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# Introduction

## Introduction

Her X-1 is an accretion-powered 1.24-s X-ray pulsar in a binary system with 1.7-d orbital period . Since its discovery in 1972, this source has puzzled the astronomers by its unusual complex behavior.

The X-ray light curve of Her X-1 is shaped with a 35-day period, consisting of a main-on X-ray state with a mean duration of $`7`$ orbital periods surrounded by two off-states (also called low-on states) each of $`4`$ orbital cycles, and of a a short-on state of smaller intensity with a typical duration of $`5`$ orbits, and is certainly due to periodic obscurations of the X-ray source by the disk. In this system, we luckily observe it under the angle of about 89 degrees, and it is this nearly edge-on position of the line of sight that allows us to study a lot of tiny features in the X-ray light curve. This first of all relates to the so-called X-ray dips, short drops in the observed X-ray intensity accompanied by significant spectral changes, which are observed each orbit after the turn-on. X-ray dips can be explained by different models, but undoubtedly they are produced by occultation of the central source by accreting material.

It is generally accepted that the 35-day period is due to counter-orbital precession motion of a tilted accretion disk around the central neutron star . Even earlier, immediately after the discovery of Her X-1, it has been suggested that free precession of the central neutron star causes the observed long-term modulation with 35-day period . Some evidence for free precession indeed has been obtained from X-ray pulse observed with EXOSAT satellite .

The observed stability of the 35-day period over many years would be surprising for purely tidal precession of the accretion disk only, so the need for an underlied clock mechanism was requested. This could be free precession of neutron star, but at that time the locking between the neutron star free precession period and tidal period of the accretion disk was considered as a judicious assumption waiting for its physical grounds.

As was understood already shortly after the beginning of studies of Her X-1, the accretion disk may be twisted. During the counter-orbital precession of such a disk the outer parts of the disk open the central X-ray source while the inner parts of the disk occult the X-ray source . Moreover, a hot rarefied accretion disk corona may exist around its central parts. This makes the ingress to and egress from main-on and short-on states asymmetric. The opening of the X-ray source with a rapid increase of X-ray intensity is accompanied by a notable spectral changes which evidences for the presence of a strong absorption, whereas the decrease in X-ray intensity occurs more slowly and without appreciable spectral changes .

One of the intriguing observational facts is that the X-ray source always turns on near orbital phases $`\varphi _{orb}0.2`$ or $`0.7`$. Such a behaviour has been explained by  by the accretion disk wobbling twice the orbital period due to tidal torques. Indeed, it is at these orbital phases that the disk angle inclination changes most rapidly.

Another notable feature is that the duration of successive 35-day cycles is as a rule 20, 20.5, or 21 orbital cycles . This behaviour has been confirmed by most recent RXTE observations .

Even more enigmatic features observed are sudden decreases in X-ray flux (X-ray dips) which are accompanied by significant spectral changes. They have been observed by many X-ray satellites (see  for references). X-ray dips are commonly separated into three groups: pre-eclipse dips (P), which are observed in the first several orbits after X-ray turn-on (up to 7 in main-on and up to 5 in short-on states) and march from the eclipse toward earlier orbital phase in successive orbits; anomalous dips (A), which are observed at $`\varphi _{orb}0.450.65`$; post-eclipse recoveries (R), which are occasionally observed as a short delay (up to a few hours) of the egress from X-ray eclipse in the first orbit after turn-on.

Changes in the Her X-1 pulse profile with the phase of a 35 day cycle have been found in many observations (see  and references therein). As we will show below, to explain such profile variation, emission region on the neutron star surface should have a complex shape: in addition to the canonical magnetic poles, luminous rings around the magnetic poles appear (as first discussed in . Due to free precession, these regions change position with respect to the line of sight producing the observed slow pulse shape evolution with 35-day cycle phase. Rapid pulse profile changes, which are observed at the end of main-on stage, are due to occultation of the neutron star surface by the precessing accretion disk. Soft X-ray sine-like component of the pulse profile remains the only observed in low states, when the neutron star surface is totally screened by the accretion disk. We will show that this component is due to reprocessing of X-ray emission by the innermost parts of the warped twisted accretion disk.

## Evidence for free precession of neutron star from X-ray pulse profiles

As is well known, free precession of a non-spherical body changes the angle between a given point on the body’s surface and angular momentum vector if none of the axes of inertia coincides with the angular momentum. As a result, magnetic poles, which are the sources of X-ray emission, will migrate with the precession phase, causing modulation of X-ray emission observed by a remote observer.

In the case of free precession of a neutron star with strong magnetic field surrounded by a diamagnetic thin accretion disk, the magnetospheric torques applied to the disk will also change with the precession phase (see  and references therein). The same torque but with the opposite sign will be applied from the disk to the neutron star through the magnetic field. The value and sign of this torque, averaged over the rapid neutron star rotation, are both dependent on the obliquity angle $`\theta `$ between the angular momentum and the magnetic pole. There is a critical value of this angle, $`\theta _c=54^o44^{\prime \prime }`$, at which the average torque vanishes and the innermost parts of the disk remain unperturbed. If $`\theta >\theta _c`$, the inner disk acquires a twisted (helical) shape. The disk tends to keep in the equatorial plane of the rotating neutron star. If $`\theta <\theta _c`$, the disk also tends to keep with the neutron star equator, but with opposite helicity.

The disk-magnetospheric interaction is a very complex and ill-understood, and in the case of neutron star free precession it seems likely that the rotational axis of the neutron star keeps oblique with respect to the orbital plane. The initial orbital inclination of the neutron star axis can be caused by asymmetric supernova kick. However, accreted matter from the disk brings angular momentum which secularily tends to align the neutron star rotational axis with the orbital one. During free precession it is possible to incline the neutron star rotation axis by magnetospheric torques. Due to the helicity of the inner accretion disk (disk is not planar!), the neutron star spin axis tends to lie into the orbital plane at $`\theta <\theta _{cr}`$ and vice versa. The resulting inclination angle depends on the sum of differentials $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ caused by both magnetospheric torques and angular momentum of accreted matter braught to the neutron star over precession cycle.

In the simplest case of emission from magnetic poles only, the pulse profile would consist of one or two pulses, depending on the visibility conditions of the poles by the observer. However, in Her X-1 the pulse profile has a more complicated shape (see Fig. 1). It consists of several peaks that change first slowly and then rapidly with the precession phase. To explain such an evolution, one needs to introduce a ring-like structures around magnetic poles (for example, during a complex magnetic field structure near the neutron star surface, . Such ring-like structures may be a natural result of a slow creeping away of amorphous, well-conducting matter stored near the poles in the course of accretion of plasma. During this process, the magnetic field diffuses through the matter due to Ohmic dissipation of currents, so one may simultaneously have several such structures of different sized around the pole, and they well may have an elliptical, off-center shape around the poles. The glowing of such rings is due to separation of the accreting flow above the neutron star surface into different flows. In fact, these rings can be describe as additional magnetic moments of the opposite sign relative to the main magnetic moment of the neutron star . As a result, at a distance of several radii above the magnetic poles, the zone appears with practically zero net magnetic field. It is in these zones where the accretion flux separation occurs. Clearly, the most pronounced emission will be from the rings most close to the poles, and the analysis of pulse profiles of Her X-1 shows that there is two such rings around each pole.

In the main-on state of Her X-1 ($`\varphi _{pr}=0÷0.24`$) the magnetic poles and the rings lie closer to the rotational axis, and in the short-on state ($`\varphi _{pr}=0.5÷0.7`$) they are closer to the rotational equator, and moreover cross it during the precessional motion (cf. relative intensity of the poles at phases 0.6-0.7 and in Fig. 1).

Only a sine-like shape of the X-ray pulse remains visible starting from $`\varphi _{pr}0.26`$ in the end of main-on state, and at $`\varphi _{pr}0.66`$ in the end of low-on state . Notably, these sine-like components are phase-shifted by 180 degrees, which is a natural consequence of precessional turn of the warped parts of inner accretion disk.

## ASM RXTE analysis of 35-day light curve

All-Sky Monitor onboard RXTE satellite  has obtained a lot of data on Her X-1. The data archive contains X-ray (2-12 keV) count rates averaged over predominantly 90-s time intervals started from MJD 50087. This monitoring revealed that the 35-day modulation stopped at the end of March of 1999, the source entered into an anomalous low state which continues at present. Before this anomalous state, 32 full 35-day cycles were continuously observed (Fig. 2). Below we present the updated analysis of these data (see  for early study).

Despite some gaps in the data, the archive is especially useful in reconstructing the mean X-ray light curve by means of superposing many cycles with account of turn-on times phases. In addition, it is possible to determine the turn-on times of 35-day cycle with a good accuracy. This accuracy is limited by the RXTE observations (the maximum UHURU count rate from Her X-1 was about 100 counts per second while that of RXTE is about $`10`$ counts per second), nevertheless one may clearly distinguish around which orbital phase, 0.25 or 0.75, each cycle was turned-on.

The analysis reveals that 19 cycles turned on near binary phase 0.25, and 13 near phase 0.75 (see  for more detail and description of method used). The folded light curves for 0.25 and 0.75 cycles, as well as the mean 35-day light curve are presented in Fig. 3. Qualitatively, both main-on and short-on stages are seen. During the main-on stage, the source reaches the peak count rate in 1.5 orbits, stays at maximum for $`2`$ orbits, and progressively fades to minimum during 3.5 orbits. The beginning of the short-on stage is separated by 4.5 orbits from the end of the main-on. The duration of the short-on state is about 4.5 orbits.

Note that the form of the short-on stage is similar to that of the main-on: a rapid increase and slow decrease of count rate. The main-on state is separated by the similar 4.5 orbits’ off-state from the end of the short-on state. The short-on stage decreases more slowly than the main-on, so it is difficult to say where the second off-state really starts. A weak X-ray glow persistent during off-states is possibly due to scattering in the accretion disk corona.

