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# ON THE INFLUENCE OF EINSTEIN–PODOLSKY–ROSEN EFFECT ON THE DOMAIN WALL FORMATION DURING THE COSMOLOGICAL PHASE TRANSITIONS

## 1  History and Present-Day Status of the Domain Wall Problem
in Cosmology

The first mention about the problem of domain walls in field theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking was done by Bogoliubov at the conference held in Pisa (Italy) in 1964. As was written later in his report $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$, “it is hard to admit, for example, that the ‘phases’ are the same everywhere in the space. So it appears necessary to consider such things as ‘domain structure’ of the vacuum.”

The next important step was done about 10 years later by Zel’dovich, Kobzarev, and Okun $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$, who presented a first detailed consideration of the role of domain walls in the astrophysical context and pointed both to the positive aspects and difficulties arising in the cosmological models involving spontaneous symmetry breaking.

At last, the problem of domain walls and other Higgs field defects became one of the central topics of cosmology in the early 1980s, after appearance of the inflationary models, whose first versions were substantially based on the dynamics of Higgs fields in the course of their phase transitions. One of the principal difficulties of such models was associated with the fact that the observed region of the Universe consists of a large number of subregions that were causally-disconnected during the phase transition. Their stable vacuum states, in general, should be different and, therefore, separated by the domain walls, involving considerable energy density. But subsequent evolution and decay of these domain walls should result in dramatic irregularity of the space–time, contradicting to observational data.

Even after development of the “new” and “chaotic” inflation scenarios $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$, which avoid the domain wall formation at the earliest stages of cosmological evolution, this problem still remains important for the phase transitions occurring at the later times and less energies.

Moreover, the problem of domain walls became even more pressing in the late 1990s, when detailed measurements of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) pointed to the absence of contribution to the large-scale structure from the processes of disintegration of Higgs field defects.bbb In fact, the most realistic Higgs defects in the modern theories of elementary particles are cosmic strings and monopoles, associated with breaking of continuous symmetries. Nevertheless, consideration of the domain walls (related to a discrete symmetry breaking) is still of importance as a simplest model.

There is a quite large number of works aimed at solving the above-mentioned problem. Unfortunately, their most objectionable feature is introduction of some arbitrary modifications to the theory of elementary particles, having no experimental (laboratory) confirmations. The main aim of the present report is to describe an alternative approach, which is based on accounting for EPR correlations and can be justified by, at least, some indirect laboratory experiments.

## 2  EPR Correlations and Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena:
Their Probable Role in Cosmology

In the general case, Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) effect $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$ can be defined as a correlated character of quantum processes in the “causally-disconnected” (i.e., separated by a space-like interval) regions provided that they refer to a single (coherent) quantum state of the system.ccc It should be emphasized that EPR effect implies no violation of the “causality principle”: despite a correlated character, the quantum processes in causally-disconnected regions are random; so that no information can be transmitted by using them.  The simplest and most well-known example is a correlated measurement of the polarization states of two photons emitted by the same source, as shown in the left panel of Fig. 1.

Moreover, there are some indirect experimental evidences (the most remarkable of which were obtained in the recent years) pointing to a possibility of EPR correlations even in macroscopic systems. Particularly, we should mention
(1) the quantum-optical experiments, confirming a presence of EPR correlations of photon pairs at considerable ($``$10 km) distances;
(2) the experiments with ultra-cooled gases, demonstrating that Bose condensate of a macroscopic number of particles behaves exactly as a single coherent state, according to all predictions of quantum mechanics; and, especially,
(3) the experiments on propagation of ultra-short laser pulses through amplifying media, showing a superluminal reduction of macroscopic coherent photon states, caused by a stimulated emission (e.g. see review $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$).

On the basis of the above-listed facts, it is reasonable to assume that EPR correlations can also manifest themselves in Bose condensate of Higgs fields at the early stages of cosmological evolution.

