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# Are There Thin Accretion Disks?

## 1 Introduction

In the last 30 years, accretion disks have played a major role in theoretical astrophysics. Part of this is due to the growing evidence of their presence in almost every astrophysical environment. However, it would be unfair do not recognize that this popularity is also due to physical picture of an accretion disk set forward by Shakura & Sunyaev (1973) $`\alpha `$-standard model. The simplicity of the arguments that have led to the construction of this model is quite striking, such that, despite some drawbacks after the long time in the road, some authors keep using it as their main tool to explain data.

However, the model having thinness and hydrostatic equilibrium as one of the main assumptions in its foundations, was meant to apply under very specific conditions. These certainly would exclude disks with very high accretion rates, or radiative pressure dominated disks. As a matter of fact, in that situation the disk would be thermal and secularly unstable (Lightman & Eardley, 1974). According to the picture given by the standard model, the region exposed to swelling or instability would be the innermost one, which would exist whenever the radiation pressure exceeds the gas pressure. In other words, for high accretion rates. Another difficulty of the model is its impossibility of reproducing the correct transonic nature of the flow close to the horizon (Chakrabarti, 1990). During quite a long time these two issues have been a major concern of the research in the area. Among models aiming to develop alternative accretion disk models, it is worth mentioning Paczynski & Wiita (1980) model which replaced the usual assumption of local energy balance by a global energy requirement, under the assumption of critical radiative flux. Unquestionably, one of the main contributions of this work was the pioneering introduction of a pseudo Newtonian potential which simulates relativistic effects without any resource to a burdensome mathematics. At that time, the development of a theory of geometrically thick accretion disks around black holes has been undertaken by Abramowicz et al. (1978); Kozlowzki et al. (1978); Jaroszynski et al. (1980); Begelman & Meier (1982). Progress, concerning the transonic nature of the flow, came in a much slower way through the contributions from Kozlowzki et al. (1978); Liang & Thompson (1980); Paczynski & Bisnovatyi-Kogan (1981); Loska (1982); Muchotrzeb (1983); Abramowicz & Kato (1989). Since the flow has to be continuous, the solution that incorporates the transonic nature of the flow, close to the horizon, should match the solution far away, where, supposedly, the disk is geometrically thin and Keplerian. However, this matching introduces some arbitrariness, such as matching radius, and the matching of the radial and angular velocities. The problem here is the angular momentum distribution, which, close to the horizon, is highly dependent upon the matching radius (Chakrabarti, 1996). Once this radius is determined, the angular momentum follows practically constant inside the horizon, a fact which suggests null boundary condition assumption for the torque (Muchotrzeb, 1983). Besides, if one adopts a more realistic model of disk, allowing for dissipation, the situation may become much more complex. This is due to the topology of the solutions near the critical and subcritical points, both of them occurring in dissipative flows. Critical points satisfy regularity conditions in the form of algebraic constraints, while for the subcritical points they are given by integral requirements. In determining the character of the solution near these points, the role of the viscosity is quite decisive, such that there is a critical value of $`\alpha `$ above which no stationary accretion is possible (Muchotrzeb, 1983), a question contested by Matsumoto et al. (1984) and Abramowicz & Kato (1989). Clearly, the matching of an “inner disk” with an “outer disk” is highly dependent on what kind of disk one assumes as an outer disk, that is to say, geometrically thin or not, a fact that may be seen in the works of Liang & Thompson (1980) and Loska (1982).

Recently, these issues have been revived, connected with the question of “no torque” inner boundary condition (Krolik, 1999; Gammie, 1999; Agol & Krolik, 2000; Afshordi & Paczynski, 2003). As argued by Afshordi & Paczynski (2003), the no torque inner boundary condition applies whenever the disk thickness is small everywhere. However, results based on semianalytical and numerical work employing advective dominated accretion flows (ADAF) and convective dominated accretion flows (CDAF) show that accretion disks are thick for very high and very low accretion rates (Ball et al., 2001). Thinness would occur only for moderate accretion rates $`(0.01L/L_{Edd}0.1)`$. It seems that, in order to bypass the issue of thermal balance, one adopts the simplifying assumption of disk thinness. This is not justified a priori, because even numerical simulations yield relatively thick outer boundary, not far away from the inner one (Afshordi & Paczynski, 2003). However, these simulations suffer from limitations, one of them being not including cooling processes. In the literature, alledgedly, the assumption of highly supersonic character of the Keplerian flow is used as the argument for the disk thinness. This is, for sure, intuitive, but, by no means, unquestionable. Somehow, it seems that thinness is favored by the usual assumption of local equality between heat production and cooling by radiation, which overlooks the problem of energy conservation in the disk. One of the advantages of doing so is to render the problem algebraic, rather than differential , non local. In the solutions to the disk equations, the $`\alpha `$ parameter doesn’t enter with a high power (Frank et al., 1992), which due to its inherent uncertainty, is very interesting. At this point, we realize how decisive the use of the geometrical thinness, as a boundary condition, is in determining the structure of the whole disk. If cooling of the disk is not efficient, most of the viscously produced heat is stored as proton internal energy and advected with the flow. The temperature tends to the virial value and the height scale of the disk will be comparable to the radial distance. More important, the internal energy of the plasma approaches the rest energy and, at the inner radius, the sound velocity is much greater than the radial velocity, being a substantial fraction of the light velocity. Since the gas only cools after passing through the sonic point (Muchotrzeb, 1986), the sonic velocity keeps growing till the sonic point which, in that situation, will be closer to the hole. Though the picture we have given may be incomplete, it seems that, somehow, the importance of the disk being thin or not has been overlooked. To justify this very pertinent point, we would like to stick on the conclusions by Afshordi & Paczynski (2003) and on the possibility, cast by them, of non existence of thin geometrical disks in nature. We, therefore, propose to study, in a more detailed way, the geometrical thin disk assumption. Our procedure will be to use, from the very beginning, energy requirements constraining both the temperature, the height scale of the disk, viscous heating, and cooling of the disk. This, certainly, is a global requirement that avoids the usual assumption of local equality between viscous heat production and cooling. Since the picture of geometrical thin disk is so profoundly rooted in our minds, in this work we shall focus our attention only on that.

The plane of the paper is as follows. Section 2 presents the system we are considering, the assumptions and the disk equations, including an outline of the ingredients to relate angular momentum transport and dissipation to the density and radial velocity. In section 3, the total and internal energy equations are handled in such a way as to lead to an equation to the temperature of the disk. In section 4, some approximations are made in order to solve the equation for the temperature in conditions similar to those where the standard model is supposed to apply; the main differences between our solution and the standard one are emphasized. In section 5, general considerations about the radiative transfer problem link the results to specific radiative mechanisms. In section 6, the flow regimes that may emerge are discussed in the context of different boundary conditions. In section 7, the main conclusions are drawn.

## 2 The System And The Disk Equations

The system we consider is a disk around a primary compact object (a neutron star, a black hole), of mass $`M`$. Self gravitation in the disk is negligible. Working in a reference frame tied to the center of mass of the compact object, a point on the disk is at a distance $`R`$ from the center and has coordinates ($`x`$, $`y`$, $`z`$) or ($`r`$, $`\varphi `$, $`z`$). Of course, $`R=\sqrt{\left(r^2+z^2\right)}`$.

For the moment, we shall use Newtonian gravitation, and the potential at the point ($`r`$, $`\varphi `$, $`z`$) is

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=\frac{GM}{\sqrt{\left(r^2+z^2\right)}},$$

G being the gravitational constant.

For the $`\varphi `$ component of the velocity we will assume a Keplerian profile. Therefore, we shall write

$$V_\varphi =r\mathrm{\Omega }_k,$$

where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$ is the Keplerian angular velocity,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_k=\sqrt{\frac{GM}{r^3}}.$$

Since we are assuming the disk in hydrostatic equilibrium,

$$\frac{dP}{dz}=\rho \mathrm{\Omega }_k^2z,$$
(1)
where $`\rho `$ is the density and $`P`$ is the pressure. Now, writing

$$P=P_g+P_r,$$

where

$$P_g=\rho \frac{k_B}{m_H}T$$

is the gas pressure, $`T`$ is the temperature, and

$$P_r=\frac{F_r}{c}\frac{\rho \sigma _T\mathrm{}}{m_H}$$

is the radiative pressure. $`F_r`$ is the radiative flux, $`\mathrm{}`$ is the semi-height scale of the disk, $`k_B`$ is the Boltzmann constant, $`m_H`$ is the Hydrogen mass, $`c`$ is the velocity of light, and $`\sigma _T`$ is the Thompson cross section for electron scattering. Assuming constant density along $`z`$, and taking the average over $`z`$ in equation (1), yields

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{k}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{}^2}{3}=\frac{k_B}{m_H}T+\frac{F_r}{c}\frac{\sigma _T\mathrm{}}{m_H}.$$
(2)
The continuity equation is written as

$$\dot{M}=4\pi r\mathrm{}V_r\rho ,$$
(3)
where $`\dot{M}`$ is the accretion rate, and $`V_r`$ is the radial velocity.

Now, we need to work out some relations between angular momentum transport and dissipation to obtain the usual expressions for the density and radial velocity. If $`\dot{J}_{in}`$, $`\dot{J}_0`$ and $`\dot{J}_{out}`$ are, respectively, the inwards angular momentum transport (per unit time), the rate at which the angular momentum flows into the central compact object and the outwards flux of angular momentum, we have

$$\dot{J}_{in}=\dot{J}_0+\dot{J}_{out},$$
(4)
and we may write

$$\dot{J}_{in}=\dot{M}\sqrt{GMr},$$
(5)
$$\dot{J}_0=\dot{M}\sqrt{GMr_1}$$
(6)
and

$$\dot{J}_{out}=2\pi r\mathrm{}\tau _{r\varphi },$$
(7)
where $`\tau _{r\varphi }`$ is the stress tensor given by

$$\tau _{r\varphi }=2\eta \sigma _{r,\varphi },$$
(8)
$`\sigma _{r,\varphi }`$ being the rate of strain tensor, given by

$$\sigma _{r,\varphi }=\frac{r}{2}\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_k}{r}.$$
(9)
Then, the angular momentum conservation may be written as

$$\dot{M}\sqrt{GMr}=\dot{M}\sqrt{GMr_1}+2\pi r\mathrm{}\tau _{r\varphi }.$$
(10)
In the above equation, we have assumed null boundary condition for the torque at the inner radius $`r=r_1`$. This yields for the energy dissipation,

$$q^+=\frac{3}{8\pi }\frac{GM\dot{M}}{r^3}\left(1\left(\frac{r_1}{r}\right)^{1/2}\right),$$
(11)
and for the density

$$\rho =\frac{3}{8\pi }\frac{\dot{M}}{\mathrm{\Omega }_k\mathrm{}^3}\left(1\left(\frac{r_1}{r}\right)^{1/2}\right).$$
(12)
## 3 Energy Conservation In The Disk

The equation for the total energy conservation in the disk, as the matter flows from $`r_2`$ to $`r`$, may be written as

$$\frac{d}{dx_k}\left(\rho \left(\frac{1}{2}V_\mathrm{\Phi }^2+\xi \right)v_kP\delta _{ik}v_i\right)=\rho v_k\frac{d\mathrm{\Psi }}{dx_k}\mathrm{\Lambda },$$
(13)
where $`\xi `$ is the total internal energy, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the amount of energy per unit volume that leaves the system. Assuming the system is cooled by radiation, we may write

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }=\frac{dF_r}{dz}.$$
(14)
Inserting this expression into equation (13) and using the equation of continuity, we obtain

$$\dot{M}\left(\frac{1}{2}V_\mathrm{\Psi }^2+\xi +\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{k}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{}^2}{3}\right)=\dot{M}\frac{GM}{r}4\pi _{r_2}^rrF_r𝑑r.$$
(15)
Finally, assuming uniform viscous heat production along $`z`$, we write the internal energy equation as

$$\frac{d}{dt}\left(\rho \xi \right)=P\frac{dv_k}{dx_k}\frac{dF_r}{dz}+\frac{q^+}{\mathrm{}}.$$
(16)
Now, making the approximation

$$\frac{dF_r}{dz}\frac{F_r}{\mathrm{}},$$

we solve for $`F_r`$ in equations (15) and (16), and equate the results to obtain

$$\mathrm{}V_r\frac{d}{dr}\left(\rho \xi \right)\frac{P\mathrm{}}{r}\frac{d}{dr}\text{ }\left(rV_r\right)+q^+=\frac{\dot{M}}{4\pi r}\frac{d}{dr}\left(\frac{1}{2}V_\mathrm{\Psi }^2+\xi +\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{k}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{}^2}{6}\right)\frac{\dot{M}}{4\pi }\frac{GM}{r^3}.$$
(17)
This is the final energy equation for the disk, which has to be solved, together with the hydrostatic equilibrium equation, to obtain the temperature profile along the disk. It should be remarked that its deduction has been achieved with no further assumption concerning the flow regime, i.e., supersonic or subsonic. We have, however, neglected terms of order of $`V_r^2`$, and haven’t considered transport of radiation along the radial direction.

