text:
# The Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity Mission

## 1 Introduction

Einstein’s general theory of relativity (GR) began with its empirical success in 1915 by explaining the anomalous perihelion precession of Mercury’s orbit, using no adjustable theoretical parameters. Shortly thereafter, Eddington’s 1919 observations of star lines-of-sight during a solar eclipse confirmed the doubling of the deflection angles predicted by the theory as compared to Newtonian-like and Equivalence Principle arguments. From these beginnings, GR has been verified at ever higher accuracy. Thus, microwave ranging to the Viking Lander on Mars yielded accuracy $``$0.1% in the tests of GR . The astrometric observations of quasars on the solar background performed with Very-Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) improved the accuracy of the tests of gravity to $``$ 0.03% . Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) provided $``$ 0.01% verification of GR via precision measurements of the lunar orbit . Finally, the recent experiments with the Cassini spacecraft improved the accuracy of the tests to $``$ 0.0023% . As a result, GR has become the standard theory of gravity when astrometry and spacecraft navigation are concerned.

However, the continued inability to merge gravity with quantum mechanics and recent cosmological data indicate that the pure tensor gravity of GR may need modification or augmentation. Recent work in scalar-tensor extensions of gravity which are consistent with present cosmological models  motivate new searches for very small deviations of relativistic gravity in the solar system, at levels of 10-5 to 10-7 of the post-Newtonian effects or essentially to achieve accuracy comparable with the size of the effects of the 2nd order in the gravitational field strength. This requires few orders of magnitude improvement in experimental precision from present tests.

When the light deflection in solar gravity is concerned, the magnitude of the 1st order effect, as predicted by GR for the light ray just grazing the limb of the Sun, is $`1.75`$ arcsecond. The effect varies inversely with the impact parameter. The 2nd order term is almost six orders of magnitude smaller resulting in $`3.5`$ microarcseconds ($`\mu `$as) light deflection effect, and which falls off inversely as the square of the light ray’s impact parameter . The small magnitudes of the effects emphasize the fact that, among the four forces of nature, gravitation is the weakest interaction; it acts at very long distances and controls the large-scale structure of the universe, thus, making the precision tests of gravity a very challenging task. The ability to measure the 1st order light deflection term at the accuracy comparable with the effects of the 2nd order is of the utmost importance for the gravitational theory and is the challenge for the 21st century fundamental physics.

The LATOR mission concept will directly address these challenges . The test will be performed in the solar gravity field using optical interferometry between two micro-spacecraft. Precise measurements of the angular position of the spacecraft will be made using a fiber coupled multi-chanelled optical interferometer on the ISS with a 100 m baseline. The primary objective of the LATOR Mission will be to measure the gravitational deflection of light by the solar gravity to accuracy of 0.1 picoradians, which corresponds to $``$10 picometers (pm) on a 100 m baseline.

In conjunction with laser ranging among the spacecraft and the ISS, LATOR will allow measurements of the gravitational deflection by a factor of more than 3,000 better than had recently been accomplished with the Cassini spacecraft. In particular, this mission will not only measure the key PPN parameter $`\gamma `$ to unprecedented levels of accuracy of 10-8, it will also reach ability to measure the next post-Newtonian order ($`c^4`$) of light deflection resulting from gravity’s intrinsic non-linearity. As a result, this experiment will measure values of other PPN parameters such as $`\delta `$ to $`10^3`$ (never measured before), the solar quadrupole moment parameter $`J_2`$ (which is sized at 0.2 $`\mu `$as using theoretical value of $`J_210^7`$) to 1 part in 20, and the frame dragging effects (the nominal effect is $`\pm 0.7\mu `$as) on light due to the solar angular momentum to precision of $`10^2`$.

Technologically LATOR is a very sound concept as all the technologies that are needed for its success have been already demonstrated as a part of the JPL’s Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) development. The LATOR concept arose from several developments at NASA and JPL that initially enabled optical astrometry and metrology, and also led to developing expertize needed for the precision gravity experiments. Technology that has become available in the last several years such as low cost microspacecraft, medium power highly efficient solid state and fiber lasers, and the development of long range interferometric techniques make possible an unprecedented factor of 3,000 improvement in this test of GR possible. This mission is unique and is the natural next step in solar system gravity experiments which fully exploits modern technologies.

This paper organized as follows: Section 2 provides more information about the theoretical framework, the PPN formalism, used to describe the gravitational experiments in the solar system. This section also summarizes the science motivation for the precision tests of gravity that recently became available. Section 3 provides an overview for the LATOR experiment. Section 4 discusses the next steps in the mission development.

## 2 Scientific Motivation

### 2.1 PPN Theoretical Framework

Generalizing on a phenomenological parameterization of the gravitational metric tensor field which Eddington originally developed for a special case, a method called the PPN metric has been developed (see ). This method represents the gravity tensor’s potentials for slowly moving bodies and weak interbody gravity, and it is valid for a broad class of metric theories including general relativity as a unique case. The several parameters in the PPN metric expansion vary from theory to theory, and they are individually associated with various symmetries and invariance properties of underlying theory. Gravity experiments can be analyzed in terms of the PPN metric, and an ensemble of experiments will determine the unique value for these parameters, and hence the metric field, itself.

In locally Lorentz-invariant theories the expansion of the metric field for a single, slowly-rotating gravitational source in PPN parameters given as

$`g_{00}`$ $`=`$ $`12{\displaystyle \frac{M}{r}}Q(r,\theta )+2\beta {\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{r^2}}+𝒪(c^6),`$
$`g_{0i}`$ $`=`$ $`2(\gamma +1){\displaystyle \frac{[\stackrel{}{J}\times \stackrel{}{r}]_i}{r^3}}+𝒪(c^5),`$ (1)
$`g_{ij}`$ $`=`$ $`\delta _{ij}\left[1+2\gamma {\displaystyle \frac{M}{r}}Q(r,\theta )+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\delta {\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{r^2}}\right]+𝒪(c^6),`$
where $`M`$ and $`\stackrel{}{J}`$ being the mass and angular momentum of the Sun, $`Q(r,\theta )=(1J_2\frac{R^2}{r^2}\frac{3\mathrm{cos}^2\theta 1}{2})`$ with $`J_2`$ being the quadrupole moment of the Sun with $`R`$ being its radius. $`r`$ is the distance between the observer and the center of the Sun. $`\beta ,\gamma ,\delta `$ are the PPN parameters and in GR they are all equal to l. The $`M/r`$ term in the $`g_{00}`$ equation is the Newtonian limit; the terms multiplied by the post-Newtonian parameters $`\beta ,\gamma `$, are post-Newtonian terms. The term multiplied by the post-post-Newtonian parameter $`\delta `$ also enters the calculation of the relativistic light deflection.

The PPN formalism has proved to be a versatile method to plan gravitational experiments in the solar system and to analyze the data obtained . Different experiments test different combinations of PPN parameters (see ). Using the recent Cassini result  of $`\gamma 1=(2.1\pm 2.3)\times 10^5`$, the parameter $`\beta `$ was measured as $`\beta 1=(0.9\pm 1.1)\times 10^4`$ from LLR. The parameter $`\delta `$ has not yet been measured though its value can be inferred from other measurements.

The technology has advanced to the point that one can consider carrying out tests in a weak field to 2nd order in the field strength parameter. Although any measured anomalies in 1st or 2nd order metric gravity potentials will not determine strong field gravity, they would signal that modifications in the strong field domain will exist. The converse is perhaps more interesting: if to high precision no anomalies are found in the lowest order metric potentials, and this is reinforced by finding no anomalies at the next order, then it follows that any anomalies in the strong gravity environment are correspondingly quenched under all but exceptional circumstances.

We shall discuss the recent motivations for the precision gravity tests below in more details.

### 2.2 Motivations for New Gravity Tests

The continued inability to merge gravity with quantum mechanics suggests that the pure tensor gravity of GR needs modification or augmentation. The tensor-scalar theories of gravity, where the usual general relativity tensor field coexists with one or several long-range scalar fields, are believed to be the most promising extension of the theoretical foundation of modern gravitational theory. The superstring, many-dimensional Kaluza-Klein, and inflationary cosmology theories have revived interest in the so-called ‘dilaton fields’, i.e. neutral scalar fields whose background values determine the strength of the coupling constants in the effective four-dimensional theory. The importance of such theories is that they provide a possible route to the quantization of gravity and unification of physical law. Although the scalar fields naturally appear in the theory, their inclusion predicts different relativistic corrections to Newtonian motions in gravitating systems. These deviations from GR lead to a violation of the Equivalence Principle (either weak or strong or both), modification of large-scale gravitational phenomena, and generally lead to space and time variation of physical “constants.” As a result, this progress has provided new strong motivation for high precision relativistic gravity tests.

The recent theoretical findings suggest that the present agreement between Einstein’s theory and experiment might be naturally compatible with the existence of a scalar contribution to gravity. Damour and Nordtvedt  (see also  for the recent summary of a dilaton-runaway scenario and references therein) have found that a scalar-tensor theory of gravity may contain a ‘built-in’ cosmological attractor mechanism towards GR. Their speculation assumes that the parameter $`\frac{1}{2}(1\gamma )`$ was of order of 1 in the early universe, at the time of inflation, and has evolved to be close to, but not exactly equal to, zero at the present time. The numbers for $`1\gamma `$ under the various attractor scenarios need checking on under the ‘new’ versions of the mechanism  in which the scalar fields’ migrations toward the attractor start back at the time of inflation. The expected deviation from zero may be of order of the inverse of the redshift of the time of inflation, or somewhere between $`10^5`$ and $`10^7`$ depending on the total mass density of the universe: $`1\gamma 7.3\times 10^7(H_0/\mathrm{\Omega }_0^3)^{1/2}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ is the ratio of the current density to the closure density and $`H_0`$ is the Hubble constant in units of 100 km/sec/Mpc. As a result, this recent work in scalar-tensor extensions of gravity motivate new searches for very small deviations of gravity in the solar system, at levels of 10-5 to $`5\times 10^8`$ of the post-Newtonian effects.

