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# Wick Type Symbol and Deformed Algebra of Exterior Forms

## 1. Introduction

The aim of the paper is twofold. First we construct covariant Wick-type star-product within the framework of the Fedosov deformation quantization . Second we propose a canonical superextension of the construction along the lines of the Bordemann approach  and present a Wick-type deformation for the exterior algebra of the base even manifold. The first step is motivated by a wide physical application of the Wick-type star-product especially for the models with the infinite degrees of freedom. The second one is motivated by noncommutative field theory  on a curved manifold, where the covariant definition is required for the deformed product between the tensor observables. We also hope that recently found relationship between the Fedosov deformation and BRST theory , being combined to the Wick type symbol technique, should pave the way to studying anomalies in a wide class of the filed theory problems making use of the deformation quantisation tools.

## 2. The Wick-type symbol in the deformation quantization

Under the term “Wick-type” we understand a broad class of symbols incorporating, along with the ordinary (genuine) Wick symbols, the so-called $`qp`$-symbols as well as various mixed possibilities commonly regarded as the pseudo-Wick symbols. To give a more precise definition of what is meant here consider first the linear symplectic manifold $`^{2n}`$ equipped with the canonical Poisson brackets $`\{y^i,y^j\}=\omega ^{ij}`$. Then the usual Weyl-Moyal product of two observables, defined as

$$ab(y)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{i\mathrm{}}{2}\omega ^{ij}\frac{}{y^i}\frac{}{z^j}\right)a(y)b(z)|_{z=y},$$

turns the space of smooth functions in $`y`$ to the non-commutative associative algebra with unit called the algebra of Weyl symbols. The transition from the Weyl to Wick-type symbols is achieved by adding a certain complex-valued symmetric tensor $`g`$ to the Poisson one $`\omega `$ in the formula for the Weyl-Moyal $``$product,

(1)
$$a_gb(y)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{i\mathrm{}}{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}\frac{}{y^i}\frac{}{z^j}\right)a(y)b(z)|_{z=y},$$

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}=\omega ^{ij}+g^{ij},\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}=\mathrm{\Lambda }.$$

Although the associativity of the modified product holds for any constant $`g`$ the Wick type symbols are extracted by the additional half-rank condition $`rank\mathrm{\Lambda }=n`$. In particular, the genuine Wick symbol corresponds to a pure imaginary $`g`$ while the real $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is associated with $`qp`$-symbol. In the general case one can easily show that the dual complexified phase space $`^{2n}`$ is splitted into a direct sum of two transverse Lagrangean subspaces, which are left and right kernel subspaces for the matrix $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}`$ .

Turning to the curved manifold $`M`$ we just replace the constant matrix $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}`$ by a general complex-valued bilinear form $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}(x)=\omega ^{ij}(x)+g^{ij}(x)`$ with the antisymmetrical part being the non-degenerate Poisson tensor. Then the Wick-type star-product is defined to satisfy the following “boundary condition”

(2)
$$ab=ab\frac{i\mathrm{}}{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}_ia_jb+\mathrm{}$$

$`\mathrm{}`$ being the formal deformation parameter (“Plank constant”), and dots mean the terms of higher orders in $`\mathrm{}.`$ As in a general case of the symplectic manifold the condition (2) is compatible with so-called the correspondence principle of quantum mechanics:

(3)
$$\underset{\mathrm{}0}{lim}\frac{i}{\mathrm{}}(abba)=\{a,b\},$$

where $`\{,\}`$ means the Poisson bracket associated to $`\omega ^{ij}`$. It turns out that if there exists a torsion-free linear connection $``$ preserving $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}`$ the star-product satisfying the condition (2) can be achieved by a minimal modification of the Fedosov method. Namely, if we replace the $``$-multiplication in the Weyl algebra bundle  by the that of the Wick type (1) all the steps and the theorems of the Fedosov method is generalized in a straightforward manner and thus we get the star-product of the Wick type.

The only crucial point of this program is the existence of a torsion-free linear connection $``$ preserving $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. One may readily find that the necessary and sufficient condition for such a connection to exist is the integrability of the right and left kernel distribution of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(x).`$ When the latter condition is fulfilled $``$ is just the Levi-Civita connection associated to the symmetric and non-degenerate form $`g(x)`$ and the right and left kernel distributions define the transverse polarizations of the symplectic manifold $`(M,\omega )`$. Thus we see that the symplectic manifold admitting the Wick-type star-product are necessarily equipped with the pair of the transverse polarizations.

After the paper , the symplectic manifold equipped by a torsion-free symplectic connection is usually called as Fedosov manifold because precisely these data – symplectic structure and connection – enter to Fedosov’s star-product. The Wick deformation quantization (as we have defined) involves one more geometric structure - a pair of transverse polarizations, and, by analogy to the previous case, the underlying manifold may be called as the Fedosov manifolds of Wick type or FW-manifold for short. The extended list of examples of the FW-manifolds is provided by the Kähler manifolds. It is the case when the matrix of the tensor $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}`$ is the anti-Hermitian in local real coordinates. There are also examples of the FW-manifolds having no Kähler structure but assigned instead by two real transverse polarizations. The last situation is strikingly illustrated by the one-sheet hyperboloid embedded into three dimensional Minkowski space as the surface

$$x^2+y^2z^2=1$$

$`x,y,z`$ being linear coordinates in $`R^{2,1}`$. one ($`detg<0`$). The integral leaves of the corresponding real polarizations coincide here with two transverse sets of linear generatings of hyperboloid’s surface being, in turn, the isotropic geodesics of the respective metric structure.

At present there is a large amount of literature concerning the deformation quantization on polarized symplectic manifolds (see i.g. ,, and references therein) beginning with the pioneering paper by Berezin  on the quantization in complex symmetric spaces. However, in all the papers cited above the very definition and the construction of the Wick-type star-product are based on the explicit use of local coordinates adapted to the polarization (or separation of variables in terminology of work ).

## 3. Superextension

Now we present construction of the double dimensional superextension of the FW-manifold $`M`$ and perform its deformation quantization. We construct the supermanifold supplying the initial FW-manifold by additional odd variables $`\theta ^i`$, where $`i`$ is the index of the tangent space. Then the formal series

(4)
$$𝒞a=a(x,\theta )=\underset{k=1}{\overset{2^{2n}}{}}a(x)_{i_1\mathrm{}i_k}\theta ^{i_1}\mathrm{}\theta ^{i_k},$$

where the coefficients $`a(x)_{i_1\mathrm{}i_k}`$ are antisymmetric with respect to the index permutations are thought to be superfunctions constituting a supercommutative superalgebra, which we will denote by $`𝒞`$ . As it follows from the results by Bordemann  the Grassmann multiplication in $`𝒞`$ can be formally deformed into associative $`_2`$-graded multiplication $``$ on $`𝒞[[\mathrm{}]]`$ whenever the symplectic and the metric structures are given on the base even manifold. The remarkable feature of this construction is that the deformation quantization for the algebra of super functions is performed first and the super Poisson bracket arises here a posteriori as $`\mathrm{}`$-linear term of the supercommutator.

Here we modify Bordemann’s approach to the quantization of the supermanifold  and present the deformation quantization of the Wick type for the superextension of the FW-manifold. Since the basic steps of our construction are essentially similar to those in the original papers by Fedosov  and Bordemann  we consider them very briefly dwelling only upon peculiarities.

First we define a superextension of the Weyl algebra bundle $`𝒲`$, introduced in .

Definition 1. The bi-graded superalgebra $`𝒮𝒜=_{m,n=0}^{\mathrm{}}(𝒮𝒜)_{m,n}`$ with unit over $``$ is a space of formal series,

(5)
$$a(x,\theta ,y,dx,\mathrm{})=\underset{2k+p0}{}\mathrm{}^ka_{ki_1\mathrm{}i_pj_1\mathrm{}j_q^{}l_1\mathrm{}l_{q^{\prime \prime }}}(x)y^{i_1}\mathrm{}y^{i_p}\theta ^{j_1}\mathrm{}\theta ^{j_q^{}}dx^{l_1}\mathrm{}dx^{l_{q^{\prime \prime }}},$$

multiplied with the help of associative $``$-product of the form

(6)
$$ab=$$

$$=exp\frac{i\mathrm{}}{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{ij}(x)\left(\frac{}{y^i}\frac{}{z^j}+\frac{\stackrel{}{}}{\theta ^i}\frac{\stackrel{}{}}{\chi ^j}\right)a(x,y,\theta ,dx,\mathrm{})b(x,z,\chi ,dx,\mathrm{})|_{y=z,\theta =\chi }$$

A general term of the series (5) is assigned by the bi-degree $`(2k+p+q^{},q^{\prime \prime })`$.

The expansion coefficients $`a_{ki_1\mathrm{}i_pj_1\mathrm{}j_q^{}l_1\mathrm{}l_{q^{\prime \prime }}}(x)`$ are considered to be components of covariant tensors on $`M`$ symmetric in $`i_1,\mathrm{},i_p`$ and antisymmetric with respect to $`j_1,\mathrm{},j_q^{}`$ and $`l_1,\mathrm{},l_{q^{\prime \prime }}`$ . Note that we omit the sign $``$ between the differentials regarding $`dx^i`$ and $`\theta ^j`$ as the set of $`2n`$ anti-commuting variables:

(7)
$$dx^idx^j=dx^jdx^i,\theta ^i\theta ^j=\theta ^j\theta ^i,dx^i\theta ^j=\theta ^jdx^i$$

Hence, $`𝒮𝒜`$ is also $`_2`$-graded algebra with respect to the Grassmann parity $`q=q^{}+q^{\prime \prime }`$ (5) and the supercommutator of two homogeneous elements $`a,b𝒮𝒜`$ with the parities $`q_1`$and $`q_2`$ is defined as

(8)
$$[a,b]=ab(1)^{q_1q_2}ba$$

Let us introduce the nilpotent operator $`\delta =dx^i\frac{}{y^i}`$ which will be rather important in formulating the respective analogues of the Fedosov equation. It is easily seen to be the inner superderivation of the superalgebra $`𝒮𝒜`$ .