## 4 The Solution To The Energy Equation

In the following we shall be solving equation (16) with the main concern to find out if there are geometrical thin solutions for the disk. It is believed, under the $`\alpha `$-standard prescription, that far away from the inner edge, in region dominated by gas pressure, the disk is geometrically thin. Therefore, the following analysis is meant to this region. In other words, we shall assume $`r>>r_1`$, and $`P_g>>P_r`$, which implies

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{k}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{}^2}{3}\frac{k_B}{m_H}T,$$

and

$$\xi \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_k^2\mathrm{}^2}{2}.$$

Therefore, we may write

$$\rho \xi \left(\frac{3m_H}{2^6\pi ^2k_B}\right)^{1/2}\frac{\dot{M}\mathrm{\Omega }_{k}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{\alpha T^{1/2}},$$

$$V_r\frac{k_B}{m_H}\alpha \frac{T}{r\mathrm{\Omega }_k},$$

$$P\mathrm{}\frac{1}{4\pi \alpha }\dot{M}\mathrm{\Omega }_k,$$

$$\mathrm{}V_r\sqrt{3}\left(\frac{k_B}{m_H}\right)^{3/2}\alpha \frac{T^{3/2}}{r\mathrm{\Omega }_{k}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}},$$

and

$$rV_r\left(\frac{k_B}{m_H}\right)\alpha \frac{T}{\mathrm{\Omega }_k},$$

which, inserted into equation (17), yields

$$\frac{dT}{dr}\frac{14}{11}\frac{T}{r}=\frac{8m_H}{11k_B}\frac{GM}{r^2},$$
(18)
the solution being

$$T=Ar^{\frac{14}{11}}+0.32\frac{m_H}{k_B}\frac{GM}{r}.$$
(19)
Using equations (15) and (19), we may write for the radiative flux,

$$F_r=\frac{3}{40\pi }\frac{GM\dot{M}}{r^3}\frac{70k_B}{88\pi m_H}\frac{\dot{M}}{r^{8/11}}A.$$
(20)
Equation (20) can be cast in a much more interesting form if we use equation (19) to express the constant $`A`$. We, then, obtain

$$F_r=\frac{\dot{M}}{8\pi r^2}\left(\frac{29}{11}\frac{GM}{r}\frac{70k_B}{11m_H}T\right),$$

or

$$F_r=\frac{\dot{M}}{8\pi r^2}\left(\frac{29}{11}\frac{GM}{r}\frac{70}{33}\mathrm{\Omega }_k^2\mathrm{}^2\right).$$
(21)
The first term in this equation is, practically, the same one that comes from usual accretion disk theory, i.e.,

$$\frac{3}{8\pi }\frac{GM\dot{M}}{r^3}.$$

The second, that doesn’t appear in the usual theory, displays the effect of the temperature, or the height scale: the hotter, or the thicker, the less it emits. It should be remarked that the largest temperature is

$$T_M=\frac{29m_H}{70k_B}\frac{GM}{r}.$$

In the standard formulation, one assumes equality between heat production and cooling by radiation. Since the energy produced due to viscous dissipation, $`q^+`$, is independent of the height scale, no matter how thin or thick the disk may be, it always adjust itself to get rid of this energy. As compared to this, the present formulation constitutes an improvement: it is clearly seen that, if the disk thickens, it starts dimming.

## 5 Radiation, Electronic Temperature and Height Scale

If we write the energy exchange between protons and electrons as

$$F_{ep}=\frac{3}{2}\frac{\rho k}{m_H}\frac{\left(T_iT_e\right)}{t_{ep}},$$
(22)
and equate it to the flux given by equation (21), we obtain the time protons and electrons need to reach thermal equilibrium,

$$t_{ep}\frac{3}{\alpha }\left(1\frac{T_e}{T_i}\right)t_{dyn},$$

$`t_{dyn}`$ being the dynamical time. We shall assume $`\alpha <<1`$, and $`t_{ep}>>t_{dyn}`$.

The temperature we have obtained, due to our starting assumption, has to be identified with the ion temperature. Clearly, this conclusion breaks down when there is an abundant pair production and the pairs dominate the pressure. In such a situation, it has to be identified with, what we improperly call, the equivalent temperature, which we shall define at the right time. To know the electronic temperature, we should assume a specific radiation mechanism. Therefore, in the following, we shall make general considerations to link our previous results to the radiative transfer problem. In our approach, we shall try, to make a formulation not depending, as much as possible, on the values of the accretion parameters.

Our starting point is to know the optical depth for thermal bremsstrahlung absorption, $`\tau _{ab}`$. By definition (Frank et al., 1992),

$$\tau _{ab}=6.22\times 10^{22}\rho ^2T_e^{7/2}\mathrm{}.$$

We should expect $`\tau _{ab}`$ decreasing as we come close to the hole. Then, in the inner region, the disk emits thin bremsstrahlung, and the flux is (Rybicki & Lightman, 1979),

$$F=5\times 10^{20}\rho ^2T_e^{1/2}\mathrm{}\text{.}$$
(23)
This yields

$$\tau _{ab}1.38\times 10^{59}\frac{\dot{M}_{17}^9}{\alpha ^{16}M_{10}^{11}}r^5$$

($`r`$ in units of $`\frac{R_g}{2}`$).

Finally, we obtain the electron scattering optical depth,

$$\tau _{sc}\frac{0.225}{\alpha }\frac{\dot{M}_{17}}{M_{10}}r^{1/2}.$$

We conclude that if

$$\dot{M}_{17}3M_{10},$$

in such a way as to have the gas dominating the pressure, there may be three regions in the disk, depending on the accretion parameters, $`\alpha `$, $`M`$, $`\dot{M}`$:

a) The innermost region: $`\tau _{sc}>\tau _{ab}`$, and $`\tau _{ab}<1`$. In that region, although $`T_e<T_i`$, it may be large enough to produce pairs. If the pairs are very numerous, they may dominate the pressure. Then, we should replace $`T_i`$ for the equivalent temperature, i.e.,

$$T_{eq}=T_i\left(1+\left(1+2y\right)\frac{T_e}{T_i}\right),$$

where $`y`$ is the ratio pair density over ion density, that implies,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_k^2\mathrm{}^2=\frac{3k}{m_h}T_{eq}.$$

To obtain the electronic temperature, we have to correct equation (23) for the inclusion of pairs, i.e.,

$$F=5\times 10^{20}\rho ^2T_e^{1/2}\mathrm{}\left(1+2y\right).$$

This will lead to an equation relating $`T_e`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$, i.e.,

$$\frac{A}{\mathrm{}^{10}}=\left(\frac{29}{11}\frac{70}{33}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}}{R}\right)^2\right)^2,$$
(24)
where

$$A=5.13\times 10^{41}\frac{\dot{M}^2}{\alpha ^4\mathrm{\Omega }_k^6}\left(1+2y\right)^2T_e.$$
(25)
Clearly, for a given $`T_e`$, we may interpret it as an equation for $`\mathrm{}`$, which will have solution as long as $`A`$ is less than a critical value $`A_c`$. Solving under critical conditions, we obtain,

$$6.9511.185x^2+3.78x^4=0,$$
(26)
with $`x=\frac{\mathrm{}}{R}`$, the solutions being $`x=0.942`$ and $`x=1.439.`$The solution $`x=1.439`$ leads to negative flux. Therefore, only $`x=0.942`$ is acceptable.

Equating $`A`$, given by equation (25), to $`A_c`$, given below,

$$A_c=\left(\frac{28}{33}\right)^2\mathrm{\Omega }_k^4R^{14}x^{14},$$

we obtain $`T_e`$. Therefore, in that region

$$\mathrm{}0.942R.$$

b) The intermediate region: $`\tau _{sc}>\tau _{ab}>1`$. In that case, the disk will emit modified black-body-like, and the flux is (Rybicki & Lightman, 1979)

$$F^{MB}=2.3\times 10^7\rho ^{1/2}T_e^{9/4}.$$
(27)
Now the equation relating $`T_e`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$ will be

$$\frac{A}{\mathrm{}^3}=\left(\frac{29}{11}\frac{70}{33}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}}{R}\right)^2\right)^2,$$

with

$$A=7.98\times 10^2\frac{T_e^{9/2}}{\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }_k^5\dot{M}}.$$

Proceeding in the same way, as we did before, we obtain

$$6.9511.185x^23.496x^4=0.$$
(28)
The solution now is $`x=0.730`$, the critical $`A`$ is

$$A_c=\left(\frac{280}{99}\right)^2R^3x^7,$$

and

$$\mathrm{}0.730R.$$

c) The outer region: $`\tau _{ab}>1`$ and $`\tau _{ab}>\tau _{sc}`$. We shall assume that $`T_i=T_e`$. If we assume the disk emits black-body-like, then

$$\frac{29}{11}+\frac{70}{33}x^2+Ax^8=0,$$
(29)
where

$$A6.1\times 10^{15}\frac{M_{10}^2}{\dot{M}_{17}r}.$$

For $`r=1000`$, $`M_{10}=\dot{M}_{17}=1,`$

$$x0.03.$$

It should be remarked that in this region, there is no critical $`A`$, and

$$\mathrm{}0.03R.$$

## 6 Boundary Conditions and Flow Regime

The expression for the radiative flux may be rewritten,

$$F_r=\frac{\dot{M}V_s^2}{8\pi }\left(\frac{29}{11}m_\varphi ^2\frac{70}{33}\right),$$
(30)
where $`V_s`$ and $`m_\varphi `$ are, respectively, sound velocity and azimuthal Mach number. Of course,

$$m_\varphi 0.9.$$

Our problem, now, is to know how much the azimuthal Mach number can exceed the above value. For that, let us assume that at the outer radius, $`R_d`$, the temperature is $`T_d`$. Then,

$$A=\left(T_d0.32\frac{m_H}{k_B}\frac{GM}{R_d}\right)R_d^{14/11}.$$
(31)
If $`\zeta `$ is the efficiency for converting gravitational energy into radiation,

$$\zeta \dot{M}c^2=0.3\frac{\dot{M}c^2}{r_1}0.4\frac{k_B\dot{M}}{m_H}\left(T_d0.32\frac{m_H}{k_B}\frac{c^2}{r_1r_d}\right),$$
(32)
or

$$T_d=\frac{0.4m_Hc^2}{k_B}\left(\frac{1}{r_1}\left(0.3\frac{0.8}{r_d}\right)\zeta \right),$$
(33)
$`r_1`$, and $`r_d`$ are, respectively, the inner and the outer radii in units of half gravitational radius, $`\frac{R_g}{2}`$.

