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# The Extended Methanol Maser Emission in W51

## 1. Introduction

Massive stars play a crucial role in the dynamics and evolution of galaxies but their formation is poorly understood because they are rare, evolve rapidly and are heavily embedded. There is increasing evidence that class II methanol masers are associated with with some of the earliest stages of massive star formation. If this is the case, methanol masers can be a powerful probe for finding and studying young massive stars and proto-stars.

W51 is one of the most luminous regions of massive star formation in our Galaxy, and is at a distance of 7 kpc. The W51a field is known to show methanol maser emission and two isolated sources, W51 Main and W51 IRS2, have previously been observed with the EVN at 6.7 GHz (Phillips, 2000) and at 12.2 GHz with the VLBA (Minier et al. 2000). The region was also observed as part of a survey of Northern methanol maser sources with the ATCA. These observations showed that the VLBI imaging had missed a large fraction of the maser emission which was located in 9 separate sites spread over more than 4 arcminutes.

## 2. Observations

The Northern position of W51 resulted in limited uv coverage and observations at low elevation, so good astrometry could not be achieved with the ATCA data. To get high precision absolute and relative astrometry of the maser emission, we used the EVN in phase referenced mode to make large field of view observation of the region. The observations were made on 7 Feb 2002, using 4 EVN antennas which can observe at 6.7 GHz. The data were correlated with the EVN MarkIV data processor at JIVE. Because the maser emission is spread over a region larger than the primary beam of the Effelsberg telescope, the observations had to be made using two separate pointings.

## 3. Results and Discussion

Figure 1 shows the measured position of the methanol masers overlayed on an 4.8-GHz VLA continuum image of the region. Although a few sources are associated with known centres of activity, the majority of the masers do not show any obviously compact radio continuum. However, the presence of the methanol masers means that these are the locations of some sort of activity, presumably massive star formation. Interestingly, 800 $`\mu `$m observations made by Ladd et al. (1993) using the JCMT, show a compact continuum source at the same position of the masers in the South-East. The whole region has been surveyed for main line OH maser emission using the VLA (Argon et al. 2000) and most of sites of methanol maser emission do not show any OH maser emission either. VLA observations of H2O masers and thermal NH3 do not detect any emission towards most of the methanol masers, but given the relatively small primary beam at 22 GHz, this is probably not surprising without targeted observations.

We suggest that the newly detected methanol masers represent either very young or very embedded (possibly both) massive stars or proto-stars. Follow-up observations using instruments such as BIMA and the VLA at 20 GHz will be needed to understand the origin of these sources.

Two of the sites of methanol maser emission in this region are well known sources and have been studies extensively at many wavelength; W51 Main and W51 IRS2.

### 3.1. W51 Main

Figure 2 shows a close up of the W51 main region, with the methanol positions from the current data overlayed on 8.4 GHz continuum emission as well as OH and water masers and NH3 (1,1) emission. The astrometry shows that the bulk of the methanol emission is offset to the edge of a bright, unresolved, UCHii region which shows deep NH3 absorption, indicating that the object is still embedded in dense molecular material. Most of the methanol components lie in an elongated structure which has previously been interpreted as the masers delineating an edge on disc around a young massive star (Phillips et al. 2000). Linear structure of the methanol emission is seen in many other methanol maser sources, and the disc hypothesis is often used to explain the morphology and velocity gradient along these sources (Phillips et al. 1998; Norris et al. 1998). The relative position of the methanol emission with respects to the UCHii region found by the current observations, and the fact that the methanol is highly mixed with the OH emission, suggest that in fact the methanol emission in this source is not associated with a disc, but is at the interface of the expanding Hii region and the molecular envelope.

### 3.2. W51 IRS2

Figure 3 shows the methanol emission towards W51 IRS2. The methanol masers are not associated with the infrared source but are offset to the South-West and are associated with an isolated UCHii region (Gaume et al. 1993). The Hii region has a spectral index of is 2.1, a physical size $`<`$300 AU and its emission measure infers a central star of spectral type of B0.5. This shows that the methanol is associated with a very young, highly embedded massive star. Interestingly, the UCHii region is also associated with an (J, K) = (9, 8) NH3 maser. It seems likely that the newly detected methanol masers are associated with objects similar to this one with, and either have a lower mass or are younger so no UCHii region is present or detectable.

## References

Argon, A., Reid, M. & Menten, K. 2000, ApJSS, 129, 159

Eisner, J., Greenhill, L., Herrnstein, J., Moran, J., & Menten, K. 2002, ApJ, 569, 334

Gaume, R., Johnston, K. & Wilson, T. 1993, ApJ, 417, 645

Imai, H., Watanabe, T., Omodaka, T., Nishio, M., Kameya, O., Miyaji, T. & Nakajima, J. 2002, PASJ, 54, 741

Ladd, E., Deane, J., Goldader, J., Sanders, D., & Wynn-Williams, C. 1993 in AIP Conf. Proc., 278, Back to the Galaxy, ed. S. Hold & F. Verter (New York, AIP), 246

Mehringer, D. 1994, ApJSS, 91, 713

Minier, V., Booth, R., & Conway, J. 2000, A&A, 362, 1093

Norris, R., Byleveld, S., Diamond, P., Ellingsen, S., Ferris, R., Gough, R. G. and Kesteven, M. J. and McCulloch, P. M. and Phillips, C. J. and Reynolds, J. E. and Tzioumis, A. K. and Takahashi, Y. and Troup, E. R. & Wellington, K. J. 1998, ApJ, 508, 275

Phillips, C., Norris, R., Ellingsen, S. & McCulloch, P. 1998, MNRAS, 300, 1131

Phillips 2000, Proceedings of the 5th EVN Symposium

Zhang, Q. & Ho, P. 1997, ApJ, 241


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# Crossover from tunneling to incoherent (bulk) transport in a correlated nanostructure

## Abstract

We calculate the junction resistance for a metal-barrier-metal device with the barrier tuned to lie just on the insulating side of the metal-insulator transition. We find that the crossover from tunneling behavior in thin barriers at low temperature to incoherent transport in thick barriers at higher temperature is governed by a generalized Thouless energy. The crossover temperature can be estimated from the low temperature resistance of the device and the bulk density of states of the barrier.

Many electronic devices employ quantum-mechanical tunneling in determining their transport properties. Examples include Josephson junctions josephson  and magnetic tunnel junctions magnetic . When designing a device manufacturing process, or when optimizing the operational characteristics of a device, it is important to have diagnostic tools that can determine if the transport is via tunneling or via defects in the barrier (such as pinholes). In superconductor-based devices, this is well understood, and was described in detail by Rowell rowell  in the 1970’s. However, the criteria relied on testing the device in the superconducting state. Interest in this problem for normal metals and for higher device operating temperatures has been driven by recent activity in magnetic tunnel junctions magnetic . A number of useful criteria for tunneling schuller  have emerged for these normal-metal-based devices: (i) the junction resistance should increase with decreasing temperature; (ii) the fit of an $`IV`$ characteristic to a Simmons model simmons  should have a barrier height that does not decrease and a fitted thickness that does not increase as $`T`$ decreases; and (iii) the junction noise should not increase at finite bias. It has also been well established that the naive criterion for tunneling, that the resistance increases exponentially with the barrier thickness is insufficient, since a rough interface plus pinholes will also yield this exponential dependence pinholes .

In this contribution, we perform a theoretical analysis of tunneling through a correlated barrier to investigate the crossover from a tunneling regime, where transport is dominated by quantum processes that provide “shorts” across the barrier, to an incoherent bulk transport regime, where the transport occurs via incoherent thermal excitations of carriers in the barrier. In the latter case, one expects the junction resistance to scale linearly with the barrier thickness, with the slope proportional to the bulk resistivity of the barrier (which has a strong temperature dependence in an insulator). As the barrier is made thinner (or the temperature is decreased), the direct quantum-mechanical coupling of the metallic leads through states localized in the barrier begins to dominate the transport process, and the resistance is reduced from that predicted by the incoherent transport mechanism to a relatively temperature independent tunneling-based resistance. Since the wavefunctions that connect the two metallic leads decay exponentially in the barrier, the tunneling resistance depends exponentially on the barrier thickness. Most commercial devices operate in this tunneling regime because the junction resistance is low enough to generate reasonable current values for low voltages and because the weak temperature dependence simplifies variations of the device parameters with temperature.

