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# X-ray Flaring Activity of Mrk 421

## 1 Introduction

Mrk 421 is one of the brightest extragalactic X-ray sources in the sky. It belongs to the group of BL Lac objects, a sub-class of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). The BL Lac objects are known to be highly variable at nearly all wavelengths and their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are thought to be dominated by radiation from relativistic particles in the jets that propagate roughly along the line of sight (Urry & Padovani 1995). Mrk 421 is also one of the few BL Lac objects that were discovered to emit strongly at TeV energies in the past decade (Punch et al. 1992). In fact, the total energy output of Mrk 421 in gamma-rays seems comparable to that in X-rays (Buckley et al. 1996; Maraschi et al. 1999; Krawczynski et al. 2001). The SED of the source is dominated by the X-ray and gamma-ray emission. While the origin of gamma-ray photons is still being debated, it is generally agreed that X-ray photons originate mostly in the synchrotron radiation from highly relativistic electrons in the jets.

BL Lac objects are known for their flaring activities. X-ray flares with duration of longer than a day have been seen from Mrk 421 (Tanihata et al. 2001; Fossati et al. 2000; Brinkmann et al. 2003). Remarkably, a strong flare was detected from the source at TeV energies that lasted only for about an hour (Gaidos et al. 1996). The TeV flare showed significant sub-structures that that were of even shorter durations. The origin of X-ray or TeV flares is hardly understood. The flares are often thought to be related to internal shocks in the jets of a blazar (Rees 1978; Spada et al. 2001), or to major ejection events of new components of relativistic plasma into the jet (e.g., Böttcher et al. 1997; Mastichiadis & Kirk 1997). Despite such uncertainty, the measured short flaring timescale alone has already severely constrained the size of the TeV emission region and the Doppler factor111Defined as $`\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }^1(1\beta cos\theta )^1`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\beta `$ are the Lorentz factor and speed (in units of the speed of light $`c`$) of the bulk motion, and $`\theta `$ is the angle to the line-of-sight of the jets (Gaidos et al. 1996), as well as the accretion process in the system (Celotti et al. 1998). If X-ray and TeV photons are associated with the same population of emitting electrons, as often postulated based on the observed correlated behaviors of the source in the two energy bands (e.g., Maraschi et al. 1999), X-ray flares of similarly short duration should also occur. In this context, we conducted a systematic search for such flares, making use of the rich database on Mrk 421 provided by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE).

## 2 Data

Mrk 421 is one of the X-ray sources that have been frequently observed with RXTE over the past 8+ years. It is certainly the most observed blazar. The RXTE observations often represent X-ray coverage of Mrk 421 in a multi-wavelength campaign. Archival data is now available from campaigns conducted in 1996 (under the Guest-Observing programs 10341 and 10345), 1997 (20341), 1998 (30261, 30262, and 30269), 2000 (40182), and 2001 (50190 and 60145). The great majority of the observations were made in “snap-shot” modes, with effective exposure times ranging from half a kilosecond to several kiloseconds. Deeper observations (10-20 ks) were occasionally carried out. In the following, we briefly describe the RXTE instruments and the data reduction procedures adopted for this work.

### 2.1 Instruments

RXTE carries on board two co-aligned, large-area detectors (Bradt, Rothschild, & Swank 1993): the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) and the High-Energy X-ray Timing Experiment (HEXTE), in addition to the All-Sky Monitor (ASM). Both of the pointing instruments have a 1° field-of-view. The PCA consists of five nearly identical proportional counter units (PCUs). It has a total collecting area of about 6500 $`cm^2`$ and covers a nominal energy range of 2–60 keV. However, the operational constraints often require that some of the PCUs be turned off. Exactly which PCUs are off varies from observation to observation, but PCU 0 and PCU 2 are nearly always in operation. Further complication (to data analysis) developed following the loss of the front veto layer in PCU 0. The result is that the data from PCU 0 is more prone to contamination by events caused by low-energy electrons entering the detector. This is particularly relevant to the study of variability of weak sources like Mrk 421.

Although the HEXTE covers a very interesting energy range (nominally 15–250 keV) for AGN studies, it is not very sensitive. We did analyze all of the HEXTE data for this work, but found it not very useful for this work, since we are mostly interested in detecting rapid X-ray flares from Mrk 421. The HEXTE results will be presented in a future paper, along with other spectral results, on broad-band SED variability. We will not discuss them any further here.

The ASM consists of three proportional counters, each of which has a 6°$`\times `$ 90° field-of-view, and covers about 80% of the sky upon the completion of one full rotation, which takes about 1.5 hours. However, the orientation of the rotation axis of the ASM is fixed by the pointing configuration of the PCA and HEXTE, so there is generally no flexibility in controlling which 80% of the sky is covered at a given time. This is a major source of data gaps in the quasi-continuous light curve of a particular source, in addition to Earth occultation and proximity of the source to the sun. The ASM scans the sky in 6° steps, which are often referred to as ASM dwells. The exposure time of each dwell is 90 seconds.

### 2.2 Data Reduction

Multiple data modes are usually employed in a PCA observation. Two of the available data modes, Standard1 and Standard2, are always run and are thus referred to as the standard modes. We rely almost exclusively on the Standard2 data for this work. The data has a time resolution of 16 seconds, which is sufficient for our purposes here, and covers the entire PCA passing band with 128 energy channels.

The PCA data was reduced with the latest version of FTOOLS (v5.2) that is distributed as part of the software suite HEASOFT (v5.2).222see http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/lheasoft For an observation, we first filtered data by following the standard procedure for faint sources (see the online RXTE Cook Book333http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/recipes/cook\_book.html), which resulted in a list of Good Time Intervals (GTIs). We then simulated background events for the observation using the latest background model that is appropriated for faint sources (pca\_bkgd\_cmfaintl7\_eMv20020201.mdl). Using the GTIs, we proceeded to extract a light curve from the data (combining all active PCUs) in each of the following energy bands: 2.0–5.7 keV, 5.7–11 keV, 11–60 keV, and 2.0–60 keV. Note that the boundaries of each band are matched up as closely as possible across different PCA epochs but are only approximate (up to $`\pm `$0.2 keV). We repeated the steps to construct the corresponding background light curves from the simulated events. Finally, we subtracted off the background to obtain the light curves of the source. In an attempt to avoid possible artifacts caused by background variations (see previous section), we excluded data from PCU 0 when we made light curves from observations conducted in Epoch 5.

The ASM data is publicly available. The light curves come in three energy bands: 1.5–3 keV, 3–5 keV, and 5–12 keV, providing crude spectral information about a source. We obtained the light curves of Mrk 421 from the MIT archive.444http://xte.mit.edu/asmlc/srcs/mkn421.html#data We chose to filter out data points with error bars (on the count rates in the summed band) greater than 2.0 c/s, which constitutes about 10% of the data. We then weighted the raw data by $`1/\sigma ^2`$ and rebinned it to produce weekly-averaged light curves.

## 3 Results

To provide a global view of flaring activity of Mrk 421, Fig. 1 shows the ASM light curve of Mrk 421 for the 1.5–12 keV band over roughly an eight-year period. The light curve shows two things very clearly. First of all, the source is highly variable in X-rays. It goes from below the detection threshold to a flux level of 50–60 mCrab in the ASM passing band. Secondly, frequent flares are easily identifiable from the light curve, with durations ranging from less than a month up to almost a year. There appears to have been 4 major flares over 8 years, or one every two years on average, although the source seems to be more active in recent years. There is hardly any time period that resembles a “quiescent state”. Outside the major flares, which we refer to as the “low state” for convenience, the average flux of Mrk 421 is about 5 mCrab (see Fig. 1). We stress, however, that smaller (both in amplitude and duration) flares are nearly always present.

To examine possible spectral evolution of Mrk 421 during major flares, we computed the ratio between the ASM rates in the 3–12 keV band to those in the 1.5–3 keV band and used it as a measure of the spectral shape. Fig. 2 shows the time series of the hardness ratio that covers the periods of the two largest flares. The data is quite noisy, even with weekly binning, but there does not seem to be any strong spectral evolution across either flare.

### 3.1 Low State

Mrk 421 was in an extended low state throughout 1996 and 1997 (see Fig. 1). It was monitored regularly by the PCA, with particularly good coverage in 1996, and the data allows us to examine, in a more detailed manner, the properties of the source in this state. The source is by no means “quiet” during this period, as shown in Fig. 3. With much improved sensitivity of the PCA (as compared to the ASM), we now see the presence of flares of shorter durations. Two larger flares are recognizable from the figure (despite the presence of data gaps) that last for weeks. Superimposed on them are many “spikes” whose duration can be as short as about a day. The source reaches the peak flux of roughly $`10^9\text{ }ergs\text{ }cm^2\text{ }s^1`$ (in the 2–60 keV band) in this state but can drop below even the PCA detection threshold ($`10^{11}\text{ }ergs\text{ }cm^2\text{ }s^1`$).

As with the ASM data, we defined a hardness ratio (5.7–60 keV/2–5.7 keV) to examine the spectral behavior of Mrk 421 during these short flares. Though crude, the hardness ratio does provide a model-independent way of presenting the data. In Fig. 4, we plotted the hardness ratio against the overall count rate of the source for the two flares separately. While there seems to be a common trend of spectral hardening as the source brightens, there is also significant difference between the two cases. Significant hysteresis appears to be associated with the spectral evolution during the first flare but little during the second one. Similar hysteresis patterns have been seen before (e.g., Takahashi et al. 1996; Kataoka et al. 2000; Zhang 2000; Giebels et al. 2002; Falcone et al. 2004), and seems to be be quite common among blazars. The patterns that we have observed here are complex in shape, e.g., with embedded sub-loops, perhaps reflecting the co-existence of flares on different timescales. Also, both clockwise and counter-clockwise running sub-loops seem to be present, so the phenomenology is not simple.

We searched for flares of even shorter duration (less than a day). The effort was complicated by the presence of data gaps (mostly due to earch occultation or South-Atlantic Anomaly crossing) for relatively long observations. We failed to detect any significant flares on timescales of tens of minutes to hours, although the light curve seems to show variation on these timescales in several cases. At the level of the systematic variations seen, however, one must be worried about imperfect background modeling. To illustrate the point, we show a possible flare in Fig. 5, along with the corresponding light curve of the background. The variation patterns seem to be quite similar in the two cases, which is of concern. In this example, however, the observed amplitude of the variation is perhaps too large to be attributed entirely to the inaccuracy of the background model.

