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# Symmetry-Unrestricted Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Calculations for Exotic Shapes in 𝑁=𝑍 Nuclei from 64Ge to 84Mo

## 1 Introduction

The Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) method with the Skyrme interactions is one of the standard approaches in nuclear structure research. In the last two decades it has become possible to solve the HFB equations directly in the coordinate mesh space. In recent years, in order to investigate the structure of drip-line nuclei, the need for such coordinate-space HFB calculations has been greatly increased and intensive analyses have been made for neutron radii and skins in spherical neutron-rich nuclei : Since the easier HF plus BCS method breaks down when treating the pairing correlation in weakly bound systems due to a leakage of nucleons into the continuum, we need to calculate the mean-field (particle-hole) correlations and the pairing (particle-particle) correlations selfconsistently in order to preserve confinement of the nuclear density while allowing the pairing excitations to positive energy resonant states (see, e.g.  and references therein for mean-field approaches other than the Skyrme-HFB method).

Recently, Terasaki, Heenen, Flocard and Bonche have removed the restriction of spherical symmetry in solving the coordinate-space Skyrme-HFB equations in order to investigate the possibility to get three-dimensional (3D) deformed solutions in neutron rich nuclei. In their works, a Skyrme interaction is used to describe the Hartree-Fock (HF) Hamiltonian while a density dependent zero-range interaction is used for the pairing channel. The mean-field HF equations are solved by the imaginary-time evolution method in a 3D cubic mesh space while the HFB equations are solved in terms of the two-basis method developed earlier in . The discretization in 3D mesh space has the advantage over methods relying on an expansion in the harmonic-oscillator basis that nuclei with exotic deformations can be treated at the same level of accuracy. In these works, however, reflection symmetries with respect to three planes are imposed for the nuclear density so that only one spatial octant is needed to solve the HFB equations.

The major purpose of this paper is to extend their method by removing the symmetry restrictions mentioned above and investigate the possibility of exotic shapes simultaneously breaking the axial and reflection symmetries in the mean field. For this purpose, we have constructed a new computer code that carries out Skyrme-HFB calculations in the 3D Cartesian-mesh space without imposing any restrictions on the spatial symmetry. Recently, on the basis of the Skyrme HF plus BCS calculations with no restriction on the nuclear shape, Takami, Yabana and Matsuo suggested that the oblate ground state of 68Se is extremely soft against the $`Y_{33}`$ triangular deformation, and that the low-lying “spherical” minimum coexisting with the prolate ground state in 80Zr has the $`Y_{32}`$ tetrahedral shape. As the first application of a fully 3D, symmetry-unrestricted Skyrme HFB method with the use of the density-dependent, zero-range pairing interaction, we investigate in this paper shape coexistence and possibility of non-axial octupole deformations in proton rich $`N=Z`$ nuclei in the $`A=6484`$ region and examine the above predictions. These nuclei are especially interesting objects to study, since proton and neutron deformed shell effects act coherently and rich possibilities arise for coexistence and competition of different shapes (see  for earlier references). In recent years, active experimental studies of these nuclei are going on by means of combinations of radioactive nuclear beams and new gamma-ray and charged particle detector systems (see  for reviews). It should be noted here that, although extensive theoretical calculations and rich experimental evidences have been accumulated for axially symmetric octupole ($`Y_{30}`$) deformations, as reviewed in , only a few calculations using Woods-Saxon Strutinsky methods are available  except for light nuclei, and no firm experimental evidence exists up to now concerning the non-axial octupole ($`Y_{31}`$, $`Y_{32}`$, $`Y_{33}`$) deformations in the mean fields. For light nuclei, non-axial octupole deformations have been discussed in connection with alpha-cluster structures; for instance, a triangular structure of 12C and a tetrahedral shape for 16O.

Our motive for developing the coordinate-space Skyrme-HFB method is not only to investigate the possibilities of emergence of new types of symmetry breakdown in the ground states of proton-rich and neutron-rich nuclei, but also to investigate, in the future, low-lying modes of excitation of such unstable nuclei by means of the RPA and the Selfconsistent Collective Coordinate (SCC) method on the basis of the HFB basis thus obtained. We intend to proceed in parallel with other calculations with the use of more phenomenological shell model potentials and separable interactions. The Skryme-HFB method is suited for this aim, as it provides a local mean-field potential so that such a comparative study is easy.

In Section 2, a brief account of the method of the coordinate-space Skyrme-HFB calculation is given. In Section 3, results of numerical calculation are presented and discussed. In Section 4, a conclusion is given.

## 2 Skyrme-HFB calculation

### 2.1 Two basis method

For convenience, we here recapitulate the two basis method  adopted as the algorithm of our computer code. In this method, the imaginary-time evolution method is combined with a diagonalization of the HFB Hamiltonian matrix to construct the canonical basis.

We first determine the single-particle wave functions $`\varphi _i`$ satisfying the HF equations

$`h\left[\rho \left(𝒓\right)\right]\varphi _i\left(𝒓\right)=\epsilon _i\varphi _i\left(𝒓\right)`$ (1)
by means of the imaginary-time evolution method. Here $`h`$, $`\epsilon _i`$ and $`\rho \left(𝒓\right)`$ denote the mean-field Hamiltonian, the single-particle energies and the total nuclear density, respectively. (The isospin index $`\tau `$ is omitted for simplicity.) We next diagonalize the HFB Hamiltonian matrix

$`\left(\begin{array}{cc}h\lambda & \mathrm{\Delta }\\ \mathrm{\Delta }^{}& h^{}+\lambda \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}U_k\\ V_k\end{array}\right)=E_k\left(\begin{array}{c}U_k\\ V_k\end{array}\right)`$ (2)
to get the one-body density matrix $`\rho `$ and the pairing tensor $`\kappa `$:

$`\rho =V^{}V^T,\kappa =V^{}U^T.`$ (3)
We then diagonalize the density matrix $`\rho `$ and obtain the occupation coefficients $`n_\alpha `$ and the unitary transformation $`W`$ which relates the HF wave functions $`\varphi _i`$ to the canonical basis wave functions $`\phi _\alpha `$:

$`\rho _{kl}={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}n_\alpha W_{k\alpha }W_{\alpha l}^{}`$ (4)
$`\phi _\alpha \left(𝒓\right)={\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}W_{j\alpha }\varphi _j\left(𝒓\right).`$ (5)
In the canonical basis $`\phi _\alpha `$, the HFB density matrix in the coordinate space is diagonal:

$`\rho (𝒓,𝒓^{})={\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}n_\alpha \phi _\alpha \left(𝒓\right)\phi _\alpha \left(𝒓^{}\right)^{}.`$ (6)
These steps are repeated until the convergence is achieved.

The single-particle wave functions and densities are represented on a full 3D Cartesian mesh space within a spherical container. In the present calculation, the radius of the spherical container and mesh spacing are set to $`R_{mesh}=10.0`$ fm and $`h=1.0`$ fm, respectively. Tajima et al. have carefully examined possible errors due to the use of the mesh size $`h=1.0`$ fm and they found that, since discretization errors are essentially independent of the nuclear shape, deformation energies obtained with this mesh size are quite accurate (see also ). Actually, we have constructed the new Skyrme-HFB code by extending the cranked Skyrme-HF code written previously and applied to the investigation of the yrast structure of 32S, so that the cranking term can be included. In this paper, however, we examine only the cases of zero angular momentum.

### 2.2 The Skyrme plus density-dependent pairing interactions

We use the SIII parameter set  of the Skyrme interaction for the mean-field (particle-hole) channel, which has been successful in describing systematically the ground state quadrupole deformations in proton and neutron rich Kr, Sr, Zr and Mo isotopes and in a wide area of nuclear chart. For the pairing (particle-particle) channel, we use the density-dependent zero-range interaction , which has been successful in describing, for instance, the odd-even staggering effects in charge radii,

$`V_{pair}(𝒓_1,𝒓_2)={\displaystyle \frac{V_0}{2}}\left(1\widehat{P}_\sigma \right)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\rho \left(𝒓_1\right)}{\rho _c}}\right)\delta \left(𝒓_1𝒓_2\right)`$ (7)
with the notation of , where the strength $`V_0`$ and the density $`\rho _c`$ are parameters and $`\widehat{P}_\sigma `$ denotes the spin exchange operator. For these parameters, we use the standard values : $`V_0=1000.0`$ MeV$``$fm3, $`\rho _c=0.16`$ fm-3. The pairing interaction is smoothly cut off at 5 MeV above the Fermi energy in the same way as in . For a more general form of the density dependent pairing interaction, we refer .

To check the dependence on the Skyrme-interaction parameter sets, we make calculations with the SkM  and SLy4  sets for an example of 68Se. We refer to a recent work by Reinhard et al. for a detailed and systematic study of shape coexistence phenomena in relation to the properties of various versions of the Skyrme interaction. We shall also check the dependence on the pairing strength $`V_0`$ adopted.

### 2.3 Constrained HFB calculation

In order to investigate the deformation properties away from the HFB equilibrium points, we perform constrained HFB calculations with the use of the quadratic constraints for the mass-quadrupole (octupole) moments  to obtain the energy surfaces as functions of the quadrupole (octupole) deformations. Because no spatial symmetry is imposed on the 3D mesh space, the center of mass and the directions of the principal axes of the nucleus can move freely without affecting the total energy. To evaluate the physical quantities like deformation parameters, it is crucially important to fulfill the constraints to keep the center of mass,

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}x_i={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}y_i={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}z_i=0,`$ (8)
and the directions of the principal axes,

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}(xy)_i={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}(yz)_i={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}(zx)_i=0.`$ (9)
These requirements are taken care of by means of the quadrupole constraints on these conditions as in our previous study .

