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# From Concept to Reality to Vision 11footnote 1Speech in acceptance of European Physical Society prize for high energy physics, Aachen, August 2003.

## 1 From Running Coupling to Quantitative Unification to <br>Supersymmetry

Running of gauge theory couplings, and in particular the peculiar anti-screening behavior we call asymptotic freedom, was first established by straight unguided calculation . It was first applied to renormalization group equations for deep Euclidean Green’s functions and Wilson coefficients in operator product expansions, enabled through a rather cumbersome formalism to describe a very few physical processes . Before long antiscreening was understood in terms accessible to intuition . And by now of course we’ve learned to exploit the concept much more boldly and confidently, and with great success. Quark and gluon degrees of freedom are identified directly in the energy-momentum flow of jets, and their basic couplings are made manifest in the iconic three-jet processes seen at LEP. Comparing the frequency of such events, at different energies, exhibits the running in as clear and elementary a form as one could ask for.

The calculation of running, of course, extends immediately to electroweak interactions. (Indeed, my original interest in it largely arose from this angle.) It was put to brilliant use in the famous work of Georgi, Quinn, and Weinberg , who indicated through its use dreams about unification of interactions (Pati and Salam , Georgi and Glashow ) could be brought down to earth. One could check concretely whether the observed, unequal couplings might result from running a single coupling from ultra-short to accessible distances. A few years later Dimopoulos, Raby, and I realized  (to my great surprise, initially) that including the effects of low-energy supersymmetry, which is quite a drastic expansion of the physics, makes only comparatively small changes in the predictions that emerge from this sort of calculation. Precision experiments and improved calculations appear to endorse these dreams and ideas, in their supersymmetric version.

Unless this is a cruel tease on the part of Mother Nature, it means we can look forward to a lot of fun exploring supersymmetry, and maybe some aspects of unification, at the LHC. An especially poetic possibility is to explore the possibility that other sorts of parameters, besides gauge couplings, derive by running from a unified value . It is widely speculated that the masses of different sorts of gauginos, or of squarks and sleptons, might be related in this way.

## 2 From Dark Momentum to Gluonization to Higgs and Dark Matter

Feynman interpreted the famous SLAC experiments on deep inelastic scattering using an intuitive model of nucleons that postulated point-like particles (partons) as nucleon constituents and treated their dynamics in a crude impulse approximation, ignoring both interactions and quantum interference . Identifying the partons as quarks, and building the weak and electromagnetic currents by minimal coupling to quarks, led to many successful predictions . There was, however, one clear failure. The momentum carried by quarks inside a fast-moving proton does not add up to the total momentum of the proton, in fact it is less than half.

Today’s “dark matter” problem in astronomy is reminiscent of this old “dark momentum” problem. In the formal treatments of deep inelastic scattering, the analogy becomes eerily precise. In that framework, the (failed) sum rule expresses the equality of the full energy-momentum tensor with the energy-momentum tensor constructed from quarks . Where electroweak currents see just quarks, gravitons see more! We realized early on  that the color gluons of QCD, which are electroweak singlets but do carry energy-momentum, would enable us to keep the good predictions while losing the bad one. Evidently the gluons had to be major, though “dark” (or better: invisible), constituents of the proton.

Our analysis of deep inelastic scattering, which followed pioneering ideas of Wilson , and built on the insightful hard work of Christ, Hasslacher, and Mueller , went beyond the parton model in other, more profound ways. A fast-moving quark is revealed, to probes at higher resolution (higher $`Q^2`$), to be composed of slower-moving (smaller $`x`$) quarks, anti-quarks and gluons, which in turn will resolve into more, softer stuff. This process, seen experimentally as evolution of structure functions, is deeply characteristic of quantum field theory.

These evolution effects further enhance the role of glue in the proton. Several of us worked out that there should be a dramatic pile-up of soft stuff, particularly soft glue, at small $`x`$ . To a hard current (indirectly), or to a hard graviton (theoretically), the proton mostly looks like a blob of soft glue. Twenty years later, beautiful work at HERA confirmed these predictions in impressive detail .

Very soft or “wee” constituents of protons played a major role in Feynman’s ideas about diffractive scattering . His idea was that in diffractive scattering, by exchange of wee partons, the relative phases between different multiparton configurations in the proton wave function get disrupted, without much transfer of energy-momentum. These ideas are intuitively appealing, and have inspired some successful phenomenology, but as far as I know they haven’t yet been firmly rooted in QCD.

Much better understood – I hope! – is the importance of gluonization for some frontier topics in high-energy physics, namely Higgs particle production and WIMP searches. The primary, classical coupling of Higgs particles is to quarks, proportional to their mass. But because the $`u`$ and $`d`$ quarks we mainly find inside nucleons are so light, their direct coupling is heavily suppressed. Instead the most important coupling arises indirectly, as a quantum effect, through virtual top quark loops connecting to two gluons .

I was originally interested in this Higgs-gluon vertex for its potential to induce Higgs particle decays. Georgi, Glashow, Machacek, and Nanopoulos  quickly realized it could be exploited for production of Higgs particles, at hadron colliders, through “gluon fusion”. This process, which of course relies completely on the glue content of protons, is expected to be the main production mechanism for Higgs particles at the LHC. It is important to calculate the production rate accurately, including good estimates of the gluon distribution functions, so that we will be able to interpret the observed production rate, and check whether the basic vertex is in fact what the standard model, in this intricate way, predicts.

The on-shell Higgs particle couples to hard gluons. In its decay we will see jets, and we can estimate the production using gluon structure functions and perturbative QCD. When considering detection of the sorts of dark-matter candidates provided by models of low-energy supersymmetry we find ourselves involved in quite a different kinematic domain. Since these WIMPs will be heavy and slowly moving by particle physics standards, they will scatter at very small momentum transfer. The coupling of SUSY WIMPs to depends on poorly constrained details of the models, but in many realizations it is dominated by virtual Higgs exchange. Here the Higgs-gluon vertex comes in at essentially zero energy-momentum. Shifman, Vainshtein and Zakharov , in beautiful work, related the relevant gluon operator to the trace of the energy-momentum tensor, whose matrix elements are of course known. This links back to the old dark momentum problem, bringing us full circle.

It is philosophically profound, and quite characteristic of modern physics, that even when viewing something so basic and tangible as a proton, what you see depends very much on how you choose to look. Low-energy electrons see point-like particles, the version described in old high-school textbooks; hard currents see an evolving pattern of quarks; gravitons see these plus lots of gluons as well; wee gluons see some complicated stuff we don’t properly understand (we do know its name, Pomeron); real Higgs particles see gluons almost exclusively; and WIMPS, through exchange of virtual Higgs particles, see the Origin of Mass. (The trace of the energy momentum tensor, to which they mainly couple, is on the one hand dominated by contributions from massless color gluons and nearly massless quarks, and on the other hand equal to the nucleon mass.) Each probe reveals different aspects of versatile reality.

## 3 From Asymptotic Simplicity to Quark-Gluon Plasma to Quark-Hadron Continuity

I mentioned earlier how we’ve learned to use the concept of asymptotic freedom more boldly and confidently over the years. To put it differently, we’ve learned fruitful ways to lower our standards. Instead of trying to prove directly from first principles that weak coupling applies , we usually content ourselves with consistency checks. That is, we tentatively assume that perturbative calculation of some quantity of interest starting with quark and gluon degrees of freedom is adequate, and check whether the calculation contains infrared divergences . This check is by no means trivial, since QCD is full of massless (color) charged particles. So in cases where we find there are no infrared divergences we declare a well-earned victory, and anticipate that our calculations will approximate reality. This strategic retreat has licensed a host of successful applications to describe jet processes, inclusive production, fragmentation, heavy quark physics, and more.

We aren’t always forced to compromise. In some important applications, including low-energy spectroscopy, direct integration of the equations using the techniques of lattice gauge theory is practical. But as physicists hungry for answers, we properly regard strict mathematical rigor as a desirable luxury, not an indispensable necessity.

A particularly interesting and important application of the looser philosophy is to construct self-consistent descriptions of extreme states of matter, starting from quarks and gluons .

The high temperature, low baryon number regime is foundational for very early universe cosmology. It is also the object of an intense, international experimental program in relativistic heavy ion physics. The overarching theme is that a perturbative description of high-temperature matter, starting with free quarks and gluons, becomes increasingly accurate as the temperature increases. This can be seen, for the equation of state, from numerical simulation of the full theory . After heroic calculations, which introduce several ingenious new techniques, controlled perturbative calculations (including terms up to sixth order in the coupling, and some infinite resummations) match the numerical work . This is a milestone achievement in itself, and also promising for future developments, since the perturbative techniques are more flexible. They might be applied, for example, to calculate viscosity and energy loss, which can be probed experimentally. In this way, we can hope to do justice to the vision of quark-gluon plasma.