The nontrivial cohomology of $`\delta `$ coincides with the space of superobservables $`𝒞[[\mathrm{}]]`$ and the operator $`\delta ^1`$

(9)
$$\delta ^1a=y^ki\left(\frac{}{x^k}\right)\underset{0}{\overset{1}{}}a(x,ty,tdx,\mathrm{})\frac{dt}{t},$$

is the partial homotopy operator for $`\delta `$ in the sense of “Hodge-De Rham” decomposition

(10)
$$a=\sigma (a)+\delta \delta ^1a+\delta ^1\delta a,$$

where $`\sigma (a)=a(x,\theta ,0,\mathrm{})`$ and the interior derivation $`i\left(\frac{}{x^k}\right)`$ acts on the forms by the rule

$$i\left(\frac{}{x^k}\right)a_{i_1\mathrm{}i_m}dx^{i_1}\mathrm{}dx^{i_m}=ma_{ki_2\mathrm{}i_m}dx^{i_2}\mathrm{}dx^{i_m}$$

The covariant derivative $``$ given on the base FW-manifold induces the superderivation in $`𝒮𝒜`$

(11)
$$:(𝒮𝒜)_{n,m}(𝒮𝒜)_{n,m+1},$$

$$=dx^i\left(\frac{}{x^i}y^j\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}^k(x)\frac{}{y^k}\theta ^j\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}^k(x)\frac{\stackrel{}{}}{\theta ^k}\right),$$

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{ij}^k`$ are Christoffel symbols of the connection associated to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. It is easy to check that $``$ anti-commutes with $`\delta `$ and its curvature is given by

(12)
$$^2a=(a)=\frac{1}{i\mathrm{}}[R,a],$$

(13)
$$R=\frac{1}{4}R_{ijkl}y^iy^jdx^kdx^l+\frac{1}{4}_{ijkl}\theta ^i\theta ^jdx^kdx^l$$

where we have used the notations $`R_{ijkl}=\omega _{im}R_{jkl}^m`$ and $`_{ijkl}=g_{im}R_{jkl}^m`$. Following Fedosov method, one can combine $``$ with an inner derivative to get the Abelian connection of the form

(14)
$$D=\delta +\frac{1}{i\mathrm{}}[r,]=+\frac{1}{i\mathrm{}}[\omega _{ij}y^idx^j+r,],r=r_i(x,\theta ,y,\mathrm{})dx^i,$$

Denote $`𝒮𝒜_D=\mathrm{ker}D`$. The next assertions is the super counterpart of that stated in Fedosov’s original theorems \[1, Theorems 3.2, 3.3\].

Theorem 1. With the above definitions and notations we have:

i) there is a unique Abelian connection $`D`$ (14) for which

$$\delta ^1r=0,r_i(x,\theta ,0,\mathrm{})=0$$

and $`r`$ consists of monomials whose first degree is no less then 3;

ii) $`𝒮𝒜_D`$ is a subalgebra of $`𝒮𝒜`$ and the map $`\sigma `$ being restricted to $`𝒮𝒜_D`$

defines a linear bijection onto $`𝒞[[\mathrm{}]]`$;

Corollary 1. The pull-back of $``$-product via $`\sigma ^1`$ induce an associative $``$-product on the space of physical observables $`𝒞[[\mathrm{}]],`$ namely

(15)
$$ab=\sigma (\sigma ^1(a)\sigma ^1(b))$$

Proof may be directly read off from \[2, Theorems 2.1,2.2\].

The peculiar property of the presented Wick-type deformation is that the superalgebras $`(𝒞[[\mathrm{}]],)`$ and $`(C^{\mathrm{}}(M)[[\mathrm{}]],^{})`$ , where $`^{}`$ is the respective Wick-type star-product on the base (even) manifold are related to each other in the sense of the following proposition

Proposition 1. Let $`\pi :𝒞[[\mathrm{}]]C^{\mathrm{}}(M)[[\mathrm{}]]`$ be the canonical projection defined as $`\pi a(x,y,\mathrm{},\theta )=a(x,y,\mathrm{},0)`$. Consider the algebras $`𝒞[[\mathrm{}]]`$ and $`C^{\mathrm{}}(M)[[\mathrm{}]]`$ as left(right) moduli over $`C^{\mathrm{}}(M)[[\mathrm{}]]`$. Then $`\pi `$ defines a homomorphism of the introduced moduli, that is for $`a`$ $`C^{\mathrm{}}(M)[[\mathrm{}]]`$ and $`b𝒞[[\mathrm{}]]`$ we have:

(16)
$$a^{}(\pi b)=\pi (ab),(\pi b)^{}a=\pi (ba)$$

It is easy to check that the equations (16) do not hold for the case of the Weyl star-product obtained for example by Bordemann’s approach .

## 4. Conclusion

In this paper we have realized the Wick-type star-product following to the Fedosov approach to the deformation quantization. We have observed that the most natural geometrical framework for this star-product is the so-called Fedosov manifold of Wick type. This is defined as the real symplectic manifold equipped with a complex-valued half-rank bilinear form $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ preserved by some torsion-free connection and it is shown to be necessarily the manifold admitting two transverse polarizations.

We have shown that any FW-manifold can be canonically extended to the doubled dimensional supersymplectic manifold associated to the tangent bundle of the initial manifold. Moreover, the latter can be easily then quantized along the line of the Fedosov approach and this quantization procedure, yields the natural definition of the deformed product between antisymmetrical covariant tensors on the base even manifold. The latter is due to the natural one-to-one correspondence between the elements of the exterior algebra and the superfunctions (4) of the introduced supermanifold. This correspondence can be easily restored by its definition on the monomial elements of the exterior algebra

$$\omega _{i_1\mathrm{}i_p}dx^{i_1}\mathrm{}dx^{i_p}\omega =\omega _{i_1\mathrm{}i_p}\theta ^{i_1}\mathrm{}\theta ^{i_p}$$

We hope that this deformed associative product may find its application in the noncommutative field theory in particular for constructing the noncommutative Yang-Mills theory  on the curved symplectic manifolds. The problem of realizing the noncommutative Yang-Mills theory on a curved manifold is firstly posed in the paper by Connes, Douglas and Schwarz  and at first sight it seems to have a natural solution in the context of the deformation quantization. However the deformation quantization poses the problem of constructing the deformed algebra of scalar functions on the symplectic manifold. Hence it is insufficient for constructing the noncommutative Yang-Mills theory, which should describe the dynamics of tensor fields as well. Thus one firstly has to realize the star-product between tensor observables on the symplectic manifold. The star-product in addition should be defined in a generally covariant way since otherwise it would be impossible to present the invariant action for the theory in question. The quantization of the supermanifold presented above suggests a possible solution for the problem as it yields the definition for the covariant deformation of the exterior algebra on the initial even manifold. However the deformed algebra of the forms cannot be restricted for example to the set of the 1-forms only thus a hypothetical noncommutative Yang-Mills theory would describe the dynamics of the forms of all the possible ranks.

Another ingredient which is important for constructing the action for the noncommutative Yang-Mills theory is the metric structure. This structure, in turn, being naively inserted into the action functional may violate the gauge invariance of the theory even in the case of the ordinary Weyl-Moyal star-product. Thus the metric and symplectic structures should be considered on equal foot just like in the construction of the Wick-type star-product. Finally the construction of the gauge invariant action requires the definition of the trace measure for the aforementioned superalgebra. We will consider this problem elsewhere.

Acknowledgments. It is our pleasure to express our sincere gratitude to I. Batalin, I. Gorbunov, M. Grigoriev, M. Henneaux A. Karabegov, R.Marnelius, A. Nersessian and M.Vasiliev for useful discussions related to various aspects of this paper. This work has been partially supported by RFBR grant 00-02-17-956.


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# Gravitational Collapse and Cosmological Constant

## 1 Introduction

The gravitational collapse of a dust cloud has been studied extensively in the literature , especially in the light of the cosmic censorship conjecture of Penrose . There are no globally regular solutions in these models, and a singularity always develops in an initially collapsing configuration. These singularities could be naked, or hidden behind an event horizon, depending on the nature of the initial data functions representing the density and velocity profiles for the collapsing cloud , from which the collapse evolves. It is also known that the shell-focusing singularities in dust models are strong curvature singularities . In this sense these are physically genuine singularities and the possibility of extension of the spacetime through the same does not arise.

In investigations such as above, one generally uses the Einstein equations with a vanishing cosmological term. Recent observations however give us an evidence that a large part of the universe is possibly dominated by an energy component with negative pressure . Among various possibilities available , one candidate that is often considered is a cosmological constant , $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, or vacuum energy density corresponding to a positive sign of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Such a cosmological constant would represent a spatially uniform energy density distribution, which is time-independent, and its positive value acts as a globally repulsive force field. Also, the cold dark matter models with a substantial component supplied by the cosmological term are among the models which best fit the observational data . Therefore it is of value to revive the cosmological term, as a constant or even as a time varying quantity, in the Einstein equations. With such a perspective in mind we have investigated here the gravitational collapse, and structure of the singularity in the spherically symmetric dust models with the presence of a non-vanishing cosmological constant.

Dust models with a cosmological term are also known in the literature . These models can be matched with the Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime at the boundary of the cloud . But the studies so far have been restricted to special cases, whereas we analyze here the Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) collapse models  with a cosmological constant, which provide the general solution to Einstein equations with dust as the source term. While studying these models, the weak energy condition, i.e. $`T_{ij}V^iV^j0`$, for all non-spacelike vectors $`V^i`$, is assumed everywhere in spacetime for the matter, which would be a physically reasonable condition to assume for the case of a collapsing cloud.

In the next Section 2 we introduce the basic model and analyze the Einstein equations to check whether we can have globally regular solutions, as shown to exist in the case of homogeneous density dust solutions with a positive cosmological constant . We also derive the general solution to the Einstein equations in the case corresponding to the marginally bound case in the LTB models (i.e. the case when energy function $`f=0`$), and discuss the condition for avoiding shell-crossings. In Section 3 we investigate the structure of the singularity by studying (O)outgoing (Ra)dial (N)ull (Ge)odesics (ORANGEs) near the same. The bearing of the initial conditions - in the presence of the cosmological term - on whether the final state results in a black hole or a naked singularity is then analyzed. Section 4 provides the conclusions.

## 2 Dust collapse with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ term

In this section we first study the basic set of Einstein equations and the regularity conditions for collapse. Then we will look for the possibility of regular solutions when there is a non-vanishing cosmological term present, wherein an initially collapsing cloud rebounces at some later epoch so that singularity does not form. This corresponds to the occurrence of three phases, which are, collapse, reversal and subsequent dispersal. Finally, we give here a general solution with non-zero $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ term for the marginally bound case.

