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# Observation of a New 𝑱^{𝑷𝑪}=𝟏⁺⁻ Isoscalar State in the Reaction 𝝅⁻𝒑→𝝎𝜼𝒏 at 18 GeV/c

## Introduction

Studies of meson spectra via strong decays of hadrons provide insight regarding QCD at the confinement scale. These studies have led to phenomenological models such as the constituent quark model. However, QCD demands a much richer spectrum of meson states which includes extra states such as hybrids($`q\overline{q}g`$), multiquarks ($`q\overline{q}q\overline{q}`$), and glueballs ($`gg`$ or $`ggg`$). Experiment E852 at Brookhaven National Laboratory is an experiment in meson spectroscopy configured to detect both neutral and charged final meson states of $`\pi ^{}p`$ collisions in a search for meson states beyond those compatible with the constituent quark model.

The apparatus was located at the Multi-Particle Spectrometer (MPS) of Brookhaven’s Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). The AGS delivered an 18 GeV/c $`\pi ^{}`$ beam to a fixed liquid hydrogen target at the MPS. The MPS facility was augmented with additional detectors designed specifically for E852 which consisted of 3 integral regions: target, charged tracking, and downstream regions(see Figure 1).

The target region was located in the middle of the MPS dipole magnet(1 Tesla) and contained the following elements: a 30.5 cm long liquid hydrogen target, a four–layer cylindrical drift–proportional wire chamber, and a 198 block CsI(Ti) barrel veto detector.

The downstream half of the MPS magnet housed the main components of the charged tracking region. It consisted of 3 proportional wire chambers (TPX1–3) and 6 drift chamber modules(DM1–6) each with seven–layers. In addition to the tracking chambers, there were two scintillation veto counters (CPVB and CPVC) and a window-frame lead-scintillator sandwich veto detector (DEA).

The downstream region contained a 3000 element lead–glass calorimeter (LGD) for detecting and measuring the energy of the forward going gammas and a large drift chamber (TDX4) located directly in front of the LGD for tagging charged particles entering the LGD. More detailed descriptions and general features of the E852 apparatus, data acquisition, event reconstruction and selection are given in References .

The $`\omega \eta `$ final state is of considerable interest because it has been virtually unexplored, and since it has not been observed in the decay modes of known mesons. Also, Close and Page, using an extension of the flux-tube model of Isgur and Paton, suggest that the isoscalar $`J^{PC}=1^{}`$ $`q\overline{q}g`$ hybrid should decay dominantly to $`\rho \pi `$ and $`\omega \eta `$.

The exclusive $`\omega \eta `$ system has been studied by two experiments previously. The GAMS Collaboration observed less than 100 $`\omega \eta `$ events produced in $`\pi ^{}p`$ interactions and claimed to observe a narrow (less than 50 MeV/c2 wide) structure at 1650 MeV/c2. Photoproduction of nearly 100 $`\omega \eta `$ final state events was observed by the Omega Photon Collaboration. They reported observing a peak in the $`\omega \eta `$ spectrum at a mass of 1610 MeV/c2 but with a width of 230 MeV/c2. Both experiments suffered from having too little data and could not perform a partial wave analysis. We report here the results of a partial wave analysis of approximately 20000 exclusive $`\omega \eta `$ events.

## Features of the Data

During the 1995 AGS data run, a sample of 750 million triggers was acquired of which 108 million were of a type designed to enrich the yield from the reaction $`\pi ^{}pn\pi ^+\pi ^{}4\gamma `$. About 6 million events containing $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}4\gamma `$ were fully reconstructed.

The data were kinematically fitted to select events consistent with a $`n\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}\eta `$ hypothesis. To eliminate broken and incorrectly hypothesized events, kinematic fits with confidence levels less than $`5\%`$ were excluded.

There are six ways to combine the 4 $`\gamma `$’s into pairs, and one problem in interpreting the results of the kinematic fit is deciding between these $`\gamma \gamma `$ combinations for ambiguous solutions. For example, twenty-nine percent of the fitted $`n\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}\eta `$ events were also found to fit the $`n\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}\pi ^{}`$ hypothesis. Events of this type with a confidence level of at least $`0.01\%`$ for the $`n\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}\pi ^{}`$ hypothesis were removed from the data sample. A total of 113000 $`n\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}\eta `$ events remained for further analysis.

The two prominent resonances seen in the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}`$ invariant mass distribution (see Figure 2) are consistent with the well known $`\eta `$ and $`\omega `$. A Gaussian plus a second order polynomial fit to these peaks results in a measured mass and width of the $`\eta `$ of ($`550.4\pm 0.2MeV`$/c2) and $`23.4\pm 0.2MeV`$/c2 and of the $`\omega `$ of ($`787.5\pm 0.3MeV`$/c2) and $`38.3\pm 0.3MeV`$/c2 respectively. The mass values are in good agreement with the PDG mass values for the $`\eta `$ and $`\omega `$, whereas the fitted widths are a measure of the experimental mass resolution of the E852 apparatus. The $`\eta \pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}`$ events have been selected for a study of the $`\eta \eta `$ system which is currently in progress.

Events with an invariant $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^{}`$ mass in region of $`750MeV`$/c2 $`<`$ mass(3$`\pi `$) $`<`$ $`830MeV`$/c2 were used to select $`\omega `$ events. Figure 3 exhibits the $`J^P=1^{}`$ nature of the $`\omega `$. Displayed is the $`\omega `$ decay matrix element squared ($`\lambda _\omega `$) :

$`\lambda {\displaystyle \frac{|\stackrel{}{\pi }^+\times \stackrel{}{\pi }^{}|^2}{\frac{3}{4}(\frac{1}{9}M_{3\pi }^2M_\pi ^2)^2}}`$

where $`\stackrel{}{\pi }^+`$ and $`\stackrel{}{\pi }^{}`$ are the three-momentum vectors of the the $`\pi ^+`$ and $`\pi ^{}`$ in the $`3\pi `$ rest-frame. The $`3\pi `$ decay amplitudes are constructed from the $`\pi `$ momentum vectors, and due to the overall negative intrinsic parity of $`3\pi `$, a $`J^P=1^{}`$ decay amplitude has to be built out of a pseudovector combination $`\stackrel{}{q}`$ :

$$\stackrel{}{q}=\stackrel{}{\pi }^+\times \stackrel{}{\pi }^{}=\stackrel{}{\pi }^{}\times \stackrel{}{\pi }^0=\stackrel{}{\pi }^0\times \stackrel{}{\pi }^+$$
(1)
The $`\lambda `$ distribution should rise linearly for omega events, whereas it would be constant for $`3\pi `$ events distributed according to phase-space. The $`3\pi `$ background under the $`\omega `$ is considerable, but the decay information of the $`\omega `$ can be used to weight $`\omega `$ events more highly than non-omega events (see the section on Background Study).

In Figure 4, the $`\omega \eta `$ invariant mass distribution of 19530 $`\omega \eta `$ final state events is shown using 40 MeV/c2 mass bins. The invariant mass distribution rises rapidly near threshold, then increases at a slower rate to a maximum near 1600 MeV/c2. But, in general the mass distribution shows no clear evidence for structures indicating the presence of resonant states.

## Partial Wave Analysis

A partial wave analysis (PWA) of the data was carried out using the BNL PWA program. A general description of the BNL PWA program is given in Reference. The methods used in the PWA are based on the formalism of the Isobar Model. For related material on this formalism see References .

The data used in the PWA are shown in Figure 4. A PWA, taking into account both nucleon spin-flip and spin-nonflip contributions, was performed in fifteen 50 MeV/c2 mass bins from 1320 to 2070 MeV/c2.

An extensive series of tests were performed to judge the stability of the PWA fit. These include a systematic study of the PWA by varying the:

* allowed waves in the fit,
* fit starting parameters,
* data selection cuts, and
* mass bin size.

In each test, the general features of the PWA fit remained unchanged.

An appropriate minimal set of partial waves needed to describe the data was determined by performing PWA fits with varying sets of partial waves. Initially, all partial waves with $`L<4`$ were introduced ($`L`$ is the relative orbital angular momentum between the $`\omega `$ and the $`\eta `$). Partial waves were discarded from the fit if their contributions were negligible and if the removal had little effect on the remaining features and goodness of the fit. It was determined that a minimum set of 11 waves, which included a non-interfering isotropic background wave, were required in order to achieve a reasonable agreement of the experimental data and the PWA fit results (see section on PWA fit quality). A notable feature was that the exotic partial waves for $`J^{PC}=0^{}`$ and $`2^+`$ were found not to be required in the analysis.

Table I lists the partial waves included in the final PWA fit. Also included was an isotropic, non-omega, non-interfering background wave. The amplitudes are expressed in the reflectivity basis which takes into account parity conservation in the production process by a transformation of helicity states to eigenstates of the production plane reflection operator. For $`\pi p`$ interactions, the reflectivity coincides with the naturality of the exchange particle and amplitudes of different reflectivity $`ϵ=\pm `$ do not interfere.

## Quality of the PWA Fits

The best test of the PWA fit is to compare the events generated according to the PWA to the data itself. For this step, Monte Carlo(MC) events were subjected to a simulation of the E852 apparatus and weighted with the probability obtained from the PWA fit. These weighted MC events should mimic the data for successful PWA fits. Since the fits were performed in independent mass bins, the MC events were normalized to the number of experimentally observed events in the corresponding mass bin:

$$\underset{i}{\overset{N_{MC}}{}}w_i=N_{observed}.$$
(2)
Figures 5 and 6 shows a comparison of the weighted MC events to the data for the: Gottfried-Jackson angles $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and helicity angles $`\mathrm{\Omega }_h`$. The weighted MC events is in good agreement with the data. A more stringent test compares the angular moments, $`H(l,m;L,M)`$***The angular moments are the average value of the product of the two Wigner D functions $`H(l,m;L,M)`$ $`D_{Mm}^L(\mathrm{\Omega })D_{m0}^l(\mathrm{\Omega }^{})`$. . The results for this comparison (see Reference ) show good agreement between data and predicted events. Overall, the comparisons of the distributions demonstrate that the data is very well described by the PWA fit results.

