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# Fermi Surface of 3d1 Perovskite CaVO3 Near the Mott Transition

## Abstract

We present a detailed de Haas van Alphen effect study of the perovskite CaVO3, offering an unprecedented test of electronic structure calculations in a 3d transition metal oxide. Our experimental and calculated Fermi surfaces are in good agreement – but only if we ignore large orthorhombic distortions of the cubic perovskite structure. Subtle discrepancies may shed light on an apparent conflict between the low energy properties of CaVO3, which are those of a simple metal, and high energy probes which reveal strong correlations that place CaVO3 on the verge of a metal-insulator transition.

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have for many decades been a rich source of novel and intriguing electronic behaviour. The narrow bands in the 3$`d`$ TMOs are particularly susceptible to correlation effects, leading to phenomena as unexpected and diverse as high temperature superconductivity bednorz ; orenstein , colossal magnetoresistance edtokura , and the recently discovered “orbitons” in LaMnO3 saitoh ; tokura . The Mott transition mott ; imada  – a metal-insulator transition (MIT) driven by electron-electron interactions – lies at the heart of TMO physics, and the 3$`d^1`$ system CaVO3 is emerging as an important model compound that lies just on the metallic side of this transition inoue94 ; fukushima ; shirakawa ; inoue98a .

While the general principles involved in the MIT are probably understood, the predictive power of existing theories is poor when applied to real materials. On the one hand, models of the MIT that explicitly tackle dynamical many-body interactions use generic Hamiltonians that ignore the effects of real crystal structures; on the other, single-particle self-consistent band structure calculations based on the Local Density Approximation (LDA), which have had the most success at predicting the electronic structure of real metals, fail spectacularly in insulating TMOs such as NiO which is predicted by the LDA to be metallic. This problem is compounded by a lack of high quality data on the electronic structure of TMOs: for example until now the exclusive source of information on the Fermi surface geometry in TMOs has been angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), but this technique detects a much higher energy response than is observed in transport and thermodynamic measurements, and the results are frequently distorted by surface effects.

CaVO3 is one of a series of 3d1 perovskites that straddle the MIT. It is a metal, but large orthorhombic distortions of the cubic perovskite crystal structure and the spectroscopic properties of CaVO3 suggest that it lies very close to the MIT inoue94 ; fukushima ; shirakawa ; inoue98a . Photoemission spectroscopy in CaVO3 appears to show: (a) the formation of Hubbard bands inoue95 ; morikawa ; marcelo ; makino  —a precursor of the insulating state arising from strong electron correlation; and (b) a weaker spectral intensity at the Fermi energy $`E_\mathrm{F}`$ than is predicted by band structure calculations inoue95 ; maiti . From these and other measurements a broad picture is emerging of a striking conflict between low and high energy scales in CaVO3, the former being revealed for example in specific heat measurements and suggesting that CaVO3 is a simple metal with small mass enhancements (normally a signature of weak electron-electron interactions), while the latter are probed by spectroscopic methods and show strong electron-electron interactions. The origin of this conflict is unclear. It may be an experimental artifact arising from enhanced sensitivity of spectroscopy to the surface as opposed to the bulk, but extra care has been taken to minimise this maiti . An intriguing suggestion is that the conflict, and the breakdown of the LDA that it implies, can be explained by a strong interaction that is non-local in space but local in time, such as for example the unscreened Coulomb interaction. But for this to occur, we require either a breakdown of screening in a material that at dc-frequencies at least has a normal metallic conductivity, or else a new non-local interaction such as might be mediated by orbital fluctuations.

Further experimental data are clearly needed, and this was the motivation for the present de Haas van Alphen (dHvA) effect study, which allows an unprecedented and detailed comparison between modern electronic structure calculations and an experimentally determined Fermi surface in a 3d TMO. It should be noted that LDA calculations have an excellent record predicting the Fermi surface shapes of even strongly correlated electron systems such as UPt3 taillefer , in which electron-electron interactions are enormously strong. This is probably because the Fermi volume is invariant under interactions luttinger : volume conserving distortions of the Fermi surface require not only a $`k`$-dependent (i.e. spatially non-local) interaction footnote1  such as was invoked to explain the photoemission results, but also an anisotropic Fermi surface, so that states in different regions of the Fermi surface undergo different shifts in energy.

Quantum oscillations, such as the magnetisation oscillations in the de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) effect, arise from the quantisation of cyclotron motion of charge carriers in a magnetic field. This provides the most detailed and the most reliable information about Fermi surface properties shoenberg . A prerequisite for the observation of the quantum oscillation effects is that quasiparticles must be able to complete a cyclotron orbit without scattering—this typically requires mean-free paths of $``$ 1000 Å or more. It is this requirement of very high purity single crystals that has hitherto prevented quantum oscillations from being observed in $`3d`$ TMOs.

We used high-quality single crystals of CaVO3, grown by the floating zone method yielding single-crystalline grains of typical size $``$$`4\times 4\times 6`$ mm3. We kept the oxygen off-stoichiometry as small as possible by annealing the sample in air at $`150`$C for four days inoue94 . The off-stoichiometry of Ca and V was below the detectability limit (less than 1 %) of an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer. The CaVO3 crystals are orthorhombic (Pnma) containing four CaVO3 formulae in the unit cell with lattice parameters $`a=5.314`$ Å, $`b=7.521`$ Å, $`c=5.339`$ Å (Nakotte, H. & Jung, M.-H., private communication); the samples were oriented by Laue x-ray diffraction.

We have performed a thorough dHvA rotation study on two high-quality single crystals of CaVO3 ($`1\times 1\times 2`$ mm3, residual resistivity $`\rho _01.5\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm) with the direction of the applied magnetic field $`\stackrel{}{B}`$ rotating in the ($`a`$-$`b`$) plane from $`b`$ to $`a`$, and in the ($`a`$-$`c`$) plane from $`a`$ to $`c`$. The experiments were carried out in a low-noise superconducting magnet system in field sweeps from 18 T to 10 T, at temperatures down to 50 mK. A modulation field of 14.3 mT amplitude was applied to the sample, and the second harmonic of the voltage induced at the pick-up coil around the sample was recorded, essentially measuring $`^2M/B^2`$.

A typical signal trace, demonstrating the high quality of our data, can be viewed in Fig. 1. The Fourier transform as a function of $`1/B`$ gives the dHvA frequency spectrum, with peaks at a frequency $`F`$ corresponding to extremal (i.e., maximum or minimum) FS cross-sectional areas $`S`$ measured in planes perpendicular to $`\stackrel{}{B}`$, via $`S`$ = $`2\pi eF/\mathrm{}`$.

In Fig. 2, we present a density plot of the dHvA spectrum as a function of the direction of $`\stackrel{}{B}`$, representing the information of about 100 field sweeps at angular intervals of 2. In comparison, we have calculated the dHvA frequencies $`F_{\mathrm{calc}}`$ from four FS sheets (see Fig. 3) obtained by a band calculation using the computer code KANSAI-94 with the LDA scheme gunnarson  for the one-electron exchange-correlation potential. In the calculation, we used basis functions in $`|\stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{G}|`$$`<`$$`K_{\mathrm{max}}`$ = $`6.20`$ (2$`\pi `$/Å), where $`\stackrel{}{k}`$ is the wavevector and $`\stackrel{}{G}`$ is a reciprocal lattice vector, to obtain about 1440 basis linear augmented plane waves; the core and valence states were calculated self-consistently by the scalar-relativistic scheme koelling77  with muffin-tin radii of $`0.25a`$ for Ca, $`0.20a`$ for V, and $`0.14a`$ for O.

As seen in Fig. 2, there are very significant discrepancies between $`F_{\mathrm{calc}}`$ (thin dashed lines) and the experimental dHvA frequencies $`F_{\mathrm{exp}}`$ (grey-shaded). To list a few, (a) the $`9`$ kT branches in $`F_{\mathrm{exp}}`$ have no correspondence in $`F_{\mathrm{calc}}`$, and (b) the $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}63`$ sheet is not observed in $`F_{\mathrm{exp}}`$ unless we accept a deviation of about 20 %. Only $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}64`$ and some of the orbits on $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}62`$ show satisfactory coincidence.

Although we observe this large discrepancy between experiment and LDA, we do not believe that this is the end of the story, because we have found that excellent agreement between theory and experiment can be regained if we ignore the orthorhombic distortion in the crystal structure, and recalculate the Fermi surface as though CaVO3 were cubic. We attempted to fit the calculated LDA bands of the orthorhombic lattice structure to a hypothetical “cubic” tight-binding (TB) Hamiltonian consisting of V $`3d_{xy}`$, $`3d_{yz}`$ and $`3d_{zx}`$ orbitals, with nearest neighbour, next-nearest neighbour and hybridization matrix elements. Then, the results (thick solid lines in Fig. 2) show extremely good agreement with experiment: the differences in $`F`$ are only 4 % or less. As depicted in Fig. 3, in this assumption, the orthorhombic FS sheets $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}61`$, $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}62`$, and $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}63`$ will coalesce into the hypothetical “cubic” FS sheets $`\beta `$ and $`\gamma `$, while the $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}61`$ sheet remains unaffected. The $`\gamma `$ sheet connects up with itself in the neighbouring BZ, forming a “jungle gym”-type structure. The large hole orbit in this “jungle gym” explains the high-frequency features in $`F_{\mathrm{exp}}`$, e.g. along the $`b`$-axis.

We also deduced the effective quasiparticle masses $`m^{}`$ from the thermal broadening factor $`R_T=X/\mathrm{sinh}X`$, $`X=2\pi ^2k_BTm^{}/e\mathrm{}B`$, by comparing dHvA amplitudes at different temperatures in runs from 50 mK up to 1.1 K. As seen in Fig. 4, we have $`m^{}F`$ for all orbits and for all field directions assessed, save for the hole orbit of the “jungle gym”. Such homogeneous scaling of $`m^{}`$ with $`F`$ is seen in the TB model in two-dimensional metals with a low-filling and with primarily nearest-neighbour interactions. This results also supports our assumption of the effective cubic symmetry, because the FS sheets of a cubic $`d^1`$ system are essentially formed from three intersecting cylinders containing the $`d_{xy}`$, $`d_{xz}`$, and $`d_{yz}`$ states respectively, and each has a two-dimensional character. The specific heat deduced from dHvA is 8.6 mJ/mole K, which is in good agreement with the bulk experimental value inouethesis  of 7.3 mJ/mole K and is enhanced over the unrenormalized LDA density of states by about a factor of two.

Although some details in the experimental dHvA spectrum of CaVO3 remain yet to be identified and are possibly associated with remnant features of the intrinsic orthorhombic structure, the overall angle dependence of the dHvA frequencies is altogether well captured by the hypothetical “cubic” TB model, rather than the orthorhombic LDA band calculation.