### 2.4 Deformation parameters

As measures of the deformation, we calculate the mass-multipole moments,

$`\alpha _{lm}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{3AR^l}}{\displaystyle r^lX_{lm}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }\right)\rho \left(𝒓\right)𝑑𝒓},(m=l,\mathrm{},l)`$ (10)
where $`\rho \left(𝒓\right)=\underset{\alpha }{}v_\alpha ^2\left|\phi _\alpha \left(𝒓\right)\right|^2`$, $`R=1.2A^{1/3}`$ fm and $`X_{lm}`$ are real bases of the spherical harmonics,

$`X_{l0}`$ $`=`$ $`Y_{l0},`$ (11)
$`X_{l|m|}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}(Y_{l|m|}+Y_{l|m|}^{}),`$ (12)
$`X_{l|m|}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}}(Y_{l|m|}Y_{l|m|}^{}).`$ (13)
Here the quantization axis is chosen as the largest (smallest) principal axis for prolate (oblate) solutions. We then define the quadrupole deformation parameter $`\beta _2`$, the triaxial deformation parameter $`\gamma `$, and the octupole deformation parameters $`\beta _3`$ and $`\beta _{3m}`$ by

$`\alpha _{20}=\beta _2\mathrm{cos}\gamma ,\alpha _{22}=\beta _2\mathrm{sin}\gamma ,`$ (14)
$`\beta _3=\left({\displaystyle \underset{m=3}{\overset{3}{}}}\alpha _{3m}^2\right)^{1/2},\beta _{3m}=\left(\alpha _{3m}^2+\alpha _{3m}^2\right)^{1/2}\left(m=0,1,2,3\right).`$ (15)
For convenience, we also use the familiar notation $`\beta _2`$ for oblate shapes with $`(\beta _2,\gamma =60^{})`$.

## 3 Results and discussions

### 3.1 Quadrupole deformations

The solutions of the Skyrme-HFB equations obtained in the numerical calculations for 64Ge, 68Se, 72Kr, 76Sr, 80Zr and 84Mo are summarized in Table 1. The calculated ground-state shape changes from triaxial (64Ge), oblate (68Se, 72Kr), large prolate (76Sr, 80Zr), to spherical shape (84Mo) with increasing $`N(=Z)`$. For 68Se, 72Kr, 76Sr, 80Zr and 84Mo, we obtain two or three local minima close in energy, indicating shape coexistence. These gross features are consistent with available experimental data  and previous theoretical calculations .

The potential energy curves obtained by the constrained HFB calculations are displayed in Fig. 1 as functions of the quadrupole deformation parameter $`\beta _2`$ and in Fig. 2 as functions of the triaxial deformation parameter $`\gamma `$. Below we remark on some specific points.

As seen in Fig. 2, the calculated potential energy curve for 64Ge is rather shallow with respect to the $`\gamma `$ degree of freedom so that this nucleus may be regarded as ”$`\gamma `$-soft.” This result is consistent with the experimental indication and also with the shell model calculation by the Monte Carlo diagonalization method.

Quite recently, an excited prolate band coexisting with the ground-state oblate band has been found in 68Se . Their quadrupole deformations are estimated as $`\beta _20.27`$ and $`\beta _20.27`$, respectively. Although the prolate excited band-head $`0^+`$ state has not yet been observed, its excitation energy is estimated to be about 0.6 MeV. Our calculated energy difference between the prolate and the oblate HFB solutions, 0.52 MeV, is in good agreement with this experimental data. The barrier between the prolate and the oblate minima is about 3 MeV in the plot with respect to $`\beta _2`$ in Fig. 1, but it is only about 0.3 MeV in the plot with respect to the triaxial deformation parameter $`\gamma `$ in Fig.2. It might be considered that, if the barrier is so low, the two bands built on the prolate and the oblate solutions interact strongly so that the shape coexistence picture is too much perturbed in contradiction with the experiment. In our view, however, description of dynamics by going beyond the static mean-field approximation is necessary in order to discuss the interaction between the oblate and the prolate structures. In any case, understanding this shape coexistence dynamics is an interesting subject for future.

The second minimum with $`\beta _20.66`$ seen in the potential energy curve for 84Mo in Fig. 1 may be regarded as a superdeformed solution, since it is related to the $`Z=N=42`$ deformed shell gap  formed by occupying the down-sloping 1/2 levels from the upper major shell by two protons and two neutrons. This second minimum was also obtained in . It offers an interesting possibility that a superdeformed rotational band might be observed at such a low excitation energy as about 1.5 MeV. From a viewpoint of deformed shell structure, the ground-state solutions for 76Sr and 80Zr have characteristics different from the second minimum in 84Mo and may be distinguished from the superdeformation, although they have large prolate deformations of $`\beta _20.5`$.

### 3.2 Non-axial octupole deformations

As a result of the Skyrme-HFB calculations for proton-rich $`N=Z`$ nuclei from 64Ge to 84Mo (summarized in Table 1), we have found equilibrium shapes with finite non-axial octupole deformations for 68Se and 80Zr. The density distribution at the HFB local minimum for 68Se with the triangular deformation superposed on the oblate shape and that for 80Zr with the tetrahedral deformation are illustrated in Fig. 3.

In addition to the two cases mentioned above, Takami et al. and Matsuo et al. obtained, in their Skyrme-HF plus BCS calculations, finite equilibrium values of octupole deformations superposed on an oblate shape in 76Sr and also on a near spherical shape in 84Mo. According to their calculations, the potential-energy curves are very soft with respect to the octupole deformation degrees of freedom especially in the four cases mentioned above. In order to see the properties of the potential-energy curve in the neighborhood of the HFB equilibrium points and to make a better comparison with the results of Refs. , we have carried out constrained HFB calculations with respect to the $`\beta _{3m}(m=0,1,2,3)`$ degrees of freedom about the local minima (seen in Fig. 1) of the quadrupole deformation energies.

Figures 4, 5 and 6 show the potential-energy curves with respect to the octupole deformation parameters $`\beta _{3m}`$ about the oblate, the spherical and the prolate (or triaxial) minima of the quadrupole deformation energy curves, respectively. These curves are obtained by the constrained HFB calculations with the octupole operators $`r^3X_{3|m|}`$ as constraints. We see that the oblate shape of 68Se is extremely soft against the triangular ($`\beta _{33}`$) deformation and that the spherical shape of 80Zr is extremely soft against the tetrahedral ($`\beta _{32}`$) deformation, in agreement with those of the Skyrme-HF plus BCS calculations of Refs. . The oblate shape of 76Sr is fairly soft with respect to the $`\beta _{32}`$ and $`\beta _{33}`$ deformations and the spherical ground state of 84Mo is barely stable against all $`\beta _{3m}`$ degrees of freedom, especially against $`\beta _{30}`$. In  an oblate solution with a finite equilibrium value of $`\beta _{32}`$ is obtained for 76Sr, while a similar solution for 76Sr but with a finite equilibrium value of $`\beta _{33}`$ and also a nearly spherical solution for 84Mo with a finite equilibrium value of $`\beta _{30}`$ is reported in . Although such details differ depending on the treatment of the pairing correlations, the basic features, i.e., the softness to both $`\beta _{32}`$ and $`\beta _{33}`$ of the oblate shape of 76Sr and the softess to $`\beta _{30}`$ of the spherical shape of 84Mo are in common between the present HFB calculations and those of . Generally speaking, Figs. 4-6 indicate that the oblate shapes are softer for octupole deformations $`\beta _{3m}`$ with higher values of $`m`$, while the prolate shapes favor lower values of $`m`$.

Below we focus our attention on the triangular deformation in 68Se and the tetrahedral shape in 80Zr and discuss about the microscopic origins of them.

Triangular deformation in 68Se

Generally speaking, octupole correlations are associated with strong couplings between the shell-model orbits with $`\mathrm{\Delta }l=\mathrm{\Delta }j=3`$. In the $`A=6484`$ region under consideration, they are 1g9/2 and 2p3/2. In order to understand why the oblate shape in 68Se is unstable (or extremely soft) against the triangular deformation, however, we need to examine the interplay of the quadrupole and octupole deformation effects. Namely, as explained below, the emergence of the triangular deformation is strongly correlated with the magnitude of the oblate deformation.

When 68Se ($`N=Z=34`$) is oblately deformed, the high $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ levels $`\frac{9}{2}`$ and $`\frac{7}{2}`$ stemming from the 1g9/2 orbit go down in energy and approach the Fermi surfaces for $`N=Z=34`$ and strong $`Y_{33}`$ couplings with $`\frac{3}{2}`$ and $`\frac{1}{2}`$ levels (associated with the 2p3/2 orbit) take place. These $`Y_{33}`$ coupling effects are seen as repulsions between these levels in Fig. 7 which displays the neutron single-particle energies as functions of the triangular deformation parameter $`\beta _{33}`$. Here, the single-particle energies mean eigenvalues of the HF Hamiltonian with the density $`\rho \left(𝒓\right)`$ determined by the HFB equations, and the asymptotic Nilsson quantum numbers are used only for convenience of labeling these levels: they are, of course, not good quantum numbers.

In this figure, results of calculation with use of the SkM and SLy4 interactions are also shown for comparison. We note that the $`Y_{33}`$ coupling effects are slightly weaker in the case of the SkM and SLy4 interactions in comparison with the case of the SIII interaction. This is because the spacings between the levels coupled by the $`Y_{33}`$ operator are the smallest for the SIII interaction: The spacings at the oblate equilibrium deformations between the 9/2 and 3/2 levels are about 2.8, 3.4 and 3.6 MeV, and those between the 7/2 and 1/2 levels are about 3.8, 4.1 and 4.2 MeV for the SIII, SkM and SLy4 interactions, respectively. Thus, as shown in Fig. 8, the potential energy curve with respect to the triangular $`\beta _{33}`$ deformation is softest for the case of the SIII interaction, although they are soft also for the cases of the SkM and SLy4 interactions. Note that, in making this comparison, we have chosen the pairing-interaction strength $`V_0`$ such that the resulting pairing gaps $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ take about the same values for calculations with different Skyrme interactions (in order to make the effects of the pairing correlations approximately the same for all cases), as shown in the right-hand part of Fig. 8.

