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# Magnetic condensation and confinement in lattice gauge theory

## 1 INTRODUCTION

To study the vacuum structure of lattice gauge theories we introduced  a gauge invariant effective action, defined by using the lattice Schrödinger functional

$$𝒵[U_\mu ^{\mathrm{ext}}]=𝒟Ue^{S_W},$$
(1)
where $`S_W`$ is the standard Wilson action and the functional integration is extended over links on a lattice with the hypertorus geometry and satisfying the constraints

$$U_\mu (x)|_{x_4=0}=U_\mu ^{\mathrm{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x}).$$
(2)
The same constraint also applies to the links exiting from sites belonging to the spatial boundaries (this last condition corresponds to require that the fluctuations over the background field vanish at infinity). The lattice effective action for the external static background field $`U^{\mathrm{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})`$ is

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }[U^{\mathrm{ext}}]=\frac{1}{L_4}\mathrm{ln}\left\{\frac{𝒵[U^{\mathrm{ext}}]}{𝒵(0)}\right\},$$
(3)
$`L_4`$ is the extension in Euclidean time, $`𝒵(0)`$ is the lattice Schrödinger functional, without the external background field ($`U_\mu ^{\mathrm{ext}}=\mathrm{𝟏}`$). It can be shown that: $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[U^{\mathrm{ext}}]`$ is invariant for lattice gauge transformations of the external links $`U_\mu ^{\mathrm{ext}}`$, and $`lim_T\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }[U^{\mathrm{ext}}]=E_0[U^{\mathrm{ext}}]E_0[0]`$, $`E_0[U^{\mathrm{ext}}]`$ vacuum energy in presence of the external background field.

At finite temperature, we consider the thermal partition function in presence of a given static background field:

$$𝒵_T\left[U^{\text{ext}}\right]=_{U_k(\beta _T,\stackrel{}{x})=U_k(0,\stackrel{}{x})=U_k^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})}𝒟Ue^{S_W}.$$
(4)
Now the temporal links obey p.b.c.’s while spatial links belonging to the time slice $`x_4=0`$ or exiting from sites belonging to the spatial boundaries are constrained to $`U_k(\stackrel{}{x},x_4)=U_k^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})`$. After sending the physical temperature to zero the thermal functional Eq. (4) reduces to the zero-temperature Schrödinger functional with the constraints $`U_k(x)|_{x_4=0}=U_k^{\mathrm{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})`$.

To investigate Abelian monopoles and Abelian vortices condensation we make use of a disorder parameter  defined in terms of the thermal partition functional Eq.( 4) in presence of, respectively, an external Abelian monopole or Abelian vortex background field. Since our thermal partition functional is constructed by means of the Schrödinger functional which is invariant against gauge transformations of the background field we do not need to do any gauge fixing to perform the Abelian projection. Indeed, after choosing the type of Abelian monopoles, our results do not depend on the particular direction selected in the color space, which, actually, can be varied by a gauge transformation.

## 2 ABELIAN MONOPOLE CONDENSATION

### 2.1 SU(2)

We put on the background the lattice version of the Abelian monopole field

$$g\stackrel{}{b}^a(\stackrel{}{x})=\delta ^{a,3}\frac{n_{\mathrm{mon}}}{2}\frac{\stackrel{}{x}\times \stackrel{}{n}}{|\stackrel{}{x}|(|\stackrel{}{x}|\stackrel{}{x}\stackrel{}{n})},$$
(5)
$`\stackrel{}{n}`$ is the direction of the Dirac string and, according to the Dirac quantization condition, $`n_{\text{mon}}`$ is an integer. The lattice links corresponding to the Abelian monopole field Eq. (5) can be readily obtained as:

$$U_k^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})=\text{P}\mathrm{exp}\left\{ig_0^1𝑑t\frac{\sigma _a}{2}b_k^a(\stackrel{}{x}+t\widehat{x}_k)\right\},$$
(6)
where the $`\sigma _a`$’s are the Pauli matrices. By choosing $`\stackrel{}{n}=\widehat{x}_3`$ we get:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill U_{1,2}^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\mathrm{cos}[\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})]+i\sigma _3\mathrm{sin}[\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})],\hfill \\ \hfill U_3^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\mathrm{𝟏},\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)
with

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \theta _1(\stackrel{}{x})& =\frac{n_{\text{mon}}}{4}\frac{(x_2X_2)}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|}\frac{1}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|(x_3X_3)},\hfill \\ \hfill \theta _2(\stackrel{}{x})& =+\frac{n_{\text{mon}}}{4}\frac{(x_1X_1)}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|}\frac{1}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|(x_3X_3)}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
In Equation (8) $`(X_1,X_2,X_3)`$ are the monopole coordinates and $`\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}=(\stackrel{}{x}\stackrel{}{X})`$.

We evaluate numerically the disorder parameter for confinement

$$\mu =e^{F_{\text{mon}}/T_{\text{phys}}}=\frac{𝒵_T[n_{\text{mon}}]}{𝒵_T[0]}.$$
(9)
In Eq.(9) $`𝒵_T[0]`$ is the thermal partition function without monopole field (i.e. with $`n_{\text{mon}}=0`$). From Eq. (9) it is clear that $`F_{\text{mon}}`$ is the free energy to create an Abelian monopole. Therefore in presence of monopole condensation $`F_{\text{mon}}=0`$ and $`\mu =1`$. Actually we consider the derivative of the monopole free energy $`F_{\text{mon}}^{}=F_{\text{mon}}/\beta `$, It can be shown that ($`V`$ is the spatial volume)

$$F_{\text{mon}}^{}=V\left[<Pl>_{n_{\text{mon}}=0}<Pl>_{n_{\text{mon}}0}\right].$$
(10)
$`<Pl>`$ is the average plaquette. Figure 1 displays $`F_{\text{mon}}^{}`$ vs. $`\beta `$ together with the absolute value $`|P|`$ of the Polyakov loop for a $`24^3\times 4`$ lattice. The peak in $`F_{\text{mon}}^{}`$ corresponds to the rise of $`<|P|>`$ at the deconfinement transition.

The disorder parameter $`\mu `$ (Eq. (9)) can be obtained by a numerical integration in $`\beta `$ of the monopole free energy derivative. It follows that $`\mu =1`$ in the confined phase (i.e. the monopoles condense in the vacuum). Moreover, by increasing the spatial volume of the lattice, the disorder parameter $`\mu `$ decreases faster toward zero in the deconfined phase, suggesting that $`\mu 0`$ in the thermodynamic limit when $`\beta `$ reaches the critical value.

### 2.2 SU(3)

In the case of SU(3) gauge theory, the maximal Abelian group is U(1)$`\times `$U(1). We have two different types of Abelian monopole. The first one is defined by Eq. (5) and we call it $`T_3`$ Abelian monopole. The lattice links are given by

$$U_{1,2}^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right],$$
(11)
with $`\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})`$ as in Eq. (8). The second type of independent Abelian monopole can be obtained by considering the diagonal generator$`\lambda _8`$:

$$U_{1,2}^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0\\ 0& 0& e^{2i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}\end{array}\right],$$
(12)
with

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \theta _1(\stackrel{}{x})& =\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\left[\frac{n_{\text{mon}}}{4}\frac{(x_2X_2)}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|}\frac{1}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|(x_3X_3)}\right],\hfill \\ \hfill \theta _2(\stackrel{}{x})& =\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\left[+\frac{n_{\text{mon}}}{4}\frac{(x_1X_1)}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|}\frac{1}{|\stackrel{}{x}_{\text{mon}}|(x_3X_3)}\right].\hfill \end{array}$$
(13)
We call it the $`T_8`$ Abelian monopole. The corresponding continuum gauge field is now

$$g\stackrel{}{b}^a(\stackrel{}{x})=\delta ^{a,8}\frac{n_{\mathrm{mon}}}{2}\frac{\stackrel{}{x}\times \stackrel{}{n}}{|\stackrel{}{x}|(|\stackrel{}{x}|\stackrel{}{x}\stackrel{}{n})}.$$
(14)
Other Abelian monopoles can be generated by considering the linear combination of the $`T_3`$ and $`T_8`$ generators. For instance

$$T_{3a}=\frac{1}{2}\frac{\lambda _3}{2}+\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}\frac{\lambda _8}{2}=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& 0\\ 0& \frac{1}{2}& 0\\ 0& 0& \frac{1}{2}\end{array}\right].$$
(15)
Figure 2 shows that the $`T_8`$ Abelian monopole displays a signal about a factor two higher in the peak region. This result suggests that in the pattern of dynamical symmetry breaking due to the Abelian monopole condensation the color direction $`8`$ is slightly preferred. Like for SU(2), $`F_{\text{mon}}^{}`$ displays a sharp peak in correspondence of the rise of the Polyakov loop, and, by increasing the spatial volume the peak increases. We find that the disorder parameter $`\mu `$ is different from zero in the confined phase and decreases towards zero in the thermodynamic limit at the critical coupling. Finally a qualitative analysis of $`\mu `$ suggests that the finite volume behavior is consistent with a first order phase transition .

