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# Homogeneous age dating of 55 Galactic globular clusters.

## 1 Introduction

Less than a decade ago the age of the oldest globular clusters appeared to be much higher than that of the expanding universe. But at the end of the last millenium significant improvements both in models and in observational data, notably in the determination of cluster distances by virtue of Hipparcos-based distances, lead to a reduction of cluster ages. Presently, most determinations scatter around a typical age of the oldest objects of 12–14 Gyr (Salaris & Weiss, 1998; Carretta et al., 2000; VandenBerg, 2000; Chaboyer, 2001). With the growing confidence in the absolute age determinations and an increasing number of extensive homogeneous and high-quality photometric cluster data, the interest has shifted to questions concerning relative ages in order to learn about the formation of the galaxy and its halo and disk components.

In our own work (Salaris et al., 1997; Salaris & Weiss, 1997, 1998) we have used a method (to be fully described in Sect. 2), which is a mixture of absolute and relative age determinations in four metallicity ranges (see also Richer et al. 1996 for a similar technique). It does not need the knowledge of cluster distances, but instead predicts them. To determine the absolute ages of a sample of reference clusters for the various metallicity ranges, we use the brightness difference between horizontal branch (HB) and turn off (TO); the HB sets the cluster distances and the TO (whose brightness is the best predicted quantity to be used as age indicator) their age. For relative ages with respect to reference clusters we consider the differences in the extension of the subgiant branch, i.e., the colour range between the TO and the base of the red giant branch (RGB). In this way we are able to determine ages also in case of clusters for which the HB brightness determination is problematic (e.g., blue and/or sparsely populated HB). Since the differential properties of the TO-RGB colour difference across the entire cluster metallicity range is in principle subject to current uncertainties in convection treatment and colour transformations, the method works best (i.e., the uncertainties are minimized) if restricted to small \[Fe/H\] ranges. When selecting the limits of the individual \[Fe/H\] intervals, one must strike a balance between having a sizable number of clusters, and at the same time covering a \[Fe/H\] interval where the predicted variation of the derivative of the TO-RGB colour difference with respect to age and \[Fe/H\] is small.

In Salaris & Weiss (1998) we applied this method to a sample of 31 clusters taken from various sources, such that we could start to address the question of age-metallicity and age-galactocentric distance relations. This cluster sample appeared still too small to draw statistically meaningful conclusions; strictly speaking, relative ages are valid only within each metallicity bin, but we have shown in Salaris & Weiss (1998) and Pulone et al. (1998) that they are consistent all over the \[Fe/H\] range spanned by the clusters. In the present paper, we want to derive ages for a much larger sample of globular clusters by using our own isochrones and applying our preferred method. Relative ages for these clusters are a straightforward by-product.

There are other age determination techniques in use, some of them being easier to apply, but probably less accurate. All, of course, depend at some stage on theoretical isochrones. Semi-empirical methods (Buonanno et al., 1998; Rosenberg et al., 1999) are of particular interest for relative age-dating; they make extensive use of the colour difference between TO and RGB across all the \[Fe/H\] range spanned by the galactic globular clusters, thus avoiding the necessity of RR Lyrae stars or a well-developed HB for distance determination. This allows to apply the method to a much larger number of clusters, and thus to obtain a solid picture of cluster formation throughout the Galactic history. The calibration of the TO-RGB colour difference with respect to age and metallicity is obtained empirically making use of clusters of different ages and \[Fe/H\], for which reliable ages from the TO-HB brightness difference can be determined. Buonanno et al. (1998) noticed inconsistencies in relative cluster ages derived from brightness differences (between HB and TO) or colour differences as predicted by the isochrones they employed. In Pulone et al. (1998) we could demonstrate the self-consistency of our own isochrones for $`(BV)`$-colours.

Following on this, Rosenberg et al. (1999) applied the semi-empirical method for colour differences in $`(VI)`$ to their own large sample of cluster data (Rosenberg et al., 2000a, b). Their main result, based on the isochrones by Straniero et al. (1997) and a pre-release of VandenBerg et al. (2000) models, was that clusters of $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]1.2`$ are probably coeval (within 1 Gyr) and that at higher metallicities, up to $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]1.0`$ a few clusters younger by $`4`$ Gyr exist, too, and finally, that at $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]0.7`$ younger clusters prevail. However, if the brightness difference between HB (whose absolute magnitude was taken from the empirical relation by Carretta et al. 2000) and TO was used as the age indicator, this picture was not reproduced completely (some small differences in the age distribution for the most metal poor and most metal rich clusters), and, most importantly, the absolute age calibration for both relative age scales differed by up to 3 Gyr. A further set of isochrones tested (Cassisi et al., 1998) showed a large age spread for the colour-difference method. Evidently, semi-empirical methods for relative cluster ages spanning the whole metallicity range reveal different and internally inconsistent results for different isochrone sets, at least when one does not consider the HB brightness from ZAHB models consistent with the employed isochrones.

In this paper we will apply all these methods to a cluster sample which is a combination of the Rosenberg et al. (2000a, b) set (35 clusters) and 20 additional clusters with accurate photometry obtained recently. For this, we need colour transformations to $`(VI)`$; in Weiss & Salaris (1999) we investigated the properties of our own choice of transformations, showing that for selected clusters with photometry in $`V`$, $`B`$, and $`I`$ we can obtain identical ages and similar isochrone fitting quality for $`VI`$ and $`BV`$ photometric data. In the present paper we will determine cluster ages from $`VI`$-data using this and a second set of transformations (Alonso et al., 1999). We will demonstrate that the semi-empirical relative ages across the whole cluster metallicity range we obtain from the TO-RGB colour difference depend strongly on the chosen transformations; those by Alonso et al. (1999) provide results consistent with the ages inferred from the TO-HB brightness differences and the method employed in Salaris & Weiss (1998), while the transformations used in Weiss & Salaris (1999) are not suited for this purpose.

On the other hand, as will become evident, our preferred age determination method, as used by Salaris & Weiss (1998), turns out to be largely insensitive to the specific colour transformation adopted, although it does make use of the colour difference between TO and RGB within restricted metallicity ranges. Similarly, the use of either $`VI`$ or $`BV`$-data does not influence the picture of the absolute and relative ages, but may affect only some individual clusters. Quantitatively, the effect is comparable to that of using different photometric sources; it is important to realize that in spite of the large observational progress and effort, the source of photometric data still influences individual and global results on cluster ages.

The paper is organized as follows: In the next section, our preferred age determination method and its application to a large sample of 55 globular clusters will be presented. This is, to our knowledge, the largest sample of clusters ever investigated, using the same age-dating method and theoretical isochrones. The sample size is a significant increase over the 43 clusters by Chaboyer et al. (1996); analysis of large clusters sample have been recently performed also by Richer et al. (1996, 36 objects), Buonanno et al. (1998, 33 objects) and Rosenberg et al. (1999, 35 objects). Our sample is largely based on homogeneous and very recent photometries; the isochrones and colour transformations are of the latest generation as well. In Sect. 3 we will then turn to the semi-empirical relative-age method using $`(VI)`$-colours. We will present completely consistent results that agree well with those of Sect. 2. The discussion in Sect. 4 will analyze the age distribution of our cluster sample in light of the proposed scenarios of Galaxy formation. We will present also an analysis of the effect of the sample size and the adopted clusters metallicities on the derived age distribution. About the latter point, we have considered cluster \[Fe/H\] values derived by both Carretta & Gratton (1997, our reference metallicities) and Zinn & West (1984). The two sets of values show differences up to $``$0.3 dex (Carretta & Gratton 1997 \[Fe/H\] being higher) for intermediate metallicity clusters; a quadratic relationship (Carretta & Gratton 1997) transforms Zinn & West (1984) metallicities into the corresponding Carretta & Gratton (1997) ones. The possibility that age is the global second parameter responsible (together with \[Fe/H\]) of the cluster HB morphology will be also tested. A short summary of the main results follows in Sect. 5.

