text:
# G-band Spectral Synthesis in Solar Magnetic Concentrations

## 1 Introduction

Most of the solar magnetic structures are far too small to be spatially resolved with the current instruments. Although this limitation severely hampers any observational study, we have all sorts of good reasons to try to find out their properties. Depending on several not yet known attributes (fraction of the Sun that they cover, degree of concentration, grade of tangling, etc), unresolved elusive magnetic structures may contain nearly all the magnetic flux and energy of the solar photosphere (e.g., Stenflo & Lindegren 1977; Stenflo 1982; Yi et al. 1993; Sánchez Almeida 1998; Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000; Sánchez Almeida 2000). Should this be the case, a proper description of the solar magnetism relies on a correct characterization of these seemingly second-rate features.

The physical properties of these structures have to be investigated using techniques that circumvent the lack of resolution. Two approaches have been traditionally explored. First, the measurement and careful interpretation of the line polarization. This observable minimizes the contamination of the non-magnetic structures existing in the resolution element, which produce no signal. Since the line polarization is always extremely low, the measurements require long integration times that compromise the spatial resolution. The second approach uses (broad-band) imaging at selected wavelengths. In this case the contrast of the non-magnetic components is not negligible, however, the increase of photon flux allows applying high angular resolution techniques (e.g., Löfdahl et al. 1998; Bonet 1999). These techniques frequently render images that are not limited by seeing, providing information as close as technically possible to the real structures. Among the second category, the use of G-band imaging to study the dynamics of the concentrations has become very successful (Berger et al. 1995; Berger et al. 1998a; van Ballegooijen et al. 1998). The G-band results from electronic transitions of the CH radical at some 4300 Å, being so strong in cool stars as to be part of the stellar classification criteria. The association of the point-like brightenings observed in solar images with the magnetic concentrations dates back to the days where the first Bright Points (BPs) were photographed (Dunn & Zirker 1973; Mehltretter 1974). Observing these concentrations in the G-band has clear advantages: they show a particularly large contrast (see, Muller & Roudier 1984; Berger et al. 1995; Berger et al. 1998b), and the wavelength is not far from the maximum emission of the solar spectrum. Despite an extensive use during the last decade, the reason or reasons that make magnetic concentrations so conspicuous in the G-band remain unclear (see the introductory sections of Berger & Title 1996, and Berger et al. 1998b, as well as the review by Rutten 1999). Several possibilities have been advanced in the literature. Berger et al. (1995) point out the collisional excitation of CH to the A$`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Delta }`$ electronic state by field aligned currents within the fluxtubes. Rutten (1999) assigns to the conventional wisdom that filigree grains brighten in the G-band because the CH lines cause radiation to escape somewhat higher up in the atmosphere where the fluxtubes are already heated. Rutten does not favor this conventional wisdom, so he proposes yet another hypothesis: the CH gets dissociated by the strong radiation field within the magnetic fluxtubes. The photo-dissociation of the CH would reduce the line opacity within the tube producing a contrast enhancement. Finally, Sánchez Almeida & Lites (2000; §4.1) argue that the LTE spectrum of existing model magnetic concentrations may account for the behavior of the G-band, as it also explains why the magnetic structures are bright in continuum. In this case the CH deficit is controlled by the hot temperatures of the magnetic photosphere, and the thermalizing collisions in such dense medium.

Having a good knowledge on the effects that produce the brightness is critical to fully exploit the diagnostic capabilities of the G-band observations. It would allow identifying the radiative transfer processes responsible for the G-band enhancement and, therefore, linking the observable quantities to the physical properties of the atmosphere that one would like to retrieve. Our work aims at testing some of the mechanisms that have been proposed to see whether they offer a paradigm to build on. Starting from the simplest possibility, we develop a LTE synthesis code (§§2 and 3), which is then used to calculate the G-band spectrum in different model magnetic concentrations (usually derived from polarimetric data). This LTE synthesis accounts for the main observational facts, provided the BPs are still not resolved even in the best observations (§4). The goodness of the LTE modeling seems to be a robust result since it does not depend on details of the model atmospheres. We also explore deviations from LTE effects. In particular, §2.3 shows the CH photo-dissociation to be of secondary importance under the conditions prevailing in the photosphere. The physical ingredients that produce the LTE G-band contrast enhancement are pointed out in §5.2. An orderly discussion on all these findings is presented in §6.

## 2 Model CH molecule

CH is among the most important molecules in cool stars, and one of the few molecules with carbon that can be detected in oxygen-rich stars. CH absorption bands extend from the near ultraviolet ($`\lambda `$ 2800 Å) to the mid infrared ($`\lambda 5.2\mu `$m), with very strong contributions in the visible. We study the so-called G-band at some 4300 Å, which stands out as a distinctive spectral feature for stars from spectral type early F to early M (Keenan 1942; Schmidt-Kaler 1982). Jørgensen et al. (1996) computed bound-bound transitions and line intensities for the CH molecule, generating a list of about 113000 lines with their oscillator strengths. This table contains several types of transitions; the three electronic systems $`A^2\mathrm{\Delta }X^2\mathrm{\Pi }`$, $`B^2\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}X^2\mathrm{\Pi }`$ and $`C^2\mathrm{\Sigma }^+X^2\mathrm{\Pi }`$, and the vibration-rotation bands of the ground electronic state. The G-band is dominated by transitions of the $`A^2\mathrm{\Delta }X^2\mathrm{\Pi }`$ system (Jørgensen et al. 1996).

The synthesis of the G-band spectrum requires combining several different ingredients. First, one needs the abundance of CH through the atmosphere. Then, the strength of each possible transition within the spectral region of interest has to be evaluated. By considering the contribution of the whole set of CH lines, one forms the global absorption coefficient that finally enters into the spectral synthesis. We solve the various steps of the problem by generating a Thermodynamic Equilibrium (TE) chemical model of CH. The general procedure can be found in the literature (see e.g. Russell 1934; Tsuji 1964; Tsuji 1973; Hearnshaw 1973; Tejero Ordóñez & Cernicharo 1991), however, we will outline it in §§2.1 and 2.2 to clarify the specificities of our modeling. In addition, some of theses basic equations of the TE modeling are explicitly used along the paper (e.g., in §2.3 to discuss the importance of photo-dissociation, and in §5.2 to pin down the mechanism responsible for the G-band emission).

### 2.1 Solar abundance of CH

The physical conditions in the solar photosphere favor the formation of several diatomic molecules. Both the photospheric mass densities and the molecular dissociation energies are high enough so that some of them are fairly stable even in such a high energy environment. CO is one of the most abundant molecules, and almost all the carbon which takes part in molecule formation goes to it. Something very similar happens with H2, which absorbs almost all the hydrogen in molecules. This carbon and hydrogen depletion partly explains why the CH abundance is lower than the abundance of CO and H2. However, the dimming of CH is mostly produced by its small dissociation energy ($`D_0=3.47`$ eV), being easily dissociated by low energy collisions and near ultraviolet photons.

Under TE, the molecular abundances just depend on the temperature and the density. The specific reaction mechanisms that create and destroy them are irrelevant. In spite of the simplification, TE holds in many practical situations (see §2.3, where we analyze the case of the CH chemical evolution in the photosphere). The number of molecules and atoms are coupled via the conservation of mass, and the chemical equilibrium. These constraints provide a set of algebraic equations that one solves to compute the abundances:

\- Mass conservation for each constituent,

$$n_i+\underset{m}{}N_i^mn_m=A_in_{\mathrm{Ht}},$$
(1)
where $`n_i`$ stands for the atomic abundance (in cm-3) of the $`i`$-th constituent (atoms in free form, not bounded in molecules), $`A_i`$ is the total abundance of this element relative to H (we take the solar abundances by Grevesse 1984), $`n_m`$ represents the molecular abundance (in cm-3) of those molecules having element $`i`$ in their formulae, $`N_i^m`$ is the number of nuclei of element $`i`$ present in molecule $`m`$ and, finally, $`n_{\mathrm{Ht}}`$ stands for the number density of H particles (considering all atoms and molecules in all ionization states; also in cm-3).

\- Saha equation for each molecule (chemical equilibrium for each molecule),

$$n_m=\underset{i}{}(f^in_i)^{N_i^m}\varphi _m,$$
(2)
where $`f^i`$ is the fraction of $`i`$ atoms with the ionization state required to form the molecule $`m`$, and $`\varphi _m`$ represents the so-called equilibrium constant. The equilibrium constant is actually a function which, for ideal gases, only depends on temperature $`T`$. This approximation is very good for the photospheric plasma (e.g., Cox & Giuli 1968, §15.5.) The equilibrium constant has a strong dependence on the dissociation energy, which we factored for convenience,

$$\varphi _m(T)=\varphi _m^{}(T)\mathrm{exp}[D_0/(kT)].$$
(3)
The new factor $`\varphi _m^{}(T)`$ can be calculated from molecular data, including the masses of the elements taking part in the molecular formation, and the partition function of the molecule and its atomic constituents. The chemical equilibrium constants employed in our calculations have been taken from Sauval & Tatum (1984) and Tejero Ordóñez & Cernicharo (1991). As usual, $`k`$ in equation (3) stands for the Boltzmann constant.

The system of nonlinear equations (1) and (2) can be solved to derive the abundances with any of the usual methods. We employ Newton-Raphson as described by Press et al. (1988). Since the physical conditions change along the atmosphere, the system has to be worked out at each point. As an example, the problem for the VAL-C quiet Sun model atmosphere (Vernazza et al. 1981) has been solved and some of the results appear in Figure 1. The CH abundance has a peak at the bottom of the photosphere, where the temperature and density conditions allow an efficient formation. Its abundance is largest at around 50 km, and it goes away where the CO formation peaks.

What molecules have to be considered to compute the CH abundance? Except in the umbrae of sunspots, most of the photospheric plasma is in the form of atoms, consequently, molecular formation barely affects the densities of the neutral carbon and hydrogen that determine the amount of CH (equation ). The CH abundance cannot depend very much on the actual set of molecules included when solving equations (1) and (2). In order to find out which ones are really needed, we solve them including all atomic species (up to the second ionization) and three different sets of molecules, namely,

1. CH and H2,
2. CH, CO and H2,
3. CH, CO, H2, H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{2}{}^{}`$, C2, N2, O2, CN, NH, NO, OH and H2O,

where the third case is supposed to represent the exact solution. We calculate the abundances in a set of typical photospheric model atmospheres, trying to cover all possible situations: from sunspot umbrae to network magnetic concentrations, including the quiet Sun. The general behavior is very well illustrated by the two examples in Figure 2. The number of CH molecules corresponding to the cases 2 and 3 differ by less than 0.01% in the quiet Sun. Even if the formation of CO is neglected (case 1), the errors are smaller than 10% (see Figure 2a). The approximations corresponding to the cases 1 and 2 work even better in network and plage regions. Sunspot umbrae are different, though. Here the CO exhausts the carbon available to create CH and its formation must be considered (Figure 2b). The approximation in case 2 still holds within 1% . Having in mind these results, we calculate all our CH abundances using just CO and H2, thus being precise but simplifying a lot the numerical solution of the complete system of non-linear equations.