Our apparently ad hoc assumption that the effective crystal symmetry sensed by the $`3d`$ electrons is cubic, may be justified if the gaps in the energy bands that are produced by the orthorhombic distortion are small enough — an effect known as magnetic breakdown (MB) shoenberg . However, its appearance here seems to be surprising, since the orthorhombic distortion in CaVO3 is not small (the buckling of the V-O-V bond angle is 160).

We hope that our results will inspire further, more detailed electronic structure calculations. It will be interesting to see if a high-resolution LDA calculation will show the small gaps due to the orthorhombic distortion that our results imply, and thereby reproduce the predictions of our tight binding model. If not, some more exotic explanation of the non-appearance of orthorhombic gaps may be required. Also, while the differences between our tight-binding Fermi surface and the measurements are small, they are systematic. In particular, it can be seen in the lower insert of Fig. 2 that the fit to the $`\beta `$ surface is clearly worse than the others. The $`\beta `$ sheet is composed of states that are all near an intersection of the three cylinders of the cubic Fermi surface model, so perhaps this is indeed a signature of a non-local interactions, but detailed computational work is clearly required to clarify this, starting with a high-resolution LDA calculation of the electronic structure.

In summary, this first comprehensive investigation of the dHvA effect in a $`3d`$ TMO has unraveled the shape of the FS sheets and thus the electronic structures near the Mott transition in CaVO3. The experimental FS cannot be explained by the LDA band calculation for the intrinsic orthorhombic lattice, but the results are well captured by a hypothetical “cubic” electronic structure. At low energy scales, CaVO3 is seen to be a standard metal with moderate mass enhancement, in marked contrast to the strong correlations visible at higher energies. While further efforts are required to comprehend this discrepancy and to gain a quantitative understanding of the origin of the MB effects, this work provides at least a first glimpse of the completely unexplored fermiology near the Mott transition.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank D. M. Broun, H. Bando, and W. Y. Liang for their support. We also thank H. Nakotte and M.-H. Jung for sharing their data prior to publication. This work was supported in part by the JST Overseas Research Fellowship and the UK EPSRC.


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# 1 Invariant cross section for p12C → K+ X as a function of the K+ momentum. Compared are the full cross section (solid line) with the contribution from 𝑁=4 and 𝑁=2 collective nucleons (dashed and dotted line, respectively). The data shown are from ref. 1.

Comment on ”Forward K+ \- production in subthreshold
pA collisions at 1.0 GeV”

A Comment on the letter by V. Koptev et al. - Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 022301

The recent paper by V. Koptev, M. Büscher et al. (1) presents data of great interest on the invariant cross section for the reaction p(1.0 GeV/c) 12C $``$ K+ X as a function of the K+ momentum from 150 MeV/c to above 500 MeV/c (close to the exclusive production of $`{}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{12}`$C). From the kinematics far below the free NN threshold the data above 400 MeV/c should reflect a high degree of collectivity among 6 - 7 bound nucleons following the estimate of the authors.

However, the conclusions above have to be taken with care: the estimate lakes sufficient dynamical content assuming K+ production in the collision of the projectile with a single heavy nucleon cluster. We approach the data differently; experience from other near-exclusive high momentum transfer processes suggest the following microscopic picture: the dynamical collectivity (beyond the pure center-of-mass correlation of all nucleons) is an interplay of the strength of the NN rescattering amplitude, phase space and momentum sharing constraints among the bound nucleons. At low K+ momenta the characteristic momentum transfer of q $`\sqrt{3}`$ M $``$ 1500 MeV/c (M is the mass of the nucleon) is shared among typically 4 nucleons: such a distribution combines maximal phase space with momentum sharing on each bound state wave function near the peak of the momentum distribution of a p-shell nucleon in 12C. With the K+ momentum above 450 MeV/c, phase space is dominated by single nucleon emission, accompanied by the momentum sharing among typically additional 2 bound nucleons (the nucleon momenta exchanged are close to the peak of the p-shell momentum density of around 200 MeV/c). A higher degree of collectivity is suppressed: little gain in momentum sharing is overbalanced by decreasing rescattering contributions of higher order reflecting the strength of the elementary (off-shell) NN amplitude.

We substantiate these heuristic arguments by a microscopic calculation. We evaluate the full transition amplitude with N collectively cooperating nucleons in 12C and M nucleons in the continuum

$$T(N,M)=\underset{i>j}{}<𝐊_\mathrm{\Lambda },𝐊_1\mathrm{}𝐊_MA(M+1,\mathrm{},N,\mathrm{},12)\left|V(i,j,𝐊_k)\right|𝐊,A(1,\mathrm{},12)>$$

where we model 12C as s and p shell nucleons in an harmonic oscillator potential (2). Along the same line we model the NN rescattering amplitude as the exchange of effective ($`\pi \pi `$) $`\sigma `$ or $`\rho `$ mesons including N resonances in the mass range of 1650 MeV up to 1800 MeV (3). For the evaluation we compare a zero range approximation and a Gaussian parametrization of NN interaction, where we fit the parameters to NN $``$ NN ($`\pi \pi `$) data in the appropriate energy range (4); the meson NN couplings are taken from the Bonn potential (5), while the couplings to the N\* resonances are extracted from the corresponding partial widths (3). Implicitly we assume that K+N rescattering is small: the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$K+ final state is formed in the initial N decay. The multi-nucleon phase space is included in a nonrelativistic approximation (6).

We present the characteristic results of our calculation in Fig. 1: we compare the invariant K+ cross section for an increasing number of active (collective) nucleons. The result qualitatively supports our arguments above: summing up explicitly the influence of up to 6 bound nuclears, we find for low K+ momenta around 200 MeV/c dominantly 4 collectively interacting nucleons (whereby typically 3 nucleons are emitted into the continuum), while K+ momenta around 500 MeV/c involve 2 - 3 bound nucleons (with the knockout of a single nucleon).

At present our picture is preliminary and has to be substantiated by further data (most interesting would be the transition to (nearly) exclusive K+ production in p-nucleus and in nucleus-nucleus collisions, i. e. complete K+ fusion) and in further calculations: so far our model in too crude for subtle information like on the K+ \- self energy in nuclei (7). Beyond that, as the energy sharing in collective phenomena is highly unknown, attempts towards a covariant model calculation including full retardation, which allows for a free energy and momentum sharing among the interacting nucleons, would be highly desirable.

M. Dillig
Institute for Theoretical Physics III
University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
D-91058 Erlangen, Germany
email: mdillig@theorie3.physik.uni-erlangen.de PACS 13.60Le, 14.40 Cs 24.40-n
Keywords: Meson exchange, Meson production, nucleon-induced reactions

* Supported in part by the Kernforschungszentrum KFZ Jülich, Germany

1. V. Koptev, M. Büscher et al.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 022301;
2. H. de Vries, C. W. de Jager and C. de Vries: At Data Nucl. Data Tables 36
(1987) 495
3. Rev. Part. Prop. (D. E. Groom et al.): Eur. Phys. Journ. C15 (2000) 1;
4. Compilation of PP Cross Section: CERN-HERA 84-01 (1984);
F. Smimizu et al.: Nucl. Phys. A 386 (1982) 571
5. Machleidt, R.: Adv. Nucl. Phys. 19 (1989) 189;
6. R. Shyam and J. Knoll: Nucl. Phys. A 426 (1984) 606;
7. G. Z. Rudy et al.: nucl-th/0202069


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# References

NRCPS-HE-02-06

Conformal Invariant Strings
with
Extrinsic Curvature Action

G.K.Savvidy111email: savvidy@inp.demokritos.gr
National Research Center Demokritos,
Ag. Paraskevi, GR-15310 Athens, Hellenic Republic

Abstract

We study a string theory which is exclusively based on extrinsic curvature action. It is a tensionless string theory because the action reduces to perimeter for the flat Wilson loop. We are able to solve and quantize this high-derivative nonlinear two-dimensional conformal field theory. The absence of conformal anomaly in quantum theory requires that the space-time should be 13-dimensional. We have found that all particles, with arbitrary large spin, are massless. This pure massless spectrum is consistent with the tensionless character of the theory and we speculate that it may describe unbroken phase of standard string theory when $`\alpha ^{^{}}\mathrm{}`$.

A string model which is exclusively based on the concept of extrinsic curvature was suggested in . It describes random surfaces embedded in D-dimensional spacetime with the following action

$$S=mL=\frac{m}{\pi }d^2\zeta \sqrt{h}\sqrt{K_a^{ia}K_b^{ib}},$$
(1)
where $`m`$ has dimension of mass, $`h_{ab}`$ is the induced metric and $`K_{ab}^i`$ is the second fundamental form (extrinsic curvature). In the above theory extrinsic curvature term $`alone`$ should be considered as fundamental action of the theory. The dependence on the extrinsic curvature in (1) guarantees proportionality of the action to the length $`L`$. The last property makes the theory very close to the Feynman path integral for a point-like relativistic particle because when the surface degenerates into a single world line the action (1) becomes proportional to the length of the world line

$$Sm𝑑s$$
(2)
and the functional integral over surfaces naturally transforms into the Feynman path integral for a point-like relativistic particle222This theory is essentially different in its geometrical meaning with the actions considered in  and there is no $`area`$ term in the action as it was in previous studies ..

To illustrate these concepts let us consider a surface in a form of cylinder of radius $`R`$ and of length $`T`$. We can easily compute the action: the term $`K_a^{ia}K_b^{ib}`$ is equal to $`1/R^2`$ and the action is equal to $`2T+2\pi R`$ (the last term is a contribution coming from the boundary of the cylinder). When the radius of the cylinder $`R`$ tends to zero, the cylinder shrinks to a world line of length $`T`$, and the action becomes proportional to the length of the degenerated surface.

This string theory is tensionless because for the flat Wilson loop the action is equal to its perimeter $`S=m(R+T)`$, and at the classical level string tension is equal to zero. In the recent articles  the authors studied quantum fluctuations at one-loop level and demonstrated that quantum fluctuations generate an area term, that is a string tension. Our aim now is to further study the symmetry properties of this model, specifically its conformal properties in order to treat this nonlinear system exactly.