## 3  One-Dimensional Cosmological Model
Involving a Phase Transition

To estimate efficiency of EPR effect, we shall consider a simplest one-dimensional Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) cosmological model with metric

$$ds^2=dt^2a^2(t)dx^2$$
(1)
and Higgs field whose Lagrangian possesses $`Z_2`$ symmetry group

$$(x,t)=\frac{1}{2}\left[\left(_t\phi \right)^2\left(_x\phi \right)^2\right]\frac{\lambda }{4}\left[\phi ^2\left(\mu ^2/\lambda \right)\right]^2.$$
(2)
As is known, the stable vacuum states of the field (2) are

$$\phi _0=\pm \mu /\sqrt{\lambda },$$
(3)
and the structure of a domain wall between them is described as ddd From here on, it will be assumed that thickness of the wall $`1/\mu `$ is small in comparison with a characteristic domain size.

$$\phi (x)=\pm \phi _0\mathrm{tanh}\left[\frac{\mu }{\sqrt{2}}(xx_0)\right];$$
(4)
so that the energy concentrated in the domain wall (4) equals

$$E=\frac{2\sqrt{2}}{3}\frac{\mu ^3}{\lambda }.$$
(5)
Next, by introduction of the conformal time $`\eta =𝑑t/a(t)`$, the space–time metric (1) can be reduced to the conformally flat form (e.g. $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$):

$$ds^2=a^2(t)[d\eta ^2dx^2];$$
(6)
so that the light rays ($`ds^2=0`$) will be described by the straight lines inclined at $`\pm \pi /4`$: $`x=\pm \eta +\mathrm{const}`$.

If $`\eta =0`$ and $`\eta =\eta _0`$ are the beginning and end of the phase transition, respectively, and $`\eta =\eta _{}`$ is the instant of observation, then, as is seen in the conformal diagram drawn in the right panel of Fig. 1,

$$N=(\eta _{}\eta _0)/\eta _0\eta _{}/\eta _0(\text{at large }N)$$
(7)
is the number of spatial subregions causally-disconnected during the phase transition. (Their final vacuum states are arbitrarily marked by the arrows.)

A probability of phase transition without formation of the domain walls is usually estimated as a ratio of the number of Higgs field configurations without domain walls to the total number of field configurations:

$$P_N^0=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}/\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}^N,$$
(8)
and this quantity tends to zero very sharply at $`N\mathrm{}`$.

On the other hand, if a sufficiently long interval of the conformal time

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\eta \eta _{}$$
(9)
preceded the phase transition, then a coherent state of the Higgs field (shown by the lower dashed triangle) will be formed by the instant $`\eta =0`$ in the entire region observable at $`\eta _{}`$ (which is shown by the upper triangle).

The inequality (9) can be satisfied, particularly, in the case of sufficiently long de Sitter stage (which is typical for an overcooled state of the Higgs field just before its phase transition). Really, if $`a(t)=\mathrm{exp}(Ht)`$, then

$$\eta =\frac{1}{H}e^{Ht}+\mathrm{const}\mathrm{}\text{at}t\mathrm{};$$
(10)
so that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\eta `$ can be quite large.

Next, if condition (9) is satisfied, it is reasonable to assume that EPR correlations may occur between the all $`N`$ subregions. In such case, the probability $`P_N^0`$ should be calculated with an account of Gibbs factors for the field configurations involving domain walls:

$$P_N^0=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}/Z,$$
(11)
where

$$Z=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\underset{s_i=\pm 1}{}\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{E}{T}\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{1}{2}(1s_js_{j+1})\right\}.$$
(12)
Here, $`s_j`$ is the spin-like variable describing a sign of vacuum state in $`j`$-th subregion, $`E`$ is the domain wall energy, given by (5), and $`T`$ is some characteristic temperature of the phase transition.

From a formal point of view, statistical sum (12) is exactly the same as in the Ising model, well studied in the condensed matter physics. By using the respective formulas (e.g. from $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$), a final result can be written in the form: eee Yet another method for calculating this quantity, based on explicit expressions for the probabilities of field configurations with various numbers of the domain walls, was described in our article $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$.

$$P_N^0=\frac{2}{\left[1+e^{E/T}\right]^N+\left[1e^{E/T}\right]^N}.$$
(13)
As can be easily shown by analyzing (13), when $`E/T`$ increases, $`P_N^0`$ becomes a very gently decreasing function of $`N`$. Therefore, just the large energy concentrated in the domain walls turns out to be the factor substantially suppressing the probability of their formation.  This fact is pictorially illustrated in Fig. 2 ($`E/T=0`$ refers to the case when there are no EPR correlations at all).