### 2.2 Molecular lines

Once the abundance $`n_{\mathrm{CH}}`$ is obtained, one can evaluate the CH absorption. Given an energy level in the molecule, its population follows from the Boltzmann equation,

$$n_{evJ}=n_{\mathrm{CH}}\frac{g_{eJ}}{U_{\mathrm{CH}}(T)}\mathrm{exp}[E_{evJ}/(kT)],$$
(4)
where the quantum numbers $`e`$, $`v`$ and $`J`$ denote the electronic level, the vibrational level inside each electronic level, and rotational level within each vibrational level, respectively. The other symbols have the usual meaning; $`g_{eJ}`$ is the degeneracy (which only depends on the electronic and rotational quantum numbers), $`E_{evJ}`$ is the energy of the level, and $`U_{\mathrm{CH}}(T)`$ is the total partition function. The line opacity for a transition from a level $`evJ`$ is

$$\chi _i=2.65\times 10^2f_i\left(1\mathrm{exp}[h\nu _i/(kT)]\right)n_{evJ},$$
(5)
$`f_i`$ being the oscillator strength and $`\nu _i`$ the frequency of the transition. The constant above requires the lower level population in cm-3 to give $`\chi _i`$ in Hz cm-1. Due to the richness of the CH spectrum and the operation of various line broadening mechanisms, many different transitions contribute to the absorption coefficient at each frequency $`\nu `$, namely,

$$\kappa _{\mathrm{CH}}(\nu )=\underset{i}{}\frac{\chi _i}{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _D\sqrt{\pi }}H(a,\frac{\nu \nu _i}{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _D}),$$
(6)
where the individual transitions are assumed to be Voigt functions $`H`$ with a single damping parameter $`a`$ and a single Doppler width $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _D`$. The second assumption is well founded since the thermal and micro-turbulent motions produce almost the same broadening across the G-band. The damping is supposed to be constant for the sake of simplicity.

We sum equation (6) considering all CH lines in the spectral region between 4295 Å and 4315 Å tabulated by Jørgensen et al. (1996). There are 746 transitions, 90 % of them belonging to the $`A^2\mathrm{\Delta }X^2\mathrm{\Pi }`$ electronic system. The work by Jørgensen et al. (1996) also renders the rest of parameters required to evaluate $`\kappa _{\mathrm{CH}}`$, namely, the weighted oscillator strengths $`g_{eJ}\times f_i`$, the frequencies $`\nu _i`$, and the excitation potentials $`E_{evJ}`$. As for the temperature dependence of the partition function, we employ the approximate analytic expression given Sauval & Tatum (1984). We choose it for consistency with the equilibrium constants used in §2.1. The damping $`a`$ is set by comparison of synthetic spectra with the observed solar spectrum (§3.3). In order to carry out this comparison, the frequencies have to be transformed to observed wavelengths. This change involves the use of the speed of light in the air $`c_{\mathrm{air}}`$,

$$\lambda =c_{\mathrm{air}}/\nu ,$$
(7)
that we evaluate according to the formula by Edlén (1966).

### 2.3 Time dependent chemical modeling and CH photo-dissociation

We use TE to estimate the CH abundance, which does not imply any explicit assumption on the mechanism responsible for the molecule formation. In order to analyze which physical processes generate the observed CH, we produced a Time Dependent Chemical Model (TDCM) describing the formation of the main molecules under typical photospheric conditions. We applied a TDCM code developed within the framework of a project on non-LTE radiative transfer in molecular lines. Details will be given elsewhere; here we just brief those parts relevant for our simulations.

The chemical evolution of a system is described by the following set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (e.g., Bennett 1988),

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dn_m}{dt}}={\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{A},\mathrm{B},\mathrm{C}}{}}\alpha _{\mathrm{ABC}}n_\mathrm{A}n_\mathrm{B}n_\mathrm{C}+{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{A},\mathrm{B}}{}}\alpha _{\mathrm{AB}}n_\mathrm{A}n_\mathrm{B}+{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{A}}{}}\alpha _\mathrm{A}n_\mathrm{A}`$
$`n_m{\displaystyle \underset{A,B}{}}\alpha _{\mathrm{AB}m}n_\mathrm{A}n_\mathrm{B}n_m{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{A}}{}}\alpha _{\mathrm{A}m}n_\mathrm{A}n_m\alpha _m,`$ (8)
where $`n_m`$ is the density of species $`m`$, and $`m`$ runs through all the species included in the problem. The first term represents three-body reactions which generate $`m`$ ($`\mathrm{A}+\mathrm{B}+\mathrm{C}m`$ \+ products), the second term corresponds to two-body reactions ($`\mathrm{A}+\mathrm{B}m`$ \+ products), and the third one describes one-body processes ($`\mathrm{A}m`$ \+ products). The negative terms represent destruction of the molecule $`m`$ via three-body, two-body and one-body reactions, respectively. Usually one-body reactions are photo-dissociation or photo-ionizations, where the molecule is dissociated by photons of energy greater than the dissociation energy, or it is ionized by photons of lower energy. The coefficients $`\alpha `$ stand for the reaction constants, which depend on temperature and quantify the reaction rates of the processes. In order to get reliable results out of equation (2.3), it is desirable to include all possible reactions which can produce or destroy the molecules. Incompleteness in the reaction database will produce differences between TE and TDCM results, even if TE is a good approximation. TDCM has been extensively used in the interstellar medium (see, e.g., van Dishoeck & Blake 1998), typically including only two-body reactions, photo-ionization and photo-dissociation, as the set of fundamental processes. This approximation is justified due to the low densities that make three body reactions extremely rare. The densities in the solar atmosphere favor three-body reactions, though. For example, the catalytic molecular hydrogen formation reaction $`\mathrm{H}+\mathrm{H}+\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}_2+\mathrm{H}`$ has a very small reaction rate but the density of H is so high as to efficiently produce H2. There are some databases with reactions, but they are oriented to interstellar chemistry (e.g. the UMIST database, Bennett 1988), and they do not include the full set of reactions needed for the Sun. In our case it is more appropriate to use a database of combustion reactions, which have a better coverage of the solar physical conditions.

We aim at investigating the importance of photo-dissociation in the solar photosphere. It could perhaps explain the absence of CH in magnetic concentrations and, therefore, the origin of the G-band BP (see §1). In order to take it into account, we need the photo-dissociation rates of the CH molecule in the solar environment. CH photo-dissociation rates are computed for the interstellar medium (van Dishoeck 1987a), where the ultraviolet radiation field responsible for the dissociation is much lower than in the Sun (Draine 1978). We will use them after a suitable scaling. The mean photo-dissociation rate is (e.g., Roberge et al. 1981),

$$\alpha _{photo}=\frac{4\pi }{hc}_{912\mathrm{\AA }}^{3575\mathrm{\AA }}\lambda J_\lambda \sigma (\lambda )𝑑\lambda ,$$
(9)
where $`J_\lambda `$ stands for the mean intensity in the medium, $`\sigma (\lambda )`$ corresponds to the cross section for the photo-dissociation processes and, finally, $`c`$ and $`h`$ have their usual meanings (speed of light and Planck constant, respectively). The integration extends from the Lyman limit at 912 Å (bluer photons are absorbed by the neutral hydrogen) to the photo-dissociation wavelength at 3575 Å. It can be formally extended to infinity, but the contribution of photons with energy lower than 3.47 eV is negligible since $`\sigma (\lambda )`$ falls off beyond this point. CH dissociates mainly through bound levels of excited states that can couple with the continuum of a dissociative state of the same symmetry (van Dishoeck 1987a; for a discussion on photo-dissociation processes, see van Dishoeck 1987b). The shape of the cross section in this case depends on details of the molecular structure, but it always consists of a continuous background with superimposed resonances. Kurucz et al. (1987) tabulates the CH photo-dissociation cross sections for a discrete set of temperatures describing the population of the CH energy levels. We use them to integrate equation (9) under the assumption that $`J_\lambda `$ is given by the local Planck function. The results for the highest and lowest photospheric temperatures are given in Table 1. The table also contains the mean lifetime of a CH molecule due to photo-dissociation, $`\overline{t}=1/\alpha _{photo}`$. Some of these lifetimes are fairly small ($`2\times 10^4`$ s), indicating that it could be an efficient process in the solar chemistry. However, these numbers are not enough to conclude whether photo-dissociation is important, since one has to take into account all possible branches producing and destroying CH. Such a simple molecule results from dissociation of more complicated molecules, and can be easily generated in three-body reactions.

To calculate the full TDCM, we use a code that solves the set of equations (2.3) once the temperature and density are given. This set of equations represents a very stiff problem with the different variables having disparate ranges of variation. A suitable method which can cope with the stiffness has to be used; we employ an algorithm based on the backward differentiation formula to assure stability (see, e.g., Gear 1971). As far as the reactions are concerned, we adopt a set of 110 neutral-neutral reactions involving the following species: H, C, O, N, He, CH, CO, H2, OH, NH, N2, NO, O2, HO2, H2O, and H2O2. Their reaction rates come from the small hydrocarbons combustion database by Konnov (2000). Although reactions involving ions should be included for comprehensiveness, our assumption is reasonable considering that the main atoms involved in the CH formation (H, C, and O) remain neutral under typical photospheric conditions. The photo-dissociation rates come from Table 1. The solutions are initialized without molecules for the hydrogen densities typical of photospheric model atmospheres (see Table 1). The rest of atomic species are taken according to standard solar abundances (Grevesse 1984). We have tested that the set of reactions included in the TDCM code are adequate since the most important species approach TE abundances when the solutions become stationary. (Small differences and differences in other minor molecules are to be expected because of the incompleteness of the database). Figure 3 shows the main molecular species in one of such simulations representing the bottom of the photosphere.

