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# Zero modes of fermions with general mass matrix

## Abstract

We analyze zero energy solutions of the Dirac equation in the background of a string-like configuration in an extension of the standard model which accommodates the most general fermionic mass matrix for neutrinos. If either the left- or the right-handed Majorana mass vanishes, neutrino and electron zero modes are found to exist. If the harmonic mean of the neutrino Majorana masses is large compared to the Dirac mass, we can prove that normalizable neutrino zero modes cease to exist. This leads to an odd number of fermionic zero modes – namely, only the electron zero mode – which we argue implies that the bosonic background is in a topologically distinct sector from the vacuum. This is confirmed by noting that the bosonic sector of the model involves the breaking of a global $`U(1)`$ symmetry and hence possesses topological global $`U(1)`$ strings.

It is well appreciated that in bosonic field theories whose vacuum manifold is topologically non-trivial, classical, static solutions of the field equations can exist and be stable. These solutions globally minimize the field energy in the topological sector in which they lie. The fermionic modes were examined in the background of the topological solutions and often one or more zero modes are found. Using certain “index theorems”, the zero modes can often be directly related to the topological properties of the background. In this sense, the zero modes are an outcome of the background topology.

The bosonic sector of the minimal electroweak standard model does not have the non-trivial topology required for the existence of topologically stable strings. However, there exist non-topological, string-like configurations of Higgs and gauge fields, usually called Z-strings  which are solutions of the bosonic equations of motion. Fermionic zero modes on a Z-string background have already been constructed . However, since this construction has been in the framework of the standard model, the fermions only have Dirac masses and, in particular, the neutrino is massless. We would like to examine the zero modes in an extension of the electroweak standard model in which fermions have both Dirac and Majorana masses, that is, a general mass matrix. We will adopt the standard notation for the various fields (eg. see ). In addition to the usual standard model fields, we will include a complex Higgs field $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, transforming in the adjoint representation of $`SU(2)`$. The full Lagrangian is:

$$=_{EW}+_\mathrm{\Delta }+_f$$
(1)
where,

$$_{EW}=\frac{1}{4}W_{\mu \nu }^aW^{a\mu \nu }\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }+|D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }|^2+V(\mathrm{\Phi })$$
(2)
$$_\mathrm{\Delta }=|D_\mu \mathrm{\Delta }|^2+U(\mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Phi })$$
(3)
$`_f=`$ $`i\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\gamma ^\mu D_\mu \mathrm{\Psi }+i\overline{e_R}\gamma ^\mu D_\mu e_R+i\overline{\nu _R}\gamma ^\mu _\mu \nu _R+`$ (4)
$``$ $`[h^{}\overline{e_R}\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Psi }+h\overline{\nu _R}\left(\mathrm{\Phi }^T(i\tau _2)^{}\mathrm{\Psi }\right)+`$ (5)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}h^{\prime \prime }\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}i\tau _2\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Psi }^c+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\overline{\nu _R}M_R(\nu _R)^c+h.c.].`$ (6)
$`U(\mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Phi })`$ and $`V(\mathrm{\Phi })`$ are general gauge invariant quartic potentials:

$$V(\mathrm{\Phi })=\lambda \left(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }\eta ^2\right)^2$$
(7)
$`U(\mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Phi })=`$ $`aTr(\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\mathrm{\Delta })+b(Tr(\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\mathrm{\Delta }))^2`$ (8)
$`+`$ $`c\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }Tr(\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\mathrm{\Delta })+dTr(\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\mathrm{\Delta }^{})Tr(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta })`$ (9)
$`+`$ $`e\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }+(f\mathrm{\Phi }^T\mathrm{\Delta }i\tau _2\mathrm{\Phi }+h.c.).`$ (10)
Parameters $`a`$, $`b`$, $`c`$, $`d`$, $`e`$, $`f`$, $`\lambda `$, $`\eta `$, $`h`$, $`h^{}`$ and $`h^{\prime \prime }`$ are constants. The covariant derivatives are defined as:

$`D_\mu \mathrm{\Psi }`$ $`=`$ $`\left(_\mu i{\displaystyle \frac{g}{2}}\tau ^aW_\mu ^a+i{\displaystyle \frac{g^{}}{2}}Y_\mu \right)\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (11)
$`D_\mu e_R`$ $`=`$ $`\left(_\mu +ig^{}Y_\mu \right)e_R`$ (12)
$`D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }`$ $`=`$ $`\left(_\mu i{\displaystyle \frac{g}{2}}\tau ^aW_\mu ^ai{\displaystyle \frac{g^{}}{2}}Y_\mu \right)\mathrm{\Phi }`$ (13)
$`D_\mu \mathrm{\Delta }`$ $`=`$ $`_\mu \mathrm{\Delta }+ig^{}Y_\mu \mathrm{\Delta }i{\displaystyle \frac{g}{2}}[\tau ^aW_\mu ^a,\mathrm{\Delta }].`$ (14)
where $`g`$ and $`g^{}`$ are the gauge coupling constants while $`\tau ^a`$ are the Pauli matrices . The fields in the model are defined as: $`\mathrm{\Psi }=(\nu _L,e_L)^T`$, $`\nu ^c=C\overline{\nu }^T`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }^c=C\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}^T`$ where $`Ci\gamma ^2\gamma ^0`$ is the charge conjugation matrix. $`W_{\mu \nu }^a`$ and $`F_{\mu \nu }`$ are the field strength tensors for $`W_\mu ^a`$ and $`Y_\mu `$ respectively. The Higgs triplet $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ transforms according to the adjoint representation of $`SU(2)_L`$ and with hypercharge $`2`$ can be written as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}H^+& H^{++}\\ H^0& H^+\end{array}\right).$$
(15)
The gauge symmetry of the Lagrangian (1) is $`[SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y]/Z_2`$. If the coefficient of the last term in the potential $`U(\mathrm{\Delta },\mathrm{\Phi })`$ is zero, i.e. $`f=0`$, then the bosonic sector of the Lagrangian (1) possesses an additional global $`U(1)`$ symmetry

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=e^{i\alpha }\mathrm{\Delta },\varphi \varphi ^{}=\varphi ,$$
(16)
which we call $`U(1)_L`$. This symmetry provides lepton number conservation in the bosonic sector of the theory. Lepton number conservation in the fermionic sector is explicitely violated by the presence right-handed Majorana mass, $`M_R`$, for neutrinos. However, if $`M_R`$ were to arise from the vacuum expectation value of another scalar field with non-trivial lepton number, $`U(1)_L`$ could also be implemented as a symmetry of the fermionic sector. From now on we set the coefficient $`f`$ to zero by requiring the explicit $`U(1)_L`$ symmetry in the bosonic potential before the phase transition.

The parameters of the model can be chosen so that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ get vacuum expectation values:

$$h^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 0\\ M_L& 0\end{array}\right),\mathrm{\Phi }=\left(\begin{array}{c}0\\ \eta \end{array}\right)$$
(17)
with $`M_L`$ and $`\eta `$ being constants. This breaks the original $`[SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y]/Z_2`$ gauge symmetry down to $`U(1)_{EM}`$. Constraining analysis to the gauge symmetries (the important effects of global symmetries will be appropriately analysed later) we find that the vacuum manifold is an $`S^3`$ and contains no incontractable paths. This means that there are no topological string solutions in the model. However, there do exist non-topological Z-string solutions  and these shall form the basis of the background bosonic configuration that we shall study.

Let us define the $`Z`$ gauge field by

$$Z_\mu \mathrm{cos}\theta _wW_\mu ^3\mathrm{sin}\theta _wY_\mu $$
(18)
where $`\theta _w`$ is the weak mixing angle ($`\mathrm{tan}\theta _wg^{}/g`$). Then the bosonic field configuration that we choose to study is:

$$qZ_\theta =\frac{v(r)}{r},\mathrm{\Phi }=\varphi \left(\begin{array}{c}0\\ 1\end{array}\right),h^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{\Delta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 0\\ M_L& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(19)
with

$$\varphi \eta f(r)e^{i\theta }$$
(20)
and all other gauge fields set to zero. Also, $`q\sqrt{g^2+g^2}/2`$, $`v(r)`$ and $`f(r)`$ are profile functions, and $`(r,\theta ,z)`$ are cylindrical coordinates. Note that the configuration is independent of the $`z`$ coordinate.

Without the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ field, the field equations of motion can be solved and this determines the profile functions $`f(r)`$ and $`v(r)`$. The solution is known as the $`Z`$-string. It is unstable except for large $`\theta _w`$ and small values of the ratio of scalar ($`\mathrm{\Phi }`$) to $`Z`$ mass. With the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ included, the configuration (with $`f`$ and $`v`$ as in the $`Z`$-string) is not a solution. This can easily be seen since $`D_\theta \mathrm{\Delta }Z_\theta \mathrm{\Delta }1/r`$ even as $`r\mathrm{}`$ while the potentials $`U`$ and $`V`$ go to zero exponentially fast at large $`r`$. The energy of the configuration is logarithmically divergent, reminiscent of the global $`U(1)`$ string. None of these features really concerns us since we are free to consider fermionic modes on any bosonic background we wish. The fermionic zero modes that we will obtain will be well-localized.

The neutrino and electron equations of motion in the bosonic background are:

$`i\gamma ^\mu D_\mu \nu _L`$ $`=`$ $`h\varphi ^{}\nu _R+M_L(\nu _L)^c`$ (21)
$`i\gamma ^\mu _\mu \nu _R`$ $`=`$ $`h\varphi \nu _L+M_R(\nu _R)^c`$ (22)
$`i\gamma ^\mu D_\mu e_L`$ $`=`$ $`h^{}\varphi e_R`$ (23)
$`i\gamma ^\mu D_\mu e_R`$ $`=`$ $`h^{}\varphi ^{}e_L.`$ (24)
In the standard model, i.e. in the absence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`M_L`$ and $`M_R`$, these Dirac equations have been solved. The fermionic equations are known to have a well-localized (i.e. with an exponential fall off) zero mode just as in the case of topological vortices . There is a zero mode for the electron propagating in one direction along the string and another zero mode for the neutrino propagating in the opposite direction . In the case of massless neutrinos, i.e. $`h\eta =M_L=M_R=0`$, the zero mode is not discretely normalizable but is delta function normalizable. In other words, it is part of a continuum of modes . If we include a massive neutrino with $`h\eta 0`$, $`M_R0`$ and $`M_L=0`$ there is one well-localized, discretely normalizable solution. The electron equations in (24) also have one well-localized discrete zero mode regardless of the values of $`M_L`$ and $`M_R`$.

Since the $`Z`$-string configuration is non-topological, it is interesting to study the fate of the zero modes when the background is perturbed. It has been shown that the perturbations in the Higgs and gauge sectors continuously mix the electron and neutrino zero modes (see Fig. 1) and convert the zero modes into two low lying massive states . In this process, the number of eigenmodes is conserved, only the initially vanishing eigenvalues have flowed to non-vanishing values.