## PWA Results

Figures 7 and 8 show the acceptance corrected partial wave intensities. The most significant partial waves in the analysis are the $`1^+0^+S`$ and $`1^{}1^+P`$ natural parity waves. These two waves also exhibit relative phase motion indicative of resonant states (see Figure 9c). Note that since the amplitudes which interfere have either purely real or purely imaginary decay factors there is an unavoidable but trivial ambiguity in the sign of the relative phase. The remaining natural parity waves are small and do not exhibit clear phase motion. The contributions of the two unnatural parity exchange waves tend to become more important at masses higher than 1700 MeV/c2. Their relative phase is not well determined and exhibits large errors; therefore it cannot be reliably used to study resonance behavior. Nonetheless, the peak in the $`2^{}1^{}P`$ intensity was fitted with a Breit-Wigner resonance shape giving a mass of $`1830\pm 8`$ MeV/c2 and a width of $`86\pm 31`$MeV/c2. This is interesting since the quark model predicts $`J^{PC}=2^{}`$ states, yet none have been observed. A prediction by Godfrey and Isgur suggests a mass of 1700 MeV/c2 for the lowest lying $`J^{PC}=2^{}`$ $`q\overline{q}`$ state.

The only previously reported isoscalar $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ states are the $`h_1(1170)`$ and $`h_1(1380)`$. Both of these states have masses much lower than the observed structure in the $`1^+0^+S`$ wave. Also, the $`h_1(1380)`$, believed to be the ideal mixed $`s\overline{s}`$ state, is not expected to be produced in $`\pi ^{}p`$ interactions due to OZI suppression. For the isoscalar $`J^{PC}=1^{}`$, there are two states listed by the Particle Data Group (PDG) in the 1000-2000 MeV/c2 range: the $`\omega (1650)`$ and the $`\omega (1420)`$. The $`\omega (1650)`$, which has a PDG mass of $`1649\pm 24`$ MeV/c2 and a width of $`220\pm 35`$ MeV/c2, is in good agreement with the mass and width of the observed structure in the $`1^{}1^+P`$ wave.

In order to determine if the $`1^+0^+S`$ and the $`1^{}1^+P`$ observed structures are consistent with resonance behavior, a mass dependent analysis(MDA) of the PWA results was performed. The input quantities included the $`1^+0^+S`$ and $`1^{}1^+P`$ partial wave intensities and their relative phase for each mass bin. The errors were calculated using the error matrix from the PWA fit, which takes into account correlations between the intensities and relative phases. Relativistic Breit-Wigner forms were used to parameterize the amplitudes for the two waves. The parameters of the MDA fit included the Breit-Wigner masses, widths, and intensities. An additional constant parameter was included to allow for a relative constant production phase between the waves. A series of mass dependent fits were performed for different hypotheses and for the different phase solutions.

The primary goal of this analysis was to understand the structure in the $`1^+`$ wave. A fit of the $`1^{}`$ intensity to a single Breit-Wigner resulted in a mass of $`1700(\pm 20)`$ MeV/c2 and a width of $`250(\pm 50)`$ MeV/c2 for a $`\chi ^2/(7dof)`$ of 0.77. These values are in reasonable agreement with the PDG values of the $`\omega (1650)`$, and since the $`\omega (1650)`$ is rather well known (see references ), we used the $`1^{}`$ signal as a “calibration” by identifying it with the $`\omega (1650)`$ and fixing the $`1^{}`$ Breit-Wigner parameters to the PDG values and then fitted the for the $`1^+`$ parameters. This identification would constitute the first observation of the $`\omega \eta `$ decay mode of the $`\omega (1650)`$. Under these assumptions, a simultaneous MDA fit to the $`1^+`$ intensity and the $`1^+/1^{}`$ relative phase resulted in a $`\chi ^2/(16dof)`$ of 0.71. The $`1^+0^+S`$ mass and width resulting from this fit were $`1594(\pm 15)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+10}{60}\right)`$ MeV/c2 and $`384(\pm 60)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+70}{100}\right)`$ MeV/c2 respectively. The quoted errors correspond to statistical and systematic uncertainties, respectively. The systematic errors were estimated by fitting the PWA results obtained for different set of partial waves which varied from 9 to 22 waves. Figure 9 displays the results of the mass dependent analysis for this fit: 9$`a`$, 9$`b`$, and 9$`c`$ show results of this fit overlayed on the partial wave intensities and relative phase. Figure 9$`d`$ shows the absolute Breit-Wigner phases for $`1^{}`$ and $`1^+`$ and the relative constant production phase. On the other hand, fixing the $`1^{}`$ parameters to the Breit-Wigner fitted values (mass$`=1700`$ MeV/c2 and width $`=250`$ MeV/c2) and performing a similar MDA fit resulted in a $`\chi ^2/(16dof)`$ of 1.28 and a $`1^+0^+S`$ $`mass=1600(\pm 20)`$ MeV/c2 and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=455(\pm 80)`$ MeV/c2.

If the $`1^+0^+S`$ object is interpreted as being caused by a single resonance, then this state, an $`h_1(1595)`$, does not coincide with any known states. Possible interpretations for an $`h_1(1595)`$ include an $`h_1`$ radial excitation, an $`h_1`$ hybrid, or a radial-hybrid mixture. In the Godfrey-Isgur potential model, a mass of 1780 MeV/c2 is predicted for the $`2^3P_0h_1`$ radial excitation. This is approximately 180 MeV/c2 higher than the value from our analysis. However this model also predicts a high mass for the $`h_1(1160)`$ and a high mass for the $`h_1(1380)`$ (1220 MeV/c2 and 1470 MeV/c2, respectively), therefore one might expect the radial state to actually lie 100-200 MeV/c2 below the Godfrey-Isgur prediction.

A calculation by T. Barnes  (also see Reference ) using a $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{0}^{}`$ model suggests that a 1700 MeV/c2 $`h_1`$ radial excitation should decay almost equally to $`1^+S`$ and $`1^+D`$ partial wavesThe calculation is mass dependent, and one expects the $`S`$ to $`D`$ wave ratio to increase for a lower mass $`h_1`$ state due to angular momentum barrier effects. which is not consistent with what we observe. Alternatively, since the flux-tube model predicts a $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ hybrid near 1900-2000 MeV/c2, and exotic states have been reported at masses lower than the flux-tube model expectations, an $`h_1(1595)`$ would be a candidate for a hybrid or radial-hybrid mixed state.

## Background Study

The $`\lambda `$ distribution can be used to estimate the background due to non-omega events under the omega signal. The omega signal-to-background ratio estimated from Figure 3 is a little larger than 1 to 1. But since the omega is a spin 1 particle, the PWA uses the omega angular decay information to weight omega events more highly than non-omega events.

To better understand the background under the omega and to see if these events are responsible for the observed structure in the $`1^+0^+S`$ and $`1^{}1^+P`$ partial waves, events were selected from the sidebands around the omega region and a partial wave analysis of these events was performed. As expected, the $`\lambda _{sidebands}`$ distribution, shown in Figure 10, is flat and consistent with phase-space.

A PWA of the sideband events was performed in the same manner as the original PWA of the data. Decay amplitudes were calculated using the sideband events whereas the normalization integrals and the list of partial waves included in the fit were identical to those used in the original PWA. Figure 11 shows results of the sideband PWA. Note that all partial waves except the background wave have an omega decay factor in the amplitude. This makes the background wave more favorable to describe those events which do not contain omegas. As seen in Figures 11a and 11b, very few sideband events contribute to the $`1^+0^+S`$ and $`1^{}1^+P`$ waves demonstrating that non-omega events are unlikely to be responsible for the observed resonant-like structures. The sideband events overwhelmingly contribute to the background intensity as shown in Figure 11c.

## Conclusions

We have collected a high statistics sample of the reaction

$`\pi ^{}pn\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0\eta `$

at 18 GeV/c beam momentum, and performed a partial wave analysis on the $`\omega \eta `$ system where

$`\omega \pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0\pi ^02\gamma \eta 2\gamma .`$

The $`\omega \eta `$ invariant mass distribution rises rapidly near threshold then increases slowly to a maximum near 1600 MeV/c2. A PWA finds the data dominated by natural parity exchange waves. The results show 2 significant isoscalar $`J^{PC}M^ϵL`$ partial wave intensities: a $`1^+0^+S`$ intensity peaking near 1600 MeV/c2 with a width of about 300 MeV/c2, and a $`1^{}1^+P`$ intensity peaking near 1650 MeV/c2 also with a width of about 200 MeV/c2. In addition, a peak in the unnatural parity exchange wave $`2^{}1^{}P`$ exhibits a Breit-Wigner mass of $`1830\pm 8`$ MeV/c2 and width of $`86\pm 31`$MeV/c2. Unfortunately the phase of this state was not well determined and thus claim of a $`2^{}`$ state at this mass requires further confirmation. Another notable feature was that the exotic partial waves for $`J^{PC}=0^{}`$ and $`2^+`$ were found not to be required by the data.

A mass dependent analysis of $`1^+0^+S`$ and $`1^{}0^+P`$ partial waves shows that the intensities and relative phase motion are well described by two resonating states. A $`1^{}1^+P`$ state in good agreement with the PDG values for the $`\omega (1650)`$, and a new $`h_1(1595)`$ state with $`mass=1594(\pm 15)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+10}{60}\right)`$ MeV/c2 and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=384(\pm 60)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+70}{100}\right)`$ MeV/c2. It is interesting to note that Close and Page  predict that the isoscalar $`J^{PC}=1^{}`$ hybrid should decay dominantly to states containing a vector meson such as $`\rho \pi `$ and $`\omega \eta `$ and not to traditional flux-tube decays such as $`b_1\pi `$. Possible interpretations for an $`h_1(1595)`$ include an $`h_1`$ radial excitation, a $`h_1`$ hybrid, or a $`h_1`$ radial-hybrid mixture.

We are grateful for the support of the technical staffs of the MPS, AGS, BNL, and various collaborating institutions. This research was supported in part by the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Russian State Committee for Science and Technology.


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# Cygnus X-3 with ISO: investigating the wind

## 1 Introduction

The Infrared Space Observatory ISO (Kessler et al. 1996) with its on-board complement of cameras and spectrometers, provided a rare opportunity to study sources at wavelengths not accessible from the ground. We present photometry and images of the Cygnus X-3 field made using ISOCAM (Cesarsky et al. 1996), the camera on ISO, in the wavelength range 4 to 16 $`\mu `$m. We report the first spectrum of this source in this wavelength range.

Cygnus X-3 is an enigmatic and unusual X-ray binary which was discovered $`>`$30 years ago (Giacconi et al. 1967). Observations of it have been made from radio to gamma rays and in every wavelength bands the system exhibits unusual behaviour. In X-rays and infrared, the emission is partially modulated by a 4.8 h period (Mason, Córdova & White 1986), and this is believed to be the orbital period of the system.

