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# Critical properties of a continuous family of XY noncollinear magnets

## Abstract

Monte Carlo methods are used to study a family of three dimensional XY frustrated models interpolating continuously between the stacked triangular antiferromagnets and a variant of this model for which a local rigidity constraint is imposed. Our study leads us to conclude that generically weak first order behavior occurs in this family of models in agreement with a recent nonperturbative renormalization group description of frustrated magnets.

In spite of intensive study during the last 25 years the critical behavior of XY or Heisenberg frustrated magnets with a noncollinear ground state is still a strongly debated topic (see Refs. delamotte03 ; kawamura98  and references therein). This is, for instance, the case of the celebrated XY Stacked Triangular Antiferromagnet (STA) that we consider here, whose Hamiltonian is:

$$H=\underset{ij}{}J_{ij}𝐒_i.𝐒_j$$
(1)
where the $`𝐒_i`$ are two-component vectors and the sum runs over all pairs of nearest neighbor spins on a stacked triangular lattice. In Eq. (1), the in-plane interactions are antiferromagnetic ($`J<0`$) and the inter-plane interactions are taken to be ferromagnetic ($`J>0`$) with $`|J|=1`$. The competition between the in-plane antiferromagnetic interactions produces a ground state where the three spins $`𝐒_1,𝐒_2`$ and $`𝐒_3`$ on each elementary triangular plaquette are oriented at 120 one to another, that is:

$$𝐒_1+𝐒_2+𝐒_3=\mathrm{𝟎}.$$
(2)
For such a system, the order parameter is given by two orthogonal vectors of the same norm, a fact that has led to the hypothesis that noncollinear magnets could undergo a second order phase transition associated with a new — chiral — universality class kawamura85 .

However, it is now becoming more and more widely accepted that the physics of frustrated magnets is not given by such a simple picture tissier01 ; delamotte03 ; calabrese02 ; calabrese03c . The complexity of the critical behavior of STA systems is exemplified in the experimental results (for a review see Ref. delamotte03  and references therein). Indeed, scaling behavior is generally found while universality is violated since materials which belong, a priori, to the same universality class display different critical exponents. It is thus difficult to interpret the experimental data within the usual picture of critical phenomena.

On the theoretical side, the situation is controversial delamotte03 ; calabrese02 . A nonperturbative renormalization group (NPRG) method tissier01 ; delamotte03  finds that the phase transitions in these systems are generically weakly first order with the possibility of standard strongly first order transitions. More precisely while there is no RG fixed point there exists a whole region where the RG flow is very slow, corresponding to large — but finite — correlation lengths at the transition, which allows one to compute pseudo-critical exponents. Hence the violation of universality observed experimentally has a natural explanation since, in the absence of a fixed point, the pseudo-critical exponents found depend on the microscopic Hamiltonians. On the other hand, Pelissetto et al. have derived and resummed the six-loop $`\beta `$ functions in three dimensions pelissetto01a . They find a fixed point and therefore predict a second order phase transition. Calabrese et al. have claimed that the lack of universality found can be accounted for by the spiral nature of the approach to the focus fixed point calabrese02 .

Our aim is to discriminate by means of numerical simulations between these two scenarios that both predict scaling behavior with varying critical exponents but differ in the predicted asymptotic behavior for temperatures very close to the transition temperature. Different systems having the same symmetry breaking scheme as XY-STA but differing by microscopic details have been studied numerically diep89 ; kunz93 ; loison98 ; itakura03 ; kawamura86 ; kawamura92 ; plumer94 ; boubcheur96 . Apart from STA, they have all been found to undergo first order transitions diep89 ; kunz93 ; loison98 ; itakura03 . As for STA itself early numerical simulations favor a continuous transition kawamura86 ; kawamura92 ; plumer94 ; boubcheur96 . However the most recent simulation performed with lattice sizes much larger than those considered previously leads to first order behavior itakura03 . Thus, although there are now strong indications in favor of the nonperturbative scenario, the numerical evidence is still too weak to lead to a definite conclusion. In order to shed some light on this problem we consider a family of models, built up as generalizations of STA. We find that they all exhibit either strong first order transitions or a scaling behavior with varying exponents associated with a weak first order phase transition.

To perform our study we partition the original triangular lattice — with lattice spacing $`a`$ — into elementary plaquettes labelled by an index $`I`$. They are composed of three spins $`𝐒_1^I,𝐒_2^I`$ and $`𝐒_3^I`$. The super lattice made of these plaquettes is, again, a triangular lattice, with lattice spacing $`\sqrt{3}a`$. The family of models we consider is defined by:

$$H(r)=\underset{ij}{}J_{ij}𝐒_i.𝐒_j+r\underset{\text{I}}{}(𝐒_1^I+𝐒_2^I+𝐒_3^I)^2$$
(3)
where the first term is the same as in Eq. (1) and where the sum over $`I`$ in the second $`r`$-term runs over the indices of the super lattice. For $`r<0.5|J|`$, the ground state has the spins aligned ferromagnetically within a plaquette but are oriented at $`120^{}`$ from plaquette to plaquette; this is not the ground state expected for real materials. For $`r=0.5|J|`$ the interactions inside the plaquettes vanish and the lattice becomes effectively a stacked Kagome lattice. For $`r>0.5|J|`$ the ground state and thus the symmetry breaking scheme and order parameter are identical to those of the STA model, Eq.(1); we thus focus on this range of values in the following. For any value of $`r>0`$ the $`r`$-term favors locally, that is inside the plaquettes, the $`120^{}`$ ground state configuration. It thus penalizes the relative fluctuations of the spins $`𝐒_1^I,𝐒_2^I`$ and $`𝐒_3^I`$ inside a plaquette but still lets the orientation of the three-spin structure freely fluctuate from plaquette to plaquette. Note that, since the fluctuations of the spins inside a plaquette are noncritical, the $`r`$-term should not alter the critical physics of the STA if it is universal — see below. The $`r\mathrm{}`$ limit consists of a STA for which the ground state 120 structure is locally imposed at all temperatures. This model is called the STAR (R for rigid). Continuous changes in the ‘rigidity parameter’ $`r`$ from zero to infinity thus correspond to a continuous change from the STA to the STAR. The STAR has been studied by Loison and Schotte loison98  and has been found to undergo a strong first order transition. This already shows that, in fact, the critical behaviors of STA-like systems strongly depend on the microscopic details of the model.

We use a classical Monte Carlo Metropolis algorithm metropolis  to study this generalized model as a function of temperature and the rigidity parameter $`r`$. A number of different thermodynamic quantities have been computed with $`0r8`$ for lattices of linear sizes $`L=18`$ to $`L=138`$. In order to reduce the critical slowing down at the transition, each simulation run starts from a disordered state at a temperature well above the transition temperature and is slowly cooled to low temperatures. The system is allowed to equilibrate for $`3\times 10^5`$ Monte Carlo sweeps (MCS) and the averages were performed over $`5.5\times 10^5`$ steps. In order to avoid correlations between subsequent measurements, $`2030`$ Monte Carlo sweeps were performed between measurements.

$`0r1.0`$: the weak first order region. We begin our discussion with the small $`r`$ region which is the most interesting one since real compounds are supposed to be close to STA. Moreover, for some of these compounds as well as for STA with $`r=0`$ scaling behavior is found delamotte03 . Since scaling laws are found to hold in this range of $`r`$, we analyze them by means of the standard methodology used for second order phase transitions. The fourth order cumulant $`U_M`$ of the order parameter displays behavior characteristic of a second order transition and can be used to estimate the transition temperature $`T^{}`$. We have determined $`T^{}`$, the order parameter critical exponent $`\beta `$, the correlation length exponent $`\nu `$, the susceptibility exponent $`\gamma `$ and the anomalous dimension exponent $`\eta `$ using finite size scaling (FSS) methods kawamura92 . For appropriate values of $`T^{}`$ and of $`\beta `$ and $`\nu `$, the data should collapse onto a single curve. A sample log-log finite size scaling plot of the order parameter $`M`$ for $`r=1.0`$ is shown in figure 1. A similar FSS analysis of the susceptibility also satisfies scaling and can be used to determine $`\gamma `$. For sizes $`L=48,60`$ there are some deviations from scaling at small values of the reduced temperature $`t`$.

At $`T^{}`$, the structure factor depends on system size as $`S(\stackrel{}{Q},L)L^{2\eta }`$ where the exponent $`\eta `$ is the anomalous dimension and $`\stackrel{}{Q}`$ is the ordering wave vector for the three sublattice structure. Throughout the entire range $`0r<1.0`$, we again find that scaling is satisfied for system sizes $`L42`$. Table 1 summarizes our results for the critical exponents in the range $`0r1.0`$. The critical exponents for which finite size scaling holds change with $`r`$ showing clearly that universality is violated. Moreover $`\eta `$ is always found to be negative — sometimes significantly, e.g. for $`r=0.2`$ — which is impossible if the transition is of second order delamotte03 . These results strongly suggest that scaling aborts ultimately — that is, very close to $`T^{}`$ — for all $`r[0,1]`$ and that, therefore, the transitions are all of first order.

