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# F stars, metallicity, and the ages of red galaxies at 𝑧>1

## 1 Introduction

Deep optical spectroscopy with $`810`$-metre class telescopes can overcome many of the problems associated with estimating the ages of high-redshift galaxies from cruder broad-band data. In particular, as demonstrated by Dunlop et al. (1996), Spinrad et al. (1997) and Dunlop (1999), high-quality spectral data not only provide reassurance that one is observing starlight, but allow reddening-independent age estimation based on the strength of specific spectral features. These observational advances have greatly enhanced the prospects for reliable age-dating of high-redshift stellar populations. Consequently, recent years have seen renewed interest in clarifying and attempting to resolve the remaining sources of uncertainty. As is often the case when an area of high-redshift astronomy finally enters the regime of quantitative astrophysics, the dominant sources of uncertainty transpire to be problems that have dogged work at lower redshift for many years. In this case the main outstanding issues are disagreements over the details of stellar evolution, and the well-known degeneracy between derived age and metallicity (Worthey 1994).

Of course the potential severity of both, and especially the former of these effects is expected to be a function of age and observed spectral region. In particular, as described by Magris & Bruzual (1993), and reaffirmed in the study of the red, $`z1.5`$ galaxy LBDS 53W091 (Dunlop et al. 1996; Spinrad et al. 1997), it is in the rest-frame near-ultraviolet (near-UV), at ages less than 5 Gyr, that disagreements between the predictions of alternative models of spectral evolution should be minimised. This is because for such ages it is expected that the near-UV light should be dominated by the output of stars near the turnoff point of the ‘well-understood’ main sequence (e.g. Nolan et al. 2001). However, the ensuing controversy over the precise age of 53W091 (Bruzual & Magris 1998; Yi et al. 2000), and the resulting confusion over the wider implications for cosmology in general, have highlighted the need for a closer inspection of the uncertainties which continue to afflict galaxy age-estimation.

In an attempt to clarify the key issues we have now begun to study both the extent to which various evolutionary synthesis models differ in their evolutionary predictions, and the extent to which rest-frame near-UV data may allow the age-metallicity degeneracy to be lifted. In Nolan et al. (2001), we checked the time evolution of the solar-metallicity ($`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$) population synthesis models of several authors, by comparing the ability of the main-sequence components of these models to reproduce the near-UV solar spectrum of the Sun at its anticipated main-sequence turn-off age.

In this paper we explore whether, given data of sufficient quality, variable-metallicity stellar population models can extract the correct metallicity of a population simply from fitting to the near-UV spectral region accessible through optical spectroscopy of high-redshift galaxies.

We test whether the UV spectral region contains sufficient information to allow reliable recovery of the metallicity in two stages. Firstly, the single stellar atmosphere model spectra of Jimenez et al. (1998) are fitted to the HST ultraviolet spectra of two well-studied, non-solar metallicity, main-sequence stars, at a resolution $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =30,000`$ (Heap et al., 1998a), and a typical signal-to-noise per pixel of 50, before re-binning (Heap et al., 1998b). These are kindly supplied by Sally Heap (Heap, private communication). Secondly, variable- and mixed-metallicity versions of the stellar population models of Jimenez et al.(1998) are fitted to the same two stellar spectra. These stars are HR 4683, an F4V star, with sub-solar metallicity, and HR 4688, an F8V star with super-solar metallicity (Edvardsson et al., 1993). The motivation for using the spectra of these particular stars is that the rest-frame near-UV spectra of the oldest known galaxies at $`z1.5`$ (e.g. 53W091 and 53W069) mimic the spectra of main-sequence F stars (F5V - F9V; Dunlop 1999).

This is, of course, a rather one-sided test, but it is still potentially very instructive. Specifically, if the single stellar atmosphere models cannot extract the correct metallicity from the high-quality near-UV data available for these F-stars, then it is probably safe to assume that lifting the age-metallicity degeneracy in high-redshift galaxies is currently impossible. Conversely, if the single atmosphere models can yield the correct metallicity for these F-stars, then that provides some hope that the age-metallicity degeneracy can be lifted in high-redshift galaxies, given near-UV data of sufficient quality. In addition, if the variable- and mixed-metallicity stellar population model results are consistent with the results from fitting the single stellar atmospheres, then we may be confident that, at young ages, main-sequence stars do indeed dominate the UV flux of stellar populations, that the time-evolution of the non-solar metallicity population models is correct, and that we can constrain metallicity even with the greater flexibility allowed in the mixed-metallicity population models. We may then be confident that ages and metallicities recovered for the high-redshift galaxies are reliable.

However, such optimism must be tempered by the knowledge that the spectrum of a high-redshift galaxy is unlikely to be as clean as that of the test-case F-stars, given the obvious likelihood of a mixture of metallicities and ages in a substantial stellar population. Nevertheless, as we report in this paper, the results of fitting the variable/mixed metallicity models of Jimenez et al. (1998) to the near-UV spectra of the two F-stars are sufficiently encouraging to motivate the re-fitting of the Keck spectra of LBDS 53W091 and 53W069 with metallicity allowed to vary as a free parameter.

The layout of the paper is as follows. In section 2 we describe the models we have used, and the procedures by which they have been fitted to the data. In section 3 we present the results of fitting single, variable metallicity, model stellar atmosphere spectra, single (but variable) metallicity stellar population models, and mixed-metallicity stellar population models (comprising a free mix of seven different metallicities) to the HST near-UV spectra of the F stars. Then, in section 4, we present the results of fitting the same stellar population models to the optical (rest-frame near-UV) spectra of the $`z1.5`$ galaxies LBDS 53W091 and 53W069, and discuss the extent to which such modelling allows the age-metallicity degeneracy to be lifted. Finally, as a check on whether our assumption of single burst models is appropriate, we have also fitted the spectra of these two galaxies using MOPED (Heavens et al., 2000), which allows the star formation history to be unconstrained. Our conclusions, including revised constraints on the ages of these red galaxies, are summarised in section 5.

## 2 Models and model fitting

### 2.1 The models

The stellar population evolutionary synthesis models utilised in this paper are the instantaneous starburst models of Jimenez et al. (1998), and the model single stellar atmospheres are those used in creating these population models. The reliability and consistency of the solar metallicity ($`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$$`=0.02`$) version of these population models were confirmed by Nolan et al. (2001). We now also possess non-solar metallicity models, for both the stellar population models and the single stellar atmosphere models, with metallicities 0.01$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.2$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 1.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 2.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$and 5.0$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$.

The stellar interior library of the Jimenez et al. (1998) models is computed using the latest version of the JMSTAR15 code (Jimenez et al. 1996, Jimenez & McDonald 1996). This uses the OPAL95 opacities (Iglesias & Rogers 1996) for stellar temperatures $`\stackrel{>}{}`$ 6000K, and Alexander’s opacities for temperatures $`<`$ 6000K. The mixing-length theory of Baker & Temensvary (1966), modified to allow for the limit of optically thin convective elements (Mihalas 1978), is used for the treatment of convective energy transport. The model grid is calculated for a range of metallicities, Z $`=`$ 0.0002 $``$ 0.1, with solar metallicity, $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ $`=`$ 0.02, and the solar helium fraction, $`\mathrm{Y}_{}`$ $`=`$ 0.28. The mixing-length parameter, $`\alpha `$, is calibrated by a comparison of the computed solar model with the observed effective temperature, Teff, age, luminosity and radius of the Sun. In addition, a consistency check was carried out, using the position of the red giant branch (RGB) in globular clusters with known metallicity (Jimenez et al. 1996).

Stellar masses range from 0.1 to 120 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, with step size, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ M $`=`$ 0.05 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, from 0.1 to 3 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ M $`=`$ 1 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ thereafter. The models used in this work have a Salpeter IMF (Salpeter 1955). The tracks are evolved all the way from the contracting Hayashi track to the planetary nebula (PN) phase, except for the most massive stars, where the evolution is followed until carbon ignition. All tracks are computed using solar-scaled abundances.

Stellar evolutionary tracks are computed using the boundary conditions set by the theoretical photospheric models calculated by Jimenez et al. (1998). Therefore, for each calculated point on the track, the associated stellar spectrum is known, and there is no need to introduce the uncertainties which arise in calibrating real stellar spectra to theoretical isochrones. Semi-convection arises as a natural consequence of this modelling method.

JMSTAR15 computes the whole evolution of a star in a single run, including the helium core flash, through the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TPAGB), ejecting a PN at the end. This is possible due to the adaptive mesh of grid points, which allows very rapid stages of evolution to be modelled in detail. The SSP code includes a semi-empirical algorithm for computing the evolution of the RGB, horizontal branch (HB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB). This is more realistic than a purely numerical code, and faster, but allows the same degree of accuracy. The AGB was modelled as in J$`ø`$rgensen (1991).

A semi-empirical algorithm is also used in the calculation of mass-loss. The fast computation of post-main sequence (post-MS) stages allowed several values of the mass-loss efficiency parameter, ($`\eta `$ in Reimers’ formula, Reimers 1975), and mixing-length parameter, $`\alpha `$, to be investigated. A realistic mean value of $`\eta `$ is then found by matching the observed HB mass distribution (Jimenez et al. 1995).

The stellar spectra are those of the Kurucz (1992) library of theoretical stellar atmosphere models for stars with Teff $`>`$ 6000 K. For cooler stars, theoretical photospheres are computed by Jimenez et al. (1998), using the improved (Helling et al. 1996) MARCS code (Gustafsson et al. 1975), which includes molecular opacities.

### 2.2 The fitting processes

Firstly, we have explored the results of simply fitting each of the seven single stellar atmosphere models in turn to the F star spectra, at all possible ages, to identify the best-fitting single value of metallicity, and the resulting inferred age. Secondly, the same process is carried out for the seven single-metallicity stellar population models, for both the F star spectra and the high-redshift galaxy spectra. Finally, we have combined the seven single-metallicity stellar population models to produce a composite model (of single age) in which mean metallicity is allowed to vary by varying the fractional contributions made by each of the seven different metallicity components. We have fitted the mixed-metallicity model to the spectra of the F stars, as well as the high redshift galaxies’ spectra, to confirm that fitting this model allows us to reclaim the correct metallicity.