Now we study neutrinos with the general mass matrix:

$$=\left(\begin{array}{cc}_{}& _𝒟\\ _𝒟& _{}\end{array}\right)$$
(25)
where the Dirac mass $`M_D=h\eta f(r)e^{i\theta }`$. The electron still has a zero mode since its equations are decoupled from those of the neutrino. Now we shall prove that if $`M_L`$ and $`M_R`$ are large enough compared to $`M_D`$, then there is no neutrino zero mode on the string.

Let us write the neutrino Dirac equations as:

$$i\gamma ^\mu 𝐃_\mu \mathrm{\Psi }=𝐌\mathrm{\Psi }$$
(26)
where

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=\left(\begin{array}{c}\nu _L\\ \nu _R^c\\ \nu _L^c\\ \nu _R\end{array}\right),𝐌=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0& 0& M_L& M_D\\ 0& 0& M_D& M_R\\ M_L^{}& M_D^{}& 0& 0\\ M_D^{}& M_R^{}& 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(27)
and $`𝐃_\mu `$ is matrix valued so as to recover the original Dirac equations (21). We can get some information about the spectrum of the Dirac operator by squaring it. If we take $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\stackrel{}{x},t)=e^{i\omega t}\psi (\stackrel{}{x})`$ with the normalization $`d^2x\psi ^{}\psi =1`$, and act by $`i\gamma ^\mu 𝐃_\mu `$ on eq. (26), we get

$`\omega ^2=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2x\psi ^{}𝐃^2\psi }+{\displaystyle d^2x\psi ^{}[\sigma ^{\nu \mu }F_{\mu \nu }+|M_D|^2]\psi }`$ (29)
$`+4{\displaystyle d^2x(T[\alpha ,\delta ]+T[\beta ,\gamma ])}`$
where the contribution of the Majorana masses is all in the function $`T`$:

$`T[\alpha ,\delta ]`$ $`|M_L|^2|\alpha |^2+|M_R|^2|\delta |^2+`$ (32)
$`(M_LM_D^{}+M_DM_R^{})\alpha \delta +`$
$`(M_L^{}M_D+M_D^{}M_R)\alpha ^{}\delta ^{}`$
and

$$\nu _L=\left(\begin{array}{c}\alpha \\ \beta \\ \alpha \\ \beta \end{array}\right),\nu _R=\left(\begin{array}{c}\gamma \\ \delta \\ \gamma \\ \delta \end{array}\right).$$
(33)
If the Majorana masses vanish, then one sets $`T=0`$. Here we know for sure that there is a zero mode i.e. a choice of $`\psi `$ such that $`\omega ^2=0`$. So let us write:

$$\omega ^2=\mathrm{\Omega }[\psi ]+4d^2x(T[\alpha ,\delta ]+T[\beta ,\gamma ])$$
(34)
¿From the zero Majorana mass case, we know that the minimum value of the functional $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is zero. That is, no matter what $`\psi `$ we choose, we cannot make $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ negative. The least we can make it is zero. Then if we can prove that $`T`$ is positive (and non-vanishing) for all $`\psi `$, we will have shown that $`\omega ^2>0`$ and that there is no neutrino zero mode.

It is not hard to see that $`T[\alpha ,\delta ]>0`$ for any choice of $`\alpha `$ and $`\delta `$ provided

$$|M_LM_R|>\mathrm{max}_{(r,\theta )}|M_LM_D^{}+M_DM_R^{}|$$
(35)
Note that $`M_D`$ is a function of $`(r,\theta )`$ and we would like to find the maximum value of the expression on the right-hand side. The inequality can be simplified further by using the form of $`M_D`$ given below eq. (25). Then we find that the condition for $`T>0`$ is:

$$\frac{1}{|h|\eta }>\frac{1}{|M_L|}+\frac{1}{|M_R|}$$
(36)
that is, the harmonic mean of the Majorana masses must be larger than $`|h|\eta `$. One can check that if this condition is saturated, then it is possible to find $`\alpha `$ and $`\delta `$ such that $`T=0`$ at some spatial points. Therefore the condition in eq. (35) is equivalent to having $`T[\alpha ,\delta ]>0`$ for all $`\alpha ,\delta ,r`$ and $`\theta `$. Hence if the parameters satisfy equation (36), then there are no normalizable neutrino zero modes*** A similar example of fermionic zero modes on domain walls where the existence of zero modes depends on the values of the mass matrix parameters may be found in .. We expect (but have not shown) that if the parameter $`M_R`$ (for example) is varied from $`M_R=0`$ to a large value satisfying the condition in eq. (36), the neutrino zero mode solution that exists for small $`M_R`$ will change and cease to become normalizable at some critical $`M_R`$.

The possibility of not having a neutrino zero mode while the corresponding electron zero mode is still present is important from the point of view of the string stability under perturbations. In this case, perturbations of the string cannot lift the electron zero mode into a massive mode. A single zero mode (see Fig. 2) cannot be continuously deformed as in the case described by Fig. 1. The central point $`(\omega ,k)=(0,0)`$ cannot be moved up or down without violating CP invariance It is easy to check that the bosonic background in eq. (19) remains invariant under CP transformations.. Yet there is no electron zero mode in the vacuum. For non-topological strings this conclusion seems paradoxical because there is no topology in the bosonic sector that prevents the string from decaying into the vacuum.

To understand the non-trivial topology arising due to the fermionic zero modes, note that we have set $`f=0`$ in the bosonic potential in eq. (10). The absence of the corresponding terms means that we can globally rotate $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by a relative phase and this will not change the potential energy. Hence, the bosonic sector has an extra global $`U(1)`$ symmetry that is broken once $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ acquire vacuum expectation values. Therefore there is indeed a broken global $`U(1)`$ (i.e. the $`U(1)_L`$) in the model and this means that global $`U(1)`$ strings can be present. The winding of the relative phase of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ must be non-trivial around such a string and is precisely given by the winding of the operator $`\mathrm{\Phi }^T\mathrm{\Delta }i\tau _2\mathrm{\Phi }`$ (last term of the potential in eq. (10)).

Alternately we could study fermionic zero modes on our choice of background when the parameter $`f`$ in the potential does not vanish. In this case, the global $`U(1)`$ symmetry is absent from the model and, from the odd number of fermionic zero modes, it might seem that one still has a topological index arising due to the fermions (see Fig. 2). However, in this case, the last term in the potential (10) is non-trivial and contributes to the energy density. In fact, it does not vanish at spatial infinity and gives rise to an energy that diverges in proportion to the integration volume. In such a situation, there is no reason to require the fermionic zero modes to be well-localized and indeed to be normalizable – the fermions will be affected by the energy density at infinity. A proper interpretation of the number of zero modes is only possible when the asymptotic bosonic field configuration is in its vacuum.

In conclusion, we have studied fermionic zero modes on certain string-like bosonic backgrounds when the fermions have a general mass matrix. We come to the interesting conclusion that the number of fermionic zero modes is a function of the fermionic mass parameters. In our model, for small harmonic mean of the Majorana masses, the difference of the number of normalizable left-moving and right-moving fermion zero modes ($`|n_Ln_R|`$) vanishes, while for large harmonic mean of the Majorana masses, $`|n_Ln_R|=1`$. The underlying model — a trivial extension of the standard model with massive neutrinos — supports topologically stable “electroweak” strings.

###### Acknowledgements.

TV is grateful to Roman Jackiw, Tom Kibble, Ashoke Sen and Diptiman Sen for comments. This work was supported by the DoE to the Department of Physics, CWRU and the Killam Trust, UoA to DS.


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# Molecular Excitation and Differential Gas-Phase Depletions in the IC 5146 Dark Cloud

## 1 Introduction

The determination of masses, densities, energetics, and chemistry for cold molecular cores is of fundamental importance for our understanding of how and why stars form. Unfortunately, the dominant molecule in interstellar molecular clouds, H2, is generally unobservable at the low temperatures associated with star forming cores. Consequently, the most fundamental properties of molecular clouds (and the embedded star-forming cores) have been determined almost exclusively from observations of rarer trace molecules (and their isotopes) such as CO, CS, and NH3. However, these secondary molecular tracers have been calibrated only in a handful of sources, and because of variations in chemical abundances, chemical evolution, and excitation conditions, application to other sources is inherently uncertain, making accurate determination of important physical properties (e.g., sizes, masses, and energetics) of molecular clouds not always easy or possible.

Because of the apparent constancy of the gas-to-dust ratio in molecular clouds (Jenkins & Savage, 1974; Bohlin, Savage, & Drake, 1978), the most direct method to trace the hydrogen content of a molecular cloud is to determine the distribution of dust throughout the cloud. In principle, the distribution of the dust can be derived from far-infrared and millimeter wavelength dust emission, but the grain opacity at high densities is poorly constrained, limiting the accuracy of the dust (and hence, H2) column density determination (Kramer et al., 1998). Recently, Lada et al. (1994) developed a powerful technique for mapping the large scale distribution of dust using multi–wavelength near-infrared imaging. By measuring the near-infrared color excess of stars behind a cloud the line of sight dust extinction (and hence, total column density) can be directly determined. The technique enables measurements of the dust distribution over a significant of range of angular scales and extinction (Ciardi et al., 1998; Lada, Alves, & Lada, 1999). Because the near-infrared extinction law does not vary significantly with grain growth in cold cores (Mathis, 1990), high extinction observed towards cloud cores can be anchored to the well-calibrated H2-to-dust ratio at lower extinction.

When the near-infrared excess data is combined with molecular gas emission-line observations, direct determination of the molecular abundances relative to H2 can be obtained; thus, allowing a more accurate determination of the physical and chemical properties of molecular clouds and their embedded cores (Alves, Lada, & Lada, 1999). Indeed, 12C18O, a molecule often assumed to trace accurately the distribution of material in cold cores, has been found to show evidence for a reduction in abundance at high extinction which has been attributed to the freezing of gas-phase CO onto the surfaces of cold dust grains (i.e., depletion) in the cores of IC 5146 (Kramer et al., 1999) and L 977 (Alves, Lada, & Lada, 1999).

Kramer et al. (1999) found compelling evidence for depletion of CO on to dust grains in a cold core located in the IC 5146 dark cloud. The finding was based primarily upon the relationship between the integrated intensity of C18O and visual extinction derived from near-infrared color excess measurements. The C18O integrated intensity was found to be well-correlated with $`A_V`$ for $`A_V10`$ mag. For $`A_V10`$ mag, the relationship flattens out, and the C18O integrated intensity is nearly constant out to a visual extinction of $`A_V30`$ mag. C17O was used to check for opacity effects, and the C18O was found to be optically thin throughout the region. Kramer et al. (1999) concluded that the most likely explanation was the depletion of CO on to the surface of dust grains. Thus, masses, and densities of cold dark cores in IC5146 derived from 12C18O may underestimate the true mass and densities by as much as 30%.

