $`\pm `$ 8 $`\times 10^{11}`$ ergs s-1 cm-2; for comparison, Ishida et al. (1992) report that in Ginga observations of the 1989 outburst the 2–20-keV flux was 48 $`\pm `$ 17 $`\times 10^{11}`$ while the quiescent flux is much lower at 4.0 $`\pm `$ 0.4 $`\times 10^{11}`$ erg s-1 cm-2.

We show in Fig. 2 sections of lightcurve from the 1$`^{\text{st}}`$ and 5$`^{\text{th}}`$ observations. The 5$`^{\text{th}}`$ observation shows the single-peaked, quasi-sinusoidal modulation that is typical of intermediate polars. In contrast, the first observation shows a shallower, flat-topped modulation that is similar to the quiescent pulse recorded by Ishida et al. (1992), despite the count rate being already well above the quiescent level.

For further comparison we plot the folded pulse profiles of all 5 observations in Fig. 3, and their 6–10/2–5-keV hardness ratios in Fig. 4. Note that observations 3 and 4, nearest the peak of the outburst, have the highest hardness ratios. This can be seen from Fig. 4 where these observations are displaced upwards from equal spacing. Spectral analysis confirms that all the outburst spectra are heavily absorbed, requiring at least two partial-covering absorbers of densities $``$ 3$`\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2 and $``$ 2$`\times 10^{24}`$ cm-2. This was also reported by Ishida et al. (1992) during the 1989 outburst, and contrasts with typical quiescent absorption of only $``$ 1$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2.

Intermediate polar spectra typically show increased hardness in the minima of the spin pulses, owing to increased absorption, and this is seen in observations 2 to 5. In contrast, the first observation shows a more complex and shallower spectral change.

We have used the last 4 observations, which span 35 d, to measure the pulsation period (the first was omitted owing to the different pulse shape). From these we find a period of 351.335 $`\pm `$ 0.002 s, where the error makes no allowance for possible changes in pulse profile. This result is in line with Mauche’s (2003) re-assessment of GK Per’s period change over that originally proposed by Patterson (1991).

## 3 The 5000-s QPOs

In the EXOSAT observations of the 1983 outburst Watson et al. (1985) reported modulations of the X-ray flux which had a strong amplitude of up to a factor 2–3, and a quasi-periodic timescale of $``$5000 s. Hellier & Livio (1994) proposed that they were caused by bulges in the inner disc, orbiting with the local Keplerian timescale of 5000 s, as might arise from an overflowing stream reimpacting the disc. These bulges would periodically obscure the line of sight to the X-ray emission, causing absorption dips. The dips are deeper at lower energies, in keeping with this idea.

Morales-Rueda, Still & Roche (1999) analysed optical spectroscopy of the 1996 outburst and found the same 5000-s QPOs in the emission-line profiles. They proposed an alternative model in which blobs at the inner disc edge orbit with a period of either 320 or 380 s. These would cause enhanced flow to the accretion curtains and hence enhanced absorption whenever a blob lined up with the magnetic dipole, thus producing a modulation at the 5000-s beat period between the blob orbits and the 351-s spin period.

While this idea adequately explains the optical data analysed by Morales-Rueda et al. (1999), it is less able to explain the X-ray behaviour. For example, the extra absorption would not occur when the blob-fed curtain was on the far side of the white dwarf, as it would be for half of each spin cycle. Indeed, one might expect the extra accretion flow of a blob-fed curtain to result in enhanced flux for these spin phases. The observations, though, show that the extra absorption of the QPO occurs throughout the spin cycle, reducing the flux at all spin phases (see Watson et al. 1985 and Hellier & Livio 1994). For this reason we prefer models in which the structures causing the dips are circling at the 5000-s quasi-periodicity.

More recently, Warner & Woudt (2002) have proposed a new understanding of the QPOs and dwarf-nova oscillations (DNOs) seen in cataclysmic variables. They associate DNOs with a magnetospheric rotation period and suggest that QPOs are caused by slow-moving prograde waves at the inner edge of the disc. Warner, Woudt & Pretorius (2003) show that a relation $`P_{\mathrm{QPO}}/P_{\mathrm{spin}}15`$ fits many observations in cataclysmic variables and X-ray binaries; GK Per obeys this relation with $`P_{\mathrm{QPO}}/P_{\mathrm{spin}}5000/35114`$.

Given this, we retain Hellier & Livio’s (1994) proposal that GK Per’s QPOs are dipping behaviour caused by bulges moving at $``$5000 s, but now regard Warner & Woudt’s (2002) explanation of the bulges as slow, prograde travelling waves as the most promising.

Morales-Rueda et al. (1999) observed that the emission-line QPOs were predominantly blueshifted, and suggested that this argues against a model in which structure moves at 5000 s. However, it is plausible that the waves have a leading-edge/trailing-edge asymmetry in emissivity, which would explain the Morales-Rueda et al. result.

The relevance to this paper is that optical observations by Morales-Rueda et al. (1999) and Nogami, Kato & Baba (2002) show that the QPOs were present during the 1996 outburst discussed here. (We have attempted to detect them in the RXTE data, but the search was inconclusive since the data are broken up by RXTE’s orbit on the very similar timescale of 6000 s.) Their existence shows that GK Per has a sufficiently high inclination that, at least during outburst, bulges of material at the inner disc edge are capable of obscuring the line of sight to the white dwarf and reducing the flux by factors of 2–3. This is important for the discussion on the origin of the spin pulse.

## 4 Comparison with XY Ari: hiding the lower pole?

Like GK Per, XY Ari shows a low-amplitude, non-sinusoidal pulse in quiescence. This most likely results from minor asymmetries between two accreting poles, so that the disappearance of one as the white dwarf spins is not entirely balanced by the appearance of the other.

In outburst, XY Ari’s pulse changed to a very deep, quasi-sinusoidal modulation. The minima were not accompanied by increased hardness suggesting that absorption played no role. Noting that XY Ari was deeply eclipsing and thus at a very high inclination, Hellier et al. (1997), suggested that the inner disc had pushed inwards during outburst, cutting off the line of sight to the lower accreting pole. Thus we saw only the upper pole, and this passed from the visible face to the far side and back as the white dwarf rotated, producing a near-total modulation.

GK Per’s pulse also changes from low-amplitude and non-sinusoidal in quiescence to deep and sinusoidal in outburst (Fig. 3). It is thus natural to ask whether the same effect is occurring. An immediate counter is that, unlike in XY Ari, GK Per’s outburst pulse is energy dependent and caused primarily by an increase in absorption at spin minimum. Thus the model cannot apply straightforwardly.

Nevertheless, let us consider whether the system parameters are compatible with hiding the lower pole in outburst. We assume a 1-M white dwarf (see Morales-Rueda et al. 2002), which, with a 351-s spin pulse, produces a magnetosphere of $``$10 $`R_{\mathrm{wd}}`$, assuming that it corotates with a Keplerian inner disc. There are arguments for a much larger magnetosphere, based on spectra and modelling the outbursts (e.g. Kim et al. 1992), but the presence of pulsed X-rays in quiescence implies that accretion is not centrifugally prohibited, so we place the inner disc edge at the corotation radius.

A linear scaling with optical and X-ray brightness would suggest that the accretion rate rises by a factor $``$10 during outburst. However, this is not in accord with disc-instability models of the outburst, and Kim et al. (1992) and Yi et al. (1992) argue that the accretion rate rises by a factor $``$100–1000, with the X-rays being supressed by opacity. The standard scaling of disc radius with accretion rate ($`r\dot{m}^{2/7}`$) then implies that the inner disc radius decreases by a factor of between 4 and 7 (we show an illustrative reduction by a factor 4 in Fig. 5). The system inclination is within the range 50–73 (Morales-Rueda et al. 2002).

The above ranges are not tight enough to tell us whether the bottom of the white dwarf is hidden by the disc in outburst (particularly given the uncertainty in the disc thickness), but allow both possibilities. We thus turn to considering the observations.

The high amplitude of the 5000-s QPOs (reductions in X-ray flux by factors up to 2–3) imply that bulges near the inner-disc edge obscure the upper accretion pole, and are thus of a height above the disc plane comparable to the white-dwarf radius. This is reinforced by the observation of very high absorption (1024 cm-2) at all times during outburst. Given the inclination range of 50–73, and the likely inner disc radius of $`<`$ 3 $`R_{\mathrm{wd}}`$, such material would likely hide the lower pole continually.

Note, however, that we don’t see episodes of near-zero flux each spin cycle, which we do in XY Ari when the upper pole swings round to the hidden face of the white dwarf. This implies either that the lower pole is visible at phases when the upper pole disappears, or that accretion regions at the upper pole are visible at all spin phases. The latter is, at first sight, implausible for the above inclination range. The small magnetosphere during outburst implies accretion regions far from the poles ($`>`$ 35 magnetic co-latitude for $`r_{\mathrm{mag}}`$$`<`$ 3$`R_{\mathrm{wd}}`$), which, added to any dipole offset from the spin axis, will likely exceed the $`90^{}`$$``$$`i`$ polecap region that is always visible.

So can we reconcile these conflicting indicators? We suggest that, in outburst, the accretion flow overwhelms the magnetosphere sufficiently that accretion flows to the poles from all azimuths (whereas, in quiescence, each pole would be fed from a restricted azimuthal range), and thus falls at all magnetic longitudes. Hence accretion at the upper pole would always be visible. There is evidence from eclipse timings that exactly this occurs at the peak of the outburst in XY Ari (Hellier et al. 1997). If the above is correct, it suggests that the angle between the spin and magnetic axes is relatively small.

## 5 The change in the spin pulse

The fact that the pulse profile in GK Per is largely an absorption dip, and not the near-total, energy-independent modulation seen in XY Ari in outburst, implies that simply hiding the lower pole does not explain the change in pulse profile between quiescence and outburst. We are thus left to explain the fact that (1) in outburst GK Per shows a ‘typical’ pulsation with a quasi-sinusoidal profile resulting from a broad absorption dip, and (2) the absorption dip is much reduced in quiescence leaving a more-complex, lower-amplitude modulation.

We suggest that the change results straightforwardly from a combination of three factors. First, the increase in accretion rate by a factor $``$100–1000 will increase the column density of the accretion curtains. Second, the marked shrinking of the accretion curtains in outburst (see Fig. 5) will force the increased flow through a much smaller circumference and thus a much smaller area, further increasing the column density. Third, as illustrated in Fig. 5, the change in geometry can easily result in the line-of-sight to the accretion regions taking a more grazing path through the accretion curtains, thus increasing the line-of-sight column yet further. Such effects can explain why we observe a phase-varying column as high as 2$`\times 10^{24}`$ cm-2 in outburst, whereas the quiescent spin pulse is modelled by phase-varying absorption of only 6$`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 (Ishida et al. 1992).