The anomalous dip is clearly seen for 0.25 cycles during the first orbit after the main turn-on and is practically invisible at 0.75 cycles. For both types of cycles, pre-eclipsing dips demonstrate identical behaviour – they march from the eclipse toward earlier orbital phase in successive orbits. No post-eclipse recovery was found in the main-on state for 0.75 cycles.

## Origin of X-ray dips

In our model, a tilted twisted counter-orbitally precessing accretion disk eclipses the central X-ray source between the main-on and short-on states. We model the disk by three parts: the outer disk, which is inclined by an angle of $`5^o`$ relative to the orbital plane, the intermediate disk with approximately the same inclination as the outer disk but turned counter orbital rotation by an angle of 80 degrees, and the innermost disk whose orientation and inclination are determined by magnetospheric torques. The disk ends at about the corotation radius $`R_c=(GM/\omega ^2)^{1/3}`$, where $`\omega =2\pi /P`$ is the neutron star angular rotation frequency and $`M`$ its mass. The outer and intermediate disks counter precess as a solid body, while the innermost disk changes orientation: in the main-on its inclination is about 9 degrees with a helicity angle of $`9`$ degrees with respect to the intermediate disk, and in the short on the helicity is opposite with the same angle $`9`$ degrees. Such variations are caused by changes in the angle $`\theta `$ between the neutron star angular momentum and magnetic dipole axis. At $`\theta =\theta _{cr}`$ magnetospheric torques vanish and the innermost disk coincides with the intermediate one. This takes place somewhere at low-on states (where the neutron star surface is screened by the disk), when the magnetic pole goes up and down in due course of precession.

Such a disk produces an appreciable shadow and the optical star periodically enters this shadow in its orbital motion (Fig. 4). The shadowed region is such that not all the optical star surface is screened by the disk – there always should exist areas illuminated by the X-ray source with a photospheric temperature of 15,000-20,000 K whereas photospheric temperature of the unheated regions is as low as $`8,400`$ K. Even higher temperatures (up to $`10^6`$ K) due to soft X-ray absorption by heavy elements are attainable in the chromospheric layers over the photosphere.

Such a high temperature induces matter outflow from the optical star which would lie in the orbital plane in the absence of the shadow. When the shadow appears, a powerful pressure gradients emerge in the chromospheric layers near the boundary separating illuminated and obscured parts of the optical star, which initiates large-scale motions of matter near the inner Lagrangian point $`L_1`$ with a large velocity component perpendicular to the orbital plane . Such a shadow will periodically modulate the matter outflow rate $`\dot{M}`$, which is dramatically reduced when the $`L_1`$ point is deep inside the shadow, and rises rapidly to a maximum at the moment when the shadow edge intersects the $`L_1`$ point. Clearly, the picture repeats twice over the synodal orbital period.

Thus, matter flows non-coplanar with the orbital plane emerge and supply the accretion disk with angular momentum non-parallel to the orbital one. Depending on the initial velocities, these streams may even increase the disk tilt to the orbit. Such streams coming out of the $`L_1`$ point intersect the line of sight of the observer at some orbital phases shortly before the X-ray eclipse and shift slowly toward earlier phases as the precession progresses. This is exactly the behaviour of the pre-eclipse X-ray dips observed. The streams intersect the line of sight at other orbital phases as well and thus give rise to the type I anomalous dips.

The problem of matter outflow from an asymmetrically illuminated stellar atmosphere is essentially three-dimensional and requires sophisticated numerical calculations. To obtain the pre-eclipse dips in a simplified model, we calculated non-planar ballistic trajectories of particles ejected from the point $`L_1`$. Some trial functions for the initial outflow velocity components are used (see  fro more detail).

Before colliding with the disk, non-planar streams intersect the line connecting the observer and central X-ray source thus absorbing some X-ray flux. We identify these events with the pre-eclipse and type I anomalous dips. In Fig. 5 we plot the calculated and observed dip positions on the $`\varphi _{orb}\varphi _{pr}`$ plane. The contours include the calculated dip positions for different minimal distances between the stream centre and the line of sight (0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08). The stream generated when the star again enters the X-ray illuminated sector must also intersect the line of sight during the short-on state $`\varphi _{pr}=0.350.65`$. This gives rise to the pre-eclipse dips during the short-on state as well, as indeed observed .

Fig. 5 demonstrates qualitative agreement between the observed and calculated dip positions. Note that in our model additional pre-eclipse X-ray dips can appear at the end of the main-on and short-on states. By varying slightly the parameters it is easy to obtain the merging of the end of the pre-eclipse dip with the beginning of such ”third” dips, so that the central X-ray source remains unobservable until the beginning of orbital X-ray eclipse. Indeed, Ariel-V data  clearly demonstrated the absence of egress from pre-eclipse dips at several short-on states!

Unlike the pre-eclipse dips and type I anomalous dips, the anomalous dips of type II and post-eclipse recoveries are formed by another mechanism. The vector of the outer disk angular momentum moves along a precession cone and undergoes an oscillating (wobbling) motion twice the synodical orbital period. The wobbling arises due to joint action of streams and tides (see Fig. 6 and  for more detail). The wobbling amplitude is higher in short-on than in main-on state, which can be a possible reason for more strong appearance of post-eclipse recoveries observed in short-on.

## Discussion and conclusion

The model of the unique binary system Her X-1 invokes both a free precessing neutron star and a tidally precessing accretion disk. Clearly, in general case the neutron star free precession period and accretion disk precession period should be different. In Her X-1, X-ray source opens by the precessing outer parts of the disk. As we noted above, the turn-ons always occur randomly in 20, 20.5, or 21 orbits. The result of this random process is that time delay in some turn-ons relative to the mean ephemeris can be as long as 3-3.5 orbits (see Fig. 7). Nevertheless, the mean period is $`P_{prec}=34^d.875\pm 0^d.002=20.502\pm 1\times P_{orb}`$, which we believe to be the neutron star free precession period. The closeness of this period to 20.5 orbits is quite spurious (cf. the closeness of apparent angular diameters of Sun and Moon). Actually, this period is not the strict one, since the neutron star can undergo quakes etc. We believe that the locking of the disk precession with the neutron star free precession is due to dynamical action of the gaseous stream forming the disk: when it tends to go ahead, the streams brake its precessional motion, and vice versa.

Acknowledgments The work was supported by the Grant ”Universities of Russia”, No5559, Russian Fund for Basic Research through Grant No 00-02-17164, and NATO grant PST.CLG 975254.


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# Analysis of the Type IIn Supernova 1998S: Effects of Circumstellar Interaction on Observed Spectra

## 1 Introduction

SN 1998S was discovered on Mar. 3 UT by Zhou Wan (Li et al. 1998) as part of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO) Supernova Survey (Qiao et al. 1997). The discovery was confirmed by the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) during the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (Treffers et al. 1997; Filippenko et al. 2000). SN 1998S is located in NGC 3877, a spiral galaxy classified as SA, with a heliocentric velocity of 902 km s-1 (Nilson 1973) and a Galactic extinction of $`A_B=0.01`$ mag (Burstein & Heiles 1982).

Filippenko & Moran (Li et al. 1998) obtained a high-resolution spectrum of SN 1998S on Mar. 4 with the Keck-1 telescope and classified SN 1998S as a Type II supernova (SN II) on the basis of broad H$`\alpha `$ emission superposed on a featureless continuum. Further spectra were obtained at the Fred L. Whipple Observatory (FLWO) (Garnavich et al. 2000) and a campaign to monitor SN 1998S in the UV from the *Hubble Space Telescope* (*HST*) was mounted by the Supernova INtensive Study (SINS) team. Three epochs have been observed with *HST* — March 16, March 30, and May 13. SN 1998S is a Type IIn supernova (SN IIn; Schlegel 1990), a classification which shows wide variations in the spectra (Filippenko 1997), but includes narrow lines on top of an underlying broad-line supernova spectrum. This has been taken as strong evidence that the supernova ejecta were interacting with a slow-moving circumstellar wind (Leonard et al. 2000), probably in a fashion similar to (but possibly more extreme than) that of SN 1979C and SN 1980K (Lentz et al. 1999; Liu et al. 2000).

In order to get an initial understanding and to confirm the basic picture of SNe IIn as strong circumstellar interacters, a set of parameterized models of SN 1998S was examined with the fully relativistic, NLTE, multi-purpose, expanding atmosphere code, PHOENIX, (cf. Hauschildt & Baron 1999, and references therein). PHOENIX solves the spherically symmetric radiation transport along with the NLTE rate equations and the condition of radiative equilibrium (including deviations due to time dependence of the deposition of non-thermal gamma rays).

A modification of PHOENIX is underway in order to treat self-consistently both the underlying supernova spectrum and the overlying circumstellar interaction region; here we treat the two regions separately. Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of SN 1998S. Some of the important coupling between the two regions is not included in the calculations and therefore not all of the features observed can be expected to be reproduced by the synthetic spectra. However, our models serve to confirm the basic picture of a SN IIn as a Type II supernova that interacts strongly with a near-constant velocity wind. We are able to identify important physical effects that need to be included in future simulations.

While our models are spherically symmetric, Leonard et al. (2000) have shown that the spectra of SN 1998S are significantly polarized, which could be due to asymmetry in the outermost SN ejecta, the circumstellar medium (CSM), or both. Gerardy et al. (2000) suggest that dust and CO are likely to have formed in the SN ejecta while Fassia et al. (2000) argue that the early dust is likely to come from the CSM.