However, the study by Kramer et al. (1999) covered a very small region ($`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3\times 3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3`$) and was limited to a single core in the IC 5146 dark cloud. In this paper, we present a more detailed study of the molecular gas abundances over a much larger region in the IC 5146 dark cloud ($`25\mathrm{}\times 8\mathrm{}`$) at moderate resolution (50″). Our primary goal is to perform, for a variety of molecular species, a direct comparison of the molecular emission and the line of sight dust column density in the dark cloud associated with the young cluster IC 5146. By using the line of sight dust extinction to trace the H2 column density and comparing that to the measured molecular emission, a better understanding of the chemical abundances and evolution within dark molecular cores can be achieved. As rarer trace-molecules are routinely used to discern the distribution of molecular material in star forming clouds, understanding the abundance and chemistry of these molecules is vital to our understanding of star formation.

We have obtained new radio observations of the rotational transitions of 12C18O, 12C17O, 12C32S, 12C34S, 13C32S, and N2H+ towards the Northern Streamer in the dark cloud (B168) associated with IC 5146. Using the near-infrared extinction data of the same region published by Lada, Alves, & Lada (1999), we present a detailed analysis of the correlation between the molecular gas and the dust column density in the IC 5146 dark cloud. In §2 of this paper, we describe the near-infrared data utilized in this study. In §3, we describe the acquisition and reduction of the radio molecular line observations. In §4 we examine the excitation and present molecular abundance profiles against extinction. In §5 we discuss the implications of these observations and in §6, we detail our conclusions.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

### 2.1 Near-Infrared Extinction

The near-infrared data used in this paper are taken from Lada, Alves, & Lada (1999), where a detailed description of the data acquisition, reduction, and source extractions may be found. The area surveyed is approximately $`27\mathrm{}\times 8\mathrm{}`$, and the photometry is complete (at the 10$`\sigma `$ level) to a depth of $`H17`$ mag and $`K16`$ mag. The infrared color excess for each star was determined via $`E(HK)=(HK)_{obs}(HK)_{intr}`$, where $`(HK)_{intr}(HK)_{control}=0.13\pm 0.01`$ magnitudes, the mean color of field stars observed in a nearby, unextincted control field (Lada et al., 1994; Lada, Alves, & Lada, 1999). The color excess for each star was converted to an extinction, using the reddening law of Reike & Lebofsky (1985): $`A_K=1.78E(HK)`$ & $`A_V=15.9E(HK)`$.

The extinction derived in this manner is directly proportional to the true dust column density along that line-of-sight, under the assumption that the H2-to-dust ratio remains constant. The conversion of the measured near-infrared color excess to the conventional visual extinction may not truly represent the actual visual reddening of a background star, because grain growth in cold clouds alters the extinction law at $`\lambda 1`$ µm. However, at near-infrared wavelengths, the reddening law is not known to vary significantly with grain growth (e.g., Mathis, 1990), and the derived near-infrared extinctions remain proportional to the line-of-sight column density. Moreover, the conversion of the measured infrared extinction to the conventional visual extinction maintains the proportionality. Use of $`A_K`$ instead of $`A_V`$ would avoid this confusion, but to facilitate comparison to other work (e.g., Lada et al., 1994; Ciardi et al., 1998; Alves et al., 1998; Kramer et al., 1999; Lada, Alves, & Lada, 1999), we report visual extinction throughout this paper.

To enable a direct comparison between the near-infrared observations and the radio molecular-line observations (obtained with the FCRAO telescope and described in the next section), the mean near-infrared extinction along each line-of-sight associated with a molecular-line observation is calculated by convolving the individual infrared excess measurements with a two-dimensional Gaussian filter. The gaussian filter has a FWHM of 50″ to match the approximate beamsize of the FCRAO telescope, and is truncated at $`r=3\sigma `$. The uncertainty on the mean extinction is estimated from the Gaussian weighted rms dispersion of extinction measurements falling within each “beam.” The gaussian convolved map of visual extinction is shown in Figure 1a. This map is quite similar to the larger extinction map of IC 5146 presented by Lada, Alves, & Lada (1999).

### 2.2 Molecular-Line Observations

Over two separate observing periods (1999 March 23–25 and 2000 Jan 31 – Feb 01), the 14 m telescope of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) in New Salem, MA was used to observe a $`25\mathrm{}\times 8\mathrm{}`$ region covering the Northern Streamer of the IC 5146 dark cloud. The rotational transitions of the following molecules were observed: 12C18O (109.782182 GHz, $`J=1`$ 0; hereafter, C18O), the hyperfine triplet of 12C17O (112.359277 GHz, $`J=10`$; hereafter, C17O – note that the two reddest components are blended and unresolved at our spectral resolution of 78 kHz; see below), 12C32S (97.981011 GHz, $`J=2`$1; hereafter, CS), 12C34S (96.412962 GHz, $`J=2`$1; hereafter, C34S), 13C32S (92.4979 GHz $`J=2`$1; hereafter, 13CS), and N2H+ (93.173777 GHz, $`J=10`$). The N2H+ transition consists of seven hyperfine components spanning 4.7 MHz; however, at our spectral resolution (78 kHz, see below) only the three main groups of lines centered at rest frequencies of 93.1719 GHz (a blend of three lines), 93.1738 GHz (a blend of three lines), and 93.1763 (a single line) are resolved (e.g., Caselli, Myers, & Thaddeus, 1995).

The observations reported in this paper were obtained with the newly commissioned SEQUOIA 16-element focal plane array receiver. The sixteen elements of the SEQUOIA array are aligned in a square $`4\times 4`$ pattern; each element is separated from its neighbor by 88″ in both the X and Y directions. A full beam sampled map requires 4 pointings of the array on the sky and is referred to as a “footprint”. All maps were centered with respect to $`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 21h47m27s and $`\delta (J2000)=`$ 47$`{}_{}{}^{}31_{}^{}00^{\prime \prime }`$.

The FAAS autocorrelator spectrometer was utilized in the 512-channel, 40 MHz bandwidth mode, yielding a channel spacing of 78 kHz ($`\mathrm{\Delta }v0.21`$ km s-1 at 112 GHz and $`\mathrm{\Delta }v0.25`$ km s-1 at 93 GHz) The 1999 data were taken in position switching mode, while the 2000 data were taken in frequency switching mode. For the frequency switched data, the signal frequency was shifted by 4 MHz. Typical system temperatures ranged from $`140300`$ K. The integrations times for each molecule varied (see Table 1), but typical $`T_A^{}`$ rms noise temperatures per channel were $`0.02`$ K. Internal calibration was done via a chopper wheel which allows switching between the sky and an ambient temperature load. Focusing and pointing were checked by observing periodically the SiO masers T Ceph (1999) and R Cas (2000). Typical, rms pointing uncertainties were 5″.

The Northern Streamer was mapped at full beam sampling in C18O, CS, and N2H+. The $`25\mathrm{}\times 8\mathrm{}`$ map was rotated by 14 North of East with respect to equatorial coordinates to follow the long axis of the cloud and the near-infrared survey data (e.g., Lada et al., 1994; Lada, Alves, & Lada, 1999). The full map required four “footprints” for a total of 256 grid points. The streamer contains two dense cores which are readily detectable in a 50′′ beam and were mapped at full beam sampling in C34S. The positions of the grid points in these two individual “footprints” are no different than the positions found in the the full map. A single additional “footprint” (64 grid points) was observed towards the eastern core in C18O. This “footprint” was offset from the regular map grid by $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}369`$ ($`0.5`$ beamsize) in both right ascension and declination. The purpose of this “footprint” was to increase the sampling of the C18O in the eastern core. Additional single array placements (16 grid points) on the eastern core were observed in C18O, C17O, and 13CS. These single array observations were used to investigate the C18O and CS optical depth of the core (see §3.1 and §3.2 below).

A summary of the map grid points is shown in Figure 1, and details of the observing parameters for each molecular observation can be found in Table 1. Several points on the southeastern edge of the radio grid fall outside of the infrared survey region and these data points are not included in this study.

For the remainder of the paper, the “Eastern Core” refers to the eastern-most “footprint” (i.e., the eastern-most $`8\times 8`$ grid), the “Western Core” refers to the western-most “footprint” (i.e., the western-most $`8\times 8`$ grid), and the “Mid-Streamer” refers to the two “footprints” ($`16\times 8`$ grid) lying between the “Eastern” and “Western” Cores (see Fig. 1).

All data were reduced using SPA and CLASS spectral line reduction packages in conjunction with custom-made analysis routines. A second order polynomial baseline was subtracted from the position-switch spectra; the frequency-switched spectra were folded and a second-order polynomial baseline was subtracted. Main beam efficiencies of $`\eta _{MB}0.500.55`$ were adopted from the SEQUOIA documentation. Final $`T_R`$ rms noise temperatures were generally $`0.04`$ K. All data presented in the paper are corrected using the main beam efficiency and are on the $`T_R`$ scale.

## 3 Results: Comparison of the Dust and Gas

Figures 2a and b present maps of the integrated emission of C18O and N2H+ in IC 5146. The map of C18O J $`=10`$ integrated intensity appears broadly similar in distribution to the visual extinction map shown in Figure 1. Both extinction and C18O trace column density enhancements, or cores, at the eastern and western edges of the mapped region, although the C18O emission peaks are slightly offset from those of $`A_V`$. The integrated emission of N2H+ shows strong emission toward the eastern core, and only weak and somewhat clumpy distribution throughout the rest of the streamer. Curiously, the N2H+ intensity appears to correlate reasonably well with the regions of highest extinction. This is more clearly demonstrated in Figure 3 where the integrated intensity distribution of N2H+ and C18O are compared with visual extinction in the western core. Here the strongest N2H+ emission appears directly on the peak of extinction, while the C18O emission maxima are offset by nearly 1. This is unlikely to be the result of differences in excitation requirements between these two transitions. The upper state energy of each transition is $`5`$ K and, while N2H+ has a large critical density ($`10^5`$ cm-3) and preferentially samples only the highest densities, the C18O emission should also trace the same density regimes. Instead these morphological differences are likely due to differences in the chemistry as will be discussed later in this paper.

Figure 4 presents the total integrated emission for the J $`=21`$ transitions of CS and C34S. The CS emission morphology is similar to that of C18O as CS strongly peaks on both cores and shows weak, but detectable, emission from the gas between the cores. Because of its weaker intensity, the J $`=21`$ transition of C34S was only observed in the two cores. Within these smaller regions the C34S emission is roughly similar to that of its more abundant isotope, CS.

