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# 1 An exclusion plot in the mass-charge space for millicharged particles in models without paraphotons. Dashed lines correspond to the relic density of millicharged particles equal to Ω_𝑋ℎ²=1. To the right of dash-dotted line millicharged particles are involved in the acoustic oscillations. Light grey shaded area is experimentally excluded. Models with fractional charge 𝑞≳0.1 are ruled out by strong limits on fluxes of the millicharged particles. Dark grey area is excluded, if millicharged particles do not contribute to the oscillatory structure of angular CMB spectrum. Thick solid line corresponds to models explaining the absence of second acoustic peak.

Small Second Acoustic Peak from Interacting Cold Dark Matter?
S. L. Dubovsky111e-mail: sergd@ms2.inr.ac.ru, D. S. Gorbunov222e-mail: gorby@ms2.inr.ac.ru

Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
60th October Anniversary prospect 7a, Moscow 117312, Russia

## Abstract

We consider a possibility to explain the observed suppression of the second acoustic peak in the anisotropy spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) by interaction between a fraction of non-baryonic Cold Dark Matter (CDM) and normal baryonic matter. This scenario does not require any modifications in the standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We estimate the required values of the cross-section-to-mass ratio for elastic scattering of CDM particles off baryons. In case of velocity-independent elastic scattering (in the velocity interval $`\upsilon 10^5÷10^3`$) we find that such particles do not contradict observational limits if they are heavier than $`10^5`$ GeV or lighter than $`0.5`$ GeV. Another candidate, which may appear in the models with infinite extra dimensions, is a quasistable charged particle decaying through tunneling into extra dimensions. Finally a millicharged particle with the electric charge ranging from $`10^4`$ to $`10^1`$ and with mass $`M0.1\text{ GeV}÷1\text{ TeV}`$ also may be responsible for the suppression of the second acoustic peak. As a byproduct we point out that CMB measurements set new limits on the allowed parameter space for the millicharged particles.

Recently the anisotropy spectrum of the CMB has been measured with great precision resulting in the accurate determination of the shape and position of the first acoustic peak . The result, being in a good agreement with the standard inflationary predictions such as adiabatic spectrum of primordial fluctuations and flat Universe, provides a strong observational support to the inflationary picture of the Early Universe.

Current data include the values of angular harmonics up to $`l800`$ covering the region where the second acoustic peak has been expected. In the standard inflationary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM Universe, the relative height of the first and the second acoustic peaks is governed by the fractional baryon mass density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2`$ (see Ref.  for introduction to physics of the CMB anisotropy and further references). The latter parameter is independently determined from the primordial element abundances, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2=0.019`$, with an accuracy of about 5% . The CMB anisotropy measurements suggest somewhat higher baryon density ,

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2=0.032_{0.004}^{+0.005}$$
(1)
(the upper limit here is valid assuming the prediction of simplest inflationary models that the tensor to scalar ratio is small, $`r0`$ ) which deviates from the standard BBN value at about 2$`\sigma `$ level. New CMB measurements should reduce the uncertainty in the result (1) in the near future and thus allow to determine whether this discrepancy is real or just a statistical fluctuation.

Consequently, it is desirable to have a list of physical effects capable to modifying the CMB spectrum in the region of first acoustic peaks. When experimental uncertainties are reduced, these effects either will help to explain the potential discrepancy or will be ruled out by the CMB measurements.

There are two broad classes of existing proposals aimed to resolve the above discrepancy. The first approach is to take the high value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$ as granted by the CMB anisotropy measurements and try to make the predictions of BBN compatible with it. This can be achieved either by relaxing some of the assumptions of the standard BBN scenario (see, e.g., ) or assuming reduction of photon entropy between nucleosynthesis and recombination epoch . Another approach is to find a mechanism of suppression of the second acoustic peak. Such mechanism may invoke (see, e.g. ), for instance, a tilted spectrum of primordial fluctuations and large reionization optical depth, leading to damping of the features in the CMB spectrum at small angles.

It is important to note that the approach based on the high baryon density (“baryon drag”) predicts the suppression of all even peaks relative to the odd ones . Future precise measurements of the third acoustic peak are likely to discriminate between the two approaches.

In this note we discuss a mechanism of the third type which also leads to the suppression of all even acoustic peaks but does not require high baryon density and, as a result, is compatible with the standard BBN scenario. In order to describe our mechanism, let us, following Ref. , briefly recall the physics of acoustic oscillations and how the baryon drag works.

When the size of the primordial adiabatic density fluctuation becomes smaller than the horizon scale, its amplitude starts to grow due to the gravitational instability. At the epoch of interest (roughly, between radiation–matter equality and recombination) the primordial matter has two components — photon-baryon-electron plasma and CDM. The pressureless CDM component experiences the gravitational infall providing seeds for the formation of the structure in the Universe, while the density perturbations in the plasma cease to grow and turn into the acoustic oscillations, as the pressure due to the photon component compensates for the gravitational attraction. After recombination, when photons and baryons become non-interacting, baryons fall in the gravitational wells formed by the CDM density fluctuations giving rise to galaxies, while photons propagate freely. Inflation provides equal initial amplitudes for the oscillations at different scales, so the density contrast in the acoustic wave (and, as a result, photon temperature) at recombination is determined by its phase only, which in turn is determined by the ratio of the wavelength of the oscillation to the sound horizon at recombination. This gives rise to the oscillatory structure in the angular spectrum of CMB.

Higher baryon density leads to reduction of pressure in the plasma, that changes the balance between pressure and gravity and shifts the zero point of the oscillations. This results in enhancement of the amplitudes of all odd peaks relative to the even ones. Then it is clear that the same effect could come from any other massive particles ($`X`$-particles) constituting a fraction of CDM and interacting with the components of the plasma strongly enough to be involved in the acoustic oscillations. Certainly, this condition implies that $`X`$-particles cannot be responsible for the seeds for the galaxy formation, so they cannot be the only component of the CDM. On the other hand, the difference between values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2`$ evaluated from BBN and the CMB measurements is about $`(1/2)\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$. Consequently, the density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_X`$ of the $`X`$-particles as small as a few percent of the total density is sufficient to make these two predictions compatible with each other, so there is still enough room for the conventional CDM, weakly interacting with the photon-baryon plasma.

In this note we estimate the suitable range of parameters (masses and interactions) of the $`X`$-particles and discuss existing limits on various candidates.

Let us consider $`X`$-particles with mass $`M_X`$, which can scatter elastically off protons with the cross section $`\sigma _{Xp}`$. The rate of the energy transfer from the photon-baryon plasma to these particles is

$$\frac{dE_X}{dt}=\mathrm{\Delta }E_X\tau ^1$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_X`$ is the energy transfer per one collision and $`\tau `$ is the characteristic time between the collisions. Assuming isotropic scattering one has

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E_X=2\frac{m_pM_X}{(m_p+M_X)^2}(E_pE_X),$$
(3)
where $`E_p`$ and $`E_X`$ are kinetic energies of the proton and $`X`$-particle, respectively. The timescale $`\tau `$ between two subsequent collisions is

$$\tau =(n_B\sigma _{Xp}\upsilon )^1,$$
(4)
where $`n_B`$ is the baryon number density and $`\upsilon `$ is relative velocity. Protons heat $`X`$-particles in the collisions. Due to this process $`X`$-particles may come into kinetic equilibrium with protons with corresponding time scale $`t_{eq}`$ given by

$$t_{eq}^1=\frac{2}{3T}\frac{dE_x}{dt},$$
(5)
where $`T`$ is the temperature of the plasma. $`X`$-particles will be involved in the acoustic oscillations at recombination and will suppress the amplitude of the second acoustic peak if the equilibration time $`t_{eq}`$ does not exceed the inverse expansion rate of the Universe $`H_r^1`$ at that moment. Combining Eqs. (2)–(5) and expressing the Hubble constant $`H_r`$ and baryon density $`m_pn_B`$ through their present values $`H_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B\rho _c`$ one evaluates the following bound for the cross-section-to-mass ratio of the $`X`$-particle

$$\frac{\sigma _{Xp}M_X^{1/2}}{(M_X+m_p)^{3/2}}\frac{H_0}{2\mathrm{\Omega }_B}\sqrt{\frac{m_p}{3T_r}}\frac{1}{\rho _c}\left(\frac{T_0}{T_r}\right)^{3/2},$$

where $`T_0=2.7`$ K and $`T_r=0.25`$ eV are the present CMB temperature and the temperature at recombination. Taking the standard BBN value $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2=0.02`$ one obtains

$$\sigma _{Xp}2.7h10^{22}\frac{(M_X+m_p)^{3/2}}{M_X^{1/2}}\frac{\mathrm{cm}^2}{\mathrm{GeV}}.$$
(6)
Here $`\sigma _{Xp}`$ is the cross section corresponding to the relative velocity $`10^5`$. Certainly, this lower bound implies extremely large cross sections. In concrete models one can evaluate $`\sigma _{Xp}(\upsilon )`$ and find the interval of $`M_X`$ allowed by present experimental data.