The regime of high baryon number density, and low temperature, is intrinsically fascinating, and might be important for describing the inner dynamics of supernovae and the deep interior of neutron stars. The first fundamental result about QCD at high baryon number density is that many of its key properties, including for example the symmetry of the ground state and the energy and charge of the elementary excitations, can not be calculated to a good approximation starting from fermi balls of non-interacting quarks. The perturbation theory (for just about anything) contains infrared divergences .

Fortunately, the main source of these divergences is well understood. It signals an instability toward the development of a condensate of quark pairs, similar to the Cooper pairs that occur in metallic superconductors. Whereas the phenomenon of superconductivity in metals is very delicate, because one must overcome the dominant Coulomb repulsion of like charges, color superconductivity is very robust, because there is a fundamentally attractive force between quarks (in the color and flavor antitriplet, spin singlet channel). One can construct an approximate ground state that accommodates the pairs, using the methods of BCS theory. Perturbation theory around this new ground state no longer has infrared divergences. Thus we find that strongly interacting matter at asymptotically high density can be studied using weak coupling, but non-perturbative methods.

Color superconductivity has become an extremely active area of research over the past few years, and many surprises have emerged. Perhaps the most striking and beautiful result is the occurrence of color-flavor locking, a new form of symmetry breaking, in real-world (3 flavor) QCD at asymptotic densities . The symmetry $`SU(3)_C\times SU(3)_L\times SU(3)_R`$ of local color times chiral flavor is broken down to the diagonal subgroup, a residual global $`SU(3)`$.

Color-flavor locking is a rigorous, calculable consequence of QCD at high density. It implies confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. The low-energy excitations are those created by the quark fields, those created by the gluon fields, and the collective modes associated with chiral symmetry breaking. Because CFL ordering mixes up color and flavor, the quarks form a spin-1/2 octet (plus heavier singlet), the gluons form a vector octet, and the collective modes form a pseudoscalar octet under the residual $`SU(3)`$. Altogether there is an uncanny resemblance between the properties of dense hadronic matter one calculates for the CFL phase, and the properties one might anticipate for “nuclear matter” in a world with three massless quarks. A nice perspective on this arises if we consider coupling in the U(1) of electromagnetism. Both the original color gauge symmetry and the original electromagnetic gauge symmetry are broken, but a combination survives. This is similar to what happens in the standard electroweak model, where both weak isospin and hypercharge are broken, but a certain combination survives (to provide electromagnetism). Just as in that case, also in CFL+QED the charge spectrum is modified. One finds that the quarks, gluons, and pseudoscalars acquire integral charges (in units of the electron charge); in fact, the charges precisely match those of the corresponding hadrons.

It is difficult to resist the conjecture that these two states are continuously related to one another, with no phase transition, as the density varies . During this variation, degrees of freedom that are “obviously” three-quark baryons evolve continuously into degrees of freedom that are “obviously” single quarks. This nifty trick is possible because diquarks can be exchanged freely with the condensate.

If the core of a neutron star is described by the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase, which seems plausible, it will be a transparent insulator that partially reflects light – like a diamond! This particular consequence of the CFL phase is unlikely to be observed any time soon, but we are working toward defining indirect signatures in observable neutron star and supernova properties.

Unfortunately, existing numerical methods for calculating the behavior of QCD converge very slowly at high density and low temperature. They are totally impractical, even for the biggest and best modern computers. Developing usable algorithms for this kind of problem is a most important open challenge.

There are other stories linking the past with the future through asymptotic freedom and QCD, including a particularly interesting and potentially important one involving axions. But I’ll stop here. Thanks again.


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# Untitled Document

It has come to our attention that Sections 2-4 in our paper overlap with previously published work of Pardon and Stern that appeared in J. Reine Angew. Math. 533, (2001), 55-80. We are withdrawing our paper until we can clarify the precise relationship between their paper and ours.


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# Fe XIII coronal line emission in cool M dwarfsBased on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile, 68.D-0166A.

## 1 Introduction

The solar corona can be studied at extremely high spatial and spectral resolution over almost the entire range of the electromagnetic spectrum. With typical coronal plasma temperatures of a few million degrees the bulk of the Sun’s coronal energy losses is emitted in the X-ray range, the energy losses at shorter and longer wavelengths being considerably smaller. Therefore observations of the solar corona in the optical are quite difficult because of the faintness of the corona compared to the photosphere in this wavelength range. This problem can be overcome at least for observations above the solar limb if the photospheric light is blocked, e.g. by the Moon during an eclipse or – artificially – by a coronograph. Optical observations of the solar corona carried out in that fashion were the first to reveal the true nature of the corona as a hot plasma with temperatures much higher than the underlying chromosphere or photosphere. However, the solar corona could only be observed off the limb in the optical, and only through satellite-based imaging observations of the corona at X-ray and EUV wavelengths the corona at large could be observed and studied.

The existence of coronae similar to that of the Sun around essentially all late-type main sequence stars with outer convection zones has been established by extensive X-ray studies (e. g. Schmitt (1997)). As is the case for the Sun, the bulk of the energy losses for stellar coronae also occurs in the X-ray range, and consequently this spectral band is the most natural one for the study of stellar coronae. However, coronal emission from stars can also be observed in the radio range (e. g. Berger (2002) or Güdel (2002)) and in the optical (Schmitt & Wichmann (2001)). Coronal observations at those latter wavebands are extremely difficult since the coronal emissions are much fainter, and especially in the optical, the weak coronal emission has to be detected above the usually much brighter optical photospheric emission. The most promising candidates to search for optical coronal emission are clearly late-type M dwarf stars, which can be as X-ray bright as or even X-ray brighter than the Sun, but whose photospheric emission is rather faint in particular at near UV wavelengths. The detection of coronal emission in the optical was recently accomplished for the active M-star CN Leo, where Schmitt & Wichmann (2001) were able to detect the Fe xiii forbidden coronal line at 3388.1 Å. This successful detection of coronal emission in one star raises the question to what extent such detections are possible for other cool stars as well or whether CN Leo is a unique and singular case.

In this paper we will discuss the problems of detecting the 3388.1 Å forbidden coronal line in a small sample of late-type stars and present an analysis of the temporal variability of this line in the ”proto-type” CN Leo. Our paper is structured as follows: In section 2 we describe the VLT data used for our analyses and the sample of investigated stars. In section 3 an overview over the spectral range under investigation is given, while in section 4 we deal with the rotational velocity of the analyzed stars. In section 5 the results of our search for the Fe xiii line for individual stars are presented and the timing behavior of the line for CN Leo is discussed in section 6. Section 7 deals with the X-ray to Fe xiii line ratio for CN Leo and LHS 2076. In section 8 we describe the results of our search for other forbidden coronal lines in CN Leo.

## 2 Observations and data analysis

The observations reported in this paper were obtained in visitor mode with ESO’s Kueyen telescope at Paranal equipped with the Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) from March, 13th to 16th in 2002, with the exception of UV Ceti, Prox Cen, LHS 292 and one of the CN Leo spectra, which were observed in service mode during the winter season 2000/2001. For the March 2002 run the instrument was operated in a dichroic mode, yielding 33 echelle orders in the blue arm (spectral coverage from 3030 to 3880 Å) and 39 orders in the red arm (spectral coverage from 4580 to 6680 Å). For the runs in the winter 2000/2001 a monochroic setup was used, providing us only with the blue part of the spectrum. In the dichroic setup the red part of the spectrum is recorded on two separate CCDs; therefore there is a spectral gap from $``$ 5640 to 5740 Å, resulting from a spatial gap between the two CCDs. As a consequence of the various instrumental constraints we cannot observe the lines from H3 up to H8 of the Balmer series, nor do we cover the Ca ii H and K lines. The typical resolution of our spectra is $`45000`$, typical exposures times were 20 minutes except for the brighter among our sample stars. Normally for each star three exposures were taken in sequence in order to facilitate the recognition of cosmics, again with the exception of the four spectra of CN Leo, UV Ceti, Prox Cen and LHS 292 taken during the winter season 2000/2001.

A list of the observed stars and the available spectra for each star is provided in Table 1, giving the observation dates and total exposure times. Moreover we provide some basic parameters of the sample stars, including the highest detected Balmer line in our data as an estimator of activity. Note that during the March 2002 run CN Leo was observed nightly to carry out an investigation of its chromospheric and coronal variability.