In Figure 5 selected spectra at two different positions are presented. The two chosen positions are ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =+0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta =+0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$) and ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta =+2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$) are both associated with the Eastern core and sample extinctions that differ by a factor of two. Here we see that the intensity of C17O is significantly lower at the highest extinction (for $`A_V`$ = 36 mag the detection is 16$`\sigma `$ on the integrated intensity, while at $`A_V`$ = 19 mag the detection is 4$`\sigma `$). In contrast the emission of C34S and N2H+ appears to be stronger at the position with higher extinction. These differences, shown at only two positions, will be examined in greater detail with higher sampling in the following sections.

### 3.1 C18O

The direct comparison between the C18O integrated intensity and visual extinction at each point in the mapping grid is presented in Figure 6. The behavior of these two tracers is very similar to what was found previously for the IC 5146 region (Lada et al., 1994; Kramer et al., 1999). The integrated intensity and the extinction appear well-correlated for $`A_V1015`$ mag. For $`A_V1015`$ mag, the relationship shows a high degree of scatter, and appears to flatten out.

A bivariate linear fit was performed for the data located at $`A_V<10`$ mag, with the following result:

$$I(C^{18}O)=\left(0.4\pm 0.1Kkms^1\right)+\left(0.20\pm 0.01\frac{Kkms^1}{mag}\right)[A_V].$$
(1)
The above fit is in excellent agreement with the fit presented by Lada, Alves, & Lada (1999), for a similar region but at lower angular resolution (102″) than the observations presented here. The fit is also in agreement with the C18O-$`A_V`$ relationship found for the smaller region (and finer beamsize – 30″) studied by (Kramer et al., 1999). However, if the entire extinction range is used in the fit, the resulting slope is 15% shallower, consistent with earlier findings for both IC5146 (Lada et al., 1994) and also in L 977 (Alves, Lada, & Lada, 1999).

The two most likely effects which could explain the change in slope at high extinction are: (1) high C18O optical depth for $`A_V10`$ mag, and (2) depletion of CO onto the surface of dust grains. A third possibility is a decrease of the CO excitation temperature to $`T_{ex}<5`$ K for $`A_V10`$ mag. However, Alves, Lada, & Lada (1999), for a similar result in L 977, make a convincing argument that this is not a likely possibility. They argue that heating mechanisms (cosmic ray rates, ambipolar diffusion, and natural radioactivity) are sufficient to prevent the gas in cloud cores to cool below 5 K. Although we cannot completely rule out this possibility, we regard the cooling of the gas to such extreme temperature as unlikely, and proceed with a discussion of the optical depth and depletion.

The paired C18O–C17O single pointing observations provide information regarding the optical depth of the C18O in the densest portions of the eastern core (see Table 1). C18O and C17O should be collisionally excited under the same physical conditions deep inside cold cores where the molecules are well-shielded from external ultraviolet radiation (Ladd, Fuller, & Deane, 1998; van Dishoeck & Black, 1988). Additionally, the ratio \[18O\]/\[17O\]$`=3.65\pm 0.15`$ appears to be relatively constant throughout the interstellar medium (Penzias, 1981). Thus, the only difference in the emission between C18O and C17O should arise from the oxygen relative abundance; i.e., completely optically thin emission of C18O and C17O should have an integrated intensity ratio of 3.65.

A comparison of the integrated intensities of C17O vs C18O is shown in Figure 7 (top). The solid line represents the expected ratio of 3.65 for optically thin emission and does not represent a best fit to the data. The dashed lines represent the $`1\sigma =\pm 0.15`$ uncertainty of the \[18O\]/\[17O\] ratio. The excellent agreement of the data distribution with the predicted ratio indicates that the C18O emission is indeed optically thin.

To test directly for optical depth effects as a function of total column density, the C18O/C17O ratio has been plotted as a function of extinction (bottom, Fig. 7). The extinction provides an independent assessment of the total column density along each line of sight. If the C18O was optically thick at high column density (high extinction), the C18O/C17O ratio should systematically decrease as a function of increasing extinction. The ratio is remarkably constant over a range of 40 magnitudes of visual extinction. Figure 7 implies that (1) the \[18O\]/\[17O\] ratio in IC 5146 is very near the previously determined interstellar value of $`3.65\pm 0.15`$, and (2) the C18O emission is not highly optically thick. However, due to the errors on the ratios we cannot rule out the C18O emission being thin, but with moderate optical depth ($`\tau `$ 0.5 ).

The ratio of the three hyperfine components of C17O can be used to determine whether or not C17O is thin. The relative intensities of the three components (central:blue:red) are 4:3:2 for optically thin emission (Ladd, Fuller, & Deane, 1998). At the spectral resolution of our data (78 kHz), the central and red components are blended; thus, the measured relative intensity of the two components (central-red blend:blue) should be 2:1, for optically thin emission and indeed the measured median relative intensity is $`2\pm 0.5`$. If this is the case then the difference in the two C17O spectra presented in Figure 5, with the highest extinction having lower emission, is suggestive of a drop in abundance.

### 3.2 CS

The depletion of sulfur bearing molecules (e.g., CS and SO) is predicted to be a sharp function of the density, and these species should be robust tracers of gas phase molecular depletion on to the surface of dust grains in cloud cores (Bergin & Langer, 1997). As there was already evidence to suggest that CO may be depleted in the cores of IC 5146 (§3.1), CS should also show evidence for gas-phase depletion.

To explore this hypothesis, the C34S optical depth was computed for both the eastern and western cores at positions where we have observations of both CS and C34S, using the following relationship:

$$\frac{\mathrm{T}(\mathrm{C}^{34}\mathrm{S})}{\mathrm{T}(\mathrm{CS})}=\frac{1\mathrm{exp}[\tau ]}{1\mathrm{exp}[a\tau ]},$$
(2)
where $`\tau `$ is the C34S optical depth and $`a`$ is the abundance ratio of $`[^{32}\mathrm{S}]/[^{34}\mathrm{S}]=14`$ (Pratap et al., 1997). Using the ratio of the integrated intensities, we iteratively solved Equation 2 for $`\tau `$, until the calculated intensity ratio matched the measured intensity ratio to within $``$5%. In Figure 8, the C34S optical depth is shown as a function of visual extinction $`A_V`$. The uncertainties shown in Fig. 8 are a result of the uncertainties in the integrated intensity measurements; the uncertainties associated with the convergence of the numerical calculations are significantly smaller. The derived opacities clearly indicate that the emission from C34S is optically thin in both cores for all AV. However, the emission from CS ($`\tau _{\mathrm{CS}}=\tau _{\mathrm{C}^{34}\mathrm{S}}14`$) must be optically thick throughout the cloud. Surprisingly, despite being thin, the C34S optical depth is nearly constant for $`A_V10`$ mag.

As a check of the derived optical depths, the optical depth of 13CS was calculated in a similar manner to the C34S optical depth. Only the position ($`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}54,0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}89`$) was sufficiently strong to permit such a calculation ($`T(^{13}\mathrm{CS})dv=0.089\pm 0.02`$ K km s-1). An optical depth of $`\tau =0.033\pm 0.008`$ was found, implying that the C34S optical depth (assuming an abundance ratio of $`[\mathrm{C}^{34}\mathrm{S}]/[^{13}\mathrm{CS}]=4.29`$) is $`\tau =0.14\pm 0.03`$ (see Fig. 5). The C34S optical depth measured using the T(C34S)/T(CS) ratio is $`\tau =0.14\pm 0.04`$, at the same position, confirming the small opacities of C34S in this cloud.

Examining the dependence of C34S opacity with extinction in Figure 8 we find that while the extinction rises by a factor of 2.5 ($`1540`$ mag), the C34S optical depth remains nearly constant at $`\tau 0.150.25`$. Indeed, there is even a small hint that the optical depth of the C34S in the eastern core is decreasing as a function of increasing extinction. The eastern core also appears to have an opacity that is, on average, slightly higher than the western core. As optical depth is a direct tracer of column density in either the upper or lower state, this difference suggests that the abundance of CS could be different between the two cores. Moreover, the constant opacity with extinction for both cores would then be indicative of a C34S(and CS) abundance decrease with increasing extinction. However, CS and C34S have high dipole moments and their emission is sensitive to gas density, as opposed to C18O emission which is fairly insensitive to the density (provided n$`_{H_2}`$ $`>1000`$ cm-3). Thus, for CS and its isotopic variants, changes in the excitation conditions can play an important, and with regards to depletion analyses, potentially confusing role. These effects are examined in §4.

### 3.3 N2H+

Unlike CS, or even CO, N2H+ is predicted by evolutionary chemical models to have a low depletion rate, due to the relatively low binding energy of its precursor molecule, N2 (Bergin & Langer, 1997). Thus, we might expect that N2H+ would exhibit a different behavior as a function of extinction when compared to CS or CO.

In Figure 9, the the N2H+ integrated intensity, summed over all hyperfine transitions, is compared to the visual extinction. This figure clearly shows quite a different relationship between N2H+ integrated emission and visual extinction when compared to the other species included in our study. For $`A_V15`$ mag, the N2H+ integrated intensity vs $`A_V`$ is nearly flat and follows the following relationship:

$$I(N_2H+)=\left(0.03\pm 0.04Kkms^1\right)+\left(0.017\pm 0.006\frac{Kkms^1}{mag}\right)[A_V](A_V<15\mathrm{mag}).$$
(3)
Note that the slope of the linear fit is non-zero at the 3$`\sigma `$ level, indicating that the N2H+ intensity gradually increases with extinction. At $`A_V15`$ mag, the intensity displays a sharp increase and the N2H+$`A_V`$ relationship steepens by nearly a factor of 15:

$$I(N_2H+)=\left(4.3\pm 0.6Kkms^1\right)+\left(0.26\pm 0.03\frac{Kkms^1}{mag}\right)[A_V](A_V>15\mathrm{mag}).$$
(4)
Curiously, the increase in N2H+ intensity occurs at a similar visual extinction to where the CO-$`A_V`$ relationship begins to show evidence of potential depletion. The derivation of N2H+ abundances and the physical cause for the sharp increase at $`A_V`$ $`15`$ will be discussed in the following section.

## 4 Analysis: Molecular Excitation and Abundances

In the previous section we searched for correlations between integrated emission and visual extinction for each of the surveyed molecules. Here we examine whether any departures from the correlation are the result of excitation and/or abundance gradients. In this section we concentrate on trends in relative or normalized abundances (i.e. abundances normalized using the abundance derived at the lowest extinction with reliable data points). In this fashion, in the determination of molecular abundance for a given species, we eliminate common uncertainties (such as collision rates).

To calculate total column densities from the molecular data we account for the radiation transfer through the use of the large-velocity gradient approximation. To reduce the effects of opacity we use here only the C17O, C34S, and N2H+ data. Since the emission of C17O and C34S (§3.1 and 3.2) is optically thin, and, based upon ratios of hyperfine components, much of the N2H+ emission is also thin, this reduces the LVG approximation to simply solving the equations of statistical equilibrium. The results are therefore less dependent on the details of the radiative transfer solution. To improve the statistics of our results we average abundances in bins of 5 magnitudes starting with $`A_V`$ = 5 mag. Below this value there are little or no significant ($`>3\sigma `$) data points (for N2H+, C17O, and C34S).