Thus, in outburst, the effect of intense absorption dominates the pulse profile, whereas in quiescence the much weaker absorption, from tenuous accretion curtains much further from the white dwarf, is less significant than other factors, such as an asymmetry between the two poles.

## 6 Conclusions

(1) X-ray QPOs are caused by bulges at the inner disc edge, travelling at a 5000-s period. They likely correspond to the travelling waves discussed by Warner & Woudt (2002). The bulges are at a height above the disc plane comparable to the white-dwarf radius.

(2) We suggest that the X-ray QPOs are not seen in quiescence owing to the inner disc being much further out, so that the bulges do not obscure the white dwarf.

(3) During outburst, accretion occurs from all azimuths, forming a complete accretion ring at the poles. The lower pole is likely hidden.

(4) The pulse profile changes in outburst to become dominated by absorption; this results from the greater accretion flow, the smaller accretion-curtain area, and the change in how the line-of-sight passes through the curtains.

(5) Measurement of the 351-s spin period confirms the period change reported by Mauche (2003).

## Acknowledgments

We thank Janet Mattei and the many observers who contribute to the AAVSO for compiling and supplying visual observations of GK Per’s outburst.


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# Multiple filamentation induced by input-beam ellipticity

## Abstract

The standard explanation for multiple filamentation (MF) of intense laser beams has been that it is initiated by input beam noise (modulational instability). In this study we provide the first experimental evidence that MF can also be induced by input beam ellipticity. Unlike noise-induced beam breakup, the MF pattern induced by ellipticity is reproducible shot to shot. Moreover, our experiments show that ellipticity can dominate the effect of noise, thus providing the first experimental methodology for controlling the MF pattern of noisy beams. The results are explained using a theoretical model and simulations.

The propagation of high-power ultrashort pulses through the atmosphere is currently one of the most active areas of research in nonlinear optics, with potential applications such as remote sensing of the atmosphere and lightning control applications . In experiments, narrow filaments of typical width of 100$`\mu m`$ have been observed to propagate over distances of hundreds of meters, i.e., over many Rayleigh lengths. The stability of a single filament over such long distances is nowadays known to be the result of the dynamic balance between the focusing Kerr nonlinearity, diffraction and the defocusing effect of plasma formation due to multiphoton ionization. The initial stage of propagation during which filaments are formed, however, is much less understood. In particular, since in these experiments the laser power is many times the critical power for self-focusing, a single input beam typically breaks-up into several long and narrow filaments, a phenomenon known as multiple filamentation (MF). Since MF involves a complete breakup of the beam cylindrical symmetry, it has to be initiated by a symmetry-breaking mechanism. The standard explanation for MF in the Literature has been that it is initiated by input beam noise Bespalov-66 , see also Ref. Berge  for a review. Since noise is, by definition, random, this implied that the MF pattern would be different from shot to shot, i.e., the number and location of the filaments is unpredictable. This constitutes a serious drawback in applications where precise localization is crucial (e.g., laser eye surgery) or in experiments where one wants to measure the filament properties (power, transverse profile, etc.) after some propagation distance. Unfortunately, noise is always present in such high-power lasers, and is not easy to eliminate to a degree that will lead to a deterministic MF pattern.

Recently it was predicted theoretically that input beam ellipticity can also lead to MF circular . In this case the MF pattern is deterministic, i.e., reproducible from shot to shot. In this study we provide the first experimental evidence that input beam ellipticity can indeed induce a deterministic MF pattern. Moreover, although a certain amount of noise is present in our beam, we observe that the MF pattern is nearly identical from shot to shot. This shows that sufficiently large ellipticity can dominate noise in the determination of the MF pattern. In other words, rather then trying to eliminate noise, one can control the MF pattern by adding sufficiently large ellipticity to a noisy input beam.

Most recent experimental studies of MF of intense laser beams have been performed in connection with atmospheric propagation Mlejnek ; Schwarz ; Tzortzakis ; Chin . Despite some important differences (nonlinear response, dispersion, etc.) between gases and condensed media, it is expected that the physical processes leading to MF are very similar in both cases. Indeed, some of the present authors have recently demonstrated self-guided propagation of femtosecond light pulses in water for distances exceeding several Rayleigh lengths Dubietis-03 . In the experiments reported in this study, we increase the incident beam power and modify its spatial parameters, resulting in MF in water.

A 170-fs, 527-nm pulse was provided by second-harmonic compressed Nd:glass laser system (TWINKLE, Light Conversion Ltd., Lithuania) operated at 33 Hz repetition rate. Spatially filtered beam was focused into $`85\mu `$m FWHM beam waist at the entrance of water cell by means of f=+500 mm lens. Incident energy was varied by means of a half-wave plate and a polarizer. The focused beam has a small intrinsic ellipticity, which was evaluated as a parameter e=a/b=1.09. Highly elliptical beam (e=2.2) was formed by inserting slightly off-axis iris into the beam path. The output face of the water cell was imaged onto the CCD camera (Pulnix TM-6CN and frame grabber from Spiricon, Inc., Logan, Utah) with 7$`\times `$ magnification by means of an achromatic objective (f=+50 mm).

In the first series of experiments we recorded transverse distribution patterns at fixed propagation length z=31 mm ($`0.7L_{DF}`$, $`L_{DF}=nk_0r_0/2`$) as we increased the incident power, see Fig. 1. Two cases were examined; a near-circular input beam (e=1.09) and an elliptic beam (e=2.2). Several important conclusions can be drawn: 1) The threshold power for MF is much less for the elliptic beam, 2) The number of filaments increases with input power, 3) At power levels moderately above the threshold for MF, in addition to the central filament, there are two filaments along the major axis of the ellipse. At higher powers there are additional filaments in the perpendicular direction. At even higher powers (P=23$`P_{cr}`$) one can observe a quadruple of filaments along the bisectors of the major and minor axes. 4) MF starts as nucleation of an annular ring, which contains the power that was not trapped in the central filament (this is more evident for e=1.09). 5) Since the MF patterns shown in Fig. 1 were reproducible from shot to shot, they were not induced by random noise. 6) Investigation of dynamics of the MF structure (data not presented here) showed that it is robust in terms of propagation, i.e., after an initial transient each of the filaments propagates as an independent entity.

In Fig. 1 we observe that the side filaments are always pairs located symmetrically along the major and/or minor axis, and/or quadruples located symmetrically along the bisectors of the major and minor axes. This observation can be explained based on the following symmetry argument. Consider an elliptic input beam of the form $`E_0(x,y,t)=F(x^2/a^2+y^2/b^2,t)`$. Since the medium is isotropic, the electric field E should be symmetric with respect to the transformation $`xx`$ and $`yy`$. Therefore, if the filamentation pattern is induced by input beam ellipticity, it can only consist of a combination of 1) a single on-axis central filament, 2) pairs of identical filaments located along the ellipse major axis at $`(\pm x,0)`$, 3) pairs of identical filaments located along the minor axis at $`(0,\pm y)`$, and 4) quadruples of identical filaments located at $`(\pm x,\pm y)`$.

Whereas ellipticity decreases the threshold power for MF, it increases the threshold power for the formation of a single filament. Indeed, the threshold for observing a single filament at z=31 mm were 6$`P_{cr}`$ and 4.9$`P_{cr}`$ for the elliptic and the near-circular beams, respectively. This $`20\%`$ increase is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the increase in the threshold power for collapse (of cw beams) due to beam ellipticity elliptic-00 .

In the experiment shown in Fig. 2 we produced two input beams with the same ellipticity parameter (e=2.2), but with different orientations in the transverse plane. In both cases we observe that the beam is elliptic and still focusing at P=5$`P_{cr}`$, a single central filament at P=7$`P_{cr}`$, an additional pair of comparable-power secondary filaments along the major axis of the ellipse at P=10$`P_{cr}`$, and a second pair of weaker filaments in the perpendicular direction at P=14$`P_{cr}`$. The rotation of the filamentation pattern with the ellipse rotation thus confirms that the MF in these experiments is indeed induced by the intrinsic beam ellipticity.

We recall that it was recently shown that polarization effects could also lead to reproducible MF pattern polarization . In that case, however, the orientation of the filamentation pattern is determined by the direction of linear polarization. To check that, we changed the direction of linear polarization of the incident beam and verified that it has no effect on the orientation of the MF pattern. Indeed, polarization effects are important only when the radius of a single filament becomes comparable with the wavelength. This is not the case in our experiments, as the FWHM diameter of a single filament is $`20\mu m`$.

In our simulations we used a simpler model of propagation of cw beams in a medium with a saturable nonlinearity, i.e.,

$`iA_z(z,x,y)+\mathrm{\Delta }A+{\displaystyle \frac{|A|^2}{1+ϵ_{sat}|A|^2}}A=0,`$
$`A(0,x,y)=ce^{x^2/e^2y^2}.`$
This model is considerably simpler than the physics governing propagation of intense ultrashort pulses in water. Nevertheless, numerical simulations of equation (Multiple filamentation induced by input-beam ellipticity) reproduced the same qualitative features observed experimentally. For example, in Fig. 3(a) the MF pattern consists of a strong central filament, a pair of filaments along the minor axis, and a second pair of weaker filaments along the major axis. In Fig. 3(b) the MF pattern consists of a central filament, a quadruple of filaments along the lines $`y=\pm 0.37x`$, and a pair of very weak filaments along the major axis. These simulations, therefore, suggest that MF induced by ellipticity is a generic phenomenon that does not depend on the specific optical properties of the medium (air, water, silica, etc.) or on pulse duration.

In conclusion, we have demonstrated for the first time that input beam ellipticity can lead to MF. Unlike noise-induced MF, the filamentation pattern is reproducible and consists only of a central filament and/or pairs of identical filaments lying along the major and/or minor axes of the ellipse, and/or quadruples of identical filaments along the bisectors of the major and minor axes. The effect of ellipticity on MF seems to be generic, i.e., independent of the optical properties of the medium. Since a certain amount of astigmatism is always present in experimental setups, this observation may explain previous MF experiments, in which the filamentation pattern was reproducible. In addition, this study shows that one can overcome the random nature of noise and control the MF pattern simply by adding large ellipticity to the input beam.


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# Minority mechanisms in models of agents learning collectively a resource level

## Abstract

Starting from the Minority Game and building more and more sophisticated models of adaptive agents, we show that minority mechanisms underly any model where agents learn collectively a resource level that can be either obvious and constant in time, obvious and time-varying, or hidden.

Six years after its introduction, the Minority Game  is understood as a model of competition for limited resource. Many extensions of the original model have been introduced . remarkably, most of them contain a phenomenology which, while being partly idiosyncratic, has close similarities with that of the original MG. This is also true of models which relax the symmetry between the two choices, such as the El Farol bar problem  and an asset pricing model . This also suggests that the original MG belongs to a broader class of models. For instance, the minority game (MG) was introduced as a simplified, binary version of the El Farol Bar problem (EFBP) . Extending methods and results for the MG allowed recently the understanding of the EFBP . This raises two questions: what is these class of models, and how far can the methods used for the MG be extended to more general models.