All data were reduced using IRAF, including flat-fielding, order definition and scattered light subtraction. The wavelength calibration was carried out using Thorium-Argon spectra with an accuracy of $`0.03`$ Å in the blue arm and $`0.05`$Å in the red arm. In addition there are photometric data from the UVES exposure meter taken for engineering purposes and therefore not flux calibrated. Still, these data were useful to assess whether the star was observed during quiescence or during a major flare.

The spectral line fits were carried out with the CORA fit program (Ness & Wichmann, 2002). This software tool was originally developed for analyzing high resolution X-ray spectra, but the fit algorithms employed by CORA are also well suited for the modeling of well-defined chromospheric and coronal emission lines. The program provides an accurate error analysis. All fits were carried out using Gaussian line profiles after shifting the wavelength to the stars’ rest frame.

## 3 Detection of the Fe xiii line

The prime target of our observing program was the spectral region around 3388 Å. The specific transition under consideration is $`3s^23p^2`$ $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{2}^{}^1D_2`$. Flower & Pineau des Forets (1973) give a detailed discussion of the atomic physics of Fe xiii and provide level population calculations for a range of temperatures and densities, considering direct excitation due to collisions with electrons and protons and indirect excitation of allowed transitions via collisions with electrons followed by radiative decay and find rather low dependence on temperature.

In order to give an overview of the nature and quality of our spectra, we show (in Fig. 1) the spectral range between 3370 Å - 3390 Å for most of our program stars. LHS 292 is not shown since its spectrum is very similar to DX Cnc, and LHS 428 and LHS 6158 are not shown since they are both double stars with very complicated spectra that could not be disentangled and were therefore excluded from the analysis. The spectra shown in Fig. 1 are sorted by decreasing spectral type. One notes a distinct sequence from “early” M dwarfs to “late” M dwarfs. In the “early” M dwarfs like Gl 229A and AD Leo one still recognizes a clear photospheric spectrum in the range 3370 Å - 3390 Å with some additional chromospheric emission lines, while in the later type M dwarfs like CN Leo and the (flaring) LHS 2034 an almost pure emission line spectrum appears; these latter spectra are obviously dominated by the stellar chromospheres rather than their photospheres.

The Fe xiii line at 3388.1 Å detected in CN Leo by Schmitt & Wichmann (2001) is – unfortunately – blended with a Ti ii chromospheric line at 3387.846 Å.This particular Ti ii line and other emission lines from the same multiplet are present in all recorded spectra besides the non-flare spectra of LHS 2034 and LHS 2076 and the spectrum of DX Cnc. In GL 229A Ti ii appears to be present in absorption.

The stars earlier than M4.5 have a rather high pseudo-continuum in the considered wavelength range which is clearly dominated by overlapping absorption lines. This continuum strongly decreases for the spectral types M3.5 - M4.5 stars by a factor of ten, accompanied by the vanishing of the strong absorption features in this regime. Consequently, a detection of the Fe xiii line should be much easier for spectral types later than M4.5. Therefore the most promising search for coronal line emission can be made for stars in the spectral range M4.5 - M6 since for later stars even the normally strong chromospheric Ti ii emission lines cannot be detected any more.

## 4 Determination of rotational velocities

A critical issue for the successful separation of the chromospheric Ti II emission line at 3387.846 Å and the coronal Fe XIII emission line at 3388.1 Å are the intrinsic line broadening profiles of these lines. The wavelength difference between those lines ($``$ 0.26 Å) corresponds to a velocity of $``$ 23 km/sec, easily within the reach of thermal and rotational velocities. Obviously, the thermal broadening profiles differ substantially because of the different origins of these lines, and rapid rotation is expected at least for the more active stars. Since we clearly need accurate values for $`\mathrm{v}\mathrm{sin}(i)`$ for disentangling the Ti II and Fe XIII emission lines, we decided to measure it for some of our program stars. In order to determine $`\mathrm{v}\mathrm{sin}(i)`$ we used 18 of the red arm orders that show no strong emission lines either from the star or from terrestrial airglow. As a template we decided to use CN Leo since CN Leo is known to rotate very slowly ($`\mathrm{v}\mathrm{sin}(i)<2.9\mathrm{kms}^1`$ (Delfosse et al., 1998)). The measured spectrum of CN Leo was spun up with rotational velocities from 3 up to 45 $`\mathrm{kms}^1`$. The best fit value for the rotation velocity $`\mathrm{v}\mathrm{sin}(i)`$ of the spun up template and the star under study was determined with a $`\chi ^2`$-test for every order used. The final rotational velocity was determined by averaging the values obtained in the different orders. We mostly used only the red part of the spectrum since in the blue part of the spectrum it is rather difficult to find larger regions unaffected by emission lines. We tried to avoid this problem of the blue spectra by using only very narrow spectral ranges ($`10`$Å) of every aperture, yet the issues of which lines are in emission, which show emission cores and which are purely in absorption are very different for each program star. Therefore the template has to be very similar to the test star and the used wavelength intervals have to be determined individually but even then the scatter for the wavelength intervals is bigger than in the red arm. Therefore we determined the rotational velocity for only three stars in the blue arm. For these stars we used Prox Cen as template since its spectrum is very similar to these stars. CN Leo could not be used as template because it is much more active than the measured stars. The rotational velocities determined in this fashion are listed in Table 2. In general, the values determined by us agree with previously determined ones found in the literature with the exception of GL Vir, where we find a substantially larger rotational velocity both in the red and blue arm than Delfosse et al. (1998). A careful visual inspection and comparison of the spectra of GL Vir with those obtained for FN Vir and AD Leo shows a very high similarity to the faster rotating spectrum. Moreover we used a template star very similar to GL Vir in spectral type while Delfosse et al. used a synthetic K0III spectrum. Therefore we do favor our (larger) rotational velocity.

For the double star UV Cet we measure a rotational velocity of 25.9 $`\pm `$ 8.6 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ which agrees with the value found by Mohanty & Basri (2003) for UV Cet B. Since UV Cet A has a similar rotation velocity (G. Basri, private communication) it cannot be decided from the rotational velocity which component of UV Cet dominates our spectrum.

## 5 Observations of individual stars

Since the spectral properties of our sample stars are very different we applied specific methods for the individual stars for a detection or non-detection of the Fe xiii line. These are discussed in detail below.

### 5.1 CN Leo

We report a clear detection of the Fe xiii line for CN Leo, which is also found to be variable on a timescale of hours, as will be discussed in section 6. Thus the Fe XIII line detection of Schmitt & Wichmann (2001) is fully confirmed.

### 5.2 LHS 2076

A clear detection of the Fe xiii 3388.1 Å emission line has been obtained during a flare on LHS 2076. LHS 2076 is a double star known for its flare activity and separated by $`3^{\prime \prime }.4`$ with both components being late-type (Pettersen, 1985). Our spectrum refers to one system component with some minor contribution from the second star. During the last of the four exposures on March, 15th a double-peaked flare can be recognized in the photometer light curve as shown in Fig. 2.

Outside the flare interval no significant Ti ii emission is detectable in the spectra. The emission line properties of the flare spectrum are listed in Table 3. The emission feature at 3387 Å is quite broad and was fitted with a double line component with amplitude, central wavelength and FWHM for both components as free parameters. The other Ti ii lines were fitted as single lines with all three parameters ($`\lambda _{\mathrm{cen}},\mathrm{A}\mathrm{and}\sigma `$) free. Inspecting the properties of these three Ti ii lines (cf., Table 3) one finds that the fitted half widths of all three lines agree very well with each other as expected for lines from the same multiplet. The half width of the narrow component of the 3387 Å line also agrees well with the half widths of the three Ti ii lines while the half width of the broad component is more than three times larger. We therefore conclude that the narrow component of the broad emission feature at 3387 Å must be the fourth Ti ii line in the multiplet, while the broad component has to be identified with the Fe xiii line. Further evidence for this interpretation can be found from the lines’ amplitudes. Atomic data available through the NIST atomic spectra database 111available via
http://physics.nist.gov/cgi$``$bin/AtData/main\_asd for these lines predict equal relative intensities for the two lines at 3372.80 and 3383.77 Å and equal relative intensities for the two lines at 3380.28 and 3387.84 Å lowered by a factor of four compared to the former two lines. According to Table 3 the amplitudes of the 3372.80 and 3383.77 Å line agree to within the errors and the two other lines are weaker. Therefore the broad component cannot be attributed to Ti ii since its amplitude is more than twice as large as that of the 3372.80 or 3383.77 Å lines. On the other hand, both amplitudes and half widths fit perfectly if the broad emission component is identified the Fe xiii line; also, the fitted half widths agree very well with the half width determined for the Fe xiii line in the CN Leo time series (see section 6). The central wavelength of the absolute line position is a bit on the blue side but well within the 2-$`\sigma `$ error, while the absolute positions of the three single fit Ti ii lines seem to be slightly redshifted (but only to within 1-$`\sigma `$ error each). The 3387.84 Å Ti ii line unfortunately has a large error in its central wavelength. Given this situation, we cannot draw any meaningful conclusions about possible wavelength shifts and remark that during a flare line shifts frequently occur due to mass motions.