## 2 The cluster sample and age-dating method

Our GC sample consists of 55 objects. The $`V`$ magnitude difference between Zero Age HB (ZAHB) and TO, $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$, and the $`(VI)`$ colour difference ($`VI`$ Johnson-Cousins bands) between TO and the base of the RGB, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ as defined in Rosenberg et al. (1999, R99), for 35 of them are taken from the homogeneous database by R99. For the remaining 20 objects $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ or $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$, the corresponding colour difference between TO and base of the RGB in $`(BV)`$ as defined by VandenBerg et al. (1990), are taken from Salaris & Weiss (1998, SW98) and other papers published in the last 5 years (see Table LABEL:data).

The age-dating method is analogous to the procedure outlined in Salaris & Weiss (1997, SW97) and SW98. The GC sample is divided into four metallicity intervals, which are the same ones as in SW98, apart from the last interval; this we extended to include in the same group the thick disk clusters present in the sample. The metallicity intervals therefore are $`2.15`$\[Fe/H\]$``$1.75, $`1.74`$\[Fe/H\]$``$1.3, $`1.29`$\[Fe/H\]$``$0.9, and $`0.89`$\[Fe/H\]$``$0.6. We used the \[Fe/H\] values given by Rutledge et al. (1997) on the Carretta & Gratton (1997, CG97) scale (the internal accuracy of these \[Fe/H\] values is of the order of 0.10 dex); this introduces small differences with respect to the \[Fe/H\] values used by SW98 which were either directly from CG97 or transformed from the Zinn & West (1984, ZW84) scale using the relationship given by CG97, but allows us to directly compare our results with R99, who selected the same \[Fe/H\] values for their sample. In case of clusters without estimates from Rutledge et al. (1997), but with estimates on the ZW84 scale, we again transformed their \[Fe/H\] onto the CG97 scale using the conversion formula given by CG97.

Within each interval a reference cluster showing a HB well populated at the instability strip region and/or at its red side was selected; this allows a reliable determination of the ZAHB level to be obtained, and the absolute age to be determined accurately from $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$, by comparing it with $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ taken from the isochrone for the metallicity under consideration. The reference clusters are, respectively, M 15 (NGC 7078), M 3 (NGC 5272), NGC 6171 and 47 Tuc (NGC 104). In our new analysis M 15 and M 3 have replaced M 68 (NGC 4590) and NGC 6584 as reference clusters in their respective groups (SW98). Due to the small \[Fe/H\] differences with respect to SW98, the cluster NGC 6171 has now moved to the third metallicity group where it has replaced M 5 (NGC 5904) as the reference cluster. For all the four reference clusters we used $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ values taken from R99.

Once the absolute ages of the reference clusters were obtained, the age of all other clusters within each group was determined differentially with respect to the reference one, by using the differences in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ to derive differences in age, again by using the isochrones. In case of clusters with $`BV`$ photometry, their relative age with respect to the template clusters was obtained from $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$. Because of the approach of tying relative ages within limited metallicity ranges to the absolute age of selected reference clusters, we will, for the remainder of this paper, call our method simply the AM-method.

We have employed in our analysis the $`BV`$ and $`VI`$ isochrones described in SW98 and Weiss & Salaris (1999), assuming a cosmological helium mass fraction Y=0.230, an average $`\alpha `$-element overabundance \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\]=0.4, and a helium enrichement factor $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Y/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$Z=3. For the $`(VI)`$-colours we use a combination of the transformations by Bessell et al. (1998) for the main sequence and von Braun et al. (1998) for the RGB, as described in Weiss & Salaris (1999). For further details, see the original papers (SW98, Weiss & Salaris 1999). We briefly recall here that the ZAHB luminosities from our models, which set the zero point of our absolute ages, are in agreement with the ZAHB brightness levels obtained by Carretta et al. (2000) from the subdwarf fitting method applied to a sample of Galactic globular clusters. They are therefore about 0.13 mag brighter than the relationship used by R99, which results from an average of the subdwarf fitting distances together with other distance determinations, discussed in Carretta et al. (2000).

Our procedure allows a reliable determination of the age distribution with respect to the absolute age of the template clusters, largely unaffected by uncertainties in the convection treatment, by the precise value of the cluster metallicity, and by the inclusion of element diffusion (see the discussion in SW97). It is also fairly independent of current uncertainties in colour transformations. This we verified by repeating the procedure for the clusters with $`VI`$ photometry using a different set of RGB colour transformations together with our isochrones (Alonso et al. 1999); we find only modest age changes within $`\pm `$0.6 Gyr. A more detailed discussion on the issue of colour transformations will be presented in the next section.

Two further tests have been performed in order to assess the reliability of our age determination: In the first one we have simply moved clusters close to the boundary of two contiguous groups (e.g., NGC 6254, NGC 3201, NGC 6397) to the adjacent one and redetermined their age with respect to the absolute age of the new template cluster. The resulting absolute ages agree within 0.3 Gyr with the ones obtained from the original group location. In the second test, we have derived the age of all 35 clusters from R99 making use of their estimated $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$-values for the whole sample. Even in case of blue HB morphologies, R99 have derived the level of the ZAHB extrapolating the observed ZAHB location towards the red, by fitting template cluster HBs uniformly populated to the observed branches. While we consider this approach being less accurate then in cases with observed HBs populated at the instability strip or at its red side, it is of course a valid estimate of the ZAHB brightness. The resulting ages for the 35 clusters, displayed in Fig. 1, indeed agree extremely well with the values obtained with the AM-technique, with an average difference of only 0.3 Gyr ($`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ ages being younger). This test confirms the mutual consistency of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ relative ages and those obtained by the AM-method over the whole \[Fe/H\] range spanned by the cluster sample.

A similar test, but in $`(BV)`$, was performed for two individual clusters, NGC 6712 and NGC 6934. $`BV`$ photometry is available for both of them, and both have extremely well-defined ZAHB levels. We could therefore derive their absolute age also directly from $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$. As in the case of the R99 cluster sample with $`VI`$ photometry, the results are consistent, within 0.4 Gyr, with the relative age obtained from their $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ with respect to the corresponding template cluster.

The final results for the ages of the entire sample are displayed in Table LABEL:data. In case of non-template clusters, the final error in the absolute age has been derived by adding in quadrature the error in the age of the corresponding template cluster (which is determined by the errors in $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ and the internal errors in the adopted metallicity scale) to the error in the relative age estimate (which is determined by the errors in the differences in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ or $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$, and the internal errors in the adopted metallicity scale).

There are 24 clusters in common with the SW98 sample, for which we have now employed more recent and more homogeneous photometry (mainly in the $`VI`$ bands); 21 of these clusters belong to the R99 sample. In Fig. 2 we compare the absolute ages derived by SW98 (where essentially the same \[Fe/H\] scale was employed) and the ones we now obtained for these 24 clusters in common. There is a clear average shift towards higher values in our new sample, which is due to the new photometric data; the average difference is of the order of 1 Gyr. However, in case of two metal-rich clusters, namely NGC 6366 and NGC 1261 (new $`VI`$ photometries from R99), we get ages considerably lower by $``$2.5 Gyr.