There is now multiple evidence indicating that 70% of the critical density of the universe is in the form of a “negative-pressure” dark energy component; there is no understanding as to its origin and nature. The fact that the expansion of the universe is currently undergoing a period of acceleration now seems well confirmed: it is directly measured from the light-curves of several hundred type Ia supernovae , and independently inferred from observations of CMB . Cosmic speed-up can be accommodated within general relativity by invoking a mysterious cosmic fluid with large negative pressure, dubbed dark energy. The simplest possibility for dark energy is a cosmological constant; unfortunately, the smallest estimates for its value are 55 orders of magnitude too large (for reviews see ). Most of the theoretical studies operate in the shadow of the cosmological constant problem, the most embarrassing hierarchy problem in physics. This fact has motivated a host of other possibilities, most of which assume $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$, with the dynamical dark energy being associated with a new scalar field. However, none of these suggestions is compelling and most have serious drawbacks. Given the challenge of this problem, a number of authors  considered the possibility that cosmic acceleration is not due to some kind of new physics, but rather arises from new gravitational physics.

The PPN parameter $`\gamma `$ may be the key parameter that holds the answers to most of the questions discussed above. In particular, extensions to GR were shown to predict an experimentally consistent universe evolution without the need for dark energy. These dynamical models are expected to produce measurable contribution to the parameter $`\gamma `$ in experiments conducted in the solar system also at the level of $`1\gamma 10^710^9`$, thus further motivating the relativistic gravity research. By testing gravity at ever higher accuracy, one not simply discriminates among the alternative theories of gravity; in effect, one obtains the critical information on the beginning, current evolution and ultimate future of our universe.

This unexpected discovery demonstrates the importance of testing the new ideas about the nature of gravity. We are presently in the “discovery” phase of this new physics, and while there are many theoretical conjectures as to the origin of a non-zero $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, it is essential that we exploit every available opportunity to elucidate the physics that is at the root of the observed phenomena.

In summary, there are a number of theoretical reasons to question the validity of GR. The LATOR mission is designed to provide the needed experimental support to this quest.

### 2.3 PPN Parameters in the Near Future

Prediction of possible deviation of PPN parameters from the general relativistic values provides a robust theoretical paradigm and constructive guidance for experiments that would push beyond the empirical upper bound on $`\gamma `$  of $`\gamma 1=(2.1\pm 2.3)\times 10^5`$. Note that the Eddington parameter $`\gamma `$, whose value in GR is unity, is perhaps the most fundamental PPN parameter, in that $`(1\gamma )`$ is a measure, for example, of the fractional strength of the scalar gravity interaction in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Within perturbation theory for such theories, all other PPN parameters to all relativistic orders collapse to their GR values in proportion to $`(1\gamma )`$. Therefore, measurement of the 1st order light deflection effect at the level of accuracy comparable with the 2nd-order contribution would provide the crucial information separating alternative scalar-tensor theories of gravity from GR discussed in ().

Tests of fundamental gravitational physics feature prominently among NASA’s goals, missions, and programs. Among the NASA missions that will study the nature of gravity, we discuss here the missions most relevant to LATOR science:

The Gravity Probe-B (GP-B) mission will be able to measure the geodetic precession effect to $`2\times 10^5`$ and to measure the frame-dragging effect to $`3\times 10^3`$. As a result, this experiment will permit direct measurement of the parameter $`\gamma `$ with accuracy of $`5\times 10^5`$. While the LATOR’s accuracy to measure the Lense-Thirring precession will be limited by the small value of the solar angular momentum, the PPN parameter $`\gamma `$ will be measured with accuracy of almost 3.5 orders of magnitude better than that expected with GP-B.

LLR contribution to the relativistic tests of gravity comes from its ability to study the lunar orbit to a high accuracy. As such, LLR is basically a $`\beta `$ experiment rather than a $`\gamma `$ experiment, primarily testing the non-linearity of gravity theory. LATOR will benefit from the technologies developed for LLR over the more than 35 years history of this experiment. However, LATOR will be able to directly measure the PPN parameter $`\gamma `$ with accuracy of almost 4 orders of magnitude better than currently available.

A lander on Mars, with a Cassini-class communication system, may be capable to measure $`\gamma `$ with accuracy of 10-6, limited by the asteroid belt noise. As oppose ranging to Mars, LATOR will not be affected by the asteroid modeling problem. Redundancy of the optical truss and a particular geometry makes LATOR insensitive to such a noise, allowing it to outperform such a mission by at least two orders of magnitude.

An ambitious test of one of the foundations of GR – the Equivalence Principle (EP) – is proposed for the STEP (Space Test of Equivalence Principle) mission. STEP will test the composition independence of gravitational acceleration for laboratory-sized bodies by searching for a violation of the EP with a fractional acceleration accuracy of $`\mathrm{\Delta }a/a10^{18}`$ . The STEP mission will be able to test very precisely for any non-metric, long range interactions in physical law, however the results of this mission will say nothing about the metric component of gravity itself. LATOR is designed specifically to test the metric nature of the gravitational interaction. It will be able to test a number of relativistic effects predicted by the metric gravity and will significantly improve the accuracy for several of these tests. In particular, LATOR will test the key PPN parameter $`\gamma `$ to unprecedented levels of accuracy of $`10^8`$, it will also reach ability to measure effects of the order ($`c^4`$) of light deflection resulting from gravity’s intrinsic non-linearity (further testing the metric structure of the gravity field); it will provide the value for the solar quadrupole moment parameter, $`J_2`$ (very important for the solar-terrestrial physics and gravitational wave experiments in the solar system, but never measured).

A major advantage of the LATOR mission concept is its independence on both – the drag-free spacecraft environment and the phase-coherent laser transponding techniques. The LATOR experiment is optimized for it’s primary science goal – to measure deflection of light in the solar gravity accurate to 10-8. There is no technological breakthroughs needed to satisfy the LATOR mission requirements. All the required technologies exist and most are space-qualified as a part of our on-going interferometry program at JPL.

We shall now discuss LATOR in more details.

## 3 Overview of LATOR

The LATOR experiment uses laser interferometry between two micro-spacecraft (placed in heliocentric orbits, at distances $``$ 1 AU from the Sun) whose lines of sight pass close by the Sun to accurately measure deflection of light in the solar gravity. Another component of the experimental design is a long-baseline ($`100`$ m) multi-channel stellar optical interferometer placed on the ISS. Figure 1 shows the general concept for the LATOR mission including the mission-related geometry, experiment details and required accuracies.

### 3.1 Mission Design

The key element of the LATOR experiment is a redundant geometry optical truss to measure the departure from Euclidean geometry caused by Gravity. The triangle in figure has three independent quantities but three arms are monitored with laser metrology. From three measurements one can calculate the Euclidean value for any angle in this triangle. In Euclidean geometry these measurements should agree to high accuracy. This geometric redundancy enables LATOR to measure the departure from Euclidean geometry caused by the solar gravity field to a very high accuracy. The difference in the measured angle and its Euclidean value is the non-Euclidean signal.

On the ISS, all vibrations can be made common mode for both ends of the interferometer by coupling them by an external laser truss. Additionally, the orbital motion of the ISS provides variability in the interferometer’s baseline projection needed to resolve the fringe ambiguity of the stable laser light detection by an interferometer.

The 1st order effect of light deflection in the solar gravity caused by the solar mass monopole is 1.75 arcseconds, which corresponds to a delay of $``$0.85 mm on a 100 m baseline. We currently are able to measure with laser interferometry distances with an accuracy (not just precision but accuracy) of $`<`$ 1 pm. In principle, the 0.85 mm gravitational delay can be measured with $`10^9`$ accuracy versus $`10^5`$ available with current techniques. However, we use a conservative estimate for the delay of 10 pm which would produce the measurement of $`\gamma `$ to accuracy of $`10^8`$ rather than $`10^9`$. The 2nd order light deflection is 3.5 $`\mu `$as (or $``$ 1702 pm) and with 10 pm accuracy it could be measured with accuracy of $`10^3`$, including first ever measurement of the PPN parameter $`\delta `$. The frame dragging effect is $`\pm 0.7\mu `$as (or $`\pm `$ 339 pm) would be measured with $`10^2`$ accuracy and the solar quadrupole moment (using theoretical value $`J_210^7`$) can be modestly measured to 1 part in 20, all with respectable signal to noise ratios.

The laser interferometers use $``$2W lasers and $``$20 cm optics for transmitting the light between spacecraft. Solid state lasers with single frequency operation are readily available and are relatively inexpensive. Assume the lasers are ideal monochromatic sources and the measured lengths are 2AU = $`3\times 10^8`$ km. The beam spread is 1 $`\mu `$m/20 cm = 5 $`\mu `$rad. The beam at the receiver is $``$1,500 km in diameter, a 20 cm receiver will detect $`1.71\times 10^2`$ photons/sec assuming 50% q.e. detectors. 5 pm resolution for a measurement of $`\gamma `$ to $`10^8`$ is possible with $``$ 10 sec of integration.

We now outline the basic elements of the LATOR trajectory and optical design.