## 3 VORTEX CONDENSATION

### 3.1 SU(2)

We consider the continuum gauge field for a vortex directed along the $`\widehat{z}`$-direction with $`n`$ units of elementary flux $`\varphi =\frac{2\pi }{g}`$ is given by

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill A_x^{\text{ext}}& =\frac{n}{g}\frac{x_2}{(x_1)^2+(x_2)^2},\hfill \\ \hfill A_y^{\text{ext}}& =\frac{n}{g}\frac{x_1}{(x_1)^2+(x_2)^2},\hfill \\ \hfill A_z^{\text{ext}}& =A_0=0.\hfill \end{array}$$
(16)
On the lattice

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill U_{1,2}^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\mathrm{cos}[\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})]+i\sigma _3\mathrm{sin}[\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})],\hfill \\ \hfill U_3^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\mathrm{𝟏},\hfill \\ \hfill \theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\frac{n_{\text{vort}}}{2}\frac{x_{2,1}}{(x_1)^2+(x_2)^2}\hfill \end{array}$$
(17)
We evaluate $`F_{\text{vort}}^{}=F_{\text{vort}}\beta `$, where $`F_{\text{vort}}`$ is the free energy to create an Abelian vortex $`F_{\text{vort}}`$. This amounts to compute

$$F_{\text{vort}}^{}=V\left[<Pl>_{n_{\text{vort}}=0}<Pl>_{n_{\text{vort}}0}\right].$$
(18)
Figure 1 shows that the free energy for both monopoles and vortices displays a peak in correspondence of the finite temperature deconfinement transition suggesting that vortices play a role in the dynamics of the deconfinement transition (in qualitative agreement with Ref. ).

### 3.2 SU(3)

We have considered two different kinds of vortices. Namely the $`T_8`$ vortex:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill U_{1,2}^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\left[\begin{array}{ccc}e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0\\ 0& 0& e^{2i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}\end{array}\right],\hfill \\ \hfill U_3^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\mathrm{𝟏}\hfill \\ \hfill \theta _{1,2}& =\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\frac{n_{\text{vort}}}{2}\frac{x_{2,1}}{(x_1)^2+(x_2)^2}\hfill \end{array}$$
(19)
and the $`T_3`$ vortex:

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill U_{1,2}^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\left[\begin{array}{ccc}e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0& 0\\ 0& e^{i\theta _{1,2}(\stackrel{}{x})}& 0\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right],\hfill \\ \hfill U_3^{\text{ext}}(\stackrel{}{x})& =\mathrm{𝟏}\hfill \\ \hfill \theta _{1,2}& =\frac{n_{\text{vort}}}{2}\frac{x_{2,1}}{(x_1)^2+(x_2)^2}\hfill \end{array}$$
(20)
Also in this case we clearly see (Fig. 3) a peak in $`F_{\text{vort}}^{}`$ corresponding to the rise of the absolute value of the Polyakov loop at the deconfinement transition. As in the case of Abelian monopoles we find that $`F_{\text{vort}}^{}`$ for the $`T_8`$ vortex gives a stronger signal than the corresponding quantity for the $`T_3`$ vortex.

## 4 CONCLUSIONS

We investigated the condensation of Abelian monopoles and Abelian vortices in the finite temperature SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge theories using a disorder parameter defined in terms of a lattice thermal partition functional. Our numerical results suggest that monopoles and vortices condense in the vacuum of non Abelian l.g.t.’s., in agreement with analogous results obtained using different approaches .

Let us conclude by stressing that our method, while keeping the gauge invariance, can be readily extended to study the effect of the dynamical fermions.


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# Metal Enrichment and Temperature of the Intergalactic Medium

## 1 Introduction

Recent cosmological hydrodynamic simulations have shifted the paradigm of Ly$`\alpha `$ cloud formation. Several independent groups have consistently shown that Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds are an integral part of the cosmic structure, resulting from the gravitational growth of density fluctuations on small-to-intermediate scales at $`z24`$ ($`100`$ kpc to a few comoving megaparsecs) with most of the clouds in the form of filamentary structures of moderate overdensity ($`\delta _\rho 110`$) (Cen et al. 1994; Zhang et al. 1995; Hernquist et al. 1996; Miralda-Escudé et al. 1996; Wadsley & Bond 1996; Cen & Simcoe 1997; Theuns et al. 1998; Bryan et al. 1999; Davé et al. 1999).

While the best agreement between model computations and observations is seen in the column density distribution, a close examination reveals that the Doppler width distribution shows a disturbingly large discrepancy. Specifically, Bryan et al. (1999) and Theuns et al. (1998) have done convergence tests and shown that higher resolution simulations predict a median Doppler width $`b_{med,comp}20`$km/sec versus the observed $`b_{med,obs}30`$km/sec. A comparable difference is found between the low cutoff width of simulated and observed clouds. If this is interpreted as being due to a difference in temperature, it means that the computed clouds are colder than the real ones by approximately a factor of two, translating to a temperature deficit of approximately $`10^4`$K in the computed low column density clouds.

There are several ways to raise the temperature in the simulations to bridge the gap. First, increasing the baryonic density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ allows more photoelectric heating and thus a higher IGM temperature, with the scaling being $`T(\mathrm{\Omega }_bh)^{1/1.7}`$ (Hui & Gnedin 1997), where $`h`$ is the Hubble constant in units of $`100`$ km/sec/Mpc. Second, reionizing helium at a lower redshift will help somewhat (Hui & Gnedin 1997; Haehnelt & Steinmetz 1998). Third, Compton heating by the high energy background may be important, if most of the observed background at $`z=0`$ is produced at high redshift ($`z>4`$) (Madau & Efstathiou 1999). Oh (2000) has suggested that X-rays from the first star clusters could provide this high energy X-ray background. Fourth, radiative transfer effects, which are neglected in the simulations, may provide additional heating (Abel & Haehnelt 1999). Finally, photoelectric heating by dust grains (Nath, Sethi, & Shchekinov 1999) provides yet another mechanism and is more closely related to what is proposed in this paper.

In this Letter we examine the possibility that feedback due to early star formation in dwarf galaxies with masses $`M10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$ forming in the redshift range $`7z_f15`$ may have played a significant role in changing the thermodynamic state of the intergalactic gas at moderate density. The idea of supernova (SN) feedback into IGM can be traced back at least two and a half decades (Schwarz, Ostriker, & Yahil 1975) and many authors have subsequently addressed this issue in various contexts (e.g., Ikeuchi & Ostriker 1986; Couchman & Rees 1986; Silk, Wyse, & Shields 1987; Tegmark, Silk, & Evrard 1993; Shapiro, Giroux, & Babul 1994). While the basic physical process is by no means new, we address its effect in the new context of the temperature of the Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds. In particular, we adopt the standard picture of re-ionization due to radiation from quasars or massive stars, but argue that a subsequent (or slightly overlapping) phase of energy ejection from galaxies provides an additional source of heat for the IGM.

## 2 Metal Enrichment and IGM Temperature

Recent observations indicate that the metallicity in Ly$`\alpha `$ forest absorption lines with column density $`N_{HI}3\times 10^{14}\text{cm}^2`$ is $`10^2\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ at redshift $`z3`$ (Tytler et al. 1995; Songaila & Cowie 1996). We show the possible implications of this observed metallicity on the temperature of the Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds. In order to estimate the heating due to the supernovae which enriched the IGM, we use the well measured carbon abundance to parameterize the specific thermal energy increase:

$$e_{SN}=\frac{\eta E_{SN}}{M_{gas}}=\frac{\eta E_{SN}}{M_C}\frac{M_C}{M_{gas}},$$
(1)
where $`M_C`$ is the mass of carbon ejected by one supernova; $`M_{gas}`$ is the total gas mass polluted by one supernova; $`E_{SN}`$ is the total energy output of one supernova; $`\eta `$ is the fraction of that energy that is eventually deposited in the IGM in the form of thermal energy. It is useful to rewrite the term $`M_C/M_{gas}`$ as follows:

$$\frac{M_C}{M_{gas}}=\left(\frac{M_H}{M_{gas}}\right)\left(\frac{M_C}{M_H}\right)=f_H\left[\frac{M_C}{M_H}\right]_{}\left[\frac{C}{H}\right],$$
(2)
where $`f_H=0.76`$ is the fractional mass in hydrogen; $`\left[M_C/M_H\right]_{}=4.0\times 10^3`$ is the standard ratio of carbon mass to hydrogen mass at solar abundance; $`[C/H]`$ is the ratio of carbon number density to hydrogen number density of the gas in solar units. The temperature increase seen at redshift $`z`$ corresponding to this specific energy is given by:

$`T_{SN}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(\gamma 1)\mu m_pe_{SN}}{k}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+z}{1+z_{dep}}}\right)^2,`$ (3)
in the limit that the metal rich gas is deposited at redshift $`z_{dep}`$ and adiabatic cooling dominates thereafter (which may be a reasonable assumption since the IGM under consideration has about the mean density). Here $`\mu `$ is the mean mass per particle in units of the proton mass $`m_p`$; $`k`$ is the Boltzmann constant; $`\gamma =5/3`$ is the ratio of specific heats. Combining equations (1-3) we obtain the following expression

$`T_{SN}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`1.3\times 10^4\left({\displaystyle \frac{E_{SN}}{1.2\times 10^{51}\mathrm{erg}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_C}{0.2\mathrm{M}_{}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{0.1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{[C/H]}{3\times 10^3}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+z}{1+z_{dep}}}\right)^2\mathrm{K}.`$ (4)
Here we have denominated $`E_{SN}`$ and $`M_C`$ by their respective, reasonable values, following Woosley & Weaver (1995); $`M_C`$ is computed by averaging metallicity yields over a Salpeter IMF. We assume that most of the carbon present comes from type II SNe, which, given the high redshift of the enrichment, seems reasonable.