As the first example, let us consider the case in which the cross section $`\sigma _{Xp}`$ is velocity-independent for $`\upsilon 10^5÷10^3`$. Then the cross section of $`X`$ scattering off baryons in halo is also larger than the right hand side of Eq. (6). Surprisingly, as it was emphasized recently , even if all CDM species interact equally strongly with ordinary baryonic matter, as large cross section as

$$\sigma _{Xp}=810^{25}÷110^{23}\left(\frac{M_X}{\mathrm{GeV}}\right)\mathrm{cm}^2.$$
(7)
at the relative velocity $`10^3`$ cannot be excluded at present if CDM particles are heavier than $`10^5`$ GeV or lighter than $`0.5`$ GeV. The bound (6) requires an order of magnitude higher cross section for the same mass. However the upper bound in Eq. (7) is not applicable in our case. Indeed this bound comes from the consideration of the heating rate $`\gamma `$ of non-ionized interstellar clouds by elastic collisions of $`X`$-particles with Hydrogen . Namely, this limit was obtained by requiring that the heating rate $`\gamma `$ is smaller than the observed cooling rate $`\lambda =(8.1\pm 4.8)\times 10^{14}`$ eV/s . Upper limit in Eq. (7) assumes that $`X`$-particles constitute all Dark Matter in the halo. However, as we noted above, as low density of $`X`$-particles as $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Xh^2=0.01`$, is sufficient to suppress the amplitude of the second acoustic peak to the observed value. Correspondingly, the heating rate $`\gamma `$, which is proportional to the density of $`X`$-particles, is suppressed at the same values of $`M_X`$ and $`\sigma _{Xp}`$ by a factor of

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_X/\mathrm{\Omega }_M1/15÷1/25$$

for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3÷0.5`$ . Consequently, the upper bound is weaker, by this factor, as compared to Eq. (7) and does not contradict Eq. (6).

Another upper limit on $`\sigma _{Xp}`$ close to that in Eq. (7) is related to the halo stability  and does not apply to $`X`$-particles for the same reason — we do not assume that $`X`$-particles constitute the halos of galaxies, so the fact that they are stopped in the disc does not lead to the instability of the halos.

Finally, it is worth noting that the interval of parameters given by Eq. (7) is interesting also because self-interaction of the CDM particles in this range may resolve the problem of the weakly interacting CDM model, predicting overly dense cores in the centers of galaxies and clusters and an overly large number of galaxies within the Local Group in contradiction with observations . It is intriguing that this interval is not only very close to the parameters of hadronic interactions as was stressed in Ref.  but to the bound (6) as well.

To summarize, a relatively small fraction of CDM, consisting of any stable particles with mass $`M_X0.5`$ GeV (a lower bound depends on the concrete model of the interaction with baryons) or $`M_X>10^5`$ GeV which elastically scatter off baryons with the velocity-independent (at $`\upsilon 10^5÷10^3`$) cross section $`\sigma _{Xp}`$, obeying Eq. (6), guarantees the suppression of the second acoustic peak in the anisotropy spectrum of CMB and does not contradict to the present observational limits.

Another natural candidate to consider is the electrically charged massive particles (champs) . First, let us consider particles with unit charge $`X^+`$ and $`X^{}`$. As was explained in Ref.  the fates of these particles in the Early Universe are very different. Positive champs survive unscathed till the epoch of recombination when they capture electrons and form superheavy Hydrogen. Consequently, before recombination they can be involved in the acoustic oscillations. This happens if their equilibration time in plasma is smaller than the inverse expansion rate $`H_r^1`$ at recombination. The equilibration time for $`X^+`$ in plasma is given by

$$t_{eq}=\frac{3M_Xm_p}{8\sqrt{2\pi }q^2\alpha ^2n_Bln\left(3T/q\alpha k_D\right)}\left(\frac{T}{m_p}+\frac{T}{M_X}\right)^{3/2},$$
(8)
where $`q=1`$ is the electric charge of $`X^+`$ and $`k_D=(4\pi n_e\alpha /T)^{1/2}`$ is the Debye momentum. This time is smaller than the expansion rate of the Universe at recombination provided $`M_X<10^{11}`$ GeV. Consequently, these particles could lead to the suppression of the second acoustic peak.

Negative champs can form electromagnetic bound states with proton and nuclei. In fact, as it was argued in Ref. , the dominant part of $`X^{}`$ form neutral bound states with proton (“neutrachamps”). The cross section of the elastic scattering of neutrachamps off protons at small relative velocities $`v_p10^3`$ was estimated in Ref.  by making use of the results for the scattering of slow ions off neutral atoms,

$$\sigma _{pX}=0.36\frac{\pi ^2}{m_p^2\upsilon _p^2}.$$
(9)
The interval of $`M_X`$, where inequality (6) is valid, is forbidden by searches for massive particles in isotopes (for recent review and corresponding references see Ref. ). So neutrachamps cannot be responsible for the suppression of the second acoustic peak but could form seeds for the galaxies.

Unfortunately, as pointed out in Ref. , this scenario is plagued with observational difficulties. Namely, if champs constituted a significant part of the matter in halo, some of the superheavy hydrogen formed by the positive champs would be trapped by the protostellar clouds during the star formation. Neutrachamps are not captured by these clouds, so $`X^+`$ have no chance to annihilate in the stars and will live there indefinitely. If the evolution of the host star leads to the creation of a neutron star, $`X^+`$ will form a black hole in the center of the neutron star and will destroy it on timescales much shorter than the life-time of the Universe. This argument rules out champs with masses up to $`10^{16}`$ GeV constituting a significant fraction of the halo.

One can try to get around this argument in two different ways. First, one can imagine that there exists a pair of nearly degenerate particle species in which the heavier one is charged and the lighter one is neutral. If the lifetime of the charged particle is somewhat larger than the age of the Universe at recombination and the mass difference between charged and neutral particles is small enough so that the late decay of the former does not lead to the strong distortion of the photon background, then such particles can be responsible for the suppression of the second acoustic peak. Certainly any model of this type requires strong fine-tuning.