### 5.3 GL Vir

The continuum for GL Vir is low as for CN Leo, but unlike CN Leo the Ti ii at 3380 Å line is barely detectable. Nevertheless there is a broad emission line at 3387.81$`\pm `$0.14 Å with a half width of 0.15 Å and an amplitude of 141.7$`\pm `$28.9 counts. If this emission is attributed to the Ti ii line, the measured amplitude would contradict the atomic data, which predicts the same intensity as for the 3380 Å line (which is not seen at all, cf, Fig. 1). If, on the other hand, this feature is identified with the Fe xiii line, it is clearly blue shifted. Since the star is in a quiescent state (as can be seen from the light curve, which is not shown here) it is unlikely that a blue shift is caused by mass motions. However, the blue shift could alternatively be caused by absorption at the red wing of the Fe xiii line due to a Co I line at 3388.17 Å which is also seen in other spectra (see Fig. 1). More evidence for an interpretation involving the Fe xiii line can be gained from the amplitude of the 3383.71 Å line of 65 $`\pm `$ 15 counts. The 3387 Å Ti II line should have a smaller amplitude according to the atomic data and the measured spectra of CN Leo. On the other hand, the half widths of the 3383.71 Å line (0.13$`\pm 0.02`$ Å) and of the 3387.81 Å line (0.15 $`\pm 0.01`$) are consistent with each other. The Ti II line at 3372.73 Å is unfortunately too deformed to allow any conclusions on its half width or amplitude. Therefore the question arises whether the half widths of the two lines at 3383.71 Å and 3387.81 Å can be caused by rotation. The rotation velocity $`\mathrm{v}\mathrm{sin}(i)`$ for GL Vir was measured by Delfosse et al. (1998) as 9.2 $`\pm `$ 1.9 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, while we determined 15.3 $`\pm `$ 0.8 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (see section 4). Thus, if our rotational velocity is correct, the half widths $`\sigma `$ can be explained by rotational broadening, however, if $`\mathrm{v}\mathrm{sin}(i)=`$9.2 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, the measured half width is a somewhat too large to be explained by the rotation. So the data of GL Vir are not unambiguous.

### 5.4 LHS 2034

The flare star LHS 2034 was observed during a longer flare on March, 14th, lasting over half an hour as can be seen from the light curve of the photometer (not shown here). While only the very strongest chromospheric emission lines can be seen in quiescence, a multitude of emission lines becomes visible in the spectrum taken during flare maximum. Indeed, the flare spectrum of LHS 2034 is very similar to the spectrum of CN Leo with a rather flat continuum without strong absorption lines and dominated by strong chromospheric emission lines. Surprisingly, however, we did not find any evidence for Fe xiii emission in this spectrum. The same analysis procedure as applied for LHS 2076 was used for the flare spectrum of LHS 2034. All four Ti II lines are found to have about the same FWHM as expected but also the same amplitude contrary to expectation from atomic data and what was found for CN Leo and LHS 2076. This fact remains unexplained. In particular, we cannot attribute – as in LHS 2076 – the excess emission to Fe XIII, since this would contradict the measured FWHM. Obviously, efficient chromospheric heating of LHS 2034 does occur during the flare, but the corona is either not hot enough or too hot for producing a detectable Fe xiii line flux.

### 5.5 DX Cnc and LHS 292

These two stars and LHS 2034 are the latest-type stars in the sample and have a very low signal to noise ratio (which applies for the quiescent spectrum for LHS 2034 as well) which can cause the non detection of Fe xiii. In order to answer this question we took the spectrum of CN Leo as a template and reduced it to the lower signal to noise ratio found in our DX Cnc and the quiescent LHS 2034 spectra. The results of this exercise for DX Cnc are shown in Fig. 3. Clearly the Ti ii and Fe xiii lines can be recognized in this example. Carrying out a larger number of such simulations we found that the Fe xiii need not always be recognisable, but the Ti ii line should always be found in lower SNR spectra. Thus the level of activity in these stars must be lower making the persistent presence of the Fe xiii line unlikely.

### 5.6 UV Cet

UV Cet is a binary flare star well known from the radio to X-ray band (Stepanov et al., 1995) and has been resolved in the X-ray for the first time only recently (Audard et al., 2003). Our UVES spectrum was taken with both components in the slit, but we were unable to resolve the spectra of the two stars (due to the seeing). Therefore the spectrum should be dominated by the brighter A-component. The emission lines seen in the spectrum of UV Cet seem to have superimposed a second component of narrow emission lines which are slightly redshifted. We tentatively interpret this second set of emission lines as an active chromospheric region occupying only a part of the stars surface, since it is too narrow to be ascribed to the second component of the binary system.

Searching for the Fe xiii line we compared the broad component of the spectrum of UV Cet with an artificially broadened spectrum of CN Leo (see Fig. 4). The Fe xiii line disappears in the broadened spectrum since it becomes totally blended with the Ti ii line at 3387.84 Å. Therefore a detection of the Fe xiii line in the UV Cet spectrum can only be obtained through indirect reasoning as follows: First, the broadened spectrum of CN Leo fits very well to the UV Cet spectrum in this wavelength region, although - admittedly - in other spectral regions there is less similarity. Second, we know from CN Leo and atomic data that the flux in the Ti ii line at 3387.84 Å should be less than that contained in the 3372.80 Å line, but for UV Cet we find just the opposite. In order to determine line fluxes, we fitted each spectral line simultaneously with a narrow and a broad component (see Table 4). If the broad component comes from the whole surface of the star and the narrow component from an active region, the combined amplitudes must be considered and the combined amplitude of the 3387.84 Å line is higher than the amplitude of the 3372.80 Å line thus providing evidence of additional emission in the lines. The same applies for a comparison with the Ti ii line at 3380.28 Å for which one expects equal flux ratios. If one plots the line ratios for the time series of CN Leo and other stars, one finds, that the UV Cet lines are the only one with a ratio that needs additional flux in the 3387.84 Å line (see Fig. 5). Given the high degree of activity on UV Cet it is suggestive to attribute this additional emission to the Fe xiii line, but given the complicated situation with the narrow and broad set of emission lines we consider the detection of Fe XIII in UV Cet as tentative.

### 5.7 AD Leo, AT Mic, YZ CMi, and FN Vir

For the other stars in our sample with spectral type M4.5 - M6 the situation is not as clear due to the presence of two absorption lines at 3387.45 (Ni I) and 3388.17 (Co I) Å in the spectrum. This situation applies for the three stars AT Mic, YZ CMi and AD Leo: The Ti ii lines at 3372, 3380 and 3383 Å have a width of about 0.05 Å whereas the line at 3387 Å shows a width of 0.1 Å. This can be due to the Fe xiii line blended by the absorption feature at 3388.17 Å, alternatively, leftover continuum may also be an explanation for the broader Ti ii line since the spectra of the three stars do show many absorption lines. In order to test this hypothesis we used the spectrum of the earliest M dwarf GJ 229 as a template for the photospheric part of the spectrum applying the spun up and scaled spectrum as a “background” for the emission line fit with CORA. For the three stars AT Mic, YZ CMi and AD Leo this method yields a best fit with a narrow Ti ii line of about 0.05 Å half width $`\sigma `$, consistent with the half width found for the other Ti ii lines in these stars. The fitted spectra are displayed in Fig. 6. Therefore the apparent width of the 3387 Å line seems to be due to photospheric continuum and there is no need to invoke Fe xiii emission in these three stars.

For the case of FN Vir this method cannot be used, because the template GJ 229 deviates significantly from the photospheric absorption lines seen in FN Vir. However, since the Ti ii line at 3372 Å is found to have the same half width $`\sigma `$ (0.11 $`\pm `$ 0.01 Å) as the 3387 Å line (0.12 $`\pm `$ 0.01 Å), there is again no need to invoke any Fe xiii emission for this star, either.