Aided with the TDCM code, we explore which processes produce the CH in the photosphere. First we investigate the importance of photo-dissociation as compared to the rest of the destructions mechanisms. We define the parameter $`r_{photo}`$ as the ratio between the number of photo-dissociations and the total number of destructions (see equation \[2.3\]),

$$r_{photo}=\alpha _{photo}/\left(\underset{A,B}{}\alpha _{ABm}n_An_B+\underset{A}{}\alpha _{Am}n_A+\alpha _m\right).$$
(10)
This ratio in equilibrium is listed in Table 1 (actually, we present the ratio after 102 s). Note that $`r_{photo}<2`$ %, even in the worst case scenario. This clearly indicates that photo-dissociation is of secondary importance for destroying CH in the Sun111The conclusion is based on photo-dissociation rates that assume the radiation field to be Planckian at the local temperature. We would have reached the same conclusion using a more realistic radiation field to evaluate equation (9). For example, even if $`J_\lambda `$ were ten times the local Planck function, photo-dissociation still would be negligible. . Actually, the analysis of the different destruction rates indicates that, in all cases, CH is predominantly destroyed by collisions with neutral hydrogen that yield molecular hydrogen, namely,

$$\mathrm{CH}+\mathrm{H}\mathrm{C}+\mathrm{H}_2.$$
(11)
We have also inspected the creation rates, i.e., the positive terms in equation (2.3). The CH is produce via the reverse reaction (11), i.e.,

$$\mathrm{C}+\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{CH}+\mathrm{H},$$
(12)
the direct reaction between constituents ($`\mathrm{C}+\mathrm{H}\mathrm{CH}`$) being some two orders of magnitude slower. The tight link of CH to H2 results clear in Figure 3, where the CH curve closely follows the curve of H2. In particular, both reach the equilibrium within 10-5 s. This time scale depends very much on the densities in the atmosphere, but it is extremely short and always below $`10^4`$ s.

## 3 Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium G-band formation.

### 3.1 Atomic lines

The G-band spectral region contains many atomic lines. Our first trial syntheses did not include them, however, it became evident that they were needed for a proper reproduction of the observed spectral features. The importance of the atomic lines can be judged from inspection of Figure 4. It shows the G-band spectrum observed in the quiet Sun together with a best-fitting synthetic spectrum without atomic lines. Every major discrepancy can be attributed to the contribution of at least one of such atomic lines. In order to overcome this deficiency, we added the absorption produced by all relevant spectral lines in the region. Explicitly, we selected the atomic spectral lines whose quiet Sun disk center equivalent width is larger than 0.1 mÅ. This criterion renders some 70 lines in the 20 Å interval between 4295 Å and 4315 Å. For convenience, the search was carried out using the database compiled by A. D. Wittmann, that includes excitation potentials and oscillation strengths (see §2 in Vela Villahoz et al. 1994). The absorption coefficients of the individual spectral lines were computed from temperature and electron pressure following standard procedures (Sánchez Almeida 1997; Sánchez Almeida 1992). The abundances of the different elements come from Grevesse (1984), whereas the selection of the damping is explained in §3.3.

### 3.2 Spectral synthesis and G-band brightness

The principles and rules detailed in §2 and §3.1 render the absorption produced by the CH and the atomic lines. By adding the H- continuum absorption, we calculate the absorption coefficient $`\kappa _\lambda `$ that allows to integrate the radiative transfer equation,

$$\frac{dI_\lambda (z)}{dz}=\kappa _\lambda [I_\lambda (z)B].$$
(13)
The symbols $`I_\lambda `$, $`\lambda `$, $`B`$ and $`z`$ stand for the specific intensity, the wavelength, the Planck function, and the height in the atmosphere, respectively. Equation (13) is solved 2000 times per spectrum to cover the range between 4295 Å and 4315 Å with a 10 mÅ sampling interval. The mean synthetic G-band signal, $`I_G`$, results from direct numerical integration of the emerging spectrum, $`I_\lambda (\mathrm{})`$,

$$I_G=_{4295\mathrm{\AA }}^{4315\mathrm{\AA }}f_G(\lambda )I_\lambda (\mathrm{})𝑑\lambda ,$$
(14)
with $`f_G(\lambda )`$ the color filter that describes the G-band. For the sake of simplicity, we assume $`f_G`$ to be a Gaussian function whose central wavelength (4305 Å) and FWHM (12 Å) reproduce the device used by Berger and collaborators. The band-pass of such filter is,

$$f_G(\lambda )=f_0\mathrm{exp}\{[(\lambda 4305\mathrm{\AA })/7.2\mathrm{\AA }]^2\},$$
(15)
where the normalization constant $`f_0`$ ensures

$$_{4295\mathrm{\AA }}^{4315\mathrm{\AA }}f_G(\lambda )𝑑\lambda =1.$$
(16)
Figure 5 contains the filter band-pass (equation  with $`f_0=1`$), together with the G-band solar spectrum.

The use of equation (13) implies neglecting the polarization of the light to compute the G-band spectrum. In view of the difficulties to compute the polarized spectrum (see Illing 1981), the low degrees of polarization to be expected, and the exploratory nature of our calculations, such assumption is well justified (see Sánchez Almeida & Trujillo Bueno 1999). The numerical integration of equation (13) has been completed using two different techniques depending on whether we deal with plane parallel atmospheres (short-characteristics, Kunasz & Auer 1988) or MIcro-Structured Magnetic Atmospheres (predictor corrector). The difference does not obey technical reasons, rather it stems from adapting pre-existing codes to our purposes. Plane parallel atmospheres are considered to represent the quiet Sun, intergranules, and the cores of the large fluxtubes. MIcro-Structured Magnetic Atmospheres (MISMAs) describe irregular magnetic concentrations having many assorted optically-thin fluxtubes overlapping along the line-of-sight. MISMAs offer a single framework that quantitatively reproduces the polarization produced by plage, network and internetwork regions (Sánchez Almeida 1997; Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000). Despite the potential complexity of the underlying atmospheres, the emerging MISMA spectrum can be computed as for a 1D atmosphere by integration of the radiative transfer along a single ray. One has to replace in equation (13) the absorption $`\kappa _\lambda `$ and the emission $`\kappa _\lambda B`$ with the volume averaged absorption $`\kappa _\lambda `$ and the volume averaged emission $`\kappa _\lambda B`$ (Sánchez Almeida et al. 1996; Sánchez Almeida 1997). As for 1D atmospheres, the radiative transfer equation admits a formal solution whose integrand is one of the so-called contribution functions (hereinafter $`CF`$). We will write down the solution since this $`CF`$ will allow us to argue that the G-band signals are produced deep in the photosphere222Beware of simplistic interpretation of the contribution functions, though. They are not unique (Magain 1986), and their use to assign height-of-formations results ambiguous (Sánchez Almeida et al. 1996).5.1). By defining the wavelength mean contribution function of the G-band as

$$CF(z)=_{4295\mathrm{\AA }}^{4315\mathrm{\AA }}f_G(\lambda )\left[\kappa _\lambda B\mathrm{exp}(_z^{\mathrm{}}\kappa _\lambda 𝑑z^{})\right]𝑑\lambda ,$$
(17)
then the G-band signal in equation (14) results,

$$I_G=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}CF(z)𝑑z.$$
(18)
The LTE synthesis described in this section was coded in IDL. We choose it for convenience, but it turns out to be fairly slow. For example, the synthesis in a MISMA model magnetic concentration takes some 25 minutes in an Ultra Spark 5 SUN workstation. This suffices for the type of exploratory calculations that we carry out but it prevents any massive application of the code. Thinking of such an application, we studied a trivial way to speed up the procedure by using the wavelength mean absorption coefficient to solve equation (13). (The computation of $`I_G`$ would require a single representative integration instead of the 2000 wavelengths that we employ.) We warn against this trick which does not work in practice due to the strong saturation of many lines in the band-pass.

### 3.3 The quiet Sun synthetic spectrum

Our G-band LTE synthesis code was tested against the observed solar spectrum. We use the Liège atlas (Delbouille et al. 1973) as reference observed spectrum, whereas the quiet Sun model atmosphere by Maltby et al. (1986) represents the Sun. The Liège atlas is normalized to its local continuum, that we transform to absolute units employing measurements of the absolute solar continuum intensity at the disk center (Allen 1973). Figure 5 over-plots the observed and the synthetic spectra. Considering the amount of information from disparate sources that we have pieced together, the degree of agreement is remarkable. The difference of spectra has a standard deviation of some 14% (refereed to the continuum intensity). When the spectra are collapsed to get $`I_G`$ (equation ), then the difference reduces to 6%. The discrepancies are due to localized deficits and excesses of opacity, e.g., overlooking of small molecular and atomic lines, uncertainties in the line strengths and wavelengths, departures from LTE, etc. Line cores are well fitted, including the deep absorption at 4308 Å produced by the combined effect of Fe i, Ti ii, and CH. This overall good match, however, required a tuning of the parameters that control the line shapes: micro-turbulence and damping, according to equation (6), and a final smearing with a Gaussian representing macro-turbulence, spectral instrumental profile, and the like. Even so, these are only three free parameters that have to be compared with the some 800 different transitions in the synthetic spectrum. The selection of line broadening parameters was carried out by trial and error. They were first estimated synthesizing only atomic lines. They are less numerous than for CH lines, thus making the visual comparison with observations simpler. After this first approximation, syntheses including CH lines were carried out to find the final damping and turbulence. The best fit was found for a damping of 0.02, a micro-turbulence of 0.9 km s-1, and a macro-turbulence equivalent to 3 km s-1. Note that we use a single set of parameters for all the lines in the band-pass, independently on whether they are molecular lines or atomic lines. Except for a few test calculations in §4.2, the damping obtained in this way is used throughout the text.

## 4 Comparison with observations

The code described in the previous sections was aimed at comparing LTE syntheses in model magnetic concentrations with G-band observations. A fair agreement would support the goodness of the unpolarized LTE approximation to modeling G-band spectra.

### 4.1 Summary of G-band observations

This section compiles observational results that will be discussed in evaluating the goodness of the syntheses. The observations correspond to the disk center. Brightness are referred to the mean quiet Sun and, by definition, the term contrast denotes the brightness minus one (i.e., the brightness minus the quiet Sun brightness, set to one by our normalization). The results have been distilled from different works: $`+`$ Koutchmy (1977); $`\times `$ de Boer & Kneer (1992); $``$ Berger et al. (1995); $`\mathrm{}`$ Berger & Title (1996); $``$ Title & Berger (1996). $``$ Berger et al. (1998b). The symbols accompanying these citations are used for quick reference in the list of results given next.