It is clear from equation (4) that, if the metallicity \[C/H\] lies in the range $`10^310^2\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, feedback from SNe can increase the temperature of the IGM by the required $`10^4`$ K (Schaye et al. 1999; Bryan & Machacek 2000; Ricotti, Gnedin & Shull 2000; McDonald et al. 2000).

## 3 Discussion

When did the metal and energy deposition into the IGM from stellar systems take place? To answer this question in Figure 1 we plot the required $`\eta `$ (left vertical axis) versus the deposition epoch $`z_{dep}`$ (solid curve), such that the IGM temperature at $`z=3`$ (equation 4) is $`2\times 10^4`$K as observed in moderate density regions (McDonald et al. 2000), where $`E_{SN}=1.2\times 10^{51}`$erg, $`M_C=0.2\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and $`[C/H]=3\times 10^3`$ are used. Since $`\eta `$ cannot exceed unity, it is clear that energy and metals must have been deposited at $`z_{dep}<9`$ in these regions. The dashed curve shows the corresponding required minimum initial temperature of the IGM (right vertical axis) at $`z_{dep}`$, under the assumption that there is no additional cooling or heating. Other, associated cooling (primarily hydrogen recombination cooling) will further reduce the temperature, which would reduce $`z_{dep}`$.

What kind of stellar systems are likely to be responsible for the contamination of metals and energy, if $`z_{dep}`$ is confined to the range $`3<z_{dep}<9`$? To answer this question, we adopt a very simple, empirical model for the feedback. We assume that galaxies of a given mass form at $`z_f`$ and eject their metals and energy instantaneously. The exact mechanism for the ejection is likely to be complicated and spherical blastwave models are inappropriate (e.g. Mac Low & Ferrara 1999). In fact, it’s not even clear if shock waves are the primary mechanism for dispersal; other possibilities include merging, turbulence, bulk flows and radiation pressure. Instead, we simply assume a constant dispersal velocity, $`v_{disp}`$ = 300 km/s. In Figure 2 we plot the comoving separation of halos as a function of halo mass, using Press-Schechter theory (Press & Schechter 1974). Four curves are shown corresponding to $`z_{dep}=(3,5,7,9)`$, with each curve being intersected by a horizontal line to indicate the maximum distance a parcel of material could travel with a dispersing speed $`v_{disp}=300`$km/s within $`1/2`$ of the respective Hubble time. We adopt a cosmological constant dominated cold dark matter model with $`H_0=65`$km/sec/Mpc, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$ and $`\sigma _8=0.90`$ (Ostriker & Steinhardt 1995). Note that the corresponding halo formation redshifts are somewhat higher due to the lag between the epoch of halo formation and epoch of SN metal/energy deposition, with $`z_f=(5.4,8.5,11.7,14.9)`$, respectively. We see that halos with masses $`M_{halo}(30,7,1.8,0.5)\times 10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$ have to be responsible for injecting metals and energy into the IGM at $`z_f=(5.4,8.5,11.7,14.9)`$, respectively (it is assumed that the halo formation time and SN injection time coincide while the energy deposition time in the moderate density region is 1/2 Hubble time later). Also shown in Figure 2 are vertical arrows which indicate the minimum mass of halos below which more than half of the gas cannot condense into the halos due to the effect of gas pressure, at the four epochs (Gnedin 2000). This further reduces the allowed range of halo masses which can heat the IGM, constraining the epoch of formation/injection to be $`z_f7`$. It is fairly safe to conclude that dwarf and sub-dwarf galaxies with masses in the range $`10^{6.59.0}\mathrm{M}_{}`$, forming in the redshift range $`z_f=715`$ have taken a leading role in polluting the IGM with metals and energy.

If the dwarf galaxies in the indicated redshift ranges are responsible for the pollution, what is the implication for the star formation in them? Assuming the mean metallicity in the IGM is $`<Z>`$, we have the following relation:

$`Yf_{}={\displaystyle \frac{<Z>}{f_{col}}},`$ (5)
where $`Y`$ is the overall yield of metals, defined as the mass of metals produced per mass of stars created, $`f_{}`$ is the star formation efficiency of baryons within the collapsed halos (since SNe from the first generation of stars in the dwarf galaxies may completely disrupt the dwarf galaxies themselves, $`f_{}`$ is essentially the star formation efficiency of a primordial gas) and $`f_{col}`$ is the fraction of mass in these dwarf galaxies. Note that neither $`Y`$ nor $`f_{}`$ can exceed unity. We integrate the mass function from the vertical arrow to the intersection point between each curve and its respective horizontal line in Figure (2) to obtain $`f_{col}`$. We summarize the various quantities in Table 1, for $`<Z>=10^210^3\mathrm{Z}_{}`$. Clearly we see that if $`<Z>10^2\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ and the yield $`Y`$ is conventional ($`0.02`$), the efficiency of star formation in these early dwarf galaxies must be quite high. Conversely, a higher yield $`Y`$, which would have profound implications for the initial stellar mass function, can alleviate some burden on the star formation efficiency. But if $`Z10^3\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, then no particularly high star formation efficiency or unconventional yield is required. It would be most economical if most of the polluting dwarf galaxies formed at $`z_f8`$.

If SN injection at these redshifts is important, it is not obvious how it can occur and still retain the excellent agreement between the observed and predicted column density distribution previously mentioned. As was noted, however, we do not necessarily require that SN winds be the primary metal/energy mixing; i.e., we do not require SN winds to have a traveling speed of 300 km/s. It is likely that various processes are at work, including SN winds, turbulent gas motions, bulk flows, and the interactions of stellar systems (such as mergers and tidal interactions). It should be noted that the assumed dispersing speed of $`v_{disp}=300`$km/s is quite generous, since both galactic wind speed and the bulk velocity of gas at high redshift are likely to be less than that. It seems that detailed simulations will be required to address this point since it is unlikely that simple spherical winds can reproduce the observations of metal distributions at high redshift (Ferrara, Pettini & Shchekinov 2000; Theuns, Mo & Schaye 2000).

A word on the effect of feedback on subsequent galaxy formation is relevant here. Originally suggested by Efstathiou (1992) as a mechanism to suppress galaxy formation in small galaxies, detailed simulations indicate that photoionization heating alone fails to solve the over-cooling problem (e.g. Navarro & Steinmetz 1997). It has been noted recently by Gnedin (2000) that the effect of pre-heated gas (by photoionization in his case) on the accretion of gas onto galaxies is larger (by a factor of $`10`$ in galaxy mass) than expected based on a simple Jeans’ analysis. The feedback heating discussed here increases the temperature of photonized gas by a factor of two and so would raise the filtering mass to $`1.5\times 10^{10}\mathrm{M}_{}`$ at $`z4`$ (see Figure 3a of Gnedin 2000), a factor of $`4`$ higher than found in Quinn, Katz, & Efstathiou (1996). This may be sufficient to solve the over-cooling problem. Another possible benefit is a delay in the accretion of gas onto larger galaxies, which may alleviate the angular momentum problem in spiral disks found in simulations (e.g. Navarro & Steinmetz 1997)

Comparison with previous work is useful. Gnedin & Ostriker (1997), Gnedin (1998) and Cen & Ostriker (1999) have studied the issue of metal enrichment using direct numerical simulation including heuristic galaxy formation and metal enrichment prescriptions, as does the recent work by Aguirre et al. (2000) who focus on larger galaxies at $`z3`$. Our work is complementary in terms of both methodology and scale/epoch in that we focus on the possibility of metal and energy enrichment by smaller galaxies at higher redshift. The work of Cen & Ostriker (1999) hints that the high redshift universe may not have been sufficiently enriched in metals due, possibly, to the lack of numerical resolution to adequately simulate the formation of small galaxies at high redshift. The results in Aguirre et al. (2000) again indicate that large galaxies at relatively low redshift may have difficulty in fulfilling the task of enriching the universe uniformly, consistent with our results. Our work is similar to that of Gnedin & Ostriker (1997) and Gnedin (1998) in that both focus on smaller galaxies at high redshift, but using different methods. While our treatment cannot study the detailed metal/energy enrichment process (i.e. we do not know how the metals get out of galaxies), current simulations without a model for the multi-phase interstellar medium have to make similar assumptions and parameterizations (e.g., the yield parameter and wind speed). What is possible with current simulations is to explore the various possible metal dispersing mechanisms including SN winds (Cen & Ostriker 1999; Aguirre et al. 2000) and mergers (Gnedin & Ostriker 1997; Gnedin 1998 among others), once metals do get out of galaxies. In any case, our treatment does not advocate to/require any specific metal/energy dispersing mechanism, rather we only need to assume an average dispersing velocity.