I shall consider two different theories: the original model A when the metric tensor on the world sheet is induced by embedding into the target space-time and the second model B when the world sheet metric is considered as an independent field. We develop technical tools allowing to solve the model B and to quantize this high-derivative nonlinear two-dimensional conformal field theory. The contribution to the central charge from bosonic coordinates is twice bigger than in the standard bosonic string theory. The contribution of Faddeev-Popov ghost and an anti-ghost fields to the central charge remains the same, therefore the absence of conformal anomaly requires that the space-time should be 13-dimensional. The mode expansion of the fundamental fields allows to demonstrate that all particles, with arbitrary large spin, are massless. This pure massless spectrum is consistent with the tensionless character of the model B and we speculate that it may describe unbroken phase of standard string theory  when $`\alpha ^{^{}}\mathrm{}`$ and $`M_n^2=\frac{1}{\alpha ^{^{}}}(n1)0`$. Large amount of zero norm states is an indication of enhanced symmetry in our system. David Gross defined this limit as an unbroken phase of string theory where one should observe enhanced symmetry . We hope that this approach will also provide better understanding of the original theory A which probably describe the broken string phase.

As in  we shall represent the gonihedric action (1) in a form

$$S=\frac{m}{\pi }d^2\zeta \sqrt{h}\sqrt{\left(\mathrm{\Delta }(h)X_\mu \right)^2},$$
(3)
here $`h_{ab}=_aX_\mu _bX_\mu `$ is the induced metric, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(h)=1/\sqrt{h}_a\sqrt{h}h^{ab}_b`$ is Laplace operator and $`K_a^{ia}K_b^{ib}=\left(\mathrm{\Delta }(h)X_\mu \right)^2`$. The second fundamental form $`K`$ is defined through the relations: $`K_{ab}^in_\mu ^i=_a_bX_\mu \mathrm{\Gamma }_{ab}^c_cX_\mu =_a_bX_\mu ,`$ $`n_\mu ^in_\mu ^j=\delta _{ij},n_\mu ^i_aX_\mu =0,`$ where $`n_\mu ^i`$ are $`D2`$ normals and $`a,b=1,2;\mu =0,1,2,\mathrm{},D1;\eta ^{\mu \nu }=(+..+);i,j=1,..,D2.`$

Below I shall consider the model B which has the same action (3) but now it should be interpreted as a functional of two independent field variables $`X^\mu `$ and $`h_{ab}`$, that is, we shall consider it as two-dimensional quantum gravity interacting with scalar fields $`X^\mu `$. At this stage the model B is not connected any more with any embedding into space-time. The aim is to compute the energy momentum tensor of the scalar field $`X^\mu `$ and to demonstrate that it is traceless. Thus this theory is conformally invariant at the classical level 333It is not obvious at all that the last model is equivalent to the original one even at the classical level, and as we shall see it is not, but this study will help to spot some common properties and useful formulas..

To get classical equations and to construct world sheet energy-momentum tensor one should compute variation of the action with respect to the metric $`h^{ab}`$ which is defined as

$$\delta S=\frac{1}{2\pi }\sqrt{h}T_{ab}\delta h^{ab}d^2\zeta .$$
(4)
The variation of the action is

$`\delta S={\displaystyle \frac{m}{\pi }}\delta {\displaystyle \sqrt{h}\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}d^2\zeta }`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{m}{\pi }}{\displaystyle (\frac{1}{2})\sqrt{h}h_{ab}\delta h^{ab}\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}d^2\zeta }+{\displaystyle \frac{m}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \sqrt{h}\frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}}\delta \mathrm{}(h)X^\mu d^2\zeta }`$ (5)
and we can proceed computing the variation of the Laplace operator

$$\delta \mathrm{}(h)X^\mu =\frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{\sqrt{h}}h_{ab}\delta h^{ab}_c\sqrt{h}h^{cd}_dX^\mu +\frac{1}{\sqrt{h}}_a(\sqrt{h}\delta h^{ab}\frac{1}{2}h^{ab}\sqrt{h}h_{cd}\delta h^{cd})_bX^\mu .$$
(6)
The first term on r.h.s. of (5) will be cancelled by the first term coming from (6), therefore

$`\delta S={\displaystyle \frac{m}{\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}}_a\{(\sqrt{h}\delta h^{ab}\frac{1}{2}h^{ab}\sqrt{h}h_{cd}\delta h^{cd})_bX^\mu \}d^2\zeta }.`$ (7)
Integrating by part we can extract the $`T_{ab}`$ in covariant form

$$T_{ab}=_{\{a}\left(m\frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}}\right)_{b\}}X^\mu h_{ab}h^{cd}_c\left(m\frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}}\right)_dX^\mu $$
(8)
where $`\{ab\}`$ denotes a symmetric sum. It is easy to see that the energy-momentum tensor is traceless:

$$h^{ab}T_{ab}=0,$$
(9)
thus we have interaction with conformally invariant matter field $`X^\mu `$. The equation of motion, in a given case the constraint equation, is

$$T_{ab}=\frac{2\pi }{\sqrt{h}}\frac{\delta S}{\delta h^{ab}}=0.$$
(10)
We can get the equations which follow from the variation of the action over coordinates $`X^\mu `$ as well:

$$\frac{\pi }{\sqrt{h}}\frac{\delta S}{\delta X^\mu }=\mathrm{}(h)\left(m\frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}}\right)=0.$$
(11)
We can make all these formulas more transparent introducing the operator $`\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu `$

$$\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =m\frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}},$$

it has a property very similar with the constraint equation for a point-like relativistic particle:

$$(III)\mathrm{\Theta }\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }^\mu m^2=0,$$
(12)
and allows to rewrite the action (3) in the form

$$S=\frac{1}{\pi }d^2\zeta \sqrt{h}\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu \mathrm{\Delta }(h)X_\mu .$$
(13)
The equations now look like

$$(I)\mathrm{}(h)\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =0$$
(14)
and

$$(II)T_{ab}=_{\{a}\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _{b\}}X^\mu h_{ab}h^{cd}_c\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _dX^\mu =0.$$
(15)
One can check the covariant conservation of the energy momentum tensor $`^aT_{ab}=0.`$ Equations (14), (15) and (12) completely define the system. We have equation of motion (14) together with the constraint equations (15) and (12). We should stress that in addition to the ”standard” constraint equation (15) we have a new type of constraint (12).

We can fix the conformal gauge $`h_{ab}=\rho \eta _{ab}`$ using reparametrization invariance of the action to derive it in the form (see (3),(13))

$$\stackrel{´}{S}=\frac{m}{\pi }d^2\zeta \sqrt{\left(^2X\right)^2}=\frac{1}{\pi }d^2\zeta \mathrm{\Pi }^\mu ^2X^\mu .$$
(16)
In this gauge the equations of motion are more simple

$$(I)^2\left(m\frac{^2X_\mu }{\sqrt{\left(^2X\right)^2}}\right)=0.$$
(17)
and they should be accompanied by the constraint equations (12) and (15)

$`(II)T_{ab}`$ $`=`$ $`_{\{a}\left(m{\displaystyle \frac{^2X^\mu }{\sqrt{(^2X)^2}}}\right)_{b\}}X^\mu \eta _{ab}_c\left(m{\displaystyle \frac{^2X^\mu }{\sqrt{(^2X)^2}}}\right)^cX^\mu =0,`$
$`(III)\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }^\mu `$ $``$ $`m^2=0,\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =m{\displaystyle \frac{^2X^\mu }{\sqrt{\left(^2X\right)^2}}}.`$ (18)
In the light cone coordinates $`\zeta ^\pm =\zeta ^0\pm \zeta ^1`$ the conformal gauge looks like: $`h_{++}=h_{}=0,h_+=\frac{1}{2}\rho ,`$ and the constrains (S0.Ex3) take the form

$`T_{++}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(T_{00}+T_{01})={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_0\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu +_1\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu )(_0X^\mu +_1X^\mu )=2_+\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _+X^\mu ,`$
$`T_{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(T_{00}T_{01})={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_0\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _1\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu )(_0X^\mu _1X^\mu )=2_{}\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _{}X^\mu ,`$ (19)
the trace is equal to the $`T_+`$ component $`2T_+=T_{00}T_{11}=0.`$ The conservation of the energy momentum tensor takes the form $`_{}T_{++}=_+T_{}=0`$ and requires that its components are analytic $`T_{++}=T_{++}(\zeta ^+)`$ and anti-analytic $`T_{}=T_{}(\zeta ^{})`$ functions. Thus our system has infinite number of conserved charges. This residual symmetry can be easily seen in gauge fixed action (16) written in light cone coordinates

$$\stackrel{´}{S}=\frac{4m}{\pi }\sqrt{(_+_{}X^\mu )^2}𝑑\zeta ^+𝑑\zeta ^{},$$

it is invariant under the transformations $`\zeta ^+=f(\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+),\zeta ^{}=g(\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})`$ where $`f`$ and $`g`$ are arbitrary functions.

The classical equation is $`^2\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =0`$, therefore $`\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu `$ is a function of the form

$$\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =m\frac{^2X^\mu }{\sqrt{(^2X)^2}}=\frac{1}{2}(\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})).$$
(20)
Taking the ratio $`\frac{\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu }{\mathrm{\Pi }^0}=\frac{^2X^\mu }{^2X^0}`$ one can find the second derivative $`^2X^\mu `$ written in the form

$$^2X^\mu =\frac{\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu }{\mathrm{\Pi }^0}^2X^0=\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu 4\mathrm{\Omega }(\zeta ^+,\zeta ^{})=\frac{1}{2}[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})]4\mathrm{\Omega }(\zeta ^+,\zeta ^{}),$$

where $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\zeta ^+,\zeta ^{})`$ is another arbitrary function of $`\zeta ^+`$ and $`\zeta ^{}`$. Thus the equation reduces to the following one: $`_+_{}X^\mu =\frac{1}{2}[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})]\mathrm{\Omega }(\zeta ^+,\zeta ^{}),`$ and $`X^\mu `$ is a sum of inhomogeneous and homogeneous solutions

$$X^\mu =\mathrm{\Psi }^\mu (\zeta ^+,\zeta ^{})+\frac{1}{2}[X_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+X_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})],$$
(21)
where inhomogeneous solution is

$$\mathrm{\Psi }^\mu (\zeta ^+,\zeta ^{})=\frac{1}{2}_0^{\zeta ^+}_0^\zeta ^{}[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})]\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+,\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})𝑑\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+𝑑\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{}$$
(22)
and $`X_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)`$, $`X_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})`$ are arbitrary functions of $`\zeta ^+`$ and $`\zeta ^{}`$. The constraints (S0.Ex4) take the form

$`T_{++}=2_+\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _+X^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)\{{\displaystyle _0^\zeta ^{}}[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})]\mathrm{\Omega }(\zeta ^+,\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})𝑑\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{}+\dot{X}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)\},`$
$`T_{}=2_{}\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _{}X^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})\{{\displaystyle _0^{\zeta ^+}}[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})]\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+,\zeta ^{})𝑑\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^++\dot{X}_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})\}.`$
Taking derivatives of the constraint equation $`\mathrm{\Theta }=0`$(12), and using our solution (20) one can see that

$$\mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,0)}\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})]=0,\mathrm{\Theta }^{(0,1)}\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})]=0,$$
(23)
thus

$$T_{++}=\frac{1}{2}\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)\dot{X}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+),T_{}=\frac{1}{2}\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})\dot{X}_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})],$$
(24)
verifying the fact they are indeed functions of only one light cone variable. We shall derive new constraints differentiating (23), in particular

$$\mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,1)}\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})=0.$$
(25)
This formula has clear interpretation: left and right movers are not independent and should be normal to each other.