The probability of absence of the domain walls becomes on the order of unity (for example, 1/2) if $`E/T\mathrm{ln}N`$, or, with an account of (5) and (7),

$$\frac{\mu ^3}{\lambda T}\mathrm{ln}\frac{\eta _{}}{\eta _0}.$$
(14)
Because of a very weak logarithmic dependence in the right-hand side of inequality (14), this condition can be satisfied for some particular kinds of the Lagrangians. Therefore, EPR correlations may be an efficient mechanism of the domain wall suppression in a certain class of field theories.

In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the same approach, based on accounting for EPR correlations, can be used to refine a concentration of other Higgs field defects (e.g., magnetic monopoles), which is one of key aspects of the modern astroparticle physics $`\mathrm{?}\mathrm{?}`$. The refined concentrations, in general, should be less than the commonly accepted ones, and therefore the cosmological constraints on the parameters of the respective field theories will be less tight.

## Acknowledgments

I am grateful to I.B.Khriplovich, V.N.Lukash, L.B.Okun, A.I.Rez, M.Sasaki, A.A.Starobinsky, A.V.Toporensky, and G.E.Volovik for valuable discussions, consultations, and critical comments.

## References


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# Ly𝛼 Polarisation in Thick H I Media

## 1 Introduction

In the ultraviolet band there are many resonance lines arising from the $`\mathrm{S}_{1/2}\mathrm{P}_{1/2,3/2}`$ transitions including CIV$`\lambda \lambda 1548,1551`$, NV$`\lambda \lambda 1238,1241`$, MgII$`\lambda \lambda 2798,2800`$, and Ly$`\alpha \lambda 1216`$. These lines are found to be prominent and conspicuous in many line-emitting objects including quasars, starburst galaxies, and planetary nebulae because they are major coolants in plasmas with temperature $`T10^410^5\mathrm{K}`$. The atomic physics associated with the $`\mathrm{S}_{1/2}\mathrm{P}_{1/2,3/2}`$ transitions provides a nice and simple example of the quantum interferences between the excited levels.

It is well-known that the resonance scattering between two levels with $`J=1/2`$ yields isotropic outgoing radiation that is completely unpolarised. This is in high contrast with the fact that a $`90^{}`$ resonance scattering of an unpolarised photon associated with a $`J=1/2J=3/2`$ transition yields the maximum degree of polarisation $`3/7`$ (e.g. Stenflo 1980; Lee, Blandford & Western 1994). Stenflo (1976a, 1976b, 1980, 1994, 1996) and Lee & Blandford (1994) studied the polarisation of resonance lines.

Interesting phenomena occur when the incident radiation is scattered in off-resonance regimes, where both the polarisation and the angular distribution of the outgoing radiation are sensitively dependent on the wavelength of the incident radiation, as is illustrated by Stenflo (1980). One general result is that scattering in far off-resonance is characterised by the classical Rayleigh scattering phase function.

Being the most prominent emission features with a very small fine-structure level-splitting in the excited states of hydrogen, Ly$`\alpha `$ should be treated with more emphasis and care. Due to the small fine-structure level-splitting of hydrogen, wing scatterings of Ly$`\alpha `$ are characterised by the classical Rayleigh scattering phase function, which is the same phase function associated with the Thomson scattering. Hence, when wing scatterings of Ly$`\alpha `$ become important in a thick medium of hydrogen, we naturally expect that the Ly$`\alpha `$ line transfer may be described in a way similar to the transfer of continuum photons in a Thomson scattering medium.

Chandrasekhar (1960) investigated the polarisation of photons transferred in a very thick electron gas, where he showed the degree of polarisation reaches 11.7% for photons emergent in the grazing direction of very thick and plane-parallel media. Phillips & Mészáros (1986) also investigated in a numerical way the radiative transfer in electron clouds, for both optically thin and thick cases. They found that the photons are beamed to the direction normal to the slab, and obtained 11.7% of polarisation confirming the work of Chandrasekhar (1960).

