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# IFT-P.098/2000 hep-ph/0103096 See-saw tau lepton mass and calculable neutrino masses in a 3-3-1 model

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## Abstract

In this work we show that in a version of the 3-3-1 model proposed by Duong and Ma, in which the introduction of a scalar sextet is avoided by adding a singlet heavy charged lepton, the $`\tau `$ lepton gains mass through a see-saw–like mechanism. We also show how to generate neutrino masses at the 1-loop level, and give the respective Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing matrices for a set of the parameters. We also consider the effect of adding a singlet right-handed neutrino.

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Some years ago it was proposed a model with $`SU(3)_CSU(3)_LU(1)_N`$ gauge symmetry, 3-3-1 for short, in which the three lepton families transform in the same way under the gauge symmetry i.e., $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{aL}=(\nu _a,l_a,l_a^c)_L(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑},0)`$ with $`a=e,\mu ,\tau `$ . Therefore, in this model the lepton mass term transforms as $`(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑},0)(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑},0)=(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑}^{},0)_A(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟔},0)_S`$, hence, in order to give mass to the charged leptons it is possible to introduce a triplet $`\eta =(\eta ^0,\eta _1^{},\eta _2^+)^T(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑},0)`$ and a symmetric sextet $`S(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟔},0)`$ . With the $`\eta `$-triplet only, one of the charged leptons remains massless and the other two are mass degenerated. Hence, at least a sextet $`S`$ has to be introduced in order to give arbitrary masses to all charged leptons. Although this implies that the model has a rather complicated Higgs scalar sector, it is interesting to stress that all the extensions of the electroweak standard model with extra Higgs scalar multiplets, like multi-Higgs doublets , singlets , and triplets , are embedded in this 3-3-1 model. In fact, under the subgroup $`SU(2)_LU(1)_YSU(3)_LU(1)_N`$ the model has three scalar doublets, four singlets (one neutral, one singly charged and two doubly charged), and a complex triplet. This sort of models also gives some insight on the families replication and on the observed value of the weak mixing angle $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W<1/4`$. Moreover, recently the 3-3-1 models are interesting possibilities for explaining the new value of the positive muon anomalous magnetic moment, reported by the Muon $`(g2)`$ Collaboration . The new $`(g2)`$ value is consistent not only with supersymmetry  but also with several versions of the 3-3-1 model as it was shown in Ref. . Finally, in a version of the model it is possible to generate the top and bottom quark masses at the tree level while the other quarks and charged leptons gain mass at the 1-loop level .

The see-saw mechanism was proposed in order to understand the smallness of the neutrino masses . On the other hand, later, it was introduced a generalization of this mechanism, which is also valid for the charged lepton masses, in the context of the minimal left-right symmetric model . Here we will show, in a 3-3-1 model, that a similar mechanism can be implemented for the case of the $`\tau `$ lepton mass and that the three neutrinos gain mass radiatively. In the case of three neutrinos the masses and mixing are almost completely determined by the charged lepton parameters. In fact they depend only upon a coupling constant ($`\lambda `$) of a quartic term of the scalar potential. It implies that we are also calculating the ratio of the neutrino masses (see Eq. (16) below).

Some years ago, Duong and Ma  noted that a way to give mass to the charged leptons that does not involve a scalar sextet can be implemented: Besides the usual scalar triplets: $`\eta `$, mentioned before, $`\rho =(\rho ^+,\rho ^0,\rho ^{++})^T(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑},1)`$ and $`\chi =(\chi ^{},\chi ^{},\chi ^0)^T(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑},1)`$, they introduced a charged lepton transforming like singlet: $`E_L^{}(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟏},1)`$ and $`E_R^{}(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟏},1)`$. In this case the Yukawa interactions are given by

$`_Y`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{a,b=e,\mu ,\tau }{i,j,k=1,2,3}}{}}ϵ^{ijk}\overline{(\mathrm{\Psi }_{aLi})^c}F_{ab}(\mathrm{\Psi })_{bLj}\eta _k`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{a=e,\mu ,\tau }{}}[f_a\overline{(\mathrm{\Psi })}_{aL}E_R^{}\rho +f_a^{}\overline{E_L^{}}\chi ^T(\mathrm{\Psi }^c)_{aR}]`$ (2)
$`+`$ $`M\overline{E^{}}_LE_R^{}+H.c.,`$ (3)
where $`F_{ab}`$ denotes an antisymmetric matrix. Then the mass matrix for the charged leptons, in the basis of the symmetry eigenstates that we denote $`l_{L,R}^{}=(e^{},\mu ^{},\tau ^{},E^{})_{L,R}`$, reads $`\overline{l}_L^{}^ll_R^{}+H.c.`$ where

$$^l=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0& f_{e\mu }v_\eta & f_{e\tau }v_\eta & f_ev_\rho \\ f_{e\mu }v_\eta & \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}& f_{\mu \tau }v_\eta & f_\mu v_\rho \\ f_{e\tau }v_\eta & f_{\mu \tau }v_\eta & \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}& f_\tau v_\rho \\ f_e^{}v_\chi & f_\mu ^{}v_\chi & f_\tau ^{}v_\chi & \sqrt{2}M\end{array}\right).$$
(4)
Here for simplicity we have assumed real vacuum expectation values: $`\eta ^0v_\eta /\sqrt{2}`$, $`\rho ^0v_\rho /\sqrt{2}`$ and $`\chi ^0v_\chi ^0/\sqrt{2}`$.

Firstly, by assuming that the only vanishing dimensionless parameters in Eq. (4) are $`f_{e\mu },f_{e\tau },f_e`$ and $`f_e^{}`$, we obtain $`m_e=0`$ and approximately

$`m_\mu `$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_\mu f_{\mu \tau }}{\sqrt{2}f_\tau }}v_\eta ,m_\tau {\displaystyle \frac{f_\tau f_\tau ^{}v_\rho v_\chi }{2M}}m_\mu ,`$ (6)
$`m_EMm_\tau +m_\mu .`$
To get a positive mass for the $`\mu `$ and $`\tau `$ leptons we can redefine the respective field by a $`\gamma _5`$ factor i.e., $`\mu (\tau )\gamma _5\mu (\tau )`$ (or see below). We see from Eq. (6) that the $`\tau `$ lepton mass is of the see-saw type , however, as showed below, the $`M`$ mass is not related to a grand unification scale.

The mass matrix in Eq. (4) is diagonalized by a biunitary transformation $`U_L^l^lU_R^l=\widehat{^l}`$, relating the symmetry eigenstates (primed fields) with the mass eigenstates (unprimed fields), $`l_L^{}=U_L^ll_L`$ and $`l_R^{}=U_R^ll_R`$, where the mass eigenstates are denoted by $`l_{L,R}=(e,\mu ,\tau ,E)_{L,R}`$.

Notice that even for massless neutrinos, which may result in diagonal interactions with the $`W`$ boson, there are flavor changing neutral and charged currents in the interactions in Eq. (3). It means that although the model has many parameters they are not fixed only by the mass of the charged leptons but by new interactions too. In this situation, we can introduce the unitary matrices $`U_{L,R}^l`$ in Eq. (3) and leaves that phenomenology determine both, the masses of the Higgs scalars and the matrix elements of those matrices or, we can determine first those matrices by given the appropriate mass to the charged leptons and use phenomenology to determine only the mass of the Higgs scalars. Here we will make the first part of the second alternative, i.e., we will determine the mixing matrices $`U_{L,R}^l`$ and left for further studies the phenomenology of the model.

Since we will be concerned below with the neutrino mass phenomenology, we find appropriate to obtain a set of parameters which are consistent with the actual values of the charged lepton masses. In this vain we use $`U_L^l^l(^l)^{}U_L^l=(\widehat{}^l)^2`$ and $`U_R^l(^l)^{}^lU_R^l=(\widehat{}^l)^2`$ in order to find $`U_{L,R}^l`$. The numerical analysis of the eigenvalues of $`^l(^l)^{}`$ (or $`(^l)^{}^l`$), gives the following masses for the charged leptons (in GeV):

$$\begin{array}{c}m_e=0.000510985,m_\mu =0.105658,\\ m_\tau =1.77703,m_E=3007.79,\end{array}$$
(7)
which are in good agreement with those of Ref. , if the following parameters are chosen:

$$\begin{array}{c}f_{e\mu }=f_{e\tau }=0.0006785,f_{\mu \tau }=0.021,\\ f_e=0.0004263,f_e^{}=0.001,f_\mu =0.0481815,f_\mu ^{}=0.05,\\ f_\tau =0.1259848,f_\tau ^{}=0.3;\end{array}$$
(8)
and also $`v_\chi =1000`$ GeV, $`M=3000`$ GeV, $`v_\eta =20`$ GeV and $`v_\rho =245.186(=\sqrt{246^220^2})`$ GeV. The left- and right-handed mixing matrices, up to five decimal places, are given by

$$U_L^l\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0.99517& 0.09776& 0.00836& 0.00002\\ 0.08889& 0.86222& 0.49866& 0.00276\\ 0.04154& 0.49701& 0.86672& 0.00724\\ 0.00008& 0.00122& 0.00766& 0.99997\end{array}\right),$$
(9)
$$\stackrel{~}{U}_R^l\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0.99914& 0.04130& 0.00433& 0.00024\\ 0.04133& 0.99905& 0.00754& 0.01175\\ 0.00395& 0.00852& 0.99747& 0.07053\\ 0.00100& 0.01116& 0.07061& 0.99744\end{array}\right).$$
(10)
We have verified that in fact, with the matrices given in Eqs. (9) and (10) with $`U_L^l^l\stackrel{~}{U}_R^l=\widehat{^l}`$ where $`\stackrel{~}{U}_R^l=U_R^l\varphi `$ with $`\varphi =\mathrm{diag}(1,1,1,1)`$ and $`\widehat{^l}=\mathrm{diag}(m_e,m_\mu ,m_\tau ,m_E)`$. This analysis illustrate how the Duong and Ma singlet lepton works  to give the correct mass for the charged leptons.

Until this point neutrinos remain massless. However, there are several ways to give mass to the neutrinos in the context of the 3-3-1 models. These include the mass generation at the tree level  or by radiative corrections . Here neutrinos will continue to be massless unless we allow the breakdown of the $`U(1)_{\mathrm{B}+\mathrm{L}}`$ global symmetry in the scalar potential, where $`L`$ is the total lepton number and $`B`$ is the baryon number . This is because if B+L is conserved, the mixture in the singly charged scalar sector occurs only between $`\eta _1^{},\rho ^{}`$, and between $`\eta _2^{},\chi ^{}`$, and diagrams like that in Fig. 1 do not occur, see Eq.(11). Recall that the B+L assignments are 2 for $`\eta _2^{}`$ and $`\chi ^{}`$ and 0 for $`\eta _1^{}`$ and $`\rho ^{}`$ , for leptons B+L coincide with L or with the family lepton number. However if B+L is not conserved a quartic term $`\lambda (\eta ^{}\chi )(\eta ^{}\rho )+H.c.`$ is allowed and all singly charged scalar fields mix one to another. We will consider the case in which this quartic coupling among the scalar Higgs does exist and diagrams like that in Fig. 1 do occur. The charged current is written in the mass-eigenstate basis as $`\overline{l}_L\gamma ^\mu V_{MNS}\nu _LW_\mu ^{}`$ with the Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata matrix  defined as $`V_{MNS}=(O_L^l)^{}U_L^\nu `$ where $`U_L^\nu `$ is the matrix which relates the symmetry and the left-handed neutrino mass eigenstates. Notice that in this case $`V_{MNS}`$ is a $`4\times 3`$ matrix since $`O_L^l`$ is the submatrix $`3\times 4`$ of $`U_L^l`$, i.e., omitting the forth row in Eq. (9).