The action (16) is invariant under the global symmetries $`\delta X^\mu =\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mu \nu }X_\nu +a^\mu `$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mu \nu }`$ is a constant antisymmetric matrix, while $`a^\mu `$ is a constant. The translation invariance of the action (16) $`\delta _aX^\mu =a^\mu `$ results into the conserved momentum current

$$P_a^\mu =_a\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =_a\left(m\frac{^2X^\mu }{\sqrt{\left(^2X\right)^2}}\right),^aP_a^\mu =0,P^\mu =P_0^\mu 𝑑\zeta ^1$$
(26)
and Lorentz transformation $`\delta _\mathrm{\Lambda }X^\mu =\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mu \nu }X_\nu `$ into angular momentum current

$$M_a^{\mu \nu }=X^\mu _a\mathrm{\Pi }^\nu X^\nu _a\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu +\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu _aX^\nu \mathrm{\Pi }^\nu _aX^\mu ,^aM_a^{\mu \nu }=0,M^{\mu \nu }=M_0^{\mu \nu }𝑑\zeta ^1.$$
(27)
From its definition the momentum density, $`P^\mu (\zeta ^0,\zeta ^1)P_0^\mu (\zeta ^0,\zeta ^1)=_0\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu `$ is conjugate to $`X^\mu (\zeta ^0,\zeta ^1)`$ therefore $`[X^\mu (\zeta ^0,\zeta ^1),P^\nu (\zeta ^0,\zeta ^{}_{}{}^{}1)]=i\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta (\zeta ^1\zeta ^{}_{}{}^{}1)`$ and one can deduce that the following commutation relations should hold:

$`[_+X_L^\mu (\zeta ),_+\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\nu (\zeta ^{^{}})]=2\pi i\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta ^{^{}}(\zeta \zeta ^{^{}}),`$
$`[_{}X_R^\mu (\zeta ),_{}\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\nu (\zeta ^{^{}})]=2\pi i\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta ^{^{}}(\zeta \zeta ^{^{}}),`$ (28)
with all others equal to zero: $`[_\pm X_{L,R}^\mu (\zeta ),_\pm X_{L,R}^\nu (\zeta ^{^{}})]=0`$, $`[_\pm \mathrm{\Pi }_{L,R}^\mu (\zeta ),_\pm \mathrm{\Pi }_{L,R}^\nu (\zeta ^{^{}})]=0`$ 444Requiring that commutation relations for the energy-momentum tensor $`T_{++}`$ and $`T_{}`$ should form the algebra of the two-dimensional conformal group one can get the same form of basic commutators (S0.Ex9).. To make these formulas more transparent to the reader let me use the analogy with the ghosts $`c^\pm `$ and anti-ghost $`b_{\pm \pm }`$ fields (or super-ghorts), indeed the standard Faddeev-Popov action has the form $`c_\pm b`$ with nonzero anti-commutator only between $`c`$ and $`b`$ fields. Making use of these commutators one can get extended algebra of constraints

$`[T_{++}(\zeta ),T_{++}(\zeta ^{^{}})]`$ $`=`$ $`i\pi (T_{++}(\zeta )+T_{++}(\zeta ^{^{}}))\delta ^{^{}}(\zeta \zeta ^{^{}}),`$
$`[T_{++}(\zeta ),\mathrm{\Theta }(\zeta ^{^{}},\zeta ^{})]`$ $`=`$ $`i\pi \mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,0)}(\zeta ,\zeta ^{})\delta (\zeta \zeta ^{^{}}),`$
$`[T_{++}(\zeta ),\mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,0)}(\zeta ^{^{}},\zeta ^{})]`$ $`=`$ $`i\pi \mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,0)}(\zeta ,\zeta ^{})\delta ^{^{}}(\zeta \zeta ^{^{}}),`$
$`[T_{++}(\zeta ),\mathrm{\Theta }^{(0,1)}(\zeta ^{^{}},\zeta ^{})]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i\pi }{2}}\mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,1)}(\zeta ,\zeta ^{})\delta (\zeta \zeta ^{^{}}),`$ (29)
and so on. Similar relations holds for $`T_{}`$. The high derivative operators have been defined as (see (12),(23),(25)) $`\mathrm{\Theta }=\mathrm{\Pi }^2m^2,\mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,0)}=P_L^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }^\mu ,\mathrm{\Theta }^{(0,1)}=\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu P_R^\mu ,\mathrm{\Theta }^{(1,1)}=P_L^\mu P_R^\mu `$, and so on ($`2P_0^\mu =_+\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu +_{}\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu =P_L^\mu +P_R^\mu `$). They form an infinite abelian algebra

$$[\mathrm{\Theta }^{(n,m)},\mathrm{\Theta }^{(k,l)}]=0$$
(30)
and hint at the existence of symmetries (S0.Ex10), (30) higher than the conformal algebra.

From (16) we can deduce the propagator $`<\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu (\zeta )X^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta })>`$ $`=\frac{\eta ^{\mu \nu }}{2}ln(|\zeta \stackrel{~}{\zeta }|\mu ).`$ Using explicit form of the solution (21) and (22) we should have

$`<[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})][X_L^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)+X_R^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})+`$
$`+{\displaystyle _0^{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+}}{\displaystyle _0^{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{}}}[\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }}^+)+\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }}^{})]\mathrm{\Omega }(\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }}^+,\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }}^{})d\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }}^+d\stackrel{~}{\stackrel{~}{\zeta }}^{}]>`$
$`=\eta ^{\mu \nu }[ln[(\zeta ^{}\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})\mu )]+ln[(\zeta ^+\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)\mu )]].`$
Because there are no correlations between right - left moving modes of $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ field and the right - left moving modes of $`X`$ field we shall get $`<\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu (\zeta ^{})X_R^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta ^{}})>=\eta ^{\mu \nu }ln[(\zeta ^{}\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^{})\mu )],<\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)X_L^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta ^+})>=\eta ^{\mu \nu }ln[(\zeta ^+\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)\mu )].`$ Now we are in a position to compute the two point correlation function of the energy momentum operator:

$`<TT_{++}(\zeta ^+)T_{++}(\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)>={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}<T:\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)\dot{X}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)::\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)\dot{X}_L^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+):>`$
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}<\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)\dot{X}_L^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)><\dot{X}_L^\mu (\zeta ^+)\dot{\mathrm{\Pi }}_L^\nu (\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)>={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{D}{(\zeta ^+\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)^4}}.`$ (31)
The ghost contribution to the central charge remains the same as for the standard bosonic string: $`\frac{13}{4}\frac{1}{(\zeta ^+\stackrel{~}{\zeta }^+)^4},`$ therefore the absence of conformal anomaly requires that the space-time should be 13-dimensional

$$D_c=13.$$
(32)
This result can be qualitatively understood if one takes into account the fact that the field equations here are of the forth order and therefore we have two time more degrees of freedom than in the standard bosonic string theory.

Let us now find mode expansion of different operators in the general solution (21),(22). The appropriate boundary condition for closed strings is simply periodicity of the coordinates $`X^\mu (\zeta ^0,\zeta ^1)=X^\mu (\zeta ^0,\zeta ^1+2\pi )`$. The arbitrary periodic functions $`X_L^\mu `$ and $`X_R^\mu `$ can be written as normal mode expansions

$`X_L^\mu =x^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}\pi ^\mu \zeta ^++{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{nm^2}}}\{q_{1n}^\mu \mathrm{sin}(n\zeta ^+)+q_{2n}^\mu \mathrm{cos}(n\zeta ^+)\},`$
$`X_R^\mu =x^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}\pi ^\mu \zeta ^{}+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{nm^2}}}\{\stackrel{~}{q}_{1n}^\mu \mathrm{sin}(n\zeta ^{})+\stackrel{~}{q}_{2n}^\mu \mathrm{cos}(n\zeta ^{})\}`$
and in similar manner $`\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu `$

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_L^\mu =me^\mu +k^\mu \zeta ^++{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2m^2}{n}}}\{p_{1n}^\mu \mathrm{cos}(n\zeta ^+)+p_{2n}^\mu \mathrm{sin}(n\zeta ^+)\},`$
$`\mathrm{\Pi }_R^\mu =me^\mu +k^\mu \zeta ^{}+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2m^2}{n}}}\{\stackrel{~}{p}_{1n}^\mu \mathrm{cos}(n\zeta ^{})+\stackrel{~}{p}_{2n}^\mu \mathrm{sin}(n\zeta ^{})\},`$
therefore for $`_\pm \mathrm{\Pi }^\mu `$ we shall get

$`P_L^\mu =_+\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =k^\mu +{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{2nm^2}\{p_{1n}^\mu \mathrm{sin}(n\zeta ^+)+p_{2n}^\mu \mathrm{cos}(n\zeta ^+)\}`$
$`P_R^\mu =_{}\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu =k^\mu +{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{2nm^2}\{\stackrel{~}{p}_{1n}^\mu \mathrm{sin}(n\zeta ^{})+\stackrel{~}{p}_{2n}^\mu \mathrm{cos}(n\zeta ^{})\}.`$ (33)
We shall consider the coordinates $`q_{1n},q_{2m}`$ as internal degrees of freedom. Substituting the mode expansion into the commutator $`[X_{L,R}^\mu (\zeta ^\pm ),P_{L,R}^\nu (\zeta ^{}_{}{}^{}\pm )]=2\pi i\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta (\zeta ^\pm \zeta ^{}_{}{}^{}\pm )`$ gives

$$[e^\mu ,\pi ^\nu ]=[x^\mu ,k^\nu ]=i\eta ^{\mu \nu },[q_{in}^\mu ,p_{jm}^\nu ]=i\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta _{ij}\delta _{nm},$$

where $`i,j=1,2`$. We can now deduce a less trivial commutator $`[_\pm X_{R,L}^\mu (\zeta ^\pm ),\mathrm{\Pi }_{R,L}^\nu (\zeta ^{}_{}{}^{}\pm )]=2\pi i\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta (\zeta ^\pm \zeta ^{}_{}{}^{}\pm )`$ with all other commutators equal to zero. If one introduces operators