### 5.8 Proxima Centauri

For Proxima Centauri the Ti ii lines are clearly seen in emission, but again the template GJ 229 deviates significantly if overlaid to the spectrum. In addition to this, the continuum is ill defined and therefore a fit of the line very difficult although especially the Ti ii line at 3387 Å is clearly seen. Although the bump on the red side of the Ti ii line at 3387.84 Å is somewhat suggestive of a Fe xiii emission line blended with the absorption line of Co I, this could also be due to leftover continuum. Since we were not able to obtain meaningful fits, the situation for Proxima Centauri must remain open and we must refrain from drawing any conclusions.

## 6 Timing behavior of the Fe xiii line in CN Leo

Every night during the observation run in March 2002 (with the exception of March, 14) two series of spectra were taken of CN Leo, each consisting of 3 spectra with 20 minutes exposure. On March, 14th only one spectral series of one hour duration was taken, one single spectrum taken about 2 hours later was combined with the others to only one time series. We averaged the spectra of each series to improve the signal to noise ratio and constructed a total of 7 spectra of CN Leo. During the second spectral series on March, 16th CN Leo a major flare occurred as can be seen in the photometer light curve in Fig. 7; on March, 14th CN Leo was very quiet, showing very little of the flickering seen in the light curves on the other days.

We used the CORA line fitting program to measure the Ti ii lines and the Fe xiii line fluxes as described in section 5.2; a listing of our fit results can be found in Table 5. The Fe xiii line was detected in all spectra. However, for the spectrum taken on March, 16th during the flare the fit results are ambiguous. One can obtain a good fit with two narrow lines or a narrow and a broad line, where the broad line has nearly the same central wavelength like the narrow line (i. e. the Fe xiii line is blueshifted). We assume that the fit with the lineshift of the Fe xiii line is the correct one, since there is definitely a second line and a physical interpretation with two narrow lines one of which is ascribed to Fe xiii with a halfwidth $`\sigma `$ of only 0.1 Å is not meaningful due to temperature broadening. Therefore a fit with two narrow lines implies that there is no Fe xiii present. This can be possible, when the Fe xiii is ionized to higher ionisation stages during the flare. This is quite unlikely though, since we find no Fe xiv emission at 5303 Å in CN Leo (see section 8) even during the flare. Moreover the second emission line has to be explained otherwise. We favour therefore an interpretation with a narrow Ti ii line and a broad blue shifted Fe xiii line. Line shifts are known to occur during flares, when the emitting material is raised in the atmosphere. The velocity towards the observer in the line of sight is about 20 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in this case. A blueshifted Fe xiii line during the flare lines in with the blueshift of the Fe xiii line we observed in LHS 2076 during the flare.

Although the photometer data for the spectra outside the major flare are rather constant, the corona must have undergone some variability as can be seen from Fig. 8, where the averaged spectra of each time series are shown. The Fe xiii line is most clearly seen in the spectrum of the first series taken on March, 15th, where the continuum is relatively high and the Ti ii line is very intense, although in the photometer data no notable flux variability is seen besides the usual flickering. In the other spectra the line does not show that clearly, in fact the line would be undetectable if it were only a bit weaker or if one chose a higher background level. Thus even for CN Leo the Fe xiii line need not to be a persistent feature, and the high variability during quiescence is suggestive of the microflaring as proposed for the heating of stellar coronae (Kashyap et al., 2002). Also the chromospheric Ti ii line shows major variability even on a timescale of hours. For example, on March 13th the amplitude of the Ti ii lines increased by a factor of more than two over a time span of only two hours. Therefore also the chromosphere must have undergone rapid and large changes.

## 7 X-ray and Fe xiii line fluxes

Using the standard star HD 49798 for flux calibration, we measured absolute fluxes in the Fe xiii 3388.1 line for the stars CN Leo, GL Vir and for LHS 2076 (during the flare). Since the standard star was observed only once per night, we estimate an error in this absolute flux calibration up to a factor of two. Broad band X-ray fluxes for these stars were obtained from broad band count rates and should have (systematic) errors of about 50 %, resulting from the adopted count rate to energy flux conversion. Also note that for none of our stars do we have simultaneous optical and X-ray observations. The measured average fluxes for the one hour duration spectra of CN Leo range from $`3.210^{15}`$ cm-2 s-1 in the first spectrum taken on 2002-03-13 to $`1.410^{14}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the first spectrum on 2002-03-15. For the Fe xiii line flux of GL Vir we computed $`3.910^{15}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$, and for the flare spectrum of LHS 2076 the measured flux is $`9.810^{15}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. Using distances of 2.4 pc for CN Leo 6.5 pc for GL Vir and 5.2 pc for LHS 2076 (Oppenheimer et al., 2001) these fluxes result in line luminosities of $`2.010^{24}`$ up to $`9.610^{24}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for CN Leo, $`1.910^{25}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for GL Vir and $`3.210^{25}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for LHS 2076. Comparing these numbers with the non-simultaneously measured X-ray luminosities one then finds a ratio of broad band X-ray to line luminosity in the range 3012 to 628 for CN Leo, 235 for GL Vir and of 124 for LHS 2076.

If one takes CN Leo as a prototype showing Fe xiii emission the ratios of GL Vir and LHS 2076 are too low. However, for LHS 2076 the Fe xiii was measured during a flare, while the X-ray luminosity was measured during quiescence and is therefore presumably too low leading to an incorrect (lower) ratio. In the case of GL Vir the line was measured during quiescence and the low ratio adds therefore to the interpretation, that the line is actually the Ti ii line broadened by the higher rotation rate we found for GL Vir.

## 8 Search for other forbidden coronal lines in CN Leo

After the detection of the Fe xiii line in CN Leo the question arises if there is evidence for other forbidden coronal lines. A catalog of such lines can be found e. g. in Allen (1973). Out of this we investigated the following two lines more closely: Ca xii at 3327 Å and Fe xiv at 5303 Å.

Using the CHIANTI software package (Young et al., 2003) we computed emissivity ratios for the lines mentioned above to the Fe xiii line, which are proportional to the flux ratios of the lines. All computations were done assuming solar photospheric abundances since we do not know anything specific about the coronal abundances of very low mass stars. The ionisation balance was computed using the ionisation ratios found by Mazzotta et al. (1998). The computed flux ratios proved to be quite sensitive on the ionisation balance whose choice can influence the computed flux ratios by more than a factor of two while the chosen abundances have less influence.

### 8.1 Analysis of the Ca xii line

A plot of the region around the Ca xii line is shown in Fig. 9. Besides the two Ti ii lines the other faint emission features are unidentified, but none of them is likely to be caused by Ca xii because the line width is too narrow for a line formed at temperatures of about log T$`6`$ for which one would expect a halfwidth of 0.2 Å. While a line consisting of 50 counts and a halfwidth of 0.2 Å can easily be hidden in the spectrum a line with 100 counts should be possible to detect. This leads to restrictions for the possible temperatures and densities. Since we measured 200 counts in the Fe xiii line at 3388 Å for CN Leo averaging all our spectra, the highest possible ratio between the two lines that is in agreement with a non-detection is about 0.5, which excludes temperatures higher than log T=6.4 and lower than log T=6.0. A more detailed discussion is given in the next subsection together with the restrictions drawn from Fe xiv.

### 8.2 Analysis of the Fe xiv line

We carefully searched for the Fe xiv line at 5303 Å. Since the line could be hidden in the molecular lines dominating this wavelength region we compared the CN Leo spectra to each other and to the LHS 2034 averaged spectrum, assuming that this star does not display the Fe xiv line. But no significant difference could be found. Therefore we conclude, that no Fe xiv emission can be seen in CN Leo.

Out of the absence of the Fe xiv and the Ca xii emission lines the possible temperatures and densities can be estimated. To be in agreement with a non-detection for the Ca xii line the flux ratio must be lower than about 0.5 and for the Fe xiii lower than about 5.5. In Fig.10 a contour plot of the ratio between the Ca xii and the Fe xiii and the Fe xiv and the Fe xiii line is given. From this plot one can exclude temperature lower than log T=6.0 and higher than log T=6.2 for low densities, log T=6.3 for higher densities and log T=6.4 for very high densities. Therefore the line formation of the Fe xiii line takes place around the peak formation temperature of log T=6.2 – what would be expected from the beginning. For the densities the plot is not very restrictive. Even densities as high as $`N_e=10^{12}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ can be possible if the temperature is close enough to the peak formation temperature.