Unusual modification of this scenario may be realized in models with infinite extra dimensions where our world is localized on a 3-brane in a non-compact multidimensional space -. Namely, as shown in Ref. , it is possible that massive (even charged!) particles have a finite probability to escape into extra dimensions. From the point of view of the 4-dimensional observer such ”decay” would mean a literal dissapearance of the particle. In Refs.  it was shown that this proccess is compatible with the Gauss laws of the general relativity and electrodynamics and leads to the dissapearence of the gravitational (electric) field of the particle in the causal way. As the dissappeance of the particles into extra dimensions is a tunneling process, the corresponding life-time is naturally very large. Its value depends on the particular mechanism of localization, fundamental parameters of the underlying multidimensional theory and mass of the particle. The simplest case is the scalar field localized on the brane by the gravitational field. In this case the decay rate is given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{\pi M}{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(2+n/2\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(1+n/2\right)}\left(\frac{M}{2k}\right)^{2+n},$$
(10)
where $`M`$ is a mass of the particle, $`(n+1)`$ is the number of extra dimensions (one of them is infinite and $`n`$ are compact and warped, see Ref. ), $`k`$ is the inverse AdS radius in the bulk. Assuming that this scale is of the order of 4-dimensional Planck mass, $`k10^{19}`$ GeV, one has the following value for the ratio of the life-time of the scalar particle $`t_s`$ to the life-time of the Universe at the recombination $`t_r1.810^{13}`$ sec,

$$t_s/t_r=\frac{510^{58}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(2+n/2\right)\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(1+n/2\right)}\left(\frac{210^{19}\mathrm{GeV}}{M}\right)^{3+n}.$$
(11)
It follows from Eq. (11) that for $`n=0`$, in order to survive untill the recombination, the scalar particle should have mass smaller than a few GeV which is not allowed by collider searches if the particle is charged333It is worth noting also that in the simple model which we consider gauge fields are gravitationaly localized on the brane only at $`n>0`$ .. However, for larger values of $`n`$, a life-time of the particle can be in the interesting range (larger than the age of the Universe at recombination and smaller than about 1 Gyr when first stars were formed, in order to avoid the neutron star argument) without strong fine-tuning of the parameters. For instance, for $`n=1`$ the mass of the particle should be in the range

$$20\text{TeV}M160\text{TeV}.$$

Another way to get around the neutron star argument is to consider particles of smaller charge. Fluxes of the particles of charges $`q0.1`$ are strongly limited by direct searches , so one has to consider particles with smaller charges, $`q0.1`$. Let us check that particles with so small electric charges can give rise to the suppression of the second acoustic peak. Comparing equilibration time (8) for $`X`$-particle of charge $`q`$ with the inverse expansion rate of the Universe at recombination one obtains that the $`X`$-particle mass should be less than

$$M_X<3.410^9q^2(18.6lnq)\text{ GeV}$$
(12)
for $`M_X>m_p`$, and larger than

$$M_X>7.310^{20}q^4(18.6lnq)^2\text{ GeV}$$
(13)
for $`M_X<m_p`$, in order that $`X`$-particles have been involved in the acoustic oscillations.

In Fig. 1 we present this bound (dash-dotted line) in the exclusion plot for the parameters of models with millicharged particles and without paraphotons (see Ref. ). There exists allowed region of parameters where millicharged particles are involved in the acosutic oscillations. Dark grey area corresponds to the region of allowed parameter space where masses of millicharged particles satisfy Eq. (12) and their relic density is higher than $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{mc}h^2=0.01`$. The CMB result (1) implies that this region of parameter space is excluded (assuming inflationary spectrum with $`r=0`$ and baryon density favored by the standard BBN). In particular we practically close the window for light millicharged particles with charges $`10^5÷10^3`$. Millicharged particles of masses and charges belonging to the thick solid line in Fig. 1 may be responsible for the observed suppression of the second acoustic peak.

In models with paraphotons the CMB result (1) implies that region with $`q10^4÷10^1`$ and $`M_Xafew`$ TeV is excluded (assuming inflationary spectrum with $`r=0`$ and baryon density as in the standard BBN scenario). Millicharged particles with $`M_X1`$ TeV and $`q10^4÷10^1`$ may be responsible for the observed suppression of the second acoustic peak.

To conclude, the observed suppression of the second acoustic peak in the CMB anisotropy may be due to the interaction of the primordial photon-baryon plasma with $`X`$ particles constituting a fraction of the CDM of order a few percent. In the case of elastic velocity-independent scattering (in the velocity interval $`\upsilon 10^5÷10^3`$) the required cross sections (6) are extremely large, but intriguingly similar to the recently predicted range (7) for the self-interaction of the CDM. In this case the direct searches for Dark Matter restrict $`X`$-particles to be within mass interval $`0.1÷0.5`$ GeV or to be heavier than $`10^5`$ GeV. Another candidate which may be responsible for the suppression of the second acoustic peak emerges in multidimensional scenarios with non-compact extra dimensions. It is a charged particle, stable in the multidimensional theory, which may escape from our brane through tunneling into extra dimensions. Yet another possibility is the existance of millicharged particles with the electric charge ranging from $`10^4`$ to $`10^1`$ and with mass $`M_X0.1\text{ GeV}÷1\text{ TeV}`$.

The authors are indebted to V.A. Kuzmin, V.A. Rubakov, D.V. Semikoz, M.E. Shaposhnikov, P.G. Tinyakov and I.I. Tkachev for helpful discussions. SD thanks Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Lausanne, where this work was completed, for hospitality. This work was supported in part by RFBR grant 99-01-18410, by the Council for Presidential Grants and State Support of Leading Scientific Schools, grant 00-15-96626, by CRDF grant (award RP1-2103) and by Swiss Science Foundation grant 7SUPJ062239.


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# DESY 01–026 ISSN 0418–9833 hep–ph/0103056 March 2001 Photoproduction of Jets on a Virtual Pion Target in Next-to-Leading Order QCD

## 1 Introduction

Recently the ZEUS collaboration at HERA presented differential cross section data for the neutron tagged process $`e^++pe^++n+\mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{X}`$ . The cross sections have been measured in the photoproduction region with photon virtuality $`Q^2<4\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ for $`\gamma p`$ center-of-mass energy $`W`$ in the interval $`134<W<269\mathrm{GeV}`$, for jets with transverse energy $`E_T>6\mathrm{GeV}`$, neutron energy $`E_n>400\mathrm{GeV}`$, and neutron production angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }_n<0.8`$ mrad. The cross sections were compared to predictions with the one-pion exchange model and rather good agreement was found.

Due to the kinematic constraints on the neutron detection the squared momentum transfer $`t`$ between ingoing proton and outgoing neutron is very small . In this case it is expected that the $`pn`$ transition amplitude, i.e. the amplitude for the production of neutrons, which carry most of the momentum of the proton, is dominated by the lightest particle in the $`t`$-channel, the pion. Hence the isolation of the one-pion exchange contribution provides the possibility to study the photon-pion interaction $`\gamma +\pi X`$ .

Selecting high $`E_T`$ jets in the final state $`X`$ allows us to apply the QCD improved parton model to describe the characteristic features of the jet production dynamics. This is completely analogous to the process $`\gamma +p\mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{X}`$, which has been calculated in the past up to next-to-leading order (NLO) using different computational techniques . The only difference in $`\gamma +\pi \mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{X}`$ is that the parton distribution functions (pdfs) of the proton are replaced by the pdfs of the pion. In addition, the pion flux, generated by the $`pn`$ transition, has to be supplied.

The pion flux can, in principle, be measured in charge-exchange processes in soft hadronic reactions, where an initial-state proton is transformed into a final-state neutron, $`pn`$, with small momentum transfer. A successful phenomenological description of the corresponding data has been obtained in the framework of reggeized isovector exchange, such as $`\pi ,\rho `$, and $`a_2`$, with the pion being by far the lightest meson dominating the $`pn`$ transition, particularly at small values of the squared momentum transfer $`t`$ between proton and neutron .

The pdfs of the pion can be measured in deep-inelastic scattering with a forward going neutron detected in the final state: $`e^++pe^++n+X`$ . The measurements of the structure functions so far are limited to rather small Bjorken-$`x`$ . The measured semi-inclusive cross sections for leading neutrons by the H1 collaboration  can be described entirely by $`\pi `$ exchange, and the Bjorken-$`x`$ and $`Q^2`$ dependence of these data are consistent with leading order (LO) pdfs of the pion. There exist several such pion pdfs in the literature . They are constrained by dimuon and prompt-photon production data from fixed target experiments that are sensitive to the valence quark distribution in a Bjorken-$`x`$ range relevant for dijet photoproduction on pions.

In this work we present the results of a calculation of differential cross sections for the reaction $`e^++pe^++n+\mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{X}`$ with the kinematical constraints as in the ZEUS analysis . We have done these calculations in LO and in NLO. It is well known, however, that LO predictions are not reliable due to the possibly strong scale dependence of the results. Another problem of LO results for jet cross sections is the fact that in LO only two large $`E_T`$ jets with opposite transverse momenta can be produced. Therefore these cross sections are independent of the jet algorithm which is applied in order to define jets in the analysis of the experimental data. In NLO calculations there appears an explicit dependence on the jet algorithm due to the possible production of three partons (in addition to the remnant partons on the photon or pion side, respectively) in the final state, two of which must be combined in one jet in accordance with the experimental constraints for the construction of jets out of hadrons. Therefore our LO results are just for comparison and for demonstrating the reduced scale dependence of the NLO results. Our genuine predictions are the NLO cross sections which will be compared with the ZEUS data .