Let us now turn on the lepton interactions with the triplet $`\eta `$: From Eq. (3) we have

$$\overline{l_{\alpha R}}(O_R^{lT})_{\alpha a}F_{ab}\nu _{bL}^{}\eta _1^{}\overline{\nu _{aR}^c}F_{ab}(O_L^l)_{b\alpha }l_{\alpha L}\eta _2^+.$$
(11)
Notice that also in Eq. (11) only the $`3\times 4`$ submatrix of $`U_{L,R}^l`$ appear, i.e., omitting the forth row in Eq. (9) and (10), since $`a,b=e,\mu ,\tau `$ but $`\alpha =e,\mu ,\tau ,E`$; we have already denoted those submatrices by $`O_L^l,O_R^l`$.

Hence, we have a finite $`3\times 3`$ non-symmetric neutrino mass matrix at the 1-loop level of the form

$`_{bd}^\nu `$ $`=`$ $`\lambda v_\rho v_\chi {\displaystyle \underset{\alpha ,a,f}{}}(O_R^{lT})_{\alpha a}F_{ab}m_\alpha F_{df}(O_L^l)_{f\alpha }I(M_1^2,M_2^2,m_\alpha ^2)`$ (12)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda v_\rho v_\chi }{16\pi ^2M_2^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}m_\alpha (O_R^{lT}F)_{\alpha b}(FO_L^l)_{d\alpha }I(r,s_\alpha ,),`$ (13)
and

$$I(r,s_\alpha )=_0^1𝑑x_0^{1x}𝑑y\frac{1}{(s_\alpha ^2r^2)x+(s_\alpha ^21)ys_\alpha ^2},$$
(14)
where $`M_{1,2}`$ denote typical masses for the singly charged scalars and we have defined $`r=M_1/M_2`$ and $`s_\alpha =m_\alpha /M_2`$. We have neglected a similar contribution proportional to $`v_\eta ^2`$, which arises from Fig. 1 if we make $`\eta _1^{}\rho ^{}`$, $`\eta _2^{}\chi ^{}`$ and $`v_\rho v_\chi v_\eta ^2`$, since we are assuming that $`v_\eta ^2v_\rho v_\chi `$.

From Eq.(13) we can built the symmetric mass matrix $`M^\nu =(^\nu +^{\nu T})/2`$. With $`M_1=100`$ GeV, $`M_2=1`$ TeV, and the parameters already obtained for the charged leptons in Eq. (8), we have from Eqs. (13) and (14) numerical values for $`M^\nu `$, in GeV and up to a factor $`10^6`$,

$$M^\nu \lambda \left(\begin{array}{ccc}0.00775& 0.18972& 0.05030\\ & 4.60084& 1.2635\\ & & 0.29346\end{array}\right).$$
(15)
This matrix has the following mass eigenvalues:

$$\lambda (0,\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0.04931},\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}4.95892})\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^6\mathrm{GeV},$$
(16)
where the first eigenvalue is assumed to be zero up to the decimal places we are considering.

This time we diagonalize the mass matrix in Eq. (15) by making $`\mathrm{\Phi }U^{\nu T}M^\nu U^\nu \mathrm{\Phi }=\widehat{M}^\nu =\mathrm{diag}(m_1,m_2,m_3)`$ with $`m_3>m_2>m_1`$ where $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{diag}(1,1,i)`$ and

$$U^\nu \left(\begin{array}{ccc}0.99896& 0.02268& 0.03961\\ 0.03228& 0.26260& 0.96436\\ 0.03228& 0.96464& 0.26160\end{array}\right).$$
(17)
Notice that the $`U^\nu `$ matrix does not depend on the global $`\lambda `$ parameter. In this case we have the mixing matrix $`V_{\mathrm{MNS}}(O_L^l)^TU^\nu \mathrm{\Phi }`$:

$$V_{\mathrm{MNS}}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0.9983& 0.0058& 0.0572i\\ 0.0538& 0.2552& 0.9654i\\ 0.0202& 0.9668& 0.2545i\\ 0.0002& 0.0077& 0.0008i\end{array}\right),$$
(18)
where we have used the basis $`l=(e,\mu ,\tau ,E)^T`$ and $`\nu =(\nu _1,\nu _2,\nu _3)^T`$. Although the first row and column of this mixing matrix is compatible with the SMA mixing matrix, we cannot compare directly these numbers with the usual ones  because the matrix in Eq. (18) is not unitary, it means that, in the case of three neutrinos (three masses), there are more parameters than in the case of an unitary mixing matrix (three Euler angles).

Now we can try to fix the trilinear $`\lambda `$ parameter to be consistent with the neutrino mass phenomenology: From atmospheric neutrino data  we know that at least one mass eigenstate does exist such that its mass is $`m>\sqrt{|\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\mathrm{atm}}^2|}(46)10^2`$ eV . On the other hand, the solar neutrino data requires $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{}^210^5,10^7,10^{10}\mathrm{eV}^2`$ depending of the type of solution LM and SM, LOW or VO solution, respectively . Hence by coherence we will choose $`\lambda `$ in order to be consistent with the SMA scenario. From Eq. (16) we see that with $`\lambda 6.4\times 10^5`$ we obtain $`m_1=0`$ eV, $`m_2=3.210^3`$ eV and $`m_3=3.210^1`$ eV.

Moreover, we would like to stress that the values of the parameters given in Eq. (8) are not expected to be unique and it means that it could be possible to obtain other values in Eq. (15) and (16) and of course, of the MNS-matrix in Eq. (18), which could fit better the experimental data . We have verified also that the neutrino masses and the mixing matrix do not strongly depend on the masses of the charged scalars $`M_1,M_2`$. In this way, the neutrino parameters are a prediction of the model: Once the $`f`$’s constants in Eq. (4) are made consistent with the known charged lepton masses, the ratios of the neutrino masses and the mixing matrix $`U^\nu `$ are also automatically fixed, since $`\lambda `$ is a common factor.

Next, we would like to point out that in the 3-3-1 model the introduction of fermion singlets is more natural than in other models, including the standard electroweak model, because in the present context the charged singlet is introduced in order to replace the scalar sextet. Since the number of fermion families transforming non-trivially under the 3-3-1 gauge symmetry must be a multiple of 3, the more economic way to introduce new fermions is by adding singlets under this symmetry. Moreover, in the present model which has already a charged lepton singlet, if we want to have again a symmetry in the representation content between the charged leptons and neutrinos we can add a right-handed neutrino singlet $`N_R^{}`$. In this case we can obtain a more wide neutrino mass spectrum if we consider $`N_R^{}`$ as a light neutrino. In this situation we have the interactions

$$\underset{a=e,\mu ,\tau }{}\widehat{h}_a^{}\overline{\psi _{aL}}N_R^{}\eta +\frac{1}{2}\overline{(N_R^{})^c}M_RN_R^{}+H.c.$$
(19)
The neutrino mass matrix in the basis $`N^{}=(\nu _{eL}^{},\nu _{\mu L}^{},\nu _{\tau L}^{},(N^c)_L)^T`$ and up to a $`10^6`$ factor, in GeV, is given by

$$M^\nu \lambda \left(\begin{array}{cccc}0.00775& 0.18972& 0.05030& \frac{\widehat{h}_ev_\eta }{2\sqrt{2}\lambda }\\ & 4.60838& 1.2635& \frac{\widehat{h}_\mu v_\eta }{2\sqrt{2}\lambda }\\ & & 0.29346& \frac{\widehat{h}_\tau v_\eta }{2\sqrt{2}\lambda }\\ \frac{\widehat{h}_ev_\eta }{2\sqrt{2}\lambda }& \frac{\widehat{h}_\mu v_\eta }{2\sqrt{2}\lambda }& \frac{\widehat{h}_\tau v_\eta }{2\sqrt{2}\lambda }& \frac{M_R}{2\lambda }\end{array}\right),$$
(20)
where the numerical $`3\times 3`$ submatrix denotes the mass entries generated by radiative corrections already obtained in Eq. (15); we have defined $`\widehat{h}_a=10^6\widehat{h}_a^{}`$. The mass matrix in Eq. (20) has the following mass eigenvalues:

$$(0,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.005},0.052,1.052)\mathrm{eV},$$
(21)
if we chose the following values for the dimensionless parameters

$$(\lambda ,\widehat{h}_e,\widehat{h}_\mu ,\widehat{h}_\tau )=(10^6,210^3,10^7,10^7),$$
(22)
and $`v_\eta =20`$ GeV, $`M_R=2`$ eV. We can identify, for instance, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{43}^2=1.1\mathrm{eV}^2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{32}^2=2.7\times 10^3\mathrm{eV}^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{21}^2=2.1\times 10^5\mathrm{eV}^2`$ with the respective mass square difference consistent with LSND , atmospheric , and solar  neutrino data. In this case the mixing matrix in the neutrino sector is given by

$$U^\nu \left(\begin{array}{cccc}0.99912& 0.04199& 0.00191& 0.00067\\ 0.04193& 0.99886& 0.02275& 0.00091\\ 0.00293& 0.02191& 0.97602& 0.21654\\ 0& 0.00582& 0.21646& 0.97627\end{array}\right).$$
(23)
The relation between phenomenological neutrinos $`N_a^{}`$ and the massive ones $`N=(\nu _1,\nu _2,\nu _3,\nu _4)^T`$ is given by $`N^{}=U^\nu \mathrm{\Phi }N`$ where $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{diag}(1,i,i,1)`$. The $`V_{MNS}=U_L^lU^\nu \mathrm{\Phi }`$ mixing matrix is given now by

$$V_{\mathrm{MNS}}\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0.9979& 0.0461i& 0.0445i& 0.0095\\ 0.0630& 0.8544i& 0.5048i& 0.1056\\ 0.0151& 0.5175i& 0.8363i& 0.1807\\ 0.0001& 0.0029i& 0.2094i& 0.9778\end{array}\right).$$
(24)
Notice that the $`3\times 3`$ (non-hermitian) submatrix involving the known charged leptons and the three active neutrinos is again of the SMA solution type of the solar neutrino problem . However see the discussion above. In this case we also obtain the mass square differences which are appropriate for the solar and atmospheric neutrino data. From the fourth raw and column we see that the heavy charged lepton couples mainly with the fourth neutrino and the usual charged leptons couple weakly to this neutrino. Notwithstanding, also in this case the mixing matrix is not orthogonal and it is not possible to make a direct comparison with the usual $`3\times 3`$ fitting of the data and, as we said before, using a different set of parameters in Eqs. (8) and (22) we should obtain different mixing matrices.