1. The contrast in the G-band is about twice as large as the white-light contrast (broad-band imaging including lines and continuum)$``$. In quantitative terms,

$$I_G1=1.91(I_{WL}1)+0.23,$$
(19)
where $`I_G`$ and $`I_{WL}`$ correspond to the G-band brightness and the white-light brightness, respectively $``$. Individual BPs present considerable scatter with respect to this trend, though $``$.
2. The mean observed contrast (i.e., the mean $`I_G1`$) is 0.31, with a standard deviation of 0.11. The extreme values range from $`0.19`$ to 0.75 $``$.
3. Many observed BPs are not spatially resolved $`\mathrm{}`$ $``$. The same happens when the BPs are imaged in white-light $`\times `$, and continuum $`+`$.
4. The G-band brightness does not depend on the size of the BP $``$.
5. There is also a diffuse component of G-band bright structures $``$.
6. The G-band contrast averaged over a magnetic network region is positive, whereas it is zero in white-light images $``$.
7. G-band and white-light images both show the solar granulation with identical appearance $``$. The difference of these two types of images is used for automatic identification of the G-band BPs $``$.

### 4.2 LTE syntheses versus observations

Figure 6 shows synthetic G-band brightness versus (5000 Å) continuum intensity for model atmospheres of various kinds located at the solar disk center. It includes network and plage model atmospheres based on single fluxtubes333We just synthesize the ray along the axis of the tube. (Chapman 1979; Solanki 1986; Bellot Rubio 1998), model MISMAs (Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000), quiet Sun atmospheres (Gingerich et al. 1971; Vernazza et al. 1981; Maltby et al. 1986), and intergranules (modeled using stray light components of MISMAs; see Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000). The latter are relevant since they represent the environment of the G-band BPs. All intensities are normalized to the quiet Sun spectrum produced by the Maltby et al. (1986) atmosphere, that is very similar to the spectrum observed in the quiet Sun (see §3.3). Figure 6 also includes G-band observations with the best angular resolution available up to date (Figure 3 in Berger et al. 1998b). The white-light channel of these observations does not correspond to true continuum, though. The consequences of comparing white-light with continuum will be analyzed later.

First note that the G-band contrast in magnetic concentrations is about twice the continuum contrast. (For reference, the slope of the dotted line in Figure 6 amounts to 2.3.) This ratio of contrasts is in good agreement with observations (item # 1 in §4.1). There is, however, a serious discrepancy as far as the actual contrast is concerned. The synthetic spectra are much brighter than the observed BPs (item # 2 in §4.1). This discrepancy occurs in both white-light and G-band and can be understood if even the extremely high resolution data in which the observations are based do not yet resolve the BP. The hypothesis is reasonable since it stems from observations; point # 3 in §4.1. Assume this insufficient resolution. The observed brightness $`I_G`$ has contribution from both magnetic structures $`I_G^m`$ and intergranular background $`I_G^b`$. Then,

$$I_G=\xi I_G^m+(1\xi )I_G^b,$$
(20)
being $`\xi `$ the fraction of signal due to the magnetic concentrations. Similarly, the continuum intensity $`I_c`$ has also contribution from the BPs $`I_c^m`$ and the background $`I_c^b`$,

$$I_c=\xi I_c^m+(1\xi )I_c^b.$$
(21)
According to equations (20) and (21), a spatially unresolved feature will show up in Figure 6 on the straight segment that joins the points corresponding to the fully resolved feature and the background. The exact position depends on $`\xi `$ which, in geometrical terms, corresponds to the fraction of this segment where the unresolved BP shows up. Figure 6 displays one of such straight lines, specifically, the one for a MISMA and its intergranular background. It matches the range of observed contrasts for $`\xi 0.5`$. The ability to account for the observed contrasts is shared by all model magnetic concentrations. All magnetic models in Figure 6 would cross the shaded area for reasonable values of the filling factor. This argument can be put forth in quantitative terms by combining equations (20) and (21) to form,

$$I_G1=m(I_c1)+c,$$

$$m=(I_G^mI_G^b)/(I_c^mI_c^b),$$
(22)
$$c=m(1I_c^b)(1I_G^b).$$

As we pointed out above, MISMAs and single fluxtubes all yield,

$$m2.$$
(23)
A glance at the intergranular contrasts in Figure 6 indicates that $`(1I_c^b)(1I_G^b)0.1`$, consequently, equations (22) and (23) render $`c0.1`$. The actual value is very uncertain but it has to be a small positive quantity, i.e.,

$$0<c1,$$
(24)
since $`c=m(1I_c^b)(1I_G^b)(m1)(1I_G^b)(1I_G^b)1`$. The two results summarized in equations (23) and (24) compare well with the observed law (19), and this agreement does not depend on which model magnetic concentration is considered. (Obviously, we have assumed $`I_{WL}=I_c`$. The differences between the two quantities are analyzed below.)

Equations (22) and (24) can also explain the positive mean G-band contrast of magnetic regions having neutral continuum contrast (point # 6 in §4.1). Assuming $`m`$ and $`c`$ to be fairly constant across the magnetic region, then the relationship (22) applies to the mean quantities. Equations (22) and (24) predict $`I_G=1+c>1`$ when $`I_c=1`$.

So far we have considered a few representative model magnetic concentrations. In addition to these syntheses, we carried out a set of simulations to find out how the synthetic contrasts in Figure 6 depend on details of the atmospheres. We used MISMA model atmospheres with the claim that their behavior is representative of the other atmospheres. First, we explored how the position in the figure depends on using white-light instead of continuum intensity (except for the work by Koutchmy 1977, the white-light channel of the observations in §4.1 includes many spectral lines). We took a shortcut by replacing the true white-light band-pass with our G-band spectrum without CH lines (the G-band synthesized considering only continuum and atomic lines). Two arguments justify the approximation. First, we just aim at a qualitative description. Second, the some 70 atomic lines included in our G-band modeling should be representative of a typical band-pass in the solar spectrum. Two results are shown in Figure 7. The original points, triangles, are to be compared with the new points, boxes. Including spectral lines in the band-pass induces two competing effects. The lines weaken with increasing temperature, which increases the white-light contrast with respect to the continuum contrast. On the contrary, the turbulence is enhanced in the magnetic atmospheres as compared with the quiet Sun (e.g., Solanki 1993; Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000). This enhances the absorption of the saturated lines with respect to their absorption in the quiet Sun, decreasing the contrast in white-light. The first effect dominates in the brighter (hotter) atmospheres, where the lines are weak. The decrease of white-light contrast triumphs in the cooler atmospheres, though. Which tendency takes over depends on details of the atmosphere (in particular on the micro-turbulence).

Another source of error of the G-band synthesis is the damping wings of the lines, a very uncertain parameter. In the reference simulations of Figure 6 we borrowed the damping from the fit to the quiet Sun spectrum (§3.3). The damping in the quiet Sun is probably not the same as in magnetic concentrations and, since we are dealing with many saturated lines in the band-pass, moderate differences may play a significant role in determining the G-band absorption. To study the influence of the wings, we synthesized G-band spectra using a damping 0.5, instead of the 0.02 derived from the quiet Sun. The G-band brightness decreases as expected due to the global increase of absorption in the band-pass (see the times signs in Figure 7). This decrease dims so much the G-band signal of the cooler atmosphere in Figure 7 that it becomes even darker than the quiet Sun. Figure 7 includes the case with no damping for reference (the plus signs).

We have also varied the magnetic field strength of the original model MISMAs. Note that the influence of this parameter on the G-band brightness is not due to Zeeman effect, that we neglect (§3.2). The modifications result from the strong coupling of the thermodynamic parameters to the magnetic field strength. In particular, a reduction of field strength implies an increase of gas pressure to maintain the mechanical balance of the atmosphere (e.g., Sánchez Almeida & Lites 2000). An increase of gas pressure produces higher densities so the atmosphere is more opaque and the spectrum is formed higher up at lower temperatures. Consequently, the decrease of field strength lowers the contrasts. A 20% reduction is represented in Figure 7 using stars $``$. The augment of field strength leads to the opposite effect. We increase it up to 98 % of the maximum possible value, which induces the enhancement of contrast shown in Figure 7 with black dots $``$. Such large field strength almost empties the magnetic components of the MISMAs, so that the spectra emerge from the non-magnetic components (see Sánchez Almeida 2000).

A simple conclusion follows from the exploratory simulations described above: the exact G-band synthetic contrast depends on details of the modeling difficult to constraint. If a model BP is bright enough then such details are secondary since the BP remains bright both in white-light and the G-band. However, such variations can modify the character of the concentrations that are not so bright. In particular, the relationship between continuum and G-band is expected to unsharpen or even break down for intrinsically low contrasts, where continuum BPs may or may not be G-band BPs depending on details of the atmosphere. In keeping with this conclusion, the fair correlation that we observe for weak contrasts is probably due to the limited angular resolution. It would be produced by intrinsically bright magnetic features mixed up with large amounts of dark background (as described by equation  with $`I_c1`$). On the other hand, the expected fuzzy relationship between low contrast G-band BPs and contimuum BPs may be related to the diffuse G-band component (item # 5 in §4.1). The G-band signals would originate in concentrations whose properties lay on this ridge where to be or not to be bright depends on details.

Figure 7 includes the synthetic contrast produced by two model sunspot umbrae: the very cold model M in Maltby et al. (1986), and a hotter one (Collados et al. 1994). Unlike the quiet Sun magnetic concentrations studied up to now, the umbra G-band contrast is lower than the continuum contrast.

## 5 Corollaries of the LTE G-band modeling

### 5.1 Contribution functions for the G-band signals

The contribution functions ($`CF`$s) in equations (17) and (18) describe the atmospheric heights producing synthetic signals. Figure 8 shows continuum and G-band $`CF`$s in both a magnetic concentration and its intergranular environment. These $`CF`$s are normalized to render the signals in units of the quiet Sun signals. Moreover, the scale of heights is referred to the optical depth unity in the quiet Sun. The functions in Figure 8 illustrate the general behavior.