The importance of the triangular $`Y_{33}`$ deformation superposed on the oblate shape was previously pointed out by Frisk, Hamamoto and May in terms of a two-level model as well as the modified oscillator model which simulates the one-particle spectra in an infinite-well potential. Our result of the Skyrme-HFB calculation provides a realistic example which is consistent with their arguments.

Tetrahedral deformation in 80Zr

As shown by Hamamoto, Mottelson, Xie and Zhang, the tetrahedral symmetry associated with the $`Y_{32}`$ deformation brings about a bunching of the single-particle levels and create a remarkable shell structure: The $`N=Z=40`$ is one of the magic numbers for such tetrahedral shapes. Such a shell effect is common to various finite Fermion systems, and in fact the tetrahedral deformation has been predicted, for instance, for sodium clusters consisting of 40 atoms by the density functional Kohn-Sham calculation, in which there is no spin-orbit coupling. The instability of the spherical shape of 80Zr against the $`Y_{32}`$ deformation, as exhibited in Fig. 5, is evidently connected to the magic number $`N=Z=40`$ for the tetrahedral shape.

Figure 9 shows the single-particle energy diagrams as function of octupole deformation parameter $`\beta _{3m}(m=0,1,2,3)`$. As expected, we can see for the case of $`m=2`$ a remarkable bunching of single-particle levels and an increase of the shell gap at $`N=40`$ with increasing $`\beta _{32}`$, while the other octupole deformations $`(m=0,1,3)`$ do not exhibit such a feature. Looking into details, one notices a fine splitting of the 1g9/2 level into three levels which correspond to irreducible representations of the double tetrahedral (spinor-$`T_d`$) group; a twofold-degenerate level and two fourfold-degenerate levels.

Thus, the tetrahedral shell gap at $`N=Z=40`$ emerges even under the presence of the strong spin-orbit coupling. It should also be noted that the tetrahedral minimum is obtained in the calculation selfconsistently including the pairing correlations.

### 3.3 Pairing gaps

In this subsection, we first examine dependence of the pairing gaps on deformations, and then discuss dependence of the non-axial octupole deformations on the pairing strength. The result of calculation for the pairing gaps at equilibrium deformations in each nucleus is listed in Table 1. As the pairing gaps in the HFB theory depend on single-particle levels, the numbers listed in this Table are averages of the diagonal elements in the HF basis, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{i\overline{i}}`$, over 5 MeV interval in the vicinity of the Fermi surfaces.

In the literatures, slightly different quantities like averages of the diagonal matrix elements in the canonical basis, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\alpha \overline{\alpha }}`$, weighted by the coefficients of the Bogoliubov transformation, $`u_\alpha v_\alpha `$ or $`v_\alpha ^2`$, are used for similar purposes. Figure 10 compares these quantities for the case of triangular deformations superposed on the oblate shape in 68Se. We see that the two average quantities, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{i\overline{i}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\alpha \overline{\alpha }}u_\alpha v_\alpha `$, are approximatelty equal. We also confirm that the averages do not significantly depend on the averaging interval.

Figures 11, 12 and 13 display the variation of the pairing gaps with the quadrupole deformation parameter $`\beta _2`$, the triaxial deformation parameter $`\gamma `$, and the octupole deformation parameters $`\beta _{3m}(m=0,1,2,3)`$, respectively. We observe that gross features of deformation dependence of the pairing gap correlate with the corresponding potential-energy curves displayed in Figs. 1, 2 and 4-6. Such correlations are rather easy to be understood from the behavior of the single-particle level density near the Fermi surface, i.e., from the well-known (spherical or deformed) shell effects that the level density near the Fermi surface becomes relatively low in the vicinities of the local minima of the potential energy curve . Thus, the pairing correlation becomes weaker and the paring gap decreases near the local minima. On the other hand, the level density becomes relatively high and the pairing gap increases near the local maxima of the potential-energy curve.

Because of significant shape changes in the sequence of isotopes (isotones) in the $`A=6484`$ region, it is not always easy to extract the magnitudes of pairing correlations from experimental odd-even staggerings of binding energies and to assess the appropriateness of the pairing-interaction strength $`V_0=1000`$ MeV$``$ fm3 used in our HFB calculations. Quite recently, however, Satuła, Dobaczewski and Nazarewicz have proposed a method for separating out the pairing correlation effects from the deformed mean-field (single-particle energy) effects on the odd-even staggerings, and evaluated average pairing gaps; these are in the range $`1.01.6`$ MeV for the mass region under consideration. We note that these values agree rather well with the well-known global trend $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }}=12/\sqrt{A}`$ MeV, which are in the range $`1.31.5`$ MeV for $`A=6484`$. Our calculated values of the pairing gaps, listed in Table 1 and drawn in Figs. 11,12,13, mostly lie in this range of values, so that we may say that the adopted strength for $`V_0`$ is reasonable.

Another possible source of ambiguity in evaluating the pairing gaps is the proton-neutron isoscalar pairings which are expected to play an important role in the $`N=Z`$ nuclei (see, for example,  and references therein). We have assumed that such isoscalar pairings are absent in the states under consideration. Although this assumption should be examined, there are some experimental indications that this may be a fairly good approximation. It is clear that we need a more systematic and detailed investigations, both theoretical calculations and experimental explorations, for a better understanding of the pairing correlations in the proton-rich $`N=Z`$ nuclei in the $`A=6484`$ region.

In order to examine the sensitivity of the calculated results to the strength $`V_0`$ of the pairing interaction, we have made a calculation of the potential energy curve about the oblate shape in 68Se as a function of the triangular octupole deformation parameter $`\beta _{33}`$ for $`V_0=900,1000`$ and $`1100`$ MeV$``$fm3. The result is shown in Fig. 14. As expected, the potential energy curve becomes shallower with increasing (absolute value of) $`V_0`$. Thus, the local minimum at $`\beta _{33}0.10`$ disappears with 10% increase of the (absolute) value of $`V_0`$. In any case, the potential is so shallow that we cannot associate a definite physical significance with the equilibrium values of $`\beta _{33}`$. We can still draw from these calculations an important conclusion that the oblate ground state of 68Se is extremely soft with respect to the triangular octupole deformation.

### 3.4 Discussions

Actually, we need a more detailed investigation on the physical implication of the extremely soft potentials like those with respect to the triangular deformation in 68Se and for the tetrahedral shape degree of freedom in 80Zr. As is well known in the case of the axially symmetric $`Y_{30}`$ octupole deformation, a definite minimum develops at finite value of $`\beta _{30}`$ after the parity projection when the mean-field potential is very soft with respect to $`\beta _{30}`$. For the case of non-axial octupole deformations, a similar effect of the parity projection has been demonstrated by Takami, Yabana and Ikeda for light nuclei. It remains to be examined whether or not the situation is similar for the non-axial octupole deformations in medium-mass nuclei under consideration.

More generally speaking, investigations of modes of excitation and of excitation spectra associated with the instabilities toward the non-axial octupole shape deformations is one of the major challenges for future. The present paper should be regarded as providing a HFB mean-field basis for a study of dynamics by means of methods like the quasiparticle RPA and the SCC method.

## 4 Conclusion

We have constructed a new computer code that carries out Skyrme-HFB calculations in the 3-dimensional Cartesian-mesh space without imposing any restriction on the spatial symmetry, and investigated shape coexistence and non-axial octupole deformations in proton-rich $`N=Z`$ nuclei, 64Ge, 68Se, 72Kr, 76Sr, 80Zr and 84Mo. The ground state shape changes from triaxial (64Ge), oblate (68Se, 72Kr), large prolate (76Sr, 80Zr), to spherical (84Mo) as $`N(=Z)`$ increases, in agreement with the available experimental data and the previous theoretical calculations. The extreme softness toward the $`Y_{33}`$ triangular deformation of the oblate ground state of 68Se and that toward $`Y_{32}`$ tetrahedral deformation of the excited spherical minimum of 80Zr, pointed out by Takami et al. on the basis of the Skyrme-HF plus BCS calculations, have been confirmed by the fully selfconsistent Skyrme-HFB calculations with the use of the density-dependent zero-range pairing interaction.

The symmetry-unrestricted Skyrme-HFB computer code constructed in this work provides a selfconsistent mean-field basis for future investigation of collective modes of excitation in neutron-rich nuclei with neutron skins as well as in proton-rich nuclei.

## Acknowledgements

During the course of this work, we have benefited from discussions with J. Dobaczewski, I. Hamamoto, P.-H. Heenen, S. Mizutori, W. Nazarewicz, H. Sagawa, N. Tajima, S. Takami, J. Terasaki, K. Yabana, and X.Z. Zhang. We would like to express our hearty thanks to them. The numerical calculations were performed on the NEC SX-4 supercomputers at Osaka University and at Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University. This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 10640264) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.


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# The Luminosity Function of 81 Abell Clusters from the CRoNaRio catalogues

## 1 Introduction

The galaxy luminosity function measures the relative frequency of galaxies as a function of luminosity. Cluster LF’s can be determined as the statistical excess of galaxies along the line of sight of the clusters with respect to control field directions due to the fact that clusters appear as overdensities with respect to the field. This approach assumes that the contribution of the fore-background galaxies along the line of sight of the clusters is equal to an “average” value. An hypotesis that is rather weak since very often nearby groups, clusters or superclusters happen to lay in same the direction and therefore affect the determination of the LF.

This problem is even more relevant when sampling the cluster outskirts due to the following problems: i) the low galaxy density of the outer regions is strongly affected even by small contaminations; ii) the large observing area makes more probable the presence of contaminating structures. It needs to be stressed that these outer regions are very relevant due to the fact that they are the putative places for galaxy evolution to occur (van Dokkum et al. 1998).