### 2.3 Fitting the single stellar atmosphere and single-metallicity population models

The best fit was determined for each single-metallicity model (single-atmosphere and stellar population), i.e 0.01$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.2$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 1.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 2.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$and 5.0$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, in the following way. First, the data were re-binned to the same spectral resolution as the models, with the new flux calculated as the mean flux per unit wavelength in the new bin. Both the re-binned and model fluxes were then normalised to a mean flux per unit wavelength of unity across the wavelength range $`30003500\mathrm{\AA }`$ for the galaxy fits, and across the range $`30003117\mathrm{\AA }`$ for the F-star fits (because of the shorter wavelength range of the F-star spectra). The model age and normalisation were then varied as free parameters until $`\chi ^2`$ was minimised. The wavelength range $`24452465\mathrm{\AA }`$ was excluded from the fits to all objects. When included, this feature contributed to 1/3 of the total $`\chi ^2`$ for both the F stars. As this was felt to unfairly bias the fitting process for these objects, the area was masked from the fit for all the objects, and may indicate a failure of the models in this range.

In order to produce the contour plots for the single-metallicity stellar atmosphere and stellar population model fits in sections 3 and 4, the results were refined by carrying out two one-dimensional cubic spline interpolations, one for age, and one for metallicity, between the calculated points on the age-metallicity grid.

### 2.4 Fitting mixed-metallicity models

A mixed-metallicity model was constructed from the 0.01$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.2$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 1.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ 2.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ and 5.0$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ stellar population models of Jimenez et al. (1998). The relative contributions of the different metallicity models were allowed as free parameters. In this section, we assume that all the component populations were formed at the same time, so that the one other free parameter in the fit was the age of the complete population. In section 4.3, we lift this constraint and explore what happens when the stellar populations are formed at arbitrary times.

The mixed-metallicity model flux was built from the unnormalised single-metallicity model fluxes, and then normalised to a mean flux per unit wavelength of unity in the same regions as for the single-metallicity model fits, so that

$$F_{7Z,\lambda ,t}=const\underset{i=1}{\overset{7}{}}X_{Z_i}f_{Z_i,\lambda ,t}$$

where $`F_{7Z,\lambda ,t}`$ is the mixed, seven-metallicity model flux per unit wavelength in the bin centered on wavelength $`\lambda `$ at age, $`t`$ Gyr; $`f_{Z_i,\lambda ,t}`$ is the flux per unit wavelength $`\lambda `$ at age, $`t`$ Gyr, for the single metallicity model with $`Z=Z_i`$, where $`i=1,7`$, and $`X_{Z_i}`$ is the fractional contribution (by baryonic mass) of the model with $`Z=Z_i`$ to the total population.

The best-fitting age, normalisation and the value of each $`X_{Z_i}`$ were determined by $`\chi ^2`$ minimisation, with the wavelength range $`24452465\mathrm{\AA }`$ masked from the fit, as it was in the single stellar atmosphere and single stellar population fits. The entire parameter space of the seven-dimensional age-metallicity hyper-cube was searched, so that the best fits quoted in sections 3 and 4 are those parameter values which correspond to the point on the age-metallicity grid with the minimum $`\chi ^2`$.

### 2.5 Errors

The errors on the binned spectral data points for the LBDS galaxies have been derived from the propagation of the original observational errors in the Keck optical spectroscopy (Dey et al., 2002, in preparation). Using these errors, statistically acceptable fits were achieved. For the F-star spectra, the error adopted for each re-binned data point was simply the standard error in the mean for that bin. For HR 4683 (the low-metallicity star), a formally acceptable fit was obtained using these errors. However, for HR 4688 (the high-metallicity star), this did not prove possible. There are a number of reasons why this might occur (e.g. inadequacy of the super-solar models $``$ e.g. Kotoneva, Flynn & Jimenez (1998).

### 2.6 Marginalising the mixed-metallicity results

The contours of constant relative likelihood discussed in §3.3 and 4.2 are plotted with respect to mean metallicity and age. As it is possible for more than one combination of single-metallicity models to result in the same mean metallicity, the metallicity distribution was marginalised before plotting.

## 3 Comparison with F-star spectra

### 3.1 Single stellar atmospheres

In table 1 and figures 1 and 2, the results of fitting the seven single-atmosphere models, with metallicities 0.01$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.2$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 0.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 1.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, 2.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$and 5.0$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ to the HST spectra of the two F stars are presented. The best-fit single-star model to the F4V star spectrum has a metallicity of 0.2$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, and an age of 4 Gyr. For the F8V star, the best-fit single-star model has an age of 1.5 Gyr, with a metallicity 2.5$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$.

Edvardsson et al. (1993) estimated the relative iron abundances (\[Fe/H\] = Z/$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, where $`\text{ }\mathrm{Z}_{}=0.02`$) of these two stars by fitting model stellar atmospheres to spectral lines observed at optical wavelengths. They estimated the uncertainty in the derived metallicities to be, at most, 0.10 dex. Based on these optical lines, they found the F4V star to have a metallicity of 0.29$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, and the F8V star to have a metallicity of 1.62$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$.

Edvardsson and coworkers also derived ages for these stars from fits in the $`T_{eff}\mathrm{log}g`$ plane to VandenBerg (1985) isochrones. They found an age of 4.4 Gyr for the F4 dwarf, HR 4683, and an age of 2.1 Gyr for the F8 dwarf, HR 4688. However, they expect the uncertainties in the relative ages of the stars in their sample to be $`25`$%, with the possibility that the absolute errors are larger.

Our results from fitting the single stellar atmosphere models are in excellent agreement with these, entirely independently obtained, age and metallicity estimates. Encouraged that the UV spectral region contains sufficient data to determine both age and metallicity, we proceed to fit the stellar population models.

### 3.2 Single-metallicity stellar population models

Attempting to fit complete stellar population models to the spectra of single stars might seem like a strange thing to do. However, having established that the individual input stellar spectra seem to work well in the near-UV regime, extending the model fitting to complete stellar populations offers a means to test the extent to which the near-UV light from a complete stellar population is indeed dominated by the dwarfs near the MS turnoff. It is also important to test whether, with the addition of stars spanning a wide range in mass and evolutionary stage, the theoretical UV spectrum can still identify the correct metallicity of our adopted turn-off population (as represented by the single F-star spectrum) given data of this quality. Finally, expanding the parameter space still further to include a mix of stellar populations of different metallicity, it is of interest to test whether these stellar spectra still contain enough information to allow the age and metallicity to both be well constrained.

In figures 3 and 4, we show the results of fitting each of the seven single-metallicity stellar population models in turn to the HST spectra of the F stars HR 4683 and HR 4688 respectively. The first plot in each figure shows the best-fitting model spectrum superimposed on the observed near-UV stellar spectrum. The second plot shows contours of constant reduced $`\chi ^2`$ ($`\chi _\nu ^2`$) as a function of metallicity and age. The contour levels contain 68%, 90% and 95.4% relative likelihood. The results are presented in table 2.

The fitting process results in a minimum $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ corresponding to an age of 3 Gyr, with a metallicity of 0.2 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ for the F4V star, HR 4683, and an age of 3 Gyr, with a metallicity of 1.5 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$for the F8V star, HR 4688.

Again, the metallicities yielded by our completely independent, near-UV model-fitting shown in figures 3 and 4 are in very good agreement with those previously derived from optical indices by Edvardsson et al. (1993); we have derived metallicities from the near-UV data which fall within the uncertainties in the optically-derived values (see figures 3 and 4).

It should be noted that the ages determined by Edvardsson and co-workers are the present ages of the stars, whereas fitting the stellar population models to the spectra should yield ages which correspond to the main-sequence lifetimes of the stars. For this reason it might be expected that our model-fitting should yield ages greater than those derived by Edvardsson and co-workers. However, the models include integration down the main-sequence, as well as post main-sequence contributions, both of which are likely to lead to an under-estimate of the true main-sequence turnoff age when fitted to the spectrum of a single star. Therefore, more important than the exact values of the derived ages for single stars is the fact that the age appears to be well constrained despite the availability of seven different metallicities at each age. In addition, the results of these stellar population model fits are in good agreement with the results of §3.1, as one would expect if stellar populations are indeed dominated by MSTO stars at ages $`<`$ 5 Gyr.

These results therefore demonstrate that by fitting the single-metallicity models to the near-UV spectra of the F stars, we have apparently managed to simultaneously determine both age and metallicity, recovering well-constrained and plausible metallicities for these two stars.

#### 3.2.1 Age / metallicity determinators

This success leads naturally to the question of whether any specific spectral features in this near-UV regime can be identified as primarily responsible for allow the metallicity and age to be so effectively determined in this analysis. To explore this we have derived $`\chi ^2`$ residual plots for a range of single-metallicity stellar population models fitted to the observed stellar spectra, which are shown in figures 5 and 6. The central plot is the residual from the best over-all fit. The metallicity of the model fitted increases downwards, and the age increases from left to right. Where the (normalised) observed flux is less than the (normalised) model flux,the quantity plotted is $`(\mathrm{f}_{\lambda model}\mathrm{f}_{\lambda data}/\sigma )^2`$. The feature at 2450 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ has been masked out in all fits.

In fact, from these figures it is hard to identify any particular absorption line as being primarily an indicator of age or of metallicity. However, there is a clear suggestion that changes in age and metallicity alter the shape of the residual spectrum in rather different ways; while changing age alters the overall slope of the residual continuum level, changing the metallicity introduces stronger steps into the residual continuum level, especially at $``$ 2850. This is perhaps not surprising since much of the detailed UV continuum shape produced by stellar populations around this age is dominated by extensive line blanketing.

For the sub-solar metallicity star, HR 4683, the spectral features identified by Fanelli et al. (1992), as marked on the plots, are remarkably well reproduced by the best-fitting model spectrum (figure 5, centre plot). The BL 2538 feature is least-well reproduced, although this is better fit by the best-fitting single stellar atmosphere model spectrum. One might expect that, as the spectral features of Fanelli et al. (1992) have been well studied, their flux would be well modelled.

For the super-solar metallicity star, HR 4688, the MgII 2800 and BL 2538 features (offset in the model flux with respect to the central wavelengths of the features because of the binning resolution) are not well fitted by the best-fitting single stellar population model (figure 6, centre plot). It is unlikely that the poor modelling of these features arises from including post-MS contributions to the model flux, as they are not well modelled even by the best-fitting single stellar atmosphere model. The MgII feature at 2800 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ is better fit by the 0.5 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ model. This illustrates the dangers associated with attempts to determine age and metallicity using only a handful of absorption features.