Note first that the G-band and the continuum $`CF`$s are similar so that they peak at the same heights (compare continuum and G-band $`CF`$s formed in the same atmospheres). Second, all $`CF`$s reach a maximum below the zero of the scale of heights. It is well below zero in the magnetic concentration because of the evacuation forced by the presence of a magnetic field (the so-called Wilson depression). On the other hand, the maxima of the intergranule $`CF`$s are very close to the quiet Sun $`CF`$s (that we do not represent in the figure). Problems of interpretation notwithstanding, the analogy between continuum and G-band $`CF`$s evidences that the corresponding signals come from neighboring atmospheric layers. This result agrees with observations. G-band and white-light images both show the solar granulation with identical appearance (see point # 7 in §4.1). Rutten (1999) points out that such similarity implies G-band signals being formed deep in the photosphere where the continuum is formed. We endorse his conclusion which should be regarded as an observational constraint. In our particular case, such observational requirements is fulfilled in a natural way.

The obvious difference between G-band and continuum $`CF`$s lies in their different widths, the G-band $`CF`$s being broader (Figure 8). This extended contribution follows from the varied range of opacities producing the G-band spectrum; from the cores of strong lines to the continuum.

### 5.2 Why are model magnetic concentrations so conspicuous in the G-band?

We found that the LTE spectrum in almost any model magnetic concentration explains the observed G-band enhancement (§4.2). This section sketches the radiative transfer effect that we believe to be responsible for such general behavior.

Figure 9 shows the variation with temperature of the absorption coefficients that are relevant for the LTE synthesis of the G-band and the continuum. It shows wavelength mean absorption coefficients at a constant density. The wavelength mean weights the absorption with the color filter in equation (15), whereas the density has been set to a value typical of the bottom of the quiet Sun photosphere. The actual filter and density do not modify the forthcoming qualitative arguments, though. A different filter barely changes the mean absorption. A different density shifts all the curves in the vertical direction (they approximately scale with the density within the range of temperatures represented in Figure 9). Note how the opacity in the G-band has a minimum at some 6000 K which, roughly speaking, represents the temperature of the layers that are observed in the quiet Sun. On the contrary, the continuum absorption coefficient does increase very rapidly with temperature. This different behavior explains why the model magnetic concentrations are much brighter in the G-band than in continuum. All the model magnetic concentrations are hotter than the quiet Sun in the layers producing the observed light. These larger temperatures enhance the continuum opacity, therefore, force the continuum photons to emerge from higher and therefore cooler layers. The net effect is a damping of the radiation field increase that would correspond to the sole augment of temperature. On the contrary, the opacity is barely modified in the G-band (it may even decrease). The temperature increase of the magnetic concentrations directly augments the radiation field that escapes from the atmosphere, enhancing the contrast of the magnetic concentrations when imaged in the G-band.

The neutral dependence of the G-band opacity on temperature is produced by the fortuitous opposite behavior of the continuum H- opacity and the CH absorption. These two sources of opacity determine the net effect. The increase of H- opacity with temperature is due to the increase of free electrons in the medium. The fall off of the CH opacity just follows the decrease of the CH abundance according to the Boltzmann factor in the dissociation equilibrium (equations  and ),

$$n_{\mathrm{CH}}\mathrm{exp}[D_0/(kT)].$$
(25)
This dependence on the dissociation energy becomes clear upon inspection of Figure 9, where we include the approximate adsorption coefficient resulting from the sole action of $`D_0`$, namely,

$$\kappa _{CH}\kappa _{CH}(T_0)\mathrm{exp}[D_0/(kT)D_0/(kT_0)],$$
(26)
with $`T_0=6000`$ K. It reproduces the behavior of the mean opacity in the region of interest. The discrepancy towards low temperatures (say below 5000 K) is due to the formation of CO molecules (see again Figure 9, the dotted line). The CO formation does not play a major role in our case, although it becomes critical in pores and sunspots (see §2.1).

To sum up, magnetic concentrations are so bright in the G-band because they are hot. The increase of temperature with respect to the quiet Sun is partly damped in the continuum, where the opacity also increases with temperature. The total G-band opacity barely depends on temperature, though.

## 6 Discussion and conclusions

Bright Points (BPs) in G-band images are associated with magnetic concentrations, although the physical cause of such brightness has been debated over the last years (see §1). The difficulties of understanding bear on the complications of modeling a molecular band, rather than on an enigmatic or unexpected behavior of the G-band signals. In order to explore the simplest possibility, we write and test a G-band LTE synthesis code that explicitly includes all the CH lines in the band-pass. As it was conjectured by Sánchez Almeida & Lites (2000), such simple LTE modeling seems to account for the main observational facts. Specifically, the G-band emerging from standard model magnetic concentrations is very bright relative to the quiet Sun. The G-band contrast is about twice the contrast of the same structures observed at continuum wavelength. The synthetic contrasts, however, exceed by far the observed contrasts. One can readily interpret this apparent contradiction if the observed G-band BPs are not yet spatially resolved. They have to fill 50% of the resolution elements or even less. Such requirement to match LTE syntheses and observations holds for all the semi-empirical model magnetic concentration that are available (from large fluxtubes to MISMAs; §4.2). The lack of enough resolution is not an ad-hoc assumption to fix up a conflict with observations; it actually comes out of the observations themselves (see §4.1). Insufficient resolution may also explain why the G-band contrast does not depend on the size of seemingly resolved G-band structures (§4.1). Each observed G-band BP would be a conglomerate of unresolved structures so that the actual observed contrast depends the degree of mixing with dark non-magnetic surroundings, rather than on the intrinsic contrast of the magnetic structures. Another possibility is the existence of a relationship between brightness and size masked because the inadequate resolution. Small bright features and large faint ones show up with the same apparent contrast (e.g., Title & Berger 1996).

Our purpose with this work is not just explaining the empirical relationship between magnetic concentrations and G-band BPs. Actually, we find it more interesting to find a reliable physical connection between the two phenomena that can be employed to build on. Once the physics of the association is well established, one can use modeling to examine the real diagnostic capabilities of the G-band BPs. Some of the calculations described in this paper begin to explore such possibility, and they already lead to several interesting results. We condense them here since they are scattered in main text. The G-band signals come from deep photospheric layers that barely differ from the layers that produce continuum photons (§5.1 and Figure 8). As it was advanced by Rutten (1999), the G-band opacity seems to be controlled by the dissociation of the CH molecule (see §5.2). The agent that determines this dissociation is not the radiation field, though. The densities in the photosphere are so high that the CH abundance is set by collisions with hydrogen (reactions  and ; see §2.3), photo-dissociation being secondary. Since the G-band results from absorption of saturated spectral lines, it very much depends on the line broadening parameters characterizing the atmosphere. Moderate changes of micro-turbulence and damping modify the G-band contrast. For large enough turbulence, magnetic concentrations may even show neutral contrast in the G-band (§4.2). It is therefore plausible that some of the real solar magnetic concentrations do not show up in G-band images. On the contrary, the continuum contrast does not depend on line broadenings and the magnetic concentrations will tend to be bright in continuum. We hypothesize the existence of low contrast continuum BPs without a G-band counterpart444Sánchez Almeida (2000) points out that the existence of a BP may be even better than polarization to indicate the existence of a magnetic concentration. According to the simulations carried out here, this applies to the bright points at continuum wavelengths but not necessarily in the G-band. 4.2). The LTE syntheses predict intrinsic G-band signals several times larger than those presently observed (§4.2). Consequently, we foresee an important augment of contrast upon improvement of the angular resolution of the observations. Finally, both single fluxtubes and MISMA model magnetic concentrations produce similar G-band brightness. This observable does not help discriminating between the different options of modeling unresolved magnetic concentrations.

We have shown that the synthetic LTE G-band spectra fulfil many observed properties of the G-band BPs. We have not shown that there is no other way to reproduce them. In particular, various alternatives mentioned in §1 still remain to be explored and therefore cannot be discarded.

While this paper was in preparation, we knew of two other groups carrying out LTE G-band syntheses in magnetic concentrations. They have advanced some results in recent meetings (e.g., Rutten et al. 2001; Steiner et al. 2001). As far as the overlapping with the present work is concerned, they find that specific model concentrations based on single fluxtubes present a G-band contrast larger than the continuum contrast. The values of these contrasts are similar to those computed in §4.2.

Thanks are due to H. Uitenbroek for sending us his stellar atmosphere code, which we have employed for testing purposes. Discussions with R. Rutten on the origin of the G-band were extremely useful. He deserves credit for spurring the present interest for understanding the G-band formation. We also acknoledge the detailled revision of the manuscript carried out by an anonymous referee, from which we have benefited. This work has been partly funded by the Spanish DGES under projects 95-0028-C, PB96-0883 and ESP98-1351E. It has been carried out within the EC-TMR European Solar Magnetometry Network.


format: text

text:
# Gravitational lensing and modified Newtonian dynamics

## 1 Introduction

In the time since the discovery of the first multiply-imaged quasar (Walsh, Carswell & Weymann 1979), gravitational lensing has become one of the more powerful tools available to astronomers. The main advantage of lensing as an astronomical probe lies in its simplicity – the light deflection properties of a lens depend on just two things: its mass distribution and the nature of gravitational physics.

The success of general relativity (GR) – and, in the appropriate limits, Newtonian gravity – is such that lensing is almost always used to investigate the distribution of matter in the universe. The fact that, for example, cluster lensing cannot be explained by the visible galaxies and gas is then taken to be strong evidence for the preponderance of dark matter. There is, of course, a great deal of evidence that the universe is dark matter-dominated (e.g., Trimble 1987), but the lack of any non-gravitational detection of dark mass makes it an assumption that should continue to be tested by all available means.

The alternative possibility is that GR is only valid in the small-scale, large-acceleration regimes in which it has been experimentally (as opposed to observationally) tested. The majority of direct tests have been within the Solar system, but measurements of time delays in binary pulsar systems (Taylor et al. 1992) have also verified GR. The degeneracy between the form of the gravitational acceleration and the distribution of mass is such that GR remains an assumption on galactic (and greater) scales. If it is hypothesised that there is no dark matter, then it is possible to determine the nature of gravity on these large scales from lensing or dynamical observations. Aside from their tendency to rely on assumptions of equilibrium, dynamical measurements are subject to the more fundamental limitation that the gravitational field can only be probed in regions where there is visible matter. By contrast lensing can be used to measure gravitational effects well beyond the luminous extent of the deflector(s). Further, if such measurements can be made sufficiently far from the lens111Note that, in the absence of dark matter, it is only the visible extent of the deflector that is relevant., its internal structure becomes unimportant, and the lensing data uniquely constrains the deflection law of a point-mass. This is a potentially powerful technique that only breaks down at angular scales so large that the effects of other deflectors along the line-of-sight become important.