The precence of non zero correlation function makes very time consuming the accurate determination of LF’s using traditional CCD imagers (due to their small field of view) and obliges most authors to use comparison average field counts taken from the literature. These average counts are usually obtained from regions of the sky completely unrelated to the cluster position. Alternative routes are either to observe small comparison fields or to recognise individual cluster membership either on spectroscopic or colour grounds.

Wide field (hereafter WF) imagers such as Schmidt plates or large format CCD’s are therefore the ideal tools to perform accurate determinations of LF’s for statistically significant samples of clusters. In this paper we present intermediate results from a long term project aimed to derive LF’s for a large and statistically well defined sample of Abell clusters.

The work is done in the framework of the CRoNaRio collaboration (Weir et al. 1995, Andreon 1997, Djorgovsky et al. 1998) aimed to produce the first complete catalogue of all object visible on the Digitised Palomar Sky Survey (hereafter DPOSS). In what follow we discuss the results for a subsample of 81 clusters.

## 2 Individual LF determination

The LF is computed statistically as the difference between galaxy counts in cluster direction and those in a “control field” direction.

Therefore, in order to compute the cluster LF, the first step is to subtract the background contamination. The method, together with the errors involved in the subtraction process, is detailed in Paolillo et al. (1999) and in Paolillo et al. (2000). Field counts are measured around each cluster, thanks to the wide field coverage of DPOSS plates, after removing density peaks. A “local field”, measured all around the studied clusters, is the adopted estimate of the background counts in the cluster direction. This procedure allows a better measure of the contribution of background galaxies to counts in the cluster direction than the usual single control field, since it allows to correct for the presence of possible underlying large-scale structures both at the cluster distance and in front or behind it.

Once we have searched for the central $`1.5\sigma `$ density peak in the central region (cf. Paolillo et al. 2000) we then derive the cluster LF by subtracting from the galaxy counts the local field counts, rescaled to the effective cluster area. This approach allows to take into account the cluster morphology without having to adopt a fixed cluster radius, and thus to apply the local field correction to the region where the signal (cluster) to noise (field and cluster fluctuations) ratio is higher, in order to minimize statistical uncertainties.

Fig.1a,b show the LFs for 42 individual clusters in the $`r`$ band. The other 39 LFs are presented in Paolillo et al. (2000). The solid line is the Schechter function with $`\alpha `$ = -1.03 $`{}_{0.07}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.09}`$, $`M^{}=22.03\pm 0.16`$ and the parameter $`\varphi ^{}`$ normalized to the total counts in each cluster.

## 3 Results

We combine individual LF’s of many clusters to obtain a composite LF (CLF) for all clusters in our sample. We adopted the method in Garilli et al. (1999). In practice, the composite LF is obtained by weighting each cluster by its richness which is defined as the number of galaxies brighter than -17.25 computed in an opportune isoplate. The preliminar CLF for a first sample of 81 clusters is shown in Figure 2.

The fit of the CLF to a Schechter (1976) function gives the values in Table 1 where $`M^{}`$ is the characteristic knee magnitude and $`\alpha `$ is the slope of the LF at faint magnitudes. In our magnitude range the CFL turns out to be quite well represented by a Schechter function (see $`\chi ^2`$ in Tab.1).

Figure 2 shows the three best-fit functions and the $`68\%`$ and $`90\%`$ confidence levels. The best fit parameters of the three filters differ by more than 90% confidence level (c.l.), mainly because $`M^{}`$ become brighter with wavelenght. It needs to be taken into account that the derived colour term is indicative only, since we used isophotal-corrected magnitudes which -due to the different filters- are not homogeneous in the different filters.

### 3.1 Dependence on the environment

The relatively large number of clusters used in the present study allowed us to investigate the dependence of the LF on the cluster richness parameter.

We first divided our sample in two richness subclasses (R$`>`$1 and R$`1`$) where R is defined as in Abell (1958).

Fig. 3 shows that Abell rich clusters (R$`>`$1) have flatter slope of the LF, at $`3\sigma `$ c.l., than poor ones (R$`1`$). This confirms that poor clusters host a larger fraction of dwarfs as suggested by Driver, Couch, & Phillips (1988), Andreon (2000) and Garilli et al.(1999).

When instead the sample is divided according to our richness parameter (Fig. 4)which is defined as the number of galaxies brighter than -17.25 computed in an opportune isoplate, we still find a statistical significance difference but the main difference is in $`M^{}`$: rich clusters turn out to have brighter $`M^{}`$. Whether this effect is real or it is just a selection effect, is still under investigation.

## 4 Conclusions

We computed the composite LF of 81 clusters of galaxies at $`0.08<z<0.4`$ in three filters from the DPOSS plates, by using the fact that clusters are galaxy overdensities with respect to the field. The LF is well described by a Schechter function, with a shallow slope $`\alpha 1.0`$ with minor variation from blu to red filters and $`M^{}21.8,22.0,22.3`$ in $`g`$, $`r`$ and $`i`$ filters respectively. The best-fit values of $`M^{}`$ increases from the blue to the red band as is expected from the color of the dominant population in clusters.

When the clusters sample is divided in richness systematic differences are found.

## References


text:
# Global VLBI Observations of Compact Radio Sources in M82

## 1 Introduction

M82 is generally considered to be the archetypal ‘starburst’ galaxy. Far-infrared (FIR) and radio luminosities imply a high star-formation rate and at a distance of 3.2 Mpc \[Burbidge, Burbudge & Rubin 1964\] it lends itself well to study with radio interferometry on a parsec scale. The radio studies of M82 have revealed a population of compact radio sources (Unger et al., 1984; Kronberg et al., 1985) which were tentatively identified as being either radio supernovae (RSn) or supernova remnants (SNR). Subsequent observations with MERLIN at a resolution of 50 mas (0.75 pc) resolved most of the compact sources and the parsec-scale shell-like structure observed in many of the objects confirmed them to be young SNR \[Muxlow et al. 1994\]. Furthermore, recent EVN observations at 15 mas (0.2 pc) resolution \[Pedlar et al. 1999\] have further resolved the most compact sources and by comparison with a 1986 epoch an expansion speed of $``$9500 kms-1 has been measured for the compact shell-like remnant, 43.31+592. Obviously it would be preferable to measure the size evolution of this remnant on much shorter timescales than the $``$10 years required by the EVN observations. A global VLBI array at $`\lambda `$18cm provides a maximum resolution of $``$3 mas and enables these measurements to be performed on timescales of $``$2 years and also provides an opportunity to determine the deceleration of the remnants as they interact with the interstellar medium (ISM). The SNR in M82 and other nearby galaxies provide a means of understanding the star-formation processes in a starburst environment and also enable the ISM in a starburst to be probed on parsec scales.

Since the SNR are produced by massive stars with lifetimes of order 106 years, then these SNR trace the recent star formation history of a galaxy. If the supernova rate can be established, then by assuming an initial mass function it is possible to calculate a total star formation rate to compare with that derived from other methods, such as the total far-infrared or non-thermal radio luminosity. Previous VLBI observations of M82 have concentrated on the brightest and most compact source, 41.95+575 (Bartel et al., 1987; Trotman 1996). However, we are now able to process the large amounts of data needed to image a large field of view. Therefore, it is now possible to image a field of view of $``$1 arcminute with the 3 mas resolution which the global array provides at $`\lambda `$18cm.

## 2 The observations and image processing

M82 and a nearby phase calibrator, 0955+697, were observed at 1652 MHz with 20 antennas of a global VLBI network on 28th November, 1998. The network comprised all 10 antennas of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), 7 antennas of the European VLBI Network (EVN), the two NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas at Robledo, Spain and Goldstone, USA and a single VLA dish. The telescopes received both left and right hand circular polarisations (LCP & RCP) which, after correlation, were combined to form the total intensity maps presented in this paper. The observations were made with the VLBA/MkIV recording system and a total bandwidth of 16 MHz. The observations were carried out in phase reference mode with a cycle of 8 minutes on the target (M82) and 3 minutes on the phase calibrator. At the time of correlation, this was the largest VLBI experiment ever performed and the 190 baselines provided by the combinations of 20 stations resulted in excellent UV-coverage which in turn provided a greater image fidelity than had previously been achieved.

The data were correlated at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, New Mexico, using the VLBA processor. The correlator used a pre-averaging time of 2 seconds and a frequency resolution of 0.25 MHz. Three separate correlations of the data were performed in order to help provide the $``$1 arcminute field of view required to image the SNR. Each correlation was centred on the position of a bright compact source and these positions are given in Table 1.

All subsequent processing was carried out using the NRAO AIPS package. The visibility amplitudes were calibrated using the system temperature and gain information provided for each telescope and the residual delays, fringe rates and antenna gains were determined from 0955+697 and interpolated and applied to M82. In order to avoid time-averaging and bandwidth smearing, the data were kept in the form of 64 continuous 0.25 MHz channels and were not averaged in time. Initially, the data correlated at the position of the brightest source, 41.95+575, were Fourier transformed and CLEANed using the AIPS task IMAGR. The solar activity at the time of observation was high so that the phase stability during the observing run was not good. Therefore, the phase solutions derived from the nearby phase calibrator, 0955+697, were not sufficient to completely remove atmospheric phase fluctuations in the direction of M82. Therefore, further improvements were made using standard self-calibration techniques. The delay, fringe rate and phase solutions derived from this initial fringe-fitting and self-calibration procedure were then applied to the other two pointings which were then Fourier transformed and CLEANed. The increase in resolution from 15 mas with the EVN \[Pedlar et al. 1999\] to 3 mas results in a decrease in surface brightness sensitivity. Hence, only two of the five sources detected with the EVN are detected at full resolution. However, by applying a Gaussian taper to the data in the UV-plane, maps were made at 10 mas and 15 mas resolution for comparison with the EVN images.