$`b_n^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{q_{1n}^\mu iq_{2n}^\mu }{\sqrt{2}}},b_n^{+\mu }={\displaystyle \frac{q_{1n}^\mu +iq_{2n}^\mu }{\sqrt{2}}}a_n^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{p_{2n}^\mu +ip_{1n}^\mu }{\sqrt{2}}},a_n^{+\mu }={\displaystyle \frac{p_{2n}^\mu ip_{1n}^\mu }{\sqrt{2}}},`$
then one can see that the only nonzero commutator is

$$[a_n^\mu ,b_m^{+\mu }]=\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta _{nm}$$
(34)
and our basic fields will have expansion

$`P_L^\mu =k^\mu +{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{nm^2}(a_n^\mu e^{in\zeta ^+}+a_n^{+\mu }e^{in\zeta ^+}),`$
$`_+X_L^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}\pi ^\mu +{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{n}{m^2}}}(b_n^\mu e^{in\zeta ^+}+b_n^{+\mu }e^{in\zeta ^+}).`$ (35)
Let us now define the Fourier expansion of our constraint operators, they are the standard Virasoro operator $`L`$ and our new operators $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$

$$L_n=<e^{in\zeta ^+}:P_L^\mu _+X_L^\mu :>,\mathrm{\Theta }_{n,l}=<e^{in\zeta ^++il\zeta ^{}}<:\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }^\mu m^2:>$$
(36)
together with the rest high derivative operators

$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{n,l}^{(1,0)}`$ $`=`$ $`<e^{in\zeta ^++il\zeta ^{}}:P_L^\mu \mathrm{\Pi }^\mu :>,\mathrm{\Theta }_{n,l}^{(0,1)}=<e^{in\zeta ^++il\zeta ^{}}:\mathrm{\Pi }^\mu P_R^\mu :>,`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{n,l}^{(1,1)}`$ $`=`$ $`<e^{in\zeta ^++il\zeta ^{}}:P_L^\mu P_R^\mu :>\mathrm{}.`$ (37)
and so on. In order to have explicit form of these operators it is useful to introduce following oscillators

$`\alpha _n^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`m\sqrt{n}a_n^\mu ,n>0,\alpha _0^\mu =k^\mu ;\beta _n^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}\sqrt{n}b_n^\mu ,n>0,\beta _0^\mu =\pi ^\mu /m`$
$`\alpha _n^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`m\sqrt{n}a_n^{+\mu },n>0,\beta _n^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{m}}\sqrt{n}b_n^{+\mu },n>0,`$ (38)
with nonzero commutator

$$[\alpha _n^\mu ,\beta _k^\nu ]=n\eta ^{\mu \nu }\delta _{n+k,0}.$$
(39)
The fields are now represented in the form $`P_L^\mu =\alpha _n^\mu e^{in\zeta ^+},_+X_L^\mu =\beta _n^\mu e^{in\zeta ^+}`$ and allow to represent the constraint operators in the form

$`L_n`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}:\alpha _{nl}\beta _l:`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{0,0}`$ $`=`$ $`m^2(e^21)+{\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4n^2}}:(\alpha _n\alpha _n+\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n):`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{n,0}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{im}{n}}e\alpha _n{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \underset{l0,n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(nl)l}}:\alpha _{nl}\alpha _l:`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{0,n}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{im}{n}}e\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \underset{l0,n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{(nl)l}}:\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_{nl}\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_l:`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{n,l}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2nl}}:\alpha _n\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_l:\mathrm{}`$ (40)
and so on. Direct computation with the use of basic commutators allows to find extended algebra of constrains (S0.Ex10) for Fourier components

$`[L_n,L_m]`$ $`=`$ $`(ln)L_{n+m}+{\displaystyle \frac{D}{6}}(n^3n)\delta _{n+m,0}`$
$`[L_n,\mathrm{\Theta }_{m,k}]`$ $`=`$ $`(m+n)\mathrm{\Theta }_{n+m,k}(J=0),\mathrm{}`$ (41)
and so on. Here J denotes the conformal spin of the corresponding operators.

The important fact which uniquely define the spectrum of this string theory is the time dependence of the operator $`\mathrm{\Pi }^2`$

$$(\mathrm{\Pi }^2m^2)=k^2\zeta _0^2+2\{mek+k\mathrm{\Pi }_{oscil}\}\zeta _0+\mathrm{\Pi }_{oscil}^2+2me\mathrm{\Pi }_{oscil}+m^2(e^21).$$

The first operator diverges quadratically with $`\zeta _0`$ and the second one linearly. Therefore in order to have normalizable states in physical Hilbert space one should impose corresponding constraints. We are enforced to define the physical Hilbert space as

$$k^2\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}=0,ek\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}=0,k\alpha _n\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}=0,k\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_n\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}=0,n>0.$$
(42)
The first equation states that all physical states with different spins are massless. This is consistent with tensionless character of the theory. We should also impose the rest of the constraints

$`L_0\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}=\{k\pi +m{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}n(a_n^+b_n+b_n^+a_n)\}\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}`$ $`=`$ $`0`$
$`L_n\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}`$ $`=`$ $`0,n>0`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{0,0}\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}=\{(e^21)+{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2n}}(a_n^+a_n+\stackrel{~}{a}_n^+\stackrel{~}{a}_n)\}\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}`$ $`=`$ $`0`$
$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{n,l}\mathrm{\Psi }_{phys}`$ $`=`$ $`0,n,l>0\mathrm{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{}.`$ (43)
and so on. For the ground state $`a_n|k,e,0>=b_n|k,e,0>=0`$ we have $`k^2=0,ek=0,e^2=1,`$ and $`k\pi =k_e|k,e,0>=0`$ and therefore massless states of integer spin $`j=0,1,2,..`$ with momentum vector $`k^\mu `$ and polarization tensor $`e^{\{\mu _1}\mathrm{}.e^{\mu _j\}}`$. Equations (S0.Ex33) should guarantee that there is no ghost states in our physical subspace. One can see also large amount of zero norm states, an indication of enhanced symmetry in our system. One should study in great details this Hilbert space in order to learn more about spin content of the theory and to prove the absence of the negative norm states. The details will be given elsewhere.

Despite the fact that this model is not equivalent to the original one, it may represent an important limit of standard bosonic string theory when $`\alpha ^{^{}}\mathrm{}`$. Indeed in this limit all string states become massless $`M_n^2=\frac{1}{\alpha ^{^{}}}(n1)0`$. David Gross defined this limit as an unbroken phase of string theory where one should observe enhanced symmetry .

Below I shall return to the original model A which contains many elements of the above model. As we have seen we can not simply consider the action (3) as a functional of two independent field variables $`X`$ and $`h`$ without losing connection with the original system. In order to consider them as independent variables and at the same time to have equivalent theory at the classical level we have to introduce additional Lagrange multipliers $`\lambda ^{ab}`$. The corresponding action is

$$S=\frac{m}{\pi }d^2\zeta \left\{\sqrt{h}\sqrt{\left(\mathrm{\Delta }(h)X_\mu \right)^2}+\lambda ^{ab}\left(_aX^\mu _bX^\mu h_{ab}\right)\right\}.$$
(44)
and the equations of motion are:

$`\mathrm{}(h)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}}}\right)2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{h}}}_a\left(\lambda ^{ab}_bX^\mu \right)=0,_aX^\mu _bX^\mu h_{ab}=0,`$ (45)
$`t_{ab}=T_{ab}+{\displaystyle \frac{m}{\sqrt{h}}}\lambda _{ab}=0,`$ (46)
where we already know $`T_{ab}`$ (8),(15). For the trace of the energy momentum tensor we have:

$$h^{ab}t_{ab}=\frac{m}{\sqrt{h}}h^{ab}\lambda _{ab},$$
(47)
where we have used the fact that $`h^{ab}T_{ab}=0`$. If we substitute the expression for $`\lambda `$ from the last equation into the first one we shall get unique equation for the $`X^\mu `$:

$$\mathrm{}(h)\left(m\frac{\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu }{\sqrt{(\mathrm{}(h)X^\mu )^2}}\right)+\frac{2}{\sqrt{h}}_a\left(\sqrt{h}T^{ab}_bX^\mu \right)=0,$$
(48)
where $`h_{ab}=_aX^\mu _bX^\mu `$. We can get the same equation by direct variation of the original action (3) $`\delta S=\{\frac{\delta S}{\delta h_{ab}}\frac{\delta h_{ab}}{\delta X^\mu }\delta X^\mu +\frac{\delta S}{\delta X^\mu }\delta X^\mu \}d^2\zeta `$ and substituting the expressions for $`\frac{\delta S}{\delta h_{ab}}`$ (10) and $`\frac{\delta S}{\delta X^\mu }`$ (11). Again we can fix the conformal gauge $`h_{ab}=\rho \eta _{ab}`$ using reparametrization, in this gauge the equations of motion are :

$$^2\frac{^2X_\mu }{\sqrt{\left(^2X^\nu \right)^2}}2_a\left(\lambda ^{ab}_bX^\mu \right)=0,_aX^\mu _bX^\mu \rho \eta _{ab}=0,\rho T_{ab}+m\lambda _{ab}=0.$$
(49)
where $`T_{ab}`$ is given in (S0.Ex3). Comparing these equations with the ones in the previous section (see equations (17) and (S0.Ex3)) one can be convinced once again that these two systems are not equivalent even at the classical level, but are close enough.

The author wish to thank A.Nicolaidis and I.Bachas for the discussion of the tensionless limit of standard string theory and E.Floratos, R.Manvelyan and A.Nichols for useful remarks. This work was supported in part by the EEC Grant no. HPRN-CT-1999-00161.


text:
# The peculiar small-scale X-ray morphology of NGC 5846 observed with Chandra

## 1 Introduction

The hot interstellar medium (ISM) in bright early-type galaxies was first imaged with data from the Einstein Observatory, and a few of its broad characteristics have been established in the more recent past mainly with observations from ROSAT and ASCA. Thermal emission from early type galaxies with a large $`\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{x}/\mathrm{L}_\mathrm{B}`$ ratio is characterized by an optically thin plasma spectrum, with typical average temperatures of $`0.51`$ keV (Forman, Jones & Tucker 1985; Canizares, Fabbiano & Trinchieri 1987) and extent that could vary from galactic scale out to several hundred kpc. The hot ISM is not isothermal over the entire source, but can show a slow temperature increase over a large region (eg, $``$ 40 kpc in NGC 4636, Trinchieri et al 1994), and its large scale morphology can either be relatively smooth and regular, or show asymmetries and inhomogeneities (eg., the characteristic“tail” in M86, Forman et al. 1979; also less dramatic distortions are found in other galaxies, see Trinchieri et al. 1994; 1997b; Kim & Fabbiano 1995; and references therein). Several studies have focused on better understanding the hot gas properties in more details, from the relation with the optical properties, galaxy density and grouping, to the chemical gas composition, all contributing to a vivacious and lively, though often controvertial, debate. On the other hand, the small-scale morphology and detailed characteristics of the ISM have so far been very poorly studied due to the limited spatial resolution of the data available prior to the launch of the Chandra satellite and its instruments.