Using now the definition of the Mach number and the expression for the temperature, we obtain

$$m_\varphi ^2=1\frac{3k_B}{m_H}\frac{R^{14/11}}{V_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}A,$$
(34)
which allows us to conclude that if $`m_\varphi >1`$, $`A<0`$. Since, $`T_d0`$, we must have $`\zeta \frac{0.3}{r_1}`$. If $`\zeta `$ is maximum,

$$A=0.32\frac{m_HGM}{k_BR_{d}^{}{}_{}{}^{25/11}},$$
(35)
which, inserted into equation (34), leads to

$$m_\varphi ^2=1+\left(\frac{r_d}{r}\left(\frac{r}{r_d}\right)^{14/11}\right)^1\left(\frac{r}{r_d}\right)^{14/11}.$$
(36)
Therefore, for maximum radiation efficiency, there will be a region in which the flow regime is supersonic. However, even in that case, the disk will be moderately supersonic in most of its extent. Just in a small outer fraction, which depends on the size of the disk, will be really supersonic. It should be remarked that maximum efficiency means null temperature (or almost) in the outer border of the disk. To make things clear, let us calculate for a disk with $`r_d=200`$, for: (a) $`r=195`$ and (b) $`r=199`$. We obtain:

$`r`$ $`=195m_\varphi =4.23{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{R}}=0.236`$
$`r`$ $`=199m_\varphi =9.40{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{R}}=0.106.`$
For different boundary conditions, such that $`A>0`$, the flow regime will be, practically, sonic in the whole extent of the disk.

We have, here, a situation completely different from that we encounter in the standard model. There, due to the equality between dissipation and cooling, radiative flux obeys the same boundary condition imposed on the torque, and has a maximum at $`R=1.36R_1`$.

Inserting the value for $`A`$, obtained from the luminosity constraint, in the expression for $`T`$, given by equation (19), we obtain, at $`r=r_1`$,

$$T5.84\times 10^{11},$$

independent of the mass and accretion rate. For $`\beta 1`$, this implies, for the azimuthal velocity, a Mach number of about 1. Therefore, close to the inner radius,

$$\frac{\mathrm{}}{r}1.$$

With these values,

$$\frac{P_r}{P_g}5\times 10^{18}\dot{M},$$

and our estimates hold as long as $`\dot{M}2\times 10^{17}`$g s<sup>-1</sup>, for $`M_{10}=1`$. It is interesting to remark that the ratio of the radiative flux to the heat flux due to viscous dissipation, close to the inner radius, is

$$\frac{F_r}{q^+}\frac{1}{5}.$$

It should be remarked that, if some other cooling mechanism is considered (Meirelles Filho et al., 1984), this could be even less.

Analyzing the $`r`$ dependence of the radiative flux, we see that, asymptotically, under the same boundary conditions,

$$\frac{F_r}{q^+}1,$$

the importance of radiative cooling grows as we go towards the outer radius. Therefore, the geometrically thin disk assumption only holds in a very narrow region where the flow is supersonic. As a matter of fact, the results we have just obtained invalidates the geometrical thin disk assumption.

We should insist in a point: this region, where the flow is indeed supersonic, only exists if radiation efficiency is maximum. In our formulation, $`\zeta =0.05`$ and $`\zeta =0.3`$, respectively, for a Schwarzschild and a Kerr hole. In that case,

$`r`$ $`<0.88r_dm_\varphi 2.0,`$
$`r`$ $`>0.88r_dm_\varphi 2.0.`$
If it is a little less, $`A>0`$ and the flow will be sonic, practically, all over the disk.

Finally, it should be said that, since the radiative flux continuously grows as we approach the hole, it can not satisfy the same boundary condition the torque does. Therefore, no matter the correct boundary condition, the hole does swallow, always, an amount of energy per unit time, which is, at least, of the order of the disk luminosity.

## 7 Conclusions

We have used total and internal energy equations to obtain an equation for the temperature along the disk. This equation solved under gas pressure dominance shows a disk hotter than the standard one. Besides, it implies a radiative flux decreasing with temperature or height scale. Though not considered here, these findings impose severe constraints on the development of instabilities in the disk. In that formulation, the role of advection is more important than usually admitted. Independently of mass, accretion rate, and viscosity, radiation transports, at the most, $`20\%`$ of the produced heat, close to the inner radius. Far away, its efficiency may rise to $`100\%`$ . Under the assumption of large radiation efficiency, as a boundary condition on the solution for the temperature, it is shown that the flow is supersonic, the azimuthal Mach number moderately exceeding 1in most of the extent of the disk. Only, on a narrow outer region, of about $`12\%`$ of the disk extent, the Mach number greatly exceeds 1. This highly supersonic regime is only obtained under the assumption of TE or, at least, LTE, which is very unlikely to occur (Hubeny et al., 2000, and references therein). These results show that the geometrical thin disk assumption fails everywhere in the disk, but in the outer narrow region. However, even if the assumption of LTE holds in that region, it represents a very small part of the disk.


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# The Physics of X-ray Emission from Accreting Millisecond Pulsars

## 1 INTRODUCTION

In order to understanding the X-ray production in accreting black hole and neutron star sources in X-ray binaries, one needs to model their spectral and temporal properties simultaneously. In the black hole case, the emission is believed to originate in the accretion disk and/or its corona. Detailed spectral fits to the broad band spectra leave little doubts that the main emission mechanism is thermal or non-thermal Comptonization. However, in spite of extensive efforts, the exact geometry of the emission region is still not known p98 . The hard X-rays can be produced in the central hot flow esin98 ; pkr97  and/or in the magnetically dominating corona/jet in the vicinity of a cooler accretion disk b99 ; mal01 . Temporal variability provide some additional constraints on the size of the emission region mac00 , but has difficulties in breaking the model degeneracy p01 . The observed spectral-temporal correlations seem, however, to favor the hot inner disk scenario gilf99 ; gilfthis ; aaz03  at least for the hard state dominated by thermal Comptonization.

In the case of accreting neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries, the emission can be produced in the accretion disk (and corona) as well as at the neutron star surface, with the later dominating the total energy output ss00 ; ss88 . Depending on the magnetic field strength and the accretion rate, there can be different scenarios. The gravitational energy can be dissipated gradually in the boundary (or spreading) layer, while the matter is slowing down from the rapid Keplerian rotation to a slower rotation of a neutron star, or abruptly in the shock when the accreting material, following magnetic field lines, is channeled towards magnetic poles of the star. Direct spectral decomposition can be quite complicated done03 . The analysis of the Fourier frequency resolved spectra of neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries shows that the accretion disk producing soft X-ray emission does not vary much, while the hard radiation (from the boundary layer?) is responsible for most of the observed variability at high Fourier frequencies gilf03 .

In all the cases considered above, it is not absolutely clear what is the origin of a given spectral component. In accretion powered wij03  as well as nuclear powered (X-ray bursters) sb03  millisecond pulsars, the situation seems to be simpler. Observations of the coherent pulsations confirms that the bulk of the emission is produced at the surface of a neutron star which rotates at 200–600 Hz. We can also fold the light curve on a pulsar period and study the pulse profile as a function of energy. For accreting pulsars the statistics is better since one can fold the profiles over a longer observational period (days rather than seconds in the X-ray burst oscillations). Detailed modeling of the pulse profiles allows us to get interesting constraints on the compactness of the neutron star as well as on the emission pattern from the neutron star surface pg03 .

## 2 SPECTRUM AND RADIATION PATTERN

We assume that the emission originates close to the neutron star surface in an accretion shock which we approximate as a plane-parallel slab. The time-averaged observed spectrum of the best studied accretion powered pulsar SAX J1808.4$``$3658 (see Fig. 1) is similar to those in other neutron star and black hole sources. It can be represented as a composition of a black body with temperature $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}=0.66`$ keV (dash-dotted curve), thermal Comptonization (dots) by electrons of temperature $`50100`$ keV and optical depth $`\tau _{\mathrm{es}}1`$, Compton reflection bump and the iron line (dashes). The Compton reflection (from the disk) has a rather small amplitude because of the disruption of the accretion flow in the neutron star vicinity gier .

If the settling bulk velocity smaller than the thermal electron velocity, we can easily compute the angular distribution of the escaping radiation ps96 ; st85 . The radiation pattern is very different for photons of different scattered orders (see Fig. 2). One sees that the black body (marked with 0) is strongly peaked along the normal to the slab, while photons scattered many times are beamed in the direction making an angle $`50^\mathrm{o}60^\mathrm{o}`$ from the normal. In the Comptonization process, scatterings also shift photons along the energy axis so that higher energy photons are scattered more times.

## 3 MODEL AND RESULTS

The light curves from a circular spot are computed accounting for the special relativistic effects (Doppler boosting, relativistic aberration) and the gravitational light bending in Schwarzschild metric. The model is described in details in pg03 . The spot spectrum is assumed to consist of two components: a black body and a Comptonization tail with different angular distributions. Their spectral shapes are taken as in the observed time-averaged spectrum (see Fig. 1). The model parameters are: the pulsar frequency (fixed at $`\nu =401`$ Hz for SAX J1808.4$``$3658), the neutron star mass $`M`$, stellar radius $`R`$, inclination $`i`$, colatitude of the spot center $`\theta `$, “optical depth” $`\tau `$, that describes the angular dependence of the black body intensity $`I_{\mathrm{bb}}(\mu )\mathrm{exp}(\tau /\mu )`$, and a parameter $`a`$ determining the angular distribution of the Comptonized radiation $`I_{\mathrm{sc}}(\mu )1+a\mu `$. This linear dependence of the intensity mimics the angular distribution of radiation escaping from a slab (Fig. 2).

A rapid rotation of the star causes significant changes in the pulse profile. We illustrate this by showing in Fig. 3 the light curves of a slowly rotating star (dashed curves) and those modified by the Doppler boosting and aberration for a neutron star of rotational frequency 401 Hz (solid curves). We consider both the black body and the Comptonized emission. The pulse profiles strongly depend on the assumed emission pattern. Light bending depends on the compactness of the star $`R/r_g`$ (where $`r_g=2GM/c^2`$) and reduces the variability amplitude with respect to a less compact star (see below).

The model parameters can be constrained by fitting the observed light curves from SAX J1808.4$``$3658 (see Fig. 4). The fitted emission pattern of Comptonized and black body radiation confirms our expectations: the black body is beamed along the surface normal while the hard radiation flux (proportional to the intensity times the cosine of the projected area) is more isotropic (Fig. 4b). One of the main result of this study is determination of the radius of the compact star. The dependence of the radius on the assumed mass is shown in Fig. 5. For a standard neutron star mass of $`1.4\mathrm{M}_{}`$, we get $`R=8.5\pm 0.5`$ km, while for a more massive star $`M=1.6\mathrm{M}_{}`$, the radius of 11 km is consistent with some neutron star equation of state. The inclination of the system can be constrained to $`i>65^\mathrm{o}`$. Our model is able to fit the time-averaged spectra, the energy dependent pulse profiles and the observed phase lags, simultaneously.

Very similar pulse profiles (but with higher oscillation amplitude) were also observed from the recently discovered fifth ms pulsar XTE J1814$``$338 s03 . In the framework of the present model, the data can be explained for example, by increasing the colatitude of the spot center $`\theta `$ from $`11^\mathrm{o}`$ to $`17^\mathrm{o}`$. The presence of the harmonic in the burst oscillations s03  could result from the larger contribution of the Comptonized radiation (with a “fan”–like emission pattern) to the observed flux in this source comparing to other X-ray bursters since a black body does not produce harmonics (see eq. 5). This interpretation is supported by the observed hard spectrum m03 .