In 1991, van Kerkwijk et al. observed Cyg X-3 in the infrared with the CGS4 spectrometer on UKIRT and discovered He i and He ii together with N emission lines which were modulated at the 4.8 h period (van Kerkwijk et al. 1992; van Kerkwijk et al. 1996). They concluded that the lines originated from the companion star, either a Wolf–Rayet of the WN7 class, or an earlier WN4–6 in an outburst phase. This was investigated in more detail by Fender, Hanson & Pooley (1999, hereafter FHP99), who took spectra during a variety of activity states and confirmed that the underlying quiescent spectral type is of an earlier WN4–5 Wolf–Rayet star.

Galactic Wolf–Rayet stars have high velocity winds, up to 2500 km s-1 (Crowther, Hillier & Smith 1995; Bohannan & Crowther 1999). The Wolf–Rayet wind from Cyg X-3 is believed to be the main contributor in providing mass and angular momentum loss which increase the orbital period ($`\dot{P}=6.6\times 10^{10}`$ s s-1, Kitamoto et al. 1995). This period increase is consistent with a mass-loss rate of $`10^6M_\mathrm{T}`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr -1, where $`M_\mathrm{T}`$ is the total mass in the system (Kitamoto et al. 1995; Matz 1997). Kitamoto et al. (1994) modelled changes in the radio activity, infrared and X-ray states caused by changes in the density of the WR wind (Table 1). The multi-wavelength predictions of Kitamoto et al. (1994) were tested by FHP99, who find that during an outburst the infrared K band spectrum becomes dominated by strong twin-peaked He i emission lines. These lines show strong V/R variability correlated with the orbital phase. Due to the small size of the binary ($`5R_{}`$ separation, 4.8 hour period) the observed line flux could not arise from a region of this size as the environment would be too hot. FHP99 conclude that the He i emission lines are emitted from a region which is significantly larger than the binary separation, and that the variability of these lines indicate an asymmetric emission region, possibly from a flattened disc-like wind.

The compact object in Cyg X-3 is less well defined. Cherepashchuk & Moffat (1994) suggest that the high X-ray luminosity (greater than the Eddington luminosity for a 1 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ object) implies that the compact object is a black hole. Schmutz, Geballe & Schild (1996) related time-variations of infrared spectral lines to an orbital velocity and derived a mass for the compact object in the range of 7–40 $`\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$, assuming realistic values for the mass of the Wolf–Rayet star and the inclination of the system. However, their model does not account for all the relative phasing of the X-rays and infrared lines. Ergma & Yungelson (1998) point out that if the progenitor to the binary is two massive helium stars then the mass-loss and common envelope phase of these two stars prevents the formation of a black hole & Wolf–Rayet binary with an orbital period less than several days. This ambiguity does not resolve itself if the compact object is a neutron star; Ergma & Yungelson (1998) also comment that the propeller motion of a spinning neutron star would prevent wind accretion in the system, thus removing the jet-creation mechanism.

With a high mass, high mass-loss (wind) object in close proximity to a compact object, a high degree of interaction takes place. Radio observations at wavelengths ranging from 1–20 GHz have shown Cyg X-3 to undergo many states of emission and are used to define the state of Cyg X-3. For most of its time, the system occupies a quiescent radio state, with 8.3 GHz flux around 100 mJy (Waltman et al. 1994). Major flares (8.3 GHz flux $`>`$ 1 Jy) occur at random intervals every 18 months or so and relaxation after a flare can last up to several weeks (Waltman et al. 1995). More common are minor flares (8.3 GHz flux 200–1000 mJy) and these usually occur during a flaring period typically several weeks duration, with several small flares occurring in close proximity to each other (Waltman et al. 1996). Minor flares can reach peak emission in a few hours and decay over several hours (Ogley 1998). The minor and major flares have been shown to be intrinsically different in their production, rise and relaxation times (Newell 1996). Preceding a major flare, the system enters a quenching state with fluxes at 8.3 GHz dropping to around 10 mJy. The system returns to quiescence then flares (Waltman et al. 1996).

The main mechanism for radio flares is thought to be associated with the acceleration of relativistic electrons in the base of jets. Synchrotron emitting plasmons have been detected, travelling at $``$ 5 mas d-1 on both arcsec and mas scales (Spencer et al. 1986; Mioduszewski et al. 1998). There is no confident determination of the velocity of ejecta: while a velocity of 0.3$`c`$ is generally taken as the speed on the larger arcsec scale (e.g. Spencer et al. 1986), other highly-relativistic interpretations are possible on the mas scale (e.g. Ogley, Bell Burnell & Newell 1997; Newell, Garrett & Spencer 1998).

The Wolf–Rayet contributes not only to the enigmatic qualities of the system, but also a significant and varying opacity. The true nature of the secondary is a top priority for the understanding of the system. Observations at the ISO wavelengths provide a unique opportunity to study the Wolf–Rayet wind, and spectra obtained can track its true nature.

## 2 ISOCAM observations

### 2.1 In quiescence

Quiescent observations were taken on 1996 April 07 (MJD 50180) with 6 long-wavelength (LW) filters on the CAM instrument. Cyg X-3 is in the galactic plane at a distance of around 10-kpc and so is heavily obscured by dust along our line of sight. Around the object, emission from cirrus is particularly strong at longer wavelengths so our observations were focused in the 1–16 $`\mu `$m range. The wavelengths chosen are presented in Table 2. We observed for a total of 2895 s in 6 filters in order to obtain a rough spectrum of the source. A 6 arcsec pixel size was used for the observations and single frames, stare-mode, were taken with the 4 shorter wavelength filters, whereas the 12 and 15 $`\mu `$m images were taken as $`3\times 3`$ mosaics. The integration time for individual frames was 2.1 s and the total integration times for all filters are given in Table 2

Analysis of the ISO data was performed at the ISO data centre in Vilspa, Spain. Each image had a number of corrections applied to it and these included: (a) dark correction, (b) de-glitching the data to remove transients, (c) stabilisation of pixels due to memory effects, (d) a flat-field correction, (e) jitter correction, (f) combination of images into a stare image or raster map, (g) field of view distortion and finally (h) conversion from engineering units of adu g-1 s-1 to Jy.

The corrections that were applied to the data either used standard library frames, or software routines developed by the ISOCAM Consortium. The processes which used library fields were the dark correction (van Buren & Kong 1996) and the flat-field correction of stare images. The other corrections used standard software routines and included a multi-resolution median transform for the de-glitching process; a 90 per cent stabilisation method to correct for memory effects; standard field of view distortion; and standard conversion of adu g-1 s-1 to Jy with code formulated on 1998 April 05. No jitter correction as the average jitter reported of 0.5 arcsec was much less than our pixel field of view of 6 arcsec. For a detailed discussion see Ogley (1998).

The reduction of mosaic images was essentially identical to stare images, but with the following exceptions. The flat-field correction did not use standard frames, but built up a flat-field using the background pixels in the mosaic. The flat-fielding using standard frames is the least robust of the data analysis stages, and can lead to significant increases or decreases in flux at the edges of an image. Memory effects due to pixel stabilisation can create a cross-shaped effect on mosaic images. This was reduced by sequentially masking the residual pixels as the mosaic is built up.

### 2.2 In outburst

Three epochs of ISO data were acquired to observe Cyg X-3 during a major flare on 1997 Jun 15, 18, 21; MJD 50613.7, 50615.4, 50619.9. Fig. 1 shows photometry at 8.3 GHz from the Green Bank Interferometer (GBI) with the times of our ISO observations in both quiescent and flaring states shown by bullet points, one epoch during quiescence, and three epochs during outburst. Each flaring epoch consisted of a stare observation with CAM using the LW1 filter (4.5 $`\mu `$m), a mosaic observation with CAM using the LW10 filter (11.5 $`\mu `$m) and a PHOT observation. Due to instrumental difficulties only the CAM data is presented. The procedure used in reducing the data was identical to the quiescent epoch.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 The Images

#### 3.1.1 Digitized sky survey

There is a striking difference between the ISO images and an optical digitized sky survey (DSS) image of the same region. The DSS image, Fig. 2, shows many more stars than are visible on the ISO images (Fig. 3). Cyg X-3 is undetected on the DSS plate as it has $`A_V30`$ mag of extinction, and an estimated V band magnitude of $`V=29\pm 1`$ (Wagner et al. 1990). The radio position of the source is represented by a cross, at the centre of the image. Stars marked KMJ 1315, 1327, 1328 (Kobulnicky, Molnar & Jones 1994) and star Westphal ‘A’ (Westphal et al. 1972) are all identified. KMJ 1328 is Westphal’s star ‘C’ with V = 15.03. One can see that, as is expected along the galactic plane, there is an abundance of sources at various magnitudes.

#### 3.1.2 ISOCAM–quiescence

In contrast to the DSS image, Fig. 3 shows contour images at the wavelengths 4.5–14.5 $`\mu `$m. The images have been flat-fielded and dark-subtracted using the techniques described above. The data were exported and imaged using the NRAO Astronomical Image Processing System (AIPS), and a rotation of $`+99\stackrel{}{.}17`$ was applied to each image.

The absolute position of the ISOCAM images is unknown due to mis-alignment after a filter change. The co-ordinates of a source can be offset from the true position by as much as 2 pixels, or for our observations, 12 arcsec. Positions can be calculated from phase-referenced radio images, optical sources or catalogued sources. The positions were calculated from a radio observation of Cyg X-3 using MERLIN at 22 GHz with a 30 mas beam size (Ogley et al. 2000). The radio position has a Gaussian-fitted position of $`\mathrm{RA}(2000)=20^\mathrm{h}32^\mathrm{m}25\stackrel{s}{.}712`$, $`\mathrm{Dec}.(2000)=+40^{}57^{}28\stackrel{}{.}21`$, and the ISO positions of all sources are correlated to this.

In some images (6.0, 6.75 and 7.75 $`\mu `$m in Fig. 3) there is a significant misalignment between the flat-field frame and the array which produces a gradient at the edge of the image. Other techniques to flat field the data produced larger errors. As none of the sources of interest are near to the affected region, the photometry presented below is still valid.

### 3.2 Photometry

#### 3.2.1 Quiescence

Photometry on all four sources was performed using private code by Dr Siebenmorgen at Vilspa. An aperture of 12 arcsec was used on all sources and the flux densities are given in Table 3. Spectra of the four sources are shown in Fig. 4. No data have been de-reddened.

#### 3.2.2 ISOCAM–outburst

Photometry of the sources in the three flaring epochs were obtained in the same way, as in the quiescent observations, with a 12 arcsec aperture. The results for the photometry is presented in Table 4, for all sources. Cygnus X-3 is clearly variable compared to the field stars.

### 3.3 Spectra

The Cyg X-3 data have been de-reddened using an extinction coefficient in the J band (1.25-$`\mu `$m) of $`A_J=6`$ (Fender et al. 1996), and an extinction law of $`\lambda ^{1.7}`$ (Matthis 1990).