### 3.2 Flaring State

Mrk 421 has been quite active since 1998 (see Fig. 1). The source was regularly monitored by the RXTE during each of the major flares, with comprehensive coverages in 1998 and 2001. In general, the flaring activity also becomes more intense on short timescales (less than a day) during these periods and, quite remarkably, rapid flares (of duration less than about an hour) are often seen. Fig. 6 displays a montage of light curves made from a stretch of consecutive observations during the 2001 episode. The results are quite typical of the source in the flaring state. The figure shows an impressive array of variation patterns on a wide range of timescales. Of particular interest are prominent flares that last for less than a day, which are not as obvious in the low state.

To investigate any spectral evolution during the short flares, we show in Fig. 7 the corresponding hardness–intensity diagrams. Many different patterns are observed here. In some cases, the hardness ratio increases nearly monotonically with the count rate, while, in some other cases, the behavior is much more complicated. For example, the panels b and c show the instances of strong hysteresis in the spectral evolution of the source. To present a more direct view, we expanded Panel c (of Fig. 7) and indicated the time progression of the evolution in Fig. 8. Overall, the source appears to evolve along clockwise loops in this case. Once again, multiple branches (or sub-loops) reflect the co-existence of flares on a wide range of scales. Interestingly, in some cases, there is hardly any measurable spectral change across a flare.

The light curves in Fig. 6 clearly reveal the presence of rapid flares that last for less than an hour. Panel f shows a beautiful example of such a flare. In fact, there are significant sub-structures associated with the event, suggesting the presence of two overlapping flares of even shorter durations. Interestingly, the X-ray spectrum of the source varies little across this flare (see Panel f in Fig. 7). The effort to precisely determine the duration of each flare was, in general, complicated by the presence of data gaps, as well as the co-existence of flares on a wide range of timescales. Sometimes, only a portion of a flare is seen. The shortest rise or decay time seen is about 1000 s, although it can be argued that it might be even shorter in some cases (see, e.g., Panel e of Fig. 6).

### 3.3 Power Density Spectra

The observed variability may extend to shorter timescales, on which individual X-ray flares become unresolvable. The collective effects of such variability can be investigated by adopting a more sophisticated time-domain or Fourier-domain based technique. We chose to follow the latter approach to obtain a representative power-density spectrum (PDS) of Mrk 421 in the low or flaring state. We selected a subset of the 1997 observations that are relatively long for the low state and, similarly, a subset of the 2001 observations for the flaring state. The total exposure time is comparable for the two data sets. For each observation, we made a light curve from the Standard1 data that has a time resolution of 1/8 s (but no energy resolution). We then broke the light curve into segments, each of which is 4096 s long (which requires the padding of data gaps or shorter segments with the average count rate). We performed Fast-Fourier transformation on each segment to obtain a PDS. The PDS was normalized according to a scheme proposed by Leahy et al. (1983). The individual PDSs of the segments were then weighted (by the total number of photons) and averaged to obtain the PDS for the observation. To further improve statistics, we weighted and averaged the PDSs of the selected observations in a similar manner. From the resulted PDS, we subtracted off noise power due to Poisson counting statistics to obtain the PDS of the source. Fig. 9 shows the final PDS for each state.

The observed PDS can be fitted by a simple power law, $`1/f^\alpha `$, where $`\alpha =1.9\pm 0.2`$ for the low state and $`2.26\pm 0.06`$ for the flaring state, although statistics is quite limited for the low state. The latter value is in general agreement with the published results for the flaring state (Kataoka et al. 2001; Brinkmann et al. 2003). The PDS appears to fall more steeply in the flaring state, although the difference is only of marginal statistical significance. The power-law type of PDS is typical of AGN. What is remarkable here is that the variability of Mrk 421 is positively detected up to 0.01 Hz (or 100 seconds) in the flaring state! Due to the faintness of the source, the low-state data is much noisier. Nevertheless, the source variability is clearly seen beyond $`10^3`$ Hz.

## 4 Discussion

We have observed flaring activities of Mrk 421 on a vast range of timescales (spanning roughly 4 orders of magnitude). The flares seem to occur at all times, in the low state or flaring state, and the X-ray variability seen might be entirely due to the superposition of these events on different timescales. For the first time, we have clearly resolved individual X-ray flares that last less than about an hour. They might be similar in physical origin to the TeV flare of comparable duration (Gaidos et al. 1996), albeit much smaller in amplitude. The only other blazar that is known to produce similarly rapid flares is Mrk 501 (Catanese & Sambruna 2000).

### 4.1 Multi-Scale X-ray Flares

The seemingly scale-invariant nature of flaring activities in Mrk 421 is perhaps best illustrated in Fig. 10. Note the similarity in the occurrence of X-ray flares on different timescales. The detectability of individual flares on even short timescales might be limited only by the statistics of the data. Certainly, for Mrk 421, X-ray variability is still measurable on a timescale of 100 s (see Fig. 9). The PDS is well described by a power law (although the frequency range is limited). We note, however, that there appears to be a genuine lack of very rapid flares (with duration $`<`$ 1 hour) in the low state. Only several candidates were identified (see Fig. 5 for an example) but their small amplitudes raise concern about possible influence by background variations.

Similar scale-invariant flaring phenomena have been observed of accreting stellar-mass black holes. For instance, the X-ray light curves of Cyg X-1 show the presence of flares on timescales of months (e.g., Cui, Feng, & Ertmer 2002) and “shot” on much shorter timescales (down to milliseconds; Kato, Fukue, & Mineshige 1998 and references therein). It is often thought that the “shots” are associated with accretion processes in black hole candidates (BHCs), although the roles of relativistic outflows have drawn increasingly intense attention in recent years, given the ubiquitous presence of jets in such systems. It is interesting to note that a 1-ms flare from a $`10M_{}`$ black hole would roughly correspond to a 1-ks flare from a $`10^8M_{}`$ black hole, if one scales the dynamical timescales by mass and takes into account the observed differences in the jet properties between BHCs (with Doppler factors $`\delta 1`$) and blazars ($`\delta 10`$). The mass of the black hole in Mrk 421 is estimated to be about $`2\times 10^8M_{}`$ (Barth, Ho, & Sargent 2003).

Further analogy can perhaps be made between blazar flares and solar flares. To account for the power-law distribution of the solar flares, Lu & Hamilton (1991) postulated that the coronal magnetic field in the Sun is a self-organized critical (SOC) state and that a solar flare is the result of an avalanche caused by many small magnetic reconnection events. The size of a flare is, therefore, only determined by the number of elementary reconnect events. In the SOC state, stable regions of all sizes are present in the system, so avalanches can occur on all scales (up to the size of the system), leading to the observed scale-invariant distribution of the flares. Extending the concept to BHCs, Mineshige et al. (1994) suggested that accretion disks in these systems might also be in an SOC state and that avalanches in the accretion process, triggered by, e.g., magnetic reconnection in the disk, could result in the observed distribution of “shots”, as well as the power-law shape of the PDS.

Lyutikov (2002) discussed the roles of magnetic reconnection in the jets of AGN and argued that magnetically dominated jets had many advantages over hydrodynamic jets, e.g., in explaining the rapid variabilities observed of blazars. Acceleration of particles may also occur in the reconnection region, and the accelerated particles then emit photons at X-ray or gamma-ray energies. It is, therefore, conceivable that the flaring activity seen in Mrk 421 might originate in the same physical process as the solar flares or flares in BHCs. Whether the magnetic field in the jets of black holes could be in an SOC state remains to be seen. Theoretical efforts to quantitatively model blazar variabilities have so far been mostly concentrated on scenarios that involve internal shocks in the jets to accelerate particles (e.g., Salvati, Spada, & Pacini 1998; Protheroe 2002; Tanihata et al. 2003). The results are, in fact, quite encouraging. From the observational point of view, the differences between reconnection-based models and shock-based models are expected to be subtle, as discussed by Lyutikov (2002), so they will remain unresolved until better data becomes available. On the other hand, both types of models may also be applicable to other types of systems, including gamma-ray bursts (Lyutikov, Pariev, & Blandford 2003) and perhaps also micro-quasars. Insights might be gained by looking at these physically similar systems collectively.

### 4.2 Physical Constraints

Despite the uncertainties, much can still be learned, in a relatively model-independent manner, about the physical properties of X-ray emitting regions from the observed X-ray variability. First of all, all of the resolvable flares seen from Mrk 421 appear to be symmetric in shape (but see Fig. 5, if the flare is real). This implies that neither the synchrotron cooling time nor the particle acceleration time is probably a major factor in determining the duration of a flare (Protheroe 2002). Therefore, the observed distribution of the durations of the flares may simply reflect that of the sizes of the X-ray emitting regions, if the (jet-frame) timescale of intrinsic variability is negligible compared to the light-crossing time. The characteristic (jet-frame) dimension of such a region is then given by

$$lct_{flare}\delta /(1+z)10^{15}\text{ }cm\text{ }t_{flare,hr}\delta _1,$$
(1)
where $`t_{flare,hr}`$ is the flare duration in units of hours, $`\delta =10\delta _1`$, and $`z`$ is the redshift of Mrk 421 ($`z=0.031`$). Given the fact that Mrk 421 is nearly always detectable at TeV energies, a large value of $`\delta `$ seems to be always required to sufficiently reduce the photon-photon pair-production opacity in the TeV emitting region (to allow TeV photons to escape). For instance, Gaidos et al. (1996) showed that the short duration of the observed TeV flare would imply $`\delta 10`$. Also, results from modeling the broadband SED of the source show the need for large $`\delta `$ (e.g., Maraschi et al. 1999; Krawczynski et al. 2001), very large in some cases ($`>`$ 50; e.g., Krawczynski et al. 2001). However, Georganopoulos & Kazanas (2003) argued that such extreme $`\delta `$ values would not be required if the jets actually decelerate on sub-parsec scales. In any case, Eq. 1 implies that the size of the emission regions probably ranges from $`10^{15}\text{ }cm`$ to $`10^{1819}\text{ }cm`$. However, the equation might not hold for short-duration flares, because roughly symmetric flare profiles could also arise from situations where the synchrotron cooling time dominates and the intrinsic variability timescale is much longer than the acceleration time (Kirk & Mastichiadis 1999). In this case, the rise or decay time of a flare would be approximately equal to the synchrotron cooling time (in observer’s frame).