## 4 ANALYTICAL LIGHT CURVES, OSCILLATION AMPLITUDES, AND SPOT SIZE

Using formalism described in b02  (see pg03  for details) we obtain simple expressions for the light curve from a small spot at a rapidly rotating neutron star. For example, the bolometric flux from a black body spot is

$$\mathrm{d}F=\left(1\frac{r_g}{R}\right)^2\delta ^5\left[\frac{r_g}{R}+\left(1\frac{r_g}{R}\right)\mathrm{cos}\psi \right]I_0\frac{\mathrm{d}S}{D^2},$$
(1)
where $`I_0`$ is the black body intensity (in the spot comoving frame), $`\mathrm{d}S`$ is the spot area, $`D`$ is the distance to the source, $`\mathrm{cos}\psi =\mathrm{cos}i\mathrm{cos}\theta +\mathrm{sin}i\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\varphi `$, $`\varphi `$ is the pulse phase, and $`\delta `$ is the Doppler factor. We can also get simple (but very accurate) expression for the oscillation amplitude (here from one spot and neglecting Doppler boosting which does not affect it much): $`A(F_{\mathrm{max}}F_{\mathrm{min}})/(F_{\mathrm{max}}+F_{\mathrm{min}})=U/Q`$, where we defined $`U=(1r_g/R)\mathrm{sin}i\mathrm{sin}\theta `$ and $`Q=r_g/R+(1r_g/R)\mathrm{cos}i\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ .

The time-averaged flux observed from a spot of angular radius $`\rho `$ is pg03  (assuming the spot is always visible)

$$F_{\mathrm{bb}}=\left(1\frac{r_g}{R}\right)^2\left[Q+\frac{r_g}{R}\mathrm{tan}^2\frac{\rho }{2}\right]I_0\pi R^2\mathrm{sin}^2\rho /D^2.$$
(2)
This formula allows us to obtain a simple expression for estimating the emission region size (compare to pod00 ):

$$R\mathrm{sin}\rho =r_{\mathrm{}}\left(Q+\frac{r_g}{R}\mathrm{tan}^2\frac{\rho }{2}\right)^{1/2},$$
(3)
which can be solved by iterations. Here $`r_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the “observed” spot size, $`F_{\mathrm{bb}}=\sigma _{\mathrm{SB}}T_{\mathrm{}}^4r_{\mathrm{}}^2/D^2`$, and $`T_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the fitted temperature. For small $`\rho `$, we get $`R\rho =r_{\mathrm{}}Q^{1/2}`$. For example, if we look at the spot always along the symmetry axis (take $`i=0,\theta =0`$), we get $`Q=1`$ and $`R\rho =r_{\mathrm{}}`$. Thus in that case, light bending does not affect the size. A spot of a finite size produces a smaller variability amplitude

$$A=U/\left[Q+\frac{r_g}{R}\mathrm{tan}^2\frac{\rho }{2}\right].$$
(4)
For an anisotropic source given by a linear relation $`I(\mu )1+a\mu `$ at a slowly rotating star ($`\delta =1`$), we can obtain the ratio of the variability amplitudes at the fundamental frequency $`A_0`$ and the harmonic $`A_1`$, using equation (1):

$$\frac{A_1}{A_0}=\frac{aU/2}{1+2aQ}.$$
(5)
One sees that a black body source $`a=0`$ does not produce any harmonics. We can estimate the impact of rapid rotation on that ratio. Expanding Doppler factor in powers of the equatorial velocity $`\beta _{\mathrm{eq}}=v_{\mathrm{eq}}/c`$ and keeping the first term only, we get (see pb04  for details):

$$\frac{A_1}{A_0}\frac{5}{2}\beta _{\mathrm{eq}}\sqrt{1r_g/R}\mathrm{sin}i\mathrm{sin}\theta .$$
(6)
Thus this ratio depends linearly on $`\mathrm{sin}i`$ and $`\mathrm{sin}\theta `$ (as for anisotropic source, eq. 5). One also sees that due to a linear dependence on the rotational frequency, it is much easier to get large amplitude of the harmonic with an anisotropic source than just by rotation. These expressions can be used for analysis of the data from ms pulsars and X-ray bursters.

This research was supported by the Academy of Finland, the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, and the Nordic project in High Energy Astrophysics (NORDITA).


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# Discovery of the high–ionization emission line [Ne V] 𝜆3426 in the blue compact dwarf galaxy Tol 1214–277Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Chile, ESO program 71.B-0032(A).

## 1 Introduction

Tol 1214–277 is one of the best studied blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxies in the Southern sky. Numerous spectroscopic observations of its brightest H ii region (e.g., Kunth & Sargent Kunth83 (1983); Campbell, Terlevich & Melnick Cam86 (1986); Pagel et al. Pag92 (1992); Masegosa, Moles & Campos-Aguilar Mas94 (1994); Fricke et al. Fricke01 (2001); Izotov, Chaffee & Green 2001a ) have revealed the very low oxygen abundance changing in the range of 12 + log O/H = 7.51 – 7.55. This makes Tol 1214–277 a possible candidate for being a young unevolved galaxy (Fricke et al. Fricke01 (2001)), suitable for the primordial helium abundance determination (Pagel et al. Pag92 (1992); Izotov, Chaffee & Green 2001a ).

The spectrum of the brightest H ii region in Tol 1214–277 is characterised by strong nebular emission lines suggesting a very young age ($``$ 3 Myr) for the ionizing cluster. A strong He ii $`\lambda `$4686 emission line is a common property of low-metallicity BCDs (Guseva, Izotov & Thuan GIT00 (2000)). Its presence in the spectrum of Tol 1214–277 implies the existence of hard ionizing radiation with $`\lambda `$ $`<`$ 228Å. However, the He ii $`\lambda `$4686 emission line in Tol 1214–277 is the strongest among known BCDs, reaching $``$ 5% of the H$`\beta `$ emission line flux and suggesting that the hard radiation in this galaxy is particularly intense. Further evidence for the presence of the hard radiation in Tol 1214–277 was found by Fricke et al. (Fricke01 (2001)) who discovered the \[Fe v$`\lambda `$4227Å emission line in its spectrum. Until now, this line has been definitely detected in only two BCDs, Tol 1214–277 and SBS 0335–052 (Fricke et al. Fricke01 (2001); Izotov, Chaffee & Schaerer 2001b ). \[Fe v\] emission can be present only in the He+2 zone of the H ii region. The ionization potential of the Fe+3 ion is 4.028 Rydberg and hence the Fe+4 ion can be produced only by radiation with $`\lambda `$$``$200Å. Fricke et al. (Fricke01 (2001)) and Izotov et al.(2001b ) have discussed different mechanisms which can be responsible for the hard radiation in Tol 1214–277 and SBS 0335–052. They concluded that ionizing stellar radiation is too soft to explain the strong He ii $`\lambda `$4686 and \[Fe v\] $`\lambda `$4227 emission lines. Other ionization sources, such as fast shocks and high-mass X-ray binary systems, need to be considered.

In this paper we report the discovery of the \[Ne v$`\lambda `$3426 emission line in the spectrum of Tol 1214–277 based on new spectroscopic observations. This finding further supports the presence of a very highly ionized gas component in the brightest H ii region of Tol 1214–277.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

Long-slit spectroscopic observations of Tol 1214–277 were carried out during two nights, on 24 and 25 April, 2003 with the ESO 3.6-m telescope (La Silla) in conjunction with the EFOSC spectrograph. The long slit with width of 1″ was centered on the brightest H ii region at a position angle P.A. = –34$`\stackrel{}{.}`$2. The grism $`\mathrm{\#}11`$ was used giving the wavelength range $`\lambda `$3400–$`\lambda `$7400 and the spectral resolution of $``$13.2 Å (FWHM). The spatial scale along the slit of 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$157 pixel-1 was binned by a factor of 2 resulting in the spatial resolution of 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$314 pixel-1. The total exposure of the Tol 1214–277 observations was 80 min during two nights, splitted into four subexposures. No correction for atmospheric refraction was made because of the small airmass $``$ 1.003 during the observations.

The data reduction was made with IRAF111IRAF is the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). software package. This includes bias–subtraction, flat–field correction, cosmic-ray removal, wavelength calibration, night sky background subtraction, correction for atmospheric extinction and absolute flux calibration of the two-dimensional spectrum.

An one-dimensional spectrum of the brightest H ii region was extracted within an aperture of 1″ $`\times `$ 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$6. It was corrected for the redshift $`z`$ = 0.02592 $`\pm `$ 0.00017 which is derived from the observed wavelengths of 28 strongest emission lines. The spectrum is shown in Fig. 1 and is characterised by strong nebular emission lines and the Balmer jump at $``$ $`\lambda `$3660Å.

## 3 Chemical abundances

The observed fluxes of the emission lines have been corrected for underlying stellar absorption (for hydrogen lines) and interstellar extinction using the observed Balmer decrement as described by Izotov, Thuan & Lipovetsky (ITL94 (1994, 1997)). The corrected emission line fluxes $`I`$($`\lambda `$) relative to the H$`\beta `$ emission line flux, their equivalent widths $`EW`$, the extinction coefficient $`C`$(H$`\beta `$), the observed flux of the H$`\beta `$ emission line, and the equivalent width of the hydrogen absorption lines for the brightest H ii region are shown in Table 1.

To derive element abundances we adopted a spherically symmetric ionization-bounded H ii region model (Stasińska S90 (1990)) including a high-ionization zone with temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii), and a low-ionization zone with temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O ii). The electron temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii) is derived from the \[O iii\]$`\lambda `$4363/($`\lambda `$4959+$`\lambda `$5007) ratio using a five-level atom model. That temperature is used for the derivation of the He+, O+2, Ne+2 and Ar+3 ionic abundances. The electron temperature in the inner He+2 zone is expected to be higher than $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii). However, the dependence on the temperature of the He ii $`\lambda `$4686 emissivity is weak (Aller Aller84 (1984)). Therefore, $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii) is adopted for the He+2 ionic abundance determination. We derive $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O ii) from the relation between $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O ii) and $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii) (Izotov et al. ITL94 (1994)), based on a fit to the photoionization models of Stasińska (S90 (1990)). The temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O ii) is used to derive the O+ and S+ ion abundances. For Ar+2 and S+2 we have adopted an electron temperature intermediate between $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii) and $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O ii) following the prescriptions of Garnett (G92 (1992)). The electron number density $`N_\mathrm{e}`$(S ii) is derived from the \[S ii\] $`\lambda `$6717/$`\lambda `$6731 flux ratio. The oxygen abundance is O = O+ \+ O+2 \+ O+3, where O+3 is derived from the equation O+3/(O++O+2) = He+2/He+. Total abundances of other heavy elements were computed after correction for unseen stages of ionization as described in Izotov et al. (ITL94 (1994)) and Thuan et al. (til95 (1995)). Five He i emission lines $`\lambda `$3889, $`\lambda `$4471, $`\lambda `$5876, $`\lambda `$6678, $`\lambda `$7065 were used to derive the electron number density $`N_\mathrm{e}`$(He ii) and the optical depth $`\tau `$(He i $`\lambda `$3889), and to correct the He i emission line fluxes for the collisional and fluorescent enhancements according to Izotov et al. (ITL94 (1994, 1997)). The singly ionized helium abundance He+/H+ is derived as a weighted mean of the abundances obtained from the corrected He i $`\lambda `$4471, $`\lambda `$5876, $`\lambda `$6678 line fluxes. The total helium abundance is He/H = He+/H+ \+ He+2/H+. The electron temperatures $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii), $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(S iii), $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O ii) for the high-, intermediate- and low-ionization regions respectively, the electron number densities $`N_\mathrm{e}`$(S ii), ionization correction factors (ICF), ionic and total heavy element abundances are shown in Table 2.