### 2.1 Basic equations and regularity

The model for a self-gravitating, spherically symmetric, inhomogeneous dust cloud with cosmological constant is given by the metric,

$$ds^2=dt^2+\frac{R_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{1+f(r)}dr^2+R^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2),$$
(1)
where $`(t,r,\theta ,\varphi )`$ is a comoving coordinate system. Here $`f(r)>1`$, and $`r`$ and $`R`$ are the shell-labeling comoving coordinate, and the physical area radius respectively. In our notation the dot and the prime denote partial derivatives with respect to $`t`$ and $`r`$ respectively. The equation of state for matter in the interior of the cloud is that of dust (corresponding to the approximation of a fluid with negligible pressures), and the stress-energy tensor is given by,

$$T_j^i=ϵ(r,t)\delta _t^i\delta _j^t,$$

where $`ϵ(r,t)`$ is the energy density of matter. We assume the matter to satisfy the weak energy condition, which implies that $`ϵ(r,t)0`$; it is equivalent to the strong energy condition as the principal pressures are zero. The Einstein equations in the presence of a cosmological constant can be written as,

$$\dot{R}^2=\frac{F(r)}{R}+f(r)+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}R^2,$$
(2)
$$ϵ(t,r)=\frac{F^{}}{R^2R^{}}.$$
(3)
We will be mainly considering the collapse situation (i.e. $`\dot{R}<0`$). The dust cloud is characterized by two free functions in general, representing the total mass ($`F(r)`$), and the energy ($`f(r)`$), inside the shell labeled by comoving coordinate $`r`$. The cosmological term $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ can in principle be of either sign, however the recent observations as indicated above seem to favour the positive sign. The above equation for $`\dot{R}`$ can be in principle integrated, and after integration one gets a constant of integration. One can fix the constant of integration by using the scaling freedom. We fix this by setting $`R=r`$ on the initial hypersurface ($`t=0`$). The two free functions $`F(r)`$ and $`f(r)`$ can be fixed by prescribing the initial density and velocity profiles through (3) and (2) respectively. We assume these free functions to have the form

$$\begin{array}{c}F(r)=F_0r^3+F_nr^{3+n}+higherorderterms,\\ f(r)=f_0r^2+f_{n_1}r^{2+n_1}+higherorderterms,\end{array}$$
(4)
where the choice of the first non-vanishing term is made in order to have a regular initial data on the initial surface $`t=0`$ from which the collapse evolves . From (3) it is clear that we can have both shell-crossing ($`R^{}(t_{sc}(r),r)=0`$), and shell-focusing singularities ($`R(t_{sf}(r),r)=0`$) in these spacetimes, depending on the dynamics of the shells given by (2). In this paper we will only consider cases where there are no shell-crossings, because these are generally not considered to be genuine singularities, and as our main interest is in studying the nature of physical singularity corresponding to $`R=0`$ where the matter shells shrink to zero radius. This puts some restrictions on our initial data which we will discuss later.

The metric exterior to the collapsing cloud has the Schwarzschild-de Sitter form,

$$ds^2=gdt^2+g^1dr^2+r^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2),$$
(5)
where $`g=12M/r\mathrm{\Lambda }r^2/3`$. Matching the solutions (1) and (5) at the boundary $`r_b`$ of the collapsing dust cloud one obtains $`2M=F(r_b)`$ . It is known that the boundary can be made to bounce from an initially collapsing phase by choosing appropriate initial mass and cosmological term, as we see bellow. This behaviour can also be understood by analyzing the curve of allowed motion (2) (for details see, ).

### 2.2 Regular solutions and rebounce

First we look for the possibility of having globally regular solutions due to the presence of a cosmological constant. The equation (2), governing the dynamics of collapsing shells, can be conveniently written as

$$\dot{R}^2=\frac{V(R,r)}{3R}.$$
(6)
Here $`V(R,r)`$, defined as

$$V(R,r)=3F(r)+3f(r)R+\mathrm{\Lambda }R^3,$$
(7)
is an analogue of the Newtonian effective potential governing motion of the shells. The allowed region of motion corresponds to $`V0`$ as $`\dot{R}^2`$ has to be greater than zero.

If we start from an initially collapsing state, we will have a rebounce if we get $`\dot{R}=0`$ for a given shell before that shell becomes singular. This can happen only if the equation

$$3R\dot{R}^2=V(R,r)=0$$

has two real positive roots. In what follows it is convenient to define a quantity $`\zeta (t,r)=R/r`$. The equation (7) can be rewritten as

$$V=3F+3f\zeta r+\mathrm{\Lambda }\zeta ^3r^3.$$
(8)
which is a cubic equation with three roots in general. ¿From the theory of cubic equations, if all the three roots of the equation above are real then at least one of them has to be positive and at least one negative. Note that $`V(R=0,r>0)=3F>0`$. Hence, any regular region between $`R=0`$ and the first zero of eqn. (8), i.e., $`\zeta _1>0`$, always becomes singular during collapse and so we need two real positive roots for the above equation (8) for a possibility of rebounce. The region between the two real positive roots is forbidden region. So if we start on the right side, the collapsing shells bounce back and then we have continuous expansion. Since one of the real root has to be negative and the region between two real positive roots is forbidden, it is not possible to have oscillating solutions in these spacetimes.

In the case of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ it is well-known that we cannot have a rebounce and the collapse necessarily results in a singularity. The cubic then reduces to a linear equation and the solution is given as, $`R=R_{max}(r)=F/f`$. So only in the case $`f<0`$ we can have $`\dot{R}=0`$ for positive $`R`$. This corresponds to the maximum possible physical radius for a given shell i.e. even if we start with initial expansion a given shell will reach the maximum radius $`R_{max}(r)`$ and then it will recollapse.

In the case when $`\mathrm{\Lambda }<0`$, one and only one root is always positive. The other two roots are negative if $`9F^2<(4f^3/\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, or else they are complex conjugates. Therefore any initial configuration becomes singular in this case. The real positive root in this case gives an upper bound on the radius $`R=R_{max}(r)`$ of a shell labeled $`r`$. This upper bound occurs as the negative (attractive) contribution from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ term keeps on increasing with an increasing $`R`$, while the contribution from gravitational attraction keeps on decreasing and so at some point for any value $`f`$ the attraction due to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ starts dominating. Hence, even if we have an initially expanding configuration, finally we always must have collapse in this case.

For $`\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$ and $`f(r)0`$ one can easily see that we can never have $`\dot{\zeta }^2=\dot{R}^2/r^2=0`$, so singularity always forms if we start from an initial collapse.

For the case $`\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$ and $`f(r)<0`$, one root of the cubic above is always negative. If

$$F^2>\frac{4f^3}{9\mathrm{\Lambda }},$$
(9)
then the other two roots are complex conjugates. So the singularity always forms in such a case in initially collapsing configuration. On the other hand, if the initial data is such that

$$F^2<\frac{4f^3}{9\mathrm{\Lambda }},$$

then the other two roots are real positive. Let us denote them by $`\zeta _1`$ and $`\zeta _2`$ with $`\zeta _1<\zeta _2`$. The region between the two roots is forbidden. The entire space of allowed dynamics is given by the two disjoint regions $`[0,\zeta _1]`$ and $`[\zeta _2,\mathrm{}]`$. If the initial scale factor $`\zeta _0`$ lies in the first section, i.e. if $`\zeta _0<\zeta _1`$, then we always have the singularity as the end point of collapse. Here $`r\zeta _1`$ represents the upper bound for the physical radius of a shell in this region. If $`\zeta _0`$ lies in the second section, i.e. $`\zeta _0>\zeta _2`$, then we will have a rebounce from the initial collapsing configuration. After the rebounce the physical radius of the shell keeps on increasing forever. There is no upper limit for the maximum value of $`\zeta `$ in this region and $`r\zeta _2`$ gives the lower bound for the physical radius of a shell, i.e. the shell rebounces at $`R=r\zeta _2`$.

¿From the above discussion we can see that we can have rebounce only in the case when $`\mathrm{\Lambda }>0`$ and $`f<0`$, and when the following two conditions are satisfied,

$$F^2<\frac{4f^3}{9\mathrm{\Lambda }},$$
(10)
and if $`\zeta _0>\zeta _2`$. With our scaling, this later condition can be written as,

$$1>2\left(\frac{f}{r^2\mathrm{\Lambda }}\right)\mathrm{cos}\left[\frac{1}{3}\mathrm{arccos}\sqrt{\frac{9F^2\mathrm{\Lambda }}{4f^3}}\right].$$
(11)
The tables 1 and 2 give a systematic classification of the various possibilities we discussed above.

The physical quantities like central density, $`\rho _c=F_0/\xi ^3(t)`$, and curvature scalars

$$R^{ijkl}R_{ijkl}=12\left(\frac{\dot{\zeta }^4+\zeta ^2\ddot{\zeta }^2}{\zeta ^4}\right),R^{ij}R_{ij}=12\left(\frac{\dot{\zeta }^4+\zeta \dot{\zeta }^2\ddot{\zeta }+\zeta ^2\ddot{\zeta }^2}{\zeta ^4}\right),=6\left(\frac{\dot{\zeta }^2+\xi \ddot{\zeta }}{\zeta ^2}\right)$$

stay finite as $`\zeta (t,r)>0`$ for the regular models.

There are several features here which are worth noting and have interesting physical significance as far as the dynamics of collapse is concerned, and which illustrate the effects a non-vanishing cosmological term may have towards determining the final fate of a collapsing cloud of matter. Firstly, with a negative value of the cosmological term all the solutions become closed and singularity always forms in a future even if we start with initial expansion. This is to be expected because such a value will only contribute in a positive manner to the overall gravitational attraction of matter and just acts as a constant positive energy field helping the collapse. Next, as illustrated by the first line of Table 2, there is a range of initial data where the collapse necessarily ends in a singularity despite however large positive value of the cosmological term. This is contrary to the belief sometimes expressed that a positive cosmological constant can always cause a bounce provided it is sufficiently large in magnitude. Finally, it is clear from above that there can be a rebounce only if the initial density is sufficiently low for a given positive value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. This is so because the cosmological term becomes dominant with increasing distances, and gravity dominates at higher densities. Thus as the cloud is more disperse (lesser densities but bigger size), more is the effect of the cosmological term.

### 2.3 The $`f=0`$ case

As shown in the previous consideration, while a bounce and regular solution occurs for a specific range of the initial data, for a majority of the regular initial data space the collapse results into a spacetime singularity where densities and curvatures blow up. While for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ case we know in detail the structure of this singularity, and when it will be naked or covered. We would like to understand here the effects of a non-zero $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ towards the structure of the singularity forming in such a collapse.

To study these features for the dust collapse models, we analyze now explicitly the case $`f(r)=0`$. While we have chosen $`f=0`$ for simplicity and clarity of the considerations, one expects quite similar behaviour in other cases also. The equation (2) can now be written as,

$$tt_c(r)=\pm (\frac{F(r)}{R}+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}R^2)^{1/2}𝑑R,$$
(12)
where $`t_c(r)`$ is an integration function which it represents the time at which a given shell, $`r`$, becomes singular, i.e. $`R(t_{sf}(r),r)=0`$. The positive or negative sign respectively corresponds to the expanding and collapsing branches of the solution. In what follows, we consider only the negative sign because we are considering clouds which are collapsing, with $`\dot{R}<0`$ initially. The integral (12) can be written as an infinite series in $`R`$ near the centre as below,

$$tt_c(r)=\frac{2}{3}\frac{R^{3/2}}{\sqrt{F(r)}}\left[1+\underset{m=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{(1)^m(2m1)!!}{2^m(2m+1)m!}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }R^3}{3F(r)}\right)^m\right].$$
(13)
Using the scaling freedom in our solution, we set $`R(t=0,r)=r`$ which determines $`t_c(r)`$ as

$$t_c(r)=t_{sf}(r)=\frac{2}{3}\frac{r^{3/2}}{\sqrt{F(r)}}\left[1+\underset{m=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{(1)^m(2m1)!!}{2^m(2m+1)m!}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }r^3}{3F(r)}\right)^m\right].$$
(14)
¿From the above expressions we get,

$$R^{}=\frac{F^{}}{3F}R+\left(1\frac{rF^{}}{3F}\right)\left(\frac{3F+\mathrm{\Lambda }R^{3/2}}{3F+\mathrm{\Lambda }r^{3/2}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{r}{R}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(15)
Therefore, the condition $`R^{}>0`$, implying no shell-crossings, can be satisfied if $`F^{}>0`$ and $`1rF^{}/3F>0`$. This means that the total mass inside a shell and the matter density are increasing and decreasing functions of $`r`$ respectively, as we move away from the centre. The weak energy condition, implying positivity of energy density, guarantees that mass is an increasing function of $`r`$. Also, for any realistic density distributions, it would be physically reasonable that the density is higher at the center, decreasing away from the center. Thus we shall work with decreasing density profiles. Therefore, no shell-crossings occur in the spacetime for our choice of initial data, before the occurrence of the central shell-focusing singularity.