## 9 Discussion and conclusions

Our study reveals high and rapid variability of the Fe xiii line on the two stars CN Leo and LHS 2076. While the former seems to have coronal temperatures high enough even in its quiescent state to show the Fe xiii line, the latter does not. Major flares were observed on both stars with opposite behavior: In LHS 2076 we observed the Fe xiii line during the flare, while in the flare spectrum of CN Leo the line becomes undetectable. This can be most easily explained as a temperature effect: In its quiescent state the corona of LHS 2076 is too cool to produce a sufficiently strong Fe xiii line, but is heated to sufficient temperatures during the flare. On the other hand, the corona of CN Leo is hot enough for production the Fe xiii line during quiescence, and is heated to even higher temperatures during flares, causing a shift of the ionization of Fe xiii to higher ionization stages, and therefore Fe xiii becomes undetectable.

In addition to these two absolutely secure detections GL Vir and UV Cet may exhibit the Fe xiii line, too. For Prox Cen the situation is unclear. In the stars AD Leo, AT Mic, YZ CMi and FN Vir no Fe xiii line could be found. In the stars DX Cnc, LHS 292 and the quiescent LHS 2076 no Fe xiii line could be found as well. That may be due to the low signal to noise ratio but simulation strongly suggest that these stars are not active enough to show the Fe xiii line. Rather surprisingly no Fe xiii line could be found in the flaring LHS 2034, either. So there are at most four detections of Fe xiii in a sample of 16 or 13 stars, respectively if one does not count the two double stars LHS 428 and LHS 6158 and the template GJ 229A. This might seem not very much at first glance since all are very active stars. However, one of the the goals of the project was to observe a wide range of spectral types to determine for which stars a detection of Fe xiii is feasible at all. And if the case of LHS 2076 applies to the other stars as well and the corona is only hot enough to show the Fe xiii line during major flares we would only expect one more detection, since LHS 2034 showed a flare, too. But in contrast to the two flares on CN Leo and LHS 2076 this was a long duration flare, whose decays lasted longer than half an hour and we would expect different behavior of the spectral lines in the course of such a different type of flare.

Moreover the Fe xiii line may have been detected for some of the stars with a better signal to noise ratio. This can be estimated for AD Leo where from EUVE observations a flux at Earth of $`2.6910^4\mathrm{photons}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ has been measured for the 203.83 Å line of Fe xiii (Sanz-Forcada & Micela, 2002). Using atomic data from the CHIANTI database (Young et al., 2003), we compute a flux ratio of the two lines of $`\frac{F_{3388}}{F_{203}}=0.02\mathrm{}0.05`$ assuming coronal densities in the range of $`10^8`$ up to $`10^{10}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and temperatures in the range of 1 up to 2 $`10^6`$ K. This translates into a line flux of $`5.210^{16}\mathrm{}1.310^{15}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the Fe xiii line at 3388 Å, which in turn would correspond to an amplitude of at most 26 counts in this line (for a 0.3 hr integration, which is the typical exposure time for all of our spectra); clearly, such flux levels can easily be hidden in the spectrum. If the Fe xiii line at 203.83 Å is blended with other iron lines the expected amplitude would be even less. Therefore data with much better signal to noise are required to settle this question.

CN Leo is unique in the sample when it comes to clear exhibition of the Fe xiii line in quiescent state, which we ascribe to a high level of microflaring, since the coronal line is quite variable. This variability of the corona while the photospheric flux measured with the photometer is quite constant calls for a parallel observation in X-rays with Chandra or XMM-Newton, since the coronal variability should lead to X-ray variability. This high level of variability in the basic coronal emission is surprising, but it finds it counterpart in the high level of chromospheric emission in the hydrogen emission lines of the Balmer series which are clearly seen up to $`\mathrm{H}_{24}`$. This is in contrast to the Sun where even in flares the Balmer lines are only excited up to $`\mathrm{H}_{16}`$ (Švestka, 1972).

Though the variability of Fe lines for the Sun was studied extensively in X-ray wavelengths by the satellites SOHO and TRACE the variability of the emission in Fe xiii lines was not studied to our knowledge, yet. However for the forbidden optical green Fe xiv line at 5303 Å there are measurements by the SOHO instrument LASCO (Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph) (Wood et al., 1998). Observing quiescent coronal limb structures Wood et al. found statistically significant quasi-steady brightening on timescales of at least an hour. This is about the same timescale on which we observed the fading of the Fe xiii line in CN Leo on March, 15th from a very pronounced to a barely detectable line profile, which took less than three hours.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Dr. Jan-Uwe Ness supplying to us his CORA line fitting program and providing technical support.


text:
# Strangeness Production in 𝑝𝑝 and 𝑝𝑛 Reactions at COSY

## 1 Experimental facilities at COSY

COSY-Jülich  provides electron or stochastically cooled, polarized proton and deuteron beams with momenta up to $`p=3.65`$ GeV/c, corresponding to beam energies of $`T_p=2.83`$ and $`T_d=2.23`$ GeV, respectively. Various experimental facilities at internal or external target positions can be used for the study of $`K`$-meson production in hadronic interactions.

In measurements with thin and windowless internal targets, secondary processes of the produced mesons can be neglected and, simultaneously, sufficiently high luminosities are obtained. For the $`pp`$ and $`pn`$ measurements at the ANKE and COSY-11 facilities a cluster-jet target  providing areal densities of up to $`5\times 10^{14}`$ cm-2 has been used (with H2 or D2 as target material). With proton beam intensities of a few $`10^{10}`$ luminosities of $`10^{31}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ have been achieved.

The ANKE spectrometer  comprises three dipole magnets D1–D3 which separate forward-emitted charged reaction products from the circulating COSY beam and allow one to determine their emission angles and momenta. With a gap height of $`20`$ cm, the spectrometer dipole D2 provides a large angular acceptance of up to $`\pm 7^{}`$ vertically and $`\pm 12^{}`$ horizontally, which is particularly advantageous for correlation measurements with threshold kinematics. The layout of ANKE, including detectors and the DAQ system, has been optimized and used to study $`K^+`$-spectra from $`pA`$ collisions at beam energies down to $`T_p=1.0`$ GeV ($`p=1.70`$ GeV/c) , thus far below the free nucleon-nucleon threshold at $`T_{NN}=1.58`$ GeV. This is a very challenging task because of the small $`K^+`$-production cross sections, e.g. 39 nb for $`p`$C collisions at 1.0 GeV. In subsequent experiments ANKE has been used to measure $`K^+`$-mesons in coincidence with protons and deuterons from $`pnpK^+X`$ (Sect. 4), $`ppdK^+\overline{K}^0`$ (Sect. 5.1), and $`p^{12}\mathrm{C}p/dK^+X`$  reactions.

The COSY-11 experiment  has been designed to study meson production processes very close to the corresponding production thresholds. Positively charged ejectiles leaving the interaction region at forward angles are separated from the circulating COSY beam and are momentum analyzed in one of the C-shaped ring dipole magnets downstream of the target region. The 4-momenta of protons and $`K^+`$-mesons are measured, leaving the non-identified hyperon ($`pppK^+Y`$ reactions ) or the $`K^{}`$-meson ($`ppppK^+K^{}`$ ) to be identified by a missing mass analysis. In case of the $`ppK^+K^{}`$ final state (see Sect. 5.1) an additional silicon pad detector, mounted inside of the dipole magnet, has been utilized to measure the hit position of the $`K^{}`$ candidates and to further reduce the background from other reaction channels.

At the external target positions of COSY a liquid hydrogen (LH2) or deuterium (LD2) target is being used with a size of typically a few mm3. The diameter of the electron cooled and stochastically extracted beam can be less than 2 mm with a very small beam halo, while the momentum spread $`\mathrm{\Delta }p/p`$ is less than $`10^4`$. The small interaction region permits to install vertex counters very close to the interaction point for precise track reconstruction of charged ejectiles.

The external experiment COSY-TOF  is a wide angle, non magnetic spectrometer with various start and stop detector components for time-of-flight measurements, combining high efficiency and acceptance with a moderate energy and momentum resolution. The system allows one to completely reconstruct the 4-vectors of all final particles from $`ppKYN`$ events including the determination of the delayed decay vertices of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$\- and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$\- hyperons as well of the $`K_S^0`$. Associated strangeness production has been measured in the reactions $`pppK^+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`pK^+\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$, $`pK^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$, and $`nK^+\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$ at beam momenta between 2.5 and 3.3 GeV/c (Sect. 2). First tests on the corresponding reactions in $`pn`$ interactions have been performed with the LD2 target.

The MOMO experiment  focuses on near threshold meson-pair production via the reactions $`pd^3\mathrm{He}\pi ^+\pi ^{}/K^+K^{}`$ (Sect. 5.1). The setup comprises a scintillating-fiber meson detector near the external LD2 target with a opening angle $`\pm 45^{}`$, and the high resolution magnetic spectrometer BIG KARL which is used for 3He identification.