### 3.3 Mixed-metallicity models

In figures 7 and 8, we show the results of fitting the mixed-metallicity model to the HST spectra of the F stars. Each figure shows the best-fitting model superimposed on the observed near-UV stellar spectrum, together with the $`\chi ^2`$ residual plots, with the central wavelengths of the mid-UV spectral features identified by Fanelli et al. (1992) marked by dashed lines.

These are followed by contour plots of constant relative likelihood for the marginalised distribution of mean metallicity with age. The contours contain 68.3%, 90% and 95.4% relative likelihood. Also included is a fourth panel showing how the fractional contribution (by baryonic mass) of the different metallicity components varies as a function of age. The results are tabulated in table 3.

This time, the interpolated results predict a mean metallicity for the F4V star of 0.37$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ at an age of 3 Gyr, while for the F8V star a mean metallicity of 1.52$`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$, at an age of 9 Gyr, is predicted.

From the $`\chi ^2`$ residual plot in figure, it can be seen that the identified spectral features of HR 4683 are again well fitted by the model. For the super-solar metallicity star, HR 4688, the absorption features BL 2538 and MGII 2800 are much better reproduced by the mixed-metallicity model than by the single-metallicity models.

Fitting this type of mixed-metallicity model arguably provides a fairer test of our ability to simultaneously determine age and metallicity. Once again it can be seen that the derived metallicities and ages are well constrained, and the metallicities are in good agreement both with the completely independent, optically-based results of Edvardsson et al., and the results of the previous two subsections, although, in this case, the predicted age of HR 4688 is older than might be expected. However, it can be seen in the fourth plot of figure 8 that where a single metallicity dominates (at an age of $``$ 3 Gyr) the results are consistent with the results of the single-metallicity stellar population fits.

## 4 Red galaxies at z $``$ 1.5

### 4.1 Single-metallicity models

In figures 9 and 10, we show the results of fitting each of the seven single-metallicity models in turn to the Keck spectra of the red mJy radio galaxies LBDS 53W069 (Dunlop 1999, Dey et al. 2002, in preparation) and LBDS 53W091 (Dunlop et al. 1996; Spinrad et al. 1997) respectively. The first plot in each figure shows the best-fitting model spectrum superimposed on the rest-frame near-UV galaxy spectrum. The second plot shows contours of constant reduced $`\chi ^2`$ ($`\chi _\nu ^2`$) as a function of metallicity and age. The contour levels represent 68%, 90% and 95.4% confidence limits. The results are presented in table 2. An age of 3 Gyr, with a solar metallicity is derived for the galaxy LBDS 53W091 (z = 1.55). For LBDS 53W069 (z = 1.43), ages greater than 6 Gyr are discarded, as they are not possible at z $`1.5`$ in currently-accepted cosmological models. The best fit age is then 3 Gyr, at a metallicity 1.5 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$.

In both LBDS 53W069 and 53W091, age and metallicity have been simultaneously remarkably well constrained (see figures 9 and 10), with a predicted age for 53W091 between 2.7 and 3.5 Gyr with 95.4% confidence, and for 53W069, between 2.3 and 4.6 Gyr at the same level of confidence. Thus, under the assumption of a single metallicity for the observed stellar populations in these galaxies, it is clear that allowing metallicity to vary as a free parameter does not alter the conclusion of Dunlop (1999), that both these galaxies are $`34`$ Gyr old, by any more than $``$ 1 Gyr, even when, as in the case of LBDS 53W069, the predicted metallicity is super-solar.

The results confirm the validity of previous arguments in favour of assuming roughly solar metallicity when modelling LBDS 53W091 (Spinrad et al. 1997).

We next investigate the robustness of these results by fitting the mixed-metallicity model to the galaxy spectra.

### 4.2 Mixed-metallicity models

In figures 10 and 11, we show the results of fitting the mixed-metallicity model to the Keck spectra of the LBDS galaxies. As in figures 7 and 8, each figure shows the best-fitting model superimposed on the rest-frame near-UV spectrum, followed by contour plots of constant $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ as a function of mean metallicity and age. The contours contain 68.3%, 90% and 95.4% relative likelihood. Again, a third panel is included showing how the fractional contribution (by baryonic mass) of the different metallicity components varies as a function of age. The results are presented in table 3. Again, ages greater than 6 Gyr are rejected as impossible in currently accepted cosmological models.

This time the best-fit mean metallicity of 53W069 is 3.78 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$. Only old ages ($`>`$ 4.5 Gyr) are allowed, even at high metallicity. The third plot of figure 11 shows that the mixed-metallicity model is dominated by contributions from the high metallicity (2.5 and 5.0 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$) models. This is a very different result from the single-metallicity fit, where the age is constrained at the 95.4 % level to between $``$ 1.9 $``$ 3.2 Gyr, at less than half the metallicity here.

Despite the relatively high value of best-fitting mass-weighted metallicity, the interesting thing is that the inferred age of LBDS 53W069 remains old. The second panel in figure 11 demonstrates that, while the age is not constrained, ages $`<`$ 4.5 Gyr are prohibited at the 95.4% confidence level.

For 53W091, the mean metallicity derived from this mixed-metallicity modelling is reasonably well constrained, and is in fact precisely solar. Not surprisingly, therefore, the best-fit age remains $``$ 3 Gyr (c.f. table 2), with ages $`<`$ 2.5 Gyr formally rejected at the 95.4% confidence level. Again, ages $`>`$ 6 Gyr have been excluded on cosmological grounds.

Is this lower age limit on 53W091 robust, or are better fits possible at lower ages with even higher metallicities than those investigated? For this galaxy, the bottom plot in figure 12 shows that the highest metallicity component is only dominant at very young ages, where the statistical quality of the fit is completely unacceptable. A sufficient region of parameter space has been explored for the age limit $`>`$ 2.5 Gyr to be regarded as robust. Again, it should be noted that where a single metallicity component dominates the fit, the results are consistent with the single-metallicity model fits.

### 4.3 MOPED results

In all of the above, we have assumed that the galaxies have formed the bulk of their stellar populations, of whatever metallicity, in a single coeval starburst. To check the extent to which this simplification is appropriate, it is clearly desirable to explore a larger parameter space, in which star formation history is allowed to vary freely. We have therefore refitted the galaxy spectra using the MOPED algorithm (Heavens et al., 2000). In this approach, star formation is divided into several bins in time; the bins have equal width in log space, and allow widths small enough to account for the recent formation of stars in giant molecular clouds ($`10^7`$ years). The height of each bin, allowed to float as a free parameter, represents the mass turned into stars at the corresponding epoch. The metallicity of each bin is allowed to take any value from 0.01 to 5 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$. In this way, we have the most model-independent prescription for describing a stellar population which is a composite of simple stellar populations with arbitrary metallicity, age and star formation rate. Since it is obvious that we cannot explore a parameter space with 1000 variables, we constrain ourselves to 12 bins in star formation history. With the help of MOPED (Heavens, Jimenez & Lahav, 2000, Reichardt, Jimenez & Heavens, 2001), we are able to explore this huge (25 dimensional) parameter space very efficiently, in only a few seconds.

Figures 13 and 14 show the best fitting value found searching the hyper-likelihood surface111The hyper-likelihood surface is so large in this case that not all of it can be explored at once. Instead we chose 2000 random starting points to find the global minimum, which is shown in figures 13 and 14, for 53W069 and 53W091 respectively.. The results for 53W069 yield a population dominated by an old ($`4.257.72`$ Gyr), high-metallicity (3.72 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$) component, together with a small (7.0% by baryonic mass), younger component with a metallicity of 0.13 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$. For 53W091, we can see an old component ($`2.354.25`$ Gyr) with a metallicity of 0.77 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ and negligible contributions from other populations, in good agreement with our previous findings. This, therefore, confirms that for both 53W091 and 53W069, the ages of the dominant populations remain old and apparently coeval, even when the star formation history is allowed to float freely. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the quality of the best fits achieved by MOPED are no better than those achieved with the single burst models explored in the earlier section of this paper.

It should be noted that the MOPED algorithm includes a parameter which allows for reddening of the spectra by dust. For both 53W091 and 53W069, the MOPED fits find a negligible contribution from dust. As the MOPED results are in good agreement with the results from the mixed-metallicity model spectral fits, we are justified in ignoring dust in the spectral fits.

## 5 Conclusion

The main conclusions of this work can be summarized as follows.

First, we have demonstrated that, when fitted to high-quality, near-UV spectra of F stars, the synthetic near-UV spectra produced by the variable-metallicity models of Jimenez et al. (1998) are sufficiently accurate to extract well-constrained estimates of metallicity in accord with the values determined from the study of well-established optical indices. This suggests that it should, in principle, be possible to lift the age-metallicity degeneracy when fitting such models to high-quality optical spectra of high-redshift galaxies.

Second, fitting these variability-metallicity models to the Keck optical (rest-frame near-UV) spectrum of the red, $`z1.5`$ galaxy 53W091 we find that it is dominated by a 3-Gyr stellar population of solar metallicity, in good agreement with the original conclusions of Dunlop et al. (1996).

Third, the fit to the even redder z $`1.5`$ galaxy 53W069 has been able to constrain the metallicity well, but the age has not been convincingly determined. Given the success of the fits to the other spectra, where the old, 5 $`\mathrm{Z}_{}`$ model does not make any significant contribution, this is most likely to represent some uncertainty in the very highest metallicity model at old ages. However, better quality UV data and / or the addition of rest-frame optical data may serve to resolve this problem.

The main finding of importance for cosmology is that, even after this exploration of the effects of varying metallicity, the best-bet age of the oldest known galaxies at $`z1.5`$ remains 3 Gyr, with ages younger than 2 Gyr now more strongly excluded than before.

For $`H_0=70\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ an Einstein-de Sitter universe is younger than 3 Gyr at $`z1.5`$, and even the hard lower limit for coeval star formation of 2 Gyr translates into star-formation activity prior to $`z=8`$. For a flat universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, the best-bet age of 3 Gyr translates into $`z=5`$, while the hard lower limit of $`>2`$ Gyr translates into $`z>3`$. The added flexibility in the star formation history investigated using the MOPED algorithm allows some later star formation, but the bulk of the stars ($`>`$ 90%) must still be formed at high redshift.