Coexisting with the hot ISM, a cooler (“warm”) component has been mapped in H$`\alpha `$ in several X-ray bright early-type galaxies (Kim 1989; Trinchieri & Di Serego 1991; Shields 1991; Buson et al. 1993; Goudfrooij et al. 1994; Singh et al. 1995; Macchetto et al. 1996). The morphology of this emission can be either relatively smooth and azimuthally symmetric or exhibit filamentary structures, arcs and/or rings. Although clearly extended, it is generally confined to the innermost regions of the galaxies, often within $``$ 1 kpc, and it is relatively faint and hard to detect properly.

To date, the study of the relation between hotter and cooler gas has been restricted to a handful of galaxies. In particular, a very intriguing morphological similarity between X-ray and H$`\alpha `$ emission has only been established in two normal galaxies not at the center of clusters, using ROSAT HRI observations (Trinchieri & Noris 1995; Trinchieri et al. 1997a). These studies have shown that the highly asymmetric, clumpy and filamentary H$`\alpha `$ emission in NGC 1553 and NGC 5846 correspond to a complex, structured, clumpy emission in the X-ray images, with gross similarities and some remarkably similar details as well. In NGC 4649 however, where the H$`\alpha `$ emission is smooth and azimuthally symmetric, no structure or asymmetries are found in the X-ray emission.

Another intriguing suggestion from the X-ray data of early-type galaxies is the fact that these X-ray features may have different spectral characteristics. Global spectral variations with radius have been measured with the ROSAT PSPC, and indicate a variation of temperature, increasing towards larger radii. However, these variations are generally azimuthally averaged quantities derived on scales of arcminutes, and reliable information on small scales could typically not be derived from the X-ray instruments available up to now. An attempt at measuring a spectral variation in a small region was done using the PSPC observation of NGC 5846 (Trinchieri et al. 1997a): the gas in the region corresponding to a feature to the NE seemed to have a cooler temperature than the surrounding gas at the same galactocentric distance, indicating a cooler plasma in correspondence to enhanced emission.

The close similarity of the filamentary structures in X-ray– and optical emission in some early-type galaxies, together with the lack of them at both wavelengths in others, re-enforced the case for a physical connection between the different phases of the interstellar medium. Such a connection had been dismissed within the “cooling flow” model, since predicted H$`\alpha `$ luminosities obtained from the cooling gas were significantly smaller than those actually observed (e.g., Baum 1992). Given the short cooling times of the X-ray-emitting gas, a plausible suggestion that has been made is that the hot gas is directly responsible for line emission through heat transfer from the hot gas to cooler gas through electron conduction (Sparks et al. 1989; de Jong et al. 1990). This scenario indeed explains in detail the observed enhancement of X-ray emission at the location of dusty optical filaments. In this respect, it is interesting to note that a filamentary dust lane in the central few kpc of NGC 5846 has been detected, with a morphology once again strikingly similar to that observed for the optical nebulosity and the X-ray emission (Goudfrooij & Trinchieri 1998).

The high spatial and spectral resolution, sensitive data set that we have obtained using Chandra will be used in what follows to confirm the tentative results obtained with the ROSAT HRI and to better investigate the physical connection between different phases of the ISM in NGC 5846. This is a giant elliptical galaxy at the center of a small group of galaxies. Extended X-ray emission has been detected from the galaxy and the group already with the $`Einstein`$ satellite (Biermann, Kronberg & Schmutzler 1989) and subsequently studied in detail with the ROSAT PSPC and ASCA (Finoguenov et al. 1999). We assume a distance of 31.6 Mpc, which gives a total L$`{}_{x}{}^{}(0.22\text{keV})=6\times 10^{41}`$ erg s-1 and a total gas mass Mgas $`10\times ^{11}`$ M☉ within 10 radius (from Finoguenov et al. 1999).

## 2 Results of the Chandra data analysis

We obtained an observation of NGC 5846 with the back-illuminated S3 CCD (ACIS-S in imaging configuration) on board Chandra on May 24, 2000 for $``$ 30 ks. The data have been reprocessed using the new calibration files as explained in the CIAO documentation, and have been analyzed with both CIAO111http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao/ and the funtool/ds9 software222http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/index.html.

We have followed the “CIAO Science Threads” given on the ASC home page to check and to improve the quality of the data obtained with the standard processing. In particular we have eliminated $`5`$ ks of data affected by a high background level, obtaining a net exposure time of 24264 sec.

Figure 1 presents the isocontours of the smoothed X–ray image of the whole back-illuminated CCD in the full energy range 0.3-10 keV. The raw data have been smoothed with an adaptive filtering technique (“csmooth”). The X-ray emission from this object fills the entire CCD chip, and we expect it to extend outside, from previous X-ray images of the object in the soft energy band (cf. PSPC image, Trinchieri et al. 1997a; Finoguenov et al. 1999). However, since we are interested mostly on the detailed structure present in the X-ray morphology, and on a detailed study of the characteristics of the emission at small and medium scales, we will not extend the data analysis outside of the single back-illuminated S3 CCD.

### 2.1 Maps

Two broad energy band images ($`0.33`$ keV and $`310`$ keV) are also shown in Fig. 1. It is quite clear from the comparison of the two maps that the emission is mostly confined below $`23`$ keV, and that it has a general elongation to the NE and a rather complex morphology in the inner regions. Several small blobs can also be seen. These are most likely individual point sources, as will be discussed later (see Sect. 2.3). Several of these are also seen at higher energies, while the more diffuse component is almost entirely gone above $``$ 3 keV.

Close-ups of the inner region in different energy bands show more clearly the complexity of the morphology at small scales (Fig. 2). Strong deviations from azimuthal symmetry are evident in all energy bands, but the details of the pattern are not the same at all energies. The comparison with the central region of the galaxy in the optical is also quite striking, since none of the perturbations evident in the X-ray morphology is visible in the stellar light distribution.

The main feature of the X-ray emission is an arc-like or “hook” structure at the very center which is composed of “blobs” of emission at slightly different temperatures (or, more precise, with a different peak and shape in the photon distribution). A more coherent structure is visible at $`>1^{}`$ distance from the central X-ray peak, with an excess mostly to the NE, that again has no counterpart in the stellar light distribution. At hard X rays (kT $``$ 3 keV), only the individual sources remain, and the coherent though distorted structure is no longer visible.

### 2.2 Radial profiles

We have derived azimuthally averaged radial profiles in several energy bands and in several azimuthal sectors, as shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. We centered the profiles at (RA, DEC) = (15h06m28$`\stackrel{s}{.}`$911, +01$`{}_{}{}^{d}36_{}^{}`$22$`\stackrel{}{.}`$35). The choice of the center is not straightforward, since there is no clearly defined peak common to all energies (see Fig. 2). However, since the central region is highly complex, we will disregard the innermost points for now. All point sources detected (see Sect. 2.3) have been excluded from the profile. Since the target is not located at the center of the CCD, we have excluded regions not covered by the CCD by selecting photons within the largest rotated box consistent with the size and orientation of the chip. Therefore, the radial profile for radii larger than $`2^{}`$ cover progressively smaller regions of the CCD.

In Fig. 3 we show the radial profiles of the raw counts, azimuthally averaged over 360° and in 4 broad energy bands. Only at radii $`r>4^{}5^{}`$ are the profiles constant with radius in all bands, indicating that emission is present over the almost entire field of view. At hard energies ($`>3`$ keV), the profile appears to flatten at considerably smaller radii. To estimate the “field” background for this observation, consistently for all energies, we have chosen a small region in the E corner, at a radius of $`5^{}`$ from the peak, where the surface brightness appears constant at all energy bands. In the total band, the value of the assumed background is $`3.75\times 10^6`$ cts s-1 arcsec-2, higher than the expected ACIS-S background of $`3\times 10^6`$cts s-1 arcsec-2 (from blank sky fields). This could be due to background fluctuation in different sky regions, most likely with a contribution from the galaxy itself, that is known to extend well beyond the area covered by the S3 chip.

The radial distribution of the emission is rather complex, and appears to have different radial gradients, distribution and extent both as a function of energy (see Fig. 3) and as a function of angular sector (Fig. 4). In particular, the profile in the Eastern region is significantly higher, flatter and more complex than in the complementary Western sector, being most extended in the 40°-80° angular region. This is more pronounced at energies below 1.5 keV, and most in the 0.9-1.5 keV band, which shows the greater extension and flatter overall distribution.

### 2.3 Individual point sources

The map in Fig. 1 indicates the presence of several individual point-like sources scattered over the full field of view, as listed in Table 1. The source list was derived combining the results of different source detection algorithms provided by the CIAO software (celldetect, wavedetect) on the full energy band image, and on the two separate broad-band images used in Fig. 1. The combined list was cleaned of duplicates and compared with the adaptively smoothed images. A few sources that were evident from the map but were not included by any of the detection algorithms used were added. Net source counts were computed first in the full 0.3-10 keV energy range, assuming as background the annular region at the same distance from the X-ray peak as the source, cleaned of the actual sources. The annuli chosen for this purpose are: $`0\stackrel{}{.}50\stackrel{}{.}75`$, $`0\stackrel{}{.}751^{}`$, $`1^{}2^{}`$, $`2^{}4^{}`$ and $`>4^{}`$. Within $`0\stackrel{}{.}5`$, both algorithms find many overlapping sources, grouped in a sort of elongated pattern in two main regions. We have substituted the many “individual” sources with two ellipses comprising the combined regions of the many individual sources, which we will consider later. In any case, the region within $`0\stackrel{}{.}5`$ is not considered at this stage. The list was further cleaned of sources with a signal-to-noise smaller than $``$ 3. Source regions and their numbers (in increasing RA) are shown in Fig. 5, superposed onto the adaptively smoothed image. As can be seen from the plot, most peaks evident in the adaptively smoothed image are accounted for, while a few others are not included in the final list, because their signal-to-noise in the total band is smaller than our set threshold.

Since most of the detected sources have very few counts, attempts at determining fluxes or count rates in different energy bands have resulted in only a few detections. We therefore do not calculate hardness ratios for our detected sources. However, we notice that the distribution of the counts in broad energy bands could be very different in different sources (see also the discussion on hardness ratios in Blanton et al. 2000 and Sarazin et al. 2001).