As we will show in the next Section, the behaviour of collapsing shells near the centre would depend only on the first non-vanishing derivatives of the density and velocity profiles near the same. Therefore, the local visibility conditions are unaffected by the boundary conditions such as the initial choices of the mass function and the actual value of$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. On the other hand, the global behaviour of the trajectories coming out from the singularity can change due to the addition of a cosmological term.

## 3 The structure of the singularity

In this Section we will analyze the nature of the central singularity. In what follows we use the scheme, as developed earlier by Joshi and Dwivedi , which gives us a necessary and sufficient condition for the local visibility of the singularity. The main idea here is to see if we can have ORANGEs in the spacetime, meeting the singularity in their past with a well-defined real positive tangent vector in a suitable plane.

The equation for the ORANGEs in spacetime (1), for $`f(r)=0`$ is

$$\frac{dt}{dr}=R^{}.$$
(16)
For convenience this can be written in the $`(u,R)`$ plane as,

$$\frac{dR}{du}=\frac{R^{}}{\alpha r^{\alpha 1}}\left(1\sqrt{\frac{F}{R}+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}R^2}\right),$$
(17)
where $`u=r^\alpha `$, and $`\alpha 1`$ is a constant to be determined later. ¿From equation (17) it is clear that there are no ORANGEs from the non-central part of the singularity curve because the first term under square-root goes to $`\mathrm{}`$ as $`t`$ approaches $`t_{sf}(r)`$. This means that we cannot have ORANGEs as solutions to above equation near the non-central singularity, and hence it is only the central singularity which can be possibly visible.

We define $`X=R/u`$, to check if we can have a well-defined tangent for the equation (17), at $`r=0,R=0`$ in the limit of $`t`$ approaching the singular epoch $`t_s(0)`$. Using the l’Hospitals rule we get,

$$X_0=\underset{u0,R0}{lim}\frac{R}{u}=\underset{u0,R0}{lim}\frac{dR}{du}=\underset{u0,R0}{lim}\frac{R^{}}{\alpha r^{\alpha 1}}\left(1\sqrt{\frac{F}{R}+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}R^2}\right)=U(X_0,0)$$
(18)
where the subscript $`0`$ denotes the value of the quantities at $`u=0`$. The constant $`\alpha `$ can be uniquely fixed by demanding that $`R^{}/r^{\alpha 1}`$ is non-zero finite . In the case that we are discussing, $`R^{}/r^{\alpha 1}`$ remains finite if we choose $`\alpha =1+2n/3`$ , and the above equation (18) can be written as,

$$\frac{1}{\alpha }\left[X\frac{nF_n}{3F_0}\frac{1}{\sqrt{X}}\right]\left[1+\sqrt{\frac{\lambda _0}{X}}\right]=0,$$
(19)
where $`\lambda =F/u`$. If this equation has a real positive root $`X_0`$ then one will have at least one null geodesic coming out of the singularity at $`R=0,u=0`$ with the root $`X=X_0`$ as a tangent in $`(u,R)`$ plane.

When $`n<3`$, we have $`\alpha <3`$ and therefore $`\lambda _0=0`$, and the above equation reduces to,

$$X_0^{3/2}=\frac{F_n}{2F_0\sqrt{1+\mathrm{\Lambda }F_0/3}}$$
(20)
which always has a real positive root. Apart from an additional $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ term, this equation is analogous to the corresponding equation obtained for the LTB models, and reduces to the same for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$. Therefore, when either the first or the second derivative of density is non-zero the singularity is always, at least locally, visible. The addition of cosmological term changes only the value of the tangent ($`X_0`$) to the ORANGES, but not the visibility property itself. Thus the corresponding dust naked singularity spectrum is stable to the addition of a positive cosmological constant.

In this case, like the earlier studies on LTB models, the smaller root will be along the apparent horizon direction and a family of geodesics will come out along this direction . In this case we put $`\alpha =3`$ and the first term in the equation (17) blows up and second term goes to zero such that the product is $`F_0`$.

For the value $`n=3`$, which corresponds to the critical case in LTB models , we get $`\lambda _0=F_0`$. Introducing $`X=F_0x^2`$ and $`\xi _\mathrm{\Lambda }=F_3/F_0^{5/2}\sqrt{1+\mathrm{\Lambda }F_0/3}`$ the root equation becomes,

$$2x^4+x^3\xi _\mathrm{\Lambda }x+\xi _\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.$$
(21)
This equation is similar to the corresponding case in the LTB models, with the modification in the definition of $`\xi `$. From the theory of quartic equations, this equation admits a real positive root for $`\xi _\mathrm{\Lambda }<\xi _{crit}=(26+15/\sqrt{3})/2`$. Therefore, for a given central density $`F_0`$, and the inhomogeneity parameter as given by $`F_3`$, the naked dust singularity can be partly covered by a positive $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, as we get an additional positive term in the denominator in $`\xi _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. But it is interesting to note that, however large, a finite $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ term cannot completely cover the corresponding visible part of dust models.

In a similar manner we can see that a negative $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ will open-up some covered part in the dust spectrum. (As such our calculation does not use the positivity of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ anywhere, so they go through even for negative $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.)

For all values $`n>3`$ we have $`\lambda _0=\mathrm{}`$, and we cannot have a real positive root in these cases and the final singularity is safely hidden behind the event horizon.

## 4 Conclusion

Studying gravitational collapse of a dust cloud with a non-zero value of the cosmological term we observed that black holes, naked singularities and even globally regular solutions can develop as the final outcome of collapse. Each of these outcomes is determined by the choice of initial parameters, given in terms of the density and velocity profiles of the cloud. Though for simplicity we restricted to $`f(r)=0`$ case while analyzing the structure of the singularity, the results can be extended to the general case. We have also shown here that it is possible to cover a part of the naked singularity spectrum, in the corresponding critical branch of solutions in the LTB models, with the introduction of a positive cosmological constant. An interesting conclusion that emerges is that the existence of naked singularity remains stable to the introduction of a cosmological term in Einstein equations. These results are of interest in that they allow us to understand the implications of a non-zero $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ towards the final outcome of gravitational collapse, in view of the recent observational claims about a non-vanishing cosmological constant.

We acknowledge the support from University of Basque Country Grants UPV122.310-EB150/98, UPV172.310-G02/99 and the Spanish Ministry Grant PB96-0250.


text:
# Chandra X-ray Observatory Detection of Extended X-ray Emission from the Planetary Nebula BD +30∘ 3639

## 1 Introduction

Planetary nebulae (PNs) represent the last stages of evolution for stars of initial mass 1–8 $`M_{}`$. The central star that generates a PN has terminated its asymptotic giant branch (AGB) evolution, but its ejected stellar envelope has yet to disperse entirely, such that the star’s newly exposed hot core (the eventual white dwarf remnant) ionizes and illuminates the envelope via UV radiation. The photoionized gas in a typical PN is far too cool to emit X-rays and the central stars are, at best, sources of very soft X-rays. However, theorists have long predicted that high-temperature X-ray emission should arise from a so-called “hot bubble” formed interior to the optically emitting ionized gas (e.g., Kwok, Purton, & Fitzgerald, 1978; Mellema & Frank 1995). The hot bubble is formed when the new, fast ($`1000`$ km s-1) wind emanating from the white dwarf rams into the ejected red giant envelope that is coasting outward at $`10`$ km s-1, in principle shock-heating the material to $`>10^7`$ K.

Einstein and ROSAT detected X-rays from more than a dozen planetaries (de Korte et al. 1985; Tarafdar & Apparao 1988; Apparao & Tarafdar 1989; Zhang, Leahy, & Kwok 1993; Leahy, Zhang, & Kwok 1994; Rauch, Koeppen, & Werner 1994; Chu & Ho 1995; Hoare et al. 1995; Leahy et al. 1996; Chu, Chang, & Conway, 1997; Chu, Gruendl, & Conway 1998; Chu, Guerrero, & Gruendl 2000) but, in most cases, the X-ray spectra are quite soft ($`T_x2\times 10^5`$ K) and therefore clearly emanate from hot central stars rather than hot bubbles (Guerrero, Chu, & Gruendl 2000 and references therein). But a handful of planetaries do display rather hard spectra, in data obtained with the ROSAT Position-Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC). The brightest, hardest, and therefore most convincing example among the ROSAT PSPC detections was the compact young planetary nebula BD $`+30^{}`$ 3639 (Kreysing et al. 1992), whose high X-ray temperature ($`T_x3\times 10^6`$ K) was subsequently confirmed by ASCA (Arnaud, Borkowski, & Harrington 1996). Furthermore, Leahy, Kowk, & Yin (2000) found the X-ray emitting region of BD +30 3639 to be possibly extended in ROSAT High Resolution Imager (HRI) data.

BD $`+30^{}`$ 3639 is a fascinating object in many other respects as well. Its youth is apparent from the compact morphology and low ionization state of its HII region, the low temperature of its central star ($`T_{}`$ 30,000 K), and its large ratio of neutral to ionized gas mass (Sahai & Trauger 1998; Leahy et al. 2000; and references therein). Taken together these observations suggest that the onset of ionization in this nebula is a recent event. Furthermore $`10^3`$ $`M_{}`$ of its neutral gas is concentrated in a pair of diametrically opposed “molecular bullets” that have been expelled at $`50`$ km s-1 (Bachiller et al. 2000). The presence of such highly confined molecular outflows is strongly suggestive of the presence of a binary companion to the central star (see reviews in Kastner, Soker, & Rappaport 2000a), and detection of these “bullets” called into question whether the interacting winds model was applicable to BD $`+30^{}`$ 3639 (Bachiller et al. 2000).

With the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, it is possible for the first time to obtain subarcsecond images of X-ray sources and simultaneously to perform moderate resolution X-ray spectroscopy, with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS). In this Letter we report the unambiguous detection of extended X-ray emission from BD +30 3639. In a second paper (Kastner, Vrtilek, & Soker 2000b) we will present more detailed analysis of the BD +30 3639 data.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

Chandra observed BD +30 3639, with ACIS as the focal plane instrument, on 2000 March 21. The duration of the observation was 18.8 ks. The Science Instrument Module was translated and the telescope was pointed such that the telescope boresight was positioned near the center of the spectroscopy CCD array (ACIS-S) and the image of BD +30 3639 appeared on the central back-illuminated CCD (device S3). The ACIS-S3 pixel size is $`0.49^{\prime \prime }`$. The Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) carried out standard pipeline processing on the raw ACIS event data, producing an aspect-corrected, bias-subtracted, graded, energy-calibrated event list, limited to grade 02346 events (ASCA system). From this list, we constructed a broad-band (0.3–10.0 keV) image and a pulse height spectrum. The image of BD +30 3639 was smoothed by replacing raw pixel counts with the running mean in a $`3\times 3`$ pixel box. The spectrum was extracted using CXC software, which was used to construct a histogram of pulse heights for events contained within a circle of radius 10 pixels (a radius we judged to include all of the X-ray flux from BD +30 3639). The broad-band ACIS-S3 count rate within this aperture was 0.244 counts sec-1. The background count rate in a nearby, off-source region of equivalent area was negligible in comparison ($`0.002`$ counts sec-1).