Secondly, the observed decay time of a flare sets a firm upper limit on the synchrotron cooling time of the emitting electrons. The synchrotron cooling time is given by $`\tau _{syn}6\pi m_ec/\sigma _T\gamma _pB^2`$ (Rybicki & Lightman 1979), where $`m_e`$ is the electron rest mass, $`\sigma _T`$ is the Thomson cross section, $`B`$ is the magnetic field in the region, and $`\gamma _p`$ is chosen to be the characteristic Lorentz factor of those electrons that contribute to the bulk of the observe X-ray emission (at $`E_p10`$ keV, where the synchrotron peak of the SED lies). Transformed to the observer’s frame, this time needs to be less than the observed decay time of an X-ray flare, i.e., $`\tau _{syn}/\delta <t_d`$, where $`t_d`$ is the decay time. This requirement leads to a lower limit on the magnetic field,

$$B>0.88\text{ }G\text{ }t_{d,3}^{1/2}\delta _1^{1/2}\gamma _{p,5}^{1/2},$$
(2)
where $`t_d=10^3t_{d,3}`$ s and $`\gamma _p=10^5\gamma _{p,5}`$ . Also, the observed energies of synchrotron photons are given by $`E_p=\delta h\nu _c(3eh/4\pi m_ec)\delta \gamma _p^2B`$ (Rybicki & Lightman 1979), so we have $`B5.8E_{p,1}\delta _1^1\gamma _{p,5}^2\text{ }G`$, where $`E_p=10E_{p,1}`$ keV. Substituting $`B`$ in Eq. 2, we derived an upper limit on the Doppler factor,

$$\delta <16t_{d,3}E_{p,1}^2(\gamma _{p,5}/3)^3.$$
(3)
It is worth noting that $`\gamma _p`$ derived from the synchrotron self-Compton description of the observed broad-band SED is typically a few $`\times 10^5`$ (e.g., Maraschi et al. 1999; Krawczynski et al. 2001).

### 4.3 Spectral Hysteresis

We observed hysteresis associated with spectral evolution across a flare in some cases, but not always. For instance, the spectrum of Mrk 421 varied little across one of the rapid flares (see Panel f in Fig. 6). In comparison, Mrk 501 showed significant spectral variation during rapid flares (Catanese & Sambruna 2000). In that case, the hardness-intensity diagram shows that the source followed a counter-clockwise hysteresis loop (though details are more complicated).

Theoretical interpretation of the observed spectral hysteresis is not entirely clear at present. Kirk & Mastichiadis (1999) showed, using a simplified internal shock model, that the hysteresis could be caused by the interplay of three characteristic times associated with synchrotron cooling ($`\tau _{syn}`$), particle acceleration ($`\tau _{acc}`$), and intrinsic variability ($`\tau _{var}`$), respectively. Two of the four cases that they discussed might be most relevant to what we have observed in this work: (1) $`\tau _{var}\tau _{syn}\tau _{acc}`$ and (2) $`\tau _{var}\tau _{syn}\tau _{acc}`$. In the former scenario, the shape of the spectrum does not change and the intensity varies on the timescale $`\tau _{var}`$ (which determines the flare duration $`t_{flare}`$). This would explain the lack of spectral evolution during some of the flares seen. In the latter scenario, spectral evolution is expected. Moreover, the evolution should follow a counter-clockwise hysteresis pattern in the hardness-intensity representation, since changes propagate from low energies to high energies (Kirk & Mastichiadis 1999). Such patterns were also observed (see Fig. 4). On the other hand, the pattern shown in Fig. 8 is mostly clockwise, which would require $`\tau _{syn}\tau _{var}\tau _{acc}`$ or $`\tau _{syn}\tau _{acc}\tau _{var}`$ (Kirk & Mastichiadis 1999; also see Dermer 1998). The latter seems quite unlikely given the roughly symmetric profiles observed of the flares.

However, Li & Kusunose (2000) pointed out that it would be difficult to draw any firm conclusions based on the sense of a hysteresis loop because it is quite sensitive to various parameters in the model, such as the overall injection energy. By treating the Comptonization process in a consistent manner, they further showed that a hysteresis loop may change its sense going from the synchrotron-dominated regime (at low energies) to Compton-dominated regime (at high energies). This was confirmed by Böttcher & Chiang (2002). This is troublesome, from the observational point of view, because it implies that the choice of energy bands (which is usually done without a priori knowledge about the overall SED) may affect what we see observationally. To further complicate the situation, it is nearly impossible, observationally, to cleanly isolate a flare from the hierarchical structure.

We wish to thank Mark Ertmer and Kie Li for assistance in data reduction, Feng Yuan and Markus Böttcher for useful discussions and comments on the manuscript. This research has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. This work was supported in part by the NASA grant NAG5-13736.


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# Enhanced hard X-ray emission from femtosecond laser irradiated microdroplets

## Abstract

We make a comparative study of hard x-ray emission from 15 $`\mu `$m methanol microdroplets and a plain slab target of similar atomic composition at similar laser intensities. The hard X-ray yield from droplet plasmas is $``$ 35 times more than that obtained from solid plasmas. A prepulse that is about 10ns and about 5% of the main pulse is essential for hard x-ray generation from the droplets. A hot electron temperature of 36 keV is measured from the droplets at 8$`\times `$1014 W cm-2; three times higher intensity is needed to obtain similar hot electron temperature from solid plasmas with similar composition. We use 1D PIC simulation to obtain qualitative correlation to the experimental observations.

The physics of laser-plasma interactions has undergone a revolution in recent times. Technological advances in lasers have opened the possibility of achieving intensities up to 1021 W cm-2 21expts . The non-perturbative physics of laser-matter interactions at these extreme intensities has brought forth many new concepts and applications concepts . The hot dense plasma produced in such interaction has opened up novel schemes of pulsed neutron generation neutron , nuclear reactions nuclear table top acceleration accelerate  and synchrotron radiation hhg . Importantly, such plasmas are promising sources of ultrashort pulse radiation in EUV and x-ray regimes and increasing the efficiency of these sources is a major challenge. This obviously leads to the investigation of strategies to efficiently couple laser energy to the plasma. One such strategy has been the introduction of novel targets . Metallic nanoparticle-coated solids rajeev  and ‘velvet’ targets velvet  have yielded enhanced x-ray emission in the moderate to very hard x-ray regime. Gaseous clusters, which are nanoparticles with solid-like local density have been shown to absorb 90$`\%`$ of the incident laser energy krainov . Particle acceleration up to an MeV and efficient nuclear fusion at intensities as low as 1016 W cm-2 has been observed from such cluster plasmas.

There are however some disadvantages in the use of gaseous clusters. A major one is the rather stringent limitation on the type of atomic or molecular species which can produce large clusters. For example, there is no simple way to generate large clusters with high-Z atoms like Pt. Besides, there is very little hard X-ray emission above 5 keV from clusters rhodes . In this context, we invite attention to liquid droplets as a promising alternative. They are relatively debris-less and couple the advantage of size confinement with the relative ease with which a droplet can be used to introduce any atomic/molecular system of interest. Droplet targets have found application in EUV Lithography and X-ray microscopy EUVmicro ; phillips . The emphasis on droplet plasma studies has so far been mostly towards optimizing the EUV radiation at 13 nm due to applications towards lithography, though there have been some initial studies on hard x-ray radiation droplet-xray ; milchberg ; zhangAPB . The study of very hard X-ray emission from droplets is certainly of major interest.

In this paper, we present measurements of hard x-ray emission (10-350 keV), from 15$`\mu `$m methanol droplets irradiated with 100 fs laser pulses with intensities up to 2$`\times `$1015 W cm-2. We find that a prepulse that arrives at about 10ns ahead of the main pulse is critically important to generate hard x-rays from liquid droplets at these intensities. For comparison, we measure hard X-ray emission from a solid plastic target (which has a similar atomic composition) under similar conditions. Though the prepulse brings about 17 fold enhancement in the x-ray yield at 3.7$`\times `$1015 W cm-2 from the plastic , we find that the size limited methanol droplet generates hard x-rays at much lower intensity and much more efficiently. The hard x-ray yield at 1.5$`\times `$1015 W cm-2 is about 35 times larger than that from the plastic under similar conditions. We present 1D PIC simulation that qualitatively explain the experimental observation of enhanced x-ray generation in microdroplets.

The apparatus used in these experiments has been described elsewhereapb  and here we present only the salient features. The microdroplet targets are generated by forcing methanol through a 10 $`\mu `$m capillary, which is modulated at 1 MHz using a piezo-crystal. The uniformly sized droplets were characterized by imaging of the droplet, and also by observing morphological dependent resonances (MDR)mdr . The inset in figure 1(a) shows the droplets along with the image of a 25 $`\mu `$m slit used for calibration. The droplets are produced inside a vacuum chamber maintained at 10-5 Torr. We focus the 100fs pulses of 800nm light using a 30 cm planoconvex lens and achieve intensities up to 2 $`\times `$ 1015 W cm-2. A two-pulse setup is used to obtain a prepulse at about 10ns ahead of the main pulse and a pair of polarizers together with a half wave plate is used to control its intensity. Comparative experiments with solids are performed on an optically flat plastic by focusing p-polarized light at 45 incident angle with a 20 cm lens to a spot size of 20 $`\mu `$m and achieve intensities up to 5$`\times `$ 1015 W cm-2. We have carefully determined the intensity of light by measuring the pulse width using a second order autocorrelator (Femtochrome-103XL) and the beam waist (30$`\mu `$m)using the standard knife edge technique. We have established the accuracy of this method in the past by correlating the measured values with the well known appearance intensity of Xeq+ ions grk . We used plastic targets for comparison since their atomic composition is close to that of methanol. The target is scanned such that each laser pulse is incident at a fresh portion of the target mag-fields . The x-ray detector in all experiments is a NaI(Tl) detector, appropriately time gated with the laser pulse and calibrated with standard radioactive sources.

In experiments with liquid droplets, there is no measurable hard x-ray yield at intensities less than 1.5$`\times `$1015W cm-2 in the absence of a prepulse. In the regenerative amplifier, a prepulse can be generated by misalignment of the pockel cell. In initial experiments, we found that the hard x-ray generation was very sensitive to the extent of this prepulse, which is 10ns ahead of the main pulse. Once we established that a ns prepulse is essential for the hard x-ray generation from the droplet, we set up a two-pulse experiment to introduce an intentional prepulse of desired intensity that arrives at the required time ahead of the main pulse. We find that while a prepulse that is 1-10 ps ahead does not significantly influence the x-ray emission from the droplets, a prepulse that is about 10ns ahead is essential to produce x-rays from the droplets. The x-ray yield increases steeply with the prepulse energy and saturates for a prepulse that is about 5% in intensity of the main pulse.

The x-ray emission spectrum obtained from 15$`\mu `$m methanol droplets at a prepulse intensity of about 5% is shown figure 1(a). The solid line shows an exponential fit to the data assuming a Maxwellian distribution for the electrons in the plasma. In this fit we only considered energies larger than 50 keV so that corrections due to the transmission through the glass or aluminum housing of the detector are negligible. To avoid pile up, the count rate was kept less than 0.1 per pulse by restricting the solid angle of detectionapb . The X-ray emission spectrum from the plastic at similar pre-pulse intensities is shown in figure 1(b) at about three times larger main pulse intensity, as there was no measurable X-ray emission below 2 $`\times `$1015 W cm-2. Exponential fits to the data show that the hot electron temperature is about 40 keV for plastic while it is 36 keV in the case of methanol droplets at about three times less intensity.

A comparison between the relative integrated X-ray yields from both droplet plasma and plastic target, with a prepulse of about 1.5$`\times `$ 1014W cm-2, is shown in figure 2. The X-ray yields from both the targets are measured in the range from 10-350 keV. Experiments on liquid drops with higher intensities are not possible with our present laser, as we are constrained to maintain a focal spot size of 30 $`\mu `$m to maintain the droplet close to the center of the focus, given the spatial jitter of a few microns in the jet. The prepulse enhances the x-ray generation in plastic but the enhancement from the methanol droplet is much larger. The threshold for hard x-ray generation in droplets is a factor of two smaller, and at an intensity of about 2$`\times `$1015W cm-2 the x-ray yield from droplets is at least 35 times larger than that obtained from the plastic.

How do we model the laser interaction with the droplet? In plasmas made of mesoscopic matter, both the geometry and the size are crucially important. A microdroplet is a spherical cavity that interacts with light very differently compared to a planar surface. On the droplet surface the angle of incidence would vary from 0 to 90 and accordingly the polarization would change from s to p, as we go from the center to the poles of the drop. Also a microdroplet, much larger than the wavelength of light, can focus the light inside the drop. A major fraction of the prepulse (1013W cm-2) is known to enter the droplet and very little is lost in ionization on the surface. The light that enters is focused by the droplet and its intensity is enhanced by two orders of magnitude or more white-nano . For our droplet size, Lorentz-Mie calculations bohren ; matlab  show that a maximum intensity enhancement of nearly 150 times the incident light intensity is possible at a few spots inside the droplet close to its surface (Figure 3).

Focusing of the prepulse in a liquid drop results in substantial ionization at many spots in and around the drop white-nano  and leads to a large volume spherical plasma. Imaging experiments using the pump-probe technique show that the droplet plasma is of 30$`\mu `$m in diameter, when the main pulse is incidentapb . So, the main pulse is incident on a large volume spherical plasma, that is close to the critical density in case of a droplet target.

Unraveling the dynamics of a spherical droplet plasma would require 3D PIC simulations, which are still too expensive to realistically model the present experimental conditions. However to gain useful insights into the differences between solid and droplet plasmas, we have carried out high-resolution 1D-PIC simulations with different density profiles that qualitatively mimic the expected density profiles from the droplet, at least in one dimension (see inset of Fig.4(a)). An upper limit for the plasma scale length created by the prepulse can be obtained from the isothermal model of Rosen rosen:spie90 ; bastiani:pre97 . Assuming an absorbed flux of $`2\times 10^{13}`$W cm-2 for the prepulse, the plastic target would be initially heated to around 20 eV. One-dimensional expansion at the sound speed would then give $`Lc_st170\mu `$m after 10 ns. Plasma cooling and geometrical factors will reduce this somewhat, but we can nevertheless expect density profiles with $`L/\lambda >10`$. The droplets will expand even more due to their limited mass and the Mie-enhancements in prepulse intensity.

The simulations were performed using BOPS, a 1D2V PIC code exploiting the Lorentz boost technique to handle oblique-incidence interactions gibbon:prl92 ; gibbon:pop99 . The unperturbed solid plasma profile is represented by a 6$`\mu `$m plasma slab with steep sides ($`L/\lambda <0.02`$). For the intensities used here ($`I<5\times 10^{15}`$ W cm-2) this was thick enough to prevent multiple reflection (and therefore additional heating) of hot electrons from the rear side of the target. For the droplet an exponential density ramp was included on both sides with $`L/\lambda `$ and the maximum density varied such that the total charge was the same as for the unexpanded slab. At these low intensities and long plasma lengths, a large number of particles (typically 20 million electrons and ions) were needed in order to generate a statistically significant number of hot electrons above 20 keV.

Although the simulated hot electron temperatures found in Fig. 4a) are roughly a factor of 2 lower than those observed in the experiments, we find that the hot electron yield does show a qualitative correlation with the observations. Fig. 4(b) shows the variation in the hot electron numbers with density scale length, showing a 5-fold increase in electrons above 20 keV and an onset of ‘superhot’ electrons ($`>50`$ keV) as the profile is stretched from an abrupt step to an extended corona. The general increase in hot electron temperature and number is due to the better matching of incidence angle (here fixed at 15 degrees) to the scale-length where resonance absorption is optimized. In the experiment these conditions are better reproduced for the droplets than the solid targets, where the laser was incident normally and at 45o respectively, reducing the resonant coupling to the plasma in the latter case. At long scale-lengths ($`L/\lambda >>1`$) there may also be a significant contribution from parametric instabilities in the extended underdense region, which appear to be responsible for the very hot electrons observed.

One has to keep in mind that these calculations have been performed with one dimensional density profiles and are only qualitatively indicative of the experimental measurements. The effects could be larger if the sphericity of the target were included.

Not only is the generation of hot electrons different in a spherical droplet, but escape of plasma electrons away from the target is different depending on the target geometry. Recently it was shown that at any given distance away from the plasma source, the hot electron fraction is likely to be much larger from a spherical target compared to a plane solid slab fill . The experimental results presented here correlate well with this simple analytical model.

In summary, we have studied x-ray emission from intense laser irradiation of 15 $`\mu `$m methanol droplets in comparison with that from solids. Our results show that the yields from droplet plasmas are larger by a factor of 35. A prepulse 10ns ahead of the main pulse is essential for efficient hard x-ray generation from the droplets. The preplasma from a spherical droplet is arguably more extensive than from the plane slab target and is conducive to efficient hot electron generation via resonance absorption. This idea is supported by 1D PIC simulations that mimic the long scale-length droplet profile.

We thank D. Mathur, E. Springate, M. J. Vrakking, and J. Jha for suggestions,help and advice. Support from the DST(GOI) for our laser system is acknowledged.


text:
# High resolution millimeter imaging of the proto-planetary nebula He 3-1475Based on observations carried out with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).

## 1 Introduction

Collimated, bipolar outflows or “jets” are an important feature of the early evolution of planetary nebulae (PNe) that has only recently been widely recognized. Many proto-PNe and PNe are now known to show evidence of bi-polar or multi-polar structures, or point symmetries, which have been produced by the action of symmetric jets from the central star (see, e.g., Kastner et al. ka00 (2000)), and these structures are sufficiently common that possibly most or all PNe pass through this phase (Sahai & Trauger sa98 (1998)).

The jets are most active in the early phases of PNe formation, and their effects can be detected in proto-PNe as high velocity wings in low angular resolution, molecular line spectra of the neutral circumstellar envelopes (e.g., Cernicharo et al. ce89 (1989); Young et al. yo92 (1992); Bujarrabal et al. bu01 (2001)). In the few cases observed at high angular resolution, the wings are seen to arise in directed outflows of entrained molecular gas (e.g., Cox et al. co00 (2000), co03 (2003)). The origin of the jets that cause the outflows is not well understood, but the jets clearly have major effects on the structure and dynamics of the neutral circumstellar envelopes from which the ionized nebulae form (Huggins et al. hu96 (1996)), and consequently they play a key role in the early shaping of PNe. Well studied examples of young PNe that show evidence for interactions between the jets and the neutral circumstellar gas include BD+30°3639 (Bachiller et al. ba00 (2000)), KjPn 8 (Forveille et al. fo98 (1998)) and M1-16 (Huggins et al. hu00 (2000)).

He 3-1475 (IRAS 17423$``$1755) is an extreme example of a proto-PN with highly collimated bipolar outflows, first discussed by Riera et al. (ri95 (1995)) and Bobrowski et al. (bo95 (1995)). It is of special interest because of the high velocities and remarkable structure seen in high resolution optical observations made with the HST (Borkowski et al. bo97 (1997); Borkowski & Harrington bo01 (2001); Sánchez-Contreras & Sahai sa01 (2001); Riera et al. ri03 (2003)). The outflows terminate in a series of knots that are point symmetric about the central star, and indicate formation by episodic jets whose direction is time dependent.

Little is known about the neutral circumstellar matter in He 3-1475. *IRAS* fluxes indicate the presence of a circumstellar dust envelope (Parthasarathy & Pottasch pa89 (1989)) which is also seen in optical images as a dark lane crossing the nebular axis to the south-east of the central star. OH maser emission at 1667 MHz has been observed by te Lintel Hekkert (te91 (1991)) and Bobrowski et al. (bo95 (1995)), and CO spectra have been reported by Knapp et al. (kn95 (1995)) and Bujarrabal et al. (bu01 (2001)). In this paper we report high angular resolution observations of the CO emission and the millimeter continuum to study the relation of the neutral circumstellar gas to the outflows.

## 2 Observations

High sensitivity, single-dish observations of He 3-1475 were made in the 2.6 mm CO $`J=10`$ (115 GHz) and 1.3 mm $`J=21`$ (230 GHz) lines using the IRAM 30 m telescope at Pico Veleta, Spain. The observations were made in September 1997, using $`512\times 1`$ MHz filterbanks. The half power beam size of the telescope is 11″ and 22″ at the frequencies of the 2–1 and 1–0 lines, respectively. The calibration was made using the chopper wheel technique, and the line intensities are reported here as main beam brightness temperatures.

High angular resolution observations were made in the CO 1–0 and 2–1 lines and in the nearby continuum during February and March 1998 using the IRAM interferometer at Plateau de Bure, France. The array consisted of five 15 m antennas, equipped with SIS heterodyne receivers. The observations, centered on He 3-1475, were made with two configurations of the array, with baselines up to 280 m. The primary beam size of the interferometer is 22″ at 1.3 mm and 44″ at 2.6 mm. The effective velocity resolution of the line observations used for the analysis is 8 km s-1. The continuum observations were made at frequencies of 115.3 and 231.5 GHz, with effective bandwidths of 320 and 640 MHz, respectively.

The RF passband and amplitude were calibrated using 3C273 and the phase calibration was performed every 20 minutes using J1730$``$130 and J1830$``$210. The $`uv`$ data were Fourier transformed and CLEANed, using the Clark algorithm and the restored Gaussian clean beam is $`3\stackrel{}{.}4\times 1\stackrel{}{.}6`$ ($`\mathrm{PA}=177\mathrm{°}`$) at 2.6 mm for both the line and continuum, and $`1\stackrel{}{.}5\times 0\stackrel{}{.}7`$ ($`\mathrm{PA}=8\mathrm{°}`$) and $`2\stackrel{}{.}2\times 0\stackrel{}{.}8`$ ($`\mathrm{PA}=0\mathrm{°}`$) at 1.3 mm for the line and continuum, respectively. The adopted field center for the maps is 17h45m$`14\stackrel{s}{.}17`$, $``$17°56′47$`\stackrel{}{.}`$0 (J2000).

## 3 Results

The CO 1–0 and 2–1 spectra obtained with the 30 m telescope towards He 3-1475 are shown in Fig. 1. A small map was made with 5″ spacing around the center position, but the molecular emission was not found to be extended with respect to the telescope beam. The parameters of the lines, based on Gaussian fits to the spectra, and the corresponding line fluxes are given in Table 1.

The CO 1–0 and 2–1 lines were both detected at high angular resolution with the interferometer, and the observations recover 97% and 72% of the single-dish fluxes for the 1–0 and 2–1 lines, respectively. The observed distribution of CO is shown in the velocity integrated map of the 2–1 emission in the right hand panel of Fig. 2. The position of the peak CO emission is at $`+0\stackrel{}{.}15\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}15`$, $`+0\stackrel{}{.}05\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}15`$ relative to the map center, and the emission is extended with respect to the telescope beam, with a deconvolved source size of $`1\stackrel{}{.}6`$ (FWHM). The CO distribution is compared with the optical structure of the nebula in Fig. 3, and the CO kinematics are shown in channel maps and velocity-position maps, together with model simulations, in Figs. 4–6. The interferometer observations in the CO 1–0 line produced essentially the same results as the 2–1 observations, but with a factor of two lower resolution (because of the longer wavelength), so are not discussed further.

The millimeter continuum of He 3-1475 was detected at 1.3 mm and 2.6 mm with the interferometer, and maps of the emission are shown in the center and left hand panels of Fig. 2. At 2.6 mm the emission is not extended with respect to the telescope beam, and the measured flux is $`5.3\pm 1.2`$ mJy. At 1.3 mm the observed emission ($`2\stackrel{}{.}8\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}2\times 1\stackrel{}{.}1\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}4`$, $`\mathrm{PA}=12\mathrm{°}`$) is slightly extended with respect to the beam, and the measured flux is $`31\pm 4`$ mJy. The position of the peak emission in the 1.3 mm continuum is at $`+0\stackrel{}{.}04\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}05`$, $`+0\stackrel{}{.}40\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}12`$ relative to the map center, and is essentially coincident with the position of peak CO emission, within the uncertainties.

## 4 Properties of the envelope

### 4.1 Overview

The CO spectra of He 3-1475 (Fig. 1) are much broader than the 5–15 km s-1 linewidths typically seen in AGB envelopes, and the shapes of the profiles are different. They show prominent, high velocity wings with no clear low velocity component corresponding to an undisturbed envelope: thus most or all of the molecular gas appears to participate in the high velocity flow.

From the measurements given in Table 1, the systemic LSR radial velocity ($`V_\mathrm{o}`$) of the molecular gas is well determined to be $`V_\mathrm{o}=47.5\pm 0.8`$ km s-1. This corresponds to a heliocentic velocity of 34.5 km s-1, and is in good agreement with the (heliocentric) velocity of $`37.6\pm 1.2`$ km s-1 recently reported by Borkowski & Harrington (bo01 (2001)), based on five stellar lines.

The comparison of the CO map and the HST WFPC2 image in \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6584 (Borkowski et al. bo97 (1997)) in Fig. 3 shows that the CO emission peaks close to the center of the nebula, but is quite limited in extent compared to the optical image. The molecular emission covers the central dark lane and extends out along the opening of the bipolar structure, but does not envelop the extended, collimated jet system. The characteristic radius of the CO map (0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$8) corresponds to $`7\times 10^{16}`$ cm at a distance of 5.8 kpc, which we adopt for the distance to He 3-1475 (Riera et al. ri03 (2003)).

### 4.2 CO kinematic structure

Although the CO emission is not very extended with respect to the telescope beam, the velocity-resolved CO observations provide insights into the overall kinematic structure of the molecular gas. The complete data cube is shown in Fig. 4 in the form of channel maps. These exhibit an approximate position-velocity symmetry about the central position and velocity, e.g., the emission in the extreme blue shifted channels (at $``$6, +2, and +10 km s-1) is offset to the NW of the field center and that of the extreme red channels (+90, +98 and +106 km s-1) is offset to the SE. The maps also exhibit a rough axial symmetry about the major axis of the optical nebula (the jet axis) at $`\mathrm{PA}=135\mathrm{°}`$, although the CO intensities are affected by the shape of telescope beam, which is elliptical and lies at an angle of 53° with respect to the nebula axis. Thus the arc-like features in blue channels +10 and +18 km s-1 and red channels +82 and +90 km s-1, which point away from the center, appear stronger where the emission lies along the primary axis of the beam (see §4.3 below).

The velocity-position maps through the data cube along the major and minor axes shown in Fig. 6, demonstrate that the whole CO structure is tilted toward us (blue shifted) to the NW and away from us (red shifted) to the SE along the major axis. This tilt is in the same sense as that of the optical bipolarity and jets (e.g., Riera et al. ri03 (2003)). In addition, the distribution of intensity in the map along the major axis indicates that the molecular gas forms an expanding, open ended, bi-conical structure that can also be traced in the channel maps in Fig. 4. Thus the extreme, blue shifted emission (in channels $``$6 and +2 km s-1) arises in the lower rim of the cone facing toward us; this rim lies nearly in the direct line of sight, and gives rise to the highest blue shifted gas seen in the wings of the single dish spectra. At intermediate, blue shifted channels (10–26 km s-1), the arc-like structure becomes more prominent as the channel includes a larger cross section of the cone, and closer to the systemic velocity (at +42 km s-1) the channel also includes the upper rim of the cone. At red shifted channels, the overall symmetry is reversed for the cone facing away from us.

### 4.3 Model of the CO kinematics

In order to quantify our interpretation of the CO data, we have constructed a simple, biconical model of the CO emission for comparison with the observations. The model is characterized by the radius at the equator where the cones intersect ($`R_\mathrm{i}`$), the radius of the open ends ($`R_\mathrm{o}`$), the height of each cone ($`h`$), and the inclination of the symmetry axis to the line of sight ($`i`$). We assume a constant thickness ($`t`$), and a relative density within the cones that varies as a power law from the center ($`\rho r^n`$). The emission is taken to be optically thin (see below), and the expansion is assumed to be homologous, with the radial velocity $`vr`$. This velocity law is motivated by the observed structure in the data cube, and by similar ballistic flows seen in other proto-PNe (e.g., AFGL 618, Cox et al. co03 (2003)).

From comparison with the observations, the parameters of a best-fit model are $`R_\mathrm{i}=0\stackrel{}{.}45`$, $`R_\mathrm{o}=0\stackrel{}{.}92`$, $`h=1\stackrel{}{.}5`$, $`t=0\stackrel{}{.}5`$, $`n=0.5`$, $`i=40\mathrm{°}`$, and a velocity gradient of 31.4 km s-1 arcsec-1. The linear dimensions are given in arc seconds on the sky, since they scale with distance. The thickness of the walls of the bicones is not actually resolved by the observations, and is set to a nominal value. The parameter $`n`$ is constrained by the relative intensity of the extended CO emission to that near the center, and the dimensions of the bicones, the velocity gradient, and the inclination are jointly constrained by the map sizes at different velocities, and the relative projections of the sides of the cones in the position-velocity map. For example, a general constraint on the inclination and the opening angle of the bicones is provided by the major axis position-velocity map, where the blue shifted, lower rim of the cone facing toward us is very close to the line of sight, and the upper rim is also blue shifted. In this case, the inclination angle of the symmetry axis $`i45\mathrm{°}`$ and the opening angle of the cone from the center is $`45\mathrm{°}`$ (otherwise the upper rim would be red shifted). Similarly the inclination cannot be much less than $`40\mathrm{°}`$ or the upper rim would project to higher velocities than are observed.

The results of the best-fit model are shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 (right panel). In spite of the extreme simplicity of the model, it can account for the main features of the observations. The inclination of the CO bicones to the line of sight is essentially the same as that of the optical jets (Borkowski & Harrington bo01 (2001)), and the biconical geometry indicates that molecular gas lies around the base of the jet flows. As noted above we do not resolve the walls of the bicones, but the parameter $`n`$ together with the assumed constant wall thickness determines the mass distribution in the bicones: for the solution $`n=0.5`$, the mass per unit length projected along the major axis is approximately constant, which is reasonable for such a flow.

The kinematic model is axi-symmetric but our calculations of the simulated observations also include the elliptical telescope beam which is not aligned along this axis. The effects can be seen in Figs. 5 and 6. They include the asymmetries in intensity of the arc-like features in the channel maps noted earlier, and a more subtle effect in a shift from red to blue (from NE to SW) in the minor axis position-velocity map, which is also apparent in the real data. Two features of the observations are not reproduced by the model simulations. The first is a slight channel-to-channel shift in the position of the emission at high velocities, and this could be accommodated by some degree of curvature in the sides of the bicones. The second is slightly higher equatorial emission in the observations than in the model, which could be accommodated by higher densities or a modified geometry near the equator. However, the emission is probably at least partially thick, especially near the equator, and we have not included this in the simple model, so fine tuning with additional parameters would be unwarranted. Nevertheless, independent of optical depth effects, the basic kinematic structure is well accounted for by the simple model.

### 4.4 The circumstellar dust component

Our millimeter continuum observations fill a large gap in the observed long wavelength spectrum of He 3-1475, and they provide an estimate of the mass of circumstellar dust. As shown in Fig. 7, the only other long wavelength observations of He 3-1475 are from $`IRAS`$, and a single radio observation at 3.6 cm. The centimeter continuum is likely to be free-free emission from the compact ionized core, and from comparison with the flux in H $`\alpha `$ Borowski et al. (bo95 (1995)) suggest that the emission is optically thick. An optically thick radio spectrum which varies as $`\nu ^2`$ does not, however, extend into the millimeter region because the 115 GHz (2.6 mm) flux would then be much higher than we observe. The free-free emission spectrum likely becomes optically thin and levels off between 10 and 100 GHz.

The millimeter flux increases quite steeply with increasing frequency, and from the overall shape of the spectrum the main contribution to the observed 1.3 mm and 2.6 mm flux is probably the long wavelength tail of the dust emission seen in the infrared. This is supported by the fact that we are able to simultaneously provide a good fit to the 25–100 $`\mu `$m (color corrected) $`IRAS`$ fluxes and to the observed millimeter fluxes, with a single temperature dust component. Formal fits, varying both the temperature and the index of dust emissivity $`p`$ (where $`Q(\nu )\nu ^p`$), give $`T_\mathrm{d}=81\pm 4`$ K, and $`p=0.99\pm 0.07`$.

With this value for the temperature, we estimate the mass of the cool dust component using the optically thin expression $`M_\mathrm{d}=F_\nu D^2/(\chi _\nu B_\nu (T))`$, where $`F_\nu `$ is the flux, $`\chi _\nu `$ the emissivity per unit mass, and $`B_\nu `$ the Planck function at frequency $`\nu `$, and $`D`$ is the distance. Using the $`IRAS`$ flux at 60 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$, $`\chi _{60}=150`$ cm2 g-1 (Jura 1986), and $`D=5.8`$ kpc, we find $`M_\mathrm{d}=6.4\times 10^3`$ M. A second component with a higher temperature and a much smaller mass, which we ignore, can account for the additional, short wavelength emission in the spectrum in Fig. 7.

### 4.5 Mass of circumstellar gas

The mass of circumstellar gas can be estimated from the dust mass given above, by adopting a value for the gas-to-dust ratio. For transition objects with high mass loss rates, the gas-to-dust ratio appears to be somewhat smaller than for typical AGB stars, and we adopt the value of $`100`$ from Knapp et al. (kn93 (1993)). This yields a mass of circumstellar gas $`M_\mathrm{g}=0.64`$ M.

The CO observations provide a second estimate for the mass of circumstellar gas. In this case, it is a lower limit because the low ($`0.9`$) CO 2–1/1–0 flux ratio (Table 1) suggests that the CO lines may be at least partially optically thick, although an alternative possibility is that the CO is sub-thermally excited. In any event we obtain a lower limit to the mass of molecular gas using the optically thin formula given by Huggins et al. (hu96 (1996)). For a distance of 5.8 kpc and a representative CO/H2 abundance of $`2\times 10^4`$ which is commonly assumed for oxygen-rich envelopes (e.g., Kahane & Jura ka94 (1994)), we find $`M_\mathrm{g}0.19`$ M, consistent with the estimate given above.

These values are in accord with a further estimate of the mass of circumstellar gas, given by Bujarrabal et al. (bu01 (2001)) based on observations of the 13CO lines. This approach minimizes the effect of line opacity because the lines are likely to be optically thin, but relies on an assumed value for the 13CO/H2 abundance. For their assumed value ($`2\times 10^5`$), and our adopted distance of 5.8 kpc to He 3-1475, $`M_\mathrm{g}=0.85`$ M, consistent with the above values.

## 5 Jet-envelope interactions

Our observations of the molecular emission in He 3-1475 support an evolutionary scenario in which a period of enhanced mass loss by the central star is followed by the development of bipolar jets that burst through the surrounding molecular gas.

### 5.1 Mass loss rate of the precursor

The current mass of circumstellar molecular gas around He 3-1475 is substantial (§4.5), and it was presumably ejected by the star at a moderate velocity characteristic of the AGB. For a velocity of $`15`$ km s-1, the size of the CO map that we observe (§3) implies an ejection time scale of $`1,500`$ yr, and a corresponding mass loss rate over this time of $`1.3\times 10^4`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1, using our lower limit on the CO mass. This mass loss rate is much larger than typically seen on the AGB, but is characteristic of some other transition objects (e.g., AFGL 2688, Jura et al. ju00 (2000)), and is either an intrinsic part of the final evolution of single stars on the AGB, or the result of binary interactions.

### 5.2 Envelope entrainment

In addition to enhanced mass loss, the kinematics and structure of the circumstellar gas indicate that most or all of the molecular envelope has been affected by recent interaction with the jets. First, the CO velocities (up to $`50`$ km s-1) are significantly larger than the expansion velocities of AGB stars, but are much less than velocities seen in the ionized gas close to the jet axes (Borkowski & Harrington bo01 (2001); Sánchez-Contreras & Sahai sa01 (2001); Riera et al. ri03 (2003)). Second, the observations show that the molecular gas forms an expanding bi-conical structure around the base of the optical bipolar flows. Thus both the structure and kinematics provide strong evidence for entrainment of the molecular gas.

The kinematic time scales support this view. From proper motion studies using HST, the expansion time scales ($`r/v`$ projected on the plane of the sky) of the ionized knots at $`\pm 6\mathrm{}`$ from the center are $`\tau _{\mathrm{exp}}450`$–550 yr, and for the most distant knots at $`\pm 7\stackrel{}{.}5`$, $`\tau _{\mathrm{exp}}600`$ yr (Riera et al. ri03 (2003); Borkowski & Harrington bo01 (2001)). For comparison, the kinematic time scale of the molecular gas is obtained by combining the (angular) velocity gradient of our kinematic model (§4.3) and the adopted distance of 5.8 pc, which give $`\tau _{\mathrm{exp}}875`$ yr. Thus the CO outflows and the earliest jets are comparable in age.

There are large velocity gradients from the axes of the jets to the sides of the CO bicones, as expected if the jets burst through the envelope. The maximum CO velocity that we observe is $`50`$ km s-1, which is in fact close to the maximum velocity for molecular gas to survive acceleration in a single shock (Draine et al. dr83 (1983)), although it is possible for molecules to reform at higher velocities in post-shocked gas (Hollenbach & McKee ho89 (1989); Neufeld & Dalgarno ne89 (1989)). Details of the interaction need further study, but it seems likely that much of the fast, ionized material seen in the optical outflows has been produced by the destruction of molecules in the entrainment process. Similarly, there may also be an intermediate component of neutral atomic gas produced by the interactions which could be detected in species such as C ii, C i, and O i.

Molecular H2 has been detected in the axial knots themselves (Harrington et al. ha00 (2000)). This is probably at very high velocity (although no spectroscopy has yet been done) and the emission is likely formed in dense, post-shocked gas, possibly under conditions similar to those in AFGL 618 discussed by Cox et al. (co03 (2003)).

Weak OH maser emission has also been observed toward He 3-1475 (te Lintel Hekkert te91 (1991); Bobrowski et al. bo95 (1995)) and is distributed in multiple maser spots within $`0\stackrel{}{.}8`$ of the center, with a velocity range $`20`$–75 km s-1, roughly centered on the CO systemic velocity. The kinematic structure of the OH masers in Fig. 5 of Bobrowski et al. (bo95 (1995)) appears to show a strong velocity gradient across the envelope which has been remarked on by others, e.g., Riera et al. (ri03 (2003)). This apparent gradient is, however, not real. It is an artifact of ascribing positive and negative radial offsets to the red and blue components, and the actual distribution of the maser components shows no clear cut geometry (Zijlstra et al. zi01 (2001)). Given the OH maser velocities, the spots are probably located in the inner regions of the CO bicones near the equatorial plane.

### 5.3 Envelope dynamics

It has long been suspected that stellar radiation pressure may not power the highest mass loss rates in post-AGB stars (e.g., Knapp et al. kn82 (1982)), and recent survey work by Bujarrabal et al. (bu01 (2001)) has quantified this for the molecular outflows seen as high velocity wings in single dish CO spectra. We follow their approach in estimating the linear momentum ($`P`$) and energy ($`E`$) of the outflow using the observed values along the line of sight, and correcting for the inclination. We use the position-velocity map of Fig. 6 to define the outflow as the emission at velocities $`|VV_\mathrm{o}|>5`$ km s-1. For $`d=5.8`$ kpc and $`i=40\mathrm{°}`$ adopted earlier, we find $`P1\times 10^{39}`$ g cm s-1 and $`E2\times 10^{45}`$ erg using the CO emission. If we use the mass estimate based on the millimeter continuum and assume a velocity distribution as in the CO profile, the actual values are $`3`$ times larger than these limits. The results are similar to those obtained by Bujarrabal et al. (bu01 (2001)) for He 3-1475, based on the 13CO lines.

The luminosity of He 3-1475 at a distance of 5.8 kpc is $`L=12,600`$ $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Riera et al. ri03 (2003)). If radiation pressure from the star drives the molecular outflows, the time scale to generate the observed momentum (defined by the equation $`\tau (L/c)=P`$) is $`2\times 10^4`$ yr. However, as discussed in §5.2, the CO expansion time is only $`875`$ yr, and the actual time to accelerate the molecular gas to the observed velocities is probably less. Thus radiation pressure is unable to drive the flow by a large margin, as found by Bujarrabal et al. (bu01 (2001)) for more than 20 cases. This result is not unexpected in He 3-1475 because the geometry and kinematics discussed above provide strong evidence that the molecular gas is accelerated by entrainment in the jets, and these highly collimated structures are not likely generated by radiation pressure.

In He 3-1475 the jets appear to have easily penetrated the dense circumstellar gas close to the star: the molecular gas is peripheral to the outflows, and is at relatively low velocities compared to the jet axes. In these circumstances, it might be expected that the energy and momentum of the flow estimated from the molecular gas alone would be a relatively small part of the total, i.e., that the values given above are strong lower limits. It is therefore surprising that the energy and momentum in the fast outflows estimated by Riera et al. (ri03 (2003)) from optical observations are $`P10^{37}`$ g cm s-1 and $`E10^{45}`$ erg, which are *less* than the values we estimate from the molecular emission, the value of $`P`$ less by a factor of 100.

This discrepancy requires explanation and we offer two solutions. One is that the material close to the jet axes is largely neutral. Riera et al. (ri03 (2003)) have estimated the flow parameters based on a density determined from \[S ii\] line ratios. If the material is largely neutral, as expected from calculations of jets in YSOs (e.g., Safier sa93 (1993); Shang et al. sh02 (2002)), then the actual densities could be much larger, and the dynamical quantities correspondingly higher. A second possibility is that the primordial jets are in fact components of a wide angle wind. If so, the wide angle wind might couple well to the molecular gas, with only the central, highest velocity material breaking through the envelope to form the visible jets. These scenarios need to be examined in other proto-PNe.