In conventional tunneling devices, which use an insulator with a large energy gap (like AlOx), one cannot see the crossover to the bulk transport regime, because it occurs at too high a temperature, or for too resistive junctions to be of interest. But there has been recent work in examining barriers that are tuned to lie closer to the metal-insulator transition newman  (like TaxN), and thereby have much smaller “energy gaps”. Barriers of this type may be easier to work with because they can be made thicker and thereby be less susceptible to pinhole formation. They also can be advantageous for different applications. As the energy gap of the barrier material is made smaller (or equivalently, if the barrier potential height is reduced), it becomes possible to observe and study the crossover from tunneling to bulk transport.

We consider a device constructed out of stacks of infinite two-dimensional planes stacked in registry on top of each other. This kind of inhomogeneous layered device can be used to describe a wide range of different multilayer-based structures. We couple a bulk ballistic semi-infinite metal lead to thirty self-consistent ballistic metal planes; then we stack 1 to 20 barrier planes and then top with another thirty self-consistent ballistic metal planes followed by another bulk ballistic semi-infinite metal lead. The ballistic metal is described by a simple hopping Hamiltonian with no interactions. The barrier is described by a spin-one-half Falicov-Kimball model falicov\_kimball  with the same hopping parameters as the metal plus strong scattering that yields correlations for the electron motion. The Hamiltonian is

$$=t\underset{i,j\sigma }{}c_{i\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+\underset{i\sigma }{}U_i^{FK}w_i(n_{i\sigma }\frac{1}{2}),$$
(1)
where $`c_{i\sigma }^{}`$ ($`c_{i\sigma }`$) creates (destroys) a conduction electron at site $`i`$ with spin $`\sigma `$ and $`t`$ is the hopping parameter. The hopping is on a simple cubic lattice constructed from the stacked two-dimensional planes; i.e., the hopping integral is chosen to be the same within a plane and between two planes. $`U_i^{FK}`$ is the Falicov-Kimball interaction and $`w_i`$ is a classical variable, equal to zero or one, which denotes the presence of a scatterer at site $`i`$. Finally, $`n_{i\sigma }=c_{i\sigma }^{}c_{i\sigma }`$ is the electron number operator. The Falicov-Kimball interaction is nonzero only within the barrier, where we set it equal to $`6t`$—large enough to create an insulator with a gap of $`0.4t`$. The average concentration of scatterers is $`w_i=1/2`$ and we choose half filling for the electrons as well (with our choice of interaction, this corresponds to a vanishing chemical potential). In order to be quantitative, we pick the hopping parameter to satisfy $`t=0.25`$ eV, which yields a bandwidth of 3 eV for the metallic leads and a gap of 100 meV for the correlated insulator (much smaller than a conventional oxide insulator). We solve for the Green’s functions using an inhomogeneous dynamical mean field theory calculation described elsewhere potthoff\_nolting ; miller ; jkf\_scms ; jkf\_review . The resistance-area product for this device is calculated by a real-space version of Kubo’s formula. We take the lattice constant to be 0.3 nm.

In Fig. 1, we plot the ratio of the junction resistance at temperature $`T`$ to the resistance at 30 K for junctions with a barrier thickness ranging from 1 to 10 atomic planes. In all cases, the resistance shows a weak temperature dependence with an insulator-like character. This low-$`T`$ behavior is often used as a diagnostic to indicate that tunneling is occuring in a junction schuller ; rudiger , and that certainly is the case here. Note how the temperature dependence increases as the thickness increases. This is because the thicker the barrier is, the more it looks like a bulk material, and an insulating barrier has strong (exponentially activated) temperature dependence in the bulk.

Since our junctions are defect free, with atomically smooth interfaces, we can analyze the resistance at fixed temperature as a function of the barrier thickness to look for exponential dependence in the tunneling regime, with a crossover to linear dependence in the incoherent (bulk) transport regime. This is plotted in Fig. 2 for a number of different temperatures, ranging from 30 K to 1000 K. Note how we see a perfect exponential dependence on thickness for thin barriers, which then gives way to a crossover to linear behavior as the junctions are made thicker and the transport becomes incoherent and thermally activated. Because of the thermal activation, this crossover moves to thinner barriers as the temperature is increased. But it is interesting to note that there is no simple relationship between the bulk gap (approximately 50 meV or 550 K when measured from the $`T=0`$ chemical potential) and the location of the crossover thickness as a function of temperature. Indeed, as $`T`$ is increased, this crossover region is pushed to thinner and thinner barriers. This type of behavior has been seen in Josephson junctions made from high temperature superconductors using molecular-beam-epitaxy eckstein . When the barrier was increased from 1 to 3 to 5 to 7 atomic planes, the junction resistance initially increased exponentially, and then started to turn over to a more linear dependence on thickness. However, because the high-temperature superconductor is a d-wave superconductor, there is strong temperature dependence to the junction resistance, even in the tunneling regime, so direct comparison with results given here is impossible. This behavior has also been seen in some magnetic tunnel junctions covington  where an exponential increase as a function of thickness gives way to an essentially constant dependence on thickness for thicker Aluminum regions. What is less known about this data is how much of the Aluminum is oxidized in the manufacturing process. Also, no temperature scans at fixed thickness were reported.

In Fig. 3, we plot $`R_n(T)A`$ versus $`T`$ for a variety of barrier thicknesses on a log-log plot. This figure clearly shows the tunneling regime, where the resistance-area product is approximately constant, and it shows the incoherent regime, where the resistance-area product has a strong temperature dependence. The dashed line, that divides these two regions is an approximate boundary that denotes the crossover region for the two different types of transport. This crossover line is determined by equating an energy scale extracted from the resistance with the temperature. When this energy scale is larger than $`k_BT`$ we have tunneling, when it is lower than $`k_BT`$ we have incoherent transport. The energy scale is a generalized Thouless energy thouless , valid for a barrier that is described by an insulator that does not have either ballistic or diffusive transport. The generalized Thouless energy $`E_{\mathrm{Th}}`$ is the energy scale constructed from the resistance at temperature $`T`$ via the expression

$$E_{\mathrm{Th}}(T)=\frac{\mathrm{}}{R_n(T)\frac{2e^2}{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega \left(\frac{df(\omega )}{d\omega }\right)\rho _{int}(\omega )L}$$
(2)
where $`f(\omega )=1/[1+\mathrm{exp}(\omega /k_BT)]`$ is the Fermi-Dirac distribution, $`\rho _{int}(\omega )`$ is the bulk density of states in the insulator, and $`L`$ is the barrier thickness. This definition of $`E_{\mathrm{Th}}`$ agrees with the conventional notion of $`\mathrm{}/t_{dwell}`$, relating the Thouless energy to the dwell time in the barrier, when the transport in the barrier is described by either a ballistic metal (where the Thouless energy varies like $`C/L`$) or a diffusive metal (where the Thouless energy varies like $`C/L^2`$), but it can now be generalized for an insulating barrier as well (where the Thouless energy now picks up a substantial temperature dependence).

The notion of a Thouless energy can be employed as a diagnostic for tunneling devices. Since $`R_n(T)`$ depends weakly on $`T`$ in the tunneling regime, one can measure $`R_n`$ at low $`T`$, and estimate the crossover temperature, by computing a simple integral over the bulk insulator density of states. Then one evaluates $`E_{\mathrm{Th}}(T)`$ employing Eq. (2) using the low-temperature value of the resistance. The crossover temperature is estimated by the point where $`E_{\mathrm{Th}}(T)=k_BT`$. Note further that this crossover temperature is not proportional to the gap of the bulk insulator, but rather is a complicated function of the barrier thickness, and the strength of the correlations.