The vertical column density $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}`$ of normal galaxies and dwarf galaxies ranges $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}=10^{19}10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The line-centre optical depth is related with the HI column density $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}`$ by

$$\tau _01.41T_4^{1/2}\left[\frac{N_{\mathrm{HI}}}{10^{13}\mathrm{cm}^2}\right],$$
(1)
where $`T_4`$ is the temperature of the medium in units of $`10^4\mathrm{K}`$. This implies that the Ly$`\alpha `$ line-centre optical depth $`\tau _0=10^610^9`$ for most galaxies, and therefore one needs to deal with an extremely thick medium. It appears that many galaxies found in the early universe exhibit asymmetric Ly$`\alpha `$ emission, which is supposed to be emergent from media with these high optical depths. Therefore, if the scattering medium possesses any geometrical or kinematical anisotropy, we may expect that the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission from these objects will be polarised.

A preliminary investigation of the polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ emission in a thick medium has been presented in Lee & Ahn (1998). They considered an anisotropically expanding and optically thick neutral medium with a Hubble-type flow, and found that the emergent Ly$`\alpha `$ photons are linearly polarised with a degree of polarisation up to 10% in the direction parallel to the slab normal. They also applied their calculation to a hemispherical shell partly obscured by an opaque component such as a disc, and showed that about 5% of polarisation may develop.

In this paper, we calculate the polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ in more detail with the particular attention on the polarisation direction as a function of the optical depth. Section 2 describes the configuration of our model and the Monte Carlo code. In section 3, we show the results, and explain microscopic processes of scatterings that lead to the development of Ly$`\alpha `$ polarisation, which is followed by the summary section.

## 2 Model

In a very thick medium, wing scattering plays a very important role in the transfer of resonance line photons, which is similar to a diffusion process. Previous researchers (Avery & House 1968; Adams 1972; Harrington 1973; Neufeld 1990) introduced the diffusion approximation where only wing scatterings take place during the transfer. This approximation is very efficient for the extremely thick cases with $`a\tau _0>10^3`$, where $`a`$ is the Voigt parameter defined as $`a\mathrm{\Gamma }/4\pi \mathrm{\Delta }\nu _D`$, the ratio of the natural width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the Doppler frequency width $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _D=\nu _0(v_{th}/c)`$ with $`v_{th}`$ and $`\nu _0`$ being the thermal speed and the line centre frequency, respectively. We introduce the dimensionless parameter $`x`$ that measures the frequency shift from the line centre in units of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _D`$,

$$x(\nu \nu _0)/\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _D.$$
(2)
However, Ly$`\alpha `$ photons experience both core scatterings and wing scatterings and may alternate between these two types of scattering during the line transfer. A large number of core scatterings change the polarisation vector in a random way yielding an isotropic and unpolarised radiation field. Therefore, we have to consider not only wing scatterings but also core scatterings in order to compute accurately the polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ emergent from a very thick H I medium.

Ahn, Lee, & Lee (2000, 2001, 2002) developed a Monte Carlo code which can deal with the Ly$`\alpha `$ line transfer in thick media. They first dealt with moderate optical depths, because the diffusion approximation is not valid in this optical depth regime. They developed an accelerating scheme for the code in order to improve the computing speed, which enabled one to calculate the line transfer in extremely thick media. The code also accurately treats the partial frequency redistribution and is equipped with a subroutine that differentiates between resonant core scatterings and non-resonant wing scatterings, providing different scattering phase functions according to the type of scatterings.

In this work, we use the same Monte Carlo code, of which the description can be found in our previous work. Our code treats the scattering of Ly$`\alpha `$ photons in a manner very faithful to the atomic physics associated with the fine-structure of hydrogen. The level-splitting of $`2\mathrm{P}_{\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2}}`$, the excited state of Ly$`\alpha `$ transition, is $`10\mathrm{G}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}`$, which amounts to the Doppler width of $`1.34\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ relative to Ly$`\alpha `$. Because this is much smaller than the thermal speed of a medium with $`T100\mathrm{K}`$, one normally neglects the $`2\mathrm{P}_{\frac{1}{2},\frac{3}{2}}`$ level-splitting, treating it as a single level. Even when $`T100\mathrm{K}`$, the level-splitting effects may be neglected in the cases where the line centre optical depth of the scattering medium is very large. This is because the escape of line photons can only be made in considerably far wings where the level-splitting is negligible.