## 6 Conclusions

The millimeter observations reported here provide basic information on the properties of the neutral circumstellar matter around the remarkable proto-planetary nebula He 3-1475. The observations also underscore the importance of neutral circumstellar gas in the early development of PNe.

He 3-1475 is surrounded by a massive circumstellar envelope ($`0.2`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`0.6`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ from our CO and continuum observations, respectively), which has only recently been ejected by the central star at a high mass loss rate ($`1\times 10^4`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1). The structure and kinematics of the CO emission are well modeled with an expanding bi-conical envelope, and lead to the conclusion that the molecular gas has been entrained in the sides of the jets as they burst through the envelope. The expansion time scales of the CO emission and the jets support this view.

Although He 3-1475 is an extreme object on account of the very high velocity of the jets and its well developed point symmetric structure, the evolutionary scenario outlined above is very similar to other newly forming PNe we have studied at high resolution. AFGL 2688 (Cox et al. co00 (2000)), CRL 618 (Cox et al. co03 (2003)); M1-16 (Huggins et al. hu00 (2000)), KjPn 8 (Forveille et al. fo98 (1998)), and NGC 7027 (Cox et al. co02 (2002)) form an approximate evolutionary sequence in which the ionized nebula turns on and becomes more dominant, and in each case there are prominent multiple jets, or single jets which have changed direction. He 3-1475 clearly belongs with this class. Besides constraining the origin of the jets and the physics of jet-envelope interactions, the observations of these objects demonstrate the importance of jets in the early shaping of the neutral circumstellar envelopes which play a key role in determining the morphology of the mature PNe.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Drs. M. Bobrowski, J. P. Harrington, and A. Zijlstra for useful discussions, and J. P. Harrington for the image used in Fig. 3. We also thank the IRAM staff at Plateau de Bure for making the observations, and the staff at Grenoble for help with the data. This work was supported in part by NSF grants AST 99-86159 and AST 03-07277 (to P.J.H.) and the Spanish DGES grant AYA2000-927 (to R.B.).


text:
# Quark-mass dependence of baryon resonances

## 1 Introduction

The meson-baryon scattering processes are an important test for effective field theories which aim at reproducing QCD at small energies, where the effective degrees of freedom are hadrons rather than quarks and gluons. The task to construct a systematic effective field theory for the meson-baryon scattering processes in the resonance region is closely linked to the fundamental question as to what is the ’nature’ of baryon resonances. Here we support the conjecture  that baryon resonances not belonging to the large-$`N_c`$ ground states are generated dynamically by coupled-channel dynamics . For a comprehensive discussion of this issue we refer to . This conjecture was the basis of the phenomenological model , which generated successfully non-strange s- and d-wave resonances by coupled-channel dynamics describing a large body of pion and photon scattering data. Before the event of the quark-model it was already suggested by Wyld  and also by Dalitz, Wong and Rajasekaran  that a $`t`$-channel vector meson exchange model for the s-wave meson-baryon scattering problem has the potential to dynamically generate s-wave baryon resonances upon solving a coupled-channel Schrödinger equation. In a more modern language the $`t`$-channel exchange was rediscovered in terms of the Weinberg-Tomozawa (WT) interaction, the leading term of the chiral Lagrangian that reproduces the first term of the vector meson exchange in an appropriate Taylor expansion . The main difference of the early attempts from computations based on the chiral Lagrangian is the way the coupled-channel scattering equation is regularized and renormalized. The crucial advance over the last years in this field is therefore a significant improvement of the systematics, i.e. how to implement corrections terms into coupled-channel dynamics .

In recent works , which will be reviewed here, it was shown that chiral dynamics provides a parameter-free prediction for the existence of a wealth of strange and non-strange s- and d-wave wave baryon resonances, once the crossing symmetry constraint is implemented properly. Naively one may expect that chiral dynamics does not make firm predictions for d-wave resonances since the meson baryon-octet interaction in the relevant channels probes a set of counter terms presently unknown. However, this is not necessarily so. Since a d-wave baryon resonance couples to s-wave meson baryon-decuplet states chiral symmetry is quite predictive for such resonances under the assumption that the latter channels are dominant. This is in full analogy to the analysis of the s-wave resonances  that neglects the effect of the contribution of d-wave meson baryon-decuplet states. The empirical observation that the d-wave resonances $`N(1520)`$, $`N(1700)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1700)`$ have large branching fractions ($`>50\%`$) into the inelastic $`N\pi \pi `$ channel, even though the elastic $`\pi N`$ channel is favored by phase space, supports our assumption.

## 2 Effective field theory of chiral coupled-channel dynamics

The starting point to describe the meson-baryon scattering process is the chiral SU(3) Lagrangian (see e.g.). A systematic approximation scheme arises due to a successful scale separation justifying the chiral power counting rules . Our effective field theory of the meson-baryon scattering processes is based on the assumption that the scattering amplitudes are perturbative at subthreshold energies with the expansion parameter $`Q/\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi `$. The small scale $`Q`$ is to be identified with any small momentum of the system. The chiral symmetry breaking scale is

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_\chi 4\pi f1.13\mathrm{GeV},$$

with the parameter $`f90`$ MeV determined by the pion decay process. Once the available energy is sufficiently high to permit elastic two-body scattering a further typical dimensionless parameter $`m_K^2/(8\pi f^2)1`$ arises . Since this ratio is uniquely linked to two-particle reducible diagrams it is sufficient to sum those diagrams keeping the perturbative expansion of all irreducible diagrams, i.e. the coupled-channel Bethe-Salpeter equation has to be solved. This is the basis of the $`\chi `$-BS(3) approach developed in .

At leading order in the chiral expansion one encounters the Weinberg-Tomozawa  interaction,

$`_{WT}={\displaystyle \frac{i}{8f^2}}\mathrm{tr}\left((\overline{B}\gamma ^\mu B)[\mathrm{\Phi },(_\mu \mathrm{\Phi })]_{}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{3i}{8f^2}}\mathrm{tr}\left((\overline{B}_\nu \gamma ^\mu B^\nu )[\mathrm{\Phi },(_\mu \mathrm{\Phi })]_{}\right),`$ (1)
where we dropped additional structures that do not contribute to the on-shell scattering process at tree level. The terms in (1) constitute the leading order s-wave interaction of Goldstone bosons ($`\mathrm{\Phi }`$) with the baryon-octet ($`B`$) and baryon-decuplet ($`B_\mu `$) states. The octet and decuplet fields, $`\mathrm{\Phi },B`$ and $`B_\mu `$, posses an appropriate matrix structure according to their SU(3) tensor representation.

The scattering process is described by the amplitudes that follow as solutions of the Bethe-Salpeter equation,

$`T(\overline{k},k;w)=V(\overline{k},k;w)+{\displaystyle \frac{d^4l}{(2\pi )4}V(\overline{k},l;w)G(l;w)T(l,k;w)},`$
$`G(l;w)=iD(\frac{1}{2}wl)S(\frac{1}{2}w+l),`$ (2)
where we suppress the coupled-channel structure for simplicity. The meson and baryon propagators, $`D(q)`$ and $`S(p)`$, are used in the notation of . We apply the convenient kinematics:

$`w=p+q=\overline{p}+\overline{q},k=\frac{1}{2}(pq),\overline{k}=\frac{1}{2}(\overline{p}\overline{q}),`$ (3)
where $`q,p,\overline{q},\overline{p}`$ the initial and final meson and baryon 4-momenta. The Bethe-Salpeter scattering equation is recalled for the case of meson baryon-octet scattering. An analogous equation holds for meson baryon-decuplet scattering process (see e.g. ). Referring to the detailed discussion given in  we assume a systematic on-shell reduction of the Bethe-Salpeter interaction kernel leading to the effective interaction $`V`$ used in (2). The latter is is expanded according to chiral power counting rules. The scattering amplitude $`T(\overline{k},k;w)`$ decouples into various sectors characterized by isospin ($`I`$) and strangeness ($`S`$) quantum numbers. In the case of meson baryon-octet and baryon-decuplet scattering the following channels are relevant

$`(I,S)_{[88]}=(0,3),(1,3),({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}},2),({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}},2),(0,1),`$
$`(1,1),(2,1),({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}},0),({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}},0),(0,1),(1,1),`$
$`(I,S)_{[810]}=({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}},4),(0,3),(1,3),({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}},2),({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}},2),(0,1),`$
$`(1,1),(2,1),({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}},0),({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}},0),({\displaystyle \frac{5}{2}},0),(1,1),(2,1).`$ (4)
Following the $`\chi `$-BS(3) approach developed in  the effective interaction kernel is decomposed into a set of covariant projectors that have well defined total angular momentum, $`J`$, and parity, $`P`$,

$`V(\overline{k},k;w)={\displaystyle \underset{J,P}{}}V^{(J,P)}(\sqrt{s})𝒴^{(J,P)}(\overline{q},q,w).`$ (5)
The merit of the projectors is that they decouple the Bethe-Salpeter equation (2) into orthogonal sectors labelled by the total angular momentum, $`J`$, and parity, $`P`$. We insist on the renormalization condition,

$`T^{(I,S)}(\overline{k},k;w)|_{\sqrt{s}=\mu (I,S)}=V^{(I,S)}(\overline{k},k;w)|_{\sqrt{s}=\mu (I,S)},`$ (6)
together with the natural choice for the subtraction points,

$`\mu (I,+1)=\mu (I,3)=\frac{1}{2}(m_\mathrm{\Lambda }+m_\mathrm{\Sigma }),\mu (I,0)=m_N,`$
$`\mu (0,1)=m_\mathrm{\Lambda },\mu (1,1)=m_\mathrm{\Sigma },\mu (I,2)=\mu (I,4)=m_\mathrm{\Xi }`$ (7)
as explained in detail in . The renormalization condition reflects the crucial assumption our effective field theory is based on, namely that at subthreshold energies the scattering amplitudes can be evaluated in standard chiral perturbation theory. This is achieved by supplementing (2) with (6,7). The subtraction points (7) are the unique choices that protect the s-channel baryon-octet masses manifestly in the p-wave $`J=\frac{1}{2}`$ scattering amplitudes. The merit of the scheme  lies in the property that for instance the $`K\mathrm{\Xi }`$ and $`\overline{K}\mathrm{\Xi }`$ scattering amplitudes match at $`\sqrt{s}m_\mathrm{\Xi }`$ approximately as expected from crossing symmetry. In  we suggested to glue s- and u-channel unitarized scattering amplitudes at subthreshold energies. This construction reflects our basic assumption that diagrams showing an s-channel or u-channel unitarity cut need to be summed to all orders at least at energies close to where the diagrams develop their imaginary part. By construction, a glued scattering amplitude satisfies crossing symmetry exactly at energies where the scattering process takes place. At subthreshold energies crossing symmetry is implemented approximatively only, however, to higher and higher accuracy when more chiral correction terms are considered. Insisting on the renormalization condition (6,7) guarantees that subthreshold amplitudes match smoothly and therefore the final ’glued’ amplitudes comply with the crossing-symmetry constraint to high accuracy. The natural subtraction points (7) can also be derived if one incorporates photon-baryon inelastic channels. Then additional constraints arise. For instance the reaction $`\gamma \mathrm{\Xi }\gamma \mathrm{\Xi }`$, which is subject to a crossing symmetry constraint at threshold, may go via the intermediate states $`\overline{K}\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or $`\overline{K}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$.