Let us start from the MG, which is defined as follows: there are two choices, labelled by $`1`$ and $`+1`$; at each time step, agent $`i`$ ($`i=1,\mathrm{},N`$) takes the choice $`a_i(t)`$. Then he receives the payoff

$$a_i(t)A(t)$$
(1)
where $`A=_{i=1}^Na_i(t)`$ is the aggregate outcome. He is therefore rewarded if he happened to be in the minority. The structure of a minority payoff is clearly made up of a $``$ sign and a product of the individual action and the aggregate action. When the agent possess strategies and associated cumulated scores, they are able to learn and adapt to their environment (see the original paper . Many interesting issues and very rich behaviour were studied extensively in the past, and we shall refer the interested reader to previous work .

In the MG, the number of winners is at most $`N/2`$, which fixes the resource level $`L`$ at $`N/2`$. There is a priori no reason why $`L`$ should be fixed to $`N/2`$, except symmetry and simplicity. But a game with $`LN/2`$ cannot reasonably be called a minority game: it is rather closer to an El Farol Bar problem. On the other hand, it is rather obvious that a common and essential mechanism is at work whatever $`L`$, which is called a minority mechanism in the following. Recognizing this allows the extension of the extensive literature on the MG to such games.

The El Farol bar makes $`N=100`$ agents compete for $`L=60`$ seats. The economics literature has tried for many years now to try to understand why the average number of adaptive agents in the bar fluctuates around the resource level . In this problem, the (linear) payoff of agent $`i`$ is

$$a_i(t)[A(t)K]$$
(2)
where $`K=|N2L|`$. The average attendance is equal to the resource level if $`A=K`$. In the MG, $`K=0`$, $`A=0`$ by construction. It turns out that $`A=K`$ provided that the strategy space is ‘consistent’111More precisely, a strategy space is consistent if $`Na_a=K`$ where $`a_a`$ denotes the average decision over the strategy space. See Ref.  for more details., which is the case in Arthur’s paper. Therefore, EFB is rigorously equivalent to MG. As a consequence, all the MG literature’s analysis of fluctuations and predictability in the MG applies directly to the EFBP. Reversely, this explains why the phenomenology of the asset model  is remarkably similar to that of the MG: in this model, $`N`$ agents try to discover the true value of an asset by buying and selling it, having only incomplete information. On the other hand, this result also implies that that a game with $`K0`$ (or $`LN/2`$) where the agents have binary strategies drawn in a non-biased way is not equivalent to a EFBP; accordingly, these models tend actually to study the by-products of strategy inconsistency whose effect is particularly dramatic with binary strategies.

This makes it possible to compute the phase diagram of the EFBP when the agents based their decisions on previous $`M`$ (binary) attendances, as in the original EFPB: for perfect strategy consistency (the $`\gamma =0`$ vertical line in Fig 1), $`A=K`$. This plot illustrate the subtlety of the convergence of the attendance to the resource level: when $`N`$ is small compared with $`P`$ (upper part of the plot), a infinitesimal strategy inconsistency is enough to take $`A`$ away from $`K`$. On the other hand, then $`N`$ is large enough, there is a region such that $`A=K`$. It is however bounded: if $`\gamma >1/\sqrt{\pi }`$, no matter how many agents are in the game, the attendance never converges to the resource level.

The resource level $`L`$ can also vary in time. Instead of designing an ad hoc mechanism that changes $`L`$ according to some rule, be it deterministic or stochastic, but arbitrary nonetheless, let us consider commodity markets, or equivalently global ultimatum games  that perfectly show how minority mechanisms emerge when a group of players learn collectively a resource level. In a standard ultimatum game , some generous but perverse donor proposes 1$ to player 1, to be shared with player 2, provided that player 2 accepts the share offered by player 1. Rationality dictates that player 2 should accept any proposal, because otherwise he does not receive anything at all. But experiences show that a human player is not likely to propose, nor to accept an arbitrarily low proposal of player $`i`$, as they are not perceived as fair . Mathematically, player 1 proposes $`a`$ and player 2 expects at least $`b`$. Then player 1’s payoff is

$$(1a)\mathrm{\Theta }(ab)$$
(3)
and the one of player 2 is

$$a\mathrm{\Theta }(ab)$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }(x)=1`$ if $`x>0`$ and $`0`$ otherwise. Suppose now that there is a group of $`N_A`$ people who have to share $`N_A`$$ and a group of $`N_B`$ people who each expect to have a given amount of money. Mathematically, player $`i`$ of group $`A`$ offers $`a_i`$, while player $`j`$ of group $`B`$ expects at least $`b_j`$. The offers and expectations are grouped into

$$A=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_A}{}}a_i\text{ and }B=\underset{j=1}{\overset{N_B}{}}b_j.$$
(5)
Then a transaction takes place if $`A>B`$. In that case, player $`i`$ of group $`A`$ receives $`a_i(N_AA)/N_A`$, and player $`j`$ of group $`B`$ receives $`b_iB/N_B`$. Consider the very likely situation where $`AB`$. Two types of player can be distinguished: those who want to see $`A`$ and $`B`$ converge, and those who try to make them diverge. The nice players of group $`A`$ have therefore a payoff that rewards small $`a`$ if $`A>B`$ and large $`a`$ if $`A<B`$; conversely for group-$`B`$ players, for instance, player $`i`$ of group $`A`$ rewards decision $`a_i`$ according to

$$(1a_i)\mathrm{\Theta }(AB)+a_i(1\mathrm{\Theta }(AB))=a_i[12\mathrm{\Theta }(AB)]+\mathrm{\Theta }(AB)$$
(6)
Linearising this payoff gives $`a_i(AB)+(AB)`$. Now, if player $`i`$ has $`S>1`$ strategies $`a_{i,1},\mathrm{},a_{i,S}`$, he will use them according to the difference between their cumulated payoffs. We can therefore drop the last term $`(AB)`$; we conclude that strategies are rewarded according to

$$a_{i,s}(AB)s=1,\mathrm{},S$$
(7)
Similarly, player $`j`$ of group $`B`$ rewards his strategies with $`b_{i,s}(BA)`$. This is nothing else than a minority mechanism with resource level $`B`$ (see Eq (2)). Therefore, $`B`$ is the resource level of the $`A`$ group, and $`A`$ is the resource level of the $`B`$ group: commodity markets are two coupled minority games, whose resource levels vary in time. The fact that each group plays internally a minority game means that the players of a given group compete with each other. For instance, in group $`A`$, each agent has incentive to lower his offer, hoping that his fellows will be generous enough to ensure that $`A>B`$. But if his fellows offer too little, he has better to offer more. Exact results of EFPB are readily extended to models with this kind of payoff.

A final example of well hidden minority mechanism is provided by credit risk models where $`N`$ banks have lent money to a given company . The dynamics of the wealth $`W`$ of the latter is assumed to evolve according to

$$\frac{W(t+1)}{W(t)}=1+\mathrm{\Delta }(t)\frac{B(t)}{W(t)}$$
(8)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$ is the difference of relative wealth due to the activity of the company222It is often assumed to be a Gaussian variable of average $`\mu `$ and variance $`\sigma `$ for the sake of simplicity. and $`B(t)`$ is the cost of the company’s debt. More precisely, if bank $`i`$ lent $`c_i`$ and asks an interest rate of $`r_i(t)`$, $`B(t)=_{i=1}^Nc_ir_i(t)`$. This type of equation is used in structure models of credit where the company is assumed to default if $`W`$ falls below a given threshold . Although the major problem with this approach is obviously that $`W`$ is not observable, we shall let aside such considerations, as our point here is to show the existence of a minority mechanism. Assume that each bank has full liberty to fix its own interest rate. How should it react to bad news ($`W<0`$)? A decrease in the wealth means that the company is more likely to default in the future, hence the banks usually tend to increase their interest rate. But doing so, they also increase the risk of default. Reversely, if a bank decreases its interest rate when $`W`$ decreases and increases it when $`W`$ increases, it rewards interest rate $`r_i`$ according to

$$r_i\frac{W(t+1)W(t)}{W(t)}=b_i\mathrm{\Delta }(t)\frac{r_i_{j=1}^Nr_j(t)c_j}{W(t)}$$
(9)
The term $`r_i_jr_ic_j`$ reveals a minority mechanism; conversely, usual banks play a majority game. The resource level is implicitly fixed by the condition of zero average wealth change $`\mathrm{\Delta }W=_ir_ic_i`$. This means that as long as the players can learn this resource level, $`W`$ will oscillate around an average value. As a consequence, the company is not likely to go bankrupt, but cannot grow either: minority players are good for the company when it does badly, but bad when it does relatively well; when the company does very well, that is, when $`\mathrm{\Delta }W_ir_ic_i`$, the minority-player banks ask for the maximum rate, but credit repayment has a negligible importance, hence the company can grow. The competition between minority players is of the same kind as in commodity markets: for them, it is tempting to ask for a larger interest rate and hope that other banks ask for a small rate; on the other hand, if many banks ask for too high a rate, some others have to lower their rate else the risk of default is too high.

In conclusion, reviewing more and more complex situations with adaptive agents leads to the conclusion that minority mechanisms are found when some agents learn collectively a resource level, hidden or obvious, constant in time or not, going beyond the usual belief that minority games capture only competition for a scarce resource. Adaptive agents act so as to cancel the average payoff, which defines the resource level implicitly, and leads to a mean-reverting process. Although exact analytical methods used for the standard minority game can be extended to many simple extensions of the MG, how far this can be done is an open question.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1  Introduction

The decay $`K\mu \nu \pi ^0`$(Kμ3) provides unique information about the dynamics of the strong interactions. It has been a testing ground for such theories as current algebra, PCAC, Chiral Perturbation Theory(ChPT). In this paper we present a high-statistics measurement ($``$ 537K events) of the Dalitz plot density in this decay. This study has a particular interest in view of new two-loop order ($`p^6`$) calculations for Kl3 in ChPT .

The Kμ3 decay is also known to be a key one in hunting for phenomena beyond the Standard Model (SM). In particular, significant efforts have been invested into T-violation searches, by the measurements of the muon transverse polarization $`\sigma _T`$ , as well as into searches for the non-SM contributions into the decay amplitude .

In our analysis we present new search for scalar (S) and tensor (T) interactions by fitting the $`K_{\mu 3}`$ Dalitz plot distribution, similar to the procedure used in the $`K_{e3}`$ decay studies.