Then, in this context we have four phenomenological neutrinos denoted by $`\nu _{eL},\nu _{\mu L},\nu _{\tau L},(N^c)_L`$ in the symmetry basis. So, in general, we have the possibility of implementing “2+2” , “3+1” , or intermediate neutrino mixing schemes. However it is worth to recall that it is not clear yet that we need four neutrinos since other type of solutions like flavor changing neutrino interactions are still possible for the solar neutrino  and also for the case of atmospheric neutrino, more exotic solutions like neutrino decay and decoherence are not ruled out yet , and moreover, several of these mechanisms can be working at the same time. Notice also that without the sextet we have no chance to assume that the charged lepton mass matrix is diagonal, and that the fourth row gives the couplings of the neutrinos with the heavy charged lepton which are very small.

Finally, we would like to remember that in the present model there are energy independent flavor conversions .

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Conselho Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia (CNPq) and by Programa de Apoio a Núcleos de Excelência (PRONEX).


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# Pulsar wind nebulae around the southern pulsars PSR B1643-43 and PSR B1706-44

## 1 Introduction

Pulsars transfer the bulk of their rotational angular momentum in a wind of relativistic particles and Poynting flux (Michel 1969, Rees & Gunn 1974, Kennel et al. 1983). However, because the particles emerge from the magnetosphere with zero pitch angle, the winds cannot be directly observed. Therefore in order to study the winds from pulsars it is necessary to study the synchrotron emission from the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) produced when the wind is thermalized as it comes into pressure equilibrium with the surroundings. The Crab nebula is the archetype of the PWN; this source has been studied in detail at all wavelengths (e.g. X-ray: Brinkmann, Aschenbach & Langmeier 1985, radio: Bietenholz & Kronberg 1992, optical: Hester et al. 1995). The fact that the bolometric luminosity of the Crab nebula requires an on-going source with a power comparable to the rotational energy loss (Ė) of the pulsar, shows that the PWN owes its existence to the existence of a young, energetic pulsar.

At radio wavelengths, there are at least two morphological types of PWN, depending on the source of confinement for the wind (Frail & Scharringhausen 1997, Chevalier 1998, Gaensler et al. 2000): the so called “filled-center” and the “bow-shock”. The filled-center PWN or “plerions” (e.g. Crab) are inside young supernova remnants and are confined by the hot gas driving the expansion. The bow-shock PWN are found both inside and outside supernova remnants (e.g. PSR B1757$``$24 and G5.4$``$1.2; Frail & Kulkarni 1991) and are confined by the high space velocities of the pulsar. The non-thermal radio emission from PWN can be distinguished from shock-accelerated emission in supernova remnants by (1) a flat spectrum, $`\alpha =0.1`$ to $`0.3`$, where S$`{}_{\nu }{}^{}\nu ^\alpha `$, and (2) a high degree of linear polarization ($`>>5\%`$) (Chevalier 1998).

The existing sample of radio PWN is small. There are no more than seven confirmed PWN at radio wavelengths (the number is comparable for X-ray PWN) which contain a known pulsar. Frail, Goss & Whiteoak (1994) (hereafter FGW94) made radio images around three young pulsars, and identified two promising PWN candidates based on their morphology alone. In this paper we present multi-frequency polarimetric observations made with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO111The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.) Very Large Array (VLA) toward PSR B1643$``$43 and PSR B1706$``$44 to better ascertain the properties of the emission in the vicinity of these pulsars.

## 2 Observations

The extended emission in the vicinity of PSR B1643$``$43 and PSR B1706$``$44 was imaged at 1425, 4860 and 8460 MHz in several observing runs during 1997, using different configurations of the VLA (see Table 1). The data were obtained in the Stokes parameters I, Q, U, and V. The uv data from each array were combined to form a single dataset for each pulsar in order to image a full range of spatial frequencies. An additional 1.4 GHz dataset, taken in 1993 with the VLA in its CnB and DnC hybrid configurations, was extracted from the archive. A description of these data can be found in FGW94. All data reduction and calibration were done following standard practice in use at the VLA. The images were corrected for primary beam. Table 1 summarizes the observational parameters.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 PSR B1643$``$43

PSR B1643$``$43 (PSR J1646-4346) is a 232 ms pulsar, with a characteristic age of 32.6$`\times 10^3`$ yr, a spin-down luminosity 3.6 $`\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1 (Johnston et al. 1995) and a dispersion measure-based distance of 6.9 kpc (Taylor & Cordes 1993). A search for pulsed $`\gamma `$-ray emission was made with the EGRET and COMPTEL instruments on board of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory with null results (Thompson et al. 1994, Carramiñana et al. 1995).

Based on observations carried out with the VLA in the radio continuum at $`\lambda 20`$ cm in an extended region around PSR B1643$``$43, FGW94 have shown that the pulsar is located within the shell of the SNR G341.2+0.9, about 8 west of the center of the remnant (see Fig.1 Left). Morphological evidence and a coincidence in distance led FGW94 to propose a physical association between the pulsar and the remnant. FWG94 have also reported the detection of a 4 nebulosity with a cometary morphology just east of PSR B1643$``$43 which is joined to the pulsar by a bridge of emission. Based on morphological evidence the authors suggested that this feature is the synchrotron nebula left behind by the fast moving pulsar. The characteristic age of PSR B1643-43 and its positional offset from the center of G341.2+0.9 together imply a transverse velocity of 475 km s-1, which in the absence of proper motion measurements predicts that the pulsar would have to be moving about 15 mas yr-1 (FGW94).

In the same survey, FWG94 noted that the position of PSR B1643$``$43 most likely coincided with a 1.5 mJy point source detected in their $`\lambda 20`$ cm VLA radio image. Their interferometric position differed significantly (40″) from the timing position of the pulsar (Johnston et al. 1995). The later is probably an error due to the timing noise and “glitches” that characterize the spindown of young pulsars. The present observations, performed with better sensitivity and spatial resolution than in FGW94, allow us to derive an improved interferometric position for the pulsar. Our best position determination is from the BnA array $`\lambda 20`$ cm data with a beamwidth of 7$`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }.3\times 3^{\prime \prime }.7`$, a considerable improvement over the 25′′ beam in FGW94. A fit to the peak gives a position (epoch B1950) of R.A.= $`16^h43^m16^s.56\pm 0^s.04`$, decl.=$`43^{}40^{}31^{\prime \prime }.8\pm 0^{\prime \prime }.8`$, or (epoch J2000) R.A.=$`16^h46^m50^s.86\pm 0^s.04`$, decl.=$`43^{}45^{}53^{\prime \prime }.7\pm 0^{\prime \prime }.8`$. We have also determined the position of the pulsar using each dataset separately and at all frequencies and find good agreement. The derived position is about 5′′ northwest of the position given by FWG94. We suspect that extended nebular emission underlying the pulsar is shifting the centroid and therefore the present position with its much smaller beam is superior to the that of FGW94.

Figure 1 (Right) shows a grayscale and countour images of a region surrounding PSR 1643$``$43 at 1.4 and 4.8 GHz. These images were convolved to a 25″ circular beam. The cross indicates the new position of the pulsar. Because of the incomplete sampling of the visibility plane, the VLA image at 8.4 GHz lacks short spacings and is not included here.

From Figure 1 (Right) a synchrotron nebula of about 3 in size is clearly visible. The nebula, with the pulsar located at its western border, appears as a feature pointing back from the pulsar to the center of G341.2+0.9 in the direction opposite the pulsar’s implied proper motion. Such a morphology is compatible with the interpretation of this structure as a PWN. Similar radio morphologies have been detected before surrounding PSR B1757-24 in the SNR G5.4$``$1.2 (Frail & Kulkarni 1991), and PSR B1853+01 in W44 (Frail et al. 1996).

We find additional evidence to support our contention that this feature is the PWN associated with PSR B1643$``$43. i) We detect significant linearly polarized intensity at 4.8 and 8.4 GHz, with a mean fractional polarization of about 30%. ii.) We also estimated the total flux density for the nebular emission (and for the pulsar). These values are given in Table 2. The errors quoted include the rms noise of each image and the uncertainty in the choice of the integration boundaries. From a least squares fit we derive a radio spectral index $`\alpha `$ = 0.24 between 330 MHz and 4.8 GHz, where the data at 330 MHz were taken from FWG94 and data at 843 MHz were taken from the MOST survey by Green et al. (1999). A high degree of linear polarization and a flat radio spectral index are two unmistakable properties of PWN in the radio band, and thus we propose that this is the synchrotron nebula excited by the pulsar wind.

For a distance of 6.9 kpc, the corresponding radio luminosity Lr of the PWN between 107 and 1011 Hz is 8.3 $`\times 10^{31}`$ erg s-1. This value corresponds to an efficiency $`ϵ`$ Lr/Ė = 1.6 $`\times 10^4`$, in very good agreement with the $`ϵ10^4`$ derived by Gaensler et al. (2000) for young energetic pulsars.

### 3.2 PSR B1706$``$44

PSR B1706$``$44 (PSR J1709$``$4428) is a young pulsar (spin-down age $`17000`$ yrs), with a period of 102 ms and a large spin-down luminosity of $`3.4\times 10^{36}`$ ergs-1. It is also one of a very small number (6) of radio pulsars to have been detected as a pulsed gamma-ray source (Thompson et al. 1992). There are several lines of evidence that suggest the existence of a filled-center nebula surrounding the pulsar. FGW94 have noted in a low resolution (24″) radio image at $`\lambda 20`$ cm that PSR B1706$``$44 appears embedded in a “halo” about 4 in size . The authors suggest that the emission could be due to a PWN around the pulsar. In the soft X-ray band, between 0.1-2.4 keV, unpulsed radiation was detected, with a 2 $`\sigma `$ upper limit on the pulsed fraction of the 18 %. This unpulsed emission is thought to originate from a compact synchrotron nebula of about 1 in size around the pulsar (Becker et al. 1995, Finley et al. 1998). More recent X-ray observations made with ROSAT, ASCA (Finley et al. 1998) and RXTE (Ray et al. 1998) confirm the lack of pulsations. Observations of PSR B1706$``$44 in the very high energy $`\gamma `$ rays by the CANGAROO imaging Cerenkov telescope have revealed unpulsed TeV radiation at a 10 $`\sigma `$ confidence level (Kifune et al. 1995). It was suggested that the TeV emission could be due to inverse Compton radiation from a PWN (Harding 1996, Aharonian et al. 1997). Chakrabarty & Kaspi (1998) have reported negative results of a search for optical pulsations from PSR B1706$``$44. Sefako et al. (2000) have carried out V band CCD observations in the direction of the pulsar in order to look for the optical counterpart of the 1 compact X-ray nebula, but their search did not reveal any nebular structure around the pulsar.

A possible association between the supernova remnant (SNR) G343.1-2.3 and PSR B1706$``$44 was proposed by McAdam et al. (1993). Such an association, however, was questioned by FGW94 and Nicastro, Johnston & Koribalski (1996) based on distance inconsistences, a lack of morphological signatures of interaction between the pulsar and the SNR, and scintillation measurements indicating a transverse velocity for the pulsar at least 20 times smaller than required if the pulsar originated in the geometrical center of G343.1-2.3, 17000 years ago.

A dispersion based distance measure of Taylor & Cordes (1993) places PSR B1706$``$44 at 1.8 kpc; while HI absorption shows that its distance lies in the range 2.4-3.2 kpc (Koribalski et al. 1995). In what follows we will adopt a distance to the pulsar of 2 kpc.