These methods can be used to determine the deflection law of a point-mass empirically (Mortlock & Turner 2001a) or to test a particular theory. For example Mortlock & Turner (2001b) investigated gravitational lensing within the framework of modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). A combined approach is taken here, using MOND as an illustrative example. After explaining the principles of the theory (Section 2), a robust deflection law is derived from galaxy-galaxy lensing data (Section 3). The future prospects for more rigorous tests are then discussed in Section 4.

## 2 MOND

MOND (Milgrom 1983) hypothesises that the inertial mass of a particle is decreased when it is subject to an acceleration much weaker than a critical value, $`a_01.2\pm 0.1\times 10^{10}`$ m s-2. In its purest form a MONDian universe contains no dark matter, and, remarkably, this simple model can explain the dynamics of galaxies and clusters (McGaugh & de Blok 1998), as well as the observed power spectrum of cosmic microwave background anisotropies (McGaugh 2000).

MOND is, of course, highly unconventional and the variation of inertia would be very difficult to integrate into the current broader understanding of the physical world. This fact alone is sufficient to convince many that it is extremely unlikely to be correct. However, even if one takes this (anti-empirical) point of view, MOND provides a potentially revealing opportunity to test the depth and robustness of modern science’s observational knowledge of the universe. If it is not possible to contradict such a simple but seemingly outlandish and improbable hypothesis, how much confidence should be placed in more conventional explanations of the observed universe?

Another difficulty with MOND is that it is not a complete physical theory, lacking a relativistic extension, and thus making no definite predictions for light deflection (Milgrom 1983; Bekenstein & Milgrom 1984). The natural Ansatz for MONDian lensing is, as in GR, that a photon experiences twice the deflection of a massive particle moving at the speed of light (Qin, Wu & Zou 1995). This hypothesis gives qualitatively reasonable predictions (Mortlock & Turner 2001), but the effects of extended and multiple deflectors are somewhat ambiguous. However, the gravitational properties of an isolated point-mass, $`M`$, are well defined: the effective force law matches the Newtonian form for $`rr_\mathrm{M}=(GM/a_0)^{1/2}`$, but falls off as $`r^1`$ for $`rr_\mathrm{M}`$. The details of the physics for $`aa_0`$ are unspecified, but unimportant in the absence of high precision measurements. Integrating this acceleration along the line-of-sight gives the (reduced) bending angle, $`\alpha (\theta )`$, which matches the Schwarzschild form for small impact parameters \[i.e., $`\alpha (\theta )\theta ^1`$\], but is constant beyond $`\theta =r_\mathrm{M}/d_{\mathrm{od}}`$. (Here $`d_{\mathrm{od}}`$ is the angular diameter distance from observer to deflector, which is not formally defined in MOND.) The deflection angle is not directly measurable, but the distortion of images and the (total) magnification of sources can be calculated directly from $`\alpha (\theta )`$, and these are observable.

## 3 Observational constraints

Gravitational lensing observations range from light deflection by the Sun, through microlensing in the local group, to the multiple imaging of high-redshift sources. If it is assumed that there is no dark matter then all of these observations place constraints on the nature of gravitational light deflection, but only some represent clean and powerful probes of MOND, whereas others are clearly within the Newtonian regime, or require the untangling of the combined effects of multiple deflectors. These issues are explored more fully by Mortlock & Turner (2001a), but it is clear that galaxy-galaxy lensing observations offer by far the best opportunity to make interesting inferences from available data.

Galaxy-galaxy lensing, the weak tangential alignment of distant galaxies caused by their more nearby counterparts, has been used to weigh the dark matter distributions of the foreground deflectors (e.g., Brainerd, Blandford & Smail 1996; Fischer et al. 2000). The results are all consistent with galaxies having large isothermal haloes extending to at least several hundred kpc. Interestingly, no upper limit has been placed on the halo size, despite the fact that a systematic distortion has been measured out to $`1000`$ arcsec, far beyond the visible extent of the foreground galaxies (only a few arcsec). Thus, under the no-dark matter hypothesis, these data represent an ideal means of measuring the deflection law of what is effectively an isolated point-mass. Even without performing any further analysis, the fact that the lensing data are consistent with rotation curve measurements in GR implies that the relationship between the deflection of massive and massless particles must be the same in MOND (or any other theory).

More quantitatively, Fischer et al. (2000) fit the shear signal around $`3\times 10^4`$ foreground galaxies by

$$\gamma _{\mathrm{tan}}(\theta )=\gamma _{\mathrm{tan},60}\left(\frac{60\mathrm{arcsec}}{\theta }\right)^\eta ,$$
(1)
with $`\gamma _{\mathrm{tan},60}=0.0027\pm 0.0005`$ and $`\eta =0.9\pm 0.1`$. Figure 1 shows this fit to the data, along with the predictions of GR (assuming no dark matter) and the MONDian lensing formalism described in Section 2. The MONDian results (which imply $`\eta =1`$) are clearly consistent with the data,222This agreement also provides quantitative support for the hypothesis that, in MOND (or indeed any alternative gravity theory), photons experience twice the deflection of massive particles moving at the speed of light. although there is some ambiguity in the normalisation, as the mass-to-light ratio of the deflectors are not known with great certainty (Mortlock & Turner 2001b). Thus the properties of MONDian point-mass lenses must be considered completely (if approximately) defined. It is not clear, however, that the entire derivation of the deflection law given in Mortlock & Turner (2001b) is verified, and so the lensing properties of more complex deflectors remain unknown, although future investigations should shed some light on this matter as well.

## 4 Conclusions

MOND, an alternative theory of gravity (or inertia), has been able to explain the dynamics of massive bodies in terms of visible matter where Newtonian physics requires large amounts of dark matter. However MOND has no relativistic extension and so makes no predictions about gravitational lensing. Here the opposite approach has been taken, using observations of lensing to constrain the form of MONDian light deflection. The cleanest way of doing this is to use galaxy-galaxy lensing data to show that the deflection of photons is simply twice the deflection that would be experienced by a massive particle moving at the speed of light. Thus, a relativistic MONDian theory must have a great deal in common with GR.

With one more part of a complete theory in place a number of new observational tests become available. The clearest relate to “simple” lenses: situations in which there is a single, isolated deflector that has no internal structure on the scales of interest. Microlensing within the local group fulfills these criteria, although the typical impact parameters are so small that it is only the low-magnification tails of the light-curves that are of interest. However microlensing by cosmologically distant deflectors offers a good opportunity to confirm or reject MOND. Several programmes to measure low optical depth microlensing of high-redshift quasars are underway (Walker 1999; Tadros, Warren & Hewett 2001), but thus far no events have been observed. The only (probable) example of cosmological microlensing by an isolated deflector observed to date is the serendipitous detection of a peak in the light curve of gamma ray burst 000301C (Garnavich, Loeb & Stanek 2000), but the photometry is not of sufficient quality to differentiate between MOND and GR.

Further observations of galaxy-galaxy lensing offer the most likely tests of MONDian lensing in the near future. Any asymmetry in the distortions (c.f. Natarajan & Refregier 2000) would be at odds with a no-dark matter theory, and there is also the possibility of measuring an outer cut-off in the shear signal. This must eventually come from the influence of secondary deflectors along the line-of-sight, but could also signify a putative return to a Newtonian regime in the ultra-weak acceleration limit. If MOND is not contradicted by any of the above observations, more complex situations should be investigated. Multiple or extended deflectors must also be able to explain observed shear fields and cases of multiple imaging without recourse to invisible mass.

## Acknowledgements

DJM is funded by PPARC, and this work was supported in part by NSF grant AST98-02802.

## References

Beckenstein, J., Sanders, R.H., 1994, ApJ, 429, 480

Brainerd, T.G., Blandford, R.D., Smail, I.S., 1996, ApJ, 466, 623

Fischer, P., et al., 2000, AJ, 120, 1198

Garnavich, P.M., Loeb, A., Stanek, K.Z., 2000, ApJ, 544, L11

McGaugh, S.S., 2000, ApJ, 541, L33

McGaugh, S.S., de Blok, W.J.G., 1998, ApJ, 499, 66

Milgrom, M., 1983, ApJ, 270, 365

Mortlock, D.J., Turner, E.L., 2001a, MNRAS, submitted

Mortlock, D.J., Turner, E.L., 2001b, MNRAS, submitted

Natarajan, P., Refregier, A., 2000, ApJ, 538, L113

Trimble, V., 1987, ARA&A, 25, 425

Qin, B., Wu, X.P., Zou, Z.L., 1995, A&A, 296, 264

Sanders, R.H., 1994, A&A, 284, L31

Walker, M.A., 1999, MNRAS, 306, 504

Tadros, H., Warren, S.J., Hewett, P.C., 2001, in Cosmological Physics with Gravitational Lensing, eds. Kneib, J.-P., Mellier, Y., Moniez, M., Tran Thanh Van, J., Edition Frontiers, in press

Taylor, J.H., Wolszczan, A., Damour, T., Weisberg, J.M., 1992, Nature, 355, 132

Walsh, D., Carswell, R.F., Weymann, R.J., 1979, Nature, 279, 381


text:
# ’Round the Clock Observations of the Q0957+561 A,B Gravitationally Lensed Quasar

## 1 Introduction

The Q0957 system is the first identified multiply imaged quasar (Walsh, Carswell, and Weymann, 1979,) and the first to have a measured time delay (Schild and Cholfin, 1986). It is also the first in which a microlensing event was detected (Grieger, Kayser & Refsdal 1988). Subsequent decades have produced refinement of the models that describe the lensing and the many observational parameters required to turn the physical configuration into an important cosmological tool.

Along this path, the biggest surprise was the observation that the system seems to show a rapid microlensing of low amplitude (Schild and Smith 1991; Schild 1996). If confirmed, this would have important implications for the nature of the dark matter, since solar mass objects in lens galaxy G1 should have a microlensing time scale of 30 years. It would also have implications for the existence of fine structure in the luminous structure of the source quasar.

Unfortunately the observational tests for this reported fine structure require high photometric precision and an accurate value of the time delay. Worse, an investigation by Colley and Schild (2000) in which the quasar was intensively observed throughout 5 nights in 1994.9 and again in 1996.1 showed that from one observatory one cannot easily measure the time delay to better than a day, because all but the most sophisticated statistics would favor a delay where there is no data overlap between the A and delayed B images, namely when the time delay in an integer number of days plus a half day (the sun is up in either the A or later B data). Furthermore, because of this, it is virtually impossible to assess whether or not there is microlensing on a timescale of a day or less. But there is good news; the quasar was demonstrated to show brightness fluctuations of order 1 percent in a night.