## 2  Experimental setup

The experiment has been performed at the IHEP 70 GeV proton synchrotron U-70. The experimental setup ”ISTRA+” (Fig.1) was described in some details in our paper .

The setup is located in a negative unseparated secondary beam. The beam momentum is $`25`$ GeV with $`\mathrm{\Delta }p/p1.5\%`$. The admixture of $`K^{}`$ in the beam is $`3\%`$. The beam intensity is $`310^6`$ per 1.9 sec. of the U-70 spill. The beam particles are deflected by the beam magnet M1 and are measured by $`BPC_1÷BPC_4`$ proportional chambers with 1 mm wire spacing. The kaon identification is performed by $`\stackrel{ˇ}{C_0}÷\stackrel{ˇ}{C_2}`$ threshold $`\stackrel{ˇ}{C}`$-counters.

The 9 meter long vacuumed decay volume is surrounded by 8 lead-glass rings $`LG_1÷LG_8`$ which are used as the veto system for low energy photons. The photons radiated at large angles are detected by the lead-glass calorimeter $`SP_2`$.

The decay products are deflected by the spectrometer magnet M2 with a field integral of 1 Tm. The track measurement is performed by 2-mm-step proportional chambers ($`PC_1÷PC_3`$), 1-cm-cell drift chambers ($`DC_1÷DC_3`$), and by 2-cm-diameter drift tubes ($`DT_1÷DT_4`$). Wide aperture threshold Čerenkov counters ($`\stackrel{ˇ}{C_3}`$ and $`\stackrel{ˇ}{C_4}`$) are filled with helium and are not used in these measurements.

The photons are measured by the lead-glass calorimeter $`SP_1`$ which consists of 576 counters. The counter transverse size is $`5.2\times 5.2`$ cm and the length is about 15 $`X_0`$.

The scintillator-iron sampling hadron calorimeter HC is subdivided into 7 longitudinal sections 7$`\times `$7 cells each. The 11$`\times `$11 cell scintillating hodoscope is used for the improvement of the time resolution of the tracking system. MuH is a 7$`\times `$7 cell scintillating muon hodoscope.

The trigger is provided by $`S_1÷S_5`$ scintillation counters, $`\stackrel{ˇ}{C_0}÷\stackrel{ˇ}{C_2}`$ Cerenkov counters, and the analog sum of amplitudes from last dinodes of the $`SP_1`$ :

$$T=S_1S_2S_3\overline{S_4}\stackrel{ˇ}{C_0}\overline{\stackrel{ˇ}{C_1}}\overline{\stackrel{ˇ}{C_2}}\overline{S_5}\mathrm{\Sigma }(SP_1),$$

where $`S_4`$ is the scintillator counter with a hole to suppress the beam halo, $`S_5`$ is the counter located downstream the setup at the beam focus. This part of the trigger is intended to identify beam kaons and to kill undecayed particles. It is designed on purpose, in a very simple way, to avoid any bias. $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(SP_1)`$ requires that the analog sum of amplitudes from the $`SP_1`$ be larger than $``$700 MeV - the MIP signal. The last requirement serves to suppress the dominating $`K\mu \nu `$ decay. A part of events (10%) which do not satisfy the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(SP_1)`$ requirement is also recorded to provide the information for muon identification studies.

## 3 Events selection

During run in Winter 2001, 332M events were logged on tapes. This statistics is complemented by about 130M MC events generated with Geant3  Monte Carlo program. The MC generation includes a realistic description of the setup with decay volume entrance windows, tracking chambers windows, chambers gas mixtures, sense wires and cathode structures, Čerenkov counters mirrors and gas, the shower generation in EM calorimeters, etc.

The data processing starts with the beam particle reconstruction in $`BPC_1÷BPC_4`$. Then secondary tracks are looked for in the decay tracking system and events with one good negatively charged track are selected. The decay vertex is reconstructed by means of the unconstrained vertex fit of the beam and decay tracks.

A clustering procedure is used to find showers in the $`SP_1`$ calorimeter, and the two-dimensional pattern of the shower is fitted with the MC-generated patterns to reconstruct its energy and position.

The muon identification is done using the information from electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters. First of all, the energy deposition in the $`SP_1`$ associated with the track (counted in the 3x3 matrix around the track extrapolation to the $`SP_1`$) is required to be less than 500 MeV. This cut is intended to suppress the electron tracks. The sum of ADC counts from the HC counters associated with remaining tracks is demanded to be less than 200 (see Figure 2). And, finally, the ratio of the associated ADC signals in the last three layers of HC to the total associated ADC sum to be greater than 0.05 is required (Figure 3 shows this value for the tracks which pass the first two selection criteria).

Figure 2: The ADC sum in HC for the track-associated cells.

Figure 3: The ratio of the track-associated ADC signals in the last three layers of HC to the total associated signal.

The figures 2 and 3 are obtained with the clean $`\pi ^{}`$ and $`\mu ^{}`$ samples selected from the real data. The pion data sample is composed from selected $`K^{}\pi ^{}\pi ^0`$ decays, and the muon one from the $`K^{}\mu ^{}\nu _\mu `$ decays.

The efficiency of the muon identification and the probability of the $`\pi \mu `$ assignment were found to be 88% and 0.03 respectively.

The events with one charged track identified as muon and two additional showers in the $`SP_1`$ are selected for further processing.

The selected events are required to pass 2C $`K\mu \nu \pi ^0`$ fit, with a probability of the fit $`P_{\text{fit}}>0.005`$. The angle between $`\pi ^0`$ and $`\mu ^{}`$ in the kaon rest frame after 2C fit was found to be a good variable for the further background suppression (see Figure 4). The background from the surviving $`K^{}\pi ^{}\pi ^0`$ events is concentrated at $`\mathrm{cos}\theta 1`$, and the selected cut $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\pi \mu }>0.95`$ removes practically all the background. The missing energy $`E_\nu =E_KE_\mu E_{\pi ^0}`$ after the angular cut is shown in Figure 5. The signal Monte-Carlo events for Figures 4 and 5 are weighted with the $`K_{\mu 3}`$ matrix element where we use $`\lambda _+=0.0286`$ (fixed from our $`K_{e3}`$ measurements ) and $`\lambda _0=0.017`$ (from the ChPT $`\text{O}(p^4)`$ calculations ).

We estimate the surviving background contribution to be around 0.3%.

Figure 4: The cosine of the $`\pi \mu `$ angle in the kaon rest frame after 2C fit. The points with errors are data and the solid histogram is MC. The shaded area shows the background contribution.

Figure 5: The $`E_\nu `$ compared with MC.

## 4  Analysis

After the procedure described in the previous section, 537K events are selected in the real data. The distribution of the events over the Dalitz plot is shown in Figure 6.

The most general Lorentz-invariant form of the matrix element for the $`K^{}l^{}\nu \pi ^0`$ decay is :

$$M=\frac{G_FV_{us}}{2}\overline{u}(p_\nu )(1+\gamma ^5)[2m_Kf_S[(P_K+P_\pi )_\alpha f_++(P_KP_\pi )_\alpha f_{}]\gamma ^\alpha +i\frac{2f_T}{m_K}\sigma _{\alpha \beta }P_K^\alpha P_\pi ^\beta ]v(p_l)$$
(1)
It consists of scalar, vector, and tensor terms. The $`f_\pm `$ form-factors are the functions of $`t=(P_KP_\pi )^2`$. In the Standard Model (SM), the W-boson exchange leads to the pure vector term. The scalar and/or tensor terms which are “induced” by EW radiative corrections are negligibly small, i.e nonzero scalar or tensor form-factors would indicate the physics beyond the SM.

The term in the vector part, proportional to $`f_{}`$, is reduced (using the Dirac equation) to the scalar form-factor. In the same way, the tensor term is reduced to a mixture of the scalar and vector form-factors. The redefined vector (V) and scalar (S) terms, and the corresponding Dalitz plot density in the kaon rest frame ($`\rho (E_\pi ,E_l)`$) are :

$`\rho (E_\pi ,E_l)`$ $``$ $`A|V|^2+BRe(V^{}S)+C|S|^2`$ (2)
$`V`$ $`=`$ $`f_++(m_l/m_K)f_T`$
$`S`$ $`=`$ $`f_S+(m_l/2m_K)f_{}+\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{m_l^2}{2m_K^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2E_l}{m_K}}{\displaystyle \frac{E_\pi }{m_K}}\right)f_T`$
$`A`$ $`=`$ $`m_K(2E_lE_\nu m_K\mathrm{\Delta }E_\pi )m_l^2(E_\nu {\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\mathrm{\Delta }E_\pi )`$
$`B`$ $`=`$ $`m_łm_K(2E_\nu \mathrm{\Delta }E_\pi );E_\nu =m_KE_lE_\pi `$
$`C`$ $`=`$ $`m_K^2\mathrm{\Delta }E_\pi ;\mathrm{\Delta }E_\pi =E_\pi ^{max}E_\pi ;E_\pi ^{max}={\displaystyle \frac{m_K^2m_l^2+m_\pi ^2}{2m_K}}`$
Following  the scalar form-factor $`f_0`$ is introduced:

$$f_0(t)=f_+(t)+\frac{t}{m_K^2m_\pi ^2}f_{}(t),$$
(3)
and we assume, at most, the quadratic dependence of $`f_+,f_0`$ on t:

$$f_+(t)=f_+(0)\left(1+\lambda _+t/m_\pi ^2+\lambda _+^{^{}}t^2/m_\pi ^4\right),f_0(t)=f_+(0)\left(1+\lambda _0t/m_\pi ^2+\lambda _0^{^{}}t^2/m_\pi ^4\right).$$
(4)
Finally, one gets from Eq. (3):

$$f_{}=f_+(0)\frac{m_K^2m_\pi ^2}{m_\pi ^2}\left(\lambda _0\lambda _++\frac{t}{m_\pi ^4}(\lambda _0^{^{}}\lambda _+^{^{}})\right)$$
(5)
Figure 6: Dalitz plot for the selected $`K\mu \nu \pi ^0`$ events after the 2C fit.

The procedure of the extraction of the form-factor parameters starts with the subdivision of the Dalitz plot region $`y=0.425÷0.955;z=0.545÷1.025`$ into $`40\times 40`$ bins.