As in the previous case for PSR B1643$``$43, we have determined the position of the pulsar using all data sets separately. Here again, the most accurate fit was obtained from the high angular resolution of the BnA array $`\lambda 20`$ cm array data (beamwidth 9$`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }.1\times 4^{\prime \prime }.8`$). The derived position is (epoch B1950) R.A.= $`17^h6^m5^s.09\pm 0^s.02`$, decl.=$`44^{}25^{}20^{\prime \prime }.6\pm 0^{\prime \prime }.5`$, or (epoch J2000) R.A.=$`17^h9^m42^s.75\pm 0^s.02`$, decl.=$`44^{}29^{}6^{\prime \prime }.6\pm 0^{\prime \prime }.5`$. This position is in good agreement with the interferometric measurements of FGW94 and the new timing position by Wang et al. (2000).

Figure 2 shows greyscale and contour images of the region surrounding the pulsar at 1425, 4860 and 8640 MHz. These images were convolved with a circular beam of 25′′. The cross indicates the position of PSR B1706$``$44. The pulsar appears surrounded by a synchrotron nebula, about 3’.5$`\times `$ 2’.5 in size, with the brightest part towards the east.

The total flux density of the nebular emission and PSR B1706$``$44 is summarized in Table 2. Again, the quoted errors take into account uncertainties in the definition of the outer boundaries. From a least squares fit we derive a radio spectral index $`\alpha `$ = 0.3 between 330 MHz and 8.4 GHz, where the data at 330 MHz were taken from FWG94. Significant linearly polarized intensity was detected at 4.8 and 8.4 GHz, with a mean fractional polarization of about 20 %. This is convincing evidence that we have detected another PWN.

The radio luminosity Lr of the PWN between 107 and 1011 Hz is: 7.6$`\times 10^{30}`$ ergs-1, corresponding to an efficiency $`ϵ`$ Lr$``$ 2$`\times 10^6`$. These values are significantly lower than for any other radio PWN (Frail & Scharringhausen 1997). The equipartition magnetic field in the nebula can be estimated by the usual means (Pacholczyk 1970), assuming that the energy density of the magnetic field is half of the total synchrotron pressure. For an electron/positron plasma with unity volume filling factor we find B$`{}_{eq}{}^{}=20`$ $`\mu `$G and a minimum energy of 3$`\times 10^{45}`$ erg.

In order to match the observed X-ray and $`\gamma `$-ray fluxes in PSR B1706$``$44, Harding (1996) proposed a scenario where the TeV emission is produced within the synchrotron nebula via the IC mechanism and the target photon field is the 2.7 K microwave background radiation (MBR). The author abtains a good fit if the magnetic field strength inside the nebula is lower than 5 $`\mu `$G, value lower than our estimation.

On the other hand, Aharonian et al. (1997) proposed that the production of TeV $`\gamma `$-rays take place in a region of about $`0.1^{}`$, outside of the compact X-ray nebula. Inside the compact nebula, where synchrotron is the dominant process, the magnetic field takes values between 20 to 60 $`\mu `$G (depending on the model parameters); out of this region, where the MBR photons are accelerated to TeV energy by the IC mechanism, the value of the magnetic field is about 3 $`\mu `$G.

Our estimate of the magnetic field in the radio nebula is in good agreement with that of the Aharonian et al’s model for the compact X-ray nebula. However, this new radio observations indicate that the synchrotron nebula extends up to 3’.5. The $`\gamma `$ photons would therefore need to be produced even farther out.

Finley et al. (1998) have also explained the unpulsed TeV emission in PSR B1706$``$44 as originated by the IC mechanism but in their model, the target photon field is the infrared background radiation. Their results are consistent with a continuous unbroken power-law spectrum extending from radio to X-ray domain. However, the curent radio data argue against this model. Our observations allow to better define the radio spectrum producing an $`\alpha 0.3`$, which when combined with that obtained from the X-ray observations implies the existence of at least one break in the synchrotron spectrum between the radio and X-ray bands.

## 4 Conclusions

We have made radio observations toward PSR B1643$``$43 and PSR B1706$``$44 and found good evidences that these pulsars are surrounded by extended emission, powered by their winds. At the time of the survey of Frail & Scharringhausen (1997) only six PWN were known. This present work and Gaensler et al. (1998) has extended this sample by 50%. These new radio PWN have the same properties of the rest of the sample (i.e. morphology, spectra, polarization) as a whole with one exception. Most radio PWN radiate of order 10-4 of their spindown luminosity but there are a large number of non-detections (Gaensler et al. 2000) suggesting that this ratio is not constant and may be in fact much lower in specific cases. PSR B1706$``$44 and PSR B0906$``$49 both have a PWN with $`ϵ`$ ($`2\times 10^6`$) much lower than the rest of the sample but comparable to those inferred from the upper limits of other young pulsars. In the case of PSR B0906$``$49, the spectrum of the radio nebula is steeper than other radio PWN and the pulsar is the older than any other pulsar known to power a radio PWN. Clearly we need further broad-band studies of PWN produced under a variety of conditions to better understand how the radio emission from a PWN is produced and how it depends on the properties of its pulsar.

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a Cooperative Science Program between the National Science Foundation and CONICET (Argentina) and through the CONICET grant 4203/96 and ANPCYT grant 0300000-0235.

Figure Captions


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# WHAT NEXT FOR THE LIKELY PRE-SUPERNOVA, HD 179821?

## 1 INTRODUCTION

After main sequence O-type stars of more than 20 M with $`T_{eff}`$ $`>`$ 30,000 K consume their interior hydrogen, they evolve to become red hypergiants with mass loss rates near 10-4 M yr-1 (see, for example, Chin & Stothers 1990, Schaller et al. 1992). Ultimately, the star explodes as a type II supernova. Because deviations from spherical symmetry might be crucial in supernova explosions (Burrows 2000), we hope to gain insights into the physics of supernovae by studying the anisotropic circumstellar shells of pre-supernovae.

The morphology of a supernova remnant is determined both by the history of mass loss from the pre-supernova and the structure of the supernova explosion itself. We hope to learn whether nonspherical shapes in supernova remnants result from nonspherical mass loss by the pre-supernova star, from intrinsically nonspherical supernova explosions, from irregularities in the surrounding interstellar medium, or from some combination of these different effects.

A mystery related to supernova explosions is that the newly-born pulsars sometimes have space motions over 700 km s-1 (Cordes & Chernoff 1998). It is possible that these motions result from a “momentum-kick” acquired during a non-spherical explosion, another reason for studying asymmetries in the outflows from pre-supernovae.

Gamma-ray bursts may be produced during supernova explosions. If so, then dust at 0.1 to 1 pc from the star may result in a “dust echo” some 20-30 days after the initial burst (Esin & Blandford 2000). The morphology of dust around massive stars may provide constraints on models for dust echoes.

The winds from red hypergiants typically contain large amounts of dust, and therefore these objects are strong infrared sources (see, for example, Jura & Kleinmann 1990). As discussed both by Jura & Werner (1999) and below, it is likely, though controversial, that HD 179821 (mV = 7.9 mag, b = -4.96, spectral type G5Ia, and a strong IRAS source with $`F_\nu `$(25 $`\mu `$m) = 650 Jy) is a highly evolved star near the Humphreys-Davidson limit with an initial mass near 30 M that will become a supernova within the next $``$105 yr. The alternative model is that it was a $``$1 solar mass star that has become a pre-Planetary Nebula, and it lies at a distance of about 1 kpc from the Sun. Although dust nebula are observed around post main sequence hypergiants with luminosities greater than 105 L (de Jager 1998, Nota et al. 1995, Voors et al. 2000), most of these stars lie in the Galactic Plane where interactions with the local interstellar medium are important. Because HD 179821 is removed from the Galactic Plane, it may be a circumstellar shell with relatively little contamination by swept-up interstellar gas. About $``$20% of O-type stars are runaways (Blaauw 1993) with speeds greater than 50 km s-1, and these stars can travel as much as 1000 pc from the Galactic Plane before they explode. We propose that HD 179821 is post-main sequence, runaway, massive star.

Previously, we have reported Keck observations of the 11.7 $`\mu `$m emission from HD 179821 and found that the circumstellar shell is very approximately a circular ring with an inner diameter of about 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 (Jura & Werner 1999). However, both the 11.7 $`\mu `$m emission and the map of the OH maser spots in the circumstellar envelope of HD 179821 (Claussen 1993) display significant deviations from circular symmetry. A major difficulty with interpreting the 11.7 $`\mu `$m map is that at this wavelength, $`h\nu /k`$ = 1230 K, while the grains are typically colder than 140 K. As a result, the emission is from the Wien portion of the Planck curve and small uncertainties in the temperature translate into large uncertainties in estimating the mass. As with most bright evolved stellar infrared sources, HD 179821 also is a strong CO source (Zuckerman & Dyck 1986, Bujarrabal, Alcolea & Planesas 1992, van der Veen et al. 1993, Knapp et al. 2000, Josselin & Lebre 2001). Therefore, in order to achieve a better tracer of the mass loss history and kinematics of the outflow, we have acquired a high resolution map of the circumstellar CO emission with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Millimeter Array.

In order to learn more about the evolution of supernovae and their remnants, we compare our maps of the shell around HD 179821 with the appearance of Kepler’s supernova remnant which, with an age of 400 years, is one of the youngest known remnants in the Milky Way (Burrows 2000). Since it lies at b = 6.8 and is at a distance from the Sun of $``$ 4800 pc (Reynoso & Goss 1999), it is $``$500 pc from the Galactic Plane where there is relatively little interstellar matter. Kepler’s remnant thus presents an excellent opportunity to study the interaction of a supernova explosion with its pre-supernova circumstellar shell. Kepler’s supernova remnant probably (Decourchelle & Ballet 1994, Rothenflug et al. 1994, Hughes 1999) though not certainly (Kinugasa & Tsunemi 1999) resulted from the explosion of a massive star.

In Section 2, we summarize our picture of HD 179821 and present an additional argument for why we think that it is a massive star. In Section 3, we present our observations. In section 4, we present a simple model to explain the data while in Section 5 we compare the asymmetries in the circumstellar matter around HD 179821 with those in Kepler’s supernova remnant. In Section 6, we note how our data may help both understand why pulsars may have space motions near 700 km s-1 and the dust echoes from gamma-ray bursts. We present our conclusions in Section 7.

## 2 THE DISTANCE AND LUMINOSITY OF HD 179821

The distance to HD 179821 is not well determined by trigonometric parallax (the value measured with the Hipparcos satellite was 0.18 $`\pm `$ 1.12 $`\times `$ 10-3 ″), and indirect means must be used. Two models have been proposed. (1) The star might be at a “large” distance of about 6000 pc, have a luminosity near 3 $`\times `$ 105 L and thus have had an initial main sequence mass near 30 M (Hawkins et al. 1995). (2) The star might lie at a “small” distance of about 1 kpc, have a luminosity near 104 L and be the post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), pre-Planetary Nebula descendant of a star that was initially $``$1 M on the main sequence (Hrivnak, Kwok & Volk 1989). While inferences of the luminosity of the star from the atmospheric abundances might resolve this argument; to date they are controversial (Reddy & Hrivnak 1999, Lobel & Dupree 2000, Thevenin, Parthasarathy & Jasniewicz 2000), and not evidently conclusive. The detection of CO and Na I emission at 2.2 $`\mu `$m (Hrivnak, Kwok & Geballe 1994, Oudmaijer et al. 1995) suggests that standard model atmospheres may not apply, and additional methods to estimate the distance should be investigated.