Fig. 3 displays the absolute ages as a function of \[Fe/H\] and galactocentric distance ($`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$) for our whole sample, as reported in Table LABEL:data. Filled circles correspond to clusters in the R99 sample, while open squares denote the remaining ones. There are no significant differences between these two sub-samples (see also Sect. 4). In case of the clusters’ $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ we have adopted, as a reference, the values provided by Harris (1996). Strictly speaking, $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ depends on the cluster distance modulus, but for differences of the order of 0.1–0.15 mag around the Harris (1996) values, $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ is not changed appreciably, and in case of, e.g., the 35 clusters with ZAHB levels from R99, we determined distance moduli within this range from the Harris (1996) values.

It is interesting to determine the age difference for two classic second-parameter pairs, namely NGC 288–NGC 362 and M 3–M 13 (NGC 6205), both contained in our sample. When deriving errors in age differences within the same metallicity group, we have just to take into account the error coming from the use of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ as the relative age indicator, without adding the contribution of the error in the absolute age of the template cluster (as is done in Table LABEL:data), because for typical absolute age errors of $`\pm `$1 Gyr, the differential properties of $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ as a function of metallicity and age are negligibly affected.

For the pair NGC 288-NGC 362 we obtain an age difference of 2.6$`\pm `$1.5 Gyr (NGC 288 being older), in good agreement with the results by Bellazzini et al. (2001), but in contrast to SW97, where the two clusters appeared to be coeval. The reason for this change lies in the new photometric data. According to the simulations by Catelan et al. (2001), this age difference, coupled with the absolute ages we obtain and the use of the CG97 \[Fe/H\] scale, can explain the overall different HB morphology; however, canonical HB models appear unable to reproduce the detailed morphology of the red end of NGC 288 HB (Catelan et al., 2001).

In case of M 3-M 13 we obtain a difference of 0.6$`\pm `$1.0 Gyr (M13 older), much less significant than the 1.7$`\pm `$0.7 Gyr as obtained by Rey et al. (2001) from their $`BV`$ photometry. M 13 was not contained in our previous work. The same negligible age difference we obtain from the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ values derived by R99; it seems therefore that the discrepancy between our and Rey et al. (2001) result is due to real differences in the photometric data, and not to the use of different passbands for the TO-RGB colour differences and inconsistency in the colours of the theoretical isochrones. Problems with the calibration of the photometry may possibly lead to this kind of discrepancy. Rey et al. (2001) noticed, for example, that their derived fiducial line for M 13 agrees well with those obtained by Richer & Fahlman (1986) and Yim et al. (2000), but differs in the main sequence and subgiant branch region from the fiducial by Paltrinieri et al. (1998).

It is also interesting to notice that Arp 2 and Rup 106 do not appear much younger than the bulk of the clusters at their metallicity; the reason why Buonanno et al. (1998) found higher age differences is mainly the fact that their adopted clusters’ absolute ages are higher. As discussed in detail in, e.g., Pulone et al. (1998), lower absolute ages imply smaller age differences for a given observed distribution of $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)`$ or $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ values. As discussed in SW98 there are preliminary indications that Rup 106 and also Pal 12 may not show $`\alpha `$-element enhancement. In this case, their ages displayed in Table LABEL:data should be increased by about 1 Gyr.

To highlight the effect of the present uncertainties in the \[Fe/H\] scale, we have also derived ages, as a test, by using the \[Fe/H\] values given by Rutledge et al. (1997) on the ZW84 scale (internal accuracy again of the order of 0.10 dex), complemented, if needed, by data in the original ZW84 paper or coming from other spectral indices calibrated on the ZW84 scale. In this case the \[Fe/H\] range spanned by our sample is larger than the CG97 scale. We have therefore divided the sample into 5 groups, having as template clusters M 15 ($`2.3`$\[Fe/H\]$``$2.0), NGC 6656 ($`1.99`$\[Fe/H\]$``$1.7), M 3 ($`1.69`$\[Fe/H\]$``$1.4), NGC 6171 ($`1.39`$\[Fe/H\]$``$0.9) and 47 Tuc ($`0.89`$\[Fe/H\]$``$0.5). Fig. 4 shows the age distribution resulting from the AM-method as a function of \[Fe/H\] and $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$, when using the ZW84 \[Fe/H\] scale. Using this metallicity scale, the age differences between the two second parameter pairs discussed remain basically unchanged. In fact, in case of NGC 288–NGC 362 we obtain now a difference of 2.4$`\pm `$1.5 Gyr, and for M 3–M 13 we get 0.9$`\pm `$1.0 Gyr. A detailed analysis of the age distributions displayed in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 will be presented in the last section.

## 3 Colour-based relative ages

We consider it important that isochrones – together with colour transformations – yield ages largely independent of the age indicator. If consistency is achieved, one could then in principle apply different age indicators to different clusters, according to the quality of the available data, and still have consistent ages for all the sample.

In the last section we showed that the AM-method yields results which are consistent with absolute and relative ages from the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ – or vertical method. Another age indicator – the horizontal one – is the colour difference between TO and RGB, which we used already in the AM-method to obtain relative ages within each metallicity bin. In the following, we will call this quantity simply $`\delta C`$, independent of the actual colour it refers to. From an observational point of view this age-indicator is the easiest one to determine, since it uses a CMD portion which is common to all clusters, is well-populated, and thus – for sufficiently deep photometry – observable with high accuracy. Reddening is not important, as long as it is low and not differential. However, the difficulties start when using it for absolute ages or over a wide range of metallicities; in this case, observed individual $`\delta C`$ values have to be compared to theoretically predicted ones, and colour transformations – with their known uncertainties – must be able to predict with extreme accuracy the absolute values of colours over a large \[Fe/H\] and effective temperature range.

Because of the easy observational accessibility, Buonanno et al. (1998) developed a semi-empirical relative-age determination method using $`\delta C`$ in the $`BV`$ plane. It sets out by selecting a group of coeval clusters of all metallicities, which defines the empirical function $`\delta C([\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}])`$ at the age $`t_0`$ of this group. For this step, $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ and theoretical isochrones are needed. It turns out that membership to the coeval group is rather independent of the isochrones used, but not the actual value for $`t_0`$. The result for our own isochrones is shown in Fig. 5. The empirical $`\delta C([\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}])`$-relation at $`t_0`$ can be compared to the theoretical one. Agreement is not necessarily given (Buonanno et al., 1998) and depends on isochrone set and colour transformation.

In the next step clusters of ages differing from $`t_0`$ are used to derive the relation $`\delta C(t)`$ at various $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ points. Age differences are again determined from the vertical method and isochrones. Combined with the first step, one obtains $`\delta C`$ as a function of age and metallicity, such that the observed values for $`\delta C`$ along with $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$ yield the age straightforwardly. This makes the method very attractive for large cluster samples. Because of the problems mentioned above the method works best for relative ages, but one has to keep in mind that age differences also depend on the absolute age (SW97). In Pulone et al. (1998) we showed that our own isochrones and colour transformations to $`(BV)`$ result in a $`\delta C([\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}])`$ relation consistent with observations and that relative ages from this method agree well with those we obtain from the AM-method, which might be understood as a “piecewise” application of that of Buonanno et al. (1998).