### 3.2 A 3:2 Earth Resonant Orbit

The two LATOR spacecraft will be launched into the orbit with a 3:2 resonance with the Earth . For this orbit, in 13 months after the launch, the spacecraft are within $`10^{}`$ of the Sun with first occultation occuring in 15 months after launch. At this point, LATOR is orbiting at a slower speed than the Earth, but as LATOR approaches its perihelion, its motion in the sky begins to reverse and the spacecraft is again occulted by the Sun 18 months after launch. As the spacecraft slows down and moves out toward aphelion, its motion in the sky reverses again and it is occulted by the Sun for the third and final time 21 months after launch.

Figures 2 shows the occultations in more details, giving the trajectory when the spacecraft would be within 10 of the Sun as viewed from the Earth. The two similar periodic curves give the Sun-Earth-Probe angles for the 2 spacecraft while the lower smooth curve gives the angular separation of the spacecraft as seen from the Earth.

### 3.3 Optical Design

A single aperture of the interferometer on the ISS consists of three 10 cm diameter telescopes. One of the telescopes with a very narrow bandwidth laser line filter in front and with an InGAs camera at its focal plane, sensitive to the 1.3 $`\mu `$m laser light, serves as the acquisition telescope to locate the spacecraft near the Sun.

The second telescope emits the directing beacon to the spacecraft. Both spacecraft are served out of one telescope by a pair of piezo controlled mirrors placed on the focal plane. The properly collimated laser light ($``$10W) is injected into the telescope focal plane and deflected in the right direction by the piezo-actuated mirrors.

The third telescope is the laser light tracking interferometer input aperture which can track both spacecraft at the same time. To eliminate beam walk on the critical elements of this telescope, two piezo-electric stages are used to move two single-mode fiber tips on a spherical surface while maintaining focus and beam position on the fibers and other optics. Dithering at a few Hz is used to make the alignment to the fibers and the subsequent tracking of the two spacecraft completely automatic. The interferometric tracking telescopes are coupled together by a network of single-mode fibers whose relative length changes are measured internally by a heterodyne metrology system to an accuracy of less than 10 pm.

The spacecraft are identical in construction and contain a relatively high powered (2 W), stable (2 MHz per hour $``$ 500 Hz per second), small cavity fiber-amplified laser at 1.3 $`\mu `$m. Three quarters of the power of this laser is pointed to the Earth through a 20 cm aperture telescope and its phase is tracked by the interferometer. With the available power and the beam divergence, there are enough photons to track the slowly drifting phase of the laser light. The remaining part of the laser power is diverted to another telescope, which points towards the other spacecraft. In addition to the two transmitting telescopes, each spacecraft has two receiving telescopes. The receiving telescope on the ISS, which points towards the area near the Sun, has laser line filters and a simple knife-edge coronagraph to suppress the Sun light to $`10^6`$ of the light level of the light received from the space station. The receiving telescope that points to the other spacecraft is free of the Sun light filter and the coronagraph.

In addition to the four telescopes they carry, the spacecraft also carry a tiny (2.5 cm) telescope with a CCD camera. This telescope is used to initially point the spacecraft directly towards the Sun so that their signal may be seen at the space station. One more of these small telescopes may also be installed at right angles to the first one to determine the spacecraft attitude using known, bright stars. The receiving telescope looking towards the other spacecraft may be used for this purpose part of the time, reducing hardware complexity. Star trackers with this construction have been demonstrated many years ago and they are readily available. A small RF transponder with an omni-directional antenna is also included in the instrument package to track the spacecraft while they are on their way to assume the orbital position needed for the experiment.

## 4 Conclusions

The LATOR experiment has a number of advantages over techniques that use radio waves to measure gravitational light deflection. The optical technologies allows low bandwidth telecommunications with the LATOR spacecraft. The use of the monochromatic light enables the observation of the spacecraft almost at the limb of the Sun. The use of narrowband filters, coronagraph optics and heterodyne detection will suppress background light to a level where the solar background is no longer the dominant noise source. The short wavelength allows much more efficient links with smaller apertures, thereby eliminating the need for a deployable antenna. Finally, the use of the ISS enables the test above the Earth’s atmosphere – the major source of astrometric noise for any ground based interferometer. This fact justifies LATOR as a space mission.

The LATOR experiment technologically is a very sound concept; all technologies that are needed for its success have been already demonstrated as a part of the JPL’s interferometry program. The LATOR experiment does not need a drag-free system, but uses a geometric redundant optical truss to achieve a very precise determination of the interplanetary distances between the two micro-spacecraft and a beacon station on the ISS. The interest of the approach is to take advantage of the existing space-qualified optical technologies leading to an outstanding performance in a reasonable mission development time. The availability of the ISS makes this mission concept realizable in the very near future; the current mission concept calls for a launch as early as in 2009 at a cost of a NASA MIDEX mission.

LATOR will lead to very robust advances in the tests of fundamental physics: it could discover a violation or extension of GR, or reveal the presence of an additional long range interaction in the physical law. There are no analogs to the LATOR experiment; it is unique and is a natural culmination of solar system gravity experiments.

The work described here was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


format: text

text:
# Multi-phonon scattering and Ti-induced hydrogen dynamics in sodium alanate

## Abstract

We use ab initio methods and neutron inelastic scattering (NIS) to study the structure, energetics, and dynamics of pure and Ti-doped sodium alanate (NaAlH4), focusing on the possibility of substitutional Ti doping. The NIS spectrum is found to exhibit surprisingly strong and sharp two-phonon features. The calculations reveal that substitutional Ti doping is energetically possible. Ti prefers to substitute for Na and is a powerful hydrogen attractor that facilitates multiple Al–H bond breaking. Our results hint at new ways of improving the hydrogen dynamics and storage capacity of the alanates.

Developing safe, cost-effective, and practical means of storing hydrogen is crucial for the advancement of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Presently, there are three generic routes for the solid-state storage of hydrogen: (i) physisorption as in many porous carbon and zeolite materials, (ii) chemisorption as in metal hydrides, and (iii) chemical reaction such as in complex metal hydrides. Among the type (iii) materials, sodium alanate (NaAlH4) has received considerable attention because of its high hydrogen weight capacity and low cost. The release of hydrogen from NaAlH4 occurs via a two-step reaction:

NaAlH4 $``$ $`\frac{1}{3}\text{ Na}\text{3}\text{AlH}\text{6}\text{ + }\frac{2}{3}\text{ Al + H}\text{2}\text{ (3.7 wt\%)},`$
Na3AlH6 $``$ $`\text{3 NaH + Al + }\frac{3}{2}\text{ H}\text{2}\text{ (1.8 wt\%)},`$ (1)
yielding a total of 5.5 wt% hydrogen. It was recently reported that a few percent of Ti doping in NaAlH4 renders accelerated and reversible hydrogen release under moderate conditions bog97 . In spite of the extensive investigations of Ti-doped NaAlH4 that have resulted, little is known about the mechanism by which Ti enhances the cycling kinetics of hydrogen gro02a ; kiy03 . In fact, even the location of the Ti atoms remains unclear. While it is widely believed that they reside on the surface of the material gro00 , the possibility that Ti is substituted for Na has also been suggested sun02 , but convincing experimental or theoretical evidence is still lacking.

Here we report neutron inelastic scattering (NIS) measurements of phonon density of states and first-principles total energy and dynamics calculations of pure and Ti-doped sodium alanates. We succeed in characterizing the main features in the observed spectra, which display surprisingly strong two-phonon contributions. Furthermore, the calculations show that it is most energetically favorable for Ti to substitute for Na, breaking several Al–H bonds in its vicinity. We also find that Ti-doped NaAlH4 can accommodate extra hydrogen near the dopant. In addition, we examine the effect of the Ti dopants on the vibrational spectrum of neighboring AlH4 groups, which could allow probing the Ti location in doped samples using high resolution spectroscopic techniques.

Three powder samples were investigated: pure NaAlH4, 2% Ti-doped NaAlH4, and Na3AlH6. NaAlH4 was prepared as described in Ref. san02, . NaAlH4 was doped with 2 mol percent TiF3 through mechanical milling according to standard procedure zid99 . Na3AlH6 was synthesized and purified by the method of Huot et al. huo99  The NIS measurements were performed using the Filter Analyzer Neutron Spectrometer (FANS) at the NIST Center for Neutron Research cop95  under conditions that provided energy resolutions of 2–4.5% in the range probed.

The calculations were performed within the plane-wave implementation of the generalized gradient approximation (GGA-PBE per96 ) to density functional theory (DFT) in the ABINIT package gon02 . We used Troullier-Martins pseudopotentials tro93 ; fuc99  treating the following electronic states as valence: 3$`d`$ and 4$`s`$ of Ti, 3$`s`$ and 3$`p`$ of Al, 3$`s`$ of Na, and 1$`s`$ of H. We carefully tested the convergence of our calculations with respect to the plane-wave cutoff and k-point mesh. For example, for the Ti-doped alanate supercells (containing 96 atoms) we used a cutoff of 1250 eV and a 3$`\times `$3$`\times `$2 k-point mesh. The phonon spectrum of the pure compounds was computed using density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) bar01  as implemented in ABINIT. We calculated the phonons corresponding to two $`2\times 2\times 2`$ q-point grids. An interpolation scheme was then used so that the powder-averaged NIS phonon spectra were computed for a $`4\times 4\times 4`$ q-point grid within the incoherent approximation squ .