In the next section we shall describe the kinematical variables and define our input for the pion flux and the pion pdfs. Section 3 contains our results and the comparison with the experimental data. In the last section we give a short summary and draw some conclusions.

## 2 Kinematical Variables and Further Input

The event kinematics has been described in detail already in . Here we repeat those variables which are needed in the calculation of the cross cross sections. The reaction

$$e^+(k)+p(P)e^+(k^{})+n(P^{})+H,$$
(1)
where H is the hadronic system containing the jets, is characterized by the four-momenta $`k`$ and $`k^{}`$ of the initial and scattered positron and by $`P`$ and $`P^{}`$, the four-momenta of the ingoing proton and outgoing neutron, respectively. The positron-photon vertex is described by the exchanged photon virtuality $`Q^2`$ and the positron’s inelasticity $`y`$, i.e.

$`Q^2`$ $`=`$ $`q^2=(kk^{})^2,`$
$`y`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Pq}{Pk}}.`$ (2)
In the ZEUS experiment  $`Q^24\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ and $`0.2<y<0.8`$, corresponding to the $`\gamma p`$ center-of-momentum energy range $`134<W<269\mathrm{GeV}`$. The protons at HERA have the energy $`E_p=820\mathrm{GeV}`$ and collide with $`E_e=27.5\mathrm{GeV}`$ positrons, corresponding to a center-of-momentum frame energy $`\sqrt{S}=300\mathrm{GeV}`$. The two variables, which describe the proton-neutron vertex, are the fraction of the energy of the initial-state proton carried by the neutron $`x_L`$ and the square of the momentum transfer $`t`$ between the proton and the produced neutron:

$`x_L`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{P^{}k}{Pk}}{\displaystyle \frac{E_n}{E_p}},`$
$`t`$ $`=`$ $`q^2=(PP^{})^2.`$ (3)
The splitting function or pion flux for the transition $`pn+\pi ^+`$ is usually parameterized by different forms which can be summarized as

$$f_{\pi /p}(x_L,t)=\frac{1}{4\pi }\frac{g_{n\pi p}^2}{4\pi }\frac{t}{(m_\pi ^2t)^2}(1x_L)^{12\alpha _\pi (t)}[F(x_L,t)]^2.$$
(4)
Here $`g_{n\pi p}`$ is the coupling constant of the $`n\pi p`$ vertex, $`m_\pi `$ is the pion mass, and $`\alpha _\pi (t)=\alpha ^{}(tm_\pi ^2)`$ is the Regge trajectory of the pion. $`F(x_L,t)`$ is a form factor which describes the off-shell behavior of the virtual pion and/or possible final state rescattering effects of the neutron. Two choices for the form factor $`F(x_L,t)`$ used in the analysis of various charge-exchange scattering experiments are

$$F(x_L,t)=\{\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{exp}[b(tm_\pi ^2)]\hfill \\ \mathrm{exp}[R^2(tm_\pi ^2)/(1x_L)]\hfill \end{array}$$
(5)
where $`b`$ and $`R`$ are constants. The first of these choices, the exponential form, is usually taken with the Regge trajectory factor in (4) with $`\alpha ^{}=1\mathrm{GeV}^2`$. The second choice, the light-cone form factor, is usually associated with the flux without the Regge trajectory factor, i.e. $`\alpha ^{}=0`$ in (4). These choices are associated with the experimental finding that in soft hadronic reactions the shape of the $`x_L`$ distribution depends on $`t`$ . The pion-nucleon coupling constant is well known from low energy $`\pi N`$ and $`NN`$ scattering data. We take $`g_{n\pi p}^2/4\pi =214.17`$ as obtained in a recent analysis .

In the scattering process of $`22`$ massless partons, the fractions of the four-momenta $`q=kk^{}`$ and $`q^{}=PP^{}`$ participating in the hard scattering by the initial state parton are given by

$`x_\gamma `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_jE_T^je^{\eta _j}}{2yE_e}},`$ (6)
$`x_\pi `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_jE_T^je^{\eta _j}}{2E_p(1x_L)}},`$ (7)
where the sums in (6) and (7) run over the variables of the two jets in the final state. Here we assumed that $`q^2=q^2=0`$. The energy fraction contributing by the exchanged virtual photon to the production of the dijets is $`x_\gamma `$ whereas the corresponding contribution of the virtual pion (or possibly of a reggeized $`\rho `$ or $`a_2`$) is $`x_\pi `$. In (6) $`E_\gamma =yE_e`$ is the energy of the ingoing virtual photon. In NLO also three jets can be produced in the final state. Then (6) and (7) are no longer valid. In order to estimate the energy fractions $`x_\gamma `$ and $`x_\pi `$ for this case, too, one uses (6) and (7) in the form that the sums in (6) and (7) run over the two jets of largest $`E_T`$ in an event.

As is well known two mechanisms contribute to the photoproduction of jets, the direct and the resolved process. The observable $`x_\gamma `$ is sensitive to the amount of direct and resolved processes. The LO direct process, where the photon couples directly to the quarks, contributes at $`x_\gamma =1`$, the resolved and the NLO direct processes contribute in the region $`x_\gamma <1`$. It must be emphasized, however, that the distinction of direct and resolved processes looses its meaning in NLO, so that the characterization of the contributions to the various $`x_\gamma `$ regions by the direct and resolved processes is not unique: It becomes scale dependent. The variable $`x_\pi `$ can be used to analyze which region of the pion pdfs and which partonic contributions are most important for dijet production with leading neutrons.

As for the jet definition and the combination of two partons into one jet in the NLO contributions of the direct and the resolved parts, we use the $`k_T`$ cluster algorithm in the form as introduced in  and as used in the jet analysis of the experimental data . The photon flux is calculated with the usual Weizsäcker-Williams approximation, including the non-logarithmic correction as calculated in . For the resolved cross sections we need the pdfs of the photon in LO and NLO. A popular parameterization is GRV . We use the parameterization GS96 , since it leads to a slightly better description of the experimental data. For the comparison with data of inclusive jet production without the leading neutron, which has been simultaneously analyzed in  under similar kinematical conditions, we need also the pdfs of the proton, for which we employ the recent CTEQ5M  parameterization. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ parameter which we need in the NLO $`\alpha _s`$ formula is taken from the proton pdf fit. It is $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(4)}=326`$ MeV. For the pion pdfs we employ two alternatives, SMRS3  and GRS . Unfortunately, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ values used for the evolution of these pdfs are somewhat smaller, namely $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{(4)}=190`$ and 200 MeV. For LO predictions, we use LO matrix elements with the one-loop formula for $`\alpha _s`$ and the same values of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Since only GRS have constructed LO and NLO pion pdfs, we have to use the NLO SMRS3 set also with our LO predictions. The GRS pdfs of the pion are constructed for three flavors only. Since we include four flavors throughout, we also need the pion pdf for charm. This is taken from the earlier work of GRV .

## 3  Results and Comparison with ZEUS Data

The calculation of the cross sections is based on the formalism fully described in our previous work . To cancel infrared and collinear singularities in the NLO contributions of the final state and to define the collinear initial state singularities to be removed through the renormalization of the pdfs of the photon or the pion, the phase-space slicing method was applied. Since the neutron kinematics could not be fixed in detail in the experiment we had to integrate over a finite region in $`x_L`$ and $`t`$. We did this in accordance with the specifications of the ZEUS experimental analysis. Except for the outgoing positron and the leading neutron the final state consists of two or three jets. The two-jet sample contains the bare parton jets from the LO and virtual NLO contributions and the two jets originating from the recombination of two partons in the three-parton terms. The three-jet sample is just given by the uncombined three-parton final states.