#### 3.3.1 Quiescent spectrum

The de-reddened data for Cyg X-3 in quiescence are plotted in Fig. 5 along with UKIRT data from 1994 July 17 taken at orbital minimum (Fender et al. 1996; Fender, Bell Burnell & Pooley 2000). During the 1994 epoch observations a number of short-timescale flares occurred, but we have been careful only to use data at a time when the source was in quiescence. The spectrum shows a flattening at the longer wavelengths, with a spectral index of 3.0 between 1.25-2.2 $`\mu `$m and 0.4 between 4.5-14.5 $`\mu `$m.

#### 3.3.2 Flaring spectra

Table 5 shows the de-reddened photometry and spectral indices for the three observations. These spectra are also plotted in Fig. 5. The UKIRT data from 1984 is from Fender et al. (1996) and is shown for two nights on 1984 Aug 07, 09. Figure 6 shows the flare spectrum with the quiescent spectrum subtracted.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 The mass-loss rate

In the ISO regime the spectrum becomes like that predicted by Wright & Barlow (1975; hereafter WB75) for a non-accelerated, spherical wind. At long infrared wavelengths, WB75 showed that free-free emission in a wind would display an $`S\nu ^{2/3}`$ spectrum, while at longer radio wavelengths this is modified to produce a $`S\nu ^{0.6}`$ spectrum. Our de-reddened quiescent ISO fluxes can be fitted with a function $`S(\nu )=S_0\left(\nu /10^9\right)^\alpha `$ with the parameters $`S_0=0.04\pm 0.06`$ and $`\alpha =0.61\pm 0.13`$ to give a reduced $`\chi ^2`$ value of 1.74. The $`S_0`$ parameter is the flux at 1 GHz and its value around 0 shows there is negligible expected free-free emission at radio frequencies.

There is no evidence for infrared emission from dust, consistent with the absence of dust in WNs demonstrated by Cohen (1995). This means that the dust responsible for the soft X-ray halo emission reported by Predehl & Schmitt (1995), at an angular separation of at least 100 arcsec, cannot lie close to Cyg X-3.

Using the WB75 model to obtain first-order wind parameters, the free-free emission flux is given by

$$S=\frac{2.3\times 10^{10}}{D_{\mathrm{kpc}}^2}\left(\frac{\dot{M}}{\mu v_{\mathrm{}}}\right)^{4/3}\left(\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}\gamma _\mathrm{e}gZ^2\right)^{2/3}\mathrm{mJy},$$
(1)
where $`D_{\mathrm{kpc}}`$ is the distance to the source in kpc, $`\dot{M}`$ is the mass lost in the wind in $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1, $`\mu `$ is the mean atomic weight per nucleon, $`v_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the velocity of the wind at infinity measured in km s-1, $`\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}`$ is the observing frequency in GHz, $`\gamma _\mathrm{e}`$ is the number of free electrons per nucleon, $`g`$ is the Gaunt factor and $`Z`$ is the mean ionic charge. From our ISO data, the quiescent flux at a wavelength of 6.75$`\mu `$m (44,400 GHz) is $`30\pm 10`$ mJy. Substituting these values into equation (1) together with a distance of 10 kpc, and assuming a value for the Gaunt factor of unity, gives an expression for the mass-loss rate of

$$\dot{M}=3.2\times 10^8\mu v_{\mathrm{}}\left(\gamma _\mathrm{e}Z^2\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1.$$
(2)
The velocity of the wind in Cyg X-3 has been investigated by a number of authors. van Kerkwijk et al. (1992; 1996) observed Cyg X-3 using a high resolution spectrograph on UKIRT. Their observations were scheduled over a range of orbital phases and from this they were able to obtain a wind velocity of $`v_{\mathrm{}}=1600\pm 300`$ km s-1. More recently, the flattened wind model of FHP99 gives an outflow velocity of $`v_{\mathrm{}}1500`$ km s-1. It is this latter value that we will adopt in this paper.

The other three variables which are unknown – $`\mu ,\gamma _\mathrm{e}`$ and $`Z`$ – are all related to the wind’s composition.

(a) A WN-type wind. Using a wind composition typical of late WR stars, $`\mu =1.5`$, $`\gamma _\mathrm{e}=1`$, $`Z=1`$ (Waltman et al. 1996) and the flux at 6.75$`\mu `$m (44,400 GHz) the mass-loss rate is $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{a}=7.8\times 10^5\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1.

(b) A partially ionised wind. The composition of this wind was used by Waltman et al. (1996) to explain the time difference between radio flares. This wind has the parameters of $`\mu =4`$, $`\gamma _\mathrm{e}=0.5`$, $`Z=0.5`$. The mass-loss rate using our infrared fluxes and these values is $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{b}=2.9\times 10^4\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1.

(c) A fully ionised wind. van Kerkwijk et al. (1996) used this type of wind when interpreting UKIRT data for the observations of the Wolf–Rayet-like lines. This wind has the parameters of $`\mu =4`$, $`\gamma _\mathrm{e}=2`$, $`Z=2`$ and using our infrared fluxes a mass-loss rate of $`\dot{M}_\mathrm{c}=3.6\times 10^5\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1 is calculated.

We note that Crowther et al. (1995) have found averages of $`\mu =3.23`$, $`\gamma _\mathrm{e}=1.010`$, $`Z=1.015`$ for Galactic WN(L) stars (WN7-8) which would infer a mass-loss rate of $`\dot{M}=8.1\times 10^5\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1. For a WN(E) star (WN4-6) one might expect $`\mu 4`$, $`Z=1`$, $`\gamma =1`$ (e.g. Willis 1991) giving $`\dot{M}2.1\times 10^4\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1.

Thus we find that for a single temperature, non-accelerating, spherical wind and for a variety of ionisation states, the free-free emission causing the infrared fluxes in the ISO wavelengths is due to a wind with a mass loss rate of (0.4–2.9)$`\times 10^4\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1.

This value for the mass loss rate is towards the upper end of the range observed for (single) WR stars, and is slightly higher than that predicted by Waltman et al. (1996) to be responsible for the delay between radio emission at a range of frequencies. However, it is slightly lower than is predicted by van Kerkwijk et al. (1996) for their interpretation of the short wavelength infrared fluxes. Results from both papers together with our fluxes are given in Table 6.

More significantly, there is a discrepancy in the value of $`\dot{M}`$ derived from the orbital period change and the value from our ISO results. Using the relationship $`\dot{P}/2P=\dot{M}/M_T`$ and a value for $`\dot{P}`$ of $`6.6\times 10^{10}`$ s s-1, Kitamoto et al. (1995) calculated a value of $`\dot{M}=0.6\times 10^6M_T\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ where $`M_T`$ is the total system mass assumed to be of the order $`10\mathrm{M}_{}`$. This is an order of magnitude lower than that from our ISO results $`(10^4\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1)`$. This difference between $`\dot{M}`$ derived from the orbital period change, and $`\dot{M}`$ derived from thermal emission observations (with the latter being the larger) is not unique to Cyg X-3. The mass-loss rate for the binary V444 Cyg (WR139) has been calculated to be $`6\times 10^6`$ and $`2.4\times 10^5`$ M yr-1 by the $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ method and thermal emission method respectively (Underhill et al. 1990; Prinja et al. 1990).

#### 4.1.1 $`\dot{M}`$ from $`S`$ \- an examination of assumptions

In obtaining $`\dot{M}`$ from the ISO data we have assumed that the wind is isothermal, at a constant velocity, shows spherical symmetry, stationarity and homogeneity. We have further assumed that the free-free flux is not seriously contaminated by stars Z and D identified on the Cyg X-3 finder chart and within the ISO pixel size (Fender & Bell Burnell 1996) nor by synchrotron emission from the tail of the radio-mm spectrum. The agreement with the Wright and Barlow model suggests that these assumptions (with the possible exception of spherical symmetry) are reasonable. We have assumed a distance of 10 kpc to the source; since $`\dot{M}`$ scales as $`D^{3/2}`$, to effect a 10-fold reduction in the mass-loss rate, the distance would have to reduced to $``$ 2 kpc. The extinction to Cyg X-3 is uncertain with $`4.5<A_J<7.5`$. This corresponds to range of extinction at 6.75 $`\mu `$m of 0.26-0.43, and an uncertainty of only 10 per cent in the value of the flux.

We have also assumed that the Gaunt factor, $`g`$, is unity. In fact it depends on $`Z`$, $`T`$ and the observing frequency, and occurs in the expression for $`\dot{M}`$ as $`g^{1/2}`$. The equation for the Gaunt factor given by Spitzer (1962), and subsequently used by Leitherer & Robert (1991) is valid for $`\nu _p<<\nu <<kT/h`$, where $`\nu _p`$ is the plasma frequency. This condition is satisfied over the range of parameters we use here, and taking extreme values for the temperature of 10,000 to 350,000 K. Spitzer’s equation gives values of $`g`$ ranging from 3.4 to effectively zero (at the lowest temperature and highest $`Z`$). Alternatively Sutherland (1998) determines the Gaunt factor for the spectral range submillimetre to hard X-ray and for temperatures from 10 to $`10^9`$ K. We believe that in his table 2 the labelling of the rows and columns has been interchanged, and that figures 2b and 2c have been switched. Sutherland’s work then gives Gaunt factors that range from 1.5 to 3.2. Sutherland considers photoionisation (which may be more appropriate to Cyg X-3) as well as collisional ionisation and shows that the photoionisation figures for the Gaunt factor are typically a factor of 2 lower. Our assumption that the Gaunt factor is unity well represents the middle of the range obtained, but it is uncertain by a factor of $`3`$.

Nugis, Crowther & Willis (1998) model the mass-loss rate in a wind that is clumped, and in which both the ionisation structure and the clumping changes with radial distance. Selecting values for their free parameters that best fit for each star the flattening spectral slope from infrared to radio, they obtain mass-loss rates for clumped winds for 15 WN stars. There is considerable scatter in their results, but they obtain an average of $`\mathrm{log}\dot{M}(\mathrm{clumpy})\mathrm{log}\dot{M}(\mathrm{smooth})=0.2\pm 0.3(1\sigma )`$. In other words, their clumpy wind model on average reduces the value of $`\dot{M}`$ to $`0.6_{0.3}^{+0.6}`$ of the $`\dot{M}(\mathrm{smooth})`$ value. Assuming Cygnus X-3 is close to average, then again this modification alone is insufficient to explain the discrepancy.