The galaxy masses which we identify as responsible for the heating are generally smaller than typical present-day galactic systems. In fact, the smallest systems which can cool and so form stars are around $`10^6M_{}`$ (Tegmark et al. 1997; Haiman, Abel & Rees 2000). These first stellar systems would correspond to the lower end of the range of systems we discuss. If, as recent simulations indicate (Abel, Bryan & Norman 2000; Bromm, Coppi & Larson 1999), such systems form predominantly massive stars, $`100M_{}`$, and the energy and metal feedback expected from the resulting SNe would indeed pollute much of the IGM. On the other hand, some of these same simulations show that the efficiency of such star formation may be very small ($`<1\%`$), in which case more massive (but still dwarf) galaxies could play the role suggested in this paper. There are indications that their star formation efficiency may be considerably larger (Machacek, Bryan & Abel 2000).

## 4 Conclusions

We suggest that energy feedback from supernovae in dwarf or sub-dwarf galaxies with masses in the range $`10^{6.59.0}\mathrm{M}_{}`$ forming at $`z_f=715`$ could raise the temperature of the Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds at $`z3`$ by $`10^4`$K, given the observed metals in the Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds at $`z3`$. This provides an alternative mechanism to bring the results of recent hydrodynamic simulations into agreement with the observed Doppler width distribution of Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds.

This scenario may be tested in a number of ways. First, since metals are a sign of heating, we would expect a correlation between metallicity and temperature (i.e. Doppler width). A search for this effect should be restricted to low column density lines ($`N_{HI}<10^{14}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup> at $`z3`$) where hydrogen line cooling is unimportant. Since it is difficult to detect metal lines in such systems, a statistical search may be necessary (e.g. Cowie & Songalia 1998). Another test would be to examine the evolution of the temperature of Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds at high redshift $`z4`$. In particular, the mean temperature should not increase with redshift as rapidly as in the case with only photoionization heating and adiabatic cooling. This is because heating (and subsequent cooling) due to contamination is likely to be continuous over the entire redshift range. A third prediction would be a larger spread in the temperature of the gas at a given density, since heating would no longer depend just on density (as it does for radiative heating) but instead would occur suddenly. This might show up as a larger scatter in the joint $`N_{HI}b`$ distribution for the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. Since we require strong outflows from dwarf galaxies, a fourth suggestion would be to attempt to directly observe these outflows. This would be difficult at the relatively high redshifts we predict, but may be possible if the outflows are driven by strong starbursts. Finally, at low redshift we predict that the metallicity in the low column density Ly$`\alpha `$ forest clouds should remain approximately constant at $`Z10^210^3Z_{}`$, since later, larger galaxies are unlikely to be able to signficantly contaminate the regions further. An interesting aside is that collisional ionization at earlier times could be significant if energy feedback from SNe raised the IGM temperature, and may significantly alter the reionization picture of the universe. This issue will be examined in detail subsequently.

We note that the SN heating scenario for the high redshift IGM may be related to the apparently wanted additional heating of intra-cluster gas, if the latter is also due to SNe. If we take the apparently required specific energy per baryonic particle of $`0.3`$keV for the intra-cluster gas (e.g., Lloyd-Davies, Ponman, & Cannon 2000) and simply assume that specific heating energy is linearly proportional to metallicity, we obtain the specific energy per baryonic particle for the high redshift IGM to be $`Z_{IGM}/Z_{ICM}\times 0.3`$keV$`=3\times 10^3/0.3\times 0.3`$keV$`=3`$eV, not inconsistent with the results presented in this paper. However, a specific heating energy per baryonic particle for the intra-cluster gas greater than $`1`$keV is unattainable within our picture.

We would like to thank an anonymous referee for useful comments. This research is supported in part by grants AST93-18185 and ASC97-40300. Support for this work was also provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant HF-01104.01-98A from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS6-26555.


text:
# Superconductivity with the Meron-Cluster Algorithm

## 1 Introduction

For over a decade there has been a lot of interest in performing numerical simulations of strongly correlated fermionic systems. A recently discovered method for solving the sign problem inherent in such simulations is the meron-cluster algorithm . A new reference configuration allows us to explore a larger class of models with this method. The model we study here is a variant of the attractive Hubbard model.

The attractive Hubbard model has recieved a lot of attention as a toy model for superconductivity. It is a very simplistic model since the attraction between fermions is explicitly included, instead of arising from some more subtle mechanism. In that respect it is perhaps more closely related to the case of color superconductivity in QCD. It is still useful as a model for high-$`T_c`$ superconductors since at intermediate attraction strength they both exhibit pairing at temperatures above the superconducting transition .

Despite the Hubbard model’s simplicity, numerical attempts to verify the properties of a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition are inconsistent . The main reason seems to be the fairly small lattice size restriction imposed by conventional fermionic Monte Carlo methods. Since the meron-cluster algorithm scales very efficiently with lattice volume, we are able to go to large system sizes needed to accurately test finite size scaling formulas. Another advantage comes from performing the simulation directly in the fermion occupation basis, thus allowing very simple access to a wide range of observables.

## 2 The Model

We study a model of fermions with spin on a lattice in two spatial dimensions. The Hamilton operator can be written as

$$H=\underset{<x,y>}{}h_{xy}+\underset{x}{}h_x,$$
(1)
with a nearest neighbor interaction

$`h_{xy}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{s}{}}(c_{x,s}^{}c_{y,s}+c_{y,s}^{}c_{x,s})`$ (2)
$`\times `$ $`\left[(n_{xy}1)(n_{xy}3)+\mathrm{\Delta }(n_{xy}2)\right]`$
$`+`$ $`2(1+\mathrm{\Delta })\left[\stackrel{}{S}_x\stackrel{}{S}_y+\stackrel{}{J}_x\stackrel{}{J}_y\right]4\mathrm{\Delta }J_x^3J_y^3`$
$``$ $`4\left[(n_{x,}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})(n_{x,}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{4}}\right]`$
$`\times `$ $`\left[(n_{y,}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})(n_{y,}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}})+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{4}}\right],`$
and an on-site term

$$h_x=U(n_{x,}\frac{1}{2})(n_{x,}\frac{1}{2})\mu n_x.$$
(3)
We also define the number operators

$`n_{x,s}`$ $`=`$ $`c_{x,s}^{}c_{x,s}(s=,),`$
$`n_x`$ $`=`$ $`n_{x,}+n_{x,},n_{xy}=n_x+n_y,`$ (4)
along with the on-site spin

$`\stackrel{}{S}_x={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}c_{x,s}^{}\stackrel{}{\sigma }_{s,s^{}}c_{x,s^{}}`$ (5)
and pseudo-spin operators

$`J_x^+`$ $`=`$ $`(1)^xc_{x,}^{}c_{x,}^{},J_x^{}=(J_x^+)^{},`$
$`J_x^3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[n_x^{}+n_x^{}1\right].`$ (6)
The term containing $`U`$ serves to bind the fermions with opposite spin together on a lattice site. In the limit as $`U\mathrm{}`$ the model becomes bosonic and can be mapped onto the anisotropic quantum Heisenberg model. As $`U`$ decreases the model becomes increasingly fermionic, as in the attractive Hubbard model. However, at $`U=0`$ we still have a strongly interacting system due to the additional terms present.

In spite of these additional factors, we still expect this model to behave similarly to the attractive Hubbard model since they both possess the same symmetries. The important symmetries are the $`SU(2)_s`$ spin group generated by the standard fermionic spin operator $`\stackrel{}{S}=_x\stackrel{}{S}_x`$, and the $`SU(2)_c`$ charge symmetry generated by the pseudo-spin operator $`\stackrel{}{J}=_x\stackrel{}{J}_x`$. The $`SU(2)_s`$ group is always a symmetry of the Hamiltonian, but the $`SU(2)_c`$ group is broken down to the $`U(1)_c`$ particle number group if either $`\mu `$ or $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are nonzero. The remaining $`U(1)_c`$ symmetry can then undergo a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in two dimensions.

Here we will only consider the case where the $`SU(2)_c`$ is broken by $`\mathrm{\Delta }0`$ at half filling ($`\mu =0`$) as a test of the model and our simulations. We will study the more physically relevant case of $`\mu 0`$ elsewhere .

## 3 Simulation Method

The meron-cluster algorithm uses clusters in the standard path integral formulation of a quantum model to solve the sign problem arising from fermion permutations. It has been presented in detail for a variety of models . Here we will only outline the extension to this model.

We chose this particular model because of its simple cluster rules. The clusters are formed identically for the spin up and spin down fermions. We can thus group all the clusters into pairs that are identical except for having different spin. Flipping both clusters to be in the same orientation then gives an identical fermion sign for each spin sector, thus canceling each other out. No matter how the clusters are shaped, we can always flip them to be in a “reference configuration” with both spin sectors identical, which will always have a positive contribution to the partition function.

The on-site attraction term proportional to $`U`$ is implemented with an extra on-site plaquette similar to the mass term in the previously studied staggered fermion model . Here, however, the extra link can either do nothing, or it can freeze two clusters of different spin together in the same orientation. If frozen together the clusters can still be flipped, but both spin sectors must be flipped together. Note that this frozen state is consistent with the reference configuration which allows us to include it in the meron-cluster algorithm. This also limits us to studying an on-site attraction in this model since a repulsion would need to freeze the clusters in opposite orientations which is contrary to the reference configuration.