For hydrogen dynamics studies, we first optimized the tetragonal NaAlH4 and monoclinic Na3AlH6 structures. The results, summarized in Table 1, agree reasonably well with previous X-ray bel82  and neutron hau03 ; ozo  studies. For example, the reported NaAlH4 lattice parameters (at 8 K) hau03  are 4.98 and 11.15 Å, respectively, while we obtain 4.98 and 11.05 Å. The reported H position (0.237,0.384,0.547) is in good agreement with our result.

We also calculated the energy change associated with the two reactions in Eq. (1) and obtained, respectively, 24 and 42 kJ per mol of H2 released, compared to the experimental enthalpies of reaction of 37 and 47 kJ/mol bog00 . The agreement is reasonably good taking into account (i) we cannot directly compare our energy differences with the experimental enthalpies (because we do not consider entropic contributions, etc.) and (ii) the error associated with our first-principles approach is of the order of 5-10 kJ/mol. This error is estimated from the error in the calculated cohesive energies of individual compounds; e.g., we get $`E_{\mathrm{coh}}`$=4.53 eV for the H2 molecule, while the experimental value is 4.49 eV.

The vibrational spectra of NaAlH4 and Na3AlH6 are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. The calculated one-phonon spectrum does not reproduce several experimentally observed features. Yet, including two-phonon processes yields results that are in excellent agreement with the observed spectrum of both compounds. Such strong multi-phonon contributions are unusual, but they seem to be typical of materials with AlHx groups.

The nature of the different phonon bands in Fig. 1 can be determined by computing the modes of the individual AlH4 groups embedded in the crystalline matrix. (Note that the NIS spectrum is dominated by hydrogen modes squ .) As shown in Fig. 3b, we obtain four distinct groups of modes that correspond to the largest features in the one-phonon spectrum of Fig. 3a. Inspection of the eigenvectors allows the characterization of the modes. The lowest-frequency modes are AlH4 rotations, while the peak above 200 meV consists of stretching modes of the AlH4 tetrahedron. The modes in the two intermediate sets are a mixture of displacements and stretches.

Now we extend our calculations to investigate the possibility of substitutional Ti doping of alanates. First we study whether Ti-doped alanate is energetically stable and, if so, where the Ti dopant goes. From the many substitutional and interstitial doping models that could be tried, we choose two that are experimentally motivated. Doping sodium alanate with solid TiCl3 by dry ball-milling results in formation of NaCl and partial desorption of NaAlH4, which leads to formation of aluminum crystallites gro02b . Hence, it seems pertinent to study the substitution of Al and Na by Ti. In the following we denote these doping models by “Ti$``$Al” and “Ti$``$Na”.

We consider supercells containing 16 NaAlH4 formula units, and substitute only one of the Al or Na atoms by Ti. The cohesive energies are obtained as the sum of the individual atom energies minus the energy of the system. The results are given in Table 2; $`E_{\mathrm{coh}}`$ of the pure alanate has been chosen as zero energy, so that positive entries indicate greater stability than the pure system.

Note that the results in Table 2 give the energy change in reactions of the form Ti $`+`$ Na16Al16H64 $``$ Al $`+`$ Na16Al15TiH64, which involve isolated atoms (Ti and Al in this case). These results thus measure the relative stability of pure and doped systems. A positive (and large) entry in the Table indicates that, in principle, it is feasible to obtain the doped structure. Of course, in order to actually accomplish this, it is necessary to identify appropriate reactants that are able to release Ti easily and accommodate the atoms for which Ti substitutes.

We find both Ti$``$Na and Ti$``$Al are energetically more stable than pure alanate; i.e. the system gains energy by accepting a Ti dopant into the bulk and releasing a Na or Al atom. In addition, Ti$``$Na is found to be the most favorable substitution.

The relaxed Ti$``$Na structure presents H atoms that come close to the Ti dopant. The shortest Ti–H distance is 2.05 Å, to be compared with the 2.39 Å Na–H distance in the pure system. Consequently, the distance between the hydrogens close to the dopant and their neighboring Al atoms is longer than the Al–H distance in the pure system; we obtain 1.70 and 1.64 Å, respectively. This type of relaxation is to be expected, since Ti has more electrons than Na to share with neighboring hydrogens.

It may seem surprising that Ti$``$Na has a higher cohesive energy than Ti$``$Al. The typical valences of these atoms certainly suggest otherwise. However, Ti seems to be relatively large for the Al site. In the relaxed Ti$``$Al structure we get a Ti–H bond of 1.82 Å, which is much longer than the 1.64 Å Al–H bonds in pure sodium alanate. This size mismatch is the most likely cause for Ti$``$Al to be energetically less favorable.

The above results do not change significantly when the electrons are allowed to spin polarize or when we allow both atoms and cell to relax (see $`E_{\mathrm{coh}}^{\mathrm{atom}}`$(SP) and $`E_{\mathrm{coh}}^{\mathrm{full}}`$ columns in Table 2). The spin-polarized calculations predict the Ti ion retains one unpaired electron in both Ti$``$Na and Ti$``$Al.

A meaningful modification of the Ti$``$Na doping model is to introduce Na vacancies close to the Ti. Na vacancies should yield a more balanced sum of valence charges and have been invoked in the literature to argue that the Ti dopants reside in the bulk of the system sun02 . Our results for one and two Na vacancies are in Table 2, denoted by “Ti$``$Na+Nav” and “Ti$``$Na+2Nav”, respectively. When spin polarization is allowed, the Ti$``$Na+Nav structure is found to be more stable than the pure system, but significantly less stable than the doping models considered above. On the other hand, the Ti$``$Na+2Nav structure is predicted to be quite unlikely.

The dynamics of the neighboring H atoms could be used as a local probe for the Ti location. However, dynamical calculations for the whole 96-atom supercell are very computationally demanding. Instead, we calculated the vibrational spectrum of a single AlH4 group near the Ti dopant using the finite displacement technique yil00 . The results are shown in Fig. 3. In the Ti$``$Na case (panel c), the Ti dopant mainly affects the high-frequency modes, i.e. those involving stretching of the AlH4 tetrahedron. All the modes in that group soften. The mode that softens most, approximately from 210 meV to 190 meV, is dominated by the displacement of H that is closest to the Ti, and essentially corresponds to its oscillation along the Al–Ti direction. This clearly indicates that the presence of Ti could facilitate breaking of the Al–H bond.

In the Ti$``$Al case (Fig. 3d), the dynamics are modified quite differently since we deal with a TiH4 group. This suggests that, by investigating the phonon spectrum of Ti-doped NaAlH4, one might determine whether Ti dopants go into the bulk of the system and, if so, where they are located. Motivated by this possibility, we measured the phonon spectrum of a 2% Ti-doped sample, but obtained a result essentially identical to that of pure alanate shown in Fig. 1. However, it should be noted that this does not rule out the possibility of substitutional doping in our sample since the amount of Ti is very small, and thus any dopant-induced feature in the spectrum should also be very small and hard to distinguish from the noise. In addition, the NIS spectrum of pure sodium alanate presents significant two-phonon intensity in the 175-200 meV energy range (see Fig. 1), which makes it difficult to identify fine details. Higher resolution spectroscopic measurements, such as Raman scattering, might help elucidate this issue.

The above results suggest that Ti dopants may facilitate the breaking of the Al–H bond. We explored this possibility by moving one H atom to the immediate vicinity of the dopant and then relaxing the system. The resulting structure, which we denote by “Ti$``$Na (H)”, is considerably more stable than the original Ti$``$Na doping model (see $`E_{\mathrm{coh}}`$ in Table 2). In fact, we found that it has not one but two H atoms very close to the Ti. The shortest Ti–H distance is 1.81 Å, and the corresponding Al–H distance is 1.89 Å, i.e. 0.25 Å longer than in pure NaAlH4. Thus the Ti dopant can indeed induce Al–H bond breaking, a necessary step for H2 release.

These results indicate that the Ti$``$Na structure is a local minimum. In Fig. 4 we show the energy change along the transition path leading from Ti$``$Na to Ti$``$Na (H). The Ti$``$Na minimum is very shallow. The calculated energy barrier is around 2.5 meV$``$30 K, indicating that Al–H bonds would immediately break in the presence of Ti. Associated with the shallow well is a collective mode of the Ti$``$Na structure whose frequency can be roughly estimated to be $``$80 meV. Yet, the frequency of the embedded AlH4 mode that we related to the Al–H bond breaking is about 190 meV (see the discussion of Fig. 3c). The reduction from 190 to 80 meV is related to other atomic rearrangements, e.g., the second H coming close to the Ti atom, displacements of the AlH4 groups, etc.

Along these lines, we also considered a less obvious possibility, namely, that Ti drags extra hydrogens into the system. Table 2 shows the result for “Ti$``$Na+H”, which corresponds to placing one extra H in the vicinity of the Ti atom. (In the calculation of this cohesive energy, the extra hydrogen was assigned one half of the energy of the H2 molecule, so that the resulting $`E_{\mathrm{coh}}`$ measures stability against H2 release.) This structure turns out to be very stable. We find a Ti–H bonding distance of 1.82 Å and several AlH4 groups approaching the Ti dopant.

In conclusion, we have used first-principles methods and neutron inelastic scattering to study pure and Ti-doped sodium alanate (NaAlH4), a material that holds great promise for reversible hydrogen storage. The total energy calculations indicate that substitutional Ti doping in NaAlH4 is energetically stable. We find that the dopant prefers to substitute for Na and attracts several hydrogen atoms, softening and breaking the corresponding Al–H bonds. We also find it energetically favorable for the Ti to drag extra H atoms into the system. These results point to an interesting direction for future research, namely, the possibility of producing a new material, sodium-titanium alanate, that might benefit from the ability of Ti to accommodate extra hydrogens in its vicinity and thus exhibit improved H-storage capabilities.