Since we are particularly interested in the development of polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$, we provide the detailed description of the code about the angular redistribution and the polarisation of the scattered radiation. We adopt the density matrix formalism to describe the angular distribution and polarisation of the scattered Ly$`\alpha `$, where the density operator is represented by a $`2\times 2`$ Hermitian matrix $`\rho `$. The usual relation with the conventional Stokes parameters $`I,Q,U`$ and $`V`$ is given by

$`\rho _{11}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{I+Q}{2}},\rho _{22}={\displaystyle \frac{IQ}{2}}`$
$`\rho _{12}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{U+iV}{2}},\rho _{21}=\rho _{12}^{}`$ (3)
Fig. 1 shows the model configuration adopted in this paper. We consider a static, uniform, and optically thick HI slab with the total optical thickness $`2\tau _0`$ along the $`z`$axis that is chosen to be the slab normal. The completely unpolarised Ly$`\alpha `$ source is located at the origin of the coordinate system and $`\mu `$ is defined as the cosine of the angle between the wavevector of the emergent photon and the slab normal. We will not consider the circular polarisation because of the azymuthal symmetry assumed in this work. Therefore $`V=0`$ and $`\rho `$ may be regarded as a real matrix.

In our Monte Carlo code, we only consider three types of scattering of Ly$`\alpha `$, which are resonance scattering with $`\mathrm{S}_{1/2}\mathrm{P}_{1/2}`$, resonance scattering with $`\mathrm{S}_{1/2}\mathrm{P}_{3/2}`$ and wing scattering far from both resonance transitions. At each scattering event, we compute the probability which type of scattering has occurred. The procedure for the computation of this probability is described in detail in our previous work (Ahn et al. 2000).

The incident radiation is described by the density matrix $`\rho `$ and the wavevector $`\widehat{𝐤}=(\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\varphi ,\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\varphi ,\mathrm{cos}\theta )`$, and the scattered radiation is described by the corresponding primed quantities $`\rho ^{}`$ and

$`\widehat{𝐤^{}}=(\mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}\mathrm{cos}\varphi ^{},\mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}\varphi ^{},\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}).`$
We choose the polarisation vectors

$`ϵ_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ $`=`$ $`(\mathrm{sin}\varphi ,\mathrm{cos}\varphi ,0)`$
$`ϵ_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ $`=`$ $`(\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\varphi ,\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{sin}\varphi ,\mathrm{sin}\theta )`$ (4)
for an incident photon and correspondingly $`ϵ_\mathrm{𝟏}^{},ϵ_\mathrm{𝟐}^{}`$ for the scattered photon.

With this choice of the polarisation basis and the scattering geometry shown in Fig. 1, the polarisation will develop either in the direction parallel to the slab normal (the $`ϵ_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ component) or in the direction perpendicular to the slab normal (the $`ϵ_\mathrm{𝟏}`$component). Therefore, we may expect that the polarisation of the emergent radiation will be described completely by $`P=\rho _{11}\rho _{22}`$, the difference of the diagonal elements of the density matrix, which we will call the degree of polarisation. Hence in this convention, the positive degree of polarisation means polarisation in the direction perpendicular to the slab normal, and the negative polarisation is polarisation in the direction parallel to the slab normal. In this work, we refer the polarisation direction with respect to the slab normal vector which is the symmetry axis of the scattering medium.

When a wing scattering occurs, the density matrix associated with the scattered radiation is given by

$`\rho _{11}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _{11}\mathrm{cos}^2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )\rho _{12}\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )`$
$`+\rho _{22}\mathrm{sin}^2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \mathrm{cos}^2\theta `$
$`\rho _{12}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\rho _{11}\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi +\rho _{12}(\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`+\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`+\rho _{22}\mathrm{cos}\theta (\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )`$
$`\rho _{22}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _{11}\mathrm{cos}^2\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}^2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`+\rho _{12}\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}(2\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`+\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )`$
$`+\rho _{22}(\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi +\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{})^2,`$
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =\varphi ^{}\varphi `$.