The 3 mas resolution maps made from the data correlated at the position of the brightest source, 41.95+575, had a rms noise off-source of 45 $`\mu `$Jy beam-1. However, the same phase and amplitude corrections when applied to the other two correlations were only sufficient to produce maps with noise levels of 68 $`\mu `$Jy beam-1 at the same resolution. This difference in sensitivity between different correlations illustrates the importance of having a bright source with which self-calibration can be performed near to the pointing centre of the observations. Therefore, maps made from the data correlated at the positions of 43.31+592 and 44.01+596 were only used as a consistency check. However, the ability to make wide-field maps and hence image 43.31+592 from data correlated at the position of 41.95+575 emphasises the power of correlating the data with a wide-field mode (i.e. short integration times and small channel bandwidths). A comparison between the 3 mas resolution maps of 41.95+575 made from pointings 1 and 2 is shown in figure 1. To check for consistency at slightly lower resolution, figure 2 shows a comparison between the maps of 43.31+592 also made from pointings 1 and 2 and restored with a CLEAN beam of FWHM 4 mas.

By applying a purely uniform weighting scheme (with the Brigg’s robustness parameter \[Briggs 1995\] set to -2) to the UV data, a maximum resolution of $``$2.5 mas was achieved with a corresponding decrease in sensitivity to 88 $`\mu `$Jy beam-1. However, of all the sources in M82, only 41.95+575 has a sufficient brightness to be detectable at this resolution and sensitivity and the resulting map is shown in figure 3(a). In addition, figure 3(b) shows the same source at slightly lower resolution.

A weighting scheme intermediate between the uniform weighting required to image 41.95+575 and pure natural weighting was applied to the data and images with a sensitivity sufficient to image the shell-like remnant, 43.31+592 were made. Figure 4 shows the image of 43.31+592 at a resolution of 4 mas.

## 3 Discussion

### 3.1 The nature of the compact source, 41.95+575

#### 3.1.1 Radio morphology

The brightest, most compact source in M82, 41.95+575 has been extensively studied with VLBI for around fifteen years. Observations at 2.3 GHz \[Bartel et al. 1987\] and 5 GHz \[Wilkinson & de Bruyn 1990\] showed structure which was interpreted to be an elongated shell and accounting for the fact that 41.95+575 was detected at epoch 1965.6 \[Bash 1968\], limits were placed on its expansion speed of $``$ 14000 km s-1. An extensive study of the source has been undertaken at $`\lambda `$18cm by Trotman (1996) and by comparing global VLBI images at epochs 1987.9 and 1990.7 a tentative expansion speed between the two ‘hotspots’ of 2500 $`\pm `$ 550 km s-1 was measured.

The new images of 41.95+575 show significant structure on smaller scales than have previously been observed with VLBI. In addition to the well established separation between the north-eastern and south-western ‘hotspots’, significant structure is now observed linking the two hotspots as shown in figure 3. The most compact structure shown in figure 3 was suggested in the 5 GHz EVN image of Wilkinson & de Bruyn (1990) and has now been confirmed. From the 5 GHz map of Wilkinson & de Bruyn (1990) we estimate a separation between the brightest components of 19 $`\pm `$ 1 mas. This compares with a similar estimate from the latest maps of 22 $`\pm `$ 1 mas. Therefore in the 13.1 years between these epochs, the source has expanded by 0.05 $`\pm `$ 0.02 pc (using a distance to M82 of 3.2 Mpc). However, given the uncertainties in identifying equivalent source structure between epochs and frequency bands, we prefer to express this as an upper limit to the expansion rate of 4000 km s-1 (a radial expansion rate of 2000 km s-1).

Various models have been proposed to account for the unusual morphology of 41.95+575. Blondin et al. (1996) suggested that an axisymmetric density distribution in the wind from the progenitor star can lead to a protrusion emerging along the symmetry axis. They cite 41.95+575 as an example of this based on the VLBI images of Bartel (1997) and Wilkinson & de Bruyn (1990). However, other models which predict nonspherical morphologies include that of Khokhlov et al. (1999) which involves the triggering of a supernova by supersonic jets at the centre of the progenitor star. The high resolution of the new global VLBI image reveals structure which may be interpreted as collimated outflow and we speculate that this may represent a jet-like structure such as that generated by the model of Khokhlov et al. (1999). However, it is not yet clear how this model could explain the high degree of confinement which the source appears to be experiencing.

#### 3.1.2 Flux density variability

Of all the compact sources in M82, 41.95+575 has shown the highest degree of variability over the last $``$25 years. The total flux density of the source has been consistently monitored with both the VLA and MERLIN and it has been found that at both 5 GHz (C-band) and 1.6 GHz (L-band) the flux density has been decaying at a constant rate of $``$8.5$`\%`$ yr-1 \[Trotman 1996\]. Based on the total flux density as measured by these instruments, the predicted flux density for 41.95+575 at epoch 1998.9 is $``$55 mJy, taking into account the 8.5$`\%`$ yr-1 decay rate. However, the total flux density recovered from the numerous cycles of self-calibration was 43.8 $`\pm `$ 2.3 mJy which only represents $``$80$`\%`$ of the predicted flux density. However, we do not attribute this to a larger than expected drop in its flux density; it is more likely due to missing extended flux on the long VLBI baselines. More recent MERLIN observations (epoch 1999.1) at 5 GHz have shown no evidence for any departures from the 8.5$`\%`$ yr-1 decay rate (result not presented here).

#### 3.1.3 Summary of results on 41.95+575

The simplest explanation for the appearance of 41.95+575 remains that of a supernova event taking place within a high density molecular cloud which provides the high level of confinement and results in the low expansion speeds which we derive. The high ambient density of the medium surrounding the source may also account for the X-ray luminosity, since Stevens et al. (1999) propose the the radio source is coincident with a point source as observed by ROSAT. The higher resolution of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory will make this identification more robust once an accurate registration with a radio image has been performed.

It is clear that an adequate supernova-related model which fully explains both the radio morphology and flux-density variability of this source has not yet been constructed. Therefore, we must also ask the question as to whether the source is really supernova-related.

### 3.2 The evolution of the shell-like remnant, 43.31+592

#### 3.2.1 Limits on deceleration from low-resolution maps

The global VLBI map of 43.31+592 represents the third epoch for which a map has been produced of sufficient resolution to image the structure of the source. In an earlier paper, Pedlar et al. (1999) described the results of the first two epochs which consisted of observations conducted by the European VLBI Network in 1986 and 1997. By taking slices at different position angles across the shell they measured angular diameters of 28.5 $`\pm `$ 1.0 mas and 42.1 $`\pm `$ 1.5 mas for epochs 1986.9 and 1997.5 respectively. These angular sizes correspond to linear sizes of 0.442 $`\pm `$ 0.016 pc and 0.653 $`\pm `$ 0.023 pc at 3.2 Mpc. Using the nomenclature of Huang et al. (1994) we parameterise the size evolution of the remnant as,

$$D_{pc}=kT_{yr}^\delta ,$$
(1)
where $`D_{pc}`$ is the shell diameter in parsecs, $`T_{yr}`$ is the age of the remnant in years, k is a constant and $`\delta `$ is a ‘deceleration parameter’. Since the date of the supernova event is unknown, there are three free parameters to which we need to fit our data. Therefore, the current data are not sufficient to constrain the parameters. In addition, the uncertainty in the age of the remnant does not allow a correction for the positive bias in the size measurement of the shell due to the finite VLBI beamsize as discussed by Marcaide et al. (1997). Figure 5 shows four example size evolution curves which would be consistent with our data. However, since the remnant clearly existed in 1972, as is shown in the 8.1 GHz map of Kronberg & Wilkinson (1975), it can be seen that the smaller values of $`\delta `$ are not allowed by our measurements.

A more exhaustive analysis using only two measured diameters may be conducted by deriving the relationship between the age of the remnant at the 1986.9 epoch and the deceleration parameter as

$$T_{1986.9}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }T}{\mathrm{exp}\frac{ln(D_2/D_1)}{\delta }1},$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ is the epoch separation in years and $`D_2/D_1`$ is the ratio of the remnant sizes at the two epochs. Therefore, the minimum value of $`\delta `$ assuming a supernova event taking place before 1972 can be calculated to be 0.73 $`\pm `$ 0.11.

This result emphasises the importance of making images with higher spatial and hence linear resolution. Even with observations spaced by $``$10 years (around a third of the remnant’s inferred age) it is not possible to more accurately constrain the remnant’s evolutionary parameters with linear resolutions like those produced by the EVN or VLBA alone.

#### 3.2.2 Prospects for proper motion studies from global VLBI maps

Figure 4 shows the 1998.9 epoch global VLBI map of 43.31+592 at a resolution of 4 mas. Labels A to D indicate the four most significant ‘knots’ of radio emission which we detect. Two-dimensional Gaussian fits were performed to these knots and the results are indicated by the size and position angle of the crosses. The parameters derived by the Gaussian fits to the components are shown in table 2. However, we do not claim that these knots are intrinsically Gaussian in nature and this method has only been used so that an indication of the expected future evolution of the remnant can be provided. The diamond shapes in figure 4 indicate the positions of these knots ten years after the initial global observations, assuming a self-similar expansion speed of 10000 km s-1 \[Pedlar et al. 1999\]. However, two years should be sufficient to detect the proper motions of these components since 10000 km s-1 corresponds to 0.66 mas yr-1 at a distance of 3.2 Mpc. A more exhaustive analysis of the high resolution images will be performed once a second epoch map at the same resolution has been obtained.