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge fruitful discussions with D. A. Neumann and Mei-Yin Chou.


text:
# The ARGO-YBJ sensitivity to GRBs

## 1 The experiment

The ARGO$``$YBJ detector is currently under construction at the YangBaJing High Altitude Cosmic Ray Laboratory in Tibet (P.R. of China), 4300 $`m`$ above the sea level. It is a full coverage array of dimensions $`74\times 78m^2`$ realized with a single layer of Resistive Plate Counters (RPCs). The area surrounding this central detector (“carpet”), up to $`100\times 110m^2`$, is partially ($`50\%`$) instrumented with RPCs (“guard ring”), for a total active area of $`6400m^2`$ (see left side of Figure 1). The detector basic element is the “pad”, of dimensions $`56\times 62cm^2`$, which defines its space-time granularity in observing shower fronts. Moreover, the detector is divided in $`6\times 2`$ RPCs units (“clusters”) and covered by a 0.5 $`cm`$ thick layer of lead, in order to convert a fraction of the secondary $`\gamma `$-rays in charged particles, and to reduce the time spread of the shower particles Surdo .

## 2 Observational techniques

ARGO$``$YBJ will perform two different types of measurements:

a) Shower technique

Detection of showers with a trigger threshold $`N_{pad}20`$, where $`N_{pad}`$ is the number of fired pads on the detector (“multiplicity”). For these events the position and time of any fired pad will be recorded. An example of shower with $`N_{pad}500`$, recorded with $`10\%`$ of the whole carpet during a test run, is shown in the right side of Figure 1: note the very detailed view of the shower front pattern. From the pads data the shower parameters (core position, arrival direction and size) can be reconstructed.

The trigger condition $`N_{pad}20`$ corresponds to a primary $`\gamma `$-ray energy threshold of a few hundreds GeV, the exact value depending on the source spectrum and on the zenith angle of the observation. A vertical $`\gamma `$-ray of energy $`E120GeV`$ gives a mean number of particles $`N_e=20`$ at the ARGO$``$YBJ altitude.

b) Single particle technique

Every $`0.5s`$ the rate of the single particles hitting the detector is recorded. This measurement allows the detection of the secondary particles from very low energy showers ($`E>10GeV`$) that reach the ground in a number insufficient to trigger the detector operating with the shower technique.

## 3 High energy emission from GRBs

So far the only existing data reporting high energy $`\gamma `$-rays from GRBs come from the observations of EGRET (however, there are also possible TeV emissions claimed in the past by various ground-based experiments, in particular that from GRB970417a recorded by the Milagrito detector Milagrito ). During its lifetime it detected 16 intense events, with a maximum photon energy of $`18GeV`$ Catelli . All their spectra show a power law behaviour without any cutoff, suggesting that a large fraction of GRBs could emit GeV or even TeV $`\gamma `$-rays.

However, high energy $`\gamma `$-rays udergo pair production with infrared and optical stellar photons in the intergalactic space, and are strongly absorbed during their travel towards the Earth. The optical depth of this process $`\tau (E,z)`$ increases with the source redshift $`z`$ and the $`\gamma `$-ray energy $`E`$. The majority (57%) of the GRB redshifts measured so far (November 2003) is located at $`z>1`$ and only 2 GRBs have a redshift $`z<0.2`$. According to Stecker , at a distance of $`z=1(0.1)`$ the optical depth becomes larger than 1 for $`\gamma `$-ray energies $`E>50(800)GeV`$. Therefore it seems unlikely to detect TeV emission from GRBs and most of the efforts must be concentrated in the $`101000GeV`$ energy range.

In order to evaluate the ARGO$``$YBJ sensitivity to GRBs we consider a simple model in which the GRB high energy flux is described by a power law spectrum with photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ extending up to a maximum energy $`E_{max}`$ (intrinsic cutoff), and affected by an exponential cutoff due to the intergalactic absorption: $`dN/dE=KE^\mathrm{\Gamma }e^{\tau (E,z)}`$.

The GRB is assumed at a zenith angle $`\theta =20^o`$ with an intrinsic energy cutoff in the range $`100GeV<E_{max}<1TeV`$ and a distance in the range $`0<z<2`$. The absorption factor is calculated exploiting the values of $`\tau (E,z)`$ given in Stecker .

The sensitivity has been obtained by comparing the number of events expected from the GRB with the number of background events, according to both detection techniques, varying the GRB parameters: spectral normalization factor $`K`$, spectrum slope $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, cutoff energy $`E_{max}`$, redshift $`z`$.

## 4 Results

In the case of observation technique a), a GRB candidate will appear as a statistical significant excess of Low Multiplicity (LM) events clustered in time and arrival direction. The angular resolution of the detector (i.e., the opening angle containing 71.5% of the $`\gamma `$-ray events) for showers with $`N_{pad}20`$ is $`2.7^o`$.

In the case of observation technique b), no reconstruction of the shower parameters is possible and a GRB is observed as an excess in the Single Particle (SP) background rate, possibly in time coincidence with a GRB satellite detection Silvia .

Our results are summarized in Figure 2 (for the LM technique) and in Figure 3 (for the SP technique), where the value of $`K`$ necessary to give a signal with a statistical significance of $`4\sigma `$ is shown as a function of the spectrum slope $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ for different values of $`E_{max}`$ and $`z`$. In these calculations a GRB duration $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=1s`$ is assumed. The sensitivity for different durations can be easily obtained by multiplying $`K`$ by $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }t}`$. To compare the ARGO$``$YBJ expected sensitivity with real GRBs, the $`K`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ values of 14 EGRET GRBs Catelli  are plotted in the same figures.

These results show that the SP technique is in general more sensitive to GRBs, in particular for high $`z`$ where the intergalactic absorption strongly affects the high energy tail of the spectrum. Only in the case $`z=0`$ and $`E_{max}=1TeV`$ the LM shower technique is slightly better.

## 5 Conclusions

ARGO$``$YBJ could observe the high energy emission of the most intense GRBs. Since $`\gamma `$-rays of energy $`E>1TeV`$ emitted by cosmological sources are strongly absorbed during their travel towards the Earth, the SP technique provides the best approach to detect GRBs, being particularly sensitive in the $`101000GeV`$ energy range.

The sensitivity and the event rate depend critically on the shape of the GRBs spectra above 10 GeV. This shape is determined by the possible existence of an intrinsic cutoff and by the absorption of $`\gamma `$-rays in the intergalactic space.

The analysis of 14 EGRET GRBs indicates that if the intrinsic cutoff is not too low ($`E_{max}>100GeV`$) and the sources redshift is $`z<2`$, a fraction of the events ranging from $`20\%`$ to $`80\%`$ would be detectable.


text:
# The physics of extrasolar gaseous planets : from theory to observable signatures

## 1. Introduction

Substellar objects (SSO) are defined as objects not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion in their core, i.e. with mass below the hydrogen-burning minimum mass ($`m_{HBMM}0.072\text{M}_{}`$, Chabrier & Baraffe 1997; see Chabrier & Baraffe 2000, Burrows et al. 2001 for recent reviews). These once elusive objects have been revealed to be about as numerous as the Galactic stellar population. Several hundreds of brown dwarfs (BD) have now been discovered in the field or in young clusters and more than a hundred gaseous planets (GP) have been detected outside our solar system. Many ground-based and space-based searches are planed for the next coming years to seek more of these objects, with as a holy grail the direct observation of an extrasolar planet. These projects require a sound theory to understand the physics of SSOs and to provide reliable guidance to observation. In this paper, we examine the present status of this theory and confront it to available observations.

## 2. Equation of state. Internal structure

Internal conditions for SSOs, from the HBMM to jovian conditions, range from $`T_c>10^6`$ K to $`10^4`$ K and from $`\rho _c10^3\text{g}\text{cm}^3`$ to $`10\text{g}\text{cm}^3`$ for the central temperature and density, respectively. Under these conditions, the average potential energy $`(Ze)^2/a_i`$ of two ions separated by a distance $`a_i=3V/4\pi N_i`$ can be up to 50 times larger than the average kinetic energy $`kT`$. This is illustrated by a so-called plasma coupling parameter $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=(Ze)^2/a_ikT>1`$, meaning that the ionic plasma strongly departs from the perfect gas conditions encountered inside massive stars. As a comparison, the interior of Sun-like stars is characterized by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }0.1`$. Under the aforementioned interior conditions, the Fermi energy of the electrons is comparable to the thermal energy of the plasma, $`kT_FkT`$, so that the electrons form a finite-temperature, partially degenerate plasma. This is illustrated by the so-called degeneracy parameter $`\theta =kT/kT_F0.05`$-1. This differs noticeably from for instance the case of white dwarfs, where the electrons are fully degenerate, with $`\theta 0.01`$. Last but not least, the average binding energy of an electron around a nucleus, $`Ze^2/a_i`$, is of the order of the electron Fermi energy $`ϵ_F`$, so that both H and He atoms experience pressure-ionization, a long standing problem in dense matter physics. The correct description of the thermodynamic properties of the strongly correlated, finite-temperature, quantum electron-ion plasma which composes the interior of SSOs thus requires the solution of the so-called N-body problem, one fundamental problem of statistical physics. Until recently, this challenging problem could not be probed by experimental conditions on Earth. Things changed within the past few years with the realization of laser-driven shock wave experiments at Livermore (Collins et al. 1998) and Z-pinch experiments at Sandia (Knudson et al. 2001, 2003) which now reach the megabar range at temperatures characteristic of SSOs, providing stringent constraints on the internal equation of state (EOS) of these objects. The EOS determines not only the mechanical properties of the object (mass-radius relationship and contraction work) but also its internal heat capacity and adiabatic gradient. The EOS calculated a decade ago by Saumon & Chabrier (1992, 1995) has been shown to adequately reproduce the experimental results up to about 0.5 Mbar (Saumon et al. 2000). In the very high density limit, $`P>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}`$ Mbar, this EOS adequately reproduces Monte Carlo simulations of dense coupled plasmas or first principle expansion schemes (see Saumon & Chabrier 1992). In the $`0.5`$-5 Mbar range, the laser-driven and Z-pinch experiments yied different results, so that more experimental data are needed before the behaviour of hydrogen in this pressure range can be robustly determined.