When a given scattering is a resonance scattering associated with the transition $`\mathrm{S}_{1/2}\mathrm{P}_{3/2}`$, then the density matrix is obtained by the following relation

$`\rho _{11}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _{11}(5+3\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )`$
$`+\rho _{22}[((53\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )\mathrm{cos}\theta ^2+2\mathrm{sin}\theta ^2]`$
$`\rho _{12}6\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`\rho _{12}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`3\rho _{11}\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}`$
$`+6\rho _{12}(\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`+\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )`$
$`+3\rho _{22}\mathrm{cos}\theta (2\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$
$`\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )`$
$`\rho _{22}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _{11}[(53\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )\mathrm{cos}^2\theta ^{}+2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta ^{}]`$
$`+\rho _{22}[(5+3\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )\mathrm{cos}^2\theta \mathrm{cos}^2\theta ^{}`$
$`+2\mathrm{cos}^2\theta \mathrm{sin}^2\theta ^{}+12\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}`$
$`+2\mathrm{cos}^2\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta +8\mathrm{sin}^2\theta \mathrm{sin}^2\theta ^{})]`$
$`+\rho _{12}(6\mathrm{sin}2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \mathrm{cos}^2\theta ^{}\mathrm{cos}\theta `$
$`+2\mathrm{sin}\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \mathrm{cos}\theta ^{}\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{sin}\theta ^{}).`$
Finally, when the scattering is resonant with the transition $`\mathrm{S}_{1/2}\mathrm{P}_{1/2}`$, then the density matrix for the scattered radiation is set to be

$$\rho _{11}^{}=\rho _{22}^{}=\frac{1}{2},\rho _{12}^{}=\rho _{21}^{}=0,$$
(7)
which corresponds to the istropic and perfectly unpolarised radiation.

The angular distribution of the scattered radiation for an incident photon with $`\widehat{𝐤}`$ and $`\rho `$ is given by the trace of $`\rho ^{}(\theta ^{},\varphi ^{},\theta ,\varphi )`$, as is shown by Lee et al. (1997). Therefore, once the wavevector $`\widehat{𝐤}^{}`$ of a scattered photon is chosen from $`\rho ^{}`$ in accordance with the scattering type, the polarisation is also determined at the same time. It is also noted that the degree of polarisation is computed only after the new density matrix is normalised so that it has a unit trace.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Degree of polarisation

We calculate the degree of linear polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ photons emerging from an optically thick slab with unpolarised sources distributed in its central plane. In Fig. 2, we show the linear degree of polarisation for various optical depths according to $`\mu `$ that represents the observer’s line of sight with respect to the slab normal. In the calculations, we consider the cases where optical depths to the normal direction of the slab are $`\tau _0=2\times 10^4,5\times 10^4,2\times 10^5`$, $`5\times 10^5`$, and $`2\times 10^6`$. Since we fixed $`a=1.49\times 10^2`$, $`a\tau _0=3\times 10^2,8\times 10^2,3\times 10^3`$, and $`8\times 10^3`$, respectively. In the figure, the dots with $`1\sigma `$ error bars represent our results and the solid lines represent the result for continuum photons transferred in a Thomson scattering semi-infinite electron cloud (Chandrasekhar 1960). We can see in the figure that the case with $`a\tau _0>10^3`$ shows good agreement with the limiting case of the Thomson scattering. We also see that the polarisation curves gradually converge to that of the Thomson scattering with a very large optical thickness as $`a\tau _0`$ increases.

When $`a\tau _0>10^3`$, the Ly$`\alpha `$ transfer processes are dominated by wing scatterings accompanied by the spatial transfer and Ly$`\alpha `$ photons experience a number of successive wing scatterings just before escape (Ahn et al. 2002). The number of last successive wing scatterings is determined by the scattering optical depth, $`\tau _w`$ at the characteristic frequency of the emergent photons, given approximately by

$$\tau _w=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}x_s,$$
(8)
where $`x_s=(a\tau _0)^{1/3}`$. They also showed that these are valid only for $`a\tau _010^3`$, when the diffusion approximation can be safely applied.

For the cases considered in this section, the characteristic wing optical depths are $`\tau _w=3.8,5.1,8.1,11.0,17.5`$, respectively. According to Phillips & Mészáros (1986), the limiting behaviour is almost achieved when $`\tau _e10`$. The polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ exhibits the same limiting behaviour to that of the Thomson scattering when $`a\tau _010^3`$ or $`\tau _w10`$.