In summary, we have determined an energy scale extracted from the resistance of a junction, that governs the crossover from tunneling to incoherent transport. This energy scale approaches zero as the barrier thickness becomes large, hence it could have applicability to any tunneling-based device, but when we examine the common resistance-area products of actual devices, it becomes clear that this concept will have the most applicability to junctions with barriers tuned to lie close to the metal-insulator transition. Since it is possible such devices will be used for devices of the future, the concept of a generalized Thouless energy should become an important diagnostic tool in evaluating the quality of devices, and allow one to engineer the thickness and operating temperature range to guarantee tunneling with the chosen barrier.

Acknowledgments: We acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation under grant number DMR-0210717 and from the Office of Naval Research under grant number N00014-99-1-0328. High performance computer time was provided by the Arctic Region Supercomputer Center and the U. S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center. We also acknowledge useful discussions with J. Eckstein, B. Jones, N. Newman, B. Nikolić, S. Parkin, J. Rowell, I. Schuller and S. Shafraniuk.


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# Bose-Einstein Correlations of Charged Pion Pairs in Au+Au Collisions at √𝑠_NN=200 GeV.

PHENIX Collaboration

## Abstract

Bose-Einstein correlations of identically charged pion pairs were measured by the PHENIX experiment at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}`$ = 200 GeV. The Bertsch-Pratt radius parameters were determined as a function of the transverse momentum of the pair and as a function of the centrality of the collision. Using the full Coulomb correction, the ratio $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ is smaller than unity for $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ from 0.25 to 1.2 GeV/c and for all measured centralities. However, using recently developed partial Coulomb correction methods, we find that $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ is 0.8-1.1 for the measured $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ range, and approximately constant at unity with the number of participants.

Following its origin in the study of proton-antiproton annihilations GGLPP , Bose-Einstein correlations have been extensively used to measure source distributions in relativistic heavy ion collisions WiedemannP ; CsorgoP . These measurements were originally motivated by theoretical predictions of a large source size and/or a long duration of particle emission GyulassyP ; BertschP2 ; PrattP2  – which would result from a softening of the equation-of-state in a first-order phase transition to a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The technique of Bose-Einstein correlations is based upon quantum statistical interference, but final state interactions such as Coulomb repulsion modify the relative momentum distributions for pairs of identical particles emanating from the collision region. Both effects are included in multidimensional Gaussian fits to the normalized relative momentum distributions yielding the fit parameters which are the RMS-widths in each dimension, $`R_{\mathrm{long}}`$, $`R_{\mathrm{side}}`$, $`R_{\mathrm{out}}`$ PrattP ; BertschP , also referred to as HBT radii. A finite duration of emission leads to an effective elongation of one of the HBT radii, $`R_{\mathrm{out}}`$, which is parallel to the mean transverse momentum of pair, $`k_\mathrm{T}=(𝐩_{1\mathrm{T}}+𝐩_{2\mathrm{T}})/2`$; however, the other radii along the axes perpendicular to $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ represent the geometrical source sizes. Therefore the $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ ratio could become larger than unity even for a cylindrical particle source, if a long duration of particle emissions occurs. For dynamic (i.e. expanding) sources, the HBT radii depend on the $`k_\mathrm{T}`$, and correspond to lengths of homogeneity, regions of the source which emit particles of similar momentum SinyukovP2 . Measuring the $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ dependence of the HBT radii provides essential constraints on dynamical models that include the space-time evolution of the source PrattP3 ; NA44P .

Hydrodynamic models for the space-time evolution of a rehadronizing QGP predicted that the measurement of the $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ ratio at moderate values of $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ provides a sensitive test of the long duration of particle emission, a signal of a slowly burning first order phase transition from QGP to hadrons at RHIC GyulassyP . Their predictions that the $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ ratio should reach $``$1.5 at $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ of $``$0.5 GeV/c were not borne out by initial measurements of Bose-Einstein correlations of pions from Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}`$ = 130 GeV PHENIX130P ; STAR130P . This disagreement between theory and data has been called the “RHIC HBT puzzle” GyulassyP2 .

We present here data on Bose-Einstein correlations of charged pion pairs measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC for Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}`$ = 200 GeV. In this analysis, we adopt a recent fitting technique that provides for a self-consistent treatment of the Coulomb final state interaction for a source that is made up of a smaller core and a more extended halo of long-lived resonances. We introduce a new parameterization in which the strength of the Coulomb interaction is constrained by the measured unlike-signed pion correlation.

The PHENIX detector provides particle identification (PID) capabilities for hadrons, leptons and photons over a wide momentum range. The setup of the PHENIX detector has been described in detail elsewhere PHENIX-NIM . In this analysis, we use the west arm of the central spectrometer, which covers the pseudorapidity region $`|\eta |<0.35`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =\pi /2`$ in azimuthal angle over a region of 0.2 GeV/c $`<k_\mathrm{T}<`$ 2.0 GeV/c. The drift chamber (DC), at a radial distance between 2.0 m and 2.4 m, provides trajectory information in the azimuthal direction. A pad chamber (PC1) at 2.5 m provides z-coordinate information. Combining the DC and PC1 information, a track model provides a 3-dimensional trajectory and momentum vector for charged particles. The momentum resolution is $`\delta p/p0.7\%1.0\%\times p`$ (GeV/c), where the first term is due to the multiple scattering before the DC and the second term is the angular resolution of the DC. For this analysis, the electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) provides the time of arrival of particles at its front face located 5.1 m from the beam axis. The timing resolution is approximately 400 psec for hadrons. This analysis is based on a sample of 34 million minimum bias events taken with a magnetic field of 0.78 T$``$m and triggered by the coincidence of the Beam-Beam Counters (BBC) and Zero-Degree Calorimeters (ZDC) – corresponding to $`92\pm 2\%`$ of the total inelastic cross section of 6.8 b. Event centrality is determined from the correlation between the BBC multiplicity and the analog response of the ZDC. About 23 million events are selected with a requirement that the collision vertex measured by the BBC has $`|z|<30`$ cm. Each track is required to have an associated hit on the EMCal within 2$`\sigma `$ of the track’s projection to the EMCal, where $`\sigma `$ refers to the resolution of the projection. Charged particles are identified by the time-of-flight technique using timing information between the BBC and the EMCal, combined with momentum and flight length calculated by the track model. Charged particles in the PID zone within 1.5 $`\sigma `$ of the ideal squared-mass peak of pions but 1.5 $`\sigma `$ away from the kaon bands are identified as pions. After the track quality and PID cuts, $``$45 million positive pions and $``$51 million negative pions are selected in a momentum range from 0.2 to 2.0 GeV/c.

The pion correlation function is experimentally defined as $`C_2(𝐪)=A(𝐪)/B(𝐪)`$, where $`A(𝐪)`$ is the measured two-pion (actual pair) distribution of pair momentum difference $`𝐪`$, and $`B(𝐪)`$ is the background pair (mixed pair) distribution generated using mixed events from the same data sample. Event mixing is done selecting events that have similar multiplicities and event vertices. As in our previous analyses at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}`$ = 130 GeV PHENIX130P , actual pairs within 1 cm in the beam direction ($`\mathrm{\Delta }Z_{DC}`$) and 0.06 radians in azimuthal angle ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _{DC}`$) in the DC are eliminated from the pair sample to remove ghost tracks, then within 5 cm in $`\mathrm{\Delta }Z_{DC}`$ and 0.03 radians in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _{DC}`$ are also eliminated to avoid a strongly inefficient region for pairs. Since pairs which are close to one another in the EMCal are either reconstructed as single hit clusters or are affected by cluster-sharing, pairs whose hits are within 8 cm at the EMCal are eliminated. The background mixed pairs are subject to the same cuts as actual pairs. After the pair cuts, $``$110 million positive pion pairs and $``$140 million negative pion pairs remain. The number of pairs is 40 times larger than the data sample used for the PHENIX data at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}`$ = 130 GeV PHENIX130P . The systematic errors on the HBT radius parameters from the pair cuts are evaluated by varying the pair cuts to be $``$2$`\%`$ for $`R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{long}}`$, and $``$7$`\%`$ for $`R_{\mathrm{out}}`$. The correction for the multi-track reconstruction efficiencies in the DC and EMCal are determined by a GEANT-based GEANTP  Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of the detector. The pair efficiencies of the DC and EMCal are estimated by the ratio of the distribution of separations of actual pairs to that of normalized mixed pairs. Also the multiplicity dependent pair efficiencies are estimated by an embedding technique: simulated pion pairs are embedded in real events and the reconstruction efficiency for these simulated pion pairs versus multiplicity is calculated. The pair reconstruction inefficiencies in the DC and EMCal are corrected by using pair efficiency factors estimated by the embedded MC simulation. Finally, we removed pairs within 0.005 radians in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _{DC}`$ where a pair inefficiency still remains even after the correction by MC. Correction for the residual HBT effect ZajcP  is estimated as a systematic error. The acceptance for this analysis is large, as a consequence the systematic error is $``$1$`\%`$ on each radius parameter.