FHP99 show that the most likely interpretation of their infrared spectra and their observation of an orbital modulation of V/R involves a non-spherical wind, with a flattened, disc-like enhanced wind, probably in the plane of the binary. They note that this also reconciles the high infrared emissivity with an optical depth to the X-ray source that remains small (as long as the system is not viewed edge-on). Adopting their model of an inclined disc of enhanced wind, the Gorenstein (1975) approximation suggests the maximum X-ray column observed is consistent with a maximum value of $`\dot{M}10^5`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1 along the line of sight to the X-ray source. If the disc-wind has a solid angle of 10 per cent of $`4\pi `$ then, to be consistent with the ISO data and maximum column, a mass-loss rate of $`1\times 10^3`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1 sterad-1 in the disc-wind is required; for 25 per cent of $`4\pi `$ it is $`4\times 10^4`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1 sterad-1; and for 50 per cent of $`4\pi `$ it is $`2\times 10^4`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1 sterad-1 with $`10^5\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ outside the disc; i.e. disc density enhancements of 100, 40 and 20 respectively.

We compare these results with previously reported theoretical and observational work on deviations from spherical symmetry and density enhancements. The pioneering work of Schmid-Burgk (1982) demonstrated that deviations from spherical symmetry did not change the spectral slope but led to over-estimates of the mass loss rate. However, the maximum correction factor found was only a factor of 2, for a pancake (disc) with a 10 to 1 aspect ratio. Ignace, Cassinelli & Bjorkman (1996) investigated density enhancements caused by rotation. For a WN5 wind their model found a density approximately 3 times greater than the global average in an equatorial cone of 10 degrees half-angle (or pole-to-equator density ratio of about 6). Rotation at only 10 per cent of critical was required.

Harries, Hillier & Howarth (1998) found that 15-20 per cent of WR stars have significant polarization, which they attribute to global wind asymmetries, found only in the fastest rotators. They also found that these stars have the highest values of $`\dot{M}`$. They postulate that these stars have equator to pole density ratios of 2 or 3 (with $`\dot{M}`$ scaling linearly with density). St Louis et al. (1995) propose a sectored wind structure for the WN star WR6. They find the wind divides roughly 50:50 into fast and slow wind regions, with the higher continuum fluxes coming from the hotter, higher speed regions. Radio imaging of the WN8 star WR147 (Williams et al., 1997) report a wind ‘shape’ with a 3 to 2 aspect ratio. There have been suggestions of a disc in the WR6 star WR134 - see Vreux et al. (1992), and references therein. Nota et al. (1995) report a bipolar outflow in the nebula around the WN8 star WR124, with an opening angle between 30 and 45 degrees. The binary nature of Cyg X-3 is likely to create deviations from spherical symmetry, as proposed originally by van Kerkwijk (1993) and for WR140 by Williams et al. (1990). The disc configuration reported by White & Becker (1995) is disputed by Harries et al. (1998).

If the WR star’s rotation is tidally locked to the 4.8 h orbital period, then it will be rotating at close to its critical velocity and an equatorial enhancement of the mass loss rate is likely. We conclude that deviations of the wind from spherical symmetry need to be taken into consideration. Ignoring such asymmetry tends to overestimate the the mass-loss rate. However, to be consistent with the visibility of the X-ray source the density contrast required by our result appears to be large, and we are not aware of any work quantifying the overestimate for such large disc density enhancements.

#### 4.1.2 $`\dot{M}`$ from $`\dot{P}`$ \- an examination of assumptions

To obtain the total stellar mass-loss rate which drives the orbital changes any other mass-loss rates occurring need to be added to this value of wind mass-loss rate. The X-ray luminosity of Cyg X-3 implies an accretion rate on to the compact object of $`10^8`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1, which is small compared with the mass lost through the wind. Mass will also be lost into the radio jets, but this is an uncertain quantity, and the mass in the jets could be anything between 0.1 to 100 per cent of the in-flowing mass (Fender & Pooley 1998, 2000). These additional masses are in the sense to exacerbate the problem.

In obtaining $`\dot{M}`$ from $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ several other assumptions are made: that there is no loss of angular momentum other than the specific orbital angular momentum of the WR star carried away by the wind; that the rotating bodies are rigid; that the 4.8-h modulation, whatever it is, is rigidly locked to the orbital period; that the orbital period is 4.8-h, and not some multiple of that figure; that the eccentricity is zero; and that there are no other dynamical effects (e.g. gravitational radiation) or torques (e.g. magnetic) affecting the value of $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$.

The assumption that the eccentricity is small seems justified - given the amount of circumstellar matter a circular orbit seems likely, and no change in the light curve which could be attributed to precession has been observed. For convenience we adopt $`e=0`$. It seems likely that 4.8 h is the fundamental period, but until its nature is understood there remains the possibility that the 4.8 h modulation is not rigidly tied to the orbital period and that the $`\dot{P}`$ observed is not accurately that of the binary system.

Additional angular momentum could be lost through the jets, or through magnetic torques, for example, and ignoring such losses would cause $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ to be underestimated.

Gravitation radiation results in the orbital size shrinking, so neglect of this effect will cause the $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ due to the mass loss to be underestimated. The effect is most extreme for the fastest orbital velocities which occur for the most massive components (assuming the eccentricity is zero). Taking a Wolf-Rayet mass of 10 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and a black hole mass of 40 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{GR}}6\times 10^{11}`$, or about 10 per cent of the observed $`\dot{P}`$. If the orbital eccentricity were 0.5, the effect would be approximately 5 times larger, so although gravitational radiation produces an effect with the correct sign, it is not probably large enough to explain the discrepancy. Orbital motion in a viscous medium (the wind) will also cause the orbit to shrink.

It is known that tidal effects in early-type stars give rise to gravity waves which are radiatively damped, leading to circularisation of elliptical orbits and the synchronisation of orbital and stellar rotation rates (Kumar & Qutaert 1998). Kumar and Qutaert show that if the stellar rotation rate is less than the orbital rotation rate (strictly periastron rate), $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ is negative. If we assume the Wolf–Rayet star rotates like its predecessor O star, then its rotational period would be a factor 10-20 times longer than the (current) orbital period. Tidal forces will presumably have spun it up; if it is now (close to) synchronised then for a $`3\mathrm{R}_{}`$ star it will have a mean equatorial velocity of $`750`$ km s-1 and, assuming a mass of 10 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, be rotating at 95 per cent of its critical velocity. It seems likely that there have been tidal forces which have tended to contract the orbit and diminish the observed $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$, but in the absence of information about the current rotational period of the Wolf–Rayet we are unable to estimate the current magnitude of this effect.

In summary, there are several very probable effects which could cause $`\dot{P}_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ to be underestimated - namely unrecognised sources of angular momentum loss, tidal effects, and to a lesser extent energy loss through viscous drag and gravitational radiation. Of the two methods of determining the mass loss rate, this seems to have the larger number of uncertainties.

### 4.2 Flare data

It is clear from the observations in 1997 June (Fig. 5 & 6) that the ISO data reveal bright flaring at 4.5 and 11.5 $`\mu `$m at the same time as enhanced radio and X-ray activity (while not presented here, the X-ray monitoring data, which reveal an X-ray bright state at this time, are presented in FHP99). In addition, the spectrum appears to become flatter (although we caution that the lack of absolute simultaneity of the observations in the different filters adds additional uncertainties to the interpretation of spectral indices). This flattening is in qualitative agreement with the observations of Fender et al. (1996, 2000) who find that during both rapid (minutes timescales) and more gradual (days) variability, Cyg X-3 generally becomes redder in the infrared as it brightens.

While Fender et al. (1996) interpret the flaring component from Cyg X-3 in terms of thermal free-free emission from a hot ($`T10^6`$ K) gas, infrared oscillations from GRS 1915+105 (Fender & Pooley 1998 and references therein) have been interpreted as being synchrotron in origin. Either way, the rapid, large-amplitude, broad-band variability in the infrared fluxes during outburst periods implies the occurrence of extremely violent processes on relatively small physical scales. While the timescales do not preclude a simple change in the brightness of the thermal (wind) emission, the significant spectral flattening appears to rule this out. Instead, similarly to GRS 1915+105, Cyg X-3 appears to display an approximately flat-spectrum ($`\alpha 0`$) component during outbursts. This may be related to the flat spectral component now also known to be present in Cyg X-1 (Fender et al. 2000). The nature of this component is uncertain, but it appears to be related to jet formation, and possibly to instabilities in the accretion flow/disc, at least in GRS 1915+105. In summary, while there may be variability in the strength of the underlying thermal (wind) component, we believe the additional flux observed in outburst to be dominated by a variable, flat-spectrum component which is probably associated with the jets.

## 5 Conclusions

We report the first quiescent and flaring 4-16 $`\mu `$m observations of Cygnus X-3.

The quiescent spectrum is a continuation of the shorter wavelength IR spectrum, and fits well the WB75 model for thermal free-free emission from a wind. We obtain a mass loss rate, assuming spherical symmetry of $`10^4`$ $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1, and note that while this is consistent with other determinations, it is an order of magnitude larger than both the mass loss rate required to derive the change in orbital period (assuming $`M_\mathrm{T}`$ of the order $`10\mathrm{M}_{}`$), and the mass loss rate expected from the hydrogen column density to the X-ray source. These measurements are based on assumptions, which have been scrutinised carefully; while we can identify a number of areas where factors of a few can be gained, we have been unable to identify a single area where a factor of ten can be found. We agree with the conclusion of FHP99 that the wind is most likely spherically asymmetric, but if this is the only effect operating, large disc density enhancement factors are required. There are several phenomena which could cause $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ to be underestimated; we regard this determination of $`\dot{M}`$ to be less reliable.

During radio and X-ray outburst, the broadband infrared spectrum shows rapid variability and a spectral flattening associated with increased flux densities. This is in agreement with what is seen in the near-IR during rapid (minutes) flaring events (Fender et al. 1996). Similar (but not identical) near-IR events observed from GRS 1915+105 appear to be associated with jet formation episodes. The emission mechanism responsible for this flat spectral component remains uncertain; both free-free and synchrotron emission have been proposed already in the literature, and await detailed studies to test their viability. Whatever the origin of this component, it seems likely that it is associated with hot gas in the jet from the system, which naturally explains its emergence during periods of enhanced radio (jet) activity.

## 6 Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank staff at the ISO data centres at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, Saclay in France and Vilspa in Spain. The authors are especially grateful for the dedication of Joris Blommaert and Ralph Siebenmorgen at Vilspa for their help with reduction of the data. SJBB thanks Princeton University for hospitality while this paper was being written.