Josselin & Lebre (2001) report a well calibrated measure of the ratio of integrated intensities in the J = (2$``$1) lines of 12CO and 13CO of 3.2 from which they argue that HD 179821 is a post-AGB star. However, Bujarrabal et al. (1992) reported a value of 9.6 for this ratio, and 6.6 for the ratio of the integrated intensities of the 12CO and 13CO J = (1$``$0) lines. Given that the hypergiant IRC+10420 has a value of 12CO/13CO of 9 $`\pm `$ 2 (Fix & Cobb 1987) and that the CO rotational lines are optically thick, observations of the circumstellar CO isotope ratio do not provide a compelling method for determining the luminosity and origin of the star.

From the properties of the circumstellar matter, we argue that HD 179821 is a massive, distant star. Zuckerman & Dyck (1986) first noted that the high LSR velocity of the star (+100 km s-1) and high average outflow velocity of the gas (32 km s-1) are best understood if the star lies at $``$6 kpc. There is a rough correlation between the outflow velocity, $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$, from a red giant and its luminosity (Jones, Hyland & Gatley 1983). Therefore, since $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ for HD 179821 is near 32 km s-1 (see below), which is significantly larger than the typical value for a mass-losing red giants of 15 km s-1, it is plausible that this star has a relatively high luminosity. Barnbaum, Kastner & Zuckerman (1991) found in a sample of 124 AGB carbon stars that 4 stars have wind outflow speeds greater than 30 km s-1. These 4 objects lie at low galactic latitudes and presumably have main sequence progenitor masses over 2.5 M. If HD 179821 lies at a distance of 1 kpc, then its high LSR radial velocity indicates that it is a member of an old population with a main sequence progenitor mass less than 1 M, an inference not consistent with its relatively high outflow velocity.

In addition to comparing $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ of HD 179821 with mass-losing red giants, we can also compare its outflow velocity with the measured values for Planetary Nebula. Approximately 10% of all Planetary Nebulae have expansion speeds greater than 30 km s-1 (Sabbadin 1984, Weinberger 1989). However, such speeds appear to be a consequence of acceleration of the wind material after the star evolves beyond being a mass-losing red giant, since Gesicki & Zijlstra (2000) find that expansion speeds greater than 30 km s-1 are usually found only for Planetary Nebulae with radii larger than 0.03 pc. For a presumed distance from the Sun of 1 kpc, the current radius of the peak density around HD 179821 is 0.008 pc. We conclude that if HD 179821 is a pre-Planetary Nebula with an outflow speed greater than 30 km s-1 and the densest material lying within 0.008 pc of the star, then it is very unusual and perhaps unique.

The relatively high value of the LSR velocity for HD 179821 is more easily understood if it is a distant object and its speed is a result of Galactic rotation. Figure 1 shows a plot of LSR velocity vs. CO outflow velocity for a complete sample of high mass-loss rate ($``$ 10-6 M yr-1) oxygen-rich AGB stars that are within 1 kpc of the Sun and further north than $`\delta `$ = -32 (Jura & Kleinmann 1989). We also show on this plot the location of HD 179821 ($`l`$ = 35.6, $`b`$ = -5.0) and the well known hypergiant IRC +10420 ($`l`$ = 47.0, $`b`$ = -2.5, $`D`$ = 5 kpc, $`L`$ = 5 $`\times `$ 105 L, Jones et al. 1993) which lies relatively close to HD 179821 in the sky. The better agreement of the kinematics of the outflow from HD 179821 with those from IRC+10420, rather than with the outflow kinematics of the local AGB stars suggests that HD 179821 is a red hypergiant. If HD 179821 is a massive, runaway star, then its radial velocity cannot serve as an accurate measure of its distance. However, if it does lie at 6 kpc from the Sun, then at its Galactic longitude, it lies beneath the 5 kpc ring, the region in the disk of the Milky Way with the greatest concentration of interstellar CO and giant H II regions (Scoville & Sanders 1987). Therefore, if HD 179821 is a hypergiant, a distance of 6 kpc from the Sun is plausible but not certain.

Another argument for the high luminosity of HD 179821 is that it has a near-infrared reflection nebulae similar to that of the hypergiant IRC+10420 (Kastner & Weintraub 1995). Furthermore, Jura & Werner (1999) point out that the OH maser map presented by Claussen (1993) is more naturally understood if the star lies at a distance of 6000 pc rather than 1000 pc. That is, if HD 179821 lies at “only” 1000 pc from the Sun, then a uniquely high ultraviolet circumstellar opacity is required to account for the spatial extent of the OH maser emission which is determined by the depth of penetration of the ambient interstellar radiation field into the outer regions of the circumstellar shell.

Finally, based on its kinematics and historic data, we present another argument that HD 179821 probably lies further than 1 kpc from the Sun and thus probably has a distance near 6000 pc. The average expansion speed of 32 km s-1 of the circumstellar matter is determined from the profile of the circumstellar CO emission and is therefore independent of distance. In contrast, the inferred physical diameter of the inner boundary of the circumstellar is derived from both the measured inner angular diameter of 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 and the assumed distance. If HD 179821 lies at 6000 pc from the Sun, the time required for the gas in the inner shell to expand to its current size is 1600 yr. Therefore, there would not have been much change in the star during the past 100 yr. On the other hand, if the star has just left the AGB and lies at a distance of 1000 pc, then the time to expand to its current size is only 260 yr, and during the past 100 yr, it could have undergone observable changes. Such historic changes of the light from post-AGB stars in fact have been measured. For example, during the past 100 years, the Egg Nebula, a famous post-AGB star, has brightened from mB= 15 mag to mB = 13 mag (Gottlieb & Liller 1976). However, there is no historic evidence for any major changes in either the brightness or spectral type of HD 179821. In the Henry Draper catalog, which is nearly 100 years old, the spectral type is G5, the same spectral type given in the SIMBAD data base from modern observations. Since the change in spectral type from G5 either to G8 or to G2 corresponds to a change in the effective temperature of the star of $``$250 K (Drilling & Landolt 2000), then it appears that during the last 100 years, $`dT_{eff}/dt`$ $``$ 3 K yr-1 for HD 179821. In order to have evolved from the AGB when it was losing a large amount of mass with an effective temperature of 2600 K to its current effective temperature of either 6750 K (Reddy & Hrivnak 1999) or 5660 K (Thevenin et al. 2000) within 260 years, then the contraction of the star and consequent rise in its surface temperature should have proceeded with an average value of $`dT_{eff}/dt`$ of $``$11 K yr-1, which is larger than inferred. Furthermore, the magnitude of 8.1 given in the $`\mathrm{𝐵𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟𝐷𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑔}`$ catalog, which was compiled around 1860, is approximately the same as its current average visual magnitude of 7.9; there is no evidence for major changes during the past 140 years. Therefore, the historic evidence supports the view that HD 179821 is a distant, luminous star.

## 3 OBSERVATIONS OF THE CIRCUMSTELLAR CO

We used the six-element Owens Valley Radio Observatory Millimeter Array during November - December 1999 to observe the J = (1$``$0) 12CO emission from HD 179821. Phase calibration was performed on the quasar 1749+096 while flux calibrations were derived from 3C 273 and 3C 454.3. The synthesized beam was 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0 $`\times `$ 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$35 at position angle -85; the 1$`\sigma `$ rms noise was 40 mJy/beam. The map of the integrated CO intensity is shown in Figure 2 where the contour levels are spaced by 1.8$`\sigma `$ with each level corresponding to 1.07 K or 32.5 mJy beam-1. The channel maps with 5.35 km s-1 resolution are shown in Figure 3. The channel map velocities are given relative to the assumed LSR velocity of 100 km s-1 (Bujarrabal et al. 1992). The line profiles are not symmetric, and estimates of line center have ranged 95 and 105 km s-1 (Reddy & Hrivnak 1999; Josselin & Lebre 2001). The position of the star was taken from the Hipparcos data as $`\alpha `$(2000.0) = 19h 13m 58.61s, $`\delta `$(2000.0) = 00 07$`\mathrm{}`$ 31$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$93 and is shown on our maps.

We show in Figure 4 the azimuthally-averaged intensity as a function of angular offset from the star in the channel at line center and at a velocity offset of +27 km s-1. As can be seen from Figure 4, the peak of the CO emission is seen to have an angular diameter of 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$95, slightly larger than the 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 diameter found in the 11.7 $`\mu `$m image (Jura & Werner 1999). In our CO data, the peak to the north is about a factor of 1.4 times brighter than the peak to the south; in the 11.7 $`\mu `$m image, the contrast between the northern and southern peaks is about a factor of 2 (Jura & Werner 1999). In the east-west direction, the shell is less well defined. As shown in Figure 4, the CO emission can be traced to a radius of about 6$`\mathrm{}`$ so that the diameter of the CO emission is at least 12$`\mathrm{}`$. The total flux measured with the interferometer in this 12$`\mathrm{}`$ region is 45% - 55% of the flux measured with the 30m IRAM telescope with a beam diameter of 22$`\mathrm{}`$ (Bujarrabal et al. 1992, Josselin & Lebre 2001). Therefore, the CO is somewhat more extended than shown in our data. Figure 5 shows the CO spectrum at the center of the circumstellar envelope.

## 4 CIRCUMSTELLAR GAS DISTRIBUTION AROUND HD 179821

### 4.1 A first approximation: spherical geometry

In order to estimate the mass loss rate when the star was a red giant, we start with the simplification of spherical symmetry. An estimate of the gas loss rate during the red hypergiant phase, $`\dot{M}`$ (M yr-1), can be derived from the single-beam measurements of the circumstellar CO emission. According to Kastner (1992), for observations of the $`J`$ = (1$``$0) transition of CO with the 30m IRAM telescope, if $`\dot{M}`$ $`<`$ 10-5 M yr-1, then

$$\dot{M}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}6}\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^9T_{mb}(0)^{0.75}V_{\mathrm{}}^2D^2$$
(1)
where $`T_{mb}(0)`$ is the main beam antenna temperature (K) at line center, $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the gas outflow velocity (km s-1), and $`D`$ is the distance (kpc) of the star from the Sun. In this expression, we assume that in the circumstellar envelope, \[CO\]/\[H2\] = 10-3, consistent with the abundance analysis of the photosphere of HD 179821 by Reddy & Hrivnak (1999) and the assumption that when the star was losing mass as a red hypergiant, as much carbon and oxygen were incorporated into CO as possible. With $`T_{mb}`$ = 1.4 K (the average of the values reported by Josselin & Lebre 2001 and Bujarrabal et al. 1992), $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 32 km s-1 and $`D`$ = 6 kpc, then $`\dot{M}`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1. This inferred value of $`\dot{M}`$ is so large that the models by Kastner (1992) are not particularly accurate, but, as noted below, our CO maps are consistent with this result. For a steady-state wind with $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 32 km s-1 and $`\dot{M}`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1, $`n(H_2)`$ = 1.4 $`\times `$ 104 $`R_{17}^2`$ cm-3 where $`R_{17}`$ denotes the distance from the star (1017 cm).