## 3 Discussion

The Chandra image of BD +30 3639 shows an extended region of X-ray emission that appears to lie within, and is concentrated to one side of, the interior of the elliptical shell of ionized gas seen in high-resolution optical and IR images (Figs. 1, 2). The approximate extent of the X-ray emitting region is $`5^{\prime \prime }\times 4^{\prime \prime }`$, or $`5000\times 4000`$ AU (for an assumed distance of $`1`$ kpc; Kastner et al. 2000b). However, the X-ray emission is quite asymmetric in comparison to the optical and infrared morphologies of BD +30 3639, with a compact “hot spot” apparent toward the northeast rim of the optical/IR nebulosity and little or no emission toward the southwest rim. This result confirms the viability of the interacting winds model, but shows that another ingredient is necessary. In particular, the asymmetry suggests that the hot bubble is inhomogeneous in density, temperature, and/or abundance. Alternatively, a spatially varying absorbing column may be responsible for the asymmetry; note the close correspondence between the outline of X-ray emission and the inner “hole” seen in the IR nebulosity.

The central star of BD +30 3639 blows a fast wind at a velocity of $`v_f=700`$ km s-1 (Leuenhagen, Hamann, & Jefferyet 1996). The shocked fast wind is expected to have a temperature of $`10^7`$ K, and be distributed isotropically around the central star. However, we find here a much lower temperature (see below), and the X-ray emission is localized and asymmetric, suggesting that the X-ray emission results from cooler, clumpy gas. Such cooler and denser gas can result from mixing of the hot gas with cooler, nebular gas (Chu & Ho 1995; Arnaud et al. 1996) and/or from the presence of a heat conduction front (Soker 1994). The latter possibility suggests that magnetic fields play an important role in determining the asymmetric X-ray emission morphology of BD +30 3639, since the presence of localized magnetic fields would suppress heat conduction, and therefore X-ray emission, in specific regions of the inner nebula (Soker 1994). More detailed analysis is postponed to our next paper (Kastner et al. 2000b).

The Chandra/ACIS spectrum of BD $`+30^{}`$ 3639 (Fig. 3) shows that nearly all the X-ray photons detected by ACIS have energies between 0.3 keV and 1.7 keV. The spectrum displays strong emission from a blend of He-like Ne lines centered at 915 eV, and an apparent blend of emission lines (and, possibly, continuum emission) between $`300`$ and $`700`$ eV. Fits of a variable-abundance MEKAL (Mewe–Kaastra–Liedahl collisional equilibrium) model indicate that the abundance of C is enhanced relative to solar, Ne is roughly solar, and N and O are depleted; these fits also suggest negligible abundances for all elements heavier than Ne. The apparent presence of significant continuum emission may indicate greatly enhanced He abundance, but this result is tentative given the modest spectral resolution of ACIS. From the model fitting we deduce an emitting region temperature of $`T_x=2.7\times 10^6`$ K ($`\pm `$3%), intervening absorbing column of $`9.9\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 ($`\pm `$4%), and absorbed flux of $`5.7\times 10^{13}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1. Assuming $`D=1`$ kpc, the model normalization and intrinsic (unabsorbed) flux indicate, respectively, an emission measure of $`5.0\times 10^{54}`$ cm-3 ($`\pm `$12%) and X-ray luminosity of $`L_x1.6\times 10^{32}`$ ergs s-1. This emission measure suggests an electron density $`n_e200`$ cm-3, given the approximate diameter of the emitting region; as noted above, however, the asymmetry of the Chandra image suggests the emitting region is quite clumpy, and this result for $`n_e`$ should only be considered an average value. Collectively, these results are consistent with those obtained by Kreysing et al. (1992) from ROSAT data and by Arnaud et al. (1996) from ASCA data, although analysis of the latter dataset was complicated by contamination from a nearby supernova remnant.

The ACIS spectroscopy strongly suggests that the chemical abundances in the X-ray-emitting region are enriched in, and indeed may consist almost exclusively of, products of main sequence and post-main sequence nuclear burning. Furthermore, the large Ne abundance suggests that the nebula and white dwarf are the products of a relatively massive progenitor that obtained very high core fusion temperatures and, hence, efficient production of Ne via the reaction 16O $`+`$ $`\alpha `$ $``$ 20Ne. This interpretation relies on the results for CNO abundances, however, which can only be tentatively deduced given the modest resolution of the CCD spectrum. The abundance anomalies implied by the X-ray spectrum may also hint at the central star’s binary nature (Soker & Rappaport 2000).

The authors wish to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of the Chandra X-ray Observatory Project and, in particular, the contributions made to the Project by the staff of the Chandra X-ray Center. Support for this research was provided by a NASA/Chandra grant to RIT. N.S. also thanks the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. F. Roddier & C. Roddier kindly provided the portion of Figure 1 containing the HST and Gemini adaptive optics images of BD$`+`$ 303639. R. Sahai kindly provided his fully reduced HST image of BD$`+`$ 303639.

### Figure Captions

Optical (left), infrared (center) and X-ray (Chandra/ACIS; right) images of the planetary nebula BD $`+30^{}`$ 3639. The optical image was obtained by HST/WFPC2 in \[S III\] at 9532Å (Arnaud et al. 1996). The infrared image was obtained by Gemini equipped with adaptive optics camera (http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/ao/gemini/gemfl.html) at 2.12 $`\mu `$m (H2 \+ continuum). Images are presented at the same spatial scale.

Contour map of Chandra X-ray image, overlaid on a greyscale representation of an HST/WFPC2 6563Å H$`\alpha `$ image (Sahai & Trauger 1998). The contours correspond to total counts of 10, 30, 50, 70, 100 counts pix-1 (integrated over the 18.8 ksec observation).

Chandra/ACIS spectrum of BD $`+30^{}`$ 3639 (squares), with best-fit variable-abundance MEKAL model overlaid.


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# Kinematics and photometry as complementary tools in the study of barred galaxies

## 1. UGC 10205: an edge-on barred galaxy

It has been suggested that the peanut-shaped bulges seen in some edge-on galaxies are due to the presence of a central bar (Bureau & Freeman 1999; Bureau & Athanassoula 1999). Although bars cannot be detected photometrically in edge-on galaxies, Kuijken & Merrifield (1995) showed that a barred potential produces strong kinematic signatures in the form of double-peaked line-of-sight velocity distributions with a characteristic “figure-of-eight” variation with radius. As an example, in Fig. 1 (left panel) we can see two components (fast-rotating and slow-rotating) that give the emission spectrum and the velocity curve of the edge-on galaxy UGC 10205 a figure-of-eight shape (see Vega et al. 1997).

## 2. NGC 6221: Detecting Bar-Driven Shocks in the Gas

The case of NGC 6221 is particularly interesting because the images show numerous dust lanes within the bar, but whether these actually represent shocks in the gas flow — as predicted by numerous hydrodynamic simulations — is unclear. However, if we take into account the radial profiles of \[NII\]/H$`\alpha `$ derived from long-slit spectra (see Vega et al. 1998), we can infer the presence of a pseudo-ring of shocked gas in the inner $`10^{\prime \prime }`$ region. If we compare the HST image with the positions of these peaks (see Fig. 2, right panel), we see that the regions of maximum \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ occur where the slits cross the two inner, curving dust lanes which join the “leading-edge” lanes near the center of this galaxy. This suggests that the strongest shocks may occur in the two curving lanes, rather than in the leading-edge lanes.

## 3. NGC 4340: Double Bar + Fossil Nuclear Ring

NGC 4340 is a double-barred SB0 galaxy in the Virgo cluster (Wozniak et al. 1995). Using new optical images, we have found that it also contains a luminous stellar nuclear ring, lying just outside the inner bar. The ring is smooth and does not differ in color from surrounding regions, which suggests it is relatively old and free of dust and gas: it may be a “fossil” remnant of an earlier gas-rich, star-forming nuclear ring.

The ring is aligned with, but more elliptical than, the outer disk, so it is intrinsically elliptical. In deprojection it trails both bars by 10–$`15^{}`$ (the two bars are slightly misaligned, which suggests they are independently rotating). This is an unusual orientation, since most hydrodynamic simulations produce leading (gaseous) nuclear rings within bars. We use the major-axis velocity curve of Simien & Prugniel (1996) and our own spectrum along the outer-bar major axis to compute approximate resonance curves. The resulting $`\mathrm{\Omega }\kappa /2`$ curve places the inner bar within the (inner) ILR; it also suggests that the nuclear ring is at or just inside of the same ILR. (See Erwin et al. 2000 for details.)

## References

Bureau, M., & Athanassoula, E. 1999, ApJ, 522, 686

Bureau, M., & Freeman, K.C. 1999, AJ, 118, 126

Erwin, P., Vega Beltrán, J.C., & Beckman. J. 2000, astro-ph/0009178

Kuijken, K., & Merrifield, M.R. 1995, ApJ, 443, L13

Simien, F. & Prugniel, Ph. 1996, A&AS, 126, 15

Vega, J.C., Corsini, E.M., Pizzella, A., & Bertola, F. 1997, A&A, 324, 485

Vega Beltrán, J.C., Zeilinger, W.W., Amico, P., Schultheis, M., Corsini, E.M., Funes, J.G., Beckman, J., & Bertola, F. 1998, A&AS, 131, 105

Wozniak, H. et al. Friedli, D., Martinet, L., Martin, P., & Bratschi, P. 1995, A&AS, 111, 115


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# Quantum nondemolition measurements in a Paul trap

## 1 Introduction

One of the more long–standing conundrums in modern physics is the so called quantum measurement problem (QMP) , the one from the very outset of quantum theory (QT) has provoked a deep interest by its unusual and paradoxical characteristics. Nowadays the attempts in the quest for a solution of this conceptual difficulty have been spawned by theoretical and also by practical reasons. On practical grounds, for instance, the necessity of detecting very small displacements in the case of gravitational–wave antenna , or the attempts to obtain high sensitivity in parametric transducers  (a topic closely related to the design of gravitational radiation detectors), requires the analysis of QMP.

On the theoretical side, QMP plays a fundamental role in the understanding of the foundations of QT , and therefore a better comprehension of this issue is closely related to the advancement of QT.