Our results therefore continue to argue strongly against an Einstein-de Sitter universe, and favour a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-dominated universe in which star formation in at least LBDS 53W091 is completed somewhere in the range $`z=35`$. Such a conclusion is in accord with recent results from sub-mm surveys which suggest that star-formation activity in radio galaxies, and potentially all massive ellipticals is largely completed at $`z>3`$ (Archibald et al. 2001; Dunlop 2001).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Sally Heap for making the F star data available to us. Louisa Nolan acknowledges the support of a PPARC Studentship. James Dunlop acknowledges the enhanced research time afforded by the award of a PPARC Senior Fellowship. Raul Jimenez acknowledges the support of a PPARC Advanced Fellowship.
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# Shot noise in coupled dots and the “fractional charges”

## Abstract

We consider the problem of shot noise in resonant tunneling through double quantum dots in the case of interacting particles. Using a many-body quantum mechanical description we evaluate the energy dependent transmission probability, the total average current and the shot noise spectrum. Our results show that the obtained reduction of the noise spectrum, due to Coulomb interaction, can be interpret in terms of non–interacting particles with fractional charge like behavior.

PACS: 73.23.Hk, 73.23.-b

The notion of quasi–particles of fractional charge has been introduced for almost two decades to explain the Fractional Quantum Hall (FQH) effect. Yet, despite intensive efforts, the nature of these quasi–particles is not completely understood. An important progress, however, has been made in this direction with experiments on quantum shot-noise  leading to direct measurement of the quasi–particle fractional charge. In fact, for non-interacting particles of charge $`q`$ the zero frequency spectral density at zero temperature is given by

$$S(0)=2qI(1t),$$
(1)
where $`I`$ is the current and $`t`$ is the transmission coefficient through the device. In the FQH regime $`q`$ is given by the quasi–particle charge, $`e^{}`$.

For a proper understanding of the fractional charge, which appears in the shot noise, it is necessary to investigate a possible modification of Eq. (1) due to electron-electron interaction. Since the exact treatment of Coulomb interaction in FQH is a very complicated problem, it would be interesting to investigate the shot noise in different transport processes, where the Coulomb interaction can be treated. These processes can be found, for example, in resonant tunneling structures, which are important not only from a fundamental, but also from an applied point of view. For instance, in was demonstrated that shot noise in the resonant tunneling diode, biased in the negative differential resistance region may be described in terms of independent quasi-particles of charge up to $`6.6q`$.

In this Letter we consider resonant transport through a two-level system, represented by two coupled dots, as shown schematically in Fig. 1, using a microscopic many-body description. The strong Coulomb inter-dot repulsion prevents two electrons to occupy simultaneously the system. Hence an electron, entering this system turns to a linear superposition of the states of the two dots. The main question which we are going to consider is how the Coulomb interaction, which generates a partial occupation of the states of the system, affects the shot noise given by Eq. (1). To answer of this question we apply our new method for a determination of the transmission $`t`$ in a case of interacting electrons. We show that for symmetric dots the effect of the Coulomb interaction leads to a simple modification of Eq. (1), in which the penetration coefficient $`t`$ is replaced by $`kt`$, where $`k`$ is some fractional or integer factor, depending on a particular system of dots. Comparing with Eq. (1) for non-interacting case we find that our result can be described by this equation, but assuming a fractional charge like behavior, similar to that observed in the FQH regime. Even though this system is very different from that of FQH, the similarity in the behavior of shot-noise in different transport processes would be useful to understand the nature of the fractional charge quasi-particles.

Let us consider resonant tunneling through two levels of coupled quantum dots connected to two separate reservoirs of very dense states, as shown in Fig. 1. The reservoirs are taken at zero temperature and are filled up to the Fermi energy levels $`\mu _L`$ and $`\mu _R`$, respectively, with $`\mu _L>\mu _R`$. As a result the current flows from left to the right reservoirs.

Fig. 1: Resonant tunneling through coupled dots.

The dynamics of the system is described by the following tunneling Hamiltonian, where for simplicity we have omitted the spin variables

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}E_la_l^{}a_l+E_1a_1^{}a_1+E_2a_2^{}a_2+{\displaystyle \underset{r}{}}E_ra_r^{}a_r+{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}\mathrm{\Omega }_l(a_l^{}a_1+a_1^{}a_l)`$ (3)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{r}{}}\mathrm{\Omega }_r(a_r^{}a_2+a_2^{}a_r)+\mathrm{\Omega }_0(a_1^{}a_2+a_2^{}a_1)+Ua_1^{}a_1a_2^{}a_2.`$
The operators $`a_i^{}`$ ($`a_i`$) create (annihilate) an electron in the corresponding state $`i`$. The $`\mathrm{\Omega }_l`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_r`$ are the hopping amplitudes between the states $`E_l`$, $`E_1`$ and $`E_r`$,$`E_2`$, respectively. These amplitudes are found to be directly related to the tunneling rate of the electrons out of the quantum dots, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L,R}=2\pi \mathrm{\Omega }_{L,R}^2\rho _{L,R}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{L,R}=\mathrm{\Omega }_{l,r}(E_{1,2})`$ and $`\rho _L`$ ($`\rho _R`$) is the density of states in the left (right) reservoir. The $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ is the hopping amplitude between the dots. The Coulomb interaction between the two dots is given by the last term in Eq. (3). The intra-dot Coulomb repulsion is assumed to be very large, so that only one electron may occupy a dot.

It was demonstrated in Ref. that in the case of large bias, $`\mu _L\mu _R\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L,R},\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, the time dependent Schrödinger equation $`i|\dot{\mathrm{\Psi }}(t)>=H|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$, where $`|\mathrm{\Psi }>`$ is the many-body wave function of the above system, can be transformed to a set of rate equations for the corresponding density matrix, $`\sigma _{ij}^{(n)}(t)`$. This density matrix, gives the probability of finding $`n`$ electrons in the collector by time $`t`$, where the indices $`i,j=\{0,1,2,3\}`$ denote the different possibilities of occupation of the states of the dots, namely: $`\sigma _{00}^{(n)}`$ is the probability of finding both dots unoccupied, $`\sigma _{11}^{(n)}`$, $`\sigma _{22}^{(n)}`$, $`\sigma _{33}^{(n)}`$ are the probabilities of finding the first, the second, and both of the dots occupied, respectively; $`\sigma _{12}^{(n)}(t)=\sigma _{21}^{(n)}(t)`$ denote the off-diagonal density-matrix elements (the “coherencies”).

Consider first the non-interacting case, $`U=0`$ in Eq. (3). Using our approach we derive the following Bloch-type rate equations for $`\sigma _{ij}^{(n)}(t)`$, which have a simple interpretation in term of the “loss” and “gain” contributions

$`\dot{\sigma }_{00}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\sigma _{00}^{(n)}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\sigma _{22}^{(n1)},`$ (5)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{11}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\sigma _{00}^{(n)}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\sigma _{33}^{(n1)}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0(\sigma _{12}^{(n)}\sigma _{21}^{(n)}),`$ (6)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{22}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\sigma _{22}^{(n)}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0(\sigma _{21}^{(n)}\sigma _{12}^{(n)}),`$ (7)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{33}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\sigma _{33}^{(n)}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\sigma _{22}^{(n)},`$ (8)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{12}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`iϵ\sigma _{12}^{(n)}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0(\sigma _{11}^{(n)}\sigma _{22}^{(n)})\mathrm{\Gamma }\sigma _{12}^{(n)},`$ (9)
where $`ϵ=E_2E_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=(\mathrm{\Gamma }_L+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)/2`$.

The stationary current flowing in the system is then given by:

$$I=e\frac{d}{dt}\underset{n}{}nP_n(t)|_t\mathrm{},$$
(10)
where $`P_n(t)=_{i=0}^{i=3}\sigma _{ii}^{(n)}(t)`$ is the total probability of finding $`n`$ electrons in the collector by time $`t`$. The zero frequency component of the noise spectrum is defined by $`P_n(t)`$ as well:

$$S(0)=2e^2\frac{d}{dt}\left[\underset{n}{}n^2P_n(t)(\underset{n}{}nP_n(t))^2\right]|_t\mathrm{}$$
(11)
Solving Eqs. (Shot noise in coupled dots and the “fractional charges”) in the limit of $`t\mathrm{}`$ and using Eqs. (10), (11) one finds the following expressions for the averaged current and the shot noise power, respectively

$`I`$ $`=`$ $`e{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}{(4\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+ϵ^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}},`$ (12)
$`S(0)`$ $`=`$ $`2eI\left(1\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_L^3+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R^3)+2\mathrm{\Gamma }^3(4\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R+4\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }[(4\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)\mathrm{\Gamma }^2+ϵ^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R]^2}}\right).`$ (13)
Since Eqs. (12) and (13) correspond to the non-interacting case, $`U=0`$, one can show that the same expressions for $`I`$ and $`S(0)`$ can be obtained in an alternative way using the Landauer formula for $`I`$ and the Khlus-Lesovik formula for $`S(0)`$,

$`I`$ $`=`$ $`e{\displaystyle \frac{dE}{2\pi }t(E)},`$ (14)
$`S(0)`$ $`=`$ $`2e^2{\displaystyle \frac{dE}{2\pi }t(E)(1t(E))}.`$ (15)
Here $`t(E)`$ is the transmission probability through the sample, given by the Breit-Wigner formula for coupled resonances

$$t(E)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}{\left|\left(EE_1+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_L}{2}\right)\left(EE_2+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}{2}\right)\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2\right|^2}.$$
(16)
In the case of small coupling with the reservoirs, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L,R}\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and $`ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ , the transmission $`t(E)`$ shows two pronounced peaks at $`E=E_\pm `$, corresponding to the two eigenstates of the double-dot system. One easily finds that in this limit Eq. (13) for the shot noise becomes

$$S(0)=2eI(1\overline{t}/2),$$
(17)
where $`\overline{t}=t(E_\pm )=4\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R/(\mathrm{\Gamma }_L+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)^2`$ is the maximum value of the transmission probability. Hence, Eq. (17) predicts a maximum suppression of one half of the Poissonian noise (for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$), in agreement with the known results for independent particle models.