#### 3.2.3 Comparison with other sources

Figure 6 shows a VLA image of the galactic supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A \[Braun, Gull & Perley 1987\] on the same linear scale as the compact sources in M82. Also shown schematically is the young radio supernova, SN 1993J in M81. The size of the circle corresponds to the size of SN 1993J as measured by Marcaide et al. (1997) in October 1996. This figure emphasises the difference between studying galactic supernova remnants and those in M82. Cassiopeia A has an age of around 320 years \[Ashworth 1980\] compared with an age of $``$30 years for 43.31+592. It is therefore clear that studies of the young supernova remnants in M82 can fill an important gap in the studies of the evolution of supernova remnants between the very young (e.g. SN1993J) and those with ages of a few hundred years. However, any differences that are due to the M82 supernovae evolving in a starburst ISM may also become apparent.

### 3.3 Other sources

Of the remaining three sources detected by the EVN at epoch 1997.5 only 44.01+596 and 45.17+612 were reliably detected in this expermiment.

#### 3.3.1 44.01+596

Of all the compact radio sources in M82, 44.01+596 is the most likely candidate as the host of a weak active galactic nucleus \[Wills et al. 1999\]. However, when imaged with the EVN at the 1997.5 epoch it showed structure more consistent with an identification as a supernova remnant. Wills et al. (1999) argued that this does not exclude the AGN possibility since Sgr A\* also shows similar radio continuum structure at a similar linear scale. Figure 7 shows a comparison between the 1997.5 epoch EVN image of 44.01+596 (15 mas resolution) with the 1998.9 epoch global VLBI image (10 mas resolution). The same structure that is seen in the lower resolution image is clearly present at higher resolution, although the signal to noise ratio in the 10 mas map is not sufficient that any apparent changes in morphology can be observed with any confidence. As with the other sources, more observations are required at later epochs to determine any expansion of the ‘shell’ and hence aid its identification as a supernova remnant or weak AGN.

## 4 Conclusions

These global VLBI observations have produced the highest resolution images yet made of the young supernova remnants formed in the nuclear starburst within M82. At the full resolution of $``$3 mas images have been made of the brightest and what are inferred to be the youngest sources. For the compact young supernova remnant, 43.31+592, we draw the following conclusions.

(1) The measurements of the shell diameter from 15 mas resolution EVN images \[Pedlar et al. 1999\] places a limit on the deceleration parameter. Since the remnant is present in the 1972 image of Kronberg & Wilkinson (1975), a limit of $`\delta >`$ 0.73 $`\pm `$ 0.11 has been calculated. As yet, this limit does not allow for a physical analysis of the supernova model, but with future observations tighter constraints will be placed on the deceleration of this source.

(2) The higher resolution images presented in this paper will enable proper motion studies to be carried out on the compact knots of radio emission as shown in figure 4. Further global VLBI observations are scheduled to take place in late 2000, two years after the initial observations. This represents the minimum time required to detect significant proper motion of the knots assuming a radial expansion speed of 10000 km s-1.

(3) For the first time we have been able to image the supernova remnants in M82 on a similar linear scale to that which we can image the galactic supernova remnant, Cassiopeia A.

In addition, we draw the following conclusions for the compact radio source, 41.95+575.

(1) The new image of 41.95+575 reveals structures which represent deviations from its previous description as an elongated shell and we speculate that these may either represent collimated outflow as predicted by the jet-induced explosion models of Khokhlov et al. (1999) or a prominence of the type predicted by Blondin et al. (1996).

(2) We calculate an upper limit to the radial expansion rate along the major axis of 2000 km s-1.

The young supernova remnants in M82 fill an important gap in the evolutionary timescale of supernova remnants between the very young (e.g. SN1993J) and those with ages measured in hundreds of years (e.g. those in the Milky Way and Magellanic clouds). Therefore, M82 will continue to act as an important laboratory for the study of young SNR and any differences in evolution which are due to the starburst ISM may become apparent.

### Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the contribution of the observatories who participate in the European VLBI Network and the VLBA. We thank Rick Perley at NRAO, Socorro for allowing us to use the VLA image of Cassiopeia A. We thank Tim O’Brien and John O’Connor for useful comments. Andrew McDonald acknowledges the receipt of a PPARC postgraduate research grant.


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# Role of relativity and nucleon compositeness in few-body systems

## 1 INTRODUCTION

This review of recent work in the field of few-body systems follows an earlier review in focusing on particular experiments whose interpretations are expected to involve relativistic effects along with other physics. Relativistic effects generally are expected to be significant in the dynamics of few-body systems when one or more momenta involved are comparable to the nucleon’s mass. Even in cases where a nonrelativistic interpretation is successful, a relativistic treatment is preferred provided that it contains all the relevant physics. These points motivate much work in the field, but it must be recognized that identifying a relativistic effect can be a subtle matter.

Depending upon the form and organization of the dynamics, relativistic effects may take different forms. For example, there are several ways to reduce the four-dimension Bethe-Salpeter equation to three dimensions. Matrix elements corresponding to physical observables should be the same independent of which reduction is used provided that equivalent lagrangians are used and all relevant terms are kept. Effects in one form of dynamics, such as Z-graphs or off-shell effects in a subamplitude or short-range meson-exchange currents, may be replaced by contact terms in another form of dynamics, with similar results. Effects of boosts may be in the wave functions in one analysis and in the currents in another, again with similar results for matrix elements. It is essential to understand these differences in order to see how pieces of the physics get shuffled from one place to another by the choice of formalism. Equivalent results should be found if each formalism is fully evaluated. Relativistic effects can be different depending on the formalism used.

Although different forms of dynamics applied to the same lagrangian should produce equivalent results, this fails if currents are not consistent with the interactions between the particles. One of the main points of relativistic formulations based on a meson-exchange lagrangian is to be able to apply Mandelstam’s construction of currents for the Bethe-Salpeter equation in order to formulate currents that are consistent with interactions. It becomes interesting to discuss the physics differences between various analyses once this has been done, the goal being to discover a lagrangian that works to describe the physics independently of the formalism used to evaluate it.

In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the problem of formulating consistent currents. Arenhövel and collaborators have developed consistent currents for the analyses of electromagnetic interactions of the two-nucleon system by considering a rather complete set of $`1/M`$ corrections to the nonrelativistic formalism. Reductions of the Bethe-Salpeter equation to three-dimensions also require a reduction of the currents to three dimensions. Gross and Riska, and more recently Adam, Van Orden and Gross, and Blankleider and Kvinkhidze have discussed the appropriate current for the spectator formalism, in which one particle is on its mass shell. The spectator formalism requires a careful consideration of the case where the photon is absorbed by the on-shell nucleon. Phillips and Wallace have developed the appropriate currents for the equal-time formalism. An important result in Refs. is that truncating the interaction at a definite order in the coupling constants, and truncating the exchange currents at the same order, preserves the Ward-Takahashi identities. This ensures that the formalism has conserved currents and is well suited to phenomenology based on the one-boson-exchange truncation. Works by Carbonell, Desplanques, Karmanov and Mathiot and de Melo, Frederico, Naus and Sauer have discussed the currents for light-front dynamics. These authors find that contact terms are required in the light-front formalism in order to replace Z-graphs of a covariant formalism. This is an example of a relativistic effect that takes a different form in different dynamics.

## 2 BREMSSTRAHLUNG

Recent experiments have provided precise bremsstrahlung data for proton-proton collisions using a 190 MeV polarized proton beam. Data at 389 MeV also have been obtained at RCNP Osaka and an experiment at 300 MeV has been performed at COSY in order to check older TRIUMF measurements. At the same time, questions have been raised about the motivations for studying the bremsstrahlung process.

Historically, bremsstrahlung experiments have been motivated by a desire to access off-shell matrix elements of the $`NN`$ interactions, with the expectation that this would help to discriminate between potential models that yield equivalent descriptions of the $`NN`$ data. Fearing has pointed out that this motivation is flawed because off-shell effects are ambiguous. When one starts from a lagrangian, field transformations may be used to shuffle off-shell effects in one analysis into contact terms in another analysis that is based on an equivalent lagrangian. Equivalence means that all S-matrix elements are the same for the two lagrangians. Off-shell effects are not the same for equivalent lagrangians, which makes them ambiguous and unmeasurable.

The arguments of Fearing and Scherer do not take into account a standard convention that constrains the ambiguity in nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung. Generally, models of the $`NN`$ interaction are based on an integral equation with a two-nucleon Green’s function, $`G`$, and the Green’s function is constrained to have a standard form when both nucleons are in positive-energy states. In order to maintain the standard form for $`G`$, interactions have to absorb the effects of field transformations. Otherwise, one would add nonstandard terms to $`G`$. Likewise, the currents for nucleons in positive-energy states are constrained to be consistent with the standard from of $`G`$, which requires the effects of field transformations to be absorbed into exchange currents and pair currents. Nevertheless, significant ambiguities remain.

One well-known source of ambiguity is the fact that there are unitary equivalences between interactions that reproduce the same $`NN`$ data. A second source of ambiguity arises because currents cannot be formulated consistently for phenomenological potential models because one does not have an underlying lagrangian. It is possible to prescribe a connection between the various spin- and isospin-dependent terms in the phenomenological $`NN`$ potential and the usual set of meson exchanges. Applying the Mandelstam procedure to these parts of the potential as if they were caused by meson exchanges provides a prescription for construction of currrents. However, there is no clear way to avoid ambiguities in such a prescription. Because of the ambiguities, the motivation for studying bremsstrahlung has to be to find a lagrangian that works, as discussed in the Introduction.