In this study we observe only a single transition of a given molecular species. However, in each case we have information on the optical depth, using CS for C34S, and the hyperfine ratios for C17O and N2H+. This provides an additional and limiting constraint on the column density determination. With the observed intensity and opacity from a single transition the total column density can be derived with knowledge of the collision rates, density, temperature, and line width. The collision rates are available from the literature and the line width or velocity dispersion is an observed quantity. However, to derive a map of the total column density from the molecular line maps requires a priori knowledge of the density and temperature structure of the IC 5146 cloud.

For the density structure we use the analysis in (Lada, Alves, & Lada 1999; hereafter LAL99) who show that the extinction (or column density) gradient in the same region of IC 5146 is nicely reproduced by a cylindrical geometry (for the entire streamer) with $`\rho r^2`$. The procedure LAL99 use to determine the density structure is identical to the commonly used method of deriving the volume density structure from mm and sub-mm dust continuum emission (see Shirley et al 2000 and references therein). To be consistent with the results in LAL99, which show a large systematic increase in volume density from low to high extinction, we adopt the following density profile (n$`_{H_2}`$ $`=`$ n$`_{H_2}`$(r = r0) $`\times `$ (r0/r)2 $`=10^5`$(0.047 pc/r)2 cm-3). The density profile is shown in Figure 10 and is in reasonable agreement with the radial profile of total column density (Figure 8 in LAL99). In our calculations we use average densities in bins of 5 mag (shown as horizontal hash marks in Figure 10). For example, if a given data point has an extinction between 5 and 10 mag then we use the average density of n$`_{H_2}`$ $`=1.4\times 10^4`$ cm-3 within that bin.

There exists some information on the temperature structure from observations of CO and NH3. CO observations generally show gas temperatures ranging from 10 to 13 K (Dobashi et al., 1992). However, these estimates are likely reflective of the temperature at the cloud surface and not the denser interior (Bergin et al, 1994). In the eastern core NH3 observations provide some information on the dense gas temperature with T = 13 K (Jijina, Myers & Adams, 1999). We also have a single detection of the J = 6 $``$ 5 (K = 0 and 1) transition of CH3C2H, which can be used to estimate the temperature (Bergin et al, 1994). Since this detection is at a single position ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta =+0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$) we have not shown the spectra; however, the K = 0 integrated intensity is $`T\delta v=`$ 0.11$`\pm 0.02`$ K km s-1 and K = 1 is $`T\delta v=`$ 0.13$`\pm 0.02`$ K km s-1. Using the method described in Pratap et al. (1997) the ratio of these two is consistent, within the errors, with a gas temperature $`<13`$ K. Given this information, it is unlikely that there are strong temperature gradients throughout most of the IC5146 molecular streamer with the probable range between (perhaps) 5 and the CO temperature of 13 K. In the following we present abundances calculated with a constant temperature of 10 K and discuss the results of additional analysis assuming constant temperatures of 5 and 13 K (and combinations thereof).

### 4.1 C17O Abundance

Because of concerns that moderate opacities in C18O emission could potentially mask small abundance changes in order to search for relative abundance differences we predominantly use the more limited C17O observations. For the C17O column density derivation, we use the collision rates of CO with para-H2 (Flower, 1988). We adopt the density determined as a function of extinction as described above and the temperature is assumed to be constant at 10 K for each position (changes in the temperature will be discussed below). The line width is determined via gaussian fits to each spectrum. Because the C17O J $`=10`$ transition has hyperfine structure we use this additional information in our derivation of column density. We therefore simultaneously fitted the two resolved hyperfine components (as discussed in §3.1 the F $`=7/25/2`$ and F = $`=3/25/2`$ are blended), assuming that the hyperfine levels are populated according to LTE. The two constraints on the on the $`\chi ^2`$ search for the best fit column density are: (1) the intensity of the lines and (2) the relative intensities of the hyperfine ratios which limits the opacity of the solution. In general the reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of most solutions are $`<1`$ and in all cases the C17O emission is found to be optically thin. For each position we derive column densities if the observed integrated intensity is $`>3\sigma `$. The abundance relative to H2 is derived using N$`{}_{H_2}{}^{}=10^{21}`$$`A_V`$.

Table 3 presents the weighted average abundance of C17O (within 5 mag bins of extinction) and in Figure 11 the relative abundance of C17O is given as a function of visual extinction. In this figure we normalize the abundance to the lowest extinction bin with a statistically significant abundance determination (between 5 and 10 mag). Excluding the point at $`A_V`$ = 27.5 mag with large errors, we see that the relative C17O abundance shows a steady and significant decrease, by a factor of 3, from the lowest to highest visual extinction. This result is found assuming a constant temperature of 10 K. To investigate whether a systematic temperature gradient can change the result we repreated the same procedure assuming constant temperatures of 5 and 13 K. To mimic temperature gradients we examined combinations of these results. In the absence of a significant population of luminous embedded stars (the case here) the most likely systematic temperature gradient is the temperature decreasing with increasing extinction. In this case we find that the C17O abundance at high $`A_V`$ (with T = 5 K) does increase due to higher opacity in the J = 1 state, allowing for greater column density, but by only 15%. At the cloud edges (provided T = 13 K) the abundance also shows a slight increase, primarily due to the lower population in the J = 1 state. If the temperature were even greater then the abundance continues to rise. In all, this examination still provides a factor of 3 decrease in the C17O abundance from $`A_V`$ = 5 to 40 mag. It is worth emphasizing that even if CO and its isotopic variants are completely depleted in the dense core center the molecular observations will detect emission from the relatively undepleted gas residing in the low density regions along the line of sight through the core. Thus, if CO shows evidence for depletions at 10 mag in a cloud with a total extinction (from Fig 5 for example) of 40 mag, then the measured abundance will drop by at most a factor of four.

A similar analysis was performed using the entire C18O data set and we find that the relative abundance is essentially constant until the highest extinction bin, whereupon the abundance decreases by a factor of 1.5. This confirms our suspicion that the C18O emission is likely to have moderate optical depth ($`\tau 0.5`$) which masks the larger abundance difference (factor of 3) seen in C17O. We note that one core in our data set ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =9\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta =2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$) has been examined with the IRAM 30m antenna at higher ($`30^{\prime \prime }`$) resolution by Kramer et al. (1999). They find a clear decrease in the CO abundance near 12 mag. Our results are not as dramatic as found in the higher resolution study, which allowed for more data points to be placed at higher extinctions. For instance, the Kramer et al. (1999) core shows a peak extinction in a 30′′ beam of $`28`$ mag, at a resolution of 50′′ this reduces to a peak extinction of 16 mag. Thus, our sampling is lower in the exact regions where gas-phase depletions are most likely.

### 4.2 C34S (and CS) Abundance

To derive the total column density of C34S we use a similar method described for C17O in the previous section. That is, with a density and temperature assumed (and constant) for each grid position we perform a $`\chi ^2`$ search for the best fit total column density. For collision rates we use the rates given by Green & Chapman (1978), and the line width is determined via gaussian fits to the spectrum. C34S does not have hyperfine structure, but we have additional information in that the C34S opacity has been determined for all positions with $`>3\sigma `$ integrated intensities (§3.2). Thus, for each data point we again two constraints for the radiative transfer model: (1) the integrated intensity and (2) the opacity of the J $`=21`$ transition. The majority of column density solutions have reduced $`\chi ^2<1`$.

The C34S integrated intensity as a function of visual extinction is presented in Figure 12. This Figure is notable in that the C34S integrated intensity appears to be reasonably well correlated with $`A_V`$. This result is somewhat surprising given the near constant opacity as a function of extinction shown in Figure 8. The near uniform opacity would suggest that the C34S (and therefore CS) abundance is sharply decreasing with extinction. However the dependence in Figure 12 is at odds with that conclusion, as it requires a constant abundance. This difference, an integrated intensity correlated with $`A_V`$, combined with a constant optical depth, can be reproduced, provided that there was a change in excitation from low to high extinctions. Indeed we can expect such a increase in the C34S excitation temperature proceeding from lower to higher $`A_V`$, as a direct result of the known density gradient. Even a small change in the excitation temperature could replicate the observed dependence.

The results of the C34S excitation analysis are presented in Table 3 in the form of abundances and in Figure 11 as normalized abundance plotted against visual extinction. Examining the data points we find a steady statistically significant abundance ($`>3\sigma `$) decrease by an overall factor of 3 from low to high extinction. Thus, by accounting for the rise in density as required by the NIR observations, and the observed constant opacity, along with an integrated intensity that increases with extinction, we find that the CS abundance decreases with $`A_V`$. If we assume that the most likely temperature gradient is with warm gas at core edges (T = 13 K) and cold gas (T = 5 K) in the center then the abundance still systematically declines by a factor of 2. In all, these results suggest that CS, like CO, shows an abundance decrease in the dense gas likely due to depletion onto grains.

### 4.3 N2H+ Abundance

To derive the abundance of N2H+ we use the total intensity of the lines along with the hyperfine ratios as described earlier for C17O. We use the collisional rates for HCO+ excited by para-H2 (Flower, 1999), which has comparable collisional rates to N2H+ (Monteiro, 1984). The results of the excitation calculations are given in Table 3 and shown in Figure 11.

First, there are only 3 N2H+ detections between 0 and 5 mag of extinction, and of these, two have $`A_V`$ $`>`$ 4.5 mag (these data are not provided due to high errors). Although C34S and C17O also have little emission in this regime, the more abundant isotopes, C18O and CS, both are detected at low extinction. Thus, unlike for other species, there appears to be little N2H+ below $`A_V`$ $``$ 4 mag. Beyond the lowest extinctions, for T = 10 K the N2H+ normalized abundance in Figure 11 shows a high abundance for low $`A_V`$ ($`7.5`$ mag) then decreases by a factor of 3 for $`A_V`$ = 17.5 mag, whereupon the abundance increases by a similar factor at high $`A_V`$. In our solutions with different temperatures (T = 5, 10, and 13 K) we find that the initial abundance decrease for $`A_V`$ $`<17.5`$ mag is lessened, provided that the cloud is warmer in these regions. If the gas is cooler in the core center then we find an even greater increase in relative abundance for $`A_V`$ $`>17.5`$ mag.