First we calculated the differential cross section $`d^2\sigma /dE_Td\eta `$, where $`E_T`$ and $`\eta `$ are the transverse energy and the rapidity of one of the jets in the two- or three-jet sample, respectively. As in the ZEUS analysis we restricted the selection in the three-jet sample. We included from this sample only the two jets with the largest $`E_T`$. In our earlier work  this cross section was denoted the inclusive one-jet cross section. There, however, we included all three jets from the three-jet contributions. In  the cross section defined above is denoted the dijet cross section. This should be distinguished from the inclusive two-jet cross section defined in , which depends on $`E_T`$, the transverse energy of one of the two jets with the highest $`E_T`$, and the rapidities $`\eta _1`$ and $`\eta _2`$ of these high $`E_T`$ jets. The $`d^2\sigma /dE_Td\eta `$ is integrated over $`2<\eta <2`$ as in . The result for the full jet sample (without detection of the leading neutron) as a function of $`E_T`$ for $`E_T>6\mathrm{GeV}`$ turn out to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental data from  (not shown). The point with the largest cross section at $`E_T=7\mathrm{GeV}`$ agrees perfectly with the measured value. The points at medium $`E_T`$ lie somewhat higher than the theoretical curve. The equivalent cross section $`d^2\sigma /dE_Td\eta `$, also integrated over $`|\eta |<2`$, for the case with the leading neutron is shown as a function of $`E_T`$ for $`6.5<E_T<29.5\mathrm{GeV}`$ in Fig. 1a.

In this figure three curves are shown: one from LO with pion pdfs SMRS3  and photon pdfs GS96 , the latter in LO, and two other curves for NLO with pion pdfs SMRS3  and GRS  and charm content from GRV  for comparison. We see that all three predictions lie very near to each other in the logarithmic plot. The LO and NLO curves for SMRS3/GS96 differ only very little in this plot, showing that the NLO corrections are small for the scale choice $`\mu =\mathrm{max}(E_{T,1},E_{T,2})`$ as used in Fig. 1a (and in all the following figures) for the LO and NLO result. The GRS choice for the pion pdfs leads to a somewhat larger cross section at small $`E_T`$’s and smaller cross section at the larger $`E_T`$’s as compared to the SMRS3 choice. We have calculated that the gluon in the pion gives the dominant contribution to the cross section for $`E_T<22`$ GeV. Resolved photons are more important than direct photons for $`E_T<9`$ GeV. The experimental data  with statistical and systematic errors shown separately come with a light shaded band which indicates the additional systematic experimental uncertainty due to the calorimeter energy scale . The medium shaded band gives the uncertainty of the LO result when the scale of $`\alpha _s`$ and of the factorization is varied in the interval between $`E_T/2`$ and $`2E_T`$. The scale uncertainty of the NLO prediction (dark shaded band) coincides with the line thickness of the NLO curve. Taking into account the fairly large experimental errors including the calorimeter energy scale uncertainty the agreement of the ZEUS data with the theoretical predictions concerning shape and absolute normalization is reasonably good. It must be emphasized, however, that the absolute normalization depends on the pion form factor (5). In Fig. 1a we assumed the light-cone form factor with $`R=0.5\mathrm{GeV}^1`$. Recent determinations of $`R^2`$ from a comparison to the rather accurate neutron production data from Flauger and Mönning  yield $`R^2=0.2\mathrm{GeV}^2`$  and $`R^2=0.4\mathrm{GeV}^2`$  in reasonable agreement with our value for $`R^2`$. A change of $`R`$ from $`R=0.5`$ to $`R=0.6\mathrm{GeV}^1`$, i.e. an increase by $`20\%`$, leads to a $`15\%`$ smaller cross section.

Since we have calculated also $`d^2\sigma /dE_Td\eta `$ with the same kinematical constraints for $`e+pe^{}+2\mathrm{jets}+\mathrm{X}`$ we can take the ratio of the two cross sections $`d\sigma /dE_T`$ for $`e+pe^{}+n+2\mathrm{jets}+\mathrm{X}`$ and $`e+pe^{}+2\mathrm{jets}+\mathrm{X}`$. This is shown in Fig. 1b and compared to the ZEUS data for this ratio. The agreement with the data is perfect. For low $`E_T`$, where the experimental errors are smallest, the SMRS3 result agrees better than the ratio obtained with the GRS pion pdfs, otherwise the results are the same. In Fig. 1b the experimental uncertainty from the calorimeter energy measurements, the systematic error and the scale uncertainty in the theoretical curve are not included since they are supposed to cancel in the ratio . Thus, this ratio seems to be a good example to get information on the pion pdfs and/or the pion form factor.

The next calculated differential cross section is $`d\sigma /d\eta `$, i.e. $`d^2\sigma /dE_Td\eta `$ integrated over $`E_T`$ with $`E_{T,\mathrm{min}}=6\mathrm{GeV}`$. The result is shown in Fig. 2a,

where $`d\sigma /d\eta `$ is plotted as a function of $`\eta `$ for $`\eta `$ between $`2`$ and $`2`$, together with the data points from . There are three theoretical curves for the three cases as in Fig. 1a. Here one can see the difference between SMRS3/GS96 in LO and NLO. The difference is very small, the LO cross section is approximately $`5\%`$ larger than the NLO cross section for the same scale $`\mu =\mathrm{max}(E_{T,1},E_{T,2})`$. Concerning the dependence on the pion pdfs the choice SMRS3 agrees best with the data. The result with the GRS pdfs is larger, in particular for negative $`\eta `$. In  two other pion pdfs have been published, SMRS1 and SMRS2. The cross sections for these two pdfs lie between the SMRS3 and the GRS curves and are therefore not shown explicitly. The gluons in the pion contribute about twice as much as quarks to the rapidity distribution over the entire $`\eta `$-range. Direct (resolved) photons dominate in the region $`\eta <0`$ $`(\eta >0)`$. All three curves do not agree well with the data points for $`\eta <0.5`$. For jet production without leading neutron this region is known to be influenced by hadronization corrections . We expect such corrections also for the cross section in Fig. 2a, although somewhat less in the case with leading neutron due to the reduced total energy producing the hard jets. The theoretical result with such hadronic corrections included (taken from the case without leading neutron ) is shown in Fig. 2a as the lower full curve. It leads to a better agreement in the negative $`\eta `$ region, but it produces also a somewhat lower cross section at positive $`\eta `$’s, reducing the good agreement wit the data in this region. In Fig. 2a we show again three shaded bands: (i) the light shaded band shows the additional systematic uncertainty from the calorimeter energy scale, (ii) the medium shaded band gives the variation of the LO result (dotted curve) with the scale $`\mu `$, which was varied as usual in the region $`E_T/2<\mu <2E_T`$, (iii) the dark shaded band shows the variation of the NLO cross section with changing the scale in the same interval. Here, we see quite clearly that the NLO result has a very much reduced scale dependence compared to the LO result. Similarly to Fig. 1b we have plotted in Fig. 2b the ratio of the cross sections for SMRS3/GS96 and GRS/GS96 and the cross section $`d\sigma /d\eta `$ for dijet production without leading neutron as a function of $`\eta `$ and compared them with the same experimental ratio from ZEUS. Within errors the SMRS3 and the GRS results are consistent with the data, the SMRS3 curve agrees slightly better.

The last differential cross section which we investigated is $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$. In order to determine $`x_\pi `$, which is a measure of the exchanged pion’s momentum fraction participating in the production of jets as defined in (7), we need the transverse momenta and rapidities of the two most energetic jets in the event. The experimental cross section $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$, however, has the constraint that for the two jets $`E_{T,1}6\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`E_{T,2}6\mathrm{GeV}`$. Cross sections for $`E_{T,1}=E_{T,2}`$ are problematic theoretically, since they become infrared sensitive in NLO, i.e. depend on the slicing cut used to cancel infrared and collinear singularities. In order to avoid this sensitivity and also possible hadronic and intrinsic $`k_T`$ effects not considered in our NLO framework we need constraints on $`E_{T,1},E_{T,2}`$ or $`E_{T,3}`$ which smear out the problematic region $`E_{T,1}=E_{T,2}`$. This problem is well known and was encountered some time ago also in connection with the calculation of the inclusive dijet cross section in $`\gamma p`$ collisions . One remedy to remove the infrared sensitivity is the requirement of slightly different lower limits on $`E_{T,1}`$ and $`E_{T,2}`$. Therefore, we have calculated $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$ with the constraint $`E_{T,1}6`$ GeV, $`E_{T,2}5`$ GeV if $`E_{T,1}>E_{T,2}`$ or $`E_{T,1}`$ and $`E_{T,2}`$ interchanged if $`E_{T,2}>E_{T,1}`$. The cross sections calculated with this constraint are plotted in Fig. 3, again for the three cases as in Fig. 1a.