## 3. Atmospheric structure. Emergent spectrum

Several recent reviews include a description of the spectral evolution of low-mass objects, from the Sun to jovian planet conditions (Allard et al. 1997, Chabrier & Baraffe 2000, Burrows et al. 2001). The atmospheric physical properties of SSOs can be captured from the equilibrium condition of an hydrostatic atmosphere :

$`d\tau =(\rho \overline{\kappa }_R)dz=\overline{\kappa }({\displaystyle \frac{dP}{g}})`$ (1)
With $`\overline{\kappa }_R0.01`$-1 cm2g-1 and $`R0.1`$ R, i.e. $`g=Gm/R^20.1`$-10 $`g_{}`$, this yields $`P_{ph}g/\overline{\kappa }`$ 0.1-10 bar, $`\rho _{ph}10^5`$-$`10^4\text{g}\text{cm}^3`$ at the photosphere, quite dense conditions for stellar atmosphere standards. As a function of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, the evolution of the spectral energy distribution can be outlined as follows:

\- $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<4000`$ K: H2 molecules form. Under the aforementioned density conditions, collisions either between H2 molecules or between H2 and He atoms yield induced dipolar transitions and thus a frequency-dependent, so-called collision-induced absorption (CIA) opacity which scales within first order as the square of the H2 abundance, $`\kappa _{CIA}`$(H2-H2)$`n_{H_2}^2\kappa _{H_2}`$. Besides H2, other molecules form, such as hydrides, FeH, MgH, CaH, metal oxydes, TiO, VO, the dominant sources of absorption in the optical, H2O, CO, which determine the shape of the spectrum in the infrared.

\- $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<2500`$ K: various refractory compounds (grains) form, such as Mg2SiO4, CaTiO3, MgAl2O4,…, sequestering the metals. These grains yield grey-like absorption in the optical and thus, by energy conservation, lead to a backwarming of the inner atmosphere. This destroys the aforementioned molecules absorbing in the IR, yielding red colors. This lack of metal oxyde (TiO, VO) absorption in the spectrum defines the so-called L-dwarf spectral class. On the other hand, neutral alkali lines (K, Li, Cs, Rb, Cs) in the optical and near-IR become increasingly important.

\- $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<1800`$ K. In this regime, the dominant equilibrium form of carbon becomes CH4, at the expense of CO. The absorption of methane in the H and K bands yields a redistribution of the flux at shorter wavelengths, yielding bluer colors. This presence of methane in the spectrum defines the T-dwarf spectral type, which encompasses both cool BDs and GPs. The benchmark of this type of objects, with jovian-like atmospheres, is the first unambiguously identified BD, Gl229B (Oppenheimer et al. 1995), of which spectral energy distribution was successfully predicted by the theory (Allard et al. 1996, Marley et al. 1996).

\- $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}<500`$ K. We enter the conditions characteristic of the jovian planets of our solar system, reaching the condensation limits of H20 and then NH3.

Figure 1 displays the spectrum of a low-mass M-dwarf with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=2500`$ K, a L-type BD with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=1800`$ K and a T-dwarf BD with $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=1000`$ K, typical of non-irradiated GP conditions, from Allard et al. (2001) atmosphere models. This series of spectra illustrates the aforedescribed temperature evolution of the dominant sources of absorption. The role of grains in the L-dwarf spectrum is obvious from the grey-like behaviour at short wavelengths, due dominantly to Mie scattering, and the reduced bands of H20 and CO in the IR, compared with the hotter spectrum. The constant replenishment of these grains in the atmosphere is due to convective motions which reach the regions near the photosphere (Ludwig, Allard & Hauschildt 2002). For cooler temperatures and luminosities, characteristic of T-dwarfs and planets, most grains form below the photosphere, convection retreats to deeper layers and the largest grains sink under the action of gravity to deeper, hotter regions where they melt and sublimate.

## 4. Evolution

Given the strong frequency dependence of the emergent spectrum of SSOs, and possible convective instability in the atmosphere, correct evolutionary calculations require a consistent (non-grey) treatment between the internal structure profile and the atmospheric profile, as described in Chabrier & Baraffe (1997). A grid of atmosphere models with various $`(\mathrm{log}g,T_{\mathrm{eff}})`$ conditions is computed, and matched to the interior profile at deep enough optical depth ($`\tau 100`$) to reach the internal adiabat. For a given mass and age ($`m,t`$), there is a unique solution matching the two profiles, yielding consistency between the observable signature, spectrum and magnitude, and the fundamental properties of the object, $`m,R,T_{\mathrm{eff}},`$ and $`t`$. The evolution obeys the usual first and second principles of thermodynamics:

$`L=4\pi R^2\sigma T_{\mathrm{eff}}^4={\displaystyle (\frac{du}{dt}\frac{P}{\rho ^2}\frac{d\rho }{dt})𝑑m}={\displaystyle }T{\displaystyle \frac{d\stackrel{~}{S}}{dt}}dm`$ (2)
where $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ denotes the specific entropy of the BD or the planet and $`R`$ its radius.

The evolution of the mass-radius relationship in the stellar and substellar regime is shown in Figure 3 of Chabrier & Baraffe (2000). The relatively constant behaviour of the radius as a function of mass in the substellar regime stems from the compensating contributions of the quantum electron gas, which yields an increasing radius with decreasing mass, a well-known property of degenerate matter, and of the classical, strongly correlated ionic plasma. This yields a maximum radius near 4 $`\text{M}_{jup}`$ (Hubbard 1994, Chabrier & Baraffe 2000). This $`m`$-$`R`$ relation has been confirmed recently in the very-low-mass star range by the remarkable agreement with the radii measured by interferometry (Lane, Boden & Kulkarni 2001, Ségransan et al. 2003). On the other hand, recent observations of the radii of the eclipsing binary YY-Gem, with masses $`m_1`$=$`m_2`$=$`0.6\text{M}_{}`$ (Torres & Ribas 2002) show a $`10\%`$ discrepancy between the theoretical and observed radii. These stars, however, show intense signatures of activity, a common feature for very short period systems such as eclipsing binaries. The surface, indeed, is observed to be covered by magnetic spots, reducing the total irradiating area. Calculations in the case of cataclysmic variables (Renvoizé et al. 2002) have shown that a reduced radiating surface leads to a reduced contraction at early stages of evolution, and thus a larger radius. Similar effects may apply to active, short-period systems such as YY Gem.

Evolutionary sequences $`L(t)`$, $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}(t)`$ and color-magnitude diagrams for SSOs down to $`0.5\times 10^3\text{M}_{}=0.5\text{M}_{jup}`$ are presented in Baraffe et al. (2003). In a CMD, the $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$-sequence of absorbers described in §3 leads to redward and blueward zig-zag behaviours along an isochrone.

## 5. Effect of irradiation

The majority of the presently observed exoplanets are in very close orbit to their parent star. In that case, the incoming stellar radiation modifies substantially not only the emergent spectrum but also the evolution of the planet, as shown initially by Guillot et al. (1996). These modifications are examined below.

### 5.1. Atmosphere

Under strong irradiation conditions, the solution of the transfer equation, which determines the atmospheric thermal structure of the planet, must include the incoming incident stellar flux in the source function. Such calculations were first conducted by Seager & Sasselov (1998), using a limited set of opacities, and have been improved by Barman et al. (2001) and Sudarsky et al. (2003). Figure 5 of Baraffe et al. (2003) compares the thermal structure of two planets with intrinsic temperatures $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=1000`$ K and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=100`$ K, respectively, orbiting at 0.05 AU of a G2 star, when irradiation is or is not taken into account, as calculated in Barman et al. (2001). The irradiated thermal profile is shown to be strongly modified with respect to the non-irradiated one. Heating of the upper layers of the atmosphere leads to a nearly-isothermal external profile, yielding eventually a temperature inversion in the outermost layers111Note that the outermost temperature inversion observed in Jupiter, which affects the UV part of the spectrum, is due to chromospheric effects, not included in the present calculations. These upper atmosphere effects, however, do not bear consequences on the evolution.. As a consequence of this external heating, the radiative zone of the atmosphere extends to deeper layers, so that the radiative-convective boundary retreats towards the interior. This demonstrates the necessity to do consistent calculations between the irradiated atmosphere profile and the inner profile. Matching arbitrarily the inner profile to an atmospheric profile defined by the equilibrium temperature of the planet, as done in previous evolutionary calculations, yields severely flawed results.