## 4 Numerical Results

We simulated the model presented above using a variant of the implementation used in . We have been able to simulate systems with a spatial volume (V) of $`128^2`$, but we will only present results of up to $`64^2`$ here. Each simulation produced between $`10^5`$ and $`10^6`$ configurations after performing at least $`10^4`$ thermalization sweeps. In all cases we measured the autocorrelation time to be less than two configurations.

The transition to a state with long range order can be seen in the S-wave pair correlation

$$P_L=\frac{2}{Z\beta V}_0^\beta \mathrm{Tr}\left[\mathrm{e}^{(\beta t)H}p^{}\mathrm{e}^{tH}p^+\right]$$
(7)
with

$$p^+=\underset{x}{}c_{x,}^{}c_{x,}^{},p^{}=(p^+)^{}.$$
(8)
In the thermodynamic limit ($`L\mathrm{}`$), the pair correlation should diverge near a KT transition as $`P_{\mathrm{}}\xi _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}7}/4}`$ with

$$\xi _{\mathrm{}}\{\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{e}^{a(TT_c)^{1/2}}\hfill & \mathrm{for}T>T_c\hfill \\ \mathrm{}\hfill & \mathrm{for}T<T_c\hfill \end{array}.$$
(9)
Figures 1 and 2 show the pair correlation for $`U=8`$ and $`U=0`$ respectively. In both cases we can clearly see evidence of long range correlations forming. Here we do not see much of a difference between the nearly bosonic ($`U=8`$) and fermionic ($`U=0`$) model, only a slight shift in the critical temperature.

One could attempt to extract $`T_c`$ from fitting the pair correlation for the largest volume available to the above form for $`P_{\mathrm{}}`$. This generally turns out to be difficult due to the large volumes necessary to approximate $`P_{\mathrm{}}`$ near $`T_c`$.

An easier way of measuring $`T_c`$ comes from the helicity modulus  which can be defined in terms of the winding number as

$$\mathrm{{\rm Y}}=\frac{T}{2}W_x^2+W_y^2$$
(10)
where $`W_x`$ ($`W_y`$) is the total number of particles winding around the boundary in the x (y) direction. This is very convenient to work with since we know the finite size scaling form to be

$$\frac{\pi }{T}\mathrm{{\rm Y}}=A(T)\left[2+\frac{1}{\mathrm{log}(L/L_0(T))}\right]$$
(11)
with $`A(T_c)=1`$. In figures 3 and 4 we show the quantity $`\pi \mathrm{{\rm Y}}/T`$ for the two different values of $`U`$. Here we can clearly see the tendency of a universal jump between 0 and 2 at $`T_c`$. Near $`T_c`$ we can fit the helicity modulus for several volumes to (11) to get the two parameters $`A(T)`$ and $`L_0(T)`$. We see that the coefficient $`A(T)`$ moves approximately linearly through 1 as $`T`$ goes through $`T_c`$. By fitting a straight line to $`A(T)`$ we can determine $`T_c`$. For $`U=8`$ we estimate that $`T_c=1.39(2)`$ while for $`U=0`$ we get $`T_c=1.28(2)`$.

For $`\mathrm{\Delta }=1`$ with $`U\mathrm{}`$ our model maps onto the quantum XY model with an extra factor of 1/4 multiplying the temperature. Scaling the measured result for the XY model , we should get $`T_c=1.3708(2)`$ for large enough $`U`$. Our result for $`U=8`$ is consistent with this which provides a good check of our simulations. We also see that $`U=8`$ is indeed close to the bosonic limit.

We can better understand how the model changes as we adjust $`U`$ by measuring the pairing fraction which we define as

$$f=2n_{}n_{}/n_{}+n_{}.$$
(12)
In figure 5 we show the pairing fraction for both $`U=8`$ and $`U=0`$ versus the reduced temperature $`t=(TT_c)/T_c`$ using $`T_c`$ as determined above. Here we can distinctly see the effects of the on-site attraction. For $`U=8`$ the pairing fraction gradually increases as $`T_c`$ is approached from above and comes within a few percent of its value at $`T_c`$ well before the KT transition. For $`U=0`$ we see a more dramatic rise as $`T_c`$ is approached from above. Here the pairing fraction levels off much closer to $`T_c`$ than for $`U=8`$, but still just before the transition.

## 5 Conclusions

We have efficiently simulated a fermionic model with the same symmetries as the attractive Hubbard model. In this model we observed a KT transition at a finite temperature for $`\mathrm{\Delta }=1`$ in the bosonic (U=8) and fermionic (U=0) limits. By measuring the helicity modulus, we were able to easily obtain the critical temperature.

In the future we will include a chemical potential in our simulations. This will allow us to move away from half filling. We also plan to study this model in 3 dimensions to observe the physics of massless Goldstone bosons.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank U.-J. Wiese for motivating discussions. A majority of the simulations were performed on computers generously donated by Intel Corporation.


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# Two Highly Polarized QSOs Discovered by 2MASS

## 1 Introduction

The success of orientation-based models in explaining much of the variety in the observed properties of active galactic nuclei (AGN) (see e.g., Antonucci, 1993; Hines et al., 1995; Wilkes et al., 1995) has underlined the importance of obscuration located around these objects. In this class of models, a dusty torus surrounds the AGN and blocks our view of the nuclear region for high-inclination lines of sight. Not only can obscuration account for the existence of so-called “Type-2” objects dominated by narrow emission lines, but also their tendency toward higher polarization due to scattering within the narrow-line region (NLR), the presence of broad emission lines in polarized flux spectra, and their relatively large values of $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}/L_{\mathrm{OPT}}`$.

This appreciation of orientation effects has been extremely useful in establishing the equivalence (“unification”) of several apparently disparate AGN types, but it has also called attention to possible large biases in some samples of AGN (see e.g., Rowan-Robinson, 1977). Traditional UV/optical survey techniques (e.g., Schmidt & Green, 1983; Markarian, 1967) are likely to miss AGN obscured by dust located either near the nucleus or in the body of the host galaxy. Depending on the covering factor of the obscuring material, the space density of radio-quiet AGN could be a factor of two or more greater than current surveys suggest (see e.g., Low et al., 1988; Lawrence, 1991; Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent, 1997).

Infrared surveys offer the advantage of being less susceptible to extinction by dust, plus they are sensitive to the more or less isotropic re-emission of the absorbed soft X-ray–optical radiation. This reprocessed component appears as a broad peak in the spectral energy distribution around 25–100 $`\mu `$m. The discovery of strongly polarized broad lines in “hyperluminous” infrared galaxies (HIGs: Kleinman et al. 1988; Rowan-Robinson et al. 1991; Cutri et al. 1994) found by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite proved that obscured QSOs can be detected in the IR (Wills et al., 1992; Hines et al., 1995; Goodrich et al., 1996; Hines et al., 1999), but IRAS lacked the sensitivity to acquire more than a handful of such AGN. Unfortunately, no sensitive hard X-ray or mid-IR surveys are currently planned that would cover a large part of the sky and be suitable for determining the fraction of obscured-to-unobscured radio-quiet AGN. However, Cutri et al. (2000) have discovered a large number of previously unknown, primarily low-$`z`$, red AGN in the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS; Skrutskie et al. 1997) using a simple near-infrared color-selection criterion. That is, objects at $`|\mathrm{b}|>30^{}`$ with $`JK_s>2`$.

In this Letter we present optical observations of two objects from the Cutri et al. (2000) sample that illustrate the variety of AGN being found by 2MASS. The high polarization induced by small-particle scattering observed for these objects confirms that near-IR surveys do indeed find obscured AGN.

## 2 Observations

High polarization was found for the AGN 2MASSI J151653.2+190048 and 2MASSI J165939.7+183436 (hereafter 2M1516 and 2M1659, respectively) during an optical polarization survey of the Cutri et al. (2000) sample (Smith et al., 2000). Basic observed properties of these two objects are provided in Table 1. The near-IR–to–optical flux ratio (as measured by $`BK_s`$) for 2M1516 is near the highest value observed for the optically-selected Palomar-Green (PG) QSO sample (Schmidt & Green, 1983; Neugebauer et al., 1987), and 2M1659 is about a magnitude redder. The new 2MASS AGN are similar to optically selected QSOs in that their near-IR and \[O III\]$`\lambda `$5007 luminosities are comparable (Neugebauer et al., 1987; Boroson & Green, 1992). Nevertheless, follow-up broad-band polarimetry found that the optical polarization of each object greatly exceeds the levels present in the PG catalog (Berriman et al., 1990). In fact, except for the blazar class, these two 2MASS objects are among the most highly polarized AGN known.

Optical ($`\lambda \lambda `$4400–8800) spectropolarimetry of 2M1516 and 2M1659 was obtained on UT 2000 May 9 and 1999 Oct. 13–15, respectively, using the CCD Imaging/Spectropolarimeter (Schmidt, Stockman, & Smith, 1992) and Steward Observatory 2.3 m Bok reflector. The instrument configuration included a slit $`2\mathrm{}3`$″ wide $`\times `$ 51″ long plus a 600 g mm-1 grating to yield $``$12 Å spectral resolution. Multiple waveplate sequences on each object totaled 6720 s and 9600 s, respectively. The data are shown in Figures 1 and 2.