## 2 Models

In this paper we focus on three epochs in particular: an early epoch on Mar 16, $`20`$ days after explosion, using combined *HST* and ground-based spectra, where effects from the circumstellar region dominate; Mar 30, $`34`$ days after explosion, again where there are combined *HST* and ground-based data, and where effects from both photospheric SN ejecta and the circumstellar region are important, and a later ground-based spectrum from April 17, $`50`$ days after explosion, where the densest circumstellar gas has been largely, but not completely, overrun by the supernova ejecta. In the earlier spectrum most of the observed lines are formed in the low-velocity circumstellar material, whereas in the later spectrum the lines show the characteristic width of a Type II supernova. A detailed analysis of the light curve and other observed spectra will be presented elsewhere (Garnavich et al. 2000); see also Leonard et al. (2000) and Fassia et al. (2000, 2001).

### 2.1 March 16

We have modeled the circumstellar region as a constant-velocity wind with a density profile $`\rho r^2`$. While the underlying radiation below the circumstellar region is in fact due to the supernova itself and should show broad P-Cygni profiles as well as a UV deficit due to line blanketing in the differentially expanding supernova atmosphere, we ignore these complications for the present discussion and assume that the underlying radiation is given by a Planck function, with $`T_{\text{Planck}}=13250`$ K. In future work we will treat the effects of the circumstellar interaction region on the supernova itself, and couple the proper supernova boundary condition into the circumstellar region. Nevertheless, our present decoupled prescription allows us to model the important physics, and to estimate velocities, density profiles, and the radial extent of the circumstellar interaction region and the supernova. The region modeled in these calculations coincides with the region labeled “High Velocity CS Wind” in Figure 1. High-resolution spectra (Fassia et al. 2001) have shown that there may be several velocity components present in the circumstellar medium with velocities as low as 80 km s-1. We focus here on only the higher velocity (but possibly still unresolved) components of the CS spectrum.

Figure 2 presents an overview of our best model fit compared with the observed *HST* UV + FLWO optical spectrum taken on Mar 16, 1998. The observed spectrum has been dereddened using the reddening law of Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis (1989) and a color excess $`E_{BV}=0.15`$ mag (Garnavich et al. 2000). The assumed extinction is also in agreement with the results of Fassia et al. (2000) who find $`E(BV)=0.18\pm 0.10`$ mag. The overall agreement in the line positions and shape of the spectrum is excellent, particularly the pseudo-continuum near 2000 Å. The model consists of a constant-velocity circumstellar wind with $`v_{wind}=1000`$ km s-1, an inner density of $`\rho _0=2.0\times 10^{15}`$ g cm-3, an inner radius $`R_{inner}=1.0\times 10^{15}`$ cm, and an outer radius $`R_{outer}=1.5\times 10^{15}`$ cm. The total continuum optical depth at $`5000`$ Å (roughly the electron scattering optical depth) is $`\tau _{\text{std}}=0.2`$, (where $`\tau _{\text{std}}`$ is the total continuum optical depth at 5000 Å), and the mass of the wind is $`6\times 10^3`$ $`\text{M}_{}`$. Assuming the *ejected* wind velocity was 100 km s-1 this corresponds to a mass-loss rate of 0.0012 $`\text{M}_{}`$ yr-1, which should be accurate to an order of magnitude. We believe that the high velocity seen here is due to radiative acceleration of a wind that was ejected at a lower velocity. Since the mass-loss rate depends inversely on the wind velocity at ejection and wind velocities typical of red-giants are $`v_{wind}10`$ km s-1, we think that assuming an ejection velocity of 100 km s-1 allows us to estimate the mass loss rate to an order of magnitude.

In Figures 3a-f we expand the wavelength scale and identify the features in the observed spectrum. Several of them are clearly pairs of interstellar absorption features where one member is due to absorption in our Galaxy and the other is due to absorption in the parent galaxy (Mg II h+k shows this effect clearly). Table 1 lists the line identifications. We note that the “interstellar” absorption lines in the parent galaxy may also have a circumstellar contribution. Close examination of Figure 3 shows that the observed lines are significantly wider than those in the synthetic spectrum. On the other hand, Fassia et al. (2001) observed IR features with velocities as low as 90 km s-1, and Bowen et al. (2000) observed UV P-Cygni features with velocities of $`100`$ km s-1. Convolving the synthetic spectrum with a Gaussian of width 400 km s-1 improves the fit, but since we have assumed a velocity higher than that of the lowest velocity observed (Fassia et al. 2001), it is difficult to separate out the instrumental resolution ($`300400`$ km s-1) from the velocity of the circumstellar medium. It could be that the velocity structure of the circumstellar region is quite complicated with a higher velocity component radiatively accelerated by the supernova, as was suggested for SN 1993J (Fransson et al. 1996), and a lower velocity component wind further away from the progenitor star.

Our model spectrum clearly does an extremely good job in reproducing the overall shape and position of the observed features; nevertheless, the line features are somewhat weaker in general than those observed. This could be due to the effects of the radiation from the circumstellar interaction. The effects of this radiation are not included in these simple preliminary calculations. The effects of the “top-lighting” or “shine-back” are not limited to radiative transfer effects alone, but will also affect the ionization state of the matter, particularly if there is significant X-ray emission from a reverse shock. In future work we will include the effects of external irradiation from the circumstellar region and replace the simple inner Planck function boundary condition that we have used here with a model supernova spectrum. Such a spectrum would be hotter, but diluted and contain both the UV deficit of a normal Type II supernova as well as broad P-Cygni features for which there is evidence in the observed spectrum.

### 2.2 March 30

Figure 4 displays the combined *HST* spectra with an optical spectrum obtained at the FLWO. It is interesting to note that the narrow features present on Mar. 16 seem to have disappeared, and the broad lines are all quite weak. A simple analytical explanation of this is presented in Branch et al. (2000), which shows that with the additional emission (“toplighting” or “shine-back”) from the circumstellar shell, one expects the supernova features to appear muted. Figure 5 displays a PHOENIX spectrum, along with the results obtained when it has been muted according to the prescription in Branch et al. (2000). The regular PHOENIX spectrum is based upon the simplest assumptions: homogeneous solar abundances, a model temperature $`T_{\text{model}}=6000`$ K (the model temperature is simply a way of parameterizing the total bolometric luminosity in the observers frame, see Hauschildt & Baron 1999), a velocity of 5000 km s-1 at $`\tau _{\text{std}}=1`$, and a density structure $`\rho r^8`$. Using Eqn. 23 of Branch et al. (2000), we have calculated the muting, using $`E=0.9`$, where $`E`$ is the ratio of the CS intensity to that of the SN intensity given in Eqn. 22 of Branch et al. (2000), we have assumed a ratio of $`R_{CS}/R_{Ph}=1.5`$, where the ratio is the radius of the circumstellar shell to the radius of the “SN photosphere”. While the fit is not terribly good, the trend is evident. Naturally, a fully consistent model would be better, but it would require significant computational resources to resolve both the ejecta and circumstellar region. Fransson (1984) calculated lineshapes expected from the CS wind and the cool, dense shocked material and compared them with those observed in SN 1979C.

Leonard et al. (2000) suggest that SN 1998S underwent a significant mass-loss episode that ended about 60 years prior to explosion and that there was a second, weaker mass-loss episode 7 years prior to explosion. Thus, we may be seeing the over-running of the closest CS shell and still observing effects of the more distant CS shells.

### 2.3 April 17

During the early evolution the nearest circumstellar material is overrun by the supernova ejecta so the effects of the CSM on the optical and UV spectra become smaller. Inspection of the observed optical spectra (Leonard et al. 2000; Garnavich et al. 2000) shows an increasing contrast in the broad features typical of Type II SNe during the time from the initial *HST* observation, March 16, to the FLWO spectrum of April 17. Blaylock et al. (2000) show that the strengthening of these features during this transition is well reproduced by including the effects of radiation from the circumstellar interaction region along with the scattering of light from the supernova photosphere in the circumstellar region.

Figure 6 displays our best model fit to the observed optical spectrum taken at the FLWO (Garnavich et al. 2000). We again use simple assumptions: homogeneous solar abundances, a model temperature $`T_{\text{model}}=5700`$ K, a velocity of 5000 km s-1 at $`\tau _{\text{std}}=1`$, and a density structure $`\rho r^8`$. The highest velocity in the model is only 6,000 km s-1, which gives an indication that the ejecta are entrained by the circumstellar material, but this is not well constrained by our models. Again, overall the fit is very good. The Na D line in the observed spectrum is too weak in our synthetic spectrum, which may indicate the need to self-consistently include the effect of the circumstellar region or may be due to enhanced sodium. The extended absorption wing of H$`\alpha `$ is due in our model to blending of weak Fe II lines, although some of the absorption may be due to Si II. In any case it is not evidence for high-velocity hydrogen.

## 3 Conclusions

We have shown that a simple model of an ordinary Type II supernova atmosphere interacting strongly with a radiatively accelerated wind reasonably well reproduces the observed line-widths and many of the observed features in both the UV and the optical spectra. This model is robust in that it works well at both very early times and more than a month after the explosion. This confirms the general picture of SNe IIn as being the core collapse of massive stars that have experienced a significant mass-loss epoch and thus are surrounded by a circumstellar medium with which the supernova ejecta interact. As expected from our models (Lentz et al. 1999), SN 1998S has been detected about 600 days after explosion at 6 cm (Van Dyk et al. 1999). Although SN 1998S is about 5 times less luminous than SN 1988Z, further monitoring of the radio light curve will be very interesting and will help determine the mass-loss rate. From the light curve Fassia et al. (2000) find that the mass of the ejected envelope was quite low and the wind was weaker than that of SN 1988Z. SN 1998S may well be more closely related to SN 1979C and SN 1980K. In future work we will develop a more self-consistent model of the supernova circumstellar interaction, and will be able to constrain mass-loss rates and total mass loss which are of great interest for the theory of stellar evolution.