### 3.2 Spectropolarimetry

We are interested in spectropolarimetric observations for many astronomical objects. In Figs. 3-7 we show our results of the accelerated Monte Carlo calculations for the polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ emerging from an extremely thick hydrogen slab. The total number of photons in each simulation is $`1.6\times 10^6`$, and the frequency bin is set to be $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=1`$. For $`\tau _0=2\times 10^6`$ we set $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=2`$ as an exception. All the quantities shown in the figures have been obtained after averaging over all emergent angles $`\theta =\mathrm{cos}^1\mu `$.

In the top panel of Figs. 3-7, we show the emergent fluxes, in the middle panel the degree of polarisation $`P_f`$, and in the bottom panel the characteristic optical depth, $`\tau _w`$. Treating the radiative transfer in a Thomson scattering medium as a random walk process, we convert $`N_w`$, the average number of successive wing scatterings just before escape, to the characteristic optical depth $`\tau _w=\sqrt{N_w}`$.

It is immediately seen that negligible polarisation develops near the line-centre. This is because line photons with frequencies near the line-centre escape through a single longest flight after a large number of core scatterings near the surface, where the local core scatterings isotropise the radiation field. The core-wing boundary frequency is approximately given by Eq.(8) with $`\tau _w=1`$, or $`x=\sqrt{\pi }`$. Hence our results in the figure show that $`P_f=0`$ at $`0x\sqrt{\pi }`$.

The second point is that the photons filling the near wing part of Ly$`\alpha `$ emission are positively polarised, which means the electric vectors of those escaping photons tend to lie in the direction perpendicular to the slab normal. The degree of polarisation in this part is about $`1\%`$, which is smaller than the maximum value $`11.7\%`$, because they are averaged over emergent angles. It is very notable that the degree of polarisation becomes negative at far wing frequencies, which means that the polarisation direction flips from perpendicular to parallel as the frequency shift $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ from the line-centre increases.

In order for wing photons to acquire scattering numbers larger than $`N_w=\tau _w^2`$, they spatially diffuse much farther than $`\tau _0`$ in the stage of their final series of wing scatterings. According to Ahn et al. (2002), a line photon smears out towards the slab surface via wing scatterings, and therefore the photon diffuses into the grazing direction of the slab acquiring a sufficiently large frequency shift. This means that the scattering medium is effectively very thin in the normal direction from the view point of far wing scattering Ly$`\alpha `$ photons. Therefore, the scattering plane associated with the escaping photons nearly coincides with the slab plane, leading to the development of polarisation in the direction parallel to the slab normal. This explains the negative polarisation in the far wing part illustrated in Figs. 3-7.

On the other hand, the near wing part of the emergent profiles is contributed by photons with much larger wing scattering numbers. Therefore, a large number of wing scatterings acompanied by spatial transfer preferentially in the normal direction may cause the electric vectors of the line photons to become perpendicular to the slab normal. From this transfer process, we obtain positively polarised fluxes in accordance with our definition of polarisation direction.

Another point we can find in the figure is that the strength of the negative polarisation in the far wing regime decreases as $`a\tau _0`$ increases. This effect can be understood in terms of the beaming effect. Ahn et al. (2002) investigated the beaming of Ly$`\alpha `$ photons for the cases of very large $`a\tau _0`$, which will also be shown in the next subsection. They showed that most photons escape from the extremely thick slab-like media favourably in the direction normal to the slab plane, as is the case with an electron scattering thick cloud (Phillips & Mészáros 1986). If this is the case, the fraction of Ly$`\alpha `$ photons emergent in the direction parallel to the slab surface decrease as $`a\tau _0`$ increases. As a result, their contribution to negative polarisation diminishes, and eventually the degree of polarisation at the far wings becomes larger and eventually positive. Due to the beaming effect, the polarisation flip occurs farther away from the line-centre as $`a\tau _0`$ increases.

The polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ in an anisotropically expanding slab was investigated by Lee & Ahn (1998). They calculated the cases with the line-centre optical depth $`\tau _010^5`$ and the Voigt parameter $`a=4.71\times 10^4`$. Their results show that the polarisation flip occurs near the line-centre, and as a result the emergent peaks are negatively polarised on average over frequencies. Because the bulk motion of the expanding slab enhances the photon escape, the polarization flip occurs at smaller optical depths than in the static medium with the same neutral hydrogen column density.