An additional blue spectrum of 2M1516 ($`\lambda \lambda `$3370–5600) was obtained on UT 2000 May 28 with the Boller & Chivens spectrograph and Bok reflector. A 900 s exposure was taken using a 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5-wide slit. These results are in excellent agreement with the flux spectrum obtained by the earlier spectropolarimetry, so the extended spectrum in Figure 1 was created by averaging the flux levels in the overlap region.

### 2.1 2MASSI J151653.2+190048

The Type-1 spectrum of 2M1516 shows strong Balmer emission lines with widths $`\mathrm{FWHM}4500`$ km s-1 and Fe II features superposed on a fairly blue continuum. This object actually satisfies the selection criteria of the PG survey, since our spectroscopy indicates $`UB0.5`$, and $`B15.8`$. Given the photometric accuracy of the PG plates and possible variability typical of QSOs, objects this close to the selection limits ($`B<16.1`$; $`UB<0.44`$) can be easily missed (Schmidt & Green, 1983).

Spectropolarimetry confirms the high $`R`$-band polarization measured for 2M1516. In Figure 1 the continuum polarization is seen to smoothly increase from $``$7% at 7300 Å (rest frame) to $``$15% at 3700 Å. The position angle, $`\theta `$, of continuum polarization is constant with wavelength. Polarization structure is apparent in the broad Balmer lines (see esp. H$`\alpha `$), but emission from the broad-line region (BLR) is polarized to nearly the same degree and position angle as the surrounding continuum, indicating that the common polarizing mechanism is small-particle scattering. The flux from the \[O III\] lines, however, is consistent with being unpolarized, requiring that light from the continuum source and surrounding BLR be scattered into our line of sight by material located near and/or within the NLR. The polarization structure observed in the broad emission lines suggests that the BLR is spatially resolved from the vantage point of the scattering material nearest the nucleus.

### 2.2 2MASSI J165939.7+183436

Cutri et al. (2000) classify 2M1659 a Type-1.5 AGN from their original spectroscopic observation. Narrow emission lines dominate the optical spectrum, with an \[O III\]$`\lambda `$5007 equivalent width of $``$100 Å. The difference in contrast between the \[O III\] lines of 2M1516 and 2M1659 is due to the weak continuum and broad-line spectrum of the latter, not a paucity of narrow-line emission in the former, since the \[O III\]$`\lambda `$5007 luminosity measured for 2M1516 is actually $``$1.4 times that of the narrow-line object. The H$`\alpha `$ and \[N II\]$`\lambda `$6583 lines in 2M1659 are easily separated at this resolution and sit atop a broad H$`\alpha `$ component in total flux. A weak broad-line component is also apparent at H$`\beta `$.

The optical polarization of 2M1659 averaged over the region sampled by the spectropolarimetry is $`P=5.43\%\pm 0.06`$% at $`\theta =158\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}4\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3`$. This is consistent with the unfiltered observation obtained 1999 Sep. 13 (Table 1), though the broad-band measurement extends $``$1000 Å bluer. Spectropolarimetry reveals that the continuum polarization increases from $``$5% at 7200 Å to $``$8% at 3800 Å (rest), and that $`\theta `$ rotates $``$10 between these two wavelengths.

The Stokes flux spectrum ($`q\mathrm{}\times F_\lambda `$; where $`q\mathrm{}`$ is the $`q`$ Stokes parameter computed for a coordinate system aligned with the mean optical polarization position angle) of 2M1659 is strikingly different from its total flux spectrum. The narrow emission lines which dominate the total flux are completely absent, but broad ($`\mathrm{FWHM}6000`$ km s-1) H$`\alpha `$ and H$`\beta `$ are seen. The continuum is also bluer in Stokes flux than in total flux. As with 2M1516, these properties indicate that polarization occurs through scattering by material close to, or within, the NLR.

## 3 Discussion

The very strong optical polarizations of 2M1516 and 2M1659 are remarkable for non-blazar QSOs, but not without precedent. A few known HIGs (Hines et al., 1995; Goodrich et al., 1996; Hines et al., 1999) show broadband values which exceed that of the Type-1 source 2M1516, but all exhibit Type-2 spectra in total flux. Among Type-1 sources, the properties of 2M1516 most closely resemble Mrk 231 (Smith et al., 1995), Mrk 486 (Smith et al., 1997), and the high-polarization Seyfert galaxies studied by Goodrich & Miller (1994). Most of these objects show optical polarization that rapidly increases into the blue. In Mrk 231, $`P`$ continues to increase past Mg II $`\lambda `$2800, reaching $``$18% before dilution of the scattered light by an unpolarized component, possibly hot stars, becomes important (Smith et al., 1995). Although the wavelength dependence of polarization in Mrk 231 is stronger at optical wavelengths (Schmidt & Miller, 1980), the higher redshift and less-reddened spectrum of 2M1516 imply that a similar stellar component would be less significant, so its ultraviolet polarization could easily exceed 25%.

The existence of structure in $`P`$ and $`\theta `$ across the broad emission lines of 2M1516 is a property also shared by other polarized Type-1 AGN. Similar polarimetric signatures at H$`\alpha `$ in Mrk 231 and Mrk 486 have been explained as the result of at least two differently-polarized emission-line components from the BLR (Goodrich & Miller, 1994; Smith et al., 1995, 1997). The likelihood of multiple polarized components suggests that the scattering material must lie close to or partially within the BLR (see also Goodrich, 1995).

By contrast, the strong optical polarization and high NLR/BLR flux ratio of 2M1659, traits now familiar from polarization studies of Type-2 Seyfert galaxies and HIGs, attest to an AGN partially obscured from our direct view. Such objects are important for understanding the orientation effects that are thought to unify apparently disparate classes of AGN. Past optical QSO surveys have likely been biased against finding these narrow-line objects because obscuration tends to place even low-$`z`$ objects below survey limiting magnitudes and outside of survey color-selection criteria. For example, 2M1659 falls 2 magnitudes below the PG survey limit at $`B`$ despite the fact that its apparent $`K_s`$ magnitude is close to the median for PG QSOs ($`K=12.7`$). It is consistent with the orientation-based AGN scheme that many of the likely examples of Type-2 QSOs have been discovered by either IRAS (see §1) or by near-IR surveys like 2MASS (Cutri et al., 2000). New, deep multi-color optical surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Gunn et al., 1998) and the Digital Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (Djorgovski et al., 1998) are conceivably sensitive to finding Type-2 AGN in specific redshift bands as high equivalent-width narrow lines migrate across filter band-passes (Djorgovski et al., 1999).

## 4 Conclusions

A population of obscured AGN with high optical polarization is being revealed by 2MASS. The importance of this new population is perhaps best illustrated by comparison to the 114 members of the PG sample, where the most strongly polarized is PG 1114+445 at only $`P2`$% (Berriman et al., 1990). Like the 2MASS QSOs studied here, the emission lines of PG 1114+445 basically share the polarization of the continuum (Smith, Schmidt, & Allen, 1993), so scattering of continuum and BLR light into our line of sight is also favored as the polarizing mechanism. Yet the very modest polarization of PG 1114+445 is accompanied by optical and near-IR colors ($`JK=1.9`$; $`BK=3.8`$) that are only slightly bluer than observed for 2M1516. This suggests that the optical color selection criterion chosen for the PG survey effectively marks a boundary between blue QSOs that are essentially unpolarized and redder QSOs where the scattered flux is not necessarily swamped by the direct, unpolarized light of the nucleus.

High polarization in QSOs is also associated with absorption features intrinsic to the AGN (see e.g., Schmidt & Hines, 1999). In this vision of the AGN unification scheme, broad absorption-line regions arise through the ablation of high-velocity clouds off the surface of the obscuring torus, but these are visible – and a BALQSO appears – only if our line of sight to the nucleus just skims that surface (Weymann et al., 1991; Voit, Weymann, & Korista, 1993). Large scattering angles for the reflected light coupled with partial obscuration of the nucleus is thought to account for the tendency of BALQSOs to be more highly polarized than for unobscured QSOs. Ultraviolet observations test the viability and constrain the geometry of these models, and the highly-polarized 2MASS AGN are an important sample in which to test these predictions. X-ray observations will also be indispensable for determining column densities and the nature of the obscuring material.

Compared with current optical samples, the 2MASS AGN sample contains many QSOs with very different optical properties, including highly polarized objects. While the obscured-to-unobscured ratio and space density of radio-quiet AGN in the local universe remain to be determined, it is already clear that 2MASS will provide much more unbiased estimates than currently exist.

We thank Frank Low for useful discussions and Dan McIntosh for obtaining a blue spectrum of 2M1516. We also thank an anonymous referee for critically reading the manuscript and for insightful comments concerning the spectral classification of 2M1659. RMC and BON acknowledge the support of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory operated by the California Institute of Technology under contract to NASA. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.


text:
# The luminosity calibration of the 𝑢𝑣𝑏𝑦-𝛽 photometry

## 1. The pre-HIPPARCOS luminosity calibrations

The $`uvby\beta `$ photometric system is well suited to derive stellar physical parameters and in particular the luminosity, through calibrations accounting for the dependence on $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and evolution. Further dependences on metallicity and projected rotational velocity were considered by several authors but the results were not conclusive enough.