For future double polarization experiments a frozen spin NH3 target (TOF)  and a polarized internal H2/D2 gas target utilizing a storage cell (ANKE)  are presently being developed.

## 2 Associated strangeness production at COSY-11 and COSY-TOF

Investigation of associated strangeness production close to threshold may provide insight into the dynamics of the production processes, e.g. the role of $`N^{}`$-resonances or the effect of hyperon-nucleon final-state interaction (FSI). Total $`pppKY`$ cross sections from COSY-11  and COSY-TOF  at excitation energies $`Q<150`$ MeV have been described within various approaches, e.g. the $`K`$-$`\pi `$ exchange models of Laget  and Sibirtsev  as well as resonance-model calculations of Dillig , Tsushima  and Shyam . In order to discriminate between these models precise data, covering full phase space, are needed for different isospin channels. Spin observables should also be measured, in particular the polarization of the hyperon, which can be extracted via its self-analyzing weak decay.

### 2.1 Production mechanisms in $`𝒑𝒑`$ collisions

Dalitz plot analyses of data from COSY-TOF are a powerful tool to investigate strangeness-production mechanisms. This is demonstrated in Fig. 1 where the data  are compared with calculations performed with a model of Sibirtsev , in which contributions from non-resonant meson exchanges are included coherently with those from the $`N^{}`$(1650, 1710, 1720)-resonances and the $`p\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-FSI. The strength of each effect can be adjusted separately to find the best agreement between data and model.

Whereas at 2.85 GeV/c only the $`N^{}`$(1650) is relevant (not shown here), a significant contribution from the $`N^{}`$(1710) is needed at 2.95 GeV/c. At 3.20 GeV/c the amplitudes of both resonances are equal within the precision of the analysis, and at 3.30 GeV/c the $`N^{}`$(1710) becomes dominant. Since the excitation of $`N^{}`$-resonances can only follow an exchange of a non-strange meson, it can be concluded that there is no dominant kaon exchange contributing to the reaction. Note that even at 3.30 GeV/c the $`p\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-FSI has a significant influence on particular regions of the measured Dalitz plots.

As a next step hyperon production in $`pn`$-reactions will be studied at COSY-TOF. First test measurements showed that events of the type $`pn(p)K^0\mathrm{\Lambda }p(p)`$ can be identified (first results from ANKE on the reaction $`pnK^+X`$ are presented in Sect. 4). Moreover, the use of a polarized beam will allow one to extract polarization observables. In this context a special motivation comes from the DISTO experiment where in the reaction $`\stackrel{}{p}pK^+\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}p`$ the polarization transfer coefficient $`D_{YY}`$ has been measured to be strongly negative , pointing at a $`K`$-exchange dominance . COSY-TOF allows one to study this quantity closer to threshold with full phase-space coverage.

### 2.2 $`𝚲`$N final-state interaction

Although of very high interest, at present little is known about the strength of the hyperon-nucleon interaction (parameterized by the scattering length) at small energies not to speak of its spin dependence. The problem is due to the fact that it is practically impossible to perform low energy scattering experiments with unstable particles. Thus, in order to determine the scattering length of this reaction one has to rely on extrapolations from the data to threshold. A detailed analysis of the world data set for elastic $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p`$ scattering gave $`a_s=1.8_{4.2}^{+2.3}\text{fm and }a_t=1.6_{0.8}^{+1.1}\text{fm}`$ for the spin-singlet and spin-triplet scattering lengths, respectively, where the errors are strongly correlated .

An alternative are production experiments with a hyperon-nucleon pair in the final state. Then, the scattering parameters are to be determined from the impact of their FSI on the invariant mass spectra. In Ref.  a method has been proposed that allows one to extract the scattering lengths from the production data directly. In particular, an integral representation for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ scattering lengths in terms of a differential cross section of reactions with large momentum transfer such as $`ppK^+p\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ or $`\gamma dK^+n\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has been derived. This formula should enable the determination of the scattering lengths to a theoretical uncertainty of about 0.3 fm.

Up to date, all experiments for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }N`$ production in $`pp`$ collisions were performed unpolarized and thus contain contributions from both spin triplet as well as spin singlet final states with an unknown ratio. However, polarization measurements will allow one to disentangle the different spin states, as is discussed in detail in Ref. . The corresponding experiments can be performed at COSY.

## 3 A note on the $`𝚯^\mathbf{+}`$ pentaquark state

The recent discovery of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ baryon with strangeness $`S=+1`$, mass $`m_{\mathrm{\Theta }^+}1.54`$ GeV/c2 and width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<25`$ MeV/c2 in various experiments (see e.g. Ref.  and references therein) has triggered an intensive investigation of exotic resonances (i.e. non 3$`q`$ states). After the existence of $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ seems to be confirmed experimentally its quantum numbers, like spin or parity, have to be determined.

At COSY the ANKE and COSY-TOF facilities can be used for measurements of $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$-production in hadronic interactions. Since both cannot detect photons the relevant reaction channels are:

$$pp\mathrm{\Sigma }^+\mathrm{\Theta }^+\mathrm{\Sigma }^+\left[pK^0\right]\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{p\pi ^0}{n\pi ^+}\right)\left[p(\pi ^+\pi ^{})\right].$$
(1)
This implies $`K^0`$ identification by the $`(\pi ^+\pi ^{})`$ invariant mass and the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$ by the $`[p(\pi ^+\pi ^{})]`$ missing mass and asking for an additional proton ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\pi ^0`$) or an additional positive pion ($`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+n\pi ^+`$). For the candidate events $`\{\mathrm{\Sigma }^+,K^0\}`$ the invariant mass of the $`[pK^0]`$ subsystem has to be reconstructed.

At COSY-TOF an about 5$`\sigma `$ signal in the $`K^0p`$ invariant mass distribution has, in fact, been observed at a beam momentum of 2.95 GeV/c. The very preliminary cross section estimate is of the order of a few hundred nb. The width of the peak is about 25 MeV/c2, corresponding to the experimental resolution . At ANKE a proposal  has been accepted to measure the reactions $`ppK^0p\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^+`$, $`ppK^0p\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$, and $`pnK^0p\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ at maximum COSY energy. These measurements will be carried out in spring 2004.

In recent papers, Thomas et al.  and Hanhart et al.  have emphasized that the parity of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ can be determined from polarization observables of the reaction $`\stackrel{}{p}\stackrel{}{p}\mathrm{\Sigma }^+\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ near the production threshold. In particular, the sign of the spin correlation coefficient $`A_{xx}`$ yields the negative of the parity of the $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ . Such measurements can, in principle, be carried out at ANKE and COSY-TOF.

## 4 Investigation of $`𝑲^\mathbf{+}`$-production on neutrons with ANKE

Data on the $`K^+`$-production cross section from $`pn`$ interactions in the close-to-threshold regime are not available yet. This quantity is, for example, crucial for the theoretical description of $`pA`$ and $`AA`$ data since it has to be used as an input parameter for corresponding model calculations. Predictions for the ratio $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ range from one to six, depending on the underlying model assumptions: Piroué and Smith  proposed that there is no difference between $`K^+`$ production on the neutron and proton, whereas the analysis by Tsushima et al.  yields $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p2`$ for the total production cross sections. Fäldt and Wilkin  draw an analogy between $`K^+`$\- and $`\eta `$-meson production and give a ratio of six for the ratio between production on the neutron and proton.

$`K^+`$-production in $`p`$D interactions has been measured with ANKE $`p=2.60`$ and 2.83 GeV/c . Figure 2 shows the $`K^+`$-momentum spectrum for the higher beam momentum. Based on the assumption that the $`K^+`$-production cross section is governed by the sum of the elementary $`pp`$ and the $`pn`$ cross sections, the spectra have been analyzed in a simple phase-space approach, assuming $`\sigma _\mathrm{D}=\sigma _p+\sigma _n`$. In Fig. 2 the resulting momentum spectra are shown based on the approaches from Ref.  (dashed line labeled by “$`\sigma _n=\sigma _p`$”) and Ref.  (dash-dotted line, “$`\sigma _n=2\sigma _p`$”).

The apparent difference between the calculated and measured cross sections can be due to the fact that the ratio $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ differs from those given in Refs. . Thus the simulations were also made keeping the relative weights of the individual $`pp`$ and $`pn`$ channels constant (as given by Ref. ) but treating the ratio of the sum of these two contributions, i.e. $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$, as a free parameter. The best agreement between data and calculations is obtained for $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p3`$ at 2.60 GeV/c and $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p4`$ at 2.83 GeV/c (solid line in upper part of Fig. 2).