In order to compare directly to previous analyses, we apply the standard “full” strength Coulomb correction calculated from the pair Coulomb wave function PrattP2  for a 3-D Gaussian parameterization of the source using the radii obtained from the previous fit. We fit the Bose-Einstein correlation with the full Coulomb correction to the the 1-D $`q_{inv}`$ parameterization, $`C_2(q_{\mathrm{inv}})=1+\lambda _{\mathrm{inv}}\mathrm{exp}(R_{\mathrm{inv}}^2q_{\mathrm{inv}}^2)`$, and the 3-D Bertsch-Pratt parameterization is given by

$$C_2=1+\lambda \mathrm{exp}(R_{\mathrm{side}}^2q_{\mathrm{side}}^2R_{\mathrm{out}}^2q_{\mathrm{out}}^2R_{\mathrm{long}}^2q_{\mathrm{long}}^2).$$
(1)
The relative momentum $`𝐪`$ is decomposed into $`(q_{\mathrm{side}},q_{\mathrm{out}},q_{\mathrm{long}})`$, where the longitudinal component ($`q_{\mathrm{long}}`$) is parallel to the beam axis, the out component ($`q_{\mathrm{out}}`$) is parallel to the mean transverse momentum of the pair, $`𝐤_T`$ and the side component ($`q_{\mathrm{side}}`$) is perpendicular to both $`q_{\mathrm{long}}`$ and $`q_{\mathrm{out}}`$PrattP ; BertschP . This analysis is performed in the Longitudinal Center-of-Mass System (LCMS), where the mean longitudinal momentum of the pair vanishes. In this frame, the duration of particle emission couples exclusively to $`q_{\mathrm{out}}`$. In a general case, cross-terms may appear in Eq. 1, but they vanish in our measurement of central collisions at mid-rapidity due to symmetry reasons ChapmanP .

In the realistic source, however, many of relatively long-lived particles (e.g. $`\eta `$, $`\eta ^{}`$) which decay into pions and have a Bose-Einstein interference too narrow to be resolved by experiment also have a Coulomb interaction that is negligible. For this reason, a new functional form was proposed SinyukovP  which is based upon a Core-Halo picture of the source TamasP  and assumes that the fraction of pairs, $`\lambda `$, which have Bose-Einstein interference are the only pairs that contribute to the Coulomb interaction.

$$C_2=C_{core}+C_{halo}=[\lambda (1+G)F]+[1\lambda ]$$
(2)
where $`G`$ corresponds to the Gaussian term in Eq. 1, and $`F`$ is the Coulomb correction term. This correction method was recently adopted by CERES CERESP  and STAR STARP . However, our formula differs slightly, because the momentum resolution correction to $`\lambda `$ (which is small according to MC simulation) is included in our systematic error, rather than being incorporated into $`F`$.

In order to test the underlying hypothesis of Eq. 2, we fit the strength of the Coulomb interaction ($`\lambda _+`$) to the unlike-signed correlation function in the range $`0.2<k_\mathrm{T}<2.0`$ GeV/c, and obtained a value for $`\lambda _+=0.50\pm 0.04`$ with $`\chi ^2/DoF=3.0`$. This value is clearly inconsistent with the full strength Coulomb correction but greater than the value of $`\lambda `$, especially for $`k_\mathrm{T}<0.5`$ GeV/c. We attribute this difference mainly to the $`\omega `$ resonance, which is sufficiently long-lived to be unresolved with Bose-Einstein correlations, but may contribute significantly to the Coulomb interaction. To account for this contribution, we have modified Eq. 2 to fix the total coulomb strength at $`\lambda _+`$ while allowing the Bose-Einstein fraction, $`\lambda `$, to vary from zero to $`\lambda _+`$,

$$C_2=[\lambda (1+G)F]+[(\lambda _+\lambda )F]+[1\lambda _+]$$
(3)
In applying this formula, we still calculate the additional Coulomb fraction using the Bertsch-Pratt source of approximately 5 fm, rather than estimating the larger source distribution for the $`\omega `$ decay products. Therefore we use this formula to provide an upper bound on the effect of the additional Coulomb interaction. The difference between Eq. 3 and Eq. 2 is used in our estimate of the systematic errors.

Figure 1 shows the one-dimensional correlation function for $`\pi ^+`$ pairs, $`\pi ^{}`$ pairs, and unlike-signed pion pairs along with projections of the three-dimensional correlation functions onto $`q_{\mathrm{side}}`$, $`q_{\mathrm{out}}`$ and $`q_{\mathrm{long}}`$ for $`\pi ^{}`$ pairs.

Figure 2 shows the $`k_\mathrm{T}`$-dependence of $`\lambda `$, Bertsch-Pratt radii, and the ratio $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ for the $`30\%`$ most central events, corresponding to $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ = 281. For the full Coulomb correction, $`\lambda `$ is approximately constant in all the $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ bins while the radius parameters fall rapidly with increasing $`k_\mathrm{T}`$. The full Coulomb corrected radius parameters at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}`$ = 200 GeV are slightly different from the full Coulomb corrected radius parameters at 130 GeV PHENIX130P  at the same $`k_\mathrm{T}`$because of the improved pair efficiency correction, but similar within errors. For the partial Coulomb correction, results from the two different correction methods show similar trends. Compared to the full Coulomb correction $`R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{long}}`$ systematically decrease while $`R_{\mathrm{out}}`$ increases, and $`\lambda `$ decreases in the low $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ region. In the case of the full Coulomb correction, the ratio $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$, in Fig. 2, is around 0.6-0.8 up to $`k_\mathrm{T}`$$``$1.2 GeV/c. On the other hand, $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ from the partial Coulomb correction is systematically larger than that from the full Coulomb correction, and slightly decreases from $``$1.1 to $``$0.8 as $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ increases. Reanalysis of the 130 GeV/c data with Eq. 2 gave results that are fully consistent with the 200 GeV/c results.

Figure 3 shows the collision centrality dependence of the radius parameters. The number of participants ($`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$) is evaluated from the charged particle multiplicity using a Glauber model calculation PHENIX130M . To evaluate the $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ dependencies of the Bertsch-Pratt radius parameters, we fit with a function of $`p_0+p_1N_{\mathrm{part}}^{1/3}`$. For the full Coulomb correction, the fit $`p_1`$ parameters indicate that $`R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{long}}`$ show similar $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ dependencies and $`R_{\mathrm{out}}`$ has a slightly smaller $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ dependence. For the fits to a core-halo structure, all radius parameters show similar $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ dependencies. All radii are consistent with a linear increase with $`N_{\mathrm{part}}^{1/3}`$. The $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ ratios are approximately constant for all centralities. The ratios from the partial Coulomb corrections are systematically higher than those using the full Coulomb corrections. These fit parameters are given in Fig. 3.

In conclusion, we have presented the Bertsch-Pratt HBT radii in the LCMS for identified charged pions measured by PHENIX in Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}`$ = 200 GeV. The $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ dependence of the HBT radii was measured for $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ = 281, and the centrality dependence was measured for $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ = 0.45 GeV/c. These measurements are consistent with results from Au+Au collisions at 130 GeV when a similar analysis (full Coulomb correction) is performed. We also performed two different partial Coulomb analyses, one based upon a self-consistent treatment of the Coulomb correction, and the other based upon direct comparison to the unlike-signed correlation, which is shown to be inconsistent with the application of a full Coulomb correction. Both Coulomb corrections (Eq. 2 and Eq. 3) yield similar values of $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$ which slightly decreases from $``$1.1 to $``$0.8 in the range of $`k_\mathrm{T}=0.21.2`$ GeV/c for $`N_{\mathrm{part}}`$ = 281, and approximately constant at unity with the number of participants for $`k_\mathrm{T}`$ = 0.45 GeV/c. These detailed measurements of the transverse momentum dependence of the HBT radii, in particular that of $`R_{\mathrm{out}}/R_{\mathrm{side}}`$, provide extremely strong constraints for model builders.

We thank the staff of the Collider-Accelerator and Physics Departments at BNL for their vital contributions. We acknowledge support from the Department of Energy and NSF (U.S.A.), MEXT and JSPS (Japan), CNPq and FAPESP (Brazil), NSFC (China), CNRS-IN2P3 and CEA (France), BMBF, DAAD, and AvH (Germany), OTKA (Hungary), DAE and DST (India), ISF (Israel), KRF and CHEP (Korea), RMIST, RAS, and RMAE, (Russia), VR and KAW (Sweden), U.S. CRDF for the FSU, US-Hungarian NSF-OTKA-MTA, and US-Israel BSF.


text:
# The Changing Blazhko Effect of XZ Cygni

## 1 Introduction

Blazhko (1907) discovered a periodic oscillation in the times of maximum light of the RR Lyrae variable RW Dra. Shapley (1916) found that the light curve shape of RR Lyrae itself changed with a secondary period of approximately 40 days. Subsequently, long term secondary modulations in light curves have been identified for a number of well-observed RR Lyrae variables. These secondary modulations are now usually referred to as the Blazhko Effect, although Szeidl & Kolláth (2000) have suggested that the name Blazhko-Shapley Effect might be appropriate in recognition of Shapley’s role in their discovery. In the Milky Way, about 20 - 30% of RR Lyrae variables of Bailey type ab (RRab, also termed RR0) show the Blazhko Effect (Moskalik & Poretti, 2003; Szeidl, 1988). In the Large Magellanic Cloud the percentage of RRab stars which show the Blazhko Effect is smaller, about 12% to 15% (Alcock et al., 2003; Soszyński et al., 2003). Periods of reported secondary modulations of classical Blazhko Effect RRab stars in the Milky Way range from 11 d to 533 d. More recently, secondary modulations similar or identical to the Blazhko Effect have also been discovered for a small percentage of the RR Lyrae stars of Bailey type c (RRc or RR1). Reviews of the Blazhko Effect have been given by Szeidl (1976), Szeidl (1988), Smith (1995) and Kovács (2001). As we will discuss in $`\mathrm{\S }`$7, several explanations have been advanced, but there is still no consensus on the mechanism underlying the Blazhko phenomenon (Cousens, 1983; Shibahashi, 2000; Kovács, 2001).

Many RR Lyrae stars are known to have undergone changes in the length of their primary pulsation cycle (Smith, 1995). However, significant changes in the length of the Blazhko period appear to have been reported for only four stars (Jurcsik et al., 2002): XZ Dra, RV UMa, RW Dra, and the subject of this study, XZ Cyg (HD 239124, BD +56 2257). RR Lyrae stars with changing Blazhko periods are of particular interest because they may shed light on the cause of the Blazhko Effect.

The variability of XZ Cygni was discovered in 1905 by L. Ceraski. Subsequent investigations have made XZ Cyg one of the best studied RRab stars. Blazhko (1922) established that XZ Cygni displays the Blazhko Effect, finding the Blazhko period to be approximately 57.4 d long. For the next half century, investigations of XZ Cyg confirmed the existence of a Blazhko period near 57.4 d, though some indicated the possibility of a 41.6 d tertiary period as well (Klepikova, 1958; Muller, 1953). In the 1960s, however, XZ Cyg underwent striking changes. Baldwin (1973), Smith (1975), Pop (1975), and Taylor (1975) reported that the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg abruptly lengthened to about 58.4 d in the mid 1960s. This change in the Blazhko period was coincident with a sharp decrease in the primary pulsation period, which took place in several steps (Bezdenezhny, 1988; Baldwin & Samolyk, 2003). More recently, the primary period has increased once more, rising to a value close to the one it had before its sudden decline (Baldwin & Samolyk, 2003).

In the present paper we investigate the behavior of XZ Cyg between its discovery and 2002. We will present new CCD photometry of XZ Cyg and analyze old and new observations of the star. Our intent is to verify that the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg has indeed changed and to understand how any changes in the Blazhko period are related to changes in the primary period. Finally, we will consider how observed changes in the Blazhko period might constrain theoretical models of the Blazhko phenomenon.

## 2 CCD Observations

Differential $`V`$ band photometry of XZ Cyg was obtained with the 60-cm telescope of the Michigan State University Observatory between JD 2451338 and 2452506 (1999 June 8 through 2002 August 19). Until JD 2452202 observations were obtained with an Apogee Ap7 CCD camera. After that date, an Apogee Ap47p camera was used instead. The star TYC 3929-1703-1 was adopted as a primary comparison star and TYC 3929-1811-1 was used as a check star. Transforming the Tycho catalog $`VT`$ and $`BT`$ magnitudes to the Johnson system using the prescription of Bessell (2000), one obtains $`V`$ = 9.97 $`\pm `$ 0.04 and $`\mathrm{B V}`$ = 1.31 $`\pm `$ 0.08 for TYC 3929-1703-1. Differential V-band photometry for XZ Cyg is listed in Table 1. Differential magnitudes are given in the sense $`V`$(XZ Cyg) minus $`V`$(comparison star). The typical uncertainty in a measurment of $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ is 0.01 mag. A total of 7738 observations of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$V were obtained.

The comparison star is redder than XZ Cyg itself, for which $`\mathrm{B V}`$ varies between 0.2 and 0.4 (Sturch, 1966). Because we are interested mainly in analyzing our observations to determine the length of the Blazhko cycle, and because we do not have multi-filter observations, we have not attempted to apply any color corrections to observed values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$. From the previously observed color range of XZ Cyg, we would expect such corrections to make the observed values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ smaller by about 0.03 mag near maximum light and by 0.02 mag near minimum light for both the Ap7 and Ap47p observations. Corrections of that size are not important for our purposes.

441 additional measurements of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$V were obtained between JD 2452210 and 2452601 (2001 October 27 to 2002 November 22) by G. Samolyk, who used a 25 cm telescope of the Milwaukee Astronomical Society Observatory with a Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST9E CCD. The uncertainty of a typical measurement of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$V with this instrument is about $`\pm `$0.02 mag. Simultaneous observations of XZ Cyg indicate that the $`V`$ band photometric systems of the Michigan State University observations and the Milwaukee observations are the same to within $`\pm `$0.01 mag. The Milwaukee differential $`V`$ measurements are listed in Table 2. The same comparison star was used as for the Michigan State University observations.

## 3 Analysis of the CCD Observations

The period search routines CLEANest (Foster, 1995), Period98 (Sperl, 1998), and PDM (Stellingwerf, 1978) were used to determine the primary period of XZ Cyg based upon the full CCD dataset. The three methods gave consistent results, $`P_0`$ = 0.466598 $`\pm `$ 0.000002 d, a value also consistent with that recently determined by Baldwin & Samolyk (2003) from AAVSO observations spanning the interval HJD 2448570 to 2452618: 0.46659934 $`\pm `$ 0.00000035 d. The light curve of XZ Cyg, folded according to the Baldwin & Samolyk (2003) ephemeris, is shown in Figure 1 (for the Michigan State University observations only) and Figure 2 (for all of the CCD observations). These figures strongly indicate the existence of a continued Blazhko Effect in XZ Cyg during the time interval in which the CCD data were obtained.

We then searched for possible additional periods in the CCD dataset using the CLEANest and Period98 programs. The data were prewhitened to remove the primary frequency, $`f_0`$, and its nine higher harmonics (2$`f_0`$, 3$`f_0`$,…10$`f_0`$). Prewhitening the data in that way left residuals with a standard deviation of 0.079 mag. The Blazhko Effect reveals itself in two different types of frequency structure. Some Blazhko variables show frequency triplets, with peaks at frequencies $`jf_0\pm kf_B`$, where j = 1, 2, 3,…, k = 0 or 1, and $`f_B`$ is the frequency of the Blazhko period. Other Blazhko variables show only frequency doublets (see, for example, Alcock et al. (2003)). Our observations of XZ Cygni indicate the presence of frequency triplets, although the presence of frequency aliases complicates the Fourier spectrum. A portion of the Fourier spectrum around the frequency of the primary period is shown in Figure 3 for the prewhitened data. The peaks at frequencies 2.12577 c/d and 2.16054 c/d would beat with the primary frequency at periods of 57.45 d and 57.59 d, respectively. Similarly spaced peaks are evident in the Fourier spectrum near frequency $`2f_0`$. Overall, the peaks identified in the CLEANest and Period98 power spectra indicate the presence of a Blazhko period of 57.5 $`\pm `$ 0.2 d. Subtraction of frequencies $`jf_0\pm f_B`$, where j = 1,2,..10 and $`f_B`$ = 0.01739 reduced the residuals to 0.042 mag, still significantly larger than the expected observational uncertainty.

With the data prewhitened to remove the primary and Blazhko periods, a further search was conducted for peaks in the Fourier spectrum which might represent a tertiary period. A portion of the resultant Fourier spectrum is shown in Figure 4. The highest peaks occur at frequencies of 2.1191 c/d and 2.1698 c/d, which would beat with the primary frequency at intervals of 41.6 d and 37.5 d, respectively. A lesser peak is evident at a frequency of 2.1671 c/d, which would beat with the primary frequency at an interval of 41.8 c/d. Note that the frequency at 2.1698 c/d can be interpreted as a one year alias of the frequency at 2.1671 c/d. The Fourier spectrum around the location of $`2f_0`$ shows peaks at frequencies of 4.2623 c/d and 4.3104 c/d, which would be indicative of a beat period of length 41.6 d. A peak is also evident at a frequency of 4.2596 c/d, which is, however, interpetable as a one year alias of the peak at 4.2623 c/d. We thus conclude that the CCD photometry indicates the existence of a tertiary period of length 41.6 d with an uncertainty of about $`\pm `$ 0.2 d. As will be discussed later, this period is close to the tertiary periods found by Muller (1953) and Klepikova (1958). Period98 was used to fit the data with a set of frequencies of the form $`jf_0,jf_0\pm f_B`$, and $`jf_0\pm f_3`$, where $`f_3`$ is the frequency of a 41.6 d tertiary period, 0.02404 c/d. The resultant fit left residuals of 0.029 mag, still somewhat larger than expected from observational error alone. A search for additional periodicities did not lead to clear evidence that any exist. A portion of the Fourier spectrum around the primary frequency after removal of a 0.466598 d primary period, the 57.5 d secondary period, and 41.6 d tertiary period is shown in Figure 5. The frequencies, amplitudes, and phases of the components of this fit are listed in Table 3.

The period search procedure was repeated incorporating just the Michigan State University Observations. The results, as might be expected, are very similar. The residuals in the final fit to the Michigan State University observations were slightly smaller, $`\pm `$ 0.026 mag.

The effects of the secondary and tertiary periods have been removed from the lightcurve by subtracting the sidelobe components of the 57.5 d and 41.6 d periodicities. The resultant light curves, phased as in Figures 1 and 2, are shown in Figures 6 and 7.

## 4 XZ Cygni before 1965

The most extensive studies of the behavior of XZ Cyg before the changes in primary period which began about 1965 are those of Muller (1953) and Klepikova (1958). Muller (1953) obtained the first detailed photoelectric observations of XZ Cyg, monitoring the star from 1948 until November 1952. Muller (1953) confirmed the existence of the secondary period reported by Blazhko (1922), finding the period to be approximately 57.4 d. However, Muller (1953) found that the observations were better described if in addition to this secondary period there existed a tertiary period with a length of either 89.34 or 94.31 times the primary period, 41.7 d or 44.0 d, respectively, assuming a primary period of 0.4665839 d.

Klepikova (1958) attempted, in so far as was possible, to put all existing observations of the maximum brightness of XZ Cyg on a consistent photometric system. Klepikova (1958) then used the times and brightnesses of maxima obtained between JD 2417017 and JD 2434946 to study the long term behavior of XZ Cyg. Klepikova (1958) found evidence for a small decline in the primary period of the variable during this time span, described by the ephemeris for the times of maximum light

$`Max(HJD)=2417201.241+0.4665878E0.000107E^2\times 10^6`$ (1)
where E is the number of cycles elapsed since the start date. Thus, the period would have decreased from 0.4665878 d in 1905 to 0.466584 d in 1954. Bezdenezhny (1988) provided a slightly different interpretation of the period changes of XZ Cyg during this interval, finding that the primary period decreased in a stepwise fashion from 0.4665861 d during JD 2417000 - 2424800 to 0.466579 d during the interval JD 2434600 - 2438700 (ending in 1964). Whichever description one accepts for the period changes, it is clear that the primary pulsation period of XZ Cyg was relatively stable between 1905 and 1965.

Klepikova (1958) confirmed the existence of a Blazhko period of 123.040 times the primary period (giving $`P_{Bl}`$ = 57.4 d). Klepikova (1958) also confirmed the existence of a tertiary period of 89.23 times the primary period ($`P_3`$ = 41.6 d). Thus, three times the secondary period would be approximately (but not exactly) four times the tertiary period, as Klepikova (1958) noticed. Klepikova (1958) also identified a superposed, longer quaternary variation with a period of about 3460 d, during which there is a long term change in the mean magnitude at maximum light. This can be seen in Figure 8, which plots the magnitude at maximum light versus Julian Date for the maxima in Table 10 of Klepikova (1958). Not plotted in Figure 8 are the later maxima listed by Kanishcheva & Sakharov (1965), which are approximately on the system of Klepikova (1958) but which may not be exactly comparable. Long term periodicities have been reported for a few other Blazhko Effect stars, most notably RR Lyrae itself (Detre & Szeidl, 1973). In addition to its 41 d Blazhko period, RR Lyrae exhibits a four year periodicity. The amplitude of the Blazhko Effect varies during this longer cycle and the phase of the Blazhko cycle shifts when one four-year cycle ends and the next begins. The data accumulated by Klepikova (1958) indicate that the amplitude of the Blazhko Effect in XZ Cyg changed over time, but they are not sufficient to let us decide whether the 3460 d period is exactly analogous to RR Lyrae’s four year period. Detre (1956) reported that J. Balazs had identified a 153.8 d tertiary period for XZ Cyg, which, however, might also be interpreted as the beat interval between periods of approximately 57.4 d and 41.6 d.

As a check on the conclusions of Klepikova (1958) and Muller (1953), the CLEANest routine was used to search for periodicities in the magnitudes of maximum reported by Klepikova (1958). Applied to the entire data range from JD 2417017 to JD 2434946, the CLEANest routine did identify periods of 57.41 ($`\pm `$0.02) d, 41.61($`\pm `$0.04) d, and 3540($`\pm `$100) d. Thus, we broadly confirm Klepikova (1958)’s results. Nonetheless, it is also evident that these three periodicities are not able to explain much of the scatter in the data. The standard deviation of the maximum magnitudes about the mean was initially 0.113 mag. Removing these three periods and their harmonics from the data reduced that value only slightly, to 0.086 mag. It is possible that instead of being 3540 d long, the actual longest period could be twice that value. When the data are phased with a circa 7000 d period, there are large gaps in the phase coverage which make it difficult to fully test that possibility. In Figure 9, we plot the residuals of maximum magnitudes from Klepikova (1958) after removal of the three identified periodicities. Moreover, when subsamples of the data are examined, it is clear that the strength of the secondary period has not been constant over the entire duration of the observations collected by Klepikova (1958). There is, for example, little evidence for a circa 57 d period in the observations made from JD 2417017 to 2417538. A period near 57.34 d is, however, present in the observations made between JD 2424370 and JD 2427750 (Figure 10). Such variability in the Blazhko Effect would, of course, not be unique to XZ Cyg, being also well observed in RR Lyrae itself, for example. In addition, despite the efforts by Klepikova (1958) to place all observations on a consistent system, the heterogeneity of the observations makes it difficult to compare results over the entire time interval for which Klepikova (1958) tabulated maxima.

For the interval spanned by the observations of Muller (1953) and the data compiled by Klepikova (1958), one can conclude that the primary period of XZ Cyg was decreasing slightly but was relatively stable, and that additional periods of length about 41.6 d, 57.4 d, and 3540 d were present. The durability of the 3540 d period is uncertain, since it could be followed for only a few cycles, and, as we have noted, the possibility that the longest period is 7000 d rather than 3540 d cannot be entirely excluded. Moreover, it appears likely that the amplitudes of the 41.6 d and 57.4 d periodicities were not constant throughout that time interval. Nonetheless, our check confirms prior studies of the behavior of XZ Cyg before 1965.

## 5 The behavior of XZ Cygni since 1965

Beginning about JD 2438800 (1965), the primary period of XZ Cyg began a steep decline in several steps (Bezdenezhny, 1988; Baldwin & Samolyk, 2003). The primary period fell to a minimum of 0.4664464 d during the interval JD 2442050 to JD 2443740, 1974 to 1978 (Baldwin & Samolyk, 2003). In 1979, the primary period sharply increased, rising to values slightly greater than those observed before the steep decline. Changes in the primary period of XZ Cyg since 1965 are listed in Table 4, which follows Baldwin & Samolyk (2003). The periods reported in Baldwin & Samolyk (2003) are similar to those reported by Bezdenezhny (1988) for time intervals covered in both studies.

Shortly after the decline in the primary period of XZ Cyg, observers began to report a coincident increase in its 57.4 d Blazhko period (Baldwin, 1973; Pop, 1975; Kunchev, 1975; Smith, 1975). These indicated that, at about the time that the primary period of XZ Cyg fell to its minimum, the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg increased to about 58.4 d, or perhaps slightly more. An O-C diagram illustrating this change in the Blazhko period is included in Smith (1975). As a check and an extension of these earlier results, we have analyzed observations of XZ Cyg reported since 1965 to the RR Lyrae Committee of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).

### 5.1 AAVSO visual observations

AAVSO observers have accumulated a large number of visual observations of XZ Cyg since 1965. These data mainly consist of observations obtained near the time of maximum light, rather than equally covering the entire light cycle. We begin by considering M. Baldwin’s observations of the magnitude attained by XZ Cyg at maximum light (Baldwin & Samolyk, 2002). In Figure 11, we plot the magnitude of maximum light against Julian Date. It is apparent that the range of scatter in the maxima was relatively large around JD 2443000, but diminished after 2444000. This change is also evident in the plots of O-C (observed minus calculated times of maximum light) in Baldwin & Samolyk (2003), which are corrected for the observed changes in the primary period of the star. The diminution in the scatter was noticed by Taylor (1980) who further noted that it was approximately coincident with the abrupt large increase in the primary period of XZ Cyg which took place near JD 2444000. Subsequent to JD 2449000, there is some evidence for an increase again in the size of the scatter of the maximum magnitudes, but not to the level observed near JD 2443000.

We have made two new analyses of the AAVSO observations to determine the length and amplitude of the Blazhko cycle during the time interval covered by the AAVSO observations. We first searched for a periodicity in the magnitude reached at maximum light using the CLEANest routine, limiting ourselves to the maxima observed by M. Baldwin to reduce the possibility of systematic errors among different visual observers. Results from this analysis are listed in Table 5. We also searched for periodicities in the O-C values provided by Baldwin & Samolyk (2003). In this case, we analyzed all of the O-C values reported by AAVSO observers. Results from a period search using the CLEANest program are listed in Table 6. For comparison, in Table 7 we list a number of determinations of the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg from the literature.

These analyses confirm that in the interval from about JD 2439000 to 2444000 the Blazhko period was indeed about a day longer than it had been in the time intervals studied by Muller (1953) and Klepikova (1958). The Blazhko amplitude was particularly large around JD 2443000, when the primary period of XZ Cyg was near its minimum. The Blazhko periodicity was apparently suppressed for awhile when the primary period abruptly increased near JD 2444050, before gradually starting to reassert itself. The renewed Blazhko period is shorter again. However, the evidence for the current length of the Blazhko period is stronger in the CCD observations than in the AAVSO visual data.

It would be very interesting to know whether the 41.6 d tertiary period was still present at the time that the secondary period was near 58.5 d. To investigate this we analyzed AAVSO data obtained between JD 2438882 and JD 2443800. Figure 12 shows the Fourier spectrum for the 109 maximum magnitudes observed by Baldwin during this time interval. A strong peak is evident at a frequency of 0.01709 c/d, corresponding to a period of 58.5 d. Figure 13 plots the maximum magnitudes, phased with the 58.5 d period. For comparison, the same maxima phased with a 57.4 d period are plotted in Figure 14. Figure 15 shows the Fourier spectrum of the data after the magnitudes at maximum have been prewhitened to remove the 58.5 d periodicity and its four highest harmonics. No clear peak is evident near a frequency of 0.024 c/d, corresponding to a periodicity of 41.6 d. The two highest peaks occur at frequencies of 0.019377 c/d and 0.016345 c/d, corresponding to periods of 51.6 d and 61.2 d, respectively. These periods would beat against a 58.5 d period in about 440 days and 1300 days, respectively. They are, however, much weaker than the 58.5 d Blazhko period, and it is doubtful whether they correspond to physically real periodicities.

A similar analysis was performed on 182 O-C values observed during the same interval, excluding two values which were very deviant from the trend of the other observations. The Fourier spectrum for these observations (Figure 16) shows a peak at 0.01706 c/d, corresponding to a period of 58.6 d, which is consistent within the uncertainties with the value seen in Figure 12. The O-C values are phased with a 58.5 d period in Figure 17, which shows considerably more scatter than in the corresponding diagram for magnitude at maximum light. For comparison, Figure 18 shows the O-C values phased with a 57.4 d period. Prewhitening to remove the 0.01706 c/d frequency again left no clearly significant peaks in the Fourier spectrum. Thus, while we find a Blazhko period of approximately 58.5 d to be present in both the times and brightnesses of maximum light during this interval, we find no evidence for a tertiary period. Any tertiary periodicity present at this time must have had an amplitude less than about a third that of the 58.5 d Blazhko cycle. In contrast, Figure 19 shows the Fourier spectrum for O-C observations obtained between JD 2448570 and JD 2452618. The peaks at frequencies of 0.01736 c/d and 0.02404 c/d indicate the existence of 57.6 d and 41.6 d periods. A peak is also evident at frequency 0.0146 c/d, corresponding to a period of 68.5 d. That, however, is the one year alias of the 57.6 d period.

Figure 20 plots the Blazhko period versus the fundamental mode period for XZ Cyg. Here we have used our results for the length of the Blazhko period and have adopted the results of Baldwin & Samolyk (2003) for the length of the primary period. For the earlier maxima listed by Klepikova (1958), we have adopted an average primary period of 0.466584 d. Note that, while the Blazhko period clearly is correlated with the fundamental mode period, the exact form of that correlation is not clear. There might be a linear correlation, with $`dP_{Bl}/dP_0`$ = -8 $`\pm 1\times 10^3`$. On the other hand, the Blazhko period might have jumped discretely from a value near 57.4 d when $`P_0`$ was near 0.4666 d to a value near 58.5 d when $`P_0`$ was smaller than 0.46655 d.

## 6 Comparison with other RR Lyrae stars having changing Blazhko periods

As noted in §1, changes in the Blazhko period have been reported for three RR Lyrae stars besides XZ Cyg (Jurcsik et al., 2002). In all four reported cases of changing Blazhko periods, the change in the Blazhko period is coincident to changes in the primary pulsation period. However, the ratios of the changes in the Blazhko period to those of the primary period, as well as the sign of that ratio, differ from star to star. In the case of XZ Dra (Jurcsik et al., 2002), the primary period and the Blazhko period change with the same sign. In the other three cases, RV UMa (Kanyó, 1976), RW Dra (Firmanyuk, 1978), and XZ Cyg, the reported changes of the Blazhko period have a sign opposite that of the changes in the primary period. Of the four stars, XZ Cygni has undergone the largest changes in its primary period. Observed ratios of $`dP_{Bl}/dP_0`$ are listed in Table 8. For the purposes of this table, we have assumed a linear dependency of the change in the Blazhko period upon the change of the primary (fundamental mode) period. Such a linear dependency is consistent with the observations, but, as we have noted above, other dependencies are also possible. In the case of RW Dra, the changes in period have been estimated from the O-C diagram of Firmanyuk (1978). As is the case for XZ Cyg, very long additional periods have been reported for two of the remaining three stars. Jurcsik et al. (2002) identified a 7200 d tertiary period in XZ Dra, while Kanyó (1976) reported that RV UMa also shows a long term cycle of 2,000 to 3,000 days.

## 7 Constraints on the nature of the Blazhko Phenomenon

As also noted in §1, there is of yet no completely satisfactory explanation for the Blazhko phenomenon. Proposed explanations can be broadly divided into two groups: (1) magnetic models, in which Blazhko variables have a magnetic field with an axis tilted obliquely with respect to their axis of rotation, and (2) resonance models, in which there is a nonlinear resonance between the dominant radial mode and a nonradial pulsation mode. Oblique magnetic rotator models (Cousens, 1983; Shibahashi, 2000) generally require that the Blazhko period and the rotation period of the star are equal. Babcock (1958) and Romanov et al. (1994) reported the presence of a magnetic field in the photosphere of the brightest Blazhko variable, RR Lyrae itself. However, Preston (1967) and Chadid-Vernin (2003) have not detected any strong magnetic field in RR Lyrae. The recent results by Chadid-Vernin (2003) have not yet been published in full detail, but if the preliminary results are confirmed they would provide perhaps the strongest argument against any oblique magnetic rotator model. Oblique rotator models have also predicted the existence of a quintuplet rather than a triplet structure in frequency (Shibahashi, 2000). We do not see such a structure in XZ Cygni, nor has it been identified in largescale surveys of Blazhko variables (Soszyński et al., 2003; Moskalik & Poretti, 2003; Alcock et al., 2003).

Nowakowski & Dziembowski (2001) and Nowakowski (2002) have modeled the excitation of nonradial pulsation modes in RR Lyrae stars. They suggested that excitation of an l = 1, m =$`\pm `$1 pair might result in enough amplitude and phase modulation in the light curve to produce the Blazhko Effect. In their models, rotational splitting of the m = $`\pm `$1 modes produces the sidelobes of frequency triplets in the Fourier spectra of photometric observations. The Blazhko period in this model is fixed by the rotation rate of the star, weighted with the Brunt-Väisälä frequency (Hansen & Kawaler, 1994) in the deepest part of the radiative envelope. Thus, there would still exist in this model a dependency of the Blazhko period upon the rotation period of the star.

It is difficult to test models of nonradial mode resonance on the basis of photometric data alone, although Kolenberg (2002) and Kolenberg et al. (2003) have shown that a combination of photometry and high resolution spectroscopic data can constrain possible nonradial modes. However, the observed changes in the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg and other RR Lyrae variables allow additional constraints to be imposed upon theoretical explanations for the Blazhko phenomenon.

Changes in the Blazhko period have been observed for at least four RR Lyrae variables, as noted above. In the case of XZ Cyg, the length of the Blazhko period increased by about 2% before returning to something close to its original value. An increase and later decrease in the rotation period of XZ Cyg by as much as 2% is physically implausible. Moreover, while a large increase in the radius of XZ Cyg around 1965 might produce a longer rotation period, the pulsation equation, $`P\sqrt{\rho }=Q`$, would then indicate that the primary period should have increased, not decreased, at that time. We would therefore argue that the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg is unlikely to be equal to or directly proportional with its period of rotation. That is another argument against simple oblique magnetic rotator models. It may also be an argument against the nonradial excitation models of Nowakowski & Dziembowski (2001) and Nowakowski (2002), although there the argument is not so clear. If the rotationally split m =$`\pm `$1 modes could manage to maintain a relatively constant frequency at the time that the frequency of the fundamental radial mode changed, then it is possible for the beat period of the radial and nonradial modes to change so as to produce the observed changes in the Blazhko period.

In the case of XZ Cyg, there are additional observations that any complete theory must explain. First is the existence of a 41.6 d tertiary period. This period exists at the same time as the main 57.5 d Blazhko period. It might be explained through the excitation of an additional nonradial mode. That mode may not have been excited during the interval when the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg was near 58.5 d. Second, we have the coincidence in the changes of the Blazhko period and of the period of the fundamental radial mode. Third, the Blazhko Effect in XZ Cyg continued strongly after the decline in the fundamental mode period of the star, but seems to have diminished when the fundamental period increased again. One might imagine that the Blazhko Effect was somehow turned off when the primary period increased, taking some years to become re-established. The possibility that this simultaneous change in the Blazhko amplitude and the primary period was coincidental seems unlikely, but cannot be entirely excluded. The Blazhko Effect in XZ Cyg and other RR Lyrae stars has undergone changes in amplitude even when the primary period of the star has been relatively stable. How the multiyear periods seen in XZ Cyg and other RR Lyrae stars are related to the Blazhko phenomenon also remains unclear.

It is interesting that XZ Cyg seems to have returned to something close to the state it had during the first half of the twentieth century following several decades of large period changes. It has long been known that evolution cannot account for all of the observed changes in the primary periods of RR Lyrae variable stars (see the review in Smith (1995)). Some sort of period change noise appears to overlie any evolutionary period changes in these stars. It has been suggested that this noise might be related to discrete mixing events associated with the semiconvective zone of the stellar core (Sweigart & Renzini, 1979). Whatever is responsible for the period change noise, in the case of XZ Cyg that mechanism was capable of reversing its behavior in a way that seems to have returned the structure of the star to something close to the state it had half a century before.

## 8 Conclusions

We confirm that the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg increased sharply from about 57.4 d to 58.5 d at the same time that its primary pulsation period underwent a sharp decline. Subsequently, when the primary pulsation period increased once more, the Blazhko period decreased. During the intervals when XZ Cyg has had a Blazhko period near 57.4 d, it has also shown a tertiary period with a length of 41.6 d. When the Blazhko period was near 58.5 d, the 41.6 d tertiary period either was not present or had an amplitude much smaller than that of the 58.5 d periodicity. The amplitude as well as the period of the Blazhko Effect in XZ Cyg has changed over time. We particularly note the disappearance or diminution of the Blazhko Effect around JD 2444000, at about the same time that the primary period jumped from 0.4664464 d to 0.4666938 d. The Blazhko Effect is evident again after about JD 2448570, at which time the primary period had decreased to 0.466599 d. During the first half of the twentieth century, photometry of XZ Cyg also showed evidence for a fourth period, in this case almost 10 years in length. The observed changes in the Blazhko period of XZ Cyg and a few other Blazhko stars argue that the Blazhko period is not exactly equal to or directly proportional to the rotation period of the star, as required by some theoretical models.

This work has been supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants AST-9986943 and AST-0205813. We thank the American Association of Variable Star Observers for providing a downloadable version of the CLEANest program on their web site. HAS thanks the Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma and Giuseppe Bono for hospitality during a sabbatical leave. E.M. Gill and A. Hedden were supported by the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program, under grant PHY-9912212. We thank Katrien Kolenberg and Johanna Jurcsik for helpful comments and suggestions.