The most widely used calibrations are fully empirical (Crawford 1975, 1978, 1979; Strömgren 1966; Olsen 1984 and Balona & Shobbrook 1984 among others). Open clusters and young stellar associations were used to derive the shape of the ZAMS and the dependence on the evolution, while the zero point was directly or indirectly fixed through the few trigonometric parallaxes precise enough available at the epoch. A different approach was taken by Nissen & Schuster (1991), who included theoretical stellar evolutionary models to derive metallicity dependences of the ZAMS. The unavoidable need to transform from theoretical to observed stellar quantities adds a source of uncertainty, however.

Figure 1 shows how the ground-based parallaxes used to fix the zero point of the luminosity (17 F-type stars closer than 11 pc, $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <10.5`$%) compare with the HIPPARCOS parallaxes ($`\sigma _\pi <1`$ mas). HIPPARCOS parallaxes are smaller by $`5\pm 3`$ mas, i.e. the stars are $`0.09\pm 0.06`$ mag brighter than previously considered. Thus, the photometric distances derived with the pre-HIPPARCOS calibrations are underestimated roughly by about 4%.

## 2. HIPPARCOS based luminosity calibrations

HIPPARCOS did not only improve the existent trigonometric parallaxes. It considerably enlarged the sample of stars with precise parallaxes, provided accurate proper motions and new data on duplicity and variability. All this information yields larger and cleaner samples than before. However, a big amount of precise data is not enough. To exploit the HIPPARCOS data to its full extent, a careful evaluation of the sample observational selection effects is needed, as well as taking into account the involved observational errors. Furthermore, statistically robust treatments accounting for these items are necessary.

We describe in the following sections the calibrations done in this direction.

### 2.1. F-type stars

A sample of unreddened stars with $`2.59<\beta <2.72`$ ($``$ F0-G2) was built from the HIPPARCOS catalogue and Hauck & Mermilliod (1998, HM) photometric data. The sample was cleaned of luminosity classes I & II, peculiar, variable, binaries and emission stars according to the HIPPARCOS flags, SP information, ”type object” in SIMBAD and flags in HM. The sample contains $``$700 stars with $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <5`$% and $``$2500 stars with $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <15`$% (about two orders of magnitude more stars than those available to pre-HIPPARCOS calibrations).

Figure 2 (left) compares the photometric absolute magnitude with the HIPPARCOS data for the first subsample. Crawford’s calibration shows a small zero point difference, as expected from the parallax differences of the zero point stars (see Fig. 1). A slight trend on metallicity is observed when working with the subsample with $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <15`$%. A similar comparison using Nissen & Schuster (1991) calibration reveals that it is more appropriate for the metal poor stars than Crawford’s one, which performs better for non-metal poor stars.

Biases due to the observational selection effects and errors were tested using MonteCarlo simulations. A sample of stars of a given $`\overline{M_v}`$ with spatial distribution typical of the disc (assuming $`\sigma _{M_v}=0.3`$ mag, typical HIPPARCOS errors for parallax and appropriate limits on apparent magnitude) was generated. When the $`M_v`$ is derived by just using $`\pi _{\mathrm{obs}}`$ and the sample is limited to contain stars with $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <5\%`$, we found that $`\overline{M_v(\mathrm{true})M_v(\pi _{\mathrm{obs}})}=0.01`$ if $`\overline{M_v}=2.7`$ mag ($``$ F0) and $`\overline{M_v(\mathrm{true})M_v(\pi _{\mathrm{obs}})}=+0.06`$ if $`\overline{M_v}=4.7`$ mag ($``$ G2).

With those biases in mind, we attempted to derive a new calibration by a simple least square fit. The results point out to $`30\mathrm{\Delta }\beta `$ more likely than the $`20\mathrm{\Delta }\beta `$ adopted by Crawford (1975) as evolutionary term, to a small correction for metallicity ($`0.2[Fe/H]`$) and to a slightly different $`M_v(\mathrm{ZAMS})`$ relation ($`<0.2`$ mag) . The dispersion of the residuals is of 0.25 mag only slightly better than the 0.29 mag (Fig. 2, left) of Crawford’s calibration and larger than expected from the $`\sigma _\pi /\pi `$ value, reflecting the contribution of the photometric errors, unsolved binarity, differences in helium composition, cromospheric activity and so on. The continuity with the A-type stars (see next subsection) has not been tested yet. A more conclusive calibration including the observational errors will be the subject of a forthcoming paper.

### 2.2. Late A-type stars

Domingo & Figueras (1999) compared photometric and HIPPARCOS parallaxes for a sample of normal and metallic A-type stars and they concluded that Crawford (1979) calibration is better than Guthrie (1987) calibration for normal A-type stars, while Guthrie’s calibration is better than Crawford’s one for Am stars. In both cases, according to HIPPARCOS, the stars are brighter than predicted by the old calibrations, as for the F-type stars.

A new calibration (including normal and Am stars) was derived by these authors using the weighted least square and the BCES methods and working with a sample of stars closer than 100 pc (including individual Lutz & Kelker correction). The precision of their calibration is of 0.23 mag. The dependences on evolution, blanketing and rotational velocity are smaller than the ones derived in the pre-HIPPARCOS calibrations.

### 2.3. B-type stars

As for the F-type stars, a sample of B-type stars was built with similar selection criteria. It contains $``$1500 stars ($``$ 20 stars with $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <5`$% and $``$200 stars with $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <10`$%). Photometric and HIPPARCOS based absolute magnitudes are compared in Fig. 2 (right) for Crawford (1978) calibration. Similar simulations that for the F-type stars were performed and we obtained that $`\overline{M_v(\mathrm{true})M_v(\pi _{\mathrm{obs}})}=0.10`$ mag at $`\beta =2.65`$ and $`\overline{M_v(\mathrm{true})M_v(\pi _{\mathrm{obs}})}=0.05`$ mag at $`\beta =2.90`$ for a sample limited to $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <10`$%. Thus, the biases are smaller than the actual differences. When the comparison is performed with Balona & Shobbrook (1984) calibration, a similar trend also appears, although less pronounced.

Due to the scarcity of early B-type stars in the near vicinity of the Sun, the calibration should be approached by using open clusters or by using a statistical method capable of dealing with the whole sample, accounting for its biases and the observational errors. The maximum likelihood method (LM) by Luri et al. (1996) was adapted to this case. We parameterized the absolute magnitude as a function of the $`\beta `$ and $`[ub]`$ colours and the results are quite promising, although the influence of the adopted interstellar absorption model must be checked. Luminosity seems to depend only on $`\beta `$ for the B0-B3 subsample, while an additional dependence on $`[ub]`$ exists in the B4-B9 subsample (Crawford (1978) did not considered an evolutionary term when $`c_o>0.9`$ and this could be the cause of the large discrepancy at the B8-B9 range in Fig. 2 right). Dependences on projected rotational velocity are not clear at this stage of the calibration. Again, a more definite calibration using LM and its comparison with the classical approach is the subject of our future work, although we are limited by the small number of projected rotational velocities available.

## References

Balona, L.A., & Shobbrook, R.R. 1984, MNRAS 211, 375

Crawford, D.L. 1975, AJ 80, 955

Crawford, D.L. 1978, AJ 83, 48

Crawford, D.L. 1979, AJ 84, 1858

Domingo, A., & Figueras, F. 1999, A&A 343, 446

Guthrie, B.N.G. 1987, MNRAS 226, 361

Hauck, B., & Mermilliod, J.-C. 1998, A&A 129, 431

Luri, L., Mennessier, M.O., Torra, J., & Figueras, F. 1996, A&AS 117, 405

Nissen, P.E., & Schuster, W.J. 1991, A&A 251, 457

Olsen, E.H. 1984, A&AS 57, 443

Strömgren, B. 1966, ARA&A 4, 433

Woolley, R.vd.R., Epps, E.A., Penston, M.J., & Pocock, S.B. 1970, Royal Obs. Ann. 5


text:
# Supernovae Ia, Evolution and Quintessence*footnote **footnote *To appear in “Cosmology and Particle Physics”, Proc. of the CAPP’2000 Conference, Verbier, eds. J. García-Bellido, R. Durrer and M. Shaposhnikov, (American Institute of Physics, 2001)

ADP-00-49/M95; astro-ph/0010443

## Abstract

Quintessence models with a dark energy generated by pseudo Nambu–Goldstone bosons provide a natural framework in which to test the possibility that type Ia supernovae luminosity distance measurements are at least partially due to an evolution of the sources, since these models can have parameter values for which the expansion of the Universe is decelerating as well as values for which it is accelerating, while being spatially flat in all cases and allowing for a low density of clumped matter. The results of a recent investigation NW  of current observational bounds which allow for SNe Ia source evolution are discussed. It is found that models with source evolution still favour cosmologies with an appreciable amount of acceleration in the recent past, but that the region of parameter space which is most favoured shifts significantly.

As has been described in many other talks at this conference, many independent measurements – for example, the spectrum of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) anisotropies, galaxy clustering statistics, peculiar velocities, the baryon mass fraction in clusters of galaxies – all appear to agree in estimating that the density of matter which is clumped is relatively low compared to the critical density, being of order $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{m0}0.2`$$`0.3`$. On the other hand, the recent measurement of the position of the first acoustic peak in the angular power spectrum of CMBR anisotropies by the BOOMERANG-98 and MAXIMA-I experiments now gives unequivocal evidence that the Universe is close to being spatially flat boomax .