$`r`$ 1.0: the strong first order region. We now consider the region $`r1.0`$. As expected, the first order behavior found for the STAR, that is for $`r\mathrm{}`$, persists for finite $`r`$. We have been able to follow it down to $`r1.0`$ by studying the probability distribution for the energy $`P(E)`$ . This probability distribution is a useful quantity to locate first order transitions. Away from the transition point, one expects a Gaussian distribution in energy while at the transition point a double peak in $`P(E)`$ occurs if it is first order. This point can be located by finding the temperature where the weights under the peaks in $`P(E)`$ become equal. However distinguishing between a weak first order and a second order transition is rather delicate especially in case of a possible tricritical point. In order to make sure what type of phase transition the double peak structure represents, it is necessary to study the size dependence of the probability distribution $`P(E)`$. In the case of a first order transition, the separation of the peak energies $`E_1`$ and $`E_2`$ equals the latent heat up to $`1/L`$ corrections lee . Thus two peaks remain separated with increased size $`L`$ and, as shown in binder2 , become sharper.

We have found a double peaked structure in $`P(E)`$ for rigidity parameters $`r=1.0,1.5,2.0,4.0,6.0`$ and $`8.0`$ for linear sizes $`L60`$. As the value of $`r`$ decreases, the size of the system where the double peak structure starts to appear increases. However, the energy autocorrelation time is less than $`2000`$ MCS in this range. The double peaked structure in $`P(E)`$, and thus the first order behavior, is apparent but only for lattice sizes $`L>48`$ for $`r=1.0`$. If we extrapolate to the thermodynamic limit, we can estimate the latent heat $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=|E_1E_2|`$ at the transition. Using the values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ for $`r1.0`$ and extrapolating to the more interesting small $`r`$ region predicts that $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ remains nonzero at $`r=0`$ with an estimated value of $`0.010\pm 0.002`$. This behavior suggests that the phase transition at $`r=0`$ might be weakly first order.

In figure 2 we plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ vs $`r`$ where it can be seen that it extrapolates linearly to the physically interesting limit of small $`r`$. The maximum size used for $`r=6`$ was $`L=36`$ and hence the errorbars are larger than those at smaller $`r`$. The value at $`r=0`$ is finite indicating a weak first order transition. The extrapolation also predicts that $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ vanishes at $`r_0=0.47\pm 0.02`$. Our error bars for $`r_0`$ are compatible with $`r=0.5`$, corresponding to the stacked Kagome lattice, for which one expects a completely different physics. We conclude that STA undergoes a very weak first order phase transition and that there is no tricritical point for all systems described by $`H(r)`$ with $`r>0.5`$.

STA $`r=0`$. In order to confirm our result of a non-zero latent heat at $`r=0`$, we have studied the energy probability distribution for the $`r=0`$ case using much larger system sizes. Figure 3 shows $`P(E)`$ at $`T^{}`$ for sizes $`L=87,111`$ and $`138`$. A double peak structure characteristic of a first order phase transition is now evident at these sizes. As the size of the system is increased, the peaks sharpen and the depth of the minimum between the peaks also increases. For these larger sizes the energy autocorrelation time increases significantly to values greater than $`12000`$ MCS. This critical slowing down could perhaps be improved using overrelaxation or multicanonical histogram methods.binder2  However, we estimate a value $`\mathrm{\Delta }E0.013\pm .001`$ from figure 3 which is in excellent agreement with the previous estimate $`0.010\pm 0.002`$ obtained from the extrapolation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E(r)`$ from larger $`r1.0`$ to $`r=0`$.

In conclusion, we have studied a system interpolating continuously between the $`XY`$ STA and STAR models and find unambiguous evidence that the phase transitions in these systems is either of first order or weakly first order accompanied by scaling with exponents varying with $`r`$. These results provide strong arguments in favor of the nonperturbative approach to the physics of frustrated magnets delamotte03  and suggest that, even if a fixed point exists, its relevance for STA-like compounds whose microscopic Hamiltonians are supposed to be well described by Eq. (1), is doubtful. Indeed, while the two — perturbative and nonperturbative — approaches both predict scaling in a transient regime near $`T^{}`$, they differ in several ways. First, asymptotically, i.e. at $`T^{}`$ — the scaling behavior aborts in the nonperturbative scenario while it persists in the perturbative one since it is associated with a true continuous phase transition. Second, the weak first order transitions are generic in the nonperturbative scenario whereas they should be exceptional in the perturbative one delamotte03 . Indeed, in the presence of a fixed point, systems undergoing weak first order phase transitions correspond, in the space of coupling constants, to initial conditions of the RG flow that are outside the basin of attraction of the fixed point but that lie in the vicinity of the separatrix between the first and second order regions. This behavior should not be generic since it implies a fine-tuning of the parameters of the microscopic Hamiltonian. Note however that one cannot completely exclude that, by varying another microscopic parameter like the ratio between the interlayer and intralayer coupling constants, the system be driven into the basin of attraction of a fixed point.

The present work as well as the one performed by Itakura itakura03  predict a first order phase transition for STA. Previous numerical simulations failed to reach the asymptotic regime where the correlation length saturates, that is, where the scaling aborts. This suggests that the same phenomenon could occur in experiments, this time due to the difficulty to probe the close vicinity of $`T^{}`$, and that all real materials also display weak first order transitions. This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that the exponents found in our study are close to the experimental ones for STA compounds (see delamotte03  and references therein). Let us consider for instance the exponent $`\beta `$ which is the best measured one. Here we find a variation of $`\beta `$ in the range $`[0.213,0.253]`$ while for XY STA compounds one has, for instance, $`\beta 0.228`$ for CsMnBr3, $`\beta 0.243`$ for CsNiCl3 and $`\beta 0.230.25`$ for CsCuCl3 which has been finally found to undergo a first order transition when the study of the close vicinity of $`T^{}`$ has been refined.

An important open question concerns the Heisenberg case where there exists the same conflict between the perturbative and nonperturbative scenarios. However, according to the NPRG scenario, the transition should be even more weakly of first order for Heisenberg than for XY spins so that the controversy will be more difficult to settle.

This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Research Council of Canada, the HPC facility at the University of Manitoba and HPCVL at Queen’s University. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Energies is UMR 7589. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique des Liquides is UMR 7600.


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# Eta Carinae’s Brightness Variations Since 1998: HST Observations of the Central StarSome of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Multi-mission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (MAST). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Support for MAST for non-HST data is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science via grant NAG5-7584 and by other grants and contracts. Some of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the American Association of Variable Star Observers International Database.

## 1 Introduction

Two unforeseen developments in recent years have made continued photometry of $`\eta `$ Car (catalog HD 93308) particularly important: Distinctive brightness variations in the near IR accompany its mysterious 5.5-year spectroscopic cycle (Feast, Whitelock, & Marang, 2001; Whitelock et al., 1994) and, possibly independent of the cycle (Damineli, 1996), the star brightened at a surprising rate after 1997 (Davidson et al., 1999a, b; van Genderen, Sterken, de Groot, & Burki, 1999; Sterken, Freyhammer, Arentoft, & van Genderen, 1999). Neither of these phenomena has been explained and the data since 1998 are seriously incomplete. Meanwhile, the long-term brightening trend continues; for general information about $`\eta `$ Car with many references, see Davidson & Humphreys (1997), and Davidson (2000).

Photometry of this bright object is difficult for at least two reasons:

1. At visual wavelengths, normal ground-based observations represent mainly the surrounding “Homunculus” ejecta-nebula, which appears much brighter than the central star and has structure at all radii from 0.2 to 8 arcseconds. So far the only available measurements of just the central star have been made with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Although the Homunculus is primarily a reflection nebula, its apparent brightness measured with respect to the central star has changed greatly. During 1998-99, while ground-based observations showed about a 0.3-magnitude brightening of Homunculus plus star, the star itself nearly tripled in apparent brightness (Davidson et al., 1999b)! This discrepancy presumably involves dust along our line of sight to the star, but, as mentioned above, it is only vaguely understood at this time.
2. Numerous strong emission lines produced in the stellar wind perturb the results for standard photometric systems. H$`\alpha `$ and H$`\beta `$ emission, for example, have equivalent widths of about 800 and 180 Å respectively in HST spectra of $`\eta `$ Car. Therefore, broad-band $`U`$, $`B`$, $`R`$, and $`I`$ magnitudes, and most medium-band systems as well, are poorly defined for this object. Photometry around 5500 Å, e.g. broad-band $`V`$, is relatively free of strong emission lines, but transformations from instrumental magnitudes to a standard system are imprecise because they involve the other filters (Davidson et al. (1999b), Sterken, Freyhammer, Arentoft, & van Genderen (2001), van Genderen, Sterken, & Allen (2003a), and references therein).