In summary we find, at least, two regimes for the N2H+ abundance: (1) there is a threshold of extinction, $`A_V^{th}4`$ mag below which we find little or no N2H+ in the gas-phase and (2) for higher extinctions the abundance shows a complicated structure that initially declines in value until $`A_V`$ = 15 mag whereupon it the relative abundance increases with extinction. Consideration of potential temperature changes reduces the initial decline, but would increase the rise in relative abundance towards to the core center. However, there is no evidence for a systematic decrease in the N2H+ abundance at large $`A_V`$. In the following section we examine the physical and chemical causes that give rise to this dependence.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Differential Molecular Depletions in IC 5146

In the preceding section we examined the excitation of the three molecules included in our survey. The results of this analysis is that we find good evidence for the presence of differential molecular depletions in IC 5146. That is, C18O and CS (and C34S) are depleting from the gas phase at high extinctions and N2H+ is not (at least at a resolution of 50′′). Similar evidence of differential depletions are found in the literature, for a summary see Bergin (2000). The depletion of CCS relative to both ammonia and N2H+ (with the latter two tracers typically coincident with the dust continuum emission peak) found in isolated low-mass cores is quite similar to the results found in our work (Kuiper, Langer, & Velusamy, 1996; Ohashi et al., 1999). Recently, Caselli et al. (1999) found evidence of CO depletion in the starless L1544 cloud core in a region traced by both N2H+ and dust continuum. The detection of gas phase molecular depletions should not be considered as unexpected, given that molecular ice features have been observed along numerous lines of sight in the ISM (Whittet, 1993; Tielens et al., 1991).

In general, previous searches for chemical differences related to molecular depletion relied on finding morphological dissimilarities between the emission of two or more species with each other or with dust continuum (similar to that shown in Figure 3) and then performing an excitation analysis to prove or disprove that such differences are the result of chemical abundance variations. Our study has found comparable results, but has placed the evidence for molecular abundance changes, which are attributed to depletion, on firmer statistical grounds and removes any ambiguity in terms of the total hydrogen column density, such as those associated with using dust continuum emission (Kramer et al., 1998).111Of course, another method to search for molecular depletions is to directly observe molecules in the solid state. This method works quite well for the dominant molecules on grain surfaces (such as H2O or CO). However, it fails for lesser abundant species such as CS because, even if they depleted entirely from the gas-phase their abundances are too low to produce observable absorption features.

### 5.2 Comparison with Chemical Theory

This depletion pattern with sulfur bearing molecules (e.g. CS, CCS), along with CO, showing depletions onto grains and N2H+ remaining in the gas-phase is in good agreement with the theoretical models presented by Bergin & Langer (1997). In these models, the gas-phase chemistry includes the effects of molecules both depleting onto and evaporatoring from grain surfaces. N2H+ remains in the gas-phase longer at higher densities than other molecules because the high volatility of its pre-cursor molecule, N2, allows for various desorption mechanisms (such as thermal evaporation or cosmic-ray spot heating of grain surfaces) to keep a significant N2 abundance, and therefore N2H+, in the gas phase at high densities.

To compare our results with the gas-grain chemical model of Bergin & Langer (1997), we use the density profile given in Figure 10. This profile matches the one derived for IC 5146 from the NIR extinction measurements (LAL99). We adopt the notation $`\tau _V`$ with regards to cloud depth because the model is computed using cloud radius, thus $`A_V`$ $`=2\tau _V`$. With extinction and density (we also assume a constant dust and gas temperature of 10 K and a UV enhancement factor of $`G_0=2.2`$; Kramer et al 1999) predetermined as a function of radius, we use the chemical model of Bergin & Langer (1997) to predict abundances as a function of both time and visual extinction and then directly compare these to the observational results. This model is slightly different from Bergin & Langer (1997) in that we do not allow for the density to evolve with time, but rather hold the density constant for each radius (and therefore extinction). However, the density does increase with increasing extinction, properly matching the observed structure.

Figure 13 presents two different chemical models. The top two panels show a pure gas-phase chemical model sampled at two different times ($`10^5`$ and 107 yr). This model includes the effects of grain absorbing UV radiation (thereby allowing for molecular formation) but does not include any gas-grain interactions. We note that to match the models to observations $`\tau _V`$ must be multiplied by a factor of two to account for both sides of the cloud (i.e. the model was done using radius and not diameter). In Figure 13, we see that the abundances of most species rise as the UV radiation field is attenuated with increasing extinction and then remain constant. This behavior exists despite the nearly two order of magnitude rise in density from edge to center. However, for N2H+ there is a slow steady decrease in abundance towards greater extinction. This behavior is readily understood by examining the primary formation and destruction processes for N2H+. Using the pathways outlined in Appendix A, we see that the formation rate of N2H+ (via cosmic ray ionization) should be essentially constant with density, with the assumption that cores are threaded by cosmic rays. However, due to the higher probability for collisions with higher density, the destruction rate via dissociative recombination and reactions with CO is raised. Thus, for pure gas-phase models the prediction is that the abundance of N2H+ decreases with extinction.

The second model shown in the bottom two panels of Figure 13 is a gas-grain chemical model where molecules are allowed to collide and stick to the surfaces of dust grains. The primary desorption mechanism is cosmic-ray spot heating. For the binding energy of molecules to the grain surfaces we assume that the grains are coated by a layer of CO molecules. For more details of the model see Bergin & Langer (1997). Comparing the pure gas-phase model with the gas-grain model at t = 105 yr the abundance profiles are similar. At this early time depletion has yet to play a role. For later times, we see demonstrative effects due to grain depletion: (1) for $`\tau _V>6`$ mag ($`A_V`$ $`>12`$ mag) the abundance of CS is dramatically reduced (2) the abundance of CO shows a small, factor of $``$3, decrease between $`\tau _V`$ $`=0`$ to 16 mag and (3) the abundance of N2H+ is constant with $`A_V`$. For N2H+ this behavior is in direct contrast to that seen in the pure gas-phase case. This indicates that the N2H+ destruction rate must be progressively lower with higher extinction and density in the gas-grain model than for pure gas-phase chemistry. From Appendix A the major destroyers of N2H+ are CO and electrons. In Figure 13 there is increasing CO depletion with higher density and extinction which results in a progressively lower N2H+ destruction rate. Thus, the observed uniform abundance of N2H+ at high extinctions is also a direct consequence of CO depletion and is not solely the result of the high volatility of the N2 molecule. It is worth noting that if more CO molecules freeze onto grains, as would occur when time progresses, then N2H+ abundance rises accordingly.

Finally, we note that at low $`A_V`$, for CS and CO (x(C18O) $`\times `$ 500), the models can be directly compared to the observed abundances and predicted values are in reasonable agreement with observations (compare Figures 11 and 13). For high $`A_V`$, the models, as presented here as abundance profiles with extinction, cannot be directly compared to the observations. This is because the observations are averages over the entire line of sight, including both depletion zones and undepleted gas. For a direct comparison, the chemical model would have to be averaged over the line of sight, stepping through $`A_V`$, in similar fashion to the observations. However, this is not the case for undepleted species (e.g. N2H+), which can be directly compared to observations. If the relative abundance profile in Figure 11 is correct then the observations would suggest a combination of undepleted models (to account for the low $`A_V`$ decline in abundance) and the depleted models (accounting for the rise in abundance at high extinction) would be required. In each case the models are in reasonable agreement with the overall value of abundance.

### 5.3 Testing Interstellar Photodissociation Rates

In §4.3 we found two regimes for the N2H+ abundance: (1) there is a threshold extinction, $`A_V^{th}4`$ mag, below which there is little or no N2H+, and (2) for higher extinctions the abundance is roughly constant. In the previous section we discussed how the structure in latter regime can be reproduced. However, in Figure 13 the dependence found in the former regime is also addressed. In the chemical model the lack of N2H+ for $`A_V`$ $`4`$ mag is the result of the photodissociation of its parent molecule (N2), combined with a higher electron abundance at cloud edges due to photoionization. In Figure 13, N2H+ shows a sharp rise in abundance for $`\tau _V3`$ mag, corresponding to $`A_V`$ $`6`$ mag. This is quite close to the observed threshold. The N2 photorate is taken from van Dishoeck (1988), where the depth dependence of the photodissociation rate depends on its absorption cross section222For N2 predissociation occurs mainly between 912–1000 Å (Carter, 1972; Richards, Torr, & Torr, 1981), the assumed radiation field, the continuum attenuation, and on the albedo and scattering phase function of the grains (van Dishoeck, 1988). Despite the complications involved in this computation, given the match between the observed and predicted threshold, the depth dependence of the rate and the ionization structure, appears to be reasonably taken into account.

We note that the chemical model in Figure 13 does not properly account for the self-shielding of CO molecules, as C18O is emission is observed for $`A_V`$ $`<4`$ mag (Figure 6). However, the effect of increased CO shielding in the model would be to lower the electron abundance at the cloud edge and increase the importance of N2 photodestruction as the method for lowering the N2H+ abundance. Our assertion that N2 photodissociation is contributing to the observed N2H+ abundance threshold would then be strengthened.

van Dishoeck (1988) present a different photorate computed using a different grain model than used in our model, one with the grains more forward scattering (their grain model 3). If we use the depth dependent photorates from that model (for all steps in N2 and N2H+ production) we find that the N2 photodissociation rate is larger deeper into the cloud and the N2H+ threshold shifts to beyond $`A_V`$ = 10 mag. This is in disagreement with the observations and points to an important use of the technique outlined in this paper. In the future, by observing and modeling clouds with simple and well-characterized structure, the depth dependent photorates (along with the gas-grain interaction) can be tested. Indeed, most of the depth dependent photorates for many molecules are highly uncertain (van Dishoeck, 1988). In some cases this is due to a lack of viable cross-sections, but also because the detailed rate calculations could not be observationally verified. Although, there certainly are complications in application; this technique offers a viable opportunity to provide observational tests of these rates, which can help in constraining not only the depth dependence of the photorates but also the grain physics.

## 6 Summary

We have examined the correlation of the emission of three molecules: C18O, CS, and N2H+ with visual extinction in the northern streamer of the IC 5146 cloud. We use the molecular data, along with a model of the excitation, to determine molecular abundances and examine the abundance profile with $`A_V`$. The principle results are:

(1) We find good evidence for a reduction in the abundance of CO and CS (using C34S) for $`A_V`$ $`1015`$ mag. This reduction is attributed to the depletion of these molecules onto the surfaces of cold dust grains in the densest portions of the IC 5146 cloud.

(2) For N2H+, we find two separate regimes for its abundances: (a) for low extinction there is a threshold extinction, $`A_V^{th}4`$ mag, below which little N2H+ is found and (b) for $`A_V`$ $`4`$ mag the N2H+ abundance is either constant or declining until $`A_V`$ = 15 mag whereupon the abundance rises as a function of extinction in the visual.

(3) We find that density gradients in cloud cores can have a profound effect on the derivations of the spatial distributions of total column densities and molecular abundances for species with high dipole moments. Chemical interactions, such as reaction rates and depletion timescales, are also strongly density dependent. Thus the interpretation and determination of accurate abundances in dense cloud cores requires both knowledge of the density and temperature structure in the cloudy material and a proper accounting for such structure in abundance determinations and chemical models.