Figure 2 displays the emergent spectrum of a $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=500`$ K, $`\mathrm{log}g=3.5`$ planet orbiting at 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 AU from its G2 parent star. The infrared part of the spectrum displays the intrinsic, thermal spectrum of the planet and exhibits the absorption features mentioned in §3. These features, however, are less pronounced than in the non-irradiated case, as seen from the comparison with the bottom line in the figure, a consequence of the aforementioned flat atmosphere temperature profile. This figure displays the calculations done with the so-called COND models, where grains are supposed to have sunk below the photosphere. This case maximizes the effect of irradiation, for the impending radiation penetrates deeper into the atmosphere than in the case of the so-called DUSTY models, where cloud layers form above the photosphere (see Barman et al. 2001). The short wavelength part of the spectrum corresponds to the reflected light from the parent star and clearly mirrors the absorption features of this latter. At short wavelengths, the albedo is dominated by H or H2 and He Rayleigh scattering. Because of the ”grey” characteristics of dust opacity, the reflected spectrum in the case of the DUSTY models displays fewer spectral features (Barman et al. 2001). Detectability limits of the SIRTF and JWST missions are indicated in the figure for illustration. Note also the contrast between the planet and the star flux, which goes from $`10^3`$ in the IR to larger values shortward of $``$4 $`\mu `$m.

Note that the present calculations assume that all the incident flux is deposited at the substellar point, namely the planet point closest to the star, and that the energy is concentrated on the day-side of the planet. Such assumptions maximise the effect of irradiation.

### 5.2. Evolution

First consistent evolution calculations of irradiated planets have been conducted by Baraffe et al. (2003) and more recently by Burrows et al. (2003). The calculations proceed as described earlier for the non-irradiated case. A grid of irradiated atmospheric structures is computed for various $`(\mathrm{log}g,T_{\mathrm{eff}})`$ conditions, for a given orbital distance $`a`$, and interpolation between these structures yield the unique boundary condition with the internal structure. As mentioned above, irradiation pushes the radiative-boundary limit further deep in the interior, so that, under strong irradiation conditions, the boundaty condition between the atmospheric and internal structure may lie in a radiative layer. For this reason, we have computed the Rosseland mean of the atmospheric opacities and used this value to calculate the radiative gradient for the interior structure. The incoming radiative flux $`F_{inc}=1/2(R_{}/a)F_{}`$ modifies the energy budget of the planet and the emergent total flux $`F_{out}`$, which now reads (Baraffe et al. 2003):

$`F_{out}=F_{inc}+\sigma T_{\mathrm{eff}}^4=AF_{inc}+(1A)F_{inc}+\sigma T_{\mathrm{eff}}^4`$ (3)
where $`A`$ denotes the Bond Albedo and the first term on the r.h.s. of (3) describes the reflected part of the spectrum. We stress that the albedo $`A`$ is not a free parameter but is calculated consistently with the radiative transfer equation. This yields for the total luminosity:

$`L_{tot}=L_{reflected}+\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4}\pi R_p^2\sigma (T_{eq}^4+T_{\mathrm{eff}}^4)=L_{reflected}+4\pi R_p^2\sigma T_{eq}^4{\displaystyle T\frac{d\stackrel{~}{S}}{dt}𝑑m}`$ (4)
Note that only the last term on the right hand side of eq.(4) concerns the evolution of the intrinsic luminosity of the planet $`L_{int}`$. The second term defines its equilibrium temperature, i.e. the temperature the planet would reach in the absence of any internal source of energy, including from its contraction. The first term, which defines the Bond albedo, illustrates the luminosity fraction of the parent star reflected by the planet atmosphere. The dominant contribution to $`L_{int}`$, both in the irradiated and non-irradiated cases, arises from the contraction work contribution, $`_M\frac{P}{\rho ^2}\frac{d\rho }{dt}𝑑m=_M\frac{Gm}{r^2}\frac{dr}{dt}𝑑m`$.

Figure 3 illustrates the evolution of the radius for different planets orbiting a G2 star, including the two detected transit planets HD209458B and OGLE-TR-56B. At a given orbital distance, namely $`a=`$0.05 AU, the effect of irradiation is smaller for the more massive, and thus hotter 10 $`\text{M}_{jup}`$ planet, compared with the 0.69 $`\text{M}_{jup}`$ one (HD209458B). This was expected from the smaller modification of the inner atmosphere profile due to a smaller stellar/planet flux ratio (see Fig. 5 of Baraffe et al. 2003). Irradiation, however, slows down substantially the contraction of the less massive planet, in particular at the early stages of evolution, when degeneracy effects in the interior are smaller. The figure displays also the evolution of OGLE-TR-56B, for its recently revised mass, $`m1.45\pm 0.23\text{M}_{jup}`$, for a radius $`1.23\pm 0.15\text{R}_{jup}`$ (Torres et al. 2003) and an orbital distance $`0.023`$ AU. The observed radii of the two transits are shown in the figure. The theoretical radius lies clearly below the observed one for HD209458B, but fits within the error bar for OGLE-TR-56B for the age of the system. We derive $`m1.05\text{M}_{}`$, $`t4`$ Gyr to reproduce the observed extinction-corrected magnitude of the parent star OGLE-TR-56, in agreement with Sasselov (2003). These results show that there is presently no inconsistency between theory and observation for this transit (assuming OGLE-TR-56B is indeed a real transit).

As discussed at length in Baraffe et al. (2003), however, no consistent evolution calculation can reproduce the observation of HD209458B within the error bars. Note that our calculations take into account the extension of the atmosphere, which we find to be of the order of $`0.05\text{R}_{jup}`$ (at optical wavelengths) for the age of the object. Given the remaining uncertainties in the opacities of these planets, which should include processes such as non-equilibrium chemistry, dynamics of grains, etc…, we cannot exclude larger extensions. However, as mentioned above, the present calculations maximize the effect of irradiation, and it is very unlikely that different opacities modify the internal adiabat strongly enough to get a further 30% increase of the planet radius. Such a modification requires a dramatic change of the energy deposited at the top of the internal adiabat, which determines the radius. But either molecular absorption or, at hotter temperatures, bound-free transitions and free-free scattering of the electrons in the interior prevent photons to penetrate deep enough.

As discussed in §4.3 of Baraffe et al. (2003) and in Guillot & Showman (2002), one needs an extra source of energy to be deposited early enough in the planet, in the first $`10^7`$ years, and to remain constant after this stage, in order to reproduce the radius of HD209458B. Tidal dissipation or synchronization are unlikely, for these timescales are at most of the order of $`10^8`$ yr. Note in passing that Bodenheimer et al. (2003) point out the possibility of a second planet orbiting HD209458B. This constant tidal heating could provide the required mysterious extra source of energy.

## 6. Brown dwarfs versus planets

The deuterium-burning minimum mass, $`m_{DBMM}0.12\text{M}_{}`$ (Saumon et al. 1996, Chabrier et al. 2000b) has been designated recently by the IAU as the official limit between BDs and planets. Although any definition can be accepted on a purely semantic ground, it is important to recall why the DBMM is supposed to play a particular role in star formation, distinguishing eventually two different formation mechanisms. This issue, as various star formation scenarios, is discussed at length in the review by Chabrier (2003) and will be only shortly summarized below.

The particular role of the DBMM comes from the canonical star formation theory of Shu, Adams & Lizano (1987). In this theory, low-mass stars form from the collapse of initially hydrostatic, unstable dense cloud cores which have reached a $`\rho (r)r^2`$ density distribution of a singular isothermal spheroid. In this scenario, D-burning at pre-main-sequence ages is the key ingredient to trigger star formation. The onset of D-burning induces convective instability in the interior. Combined with the rapid rotation resulting from the accretion of angular momentum with mass, this convection is believed to generate a strong magnetic field through dynamo process. The field will drive a magnetocentrifugal wind that ultimately sweeps away the surrounding accreting material, and determines the mass of the nascent star. Within this picture, objects below the D-burning limit can not reverse the infall and thus can not form gravitationally bound objects. In this picture, the ambipolar diffusion timescale, $`\tau _{ad}>10`$ Myr for a cloud of average density $`10^2`$ cm-3 and $`B`$ a few $`\mu `$G, sets up the characteristic time scale for star formation. Such a scenario can now be reasonably excluded for several reasons: (1) SSOs are fully convective, with or without D-burning (Chabrier & Baraffe 2000, Chabrier et al. 2000a), (2) star formation is a rapid process, more rapid than the thermal crossing timescale or the aforementioned ambipolar diffusion timescale, and comparable to the dynamical timescale $`\tau _{dyn}=(3\pi /32G\rho )^{1/2}`$1-5$`\times 10^5`$ yr for typical star-forming molecular clouds, (3) in the ambipolar diffusion scenario, the cloud must survive long enough in near equilibrium between magnetic and gravitational pressure. This is not consistent with observations of rapid star formation and cloud dissipation, and with the observed turbulent nature of clouds. Indeed, equipartition between kinetic, gravitational and magnetic energy fails to reproduce the observed properties of molecular clouds, dominated by super-Alfvénic and supersonic motions, where kinetic energy dominates magnetic energy, with a decay timescale approximately equal to a dynamical timescale. Moreover, ambipolar diffusion models require large static magnetic field strengths ($``$30-100 $`\mu `$G) exceeding Zeeman estimates for low-mass dense cores (see e.g. Padoan & Nordlund 1999 and references therein). This indicates that, although magnetic field probably plays some role in star formation, it is unlikely to be a dominant process. On these grounds, D-burning seems to be excluded as a peculiar process in star formation. This is supported observationally by the numerous free-floating objects which have been detected below the DBMM (Zapatero Osorio et al. 2000), although one must remain cautious about the age determination of the cluster and the related mass determination from the theoretical models (see Baraffe et al. 2002). In conclusion, the choice of the DBMM as the mass limit to distinguish BDs from planets does not appear to be supported by physical considerations and must be considered as a purely semantic definition.