This same idea has then been used by R99 for their clusters observed in $`V`$ and $`I`$ (Rosenberg et al., 2000a, b). They employed isochrones from Straniero et al. (1997) and a pre-release of VandenBerg et al. (2000) models for the theoretical determination of $`\delta C(t)`$ at various $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$, and the TO brightness at various ages and \[Fe/H\]; as for the HB brightness, they considered the empirical ZAHB brightness relationship by Carretta et al. (2000), lacking access to ZAHB models consistent with the isochrones adopted.

As in Buonanno et al. (1998) the comparison of ages from $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ revealed inconsistencies: the absolute age $`t_0`$ of the coeval reference sample depends on age indicator and isochrones: it is (ages in Gyr) $``$14 for VandenBerg et al. (2000) and $``$15 for Straniero et al. (1997), according to $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$, but, respectively, 16 and 13 for $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$, i.e. there are changes of 2 Gyr with respect to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ ages, but they are in opposite directions for the two isochrone sets.

We already demonstrated (Fig. 1) that the relative AM-ages, which are basically obtained from the horizontal method, agree well with the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ values for the R99 sample. In particular, the majority of clusters is coeval at $`12`$ Gyr with a small metal-rich group at ages lower by 1–3 Gyr (see Fig. 5). According to the (global) horizontal age indicator $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$, however, there is a clear age increase of almost 3 Gyr within the coeval group (Fig. 6). This effect is most pronounced at the lowest metallicities. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ therefore, when used as an age indicator across all the metallicity range, along with our isochrones and colour transformations, produces inconsistent results with respect to $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$. Note, however, that the horizontal average age of the “coeval” group is around 11 Gyr and – within the errors – consistent with that of the vertical one (Fig. 5), and that the whole discrepancy in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ relative ages is due to a variation in $`\mathrm{\Delta }(VI)`$ of only $`0.05`$ mag. This is a strong indication that theoretical colours have to be very accurate for the whole metallicity range of globular clusters in order that this method can return reliable results.

To emphasize this point we show in Fig. 7 the predicted RGB colours for 12 Gyr-isochrones of different metallicities as obtained by using the transformations of Weiss & Salaris (1999) or Alonso et al. (1999). Evidently, in the former case, which is based on von Braun et al. (1998), the dependence of colour on metallicity is non-monotonic and RGBs are piling up at a certain bluest level, while for Alonso et al. (1999) the behaviour is much more regular. Taking this as the “true” behaviour, von Braun et al. (1998) RGBs would be too red for the lowest metallicities by about 0.04-0.06 mag, i.e. ages would be too high by the corresponding age difference of 2-3 Gyr, just as visible in Fig. 6. Note that at higher metallicities the two transformations agree well. Repeating therefore the horizontal absolute age determination, but using the transformation by Alonso et al. (1999), we obtain the results displayed in Fig. 8. While there is still a small age gradient across the main group of clusters, the total age difference is reduced to within 1.5 Gyr, and is consistent within the errors with the results of the AM-method – which, as already discussed in the previous section, are unaffected by the colour transformation choice – and from the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$. This shows that our isochrones together with the colour transformations by Alonso et al. (1999) for the RGB are able to produce stable relative ages for the whole metallicity range of GCs independent of the use of the AM-method, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$, or $`\delta C`$ age indicator.

## 4 Discussion

Having fully assessed the consistency of the age distribution within our cluster sample, the results displayed in Fig. 3 can be used to investigate the formation mechanism of the Galaxy. In the following we update the discussion in SW97 and SW98, taking into account this much larger cluster sample.

There are about 150 globular clusters known in the Galaxy (Harris 1996), and probably the total population is of at most about 200 objects (Harris 1976); therefore, our sample contains between 25% and 35% of the Galactic globular cluster population, and should provide statistically more significant data about the Galaxy formation mechanism, with respect to previous works.

Two fundamental pieces of information need to be extracted from our age-analysis, namely the age distribution of the clusters with respect to their initial chemical composition (whose diagnostic is \[Fe/H\]), and with respect to their position within the Galaxy (whose diagnostic is $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$). To detect an intrinsic age spread – that is, not due to the error bar on the age determinations – among a given sample of objects which shows an age dispersion $`\sigma _{\mathrm{obs}}`$, we have followed the same procedure as in SW97 (see also Chaboyer et al. 1996). More in detail, we calculate an ”expected” distribution for the assumption of no intrinsic age range ($`\sigma _{\mathrm{range}}`$=0) by randomly generating, for each object, 10000 ages using a Gaussian distribution. The mean of the distribution is given by the mean age of the clusters in the given sample, and the $`\sigma _{\mathrm{exp}}`$ by the typical error in the individual age determinations (in this case we consider the total error given in Table LABEL:data, since we compare ages across multiple metallicity ranges). This is repeated for all clusters in the sample, and the F-test is then applied to the observed age distribution and this synthetic one, to test if they both show the same variance. We state that an age range exists if the probability that the two distributions have the same variance is smaller than 5%. If this is true, the intrinsic age dispersion is then estimated by $`\sigma _{\mathrm{range}}`$=($`\sigma _{\mathrm{obs}}^2\sigma _{\mathrm{exp}}^2)^{0.5}`$.

### 4.1 Age-metallicity relationship

When considering the complete sample of 55 objects, we obtain that all clusters with \[Fe/H\]$``$1.2 result to be coeval (within the stated error bars), with an average age $``$t$``$=11.7$`\pm `$0.7 Gyr, where the dispersion of 0.7 Gyr is entirely due to the errors in the age determination. In case of \[Fe/H\]$``$1.2 a statistically significant age spread is present. The average age is $``$t$``$=10.1 Gyr, with an intrinsic spread $`\sigma _{\mathrm{range}}`$=1.9 Gyr. In this same \[Fe/H\] range we have detected, overimposed to the age spread, a marginally significant age gradient $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`2.4\pm `$1.8 Gyr/dex.

Our complete sample contains 3 clusters generally considered to be part of the thick disk of the Galaxy (NGC 104, NGC 6352, NGC 6838), and 2 clusters possibly belonging to the bulge population (NGC 6637, NGC 6324). All of these five clusters are metal rich and located in the inner halo. If we repeat our previous analysis excluding these 5 objects, and therefore considering only bona fide halo clusters, we obtain an average age $``$t$``$=10.0 Gyr for the metal rich group, with $`\sigma _{\mathrm{range}}`$=2.5 Gyr, and a more significant $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`4.3\pm `$2.4 Gyr/dex.

### 4.2 Age-galactocentric distance relationship

The clusters in the so-called inner halo ($`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}8`$ kpc) appear to be coeval, with $``$t$``$=11.4$`\pm `$0.8 Gyr, while the outer halo clusters display an intrinsic age range $`\sigma _{\mathrm{range}}`$=2.5 Gyr. The average age of the outer halo sample is $``$t$``$=10.7 Gyr, lower than the inner halo one, simply due to the age spread towards lower ages, but there is no significant age gradient in the outer halo. This would imply that globular clusters have started forming at the same time throughout the Galaxy – this holds of course in case the actual $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ is a good approximation of the value at the beginning of Galactic formation; see, e.g., the discussion by Searle & Zinn (1978) on this subject – with younger and more metal rich objects being formed or possibly accreted only at large $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ values. This scenario is very similar to the one proposed by Searle & Zinn (1978), where the inner halo collapsed on short timescales, while the outer halo underwent a much longer formation period, accreting material over several Gyr.

When considering only bona fide halo clusters the inner halo appears still to be coeval, its average age being basically unchanged ($``$t$``$=11.7$`\pm `$0.6 Gyr).