(4) The observed patterns of differential depletion shows CS and CO exhibiting molecular depletions while N2H+ remains in the gas phase. This is in good agreement with the predictions of chemical theory by Bergin & Langer (1997).

(5) By combining the observationally derived density profile for IC 5146 from Lada, Alves, & Lada (1999) with the gas-grain chemical model of Bergin & Langer (1997), we show that the observed constant N2H+ abundance with extinction can be reproduced provided that CO, which is a major destroyer of N2H+, is depleting in the dense cores. Since CO depletion is observed this result is an important clue to the physical and chemical reason that allows N2H+ molecules to trace the densest regions of molecular cores.

(6) We also demonstrate that the observed N2H+ abundance threshold ($`A_V^{th}4`$ mag) is partially due to the photodissociation of N2. This highlights an important application of this technique, which is the ability to test not only the chemical models of dense regions, and thereby directly probe the gas-grain interaction, but also to provide a viable and completely new method for observationally testing models of depth-dependent photodissociation rates.

## Appendix A Formation of N2H+ Abundance

The primary route to form N2H+ is through the following reaction:

$$\mathrm{H}_3^++\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^++\mathrm{H}_2.$$
()
H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{3}{}^{}`$ is the produced via cosmic ray ionization of H2. The main destruction pathways are dissociative electron recombination and a reaction with CO (reactions with O and C are of lesser import). In equilibrium, the following expression can be derived for the concentration of N2H+,

$$\mathrm{n}(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)=\frac{\mathrm{n}(\mathrm{H}_3^+)\mathrm{n}(\mathrm{N}_2)\mathrm{k}_{\mathrm{H}_3^+,\mathrm{N}_2}}{\mathrm{n}(\mathrm{e}^{})\alpha (\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)+\mathrm{n}(\mathrm{CO})\mathrm{k}_{\mathrm{CO},\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+}}.$$
()
Where $`\alpha (\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)`$ is the dissociative recombination coefficient and k$`_{\mathrm{x},\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+}`$ are the various reaction rates given by Millar, Farquhar, & Willacy (1997). See also Womack, Ziurys, & Wyckoff (1992).


text:
# Global time asymmetry as a consequence of a wave packets theorem

## I Introduction

Many authors consider time asymmetry as having a global origin . The Reichenbach branched diagram has being used to explain this global phenomenon . Here we make a resume of this idea. Reichenbach diagram is the combination of all the scattering processes within the universe evolution, beginning at the initial global instability of the universe, which is considered as the source of all energy. In each scattering process, the energy of the incoming states is used to produce unstable states that decay, originating the outgoing ones. So, the outgoing lines of the diagram can always be considered as evolutions from an unstable state towards equilibrium. Essentially, the whole diagram can be considered as having only outgoing lines. In fact, the incoming lines in each scattering are outgoing lines of a previous process. Moreover, the incoming lines of a scattering system “S” cannot be considered as spontaneous evolutions, since they just show the pumping of energy from a precedent process, that is really coupled with the scattering system “S”, making these incoming lines representatives of non spontaneous or forced evolutions. On the contrary, spontaneity clearly characterizes outgoing lines. Considered as a whole, Reichenbach diagram symbolize the asymmetrical flow of all the energy within the universe from its initial instability towards a final equilibrium state, resolving this flow as a sum of scattering processes. Then, time asymmetry (which cannot be explained as a consequence of the local time-symmetric physical laws), can be easily explained as a consequence of the time asymmetry of the object-universe.

On the other hand, time asymmetry can be considered as the consequence of the existence of a time-asymmetric space of physical admissible states . For causality reasons, this space was associated with the space of Hardy class functions from below . If all the lines in the Reichenbach diagram would be electromagnetic waves this choice would be natural, since the outgoing waves of electromagnetic scattering can be represented as states belonging to the just mentioned Hardy space . This conclusion can be extended to all hyperbolic scatterings but not to the parabolic equation of non relativistic quantum mechanics. Nevertheless, we will show that far from the scatterer, the outgoing lines belong to a Hardy space if the physical admissible states are wave packets. Then, all the spontaneously evolving states of the universe would belong to such a type of space, that we will call $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{}.`$ The unphysical non spontaneous time-inverted states would belong to a space $`\mathrm{\Psi }_+=K\mathrm{\Psi }_{}\mathrm{\Psi }_{},`$ where $`K`$ is Wigner time-reversal operator  (***In the usual popularization language $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{}`$ would be the space of the spontaneous evolutions: the sugar lump solving in the coffee, or the elephant breaking the crystal shop. While $`\mathrm{\Psi }_+`$ will be the space of impossible (or better non-spontaneous) evolutions: the sugar lump concentrating in the coffee, or the elephant reconstructing the crystal shop.). The arrow of time would be the consequence of this asymmetry.

## II The Baker’s transformation

As a dydactical introduction to the subject we will show how spaces $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_+`$ appears in the famous Baker transformation.

Let us consider the unit square $`S=[0,1]\times [0,1]`$ with its restricted Lebesgue measure $`\mu `$ and the Baker’s transformation:

$$B(x,y)=\{\begin{array}{c}(2x,\frac{1}{2}y)\text{ if }0x\frac{1}{2}\\ (2x1,\frac{1}{2}y+\frac{1}{2})\text{ if }\frac{1}{2}x1\end{array}$$
(1)
Let us consider the independent and generating partition of $`B`$ , i. e., the partition of the unit square into its left and right halves or “vertical” rectangules, $`P=\{\mathrm{\Delta }_1,\mathrm{\Delta }_2\}`$. “Independence” of the partition $`P`$ with respect to $`B`$ means that

$$\mu \left(\underset{n=m_1}{\overset{m_2}{}}B^n\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_{i_n}\right)\right)=\underset{n=m_1}{\overset{m_2}{}}\mu \left(\mathrm{\Delta }_{i_n}\right)$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{i_n}P`$. The “generating” character of the partition $`P`$ with respect to $`B`$ means that any Borel measurable set of the unit square can be obtained by forming countable unions and intersections of sets of the form

$`{\displaystyle \underset{n=m_1}{\overset{m_2}{}}}B^n\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_{i_n}\right)\text{with }\mathrm{\Delta }_{i_n}P`$

Let $`U:L^2(S,\mu )L^2(S,\mu )`$ be the unitary map

$$\left(U^n\rho \right)(w)=\rho \left(B^n(w)\right)$$
(3)
where $`\rho L^2(S,\mu ),`$ $`wS`$. As is well known, $`U`$ has a countable uniform Lebesgue spectrum, and therefore  there is a system of imprimitivity in $`L^2(S,\mu )`$ based on $``$ for the group $`\{U^n:n\}.`$ In other words, there is a spectral measure $`E`$ defined on $``$ and taking its values in the set of the orthogonal projection operators of $`L^2(S,\mu ),`$ such that

$$n,m:U^nE_mU=E_{m+n}$$
(4)
where $`E_m=E\left(\left\{m\right\}\right)`$, and $`E_{m+n}=E\left(\left\{m+n\right\}\right)`$. Then, we can define the Age operator  by

$$A=\underset{}{}n𝑑E=\underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}nE_n$$
(5)
As a consequence of eqs. (4) and (5), and taking into account the properties of $`E`$, we have

$$n:U^nAU=A+nI$$
(6)
The age operator $`A`$ has $``$ as uniform spectrum with countable multiplicity. In fact, the functions

$`\alpha _0(w)=\{{\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+1\text{ if }w\mathrm{\Delta }_1}{1\text{ if }w\mathrm{\Delta }_2}}`$

together with its transformed by $`U^n:\alpha _n=U^n(\alpha _0),`$ and all their finite products

$`\alpha _F=\alpha _{n_1}\mathrm{}\alpha _{n_r}`$

($`F=\{n_1,\mathrm{},n_r\}`$ $`n_j`$) constitute an orthonormal eigenbasis $`\{\alpha _F:F\}`$ of $`A,`$ being each $`\alpha _F`$ a “state” of age $`n=\mathrm{max}\{n_1,\mathrm{},n_r\}`$, in the sense that

$$A\alpha _F=n\alpha _F$$
(7)
(Clearly, there are countably many states corresponding to each eigenvalue or age $`n,`$ showing its multiplicity). Because of eq. (4), $`U`$ act as a right bilateral shift  on this basis:

$$U\alpha _F=\alpha _{F+1}$$
(8)
(where $`F+1:=\{n_1+1,\mathrm{},n_r+1\}`$). The eqs. (6) and (8) show how the age brought about by the dynamical evolution and growing with it matches with the progress of external (or observer’s) time labelling the dynamical group.

Now, we can decompose $`L^2(S,\mu )`$ as a direct sum of two Hardy functions spaces  $`H_+^2`$ and $`H_{}^2`$ such that:

$$H_+^2=\{\rho :\rho L^2(S,\mu )\rho =\underset{F^+}{}a_F\alpha _F\}$$
(9)
having only non null Fourier coefficients $`a_F`$ for positive indices, and

$$H_{}^2=\{\rho :\rho L^2(S,\mu )\rho =\underset{F_0^{}}{}a_F\alpha _F\}$$
(10)
having only non vanishing Fourier coefficients for negative (or zero) indices.

Then, it is obvious that:

$$UH_+^2H_+^2,\text{ }UH_{}^2H_+^2H_{}^2=L^2(S,\mu )H_{}^2$$
(11)
and that:

$$\underset{n+\mathrm{}}{lim}U^n(H_+^2H_{}^2)=H_+^2$$
(12)
We will describe this fact by saying that the states belonging to $`H_+^2`$ are “stable towards the future” under the induced evolution $`U`$, while the those belonging to $`H_{}^2`$ are “unstable” (Of course, with repect to the inverse evolution $`U^1`$ “towards the past” we must reverse these terms.). In this way, when acted on by $`U^n,`$ any function belonging to $`L^2(S,\mu )`$ will end in space $`H_+^2`$ in the “far future” (precisely when $`n+\mathrm{}).`$

In the next section we will consider the “quantum version” of what we have said above.