The perturbative nature of subthreshold amplitudes, a crucial assumption of the $`\chi `$-BS(3) approach proposed in , is not necessarily true in phenomenological coupled-channel schemes in . Using the subtraction scales as free parameters, as advocated in , may be viewed as promoting the counter terms of chiral order $`Q^3`$ to be unnaturally large. If the subtraction scales are chosen far away from their natural values (7) the resulting loop functions are in conflict with chiral power counting rules . Though unnaturally large $`Q^3`$ counter terms can not be excluded from first principals one should check such an assumption by studying corrections terms systematically . A detailed test of the naturalness of the $`Q^3`$ counter terms was performed within the $`\chi `$-BS(3) scheme  demonstrating good convergence in the channels studied without any need for promoting the counter terms of order $`Q^3`$. Possible correction terms in the approach followed in  have so far not been studied systematically for meson-baryon scattering. Moreover, if the scheme advocated in  were applied in all eleven isospin strangeness sectors with $`J^P=\frac{1}{2}^{}`$ a total number of 26 subtraction parameters arise. This should be compared with the only ten counter terms of chiral order $`Q^3`$ contributing to the on-shell scattering amplitude at that order . Selecting only the operators that are leading in the large-$`N_c`$ limit of QCD out of the ten $`Q^3`$ operators only four survive . For consistency and before applying the approach of  to all isospin strangeness channels, it would be highly desirable to address the above mismatch of parameters. Our scheme has the advantage that once the parameters describing subleading effects are determined in a subset of sectors one has immediate predictions for all sectors $`(I,S)`$. A mismatch of the number of parameters is avoided altogether since the $`Q^3`$ counter terms enter the effective interaction kernel directly.

Given the subtraction scales (7) the leading order calculation is parameter free. Of course chiral correction terms do lead to further so far unknown parameters which need to be adjusted to data. Within the $`\chi `$BS(3) approach such correction terms enter the effective interaction kernel $`V`$ rather than leading to subtraction scales different from (7) as it is assumed in . In particular the leading correction effects are determined by the counter terms of chiral order $`Q^2`$. The effect of altering the subtraction scales away from their optimal values (7) can be compensated for by incorporating counter terms in the chiral Lagrangian that carry order $`Q^3`$.

## 3 Baryon resonances from chiral SU(3) symmetry

We begin with a discussion of the s- and d-wave baryon resonance spectrum that arises in the SU(3) limit. The latter is not defined uniquely depending on the magnitude of the current quark masses, $`m_u=m_d=m_s`$. We consider two scenarios . In the ’light’ SU(3) limit the current quark masses are chosen such that one obtains $`m_\pi =m_K=m_\eta =140`$ MeV. The second case, the ’heavy’ SU(3) limit, is characterized by $`m_\pi =m_K=m_\eta =500`$ MeV. In the SU(3) limit meson baryon-octet scattering is classified according to,

$`88=27\overline{10}10881.`$ (8)
The leading order chiral Lagrangian predicts attraction in the two octet and the singlet channels but repulsion in the 27-plet and decuplet channels. As a consequence in the ’heavy’ SU(3) limit the chiral dynamics predicts two degenerate octet bound states together with a non-degenerate singlet state . In the ’light’ SU(3) limit all states disappear. In the $`J^P=\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ sector the Weinberg-Tomozawa interaction is attractive in the octet, decuplet and 27-plet channels, but repulsive in the 35-plet channel,

$`810=3527108.`$ (9)
Therefore one may expect resonances or bound states in the former channels. Indeed, in the ’heavy’ SU(3) limit we find $`72=4\times (8+10)`$ bound states in this sector forming an octet and decuplet representation of the SU(3) group. We do not find a 27-plet-bound state reflecting the weaker attraction in that channel. However, if we artificially increase the amount of attraction by about 40 $`\%`$ by lowering the value of $`f`$ in the Weinberg-Tomozawa term, a clear bound state arises in this channel also. A contrasted result is obtained if we lower the meson masses down to the pion mass arriving at the ’light’ SU(3) limit. Then we find neither bound nor resonance octet or decuplet states. This pattern is a clear prediction of chiral coupled-channel dynamics which should be tested with unquenched QCD lattice simulations .

We look for poles on the Second Riemann Sheet of our s-wave scattering amplitudes. Positions of the poles determine masses and widths of the resonances while the residues in the different channels define the branching ratios . To explore the quark mass dependence of the resonances, we vary the averaged $`up`$ and $`down`$ quark masses, but keep fixed the antikaon mass. A parameter $`x`$ is introduced in terms of which the pion mass varies as

$`m_\pi ^2|_{\mathrm{SU}(3)}=m_\pi ^2+x(m_K^2m_\pi ^2),x[0,1].`$ (10)
A pair $`(m_K^2,m_\pi ^2|_{\mathrm{SU}(3)})`$ determines the $`\eta `$ meson mass via the Gell-Mann–Oakes–Renner relation. Given the SU(3) symmetry breaking parameters $`b_0`$, $`b_D`$ and $`b_F`$ of , the masses of the baryon octet (N(940), $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1115)`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1190)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }(1320)`$) are also determined. In the limit $`x=1`$ our SU(3) pion is as heavy as the real kaon, while when $`x=0`$ the physical world is recovered approximatively. As demonstrated in Fig. 1 we find a remarkable success predicting rather well the bulk of the features of the four stars N(1535), $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1670)`$ resonances .

We also find a narrow resonance with $`(I,S)=(1,1)`$, though it appears in the unphysical 11000 sheet (see ). In Fig. 1 the trajectory of this pole is labelled with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1620)`$, a two star resonance, since it couples strongly to the $`\pi \mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and specially to the $`\overline{K}\mathrm{N}`$ channels. There exists also a pole in the 11100 sheet with $`M_R=1466`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R=574`$ MeV not shown in Fig. 1. It is above the $`\overline{K}\mathrm{N}`$ threshold and has a large coupling to the $`K\mathrm{\Xi }`$ channel. This very broad pole is precisely the one quoted in . It does not influence the physical scattering at all. However, chiral corrections reduce its width significantly and take its mass closer to the $`K\mathrm{\Xi }`$ threshold indicating that it is the three star $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1750)`$ resonance . Fig. 1 shows also the fate of the second $`(I,S)=(\frac{1}{2},0)`$ state, which is moved far away from the real axis down to quite low energies. Chiral corrections appear not to take the position of this pole closer to that of the physical N(1650) resonance . A quantitative description may require the inclusion of further inelastic channels, like $`\pi \mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\rho N`$

In the $`S=2`$ sector we find two resonances, which can clearly be identified to the $`\mathrm{\Xi }(1690)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }(1620)`$ resonances. Of particular interest is the signal for the $`\mathrm{\Xi }(1690)`$ resonance, where we find a quite small (large) coupling to the $`\pi \mathrm{\Xi }`$ ($`\overline{K}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$) channel, which explains the smallness of the experimental ratio, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\pi \mathrm{\Xi })/\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{K}\mathrm{\Sigma })<0.09`$  despite of the significant energy difference between the thresholds for the $`\pi \mathrm{\Xi }`$ and $`\overline{K}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ channels. On the other hand, we also find a third $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ resonance placed also below the $`\overline{K}\mathrm{N}`$ threshold and with a large coupling to the $`\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }`$ channel. This confirms the findings of the recent works , where the dynamics of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ states was studied.

In Fig. 2 speed plots of the $`J^P=\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ sector are shown for all channels in which octet and decuplet resonance states are expected. In  we generalized the notion of a speed  to the case of coupled-channels in way that the latter reveals the coupling strength of a given resonance to any channel, closed or open. If a resonance with not too large decay width sits in the amplitude a clear peak structure emerges in the speed plot even if the resonance structure is masked by a background phase. In the case of s-wave scattering thresholds induce square-root singularities which should not be confused with a resonance signal. It is a remarkable success of the $`\chi `$-BS(3) approach that it predicts the four star hyperon resonances $`\mathrm{\Xi }(1820)`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1520)`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1670)`$ with masses quite close to the empirical values. The nucleon and isobar resonances $`N(1520)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1700)`$ also present in Fig. 2, are predicted with less accuracy. The important result here is the fact that those resonances are generated at all. It should not be expected to obtain already fully realistic results in this leading-order calculation. For instance chiral correction terms are expected to provide a d-wave $`\pi \mathrm{\Delta }`$-component of the $`N(1520)`$. We continue with the peak in the (0,-3)-speeds at mass 1950 MeV. Since this is below all thresholds it is in fact a bound state. Such a state has so far not been observed but is associated with a decuplet resonance . Further states belonging to the decuplet are seen in the $`(\frac{1}{2},2)`$\- and $`(1,1)`$-speeds at masses 2100 MeV and 1920 MeV. The latter state can be identified with the three-star $`\mathrm{\Xi }(1940)`$ resonance. Finally we point at the fact that the $`(0,1)`$-speeds show signals of two resonance states consistent with the existence of the four star resonance $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1520)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1690)`$ even though in the ’heavy’ SU(3) limit we observed only one bound state. It appears that the SU(3) symmetry breaking pattern generates the ’missing’ state in this particular sector by promoting the weak attraction of the 27-plet contribution in (9).

## 4 Summary

In this talk we reported on recent progress in the understanding of baryon resonances based on chiral-coupled channel dynamics. The reader was introduced to an effective field theory formulation of chiral coupled-channel dynamics. Leading order results predict the existence of s- and d-wave baryon resonances with a spectrum remarkably close to the empirical pattern without any adjustable parameters. The formation of resonances is a consequence of the chiral SU(3) symmetry of QCD, i.e. in an effective field theory, that was based on the chiral SU(2) symmetry only, no resonances would be formed.