A more physically-grounded minimum mass for star formation is the opacity-limit mass for fragmentation. This defines the theoretical minimum mass for cloud collapse between the initial, low-density phase, where compressional heating is balanced by molecular line emission, with $`P\rho `$, and the subsequent, high-density ($`\rho _c>\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{13}\text{g}\text{cm}^3`$ for a cloud temperature $`T10`$ K) adiabatic phase where the gas becomes optically thick to infrared radiation, with $`P\rho ^{5/3}`$ (Larson 1969). This sets a minimum mass for fragmentation of the order of Jupiter mass (Boss 2001 and references therein). Revealing observationally the existence of this limit would be a tremendous breakthrough.

The triggering process for star formation seems to be the small scale dissipation of large scale supersonic turbulence. This process leads to the formation of dense cores, some of which becoming dense enough for pressure forces to balance gravity (Padoan & Nordlund 2002). These cores eventually fragment further to form multiple systems (see e.g. Delgado-Donate et al. 2003, Goodwin et al. 2003). In terms of mass function, the mass distribution of the cores thus corresponds more or less to the IMF of systems, whereas further fragmentation leads to the IMF of individual objects. As shown by Chabrier (2003, figures 3-5), the present observations of BDs either in the field or in young clusters are consistent (within possibly a factor of 2 to 3, depending on the real BD binary fraction) with the extension into the substellar regime of the same stellar single object or system IMF. In the opposite, the mass distribution of exoplanets differs drastically from such an IMF. A statistical analysis of their mass distribution, corrected for the uncertainty due to the inclination $`sini`$ of the orbital plane on the sky, has been established by Zucker & Mazeh (2001) and Jorissen, Mayor & Udry (2001). The resulting planetary mass distribution $`dN/dm_p`$ peaks around $``$ 1-2 $`M_{Jup}`$ \- significantly below the DBMM - due to present detection limits of radial velocity surveys to detect smaller objects, and decreases rapidly with only a few objects above $`10M_{Jup}`$. This distribution corresponds to a relatively flat MF, $`\xi (\mathrm{log}m)`$cst, below $`10M_{Jup}`$. This different mass distribution clearly points to a different population of SSOs, namely planetary companions of stars, and thus to a formation mechanism different from the one which yields the stellar+BD IMF. The only identified difference between GPs like Jupiter or Saturn and BDs is the presence of a rock+ice core, of several Earth masses, at the very center of these planets. This oversolar average abundance of heavy elements for our jovian planets suggests the presence of a disk in their formation environment and thus differs from the star+BD collapse scenario. Planets are thus unlikely to form as isolated, free floating objects, although some could have been ejected. On the other hand, the significant fraction of BDs in young clusters observed to harbor near and mid-IR excess consistent with dusty disks points to a formation mechanism for BDs similar to the standard cloud collapse star formation process (Jayawardhana et al. 2003). The only indirect clue about the presence of a rocky core in our jovian planets, however, stems from the very accurate determinations of their gravitational moments from the Voyager, Pionneer and Galileo missions. Such data are obviously unavailable for the exoplanets (although transit observations may provide some information about the presence of a core) and for the moment the only possible way to distinguish BDs from planets is a statistical argument, with two radically different mass distributions. Therefore, the observed so-called free floating ”planets” or ”sub brown dwarfs” represent most likely the low-mass tail distribution of usual brown dwarfs. In any case, the search for such very-low mass objects is of tremenduous interest for it will allow us to identify the minimum mass for star formation.

## 7. Conclusion and perspective

This review outlines our present understanding of the physics of substellar objects, brown dwarfs and irradiated or non-irradiated gaseous planets. Various successes of the theory, which had correctly predicted different mechanical and thermal properties such as the EOS up to the megabar range, the spectral energy distribution of Gl-229B like objects, dominated by methane absorption, the photometric evolution of dusty and dustless atmosphere SSOs, and the mass-radius and mass-magnitude relationships in the stellar range, give us confidence in the reliability of its basic foundations, although there is certainly room for a lot of improvements. As argued in this review, a consistent treatment between the atmospheric profile and the interior profile is mandatory to yield reliable results, both in the irradiated and non-irradiated case. This theory allows us to derive the fundamental properties of an object (mass, temperature, age, radius) from its observable spectroscopic or photometric signatures. Conversely, the theory provides reliable basis to guide observational projects. Our understanding of the properties of strongly irradiated planets, the so-called hot jupiters, is still questioned. Whereas the theory adequately reproduces the radius of OGLE-TR-56B, no calculation can reproduce the one of HD209458B. Whether this latter is a common representative of hot-jupiter objects or whether its large radius is due to tidal interaction with an undetected companion needs to be assessed. Ongoing searches for transit planets will help to answer this question and confirm or not our present description of strongly irradiated planets.

## References

Allard, F., Hauschildt, P., Baraffe, I., Chabrier, G., 1996, ApJ, 465, L123

Allard, F., Hauschildt, P., Alexander, D., Starrfield, S., 1997, ARA&A, 35, 137

Allard, F., Hauschildt, P., Alexander, D., Tamanai, A., & Schweitzer, A., 2001, ApJ, 556, 357

Baraffe, I., Chabrier, G., Barman, T., Allard, F., & Hauschildt, P., 2003, A&A, 402, 701

Baraffe, I., Chabrier, G., Allard, F., & Hauschildt, P., 2002, A&A, 382, 563

Barman, T., Allard, F., Hauschildt, P., 2001, ApJ, 556, 885

Bodenheimer, P., Laughlin, G., & Lin, D., 2003, ApJ, 592, 555

Boss, A., 2001, ApJ, 551, L167

Burrows, A., Hubbard, W.B., Lunine, J.I., & Liebert, J., 2001, Rev. Mod. Physics, 73, 719

Burrows, A., Sudarsky, D., Hubbard, W.B., 2003, ApJ, 594, 545

Chabrier, G., & Baraffe, I., 1997, A&A, 327, 1039

Chabrier, G., Baraffe, I., Allard, F., & Hauschildt, P., 2000a, ApJ, 542, 464

Chabrier, G., Baraffe, I., Allard, F., & Hauschildt, P., 2000b, ApJ, 542, L119

Chabrier, G., & Baraffe, I., 2000, ARA&A, 33, 337

Chabrier, G., 2003, PASP, 115, 763

Collins, G.W., et al., 1998, Science, 281, 1178

Delgado-Donate, E., Bate, M., & Bonnell, I., 2003, MNRAS, in press

Goodwin, S., Whitworth, A., & Ward-Thompson, D., A&A, 2003, submitted

Guillot, T., Burrows, A., Hubbard, W.B., Lunine, J.I., & Saumon, D., 1996, ApJ, 459, L35

Guillot, T., & Showman, A., 2002, A&A, 385, 156

Hubbard, W.B., 1994, in The Equation of State in Astrophysics, Eds: G. Chabrier & E. Schatzman, Cambridge University Press

Jayawardhana, R., Ardilla, D., Stelzer, B., & Haisch, K., 2003, ApJ, 126, 1515

Jorissen, A., Mayor, M., & Udry, S., 2001, A&A, 379, 992

Knudson et al., 2003, Phys.Rev.Lett, 90, 035505; 2001, Phys.Rev.Lett, 87, 225501

Konacki, M., Torre, G., Jha, S., & Sasselov, D., 2003, Nature, 421, 507

Lane, B., Boden, A., & Kulkarni, S., 2001, ApJ, 551, L81

Larson, R., 1969, MNRAS, 145, 271

Ludwig, H.-G., Allard, F., & Hauschildt, P.H., 2002, A&A, 395, 99

Marley et al., 1996, Science, 272, 1919

Oppenheimer, B., Kulkarni, S., Matthews, K., & Nakajima, T., 1995, Science, 270, 1478

Padoan, P., & Nordlund, Å, 1999, ApJ, 526, 279

Padoan, P., & Nordlund, Å, 2002, ApJ, 576, 870

Renvoizé, V., Baraffe, I., Kolb, U., & Ritter, H., 2002, A&A, 389, 485

Sasselov, D., 2003, ApJ, 596, 1327

Saumon, D., Chabrier, G., 1992, Phys.Rev.A, 46, 2084

Saumon, D., Chabrier, G., & VanHorn, H., 1995, ApJS, 99, 713

Saumon, D., Chabrier, G., Wagner, D., & Xie, X., 2000, High Pressure Research, 16, 331

Saumon D., Hubbard, W.B, Burrows, A., Guillot, T., Lunine, J.I., & Chabrier, G., 1996, ApJ, 460, 993

Seager, S., & Sasselov, D., 1998, ApJ, 520, L157

Ségransan, D., Kervella, P., Forveille, T., & Queloz, D., 2003, A&A, 397, L5

Shu, F.H, Adams, F.C, & Lizano, S., 1987, ARA&A, 25, 23

Sudarsky, D., Burrows, A., & Hubeny, I., 2003, ApJ, 1121, 588

Torres, G., & Ribas, I., 2002, ApJ, 567, 1140

Torres, G., Konacki, M., Sasselov, D., & Jha, S., 2003, ApJ, submitted

Zapatero Osorio, M.R., Béjar, V.J.S., Martín, E.L.,Rebolo, R., Barrado y Navascues, D., Bailer-Jones, C. & Mundt, R., 2000, Science, 290, 103

Zucker, S., & Mazeh, T., 2001, ApJ, 562, 1038