Josselin & Lebre (2001) report recent single-beam observations of the CO emission in the $`J`$ = (1$``$0) and $`J`$ = (2$``$1) transitions. Their measured integrated intensities agree within 20% with those found by Bujarrabal et al. (1992) for the 12CO emission, but they disagree by a factor of 3 for the 13CO line. Using essentially the same integrated intensity for the 12CO line as we do, and assuming a distance of 1 kpc, Josselin & Lebre (2001) estimate a mass loss rate of 2 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1. Scaled to a distance of 1 kpc, we would estimate a mass loss rate of 8 $`\times `$ 10-6 M yr-1, a factor of 25 smaller than that found by Josselin & Lebre (2001). There are three contributions to this difference. First, Josselin & Lebre (2001) use a formula very similar to equation (1) but with a numerical coefficient that is a factor of 2 larger to estimate the mass loss rate from the CO ($`J`$ = (1$``$0) line profile. Their equivalent to equation (1) is derived by Loup et al. (1993) based on a scaling procedure rather than on detailed theoretical calculations as employed by Kastner (1992). Second, we assume that \[CO\]/\[H2\] = 10-3 while Josselin & Lebre (1993) adopt \[CO\]/\[H2\] = 5 $`\times `$ 10-4, another factor of 2 in the estimate of the mass loss rate. Third, Josselin & Lebre (1993) implicitly assume that the CO emission is spatially limited and does not fill the telescope beam. This leads to the requirment that there must be more gas in a smaller volume and thus a factor of 6 increase in their estimate of $`\dot{M}`$ over our inferred value. In view of the theoretical calculations by Mamom et al. (1988) and our map, we see no need to make this adjustment.

With $`\dot{M}`$ $`>`$ 10-5 M yr-1, the gas density is sufficiently high that the rotational levels of the CO molecule are mainly populated by collisions with H2 (Kastner 1992). Thus, we can interpret our maps of the CO emission by comparing them with models for collisional excitation of CO which have been developed for interpreting observations of interstellar matter (Castets et al. 1990, Sakamoto 1996). In the outer envelope around HD 179821 where $`n(H_2)`$ $`<`$ 103 cm-3, the CO is subthermally excited so that the population in the J = 1 rotational level is lower than predicted by the Boltzmann weighting function. In this case, a collisional excitation of CO into the J = 1 level is followed by radiative de-excitation so the observed Rayleigh-Jeans brightness temperature, $`T_B`$, of the J = (1$``$0) CO emission depends directly upon the collisional excitation rate. Consequently, $`T_B`$ scales as n(H2)$`{}_{}{}^{2}g(T_K)`$ where $`g(T_K)`$ is a slow function of the kinetic temperature, $`T_K`$. For the likely case that $`T_K`$ $`>`$ 20 K (see below), $`g(T_K)`$ varies as $`T_K^{0.25}`$ (Castets et al. 1990).

We now consider the azimuthally-averaged CO intensity at 4$`\mathrm{}`$ offset (or $`R_{17}`$ = 3.6) from the star, a region where the density is probably low enough ($`n(H_2`$) $``$ 1100 cm-3 from above) that this simple model for collisional excitation pertains, yet also a location where our data have a relatively high signal to noise. At this offset of 4$`\mathrm{}`$, $`T_B(0)`$ the brightness temperature in the channel at 0 km s-1, is 5.5 K or 160 mJy/beam (see Figure 4). To reproduce this observation, we assume \[CO\]/\[H2\] = 10-3, $`T_K`$ = 60 K (see below) and a spherically symmetric outflow. In this case, for a sightline whose impact parameter is $`R_{impact}`$, $`dV/dR`$, the velocity gradient used in the calculations by Castets et al. (1990), is approximately given by $`V_{\mathrm{}}/R_{impact}`$. With these parameters, n(H2) = 600 cm-3 at $`R`$ = $`R_{impact}`$ (Castets et al. 1990). This estimated density at $`R_{17}`$ = 3.6 is in reasonable agreement with the prediction from the model derived above with $`\dot{M}`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1 and $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 32 km s-1 that n(H2) = 1100 cm-3. Therefore, within a factor of 2, it seems that an average mass loss rate of 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1 can explain both the observed CO integrated line profile (Bujarrabal et al. 1992) and the maps presented here.

Additional evidence in favor of the model for subthermal collisional excitation of the CO is given by the angular variation of $`T_B`$. In the outer envelope of the nebula, the model predicts that $`T_B(0)`$ scales as $`n(R_{impact})^2R_{impact}`$. If $`\dot{M}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ are constant, then $`n(R_{impact})`$ varies as $`R_{impact}^2`$, and thus $`T_B(0)`$ is predicted to vary as $`\varphi ^3`$ where $`\varphi `$ is the offset angle from the central star. As shown in Figure 4, in the channel at 0 km s-1, the CO intensity falls from 270 mJy/beam ($`\varphi `$ = 3$`\mathrm{}`$) to 40 mJy/beam ($`\varphi `$ = 6$`\mathrm{}`$). This decrease of $`T_B`$ as $`\varphi ^{2.8}`$ is in reasonable agreement with the expectation of the model for subthermal collisional excitation. Furthermore, if $`T_B`$ varies as $`\varphi ^3`$, then between an inner radius, $`\varphi _{in}`$ and and outer radius, $`\varphi _{out}`$, the total flux varies as ($`\varphi _{out}`$ \- $`\varphi _{in}`$). With $`\varphi _{in}`$ = 2$`\mathrm{}`$, the approximate measured value of the inner radius of the CO ring, and $`\varphi _{out}`$ = 6$`\mathrm{}`$ and 11$`\mathrm{}`$ for the OVRO interferometer and IRAM 30m telescope measurements, respectively, then it is expected that F(OVRO)/F(IRAM) = 4/9 or 0.44 in agreement with the measured values of 0.45 to 0.55 reported above.

With $`\dot{M}`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1, then $`\dot{M}V_{\mathrm{}}`$ equaled 6 $`\times `$ 1028 g cm s-1 when the star was losing a large amount of mass. Currently, $`L_{}/c`$ equals 4 $`\times `$ 1028 g cm s-1. This approximate agreement between $`\dot{M}V_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`L_{}/c`$ is consistent with models for winds driven by radiation pressure on dust (Lamers & Cassinelli 1999), observations of other mass-losing red hypergiants (Jura & Kleinmann 1990) and expectations for the pre-supernova evolution of massive stars (Heger et al. 1997). Also, this mass loss rate derived from the gas of 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1 compares with the value of 4 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1 derived by Jura & Werner (1999) from the emission by the circumstellar dust with an assumed gas to dust ratio of 100.

The observed diameter of the CO emission of more than 12$`\mathrm{}`$, which is substantially larger than the diameter of the OH emission of $``$ 4-5$`\mathrm{}`$ (Claussen 1993), can be understood in the usual models for the photo-dissociation of molecules by ambient interstellar ultraviolet radiation as they flow out of the star (Glassgold 1996). The OH molecule is mainly protected by dust and therefore can be photodissociated at $``$2$`\mathrm{}`$ from the star (Jura & Werner 1999). The CO is self-shielding, and for a model with $`\dot{M}`$ = 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1 and $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 30 km s-1, the predicted fractional abundance is reduced as a result of photodissociation by a factor of 0.5 at a radius of about 1.4 $`\times `$ 1018 cm (or 16$`\mathrm{}`$ for HD 179821) from the star (Mamon, Glassgold & Huggins 1988). Thus, in agreement with observations, the models predict the CO persists to much greater distances from the star than does the OH. Once the CO is photodissociated, the atomic carbon is rapidly photo-ionized by the ambient interstellar ultraviolet. As a consequence, little neutral carbon is expected to be found, consistent with the upper limit for the C I emission reported by Knapp et al. (2000).

The observed circumstellar envelope around HD 179821 is consistent with that expected from theoretical models for the evolution of massive stars. In the computations by Schaller et al. (1992), stars with initially 25 M and 40 M have maximum mass loss rates as red hypergiants of 3 $`\times `$ 10-5 M yr-1 and 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1, respectively. In the calculations by Chin & Stothers (1990), the mass loss rate for a star of 30 M at times reaches 4 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1, the star shrinks to approximately $``$10 M and the duration of intense mass loss phase is $``$8 $`\times `$ 104 yr.

### 4.2 Deviations from Spherical Symmetry

While the spherically symmetric model can reproduce much of the data, it fails to explain all the observations. Consider the apparent size of the CO shell as a function of gas velocity. For a thin shell or radius, $`R_0`$, expanding at uniform velocity, $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$, the projected distance from the center of the nebula, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$, at velocity offset from line center, $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$, is (Olofsson et al. 2000):

$$\mathrm{\Delta }R/R_0=(1[\mathrm{\Delta }V/V_{\mathrm{}}]^2)^{1/2}$$
(2)
Figure 6 shows a comparison between the full width half maximum of the azimuthally-averaged CO intensity in the different velocity intervals. The model is a reasonable first approximation to explain the data, but there may be deviations by a factor of 20% in the outflow velocity from that predicted by this model.

Jura & Werner (1999) found that HD 179821 does not lie at the center of the circumstellar ring, and a plausible interpretation of their data is that the outflow speed varies by as much as $`\pm `$20% from its average value. Also, as shown in Figure 5, the profiles of the blue and red components of the circumstellar CO line at the center of the nebula disagree with each other, and therefore the outflow kinematics are not the same in the two directions. Also, neither the blue nor the red component of the line profile can be reproduced by a single outflow velocity.

To interpret the anisotropy in the CO map and to learn about the deviations from spherical symmetry, we model the excitation of the CO molecule. First, we argue that the gas kinetic temperature is likely to be above 20 K. Following Jura, Kahane & Omont (1988) and Kastner (1992), the gas temperature is determined by a balance between heating caused by the supersonic streaming of dust grains through the envelope and cooling resulting both from radiation and the adiabatic expansion of the matter. In the outer portion of the circumstellar shell, where adiabatic cooling is more important than radiative cooling and where $`\dot{M}V_{\mathrm{}}`$ $``$ $`L_{}/c`$, the gas temperature, $`T_K`$, is given by the expression:

$$T_KR^1[\sigma _{grain}n_{grain}/n{}_{H}{}^{}]Q^{3/2}(L_{}/c)(4\pi k_B)^1$$
(3)
where ($`\sigma _{grain}n_{grain}/n_H`$) denotes the grain number density times the average geometric grain cross section divided by the number density of hydrogen nuclei, $`Q`$ is the ratio of the effective cross section for momentum transfer of a grain compared to its geometric cross section and $`k_B`$ is Boltzmann’s constant. Plausible but uncertain values of $`Q`$ = 0.01 and ($`\sigma _{grain}n_{grain}/n_H`$) = 10-21 cm2 (Jura et al. 1988) yield $`T_K`$ = 220 $`R_{17}^1`$ K.