Let us apply our approach to the case where $`U\mathrm{}`$ in Eq. (3). This corresponds to strong interdot Coulomb repulsion, which prevents simultaneous occupation of the two quantum dots. As a result the associated rate equations become :

$`\dot{\sigma }_{00}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\sigma _{00}^{(n)}+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\sigma _{22}^{(n1)},`$ (19)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{11}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\sigma _{00}^{(n)}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0(\sigma _{12}^{(n)}\sigma _{21}^{(n)}),`$ (20)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{22}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\sigma _{22}^{(n)}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0(\sigma _{21}^{(n)}\sigma _{12}^{(n)}),`$ (21)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{12}^{(n)}`$ $`=`$ $`iϵ\sigma _{12}^{(n)}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0(\sigma _{11}^{(n)}\sigma _{22}^{(n)}){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\sigma _{12}^{(n)}.`$ (22)
Solving Eqs. (Shot noise in coupled dots and the “fractional charges”) in the limit of $`t\mathrm{}`$ and using Eq. (10) we find the following expression for the total current, in the case of Coulomb interdot blockade:

$$I_c=e\frac{4\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2}{4\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2(2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)+\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R^2+4ϵ^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L}.$$
(23)
The corresponding shot noise spectrum, $`S_c(0)`$, is obtained in an analogous way by Eq. (11), leading to

$`S_c(0)=2eI_c\left(18\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2{\displaystyle \frac{4ϵ^2(\mathrm{\Gamma }_R\mathrm{\Gamma }_L)+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R(3\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R^2+8\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2)}{[4\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2(2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R)+\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R^2+4ϵ^2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L]^2}}\right).`$ (24)
Now, it is interesting to compare $`S_c(0)`$, given by Eq. (24), with that obtained from the Khlus-Lesovik formula Eq. (15). The crucial problem, however, is an evaluation of the transmission coefficient for interacting electrons, $`t_c(E)`$, given by the ratio between the conductance and the quantum conductance. Thus, $`t_c(E)=(E)/e`$, where $`(E)`$ is the current density ($`I_c=(E)𝑑E/2\pi `$), represented by the operator $`ie[H,a_r^{}a_r]=ie\mathrm{\Omega }_r(a_2^{}a_ra_r^{}a_2)`$, where $`E=E_r`$ is the corresponding energy level in the collector. One finds

$$(E_r)=ie\mathrm{\Omega }_r[\sigma _{r2}(t)\sigma _{2r}(t)]|_t\mathrm{},$$
(25)
where $`\sigma _{r2}(t)=\mathrm{\Psi }(t)|a_2^{}a_r|\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$ are the off-diagonal density-matrix elements describing an electron in the linear superposition between the states $`E_2`$ and $`E_r`$. Such terms cannot be determined by the rate equations (Shot noise in coupled dots and the “fractional charges”), where all the reservoir states $`E_{l,r}`$ were traced out. Yet, it was recently found that our method can be generalized, by avoiding any tracing of the collector states, $`E_r`$. Finally we arrive to extended quantum rate equations, which determine the off-diagonal terms, $`\sigma _{r2}(t)=\sigma _{2r}^{}(t)`$ and $`\sigma _{r1}(t)=\sigma _{1r}^{}(t)`$:

$`\dot{\sigma }_{r1}`$ $`=`$ $`i(E_1E_r)\sigma _{r1}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0\sigma _{r2}i\mathrm{\Omega }_r\sigma _{21}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_L}{2}}\sigma _{r1}`$ (27)
$`\dot{\sigma }_{r2}`$ $`=`$ $`i(E_2E_r)\sigma _{r2}+i\mathrm{\Omega }_0\sigma _{r1}i\mathrm{\Omega }_r\sigma _{22}\mathrm{\Gamma }\sigma _{r2},`$ (28)
where $`\sigma _{21}=_n\sigma _{21}^{(n)}`$ and $`\sigma _{22}=_n\sigma _{22}^{(n)}`$ are given by Eqs. (Shot noise in coupled dots and the “fractional charges”). The detailed derivation of these equations will be given elsewhere. Here we only mention that these equations resembles the Bloch equation, with some modifications, since the states $`E_r`$ belong to continuum.

Solving Eqs. (Shot noise in coupled dots and the “fractional charges”), (25) and using Eq. (25) we obtain for the current density the following result

$$(E)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_L[(EE_2)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }^2]+2\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\left|\left(EE_1+i\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_L}{2}\right)\left(EE_2+i\mathrm{\Gamma }\right)\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2\right|^2}I_c,$$
(29)
where $`I_c`$ is the total current, given by Eq. (23). Similar to the previous case of non-interacting electrons, Eq. (16), the transmission coefficient $`t_c(E)=(E)/e`$ shows two peaks in the limit of weak coupling of the quantum dots with the reservoirs, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L,R}\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, and $`ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$. Each of these peaks is well reproduced by a Lorentzian given by

$$t_c(E)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R/4}{(EE_\pm )^2+\left(\frac{2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L+\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}{4}\right)^2},$$
(30)
as one can show directly from Eq. (29) in this limit. However, in the limit of strong coupling or $`ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, the transmission coefficient is rather flat. This is demonstrated in Fig. 2, which shows $`t_c(E)`$ for a symmetric system ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_R=\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, $`E_1=E_2=0`$). It is important to note that in contrast to non-interacting electrons, the height of the peaks is always smaller than $`1`$, since the interdot interaction does not allow simultaneous occupation of both quantum dots.

Fig. 2: Transmission $`t_c(E)`$ for a symmetric coupled-dot in the case of interacting electrons ($`U\mathrm{}`$). The solid line corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.1\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, whereas the dashed line corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=10\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$.

Substituting $`t_c=/e`$ given by Eq. (29) into Eq. (15) and comparing the result with $`S_c(0)`$, Eq. (24) for $`ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, we find a further suppression of the shot noise due to Coulomb interaction with respect to that obtained from the Khlus-Lesovik formula. This is demonstrated in Fig. 3, where we plot the shot-noise as a function of $`ϵ`$. With an increase of $`ϵ`$, however, the opposite effect takes place, and the non-interacting formula Eq. (15) shows suppression of the shot noise with respect to the interacting case. For $`ϵ\mathrm{}`$ both Eq. (15) and Eq. (24) reach the same Poissonian limit.

Fig. 3: The shot-noise power as a function of $`ϵ=E_1E_2`$ for $`U\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_R=0.1\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$, The solid line corresponds to Eq (24), the dashed line is the Schottky noise, and the dotted line is given by Eqs. (15), (29).

The additional reduction of the shot noise due to Coulomb repulsion, with respect to the non-interacting case, can be seen from the simple analytical results obtained in the limit of weak coupling with the reservoirs, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L,R}\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and $`ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$. One finds from Eq. (24)

$$S_c(0)=2eI_c(1\overline{t}_c),$$
(31)
where $`\overline{t}_c`$ is the peak value of the transmission probability

$$\overline{t}_c=t(E_\pm )=\frac{4\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R}{(2\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R+1)^2}$$
(32)
On the other hand the Khlus-Lesovik formula (15) and Eq. (29) give in the same limit

$$S_0(0)=2eI_c(1\overline{t}_c/2),$$
(33)
Comparing Eqs. (31) and (33), it follows that an additional reduction of the shot-noise due to Coulomb blockade can by effectively accounted for by a factor $`k`$ in the second term of the Khlus-Lesovik formula, i.e. by replacing $`(1t)`$ in Eq. (15) by $`(1kt)`$. We suggest that this result would be valid in the general case of different configurations and number of quantum dots. Since this reduction of the shot noise is associated to a partial occupation of the available states, we can expect that $`k`$ is always given by an integer or fraction.

Now we are going to investigate whether one could interpret the result given by Eq. (24) in terms of non-interacting particles with a fractional charge $`e^{}`$. To answer this question, let as compare Eq. (24) with Eq. (15), where in the latter the electron charge $`e`$ is replaced by the quasi-particle charge $`e^{}`$. Respectively, the transmission $`t(E)`$ is replaced by $`(E)/e^{}`$ with the same quasi-particle charge $`e^{}`$. This allows us to determine the transmission via the current, as in the measurements. Thus Eq. (15) can be rewritten as

$$S_0(0)=2e^{}(E)\left[1\frac{(E)}{e^{}}\right]\frac{dE}{2\pi }$$
(34)
Consider again the limit of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L,R},ϵ\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$. Then using Eg. (30), we find from Eq. (34) that $`S_0(0)`$ is given by Eq. (33) with $`ee^{}`$ and $`\overline{t}_c(e/e^{})\overline{t}_c`$. To determine the value of the charge $`e^{}`$, we require this expression to be identical with the one given by Eq. (31). We then obtain the following expression for $`e^{}/e`$ as a function of the transmission $`t^{}=(E_\pm )/e^{}=(e/e^{})\overline{t}_c`$,

$$\frac{e^{}}{e}=\frac{1}{1+pt^{}},$$
(35)
where $`p=1/2`$. It follows from Eq. (32) that the value of $`t^{}`$ depends on the ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$, but cannot exceed $`t_{max}^{}=2/3`$. This corresponds to the fractional charge $`e^{}/e=3/4`$. In general, $`t_{max}^{}`$, as well as the factor $`p`$ in Eq. (35) depend on the particular geometry (whether the dots are in sequel or in parallel) and on the number of coupled dots. We thus would assume that Eq. (35) holds in the general case, where only the coefficient $`p`$ is different. Since the latter is related to partial occupation of the states, we expect it to be either an integer or a fractional number.

It is very interesting that Eq. (35) for $`p=2`$ is rather close to the experimental results for the measurement of the fractional charge in the FQH at filling factor $`\nu =1/3`$, as shown in Fig. 4. Although the processes are very different, a resemblance between Eq. (35) and the data might indicate the importance of partial occupation of available states in FQH effect.

In conclusion, we have given a microscopic description of the shot noise in resonant structures in the presence of Coulomb interaction. Our results show that for symmetric dots Coulomb interaction decreases the noise in comparison to the non-interacting case and the obtained shot noise can be interpret in terms of non-interacting particles with fractional charge due to a partial occupation of the quantum dots states.

Fig. 4: The quasi-particle charge in FQH as a function of transmission. The solid line corresponds to Eq. (35) for $`p=2`$.