Low’s soft-photon theorem  shows that bremsstrahlung has large contributions at low photon momenta that are determined by the on-shell $`NN`$ scattering amplitudes and model-independent factors involving $`k^1`$ and $`k^0`$, where $`k`$ is the photon momentum. The recent KVI experiments use a 190 MeV proton beam and detect the two final-state protons, allowing a reconstruction of the bremsstrahlung photon. A photon energy of about 60 MeV is typical and this is expected to provide sensitivity to effects beyond those controlled by the low-energy theorem. Experimental results have been compared with theoretical calculations of Martinus et al. that are based on a relativistic meson-exchange model, including important contributions from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ currents. The theoretical results of Martinus et al. differ significantly from the data at forward angles, but agree better at larger angles and for the analyzing power. The forward angle discrepancy seems to be because the $`NN`$ model used does not provide accurate phase shifts at the relevant energies. Improvement of the description of phase shifts yields improved results for bremsstrahlung. The experimental cross section data are in very good agreement with an analysis based on a soft-photon approximation. However, the soft-photon approximation does not describe the analyzing power well. The soft-photon approximation takes into account terms beyond those controlled by Low’s theorem because on-shell $`NN`$ amplitudes are used at energies and angles appropriate to both the initial and final states of the $`NN`$ system in the bremsstrahlung process.

The impressive precision of the new bremsstrahlung data from KVI makes it possible to detect interesting effects of relativistic dynamics, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ currents and meson-exchange currents. Previous calculations of these effects have shown them to be large compared with what can be resolved by the new data. It remains to be seen whether improved theoretical calculations will provide a good understanding of the new bremsstrahlung experiments.

## 3 THRESHOLD PRODUCTION OF NEUTRAL PIONS

It is now ten years since precise experiments on threshold production of $`\pi ^0`$ mesons were performed using a cooled proton beam and a hydrogen target at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility. The surprise was that cross sections for $`pppp\pi ^0`$ were five times larger than existing theoretical predictions. A confirmation of the Indiana experiment was obtained at CELSIUS.

Over the past ten years, there has been substantial theoretical interest in the $`\pi ^0`$ production process. Theoretical calculations all have shown that the best understood mechanisms for soft pion production are suppressed in the reaction. This was confirmed by several groups using chiral perturbation theory and is also found in phenomenological models. Soft-pion contributions are small in part because of cancellations between the amplitude for direct pion emission and the rescattering amplitude in which the pion is emitted by one nucleon and scatters from the other. An important point is that the proton momentum required for pion production is at least $`\sqrt{m_\pi M}2.6m_\pi `$, which is not small in comparison with the pion mass. A recent analysis indicates that chiral perturbation theory converges poorly for the reaction. Because the soft pion contributions are much too small to explain the data, a new term must be added to the chiral lagrangian to sum up all effects of short-range pion production. This term is fit to the experimental data.

As first pointed out by Lee and Riska, suppression of effects from soft pions allows smaller effects from short-range physics to become prominent. Lee and Riska showed that the data could be explained by including a short-range contribution to the axial charge operator, namely, pion production from an intermediate $`N\overline{N}`$ pair state that is produced by exchange of $`\sigma `$ and $`\omega `$ mesons. The importance of this short-range exchange current was confirmed in calculations by Horowitz and collaborators. However, both analyses used a perturbative treatment of the relativistic effects from Z-graphs. The validity of the perturbative approach to including short-range effects such as Z-graphs was questioned by Adam et al. using the spectator formalism of Gross.

Various refinements and alternative mechanisms for threshold pion production have been proposed, such as couplings to the $`N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ channels as intermediate states. This is motivated by a recoil contribution in the $`NNN\mathrm{\Delta }`$ transition that can be significant near threshold. Using a model of the $`\pi N`$ scattering amplitude that fits the experimental data, and includes off-shell effects, a Julich collaboration  reinvestigated the pionic mechanisms and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-recoil contributions with the conclusion that the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-recoil contribution is not large enough to explain the cross section data.

The major progress in the past few years has been the measurement of proton-spin observables in $`\pi ^0`$ production near threshold at Indiana. The experiments were designed to allow a determination the separate contributions of s-waves and p-waves, assuming these to be the only contributing partial waves. The results provide a better understanding of the reaction and of the role of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobar in it. The theoretical model of the Julich group has been extended to allow calculations of spin observables also, however, no other calculations of spin observables are available.

The Julich group includes the standard pion emission, pion rescattering and pion production mechanisms involving intermediate $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ states. These ingredients produce a theoretical cross section that is too small by about a factor of two. Including a short-range contribution from Z-graphs allows the cross section data to be fit by adjusting the strength of the short-range contribution. Moreover, the spin observables are also reasonably well described. The calculations indicate that for pion momenta below 0.8 $`m_\pi `$, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ contribution to cross sections is small in comparison with the needed short-range contribution.

Data for spin observables show trends as pion momentum increases that are similar to trends in the calculations of the Julich group stemming from the p-wave contributions of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. However, the trends start at somewhat lower pion momentum in the data than in the theoretical calculations. This would be consistent with p-wave contributions being important somewhat closer to threshold than the theoretical model suggests. There has been a report of D-wave production of $`\pi ^0`$ near threshold based upon very precise measurements of angular distributions.

The clear understanding that has emerged over the last ten years of work is that s-wave threshold $`\pi ^0`$ production requires a short-range contribution that may take one or another equivalent form, i.e., a pion-production contact term, or meson-exchange currents involving Z-graphs or other meson-exchange currents. An example of other meson-exchange currents is shown in the work of Riska and collaborators, who show that the $`\rho \pi \omega `$ exchange current can contribute significantly, but intermediate $`N^{}`$ resonances provide a small contribution. Thus, the precise nature of the short-range contribution is not settled but all analyses show that there must be one. The $`\pi ^0`$ production at threshold has provided a unique window to short-range effects in the $`NN`$ interaction.

## 4 ELASTIC ELECTRON-DEUTERON SCATTERING

Major experimental progress has been made in electron-deuteron scattering since the review at the Groningen meeting. Experiments have been completed at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility that measure the deuteron’s $`A`$ form factor and the tensor alignment parameter $`t_{20}`$ for $`Q>1GeV/c`$.  New data for $`B(Q^2)`$ are expected to be published soon.

The large momentum transfers involved in recent experiments motivate relativistic treatments of the deuteron and its electromagnetic interactions. As noted in Ref. , measurements of the longitudinal-transverse asymmetry, $`A_\varphi `$, in (e,ep) reactions have provided clear evidence that current matrix elements of a nucleon in a deuteron should be treated within a relativistic formalism that incorporates at least positive-energy Dirac spinors, or equivalent relativistic effects. The low-energy theorem of Refs.  shows that for a composite nucleon, there are contributions to second-order interactions from contact terms, off-shell effects and the composite-particle Z-graph. For scalar and vector interaction at low energy, the sum of such terms produces the same effect as is obtained from a Z-graph for an elementary particle. This suggests use of the Dirac propagator for a nucleon as an efficient means to include the model-independent effects. However, it is important to respect chiral symmetry when negative-energy components are included by using pseudovector $`\pi N`$ coupling.

Nonrelativistic analyses that include leading-order relativistic corrections also provide a consistent analysis for smaller $`Q`$, i.e., $`QM`$. A recent analysis of elastic electron scattering from the deuteron by Arenhövel, Ritz and Wilbois is based on a meson-exchange model that takes into account a rather complete set of relativistic and exchange-current corrections. Essentially the same model has been used in analyses of electrodisintegration and photodisintegration of the deuteron. It provides a particularly consistent framework for the low $`Q`$ regime.

Over the past ten years, there have been three relativistic analyses of $`e+D`$ elastic scattering based on quantum field theory, assuming an effective $`NN`$ interaction based on exchange of mesons. Hummel and Tjon used a Blankenbecler and Sugar reduction to three dimensions, Gross, Devine and Van Orden used the spectator formalism with one particle on mass shell, and Phillips, Wallace and Devine have used an equal-time (ET) reduction to three dimensions. Although somewhat different relativistic equations are used in each analysis, they have many common features: each corresponds to a reduction of the Bethe-Salpeter equation to three dimensions and each incorporates Dirac-spinor wave functions for the interacting nucleons, including negative-energy components. With such wave functions, pair currents are included automatically when the impulse approximation current is calculated. Mandelstam’s construction of the current has been used to derive consistent currents for the three-dimensional reductions and this makes them attractive theoretically.

Light-front calculations have been performed for electron-deuteron scattering recently by Carbonell and Kharmanov. In this case it is necessary to include contact terms in order to reproduce the effects of pair currents. In principle, it should be possible to define the consistent currents for the light-front approach similarly to what has been done for the other formalisms that are based on quantum field theory. An alternative approach to light-front calculations is provided by Chung et al. Whether or not exchange currents can be constructed in this approach so as to achieve equivalence with the others is an open question.

The most consistent relativistic calculations based on a meson-exchange lagrangian have been performed by Gross, Devine and Van Orden. Coupling constants and other parameters of the meson-exchange model were fit so as to achieve a good description of the modern $`NN`$ phase shifts.

There is rather good agreement between four relativistic impulse approximation calculations and the new $`t_{20}`$ data from Jefferson Laboratory. The relativistic calculations of Hummel and Tjon, Van Orden, Devine and Gross and Phillips, Wallace and Devine all show that the $`t_{20}`$ data are well described by the impulse approximation. Similarly good agreement has been obtained by Carbonnel and Karmanov using the light-front formalism.

For $`A(Q),`$ the new data extend to $`Q^2=`$6(GeV/c)2. Relativistic calculations based on the impulse approximation underpredict the $`A(Q^2)`$ data at large $`Q`$. However, calculations of Van Orden, Devine and Gross that include the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ meson-exchange current contribution are in good agreement with the data. The calculations include the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange current using a soft form factor, $`F_{\rho \pi \gamma }(Q^2)`$, for the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ vertex that is motivated by a quark model. Calculations of Hummel and Tjon used a vector-meson dominance model of the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ form factor that does not fall as rapidly with increasing $`Q^2`$, which results in $`A(Q^2)`$ being too large at high $`Q^2`$. Thus, the softer $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ form factor is favored by the $`A(Q^2)`$ data.