These cross sections are compared with the corresponding ZEUS data. The NLO prediction with the pion pdfs of SMRS3 agrees better with the data than the one with GRS pion pdfs. Except for large $`x_\pi >0.35`$ the gluons in the pion dominate over quarks, and the resolved photon contribution is larger than the direct one for $`x_\pi >0.04`$. The agreement with the data is good for $`x_\pi >0.06`$, but less good for the smaller $`x_\pi `$. This $`x_\pi `$ region is related to the negative $`\eta `$ region in the $`\eta `$ distribution in Fig. 2a, where one has hadronization corrections (see (7) for the relation between $`x_\pi `$ and the $`\eta _j`$’s). We note that the K factor between the NLO and LO result is larger than in $`d\sigma /d\eta `$ and is larger than one now in particular for small $`x_\pi `$. This is connected with the specific constraint on $`E_{T,1}`$ and $`E_{T,2}`$, which was not necessary for the results in Figs. 1 and 2. This constraint does not exactly correspond to the one applied to the measured $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$. On the other hand the low $`E_T`$ calorimeter jets used in the experimental analysis have an uncertainty of $`5\%`$ which introduces a corresponding uncertainty on the constraint $`E_{T,1},E_{T,2}6\mathrm{GeV}`$. In order to see the influence of the $`E_{T,1},E_{T,2}`$ cut we reduced the difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ between $`E_{T,1}`$ and $`E_{T,2}`$ from $`1\mathrm{GeV}`$ to $`0.5\mathrm{GeV}`$. The result is shown in Fig. 3 as the lower full curve. The reduction of the difference leads to a lower cross section as we expect, so that the low $`x_\pi `$ experimental points are described very well now but not the higher $`x_\pi `$ region. Since this region is much less affected by hadronization corrections we prefer the original prediction (upper full curve in Fig. 3). The absolute normalization of the cross section $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$ depends also on the pion form factor. The curves in Fig. 3 are calculated with the light-cone form factor with $`R=0.5\mathrm{GeV}^1`$. $`R=0.6\mathrm{GeV}^1`$ instead gives a $`15\%`$ lower cross section and better agreement for $`x_\pi <0.06`$ but worse agreement above this value. Again taking into account possible hadronization corrections we consider the value $`R=0.5\mathrm{GeV}^1`$ as more realistic. The result with $`R=0.6\mathrm{GeV}^1`$ is almost indistinguishable from the result with the exponential form factor with $`b=0`$.

In  several uncorrected distributions are presented, in particular event rates as a function of $`x_\gamma `$ in order to say something about the amount of resolved and direct photoproduction. From these rates, the ratio of resolved (corresponds to $`x_\gamma <0.75`$) to the direct cross section (corresponds to $`x_\gamma >0.75`$) has been deduced. We checked that the theoretical prediction for this ratio is in reasonable agreement with the data. It decreases with increasing $`E_T`$, as one expects it.

In this work we considered only the pion exchange in the $`t`$-channel. Other isovector exchanges, such as $`\rho `$ and $`a_2`$, are expected to be small. Recent studies of leading neutron production in $`ep`$ collisions show that the rate can be described entirely by $`\pi ^+`$ exchange . The additional exchanges, which increase the rate of neutron production, are offset by absorptive rescattering of the neutron, which decreases the rate by approximately the same amount . Therefore both effects are neglected in the present analysis. If the experimental data were more specific concerning the dependence on $`t`$ and $`x_L`$, the dominance of the $`\pi ^+`$ exchange could be demonstrated.

## 4 Summary and Concluding Remarks

We have presented a next-to-leading order calculation of dijet production in collisions of almost real photons and pions, where the photons are generated through bremsstrahlung from an initial electron or positron beam and the pion is assumed to give the dominant contribution to the forward proton to neutron transition amplitude. Our results have been compared with recent data from ZEUS for distributions in the transverse energy $`E_T`$ and rapidity $`\eta `$ of one of the two jets and for the observed momentum fraction of the partons in the pion $`x_\pi `$. We found that the NLO corrections to the LO result were generally small, also in the case of inclusive photon-proton scattering with similar kinematic constraints, but lead to a largely reduced dependence on the renormalization and factorization scales. For the NLO distribution in $`\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$, we had to relax the experimental condition of $`E_{T,1},E_{T,2}>6`$ GeV to allow for a small difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.5\mathrm{}1`$ GeV of the two minimal transverse energies, corresponding to the non-zero experimental uncertainty in the jet energy scale.

The overall normalization of all three distributions is sensitive to the form factor of the $`pn\pi ^+`$ transition. We have used a light-cone form with a value for the parameter $`R`$ which agrees well with recent determinations from neutron production data. Once the normalization is fixed, the shapes of the distributions, particularly the one in $`\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$, are sensitive to the parton distributions in the pion. The ZEUS data for the distribution in $`\mathrm{log}_{10}(x_\pi )`$ as well as in $`E_T`$ and $`\eta `$ are best described by the SMRS3 pion parameterization, whereas the GRS parameterization with GRV charm distribution gives larger predictions, especially at small $`x_\pi `$. We emphasize that for small $`E_T`$ one is particularly sensitive to the gluon content of the pion. Furthermore, the GS96 photon densities agree better with the data than GRV. Hadronization corrections were found to reduce the perturbative prediction considerably in the region of small $`\eta `$, which corresponds to small $`x_\pi `$.

### Acknowledgments

We thank M. Khakzad, G. Levman and J. Whitmore for making the ZEUS data available to us and M. Wing for calculating the hadronization corrections with the HERWIG Monte Carlo generator. Financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through Grant No. KL 1266/1-1, by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung through Grant No. 05 HT9GUA 3, and by the European Commission through the Research Training Network Quantum Chromodynamics and the Deep Structure of Elementary Particles under Contract No. ERBFMRX-CT98-0194 is gratefully acknowledged.


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# Emission of single photons, hadrons, and dileptons in 𝑃𝑏+𝑃𝑏 collisions at CERN SPS and quark hadron phase transition

##

It has been recognised for a long time that electromagnetic radiations from relativistic heavy ion collisions would be a definitive signature of the formation of a hot and dense plasma of quarks and gluons, consequent to a quark-hadron phase transition. Once other signs of the quark-hadron transition, e.g., an enhanced production of strangeness, a suppression of $`J/\psi `$ production, radiation of dileptons, etc., started to emerge, it was imperative that the more direct, yet much more difficult to isolate, signature of the hot and dense quark-gluon plasma, the single photons were identified. The WA98 experiment  has now reported observation of single photons in central $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions at the CERN SPS.

In the present work we show that these data, along with the hadronic spectra measured by several groups  and the intermediate mass dileptons measured by the NA50  experiment are very well described if we assume that a quark-gluon plasma was formed in the collision.

We incorporate two important improvements in our analysis. Firstly, the hadronic equation of state is generalized to include all of the hadrons  in the particle data book. Secondly, we use the rate of single photon production from the quark matter to the order of two-loops reported recently by Aurenche et al . A recalculation of these rates have been reported recently  and it has been claimed that the result of Aurenche et al. is too high by a numerical factor of 4. We use the corrected rates in what follows. The results presented during the conference used the former rates of Aurenche et al. (This affects only the Fig. 1.) For analysis of the dilepton production we use the exhaustive rate calculations of Ref. .

We assume that a chemically and thermally equilibrated quark-gluon plasma is produced in such these collisions at the time $`\tau _0`$, and use the isentropy condition ;

$$\frac{2\pi ^4}{45\zeta (3)}\frac{1}{A_T}\frac{dN}{dy}=4aT_0^3\tau _0$$
(1)
to estimate the initial temperature, where $`A_T`$ is the transverse area. We have taken the average particle rapidity density as 750 for the 10% most central $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions at the CERN SPS energy as measured in the experiment. We use a mass number of 190 to account for non-zero impact parameter based on estimates of number of participants.