The signal MC was generated with the constant matrix element and we have to calculate the amplitude-induced weights during the fit procedure. One can observe that the Dalitz-plot density function $`\rho (y,z)`$ of (2) can be presented in the factorisable form, i.e

$$\rho (y,z)=\underset{\alpha =1,18}{}F_\alpha (\lambda _+,\lambda _+^{^{}},\lambda _0,\lambda _0^{^{}},f_S,f_T)K_\alpha (y,z),$$
(6)
where $`F_\alpha `$ are simple bilinear functions of the form-factor parameters and $`K_\alpha (y,z)`$ are the kinematic functions which are calculated from the MC-truth information. For each $`\alpha `$, the sums of $`K_\alpha (y,z)`$ over events are accumulated in the Dalitz plot bins (i,j) to which the MC events fall after the reconstruction. Finally, every bin in the Dalitz plot gets 18 weights $`W_\alpha (i,j)`$ and the density function $`r(i,j)`$ which enters into the fitting procedure is constructed:

$$r(i,j)=\underset{\alpha =1,18}{}F_\alpha (\lambda _+,\lambda _+^{^{}},\lambda _0,\lambda _0^{^{}},f_S,f_T)W_\alpha (i,j)$$
(7)
This method allows one to avoid the systematic errors due to the “migration” of the events over the Dalitz plot due to the finite experimental resolution and automatically takes into account the efficiency of the reconstruction and selection procedures.

To take into account the finite number of MC events in the particular bin and strong variation of the real data events over the Dalitz plot, we minimize a $``$ function defined as :

$$=2\underset{j}{}n_j\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{n_j}{r_j}\left(1\frac{1}{m_j+1}\right)\right]+2\underset{j}{}(n_j+m_j+1)\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{1+\frac{r_j}{m_j}}{1+\frac{n_j}{m_j+1}}\right),$$
(8)
where the sum runs over all populated bins, and $`n_j`$, $`r_j`$ and $`m_j`$ are the number of data events, expected events and generated Monte Carlo events respectively. For large $`m_j`$ Eq. (8) reduces to the more familiar expression

$$=\underset{j}{}[2(r_jn_j)+2n_j\mathrm{ln}n_j/r_j]$$

The minimization is performed by means of the “MINUIT” program . The errors are calculated by “MINOS” procedure of “MINUIT” at the level $`\mathrm{\Delta }=1`$, corresponding to 68% coverage probability for 1 parameter.

## 5 Results

A fit of the $`K_{\mu 3}`$ data with $`f_S=f_T=\lambda _+^{^{}}=\lambda _0^{^{}}=0`$ gives the following result for $`\lambda _+`$ and $`\lambda _0`$: $`\lambda _+=0.0277\pm 0.0013`$; $`\lambda _0=0.0183\pm 0.001`$. The $`\lambda _+\lambda _0`$ correlation parameter is found to be $`d\lambda _0/d\lambda _+=0.348`$. The total number of bins is 1054 and $`\chi ^2/\text{ndf}=1.008`$. The quality of the fit is illustrated in figures 7 and 8 where the projected variables $`y=2E_\mu /m_K`$ and $`z=2E_{\pi ^0}/m_K`$ are presented.

Figure 7: Y distribution.

The points with errors are the real data

and the shaded area – signal MC.

Figure 8: Z distribution.

The points with errors are the real data

and the shaded area – signal MC.

The value $`\lambda _+^\mu =0.0277\pm 0.0013`$ is in a good agreement with that extracted from the analysis of our $`K_{e3}`$ data : $`\lambda _+^e=0.0286\pm 0.00054(stat)\pm 0.0006(syst)`$ (the statistical error $`\pm 0.0008`$ presented in  was obtained with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2.3`$, corresponding to 68% coverage probability for 2-parameter fit), i.e, our data do not contradict $`\mu e`$ universality.

In addition to the fits described above, Table 1 represents the fits with possible nonlinear terms in $`f_+`$ and $`f_0`$ (Eq. 4) as well as the fits with tensor and scalar contributions (Eq. 1).

Every row of the Table 1 represents a particular fit where the parameters shown without errors are fixed. The second row shows a fit where the nonlinearity is allowed in $`f_+(t)`$. One can observe $`\lambda _+\lambda _+^{}`$ correlation that results in the significant $`\lambda _+`$ errors enhancement and visible shift of $`\lambda _+`$ and $`\lambda _0`$ parameters. The fitted value of $`\lambda _+^{}`$ is compatible with zero, while we can not exclude some nonlinearity. The third row represents a fit with the value of $`\lambda _+^{}`$ parameter extracted from the analysis of the data on pion scalar form-factors : $`\lambda _+^{}=3.2m_\pi ^4=0.001063`$. In a similar way $`\lambda _0^{}`$ parameter is strongly correlated with $`\lambda _0`$ and is compatible with zero (row 4).

We do not see any tensor contribution in our data (row 5). The last row of the Table 1 represents a search for the scalar contribution. As one can see from the Eq. (2), the $`f_S`$ term is 100% anti-correlated with V-A contribution $`(m_\mu /2m_K)f_{}`$, where $`f_{}=f_+(0)(\lambda _0\lambda _+)\frac{m_K^2m_\pi ^2}{m_\pi ^2}`$, i.e an independent estimate of this term is necessary. A possible way consists in fixing $`\lambda _0`$ at the value calculated in the $`\text{O}(p^4)`$ ChPT: $`\lambda _0^{\text{th}}=0.017\pm 0.004`$ . The error $`\pm 0.004`$ in the theoretical prediction induces an additional error of $`\pm 0.0053`$ in $`f_S/f_+(0)`$.

| $`\lambda _+`$, $`\lambda _0`$ | $`\lambda _+^{^{}}`$, $`\lambda _0^{^{}}`$ | $`f_T/f_+(0)`$, $`f_S/f_+(0)`$ | Fit prob. |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`0.0277\pm 0.0013`$ | 0. | 0. | 0.425 |
| $`0.0183\pm 0.0011`$ | 0. | 0. |  |
| $`0.0215\pm 0.0060`$ | $`0.0010\pm 0.0010`$ | 0. | 0.451 |
| $`0.0160\pm 0.0021`$ | 0. | 0. |  |
| $`0.0216\pm 0.0013`$ | 0.001063 | 0. | 0.451 |
| $`0.0163\pm 0.0011`$ | 0. | 0. |  |
| $`0.0276\pm 0.0014`$ | 0. | 0. | 0.421 |
| $`0.0170\pm 0.0059`$ | $`0.0002\pm 0.0008`$ | 0. |  |
| $`0.0276\pm 0.0014`$ | 0. | $`0.0007\pm 0.0071`$ | 0.422 |
| $`0.0183\pm 0.0011`$ | 0. | 0. |  |
| $`0.0277\pm 0.0013`$ | 0. | 0. | 0.421 |
| 0.017 | 0. | $`0.0017\pm 0.0014`$ |  |

Table 1. The $`K_{\mu 3}`$ fits.

Different sources of systematics are investigated. We allow variations of the muon selection cuts, angular cut and 2C-fit probability cut. The Dalitz plot binning, signal and background MC variations are also applied.

The resulting systematic uncertainties are as follows:

* $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _+=0.0009`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _0=0.0006`$;
* $`\mathrm{\Delta }f_T/f_+(0)=0.002`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f_S/f_+(0)=0.0009`$

## 6 Summary and conclusions

The $`K_{\mu 3}^{}`$ decay has been studied using in-flight decays of 25 GeV $`K^{}`$ detected by the “ISTRA+” magnetic spectrometer.

The $`\lambda _+`$ parameter of the vector form-factor is measured to be:

$`\lambda _+=0.0277\pm 0.0013(stat)\pm 0.0009(syst)`$

The $`\lambda _0`$ parameter of the scalar form-factor is defined:

$`\lambda _0=0.0183\pm 0.0011(stat)\pm 0.0006(syst)`$

The comparison of the $`\lambda _+`$ parameter with that obtained from our $`K_{e3}`$ data shows $`e\mu `$ universality.

It is, at present, the best measurement of these parameters. It is in a reasonable agreement with $`\text{O}(p^4)`$ ChPT prediction as well as with recent $`\lambda _0`$ measurements from the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(K_{\mu 3})/\mathrm{\Gamma }(K_{e3})`$ ratio .

Possible quadratic contributions in the vector and scalar form-factors are compatible with zero, further studies are necessary to perform a detailed comparison of our data with $`\text{O}(p^6)`$ ChPT calculations .

The limits on possible tensor and scalar couplings are derived from the combined fit:

$`f_T/f_+(0)=0.0007\pm 0.0071(stat)\pm 0.002(syst);`$

$`f_S/f_+(0)=0.0017\pm 0.0014(stat)\pm 0.0009(syst)\pm 0.0053(theor)`$

The work is supported by the RFBR grant N03-02-16330.


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# C IV Absorbers in 𝑧>4 Quasars: Tracing Early Galactic Halos Evolution

## 1 Introduction

Various lines of evidence point towards a direct connection between metal-line absorption systems observed in the spectra of high redshift background quasars and normal galaxies. Mg II systems are known to be associated with the gaseous envelopes of bright galaxies which have been detected in emission at $`z0.6`$ (Bergeron & Boissé 1991). The typical impact parameter from the galaxy varies with the equivalent width threshold of the surveys for absorbers: 40 h-1 kpc at $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}=0.30`$Å and 60 h-1 kpc at $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}=0.02`$Å (Churchill et al. 1999). In addition the absorbers optically thick to hydrogen ionizing radiation, i.e. neutral hydrogen absorbers with N(HI)$`>10^{17.2}`$ cm-2, the Lyman limit systems (hereafter LLS) have sizes comparable to the $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}=0.30`$Å Mg II selected systems. Therefore both Mg II and LLS are believed to arise from the same type of object.

At $`z<1`$, C IV absorbers arise from the extended (100 h-1 kpc) halos of galaxies of a wide range of luminosity and morphological type (Chen, Lanzetta & Webb 2001). More specifically, Adelberger et al. (2003) have shown that at $`z3`$, all C IV absorbers are situated within 200 h-1 kpc of a Lyman-break galaxy and argue that this distance is characteristic of a galactic-scale outflow driven by star formation activity in this type of galaxy. Moreover, simulations have shown that the observed C IV kinematic structure and column densities can be well reproduced by merging of proto-galactic clumps (Haehnelt, Steinmetz & Rauch 1996). Compact halos of hot gas with temperature close to $`10^5`$ K satisfactorily explain the observed multi-component nature of the C IV absorbers. These absorption systems thus provide a powerful observational tool to understand the processes of galaxy formation and evolution that deposit chemically enriched material far from the central galaxy.

The methods used to study the properties of C IV systems can be split into two different approaches. First, observing C IV in high signal-to-noise ratio, high-resolution spectra, allows us to determine their column density down to log N(C IV) $`11.8`$ cm-2. This enables detailed kinematic and temperature studies (Rauch et al. 1996) which show that C IV components may be the building blocks of future normal galaxies. Such data are also used to determine the low end of the C IV column density distribution (Ellison et al. 2000) and mass density (Songaila 2001; Pettini et al. 2003; Boksenberg, Sargent & Rauch 2003) and to study the velocity structure within the halos (e.g. Petitjean & Bergeron 1994 and Crotts, Burles & Tytler 1997). Nevertheless, such analysis are currently limited to a few lines of sight.