A natural conclusion to draw from these observations is that a significant proportion of the energy density of the Universe is in the form of a dark component which is smooth, rather than clumped, on cosmological scales. The form of dark energy which we are most familiar with, for historical reasons, is a cosmological constant. It leads to models in which the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

In the last few years, Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have come to be used as a cosmological distance indicator, with the conclusion that there is very good evidence that the expansion of the Universe is indeed accelerating R98 ; P98 . Unfortunately, in terms of the physical basis of the measurements, the SNe Ia result remains the most poorly understood component of the present “concordance model”, and it remains possible that there are systematic uncertainties that have not been accounted for, such as an evolution of the sources or extinction by dust. In particular, cosmological parameters are fitted by normalizing the peak luminosities of supernovae on the basis of a purely empirical correlation which has been observed at low redshifts between the peak luminosity and the decay time of SNe Ia events as measured in their rest frames: the resulting “Phillips relations” Ph93 R96  reduce the dispersion in the distance moduli to about $`0.15`$ Ham96 ; R96  as compared to an intrinsic dispersion of $`0.3`$$`0.5`$ in peak absolute $`BV`$ magnitudes of suitably selected nearby events.

Many of the details of the physics behind SNe Ia remain unclear. It is believed that each SNe Ia event is formed by a white dwarf in a binary system, accreting matter from its companion until it undergoes a catastrophic thermonuclear conflagration, possibly at a sub-Chandrasekhar limit stage. Given their common physical origin such systems might be reasonably expected to be somewhat “insensitive” to much of the individual histories of the progenitor systems, which provides the basis for their use as a standard candle. However, while much progress has been made in attempting to numerically model the explosions blast , huge uncertainties remain because of a lack of knowledge of the details of particular nuclear cross–sections and the fluid dynamics of flame propagation. Attempts to find a physical origin for the Phillips relations are at a very preliminary stage PE00 .

Given that the prospect of understanding the physical basis of the SNe Ia events is not going to be resolved without much more detailed measurements and calculations, it would be prudent to test the conclusions that have been derived cosmologically, allowing for the possibility that there has been some evolution of the peak luminosities insofar as they affect the Phillips relations over cosmological timescales. Such an analysis has been instigated by Drell, Loredo and Wasserman DLW  in the case of open Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) models.

I wish to argue, however, that since we now have remarkably good evidence that the Universe is close to flat with a low density fraction of ordinary clumped matter, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{m0}0.2`$$`0.3`$, it makes much better sense to test the evolution hypothesis in the context of models which have these features but which make no assumptions regarding the acceleration or deceleration of the Universe at the present epoch. This is not possible within the class of Friedmann-Lemaître models with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$. However, cosmological models with a quintessence field in the form of a dynamical pseudo Nambu–Goldstone boson have precisely the desired properties.

It may come as a surprise that “quintessence” does not necessarily entail an accelerated expansion of the Universe, since one of the most common approaches to seeking a particle physics origin for the vacuum energy is to look for a scalar field, $`\varphi `$, with a potential, $`V(\varphi )`$, which gives homogeneous isotropic cosmological solutions for which the Universe undergoes an accelerated expansion at late times. However, such an approach does not fully utilize the fact that the effective equation of state for the quintessence field, $`P_\varphi =w_\varphi \rho _\varphi `$, has a variable coefficient $`w_\varphi `$ which can generically take all values consistent with the dominant energy condition. Furthermore, such an approach often leads to the study of potentials whose physical origin is not particularly well motivated.

The PNGB model, on the other hand, is well–motivated from a particle physics point of view as being a very natural way of obtaining an ultra–light scalar field pngb . The models NW ; pngb ; FW  are based on a potential

$$V(\varphi )=M^4[\mathrm{cos}(\varphi /f)+1]$$

characterized by two mass scales, a purely spontaneous symmetry breaking scale $`f10^{18}`$$`10^{19}\text{GeV}`$, and an explicit symmetry breaking scale $`M10^3\text{eV}`$.

The solutions, for a model consisting of the quintessence field plus a spatially flat homogeneous isotropic cosmology with clumped matter in the form of dust, have the property that at late times the energy density fractions in the scalar field and clumped matter tend to constants $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\varphi 𝚏}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{m𝚏}`$, with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\varphi 𝚏}+\mathrm{\Omega }_{m𝚏}=1`$, while the scalar field oscillates about the minimum of $`V(\varphi )`$. The values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\varphi 𝚏}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{m𝚏}`$ depend on the values of the parameters $`M`$, $`f`$ and the initial value $`\varphi _i`$ of the scalar field at the onset of the matter domination. As the scalar field oscillates about the potential minimum the deceleration parameter oscillates from a minimum value of $`q=\frac{1}{2}\left(13\mathrm{\Omega }_{\varphi 𝚏}\right)`$ to a maximum value $`q=\frac{1}{2}\left(1+3\mathrm{\Omega }_{\varphi 𝚏}\right)`$ about a mean of $`q=\frac{1}{2}`$.

After many oscillations it is the mean value $`q`$ which is significant, and the luminosity distance relation becomes indistinguishable from that of the Einstein-de Sitter universe. Thus a cosmological acceleration can have an appreciable effect at the present epoch provided that (i) $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\varphi 𝚏}>\frac{1}{3}`$; and (ii) at the present epoch the scalar field is still undergoing its first oscillation.

I now wish to briefly describe some of the results of recent work NW , in which Cindy Ng and I investigated the luminosity distance confidence limits on the parameter space $`(M,f,\varphi _i)`$ of PNGB quintessence models, allowing for an additional continuous redshift–dependent magnitude shift of the form $`\beta \mathrm{ln}(1+z)`$ in the distance modulus relation for the SNe Ia sample, as suggested by Drell, Loredo and Wasserman DLW . The parameter $`\beta `$ is assumed to have a Gaussian prior distribution with mean $`\beta _0`$ and standard deviation $`b`$. We investigated two types of evolution: (i) models with non-zero $`\beta _0`$; (ii) models with $`\beta _0=0`$ but non-zero dispersion $`b`$ (see Fig. 1). The former models can be regarded as ones with a possibly strong evolution. In the second case it is assumed that the Phillips relations still apply on average over cosmological scales, but that evolutionary effects result in an additional dispersion. This is potentially a weaker form of correction that may apply to a variety of possible sources of evolutionary effects.

We determined confidence limits by analytic marginalization, using the 60 SNe Ia published by Perlmutter et al. P98 . We found that the models with evolution provided a better fit to the data. In the case of type (i) models with non-zero $`\beta _0`$ the best fit value occurred at $`\beta _0=0.414`$ for $`\varphi _i=1.5f`$, or $`\beta _0=0.435`$ for $`\varphi _i=0.2f`$. This corresponds to SNe Ia being intrinsically dimmer by $`0.17`$$`0.18`$ magnitudes at a redshift $`z=0.5`$. The $`\beta _0=0`$ slice of parameter space included regions which still lie within the $`2\sigma `$ confidence region relative to the best-fit value of $`\beta _0`$, however, for all values of $`b`$. What is perhaps even more interesting is that in the case of type (ii) models with $`\beta _0=0`$, if $`\varphi _i`$ is suitably large – e.g., for $`\varphi _i=1.5f`$ as in Fig. 1 – a non-zero dispersion $`b0.36`$ can lead to a slightly better fit than the case of non–evolutionary models with $`b=0`$.

The assignment of $`1\sigma `$ and $`2\sigma `$ confidence bounds of course depends on the dispersion, $`b`$, and thus the conclusions one can draw at this stage will remain somewhat qualitative until a better physical understanding of any evolutionary effects is obtained. What is perhaps most important is that for type (ii) models with $`b>0.17`$ most of the $`1\sigma `$–included region is located in the region marked II in Fig. 1, in which the scalar field has already passed through its minimum once and is rolling back towards the minimum for the second time. By contrast, for the non-evolutionary case, $`b=0`$, the $`1\sigma `$–included region is entirely within in the area marked I (see Fig. 8 of NW ), in which the scalar field is rolling down the potential for the first time at the present epoch without yet having reached the minimum. Region I corresponds to parameter values for which the conventional quintessence scenario applies, since the deceleration parameter is negative (c.f. Fig. 2). For the strongly evolving type (i) models the picture is similar, except that relative to the best–fit $`\beta _0`$ all of region I is $`1\sigma `$–excluded for values $`b0.5`$ (c.f. Figs. 9–11 ofNW ). For parameter values in region II it is much easier to accommodate gravitational lensing statistic constraints from quasars than for parameter values in region I NW .

In region II, although the deceleration parameter is positive at the present epoch, the universe would have experienced a significant amount of acceleration at modest redshifts within the SNe IA dataset, as can be seen from the plot of $`q(z)`$ in Fig. 2 for some typical parameter values. It is interesting therefore that even with the inclusion of source evolution the SNe Ia data best fits parameter values for which the cosmological evolution differs markedly from that of open FRW models. With future data from the proposed SNAP mission PNR  it would become possible to observationally distinguish region II PNGB quintessence models from Friedmann-Lemaître models and other quintessence scenarios.

Acknowledgement: I wish to thank Cindy Ng for discussions. This work was supported by Australian Research Council grant F6960043.