Concerning QMP it is noteworthy to comment that one of the most interesting topics in this field is the so called quantum nondemolition measuring process , in which certain class of observables may be measured repeatedly with arbitrary precision. Of course, the dynamical evolution of the corresponding system limits this class of observables. Clearly this restriction is a direct consequence of the unavoidable back reaction of the measuring device upon the measured system. The fundamental idea behind a quantum nondemolition measurement (QNDM) is to monitor a variable such that the unavoidable disturbance of the conjugate one does not perturb the time evolution of the chosen parameter .

On experimental grounds QNDM is very promising , for instance, in the dynamics of the interaction between measuring device and a mechanical oscillator the most important hurdles, that currently impede the achievement of the corresponding quantum regime, have already been identified, and the exploration of the quantum behavior in the context of macroscopic mechanical oscillators could bring in the near future decisive results .

In order to confront the theoretical predictions of RPIF against experimental outputs the necessity of performing continuous measurements upon a quantum system is imperative. In this respect we must mention that the current technology allows us to carry out repetitive measurements on a single quantum system. For instance, it is already possible  to confine and observe an individual electron in a Penning trap, or we can now also have a trapped single atom and observe its interaction with a radiation field, for example, by means of a laser fluorescence . In the case of the so called Paul trap, which has led to the construction of a mass spectrometer , a ion is trapped employing a high-frequency electric quadrupole field . As is known, this idea can also be extended to the case of neutral atoms, laser cooled and stopped atoms are confined in a magnetic quadrupole trap formed by two opposed, separated, coaxial current loops .

The aforementioned experiments open the possibility of confronting, in a near future, the theoretical predictions of some formalisms that claim to describe the interaction between measuring apparatus and measured system against experimental results. One of these formalisms is the so called Restricted Path–Integral Formalism (RPIF) . The main idea in this approach is the restriction by means of a weight functional of the integration domain of the path–integral that renders the corresponding propagator of the analyzed system, when one or more of its parameters are subject to a continuous measurement process.

Let us explain this point a little bit better, and suppose that we have a particle which has a one–dimensional movement. The amplitude $`\widehat{U}(q^{\prime \prime },q^{})`$ for this particle to move from the point $`q^{}`$ to the point $`q^{\prime \prime }`$ is called propagator, and it is given by Feynman

$$\widehat{U}(q^{\prime \prime },q^{})=d[q]exp\left(\frac{i}{\mathrm{}}S[q]\right),$$
(1)
here we must integrate over all the possible trajectories $`q(t)`$, and $`S[q]`$ is the action of the system, which is defined as

$$S[q]=_t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}𝑑tL(q,\dot{q}).$$
(2)
Let us now suppose that we perform a continuous measurement of the position of this particle, such that we obtain as result of this measurement process a certain output $`a(t)`$. In other words, the measurement process gives the value $`a(t)`$ for the coordinate $`q(t)`$ at each time $`t`$, and this output has associated a certain error $`\mathrm{\Delta }a`$, which is determined by the experimental resolution of the measuring device. The amplitude $`\widehat{U}_{[a]}(q^{\prime \prime },q^{})`$ can be now thought of as a probability amplitude for the continuous measurement process to give the result $`a(t)`$. Taking the square modulus of this amplitude allows us to find the probability density for different measurement outputs.

Clearly, the integration in the Feynman path–integral should be restricted to those trajectories that match with the experimental output. RPIF states that this condition can be introduced by means of a weight functional $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}`$ . This means that expression (1) becomes now under a continuous measurement process

$$\widehat{U}_{[a]}=d[q]\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}exp(iS[q]).$$
(3)
The more probable the trajectory $`[q]`$ is, according to the output $`a`$, the bigger that $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}`$ becomes , this means that the value of $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}`$ is approximately one for all trajectories, $`[q]`$, that agree with the measurement output $`a`$ and it is almost 0 for those that do not match with the result of the experiment.

Clearly, the weight functional contains all the information about the interaction between measuring device and measured system, and the problems that in this context appear are two:

(i) The concrete form of the weight functional $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}`$ depends on the measuring device , in other words, the involved experimental constructions determine these weight functionals. We must determine $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}`$ starting from the knowledge that we have of the measuring device, a non–trivial problem.

(ii) If we wish an analytical expression for $`\widehat{U}_{[a]}`$, then the resulting weight functional must render an analytically handleable functional integral.

In this work we will consider the case of a particle caught in a Paul trap, and the nonlinear differential equation, the one defines the corresponding quantum nondemolition variables, will be solved. As solution a family of quantum nondemolition parameters will be obtained. Afterwards, a continuous measuring process for one of these parameters will be considered, and the associated propagators will be calculated. Finally, the probabilities of the different measurement outputs are obtained.

## 2 Quantum nondemolition variables in a Paul trap

It is already known that in the case of a particle in a Paul trap we have a harmonic oscillator, the one possesses a frequency equal to $`\overline{U}\overline{V}cos(\omega t)`$, being $`\overline{U}`$, $`\overline{V}`$, and $`\omega `$ constants which depend on the electric quadrupole field used to trap the particle. The motion equations of an electrically charged particle caught in a Paul trap are  (here we will assume that ions are injected in the $`y`$–direction and that there is electric field only along the $`x`$– and $`z`$–coordinates)

$$\ddot{x}(t)+\frac{e}{mr^2}[\overline{U}\overline{V}cos(\omega t)]x(t)=0,$$
(4)
$$\ddot{z}(t)\frac{e}{mr^2}[\overline{U}\overline{V}cos(\omega t)]z(t)=0.$$
(5)
here $`e`$ is the electric charge of the particle, $`m`$ its mass, and $`2r`$ the distance between the electrodes that conform part of the experimental apparatus. The solutions to these equations are the so called Mathieu functions .

Let us now first consider the motion only along the $`x`$–axis. This is no restriction at all, because the complete motion can be separated in two independent motions. Thus, our starting point is the following Lagrangian

$$L=\frac{1}{2}m\dot{x}^2(t)\frac{1}{2}m[UVcos(\omega t)]x^2(t).$$
(6)
here we have introduced the following definitions: $`U=\frac{e}{mr^2}\overline{U}`$ and $`V=\frac{e}{mr^2}\overline{V}`$.

In the case of a harmonic oscillator with a time dependent frequency a quantum nondemolition (QND) variable may be found in the form

$$A=\rho p+\sigma q,$$
(7)
where $`p`$ and $`q`$ denote the momentum and position, respectively, and $`\rho `$ and $`\sigma `$ satisfy the following differential equation

$$\frac{df}{dt}=\frac{f^2}{m}+m[UVcos(\omega t)],$$
(8)
here $`f=\frac{\rho }{\sigma }`$.

Let us now consider the following function:

$$F=\frac{m}{x(t)}\frac{dx}{dt},$$
(9)
where $`x(t)`$ is any of the possible solutions to

$$\ddot{x}(t)+[UVcos(\omega t)]x(t)=0.$$
(10)
It is straightforward to check that $`F`$ is a solution to (8). Hence, with the solutions of the motion equation we may easily find QND–variables. In other words, we have found a family of QND–parameters for the case of a particle in a Paul trap.

$$A(t)=\sigma (t)\left[m\frac{1}{x(t)}\frac{dx}{dt}q+p\right].$$
(11)
If we set $`V=0`$, then we recover, from expression (9), the situation already known of a harmonic oscillator with time independent frequency . Indeed, in that case, $`x(t)=\mathrm{cos}(\sqrt{U}t)`$, and then $`\rho /\sigma =m\sqrt{U}\mathrm{tan}(\sqrt{U}t)`$, where $`\sqrt{U}=\omega `$ is the corresponding frequency of oscillation.

## 3 Continuous measurements, propagators, and probability densities

Let us now consider the situation in which our QND–variable, $`A`$, is being continuously monitored, here we set $`\sigma (t)=1`$. According to RPIF  the corresponding propagator (when the measurement output reads $`a(t)`$) is given by

$`\widehat{U}_{[a]}={\displaystyle _q^{}^{q^{\prime \prime }}}d[q]d[p]\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{i}{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{2m}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m}}[UVcos(\omega t)]q^2\right)𝑑t\right\}\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}.`$ (12)
As was mentioned at the end of the first section, the whole interaction between measuring apparatus and measured system is contained in $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}`$. At this point we must choose a particular weight functional, and it will be a gaussian one

$$\stackrel{~}{\omega }_{[a]}=\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{1}{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^2}_t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}[A(t)a(t)]^2𝑑t\right\}.$$
(13)
The reasons for this choice lie on the fact that the results coming from a Heaveside weight functional  and those coming from a gaussian one  coincide up to the order of magnitude. These last remarks allow us to consider a gaussian weight functional as an approximation of the correct expression. Hence, it will be supposed that the weight functional of our measuring device has precisely this gaussian form. We may wonder if this is not an unphysical assumption, and in favor of this argument we may comment that recently it has been proved that there are measuring apparatuses which show this kind of behavior .

Therefore, expression (12) becomes

$`\widehat{U}_{[a]}={\displaystyle _q^{}^{q^{\prime \prime }}}d[q]d[p]\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{i}{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{p^2}{2m}}+{\displaystyle \frac{UVcos(\omega t)}{2m}}q^2+{\displaystyle \frac{i\mathrm{}}{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^2}}[Aa]^2\right)𝑑t\right\}.`$ (14)
This last path integral is gaussian in $`p`$ and $`q`$, and therefore, it can be easily calculated

$`\widehat{U}_{[a]}=\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^2}}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}a^2𝑑t\right\}`$
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^22im\mathrm{}}{2m^2\mathrm{}\gamma }}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}{\displaystyle \frac{(a\frac{\dot{x}}{x})^2\left[2m^2\mathrm{}\alpha +imT\mathrm{\Delta }a^2\beta \right]}{\alpha ^2+\frac{T^2\mathrm{\Delta }a^4}{4m^2\mathrm{}^2}\beta ^2}}\right\},`$ (15)
where we have introduced three new definitions, namely, $`\alpha =(\frac{\dot{x}}{x})^2+UVcos(\omega t)`$, $`\beta =UVcos(\omega t)`$, and $`\gamma =4m^2\mathrm{}^2+T^2\mathrm{\Delta }a^4`$.

The probability densities, associated with the different measurement outputs, read (according to the expression $`P_{[a]}=|\widehat{U}_{[a]}|^2`$)

$`P_{[a]}=\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^2}}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}a^2𝑑t\right\}\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^2}{\gamma }}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}{\displaystyle \frac{(a\frac{\dot{x}}{x})^2\left[(\frac{\dot{x}}{x})^2+2\beta \right]}{\alpha ^2+\frac{T^2\mathrm{\Delta }a^4}{4m^2\mathrm{}^2}\beta ^2}}\right\}.`$ (16)
## 4 Conclusions

In this work we have considered the case of a particle caught in a Paul trap, and, after solving the corresponding nonlinear differential equation, a family of quantum nondemolition variables has been obtained, expression (11). Afterwards, a continuous quantum measurement for an element of this family was considered, and, along the ideas of the so called restricted path integral, the corresponding propagator has been calculated, expression (15). Finally, the associated probability densities were derived, expression (16). The present work complements a previous paper in which a quantum demolition measurement for a particle in a Paul trap was analyzed .