In this paper we report photometry of the central star obtained with two HST instruments since 1998. For reasons noted above, these observations are quite distinct from all ground-based data; and the star’s photometric behavior during 2003 proved to be especially interesting. First we employ acquisition images produced by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), because these are numerous and internally reliable; $`\eta `$ Car has been observed many times with this instrument since 1998, especially during mid-2003 when the most recent “spectroscopic event” occurred. These broad-band red data cannot be transformed to any standard photometric system, but they are quite reliable for showing relative fluctuations by the star (strictly speaking, the stellar wind), uncontaminated by light from the surrounding Homunculus. We also report surprising variations in the star’s H$`\alpha `$ emission brightness accompanied by measurements of the nearby continuum in the STIS slit-spectroscopy data.

We supplement the STIS data with similar measurements of a few images obtained in 2002–03 with HST’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). These represent a different set of wavelength bands. Altogether these STIS and ACS results probably represent most of the photometry of $`\eta `$ Car that will ever be obtained with the HST. Very few additional STIS observations are expected now that the 2003 event has passed. Earlier HST/FOS, FOC, WFC-PC, and WFPC2 data were not obtained often enough to be suitable for our purposes, and in most cases would be more difficult to compare photometrically, for technical reasons. We report the STIS and ACS data now, rather than waiting for two or three more data points in 2004, because the behavior during 2003 was rather unexpected and therefore deserves to be noted promptly.

In addition, we briefly present a convenient summary of $`\eta `$ Car’s photometric record in the AAVSO archives. These ‘V’ magnitudes represent, of course, the entire Homunculus plus star but they are valuable for comparisons with the HST data and also with ground-based photometry using different filter systems, reported by, e.g., Feast, Whitelock, & Marang (2001), van Genderen, Sterken, de Groot, & Burki (1999), Sterken, de Groot, & van Genderen (1996), Whitelock et al. (1994), Fernandez Lajus et al. (2003), and van Genderen, Sterken, Allen, & Liller (2003b).

In Section 2 we present the photometry of the central star based on HST/STIS acquisition images and the ACS/HRC observations. This is followed by a section on the ground-based data from the AAVSO and then a general discussion about how these results relate to the models which have been presented to describe $`\eta `$ Carinae.

## 2 Space-based Photometry of the Central Star

Normal ground-based imaging and photometry cannot resolve the central star and small structures in the Homunculus nebula. In this study, we have used the HST/STIS acquisition images which have a resolution of about 0.1 arcseconds plus the recent ACS/HRC images which have a resolution of 0.05 arcseconds to separate the contribution of central star from the surrounding nebulously.

### 2.1 HST STIS Acquisition Images

Each set of STIS observations of $`\eta `$ Carinae has included a pair of acquisition images. These images are 100x100 pixel sub-frames (5 arcseconds square) centered on the middle row and column of the CCD (Clampin et al., 1996; Downes et al., 1997; Kim Quijano et al., 2003). Each pair of acquisition images includes an initial targeting image and a post-acquisition image. Only the post-acquisition images were used to measure the brightness of the central star because the target is rarely well centered in the initial targeting images, which raises concerns about ghost images and internal reflections that may unpredictably affect them (see section 2.1.2).

The majority of the STIS acquisition images of $`\eta `$ Carinae have been taken using the F25ND3 filter, which is a neutral density filter that covers the wavelengths from 2000Å to 11000Å. Acquisition images using other filters are ignored since they lack significant temporal baseline or coverage and there is little hope of transforming between filter functions for an object as peculiar as $`\eta `$ Carinae. The F25ND3 filter includes several prominent features in the spectrum of $`\eta `$ Carinae (Figure 1) and changes in them contribute to any measured brightness variations.

#### 2.1.1 Image Processing and Bias Level Correction

We processed the STIS acquisition images using the IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. procedure stas.hst\_calib.stis.basic2d with version 3.0 of STDAS and version 2.13 of CALSTIS. En lieu of a bias over-scan region, each STIS acquisition image has the uniform value of 1510 counts subtracted from each pixel as an approximate bias level correction for the target acquisition process. A small uncorrected bias level remains in the acquisition images after this initial correction, so we compensate for this tiny effect by modeling it as a function of time and CCD housing temperature.

This residual bias was measured in acquisition images of the standard star AGK +81 266 (catalog AG+81 266) after the normal bias correction and dark current were subtracted. The exposures of AGK +81 266 are short (2.1 seconds) and it is more than 60 degrees above the ecliptic, so zodiacal light and other sources make a negligible contribution to the background (Kim Quijano et al., 2003). We found that the residual bias level in the images of AGK +81 266 (Figure 2) is roughly linear with respect to time prior to the failure of the CCD Side-1 controller on May 16, 2001 (Proffitt et al., 2002; Davis et al., 2001). There may be higher order terms in this relation however they are not significant in this study since they effect the measurements of the central star by less than 0.001 magnitude. Subsequent to the failure of the Side-1 controller the STIS CCD temperature regulator has been held at a constant voltage permitting the CCD temperature to fluctuate. As a result, after the Side-1 failure the residual bias level of the observations depends on both time and CCD housing temperature. Using the measurements of the residual bias level in the AGK +81 266 observations, the following relations were obtained for the bias level correction as a function of modified Julian Date (MJD) and CCD housing temperature (T):
MJD $``$ 52045.5 :

$$BLEV=269.840.0053MJD$$
(1)
MJD $`>`$ 52045.5 :

$$BLEV=293.340.0053MJD1.51T$$
(2)
When the modeled bias level is subtracted from the AGK +81 266 data the background levels average to $`0.03\pm 0.63`$ counts/pixel/sec (Figure 2). This correction was applied to the acquisition images for $`\eta `$ Carinae in place of the bias over-scan correction normally implemented in the IRAF basic2d procedure. Typically the bias correction amounts to less than 0.005 magnitude for the measurements reported below.

#### 2.1.2 Aperture Photometry

The flux from the central star was measured in each image by summing detector counts within a small circular virtual aperture. In order to avoid pixelization effects, the counts were weighted by a function of the distance of a pixel from the aperture center ($`r`$) which decreases smoothly to zero at the aperture radius $`R`$:

$$rR:f(r)=1\frac{r^2}{R^2}$$
(3)
$$r>R:f(r)=0$$
(4)
The centering on the star is determined by a peak-up algorithm which locates the position where the sum inside the virtual aperture is maximized. For the STIS acquisition images we used $`R=3`$ pixels which corresponds to a diameter of 0.3 arcseconds and includes slightly fewer than 30 pixels.

We did not attempt to subtract a background from the measured aperture flux, but this has little effect on the results since the star provides thousands of counts/pixel/second, far greater than any other contribution within the measuring aperture due to scattered and zodiacal light which contribute only about 0.2 counts/pixel/second or less (Kim Quijano et al., 2003). There is no feasible way to account for or remove the contribution from diffuse circumstellar material within 0.1 arcseconds of the star. However, STIS spectroscopic data indicate the level of contamination from this source is much smaller than the other uncertainties.

Ghost images exist in the STIS optics but do not contribute significantly to our measurements. When a bright source is centered on the CCD, a ghost image with an peak flux of a few percent relative to the PSF maximum appears approximately 0.3 arcseconds (6 pixels) to the right (increasing column number) of the peak of the point spread function. The 0.3 arcsecond diameter aperture used to measure the central star excludes this ghost. However, any future work that may attempt to measure the flux from the nebula immediately surrounding the central star in these images must confront this problem.

The reduction procedure was tested using 80 pairs of acquisition images of the flux standard AGK +81 266 (Figure 3). The measured aperture photometry for this standard shows a constant level with an r.m.s scatter of $`\pm 0.037`$ magnitudes. It should be noted that AGK +81 266 was observed using the F28x50LP “long-pass” filter rather than the F25ND3 filter which was used for the $`\eta `$ Carinae observations. At the same time, the gross spectral energy distribution of AGK +81 266 (spectral class B5) and $`\eta `$ Carinae are very dissimilar. This is not significant since AGK +81 266 is only used to demonstrate that this method accurately measures a constant brightness over the temporal baseline for an established flux standard. The brightness of $`\eta `$ Carinae is not measured relative to AGK +81 266.