## III Pure states and the hamiltonian

Let us begin considering just pure states $`|\psi ,`$ belonging to a Hilbert space $``$, of a quantum system with hamiltonian $`H`$, such that:

$$H|\omega ,n=\omega |\omega ,n$$
(13)
where $`0\omega <\mathrm{}`$ or $`\omega ^+`$and $`n`$ belongs to a set of indices $`N`$, which is the same for any $`\omega `$ (for didactical reasons we will assume that this set is numerable, and therefore the index $`n`$ will be discrete). Thus, $`H`$ can be considered as a typical scattering hamiltonian just endowed with an absolutely continuous and uniform energy spectrum. Precisely, there is a nuclear space $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and a rigging of it with $``$

$`\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }^\times `$

such that

$`\{|\omega ,n:\omega ^+nN\}\mathrm{\Phi }^\times `$

(we wil denote by $`\mathrm{\Phi }^\times `$ the antidual space of $`\mathrm{\Phi },`$ composed of all continuous antilinear functionals on $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, and by $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$ its dual) is a generalized eigenbasis of $`H`$   in the sense that:

$$\phi ,\psi \mathrm{\Phi }:\phi |\psi =\underset{n}{}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega \phi |\omega ,n\omega ,n|\psi $$
(14)
where the l. h. s. means the scalar product in $``$ (antilinear in its left factor), while in the r. h. s. $`\phi |\omega ,n`$ means the evaluation of the antilinear functional $`|\omega ,n`$ on $`\phi `$, and $`\omega ,n|\psi `$ is the evaluation of the linear functional $`\omega ,n|`$ on $`\psi `$. This justifies Dirac’s notation:

$$|\psi =\underset{n}{}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\omega |\omega ,n\omega ,n|\psi $$
(15)
Moreover, let us consider that real physical states are wave packets, mathematically modelled by Schwarz functions of $`\omega ^+,`$ for each value of $`n,`$ so:

$$f(\omega )=\omega ,n|\psi 𝒮^+=𝒮(^+)$$
(16)
($`𝒮^+`$ is the space of all infinite differentiable complex-valued functions defined on $`[0,+\mathrm{})`$, such that converge to zero for $`\omega +\mathrm{}`$ faster than the inverse of any polynomial).

Taking into account all the values of $`n`$ we can say that:

$$f(\omega )=\omega ,n|\psi \underset{n}{}𝒮_n^+$$
(17)
This mathematical model is adopted for the following reasons:

1.- It is clear that we do not find infinite energies in nature, and so $`\omega ,n|\psi `$ must somehow go to zero when $`\omega +\mathrm{}.`$

2.- In order to use derivatives in our calculations it is not enough to postulate that the states belong to a Hilbert space. They must be representable by differentiable functions. We postulate that they are infinitely differentiable. After all, we cannot find an experimental contradiction to this assumption.

3.- But since these functions must also be square integrable, we can take for granted that they go to zero when $`\omega +\mathrm{}.`$ We postulate that they go to zero faster that the inverse of any polynomial.

Of course, we are free to choose other spaces instead of $`𝒮^+,`$ but it is evident that $`𝒮^+`$ is the simplest model endowed with all the usual properties of wave packets (that’s why the same choice is made in ).

## IV Mixed states and the liouvillian

We will use the notation of ref. . Then, the Liouville operator reads.

$$𝕃=[H,.]=H\times II\times H$$
(18)
Let us consider the space of “density matrices” $`=`$, the rigged Hilbert space

$`\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }^\times \mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$

and the generalized basis:

$$\{|\omega ,n\omega ^{},n^{}|:\omega ,\omega ^{}^+n,n^{}N\}$$
(19)
(where $`|\omega ,n\omega ^{},n^{}|=|\omega ,n\omega ^{},n^{}|\mathrm{\Phi }^\times \mathrm{\Phi }^{}`$).

Let us define the Riezs indices :

$`\nu =\omega \omega ^{},\text{ }\mathrm{}<\nu <\mathrm{}`$

$$\sigma =\frac{1}{2}(\omega +\omega ^{}),\text{ }\frac{|\nu |}{2}\sigma <\mathrm{}$$
(20)
It will be convenient to label the basis (19) as:

$$|\omega ,n\omega ^{},n^{}|=|\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{})$$
(21)
Then:

$$𝕃|\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{})=\nu |\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{})$$
(22)
So

$$\{|\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{}):\nu \frac{|\nu |}{2}\sigma <\mathrm{}n,n^{}N\}$$
(23)
is a generalized eigenbasis of the liouvillian, being $`\nu `$ the corresponding generalized eigenvalue and $`\sigma ,`$ $`n,`$ $`n^{},`$ the “degeneration indices”. From (20) we see that $`\nu `$, while $`n`$ and $`n^{}`$ , and $`\sigma ^+`$, and these spaces have the same cardinality for any $`\nu `$. So $`𝕃`$ has uniform Lebesgue spectrum $``$.

In the basis (23) “the $`\nu `$-wave function” reads:

$$\rho (\nu )=(\rho |\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{})$$
(24)
Following the ideas of the previous section (And taking into account that we are considering mixed states as “density matrices” identified with tensor products of pure states.), it is physically justified to suppose that these functions are sums of products of functions $`f(\omega )𝒮\left(^+\right)`$, namely:

$$f(\omega )g(\omega ^{})=f\left(\sigma +\frac{\nu }{2}\right)g\left(\sigma \frac{\nu }{2}\right)$$
(25)
They will have infinite derivatives with respect to $`\nu ,`$ since $`f`$ and $`g`$ are infinitely differentiable. Moreover, $`\rho (\nu )`$ goes to zero when $`\nu \pm \mathrm{}`$ faster than the inverse of any polynomial since this is a property of $`f`$ and $`g.`$ Thus, for any $`\sigma ,`$ $`n,`$ $`n^{}`$ :

$$\rho (\nu )=(\rho |\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{})𝒮\left(\right)$$
(26)
## V The Age operator

Since $`𝕃`$ has uniform Lebesgue spectrum $``$, there is a system of imprimitivity in $``$ based on $``$ for the group $`\{U_t:t\}.`$ In other words, there is a spectral measure $`E`$ defined on $``$ and taking its values in the set of the orthogonal projection operators of $``$ , such that

$$t,s:U_t^1E_sU_t=E_{t+s}$$
(27)
where $`E_s=E\left((\mathrm{},s]\right)`$, and $`E_{t+s}=E\left((\mathrm{},t+s]\right)`$. Then we can define the Age operator  by

$$A=\underset{}{}t𝑑E$$
(28)
As a consequence of eqs. (27) and (28), and taking into account the properties of $`E`$, we have

$$t:U_t^1AU_t=A+tI$$
(29)
The age operator $`A`$ has $``$ as a uniform Lebesgue spectrum. In fact, for the physical states we have:

$$𝔸\rho (\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{})i\frac{}{\nu }\rho (\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{})|_{\sigma ,n,n^{}=const.}$$
(30)
that is equivalent to the commutation relation

$$[𝔸,𝕃]=i$$
(31)
($`𝔸`$ and $`𝕃`$ have essentially the same commutation relation as position and momentum operators $`q`$ and $`p`$). Then $`\widehat{\rho }(a,\sigma ,n,n^{}),`$ the Fourier transform in variables $`\nu a`$ of $`\rho (\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{}),`$ is an eigenvector of $`𝔸`$, precisely:

$$𝔸\widehat{\rho }(a,\sigma ,n,n^{})=a\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})$$
(32)
Moreover $`\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})𝒮()`$ in the variable $`a`$ since it is the Fourier transform of $`\rho (\nu ,\sigma ,n,n^{}).`$ Then, the time evolution of $`\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})`$ reads:

$`e^{i𝕃t}\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})`$ $`=`$ $`e^{t\frac{}{a}}\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})=`$ (33)
$`=`$ $`\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})+t{\displaystyle \frac{}{a}}\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})+{\displaystyle \frac{t^2}{2!}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2}{a^2}}\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})+\mathrm{}=`$ (34)
$`=`$ $`\widehat{\rho (}a+t,\sigma ,n,n^{})`$ (35)
Thus, $`𝕃`$ is the generator of the time translations, and $`\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})`$ increase its age as $`aa+t`$ becoming $`\widehat{\rho (}a+t,\sigma ,n,n^{}).`$ This fact justify the name given to $`𝔸`$. But eq. (35) tell us that during its time evolution, the wave packet $`\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})𝒮()`$ do not change its shape, being merely shifted to the left. So, in the basis (23) all physical states are wave packets at any time, and moreover verify:

$$\underset{t+\mathrm{}}{lim}\widehat{\rho (}a+t,\sigma ,n,n^{})=0$$
(36)
because functions in Schwarz space go to zero when its variable goes towards the infinite .

## VI The theorem

The quantum version of the Baker’s transformation example would be as follows. Let us consider a quantum system whose states $`\rho `$ are “density matrices” belonging to a Hilbert-Liouville space $``$. Let $`𝕃`$ be the Liouville superoperator in $``$, assumed as having $``$ as uniform Lebesgue spectrum. This amounts to say that the evolution superoperator $`\mathrm{exp}\left[i𝕃t\right]`$ is a bilateral shift, closely related with Hardy classes  .

We can decompose the space of physical states $`\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Phi }`$ as $`\mathrm{\Psi }_+\mathrm{\Psi }_{},`$ where

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_+=\{\rho :[a<0:\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})=0]\}$$
(37)
$`\mathrm{\Psi }_{}=\{\rho :[a>0:\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})=0]\}`$

are spaces of wave packets that are also Hardy class functions in the $`\nu `$-variable, from $`\{_{\text{below}}^{\text{above}}\}`$. Then our theorem states that:

Theorem: The limit of any physical state, when $`t+\mathrm{}`$, belongs to $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{}.`$

Proof: We can decompose any $`\widehat{\rho }(a)`$ (abbreviation for $`\widehat{\rho (}a,\sigma ,n,n^{})`$) as:

$$\widehat{\rho }(a)=\widehat{\rho }_+(a)+\widehat{\rho }_{}(a)$$
(38)
such that:

$`\widehat{\rho }_+(a)=\widehat{\rho }(a)\text{ for }a>0,\text{ }\widehat{\rho }_+(a)=0\text{ for }a<0`$

$$\widehat{\rho }_{}(a)=\widehat{\rho }(a)\text{ for }a<0,\text{ }\widehat{\rho }_{}(a)=0\text{ for }a>0$$
(39)
From eq. (36) we see that when $`t+\mathrm{}`$, then $`\widehat{\rho }_{}(a+t)0,`$ and therefore $`\widehat{\rho }(a+t)\widehat{\rho }_+(a+t)`$. So, when $`t+\mathrm{}`$ these last two functions are zero for $`a<0,`$ and therefore, by the Paley-Wiener theorem (, page 47) the Fourier transform of $`\widehat{\rho }(a),`$ namely $`\rho (\nu )`$ belongs to $`H_{}^2.`$ $`\mathrm{}`$

So, we have proved

$$\underset{t+\mathrm{}}{lim}e^{i𝕃t}\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Psi }_{}$$
(40)
the analog of eq. (12) for the wave packets, as announced.

## VII Conclusion

As the typical distance among the scatterers is much bigger than the characteristic dimension of the scatterers itself, most of the states can be considered far from these scatterers. Therefore, most of the physical states do belong to space $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{},`$ thus explaining time-asymmetry (see the introduction). Moreover, using the space of physical admissible states $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{},`$ most of the irreversible phenomena of nature can be foresee, obtaining the same results as those of other formalisms (as “coarse-graining”, Lindblad, etc. ).