The second approach consists in studying a statistically significant number of absorbers by constructing a large homogeneous sample. Steidel (1990) uses quasar spectra at $`3.04<z_{\mathrm{em}}<4.11`$ in addition to data at $`1.08<z_{\mathrm{em}}<3.56`$ from Sargent, Boksenberg & Steidel (1988) to build such a homogeneous sample. They find that the number density of C IV systems, $`n(z)`$, increases with increasing redshift in the range $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1,33.7`$ and deduce from this that the properties of the absorbers are evolving with time. Using a two-point correlation function to study the clustering of the C IV doublets, they find marginal evidence that the width of the correlation peak on small velocity scales is smaller at high redshift than in the local Universe. Quashnock, Vanden Berk & York (1996) show that clustering is also present at higher redshift, although its scale does not appear to have changed significantly since then. More recently, Misawa et al. (2002) have used higher-resolution spectra (2 Å FWHM) from the Keck telescope to conduct a systematic search for C IV doublets. They measure $`n(z)`$ up $`z4`$ and find that their results agree with Steidel (1990) at a rest equivalent width limit of $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}=0.30`$ Å, but not at $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}=0.15`$ Å. We propose here that this discrepancy is actually due to incompleteness in the Steidel sample at $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.15`$ Å linked with the lower resolution of the survey and pay particular attention to this point in our analysis.

Although both these approaches are complementary, the paucity of strong C IV systems means that the second technique is more appropriate to study the characteristics and evolution of the galactic halos. In the present study, we use 29 $`z>4`$ quasar spectra to build a new and homogeneous sample of high-redshift C IV absorbers. In section 2, we summarise the set-up for the observations and detail the data reduction process in section 3. The method for the identification of the absorbers is presented in section 4 together with a list of C IV systems. The statistical properties of this sample are derived in section 5 and discussed in section 6. This paper assumes $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$ throughout.

## 2 Observations

All the quasars observed in the present study were selected from the lower-resolution survey of Péroux et al. (2001). The new observations were carried out during two observing runs at the 4.2 m William Herschel telescope (WHT) of the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes in the Canary Islands and two observing runs at the 3.58 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) of the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile. High signal-to-noise optical spectrophotometry was obtained covering approximately 7000 Å to 8000 Å, the exact range depending on which instrument was used for the observations. A journal of the observations is presented in Table 1.

Eleven quasars were observed at the WHT during 2001 November 7 – 8 and 2002 June 1 – 2. The first run suffered bad weather conditions, thus limiting the number of objects observed and the quality of the resulting spectra. The integration times ranged from 1200 – 7200 seconds. We used only the red arm of the ISIS spectrograph. A new CCD was installed before the second run took place and therefore the characteristics of the set-ups slightly changed between the two observational sessions. For the November run a thinned coated Tektronix CCD was used, while a thinned coated EEV CCD was used for the June run. Grating R600R was used leading to a dispersion of 0.79 Å pixel-1 for the November run and 0.44 Å pixel-1 for the June run. In all cases, a GG495 blocking filter was used to minimize the second order contamination. All the observations were taken with a slit width of 1.0 – 1.5 arcsec. Blind-offsetting from bright $`15`$$`17^{th}`$ magnitude stellar fiducials was used to position the quasars in the slit, partly to save acquisition time and partly because the majority of the quasars were not visible using the blue sensitive TV acquisition system. Readout time was reduced by windowing the CCDs in the spatial direction.

Eighteen quasars (including the possibly BAL quasar PSS J1723$`+`$2243) were observed at the NTT during 2001 December 16 – 18 and 2002 August 11 – 13 using the ESO Multi-Mode Instrument (EMMI). The exposure times ranged from 3600 to 10800 seconds. Again, a new CCD was installed before the second run took place and therefore the characteristics of the set-ups slightly changed between the two observational sessions. For the December run a thin, back-illuminated Tektronix CCD was used, while a MIT/LL CCD was used for the August run. Grating #7 used on both occassions and gave dispersions of 0.66 Å pixel-1 for the December run and 0.82 Å pixel-1 for the August run. In both cases a OG530#645 blocking filter was used to minimize the second order contamination. All the observations were taken with a slit width of $``$ 1.0 arcsec. Readout time was again reduced by windowing the CCDs in the spatial direction.

## 3 Data Reduction

The data reduction was undertaken using the IRAF 111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. software package. Because the bias frames for each nights were so similar, a master ‘zero’ frame for each run was created using the IMCOMBINE routine. The data were overscan-corrected, zero-corrected, and trimmed using CCDPROC. Similarly, a single flat-field frame was produced by taking the median of the (suitably scaled) flats. The overall background variation across this frame was removed to produce an image to correct for the pixel-to-pixel sensitivity variation of the data. The task APALL was used to extract 1-D multi-spectra from the 2-D frames. The routine estimates the sky level by model fitting over specified regions on either side of the spectrum. In the cases where the objects were faint on the 2-D frames, different exposures were IMCOMBINEd before extraction with APALL.

The WHT data were wavelength calibrated using CuAr and CuNe arcs and the NTT data using HeAr and Ar lamps. Night sky lines were used to monitor the wavelength calibration for all spectra. In all but one run, observations of B-stars free of strong features in the red were taken in order to remove the effects of atmospheric absorption (e.g. O2 A band at 7600 Å) in the quasar spectra. No such observations were made in the December run at NTT, and therefore in this case appropriately scaled B-star spectra were used for atmospheric correction. The atmospheric absorption features seen in the B-star spectrum were isolated by interpolating between values on either side of the feature. The original B-star spectrum was then divided by this atmospheric-free spectrum to create an atmospheric correction spectrum. Finally the object spectra were divided by the scaled correction spectrum.

The resolution of the resulting spectra ranges from 1.60 to 2.30Å. An estimate of the continuum signal-to-noise ratio is given in Table 3 for each object. The spectra are shown in Figure 1 with arbitrary flux scales. The quasar redshifts and magnitudes listed in Table 1 are from the original survey of Péroux et al. (2001). All the spectra were then continuum normalised within the MIDAS data reduction software package (Fontana & Ballester 1995) in order to detect the signature of intervening absorption lines. For this purpose a spline function was fitted to the quasar continuum to smoothly connect the regions free from absorption features, as is standard practice.

## 4 Metal Identification

### 4.1 Methodology

To select metal lines we use a detection algorithm based on the method presented in Péroux et al. (2001), supplemented by a visual search. Following past work, the spectra are analysed from 5000 km s-1 blueward of the C IV emission line (to avoid lines possibly associated with the quasar) towards shorter wavelengths. The analysis is stopped when the signal-to-noise ratio becomes too low to detect a C IV line at the 5$`\sigma `$ level (corresponding to $`z_{min}`$ in Table 3). We then calculate the equivalent widths of all the candidate lines. Figure 2 shows an example (for PSS J1159$`+`$1337) of the output of the algorithm we use to detect metal lines - a box-like running average of the equivalent width as a function of wavelength. In this figure, our detection threshold is represented by the straight dashed line: any feature peaking above this limit is a candidate absorber. This output is then visually inspected to detect any lines which might have been missed by the automatic procedure. The lines are then identified by analysing each spectrum in velocity space and the redshift of the system is measured that best fits each line of a doublet and other associated lines. All detected absorptions with confirmed identifications are listed in Table 4 of the appendix for each quasar spectrum.

### 4.2 Notes on Individual Spectra

1. BR J0006$``$6208 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.455`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.687`$ – Weak absorption but the wavelength alignment and EW ratio are in excellent agreement with expectations from Mg II absorbers.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.956`$ – Symmetric profiles associated with a saturated Mg II doublet. Mg I 2852 and many associate Fe II lines (2374, 2382, 2586, 2600) are observed. Possible Fe I 2719 and Si I 2515 are also found at the same redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.588`$ – Unambiguous two-component C IV doublet with possible associate C I 1560.
2. BR J0030$``$5129 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.174`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.465`$ – Narrow, well-defined C IV doublet.
3. PSS J0034$`+`$1639 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.293`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.588`$ – The two members of this Mg II doublet are not exactly aligned, but EW ratio means that this is a definite identification.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.798`$ – The 2796 line of this Mg II doublet is saturated. Associated strong Fe II 2382, 2586 and 2600 lines are observed.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.883`$ – The 2803 line of this Mg II doublet is slightly contaminated on its red side by C IV 1548 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.225`$.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.442`$ – Although the EW ratio is not precisely the one expected from C IV doublets, the wavelength alignment and similarity in profiles mean that this is most probably a C IV absorption. C I 1560 coincides exactly with the C IV 1548 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.478`$.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.478`$ – Clean and unambiguous C IV doublet with associated Si II 1526.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.225`$ – At red end of the spectrum, another C IV doublet is clearly detected. C I 1328 coincides exactly with the C IV 1550 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.478`$ and Si II 1304 is detected.
4. PSS J0133$`+`$0400 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.154`$)

This spectrum is particularly rich in Si IV doublets.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.664`$ – Saturated Mg II doublet with associated Mg I 2852 absorption line. Fe II 2586 and 2600 are also observed at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.138`$ – Although contamination between the two lines of this C IV doublet means that the EW ratio is slightly off the expected value, this is most probably a C IV system.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.229`$ – Small, well-defined C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.620`$ – This Si IV doublet might have associated C IV absorption, but given the sky contamination at the relevant wavelengths (around 7150 Å), this cannot be confirmed.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.771`$ – This C IV doublet is characterised by an asymmetric profile which is also seen in Si IV. A strong C II 1334 is observed at the blue end of the spectrum and additional Si II 1526 and Fe II 1608 are detected at the same redshift. Péroux et al. (2001) also report a DLA at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.992`$ – C IV system with associated a Si IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.996`$ – Situated only 300 km s-1 away from the previous system, this C IV doublet has associated with O I 1302 and Si II 1304 absorptions.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.110`$ – Narrow Si IV doublet with a possible C I 1280 line associated and a definite Si II 1304 feature (C I 1280 is blended with C IV 1548 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.229`$).