BE knowledges fruitful discussions with G. Hackenbroich and would like to thank the Albert Einstein Minerva Center for Theoretical Physics for the financial support.


text:
# Micellisation vs aggregation in dilute solutions of amphiphilic heteropolymers

## I Introduction

In recent years there were numerous works devoted to the behaviour of water soluble polymers near the lower critical solubility temperature (LCST). Typical systems include poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) homopolymer and block copolymers  of the poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide), or PEO-PPO systems briefly . The latter copolymers are widely used in pharmaceutical, agricultural and food industries due to their low toxicity and surfactant characteristics (EO is hydrophilic and PO is hydrophobic). These are commercially available as Pluronic or Synperonic polymers and they have been quite well studied experimentally . Speaking of tri–block copolymers in particular there are two types which have rather distinct properties. First, a PEO-PPO-PEO polymer with the hydrophilic ends and hydrophobic middle is the standard Pluronic which forms stable micelles. Second, a polymer with the inverse structure would tend to bridge hydrophobic end ‘stickers’ by hydrophilic bridges. These are so–called telechelic associating polymers , which form telechelic gels possessing nontrivial rheological properties at higher concentrations.

The phase behaviour of PNIPAM homopolymer has been well investigated . PNIPAM serves as an important model polymer due to its convenient LCST in water which is at approximately $`32^o`$ C, i.e. near the room temperature. One of the important applications of this polymer is based on the use of temperature and pH responsive PNIPAM gels, which exhibit dramatic conformational changes such as swelling upon small changes of the external conditions such as temperature or pH. One of popular modifications is achieved by grafting PNIPAM main chain with PEO side–groups. After collapse of the backbone chain the PEO side chains solubilise it in water.

Polymers which form micellar structures generally are of great interest for biological and pharmaceutical applications because they may be used in a drug delivery process due to their ability to solubilise hydrophobic compounds and due to an improved stability as compared to low molecular weight systems. At higher concentrations these systems display a very rich variety of phases and corresponding morphologies . One is particularly interested in the properties of dilute solutions as they are determined by the fundamental intra–molecular interactions. Experiments in this area  are quite difficult and often obscured by inter–polymer aggregation phenomena.

Perhaps one of the most striking recent experimental observations was the formation of rather size monodispersed nanoparticles . This phenomenon has been recently observed by a number of Groups worldwide: R. Pelton et al  at McMaster University, by Chi Wu et al  in Hong Kong, A.V. Gorelov at al  at UCD, and some indications in favour of these structures have also been seen in Lund University . The appearance of spherical particles in dilute solutions of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) has been clearly observed by dynamic light scattering (DLS). Significantly, these particles have a relatively narrow size distribution and remain stable for many days. Thus, the size of the particles is thermodynamically controlled and it increases with increasing polymer concentration and increasing strength of inter–monomer attraction. Electron microscopy further confirms that these spherical particles have mean size and distribution in agreement with DLS.

We have recently been able to explain the stability of the mesoglobules based on the extended version of the Gaussian variational theory  as well as to determine the histograms of their size distributions via lattice Monte Carlo simulations in Ref. . The existence of such mesoscopic structures is maintained by a delicate balance of the energetic and entropic terms under the connectivity constraints. In recent paper Ref.  we have examined some more complex heteropolymer sequences, such as tri–block copolymers. The main conclusion from such a study was that in the case of tri–blocks with outer hydrophilic blocks mesoglobules are thermodynamically stable in a narrow region of the phase diagram in accordance with the expectations from our theory. The case of tri–blocks with the outer hydrophobic blocks, however, generally does not have this property since the hydrophobic end ‘stickers’ can attach to similar blocks from other macromolecular clusters which thus are becoming connected via extended hydrophilic bridges. This picture is quite familiar from theory of associating polymers. Indeed, telechelic polymers  at higher concentrations would become highly inter–connected producing a physical gel.

The purpouse of the current work is to consider a wider range of heteropolymer sequences in order to examine the competition of aggregation vs micellesation when the latter is accompanied by formation of mesoglobules. First, we shall proceed from the tri–block copolymers and apply certain ‘mutations’ obtained by permutation of some monomers to examine the stability of the clusters and how the mean size and dispersion of cluster sizes would be affected. Second, we shall examine the effect of decreasing the chain length with a simultaneous increase of the concentration at a constant total number of monomers in the system.

## II Results

We adopt the Metropolis technique in the lattice model of Ref. . This model, apart from the connectivity and excluded volume constraints, includes short–ranged pair–wise interactions between lattice sites. The system is completely characterised by three Flory interaction parameters, $`\chi _{aa}`$, $`\chi _{ab}`$ and $`\chi _{bb}`$, along with $`N`$, $`M`$ and linear lattice size $`L`$. In addition to local monomer moves , we include translational moves representing diffusion of chains. The latter moves are applied to all clusters of chains with a probability inversely proportional to the number of monomers within (Stokes law).

To address the question about the size polydispersity of the mesoglobules we have obtained a large ensemble of independent equilibrium states in the region of the phase diagram where mesoglobules can be formed. Then by using the histogram technique we obtain the probability densities of the number of chains in a cluster (aggregation number), $`M_{cl}`$, and of the radius of gyration of a cluster (size), $`R_{cl}`$ for different considered sequences.

In Figs. 1 we present these distributions for the OUTER-H (s1) and OUTER-P (s2) tri–blocks, as well as for their mutations s3 and s4 respectively, which are obtained by point–like permutations of two monomers near the points where a and b blocks join each other. The s2 sequence has a single high and narrow peak in both distributions, which corresponds to a well defined mean size of the well monodispersed mesoglobules. Sequence s1, however, has two peaks, which are also broader and less pronounced, as well as a high population of the macro–aggregate (cluster of $`M_{cl}=M=20`$). This is due to bridging of hydrophobic clusters by the hydrophilic middle blocks. Mutated sequences s3 and s4 have quite close distributions for the aggregation numbers $`P(M_{cl})`$ to their respective tri–blocks s1 and s2, demonstrating the stability of these two types of structures with respect to slight perturbations in the primary sequence. However, in the size distributions $`P(R_{cl})`$ the locations of the peaks have shifted somewhat to the left. Therefore, both the mesoglobules and the aggregates for the mutated sequences have become somewhat smaller compared to those of the tri–blocks. This is natural since the outstretched hydrophilic tails or loops have become somewhat shorter.

In Figs. 2 we exhibit the two distributions for the system composed of twice the number of chains $`M=40`$ with half–long polymers $`N=12`$ in the same simulation box as compared to Figs. 1. For OUTER-P sequence s2 there is still a single peak corresponding to mesoglobules. A typical snapshot for these is presented in Fig. 3a, where one can see four micelles of essentially equal size. Compared to the twice longer sequence in Figs. 1 the size of the mesoglobules has become smaller, although the aggregation numbers have increased in approximately $`1.5`$ times. The distributions for s1 sequence still have two peaks, the second corresponding to a population of the macro–aggregate. Thus, the nearly equal sized clusters are present there also, but in a small fraction, but many members of the ensemble have joined into dimers, trimers and so on formed from spherical clusters as shown in Fig. 3b. Interestingly, both s1 and s2 have rather small populations of the globules of single chains, which is due to the short length of the chains.

Distributions for the mutated sequences s3 and s4, however, are quite different from those of s1 and s2. Namely, for s4 the mesoglobules have become considerably larger and somewhat less pronounced due to an increased population of single chain globules compared to s2. The shape of distributions for s3 compared to s1 have undergone quite dramatic changes. First, the population of single chain globules have increased considerably. Second, the mean size of large clusters have increased and these have become more monodispersed. Third, the population of macro–aggregate has decreased. A typical snapshot for this situation is presented in Fig. 3c, where one can see a macro–aggregate of $`M_{cl}=36`$ chains coexisting with four single chain globules. Quite remarkably, the mutations of s1 has helped to stabilise average sized clusters leading to more size monodispersed ‘mesoglobules’.

## III Conclusion

In this paper we have studied the effect of point–like mutations in tri–block copolymers on aggregates and mesoglobules in dilute solutions. For sufficiently long chains the effect of small mutations is rather weak and corresponding structures remain stable. However, larger–scale mutations may produce stronger influence.

We then looked at solutions of twice the number of half–long chains for similar sequences. In this case, however, the shortness of the chains has added certain populations of single chain globules for all sequences. The main effect of mutations was in dramatically increasing the populations of single chain globules as compared to the original tri–blocks. Perhaps the most unexpected result of mutations was in pronounced increase of the mesoglobules size (both in terms of radius and aggregation number) for mutated sequences compared to the tri–blocks. In Ref.  we have argued that the size of the mesoglobules is determined by a characteristic scale of micro–phase separation, which in turn is related to the lengths of the blocks. Thus, mesoglobules of shorter blocks should be smaller according to this line of arguing. This was so for sequences of length $`N=24`$ in Figs. 1 because mutations effectively decrease the lengths of blocks. However, in Fig. 2 the mutations have produced the opposite effect of pronounced magnitude. This paradoxical result reflects the complexity of the competitions of different interactions and the entropy and it does not have a simple explanation as yet.

The results of this work are important for understanding the role of various factors and imperfections in the design of polymers capable of producing stable monodispersed mesoglobules. Mesoglobules with well controlled size distribution can find a range of applications in pharmaceutical, biotechnological and cosmetic industries. Moreover, these studies may also help understanding the problems of competition aggregation vs folding in protein solutions and, possibly, self–organisation of the quaternary structures in multimeric proteins.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge interesting discussions with Professor F. Ganazzoli, Professor H. Orland and Professor T. Garel. This work was supported by grant SC/99/186 from Enterprise Ireland.


text:
# Detection of a new, low-brightness supernova remnant possibly associated with EGRET sources

## 1 Introduction

The origin of cosmic rays (CRs) is a long-standing problem in contemporary astrophysics. It has been thought since the 1960s, on the basis of energetic considerations, that protons are accelerated up to energies of $`10^{15}`$ eV in supernova remnants (SNRs) (Ginzburg & Syrovatskii 1964). When first-order Fermi acceleration at shock fronts was established as an efficient mechanism for CR production (e.g. Bell 1978), SNRs became the most natural candidates for the accelerating agents of the bulk of galactic CRs. Multifrequency radio observations clearly show that SNRs accommodate a population of relativistic electrons with the expected energy distribution. However, there is at present not such a conclusive observational evidence for shock acceleration of protons and ions near SNRs.