#### 2.1.3 Results

In Figure 4 and Table 2 we present our results for the STIS acquisition images as instrumental magnitudes calibrated for long term sensitivity effects using the photometric constants calculated by the reduction pipeline (Kim Quijano et al., 2003) and scaled relative to the value on 1999 February 20 (1999.14). These represent an extremely broad-band wavelength sample (Figure 1). For the purpose of comparison with familiar photometric systems, Table 1 gives approximate Johnson $`V`$ (Johnson & Morgan, 1953) and Cousins $`R`$ and $`I`$ (Cousins, 1976) magnitudes at the reference epoch (1999.14). These were calculated using flux-calibrated STIS spectroscopic data (Davidson et al., 2003), a flux-calibrated spectrum of Vega (Colina, Bohlin, & Castelli, 1996), and the appropriate response functions (Johnson & Morgan, 1951; Bingham & Cousins, 1974). For reasons noted in Section 1 and uncertainties in the STIS slit throughput for an object which is not exactly a point source, entries for $`\eta `$ Carinae in Table 1 probably have uncertainties of roughly $`\pm 0.05`$ magnitudes and could possibly be somewhat worse. It is also possible that the photometric color may trend mildly blue-ward as the object brightens (Davidson et al., 1999b).

The Homunculus is currently of 5th magnitude according to ground-based Johnson $`V`$ photometry (Section 3 below), but the central star is fainter than $`V`$ = 7.0 as stated in Table 1. Its apparent continuum is red, while stellar-wind emission lines contribute a significant fraction of its brightness. In the 1999.14 spectrum, H$`\alpha `$ and other emission features contribute about 16% of the flux in $`V`$ (4% from H$`\alpha `$) and 38% of the flux in $`R`$ (35% from H$`\alpha `$). Meanwhile, there is about a 5% affect on the $`I`$ flux from the Hydrogen Paschen lines which are in emission. Because these emission features are constantly changing, it is not possible to formulate a consistent set of transformations to convert the STIS magnitudes to more familar Johnson $`V`$ and Cousins $`R`$ and $`I`$ magnitudes for $`\eta `$ Carinae. However, the values presented for 1999.14 can serve as a rough zero point.

Figure 4 shows that the dramatic brightening reported by Davidson et al. (1999b) leveled off by 2000, but may have resumed at least temporarily around the mid-2003 spectroscopic event. The dip in brightness near the time of the event (Figure 6) may be reminiscent of the near-infrared behavior reported by Feast, Whitelock, & Marang (2001). This will be discussed further in Section 4.

#### 2.1.4 Concerning H$`\alpha `$ Emission

Eta Carinae’s broad H$`\alpha `$ emission, produced in the stellar wind at radii of several AU, is tremendously strong (equivalent width usually about 800 Å). This feature did not vary much relative to the continuum in STIS data from 1998 to 2002, but recently it has faded to a surprising degree as reported below. Since H$`\alpha `$ contributes appreciably to the STIS acquisition images, we have investigated the effects on our photometry.

Davidson (2003) has measured the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ and estimated the absolute level of the nearby continuum in short-exposure STIS slit data. H$`\alpha `$ was integrated from 6509 to 6650 Å, and the continuum flux was averaged between 6740 and 6800 Å (an interval that is practically uncontaminated by emission lines). These continuum measurements have the advantage of being approximately calibrated in physical units, but on the other hand may be underestimated if the slit was not perfectly centered on the star. Fortunately, the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width measurements are quite insensitive to slit position. The results are shown in Figure 5. We estimate that H$`\alpha `$ contributes from 8% to 16% of the STIS/F25ND3 counts, varying with time as listed in Table 2. Open triangles in Figure 4 represent the instrumental magnitudes that would have been observed if H$`\alpha `$ were not present; evidently the brightness minimum in early 2003 and the subsequent rapid brightening are not due to this emission line. The measured brightness fluctuations in the central star appear to be mainly (though not entirely) changes in the continuum brightness.

In the six months preceding the 2003.5 event (December 2002 to June 2003), the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ declined by a factor of nearly 2, while its line profile evolved in an interesting and unexpected way which is beyond the scope of this paper. The other Balmer lines behaved in a similar fashion. Moreover, in July and September 2003 they did not return to the state observed by STIS in 1998 at the corresponding point in $`\eta `$ Car’s 5.54-year cycle. A more in-depth account of these effects will be reported in a paper which is now in preparation (Davidson et al., 2004).

### 2.2 ACS/HRC Observations

HST ACS/HRS observations of $`\eta `$ Car were obtained for the HST Treasury Project beginning in October 2002. Bias corrected, dark subtracted, and flat fielded ACS/HRC images were obtained from Space Telescope Science Institute via the Multi-mission Archive (MAST)222http://archive.stsci.edu/. Observations which had overexposed the central star were not used and no drizzle or dithering correction is applied.

The ACS/HRC images were taken in four filters which cover near UV and optical wavelengths (Figure 1). Each of these filters is influenced by different types of spectral features. The UV filters (HRC/F220W & HRC/F250W) are heavily influenced by the “Fe II forest” (Cassatella, Giangrande, & Viotti, 1979; Altamore et al., 1986; Viotti et al., 1989). The opacity of this “forest” is known to dramatically increase during an event (Davidson, Ishibashi, Gull, & Humphreys, 1999b; Gull, Davidson, & Ishibashi, 2000). The HRC/F330W filter is sensitive to both the Balmer continuum and a number of emission features while the HRC/F550M filter, strategically placed between H$`\alpha `$ and H$`\beta `$, almost exclusively measures the continuum.

The relative brightness of the central star in the ACS/HRC images is measured with the same weighted 0.3 arcsecond diameter aperture used to measure the STIS acquisition images. On the scale of the ACS/HRC this corresponds to $`R=5`$ pixels and includes about 79 pixels inside the aperture. The results are given in Table 3 and Figure 6. The magnitudes given are on the STMAG system (Holtzman et al., 1995) as calibrated by the photometric keywords calculated by the reduction pipeline (Pavlovsky et al., 2003). Note that the HRC/F220W and HRC/F250W curves show a significant dip at the time of the 2003.5 event, due to the Fe II absorption as noted above. Interestingly, the visual continuum measured by the HRC/F550M filter does not show the decrease in brightness seen at longer wavelengths in the STIS data.

## 3 Ground-based AAVSO Data

While space-based photometry is able to resolve the central star, ground based photometry measures the integrated brightness of both the star and the Homunculus nebula. However, ground-based photometry is still valuable because it has a longer temporal baseline and shows many of the same brightness variations, albeit at different amplitudes. Also as more publicly funded small telescopes are closed the data from the AAVSO and groups like La Plata observatory (Fernandez Lajus et al., 2003) will become increasingly useful for monitoring objects like $`\eta `$ Car.

One of the few sources for long term monitoring of $`\eta `$ Carinae is the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) (Mattei & Foster, 1998). From 1968 through mid-2003 there are 6640 observations from 110 observers situated around the globe333http://www.aavso.org/news/etacar.shtml. These data are from individual observers who have determined the brightness of $`\eta `$ Carinae by visually comparing it with the brightness of other stars. Ten observers account for 69% of these observations while 36% of the observations are from the two most prolific observers: M. Daniel Overbeek (Mattei & Fraser, 2003) and Albert F. Jones. On average, there are 60 observations per observer but the median is 9 observations per observer.

We averaged the observations in 90 day bins with a median of 32 observations in each bin. The bottom panel of Figure 7 shows binned averages from 1968 through mid 2003 with a typical standard deviation of 0.2 magnitudes, which is consistent with the accepted usual r.m.s. error of 0.1 – 0.2 magnitudes for observations of this type. The top panel of Figure 7 shows the photoelectric Johnson $`V`$ band photometry (PEPV) from Stan Walker (Davidson et al., 1999b), photoelectric observations from R. Winfield Jones obtained through the AAVSO, and the average $`V_J`$ magnitude from ground based observations reported in Figure 2 of Davidson et al. (1999b). The data in both panels follow the same general trend and compare well with the data presented in Figure 2 of Sterken, de Groot, & van Genderen (1996). Even the most primitive AAVSO data track the professional photometry well enough to show irregular behavior. The maximum noted by Sterken, de Groot, & van Genderen (1996) at 1982.11 is visible in all the data, though the errors in the binned AAVSO data make it harder to recognize. Each dataset also shows an overall brightening trend in $`\eta `$ Carinae over the past thirty years along with a notable jump in brightness in 1998-1999 (Davidson et al., 1999b).

The binned AAVSO data for the last five years (Figure 8) also follows a trend similar to the brightness variations in the central star measured from the STIS acquisition images (Figure 4). Of particular note, both datasets show the brightening of $`\eta `$ Carinae peaked in 2000, fell off a bit, and then peaked again in early 2002 before brightening through the 2003.5 event.