### 3.3 Polarisation of the total flux

Fig. 8 shows the directionality, $`I(\mu )`$, which is defined by $`F(\mu )/\mu `$. Here $`F(\mu )`$ is the flux along $`\mu `$. We note that this was also discussed in our previous paper (Ahn et al. 2002). Ahn et al. (2002) discovered that the Ly$`\alpha `$ limb brightening occurs when $`a\tau _010^3`$, and that the Ly$`\alpha `$ limb darkening appears when $`a\tau _0>10^3`$.

In this subsection we show the polarisation ($`P_t`$) of total emergent flux. This quantity is obtained from the definition $`P_t=P_f(\mu )I(\mu )\mu 𝑑\mu `$, where $`P_f(\mu )`$ is shown in Fig. 2 and $`I(\mu )`$ is shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 9 shows the degree of polarisation as a function of $`a\tau _0`$. Here $`a\tau _0`$ can be thought to be a measure of relative importance between wing scatterings and core scatterings in the line transfer. The error in $`P_t`$ is simply propagated from $`P_f(\mu )`$. The most important thing to note in Fig. 9 is that the polarisation sign changes as $`a\tau _0`$. For $`a\tau _0<750`$, the polarisation direction is parallel to the slab normal, while for $`a\tau _0>750`$ it is perpendiculat to it.

As we saw in the previous subsection 3.1, the case with $`\tau _0=2\times 10^4`$ and $`a=1.49\times 10^2`$ has the characteristic optical depth $`\tau _w=3.8`$. We can understand the properties of Ly$`\alpha `$ wing scatterings by comparing with the Thomson scattering in an optically thick electron cloud with $`\tau _e\tau _w`$, because the scattering is described by the same Rayleigh phase function and spatial diffusion dominates the transfer process.

A close examination of the curves in Fig. 2 and Fig. 5 in Phillips & Mészáros (1986) and those in Fig. 2 and Fig. 8 in this work shows that when $`a\tau _0<10^3`$ the photon flux emergent in the grazing direction of the slab surface increases as $`a\tau _0`$ decreases. On the other hand, the beaming of emergent Ly$`\alpha `$ is enhanced as $`a\tau _0`$ increases. As a result the critical frequency of the polarisation flip moves toward the larger value, which we can see in Fig. 3-7.

## 4 Summary

We have investigated the linear polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ transferred in a static, dustless, and thick slab that is uniformly filled with neutral hydrogen. The polarisation behavious of the emergent Ly$`\alpha `$ emission can be understood qualitatively by comparing with the polarisation behaviour of the Thomson scattered radiation. When the scattering medium is extremely thick or $`a\tau _0>10^3`$, photons emerging in the grazing direction are polarised perpendicular to the slab normal with the degree up to $`12\%`$, which is the same value as that of the Thomson scattered radiation in a semi-infinite thick medium (Chandrasekhar 1960).

The variation of linear polarisation with $`a\tau _0`$ also shows similar behaviour with that of the Thomson scattering (Phillips & Mészáros 1986). The linear polarisation of Ly$`\alpha `$ develops in the direction parallel to the slab normal when $`a\tau _0<10^3`$, while it becomes perpendicular when $`a\tau _0>10^3`$. Our simulated spectropolarimetry of Ly$`\alpha `$ shows the polarisation flip in the spectra. The linear polarisation near the line centre is almost zero. The wing parts near the line centre are polarised in the direction perpendicular to the slab normal, while the far wing parts are polarised in the direction parallel to the slab normal. The zero polarisation around the resonance frequency is caused by resonance scatterings just before escape which isotropises the electric vector of the Ly$`\alpha `$ photons. The perpendicular polarisation at the far wing parts is caused by Ly$`\alpha `$ photons preferentially emerging in the grazing direction.

The Ly$`\alpha `$ photons constituting the near wing part of the emergent peaks have large wing optical depths, and therefore they are beamed in the slab normal direction, which gives rise to positive polarisation. As $`a\tau _0`$ increases, the beaming effect prevents Ly$`\alpha `$ photons with far wing frequencies from emerging into the grazing direction. Therefore, the location of the polarisation flip in the Ly$`\alpha `$ line can be an important indicator of the value of $`a\tau _0`$.

## Acknowledgments

The authors thank Professor H. -M. Lee for helpful discussions and a critical reading of the original version of the paper. H.-W.L. gratefully acknowledges support from the Korea Research Foundation Grant (KRF-2001-003-D00105).