Therefore, to serve two purposes, a precise determination of the time delay and a detection of rapid microlensing, an observing campaign enlisting 10 observatories undertook continuous monitoring of the quasar images on the nights of 20 - 29 Jan, 2000. The present manuscript describes the observations and results of the first year of observing, the image A component of which becomes the prediction for the image B light curve for the coming session in 12-21 March, 2001, if there is no microlensing.

## 2 Observations

To create a continuous brightness record for Q0957+561A,B, observations from northern hemisphere observatories would be required during their winter months. Thus, poor weather would be likely at any site, and some redundancy would be necessary to avoid significant gaps in the data record. We tried to get at least 2 participating observatories in differing weather zones for any UT hour of the program. Each observatory is presumed to provide about 8 hours of coverage, which allows for substantial overlap in coverage from Eastern Asia to Western Europe, and even into North America, though the Pacific is singly covered by Mt. Hopkins (Arizona) and South Korea.

Our list of participating observatories is given in Table 1, where successive columns give the observatory name, telescope aperture, altitude, latitude, and longitude, and the pixel scale of the CCD camera. Observers were instructed to begin and end the observational session with an R filter, and to do about 15% of the observing through the night at V. The V data have not yet been reduced.

Data were reduced following standard procedures and the precepts of Colley and Schild (2000). With data from many observatories available, a standardized header file and byte order had to be established, and the data were bias subtracted and flat fielded with IDL software. Simple aperture photometry, with aperture diameters of six arcseconds, was then carried out on all image frames.

Because the plate scales and CCD sizes of the several observatories varied significantly, it was not possible to use exactly the same standards for all data frames. The data frames from Maidanak, for instance, contain only one of the usual standards (star 5 from Schild & Cholfin 1986). Therefore, each of the observatories’ datasets is calibrated independently, by the Honeycutt (1992) method for ensemble photometry.

During the aperture photometry, the FWHM seeing is calculated by using a best-fit Moffat ($`\alpha =2.5`$) profile, which allows for ellipticity and rotation. Running hourly averages are computed for the image A and B photometry from each observatory. Subtracting this average from the individual photometric measurements from each image gives a deviation as a function of seeing. Seeing is expected to introduce correlated errors in the photometry, slightly more in A than in B (e.g. Colley & Schild 1998). We find exactly that behavior here, but to a differing degree from each observatory. A parabola accurately reproduces the behavior of the deviation from the hourly average vs. the log of FWHM seeing. A “fixed” version of the photometry can be created by subtracting this behavior out for each photometric datum.

## 3 Data Combiniation and Results

Our R filter brightness curve is shown in Fig. 1, with hourly averages of data from each observatory. Overplotted is the “snake” from the Press, Rybicki, and Hewitt (1992) method to average and interpolate time-series observations. We explicitly use the structure function determined in Colley and Schild (2000) for the interpolation. The resultant curve is useful for our talking and planning purposes, but the original hourly averages with errorbars will be used in the final cross-correlation when the second year’s data are available.

In combining data from several observatories we had to make adjustments, or zero-point shifts, for each observatory. Although the quasar brightness is always measured relative to the standard stars, the standards are all redder than the quasar and a small correction to the standard Kron-Cousins R filter system is required. Such a correction is required for the Mt. Hopkins system as well, and in practice we have determined the correction relative to the Mt Hopkins filter/CCD response.

We have determined the zero-point correction by two methods. In the first, the measured standard star brightness is averaged for all data frames from a particular observatory, and the average observed brightnesses compared to the standard values plotted as a function of color of the standards. This gives a standard curve that can be extrapolated to the colors of the quasar images to derive the correction to the observatory’s zero point. This is a normal procedure in transforming photometry to a standard system, and we have employed what is often referred to as first order transformation coefficients. The amplitude of the correction is ordinarily a few hundredths of a magnitude. For example, the correction for the Mt Hopkins data is 0.04 mag.

In a second procedure, a running hourly average of the “fixed” data was computed for each observatory. We then generated the Press, Rybicki & Hewitt (1992) “snake” for all observatories except one, and computed the optimum (in the weighted least-squares sense) offset between the snake and the photometry from the remaining observatory. Rotating through all the various observatories, offsetting, then iterating, quickly produces optimum offsets that minimize the differences in the photometry measured from all of the observatories.

The first and second methods produce similar results, but the first, of course, generates an offset to be applied simultaneously to the A and B image data. The offsets, however, would not necessarily be identical, because the lens galaxy contributes a very red component to the very blue QSO images in very different amounts, A to B. This is troublesome, because one likely culprit for non-zero photometric offsets in the first place is differences in filters and detector responses.

So, in our second, more empirical method, we allowed the image A and image B offsets to be determined independently. The good news is that while the offsets ranged over a tenth of a magnitude, they generally agreed between A and B to better than 1%, for all except Wise and BOAO data. Furthermore, the offsets from the transformation coefficients agreed with the second, empirical method with an r.m.s. of 6 millimagnitudes (again excluding Wise and BOAO). The Wise and BOAO offsets agree more poorly because both of those observatories contributed principally in one night, and in both cases, showed substantial variation (of order a few percent). These larger variations confuse the offset optimization (in a way that is complementary to the problem that a lack of variations to confuse time delay estimates). We have chosen simply to stay with the second method (snake residual minimization), for the simple reason that it is the more straight-forward of the two, and we invite those interested in such nuances to consult our full data table.

We have then the problem that we have data of non-uniform quality, in non-uniform pass-bands, zero-pointed by non-uniform standards, none of which has a spectrum similar to our object, and none of which is even as blue as our object. We found, however, that by examining the colors of the standards, we could generate approximate offsets that agree quite well with completely empirical offsets, and that the offsets themselves are quite consistent between the A and B images at a single observatory. We therefore adopt this empirical method as our best procedure for determining offsets.

We are pleased that our image A brightness curve shows some brightness fluctuations that can be sought in our forthcoming second season of observing. Relative to simple weighted mean for the entire data record, we found that the $`\chi ^2`$ value is greater than 20,000 for 296 degrees of freedom for both A and B images. The non-uniformity of the data makes such a direct calculation assumptive, so we also computed this $`\chi ^2`$ value for the Mt. Hopkins data, alone, in which we found values of greater than 1000 for 93 degrees of freedom. While this is certainly not a detailed statistical treatment, our previous work (Colley & Schild 1999) showed that our errorbars on Mt. Hopkins data were quite reliable, and we therefore have confidence that this measurement shows siginificant departures from constant.

Furthermore, the complex pattern of brightness fluctuations seen around $`\text{JD}2449000`$ = 2569 – 2572 is fairly well defined by observations and an even larger, though more poorly constrained, drop is evident at 2565.3. This latter feature is well sampled from observations in Korea, but we remain cautious, because the drop occurs simultaneously in both images, which seems unlikely. We have checked the data with another software program (IRAF) and find no fault with the reductions. If the feature is real, it gives an important feature to be sought near the beginning of the observational period now being planned. If this feature can be identified on 12 March 2001, determination of a time delay to less than an hour should be possible.

Data tables, both before and after binning, may be found at URL:
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/$``$wcolley/Q0957/data/.

We thank Prof. Nail Sakhibullin and Dr. Ilfan Bikmaev of Kazan State University for telescope time allocation and support. We thank the Maidanak Foundation for purchasing the ST-7 camera for Maidanak Observatory. We are also grateful to the administration of the Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute of Ac. Sci. and to its director, Prof. Ehgamberdiev. Nordic Optical Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.


text:
# Corrections to Scaling for the Two-dimensional Dynamic XY Model

## Abstract

With large-scale Monte Carlo simulations, we confirm that for the two-dimensional XY model, there is a logarithmic correction to scaling in the dynamic relaxation starting from a completely disordered state, while only an inverse power law correction in the case of starting from an ordered state. The dynamic exponent $`z`$ is $`z=2.04(1)`$.

In recent years, much attention has been drawn to non-equilibrium short-time behavior of critical dynamics. Traditionally, it is believed that universal dynamic scaling behavior only exists in the long-time regime of the dynamic evolution. In 1989, however, with renormalization group methods Janssen, Schaub and Schmittmann derived a dynamic scaling form for the $`O(N)`$ vector model, which is valid up to the macroscopic short-time regime . The dynamic process they considered is that the system initially at a very high temperature state with small or zero magnetization, is suddenly quenched to the critical temperature, then released to dynamic evolution of model A. Important is that a new independent critical exponent must be introduced to describe the scaling behavior of the initial magnetization. Afterwards, some evidences for the short-time dynamic scaling were also observed in Monte Carlo simulations . On the other hand, it was found that the power law decay of the magnetization starting from a completely ordered state shows up from rather early times, e.g., see , and it can be used to estimate the dynamic exponent $`z`$. Inspired by these works, in the last several years non-equilibrium short-time critical dynamics has been systematically investigated with Monte Carlo methods . Simulations have extended from regular classical spin models , to statistical systems with quenched disorder , quantum spin systems and lattice gauge theories , dynamic systems without detailed balance , the hard-disk model  and fluid systems . References given here are only a part of recent ones and not complete. A relatively complete list of the relevant references before 1998 can be found in Ref. . All numerical and analytical results confirm the existence of a rather general dynamic scaling form in critical dynamic systems at early times.

The short-time dynamic scaling has not been systematically explored in experiments. But the dynamic scaling behavior around a spin-glass transition  is very similar to that around a standard critical point. For example, the experimental measurements of the remanent magnetization in spin glasses support not only the power law scaling behavior but also the scaling relations between the exponents .

The short-time dynamic scaling form not only is conceptually interesting, but also provides new techniques for the measurements of both dynamic and static critical exponents as well as the critical temperature , for a review see Ref. . Since now the measurements are carried out in the short-time regime, the dynamic approach does not suffer from critical slowing down. Compared with those methods developed in equilibrium, e.g., the non-local cluster algorithms, the dynamic approach does study the original local dynamics and can be applied to disorder systems. Furthermore, to solve numerically dynamic equations with a continuous time to the long-time regime is very difficult, but the short-time dynamic approach works well . Such a method should be also very interesting in experiments.