### 4.3 Influence of the sample size and metallicity scale

The previously described results about the age distribution with respect to \[Fe/H\] and $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ are unchanged if we restrict our analysis to the more homogeneous sample of 35 clusters from R99. Moreover, the age trends with respect to \[Fe/H\] and $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ we derive are similar to the results obtained by R99 with their different technique, and statistically more significant because of the larger cluster sample. When comparing our new results with SW98 we find that the general picture of age versus \[Fe/H\] is not greatly modified. In our previous works we obtained an approximate constant age for the oldest clusters at all metallicities, plus the onset of an age spread above a given \[Fe/H\]. However, while in SW97 and SW98 we did not find any clear correlation between age and $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$, we find now a difference between the age distribution of the inner and outer halo clusters. This is due to the much larger cluster sample and also to the upward revision of the age of NGC6652, which in SW97 and SW98 resulted to be much younger than the other inner halo clusters.

The details of the scenario emerging from our age determination are however dependent on the selected \[Fe/H\] scale. When we consider the ages obtained with the ZW84 scale displayed in Fig. 4, we find that only clusters with \[Fe/H\]$``$1.6 are coeval, with an average age $``$t$``$=12.2$`\pm `$0.6 Gyr, slightly larger than in the case of the CG97 metallicities. For larger \[Fe/H\] values an intrinsic spread $`\sigma _{\mathrm{range}}`$=2.1 Gyr is present, with an average age $``$t$``$=10.5 Gyr, and $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`1.3\pm `$0.7 Gyr/dex. Also the distribution of ages as a function of $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ is more homogeneous, with an intrinsic age spread appearing only when $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ is larger than $``$13 kpc. If we restrict the analysis to only bona fide halo clusters, we find for \[Fe/H\]$`>`$1.6 a slope $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`2.3\pm `$1.1 Gyr/dex, the significance of which now exceeds the 2$`\sigma `$ level.

These differences come obviously from the different metallicity distribution of the clusters. In particular, in the range $`1.8`$\[Fe/H\]$`1.0`$, large differences (up to $``$0.3 dex) exist between the two scales.

Taking into account the effect of the uncertainty in the \[Fe/H\] scale and the cluster sample size, helps in explaining discrepant conclusions reached by different authors about the existence and the onset of the age spread in the cluster population. As a test, we have considered the clusters used by VandenBerg (2000, V00) in his recent analysis; by applying our statistical analysis to his age determinations, we find the onset of an age variation among clusters starting at \[Fe/H\]$``$1.6, lower than the value \[Fe/H\]=$``$1.2 found by R99, who used the CG97 scale, and also lower than our results when using the CG97 scale. A significant age-metallicity relationship is found for \[Fe/H\]$``$1.6.

V00 derived ages for 26 objects – 25 of which are also included in our sample – by employing cluster \[Fe/H\] values close to the ZW84 scale, and absolute age determinations based essentially on $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ (more precisely, the distance modulus is determined from fitting the appropriate theoretical ZAHB to the observational counterpart, and then the age is determined by the isochrone which best fits all the TO region of the observed Colour-Magnitude-Diagram).

We have rederived the ages for the 25 clusters in common assuming V00 \[Fe/H\] values, our isochrones, our method and our adopted photometries (which are different from the data employed by V00 for the majority of the clusters), and the results are displayed in Fig. 9, together with V00 ages shifted by $`1`$ Gyr. When this shift of the absolute age is applied – which reflects mainly the ZAHB brightness difference between the different sets of models employed – the age distribution appears quite similar, all pairs of values being in agreement within the respective error bar. This consistency is also confirmed by the application of a K-S test to the two samples. If we restrict the analysis to bona fide halo clusters (thus not considering 47 Tuc in the V00 sample), for \[Fe/H\]$``$1.6 we obtain an age-metallicity relationship with slope $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`4.7\pm `$0.8 Gyr/dex, in good agreement with the value $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`5.7\pm `$1.2 Gyr/dex one obtains from V00 ages. This slope is about a factor of two higher than the one we obtained with our full sample of bona fide halo clusters coupled with the ZW84 \[Fe/H\] scale.

### 4.4 Second parameter and age

With our large cluster sample it is also possible to investigate the global correlation between \[Fe/H\], HB type and age for the Galactic globular cluster system as a whole. We have already discussed in Sec. 2 two specific pairs of second-parameter clusters; in case of NGC 288-NGC 362 we found that age could be the main reason for the different HB types, while we do not find a significant age difference for the pair M 3-M 13.

In order to detect possible correlations between age and HB type (defined as $`\mathrm{HB}_{\mathrm{type}}`$=(B-V)/(B+V+R), where B,V,R are the number of HB stars located, respectively, at the blue side of the instability strip, in the instability strip and at its red side) superimposed on the relationship between HB type and \[Fe/H\], we have performed the following test. We have first considered the samples of coeval clusters with $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}8`$ for the CG97 \[Fe/H\] scale, and $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}13`$ for the ZW84 one; since in both cases they span the entire metallicity range covered by the whole sample, we use them to determine the variation of $`\mathrm{HB}_{\mathrm{type}}`$ with respect to \[Fe/H\], at constant age. The entire sample has then been divided into different metallicity bins, specified in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11. For the most metal poor bin the average age of the sample has been subtracted from the individual cluster ages; in case of the two most metal rich bins, the average age of their combined sample has been subtracted from the individual values. These normalized individual ages are denoted as $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$. To remove the influence of the first parameter (\[Fe/H\]), in addition, a reference \[Fe/H\] has been selected for each range, and the individual values of $`\mathrm{HB}_{\mathrm{type}}`$ (taken from Harris 1996 and displayed in Table LABEL:data) have been corrected using the derivative $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{HB}_{\mathrm{type}}`$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ \[Fe/H\] (determined from the previously mentioned coeval samples) and considering the difference between the actual cluster \[Fe/H\] value and the reference one. By plotting $`\mathrm{\Delta }(t)`$ as function of $`\mathrm{HB}_{\mathrm{type}}^{}`$, that is, the observed HB type normalized to the reference \[Fe/H\] value, one should in principle be able to isolate an hypothetical correlation between age differences and HB colour differences, independent of the effect of \[Fe/H\] variations among clusters. The reference \[Fe/H\] values are, respectively, \[Fe/H\]=$``$1.75 and $``$1.1 for the CG97 scale, and \[Fe/H\]=$``$2.0 and $``$1.3 for the ZW84 one. We did not correct the HB type for the most metal rich cluster groups in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11, since the value of $`\mathrm{HB}_{\mathrm{type}}`$ saturates and does not provide useful information about a possible correlation with age.

The upper panels of both Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 display \[Fe/H\] ranges where our F-test analysis did not detect a significant age spread compared to the errors in the age estimates. In these ranges there is some spread in HB type but no significant correlation with age is found. In the middle panels the F-test analysis detected significant age spreads and also a statistically significant correlation with HB type is found. The bottom panels display clusters showing an age spread but their in this \[Fe/H\] range the $`\mathrm{HB}_{\mathrm{type}}`$ parameter saturates and no relevant information can be deduced.

## 5 Summary

We have determined absolute and relative ages for a large sample of globular clusters, using new and homogeneous photometric data, mostly in $`V`$ and $`I`$. We show that different age determination methods result in very similar ages, if colour transformations are carefully chosen for those methods using colour differences. Our preferred AM-method appears however insensitive to the colour transformations choice. In a few cases, new photometric data have led to a substantial change in age compared to our previous works; this source of uncertainty should not be ignored.