We thank the anonymous referee for suggestions which considerably improved the presentation of this paper. PHH was supported in part by the Pôle Scientifique de Modélisation Numérique at ENS-Lyon. NB was supported in part by an NSF REU supplement to the Univ. of Oklahoma. This work was supported in part by NSF grants AST-9731450, AST-9417102, AST-9987438, and AST-9417213; by NASA grant NAG5-3505 and an IBM SUR grant to the University of Oklahoma; by NSF grant AST-9720704, NASA ATP grant NAG 5-8425, and LTSA grant NAG 5-3619 to the University of Georgia; and by NASA GO–2563.001 to the SINS group from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5–26555. Some of the calculations presented in this paper were performed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), supported by the NSF, and at the National Energy Research Supercomputer Center (NERSC), supported by the U.S. DOE; we thank both these institutions for a generous allocation of computer time. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


text:
# Dirac’s hole theory versus quantum field theory

## I introduction

Dirac’s hole theory (HT)  and quantum field theory (QFT) are usually considered equivalent to each other. This equivalence, however, does not necessarily hold for models of a certain type as noted recently . The purpose of this Letter is to elaborate on this possible inequivalence. We start with the Dirac equation for a particle in a given potential in single particle quantum mechanics. We examine how the energy eigenvalues of the Dirac equation vary when an external perturbation is applied. Then we consider HT and QFT which are based on the same Dirac equation. We focus on the vacuum state and its energy shift caused by an external perturbation.

The possible inequivalence between HT and QFT is closely related to the validity of Feynman’s prescription to disregard the Pauli principle (PP) in intermediate states of perturbation theory . This prescription is based on Feynman’s observation that effects of all virtual processes that violate PP cancel out (at least formally). In HT, however, the PP-violating terms do not necessarily cancel as explicitly illustrated in . In such a case, the result of perturbation calculation differs depending on whether or not PP is enforced in intermediate states. Then the question arises: Should we enforce PP or not?

Cavalcanti  found the exact solution of the HT model of  in its special case with the particle mass $`m=0`$. He pointed out that the exact solution is consistent with the perturbation calculation in which PP is disregarded throughout but not with the one in which PP is enforced. This was puzzling in view of the usual belief that PP operates in intermediate states. Cavalcanti’s comment was responded by  but the above puzzling aspect and the difference between HT and QFT were not fully addressed in it. In this Letter we emphasize that for models of a certain type, including that of , HT and QFT are not necessarily equivalent and we explore various aspects of the difference. In QFT, the cancellation of the PP-violating terms in perturbation theory is complete. QFT is free from the puzzling aspect that was found in .

In Section II we specify the type of the model that we consider. We discuss some difficulties of the HT version of the model. In Section III we examine the QFT version of the model and clarify the difference between HT and QFT. In Section IV we raise a further question regarding HT.

## II The hole theory

We start with single-particle relativistic quantum mechanics with the Hamiltonian

$$H=H_0+V,$$
(1)
where $`H_0`$ is the Dirac Hamiltonian for a particle in a binding potential and $`V`$ is an external perturbation. Unperturbed and perturbed systems, respectively, are such that

$$H_0\varphi _n=ϵ_n\varphi _n,H\psi _n=\eta _n\psi _n.$$
(2)
Suffix $`n`$ ($`=\pm 1,\pm 2,\mathrm{}`$) specifies eigenstates. The energy eigenvalues are labeled such that $`0<ϵ_1<ϵ_2<\mathrm{}`$, and $`0>ϵ_1>ϵ_2>\mathrm{}`$., and similarly for $`\eta _n`$. We assume that the energy levels are all discrete and non-degenerate and that there is a one-to-one correspondence between unperturbed and perturbed eigenstates. In other words, $`\eta _nϵ_n`$ when $`V0`$. Let us also assume that $`\eta _n`$ and $`ϵ_n`$ have the same sign. It is not difficult to relax these restrictions.

We now turn to HT and consider the vacuum in which all negative-energy states are occupied. The unperturbed and perturbed energies of the vacuum are respectively given by $`E_0=_jϵ_j`$ and $`E=_j\eta _j`$. We are interested in the energy shift due to the perturbation,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E=\underset{j}{}(\eta _jϵ_j).$$
(3)
Suppose that we start with known $`ϵ_n`$ and attempt to reach $`\eta _n`$ by perturbation theory. We follow the standard prescription of perturbation theory including all intermediate states. We treat the system as a one-body system and we do not exclude the intermediate states which are already occupied by other particles. The first order energy shift is given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(1)}=\underset{j}{}V_{j,j}=V(𝐫)\rho _{\mathrm{vac}}(𝐫)𝑑𝐫,$$
(4)
where $`V_{j,j}=\varphi _j|V|\varphi _j`$ and $`\rho _{\mathrm{vac}}(𝐫)=_j|\varphi _j(𝐫)|^2`$ is the particle density of the unperturbed vacuum. This $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(1)}`$ as such generally diverges because $`\rho _{\mathrm{vac}}(𝐫)`$ is actually infinite. No matter how weak it is, $`V`$ may cause an infinite energy shift. This difficulty can be avoided by assuming that the density in the perturbed vacuum itself is not an observable quantity and that only the difference between the density of the perturbed vacuum and its unperturbed counterpart is observable. Then the first order energy shift disappears.

We are more interested in the second order energy shift,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(2)}=\underset{j}{}\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ_j^{(2)}=\underset{j}{}\underset{i}{}\frac{|V_{i,j}|^2}{ϵ_jϵ_i}+X,$$
(5)
$$X=\underset{j}{}\underset{kj}{}\frac{|V_{k,j}|^2}{ϵ_jϵ_k},$$
(6)
where $`V_{i,j}=\varphi _i|V|\varphi _j`$. Term $`X`$ is due to the transitions between negative energy states like the one from $`j`$ to $`k`$. In $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(2)}`$, PP has not been considered. If we enforce PP, the transitions between negative energy states are not allowed and we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{PP}}^{(2)}=\underset{j}{}\underset{i}{}\frac{|V_{i,j}|^2}{ϵ_jϵ_i},$$
(7)
where suffix PP means “with PP enforced”. The $`X`$ of Eq. (6) is an infinite alternating series. This formally vanishes because the numerator is symmetric with respect to $`jk`$ while the denominator is antisymmetric. As was illustrated in , however, $`X`$ may not vanish depending on how the calculation is done.

In , the one-dimensional bag model with $`H_0=\alpha p+\beta [m+S(x)]`$ and perturbation $`V(x)=\lambda x`$ was considered. Here $`m`$ is the mass of the particle, $`p=i\mathrm{}d/dx`$, $`\alpha =\sigma _y`$ and $`\beta =\sigma _z`$ are $`2\times 2`$ Dirac matrices. The $`S(x)`$ is a Lorentz-scalar potential such that $`S(x)=0`$ for $`|x|<a`$ and $`S(x)=\mathrm{}`$ for $`|x|>a`$. In this model, we obtain $`V_{j,j}=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(1)}=0`$. The divergence difficulty of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(1)}`$ that we pointed out below (4) does not arise. For the second order energy shift the calculation was done in two ways, methods I and II. In method I, PP is enforced whenever it is applicable. In method II, PP is disregarded throughout. Method I leads to $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{PP}}^{(2)}`$ and method II to $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(2)}`$. The explicit calculations of  led to $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{PP}}^{(2)}<0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(2)}=0`$.

Cavalcanti  showed that, if $`m=0`$, the perturbed Dirac equation $`H\psi _n=\eta _n\psi _n`$ for the model of  can be solved analytically. This enabled him to obtain the exact energy shift of the model. He showed that $`\eta =ϵ`$. The eigenvalue $`\eta `$ is independent of the perturbation and so is the exact energy of the HT vacuum, that is, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=0`$. This is consistent with $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(2)}=0`$ of method II but not with $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{PP}}^{(2)}<0`$ of method I. In other words, if one enforces PP in intermediate states, one obtains a wrong energy shift in HT. This is puzzling. According to the spin-statistics theorem (which was proved in QFT), the wave function of a fermion system has to be antisymmetric with respect to interchanges of the particles. This implies PP. The perturbative interaction $`V`$ is totally symmetric with respect to the interchange of particles. It acts in the same way on all particles. Then the intermediate state that is connected to the antisymmetric initial state through $`V`$ has to be antisymmetric. Hence PP is expected to hold in the intermediate states. This is also related to the unitarity of the $`S`$ matrix . Recall also that Dirac introduced HT such that the vacuum state is stable. This stability relies on PP.

Cavalcanti solved the Dirac equation by rewriting it as $`dw_\pm (x)/dxi(\lambda x\eta )w_{}(x)=0`$, where $`w_\pm (x)=u(x)\pm iv(x)`$, $`u(x)`$ and $`v(x)`$ being the upper and lower components of $`\psi (x)`$, respectively. His solution is of the form of $`w_\pm (x)=C_\pm e^{\pm i[(\lambda /2)x^2\eta x]}`$ where $`C_\pm `$ are constants. His solution can be generalized to the case with an arbitrary potential $`V(x)`$ (but still with $`m=0`$) by replacing his $`w_\pm (x)`$ with

$$w_\pm (x)=C_\pm e^{\pm i[f(x)\eta x]},\frac{df(x)}{dx}=V(x).$$
(8)
The boundary condition for the wave function is $`w_+(\pm a)=iw_{}(\pm a)`$, which leads to

$$\eta ϵ=\frac{1}{2a}_a^aV(x)𝑑x,$$
(9)
where $`ϵ=(2n+1)(\pi /4a)`$ with $`n=0,\pm 1,\pm 2,\mathrm{}`$, is the eigenvalue when $`V(x)=0`$. It is remarkable that this exact energy-shift of the single-particle state is first order. The second order and all higher order effects are zero.