These data are based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) with the participation of ISAS and NASA. The ISOCAM data presented in this paper was analysed using ‘CIA’, a joint development by the ESA Astrophysics Division and the ISOCAM Consortium. The ISOCAM Consortium was led by the ISOCAM PI, C. Cesarsky, Direction des Sciences de la Matière, CEA, France. MERLIN is a national facility operated by the University of Manchester on behalf of PPARC. The Green Bank Interferometer is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated by the NRAO in support of NASA High Energy Astrophysics programs.


text:
# Untitled Document

EFI-2000-40

RUNHETC-2000-39

hep-th/0010108

Remarks on Tachyon Condensation in Superstring Field Theory

David Kutasov,1 Marcos Mariño,2 and Gregory Moore 2

1 Department of Physics, University of Chicago

5640 S. Ellis Av., Chicago, IL 60637, USA

kutasov@theory.uchicago.edu

2 Department of Physics, Rutgers University

Piscataway, NJ 08855-0849, USA

marcosm, gmoore@physics.rutgers.edu

We generalize recent results on tachyon condensation in boundary string field theory to the superstring.

October 12, 2000

1. Introduction

The boundary String Field Theory (BSFT) of Witten and Shatashvili \[1,,2\] is a version of open string field theory in which the classical configuration space is the space of two dimensional worldsheet theories on the disk which are conformal in the interior of the disk but have arbitrary boundary interactions. Solutions of the classical equations of motion correspond to conformal boundary theories. For early work on the closely related sigma model approach to string theory see e.g. \[3,,4,,5,,6,,7,,8\].

In a recent series of papers \[9,,10,,11\] it has been shown that open string tachyon condensation on D-branes in bosonic string theory can be efficiently studied in BSFT. In particular:

(a) Condensation to the closed string vacuum and to lower dimensional branes involves excitations of only one mode of the string field – the tachyon.

(b) The exact tachyon potential can be computed in BSFT and its qualitative features agree with Sen’s conjecture .

(c) The exact tachyon profiles corresponding to decay of a higher brane into a lower one give rise to descent relations between the tensions of various branes which again agree with those expected from .

In contrast, in Witten’s cubic SFT tachyon condensation in general involves giving expectation values to an infinite number of components of the string field. As a consequence, one has to resort to level truncation \[13,,14\] and only approximate results are available.

As explained in , the reason BSFT gives an efficient description of tachyon condensation in the bosonic string is that this process is easy to understand in the first quantized framework as a property of the worldsheet renormalization group . Thus, one would expect in general that BSFT would give rise to a useful description of all (classical) physical processes which correspond to solvable worldsheet RG problems. Exact results for tachyon condensation have also been obtained by introducing noncommutativity \[16,,17,,18,,19\]; the recent results of  might give a closer relation between this approach and BSFT.

In this note we will consider the generalization of the results of \[9,,10\] to tachyon condensation on unstable brane configurations in the superstring . There are many interesting examples of such configurations, both in ten dimensions and in compactified theories with various degrees of supersymmetry. There are also some new issues, having to do with the presence of RR charges carried by some of the branes that participate in the process of condensation, and the corresponding spacetime supersymmetry structure. Some aspects of tachyon condensation in this context have been studied  by level truncating the superstring field theory of . We will discuss the simplest case – non-BPS branes and the $`DpD\overline{p}`$ system in flat ten dimensional spacetime. As explained in , the worldsheet description of condensation is again simple in this case, and one would expect the BSFT description to be useful.

2. The action in BSFT with worldsheet supersymmetry

The original papers on BSFT \[1,,2\] studied only the bosonic case, and as we will see there are some new elements that arise in the supersymmetric context. Therefore, before turning to the description of tachyon condensation, we start with a discussion of BSFT in the superstring.

Recall that in the bosonic open string, the BSFT action is constructed as follows. One studies a general worldsheet theory with boundary interactions, described by the action

$$𝒮=𝒮_0+_0^{2\pi }\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }𝒱,$$

where $`𝒮_0`$ is a free action defining an open plus closed conformal background, and $`𝒱`$ is a general boundary perturbation, which can be parametrized by couplings $`\lambda ^i`$:

$$𝒱=\underset{i}{}\lambda ^i𝒱_i.$$

The couplings $`\lambda ^i`$ correspond to fields in spacetime, and one is interested in constructing the spacetime action $`S(\lambda ^i)`$. The proposal of \[1,,2\] is to take the classical spacetime action $`S`$ to be

$$S=(\beta ^i\frac{}{\lambda ^i}+1)Z(\lambda ),$$

where $`Z(\lambda ^i)`$ is the disk partition sum of the worldsheet theory (2.1) and $`\beta ^i`$ govern the worldsheet RG flow of the couplings $`\lambda ^i`$ with distance scale $`|x|`$,

$$\frac{d\lambda ^i}{d\mathrm{log}|x|}=\beta ^i(\lambda ).$$

As discussed in , the action (2.1) thus defined is nothing but the boundary entropy of . It coincides with the disk partition sum at RG fixed points, and decreases along RG flows.

Apriori, one might have expected that the boundary entropy  should be equal to the partition sum $`Z(\lambda ^i)`$ throughout the RG flow. In the bosonic string, there are at least two (related) problems with this proposal. One is the requirement that the boundary entropy should have critical points whenever the boundary theory is conformal. This is not necessarily the case for the partition sum $`Z(\lambda ^i)`$. Indeed,

$$_iZ=_0^{2\pi }\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }𝒱_i$$

which does not always vanish in a CFT. In particular, for operators $`𝒱_i`$ of scaling dimension zero there is no apriori reason for the right hand side of (2.1) to vanish, and in general it does not. An example is the case where $`𝒱_i`$ is taken to be the constant mode of the tachyon in the bosonic string.

The second problem is that the disk partition sum is linearly divergent in the bosonic string :

$$Z=a_1\mathrm{\Lambda }|x|+a_2.$$

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a UV cutoff (a large energy); $`a_1`$ and $`a_2`$ are finite coefficients. The origin of the divergence is the infinite volume of the Mobius group of the disk.

Both problems are avoided by the definition (2.1). Indeed, as shown in \[1,,2\], $`S`$ can be alternatively defined by

$$\frac{S}{\lambda ^i}=\beta ^jG_{ij}(\lambda ).$$

where $`G_{ij}`$ is a non-singular metric. Therefore, $`S`$ is stationary at fixed points of the RG. Using the Callan-Symanzik equation for $`Z`$ one finds that (2.1) is equivalent to

$$S=Z\frac{dZ}{d\mathrm{log}|x|}$$

in which the divergent term in (2.1) precisely cancels.

In the superstring both of the above objections to thinking of the partition sum as the boundary entropy disappear. First, worldsheet SUSY implies that all boundary perturbations (2.1) are top components of worldsheet superfields,

$$𝒱_i=\{G_{\frac{1}{2}},𝒲_i\}$$

where $`𝒲_i`$ are the bottom components of the corresponding superfields, and $`G_{\frac{1}{2}}`$ is the worldsheet SUSY generator. The analog of eq. (2.1) involves in this case the correlator $`\{G_{\frac{1}{2}},𝒲_i\}`$, which indeed vanishes at fixed points of the RG, since in that case $`G_{\frac{1}{2}}`$ annihilates both the incoming and outgoing vacua.

The second objection disappears as well since the linear divergence cancels due to a cancellation between bosons and fermions – the supersymmetrically regularized volume of the super-Mobius group of the disk is finite (2.1) \[8,,6\]. Note that the above results do not require spacetime supersymmetry; they are valid in any vacuum of the fermionic string.

In view of the above observations, it is natural to propose that for the superstring, the BSFT action $`S`$ is simply the disk partition sum,

$$S(\lambda ^i)=Z(\lambda ^i).$$

In the context of the low energy effective action for massless modes this was indeed proposed in \[6,,8\]. We conjecture that this is the case for the full string field theory in the BSFT formalism, at least in backgrounds where ghosts and matter are decoupled.

Below, we will use this proposal to study tachyon condensation in the superstring. Our results can be viewed as further evidence for the validity of (2.1). Possible avenues for proving the conjecture (which we will not attempt here) are:

(a) The action (2.1) was obtained in  from a Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism applied to the space of worldsheet field theories. It would be interesting to generalize this formalism to the fermionic string and derive (2.1).

(b) A related conjecture is that the disk partition sum of a supersymmetric worldsheet field theory coincides with the boundary entropy . $`Z`$ satisfies two of the three properties associated with the boundary entropy: it is stationary at fixed points of the RG, and it takes the correct value there. If one can prove that it decreases along RG flows, it will be a strong candidate for the boundary entropy, and thus for the spacetime action in BSFT.

Leaving a general derivation of (2.1) to future work, we now turn to the example of interest here, tachyon condensation on unstable D-branes in type II string theory.1 i.e. Dp-branes with $`p2Z+1`$ in IIA string theory, or $`p2Z`$ in IIB. We follow closely the analysis of \[1,,10\]. The worldsheet action is

$$𝒮=𝒮_{\mathrm{bulk}}+𝒮_{\mathrm{boundary}}$$

with the standard NSR action in the bulk:

$$𝒮_{\mathrm{bulk}}=\frac{1}{4\pi }d^2z\left(X^\mu \overline{}X_\mu +\psi ^\mu \overline{}\psi _\mu +\stackrel{~}{\psi }^\mu \stackrel{~}{\psi }_\mu \right)$$

The integral is over a disk of radius one. The conventions are those of , $`\alpha ^{}=2`$, and the signature of spacetime is Euclidean.

Supersymmetric boundary interactions corresponding to open string tachyon condensation are introduced following the discussion of . The boundary is described by superspace coordinates $`(\tau ,\theta )`$, with $`0\tau 2\pi `$ and $`\theta `$ the boundary Grassman coordinate. The boundary superfields are $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\eta +\theta F`$ and $`𝐗=x+\theta \psi `$. $`𝐗`$ is the restriction to the boundary of the standard worldsheet super-coordinate, while $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is a quantum mechanical degree of freedom which lives on the boundary. Both $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`𝐗`$ are real or, in the presence of Chan-Paton factors, Hermitian matrices. The boundary action (2.1) is given by:

$$e^{𝒮_{\mathrm{boundary}}}=\mathrm{Tr}P\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }𝑑\theta \left(\mathrm{\Gamma }D\mathrm{\Gamma }+T(𝐗)\mathrm{\Gamma }\right)\right]$$

where the trace is over the Chan-Paton indices and $`D=_\theta +\theta _\tau `$. The fermions $`\eta `$, $`\psi `$ are anti-periodic around the circle (as is appropriate to the NS sector).