The plasma is assumed to consist of massless quarks (u, d, and s) and gluons with the number of flavours as $``$ 2.5 to account for the mass of the strange quarks. We assume a rapid thermalization  so that the formation time is decided by the uncertainty relation and $`\tau _0=1/3T_0`$. The energy density profile is assumed to be proportional to the wounded nucleon distribution. We further assume that the phase transition takes place at $`T=`$ 180 MeV and the freeze-out takes place at 120 MeV. The rates for the hadronic matter have been taken from Ref.  and the contribution of the $`A_1`$ resonance is included according to the suggestions of Xiong et al . The relevant hydrodynamic equations are solved using the procedure  discussed earlier and an integration over history of evolution is performed .

In Fig. 1 we show our results for single photons. The dashed curve gives the contribution of the quark-matter and the solid curve gives the sum of the contributions of the quark matter and the hadronic matter. The NLO pQCD estimate for prompt photons, with the inclusion of intrinsic partonic momenta are also given . We see that the thermal sources contribute about 50% of the single photons and that a very good description of the data is obtained when the thermal and the prompt sources are added. Consequences of variation of some of the parameters can be seen in Ref. . The fit to pion spectra from the WA98 experiment , kaon and proton spectra from the NA44 experiment , and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }+\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ spectra from the NA49 experiment  are given in Fig. 2. The production of intermediate mass dileptons measured by the NA50 experiment is shown in Fig. 3. We see that the sum of the thermal and Drell-Yan contributions provides a good description to the experimental data. We add that we have used the procedure described in Ref.  to simulate the detector acceptance. We also add that the thermal production is quite identical to the enhanced production of charm decay estimated by the NA50 group to ‘explain’ this excess. The corresponding fit to the $`p_T`$ spectrum is shown in Fig. 4. It should be noted that contrary to the findings of Ref.  most of the radiations in the present work comes from the quark matter itself. This difference is most likely due to the rich equation of state along with a sophisticated evolution mechanism for the plasma employed in the present work Ref. .

In brief, we have shown that a single set of initial conditions, which involve a quark gluon plasma in the initial state and envisage a quark-hadron phase transition during the evolution, are able to provide a consistent description to single photons, dileptons, and hadrons produced in central $`Pb+Pb`$ collisions measured at the CERN SPS. This we feel, provides a very strong support to the claim that a quark gluon plasma is formed in these experiments.

We thank T. Awes and E. Scomparin for useful discussions.


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# Inflation with Low Reheat Temperature and Cosmological Constraint on Stable Charged Massive Particles

## Acknowledgments

We thank T. Moroi for delightful conversations. A.K. also thanks Sh. Matsumoto and F. Takayama for discussions and Y. Kiyo for assistance on numerical computation. This work was supported in part by the Grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, priority area (#707) “Supersymmetry and unified theory of elementary particles,” and in part by the Grants-in-aid No.11640246 and No.12047201.


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# On the origin of the distribution of binary-star periods

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The distribution of orbital parameters of binary systems pose important constraints on the theory of star-formation. In particular, the distribution of eccentricities and periods of late-type Galactic-field binary systems are sufficiently well observed to address the issue of their origin.

The observed eccentricity distribution is approximately thermal ($`f_\mathrm{e}2e`$, with $`f_\mathrm{e}de`$ being the number of orbits in the interval $`e`$ to $`e+de`$) for binaries with periods $`P\begin{array}{c}>\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10^3`$ days, but for systems with $`P\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10^3`$ days, $`e`$ and $`P`$ are correlated such that smaller $`P`$ imply, on average, smaller $`e`$. For Galactic late-type dwarfs the distribution of periods, $`f_\mathrm{P}`$, is log-normal in $`P`$, with the notable feature that $`P`$ ranges from 1 to $`10^{10}`$ days with a mean log$`{}_{10}{}^{}P4.8`$ (fig. 1 in Kroupa 1995a). Pre-main sequence binaries show the same wide range of parameters and correlations (Mathieu 1994).

The available cloud-collapse calculations have not been able to produce the wide range of observed periods, and in particular do not lead to short-period ($`P\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}10^3`$ d) systems (Bodenheimer et al. 2000 for a review). However, even the most recent numerical refinements cannot describe stellar formation to the point where gas-dynamical processes can be neglected, so that the final theoretical orbital parameters of binary systems cannot be quantified. We do not know for sure yet if there exists some significant magneto-hydrodynamical mechanism that is important in transforming a theoretical period distribution that results from fragmentation to the final wide $`f_\mathrm{P}`$ observed already among 1 Myr old populations. Alternatively, it may be possible that no such mechanism is needed, and that the final (observed) orbital parameters of Galactic-field systems are a result of gravitational encounters in very dense embedded clusters that disperse rapidly.

It has already been demonstrated that stellar-dynamical interactions in typical embedded clusters spanning a wide range of densities cannot significantly widen a period distribution. Too few orbits are redistributed to $`P<10^3`$ days by encounters assuming the primordial period distribution is confined to the range $`10^310^{7.5}`$ days. Similarly, typical embedded clusters cannot evolve an arbitrary eccentricity distribution to the thermal form (Kroupa 1995b).

The purpose of the present paper is to study the evolution of a range of extremely dense clusters to answer the question once and for all whether encounters within a dense cluster environment can significantly contribute to the observed width of $`f_\mathrm{P}`$. Section 2 briefly describes the codes used for the $`N`$-body computations and the data reduction, and the initial conditions. The results are presented in Section 3, and the conclusions follow in Section 4.

## 2 THE CODES AND INITIAL CONDITIONS

### 2.1 The $`N`$-body programme

A direct $`N`$-body code must deal efficiently with a range of dynamical time-scales spanning many orders of magnitude, from days to hundreds of Myrs. The code of choice is Aarseth’s Nbody6 (Aarseth 1999). Special mathematical techniques are employed to transform the space-time coordinates of closely interacting stars, which may be perturbed by neighbours, such that the resulting equations of motion of the sub-system are regular (Mikkola & Aarseth 1993). State-of-the-art stellar evolution is incorporated (Hurley, Pols & Tout 2000), as well as a standard Galactic tidal field (Terlevich 1987).

The velocity and position vectors of any individual centre-of-mass particle (e.g. a star or binary system) diverges exponentially from the true trajectory, through the growth of errors in $`N`$–body computations (e.g. Goodman, Heggie & Hut 1993). However, statistical results from $`N`$–body calculations correctly describe the overall dynamical evolution, as shown, for example, by Giersz & Heggie (1994) who compare ensembles of $`N`$-body computations with statistical stellar-dynamical methods. Thus, for each model constructed here an ensemble is created in order to obtain reliable estimates of the relevant statistical quantities.

The output from Nbody6 is analysed by a software package that finds all bound binary systems, and allows the construction of distribution functions of orbital parameters, among many other things.

### 2.2 Initial binary systems

Initial stellar masses are distributed according to a three-part power-law IMF (Kroupa 2001b), $`\xi (m)m^\alpha `$, where $`\alpha =0.3`$ for $`0.01m<0.08M_{}`$, $`\alpha =1.3`$ for $`0.08m<0.5M_{}`$ and $`\alpha =2.3`$ for $`0.5m/M_{}`$, and $`\xi (m)dm`$ is the number of stars in the mass range $`m`$ to $`m+dm`$.

The total binary proportion is

$$f_{\mathrm{tot}}=\frac{N_{\mathrm{bin}}}{N_{\mathrm{bin}}+N_{\mathrm{sing}}},$$
(1)
where $`N_{\mathrm{bin}}`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{sing}}`$ are the number of binary and single-star systems, respectively. Initially, all stars are assumed to be in binary systems ($`f_{\mathrm{tot}}=1`$) with component masses $`m_1,m_2`$ chosen randomly from the IMF.