If $`V(x)`$ is an odd function of $`x`$, then $`\eta =ϵ`$. This leads to $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=0`$, that is, the exact energy of the HT vacuum is independent of $`V(x)`$. If $`V(x)`$ contains an even function part, all eigenvalues are shifted exactly by the same amount. The vacuum of HT contains an infinite number of negative-energy particles. If the energy of every particle is shifted by the same amount, the total energy of the vacuum obtains an infinite energy shift. This illustrates what we pointed out below Eq. (4).

## III Quantum field theory

In QFT the Hamiltonian for the unperturbed system can be expressed as

$$_0=\underset{i}{}ϵ_ia_i^{}a_i+\underset{j}{}\overline{ϵ}_jb_j^{}b_j,\overline{ϵ}_j=ϵ_j>0.$$
(10)
The notation is hopefully self-explanatory. The $`a_i`$ ($`a_i^{}`$) is the creation (annihilation) operator for the particle in the unperturbed state $`i`$. The $`a_i^{}`$ creates a particle with energy $`ϵ_i`$ with wave function $`\varphi _i(x)`$. These operators satisfy the usual anticommutation relations. The $`b_j`$ ($`b_j^{}`$) is for the antiparticle. No negative-energy particles appear in QFT. Let us emphasize that the Hamiltonian is defined in terms of normal products of the creation and annihilation operators. The unperturbed vacuum contains no particles nor antiparticles. It is the eigenstate of $`_0`$ with zero eigenvalue.

The interaction Hamiltonian is of the form of

$$𝒱=\underset{i,i^{}}{}V_{i,i^{}}a_i^{}a_i^{}+\underset{i,j}{}V_{i,j}a_i^{}b_j^{}+\mathrm{},$$
(11)
where, for example, $`a_i^{}b_j^{}`$ creates a pair of particle and antiparticle. The other terms that are not shown above are of the form of $`ab`$, $`a^{}b`$, $`b^{}a`$ and $`b^{}b`$. The number of the particles is conserved with the understanding that an antiparticle has particle number -1. Because $`𝒱`$ consists of normal products, its expectation value in the unperturbed vacuum is zero. Hence we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}=0.$$
(12)
We use notation $``$ for the energy of the system in QFT. Equation (12) is in a sharp contrast to Eq. (4). QFT is free from the difficulty of the infinite first-order energy shift of HT that we pointed out below (4). If we did not use the normal products for $`𝒱`$, we would obtain (4) for $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}`$.

Next let us examine the energy shift of the second order. In QFT the vacuum does not contain any particles nor antiparticles. The transitions between negative energy states of HT has no place in QFT. We obtain

$$\mathrm{\Delta }^{(2)}=\underset{j}{}\underset{i}{}\frac{|V_{i,j}|^2}{ϵ_i+\overline{ϵ}_j},$$
(13)
which agrees with $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{PP}}^{(2)}`$ of HT. Recall that $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{\mathrm{PP}}^{(2)}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^{(2)}`$ may or may not agree with each other in HT.

If the exact solutions of the perturbed Dirac equation are known, they can be used to define the creation and annihilation operators $`c`$, $`c^{}`$, $`d`$ and $`d^{}`$ for the perturbed system. The Hamiltonian for the perturbed system then becomes

$$=\underset{i}{}\eta _ic_i^{}c_i+\underset{j}{}\overline{\eta }_jd_j^{}d_j,\overline{\eta }_j=\eta _j>0.$$
(14)
The perturbed vacuum is the eigenstate of $``$ with zero eigenvalue. Perturbed vacuum contains no particles nor antiparticles which are defined in terms of $`\{c,c^{},d,d^{}\}`$.

In the absence of perturbation, the vacuum energy is zero. In the presence of perturbation, if we use $``$ given above, the vacuum energy is again zero. This may give the false impression that the perturbation causes no energy shift. Recall that the Hamiltonian is defined as a normal product. The normal product depends on how the creation and annihilation operators are defined. This dependence gives rise to the energy shift. This can be seen as follows. We have two sets of basis functions, $`\{\varphi _n\}`$ and $`\{\psi _n\}`$, each of which forms a complete orthonormal system. The $`\{a,a^{},b,b^{}\}`$ and $`\{c,c^{},d,d^{}\}`$ are related by the transformation,

$$c_i=\underset{i^{}}{}\psi _i|\varphi _i^{}a_i^{}+\underset{j}{}\psi _i|\varphi _jb_j^{},$$
(15)
$$d_j^{}=\underset{i}{}\psi _j|\varphi _ia_i+\underset{j^{}}{}\psi _j|\varphi _j^{}b_j^{}^{},$$
(16)
and their hermitian adjoints. If we rewrite $`_0+𝒱`$ in terms of $`\{c,c^{},d,d^{}\}`$, we expect to obtain

$$_0+𝒱=+\mathrm{\Delta }.$$
(17)
The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the expectation value of $`_0+𝒱`$ in the perturbed vacuum. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is also the negative of the expectation value of $``$ in the unperturbed vacuum. If $`𝒱0`$, then $`_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }0`$. Therefore $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the energy shift of the vacuum due to the perturbation $`𝒱`$.

Equation (17) has various interesting implications. Let us first work out $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ explicitly. It is somewhat simpler to start with $``$ and rewrite it in terms of $`\{a,a^{},b,b^{}\}`$. The combination $`c_i^{}c_i`$ goes like

$`c_i^{}`$ $`c_i=\left({\displaystyle \underset{i^{}}{}}\psi _i|\varphi _i^{}^{}a_{}^{}{}_{i^{}}{}^{}+{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}\psi _i|\varphi _j^{}b_j\right)\left({\displaystyle \underset{i^{}}{}}\psi _i|\varphi _i^{}a_i^{}+{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}\psi _i|\varphi _jb_j^{}\right)`$ (19)
$`=(\mathrm{normal}\mathrm{products}\mathrm{of}a,a^{},\mathrm{})+|\psi _i|\varphi _j|^2,`$
and similarly for $`d_i^{}d_i`$. If we substitute the above into $``$ and collect the terms of the form of, e.g., $`a^{}a`$, we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i^{},i\mathrm{"}}{}}`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\eta _i\psi _i|\varphi _i^{}^{}\psi _i|\varphi _{i\mathrm{"}}{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}\overline{\eta }_j\psi _j|\varphi _i^{}\psi _j|\varphi _{i\mathrm{"}}^{}\right)a_{}^{}{}_{i^{}}{}^{}a_{i\mathrm{"}}`$ (21)
$`={\displaystyle \underset{i,i^{}}{}}\varphi _i|(H_0+V)|\varphi _i^{}a_{}^{}{}_{i}{}^{}a_i^{}={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}ϵ_ia_{}^{}{}_{i}{}^{}a_i+{\displaystyle \underset{i,i^{}}{}}V_{i,i^{}}a_{}^{}{}_{i}{}^{}a_i^{}.`$
In this way the normal products of $`a,a^{},\mathrm{}`$ altogether become $`_0+𝒱`$ and we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=\underset{i}{}\underset{j}{}\left(\eta _i|\psi _i|\varphi _j|^2+\overline{\eta }_j|\psi _j|\varphi _i|^2\right).$$
(22)
Equation (22) we believe is new. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ can vanish only if $`𝒱=0`$. Otherwise it is negative. Let us emphasize that this sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is not related to the sign of the single-particle energy-shift $`\eta ϵ`$. Even if $`\eta ϵ`$ is positive for all levels, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is negative. This does not necessarily mean though that perturbations $`𝒱`$ and $`𝒱`$ lead to the same value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the exact energy shift. Let us examine its leading term in the perturbation expansion. It is obvious that $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(1)}=0`$. For the matrix elements involved, we obtain in first order

$$\psi _i|\varphi _j=\frac{V_{i,j}}{ϵ_iϵ_j},\psi _j|\varphi _i=\frac{V_{j,i}}{ϵ_jϵ_i}.$$
(23)
As far as the leading term of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is concerned, we can put $`\eta _i=ϵ_i`$ and $`\overline{\eta }_j=\overline{ϵ}_j=ϵ_j`$. Then follows Eq. (13). One can also work out higher order energy shifts $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{(3)}`$, etc., successively.

The problem regarding PP in intermediate states does not arise in the QFT calculation for the vacuum energy. There is nothing that blocks the particle and antiparticle pair creation in the second-order intermediate states. Because the transitions between negative energy states do not appear in QFT, the perturbation calculation is free from the ambiguity of the kind that was pointed out in . The two methods of calculation I and II lead to exactly the same results in QFT. All the PP-violating effects in method II cancel. One can disregard PP throughout as Feynman advocated.

In HT which is based on the one-dimensional bag model with $`m=0`$, there are no second-order and higher order effects in the energy shift. In contrast to this, the exact energy shift of the QFT vacuum is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of Eq. (22). Its first-order part is absent whereas its second-order part is negative definite. The exact energy shift can be explicitly calculated by using the known exact solutions of the Dirac equation of the model.

Let us point out a feature of Eq. (17) which is interesting in relation to Feynman’s prescription. Consider a system that consists of a number of particles and antiparticles together with their vacuum background. The energy shift of this system is simply given by

$$\underset{i}{}(\eta _iϵ_i)+\underset{j}{}(\overline{\eta }_j\overline{ϵ}_j)+\mathrm{\Delta },$$
(24)
where the summations are for the particles and antiparticles. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the same as that of Eq. (22). In calculating $`\eta _iϵ_i`$, for example, one does not have to think about the vacuum background. On the other hand $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the energy shift of the vacuum in the absence of the additional particles and antiparticles. This can be illustrated by using the QFT version of the one-dimensional bag model of .