From the analysis of our large sample of 55 Galactic globular clusters, we have found that:

i) Irrespective of the adopted \[Fe/H\] scale, the metal poorer clusters are coeval within $``$1 Gyr, while an age spread appears at higher metallicites. The onset of the age spread is at \[Fe/H\]$``$1.2 when using \[Fe/H\] values on the CG97 scale, and \[Fe/H\]$``$1.6 if one adopts the ZW84 scale.

ii) An age-metallicity relationship exists among the non-coeval clusters. In case of the CG97 scale we find $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`2.4\pm `$1.8 Gyr/dex when considering the complete sample; if we restrict the analysis only to bona fide halo clusters we obtain a more significant slope $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`4.3\pm `$2.4 Gyr/dex. In case of the ZW84 scale we obtain $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`1.3\pm `$0.7 Gyr/dex for the complete sample, and $`\delta t/\delta [\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]`$=$`2.3\pm `$1.1 Gyr/dex for the pure halo sample.

iii) Irrespective of the adopted \[Fe/H\] scale, clusters closer to the galactic centre are coeval, while an age spread appears at larger galactocentric distances. In case of the CG97 \[Fe/H\] scale the age spread starts at $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ larger than $``$ 8 kpc, while in case of the ZW84 scale it starts at $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ above 13 kpc. In both cases there is no significant age- $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{gc}}`$ relationship among clusters showing an age spread.

iv) Our results yield indications that age differences are one main factor able to explain the global behaviour of the second parameter effect.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to A. Rosenberg and I. Saviane for helpful discussions and information about the cluster sample and relative ages, and to S. Percival for a preliminary reading of the manuscript. We thank and anonymous referee for his/her comments which helped to improve the presentation of the results.


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# Rotating Neutron Stars in a Chiral SU(3) Model

## I Introduction

Neutron stars belong to the most important physical systems where strong interactions are “tested” at extreme dense conditions. In contrast to ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions where also high baryonic densities might be obtained by choosing the appropriate bombarding energy, neutron star matter exists at practically zero temperature - at least on a hadronic scale. Thus the understanding of neutron stars is the complementary task of what lattice gauge calculations can achieve for high-temperature, zero-density matter. In addition due to the fact that charge neutrality drives the stellar matter away from isospin-symmetric nuclear matter the study of neutron stars can give important clues for understanding the isospin-dependence of nuclear forces. A related regime of strong interactions can be experimentally investigated using secondary beams of nuclei going towards the neutron drip-line of nuclei.

Compared to the harder task of determining masses or radii the most easily observable property of a neutron star is its rotational frequency through its pulsar radio signals emitted from the magnetic poles of the starprep . Additional information can be obtained by the slow change of the pulsar frequency of an isolated neutron star with time signalling the slowing down of the rotation due to radiative loss of angular momentum. So far observational data in this respect are still scarcebrak1 ; brak2 ; brak3 ; brak4 .
Various hadronic models have been used to describe the structure of neutron stars. Going to central densities of a few times nuclear matter saturation density the inclusion of hyperon degrees become essential glen . As it always will be difficult to get clear and unambiguous information on the stellar interior from the relatively limited observational data it is important to relate star properties with other observables like neutron distribution radii in neutron-rich nuclei or multi-fragmentation in heavy-ion collisions with different $`N/Z`$ nuclei. It is therefore very useful to implement a model with a broader applicability including nuclear matter, finite nuclei and chiral symmetry restoration to be able to simultaneously study different observables within a unified approach using the same set of parameters for all calculations. In this paper we follow this direction by adopting a hadronic model incorporating the underlying $`SU_L(3)xSU_R(3)`$ structure of QCD, which we used in earlier studies of non-rotating neutron stars, nuclear matter and finite nuclei/hypernuclei calculations hanaus ; ziesche ; beckmann .

Here we extend the static calculation to study the properties of rotating neutron (hyper-) stars within the same approach. The outline of the article is as follows. First we give a brief description of the ingredients of the hadronic model that we implement in our calculations (a much more detailed discussion can be found in paper3 ). After introducing the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov (TOV) equations for the static star we present the extension to rotating stars following the treatment of Hartle and Thorne hartle . In the third section we present some general features of the equation of state and its strange matter contributions and then look at the composition and gross properties of the rotating stars. We conclude with an outlook of possible extensions of the current approach.

## II The chiral model

The chiral hadronic SU(3) lagrangian has the following basic structure

$$=_{\mathrm{kin}}+_{\mathrm{BM}}+_{\mathrm{BV}}+_{\mathrm{vec}}+_0+_{\mathrm{SB}}+_{\mathrm{lep}},$$
(1)
consisting of interaction terms between baryons and spin-0 (BM) and spin-1 (BV) mesons

$`_{\mathrm{BM}}+_{\mathrm{BV}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\overline{\psi }_i\left[g_{i\sigma }\sigma +g_{i\zeta }\zeta +g_{i\omega }\gamma _0\omega ^0+g_{i\varphi }\gamma _0\varphi ^0+g_{N\rho }\gamma _0\tau _3\rho _0\right]\psi _i,`$
$`_{\mathrm{vec}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m_\omega ^2{\displaystyle \frac{\chi ^2}{\chi _0^2}}\omega ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m_\varphi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{\chi ^2}{\chi _0^2}}\varphi ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\chi ^2}{\chi _0^2}}m_\rho ^2\rho ^2+g_4^4(\omega ^4+2\varphi ^4+6\omega ^2\rho ^2+\rho ^4)`$ (2)
summing over the baryonic octet, (p,n,$`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{/0/+},\mathrm{\Xi }^{/0}`$), as well as interactions between the scalar mesons

$`_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}k_0\chi ^2(\sigma ^2+\zeta ^2)+k_1(\sigma ^2+\zeta ^2)^2+k_2({\displaystyle \frac{\sigma ^4}{2}}+\zeta ^4)+k_3\chi \sigma ^2\zeta `$ (3)
$`k_4\chi ^4{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\chi ^4\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\chi ^4}{\chi _0^4}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta }{3}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma ^2\zeta }{\sigma _0^2\zeta _0}}.`$
An explicit symmetry breaking term mimics the QCD effect of non-zero current quark masses

$`_{\mathrm{SB}}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\chi }{\chi _0}}\right)^2\left[m_\pi ^2f_\pi \sigma +(\sqrt{2}m_K^2f_K{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}}m_\pi ^2f_\pi )\zeta \right].`$ (4)
Finally, there are leptonic contributions from electrons and muons