Since it is likely that $`T_K`$ $`>`$ 20 K in the regions which produce the CO emission, then the inferred mass loss rate is relatively insensitive to the gas temperature and the unknown spatial variations in the grain properties. Instead, $`T_B`$ in a particular velocity interval at any offset angle varies as the rate of collisional excitation or as the square of the local density, so $`T_B`$ scales as $`(\dot{M}/V_{\mathrm{}})^2`$ (see equation 4 below). Therefore, the observed factor of 2 variations in $`T_B`$ at offset angle of 4$`\mathrm{}`$ are consistent with $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`\dot{M}`$ deviating in different directions by as much as a factor of 1.4 from maximum to minimum. According to Jura & Werner (1999), a possible explanation for these variations is the presence of strong magnetic fields within the atmosphere of the mass-losing star (Soker 1998), but another model is a highly dipolar global convective flow (Jacobs, Porter & Woodward 1999). Magnetic fields sufficiently strong to affect the mass outflow morphology have been reported around the red hypergiant VX Sgr (Trigilio, Umana & Cohen 1998). Current models for magnetized winds from red giants (Langer, Garcia-Segura & Mac Low 1999, Garcia-Segura & Lopez 2000) do not reproduce the asymmetry that we observe around HD 179821; the observed circumstellar envelope around this star may provide useful constraints on future calculations.

## 5 COMPARISON OF THE NEBULA AROUND HD 179821 WITH KEPLER’S SNR

We now consider the possible fate of the nebula around HD 179821 when the star explodes as a supernova, and we compare it to Kepler’s remnant which is only 400 years old. It has been previously suggested that the anisotropy in Kepler’s remnant results from a bow shock produced by a wind from the pre-supernova (Bandiera 1987). Evidence for a pre-supernova wind is given by the knots of optical nebulosity in the circumstellar remnant with proper motion speeds near 100 km s-1 (Bandiera & van den Bergh 1991). (This gas moving at $``$100 km s-1 may have been partly accelerated by the supernova explosion and thus have been produced by a wind with a speed near 30 km s-1.) Here, instead of a model with a bow-shock, we suggest that the anisotropies in Kepler’s supernova remnant can be understood if the star exploded into an intrinsically anisotropic circumstellar wind similar to that currently found around HD 179821.

There is a qualitative similarity between the 11.7 $`\mu `$m and CO maps of the shell around HD 179821 with the 21 cm continuum VLA map (Reynoso & Goss 1999) and the ROSAT map (Hughes 1999) of soft X-rays ($`E`$ $`<`$ 2 keV) of Kepler’s supernova remnant. Both objects show very approximately circular symmetry, but with one side being markedly brighter than the opposite. However, there is also a quantitative difference between the two structures. In HD 179821, the contrast between the integrated intensity of CO to the north and south is about a factor of 1.4. The contrast of the peak intensity between the northern and southern hemispheres in the ROSAT image of Kepler’s supernova remnant is approximately a factor of 7. Even though the X-ray images of Kepler’s supernova remnant display a much greater contrast in intensity than does the CO image of HD 179821, below we suggest that the nebula-like that around HD 179821 may evolve into an object like Kepler’s supernova remnant.

A full hydrodynamical calculation of a spherically symmetric supernova explosion into an anisotropic pre-supernova wind is beyond the scope of this paper. Here, we consider a simplified version of the interstellar bubble models presented by Weaver et al. (1978). Let the supernova begin as a spherically symmetric explosion of energy $`E_0`$ and propagate without significant radiative losses into a detached envelope whose density, $`\rho (R)`$, is described as

$$\rho =\dot{M}/(4\pi V_{\mathrm{}}R^2)$$
(4)
for $`R`$ $``$ $`R_{detached}`$ and $`\rho `$ = 0 for $`R`$ $`<`$ $`R_{detached}`$ where $`R_{detached}`$ denotes the inner boundary of the detached circumstellar shell. With the very approximate assumption that most of the mass in the observed remnant is swept-up material, $`M_{sw}`$, then:

$$1/2M_{sw}\dot{R}^2ϵ_{kin}E_0$$
(5)
where $`ϵ_{kin}`$ denotes the fraction of the supernova’s explosive energy that goes into kinetic energy (instead of heating the gas). We may take $`ϵ_{kin}`$ = 0.4 (Weaver et al. 1978). In the limit that $`R`$ $`>`$ $`R_{detached}`$, then:

$$M_{sw}\dot{M}R(t)/V_{\mathrm{}}$$
(6)
The solution to equations (5) and (6) is:

$$R=(9ϵ_{kin}E_0V_{\mathrm{}})^{1/3}(2\dot{M})^{1/3}t^{2/3}$$
(7)
If $`E_0`$ = 1051 erg, $`t`$ = 400 yr and $`R`$ = 8 $`\times `$ 1018 cm (Hughes 1999), then equation (7) yields $`\dot{M}/V_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 5.5 $`\times `$ 1014 g cm-1. If $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 32 km s-1, then $`\dot{M}`$ was 3 $`\times `$ 10-5 M yr-1. These parameters for the presupernova wind are moderately similar to those inferred for the envelope around HD 179821, which therefore may be following an evolutionary path parallel to that experienced by the star that produced Kepler’s supernova.

We now estimate the angular variation of the X-ray emission that might occur when the current shell around HD 179821 is shocked by a symmetric supernova explosion. When viewed tangentially, the intensity of the X-ray emission, $`I_X`$, can be written as:

$$I_Xf(T)\rho (R_{impact})^2R_{impact}$$
(8)
where $`\rho (R_{impact}`$) is the density at the impact parameter, $`R_{impact}`$, and $`f(T)`$ is a complicated function of the gas temperature. At the expansion speed of Kepler’s supernova remnant of 1500-2000 km s-1 (Blair, Long & Vancura 1991), the post-shock gas temperature is $``$ 3 $`\times `$ 107 K, and the emissivity of the gas near 1 keV is relatively insensitive to the gas temperature (Raymond & Smith 1977). We therefore ignore variations in $`f(T)`$, and from equations (4) and (8) write:

$$I_X(\dot{M}/V_{\mathrm{}})^3E_0^1t^{2/3}$$
(9)
Since our radio data indicate that $`(\dot{M}/V_{\mathrm{}})`$ varies by a factor of 1.4, the predicted variation of the X-ray intensity is about a factor of 3, which is somewhat smaller than the observed factor of 7 contrast in the X-ray emission.

Chin & Stothers (1990) found that a star of initially 30 M on the main sequence shrinks to 11.3 M through the red hypergiant phase and then, after 76,000 yr, explodes as a supernovae. If this model applies to HD 179821, then during the next 76,000 yr, the shell expelled at 32 km s-1 will expand to an inner radius of 7.7 $`\times `$ 1018 cm which is approximately equal to the radius of Kepler’s SNR of 8 $`\times `$ 1018 cm (Hughes 1999).

## 6 THE AFTERMATH OF THE SUPERNOVA

Above, we have considered the effect of a symmetric explosion impacting upon an asymmetric envelope and the resulting supernova remnant. However, it is also imaginable that just as the outer material is ejected anisotropically during the slow wind phase, the inner material might similarly be ejected anisotropically during the supernova explosion. Such an asymmetric explosion could explain why some pulsars have space velocities near 700 km s-1 (Cordes & Chernoff 1998). If the total momentum loss, $`\stackrel{}{p}`$, is expressed as the sum of Legendre polynomials, and if this expansion is simplified to just the first two terms, then:

$$\stackrel{}{p}=[P_0+P_1cos(\theta )][1/(4\pi )]\widehat{r}$$
(10)
where $`\theta `$ is measured relative to the presumed axis of symmetry and $`\widehat{r}`$ is a unit vector in the radial direction. The total $`z`$-component of the momentum carried away by the ejecta, $`p_z`$, is

$$p_z=(2\pi )_0^\pi (\stackrel{}{p}\widehat{z})sin(\theta )𝑑\theta =(1/3)P_1$$
(11)
The magnitude of the total momentum carried away by the ejecta, $`p_t`$, is

$$p_t=(2\pi )_0^\pi (\stackrel{}{p}\widehat{r})sin(\theta )𝑑\theta =P_0$$
(12)
If the supernova explodes with energy, $`E_0`$, and the material moves outward with velocity, $`V_{explode}`$, then $`p_t`$ = 2$`E_0/V_{explode}`$. If there is a neutron star of mass, $`M_{ns}`$, left behind after the supernova explosion, then the magnitude of the velocity kick, $`V_{kick}`$, acquired by the neutron star can be inferred from the assumption that the momentum carried by the neutron star is balanced by $`p_z`$, the momentum carried by the remnant, so that:

$$V_{kick}=(1/3)P_1/M_{ns}=(2/3)(P_1/P_0)E_0/(M_{ns}V_{explode})$$
(13)
Above, we have argued that the anisotropic outflow from HD 179821 is consistent with variations of $`\dot{M}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ by 20% from the mean and therefore we adopt $`P_1/P_0`$ = 0.2. With standard values of $`E_0`$ = 1051 erg, $`M_{ns}`$ = 1.4 M and $`V_{explode}`$ = 104 km s-1, then equation (12) yields $`V_{kick}`$ = 500 km s-1. Given that these parameters may vary by as much as a factor of 2 from the assumed values, it is possible that kicks as large as 700 km s-1 may result from supernova explosions if they are as asymmetric as the outflow from HD 179821.

It is possible that supernova explosions produce gamma-ray bursts. If so, then the late-time light curves of these systems are in part determined by the propagation of the explosion into the pre-existing circumstellar nebula (Esin & Blandford 2000). When HD 179821 explodes as a supernova, perhaps in 8 $`\times `$ 104 yr, the inner radius of its current dust shell may have expanded to 2.6 pc. Esin & Blandford (2000) propose that supernovae possess dust shells at a distance in the range 0.1-1 pc to explain the 20-30 day delay in the dust echoes from gamma-ray bursts. The detached shell around HD 179821 may be representative of the environments where dust echoes from gamma-ray bursts are produced.

## 7 CONCLUSIONS

We have obtained high resolution J = (1$``$0) CO observations of the circumstellar shell around HD 179821, a star which will probably become a supernova in the next 105 yr. We make the following points:

* To reproduce the CO map and spectra, it seems that until about 1600 years ago, the star was a red hypergiant with an average mass loss rate near 3 $`\times `$ 10-4 M yr-1 at an average outflow speed of 32 km s-1.
* The north-south asymmetry in the CO emission resembles that seen at 11.7 $`\mu `$m. The CO data suggest that $`\dot{M}/V_{\mathrm{}}`$ varies by as much as a factor of 1.4 from minimum to maximum. There appear to be deviations by as much as factor of 1.2 in the expansion velocity of the gas.
* The asymmetry seen in the infrared and molecular emission around HD 179821 resembles that seen in the radio and X-ray emission from Kepler’s supernova remnant. Even if a supernova explosion is spherically symmetric, it might propagate into an intrinsically asymmetric circumstellar nebulae and thus even young remnants can appear asymmetric.
* If HD 179821 explodes as an asymmetric supernova with the momentum loss varying by as much as 1.2 in different directions, consistent with an extrapolation of our observations of its outer circumstellar envelope to the inner core, then the pulsar that is created may have a space motion approaching 700 km s-1.
* The detached dust shell around HD 179821 may be representative of the environments which produce dust echoes 20-30 days after a gamma-ray burst.