Note that the determination of $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ from the \[S ii$`\lambda `$6717, 6731Å emission lines and of sulfur abundance from the \[S iii\] $`\lambda `$6312Å emission line is not very accurate because of the low spectral resolution of the spectrum. The spectral resolution is too low to resolve the H$`\alpha `$ $`\lambda `$6563Å and \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6583Å emission lines. Therefore, the nitrogen abundance was not derived.

The oxygen abundance 12 + log(O/H) = 7.56 $`\pm `$ 0.01 for the brightest H ii region is in fair agreement with 12 + log O/H = 7.52 $`\pm `$ 0.01 derived by Fricke et al. (Fricke01 (2001)) and 7.54 $`\pm `$ 0.01 derived by Izotov et al. (2001a ). Despite the uncertainties caused by the low spectral resolution, the abundance ratios Ne/O, S/O and Ar/O are in good agreement with the previous abundance determinations in Tol 1214–277 and mean values obtained for a sample of the most metal-deficient BCDs (Izotov & Thuan IT99 (1999)).

## 4 High-ionization emission lines

Our observations confirm the presence of the \[Fe v$`\lambda `$4227Å and the strong He ii $`\lambda `$4686Å emission lines (Fig. 1, Table 1). Furthermore, we have detected for the first time in a star-forming galaxy the \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3426Å and marginally the \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3346Å emission lines. The \[Ne v$`\lambda `$3426Å emission line is seen in all four spectra of Tol 1214–277 obtained during two nights. Its width in the averaged spectrum is smaller than that of other emission lines, although the line is broader in the spectrum obtained during the second night. This difference is apparently due to the noisy spectrum in the blue part and the weakness of the \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3426Å line.

To produce strong \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3426Å the ionizing radiation must be intense at $`\lambda `$ $``$ 128Å, because the ionization potential of the Ne+4 ion is 7.138 Rydberg. Using the flux ratio $`I`$($`\lambda `$3346+$`\lambda `$3426)/$`I`$(H$`\beta `$) from Table 1 and expressions from Aller (Aller84 (1984)) we can estimate the fraction of the Ne+4 ions in the H ii region. This ion exists in the inner He+2 zone where the electron temperature is expected to be higher than that derived from the O iii forbidden lines. To derive the electron temperature and other physical parameters in the inner zone of Tol 1214–277, we use the CLOUDY code (version C94.00; Ferland et al. F98 (1998)). Adopting the effective temperature of the ionizing radiation $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 50000 K and CoStar stellar atmosphere models (Schaerer & de Koter S97 (1997)), we obtain $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(Ne v) = 36000 K or 17000 K higher than $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii) = 19400 K (Table 2). Then Ne+4/H+ = 8.3$`\times `$10-8 or $``$ 2% of the Ne+2 abundance.

We used Kurucz (Kurucz K79 (1979)) and CoStar stellar atmosphere models and calculated several spherically symmetric ionization-bounded H ii region models which reproduce resonably well the observed emission line fluxes of the O+, O+2, Ne+2, S+2, Ar+2 and Ar+3 ions. However, the observed \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3426/\[Ne iii\] $`\lambda `$3868 flux ratio in Tol 1214–277 is $``$ 104 times higher than that predicted by the H ii region models even in the case of the CoStar atmosphere models of the hottest main-sequence stars (model F1 with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $``$ 54000 K; Schaerer & de Koter S97 (1997)). The difference between the observations and model predictions is even larger when Kurucz stellar atmosphere models are used.

We now estimate the X-ray luminosity required to reproduce the large observed intensity of Ne v emission. The H$`\beta `$ luminosity $`L`$(H$`\beta `$) $``$ 2.5$`\times `$1040 erg s-1 in Tol 1214–277 corresponds to a number of ionizing photons log QH $``$ 52.7 (QH is in s-1). The derived value of log QH is a lower limit. It might be higher if, e.g., the H ii region is density-bounded or the gas does not fully cover the ionizing source. Additionally, dust might be present. However, the density-bounded H ii region models are likely excluded because the observed flux of the \[O ii\] $`\lambda `$3727 emission line is not reproduced by those models. We cannot exclude the presence of dust. However, its amount in Tol 1214–277 is likely small, as evidenced by the strong Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line (Thuan & Izotov ti97 (1997)). Scaling the CoStar model F1 (Schaerer & de Koter S97 (1997)) to the derived QH value, we obtain a predicted X-ray luminosity $`L_\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{mod}}`$($`\lambda `$ $``$ 128Å) $``$ 1035 – 1036 erg s-1. However, since the observed \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3426/\[Ne iii\] $`\lambda `$3868 flux ratio is $``$ 104 times larger than the model prediction, the soft X-ray luminosity of Tol 1214–277 should be as high as $`L_\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{obs}}`$ = 1039 – 1040 erg s-1 to reproduce the observations.

Tol 1214–277 has not been observed in the X-ray range. However, the estimated $`L_\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{obs}}`$ is consistent with the 0.5 – 10 KeV (or 1 – 25Å) X-ray luminosity derived from Chandra observations of another BCD with high-ionization lines, SBS 0335–052 (Thuan et al. T04 (2004)). The large difference between $`L_\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{obs}}`$ and $`L_\mathrm{x}^{\mathrm{mod}}`$ in Tol 1214–277 implies that the dominant source of soft X-ray emission cannot be normal massive main-sequence stars. Note that this source is likely to be compact and located in the inner part of the H ii region to produce X-ray emission with a high ionization parameter. Fast shocks with the velocities of $``$ 400 – 500 km s-1, contributing up to 10% of the H$`\beta `$ luminosity, can be responsible for the observed high fluxes of both the He ii $`\lambda `$4686Å and \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3346, 3326Å emission lines (Dopita & Sutherland DS96 (1996)). Another possibility is the ionizing radiation produced by the accretion of gas in high-mass X-ray binaries. This mechanism appears to be at work in SBS 0335–052 (Thuan et al. T04 (2004)). If additional mechanisms of ionization and heating are important in the H ii region of Tol 1214–277 then the \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$4363 emission line may be enhanced resulting in the higher temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}`$(O iii). In this case the heavy element abundances shown in Table 2 may be underestimated.

## 5 Summary

New spectroscopic observations of the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy Tol 1214–277 are presented which reveal for the first time in a star-forming galaxy the strong ($``$ 2% of H$`\beta `$) \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3426Å and probably the \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3346Å high-ionization lines. This finding implies the presence of intense ionizing X-ray emission in Tol 1214–277 from one or several compact sources which are not the usual massive stars. Other mechanisms, such as fast shocks or gas accretion in high-mass X-ray binaries, can probably account for the large luminosity in the \[Ne v\] $`\lambda `$3426Å emission line. Because its metallicity is low and star-forming activity is high, Tol 1214–277 may be a good approximation to primordial galaxies, and its study can shed light on the physical conditions of high-redshift galaxies. In particular, we expect relatively strong high-ionization emission lines to be present in the spectra of primordial galaxies.

###### Acknowledgements.

Y.I.I. acknowledges the Göttingen Academy of Sciences for a Gauss professorship. He and N.G.G. have been supported by DFG grant 436 UKR 17/22/03 and by Swiss SCOPE 7UKPJ62178 grant. They are grateful for the hospitality of the Göttingen Observatory. P.P. and K.J.F. acknowledge support by the Volkswagen Foundation under grant No. I/72919. Y.I.I. and T.X.T. have been partially supported by NSF grant AST 02-05785. Y.I.I., N.G.G. and T.X.T. acknowledge the support by the grant UP1-2551–KV-03 of the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) for the independent states of the former Soviet Union.


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# Validation of entanglement purification by continuous variable polarization

## 1 Introduction

Two-party entanglement of pure states is well characterized by the von Neumann entropy of one of the two parties . However, this implies the complete knowledge of the system state, i.e. measuring a large set of observables . For practical purposes it is preferable to use quantum correlations of few observables. Criteria for the inseparability of continuous variable systems usually refer to two quadratures measurements . Nevertheless, polarization correlations might be used as well to single out entanglement.

The polarization state of light has been extensively studied in the quantum mechanical regime of single photons. The demonstration of entangled polarization states for pairs of photons has been of particular interest. This entanglement has facilitated the study of many interesting quantum phenomena such as Bell’s inequality . Over the last decade, research on quantum polarization properties of intense light fields was also developed . More recently, this topic has attracted attention due to the possibility of transferring continuous variable quantum information from optical polarization states to the spin state of atomic ensembles , and to the possibility of local oscillator-free continuous variable quantum communication networks . Some papers have now been published which discuss the concept of continuous variable polarization entanglement, propose methods for its generation, and provide its experimental evidence .

The aim of this work is to characterize two-party entanglement through polarization (Stokes) operators correlations and to use them to validate entanglement manipulation (purification). We begin by discussing, in Section 2, continuous variable polarization entanglement by using a simple separability criterion. We then analyze the performance of two entanglement purification protocols in Section 3 and final remarks are outlined in Section 4.

## 2 Polarization entanglement

The polarization state of a light beam can be described as a Stokes vector on a Poincaré sphere and is determined by the four Stokes operators : $`\widehat{S}_0`$ represents the beam intensity whereas $`\widehat{S}_1`$, $`\widehat{S}_2`$, and $`\widehat{S}_3`$ characterize its polarization and form a cartesian axis system. Quasi-monochromatic laser light is almost completely polarized, and all Stokes operators can be measured with simple experiments . Following  we expand the Stokes operators in terms of the annihilation $`\widehat{a}`$ and creation $`\widehat{a}^{}`$ operators of the horizontally ($`H`$) and vertically ($`V`$) polarized modes

$`\widehat{S}_0`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_H+\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_V,\widehat{S}_1=\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_H\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_V,`$ (1)
$`\widehat{S}_2`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_Ve^{i\theta }+\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_He^{i\theta },\widehat{S}_3=i\widehat{a}_V^{}\widehat{a}_He^{i\theta }i\widehat{a}_H^{}\widehat{a}_Ve^{i\theta },`$ (2)
where $`\theta `$ is the phase difference between the $`H`$-, $`V`$-polarization modes. The commutation relations of the annihilation and creation operators $`[\widehat{a}_j,\widehat{a}_k^{}]=\delta _{jk}`$ with $`j,k\{H,V\}`$ directly result in Stokes operator commutation relations,

$$[\widehat{S}_1,\widehat{S}_2]=2i\widehat{S}_3,[\widehat{S}_2,\widehat{S}_3]=2i\widehat{S}_1,[\widehat{S}_3,\widehat{S}_1]=2i\widehat{S}_2.$$
(3)
These commutation relations dictate uncertainty relations which indicate that entanglement is possible between the Stokes operators of two beams (namely, it comes out from their correlations), and this is termed continuous variables polarization entanglement. Three observables are involved, compared to two for quadrature entanglement, and the entanglement between two of them relies on the mean value of the third.

The relation between quadrature entanglement and polarization entanglement can be understood with the aid of fig. 1. Two quadrature entangled pairs, with different polarizations $`H`$ and $`V`$, are sent to two polarizing beam splitters (PBS). The emerging beams are then used to measure the Stokes operators (1), (2) in the two subsystems $`x`$ and $`y`$. Local operations on the subsystem $`x`$, before the mode mixing at PBS, allow for entanglement purification.