$`_{\mathrm{lep}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{l=e,\mu }{}}\overline{\psi }_l[i\gamma _\mu ^\mu m_l]\psi _l.`$ (5)
$`_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ in (1) contains the kinetic energy terms of the hadrons. The general model incorporates the complete lowest baryon and meson multiplets. In the previous formulae we only considered the degrees of freedom relevant for a neutron star calculation, the scalar field $`\sigma `$ and its $`s\overline{s}`$ counterpart $`\zeta `$ (which can be identified with the observed $`f_0`$ particle), as well as the $`\omega ,\rho `$ and $`\varphi `$ vector mesons. $`_{\mathrm{vec}}`$ generates the masses of the spin-1 mesons through the interactions with spin-0 mesons. The scalar interactions $`_0`$ induce spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. Another scalar, isoscalar field incorporated in the model, the dilaton $`\chi `$ simulates the breaking of the QCD scale symmetry and can be identified with the gluon condensateSchec , for a longer discussion see paper3 ). The effective masses $`m^{}(\sigma ,\zeta )=g_\sigma \sigma +g_\zeta \zeta `$ of the baryons are generated through their coupling to the scalar fields, which attain non-zero vacuum expectation values due to the self-interactions $`_\mathcal{0}`$ paper3 . As the field strengths change in nuclear and neutron matter, the effective masses of the baryon octet are shifted, too. The grand canonical thermodynamic potential of the system at zero temperature can be written as

$$\mathrm{\Omega }/V=_{\mathrm{vec}}_0_{\mathrm{SB}}𝒱_{\mathrm{vac}}\underset{i}{}\frac{\gamma _i}{(2\pi )^3}d^3k\left[E_i^{}(k)\mu _i^{}\right]\frac{1}{3}\underset{l}{}\frac{1}{\pi ^2}\frac{dkk^4}{\sqrt{k^2+m_l^2}}.$$
(6)
The chemical potentials for the baryons read

$$\mu _i^{}=\sqrt{k_{F,i}^2+m_i^2},\mu _i=b_i\mu _nq_i\mu _e=\mu _i^{}+g_{i\omega }\omega _0+g_{i\varphi }\varphi _0+g_{i\rho }\rho _0,$$
(7)
with $`b_i`$, $`q_i`$, and $`k_{F,i}`$ being the baryon number, charge, and fermi momentum of the $`i`$th species. The energy density and pressure are given by

$`\epsilon `$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }/V+{\displaystyle \underset{k=i,l}{}}\mu _k\rho _k`$ (8)
$`P`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }/V.`$ (9)
By extremizing $`\mathrm{\Omega }/V`$ one obtains self-consistent equations for the meson fields in conjunction with demanding vanishing total charge and $`\beta `$ equilibrium as the time scales involved allow for weak interactions to take place.

## III Stellar Equations

In the case of the static neutron star we integrate the TOV equationsTol :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dP(r)}{dr}}`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{(ϵ+P)(4\pi r^3P+m)}{r^2(1Y(r))}}`$ (10)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dm(r)}{dr}}`$ $`=4\pi r^2ϵ(r),`$ (11)
where $`P`$ and $`ϵ`$ are the pressure and energy density of the nuclear matter. $`m(r)`$ is the gravitational mass of the star inside of the radius $`r`$ and $`Y(r)2m(r)/r`$. Starting with some initial values for $`P`$ and $`ϵ`$, $`P(r=0)P_c`$ and $`ϵ(r=0)=ϵ_c(P_c)`$, with $`m(0)=0`$ one can integrate equations (10) and (11) up to the point of vanishing pressure, which defines the radius $`R`$ of the star. Here the specific model of nuclear matter enters via the equation of state $`ϵ(p)`$. For the low-density tail of the EOS we use a standard parametrization for the crust of the star as discussed in hanaus .

Due to the rotation the star in general is deformed. Assuming axial symmetry the metric of the rotating star can be written as:

$$ds^2=\mathrm{exp}(2\nu )dt^2\mathrm{exp}(2\lambda )dr^2\mathrm{exp}(2\mu )\left(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta (d\varphi \omega dt)^2\right).$$
(12)
The metric functions $`\mu ,\nu ,\lambda `$ depend on the radius $`r`$ and the polar angle $`\theta `$. If we set $`\omega =0`$ we recover the standard Schwarzschild metric for the static star with the choice $`\mathrm{exp}(2\mu )=r^2,\mathrm{exp}(2\lambda )=1/(1Y(r))`$. Because of the dragging of the local inertial frame $`\omega (r)`$ depends on the radius (but not to lowest order on the polar angle, see hartle ) and is not equal to the rotational frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of the star. Following hartle  and defining the difference of the frequency of the local frame and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as $`\overline{\omega }\mathrm{\Omega }\omega `$ demanding equilibrium between pressure, centrifugal and rotational forces in the local frame the differential equation for the metric functions followshartle

$$\frac{d}{dr}\left[j(r)\frac{d\overline{\omega }}{dr}+\frac{4}{r}j(r)\overline{\omega }(r)\right]=0$$
(13)
with $`j=\mathrm{exp}(\nu \lambda )`$. The rotation of the star generates a modification of the metric as shown in (12). Using a multipole expansion of the metric functions, one obtains corrections that up to quadrupole order read

$`\mathrm{exp}(2\nu )`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{exp}(2\varphi )\left(1+2\left(h_0+h_2P_2\left(\mathrm{cos}\theta \right)\right)\right)`$ (14)
$`\mathrm{exp}(2\mu )`$ $`=`$ $`r^2\left(1+2\left(v_2h_2P_2\left(\mathrm{cos}\theta \right)\right)\right)`$ (15)
$`\mathrm{exp}(2\lambda )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1Y(r)}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{r}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_0+m_2P_2\left(\mathrm{cos}\theta \right)}{1Y(r)}}\right),`$ (16)
where the static metric component $`\varphi `$ is given by

$$\frac{d\varphi }{dr}=(ϵ+P)^1\frac{dP}{dr}.$$
(17)
The monopole coefficients $`h_0`$ and $`m_0`$ obey the differential equations ($`r<R`$):

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dm_0}{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`4\pi r^2{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{P}}(ϵ+P)p_0+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12}}j^2r^4\left({\displaystyle \frac{d\overline{\omega }}{dr}}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi }{3}}r^4j^2{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ+P}{1Y}}\overline{\omega }^2`$ (18)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dp_0}{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1+8\pi r^2P}{r^2(1Y)^2}}m_04\pi r{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ+P}{1Y}}p_0+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12}}{\displaystyle \frac{r^3j^2}{1Y}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{d\overline{\omega }}{dr}}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dr}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{r^2j^2\overline{\omega }^2}{1Y}}\right)`$ (19)
$`h_0`$ $`=`$ $`p_0+{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{3}}\overline{\omega }^2\mathrm{exp}(2\varphi )+h_0^c.`$ (20)
The value $`h_0^c`$ is fixed by requiring that $`h_0(R)=\frac{m_0(R)}{R(1Y(R))}`$ at the star’s surface as can be inferred from the large-r asymptotics for $`h_0(r)`$ weber . Here $`m_0`$ and $`p_0`$ are the monopole mass and pressure perturbation due to the rotation of the star. The first terms where the actual deformation of the star’s shape show up are the quadrupole corrections $`h_2,m_2`$ and $`v_2`$. They can be determined by solvinghartle ; weber

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dv_2}{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`2{\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dr}}h_2+\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{r}}+{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }}{dr}}\right)\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{r^3}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{dj^2}{dr}}\overline{\omega }^2+{\displaystyle \frac{j^2}{6}}r^4\left({\displaystyle \frac{d\overline{\omega }}{dr}}\right)^2\right\}`$ (21)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{dh_2}{dr}}`$ $`=`$ $`h_2\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dr}}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{1Y}}\left[2\pi (ϵ+P){\displaystyle \frac{m}{r^3}}\right]/\left({\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dr}}\right)\right\}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{r^2(1Y)}}/\left({\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dr}}\right)v_2`$ (22)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{r^3}{6}}\left(j{\displaystyle \frac{d\overline{\omega }}{dr}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}(r\overline{\omega })^2{\displaystyle \frac{dj^2}{dr}}\left\{r{\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dr}}+\left[2r(1Y){\displaystyle \frac{d\varphi }{dr}}\right]^1\right\}.`$
Integrating the equations and ensuring the correct asymptotics of vanishing corrections at $`r=0`$ and $`r=\mathrm{}`$ by adding the appropriate solution of the homogeneous equations one obtains the quadrupole corrections to the metric. The mass and pressure quadrupole corrections follow as hartle

$`m_2`$ $`=`$ $`r(1Y)\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{r^4}{6}}\left(j{\displaystyle \frac{d\overline{\omega }}{dr}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{r}{3}}(r\overline{\omega })^2{\displaystyle \frac{dj^2}{dr}}h_2\right\}`$ (23)
$`p_2`$ $`=`$ $`h_2{\displaystyle \frac{r^2}{3}}\mathrm{exp}\left(2\varphi \right)\overline{\omega }^2.`$ (24)
After determining the metrical components we can then calculate radii, masses and moments of inertia of the rotating solutions.