Three types of meson-exchange currents can play a role in the electron deuteron scattering, namely, $`\rho \pi \gamma `$, $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$, and $`\omega \eta \gamma `$ currents. In the calculations of Hummel and Tjon, Van Orden, Devine and Gross and Phillips, Wallace and Devine, inclusion of the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ current gives a rather small effect in $`t_{20}`$ that tends to improve the agreement with data slightly. However, the $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$ meson-exchange current that has been considered by Hummel and Tjon is ruled out by the new $`t_{20}`$ data. It predicts a significant shift of the impulse approximation result towards higher $`Q`$ that is not consistent with experiment. Contributions from the $`\omega \eta \gamma `$ current are rather small and they may be omitted. Thus, the new $`t_{20}`$ data do not indicate much importance for meson-exchange contributions except at the highest $`Q`$. This is very interesting because the meson-exchange currents, particularly the $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$ current, contain substantial uncertainties.

Because the $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$ current is uncertain, it has been omitted in many analyses. It was introduced by Hummel and Tjon in order to achieve a reasonable description of the magnetic form factor, $`B(Q)`$, which is poorly described either by the relativistic impulse approximation or when the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange current is included. There is a surprising effect, first pointed out by Zuilhof and Tjon, that causes relativistic calculations of the magnetic form factor to deviate from the data. When the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ current is included, the standard form of the coupling of the $`\rho `$-meson to the nucleon, i.e., $`g_{\rho NN}(\gamma ^\mu +\kappa /M\sigma ^{\mu \nu }q_\nu )`$, arises as a factor in the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange current between two nucleons. In a $`p/M`$ expansion, the tensor term proportional to $`\kappa `$ is higher order and often is omitted. However, the tensor term can be important because $`\kappa 7`$, making the tensor coupling of relative order $`Q/m_\pi `$, rather than $`Q/M`$. In relativistic calculations, the tensor term generally is included. The result is that there is a sign change of the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange-current contribution to the magnetic form factor near $`Q^2`$ 1 (GeV/c)2. This sign change occurs at a lower $`Q^2`$ than the minimum of the magnetic form factor, which is near $`Q^2`$ 2 (GeV/c)2. Because of the sign change, the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ current shifts the minimum of $`B(Q^2)`$ to lower $`Q`$. Without the sign change, the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange current shifts the minimum of $`B(Q^2)`$ toward higher $`Q`$, which agrees better with the data. This effect has now been seen in a number of calculations. Hummel and Tjon incorporate the tensor term, with a consequent shift of $`B(Q)`$ away from the data, and Phillips, Wallace and Devine have reproduced the effect using the same $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ current. Recent calculations by Van Orden also show the same effect when the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ current is included. Schiavilla has independently checked this and has seen the same effect.

The sign change in the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ contribution would not have an adverse effect if it were to occur at higher $`Q`$, for example, $`Q^2>`$2 (GeV/c)2. A smaller ratio of $`\rho NN`$ tensor to vector coupling would help to move the sign change to higher $`Q^2`$.

Because the new $`t_{20}`$ data seem to rule out a significant contribution from the $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$ current, some other contribution is required in order to explain the magnetic form factor. It has been found by Gross, Devine and Van Orden that Z-graph contributions are large enough to provide an explanation. Including the negative-energy components of the deuteron’s wave function, as calculated in the spectator formalism, provides a substantial shift of the calculated minimum of the $`B(Q)`$ form factor towards higher $`Q`$. Attempts to confirm this result by Phillips and Wallace and also by Tjon have not been successful. The ET calculations show only rather small effects of negative-energy components and no significant shift of the minimum of $`B(Q^2)`$. This is surprising because the ET propagator provides a factor of two enhancement of negative-energy components in comparison with the symmetrized propagator of the spectator formalism, simply because the one-body limit of the ET propagator gives the Dirac propagator for each of the two nucleons. Thus, negative-energy components should be larger in ET calculations than in spectator calculations, other things being equal. Perturbative calculations have verified the small effects of Z-graphs in ET calculations. Thus, there is no convergence regarding the explanation of $`B(Q)`$ and further work on the subject is warranted.

The deuteron form factor as defined by $`F_d(Q^2)\sqrt{A(Q^2)}`$ is observed to decrease as $`Q^{10}`$ at large $`Q`$.. This simple scaling behavior has been predicted from perturbative QCD, but generally $`Q`$ is thought to be too low for the perturbative QCD explanation to be valid. Similar behavior can be obtained from a meson-exchange calculation as indicated by the successful description of $`A(Q^2)`$ by Van Orden and Gross.

In summary the relativistic impulse approximation calculations provide good agreement with the $`t_{20}`$ data up to $`Q^2`$ 1.5 (GeV/c)2. The data for $`A(Q^2)`$ up to $`Q^2`$ 6(GeV/c)2 can be described when the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange current is included. Results for $`B(Q^2)`$ form factor show much larger deviations from the data, indicating that a new contribution may be needed in the theoretical models. There is not yet a convergence on what the new contribution is.

## 5 PHOTODISINTEGRATION OF THE DEUTERON

Very interesting experiments at Jefferson Laboratory have measured cross sections and induced polarization in photodisintegration of the deuteron with photons up to 4 GeV. The initial results were for final state nucleons at $`\theta _{c.m.}=36^o,52^o,69^o`$ and $`89^o`$, where $`\theta _{c.m.}`$ is the angle between the final-state proton and neutron in their center of mass. At the largest angle, cross sections exhibited scaling behavior as a function of the invariant mass squared $`s=4M^2+2ME_\gamma `$, i.e., $`s^{11}d\sigma /dt`$ constant. As the angle between the nucleons was decreased, the cross sections deviated from scaling behavior. One way to understand this is in terms of the momentum transfer $`r`$ in the diagram shown in Fig. 1 which depicts a generic exchange mechanism between the two nucleons. Approximating the two nucleons in the initial-state deuteron as each having zero momentum leads to a simple expression for the momentum transfer, i.e., $`r^2=ME_\gamma (1\alpha cos\theta _{c.m.})`$, where $`\alpha =1/\sqrt{1+M/E_\gamma }`$. Thus, the momentum transfer is spacelike and is largest in magnitude when $`\theta _{c.m.}=90^o`$. It decreases rapidly as the angle becomes smaller as shown in Fig. 2. At $`\theta _{c.m.}=36^o`$, the smallest angle in the experiment, momentum transfer is not greater than about 1 (GeV/c)2. For $`E_\gamma =4GeV`$ and $`\theta _{c.m.}=90^o`$, $`r^23.7(GeV/c)^2`$. Thus the experiment spans a large range of momentum transfer between the proton and neutron.

The most recent results show that the induced polarization of the proton tends to zero when the photon energy is greater than $`1GeV`$ at $`\theta _{c.m.}=90^o`$. Polarization transfer observables tend to zero for $`E_\gamma >2GeV`$. Thus, at the largest momentum transfers in the experiment, there is evidence that the process is consistent with helicity conservation. A theoretical explanation of the cross section data has been developed by Frankfurt, Miller, Sargsian and Strikman by relating the process to a hard $`pn`$ scattering process.

The photodisintegration reaction probes interactions over a large range of momentum transfers. At lower momentum transfer, it is expected to be dominated by hadronic interactions. At the highest momentum transfer, partonic interactions may be important in the subamplitude where the photon is absorbed. A very interesting question is whether a transition occurs from hadronic to partonic interactions within the range of photon energies considered in the recent experiments.

## 6 SUMMARY

Very precise data have been obtained for the bremsstrahlung process in $`pp`$ collisions. They are sufficient to explore interesting effects of relativity and meson-exchange currents and to determine whether the conventional meson-exchange lagrangian is adequate. Theoretical calculations based on dynamical models or on soft-photon approximations do not yet provide a consistent understanding of the new data.

Progress in threshold production of $`\pi ^0`$ mesons in $`pp`$ collisions has been made by measuring spin observables, which allow a separation of s-wave and p-wave parts of the amplitude. At energies close to threshold where the s-wave contributions dominate, experimental cross sections are about a factor of two larger than the most complete theoretical cross sections, which are based on contributions of soft pions and intermediate $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-states. A short-range contribution is need to provide the missing strength. The exact nature of the short range contributions is still debated, but it is consistent with being a mixture of relativistic effects and short-range meson-exchange currents.

New data from Jefferson Laboratory have provided indications that relativistic models based on meson-exchange forces work surprisingly well to large $`Q^2`$. Particularly the $`t_{20}`$ data show that short-range meson-exchange currents must play a fairly small role up to $`Q^21.5(Gev/c)^2`$. The $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange current is needed at large $`Q^2>23(Gev/c)^2`$ to describe the $`A(Q^2)`$ data, but the calculations based on the relativistic impulse approximation are reasonable for $`A(Q^2)`$ and quite close to the experimental data for $`t_{20}`$. However, there is a puzzle regarding the magnetic form factor. The contribution of the $`\rho \pi \gamma `$ exchange current that helps for $`A(Q^2)`$ worsens the agreement between theory and experiment for $`B(Q^2)`$. Relativistic effects could make a significant contribution, but the existing analyses provide a conflicting assessment of their role. Thus, a consistent picture has not yet been established.

Intriguing experimental results have been obtained for deuteron photodisintegration at photon energies up to $`4GeV`$. Cross sections exhibit scaling behavior at the largest momenta of the experiment, but these momenta are too low for perturbative QCD to be valid. Possibly a subamplitude of the process becomes dominated by partonic interactions at the momentum transfers involved. For example, the initial photon absorption by a nucleon might be dominated by a partonic amplitude, followed by a meson exchange to share the momentum transfer with the second nucleon. A variety of theoretical possibilities should be explored in order to understand the deuteron photodisintegration reaction and to investigate a possible transition from hadronic interactions to partonic interactions at high photon energy.