High-energy $`\gamma `$-ray astronomy is the most appropriate tool to probe SNRs in the search for an observable signature of proton acceleration. The interactions between relativistic protons and ambient nuclei can produce neutral pions ($`\pi ^0`$) which decay to yield $`\gamma `$-ray emission that might be detected by instruments like the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on board the Compton satellite. Possible associations of $`\gamma `$-ray sources with SNRs have been claimed by several authors in the past (Pollock 1985, Combi & Romero 1995, Esposito et al. 1996, and Combi et al. 1998a). However, a leptonic origin of the $`\gamma `$-ray emission (e.g. Pohl 1996) cannot be ruled out in most of these cases, especially when relatively young remnants are considered.

In this paper we present results of a new observational study designed to clarify the problem of the origin of galactic CRs. Aharonian et al. (1994) and Aharonian & Atoyan (1996) have pointed out that the presence of nearby clouds can increase the probability of detecting the nucleonic CR component locally accelerated in a SNR because the clouds act as targets for the relativistic protons, hence enhancing $`\pi ^0`$ production and the resultant $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity. A large remnant in a cloudy medium may have several discrete $`\gamma `$-ray sources associated with it. The study of the spectra and fluxes of these $`\gamma `$-ray sources could provide information about the cosmic ray production at several different sites where the clouds are overtaken by the accelerated protons.

Some of the 170 unidentified 3EG $`\gamma `$-ray sources (Hartman et al. 1999) appear to occur in small clusters subtending less than $`6^{}`$ in the sky at high galactic latitudes. We have searched the 408 MHz all-sky survey (Haslam et al. 1981) for radio continuum emission towards the directions of those four clusters of high-latitude sources that are visible from the southern hemisphere. The EGRET confidence contours for the cluster consisting of 3EG J1834-2803, 3EG J1847-3219, and 3EG J1850-2652 correlate spatially with an extended shell-type radio source, which is masked by steep gradients in the diffuse galactic radiation. We have subsequently performed HI-line observations towards this large area in the Capricornus region, and have detected hydrogen clouds at the positions of two of the 3EG sources. Additional radio continuum data was provided by the Rhodes/HartRAO 2326 MHz survey (Jonas et al. 1998). Having radio images at two widely-spaced frequencies allows the spatial distribution of the spectral index to be computed, hence establishing the nonthermal nature of the emission and revealing the energy distribution of the electronic component of the CRs at the SNR. In what follows we describe our data analysis procedures, new observations, and discuss the results of our study.

## 2 Data analysis and new observations

The detection of weak, extended radio sources is a difficult task due to the contamination produced by the diffuse background radiation in the radio images. Faint sources with diameters of several degrees can only be identified by using effective spatial filtering techniques applied to good-quality, single-dish data. In this study we have used data at 408-MHz and 2326-MHz from the radio surveys by Haslam et al. (1981) and Jonas et al. (1998), respectively. The angular resolutions (HPBW) of these surveys are $`51^{}`$ (408 MHz) and $`20^{}`$ (2326 MHz). We have extracted maps of $`12^{}\times 12^{}`$ around the mean position of the $`\gamma `$-ray sources and have then used the background filtering method originally developed by Sofue & Reich (1979) in order to emphasize the fine radio structure superposed on the diffuse galactic radio emission. This iterative procedure results in the elimination of diffuse sources with angular scales larger than a specified filtering beam (see Combi et al. 1998b for more details). This technique is very versatile, can be used at any galactic latitude, and is well-proven for a range of angular scales. It was recently used to discover the radio counterpart of the nearby SNR RX J0852.0-4622, which is contaminated by the bright, extended emission of the Vela region (Combi et al. 1999).

When the $`12^{}\times 12^{}`$-maps are filtered, a steep gradient of emission shows up towards the galactic plane. In order to remove this residual background, we filtered a larger region of $`20^{}\times 24^{}`$, which includes the galactic plane. Then the smaller maps were extracted again from the filtered, larger map.

Figures 1 and 2 show the background filtered radio emission of the region under study at 408- and 2326-MHz, respectively. A filtering beam of $`240^{}\times 240^{}`$ was applied to both images (i.e. all emission structures with angular scales larger than $`4^{}`$ have been suppressed in these images). The probability confidence contours of the 3EG sources have been superposed in the maps. A large ($`8^{}\times 8^{}`$), shell-type source can be clearly seen at both radio frequencies. In order to determine the spectral index distribution of the shell emission we have convolved and re-tabulated the 2326-MHz data to the same beam and tabular interval as the 408-MHz map. Following Combi et al. (1998b), the spectral indices and the corresponding errors were estimated from these maps. Uncertainties from the filtering method also should contribute to the errors, but are difficult to estimate. We think that a conservative assumption here is to assume that the real errors double the formal ones. The spectral index distribution, which is shown in Figure 3, is consistent with independent estimates obtained using a different filtering method developed by Jonas (1999).

Aharonian & Atoyan (1996) emphasize that the existence of a potential CR accelerator, such as a SNR, is not a sufficient condition for the generation of detectable levels of $`\gamma `$-ray emission. Target nuclei are also required, so we have performed HI observations towards the area of interest in order to search for ambient atomic gas in the local neighbourhood of the SNR. The IAR 30-m single dish telescope at Villa Elisa, Argentina was used for these observations. The receiver was a helium-cooled HEMT amplifier with a 1008-channel autocorrelator at the backend, which has been used for similar purposes by Combi et al. (1998a, b). System parameters and additional details of the observational technique can be found in these papers.

The HI line was observed in hybrid total power mode and the sky was sampled on a $`0.5^{}`$ rectangular grid. Each grid position was observed for 36 s with a velocity resolution of $`1`$ km s-1 and a coverage of $`\pm 450`$ km s-1. A set of HI brightness temperature maps ($`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{\text{rms}}0.2`$ K) were built for the velocity interval ($`30`$ km s-1, $`+50`$ km s-1), which is appropriate for this study. We adopted the following criteria to identify standard clouds in this velocity range: the maps should show a closed, simply connected structure (i.e. no shells or filaments were considered), with a clear maximum in brightness temperature, and an extension in velocity of at least 6 km s-1. There are six structures that satisfy this criterion in the region of interest. The two clouds, C1 centred at $`(l,b)(10^{},12^{})`$ and C2 centred at $`(l,b)(5.5^{},8^{})`$, are the stronger ones, with brightness temperatures of $`45`$ K, which are detected at a confidence level of $`225\sigma `$. Figure 4 shows a series of HI brightness temperature maps where these clouds can be clearly appreciated. In Figure 5 we present the integrated column density map for the relevant velocity interval with the 3EG sources superposed. Two of the sources (3EG J1834-2803 and 3EG J1850-2652) are positionally coincident with the clouds C1 and C2. Standard galactic rotation models (Fich et al. 1989) indicate that the remaining clouds, not shown in Figure 4, are located at kinematic distances that are far too distant to be physically related to the continuum radio source, which due to its large size is constrained to be nearby. It is also interesting to notice that there is a local hole in the HI distribution at the approximate position of the center of the SNR.

## 3 Main results

The newly-identified extended shell-like radio source in the Capricornus region is centred at $`(l,b)(+6.5^{},12.0^{})`$. It has an integrated flux density of $`180`$ Jy at 408 MHz, once the contribution from background point sources has been removed. This extragalactic contribution is dominated by the sources PKS 1839-34, PKS 1848-338, and PKS 1853-300. Flux errors are difficult to estimate due to uncertainties related to the filtering technique, in such a way that the quoted flux should be considered only as a rough value.

The identification of the extended source as a new SNR is not only supported by its large size and shell-like morphology, but also by the spectral indices of the radio emission (see Fig. 3) which are clearly nonthermal with an average value of $`\alpha 0.68\pm 0.15`$, somehow steeper than those observed in typical of shell-type remnants (Green 2000). Notice, however, that the quoted errors are purely formal and, as it was previously mentioned, the real ones could be significantly larger (perhaps around 0.3). The measured properties of this new Capricornus SNR are summarized in Table 1.

The distance to the remnant is uncertain, although its large size and high latitude suggest that it is nearby. A rough distance estimate of $`d470`$ pc can be obtained using the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(D)`$-dependence for low-brightness shell-like remnants proposed by Allakhverdigev et al. (1986), although this method alone is too dubious as to provide a reliable result. An independent upper limit of 700 pc is provided by the relatively high value of $`|b|`$, if the source is assumed to be located within a galactic disk with a half-height of 150 pc. In addition, galactic rotation curve models (e.g. Fich et al. 1989) impose an upper bound of $`500`$ pc on the distance, assuming that the HI clouds C1 and C2 are physically related to the remnant.

A radius of $`30`$ pc is obtained for the SNR if a distance, not unreasonable, of 470 pc is adopted, indicating that it is probably at the end of its adiabatic phase. Using standard Sedov solutions for an initial energy release of $`10^{51}`$ erg, we derive an age of $`16,500`$ yr, assuming an average density of $`n0.05`$ cm-3 for the intercloud medium at high galactic latitudes.

In Figure 4 we show the HI clouds C1 and C2 using an ensemble of channel maps for the velocity interval $`3`$ to $`+7`$ km s-1, but one of the clouds is visible even beyond these velocity limits. C1 can be traced from $`8`$ to $`+2`$ km s-1 whereas C2 extends from $`1`$ to $`+5`$ km s-1. The cloud column densities were evaluated by integrating over these velocity intervals.

The integrated HI column density maps were used to obtain estimates for the total masses of the individual clouds. Using the adopted distance of 470 pc we estimate masses of $`1400`$ $`M_{}`$ and $`1200`$ $`M_{}`$ for C1 and C2, respectively. The aggregate systematic error in these computed masses may be as large at 50 %. Dominant sources of error are uncertainties in the adopted distance, imperfect background subtraction, and possible existence of other (yet undetected) molecular species.

## 4 Discussion

The three $`\gamma `$-ray sources superposed with the SNR are classified as being possibly extended in the 3EG catalog, and none of them show variability. Variability is not expected if the $`\gamma `$-ray emission is related to the radio remnant.

The sources 3EG J1850-2652 and 3EG J1834-2803 are spatially coincident with the HI clouds C1 and C2, respectively. We suggest that the collective spatial coincidence of the $`\gamma `$-ray sources, HI clouds and the radio remnant provides evidence for the production of $`\gamma `$-rays by $`\pi ^0`$-decay, where the pions result from proton-proton collisions at the SNR/ambient cloud interfaces.