## 4 Analysis & Conclusions

The data presented here from the HST and ground-based observations confirm the dramatic brightening in both the nebula and central star of $`\eta `$ Carinae which was previously reported by Davidson et al. (1999a, b) and Sterken, Freyhammer, Arentoft, & van Genderen (1999) along with a more gradual brightening spanning the past thirty years. All the available data also show that the apparent brightness of $`\eta `$ Carinae fluctuates with no obvious period. We also see intervals (on the order of months) with short lived increases in apparent brightness similar to those reported by van Genderen, Sterken, & Allen (2003a). The 2003.5 event, as observed in the brightness fluctuations of the central star at visual wavelengths, was characterized by a roughly six month rise, then a sharp dip in most filters, followed by a recovery to the highest flux observed for the central star in recent years, which may be the start of another significant brightening episode. Again we emphasize that since 1997 the central star has brightened substantially faster than the Homunculus (compare Figures 4 and 7).

The STIS, ACS, H$`\alpha `$, and AAVSO data all have notable trends which began about 200 days before the 2003.54 event. The visual band photometry from the STIS, ACS, and AAVSO began to brighten significantly in January 2003 (Figures 9 & 6 and also Fernandez Lajus et al. (2003)) which coincided with a steep drop in H$`\alpha `$ luminosity (Figure 5) and the beginning of a dip in brightness in the near-UV (Figure 6). The start time for this pre-event activity is important because most models which invoke a binary companion to trigger the events place the secondary on a very eccentric orbit where it is in close proximity to the primary for only a very brief period of time during each cycle. Feast, Whitelock, & Marang (2001) showed that the $`J`$, $`H`$, $`K`$ and $`L`$ bands brightened roughly 500 days before the time of the events over the past two decades with an additional sharp rise in the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K`$ bands about 80 days prior to the 1998.0 event. The X-ray flux from $`\eta `$ Car (Ishibashi et al. (1999) and M. Corcoran’s web page444http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/corcoran/eta\_car/etacar\_rxte\_lightcurve/ for data on the recent event) also increased before the 1998.0 and 2003.54 events, preceding them by about 350 and 700 days respectively. It is not necessary or expected that all of the pre-event activity will temporally coincide since each of these data measure activity which occurs at different radii from the star and a shock front which pushes deeper as the event proceeds will not affect each process simultaneously. Also, as noted below there is compelling evidence that the state and distribution of the material immediately surrounding the central star has evolved over time so while the activity prior to the event should maintain roughly the same sequential order, the exact start times relative to the event could potentially change from cycle to cycle.

The ACS/HRC data show that the brief dip in apparent brightness during the 2003.5 event is not achromatic. The ACS data show that the depth of the dip is wavelength dependent; the dip is deeper at shorter wavelengths and the brightness continually increased in the HRC/F550M filter through the last data point. However, Feast, Whitelock, & Marang (2001) showed that the brief decrease or dip in luminosity occurred at all of the near-IR wavelengths during the 1998.0 event (Figure 9, reproduced from Feast, Whitelock, & Marang (2001)) and Whitelock, Marang, & Crause (2003) reported similar activity during the 2003.5 event. This leaves two possibilities which are not mutually exclusive:

1. The decrease in brightness occurs later at redder wavelengths and/or
2. The decrease in brightness is driven entirely by increased line opacities, decreased emission lines, and Balmer and Paschen continua formed in the wind, rather than a change in the star’s continuum flux.

Feast, Whitelock, & Marang (2001) show that during the 1998.0 event, the dip in the $`J`$ band occurred about 35 days later than the dip in the X-Rays. They also note that the epoch of the minimum in the dip increases slightly with increasing effective wavelength (Figure 9). Whitelock, Marang, & Crause (2003) reported that during the 2003.5 event the dip in the $`J`$ and $`L`$ bands began sometime between MJD 52809.5 (2003.467) and 52814.5 (2003.481), which preceded the observed dip in Johnson-Cousins $`BVRI`$ by about one to two weeks (Fernandez Lajus et al., 2003; van Genderen, Sterken, Allen, & Liller, 2003b). (Note that wavelengths around 2 $`\mu `$m observed by Feast, Whitelock, & Marang (2001) presumably represent free-free emission in the wind at radii substantially larger than the photosphere at visual wavelengths.) Given only the HST data, one might suspect that dip in the HRC/F550M filter may have occurred between data points and the slight rise observed at MJD 52803.1 (2003.45) is the rise in luminosity which precedes the dip. However, the HRC/550M observation at MJD 52840.1 (2003.55) shows a rise in flux roughly coincident with the minimum observed in $`BVRI`$ by Fernandez Lajus et al. (2003) and van Genderen, Sterken, Allen, & Liller (2003b). Therefore, it is unlikely that we missed the dip in HRC/550M due to sampling.

Likewise, strong P-Cygni absorption is present in the hydrogen lines during the event (Davidson, Ishibashi, Gull, & Humphreys, 1999b). Since the hydrogen emission lines contribute significantly to the total brightness of the central star, anything that changes their profiles will change the brightness measured in a filter which they influence. The HRC/F550M filter covers none of the prominent emission lines and it shows no dip concurrent with the dip in the other filters. Therefore, this may indicate that the bolometric luminosity of the central star is largely unaffected by the mechanism which causes the observed decrease in brightness.

Davidson et al. (1999b) discuss several possible explanations for the variability in the brightness of the central star of $`\eta `$ Carinae. Since the star itself radiates near the Eddington Limit, there is little room for rapid or dramatic changes in bolometric luminosity. This is supported by the fact that the surrounding nebula, which acts as a giant calorimeter for the central star, varies in brightness on a significantly smaller scale. If the bolometric luminosity of the central star stays roughly constant, then significant variations in its brightness may be more appropriately interpreted as changes in the density, temperature, and spatial distribution of intervening circumstellar material. An expanding shell of ejecta from an event may be able to produce the observed light curves (Zanella, Wolf, & Stahl, 1984; Davidson, Ishibashi, Gull, & Humphreys, 1999b; Davidson et al., 1999b; Smith et al., 2003). Any ejected shell should start hot with high opacities from ionized metals and then later shift these opacities to the red as the shell cools and dust forms. Particularly at early stages, this shell may be optically thin and as such would not have a significant impact on the continuum brightness.

The data show that central star of $`\eta `$ Carinae continues to brighten. We are unsure how long this trend can continue but it appears to be driven by an increase in the apparent continuum brightness which may be caused by changes in the intervening circumstellar material along the line of sight, although how or why the circumstellar material may have been been altered is not completely understood. Continued monitoring is critical since coming out of the 2003.5 event there are indications that the central star may undergo another period of sudden dramatic brightening in the near future.

The brief decrease in the star’s brightness during the 2003.5 event was more complicated than expected and changes preceding the event in the optical and near-UV started as early as January 2003. The wavelength dependence of the dip indicates that it cannot be caused by a simple eclipse or occultation. If the primary star is eclipsed by the presumed secondary we would expect to observe some decrease at all wavelengths including the HRC/550M band which measures the continuum. On the other hand if an eclipse of the secondary is sufficient to cause a dip of approximately 0.5 mag in the near UV flux of the central star, then we would expect to find some spectroscopic evidence for the secondary in the HST/STIS spectra during the 5.5 year cycle which is not the case. However, the data may support a shell ejection model for the spectroscopic events. Additional data, including spectra gathered by the STIS during the 2003.5 event, should further constrain the mechanism powering these periodic phenomena.

## 5 Acknowledgments

This research was conducted as part of the HST Treasury Project on $`\eta `$ Carinae via grant no. GO-9420 from the Space Telescope Science Institute. We acknowledge Kris Davidson, Roberta M. Humphreys, and Kazunori Ishibashi for directly assisting with the data and measurements and T.R. Gull for preparing most of the HST observing plans. Other participants in the HST Treasury Project are D. John Hillier, Augusto Damineli, Michael Corcoran, Otmar Stahl, Kerstin Weis, Sveneric Johansson, Fred Hamann, H. Hartman, Nolan Walborn, and Manuel Bautista.

We are also grateful to the AAVSO International Database for the variable star observations contributed by observers worldwide. We individually thank Janet A. Mattei and Elizabeth O. Waagen of the AAVSO who helped us obtain the data and Stan Walker and R. Winfield Jones who provided photoelectric photometry data. We are very appreciative of M. Feast, and P. Whitelock for allowing us to reproduce their figures. And we thank Matt Gray and Qian An for providing the $`\eta `$ Carinae project with computer technical support.