The initial logarithmic binary-star periods are distributed uniformly in the narrow interval $`4.5\mathrm{log}_{10}P5.5`$, $`P`$ in days. The period distribution of late-type systems is

$$f_\mathrm{P}=\frac{N_{\mathrm{bin},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{lt}}}{N_{\mathrm{bin},\mathrm{lt}}+N_{\mathrm{sing},\mathrm{lt}}},$$
(2)
where $`N_{\mathrm{bin},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{lt}}`$ is the number of binaries with orbits in the interval log$`{}_{10}{}^{}P`$ and log$`{}_{10}{}^{}P+d\mathrm{log}_{10}P`$ in which the primary has a mass $`0.08m1.5M_{}`$, and $`N_{\mathrm{sing},\mathrm{lt}},N_{\mathrm{bin},\mathrm{lt}}`$ are the number of single stars and binaries with primaries, respectively, in this mass interval. The initial ($`t=0`$) period distribution is given by

$`f_\mathrm{P}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill 0.5:& 4.5\mathrm{log}_{10}P5.5,\hfill \\ \hfill 0.0:& \mathrm{otherwise},\hfill \end{array}`$ (5)
the period distribution being constructed using decade intervals in $`P`$ (see Fig. 4 below). All binary systems initially have orbits with eccentricity $`e=0.75`$, but the results are not sensitive to this value (Kroupa 1995b).

These assumptions allow us to test the hypothesis that binary–binary and binary–single-star encounters in very compact young clusters widen the period distribution to the form observed in the Galactic field, and re-distribute the eccentricities to give the thermal distribution observed for Galactic-field systems.

### 2.3 Cluster models

Clusters initially in virial equilibrium (VE) and in cold collapse (CC) with $`N=100`$ and 1000 stars are set up to cover a range of extreme initial conditions (Table 1).

The VE models are spherical Plummer number-density profiles (Aarseth, Hénon & Wielen 1974) initially, with position and velocity vectors not correlated with the system masses. The initial half-mass radius, $`R_{0.5}`$, is chosen to give a three-dimensional velocity dispersion, $`\sigma _{3\mathrm{D}}`$, that equals the orbital velocity of a binary with a system mass of $`1M_{}`$ and a period, $`P=10^5`$ days, near the maximum in the G-dwarf period distribution of Duquennoy & Mayor (1991). The central densities of these models are extreme and probably unrealistic, in that many of the binary systems overlap. However, these models allow us to study the very extreme situation in which binary–binary interactions dominate initial cluster evolution, and will thus pose limits on the possible widening of the period distribution as a result of these interactions.

The CC models are uniform spheres, each cluster having no initial velocity dispersion, with the position vectors and system masses being uncorrelated. The increased binary–binary interactions near maximum collapse may widen the period distribution to the observed values.

## 3 RESULTS

### 3.1 Cluster evolution

The evolution of the clusters is exemplified by evaluating the core radius, $`R_\mathrm{C}(t)`$ (e.g. Kroupa, Aarseth & Hurley 2001). This quantity measures the degree of concentration of a cluster. The central number density is the density within $`R_\mathrm{C}`$, counting all stars and brown dwarfs. The evolution of both quantities is shown in Fig. 1.

The core radius of the VE models increases immediately as a consequence of binary-star heating for the highly concentrated N2v and N2v1 models, whereas it decreases in the less concentrated N3v model during the first few $`t_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ as a result of mass segregation. When energy re-arrangement through mass segregation has ended, the most massive stars having reached the centre, $`R_\mathrm{C}`$ also expands in this model. It is interesting to note that the increase follows a power-law, $`R_\mathrm{C}t^{r_R}`$ with $`r_R0.95`$, in all cases. The central density decreases as a power-law, $`\rho _\mathrm{C}t^{r_\rho }`$ with $`r_\rho 2.2`$. The decay in $`\rho _\mathrm{C}`$ sets-in immediately in models N2v and N2v1, but is retarded in model N3v as a result of the settling of the heavy stars.

The CC models contract homologously until local density fluctuations have increased sufficiently to form one dominating potential well, thus focusing the further radial flow (Aarseth, Lin & Papaloizou 1988). At this point $`\rho _\mathrm{C}`$ begins to increase until it reaches a maximum which defines the time of maximum contraction, $`R_\mathrm{C}`$ being smallest then. After violent relaxation the compactified clusters evolve as the VE models, albeit with a time-lag through the collapse.

The clusters can be taken to be dissolved when $`\rho _\mathrm{C}\begin{array}{c}<\hfill \\ \hfill \end{array}5`$ stars/pc3. The ‘final’ distributions of orbital parameters discussed below are evaluated approximately at this time taking account of all stars, when no further stellar-dynamical, or stimulated, evolution of the binary population occurs.

### 3.2 The binaries

The evolution of $`f_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ is plotted for all models in Fig. 2.

As noted above, the binaries initially overlap in the VE models, causing immediate disruption of the widest systems leading to a population of single stars in the cluster. Further binary depletion occurs on a crossing time-scale. Meanwhile the cluster expands (Fig. 1), slowing further binary disruption, until it is virtually halted at the point when the remaining binary population is hard in the expanded cluster (Kroupa 2001a). Fig. 2 shows that finally $`f_{\mathrm{tot}}0.2`$ for models N2v/v1, and $`f_{\mathrm{tot}}0.4`$ for model N3v. These values are too low in comparison with the Galactic field ($`f_{\mathrm{tot}}^{\mathrm{obs}}0.6`$), let alone with pre-main sequence binaries ($`f_{\mathrm{tot}}^{\mathrm{obs}}0.81`$).

In the CC models, binary disruption starts as soon as the cluster has contracted sufficiently for the widest pairs to interact. Disruption continues throughout and beyond cold collapse, with binaries with an increasing binding energy playing an increasing role. During this time, an increasing amount of kinetic energy is used up to disrupt these binaries. How the cold collapse is affected by such a large primordial binary population is an interesting topic, but will not be addressed further here. In both CC models, the final $`f_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ is slightly higher than the binary proportion in the Galactic field.

During the binary–binary interactions some systems are perturbed or exchange companions, rather than being disrupted. This leads to changes in their orbital parameters. The final distributions of orbits in the eccentricity–period diagram are shown in Fig. 3.

A significant broadening of the eccentricity distribution is evident, but the final distributions retain a maximum near $`e=0.75`$ which is not consistent with the observational distribution (Duquennoy & Mayor 1991). Thus, the stellar-dynamical encounters in extremely concentrated clusters cannot evolve a delta-eccentricity distribution to the observed thermal distribution.

Similarly, a significant but not sufficient broadening of the period distribution, $`f_\mathrm{P}`$, occurs in models N2v/v1, but the effect on $`f_\mathrm{P}`$ is small in the other models.

Fig. 4 demonstrates that the initial distribution cannot evolve through stellar-dynamical interactions to the observed broad log-normal distribution. This is the case even under the extreme assumption that the evolution of the N2v1 cluster is halted pre-maturely, for example through the expulsion of the remnant natal gas, and that the single-star population that emerges from the disruption of the binaries is lost preferentially through ejection and mass segregation before gas-expulsion. In this thought experiment, $`f_\mathrm{P}`$ will appear enhanced, since $`f_\mathrm{P}=\eta N_{\mathrm{bin},\mathrm{P},\mathrm{lt}}`$ with $`\eta =(N_{\mathrm{bin},\mathrm{lt}}+N_{\mathrm{sing},\mathrm{lt}})^1`$ (eqn 2). In Fig. 4, $`f_\mathrm{P}^{}=3\times f_\mathrm{P}`$ is plotted for model N2v1, but even this artificially enhanced period distribution disagrees with the observed distribution.

## 4 CONCLUSION

The finding is thus that stellar-dynamical interactions in compact star clusters cannot change an initially delta-eccentricity distribution and narrow period distribution to the thermal eccentricity and wide log-period distribution observed in the Galactic field. It follows that the main characteristics of these distributions (thermal $`f_\mathrm{e}`$ and orbits ranging from days to Myrs) must be a result of fragmentation during star-formation and subsequent magneto-hydrodynamical processes.

Acknowledgements The $`N`$-body calculations were performed on computers at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Heidelberg University, using a variant of Aarseth’s Nbody6 code.

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