Clearly, we may notice in our last equation that there is no standard quantum limit, in other words, we may measure $`A`$ with an arbitrarily small error, and in consequence all the necessary information can be extracted.

Looking at (16) we may notice that in the limit $`\mathrm{\Delta }a0`$ we obtain $`P_{[a]}0`$. In other words, in the limit of very precise measurements all the possible readouts have the same probability density. This last fact is a quantum feature, indeed, in the nonquantum case only the solution to the classical motion equations has a nonvanishing probability. This last remark does not mean that a strong disturbance of the corresponding observable is present. Indeed, we may find this kind of behavior even in a much simpler situation, namely, in the case of a harmonic oscillator the limit of very precise measurements ($`\mathrm{\Delta }a0`$) renders also the result $`P_{[a]}0`$ (see equation (6.32) in ). This characteristic is also present in the situation when a quantum nondemolition variable, for the case of a particle moving in an inhomogeneous gravitational field, is monitored in the limit of very small intrumental error . The opposite case, namely, the limit of rough measurements, $`\mathrm{\Delta }a\mathrm{}`$, renders also the result $`P_{[a]}0`$.

Of course, we could have a very small experimental error, but the case $`\mathrm{\Delta }a0`$ is an idealization, and this limit has to be understood in the sense that if the experimental resolution is much smaller than all the relevant physical variables, then we could expect to have a probability independent of the measurement outputs. Experimentally this case could be a very difficult one, consider, for example, the current experimental resolution in the case of Paul or Penning traps , which lies very far from this idealization.

There are already some theoretical results  that provide a framework which could allow us to confront the predictions of RPIF against some possible future experiments. Nevertheless, the present work renders new theoretical predictions coming from RPIF, which in the future could be confronted with experimental readouts. For example, expression (16) predicts a very particular dependence (on the involved measurement readouts) for the ratio of the probability densities associated with two different experimental results. Indeed, if $`b(t)a(t)`$, then its is readily seen that $`P_{[a]}/P_{[b]}=g(a^2b^2)`$, where $`g`$ is a real function

$`P_{[a]}/P_{[b]}=\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^2}}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}\left(a^2b^2\right)𝑑t\right\}`$
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{T\mathrm{\Delta }a^2}{\gamma }}{\displaystyle _t^{}^{t^{\prime \prime }}}{\displaystyle \frac{(a^2b^2)(\frac{\dot{x}}{x})^2\left[(\frac{\dot{x}}{x})^2+2\beta \right]}{\alpha ^2+\frac{T^2\mathrm{\Delta }a^4}{4m^2\mathrm{}^2}\beta ^2}}\right\}.`$ (17)
To finish, let us comment an additional characteristic of expression (16). We know that there are some QNDMs in which an absolute limit may appear. For instance, if the linear momentum of a free particle is monitored, this aforementioned limit may emerge, when the instantaneous measurement of position of the test particle, before and after the monitoring of the linear momentum, is done (see page 99 of reference ). Clearly, position and linear momentum are canonical conjugate variables to each other, and that is why this absolute limit appears. At this point we may wonder why (16) shows no absolute limit, in our case, position, before and after monitoring of $`A(t)`$, has also been instantaneously measured, i.e., $`q^{}`$ and $`q^{\prime \prime }`$ are present from the very begining in our mathematical expressions, see (12).

The answer to this question stems from the fact that in our case the measured quantity, $`A=\sigma (t)[m\frac{1}{x(t)}\frac{dx}{dt}q+p]`$, is not the canonical conjugate variable of position, $`q`$.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank A. A. Cuevas–Sosa for his help, and D.-E. Liebscher for the fruitful discussions on the subject. The hospitality of the Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam is also kindly acknowledged. This work was supported by CONACYT (México) Posdoctoral Grant No. 983023.


text:
# Does the Mass Accretion Rate Depend On the Radius of the Accreting Star?

## 1 Introduction

For steady accretion onto a compact object, it is often assumed that the mass accretion rate onto the central star $`\dot{M}_{}`$ is determined only by boundary conditions at some large radius where the gas is initially introduced into the accretion flow. This assumption is valid for a number of idealized accretion solutions: (i) spherical accretion (Bondi 1952), (ii) steady accretion via a thin disk (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973; Novikov & Thorne 1973), and (iii) steady accretion via an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF; Ichimaru 1977; Narayan & Yi 1994; 1995a,b; Abramowicz et al. 1995; Chen et al. 1995).

Recently, it has become clear that under some circumstances $`\dot{M}_{}`$ may depend not only on outer boundary conditions but also on the radius of the central star $`R_{}`$. A power-law dependence has been proposed:

$$\dot{M}_{}R_{}^p.$$
(1)
Gruzinov (1998), for instance, argued that spherical accretion in the presence of strong conduction behaves according to equation (1), with $`p`$ of order unity.

In the case of a thin accretion disk, it has been known for a number of years that large changes in the opacity of the accreting gas as a result of hydrogen ionization lead to a thermal instability (see Cannizzo 1993 for a review). This instability causes the well-known transient behavior of accreting white dwarfs (WDs) in cataclysmic variables (CVs), and accreting neutron stars (NSs) and black holes in soft X-ray transients (SXTs). If accretion in the quiescent state of transient binaries occurs via a pure thin disk (which is in some doubt, see below), then $`\dot{M}_{}`$ is expected to scale according to equation (1) with a large value of $`p2.7`$ (Ludwig, Meyer-Hofmeister & Ritter 1994; Hameury et al. 1998; Menou et al. 1999a).

In the case of advection-dominated accretion, the radius of the star can again be important in some circumstances. For instance, if there are strong outflows, as seems likely (Narayan & Yi 1994, 1995a), the mass accretion rate is expected to behave as in equation (1). Blandford & Begelman (1999) suggested that ADAFs with outflows, which they named ADIOS, may have values of $`p`$ in the range $`01`$. Igumenshchev & Abramowicz (1999, 2000) found ADIOS-like flows in numerical simulations when they used large values of the viscosity parameter $`\alpha >0.3`$. Their simulations suggest that $`p0.30.5`$; this estimate is, however, very approximate since the results from the simulations are not consistent with a power-law behavior.

Narayan & Yi (1994, 1995a) argued that advective flows should, in addition to having outflows, also be convectively unstable. Igumenshchev & Abramowicz (1999, 2000) found well-developed convection in numerical simulations when they used small values of $`\alpha <0.1`$. These convective flows correspond to a new form of quasi-spherical accretion (Stone, Pringle & Begelman 1999), which is called a convection-dominated accretion flow or CDAF. Both the numerical simulations and analytical work (Narayan, Igumenshchev & Abramowicz 2000; Quataert & Gruzinov 2000; Igumenshchev, Abramowicz & Narayan 2000) show that CDAFs follow equation (1) with $`p1`$.

In this Letter we are concerned with transient binaries such as CVs and SXTs. Narayan, McClintock & Yi (1996) and Lasota, Narayan & Yi (1996) argued that quiescent SXTs cannot have pure thin disks; a similar argument had been made earlier by Meyer & Meyer-Hofmeister (1994) for CVs. Narayan et al. (1996) suggested that SXTs, and by extension CVs, have composite accretion flows in which a thin disk is present at large radii, beyond $`10^910^{10}`$ cm, and an ADAF is present at smaller radii. In view of the recent work described above, it is possible that, rather than an ADAF, the inner flow might consist of an ADIOS or a CDAF. We thus have four different possibilities for the accretion flow in quiescent CVs and SXTs, each with a different prediction for $`p`$; (i) pure thin disk ($`p=2.7`$), (ii) ADAF ($`p=0`$), (iii) ADIOS ($`p0.30.5`$), and (iv) CDAF ($`p1`$).

Theoretical analysis is presently incapable of discriminating among these four possibilities. Here we use a novel empirical method to infer the value of $`p`$.

We consider CVs and SXTs with similar orbital periods (in the range $`220`$ hours), which ensures that the outer boundary conditions of their accretion flows are similar. The mass transfer rate from the companion star in a semi-detached binary system depends primarily on the binary period, and is fairly insensitive to the mass of the compact star (Menou et al. 1999a). This is especially true for systems with orbital periods of a fraction of a day or shorter, in which mass transfer is driven primarily by gravitational radiation losses. Thus, for the CVs and SXTs considered here, the mass supply rate is likely to be similar.

On the other hand, the radius of the accreting star in the systems we consider spans a wide range, from $`10^9\mathrm{cm}`$ for WDs in CVs to $`10^6\mathrm{cm}`$ for NSs in SXTs. For accretion onto a star with a hard surface (as distinct from a black hole, see Narayan, Garcia & McClintock 1997), the accretion luminosity $`L`$ has a simple dependence on $`R_{}`$ and $`\dot{M}_{}`$:

$$L\frac{GM_{}\dot{M}_{}}{R_{}},$$
(2)
where $`M_{}`$ is the mass of the accreting star. Therefore, given the observed $`L`$, and estimates of $`M_{}`$ and $`R_{}`$, we may infer the value of $`\dot{M}_{}`$. Since we select systems with similar outer boundary conditions, but with a wide range of $`R_{}`$, we should be able to estimate the dependence of $`\dot{M}_{}`$ on $`R_{}`$, and thus the value of $`p`$. Note that correction factors of order unity are unimportant in this analysis, because the value of the gravitational potential $`GM_{}/R_{}c^2`$, or equivalently $`L/\dot{M}_{}c^2`$, differs by three orders of magnitude between NSs and WDs.

Before proceeding, we note that Medvedev & Narayan (2000) recently obtained a new hot quasi-spherical accretion solution which applies under some circumstances to a rotating star with a surface. The luminosity of this solution does not scale according to equation (1), but depends primarily on the radius and the spin of the star. The estimate of $`p`$ derived in this Letter would not be valid if accretion in the CVs or NS SXTs we consider is described by this solution.

In §2 we present the available data on the luminosities of WDs (§2.1) and NSs (§2.2) with similar binary periods and companions. In §3, we use the data to infer the best-fit value of $`p`$. Finally, we summarize our conclusions and discuss their implications in §4.

## 2 Luminosity Data

### 2.1 White Dwarfs

CVs have been extensively studied at X-ray, UV and optical wavelengths. In recent years, UV spectroscopy has provided WD temperatures for a number of systems. The sample of NS SXTs discussed in §2.2 has orbital periods in the range $`220`$ hours, with a geometric mean of about 6 hours. CVs typically have somewhat shorter orbital periods. In order to make a fair comparison, we focus our attention on non-magnetic CVs with periods greater than 3 hours. Most of the long period systems are high accretion rate Nova-like variables whose UV spectra are dominated by their accretion disks and whose WD temperatures are not known. There are six CVs with low $`\dot{M}`$ which are suitable for the comparison (Table 1). For the basic parameters, we take periods ($`P`$), WD masses ($`M_{wd}`$), V-band luminosities ($`L_v`$) and distances ($`d`$) from Ritter & Kolb (1999), WD temperatures ($`T_{wd}`$) from Sion (1999) and X-ray luminosities ($`L_x`$) from the ROSAT All Sky Survey tabulation of Verbunt et al. (1997). WD radii ($`R_{wd}`$) are derived from the masses and the mass-radius relation (Hamada & Salpeter 1961). The six selected systems have orbital periods in the range 3.3 to 6.6 hours, with a geometric mean of about 5 hours, not very different from the mean period of the NS SXTs (6 hours).

We have substituted more recent parameter determinations in several cases. The distances for SS Cyg and U Gem are those based on HST FES parallaxes (Harrison et al 1999), which are more reliable than other distance estimates. The X-ray luminosities of SS Cyg and U Gem are derived by scaling the GINGA spectrum of Yoshida, Inoue & Osaki (1992) and the ASCA spectrum of Szkody et al. (1996) to the Harrison et al. (1999) distances, because luminosities based on ROSAT are less reliable for hard sources. The WD temperature, mass and radius for U Gem are taken from Long (2000), who finds that a combination of 85% of the surface of the star at 30,000 K and 15% at 50,000 K fits the UV spectrum. This results in the WD luminosity quoted in Table 1. The limit on the WD temperature for IP Peg is from Froning et al. (1999), but uncertainties in the luminosity are relatively high for this edge-on system. The distance limit for TZ Per is from Ringwald (1995).

DW UMa is a special case. Knigge et al. (2000) present a detailed analysis of HST spectra. By chance, the observations occurred during a remarkable low state for this SW Sex star, when it was 3 magnitudes fainter than its normal brightness. Knigge et al. (2000) were able to derive the temperature, mass and radius of the WD, but no X-ray observations in the low state are available. Moreover, WDs in CVs are heated during high $`\dot{M}`$ states and cool gradually after $`\dot{M}`$ drops, with characteristic times of months (see the review by Sion 1999). Therefore, it is probable that DW UMa was cooling from its high $`\dot{M}`$ state during the HST observation, and we take the rather high WD luminosity as an upper limit to the accretion luminosity.

Note that we are making the unconventional assumption that the white dwarf luminosity is the accretion luminosity in the low state. The consequences of other assumptions are discussed in §4. ADAF models predict $`L_{wd}=L_{acc}`$. Conventional boundary layer models (Pringle & Savonije 1979; Tylenda 1981) predict only $`L_{wd}0.5L_x`$ from the heated surface of the white dwarf, although some models of optically thick boundary layers advect a significant fraction of the luminosity into the star (Regev 1983). The soft X-ray excess of some AM Her stars is a clear, if poorly understood, example of advection of accretion energy into the white dwarfs in magnetic CVs.

The WDs in dwarf novae are heated during outbursts, and cool during the quiescent phase. Cooling times are fairly short, with values of 30 days and 6 days estimated for U Gem and RX And, respectively (Long et al 1993; Sion 1999). Compressional heating throughout the WD (Sion 1995) reflects the long-term average accretion rate. We have no reliable way to remove the effects of heating during outburst or compressional heating, though we have tried to select WD temperatures far after outburst when possible. Therefore, it must be borne in mind that some fraction of $`L_{wd}`$ may arise from causes other than accretion during the quiescent phase. However, as noted in §1, factors of $`2`$$`3`$ have little effect on our quantitative conclusions.

### 2.2 Neutron Stars

Table 1 shows the 0.5–10 keV X-ray luminosities of all NS SXTs for which data are available. The luminosity of SAX J1808.4-3658 is from Stella et al. (2000), and those of the other four sources are from Narayan et al. (1997) and Menou et al. (1999b). The latter authors give the luminosity of one other NS SXT, H1608-52, which has $`\mathrm{log}[(L_x/\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1)]=33.3`$. However, this source does not have a reliably measured orbital period; the period could be either 5 hours (Chen et al. 1998) or 98.4 hours (Ritter & Kolb 1998). Since it is important for our method to select systems with comparable orbital periods (so that the outer boundary conditions for the accretion flows are similar), we do not include this system.

The values tabulated in Table 1 may be regarded as estimates of the total (bolometric) luminosities of the systems since a substantial fraction of the emission is expected to come out in the 0.5–10 keV band. In the case of Cen X-4 in quiescence, McClintock & Remillard (2000) have measured the optical-UV spectrum and shown that the luminosity in these bands is comparable to the X-ray luminosity. Assuming that this source is typical, we expect the 0.5–10 keV luminosity to underestimate the bolometric luminosity by a factor of 2 or so.

A more difficult issue is deciding what fraction of the X-ray luminosity is derived from accretion. Recently, Brown, Bildsten & Rutledge (1998) showed that crustal heating of NSs in SXTs during outburst could lead to quiescent thermal emission from the cooling NSs at a level comparable to the observed luminosities of quiescent NS SXTs. Could the entire observed $`L_x`$ be due to this cooling radiation?

At least two of the five NS SXTs listed here have shown substantial variability: Cen X-4 (Campana et al. 1997) and SAX J1808.4-3658 (Dotani, Asai & Wijnands 2000). Such variability is not expected for a cooling NS. Also, the X-ray spectra of two quiescent systems show significant power-law tails: Cen X-4 (Asai et al. 1996) and Aql X-1 (Campana et al. 1998). Again, it is unlikely that the power-law emission arises from thermal cooling. Barring the somewhat extreme possibility that quiescent NS SXTs behave similarly to radio pulsars and have significant magnetospheric activity (as proposed by Campana & Stella 2000), we feel that there is a strong case for assuming that at least the power-law emission (which has roughly half the power) is due to accretion. Thus, the accretion luminosities of the NS SXTs considered are probably between $`50\%`$ and 100% of the luminosities listed in Table 1 (50% if only the power-law spectral component is from accretion, and 100% if the thermal component is also from accretion). In Figure 1 and the analysis presented in §3, we assume 100%. (Equivalently, we assume 50% and apply a bolometric correction of a factor of 2.)

## 3 Inferred Mass Accretion Rates and Estimate of $`p`$

Using the accretion luminosities in Table 1, we may now estimate the mass accretion rates from equation (2). We assume that all NSs have the same mass, $`M_{}1.4M_{}`$ (Thorsett & Chakrabarti 1999), and radius, $`R_{}10^6\mathrm{cm}`$ (Shapiro & Teukolsky 1983). For the WDs, we use the masses and radii given in Table 1.

Figure 1 shows two clusters of points corresponding to WD and NS systems in quiescence. The three lines show power-law scalings with different slopes, $`p=0.4,0.9`$ and $`1.4`$, all originating from the logarithmic average of $`\dot{M}_{}`$ for NS systems. Since the WD points are roughly bounded by these lines we infer that $`\dot{M}_{}R_{}^{0.9\pm 0.5}`$ for accretion flows in quiescence around compact stars. The central value of $`p`$ is close to unity, in agreement with the expected behaviour of convection-dominated accretion flows (CDAF).

## 4 Conclusions

The accretion luminosities of NSs and WDs in quiescence with similar binary companions are comparable (see Table 1). This surprising result implies that the accretion rate at the surface of a WD, namely $`\dot{M}_{}(10^9\mathrm{cm})`$, is larger by three orders of magnitude than that on the surface of a NS, $`\dot{M}_{}(10^6\mathrm{cm})`$. In both cases the radius of the hard surface where the accretion flow terminates is much smaller than the outer boundary of the accretion flow, and hence the flow should exhibit a similar behaviour on scales larger than its inner edge. Figure 1 implies that the mass accretion rate varies with radius roughly as $`\dot{M}_{}R_{}^{0.9\pm 0.5}`$. This behaviour is remarkably similar to that predicted for CDAFs (Narayan et al. 2000; Quataert & Gruzinov 2000; Igumenshchev et al. 2000). The data are marginally consistent with an ADIOS model (Blandford & Begelman 1999), for which Igumenshchev & Abramowicz (1999, 2000) found $`p0.30.5`$. The data do not support the assumption of a constant $`\dot{M}_{}`$, as in a pure ADAF model (e.g. Narayan et al. 1996), or a very steep scaling ($`p2.7`$) as in a pure quiescent thin disk (e.g. Menou et al. 1999a).

Unfortunately, the quantitative results are subject to large uncertainties due to the small number statistics of the relevant systems. They could also be affected by a number of systematic effects. One potential systematic effect is probably not important, namely we do not believe that there is a serious bias in the sample of systems we have used. Our sample of CVs is an unbiased sample of binaries with orbital periods in the range of interest. Also, virtually all known NS SXTs have been detected in X-rays in quiescence; therefore, the sample of NS SXTs in Table 1 is likely to be complete and unbiased (except for the one system we did not include because its period is not known, see §2.2).

One potentially important systematic effect is related to the fact that the luminosities in Table 1 may not represent just the accretion luminosities in quiescence, but may also include a cooling component which originates from the heat deposited in the accretor during an earlier high $`\dot{M}`$ (outburst) state. If some of the quiescent emission in CVs is due to the cooling of the WD (Sion 1999), then $`p`$ would be smaller than the value we obtained; in principle, if the accretion luminosity in quiescent CVs is very much smaller than the observed luminosity, $`p`$ could be as small as zero, as required for a pure ADAF model. The luminosity of a cooling WD should decay with time in a predictable fashion, so this scenario could be tested with careful observations of the CVs listed in Table 1. On the other hand, if the quiescent luminosities of NS SXTs are primarily due to NS cooling (as proposed by Brown et al. 1998), then $`p`$ would be larger than our estimated value, perhaps as large as the 2.7 predicted for a pure thin disk. For the reasons given in §2.2, we consider this unlikely.

A systematic effect with an opposite sign involves the possibility that we have underestimated the bolometric luminosities of the systems under consideration by ignoring the emission at unobserved photon frequencies. This is probably not a serious problem, as CVs appear to radiate primarily in optical, UV and EUV, where there are adequate observations, and NS SXTs emit primarily in the X-ray band (see §2.1 and §2.2).

Finally, it is possible that magnetic fields of NSs or WDs reduce the mass accretion rate onto the star, thereby giving an artificially low estimate of $`\dot{M}_{}`$. This is more likely in NS SXTs than in CVs (Menou et al. 1999b). If the effect is important, then $`p`$ would be smaller than our estimate.

A key aspect of our analysis is the relation between the mass accretion rate and the luminosity given in equation (2). This formula is valid so long as the accreting star has a hard surface. If the accretor is a black hole, and if accretion occurs via a radiatively inefficient flow, such as an ADAF or an ADIOS or a CDAF (but not a thin disk), then the accretion luminosity is expected to be significantly less than that given in equation (2). This is because the energy advected with the accretion flow can disappear through the event horizon (Narayan & Yi 1995b; Narayan et al. 1997). The quiescent luminosities of BH SXTs do appear to be significantly lower than the luminosities of NS SXTs. This is consistent with the presence of an event horizon in black hole SXTs (Narayan et al. 1997; Menou et al. 1999b).

This work was supported in part by NASA grants NAG 5-7039 and NAG 5-7768, NSF grants PHY-9507695 and AST-9900077, and by a grant from the Israel-US BSF for AL.