Count rates in the total energy band are converted into fluxes assuming a constant conversion rate of 1 count s-1= 7$`\times 10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (see Table 5). The X-ray luminosities (Fig 6) are distributed in the range $`3\times 10^{38}L_x2\times 10^{39}`$ erg s-1. Four sources in the inner $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ region (# 8, 11, 12, 13) have not been included in the analysis of individual sources since they represent extended regions as discussed above. The total number of “individual” sources therefore is 37. Although we do not claim completeness at the lower luminosities (see later), we should have detected all of the bright sources, and we have detected about 30 sources in the central 4 radius of NGC 5846, which most likely all belong to the galaxy.

Figure 7 shows the luminosity function of the sources detected here. We have assumed that all are associated with NGC 5846, although we expect that a few of them might be (mostly background) intruders ($`<9`$ for a flux limit f$`{}_{0.52}{}^{}2\times 10^{15}`$ erg s-1 in the whole field of view, Hasinger et al. 1998). A power law distribution is suggested for luminosities above $`4\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1, with a turnover at lower luminosities. Although breaks in the luminosity functions of NGC 1553 and NGC 4697 have been suggested at similar luminosities (Blanton et al. 2000; Sarazin et al. 2000), in NGC 5846 sources at low luminosities (low count rates) are detected with less than or about 10 counts, and are already in most cases at the detection limit, so we cannot exclude a large bias due to incompleteness. The right panel in fact shows the luminosity function derived for sources detected at higher significance (S/N $`>`$ 3.4). The flattening at low luminosity has disappeared almost completely. Also, the flattening becomes more conspicuous when sources of lower significance (2.5 $`\sigma `$) are included (plot not shown).

The dashed line drawn over the steeper part of the luminosity function represents the slope ($`1.79`$) derived for the high-luminosity end of the luminosity function in M31 (Shirey et al. 2001), which is the steepest value reported so far in the literature for early-type galaxies or bulges. In NGC 5846, an even steeper value of $``$2.4 might be more appropriate to cover the full range of luminosities sampled. Since the luminosity range sampled for NGC 1553, NGC 4697, and NGC 5846 is very similar, this difference in slopes must indicate some other phenomenon at play.

### 2.4 Energy distribution

Given the complexity of the spectral characteristics of the extended emission, as already shown by the maps in Fig. 2, we defer a more complete treatment of the spectral data to a later paper. However, it should be noticed that the spectral characteristics of the gas are at least as complex as its morphological distribution.

Fig. 8 better illustrates the complexity of the emission on small scales. The energy distributions of the photons in four of the regions analyzed are compared. All regions selected are within a $`0\stackrel{}{.}75`$ radius from the center of the galaxy, and cover an area between $``$ 50 arcsec2 and $``$ 300 arcsec2. The data are binned in relatively large bins, to obtain a good statistical significance at each point and within the same energy boundaries, albeit at the expense of details.333The spectral matrixes for each region do not take into account the extended nature of the sources. While formally incorrect, the errors introduced by this assumption are very small on the scale of the sources analyzed here, and are also not very significant throughout the S3 chip (J. McDowell, private communication, see also Hicks et al. 2002). the very center of the galaxy, covering the higher surface brightness structure and its adjacent lower surface brightness region. The other two are at slightly larger radial distance and cover the ENE and the S enhancements visible in the maps (Fig. 2). It is evident from the figure that the distributions are not the same, both in shape and in the position of the peak. The average distribution at the same radial distance also appears to have a broader shape than for example the S region (open squares).

Even more dramatic is the comparison of the photon distribution on larger areas and at large radii. The two lower panels of Figure 9 show the comparison between two inner regions, characterized by higher and lower surface brightness (the former being along the high surface brightness feature, inclusive of sources 8, 12, 13; the latter in the lower surface brightness region to the ENE of it). The upper panel of Figure 9 shows the energy distribution in three outer concentric annuli. These are defined as having inner/outer radii of $`0\stackrel{}{.}751^{};1^{}2^{};2^{}4^{}`$ respectively; all detected sources have been removed. The background is estimated from the easternmost corner of the CCD, at galactocentric radii of $`>4^{}`$ and subtracted from the data; for all annuli care has been taken to ensure that the area not covered by the CCD is also masked out. The net counts have then been binned to obtain a $`2.5\sigma `$ significance in each bin.

It is apparent from the comparison that all regions have significantly different overall spectral shapes, and different positions of the peak. We have tried to fit the data with current spectral models, as summarized in Table 2. We stress that the results presented here are neither final nor the best possible, but their purpose is to give a simplified parameterization of the average gas properties. We have used a combination of plasma line code and simple thermal or power law models. We find that (i) reasonable fits require 2 components out to 2 radius. Either a power law or Bremsstrahlung are needed to account for a residual high energy tail and extreme low energy absorption that a fit with only a plasma code required for the low energy range would produce. (ii) There is no strong evidence that one model plasma code should be preferred. We used models based on both the Raymond-Smith code (hereafter Raymond code; Raymond & Smith 1977) and the MEKAL code (e.g., Kaastra et al. 1996). The MEKAL code includes a better treatment of the Iron L lines near 1 keV according to recent measurements and calculations of atomic parameters (Liedahl et al. 1995). The MEKAL code indeed yielded slightly better fits than the Raymond code (see, e.g., Fig. 10), but the required NH is significantly higher than for the Raymond model, and than the line-of-sight value. (iii) The fits are not sensitive to the abundance assumed; (iv) we find significant residuals at $`1.8`$ keV and below $`1`$ keV (see Fig. 10), no matter what combination of models and parameters we use. We have used the latest calibration provided by the ASC/CXC, which significantly improve the quality of the fits over previous versions; however, we cannot exclude residual instrument calibration uncertainties.

Leaving both kT and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as free parameters, the best fit temperatures derived from the MEKAL model are not significantly different among the regions considered within 2, in spite of the different photon distribution shown in Fig. 9. The power law slopes instead have very different best fit values ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in the range 0.15-2.5), however with large errors. If we fix the power law slope to a common value (of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$=1.85, best fit value from the $`1^{}2^{}`$ region), we find that the temperature of the plasma increases towards the outside, from the low surface brightness central feature to the $`2^{}4^{}`$ annulus. The low and high surface brightness features have formally different best fit temperatures, however the difference is not statistically significant (see Table 2). The NH parameter is consistent with the line of sight value only in the very inner regions.

## 3 Discussion

The complexity of the emission in NGC 5846 is self-evident from the maps and from the comparison of the images at different energies. The high-energy band, above $`3`$ keV, is completely dominated by a collection of individual sources that are now becoming a common feature in early type galaxies. In the soft energies, a very complex morphology is observed within the central $`1^{}2^{}`$, with accompanying complexity in the gas physical and chemical properties, while a more regular (i.e., diffuse) gas distribution is observed at larger radii.

### 3.1 Individual sources

As already suggested by the crude properties of the low-luminosity early-type galaxies observed with Einstein (Fabbiano, Kim & Trinchieri 1992), and then measured with ASCA and BeppoSAX (Matsushida et al. 1994; Matsumoto et al. 1997; Pellegrini 1999; Trinchieri et al. 2000), a population of individual sources, most likely low mass X-ray binaries, constitutes the dominant source of emission at high energies in “normal” early-type galaxies of all luminosities. A thorough study of this population is now possible with Chandra, due to its high spatial resolution and sensitivity. An example of such detailed study in the low-luminosity elliptical NGC 4697 is presented by Sarazin et al. (2000, 2001) where $`90`$ sources with luminosities above $`5\times 10^{37}`$ erg s-1 are detected. A smaller though substantial population is also measured in NGC 1553 (Blanton et al. 2000), with $`40`$ sources above $`3\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1.

We detected $``$ 40 sources in NGC 5846, all with luminosities above $`3\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1, which is higher than the Eddington luminosity for a 1 M accreting object. Ultra-Luminous Sources (ULS) have been known to exist in spiral galaxies for quite some time (Fabbiano 1989) but more examples of these non nuclear bright sources are becoming available with Chandra data in both spiral (e.g. Tennant et al. 2001, Prestwich 2001) and elliptical galaxies (e.g. Blanton et al. 2000 and Sarazin et al. 2001). The brightest sources (L$`{}_{X}{}^{}>2\times 10^{39}`$ erg s-1) so far have almost esclusively been associated with spiral galaxies and regions of star formation activity (e.g., Zezas, Georgantopoulos & Ward 1999; Roberts & Warwick 2000; Fabbiano, Zezas & Murray 2001), and are known to vary both in intensity and in spectral characteristics (Mizuno, Kubota & Makishima 2001), supporting the idea that at least most of them are powered by a black hole. If the accretion is isotropic, these ULS’s would require intermediate-mass black holes, which are however inconsistent with measured inner disk temperatures (Kubota et al. 2001), and either anisotropic or beamed emission have been proposed to explain their high luminosities (King et al. 2001; Körding, Falcke & Markoff 2002).

Although not as extreme, several point sources emitting above the Eddington luminosity are now also found in “normal” early-type galaxies, in locations without any association with star formation activity. A recent discussion on binary sources in early-type galaxies associates most of them, in particular the brighter ones, with the globular cluster population. In NGC 1399, Angelini et al. (2001) remark that the average luminosity of the globular cluster sources is higher than the rest of them. A high percentage of the sources in both NGC 4697 and NGC 1553 are also associated with globular clusters. As these three galaxies cover a large range in $`L_X/L_B`$ ratio, it seems likely that a large fraction of X-ray sources is associated with the globular cluster population in all early-type galaxies. It is quite possible that the same association exists for sources in NGC 5846, which has a rich population of them (Forbes et al. 1997 detect over 1200 globular clusters using WFPC2 images from HST). However, this is not at all what is observed in our Galaxy or M 31, where no sources brighter than the Eddington limit are found associated with Globular clusters.

The comparison of the luminosity distributions of the sources in the three early-type galaxies available (data on NGC 1553 and NGC 4697 from the literature) indicates a lack of high-luminosity sources in NGC 5846 relative to the other two (i.e., a steeper slope). We cannot confirm a flattening in the luminosity function at low luminosities, which is most likely an effect of incompleteness. NGC 5846 is $``$ 50% more distant than NGC 1553 and $``$ 100% more than NGC 4697, the observing time on NGC 5846 was somewhat shorter than for the other two galaxies, and a much more significant component of hot gas is present in NGC 5846, therefore our limiting threshold is higher ($`6\times `$ than for NGC 4697, and only marginally than for NGC 1553), so we are not sampling the lower luminosity range as well as in these two galaxies. Furthermore, given the larger distance, our source confusion may be more severe. We expect this to be most relevant at the lower end of the luminosity distribution (brighter sources being rarer, and their luminosities being dominant over the addition of smaller contributions), which could artificially populate the low-to-intermediate luminosity range considered, resulting in a steeper relation. We therefore cannot claim that a break exists in the luminosity function of NGC 5846, since the flattening observed below $`L_X4\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1is almost surely due to incompleteness at the low end of the $`L_X`$ distribution. However, we detect a steeper slope above $`6\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1 relative to the luminosity functions of NGC 1553 and NGC 4697.