Restricting for the moment to the case of one non-BPS brane (and hence a one-dimensional Chan-Paton space) and performing the integral over $`\theta `$, the action (2.1) becomes

$$𝒮_{\mathrm{boundary}}=\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }\left(F^2+\dot{\eta }\eta +T(X)F+\psi ^\mu \eta _\mu T\right)$$

The boundary auxiliary fields are free and can be easily integrated out. This gives

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill F=& \frac{1}{2}T\hfill \\ \hfill \eta =& \frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{_\tau }(\psi ^\mu _\mu T)\hfill \\ & =\frac{1}{4}𝑑\tau ^{}ϵ(\tau \tau ^{})(\psi ^\mu _\mu T)(\tau ^{})\hfill \end{array}$$

where $`ϵ(x)=+1`$ for $`x>0`$ and $`=1`$ for $`x<0`$. The formula for $`\eta `$ in (2.1) is non-local but well defined, since both $`\eta `$ and $`\psi ^\mu `$ do not have zero modes in the NS sector. Plugging back into the action (2.1) one finds

$$𝒮_{\mathrm{boundary}}=\frac{1}{4}\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }\left[(T(X))^2+(\psi ^\mu _\mu T)\frac{1}{_\tau }(\psi ^\nu _\nu T)\right]$$

3. Free field perturbations

One of the main points of  is that one can learn a lot about the physics of D-branes by studying solvable boundary perturbations. In the present context, boundary tachyon profiles of the form

$$T(X)=a+u_\mu X^\mu $$

give rise to free field theory on the worldsheet (see (2.1), (2.1)) and can be analyzed by using the results of \[1,,10\]. Note that for any non-zero $`u_\mu `$, the interaction (3.1) gives a boundary mass to only one combination of the superfields $`𝐗^\mu `$. This will play a role below.

The exact tachyon potential is obtained by setting $`u_\mu =0`$ in (3.1) and computing the path integral (2.1). This leads to

$$S(T)=V_0e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}$$

where $`V_0`$ is a constant proportional to the volume of the unstable brane and to $`1/g_{\mathrm{string}}`$. This constant can be normalized by requiring that the tension of the unstable D-brane, which corresponds to the vacuum at $`T=0`$, comes out correctly. This follows from  and . One could also perform the consistency check described in the bosonic case in , but we have not done this.

In any case, the potential term in the string field theory action on the unstable Dp-brane is proportional to

$$V(T)=e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}.$$

This has all the features expected of the tachyon potential in superstring field theory: it is symmetric under $`TT`$, and goes to zero at $`T=\pm \mathrm{}`$, which corresponds to the closed string vacuum. In contrast to the bosonic string, the potential is bounded from below in this case. In  it was proposed that this is related to the absence of a tachyon in the closed string sector.

To study condensation to lower dimensional branes we next turn to the case of non-zero $`u_\mu `$ in (3.1). By a Poincaré transformation we can shift away $`a`$ and take $`u_\mu `$ to point along a single coordinate direction, $`X`$. We are thus interested in evaluating the path integral (2.1) with $`T(X)=uX`$,

$$Z(u)=[DX][D\psi ]e^{𝒮_{\mathrm{bulk}}𝒮_{\mathrm{boundary}}}$$

where

$$𝒮_{\mathrm{boundary}}=\frac{u^2}{4}_0^{2\pi }\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }\left(x^2+\psi \frac{1}{_\tau }\psi \right)$$

Differentiating with respect to the parameter

$$y:=u^2$$

we have

$$\frac{}{y}\mathrm{log}Z=\frac{1}{8\pi }_0^{2\pi }𝑑\tau x^2+\psi \frac{1}{_\tau }\psi $$

As in the bosonic case, the correlator that appears in (3.1) needs to be regularized, since it involves products of fields evaluated at the same point. In  the correlator $`x^2`$ was defined by point splitting,

$$x^2=\underset{ϵ0}{lim}\left[x(\tau )x(\tau +ϵ)f(ϵ)\right]$$

where $`f(ϵ)`$ is a function which has the same logarithmic singularity as the propagator, so that the limit (3.1) exists. Of course, this prescription is ambiguous by a $`u`$-independent constant (the physical import of this ambiguity is explained in footnote 2 below).

In the present case, worldsheet supersymmetry leads to a natural prescription for defining the right hand side of (3.1):

$$x^2+\psi \frac{1}{_\tau }\psi =\underset{ϵ0}{lim}x(\tau )x(\tau +ϵ)+\psi (\tau )\frac{1}{_\tau }\psi (\tau +ϵ)$$

To see that this regularization preserves worldsheet supersymmetry note that by using (2.1) the right hand side of (3.1) is proportional to

$$𝑑\theta 𝐗(\tau ,\theta )\mathrm{\Gamma }(\tau +ϵ,\theta ).$$

To compute the right hand side of (3.1) we need the explicit form of the propagators of $`x`$ and $`\psi `$ in free massive boundary field theory. That of $`x`$ was computed in :

$$G_B(\tau \tau ^{}):=x(\tau )x(\tau ^{})=2\underset{kZ}{}\frac{1}{|k|+y}e^{ik(\tau \tau ^{})}$$

The propagator for fermions on the boundary in the NS sector is

$$G_F(\tau \tau ^{}):=\psi (\tau )\psi (\tau ^{})=2i\underset{kZ+\frac{1}{2}}{}\frac{k}{|k|+y}e^{ik(\tau \tau ^{})}$$

To see that (3.1) is correct note the following facts. At $`y=0`$, it reduces to the familiar result

$$\psi (\tau )\psi (\tau ^{})|_{y=0}=\frac{2}{\mathrm{sin}\frac{\tau \tau ^{}}{2}}$$

To determine the $`y`$ dependence consider the path integral (see (3.1))

$$G_F(\tau _1\tau _2;y)=\psi (\tau _1)\psi (\tau _2)e^{\frac{y}{8\pi }_0^{2\pi }𝑑\tau \psi \frac{1}{_\tau }\psi (\tau )}$$

Differentiating with respect to $`y`$ we find that

$$_yG_F(\tau _1\tau _2;y)=\frac{1}{8\pi }_0^{2\pi }𝑑\tau \psi (\tau _1)\psi (\tau _2)\psi (\tau )\frac{1}{_\tau }\psi (\tau )$$

Computing the right hand side using the propagator $`G_F`$ leads to the differential equation

$$_yG_F(\tau _1\tau _2;y)=\frac{1}{4\pi }_0^{2\pi }𝑑\tau G_F(\tau _1\tau ;y)\frac{1}{_\tau }G_F(\tau _2\tau ;y)$$

which together with the “boundary condition” (3.1) uniquely determines the propagator to be (3.1).

We are now ready to compute the regularized correlator (3.1). Define

$$\stackrel{~}{G}_F(ϵ;y):=\psi (\tau )\frac{1}{_\tau }\psi (\tau +ϵ).$$

Comparing to (3.1) we see that

$$\stackrel{~}{G}_F(ϵ;y)=2\underset{kZ+\frac{1}{2}}{}\frac{1}{|k|+y}e^{ikϵ}.$$

$`\stackrel{~}{G}_F(ϵ)`$ has a very similar form to $`G_B(ϵ)`$ (3.1), with the only differences being the overall sign and range of the index $`k`$. This is natural, since if the fermions $`\psi `$ were periodic, their contribution would precisely cancel that of the bosons, so the full partition sum would be trivial  – a consequence of unbroken worldsheet supersymmetry.

By writing the index $`k`$ in (3.1) as one half of an odd number, and rewriting the sum over odd integers as a difference of a sum over all integers and that over even integers, one finds the relation

$$\stackrel{~}{G}_F(ϵ;y)=G_B(ϵ;y)2G_B(\frac{ϵ}{2};2y).$$

Substituting in (3.1), we find:

$$x^2+\psi \frac{1}{_\tau }\psi =\underset{ϵ0}{lim}\left[G_B(ϵ;y)+\stackrel{~}{G}_F(ϵ;y)\right]=\underset{ϵ0}{lim}\left[2G_B(ϵ;y)2G_B(\frac{ϵ}{2};2y)\right].$$

To evaluate this limit it is convenient to use the fact that

$$G_B(ϵ;y)=2\mathrm{log}(1e^{iϵ})2\mathrm{log}(1e^{iϵ})+\frac{2}{y}2y\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{k(k+y)}\left(e^{ikϵ}+e^{ikϵ}\right).$$

Using this form we find that

$$\underset{ϵ0}{lim}\left[G_B(ϵ,y)G_B(ϵ/2,2y)\right]=4\mathrm{log}2+f(y)f(2y),$$

where

$$f(y)=\frac{2}{y}4y\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{1}{k(k+y)}$$

One can now proceed as in  and integrate the differential equation (3.1). This leads to

$$Z(y)=4^y\frac{Z_1(y)^2}{Z_1(2y)}$$

where $`Z_1`$ is a function appearing in the bosonic case ,

$$Z_1(y)=\sqrt{y}e^{\gamma y}\mathrm{\Gamma }(y)$$

and $`\gamma `$ is the Euler number. In integrating the differential equation (3.1) one also picks up an integration constant, $`Z^{}`$, so the partition sum is in fact

$$Z=Z^{}Z(y).$$

This is our final result for the partition sum as a function of $`y`$. The integration constant $`Z^{}`$ can be fixed as discussed above (after eq. (3.1)). One can check that $`Z(y)`$ (3.1) is a monotonically decreasing function of $`y`$ which approaches the value

$$\underset{y\mathrm{}}{lim}Z(y)=\sqrt{2\pi }.$$

The result (3.1) admits several straightforward generalizations. For example, nontrivial Chan-Paton factors are easily included by taking the boundary action to be

$$\mathrm{Tr}P\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{8\pi }𝑑\tau \left((T(x))^2+(\psi ^\mu _\mu T)\frac{1}{_\tau }(\psi ^\nu _\nu T)\right)\right]$$

Therefore the potential is proportional to

$$\mathrm{Tr}e^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}$$

Following \[18,,20\] we can introduce a $`B`$ field and take the $`B\mathrm{}`$ limit, in which case the action becomes (3.1) with all products now being $``$-products.

Moreover, when there is a nontrivial Chan-Paton space it is possible to generalize the free-field ansatz in (3.1) in an interesting way, which describes condensation into codimension $`M`$ branes with $`M>1`$. Consider a tachyon profile of the form

$$T(x)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}u_ix^i\gamma _i$$

where $`\gamma _i`$ are Hermitian matrices. Suppose the matrices $`\gamma _i`$ form a Clifford algebra, $`\{\gamma _i,\gamma _j\}=2\delta _{ij}`$. Since the $`\gamma `$ matrices are $`2^{[n/2]}`$ dimensional, the starting point of the discussion is thus a system of $`2^{[n/2]}`$ unstable D-branes.

Substituting (3.1) into (3.1) and using the symmetry of $`x^ix^j`$ and the Clifford relations we find that the interaction is proportional to the identity matrix, and has the form (3.1) for the $`n`$ dimensions $`(1,2,\mathrm{},n)`$. The fact that the interaction is proportional to an identity matrix in Chan-Paton space means that the $`2^{[n/2]}`$ unstable D-branes condense in this case to one (stable or unstable, depending on the parity of $`n`$) codimension $`n`$ brane. Roughly speaking, the interaction (3.1) acts only on the center of mass of the $`2^{[n/2]}`$ unstable branes. The partition sum (3.1) is simply equal to

$$2^{[n/2]}Z^{\prime \prime }\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}Z(y_i)$$

where $`y_i=u_i^2`$, $`Z(y)`$ is the function in (3.1), and $`Z^{\prime \prime }`$ is a constant analogous to $`Z^{}`$ above.

The tachyon profile (3.1) is of course the standard Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro configuration  which played a central role in \[28,,29,,30\]. Restricted to a sphere it has unit winding number , which is another way to see that the $`2^{[n/2]}`$ unstable branes are condensing to a single brane. It is curious that the ABS construction arises in the present context in a somewhat novel way as a configuration preserving the free-field subspace.

4. Condensation to lower dimensional D-branes

We can now follow the discussion of  to study lower dimensional D-branes as solitons in BSFT on a higher dimensional brane. As a first step, let us determine the spacetime action (2.1) resticted to the tachyon field in the two-derivative approximation. The potential for the tachyon has already been determined in (3.1). By considering the partition sum $`Z`$ for general slowly varying tachyon fields $`T(X)`$ it is clear that the kinetic term will similarly have the form $`\mathrm{exp}(T^2/4)_\mu T^\mu T`$. To fix the coefficient we should compare the spacetime action evaluated with a tachyon profile (3.1) to the result (3.1). As in , this involves regularizing the volume divergences, as we review next.

Consider, for concreteness, a single non-BPS D9-brane in the IIA theory. We would like to evaluate the spacetime action for a profile $`T(X^\mu )=uX^1`$. It is convenient to regularize the volume divergence of the remaining coordinates as in  by periodic identification

$$X^\mu X^\mu +R^\mu ,\mu =2,\mathrm{},10.$$

To determine the correct normalization of the $`X`$ zero mode, we notice that, for tachyon profiles of the form $`T(X)=uX`$,

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{dX}{\sqrt{2\pi }}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{1}{4}_0^{2\pi }\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }(T(X))^2}=\sqrt{\frac{2}{y}},$$

which reproduces the leading term in the expansion of $`Z(y)`$ around $`y=0`$:

$$Z(y)=\sqrt{\frac{2}{y}}+2\sqrt{2}\mathrm{log}2\sqrt{y}+\mathrm{}.$$

Therefore, the normalization of the $`X`$ zero mode is $`1/\sqrt{2\pi }`$. The total string field action evaluated for the boundary perturbation $`T(X)=uX^1`$ is then given by:

$$S(y)=S_04^y\frac{Z_1(y)^2}{Z_1(2y)}\underset{\mu =2}{\overset{10}{}}\left(\frac{R^\mu }{\sqrt{2\pi }}\right).$$

$`S_0`$ is an overall constant related to $`V_0,Z^{}`$ above.

We can now obtain the exact string field action up to two-derivatives. It has the form,

$$S=T_9d^{10}x\left[2\mathrm{log}2\mathrm{e}^{T^2/4}^\mu T_\mu T+\mathrm{e}^{T^2/4}\right],$$

where the tension of the non-BPS D9-brane is given by

$$T_9=\frac{S_0}{(2\pi )^5}.$$

As we have discussed above, the value of $`S_0`$ can now be fixed by comparing (4.1) to the standard tension of a non-BPS D9-brane. The expression (4.1) is obtained by putting $`T(X)=uX^1`$ and comparing the kinetic energy with the second term in the expansion (4.1), and the potential energy with the first term.2 The coefficient of the kinetic term raises an interesting technical issue. In the bosonic string case, the choice of renormalization prescription for $`X^2(\tau )`$ (see (3.1)) renders ambiguous the term in $`S`$ appearing at order $`\sqrt{u}`$ in an expansion at small $`u`$. This has the effect of rendering ambiguous the coefficient of the two-derivative term for $`T`$ in the spacetime action. This ambiguity does not influence any physical observables, such as the mass of the tachyon and the tensions of D-branes viewed as solitons. In the present case, the principle of worldsheet supersymmetry removes the ambiguity (see section 3).

The action (4.1) has been recently proposed in  as a toy model describing the tachyon dynamics on a non-BPS D-brane in superstring theory, and conjectured to be a two-derivative truncation of BSFT. Notice that the tachyon field configuration $`T(X^1)=cX^1`$, with $`c=1/(2\mathrm{log}2)^{1/2}`$ is a kink solution of the equations of motion following from this action:

$$8\mathrm{log}2_\mu ^\mu T2\mathrm{log}2T^\mu T_\mu T+T=0.$$

As explained in , this kink describes a D8-brane of type IIA theory and one can compute the tension ratio $`T_8/T_9`$ by plugging the kink profile in (4.1). Since this configuration is not a solution of the equations of motion of the full string field action (which includes an infinite number of higher derivative terms), one only gets in this way an approximate value for the tension of the D8-brane.

However, as in the bosonic case , we know that the exact profile of the soliton in the exact string field theory will also be of the form $`T(X)=uX`$ for some value of $`u`$. The reason is that this particular tachyon mode corresponds to a free field theory on the worldsheet, and does not mix with the rest of the modes. Therefore, to obtain the exact profile we just have to take $`u`$ to correspond to the infrared attractive fixed point of the RG flow . This is the value of $`u`$ that minimizes the string field action (4.1). Since (3.1) is monotonically decreasing, the minimum is achieved at $`y_{}=\mathrm{}`$, as expected from the RG flow picture. At this infrared fixed point, the exact value of the action is:

$$S(y_{})=S_0\sqrt{2\pi }\underset{\mu =2}{\overset{10}{}}\left(\frac{R^\mu }{\sqrt{2\pi }}\right).$$

We can now determine the ratio of the D-brane tensions. From the spacetime point of view, the kink describes a D8-brane, therefore we have $`S(y_{})=T_8_\mu R^\mu `$. After restoring units, taking into account the fact that $`\alpha ^{}=2`$, we conclude that

$$T_8=(2\pi \sqrt{\alpha ^{}})\frac{T_9}{\sqrt{2}},$$

which is the expected value:3 Using the exact action up to two derivatives (4.1), one finds a ratio of tensions which is $`1.151`$ times the expected value (see also ). the tensions of BPS Dp-branes are proportional to $`(2\pi \sqrt{\alpha ^{}})^{3p}/\kappa _{10}`$ . The tensions of the non-BPS branes are larger by a factor of $`\sqrt{2}`$.

In contrast to the bosonic case, the D8-brane obtained in this way is stable, and cannot further decay. This is consistent with the fact that the tachyonic profile which gives a free theory on the worldsheet is linear in $`X`$: as we remarked above, by a Poincaré transformation we can always take it to be of the form $`uX^1`$, and therefore it always describes a codimension one kink. At first sight this appears to be a problem for describing tachyon condensation to lower dimensional branes since one can only condense a single direction in spacetime. However, as discussed above, adding Chan-Paton factors and taking a tachyon profile as in (3.1) leads to condensation of $`2^{[n/2]}`$ $`D9`$-branes to a single $`D(9n)`$-brane. Repeating the considerations of this section for the partition sum (3.1) we conclude that BSFT gives rise to the descent relation

$$\frac{T_{9n}}{2^{[n/2]}T_9}=(\pi \sqrt{2\alpha ^{}})^n,$$

or, equivalently

$$\frac{T_{9n}}{T_9}=\{\begin{array}{cc}(2\pi \sqrt{\alpha ^{}})^n\hfill & \text{ n    even}\hfill \\ \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(2\pi \sqrt{\alpha ^{}})^n\hfill & \text{ n    odd}\hfill \end{array}$$

which is indeed the correct answer.4 Note that the above discussion does not imply that a single unstable D9-brane cannot decay to Dp-branes with $`p<8`$. As explained in  it can, but not within the free field subspace of configuration space which we are focusing on here.

One of the most important attributes of type II D-branes is that they carry RR charge . Since BSFT is so closely allied to worldsheet techniques this property is easily checked in the present formalism using standard techniques. We follow a computation described in . To compute the RR charge we compute the one-point function on the disk of the RR vertex operator in the $`(3/2,1/2)`$ picture,

$$V=C_{\dot{a}\dot{b}}S^{\dot{a}}(z)\stackrel{~}{S}^{\dot{b}}(\overline{z})e^{3/2\varphi (z)1/2\stackrel{~}{\varphi }(\overline{z})}+\mathrm{}.$$

Here $`\dot{a},\dot{b}`$ are chiral spinor indices for $`SO(10)`$, $`C`$ is the RR potential, $`S^{\dot{a}}`$ are spin operators, and $`\varphi ,\stackrel{~}{\varphi }`$ are bosonized superconformal ghosts. When such a vertex operator is inserted into the disk, $`\eta ,\psi `$ become periodic. In particular, we must soak up the $`\eta ,\psi `$ zero-modes. The tachyon vertex operator is

$$V_T=\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }𝑑\theta \mathrm{\Gamma }T(X)=\frac{d\tau }{2\pi }(FT(x)+\eta \psi ^\mu _\mu T(x)).$$

The resulting spacetime interaction is proportional to $`Ce^{\frac{1}{4}T^2}dT`$, and, in a solitonic background $`T=uX`$, the charge is proportional to $`u/|u|`$. Note that the charge density is distributed equally on both sides of the D8 brane in accord with .

Finally, the above discussion has focused on the case of an unstable D-brane, but it can be extended to $`D\overline{D}`$ systems by considering tachyon configurations of the form $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& T\\ T^{}& 0\end{array}\right)`$.

In this paper we have made some preliminary remarks on the formulation of BSFT in the superstring case. Our results indicate that this approach might be a useful alternate route to superstring field theory. In addition to the open problems listed in , the supersymmetric case raises many further interesting open questions. Further development of BSFT for the superstring appears to be a worthwhile enterprise.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank T. Banks, H. Liu, E. Martinec, A. Rajaraman, M. Rozali and A. Tseytlin for useful discussions. The work of DK is supported in part by DOE grant #DE-FG02-90ER40560. The work of GM and MM is supported by DOE grant DE-FG02-96ER40949. MM would like to thank the High Energy Theory group at Harvard for hospitality in the final stages of this work.

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