We assume that the two horizontally and the two vertically polarized inputs are intense entangled pairs with fluctuations described by two-mode squeezed vacuum states

$$|\psi _{H_xH_yV_xV_y}=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c_n|n,n_{H_xH_y}\underset{m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}c_m|m,m_{V_xV_y},$$
(4)
where $`c_n=\lambda ^n\sqrt{1\lambda ^2}`$ with $`\lambda `$ the two-mode squeezing parameter  (for the sake of simplicity we assume $`\lambda `$ equal for both pairs). If we introduce the amplitude and phase quadrature operators

$$\widehat{X}_j^+=\widehat{a}_j+\widehat{a}_j^{},\widehat{X}_j^{}=i\left(\widehat{a}_j\widehat{a}_j^{}\right),(j=H,V),$$
(5)
it is easy to see  that for $`\lambda 1`$ each pair of eq.(4) tends to be a maximally entangled state, like the EPR state , for it results simultaneous eigenstate of the difference of amplitude quadrature fluctuations $`\delta \widehat{X}_{j_x}^+\delta \widehat{X}_{j_y}^+`$ ($`j=H,V`$) and of the sum of phase quadrature fluctuations $`\delta \widehat{X}_{j_x}^{}+\delta \widehat{X}_{j_y}^{}`$ (we have used the notation $`\widehat{O}=\widehat{O}+\delta \widehat{O}`$). For this reason such entanglement is usually refered as quadrature entanglement.

Since we have assumed bright input beams, the Stokes operators (1) and (2) can be rewritten as

$`\widehat{S}_0`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _H^2+\alpha _V^2+\alpha _H\delta \widehat{X}_H^+,`$ (6)
$`\widehat{S}_1`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha _H^2\alpha _V^2+\alpha _H\delta \widehat{X}_H^+\alpha _V\delta \widehat{X}_V^+,`$ (7)
$`\widehat{S}_2`$ $`=`$ $`2\alpha _H\alpha _V\mathrm{cos}\theta +\alpha _H\mathrm{cos}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_V^+\alpha _H\mathrm{sin}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_V^{}`$ (8)
$`+\alpha _V\mathrm{cos}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_H^+\alpha _V\mathrm{sin}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_H^{},`$
$`\widehat{S}_3`$ $`=`$ $`2i\alpha _H\alpha _V\mathrm{sin}\theta i\alpha _H\mathrm{sin}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_V^+i\alpha _H\mathrm{cos}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_V^{}`$ (9)
$`i\alpha _V\mathrm{sin}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_H^++i\alpha _V\mathrm{cos}\theta \delta \widehat{X}_H^{},`$
where $`\alpha _j=a_j`$ ($`j=H,V`$).

To provide a proper definition of the entanglement in terms of the operators (6)-(9), we use the general inseparability criterion proposed in . Namely, starting from a generic couple of observables $`\widehat{A}`$ and $`\widehat{B}`$ for each subsystem with $`\widehat{𝒞}=i[\widehat{A},\widehat{B}]`$, we construct the following observables on the total system

$`\widehat{𝒰}`$ $`=`$ $`r_x\widehat{A}_x+r_y\widehat{A}_y,r_x,r_y𝐑,`$ (10)
$`\widehat{𝒱}`$ $`=`$ $`s_x\widehat{B}_x+s_y\widehat{B}_y,s_x,s_y𝐑.`$ (11)
Then, a sufficient condition for inseparability reads

$$\mathrm{\Delta }^2\widehat{𝒰}+\mathrm{\Delta }^2\widehat{𝒱}<\left(\left|r_xs_x\right|\left|\widehat{𝒞}_x\right|+\left|r_ys_y\right|\left|\widehat{𝒞}_y\right|\right),$$
(12)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }^2\widehat{O}=\delta \widehat{O}^2`$. For the sake of simplicity we choose $`r=\pm 1`$ and $`s=\pm 1`$, then eq.(12) becomes

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{A}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{B}<2\left|[\delta \widehat{A},\delta \widehat{B}]\right|.$$
(13)
Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{O}`$ is the smaller of the sum and difference variances of the operator $`\widehat{O}`$ between beams $`x`$ and $`y`$, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{O}=\mathrm{min}(\delta \widehat{O}_x\pm \delta \widehat{O}_y)^2`$. To allow direct analysis of our results, we define the degree of inseparability $`I_{\widehat{A},\widehat{B}}`$, normalized such that $`I_{\widehat{A},\widehat{B}}<1`$ guarantees the state is inseparable

$$I_{\widehat{A},\widehat{B}}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{A}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{B}}{2|[\delta \widehat{A},\delta \widehat{B}]|}$$
(14)
Following Ref. , we arrange the entanglement such that the mean value of the three Stokes operators are the same ($`|\widehat{S}_i|=\alpha ^2`$). This leads to $`\alpha _V^2=\frac{\sqrt{3}1}{2}\alpha ^2`$, $`\alpha _H^2=\frac{\sqrt{3}+1}{2}\alpha ^2`$, $`\theta _x=\pi /4+n_x\pi /2`$, and $`\theta _y=\pi /4+n_y\pi /2`$ where $`n_x`$ and $`n_y`$ are integers. By virtue of eq.(4), the two horizontally polarized inputs, and the two vertically polarized inputs, are quadrature entangled with the same degree of correlation such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{X}_H^\pm =\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{X}_V^\pm =\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{X}`$. In this configuration, from eqs. (6)-(9) and (4) one also has $`|[\delta \widehat{S}_i\delta \widehat{S}_j]|=2\alpha ^2`$, for all $`ij`$. To simultaneously minimize all three degrees of Stokes operator inseparability ($`I_{\widehat{S}_i,\widehat{S}_j}`$) it is necessary that $`\theta _x=\theta _y+n\pi `$. After making this assumption we find that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{S}_i=\sqrt{3}\alpha ^2\mathrm{\Delta }_{x\pm y}^2\widehat{X}`$ for all $`i`$. Hence, in this situation $`I_{\widehat{S}_i,\widehat{S}_j}`$ are all identical, and for any pair of Stokes operators the entanglement is the same, that is

$$I_{\widehat{S}_i,\widehat{S}_j}(\lambda )=\sqrt{3}\left(\frac{1\lambda }{1+\lambda }\right),ij.$$
(15)
In principle it is possible to have all the three Stokes operators perfectly entangled. In other word, ideally the measurement of any Stokes operator of one of the beams, could allow the exact prediction of a different Stokes operator of the other beam (see fig. 1).

In fig. 2 it is shown the degree of inseparability (15) versus the two-mode squeezing parameter $`\lambda `$. It is worth noting that entanglement can only be recognized for approximately $`\lambda >0.27`$ while the state is entangled for any values $`\lambda 0`$. That is, the Stokes operators are not optimal entangled witnesses, as they are not tangent to the set of separable states .

Let us now consider the possibility to render the entanglement more “visible” (through polarization correlations) for low values of $`\lambda `$.

## 3 Entanglemet Purification

One important concept in quantum information theory is the entanglement purification (distillation) which allows the two parties to extract a small number of highly entangled, almost pure, states from a large number of weakly entangled mixed states . These protocols involve only local operations and classical communication (LOCC) between the two parties; therefore they can be performed after the distribution of the entangled states (see fig. 1).

Since we are dealing with continuous variable, hereafter we shall consider the two relevant protocols developed till now  which we label A and B respectively. They both involve nonlinear processes; as matter of fact it was recently proved the impossibility to purify Gaussian entangled states by means of Gaussian operations ,

### 3.1 Scheme A

The scheme proposed by Duan et. al.  relies on nondemolition measurement of the total photon number in one of the two parties and represents a direct extension of the Schmidt projection method to infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. In this case, the nonlinearity required to implement a non-Gaussian transformation is induced by a measurement that should resolve the number of photons in one subsystem ($`x`$ in fig. 1).

Suppose the result of the measurement is $`J`$, then the state after measurement will be

$$|J_{H_xH_yV_xV_y}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{J+1}}\underset{n=0}{\overset{J}{}}|n,n_{H_xH_y}|Jn,Jn_{V_xV_y},$$
(16)
and the probability for the random outcome $`J`$ can be calculated from eqs.(4) and (16) as

$$\left|\psi |J\right|^2=(J+1)\lambda ^{2J}(1\lambda ^2)^2.$$
(17)
Then, the degree of inseparability (14) calculated on the state (16) gives

$$I_{\widehat{S}_i,\widehat{S}_j}(J)=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{J+1}\left[\underset{m=0}{\overset{J}{}}\left(2m+1\right)\underset{m=0}{\overset{J1}{}}\sqrt{\left(J1\right)\left(m+1\right)}\right],$$
(18)
which results independent of $`\lambda `$.

Fig. 3 shows that $`I_{\widehat{S}_i,\widehat{S}_j}(J)`$ never goes below $`1`$ (whatever is the value of $`\lambda `$). Hence the purification protocol does not succeed in improving the visibility of entanglement on polarization correlations, although the entanglement has been effectively enhanced .

### 3.2 Scheme B

The scheme proposed by Fiurasek  provides entanglement purification for any single copy of a two-mode squeezed vacuum state $`_nc_n|n,n`$. The procedure in this case preserves the structure of a two-mode squeezed vacuum state, while the Schmidt coefficients $`c_n`$ are transformed to different ones, $`c_nd_n`$. The nonlinearity is provided by a cross Kerr interaction with an auxiliary mode prepared in a coherent state $`|\alpha `$ and undergoing a phase shift $`\varphi `$. A subsequent eight-port homodyne detection of the auxiliary mode provides a random outcome $`\beta 𝐂`$ (projection of the auxiliary mode onto a coherent state $`|\beta `$).

In this case the entanglement purification is described through the replacement

$$c_nd_n=\frac{\beta |\alpha e^{in\varphi }}{\sqrt{\pi Q(\beta )}}c_n,$$
(19)
where $`Q(\beta )`$ represents the probability density for the outcome $`\beta `$, that is

$$Q(\beta )=\frac{1}{\pi }\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}|\beta |\alpha e^{in\varphi }|^2|c_n|^2.$$
(20)
The degree of inseparability (14) prior the purification is given by eq.(15) and can be rewritten as

$$I\left(\lambda \right)=\sqrt{3}\underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left[\left(2n+1\right)|c_n|^2|c_m|^22\left(n+1\right)|c_m|^2c_{n+1}c_n\right],$$
(21)
so that after the purification it simply becomes

$$I\left(\beta \right)=\sqrt{3}\underset{n,m=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left[\left(2n+1\right)|d_n|^2|d_m|^22\left(n+1\right)|d_m|^2d_{n+1}d_n\right].$$
(22)
Then, we can introduce the entanglement increment by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\beta ,\lambda )=\frac{E^{}(\beta )}{E(\lambda )},$$
(23)
where we have set

$$E^{}(\beta )=\{\begin{array}{ccc}1I(\beta ),\hfill & & \mathrm{if}I(\beta )<1\hfill \\ 0,\hfill & & \mathrm{otherwise}\hfill \end{array},$$
(24)
as the degree of entanglement after the purification and

$$E(\lambda )=\{\begin{array}{ccc}1I(\lambda ),\hfill & & \mathrm{if}I(\lambda )<1\hfill \\ 0,\hfill & & \mathrm{otherwise}\hfill \end{array},$$
(25)
as the degree of entanglement prior the purification. Here, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>1`$ indicates the ability to recognize the entanglement improvement through the Stokes operators. The efficiency of the protocol can be defined as

$$\mathrm{\Xi }(\lambda )=1\frac{1}{\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(\lambda )},$$
(26)
where

$$\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(\lambda )=\frac{_\mathrm{\Omega }d^2\beta Q^2(\beta )\mathrm{\Gamma }(\beta ,\lambda )}{_\mathrm{\Omega }d^2\beta Q^2(\beta )},$$
(27)
with $`\mathrm{\Omega }\{\beta 𝐂|\mathrm{\Gamma }(\beta )>1\}`$. In eq.(27) we have used $`Q^2`$ as probability density because of two independent purification processes occur, one for each pair.