There is another interesting feature of Eq. (17). The energy spectra of the system in the sense of the differences between energy levels are simply determined by the single particle energies $`\eta `$’s and $`\overline{\eta }`$’s. The vacuum energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is common to all energy levels of the system.

## IV Discussion

We started with a problem of single-particle quantum mechanics with the Dirac equation for a particle in a given potential. We then considered the HT and QFT versions of the problem and examined how the vacuum energy shifts when an external perturbation is applied. We discussed a situation such that HT and QFT are not equivalent. In case of such discrepancy we should choose QFT rather than HT.

If HT and QFT are not necessarily equivalent, some of the calculations done in the framework of HT may have to be reexamined. As one of such possible problems, let us mention the fractional fermion number. In HT, an external perturbation causes a change in the density distribution in the vacuum in which all negative energy levels are filled. This may result in fractionalization of the fermion number of the vacuum; See, e.g., . In QFT the unperturbed vacuum is empty. When an external perturbation is applied to it, a pair of particle and antiparticle can be created. This process of pair creation, however, does not change the fermion number of the vacuum. It is not clear whether or not this can be compatible with the fermion number fractionalization that occurs in HT.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. A. Niégawa for enlightening discussions. This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.


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# Chandra Observations of the X-ray Narrow-Line Region in NGC 4151

## 1 Introduction

NGC 4151 (z=0.00332) is a well-studied Seyfert 1.5 galaxy. It is known to be extended in soft X-rays from Einstein and ROSAT observations (Elvis, Briel, & Henry, 1983; Morse et al., 1995). The nature of the extended X-ray emission was postulated to be either thermal emission from a collisionally ionized plasma or scattered nuclear flux. Weaver et al. (1994) modeled the ASCA spectrum by 3 components: an absorbed power law plus reprocessed emission from a warm absorber and an extra scattered component. Variability was observed in the column density of the warm absorber.

Spectral complexity from unresolved emission lines and ionized absorption edges has been seen in the residuals of power-law fits to the spectra of many Seyfert galaxies. Recent observations with Chandra have revealed narrow absorption and emission lines in the spectra of Seyfert 1 galaxies NGC 5548 (Kaastra et al., 2000) and NGC 3783 (Kaspi et al., 2000). These two sources are dominated by continuum emission from the central source, so absorption lines are more prominent than emission lines. On the other hand, the nucleus of NGC 4151 is highly absorbed, giving a good view of its narrow emission line region.

In this paper we present Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) observations of NGC 4151. We identify and measure a large number of narrow emission lines in the X-ray spectrum. The high spectral resolution provided by HETGS allows us to study the ionization, temperature, and kinematics of the X-ray emitting regions. We discuss the association of the extended X-ray emission with the narrow-line region, and interpretations of the multiple X-ray emitting components in the spectrum.

## 2 Observations

We observed NGC 4151 for 48 ks on 2000 March 5 with Chandra HETGS (Canizares et al., 2000), at a roll angle of $`153.2\mathrm{°}`$. The dispersion directions of the High Energy Grating (HEG) and the Medium Energy Grating (MEG) made acute angles of $`42.5\mathrm{°}`$ and $`37.5\mathrm{°}`$, respectively, with the direction of the extended X-ray emission. Since the source has appreciable extent along the dispersion direction (see below), the spectral and spatial dimensions are mixed. Spectral extractions and reductions were performed using CIAO 111http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao and IDL. We used extraction windows of $`7\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$ width in the cross-dispersion direction, which were centered on the nucleus of the 0-order image. The windows included most of the flux from the extended source. We then summed the plus and minus orders of the spectra. The flux calibration of HETGS is currently accurate to 10% for energies $`E>2`$ keV and 20% for $`E<2`$ keV.

The wavelength calibration was tied to an HETGS observation of Capella which was reduced in an identical manner to NGC 4151 (using CIAO, v. 2.0$`\alpha `$, 2000 August 6). In this way we determined that velocities must be corrected by $`210\pm 20`$ km s-1 to remove a systematic wavelength calibration error that exists in standard-processed data. This error is currently attributed to an error in the CCD pixel scale, due to thermal contraction 222http://asc.harvard.edu/cal. Corrected velocities are reported in Table 1. Marginally redshifted X-ray narrow emission lines have been reported for NGC 5548 (Kaastra et al., 2000, $`270\pm 100`$ km s-1) and NGC 3783 (Kaspi et al., 2000, $`230\pm 170`$ km s-1). These redshifts may be owing to similar wavelength calibration errors.

NGC 4151 was in a low flux state during our observation, with $`3\times 10^3`$ photons s-1 cm-2 Å-1 at 2 Å. We show the first order HEG and MEG spectra in Figure 1. Above 6 Å (below 2.1 keV), the spectrum is dominated by emission lines. Table 1 gives a list of the identified emission lines, their fluxes, and velocities relative to the galaxy rest frame.

We compare the HETGS 0-order X-ray (0.4-2.5 keV) image of NGC 4151 to an optical \[O iii\] 5007 image from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) (Fig. 2). There is a good, but not exact correspondence between the structure of the optical and soft X-ray emission regions. The X-ray emission has a similar extent ($`23\mathrm{}=1.6h_{70}^1`$ kpc) and orientation (PA$`=63\mathrm{°}`$) to the optical narrow-line region (NLR). Most (70%) of the soft X-ray emission is resolved by Chandra; the rest comes from an FWHM$`=0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$ nucleus. The hard X-ray emission (E$`>`$2.5 keV) is consistent with a nuclear point source.

The spatial profiles of the narrow emission lines are extended (Figure 3). We show three lines, from three different ionization states: O vii (f), O viii Ly$`\alpha `$, and Fe i K$`\alpha `$. All three lines have similar spatial profiles to the 0-order soft X-ray image, and can be traced out to a distance of $`3\mathrm{}=210h_{70}^1`$ pc from the nucleus.

HETGS is rather insensitive to relativistically broadened Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission. Yaqoob et al. (1995) fit ASCA observations of Fe K$`\alpha `$ with broad ($`\sigma =0.7`$ keV) and narrow components having equivalent widths of $`300`$ eV and $`100`$ eV, respectively. We find an equivalent width of $`160\pm 20`$ eV for narrow Fe i K$`\alpha `$ with the HEG. The narrow core of the line is unresolved, with FWHM$`=1800\pm 200`$ km/s.

## 3 Discussion

### 3.1 Photoionized X-ray Line Emission

The spectrum of NGC 4151 is hybrid, with line emission coming from both photoionized and collisionally ionized plasmas. There are several strong indications of a photoionized component. First, we see narrow radiative recombination continua (RRCs) from N vii, O vii, O viii, Ne ix, and Ne x. We estimate half widths (at 37% peak flux) for the RRCs which range from 1-4 eV, corresponding to temperatures of $`24\times 10^4`$ K. To have such a low temperature and contain such high ionization states, the plasma where the RRC originates must be dominated by photoionization.

The ratio of the O vii forbidden to resonance emission lines ($`f/r=4.6\pm 1.5`$) is also consistent with photoionized plasma (Porquet & Dubau, 2000). In addition, relatively strong $`n=31`$ transitions of N vi, Ne ix, and Mg xi are indicative of photoionization (Bautista & Kallman, 2000). The strength of O, Ne, Mg, and Si K-shell emission lines and relative weakness of Fe L-shell lines are additional characteristics of a photoionized plasma (Liedahl, 1999).

### 3.2 Thermal X-ray Line Emission

Except for O vii, the He-like lines have a small $`f/r`$ ratio, which means that collisional ionization is important. The Ne ix lines have $`f/r=1.7\pm 0.4`$. A ratio $`f/r3.4`$ is expected for a photoionized plasma, and $`f/r<0.8`$ for a collisionally ionized plasma with $`T>2\times 10^6`$ K. There is clearly a mixture of line emission from both types of plasma. We note that fluorescent excitation by the continuum and resonance scattering may lead to enhancement of resonance lines under special circumstances (Bautista et al., 1998; Kallman et al., 1996). However, we would expect these processes to equally effect the O vii and other He-like resonance lines, which is not the case.

The Ly$`\alpha `$ lines of O viii, Ne x, and Mg xii also have a large contribution from collisionally ionized plasma. The O viii Ly$`\alpha `$ line is much stronger than the O viii RRC, while a ratio near unity is expected for a pure photoionized plasma. We find that $`89\pm 5\%`$ of the O viii Ly$`\alpha `$ emission comes from the hot plasma component of the NLR. Similarly, $`70\pm 10\%`$ of the Ne x Ly$`\alpha `$ emission comes from this component. A large fraction of the Mg xii Ly$`\alpha `$ flux must also have a collisional origin, since the Mg xii RRC (6.32 Å) is not even detected.

From the range of formation temperatures of the collisionally augmented lines, we deduce that there is plasma in the temperature range $`T=0.31\times 10^7`$ K. The nondetection of S xvi emission (4.73 Å, $`2\pm 5\times 10^6`$ photons cm-2 s-1) is partly owing to the strong continuum at that wavelength. However, the detection of Fe xxv ($`T_f=8\times 10^7`$ K) suggests that hotter gas is present. A more thorough analysis will be necessary to derive the volume emission measure vs. temperature distribution of the hot plasma.

### 3.3 Continuum Emission

We characterize the continuum emission from NGC 4151 with the sum of two absorbed power laws. The hard continuum ($`E>3`$ keV) has a photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.4\pm 0.3`$ and normalization $`A=2.3_{0.9}^{+1.6}\times 10^3`$ photons keV-1 cm-2 s-1 at 1 keV, absorbed by a neutral column of $`N_H=3.7_{0.9}^{+1.1}\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2. The observed 2-10 keV flux is $`5.5\times 10^{11}`$ ergs cm$`{}_{}{}^{2}s_{}^{1}`$. The soft continuum ($`E<1.3`$ keV) has a photon index of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=3.1\pm 0.5`$ and normalization $`A=1.0\pm 0.1\times 10^3`$ photons keV-1 cm-2 s-1 at 1 keV, absorbed by a Galactic column of $`N_H=2.0\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2.

We deduce that there is strong absorption of the hard nuclear flux by a cloud which does not occult the bulk of the soft X-ray emitting NLR. Weaver et al. (1994) observed a 2-10 keV flux of $`1122\times 10^{11}`$ ergs cm$`{}_{}{}^{2}s_{}^{1}`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1.5`$, and $`N_H=25\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 with ASCA. The hard continuum was harder and a factor of $`24`$ times fainter during our observation, but $`N_H`$ was similar. However, we note that poor statistics for energies above 7 keV in our data may bias the fit value for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. Weaver et al. (1994) also found variations in $`N_H`$ with ASCA on a time scale of 6 months, which suggests that absorption is taking place on a spatial scale much smaller than the NLR.

The soft continuum of NGC 4151 has a much steeper photon index than the hard continuum (3.1 vs 0.4). This argues against Thomson scattered emission as the source of the soft continuum, unless the intrinsic nuclear continuum steepens drastically below 3 keV. Thermal bremsstrahlung and blended Fe L emission lines are therefore the most likely sources of the soft continuum.

### 3.4 Kinematics of the X-ray Line Region

The locations and velocity field of optically emitting clouds in the NLR of NGC 4151 have been mapped in detail by Kaiser et al. (2000), and are consistent with a biconical outflow from the nucleus. Integrated long-slit spectroscopy of the central $`2\mathrm{}`$ of the NLR gives a blueshift of -90 km s-1 and a line width (FWHM) of 460 km s-1 for the \[O iii\] 5007 line (Heckman et al., 1981). The blueshifts and blue asymmetry of the optical lines are likely owing to obscuration of the far cone by dust.

The unblended X-ray emission lines have an (unweighted) mean blueshift of $`120\pm 50`$ km s-1 with respect to the galaxy rest frame, as measured from its stellar spectrum. This is consistent with the velocity of the optical NLR. Since the X-ray line widths are affected by spatial broadening, we can only get an upper limit to their velocity widths from the widths of the low energy lines. O vii (f) has an apparent width (Gaussian FWHM) of $`460`$ km s-1, which equals the widths of the optical lines.

It is interesting that the X-ray emission region is more extended in the front (SW) cone than the back cone (Fig. 2), suggesting that the soft X-rays from the back cone are obscured, like the optical emission. The similar spatial extent of the X-ray and optical emission line regions (Figs. 2,3) and their similar kinematics are strong evidence that they are closely linked. X-ray emission from the NLR demonstrates that high energy processes are important in this region, at distances of 70-800 pc from the galactic nucleus.

### 3.5 The Multiphase Nature of the NLR

For the first time, there is direct evidence for at least 2 distinct gas phases in the extended NLR of a Seyfert galaxy. One of the phases is cool ($`T=3\times 10^4`$ K) and photoionized, while the second is hot ($`T10^7`$ K) and collisionally ionized. In addition, there is a large range in ionization of the photoionized region, as demonstrated by O i-O iii in the optical-UV spectrum and O vii in the X-ray spectrum. There are also strong K$`\alpha `$ lines from neutral species in the X-ray spectrum, including Fe i, Si i, and Mg i. Detailed modeling will be necessary to determine the volume emission measure vs. ionization distribution of the photoionized component. A wide range of ionization is derived from photoionization models of the NLR of the Circinus galaxy (Sako et al., 2000), and might be explained by a radial gradient in the NLR density.

A large percentage ($`65\pm 9\%`$) of the narrow Fe i K$`\alpha `$ emission comes from the extended NLR (Fig. 3). This is contrary to the popular idea that the narrow emission comes primarily from a parsec scale torus. The remaining unresolved emission, which has an equivalent width of $`56\pm 9`$ eV, may very well come from a torus. Unlike NGC 5548 (Yaqoob et al., 2000), there is no evidence for Doppler broadening of the narrow Fe i K$`\alpha `$ line in NGC 4151.

It has been suggested that a hot, inter-cloud medium is necessary for pressure confinement of the NLR clouds (Elvis, Briel, & Henry, 1983). The hot plasma we detect in our X-ray spectrum may form this medium. We derive volume emission measures for the thermal contribution to the Ne x and O viii Ly$`\alpha `$ lines of $`n_e^2V=24\times 10^{63}h_{70}^2`$ cm-3, assuming $`T=1\times 10^7K`$, and line emissivities for solar abundances from Mewe, Gronenschild, & van den Oord (1985). Crenshaw et al. (2000) derive a half-opening angle of $`36\mathrm{°}`$ from kinematic models of the optical NLR. If the thermal X-ray line emission comes from a uniformly filled ($`f=1`$) bicone in the central $`4\mathrm{}`$ of the galaxy, then the mean plasma density is $`n_e=3`$ cm-3 and the pressure is $`n_eT=3\times 10^7`$ cm-3 K. Pressure equilibrium between the hot and cool phases of the X-ray NLR would then require a density of $`n_e=10^3`$ cm-3 for the cool phase.

The optical NLR clouds at $`r=620\mathrm{}`$ have a density $`n_e=220`$ cm-3 and a pressure of $`n_eT=3\times 10^6`$ cm-3(Penston et al., 1990; Morse et al., 1995), much lower than what we find closer to the nucleus. However, we know that the spatial profile of the NLR flux is centrally peaked. A density profile of $`r^2`$ would account for the larger pressure of the nucleus than the extended NLR, assuming constant temperature. Estimates of the pressure can be improved by modeling the density distribution to match the spatial profiles of the X-ray emission.

A possible alternative is that the hot plasma is confined to shocks between the NL clouds and the host galaxy ISM. In that case, its filling factor $`f`$ would be much lower, and its density and pressure much higher than calculated above. The X-ray emission we observe in the Chandra image has a clumpy morphology which follows the optically emitting clouds. This may be partly owing to emission from a shocked component. There is evidence for deceleration of the NL clouds at a radius of about $`2\mathrm{}`$ from the nucleus (Crenshaw et al., 2000), perhaps from interaction with the ISM.

## 4 Conclusions

The power of Chandra HETGS to elucidate the nature of the X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei is demonstrated by high resolution spectra and images of NGC 4151. Direct emission from the nucleus is highly absorbed. Strong, narrow X-ray emission lines are seen from the spatially resolved NLR of NGC 4151. The narrow radiative recombination continuum features and the O vii $`f/r`$ ratio are consistent with photoionization from the hard nuclear X-ray source. There is also narrow line emission from a hot, collisionally ionized component in the extended NLR. This may come from the long-sought intercloud medium or shocked plasma. In addition, we find strong narrow Fe i K$`\alpha `$ emission from the extended NLR. The composite nature of the NLR indicates that both photoionization and collisional heating are important. The extent and kinematics of both X-ray photoionized clouds and hot thermal plasma match those of the optical NLR, showing that they are closely connected. We also suggest that the narrow X-ray emission lines seen in some other Seyfert galaxies may come from the NLR, and may be interpreted in the light of these NGC 4151 observations.

We thank everyone whose hard work made Chandra and HETGS possible. We also thank the referee, Kim Weaver, for many helpful comments. This work was funded in part by contracts NAS8-38249 and SAO SV1-61010. Some of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Multimission Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute (MAST). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

Figure Captions

Figure 1
Chandra first order HEG (top) and MEG (middle, bottom) spectra of NGC 4151, with line identifications. Above 6 Å, the spectrum is dominated by narrow emission lines from both thermal and photoionized plasmas. Note that the ratio of forbidden to resonance emission in the He-like O vii lines is large, while the ratio for Ne ix, Mg xi, and Si xiii is smaller, indicating a hybrid spectrum. The narrow radiative recombination continua (RRCs) of several ions attest to photoionization in a cool $`T=3\times 10^4K`$ plasma.

Figure 2
Comparison of X-ray and optical emission from the extended NLR in NGC 4151. Chandra contours (0.4-2.5 keV band) are overlayed on an HST \[O iii\] 5007 image. A 36$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4 by 23$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 region is shown, with N at top and E at left. Note that the SW (front) cone is more extended than the NE (back) cone in both bands. X-ray contours are separated by factors of 2 in surface brightness, with the lowest contour at 2.1 photons arcsec-2.

Figure 3
Comparison of NGC 4151 zero-order spatial profile and 1st order emission line spatial profiles. The gaussian profile of the unresolved nuclear component is shown for comparison. The spatial profiles of O vii, O viii, and Fe K$`\alpha `$ are all resolved, from a region at least $`6\mathrm{}`$ in extent.


text:
# Topologically non-trivial configurations in 3-dimensional Yang-Mills theory

## 1 Introduction

Monopoles are expected to play an important role in confining quarks in QCD. In lattice simulations, one usually looks for U(1) monopoles by fixing an Abelian gauge . However it is important to have a gauge invariant way of detecting monopoles in non-Abelian gauge theories. In a recent paper  Anishetty, Majumdar and Sharatchandra have given a criterion for characterizing topologically non-trivial configurations in 3-dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. This criterion is local and manifestly gauge invariant. This was achieved by formulating the theory in terms of gauge invariant variables closely related to gravity. This rewriting also turns out to be a duality transformation as it neatly separates the “spin waves” from the “topological degrees of freedom”. We see this explicitly from simulation data (see fig.1). Reformulation of the theory, even if it gives us the criterion, does not tell us whether such configurations actually occur. That is an important dynamical question and we attempt to answer it by simulating 2+1-dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge theory and checking for the topologically non-trivial configurations. From now on, motivated by the fact that finally we want to look at the 3+1-dimensional theory, we will call these topologically non-trivial objects in three dimensions as monopoles, even though they are actually instantons of the 3-dimensional theory.