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# Deducing the asymptotic normalization constant of the 2⁺ subthreshold state in 16O from 12C + 𝛼 elastic scattering

## 1 Introduction

The 12C $`(\alpha ,\gamma )`$ 16O capture reaction is very important in nuclear astrophysics: combined with the triple-$`\alpha `$ reaction, it determines the rate of carbon and oxygen resulting from the helium-burning phase in red giants. Measuring this reaction rate is a difficult task: due to the Coulomb barrier, the cross section is very small ($`10^{17}`$ barns at $`E_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}=300`$ keV, the astrophysically-relevant center-of-mass energy). Hence, a theoretical extrapolation from measured higher energies is necessary, which is generally performed with the R-matrix formalism. However, this extrapolation is made very unstable by the presence of two bound states in the 16O spectrum just below the 12C + $`\alpha `$ threshold: a $`1^{}`$ state strongly influences the dominant E1 capture, while a $`2^+`$ state strongly affects the smaller E2 component. Despite some controversy , the E1 component is generally believed to be well constrained by the measurement of the $`\beta `$-delayed $`\alpha `$ spectrum of 16N , leaving the influence of the $`2^+`$ subthreshold state as the dominant source of uncertainty on the total reaction rate.

In the R-matrix formalism, the key parameter is the bound-state asymptotic normalization constant (ANC), which is related to the reduced width. Since this quantity also appears in the description of elastic scattering, it has been proposed to constrain it by precise measurement of elastic-scattering differential cross sections. An R-matrix analysis of the $`2^+`$ phase shifts deduced from an older experiment  leads to the value $`C=402\times 10^3`$ fm-1/2, but no error bar is provided . A recent high-precision measurement of $`N=402`$ differential cross sections at center-of-mass energies between 2 and 6.5 MeV, motivated by the astrophysical context described above, has been performed at Notre-Dame . Though the experimental results are compatible with the older experiment, their R-matrix analysis leads to a totally different ANC value: $`C=154\pm 18\times 10^3`$ fm-1/2. This discrepancy suggests a problem in these R-matrix analyses, which motivates the present work.

In the next section, I perform new R-matrix analyses of the phase shifts deduced from the Notre-Dame experiment  and solve the above contradiction. A brief comparison with the potential model is then made in the last section.

## 2 R-matrix analyses of the 12C + $`\alpha `$ elastic-scattering phase shifts

In the R-matrix description of elastic scattering, a partial-wave decomposition of the differential cross section is performed. The phase shifts of a given partial wave are expressed as the sum of a hard-sphere background term with radius $`a`$ and an R-matrix or ”resonant” term which is parameterized in terms of energies and reduced widths of the states in the given partial wave. These states may be actual resonances at positive energies, which lead to rapid variations in the elastic-scattering excitation functions and are experimentally visible, but they may also lie outside the measured energy region and only lead to a smooth background influence in the measured region. These background terms may correspond either to bound states (negative energy), which have a clear physical meaning, or to high-(positive-)energy states, which are generally introduced for phenomenological reasons and have a less clear physical meaning.

Figure 1 shows a fit of the $`\mathrm{}=0`$ 12C + $`\alpha `$ elastic-scattering phase shifts. There is only one narrow resonance at 4.9 MeV, superimposed on a smooth background. Let us examine the different contributions to that background by first considering a simple hard-sphere term. The dashed curve is the best fit, obtained for $`a=3.66`$ fm; it corresponds to a deep minimum of $`\chi ^2`$ as a function of $`a`$, as shown on Fig. 2, but it is clearly not satisfactory. The first way to improve this fit is to consider bound states. I have checked that the two $`0^+`$ bound states of 16O, when added into the fit, do not improve the situation: they are too far away from the measured region. In Ref. , the $`0_2^+`$ state is however taken into account into the fit and a very small reduced width (and hence a very small ANC) is obtained. I believe this small ANC has no physical meaning: it only indicates that the fit is not less good when the bound state is not included. The second way to improve the fit is to consider a high-energy phenomenological state. The full curves in Figs. 1 and 2 correspond to that case. The fit is now satisfactory; it corresponds to a clear minimum of $`\chi ^2`$ for $`a=5.85`$ fm, which is close to the value of $`5.5`$ fm obtained in Ref. .

The present analysis thus confirms that the R-matrix radius can be constrained by elastic scattering, as claimed in Ref. . The origin of this constrain is mostly the $`\mathrm{}=0`$ partial wave: I have checked that the minimum of $`\chi ^2`$ is much less marked for other partial waves (see below the case of $`\mathrm{}=2`$). This can be explained by the fact that the background phase shifts decrease for increasing angular momentum. The present results also show that the value of the radius strongly depends on the presence or absence of a high-energy background state. While this radius is physically understandable in the absence of high-energy state (3.66 fm is close to the sum of the matter radii of the 12C and $`\alpha `$ nuclei), the fit is unsatisfactory; on the other hand, with a high-energy state, the fit becomes good but the physical meaning of the radius, 5.85 fm, is less clear.

Let us now go to higher angular momenta: for each partial wave, a high-energy state is necessary to get a satisfactory fit of the phase shifts, as for $`\mathrm{}=0`$. The background contains thus at least two terms. To extract a bound-state ANC from the phase shifts, one has thus to disentangle the bound-state background contribution from a total background which consists of three terms (see Fig. 2 of Ref. ). I have shown above that this was not possible for $`\mathrm{}=0`$. The same conclusion holds for the $`3^{}`$ bound state, in contrast to what is done in Ref. : the fit of the phase shifts is not better with the bound state. In both cases, this can be understood by the rather low energy of the bound states; for subthreshold states, one could expect the situation to be better. For the $`1^{}`$ state, however, no evidence of better fit is obtained in Ref. . The general tendency thus seems to be that bound states do not make the fit of elastic scattering better. With this in mind, the results of Refs.  and  for $`\mathrm{}=2`$ are rather surprising.

I have tried to reproduce these results but did not find any relevant $`\chi ^2`$ minimum which could lead to a constrain on the ANC. The situation for $`\mathrm{}=2`$ is actually very similar to that for $`\mathrm{}=0`$, as shown by Fig. 3: a good fit requires a high-energy background state but does not require a bound-state term. The situation is best illustrated on Fig. 4, where the $`\chi ^2`$ on the phase shifts is plotted as a function of $`a`$ and $`C`$. There is a valley of satisfactory values for these parameters, which ranges from $`C=0`$ (no bound state in the fit) to at least $`C=200\times 10^3`$ fm-1/2. These fits are satisfactory in the sense that they give a good graphical fit of the phase shifts (see Fig. 3) but they are not totally satisfactory from the point of view of $`\chi ^2`$ theory, which provides me from rigorously defining the acceptable values of $`C`$. This is probably due to an underestimation of systematic errors on the phase shifts of Ref. . Figure 4 however clearly shows that the R-matrix fit only provides an upper limit on the ANC, strongly depending on $`a`$. The conclusion is thus the same for all partial waves: an R-matrix analysis of a single partial wave is not able to constrain a bound-state ANC, even when the bound state is close to threshold. This shows that the disagreeing values of $`C`$ obtained in Refs.  and  are unreliable. I think that the $`\chi ^2`$ minimum obtained in Ref.  is due to too restrictive hypotheses on the R-matrix radius and the high-energy state, and that the error bar on $`C`$ obtained in Ref.  neglects systematic errors on the data and is therefore much too small.

## 3 Comparison with the potential model

The above result is not very surprising from the point of view of the potential model: it is well known that, for a given partial wave, different potentials may have bound states at the same energy but different ANC, for the same scattering phase shifts at all energies. Such phase-equivalent potentials are called Bargmann potentials  and are well known in the context of the inverse problem . Such potentials have been constructed for 12C + $`\alpha `$ in Ref. . In the same reference, it is shown that the ANC may however be extracted from the elastic-scattering phase shifts, in the framework of the potential model, provided several partial waves are considered simultaneously. For 12C + $`\alpha `$, this can be achieved by fitting the properties of the $`0_1^+`$ rotational band, to which the $`2^+`$ subthreshold state belongs. This leads to the value $`C=144.5\pm 8.5\times 10^3`$ fm-1/2.


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# A Unified Model of Short and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts, X-Ray Rich Gamma-Ray Bursts, and X-Ray Flashes

## 1 Introduction

For the long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the cosmological distance, the collimated jet, the massive star progenitor, and the association with the supernova are almost established or strongly suggested (e.g., M$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{e}}`$sz$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{a}}`$ros, 2002; Zhang & Mészáros, 2003). However, for short GRBs, little is known since no afterglow has been observed. The origin of the X-ray flashes (XRFs) also remains unclear although many models have been proposed (see Yamazaki, Ioka, & Nakamura, 2004, and references therein). The observed event rate of short GRBs is about a third of the long GRBs while the observed event rate of XRFs is also about a third (Heise et al., 2001; Kippen et al., 2002; Lamb et al., 2003). Although there may be a possible bias effect to these statistics, in an astrophysical sense, these numbers are the same or comparable. If these three phenomena arise from essentially different origins, the similar number of events is just by chance. While if these three phenomena are related like Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies, the similar number of events is natural and the ratio of the event rate tells us something about the geometry of the central engine (Awaki et al., 1991; Antonucci, 1993; Urry & Padovani, 1995). In this Letter, we propose a unified model in which the central engine of short GRBs, long GRBs and XRFs is the same and the apparent differences come essentially from different viewing angles.