In order to make quantitative estimates of the probability of chance association of the $`\gamma `$-ray sources in clusters, we have adapted the numerical code developed by Romero et al. (1999) and used by Romero, Benaglia, & Torres (1999) to study the positional association of unidentified EGRET sources with various populations of galactic objects. The code calculates angular distances between different kinds of celestial objects contained in selected catalogues, and establishes the level of positional correlation between them. Monte-Carlo simulations using large numbers of synthetic populations are then performed in order to determine the probabilities of pure chance associations. When generating synthetic populations of $`\gamma `$-ray sources the distribution in galactic latitude is constrained to be the same as that for the actual 3EG sources. This is necessary in order to obtain reliable results since the distribution of the 3EG sources is non-isotropic, with a strong concentration towards the galactic plane. The reader is referred to the paper by Romero, Benaglia, & Torres (1999) for further details of the simulation code.

Using this code we determined that there are 54 unidentified 3EG sources (out of 116) that cluster within $`6^{}`$ of each other at high latitudes ($`|b|>5^{}`$). When 1500 random populations of sources are generated (a larger number does not significantly change the results), the average number of sources in $`6^{}`$ clusters is found to be $`37.6\pm 4.7`$. This translates to a probability as low as $`1.9\times 10^4`$ that all high-latitude $`6^{}`$ clusters are chance events. For $`|b|<5^{}`$ there are 47 sources out of 54 in $`6^{}`$ clusters, whereas the simulations predict $`34.6\pm 3.4`$ chance associations. The probability that all of the observed low-latitude clusters are chance events is $`1.5\times 10^4`$, which is similar to the value obtained for $`|b|>5^{}`$. These simulations show that several apparent clusters of unidentified $`\gamma `$-ray sources are probably groups of physically related sources.

We shall now estimate the probability of finding a SNR by chance in the direction of a southern cluster of $`\gamma `$-ray sources. In order to do this, we need to know the chance probability of finding a shell-type, relatively large SNR overlapping with a circle of the cluster size in an arbitrary direction at intermediate (say $`5^{}<|b|<20^{}`$) galactic latitudes. There is just one of such SNRs in Green’s (2000) catalog. Of course, many large and yet undetected remnants of low surface brightness should exist under the diffuse non-thermal galactic emission. A large-scale study with a systematic subtraction of the galactic background component of the southern radio sky at 2.326 GHz by Jonas (1999) has recently shown that the number of these uncataloged SNRs in the relevant latitudes is about 17. Since we have used data from the same Rhodes/HartRAO SKYMAP survey, we shall adopt this figure as a convenient estimate of the total number of remnants expected in the region of interest here. Then, the Poisson probability of finding one SNR overlapping with a cluster of 3 or more unidentified 3EG sources is $`1.4\times 10^2`$.

The probability of chance association is further constrained if we consider that there are two clouds apparently coincident with two of the three $`\gamma `$-ray sources in the cluster for which the new SNR was found. The probability $`p(n)`$ that the line of sight along a distance $`r`$ will intersect with $`n`$ clouds is (Spitzer 1998):

$$p(n)=\frac{(kr)^ne^{kr}}{n!},$$
(1)
where $`k`$ is the average number of clouds per kpc111This is actually an oversimplification because it ignores the fact that clouds form a power-law distribution of properties. The results, however, are not significantly changed in the present case, where massive clouds are considered.. In the direction of the galactic plane $`k6.2`$ for standard clouds (Spitzer 1998). We found no published estimates of $`k`$ for relatively high latitudes, so we adopt the galactic plane value in order to obtain an upper limit to the probability. Using this equation and a distance range equal to the estimated diameter of the SNR (60 pc), we obtain that the chance probability of finding one or more clouds in each of two different lines of sight is 0.097 (about 10 %). Consequently, the probability that the observed configuration of SNR, $`\gamma `$-ray sources and HI clouds be the sole effect of chance superposition is about $`1.3\times 10^3`$. This probability, although not overwhelming, suggests that the hypothesis of a multiple $`\gamma `$-ray source that could be causally related to the SNR deserves serious study in the light of its important potential implications.

There are mechanisms other than $`pp`$ induced $`\pi ^0`$ decay that may contribute to the $`\gamma `$-ray emission from SNRs. Inverse Compton (IC) scattering of relativistic electrons can boost ambient low-energy photon fields (such as the cosmic microwave background radiation, the diffuse galactic infrared/optical radiation, and the remnant’s own photon fields) to $`\gamma `$-ray energies (e.g. Pohl 1996, Mastichiadis 1996). Bremsstrahlung emission from electrons in the shocked gas can also yield significant $`\gamma `$-ray luminosities (e.g. Blandford & Cowie 1982). The relative contribution of each of these processes to the overall $`\gamma `$-ray flux from the remnant depends on factors such as the age of the remnant, the injected particle spectra, the ambient gas density, and the ratio of electrons to protons at high energies (e.g. Sturner et al. 1997, Gaisser et al. 1998).

In large and old remnants, such as the Capricornus remnant presented here, the IC boosting of diffuse background photons should dominate that of local radiation fields (Sturner et al. 1997). At high energies electrons cool more efficiently than protons by synchrotron and IC losses, therefore the electron-to-proton ratio in the source is expected to be $`1`$, i.e. it would be similar to what is observed in the CRs near the Earth (see Aharonian et al. 1994, and especially Biermann & Strom 1993 for additional arguments). IC radiation is therefore not expected to be dominant. Two factors indicate that the EGRET sources considered in this study are not predominantly due to IC scattering: (a) the detectable $`\gamma `$-ray emission is located towards regions where the observed radio emission (and hence the energy flux of relativistic electrons) is not particularly strong, and (b) two of the $`\gamma `$-ray sources occur towards HI clouds.

If the HI clouds are sufficiently dense and the relativistic electron flux is high enough, then the observed $`\gamma `$-ray flux could be produced by bremsstrahlung interactions between the electrons and the ionized atoms in the compressed post-shock regions. This mechanism can, however, be discounted for our sources because both the cloud densities ($`n10`$ cm-3, inferred from the HI data) and the electron flux (estimated from the radio synchrotron emission) are far too low. The electron flux necessary to produce the observed $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity by bremsstrahlung mechanism would result in a synchrotron radio flux of about 100 Jy at 1 GHz for each cloud. This radio flux is two orders of magnitude greater than the value determined from the radio data for the regions occupied by the clouds in the remnant, and more than the flux density of the entire source at that frequency. We conclude, then, that $`\pi ^0`$\- decay is the dominant mechanism for $`\gamma `$-ray production in the new remnant. When an expanding SNR collides with a cloud, a fraction of the nuclear CR component is transported into the cloud by convection. This penetration produces a significant enhancement of the $`\gamma `$-ray luminosity because of the $`\pi ^0`$-decays resulting from the $`pp`$ interactions. The $`\gamma `$-ray flux expected at the Earth is:

$$F(E>100\mathrm{MeV})=\frac{1}{4\pi }q_\gamma M_{\mathrm{cloud}}d^2m_\mathrm{H}^1,$$
(2)
where $`q_\gamma `$ is the $`\gamma `$-ray emissivity per H atom of the cloud of mass $`M_{\mathrm{cloud}}`$, $`d`$ is the distance to the source, and $`m_\mathrm{H}`$ is the H-atom mass.

Using the observed $`\gamma `$-ray fluxes from the C1 and C2 positions, the adopted distance of 470 pc, and our cloud mass estimates derived from the HI-observations, we find that there is an enhancement in the CR energy density in the clouds with respect to the value observed near the Earth (Dermer 1986). The enhancement factor is calculated to be $`4.5`$ for cloud C1 and $`13`$ for cloud C2, clearly indicating that protons are being accelerated at the remnant shock front.

Since at high energies the spectrum of $`\pi ^0`$-decay $`\gamma `$-rays mimics the spectrum of the parent protons, we can infer from EGRET observations that at the position of C2 the proton spectrum is $`N(E_p)E^{2.6\pm 0.2}`$. This power-law index is similar to that of the electron component at the same position, as deduced from the radio brightness spectral index. The $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum towards C1 may be harder: $`N(E_p)E^{2.3\pm 0.45}`$. The radio emission from this region is too weak to provide a reliable electron spectral index for comparison. In both cases the proton spectral index is consistent with the theoretical value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.42`$ that is expected from diffusive shock acceleration in shell-like remnants (Biermann & Strom 1993; see also Gaisser et al. 1998, who consider a harder injection spectrum with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.3`$). Leakage from the galactic disk results in the steeper $`E^{2.75}`$-spectrum observed near the Earth (Biermann & Strom 1993). We estimate that the proton high-energy cutoff, considering the age of the SNR, should be about 80 TeV (see Biermann & Strom 1993 for the formulae).

## 5 Conclusions

We have discovered a new southern SNR in the Capricornus region. It is a large and faint shell-type nonthermal radio source which has till now been obscured by confusion with the diffuse galactic radiation. There are three $`\gamma `$-ray sources in the 3EG catalog superimposed on this remnant. Two of these high-energy sources coincide with the positions of HI clouds detected at 21 cm in narrow velocity intervals. We have estimated the masses of the clouds and calculated the CR flux enhancement at the SNR, showing convincing evidence of proton acceleration at the shock front, as predicted by the theory. Interestingly, it is possible that the proton spectrum slope is not the same at all points in the remnant. The electron and proton components of the CR flux seem to display similar spectral slopes towards the single position where both spectra can be determined. Although the possibility of a pure chance association cannot be completely ruled out, it is clear that this southern cluster of $`\gamma `$-ray sources deserves more attention as a potential natural laboratory for CR studies. In particular, future X-ray and TeV observations of the new Capricornus SNR are required to provide the information necessary to determine the upper cutoffs in the spectrum of both the leptonic and the hadronic CR components within the source.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are very grateful to Dr. D.F. Torres for his kind help with the numerical simulations and to an anonymous referee for useful comments. This research has been supported by the Argentine agencies CONICET (under grant PIP No 0430/98) and ANPCT (PICT 98 No. 03-04881), as well as by Fundación Antorchas (funds granted to J.A.C. and G.E.R.). J.L.J. acknowledges financial support from the Joint Research Committee of Rhodes University.