## IV Numerical Results

We use the same parameter set (called “C1” in ziesche ; paper3 ) that was also used in calculations of excited nuclear matter and finite nuclei.

Figure 1 shows the result of a calculation of nuclear matter varying the average charge of the system between symmetric nuclear matter ($`Q/A=0.5`$) to neutral hadronic matter ($`Q=0`$). One can see how the onset of hypermatter is shifted from neutral matter at a density of $`2\rho _0`$ to twice that value for symmetric nuclear matter. Note that here no leptons are taken into account that shift the total baryonic charge to positive values in the case of a neutron star. There, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ states are populated at densities higher than 2.6 $`\rho _0`$ hanaus . Looking again only at the baryonic contributions

Figure 2 shows the the energy per baryon $`E/Am_N`$ as a function of density for total isospin per baryon (3rd component) zero and -0.5. The isospin 0 curve exhibits the nuclear matter saturation properties. The thick solid line shows the result of the baryonic energy inside the neutron star (including leptons) as calculated in the chiral model. One can see that for higher densities the equation of state resembles more the isospin 0 nuclear matter results. In fact, in the extreme high-density limit assuming similar population of the baryonic octet the total isospin tends towards zero again.

The maximum frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$ and the minimum rotational periods $`P_s2\pi /\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$ of a rotating neutron star have been determined by integrating the self-consistent equation weber

$$\overline{\omega }=V(\mathrm{\Omega })\mathrm{exp}\left[\nu (\mathrm{\Omega })\mu (\mathrm{\Omega })\right]$$
(25)
solving for $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at the equator of the star, where the mass shedding occurs first, for different central energy densities and total masses of the star. The resulting values are shown in Figure 3. Compared to the Newtonian value of the Kepler period (dashed lines) there is an increase in $`P_K`$ of about 25% due to the general relativity corrections. This result is in accordance with other calculations of different neutron star models, which show similar results weber2 . In the plot also results for a relativistic mean-field parametrization (TM1 tm1 ) are shown, which was extended to include hyperons (see hanaus ). The difference of the Kepler frequency for both parameterizations is small. Note that the maximum gravitational mass of the neutron star that was about 1.64 M in case of the static solution hanaus  is now increased to 1.94 solar masses due to the additional rotational contribution. Looking at the frequency dependence by spinning up the neutron star one gets the increasing neutron star mass as shown in Figure 4. One TM1 result for a star with M($`\mathrm{\Omega }`$=0) = 1.48M is shown for comparison. In this case one can see a distinctly sharper rise of the mass of the star with rotational frequency.

For the chiral case one can observe the increase of the mass by up to 30% at the mass-shedding frequency.

Similarly looking at the monopole corrections one can calculate the increase of the radius of different star solutions due to rotation averaged over the star’s surface.

Figure 5 shows that there is an increase of the radius by up to 10% close to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$. Again, the TM1 model shows a more drastic change with rotation. From calculating the quadrupole coefficients Eqs. (16) one can determine the excentricity $`ϵ_{ex}`$ of the star defined via the ratio of the surface radius at the equator over the pole radius:

$$ϵ_{ex}=\sqrt{1R_{pole}^2/R_{equator}^2}$$
(26)
Figure 6 shows that there is a substantial deformation of the star. This has also an impact on the internal structure of the star depending on the polar angle. This is shown in Figure 7.

Here the onset of the various hyperons contained in the star $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{},\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ are shown for a typical static star with a Mass of 1.475 M (vertical lines) compared to the same solution corrected for rotational effects at its Kepler frequency.
Integrating the inertia of the star by using the general expression weber2

$$I=2\pi 𝑑\theta 𝑑r\mathrm{exp}\left\{\lambda +\mu +\nu +\psi \right\}(ϵ+P)\left(\mathrm{exp}\left[2\nu 2\psi \right]\overline{\omega }^2\right)\frac{\overline{\omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}$$
(27)
and again taking into account the corrections to the metric up to order $`\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$ one gets the moment of inertia of the star as shown in Fig. 8. In this case the mass of the non-rotating star is 1.48 solar masses.

In this figure we have kept the baryonic number of the star constant at $`M_B=1.2210^{57}(M_B)_{solar}`$ and changed the rotational frequency. The curve therefore shows the change in the moment of inertia during the spin-down of a pulsar, the energy-loss of the star generated by electromagnetic and gravitational radiation. Assuming a simple power-law of the energy loss $`\mathrm{\Delta }EE_o^n`$ where $`n_o=3`$ and $`n_o=5`$ in the case of magnetic and gravitational radiation, respectively. With this assumption one can determine the frequency-dependent braking index $`n(\mathrm{\Omega })=n_o\mathrm{\Delta }n(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ with

$$\mathrm{\Delta }n=\frac{3I^{}\mathrm{\Omega }+I^{\prime \prime }\mathrm{\Omega }^2}{2I+I^{}\mathrm{\Omega }}$$
(28)
where the prime denotes the derivative with respect to frequency. Figure 9 shows the shift of the braking index.

There is a substantial reduction in the case of fast rotating stars that has to be taken into account for an analysis of the time evolution of the star. However, one cannot see significant structures as for instance a back-bending shape as seen in moments of inertia of atomic nuclei and also suggested for neutron starsbackbending . This is not very surprising, since the chiral model does not show a phase transition for low temperatures and at high densities (see, however, the discussion in the concluding section). Note that in this case at maximum rotation the star starts with a central density of 2.3 times nuclear matter density, which is below the threshold of the occurrence of hyperons. Below a frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }5600/`$s $`(P1.1`$ms) hypermatter becomes energetically more favorable.

## V Conclusion

We have used a chiral SU(3) model for the calculation of rotating neutron stars. The model parameters have been fitted to reproduce hadronic masses and saturation properties of groundstate nuclear matter. Within the same model and with the same parameters also nuclei and hypernuclei have been described quite successfully. The resulting star shapes show a significant excentricity which can also be seen from its hypermatter distribution in the interior of the star. The moment of inertia shows a rather strong dependence on the rotational frequency, which has to be taken into account for analyzing the spinning-down and related age-estimates of pulsars. No back-bending of the inertia occurs due to the lack of a phase transition of the chiral model for high densities and low temperatures. In general the comparison with a quite different model that contains hyperons shows the robustness of the results for the rotating star as well as the relative insensitivity of the star properties on very different models with quite distinct hyperon contenthanaus . In this context a discussion of the possible effects of populating higher baryonic resonances in the neutron star should be performed. Those additional degrees of freedom can change the high-density behavior of the system significantly, generating a different structure of the time-evolution of the rotating star. Such a calculation might rule in or out specific theoretical descriptions of hadronic resonances by studying their effect on neutron star properties. Work in this direction is in progress future .

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Physics Division (Contract No. W-31-109-Eng-38). The authors thank M. Hanauske and S. Pal for valuable discussions.