## 2 Unified Model

It is suggested that short GRBs are similar to the first 1 sec of long GRBs (Ghirlanda, Ghisellini, & Celotti, 2003). Although short GRBs are harder than long GRBs (Kouveliotou et al., 1993), this difference is mainly due to the difference in the low-energy spectral slope while the peak energy is similar (Ghirlanda, Ghisellini, & Celotti, 2003). Other properties, such as $`V/V_{\mathrm{max}}`$, the angular distribution, the energy dependence of duration and the hard-to-soft spectral evolution of short GRBs, are also similar to those of long GRBs (Lamb et al., 2002). If short GRBs also obey the peak energy-luminosity relation found for the long GRBs (Yonetoku et al., 2003), it is suggested that short and long GRBs have a similar redshift distribution111 Even if the afterglows of the short and long GRBs have a similar mechanism, the current limits are still consistent with the lack of afterglows for short GRBs (Hurley et al., 2002; Lamb et al., 2002; Klotz, Bo$`\ddot{\mathrm{e}}`$r, & Atteia, 2003). (Ghirlanda, Ghisellini, & Celotti, 2003).

These similarities suggest that the difference between short and long GRBs is just the number of pulses, and each pulse is essentially the same (Ramirez-Ruiz & Fenimore, 2000). As shown in Fig. 1, using 4Br catalogue of BATSE (Paciesas et al., 1999), the fluence is roughly in proportion to the duration in the range of 0.01 to 1000 sec (see also Balázs et al., 2003). Thus, we may consider that each pulse is produced by essentially the same unit or the sub-jet, and the GRB jet consists of many sub-jets. If many sub-jets point to our line of sight, the event looks like the long GRB while if a single sub-jet points to us, the event looks like a short GRB. Since we can observe only the angular size of $`\gamma ^1`$ within the GRB jet with the Lorentz factor $`\gamma `$, different observers will see different number of sub-jets depending on the distribution of sub-jets within the GRB jet. Since the angular size of a causally connected region is also $`\gamma ^1<0.01`$, the opening half-angle of a sub-jet can be much smaller than that of the whole GRB jet ($`0.1`$), say $`0.02`$.

XRFs also appear to be related to GRBs. Softer and dimmer GRBs smoothly extend to the XRFs (Heise et al., 2001; Kippen et al., 2002; Lamb et al., 2003; Watoson et al., 2004), while the peak energy-isotropic luminosity/energy relations hold for GRBs as well as XRFs (Sakamoto et al., 2003; Yonetoku et al., 2003; Amati et al., 2002). The total energy including the radio afterglow of XRF 020903, which has a measured redshift, might be similar to that of GRBs (Soderberg et al., 2003). Other properties, such as the duration, the temporal structure and the Band spectrum of the XRFs are also similar to those of the GRBs, suggesting that XRFs are in fact soft and dim GRBs. In the sub-jet model, XRFs are naturally expected when our line of sight is off-axis to any sub-jets (Nakamura, 2000; Ioka & Nakamura, 2001; Yamazaki, Ioka, & Nakamura, 2002, 2003b, 2004).

The origin of sub-jets is not yet clear. In this Letter, we do not discuss the origin of the sub-jets, but argue the implications of the sub-jet model.

## 3 An Example of Numerical Simulation of Our Unified Model

We first show a numerical simulation to demonstrate how the event looks so different depending on the viewing angle in our unified model. Let us consider $`N_{\mathrm{tot}}=350`$ sub-jets, for simplicity, confined in the whole GRB jet whose axis is the same as a $`\vartheta =0`$ axis. For each sub-jet the emission model is the same as in Yamazaki, Ioka, & Nakamura (2003b). Let the opening half-angle of the $`j`$-th sub-jet ($`j=1,\mathrm{},N_{\mathrm{tot}}`$) be $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{sub}}^{\left(j\right)}`$, while the opening half-angle of the whole jet be $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{tot}}`$. The direction of the observer and the axis of the $`j`$-th sub-jet are specified by $`(\vartheta _{\mathrm{obs}},\phi _{\mathrm{obs}})`$ and $`(\vartheta ^{\left(j\right)},\phi ^{\left(j\right)})`$, respectively. We assume the $`j`$-th sub-jet departs at time $`t_{\mathrm{dep}}^{\left(j\right)}`$ from the central engine and emits at radius $`r=r^{\left(j\right)}`$ and time $`t=t^{\left(j\right)}t_{\mathrm{dep}}^{\left(j\right)}+r^{\left(j\right)}/\beta ^{\left(j\right)}c`$, where $`t`$ and $`r`$ are measured in the central engine frame and we set $`t_{\mathrm{dep}}^{\left(j=1\right)}=0`$. For simplicity, all sub-jets are assumed to have the same intrinsic properties, that is $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{sub}}^{\left(j\right)}=0.02`$ rad, $`\gamma ^{\left(j\right)}=100`$ , $`r^{\left(j\right)}=10^{14}`$ cm, $`\alpha _B^{\left(j\right)}=1`$, $`\beta _B^{\left(j\right)}=2.5`$, $`\gamma h\nu _{}^{}{}_{0}{}^{\left(j\right)}=500`$ keV and the amplitude $`A^{\left(j\right)}=\mathrm{const}.`$ for all $`j`$. The departure time of each sub-jet, $`t_{\mathrm{dep}}^{\left(j\right)}`$ is randomly distributed between $`t=0`$ and $`t=t_{\mathrm{dur}}`$, where $`t_{\mathrm{dur}}`$ is the active time of the central engine measured in its own frame and set to $`t_{\mathrm{dur}}=30`$ sec. The opening half-angle of the whole jet is set to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{tot}}=0.2`$ rad as a typical value. We consider the case in which the angular distribution of sub-jets is given by $`P(\vartheta ^{\left(j\right)},\phi ^{\left(j\right)})d\vartheta ^{\left(j\right)}d\phi ^{\left(j\right)}\mathrm{exp}[(\vartheta ^{\left(j\right)}/\vartheta _c)^2/2]d\vartheta ^{\left(j\right)}d\phi ^{\left(j\right)}`$ for $`\vartheta ^{\left(j\right)}<\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{tot}}\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{sub}}`$, where we adopt $`\vartheta _c=0.1`$ rad (Zhang et al., 2003). In this case, sub-jets are concentrated on the $`\vartheta =0`$ axis (i.e., the multiplicity in the center $`n_s10`$). For our adopted parameters, sub-jets are sparsely distributed in the range $`\vartheta _c\vartheta \mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{tot}}`$, however, the whole jet would be entirely filled if the sub-jets were uniformly distributed (i.e., the mean multiplicity $`n_s3`$). Therefore, isolated sub-jets exist near the edge of the whole jet with the multiplicity $`n_s1`$ and there exists a viewing angle where no sub-jets are launched. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show the angular distributions of sub-jets and the directions of four selected lines of sight, the observed time-integrated spectra, and the observed light curves in the X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray bands, respectively. Note here in Figure 2, “A” represents the center of the whole jet and is hidden by the lines of sub-jets.

Long GRB: When we observe the source from the $`\vartheta =0`$ axis (case “A”), we see spiky temporal structures (Fig. 3-A) and $`E_p300`$ keV which are typical for the long GRBs. We may identify case “A” as long GRBs.

XRF and X-ray rich GRB: When the line of sight is away from any sub-jets (cases “B1” and “B2”), soft and dim prompt emission, i.e. XRFs or X-ray rich GRBs are observed with $`E_p=1020`$ keV and $`4`$ orders of magnitude smaller fluence than that of case “A” (Fig. 2). The burst duration is comparable to that in case “A”. These are quite similar to the characteristics of XRFs. We may identify the cases “B1” and “B2” as XRFs or X-ray rich GRBs.