To understand the universal short-time behavior, one should distinguish the macroscopic and microscopic time scales. The dynamic scaling emerges only after a time scale $`t_{mic}`$ which is sufficiently large in microscopic sense but still very small in macroscopic sense. In Monte Carlo simulations, for example, if a sweep over all spins on a lattice is considered to be a microscopic time unit, $`t_{mic}`$ is usually from a few to 100 Monte Carlo time steps . Therefore, performing simulations up to some hundred or thousand time steps is usually sufficient to obtain rather good values for critical exponents. However, in the recent study of the two-dimensional XY model (with a Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition) and the random-bond Ising model , one observes somewhat unexpected phenomena. The dynamic exponent $`z`$ estimated from a dynamic processes starting from a disordered state is bigger (10 to 15 percent for the XY model and 5 to 10 percent for the random-bond Ising model) than that from an ordered state. Puzzling is that the resulting static exponents are correct within statistical errors. This behavior should have its origin in the existence of the free vortices or the metastable states. Similar concern for the XY model with different boundary conditions and dynamics can be found also in Ref. . If such a kind of phenomena are not clarified, further applications of the short-time dynamic scaling becomes complicated and difficult.

In a recent Letter  (see also Ref. ), Bray, Briant and Jervis argue theoretically that there is a logarithmic correction for the two-dimensional XY model in the dynamic process starting from a disordered state. However, the presented numerical data can not distinguish the two ansatzes, a possible bigger $`z`$ or a logarithmic correction. On the other hand, there has been some controversy over the value of the dynamic exponent $`z`$ (see, e.g., Ref.  and references therein), and here it is especially interesting whether $`z`$ is exactly 2 . In this Communication, we report our large-scale Monte Carlo simulations for the two-dimensional XY model, examine possible corrections to scaling in dynamic processes starting from both ordered and disordered states and determine relevant critical exponents accurately.

In the simulations, the system in a macroscopic initial state, is suddenly quenched to the transition temperature $`T_{KT}`$ or slightly below, then released to dynamic evolution of model A. In the literature, $`T_{KT}`$ is reported to be between $`0.89`$ and $`0.90`$. In this paper, we take the temperature $`T=0.89`$. Following Ref. , we adopt the ’heat-bath’ algorithm in which a trial move is accepted with probability $`1/[1+exp(\mathrm{\Delta }E/T)]`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ is the energy change associated with the move. All results are presented with a lattice size $`L=256`$. Simulations with other lattice sizes confirm that the finite size effect for $`L=256`$ has been completely invisible for our updating times.

Denoting a spin $`S_i(t)`$, as usual, we define the magnetization, its second moment and the auto-correlation as $`\stackrel{}{M}(t)_i\stackrel{}{S}_i(t)/L^2`$, $`M^{(2)}(t)[_i\stackrel{}{S}_i(t)]^2/L^4`$ and $`A(t)_i\stackrel{}{S}_i(0)\stackrel{}{S}_i(t)/L^2`$ respectively.

In Fig. 1, time evolution of the second moment and the auto-correlation for a disordered initial state are displayed with solid lines in log-log scale. In order to detect any corrections to scaling, we have performed the simulations up to $`t=10240`$ Monte Carlo time steps. Samples of the initial configurations (also random numbers) for averaging are $`20000`$. To estimate the errors, samples are divided into four subsamples. Assuming that there is a logarithmic correction for the non-equilibrium spatial correlation length, according to general scaling analysis, the second moment should behave like

$$M^{(2)}(t)=b_2[t/(1+c_2ln(t))]^{(2\eta )/z}.$$
(1)
Here $`\eta `$ is the usual static exponent, $`z`$ is the dynamic exponent and $`b_2`$ and $`c_2`$ are constants. Similarly, the auto-correlation

$$A(t)=b_a[t/(1+c_aln(t))]^{\theta d/z}.$$
(2)
Here $`d=2`$ is the spatial dimension. If $`c_2`$ and $`c_a`$ are zeros, the standard power law scaling behavior is recovered. Looking at Fig. 1, $`A(t)`$ bends obviously downwards, in consistence with the logarithmic correction. However, the behavior of $`M^{(2)}(t)`$ is somewhat complicated and the correction is also less strong than that for $`A(t)`$. It bends slightly downwards at early times, and changes to upwards only after about 100 time steps. The first behavior is not universal behavior but microscopic details dependent. Anyway, if the simulation is performed only up to $`t=2000`$ or $`3000`$ , it would be difficult to conclude whether and how the power law is corrected. Now, we fit the two solid lines in Fig. 1 to the ansatzes in Eqs. (1) and (2) in a time interval $`[100,10240]`$. The fitted curves are shown with dashed lines in the figure. The quality of the fitting is good and the resulting exponents are $`(2\eta )/z=0.866(3)`$ and $`d/z\theta =0.730(1)`$.

Here it is very important to address that if directly measuring the slope, e.g., for $`M^{(2)}(t)`$ in Fig. 1, in any time intervals we obtain $`(2\eta )/z`$ around $`0.77`$ to $`0.78`$. These values differ from $`0.866(3)`$ by more than 10 percent. Do $`M^{(2)}(t)`$ and $`A(t)`$ fit uniquely to the ansatzes in Eqs. (1) and (2)? We have tried inverse power law corrections, e.g., for $`M^{(2)}(t)`$,

$$M^{(2)}(t)t^{(2\eta )/z}(1+c/t^b).$$
(3)
For both $`M^{(2)}(t)`$ and $`A(t)`$, the quality of the fitting is even slightly better than with a logarithmic correction. However, the correction exponent $`b`$ is small, $`b=0.211`$ and $`0.0474`$ for $`M^{(2)}(t)`$ and $`A(t)`$ respectively, while the exponent $`d/z\theta `$ remains the same and $`(2\eta )/z`$ differs only by 1 or 2 percent. This strongly indicates that a logarithmic correction is indeed correct. It is believed that the logarithmic corrections are related to the vortex pair annihilation, and do not disappear within a time scale $`t_{mic}`$ .

For a dynamic process starting from an ordered state, i.e. $`\stackrel{}{M}(0)=(1,0)`$, no logarithmic corrections are claimed theoretically, since no free vortices exist. It is interesting to confirm this numerically and obtain independently the dynamic exponent $`z`$ and the static exponent $`\eta `$ for comparison. In this dynamic process, the magnetization $`\stackrel{}{M}(t)=(M(t),0)`$ is subject to the power law scaling behavior

$$M(t)t^{\eta /2z}.$$
(4)
In order to determine the dynamic exponent $`z`$ independently, we introduce a time-dependent Binder cumulant, $`UM^{(2)}/M^21`$, which behaves like

$$U(t)t^{d/z}.$$
(5)
In Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, $`M(t)`$ and $`U(t)`$ are displayed with solid lines in log-log scale. Samples (now only respect to random numbers) for averaging are $`10000`$. Both curves show deviation from power law up to $`t200`$ or $`300`$. However, a logarithmic correction does not fit to the curves. Therefore, we should either accept a relatively bigger $`t_{mic}`$, or consider inverse power law corrections. With an ansatz similar to Eq. (3), in a time interval $`[100,10240]`$ we obtain $`\eta /2z=0.0588(3)`$ and $`d/z=0.982(10)`$. The fitted curves are shown with long-dashed lines in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. They overlap nicely with the numerical data (solid lines). Without considering corrections to scaling, the estimated exponents differ about 1 percent (with relatively bigger $`t_{mic}`$. The corresponding curves are shown with dashed lines in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

Finally, to complete our investigation we study a dynamic process starting from a disordered state but with a small initial magnetization $`\stackrel{}{M}(0)=(m_0,0)`$. If assuming a dynamic scaling form, one can deduce that at the early times, the magnetization $`\stackrel{}{M}(t)=(M(t),0)`$ obeys a power law

$$M(t)t^\theta .$$
(6)
Here $`\theta `$ is a new independent critical exponent related to the initial condition . Since we need a small initial magnetization $`m_0`$ and suffer from large fluctuation in longer times, the simulation is only performed up to $`t=1000`$. samples for averaging is $`14000`$. In Fig. 4, $`M(t)`$ is displayed with a solid line on log-log scale. From these data, we can not detect a logarithmic correction. In a time interval $`[100,1000]`$, direct measurement of the slope yields an exponent $`\theta =0.250(2)`$, which is the same as considering an inverse power law correction. The dashed line in Fig. 4 corresponds to a simple power law fit. Of course, we can not exclude that a logarithmic correction may be detected if we perform simulations up to $`t=10000`$. But data analysis of the exponents below will show that this will very probably not happen.

In Table I, we summarize all the measured exponents. For the dynamic process starting from an ordered state, through the measured $`d/z`$ we can obtain independently the dynamic exponent $`z`$, denoted as $`z_1`$ in the table. Then, with $`z_1`$ as input, we calculate the static exponent $`\eta =0.240(3)`$ from $`\eta /2z`$. This value is slightly bigger than $`\eta =0.23`$ estimated in simulations in equilibrium , but we believe our value is more accurate. With $`\eta `$ in hand, from the index $`(2\eta )/z`$ in the dynamic process starting from a disordered state, we estimate another value $`z_2=2.03(1)`$ for the dynamic exponent $`z`$. Finally, combining the results of $`\theta `$ and $`d/z\theta `$ we obtain the third value $`z_3=2.04(1)`$. Three estimates of $`z`$ from different dynamic processes agree very well. This supports the logarithmic corrections in Eqs. (1) and (2). A remark here is that even if there might be a logarithmic correction for the magnetization in Eq. (6), it must be rather weak and $`\theta `$ would not be modified so much, otherwise $`z_3`$ will deviate from $`z_1`$ and $`z_2`$. Our impression is that even a small initial magnetization would suppress the effect of the vortex pairs.

Without considering a logarithmic correction, why does one observe a bigger effective dynamic exponent $`z`$ but a correct static exponent $`\eta `$? Qualitatively, indeed the logarithmic corrections in both $`M^{(2)}(t)`$ and $`A(t)`$ effectively result in a bigger $`z`$. But it is probably only by chance that a correct $`\eta `$ is quantitatively kept.

In conclusions, with Monte Carlo simulations we have investigated the short-time behavior of the dynamic processes starting from both ordered and disordered states for the two-dimensional XY model. The results confirm that there is a logarithmic correction to scaling in case of starting from a disordered state, but an inverse power law correction in case of starting from an ordered state. The dynamic exponent is $`z=2.04(1)`$, slightly bigger than the theoretical value, $`z=2`$. We are satisfied with this result since for many statistical systems $`z`$ is also different from the ’classical’ value $`z=2`$.

Acknowledgements: This work is supported in part by NNSF of China and DFG; TR 300/3-1.