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.115`$ – Situated only 300 km s-1 away from the previous system, this is another narrow Si IV doublet with associated Si II 1526.
5. PSS J0248$`+`$1802 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.422`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.470`$ – Although Mg II 2796 is contaminated on its red wing, this is most probably a Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.969`$ – Si IV doublet with Si IV 1393 blended with Mg II 2803 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.470`$.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.185`$ – Another medium-strength Si IV doublet.
6. BR J0311$``$1722 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.039`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.034`$ – This definite C IV doublet has an asymmetric profile. O I 1302 is possibly detected at the same redshift.
7. BR J0324$``$2918 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.622`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.923`$ – Weak Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.227`$ – Many Fe II lines (2344, 2382, 2586 and 2600) are detected at this redshift, but our spectrum does not cover the appropriate wavelength range for the detection of the Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.746`$ – Weak C IV doublet.
8. BR J0334$``$1612 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.363`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.668`$ – Narrow C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.759`$ – Another narrow C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.788`$ – A Si IV doublet is detected at this wavelength.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.186`$ – Another Si IV doublet is detected, with the Si IV 1393 line blended with C IV 1548 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.668`$.
9. BR J0355$``$3811 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.545`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.986`$ – This saturated Mg II doublet shows clear evidences of a two-component profile. Associated Fe II 2586 and 2600 lines are observed.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.855`$ – Unusually broad and weak C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.313`$ – Weak C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.318`$ – Situated 300 km s-1 away from the previous system, another weak C IV system.
10. BR J0419$``$5716 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.461`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.028`$ – Many Fe II lines (2382, 2586 and 2600) are detected at this redshift, but our spectrum does not cover the appropriate wavelength range for the detection of the Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.218`$ – The C IV 1550 line of this doublet is probably contaminated by another absorption, which explains the differences in the profile shape of this C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.311`$ – Unambiguous C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.434`$ – Weak C IV doublet where the C IV 1548 line is blended with a stronger unidentified absorption.
11. BR J0426$``$2202 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.320`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.606`$ – This C IV doublet shows a characteristic two-component profile.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.682`$ – Weak C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.172`$ – Nicely defined C IV doublet with associated Si IV absorption.
12. PMN J0525$``$3343 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.383`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.568`$ – Well defined Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.581`$ – Weak C IV doublet with associated Fe II 1608 absorption.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.063`$ – Weak C IV doublet with associated Si IV doublet (the Si IV 1402 is blended with C IV 1548 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.581`$), Si II 1526 and Fe II 1608.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.313`$ – Slightly broad C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.430`$ – Si IV doublet.
13. BR J0529$``$3552 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.172`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.398`$ – Fairly weak Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.423`$ – The profile of this Mg II doublet is characterised by a square shape.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.656`$ – Another Mg II doublet is observed at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.503`$ – Well defined C IV doublet with associate Fe II 1608 and Al II 1670 absorption lines.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.062`$ – This Si IV doublet is accompanied with Si II 1304 & 1526 and C II 1304.
14. BR J0714$``$6455 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.462`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.747`$ – This C IV doublet is associated with a Si II 1526 line.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.966`$ – Another well defined C IV doublet is detected at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.193`$ – Both C IV and Si IV doublets are observed, but Si IV 1402 is blended with Si II 1526 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.747`$.
15. PSS J0747$`+`$4434 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.430`$)

This spectrum is of very low quality and no lines could be identified.
16. PSS J1159$`+`$1337 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.073`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.739`$ – Many Fe II lines (2344, 2374, 2382, 2586 and 2600) are detected at this redshift, but our spectrum does not cover the appropriate wavelength range for the detection of the Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.724`$ – C IV and Si IV doublets are detected at this redshift (the Si IV line is blended with Si IV 1393 at 3.756). Péroux et al. (2001) also report a DLA at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.756`$ – Another Si IV doublet is observed.
17. PSS J1253$``$0228 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.007`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.261`$ – A strong Mg II doublet is detected at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.606`$ – This C IV doublet also shows strong Si IV doublet and C II 1334 line with the same characteristic two component profile. Péroux et al. (2001) also report a sub-DLA (see Péroux et al. 2003 for a definition of this class of systems) at this redshift.
18. PSS J1330$``$2522 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=3.949`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.084`$ – Associated with this C IV doublet is Al II 1670. Péroux et al. (2001) also report a sub-DLA (see Péroux et al. 2003) at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.390`$ – Another C IV doublet is observed at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.772`$ – A weak Si IV doubled is detected.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.769`$ – At the red end of the spectrum, another C IV doublet is detected.
19. BR J1456$`+`$2007 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.249`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.761`$ – Narrow Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.036`$ – The C IV 1550 line of this C IV doublet is slightly contaminated.
20. BR J1618$`+`$4125 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.213`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.223`$ – This Si IV system is the only doublet which can be convincely identified.
21. PSS J1633$`+`$1411 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.351`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.580`$ – Nice C IV doublet

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.150`$ – A Si IV doublet is identified at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.282`$ – This C IV doublet has a characteristic profile which includes a smaller component to the blue of the main feature.
22. PSS J1646$`+`$5514 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.037`$)

This spectrum is particularly rich in C IV systems which are visible as clustered pairs of doublets.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.859`$ – Well defined Mg II doublet where the EW ratio is in excellent agreement with expectations from physical properties.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.516`$ – A weak C IV doublet is detected at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.521`$ – This medium strength C IV system has its C IV 1548 line blended with the C IV 1550 line at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.544`$.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.544`$ – In the close vicinity of the previous system is another stronger C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.754`$ – This C IV doublet has its lines separated by the C IV 1548 line at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.759`$.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.759`$ – This weaker C IV doublet is crossing the previous doublet but can nevertheless be fairly well isolated for EW measurements.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.030`$ – Similarly to the two doublets described above, this C IV system is crossed over by the $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.037`$ C IV absorber, although the closer proximity between the two means that the EW are not as reliable. The Si IV doublet, Si II 1526 and Fe II 1608 are also detected at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.037`$ – Weaker C IV absorber as described above.
23. PSS J1723$`+`$2243 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.520`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.696`$ – Characteristic two-component Si II 1526, Fe II 1608 and Al II 1670 are detected at this redshift. The shape of features means that the identification is unambiguous. Nevertheless the corresponding C IV doublet is not convincing due to an odd EW ratio.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.704`$ – Well defined and strong C IV doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.234`$ – This C IV doublet is blended in its C IV 1550 line with the C IV 1548 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.244`$.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.244`$ – The C IV system identified at this redshift is clustered with the doublet described previously. The consequences of this arrangement is that the EW measurements are less reliable. Si IV is nevertheless observed at this redshift.
24. PSS J1802$`+`$5616 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.158`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.048`$ – A Si IV doublet is identified at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.190`$ – A weak C IV doublet is detected at this redshift. The C IV 1548 line is probably contaminated to some extend.
25. PSS J2154$`+`$0335 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.363`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.756`$ – This saturated Mg II absorber is associated with a Mg I 2852 absorption. Fe II 2586 and 2600 are also detected at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.776`$ – The good alignment and EW ratio means that this a definite C IV doublet. Nevertheless, the C IV 1550 line is clearly contaminated in its blue wing by some unidentified absorption which means that the EW measurement of this line is not reliable. Péroux et al. (2001) also report a sub-DLA (see Péroux et al. 2003) at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.961`$ – Very well defined C IV doublet is observed at this redshift. The associated Si IV doublet is also detected.
26. PSS J2155$`+`$1358 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.256`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.914`$ – The characteristic two-component saturated profile is unambiguously associated with a Mg II doublet. Fe II (2382, 2586 and 2600) lines are also detected at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.567`$ – Although the EW ratio of this doublet is not in excellent agreement with expectations from C IV physical properties, we identify this system as a C IV absorber.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.243`$ – This C IV doublet is saturated which means that the EW ratio is not reliable. The identification is nevertheless reliable. A strong Si IV doublet is also detected at this redshift.
27. BR J2216$``$6714 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.469`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.060`$ – Many Fe II lines (2344, 2374, 2382, 2586 and 2600) are detected at this redshift, but our spectrum does not cover the appropriate wavelength range for the detection of the Mg II doublet.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.728`$ – Although the profiles are quite different for the two lines of this C IV doublet, the identification is secure due to a good alignment in velocity space and an EW ratio that conforms to expectations from the physical properties of these systems.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.837`$ – Another C IV doublet is observed at this wavelength.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.095`$ – A weak C IV system is present at this redshift.
28. PSS J2344$`+`$0342 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.239`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.219`$ – This C IV doublet is probably saturated which would explain the unexpected EW ratio. Fe II 1608 and Al II 1670 are also detected at this redshift. Péroux et al. (2001) also report a DLA at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=4.053`$ – There is a weak C IV doublet at this redshift and associated Si II 13094 and 1526 absorption lines.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.882`$ – Both C IV and Si IV are clearly observed at this redshift.
29. BR J2349$``$3712 ($`z_{\mathrm{em}}=4.208`$)

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=1.758`$ – Although the Mg II 2803 line of this doublet is slightly contaminated, this system is most probably a weak Mg II absorber.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.258`$ – A C IV doublet is clearly identified at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.284`$ – A weak C IV system is detected at this redshift. Fe II 1608, Al II 1670 and Si II 1526 are also observed at the same redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.690`$ – Yet another C IV doublet is detected at this redshift. The Si IV doublet and Al II 1670 are also detected at this redshift. The Si IV 1393 line is blended with Si II 1526 at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.284`$. Péroux et al. (2001) also report a sub-DLA (see Péroux et al. 2003) at this redshift.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.756`$ – A weak C IV absorber is found at this redshift, although the profiles of both lines are not totally identical.

$`z_{\mathrm{abs}}=3.960`$ – A nice C IV system is detected. It is characterised by a two-component profile.

The whole sample is composed of 64 C IV 19 Mg II and 28 Si IV doublets. For comparison Steidel (1990) use 11 spectra at $`3.04<z_{\mathrm{em}}<4.11`$ in addition to the 55 spectra at $`1.08<z_{\mathrm{em}}<3.56`$ from Sargent, Boksenberg & Steidel (1988) and finds a total of 275 C IV. Steidel & Sargent (1992) find 111 Mg II absorbers in 103 quasar spectra. Songaila (2001) has looked for C IVand Si IV doublets in the spectra of 32 quasars with $`2.31<z_{\mathrm{em}}<5.86`$ down to $`\mathrm{log}(N_{\mathrm{CIV}})>12.0`$. She finds a total of 139 C IV lines and 49 Si IV lines at $`z_{\mathrm{abs}}>3.5`$, with 122 and 39, respectively for $`3.5<z_{\mathrm{abs}}<4.5`$, roughly the redshift limits of this survey. More recently, Misawa et al. (2002) find 55 C IV doublets, 19 Si IV and only 3 Mg II in the spectra of 18 quasars. The C IV samples of each of these surveys are plotted in Figure 3 as a function of the C IV $`\lambda `$ 1548 rest frame equivalent widths, $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}`$. The change of slope of the Misawa et al. distribution at $`0.15<W_{\mathrm{rest}}<0.30`$Å conforms to theoretical expectations of the evolution of quasar absorbers (Churchill & Vogt 2001). On the other hand, the fact that the other samples do not show such strong evolution indicates that they are not complete below $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}<0.30`$Å. Indeed, the study of Misawa et al. (2002) is based on higher-resolution data, and therefore their sample is more complete than the previous work of Steidel (1990) explaining while results from the two surveys differ. Since our sample suffers the same problem of incompleteness as Steidel (1990), we choose to limit our analysis to doublets with $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å. For a Doppler parameter $`b<20`$, this corresponds to $`\mathrm{log}`$ N(C IV) $`>14.5`$ (Steidel et al., 1990). For reference, Table 2 summarises the number of absorbers in various sub-samples. Interestingly, we find proportionally more Mg II doublets than Misawa et al. (2002) but less Si IV systems, and therefore do not consider the latter absorber in our statistical analysis. We find four $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>1`$Å C IV absorber in our sample which demonstrates that such systems exist at $`z>3`$.

## 5 Statistical Properties

### 5.1 Number Density

In order to calculate the number density, $`n(z)`$, of absorbers, one needs to measure the redshift path surveyed by the quasar sample. For each quasar spectrum, we compute the theoretical signal-to-noise (S/N) necessary to recover an absorber with $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å at 5$`\sigma `$. After measuring the S/N in each observed spectrum, we reject 5 lines of sight: PSS J0248$``$1722, BR J0334$``$1612 and PSS J0747$`+`$4434, all observed at WHT in November 2001 when the weather conditions were extremely poor and BR J1456$`+`$2007 $`\&`$ PSS J1802$`+`$5616 (WHT run of June 2002). The two last columns of Table 3 give the minimum and maximum redshift for each quasar spectrum. This is illustrated by Figure 4 which shows the cumulative number of lines of sight along which a $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å C IV (top panel) or a Mg II (bottom panel) could be detected at the 5$`\sigma `$ confidence level. This is the survey sensitivity, $`g(z)`$, defined as follows,

$$g(z)=H(z_i^{max}z)H(zz_i^{min})$$
(1)
where H is the Heaviside step function. On the same figure the redshift distribution of the sub-samples of $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å C IV and Mg II, respectively, are plotted.

The number density of quasar absorbers is the number of absorbers, $`n`$, per unit redshift $`dz`$, i.e., $`dn/dz=n(z)`$. This is a directly observable quantity, although, its interpretation is dependent on the geometry of the Universe. Indeed, the evolution of the number density of absorbers with redshift is the intrinsic evolution of the true number of absorbers combined with effects due to the expansion of the Universe. For a non-zero $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-Universe, the expected incidence of absorbers, under the null hypothesis that there has been no evolution in number density, gas cross-section, kinematics or chemical content, can be described as (Tytler 1981)

$$n(z)=n_0(1+z)^2\times (\mathrm{\Omega }_0(1+z)^3+\mathrm{\Omega }_k(1+z)^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda })^{1/2}$$
(2)
For a flat $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$ Universe, a non-evolving number density can be modelled with the following:

$$n(z)=n_0\times (1+z)^2\times (0.3\times (1+z)^3+0.7)^{1/2}$$
(3)
We compute the number density of $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å C IV (top panel of Figure 5) and compare our results with the previous determinations of Steidel (1990) and Misawa et al. (2002) at lower redshifts. It appears that in these two studies the last bin is an underestimate of n(z) since no C IV doublets are detected in a range where they might be expected to be seen. Most probably these are due to the limitation of the surveys. Nevertheless, the combination of these various studies show that the number density of $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å C IV absorbers decreases with redshift.

In the bottom panel of Figure 5, we present the result of a similar computation for the $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å Mg II absorbers and compare it with the survey of Steidel & Sargent (1992). Both studies agree well within the error bars. In Figure 6 (top panel), we compare the number density of various classes of quasar absorbers: $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å C IV doublets (Steidel 1990, Misawa et al. 2002 and this work according to the redshift considered), $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.15`$Å C IV absorbers (Misawa et al. 2002), Mg II doublets (Steidel & Sargent 1992) and LLS (Péroux et al. 2003). The first striking point from this figure is the good agreement between $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å Mg II absorbers and LLS number densities in the redshift range where they overlap. Indeed, both these systems are known to arise from similar regions of galaxies (Bergeron & Boissé 1991). Their number density is found to decrease with decreasing redshift. On the other hand, C IV n(z) increases with time whatever the equivalent width threshold considered. Although, the number statistics are still small at $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.15`$Å, it is clear from Figure 6 that there are at least three times more of these systems in the Universe than $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}>0.30`$Å absorbers.

The evolution is illustrated in the bottom panel of Figure 6 where we plot the comoving path density. This is the number of systems per comoving path length versus redshift for our assumed cosmology:

$$\mathrm{path}\mathrm{length}=n(z)\times (0.3\times (1+z)^3+0.7\times (1+z)^2)^{1/2}\times (1+z)^2$$

Therefore a non-evolving population of absorbers should have a constant comoving path density over time. We find that although this roughly holds for all absorbers at $`z<3`$, above $`z>3.5`$ both C IV doublets and LLS are found to depart from the horizontal line. In the region $`z=23.5`$, the error bars are still large for firm conclusions to be drawn. These results arise from both the new high redshift data now available and the use of an updated non-zero $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-cosmology. Such an evolution is most probably the signature of the formation of halos of galaxies of size $``$100 h-1 kpc from $``$50 h-1 kpc systems, a process which seems to end below $`z<3`$.

### 5.2 Metal Ratios

The C IV doublet ratio DR=$`W(C\text{IV}1548)`$/$`W(C\text{IV}1550)`$ probes the physical nature of the C IV absorbers. Theoretically, DR varies from 2 for the lines situated on the linear part of the curve of growth to 1 for saturated lines. Figure 7 shows the redshift evolution of DR by comparing results from Steidel (1990) at low redshift with results from our sample for C IV doublets at $`z>3.5`$, both with $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1548)>0.30`$ Å. In order to enable comparison with previous work, doublets which are separated by less than 1000 km s-1 are merged together and their equivalent width is combined. This is based on the possibility that clustered components are not physically independent and that the number of components seen is sensitive to the spectrum quality. Our resulting sample is composed of 37 C IV doublets with $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1548)>0.30`$ Å (note that this is more than in Table 2 since in that case it is $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1550)>0.30`$ Å which is used as a criterion). We note that the trend revealed by Steidel (1990) (i.e. a decrease of DR with decreasing redshift) already started at earlier times ($`z4`$). Assuming that DR and W are uncorrelated, this could be due to either a decrease in the mean Doppler parameter, $`b`$ or to an increase in the mean column density, N(C IV), as time goes on. As pointed out for previous samples (Steidel 1990), we find that DR in our survey is not correlated with $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1548)`$, and therefore is not expected to be correlated with the line kinematics, parameterised by $`b`$ in the range of column densities studied here. This means that the evolution we probe in Figure 7 is probably not due to a change in b, but rather to a systematic increase in the mean column density with time.

The evolution in the mean column density of C IV absorbers could be interpreted as due to a change in the chemical abundance of carbon (Songaila 2001 and Pettini et al. 2003). Another viable explanation for the observed DR evolution is a possible change in ionization state of the carbon absorbers over time, possibly due to the evolution in the ionization continuum.

In Figure 8 we plot the ratio $`W`$(Si IV1393)/$`W`$(C IV1548) for the few systems in our sample which contain both these doublets. This result is shown together with the same measurement undertaken at lower redshift by Bergeron & Ikeuchi (1990). To facilitate comparison, we limit our sample to pairs with $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1548)0.50`$ Å which corresponds to only 9 systems. We find that the ratio $`W`$(Si IV1393)/$`W`$(C IV1548) is approximately constant from $`z=3.5`$ to $`z=2.5`$. At $`z<3.5`$, the trend might be interpreted as evidence for a systematic increase in the ionization state of the gas. In other words, this is the opposite trend to what one would expect given the observed evolution of the C IV mean column density. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that in order to compare with previous work from Bergeron & Ikeuchi (1990), we had to limit the sample studied to $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1548)0.50`$ Å. These systems might not be affected by the ionization continuum in the same way as $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1548)0.30`$ Å lines. Indeed, other independent lines of evidence based on: absorption temperature (Schaye et al. 2000); mean continuum depression in quasars (Bernardi et al. 2003, Theuns et al. 2002); and ionization level of sensitive elements in quasar absorbers (Vladilo et al. 2003), seem to favour the scenario where the He II reionization takes place around $`z3.2`$. Therefore, a change of $`W`$(Si IV1393)/$`W`$(C IV1548) ratio is expected around this redshift, either side of which, the ratio should remain fairly flat, not what we observe in Figure 8. Songaila (1998) found such trends in high-resolution quasar spectra, but her results were not confirmed by Kim, Cristiani & D’Odorico (2002) from comparably high quality data.

To summarise, we observe a decrease of C IV doublet DR as time goes on. This evolution is interpreted as the signature of an increase in the mean C IV column density possibly linked with chemical evolution or/and with changes in the ionization state of the absorbers.

## 6 Conclusion

We have presented a new sample of high-redshift quasar absorbers gathered from observations undertaken at the WHT for the northern objects and at ESO/NTT for the southern ones. These data are analysed in conjunction with previous studies in order to clarify the statistical properties of a number of metal lines and link these with the evolution of galactic structures. Our main findings can be summarised as follow:

* The apparent disagreement between the $`n(z)`$ redshift evolution of C IV at $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV})>0.15`$Å reported by Misawa et al. (2002) from a comparison with Steidel (1990), is the result of different completeness levels in the absorber samples.
* The number density of $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV})>0.30`$Å C IV doublets increases with decreasing redshift from $`z4.5`$. $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV})>0.15`$Å C IV systems are more numerous than the former at all redshifts. On the other hand, $`n(z)`$ of $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(Mg\text{II})>0.30`$Å Mg II doublets and LLS follow each other and decreases as time goes on.
* At $`z>3`$, the LLS population is predominant while the number of $`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV})>0.30`$Å C IV is increasing with time. Below $`z<3`$, none of all the classes of absorbers show signs of evolution. We interpret this as the formation of galactic envelopes from smaller halos.
* The doublet ratio DR=$`W(C\text{IV}1548)`$/$`W(C\text{IV}1550)`$ is found to decrease with decreasing redshift, a signature of the increase of the mean C IV column density.
* A study of the $`W`$(Si IV1393)/$`W`$(C IV1548) ratio for strong absorbers ($`W_{\mathrm{rest}}(C\text{IV}1548)0.50`$ Å) shows a flattening at $`z>3.5`$, followed by a decrease, counter to the scenario in which the DR trend can be explained by a change in ionization continuum.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Jacqueline Bergeron for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. CP is supported by a Marie Curie fellowship. This work was supported in part by the European Communities RTN network ”The Physics of the Intergalactic Medium”. This paper is based on observations obtained at the William Herschel Telescope which is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, and on observations collected during programme ESO 68.A-0279 and ESO 69.A-0541 at the European Southern Observatory with EMMI on NTT operated at La Silla Observatory, Chile.

## Appendix A Metal Line Identification

All detected absorptions with confirmed identifications are listed in Table 4 below for each quasar spectrum.