Short GRB: If the line of sight is inside an isolated sub-jet (case “C”), its observed pulse duration is $`50`$ times smaller than case “A” (Fig. 3-C). Contributions to the observed light curve from the other sub-jets are negligible so that the fluence is about a hundredth of the case “A”. These are quite similar to the characteristics of short GRBs. However the hardness ratio ($`=S(100300\mathrm{keV})/S(50100\mathrm{keV})`$) is about 3 which is smaller than the mean hardness of short GRBs ($`6`$). Ghirlanda, Ghisellini, & Celotti (2003) suggested that the hardness of short GRBs is due to the large low-energy photon index $`\alpha _B0.58`$ so that if the central engine launches $`\alpha _B0.58`$ sub-jets to the periphery of the core where $`n_s`$ is small, we may identify the case “C” as the short-hard GRBs. In other words, the hardness of 3 comes from $`\alpha _B=1`$ in our simulation so that if $`\alpha _B0.58`$, the hardness will be 6 or so. We suggest here that not only the isotropic energy but also the photon index may depend on $`\vartheta `$. Another possibility is that if short GRBs are the first 1 sec of the activity of the central engine, the spectrum in the early time might be $`\alpha _B0.58`$ for both the sub-jets in the core and the envelope. This is consistent with a high KS test probability for $`E_p`$ and $`\alpha _B`$ (Ghirlanda, Ghisellini, & Celotti, 2003). These possibilities may have something to do with the origin of $`\alpha _B1`$ for the long GRBs.

X-ray pre/post-cursor: It is quite interesting that in Figure 4, we see the X-ray precursor at $`T_{\mathrm{obs}}60`$ sec in “B2” and the postcursor at $`T_{\mathrm{obs}}65`$–75 sec in “B1”. These can be understood by the model proposed by Nakamura (2000).

## 4 Log-normal Distributions

The total duration of the long and short GRBs are consistent with the log-normal distributions (McBreen et al., 1994). In our sub-jet model, these distributions may be naturally expected as a result of the central limit theorem. Suppose a certain quantity $`q`$ is expressed by a product of random variables $`q=x_1x_2\mathrm{}x_n.`$ Then, $`\mathrm{log}q=\mathrm{log}x_1+\mathrm{log}x_2+\mathrm{}+\mathrm{log}x_n.`$ When the individual distributions of $`\mathrm{log}x_i`$ satisfy certain weak conditions, the distribution of $`\mathrm{log}q`$ obeys the normal distribution in the limit of $`n\mathrm{}`$ by the central limit theorem. However in some cases the log-normal distributions can be achieved only by a few variables (Ioka & Nakamura, 2002). Thus we might say, “Astrophysically, not $`n\mathrm{}`$ but $`n=3`$ gives the log-normal distribution in practice!”. This argument may apply to the log-normal distributions of the peak energy, the pulse fluence and the pulse duration of GRBs (Ioka & Nakamura, 2002).

In our sub-jet model, the short GRBs are due to a single sub-jet. The pulse duration of a single sub-jet is mainly determined by the angular spreading time scale and is given by the product of four variables in the internal shock model (Ioka & Nakamura, 2002) as $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{\mathrm{short}}(1+z)(L/c)(\gamma _s/\gamma _m)^2`$ where $`L`$, $`\gamma _s`$, $`\gamma _m`$ are the separation of two shells, the Lorentz factor of the slow and merged shell in the internal shock model, respectively. Therefore the log-normal distribution of the duration of the short GRBs may be a natural result of the central limit theorem.

In our unified model, the duration of long GRBs is determined by the interval between pulses $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=L/c`$ times the multiplicity of the sub-jets $`n_s`$. For a GRB at redshift $`z`$, the observed duration is given by the product of three random variables, $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{\mathrm{long}}(1+z)(L/c)n_s`$. Therefore the log-normal distribution of the duration of long GRBs may be realized. The ratio of the duration of long GRBs to short GRBs is given by $`n_s(\gamma _m/\gamma _s)^210^2`$. Since in the internal shock model the relative Lorentz factor is not large, this equation suggests that $`n_s=1030`$ which is compatible with the observed number of spikes of the long GRBs.

## 5 Discussions

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{sub}}`$, $`\vartheta _c`$ and $`\overline{n}_s`$ be the typical opening half-angle of the sub-jet, the core size of the whole jet and the mean multiplicity in the core. Then the total number of the sub-jets ($`N_{\mathrm{tot}}`$) is estimated as $`N_{\mathrm{tot}}=\overline{n}_s(\vartheta _c/\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{sub}})^210^3`$ so that the total energy of each sub-jet is $`10^{48}`$ erg. In our model, the event rate of long GRBs is in proportion to $`\vartheta _c^2`$. Let $`M`$ be the number of sub-jets in the envelope of the core with a small multiplicity $`n_s1`$. Then the event rate of short GRBs is in proportion to $`M\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _{\mathrm{sub}}^2`$ so that $`M10`$ is enough to explain the event rate of short GRBs.

Of course, the above numerical values are typical ones and should have a dispersion (Lloyd-Ronning, Dai, & Zhang, 2003). Our core-envelope sub-jet model can have a similar structure to the two component jet model (Berger et al., 2003; Huang et al., 2003; Zhang, Woosley, & Heger, 2003; Ramirez-Ruiz, Celotti, & Rees, 2002) by varying such as $`\overline{n}_s`$ and $`M`$. However the distribution of sub-jets could also have other possibilities, e.g., a hollow-cone distribution like a pulsar, a power law distribution, a Gaussian distribution (Zhang & Mészáros, 2002; Rossi, Lazzati, & Rees, 2002; Zhang et al., 2003) and so on.

Some observers could see a cold spot with small $`n_s`$ in the core to have a small geometrically corrected energy even if the total energy of the GRBs is the same. Thus our model may be compatible with the recent claim that the total kinetic energy has smaller dispersion than the geometrically corrected $`\gamma `$-ray energy (Berger et al., 2003; Bloom, Frail, & Kulkarni, 2003). The X-ray pre-/post-cursor is also expected if off-axis sub-jets are ejected earlier (for precursor) or later (for postcursor) than the main sub-jets (Nakamura, 2000). The viewing angle of the sub-jets may also cause the luminosity-lag/variability/width relations of the GRBs including GRB 980425 (Yamazaki, Yonetoku, & Nakamura, 2003; Ioka & Nakamura, 2001). This multiple sub-jet model is an extreme case of the inhomogeneous or patchy shell model (Kumar & Piran, 2000; Nakamura, 2000). The afterglow variabilities, such as in GRB 021004, may arise from the angular energy fluctuations within the GRB jet (Nakar & Piran, 2003; Piran, Nakar, & Granot, 2003), which might correspond to the inhmogeneous $`n_s`$.

Since the core may be regarded as a uniform jet, our model for the XRFs is analogous to the off-axis uniform jet model (Yamazaki, Ioka, & Nakamura, 2002, 2003b, 2004). However the afterglow could have a different behavior between the core-envelope sub-jet model and the uniform jet model. In the uniform jet model, the afterglows of XRFs should resemble the orphan afterglows that initially have a rising light curve (e.g., Yamazaki, Ioka, & Nakamura, 2003a; Granot et al., 2002). An orphan afterglow may be actually observed in XRF 030723 (Huang et al., 2003), but the light curve may peak too early (Zhang et al., 2003). The optical afterglow of XRF 020903 is not observed initially ($`<0.9`$ days) but may not be consistent with the orphan afterglow (Soderberg et al., 2003). These problems could be overcome by introducing a Gaussian tail with a high Lorentz factor around the uniform jet (Zhang et al., 2003) since the energy redistribution effects may bring the rising light curve to earlier times (Zhang et al., 2003; Kumar & Granot, 2003). The afterglow of a short GRB is difficult to predict since it could resemble both the orphan and normal afterglow depending on the sub-jet configuration within the envelope.

Since all bursts have the same progenitor, our model suggests that the short GRBs and the XRFs are also associated with supernovae. The radio calorimetry will also give a similar energy to long GRBs because of the same reason. Our unified model will be refuted if the locations of short GRBs are mainly in the halo of the galaxy, as in the coalescing binary neutron star model (Bloom, Kulkarni, & Djorgovski, 2002).

Interestingly our model also predicts off-axis short GRBs or short XRFs. However these bursts will be difficult to detect since short XRFs, which have a multiplicity of $`n_s1`$, will be $`30`$ times dimmer than XRFs with $`n_s30`$. Note that the short XRFs will be longer than the short GRBs since the pulse duration grows as the viewing angle increases (Ioka & Nakamura, 2001; Yamazaki, Ioka, & Nakamura, 2002). The event rate of short XRFs will depend on the configuration of the sub-jets in the envelope. Further observations are necessary to determine the envelope structure.

We would like to thank G. R. Ricker, T. Murakami, N. Kawai, A. Yoshida, and K. Touma for useful comments and discussions. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for for the 21st Century COE “Center for Diversity and Universality in Physics” and also supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, No.05008 (RY), No.660 (KI), No.14047212 (TN), and No.14204024 (TN).