The resulting large value of $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ from the inclusive spectra is supported by the analysis of missing-mass spectra from $`p\mathrm{D}K^+pX(p_\mathrm{s})`$ events collected during the same beam time. The spectrum for $`2.83`$ GeV/c is also shown in Fig. 2 and is compared with the result of the Monte-Carlo simulations, again for different ratios $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$. The best agreement between data and simulations is obtained for $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p(45)`$.

## 5 $`𝑲\overline{𝑲}`$-pair production at ANKE, COSY-11 and MOMO

A primary goal of hadronic physics is to understand the structure of mesons and baryons, their production and decays, in terms of quarks and gluons. The non-perturbative character of the underlying theory — Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) — hinders straight forward calculations. QCD can be treated explicitly in the low momentum-transfer regime using lattice techniques , which are, however, not yet in the position to make quantitative statements about light scalar states ($`J^P=0^+`$). Alternatively, QCD inspired models, which use effective degrees of freedom, are to be used. The constituent quark model is one of the most successful in this respect (see e.g. Ref. ). This approach treats the lightest scalar resonances $`a_0/f_0`$(980) as conventional $`q\overline{q}`$ states. However, they have also been identified with $`K\overline{K}`$ molecules  or compact $`qq`$-$`\overline{q}\overline{q}`$ states . It has even been suggested that at masses below 1.0 GeV/c2 a full nonet of 4-quark states might exist . Such possible deviations from the minimal quark model have a parallel in the baryon sector, where the above mentioned $`\mathrm{\Theta }^+`$ state requires at least five quarks.

The existing data are insufficient to conclude on the structure of the light scalars and additional observables are urgently called for. In this context the charge-symmetry breaking (CSB) $`a_0`$-$`f_0`$ mixing plays an exceptional role since it is sensitive to the overlap of the two wave functions. It should be stressed that, although predicted to be large long ago , this mixing has not been identified unambiguously in corresponding experiments.

### 5.1 First experimental results

An experimental program has been started at COSY which aims at exclusive data on $`a_0/f_0`$ production close to the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold from $`pp`$ , $`pn`$ , $`pd`$  and $`dd`$  interactions — i.e. different isospin combinations in the initial state. The reactions $`ppppK^+K^{}`$ and $`pd^3\mathrm{He}K^+K^{}`$ have been measured at COSY-11  and MOMO , respectively, at excitation energies up to $`Q=56`$ MeV above the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold. However, mainly due to the lack of precise angular distributions, the contribution of the $`a_0/f_0`$ to $`K\overline{K}`$ production remains unclear for these reactions.

At ANKE, the reaction $`ppdK^+\overline{K^0}`$ has been measured exclusively (by reconstructing the $`\overline{K^0}`$ from the measured $`dK^+`$ missing mass) at beam momenta of $`p=3.46`$ and 3.65 GeV/c ($`Q=46`$ and 103 MeV). These measurements crucially depend on the high luminosities achievable with internal targets, the large acceptance of ANKE for close-to-threshold reactions, and the excellent kaon identification with the ANKE detectors. The obtained differential spectra for the lower beam momentum are shown in Fig. 3 .

The background of misidentified events in the spectra of Fig. 3 is less than 10% which is crucial for the partial-wave analysis. This analysis reveals that the $`K^+\overline{K}^0`$ pairs are mainly (83%) produced in a relative $`S`$-wave (dashed line in Fig. 3), which has been interpreted in terms of dominant $`a_0^+`$-resonance production .

Data on the reaction $`p(3.46\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c})pd\pi ^+X`$ have been obtained at ANKE in parallel to the kaon data. In contrast to the latter, where the spectra are almost background free, the $`ppd\pi ^+\eta `$ signal is on top of a huge multi-pion background. This makes the analysis of this channel much more demanding and at present even model dependent . A total cross section of $`\sigma (ppd\pi ^+\eta )4.6\mu `$b has been extracted from the data with a resonant contribution of $`\sigma (ppda_0^+d\pi ^+\eta )1.1\mu `$. Together with the cross section for the $`a_0^+K^+\overline{K}^0`$ channel this yields a branching ratio of $`B.R.(KK/\pi \eta )(0.029\pm 0.005_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 0.02_{\mathrm{syst}})`$ which is in reasonable agreement with model calculations $`B.R.(KK/\pi \eta )0.04`$ 111Note that the branching ratio at beam momenta close to the $`K\overline{K}`$ threshold strongly depends on the $`Q`$ value of the reaction due to phase-space cuts at the upper edge of the mass distributions. for this beam momentum. This confirms the interpretation of dominant resonant $`K^+\overline{K^0}`$ production via the $`a_0^+`$ from above.

The data at $`Q=103`$ MeV are still being analyzed. As the next step a measurement of the reaction $`pndK^+K^{}`$ at $`Q100`$ MeV will be performed at ANKE in Feb. 2004. The results of a similar experiment on the reaction $`pnK^+X`$ — demonstrating the feasibility of such measurements with a D2 target — are described in Sect. 4. According to our cross-section estimates a measurement of the reaction $`dd\alpha K^+K^{}`$ should be feasible within few weeks of beam time and is foreseen for winter 2004/05 .

### 5.2 Planned investigations of light scalar mesons

The experimental results on $`a_0^+`$ production in $`pp`$ interactions can also be regarded as a successful feasibility test for a long-term experimental program with the final goal to determine the charge-symmetry breaking $`a_0`$-$`f_0`$ mixing amplitude. These measurements will require the use of a photon detector which is not yet available at COSY. However, it is planned to relocate the WASA detector  from its current location at CELSIUS/TSL to COSY in summer 2005, which will then make these experiments feasible.

Both, the $`a_0^0`$\- and the $`f_0`$-resonances can decay into $`K^+K^{}`$ and $`K_SK_S`$, whereas in the non-strange sector the decays are into different final states according to their isospin, $`a_0^\pm \pi ^\pm \eta `$, $`a_0^0\pi ^0\eta `$ and $`f_0\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ or $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$. Thus, only the non-strange decay channels have defined isospin and allow one to discriminate between the two mesons. It is also only by measuring the non-strange decay channels that CSB can be investigated. Such measurements can be carried out with WASA at COSY for active $`\pi ^0`$\- or $`\eta `$-meson identification, while the strange decay channels $`a_0/f_0K_SK_S`$ should be measured in parallel.

Since it is possible to manipulate the initial isospin of purely hadronic reactions one can identify observables that vanish in the absence of CSB . The idea behind the proposed experiments is the same as behind recent measurements of CSB effects in the reactions $`npd\pi ^0`$  and $`dd\alpha \pi ^0`$ . However, the interpretation of the signal from the scalar mesons is much simpler as compared to the pion case. Since the $`a_0`$ and the $`f_0`$ are rather narrow overlapping resonances, the $`a_0`$-$`f_0`$ mixing in the final state is enhanced by more than an order of magnitude compared to CSB in the production operator (i.e. “direct” CSB violating $`dd\alpha a_0`$ production) and should, e.g., give the dominant contribution to the CSB effect via the reaction chain $`dd\alpha f_0(I=0)\alpha a_0^0(I=1)\alpha (\pi ^0\eta )`$ . This reaction seems to be most promising for the extraction of CSB effects, since the initial deuterons and the $`\alpha `$ particle in the final state have isospin $`I=0`$ (“isospin filter”). Thus, any observation of $`\pi ^0\eta `$ production in this particular channel is a direct indication of CSB and can give information about the $`a_0`$-$`f_0`$ mixing amplitude .

In analogy with the measurement of CSB effects in the reaction $`npd\pi ^0`$, it has been predicted that the measurement of angular asymmetries (i.e. forward-backward asymmetry in the $`da_0`$ c.m.s.) can give information about the $`a_0`$-$`f_0`$ mixing . It was stressed in Ref.  that — in contrast to the $`npd\pi ^0`$ experiment where the forward-backward asymmetry was found to be as small as 0.17%  — the reaction $`pnd\pi ^0\eta `$ is subject to a kinematical enhancement. As a consequence, the effect is predicted to be significantly larger in the $`a_0`$/$`f_0`$ case. The numbers range from some 10%  to factors of a few  and, thus, should easily be observable. It has been pointed out in Ref.  that the analyzing power of the reaction $`\stackrel{}{p}nd\pi ^0\eta `$ also carries information about the $`a_0`$-$`f_0`$ mixing amplitude. This quantity can be measured at COSY as well.

## 6 Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to C. Hanhart for contributing to Sect. 2.2, as well as to W. Eyrich, W. Oelert and H. Ströher for carefully reading the manuscript.