In fig. 4 we show the efficiency of the protocol as function of the parameter $`\lambda `$. It takes its maximum for approximately $`\lambda <0.27`$ because, prior the purification, the Stokes‘ operators are not good enough operators to witness entanglement in this region of $`\lambda `$ and the purification protocol is efficient (see fig. 2). Obviously, the graph has a singular point in $`\lambda =0`$ where no entanglement is present at all. For $`\lambda >0.27`$ the protocol‘s efficiency rapidly decreases to zero because for these values of $`\lambda `$ the Stokes operators are good enough to recognize the entanglement present in the state (see fig. 2).

## 4 Conclusions

In conclusion, we have characterized two-party entanglement through polarization (Stokes operators) correlations. Stokes operators turn out to be useful in describing the transfer of quantum information from a freely propagating optical carrier to a matter system . Furthermore, the use of continuous variable polarization entanglement combines the advantages of intense, easy to handle, sources of EPR-entangled light and efficient direct detection, thus opening the way to secure quantum communication with bright light . However, we have shown that Stokes operators are not able to single out any level of entanglement from a given state. They well work when the degree of entanglement is high enough. Moreover, in order to make entanglement visible on polarization correlations, the purification should be accomplished with a suitable protocol.

The question whether one could ever recognize full entanglement with measurements of Stokes operators correlations could be addressed by optimizing the used entanglement criterion, or by exploring more sophisticated version of it . This is planned for future work.

## Acknowledgements

S. M. would like to thank Warwick Bowen and Vittorio Giovannetti for useful comments.

## References


text:
# Supernova constraints on alternative models to dark energy

## 1 Introduction

The type Ia supernova observations suggest that the expansion of the universe is speeding up rather than slowing down (Perlmuttter et al. 1998,1999; Garnavich et al. 1998; Riess et al. 1998; Tonry et al. 2003; Knop et al. 2003). The measurements of the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background favor a flat universe (de Bernardis et al. 2000; Hanany et al. 2000; Bennett et al. 2003; Spergel et al. 2003). The observation of type Ia supernova SN 1997ff at $`z1.7`$ also supports that the universe was in the deceleration phase in the recent past (Riess, 2001). The transition from the deceleration phase to the acceleration phase happened around the redshift $`z_\mathrm{T}0.5`$ (Turner & Riess 2002; Daly & Djorgovski 2003). A form of matter with negative pressure widely referred as dark energy is usually introduced to explain the accelerating expansion. The simplest form of dark energy is the cosmological constant with the equation of state $`p_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\rho _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. The cosmological constant model can be easily generalized to dynamical cosmological constant models, such as the dark energy model with the equation of state $`p_\mathrm{Q}=\omega _\mathrm{Q}\rho _\mathrm{Q}`$, where the constant $`\omega _\mathrm{Q}`$ satisfies $`1\omega _\mathrm{Q}<1/3`$. If we remove the null energy restriction $`\omega _\mathrm{Q}1`$ to allow supernegative $`\omega _\mathrm{Q}<1`$, then we get the phantom energy models (Alcaniz 2003; Caldwell 2002; Kaplinghat & Bridle 2003). More exotic equation of state is also possible, such as the Chaplygin gas model with the equation of state $`p=A/\rho `$ and the generalized Chaplygin gas model with the equation of state $`p=A/\rho ^\alpha `$ (Kamenshchik, Moschella & Pasquier 2001; Bilic, Tupper & Viollier 2002; Bento, Bertolami & Sen 2002; Carturan & Finelli 2003; Amendola et al. 2003; Cunha, Alcaniz & Lima 2004). In general, a scalar field $`Q`$ that slowly evolves down its potential $`V(Q)`$ takes the role of a dynamical cosmological constant (Caldwell, Dave & Steinhardt 1998; Zlatev, Wang & Steinhardt 1999; Ferreira & Joyce 1997,1998; Ratra & Peebles 1988; Perlmutter, Turner & White 1999; Sahni & Starobinsky 2000; Rubano & Barrow 2001; Johri 2002; Di Pietro & Demaret 2001; Ureña-López & Matos 2000; Sen & Sethi 2002; Gong 2002,2004). The scalar field $`Q`$ is also called the quintessence field. The energy density of the quintessence field must remain very small compared to that of radiation and matter at early epoches and evolves in a way that it started to dominate the universe around the redshift $`0.5`$. There are other forms of dark energy, like the tachyon field (Armendariz-Picon, Damour & Mukhanov 1999; Padmanabhan & Choudhury 2002,2003; Bagla, Jassal & Padmanabhan 2003; Padmanabhan 2003; Padmanabhan & Choudhury 2003).

Although dark energy models are consistent with current observations, the nature of dark energy is still a mystery. Therefore it is possible that the observations show a sign of the breakdown of the standard cosmology. Some alternative models to dark energy models were proposed along this line of reasoning. These models are motivated by brane cosmology (Dvali, Gabadadze & Porrati 2003; Dvali & Turner 2003; Chung & Freese 1999). In this scenario, our universe is a three-brane embedded in a five dimensional spacetime. The five dimensional action is

$$S_5=\frac{1}{2\kappa _5}d^5x\sqrt{G}+S_{\mathrm{orb}}+S_{\mathrm{boundary}}+S_{\mathrm{GH}},$$

where $``$ is the Ricci scalar in five dimensions, $`G`$ is the five dimensional metric determinant, $`\kappa _5`$ is the five dimensional Newton’s constant, $`S_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ is the orbifold action, $`S_{\mathrm{boundary}}`$ represents the boundary action and $`S_{\mathrm{GH}}`$ is the Gibbons-Hawking boundary terms. In these models, the usual Friedmann equation $`H^2=8\pi G\rho /3`$ is modified to a general form $`H^2=g(\rho )`$ and the universe is composed of the ordinary matter only (Freese & Lewis 2002; Freese 2003; Gondolo & Freese 2003; Sen & Sen 2003a,2003b; Zhu & Fujimoto 2003a,2003b,2003c; Zhu, Fujimoto & He 2003; Wang et al. 2003; Multamaki, Gaztanaga & Manera 2003; Dev, Alcaniz & Jain 2003; Frith 2004; Gong & Duan 2003; Gong, Chen & Duan 2004). One particular example is the brane cosmology with $`g(\rho )\rho +\rho ^2`$. In order to retain the success of the standard cosmology at early times, we require that the modified cosmology recovers the standard cosmology at early times. So $`g(\rho )`$ must satisfy $`g(\rho )\rho `$ when $`\rho \rho _0`$, where $`\rho _0`$ is the current matter energy density.

For a spatially flat, isotropic and homogeneous universe with both an ordinary pressureless dust matter and a minimally coupled scalar field $`Q`$ sources, the Friedmann equations are

$`H^2=\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a}}\right)^2={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi G}{3}}(\rho _\mathrm{m}+\rho _\mathrm{Q}),`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{a}}{a}}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi G}{3}}(\rho _\mathrm{m}+\rho _\mathrm{Q}+3p_\mathrm{Q}),`$ (2)
$`\dot{\rho _\mathrm{Q}}+3H(\rho _\mathrm{Q}+p_\mathrm{Q})=0,`$ (3)
where dot means derivative with respect to time, $`\rho _\mathrm{m}=\rho _{\mathrm{m0}}(a_0/a)^3`$ is the matter energy density, a subscript 0 means the value of the variable at present time, $`\rho _\mathrm{Q}=\dot{Q}^2/2+V(Q)`$, $`p_\mathrm{Q}=\dot{Q}^2/2V(Q)`$ and $`V(Q)`$ is the potential of the quintessence field. The modified Friedmann equations for a spatially flat universe are

$`H^2=H_0^2g(x),`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{a}}{a}}=H_0^2g(x){\displaystyle \frac{3H_0^2x}{2}}g^{}(x)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\rho +p}{\rho }}\right),`$ (5)
$`\dot{\rho }+3H(\rho +p)=0,`$ (6)
where $`x=8\pi G\rho /3H_0^2=x_0(1+z)^3`$ during the matter dominated epoch, $`1+z=a_0/a`$ is the redshift parameter, $`g(x)=x+\mathrm{}`$ is a general function of $`x`$ and $`g^{}(x)=dg(x)/dx`$. Note that the universe did not start to accelerate when the other nonlinear terms in $`g(x)`$ started to dominate. To recover the standard cosmology at early times, we require that $`g(x)x`$ when $`xx_0`$. For the matter dominated flat universe, $`\rho =\rho _\mathrm{m}`$ and $`p=p_\mathrm{m}=0`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=8\pi G\rho _0/3H_0^2`$, then $`x_0=\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}`$, $`g(x_0)=1`$ and $`x=\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}(1+z)^3`$ during the matter dominated era.

The luminosity distance $`d_\mathrm{L}`$ is defined as

$`d_\mathrm{L}(z)=a_0(1+z){\displaystyle _t^{t_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{dt^{}}{a(t^{})}}`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1+z}{H_0}}{\displaystyle _0^z}g^{1/2}[\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}(1+u)^3]𝑑u.`$ (7)
The apparent magnitude redshift relation is

$`m(z)=M+5\mathrm{log}_{10}d_\mathrm{L}(z)+25=+5\mathrm{log}_{10}𝒟_\mathrm{L}(z)`$
$`=+5\mathrm{log}_{10}\left\{(1+z){\displaystyle _0^z}g^{1/2}[\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}(1+u)^3]𝑑u\right\},`$ (8)
where $`𝒟_\mathrm{L}(z)=H_0d_\mathrm{L}(z)`$ is the “Hubble-constant-free” luminosity distance, $`M`$ is the absolute peak magnitude and $`=M5\mathrm{log}_{10}H_0+25`$. $``$ can be determined from the low redshift limit at where $`𝒟_\mathrm{L}(z)=z`$. The parameters in our model are determined by minimizing

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i}{}\frac{[m_{obs}(z_i)m(z_i)]^2}{\sigma _i^2},$$
(9)
where $`\sigma _i`$ is the total uncertainty in the observations. The $`\chi ^2`$-minimization procedure is based on MINUIT code. We use the 54 supernova data with both the stretch correction and the host-galaxy extinction correction, i.e., the fit 3 supernova data by Knop et al. (2003), the 20 radio galaxy and 78 supernova data by Daly & Djorgovski (2003), and the supernova data by Tonry et al. (2003) to find the best fit parameters. In the fit, the range of parameter space for $``$ is $`=[3.9,3.2]`$, the range of parameter space for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}`$ is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,4]`$.