### 3.2 Large scale distribution of the hot gas

Given the small field of view of the S3 detector relative to the full spatial extent of the X-ray emission in this object, little can be said about the large-scale structure of the gas. In particular, the W quadrant is only covered out to $`r2^{}3^{}`$, before reaching the edges of the CCD. To the E, the coverage is better, but only out to $`r4^{}5^{}`$ for a large fraction of the galaxy.

As shown by the radial profiles in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, extended emission is detected out to $`6^{}`$, i.e., to the boundary of the CCD field of view. The shape of the photon distribution appears broader above than below $`1`$ keV, and shows azimuthal asymmetries at all energies. In particular, a strong enhancement is observed in the 0°$`<`$ PA $`<`$ 120° region, between $`1^{}2\stackrel{}{.}5`$ radius, more pronounced below 1 keV. Moreover, the 0°$`<`$ PA $`<`$ 90° sector profile appears flatter than the remaining sectors, mostly below $`1`$ keV. The significant azimuthal asymmetries in the photon distribution prevents us from parameterizing the radial profile of the emission with a “King-type” profile as done in the past. While this kind of profile might still be valid at larger radii, the inner region clearly requires a much more complex model.

The spectral data also indicate that a complex spectral model is needed, which appears to vary even within relatively small regions. At large radii (r$`>2^{}`$) only the eastern portion of the galaxy is covered, and the spectral photon distribution can be fitted reasonably well with a single-temperature plasma with kT$``$ of 0.8 keV. It is likely that at these radii the turmoil affecting the innermost parts of the galaxy is less severe and the gas is in an energetically stabler configuration. However, the lack of coverage at larger radii prevents us from a more complete analysis of these regions.

### 3.3 Small scale properties of the hot gas

The central region of NGC 5846 shows complex morphology in the form of a prominent “hook” at the center, plus several “blobs” and filaments to the NNE at $`1^{}3^{}`$ radius and towards S, that had already been seen in the ROSAT HRI images (Trinchieri et al. 1997a). The spectral properties are not the same in different regions, suggesting a rather complex physical state of the interstellar medium.

Complex gas morphologies are now more common as Chandra data on bright early-type galaxies become available. NGC 1553 (Blanton et al. 2000) and NGC 4636 (Jones et al. 2001) show a spiral-like feature at the center, NGC 4696 (Sanders & Fabian 2001) exhibits a spiral plume-like feature, and a disturbed inner halo is seen in NGC 1399 (Angelini et al. 2001), to name a few. In several objects, the peculiar morphologies are associated with central activity, in the form of an extended radio source (e.g., NGC 1399) or of a previously unknown (obscured, or low-luminosity) X-ray central source ($`e.g.`$ NGC 1553), but not in all (e.g., NGC 4636 has neither an X-ray nucleus nor a strong radio source). However, what makes NGC 5846 galaxy unique (up to now!) relative to the other examples is the close agreement found between the morphology in the X-ray gas and in the optical line-emitting gas (H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\]) and dust. Several objects show complex line-emitting morphologies, but so far claims of similarities do not extend to the very inner regions, like in NGC 5846 (see Fig.11). Even the morphological similarity found for NGC 1553 with the ROSAT HRI data (Trinchieri et al. 1997a) does not appear to extend to smaller scales (Blanton et al. 2000).

Morphological agreement on arcmin scales was already suggested by the ROSAT HRI data (Trinchieri et al. 1997a; Goudfrooij & Trinchieri 1998). With the present data, the morphological similarity with the optical line emission is brought an order of magnitude closer in, to scales as small as a few arcsec (cf. Fig. 11), equivalent to a few hundred parsecs, while no equivalent distortions are seen in the red continuum image (Fig. 2). Dust absorption, also detected in optical images of NGC 5846 (Goudfrooij & Trinchieri 1998; Forbes et al. 1997), also displays a very similar filamentary structure extending down towards the nucleus.

The close similarity in the distributions of the X-ray and H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] emission is rather stunning. In some aspects it is almost an exact replica in both morphology and intensity variations, in others at least the morphology is similar. For example, the “two-horned” H$`\alpha `$ structure is reflected in a stronger and longer “horn” in X-rays in the innermost crosscut (right “horn”), while the left feature is visible as a distortion in the gas at larger radii. Horizontal and vertical cuts at different locations through the X-ray and H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] images confirm the visual impression of similar pattern at different intensities (Fig. 12) and give a more quantitative view of the large intensity contrasts present at both wavelengths. In crosscut 2, X-ray and H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] emission are similar both in extent ($`30^{\prime \prime }`$) and in relative intensities ($`\times 2`$ from peak to shoulder), and a similarly broad base is present in crosscuts 3 and 4, although the very intense H$`\alpha `$ peak has no correspondence in the X-rays. The comparison of crosscuts 1 and 6 would suggest that the panels have been exchanged, since the X-ray cut of region 1 closely resembles the H$`\alpha `$ cut of region 6 and vice-versa. Finally, crosscut 5 appears somewhat more extended in X-rays, and with a larger plateau.

What is the nature of these intermediate– and small-scale morphological structures? The galaxy is at the center of a small group, and the large-scale gas distribution shown by the PSPC data is regular and almost azimuthally symmetric (Finoguenov et al. 1999). The galaxy is not associated with a strong, extended radio source: A partially-resolved radio source is detected at 1.4 and 8.4 GHz with the VLA (Filho, Barthel & Ho 2000; Möllenhoff, Hummel & Bender 1992), at a flux density that is several orders of magnitude fainter than cores of more classical radio galaxies (Fanaroff & Riley 1974) and closer in power to the weak cores of Seyfert galaxies. We therefore do not expect it to cause a significant displacement of the hot gas as observed in stronger, extended radio sources. We also do not find any evidence for the presence of an X-ray-bright nuclear source which might cause turmoil in the center.

A “high-speed encounter” has been postulated between NGC 5846 and its close companion NGC 5850 (Higdon et al. 1998), mainly to explain the latter galaxy’s peculiar morphology. This is not likely to explain the disturbed appearance in the hot gas distribution of NGC 5846, since the effects should be visible also at larger distances and in particular towards the spiral galaxy itself. If anything, the X-ray contours towards NGC 5850 (i.e., to the E) appear steeper on scales $`>5^{}`$, which might argue for gas compression if the galaxy is approaching (cf. Fig. 1 in Finoguenov et al. 1999; note that Higdon et al. 1998 discard a ram-pressure stripping explanation for the morphology of NGC 5850, due to the lack of extended X-ray emission in the system). At smaller scales, the distortion is towards the NNE, and its shape is more reminiscent of a tidal effect of an escaping object or a captured object spiraling in towards the galaxy centre. The existence of a similar spur in the morphology of the optical emission-line gas also suggest influence from an “external source”. The kinematics of the H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] emission is found to be irregular, with steep velocity gradients in the the N–S direction, and a sudden change of sign of velocity towards the S. Conversely, the kinematics of the stellar component is regular, showing slow rotation (Caon et al. 2000). The kinematically distinct inner gas component supports the idea of external accretion, when the gas has not yet settled into an equilibrium configuration. A similar interpretation was put forward by Sparks, Macchetto & Golombek (1989) and de Jong et al. (1990) for the nature of the optical nebulosity in NGC 4696, which they associate with a small, gas-rich galaxy that has fallen in and has been stripped of its gas and dust.

Given the likely external origin of the optical nebulosity and dust in NGC 5846, the idea of a causal connection between the dust and optical nebulosity on one side and the hot gas on the other may seem counterintuitive, since the hot gas most likely has an “internal” origin, coming from mass loss of old stars (e.g., Fabbiano 1989). Sparks, Macchetto & Golombek (1989) and de Jong et al. (1990) independently suggested that the enhancement of the X-ray emission associated with the colder gas and dust is caused by electron conduction. The hot electrons thus act as cooling agent for the hot gas, while causing transient heating for dust grains and plausibly even acting as ionizing source for the optical emission-line gas (see also Voit & Donahue 1997; Goudfrooij & Trinchieri 1998). This model was suggested to explain the larger-scale similarities in NGC 5846 observed with the ROSAT HRI (Trinchieri et al. 1997a; Goudfrooij & Trinchieri 1998). We can now give a quantitative estimate of the expected luminosities in the features observed at small scales.

We have estimated an average X-ray surface brightness in the “hook” of $`7`$ counts arcmin-2, corresponding to $``$ 1.4 $`\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1 pc-2 at the adopted distance. Although we do not have a very precise assessment of the temperature of the gas, the derived density depends only weakly on temperature. Hence we choose a uniform temperature of $`kT`$ = 0.6 keV. The choice of the assumed volume is however more critical, and we do not have direct information about the depth of the structure. Assuming that the emission comes from a narrow, bent ellipsoid, with depth equivalent to the narrow side, the average density of the hot gas is $`n_e=0.35`$ cm-3. Following Macchetto et al. (1996, as derived from Cowie & McKee 1977), the predicted line flux is L $``$2.4 $`\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1, assuming 1% of the available energy is radiated in the H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] lines. This is to be compared to L $``$1.3 $`\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1 observed. The good agreement between the two estimates reinforces the likelihood of the “heat conduction” model.

## 4 Conclusions

High resolution images of NGC 5846 obtained with Chandra show a disturbed hot gas morphology on arcsecond scale ($`1^{\prime \prime }=140`$ pc) with unprecedented details. The morphological peculiarities are coupled with a complex energy distribution of the photons. Using these high-resolution observations, the previously reported similarity of the X-ray emission and the H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] features are now extended into the very inner regions of the galaxy, reinforcing the idea that there must be a close link between these two phases of the ISM. A viable interpretation of this phenomenon is that the gas ionization responsible for the optical line emission is provided by the electrons that also take care of the heat conduction within the hot gas.

About 40 point-like sources are found in NGC 5846, with $`L_X>3\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1. The luminosity function of these sources appears steeper than any previously reported for early-type galaxies. However, we cannot exclude a bias at the low-luminosity end that might artificially increase the contribution of low-luminosity sources. We also cannot confirm the change in slope observed at low luminosities in other early-type galaxies.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the whole Chandra team for help and support during the data analysis and for many useful discussions on the different aspects of the new data. In particular we thank E. Mandel and B. Joye for their continuous support and good will to improve the $`funtools`$/DS9 software, that we have heavily used in our analysis. This work has received partial financial support from the Italian Space Agency. PG was affiliated with the Astrophysics Division of the Space Science Department of the European Space Agency during part of this project.