## 2 Method

The partition function of 3-dimensional Yang-Mills theory is

$$Z=𝒟A_i^a(x)exp\left(\frac{1}{2\kappa ^2}d^3xF_{ij}^a(x)F_{ij}^a(x)\right)$$
(1)
where $`i,j`$ run over $`1,2,3`$ and

$$F_{ij}^a(x)=_iA_j^a_jA_i^a+ϵ^{abc}A_i^bA_j^c$$
(2)
is the usual field strength.

To identify the monopoles of the theory one can use the orthogonal set of eigenfunctions of a positive symmetric matrix. For that purpose we consider the eigenvalue equation of the matrix $`F_{ij}^a(x)F_{kj}^a(x)=I_{ik}(x)`$ for each space-time point $`x`$.

$$I_{ik}(x)\chi _k^A(x)=\lambda ^A(x)\chi _i^A(x)$$
(3)
Here $`A`$ is not summed over but labels the eigenvalues.

Isolated points where $`I_{ik}`$ have triply degenerate eigenvalues are special, and have topological significance. At such points, the vector fields formed by the eigenvectors of $`I_{ij}`$ are singular. The index of the vector field at the singular point is the monopole number. Thus the monopoles in any Yang-Mills configuration $`A_i^a(x)`$ can be located in terms of the eigenvectors $`\chi _i^A(x)`$. One can also construct coordinate system using $`\chi ^A(x)`$. Integral curves of this vector field are equivalent to the $`r`$-coordinate. In that case, the coordinate singularities of this coordinate system correspond to the monopoles.

For our simulations, we choose the usual Wilson action for SU(2) gauge theory

$$S_W=\frac{\beta }{2}\underset{plaquettes}{}tr(U_{ij}U_{jk}U_{kl}U_{li})$$
(4)
and measure the basic plaquette at every site. The plaquette variable can be written as

$$expiF_{ij}^a\sigma ^a=cos(|F_{ij}|)+i\widehat{F}_{ij}^a\sigma ^asin(|F_{ij}|)$$
(5)
where $`\widehat{F}_{ij}^a`$ is the unit vector corresponding to $`F_{ij}^a`$. Therefore $`F_{ij}^a=\widehat{F}_{ij}^acos^1(cos(|F_{ij}|))`$. Once we get $`F_{ij}^a`$, we construct $`I_{ij}`$ as $`I_{ij}=F_{ik}^aF_{jk}^a`$.

At the location of the monopole, all three eigenvalues of $`I_{ij}`$ should be degenerate. However on the lattice we do not expect the eigenvalues to become exactly degenerate, but we look for sites where the difference between the eigenvalues are less than some small but non-zero number. Henceforth we shall refer to this number as cut-off. For spherically symmetric monopoles in continuum, around the location of the monopole, one of the eigenvalues will become non-degenerate with the other two which would still be degenerate. The eigenvector corresponding to this eigenvalue will show a radial behaviour. On the lattice we choose the eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue and plot it at the site of the monopole and its nearest neighbors to check for this radial behavior.

## 3 Results

In our simulation, we look at various lattice sizes and couplings $`\beta `$. In three dimensions since $`\beta `$ has dimension of length (to leading order), we keep the ratio between $`\beta `$ and the lattice size fixed. This increases the equilibriation time for the larger lattices. For lattice size $`64^3`$ (the largest lattice we consider) the equilibriation time is of the order of $`240`$ updates. We ignore the first $`300`$ updates and after that take measurements in every successive update for $`300`$ updates.

The number of monopoles is very sensitive to the choice of the cut-off. A small variation in the cut-off can change the number of monopoles detected by an order of magnitude. To choose the cutoff we look at the distribution of the smallest eigenvalues for the various lattice sizes. Then we choose the cut-off to be half the mean minimum eigenvalue for each lattice size. This minimizes the chance that the eigenvalues become degenerate purely due to statistical effects. The various values for which we take data are shown in Table 1.

With these parameters, typically we find one lattice site in every two or three measurements which has the difference of eigenvalues less than the cut-off. For a few configurations (roughly 3 or 4 out of the 300 probed), in every lattice size, we find more than one site in a single configuration which meets the eigenvalue criterion. After this we look at the eigenvectors corresponding to the largest eigenvalue around the lattice site which satisfies the criterion for the degenerate eigenvalues. Among them we look for sites that have at least three non-coplanar eigenvectors which converge to or diverge from a point. Figure 2 shows a typical configuration we are looking for. In order to make sure that the eigenvectors really converge, we rotate the eigenvectors and check that they remain convergent from all angles. In our formulation, the eigenvectors only specify the rays and not the direction of the vector. So we do not distinguish between monopoles and antimonopoles. Our results are shown in Table 2.

## 4 Conclusions

We have seen that it is indeed possible to detect topologically non-trivial configurations using the criterion presented in . Our data also indicates that configurations extended over many cells or plaquettes are favored compared to the ones over a single cells or plaquettes. Moreover only a fraction of the monopoles detected have a spherical symmetry.


text:
# Computational Geometry Column 40

## Abstract

It has recently been established by Below, De Loera, and Richter-Gebert that finding a minimum size (or even just a small) triangulation of a convex polyhedron is NP-complete. Their 3SAT-reduction proof is discussed.

All triangulations of a polygon of $`n`$ vertices use the same number of triangles, $`n2`$, but the same does not hold in higher dimensions, even for convex polytopes. We will only discuss $`3`$-polytopes, i.e., convex polyhedra $`P`$, where a triangulation is a collection of tetrahedra whose vertices are drawn from the vertices of $`P`$, whose union is $`P`$, and such that the intersection of any two of the tetrahedra is either empty or a vertex, edge, or face common to the two tetrahedra. The number of tetrahedra in a triangulation of a convex polyhedron of $`n`$ vertices might be as small as $`n3`$ or as large as $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{n}{2}\right)2n+3`$. It is easy to obtain a linear-size triangulation of a simplicial polyhedron (all faces triangles) by the following starring procedure (\[Ber97, p. 424\]). Select one vertex $`v`$ and include the tetrahedron formed by the convex hull of $`v`$ and each face $`f`$ not incident to $`v`$. Because a simplicial polyhedron has $`F=2n4`$ faces, this method yields at most $`2n7`$ tetrahedra (at least three tetrahedra are incident to $`v`$). For nonsimplicial polyhedra, it could be better. For example, applied to a cube, starring results in a triangulation by $`6`$ tetrahedra (Fig. 1a). So this method provides a triangulation using at most twice the minimum number. But getting closer to the optimum (in the case of a cube, $`5`$ (e.g., Fig. 1b)) has proven difficult. Now we know why: Below, De Loera, and Richter-Gebert (BDR) proved that deciding whether a convex polyhedron can be triangulated with fewer than $`k`$ tetrahedra is NP-complete \[BDR00\].

Their proof follows the structure of Ruppert and Seidel’s similar proof that the same question for nonconvex polyhedra is intractable \[RS92\]. But the latter authors showed that even deciding whether a polyhedron could be triangulated is hard, whereas we’ve seen all convex polyhedra are easily triangulated. Here I will sketch just one aspect of the proof in \[BDR00\].

Both proofs rely on Schönhardt’s untriangulable polyhedron (\[O’R87, p. 254\]; \[Ber97, p. 423\]), shown in Fig. 2(b). The three reflex diagonals (a) block triangulation. The polyhedron is first transformed by enlarging the base $`B`$ (c). Now if $`B`$ is glued to a larger “frame” polyhedron, its top face $`A`$, which BDR call the “skylight,” must be connected through $`B`$ to a vertex below to form the tetrahedron that includes $`A`$.

It is this “visibility” constraint that Ruppert and Seidel exploited to arrange for their 3-SAT reduction.

BDR convexify the attached Schönhardt polyhedra through the following strategy. They prove (in \[BB<sup>+</sup>00\]) that a fan-shaped polyhedron like that shown in Fig. 4 (embedded in a larger polyhedron) is efficiently triangulated by employing the internal axis diagonal $`ab`$, but any triangulation that avoids that diagonal uses many more tetrahedra. So they string a shallow arc of points exterior to the three reflex diagonals of each Schönhardt polyhedron, to achieve two goals: (1) to convexify each; and (2) to heavily penalize any triangulation that does not employ the reflex diagonals. This forces the inclusion of the Schönhardt diagonals, which forces skylight visiblity constraints.

The remainder (and majority) of their proof exploits these constraints to construct variable and clause gadgets on the frame polyhedron, carefully arranging lines of sight to result in a convex polyhedron that can be triangulated with few tetrahedra iff a particular logical formula is satisfiable. Beside the intricacy of the logical structure, two delicate issues are retaining convexity, and assuring the vertex coordinates remain singly-exponential, and so polynomially representable.

At least two interesting open questions remain. The first is determining the complexity of finding a maximum size (or just a large) triangulation. Perhaps surprisingly, large triangulations of $`d`$-polytopes do have application, to algebraic geometry and to integer programming.

The second problem has practical significance in geometric modeling, in particular, to meshing. For a nonsimplicial polyhedron, i.e., one with faces of more than three sides, the surface may be triangulated in several different ways. Typically solid models are given with a particular surface triangulation. It is unknown how difficult it is to decide whether there exists a triangulation of the polyhedron into tetrahedra that is compatible with a given surface triangulation, in the sense that each triangle on the surface is a face of a tetrahedron. For example, no starring of the triangular prism shown in Fig. 4 is compatible with the displayed (Schönhardt-like) surface triangulation, for starring from $`v`$ demands all faces incident to $`v`$ be also starred. In fact no triangulation of this prism is compatible without adding an interior “Steiner” point.