The transition from deceleration to acceleration happens when the deceleration parameter $`q=\ddot{a}/aH^2=0`$. From equations (4) and (5), we have

$$g[\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}(1+z_\mathrm{T})^3]=\frac{3}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}(1+z_\mathrm{T})^3g^{}[\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}(1+z_\mathrm{T})^3],$$
(10)
$$q_0=\frac{3}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}g^{}(\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})1.$$
(11)
To compare the modified model with the dark energy model, we make the following identification

$$\omega _Q=\frac{xg^{}(x)g(x)}{g(x)x}.$$
(12)
## 2 Chaplygin gas Model

The chaplygin gas model $`p=A/\rho ^\alpha `$ in the framework of alternative model to dark energy is

$$g(x)=x+\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Q0}}[A_s+(1A_s)(x/\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})^\beta ]^{1/\beta },$$

where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Q0}}=1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}`$, $`\beta =1+\alpha `$ and $`A_s=(8\pi G/3H_0^2\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Q0}})^\beta A`$. The $`\alpha =1`$ model is motivated by a $`d`$-brane in $`d+2`$ spacetime. Since $`g^{}(x)=1+\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Q0}}(1A_s)[A_s+(1A_s)(x/\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})^\beta ]^{1/\beta 1}(x/\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})^\beta `$, so

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}}{2\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{Q0}}}}(1+z_{q=0})^3[A_s+(1A_s)(1+z_{q=0})^{3\beta }]^{11/\beta }`$
$`=A_s{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1A_s)(1+z_{q=0})^{3\beta },`$ (13)
$$q_0=\frac{1}{2}\frac{3}{2}A_s(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}),$$
(14)
$`q_0<0`$ gives that $`A_s>(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})^1/3`$. To retain the success of the standard model at early epoches, we require $`g(x)x`$ when $`x1`$. In other words, we require $`A_s1`$. Therefore, we have the following constraints

$`(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})^1/3<A_s<1,`$ (15)
$`A_s1.`$ (16)
The best fits to the 54 supernovae by Knop et al. (2003) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,0.44]`$ centered at almost zero, $`A_s=[0.99,1]`$ centered at almost one and $`\beta =[1,32.3]`$ centered at 22.0 with $`\chi ^2=43.9`$. The best fits to the 98 radio galaxy and supernova data compiled by Daly & Djorgovski (2003) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,0.27]`$ centered at 0.26, $`A_s=[0.65,1]`$ centered at 0.97 and $`\beta =1`$ with $`\chi ^2=87.8`$. The best fits to the 172 supernovae with redshift $`z>0.01`$ and $`A_v<0.5`$ mag (Tonry et al., 2003) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,0.3]`$ centered at 0.1, $`A_s=[0.99,1]`$ centered at almost one and $`\beta =[1.5,23.7]`$ centered at 16.1 with $`\chi ^2=169.5`$. The best fits to the 194 supernovae by Tonry et al. (2003) and Barris et al. (2004) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,0.36]`$ centered at 0.19, $`A_s=[0.99,1]`$ centered at almost one and $`\beta =[1.3,25.2]`$ centered at 14.9 with $`\chi ^2=195.1`$. The best fits to all the data combined are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,0.34]`$ centered at 0.21, $`A_s=[0.99,1]`$ centered at almost one and $`\beta =[1.0,21.2]`$ centered at 13.7 with $`\chi ^2=331.3`$. From the above results, we conclude that the generalized Chaplygin gas model tends to be the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ model.

## 3 Generalized Cardassian model

The model is

$$g(x)=x[1+Bx^{\alpha (n1)}]^{1/\alpha },$$

where $`B=(\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}^\alpha 1)/\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}^{\alpha (n1)}`$, $`\alpha >0`$ and $`n<11/3(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}^\alpha )`$. When $`n=0`$, $`g(x)=B^{1/\alpha }(1+x^\alpha /B)^{1/\alpha }`$ which is the case studied by Freese (2003). For the special case $`\alpha =1`$ and $`n=0`$, $`g(x)=x+B`$ which is the standard cosmology with a cosmological constant. From a purely phenomenological point of view we may think that gravity is modified in such a way that acceleration kicks in when the energy density approaches a certain value (Carroll, 2003). The model is motivated from a three-brane located at the $`Z_2`$ symmetry fixed plane of a five dimensional spacetime. Chung and Freese showed that if one parametrizes the Hubble rate in terms of the brane energy density, then Cardassian model is derived with suitable choice of the five dimensional energy momentum tensor (Chung & Freese, 1999). The generalized Cardassian model gives

$`g^{}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`[1+Bx^{\alpha (n1)}]^{1/\alpha }`$ (17)
$`+(n1)Bx^{\alpha (n1)}[1+Bx^{\alpha (n1)}]^{1/\alpha 1},`$
Combining equation (17) with equations (10) and (11), we get

$`1+z_\mathrm{T}=[(\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}^\alpha 1)(23n)]^{1/3\alpha (1n)},`$ (18)
$`q_0={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}(n1)(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}^\alpha ).`$ (19)
If we think the generalized Cardassian model as ordinary Freidmann universe composed of matter and dark energy, we can identify the following relationship for the parameters in the Cardassian and quintessence models

$$\omega _{\mathrm{Q0}}=\frac{(n1)(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}^\alpha )}{1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}}.$$

There are four parameters in the fits: the mass density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}`$, the parameters $`n`$ and $`\alpha `$, as well as the nuisance parameter $``$. The range of parameter space explored is: $`n=[10,0.66]`$ and $`\alpha =(0,10^4]`$. The best fits to the supernova data (Daly & Djorgovski 2003; Tonry et al. 2003; Knop et al. 2003) generally give very large $`\alpha >100`$, so $`B\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}^{\alpha n}`$ and the transition redshift is weakly dependent on $`\alpha `$. Furthermore, $`\chi ^2`$ changes very little when $`\alpha `$ changes over a fairly large range. In other words, the generalized Cardassian model differs little from the Cardassian model with $`\alpha =1`$. So we will discuss the Cardassian model in more detail below.

### 3.1 Cardassian Model

The Cardassian model is the special case $`\alpha =1`$ of the generalized Cardassian model. This model is equivalent to the dark energy model with a constant equation of state $`p_\mathrm{Q}=\omega _\mathrm{Q}\rho _\mathrm{Q}`$ in the sense of dynamical evolution. The equivalence is provided by $`n=1+\omega _{\mathrm{Q0}}`$ and the equivalent dark energy potential is $`V(Q)=A[\mathrm{sinh}k(Q/\alpha +C)]^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha =22/(n1)`$. The best fits to the 54 supernovae by Knop et al. (2003) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.56_{0.12}^{+0.09}`$, $`n=3.6_{3.4}^{+2.2}`$ and $`\chi ^2=43.73`$. The $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}`$ and $`n`$ contour plot is shown in figure 1.

The best fits to the 98 radio galaxy and supernova data compiled by Daly & Djorgovski (2003) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.14_{0.14}^{+0.32}`$, $`n=0.26_{0.91}^{+0.21}`$ and $`\chi ^2=87.45`$. The contour plot is shown in figure 2.

The best fits to the 172 supernovae with redshift $`z>0.01`$ and $`A_v<0.5`$ mag (Tonry et al., 2003) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.48_{0.18}^{+0.09}`$, $`n=1.2_{1.9}^{+1.1}`$ and $`\chi ^2=171.4`$. The best fits to the 194 supernovae by Tonry et al. (2003) and Barris et al. (2004) are $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.51_{0.16}^{+0.08}`$, $`n=1.2_{1.9}^{+1.1}`$ and $`\chi ^2=196.7`$. The contour plot is shown is figure 3. The plot agrees well with the figure 13 in Tonry et al. (2003) and the figure 6 in Frith (2004).

The above results are summarized in table 1. Combining the above results, we find that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,0.61]`$ centered at 0.45 and $`n=[3.1,0.5]`$ centered at $`0.6`$ at 99% confidence level. The 99% contour plot is shown in figure 4. Take $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.3`$, we get $`z_\mathrm{T}=0.35`$, $`q_0=3.1`$ and $`\omega _{\mathrm{Q0}}=3.44`$ when $`n=2.44`$; $`z_\mathrm{T}=0.57`$, $`q_0=0.24`$ and $`\omega _{\mathrm{Q0}}=0.7`$ when $`n=0.3`$. These results are consistent with those obtained by Zhu & Fujimoto (2003a,b,c), Zhu, Fujimoto & He (2003) and Sen & Sen (2003b).

## 4 Model 3

The last model we would like to consider is $`g(x)=[a+\sqrt{a^2+x}]^2`$ (Deffayet et al. 2002; Dvali & Turner 2003), where $`a=(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})/2`$. This model arises from the brane world theory by Dvali, Gabadadze & Porrati (2003) in which gravity appears four dimensional at short distances while modified at large distances. For this model, we find that the equivalent dark energy equation of state parameter $`\omega _{\mathrm{Q0}}`$, $`q_0`$ and the transition redshift $`z_\mathrm{T}`$ from decelerated expansion to accelerated expansion are

$`\omega _{\mathrm{Q0}}`$ $`=`$ $`1/(1+\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}),`$ (20)
$`q_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}1}{1+\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}}},`$ (21)
$`1+z_\mathrm{T}`$ $`=`$ $`\left[{\displaystyle \frac{2(1\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}})^2}{\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}}}\right]^{1/3}.`$ (22)
Applying the 54 supernova data with host-galaxy extinction correction (Knop et al., 2003), we find that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.19_{0.05}^{+0.07}`$ and $`\chi ^2=45.71`$. The 20 radio galaxy and the 78 supernova data (Daly & Djorgovski, 2003) give the best fit $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.18\pm 0.03`$ and $`\chi ^2=87.6`$. The best fit from the 172 supernovae with redshift $`z>0.01`$ and $`A_v<0.5`$ mag is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.17_{0.03}^{+0.04}`$ and $`\chi ^2=175.2`$. If we use the 194 supernovae given by Tonry et al. (2003) and Barris et al. (2004), we find that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.22_{0.03}^{+0.04}`$ and $`\chi ^2=200.6`$. The above results are summarized in table 2.

Combining the above results, we get $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.20\pm 0.02`$ at 1$`\sigma `$ level or $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.20_{\mathrm{.0.06}}^{+0.07}`$ at 3$`\sigma `$ level. If we take $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.15`$, then we have $`q_0=0.61`$ and $`z_\mathrm{T}=1.13`$. If we take $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.21`$, then we have $`q_0=0.48`$ and $`z_\mathrm{T}=0.81`$. If we take $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=0.28`$, then we have $`q_0=0.34`$ and $`z_\mathrm{T}=0.55`$. These results are consistent with those obtained by Deffayet et al. (2002).

## 5 Discussions and Conclusions

A general function $`g(x)`$ of the ordinary matter density was used to explain the current accelerating expansion of the universe. In this model, no exotic matter form is needed. This approach is equivalent to dark energy model building approach in the sense of dynamical evolution of the universe because we can map the modified part of energy density to dark energy. The function $`g(x)`$ satisfies the following conditions: (1) $`g(x_0)=1`$; (2) $`g(x)x`$ when $`z1`$; (3) $`g(x_0)>3x_0g^{}(x_0)/2`$, where $`x=\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}(1+z)^3+\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{r0}}(1+z)^4`$. The generalized Chaplygin gas model tends to take $`A_s=1`$ which becomes the dark energy model with a cosmological constant. Therefore the generalized Chaplygin gas model is disfavored in the framework of alternative models although it is a viable dark energy model. Unlike the gravitational lensing constraint (Dev, Alcaniz & Jain, 2003), the supernova data do not provide tight constraint on the generalized Cardassian model. A fairly large range of parameters from the generalized Cardassian model are consistent with the supernova data. For the Cardassian model, the supernova data give $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0,0.62]`$ and $`n=[3.11,0.3]`$ at the 99% confidence level. If we have better constraint on the transition redshift $`z_\mathrm{T}`$, then we will be able to distinguish the Cardassian model from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ model because the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ model is the special case $`n=0`$. For the model 3, we find that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m0}}=[0.12,0.28]`$ with 99.7% confidence. Only the upper limit gives $`z_\mathrm{T}0.5`$.

## acknowledgments

The author Gong would like to thank Tonry for pointing out the program he used to compute $`\chi ^2`$ in his webpage, the author Gong is also grateful to the discussion with Frith. The work is supported by Chongqing University of Post and Telecommunication under grants A2003-54 and A2004-05.