We have had useful conversations with A. Kusenko and S. Phinney as well as email correspondence with R. Chevalier and E. Josselin. This work has been partly supported both at UCLA by NASA and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under an agreement with NASA. The Owens Valley Radio Observatory Millimeter Array is supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant AST 96-13717.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Fig. 1. Plot of the LSR Velocity vs. the Outflow Velocity derived from CO data with squares for the oxygen-rich high mass loss rate ($`\dot{M}`$ $``$ 10-6 M yr-1) AGB stars within 1 kpc of the Sun from Jura & Kleinmann (1989). The crosses for HD 179821 and the well known hypergiant IRC+10420 are also shown. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that a high outflow velocity is correlated with a high luminosity, and that both HD 179821 and IRC+10420 are distant, high luminosity objects.
Fig. 2. The circumstellar dust and gas shells around HD 179821. The upper panel shows the J = 1-0 12CO intensity superimposed upon the 11.7 $`\mu `$m map obtained by Jura & Werner (1999); the lower map shows the CO data by itself. The spatial resolution of each map (1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4$`\times `$ 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0 for CO and 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4$`\times `$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4 for 11.7 $`\mu `$m) is shown. The CO intensities represent the integrated line intensities $`T𝑑v`$ over a velocity spread of 65 km s-1 centered at Vlsr = 100 km s-1. The first contour is at 142.4 K km s-1; the contours levels are spaced by 71.2 K km s-1 (1.8$`\sigma `$). The star’s position is denoted as a red cross. The color-coding in the lower panel is a redundant indicator of the intensity of the emission. In both panels the highest intensity is represented by red and the lowest by blue. The image of HD 179821 in the 11.7 $`\mu `$m image is noncircular because of an imperfect chop-nod motion of the Keck telescope during the time that the data were acquired.
Fig. 3. Channel maps of the circumstellar J = 1-0 12CO emission from the shell around HD 179821 shown with 5.35 km s-1 velocity spacing. The star’s position is denoted as a cross. The first contour intensity in each map is at 80 mJy beam-1 (2.6 K brightness temperature); the contours levels are spaced by 80 mJy beam-1 (2.3$`\sigma `$).
Fig. 4. Azimuthally-averaged intensity of the CO emission (mJy/beam) in the channel map at line center (0 km s-1) and the channel map at +27 km s-1 velocity offset as a function of angular offset ($`\mathrm{}`$) from the central star.
Fig. 5. The CO spectrum (mJy/beam vs. velocity) at the center of the circumstellar envelope.
Fig. 6. Plot of the FWHM of the CO emission ($`\mathrm{}`$) for different velocity channels compared to the expectation from equation (2). For the model fitting, we take, the half width radius = 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$95 and $`V_{\mathrm{}}`$ = 32 km s-1. The error bars in the FWHM of the CO emission are taken as 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2 or 10% of the beamsize.


text:
# Comment on “Evidence Against Instanton Dominance of Topological Charge Fluctuations in QCD” by I. Horváth et al.

## I Introduction

In a recent paper, Ref. , Horváth, Isgur, McCune, and Thacker present evidence from lattice simulations claiming to show that the behavior of fermionic eigenmodes in the QCD vacuum is inconsistent with an instanton picture. They refer to a recent paper of ours, Ref. , and remark “Although their qualitative conclusions regarding the instantons differ from ours, there does not seem to be any direct conflict between their lattice results and ours.” We disagree with that statement. To expose that disagreement, we reanalyzed a subset of our data along the lines of Ref. .

Why is it important to resolve this disagreement? There is an apparent inconsistency, first described by Witten in 1979 , between large number of colors (large-$`N_c`$) dynamics and instanton-based phenomenology. We do not wish to summarize arguments favoring one or the other approach, which are well-described in a variety of publications . In principle, lattice simulations might distinguish between the qualitative features of the two phenomenologies. However, the lattice calculations of Refs.  and  produce contradictory results.

The two simulations differ in several ways. Both are done in quenched approximation, using the Wilson gauge action. Ref.  works at a lattice coupling $`\beta =5.7`$ and Ref.  works at $`\beta =5.9`$. The lattice spacings $`a`$ are at nominal values of 0.17 and 0.11 fm, respectively, from the Sommer parameter, using the interpolating formula of Ref. . The fermion action of Ref.  is the Wilson fermion action. This action has rather poor chiral properties, as evidenced by its large additive quark mass renormalization and the presence of exceptional configurations. Formally, it has $`O(a)`$ scaling violations. Its real eigenmodes are not eigenfunctions of $`\gamma _5`$, and the expectation value of $`\gamma _5`$ of a real eigenmode is a function of the eigenvalue.

The action of Ref.  is an overlap action , which is constructed by using an approximate overlap action as its starting point. This action has exact chiral symmetry. There is no additive mass renormalization of the quark mass and there are no exceptional configurations. Zero-eigenvalue eigenmodes are chiral eigenstates. Nonzero eigenvalue eigenmodes have zero expectation value of $`\gamma _5`$. The action has only $`O(a^2)`$ discretization artifacts.

Our action uses “fat links.” Fat link actions replace the usual one-link gauge connection with a combination of several gauge paths. This combination might or might not be projected to SU(3), but in any case it is gauge invariant and local. Locality assures that the fat link action is in the same universality class as the thin link one. Fat links improve the chiral behavior of nonchiral actions , and their use in our implementation of the overlap action is simply to make the calculation of the overlap operator more efficient (a factor of roughly 20 for the action of Ref. , compared to the use of the thin link Wilson action in the overlap.) The particular choice of fattening is not too important. In Ref. , we used an APE-blocked link  as the gauge connection. In Ref.  it is shown that the perturbative effect of N levels of APE-smearing with a smearing parameter $`\alpha `$ is to multiply the vertices by a form factor $`(1\alpha \widehat{q}^2/6)^N`$ with $`q`$ the gluon momentum and $`\widehat{q}^2=4/a_\mu \mathrm{sin}^2q_\mu a/2`$. In coordinate space this corresponds to a Gaussian smearing with a spread $`x^2=\alpha N/3a^2`$ of the quark gluon vertex. Some readers might be concerned that several levels of APE smearing might adversely affect our results. To address that point, we describe results from another fattening, one chosen to lie rigorously within a hypercube . We observe no qualitative change in our results.

## II Analysis of Fermion Eigenmodes

The statement of the problem has been given by Ref. : “If an instanton-dominated picture of low eigenmodes is at all valid, we would expect the peaks of the wave function to closely resemble instanton zero modes. Thus, if instantons dominate, a local peak in the wave function for a low-lying eigenmode (a fermion lump) should be dominantly a lump in $`\psi _L^{}\psi _L`$ or $`\psi _R^{}\psi _R`$, but not both.” (Here $`\psi _L^{}\psi _L=\psi ^{}(1\gamma _5)\psi `$ and $`\psi _R^{}\psi _R=\psi ^{}(1+\gamma _5)\psi `$.) “On the other hand, fermion lumps without a definite chirality would be an indication of non-self-dual fluctuations, as expected from a confinement-related mechanism.”

In Ref. we used an overlap action with $`N=10`$ levels of APE smearing with $`\alpha =0.45`$ APE parameter. We measured the autocorrelation function of the local chirality density $`\omega (x)=\psi (x)|\gamma _5|\psi (x)`$ and the correlator of $`\omega (x)`$ with a pure gauge observable sensitive to topological charge $`Q(x)`$. We saw that both kinds of correlators were strongly peaked at small operator separation indicating the the chiral density has spatially localized lumps and those lumps correlate with the lumps of the topological charge density. However, there is a logical possibility that a lump in $`\omega (x)=\overline{\psi }_L\psi _L\overline{\psi }_R\psi _R`$ does not indicate a lump in either $`\overline{\psi }_L\psi _L`$ or $`\overline{\psi }_R\psi _R`$. To check that possibility, we follow Ref.  and define a “chiral order parameter” $`X(x)`$

$$\mathrm{tan}(\frac{\pi }{4}(1+X(x))=\frac{|\psi _L(x)|}{|\psi _R(x)|}=(\frac{\psi _L^{}(x)\psi _L(x)}{\psi _R^{}(x)\psi _R(x)})^{1/2}$$
(1)
and plot histograms of the density of the variable $`X`$, $`\rho (X)`$, for regions of the lattice where $`\psi (x)^{}\psi (x)`$ is large, a few per cent of the points of the lattice. We distinguish two cases:

(a) Zero modes are chiral. The analogs of Figs. 1 and 4 of Ref.  for our action are just delta functions $`\rho (X)\delta (X\pm 1)`$. The chiral symmetry breaking inherent in the Wilson fermion action of Ref.  broadens this distribution.

(b) Nonzero eigenvalue eigenmodes are nonchiral, but we find that the distribution $`\rho (X)`$ is strongly peaked near $`X=\pm 1`$. To show this, we take a set of six $`12^4`$ lattices from our data set and plot histograms of $`\rho (X)`$. Fig. 1 shows the result for the lowest two nonchiral eigenmodes for the overlap action, with a cut keeping the top 2.5 per cent of $`\psi ^{}\psi `$. The imaginary part of the eigenvalue of the Dirac operator for these modes is in the range $`0.03/a`$ to $`0.09/a`$. Keeping more lattice points in the histogram will fill in the dip. That simply implies that as we keep more and more lattice points we pick up more of the vacuum fluctuations around the chiral lumps and those eventually overwhelm the chiral structure. This happens very slowly with the two smallest non-chiral modes. Even with 30 per cent of the lattice points the two peak structure is clearly visible.

Figs. 2 and 3 shows the result for the largest modes we have recorded, the ninth and tenth eigenvalue modes of the squared Dirac operator. The imaginary part of the eigenvalue of the Dirac operator for these modes is around $`0.20/a`$-$`0.26/a`$. Figure 2, where about the top 0.3 per cent of $`\psi ^{}\psi `$ is kept in the histogram, shows strong peaks around $`X=\pm 1`$. The peaks disappear as we add more points to the distribution. With 2.5 per cent of the lattice points kept the histogram is almost flat as Figure 3 shows.

Lower eigenvalue eigenmodes show stronger peaking than higher eigenvalue modes, but all the modes we examined show peaking. We remind the reader that we showed in Ref.  that hadronic correlators for light quark masses are well approximated by quark propagators containing only a few eigenmodes.

Next we consider results obtained with an overlap action that uses more local fat links. The fat links of the hypercubic blocking  mix links only within a hypercube but achieve almost the same level of smoothness as the APE smearing considered previously.

The analog of Fig. 1 from eigenmodes of the overlap action with hypercubic fat link is shown in Fig. 4. We used the same $`12^4`$ configurations and kept the same fraction of lattice points as in Fig. 1. The shape of the curve is qualitatively similar to that from APE-blocked links. Peaks of fermion density are again chiral.

## III Conclusions

Our studies with a chiral fermion action at a lattice spacing near 0.11 fm showed that low eigenvalue fermionic eigenmodes have a structure strongly correlated with the locations of instantons and anti-instantons. This note demonstrates that in the locations where the fermionic modes are largest, the modes are also chiral. It seems to us that the simplest description of what we see is in terms of an instanton liquid model of the QCD vacuum.

We do not doubt that the numerical results of Ref.  are correct, but we are concerned that the combination of a larger lattice spacing and the use of a nonchiral fermion action introduces lattice artifacts which compromise extrapolation to the continuum limit.

## Acknowledgments

We acknowledge conversations with I. Horvath and H. Thacker about the points we have raised in this paper. This work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy.