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# What is the Evidence for Dark Matter?

## 1. Introduction

The succcess of the currently favored $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model for structure formation (e.g. Bahcall et al. 1999; White, this meeting) has persuaded many people to abandon alternatives (e.g. Binney, these proceedings). But the absence of a well-worked alternative should never be sufficient reason to decide that a particular model is correct. Despite dark matter being a central ingredient of this popular model, our only evidence for its existence is the gravitationally inferred mass discrepancies, and it is becoming clear that there are significant difficulties with its apparent properties (e.g. Ostriker & Steinhardt 2003). Furthermore, alternative gravity ideas continue to meet with some success. I therefore prefer to keep an open mind until experimental evidence for one or other interpretation of mass discrepancies becomes compelling.

Here I review the rationale for alternative gravity theories (§2) and argue (§3) that galaxy formation theory does not provide decisive evidence in favor of dark matter. I then try to outline possible experimental ways in which the two hypotheses to account for mass discrepancies could be distinguished. If dark matter is an elementary particle, then it may be possible to detect it directly (see §4). Alternatively, two types of astronomical observations might favor one or other interpretation: (a) the acoustic oscillations in the cosmic microwave background (§5), and (b) whether light is a good tracer of the mass. The second is a many faceted question, ranging from the issue of whether the rotation curve of a galaxy can be predicted from its luminosity profile (§6), to whether the dark matter halos have a different shape, or are misaligned with the light, or have substructure not associated with luminous features (§7). Finally, I review some theoretical arguments related to mergers (§8).

## 2. Modifications to basic laws

The puzzles presented by dark matter and especially by dark energy are severe, but not yet sufficient to compel us to reject the laws that seem to require their existence. Yet it is legitimate to explore whether alternative laws could lead to a simpler and more beautiful picture. A simplified picture would be attractive only if it were consistent with all current data, and compelling if it could make testable predictions that differ from those of the standard paradigm. Unfortunately, no suggestion as yet comes close to meeting these ideals.

The apparent flatness of the universe (e.g. Hinshaw et al. 2003) is generally interpreted to imply a critical energy density in a Friedmann model. The current $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model supposes the energy density to be composed of an ugly mixture of $`70\%`$ dark energy, $`25\%`$ dark matter, $`4\%`$ baryonic matter, and maybe as much as $`12\%`$ in neutrinos, although this last number is an upper limit that may well be much less. Not only is it unattractive to have several components having similar densities, but the interpretation of the dark energy as Einstein’s cosmological constant requires us to live at a special time just when the matter and dark energy densities are comparable; matter was dominant until relatively recently, and dark energy is now becoming dominant as the expansion reaccelerates. Finally, the value of the vacuum energy density is lower than naïve estimates based on elementary quantum mode counting by some 120 orders of magnitude, a discrepancy for which physics is completely unable to account (e.g. Weinberg 2000). Tracking quintessence models (e.g. Wang et al. 2000) and cyclic universe models (e.g. Khoury et al. 2003) answer some of these objections, while Padmanabhan & Choudhury (2002) suggest that perhaps a single scalar field could account for both the dark energy and the dark matter – an idea that would seem to merit further investigation.

The particularly severe problems presented by dark energy have driven even mainstream physicists (e.g. Arkani-Hamed et al. 2002; Carroll et al. 2003) to speculate that it may instead reflect a breakdown of general relativity on the horizon scale. But there are far fewer physicists who would argue that dark matter, for which the evidence is also exclusively gravitational, is another manifestation of new gravitational physics. One reason for this different attitude is that a weakly-interacting, massive particle (WIMP), of the kind predicted by supersymmetry, would survive as a relic from the early universe with an expected abundance of order the critical density (e.g. Kolb & Turner 1990, §5.6).

It has therefore been left to a rather renegade group of mostly astronomers to argue for alternatives to dark matter, and several such ideas have been reviewed at this meeting by Aguirre (these proceedings). By far the best known of these alternative ideas is MOND, first proposed by Milgrom (1983), with a more sophisticated formulation being given by Bekenstein & Milgrom (1984). Their original proposal was a modification of Newton’s law of gravity that would automatically ensure asymptotically flat rotation curves for galaxies and the Tully-Fisher law of the form $`MV_{\mathrm{flat}}^4`$, with no requirement for dark matter. This proposal has led to a fitting formula for galaxy rotation curves of remarkable power (see below), but as a theory of gravity (or of inertia) it is very poorly founded, probably wrong in details (at least), makes no clear predictions about the gravitational deflection of light, and does not remove the need for all dark matter in galaxy clusters (Aguirre, Schaye & Quataert 2001; Sanders 2003).

Partly for these reasons, I do not focus on MOND, but attempt to enumerate possible tests that could distinguish between dark matter and any generic alternative gravity hypothesis.

## 3. Structure and galaxy formation

The hierarchical clustering of galaxies is believed to have arisen from almost homogeneous initial conditions through gravitational instability. It is well-known that Newtonian gravity arising from baryonic perturbations alone could not drive the evolution from the observed tiny fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background to the highly non-linear clustering hierarchy of galaxies, groups, clusters and voids we measure today; dark matter drives the clustering in the standard picture. However, Sanders (2001) argues heuristically, and Nusser (2002) and Knebe & Gibson (2003) show, that stronger-than-Newtonian accelerations of the kind contemplated here do accelerate the rate of evolution to yield an approximation to the observed clustering hierarchy. As yet, it is unclear whether the results can be consistent with all data. The weakness of this argument is that we lack an appealing, generally covariant, alternative theory of gravity on which to base a self-consistent calculation without dark matter. It is therefore not possible to use structure formation arguments to distinguish dark matter models from alternative gravity models, because we do not yet know how the predictions in the two scenarios might differ.

While large-scale structure is a clear success for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM, the properties of galaxies on smaller scales are more problematic. Sellwood & Kosowsky (1999) give a now rather dated list of the difficulties confronting galaxy formation in the standard $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model. Since other speakers at this meeting have expanded on these difficulties, I do not try to update this list here. Furthermore, it is generally argued that the shortcomings of the current model do not neccessarily imply its failure, but may instead reflect the fact that the predictions are simply too crude. It is clearly desirable to continue to refine the predictions from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model, but it seems unlikely that all problems will evaporate as calculations improve.

## 4. Direct detection of WIMPs

WIMPs are the most popular dark matter candidate. Their interaction cross-section with normal baryonic matter, while extremely small, is expected to be non-zero. We may therefore be able to detect them directly and a number of experiments are underway. Aside from the puzzling seasonal variation in their detection rate reported by the DAMA collaboration (Bernabei et al. 2003) all other experiments have so far failed to show a positive signal (e.g. Akerib et al. 2003; Sanglard et al. 2003; etc.), and some almost completely exclude a particle that could have been responsible for the DAMA result.

The absence of a positive detection is of no great significance at the current sensitivity levels. Most experiments barely reach the sensitivity required to detect even the most optimistic models for the properties of WIMPs (e.g. Cline 2003). Sensitivity is being improved all the time, but there is a long way to go before non-detections would begin to rule out interesting WIMP candidates.

It is expected that WIMPs and their anti-particles should be present in almost equal numbers. Annihilation radiation will be emitted at an enhanced rate from high-density regions, such as a dark matter cusp in the center of a galaxy (Bertone et al. 2001). Mayer-Hasselwander et al. (1998) report an EGRET detection of an unidentified gamma ray source in the Galactic center, but it is now believed not to be coincident with the Galactic center direction and is too concentrated to arise from annihilation radiation (Hooper & Dingus 2002). The non-detection by EGRET does not tell us much about WIMPs in the Milky Way halo, since the densest part of the predicted cusp could easily have been erased by normal astrophysical processes (e.g. Merritt et al. 2002). The increased sensitivity of the future GLAST satellite may be sufficient to detect the expected diffuse gamma radiation (e.g. Wai 2002; but see also Evans et al. 2003). \[Boehm et al. (2003) speculate that the INTEGRAL detection of $`511`$keV radiation from the Galactic Center could be annihilation radiation from a low-mass dark matter particle.\] A convincing detection of diffuse annihilation radiation would be conclusive evidence for the existence of dark matter in the form of WIMPs.

## 5. Acoustic oscillations in the CMB

Temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background are believed to arise from accoustic oscillations seeded by primordial density fluctuations. Analysis of the power spectrum yields much information about the nature of the universe (Jungman et al. 1996). The first peak arises from the largest scale density variations that have just had time to collapse since they entered the horizon. The second peak, at higher $`l`$, occurs for smaller scale waves that entered the horizon at an earlier time and have had time to rebound to the maximum rarefaction. The third peak is on the scale of those waves that have achieved a second collapse, etc.

Since baryonic oscillations are damped (Silk 1968), the heights of the successive peaks should decrease monotonically in the absence of dark matter. Density variations in the dark matter, however, do not oscillate because there is no pressure term – the material interacts with neither the photons nor the baryons. The self-gravity of the photon-baryon plasma oscillating in the potential variations caused by the dominant dark matter causes the odd-numbered peaks (from collapses) to be higher relative to the even ones (from rarefactions), which is a generic signal of dark-matter driven oscillations (Hu & Sugiyama 1996, Hu & White 1996). Thus, we need to examine whether the third peak is higher than the second.

Unfortunately, the height of the third peak is not yet strongly constrained by the data. The best fit model (Spergel et al. 2003) places it at about the same height as the second peak, but the error bars on the first year WMAP data are quite large at this scale. The unconventional analysis by Ödman (2003) suggests that other experiments may have systematic errors, since she suggests that the relative height of the third peak depends on the frequency of the observation, which should not be the case. The relative heights of the second and third peaks will not be determined until we have better data – perhaps soon to come from WMAP. A third peak clearly higher than the second would provide stronger, less model-dependent, evidence for dark matter than is currently indicated by the first year WMAP data (Spergel et al. 2003; see also McGaugh 2003).

## 6. Light as a predictor of mass

There is no doubt that Newtonian mechanics requires mass-to-light ratios that increase with increasing scale (e.g. Bahcall et al. 1995). Modified gravity theories, which are proposed in order to account for this fact, actually require much more: a unique relationship between the baryonic mass and the dynamical mass. This stringent requirement leads to a number of specific predictions that makes them much more easily falsified than is the dark matter hypothesis.

The relationship between the observed baryonic mass and the inferred Newtonian dynamical mass can, in principle, depend on spatial scale, or acceleration (as in MOND), or some other property, but the relation must be universal. Variations in the baryonic/dark mass ratio in similar objects could arise in dark matter models, but cannot be tolerated in modified gravity models. Two well-established examples where this holds are the Tully-Fisher relation for galaxies and the absence of bias in the galaxy distribution; the 2dF galaxy redshift survey team (Verde et al. 2002) conclude that “optically selected galaxies do indeed trace the underlying mass distribution.” Estimates of bias on smaller scales (e.g. Pen et al. 2003) are still subject to significant uncertainties.

Furthermore, modified gravity theories require the gravitational potential well to reflect the shape and orientation of the luminous matter. Dark matter halos, on the other hand, can have much more general shapes and may also be misaligned with the orientation of the luminous matter. These predictions are confronted by available data in this section.

### 6.1. Detailed rotation curve shapes

Kalnajs’s (1983) dramatic demonstration that the inner parts of galaxy rotation curves can be predicted from the light distribution by a simple mass-traces-light model has been amply confirmed in many subsequent investigations (Kent 1986; Buchhorn 1992; Broeils & Courteau 1997; Palunas & Williams 2000; Sancisi, these proceedings). However, such models based on Newtonian dynamics generally fail at larger radii, where the predicted rotation curve falls below that observed.

The outstanding triumph of MOND is that it has yielded a formula that is able to predict the entire detailed rotation curve of a disk galaxy from the light profile. This achievement goes considerably further than its original motivation and works best for the galaxies for which the best data are available, as first shown for a sample of 10 galaxies by Begeman, Broeils & Sanders (1996). Sanders & McGaugh (2002) increase the sample to $`75`$ well-studied disk galaxies.

MOND rotation curve fits have only the mass-to-light ratio, $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$, for the stellar component(s) as a free parameter. In some cases, the distance to the galaxy might require adjustment because the actual acceleration within the galaxy, $`V^2/R`$, is distance-dependent, while the characteristic acceleration $`a_0`$ that enters the fitting formula is not. Generally the fits are quite successful for the standard distance to the galaxy, but adjustments to improve the fits can be as large as a factor 2 in a few cases. A distance required for a good MOND fit could, in principle, be excluded by independent distance indicators, and the few cases where this could potentially invalidate MOND are discussed in Bottema et al. (2002).

Milgrom & Sanders (2003) demonstrate that the declining rotation curves in elliptical galaxies recently announced by Romanowsky et al. (2003) are also in accord with MOND predictions. Gerhard et al. (2001) argue that mass discrepancies begin to appear in elliptical galaxies at much stronger accelerations, $`10a_0`$, although their conclusion is also strongly challenged by Milgrom & Sanders (2003). If it can be convincingly demonstrated that the value of $`a_0`$ is not universal, the success of MOND for spiral galaxies could no longer be interpreted as a manifestion of an unknown universal physical law.

It should be emphasized that conventional dark matter fits have three free parameters: $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}`$, and two halo parameters, such as the core radius, $`r_0`$, and $`V_{\mathrm{flat}}`$ for the psuedo-isothermal halo, or the concentration, $`c`$, and $`V_{200}`$ for an NFW halo. The success of MOND fits, with essentially only a single parameter, therefore cannot be dismissed lightly. If dark matter halos are, in fact, present in these galaxies, then the impressive success of the MOND fitting formula implies an intimate connection between the dark and luminous matter that presents a daunting fine-tuning problem for dark matter models.

Kaplinghat & Turner (2002) attempt to show that a characteristic acceleration of the MOND value emerges “naturally” from the CDM model, but their claim is weak. They show only that the acceleration within a galaxy at which dark matter begins to dominate is of the order of MOND’s $`a_0`$. Since their analysis uses the Gaussian initial fluctuation spectrum, they inevitably predict a spread in $`a_0`$ that is not required and they fail utterly to account for the spectacular accuracy of the MOND fits to the detailed rotation curve shapes.

### 6.2. Dark lenses?

The case for dark matter would be essentially made if we were able to discover objects with extremely high, almost infinite, M/L. The only way such objects might be discovered is through gravitational lensing. Schneider (these proceedings) remarks that there are no known examples of strong lensing by a dark obect, but a few such claims have been made from weak lensing.

Probably the strongest claimed detection of a dark cluster is by Erben et al. (2000), who find a “robust” lensing signal suggesting a previously unidentified dark mass concentration of perhaps $`10^{14}\text{M}_{}`$. There is no visible galaxy cluster and little X-ray emission from the position of this apparent mass concentration. However, it is hard to imagine how a real dark cluster-mass object could have avoided collecting enough hot gas to be X-ray bright. It is possible that the lensing signal is spurious and arises from intrinsic alignments among the background galaxies.

Weak lensing surveys, e.g. by Tyson’s group (Jarvis et al. 2003), should reveal more such cases if they are common, but none has shown up so far. In fact, the lensing mass does not have to be completely dark to rule out alternative gravity theories, large variations in M/L between similar lensing-mass clusters would be sufficient.

## 7. Halo shapes

Simulations of large-scale structure formation have revealed that the dark matter halos of galaxies and clusters are expected to be triaxial. The detailed distribution of halo shapes reported by the different groups varies slightly (see reviews by Springel and by Jing, these proceedings), but most authors find many nearly prolate shapes. It is also known (Dubinski 1994) that baryonic infall makes the halo more nearly axisymmetric.

A naïve prediction from alternative gravity theories might be that the potential is flattened near a flattened light distribution and becomes more nearly spherical further away, since the higher order moments of the potential drop off more quickly. Aguirre (these proceedings) points out that this simple-minded expectation is not necessarily true, especially in MOND.

The meager data on the shapes of dark matter halos are reviewed by Sackett and by Arnaboldi (these proceedings). I continue to be impressed by the absence of a clear detection of a strongly non-axisymmetric extended HI disk that can be attributed to a triaxial dark matter halo. Bekki & Freeman (2002) speculate that spirals in the outer disk of NGC 2915 arise from a rotating triaxial halo, but other intepretations are possible (e.g. Masset & Bureau 2003). The startlingly round outer ring of IC 2002 (Franx et al. 1994) remains an isolated case. The lack of other cases could, perhaps, be a selection bias if gas in a non-axisymmetric halo is driven inwards by shocks until it reaches a closely axisymmetric potential.

### 7.1. Misalignments

Kochanek (2002) could find no evidence for misalignments between the luminous matter and the lensing mass distribution in a number of strong lens systems, and concluded that “Mass traces light.” Perhaps yet more impressive is the claim by Hoekstra et al. (2003) of a detectable flattening of the dark matter halos in a statistical analysis of weak lensing data from stacking a large number of galaxies. If halos were mostly prolate, and the density axes at larger radii were twisted at random angles from those in the inner parts, the flattening found by Hoekstra et al. (2003) should not be detectable. (See Aguirre, these proceedings, for further discussion of their paper.)

Buote et al. (2002), on the other hand, argue that alternative gravity theories can be excluded by their claim of misalignment between the flattened x-ray halo of NGC 720 and the optical image. It is noteworthy that their estimate of the shape and orientation of the halo changed greatly from their earlier estimates based on ROSAT data to this recent anaylsis of Chandra data, due mainly to the elimination of point sources. The lumpy nature of the x-ray isophotes in even their cleaned Chandra image may indicate further contamination by fainter point soucres, or it may indicate that the halo gas is subject to non-gravitational forces, or has has yet to settle. While this one case is not sufficiently compellling to rule out alternative gravity models, their research program is one of the few with this goal.

### 7.2. Substructure

Dalal & Kochanek (2002) argue that the flux ratio anomalies observed in a significant number of quadruple image lens systems indicate the presence of substructure in the dark matter halo. Convincing evidence for the mini-halos predicted in CDM models would constitute decisive support for dark matter. Mao (these proceedings) reviews the evidence, finding a number of puzzles, but concludes that mini-halos are the most likely explanation for flux anomalies, while Schechter (these proceedings) argues that alternative explanations are hard to rule out.

## 8. Galaxy mergers

Binney & Toomre asked whether modified gravity theories could be consistent with galaxy mergers; specifically, whether galaxies that fall together could merge if there are no DM halos to take up the orbital energy and angular momentum? Binney & Tremaine (1987) argue that a pair of similar, spherical galaxies approaching each other will dissipate their orbital energy and angular momentum and merge within a Hubble time for some limited range of specific orbital energies and angular momenta. In a modified gravity picture, the two galaxies would accelerate towards each other more strongly, and would therefore acquire much greater kinetic energy and angular momentum for their masses, making a merger less likely. The effect will scarcely be compensated by increased orbit-to-internal exchanges during the interaction, because forces during the encounter are closer to the Newtonian regime.

Mergers can occur even without dark halos, for sufficiently slow passages, as demonstrated for Newtonian dynamics by Toomre & Toomre (1972). Modified gravity is unlikely to change this conclusion, but will make such encounters rarer. The question then becomes a quantitative one of whether the merger rate will be sufficiently suppressed by modified gravity to be inconsistent with that observed. A clear answer to this question requires a detailed calculation that has yet to be performed, and will depend on the nature of the modification. Two further points are worth making: First, Toomre’s (1977) idea that elliptical galaxies are products of mergers seems to be holding up, but most were probably in place already at moderately high redshift (e.g. van Dokkum & Ellis 2003), perhaps before the time that departures from Newtonian dynamics become significant (Sanders 2001). Second, Hickson compact galaxy groups seem to undergo rapid mergers (Barnes 1989) in conventional dark matter models, making the present-day frequency of these groups difficult to understand – but see also White (1990); modified gravity theories should ease this difficulty.

Studies of individual cases are always revealing. Dubinski et al. (1999) argue that tidal tails require rather low density dark matter halos in conventional dynamics. Comparable studies with modified gravity have not been reported, but would seem to be warranted. In particular, it would be very interesting to test whether simulations of merging systems with dark matter can account for the dramatically more concentrated stellar component in elliptical galaxies reported by Romanowsky et al. (2003).

## 9. Conclusions

This very brief survey of the available data has turned up no really decisive evidence either in favor of dark matter or that could rule out alternative gravity theories. To form a scorecard, I regard the strongest evidence in favor of dark matter as the CMB power spectrum and the explanation of flux ratio anomalies in quadruple lenses in terms of halo substructure. On the other hand, new gravitational physics is favored by the extraordinarily clear relationship between the light and mass distributions in galaxies, and the lensing evidence (Kochanek 2002, Hoekstra et al. 2003) that the mass distribution seems to be aligned with the light – Buote et al. (2002) notwithstanding. The evidence from halo shapes is too fragmentary to put in either column.

It needs to be stressed that the success of MOND fits to rotation curves and the alignment of lensing mass with the visible mass distribution create very serious fine-tuning problems if mass discrepancies are indeed caused by dark matter halos.

As always, more data will help; it is especially desirable to pursue M/L variations, misalignments, substructure, etc., since alternative gravity ideas can be more easily falsified by such evidence than can dark matter models. Decisive evidence for dark matter may come soon from a firm measurement of the relative heights of the 2nd and 3rd peaks in the CMB, possibly even from WMAP, or from a detection of annihilation radiation by the future GLAST mission. In the present absence of decisive evidence on either side, the peculiarities highlighted here seem significant enough to encourage further attempts to develop alternative gravity theories from which testable predictions could be made.

#### Acknowledgments.

I thank Arthur Kosowsky and Moti Milgrom for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from NASA (NAG 5-10110) and from NSF (AST-0098282).

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# A circumstellar disc in a high-mass star forming region

## 1 Introduction

Disks are expected to form during protostellar collapse, and low-mass stars seem to provide good observational evidence for the existence of disks (e.g. Qi et al. 2003; Fuente et al. 2003). The situation is less clear for high-mass stars. While in several cases velocity gradients in massive star forming regions have been detected on large scales ($`>10,000`$AU, e.g. Sandel et al. 2003), evidence for compact discs on scales $`1000`$ AU remains sparse. One possible example is IRAS20126+4104, where there is good evidence for disc-outflow geometry around a 24$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ central object (Cesaroni et al., 1999; Molinari et al., 2000). The case for a disc around G 192.16-3.82, a protostar of $``$15$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ (Shepherd et al., 2001), is less compelling.

Class II methanol maser emission, a signpost of high mass star formation (Minier et al., 2001), offers a potential indicator of discs since it often shows linear structures in both space and position — line-of-sight velocity diagrams (Norris et al., 1998; Minier et al., 2000). These masers have been modeled as occurring at fixed radii within edge-on discs, although it is still unclear whether they arise primarily in discs or outflows (DeBuizer, 2003; Moscadelli et al., 2002). One of the most striking examples of a maser line in both space and velocity is found in NGC7538-IRS1 N (Minier et al., 1998, 2000). We present here the first quantitative Keplerian disc analysis of this maser without invoking the assumption of a single radius. We find compelling evidence for the disc interpretation in this case.

## 2 Maser data and other observations

The NGC7538-IRS1 star formation region has been extensively studied at several wavelengths. The spectral type of the central star has been estimated as O6 (Willner 1976; Campbell & Thompson 1984), in agreement with the SED from 2 mm (Akabane et al. 2001) to 850 $`\mu `$m (Momose et al. 2001) which implies a central object with luminosity of $`>8.3\times 10^4L_{}`$ and mass of about 30$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$. VLA observations uncovered an associated ultra-compact HII region with peak brightness temperature 10,000–15,000 K (Campbell 1984; Gaume et al. 1995). Radio free-free continuum and recombination line observations show a N-S elongated structure attributed to a large scale outflow.

The first VLBI observations of the 12.2 GHz methanol masers (Minier et al. 1998, 2000) revealed several groups of spots corresponding to different features in the single dish spectra. The subject of our study is the maser in the main spectral feature between about $`56.50`$ and $`56.82`$ km s-1. The 12.2 GHz data cube from published data by Minier et al. (2001), made from 1998 VLBA111The VLBA is operated from the National Radio AStronomy Observatory’s Array Operation Center in Socorro, NM. observations, is shown in Figure 1. The interpretation of the linear structure in space and velocity as an edge-on disc (Minier et al. 1998) is supported by the positional agreement of the maser line with the waist of the hour-glass shaped continuum radio emission (Gaume et al. 1995) and a band of free-free absorption. The same structure is evident in the 6.7 GHz maser data, obtained in February 2001 with the European VLBI Network (EVN222 The EVN is a joint facility of European, Chinese, South African and other radio astronomy institutes.), shown in the figure. Taking into account the different angular resolution, the velocity-integrated emission of the two masers is similar out to $`\pm `$20 mas in R.A. (Figure 1, left). In addition, the 6.7 GHz data shows two disconnected ‘outlier’ maser features which lie close to the extrapolation of the maser line. The right panels in Figure 1 show the position-velocity diagrams for the two masers. They both show the same velocity gradient near the center and a bend at $``$15 mas.

The 12.2 GHz line involves the $`2_03_1E`$ transition, the 6.7 GHz line the $`5_16_0A^+`$ transition. Since $`E`$\- and $`A`$-methanol can be regarded as distinct molecules for all practical purposes, the two masers can be expected to probe different physical conditions even when they reside in the same region. Yet in spite of these differences, the brightness peaks of the two lines are perfectly coincident in both velocity and spatial location. The agreement is within the 12.2 GHz angular resolution of 2–3 mas and the spectral resolutions of 0.048 and 0.09 km s-1per channel for the 12.2- and 6.7 GHz data, respectively. Convolving the 12.2 GHz data to the 6.7 GHz spatial resolution we find that the ratio of the two emissions is constant to within 10% over the entire feature.

## 3 Modeling

The remarkable coincidence in space and frequency of the two masers is in fact a natural consequence of amplification of a background source by an edge-on rotating disk. In that case the maser brightness at displacements $`\theta `$ and $`v`$ from the position and velocity of the line-of-sight (LOS) diameter is $`I(\theta ,v)=I_\mathrm{B}e^{\tau (\theta ,v)}`$, where $`I_\mathrm{B}`$ is the background continuum and $`\tau (\theta ,v)`$ the maser (negative) optical depth. Irrespective of the disk annuli where the masers reside, the peak emission will always occur at $`(\theta ,v)=(0,0)`$, which picks out the largest optical depth $`\tau _0`$. With brightness temperature of $`10^4`$ K for the background continuum, the function $`\tau (\theta ,v)=\mathrm{ln}\left[I(\theta ,v)/I_\mathrm{B}\right]`$ is a measured quantity. We find $`\tau _0=18.32`$ and 15.99 for the 6.7- and 12.2 GHz masers, respectively.

Consider an edge-on rotating disc at distance $`D`$ and a point at radius $`\rho =r/D`$ along a path with displacement $`\theta `$. The rotation velocity $`V(\rho )`$ and its LOS component $`v`$ obey $`v/\theta =V/\rho =\mathrm{\Omega }`$, the angular velocity. In Keplerian rotation $`\mathrm{\Omega }\rho ^{3/2}`$ with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{o}=\mathrm{\Omega }(\rho _\mathrm{o})=D\sqrt{GM/R_\mathrm{o}^3}`$ where $`\rho _\mathrm{o}=R_\mathrm{o}/D`$ is the outer radius and $`M`$ the central mass. Assume a Gaussian frequency profile for the maser absorption coefficient and denote the radial variation of its magnitude at line center by the normalized profile $`\eta (\rho )`$ ($`\eta 𝑑\rho =1`$). Then

$$\tau (\theta ,v)=\tau _0\eta (\rho )\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{v\mathrm{\Omega }(\rho )\theta }{\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}}\right)^2\right]\frac{d\rho }{\beta }$$
(1)
where $`\beta =\sqrt{1(\theta /\rho )^2}`$ and $`d\rho /\beta `$ is distance along the path. The width $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}`$ is taken as constant, although it could vary with $`\rho `$ because of temperature variation and maser saturation. Saturation typically requires $`\tau `$ 10–15 across the disc radius, and the broadening of the absorption profile is then proportional to length in excess of this threshold (Elitzur 1992). If the NGC7538-IRS1 N disc is located in front of the background source then the overall amplification with $`\tau `$ $``$ 18 implies an optical depth of only 9 across the radius, too low for saturation. If the radio continuum is centered on the star then the optical depth across the radius is $``$ 18 and saturation can be expected to have an effect, but only at the very outer segments of the disc where a decrease in temperature could have an opposite, offsetting effect. We will consider these effects in a future publication.

We parameterize $`\eta `$ with a power law $`\rho ^p`$ from an inner radius $`\rho _\mathrm{i}=R_\mathrm{i}/D`$ to $`\rho _\mathrm{o}`$. Both $`\tau _0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}`$ are set directly from $`\tau (0,v)`$. Modeling the full $`\tau (\theta ,v)`$ requires two free parameters for the integrand ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{o}`$ and $`p`$) and two for the integration limits ($`\rho _\mathrm{o}`$ and $`h=\rho _\mathrm{i}/\rho _\mathrm{o}`$). Figure 2 shows contour plots of $`\tau (\theta ,v)`$ for a representative Keplerian disc around a 30 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ protostar with the $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}`$ determined from the 12.2 GHz data at $`\theta =0`$. The system is viewed edge-on at the adopted distance to NGC7538.

The lowest contour (3%) outlines the angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }=v/\theta `$ on the disk boundaries. The shallow segments of this contour (lower branch for $`\theta <0`$) trace out the disk outer radius. The steeper ones trace the inner radius when $`|\theta |<\rho _\mathrm{i}`$ and the mid-line when $`|\theta |>\rho _\mathrm{i}`$, where the Keplerian $`v|\theta |^{1/2}`$ is evident. Along any path at $`|\theta |<\rho _\mathrm{i}`$, the velocity varies from $`v_{\mathrm{min}}`$ = $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{o}|\theta |`$ on $`R_\mathrm{o}`$ to $`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$ = $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{i}|\theta |`$ on $`R_\mathrm{i}`$. As long as $`v_{\mathrm{max}}v_{\mathrm{min}}<\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}`$, the full path remains velocity coherent and the maximal $`\tau `$ is centered on the velocity determined from $`\tau (v,\theta )/v=0`$. This yields $`v=\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}\theta `$ where $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}=\mathrm{\Omega }\eta 𝑑\rho `$, an average dominated by the high angular velocity of the inner regions; for example, constant $`\eta `$ gives $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}=2\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{i}h/(1+h^{1/2})`$. The linear relation between $`v`$ and $`\theta `$ is evident in the uniform inclination of the innermost contours.

The condition $`v_{\mathrm{max}}v_{\mathrm{min}}=\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}`$ is met at a displacement $`\theta _\mathrm{k}`$, and $`\tau `$ gets contributions from only a fraction of the path when $`\theta >\theta _\mathrm{k}`$. Since the longest coherence is at the outer radius, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is smallest, the $`\tau `$-contours bend toward lower velocities as is evident in the figure around $`\theta _\mathrm{k}0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}02`$. This bending reflects the change from inner-edge to outer-edge dominance of longest coherence. As $`\theta `$ increases further beyond $`\rho _\mathrm{i}`$, the longest coherent segment moves from the outer radius to the disc mid-line. The maximal $`\tau `$ begins to increase, creating the local outer maximum evident in the 50% contours at $`\theta 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}39`$ before final truncation at $`\theta =\rho _\mathrm{o}`$.

This discussion shows that the contours of highest amplification, down to 70% of $`\tau _0`$, contain dependence on $`p`$, $`h`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ but not on $`\rho _\mathrm{o}`$. This has two important consequences: (1) Successful modeling of the strongest maser emission requires one less parameter. (2) Since $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ involves only the combination $`M/R^3`$, the central mass cannot be determined without observations of (exponentially weaker) radiation close to the phase-space boundary to determine $`\rho _\mathrm{o}`$.

Brightness measurements with dynamic range $`f`$ map the $`\tau `$-distribution between $`\tau _0`$ and $`\tau _0\mathrm{ln}f`$. With $`\tau _0`$ = 15.99 and $`f100`$, the 12.2 GHz data traces the $`\tau `$-contours in NGC7538-IRS1 N down to 70% of peak. Therefore the data shown in the lower left map of figure 3 cover only the two innermost contours in figure 2, and if our model is applicable it should require only the three parameters $`h`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`p`$. In fact, the first two can be determined quite accurately even without detailed modeling since the bend in the $`\tau `$-contours occurs at $`v_\mathrm{k}\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}\left(1+h^{3/2}\right)/\left(1h^{3/2}\right)`$ and $`\theta _\mathrm{k}\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}v_\mathrm{k}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=\frac{1}{2}(\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{i}+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{o})`$. We find directly that $`h`$ = 0.39 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$ = 0.037 km s-1/mas, implying $`M/R_\mathrm{o}^3=30\mathrm{M}_{}/(1000\mathrm{A}\mathrm{U})^3`$ and leaving $`p`$ as the only free parameter to match all other data points in the $`(\theta ,v)`$-plane. Sensible fits to the 12.2 GHz data are obtained when $`0.035<\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.045}`$ and $`0.3<h<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.4}`$.

The lower right panel of figure 3 shows the model map for $`p=0.5`$, the top panels show how well the fitting of $`\tau (\theta ,v)`$ reproduces the brightness profile and the spectrum. The negative $`p`$ means that $`\eta `$, i.e., the maser absorption coefficient, increases with radius. The relation between $`\eta `$ and overall density involves the product of the methanol abundance, the fraction of methanol in the maser system and the fractional inversion. Any of these factors might give more weight to the disk outer regions. Considering the simple power law with sharp cutoffs we employ, a 70% increase in $`\eta `$ across the disk is compatible with a constant density profile.

Our model is equally successful in fitting the main 6.7 GHz maser emission, as is evident from figure 4. The value of $`p`$ is the same for this maser, the only slightly different parameters are $`\tau _0`$ = 18.32, $`h`$=0.38 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$ = 0.037 km/s/mas. The value for $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_\mathrm{D}`$was taken from the 12.2 GHz maser, which is considered to be more reliable because of the higher spatial resolution. Good fits of the 6.7 GHz data are obtained when $`0.035<\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.045}`$ and $`0.35<h<\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.45}`$. The virtual identity of the disc segments of such different masing transitions is an important challenge for class II methanol pumping calculations.

## 4 Discussion

The analysis presented here shows that a Keplerian disk explains successfully, down to minute details, the main methanol maser feature in NGC7538-IRS1 N . The angular velocity we find implies a disk outer radius of $``$1000 AU if the central mass is 30$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, as determined by Campbell (1984). The methanol maser emission covers a substantial area of the disk, with the radius varying by a factor of 3.

The $`\tau (\theta ,v)`$-contours display a bend in the position-velocity diagram. Since $`v=\mathrm{\Omega }\theta `$, a straight line in this diagram implies a constant $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\rho )`$, i.e., either a single radius or, in the case of an extended region, solid-body rotation. Our analysis therefore uncovers a unique signature of differential rotation in the NGC7538-IRS1 N disc. The emission’s smooth structure and the observation’s high sensitivity are crucial for this detection, which is made well inside the $``$ 1.2 km s-1 width of the spectral feature (see top right panels in figures 3 and 4). These requirements preclude detection of the effect in extragalactic sources and explain why it could not be considered in the analysis of the H2O maser disc in NGC4258 (e.g., Watson & Wallin 1994). However, a bend in the position-velocity diagram has been found in thermal line emission from low-mass stars and interpreted as steep-gradient solid-body rotation inside a shallow-gradient Keplerian outer region (Beckwith & Sargent 1993; Ohashi et al. 1997; Belloche et al. 2002). Since maser and optically thin thermal emission, which is directly proportional to optical depth, share the same kinematic structure, our analysis shows there is no need to invoke additional components on top of Keplerian rotation.

Our analysis is valid for a radio continuum source placed either behind the maser disc or at its center. The latter possibility would fit well in the context of disc photoevaporation models (Hollenbach et al. 1994). In that case, the radial extent of disc photoevaporation by the central star in NGC7538 covers the entire maser region and could activate both methanol formation and the observed outflow, responsible for the radio continuum. The maser location at the outflow waistline makes this scenario especially attractive.

The methanol maser data determines detailed disc properties with high precision yet the central mass remains undetermined since it requires the outer radius. And $`\rho _\mathrm{o}`$ is still unobservable because the angular extent of the detected emission does not trace the full disk, instead it is controlled by velocity coherence and the dynamic range of the observations. The amplification opacity at the disk outer edge (see fig. 2) is 50% of the central peak level. With $`\tau `$ = 16 (18) at the center, detection of the outer peak requires a dynamic range of 3000 (8100) if the radio source is located behind the maser disc, placing it beyond the reach of the current observations by a factor of $``$ 30 (80). The requirements become even more severe if the continuum is centered on the star. The 6.7 GHz outlier features therefore cannot correspond to the outer peak of our model disc. Instead, these outliers are probably the first detection of enhanced amplification by small inhomogeneities in an otherwise rather smooth disc. Such non-axisymmetric distortions of the disk surface, and their possible effect on the pumping, have been proposed by Durisen et al. (2001). It should be possible, though, to determine $`\rho _\mathrm{o}`$ by probing the boundary of the ($`\theta ,v`$) region at $`\theta <\rho _\mathrm{o}`$ along the $`v`$-axis or another direction such as the normal to $`\overline{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$. We will study these issues in detail in a future publication.

This study provides one of the few pieces of evidence to date for a compact ($`1000`$ AU) disc around a massive protostar. It seems certain, though, that not all class II methanol masers occur in discs. Even in NGC7538-IRS1 N itself, the weaker methanol masers to the south, which are associated with other maser species (OH, H2O etc), are likely to arise from an outflow. The interpretation of ordered lines of methanol masers in terms of disc or outflow models must be decided case by case with detailed modeling.

M. Pestalozzi thanks his fellow PhD student Rodrigo Parra for the useful discussions and for all the useful MATLAB tricks. M. Elitzur thanks the NSF for its support and Chalmers University for a Jubileum Professor award that triggered a most enjoyable visit to Onsala. The reduced 12.2 GHz data cube was kindly made available by Vincent Minier.


text:
# Analysis of Hadronic Properties at SPS energies from a Statistical Model

## I INTRODUCTION

It has been of great interest to find out whether a hot and dense nuclear matter has been formed during the high energy nuclear collisionsqm , and when the temperature and/or density is high enough one expects a system of free quarks and gluons, namely quark-gluon plasma. Main issue here is the thermalization of the partonic or hadronic system formed just after the collisions and throughout the evolution of the following hadronic system. Thus probing the thermalization of the system in collision is of great importance. The large elliptic flow and the jet quenching effect indicate a collective behavior. However those are not yet the direct experimental evidence of thermalization. Best one can do so far is to assume thermalization and to show the experimental data is not inconsistent with the assumption of thermalization. In this case one has to show that assuming thermalization is the only way to explain the data in order to claim the thermalization. We will show in this paper that a simple statistical model can fit both the rapidity and the transverse momentum spectra of various hadrons.

In the relativistic heavy-ion collisions at AGS, SPS and RHIC, hadrons are measured quite accurately, especially for pions, kaons and protons. Usually the hadronic data are presented in many different ways: (1) total multiplicities of particles or the ratios of the multiplicities of different hadrons, (2) single differentials such as the rapidity distribution $`dN/dy`$, and the transverse mass spectra $`dN/m_{}dm_{}`$ , (3) the double differentials such as B-E correlation function and (4) the averages or moments of certain physical quantities such as fluctuations and flow coefficients which is the second moment of the azimuthal angle, $`\varphi `$. The total number of particles can be obtained either by integrating the rapidity distribution over the whole range of the rapidity, i.e. $`N_i=𝑑y(dN_i/dy)`$ or by integrating over the whole $`p_{}`$ range, i.e. $`N_i=m_{}𝑑m_{}𝑑N/m_{}𝑑m_{}`$.

Models assuming thermal and chemical equilibrium fit each pieces of data very nicelybraun ; becattini ; rafelski ; lee ; heinz ; broniowski  and explain many features of data. Thermal models assuming chemical equilibriumbraun ; becattini ; rafelski , when applied to the ratios of various hadron multiplicities fit the data impressively well with only a few parameters such as the temperature $`T_c`$, baryonic chemical potential, $`\mu _b`$ and/or the strange chemical potential, $`\mu _s`$.

Fireball models with strong radial flowlee ; heinz ; broniowski  fits the transverse mass spectra quite nicely with a few parameters, $`T_{th}`$, $`\mu _b`$ and radial expansion velocity at the surface, $`\beta _s`$.

The rapidity distributions are usually Gaussian. Spherically expanding fireball model applied to pion data at AGS energylee  results in too narrow width compared to the data, and in the cylindrically expanding fireball modelheinz  fast longitudinal expansion makes the rapidity width wider and seems to fit the data when the system sizes are small. However, expanding fireball models with any geometry seems to have difficulty in fitting the rapidity distributions of pions and kaons, simultaneously, in the Pb+Pb collision at SPS.

The two different sets of freeze-out parameters from the ratio analysis and the transverse momentum spectra analysis leads to the conjecture that the chemical components freezes earlier at high temperature, $`T_{ch}`$, and the thermal equilibrium is still maintained until $`T_{th}`$, keeping the number of certain particle species constantredlich .

However, calculation by Broniowski and Florkowskibroniowski  claim that both the ratios and transverse mass spectra can be fitted with a single set of freeze-out parameters. As the models seem to be the similar, independent calculations are needed to check which one is right.

In spite of the success of thermal models for hadrons produced in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions, it is known that the statistical model of multiparticle production leads to the Boltzmann factorfermi ; hagedorn ; cyy  and can explain the hadronic data produced in e+e- and p$`\overline{\text{p}}`$ collisions. In the series of papers by T. T. Chou, C. N. Yang and E. Yen cyy  a statistical model for multiparticle production is derived and applied successfully to the rapidity distribution and transverse momentum distribution of measured hadrons in e$`+`$ e- collisions by TASSO collaboration. This model has been further modified and studied by Hoang hoang  to include the Lorentz-boosted Boltzmann factor in order to mimic the shift of the peak of the rapidity distribution in the asymmetric collisions. It should be emphasized that this statistical model does neither require the thermalization of the system nor the concept of freeze-out. Recently the same argument has been revived hsu ; rischke ; koch , but application of the statistical model to the relativistic heavy-ion collision data has not been attempted yet.

Thus it is very interesting to study whether the statistical model which successfully fit e+e- collision data can also fit the rapidity distributions and transverse momentum spectra of pions and kaons produced in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions, especially whether it can fit all of them with a single set of parameters. A priori it is not clear whether pions and kaons have the same parameter ”T” in the statistical model. However, there is a claim that e$`+`$ e- collision data could be fit with only one ”temperature” for various hadronscyy ; hoang .

In this paper we will show that a simple statistical model can describe both the rapidity and transverse mass spectra of various hadrons measured in the heavy-ion collisions. In our previous workkslee , the rapidity distribution of hadrons are analyzed using the same model.

In the next section the statistical model by chou, Yang and Yen is reviewed and in sec. III the result of our analysis of the rapidity distributions and transverse mass spectra of $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^{}`$, K+ and K- in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV$``$ A by the NA49 collaborationcooper ; leeuwen  is presented and finally we summarize in sec. IV.

## II Statistical Model

In this section we follow the paper by Chou, Yang and Yen cyy  for the statistical model invented for e+e- collisions which can be used for the heavy-ion collisions with minor modifications.

We will assume the multiparticle production in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions is stochastic but subject to a number of conditions: (a) energy conservation, (b) leading baryon effect which means that leading baryons in both the projectile and target region do not participate in the collision, (c) $`d^3p/E`$ probability for each particle, and (d) transverse momentum cutoff factor $`g(p_{})`$. Then the probability for non-leading particles in the collision zone can be taken as

$$\delta (E_iE_0h)\underset{i}{}(d^3p_i/E_i)g(p__i)$$
(1)
where $`E_0=\sqrt{s}`$ and $`h`$ is the fraction of the total energy $`E_0`$ used for the particle production in the central region.

It was pointed out that the probability distribution is exactly the same as in the microcanonical ensemble in the statistical mechanics. By the well-known Darwin-Fowler method the single particle distribution of such an ensemble can be converted into a distribution in the canonical ensemble :

$$Probability=(d^3p/E)g(p_{})\mathrm{exp}(E/T_p)$$
(2)
where $`T_p`$ is called the partition temperature. Noting that $`d^3p=dp_Lp_{}dp_{}d\varphi =Edyp_{}dp_{}d\varphi `$, one gets the equation for the rapidity distribution by integrating over the transverse momentum.

$$dN_i/dy=2\pi K_0^{p_{max}}p_{}𝑑p_{}g_i(p_{})\mathrm{exp}(E_i/T_p)$$
(3)
where $`K`$ is a normalization constant, and $`p_{max}=E_0h`$ which can be taken as infinity in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions. $`E_i=m_T\mathrm{cosh}y`$ , and $`m_T=\sqrt{m_i^2+p_{}^2}`$. We will use for the high momentum cutoff factor as in Ref. cyy ,

$$g_i(p_{})=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha _ip_{})$$
(4)
where $`\alpha _i`$ related to the average transverse momentum, $`<p_{}>`$. One can show that for the massless case,

$$\alpha _i=2[<p__i>]^1$$
(5)
and in fitting e+e- data, the value of $`\alpha `$ was taken from the measured data.

Similarly the transverse momentum or transverse mass spectra is given, after integration over the rapidity $`y`$, as

$$dN_i/m_{}dm_{}=2\pi Kg_i(p_{})𝑑y\mathrm{exp}(E_i/T_p)$$
(6)
Eq. (3) can be integrated for the massless particles and the role of parameters can be easily understood.

$$dN_i/dy=\frac{2\pi K}{(\alpha _i+\mathrm{cosh}y/T_p)^2},$$
(7)
whose maximum at $`y=0`$ is

$$(dN_i/dy)_{max}=\frac{2\pi K}{(\alpha _i+1/T_p)^2}=\frac{2\pi KT_p^2}{(\alpha _iT_p+1)^2}$$
(8)
and the width $`\delta y_i`$ at the half maximum is given from the relation

$$\mathrm{cosh}\delta y_i=(\sqrt{2}1)\alpha _iT_p+\sqrt{2}$$
(9)
For the massless particle the width is governed by the factor $`\alpha _iT_p`$. Thus when the value $`\alpha `$ is taken from experiment, the parameter $`T_p`$ is a measure of the width of $`dN/dy`$ in this model. This is quite different from the thermal models, where $`T_p`$ determines the slope of the transverse momentum spectra and in order to fit the width of the rapidity distribution one further need the concept of longitudinal expansion of the system.

This can be understood again from Eq. (6), which describes an exponential shape. Contrary to the naive expectation, the slope of the exponential is determined not by $`T_p`$, but by $`1/\alpha `$ through Eq. (4). This is because the fitted value of $`T_p`$ is very large ( $``$ 1 GeV) compared to the average transverse momentum, which usually translates into the temperature. Thus in this model the main slope of the exponential shape is put in by hand as a high momentum cut-off factor, Eq. (4) and the integration in Eq. (6) gives a modification to the simple exponential shape.

In Eq. (3) and Eq. (6) , $`K`$, $`T_p`$ and $`\alpha _i`$ ’s are parameters. In the next section results of fitting of the rapidity distributions and transverse mass spectra of $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^{}`$, K+ and K- in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV$``$A by the NA49 collaborations.

## III Analysis

Main results of the fitting of the rapidity distributions and transverse mass spectra of $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^{}`$, K+ and K- in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV$``$A measured by NA49 collaborationcooper ; leeuwen  are shown in Fig. 1-4 and the resulting parameters are tabulated in Table 1.

In Table 1, we have fitted each species separately and thus the resulting parameters are all different. $`<p_{}>`$ is calculated from $`\alpha `$ using Eq. (5). One may use experimental value of $`\alpha `$ and then $`K`$ and $`T_p`$ are the only parameters in this model. It is amazing that a very simple model with only two parameters can fit both of the rapidity and transverse momentum spectra of each particle species.

In this model there is no a priori reason for the common value of $`T_p`$ for different particle species. Simultaneous fitting of the rapidity and transverse mass spectra of pions and kaons with a single value $`T_p`$ is not possible, which is contrary to the case of e+ e- collisionshoang . However, in Ref. hoang  Lorentz-boosted exponential was used and direct comparison is not possible and further studies with the Lorentz-boosted exponential is needed to check whether in the relativistic heavy-ion collisions a single value of $`T_p`$ can describe the particle spectra of all the different species.

In Ref. kslee  we have successfully fitted only the rapidity distribution of pions and kaons with a single $`T_p`$ but different $`\alpha _i`$’s. We get $`K=1212`$, $`T_p=0.98`$ GeV, $`\alpha _{\pi ^+}=5.98`$ c/GeV, $`\alpha _\pi ^{}=5.67`$ c/GeV, $`\alpha _{K^+}=11.4`$ c/GeV, and $`\alpha _K^{}=17.1`$ c/GeV. The large values of $`\alpha _i`$’s spoils the interpretation of $`\alpha `$ in terms of the average transverse momentum through Eq. (5). This means that even though all the rapidity distributions are fitted simultaneously, the transverse mass spectra are far off. However, one can also fit the rapidity distributions of each particle species separately by fixing the $`\alpha _i`$ values as the experimental values and the resulting values from the least square fit are approximately the same as those in the Table 1, meaning that by fitting only the rapidity distribution one can fit the transverse mass spectrum also. Concentrating only for the rapidity distributions, one can either fit them with a single value of $`T_p`$ with the transverse mass spectra far off or fit both of the rapidity and transverse mass spectrum with different $`T_p`$ values for different particle species.

As was discussed in the previous section $`T_p`$ is above 1 GeV and thus in Eq. (6), $`1/\alpha `$ plays the role of the slope parameter and the integral in Eq. (6) acts as the high energy cut-off.

For pions we have used $`K`$, $`T_p`$, $`\alpha _{\pi ^+}`$ and $`\alpha _\pi ^{}`$ as parameters. One may use the same $`T_p`$ and $`\alpha `$ but different $`K`$ values for $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^{}`$. Or one may further introduce the charge chemical potential $`\mu _c`$ to write $`K_{\pi ^+}=K\mathrm{exp}(\mu _c/T_p)`$ and $`K_\pi ^{}=K\mathrm{exp}(\mu _c/T_p)`$. In this way one gets $`K=625.0`$, $`T_p=1.21`$ GeV, $`\alpha =4.17`$ c/GeV and $`\mu _c=0.043`$ GeV. The quality of the fitting is more or less the same. Similarly for kaons one can introduce the strange chemical potential $`\mu _s`$ to write $`K_{K^+}=K\mathrm{exp}(\mu _s/T_p)`$ and $`K_K^{}=K\mathrm{exp}(\mu _s/T_p)`$. Then the rapidity and transverse spectra of both the K+ and K- can be fitted simultaneously with $`K=50.7`$, $`T_p=1.43`$ GeV , $`\alpha _{K^+}=2.6`$c/GeV, $`\alpha _K^{}=2.9`$ c/GeV and $`\mu _s=0.415`$ GeV.

## IV Conclusion

We have fitted the rapidity and transverse mass spectra of $`\pi ^+`$, $`\pi ^{}`$, K+ and K- in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV$``$A measured by NA49 collaboration with a simple statistical model. For each particle species both the rapidity and the transverse mass spectra are nicely fitted with only three parameters. However, simultaneous fitting for all the pions and kaons with a single value of $`T_p`$ is not possible.

Thus the success of thermal models for the hadron multiplicities and/or transverse momentum spectra, by itself alone, does not necessarily mean the thermalization of the system.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to acknowledge U. Heinz for useful discussions and H. Dobler for his work in arranging data in useful format.


text:
# Neutrino Oscillations as a Probe of Dark Energy

## I Introduction and Motivation

In the past decade, two of the greatest advances in physics have been the experimental confirmation of neutrino oscillations, and the observation of acceleration of the cosmological expansion from a mysterious dark sector. In this letter, we link the two, discussing how neutrino oscillation experiments could reveal non-gravitational interactions between matter and the dark sector.

In recent years great progress has been made in understanding neutrino masses and oscillations. As first pointed out by WolfensteinWolfenstein (1978), and Mikheev and Smirnov Mikheev and Smirnov (1985, 1986) the forward scattering of neutrinos by matter via the weak interactions, while having a very small cross section, can have a significant effect on neutrino oscillations. As a consequence, in all theoretical analyses of the oscillations of neutrinos passing through the sun or earth, matter effects on neutrino propagation have played a central role. The plethora of neutrino mass experiments Smy (2003); Wilkes (2002); Hallin et al. (2003); Eguchi et al. (2003); Hampel et al. (1999); Altmann et al. (2000); Abdurashitov et al. (2002) appearing in the wake of the original Homestake Cleveland et al. (1998) solar neutrino experiment have converged to a consistent picture of neutrino mass: large angle MSW explaining the solar deficit, and a large mixing angle explaining the atmospheric neutrino deficit as well. In spite of this convergence, very little is really known about the interactions and properties of neutrinos. Aside from mild constraints from BBN and supernovae, interactions of low energy neutrinos with themselves or with ordinary matter are poorly known. Given that we already know that neutrino masses have tremendous environmental dependence even with purely weak interactions, and given our experimental ignorance of neutrino interactions, we must ask whether new interactions could offer additional medium dependence, and what physics such new interactions could probe.

A natural origin for new interactions would be the sector responsible for dark energy. Neutrinos and neutrino oscillations are ideal windows into the dark sector, not only because the neutrino’s known interactions are weak, and masses small, but also because if lepton number is broken, neutrinos carry no conserved charges and are uniquely capable of mixing with fermions in the dark sector. The dark energy offers an important clue, in that its scale - $`(2\times 10^3\mathrm{eV})^4`$ \- is comparable to the scale of neutrino mass splittings, $`\delta m_\nu ^2(10^2\mathrm{eV})^2`$. Should there be new particles at this scale, their interactions and mixings with neutrinos could be significant. Given that neutrino masses are already known to be sensitive to Planck-suppressed interactions via the seesaw mechanism M. Gell-Mann (1979); Yanagida (1979), it is not at all surprising to suggest that new, sub-gravitational forces mediated by the dark sector particles could generate additional medium dependence of the neutrino mass.

Here we broaden the discussion of a class of theories first proposed in ref. Fardon et al. (2003) to explain the nature of the dark energy. These theories explain the similarity between the dark energy scale and the measured scale of neutrino mass splittings, by postulating that neutrino masses are variable, depending on the value of a scalar field $`𝒜`$. The potential for $`𝒜`$ is taken to be very flat, so that the magnitude of $`𝒜`$ depends upon the cosmological density of neutrinos. As a result, these mass varying neutrinos (MaVaNs) become heavier as their density decreases, and the total energy of the fluid (both in neutrinos and in the $`𝒜`$ field), identified with the dark energy, can vary slowly as the neutrino density decreases. Not only can this explain the origin of dark energy, but it can also substantially alter the cosmological limits on neutrino mass Fardon et al. (2003), modify neutrino mass relationships to leptogenesis Bi:2003yr , and change the flavor content of the cosmic background neutrinos and distant astrophysical sources Hung:2003jb .

Here we show that sub-gravitational strength interactions between ordinary matter and the $`𝒜`$ field naturally occur, and can cause the value of $`𝒜`$ to differ in the presence of matter from its vacuum value. This leads to medium-dependent neutrino masses and novel features in neutrino oscillations. Observing these effects would not only extend our understanding of neutrinos, but would also shed light on the mysterious dark sector which governs the evolution of the universe on the grandest scales.

After explaining in the next section how such effects arise, we proceed in III to consider how these matter effects can improve agreement between the LSND results and other experiments.

## II Dark Bosons, Dark Fermions and the Standard Model

For all we know there could be a profusion of new particles with no standard model gauge interactions. We will refer to such particles as “dark”. The main constraint on such indiscernible beasts comes from cosmology—the success of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) strongly suggests that the only relativistic species in thermal equilibrium with visible matter at a temperature of order an MeV are those we already know about. Thus dark particles must either be much heavier than an MeV or too weakly interacting to thermally equilibrate with visible matter in the early universe when the temperature was a few MeV. Such considerations have been used to place limits on neutrino mixing with sterile neutrinos Barbieri and Dolgov (1990); Kainulainen (1990) and on other interactions with light dark particles. Dark particles are also constrained from the requirement that they not excessively contribute to supernovae cooling. In ref. Fardon et al. (2003), however, it was shown that significant neutrino-dark fermion mixing today can be reconciled with BBN and supernova cooling constraints, due to the strong medium dependence of neutrino properties for MaVaNs.

In this section we will explore the potential impact of the dark sector on neutrino oscillations. We consider a dark sector consisting of a scalar, $`𝒜`$, and fermions, $`n`$. We will take the dark energy scale, $`2\times 10^3\mathrm{eV}`$ to be the typical mass scale of this sector. Taking a cue from the standard model, where masses range over nearly six orders of magnitude for the charged fermions, we consider mass parameters within a few orders of magnitude of the dark energy scale, but not, e.g., Hubble sized Compton wavelengths as in quintessence models.

A general Lagrangian for the dark sector includes

$$\delta =m_n(𝒜)nnV_0(𝒜),$$
(1)
where we ignore operators involving more than two fermions, which are irrelevant to our discussion. The Majorana mass $`m_n(𝒜)`$ may be linear in $`𝒜`$, or some more complicated function. The only renormalizable interaction allowed between the dark sector and the standard model is $`y_\nu h\mathrm{}n,`$ where $`y_\nu `$ is the Yukawa coupling of the Higgs boson to a SM neutrino and a dark fermion. This interaction yields a Dirac mass $`m_D=y_\nu v`$. If the dark fermion Majorana mass is well below the weak scale, $`y_\nu `$ must be extremely small. Many simple mechanisms for extremely small Yukawa couplings exist in the literature, for example, see Dvali and Nir (1998). If $`m_n(𝒜)>m_D`$ then the seesaw mechanism yields an effective $`𝒜`$-dependent neutrino mass, $`m_\nu (𝒜)=m_D^2/m_n(𝒜)`$. We also assume there may be other contributions to the neutrino mass, e.g. from a GUT-seesaw mechanism, which are $`𝒜`$ independent.

As in Fardon et al. (2003) the energy density of the cosmic background neutrinos will tend to drive $`m_\nu `$ to smaller values and, consequently, $`m_n`$ to larger values. That is, the effective neutrino mass is a function of the background neutrino density. The neutrinos also have an effective coupling to $`𝒜`$ with strength $`\lambda _\nu =m_\nu /𝒜|_A`$.

For a nonrelativistic neutrino background, we can find the value of $`𝒜`$ by minimizing the effective potential

$$V(𝒜)=n_\nu m_\nu (𝒜)+V_0(𝒜)$$
(2)
where $`V_0`$ is the effective potential in vacuum.

Up to this point, we have not considered the possible interactions of $`𝒜`$ with other matter. To begin, we consider couplings radiatively generated from SM loops. There are a number of possibilities to consider. The most potentially significant are corrections to the electron wave function renormalization (and hence to the electron mass) from W and Higgs loops, and to the Z-propagator (and hence to quark masses at higher loop). If we consider the theory to contain just the standard model with variable ($`𝒜`$-dependent) masses, these corrections also appear to depend on $`𝒜`$, at order $`G_fm_\nu ^2`$. In matter with density of $`3g/\mathrm{cm}^3`$, such an interaction has a comparable effect on the $`𝒜`$ potential as the cosmic neutrino background, with the vastly higher density of electrons compensating for the much weaker coupling.

However, the electroweak radiative corrections are dominated by high ($`M_W`$) momenta, so if the $`n`$ fermions are lighter than $`M_W`$, they should also be considered in the loops. A careful treatment finds that the leading corrections in this case are proportional to $`G_fm_D^2`$, and independent of $`𝒜`$. Terms depending on $`𝒜`$ are suppressed by an additional factor of $`G_fm_n^2(𝒜)`$ and are too weak to be relevant. We conclude that radiatively generated couplings of the dark scalar to quarks and charged leptons are not interesting if (and only if) the scalar-neutrino interaction arises solely due to neutrino mixing with a dark fermion which is much lighter than the $`W`$ boson.

We also consider non-renormalizable operators which couple the dark scalar to visible matter, such as might arise from quantum gravity. At low energies, these interactions would be appear as Yukawa couplings of $`𝒜`$ to the proton, neutron and electron, which we parametrize as $`\lambda _im_i/M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$, with $`i=\mathrm{p},\mathrm{n},\mathrm{e}`$, respectively, and where $`M_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ is the Planck scale. Couplings $`\lambda _{n,p}10^2`$ are consistent with tests of the gravitational inverse square law for an $`𝒜`$ mass larger than $`10^{11}\mathrm{eV}`$ Adelberger et al. (2003), and, (for $`\lambda _p\lambda _n`$), with tests of the equivalence principle for an $`𝒜`$ mass larger than $`10^8\mathrm{eV}`$ Su:gu ; Smith:cr .

In the presence of matter, and ignoring the electron contribution, we have a new effective potential for $`𝒜`$

$$\overline{V}=\frac{\lambda _B\rho _B𝒜}{M_{\mathrm{Pl}}}+V(𝒜),$$
(3)
where $`\rho _B`$ is the mass density of baryonic matter, and we have set $`\lambda _p=\lambda _n=\lambda _B`$.

The change in the neutrino mass in the presence of matter may be estimated to be

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_\nu 1\mathrm{eV}\left(\frac{\lambda _\nu }{10^1}\right)\left(\frac{\lambda _B}{10^2}\right)\left(\frac{\rho _B}{\overline{\rho }_B}\right)\left(\frac{10^6\mathrm{eV}}{m_𝒜}\right)^2$$
(4)
where $`m_𝒜^2V^{\prime \prime }(𝒜)`$, and $`\overline{\rho }_B=3\mathrm{g}/\mathrm{cm}^3`$, a baryon mass density which is typical of the earth’s crust. This estimate assumes the shift in $`𝒜`$ is sufficiently small to allow for a Taylor expansion of $`V`$ about the present epoch background value for $`𝒜`$; for a flatter potential, as was used in Fardon et al. (2003) in order to explain dark energy, the change in the neutrino mass will be much larger, and the $`𝒜`$ mass will be variable.

The generic point is that for MaVaNs, the neutrino mass is environment dependent, and the neutrino mass in rock or in a star can vary considerably from the neutrino mass in air and in space. Significant matter effects on neutrino propagation are familiar, as in the Standard Model MSW mechanism. The possibility of such medium dependence was noted early by Wolfenstein Wolfenstein (1978), and a scenario where Dirac neutrinos only have mass in matter has been considered previously Sawyer:1998ac . New scalar contributions to the effective neutrino mass can be distinguished experimentally from standard MSW contributions and from new vector contributions Valle (1987); Roulet (1991); Guzzo et al. (1999); Ota et al. (2002); Joshipura and Mohanty (2003); Davidson et al. (2003); Garbutt and McKellar (2003); Campanelli and Romanino (2003) as they are energy independent, and equal for neutrinos and antineutrinos, absent CP violation.

## III Matter Effects in Existing Experiments

Since dark energy now provides us a motivation to consider the possibility of medium dependent neutrino mass, we want to examine what the effects could be on existing neutrino data. In particular it is instructive to examine the LSND evidence for short baseline $`\overline{\nu }_\mu \overline{\nu }_e`$ oscillations in light of these possible matter effects. Here, we will study whether the ability to have different $`\delta m^2`$’s in air and matter can lead to an improved agreement both between the other positive results as well as the existing negative results.

Let us begin by discussing the relevant experiments. We can loosely group oscillation experiments into three categories. There are long baseline experiments (LBL), which includes solar neutrino experiments, KamLAND, K2K, and SuperK as well as earlier studies of atmospheric neutrinos. These experiments have all seen evidence for neutrino oscillations, and involve significant propagation through dense matter. The positive results are interpreted through neutrino oscillations to require two small mass squared splittings, $`𝒪(8\times 10^5\mathrm{eV}^2)`$ for the solar neutrinos and KamLAND, and $`𝒪(2\times 10^3\mathrm{eV}^2)`$ for K2K and atmospheric neutrino studies. The Super-K atmospheric results should not entirely be classified as positive as the through-going muon data show no evidence for oscillation. This result relies on a knowledge of very high (O(100 GeV)) neutrinos and may be subject to systematics not present in e.g., the angular dependence of the multi-GeV events. There are null short baseline experiments (NSBL), including the CHOOZ, Bugey, and Palo Verde reactor experiments, and the higher energy CDHS, KARMEN, CHORUS, and NOMAD experiments, involving muon neutrinos. These experiments have all seen no evidence for neutrino oscillations. Lastly, there is LSND, whose results are consistent with oscillations with a mass splitting greater than $`3\times 10^2\mathrm{eV}^2`$. These results are summarized in Hagiwara:fs .

Because three neutrinos can only accommodate two independent mass splittings, LSND has generally been interpreted to necessitate an additional sterile neutrino or neutrinos. However, recent studies (see Schwetz (2003) and references therein) demonstrate that this, too, gives a poor fit to the data. Incorporating LSND by invoking CPT violation seems in conflict with recent KamLAND data, while a 3+2 sterile scenario Sorel et al. (2003) improves the fit in a seemingly contrived way by setting the masses of the sterile neutrinos to lie in regions where the NSBL constraints are weakest.

Four neutrino scenarios have a poor fit due in large part to the differences in how neutrino oscillations affect disappearance experiments compared with the positive appearance signal at LSND. Atmospheric and solar neutrino data are inconsistent with a large mixing angle of $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\mu `$ with any sterile neutrino, implying that the mass eigenstates associated with solar and atmospheric oscillations are almost entirely active. Thus in a four neutrino scenario, the mass eigenstate associated with the LSND mass squared difference must be mostly sterile, with small admixture of $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\mu `$. With these constraints, the amplitude for the LSND $`\nu _\mu \nu _e`$ transition is the product of two small mixings (the component of the heavy eigenstate which is $`\nu _\mu `$ and the component which is $`\nu _e`$), while only one small mixing angle appears in the SBL disappearance experiments (the component which is $`\nu _e`$ for reactor experiments). Put another way, LSND is only sensitive to $`\nu _\mu \nu _e`$, while disappearance experiments are sensitive to $`\nu _e\nu _\mu `$ as well as $`\nu _e\nu _s`$, which is, in general, larger.

The experimental limits of exotic matter effects on neutrino oscillations have barely been explored. Here we will see to what extent matter effects can improve agreement of LSND with other experiments. Of the NSBL experiments, the Bugey experiment involves dominantly propagation through air Abbes:1995nc ; J. Favier (2004). The Palo Verde results involve neutrinos dominantly propagating through earth F. Boehm (2003). The CHOOZ experiment neutrinos propagate roughly 10-20% through earth D. Steinberg (2003). Of the terrestrial positive signal experiments, both KamLAND and Super-K study the propagation of neutrinos through earth.

Within the context of purely three neutrino oscillations, one might want to consider what the limits are on the $`\delta m^2`$’s and mixing angles in air and earth separately. The possibility that LSND is testing the “air” values of the neutrino mass matrix seem excluded by the fact that KARMEN has similar air pathlength as LSND, and hence would constrain such an oscillation scenario more strongly than ordinary neutrino oscillations.

If one wants to understand the LSND signal from a “matter” value for the neutrino mass matrix, there are a number of experiments to consider. KamLAND gives evidence for large mixing of $`\nu _e`$ with some other neutrino in earth with a mass splitting $`5\times 10^5\mathrm{eV}^2\delta m^210^3\mathrm{eV}^2`$ where the upper bound comes from CHOOZ and Palo Verde. Super-K atmospheric and K2K show evidence for $`\nu _\mu `$ mixing significantly with $`\nu _\tau `$ and a mass splitting $`\delta m^210^3\mathrm{eV}^2`$. In fact, the strongest evidence for the scale of the mass splitting comes from the zenith-angle dependence of the multi-GeV events. In this scenario, one has the exciting possibility that the presently quoted value of mass splitting for atmospheric neutrinos is merely an artifact of the significant depletion of those neutrinos originating below the horizon, which could arise in this scenario from a much larger mass splitting in matter. This speculation, however, seems at odds with the through-going muons, which, together with the stopping muons, give an upper bound on the scale of oscillations of about $`10^2\mathrm{eV}^2`$ Fukuda:1999pp .

These results would suggest that using only three neutrinos, one cannot reconcile LSND with the other experiments. However, should there be some systematic effect in the O(100 GeV) neutrinos, or if some unknown process contributes to the production of high energy atmospheric neutrinos, one can consider a scenario where $`(\nu _\mu +\nu _\tau )/\sqrt{2}`$ has a larger mass in matter in order to explain the LSND result, and a mass $`3\times 10^2\mathrm{eV}`$ in air to explain the atmosperhic result. Leaving the lightest two mass eigenstates to be essentially constant in air and matter, and a small admixture of $`\nu _e`$ in the heaviest, it appears that the matter parameters of $`0.07\mathrm{eV}^2\mathrm{\Delta }m^20.26\mathrm{eV}^2`$, and $`0.02\mathrm{sin}^22\theta 0.12`$ appears to fit all of the results outside of the throughgoing muons. (The range in the mixing angle could in fact be much larger, depending on the details of how the CHOOZ experiment changes when restricted to limits on matter parameters.)

However, the presence of light SM-singlet states in the theory seems to be necessary for naturalness Fardon et al. (2003), and so we should also consider the effects on these states in oscillations. Indeed, medium effects can improve the fit of four-neutrino scenarios. The medium dependence of the light mass eigenstates arises most simply from changing the mass of the heavy dominantly singlet mass eigenstates.

The principal limitation on four-neutrino scenarios in the region near $`0.1\mathrm{eV}^2`$ is from Bugey. Since Bugey does not constrain the matter values of the neutrino properties, but only the air, it is straightforward to reconcile LSND with the NSBL experiments. If the singlet state is $`𝒪(0.3\mathrm{eV})`$ in matter, but in air is much heavier and with smaller mixings, one can achieve a good fit to all existing data.

Of course, by lowering the mass of this singlet state in matter, some dominantly active mass eigenstate should also have a resulting change in its mass. From the LSND result, we expect some mass splitting to change in matter by an amount

$`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2>\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _{\mathrm{LSND}}\delta m_{\mathrm{LSND}}^23\times 10^4\mathrm{eV}^2.`$ (5)
This scale suggests that the scenario is very interesting for more precise studies of the differences between air and earth mass parameters, even in existing data sets. A careful study of the implications of the atmospheric neutrino data would be worthwhile to see whether it is consistent with different oscillation lengths in air and in matter. It would be interesting to see whether a general fit of the atmospheric and K2K data can constrain four independent parameters

$$\delta m_{\mathrm{atm}:\mathrm{air}}^2,\delta m_{\mathrm{atm}:\mathrm{rock}}^2,\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _{\mathrm{atm}:\mathrm{air}},\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _{\mathrm{atm}:\mathrm{rock}}$$
(6)
describing $`\nu _\mu \nu _\tau `$ oscillations.

A broad set of possibilities exists where the details of the solar neutrinos are affected considerably, and more detailed investigations are underway Fardon et al. (2004).

## IV Conclusions

Although neutrino mass and dark energy are both established elements of modern physics, the origin of both is unknown. Indeed, many of the properties and interactions of neutrinos remain undetermined, as are the existence and properties of new dark particles. Neutrinos could be significantly affected by interactions with the dark sector which are sub-gravitational in strength to other visible matter. Such interactions can make the neutrino mass a dynamical quantity, depending on the environment, as well as altering the BBN and supernovae constraints on neutrino mixing, and cosmological limits on neutrino mass.

We have demonstrated that sub-gravitational strength matter-neutrino interactions can affect our interpretation of neutrino oscillation experiments, as well as absolute measurements of neutrino mass, such as neutrinoless double beta decay and tritium endpoint experiments. For instance, such effects could improve the agreement of LSND with other experiments. Although the mass splittings which account for the atmospheric, solar, K2K and KamLAND experiments apparently indicate near degeneracy of the three known neutrinos, this degeneracy may depend on the propagation medium for neutrinos. Additional short baseline experiments will provide important tests for MaVaNs, and may directly probe the physics of the cosmological dark energy. Future neutrino experiments should be designed and analyzed with the possibility in mind of matter density dependent neutrino oscillations.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Hamish Robertson, Rob Fardon, Wick Haxton, Jeff Wilkes, and Kathryn Zurek for useful conversations, André de Gouvêa for reading various drafts and giving very useful suggestions, and correspondence and discussions on the attributes of many experiments with Bill Louis, Janet Conrad, Giorgio Gratta, Kate Scholberg, Richard Steinberg, Felix Boehm, Guido Drexlin, Stuart Freedman, Ed Kearns, Chris Walter and Jean Favier. This work was partially supported by the DOE under contract DE-FGO3-96-ER40956 and DE-FGO3-00ER41132.